Chapter 37
Slowly, Captain comes back to reality. The sounds on the sea lapping on the sandy beach reaches him before even before he knows his awake. He can feel the sand beneath him, can smell the salt in the air, but still doesn’t want to open his eyes. Rolling onto his back, every part of him aches and pains, there is a particularly bad pain in his gut. While on his back the midday sun easily shines through his eyelids.
He groans and rolls back onto his side. But, his hooves touch something. It feels familiar, smooth and hard, but there is a sharp edge every so often. There is a giggle and it moves. “Having fun?”
His eyes shoot open at the sound of Ebony’s voice. The changeling is lying next to him, her hoof wrapped around Captain’s. She’s not dead, hurt, or even bruised, she’s just lying next to him smiling. She giggles at him again, something akin to what a siren might sing, and she leans over and gives him a kiss on the forehead. “You sounded troubled, so I thought I’d give something to smile about.”
Looking around he sees the Misfortune floating just off the shore, though he can’t see anyone onboard. He watches the slow bobbing of the ship as his memories start to catch up. Gale getting a god-weapon, helping Rose, chasing Gale, a wave ripping into the harbor, the wave grabbing Ebony out of the air. “Are you okay?” Captain asks. He tries to get up but his body screams in protest and he simply groans and slumps back onto the sand.
Ebony scoots closer to him, and runs her hoof through his mane. “I’m fine… for now.”
“Wha… what happened?” Ebony stops and lies back down next to him.
“Well, you beat Gale, threw the trident to sea, then the military moved in. Their cannonfire knocked you out and sent you falling into the sea. The navy started fishing everyone out of the sea and arresting them. But, they were never able to find you,” Ebony says. Captain waits for her to continue, but she just stares up at the sky.
“Then what?”
She takes a deep breath. “That has yet to be seen.”
Captain takes a moment process the information. “What do you mean?” he finally asks.
Ebony sigh and scratches the back of her head. “Well, you’re not quite alive.” Captain goes to question the fact that he’s still talking, but she cuts him off. “You’re not dead either though. This is a kind of… waiting area, where we wait to see whether you live or not.”
“So… I was actually stabbed?” To answer Ebony nods. “Does that mean you’re--”
“No… er, well I don’t actually know. Hopefully not, but I can’t be sure. I’m just a form you subconscious has chosen…” she trails off as her eyes drift back to Captain. “To put in terms you’ll understand, I’m what you want you have chosen to see before you die.”
“So, you’re not the real Ebony?”
“No.”
“And you don’t know if she’s safe?”
“I know about as much as you do, so no.” Captain gets back onto his hooves, ignoring the pain. ‘Ebony’ watches him with a mix of concern and confusion. “What exactly are you doing?”
“Ebony is out there, and could be in trouble. I’m not just going to lie down when she could need help.”
“Why? You can just stay here forever. Sleeping on a small island next to your lover for all eternity,” ‘Ebony’ says.
“Because you’re not the real one. I want Ebony, my Ebony, the Ebony who could be in danger right now.”
‘Ebony’ looks up at him with an amused smile. Captain waits for her to say something more, but she simply smiles up at him. He frowns and takes a step toward her. There is a boom from overhead and the ground shakes almost causing him to fall forward. “Good, you’re not exactly the only one who wants you awake.” Another thunderous boom and the ground shakes again, part of the island slips down into the sea.
Captain tries to balance himself, but another quake and he falls flat on his face, he hears another section of the island sink. He waits for the quake to stop, but this one persists. After a moment of waiting another section sinks and he feels water splash against his legs. He tries to get to his hooves, but once his gets up the island falls from under him.
He jolts awake with a scream. Waking up he was expecting to come to on a sandy beach, but instead finds himself on a bed. The room smells vaguely like apples and rum. Down near the end of the room is a dresser with some blood-covered, muddy saddlebags on the floor in front of it. How did I get to Rose’s? A commotion downstairs catches his attention.
Captain tries to sit up, but a massive pain in his gut cause him to flop back down onto the bed. Someone thunders up the stairs, clearly not caring about the amount of sound they’re making. The door bursts open and it slams into the wall leaving a little dent, and to his surprise a light brown earth pony runs into the room. Flint skids to a stop next to him. “Are you okay, what happened?”
Captain blinks a few times trying to make sure that his brother is, in fact, there. “I’m fine,” Captain says weakly. He tries sitting up again, and manages to get about halfway before he feels like he’ll black out again. Flint passing him back down onto the bed doesn’t help much either.
“Lay down, you damn near died! You are going to get some rest.”
“Stop that,” Captain wheezes out. “If anything you’ll kill me.”
“Oh, toughen up,” Rose says as she limps up the stairs, a pink colored mare walks next to her helping. Tide helps Rose to the foot of the bed. “You fought a drake, he shouldn’t possibly hurt you, sweetie.”
Captain rubs his head and tries sitting up again and finally managing this time. “What are you all doing here, and where’s my crew, where’s Ebony?” A tense silence quickly fills the room as the three others look between each other. It’s clear they’re trying to figure out who should tell him, but none of them seem too thrilled by it.
Finally after several seconds of silent argument Rose clears her throat. “She… they were caught by the navy. They’re now imprisoned at Hayvana awaiting execution. The navy has blockaded the harbor and is stopping anyone from getting in.”
“What!” Captain jumps onto his hooves, but just ends up falling on the floor with a pained scream. Tide and Flint rush over to help him up.
“Calm down, sweetie, you can’t help them if you die trying to get up.”
Flint lifts him back onto the bed. “They should be fine, for now. They are probably being tried now, their execution aren’t for a little while,” he says. “What you need to do now is get some rest and leave it to me.”
“No, I need to save them!” Captain shouts thrashing against Flint completely ignoring the pain it’s causing.
“You damn near died! You are in no shape to move, much less fight the navy!”
“But, I can’t lose them! I don’t want to lose another family,” Captain says as he stops thrashing. “I lost my parents, I lost Silk, I lost you and Gale. I can’t lose them!”
Flint pins him down by the shoulders. “And you think you’re going to beat the entire navy in your condition?”
“Yes! I don’t care if I’m missing a my bucking legs, nothing’s going to get in my way. I’m not losing another family.”
Flint stares down at him, but eventually sighs and lets him go. “Alright then, but you had better damn well have a heck of a plan if you plan on getting out alive with them.”
“I’ll come up with one,” Captain says getting back onto his hooves. “Besides, you owe me for the help with that hostage situation.”
Flint chuckles having completely forgotten about the little adventure. “You don’t need to call me up on that favor. I’m still your brother, my job to make sure you have a happy ending. You have the full support of me, my crew, and my ship.”
Captain pauses for a moment. “You sure? I only need to to let me try, you don’t have to give me the ship. You can stay in the navy.”
“Bah! Screw them, they’re not as important as my brother. Besides I only joined so I could track Gallows.” Flint heads back to the stairs to prep the ship and crew. “Also, you only get the help if you get some bucking rest. You still won’t be able to fight, but at least you won’t keel over at a moment’s notice.” With that warning he heads down the stairs. Tide helps Rose over to the stairs as well, but once they get there Rose reassure her she’ll be fine.
Leaving the two of them. “Right, lay down, I’m going to have to patch up some of those wounds after all the flailing you did,” Tide says walking over to the dresser and a small box of bottles.
“Why are you here? Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad glad for the help, but I never expected to see you again,” Captain says sitting back down onto the bed.
“I’m the one who saved you. While I was swimming I found you and got you onto your brother’s ship. Thanks for getting the trident back, by the way.” She walks back to the bed with a vial of some sort of salve.
“You were swimming in the middle of a naval battle?”
Tide puts some salve on the bandages and starts wrapping it around the worst of the wounds. “I’m a seapony.” She chuckles when Captain whips around to face her. “You never really bothered to know me when we first met. I was there to help get the trident back, or at least try to.”
“Okay then,” Captain says rubbing his head. “So, we are you still here? You could have left me with Flint and went on your way. But, you’re here with a pirate captain, a traitor, and a bar owner.”
She sighs and closes the vial again. “Well, I want to help get them back then join your crew. Ebony risked her life the try and save that of my father and mine, I plan on paying her back. Plus, I want a little revenge on the navy.”
Captain nods going back to his times with Ebony. “Yeah, you’re not the only one who owes their life to her.”
They hear the sound of hooves clopping against the wooden steps. Rose comes through the doorway carrying two bottles in her mouth. She throws one to Captain. “Nice to see you two getting along,” she says opening her own bottle.
“You really shouldn’t be drinking,” Tide says scowling at Captain as he opens his bottle.
“Oh no! Everything is starting to hurt again, I need something to kill the pain. Oh, but the only painkiller I have is this bottle of rum,” Rose says then tip her bottle up and takes a drink. When she lowers the bottle she smiles at Tide. “Of course there is another way you can make me feel better, but Captain is in my bed right now.”
“Have fun drinking.”
Rose smiles and raises her bottle in a cheers then looks at Captain. “So, do you actually have a plan? Because that would be a good place to start.”
“I think I might have an idea, but I’ll need some help getting everything ready.”
“This is stupid! There is no way that I can do that!” Tide complains as she, Captain and Rose make their way to the docks. Nightmare’s Revenge sits at the end of the docks while it’s crew loads supplies into it, mostly cannonballs and kegs of black powder.
“Sweetie, do you somehow think attacking the most defended fort in the Carriagebean is a good one?” Rose asks sarcastically. Captain raises an eyebrow at her. “Oh, don’t worry, I’m still with you, sweetie. Already wrote those letters in fact.”
“That’s the problem with your idea! Why are you even going, if what you say about him is true than you don’t even need to go, they’ll be perfectly fine.”
“I do have to go, I need to show the navy what happens when they piss me off,” Captain says.
“Shock and awe, I like it! Making everything you do big, loud and flashy is the best thing you can possibly do,” Rose says with a gleeful smile.
“You’re both crazy,” Tide says shaking her head.
Captain shrugs and continues onto the dock. “Yeah, but you have to be if you want to be part of the crew.”
“Fine, I’ll do it, but I don’t guarantee that I can get it.” Tide groans and jumps into the water. Rose watches her swim out to sea when she looks back Captain is walking up the gangplank onto the ship.
“Honestly, I was hoping you’d just let me handle this. But, I’m not surprised that you’re actually coming,” Flint says. He gestures to the captain’s quarters. “You might as well get comfy, the ship’s almost loaded.”
Flintlock pulls out his spyglass as Nightmare’s Revenge slowly approaches Hayvana. Two frigates and a brig are anchored just at the entrance to the harbor. Two brigs patrol the area just outside the entrance. Great, three brigs and two frigates against my galleon. He watches the ships for a few more seconds in hopes of gleaning more information, but ultimately puts the spyglass away.
He casts a quick glance up at the darkening sky. The distant rumble of thunder can be heard over the waves.
“You guys are gonna have some fun,” Flint says to Sandstone.
“Not that I don’t trust your brother… actually that’s exactly it. He doesn’t exactly seem like the sharpest cutlass out there, and I fear his already poor judgement might be cloud by his emotions. Do you believe this plan will work?”
“You’re right, he’s not the smartest, but he is the most determined fellow I know. He won’t let anything stand in his way. Really, your part of the plan is simple, difficult, but simple. He only added our little part for a bit of vengeance. So yeah, I trust this plan will work, so long as you do your part well.”
“Gee, thanks, I’ll go start preparing that mutiny now.”
Flint laughs and hits Sandy on the back. “Why would you do that, I ain’t gonna be on the ship much longer!” He looks back at the ships. “I’ll go wake Captain now.” As he walks away he hears Sandy mumbling something about stupid names.
Captain is sleeping on the bed when Flint walks in, the sound of the stallion’s hooves against the deck wake him. He rubs his eyes to clear the blurriness of sleep. When he looks again he find Flint at his side trying to help him up. “Come on, we’re going be arriving soon. Time to show everyone what happens when the mess with our family.”
Flintlock gives a quick salute to the captain of one of the blockade frigates. Neither ship makes a move to stop them and Nightmare’s Revenge just sails through. He lets out a sigh once the ships are behind him. “Right, dock her up until me and Captain on the docks, then you guys wait for the signal.”
One of the crew knocks on the door to the cabin letting Captain know the coast is clear. He comes out with Flintlock’s large sword on his back. Flintlock slings his sword onto his back and starts toward the railing. “I might not be able to stop you, but at least I’ll be there to watch your back.”
Captain grins walking up next to him. “Yeah you’ll be watching my back, as I leave you in the dust and cut my way through any soldier that tries to stop me.”
Flintlock punches him in the shoulder with a hearty laugh. “I’d be afraid to see how strong you are when you’re in good health if that’s the case.” The ship pulls up next to the dock and some crew lower a gangplank to the dock. Further down Tide trots up the wooden planks toward the ship. Her mane and tail are soaking wet and clinging to her coat.
“Good to see you finally came, I was beginning to wonder if you had bailed on your stupid plan,” she says once she’s within earshot.
“From the looks of it, you didn’t get here too long ago either,” Captain says walking down the plank with a little help from Flint. He gives her a quick once over and frowns. “You don’t have it?”
“Yes, I got it,” Tide groans. “But I can’t exactly carry it with me in town, especially after what happened yesterday.”
“So, where is it?” Captain asks. Tide sighs and jumps into the water. A minute later Tides hoof reaches over the edge of the dock holding a trident. Captain grabs the trident while Flint helps her up.
“Thanks,” Tide quickly says to Flint. “You’re lucky you got that, took a lot of convincing to for them to... lend it to you. But, it’s best if it’s returned quickly.”
“One more stop,” he says heading into the to city.
“Thank you for the help,” Flint says to a guard. He gives a quick smile and walks back the way came. His smile turns to a sly smirk once he turns the corner to where the other two are waiting. Captain arches an eyebrow at him. “Over that way,” he says nudging his head further down the road. “Not far, we’re looking for a three story, brick house. He said there’s a store across the street from it.”
“When you said we’d be looking for the pony that you don’t know where they live, I figured it would be harder than this,” Tide says following behind Captain. There are few ponies out on the streets due to the coming storm, much to the benefit of the mismatched crew.
Flintlock’s smirk stays as he simply shrugs. “As far as anyone here is knows, I’m still a captain of the navy. Don’t worry, it’s not gonna last long.”
Tide frowns at him. “I wish you didn’t say that like it’s a good thing.” Much to her annoyance the only reply she gets is a chuckle from him.
They continue to walk in relative silence for the next couple moments. Tide and Captain simply follow behind Flintlock, seeing as to how he’s the only one that knows his way around. To them the buildings all seem the same, all made of brick with flat roofs. Abruptly, he stops and shoots a quick glance across the street.
After a moment he says, “This should be the place.” Captain looks up at it, but immediately decides it looks the exact same as every other. So, instead he heads inside and starts searching for the right apartment. Flintlock heads up the stairs followed by the other two. “Here we are,” he says nudging his head toward the door to their right.
Captain knocks on the door, making it rattle on it’s hinges. “One moment,” a female voice calls from the other side. A moment later there is a click as the door is unlocked and it swings open. “I’m sorry, but I wasn’t…” the green colored mare trials off when she see Captain.
“You said you helped work on the fort?” Captain asks.
Jade quickly shakes herself out of the minor daze coming back to focus on the pirate in front of her. “What are you doing here? Why are you in Hayvana, at my home?” The stallion only glares back at her. Realization dawns on her and she facehoofs. “No, I’m not helping you free your crew!”
“Even though we saved you?”
“I can’t be seen helping pirates. I live here, I have a life, I don’t want to dragged into whatever you’re doing,” Jade says starting to pace.
Captain waits for her to calm down, but soon realizes that that’s not going to happen. “Fine, just give us the plans to the fort and we’ll leave.”
Jade stops pacing long enough to gawk at him. “No! In case you don’t remember I was kidnapped by pirates. I’m not going to help any pira--” A quick punch from Captain silences her and send her falling to the ground.
“Right, start searching to the plans to the fort,” he says stepping around the unconscious mare.
After finding the plans, and the best way to sneak into the fort, Tide left Captain and Flintlock to start preparing the Misfortune. Meanwhile Captain and Flintlock sneak alongside the fort looking for a drainage tunnel they had found in the plans. Captain pauses for a moment to look at the crowd gathering in front of the gallows. “Looks like they’re getting ready to hang someone,” Flintlock says.
Pushing through the brush Captain and Flintlock soon find the the iron grate at the base of the wall. The bars are rusted and look rather frail. Two guards stand nearby, presumably to stop anyone from escaping through it, or entering.
Captain stumbles out of the bush toward the two guards, Flint stands back and watches. “Stop there!” one of the guards shouts at him. This catches the other ones attention.
“Wher… where am I? Ah thought me home was somewheres over here…” Captain slurs, staggering his steps.
The guards walk up to him. “Get outta here, drun--” Captain’s hoof connects with the guard’s head. The guard’s head smacks into the wall of the fort and he falls to the ground completely limp. The other guard goes for his sword, but Captain quickly delivers an uppercut his chest. There is a loud snap and the guard is sent falling several hooves away.
He breathes out and walks over to the grate. It looks wide enough for him, might be a bit of a squeeze with the trident on his back. Looking over at Flintlock he finds his brother walking toward the front gate. “Where are you going?”
Flintlock pauses giving Captain a smug grin. “Well, I’m going into the fort. I’m still a captain in this navy and I don’t have to go crawling through sewers. Have fun.” With that Flintlock leaves.
Captain sighs and goes back to the grate, easily breaking the bar with a swift buck. He takes a deep breath trying to ignore the stench. Don’t worry Ebony, I’m coming. He climbs into the tunnel and starts crawling along on his stomach.
A growing feeling of claustrophobia builds in his chest. Small bits of rock and dust fall down onto the back of his neck, a constant scraping resounds through the tunnel. He takes a deep breath to calm down his nerves, but immediately regrets it as he gets a lungful of the rancid air. A bit further down the tunnel he eventually learns that the sound and the dust are from the trident scrapping along the tunnel.
After a few minutes of crawling the tunnel becomes more and more vertical, and soon he has to brace himself to keep moving forward. The good thing is that he can see light coming from a small grate above him. A few strong punches later and the grate comes out and gives way for Captain to get out.
The prisoners stare in confusion as Captain crawls out of the sewer grate and into the dungeon. He pauses for a moment and tries to work the trident out without it catching on the sides. Once out he takes a quick look at the cells around him, quickly finding that none of them hold his crew. Soon the prisoners get over their confusion and start shouting for help.
“Get us out!”
“Quickly before the guard comes.”
Captain sighs and looks at the closest cell of pirates. “Fine, tell me where the changeling is and I’ll let you out.”
“Changeling? Oh, right, the changeling. Let me out and I’ll tell you.”
“How about you tell me first?”
The prisoner opens his mouth to talk but the sound of hoofsteps on the stone stairs. Some of them go quiet while the other shout louder to try and convince him. Captain swings the trident into his hooves and stands his ground. Flintlock comes around the corner, shooting a quick glare at the prisoners. “Come on Captain, don’t waste your time. Ebony’s on her way to the gallows as we speak, I saw them being escorted on the way there.”
Captain nods and trots to the stairs. Out of the corner of his eye he spots Gale lying on the floor, unconscious and hurt. He pauses for a moment and looks in at his old friend. Flintlock’s hooves snap him out of it and he follows behind his brother. “Luckily for you, it’s raining out there. You could really use the wash,” Flint says breathing out through his nose to try and rid the smell.
“How long do they have?” Captain asks.
“A couple of minutes, long enough.” They walk past an unconscious guard. “Yeah, we don’t have much time either, I wasn’t exactly very stealthy. But, if they do find us they might postpone the execution.”
“When they’re busy with us it might be a good enough distraction for Ebony and the crew to make their escape.”
“Your plan doesn’t leave much room for them to try and escape on their own,” Flint points out. He peers around a corner, he quickly presses against the wall and draws his sword. As the guard walks past the stairs looking down at the two captains, Flint bashes the guard between the eyes with the backend of the sword. “Stealth is overrated,” Flint mumbles slinging the sword onto his back.
Two floors further up they come to a door that leads to the ramparts of the fort. The sky is dark, save for the flashes of lightning. A few snipers dot the ramparts, they’re all on edge, but none of them seem to notice Captain through the rain. Out by the docks Nightmare’s Revenge is protected from the worst of the storm by the harbor, while the blockade heads further into the harbor for some shelter as well.
There is a metallic ring as Flint slams one of the snipers into a cannon. He lets the sniper fall to the ground and starts aiming the cannon out into the harbor. Captain watches him for a moment then moves over to the front wall and looks down at the crowd. A familiar white coated unicorn wearing the uniform of the celestial navy stands on the platform that his crew is lined up on. Captain grabs the trident and the puddles of water on the rampart start to grow.
He looks back at Flintlock as he pop the cylinder out of his sword-gun and presses the hammer next to the fuse of the cannon. With a click Flintlock pulls the trigger and the fuse sparks to life. He quickly swings around and clips the cylinder back into his sword. “I’ll take care of the snipers, you get the ones on the ground. Also, make it impressive.”
A ring of water forms and Captain’s hooves as he turns back to the crowd. “That’s why I have this.”
“At least the storm is scaring the pirates off,” Westward mumbles. He wipes the water away from his eyes. Taking his eyes off the open sea he looks to either side of the frigate to make sure he’s not drifting too close to the other ships in the blockade.
“Shouldn’t we just dock up? This storm is probably battering the ship worst than any pirate could hope to do,” says one of his crewmates.
Fair point, but I’d rather not lose the job. Lightning arcs above the ship striking unnervingly close to the mast. Yeah, buck it, we’re docking. “Get this ship turned around and ready to dock!” Before the crew can follow the orders the thunderous boom of a cannon rings through the rain. A moment later a cannonball strikes the stern of the ship. Westward turns around. “Did the fort just fire on us?”
“I’m not sur--” The sailor stops abruptly as smoke and fire come from the deck of the Nightmare’s Revenge as it fires into the sky. Westward follows the mortar shot until it disappears into the black clouds. The clouds crack with flashes of red light.
“Oh, sweet Celestia… Get this thing turned around and fi--” The galleon fires a large volley as the explosive round begin to rain from the sky down onto the three ships.
Gallows growls under his breath as he tightens the knot around the changeling’s neck. Next to her stands the diamond dog who keeps glaring at him since he came out. I’d love to see you keep glaring at me while you swing from that rope. He finishes tightening the knot and looks over at Fury, the orange coated commander of the fort.
Fury glares at him and Ebony for a moment. The changeling he had let escape twice and the overly aggressive lieutenant who want to take his place. He sighs and takes a step forward and addresses the crowd. “These criminals stand before you accused of piracy, murder, theft, espionage, and treason, among a large list of other acts. Their most recent act being that of holding Kigerston for ransom and then destroying part of the harbor.”
“They had killed over twenty ponies in the act, plus however many more lives they took from their attacks. They have stood in the way of the Equestrian nation, and have defied the rule of the princess and as such must be hung.” He turns to look at Ebony. “Do you have any final words before we send your soul to Tartarus?”
“I’m an ambassador's daughter!” Starry shouts.
Gallows and Fury look at her in minor confusion. However, Gallow’s confusion quickly turns to anger. “That may be so, but you’re still accused of treason and piracy and will still be hung!” Fury quickly shoots him a scowl.
“Do you have any last words?” Ebony asks, cutting off their little glaring match.
“Is that meant to be some sort of threat?” Fury asks.
“No, a warning,” she say smiling at him. “Because, my captain is coming here as we speak. He might not seem strong, or threatening, but he is someone you don’t want to anger. Nothing can stop him, you can hide behind your little walls and ships, but you’ll only slow him down. Once he gets here, he’s going to rip this place apart along with anyone here. However, I can promise you, if you hang me he won’t stop until you are dead.”
“Ha!” Gallows barks out laughing. “Do you honestly believe he can get through that?” he says pointing out toward the harbor, it’s hard to see but it’s possible to make out the small blockade. “He has no ship or crew, do you expect him to swim through?”
“A lot of ponies owe him a favor.”
“Enough to challenge Celestia’s navy?” Gallows asks leering in.
“You’re not a challenge.” She smiles as his face grows red with anger. Before he has the chance to do anything the metallic ring of cannonfire cuts through the air. A chorus of cannonfire from the harbor quickly follows. Collectively everyone turns to see flashes of red light in the cloud above the harbor, then watch as fire rains down on the blockade.
Gallows draws his sword and turns to Ebony, but finds the noose empty and the rest of the prisoners gone. “Where did they go!?” He glares at the soldiers around the platform. “Well, what are you waiting for? Get to the cannons and sink their ship and the traitor’s ship!”
“You forget the order of command here, Gallows. These soldiers are under my command,” Fury says. He turns to address the soldiers. “Lock down the harbor, we can’t risk sinking our own ships.”
“You’re all going to have to get through me first though,” Captain says leaning over the edge of the rampart with the trident in his hooves.
“Snipers, kill him!” Gallows shouts.
Flintlock chuckles from beside Captain as he reloads his gun. “That’s not going to do much.” He clicks the cylinder back into place, he props his sword up on the stone bricks and aims down at the soldiers.
“Shoot them, you idiots!” Gallows shouts at the soldiers.
A single gunshot roars out from Flint’s sword, the bullets rips into one of the soldiers and he falls to the ground with a gaping hole in his chest. Shouts and screams quickly fill the air as the civilians run for their homes, and hopefully out of danger. The rest of the soldiers duck behind what they can drawing their weapons once they’re in cover.
Some of them poke their heads out to see if they can get a shot on the two. Flintlock takes another shot, shattering part of the execution platform and ripping apart a recruit’s shoulder.
Gallows jumps out of cover, casting a shield around him. The shield flickers as it take one of Flint’s bullets, but holds strong. He spots a few other soldiers come out of cover with him taking fire. Surrounding a pistol in magic he aims it at Captain, but the ground beneath him begins to move causing him to fall and lose his grasp on the pistol. A few nearby soldier shout as they fall to the ground as well.
Quickly he realizes that the ground isn’t moving, but rather the water that covers the ground. Rivers of water snake up to the fort’s rampart before flowing into a spiralling wall of water around Captain. Gallows gets back to his hooves and fires a bolt of magic at Captain, hoping that the wall is more show that actual force. The bolt hit the spiralling wall and does nothing.
Captain glares down at him and swing the trident in a long arch sending a wave of water down onto the soldiers.
Ebony closes her eyes as Gallows lunges for the lever to hang her. Scaring them was worth a shot, though maybe insulting them wasn’t the brightest idea. Still, it was hard to resist. A bright flash of light shines through her eyelids, it is soon followed by a booming roar. I hope Captain got to land before this storm came… Wait a sec, that wasn’t thunder.
She opens her eyes as fiery red rains down on some of the ships in the harbor. Everything flashes white again with another boom, but she feels the rope around her neck simply disappear. Suddenly the cannon fire becomes louder, and the ground beneath her begins to sway. Eventually her vision clears enough for her to see that she is now standing inside the hold of Misfortune. The rest of the crew are inside the hold as well, trying to keep their footing.
The hold itself is in bad shape from their last fight. Water pours in through the large gash in the side of the hull.
There is another flash, forcing her to close her eyes again. Once she opens them again she sees a familiar pink pony sitting on the stair to the deck. “Well, I guess that part worked,” Tide mumbles to herself. She tosses Willow what looks like a pick locking kit.
“What happened?” Ebony asks, scooting closer so Willow can pick the lock on her cuffs. Another flash lights the hold and a table with their equipment appears. Howler quickly goes over to the small pile to find his katana.
“The unicorn is good a teleporting, it seems,” she says pointing at the unicorn from Rose’s crew. Starlight smiles at her.
With a click the cuffs around Ebony’s hooves unlock and fall to the deck. “Where’s Captain?” she asks rubbing her arm.
Tide groans and starts heading back up to the deck. “At the fort, teaching them not to mess with him and the crew.” Ebony’s wings begin to buzz and she hovers a few hooves off the floor. “He doesn’t want you going back for him, he just wants us to sail out of here once we can.”
“Well, good luck stopping me then.”
Tide turns around and braces her forearms against the frame of the stairs. “I’m not letting you--” Ebony easily tackles Tide out of the way. She doesn’t go too far though, stopping just outside of the hold.
In the distance a spiralling vortex of water rises up from the fort. She hears the other coming up onto the deck, each one stopping and staring. Starlight walks up next to her, completely unfazed by the spectacle. “He’s going to end up in history books for this.”
“That’s Captain?”
“Yeah.”
Ebony looks at the crew then back at the fort. “We’re not leaving without him. Twigs, get this ship ready. Howler and Smokey, fix up that hole. Starry, start plotting a course. Everyone else, do what you can to keep it floating.” Her wings start buzzing again and she gets a few hooves off the deck.
“Where are we going to go?” Starry asks.
“Anywhere outside of the Carriagebean, we can’t stay here after this.” After that she flies off before Starry can start protesting.
Churning water rips across the battlefield. Gallows quickly strengthens his shield, the pegasi fly above the wave only to be brought back down by the rushing winds. Flintlock shoots one down that had managed to hold against the wind. The rest of the soldier grab onto anything within reach to avoid being dragged away.
The waters rushes past leaving the battlefield a muddy mess with deep grooves carved into it. Gallows’ shield flickers then drops, the strain from defending against the overwhelming attack taking it’s toll. He can see the water circling back around to Captain. A loud splash comes from near the wall as Captain jumps down. Gunshots start to ring from above as soldier finally begin to funnel onto the walls.
Gallows composes himself and levitates his sword next to him again. He launches the sword at Captain, but a torrent of water rips it out of his magical grasp and carries it away. Captain lunges forward, Gallows ducks under the barbed prongs. Captain takes another step forward and slams the shaft of the weapon into his face. Gallows stumbles backward, he fires a bolt of magic as soon as he catches his balance.
Another wall of water forms up in front of Captain blocking the magic. Captain sends a torrent of water at Gallows. The torrent catches him in the side, easily picking up the stallion and flinging him to the fort wall with crushing force. The torrent continues, pinning Gallows to the wall, starving him of air, and crushing him with more and more force. After half a minute Captain releases the water, stopping the torrent.
“Should have hung you with your parents,” Gallows mumbles. He goes into a fit of coughing.
“And some call me a monster.” Captain raises the trident and aims it at Gallows’ neck.
“Captain!” Ebony cries above the wind. Captain turns around to find Ebony buzzing up next to him. “We have to get out of here.”
“What are you doing here, I told them to make sure you leave as soon as possible.”
Gallows groans and leans against the walls as he picks himself up. “How cute, the monster and the pirate.”
Ebony glares at him, but goes back to talking to Captain. “We have to leave. The ship’s not going to last much longer, and we can’t be here when reinforcements start to arrive.” Captain looks back at Gallows, the stallion is barely able to stand, much less fight anymore.
“Flint, time to go!”
“That’s it, run away with the monster. I’ll se--” Ebony quickly cuts him off with a punch to the gut. The stallion doubles over, Ebony delivers another punch to the back of the head knocking him out.
“I’m am not a monster!” Ebony shouts. She huffs and walks up next to Captain again and start making their way for the ship. Flintlock catches up soon after.
The trio run up the dock at the Misfortune was tied to. Behind the Misfortune, Flintlock’s ship fires at the last remaining ship of the blockade. Ebony flies ahead and lands on the deck, she lowers a gangplank using her magic once she’s on.
Captain and Flintlock run up the plank and onto the ship as it pulls away from the dock. Flintlock quickly loads another bullet into his gun and fires a flare into the air. It sparks and lights up a bright green against the backdrop of the black clouds. Slowly, Nightmare’s Revenge turn towards the opening to the sea.
“Cap’t!” Twigs calls from the helm. “I knew you’d save us!”
Ignoring Twigs, Captain heads to the bow of the ship as they fall in line behind Flint’s. Nightmare’s Revenge cracks through the wrecked hull of one of the ships it had destroyed. As it goes past the remaining ship it unleashes another volley at nearly point blank range.
“Great, you all are back,” Starry says walking up onto the deck. “Get to the helm, we’re heading south.”
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Not going to tease about the tyop in the last sentence of the notes since someone makes up the majority of the comments.
Good ending. Good sequel hook. This is definitely a cast that was enjoyable to follow and learn more about. Overall, I didn't care for the more violent moments, but it came with the territory, so pointless complaint is pointless. Again, I really enjoyed the characters. They made the series come to life and could handle one-shots of their own if need be. Can't wait to see what comes next.
6154000 Thank you very much, for the comments and not teasing me about the typo. Funny how one letter can change a good deal...
Anyways, glad to hear you liked it. The next one should hopefully have a better story to it, mind you I did say hopefully. I don't mind if the action-y parts weren't your favorite, I'm used to the whole 'not my cup of tea' thing. Honestly, I prefer if someone likes the characters, after all, what is a story with no characters. Until next time,
-Sphinx
I have to say, rereading this now, this story is still one of my favorites on this site. I think you did a great job writing this, and I love reading this story every time I come back to it.