Ballad of a Pirate

by Skywing the Mutant

Shit goes down

“Ugh, it’s too fucking bright today...” I muttered as the sunlight hit me like a slap to the face.

“Then go below deck if you hate it so much.” Stormy stated to me as she put her hooves on the railing.

“With only a few more hours of sailing till we reach the island? Hell no.” It was true, we had been sailing for almost two days, and the island was finally in sight.

“Fine.” Stormy shrugged. Sometimes I think she just tries to make me mad, then I’m reminded of why she joined this crew. “At least we know that Skywing isn’t very good at judging distance on a map.”

“Yeah, so much for just 183 knots.” I muttered, sitting in the shadow of the main mast, looking at a cloud in the distance, and tried to turn it invisible, I smiled when the cloud shimmered out of sight, and let the spell go.

Stormy looked around the deck briefly before turning to me. “Hey, where’s the new guy? I thought he’d be up here by now.”

“Eh, he’ll turn up eventually...” As I spoke, I heard a familiar sound from above me, in the sails. More specifically, a panpipe. “Well, as I said, he turned up.”

“That thing again, are you serious?” Stormy and I turned to the captain who was looking at Star Whistle.

“Oh come on, I’m not that bad.” Star said from the sail, “Besides, I can’t play very many instruments out of the ones i didn’t sell without fingers.”

“You can always find those ponies who play the string instruments in Equestria.” Caramel suggested as he trotted towards Star.

Star let out a huff, and dropped out of the sail, using his magic to levitate himself down, gently hitting the ground, “I refuse to converse with those who break the laws of physics.”

“I wouldn’t say they’re breaking the laws of physics. Looked to me like they were holding the bow in their wrist.” Caramel held a calm demeanor. I think he was hoping for a last minute discussion.

“But what about the strings? How did they press the individual strings?! HOW?!”

“This is only my guess, but I think it was with the tip of their hooves.” I think we’ve learned one thing today, Caramel likes to try to bring out more talent in ponies he’s around.

“Allow me to rephrase it: HOW THE HELL DO THEY PRESS MULTIPLE, SEPARATE STRINGS WITHOUT FUCKING IT UP?”

“You’re probably better off asking them in pony.” Caramel began to trot off after speaking.

Unfortunately, it was too late to stop the rant with words, “And what about the instruments themselves, even if they could press the strings right, the instruments would still have to be held up somehow, so unless there is some way that you ca--” Thankfully, a certain yellow pegasus learned over the last two days that a good hoof to the face quickly stops him in his tracks.

“No point in going into detail if you don’t believe it.” Stormy pulled her hoof from Star.

“Okay, last chance. Make sure you have your weapons ready before we go to battle!” Skywing ordered as he stepped away from the wheel.

“Yeah, I’ve been meaning to ask, captain. What are we fighting?” I asked, stretching a little

“Some half baked pirate crew, probably blemmyae.” Skywing seemed to not care about the enemy. “My guess is that they're still just starting out.”

“Any idea what they’ll be using?” Star asked, placing his pan pipes on his back, and putting two knives and a short sword into a belt he somehow got.

“Whatever the hell they brought aboard when they joined my crew.” Skywing stated as his eyes shifted to Thor, who was carrying a war hammer on her back.

“... That doesn’t even make sense.” Star face hoofed as he spoke.

“Quit being so stubborn.” Thor groaned. “You do this every time we prepare for a raid.”

“Well It’s better to know what we’re going up against.” Star said matter-of-factly as he tucked a hatchet on the other side of his belt.

“But the important thing is that we’ll have the fortress, and they’ll be dead.” Northern Sprint said pulling his crossbow out.

“Oh stop it, we need to get ready,” I muttered, heading down the stairs, looking for somewhere quiet to prepare.

The next few hours passed in an instant. Charging up energy in the gem cannons, preparing weapons, and all that jazz flew by as a blur. With only three minutes until the attack left, we were pretty rushed.

Star and Crimson were the first to finish with their assignments. “Gem cannons are charged, and ready to fire, sir.” Star said, going over his gear one last time.

“Ship is cloaked well enough that they won’t see us coming.” Crimson reported, climbing down from the crows nest.

“Regular cannons loaded and set into position.” Caramel came out of the door, some gunpowder stuck to his hooves. “And Sprint is done securing the rest of the cargo so nothing breaks.”

“Good, remember that we want collateral damage to minimized as much as possible.” Skywing instructed.

“If i can.” Northern Sprint remarked as he stepped back from a gem cannon, before being pinned to the wall by Skywing’s board.

Skywing glared at Northern Sprint like he was going to rip his entrails out. “What was that?”

“Y-yes sir.” Northern Sprint spat out, frightened for his life.

Skywing paused for a moment, before returning the board to his back. “Better. Now keep our agenda in mind.”

“Yes sir!” The crew shouted, before running to their positions for the attack.

“This is it Star, any last words before we start?” I honestly felt like it was up to me to ask him.

“Hmm... Nah, can’t think of anything that would go well on a tombstone.” He said, stretching to prepare as he stood at the front of the ship, his panpipes sitting next to him, and his weapons on his belt.

“Prepare to dock, make sure nothing leaves this island alive.” Skywing almost hollered. “Caramel, you keep guard of the ship.”

“Yes sir!” Caramel gave a salute, strapping two daggers in parallel to his hooves.

“I’ve been itching to crack some skulls.” I spun my warhammer in my hooves. In truth I’ve been itching for some action almost to the point of starting a fight with the crew. I looked to Sprint who was loading his crossbow, than to Crimson who disappeared as we made eye contact, before focusing on the island again. The ship inched forward and got to the point in which we could jump onto the docks without too much effort, then the anchor slowly dropped until it was mostly under water, then we just let it drop.

“Well, might as well do it now.” Star said, beginning his amp. It was a new one, surprisingly. As the notes played, I felt my mind clear and sharpen, making it easier to focus on things. I could also feel a remarkable amount of stress disappear, as though lifted from my shoulders by an invisible force. From a look around, I could see the others were having roughly the same reaction.

As the notes came to an end. Star placed his pan pipes on his back, and pulled out a hatchet. “The time for action is now, Take no prisoners.” and with that, the captain was the first one to jump ship, followed by Stormy then the rest of us, leaving Caramel behind to watch over the ship.

“I know you’re not use to a stealthy attack, Captain, but think if it as a new experience.” Haze whispered as she trotted next to Skywing.

“Yeah, I kind of figured that much out.” Skywing bitterly stated. “I also figured it was the best method of attack.”

“Speaking of method of attack, you never explained the plan to us. So what do we do?” Stormy asked, looking around.

“Simple; go in and kill everything we don’t want.” Skywing bluntly said as made his way to the entrance. “Something tells me they only found it recently. Thor, you take point I’ll be right behind you.”

“Nice way of saying fillies first.” I almost growled. If it weren’t for the fact I wanted to crack some heads so badly, I would’ve made it sound like I was insulted.

“Shall we?” Star asked, before placing the hatchet in his mouth, and drawing a dagger with his magic.

“Knock yourself out.” Skywing said as he forced the doors open with his board,  then stepped aside allowing Thor to go in first.

“Uh, if you don’t mind...” Star paused as everyone looked at him, “I have an idea.”

Both me and Skywing stopped in our Tracks then looked at the new colt. “Yes?”

“It’s hard to describe, but it could take out at least a few of them.” Star said.

“Wait, what?” Crimson asked, “How?”

“It’s three steps: First, I use something, like, say, a tree, to launch myself high enough into the air. Second, I create a magical shell around me set to detonate when it hits the ground. Third, I use a slow fall spell in the last two seconds, just in time for me to not take damage from the fall.”

“And this won’t damage the structure?” Captain had to ask that. Sometimes I wonder if he really just wants to make Star quit.

“Assuming the spot I land in is far enough from the building, yes.” Star scratched the back of his head as he spoke.

“I say we let him try.” Skywing gave me a look that reminded me of when we first met. He was looking for an enforcer at the time.

“Screw up, and I tie you to the bowsprit for a week.” Skywing growled, before him and I stepped away from the fortress.

“Uhh... ok.” Star said, before walking in a different direction, into the trees.

“... What is he-” Storm was cut off by the sight of seeing Star shooting into the sky.

Ok, let’s see... That’s a good spot to aim for. I thought as I flew into the air, upon seeing a group of about four of the... Damn, I forgot what they’re called. Anyway, there were four of them sitting around a fire, and another two that I could see inside the building.

As I reached the peak of my launch, I began charging magic in an orb around me, and began my descent toward the fire. “Falling Star!” and with that, I began my descent.

After a few seconds, a lick of flame crossed the shell of magic around me, and I realized this was a pretty shitty idea. The flames spreading until I was a ball of fire falling toward the four, who, a moment before I cast the slow fall spell, looked up, seeing me about to crash into them, and began to run all too late.

As I landed, I realized another major flaw in my idea: I got the timing for the slow fall spell wrong. I didn’t quite hit the ground at the speed I wanted. It didn’t affect the explosion, but I slowed down to the point where it just barely got the four that were around the fire... which had been relocated to the trees by my explosion. Oh, one last thing: don’t step on the coals of a fire. Just saying. “Ow ow ow ow ow.”

“Go, go, go!” The captain yelled once the sound of the explosion stopped ringing in our ears, before following me in to meet a satyr and a minotaur. Must be a multi-species crew. While we were doing that, Crimson used her magic to put out what fires there were from what Star did, and Stormy flew up to a top floor window, leaving Northern Sprint to fight whatever we don’t kill.

About two or three minutes into the fight, we managed to reach the building, to see Star already in the lower levels, putting away his panpipes as a crowd of various races lay around him. None breathing, and blood pooling from their ears.

“Shit, I thought you’d’ve broken your legs.” I’m genuinely surprised to see him walking.

“Nah, just a couple burns on my hooves for landing in their fire.” He said, looking over the bodies. “I’m surprised I had to go that far to kill them all...”

“Okay, reunion over.” The captain ordered before galloping off in the left corridor.

“Follow me.” I told Star as I turned to the other direction. Star said nothing, but he did turn and follow me as I readied my hammer for an overhead blow. The satyr tried to skewer me as I sidestepped his spear, before burying my warhammer in his skull just above his ear. “I love doing that.”

“Uh-huh.” Was all Star said in a dulled tone, before throwing his hatchet, hitting a minotaur further in the chest, before pulling it back out with his magic. “Let’s just get this over with.”

“How many would say you’ve killed with that?” I ran just below a full gallop as I asked that question.

“... I’d rather not talk about that...” He looked down, not really trying to watch where he was going. I only shrugged it off as we came to a spiraling staircase.

“Watch yourself.” I spoke quickly as I started up the stairs. No reply came, but from the fact that he didn’t fall, he was probably listening. “We can safely say that the first floor is done.”

Star muttered something, but it was too quiet for me to understand. I would have responded, had a minotaur with dual axes not began running down the hallway at us. Before I could even react, Star had him pinned to the wall, and had stabbed him in the chest with the knife. As the Minotaur bled out, Star’s lips moved, making words I recognized easily: ‘I’m sorry.’ Though no sound came out.

“You’re not going soft on me are you?” I swear if he is, Skywing will leave him here to rot.

“No, I... You saw all those bodies down there, right?” Star wiped the blood off his knife as he spoke.

“The ones at the crater?” If this has to do with wildlife...

“No, on the first floor of the building...”

“Oh, Yeah.” I think I know where he’s getting at.

“I... Several of them... They were children... I... I killed children.” He said, tears forming in his eyes. “I’ve never had to do that before... I never thought I would have to... I just feel so empty. The reason I said what I did to this guy,” He gestured to the dead minotaur on the floor, fighting the tears back as he spoke, “Was because he looked like one of them.”

I can almost sympathize with him. “I’m not sure how the captain will react if he hears you talking abou-” I cut myself off with a scream as a blemmyes almost buried the pick side of it’s battleaxe into my head. I blocked it just before it pierced my skin.

After a few moments of holding back the axe, the tension released, and a warm liquid trickled down it’s throat, which had a magical aura holding it. A quick glance back told me that it was Star choking it. “You should know better than to interrupt someone who’s speaking.” He muttered, before a sharp snap came from the neck, and the blemmyes collapsed. “I’m not going soft. I’m feeling remorse, you know, like any relatively normal pony would after doing what I did.”

“Let’s talk later.” After a big sigh, I began to focus on killing whatever came at us.

We met up with the captain and Stormy again on the third floor. “Fortress successfully captured.” Stormy chimed happily.

“You don’t say?” Star asked in an icy tone, causing Stormy to wince. Skywing looked at Star with question.

“What should our next course of action be?” I had to keep the two from talking to each other.

“Isn’t it obvious? Throw out the corpses and put everything we don’t need here.” Skywing trotted past us, presumably going to the ship.

Star’s glare shifted to the captain, “That’s it? You’re just going to throw them out?”

He in turn stopped in his tracks, and without so much as looking back at Star, answered. “What more do you want? Most of their skulls have been impaled so they won’t make good trophies, not that I’d want any as ugly as those.”

Star scoffed, “So they’re nothing but trash to you? Oh, right, I forgot, you don’t feel remorse, or any emotion but hate from what I’ve seen. Like you’re any better.”

Maybe I should have warned Star about this. “Don’t you dare talk to me about remorse.” The captain opened a slit in his board big enough to hold Star by his neck to the wall. “Killer Mutant attacks Manehattan, do you remember a headline like that!? A title pinned to a pony who wanted nothing more than to fit in who no longer exists!” Skywing began pushing his head against Stars as he began his ear splitting rant. “Did anypony show him remorse!? Did anything that interacted with him show him any remorse!? The short answer is no! So don’t you dare ever speak of remorse around me ever again!”

“Why? Will you kill me?” Star asked with narrow eyes, “Go right ahead... If you can.” As he spoke, his horn glowed, and he forced the blade away from his neck, before walking away. I stepped back as the captain began to grit his teeth. He then turned to look at Star and launched his board at him, then severed his left hind leg just below the cutie mark.

A sharp clang ran through the room, as Star blocked the board, drawing the short sword with his mouth, and redirecting the board into the wall. The aura around the board faded as it fell to the floor. the next thing that happened caused me to wince and Stormy to yelp, as Skywing forced spear-like objects to jump from the walls and into Stars legs.

Star winced as the spears tore through his legs and, forced to stop, stared right at Skywing with dead eyes. “Do it.”

The board began to glow again, then Skywing drove it into the other wall, obstructing Star Whistle’s view. “This is a whole new extreme, even for you Captain.” From what I could see, Star had pretty much collapsed, barely holding himself up, and leaning a little against the wall.

“Woah, Crim, when did you get here?” Storm asked, looking at a blank area to her right. A moment later, the air shimmered in that spot, and Haze appeared.

“I’ve been here long enough to know the situation.” Crimson Haze looked at Skywing who now trying desperately to get a ring off his horn. “I’m glad I got that magic suppressor now. I think we should lock him up before he does any more harm.”

“Okay, you and Stormy do that while I talk to Star.” The two saluted, and Haze proceeded to pick Skywing up with magic as I trotted to Star.

“Yes?” He asked, looking me in the eye.

“Come on, lets get you somewhere so you can rest.” I did my best to get Star to lean on me, but I’m not sure if I should go ahead and carry him, due to the holes through his legs.

“Yeah, sure, like I’ll be getting any real rest after a day like today.” He complained, but didn’t resist at all.

“Why the hell did you have to go and say that?” I really wish the two of them had found common ground by now.

“Why? Why? Did you not hear what he said, or is everyone on the crew too afraid to disagree with him for fear of decapitation?”

“I saw what made him like this. He is like this because he was never shown compassion, and beaten because he’s thought to be nothing but destructive.” I don’t want to pick sides, but Skywing has been through far more than he knows, more than any of us know.

“And so you give him free reign? That doesn't sound very logical... Oh to hell with it.” Star reached for his panpipes, and began to charge it with magic. “I can’t take this pain any longer.” With that, he took a short breath, and played a short, simple tune, the holes in his legs closing up as he played.

“We put up with it because we want him to act like he did before all this.” I noticed as Star began to put less pressure on me, I’ll ask him about this afterwards.

“Really? Because it looked more to me like no one wanted to get in his way for a different reason.” He said, drawing a hoof across his throat with the last word.

“Think for a moment, why do you think he was sitting alone getting drunk and passing out every time we drank?” I really think he should understand.

“... I have no clue, maybe it’s the fact that he seems antisocial?” Star asked with a shrug.

“And why do you think that is?” I turned my head and looked at his face.

“How should I know?” He retorted, “Obviously, it has to do with his past, but that’s all I got on the subject.”

“That’s part of it. He treats others others like he does, because others have beaten on him.” I turned to look at the floor in front of me. “Last year he use to be much worse, Killing anypony who’d disagree with him.”

Star just stared at me for a few seconds, as though I had suddenly started floating or something, “Huh... I guess I was a bit out of line, but still.”

“Only a bit. A different choice of words might have changed the outcome.” With any luck, the two might get along after all.

“Yeah, I bet if I got it just right, I would also be being thrown out with the rest of the corpses.” Star said bitterly.

“You were spared because Crimson Haze was there all along.” I suppressed the urge to facehoof.

“What I’m saying is he would have been faster about it, and probably would have succeeded.” Star rolled his eyes, before looking around a little, and then continuing to walk. “Now, If that’s all you wanted to talk about, I’ve got a mass grave to dig.”

I finally sighed and gave up for the moment. “Just stay away from the captain.”

“Guess they got them all.” I said to myself as I watched the fortress from the ship. I watched the doors for several minutes before an object in the sky caught my eye. It took me half a minute to find the spyglass, and nothing prepared me to see the Royal Navy within striking range. I dropped the spyglass and galloped to the fortress as quickly as I could. The first pony I ran into after entering the fortress was Thor. “Where’s the captain?”

Thor wheeled around and looked at me “The Captain is unavailable at the moment so I’m in charge for now, but I’m also a little busy so this better be important.” Just as she finished the fortress began to shake. “What was that?”

“Royal Navy zeppelin.” I simply answered.

“Hmm, Skywing can’t stay mad at us if we capture it. Stormy Night said there are grappling guns on the top, take one and anchor the zeppelin.” I saluted then ran off to find the way up

“Ugh, dammit, we just finished a fight.” I complained, after hearing Caramel’s not-so-detailed explanation.

“I can’t help that the Royal Navy decided to attack today.” Caramel stated. That’s something that creeps me out a bit, he keeps a calm expression except when actually fighting.

“Yeah, well, the grappling guns are on the roof. I’ll head up and get started on the attack.” I said, picking through the weapons of the Minotaurs, Satyrs, and Blemmyes that had died, before grabbing out a rather nice sword.

I turned around and saw Caramel still standing there. “Nice sword.”

“Yeah, looks pretty good. I wonder what we’d get for it.” I pondered this for a moment, before getting my mind back on the task at hand. “Oh, right, well, time to get started.” Caramel bolted out of the room first and I followed immediately, I followed Caramel until I came to the first open window in my path. I dove out and got my first look at the air ship, Skywing’s gonna love us for this, I think. I began to fly at it and one of the onboard cannons takes aim at me.

Thankfully, a slight descent caused the beam from the gem cannon to miss me by a few feet, allowing me time to get right under the ship, and slowly move around the back. Just before I got to the stern, the sound of wood breaking rang out. I looked around and a grappling hook dug itself into the hull if the zeppelin, I need to thank Caramel for this distraction. Getting on the ship was easy enough. Slipping into an unused suit of armor was even easier. Hell, these guys work like clockwork. Know the right words, and they won’t suspect a thing. The only problem was that not many soldiers were yellow female pegasi.

“Captain, the ship at the dock is suspected to be the same one from Baltimare.” Wait, do they already know who we are? I had to hear this for myself.

“So there’s a possibility that the Cloudsdale Mutant is here. Put his head on my desk.” So that must be their captain. I guess he’s my first target. I reached into my pocket, to make sure i had one of my good pieces of cord in there. Good, it’s there.

I waited for the other guard to leave before I made my move, waiting for the captain to turn around, obviously, before I snuck up behind him, the cord at the ready. 3..... 2.... 1... NOW! I leapt forward, wrapping the cord around his neck in one movement, and pulled on it as hard as I could, while pulling him toward what looked like a closet where I could interrogate him. Almost right as I reached the room, the guard captain fell unconscious, making it easier to pull him into the room, and begin binding him to the wall, after removing the cord from his neck, obviously. I also took out a cloth, and stuffed it in his mouth, tying it around the back of his head. Then, just to be safe, I barred the door before waking the guard up.

“Ngh, mmh?!” The Guard woke up after a couple hits to the face.

I gave the guard an evil smirk, “Good, you’re awake. Now then. I’m going to remove the cloth in your mouth, but if you make one sound that isn’t just an answer to one of my questions, you won’t live long enough to regret it. Understood?” The guard captain responded with angry muffled noises. “I guess that’s a ‘no.’ Your choice.” I hit him in the face with my right hoof three times, each hit likely to leave a good sized bruise.

The strikes caused him to spit out the cloth, along with some blood. “Fine, I’ll cooperate.” He glared angrily at me.

“Good, now, what are your plans, and what do you know of the ‘mutant’ in the pirate crew below?” I asked, picking back up the cloth.

“Wouldn’t you like to know. As for the mutant, I know he’s wanted for countless crimes. I also know how much he’s wanted by non-equins.”

“... I see. Well, how big is the crew of this ship?”

“Big enough to take on a rag tag crew like the one you’re part of.”

Gee, that’s helpful. I thought bitterly, “Well, I guess you’re no longer needed.” I quickly stuffed the cloth into his mouth again, and wrapped the cord around his neck once more, tightening it as much as I could as he flailed to try to get away.

Just as he was beginning to lose consciousness, a loud bang came from the door. “Once more!”

Shit shit shit shit shit. I looked around, pulling the cord tighter, and tying it, so that he would still choke to death, and jumped behind a small pile of barrels I couldn’t see anything, but the door through a small crack between two of the barrels, and the guard captain through another. I managed to see the captain stop struggling, and hang limply for about half a minute before another loud bang hit the door. After the third the door came down. Shock appeared on three of their faces, then one screamed in agony as the guard in back buried his dagger in his shoulder before dying. The second guard went to attack him but took the same dagger to the throat.

“Stormy, I know you’re here.” That voice, Haze?

I looked closely at the remaining guard through the crack, and, seeing a slight shimmer, I assumed it safe enough to jump out. “Took you long enough.”

“Well maybe if you hadn’t barricaded the door...” Haze retorted to me. “but Thor wanted me to tell you two things; Take their captain alive, she has questions, and Star isn’t joining us.”

“Uhh...” I looked at the captain, “Yeah, we might have a problem there.”

“Yeah, I’ve noticed.” Haze sighed. “Look, I’ll take the blame for not getting here sooner, but right now, we need to defend the grappling hook.”

“Got it.” I undid the knot on the cord around the captain’s throat, relieved to hear him barely start to breathe again. “Got any disguises I could use?”

Haze just smiled, “Already used it.”

“Wait, really?” I looked down to see my hooves were white. “How did I miss that?”

“I’m not sure, but we better get moving.” Haze bolted back out the door, and I followed shortly.

I stood over the grave, I had just used one of the last bits of magic I had to pack in the soil, and I planned to use the last available piece to use my panpipe to give them at least a decent funeral song. I felt a few tears go down my face as I played, remembering... Things.

As the last few notes left, hanging in the air for a moment, I felt the last of my magic run out at the same time, and used my hoof to manually put away my pipes. I’m sorry... I didn’t want to do this. I had to... I-

“Star!” I jumped slightly at the voice cutting through my thoughts, and whipped around to not see anyone. After a few seconds of trying to find the source, I looked up, to see Stormy, who was somehow snow white, floating down. Of course.

“Thor says she wants to see you.” Stormy began to hover just above me.

I let out a slight sigh, “Ok, I’m on my way.”

“No, you’re taking the express route.” She grabbed me just under my front legs before beginning to fly back up.

“Wait, why are you carrying me?” I asked, feeling my body wavering in the wind.

“Because the sooner we get there, the longer you can take to get over what happened.” Storm sounds like she’s trying to do some good. “Well, something along those lines.”

“... Hey, Storm... I’m sorry about how I acted earlier. My head... It wasn’t in the right place.” I spoke slowly, remembering snapping at her.

“You mean with the captain? You had every right to act like that.” Stormy responded. “In case you’re wondering, Thor told me.”

“... How much did she tell you?” I raised an eyebrow, at least happy I had something to take my mind off the possibility of falling.

“Everything you told her about killing who you killed.” Stormy tightened her grip slightly.

“I... See.” Why did Thor tell her that?! I thought she would keep quiet about that! “Did she tell anyone else about that?”

“Just me.” Stormy answered as she began to rise above the roof.. “Don’t worry, I won’t tell anypony if you don’t want me to.”

“... Thank you.” I said quietly, well, at least she only told one pony. It took me a few more moments to realize something “... Wait, why are we going over the building?!”

“Zeppelin’s on top of the building, that’s why.” Stormy once again answered, this time before putting me down on... a wooden deck.

“Since when do we have an airship?” I asked, looking over the wooden railing.

“Since just now.” Stormy landed next to me. “Come on, Thor’s interrogating their captain.”

“Uhh... Ok.” I followed Storm into the halls, for several minutes, until I heard a muffled scream from a nearby closet. “That the guy?”

“Good, he’s awake. Don’t untie him for anything.” Stormy opened the closet and the captain looked away as the light hit his eyes.

“Uhh... Woah.” I stared at the pony pinned to the wall, several hoof-shaped bruises on his face, and one circular bruise around his neck. “What happened to this guy?”

“I gave him the once around. Now it’s time to give him to Thor.” Stormy forcefully pulled him out of the closet, and began pushing him down the hallway. It took less than ten seconds for Stormy to find the room Thor and Crimson were in. “Okay, just like you said.”

“Good.” Thor seemed pleased to see the captain, who was glaring daggers at whoever met his eyes. “I’m thinking of making our ‘discussion’ into a little game.”

“Umm... Is now a bad time?” I asked, moving slightly towards the door.

Thor looked at me. “No, I specifically told Stormy to bring you here for this.” She then looked back at this captain. “This is a game I like to call ‘Truth of knife’. Every time you don’t cooperate or give us answers that we have reasons to believe are false, Stormy or Haze get to chop something off of you. Ready?”

Damnit, I really don’t want to see this... I thought, looking at the captain, who, after several seconds, nodded, prompting Thor to take out the cloth gag in his mouth.

“Fine, what the hell do you want to know?” The guard captain asked, hate seeping from his words.

“First off, I want to know where I can get Gem Cannons, and the gems to power them.” Thor asked putting her hoof to her chin.

“I don’t know where the Cannons are bought, but rumor says that the gems come from near central equestria. I’ve had to buy them in shadey back alleys though, since we didn’t exactly get the greatest funding.”

“What’s his name?” Thor asked.

“What’s who’s name?” The captain retorted.

“Don’t play dumb with me. I may have more patience than my captain, but I can be just as unforgiving as him. Now tell me the name of the pony you bought the gem cannons from.” Thor asked again, beginning to glare at him.

The captain shrunk back as much as he could from Thor, his eyes widening in fear, “I don’t know his name, and I never saw his face, or his coat. He made a habit of remaining anonymous. He even used a voice changer sometimes”

“Very well, perhaps you can tell me the next cargo ship is passing by in stead.” Thor remained calm despite the fear in his eyes.

“It’s... Umm... I don’t remember.” He saw Crimson twirl the knife expectantly, “There should be a map and list in my quarters, though!”

“Stormy, check. If it’s not there, you get first dibs.” Thor didn’t take her eyes off him during her statement.

“Aye aye!” Storm gave a quick salute, and trotted out, a bit too happy... That scares me a little.

“In the meantime, would you like to tell me about why you came here?” Thor began to smile as she asked.

“We received an anonymous tip that there was a group of pirates here. Obviously, someone had to check it out.” The captain spat out the words.

“And it seems we’ve beaten you here, captain.” Thor responded.

“Wait, what? You aren’t the ones we were after?” The captain turned his head. I met his gaze for a moment, and looked away, remembering what I did.

“I’ve been told that you wanted the Cloudsdale Mutant’s head on your desk. Tell me everything you know.” Thor almost sounded demanding at the end.

“I already told the pegasus bitch that. He’s wanted by the law, and there are non-equines willing to pay for him as well.”

Thor looked at Stormy who was standing in the door seam with a sad look. “Stormy is a bit sensitive when it comes to name calling. Stormy, would you like to hurt the bad stallion who called you a bad name?”

A sickening grin crossed Storm’s face, “Don’t mind if I do.” Yup, she definitely scares the shit out of me now. She walked up to the now shaking guard captain, and plunged a knife into one of his flanks, pulling a shout of pain from him.

“I was thinking of maybe the soft part of the hoof.” Crimson said as the captain gritted his teeth in pain.

“So was he telling the truth, Stormy?” Thor looked at Storm who seemed much happier after stabbing him.

“There was a map, but no list.” She said with a shrug.

Thor looked at the captain. “You know what that means.” The captain really began to shrink in his chair. “Stormy, would you kindly pass the Knife to Crimson Haze?”

“Sure thing,” Stormy said cheerily, passing the bloodied knife to the side.

“Do I really have to watch this?” I asked, feeling my mind begging me to leave.

“You can look away, just stay here in case he begins to bleed out early.” Thor said in a less threatening tone.

“Stormy, would you like to help me? The part that I wish to chop is hidden at the moment.” Crimson asked, making me instantly turn around and tense up.

“Oh, please, not that!” The captain shrieked, “Anything bu-” A blood-curdling scream flew from his mouth, echoing through the room, and making me feel a bit sick to my stomach.

“That was almost too painful to watch.” Thor put her hoof to her stomach.

I’m not gonna look I’m not gonna look I’m not gonna look I repeated it in my head like a mantra, trying not to focus on anything else.

“You’re almost done, One more question left.” Thor stated.

The captain was crying, from what I could tell, “Please, just kill me... Please...”

“Who can I find that has more intelligence than you?” Thor asked calmly.

“G... General Shining Armor, probably...”

“That won’t do, I need somepony who works the field, way out here.” She remained calm.

“He does go into the field sometimes. I hear he has a relatives in Ponyville and Canterlot, ok?”

Thor began to grin widely. “That’s even better. Fillies, do away with him as you please.”

“Will do.” I heard Stormy said, before the Captain started to scream in pain again for another full minute, before it was cut short. After several minutes, I managed to work up the courage to look, and immediately wished I hadn’t. He was lying in a pool of his blood now, his gut cut open, and his insides no longer as such. Thankfully, I couldn’t see where I knew Crimson cut off... That. But I did see multiple other stab wounds throughout his body as well. I felt my stomach begin to heave, and I had to run to a window, jamming my head out, and emptying my guts.

“I’d like to talk to you when you’re done.” Thor put her hoof on my back. “Crimson is taking the body out right now.”

After I stopped vomiting, I waited several seconds before slowly pulling my head back in, closing and sealing the window. “I did not expect to see that... At all.”

“I didn’t expect her to go there so quickly either.” Thor shrugged and looked off to the side for a brief moment.

“I guess today has been a whole day of firsts for me.” I mumbled bitterly, a slight tremble running over my body.

“I wanted to talk to you because Stormy has offered to give you credit for apprehending their captain in place of her.” Thor spoke calmly, it sounded really different when she was talking like that to that captain.

“... What?” I raised an eyebrow, I was expecting this conversation to go in a whole different direction... “Why?”

“Ask her, I just wanted to tell you before we get the captain.” Thor looked at me as she spoke.

At mention of Skywing, I looked away, “... I see... I’ll be looking for somewhere to recover. I used the last of my magic earlier.”

“Believe me, we aren’t leaving the Island until at least tomorrow.” Thor smiled some. “Are you okay with taking the credit for capturing that captain?”

“Honestly, I don’t think I have any right to do so.” I said, the pool of blood catching my eye for a moment, “After all, I had nothing to do with it.”

“Okay, I’ll go tell Storm. You get some rest.” And with that, Thor trotted out the door.

Ugh, I can’t believe I did that... I shuddered, thinking over each of the cuts I made into the now deceased guard. Well, I guess I should focus more on what I should tell the captain... I entered the room with the holding room and trotted up to the captains cell. Thankfully he was sitting with his back facing me, and staring at the wall. “Umm... Captain?”

The captain only spoke with a huff. “It had better be good if want me to overlook this.”

“Well... How about that we now have a skyship, as well as a map of RG delivery routes?”

“... Show me.” The captain didn’t move an inch.

I pulled the map out, and floated it over to him, unrolling it in front of him. Geez, I hope this works...

“Everypony in this crew will live.” Strangely specific. Skywing still didn’t move, even as I took the keys off of the hook and unlocked his cell.

“Really, nothing more to say?” I’m starting to question his logic, yet again I chopped a stallions... yeah. He only snorted. “Ooookay, I’ll just help out moving the cargo onto the ship.” With that, I turned around, and walked out.

End of Chapter 4.