Chapter 26
Captain smiles as his new cannons rip through the hull of the celestial brig. He watches the ship sink below the waves. Once the masts submerge under the waves he turns to Smokey. “Good job with the cannons.” Smokey flashes him a quick grin. “Now get to work reloading them.”
“Sure thing, Cap.”
“You too Starry, charge up those magic things.”
She sighs and shakes her head as her horn glows a dark blue. Ebony looks over at the unicorn as she goes plays the events of the previous night in her head.
“So, let’s try this again, what are you?” Starry asks.
Ebony takes a small step back. Not much use hiding it, she thinks with a sigh. Green flames surround her as her beige coat changes to a black chitin and her red mane changes to a blueish green one. The flames die down giving Starry full view of the changeling.
Starry flinches back, but holds her ground and shakes her head. “No matter how much you expect it,” she mumbles. “So, you are a changeling, I was hoping it would be a coincidence, but it looks like it’s not. Where’s Ebony?”
“I-I’m Ebony, the real Ebony.”
“How did you convince me to join the crew?”
“What?”
“Prove that you’re Ebony.”
“I… I promised you more money than you could dream of.”
“Alright, it’s you.” Starry stands up and starts pacing the dock. She mumbles something to herself every so often. She continues to do this for several minutes. She stops and turns to Ebony. “What’s your game? Why would a changeling join a group of pirates? There’s nothing to gain, no information and assuming the rumors of you feeding off of love is true, there’s not much of that unless you plan on stealing Arrel.”
“I… Captain saved my life. He saved it even though he knew I was a changeling. He saved my life by himself while my queen left me to die. I owe him my life.”
“Why should I trust you?”
A green aura surrounds Starry’s sword. Ebony pulls it out of the wood and drops it by Starry’s hooves. “I didn’t kill you while you were talking to yourself even though you figure out I’m a changeling.”
She sighs and starts pacing again. “So, Captain knows?”
“Yes.”
“What about the others?”
“No. Please don’t tell them, I’ll tell them in time, but not right now.”
Starry stops pacing with a sigh. She sheaths her sword. “Fine, but I’ll keep my eyes on you.”
“Are you alright?” Captain asks.
Ebony blinks a couple of times as she comes back to reality. She looks around to find they haven’t moved much since sinking the ship. She shakes her head. “Yeah, I’m fine, just thinking about something.”
“Does it have anything to do with yesterday?”
“Yeah, kinda.”
“Captain, there’s a boat off the starboard side!” Arrel shouts from the crow’s nest.
Captain raises an eyebrow and goes over to the rail. He see a small dot on the water not too far from the shore. The boat can’t be any bigger than a rowboat. Though the boat seems to be avoiding Misfortune oddly enough. He takes out his spyglass to take a better look. Six deer are trying to row their way out to sea while casting nervous glances at the pirate ship.
“Unfurl the sails.”
“They’re not sailors, they’d know that boat will be ripped apart in the open sea. Don’t seem to be in danger either since they’re heading away from us,” Ebony says.
“Deer.”
“Deer? They might be from one of the villages around here, but why would they be going out to sea?”
“How about we ask them? Willow, come over here, we might need ya.”
The ship quickly catches up to the boat. The deer in it begin to draw their weapons as the ship closes in on them. They begin shouting at the crew in a language they don’t understand. Willow sticks her head over the rail and starts talking to them roughly in the same language.
“Something the matter?” Captain calls over. The deer start shouting at him again, Willow tries to translate what Captain said.
The deer look among themselves they start talking again but in a more hushed tone. After a minute of talking between them they turn to Willow and start talking to her in the same language. Willow looks back at Captain. “Uh, they say pirates are attacking their village. They say something about a, uh… raining death,” she says, trying to be heard over the deer who are still talking.
“Raining death, do they mean cannons?”
“Maybe and they keep mentioning something about winds,” she says rubbing her chin.
Captain narrows his eyes at Willow. “Tell them we’ll help, but they have to show us where.”
“Yes, Captain.”
The crew, except for Smokey and Twigs, follow the group of deer on a dirt path through the jungle. Captain glances around the path, he begins to see bodies lying amongst the trees. He approaches one, a pony with a cutlass lying a few hooves away, an arrow is stuck through his neck. A few more corpses hang from branches and hidden in bushes, along with quite a few deer corpses as well. The further into the jungle they go the more bodies they find.
Soon they leave the path and begin walking through the dense underbrush. They stop at a treeline at the edge of a clearing. Small houses and tents are places throughout the clearing though most are on fire. A group of deer is gathered in the middle of the clearing surrounded by pirates on all sides. Captain can make out a familiar black flag poking out above the trees further out. Towards the other end of the clearing a light grey pegasus with a dull red mane sits at the top of an archer’s tower.
“So, what’s the plan, Captain?” Ebony asks from his side. Captain doesn’t answer, instead he continues to stare ahead at the pirates. Ebony feels a growing amount of anger coming from him. She looks over at him, there is a familiar type of anger burning behind his eyes, the same kind as when he almost crashed Kingfisher at Hayvana. “Captain, we can’t just go--” Before she can finish Captain stands up a walks out of the bush and walks straight for the pirates.
The pirates turn to him in surprise. A few of them take a couple of steps back. After a moment of indecision several of the pirates walk up to Captain to try and surround him. The group of deer use the distraction to sneak out of the circle and toward the jungle. One of the pirates charges Captain. Captain comes to a stop and swings a punch at the charging pirate, the pirate is sent tumbling across the ground. The grey pegasus flies over and lands between Captain and the rest of the pirates. The rest of Captain’s crew comes out of the brush and follows him.
“Would you look at who it is, boys. Cabin boy is back and he has a new crew.”
“Cabin boy?” Ebony asks.
“Would you want to call your enemy ‘Captain’?” Captain says.
“You’re not much of a captain anyways,” taunts the pegasus.
“You’re not much of a first mate, Gale.”
“That’s because I’m a captain now and a heck of a better one than you at that.”
“Captain, what’s going on?” Ebony asks.
“Ebony, this is Gale, he was an old friend.”
Cannonfire from the Sea King rings out through the air ripping a large hole in the merchant ship. Rowboats are lowered to the water while the rest of the sailors jump into them. By the time the water begins to raise over the deck all the boats are in the water. Gale smiles and looks out over the the destruction. “Take out the rest,” Gale says. He finds his smile growing as the cannons rip apart what is left of the rowboats. Sharks are going to be happy, he thinks. “Fish up what loot you can. Kill the survivors, if you find any.”
Gale spreads his wings and flies over to the helm. Before he can grab it he hears heavy hoofsteps coming toward him. He sighs and faces Captain. “I told you to leave them alone,” Captain says through gritted teeth.
“Listen, you might not think that we can loot ships while we make a delivery, but the boys disagree. They don’t think that favors are good pay so they want actual money. They also don’t like your idea of having the army on our asses and quite frankly neither do I. You can’t let everyone live, Captain. We had to kill them or they would have told the navy where we are.”
“We didn’t have to kill them.”
“Captain, the men are doubting you. They think you’re weak and unfit to be in command of the ship.”
“We didn’t have to kill them.”
“Captain," Gale sighs shaking his head. "We’re not kids anymore, we’re not playing pirate. This is the real world and if you don’t take it seriously you’ll end up being killed and getting everyone who follows you killed! Captain, I’m telling you this because we’re friends. I don’t want to watch you die.”
“I promised Silk...”
“Yes, I know, but you have to face the fact that nobody gets what they want by being nice. If we want something we have to take it.”
Captain glares at him for a while. After a minute or two he looks over at the sun slowly descending over the horizon. “Whatever, let’s just finish this delivery. If we happen to meet with anyone you’re to leave them alone. I’m gonna go to bed.”
Gale sighs as he walks off. One of the other sailors comes up to him. “So?”
“He’s not going to change, he’s too stubborn.”
Captain shifts around in his bed the waves doing little to calm him this night. Captain jams his eyes shut and pull the covers a little closer. After a few moments he sighs and gives up. He walks over the the window and looks at the reflection of the moon of the silver water.
He hears some shouting and scuffling coming from outside his door. Drunken idiots… means something when it’s coming from me. He hears more shouting which quickly turns to a scream followed by something falling to the deck. Captain raises an eyebrow and grabs his sword. He pushes the door open, Gale and the majority of his crew stand on the other side. The bodies of two of his sailors lie on the deck, pools of blood forming around them.
“What’s the meaning of this?”
Gale steps forward. “Sorry, Cap-- sorry. Me and the men have been talking, we all agree that I’d make a better captain than you.”
“So, a mutiny, huh?”
“I tried to warn you, but you wouldn’t do what’s best for them. So, now we’re taking the ship,” Gale says. He gestures to a rowboat on the starboard side. “Get in.”
Captain readies his sword. “I think I’ll pile your bodies over there.”
“You can’t think you can beat us all. You’re lucky I convinced them to let you live, let alone have a boat. Please just get in and leave.”
Captain looks at the boat then back at Gale. “Do you really think you can command a ship?”
“Move it, Cabin boy!” Gale shouts.
Captain glares at Gale. “Make me.” Gale sighs and he crouches closer to the deck.
"Get into the boat, I don't want to kill you."
"Don't worry, you won't," Captain says. He blinks as he realizes he’s staring at an afterimage. He feel something tackle into him from his right. He falls to the ground and his sword skids across the deck. The crew gather up around him, they pick him up and throw him off the ship.
He crashes into the waves and quickly makes his way to the surface. Just as he breaks the surface he sees the rowboat falling toward him. He dives under the water barely avoiding the boat. He climbs over the side and lies in the boat. He spots Gale flying above him, he watches him fly back to Sea King as the ship sails off toward the horizon.
“After that a merchant found me and brought me back to Hayvana,” Captain says.
“What a touching story,” Gale says.
“What are you doing here?” Captain sighs.
“The one thing you were never able to, making money. These deer have lived here for years, they must know where there’s something valuable.”
Captain looks at the bodies that dot the clearing. “And they wouldn’t tell you?”
“It’s not that they won’t tell me it’s just that these stupid savages don’t know what I’m saying.” He looks over at Willow. “I see you have one of them, give her to me and I’ll let you live.”
“How about you fight me. One on one, no other crew members allowed.”
“Why should I? I have the bigger crew.”
“Because you’ve already lost too many,” Captain says gesturing to the bodies. “Sea King takes a good sized grew to manage it. If we all fight you’ll be stuck on the island.”
Gale looks back at his crew, but he already knows Captain’s right. “We’re not kids anymore, you won’t be able to beat me. You weren’t even able to keep up when we fought that night.”
“Making excuses not to fight? I always figured you were related to a chicken somehow.”
Gale glares at him. “You always thought you were stronger than everyone.” He draws his sword and flaps his wings so he is hovering a few hooves above the ground. “I won’t hold back; if you draw that sword I’ll cut you apart.”
“Captain, let us deal with them,” Ebony says
“Now let’s see who the real captain is.” Captain draws his sword. Gale disappears, a large gash opens on Captain’s side, Gale reappears behind him.
“Captain!” Ebony shouts.
Captain ignores the pain from his side and turns to face Gale. With a flap of his wings Gale disappears again and slashes across Captain’s back. He doubles back, Captain blocks the strike as Gales flies by. Gale quickly circles around and tackles Captain right where the gash he made is. Captain falls to the ground with a sharp gasp, Gale lands in front of him. “Sorry, but you were never a match for me.”
Gale spots Howler and Arrel drawing their weapons. He crouches lower to the ground and flares his wings. “You really want to fight me?”
“You better believe it,” Captain says as he lifts himself off the ground.
Gale looks over at him with a small amount of disbelief. “You still think you can--” Captain punches the ground before he can finish. Large cracks spread across the ground as sections of it become uneven. Gale loses his footing and stumbles forward. He flaps his wings and flies back avoiding an uppercut from Captain. Gale looks at the crater in shock. “So you’ve gotten stronger as well. No matter, you’re still no match.” He charges captain again, shock passes through his mind as Captain meets his blade with his own. Captain puts his weight behind the blade and sends Gale tumbling through the air.
Gale tucks in his wings and rolls over so he’s facing the way he’s heading. He spreads his wings he shoots off into the jungle. A few seconds later he comes flying out opposite of where he entered. Captain turns around and deflects the strike from behind, Gale tumbles to the ground. “You’re fast, you’ve always been faster than anyone I’ve ever know. But, you’re weak, these wounds are shallow. The only way for you to win is to hope I bleed out before I get a good hit on you.”
Gale gets up from the ground. “We’ll see how though you are when I give your body to the sharks.” He takes off into the air, soon he is nothing more than a dot in the sunny sky. Just as quickly as he had left the dot begins to become bigger as Gale races at Captain. He wields his sword in front of him as he makes a beeline for Captain. The swords collide and the force pushes Captain back as his hooves skid across the ground. Once he’s done skidding Captain raises onto his hindlegs, towering above Gale and shoves him into the ground with his forehoof.
Gale deflects Captain’s sword and rolls to the side as Captain’s forehoof crash into the ground. Gale takes to the air and is at the other side of the clearing in no time. Captain pulls his sword out of the ground and stumbles to the side slightly. His vision is beginning to fade and he’s starting to feel light headed. He looks at his side, now completely red from the long cut, he follows the trail of blood to the middle of the clearing. Have to end this now.
Gale flies straight at Captain, sword pointed ahead. Captain swings his sword at the pegasus. Blood splatters onto the ground as metal cuts through flesh. Gale tumbles to the ground, his sword skids along the ground a few hooves away from him. He quickly jumps to his hooves and grabs his sword. He jumps into the air, but falls to the ground not far away. He looks at his side and his eyes go wide as he looks at the stub that used to be a wing.
“My wing! You cut off my wing!”
“Don’t blame me, I was aiming at your head, but you were moving too much. Anyways, let’s see how hard it is to kill you without your wings.”
Gale looks at his stub then back at Captain. He looks at his crew in desperation. “Help me back to the ship, we’re getting outta here!”
Howler takes a step forward and draws his sword. “Don’t,” Captain says as Gale and his crew run toward the jungle. “Let him go; I owe him that much after he let me live.”
“Thank you for your help,” says one of the deer. “I’m afraid we have nothing to offer you though…”
“You can talk? Forget it, you don’t have to pay me.” Captain turns and starts limping down the path to his ship. “Ebony, I might need some patching up.”
“You don’t say…”
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5521680 Right, sorry if I didn't bother doing too much research into the tails of ponies. Just ignore it. Of course I could simply stab it through her foreleg.