KingOfIcecream

"Well, I'm-" Forge passed out, "I'm Seven High." He eat ended his hoof to meet Little Wind's. Seven High looked at his two cards. Two queens. "Well goshh darnn it, I've 'lrready busted. Well that ggame wass shorrt-lived. Goood thing we wasn't bettin' nothin'." Seven High looked over to Forge. His hand showed a three and a nine. "Wwell I guesss he winns."

Forge requested another card to be drawn to his deck. To his dismay, he was busted. And to Seven High's surprise, he won. Seven High really only made the game request so he could have an excuse to buy some drinks. But if he didn't have to pay, it was fine by him. "Haha!" said Seven High, "Well, looks like yer payin'... Mmake it a bourbon, pal." Seven High then turned to the newest member of the cool colts club, "An' as fer you, why don't youu pull up a seat-... Oh yer alreadyy sitting." Seven High collected his cards and handed them to Little Wind, "Here, you deall."

Seven High replied "No! Nno I'm naht. But now that yer here, hows bouta nice game o' blackjack? I've been tryin' ta play fer awhile now 'n' n'body seems ta want to." He said gesturing to the barkeep and the shady looking colt in the corner, "So how bout it? Loser buys a couple o' drinks?" He collected his cards and began to shuffle them.

After roughly fifteen minutes of having his face on the card table, Seven High heard a loud thud followed by the cock of a pistol. He pulled his face from the table with a nine of clubs sticking to his cheek. He listened intently to the current conflict.

Seven High flipped over the last card he had available in his deck. To no avail, the card did not match up with any of the available slots. Seven High had just lost at a game of solitaire. Seven High could feel tightness in his throat and he knew what was coming next. Tears. Seven High could see his vision blurring more than it already was and quickly felt the warm stream of tears grace across his face. He lost at a game of solitaire, and he was officially the saddest colt in all of Equestria. He slammed his face down on the card table and let out a muffled scream of desperation.

Seven High's vision was rather blurred and made everything look fuzzy. Seven High couldn't tell that the bartender had noodle arms, so he just gave a grunt and wobbled away. He only had thirty bits, and the majority of that was spent on the train ride over to Deerango. He sat down at one of the empty card tables, pulled out a deck of cards from his breast pocket, and began to play the lonely man's card game... Solitare.

"sir" "sir" "Sir" "Sir!", said a very much angered conductor to Seven High, "If you're done napping, we're ready to head out and we were wondering if it wouldn't be to much trouble for you to please gather your belongings and exit now." "Oh, eeeeeeeerrr....- Y- Yeess. Of courrse." Seven High said very groggily. An earsplitting shot sounded throughout the train followed by a very faint "sorry." His head jolted up and he was scrambling to gain a hold of himself. Then, the train whistle fully brought Seven High to his senses. The train was completely empty except for him and the conductor. Without a word Seven High struggled to stand up and stumbled past the conductor. The blinding light was not a sweet wake up call for Seven High, but as his eyes adjusted, he could faintly read the holy text, "saloon". For Seven High, that establishment was a tropical oasis in this barren desert. "Now that's mmy kind o' welcomin' party." He scuffled to the entrance and pushed open the doors. He scanned the room for the bar. Target acquired. He leisurely walked over to the bar slapped his hoof onto the bar and told the bartender, "Haaaaay, howss 'bouta game o' blackjack?" He looked up and realized he was talking to the bartender. He retracted his statement saying, "N-No... Yer not the..." and walked away. He found a rather tough looking stallion sitting at one of the poker tables and told him, "Gimme a whiskey, barkeep. An' put it on the rockss." Yet again, he had found the wrong man for the wrong job. "N- No... Not yyou either, eh??" He got up from the table and slumped back over to the bar. "Gimme a whiskey, barkeep!" @TheSteampunkNinja (TSN)

Kaesar entered his cabin and intook that good ol' "new captain's quarters" smell. He shifted some furniture around when he noticed a hole in the floor of his cabin, "A rug will look good there," he thought, "And why is there not a desk in here? Every cool captain has a desk in his cabin. These ponies aren't going to take me seriously without a desk." Kaesar had just then found his first objective... To find a desk. He stepped outside and called for Amber, "Amber! Where is that lazy rump of yours? I'm didn't come all this way to not have a cool desk."

Previously on The Antigone: After the picking up a mysterious Germane scientist in Hoofington, the Antigone heads off on its way to the Drackenridge, a dangerous mountain range that is best known for rumors of dragon activity. Their journey is halted, however, when a slightly intoxicated mare flies her shuttle directly into deck of the Antigone. Unable to leave, she is put to work in the crew while Ratchet fixes up her ship. In other news, Captain Kyros is craving apples, too bad the only fruit food on the ship is lemons… The Antigone: Final part 1 of 2. Everything was going smoothly for the crew of the Antigone, but that all changed when they entered the Selectionist territory surrounding the Canterlot. It was during one of Kyros' lust for apples that the Thesbie slammed open the doors to his cabin and demanded his attention, "Yo boss, we've got Selectionists approaching from the west, there’s no reason to believe they’re here to welcome us into the neighborhood.” Kyros jerked his head up and shook the thought of delicious fruits from his mind; adrenaline began to pump as he processed the task at hand. "I'm co- I- I'm coming" he said as he trotted past Thesbie and went to the helm. A crew member was already on the wheel, but Kyros sent him up the rigging and took the helm himself. He began to turn the ship away when Ratchet appeared on deck for orders. "Ratchet!" Kyros cried over the hubbub of panicky crew members. "Yes, Cap’n?" Ratchet responded. “We need to get away from those ships; I'm heading us into the mountains for cover. I need those engines running on full power." "Yessir cap’n" Ratchet said before saluting and trotting back to the stokehold. Thesbie’s prediction of hostile action was confirmed as cannon fire rang out from the approaching vessels. He heard glass and wood shatter as projectiles blasted through the hull beneath him and it took all of his strength and will to keep the Antigone on course. The chase went on for what seemed like hours before the Selectionists gave up the chase within the mountains surrounding Canterlot, the Antigone hadn’t gotten off free though. The entire backside of the ship was now peppered with bullet holes and the port engine was running hot from strain. IT took all Kyros’ will not to collapse from exhaustion. Suddenly it came to his attention that the Antigone was rather close to the ground, which could only mean they were losing hydrogen. Looking up he noticed a seam had come undone along the back of the balloon, taking order like only a captain could, Kyros sent a team up to patch the leak. Unfortunately too much hydrogen had already been lost and the ship continued its descent. “You there, bring me the cook!” Kyros shouted to a a passing crew member. When the young colt returned with lemony Kyros turned to her. “We’ve lost too much hydrogen, we need to throw off all the unnecessary weight so we can even up the lift. "So why do you always come to the cook to fix these problems?" Lemony asked. "Well Ratchet's fixing up the engines right now, the crew members are all dumber than potato sacks, and the recruits are stupidly OP." Lemony suggested, "Well, if ya' need to get rid of the weight on the ship, just throw off that 'Lock-Smart' colt's bracers." "Who?" asked Kyros. "'Rock-Hart... Something like that," She said. "Ah, Lockhart. Yes, well he holds those bracers very dearly to him. Here, help me get them off of him." Kyros and Lemony had escorted Lock-Hart out of his hammock and onto the deck before confronting him about his bracers. "But- but they aren’t even heavy! See look” Lock-Hart said, then stood up on his back legs and did a couple of quick jabs with his forehooves to demonstrate how his (very heavy) braces weren’t heavy at all. "Now, look. It's the bracers or our lives, they need to come off," Kyros retorted. "Yeah? Well you'd have to kill me before I’ll take them off" Lock-Hart demanded. Lemony paused a moment, then said, "Alrighty, have it your way." She then lifted Lock-Hart up, bracers and all, and launched him over the railing. His last words were, "IT WAS JUST A FIGURE OF SPEEEEEach!" Kyros' eyes were widened as he realized that his cook and longtime friend had just murdered Lockhart, but he decided to let it slide since the ship had begun to slow its descent. Kyros then located Aelfric Stein and informed him of the balloon's state and questioned what his thoughts on the situation were. Aelfric kept the same expressionless mask as he responded. "I am not here to give you advice, Kyros. You are the captain of this ship, are you not?" Kyros said, "Look, Stein. If we can't get past those Selectionist guards then we don't get to Canterlot, if we don't get to Canterlot then we can’t get repairs, if we can't get repairs then you don’t get to Drakenridge." Aelfric groaned and was about to retort when he noticed a nearby flock of birds and decided just this once he would help out. "I know a spell that can summon all the nearby avian animals to come fly around the ship. It should confuse the Selectionist echolocation radar and disguise us long enough to get close enough for me to convince them we are friendly." "You can do that?" Kyros asked, "Never mind. Just please make it happen." An entrancing silver aura covered Stein's horn and a beam shot out and surrounded the passing birds. Suddenly they shifted direction to encompass the entirety of the Antigone in a bubble of winged bodies. Lemony watched the whole scene execute and when it was finished, the only thing on her mind was; "why in the name of SkullCrown and all things unholy would he know a spell that does that?" Finally finding the time to relax, Kyros decided to return to his cabin for the first time since the ambush. He immediately realized something was off when he heard crying coming from inside. He quickly pushed open the door and found Ami lying on the floor of the wrecked room, crying. Kyros ran to her and put a comforting hoof on her shoulder "What's wrong? Where is Amelia?" he asked concernedly. Ami gurgled through her tears and just pointed her hoof to the shattered window where Amelia was lying her body speckled with red that could be only one thing. Ami spoke, her voice racked with sobs. "When those ships were out there, she wanted to get a better look so she went to the window. Then everything just exploded and the window shattered, and she just fell down. I should have stopped her, it’s all my fault!" she broke down crying into Kyros’ chest unable to speak. Kyros took a second to process what happened, slowly it dawned on him as he accepted the truth, Amelia was no more. "Oh, my Celestia no. No... No-no-no-no..." He hugged tighter Ami and felt tears well up in his eyes and he didn’t try to stop them. The two sat for a while hugging each other and crying. The ship had ported in Canterlot without much trouble, Aelfric had even managed to get them a top-priority dock at the shipyard. Kyros, still distraught by Amelia’s death, sent Striker out to get supplies for repairs. Soon enough he returned with a couple buckets of pitch and other various supplies and tools. "Good. Just patch up any holes in the deck and hull with the boards, then put a lather of pitch over it and rub in good. Also stay out of my cabin." Kyros ordered. "OK! I'm Striker!" Striker said. "I know..." Kyros responded. He then spent the rest of the day at a local bar with Thesbie, Ratchet, Lemony, and Ami. The Antigone spent the rest of the week in Canterlot, much to Aelfric’s dismay. He wanted to get to Drackenridge as soon as possible, but Kyros demanded they stay for Amelia’s funeral. Kyros demanded that Ami stay in Canterlot and promised he would return, he knew she wanted to be with him if anything else happened, but he already lost Amelia and couldn’t risk losing Ami as well. War wasn’t kind to young innocent mares such as her. Drackenridge loomed ahead of them when the first alarm sounded. Dark shapes sped out of the tule fog that obscured the valley below like a blanket. Kyros immediately recognized them as Industrialist gyrocopters, small rotorcrafts piloted by a pair of ponies, usually scouts that lead large armadas of battleships. Slowly it dawned on Kyros what lay ahead. “All hooves on deck! We need to turn this ship around immediately!” He called frantically, but it was too late as the dark forms of over a dozen Industrialist warships rose out of the fog. His eyes caught Aelfric’s and for once the two came to a silent agreement, they needed to get out of there, fast. Kyros ran to the helm and found Thesbie taking things seriously for once, both hooves braced on the wheel as she prepared to spin the Antigone out of harm’s way. "Which way?!" She shouted, her usual joking manner lost in the intensity of the situation. "A- Away! I don’t care, just not here!" Kyros scanned the range for any exits, "There, through that fogbank south of us, it will hide us and at the very least keep them from getting a dot on us. Those Industrialist cannon shells do a hell of a lot more damage than the Selectionist ones." He said as he pointed his hoof. "You got it boss man." Thesbie pulled the wheel to the left sharply, tilting the Antigone almost 45 degrees. Some of the crew members shouted as the gravity shifted, but nobody went overboard. He felt a shudder run through the deck as Ratchet put the engines straight into high gear, jumping over the middle settings. His attention was drawn by an earsplitting crack as the Industrialists opened fire, the mountains amplifying the shots and making Kyros’ ears ring. "Captain… that’s not just a fogbank" Thesbie said, drawing Kyros’ attention back to what lay beyond the bow. Kyros looked up, indeed what he thought was a fog filled valley was actually a looming mountain completely veiled by tule fog, and not only that but it looked familiar. “I recognize that mountain. That’s Mt. Dragon, home of one of the last known dragons on the Equestrian continent.” He shouted over the booming gunfire that echoed off of the surrounding valleys. “And with those Industrialists firing off like mad it won’t be long before he wakes up!” The Antigone was consumed by darkness when Thesbie said, "Yep, not long at all…” Kyros turned to see what she was looking at, but all he could see was a mouth, some nostrils, and a pair of bright green eyes. "That- That would be the dragon. Celestia take the wheel!" he exclaimed, Thesbie immediately dropped the wheel, causing it to spin out of control as the ship spun along with it. Luckily it would appear Celestia had taken the wheel as the quick turn had saved the ship from being ripped in half by the dragons tail. Kyros however didn’t notice this as he was to busy yelling at Thesbie and try to get the ship back under control. “Not seriously you fool!” he shouted and grabbed the helm himself. Suddenly an idea struck him. “Everybody hold on to your hats!” he shouted as the Antigone banked, luckily almost everybody had time to hold onto something except for a certain crew member who indeed held onto his hat rather a railing and was sent plummeting into the fog. Nobody had seen it, but his fate was obvious. Thesbie gasped, “But you’re leading us straight to the Industrialists!” Kyros just smiled. “Not quite, I’m leading our friend, the dragon to the Industrialists.” Thesbie was still confused, but the Industrialists seemed to grasp what was going on when the dragon decided to leave the Antigone in favor of the larger and more plentiful prey. A few of the metal ships tried to flee, the rest tried to match their firepower against a fully grown raging dragon. The crew of the Antigone never saw who won however, for as soon as Kyros saw his chance he piloted his ship further into the heavy fog of the Drakenridge mountains and far away from the fight behind them. Hours had passed and the fog had begun to sink back to the earth as the warmed, revealing the spiny black peaks that made up the Drackenridge mountain range. Kyros and Aelfric stood on the quarterdeck arguing, again. "Look Professor Stein," Kyros said, poorly attempting to mask his contempt. "I really am not in the mood to put this crew in any more danger. We have enough problems with this bloody civil war; I don’t need an army of dragons angry with us too!” Kyros stomped a hoof to show just how serious he was. The corner of Aelfric's mouth rose into a sneer. Kyros continued all the same, “I'll reimburse you for your time, but we aren't going any further than this point" "That won't be necessary, seeing as how you are taking me where I need to be." Aelfric said. Kyros frowned. "Maybe you misunderstood me, professor. I am turning this ship around right now, so if you'll excuse me I have a crew to captain." With that Kyros turned away and trotted towards the helm "You may want to rethink your decision, captain." Aelfric said as he pulled a flintlock pistol out from his vest. Kyros stopped walking when he heard the hammer being pulled back. Slowly he turned to find the muzzle of the weapon pointed directly at his face. "Killing me won't get you any closer into Drakenridge, Aelfric" Kyros snarled. Aelfric just smiled. "You know something, captain Kyros? You're absolutely right." With one swift movement he lowered the gun slightly and pulled the trigger with his magic. The shot was amplified as it echoed around the surrounding mountains and Kyros collapsed, cradling a bloody foreleg. The gunshot was enough to send everyone beneath the deck scrambling up in confusion. Ratchet and Thesbie ran to Kyros' side to help him up. Aelfric, content with his work, he holstered his pistol and strolled away from the wounded captain. Lemony approached with a makeshift tourniquet which she tied around the captain’s leg to stop the blood flow. Kyros looked around at the crew as they stood among each other, whispering under their breaths and watching him. "Are you lot just going to stand there and gawk or is somebody going to take care of him?” He said incredulously, gesturing to Aelfric with his good hoof. The crew didn’t move, their expressions varied from guilt to humor. Kyros heard a sinister laugh as Aelfric stepped forward. "I'm sorry, Captain," Aelfric began, "I should probably have informed you, there's nothing money won't buy. And for a hundred and thirty bits a piece, you can buy a crew's loyalty." Kyros exclaimed “This is mutiny!” he shouted. Looking back at Ratchet, Lemony, and Thesbie, they all shook their heads to show they had no idea about Aelfric’s bribe. Laughing again, Aelfric gestured for Kyros and his supporters, made up of only Ratchet, Lemony, Thesbie, Valiant, and Striker, to be tied to the deck rails. Aelfric strode to the helm and took it himself, steering it towards his destination. “See that mountain ahead Kyros? Let’s just say you were right about one thing. There are definitely more dragons here in the Drackenridge, now I think it’s time we introduce ourselves, don’t you?” With that Valiant yawned and fell asleep, his cap falling over his face.

Kyros really wanted some apples. He would kill for some apples. If there were a six lettered word to define what he wanted right now, that word would have to be apples. Kyros enjoyed apples in the past, and at this moment he was really ready to have more apples. Apples. ((I know it was random but I was soooooo bored!))

Kyros stood up and headed to get a plate when he once again felt as if life had been on delay for another 113 days. Kyros didn't want to alarm anybody. So rather than state that his heart was acting up again, he said, "You know what? I- I mu- I must not be as hungry as I thought I was." He had then hurried out of the kitchen and into his living quarters. He dropped onto the bed and tried to relax Ami and Amelia had laid down next to him and then asked, "Are you okay?" "I'm fine. I'm just tired." They scooted away from him and he tried to fall asleep. But his worry for his heart did not allow for him to shut his eyes.

The captain listened to what Lemony had to say, "Maybe," he said. He looked at his chest where his his heart would be, and then looked back up, "What evs, I'm just hungry." He stood up and looked out the window. He could see smoke stacks being emitted from far off towns.

Kyros headed to the mess hall where he found Lemony "russlein' up some grub". He sat at one of the tables and said, "Oh, good. What's for food?" he rested his head on his hooves, "I feel like I haven't eaten for one hundred and eighty three days" he paused, "I don't know what, but something just feels like everything stopped and just all of a sudden started again over a long period of time." he once again stopped, "Must be heart problems. I'm old. Ya' know?" yet again he paused, drifting off into space. It was like he was going through one of those weird hippy "find myself" experiences... Nope, just old age.