Chapter 2
Pipsqueak stood at the bow of his ship, the wind whipping his mane around wildly as he watched the coastline pass by. A beautiful beach of white sand stretched out beside him broken by the occasional section of mangroves. He had to quickly tilt his tiller as he dodged past the occasional trading vessel or Marine patrol but mostly the three day trip had been easy.

Pipsqueak looked over his remaining food, a rather squishy apple and a small container of water was all he had left. He picked up the apple taking a small bite as he watched the sights, the sky was clear and the currents didn’t seem any worse than when he had left. It was around mid afternoon when Pipsqueak noticed a small boat floating in front of him, it was similar to his but instead of the plain, white sail this one displayed proudly the skull and crossbones.

Pipsqueak grinned as he pulled a short bit of rope of out of his saddlebags; quickly tying one end of the rope around one of the seats in his boat, he jumped over and repeated the process. Content that the two boats were lashed firmly together he began to explore the ship; or what was left of it.

The boat was a mess, the timbers were scratched and the seat in the bow was cleaved in two. After a few minutes more searching Pipsqueak found something that caught his eye, a brown coloured sack was hidden near the stern. Making sure there was nothing he had missed, Pipsqueak undid the ropes and with it and the bag in his teeth jumped back to his boat.

Safely back on his ship and now drifting away from the destroyed craft, Pipsqueak upended the sack and dodged backwards to avoid the two items that slipped out. A shining blade hit the deck first, burying to the point in the timbers just between Pipsqueak’s fore-hooves; a long plain black scabbard followed it hitting the deck with a loud thump.

The blade was single edged and lightly curved, ending in a wicked point, the cross-hilt was thick and the hilt wrapped with green cloth looked like it had bite marks; the sign of either a Pegasus or Earth Pony wielder. With a strong tug he pulled the sword out of the timbers before he awkwardly leaned the scabbard against the side of the craft.

After a few minutes of tricky maneuvering Pipsqueak finally managed to sheath the sword and lay it down beneath his hooves. He toyed with it, idly pushing it back and forth, imagining himself with a decent blade at his side.

“Who do you belong to I wonder?” Pipsqueak mused quietly, his fantasies dashed as he realized it had to belong to whoever owned the boat. He nodded, deciding to make sure he checked the next couple of towns.

All thoughts of searching and more importantly where his next meal was coming from fell out of his head as wood bounced against wood signalling his arrival at Water Whistle. Clutching the sword in his teeth Pipsqueak jumped onto the docks, dropping it before quickly hopping back in and grabbing the rope to moor his boat.

Picking the sword back up he trotted quickly towards the town, constantly threatening to tip over due to the uneven weight in his saddle bags. Walking slowly, Pipsqueak took note of his surroundings.

The buildings were decrepit, holes patched over with planks of wood and scorch marks on the stones. The streets were cracked and dirty, ensuring Pipsqueak didn’t rush too much on his search and the numerous fountains dotted around were either off or spraying small pathetic jets of brown sludge.

Looking around for somewhere to fill his now growling stomach, he spotted a place that smelled quite strongly of sizzling tomatoes and Applejack Daniels and walked closer.

The building stood out most because it was unlike any of the others; clean. The building was two stories, the wooden Saloon doors were polished and the windows were clean. A small plaque above the doors declared as boldly as it could Celestia’s Blessing: Bar and Board!

Without hesitation Pipsqueak pushed through and wandered in, taking in the sights of the down-stairs bar. Numerous tables were spread around the room though almost all were empty, mares and stallions, mainly marines, sat around drinking and eating as a single unicorn bolted around, handing out small portions of food and drink.

Pipsqueak wandered up to the bar, dropping his saddlebags and the sword down next to him as he pulled himself onto a stool. He watched as a pretty young unicorn wandered over, her pale blue coat was primed and neat like her long black mane but her smile didn’t quite meet her yellow coloured eyes.

As subtly as he could he leaned forward slightly taking note her cutie mark, a wine glass and a large red tomato.

“Howdy stranger,” She greeted quickly straightening herself up. “They call me Bubbly. What can I get you?” She asked casually as lent on the bar, her eyes flicking down more than once to the bulging Saddlebags sitting at Pipsqueaks hooves; nervously he placed his hind legs around the bag as he placed his order.

“Food if it wouldn’t be too much trouble, a tomato and lettuce sandwich if I can.”

“Course you can sir, anything else you need?” Pipsqueak thought for a moment before he nodded.

“Actually, do you still have any rooms to let? I want to spend some time in town, I’m looking for someone.”

Bubbly gave another of her false smiles as she turned and headed into the kitchen, leaving Pipsqueak with his thoughts. Pipsqueak looked around at the other patrons; most he noted were either sullen, close to drunk or both. The ones that bothered to wear clothes showed there patches and darning but they still looked strong as though the hard times had just started.

Most were unarmed except for the select few in white coats, who bore either the standard short swords or rifles of those in the lower infantry rank.

Pipsqueak sighed bored, starting to count the grains on the counter in front of him before Bubbly trotted back with his meal. He grinned at the sight of it; fresh white bread and he could see both the lettuce and fried tomato sliding tantalizingly out of it.

Picking it up; he bit into it, chewing slowly as he felt shreds of lettuce and bread flow antagonizingly slow down his throat and into his very impatient stomach. As Pipsqueak enjoyed the deep repetitive trance of chewing and swallowing his delicious meal he was raised back into the real world when a rather loud laugh broke out at a table adjacent to him.

“So we found it a couple of days back. It had pretty much destroyed the entire ship, lying close to exhaustion after knocking out at least four pirates by itself,”

Pipsqueak turned to the speaker. A younger pony was standing agitatedly in front of several older Marines who watched as he jumped up and down.

“I’m serious. The boat was a wreck; it was laying there among the unconscious bodies of the crew and we couldn’t get its damn weapons off of it. Captain Azure Arc ordered us to take them all in hull; the monster’s still in the brigs. Solitary. One of the feeding crew lost one of his ears; real mess.”

A majority of the Marines looked rather disturbed, but one gave a booming laugh.

“That weak little thing? I reckon the Pirates knocked themselves out; and she just took credit for them while they were down.”

The entire group dissolved into pointless arguing and with a shrug Pipsqueak turned back to his meal. Polishing off the last of the delicious sandwich he caught Bubbly eyeing his saddlebags again; she jumped slightly as he gave her a glance and she backed up behind the bar again.

“All finished?” She asked quickly, pointedly looking anywhere but at Pipsqueak.

“Oh yes, thank you it was great.” Pipsqueak said contentedly, leaning forward on the bar. She grinned, a true smile this time, as she picked up his plate and took it into the back; returning shortly with a glass of dark red liquid, small bubbles slowly rose from the bottom before popping out of existence.

“A glass for the compliment sir,” She said. “On the house,”

Pipsqueak stared at the liquid and frowned. “What is it?”

“Tomato juice and red wine,” She said happily. “A couple of other ingredients as well, gives it the bubbles and mixes the flavors together quite well. How I earned my cutie mark coincidentally.”

Pipsqueak nodded as he took a sip, it was strange it tasted mostly like Tomato juice with the fizzyness one normally associated with carbonated beverages. A warm burning sensation filled his stomach as he smiled; this stuff was fantastic!
He leaned back his head and gulped it down; happily taking his time lowering the glass down onto the bar.

“Another if I may please.”

Bubbly smiled as she refilled his glass and he repeated the action draining this one even faster than the last. He listened to the noises of the common room but slowly they began to fade away and he felt something soft against his back.

Pipsqueak’s eyes shot open in surprise. He was lying down in a small room; sunlight beaming into his face from the open window. His head aching he stretched and rolled to his right, his head making a large thunk against the small bedside table. He tried not to howl.

Turning over again so he lay on his back, Pipsqueak stared at the cracked white ceiling and tried to remember what happened.

“Monster on a boat, then Bubbly mixed me some of that delicious drink, then I must have fallen asleep,” Pipsqueak whispered softly as he frowned, He sat up, much too fast, the room around him spinning and churning but he resisted the bile that rose in his throat; slowly he looked around.

The room was practically unfurnished apart from the white-sheeted bed he lay in and that damn bedside table. Rising panic hit him for a few minutes as he searched for his saddlebags, but he quickly spotted the corner of them poking out near the edge of his bed.

Suddenly the door burst open and Bubbly clopped loudly into the room.

“Morning!” She said enthusiastically. Pipsqueak groaned and put his front hooves over his ears.

“Please not so loud,” he muttered as she wandered over to the bed.

“You said you were looking for someone last night right? Well there’s a gathering happening in the town square today, you might meet this mysterious pony there!” Bubbly said excitedly and almost too quickly for Pipsqueak's aching head to keep up with.

Pipsqueak nodded slowly as he rolled the right way out of bed, landing on shaky legs. With a yawn he stumbled past Bubble and picked up his bags. A niggling thought that something was wrong appeared in the back of his head, but the pounding and pain drove it back to its hiding place in the subconscious.

“Got everything? Good. Good! I’ll help you down-stairs shall I?” Pipsqueak nodded and followed her back down to the bar where he was given several cups of cold tea. His head now pounding significantly less and with directions to the gathering from a now happily smiling Bubbles he quickly left the bar and headed into the town proper.

Ponies swarmed the streets pushing and shoving against the small groups of Marines that patrolled the streets. Two small fillies ducked in front of him as he arrived in the square. A large wooden stage had been set up, stacked up crates used as a stairway gave access to the platform.

Six ponies stood on the stage, looking out over the gathered crowd. At the front was a brown earth pony, his black mane and tail were perfectly groomed and his blue eyes scanned the faces of the crowed while he smirked.

A white shirt’s collar with a dark blue Jackets collar underneath was combined with a red tie, bearing a bit symbol, completed his outfit. Pushing closer Pipsqueak realized the pony had three money bags as his cutie mark, defiantly a sign of the upper class.

A younger pony, which bore the posture of a noble lady, around about Pip’s age stood next to him. Her coat was a rather luscious looking pink complimenting well with her purple and white mane, a silver tiara was perched delicately on her head, an exact replica as the one on her flank. She was good looking and knew it, looking down her nose at the many stallions that were standing eagerly near the stage, openly watching her.

Tearing his eyes off the stage for a minute, he compared the townsfolk to the two immaculate beings standing before them all. The difference was staggering and something again stirred in the back of his brain which caused his head to pound.
Pipsqueak quickly turned his attention to the other members of the stage, trying to ignore his aching head. Behind them was three beige coloured ponies wearing dark glasses and looking tough, basic security types. It was however the smaller pony that caught his eye.

It was a bored looking pegasus; her coat was a bright orange and her messy mane and tail were a deep magenta, she wasn’t as obviously cutesy as the pink mare up the front but she looked lean and fit, her cutie mark showed three different swords in a ring, their blue, red and green handles touching in the center.

It was her wings however that drew his attention the most. Unlike the usual Pegasus, whose wingspan was ordinarily at least half their width, her wings were rather small, almost underdeveloped.

Two sheathed swords, running snugly along the sides of her body, were held in pace by two weird contraptions, one on each wing. Pipsqueak stared at the contraption trying to figure out how it worked, but was distracted when the brown stallion spoke but one word.

“Money,”

The crowed went silent, even the stallions that had been crowding around the pink mare had taken a few steps back.
“I have been trying time and time again to help you with your little money problems. It gets wasted in your filthy town wide economy, paying for your food, drinks and lives. You all get paid from the bits I’m pouring into your little cesspool by buying into your little town so heavily, I own so much and you owe me so much.”

Pipsqueak looked around at the wide-eyed faces; mares avoiding eye contact with the ponies up on stage while the stallions scraped their feet on the stones.

“I’ve bought your houses, your taverns, your bars. But you refuse to pay me my rightful rent! Think about what this town used to be: a rundown little shithole. Until I came along and started protecting you,” He paused seemingly trying to hold back a laugh. “It was destroyed every month by raiders and pirates.”

The crowed began to mutter as he spat out the last word as though he had something foul in his mouth, some nodding their heads slightly under the hard gaze they were receiving other just stared at the ground. Pipsqueak shook his still muddled head, not quite understanding the point of all of this, but the speech seemed to be wrapping up soon anyway.

“Now that I’ve clarified the situation I want you all to know. You have three days to pay me the money I’m owed plus of course the interest. Any tenants who can’t pay or decide not too will be evicted. Good day.”

The security ponies marched forward with the smaller orange mare, making a square formation around the brown stallion and the pink mare before hustling them off-stage. They were halfway across the square when a yell was heard.
“Filthy Rich you bastard! You took our town from us!”

A scrawny looking pegasus pony swooped down from above, hooves out, wings pumping furiously as he aimed at the brown earth pony. Suddenly there was an orange blur and the would be attacker was flying back into the crowd, Pipsqueak blinked.

The orange mare was standing there, wings out, the left one covered with small drops of blood. Her face was set defiantly as she clenched her teeth. Filthy Rich patted her on the head and whispered something to her before they continued crossing the square.

Without stopping to think Pipsqueak started to run, charging through the crowd until he got to the side of the downed assailant. He looked him over quickly, noticing the thin red line that had opened on the side the alabaster coat.

The pegasus grimaced in pain, staring up with a look of horror at the sword Pipsqueak carried in his teeth.
Pipsqueak dropped it quickly, ignoring the flinch from the downed flyer as he asked hurriedly. “Why did you attack that stallion?”

A bout of laughter came from the figure. “Not like his little assassins to ask questions, kill me and be done with it,”
Pipsqueak looked at him curiously. “Assassin? I’m not an assassin. I’m a pirate! Here to gather my-“

“Pirate? You can’t be a pirate! We made a deal, pirates don’t enter our town if we pay Filthy. You can’t be here!” The Pegasus groaned at the effort as he started to drag himself away while simultaneously watching Pipsqueak.

“Hey,” Pipsqueak said indigently. “I’m not here to destroy anything, I just want to get more crew members.”

“Wait? You’re a pirate without a crew?” The Pegasus looked surprised.

Pipsqueak saluted hurriedly with a fore-leg, wobbling unsteadily. “Yes sir, Captain Pipsqueak at your service!”

“Um, Flip Wing.” Flip Wing sat up uncomfortably scratching his head. “Pirate with no crew...”
Pipsqueak rolled his eyes. “That’s right. I’m looking for strong companions. What can you tell me about that orange mare?”

Flip Wings eves widened. “You mean Flithy’s pet demon? Oh kid have I got a story about her.” With another groan he was on his hooves.

With a bound Pipsqueak supported the older Pegasus as they started down the narrow dirty streets of Water Whistle, eagerly awaiting the story he had been promised.

A/N: Thank you Twai for helping me with that. Ownership is of course other people (Hasbro to be exact. So Please don’t sue me.. I’d appreciate it.)