Pirates of The Equestrian

Chapter 3: Island Hopping

"Dag nabbit, I can't see them no more!" said Applejack, staring out to sea. "Blackmane must've locked 'em up again." She turned back to Rainbow and Rarity who Blackmane had marooned along with her on a speck of sand that was barely considered an island. "Well girls, it looks like we're stranded...again."

"Oh woe is me!" whined Rarity. "I'm starting to wish I never went on that fabulous cruise in the first place. I mean look at my nails! They're starting to get chipped!"

"Forget about that!" blurted Rainbow. "Would you two just help me get this darned thing off me?!" Her torso had been wrapped in a padlocked chain by Blackmane's crew, which painfully clamped down her wings making her grounded. She wriggled desperately trying to shake it off.

Applejack also attempted to yank Rainbow's chain, but with no avail. "I don't know what to tell ya, Rainbow. We can't get that thing off without the key."

"Huh, you know what? This is great!" replied Rainbow with a heavily sarcastic smile. "This is perfect! This is exactly how I pictured this vacation! I get stranded in the hot sun on a rinky-dink lifeboat, get captured and ogled at by undead pirates, get stranded AGAIN by said pirates, and to top it all off, I CAN'T FLY!!!"

"Just settle down, Dash," said Applejack. "All this whinin' isn't gonna get us nowhere. If Twilight was here, she'd tell us to focus on gettin' off this island. And I think I know how!" She then stepped over to the three fully grown palm trees that somehow managed to find growth on the sandbank. "If I can knock down these palm trees with some swift applebuckin', we can make 'em into some kind of raft and paddle our way out o' here!"

"If I have to do anymore rowing, I'm going to seize up!" huffed Rainbow.

"Will you two stop with yer complainin'?"

"What did I say?!" shrugged Rarity.

With a few stretches of her powerful legs, Applejack prepared herself for some of the hardest applebucking in her life. After rearing back, she launched a lightning speed mule kick at the base of one of the palms. She repeated the kick over and over, trying to chip away the thick armor-like bark and cripple the tall tree. But with each menacing kick, she was making hardly any progress.

"Come on, come on!" she urged herself. "Why won't it budge?"

Little did she know that she was also shaking a low-hanging coconut growing from the base of the frons. Eventually the shaking of the tree snapped the heavy fruit from its branch and sent it plummeting toward Applejack's head.

"I think I'm startin' to get it! Just need a little more-"

BONK!

The coconut hit her square on the cranium and left her wobbling from side to side in dizziness. She mumbled to herself deliriously. "Granny Smith, ya left yer teeth in the dishwasher again!" She immediately collapsed, out cold.

Rarity and Rainbow simply stared at her unconscious form. "I don't mean to sound insensitive," said Rarity. "But I almost wanted to see her fail."

"Rgh! I can't take this!" grumbled Rainbow. "Everything that has happened to us so far has gone from bad to worse!" She tugged at her chain some more in frustration. "Stupid chain! Stupid island! Stupid pirates! Stupid coconut!" Then she kicked the coconut that clonked Applejack into the water, sending it sinking straight down.

Rarity blinked. "Um, Rainbow, did you just kick food into the ocean?…WHEN WE DON'T HAVE ANY?!" she scolded.

Rainbow looked in the water where the fruit splashed and realized her mistake. She shrugged with an embarrassed smile. "Uh…I'm not hungry?"

Suddenly, both she and Rarity began to feel a tremor beneath their hooves. They looked around in confusion as the island itself seemed to be shaking.

"What's going on?!" quivered Rainbow.

"I haven't the slightest idea!" replied Rarity who then gasped as she pointed out to sea. "Look!"

Rainbow spun around and stared in fright as a mass of bubbles appeared in the spot where the coconut she kicked landed in. More and more air rose to the surface signaling something was emerging from the deep. Rainbow and Rarity watched frightfully as a large green mass slowly rose out from beneath the surface. To add more to the confusion, the mass appeared to be in the form of a head and face; this was apparent as a large toothless mouth gaped open at the front. The mouth let out an earth rumbling, low pitched sound that strangely resembled a yawn.

"HOLY COW!" screamed Rarity, not even the least bit surprised at her sudden crude language.

Just as the mouth finished its supersonic yawn, a large opening appeared at the top of the head revealing a staring black eye. The gigantic head slowly turned back and stared at Rainbow and Rarity with a curious blank expression.

"What in the name of all that is good and Celestia is that thing?!" blurted Rarity, cowardly hiding behind Rainbow.

"Whoa!" Rainbow only stared back at the creature with amazement. "It looks like a giant turtle! Wicked!"

"A turtle?!" retorted Rarity. "It's big enough to be a dragon!" Then she looked around the island and made the connection in her head. "Wait a minute, Rainbow, I think this island is actually part of this creature!"

"You mean this whole time we've been standing on the back of a humungous sea turtle? That just blows my mind!" Rainbow then walked closer to the curious turtle's face and smiled at him. "This guy really is huge. He must be like Tank's great grandpa or something! I'm gonna name him Super Tank!" The turtle stretched his head further back to get a closer look at the funny little blue creature that appeared to be communicating with him. "Hey Super Tank, do you think you can get us out of here?"

With a low grumble, Super Tank lowered his head away from the little blue mammal. Then, the ground beneath Rainbow and Rarity's hooves began to quake again as the island, or as it was really the back of Super Tank, suddenly shifted out of place. The ponies looked around to see four more large green masses rise out of the water around the island. They appeared to be giant scaly fins as they moved in sync and began to slowly push the water behind them. Rainbow and Rarity hung onto the palm trees for support as Super Tank shook the sand off his back which had been building up from a year's hibernation. The surface then revealed to be a rock hard green shell with a pentagonal pattern. The vegetation supporting the three palm trees was also shaken off, leaving just the ponies riding the shell. Rainbow watched the turtle cruise across the water at a steady turtle-like speed.

"This is awesome! Maybe Super Tank will give us a lift to shore!"

"And perhaps we'll be able to find Twilight and the others." Rarity added. "Our luck has finally turned around!"

"Go, Super Tank, go!" cheered Rainbow.

"Ugh, what's all the yellin' about?" mumbled Applejack, finally regaining consciousness. She then looked around at the turtle's head and fins and the fact that they were now moving. She blinked as she was taken aback. "Remind me to lay off the applebuckin' for a while."

...

A large school of trout scattered off in a synchronized cluster and made way for the four horse-like creatures treading along the sea bottom. Shelly swam around the other three leading them around her terrain, while using her magic to maintain the water breathing spell for them as well as protecting them from the heavy water pressure. Twilight and Pinkie trudged along the ocean floor with Twilight navigating with the map she stole from Blackmane. Fluttershy, meanwhile, used her wings to paddle through the open water.

"Um, Twilight, how much further is the island?" she asked about Blackmane's base of operations.

"According to the map," replied Twilight. "We're only about halfway to Scurvy Shoal. At this rate, we won't reach it until tomorrow. And we probably won't even beat Blackmane there."

Fluttershy darted her head around nervously. "Well, it's just that it's getting kind of dark. And the sea is starting to look...spooky." There was still some sunlight glistening through the calm waters. But it was starting to set in the late afternoon, and soon the ocean would become dark.

"Don't worry, guys," said Shelly. "We're not too far from my vacation home in the reef. We can stop there for some rest."

"Vacation home?" Twilight queried. "Shelly, are you rich or something?"

Shelly then stuttered nervously. "Uh, well, I do have friends in, uh, high places."

"Well I hope you at least have some sushi." Pinkie said. "I'm getting hungry and there hasn't been a sign of cake anywhere in this darn ocean!"

As they waded along the sandy bottom, they began to see less and less sea around them, since nighttime was slowly creeping in. Just then, a large ominous shadow swept over Fluttershy, making her squeal quietly. The antsy little pegasus looked in all directions but could see nothing that could make such a big shadow; that's when she looked up. Fluttershy's pupils shrunk to the size of peas and her body became frozen with fear as a massive bull shark loomed about twenty feet above her. She chittered frantically, trying to utter some word of warning to the others.

"G-g-g-g-g-g-g guys," she squeaked. "Sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-"

"Not now, Fluttershy," said Twilight, her face buried in the map. "I can't be distracted."

"Ooh! Look at that humungous fish up there!" blurted Pinkie.

"What fish?" Twilight peered up, then became stiff at the sight of the bull shark leering above them. "GAH! SHARK!"

"That's what I said!" shrieked Fluttershy.

"Everypony, don't move!" hissed Twilight in a hushed tone. "Its vision is based on movement. He can't see us if we keep perfectly still."

"Twilight, that doesn't sound-"

"Shh! I said keep still, Fluttershy!"

"But why are we whispering?"

"SHUSH!"

The three petrified ponies stared at the intimidating shark hovering just above them. Then, the beast wrinkled its nose and brandished its may rows of dagger-like teeth. Suddenly, it kicked into gear and swam toward its frightened prey.

"Um, Twilight," said Pinkie, suddenly afraid. "I think he can still see us."

They quivered hopelessly as the shark torpedoed closer and closer, ready to sink its teeth. But before it could get into range, Shelly darted in front of the hunter and gave it a swift hoof slap clear across the nose. The shark stammered to the side, shaking its head from the painful blow.

"No! Bad!" scolded Shelly with an angry mother-like hoof. "You do not eat ponies! You got that?! Bad shark! Very bad shark!" The emasculated predator looked shamefully away from the yelling merpony and even seemed to whimper. "Now, now, did we learn our lesson?" The shark then gently nuzzled Shelly and quivered its lip, looking up at her with puppy dog eyes. "Good boy," she petted the fish's head. "Now you be a sweet little killing machine and go eat that school of trout over there."

With that, the once menacing shark panted happily and sped off into the deep, to massacre other forms of sea life. Twilight, Pinkie and Fluttershy were stunned at the unusual performance.

"That was amazing, Shelly!" said Twilight. "How did you get that shark to listen to you?"

"We merponies have the power to commune with sea creatures." She explained. "By the way, sharks don't need to see you; they can smell your fear."

"Wow, Fluttershy," smiled Pinkie. "She handled that big old nasty shark like you would!"

Fluttershy only crossed her hooves in a jealous manner. "Hmph, I could've done that."

With terror out of mind, the four continued on the vast sea floor with darkness quickly sweeping the water and blurring vision. Before it became too dark, they came upon a large mound which turned out to be a coral reef. Shelly pushed aside a piece of fan coral which served as a door to an opening inside the reef.

"Welcome to my home away from home!" she invited them in with a smile.

Twilight, Fluttershy and Pinkie entered the vacation home, expecting to find nothing but a dark, dank cave. Instead, they were amazed to find the interior opulently decorated with ocean themes, including shell and starfish wallpaper and sailing antiques as décor. There was lavish waterproof furniture in the living room with a cozy kitchen nook behind it; a few other doorways led to even more extravagant bedrooms. The entire place was lighted by glowing orbs of merpony magic making the reef home look just as lavish as a loft apartment on land.

"Sorry if it's kind of a mess." Shelly admitted. "I really must do some refurnishing."

"Dang!" gawked Pinkie. "If this is a vacation home, I wonder what a regular merpony house looks like!"

"Yeah, I can totally see Rarity renting one of these places out." Twilight added.

"Well I might as well give you three a bite to eat." Shelly opened up a stainless steel refrigerator. "What do you guys feel like? Grilled seaweed? Fried Seaweed? Baked seaweed? Seaweed soup? Seaweed gumbo? Seaweed stew?"

"Ooh! Can you make seaweed crepes?" asked Pinkie.

"I guess, if you're really into that stuff." Shelly shrugged.

"I'll eat later, Shelly," said Twilight with a yawn. "But all that treading water has gotten me pretty tired. I think I'll just rest my sea legs."

"Take your time, Twilight." Shelly replied. "There's a spare bed in the door on your right. Wait, not that one!"

Twilight opened the first door on the right before she could hear Shelly, and it suddenly swing open. A long sizable tentacle reached out and grabbed Twilight around the waist. Whatever creature was inside began flailing Twilight around in the air and slamming her on the ground. Shelly then came to the rescue and used her magic to stuff the tentacle back into the room and pry Twilight out. She shut the door with some vigor and smiled awkwardly.

"Sorry, that's just my octopus room. You want the second door on the right."

Twilight glowered as she stood up, rubbing her bruises. "Thanks."

She then slumped into the guest bedroom to rest her head, weary from her long ordeal. As she entered the elegantly decorated quarters, she found it mindboggling that everything that had happened, being stranded at sea, captured by pirates, escaping into the ocean and avoiding a shark attack was all in just one day; and the night was still young. She began to wonder if going after Blackmane was still a good idea. But she knew that this was another one of those situations where Princess Celestia would entrust the fate of Equestria in her hooves...again.

Twilight toppled over onto the cushy water bed with a bounce. Immediately, the allure of sleep finally crossed over her and she closed her heavy eyes. She didn't even care that this was her first time sleeping underwater with a breathing spell; she just wanted to drift off for at least a few hours. More and more, she slipped into sleep letting the gently motion of the water lull her. That is until she heard the door slam open.

Her bloodshot eyes shot open and she lifted her head up, noticing a clock that read three hours later than she had last checked; it felt like three minutes. Then she saw who had burst in; to her surprise, it appeared to be another merpony. Unlike Shelly, this one was larger in build with a longer horn, and appeared to be male. The mer-stallion wore metal armor similar to that of Celestia's royal guard. Twilight said nothing as he stared at her firmly.

"You must come with us." The guard spoke.

Twilight stared back in blank surprise. "...Okay." She regretted getting up again, but it looked like this merpony meant business.

She was led out of the bedroom to see that both Fluttershy and Pinkie were also apprehended by two other stallion guards. They looked just as confused as she was.

"What's going on?" Twilight asked anypony.

"Silence, land-walker!" growled the guard.

"Twilight, I'm so sorry!" said Shelly from across the room. "I had nothing to do with this."

"Tisk tisk!" came a voice entering the reef home.

Everypony looked as a fourth merstallion appeared; but this one was not dressed in the same silver armor as the guards. The merpony sported a turquoise robe with gold trim, giving him an appeal of nobility. He spoke to Shelly with calm assertiveness.

"You really must know better than to get involved with their kind, Princess Shelly."

"Princess?!" repeated Twilight. "Shelly, is there something you never told us?"

Shelly only looked around sheepishly. "Um, well, I meant to."

The robed merpony then glared at Twilight. "You'll not speak to Her Grace Princess Shelly, land-walker! You have only been blessed by her to be given ability to breathe in our terrain!"

"Scallop, please!" replied Shelly. "They've done nothing wrong!"

"Simmer down, my Princess." The merpony named Scallop patronized her. "We shall have you back home very soon. You must have been terrified being lost for so long. Your father has been worried sick."

"Will somepony please tell us what's happening?!" Twilight stomped her hoof.

"Hush your tongue, land-walker!" scolded Scallop. "We shall soon deal with you and your friends justly. Guards, take them away! You shall come with me, fair Princess."

"Please forgive me, Twilight." Shelly looked guiltily.

Twilight gulped as she, Fluttershy and Pinkie were led away to whatever fate lay ahead of them this time.