Ebony shifts the uniform on her back, annoyed with how it feels against her wings. Out of the three soldiers Willow had taken out none of them was a pegasus, so none of the uniforms had any holes for wings. Also, Willow had been forced to stab one of them leaving a rather large blood stain on her uniform, though it’s on her barrel and hard to see.
“You just had to stab one of them,” Ebony mumbles as they walk toward the fort.
“I’m sorry that he tricked me. Playing dead is a good way to trick someone who’s going to try and loot your corpse. You didn't have to take that one, I would have worn it.”
“Yes, I did have to take it, because you can’t wear it since you’re a deer and I would rather keep attention away from you, and we can’t have her wear it,” Ebony says nudging her head toward the pink pony walking behind them. She hears a yelp followed by a quick thud from behind.
Turning around Willow and Ebony see that Tide had tripped over yet another bush. “You sure it was a good idea to bring her along?” Willow asks.
“We don’t know what her father looks like and I’d rather not let all their prisoners out. The less we do the better our chances of getting out.” Tide gets off the ground, she takes a few steps back while avoiding Ebony’s gaze.
“Sorry,” she mumbles.
“Come on, we don’t have time to be sorry. Which way is the entrance, Willow?”
Willow quickly looks around and points out her hoof toward the north-east. “There should be a small entrance over that way, still guarded but not as heavily.”
Ebony gives a nod and they start walking again. As they walk through the jungle they spot a couple of patrols whom they simply convinced that they are a patrol a well. They soon arrive at the wall of the fort. A double door stands out of the wall with two guards flanking it. Ebony walks up to the guard with no hesitation, forcing her two companions to follow along.
The guards cast a quick glance at them. Ebony straightens her back and looks them in the eyes. “Returning from patrol,” she says.
“No patrols are supposed to return at this time,” says one of the guards.
Ebony hunches over and glares at the guards. “Well, sorry for being transfered here three days ago. In case you didn’t know, it’s hard to navigate a jungle when you’re not used to the area! We got lost four bucking times trying to get back here and because of that you won’t let us back in!”
The guards exchange looks. One of them opens the doors and then they both back up a bit. Ebony continues to glare at the guards as Willow and Tide go into the fort. Once they’re through Ebony goes to follow but the guards cut her off. One of them points to the blood stain. “What happened?”
“A snake bit me.”
“Was it poisonous?”
“No, because I would be dead by now since I’ve been stuck out here for the past couple of hours!”
She shoves her way past the guards and makes her way to the other two. “Right, let’s find him before they realize that they have no clue who we are.” She looks around the fort trying to ignore the caged feeling the walls cause. There are no trees within the walls, though there are some bushes dotted around mainly at the base of the wall. A building made of large stone bricks is connected to the east part of the surrounding wall stretching out to just over halfway across the clearing.
They start making their way to the building. Ebony quickly looks around at the dull grey halls in the building trying to figure out which way to go. Wonder if it’s like the one in Hayvana, Ebony thinks. She decides against it given that the outside and surrounding wall are different from the fort in Hayvana. With a sigh she decides to start walking down the hall.
“You know where we’re going?” Tide asks.
“No clue, just keep your eyes open for stairs. The dungeon is most likely on a lower level.” She hears a heavy sigh from behind. She turns around to Tide who has her head low. “Don’t worry, I promise you we’ll find him.” Tide gives her a weak nod, but doesn’t lift her head.
Ebony goes back to looking at the plain walls in the building. The only thing giving the place any real color are the Equestrian banners that hang on the walls. But, the banners only looks out of place. They manage to walk past a few soldiers just as bland as the walls. Reminds me of the Hive… kinda. She looks back a Tide, still has her head down.
Soon they arrive at a set of stairs. As they go further down they notice Tide keeps slowing down until she eventually comes to stop. Willow gives Ebony a concerned glance. “Is something the matter?” Willow asks. Tide doesn’t look up or even acknowledge that she heard.
“What’s wrong?” Ebony asks.
“I’m… I’m afraid.”
“I’m here to protect the two of you, you have nothing to worry about,” Ebony says.
“Not that, I’m afraid that when we find him he’ll… he’ll be dead.”
“Well standing here won’t solve anything. You can’t bother with the what-ifs we have to keep moving.”
“What if he’s dead?”
“He’s not dead.”
“What if he is?” Tide shouts.
Ebony takes a deep breath hoping nopony heard that. “We’ll make them pay,” she says after a few moments of thought. “Now if you want him back alive we have to get going.” Tide looks at her for a second then gives her determined nod.
They walk down another floor before they get to the dungeon cells. Iron bars line the wall all the way down the hall. They can hear mumbling and cursing coming from the cells. Three soldiers stand guard, one at the far end of the hall, one at the corner opposite to the first guard, and the last stands next to the stairs.
“What are you three doing?” asks the one next to the stairs.
“The commander wants to have a word with one of the criminals and wants us to escort criminal to his office,” Ebony replies quickly.
The guard studies them for a good ten seconds. “Alright, but why didn’t she come here herself to speak to the criminal?” he says as he draws his sword.
In a blink Ebony punches him in the nose causing a stream of blood to dip out. The guard holds his forehoof to his nose to stop the bleeding. Ebony takes the opportunity to deliver another quick punch, cracking his head against the wall. Immediately the hall erupts in cheers and laughter from the prisoners. The other two guards hear the commotion they draw their swords and start charging at the group.
Ebony takes the sword of the unconscious guard in time to deflect a strike from one of the guards. She takes a few steps back, out of the corner of her eye she see Tide going back up the stairs. She continues to back up as the guard pushes forward. This has got to stop. He swings his sword in a wide arch, Ebony takes a step back letting the sword continue on she hits the guard's outstretched foreleg and puts him off balance. She tackles him into the iron bars of one of the cells. Quickly hooves reach through the bars and wrap themselves around the guard. Ebony delivers one last punch to his snout and his body goes limp. The hooves let go of the guard and let him fall to the ground.
Willow runs toward the one at the far end of the hall. They meet halfway down the hall. The guard swings his sword trying to bring it down on her head, but she dodges around the guard and draws her dagger once she’s behind. With a quick turn she carves out a deep gash in his haunch. He turns around to face her swinging his sword as he does. Willow jumps back staying well out of range of the blade. He takes another step forward with another swing. Willow parries away the sword, she then jumps forward and sinks her dagger into the side of his neck.
Ebony drops the sword and leans against a wall. She looks around and is not surprised to see Willow had killed the guard she went after. Looking the other way she sees Tide walking down the line of cells looking in each one of them for her father.
“Ya gonna let us outta here or what?” asks a prisoner that had pinned the guard for her.
She looks back over at Willow trying to ignore the prisoner. Willow walks up her and sits down beside her. “You alright?” Willow asks.
“I’m still alive, so I’m okay. I’m a little tired though.”
“Good to see you know how to fight, I was worried about leaving you two with him.”
“I live with Captain and Rose is my friend, I didn’t have much of a choice but to learn. If I wasn’t able to she would have force me into her bed by now,” Ebony mumbles the last part.
A blush comes to Willow’s face.
“Hey, you two gonna let us out?” asks the prisoner.
Ebony and willow look over at Tide when they hear her coming. Tears stream down her cheeks and she looks more panicked than when they were fighting. “I can’t find him!”
Ebony thinks for a few seconds. “He’s not here? Why wouldn’t he be here, where else could he--” She stops herself though. Traitors are hung… She takes a deep breath and looks at Tide. “When was he caught?” she asks.
“Wha… I-I don’t know, h-he’s usually gone for about a week at a time. I can’t say for sure when he was caught.”
Ebony lifts herself onto her hooves. “We have to get out of here.”
“Wait, but what about my--”
“They would have moved him to Hayvana,” Ebony quickly says. I shouldn’t be giving her hope, but I need her to move.
“What about us!” shouts the prisoner and several others as they figure out that their ‘saviors’ are about to leave.
Ebony simply ignores them again and starts running up the stairs. The shouting grows louder as they leave. Certainly, they’ll attract some soldiers. She slows down as they get to the first floor. A few of the soldiers stop and look at the trio. Mainly due to Tide crying over any type of suspicion that they don’t belong there. The soldiers approach the group wondering why she's crying.
“The navy sent word that they lost contact with the ship that her father was on, they believe he’s lost at sea…” Ebony says trying push through the growing crowd of concerned soldiers. A few of them try to comfort Tide, but Ebony brushes them aside as well. “She has to get back to Hayvana, she has to tell her mother,” she says. Ebony grabs a sword from one of the soldiers in the crowd without anyone noticing as she makes her way through.
She finally get to the door and lets Willow and Tide go through before she follows. Once she’s outside she wedges the sword she stole into the hinge of the door. “Right, we don’t have long,” Ebony says as she pushes onto the sword.
“Uh… Ebony, I think we have a problem,” Willow says.
Ebony turns around in time to see a few soldiers drag the body of a pony through the door. “Let me guess…”
“A member of the patrol I ambushed.”
Can’t go out the back, can’t go back in, and if I’m right the front is also a bad option. She looks around for any other way to leave the fort, but the wall cuts off any form of escape. After a moment of hesitation she sighs. “We have to go out through the front. We’ll get to the docks and steal a ship or swim up the coast a little way then make our way through the jungle.” They turn and start heading to the dock.
Ebony slows down and walks alongside Willow. “Keep her looking forward,” she whispers to her. Willow gives her a confused look. “Keep her away from the gallows.” A grim understanding comes over Willow.
As they come around the corner of the fort Ebony spares a glance over at the gallows. Indeed, there are three bodies hanging there. She looks back at Tide, she’s relieved to see Willow standing between her and the gallows. She focuses back on the path forward.
Very few guards stand between them and the beginning of the dock, only a few ponies patrolling the yard. On the docks however, about seven ponies stand in three groups, and Celestia knows how many aboard either of the ships, a gunboat and a brig. Ebony feels a lump growing in her throat at their decreasing odds of survival.
Right, how do we get out of here? By the time we untie the gunboat from the dock they’ll be piling on. They’d probably shoot us with we try to swim… well, actually I don’t see any rifle-ponies among them we might be able to swim away. But, we can’t out-swim the gunboat that they’d follow us with. Maybe a few clever words can get them to-- They’re half-way across the yard when a horrified scream rips her out of her train of thought.
Ebony turns around to find Tide has her back to her and Willow and is staring right at the gallows. “I told you to keep her looking forward!” she shouts at Willow.
Willow takes her eyes off of Tide. “I’m sorry if I was distracted with the guards up ahead. The possibility of death distracts you sometimes!”
Ebony looks back toward the dock, the soldiers had heard the scream and are now coming at them. “Run.”
“If we run they’ll know something’s up,” Willow says.
“Oh sure, we can just wait here and tell them why she’s so distressed over a hung smuggler!”
“Fair point.” They take off in a run. They start trying to push Tide who had broken down into tears.
“He’s... he’s…”
“We know!” They try pushing her again, but she stays firmly planted. “Listen, I’m sorry, I really am. I can’t imagine what you’re going through right now, but nothing will happen if you die here! Think about your friends and family, they won’t want to lose you as well,” Ebony says. She looks back at the dock, the guards are beginning to draw their swords. She feels herself falling forward, but quickly catches herself.
Looking back at Tide, she finds her being pulled along by Willow. “There are less guards around back, we might be able to make our way through,” Ebony says as she catches up to them. But, she hears a cracking noise coming from around the corner. She pulls back on Willow bring her to a stop just as several soldiers round the corner.
They start running toward the westward wall. Ebony grabs Tide and starts pulling her as well. “Willow, look up ahead and find some way out!” Willow gives her a nod and sprints off. She hears the soldiers getting closer with every passing second. She tries spreading her wings, but remembers that they’re caught in the uniform.
Willow meets up with them as they reach the wall. “No way out.” She steps past Ebony to stand between her and the soldiers and faces down the charging soldiers. “You’re the only one who can get out. Take her and fly over the wall. I’ll stay here and distract them,” she says, she then pulls out her dagger.
Ebony lets go of Tide and runs up to the wall. There has to be someway we can all get out. She looks back, the soldiers form a rough semicircle around the group, Tide sits and watches the wall of spears and swords, Willow tries looking between all the soldiers flashing her dagger at them to keep them back.
Ebony backs up as she tries to think of a way out. I can fly, but that would leave one of them to die. We can try fighting, but are chances of winning are low without Howler or Captain at our side. Perhaps Captain will sail by and lay waste to them with his cannons? She looks over at the docks, nothing. So, either I leave one of them or we all die… Well, I do have one last trick.
Green flames surround Ebony in a matter of seconds. The expression of the soldiers quickly change from confidence to confusion to horror as they realize what's happening. A green aura surrounds Willow and Tide and starts lifting them into the air. The flames clear as Ebony lifts them over her head. The soldiers take a step back from the changeling in the tattered remains of a Celestial navy uniform.
“What’s going on?” Willow cries trying to turn around in the magical grasp to see what was happening. She stops squirming when she sees that she’s being lifted over the wall. She screams as the magic lets go of her once she’s on the other side of the wall, she falls a few feet and lands squarely on her hooves. She hears another scream from above, a moment later Tide falls from the sky and lands on her. She waits for Ebony to come falling down as well, but she never comes. “Ebony?” she calls out.
“Go to the ship and tell Captain what’s happening. I’ll stay here and give these guys something to chase after,” Ebony calls from the other side.
“But--”
“You are going to listen to the first-mate,” Ebony says firmly.
There is a pause while Ebony waits for an argument or lack there-of. “We’ll be fast,” she hears from the other side of the wall. Ebony smiles to herself then turns her full attention onto the soldiers around her.
“Monster!” one of the soldiers shouts as he charges at her. She quickly blasts him with a bolt of green fire, he slumps to the ground at the edge of the semicircle. Some gasps come from the crowd, but soon that death just fuels their anger and fear. A few of them start shuffling closer.
Been a while since I was last like this, wonder how strong I am. Her green aura surrounds several weapons in the crowd, including the sword of the soldier she had blasted. They start pulling on their weapons to free them from her grasp. As more and more weapons are pulled out of the aura she strengthens those that remain. By the time over half of them pull their weapons free, she pulls the last of the weapons to her putting them in an orbit around her made of two swords and a spear.
A buzzing sound vibrates through the air. Her insect-like wings become blurs and she starts raising into the air. She smirks down at the soldiers. Let’s see what I can really do. No Queen, who thinks I’m useless, giving me suicide orders, no reason to hold back. The soldiers give each other nervous looks, a few of them run inside the building to most likely get some firearms.
Willow pulls Tide through the underbrush. She leads her around a tree, but trips on one of the roots. She lies on the ground for a few seconds trying to catch her breath. This won’t work. It would take me an hour to get back, it’ll take me even longer since I have to drag her along. She looks over at Tide, she’s lying a few feet away looking the other way. “We can’t make it,” Willow says. Tide stirs a little she rolls over and looks at Willow. “We won’t make it in time, it’ll take us at least an hour to get back to the ship, she won’t survive that long.”
Willow gets onto her hooves. “Get up,” she says. Tide looks at her for a moment then she rolls back onto her side. “Listen, the only reason she’s in there is because she wanted to help you, you could try to repay the favor.” Tide rolls back over onto her stomach.
“But--”
“Nothing, we risked our lives for your father. You could help me to try and save Ebony at least.”
There is a long pause while they stare at eachother. Tide lifts herself off the ground. “What’s the plan?”
“You go to the ship, I don’t care how just get there. I’m going back.”
“You think the two of you can fight off a whole army?”
“No, I’m just not going to let her die alone.”
“What’s going on?” They both jump back and start looking around frantically. Willow looks up into the trees and see a familiar griffon perched on a branch.
“Craven, what are you doing here?” Willow asks.
“Captain got a little restless and got a few of us to patrol the area and make sure no one found the ship.” He looks between the two of them for a moment. “Where’s Ebony?”
“Go tell Captain she’s in trouble.”
“What happened?”
“We don’t have the time, just go get him! We’ll meet up with you at the fort.”
Ebony jumps behind around the corner of the building, a bullet ricochets off the stone wall. She turns around in time to block a strike using one of the swords in her magical grasp. Her wings buzz to life once again and she takes to the air letting the soldier fall on his face. She flies over the roof of the building and launches the spear at a sniper. The other two snipers fire at her. One of the swords deflects a bullet while the other bullet shoots past her head.
She ducks down below the roof, but still out of reach of the soldiers waiting below. She fires a volley of magic bolts into the crowd. A few gunshots ring out through the air, two bullets hit the wall behind before she spots a few of the soldiers with pistol. A few more gunshots ring out, a burst of pain shoots through her left shoulder. She flaps her wings faster and goes back over the roof, she sends the two swords flying at the snipers. The swords sink into their chests before they have time to fire off another shot.
She lands on the roof with a sigh. She looks at her shoulder the injury isn’t severe, her carapace stopped the worst of it, but blood still streams down her leg. Wonder if they’re far enough away. She levitates the rifles over to her. Can’t run, still wouldn’t make it too far. She hears the beating of wings, she swings the rifle around at aims it at the ledge. She fires off a shot just as the pegasus pokes his head of the side. The bullet punches through his ear and he falls to the ground with a scream. She throws the rifle to the side and grabs the other one.
How am I still alive? Sure, I can fly and use magic, but that only does so much. I should be lying face-down in the grass by now. How am I stronger than most changelings? She hears someone coming up the stairs. She rolls over barely avoiding a bullet flying from the doorway to the roof. She swigs the rifle around and takes a quick shot hitting him in the hind leg. Her magic once again reaches out to any nearby weapons and brings them to her.
Out of the corner of her eye she spots the mast of Misfortune sticking up above the wall. Captain! She fires a volley of swords and spears at the ponies at the doorway. Some of them manage to take cover behind stone bricks, kegs of gunpowder, and further down the stairs. Green flames surround her and soon she is a beige pegasus once again.
With a few flaps of her wings she’s in the air again. She looks back toward the dock as Misfortune pulls up next to the docked brig. Soldiers begin to notice the ship, but it’s too late. The cannons roar and flames burst out of the barrels. The cannonballs rip apart the deck of the docked ship and smash into the wall of the fort. Most of the soldiers that had been waiting for Ebony are gone and well out of the firing range. Ebony flies over to Misfortune and lands with a pained grunt.
“I see your plan went well,” Captain says.
“How did you--”
“Craven found Willow and Tide running through the jungle. He flew back told me then made two more trips to pick them up.” She looks at Willow, Tide is nowhere above deck. Willow doesn’t seem to notice Ebony’s gaze. Another burst of fire shoots out of the cannons and slam into the wall of the fort. “How about we go to my cabin and you tell me what happened?”