As the galleon slowly creeps forward into the haunting dwelling, the sounds of creaking wood from both the breaking ship and buildings high above, gently splashing waves, rustling sails, and the rolling of thunder above in the clouds start to conjoin in a tune on their own. The onboard crew looks throughout the forest of tens, if not hundreds, of giant columns of solid stone for any sign of Korsan to no avail. After a fair hour of nothing but the natural music of the seemingly abandoned area, the faint sounds of ponies roaring can be heard in the distance. Gently weaving the ship around the sharp rock formations around the bottom, Twilight steers the vessel towards the cheering. Soon, they discover where to noise is coming from, a larger wooden building near the top of a craggy stack with a large ramping spiraling around the tower leading up to a balcony just outside of the entrance. Though most of it appears to be elevated over the ocean, it’s held in place by several large beams underneath it, only subtly shifting side to side with the breeze. At the bottom of the ramp is a large wooden harbour, almost fully packed with ships of all shapes, sizes, and colours.

“Looks like we got here before Korsan did. This looks like a place he would go,” Twilight mumbles to herself as she draws the ship towards the large harbour.

“Wait,” Fluttershy fearfully squeaks on the main deck below, “You’re not actually going to go there. I’m already on the brink of a heart attack being here.”

“Don’t be scared, we’ll be fine.”

“Really?” Rarity asks at Twilight’s side. “We’re entering a pirate hangout, a pirate hangout. It’s going to be filled with the biggest horde of criminals within thousands of kilometres, not to mention how filthy it’ll be inside.”

“You have a point. But inside, there may be some information that we could use to stop Korsan. We can keep ourselves hidden when we go in, not draw attention to ourselves.”

“I brought some raincoats,” Spike proclaims at the top of the backmost mast’s crow’s nest.

“We can use those as cloaks. Remember girls, we’re being covert about this, so no fighting. It might help if we try to blend in and socialize with the less dangerous looking pirates.”

“Oh! I’m great at socializing!” Pinkie cheers.

“What?” Rainbow Dash exclaims, “We’re going into a pirate hangout and we’re not going to get into a massive fight with them? Talk about a wasted opportunity.”

“I’ll tell our stowaways to keep in their rooms.” Applejack adds, “Hopefully no pony tries to steal our ship.”

“Who would? It looks like a wreck.” Rarity asks.

“It is a wreck.” Dash replies. After putting on their black raincoats and hanging the hoods tightly over their heads, the seven heroes get off of the SS Raindrop and walk down the long wooden platform to the ramp.

“Look at all of these ships,” Twilight speaks as she glances at the various vessels anchored at the harbour.

“Why do so many of them have skulls and crossbones for their flags?” Fluttershy asks as she examines the flags on the ships to her right. “It looks so mean.”

“That’s the concept.” Applejack replies as she focuses on a pair of massive black cannons poking from the bow of a large brig. “Look at the size at some of these cannons.”

“Looking at these ships and thinking about how they were made,” Spike says, “just makes me all the more curious on how Korsan built his and how it’s able to fly.”

“I’m not sure exactly,” Twilight answers, “but I theorize that it has to do something with the anti-magic he uses in his harness and restraining straps. I saw that his ship has the same type of solid-like fluid embedded in its hull.” Soon, the seven reach the ramp and proceed to walk up it, avoiding the railless edge hovering over the sharp rocks below.

“What do you think is going up there right now?” Rarity asks as she fiddles with her cloak, trying to make it look sleek.

“Sounds like their singing shanties,” Pinkie replies, bouncing up and down while moving forward, “I want to join them. It sounds so fun!”

“What’ll we do when Korsan arrives?” Rainbow Dash asks.

“Not sure,” Twilight responds, “I’m thinking that if we act smart, we’ll be able to apprehend him without drawing to much attention to ourselves, get onboard his ship, get the Diamond Eye, and return to Equestria.”

“Hey, maybe we can take Korsan’s ship and fly it home? Think about it, I could use a new pad and his ship would be awesome.”

“There might be a lot of resistance by his crew.”

“I can take them on.”

“Really? All of them? I think I recall Korsan having at least a hundred when he attacked the gala.”

“Easy peasy,”

“Get ready, we’re here.” As they all reach the balcony and cluster around the small door leading in, Rarity glances into the windows at both sides of the doors and sees a lot of indistinguishable activity inside, having most of it blurred by the poor quality windows.

“Are you sure we should go in there?” She nervously asks.

“Yeah, as long as we’re together, we’ll be perfectly fine.” As Twilight slowly opens the creaking door, a small, green pegasus stallion in a blue sailor’s cap suddenly bursts out from inside and flails over the balcony before falling down into the ocean below.

“And stay out!” A mare’s voice screams out from inside, leaving the heroes outside speechless for a moment.

“We’ll be perfectly fine.” Upon walking into the building one by one, the mares and Spike are immediately greeted by the entire atmosphere of the room. The building turns out to be a large tavern, with tens of tables scattered around the massive singular chamber and a serving bar on the other side of the room with a dark blue unicorn mare attending it. Surrounding her, seating the tables are practically every combination of pony. Tall unicorns, short pegasi, fat Earth Ponies, skinny and lanky ponies with either half of a horn or only one wing, bearded, mustached, scarred, peg legged, eye patched, garbed in red and black, or completely bare save for any accessories that may have been on them, the mares and Spike are shocked from the sight of so many in one place. Lit lanterns on every table and several on the ceiling cause warm light to embody the entire chamber. To the left of the room are an assortment of tables with groups of pirates sleeping, drinking their mugs, or counting their treasure out in the open. To the right are a vast collection billiard tables, dartboards with darks poking out of them and a couple in the wooden wall, and round and square tables made for card games and gambling loot. Pirates are also gathered there with cups of cider in their hooves or magic as they play their games and toss their money around in bets and gambles. However, the main focus of activity that catches the group’s attention lies near the center of the room, as a tall, blue pegasus is singing, standing on top of a table with an accordionist and a violinist playing an upbeat tune behind him and the patrons surrounding him stamping their hooves on the table in tune with the music.

As the music picks up, the finely dressed stallion begins a verse,

“Now I’ve been busy at sea past now,

And with my crew of eight,

We sank a ship and took the loot,

Before they knew what hit ‘em,

Now I’m wanted in Dragmire,

But yet I’m still unknown,

Here to loot for the next mornin’,

Oh, a pirate’s life for me!”

Immediately, the surrounding patrons and the musicians enthusiastically join in for the chorus,

“A pirate’s life for me,

Survival of the Sea:

We live to loot,

We loot to kill,

And we kill to live ‘nother day.

It is not the nicest job,

But it’s the life for me,

Cross our paths and you’ll get slashed,

Oh, a pirate’s life for me!”

After the chorus finishes, the two unicorn players continue their tune until the stallion begins the next verse,

“Now here’s a tale that we all know,

The Pirate of Bad Wolf Bay,

Said he’s a devil dressed like us,

And killed an entire armada,

But if you ask me of my fears,

I’d laugh and tell you all that,

That pirate’s half as good as me,

Oh, a pirate’s life for me!”

The chorus quickly follows once more,

“A pirate’s life for me,

Survival of the Sea:

We live to loot,

We loot to kill,

And we kill to live ‘nother day.

It is not the nicest job,

But it’s the life for me,

Cross our paths and you’ll get slashed,

Oh, a pirate’s life for me!”

A small uproar of laughs and chuckles sweeps throughout the bar. But before the stallion can start the next verse, Pinkie Pie jumps onto a nearby table, oblivious to the customers seated there, and sings a verse of her own, much to her friends’ surprise,

“I’m the mare who’s traveled abroad,

And delivers all that I got,

Should’ve heard the blast that I threw last,

Before reaching this place,

With cannons blasting left and right,

All throughout the town,

No pony lasted by morning.

Oh, a pirate’s life for me!”

The entire bar immediately turns silent after Pinkie’s verse had finished, even the musicians stopped to look at her in shock.

“Pinkie,” Twilight mutters from the doorway, “What are you doing?” After a second of silence, the entire crowd instantaneously roars in cheers before singing the chorus once more with Pinkie joining as well,

“A pirate’s life for me,

Survival of the Sea:

We live to loot,

We loot to kill,

And we kill to live ‘nother day.

It is not the nicest job,

But it’s the life for me,

Cross our paths and you’ll get slashed,

Oh, a pirate’s life for me!”

With the shanty finished, the patrons cheer loudly as the stallion leaps off of the table and lands onto the cold wood floor, approaching Pinkie Pie.

“I must say newcomer,” he speaks, “you have some backbone. Taking on an entire town? If it’s true, either you’re mad, or you’re bluffing. Shanties are the wombs of tall tales.”

“Trust me,” Pinkie replies, “it lasted all day and night.”

“And who are these swabs? I don’t recall seeing any of these chins before. Perhaps if yous all remove the hoods, I’d be able to recognize yous.”

“They’re my friends, and we prefer to keep our appearance secret.”

“Mind if I ask for a name? A pony of such capabilities, singing wise anyways, deserves to be credited.”

“Oh, of course, I’m Pinkie Pie.”

“…” Out of seemingly nowhere, the blue stallion falls onto the floor laughing manically. “Q-qu-quite a name I say.”

“Thanks. What’s your name?” Slowly, the pony recovers from his laughing fit and stands back up.

“It’s-”

“Cecil,” the mare at the other side of the serving table calls out to the stallion in a deadpan voice. “Thank you for your patronage around here these past days. The boredom has nearly driven me mad.”

“Thank you ma’am. So Pinkie, there it is. Feel free to join the game with my mates.”

“Okay Cecil,” Pinkie responds, “see you later.” As the blue stallion then turns away and walks towards the card playing tables, Twilight and the others walk closer to their pink friend, all with their mouths in a gape.

“Pinkie,” Twilight asks, “What did you even do?”

“Well, I got about twenty party cannons, fifty cakes, and a prosthetic leg and-”

“Not that. I mean, how did you know that would work?”

“What work? I just wanted to sing with them.”

“…Oh… Well, since you’re now friends with that guy, maybe you can get some information about Korsan.”

“Okay-dokey-lokey!” Pinkie then trots over to where Cecil walked off to while Twilight and the others approach the serving bar.

With the bar maiden quietly drying off a mug with a ragged cloth ahead of her, Twilight clears her throat in attempts to grab her attention and speaks, “Excuse me miss, but can we-”

“No pets allowed.” The server stoically interrupts her, “Sorry. No pets, no service. For non-arbitrary reasons.”

“I’m not a pet,” Spike barks back.

“What?” Quickly breaking her glance from her work, she sees purple dragon with his arms crossed. “Oh, sorry. What can I do for you?”

“I’m thirsty,” Rainbow Dash replies before Twilight can, “what do you have?”

“Water, coffee, cider, ru-”

“Did you say cider? I’d love some!”

“One second.” Spontaneously snapping out of her sluggish demeanor, the young unicorn rapidly hovers a fresh wooden cup to a large barrel with a faucet attached to it and pours out the brownish orange liquid from the barrel and into the mug. Within a second, the cup is filled to the top and is placed in front of the cyan pegasus on the table. Almost immediately after, the unicorn mare snaps back into her slow motion as she continues to clean the mug she had earlier.

“Wow, you work fast.”

“Just to not build up your expectations. Drink at your own risk.”

“What are you talking about? Cider’s delicious.” Swiping the mug with her hoof Rainbow Dash lifts the bubbling cup to her lips and drinks the cider with a smile, only for it to rapidly turn into a scowl as Rainbow Dash whips her head downwards and spits out the liquid. “What the?! This isn’t cider!”

“It is around here. We don’t really have the best imports around here, so that’s the best we got. Unfortunately, this is the only good drinks these guys and girls here have, so it’s only a matter of time until they practically become what they drink, stale and sluggish. You girls are lucky you got any legitimate entertainment, most of the time it’s just pirates wobbling around and getting into fights, even I’ve succumbed to the boring atmospheres. Look, those ponies that were into Cecil’s shanty are already trying to hold back their vomit. Speaking of which, pardon. Hey! Do it outside!”

“Sorry for your boredom,” Twilight replies, slightly surprised by how much the mare talked, “by the way, what’s your name?”

“November Gale, and how about all of yours, unless this is going to be the only time you’ll be visiting us.”

“I’m Twilight Sparkle, that pony who’s throwing up is Rainbow Dash, behind me is Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy, and the dragon’s Spike. By the way, you said ‘us’, is there somepony else that works here?”

“Just my dad in the kitchen behind me. I’m glad that there’s somepony new I can actually talk and isn’t wiped out. Where are you all even from?”

“We’re from Equestria.”

“Equestria? Were you there when he attacked?”

“Who?”

“The terror of earth, sea, and air,”

“You know him?!”

“Shhh, if my dad hears us talking about him. He’ll get real upset. Darn it, I said too much again,”

“Wait, maybe you can help us with something.”

“Sorry, I can’t help. I have this position to hold until midnight and my dad’s probably listening in on us at this moment. Go chat with whoever else is willing to talk about him.”

“Okay,”

“And keep it discreet. Don’t ask why.”

“Okay, thanks for your help November.”

“Glad to.” The team then walks over to a large round table in the middle of the room and seats themselves.

“What did she mean by all of that,” Twilight whispers, “What’s with keeping Korsan such a secret around here? What did she mean by ‘I said too much’? How did she know about Korsan’s attack on Equestria?”

“Any theories?” Spike asks.

“Well… I think that Korsan does visit this place, often for a matter of fact. And that there’s something going on, something bigger than just stealing the Diamond Eye and everypony here knows about it. We just need to find out what it is. Although November appears to be an active chatter, she seems to have caught herself from revealing what we want to know. Let’s just hope that Pinkie doesn’t get in too much trouble when she talks to that Cecil stallion about it.”