Unnamed island chain
Near Mount Aris
Not something that was normal to see in Equestria. A lone zeppelin remained moored above a very beautiful island, nearly blocking out the setting sun in the distance. And just like the shadow it cast, the massive zepp was coloured in midnight black.
But the most tell-tale thing about this particular zeppelin was the logo that was emblazoned on the sides of the zepp. What appeared to be a changeling lamia coiled around a Royal Flush hand of cards, composed of the 10, Jack, King, Queen and Ace of Spades.
The logo of the Stacked Deck pirates. This was their home zeppelin, the Royal Flush.
What were this band of swashbucklers doing in the middle of the ocean? Well, the answer to that was simple. It was known that the crew of the Stacked Deck were known to be friendly with the crew of the Sirens, another pirate gang. And as such, the two crews had gotten together for a nice party.
Of course, being Sirens, they were not only able to provide some nice drink and food, but were even able to provide themselves. And that was definitely a welcoming sight for the members of the crew, some of them not actually having been with a mare at all. So, the party on the little speck of land was absolutely bumping. But that didn't mean that all of the gang was down on dry land, chowing down and getting laid.
Well, all but one of the crew. For still on the Royal Flush, was not only the best pilot in the gang but the captain of the Stacked Deck. Cooped up in his little study room just near the massive hangar, with a window looking on at the various, brightly-coloured aircraft that his team operated. A lone unreformed changeling, heavy covered in dried blood, stood before his main table, looking down on a map of nearby island to the one that the zeppelin was currently moored at. He was deeply focused in the current map and a much older map that seemed to be from before Equestria's founding.
His focus was shattered when a particular voice came over the radio in his room. "Hey, Akula... er, boss. Are you still alive in there?" The voice of King Sombra asked.
"Yeah, I'm still up here," Akula replied.
"Jeez, Akula. You're missing out on the best things down here. The food, the party, the mares. When are you going to join in?" He pestered, wanting his new boss to join in.
"I'll be down in a bit, just be patient," Akula told him, not wanting to come away from his work.
Sombra just sighed. "See? I told you he was being stubborn,"
The line was followed by a bunch of audial bumps, followed by a different voice speaking on the radio. "Give me that!" The voice of Queen Chrysalis demanded, before she switched to a much more sweet tone, "Akula, my love. You've been stuck in that room of yours for too long now. Come on down, the food and my coils are getting cold,"
Akula smiled to himself. Chrysalis always knew how to turn him on, those shapeshifting powers of hers always coming in handy for seducing him. And the feeling of being hugged on all sides by snake-like scales was... oh so nice to the changeling. But still, he was working on something and he needed to get it done by morning.
"Come on, you spent one night with me this whole week," Chrysalis continued to urge.
"I know and it was the best night I have ever had in a while," Akula admitted, remembering that night very well.
"Exactly! Blowing off some steam is healthy for you!" Chrysalis exclaimed, "I get it has been a tough few weeks. I get that you're still a bit sore after Gladmane betrayed us in Griffonstone. But now, he's been buried in a metal coffin on a Griffin mountainside. And I just know that you are cooking up a plan to bring us back into the riches,"
"My Queen, never bring up Gladmane's name again," Akula told her, his tone switching to serious, "I'll be down in a few minutes, but I need to work on something first,"
Chrysalis sighed. "Okay, just don't take too long,"
Just as the words had left the changeling queen's mouth, Akula got back on the radio, "Chrysalis, one more thing,"
"Yes?"
"Can you go get Caballeron? I need to speak with him," Akula asked of his lover.
The was a long few seconds of silence, before Chrysalis confirmed this request and went off the radio. A few seconds later, the voice of Dr. Caballeron replaced her voice. "You called for my voice, Akula?"
"Yeah, I did," Akula replied, "You know about the tale of Chancellor Puddinghead?"
"Of course. One of the founders of Equestria. Who wouldn't know about him?"
Akula turned his gaze towards a book that he had left on his desk. "Well, I got this book about him a few days ago. Reading Maps With Holes. Basically, his autobiography,"
It was then that Caballeron went 'ah' at the name of the book. "Yes, I have heard of this book. But I never read it. Couldn't make out what all of the sentences meant,"
"Exactly," Akula stated, "The wording of the book was so difficult to understand, unless you were either Puddinghead himself or even Smart Cookie. But I think that I have managed to decode what Puddinghead wrote and there is something very interesting I found in Chapter 6,"
This peaked Caballeron's interest. "I'm listening,"
"Well, everypony thinks that the royal sisters discovered these islands about 70 odd years after they came to power. But according to the book, Chancellor Puddinghead lead the main fleet of the earth pony tribe through this area on their jouney to find a new land in the same month of events that led to the very founding of Equestria itself. His fleet was caught in a massive storm and the largest cargo tender in his fleet, the Rocksteady, got separated from the fleet and disappeared, all hooves presumed lost," Akula told his treasure-hunting crewmate.
"Really now? Why, that is very interesting,"
"But here's the kicker. Remember that map we picked up in Klugestown a few years back?"
"Of course! Old, leathery and filled with a few holes. How could I forget it?"
"I finally figured out what it is. It a map of the Rocksteady's last route. Caballeron, it was filled with gold, jewels and treasure. Stuff that has never been found for hundreds of years. Not only would we be getting rich, but we would be making history. This is the one artifact and treasure that even the great Daring Do couldn't find. And I think that I have tracked it down,"
That was music to the old archeologist's ears. This was the one piece of ancient history that even Daring Do, his old enemy, hadn't figured out and taken for herself. An opportunity that he was more than willing to take. "Oh, you sly little changeling..."
The Next Morning
Airspace above the Unnamed Islands
The very next morning after the massive party, the Royal Flush cruised above an unnamed set of islands that was very near the location that the Stacked Deck partied with the Sirens the night before. The drone of the 12 engines keeping the massive bag of gas in the air echoed out into the morning sky.
Onboard the zepp, Akula waited inside the main briefing room. Of course, he was always the first one up every time, and being the only one who didn't have a night filled with alcohol, sex and fine dining helped. That did allow him time to set up the briefing, with a massive map of the island, a few photographs and some numbered flags.
And a few minutes after the set-up was done, all of his dashing crewmates joined him in the briefing room, right on cue. Some of the most evil and famous (and lesser so) villains in Equestrian history; Nightmare Moon, King Sombra, Queen Chrysalis, Lightning Dust, Tempest Shadow and both Dr. Caballeron and his three goons; Biff, Rogue and Withers.
All of them did look quite tired and some of them even had some coffee mugs in the magic or hooves. Must've been one hell of a night, Akula thought to himself, as his crew took their seats.
"Morning, everypony," He greeted. He was met with a polite return of 'good morning' from the others. "Goddesses, those Sirens must throw some party,"
"The kind that coffee cannot help us with," Chrysalis stated, prompting a few giggles from the others.
"Yeah, that party was really something," Withers agreed.
This caused Lightning to respond in her own usual way. "The only reason that you three enjoyed that party was that you got laid for the only time in your lives!" The entire room burst out with laughter, except for Biff, Withers and Rogue.
"Okay, settle down. Settle down!" Akula ordered, as the laughter died down, "Now, I'm sure that Caballeron filled you in on the real reason that we're here; the lost gold of Chancellor Puddinghead," All of the villains then let out a massive cheer, at the thought of discovering lost gold that would make them rich, "Okay, having gone over the source material, I've narrowed down the possible location of the gold to three. First off, we have a little cave formation in the side of a hill to the northwest side of the island, here," The changeling stated, taking a marker, circling the location and placing a red flag with the number 1 on it on the site's location on the map.
"How did it get so far inland and all the way up there?" Sombra questioned, confused as to how a ship managed to get up on a hill.
"We're looking for the treasure, not the ship, Sombra," Akula explained, "The survivors from the wreck may have retrieved the gold from the wreck and hid it in that cave or in this valley here, at Site 2. The last possible site that the gold may be located is here, in this little atoll," By the time Akula was done, all three sites had been marked with a circle and a red flag, numbered from 1 to 3, "I will be doing the search from the air myself, so I'll need just one of you to accompany me in the air,"
"Yeah, sure. Leave me to do all the work again," Dust complained.
"Actually, I was planning on taking Tempest," Akula said.
Dust's ears and wings immediately shot up in anger, as Tempest gained a dry smile. "Finally, some time in the air," She remarked, as she got up from her seat.
"You'll thank me for this, I promise. We need to get the newer pilots as much flying time as possible. It's very quiet out there, so I'll take her up to the skies and give her some time to learn the kinks of that Peacemaker," Akula stated, motioning with a hoof for Tempest to sit back down. He turned his attention to Caballeron. "Doctor, out of your three goons, which one would you say has the best eyesight?" The changeling asked.
Caballeron was quick to answer. "Oh, definitely Biff. It's why he's my second-in-command," The pony in question stood up, with a smile all over his face.
"Biff, you're going to come with me. Once we find the assumed location of the treasure, I'm going to fly over the site again so you can bail out over it and guide the Royal Flush in to pick you up. After that, we'll dock back on the ship and call it a day," Akula finished, throwing Biff a parachute.
"Aww, man. You guys can never pay me enough to jump out of a perfectly good plane," He complained.
"Just try not to land on anything sharp or explosive, okay?" Dust joked, sending the crew into laughter again.
"Okay, that's enough!" Akula spoke up, "Tempest, get your plane ready, we're launching in 5. As for the rest of you, no more partying or getting laid until we find that treasure,"
All of the crew excitedly replied with a "yes, boss!", while Tempest and Biff accompanied Akula to the hangar.
As the Royal Flush entered the airspace above the island, the peace and quiet of the skies above were shattered by the droning engines of the zeppelin. But on the underside of the pirate zeppelin, the internal hangar opened, ready to launch it's fighters.
Akula had already settled into the cockpit of his personal fighter, a MK.III variant Hughes P-21J Devastator he had personally named the Demon's Arrow. His fighter was coloured completely in dark black, with some hints of red on the front of the wings and the prop spinner. The logo of the Stacked Deck were placed onto the wings, the hammer and sickle was placed onto the tails and a hand of aces was emblazoned on the nose, a symbol of his leadership. Powered by a single Tornado G600 engine in a pusher configuration and armed with twin .50 cal and .40 cal machine guns, it was a beast in speed and firepower. But despite weighing a bit over 10,000 pounds and being heavily equipped with armour, the biplane wing configuration made it quite agile for its weight class. It had the all the pros and next to none of the cons.
Attached to the hook that carried planes through the hangar, he was dragged towards the opening of the hangar. As he approached the doors, the crane began to angle the Demon's Arrow downward, enough for a successful takeoff from the hangar. The hook that held the Arrow on the crane then released, dropping the black Devastator through the open doors and into the open sky.
Close behind, was Tempest Shadow in her plane. Tempest was flying a customized William & Colt Peacemaker 370 she had named From The Storm. Like Akula's Devastator, her Peacemaker was coloured in lavander with streaks of light blue on the wingtips, noses and tail of the plane. The logo of the Stacked Deck was marked on the wings, with the image of a Jack of Diamonds card on the nose, with two slashed in the style of the Storm King's emblem cutting through the card.
Once they were clear of the hangar, the two fighters formed up and proceeded on a North-Westerly direction, ready to hunt down some treasure.
"Good luck out there, you two!" Grubber cheered out over the radio from the Royal Flush, "Go make us millionaires!"
"And Tempest? Try not to get the changeling killed, alright? He's the only friend I got, ya' know?" Dust butted in.
"Oh, I'm very sorry to hear that," Tempest jokingly replied, "I'll do my best,"
"Stick on my tail, Tempest," Akula ordered, cutting out the joking, "Get a feel for your plane and keep your eyes peeled for any hints of that gold. If you need to break off to get that Peacemaker figured out, that's fine. Just be sure to link back up with me when you're done,"
"Roger that," Tempest replied. However, she had decided that she would stick to Akula's tail.
The two pirates made their way towards the island and the first site came into view. A small hill overlooking a massive valley. And carved into the side of it was some sort of massive cavern dug into the side of the hill.
"There's the first site, see it?" Akula called out over the radio, "Stone carvings like that can give a stallion the creeps,"
"Let's get a closer look, then. Might be hiding something in there worth our time," Tempest commented.
"That's why we are up here,"
Without a second thought, Akula turned his Devastator towards the opening in the hill, as Tempest hung back to let her boss do his thing. As Akula got in close to the carved out hole in the hill, he then noticed the carvings on the entrance to the little opening and saw that it was much more than that. 'Looks like those carvings are the beginning of a cave,' He thought to himself, as he banked into the opening.
What he saw was very promising.
"Hey, there's an old altar in there!" Akula exclaimed, as he emerged on the other side of the cavern, Tempest having taken the long way around. "And I bet that it has some secrets. Golden secrets," The two then linked back up and continued on their search.
However, without a sudden, another voice came over the radio. One that didn't belong to any of the Stacked Deck. "Attention, unidentified aircraft! This area is under the jurisdiction of the Hippogriff Kingdom!"
"The Hippogriffs? That's funny. I thought this was the Unnamed Islands, not Mount Aris," Akula said to himself, musing at the sudden arrival of the Hippogriffs.
"Leave at once! Or you will be fired upon!" The Hippogriff barked.
But Akula didn't take too kindly to being bossed around by them. "Hey, pal. I think you need to learn some manners!" Akula retorted, before turning his attention to Tempest, "Tempest, show them how we feel about claim jumpers,"
The unicorn in question smiled. "My pleasure!" She turned her Peacemaker towards a nearby bridge, where the source of the communications had been coming from. On the bridge, was a small convoy of carts; 3 having mounted machine guns and the last being some sort of supply cart. A perfect training target.
Tempest lined up the pipper on the supply cart in the middle and pulled the trigger. The twin .50 cal and .60 cal machine guns opened up at the single cart, which then succumbed to the weight of fire and exploded. The loads of ammunition in the cart detonated as well, causing a massive fireball to engulf the other cart.
But even worse, the shockwave from the explosion was enough to completely destroy the bridge, sending the gun carts into the ravine below. Tempest pulled up and away from the wreckage of the ex-bridge, looking down at the carnage she had caused.
"Kiss that bridge goodbye! Ha ha ha ha!" Tempest cried out.
"Tough break, bird-ponies! But no creature is getting in the way of us and that treasure!" Akula added, proceeding past the bridge and towards the next site. Rounding a small hill, the pair came across what appeared to be a small camp of straw huts around a firepit.
"See that? Looks like an old camp site. That might be where survivors from the wreck lived on the island," Akula pointed out, circling around the site to get a better look.
"You think the treasure might be buried there?" Tempest asked.
"Probably. But I think we should check the final sight first, just to be sure," With that, Akula pulled away from the camp and proceeded towards the final site in the atoll. Sure, while it did take a bit (even with all the armour plating weighing down the Devastator), the pair eventually reached the final site.
What they saw was very promising.
Trapped in the middle of the atoll, listing of to the side and with a gaping hole in the side of the hull, was an old galleon. The Stacked Deck had now discovered the final resting place of the Rocksteady.
"Boss, is that...?"
"Atta girl! That's it, all right!" Akula mused, looking down upon the wreck of the ship. "That has to be the main treasure site, I'm sure of it!" The changeling then turned back to Biff, who sat comfortably in the back seat of the Arrow, parachute at the ready. "Biff, I'm going to fly over the site again. Get ready to bail out!"
All Biff did was nod, as the Demon's Arrow turned back around towards the wreck. Unclipping his seatbelt, he grabbed onto the sliding roof and opened it, exposing him and his hat were exposed to the biting-cold wind, as Akula closed in on the wreck. The changeling then threw the stick over, throwing the Devastator into a 90o flight plan, the left wing now pointing directly towards the ground.
The Demon's Arrow remained like this until they were over the ship, when Akula suddenly snap rolled to the left, inverting the plane fully and swiftly launching Biff out of the opened cockpit and into the open sky. He then completed the roll and levelled out completely, using his magic to close the open roof. Looking back, he saw that Biff had successfully deployed his parachute and was hovering in on the ship.
"Biff is away. Let us know what you find down there," Akula reported, settling into a holding pattern above the atoll.
Within a few minutes, Biff came over the radio. "Royal Flush, this is Biff. I've landed at Site 3. Looks like we've hit the jackpot,"
"Copy that! Royal Flush on the way!" Grubber replied, turning the massive zeppelin towards the final site.
But then, another voice interrupted. But it wasn't the hippogriff from before. No, this one was a female voice. "Don't bother with that, Grubber. Now that you've found our treasure for us, you and your bitch can scram. If you know what's good for you," The voice threatened.
Akula just chuckled at the naivety of this mare. "Your treasure? Nice try, Siren. This claim is mine! Pirate's Code, fair and square. You tell Adagio that spending a night with me doesn't mean she gets to spend my loot," Akula explained to them, not backing down at all.
But the voice didn't heed the words of the Demon Lord and took it as a challenge instead, "Oh yeah? Well, how about a little swim to change your mind?"
It was then that the hostiles showed themselves. A massive Cargo-class zeppelin emerged from behind a hill on the coast of the island close to the atoll, escorted by three McDonnell S2B Kestrels that belonged to the Sirens, an all-female pirate gang.
Tempest made the call on the hostiles. "We have Sirens coming in from the North-Northwest!"
"Looks like they have a cargo zeppelin with them. Hippogiffian marking. Probably recently stolen, judging by the state of it. Shit, they're making a play for the treasure right now! We need to stop that zeppelin!" Akula pointed out, moving to engage the Kestrels.
Both sides moved in on one another, waiting until they were in range of one another. But one they were, both sides opened up. The Kestrels opened up with .50 and .60 cal mounted guns on the nose and in the wings. Akula responded with just his .40 cal guns in the top wing and Tempest did the same with her .50 cal guns in the center wing. But there was only minor scratches to the armour on all of the planes, but that was all part of the plan for the Stacked Deck fighters.
Once the head-on pass was completed, Akula and Tempest then began to push the main advantage that the both of their fighters had over the Kestrels. Both the Demon's Arrow and From The Storm pulled up, going through the vertical and levelling out on the tails of the Siren fighters well before they had completed their own turns. When the Kestrel pilots saw what was happening and tried to shake the Stacked Deck, they couldn't get away. The Devastator and the Peacemaker were much more agile than the Kestrel.
As Akula dived in on the first Kestrel, .40 cal fire from a rear gunner mounted behind the pilot doing her best to defend the plane zipping past the cockpit, he lined up the gunsight on the center part of the plane and pulled the trigger. Sharp-tipped armour-piercing rounds shredded into the Kestrel's armour, churning the plating into shards of metal. Once the armour was cleared, Akula switched to his .50 cal guns in the lower wing, which were loaded with what was known as 'dum-dum' rounds. These special rounds flatten on impact, for serious damage to internal systems. However, the bullets are pretty much useless against armour.
So, Akula had developed his plane armament for a real one-two punch, with the smaller caliber guns using AP rounds, with the heavier guns to finish the job.
And finish the job they did. The Kestrel collapsed under the weight of fire, both engines immediately caught fire and the pilot and rear gunner bailed out, a clean kill. Akula pulled away to engage the other Kestrels.
As that was happening, Tempest was currently chasing a second Kestrel around the zeppelin, being paltered by defensive fire from the Kestrel and the turrets on the zepp. But as the Kestrel dived under the zepp and while Tempest followed, the unicorn spotted some massive packages in the main cargo area. And every single one of them was labeled 'HYDROGEN'.
The mare quickly downed the Kestrel, and called out the fuel tanks to Akula. "Are those spare hydrogen tanks stacked int he cargo bay? Ha, they have 'shoot me' written all over them!"
"Good eye, Tempest!" Akula congratulated, seeing the tanks himself in the zeppelin, "Blowing those tanks might take out that zeppelin for good,"
It was well known that although hydrogen gas was very cheap and readily available flotation gas for the zeppelins, it was well known to be highly-flammable. It was the cause of many airship crashes in the opening runs of the new Safety-type zeppelins. It's what caused Equestria to switch their floatation gas from hydrogen to helium.
And Akula was about to teach the Sirens why you don't store hydrogen out in the open on a combat zeppelin. Lining the pipper on the tanks, Akula fired a single rocket at them. This was a high-explosive rocket, designed to make things explode. And sure enough, the rocket impacted right into one of the hydrogen tanks, detonating one of the tanks.
But this explosion soon caused a chain reaction, the first detonation caused the other hydrogen tanks to set off, before the gasbag above the cargo area exploded in a massive fireball.
"Oh, yeah!!! Did you see that explosion?! Great shot, boss! That zeppelin won't be bothering us anytime soon!" Tempest cried out, as the Siren zeppelin slowly sank into the waters below, three of it's gasbags lost to the chain reaction.
"See, Tempest? You are a regular wildcat! And a damn good pilot at that," Akula praised, rejoining his new wingpony.
"Why, thanks boss. You weren't so bad yourself," Tempest praised back.
"See any more Sirens?"
"No. Why? Are you looking for a date?"
"Ha! I usually draw the line at mare that shoot at me,"
"That's not what I heard,"
"Touché. So, how do you feel after your first fight? Want to head back to the Flush and call it a day, or scout around some more?"
"I'm happy either way. It's your call on what you want to do," And with that, the two linked up and began to head home. Quite quickly, they arrived at their zeppelin, which was currently racing full speed to recover Biff from the treasure site. But as soon as the two pilots approached, the back hangar doors opened and out popped the docking hook.
"Welcome back, sir!" Grubber greeted, as Akula came around to make his run on the hook. "So? Are we rich yet?"
"It's looking good, but we shall have to wait and see," Akula replied, as he lined up the hook and began to close in. A bunch of blinking lights guided him in, as Akula flipped the hook switch. A pair of hooks extended out of the top wings of the Devastator, before locking into place above the cockpit. Akula slowed the plane down and lined up the hook with the receiver. There was a slight clunk as the hook settled into place, but Akula had made it.
The plane came to a stop on the receiver as it began to pull the Demon's Arrow into the hangar. Akula shut off the engine and let the crane pull him back into his home.
And now, the Stacked Deck knew where all that treasure was. All they needed was to get it...
Author's Note
Sorry that this chapter took so long, but I have been very busy with other stories and in the real world.
I had quite a ton of fun writing this chapter. I hope you enjoyed!
