The morning sea was quite beautiful under the light of the rising sun, as it burned in the sky like a warm candle. Fluttershy leaned off the side of the deck; admiring the sun in its beauty.

"You seem cheery..." Gin had snuck up behind Fluttershy and had almost made her jump.

"Yes, I guess I am." Fluttershy thought about last night and lightly blushed; attempting to hide it from Gin.

"So, who's the stallion?" Gin asked; watching Fluttershy's face turn beet red.

"N-No one!" Fluttershy stuttered.

"Oh, really?" Gin teased. "Cause I think I heard someone in your room last night..."

"T-There was no one in my room-." Fluttershy was cut off.

"Oh, c'mon Fluttershy! Who was it? Coba? Spike? Draven?" Gin guessed.

"It was... Winslow." Fluttershy squeaked softly.

Gin seemed surprised by the statement. It was as if she never even considered the idea of Winslow in any social relation. She seemed disappointed for a moment as well, her silver hair slightly shrouding a worried expression.

"I never imagined that." Gin mumbled under her breath.

"Is something wrong?" Fluttershy inquired.

"No, nothing. I'm just happy for him, and for you." Gin lowered her head for a moment but raised it suddenly and looked up to Fluttershy with a happier expression. "Winning anyone's affection in these days is hard, especially Winslow's. That stallion has a lot of death and anguish in his past, and he never usually talks to anyone."

"I... I see." Fluttershy muttered quietly.

"I've been trying to get to him for years now, but you earned his trust in less than a week. That's is a feat not many have accomplished." Gin paused again but continued as she looked to Fluttershy. "I want you to promise me something Fluttershy."

"What is it?" Fluttershy asked.

"Take care of him will you? He may look tough, but he is just as vulnerable as any other pony." Gin explained; looking back down at the ocean bellow.

"I promise Gin," Fluttershy assured her.

"Good. Well, I'm not sure about you, but I need a drink." Gin sighed as she walked away.

****

Twilight sat across the large map table and listened to the details of Draven's mission intently.

"So, you're looking for the Sorcerers' Stones?" Twilight said in surprise. "I thought they were just a legend."

"Well, that is what Celestia wants people to believe. She doesn't speak of them often, nor does she speak of her brother." Draven explained; sipping from his glass of rum. "There's no conspiracy behind it, though, I guess she just wants herself and others to forget."

"And now that her brother is returning, those memories have become reality once more." Twilight realized. "Who is that halfling general that captured me? His powers... they seem so familiar. I've read about magic like that before, but I can't put my finger on it."

"Only three kinds of beings I know of can outmatch an alicorn's magic. Dragons, other alicorns, and... a lich. In the ages of Leere, many powerful forces allied with his army. Among the strongest were the lich-kings. These lich-kings were feared throughout the land as a shadowy mist of death and destruction that wielded the true powers of necromancy. They summoned legions of undead to demolish Leere's enemies." Draven explained in length.

"And Constantine?" Twilight questioned.

"Like most I thought the liches had been all wiped out in the First Ages, but apparently not. Constantine has now shown us that the liches were never dead, only hiding." Draven said; slightly worried by the thought of it all. "Constantine is a young lich, he was taught the magic of necromancy by someone, but by whom I have no idea."

Winslow marched in the map room and sat down next to Draven; fastening his eye-patch firmly to prevent the knot from loosening. Twilight hesitated for a minute, she wasn't entirely sure how to speak to Winslow, but her own curiosity got the better of her eventually. She was so interested in his eye she had seen the day before.

"Um, may I ask that I see your eye Sir Winslow?" Twilight properly stated; making sure she said it as polite as possible. "If that is okay with you that is..."

"I wouldn't-." Draven was cut-off.

"It's alright Draven." Winslow insisted.

With a sigh Winslow removed his carefully tied patch; revealing his mysterious and demonic-looking eye. The eye surveyed its surroundings by itself; moving without the consent of Winslow. As it moved it appeared to be scanning Twilight as if interested by her. Twilight moved closer in intrigue.

"Fascinating." Twilight uttered in wonder. "It appears to be semi-sentient!"

"It does this when it sees new people, usually I can control it. Although this time, it seems that it is finding you to be a strange sight. It hasn't seen an alicorn before." Winslow stated as the eye ceased moving around and began to follow Winslow's direction.

"How does this eye function?" Twilight asked; still paying close attention to the eye.

"When I engage in combat, it just shows me things. It tells me to act and react at the right moments, thus allowing me to predict an enemy's attack patterns." Winslow elaborated.

"Interesting..." Twilight began to write on her notepad as Winslow explained. "May I see the eye's powers for myself?"

Winslow nodded at Draven, who walked across the room and fetched a flintlock out of the dresser drawer. He tossed it to Twilight; who had no clue how to use such a device.

"Come outside," Winslow ordered Twilight.

Twilight followed and held the flintlock awkwardly in her hand. Winslow stood in front of her; unsheathing his sword and holding it down to his waist.

"On the count of three I want you to fire," Winslow informed Twilight.

"You want me to shoot you?!" Twilight uttered in shock.

"Oh, trust me... you won't make the shot." Winslow casually boasted.

Twilight's hands shook as she raised the gun to Winslow's chest; closing one eye and aiming down the barrel to make sure her shot was accurate.

"Are you sure about this?" Twilight nervously asked.

"I won't be doing this if I wasn't," Winslow assured Twilight. "Alright. On the count of three. One. Two. Three!"

Twilight's hands barely held the gun as the recoil almost knocked it right out of her grasp. A plume of ignited black powder escaped the barrel as the shot traveled towards Winslow. Twilight couldn't see the shot land, but she heard the clanging noise that Winslow's sword made. The shot was pointed directly at him, yet no visual signs of injury were on Winslow's body. He sheathed his sword and approached Twilight; picking up a shard of the lead ball that embedded itself into the wooden deck and handing it to her. The ball was split right down the middle, and Twilight could hardly believe her eyes.

"Ha ha! Amazing!" Twilight chuckled in a gleeful curiosity. "I thought you were going to.-"

"You were going to miss anyways." Winslow said; somewhat embarrassing Twilight.

Twilight was stunned by his words. "How did you.-"

"Like I said before. The eye shows me where the shot will travel, and where to strike it." Winslow said; unsheathing his barely scratched sword. "It even tells me what strike will cause minimal damage to my blade."

"That's truly incredible!" Twilight stared in awe at Winslow's sword. "This eye of yours... I don't know what it is, but it seems to be radiating some sort of temporal energy."

Spike yawned as he exited the lower deck of the ship, and Twilight rolled her eyes in response to the lazy dragon.

"You slept in." Twilight sighed.

"Yeah, I know. I kind of found it hard to sleep last night." Spike murmured as he looked to Fluttershy; her face turning a bright red as he did so. "I see you and Winslow are hitting it off."

"He just gave me a demonstration of his eye, and it is certainly remarkable!" Twilight peered into the large dark eye.

Spike turned to Draven, who was drinking what remained of his bottle of rum. He seemed slightly on-edge; his usual jolly and gleeful attitude was replaced by worry.

"Something the matter?" Spike asked; noticing Draven's obvious change in mood.

"No. It's just that... bah, never mind." Draven gave a half-smile to quell Spike's suspicions.

"Captain! Captain!" One of the crew members taking post on the crow nest shouted.

"What is it, lad?" Draven questioned.

"I can see the peak of the mountain ahead, but a thick fog is approaching!" The crew member yelled down.

"Damn." Draven cursed. "We're running out of daylight."

"What should we do Captain?" Coba asked; peering through his telescope.

"We have no other choice. We have to go into it." Draven stated. "This is the fastest route by sea, and changing course now would cost us precious time that we don't have the luxury of wasting."

"All hands on deck lads!" Gin called out to the crew.

Spike couldn't see ten feet in front of him, but regardless he could hear what went on around him... nothing. No sound seemed to carry in the ship's direction, and the crew member in the crow's nest was blind as a bat.

"Seeing anything?" Draven shouted up to the crow's nest.

"Nothing yet Captain!" The crew member replied.

"What are we looking for?" Twilight asked.

"We aren't the only pirates patrolling the coastline, lass. With this fog... we're bound to run into something." Draven explained; his eyes repetitively scanning the dense fog for dark patches within the haze.

Winslow heard a low and moaning "creak" in the distance. It was muffled by the fog, but his fears had been realized when he made out the silhouette of a large ship sailing past them. He looked to Fluttershy, then tackled her to the ground as the sound of cannon-fire blasted the eerie silence away.

"Ambush!" Gin yelled as musket-fire and cannonballs hailed down upon the deck. "Alicorn! I need you to raise a magical shield or this ship isn't going o be sailing for long!"

With a nod, Twilight uttered a magical phrase that raised a protective barrier around the left side of the ship. Gin then pulled out her blunderbuss and peppered the enemy crew with a blast of grapeshot, along with Coba and the others.

"Right side!" The stallion in the crow's nest pointed.

"Spike! Get your arse over here!" Draven began charging a thunderous attack. "We'll attack together!"

Spike let out a huge ball of fire from his hands that exploded in an emerald inferno; scorching the mast of the other enemy ship. Draven's lightening pierced the hull, making a loud clap as it smashed a hole in the side of the ship. Another ship appeared from behind, and Winslow immediately responded.

"Someone give me a rope! I've got this!" Winslow shouted as the stallion in the crow's nest tossed him a long and sturdy rope.

Winslow took a running start and swung himself toward the enemy ship behind them, and launched himself onto their deck. He swung his blade wildly in a berserker rage; dodging swords, muskets, and flintlocks. No weapon seemed to bite him as he easily cut his enemies down. Eventually, he moved on to the next ship via another rope and hacked his way through the remaining troops on all vessels; returning to his ship after narrowly escaping the burning enemy boat.

"Any others?!" Spike yelled out.

"We've got a big one headed straight for us! It's going to ram!" Coba eyed trough his telescope.

"I'll take it out!" Twilight insisted.

"No, I'll give you a boost. I don't think even you pack a big enough punch to take a ship out in one shot." Spike said to Twilight with intense eyes.

Twilight positioned herself at the very tip of the bow along with Spike, who stood adjacent to her. Green fire escaped Spike's body and condensed in his hand while Twilight's horn began to flow magic energy into her hands. With a battle cry, they released their final-blast. Twilight fired a beam of purple light, and Spike engulfed it in an all-consuming, spinning ring of green fire. When the attack made contact with the oncoming ship, it was utterly obliterated. The blast scattered pieces of charred wood across the ocean around them; smoke rising in the sky, and what remained of the vessel sank into the depths bellow. The two collapsed on the ground beside each other and panted in exhaustion.

"Where... did you learn... to do that?" Twilight breathed hard.

"You can... learn a lot when you live in a magic library... and stack the books all day." Spike teased.

"Shut-up..." Twilight wheezed in annoyance.

With a pull, the two friends were brought to their feet by Coba, who was joyously laughing. "Nice finisher mates!"

"Thanks..." The two gasped for air tiresomely.

"Captain! The fog is beginning to clear!" The stallion in the crow's nest informed Draven. "We'll be landing in the Bay of The Twhubi in an hour or so!"

"Good, I was wondering when we'd get out of that damned haze," Draven said as he walked back to the bridge. "Gin, we've got to prepare for landing."

"Yes, sir." Gin followed Draven to the poop-deck.

"Well. That both escalated and de-escalated quickly wouldn't you think?" Twilight casually joked to Fluttershy.

"Yeah... it was kind of scary, but I think it's over now." Fluttershy squeaked as she looked at the large and misty mountain looming in the distance.

Author's Notes:

Hope you enjoyed! Hopefully I will be updating frequently in the future!