Sea of Misfits

by M48 Patton

Chapter 20

With scarcely a ripple, Four Eyes breached the surface of the water and set about his work. Holding the metal cable in his mouth, he used his front hooves to pull himself upwards along the dark side of the Bloodhound, aiming for the iron anchor hanging above him.

The sound of hooves on the deck made him freeze for a moment, but as they faded he began to move again. He had to move quickly before Poisoned Beaker activated the winch and began hauling in the cable. Carefully wrapping the looped end of the cable around anchor, Four Eyes dropped back into the water.

Soon enough, Longhorn's crew would all be trying to figure out why their ship was trying to capsize itself, creating quite the distraction for a jailbreak.

---

Storm Stalker carefully crept from shadow to shadow, careful not to move unless she was sure that none of Longhorn's crew were looking. Using her wings as balance, she leaped over an unobservant guard and landed noiselessly in the darkness behind the tent. She checked her surroundings, scanning for any potential threats.

When she found none, Storm checked her crossbow one last time before slowly slipping underneath the rear of the tent. She emerged underneath Longhorn's cot, and observed the minotaur sitting at a desk, looking over a few parchments and chuckling to himself.

“Equestria will never know what hit them.” Storm heard him say to himself.

Storm checked the crossbow one last time, and then took aim at Longhorn's head.

---

Although Longhorn was very good at suppressing his emotions, he couldn't help but chuckle in joy at recent events and events that were sure to play out soon enough. If he played his cards right, then Equestria would pay him a fortune for Elements of Harmony. With that gold, he could leave these waters for a few years, improve his ship, maybe even start a fleet. Then, when he was good and ready, he'd turn back around and reclaim the territory as his own.

Nopony could stop him, the Equestrians would take a decade to rebuild their fleet, and the pirates would be all but gone from this area. Longhorn would be a king, king of the pirates!

He chuckled to himself. “Equestria will never know what hit them.”

“INTRUDERS!” A crewmember screamed from outside.

Longhorn bolted upright and took a step for the entrance when he noticed a slight glint from underneath his cot. Only years of finely honed reflexes and an instinct for danger saved him as a crossbow bolt sped towards his eye. Raising his arm, he felt the bolt pierce his thick hide.

With an angry roar, he pulled the bolt out of his arm and leaped at the bed, grabbing it and throwing it to one side. Empty floor greeted him as the tent shivered from recent movement.

Turning around, Longhorn sprinted out the tent and into the open, taking in the details in a glance. The two guards were still guarding Princess Twilight's cage, but there were some strange figures on the cage that was suspended in the air. Additionally, a large group of pirates who were definitely not part of Longhorn's crew were pouring out of the cave entrance and attacking his own crew.

“ALL HANDS!” Longhorn bellowed. “KILL THE PRISONERS! CUT THAT ROPE!”

---

Dusk Maiden watched as Henry went to work on the cage, slowly freezing the door a small section at a time and chipping away, careful not to let any of the pieces fall. Night Watch and Dusk Maiden carefully took each of the broken pieces and set them on the ledge before returning for more.

“Hurry up will you?” Dusk hissed. “Four Eye's is going to start anytime now!”

Henry froze another piece and broke it off.

“Patience is a virtue.” Henry said quietly. “We will be finished exactly at the time we are required to be.”

Dusk Maiden huffed in annoyance but said no more. As she watched him freeze another bar, she was always curious as to how his body worked. For the most part, his equine like shape was covered in a form of white scales that seemed to shift from being translucent to opaque with no reason. His hooves were shaped like that of a much large pony, yet a spike extended from the back of his legs just above the hoof, allowing him to hang off the side of the cage. Henry's mane was short, but appeared to be cut that way, although Dusk had never once seen him cut it.

It was almost as if a dragon and a pony had a baby, and then turned said baby into a living block of ice. From what little Dusk had been able to get out of Henry, that might as well be what happened.

The wendigo touched his free hoof to another piece and broke it off, turning and passing it to Dusk Maiden. She then took it and placed it on the pile with the rest.

It was right about then that things took a turn for the worst. She heard the piece slide off the pile and turned to catch it, but it fell before her hoof could touch it. The frozen iron fell, almost in slow motion, towards the ground.

Night Watch saw the piece fall and dove for it, but it was too late. The piece shattered into the ground, freezing everypony in their place. Dusk saw a pirate look directly at her. She looked at him. He looked at her.

“INTRUDERS!” The pirate screamed.

In an instant, chaos broke loose. The pirate camp swarmed to attack the three creatures trying to free the prisoners, only to be met by Storm's crew emerging from the tunnel to defend them. Dusk saw Longhorn emerge from the tent and look in their direction.

“ALL HANDS!” She heard him yell, pointing at the suspended cage. “KILL THE PRISONERS! CUT THAT ROPE!”

“DUSK!” Night Watch yelled.

She turned and saw Henry freezing a large section of the cage before drawing his hoof back and slamming it against the bars. The frozen iron cracked, but held in defiance. Again, the wendigo tried to break to the cage open, and again the bars held.

“LOOK OUT!”

Dusk was shoved roughly to one side by her brother and she heard him yelp in pain. Turning back to face him, the threstral saw him falling limply as an arrow protruded from his side.

“NIGHT!” She screamed, diving after the unconcious pony.

She grabbed him midair and flared her wings, but it wasn't enough to stop their fall and both of them tumbled on hard ground. Dusk stood up unsteadily, her brother lying beside her.

“Night!” She said, trying to make sure he was still alive.

He was breathing, but it was shallow and forced.

“Night! Wake up!” She cried, desperately trying to help her brother.

A scream of rage sounded from beside her and Dusk turned just in time to see a griffon raise an axe and bring it down towards her head. She couldn't move, she couldn't scream, Dusk was frozen.

A bolt of magic slammed into the griffon and sent him flying, minus a few feathers.

“DUSK! GET YOUR BROTHER OUT OF HERE!”

The threstral turned to see Big Sail, his horn blackened and his sides bleeding, defending the two siblings against three pirates.

“GO!” He yelled back, sending another pirate flying with a fire spell.

Dusk pulled her brother onto her back and ran, dodging the fighting crews and making for the exit. She made it and didn't stop. She didn't even look back, leaving behind nothing but a trail of tears.

---

Twilight could only watch in horror as the two crews clashed with each other, and although Storm's crew were giving Longhorn's pirates quite a pounding, there were too few of them against too many.

Fortunately, due to the fact that there was a huge fight happening on the other side of the cavern, Longhorn and his crew were not paying attention to the princess and her two guards. Drip shot a bolt of magic at the cage lock and broke it open.

“Come on!” He urged.

Twilight stepped out of the caged, ready for battle. The pirate next to Drip stepped forward and raised his hoof.

“Let's get that ring off.” He said, pulling the inhibitor ring free of her horn.

Had Twilight not been an alicorn, the ring's trap would have killed the three of them. However, she detected the explosive spell an instant before it detonated. She cast a shield over the ring, protecting Drip and the pirate from the blast, but her shield failed to complete before it was time.

The ring exploded with the full force of a trained caster's fireball, sending Twilight crashing back into the cage. She groaned as she stood back up, thankful that her alicorn shield protected her from such events, but it still shook her up.

“Princess!” Drip yelled, grabbing her and pulling back to her hooves. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah.” Twilight said uncertainly. “Just caught me by surprise.”

“Drip!” The pirate said, turning to face several of Longhorn's crew who had realized what was happening. He leaped into the group, kicking and fighting as they swarmed over him.

“Get her to safety!” He yelled as he was buried beneath the bodies of pirates.

Twilight shot a spell, sending two of the pirates to the ground, but received a cutlass thrown at her in return. She brought up a shield and deflected the blade, but a scream caught her attention.

A fireball from one of Longhorn's crew shot out and hit the rope holding her friend's cage. The dry fibers burst into flame for a moment before snapping into strands. With a groan, the cage fell away, her friends still trapped inside.

Author's Note:

Sorry for another short chapter, but I've had a lot going on. Still, I did manage to give you guys some cover art. What do you think? Feedback is always appreciated.

Comments

[HogPilot]

This story deserve more views than it has.

[Cross Lament]

The one problem I see here is that Twilight can casually freeze armies in her magic. This shouldn't even be a fight.