With some friendly coaxing, Sunset Shimmer was able to get some of the slave farmers to emerge from the primary building albeit hesitantly. After some rapid fire back and forth faster than Sunset could pick out what they were saying, a zebra stallion who was dressed a bit differently than many of the others came to the door, speaking both Equestrian and Pundamilia, the most common zebra language.
He stopped before Sunset Shimmer and froze, green eyes with small flecks of amber went wide as he took in the alicorn before him. The moment he introduced himself as Levar multiple shouts of ‘Papa’ could be heard approaching from the tree line. The zebra fully turned and fully embraced his son in a loving hug. Powerful forelegs that bore signs of hard labor and possible torturous punishment held the colt so close that nothing could or would dare to come between them.
After a solid minute of quite whispers, nods, and a few shed tears, Levar encouraged the others that it was safe to emerge. Once again, Celestia had been correct that bringing the children was the right decision. Long ago, her mother’s instincts on such a matter would have annoyed her, but now Sunset was just happy to see the loving family reunited.
From what Sunset could tell at a glance there had been nearly fifty slaves crammed into the large shack, mostly zebras with a few other ponies as well as one hippogriff. Two ponies in particular brushed their way to the front and fell before Celestia the moment they were in the open sand. Mother and daughter exchanged a knowing look that Sunset interpreted as, ‘not this again.’
“No, please rise. None of that is necessary. You have been beaten, starved, and worked near to death against your will. I will not have you demean yourself further.”
“A, apologies, Your Highness. It’s just… I never thought I would… It has just been so long. Jib and I were assigned to a costal cutter patrol fleet aboard the Tailwind that sailed patrols along the Equestrian shore. We chased down a few pirates and smugglers. Our captain, Rocky, got a bit of a reputation with a thirst for more and wanted to capture Captain Danger and the Amber Phantasm. Once we finally found his ship, we gave chase. Then ended up in this island Tartarus.”
“What happened to your ship and crew?” asked Sunset, already dreading the most obvious answer.
Captain Rocky was killed during the fight. Our ship lacked the heavy armament that Danger’s Phantasm has. We thought the Phantasm was cornered, but he used the harbor for a natural defense and turned a full broadside on us. The entre engagement had taken a good hour and after Rocky was killed, we tried to make a run for it. That was when we realized we were trapped. Only four of us made it off before the Tailwind was sunk. Now…”
Celestia bowed her head, expression truly sorrowful. “I understand. May I know your name, sailor?”
"Sailor Third Class Swish Kicker, ma'am."
Sunset nodded to the sailors before pulling Celestia closer to her. “So, it looks like we have about sixty refugees including a few foals. They all look malnourished and we still have way more questions than answers.”
“I concur.”
“And?”
“And what, dear?”
Sunset blinked a few times. Celestia was too smart for this. Was this another one of her head games or was she really at a loss? “And we need a plan, some sort of organization to all this or a list of what to do next. Dammit, I wish Twi or Twilight were here. They are better at this than me.”
Celestia smiled warmly and nuzzled her daughter who took the affection with an eyeroll. “Do not sell yourself short, little sun. You may lack Twilight’s analytical mind and obsessive compulsive organization, but you are far better at improvising and adaptation. Tell me what you would like to do next and we will work this out, together.”
Sunset smiled warmly at the compliment, greatly appreciating its sincerity. Even after all these years, nothing made her feel better about herself and more accomplished than a Celestia compliment. “Well, alright then. First things first, you find some volunteers to locate the stored food and start feeding these poor souls. They had to of been stashing the harvest food somewhere nearby. I’m going to go kick in a few other doors and see if I can find some useful information lying around. After that, we both have a chat with the pirates.”
“You see? That was not so difficult,” Celestia said with a twinkle in her eye. “Twilight Sparkle is absolutely amazing, both of them are, but never forget you are amazing as well.”
With one last nod Sunset turned to the remaining buildings and took note of the different structures about the plantation. Now, if I were an evil slave lord and wanted to keep others in line, but also felt I was too important to have to smell them in my sleep... that one. Sunset started towards the one small building she was sure the lead slaver had emerged from. She made it about three steps when Levar approached and began to bow excessively.
“Your Highness, I want to thank you, no I apologize, I am not worthy to speak out of turn, I just…”
“Hey, whoa, slow down there, stud. First, you don’t need to bow to me. I’m actually not a princess.”
Levar scratched at the side of his head. “Um, but… the wings and horn together?”
Sunset smiled disarmingly and gently touched Levar’s shoulder. She was momentarily taken by how solid and muscular the zebra was under the loose button up shirt and immediately withdrew her hoof. Quietly telling that part of her brain that it was the wrong time and place for those sort of thoughts. “I know, that’s a common misunderstanding. Anyhow, let me introduce myself. My name is Sunset Shimmer. I am Celestia’s daughter, but have never been coronated as a princess by my own choice. So, you can just call me Sunset or if that’s just too weird, Lady Shimmer is also fine.”
“Yes, yes of course, Lady Shimmer. I wanted to thank you and Princess Celestia for coming and for looking after my son. I am in your debt.”
“Don’t thank us for that. From what I’ve already heard some of these prisoners had been here for a long time. We goofed our way here and your son has done a remarkable job taking care of himself and his friends before. He’s got a good head on his shoulder to have survived and stay out of the way of the pirates. I know what that's like being out of your element with nothing but your wits and survival insticts.”
“Thank you, all the same. If I may, what do we do now? What can I do to help?”
“Tatu said you were acting as a go between to the slave farmers and the pirates. You would do the most good right now helping Celestia see to whatever needs they have. Food, water, medical attention, that sort of thing. I’m going to be gathering all the information I can find on this operation. Then, we find a way off this island.”
Levar nodded grimly, ears flattening to his skull. Sunset felt a lump in her heart and gut at such a sunken expression. “I… I admit I had hoped you had already found a way to work around the captain’s curse. Forgive my disappointment.”
“Not yet, but we will. You have my oath on that. I’m getting you and, well, all these creatures off this rock. Equestria may not be your homeland, but we will get all of you to safety. No pony or zebra or anyone deserves to be made a slave like this. No one.”
Levar nodded, starting to bow again before stopping himself, a small embarrassed smile spreading across his black striped face. “I believe you. You speak with confident conviction and with two alicorns. I feel a hope in my heart I have not felt in many moons.”
----------
“Anything useful?”
Sunset glanced up at Celestia who was standing in the doorway of the cottage shack, not wanting to enter and step on the numerous pieces of paper spread across the floor not unlike the castle lab or Sunset's music room. Sunset had to squint a bit after having been in the one room abode for… how long have I been looking at paperwork? Ugh. This is like that job I had at the accounting office during my graduate years.
“You have been at this for almost four hours." Celestia smirked knowingly. "I can see the question in your eyes, dear.”
“Ugggghhh.” Sunset stood and stretched, several bones popping in response to the movement. “Break time.”
Celestia nodded and gestured for her daughter to follow. “Again, anything useful?”
“A little. Most of Webo’s journals were just personal ramblings and shipping/cataloging manifests. Apparently, he was left in charge of this plantation after Captain Danger stole a barge that most of these zebra were riding on because he knew the language and because he gets seasick easily, which is just sad for a pirate. That was almost eight years ago according to the records.”
“And we never knew any of this was happening. I may no longer be the High Princess, but that fact shames me greatly.”
“The good news is, Captain Asshat comes back pretty regularly. So, we just need to get a message out to send help and we wait, ambush Amber Phantasm, get ahold on whatever magic he is using to hold these ponies here and shut it down.”
“A sound plan, little sun. However, we need to find out WHY my dragon fire message was not working to begin with.”
Sunset smirked, pointing towards the horizon. “Then it's time to do a little trial and error on that front and I know exactly who to ask for help.”
“Oh?”
“Well, ask might be a bit too polite of a word.”
----------
“You are going to get all of us killed!”
Sunset rolled her eyes and kicked Webo again. Not too hard, but just enough to remind him not to speak unless it was something helpful. After grabbing a small snack, Sunset Shimmer collected the zebra slaver and began interrogating him about the ‘curse’ around Pelican Island. To help corroborate his answers she dragged the pirate back to the hotel and set him down next to Grassy Rio. Unsurprising, neither were happy to see one another.
After the back and forth of blame and death threats got old, which took less than five minutes, Sunset separated the two and tied both of them to chairs so that they would no longer be tempted to come to blows. With Captain Steady Course nearby and Celestia standing just off to the side, Sunset began to grill the both of them on what they knew about the island and Captain Danger himself.
Webo had refused to speak of Danger except to say that he was the finest pirate on the sea and that he would die before betraying him. That earned him an eyeroll and a threat of a dirty sock being stuffed in his mouth. A hollow threat since Sunset had not packed any socks, but he did not need to know that.
Grassy Rio had been more cooperative in explaining that there was some sort of barrier around the island that let things pass through, but nothing out. That included birds, fish, and especially boats. Any boat, no matter the size or material it was made from, made it out. He had explained in gruesome detail that some had tried ramming the barrier while others tried to pass slowly. All ended with the ship combusting or being obliterated. The fast ships would break as if they had slammed into a solid wall, fracturing structurally upon impact and in many cases also being set ablaze. The crews would attempt to swim ashore and would often be dragged under by something. The slow ships lasted a bit longer and had to agitate whatever it was below enough for it to attack. Some did, others gave up and returned to shore alive, but in defeat.
Sunset, standing on the bow of the Easy Money glanced back at Webo who had his forelegs tied together, a seething hate clear in his eyes. Celestia was sitting near Sunset with the latest version of her rolled letter she wished to send to Spike so as to pass to Twilight, floating in her golden magic. Steady was behind the wheel of the small ship trying not to run into something he could not see with only a pirate’s judgment of how close they were to the invisible barrier.
“No pony is going to get killed as long as you are telling the truth,” said Sunset Shimmer with a sigh of annoyance under her breath.
Webo growled in response. “I am telling you what I know! Look down, you see fish. Where they gather is where the barrier is. They swim in, but cannot get out so it confuses them. They bounce off the barrier.”
Celestia and Sunset both carefully looked over the sides. The water was mostly clear and with so few clouds and easy surf the level of visibility to the bottom was astoundingly good. They were certainly close to the threshold. Sunset could feel… something. An energy that gave her a sense of unease that she was certain Celestia could sense as well.
“This will be close enough, captain.” Steady nodded to Celestia and dropped the small anchor he had nearby, moving to keep a close watch over their prisoner just in case.
Sunset sent out a small pulse of magic trying to see if the barrier would react. A dark crimson energy shimmered across the sky like a ripple on a pond. When she looked down, all the fish that had been near scattered. “Well, it is definitely there.”
Celestia narrowed her eyes at the magic that sent a chill down her spine. There was something familiar about the energy signature, but she could not place her hoof on it. Something to contemplate on for later. “Just reattempting the send spell will not likely yield any new result.”
“Okay. So, you want me to try blasting a hole in the barrier then you sent the message through?”
“Normally, I would not elect for brute force when it comes to such an unknown magic. However, in this case, that may work.”
“If you agitate the magic it will attack!” Shouted Webo. That gave both alicorns pause as they first met eyes then turned back to their prisoner.
“Could you elaborate on the ‘it’ part?”
“I…” Webo cringed as if he were fighting his own internal battle. “I don’t understand it. I don’t know what it is, but it’s tied in with the barrier. A defense. You make it mad by trying to escape and it will try and stop you. Magic things will lash out like, like large tentacles. Drag us all under to join the bones below.”
Sunset cringed. “Ugh, it had to be tentacles, didn’t it? I’ve had my fill of Equestrian hentai tentacles…” All the eyes on the ship turned to Sunset with varying degrees of curiosity and squeamish judgment. “Long story.”
“We must either be swift or prod lightly,” said Celestia, breaking the awkward silence.
“Yeah, I don’t do lightly when it comes to breaking and entering.”
Celestia held the rolled scroll close. “Begin.”
Sunset’s first blast was light, relatively speaking. For even a skilled unicorn it would have been substantial. As expected, it struck the barrier, which rippled and dissipated the power as quickly as it had been applied. She followed up with two more blasts that were each slightly more powerful than the last. The barrier showed no sign of giving the slightest. Sunset had not expected such simple kinetic blasts to penetrate, but she had hoped to sense at least a weakening or matrix shift, a chink in the armor as it were. But it was far too adaptive, organic to track any useful changes to the spellwork.
“Grrr.”
“Sunset.”
“I know.”
Steady Course heard a bubbling sound and risked glancing over the side of his ship. There were a steady stream of bubbles coming from somewhere beneath them, churning the sandy bottom and clouding the water. “Your Highness…”
Celestia flexed her wings a bit in agitation. “Sunset.”
“I. KNOW.”
Several rapid fire blasts had yielded no new results causing the goldenrod alicorn to snarl with a noticeable flash of heat coming from her body. It was time to take the gloves off, so to speak. Sunset took a calming breath and remembered her years of magical training from long ago. Anger can help fuel spells, but it’s a double edged sword. That power boost is raw, unfocused energy. Dig deep inside. Find the power, grasp it with your will and direct it like directing a torrent of water from a broken water main. Do not fear the power, do not fear the pain. Grip tight, hold on, and have an herbal tea ready because the headache that follows will be fierce.
Sunset’s horn went from burning red to a golden, white hot light before releasing a massive blast that pushed the boat back to where the only thing that kept them from drifting away was the anchor chain drawn taunt. The goldenrod alicorn grunted and flashed her grinding teeth as she poured her power forth, wings fully extended and burning like an inferno.
After a full minute of unrelenting energy that could have lit a city for a week, Sunset felt the wall crack and the blast penetrated to the sky beyond. She cut the flow of magic and collapsed to the deck as Celestia began her spell, but before the mist could escape through the hole it rapidly closed. She drew the cloud back to her, not willing to risk the message disintegrating on the shield.
Sunset growled and stood on wobbly legs. “Oh, COME ON!”
She began to gather her strength again when a red tentacle covered in what looked like crystal blisters erupted from the water and started to slash down at the ship. The appendage struck a hastily conjured shield that Celestia put together while still holding her cloud scroll close. The blow had both mass and speed and drove Celestia to a knee while cracks spiderwebbed across the shield.
“I’m weighing anchor!” shouted Steady Course. It was his ship and he was the captain. Even if the alicorns had protested he would have ignored them if it meant protecting his property.
Two more tentacles emerged, one cutting along the side of the small ship, the crystals gouging into the wooden hull. A second after shooting to the sky they too crashed down on the damaged shield. Celestia cried out as her hasty defense shattered, the scroll rematerializing and falling back to the ship deck. The ship was now surrounded by three of the red appendages.
“Tutakufa!” whimpered Webo, coiling into a ball and waiting for the inevitable death blow. Jumping overboard was suicide, he had seen others try. His only hope was that the entity might think he was already dead or floating debris after it was done with the ship.
Sunset Shimmer had no such plans to wait for the proverbial executioner's axe and leapt off the deck and slashed upward with her sword, cutting a third off one of the tentacles. The severed appendage flailed before retreating back under the waves. She growled as she hovered, waiting to see which of the other two would strike next. Though there were no eyes they seemed to be aware of her and that she had hurt one of them. Sunset spun her burning blade in her magic, raising it to an attack position.
“Mom! Get the message ready! Captain, get the ship ready to move!”
“The hole already resealed!”
Sunset brought the sword closer to her hooves. For what she had in mind she would probably need her muscles along with her levitation. “I’m going to try cutting a hole.”
“Sunset, it’s too dangerous!”
Sunset spared a glance at her mother, her face one of determination and anger fueled intent. “I am not spending the rest of my life on this stupid island and I am definitely not going to be defeated by some hentai power, island hoodoo at the hooves of a stupid pirate captain with a stupid name! So, get the message ready or teach me how to do myself right now!”
Celestia nodded and recast the dragon fire spell. The tentacles must have sensed the magic gathering and moved to attack again. Sunset dove and slashed, severing one appendage and deeply gashing the other before slamming into the barrier blade first. Energy crackled along the invisible wall lashing out at where Sunset’s rear hooves came in contact. It hurt. A lot.
Sunset screamed, but just plunged the sword in all the more determined, the red flames from the shield tried to burn her like they no doubt had done to many others. However, Sunset was a master pyromancer. She knew how to regulate heat through and around her body, allowing the excess energy to pass through her magical pathways and down into the sword in her hooves. If they could not overpower the shield through brute force then she would use the barrier's own energy against it. The heat was still incredibly uncomfortable where the two different magics fought for dominance both inside and outside her body, the ends of all her hooves beginning to blacken a bit from direct contact. A howl cried out from below, or across the island. Honestly, it sounded like it came from every direction at once.
Sunset pressed down, one hoof wrapped around the handle and the other pressing on the back of the blade guard. Forcing the blade to the hilt. Once she felt it fully penetrate the barrier, Sunset let gravity do the work and cut the gash downward.
“NOW!”
Celestia aimed her magic upward and practically flung the cloudy mass through the hole before it could close again. She released her spell and let out the breath she had been holding, her coat matted from sweat and salt spray. Sunset pulled her sword free and flapped twice, crashing down onto the bow of the small ship, rolling and stumbling into the port side rail. She winced and looked down to find that her hindleg shoes and hooves that had come in direct contact with the barrier were far more charred with smokey wisps coming off the burned fetlock hairs.
“Well, that was a pain in the a-”
Another tentacle had smashed directly through the Easy Money breaking the small ship in half. Webo was thrown into the water and Sunset painfully back into the railing. Celestia was closer to what remained of the stern, next to Steady Course who was still clutching the wheel like a lifeline.
“SUNSET!”
“Get back to the beach! GO!” Sunset pointed back towards the island. Celestia nodded, lifting the stunned stallion sailor onto her back and took to the sky, her eyes never losing sight of her daughter. Sunset had shot a blast at the newest tentacle to keep its attention on her and away from the others, which then bent and came crashing back towards the ruined bow. Sunset teleported at the last moment and reappeared just above the water where Webo was flailing. Celestia could not hear what was said, but it had been enough for Sunset to punch the zebra pirate out cold before lifting him out of the water and flying away from the wreckage that was soon further pulverized.
Sunset Shimmer dropped the pirate onto the sandy beach before crashing back down herself, not far where she and Celestia had watched the sunset the other day. She rolled onto her back and huffed, gulping down air as the adrenaline bled off. Her entire body hurt and the first skull pounding throbs of a headache from overtaxed magic were beginning to set in.
“Little sun?”
Sunset waved a foreleg but left her eyes closed. Sunset was not sure what else was said in the confusion and shouting voices that sounded far too distant, but she was certain she passed out at some point.