> Captain's Journey
>  by Sphinx_Herald
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Chapter 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

He stands at the helm of his ship, he is the image of perfection. He is a large earth pony with a dark orange coat, a long black mane and tail, a skull and crossbones for a cutie mark. He is the captain of a of a pony-o-war called the 'Black Fortune' which he had stolen from Celestia’s Royal Navy all by himself. His crew, the most loyal bunch of ponies a captain could wish for, and each and every one of them had the same goal as him. To make a fortune, raise an army, and liberate the seas from the tyranny of Celestia.

Everypony knows, and fears his name. He has a bounty of well over three million bits, but he knows no one is brave enough to try to claim the reward. There is no navy in the world strong enough to even scratch 'Black Fortune'. He knows he is the unspoken king of the sea.

This day he is going after a convoy that is carrying over twenty million bits. The day is sunny, and the wind carries the scent of gunpowder and smoke from a very recent victory. He can’t help but smile as he watches the ship disappear under the waves. He knows the convoy will enjoy the same fate soon enough. He is about to return to the wheel when he hears something unusual.

It sounds like singing. It isn’t like any of the shanties that the crew sings. This is  being sung by a female voice. It only gets stranger when he realizes that it is coming from the sea. He has to get closer. He feels an attraction to the water. He quickly looks around and sees his whole crew are as mesmerised as he is.

“Lower a rowboat, men,” he says. 

A few moments later he is climbing into a rowboat, the singing slowly growing in volume. As soon as he is settled the singing stops, and then there is silence. No more sound, there is, no wind, no splashing waves, and no cries coming from the seagulls overhead. He sees the figure approaching through the water. It looks like a pony at first, but as he focuses he can see that its lower half is that of a fish. She is a siren, a creature of death for sailors and pirates alike.

The siren comes right up to the rowboat. He can’t believe his eyes! How can this elegant, beautiful creature be the killer of thousands? he thinks. He approaches the side of the boat. He can’t take his eyes off of her eyes. They are just so alluring. There is no way she is a killer, he thinks as he closes the distance between him and the siren. Then their lips meet.




He wakes to find himself on the floor on an old tavern, staring at an empty rum bottle. He quickly realizes he has a massive headache, and thinks he can feel something trickling down the side of his head. He puts his hoof to the general area, only to find that he is bleeding. He looks up at an angry stallion standing above him.

“Imma gonna teach ya somethin’ for kissin’ me!” the stallion shouts.

He winces at the volume of the voice. However, against the pain, slowly, his mind starts to put the pieces back together. Well, that’s a bucking ugly siren, he thinks. “Woah, wait a sec. How about we get a bottle of rum, share a few jokes, and forget any of this ever happened.”

His only reply is of the stallion trying to stomp his head in. However, even while prone, drunk, and in a slight state of confusion, he is still faster than this fool. The stallion’s hoof meets hardwood with a resounding crack, leaving a large hole. With a quick, strong punch, he sends the stallion sliding across the floor. There is a high pitched scream, causing him to wince again.

“Get out of here!” screams a barmare.

“Why, almost half of the other ponies in here are passed out too.”

“Because he’s the owner!”

“Oh, and who’s going to make m--” He fails to notice the chair flying at him from the direction the barmare is in. He is immediately knocked out.




He slowly opens his eyes, only to cover them with his foreleg to protect them from the glaring sun. His headache seems to be worse. Gee, I wonder why. He moves his foreleg, blinking a couple of times as his eyes get used to the light.

Unlike his vivid dream, he isn’t what would be called intimidating. He is a well built earth pony, with a light blue coat. While that might seem normal, his pink mane with dark green streaks, and green eyes aren’t. The only thing that makes him seem vaguely like a pirate is his cutlass cutie mark. He has no massive war ship, he in fact has no ship at all. He also has no crew, or friends. His only possessions are his compass, a rusted cutlass, a hoofful of bits, and half a map. He has been stuck in the pirate hating city of Hayvana for a few weeks now with no way off. The only thing that was right is that he is a captain, as in he calls himself Captain.

I have to get outta here, he thinks. Captain blinks a few more times as he gets up, ignoring his body’s will to not move. He scans the area he is in. A harbour spans before him, crates and barrels are stacked along the water’s edge. Several merchant, and warships are docked along it as well. His gaze slowly moves to the galleon, a ways down the harbour.

“I would love a ship like that,” Captain mumbles to himself.

He notices a small group of soldiers approaching him from the galleon. Their uniforms making them much more noticeable. Their uniforms are made of white fabric with gold trim, a large gold colored sun sits on the middle of their chests. Captain jumps behind a stack of crates to avoid being seen, and waits till they are an earshot.

“Sir, how was the search today?” asks one of the soldiers.

“Horrible, I don’t know why I even bother with this stupid thing. Maybe I should just put it into lock up,” says the leader of the group.

“Well, I don’t think it would be easy, but you do have the half with the ‘X’ on it. That’s all you need right?”

“Yes, that and a good navigator!”

“He has the other half,” Captain says.

“Did you guys hear that?” asks one of the soldiers, Captain quickly shuts his mouth.

“You’re just being paranoid,” says the leader. “Come on, let’s get back to the fort. The sooner we’re done, the sooner I can see Sally.”

Captain slips out of his hiding spot and follows the group of soldiers. He sees two pieces of paper attached to the leader’s belt. “There you are… but which one are you?” he whispers. He manages to get behind the leader without being noticed. He reaches forward for one of the slips of paper, but turns away just before the group turns around. The group quickly scan the area before continuing on their route with Captain in close pursuit. He takes another try at pickpocketing the slip of paper off the leader, slipping away before anyone notices anything is amiss.

He quickly unrolls the paper, eager to see the other half of his map. Dear Sally, I miss you every day we are apart. I wish I could see yo--

“This is a love letter,” he says before crumpling up the paper and throwing it away. He looks back at the other piece of paper the leader has. “You shall be mine,” he whispers, taking pursuit once again.
> Chapter 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Captain crouches low to the ground and quickly makes his way toward the group once again. It doesn’t take him long to catch up, and within a few seconds he is reaching for the map again. He is just a few centimeters away, just a bit more, he thought, almost there. He grabs it as quick as he could before anypony could notice him. I have the other half of my map, I can finally start getting treasure! he thinks to himself.

He quickly unfurls the map and takes a good look at it. Then he takes out his half and holds it up next to the new half. His eyes go wide at the sudden realization.

“WHAT THE BUCK!? THESE AREN’T FROM THE SAME MAP!” he shouts.

He glances back at the group of soldiers to see them all glaring at him. The captain quickly checks his coat and sees that his map is gone, he looks back at Captain, and it doesn’t take long for him to put two and two together. “I want her arrested immediately!” he barked out to the rest of the soldiers.

“Whoa, whoa, wait guys. Can’t we go get a bottle of rum and forget… Wait, Did you just call me ‘her’?” says Captain.

The soldiers quickly rush at him. Sadly for them, they didn’t know quite how fast Captain was. Captain easily sidesteps one of them to deliver a punch to the back of the neck. He ducks under another one, quickly getting back up to headbutt the one behind. He doesn’t ever bother to dodge the next, opting to simply punch him in the face. He turns back to face the last soldier standing.

“You can either try to hit me or run,” he says.

The soldier looks around with a clear hint of fear in his eyes, only to look back at Captain with a smirk. “Ok, so you want to fight then” says Captain as he moves toward the soldier. Then he hears a clicking noise from behind. He slowly turns around to see five more guards, and one captain each leveling a gun at his head. “So guys, how about we go to the tavern, get a bottle of rum and forget everything that has happened?” asks Captain. He is only answered by a strong blow to the head knocking him out.




Captain moans as he slowly returns to the waking world. He holds his sore head and to find that he now has a rather large bump and the back of it. Unconscious three times in one day. Well that’s a new record for me, he thought as he slowly takes in his new surroundings. 

He is now in a small, dark cell. There were three solid brick walls, and one wall made of iron bars which leads out into the hallway. The whole cell smells of urine, and mold. On the wall opposite are his possessions, and those of several other stallions he guesses. Sticking his head up to the bars, he could see a guard a little ways down the hall.

“Well ain’t this a sunny place?” he mutters to himself.

“Don’t get used to it, we’re all going to be executed soon enough,” says a male voice from the other side of the wall, presumably from another cell.

“How do you know that?”

“Cause we’re pirates. They hang pirates here,” says a new voice from the same wall.

Captain thinks for awhile. “What would you say if I can get us out of here?” he asks finally.

“How do you plan on doing that?” asks voice #1.

“I ain’t about to tell you until I know what you would do for me in return.”

“What do you want?” asks voice #2

“Would you join my crew?”

“You’re a captain?” 

“Yes, I’m a captain. So will you join my crew?”

“If you can get us outta here, sure,” says voice #1.

Captain starts to kick at the lock on his door. “Good luck with that,” says voice #2. “They’re iron, you can’t break them”. However he doesn’t stop kicking. “If you keep that up the guard will come”.

He hears some trotting coming closer. “What are you doing down here?” says the guard that has just arrived. He sees Captain kicking at the lock. “Hey, you stop that!”  There is no reaction. The guard draws his pistol “Stop that or I’ll shoot.” He says as he approaches the cell. Still nothing “Finally warning. Stop or I will… AHHH!” In an instant, Captain turns around and grabs the guard by the mane, slamming his head into the metal bars.

Captain quickly grabs the key from the unconscious pony and unlocks his cell. He goes over to the next cell and looks in. Inside are three large stallions: a black one with a white mane, a green one with a red mane, and a blue one with a grey mane They stare at each other for a few moments before the three caged stallions start laughing at their liberator.

“What are you laughing at?” asks Captain.

“So you’re our captain?” says the black stallion between laughs “I’m sorry, but we didn’t think you’d be so pink!”

“Stop laughing at me this instant!” Captain yells.

“Oh. Right away captain Pinkhead,” says the blue stallion before going into another fit of laughter.

“You know, I think she’s more flamingo than pony,” laughs the black one.

“Fine,” is all Captain says before swallowing the key.

“What are you doing?” yells the black one.

“I’m teaching you not to laugh at me,” says Captain before going over to the opposite wall and taking his compass, a cutlass which belonged to one of the caged pirates, and the guard’s flintlock pistol. Then he dashes down the hall, looking for a way out.

“Guards, guards, someone is trying to escape!” the stallions shout.

He runs down the hall towards a window at the end of the hall. He skids to a halt a few feet from the window. It is a small hole in the wall, about 2 feet by 3 feet, with several metal bars going across it making it impossible to escape that way. He starts going back down the hall and stops in front of some stairs that leads upwards. There are going to be a lot of enemies up there. I think my best chance is the roof, climb down a wall or something, he thinks. He draws his sword and starts going up the stairs.




After going up four or five floors, knocking out three guards on his way, he finds himself at a door with a slight breeze coming from the other side. He opens the door expecting the worst. He is met by an open sky and a relatively empty roof. There are a few guards but none of them notice the barely open door. He can hear some cannon fire from a little ways off. “I guess they’re doing naval exercises,” he whispers to himself. He crouches down and starts making his way to the side of the roof. He climbs over the side and started to make his way down. Finding one hoofhold after another, he made it about halfway down, before he slips and falls down to the ground.

“I’m going to die!” He shouts as he falls to his certain doom. Imagining how gruesome the end result is going to be. Then he hit the ground, hard. I’m dead now, I can’t believe I’m dead. Oddly death hurts… a lot. He opens his eyes to see that he had landed in a bush, a thorn bush, but a bush all the same. He looks himself over for any bad injuries, all he has are some minor cuts, and a large bruise on his right hindleg. He tries getting up, all of his muscles scream in pain. “Well, I’m alive that’s for sure,” he mumbles. He stops when he hears someone talking.

“Do you have any final words?” says a rough deep voice. Then he hears several guns cocking.
	
	
> Chapter 3
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	
“Do you have any final words?”

Captain pokes his head out of the bush, but he doesn’t see anyone. It appears as though he has landed between the wall surrounding the fort and the fort itself. He starts to hear some talking, but he can’t make out what is being said. He approaches the wall and begins making his way toward the voices. He comes to a corner. From there he is able to hear what is being said. “...You call yourselves righteous, yet you kill my kind for being different. You do not enforce justice, you create chaos, you are the real monsters…” says a female voice (much like the voice of the siren from his dream).

He looks around the corner. He sees four guards, three of which are standing in a line holding rifles, and the fourth is a slightly larger stallion, standing behind the others. They seem to be standing in a firing range of sorts. The wall opposite them is covered in bullet holes. Directly in front of the wall is a changeling tied to a wooden post. The changeling looks pretty much the same as the others he has ever seen, a black body with turquoise hair. “Monsters,” he whispers before crouching down and starting to approach the scene.

“Enough!” says the large guard, “You have no right to judge us. You’re the monster here. You are a creature that feeds off of others. Your kind offers nothing to this world but death, and for that you will be killed.”

“Ready.” The changeling takes a deep breath and closes her eyes.

“Aim.” The changeling braces for what is about to come.

“Fi--” His command is cut off by the sound of metal slicing through flesh. He looks down at his chest to see a blade freshly coated in blood sticking out of it. The blade is ripped out and he falls to the ground. Before any of the others could move, Captain attacks the one in the middle, plunging his cutlass into the guard’s throat. The last two guards are now facing him, drawing their own swords. Captain went straight for the one on the left, bucking the guard’s foreleg, resulting in a loud snap. The guard fall onto the ground screaming in pain, which was cut short by a slick metal object sinking into his chest. Captain turns around to face the remaining guard, only to see him running off toward the nearest door.





She couldn’t believe her eyes. One stallion, a pink-headed stallion at that, has just killed three guards before any of them could even take a swing at him. On top of  that, they were in the middle of a fort. Where did he even come from? she thought. He turns toward her, and approaches. She is now more afraid than she was with the four guards. He stops in front of her. They both gaze into each others eyes for a moment. He then raises his sword, and she closes her eyes. Did he just save me, to kill me himself? she thought. She hears the dull sound of metal striking wood, then the tension around her chest was gone. She opens her eyes. He has just freed her. Why would anyone save a changeling? she thought as he sheaths his cutlass. He takes her hoof, and says “I think we should leave before a lot more of them show up”.





So there they are, galloping at full speed toward the gate of the fort. He could hear their pursuers shouting “Close the gate! Close the gate!”. To his horror, the gate is actually closing, No, no, no, no don’t close, don’t close! he thought. He tries running faster, but the changeling is too weak, and he trips. He picks up the changeling, making her give a little yelp, and puts her onto his back. He runs as fast and as hard as he can. He isn’t about to die in here; he still had to achieve his goal. Pushing his body as far as he can. The shouting grew more and more distant. Then he blasts through the gate with only inches to spare.

He needs to get out of Hayvana, he needs a ship. He runs through the crowded streets, happy to have this changeling with him. When other ponies spot the changeling, they get out of the way. Giving him a free pass to the harbour... almost. The only ponies not to jump out of the way are the guards, that litter the city. He shoves a guard out of his way, sending the guard into a couple of bystanders. He turns a corner to find the guards have it blocked off. He crashes through the widow of the closest house. Ignoring the screams from the random citizen. He then shoots out of the other side and quickly looks around to get his bearings. He bolts toward the harbour once again, taking the back roads this time. Once there he beelines it for galleon he saw earlier. “What are you doing?” asks the changeling.

“Going to get that ship,” he replies as he points with his hoof.

“We need something smaller. We will never get that thing out of the harbour.”

“But, but… It’s a big beautiful ship!”

“We need something that the two of us can get out to sea!”

“Fine,” he mumbles, heading toward a smaller gunboat. Once he arrives at the boat, he puts her down onto the deck of the boat. He then raises the sails, and goes to the wheel, steering it toward open sea.





He wakes up under a starry sky to the gentle sound of waves hitting the side of the boat. He looks around, dazed “Was that all a dream,”

“Not even close,” replies a female voice somewhere to his left “How much?”.

“What?”

The changeling comes over and looks him in the eyes. “How much are you being paid to save me?” she asks.

“Nothing.”

“Oh, come on now. No one saves a changeling out of the kindness in their heart.”

“I’m not being paid to free you. It wasn’t that much trouble, really.”

“You infiltrated a fort, killed several guards, ran all the way to the harbour with me on your back, got the boat out to sea, and then you passed out.”

“To be fair, I was also breaking out.” He gets up into a sitting position. “Don’t get me wrong. I have never been one to like monst… uh changelings. That being said, I saved you because they were being worst monsters. They kill innocent creatures without a second thought, all because Celestia says so. I’ve just had enough of these senseless ‘executions’. I didn’t want to be part of one.”

She looks down at the deck beneath her hooves. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to assume. I just thought...How about we start over? My name is Ebony”.

“It’s alright I don’t care all that much. Oh, and my name is Captain.”

Ebony looks back at him with a very flat look. “Why were you in the fort if you weren’t breaking me out?”

“I’m a pirate. Wanna be part of my crew?”

“I don’t kill.”

“So what? You don’t have to kill to be a pirate.”

“Fine, I guess I owe you anyways. How big is your crew?”

“Counting us, two.”

Ebony gives him an emotionless stare. “You have got to be kidding me.”

“Nope,” he says with a smile.

“Idiot.”

“Hey! I didn’t call you ugly-- OW!” he yelps as a black hoof slams into his jaw. “You know I can kill you in a second, right?” he says as he rubs his sore jaw.

“You won’t kill your first-mate now, would you?”

“Fair enough,” he replies.

“So what`s the plan?”

“Don`t know. Head to Neighsau, or maybe somewhere in Floridoe, get a crew, and become rich. First off, which way is north?”

“You have a compass.”

“No clue how it works.” 

There is a dull thud as Ebony facehoofs.
	
> Chapter 4
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	After a quick argument about how to use a compass, they start towards the east. Which they hope is the right direction to Neighsau. Captain stands by the helm. Ebony lays on the deck with her head resting against the mast as she eats an apple.

“Where did you get that?” asks Captain.

“The apple? It was in the boat when we stole it,” replies Ebony.

“Really? what else did we get?”

“A couple more apples, a spyglass, and a few bits.”

“Any rum?” he asks with a large, hopeful smile on his face.

“No," She takes a bite of the apple. "What’s your real name?”

“What do you mean? I told you my name is Captain.”

“Captain is a title, not a name. So, what’s your real name?”

“Captain.”

“So, you’re a pirate named Captain then. Funny how you weren’t one until a few hours ago.”

They continue on in silence for a while. It doesn’t bother Captain in the slightest though; he’s just happy to be back in his element. On the open water with the wind at his back, the sound of waves lapping against the side of the boat. The cries from the seagulls overhead. This is his element.

“What’s the plan now?” asks Ebony.

“Huh?”

“What do you plan on doing now?”

“I plan on making money, I don’t really care what comes after.” He could hear her facehoofing.

“How many bits do we have?” asks Captain after a short moment of silence.

“Not much, really. We only have enough to buy some food, and hire one pony… maybe.”

“Ok then,” he says with a smile on his face once again.

Really, that smile was starting to irritate Ebony. How can he smile at a time like this? The military is after us, we’re pretty damn well lost, and we have no money, she thought.

“Land ho!” shouts Captain suddenly, startling Ebony.

“What?” she looks off the bow of the boat, and sure enough they could see a sliver of land on the horizon. “I don’t believe it.”

“I told you I would find it.”

“You were trying to convince me we should go the other way,” she replies.


By the time they dock in Neighsau, the sun has risen to a bright morning. The dock is nothing special, a wooden dock in fair shape, the harbourmaster’s shop just off to the side. There are a few houses after that, which aren’t anything special either. In fact, most of them seem to be in a slight state of disrepair. There are a few colts running around on the road, playing with wooden swords. They fight each other for the treasure, which in this case is a small wooden box off to the side of the road.

“Okay, let’s go find us a crew,” he says, happy to be back in a place where pirates won’t be executed for what they do. He jumps off the boat, taking a good whiff of the musky scent of the town.

“Give me a second,” said Ebony from the boat, which had recently been docked.

“What are you doing?”

“Trying to come up with a good disguise. Pirates might be accepted here, but changelings aren’t.”

“Fine, hurry up, though.” he says as he takes in his surroundings again. That is, until he spots the dog sitting at his hooves. “What do you want?” The dog just looks at him. “Get lost mutt.” The dog barks then tilts its head to the side. “Ebony, do you wanna have lunch?” he asks.

“I don’t kill, remember?”

He continues his staring contest with the dog. “Get outta here,” he says. This time the dog actually gets up and jumps into his boat. “Buck,” he mumbles.

“Oh, just leave him be. He’s only a dog.”

“I don’t like dogs.”

“Well, I like him and he’s staying… Okay, I’m ready lets go.”

Captain turns around, spotting a beige pegasus coming off his boat. Her mane and tail are made of several different shades of red, and are just as messy as his own. Her cutie mark is an open treasure chest filled with bits. She did, however, decide to keep the green eyes.

“ Alright, then. Let’s get a crew,” he says.


“A tavern?! You decided to go to a bucking tavern and get some rum!” Ebony shouts at Captain as he drinks his third bottle. As it turns out, Captain has chosen to a tavern called “The Lucky Mare.”

“I find that it helps me think more clearly,” he says.

“We barely have any money as it is!”

He passes her a bottle of rum. “Here, you need to relax a bit,” he says.

She reluctantly sits down at the counter and starts drinking.

After a few minutes (and bottles) Ebony no longer cares about the money wasted on drinking, since it is helping dull her migraine, and helping her enjoy the show of Captain fighting a good number of the ponies. He has taken up an odd fighting style, standing on his hind legs, and his forelegs brought up to his chest.

“I’ll give you all two options. First, you try to fight me and lose. Or we can all get a bottle of rum and forget everything that has happened. Which is it going to be?” he yells at his opponents. They all charge him, but he stands his ground. Ebony couldn’t help but smile at how confident he is even thought it was seven to one.

A new bottle of rum is placed on the counter next to her. She looks at the drink, then up at the barmare. “I didn’t order another drink.” Ebony says over the shouting from the fight.

“I know, it’s on the house. I figured you’d need it if you’re dealing with him,” says the barmare. She has a cream colored coat with a red mane and tail, and hazel eyes. A few freckles dot her face. Her cutie mark is covered by the dress she’s wearing. 

An unconscious stallion lands on the counter, then falls onto the floor on the other side. “Yeah, I think I’ll need it too,” she says as she opens the bottle. “My name is Ebony, by the way.”

“Nice name. I’m Rose,” says the barmare as she lifts the stallion over the counter. Another stallion lands at Ebony’s hooves, a steady stream of blood coming from his nose. “I think you should stop them before they rip apart my bar.”

“Maybe, but I’m enjoying this too much.”

“I’m guessing you’re a pirate?”

“Yeah.”

“If you don’t stop them I’ll have to close the tavern for repairs.”

She sighs and gets off the stool. “Fine, but I’ll need another bottle of rum.” Rose quickly places a bottle on the counter. Ebony picks it up and throws it at Captain’s head. The bottle shatters, and Captain falls to the floor. “I’ll bring him back to the boat.” says Ebony. Getting up and dragging him out of tavern.

After throwing him rather unceremoniously into the boat she couldn’t help but to smile at the state of her liberator. More so when the dog comes up and cuddles with him.

She returns to the tavern, and takes her seat back at the counter. “Good to see you came back,” says Rose.

“Of course I came back, I didn’t have anywhere better to go. Oh, by the way, I’m looking for a crew. Do you know of anypony who’s looking for a captain?”

“So you’re a captain?”

“No, first mate. The guy I knocked out is the captain.”

Rose leans in closer. “So you’re his mate, eh?” she says with a sly smirk creeping across her face.

“What?! No, not like that!” she yells, her cheeks almost the same color as her mane. “I’m just part of his crew.”

Rose’s smile only widens at this. She leans in even closer and says “Well, I bet that captain sails this ship all night long.” Ebony slams her head into the counter, Rose laughs at her.

“Give me another bottle, I think my migraine is coming back,” Ebony says in defeat.
> Chapter 5
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Ebony slowly opens her eyes. She wakes up with a headache from Tartarus, and no memory of anything from the night before, except for the fact that she drank… a lot. She is in what looks like a bedroom. The walls are a faded shade of blue. There is one window in the room directly in front of her. There are a few decorations on the walls around the room, a few paintings and a mirror. There is a closet and a drawer towards the foot of the bed, all in all it is a relatively plain room. There is a smell of booze and sweat, though she isn't sure if it is the room or her. Then she realizes that something wrapped around her waist, and someone is breathing down her neck..

She screams as she jumps out of the bed and onto her hooves, probably quicker than she should have. The quick motion sending a bolt of pain through her head causing her to wince. When she opens her eyes, a cream colored lump opens its eyes and looks at her.

“Good morning to you too, sweetie,” Rose says as she rubs the sleep from her eyes, yawns then looks at her.

“Were you cuddling me?!”

“Yes, yes I was and if you don’t mind, sweetie, I’d like to continue,” she replies patting the bed next to her.

“Am I in your room?”

“Sweetie, with the amount you drank it didn't take much to convince you to sleep with me,” she replies with a seductive look in her eyes.

“W-what? W-we didn't do that, r-right?” A bright red blush showing in her cheeks.

“Of course not, sweetie. I’m just pulling your leg.”

“Oh, thank the winds,” Ebony says, breathing out a sigh of relief.

“I still think that your captain is a lucky stallion, to have a mate like you.” 

“I told you I don’t like him like that!” Ebony shouts at her new friend.

“Really? Well, you wouldn't stop mumbling something about ‘captain’ in your sleep.” 

More blush comes to Ebony’s cheeks. “He saved my life okay? I was having a dream where he saved me. I’m only part of his crew because I owe him,” she says.

“Then why don’t you ‘repay’ him,” Rose says with yet another seductive wink.

“You are a very horrible pony,” Ebony says.

“And you’re a very cute changeling.”

Ebony’s eyes widen in horror. “How did you know I’m a changeling?!” she shouts. Rose just points to the dusty mirror on the wall. Ebony goes over to it and sure enough there is a black changeling with a turquoise mane and tail, staring back at her.

“Your disguise dropped when you passed out,” says Rose, who has gotten into a sitting position.

“And you are not afraid of me?”

“To be honest, sweetie, you scared the bucking shit outta me,” she says. She scratches the back of her head. “I screamed for ten minutes straight, after that I was perfectly fine with the idea of sleeping with a changeling.”

“You screamed for ten minutes and no one wondered what was wrong?”

“It was late, and everypony was drunk.”

“Oh…”

Rose climbs out of the bed, giving the changeling a clear view of her cutie mark. Two vines wrapping around a bottle with a rose at the end of one. “Well I’m going to be downstairs cleaning up, just call me if you need any help, sweetie,” she says as she walks out of the door. “Oh, and you are going to help me today. You kinda drank more rum than what you could pay for. So you owe me that much, sweetie,” she yells a few seconds afterward.


An hour later a beige pegasus is standing behind the counter at the tavern. She is cleaning off the counter with an old rag. She looks around, trying to find a few possible recruits to Captain’s crew. She has already noted a few that seem suitable, but is unsure how to get them to join without any money. Finally she takes a few deep breaths, I might as well try something, she thinks.  She walks around the counter to one of the stallions she first noted. He is a light grey pegasus with a mane and tail made of several shades of darker grey. He has the image of a cannon for a cutie mark. He is sitting on his own, smoking a rather large cigar.

“Hello,” she says.

“Hello, what do you want?” he says around the cigar.

“I was wondering if you were part of a crew.”

“No, why?” he asks.

“What’s your name?”

“Smokey Skies.”

“How would you like to join a crew Mr. Smokey?”




Well, that went better than expected, she thinks as she trots toward the next pony she is going to ask. This time she is going to ask a skinny earth pony, he has a brown coat with a green mane and tail, and he doesn’t have a cutie mark.

“Hello, sir.”

“Wha? Oh, uh... hi?” he says.

“My name is Ebony, what is yours?”

“I’m Twigs.”

“Well Mr. Twigs I was wondering if you wanted to be part of a crew?” she says.

“What crew?”

“My captain’s.”




“Who’s crew?” asks a pegasus. His name is Arrel, he is a small pale blue pegasus, with a white mane and tail. He has a few tattoos made of black ink scattered over his right foreleg, as well as covering his cutie mark.

“My captain’s.”

“Not much of an answer.”

“Trust me, it’s the best I can do.”

“Why would you want me?” Arrel asks with a sigh.

“Well, that was what my next question.”

He sighs again. "I used to be in the military."




A sword is brought down onto the table where she is sitting, cutting the table in half as though it isn’t much more than air. “Sweetie, you’d better pay me from that tonight,” Rose shouts over to them.

A diamond dog with light brown fur with black hair, sheaths his sword. He is wearing dark olive green pants with a dark grey, sleeveless shirt, and has a coat draped over his back like a cape. “So you’re good with swords?” Ebony asks, ignoring the comment from Rose. The diamond dog nods his head. He is the next candidate on her metaphorical list. From what she has gathered, his name is Howler, he is from Neighpon, is very good with a sword, and rarely talks. “I’m guessing that you’re not afraid to kill anypony?”




“No,” says the next recruit. This time, Ebony is talking to a unicorn mare. She is midnight blue with a long, dark purple mane and tail that almost looks black, with a few streaks of lavender. There is a long scar across her right side. She has a ghostly map covered in stars for a cutie mark. She wears a silver necklace with an amethyst in the middle. Her name is Starry Night. She had said that she is a navigator. “I will not take the life of another pony, except one,” she talks with an air of elegance, saying every word smoothly.

“That’s fine. I didn’t think you would.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing, I just thought that killing would be below you.”

“Well, you thought right,” Starry says turning her nose up. “Hm… I have a question for you. How much will you pay me to join?”

“Well you see, we can't pay at this moment. However, I can promise that we will make you wealthier then in your wildest dreams.”

“A promise? That’s the best you can do? What makes you think that I will join because of a promise?”

“Because it is the best offer you can ever get,” Ebony replies with a smile. They both stare at each other for a while, both trying to think of a comeback of sorts.

“Fine, I might as well join. Just to make sure you idiots don’t get lost in the middle of the sea.”

“Well then, I welcome you to the crew.” She shakes hooves with Starry Night.




Captain is sitting on the side of his boat, watching a couple of foals play with the dog that has been bothering him. Captain spots his first mate coming down the dock with a couple of ponies and a diamond dog in tow. She got me a crew! he thinks. He hops out of his boat and walks up to Ebony, checking out his new crew with every step. “Hello Ebony, I see you’ve made some new friends.” Glancing back at the group, they all look uneasy (except the diamond dog).

“He’s the captain?” asks the light grey pegasus.

“Yes he is, everyone I would like to introduce you to our captain. His name is in fact Captain. Captain this is Smokey Skies, Arrel, Twigs, Howler, and Starry Night,” says Ebony as she goes up to each of them respectively.

“You’re that guy from yesterday, the one that was fighting a lot of stallions,” says Smokey.

“You got a problem with that?” Captain asks.

“Uhh… No sir.”

“Good, now come on everyone I want to go get a better ship.”

“A better ship? We just got this one, do you really want a new one now?” Ebony asks.

“Yes. I want a new ship. I want to go get a galleon. I want a ship that matches my greatness.”

“Sounds full of himself,” Starry says under her breath.

“We are only seven. We don’t have the ability to keep a galleon, we’ll need more ponies for that. I think a schooner is within our ability,” says Ebony ignoring the comment.

“Fine how about a brig?”

“I guess it might be possible, but we still--”

“Then it’s settled, we’re going to get ourselves a brig!” He looks back at the crew with a large grin. “At the same time I’ll see how well our crew does.”
> Chapter 6
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“So, why are we going back to Hayvana? We barely managed to get out last time!” says Captain as he and his crew sail for the pirate forsaken city.

“We're going there because we might be able to find a docked brig. If we can, it means we won’t have to fight as many soldiers as we would if we were to find one at sea,” replies Ebony.

“I guess that makes sense. Sounds like you know what you’re doing. Are you sure you weren’t a pirate before we met?” asks Captain raising an eyebrow.

“I never said that I wasn’t a pirate. Which I’m not, by the way. I’m just… smart, that’s all you need to know.”

“Fine, don’t tell me,” he says. “Why don’t you drop the disguise?” he whispers to her.

“We just met them. They would try to kill me if they find out now. I’ll show them at some point if they’re still with us, and if we all survive long enough.”

“Fair enough. Starry, are we still on course?” he asks.

“Yes, we are still on course. Why would you think we are off course?” replies Starry.

“I just feel we that are going the wrong way,” he says.

“You have no sense of direction whatsoever. If we were listening to your directions we’d be at Canterlot. I, on the other hoof, don’t make mistakes.”

“Let me get this straight. We are not going to use cannons?” says Smokey. He is sitting against the rail of the boat, cleaning out his flintlock pistols.

“No, we need the ship,” replies Ebony.

“That ain’t no fun.”

Captain hears the word ‘idiot’ mumbled from somewhere over by Starry and gives a little chuckle. “Tell you all what. When we get this ship, I’ll treat us all to some rum,” he says. They continue on in silence, until they arrive at the city. 

The harbour is a large concrete structure just above the water with several wooden docks expanding outwards from it. Merchant ships rush to unload their cargo and deliver it to the stores. The concrete mass is littered by small merchant stalls, large groups of ponies gather around to see what they are selling. Large stacks of crates and barrels line the waters edge, waiting for pick-up. Even from the water, Captain can see the large number of guards posted along the streets. I wonder who they are looking for, he thinks sarcastically.

It doesn’t take him long to spot a brig, further down the harbour. It has Celestial Royal Navy flags, about sixteen cannons, and a large ram fitted to it. It has white stained wood with gold trim (usual colors for Celestia’s army). Perfect, not as good as a galleon, but good enough for now, he thinks. They dock their boat a good distance away from their target so they won’t be noticed.

Ebony stands up, and turns toward Captain. “You’re going to have to wait here,” she states bluntly.

“What, why? I can help take the ship!”

“Yes, but there are a lot of guards out there. I think it’s safe to assume that they are looking for us, and you’re not hard to miss,” she says pointing at his pink mane.

“Please don’t mention my mane. Also I’m the captain I have to go.”

“No you don’t. If you go out there you’ll get us all caught. I’ll make sure we get the ship, and I’ll send someone to get you.”

He lets out a sigh. “I guess you’re right. Good luck then.”

“Thanks. Arrel, Smokey, Howler, you’re with me, come on.”

The four walk off of the ship, and onto the dock. They make their way past the merchant stalls and through the crowded harbour, trying to remain unnoticed by the guards. Which is easier said than done since there is a diamond dog in the group. However they manage to make it to an alleyway a short distance from the brig, without incident. Ebony turns to Arrel, “I need you to do some recon. Fly above them come back, and tell us what we are up against,” she says. Arrel shoots up, his colors camouflaging him into the sky. “Right, the two of you get ready. We’ll go after he comes back.”

A few moments later, Arrel lands in front of the group. “There are four guards on the ship itself. There are another four on the dock stopping anyone from getting to it. There is still some cargo on board which means, more are going to be coming, or they’re leaving soon.” he says.

Ebony sits there taking in the information for a minute before looking back at the crew. “Okay, I have a plan. Howler you’ll have to swim around the ship, and come up from the water. Arrel, and Smokey, you two cover him from the air. Avoid attracting the attention of the ones on the dock. Try to keep it quiet, that means no guns Smokey.”

“Why, can’t we just kill them all?” asks Smokey

“No, there are too many guards posted around here. If they see or hear us we’ll be surrounded in seconds.”

“What if the ones on the dock notice us?” asks Arrel.

Ebony takes a deep breath, “You kill them,” she finally says.

“What are you going to be doing?”

“I won’t be fighting, if that’s what you are asking. I’ll try to distract the rest of the guards around here. Once you get the ship come and get us from the gunboat.”

“Got it.” Arrel says before taking to the air with Smokey. Howler dashes down the harbour a bit, then jumps in the water.

Now, how do I get the attention of the guards? she thinks. She comes out of the alleyway and turns toward a slightly crowded vendor stall, a colt runs out of the group with a bag of bits in him mouth. An idea hits her and she ducks into the alleyway. A minute later a yellow earth pony mare comes walking out. She approaches two guards, trying to look as unassuming as possible, idling glancing around. 

Though the act is dropped the second she is close enough. She yanks the bit pouch off one of the guards and runs down the harbour, keeping the water to her right. The guards closely follow, calling at three other guards ahead of her to try and stop her. She bolts left into a crowded street. However she is quickly cut off by guards coming the other way. Thinking quickly she throws the bit pouch onto the ground, sending shiny bits flying across the road. Ponies scramble to get the precious bits, quickly forming a mob around the thief. The guards try looking for a way through, they decide to force their way through. That is until they hear screaming coming from the mob. 

“CHANGELING!”. Panic ensues ponies start running every which direction, toppling into guards. Once most of the horde is gone they catch sight of a changeling flying off into the sky. I think that will keep them busy for a nice long time.




For a civilian, she sure knows what she’s doing, Arrel thinks as he flies far above the deck of the brig. He watches as Howler slowly swims his way to the starboard side of the ship. I can’t believe I’m working with a diamond dog, he thinks. In fact I can’t believe any of this. I’m working for a pink headed captain, who now has a crew of seven, and is trying to capture a brig with four crew members. Scratch that, three, the female doesn’t fight. Then again it`s not all that bad, I mean there is Starry. He is so wrapped up in his thoughts that he almost misses the fact that Howler is climbing up the side of the ship.

The diamond dog lifts himself onto the deck and draws his katana. Howler quietly approaches the patrolling group of ponies. Howler slits the throat of the last one in line, stopping to slowly lower the body to the deck. He does the same to the next one, reducing the number of patrolling guards down to two. He is about to go for the third one, until the guards notice that there are less hoofsteps. They turn around and  immediately see the two bodies of their fallen comrades, but they aren’t given the time to react. Howler quickly slashes at them, dropping them both to the deck in one swing.

Smokey and Arrel land on the deck of the ship. “You two get rid of the bodies. I’ll go and tell Ebony,” Arrel says. He prepares to take flight, crouching lower to the ground and spreading his wings.

“Stop right there,” he looks toward the dock, four stallions are standing on the deck of the brig now, one of which is leveling a pistol at Arrel. Howler slowly unsheathed the sword of one of dead guards. The movement, completely unnoticed by the newcomers, “Surrender now, or we will kill you,” he declares in an authoritative voice.

I wonder if the dog can keep up? Arrel thinks. To answer his question, a sword is thrown into the chest of the guard with the pistol. Arrel takes advantage of the distraction, taking to the air a few inches above the deck, quickly making his way around the group. He draws his sword and slashes at the hindlegs of two of the guards.They fall to the deck with screams of agony. Howler dashes at the last standing one. The guard draws his sword, putting it in the path of Howler’s katana and his neck. However it does nothing, Howler cuts the sword in two, along with the neck of his opponent. Arrel finishes the two laying on the ground.

“Right, I’m going now. Be sure to get rid of all the bodies.”




A few minutes later, Captain is trotting down the dock toward his new ship. He is closely followed by Starry, Ebony, and Twigs. Arrel is reconing the area, to make sure nopone is coming. He walks onto the ship, and looks around admiring his the brig. He turns toward Ebony, “I thought there were guards on the dock.” Ebony replies with a small shrug.

Arrel lands next to Captain, “There is a group of soldiers coming this way,” he says. “I think we should get outta here.”

A smile spreads across Captain’s face. “Good, I was getting tired of this place anyways. Twigs, Howler, Smokey take this thing off the dock, and raise the sails. I want to see how fast my new ship is,” he looks around, “Ebony, I see we still have some cargo on board, mind checking what it is?”

She walks around the deck of the ship looking through the crates and barrels. “A few kegs of rum, a good amount of gunpowder, uniforms, a few crates of swords and about five hundred bits,” she replies. “And no you can’t have the rum, we would make more bits if we sell it.”

“We can make a few bits off of the uniforms, and swords too.”

“Captain, she is ready to go!” says Twigs.

“Good, time to leave.” He takes the helm and steers for the sea. He looks back at the dumbfounded group of soldiers standing at the dock, watching as their ship sails toward the horizon.

Ebony comes up to Captain. “So what are you going to call it?”

Captain taps his chin as he thinks of a name for his new ship. “Misfortune,” he says.

“Why are you going to call it that? Wouldn’t it be better if we name it after something that isn’t bad luck?”

“I’m going to call her that because it’ll be bad luck for anypony who crosses her.”

“Of course, it’s not like it’ll give us bad luck too.” Ebony replies sarcastically.
> Chapter 7
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The next day, Captain and Ebony are sitting at the counter in The Lucky Mare. The rest of the crew is spread throughout the tavern celebrating yesterday’s success. Smokey is having a drinking contest against Twigs, Howler is meditating in a corner. Starry is sitting further down the counter talking with Rose, and Arrel is sitting at a table, playing a game of cards against some other patrons there. Ebony is telling Captain what had happened after she had sent Arrel to get the ship.

“Sounds like you had a lot of fun,” Captain says, taking a long chug of his rum.

“Of course you can say that, I can’t run as fast as you. I damn near died out there,” she replies.

“If you don’t like it, you can always leave, I’m not making you stay. I have a crew now, I think I’ll be alright.”

She takes a drink from her own bottle, then says. “No, not yet. I still owe you remember.”

“Ok, but remember the offer still stands,” he turns toward Rose. “Can I have some more rum over here?”

Rose quickly grabs a new bottle of rum, and brings it over. “I hear you got yourself a new ship, sweetie.”

He looks up with a smile of confidence. “Yep, it handles well, it’s fast, and I’m going to see how well it does in battle later.”

“I’m guessing that you two are going to be ‘celebrating’ tonight then?” she sends a seductive wink toward Ebony.

“Yep,” he says, completely unaware of what he just suggested. Rose lets out a laugh while Ebony facehoofs again.

Rose suddenly takes on a more serious expression. “You had better hope it’s as fast as you think, sweetie. Or else you might be seeing how strong it is sooner rather then later.”

“Why is that?” asks Ebony.

Rose points her hoof to a group stallions, “One of them says there is a galleon from the royal navy out there,” she leans in closer. “They say the captain is looking for a pirate who stole a brig from the Hayvana harbour.”

Ebony and Captain exchange a look. “I think we should get outta here for now,” says Captain. He quickly glances around for the rest of the crew.

“I think we should as well,” Eboy replies, hoping that they can outrace a galleon.

“I think we should stay here, and talk about how you stole a ship,” says a deep voice from behind them. They turn around, a light brown earth pony with a black mane, and dark blue eyes, is standing behind them. He is wearing a coat with a sun insignia, which covers his cutie mark. “Hello Captain, long time no see.”

“Flintlock, how did you find me here?” Captain asks. He is smiling at the newcomer. Why in Tartarus does he have to smile all the bucking time? Ebony thinks.

“Well, I heard that a pink headed pirate had help a changeling escape a few days ago. Now the very same pirate steals a brig. It wasn’t very hard to put two and two together. One question though, where is the changeling?” says Flintlock.

Captain points a hoof at Ebony, “She’s the changeling.”

“CAPTAIN!” she shrieks, making both of the captains laugh. "He's an enemy!".

“No need to worry Ebony. He's a old friend of mine,” Captain says.

“What, are you saying that you never told her about me?” says Flintlock with a little chuckle.

“I only knew her for a few days so far, and you kind of disappeared.”

Flintlock gives a hearty laugh, “Me! You were the one that disappeared, I made a name for myself, and became one of the top captains in the royal navy.”

“Sorry, but I’m not following. Who is this guy, and why do you know each other?” interrupts Ebony, throwing a confused glance at both of them.

“We’re brothers,” they say in unison.

She looks at the both of them. A blue pony with a pink mane, and a brown pony with a black mane. “No, don’t see how you two are related.”

“We’re not. It’s a bit of a story, so how about we sit down, and have a drink?” says Flintlock. He sits at the counter, and orders a drink. “It starts when we were kids…”




A foal version of Captain is walking the streets of Kigerston. It is a cold rainy night. His parents died a while ago so he has no home now, and has not gotten used to living on the street. They tried putting him into an orphanage, but they were are horrible places. None of them cared about him, all they ever did was punish him. So he has ran away, and now he is wandering the streets. He looks around at the well maintained homes. Most of them have lights on inside. He hops up onto a stack of crates, and looks in through the window. He sees a family, a foal, a mare, and a stallion, happily eating supper. He watches in quiet despair as they eat. He himself has not eaten for two days now. He watches as the stallion gets up from the table, and goes out the door. The stallion goes over to him.

“Get outta here brat!” he yells at the shivering foal. “I said get lost!” Captain doesn’t move, he just looks at the stallion with his a pitiful expression on his face. “Leave!” The stallions shouts before he hits Captain off of the stack, sending him to the cold wet ground.

Captain quickly gets up, and scurries away. There he is yet again, out in the cold, and dark, slowly starving. He lies on the ground, unable to go any further. I think I’ll just lay here and rest for a while, he thinks. His eyes slowly close, darkness creeping over him.



He starts coming back to his senses a while later. He is warm, oddly enough, am I dead? Did I go to heaven? he thinks. He can smell food, and smoke from burning wood. He slowly opens his eyes. He is inside a house, the walls painted a faded dark green. He is wrapped up in a blanket, there is a plate of food, and a glass of water on the floor in front of him. He turns his head slowly, his eye eventually fall upon a mare. She is sitting on a chair looking out of a window. The mare is a unicorn, light brown coat with a yellow mane. Her cutie mark is a length of purple thread and needle, looping into the shape of a heart.

“Where am I?” Captain asks, his throat sore and dry. Just then did he realize just how hungry and thirsty he is.

The mare perks up, and turns to him. “Good, you’re awake. I was afraid you would never wake up. My name is Silk Heart, and you’re in my house.” She looks at him. She has purple eyes, there was something about them that made him feel a little at ease. She points to the food, “You should have something to eat; you’re a little light.”

That is all the invitation he needed. He grabs the plate of food and starts devouring. While it is a little cold, he can’t complain, it is the only thing he has eaten in days. The mare goes over to the counter in the kitchen and looks at him. He holds up an empty plate, “Can I have more?”

Silk laughs, takes the pate and starts serving up more food. “I wish my own foal liked my cooking as much as you do,” she says as she places the plate in front of him. He finishes it just as quickly as the first.

Once he is done he looks back up at her, “Did you save me?”

“No, not really. The one who did save you is my son. He ran out last night and when he came back, he dragged you back with him. I just gave you a blanket and some food.”

“Where is your son?”

“Want to meet him? I’ll go get him.” She walks off down the hall, and disappears through a doorway. He takes this time to look at the home a bit more. The kitchen is small, but well organized. The front door is to his left, on the other side of the kitchen is the hallway. There are a few doorways visible in the hall. The same door the mare went into bursts open, and a young foal with a light brown coat, and black mane comes running down the hall. He comes to a skidding halt directly in front of Captain.

“Hey! Are you alright?” asks the energetic foal.

“Yeah, I’m ok… umm why did you help me?”

“Because you looked like you needed help. I wasn’t about to watch somepony my age starve to death. I’m not a monster.”

“Umm… thanks.”

“Don’t worry about it. Oh, my name is Flintlock by the way. What’s your name?”

“Captain, my name’s Captain.”




“I was later adopted into his family. After a few years, we decided to follow our dreams, and become a captain no matter what,” finishes Captain.

“Wow… I’m sorry about what happened when you were a kid. Sounds like you two are close though,” says Ebony as she takes in the story.

“No need to be sorry, it’s in the past now.”

“So, he won’t turn us over to the military?”

“No he won’t… Wait a minute, how did you end up as a captain for the Royal Navy?”

“It’s a bit of a story, I’ll tell you next time,” says Flintlock. “Getting back to the present, what do you plan to do now?”

“Don’t know, I guess loot some unexpecting merchant.”

“Well, if I were you, I’d stay away from the north-east waters, there are two merchant schooners coming from that way. Get too close, and they might think you are pirate,” says Flintlock letting out a hearty laugh.

“Is that so? I’m guessing that they might have a lot of protection.”

“Oddly no, it’s just the two schooners, and their cargo. I guess they think that they won’t be noticed if there’s less of them. Also if I were you I’d change the figurehead and flags of your ship. The navy might see it and they’ll know it’s the stolen one.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Captain says, taking a drink from his bottle of rum.
	
> Chapter 8
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Flintlock, Ebony, and Captain sit on the dock as they watch Flintlock’s crew resupply his ship. A sizable crowd has gathered on the docks as well, after all it isn’t often for two CRN ships to be docked in Neighsau. “I forgot to ask, but what’s her name?” Captain asks pointing a hoof at the Celestial ship. It is a galleon, wood stained white with gold trim, the usual colors of the CRN. At the front of the ship is a figure head of Nightmare Moon.

“She’s called ‘Nightmare’s Revenge’. She’s the strongest ship you’ll find.”

“Asides from mine.” 

Flintlock lets out a hearty laugh. “I think you might be overestimating your ship.”

A tall slender unicorn stallion comes walking up. He is the color of sand, and his mane is light brown with a streak of dark brown running through it. “Good to see you’re alright, Flintlock. The men were starting to wonder if the pirates here didn’t like you. I had to explain to them that, if that happened you’d come back, and this be a ghost town.”

“Ah, Sandy, good to see you too.” Flintlock gets up and pats him on the shoulder. “Captain, Ebony, I would like to introduce you to my first mate.”

Sandy takes a step forward, and gives a little bow. “It is a pleasure to meet you, my name is Sandstone. Though my captain, and the rest of the crew call me Sandy.”

Ebony gets up. “Wait a sec, I just thought of something. I know we can trust you Flintlock, but how can we know the rest of your crew won’t turn us over, no offense Sandy?”

“None taken,” replies Sandy.

“Don’t worry, you can trust them, I hoof picked them myself. They’re loyal, anyways if they were to turn you in they’d go to jail themselves. No pony ever said I don’t do pirate-y things,” Flintlock say with a smile.

“Anyways, the ship is restocked and ready to go, Flint,” Sandy says. He then turns toward the galleon and walks off.

“Looks like that’s it, I gotta or the navy will think something happened to me. I hope to see you all again soon.” With that Flintlock trots off toward his ship, while Ebony and Captain head off for theirs. “Good luck with your hunt!” Flintlock shouts over to them.

“You know me, brother, I don’t need it, but thanks anyways.” Once at the helm of his ship he turns to watch his brother sail toward the horizon. It was good to see you again, he thinks.

He turns to his crew, “Alright, Twigs, Arrel, Howler raise the sails, get us outta dock. Smokey check the cannons, I want them to be ready when we get there. Starry plot a course to the north-east waters.” He goes to the helm.

“You can’t be thinking of attacking those merchants, can you?” asks Ebony from his side.

“Why not?”

“Because we lack the ability to properly use this ship as it is. We can’t win a fight against one of them, let only two. We need a bigger crew.”

“No we don’t. I believe we can do perfectly fine as it is.”

“If you say so…”




How did I get stuck in this situation? Starry thinks as she looks over one of her maps. She is inside the cabin of the ship, nothing too impressive. A small room in the hull of the ship. A lantern is hung from a hook on the ceiling, she sits at a small desk in one corner, with a few maps spread over it. I am stuck on a boat with a diamond dog, a meat head who can only think of shooting ponies, a twig who can out drink a meat head, and an ex-military who has a crush on me. Bloody unbelieveable. 

“Hey, is something the matter?” asks someone from behind her. She jumps out of her seat, and turns to Arrel, who is standing at open door. She sits back down again sighing.

“You know you could have knocked first. Also what would make you believe that something is wrong?” she replies trying to regain composure. 

“You were mumbling something to yourself.”

Curse you for thinking out loud! she scolds herself. “I do not know as to what you are referring to.”

“You just did it again.”

She sighs again, think fast, and not out loud. “I was just wondering about the first mate. Don’t you think she seems to know a little too much?”

Arrel scratches his chin in thought. “I guess you’re right. I was thinking about that myself. But it’s not our problem, after all, we all have secrets to keep.”

“I know, but there is something odd about her. Anyways, why are you here? Certainly, you didn’t hear me from outside did you?”

A slight blush shows in his face, “I was… um… wondering if you were going to come out anytime soon. You’ve been in here since we left Neighsau.”

“No, thank you. I would prefer to stay inside here then be out there when the fighting starts. Now if you don’t mind, I have some work to do, and you’re distracting me,” Starry says. She then pushes him out of the door, and closes it.




“Twigs, get up to the crows nest. I want to know the second you see them,” Captain calls from the helm.

“Aye, Cap’n!”

Captain watches as the small pony climbs the mast. He’s an interesting one, he thinks. He looks over the rest of the crew, they all are, really. He looks off the starboard side. The suns rays reflect off of the calm water, making it shine like polished metal. There is no where he would rather be.

“Two ships, dead ahead Cap’n,” Twigs shouts from half way down the mast.

Captain takes out his spyglass to see his targets. Two schooners are both at full sail, both coming toward ‘Misfortune’. He smiles, good there’s nothing to stop me. They won’t even know what’s coming till we shoot them. “Smokey, how are the cannons looking?” he asks.

“They are in perfect condition.”

“That’s what I like to hear. Load the starboard cannons, aim for their masts, and cannons. Lets not give them a chance to fight back.” He turns the ship a bit more to the portside. Smokey, and Twigs dash around the deck loading the cannons. His heart starts to beat faster at the anticipated battle. It’s been a long time since I last did this. The ships are only meters away from the cannon range. To captain time seems to slow down as they approach their prey. Then the merchants enter the point of no return. “Fire!” In a powerful blast, the cannons go off, ripping apart the deck of the closest ship. One of the masts fall into the sea and the ship slows to a stop.

He turns his ship around, heading toward the other schooner. “Load portside cannons!” he commands, as his ship speeds toward their prey. Another blast goes off, but this time it is coming from the schooner. Splinters of wood shoot out from the hull, not enough to sink me, Captain thinks. “Fire!” At his command a blast goes off, crippling the second merchant.

“Prepare to board! Howler, you and me are taking this one. Arrel, Smokey, you two take the other one. Kill anyone who gets in your way, don’t kill the ones that surrender.” Captain jumps down onto the ship, slashing one of the sailors as he lands. Captain lunges at another sailor, managing to get him in the chest. Howler lands behind him, blocking the strike from another sailor with his katana. Howler reaches over and grabs the sailor by the back of the neck, he then throws him into the sea. Howler runs at a small group of sailor near the bow of the schooner, slashing them down in a few seconds. Captain draws out his pistol and levels it at, whom he assumes is, the merchant captain.

“What do you want?” asks the merchant.

“We want everything on your ship, or we will kill you,” Captain states bluntly.

The merchant looks around at the decimated ship. His eyes spending more time on the dead sailors than anything else. “Ok, ok, you can have it all. Just don’t kill anypony else.”

“Good, now load it onto my ship.”

A few minutes later ‘Misfortune’ pulls up to the first schooner they had shot. They see Arrel, and Smokey sitting on the bow of the ship, pointing pistols at the captured crew. There are six bodies on the deck. “Who wants to load the cargo onto my ship, or die?” Captain calls out, leaning over the rail of the ship.




“Why did we just leave them all? We could have just killed them, or taken them with us. And why did we leave them on their boats?” Smokey asks as the Neighsau harbour comes into view.

“Because they didn’t have to die. I left them with their ships for that same reason,” replies Captain.

“Yeah, but they’ll tell everypony about us now.”

“Exactly. Ok you lot, when we make dock you can go do whatever you want, but I would like to see you all at the tavern later. Not you Howler, I need your help with unloading.”

“What about our pay?” asks Arrel.

“I still have to sell this stuff. Don’t worry you’ll get your bits, just wait.”



A couple of hours later, Captain walks into The Lucky Mare. He scans the area for his crew. Smokey is passed out after challenging Twigs to a rematch. Arrel is trying to tell what happened to Starry, who is utterly unamused. Ebony, and Rose are chatting over by their usual spot at the counter. He goes over to each of them and places a small bag of bit in front of them.

“Sorry if you didn’t get as much as you thought you would. I kinda had to use some of the bits to pay for repairs, and such.” He says as he gets around to Ebony.

“You don’t have to pay me.”

“Yes I do. I don’t do slave labour, and that stuff. I pay all those who deserve it.”

She looks down at the bag of bits in her hooves. “Thanks,” she says. Why does he treat me so normally? I’m a changeling, that he saved. I don’t see why he should, or even want to, pay me. Captain leaves to challenge Twigs at a drinking contest.

“Did you do what I think you did to earn that money?” asks Rose with a sly grin.

“Buck you.”

“Oh, sweetie, I would pay you so much more if you did.” She ducks under a beige hoof as she laughs at her friend.




The next day, the crew has gathered on the dock, they are looking at Misfortune. It’s hull is stained a dark red with black trim. Black sails hang from the masts, rippling in the light wind. The figurehead is now a female earth pony wielding two swords. At the top of one of the masts, fluttered a black flag. The image on the flag depicts a crossed sword and scroll, with a skull on in the middle. “Crew, I would like you to meet the new 'Misfortune',” Captain says.

> Chapter 9
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Captain stands in front of a church. The church looks familiar to him, but he can’t quite place it. It is an old church, dusty stained-glass windows, wood boards bleached from the sun, and two large wooden doors. He looks around for any other building, but finds none. He then hears the loud thundering sound of the bells, as they rang. He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. Opening his eyes, he pushes his way through the door. There is a long red carpet going from the door to a table near the front. Seven benches flank the carpet from either side.

He makes his way to the table at the front, looking at it for a moment. Captain turns left and begins walking again. He goes straight for the only door on that side of the church. Opening the door he sees that he is at the top of a staircase, an ominous glow coming from the bottom. He closes his eyes once again, he could feel that there is something down there. He’s not sure what it is, but he knows there is something. He opens his eyes, suddenly finding himself at the bottom of the stairs. He seems to be in a catacombs of sorts, coffins lined the walls of the tunnel. The glow he had saw earlier is coming from all the small flames on the candles.

Captain walks over to a coffin further down the tunnel, not caring about the stale scent of mold. He stops at a coffin at the far side of the hall, this is the one he’s searching for. Captain glances at the name only to find it is blurred out. He pulls out his cutlass, and slides it into the space under the lid. With a quick upward motion, the lid snaps off. The ground starts shaking, dust falls from the ceiling. Captain looks around, panicked at the thought of being buried under the tons of rocks above his head. Bricks fall from the wall as he runs for the stairs. He reaches the stairs just as the world around him crumbles to dust.




Captain slowly blinks the sleep from his eyes, the slow rocking of the ship almost putting him back to sleep again. Well, that was an odd dream, he thinks. He turns his head to the right to find an annoyed looking changeling glaring at him. Captain lets out a yawn and stretches his back. “Good morning, Ebony,” he says following it with another yawn.

“Finally… I’ve been trying to get you up for the last several hours.”

“Oh, do you really miss me so much you have to wake me up?”

“Not even close, I came to wake you because Rose has a job for you,” says Ebony as she goes out the door to his cabin, “I’ll be at the tavern.”

He gets out of the bed and walks over to the door. I know it’s a good day when I go to the tavern first thing, he thinks.

Captain enters the tavern a couple of minutes later. There are not many other ponies, he easily spots Ebony and Rose chatting at the counter.

“Good to see you’re up, sweetie,” Rose greets in a cheery tone.

“Hi, I heard you have a job for me,” Captain says, placing a few bits on the counter.

“Not quite, it’s a job for you and your crew. Would you accept it?”

“What do I have to do?” he asks. He opens the bottle and takes a drink. He closes his eyes, savoring the taste of rum in the morning.

“I need you to go to Kigerston, and get some inventory for me. As it turns out I’m starting to run a little dry, and the captain I usually hire is a little under the weather. It’s a simple job.” She leans in close, putting on a seductive look. “And I’ll repay you anyway you want.”

“Sure, I think the rest of the crew won’t care, so long as they get paid,” he says as he gets up and goes to the door, completely missing the hint. “Ebony! You go get the rest of the crew, I’ll prepare Misfortune.”

“He’s no fun, I was hoping for something interesting. Maybe he’s into stallions,” Rose grumbles.

Ebony lets out a little chuckle, “Don’t worry, I just think he’s a little slow. If you keep trying you might get him. I have to go now.”

Rose focuses her seductive gaze onto Ebony. “How about you, sweetie? How would you like to be payed?”

“Money.”

“Sorry, sweetie, I only pay money for one service. Unless of course you want to do that for me.”

“I-I gotta go,” Ebony says before bolting out of the tavern.




Misfortune pulls herself into the Kigerston harbour. There are crowds of ponies running around trying to attend to business. Vendors have stalls set up all around the harbour, trying to sell their wares to sailors, and immigrants. Crates, and barrels are stacked, waiting for a ship to transport them. Several members of the crew have stepped out of the ship to see the city. 

Captain lazily looks over the starboard rail. He sees Ebony yelling at some vendors, Twigs running from vendor to vendor buying random stuff. Smokey and Arrel had left before they made port. It’s been a while since I last saw her… maybe it’s time I do that, he thinks. 

He jumps off the ship and starts walking down the roads toward the church. The roads really haven’t changed much since he was a child. He knows where he is going this time. He continues on for half an hour. He stops in front of a run-down house. The windows are boarded up, the door has a large crack across it’s surface. The walls are so dirty it makes the road look clean. He sits there for several minutes before getting up and continuing down the path. He walks around a church and into a graveyard, he continues down the rows of headstones looking for a special one. Stopping in front of a small, very basic headstone. “Hey… mom,” he says, looking down at the name, Silk Heart.

He sits down on his haunches. “I know I haven’t visited you a lot lately. I was held up in a few… situations, but I’m here now.” He pauses, taking a deep breath then continues. “I don’t know where to start. Well, I was stuck in Hayvana for a while, that’s why I didn’t come. I was having some hard times there, it all went from bad to worse, and I had started to believe I would never be anybody. I started to grasp at straws, going for even the smallest chance of a change. Until at some point I ended up in prison, I didn’t want to die I a place like that. As I was about to escape when I met… her. I can’t keep my mind off of her. Two outlaws in desperate situations, but I saved her all the same… I knew you would have agreed. And then everything started to change for the better. Now I have a crew, a ship, a great first mate… now I have a family.” 

He takes a deep, shaky breath, wiping away a stream of tears that has formed. “I saw Flintlock recently, I’m not sure if he’s been here lately. When I saw him he was doing alright, knowing him he’s probably doing better now. He’s a great captain, I haven’t seen him command a ship yet, but I can tell. Mom, I think I can finally achieve something. I know I have a long way to go, but with my crew I’m sure I’ll… we’ll reach greatness. I’m not sure whether you’d agree with the path I have chosen, but I’m going for it.” Captain lifts himself up and wipes away a few more tears. “It was nice talking to you, I love you.” He turns to leave, but stops himself. He turns back to the grave, “I don’t suppose you’d give me sign whether you think I can or not, would you?” 

Then the bells of the church start ringing. He looks at the church, in a daze. His mind goes back to the dream he had, with him staring up at the church. That’s where I’ve seen it, I can’t believe I didn’t notice it before, he thinks. He runs to the church doors pushing his way through them. The inside looks the same as his dream, a red carpet flanked by seven benches on either side. He runs over to the catacomb’s door, jumping his way over the benches. He races down the stairs, over to the coffin. 

Jamming his cutlass into the gap under the lid, he pushes the cutlass upward. With a crack the lid opens, inside is the corpse of a male unicorn. Of course the color of his coat and mane has faded but still visible, green, and grey respectively. Lying on the chest of the corpse, is a rolled up paper. He grabs the paper, and quickly opens it (to make sure it’s not a letter). Looking at the paper, it’s obvious that’s it a map. He rolls it up again and puts it in his belt before turning to the door. He glances quickly at the name on the coffin, Emerald Lance. “Sorry, but I’m taking this. In any case I think I can put it to better use then you.” Captain dashes out of the door, out of the church, and down the road towards the harbour. He stops and looks back toward the graveyard, “Thanks, I’ll visit again. I promise.”




“Starry, I have something for you to look at,” Captain says as he climbs onto the deck of ‘Misfortune’. He reaches into his belt and gives her the map. 

She unrolls it and looks back up at him with an annoyed look. “What is this!?”

“A map, I need you to find out where it leads.”

She opens her mouth to protest, but sighs, knowing that she won’t win.

“Where were you?” Ebony asks.

“Why?”

“You were gone for a while. You never told anypony where you were going. Then you come back with a map.”

“I was visiting some family.”
> Chapter 10
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Captain sits upon his golden throne in the sky, looking out over the world of the mortals. He takes a deep breath; after years he has finally surpassed the army, princess, and even the mortal world. He watches a ship slowly sail over the ocean, perhaps he should enter the world again, after decades of watching. He is starting to miss the feel of helm at his hoofs, the smell of sea water in the morning. Maybe I should return, he thinks.

He hears thunder crack in the cloud under him. How can pegasus stand that? More thunder goes off, but he decides to ignore it. He turns his view toward Canterlot, it always makes him a little happy to look down on the princess. More thunder, louder this time, Captain feel the shock wave through the cloud. The cloud tears open and Captain falls through. He looks down in terror at the fast approaching ground. Looks like I’m returning sooner than I thought.




His eyes shoot open, he’s underwater. Where’s my ship? He pushes upward and breaks the surface. He realizes that he is in fact a couple of hooves away from the starboard side of Misfortune. His gaze turns upward and focuses on the Starry Night leaning on the rail, with an expression somewhere between bored and annoyed. “Why am I in the sea?”

“It was the only way to wake you, literally. I shouted at you for several minutes, when I realized that wasn’t going to get me anywhere, I threw you off the ship,” she says.

Captain starts climbing his way up the side of his ship, with a grunt he flops up onto the deck. “Fine, but why did you wake me?”

“I finished identifying where the map leads.”

“It took you three days to do that?”

“This bloody map has no reference points, no landmarks, nothing telling me where it leads. There weren’t even any coordinates, I had to compare the shape of the bloody thing against everything on my maps. It leads to a pitiful little island just west of here, by the way.”

“Oh, alright then, I’ll go get Ebony, then we set sail.” Starry sighs then heads down into the hull of the ship to get some rest.




Ebony wakes to the sound of someone humming a cheery tune. It doesn’t take long to realize that it’s Rose. She stretches her back, her makeshift bed isn’t too comfy, but she doesn’t want to wake up cuddling with Rose again. She opens her eyes to a red tail swaying for side to side as she brushes her mane in front of the mirror.

“Liking the view from back there, sweetie?” Rose chuckles.

“No, not in the slightest,” Ebony replies bluntly.

“Oh, that hurt sweetie, you should be more nicer to me. I am letting you live with me.”

“Yes, and I appreciate that, but I’m not going to give you a reason to cuddle me.”

“Oh I get it, you’re saving the cuddling for Captain, aren’t you, sweetie?” says Rose as she walks over to her closet and starts looking through it.

“Shut up about that, would you, It’ll never happen.” Ebony says, covering her head with the blanket. Rose pulls out an elegant dark grey dress, looking it over before deciding to put it on. “Aren’t you getting a little bit too dressed up today?”

“No, because I’m not opening the tavern today.” She tosses a key to Ebony, which is caught in a field off green magic. “You’re allowed in, but not allow to drink the merchandise or give it to the crew.”

“Where are you going?”

She gives a slightly annoyed sigh. “I’m going to a ‘party’. I’m not going to be back till tomorrow.”

“You don’t sound happy about it.”

“In case you can’t tell from the dress, it’s a noblepony’s party. The kind where everypony stands around and talks about how much money they have, while listening to music and drinking wine.”

Ebony stares at her, she quickly shakes her head. “How the buck did you get into that kinda party, aren’t they usually very selective about who goes?”

“Well… I’m actually quite rich and well known throughout the community. In fact I’m the one providing the wine for the event.”

“Wait, if you’re rich why do you work at a tavern?”

“It’s my grandmother’s, she passed away sometime ago, and she left it to me in her will. At this point I simply don’t want to get rid of it.”

“Okay… so why do you have so much money?”

“I own two wineries in Prance, and half a dozen taverns and restaurants over Equestria. Which is why I’m going, so ponies will buy more.”

“Prance?!”

“I don’t suppose this could wait till I come back? My ship is going to leave soon.”

“Uh… um… alright, it can wait. Have fun.”

“Sweetie, the only way I’ll have fun is if I end up in somepony’s bed.” Rose goes out the door leaving Ebony to try and sort out the information she just got. She walks over to the window to see Rose trotting off toward the harbour.

“Something wrong?” says Captain from the, still open, doorway. Ebony lets out a scream as she quickly turns around and throws the first thing she finds, which happens to be a pillow. Captain catches it with ease. “I don’t think a pillow will do anything even if it did hit.”

“The buck are you doing here?!”

“Got treasure to find, need the whole crew.”

“No, what are you doing here, in this room? You should have knocked. I could’ve been getting dressed or something. What if I had a knife?”

“You probably would’ve missed, or I would’ve caught it. Now, hurry up, we have treasure to find and things to loot.”

She lets out a sigh, “Fine, give me a second.” She goes over to the mirror as green flames surround her. She gives her disguise a once over. Satisfied, she trots out the door, following Captain.




“Are you sure we are on the right course?” Captain asks Starry.

“Would you stop asking me that every five bloody minutes! Unless you remember, I don’t make mistakes!” she yells at him, her face flushed red from anger.

“Well, we’re not there yet, I think we should’ve been there by now.”

“That’s because you have no sense of direction or time!”

“Would you two stop yelling? I have a horrible headache.” mutters Smokey over from the cannon he’s sitting on.

“That’s because you keep on having those stupid drinking contests against Twigs, and keep losing! How can you lose to him, you’re twice his size!” Starry shouts back.

“Are we there yet?” asks Captain.

“I swear to Celestia, I may not kill ponies, but I’ll make an exception for you!” She goes down to her quarters before she kills someone.

“Good job, you’ve managed to piss off our navigator. Good luck getting back now.” Ebony says from his side.

“Not my fault if she got the directions wrong.” They hear rage filled scream come from under the deck.

Arrel flies down from the crow’s nest, landing at the base of the mast. “Captain, the island is dead ahead, but…”

“But what?”

“We don’t seem to be the only ones after the treasure.”

Captain pulls out his spyglass and quickly spots the island. There is also another ship along side the island. A brig with black sails, he doesn’t see much else from this distance other than the fact the sails are being raised. He sighs, and looks at his crew.

“Howler get below deck, we’re going to have visitors, and I don’t want to find out whether they like diamond dogs or not.” He does as told, while the rest of the crew (minus Starry) watch the ship slowly approach. Captain looks at the ship through his spyglass again. He counts out about twenty sailors, sixteen cannons, and one captain looking at him through his own spyglass.

“Ahoy! How goes it?” the captain calls over with a bit of a chuckle.

“Alright,” Captain replies.

“That’s good to hear. Say, whachya doin’ here, pinkie?”

My mane, he has to mention my mane. “Searching for a unsuspecting merchant to loot, fishing, enjoying the sea. I should ask you the same question.”

“Oh, nothin’ much, just um… just doing some fishing ourselves.”

“Alright, in that case we should be able to get along.”

“Say, what’s your name? I’m captain Rocky Bottom.”

“Captain.”

“...”

“...”

“...”

“My name is Captain.”

Rocky stares at him from a second before falling into a giggle fit. “So, you’re captain Captain?”

“That’s pretty well the idea of it,” he says with a blank expression.

“I’m sure we can get along perfectly fine, captain Captain,” he says with a snicker. With that they part ways, Rocky’s ship goes back to the island, while Captains a little distance away. 

He takes out his spyglass again, this time directing it toward the little island that he can now see clearly. It is a small barren island with literally nothing on it asides from one palm tree. Three stallions are on the island, one is hold a sword, while the other two carry a shovel each. In the middle of the group is a green earth mare, there is a yellow streak cutting through her light grey mane. The stallions seem to be yelling at her, and she is clearly afraid of her situation. One of the stallions hit her hind leg with a shovel.

Captain grits his teeth. “Something the matter, Captain?” Ebony asks.

The stallion hits her again. “No, nothing.”

“So, what’s the plan then?”

“Wait till night, sneak onto the island, steal it from under them.”

“What about the mare?”

“What about her?”

“Are you just going to leave her there? It’s pretty obvious that she’s not part of their crew.” Captain remains silent as he watches the stallion hit her again. “You know, I can see your anger every time they hit her, and I don’t need to be a changeling to see it.”

“Not right to treat anyone like that. I’ve been treated like that.”

“So…”

“So, when night comes we save her, and take the treasure.”

Ebony looks out toward the island. “I don’t think she has until night.”

He sighs and remains silent for a few seconds then turns around to his crew. “Howler, I’m sorry, but you’ll have to swim over to that ship. Arrel, Smokey, you two cover him from the air.”

“What are you going to do Cap’n?” Twigs asks.

“I’m going to have a chat with their captain.” He turns back to Arrel, and Smokey. “If one of us draws our sword be ready attack. If we both draw our swords, start dropping them, but leave the captain to me.”

“Finally, I get to kill somepony,” Smokey shouts, flying into the air beside Arrel.

“Twigs lower a rowboat.”

“Aye, Cap’n.”

“You can’t possibly hope to beat them, they’re at least twenty on that ship,” Ebony says.

“I don’t really care. If I have to, I’ll crush them all myself.”

“Boat’s ready Cap’n.”

Captain jumps over the rail and lands in the boat with a heavy thud.

“Good luck Captain, please come back.”




“It’s a pleasure to see ya again so soon, captain Captain,” says Rocky with a far too big smile.

Captain sighs, he’s really starting to get annoying with that. “I just came to chat.”

“What about?”

“I notice your crew is doing something on the island, and it doesn’t look like fishing.”

The smile drops and is replaced with a serious glare. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Captain sees a wet paw cling onto the rail. “I give you two options, you can either leave this island now, or you’ll help me lure the sharks so I can fish'em.”

“Ah, so that what this is about. You want the treasure, but how did you hear about it?”

Captain draws his sword. “Final chance, leave now or don’t leave at all.”

Rocky lets out a mocking laugh. “You’re threatening me, on my own ship? Do you really believe you can beat an entire ship on your own or are you too drunk to know better? Doesn’t matter anyways, because…” He draws his sword. “You’re going to die here.”

Then all Tartarus breaks loose.

Two gunshots go off making just as many sailor go down. Rocky looks up at a light grey pegasus holding a double barrel pistol. The sailors point their pistols at the pegasus only to be attacked from the other direction by a sky blue pegasus. Arrel lands on the deck, skidding to a stop with his sword in his mouth. Screams come from the port side of the ship, as a dripping wet diamond dog jumps onto the deck, striking down three sailors at once. Quickly the ship is filled with the sounds of swords clashing and pistol fire

However that is as much as Rocky gets to see before Captain is upon him. He blocks a slash from Captains sword. Captain continues his relentless onslaught, leaving no opening from a counter attack from his enemy. Sparks fly as strike after strike is blocked by Rocky, he rolls out of the assault and lunges at Captain. His blade is easily deflected, and he takes a hit to the jaw from Captains hoof. He staggers back a bit, when he regains his composure he sees Captain, not having moved from his spot. He could have killed me, he’s going easy on me, Rocky thinks. 

He charges forward and slashes down at Captain. However Captain just steps out of the way, hitting the back of the cutlass with his hoof, wedging it into the deck of the ship. Rocky tries to pull the blade out, but to no avail. The air is knocked out of him, and he is sent flying across the ship and into the rail. A pair of powerful fore legs wrap around his neck and cut off his air.

“Give up or die,” Captain says.

“Never,” Rocky spits out with his last bit of air.

There is a loud crack, and Rocky falls to the deck. The fighting around them slowly stop as the crew take notice of their fallen captain. Captain looks up from the body and surveys the battlefield. “I give you all the same option, leave now or I paint your ship the same color as mine, using your blood. Before you answer look around, you’ve lost half your numbers already and I wasn’t fighting, now I’m able to join.”

The crew immediately drop their weapons and start rushing to raise the sails. Captain turns to his crew and says, “Arrel go back to the ship, have them come here. Smokey, Howler, we’re going onto the island.”

Howler and Captain jump into the rowboat and row the short distance to the island. The three stallions come running up to them. “What happened up there?” His only answer is a cutlass sinking into his neck, and the rage filled eyes of Captain. Before the other two could do anything Captain's blade sinks hilt deep into the chest of the next. The last one grabs his sword and charges. Captain picks up the shovel and hits him in the jaw, resulting in a satisfying crack. He tries to get up, but receives a bone breaking blow to the back. Captain then jabs the shovel through through his back, there is a quick gasp then nothing.

“Woah, don’t you think that’s a bit harsh Cap? I mean you gave all the others a chance,” Smokery says from the air.

“They didn’t deserve a chance,” he says as he yanks his cutlass out of a body. He turns to the mare, she stares at him in shock and fear. He starts to approach her, she tries to get up, but it’s clear her leg is broken. Captain stops in front of her. “Don’t worry, I’m not here to kill you. Just stay still, you don’t want to make that leg of yours any worse.” She continues to stare at him in shock and fear, a little less fear, but still fear. He sighs, “I came here to save you.”

A small smile forms on her face. “Thank you. Are you with the military? I didn’t think anyone would notice me missing for a lit--” She spots the dark red ship with black sails, and a pirate flag, coming toward the island. “You’re pirates!” she screams.

Captain winces at the outburst. “Uh… yeah, kinda. Does it make a difference?”

“You’re going to kill me!” she say as she starts sobbing.

“Calm down, I’m not going to kill you.”

“You’re going to feed me to the dog!”

He shares a quick look with Howler. “Calm down or I'll knock you out.” At this she stops crying. The rest of the crew arrive on the shore. “Ebony, take her onto the ship and look after her. Starry point us toward the treasure.”

“You know where the treasure is?” asks the green mare.

“No, I have no clue where it is.” He points to Starry, “She does.”

The green mare isn’t given time for more questions, she is picked up by Ebony and brought onto the ship.

“I wonder what she had to do with anything,” Arrel says.

“She’s related to the pony I got the map from.”

“How can you tell?”

“Same colors, she knew about the treasure, can’t be a coincidence that they just happen to kidnap her.”

“You two coming to help or what?” Smokey shouts over to them.

Captain and Arrel trot over to the hole he has started digging.




Inside the dark red vessel, Ebony tends to the mares wounds.

“So… what’s your name?” Ebony asks.

“My name is Jade Statue, I’m an architect. In fact I helped build the fort in Havana.”

“That’s neat, I used to work there myself until I was… let’s just say I quit. Name’s Ebony by the way.”

“Yeah I kinda heard before. The pink-headed one was… uh…”

“He’s scary when he wants to be, he’s incredibly vicious when he needs to be. But don’t worry, he’s nice, he’s an odd pirate to say the least, but strong nonetheless.”

“Did he really come to save me?”

“Yeah, he did, you’d be surprised how angry he got when he saw you being hit. Actually maybe not, seeing as to how you saw him ram a shovel through a pony’s chest. Okay, now I have to put your bone back in place, so this is going to sting a bit.”

“Okay, give me a sec- *crack* - holy bucking mother of celestia that hurts!”

“I told you I would hurt.”

“You said it would sting a bit!” Jade screams.

“Oh right, I lie sometimes.” Jade just glares daggers at her. “Hey, at least your leg will heal properly.”

“What are you going to do with me now?” she sighs.

“I guess we’ll drop you off at Hayvana or another nearby port town.”

“You’d go into Hayvana just to bring, and risk being caught?”

“I’m sure Captain would.”

“I guess I owe him now.”

Ebony smiles at her. “Trust me, you’re not the only one.”

> Chapter 11
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Thanks,” says Jade, she staggers a little as she steps onto the dock. The harbour is just as busy as every other time the crew has been there. Crowds of ponies rush to and fro trying to keep up with their daily activities. Though it appears that Misfortune is attracting a little more attention than needed. It’s not too often that a pirate docks in Hayvana.

“No problem,” Captain replies.

“No problem? You freed me from pirat… other pirates, you have me patched up. Then you drop me off in Hayvana, a place famous for executing pirates. If you ask me, I’ll say that’s a little work.”

“No, it was no problem.”

“At least let me pay you back.”

“Buy me rum if I ever come back, and I’ll call it even.” He watches her limp down the dock. Out of the corner of his eye he stops a group of soldiers coming out of a street and towards him. “Loose the sails, let’s get back to Neighsau.” He walks over to the helm, sparing a glance at the group. I wonder if he knows that I’m here...

“Good work crew,” he says once they’re out of the harbour. “Tonights drinks are on me.”

Ebony suddenly remembers the conversation she had this morning. “Sorry guys, the tavern’s closed today.”

“What?! B-but what about my rum?” Captain says with a look of utmost despair.

“Yeah, we need to have our rum!” Smokey complains.

“You two have a very serious drinking problem,” states Starry.

“But, I still need to beat Twigs at a drinking contest!”

“I still don’t understand how you lose in the first place.”

“Ebony, are you sure that it’s closed?” Captain asks.

“Yes.” Captain falls to the deck of the ship and begins to cry. “She should be back tomorrow.” He immediately stops crying and grabs the helm once again.

“You should have said that before.”

“I wish to correct my previous statement. He’s an alcoholic, you’re the one with a very serious drinking problem,” Starry says.

“Are we there--”

“If you dare say it, I will throw you off the ship!”

Captain pauses from a moment as he thinks of something. “Fair enough, are we there yet?” Before he knows what’s happening, he finds himself in the water.




Ebony quickly enters ‘The Lucky Mare’ and slams the door before anyone could see her. She looks around the dark interior, then takes a deep breath. I don’t need Captain knowing I have the key to this place, she thinks. A ring of green fire surrounds her as the disguise drops. She opens the door behind the counter and goes up the stairs. She flops down onto Rose’s bed, she shouldn’t be back until tomorrow, and this bed is a lot comfier than the makeshift thing. 

She curls up under the blankets, I wonder what he’ll do next. The crew seems to be getting a lot more used to each other, in Starry’s case I’m not sure if that’s a good thing. Well, I’ll give her props for having the guts to actually throw him off, especially since she know he could kill her in a second. 

An image of the green mare flashes through her head. Captain certainly is an odd one, taking on a crew of twenty with only four, just to save some random stranger. Then he sails into Hayvana harbour without changing the flag or sails, to let her off. I ould never have guessed that a pirate like him exists, wonder why he does all that though. Her eyes drift closed as sleep takes over.




She wakes to ray from Celestia’s sun shining through the window, giving the room a soft glow. She quietly lay in the bed warped in the warmth from the sun and the comforting feeling of hooves wrapped around her waist. She could simply spend the day like this. However that comforting feeling is quickly replaced with panic, rage, frustration, and embarrassment. She turns around to face the cream colored pony, and roughly shoves her off the bed. Rose lets out a little yelp before she hits the ground with a hard thump.

“Goodmorning to you too, sweetie,” she mumbles from the floor.

“Why were you cuddling me!”

“Hey, you were the one in my bed, you were just asking for it, sweetie. That and you looked so cute, and cuddleable when you were asleep.”

I guess she has a point, on the first part at least, she thinks, but dares not admit it. “Why do you always want to cuddle me?”

Her head pops up above the edge of the bed.  “Sweetie, I wanted to do so much more than just cuddle with you, but I was too tired,” she says with a wink.

A blush comes to her cheeks, “Would you stop trying to cuddle me? Wait, why are you back? Didn’t you says you were going to be back later today?”

“Oh, uh… the host kinda got drunk… then passed out. So the party was canceled.”

“Okay… but you still have to explain why you’re rich.”

“I thought I already did that.”

Ebony lets out a frustrated sigh. “Fine, explain Prance.”

“My full name is Rose Wine, I’m originally from Prance. Even there my family were nobles. When I was old enough, my parents saw fit to give me a winery.”

“Your parents gave you a winery for your birthday?”

“Yeah, that’s the basic idea of it. Once I had made enough money I bought a second. After that I decided to move to Equestria, at the time my Grandmum was here. I bought several bars and restaurants, since I could provide them with wine. Then I inherited ‘The Lucky Mare’, and here we are.”

“How rich are you?”

“I have enough money to buy this town. If you want, I could spread the wealth with you, but you’d have to ‘earn’ it,” replies Rose as she climbs back into bed, trying to wrap her hooves around Ebony.

Ebony jumps out of the bed before she could be caught. “No thanks, we’ll do perfectly fine on our own.”

“Wait, I want to cuddles more.”

“No, would you just stop that already?!”

“If you want I could invite Captain over for cuddles as well.”

Ebony freezes as her blush turns to a brighter red. “Uh… w-wha… um…” She bolts out of the door for lack of a better response.

“You forgot your disguise,” Rose yells at her.

Ebony runs back into the room in a burst of green flame. She goes straight for the mirror to check the disguise.

“Cheeks are too red.”

Ebony is gone before her roommate could harass her more. Leaving Rose rolling on the bed laughing as hard as she can.




Ebony stands at the counter of the tavern again, scanning the crowd of ponies. She quickly spots out Smokey, Arrel, Howler, Twigs, and Captain. She is starting to get more and more use to this place. The smell of old booze and sweaty pirates. The yelling, shouting, laughing, storytelling, and pirates singing cheerful shanties. It is all starting to feel a little like home to her.

“Hey Ebony, how’s it going?” asks Captain.

“Alright, had a bit of a bad morning, but asides from that I’m fine. How about you Captain?”

“I’m great, I finally can have some rum!”

“Hey, sweetie, I have a question to ask you,” Rose says. 

“What is it?”

“Well, me and Ebony were wondering whether you wanted to join us--” She is tackled to the ground by the disguised changeling. Ebony plants her hoof firmly over Rose’s mouth.

“What was that?”

“It was nothing, it was nothing, just ignore her, I think she’s going a little crazy,” Ebony quickly says. Captain shrugs and continues to drink his rum. Ebony removes her hoof, only to see Rose smiling up at her. “Shut up.”

“I wasn’t going to say anything, I was just going to ask him if he want to join me on a trip to Kigerston.”

“As if.” She turns toward Captain. “So, what are we going to do today?”

“Nothing, I plan on upgrading the ship later today.”

Arrel comes walking up to the counter. “Hey Rose, did you see Starry lately?”

“Sorry, you just missed her. She was in earlier asking whether I had any interesting news.”

“Oh…”

The door bursts open, and a group of ponies (and one minotaur) come walking in. The sounds throughout the tavern quickly die out at the arrival of the newcomers. The group is made of one white female pegasus with a mane made of two shades of red with a long scar along her right shoulder. A pale blue unicorn stallion with a yellow mane, a dark brown earth stallion with a red mane. A green earth mare with blonde mane, and a large male minotaur. “Well, looky here, if it isn’t the traitor.” Arrel’s eyes go to the size of pinpricks. He doesn’t turn around, he doesn’t have to, he remembers those voices well enough to know who they are. Did they come for me? he thinks. “What, have nothing to say to your old crew?” taunts the green mare.

“Old crew, do you know them Arrel?” Ebony asks.

“Traitor…” Captain mumbles.

“And you never told them about us?! Don’t begin the think you can turn your back to the past like that. It can’t make up for what you’ve done,” says the mare. “Can you imagine our surprise, to find a worthless traitor like you. When we come here from a completely different target. You know when we’re done with him, we might come back for you.”

Captain stands up from his stool, and stares down the mare. “Can you please shut up? I don’t like it when some pony insults a member of my crew.”

The green mare doubles-over laughing. “You, you’re a captain? Let me guess, your name is captain Flamingo.” Her laughter slowly dies down to a few chuckles, before long her face is completely serious again. “You might want to get rid of him now before he betrays you.” A few tears start rolling down Arrel’s cheek. “He’s a traitor of Celestia’s Royal Navy, he turned inf--”

“I don’t give a buck,” Captain states bluntly. Arrels attention snaps to his captain. “I don’t care if he betrayed the navy. He’s a good pony, he’s a great scout, and fighter, and I won’t get rid of him no matter what you say.”

“Yeah but he betrayed us, his friends, if he did that to us imagine what he’ll do to you, his new crewmates.”

“Again, I don’t give a buck. As you said before, it’s in the past. I don’t think he’d be willing to do it again.”

“What makes you so sure?”

“Captain, please stop,” Arrel says in a quivering voice. “They’re right, I am a traitor.”

“So does that mean you’re going to come with us?”

Captain draws his sword, in a corner of the tavern a diamond dog gets up and draw out his katana. Smokey levels a double barreled pistol at them. “If you want him you’ll have to take him.” Several more swords and pistols are drawn throughout the tavern.

“Wait, don’t kill them,” Arrel shouts jumping in between the group and the rest of the tavern. “I don’t want anyone to die because of me,” he says looking towards the group, the white pegasus looks away.

The mare looks around the tavern with an annoyed glare. She opens her mouth to say something, but is cut off. “That’s enough! We’re not here for him, and he isn’t a target,” the brown stallion says. He glares at the mare and says, “We’re leaving, the longer we spend here the further away our target may be.” He turns and leaves the rest of the group quickly follow.

“Arrel, I think you should tell us what that was about,” Captain says.
> Chapter 12
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Arrel says, slumping down onto a chair.

“Well, I do,” Captain says bluntly.

“Please, you’ll only think the same of me as them.”

“It’s no ones place to chose what I think of you, but me. Now, tell me and let me decide what I think about you.”

Arrel sighs and looks around at the rest of the crew. “Fine, three years ago I was a member of the crew onboard the Avenger, and we were pirate hunters…




Arrel flies above the night sea, listening to the waves to make sure not he not heading for water. He flies through a dark grey cloud, looks like a storm we’d better hurry. He spots a few orange dots on the sea below. He glances to his left, easily finding the white pegasus flying next to him. He motions toward the ship down blow, she gives a quick nod before they drop altitude. They stay out of sight from the ship’s occupants, while trying to identify their target. After a few minutes of circling he sees a black earth stallion stepping onto the deck.

“Found the target, his ship is to the east of the island. He has a pretty big crew, be ready for a fight,” he thinks.

“Got it… you two better return to the ship. I can’t hold the mental link much longer,” Coral replies.

“Right, coming back.”

“He’s so hot…”

“Dawn! We didn’t need to hear that!” Honey mentally scolds the white pegasus.

“Sorry, sorry, I’m still getting used to this whole telephy… telapy…”

“Telepathy,” Coral thinks.

“Yes, that!”

“Give her a break guys, she’s new here,” Minos thinks.

“Guys, we should get back on track, we’re comin’ up on them now.” Terra thinks.

Arrel and Dawn find the Avenger approaching the ship from the south. “Race you there,” Dawn says.

Arrel looks back toward their ship. As it is he’s closer than her, and it’s not that far away from them. “You’re on.” He shoots off toward the Avenger. However a white and red streak quickly blasts by him. Of course, I lose… again, he thinks.

“You challenged her to a race? Don’t you ever learn?”

“Mind link… of course.”

He lands on the deck of the ship, taking a little rest for the fight that’s soon to come. Minos comes walking up to him, his massive battleaxe sends shivers down Arrels back. The minotaur places one of his giant hands on Arrel’s shoulder. “You know, I think she likes you.”

“What gave you that idea?” he replies sarcastically.

“I’m just pulling your leg ,buddy,” say Minos. I wouldn’t have a leg if you really were, Arrel thinks. “I won’t argue with you there.” Coral, turn off the bucking mind link!

Minos goes over to the cannons and prepares for the fight. The target ship races toward them, hoping to sink the Avenger with their ram. Other crew members run about loading the cannons and grabbing their weapons.

“Arrel, Dawn, sorry but it looks like you can’t take a break yet. I need you two to go get their captain. This is supposed to be a simple job, and I don’t wanna waste time with boardin’,” Terra calls over.

“Yes, sir.” Arrel gets up and crouches closer to the deck, preparing to take flight. The Avenger suddenly makes a hard starboard turn, aiming the portside to the bow of the pirate ship.

“Fire!” The order comes out nearly as clear as the thunderous shockwave that soon followed. The cannonballs find their target, obliterating the figurehead, and sending splinters of wood raining down into the dark sea. The pirates fire some chain-shot at the masts, ripping off a fair section of sail. The crew quickly go about reloading the cannons as the pirates turn to aim their main cannons. “Brace!” Terra shouts, a second later cannonballs rip into the hull and deck.

“Cannons are loaded, sir,” call out one of the deck-hooves.

“Fire!” Once again, the booming of the cannons are heard, quickly followed by explosions of splintered wood from the pirate ship. “Arrel, Dawn, now!” Arrel quickly shoots off of the deck, easily spotting the pirate captain at the helm of his ship. He looks around to find Dawn to his right. He motions toward the captain, she quickly nods in return and they dive for stallion. Before any of the pirates can react, the two pegasi swoop down and pick up their captain by the shoulders. They circle around the ship and head back towards the ‘Avenger’, throwing the outlaw, unceremoniously, onto the deck. He is immediately cuffed and thrown under the deck.

“Good now, sink the ship,” Terra says. The cannons go off once more, punching large holes into the deck, water quickly starts to flow in. Terra goes back up to the helm and steers for Hayvana.


“Good job ,crew. How about a few drinks on me?” asks Terra, walking along the harbour toward one of their more prefered taverns.

“Or would you two rather be alone? You know, some private time where no one can see what you do… together,” says Coral, blowing a lock of his green mane out of his eye.

Dawn looks away,trying to hide the blush forming on her cheeks. “You should stop bugging her,” Arrel says.

“She should stop thinking about how hot you are,” Honey growls. Arrel rolls his eyes at the green and blonde mare.

“Sorry guys, I won’t be able to join you. I have a few thing to tend to,” Arrel says.

Terra give him a suspicious look then turns away. “See ya,” he replies with a wave of his hoof.

Arrel flies in the other direction, landing just outside off a slightly beat-up tavern. He walks into the dusty place, inside isn’t much better off than the outside. A few tables are overturned the ones that aren’t overturned have either a drunk passed out on it or a a stallion near that state. Chairs lay about, broken, and forgotten. In the middle of the room are two stallions trying to fence using a pair of old chairs. Charming, he thinks, he looks around and spots a pirate sitting alone at a table by the right wall. He sits down at the table, across from the pirate. Something is off about him, he seems… clean?

“Are you Cloud Walker?” asks the pirate.

Arrel sighs, thank goddess these fools don’t know my real name. “Yes, I’m Cloud Walker.”

“So, what did you bring me?”

Arrel crosses his forelegs. “Where’s my money?” The pirate throws a pouch of bits over to his side of the table. “Right, currently the pirate hunters are after a pirate named Black Bit.” One of the patrons leave the tavern, Arrel can swear he hears some fighting outside. Probably just a drunken fight, he thinks. “The fort is also bringing reinforcements and supplies, you can expect more soldiers when that’s happening. Also, as far as I know, a shipment of bits is coming in from Eaglela--” He hears what he thinks is shouting from outside, he quickly relizes that it isn’t shouting, but rather, they’re orders. “I got to go.” Arrel grabs the bits, gets up and starts to walk away. However before he can get far the pirate grabs him by the foreleg.

“You ain’t going anywhere.” The door bursts open and several soldiers come walking in, among them he spots Terra and Minos. 

Terra picks up a chair and places it in front of Arrel, and sits down on it. He lets out a heavy sigh and says “So, you’re the one that has been hoofing out info. I was really hoping they were wrong, you know.”

“How did you find out?”

“We caught a pirate you talked to, he gave a description. Why, why would you betray us?”

“I can’t tell you.”

“Tell us, dammit!” Minos shouts, making all the soldiers flinch.

Terra and Arrel stare at each other for what seems like hours. “There’s two ways this can go down, either you come quietly and you stand a better chance of getting out. Or we take you down, and Minos here is very angry at you,” Terra says.

“To take me down you’ll have to catch me first.” Arrel flares his wings, breaking free from the soldiers grip. He then breaks through a window a flies off toward the harbour. There is a massive crash as Minos breaks down the door in pursuit of him.

Terra sighs again. “I was really hoping you would pick the quiet way,” he says before getting up and walking over the destroyed door.

A shadow falls over Arrel as he flies at top speed. Looking up, he finds a white and red pegasus streaking past, and stopping in front of him. “Please stop, Arrel, I don’t want to hurt you,” Dawn says.

I don’t want to hurt you either, but I’m not stopping. He flies around her and continues on along the harbour. A quick and sharp pain shoots through his back, sending him crashing down the the hard surface. Dawn quickly lands beside him. “I’m sorry, I said I didn’t want to hurt you,” she says.

“Then why not just let me go!” he shouts at her, immediately regretting his words as he sees the tears streaming down her face. She looks down at the ground.

“Why would you do this to us? Just tell us, we can help!”

“I-I can’t tell you. Listen I don’t want to hurt you either,” he draws his sword. “But I will if you try to stop me,” he bluffs. Please stop… I’m not willing to hurt you.

She looks back up at him. “If it’s going to be that way, I guess I have no choice then.” She draws her own sword and flares her wings. He swallows a lump that has formed in his throat.

“Please I really don’t want to hurt you, just get out of my way.”

“If you don’t want to hurt me, then put your sword down.”

“Fine, if it’s going to be this way.” He takes to the air and tries going over her, but he is blocked by Dawn. He swings his sword at her, keeping it just short of her. She deflects the blade and takes a jab of her own at his wing, he goes into a drive. He levels out just a few hooves above the street, the same blade pops up in front of him, he has no time to block. He shuts his eyes, preparing for the sting of her sword. However only a slight breeze pass just in front of his forehead, opening his eyes a lock of his hair drifts down and lands on his snout. He flies backward, putting some space between him and Dawn.

He turns around and flies away from her, a white streak quickly passes by him. He catches the flash of a sword out of the corner of his eye. He goes into a roll, avoiding a strike that would have hit his wing. He returns with a strike of his own, being met with a flash of sparks from metal against metal. Dawn swings at his wing, he strikes at her as well. The sound of metal against flesh fills the air, quickly followed by a blood curdling scream and something hitting the ground.

Arrel stares at her in shock, her white coat stained red, and his sword stuck in her shoulder. She screams in pain as she lays on the ground, staining her white coat even further. “Sweet Celestia, what have I done?” He goes to land next to her until he sees a large cloud of dust rising from down the harbour, with a large, enraged, axe-wielding, minotaur in the middle. He shrinks back at the sight, and flies off toward the sea.




…I hurt her, I can’t believe I hurt her,” Arrel says. The crew sits in silence as they take in what he has told them.

Finally Ebony speaks up, “Why?”

“What do you mean ‘why’?! It doesn’t matter why! I hurt her!”

“Not that, why did you want the money?”

Arrel stares at him for several moments, until he looks away. “I can’t tell you.”

“Why not?”

“Because, unless Captain is willing to give me all his money, you can’t help me.”

“You’ll never know unless you tell me,” says Captain.

Arrel takes a deep breath and focuses his look on Captain. “I need it to save my sister.”

“What?” Ebony asks.

“My sister was taken by some debt collectors, I owed them too much, I didn’t pay. So, they took my sister as ‘collateral’, since then I’ve been trying to make the money to get her back.”

“Wait, that means she was taken…”

“She was taken four years ago… I’ve been sending payments to them to make sure they don’t kill her.”

Rose looks at him, tears starting forming in her eyes, I can help! “I--”

“Everyone, to the ship.” Captain says, getting up from his seat and heading toward the door.

“They said they would kill her if anyone went after her.”

He turns around. “That is why we’re going to get her without being noticed.”

“They have an army of thugs!”

“And I have a crew, I look out for my crew. You’re part of this crew, it’s clear she means a lot to you. So, I’ll get her back by myself, if need be.”

“I’m coming, you’ll need your first mate,” Ebony says.

“I’m with you, Cap’n!” Twigs calls out.

“Ya can’t leave me outta this!” Smokey shouts.

Howler lays a paw on Arrel’s shoulder. “I’ll come as well, you fools will be lost without me,” Starry says from the door.

They all look at her, “When did you get here?” Ebony asks.

“I came back as he was beginning the story.”

Arrel looks around at the crew, a small smile spreads across his face. “I’ve left my sister there long enough; I think it’s about time I knock those guys senseless.” At that, the sound of cannon fire fills the air. They look outside, groups of ponies are running for the port, some of them pointing to something further out to sea.

“What was that?” Captain asks.
> Chapter 13
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The crew rushes outside to see what the commotion is about. Out to sea, two ships are circling each other firing volleys of cannonballs at each other. One has black sails and a pirate flag, while the other has Celestial sails and flags. Large billows of black smoke rise from the navy ship. They each unleash another round of fire upon the opposing ship. “That’s the Avenger!” Arrel shouts.

“Looks like they’re losing,” Captain says.

“We have to help them.”

“Why? They threatened you, they plan on arresting you.”

“Because I’ve already hurt them once and I have a chance to help them now. They’re my friends, I don’t want to watch them die.”

“Does anyone know who the other ship is?” Captain sighs.

“Yeah, his name is Fish Bait. He’s an ass, quite literally too. He has no mercy, kills anyone he doesn’t like, and refused to pay for his drinks last week. Trust me when I say no one well miss him,” Rose replies.

Captain looks out over the fight for a few moments longer. “Alright then, everyone to the ship. Let’s go save some pirate hunters,” he says sarcastically. The crew rushes to get Misfortune out to sea.

“Are you sure you want to? If you help them, it might give you a pretty bad reputation among the other pirates,” Rose says.

“Yeah, I’m sure. Either way, one of my crew members wants to help, not really my choice.” He climbs onto the deck of his ship as it leaves the dock. With the sails fully out, they charge toward the fight as cannon fire continues to fill the air. “Smokey and Twigs, load the cannons, we’re going to sink them.”

“Wait, can’t we just take away their captain?” Ebony asks. “Why do we have to sink them?”

“Because, they’ll probably just continue to shoot. Without anyone to lead them they’ll do what they do best, shoot and kill,” Arrel says.

“Arrel, you go over to your friends and tell them to stop shooting. If they hit Misfortune I’ll sink them as well, and tell them they’re going to pay for any damage to my ship. Also while you’re at it, catch their captain,” Captain says pointing to the pirate ship.

“Yes sir.” Arrel flies off toward Avenger.

“Cap’n, cannons are loaded!”

Captain makes a sharp starboard turn. “Half sail!” he orders. Just a few more seconds, he thinks as his ship comes along the back of their enemy’s ship. Then cannon fire comes from the pirate ship, creating a fresh wave of fire on Avenger. “Fire!” At his command the cannons let loose a devastating blow at the enemy’s rudder, stopping them mid-turn. “Bring up the sails and reload the cannons!” he shouts as he brings ‘Misfortune’ around for another strike.

He watches the crippled ship make a slow turn, trying to get him in range of their own cannons. ‘Misfortune’ effortlessly stay out of range and in moments is right behind them once again. “Cannons are loaded, Cap’n!” Twigs shouts. This won’t take too long, Captain thinks.




A few minutes earlier, Arrel lands in the middle of the chaotic scene onboard Avenger. Sailors run from one end of the ship to the other fixing holes, loading cannons, and putting out fire. Several sailors stop and glare at him. He hears thunderous hoofsteps against the hardwood deck. Arrel turns to Minos, shrinking back slightly at the sight of the axe-wielding minotaur. He takes a deep breath and stares Minos in the eyes. “I need to talk to Terra and Dawn, I’ve come to--”

He is tackled to the deck before he can finish. He looks up at the green mare with her forehooves pressed against his throat. “What are you doing here?”

“I came here to talk to Terra, I’m here to hel--” She presses harder on his throat cutting off his words.

“What makes you think any of us want to talk to you? You’d just sell what we tell you.” A powerful hand grabs her by the back of the neck, pulling her off him. “Let me go!” she shouts at Minos.

“That’s enough! Honey, go help put out the fires, this isn’t the time to be fightin’ one another,” Terra says, walking up to Arrel. “I hear that you want to talk to me.”

Arrel coughs a couple of time as air rushes into his lungs. “You have to stop firing at that pirate ship,” he says once he has enough breath.

“Why? Our ship is already crippled, if we stop shootin’ we’ll be wiped out.”

“Because my captain has come to help, and he doesn’t want you shooting him.”

“Help? Why would a pirate help a pirate hunter?”

“Because you’re my friends.” A series of bangs fill the air a second before a barrage of cannonballs crashes into the ship.

Terra glares at the attacker, surprise flashing through his eyes as he watches them being assaulted from behind. He looks back at Arrel and lets out a sigh. “Don’t fire! We can’t risk hitting our new… allies.”

“Thank you, I need to see Dawn now.”

“You sure? She hasn’t been the same since you hurt her,” Terra says bluntly.

Arrel winces at the memory, “I never met to hurt her, can I just see her?”

“She’s still pretty shaken up about it. She might not want to see you.”

“Please, I have to try and make things right.”

“In the middle of a battle, perfect timin’,” Terra says sarcastically. “She’s performin' recon. You know if you hurt her again Honey and Minos will kill you,” he says pointing a hoof at the enemy ship.

“I know they will, thanks.” He flaps his wings and shoots off to the pirates, only to be jerked back by something holding his tail. He looks back at Terra with a hoof planted firmly on his tail.

“You have to tell us everything later.”

He somehow knew that was coming. “Alright, I’ll tell you all later, but first we have to catch him,” he says, pointing his hoof at the pirates locked in combat with Misfortune. Terra lifts his hoof and Arrel takes off toward the battle.

He finds Dawn circling around the ship. “Dawn!” She stops and looks at him. She quickly looks away and flies back a bit. I don’t blame her for being afraid of me. “Dawn, wait I just want to talk with you”

“Why?” she asks weakly.

“Because I hate myself for hurting you.”

“Then why did you?”

“I-I didn’t mean to, I… I’m so, so sorry.”

“Why did you do fight? We could’ve helped you!” she shouts.

“Because… I couldn’t let myself get caught.”

“So you decided to try and kill me?!” Tears slowly stream down her face now.

“I-I… never wanted to hurt you, I--” Dawn delivers a lightning quick punch to the side of his face.

“You didn't just hurt me! I looked up to you, everyone did! You betrayed me and them, you hurt everyone not just me! All you had to do was talk to us. So, why did you run?”

Before she could react he catches her in a hug, but she accepts it and buries her face into his coat. “I’m sorry. I was stupid and afraid, but I promise I will tell you everything when we get back. I’ll tell you why I ran, why I needed the money, everything. I’ll even let you punch me some more if it helps.” He gets a little giggle from Dawn, she looks up and gives him another quick punch to the shoulder. He lets go as he rubs his shoulder.

“Now, I believe you guys are after someone, how about we go get him so we can have that chat?” She looks up at him with her tear filled eyes and gives a little nod. “I bet you can’t beat me to the ship.”

Her tears immediately burn away, replace by a determined blaze in her eyes. He gives her smile and in the blink of an eye, she’s gone. The hay? he looks down at the ship, finding a red and white blur racing along it’s side. She’s gotten faster, a lot faster. He tucks his wings in and goes into a dive. Spreading his wings, he skims the deck of the ship, going straight for the captain. He easily dodges the few attempts at killing him. He grabs the captain by the shoulder and brings him into the air. The captain goes for his sword, but his other arm is grabbed by Dawn. They drop the mule in front of Terra a minute later.

Arrel continues on toward Misfortune. “Captain, let’s go. I’ve left her there long enough,” he calls as he lands.

“Arrel! W-what are you doing, you said you’d answer our question,” Dawn says hovering just behind him.

He lets out a sigh turning to face her. “I said I will when I come back. I’m not going back yet, I still have something to do. I promise, I will come back.”

She hangs her head. “Alright, I’ll trust you, but if you don’t come back I’ll never forgive you.”

“I’m surprised you forgive me already.”

“I don’t you still need to tell us your story, then I'll forgive you.”

“Better than want I deserve. Don’t worry, I’ll come back with answers.” He watches her fly to her ship.

“Where to?” Starry asks

“A mansion just outside Manezanillo.”




“I told you they have an army,” Arrel says. Him, Captain, and Ebony are crouched in a bush, looking out at the yard of the debt collectors. Several thugs stand guard at different places around the property. The property is sitting right on the coast, giving a stunning view of the ocean. A path runs down the middle of the property from the small dock. The building itself is about three stories tall, and as long as Misfortune. Two stone lions flank either side of the door, along side the several guards. A large hedge maze occupies the back of the house.

Captain had set anchor a little way down the coast, to avoid attention. Then they had set out on hoof through the jungle that surrounds the building. “Doesn’t make much of a difference,” Captain says.

“Why are we skulking around anyways? Let’s just go in there and get her out,” Arrel says.

“Because they know you, they might kill her if you go barging in there,” Ebony says. “We need a plan.”

They sit in silence, trying to think of a plan. “Arrel, go back to the ship,” Captain says after several minutes.

“What, why?!”

“Because I have a plan, and you have nothing to do for a while. We need information and I know how to get it.”

“But--”

“Go back, we’ll get your sister out of there soon enough.” Arrel opens his mouth to argue, but closes it and flies off to the ship. Captain turns to Ebony once he’s gone. “You need to go in there. You’re the only one who can go in there without rising alarm.”

“Won’t the others wonder how I got in without being killed?”

“In that case you either tell them the truth, or continue lying to them.”

“I’ll tell them soon, but not yet. I’m still not sure how they’ll react.”

“I’m not forcing you… I am forcing you to go in there, however,” he says point to the building.

She sighs as she is engulfed in a burst of green flames. Once the flames are gone a light brown mare with a white mane stands where she was. “I saw one of them that looked like this, let’s just hope I don’t run into her.”




Captain leans against a mast of his ship with his eyes closed as he listens to the sounds of the sea. The sound of waves lapping against the side of his ship, the cry of some tropical bird or another, it calms him better than anything else. However, the moment is destroyed when Arrel gives a loud annoyed groan.

“We should just go in. I don’t want my sister to be in that place for a second longer.”

“We can’t, Ebony hasn’t come back yet. Go below deck and try to find something to calm down. We’re going to save her soon.”

Arrel lets out a frustrated sigh then goes down the hatch into the lower section of the ship. He looks around hoping to find Smokey, whom had been checking for leaks after the fight. He see a green glow coming from Starry’s quarters, perplexed he decides to go investigate. Walking over to the open doorway he finds navigator levitating a burning piece of parchment in a dark blue aura. The flames burn an eerie green. Her gaze shifts from the parchment to him. A comforting smile spreads over her faces as she lets the paper fall as the final bits turn to ash and fly out the open porthole. “Hello, how’re you holding up?” she asks.

“I’m alright.”

“Don’t try lying to me, please. It insults my intellect.”

“I’m… I’m just frustrated. I want to go help my sister, but I’m stuck here until the first-mate comes back.”

“I understand how you feel, I truly do, but if anyone can get her out of there alive, it’s Captain. I’m not going to lie, I had my doubts about this crew at first, but we’ve seen what he can do. He was willing to fight an entire crew to help a stranger, I’m sure he’d go against an army to help one of his crew.”

“Thanks… What were you doing, with that green fire?”

“Oh, that… I was just burning a letter not much more,” she replies with a dismissive wave of the hoof. “I’ve been wondering, what’s her name?”

“What?”

“What is your sister’s name, I would like to know the name of the pony we’re saving.”

Arrel gives a bit of a chuckle, “Her names is Clear Sky. I call her Sky though,”

“I can’t wait to meet her.” They hear something landing on the deck above. “I think that’s Ebony,” she says. Arrel runs onto the deck, to see Ebony talking to Captain. They both turn to look at him, a grin crosses Captain face.

“Let’s go save your sister,” Captain says. “Ebony says that she’s in the building, and we should be able to get in from the maze in the back. She isn’t able to tell us exactly where.”

“It still won’t be easy to get in. There are a few thugs guarding the back door. You’ll need a good distraction.”

“Smokey! We need you to make a distraction, I don’t care what you do just make sure everyone sees it.”
> Chapter 14
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Arrel makes another quick turn, finding himself at the beginning of the maze. He sees a group of thugs talking a few yards away at the back door. “So Captain, how well we know what the…” He turns to look at the pirate only to find himself speaking with the hedge. “He’s lost, ain’t he?” he mumbles to himself. He quickly heads back the way he came, making one quick turn after another. Soon he arrives back where they began. He hears mumbling followed by some cursing from the other side of the hedge next to him. “Captain?”

“Arrel! Where are you, did you get lost too?”

“You’re lost?! You’re literally ten hooves away from the where we came in.”

“Huh?” Captain pokes his head around a corner, finding Arrel and the exit/entrance. “Uhh… perhaps you should lead.”

“I think I have to or you’ll just get lost again.” Arrel leads the way to the opposite end of the maze. They stop at the entrance and poke their heads out to see the group of thugs that guard the back door. “Right, so how’re we going to know what the signal is?”

“I don’t know, but if Smokey does his job right we won’t have to know what it is.”

“Good point.” So they sit in silence, Arrel reluctantly waits for something to happen. They sit for what seems like hours then they hear an explosion. Sticking their heads out of the maze again they see the guards running toward a large column of smoke rising from the northward side of the building. They approach the door and quickly make their way through.

The inside is decorated with paintings of all sorts, statues standing on small podiums line the wall. The floor is made of marble slabs, the walls painted white. Hearing hoofsteps, Arrel and Captain stick close to the wall as several ponies run through the next hallway, heading toward the explosion. “We should split up,” Arrel whispers.

“Good idea.” 

A silver earth stallion runs by, away from the explosion. Arrel’s eyes narrow at the flashy pony. “Never mind, I know who to ask.” They follow him down the hall, only stopping to hide from him or any other pony that comes down the hall. He runs up a large staircase, once up he makes a left. He goes through a door that is flanked on either side by a guard. Arrel and Captain, who are a little way back, glance at each other.

“Who is that?” Captain asks in a low whisper.

“His name is Gold Mine, he’s one of the debt collectors.”

“Good someone I can punch.” Captain charges the thugs. They turn to look at him as he punches the closest thug in the jaw, causing a loud crack. The other draws his sword and strikes. Captain punches the sword, sparks fly as the blade strikes his horseshoe. The sword is sent flying down the hall leaving the thug unarmed. He is quickly knocked out with a strong uppercut. Arrel comes trotting up from behind.

“Maybe you should hide the bodies,” Arrel says.

Captain shrugs. “A part of the building has been blown up, they probably know someone is here.”

The door opens and Gold sticks his head out. “What is going on out…” He shuts up when he sees the two stallions standing in front of the doorway. He shuts the door and hides behind the reading chair. Captain breaks the door down, Arrel come trotting in.

“Captain picks up the stallion and shoves him into the chair. “Tell me where my sister is!” Arrel shouts.

“You’re Arrel. Didn’t think you’d be stupid enough to charge in here and blow up half the house. You know if you don’t leave now your sister well be killed.”

“Doubtful,” Captain says before he draws his sword and shoves it through one of the stallion’s forelegs and through the arm of the chair. Gold lets out an agonising scream, jerking his arm and effectively making the wound worse. “Tell us where she is, or you’ll be killed.”

“M-my brother will not l-let you get away w--”

“Your brother will find your corpse nailed to the wall if you don’t speak.”

“S-she’s in the basement cell, but my brother is the one with the key.”

“Don’t need it.” Captain viciously pulls the blade out, making a massive gash clear up Gold’s foreleg. Arrel sinks his sword into Gold’s throat before he could begin screaming. “Didn’t like him?”

“Didn’t deserve to live.”




“He wouldn’t leave me, he wouldn’t give up, would he?” Sky mumbles to herself. She looks around at the dark cell she has called home for the past four years. A few tears stream down her cheek as she remembers her family, friends,and brother. “He won’t leave me here,” she mumbles.

A shockwave shoots through the small cell. “What was that?” She hears distant shouting and hooves stampeding above. A few thugs gallop past her. “What’s going on out there?” she asks, but they just ignore her. She waits in the darkness, listening to the commotion above until even that dies down. Silence is all that’s left, she always hates the silence more than anything. It’s never quiet for long, but when it is, it makes it impossible to focus on anything but the dark. She always wants anything but the dark. 

She picks the faint sound of something flapping down the hall. She tries to see who it is, but she can’t see too far into the darkness. She as the sound of beating wings grow louder she also makes out the sound of someone galloping. Suddenly out of the darkness, shot a light blue pegasus his white mane easily visible. His hooves hit the ground bringing him to a screeching halt as his horseshoes spark against the stone floor.

“Sky!” shouts Arrel as he reaches through the bars to hug her.

“Arrel! You came for me!”

“I’m sorry I left you here so long. I just… I… I missed you.” Sky hears hoof steps slightly to their right. She opens her eyes to find a blue stallion with a curly pink mane.

“Arrel!”

“Don’t worry, he’s a… friend. His name is Captain.”

Captain flashes her a grin, “We’re here to get you out.”

“Captain, I need a thin piece of metal. I don’t have anything to pick locks with me.”

“Move.” Arrel and Sky move away from the bars. Captain faces away from the cell and plants his forehooves firmly on the ground. Then he unleashes a mighty buck on the locking mechanism, shattering it and sending parts flying into the wall.

“Very stealthy,” Arrel says with more than a hint of sarcasm.

“Can we get out of here?” Sky asks. Arrel helps her out of the basement as the trio make their way for the backdoor. Arrel stops at the door, “Okay, once we’re outside we head for the maze, it’ll cover…” He looks around, noticing a sudden lack of Captain. “Did he get lost?” A moment later Captain comes trotting around the corner, a saddlebag now sits on his back. “What’s that?”

“These guys are rich, I figured since we saved your sister I might as well take back some of your money.”

Arrel rolls his eyes. “As I was saying, once outside we head for the maze, it should give us enough cover to get out of here,” he says as he opens the door. On the other side stands a small army of thugs, with a gold stallion standing in the middle.

“Arrel… I never guessed you’d be stupid enough to get your sister killed,” says Silver. Captain draws his cutlass, “Oh please, do you really think you can get away?” Captains looks back at Arrel and Sky. A loud crash resonates throughout the building. Captain faces back at the large group in front of them, a large grin forms as he see something moving in the maze.

“I pretty sure we’ll get out of here.” The crashing behind him grows louder as they begin to feel the vibrations of something ripping its way through the mansion. The group aims their rifles at the doorway. A diamond dog emerges from the maze followed closely by a green mare, completely unnoticed by the group. With a quick slash, Howler’s blade cuts through the lower back of a thug. He falls to the ground screaming in pain, the rest of the group turn to see what happened. The mare delivers a devastating punch to the throat of another.

“Kill them!” Silver shouts, but his order is drowned out by the sound of the wall on the far-end of the hall being smashed down. A minotaur sprints out of the cloud of dust wielding a large axe. Arrel, Sky and Captain duck out of his way. Several ponies in the group begins to scream at the sight of the massive warrior. Minos crashes into the group swinging his axe at everything within reach of his weapon. The group scatters as they attempt to flee from the monstrous beast.

“Make a run for the ship!” Minos shouts. The trio looks down the way the minotaur came, seeing a line of holes leading through the main door. A slightly beat up ship sits at the small dock. After a quick glance at each other they bolt for the ‘Avenger’. The sound of hooves thundering against the marble floor follow them closely. Arrel spreads his wings and grabs his sister by the shoulders, carrying her onto the deck of the ship. Captain is the next to make it, skidding to a halt on the splintered wood. He turns around, finding Minos running toward the ship followed by a good section of the group he had attacked. Captain shoves a nearby cannon into position, he then draws his pistol. Hearing the something heavy landing on the deck, he lights the fuse with the flint and steel on the pistol. The blast rips apart the dock and send the group running for cover.

The sails catch the wind and the ship lurches forward. “Good to see you didn’t get yourself killed, Arrel,” Terra says walking down from the helm.

“W-why did you come save me? Wait, how did you know where?” Arrel asks.

“And where’s my crew?” Captain adds.

“The diamond dog and Honey went back to your ship. And I came to save you because we’re friends.”

Arrel smiles at him, “Of course we are. Sky, I would like you to meet Terra, my old capti--”

Before he could finish he is tackle hugged by Dawn. “You’re alive! Why didn’t you tell us about your sister? We could’ve helped, we did help. Was it because you didn’t trust us?”

“Yes, yes, I’m alive, but I won’t be if you crush the life out of me.” She lets go of him allowing him to take in the precious gift of air. “Right, Sky meet Dawn… Wait, how did you know about this?”

Terra pulls a letter out of his belt. “Someone sent this.”

“Thanks, Starry,” he says with a tired sigh. “I needed the money to try and get her out, that’s why I sold information. They said they had ponies inside the military, if I had told you they would’ve found out and killed her. It’s not that I didn’t trust you, I just didn’t trust anyone else. I’m sorry for what I did.”

“What are you all talking about? Did Arrel do something bad?” Sky asks.

Terra looks at her for a moment. “No, not at all--”

“Terra can we talk, in private?” Arrel interrupts.

Terra gives him a confused look then nod toward his quarters. He leads the way and closes the door quickly behind them. “What is it?”

“Can you guys take her back with you to Hayvana?”

“Why, you just got her back and now you’re tryin’ to get rid of her?”

“No, I just don’t want to drag her into this life. I’m a pirate and I don’t want her with that type of life.”

“Alright, I can do that.”

“Please look after her. If she isn’t looked after, I’ll kill you. You’ve seen what I can do.”

Terra laughs at the fake threat. “Oh please, you’ve never been one to blow a hole in the side of a building.” They share a laugh, when the laughing died down he fixed his eyes on his old friend. “I promise, I will look after her.”

A knocking at the door draws their attention. “The others are here, Ter,” calls one of the men on the ship. They open the door as Captain jumps on board ‘Misfortune’, they walk over to Sky.

“This is my ride,” Arrel says.

“You’re a pirate? I thought you were--”

“In the army? I was, but I’m not anymore.”

“Alright, if they’re your friends I can handle them.”

“That’s the thing, you’re not going with me.”

“What?!” she shrieks.

“I’m a pirate, I’m not about to let you get yourself into that kind of life.”

“I won’t, I won’t, just let me come with you. Please don’t leave me.”

“You’re going to Hayvana, you’re going to get a better life.”

“B-but wha… what will I do?”

“You’ll live a better life.” He gives her a kiss on the forehead. “I promise, I’ll always be there watching over you.” He flies over to Misfortune as it begins to leave.
> Chapter 15
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Captain and Ebony walk through a small out-of-the-way alley. Rose had set up a meeting for them with a friend of hers. Starry and Arrel went to visit his sister. Howler ,Twigs and Smokey are looking after the ship.

“I don’t get why we have to do this sneaking type stuff. Can’t we just walk there?”

“No, the guards are still on the hunt for the pink-headed pirate that freed the changeling. More-so after that little assault on the mansion.”

“Please stop making fun of my mane.”

“Why don’t you just dye it?”

“Can’t, it turns back to pink.” They quickly cross a street, ducking back into an alleyway before they’re noticed. Ebony scrunches up her nose trying to stop the sickening smell of urine, booze, and other things she didn’t want to begin to list.

“I have to agree though, I don’t like it back here either,” she mutters.

“Does that mean we can use the roads now?”

“No, the guards are already on edge because of the dark red ship with black sail that has docked in the harbour. We’re lucky they haven’t tried arresting us yet.”

“Fine… What do you think the job well be?”

“I don’t know, all Rose told me was that he’s into the shipping busine--” Captain puts his hoof to her mouth as his ears perk up. She fights back the impulse to gag as she feels the gunk they’ve been walking through, being pressed against her mouth. He lowers his hoof and turns to her only to receive a punch to the chest. “What was that for?! Do you know what’s in this stuff!” she shouts, furiously trying to rub her muzzle with her foreleg.

“Sorry about that, I thought I heard something.”




She stumbles onto the grimy path, not daring to slow down even for a second. The sounds of her pursuer’s hooves against the path ringing in her ears. The heavy chains around her forelegs are starting to take their toll as the fatigue begins to bite through the adrenaline. She spares a glance behind her as the sound of their hooves begin to grow more distant. A smile begins to form on her face. I doing it, I’m finally free, she thinks. Then she runs into a brick wall or at least that’s what it feels like. She opens her eyes and looks up at the blue stallion in front of her.

Captain looks down at the deer that had ran into him. He sees the terrified look in her eyes. His gaze focuses of the chains around her forelegs. Long scars run down her back and several burn marks are scattered across her flank. Not random burns, but branding. Looking down the alleyway he sees three stallions, a unicorn, a pegasus, and an earth pony, running towards them. The pegasus draws his sword, “You’d best leave now,” he says. Captain looks back down at the deer, fear clear in her eyes. He feels a hoof on his shoulder, he looks back at Ebony and she shakes her head.

“Captain, we’re not here to cause trouble. If you get into a fight you’ll attract every guard near here.” Captain looks down at the deer. With a sigh he walks away.

After walking a few hooves away, they hear a yelp from the group. “You stupid little shit! Did you really believe you could get away?” There is an audible smack followed by another yelp. “You should be thankful that we’re trying to teach you savages a bit of civility.”

Ebony feels a wave of anger coming from Captain. “Captain, I know you want to help, but--” She turns to see him galloping toward the group. “Oh boy,” she mutters as she gallops after him.

The unicorn stands over the deer. “Stupid slaves never know when to just list--” His sentence is replaced with a gurgling sound as a cutlass cuts across his throat and wedges itself into the nearby wall. The unicorn falls to the ground as the other two ponies glare at the stallion that had thrown the sword. They leap into action. The pegasus charging straight at Captain with an unsheathed sword as the earth pony tries to pull the cutlass out of the wall. 

Captain smacks the sword out of the pegasus’ hold then quickly crushes the confuse pegasus into the ground. Captain swiftly moves on and in moments is behind the earth pony. Captain punches the earth pony in the back of the head, cause the front of his head to collide with the wall. The pony slumps to the ground.

The deer whimpers under Captain’s gaze. He brings a hoof down onto the chains, shattering them. A pegasus rounds the corner, “Good to see you actually didn’t attract every guard in the area,” she says. She looks at the deer as well, “Sorry about that, I’m Ebony and this is Captain. What’s your name?”

“I-I’m Willow.”

“Where do you come from?” Captain asks.

“I’m f-from a small v-village on the outskirts of Kigerston.”

“I meant, where were you being forced to work?”

“P-please don’t make me go b-back there.”

“Where?” 

With a gulp, Willow gets up and starts slowly walking the way she came from. “Come on Ebony, there’s something I have to take care of,” Captain says, walking behind Willow.

Ebony quickly follows, “Let me guess, you don’t care how many soldiers notice?”

“I’d be disappointed, if not all of them notice.”

They continue walking in silence, except for the sounds of the broken chains. After several minutes of walking they come upon a small plantation. A large house sits near the front of the property. The house is painted white, two stories, a large deck spans across the front with several columns holding the roof. Towards the back of the property are a couple of fields, with what looks like, deer working them. A small plump earth stallion comes out of the house and walks up the Captain. He has a yellow coat and green mane. Four other stallions come over to the group as well.

“Good to see someone found something of mine. I keep losing this one.” He looks at the four stallions, “You guys bring her out back, lock her in with the dogs.” Willow, shrinks back as the four stallions approach her. Captain steps into their way.

“I didn’t bring her back, I’m demanding the release of all of your ‘slaves’.”

The plump stallions laughs at him, the four other surround them. “Is that so? I can’t do that, because as you can see, they’re my property.”

“Good, I’m a pirate. It’s my job to take other ponies stuff.”

“You should stop talking like that or I might have to protect my livelihood.”

“If I were you I’d more concerned about your own life,” Captain says.

The plump one starts laughing again as he walk back to the house. “Do you hope to kill everyone by yourself?”

“No, just you.” 

Willow backs up slightly. What is he doing? He can’t possibly beat everyone, she thinks.

“Well, you’re a cocky one. Men, teach him a lesson and take back my slave.” A small grin forms on his face as he hears the sound of metal sinking into flesh quickly followed by a bloodcurdling scream.  You should’ve just given me my slave, he thinks. His grin quickly disappears when he hears another scream, then another. One of his stallions crashes into the columns sending a large crack across the surface. He turns around, Captain sheaths his blooded cutlass, the three bodies of the other stallions lay in puddles of blood around him. He stares in shock at him for several moments. “Release the dogs. Guards, get over here!”

Captain sees three dogs round the corner of the house. I hate dogs, he thinks. He punches the first one sending it tumbling across the grass. He bring his hoof down crushing the another one into the ground. He pivots on his forehoof and pulls in his hindlegs as the last dog charges. The dog runs head first into the powerful buck, sending it flying across the yard and straight into one of the window of the house. 

Two stallions come running over, one aims a rifle at Captain while the other charges with a sword. Captain quickly draws his sword and throw it at the one with the rifle. The blade sinks deep into his skull. The other one strikes at Captain. Quickly jumping out of the way, Captain dodges the sword and charges. Delivering a massive blow to the head, the stallion slumps to the ground.

He look over at the house and see the owner’s tail disappear behind the door. Captain goes over to his cutlass and yanks it out of the pony. “You two stay here, I’m going to have a little chat with him,” he says.

Willow stares at him in shock. He had just killed six stallions and three dogs without get so much as a scratch. “What is he?” she asks Ebony.

Ebony looks at her then back at Captain as he approaches the door of the house. “Not too sure to be honest.”

Captain presses his ear against the door, he hears several locks being put into place. With a sigh he turns around and bucks the door. The door snaps off it’s hinges and flies into the opposite wall. He looks down at the cowering stallions behind it. The yellow pony takes off further into the house with Captain in close pursuit. Eventually the yellow pony stop in a small room, a desk sits in the middle of the room and in one of the walls is a lit fireplace.

“Okay, okay, I give up, don’t kill me,” The yellow one says. He goes over to the desk and pull out a pile of papers. “These are the documents to the slaves, take them, they’re all yours.”

Captain take the papers and throws them into the fire. “I said I wanted them to be freed, I don’t want them.” He draws his cutlass and puts the blade into the fire. “I saw the marks on Willow. How would you like it if I were to do that to you?”

An agonizing scream comes from the house, several moments later Captain comes out. He is holding a keyring in his mouth. “Sounds like your ‘chat’ went well,” Ebony says. Captain sticks a key into the cuffs around Willow legs and with a quick turn they pop off. 

“There, you’re free now, you can go do whatever you want,” he says.

Captain trots over to the fields and over to an alarm bell and gives it a hit. After a few moments armed stallions come running over.

“Who’re you?” asks one of them.

“I’m Captain and I’m here to tell you all to leave.”

“Why should we, looks to that ya are the one who are trespassing.”

“Because I’m here to free the ‘slaves’ and I don’t want them being scared by you lot.”

Several swords are drawn. “Oh really, so you just want us to leave and let you take the boss' property?”

“Your boss is dead, he’s not going to be paying you again. Do you really want to risk your lives against a pirate for nothing?”

They all exchange concerned looks and sheath their weapons and run towards the house. Captain looks at the crowd of slaves that had gathered. He throws the keyring toward the crowd, “Those are the key to your cuffs. You’re all free now, go back to your real homes, families, friends,” he says and walks away. Ebony and Willow quickly follow him. “Are we anywhere near the place, Ebony?” he asks one they’re out of the property.

“Should be somewhere over that way,” she says, gesturing with her hoof. They continue on down the road in silence. Captain would occasionally glance back at Willow. A few question float around at the back of her mind. Until he abruptly stops and turns to face her.

“I said you’re free, you don’t have to follow me.”

She is slightly taken aback by the statement. “I-I was just wondering why you would save me. I’m a… was a slave, I have nothing to offer you. So, why would a pirate like you save me. What was there to gain?”

Captain thinks for a moment before answering. “Nothing.”

“So, you nearly kill yourself to help someone who can’t pay you back?”

“Yeah, that’s pretty well the idea of it.”

“Trust me, it happens a lot more often than you'd think,” Ebony says.

“Let me join your crew,” Willow says.

“Why?”

“I want to repay you and this is the only way I can.”

A large grin splits across Captain face. “Alright, welcome to the crew.” He turns and begins walking in the direction they were before.

“That’s it? You’re accepting me just like that?”

“Yeah, now come on we have a job.”

> Chapter 16
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

After several minutes of walking the trio have finally arrived at their destination. They arrive at a large house. Ebony knocks on the door and a young earth pony mare answers the door. 

“Yes?” she asks.

“We’re here to see someone,” Captain says.

“He told me was expecting someone, right this way.

She leads them through the house to an office near the back. Opening the door they find a dark grey pegasus stallion sitting at a desk in the middle of the room. He perks up when he sees his visitors. “I’m guessing that you’re the pirate Rose told me about?”

“Did you say that to every pony who came in here?” Ebony asks.

“No, she told me that he has an unmistakable mane.” He points at Captain’s pink mane. “And I do believe that is unmistakable.”

“Why does everyone make fun of my mane?” Captain grumbles.

“Right, my name is Stormy Weathers. I suppose you’re here for the job?”

“Yes we are,” Ebony answers.

“Good, there is a shipment going to Kigerston soon; I need you to sink it.”

“If you don’t mind me asking, why do you want us to sink it?” Ebony asks.

“He’s a competitor of mine. If you sink his ship it’ll show everypony that his company unreliable. If someone wants to make a shipment they’d want to make sure it gets there.”

“What’s the pay?” Captain asks.

“Three thousand bits good enough?”

“We’ll do it.”

“Good.” Weathers slides a slip of paper across his desk. “This should be the route they’re taking. Come back once you sink the ship and I’ll pay you.”


They trot back to Misfortune after meeting with Stormy. They had learnt that their target, is a cargo ship crewed by unicorns. Not going to be easy, magic is unpredictable and long range. We’ll need a plan, Ebony thinks. They turn another onto another street toward the harbour. Captain had convinced them to use the main roads, though he now has to wear a dark cloak. She glances back at him and Willow. She slows her pace until she is next to Captain.

“Can I ask you a question?”

“Sure.”

“Why do you always do that?”

“Do what?”

“Help, why do you always help someone when you’re against impossible odds? You help me out of the fort, you saved Jade, you freed Willow. What made you so… you?”

Captain thinks over the question. “I guess you could say it’s something I picked up from my mom. She always help everyone she could…




A young Captain and Flintlock walk along the worn road to their home. They both have a wooden sword tucked into their belts. Captain wears a fake captain’s hat.

“Why do you always have to be the captain?” Flintlock whines.

“Because my name is Captain.”

“You have the earn that title, you can’t just have it because it’s your name!”

“What was that cabin boy; if you don’t watch your tongue you’ll be walking the plank.”

“I’m starting a mutiny tomorrow,” Flintlock whispers. “Well, a pirate captain can’t have pink hair.”

Captain shoves the hat further over his head trying to cover his mane. “No one can see my mane with this on.”

“Yes we can, and we can also see your pink tail.”

Captain growls as he ponders shaving his mane and tail. Flintlock open the door. “Mom, me and Pinkie are home.” He laughs as a loud growl comes from behind. He is quickly tackled to the floor in a flurry of blue and pink. “Mom, get him off of me!”

“If you want him off stop calling him names,” Silk replies from the kitchen counter.

“Ow! He’s biting me!”

“Captain stop eating your brother. Dinner is almost ready and I don’t want to ruin it.”

The two continue to wrestle. They run into a small table, sending a vase to the floor with a crash. The colts feel large talons crab them by the back of the neck and lift them into the air. They turn to see a grey feathered griffon, a large scar runs down the side of his face. Captain and Flintlock quickly glance at each other then back at the griffon. They both let out a horrified scream.

“Flintlock, Captain, stop screaming, you’re going to scare the neighbors,” Silk calls.

“Mom, watch out! A griffon soldier is here to kill you!”

“Oh, stop that you two and Mister Grey, could you please put my sons down? They seem to be a little scared.” The griffon complies and puts the two back onto the ground. “Captain, Flintlock, meet Grey. He’s a nice griffon that’s going to be staying here for a while, at least until his wing heals.”

“Is he the griffon that escaped the prison?” Flintlock asks.

“Yes, he is, and I’m looking after him until he’s better.”

“He’s a griffon, he’s an enemy sold--” Captain is cut off by a quick hoof to the back of the head.

“He’s not our enemy, he’s only called that because there is a war between them and the military. We’re not the military,” Silk says as Captain rubs the back of his head. “Either way, I believe it’s better to make friends than enemies. Now, sit down, dinner’s ready.” The two colts reluctantly sit down across from the griffon. The only sounds for a while are those of Silk eating her food as the griffon simply stares down at his and the colts glare at the griffon.

“I’m sorry but I must leave,” says Grey.

“No you’re not,” says Silk.

“I don’t want you and your family to get hurt because you’re helping an enemy.” He is met by a swift hoof to the back of the head.

“You’re not our enemy. Also you’d hurt me more by not eating what I cooked.”

“But if anyone finds me, they’ll hold you as a traitor.”

“If they want to think of me as a traitor for helping someone, so be it. But I’m not about to turn my back on anyone in need.”

The griffon only stares at her before letting out a little chuckle. “You’re brave little pony, at least braver than anyone else I’ve met. I’ll have to remember to tell my officer to spare your family when we take this land.”

“Oh, hush you.” She glares at the colts. “And you two had better start eating.”


After dinner Silk Heart cleans the plates as Grey rests on a chair. Flintlock and Captain walk up to her.

“Mom, why do you want to help him so much?” Flintlock asks.

She looks down at her sons. “Captain, I would have expected you to understand. How helpless some ponies can feel when they’re alone and hungry.” Captain cast his gaze downward at the bad memories from not so long ago. “I just want to help because it’s nicer to see ponies smile rather than frown.”

“Is there any way we can help?” Captain asks.

“Yes there is, promise me, when you grow up you’ll help anyone in need. Whether they’re griffon, zebra, minotaur, or even a changeling. Promise me you’ll help them.”




...And so I said yes,” Captain says as they push their way through a crowd of ponies.

“She sounds like a nice mare,” Ebony says.

“She was.” Ebony flinches back when she feels a wave of anger come from Captain. They come out of the crowd and walk up the plank to the ship’s deck. “Crew I would like to introduce you to Willow,” Captain calls once they’re on the deck of Misfortune. The deer takes a half step back as the crew gathers up around her. She feels a large paw pat her on the head. She screams as she jumps away from the smirking diamond dog.

“Good to see someone new,” Arrel says with a chuckle.

“Hello, and welcome aboard Misfortune,” Twigs says.

“H-hello.”

“Captain, I think a new crewmate is means for celebration!” Smokey shouts.

Starry gives an annoyed sigh. “Why don’t you go get me a drink, slave?” Everyone stares in shock at her. Her eyes go wide and a blush forms on her cheeks as she realizes what she had said. “Oh… I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean it! I’m so, so sorry, it was a force of habit.” She looks at Captain, who is glaring down at her. She skulks away to her quarters.

“Well… that went well,” Ebony says sarcastically. She looks at the gathered crowd on the dock. “If we’re ever going to come back here, we’ll need a different ship.”

“That’s something we’ll have to figure out later, but for now we have a ship to sink.”




The soldier looks at the bodies scattered across the lawn. The perfect shade of green tarnished by spots of dark red. He looks up at the house, a window is gone, a pillar cracks, and the door is shattered. Inside the house is just as bad, a dead dog laying in one of the rooms, a good amount of knocked over furniture, and a stallion with a large gash across his barrel. He looks down at the stallion with his dull grey eyes.

“And you say one stallion did this?” he asks.

“Yes, yes, he’s the pirate that freed the changeling a while back. Blue coat, pink mane, the exact same. He said his name is Captain,” says one of the plantation guards.

He turns back to the small group of soldiers with him. “You, go find out if that pirate ship is still in the harbour,” he says. He looks back at the body as the soldier gallops off.

“Something the matter, sir?”

He straightens his back and looks up from the body. He looks at a broken mirror, his jet black mane standing out in complete contrast against his white coat. He uses his magic to shift his uniform slightly trying to make it symmetrical. “No, nothing’s the matter,” he replies.

Soon the soldier that he had sent comes running back. “Sorry mister Gallows, the ship has left.”

Gallows whips around to face the soldier. His uniform, having been offset again, no longer covers the noose that is his cutie mark. “You will refer to me in my title or as sir! I’m not your friend and you’re not to use my name.”

“Sorry mister Gall-- uh, sir.”

“You’re useless to me, go and patrol the harbour. Let’s hope they just moved the ship and didn’t leave.”

“Gallo-- sir, I thought you would like to know that their ship is called Misfortune.”
> Chapter 17
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Misfortune cuts its way through the water as it hunts for its prey. Captain looks out over the calm sea at the small specks of land on the horizon. Ebony comes up next to him. “Good thing Willow knows how to navigate,” she says.

“You think Starry will come out soon?”

“Doubt it.” 

Captain lets out a sigh at the temporary loss of his navigator. “Where’s Arrel, I need him in the crow’s nest.”

“I think he went to talk with Starry.”

Captain sighs as he takes out his spyglass and scans the horizon for their target.




Arrel walks through the hold of the ship following the dull thuds of something hitting wood. He walks up to the door to Starry’s chamber. Opening it he finds Starry sitting at her desk mumbling something as she rams her head into the desk.

“You alright, Starry?”

“I’m a bloody idiot.”

“Don’t say that, you’re the smartest one on this ship.” he says going over and placing his hoof on her shoulder.

“I just called our newest crew member a slave. I'm such a bloody idiot.”

“If you don’t mind me asking, why did you?”

“I suppose I’m still used to having slaves serve me.”

“You used to have slaves?”

Her ears flop back as her eyes go a little wider. He hears her mumble something under her breath. “Just forget I said that,” she says after a while.

“Do you plan on coming out anytime soon, without you we’ll get lost at sea.”

“I can’t face her. I probably crushed her, she must hate me.”

“Hiding won’t solve anything.”

She lets out an annoyed huff. “I guess you’re right.”

“So you coming out?”

“Not quite yet, don’t worry I will,” she says as she starts mumbling to herself. Arrel sighs then flies out of the room.




Captain spots Arrel coming out of the hold of the ship. "To the crow's nest, Arrel!" he shouts.

Smokey comes trotting up to Captain “Cannons are loaded and ready for battle,” he reports.

“Good, I don’t want to waste too much time with this.” Smokey gives a quick nod and heads back down the stairs. Captain looks Willow who is sitting a little way behind him. "Are we still on course?"

"Should be," she replies.

“Ship up ahead, Captain!” Arrel calls.

Captain takes out his spyglass and quickly finds the ship. It’s a brig with a white-red striped sail. It’s moving quite slow compared to Misfortune. A grin forms on his lips. There’s our target, he thinks. His grin grows as he watches the ship turn about to head toward them. They want to fight, this’ll be fun. "All hooves on deck, get ready for a fight! Twigs, bring us down to half sail. Aim for the hull, we want to sink this one." He looks back at the ship, he no longer needs his spyglass to see it. He watches as the ship comes up next to theirs.

“Fire!” he shouts. The cannons roar and a volley of cannonballs crash into the ship. The other ship fires at the same time, the impact sends the ship a bit more to portside. “Arrel, damage report!” The pegasus quickly takes and does a round of the ship before landing on the deck.

“We’re on fire!”

“What?” Captain leaves the helm and runs to the starboard side and sure enough flames scorch the side of the ship. Oddly there are no holes from the cannonballs. He runs back to the helm and makes a sharp turn portside. Water splashes up the side of the ship and puts out the flames. “Reload the starboard cannons and prepare to fire portside cannons!” he shouts as he brings the ship around. “Fire!” Splinter of wood fly from the other ship, though it stays afloat. The merchants fire and Misfortune begins to lean heavily to portside. “Arrel!”

After a quickly fly-by Arrel lands back onto the deck with a confused look. “There’s a thick layer of ice.” Captain looks at him as though he’s crazy. He gallops to the side and finds a layer of ice covering the portside of his ship.

“Arrel, break the ice, I need those cannons.” Arrel quickly flies over the edge with his sword drawn. “The hay the ice come from?”

“Cap, their using magic cannons.”

Captain turns to face Smokey. “In case you haven’t noticed, I’m not a unicorn. I don’t know what magic anything is.”

“Magic cannons fire pure magic energy. They’re pretty expensive because of that. They have a less power than normal cannons and can’t use gunpowder. Their effect depend on what spells are put into them. They are easy and fast to reload making them a favorite cannon for unicorns.”

“How do you know all this?”

“My cutie mark is a cannon for a reason.”

“Right, well, get back to manning the cannons, reload the portside ones as soon as you can.” He makes a harsh turn causing warm, sea water to splash onto the ice. He heads for the merchant ship once again. He raises his hoof again. He quickly lowers it and shouts, “Fir--” He is cut off by the sound of cannon fire from the other ship as Misfortune violently stops. Captain gallops over the the starboard side of the ship and finds a large chunk of ice stuck to his ship and goes into the water.

“Someone get rid of that thing!” Smokey aims a cannon at the chunk of ice and obliterates it. Captain makes another quick turn and smiles as he hears the ice on the other side break apart and his ship levels out.

“We can only use half the portside cannon!” Smokey calls. “The rest are still filled with ice.”

“Cap’n, it won’t make much difference. Looks like they have a thicker haul than normal,” Twigs says.

Thicker haul, faster cannons that can freeze my ship, only half my cannons available. I need something a lot bigger than just a cannonball, Captain thinks. “Fire the chain-shot, aim for the sails!” The chain-shots fly from the forward cannons and rip one of the sails to shreds. He steers Misfortune straight for the merchant ship. They aim their cannons at the bow of Misfortune. Red and orange rise from the bow as they fire upon the ship, still Captain doesn’t change course. He watches as fear flashes through the eyes of his victims as they realize what he’s planning. “Brace!”

The ram of the ship sinks into the haul with the sound of snapping wood and screaming sailors. The flames on the bow spread to the deck of the merchant ship. One of the masts falls down and tangles itself in the rigging of Misfortune. Captain turns the helm and as the wind catches the sail the ram rips itself out of the haul in an explosion of wooden splinters. Water flows freely into the massive gaping hole. Captain smiles as the merchant's ship begins the sink. "Fire starboard cannons!" The cannons rip through what's left of the deck, anyone caught in the fire turns into nothing more than a red smear on the sinking ship.

He turns back to his crew. “Put out those fires! Howler, cut that mast loose from us then get us back up to full sail. Smokey, I want my cannons back. Arrel, check the outside of the ship and give me a damage report. Twigs, get below deck and see if there are any problems.” They all go off to do their respective tasks. 

Soon the fire is out and Arrel comes back. “She’s pretty badly burnt, and some of the planks have been damaged by the ice.”

Twigs comes out of the hold of the ship. “We’re taking on a bit of water, Cap’n”

“Keep us afloat long enough to get to port.”


Captain sits on the dock as he looks at his damaged ship. “I need more firepower, a thicker haul, I should try to make her faster too,” he mumbles to himself. They rest of the crew had left for the tavern a while ago. Somepony clears their throat behind him, he turns to see Smokey standing there.

“I hear ya need more firepower.”

“I’m not getting one of those magic cannon things.”

“Of course not, ya want something suited for a real captain.” He hoofs him a piece of paper.

“What’s this?” he asks looking over the image of a cannon.

“It’s the plans for a cannon of my design, it has a longer barrel, and is able to use magic as well as gunpowder.”

“Is it stronger?”

“Yes.”

Captain looks back at the plans with a grin. He gets up and heads for the harbourmaster. He puts the paper onto the counter. “I need sixteen of these cannons.” The dull yellow stallion looks up at him then down at the paper.

“Custom cannons? This’ll cost quite a bit.”

“I can’t pay for them all right now, but I’ll pay for them as they come in.”

The stallion studies him for a moment. "Fine, but you had better pay."

Captain places a bag of bits on the counter. “I need my ship fixed. Also make her faster.”

“Sure thing,


The crew celebrates the arrival of their new member. Twigs lays passed out after having a drinking contest against Rose. Ebony and Arrel chat about the adventure in Hayvana she had. Willow sits at the counter and finishes her her bottle of rum. “Can I have another?” she asks. Another bottle is levitated over in a dark blue aura. She turns around and finds Starry standing behind her.

“Hey, sorry about what I said before.”

“Nothing I haven’t heard before.”

“Yeah, but it’s something you shouldn't hear it again.”

Willow laughs a little. “We both know it's not going to be the last time.”

“Well, it's not something you should hear from your crew mates. I figure the least I could do for you is to serve you for the rest of the day.” She looks out the window. “Night… for the rest of the night."

"Sounds even enough. How about you go get me something to eat then?"

"Right away, master."
> Chapter 18
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rose sighs and put down the rag she was using to clean off the counter. She looks around her tavern with a smile. She sees Ebony trotting to one of the tables with a bowl of apples on her back. She trots over to the disguised changeling. "Sweetie, I think we need to talk about something."

“About what?” Ebony asks around a mouthful of fruit.

“Well, seeing as to how someone new has arrived and she doesn’t have anywhere to stay. I was thinking of having her stay with me until she gets a place of her own.”

“Okay…”

“That means you’ll have to move out, sweetie.”

“What, why?”

“Well, unless you want her to find out you’re a changeling. Anyways, you’re the one with the most chance of being able to stay with Captain on his ship and spend a little ‘quality time’ with him.” She receives a cold glare from the changeling, though it has little effect on Rose's mood. “But I mean it, Willow needs a place to stay and I don’t think she’ll like sleeping on a ship. Either way, I’ve given you enough time to get some money and a place of your own, sweetie.”

Ebony skulks for a moment. “Don’t suppose you could give me some money to get a place?”

“I already told you, I only pay for services. I’d be more than happy to give you the money if you spend a little ‘quality time’ with me, sweetie.” Rose adds a wink at the end.

“Fine, I’ll stay with Captain.”

“Good to see he finally gets a piece of the action.” An apple is thrown from the other end of the table hitting her squarely on the forehead. “Ouch,” she mumbles as she rubs the spot it hit.They hear heavy hoofsteps outside the door. "Looks like you can tell him the good news."

The door to the tavern is pushed open and Captain walks in. “Can I have some rum?”

“Sorry sweetie, after last night I don’t have too much left. You’re just going to have to wait from my next shipment.” He frowns and walks over to his usual spot at the counter.

“Hey Captain, what are we going to do about the ship issue?” Ebony asks.

"What ship issue?"

"The fact it looks like a pirate ship and we'll be arrested when it comes into port."

“I don’t think we need a new ship, can’t we just take the flag down when we come into port?”

“Oh yes, why didn’t I think of that?” Ebony says sarcastically. “Do you really think taking the flag off of a dark red ship with black sails will do anything?”

“Guess you’re right, but I don’t want to get rid of Misfotune.”

“Wait, you two need a new ship?” Rose asks.

“Yeah, I think that they might arrest us if we go into Hayvana with the ship as it is,” Ebony says

A mischievous glint flashes in her eyes. “I think I might have something mutually beneficial in that case. One of my competitors is receiving a shipment of alcohol today. You can take the ship, drink what you want and give me the rest and my competitor loses a ship.”

“We’ll do it! We kinda need to go get the money from your friend anyways.” Captain shouts for the other end of the tavern.

“Wait, Misfortune is still being repaired, how are we supposed to get there?”

“Well, as it turns out, I have some business in Hayvana. You could hitch a ride in my ship though I can only bring about three other member of your crew.”

“I guess that can work, we’ll have to bring Howler, Twigs could be useful to get the ship moving, and Arr--”

“Alright we’ll go, we’re going to take Howler, Twigs and Willow with us.” Captain interrupts.

“Willow, I don’t think it’s a great idea taking her back there, wouldn't it be a better idea if we bring one of the others?”

“I want to see what she can do.”

“Excellent!” Rose shouts.




Captain, Ebony, Howler, Twigs and Willow all relax on Rose’s schooner as it enters Hayvana harbor. Willow looks down at her new possessions, a small dagger and belt to sheath it in and a blowpipe with a dart pouch. She looks over at Captain then back at her weapons. In two days this pirate has freed her from slavery, as well as the other deer that were at the plantation. Accepted her into his crew, made her feel more welcome than anywhere else she has ever been and now he has bought her weapons. No one has ever shown her this much kindness and she was confused why a pirate of all ponies would.

“Captain,” Rose calls from the bow of the ship. He gets up and walks up next to her. “That’s the ship you’re after,” she says pointing to a schooner docked a small ways up the harbor. He can see ponies going on and off the ship, presumably unloading or loading the ship. He walks back over to his group.

“Twigs, you’ll have to wait till we take the ship. Ebony, you’re going to get the money from… that guy whatever his name is. Willow, you and me are going to take the ship.” She gives a quick nod. “Howler, if it looks like she’s in trouble you’re to help her, but only if she’s in trouble.”

He trusts me to help him take a ship! I’ve heard a few rumors about Howler, if he doesn’t want him to help he must really think I’m able to do something. I have to try, he’s putting this much faith in me and I will not let him down, Willow thinks. They split ways once the ship is docked. The group ducks into an alleyway not too far from their target. “I thought we were going to take the ship,” Willow says.

“Can’t, we can only take it if they’re about to leave or if Ebony comes back. We can’t leave without her.”

“Oh…” She looks back at the ship, she can see four stallions unloading cargo and two others moving crates around on deck. They're not military, but they still have weapons most likely to defend from pirates while out at sea. Twigs quickly falls asleep, Howler busies himself with polishing his katana. They sit in silence for several minutes, all the while Willow watches the stallions. “Captain, there’s not many crates left. I think they’ll be leaving soon.”

Captain snaps out of a slight daydream he was having and look at the ship. “Looks like you’re right, Howler wake Twigs. Come on, Willow, we have a ship to take. You take out the two on deck, I’ll take the others.” Captain unsheathes his sword and charges.

“Wait, how am I…” She hesitates as Captain charges, after a moment she draws her dagger and runs after the pink headed pony. The stallions on the dock turn to face them as they draw their own swords. Captain punches one in the chest sending him flying into the side of the ship. 

Willow runs up a small pile of crates and jumps on deck, without missing a beat she runs at the stallions as soon she her hooves hit the wood. She lunges at the closest one she manages to make a large gash in his shoulder, though not fatal it's enough to slow him down. The other one strikes at her, she quickly jumps out of range. She runs around the enemy and lunges for his gut, she catches a flash out of the corner of her eye. Reacting quickly, she jumps back just the blade of the first one comes down where her head was moments before. She sheathes her dagger and climbs onto a pile of crates. She brings her blowpipe up to her lips and sends a dart into the first one’s foreleg. He stumbles but keeps his balance, he looks at his partner and whispers something to him.

The second one runs over to the rail of the ship, Willow gives chase. She leaps into the air, avoiding a strike that would have taken off her legs, and draws her dagger. She hears a splash come from the side of the ship, Willow silently curse herself knowing that the second one has. She deflects a blow, the stallion staggers from the follow-through. She takes the moment to sink her blade deep into his thigh. He screams in pain and attempts to return the favor, but she jumps out of the way and he falls to the ground. Whether it be the poison from the dart or from blood loss, he is no longer able to fight. She slits his throat and runs over to the rail and see the other stallion running off into the streets.

She hears heavy hooves landing on deck. Turning she sees Captain, Twigs and Howler climbing onboard.  He managed to kill four in the time it took me to kill one . He runs over to a crate and smashes it open with his hoof and pulls out a bottle rum. He pops it open and begins chugging. “I’m sorry Captain, I let one get away.” He stops and looks at her. 

“Doesn’t matter.”

“But he’s going to tell the army!”

“How many ponies do you think saw me over there?” he says nudging his head toward the dock. His ears flick as he hears shouting coming from the dock. He looks over as a group of soldiers try to force their way through the crowd. “Twigs, get the sails up. Howler, you and me are going to stop anypony from setting hoof on my new ship.” The diamond dog gives a quick nod and walks over to the gangplank, Captain follows suit. The soldiers line up on the dock and aim their rifles.

“Surrender now, pirates, or die!”

“Funny, we’ll be hung anyways if we give up. So, let’s see how many of you we can take with us,” Captain shouts.

“Have your way scum. Ready. Aim… Fire!” Captain and Howler take cover behind the rail as the barrage of bullets fly past them. “Charge!” Captain jumps over the rail delivering a punch to the head of a soldier. He hits the soldier away and deflects the blow from another. Howler lands in the middle of the group and in one swift motion cuts the group in half… literally. Bringing his eyes away from the bodies cut clean in half, he looks at the sky and see a beige pegasus flying toward the ship. He jumps onto the ship, quickly followed by Howler.

“Twigs!”

“Got it, Cap’n!” The schooner lurches forward as the sails unfurl. Captain take the helm and steers for the open sea. “Good job, Cap’n.”

“Say that to Willow.” He looks back at the crowd, just as a white stallion with a black mane shoves his way through the crowd. Captain stares in shock at the soldier, his face contorts in rage. Ebony jumps back at the wave of anger. 

He makes a sharp turn, Willow and Howler manage to keep their footing, Twigs stumbles to the deck and slides over to the rail. Ebony grabs the mast to stop herself from being sent into the rail as well. Crates slide across the deck and into the water. “Captain, what are you doing?” Ebony shouts, he doesn’t answer. She turns to Howler, “Get him away from the helm!” He jumps onto the upper section and tackles Captain to the ground, Ebony take the wheel and steers away from the dock.

“Let me go, I have to kill him!” Captain shouts. He shoves Howler off of him and runs at the helm. Before he can get too far Howler is in front of him again. Captain runs into the diamond dog, “Get out of my way!” Howler’s claws dig into the deck, but it does nothing to stop him from being pushed back. Captain feels a little sting in on his right thigh, he swings a punch at Howler, sending him flying across the deck. Captain feels another dart hit him on his right shoulder, he stumbles a little but continues on toward the helm. Another dart sticks into his neck and he tumbles to the ground.

Ebony looks at Willow, who is holding her blowpipe. “Good job.” She turns to Howler as he picks himself off the deck. “Tie him to the… scratch that, chain him to the mast. I don’t want him getting free.”




Captain bolts awake, covered in a cold sweat. He looks around at the familiar wall of the Misfortune. He soon calms down from the comforting sway of the waves. He hears some coughing over by the door. He look over at a changeling, doubled over a bucket as she coughs something up into it. He can see a small stream of blood running out of her mouth.

“What happened?” he asks.

Ebony vomits into the bucket again and wipe her mouth. She walks over to the bed and slaps him across the face. “I don’t know, you tell me! You could’ve killed us and everyone on the dock!” she shouts. She rubs the foreleg she had hit him with,  damn, he’s stronger than me even when he’s asleep! 

“It’s my business, no one else’s.”

She slaps him again. “Well, your ‘business’ damn near got us killed and made you go on a frenzy!” Her eyes soften and she speaks in a nicer tone. “We’re a crew, that means it’s all our business. Like when we helped Arrel with his sister.”

Captain rubs his jaw and sighs. “His name is Gallows.”

“And…”

He lets out an annoyed groan. “And he… he… he’s the one that killed my parents.” Ebony takes a step back. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have someone to kill.” She steps in front of the door.

“No, I know you’re angry and want revenge, but that’s not the way to go. Revenge isn’t the answer, it almost got us and a lot of innocent ponies killed today. Don’t go after him.”

He glares at her, she glares right back. After a few moments he looks away with a sigh of defeat. “Fine, I won’t go after him. I’ll pretend that I didn’t see him.” She smiles at him and levitates two bottles of rum over. “What was that about?” he asks pointing at the bucket.

A slight blush comes to her cheeks. “While changelings can feed off of love, they can also syphon off other emotions such as anger. Problem is that it’s not healthy and kinda causes that.” He blinks at her a few times and tilts his head to the side. “I ate your anger so you’d feel better.”

“Oh… uh… thanks." He thinks for a minute then rises his bottle. “How about this, I promise I won’t go after him so long as you promise to tell the crew what you are someday.”

She taps her bottle against his. “I promise.”
> Chapter 19
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Kingfisher, the schooner that Captain and crew have recently stolen, plows through the water. Captain had simply decided to give it a generic bird name. The crew goes about their business as usual, though Howler seems to be a little more on guard around Captain and Willow stays away from him as well. Captain’s grateful that Ebony had somehow managed to convince them not to tell the rest of the crew what happened.

They’re making their way from the coast of Equestria to Hayvana. One of Rose’s friends needs some cargo brought over, something from the Everfree Forest. Captain took the simply job after finding out that he needs more bits to pay for one of the new cannons. Now he leans against the helm watching waves wash across the deck. He sees a dark mass of clouds coming from, what he assumes is, the east. He sigh and goes back to watching the waves.

“Starry, are we still on the right course?” he whines. He waits a few seconds for some kind of reply, but none comes. He looks around and soon realizes that he and Howler, who is sitting on a crate behind him, are the only ones on deck. “Where are they?” he asks the diamond dog. Howler points to the hatch that leads into the hold of the ship. “You steer the ship, I’ll see what they’re doing.”

He trots toward the hatch, as he gets closer he begins to hear the crew talking. “What is it?” asks Smokey.

“No clue,” replies Twigs.

“You never have any clue,” Starry says. “But, I do believe I’ve seen these somewhere.”

“Maybe it’s for making tea, you all know how much those stuck up snobs like the stuff,” Arrel says.

“What was that?”

“Oh, uh… I just meant, uh… You’re not like them, you’re, uh… Oh, look at that over there, that has suddenly become far more interesting than this plant, I’ll go look at that instead.”

“Do you know what it is, Willow?” Ebony asks.

“Why do you think I would know?”

“You’re a deer.”

“And was a slave, I haven’t been taught much.”

“Alright, sorry for bringing it up.”

“What’s going on down here?” Captain asks. He walks over to the crate they had opened, which is filled with blue flowers of some sort. He goes over and pick one off the ground and puts it back into the crate. “Why did you open it?”

“One of the crates broke, so we had to put them into that one.” Twigs explains. Willow backs away from the captain.

“Right, looks like that’s done, now get back up on deck. A storm is coming and I want all hooves on deck.”




With the new ship they enter into the harbour without any problem. There is a cart waiting on the docks for them. Captain, Smokey, Arrel, and Howler unload the Kingfisher as Ebony collects the pay. Starry goes up to Ebony and takes a couple of the coins.

“What are you doing?” Ebony asks.

“Getting a room, we’re not sailing out into that hell,” she says gesturing to the black clouds as they approach the city. “And I’m not staying on that.” She points at the ship.

“Good point.” She hoofs over a couple of coins. “Give some to the rest of the crew,”

Starry goes around and gives out the coins. Willow quick accepts, not wanting to spend the night on the same ship as Captain. The rest also accept except for Howler. Captain goes over to Ebony, “So, we’re staying here for the night?”

“We’re not sailing into that.”

He looks over his shoulder at the storm, a crack of lightning flashes through the clouds. He sighs and looks back at his first-mate. “Fine, we’re leaving tomorrow though. I’ll be in my ship if you need me.”

“You think that’s a smart idea in a storm?”

“Why not, it floats.”

Ebony facehoofs, “Well, I’m getting a room.”




The next day, the storm is gone and the sun is shining down on the city. Twigs wakes with a yawn, the night hadn’t been a good one with howling winds and pounding rain. He rubs his eyes with his forehooves and curls back up in the bed. He tosses and turns trying to get comfortable in the small bed. Eventually he quits and gets up. I should go check on the ship, he thinks. He throws the door open and walks through, painfully knocking his head on the top of the door frame. I don’t remember it being so small. He walks back into the room, knocking his head once again, and goes to the mirror on the wall.

Instead of a small brown stallion, a very tall one with a long mane stares back. He stares at the reflection in confusion. “Are you a princess?” he asks.




Smokey jumps out of the way as another hoof comes down next to him. He run up next to the wall and hope no one decides to come over. This morning hasn’t been one of his favorites yet ,having woken up and found out that he’s now several inches tall. He scurries his way to the door and squeezes under it. He looks down toward the harbour, “I have to get to the ship or I’ll die out here,” he mumbles to himself. He hears soft purring coming from behind him. He turns and finds a cats staring at him licking it’s lips.

I’m light grey and the size of a mouse.

“Nice kitty,” he says with a nervous smile.




Willow paces the hold of Kingfisher. Something is wrong and she needs to find out why. Howler sits in the shadows, polishing his katana. She stops her pacing when a loud crash comes from above, a few moments later a giant Twigs tumbles down into the hold. She jumps but stops herself from screaming. He slowly lifts himself up to his hooves, a noticeable bump has formed on his forehead.

“Something is weird, I think I became a princess,” he says, Willow just shakes her head. A scream is heard from above, seconds later a toy comes running down into the hold followed by a cat.

“Kill it, kill it, kill it,” Smokey shouts. Twigs steps in front of the cat. The cat stop and looks up at the massive stallion after a second in runs away. “Thanks.”

“What happened to you?” Twigs asks.

“What happened to you?” Smokey asks. They both look at Howler and Willow. “What’s wrong with you guys.” Willow quickly shakes her head and Howler shrugs. “So, nothing is wrong if you two?” Howler shrugs and Willow shakes her head. 

It’s at this moment that Arrel comes blasting into the ship and crashes into the floor. He takes to the air again and flies straight into a wall, then the ceiling, then a cannon and then a support beam which is where he stops. Willow looks down at the pegasus as one of his wings twitch slightly. “Are you okay?” she asks in a very deep voice. Twigs and Smokey immediately start laughing at her. “Stop it, it’s not funny.”

“So we’re all messed up one way or another,” Arrel says.

They hear hoofsteps and look toward the entrance. Captain walks up to them, “What’s going on here, why are you all making a racket? Wait, why is he a princess?” he asks pointing to Twigs. Everyone breaks down into a fit of laughter, even Howler is trying hold back some giggles. “What’s so funny.” Howler points at him.

Captain draws his sword and looks at his reflection in it. He has a red mane, that’s good. He has hot-pink fur, not good. He stares at his reflection with his mouth wide open. “Well, buck,” he manages to says. “Anyone know where the smart ones are, like Ebony and Starry?” Everyone shakes their head, unable to speak through their fit of laughter and giggles. “I’ll go look for them.”




Ebony wakes, with a smile. It’s wasn’t a very good night, but at least she didn’t wake up with Rose trying to cuddle her. Wonder if Captain is still alive in his ship, she thinks. She yawns and curls up into a ball. A petty storm can’t kill him. She rolls over and pulls the covers over her head. He can’t die, he’s just so… noble, honorable? I think those are the right words. She rolls over again and falls out of the bed. Ow, right, time to get up. She untangles herself from the covers. A burst of green fire surrounds her and she open the door. She walk down the stair to the lobby and everyone stops what they’re doing.

They all stare at her in fear and shock. She backs away slowly, unnerved by the stares and the thick silence. Eventually somepony breaks the silence, “Changeling!” Panic ensues, everypony drops whatever they were doing and either run for the door or toward the stairs as they draw swords and pistols. Ebony runs back into the room and slams the door behind her. She finds a mirror hanging on the wall. Green fire surrounds her once again, but when they die out a changeling stares back. Why can’t I change!? A bang at the door draws her attention she throws the window open and flies out.

Ponies on the streets begin screaming and pointing up at her. Soldiers come and fill the streets, unicorns begin firing magic bolts at her. She evades them and heads for the harbour. Pegasi fly up from the streets as the unicorns fire another volley of magic. She tries her best to evade them all, but one burns her insect-like wing. She crashes into the ground in an alleyway, slides into a wall. She is flanked by three walls and the only passage out is where the pegasi land.

“You die here, monster.” He lunges at her, he only makes it a few steps before he falls to the ground with a sword sticking out of his back. They turn around as Captain punches two of them across the clearing and into the wall next to Ebony. He is wearing a brown cloak. One of the pegasi strikes at him. He deflects the blade with his horseshoe and crushes him into a wall, sending a spiderweb of cracks along the bricks. Another lunges at him, Captain jumps forward and pull his cutlass out of the body, but instead of fighting he sheaths his sword. Captain turns and tackles Ebony through the walls.

The two tumble across the floor. Once they stop Captain draws his sword and blocks a strike from a pegasus that followed them. “Run!” Captain shouts, he gets his hindlegs under the pegasus and launches him into the ceiling. He gets to his hooves and rams his way through another wall, Ebony follows his path. He throws his cloak to her, she puts it on using her magic. The two run onto a crowded street and start heading for the harbour.

“So you decide to tell the city that you’re a changeling but not the crew?”

“I can’t change. By the way, I thought you didn’t like pink.”

“It’s a phase. Do you know where Starry is?”

“No, but I think she’s having more luck than us.”




Starry Night lets out a yawn as she stirs from her sleep. She opens her eyes and scowls at the few rays of light shining through the window. “Stupid sun,” she mumbles. She lets out another yawn and gets out of the bed. She goes over to the mirror and starts brushing her mane. It’s been a while since I last slept in Hayvana. Maybe I should go back to the pal-- No, he might try going after me. She growls at the few memories of the stallion that made her life the way it is.

A dark blue aura surrounds the door as she opens it with her magic. She trots through the lobby and onto the street. She looks up at the sky, a few small clouds linger in the sky. With a sigh she starts heading for the ship. I should leave before anypony recognizes me. The builds change little as she moves onward. After a couple of minutes she stops and looks around. I should be there by now. She shakes the thought from her head and continues on regardless. 

Soon the builds become smaller and fewer in between. Small fields fill the spaces between the houses. She stops at the edge of Hayvana, a large jungle spreads out in front of her. This is odd, how did I end up here? She turns around and starts heading the way she came. How did I end up at the wrong side of the city. I haven’t been gone that long and I certainly know my way around cities like these. Perhaps I simply wasn’t paying attention. No, that can’t be it, I can usually navigate these areas without paying any attention at all. Surely, there must be some sort of--

Her thoughts are stop abruptly when her snout smacks into a tree. She rubs her snout and looks at the tree that towers above her. She hears the cry of a bird and looks around. Tall trees and thick foliage surround her, colorful birds fly overhead and beautiful flowers bloom from the bushes and trees around her. “How... why am I in the middle of the jungle?” She looks back the way she came, more trees. “What kind of bloody joke is th-- Joke, that's what it was, the plant was poison joke. What kind of blood idiot asks for a delivery of poison joke?!” She takes a few deep breaths to calm down. “It’s okay, I know what’s wrong, now I have to find an apothecary shop and get the…” She looks around again and sighs. “Of course, I probably won’t find any shops out here and since poison joke isn’t native to this area the ingredients for the antidote aren’t either.”

She feels something brush against her coat. She turns to find nothing behind her, but something brushes against her coat once again. She feels something climbing on her across her back, she turns her head as a large spider climbs toward her neck. She screams and takes off running further into the jungle. Torns and branches scratch at her coat as she weaves her way around trees and over rocks. She looks behind her to see if the demonic creature is following her. She lets out a sigh of relief once she realizes nothing is behind. She looks ahead of her once again only to run into a tree.

Starry tries to shake the stars out of her eyes. She rubs her snout with her foreleg, a warm liquid drips out of her nose. She looks back at her coat, little scratched and dirty but nothing too major. Bloody fabulous, now I’m really lost, bleeding and a spider is out there hunting me down, she thinks. She picks herself off the ground, a small snake slithers around her hoof. With another scream she jumps back and trips over a rock and rolls down a hill, stopping when she crashes into a bush.

“I want to be back on the ship…” She stumbles out of the bush and takes in her surroundings, more trees. She decides on a new plan, she picks a direction and goes the opposite way. Well, now I know how Captain feels everytime he goes anywhere.

After hours of walking she finds a small clearing and decides to take a break since her plan didn’t seem to be working yet. She levitates a fruit down from one of the trees and makes herself comfy on the grass. After having spent a couple of hours in the jungle, she’s beginning to find it quite beautiful, a few too many spiders and snakes but still quite nice. She puts her foreleg up to her nose again which is no longer bleeding. She finishes the fruit and looks skyward, watching the few clouds make their way across the sky.

She spots something moving out of the corner of her eye. It’s too big to be a spider or snake, too big to even be a pony. She springs to her hooves as the creature growls at her. A manticore makes it’s way into the clearing. I could try running but I’m too tired and he probably knows his way around here better. Hiding isn’t an option, his senses and too keen. So fight. He’s big, I have to try avoiding anything he throws my way, Starry thinks. The manticore continues to growl as he begins to circle the unicorn. She charges a spell and faces the beast.

It roars and lunges at her with his large claws. She jumps back, narrowly avoiding a deadly strike, and fires a blast of magic hitting it directly on the chest. He rears with a mighty roar as smoke rises from the wound, he swipes at her again. She jumps back but not fast enough. Two claws rip into her shoulder and send her flying across the clearing. She shakily rises to her hooves and quickly fires another spell. She hits the beast in the eyes, it roars in pain and blindly swipes at her. She ducks under the paw but it turns around and hits her with its scorpion tail. She slams into the ground and gasps as the air is knocked out of her.

She looks back at the manticore as it regains its visibility. It crouches to the ground and prepares to pounce on her. She closes her eyes, she hears the beast pounce and slam into the ground a few hooves in front of her. She slowly opens her eyes, a green mare with a blonde mane stands between her and the manticore. Starry recognizes the pony as one of Arrel’s old crewmates, though she’s not wearing a uniform this time. She has the image of a beehive for a cutie mark. The manticore gets up and growls at the newcomer, Honey stands her ground. Starry looks over the other mare and realizes that she has no weapon. “W-what are yo--”

“Shut up.” The beast lunges again, the earth mare swiftly dodges to the side and delivers a solid blow to it’s chest. The beast stumbles to the ground, it struggles to get back up. Honey uses the opportunity and strikes a fatal blow to it’s throat and it slumps to the ground. She goes over to the unicorn. “What are you doing out here?”

“I-I got los--” She coughs out some more blood.

Honey starts laughing at her. “Y-you got lost, ar-aren’t you supposed to be the navigator or something?”

“Poison joke, it affected my sense of direction… Can you help me out?”

“Sure.” Starry tries get to her hooves but Honey simply picks her up onto her back and starts walking toward the city. “You alright back there?”

“Yeah… no, no I’m not. I need some medical attention.”

“Fine, I’ll bring you to your ship and get some medicine too.”

“Thanks.” They continue in silence, save for the occasional chirp or far-off roar. Starry breaks the silence eventually, “What are you doing out here?”

“I train out here, lucky for you. What kind of bucking idiot fights a manticore?”

“It was my only option.”

Honey chuckles a little. “Alright, how’s Arrel doing then?”

“He’s fine, he keeps asking me to send you guys some letters. I have to keep telling him it would look bad if you were to receive a letter from a traitor.” Honey laughs. “Have you forgiven him?”

“No, I just want to make sure he’s alive so I can punch him next time we meet.” They both start laughing which cause Starry to cough up some blood onto Honey. “You okay?”

“Not really.” She looks down at the blood spot, her eyes wander to the mare’s cutie mark. “Mind if I ask why your cutie mark is a beehive?”

“I’ll tell you if you answer a question for me.”

“That seems fair.”

“I used to be a bee farmer, I join the navy after my sister was killed by a pirate.”

“Oh…”

“Your turn, why are you a pirate?”

Starry looks at the scar on the left side of her barrel. “Looking for someone.”

“No, why are you a pirate? Why don’t you just go back to the palace?”

Starry stares at her in shock. “How did you--”

“Military remember, your ‘murder’ was pretty big news.”

“I didn’t go back to the palace because I don’t want him to find me.”

“You mean the--”

“I don’t want to talk about it.” Starry looks away to find that they’re at the harbour.

“Where’s yours?”

“The one over there,” she says pointing it out with a shaky hoof. They walk onto the deck, a pink Captain meets them. They both break down into a fit of laughter, he scowls down at them.

“Willow, come here and look after Starry.”
> Chapter 20
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The night sky shines down on Kigerston. Very few ponies walk the streets at these hours, except for the homeless, reckless and the thieves. Two guards dressed in heavy armor patrols the outside of a large manor. It is made of large stone bricks, it stands three stories tall. Four marble pillars hold up the front of the building, while a massive window sits above it giving a view of the city. The building is lit up with lanterns casting a warm orange glow out the windows.

It is a peaceful night, the only sounds are those of the night and the metal armor of the guards. A high pitched scream comes from the building, the guards take action and begin running for the large wood door.

“How did someone get past us?” one of them shouts. There is the sound of glass shattering and the body of a maid falls to the ground in front of them. The guards bash the door open and come face-to-face with a minotaur holding a large hammer in one hand. They only have the time to draw their weapons before the minotaur brings down the hammer onto one of the guards crushing his armor as though it was little more than tin.

The other guard lunges with his lance. The minotaur reaches around and grabs the lance and rips it out of his grip. He plunges it straight through the pony, the armor doing little to protect from the beast.

A group of soldiers come rushing through the gate toward the manor. The minotaur prepares for another strike. But, pony comes out of the sky and slashes at a couple of them with his sword before disappearing into the night sky again. The soldiers look around frantically for pony, to no avail. The pony continues his assault, striking at them and flying back into the sky before doing the same process again. Soon he soldiers lay dead halfway across the yard the pony lands next to the minotaur and folds his bat-like wings.

A brown colored unicorn walks up behind the minotaur. “You two made a real mess,” he says.

“You did tell us to deal with any complications however we saw fit,” says the minotaur.

“Good point, let’s go before anyone else comes.”




Captain places another empty bottle onto the counter. “She came back after with a few plants and stuff and then Starry made an antidote,” he says. Rose leans on the other side of the counter listening to Captain recount the tale of their little mishap. “I had to give the antidote to Ebony because she still doesn’t want to tell anyone she’s a changel--”

Ebony shoves a bottle of rum into his mouth. “Don’t mention that where others can hear us,” she hisses.

Captain quickly chuges the rum and places the bottle on the counter. “I’m just happy I’m not pink anymore.”

“Look again, sweetie.”

“I’m happy I’m not more pink than usual. I still don’t like my mane, pink is a color for fillies.”

“I can make you feel like a stallion, sweetie.” 

“No, I don’t want you to shave my head.”

“That’s not what I was getting at.”

“Were you talking about getting me some more rum?”

“Not that either.”

“In that case you can’t help.” Ebony starts laughing, Rose facehoofs and shakes her head. Captain looks around the tavern, spending more time scanning the corners than anywhere else. “Where’s Howler?”

“Huh, oh, you don’t know, do you, sweetie? There’s a unicorn he visits often, I think her name is Blood Moon, a little creepy if you ask me. Anyways, I think she’s from Neighpon as well, though I’m not sure how they know each other.”

Arrel comes up to the group. “Have you guys seen Starry?”

“She’s hurt, do you really expect her to be here?” Ebony asks.

“Well, no, but I just want to make sure she’s alright.”

“She seemed alright when she was coughing up blood while she laughed at me,” Captain mutters, he receives a swift hoof to the head.

“Don’t worry, she’s smart, she wouldn’t be walking around in her condition,” Ebony says. Just then the door opens with a dark blue aura and in comes Starry. Her left foreleg is wrapped in bandages. Rose tenses up as the unicorn comes to the counter. Ebony stares in shock at her, after a few seconds she scowls at her. “Shouldn’t you be resting?”

“Shouldn’t you be showing a bit more respect toward me since I cured us of poison joke.” She looks at Rose who is halfway to stairs. Rose turns around and gives a small nervous smile.

“H-hello, how’s it going?”

“What’s wrong?”

“W-why do you say that?”

“You’re stuttering, you didn’t call me sweetie and you haven’t hit on me.”

Rose sighs and drops the smile. “No point of trying to hiding it from you, is there? There was an assassination in Kigerston.” Starry’s ear perk up at the news. “They say it was a brown stallion that did it, as well as a minotaur and another pony.” Starry stares at her for what seems like a minute. “Listen, sweetie, you’re hurt. You can’t go after him, I know you wan--” Starry sprints out of the room, ignoring her friend and the burning pain in her shoulder.

Ebony gives Rose a questioning look. “What was that about?”

“It’s a personal issue with her, I don’t think she’d want me talking about it. In fact I don’t even know the whole story, all I know is that he did something bad to her and she wants revenge.”

“She’s involved with an assassin?”

“Again, I don’t know the whole story, trust me, sweetie, I really would have liked to know it. She just wouldn’t talk about it though.”

“Arrel, go after her,” Captain says




Starry jumps out of the way of carts and ponies as she gallops for her house. She makes a quick right turn and jumps out of the way of a cart.

Starry skids to a stop in front of her house. She has a small house that is more inland than the others. White boards make up the walls of the one story building. She pushes her way through the door and goes to her study. Her study lays in back-left corner of the house, she has bookcases lining one wall. Maps, notes and paper clippings are pinned to one of the other wall. A desk sits at the end of the room littered with scrolls, maps and writings of all sorts.

She looks at her wall of clippings going over the notes and maps until her eyes fall upon a map with an ‘x’ scrawled onto it. She levitates it off the desk and goes over to a small chest in the corner of the room. With a flair of magic she brings out a thin sword and scabbard, she puts on the belt and scabbard and sheaths the sword. It’s your turn to lose everything. Now I need a ship, something simply enough for one pony to manage. She turns around and finds Arrel at the door to her study.

“What’s going on?” he asks eyeing the sword.

“Nothing to concern yourself with.”

“What’s with the sword?”

“I owe somepony a scar,” she says shoving her way past Arrel.

“A scar? What is this about?”

“Nothing to concern yourself with.“

“Just tell us, the rest of the crew can help. You helped me, it's my turn to--"

“No! I’m doing this on my own, nopony else is helping. I owe him something and I’m going to be sure to repay him back in full,” she says adding a fair bit of anger into the last part.

“I’m going with you, you can’t get rid of me.”

“I guess you leave me with no choice.” She turns around, a spell charged on her horn. “I’m sorry.” She fires the spell, he slumps to the floor gently snoring. She takes a moment and checks her bandages, now colored a bright red. She quickly changes the dirty bandages. She trots out the door and toward the docks.

She passes through the crowds of countless ponies. I’m not letting you get away. She arrives at the docks several minutes later, her left shoulder burning in pain. She scans the ships for one that suits her needs, she settles on a small gunboat and the end on the dock. She trots up to it and the few ponies guarding it, one of them steps in front of her.

“Wait up, where do you think you’re going?” he says.

I don’t have time for this, Starry thinks. With a quick burst of magic she sends them flying into the water. She continues onto the ship and uses her magic to hoist the sails.




Captain balances a bottle on his nose, Rose paces back and forward behind the counter, Ebony glances from Rose to the door every-so-often. “How can you not be worried?” Rose asks to Captain.

“She’s smart, I doubt that she’ll do much of anything.”

“Didn’t you see the way she ran out?”

Captain pauses for a moment, then he puts the bottle onto the counter. He looks at the door with a sigh. “Guess you’re right, we should go help her.”

The door bursts open and Arrel comes flying in. “Captain, we have a problem.” Ebony and Captain exchange looks then run outside. Captain looks around the dock but see nothing.

“Where is she?” Arrel points to a small dot out at sea. “Where is she going?”

“I don’t know but I know she's out for blood.”

Captain looks out at the ship then back at what’s left of, his crew. “Alright, Arrel and Ebony, fly out there and see what she’s doing.” Ebony shakes her head and points to her burnt wing. 

“Sorry, I'm grounded.“

“Fine, Arrel, go see what she’s doing.” He nods and flies off toward the ship. “Right, Starry plot a course… Oh wait.” He looks at his crew. “Willow do you know how to navigate?”

“A little.”

“Plot a course, we need to follow as soon as we can. Twigs, Smokey, Howler, get the--” He looks back at the crew and remembers that Howler is missing and Smokey is drunk. “Twigs, Ebony, get the sails up on the Kingfisher.”
> Chapter 21
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Starry looks down at her map then the compass and adjusts her course ever so slightly. She looks behind her and frowns at what looks like small sails coming in her direction. Thank Celestia I left before them. She looks down at the map with a deep scowl. It is a map of an unnamed island to the north-east of Kigerston and east of Hayvana, a small jungled island with no real value. Except for her, she knows that that’s where his hideout is. Three years of searching and waiting and you finally show. After today I will no longer fear you and you’ll be terrified of me even in death.

She unsheathes her blade and looks into the polished surface. It is a skinny blade not made for hacking at enemies, it’s faster than a normal sword and makes deep clean cuts. Long time since I last held you. She puts the sword back into the scabbard, satisfied with it’s condition.

She looks back at the pursuing ship and smiles as it seems to be a little slower as well. Her smile falters when she hears wingbeats overhead, she looks up at the cloudy sky and sees nothing. May have been a seagull. Arrel comes down onto the deck with a solid thud. Starry jumps back in surprise and draws her sword in her magic field.

“Why did you knock me out?” Arrel asks.

She blinks dumbly a couple of times. But, it quickly turns to a glare. “Because you said you weren't leaving me. It seems I didn't do a good enough job.”

“Can’t you at least tell me why you’re doing this?”

Images flash through Starry’s mind of the night she had met the assassin. She furiously shakes her head in a vain attempt to get rid of the memories. “No.”

“Just tell me who you want to kill.”

“No!” Tears flow down her cheeks as the memories make their way to the front of her mind.

“Please?”

“This is my problem and I am the one who’s going to deal with it, on my own.”

“Well, I ain’t leaving until I know what this is about.”

She goes to argue more until she looks him in the eyes. A type of determined resolve burns behind his dark brown eyes. Images come flooding back, she slumps to the floor and lets the sword fall to the ground. She takes a few shaky breaths.  “Fine, it was three years ago, me and my family were coming to Hayvana for business…




“Why do I have to go?!” Starry shouts at her father, Starburst.

“We have to go because I have to to meet the griffon ambassador.”

“But why, can’t they take care of this themselves.”

“An Equestrian representative must be there since they are one of our colonies.”

“Okay, but why do I have to go!”

“Please don’t do this, I just want to spend a little time with my family,” he says trying to hug her but she just walks away.

“Oh yes, great idea, have a vacation in a pirate infested cesspool!”

“Starry, even pirates are smart enough not to attack a royal con--” he hears a door slam down one of the halls in the large house. He sighs and shakes his head.

“Don’t worry, dear, I’m sure she love it once we get there,” says Northern Star, her mother.

“I don’t know, she doesn’t seem too happy right now.”

“She just attached to Canterlot, just wait till we’re on the open sea. She’ll be happy studying the maps and books over there.”

“I hope you’re right.”




Starry steps onto the wooden dock of Hayvana harbour. The trip had been a short one, two days or so, during which she didn’t even speak to her father. Though he had been right, they hadn’t been attacked throughout the trip.

She sees a group of diamond dogs loading cargo onto a ship. Diamond dogs are cheap labour throughout most of Equestria. She never liked the filthy beasts, they tend to live in tunnels and kidnap ponies. Her father steps off the ship and smiles at her. “Here we are, I’m sure you’ll love the pa--” She scoffs and walks away.

Starburst sighs and hangs his head low, Northern comes over and pats him on the back. “Don’t worry, she’ll talk to you soon.” She looks down at the scabbard attached to his belt and raises an eyebrow.

“For protection, I’m meeting a griffon and want to make sure I come out alive.” She frowns at him. “I’ll only use it in an emergency.”




Starry sits in the palace library reading the local lore. The bookshelves tower high above her, she could spend the entire vacation reading books. She throws the book into a small pile with the others she has finished in the past few hours. She looks over at the shelves for a new one when one of the deer slaves walks up to her. “Do you wish for me to get something for you?” she asks.

“Go get me drink, slave,” Starry replies harshly. Stupid savage, why don’t we just wipe them out. She listens to the deer walk off and sighs in disappointment. None of the books catch her eye, she looks around for something else. I might as well explore the city, she thinks suddenly bored of the library and not wanting to talk to the deer again.

She stands up and trots out into the halls. It doesn’t take her long to find her way to the entrance, having remembered the route when she came in. She is stopped by a guard at the gate, she is surprise to find that the guard is a female but she glares at her nonetheless. The guard stares blankly back at her. “Where are you going?” she asks.

Starry sighs and stops her attempt at a death glare, which was clearly ineffective. “I’m going to explore the city.”

“I shall escort you in that case, my comrade can guard the gate,” she gesture to the armored pony beside her.

“Very well then, I suppose I can use an escort in a city like this.” She walks down the path with the guard right at her side. She looks down at the harbour, with it’s countless ships. They trot through the crowded streets of the city, they turn a corner and end up at the harbour. Starry idly looks at the stalls set up at the water’s edge as the guard looks out for any trouble. She spots a stall selling book and scrolls. She happily trots up to the stall and browses it wares. She picks out a book from Saddle Arabia.

“How much?”

The owner examines the book for a couple of seconds. “Forty-two bits,” he says.

She levitates out her bit pouch and looks through it. She picks out the proper change and puts it onto the counter and leaves with her book. “Could you carry this?” Starry asks.

“Of course,” the guard mutters, Starry puts the book into her saddlebag. They walk in silence, passing stall after stall. They turn off the harbour and start heading further inland. Starry watches the carts pass by them. She stops and sits on a nearby bench for a little rest, the guard stands next to her. They rest in their mutual silence, that is until they hear a scream come from an alleyway nearby. They exchange a quick look.

“Stay here, I’ll go see what--” Starry runs off before the guard can finish. She runs  toward the alley, charging a spell on her horn. She turns into the alley and finds three diamond dogs standing over a mare, a pool of blood forming around the pony. She fires off the spell and barely misses one of them.  The three turn to her, holding sword in their paws already, she gulps. One of them runs at her and she jumps out of the way, the sword whizzing by her ear. This is what you get for trying to be a hero. She hears a thump and the dog falls to the ground as the guard steps forward. “I told you to stay,” Starry doesn’t reply, “I’ll take care of the other two, try not to die.”

The guard charges the two, they lose interest in Starry and decide to focus on the clearly stronger one. She lands a punch on one of the two knocking him out. The other strikes at the guard but the sword doesn’t pass through the armor. The guard pivots on her forehooves and and bucks the diamond dog in the jaw. She looks back at Starry. “You okay?”

“Y-yeah, I just… stuff like this doesn’t happen in Canterlot very often.”

The guard looks up to the sky. “Let’s go back to the palace, they should be serving lunch soon.” Starry just nods.




Soon she is in the diningroom sitting at a large table, her parents sit next to her. Slaves rush around the table bringing platters and cups with them.

“So, how did it go, dear?” Northern asks her husband.

He looks up from his plate and wipes his mouth. “It went… well. They seem willing to make a deal but all their offers are too steep.”

“Well at least it’s a start.”

“How about you, how was your day?” he asks Starry.

She stops poking at her food and glares at him. “Horrible.”

“At least she’s talking to you,” Northern whispers.

“Oh, don’t say that, I’m sure in a day or two you’ll be having the time of your life.”

“No I won’t. I almost died today and you two are acting like you don’t care.”

“Died?”

“The only way I’ll have the ‘time of my life’ is if I’m actually killed! I can’t believe you brought me along with you. I hate this city, I politics and I hate you! There is nothing here that I do like!” She uses a bursts of magic to open the door, knocking it off one of the hinges. She storms out of the room. Starburst gets up to go after his daughter but is stopped in a field of magic.

“Just let her blow off some steam. I’m sure she didn’t mean any of it, she’s just a little-- Okay, a lot angry at us for taking her away from her friends. I was the same at her age.”

He looks to the door then back to his wife and sighs. “I think we investigate what she meant when she said, ‘I almost died’.”




Night falls upon Hayvana, as a darkness spreads over the sky, only interrupted by millions of dot of light. Starry sits up in the bed, unable to sleep. She walk over to the window and pushes it open. She has always prefered the night, thus her name. There’s just something so enchanting about it, the day is bland with it’s one ball of light burning across the sky while the night is endless possibilities. It’s always so calm, quiet and peaceful. She looks up at the Mare in the Moon. This world needs a princess of the night more than it does a princess of the day. She yawns and goes back over to the bed.

The silence is destroyed by a scream in the night, to be more specific, a scream from down the hall. She runs to the door and shoves it open, a brown unicorn stallion gallops past her. She sees the door to her parents room left ajar. She falls to the ground at the sight of both her parents laying on the floor, a pool of blood seeping into the carpet. A thin scabbard lays next to her father in the pool. “I’m so sorry,” she cries, burying her face into her father’s chest fur.

She remembers the brown stallion, the one running from the scene. The one with blood on his hooves. The one that killed her parents. Her eyes flash open, she picks up her father's sword and takes off running. She spots the stallion run past the gate, the bodies of two guard left in his path. She sprints past them, Two more reasons to kill him. She follows his path through the deserted streets, he jumps over carts and crates, Starry tries her best to keep up but slowly the distance between them grow. The stallion makes a sharp turn and runs onto the docks, Starry follows.

The stallion jumps onto one of the ships and begins raising the sails and untying it from the dock. Starry makes in to the end of the dock as the ship starts moving, she jumps on with little time to spare. She draws the sword, holding it in her magic as she scans the ship for the killer. She sees no sign of him. She walks further onto the deck, looking up into the rigging. She uses her magic to open the door to the captain’s quarter but still nothing. She levitates the sword closer to her and goes to the helm cautiously. I’m going to have to turn this thing around anyways.

She grabs the helm, looking around her and keeping alert. She looks to the left as she slowly turns the wheel. She feels something cut through her flesh, a large gash is cut across the right side of her barrel. She charges a spell and turns to face the killer. He has a curved blade held in his magical grasp. She fires her spell, destroying the lantern to the left of him. She charges another spell, he sneers at her. She goes to fire the bolt of magic at him, but a horrible pain shoots through her shoulder. She falls to the deck with a gasp of pain. Out of the corner of her eye she spots the hilt of her father's sword sticking out of her shoulder, covered in light brown aura.

“My contract isn’t to kill you, then again, neither were those guards. You did come after me and try to kill me, so I guess I have to kill you. Tell you what, I’ll give you a small chance, all you have to do is fight off the sharks and swim to land before you pass-out.” He lifts her over the rail and drops her into the sea.




Starry’s eyes fly open and she bolts out of bed only to fall back into it from the dizziness. She frantically looks around the room, it’s a normal room, no stone block walls, no extravagant  . A cream colored mare stands by the door. “I wouldn’t move if I were you, sweetie. You have a pretty bad… well actually, it's a horrible injury and if it opens again, you’ll literally run out of blood.”

“Whe-where am I?”

“You’re in my house, sweetie, Neighsau in case you were wondering. You’re lucky to be alive, some fishers caught you in their net. I’m not sure what you’ve been through but I’m guess nothing short of Tartarus.”




… and so I spent the next three years searching for him. I’ve found the hideout he uses whenever he comes here. I’ve also found out he has two lackeys now.” She looks up at Arrel. “I’m getting my revenge, no matter what you say. I know it won’t change anything, I know it won’t bring them back, but letting him live won’t either.”

“Why don’t you want us to help?”

“Because I don’t want to lose anyone else I know to him.” She looks back at the small dot on the horizon. “You should head back now, I don’t want anyone else getting caught up in my revenge.”

Arrel looks between her and the Kingfisher, he lowers his head with a sigh. “Promise me you’ll stay alive.”

“I promise I will.”

He takes to the sky and flies off toward the ship in the distance.
> Chapter 22
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

She rubs her eyes and grabs the helm once again, the small island sticking out in the distance. She rolls up the maps and tucks it into her belt. With a small turn she sends the ship toward one of the sandy beaches. As she gets closer she is able to make out more of the island. To one side are large sheer cliffs, to the other thin sandy beaches stretch across the water’s edge. A small forest sit in the middle with a small mountain sticking out of the vivid trees. She spots a small dock with a gunboat tied to it. Maybe I should make sure they can’t leave either.

With a sudden turn she sends her ship on a collision course. She rams the ship, sounds of splintering wood coming from both. She opens her eye and examine the ships, neither are sinking, the other one might have a slight leak but that’s the worst of it. Well, that was anticlimactic. She jumps from the bow of her ship to the other and then from there to the dock. They still won't be going anywhere with those ships tangled together. She unfurls the map. Let the hunt begin, she marches into the forest.

With the map, compass and the mountain as a reference point she has a relatively easy time navigating through the wooded area. She passes by a couple of animals that were caught in traps set, most likely, throughout the forest. She walks for about an hour, all the while the burning in her shoulder grows worse and worse. She sighs and sits down at the base of a tree and picks out a fruit from it’s branches. I’ve waited three years, a two minute rest won’t hurt. She looks at her wound, the bandages are stained red again. I’m not in the best of shape, perhaps I could have used a little help. No, I have to do this myself. She finishes the fruit and begins walking again.

Birds chirp over head and she hears a monkey howl from somewhere in the distance. If it weren’t for the fact that she’s looking to get revenge and also what happened last time she was in the jungle, she’d be enjoying it. She steps on a tripwire, she feels a snare tighten around one of her hindlegs. She yelps as she is lifted off the ground. She twists around until she sees the rope holding her up, she takes her sword in her magic and cuts the rope. She falls to the ground landing on her uninjured side, with a groan she gets to her hooves. She scans the surroundings for anypony, making sure no one was there. Great, I set off a trap now they know I’m here… Actually they must have known when I blew up the boats, so why aren’t they coming after me. They might be setting up a trap for me. She continues to make her way to the mountain.

Once she comes out of the foliage, she spots a cave entrance to her right. She jumps back into the brush when she sees minotaur holding a warhammer standing in front of the cave. However, she was not fast enough, the minotaur had saw her for a moment. With a bellow he charges at the brush. Starry jumps back in time to avoid being crushed by the hammer. “Out of my way, I have to settle something with the unicorn,” she says to him.

The minotaur turns to face her. “You want to see the boss, then you’ll have to go through us.” A shadow falls over her, she rolls out of the way as the bat pony slashes the air a few inches above the ground. She gets to her hooves and hears stomping coming from her right. She rolls out of the way of the hammer once again. She jumps out of the rolls and lands on her hooves. She draws her sword in time to parry a strike from the bat pony. In the corner of her eye she spots the hammer coming at her, it’s too late to dodge, she braces for the surely fatal blow.

A sound similar to a bell from a church rings out through the clearing. Captain flashes her a quick grin and pushes his sword forward sending the hammer back to the minotaur's side.

“Captain, how did you--”

“Willow is a great tracker, isn’t that right?”

“If you say so,” says the deer from the edge of the clearing. The minotaur jumps back and the bat pony takes to the sky.

Starry looks over at Willow for a second then back at Captain. “No, I won’t let you take this away from me, I won’t let you fight--”

“I won’t, I’m just here to make sure there’s nothing between you and your target. Anyways, I don’t think you’re after these two, so I’ll take them.”

Starry stares at him for a few seconds then gives a grin of her own and nods. “Thanks.”

“I just ask one thing, make sure you kill the bastard.”

“Don’t worry I will.” She runs to the entrance.

“No you don’t!” The minotaur goes to cut her off but Captain throws his sword and breaks off one of his horns. He screams in pain and holds the stub, the sword wedges itself into the stone wall. The minotaur stops screaming and focuses on Captain.

“Do you really think you can take the two of us on your own with no weapon?” the minotaur shouts at him with anger blazing in his eyes.

“Willow, do you want to fight the bat thing?”

“N-not really.”

He nods at her, “Yeah, I can take the two of you,” he says with a wicked grin.




Starry comes to a stop in the middle of a large chamber. “Come out here!” She searches the shadowy corners for any sign of movement.

“Can it be?” A shiver runs down her spine as she recognizes the voice. “It is, you’re alive! Incredible, I thought you died the second you hit the water but here you are,” he says, his voice echoing off the walls of the cave.

“Show yourself.”

“Normally I would try to get you to join my team for surviving something like that, but here you are… trying to kill me again. Do you think it will end any differently than last time?”

“You killed my parents, I’m here to repay the favor.”

“That’s right, I did do that didn’t I, Starry? Yes, I know your name, I don’t think you know mine however. Would you like to know it?”

“Stop toying with me you stupid shi--”

“Now, now didn’t your parents teach you any manner or did I kill them before they could? My name is Revolt, remember it well, it’s the last name you’ll hear.” A curved sword comes out from a shadow, Starry parries it away and fires a bolt of magic into the shadow. “Oh, so you’ve gotten better, this might be fun.” A brown stallion walks out of a corner.




Captain sidesteps out of the hammers way as it crashes into the ground. He ducks under a strike from the bat pony and roll out of range of the hammer again. The minotaur glares at him, streams of steam shooting out of his nostrils. “Would you stand still and let me kill you?!”

“Doesn’t sound as much fun as this.”

The minotaur lets out a battle cry and charges again. Captain rolls out of the way, the hammer slams into the wall leaving a small dent. A shadow falls over Captain as the bat pony strikes from above, he steps out of the way at the last second. “I don’t like you, bat thing. You’re doing little more than annoying me." Captain jumps out of the way as the hammer soars past his muzzle. A shadow falls over him once again. Stupid bat thing, he'd know how out classed he is if he saw Gale. The bat pony dives down to strike at Captain. Captain turns and in the blink of an eye delivers and full force punch to the bat pony’s face, several loud snaps are heard and the night creature falls to the ground. Captain jumps back as the minotaur’s hammer is brought down on his dead comrade.

“Would you stop moving and die, you stupid mule!” He swings his hammer at Captain again. Captain punches at the hammer, stopping it as a ringing resonates throughout the clearing. 

“I’m not a mule.”

The minotaur blinks a couple of times as he realizes that Captain stopped the hammer with his hoof. The minotaur takes a step back and readies the hammer. “Really, then what are you, mule?“ He swings his hammer again and Captain meets it with a punch.

“I am a legend.“ The shaft of the hammer snaps in two.




Starry jumps up as the curved blade strikes the ground below her. Once she lands she send her blade flying at her opponent, which is parried away. Revolt continues to walk toward her as he launches another attack. Starry meets the blade halfway across the chamber with her own, sparks fly as the sword dance in midair. Revolt fires a bolt of magic at her, she manages to dodge but at the cost of a bit of concentration. She manages to recover and blocks Revolt’s sword a few inches away from taking off her head. She spots him running around her, going to try and flank her. She sends her sword flying at him and rolls out of the way as his blade crashes into the ground with a flurry of sparks.

An orange aura surrounds her sword and he rips it from her magical grip. “Oh, this looks familiar, I think this is the sword your father didn’t know how to use. Well, it seems the apple fell a few inches from the tree in that case. Oh, and it’s lighter than mine, I’ll trade ya.” He strikes with the small blade. She focuses on the curved sword next to her and lifts it to block, but not fast enough. She feels a sting and some warm liquid running down her cheek, not a deep cut certainly not meant to kill, just a taunt. She picks herself off the ground and brings the sword out in front of her. The assassin smiles and begins unleashes a flurry of attacks. While the strikes might not be as forceful they’re faster, a lot faster. After every strike she barely has time to recover before the blades strike against each other again.

She fails to notice Revolt making his way around her again. She freezes when she hears him charging a spell right beside her. She tries to bring the sword around but it’s sent skittering across the floor, she’s defenceless. He fires the bolt of magic into her left shoulder, she screams in pain and is sent tumbling across the cave floor. Blood pours freely out of the recently reopened wound leaving a trail of deep red to where she lies. He walks up to her and holds her own sword to her temple. “I think it’s time you joined your family.” The sword plummets at her.

There is a flurry of feathers and the sound of metal striking metal and the sword is sent flying into the air. The assassin tumbles into a nearby rock. Arrel catches the sword and drops it by Starry and lands between her and Revolt. “She already has one.”

“Arrel, what are you doing here, I thought I asked you not interfere.”

“You might not care what happens to you, but we do… I do. I don’t want to run the risk of losing you.” He walks over to her and helps her up.

“Arrel…”

Revolt starts laughing, not a happy laugh but a mocking one. He grabs his own sword once again and fixes his gaze onto the two. “That’s so very touching, not quite as much as my sword will be to your skulls but still very touching.”

“I’m guessing he’s the one that hurt you, how about we show him not to mess with anyone in the crew,” Arrel says as he draws his sword. Starry picks her sword off the ground and stands next to Arrel.




The minotaur gets out of the way of another punch from Captain which is now heading for a tree. The hoof impacts the tree and rips out a large chunk of trunk. The minotaur regains his composure and charges the earth pony with a punch of his own just as Captain does the same. Their punches meet with a loud snap and the minotaur’s arm gives out, he is sent flying it the stone wall of the mountain. His arm hangs limply at his side as he pushes himself off the wall. He shakes his head to get rid of the throbbing pain, to little effect, he opens his eyes as Captain unleashes another punch.

The minotaur, quite literally, trips out of the way. Captain punches the rock at full force, large cracks spread across the wall, dislodging his sword from the rock. The sword falls to the ground behind the minotaur, he scrambles to pick it up with his good arm. A shadow comes over him as Captain prepares another fatal punch. Forgetting the sword the minotaur rolls away as Captain’s hoof crashes into the ground, cracks form around the point of impact like a spiderweb. Captain picks up his cutlass again and goes to the minotaur.

The minotaur desperately looks around for some way out. He is used to seeing scenes like this, though he’s the one usually causing the destruction. He sees Willow, with a look of shock and fear on her face. He jumps to his hooves and lunges at the deer, but she easily dodges and runs off into the foliage. He turns around just as Captain delivers the last blow to his chest, he is sent crashing into a tree. Ribs shatter, and blood streams out of his mouth, nothing works. His legs won’t move, arms won’t lift, eyes won’t open.

Captain looks over to where Willow disappeared. “You alright?”

“Y-yeah, just… w-what the bucking Tartarus are you?”

Captain shrugs and sheaths his sword. “A captain, soon to be a legend.”




Revolt launches a magic projectile at Arrel, he takes to the air and circles him. Revolt parries away a magic bolt from Starry and sends his sword at the pegasus. Starry’s sword meets it midway in a shower of sparks. Arrel drops into a dive, going well around the fighting swords, Revolt brings his sword back and blocks Arrel’s slash. Starry charges another spell on her horn, sweat drips down from her muzzle to the ground. Her injuries and the fact that she’s trying to manipulate a sword at the same time as charging spells are starting to take it’s toll on her stamina.

She fires her spell, a wave of nausea washing over her as she does so. She staggers a little, Revolt slashes at the spell with his sword causing a bright flash and a small cloud of smoke to form around him. With a flap of his wing, Arrel gets rid of the smoke, he dives down at his target. Their swords clash before he can make it too close to Revolt. Starry fires at him again, missing pretty badly, she staggers and falls down.

Revolt charges a spell of his own and sends it a Arrel, he dodges and sails around the cave again. Revolt fires off a volley at him, none of them manage to hit. Starry focuses what little energy she has left into the sword and and sends it rocketing at the distracted stallion. It sinks into the back of his neck cutting his breath short, his magic fails and his sword clatters to the ground.

“Are you okay?” Arrel asks while hovering a few hooves away.

“Y-yeah… actually no, I really need help.”

“You two done?” Captain calls from the entrance.

“What do you think?” 

Captain walks into the cave and quickly finds Starry. He walks to her and picks her up onto his back. “This really isn’t your week is it?”
> Chapter 23
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rose passes another bottle of rum to Captain and goes back to leaning on the counter. “I really hated that bat thing, he reminded me too much of someone,” Captain says and downs the bottle. She looks around her tavern, it doesn’t take her long to find the members of his crew. Twigs and Smokey are playing a game of cards, Howler is sitting at the far end of the counter enjoying a bottle himself. Willow busies herself by trying to pickpocket the other patrons. Arrel and Starry sit at one of the tables enjoying each others company.

“Those two seem to be getting along,” Rose comments.

“If you ask me it’s a bit more than just getting along,” Ebony says.

“And what about you two, sweetie. Have you two been more than getting along?”

“Yeah sure, I guess,” Captain says. Ebony and Rose laugh at him.

“So, what do you two plan on doing?”

“Don’t know, go find a few merchants probably.”

“Too small for you, I heard that there’s a royal convoy coming through these waters soon.”

“Sounds interesting.”

“You better damn well not go after it,” says a hearty voice from behind them. They turn to find Flintlock standing there.

“Flintlock, come sit down, Rose give him a drink,” Captain says. Flintlock sits at the counter next to Captain. “How’s it been going?” Rose comes over and gives him a bottle of rum which he takes with a happy smile.

“Been well, though I have heard rumors of a pirate, quite similar to you, attacking two very wealthy stallions, I think their names were Gold and Silver. I also heard the same pirate has freed several slav-- uh… I mean deer, from a plantation. But it can’t possibly be you, could it?” They share a laugh.

“So, what brings you here? I’m guessing that you’re not here to arrest me.”

“While that does sound tempting, I’m afraid I’m not here for that. I need some help.”

“Tell me what it is, you know I’ll help you with anything.”

Flintlock smiles at his brother. “A small settlement has been taken by a group of griffons, they have also taken the villagers hostage.”

Captain gives him a confused look. “I know I just said I’d help with anything, but this sounds like a job for the military.”

“It is, but the don’t want to negotiate. They've decided to simply raze the town. I managed to let me have a shot at it before they kill everyone. So I figured there’s no one better than you.”

“Celestia wants to level the town?” Rose asks.

“Don’t know, but my superiors don’t want to waste time waiting for an answer. They decided it’s easier to ask for forgiveness than permission.”

“Alright then, I’m in. So what’s the plan?”

“Me and you sneak into the town, find the hostages, send up a firework and start killing the griffons who don’t surrender.”

“Sounds good, let’s do this.”


A few hours later Nightmare’s Revenge is anchored just off the shore. Captain and his crew decided to take Flintlock’s ship. A small group of ponies stand before the two captains.

“Right here’s the plan,” Flintlock says to the crews. “Me and Captain will sneak into the town and find the hostages. You’ll all be waiting by the edge of the jungle, when we send up the firework you’ll come out and attack. Sandy, you’re leading the attack. If anyone spots you before the signal kill them... quietly.”

“Is it really a good idea for you two to go in alone?” says a member of Flintlock’s crew.

Sandstone shoots him a glare. “Flintlock alone is strong enough to hold his own against that many of them. If half of what I heard about the pirate is true, then they’ll be fine.”

“Good, now prep the rowboats. Sandy, can you go get my sword?”

“Right away, captain.” He runs off toward the captain’s quarter a second later he comes back with a large sword slung around back. It’s a large thick sword, the back of the blade seems to be rounded and there’s an opening at the tip. Holes have been cut into the sword, presumably to make it lighter. There is a small cylinder in the blade just above the hilt. The custom grip, which is made for hooves, has a lever sticking out of it.

Flint swings the sword onto his back, Smokey stares at it in awe. “Is that...”

“Yes it is.” He jumps into a rowboat followed by Captain. “Been awhile since we last had a chance to have fun,” he says as he grabs a paddle.

“That’s because you've been sitting your lazy ass in your ship. When most ponies see your ship they simply surrender,” Captain says and grabs the other paddle.

“Well then, it's a good thing that they won't see my ship.”


Captain and Flintlock look out through the foliage at the fleet of Celestial ships that have gathered out to sea, not far from the town. “How long do you think they’ll wait before the start firing?” Captain asks.

“Not sure, but let’s hurry. We should split up and try finding the townsfolk. We meet back here in a few minutes.”

The both nod and head in different directions. Captain runs out of the foliage presses himself next to the wall of a nearby house. He sticks his head around the corner and finds three griffons talking amongst themselves. “Those ships are starting to worry me,” says one of them.

“We have hostages they shouldn't attack.”

“What if they let off a few soldiers in the jungle? They could be coming here right now.”

“True, get a few more guards looking after the hostages. Increase the patrols while you’re at it.” One of them nods and flies away, the other two go back to their patrol. Captain goes after the first one. He runs behind the houses and through the shrubbery trying to keep up with him. He hears someone moaning and rolls into one of the bushes. He turns his ears slowly to try and figure out if they heard him. When he hears nothing he sticks his head out of the bush.

He quickly finds the source of the moan, a griffon is tied to a pole. He is a dull red, his feathers end with small white dots. The feathers from his neck up are white. His claws are tied up behind his back and it looks like he’s been declawed, painfully. Captain scans the area, nothing. He sneaks his way up to the griffon. The griffon lets out a grunt cranes his neck to see the pony. “Who are you?” he asks in a rough voice.

“Who are you?”

“You came here to free the townsfolk I guess. What’s stopping me from calling my comrades?”

“They don’t seem like your comrades with the way they left you here.”

"That would change if I tell them of your rescue mission."

"Won't change anything if they're all dead. If we don't go back to the fleet over there, they'll raze the town."

"But the hostages."

"They don't really care it would seem."

The griffon looks away. “I’m here because they caught me trying to free a few of the hostages, the children and mares.”

"You were trying to free some of the hostages, why?"

"Because they don't deserve to die."

There is a small pause as Captain studies the griffon. “What if I free you?”

“What do you mean.”

“Would you join my crew if I free you?”

“Why would you want me, I’m a griffon, enemy of Equestria.”

“Because I’m a pirate, king of the seas.”

The griffon looks back at him and studies him. “And why would a pirate want me?”

“Because I still have a few more spaces in my crew and you know where to find the hostages.”

The griffon sighs with a bit of a wince. “So, you free me, I join your crew, I tell you where to find the hostages and then we free them.” Captain nods. “My name is Craven, newest member of your crew.” There is the sounds of metal striking wood and then the ropes fall to the ground. Craven flexes his claws. “The townsfolk should be in the barn.”

“Alright.” He heads off in the opposite direction.

“The barn’s the oth--”

“I know, but I need to tell my brother.” Craven follows Captain. They arrive at the spot a few moments later Flintlock comes through the foliage.

“Let me guess…”

“New member,” Captain says.

“Oh... uh... you recruited a griffon?”

"Yes."

"Uh... well does he know where the townsfolk are?"


A few minutes later they’re outside the barn watching the three guards stand in front of the door. “There might be another three on the other side,” Flintlock says. He looks at Craven. “Don’t suppose you could trick them to leave.”

“No, I think they’d try and kill me.”

“Of course… Captain, you have any ideas?” They hear something hit the ground, Captain stands above the three bodies. "You have no subtlety, do you?" Flintlock asks walking out of the bush. Craven follows quickly behind Flintlock. Craven picks up a lance from the ground. They push open the door, one guard sits in the middle of the room. Before anyone else could move Captain throws his cutlass, the blade sinks into the griffons chest. The three go into the barn.

“I don’t see anyone,” Captain states.

“They’re in the cellar, they used this building as storage as well.” They locate a hatch in the floor near a corner of the barn. Opening it, several sets of eyes stare back at them.

“We’re saved!” one declares.

“Wait, you’re not free yet. There are still griffons out there, you’ll all have to stay down here for now.”

“What, no let us out, we can help. I’m not abou--” Flintlock closes the hatch and Captain pushes a crate onto it.

“They’re safer down there,” Flintlock says. He looks over at Captain and nods. "Well, looks like it's time to start." He takes a firework with a long fuse out of his saddlebag. He aims it at a window and lights the fuse. He then opens a stall door and lay the back of his sword against it aiming the tip of his sword at one of the doors, he moves his hoof to the lever. Captain takes a spot at the opposite door.

“Craven, watch the windows, kill anyone who comes in,” Captain says. The griffon flies into the rafters just as the flame reaches the end of the fuse. The firework shoots into the sky leaving a small trail of smoke behind it. It explodes into a ball of multicolored sparkles and it all goes silent. Flintlock levels his sword at the door and applies a little pressure to the lever. The door bursts open and the three other guard come rushing in. Flintlocks grins and squeezes the lever.

The sound of something along the lines of a cannon rips through the air, flames shoot out of the end of Flintlock’s sword. A bullet tears into a griffon sending him back out the door. The cylinder in the blade rotates with a metallic clunk. He fires again, the bullet roars through the air and into another griffon. The last griffon looks at him with a mix of fear and confusion. Flintlock fires once more and kills the last griffon, the stall door breaks apart. “The bucking Tartarus was that? How many time can you shoot with that thing?”

“Four, I have one more shot left.” 

A griffon falls to the ground. “You two going to gawk about that thing or are you going to use it?” They turn around as more griffons come into the barn.

Flintlock charges the three coming from his door. He swings his sword at the nearest one which blocks, but is still sent skidding across the floor. He quickly brings his sword back around and strikes at the next one. The griffon fails to block it and the sword slashes across the griffon’s shoulder and chest. The last one swigs at him, Flintlock brings his sword around and blocks with the wide blade. He spots the other charging at him, he squeezes the trigger and fires at him. The griffon dies from the bullet and the recoil sends the back of the blade into the last griffon’s face. He stumbles back a few steps and finds Flintlock’s sword/gun leveled at his face. The griffon drops his weapon.

Captain deflects a strike from a griffon and punches him back into the others. He jumps onto the griffon and sinks his cutlass into his heart. The griffons regain their footing and strike at Captain. He slides under their swords and kicks the leg on one of them earning a loud snap. He gets to his hooves and slashes at the last griffon, which manages to block. Captain begins an onslaught of strikes, the griffon loses grip on his sword and it’s sent flying into the wall. Captain kills the defenceless griffon. He turns and looks down at the griffon he broke the leg of. He sighs and walks over to Flintlock and Craven.

“Looks like we did it.”

“Good job, let’s get the survivors to the ship and let the them out of the cellar.”




Nightmare’s Revenge comes to a slow stop at the Neighsau docks. Captain and Flintlock lean on the rail as the crew sing a shanty. “It was nice to see you again,” Captain says.

“That it was, I hope to see you again soon. Oh, and stay away from the convoy, I’m escorting it through here.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t go after it.” The ramp is lowered and his crew start walking onto the dock. “Until next time.”

“Captain,” Flintlock says with a slight tone of concern.

“Yeah?”

“Be careful out there, Gale has gone silent. I think he’s heard that you’re back and now he’s looking for you or hiding from you.”

Captain narrows his eyes at the mention of his old friend. He turns and starts walking up the dock. “So what? I’ll crush him if he finds me or I’ll crush him when I find him.”

> Chapter 24
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ebony groggily wakes to the gentle sway of Misfortune. She yawns and looks around the room Captain gave her. Nothing too impressive, mainly due to the fact she still doesn’t own much. Sun light shines in through the porthole and onto her face, she silently curses Celestia. She yawns again and curls into a ball under the covers. I’m not getting up anytime soon, she thinks. She jumps when she hears something heavy banging on the deck. “What the?” Her ears perk up and she remains completely silent. She hears heavy hoofsteps and what sounds like grunting. Whatever it is it’s not trying to be quiet. 

She hops onto her hooves and uses her magic to open the door. It doesn’t take her long to get to the deck. She finds Captain crouched onto the deck with a cannon balanced across his shoulders and back. “You know we have rigging to move that… and wheels.”

“Not moving it,” he replies.

She soon realizes that he in fact is not crouched, instead he is doing push-ups. She blinks as he pushes himself off the deck. “You mean you’re using that thing to train?”

“Not exactly many other things heavier than this on the ship.”

“Uh... why are you doing push-ups? Again, we have rigging and Twigs and Smokey to move those.”

“I’m tired of not being able to protect what I want. I’ve lost a lot of things I’ve cared about and I don’t feel like losing you or this ship.”

“Oh…” Well then, I guess that's one reason for this kind of stupi-- Wait, did he just say he didn’t want to lose me?

He glances over at her. “Not afraid someone will see you?” he asks snapping her out of her little daze.

“No, I doubt there’s a lot of ponies who’re up at this time. So how long are you going to keep that up?”

“Until I don’t feel like it or until I can’t continue.”

“Well, I’m going to get something to eat, come join whenever you want.” She turns around and starts heading into ship. Captain shifts the cannon off his shoulders, it falls to the deck with a mighty bang which makes Ebony jump.

“Alright, let’s go.”



Ebony walks down the road toward the Lucky Mare. After having finished eating, Captain had went back to doing push-ups leaving Ebony to walk there on her own. He doesn’t really love me, does he? How can he, I’m a changeling and he knows it, why would anypony knowingly like a changeling? A few stallions snicker at her as she walks by. She gives them a quick glare and continues walking. She spots a group of ponies staring at something posted on a wall. Curious, Ebony walks up to the crowd and tries looking over them. When that doesn’t work she decides to push her way through. She manages to squeeze her way to the front of the group and finds herself looking at a poster.


--Annual Drink Off--

Think you can hold your rum better than anypony else?
Then come down to the Lucky Mare and enter in it’s annual drink off.

If you win you get one of these prizes,
3000 bits
Treasure map
A night with Ebony

35 bits to enter


Ebony’s eye twitches slightly, she reads over the poster again. Yep, still there. She grabs the poster in her mouth and flies off toward the tavern. She bursts through the door and goes straight to Rose who is busy wiping down the counter. She looks up from her minor work and smiles at Ebony. “Morning sweetie, I’m not quite open yet, but for you I think I could make an exception.”

Ebony slams the poster onto the counter. “What is this?”

“Paper.”

“No, what’s on the paper!”

“Words.” This answer gets her a whack to the side of the head. “Ow,” she says rubbing the small bump. “It’s a poster for the drink off.”

“And why am I on it?”

“Oh, because you’re a prize, sweetie.”

“Why the buck am I a prize?”

“Because you owe me that much, sweetie. I let you live with me and have a few ‘free’ drinks so now you have to pay me back. Or course, you can still pay it off another way.”

“How?”

“Come upstairs with me and I’ll show you,” Rose says with a seductive look.

“No, I won’t cuddle with you.”

“Well, you’re a prize then.”

“And I don’t want to sleep with some random, drunk pirate!”

“Well, I want you to, sweetie.”

“I’m not doing it.”

“Then I’ll change the prize to ‘whack a changeling’.” Ebony opens her mouth to protest but quickly closes it. “There’s one way you can get out of this, however.”

“I don’t want to sleep with you or a pirate!”

“No, not that. You can enter the contest and try to win that way you get to pick the prize.”

Ebony glares at the at the cream colored pony. “You’ve had this planned out since the beginning haven’t you?”

“Take your pick, sleep with a drunk pirate, sleep with me, or pay me thirty-five bits and get drunk.”

“I hate you.”

Rose gives her a quick kiss on the nose. “I love you too.”


Ebony looks around the crowded tavern, she never figured so many ponies could fit into the small building. She hears a few young deckhooves snickering at her. She shoots them a quick glare then goes back to searching for the rest of the crew. It doesn’t take long to find Captain’s pink, curly mane through the sea of colors. Soon afterward she spots Twigs and Smokey sitting across from each other at one of the tables. Craven is just as easy to find since most ponies shy away from the griffon.

She sighs as she focuses on Captain again. I’m such a bucking idiot, I didn’t have to do anything since Captain is here. I doubt he would lose something that he does almost daily. Well, I already paid thirty-five bits to Rose might as well drink anyways.

Rose clears her throat from the front of the tavern, the crowd quiets down and gives her their attention. Ebony notes the other ponies standing next to her, Starry, another unicorn and a pegasus, most likely here to help serve the drinks. “Welcome everypony, and griffon,” she says gesturing to Craven. “I’m glad you all came to my seventh annual drink off. The rules are simply, give up or pass out you lose, you win if everyone else loses. Now that that’s out of the way, raise your mugs and let’s see who here is a real pirate!”

Ebony covers her ears from the cheer of everypony in the tavern. She looks up as mugs are magically passed around. Rose places a mug in front of her, “Good luck, sweetie.”

“I hate you.” Rose smiles and happily trots away. Ebony looks back at the mug, bottoms up. She quickly chugs down the drink and puts the mug down. A full one is quickly placed in front of her. As she raises the mug to her lips there is a loud thud and a wave of laughter. Looking around she finds Smokey passed out on the ground. Starry facehoofs and shakes her  head.

“And one is out,” Rose declares.


Rose leans against the counter as the remaining competitors slowly lose what little sense they have left. Ebony, Captain, Twigs and several other ponies are still left, the rest having passed out or quit. Still several ponies had stayed to watched their friends drink themselves to oblivion. Everypony is quite happy even though most of them have lost. Ponies laugh, share a friendly mug or two and sing shanties which Ebony had started. She smiles at her friend as she continues her verse.

“And it’s,
Windy weather, boys, stormy weather, boys.
When the wind blows, we’re all together, boys;
Blow ye winds westerly, blow ye winds, blow,
Jolly sou’wester, boys, steady she goes.”

All the while she waves her mug from side to side without spilling a drop. She chugs it down as another pony takes up.

“Up jumps the whale, the largest of all.
If you want any wind, I’ll blow ye a squall!”

Ebony slams her empty mug onto the counter swaying slightly. They all join in.

“And it’s,
Windy weather, boys, stormy weather, boys.
When the winds blow, we’re all together, boys
Blow ye winds westerly, blow ye winds, blow
Jolly sou’wester, boys, steady she goes,”

They laugh as they finish the shanty. Ebony tips her head back and empties out another mug. She loses her balance and nearly falls off the stool, she flings her head forward and regains balance. “How you holding up, sweetie?” Rose asks.

“Ah’m doin’ jush fine,” Ebony slurs.

Rose holds back a snicker. “I think you’re a little drunk.”

“Yer the one who’s drunk!”

Rose pokes her on the nose and she falls back. Rose looks over the counter at her. “Yeah, I think you reached your limit when you started singing, sweetie.” She walks over to Captain. “Not that I don’t like seeing Ebony this way, but I think you should bring her home before she passes out.” Captain finishes his mug and looks over at his first-mate as she tries to get up with no degree of success.

He sighs and puts the mug down. “I quit, I’ve had my fill.” He gets up and staggers his way to Ebony. He slides her onto his back, she simply slumps onto his back. “I’ll see you tomorrow… Or whenever I’m sober again.” He lets out a yawn and staggers his way out of the door.
*****

Ebony slowly opens her eyes, but quickly covers them from the raising sun. She squints against the light and looks around at where she is. The earth is dry and rough against her chitin. She looks around at the barren wasteland that surrounds her. She sees several blurred figures standing before her. The majority are about the size of a regular pony, but the one in the middle of the group is taller. The figure stands about twice the height her with a long twisted horn giving it a sinister look. As her vision clears she is able to make out the shape as the changeling queen; her queen.

Chrysalis leers down at the smaller changeling. “So, you’re still alive after all. I thought you died after you stopped reporting to me.”

“Where am I?” Ebony asks.

“I don’t know, why don't you tell me where you stand? You seem to have been free for quite some time and yet you’re running around with vermin. Why haven’t you returned to the hive yet? Or better yet, why have given up on your mission?”

“Vermin? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Do you truly think I’m stupid?” Ebony flinches back from the queen. “I expect to see you at the hive in two month. I’ll have those ‘pirates’ killed if you don’t.” Her horn glows green and she fires a bolt of magic at Ebony.
*****

Ebony’s eyes fly open as she jolts awake. She quickly jams her eyes shut against the searing light and pounding headache. She slowly opens her eyes as the throbbing in her head worsens slightly. She soon realizes that she’s back on the ship and laying in a bed. I need some fresh air, she thinks as a small wave of nausea comes over her. She tries to get up, but she quickly flops back down onto the bed. The pair of forehooves wrapped around her waist tighten. 

Looking down Ebony sees the blue forehooves. She hears a snort come from behind her. Craning her neck as best she can, she spots Captain happily sleeping. “Captain!” she shouts wincing at the volume of her own voice. She focuses on the forelegs wrapped around her and tries to pry them off. “Curse your earth pony strength,” she mutters to herself. Once that doesn’t work she decides to try magic as well. He only tightens his hold and snuggles up closer to her. Blood rushes to her cheeks as she give up the attempt.

“Captain, are you awake?” she asks. He mutters something about rum which is quickly followed by a snort. “Can you let me go, please? Please, let me go, I’m not feeling well.” She waits for some kind of reply. “If you don’t let me go I’ll poke your eye out.” She sighs as the nauseous feeling worsens. This is going to suck. She throws her head back and slams it into his snout.

An explosion of pain is the best way she can think of describing the feeling. She holds her head as she tries to endure the headache. She forces her eyes open and looks at Captain. A small trickle of blood comes from his nose, but he is otherwise fine. The nauseous feeling returns, she levitates over a bucket from the corner and vomits into it. Why do I always end up in these situations?

> Chapter 25
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ebony looks over at Captain slowly remembering the message she got from her queen. He stands next to Twigs and Smokey as they have yet another little drink off. With a sigh she looks down at the untouched bottle in front of her. I have grown quite attached to them, haven’t I? What am I going to do? I don’t want to leave, but I don’t want them being killed over me. She lays her head on the counter with a small sigh.

“Something the matter, sweetie?” Rose asks.

Ebony looks up at Rose. I don’t want them to get hurt because of me. “No, I’m fine, just a dream.”

“Was I there?”

Ebony chuckles. “I think it would have been a nightmare if you were there.”

“Oh, that hurts, sweetie. You should be nicer since I was the one that got you in bed with Captain.”

“Yeah, that’s wasn’t very fun either.”

"It seemed like you were having fun when you started singing. You were off-key, but it still looked like fun. Besides, I bet he had you singing all night long, sweetie."

Ebony lunges at her over the counter. Rose takes a step back, standing just outside of Ebony's range. Heavy hoofsteps draw their attention as Captain walks up to the two. He grabs the bottle in front of Ebony and chugs it down. “So, got any jobs for us today?” he asks as he places the empty bottle on the counter. Ebony tries to give him a glare but he simply ignores it

“That depends, sweetie. What kind of job?”

Captain shrugs. "Something that pays well."

“Well, I suppose I have something. There's an other pirate, he owes me a little money.” She hold up her hoof before Captain gets up. "He was delivering something for me when he was caught. I want you to go save him, I don't want him telling on me and he still owes me since he didn't complete the delivery. 

“When you say caught, do you mean he’s in the fort?” Ebony asks.

“Yeah.”

“Captain, we barely made it out of there last time.”

“But last time we were trying to get out, this time we’re breaking in,” he says with a smile. He walks to the door followed by several members of the crew.

Ebony rams her head into the counter. “Don’t believe in him?” Rose asks.

“It’s not that… I just have a bit of history with that place.”

“Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll be fine.”


Ebony stares out over the waves as the city of Hayvana slowly pokes over the horizon. She flicks her ears back; the hive-mind buzzing in the back of her head. She glances over at Captain. He’s willing to break into the fort for some stranger. He’d never let me leave if he knew why. But, he won’t be able to beat an army of changelings; he’d try, but he can’t.

“Something wrong?” Captain asks.

Ebony blinks as she comes out of her thoughts. “Why do you say that?”

“Your ears are folded back and you’re staring at me.”

“No, nothing’s wrong,” she says looking back over the waves. She looks around in minor surprise as Kingfisher pulls into the harbour. She had been so caught up in her thought that she didn't notice them pulling in. Captain shrugs and goes back to the helm. Soon the ship pulls up to the dock which is as crowded as ever.

"Tie up the ship, Twigs." Captain says, he jumps down onto the dock without waiting for the gangplank.

“Where are you going?” Ebony asks.

“Fort.”

“No you aren’t, we need a plan first. We’re not about to go charging in there head-long.”

Captain lets out an exaggerated sigh. "What do we need a plan for?"

"It's useful with we want to live," Ebony says pushing the end of the plank onto the dock. Captain looks over at the fort anxiously then back at the ship. “We’re going to need stealth, we can’t take on the whole army," Ebony continues. "Sadly, stealth means Howler and Craven can't go." Captain raises an eyebrow at her. "Not ponies, they'd be spotted too easily. Willow might be able to, but she also stands the risk of being noticed."

“I know the place, I’ve been there a couple of times. I could go,” Arrel says.

“No, someone might recognize you,” Ebony says.

“That leaves Twigs and Smokey,” Starry says.

“We’re only useful on the ship,” Twigs says.

“Well, we’re kinda stuck then.”

“I can go,” Captain says.

“At this point I think they’re looking for a pirate with pink hair,” Starry says.

“Ebony can still go,” Captain says.

“What? No, I can’t go. I don’t even fight.”

“You don’t have to, you go in there and pretend to be a soldier or something. You go to the prison cells, get the guy and walk out.”

“It’s true you really are the only one who can. Let’s face it, if Twigs or Smokey go they’ll be found out in seconds. They might know what Arrel or I look like. The griffon and diamond dog can’t go. Captain would start a war. You seem to be the only one smart enough to go and won’t stand out.”

“But… uh… I can’t, I don’t, uh… I don’t know the layout.”

“Coral taught me telepathy, Arrel and I can lead you through it.”

“But, uh…" She starts raking her brain for an excuse not to go, but also avoids telling them of her being a changeling. Captain gives her a smirk. "Fine, I’ll do it, just make sure I don’t get caught.” Captain flashes her a smile.

Starry walks up to Ebony. She uses her magic to force Ebony to sit on the deck, she sits in front of her with only an inch or two between their foreheads. “I’m still not good at this spell so sit still while I cast this,” Starry says. “I might blast our heads off if you if I do this wrong anyways,” she mutters under her breath.

“Wait, what was that ab--"Before she has time to finish a spark travel from Starry's horn to Ebony's forehead. They screams as a sharp pain shoots through their heads. Ebony opens her eyes as the headache dies down. “Well, I think I still have my head.”

“I think you cast it wrong,” Arrel says.

“Dear, unless you know magic, could you shut up?”

“Not very refined language.”

“I was planning on showing you something less refined tonight, but you can forget about it now.”

Captain clears his throat loudly. "I think we should go get you a uniform now."


A lavender colored pegasus looks at the massive gate to the fort. Two archers stand guard at the top with two more guards standing in front of the gate itself. She tugs at the neck of the uniform. Been a while since I wore one of these.

“Sorry, what was that? I seem to be getting a bit of interference; must be a problem in the casting.”

“Nothing, just a little worried,” Ebony thinks adding a few random thoughts trying to drown out the buzz of the hive-mind.

“There’s nothing to worry about. Just walking in there and try not to linger in one spot for too long. With your disguise you should be able to get in there without any problems; we’ll work on getting out when we get to that.”

“My disguise won’t last long if Captain keeps sending me to do things like this.”

“What?”

“Nothing, just tell me where to go.”

She walks up to the gate casting a quick glance at the guards. Just as Starry had said, thought, she walks in with no problems only one guard gives her a second glance, though it was at her flank rather than at her. Once inside she looks up at the imposing structure. She gulps when she sees a small group of soldiers training in the courtyard. “So, where to?”

“Give me a second,” Starry replies.

“Are you saying you didn’t plan out the route?”

“Technically I’m not saying anything, I’m thinking words to you. Also, it seems Arrel hasn’t been to the prisons so he doesn’t know the way.”

“This plan keeps getting better and better.”

“He says he sees them take the prisoners to the first door on the right.”

Ebony sighs and heads over to the door. She opens it with a quick push, she quickly steps inside before anypony can see her. “Okay, so now where?”

“That’s as far as he knows… bloody idiot. Oops, you weren’t suppose to hear that… There still seems to be some interference; seems familiar somehow.”

With a sigh she takes a left. She opens the first door she finds. Inside the room three stallions stand around a table with a map of the area sprawled across it. Different maps and flags hang on the walls around the room. They turn to look at her. She yelps as she locks eyes with a orange-coated stallion.

“Great idea, open the first random door you find,” Starry thinks sarcastically.

“Who are you?” asks an aged stallion to her right. He has a dull blue coat, with a white mane and a big fluffy mustache stuck to his lip.

“I’m, uh…”

“New recruit?”

“Yes, I’m a new recruit, I’m supposed to guard the prisoners, but I don’t know where the cells are.”

The old stallion turns on the orange one. “You trust a new recruit to guard prisoners! Much less, one that doesn’t even know where the prisons are!”

“Sir, that is not what we’re here to discuss.”

“Actually, we are here to be sure of your competence and that of your men, I do believe this falls under 'your and your men's competence',” says the other. A grey coated unicorn stallion. “As of yet you continue to fail us, you let a changeling escape with a pirate. You let that pirate come back and steal a brig. He has since freed several slaves, sunk six merchants, burnt a mansion. At this rate it looks like Gallows will be taking your rank.”

“This static is really starting to annoy me. Reminds me too much of the markets back at Canterlot. Wait…” Starry thinks.

The orange stallion shakes his head. “You can’t be serious, he’ll kill anyone he even thinks might have talked to a pirate! Just give me one moment.” He looks back at Ebony. “What is your name, soldier?”

“Sunny Rays,” she blurts out. "Oh buck, wrong name, wrong name! Gotta get out of here!"

“Ebony, what’s going on? What do you mean by wrong name? And why does this ‘static’ sound like a lot of voices talking to each other?” Starry asks.

The orange stallion narrows his eyes on her. He walks up to her. “Sunny, huh? That’s funny, the changeling we caught was using that name. But, it was freed by a pirate.” He leans in close to her. “So, why did you come back, changeling?”
*****

“Ebony! The buck is going on, Ebony?” Starry shouts knowing full well that it won’t make a difference. “What the buck is happening?”

“What’s going on?” Arrels asks.

“I don’t know, I think she might be in trouble-- Ah!” She falls to the deck screaming as she clenches her head. She pants heavily as the pain slowly subsides.

“Are you okay, what happened?” Arrel asks as he helps her up.

“The link was broken.”

“Huh?”

“The mind link, it was broken.”

“How?”

“I don’t know, it sounded like she was in trouble. She could have been knocked out, or killed. Someone could have dispelled it with their own magic. It could have even wore off on it’s own. Hay, it could have blown her head off as a side effect by now, I just don't bloody know!"

“She’s in trouble?”

They both looks up to see Captain standing above them. He has a concerned looked. “Sounded that way,” Starry replies. Captain turns around and walks over to the gangplank. “I’m going with you if you’re going to save her.”

“No you’re not, you’re going to stay here. I don't want to be stuck saving more ponies than I need to today.”
*****

There is a bright green flash blinding the three stallions. They stumble backwards, the orange one stumbles into the table knocking it over. He opens his eyes and sees the blurry image of a black pony-shaped creature running out of the room. He tries to get up and chase her but he trips over one of the other stallions. There is a loud slam as the changeling closes the door.

Ebony runs down the hall, a little happy to be in her normal form. She runs at a full sprint down the hall, htrying to put s much distance between her and them. After a few seconds she slows to a walk, quietly opening a door with her magic. She slips in as quietly as she can, as soon as she's through she slowly closes the door and press up against it. She hears shouting coming from further down the hall slightly muffled by the door, but she can still make it out.

“Lockdown the fort! There is a changeling in the fort. No one gets in or out, if you find anyone who is not at their post or doesn’t know where their post is, arrest them. Stay in pairs, do not split up,” says the orange stallion.

“Yes sir!” shouts a soldier.

“Good job, you let it escape again,” says the old stallion.

“You were there too, old fool! Why did you let it go?”

“I was blinded!”

“Funny, so was I. Watch your mouth before you talk next time!”

“Why you little…”

“Stop this! A changeling is roaming through these halls and here you two are, arguing like two foals. If this changeling escapes it will be because of both your faults,” says the grey unicorn. There is a long pause before anyone speaks next.

“You’re right. Start searching rooms, if you find someone ask them basic questions, even if it’s any of us.”

Ebony sighs as she hears them running down a different hall. She slowly opens the door and peers out. Green flames surround her as she steps out into the hall. I have to get out of here.
*****

Captain pulls the body of the guard into a bush before he continues through the side door. He looks down the grey hall, he can hear guards running around, but can't see any of them. He starts trotting with little care for stealth seeing as to how all the soldiers are running around. He trots past a stairwell, the one he had used in his first escape. With a smile he trots down the stairs.

Once at the bottom he spots the familiar iron bar that had held him only a few eeks ago. He hears a set of hoofsteps coming from his right. Three soldier come out of the darkness, armed and alert. One has a spear while the other two have swords. “Halt, who goes there?” one of them shouts.

“Captain.”

They look at him curiously. “Are you a soldier?”

“Pirate,” he says with a grin. He unsheathes his sword and charges the group.

They stop and the one with the spear levels his weapon. Captain falls to his back and slides under the shaft of the spear. He kicks the legs out from under the stallion. The other two try to strike at Captain while he’s on the ground, but he grabs the prone soldier and uses him as a shield. There is a quick gasp as one of the swords sinks into the soldier’s flesh, the other sword strikes the ground. Bringing his hindlegs under his ‘shield’ he shoves the soldier into the other that had struck him.

Captain rolls to his hoofs and draws his sword in one motion. Sparks fly as he sends the soldier’s sword flying down the hall. He lunges forward and crushes the soldier’s head into the wall. He grabs the remaining soldier by the neck and slams him to the wall with a crack.
*****

Ebony stalks the halls searching for an unguarded way out. The easiest way out would be the roof, but the pegasi would stop her, most likely. She sighs and looks around the all too familiar walls. She's at one of the corners in the fort. Two cannons reside in the room aiming out of two different walls. Several kegs of black powder lie in a pile near the corner. Cannonballs lie in a similar pile in one of the other corners.

She looks out the small hole the cannon is aimed through. She jumps back when the shadow of a pegasus passes by. She lets out a sigh when it doesn't come back. She goes to continue down one hallway when she finds it blocked. A white unicorn with black mane stands in the door frame. In a second he draws his sword and magically holds it to her throat. “Name and rank?” he asks.

“M-Merry Meadows, recruit,” she says inching her way toward the other door.

“And what are you doing here?”

“L-looking for the changeling, sir.” He raises an eyebrow at her. “I was making sure it wasn’t going for the munitions.” He stares at her for several long moments. “How do I know you’re not the changeling?” she asks.

She feels the sword press against her neck. “You dare to accuse me of being a changeling?”

“N-no sir, I’m just making sure.”

The stallion continues to keep his sword to her neck as he thinks. “What is the most recent project the military has been investing in?”

“The fleet closing of access to the waters near the Dragon Spires.”

He pulls the sword away from her neck. “That is correct.” He brings his sword in front of him and aims it at Ebony. “However, I doubt a new recruit would have known about that.”

Ebony drops the disguise with a bright green flash. The stallion takes a step back from the blinding light but not much more. Ebony opens the door and bolts out into the hall. She can hear the soldier cursing behind her. She takes a quick right turn, she has just enough time to dodge out of the way as a soldier comes flying down the hall and crashes into the wall. Looking down the hall she spots the pink-maned captain as he slams an other soldier soldier into a wall.

“Captain?”

He stops fighting and looks over at her. “Ebony! I found you!”

“What are you doing here?”

“Getting us out, I know an exit that’s not guarded,” he says with a smile

“Do you know where it is?” His smile drops as he tries to remember the route he took through the fort. “You’re a hopeless captain.”

“It’s not my fault every hall looks the same.”

“Good point, anyways I think we should just get out of here,” Ebony says. She hears hoofsteps from behind again, presumably the soldier she had found earlier. She starts running down the hall without waiting for an answer from Captain.

“Sure,” Captain says. As he is turning to run after her he spots the white unicorn come running around the corner Ebony had come from.

“Come on, Captain,” Ebony calls to him from further down the hall.

“Gallows,” Captain snarls. He draws his sword and turns to face the soldier. He stomps his forehoof into the ground causing a spiderweb of cracks to run across the floor. He charges at the soldier. 

Gallows stops and brings his sword out in front of him to block Captain’s strike. Sparks fly and Gallows is sent skidding down the hall. He feels his flank bump against the wall. He looks up as Captain charges again. He rolls out of the way just as Captain throws a punch. Captain hoof slams into the wall sending cracks crawling along the hall. Gallows takes the opportunity, striking from below at Captain side.

Captain pulls his hoof out of the wall in time to dodge the sword. Captain swings his own sword at the unicorn. Gallows jumps back from the blade and brings his sword back to block a second strike. Captain tries to punch him again, but it's block. Gallows skids further down the hall as his sword take the brunt of the impact. Once he comes to a stop Captain tackles him and they go rolling through a doorway.

Ebony nervously follows the fight as it heads back the way she came from. Great, the fort is on lockdown, I’m being hunted and he’s trying to settle a vendetta. Oh and he can’t remember how he got here.

Gallows kicks Captain off of him, sending him crashing into the pile of black powder kegs. Powder spills across the floor as the kegs shatter on the floor. Even before getting up Gallows sends his sword sailing toward Captain. Captain quickly gets to his hooves and jumps over the cannon next to him. The sword bounces off the cannon and sparks rain down onto the powder. Captain jumps over the cannon, runs out the door and presses against the wall. Gallows charges a spell as the rest of powder kegs catche fire.

The explosion rocks the corridor. Smoke pours out of the door. Captain looks through the doorway hoping to see a corpse through the smoke. Thin rays of light shine through a hole in the wall that the kegs had been stacked against. Soon the smoke clears out enough for him to see a sphere of blue magic surrounding Gallows. Captain growls and charges into the room again with his sword drawn. His sword strikes against the magic forcefield Gallows had created. Gallows smirks at him from the other side of the shield. His smirks dies as he hears a cracking. Cracks spread across the shield as Captain’s blade sinks into the magic shield. 

He’s beating magic with brute strength, Gallows thinks. He steps to the side slightly and release the shield. Captain’s sword continues downward into the floor. Shifting his weight Captain rips his sword out of the floor and strikes Gallows’ out of the air. Gallows takes a step back and charges a spell on his horn. He fires a volley of magic bolts that fills half small room. One of the bolts hits Captain sending him falling out the hole. He hears buzzing followed by a quick image of the changeling flying through the smoke.

Ebony catches Captain halfway through the air. He struggles as she flies away from the building. “Let me go, I have to kill him!” he shouts. Ebony sighs and looks behind, several pegasi are behind her and closing. “Let me go!” Captain shouts. 

Ebony looks down at him with a glare. “Fine.” She lets him go and watches him fall. Captain manages to turn around in time to crash face first into the waves. She hears the pegasi shout at her and goes into a dive. She splashes into the water a few hooves away from where Captain did. The pegasi stop and hover a few hooves above the water.

Captain and Ebony resurface behind a rock not far from where they went in. They pull themselves onto the rock gasping for breath. “Wha… what was that for?” Captain asks with a glare.

“You… you wanted me to let you go.”

Captain slumps down onto the rock and drapes his foreleg over his eyes. “I’m sorry about that.” He feels something collide with his jaw, painfully. He moves his foreleg and looks at Ebony, she gives him another punch across the jaw. “What was that for?” he asks rubbing his jaw.

“That’s for signing me up for this stupid plan!”

“Fair enou--” He is cut off as Ebony punches him again.

“That’s for going after that guy.” She punches him again. “And that’s for blowing a hole in a bucking military base!”

Captain rubs his jaw and looks up at the fort, a plume of smoke coming from within. “Okay, I deserve the first and last one. I really messed up there, guess we can’t come back for a long time.”

“Ya think?” She peers over the rock at the pegasi as they start splitting off to search. “I think we should get out of here before they find us.”

“Agreed, let’s get started we have a big swim ahead of us.”

“Oh, and one more thing.” She gives him a quick peck on the cheek. “Thanks for coming for me.”


Ebony lays her head on the counter placing the empty bottle a few inches away from her muzzle. “Bad day?”

“You have no clue.”

“It’s not like there was an explosion that took out part of a wall at the fort, because if that happened then it would be a good day.”

Ebony looks at her with surprise. “How did you…”

“I have my contacts.”

“Yeah, it was a complete mess.”

“Don’t worry, that wall was ugly anyways. I always find a bit of mayhem fun. Oh, you wanna come with me next time I go for some revenge?”

“No… wait, revenge?”

“Oh, well that’s too bad.”

"What do you mean by revenge?"

"Well, I could use some help burning someone's house down."

"Why?"

"He dumped me."

Ebony shakes her head muttering something about insanity. Ebony lets out a yawn and her eyelids droop slightly. She gets up from the stool and heads to the door. “Well, it's been fun, but I’m heading to bed, I need to sleep.”

“Why don’t you stay with me for the night, I’ll make sure you sleep real well.” They hear a squeak from further down the counter where Willow sits. “Don’t worry, you can join in too if you want, sweetie.” A round of laughter and cheers raise from the tavern as the deer tries to bury herself under the counter.

“No thanks.”

“If you want Starry can join too, sweetie. The more the merrier, I say.”

Ebony feels her cheeks heat up. “G-goodnight.” She walks out into the crisp cool night air. She spreads her wings and flies over to Misfortune. She spots Starry sitting on the dock next to the ship. She is looking out to sea. Curious she lands next to the unicorn. “Hey Starry, what’s up?” There is a dull thud and Ebony feels something pulling on her tail. She turns to find Starry’s sword stuck through her tail and into the dock.

“Let’s cut to the chase, pardon the poor choice of words. Anyways,who are you, Ebony, assuming that’s your real name?”

“T-that is my real name. What’s going on?”

“So it’s just a coincidence that a changeling appears in the fort the moment everything goes to shit? I’m also guessing that though voices in your head weren’t yours. So, let’s try this again, what are you?”
> 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…”
> Chapter 27
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

An ominous wind blows through the sails causing a faint whistle as a heavy fog rolls sweeps over the ship. A blue-grey unicorn with a dark grey mane sighs as he looks out the porthole. He magically closes the book he was reading and walks to the door. He turns to a dull yellow pegasus wearing a set of white and gold armor. She is leaned against a couple of crates looking the other way from him.

“Why do we have to pass through these waters?” he asks.

The pegasus jumps, she whips her head around to face him. She sighs and then looks ahead once again. “Because we’ve wasted enough time in that storm, the only way to make up for that time is by cutting through Drake territory,” she says.

“I understand that, but wouldn’t it be better to be late than dead?”

“I agree, but you’re wanted in Canterlot soon and the captain doesn’t want to lose his pay.”

“Yes, of course, but I just don’t see how I’m so special.” He looks at his cutie mark, two identical magic circles.

“From what I understand, teleportation is a high level spell. Must be rare for someone as young as you to master it.”

“But, why do we have to be there immediately? I won’t lose my magic if we’re a few days late.”

“Blueberry,” she sighs. “The princess, herself, asked for you, we can’t exactly keep her waiting.”

“I know that, but I’m sure she would be less happy if she found out where we are. Also, please don’t use my full name, Sunny.”

The pegasus chuckles at him. “Well stop complaining then, Bluey.”

“Don’t call me that ever again.” They hear shouts coming from above deck. They glance at each other and then back at the deck.


Above deck, sailors run to the riggings and cannons while they throw nervous looks at the sky. There is a bright flash and a pop and suddenly Blueberry and Sunny are standing in the middle of the chaos. Blueberry looks over at the captain. “What’s going on?”

“Go back below deck, you two, everything is under control.”

“Looks like it. Listen, I’m here to look after him so just tell us what’s going on!” Sunny shouts.

A large dragon-like shadow passes through the fog. Cracking fills the air, the rigging attached to the main mast snaps and the mast falls to the water. A roar rips through the air followed by the beating of massive wings. Sailors point their guns at the sky and try to take down the beast, but they quickly lose sight of it in the fog.

Blueberry draws a sword from a nearby sailor. He looks over at Sunny, her own sword held in her mouth. She gives him a glare but nobs her head at him. They put the backs together and look for the drake.

They hear the beating of its wings again. A shadow falls over them just a second before sharp talons come out of the fog and grab the captain, ripping apart the helm in the process. The drake disappears into the fog and becomes little more than a shdow. Cannonfire rings out as the sailors try to shoot down the drake. The shadowy figure dives into the water. The drake brushes against the bottom of the ship with its back jerking it to the side slightly. 

It shoots out of the water and lands on the deck. Blueberry and Sunny turn to face it. It whips its tail around and takes out a few cannons and sailors from the starboard side. It snaps its jaw cutting another sailor in two. Sunny flies at it, but the drake quickly swings its head and bats her to the other side of the ship. Blueberry glances back at her, he goes to run for her, but he spots a winged claw out of the corner of his eye. He only has time to brace before the wing slams into him. He is sent skidding across the deck, there is a loud crack as he head collides with the railing.

Sunny raises from the deck holding her pounding head. She looks around for her sword, but doesn’t find it. The ship rocks and begins leaning heavily to the portside. She looks over at the drake to see it ripping away at the hull of the ship. She closes her eyes as her vision blurs. The ships rocks again and she feels the front of it beginning to raises. She opens her eyes, the drake grabs several bodies in its talons. Her vision clears allowing her to see that one of the bodies is Blueberry.

The drake flaps its wings, the fog around the ship disperses and it takes to the air. She quickly follows it, her armor doing little to slow her down. She spares a glance at the ship, debris floats in the red water as the ship slowly slips into the waves. She focuses back on the drake. “Come back here, you stupid lizard!” she shouts.

The drake turns its head to look at her. Its lip curves upward into something of a sneer. She ignores it and pushes forward slowly gaining on it. Pain floods through her body as the creature's tail smashes into her back. She plummets into the water. She tries swimming to the surface, but finds herself sinking deeper. She quickly wiggles out of her armor and makes her way to the surface.

She breaks the water’s surface and grabs onto a piece of wood. She hears another roar as the shadow becomes more distant.




Another roar rings out through the air. Captain looks back over at Starry. “See nothing happened, and you thought we would be killed,” he says with a grin. He looks back over the ocean with a groan. “This fog is annoying though…”

“Which is why I didn’t want to come here, no merchant is stupid enough to come here and if we’re not killed we’ll be lost,” Starry says.

“Yeah, well, uh…”

“You’re lucky some of us know how to use a compass.”

“It was one time!” He looks back over the deck, though he’s barely able to see the closest mast. “Twigs, call out if you see any debris! That cannonfire was coming from a ship, let’s see if we can find it.”

“Aye, Cap'n” Twigs shouts from somewhere in the fog.

Starry looks around the deck, with as little visibility as Captain has. “Ebony, use your special changeling powers--” Starry begins.

Ebony tackles Starry to the ground before she can finish. “Don’t say that out loud,” she hisses.

Starry looks back up at her with a smirk. “I see why Rose likes you, you like it rough.”

“Oh, for buck’s sake. It’s bad enough with Rose, but now you have to harass me.”

“I lived with her for two years, you really should have seen this coming.”

Ebony sighs and shakes her head. She looks over at Captain, catching sight of his bandages. “Are you sure you’re alright? You are still pretty beat up.” She can feel that he's worried, but not sure what about.

“Don’t worry about me, I’m fine. It’s just a scratch really.”

“Cap’n, got some bodies over here!” Twigs calls.

“Arrel, Craven, fly out there and find some survivors.” He hears them flap their wings. “Smokey, light the lanterns. Twigs, lower the sails.” He walks over to a small crate and sits on it.

Ebony looks at him curiously for a second. “Only the survivors?”

“Hm?”

“You only told them to search for survivors, never mentioned anything about cargo.”

“I’m no monster, I’m not going to just leave them.”

“But you’re a pirate, what if they’re military?”

“So? I’m not going to let somepony drown, pretty bad way to go if you ask me.” His ears flick toward the sound of flapping wings. Craven appears out of the fog carrying a soaked, dull yellow pegasus. She is covered in bruises and scratches, there is a large cut above her right eye. She is thrashing about in Craven’s arms, screaming and shouting something about a drake and some sort of berry. Craven drops the pegasus onto the deck and flies back out to sea. 

Captain takes a few steps closer to her, mainly so he can see her rather than curiosity. She jumps to her hooves and charges at Captain. Before she knows it Captain’s hoof rams into the top of her head slamming her into the deck.


Sunny’s eyes flutter open, but quickly shuts them hoping to subdue the throbbing in her head. She raises a hoof to her head. Her hoof touches soaked bandages. She reluctantly opens her eyes and recognizes the sway of a ship on the open sea, though the interior is unfamiliar. Turning her head slightly she spots a light blue stallion leaning against the door frame to the room she is in. A dark blue unicorn stands at the end of the bed. She lowers her hoof back down onto the bed she woke up in and tries to sit up. She quickly gives up though.

“Where am I?” she asks.

“You’re on Misfortune, your ship was sunk by a dragon,” Captain says.

She jumps to her hooves as the memories flash back to her. But, her vision fades and she feels light-headed. She sits back down on the bed. “Blueberry! Where’s the drake? I have to save someone.”

“I’m sorry, but if your friend was taken by a drake, he’s not alive anymore,” Starry says.

Sunny glares at her. “He’s alive and I am going to save him.” She turns back to Captain. “Please, I have to save him.”

Captain scratches his chin and looks at Starry. “You think you can find a flying lizard?”

“You can’t be serious, do you really plan on helping a complete stranger save a friend we don’t even know from a drake we don’t know where it is?" After a moment she hits her fore head with her hoof. "What am I saying, it’s you, of course you are. Fine, drakes are territorial, chances are that it lives on one of the nearby islands.”

“Wait, you actually plan on helping me? Just like that?” Sunny asks

“Why not, besides I always wanted to fight a dragon.”

“A drake and a dragon are two completely different things. Drakes are smaller, live near water, don’t breathe fire, but are more vicious and have a resistance to elements. Dragons are bigger, slower, breathe fire, stronger, but oddly more docile,” Starry says.

“Whatever, it’s a lizard and it flies. Starry, plot a course for the nearest island.”

“Yes sir,” she says with a roll of her eyes.

Sunny blinks a couple of times while she stares at Captain. “So you plan on fighting a drake and helping me for no reason?”

“Yeah.”

“Uh, thanks.”


Sunny rotates her shoulder testing out the movement of the armor she had found onboard Misfortune. The dull grey metal covers her chest, forelegs and a small section of her wings. Satisfied with the armor she flies above deck. 

Fog no longer blocks the sky, instead dark grey clouds cover the sky. Thunder roars in the distances, at least she hopes it’s the thunder. Lightning cracks across the sky lighting up the island before them for a brief moment. It’s not a very big island, just a small mountain, a jungle that spans the north and west sides of the island and a beach to the south. She glances back at Captain as he steers the ship toward the drake’s nest. 

He lets go of the helm and walks up next to her with a deer following close behind. “We have to row from here. The rest are staying here in case the drake decides to attack my ship.”

“Sure,” she says. She watches Captain jump over the railing and into a rowboat. Willow quickly jumps in behind him. She flies down the the boat as it touches the water. Captain looks up at the dark sky.

“Let’s get this done with quickly, I don’t want to row back in a storm,” Captain says.  He and Sunny each grab an oar and begin rowing.

“Do you really expect to kill a drake with three ponies?” Sunny asks.

“Two ponies and one deer. And no, I think that two ponies will kill the dragon.”

“Drake,” Willow corrects.

“Wait, you expect us to kill it? Then what is she here for?”

“She’s here to track the dragon--”

“Drake.”

“Find us a good path, and fight if need be."

Soon the boat slides onto the sand of the beach. Captain jumps out and begins pulling it further onto the shore. Sunny takes to the sky and hovers just above Captain and Willow. She looks down at the deer. “So, which way?” she asks.

Willow points to the mountain. “I saw some movement up there.”

Captain steps forward with a grin. “You lead. Sunny, keep watch at the sky, I don’t want the dragon--”

“Drake,” Willow sighs.

“I don’t want the lizard surprising us,” Captain finishes.

Willow gives a quick nod and starts their trek toward the mountain. The jungle they walk through isn't too thick. There's not too many trees, mainly because they're walking close to the beach. Sunny and Willow pace themselves  to stay back with Captain. The mountain slowly becomes large as they get closer to the rocky slopes. The few trees begin to disperse giving way to a small field before the mountain.

At the bottom of the mountain they find a rough path up to the cliffs above. Willow stays several steps ahead of the others, staying silent and watching for any possible dangers. Captain, however, is not nearly as nimble, falling or tripping every second step. Sunny silently chuckles to herself as she flies next to him.

The trees begin to look smaller and smaller. After a couple of minutes of walking they are able to see the deck of Misfortune. From where they are they can see that the island isn't quite as small as they thought. It is about the size of Hayvana. It is possible to see the wrecked hulk of an old ship washed up on the opposite side of the island. 

Willow quickly gets to the end of the path. She ducks down behind a rock and peeks around the side. She swallows a nervous lump in her throat. The summit is relatively flat asides from the jagged rocks making a rough circle. The clearing is scattered with skeletons of ponies, griffons and the occasional shark. A large winged lizard sleeps at the furthest end of the clearing. It is covered in small dark blue scales, a scar cuts across its upper lip. It doesn't have arms really, but large bat-like wings. A row a larger scales runs down its back and ends half way down its tail.

Her eyes travel to a small pile of bloodied bodies. She spots no movement from the pile. Captain stumbles up behind her and falls to the ground with a thud. Willow whips around. “Quiet,” she hisses.

Sunny and Captain look around the corner as well. Sunny immediately focuses on the pile of bodies. She spots a sliver of blue-grey through the multitude of colors. Without a second thought she flies out of cover and over to the pile. She starts pushing bodies out of the way to get at her friend.

She eventually uncovers Blueberry. She quickly pulls him out of the bloody pile and lays him on the ground. She presses her ear to his chest. Good, still alive… for now that is. He needs help.

“Need help?” Captain asks.

Sunny yelps and jumps back. “Quiet, that thing might hear you,” she whispers.

“It’s asleep,” he says. Willow comes up quietly behind him casting a nervous glance over her shoulder at the drake.

“Still, be quiet. Are you trying to wake it or something?”

“No, if I was trying to wake it I’d be over there.”

Sunny sighs and lifts Blueberry onto Captain’s back. “You carry him, I’m not strong enough to fly him down.”

A crash of thunder causes them to jump. They all look over at the drake, Willow and Sunny let out a sigh of relief when they see it still sleeping. Captain starts walking back to the path. “See, I wouldn’t have waken the stupid dragon just by talking.” 

He hears a growl come from the drake. Turning around he finds himself staring into the eyes of the beast. He looks over at Sunny and Willow, he barely catches a glimpse of Willow running past him while Sunny stays in place staring at the drake with a mix of fear and anger. The drake picks itself off the ground and spreads its wing to their fullest. It lets out an earsplitting roar and flaps its wings.

The gust of wind from the wings sends Sunny, Blueberry and Captain flying off the mountain. Sunny dives into action and snatches Blueberry from the air. She tries to lift up, but the weight of the armor and her friend brings her crashing down into the sand.

Captain feels a pair of talons grab his shoulders and his descent begins to slow. He goes to swing around and hit whatever grabbed him, but meets the grinning face of Craven. “I don’t think you should try flying again,” he says sarcastically.

Captain smiles up at the griffon. “Good, cause I don’t want to fly ever again,” he says. His smiles turns to a frown. “Now, put me down.” They hear a roar coming from the top of the mountain. The drake shoots out from the top and starts circling around the group.

“If you say so,” Craven says nervously. He goes into a dive and drops off Captain by Sunny before flying back to the ship. He doesn't look back as.

“Wait, come get--” Sunny tries, but stops knowing that he won’t hear her. She turns to Captain. “Now what, that thing is awake, Blueberry is dying and we can’t get him out of here.”

“We clip its wings,” Captain says twisting his neck, earning himself a little crack.

“Wait, you’re serious about fighting that thing?! I thought you were kidding, you’ll die if you try!”

“We can’t row back to the ship without that dragon attacking us and even if we do get back it’ll sink my ship.” The drake stops circling, it glares down at the ponies. “Either we fight or run, we’ll die if we run, we might die if we fight it. Either way we might die, but only one has the chance of getting us out of here.”

“You can’t beat something like that! Why would you want to fight it in the first place?”

“Because, there’s only one way of becoming a legend.” 

The drake lets out a roar and charges with it maw wide open. Captain shifts his weight and stands up on his hindlegs, he brings his right foreleg back. Sunny drags Blueberry to the edge of the beach and looks back at Captain still standing in the drake’s path. Wait a sec, he's not gonna-- She doesn’t have time to finish the thought, before she knows it the drake is a hoof’s length from Captain. His right forehoof slams into the drake’s nose, there is a loud snap and Captain is sent tumbling over the sand.

The drake lands between him and Sunny, letting loose another roar as blood drips from its nose. The drake focuses on Sunny and it lunges forward. Either we fight or die, Sunny glances back at Blueberry. She plants her hooves into the ground and lowers herself to the ground. A cutlass flies from behind the drake and bounces off the scales above its right eye. Still the flash from the sparks is enough to cause it miss its target.

“Is that all you got, because you’ll have to be faster than that to beat me!” Captain shouts.

The drake turns to face him. Sunny takes the opportunity, she grabs the cutlass from the sand and slashes at the drake’s right wing. She jumps into the air avoiding the drake’s attempt at slashing her with its claws her. She lands next to Captain.

“Good to see you want to join in.”

“Don’t even begin to think I’m happy about this. You're crazy and I would have left by now, luckily for you I want to save Blueberry more than myself.”

The drake lunges forward at the two. Sunny jumps over its head while Captain jumps to the side. Sunny dives at the back of its neck. It whips its head back smacking her out of the air. She loses grip on the cutlass as she tumbles across the sand.

Captain charges forward and lands a solid punch on its chest. The drake stumbles back a little, but quickly recovers. Captain leaps back before the drake can close its jaws on him.

“That all you can do, you stupid gecko?” he taunts. The drake growls and turns to face Sunny. “Hey, you can’t bite me from--” The drake whips its tail around, it slams into Captain’s already injured side. He slides through the sand until he eventually comes to a slow stop. He lets out a pained grunt lifting himself to his hooves. He looks over his shoulder and spots the familiar glint of his cutlass coming from the sand not too far away.

He glances over at Sunny. The drake had turned around again, its tail bashes into Sunny's armor, the force of the hit send her tumbling across the sand, but she eventually manages to land on her hooves. She spreads her wings and with few forceful flaps she’s back in the air. She quickly starts to circle the drake. The drake tracks her movements, always facing toward the pegasus. She makes a sharp turn and heads straight for the drake. The drake snaps at her, she barely manages to avoid its teeth by rolling to the right.

The drake turns to face her again, but spots Captain sneaking behind it. It lashes its tail at him again. Captain quickly uses the flat of his blade to block. It brings its tail around again. Captain jabs his cutlass into the tail as it whips around. He is sent flying into a nearby tree and the sword is ripped from the tail leaving a deep bloody gash cutting across half its tail.

The drake rears back roaring in pain. Sunny flies at full speed and rams into its throat. The drake falls to the ground coughing and wheezing. 

Sunny lands next to Captain. “We need a plan, I can’t do enough damage to kill it and you can’t get close enough to do anything.” Captain leans against the trunk of the tree. He groans and holds his side. He’s almost dead. So I’m the only chance now…

Captain passes her his sword and stumbles toward the drake while it lifts itself off the sand. “What are you doing?”

“You need something to fight the dragon.”

She grabs the sword, with a quick nod she takes to the air and begins circling the area.

Captain and the drake begin circling each other. Captain shifts his weight slightly waiting to see which one would be the first to strike. The drake jumps forward and tries to catch Captain in its jaws. Captain jumps to the side and quick delivers a powerful punch. Its head whips to the side, but it quickly swings its head back and slams into Captain. He rolls head over hoof, until he comes to a stop. The drake jumps forward, Captain rolls to his hooves and slips under the drake. They turn around to face each other again.

Captain throws a punch, but the drake backs up avoiding the punch. It lunges forward aiming at Captain’s foreleg. Captain shifts his weight to his hindlegs and punches the drake with his other forehoof. He jumps back to avoid one of the drake's wings. As soon as his hooves hit the ground he charges forward. He slides under the drake’s maw on his back, he brings his hindlegs to his chest. Before the drake can do anything his hindlegs shoot up. There is a loud snap as his hooves collide with the drake’s lower jaw.

Sunny flies at the drake and sinks the sword into its throat. The drake falls to the ground again coughing up blood. It tries to roar, but it comes out as more of a wheeze than anything threatening. After a few seconds the drake stops moving.

Sunny sits down on her haunches with a deep breath. She looks over at Captain lying on the ground with blood seeping through the tattered bandages on his side. She looks over toward Misfortune which had moved closer during the fight. A rowboat holding two ponies and a diamond dog paddles its may to shore.

Captain gets up to his hooves when he sees Ebony stepping off the boat. “Ebony look, I beat it!”

She looks over at the corpse for a second before turning back to Captain. She smiles at him. “This is going to make me feel lot better.” Before Captain can ask what she’s talking about she punches him across the jaw. He falls to the ground. “You bucking idiot! What made you think you could fight it in the first place? You’re hurt from your last fight, but you still go off to fight a bucking drake! Of course you didn’t even want to do it the smart way by bringing some of the crew. No, take the bucking deer and some random stranger to fight something that is seven times your size!”

She takes a deep breath and looks back at boat. “Howler, bring him back to the ship, I hope I don’t have to stitch him up too often. Smokey, go get the unicorn.” She glares at Sunny. “You, go find the deer and row yourselves back.” She heads back to the boat. Before she steps into the boat she looks over at the drake. “Howler, I need you to do something else for me.”


Several hours later Sunny, Blueberry, Ebony and Captain are in the captain’s quarters. Ebony wraps a bandage around Captain’s chest. Blueberry shifts his weight on the table he’s sitting on, a bandage is wrapped around his head and one of his forelegs. Sunny stands with several bandages wrapped around her as well.

“Why did you patch them up first?” Captain mumbles.

Ebony tugs roughly on a bandage earning a yelp from the stallion. “Firstly, it’s your fault how badly hurt you are. Secondly, I highly doubt they have nearly as high endurance as you. Thirdly, you had me scared and I will make you suffer for that.”

Blueberry clears his throat. “Um… thanks for saving me. I guess I really owe you now.”

“Nah, think nothing of it. I always wanted to fight a dragon anyways.” Ebony tugs on his bandages again.

“No, you helped my friend save me and now you’re bringing us back to port. I owe you and I plan on paying you back. Just tell me if ever you need help.”

Ebony looks out the porthole. “We’re in the harbour, maybe you two should get on deck.”

“Right, thanks again,” Sunny says. With a quick nod she helps Blueberry out the door.

Captain looks over at Ebony. “You were scared?”

“I was afraid you wouldn’t come back. It’s not that I like you or anything, but this world is better off with you in it.”

“At least there’s one less dragon--” His sentence is cut off by a scream as Ebony pull on his bandages again.
> Chapter 28
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Captain downs yet another bottle. Drunken sea shanties and laughter fill the air in the room. He looks around at his crew as they enjoy themselves inside the tavern they have grown to know. He looks back at Rose. “How ‘bout another bottle?” he asks placing the bottle just off to the side.

“Maybe you should slow down a little, sweetie,” she says though she still passes him a bottle of rum.

“Bah, I’ve been sitting around doing nothing for the past week,” he says.

“You’ve been resting and you really should still be resting. You shouldn’t even be standing really,” Ebony mumbles.

“Don’t worry about me, I’m fine.”

“Those bandages say otherwise,” she says pointing at the cloth wrapped around his chest.

He looks down at them for a moment before waving his hoof dismissively. “Those only make me look more intimidating,” he says with a smile.

“As does your pink mane?”

He growls at her, she simply smiles at him. Rose chuckles at the two. “If you want I could help you get better, sweetie.”

“I’m not hurt,” Captain says. Ebony punches him in the side, he yelps and falls off the stool. “Fine, I’m hurt, but I’d be healing a lot faster if she’d stop hitting me.”

“I think she’s hitting on you, sweetie,” Rose says. Ebony tries to lunge over the counter at her, but Rose takes a step back. Ebony falls to the floor on the other side of the counter. “Oh, you want to start working, how about you start by cleaning?” she says and drops a rag on Ebony.

“I really hate you sometimes,” Ebony mumbles.

Rose leans down and whispers into her ear. “I’m not a changeling, but I know that’s not true. And I can show you how much you love me in my bed.”

“Try me,” Ebony growls at her. Rose laughs and walks off to tend to some of the other customers. Ebony walks around the counter to sit on her stool again. She finds Captain still lying on the ground. With a sigh she holds out her hoof to him. She nearly loses her balance as she tries to help him up, but she uses the counter to stop from being pulled down.

Once up Captain grabs his bottle off the counter and tips it down. In a few seconds it’s empty and he puts the bottle on the counter. He sits back down beside Ebony. He looks over at his first-mate. Funny, you, the changeling, have been more loyal to me than almost anyone I’ve ever met. What did I do to earn this? he thinks.

“Captain?” asks someone from behind him. He blinks a few times as he is pulled from his thoughts. He looks over at Ebony thinking she had said his name, but she’s turned around looking at the door or something in that direction. He swivels around to face whatever she’s looking at.

A dull pink earth pony mare looks at him cautiously. Her teal-colored mane clings to the side of her face as water drips from the strands of hair. “Are you… are you Captain?” she asks.

He looks over at Ebony who is just as confused by the random pony. He looks back at the pony with a grin. “Yeah, I’m Captain. Do you see anyone else here more fitting of the title?”

A bit of relief washes over her though she still keeps her nervous demeanor. She shifts from hoof to hoof and keeps looking anywhere but right at him. “Could you… could you help me?”

“And who would you be?” Ebony asks with a raised eyebrow.

“My name is Tide Strider,” says the pony.

“What do you need?” Captain asks.

“Uh…” She nervously looks around the tavern. She takes a few deep breaths and looks Captain in the eyes. “I need you to save somepony for me, he was captured by the military.”

“What was he doing to be caught, and who is ‘he’?” Ebony asks.

“He’s… he’s my father, him and his crew were caught trying to smuggle enchanted weapons to the griffon empire.”

“I see, so you want us to save them before they’re executed,” Ebony says.

She nervously looks around the tavern again then quickly nods to her.

“So, what’s the pay?”

She looks back at Ebony with a bit of fear. “I, um… I can offer you four-hundred bits. I know it’s not a lot but--”

“Don’t bother,” Captain says, “You can keep your bits. I’ll help.” He turns to Ebony. “Go get the crew, we have a navy to annoy.”

“You… you don’t want the bits?” asks Tide.

“You can’t be serious, you are severely injured and are about to attack a fort for no pay. For all we know she could be a trap from the navy. Celestia knows they would do something like that since we blew out a wall,” Ebony says.

“Why shouldn’t I? If we don’t go her father will die, if it’s a trap we’ll crush them," Captain says with a smirk.

She looks at him in the eyes, he’s not going to back down. With a sigh she backs up slightly. 

“Fine, I’ll gather the crew, but you’ll have to explain why they aren’t being paid.”




Captain sighs and leans heavily on the wheel. He looks out over the waves, in particular a large island which Starry keeps saying is to the south. It is the same island that Kigerston is on, though they are on the opposite side from Kigerston. Like most of the islands around these waters a thick jungle covers the island in green. It's hard to see anything else given that the coast is a shear cliff straight to the water. A large stone wall sits at the edge of the water where the cliffs end and it turns into a sandy shore.

“Are you sure we’re heading the right way?” he asks in more of a whine than anything else.

Starry groans from nearby. “If you ask me one more time I’ll throw you to the waves. I don’t care whether you’re injured or not, I survived worse I’m sure you’d be fine. And yes, I am positive we are heading the right way. This ‘Tide’ character did very well point out a fort, now whether that proves she is being honest to us about her reasons for going there is still to be seen.”

“Anyone else find it odd how we’re currently heading towards a fort after having blown one up. Not only that, but we are going there to help a stranger for no pay,” Ebony says.

“You already said you’d help,” Captain says.

“I’m still allowed to worry about my life.”

“Funny coming from the changeling that blew up a fort,” Starry says. She looks up from her map with a grin.

“Shut up, I don’t want the others to know… yet.”

Captain looks back at the horizon and the quickly approaching island. “Alright, Smokey, load the cannons. Let’s rain Tartarus down--”

“Don’t touch those cannons!” Ebony shouts.

Captain gives her a confused look but gives the order again. “Load the cannons.”

“Howler!” The diamond dog gets up from the crate he was sitting on and pins Smokey to the deck. Ebony turns to Captain, “I know I have agreed to help, but I would rather if you let me take charge this time.”

“Why, is it because you don’t think--”

“You’re a great captain, but right now I doubt we’re in any position to attack a fort head-on. I believe that for this mission we need a bit of subtlety and let’s face it that is not a skill of yours.”

Captain looks around at his crew as they watch the confrontation. He takes a deep breath and goes to say something, but Ebony cuts him off. “Listen, you’re hurt, and I don’t want to see you get injured more than what you already are. While you’re a great fighter, I doubt you can handle too many soldiers in your state.”

Captain lets out a sigh. “Fine, what’s the plan then?”

Ebony looks out toward the island, the fort now visible on the shoreline. “We sail past and get to a place where we are hidden. After that, me and Willow make our way through the jungle until we get to the fort and wait till night.”

“Why only you and Willow?” Arrel asks.

“Because we are probably the stealthiest amongst the crew. Smokey and Twigs would get themselves shot as the reach the jungle, I doubt a griffon or diamond dog could pass through the fort without being noticed. You’re good, but you’d be best keeping watch over the jungle and waters to make sure no one finds the ship. And I highly doubt Starry would want to go.”

"You know me so well," Starry says.

Arrel studies her for a moment before nodding his head. “I guess that makes sense,” he says.

“Wait, only two of you are going?” Tide Strider asks.

“Kinda, when trying to be stealthy it’s best that we don’t bring too many ponies along. And it’s three of us, you’re coming too.”

“I can’t fight!”

“You won’t have to if it goes well, and you have to come along since we don’t know who your father is.”

“Well… when you put it that way…”

Ebony looks over to Howler and Smokey. “Let him go,” she says. Howler nods and lets go of the pegasus.

She sighs as Misfortune passes the fort without getting shot. The ship comes to a slow stop further up the coast, hidden behind a jungle and the beginning of a mountain. A rowboat is lowered into the water with Ebony, Willow, and Tide on board. Captain watches them row over to the shore and make their way into the jungle. He hears some hoofsteps coming from his left, he looks over at Arrel.

“Where did you get her?” Arrel asks.

“Tide? She asked for some help--”

“Not her, I’m talking about Ebony.”

Captain raises an eyebrow. “A tavern in Hayvana, why?”

“She’s not a regular pegasus, is she?”

Captain shrugs, “She seems pretty normal, two wings, four legs, a head. You’re a pegasus, you should know it’s normal for a pegasus to have those.”

“I mean she’s not just some civilian, or even a sailor on that. What was she before she joined your crew?”

Captain shrugs again and looks back out to the jungle. “Don’t know, I don’t think it matters though. She’s part of the crew and that’s what matters.”
-----

Ebony ducks under a branch. She groans as she hears a yelp from behind. She glares at Tide, but quickly focuses back on the jungle around them. “Try to be more quiet or we’ll be caught.”

“Sorry, I don’t do so well in jungles…”

Ebony looks back at the pink earth pony, her expression softens a little as she remembers why they’re there. “Yeah, sorry for being a little hard. I’m just a little on edge, let’s just say that most of our other missions don’t go vaguely near as planned. I just want to make sure none of us die… Speaking of which…” She looks around at the immediate surroundings trying to find Willow.

She hears nothing save for the sounds of the jungle, cries of far-off birds, the occasional rustling of a bush, the waves crashing up against the coast. “Willow?” she cries out hoping the other sounds will prevent any unwanted attention. Her ears perk up trying to pick up any new sounds, but she hears nothing.

“What happened--” Tide begins.

“She’s fine, she might not hear us or is somewhere up ahead waiting for us.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah, she knows her way around a jungle. She’s faster than both of us in this type of terrain.”

Tide looks over at Ebony’s wings. “Faster than me, you can simply fly over the jungle.”

Ebony gives her a confused look then looks at her wings. “I’m not leaving you here. Besides, they’d see me easier against the blue sky than the jungle floor,” she says after a moment.

“Right…”

After a few hours of walking they find Willow waiting for them at the base of a tree. Ebony gives her a sarcastic smile, “Glad you decided to join us.”

“Hm? Oh sorry, I was taking a look ahead.”

Ebony looks up from the deer to the direction of the fort. The trees and bushes still hide the fort from sight. “Anything waiting for us?”

“A few patrols.”

Ebony thinks for a moment, she looks back the way they came. She can’t see ship. She looks up at the sun as it begins its slow descent. “We set up camp here, we’re far enough away that they can’t see us from the fort. Hopefully there won’t be many patrols out here. Willow, go see if you can find us an easy way in. I’ll stay here and look after the new pink one.”

Willow gives a quick nod, she lifts herself off the ground. After a quick stretch she prances off into the bushes. Willow easily weaves her way around the trees and over the bushes. She jumps over the log of a fallen tree, landing nimbly on her hooves. She begins to slow to a walk as she comes closer to the fort.

She hears a branch snap a little way ahead. She freezes and her ears pivot toward the direction the noise came from. She waits for about thirty seconds, but hears nothing more. She starts walking again, keeping one of her ears pointed in the direction of the sound. She hears another snap, a little off-set from the earlier one, but still in the direction. She slips into a nearby bush trying to be as silent as possible. She curses herself as she snaps a few twigs getting into her hiding place.

“Did you hear that?” she hears somepony say. Willow looks out of the bush. She spots a few ponies walking between the trees. She can’t make out any specific details except for the white and yellow uniforms they wear.

“No,” says another pony.

“Could have sworn I heard something.”

“You can’t jump at every sound you hear,” says another.

I think I've got our way in, Willow thinks. as she prepares her blowpipe.
> Chapter 29
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

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?”
> Chapter 30
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“So he’s dead,” Captain says leaning back in against the wall of his room. His room isn’t anything too impressive, a fairly large bed sits at the back against the wall opposite to him. A dark grey carpet, save for a few drops of blood, covers the center of the room. A desk sits over to the side of the room, but it seems barely used if the dust was anything to go by.

“There wasn’t anything we could do, he was most likely dead by the time we got there,” Ebony says. She winces when Starry puts too much pressure on the bandages as they’re wrapped around her shoulder. “It was my fault.”

“You said there wasn’t anything we could have done.”

“No, I chose to wait till night. If we simply went in he might still be alive.”

“And we’d all be dead, mind you,” Starry interrupts.

“Nothing we can do about it now,” Captain says with a shrug. “We just have to move on with it.”

“Easy for you to say, you weren’t the one to find your father hung by the neck,” Ebony replies. She winces again and then turns to glare at Starry.

“True, I didn’t have to find him hung up, I watched it.” Ebony flinches back a little into the chair. She looks up at Captain as he glares down at her.

“Sorry, I did--”

“Don’t ever mention my parents again.”

“Alright… I’m sorry, I just didn’t know.”

“Don’t expect you to, I never told you.”

“So, what happened?”

Captain sighs and looks up at the ceiling. “They were merchants that often traded with the Griffon Empire. Well, one day their ship was searched and the soldiers found quite a bit of griffon goods. They were accused of being smugglers and were hung… both of them.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

“Don’t be, I’ve felt enough sorrow for it.” He wipes his eyes with his foreleg. He looks back at Ebony. “I think it’s time you tell the rest of the crew.”

“Wait, that I’m a changeling? No, I can’t, I don’t know how they’ll react to it. Just give me some time.”

“No, I’m tired of covering for you, I’m not good at it. Arrel is beginning to suspect something, you magiced--”

“Levitated,” Starry interrupts.

“You levitated Willow and Tide out of the fort and now she’s asking questions. No more ‘give me time’ it’ll just be harder the longer you wait.”

“What about Tide, I can’t tell her after--”

“We’re dropping her off at Kigerston, at her request,” Starry says. “In fact, I believe we leaving Kigerston about now.”

“But, uh…” she lets out a sigh and her shoulders slack. “I guess you’re right, but what if… what if they think the same as most of Equestria? That I’m nothing more than a monster?”

“Then they’ll have to go through me. After that, they’ll know what a real monster is.”

Ebony looks up at Captain. He’s not lying, she can tell. She looks over her shoulder at Starry who gives her an expectant look. “Alright, I guess I’ve put it off long enough.” Captain gives her a supportive smile. He holds out his hoof to help her up. She accepts it with a smile of her own,though a nervous one. The three step out onto the deck of the ship. 

Smokey runs back and forward checking the cannons. Twigs does almost the same except he is busy checking the rigging. Willow sits at the bow of the ship looking out over the waves as Misfortune slices through the water. Craven sits off to the side on a few barrels presumably filled with gunpowder. They don’t see Arrel, most likely in the crow’s nest. Howler stands behind the helm steering the ship toward the north.

Starry looks over at the starboard cannons. She charges a spell on her horn and launches a fireball at the fuse. Everyone, save for Howler, jumps at the boom of the cannon. They turn and look at what is happening. “Ebony has an announcement,” Starry says nudging her head at the pegasus.

“That was quite… sudden,” Ebony says to Starry as the crew gathers.

“I have lived with Rose for a year and have been her friend for three years. I can be a lot less subtle if you want, there are a lot of barrels of gunpowder lying about.”

“No, no that’s fine,” Ebony says just as Arrel lands at the base of the mast. She quickly looks behind her at Howler still standing at the helm. She looks back at the rest of the crew, she notices Starry standing near the portside rail. She takes a deep breath of the tropical air to calm her nerves. “I… I wanted to say sorry to you all. You are all so nice and… I feel like I belong here. But, I’ve been lying, I’ve been lying to each of you and it’s just not fair.”

There are a few mumbles, but they calm down soon enough. “Again, I’m sorry.” She takes another deep breath preparing for the worse. “I… the Ebony that you’ve all known isn’t the real me.” With that she releases the magic holding her disguise together. The flames circles her once more, when they die down a changeling stands before the group. Ebony stand back and lowers her head as she waits for a response from them. Then, as so many times before, chaos.

Craven screams and flies up to the crow’s nest leaving a few feathers fluttering down. Twigs follows Craven lead, he runs to the starboard side and jumps behind one of the cannons. Arrel draws his sword and flies over to Starry, fully intending to protect her. Starry simply brushes up against him with a smile, he gives her a confused look before a dark blue aura surrounds him. Starry’s smile turns to a scowl and she forces Arrel to deck. Willow screams, she turns and runs down into hold of the ship. Smokey jumps back and draws his pistol. Before he has the time to aim a paw grabs him by the back of the neck and pins him to the deck.

Ebony blinks a few times as she realizes Howler just saved her from being shot… again. She looks over at Starry, she loosens the magic on Arrel and lets him stand. “She’s still my friend, and I’m not going to let my coltfriend kill her.” With a flair of magic Starry turns one of the cannon toward Arrel. “Also, I don’t need anyone to protect me while I’m on a ship.” She looks over to her right, Captain gives her a smile.

“See, that wasn’t so bad.”

“Smokey tried to kill me!”

“Smokey and Arrel, really. But, it could have been worse, Howler could have had a problem with changelings.”

“Fair point.”

Captain starts walking over to where Twigs had ran. “Right, Howler, get Craven down from his hiding spot. Ebony, you might as well go get Willow.”

“We me?”

“Because you saved her,” he says with a shrug. “Starry, guard Smokey.” Starry smiles, she levitates over some rope and quickly ties him up.

Ebony walks over to the hatch down to the hold. She casts a quick glance back at Captain as he pulls Twigs out of his hiding spot. She takes a deep breath and heads down into the hold of Misfortune. The first thing she notices is that it’s dark, the only light coming in are from the hatch and from the small cracks in the deck. Once she reaches the bottom of the stairs she uses her magic to light the lanterns, though green flames burn in them casting an eerie  green glow on everything. That’s not going to help, she thinks.

She nervously walks around the crates and barrels piled in the room. The constant fear and threat that Willow could very well sneak up from behind and kill her. “Willow, are you here?” She hears a little gasp from her left, she waits for some kind of response. She hears nothing except for the sound of Misfortune crashing through the waves. She starts walking to the left, “Willow, please come out.” She peeks around a couple of crates, no sign of the deer. She turns around and continues walking. She’s sure she can feel Willow’s eyes tracking her.

She lets out a annoyed huff. “We’re friends… were friends, Willow. You must be able to tell that I won’t hurt you.”

“I’m friends with Ebony, not… whatever you are,” says Willow from somewhere to her right. But, she’s too focused on the words to bother hunting her down.

“Is that really how you see me, as a monster? Willow, I’m… I am Ebony. Think about it, why else would I save you from the fort, because you’re my friend. I’m not a monster, not a demon, I’m not like the others! I have a mind of my own, I have… had friends.” There is a long pause as she waits for Willow to say something. After a few long seconds she finally talks to her.

“If you really are Ebony, then why did I join the crew?” Willow asks from her right again, a bit closer though.

“You joined because you owe Captain as much as I do. He freed you from slavery and then accepted you to his crew.”

“Since when, how long have you been a changeling?” Ebony looks over to her right. She see Willow poking her head from around a pile of crates.

“Since I was born,” she says with a little laugh. “Since we started. Captain saved me from the Hayvana fort. He saved me even though I was a changeling, though since then I’ve been disguising as the Ebony you know. And before you ask, my name really is Ebony. I’m still me.”

“So, you’ve been lying to everyone since the beginning?”

“Everyone but Captain, yes.” She looks back over at Willow. Now she’s standing in the hallway, out of cover, but still  keeping her distance.

“Why tell us now?”

“Because it would have hurt more if I waited any longer.” There is a long silence between the two of them. Willow shifts her weight from one side to the other while looking around nervously. Ebony sighs and uses her magic to put out the lanterns, getting rid of the green glow. “So, can we still be friends?” Ebony asks.

Willow looks away from Ebony, even though she can barely see her as it is. “No… I don’t think so, you’re not the Ebony I knew.” She steps closer to Ebony giving her a smile. “But, I would be willing to start over.”

Ebony returns the smile while holding out a hoof. “In that case, I’m Ebony. I’m a changeling traitor who no longer listens to her queen and has decided to join a group of pirates.”

Willow accepts the hoof giving it a quick shake. “I’m Willow, ex slave. I like long walks on the beach and candle lit dinners.”

“You’ve been spending too much time with Rose.”

“Yeah.”

“How about we head up before Arrel thinks I killed you?” They go back up the stairs and onto the deck.

Once up they see that both Craven and Twigs are standing near the mast. They are still visibly shaken, but at least haven’t decided that their best option is swimming. Smokey isn’t tied up, but Howler stands close. The group turns their attention to the two as they walk over. Twig and Craven start looking from each of the crew members nervously.

“I told you that she’d listen to you,” Captain says. Ebony rolls her eyes at him.

“So, you’ve been a changeling this whole time? Ever since we met in the ‘Lucky Mare’? Arrel asks, stepping out of the group.

“Yes, I have.”

“Are you going to kill us?” Twigs asks.

Ebony quickly shakes her head with an unintentional laugh. “No, of course not.” Changelings would capture you alive. Twigs and Craven relax a little at that, but still remain quite on edge.

“Why are you here then?” Arrel asks.

“I’m here because this is the only place I belong.”

Arrel nods seemingly satisfied by the answer. “What did you do before you became part of the crew? You certainly don’t act civilian and I doubt any changeling below the queen has to make any tactical decisions. You take to the role of leader as second nature.”

Ebony scrunches up her muzzle. Well I suppose if I’m coming clean. “I… I was working in the Hayvana fort as a spy…




A little orange unicorn lies at the top of the fort wall. She looks out over the whole of Hayvana, from the winding and twisting streets to the restless ocean that pours in through the harbor mouth. Young pegasi fly over the tiled roofs as they chase after each other. The city square is packed full of ponies who are looking  through all the market stall, watching street-side performers, and just sharing general news and gossip amongst themselves.

Her eyes wander over to the docks and harbor. A small fleet of Celestial Navy ships can be seen sailing out sea. All of them with the insignia of the sun on them. She sighs as the convoy heads to Equestria, a sum of money heading to the royal treasury, the queen’s that is.

She hears some hoofsteps to her right, turning her head a little further she faces the sniper that stands beside her. “Hello, are you here to make sure I’m doing my job?” he asks sarcastically. She brushes some strands of yellow hair out of her eyes and stands up to come face-to-face with the sniper.

“The only reason anypony would ask me that is if they weren’t doing it in the first place.” His expression changes from a smirk to a nervous smile. “No, I’m only taking a little rest, well deserved at that. Don’t tell my boss.” The soldier’s smile returns. “I just love the view from here.”

“That’s true and get this view every day. While you’re stuck in those stone walls.”

“If you’re not careful you’ll be stuck in those stone walls and behind iron bars.” His smile disappears again. She smiles a little but is careful not to let the soldier see. “Now, I must get to my duties, I have taken a long enough break.” With that she turns to the stairs and starts making her way to the interior of the fort. It doesn’t take her long to get down to the yard and then to make her way across it.

Soon she is walking through the halls. Soldiers walk past, giving her a salute as they do so. After walking a fair way down the hall she comes to a set of stairs. Once on the second floor, she heads towards her office. After a minute or so of walking she arrives at the door. It opens with a light push.

A desk dominates the center of the room, beautifully decorated, the wood is a stained red and small lion heads were carved into the corners. An intricate design runs along the edges giving it the feeling that a part of the sea was captured in the carving. The desk had been gifted to her by a captain after a successful raid on a pirate hideout that she had pinpointed. A matching chair sits behind the desk, a red cushion on the bottom and the back for comfort. A bookshelf stands near the corner, only a few of the selves have any books in them. A few maps are pinned to the wall alongside the images of several famous commanders.

She walks around the desk, giving a comfortable sigh as she sits on her cushioned chair. With a flash of magic she brings a pile of papers from the corner of the desk to her. Just looking at the pile of reports makes her yawn. She quickly shakes away the dreariness and levitates the first report off the pile.


Several hours later Sunny walks through the hall again, this time heading toward the war room. It doesn’t take her long to arrive at the door. The same as almost every other door, hardwood with iron strips running along the bottom and top. Two guards flank the door, they look at her for a moment before turning their attention elsewhere.

Sunny uses her magic to open the door. The room on the other side is a large one. A long table cuts down the middle, with a large map of the area. A couple of stallions sit in the chairs around the table, though most of them are empty. An orange stallion looks up from the map when he hears the door open. He gives her a questioning gaze for a moment before taking on a serious expression. “Sunny, I trust you have something?”

“Yes sir. The supply shipment to Charlotte has been attacked by pirates. The shipment made it but was heavily damaged. There seems to be an increase in pirate activity to the south explaining the attack, but doesn’t explain why they would attack a military convoy. The fact they went after a military shipment means they want firepower, to either use against us or trade to the griffons.”

“Also, a pirate going by the name of Gale has sacked a small fishing village to the west. Seemingly unrelated to the reports to the south but he has been known to be more active in the south.”

The stallion growls under his breath. “These pirates are becoming a real pain in my side. If this keep up Gallows might very well have his way.” He looks back down at the map, looking across the southern part. “Send a message to Kigerston, have them send out more patrols, be sure they’re armed as well. Increase the bounty on Gale’s head. Was there anything else?”

“No sir,”

“Very well.” She gives a nod and starts back down the hall. Once she reaches her desk she takes out a quill and some paper and begins writing.


With a sigh Sunny drops the quill into the inkwell. Magic surrounds the paper as she lifts it up to inspect it. Once she’s satisfied with the work she folds the letter and slips it into an envelope. She lies the letter with the others on her desk and walks up to the door. Peering outside she finds a soldier walking by. “Could you go get the courier for me?”

“Right away.” The soldier walks down the hall until he disappears down the stairs. Sunny closes her door again and walks over to her bookshelf. She quickly looks through the small selection of titles for something to read. Using her magic she places the book onto her desk and follows behind it. As she sits down there is a knock at the door. A magical aura surrounds the door and it swings open, the soldier stands on the other side.

“The courier is here,” he says.

That was quick. Sunny gets up from her chair and walks to the door with the letters in tow. “Right, I need you--” The distinct click of the hammer of a flintlock pistol being locked into place cuts her off. She feels a cold barrel being pressed into the back of her skull. “Wha--?”

“You are hereby put under arrest for suspect of being a changeling.” The barrel presses harder into her head when she tries to turn around.

“You can’t be serious, what makes you think I’m a changeling?”

“A good deal of your shipments to Equestria meet up with changeling ambushes.”

“Anyone who knows about the shipment could be a changeling. That’s hundreds of ponies, in the ships alone, not to mention those in Equestria that could very well be a changeling.”

“Very well then, would you like to submit to a test?” Oh, for buck sake. They think they’re so great after having come up with a spell to detect changelings.

“Yes.” A magical aura surrounds her, she focuses more energy into her disguise. If I can outlast him I’m fine. She feels the magic aura beginning to weaken her disguise. With a little more concentration her disguise begins to regenerate as fast as it’s being weakened. Simple, just don’t drain yourself, it’ll be odd if you’re out of bre-- A hoof connects with her jaw plunging everything into darkness.
*****

… So, one of them knocked me out and my disguise dropped. Then they locked me up for… I don’t know how many days. They starved me and beat me until it was time for my execution.”

Without warning Smokey jumps at her, but Howler grabs him before he can get too far. “A changeling spy, there is no reason we should trust you! How do you expect us to believe that you’re here only because you ‘belong’ here. For all we know you could still be a spy!” exclaims Smokey.

“Well, I trust her. I figured out she was a spy before she told us and I still trust her,” Starry says.

“You knew! You knew and you didn’t tell--”

“Shut up.” Their attention goes to Captain as he steps between Smokey and Ebony. “Firstly, it doesn’t matter. Arrel used to be a pirate hunter, Starry was a diplomat's daughter, Craven was part of the griffon army. In case you can’t see, I don’t give a buck where someone comes from. So long as they’re part of the crew it doesn’t matter. Secondly, what would a spy do with pirates, inform her leader that you can’t hold your rum? We’re rouges, we aren’t part of any government, they don’t care what we do.”

Smokey takes a few steps back. He looks between Ebony and Captain then lets out a huff and walks away. “He doesn’t seem happy,” Ebony says.

“He’ll warm up to the idea of having a changeling on the crew.”

“Thanks.”

“No problem.” With that he heads back to the helm.
> Chapter 31
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ebony opens her eyes slightly to look at the wooden planks that is Misfortune’s deck. The ship sways slightly, but not as much as it would if they were at open sea. She yawns and curls further into her bed, she lets out a grunt as she presses down a little too hard on her shoulder. Rolling onto her other side she tries to get some more sleep. But any hope of sleep dies out when she hears somepony shouting from above deck followed by the sound of snapping wood.

Ebony sighs and gets out of her bed. She walks out of her cabin, in the heart of the ship, and starts going up the steps to the deck. It doesn’t take her long to spot Captain standing by the portside railing frowning down at the dock. She quietly trots up next to him and looks down. A stallion is lying on the dock with his face smashed through the wooden planks, quite literally. “Let me guess.”

Captain jumps slightly and looks at her then back down at the unconscious stallion. He looks back at Ebony and shrugs. “He wanted to have you on his crew.”

“You’re a horrible liar.” It has been a few days since they had come back. Ebony didn’t put on her disguise when they arrived, mainly due to Captain preferring that she didn’t. That had started a bit of a… situation. Half of the pirates Neighsau now despise her as much as the army does, the other half are afraid the army will raze the town for harbouring an escaped changeling.

They hadn’t been too far off, two days later the military had arrived. Most ponies had kept their mouths closed in fear of being prosecuted for what they had done. The crew of Misfortune had only managed to escape by sailing into a storm which the navy wasn’t willing to follow them into. The only reason the navy had left was because Rose had bribed them more than they could pass up, though most declined the offer of her ‘services’. 

Since then, there has been three attempts at her life, excluding this one. After the first two attempts most had figured it would be best to try when Captain wasn’t around. The third taught them that Howler was just as bad. And, it seems the fourth was going to try and kill her in her sleep.

Ebony looks back down at the stallion as a crowd gathers around him, a few of his friends help him off of the dock. “I’m sorry for all this,” she says.

“Why?”

“Everyone hates you, and almost every other member of the crew that has come to my help. Even Rose’s tavern must have taken a hit because of me.”

“No reason to be sorry, I said I’d help and that’s what I’ll do, even if no one likes me. Anyways, I can crush anyone that tries to go after us,” he says with a grin. His injuries have indeed healed, though it left a long scar running across his right side. “I’m pretty sure everyone would say the same. Well almost, Smokey wouldn’t… I don’t think Howler would either, but that’s just 'cause he don’t talk.”

For a moment the ‘dream’ she had with the queen in it comes back. Two months or she comes for me. “That’s the problem I don’t want anyone to get hurt because of me.”

“It’s not because of you. Everyone has their reasons. This ship and crew is mine, I ain’t going to lose anyone. Besides, we’re pirates, we’re tough enough,” Captain says. He walks over to one of the masts and sits on a crate near it. Ebony sighs and sits on a barrel next to him.

“You really do care, don’t you? No matter how much you try to be tough and strong, you can’t help but care about everyone.”

“Yeah, I know. But, you’re not any better. You keep moping because you think you’re putting everyone in danger.”

She gives him a punch on the shoulder, not surprised that he doesn’t budge. “Okay, fine I care. Just don’t tell anyone,” she chuckles. Together they sit in silence, contently listening to the sound of waves lapping on the hull of the ship. She hears Captain let out a sigh.

“You know, it’s funny to think that only a few months ago I was stranded on Hayvana. With only a broken compass, rusted cutlass, and half a map to my name. Now, I have the best crew I could ask for, a wonderful first mate, great friends. My name is known by thousands, merchants fear it, and soldiers hate it. You’re the greatest thing that has ever happened.”

“Like you’re one to talk. My life was nothing, my queen cared little for what would happen to me. I was expected to be nothing more than a mindless drone like all the others. You saved me, even if I somehow would have survived the execution my queen would have just sent me on another suicide mission.”

Captain leans against the mast. “So, we saved each other?”

The few memories of the hive she has left come floating to the front of her mind. She chuckles at how different her life is now. “Yeah it sounds that way.” She remember their first meeting, how he threw her onto his back and ran out of the fort as though she was already someone he’d risk his life for. And then a random thought hits her. “Captain, what’s your goal?”

“Hm? Didn’t I tell you once?”

“Yeah, when we first met you said you wanted to be rich. Pretty clear that was a lie. I’ve seen you turn down payments, a lot of them.”

She hears Captain chuckling from beside her. “So I did… I guess I said that to seem more like an actual pirate.”

“So, what is your end goal?”

“You’ll find it stupid. But, I’m after immortality.” Ebony turns to him with a look of disbelief. “No, not that kind. Not the kind the princess has. I want a kind that the princess could only wish to have. It’s the kind of immortality where I won’t have to worry about what is happening in the world. I want to be remembered. I want my name to live on, to still mean something years from now.”

“So, you’re after fame?”

“Something like that.”

“Hm, sounds like something you’d want.” She hears Captain shift his weight onto the deck. Ebony casts a quick glance to the portside of the ship, to where the gangplank leads to the dock.

“So, was there anyone back in your, uh… hive that you were close to?” Captain asks.

“No, not really. Well, there was another drone that I knew. His name was Granite. We grew up together. He always looked out for me. We used to skip training and go to the nearest pony town to hide and play.”

“Sounds fun.”

“It was, until they out what we were. We got out alright, but got into shit when we got back. It was still fun though. Then he went to become one of Chrysalis’ personal guards. And I haven’t seen him since.”

“Sorry to hear that.”

“It’s fine, it’s what he wanted.” She stops when she hears some ponies from the dock shouting at them. Looking back over at the dock she spots a stallion poking his head over the deck to look at them, he quickly ducks back down. “Everything turned out well anyways. I’m part of the strongest crew in all the oceans, and he’s the personal guard of the most powerful being in the world.”

“Asides from me, you mean.”

Ebony grins at Captain. “Of course, what was I thinking? We would be the strongest crew if it weren’t for you,” she says poking him in the ribs.

“Right, I, the stallion who can punch through solid rock, am holding us back.”

She chuckles. “Yeah, I say we might have to replace you soon.” She leans back against the mast with a sigh. Maybe you actually can stand up against her, she thinks with the queen’s message in her mind.

She looks out to sea, a navy ship bobs on the horizon. They won’t give up. With a sigh she shakes her head. “We can’t stay here. The navy is still after us, more so than ever since we’ve attacked them twice. It won’t take them too long before they decide to assemble an actual force to hunt us down.”

“So, let them come, we can take them.”

“But, the Neighsau can’t. The town would get stuck in the crossfire. We have to leave the Carriagebean and go somewhere else, let them cool off and forget about us a bit. We should go to somewhere like Zebrica, or Deerope.”

“I don’t like the idea of running, I say we just attack the Hayvana fort and show them not to mess with us.”

“And get yourself killed, the Misfortune destroyed and Rose executed.” When Captain doesn’t answer she assumes he gets the message. Silence settles between the two as Ebony starts thinking about their actions. We really are bucked if we stay here… but how much better off will we be somewhere else?

“How about you?” Captain asks bringing her back out of her thoughts.

“Huh?”

“Well, you’re afraid that you’re putting us at danger by simply being here. And you clearly think we’re all going to die. So, why are you still here? Not, that I don’t like you, I just want to know.”

“You saved my life,” she answers quickly. A moment of silence passes between the two then Captain starts laughing. “What?” Ebony asks, a little annoyed.

Captain manages to stop laughing long enough to give her a reply. “You’ve paid that off long ago. You’re still here for an other reason.”

She pauses for a moment not having actually thought as to why she’s still with him. I do owe him my life, that’s why I’m still here. Well actually, I have saved him couple of times… Celestia knows he’d have sailed off the world if it weren’t for me and Starry. And he’s not exactly the brightest candle in the world… So why I am still here? She sighs and looks up at the clouds above. 

“Guess, I’m sticking around ‘cause I like it. I like sailing the seas, I like the creaking of Misfortune as it runs into a wave. I like the crew, Starry, Howler, Willow, even Smokey though I don’t think he feels the same. Rose is the greatest friend I have and The Lucky Mare is starting to feel a little like a home.”

“And then there’s… you,” she says with a light blush creeping across her face. “You’re a great pony, strong and willing to defend anyone with your life. You don’t care that I’m a changeling, I doubt you ever stopped to think why you were saving a changeling. If anything you wondered why you weren’t saving me… That’s nicer than what anyone has ever been to me. And I…” she trails off for a second and takes a deep breath. “And I think I love you.”  

She waits for a reaction from him, but hears nothing but the waves lapping on the hull. Craning her neck she looks over at him. His eyes are closed and his lips curl up into a smile, he seems happy. He opens his eyes to look back at her. “I can’t argue with those reasons, half of them are the same for me. The crew is amazing, Rose lets me drink as much as I want, and at the helm of Misfortune is where I feel I belong,” he says.

“And then there’s you, a reason all it’s own. A changeling that changed my life, I guess that’s why you’re called changelings,” he says with a chuckle. “You have stood at my side from the beginning, through all the good and the bad… Meeting you was the greatest thing that has happened to me.” Before she has time to react Captain gives her a kiss. Nothing much just a quick peck on the cheek. “And, let’s just say Rose isn’t the only one who loves you.”

For a moment she sits there in a mix of shock, confusion, and pure happiness. She wraps her arms around the large stallion planting her lips on his. She savors the warmth and the slight taste of rum and honey. Shouting from the dock draws her attention but she stays pressed against Captain. A pony loving a changeling, can’t say I’ve seen odder things. 

Somepony clears their throat from behind them. Ebony tenses up and a breaks out of the kiss. She turns to the gangplank preparing a spell on her horn to blast whoever’s on the ship. “Launch that spell at me and your love life will be short lived,” Starry says, a spell of her own glowing on her own, her sword sheaths into her scabbard.

“Starry, how long have you--”

“Long enough hear that you believe that we should leave and to see the little show of affection.” Ebony blushes but stays next to Captain. “Honestly, I’m surprised it took you two this long to admit it. Regardless, Rose wanted to speak with you. Well, actually the whole crew, but seeing as to how you’re the captain…”

“Alright then,” Captain says getting back onto his four hooves.

“Did she say what she wanted?” Ebony asks.

“Something about a shipwreck and a free-for-all, not much asides from that,” Starry says with a shrug. She turns and walks down the gangplank on to the dock. Ebony lets out a quick gasp afraid of what the mob of ponies would do to the ‘changeling’s friend’. She runs over to the rail to find unconscious sailors and pirates littering the dock. None of them seem to be dead, but certainly none of them are in any condition to move. Howler stands where the dock meets the street. A semicircle of ponies surround him, none of them seem like they want to fight but rather want to see what happened.

“Actually, Captain, I think Howler might be the strongest one in our crew,” Ebony says jumping onto the dock earning a few glares from the crowd on the street. They quickly shy away when Howler turns to looks at them.

“I still think I’m stronger than him,” Captain grumbles.
> Chapter 32
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thunder booms through the night sky lighting it up for only a moment. Drift looks out the window of her study at the raging storm. She pulls the silk blanket closer to her using one of her wings. After another crack of lightning she looks down at the dark purple cushion she is lying on. There is a knock on the study door before it opens with a creak.

“Are you alright?” she hears someone ask from the door. She doesn’t turn to face the door, instead she looks back out the window.

“I’m fine, Bitter. I’m just having a few bad memories.”

“Do you wish for me to make you some tea? It might help you sleep.”

“No thanks.”

“Very well, by the way there is a letter for you. It was sent by magic.”

Drift sighs and sits up on the cushion. “I assume the ponies are going to use the storm as an excuse to be late,” she says. Bitter puts the message down in front of her. Drift slips one of her forepaws out of the silk blanket and unrolls the piece of parchment. As her eyes travel down the parchment. She finishes with an annoyed sigh, picking up the parchment and throwing it aside. “Ponies, completely incapable of doing anything,” she growls.

“Should I assume that the shipment will be late?” Bitter asks.

“Surprisingly, they managed worst. The ship got caught in the storm and was run aground. They weren’t able to salvage the cargo in the storm and so they left it there, for the pirates to pick clean.”

“They’re not going to send anyone to salvage the cargo once the storm passes?”

“They’re too afraid of the pirates.” She takes a few deep breaths. “Well, if they’re not going to collect the cargo I might as well take charge of the task. It was meant to be mine in the first place. Fetch me some parchment, would you?” She hears Bitter run off down the hall.

Drift slips out of the blanket and walks over to the desk next to the window. Her ears flick back as her claws click against the floor. Opening one of the drawers she pulls out an inkwell and quill. Striking a match she lights a candle on the desk.

She hears Bitter walk back into the room a second later and places three scrolls next to her. “Are you arranging transport to Hayvana?” Bitter asks.

Drift unrolls a scroll and grabs a quill in her paw. “Of course not, I don’t wish to dirty my paws with the filth of that slum.” Placing the quill to the paper she begins to write, Mister Hunter, it appears as though I require your services once again…
*****

The Lucky Mare is nearly empty once Ebony and Captain reach the counter. The only ponies left are the the rest of the crew and a few other sailors. But, the lack of business doesn’t seem to affect Rose’s mood, she stands behind the counter happily humming a tune while she cleans cups. She looks up from her work with a smile as usual.

“Oh no, a changeling, please don’t eat all my love,” she says leaning in close to Ebony whom simply glares back. Rose looks her over for a moment before backing up with mock surprise. “What happened, sweetie? You don’t seem as gloomy anymore. If I had to guess, I’d say you had a nice sleep with Captain.”

Ebony goes to poke back at her but Captain cuts her off. “Yeah, it was a great night, though it did kinda end with some guy’s face punching a hole through the dock…” Ebony face hooves.

“Sounds like fun, maybe I should join next time.”

“Oh no, it wouldn’t be nearly as fun with you there. Imagine how left out you’d be,” Captain says with a smirk. Rose blinks a few times. “Yeah, I’m not stupid or blind. I’ve just had a different goal in mind, no offence and all.”

She looks between him and Ebony a few times. “None taken, I would have picked her over myself as well.”

“Could you both stop talking about me like you want me in your beds?” Ebony interrupted.

“Not that the idea of screwing Ebony is positively horrible,” Starry says rolling her eyes. “But, I have to agree. You did have a job for us, right, or did you simply invite us to see which of us would sleep with you.”

Rose sighs and walks to one of the shelves and passes a bottle of rum to Captain. “Sweetie, while the latter does sound fun, and I don’t have an actual job for you. However, I do have a bit of info for you. During the storm a ship was washed onto one of the small islands in the area. From what I’ve heard, it’s loaded with tradable goods.”

“How many others know about it?” Ebony asks.

“I would say, pretty well everyone, the navy hasn’t been good at keeping it a secret. It’ll be a frenzie to put it mildly.”

Captain smiles, “Hm… sounds like fun. Loot for the taking.”

“Assuming you can get it, there’s a good chance that’s what all the other pirates are thinking. All the big shots will be there, Blackmane, Tempest, Grey Feather. Beat them and they’ll see that you are a true pirate.” Even Gale, Captain thinks.

“What about the navy?” Ebony asks.

“They’ll be waiting nearby. Again, they’ve been very loose-lipped about this whole thing. Chances are that it’s a navy trap, something to try and catch as many pirates as possible.”

“Then why is anyone even going?”

“She said the ‘big shots’ would be there. The ones who are not afraid of the navy, the ones who want to prove they can destroy anything the navy throws at them,” Starry says.

“And so are we. Prepare the Misfortune, this is going to be a big fight.”
*****

Misfortune cuts it’s way through the waves, though they’re not nearly as big as they would be if they were out in the middle of the ocean. As it is the ship weaves it’s way between small clusters of islands and rocks that break the bigger waves from the ocean. The trip this far had been tense to say the least.

Arrel had managed to spot quite a few ship skulking between the islands. Most of them had been pirates, though they had caught glimpses of a Celestial flag as well. “They’re doing a pretty bad job of hiding,” Starry says. She looks up from her map to the islands then back to the map. “Portside, ten degrees.”

“Well, I’m surprised the best we can see is their flag. Honestly, it’s pretty hard to hide a frigate,” Twigs says.

“Guess you have a point. Right, the island should come into view on the portside any moment.” Captain looks over as they sail along. True to her word as they pass the island another comes into view on the other side.

It’s no bigger than any of the other islands in the area. A steep mountain pokes out of the east side of the island with a forest covering the middle. The entire north coast of the island seems to be made out of a massive slab of stone. Jagged rocks poke out of the water along the north coast, coming almost a third of the way to the nearest island. 

Planks of wood and crates floatin the water getting stuck to the rocks or being pushed to the shore. A broken ship lies half in the water half on the land like an injured whale. It leans heavily on it’s starboard side. The bottom is ripped to shreds and a large section of the front is missing. Most of it’s masts have snapped off, with only one mostly intact one lumbering over the ground.

Another ship is anchored just off the west shore, a black flag blowing in the wind. Another flag can be seen to the south beach of the island. Gunshots ring out from the island only punctuated by the occasional thunder of a cannon.

“So, what’s the plan?” Craven asks.

“We sail up to the ship and take the cargo,” Captain says.

“We can’t, we don’t know how deep it is here and we don’t know where all the rocks are. I doubt we can navigate by sight only because there certainly are ones hidden under the water. Also, I think that Misfortune is a tad bit too large to fit,” Starry says. “Chances are that the east shore isn’t much better.”

“Rowboats?”

“They’d be smashed into the rocks. We’re best off setting anchor to the south-west.”

“Alright,” Captain says. They pass by the first ship without being shot, while there seems to be some crew aboard there’s not enough to win a naval battle. Guess that means we’re gonna be up against two other crews, Captain thinks. A few minutes later the anchor hits the water.
*****

Hunter sinks his claws into the railing on the ship. “You never struck me as the type to be nervous,” the captain says from his right.

A grin spreads across Hunter’s face showing his sharp canines. “I’m not.”

“Ah, you’re one of those types, can’t wait to fight and all that? Have to say, I don’t see why you types like the sight of blood.”

Hunter takes a breath of familiar sea air and lets out a long sigh. “Can’t wait to earn my pay.” The ship tilts slightly to the portside making him sink his claws a little further into the wood. He looks at the lush green island that surround him now. Ponies always think they deserve the best land.

He hears the flapping of wings followed someone landing nearby. “Island’s not too far now,” says the scout. “But, there’s already two pirate ships there with another joining soon. I keep seeing some navy ships as well, think it’s a trap set by the navy.”

“It would seem that way, maybe ponies aren’t quite as stupid as I thought. I guess we’ll see how smart they are when we arrive.”

“They won’t run,” says a female voice different from that of the scout. “You also can’t say they’re stupid for not running. We’ll be up against three different crews at once, and maybe even the navy if they decide to act, I doubt we look like any type of force to be afraid of… from a distance.”

He smiles, recognizing the voice of his friend, River. “I’ll just have to make a show of force when we arrive, give them a reason to run,” he says not doubting his abilities even when outnumbered.

“Sounds like you have a plan.”

“I’ll have Wisp give a quick show of force. If they decide to fight us we’ll simply put an end to them. Have Dusty and his friends perform air superiority. Have Pin take out anyone that tries to shoot them. Me and you will be on the front lines.”

“Let’s just hope they decide to run.”

“Don’t think we can win?”

“I’m not exactly thrilled with by possibility of killing someone.”
*****

Captain pulls the rowboat out of the water and onto the beach. He looks back at his crew that came ashore, Ebony and Howler stand close at hoof. Craven lands nearby with his spear tucked under one of his wings. Willow is already long gone into trees. Arrel circles in the sky above them with Smokey closely following. It had been decided that it would be better to have someone with some type of firearm training, and leave Starry and Twigs on the ship.

Captain gives a quick nod and they set out toward the north shore. The island isn’t quite as lush as some of the other. The tree cover isn’t quite as thick, bushes dot the space in between the trees. They spot someone weaving their way around the trees. Found Willow, Ebony thinks.

Bodies litter the ground around the path and between the trees. There is no clearly defined groups among them. They’re corpses wearing the same garb as any other sailor. Fighting already started.

After a couple of minutes of walking they reach the shore. If he hadn’t had seen it from the sea Captain would have assumed that it’s a beach. A layer of sand covers the the cold stone looking oddly pleasant compared to rocky waters beyond. The sand is littered with more debris, planks of wood, crates, barrels, and a mast from the wrecked ship. Two groups stand facing each other, the two captains stand in front of their respective crews shouting at each other. A few members in either crew are injured.

As soon as Misfortune’s crew walks out of the trees the two groups focus on them. The sound of swords being unsheathed ring through the air. Ebony jumps when she hear the same sound to her right only to realize Captain had drawn his own sword. She sees some of the ponies in either crew whispering amongst themselves.

“It’s the changeling lover,” says one of the captains after a few seconds . He has a black mane with thin grey streaks. The years can be seen in his features, but he still looks strong.

“Let me guess you’re here to steal all our love,” mocks the other, a unicorn. He is younger than the first and his crew is quite a bit larger than the one across from them.

“Not quite,” Captain says. He points to the wrecked ship with his sword. “I came here to collect some cargo though.”

“I think you should get lost, personally I don’t like changelings,” says the first.

“I see why, with a face like yours I’d be jealous of changelings too,” Craven stouts from the air.

“You want to mock me? We’ll see who’s laughing when I blast you out of the air with my ship.”

“Are you talking about the dinky little thing on the other end of the island?” Captain asks.

“That’s my ship!” shouts the younger one.

“Well, you’re probably best off using that thing there,” says the first pirate pointing at the wreck.

“Oh, I couldn’t, this ship is only suitable for the one and only Blackmane. But, everything in it is mine.”

Captain steps forward as does the rest of his crew. “Now, I think you should both move away from the ship. I would like to be able to start loading it’s cargo onto my ship.”

“Oh, and are you going to make me? Gonna have your pet changeling try and scare me off?” says Blackmane.

“No, I’ll just beat you both into the ground.”

Blackmane steps up to Captain. “You think you--” Captain slams his hoof into Blackmane’s chest sending him sliding across the sand.

“And if you ever dare to insult Ebony again, I will personally put you six hooves under.”

“I think you’re both forgetting who here has the largest crew,” say the other pirate. The rest of his crew move to surround the two crews.

Captain looks at him for a moment. “And you made the mistake of thinking that she’d even bother wasting her time draining your pitiful life.”

Ebony takes a step back, she quickly wraps her magic around several weapons amongst the surrounding crew. Blackmane picks himself back onto his hooves. He glares at the other two captains. “You dare challenge me?!” he shouts charging at them with his sword drawn. The younger one quickly deflects the strike.

A gunshot is fired and one of Blackmane’s crew falls to the ground, then all Tartarus breaks loose as the crews charge at each other. Metal clashes with metal, gunshots ring out, and screams fill the air as ponies hit the ground.

The unicorn levitates a pistol out of a holster under his coat and levels it at Captain. Captain smacks the barrel away with the flat of his blade, then pushes his weight forward as he leans into a lunge. The unicorn steps out of the way letting Captain come in between him and Blackmane.

Blackmane, in turn, slashes at Captain. Captain quickly bats it away and grabs Blackmane’s collar and throws the stallion over his shoulder straight at the unicorn. The two tumble to the ground making the unicorn drop his pistol. Captain takes a step toward them before one of the unicorn’s crewmates tackles him in the side. He stumbles to the side, but remains on all four. With a quick turn he delivers a powerful left hook, then lunges forward running the pirate through.

He turns back to the two other pirate captains to find the unicorn pinning Blackmane down with two swords. A magical aura surrounds the pistol and lift it off the ground, once again aiming it at Captain. Captain lifts his sword and swings it around dragging the corpse with it. The pistol goes off and blood splatters from the corpse on his sword. Captain pulls his sword out, letting the corpse slump to the ground, and charges them.

The unicorn backs up, bringing both swords in front of him. Blackmane jumps to his hooves, it takes Captain a moment to realize that the other sword the unicorn has is Blackmane’s. The unicorn sends the swords flying at Captain. He quickly winds up a punch and sends one of the swords flying straight back. The unicron yelps and ducks under the sword, releasing his magic at the same time making the other sword clatter to the ground a few hooves to Captain’s right.

Blackmane quickly picks up his sword in his teeth. The unicorn wastes no time in grabbing his sword as well and charges at Captain swinging his sword in a wide arch. There is the sound of metal striking metal as Captain ducks under the sword letting it go straight at Blackmane who had blocked it. Captain rolls backward managing to avoid having Blackmane’s sword cut through his neck. Captain’s ear flick upward when he hears the buzz of changeling wings. He looks up to find Ebony flying just above, she points out to sea.

Following her gaze Captain sees nothing but the hull of the wrecked ship. It takes him a few moments to see the flag that flutters just above it, it’s too far to make out the details. It doesn’t seem to be moving asides from the bobbing of the maves. He spots a few dark spots flying into the sky and disappearing into the clouds. He goes to asks what it is, but he catches the flash of a blade out of the corner of his eye.

With a quick turn he blocks Blackmane’s sword. Taking a few steps Captain shoves him back. He see the unicorn standing a good distance back from the fray. He takes a step back as the unicorn tries to strike him with the sword, he knocks the sword out of the air as it passes him. The unicorn levitates his pistol in front of him and aims it at him only for it to fall out of his magical grasp with his mouth slightly agape.

For a moment Captain thinks that Willow had shot him with one of her poison darts, but then he hears something heavy landing behind him. Then he realizes the rest of the fighting has stopped as well. He turns around preparing to fight the newcomers. The first thing he think when he sees them is griffons. Like griffons they each have a pair of powerful looking wings. Then he starts to see the differences, while they have the body of a lion unlike griffons, even their forelegs are those of a lion. Then there’s the head, clearly setting them apart from a griffon, they have the head of a pony. 

It takes a minute because he rarely sees them, but eventually he recognizes them, sphinxes. A large number of them had landed on and around the wrecked ship. Though they still don’t even come close to outnumbering the pirates.

“You all seem to be after sphinx property,” says a dark grey one. He had landed at the top of the remaining mast on the wrecked ship so he was looking down at all of them, and even still he has his head tilted back a bit. He has two curved swords sheathed around his waist. Captain catches a flash coming from the sphinx’s chest, a silver amulet bounces against his chest.

“And who are you?” shouts the unicorn.

“They’re not going to run,” sighs a female sphinx at the base of the ship. She is clad in armor that covers her chest and the tops of her wings, chain armor come down over her legs ending at the knees. A large shield covers her back.

“My name is Hunter, and I give you all two options. Either you can all leave, or we kill you, all.”

“I think you’re miscounting there, buddy!” shouts the unicorn once again.

Hunter glares down at the pirate. “And you underestimate me, peasant!” he shouts with a snarl. He spreads his wings, revealing his light grey feathers, and lowers himself into a crouch.

Captain sees the unicorn pick up his sword and starts looking for his pistol. “Scary, big winged-cats. Tell you what, I’ll give you any balls of wool I find in there,” Blackmane says.

Hunter snarls down at them, but instead of shouting he simply sits back. “I’ll give you a reason to be scared.” He hold out a paw and a sphinx near him passes a pistol to him. He fires the gun into the air.

There is a long pause as they wait to see what will happen. The unicorn smiles up at him, “That’s real impress--” The rest of what he says is lost in a massive explosion. The ground shakes and a shadow covers the sandy shore. Turning around they find a pillar of smoke and fire blasting out of the forest. Debris starts raining down around them, flaming branches, and splinters of wood. Captain looks back at the sphinx trying to ignore the sudden heat.

“I give you all the same warning once again, leave or die.”

They look over at the sphinx, some of them clearly shaken. “That ain’t too impressive,” says Blackmane. “I’ve killed some unicorns who could do worse.” A few of his crew members take a step back.

“I doubt you’ll be doing anything like that this close to the ship,” says the unicorn. He magically launches a sword at him.

Hunter knocks it out of the air with one of his own. A few ponies nervously shift their weight as they wonder when he drew his sword. He looks down at the three pirate captains. A smirk crosses Hunter’s lips. “Very well then.” He goes down on all four and lowers his body to the wooden frame of the mast.  “Looks like I’ll get to sharpen my claws, on your bones.” He pounces off the mast and spreads his wings aiming himself toward the unicorn. The other sphinxes spread their wings and charge the pirates.
> Chapter 33
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Arrel dodges out of the way of one sphinx. He flaps his wings and give chase. The sphinx angles himself upwards going into a shallow climb. But, Arrel quickly realizes that the sphinx is faster than him. He hover in place for a moment panting. After catching his breath he goes to drop into a dive, but the flapping of wings next to him catches his attention. He turns to the sound only to find a spear heading straight for him. He does a backflip getting out of the spears range before it could impale him.

A light brown sphinx hovers in front of him holding the spear. Arrel shoots up into the sky while he draws his sword. He looks back down to try and find the sphinx, but doesn’t see him flying above the chaos. There is a sharp pain in the back of his neck, his head jolts up and he spots the sphinx out of the corner of his eye. He’s faster than me… He falls a few hooves but stabilizes himself soon after, he barely manages to keep hold of his sword. A pain shoots through his chin and jaw as the blunt end of the spear delivers a wicked uppercut. This time he doesn’t manage to hold onto his sword and it falls into the fray below.

He quickly stabilizes himself again. He looks down below wondering if he should try getting his sword, but decides against it as the end of the spear comes into view again.


Smokey fires his double-barreled flintlock at a sphinx as Craven keeps it away from him. He starts looking for a new target when the sphinx slumps to the ground, he jumps back when a sword lands in front of him. He looks up to find Arrel in a losing battle against one of them. Raising his pistol he waits for a good shot that wouldn’t kill his crewmate. Something tackles him from the side sending the pistol skidding across the ground. Smokey wiggles onto his back fully ready to fight whatever tackle him by hoof.

His hoof connects with Craven’s shoulder, pushing the griffon off him. Smokey shakes his head to make sure it was his friend who tackle him. When he sees that it’s still Craven his confusion shifts back to anger. It has to be that Celestia damned changeling trying to get us killed! Before he can do anything Craven sands above Smokey on his hindlegs, wielding his spear in his talons. A second later two arrows lodges themselves into the shaft of the spear.

Smokey looks back at where he had been standing, an arrow is sticking out of the sand. He looks up at where the arrows were coming from, the rough figure of a sphinx can be seen through the clouds. “Think you can out shoot me?” he grumbles. He grabs his pistol and flies up to shoot the bucker that was shooting at him. The beating of wing from behind tells him that Craven is following.


Ebony fires a magic bolt at a charging sphinx, though it does little but slow him down. Wrapping her magic around two swords on the ground she sends them at him. Another sphinx lands between the first one and the swords, the swords bounce harmlessly off her armor. Ebony levitates the swords back to her.

The armored sphinx steps forward. She gives a quick glare to the first then shifts her focus back onto the changeling. “I shall be your opponent, monster.”

“River, let me--” the first sphinx tries.

“You almost got yourself killed, go find someone more your level.” The sphinx backs away.

“What do you guys want with the ship?” Ebony asks.

The sphinx, apparently called River, blinks a few times having not expected her to speak, much less ask questions. “We’re being paid to retrieve the cargo, and we'll kill those who get in our way,” she says the last drawing her sword.

Ebony takes a step back. Alright then, if you want to fight. She launches both swords at her, River turns slightly and spreads her wing so that the armor deflects both swords. With a flap of her wings, River sprints at Ebony with surprising speed for someone wearing armor like that. Ebony tries to bring the swords back, but they’re both moving slower than River. She gives up on them and lets them fall to begin charging a spell on her horn. River’s sword slashes the air just above Ebony as the changeling ducks and rolls out of the way. Once she gets to her hooves she fires a bolt of magic that scores a direct hit on River’s armor. The shot doesn’t even slow her down, leaving little more than a small scorch on her armor.

Ebony’s wings buzz to life and she flies backward barely avoiding the tip of the blade. This is not going-- her thoughts are cut off by a shiver that runs down her spine. Something’s wrong.


Howler slices another pirate clean in half, while they may have new enemies that doesn’t mean that their old ones won’t e a problem. He brings his katana up in time to block a strike from a sphinx. He cuts through his enemy’s sword and runs his blade straight through the sphinx’s neck. There is a gurgling sound until Howler cuts it’s head off. The head lands a few hooves away scaring off quite a few more ponies.

He turns around and lunges at one of Blackmane’s crew. He feel pain burst through his wrist and stumbles forward. A low growl escapes his lips as he looks at the one who hit him.

A sphinx, not one of the ones he had seen when they arrived. She’s a bit smaller than most of the other sphinxes, and has an almost ghostly white coat with a mane of fade orange. A blindfold with odd golden writing covers her eyes, small gold and silver beads hang at the bottom of the blindfold. She has three earrings on either ear made of golden links ending with small thin discs. Countless jewels and beads hang from her wings making an oddly alluring chiming sound everytime she moves, though he still has no clue how she snuck up on him. And several amulets hang around her neck, that for whatever reason make almost no noise when she moves. She wields a silver staff in her two forepaws, both her wings spread out behind her to help balance.

She smiles mischievously at the diamond dog. Howler hold his katana in both paws and stands in front of the sphinx. He sprints to her left and swings his sword toward her back, it would surely cleave the blind sphinx in two. There is an odd chime quickly followed by the sound of metal against metal as she block the sword with her staff. The chiming continues as she ducks down and twirls, she smashes him behind the knee with her staff. She doesn’t stop when Howler’s knee hits the sand, she continues her twirl until she is facing him once again and lunges at him with her claws, keeping her staff positioned so that he can’t move his katana to strike at her or block her.

Howler rolls forward, being the only option other than lose his head. He rolls back onto his hindlegs and quickly spins around to face the sphinx again. Something warm and wet rolls down his cheek, he wipes it off and looks at his paw for a moment. Blood, she had made him bleed. He growls at her again and gets into a battle stance. The sphinx grins back at him.


The unicorn tries to jump out of the way, but Hunter tackles him to the ground before he can get too far. He slams into the ground hard getting the wind knocked out of him. Blackmane charge at him from the side, sword held out in front of him. Hunter turns and spreads one of his wings slamming it into the pirate, he is sent tumbling across the sand. Drawing one of his swords Hunter jumps at Captain.

Captain steps forward swatting the the blade away. He lunges forward, aiming a punch for the sphinx’s head. A dark grey paw grabs his forelegs, claws sink into Captain’s leg as Hunter twists around sending Captain stumbling over the unicorn. Captain leans into the roll coming back up on his hooves. They hear a groan followed by cursing as Blackmane gets up and faces Hunter. The unicorn jumps back onto his hooves and wastes no time in drawing a pistol, apparently he had two.

Hunter flaps his wings blowing a gust of sand at the unicorn. The unicorn starts coughing and try to rub the sand out of his eyes, his pistol still floats in the air swaying from side to side. Blackmane runs forward and slashes at Hunter, the sphinx easily blocks it. Hunter grabs Blackmane around the throat starts lifting him off the ground, the pirate tries gasping as the claws dig into his flesh.

Captain tackles into Hunter forcing him to let go of Blackmane, however it leaves three deep gashes along the pirate’s neck. Hunter rolls onto his side and extends a wing flinging Captain away from him. Hunter is quickly back onto his paws and walking in a circle eyeing his three opponents. Captain gets back onto his hooves. He’s fast. We can’t win in a direct charge, or even one on one.

The unicorn stops rubbing his eyes and opens them, though he can barely see anything. He tries to aim at the sphinx. Hunter sees the gun moving and jumps at him. He throws the gun to the side and slashes at him. The unicorn ducks to avoid the sword, but he’s not fast enough. He falls to the ground screaming in pain as the sword cracks through his horn.

Hunter holds his sword over him, positioning it directly over his chest. His ear flicks back as he hears the other two running at him. He draws his second sword and turns to face the earth ponies. Sparks fly as the sword clash, Captain and Blackmane push forward as Hunter’s paws try to find some grip. Hunter feels his claws hook onto part of the stone below and he comes to a stop. With a twist of the wrists he pushes both their swords away from him as he places both his sword in front of their chests.

Captain swings his head back, knocking one sword out of Hunter’s paw. He jumps back letting Blackmane stumble forward into Captain’s path. A scream of rage and anger comes from his right, Hunter turn in time to find the unicorn charging at him. The unicorn slams his shoulder into Hunter’s chest and making him drop his second sword. Still filled with rage the unicorn grabs a sword off the ground, ignoring the feeling of sand in his mouth. He lunges at Hunter’s head.

There is a flash quickly followed by the sound of metal striking stone. Captain blinks his eyes a few times making sure that the scene is real. The amulet around Hunter’s neck glows brightly. In his paws he now holds an odd weapon of sorts, it is made of a staff with a long crescent blade on one end while the other end is in the sand. The entire weapon seems to be made of sandstone.

The unicorn pushes harder trying to break through the oddly shaped weapon. Hunter grins up at him and starts lifting himself off the ground. When the other end of the weapon emerges from the sand Captain sees that it holds another crescent blade identical to the other. With a twist he  pushes the unicorn’s sword off his blade. Continuing to twist his weapon, he brings the other end around at the unicorn’s neck. 

The crescent blade rips through the neck with no effort, no even slowing the spin. Hunter stops the weapon so that one of the blades covers his front, while the staff cover his right side, and the last blade covers his back. The amulet dims down until it looks like normal again. “Too bad, you stood a better chance when I had my swords,” he says.

*****
Arrel tucks in his wings and drops into a straight dive. He feels the spear clips off a few hairs at the end of his tail. With the tip of his wing he rolls so that the ship is ‘above’ him. A few hooves above the ground he spreads his wings and pulls up heading straight for the ship. He aims for one of the holes in the hull, one of the smaller ones so that the sphinx would have a hard time flying through. Just as he reaches the ship he tucks in his wings a shoots through the hole.

The jagged wood scratches at his wings threatening to rip them right off with he was any wider. His eyes go wide once inside, the ship was still full of cargo and now he was heading straight for it at breakneck speeds and his wings tucked in at his sides. He flares his wings as hard as he can but he isn’t able to bleed off enough speed. A painful crack rings through the air as he slams into a crate, pain floods his body as he hits the ground gasping for breath.

Darkness creeps into the edges of his vision and every muscle aches when he tries to move. He groans turning his tilting his head back to look out the hole he just came through. The sphinx flies past the hole, but Arrel hears him land on the deck above. He wasn’t right behind me… how did I manage to put some distance between me and him? Taking a few deep breaths to calm himself, he decides to take the time to see what the damage is.

He flaps his wings a few times, a few jabs of pain shoot up through his right shoulder, but it’s nothing unbearable. Rolling onto his right side he gasps in pain and quickly rolls onto the his other side. Okay, something’s broken. Before getting onto his hooves he looks down he right side. His right foreleg is a disturbing shade of purple and he has a large bruise on his shoulder. With a gash just under his wing, the blood turns his coat red. The sound of claws clicking on on the wooden boards draws his attention, the sphinx above him and not being too subtle about it.

Arrel slips his good hooves beneath him and picks himself up. Looking around he finds he’s in a maze of crates and barrels. Most of them had toppled over, their bindings snapped from the storm. Arrels looks back out one of the holes, there is no way I can beat him out in the open. His spear should put him at a disadvantage at close quarters though. Deciding that his best option is making a stand, He starts looking for a weapon. Not wanting to be caught off-guard by the sphinx he takes a plank of wood with a few nails through it in his mouth. After he limps over to a crate that had wedged itself between some barrels and the hull. He slips under it and waits.

He hears the clicking of the claws going away from him, presumably toward the hatch into the hold. The hatch opens and light shine in, only to be cut off by the sphinx walking in and closing the hatch behind him. Then, nothing. Arrel perks his ear up and forward to try and pick up the clicking again, but still hears nothing save for the fighting outside and the creaking of the ship. Does he plan on waiting me out?

A shadow pass over a few crates in front of him. The sphinx walks into view, having retracted his claws to be more quiet. Maybe he is a little subtle… He has his spear tucked under one wing, but it’s still pointed so he can impale anyone in front of him. He looks around at the crates and barrels, Arrel pushes further back into his hiding spot. The sphinx turns around and goes to leave until he sees the smashed crate with drops of blood. His eye travel downward until he sees a small puddle of blood.

Arrel swallows a nervous lump, as best he can while holding the plank. His eyes follow the path of blood drops to his hiding spot. He backs up further, coming out on the other side. Once his head clears the fallen crate he presses himself up against another stack of crates. Just in time judging by the sounds of heavy footsteps behind him. He holds his breath as he waits for him to walk past. After a few tense minutes, which feel more like hours, he lets go of the breath. Where is--

A sound like claws tapping on wood comes from his left. Arrel whips his head around, his vision blurs at the same time, but he can still see the figure of the sphinx preparing to throw the spear. He ducks down, the spears whizzing by inches from his neck. He doesn’t run, or charge, but simply stands his ground ready to fight. Can’t run, attacking him would be worst since he’ll see it coming, I have to wait for him. The sphinx wastes no time.

He pounces at the pegasus, Arrel swings his head aiming the plank from the head. He feels the plank hit solidly on the sphinx’s shoulder. A small amount of hope flutters in his chest at seeing his enemy bleed, then the hope dies. A paw connects with his lower jaw, which still hurt from being hit by the spear. The blow sends him crashing into more crates, he gasps in pain as his shoulder slams into the ground.

The sphinx reaches over grabbing the plank and pulling it out of his shoulder. He throws it to the side. A low growl escapes his lips and he whips his head over to the wounded pegasus. Arrel is back on his hooves, swaying slightly but still able to stand. Arrel focuses his sight on him and spreads his wings. The sphinx lifts onto his back paws to bring his forepaws back.

Using his wings Arrel pushes himself out of the way as the sphinx swings at him. Before even letting himself stop Arrel flaps his wings and tackles him. He feels himself pushing the sphinx back until they run into a small pile of barrels. Quickly flapping the other direction he tries to put some distance between him and his enemy. Pain shoots through his right side as the sphinx claws at his shoulder.

He fall to the ground skidding until he bumps into the hull of the ship. Darkness fills his vision and he no longer feels his right foreleg. His vision clears enough to see that he was now cornered. No holes in this part of the hull wide enough from him to fit through, the crate he had crawled under is now blocked off. A pile of toppled crates to his hindlegs cuts off his way further to the bow. The only other way out is past the sphinx, who stands in front of him grinning down. I’m not done.

Arrel pulls his hindlegs up to his chest, bracing his shoulders against the hull. He kicks out with what energy he has left. A smile crosses his lips when he hears a snap followed by a pained roar. The sphinx stumbles to the side, grabbing onto one to the crates to stop from falling down. Arrel rolls onto his back once again bringing his legs up to his chest. He unleashes a buck on the pile of crates and feels it buckle under the hit. A rumbling fills the air as crates fall down around him, one crashes down onto the sphinx.

The wind gets knocked out of him when a crate falls onto him as well, and the darkness finally claims him.

*****
Smokey fires his pistol into the cloud that he’s sure the sphinx is hiding in. An arrow flies past him, he swings around trying to spot the archer. “Come out and fight me!” The smoke from the explosion is making it hard to see. He hears someone flying up behind him. Swinging around he cocks his pistol and aims for the head only to find Craven. “Damn it, you’ll be shot if you’re not careful!”

“Sorry, but I doubt you can handle any of the ones with swo-- Watch out!” His talons grab Smokey and pushes him down letting an arrow fly past. Instinctively smokey turns around and fires in the general direction the arrow came from.

“You can’t hide forever!” Smokey shouts at the clouds. A pain shoots through the back of his neck snapping his head upward. He hangs in the air for a moment out of the corner of his eye he spots brown colored feathers, then gravity takes hold of him. The wind whips past as he plummets to the ground, he hears Craven shouting something but can’t quite make it out. Suddenly a pair of talons grab onto his forelegs slowing his fall. Craven flies him down to the ground and lies him down behind a bush.

Craven looks back up to the clouds and sees the sphinx hovering where Smokey had been. She a darker brown with a lighter underbelly. A number of bracelets adorn her right arm, and an amulet sways across her chest. He looks back down at Smokey, still alive but probably have trouble walking in a straight line for a while let alone fly.

He looks back as the archer strings another arrow. He takes off flying planning to give the archer no chance to shoot at him. Without warning he bolts upward pointing his spear out in front of him. The sphinx doesn’t panic or hurry, rather she pulls the string back and tracks to movements of the griffon. With a twang she lets the arrow fly, Craven flares his wings coming to a stop as the arrow shoots past in front of him.

Craven quickly resumes his ascent and lunges at the archer once in range. She blocks the spear with her bow, but it buckles under the impact. Still, it gives her the time to roll out of Craven’s way without being impaled. She looks down at her bow with a frown, one of the arms is bent at an odd angle making it near useless, she drops it. Craven circles around and stops in front of her. “No more weapon,” he says. 

Reaching behind her she grabs an arrow from her quiver and holds it in her paw like a dagger. “Still got arrows.” Craven looks at her with half lidded eyes, She still wants to fight me… Without another word she charges at him. He holds out his spear in her path, but she doesn’t slow down instead the edges of her lips curl upwards. She’s serious! Wait, she has a plan. He prepares to take the force of the impact, otherwise she would send him tumbling through the air. Just before she hits, the amulet around her neck begins to shine and with a sudden flash she’s gone.

Before he has anytime to wonder about what happened he hears a pop from behind him. She can teleport! He tries to turn around, but he feels her plunge the arrow into his back. He screams from the pain but still turns around and slashes at her with the spear. With a few flaps she moves out of range. Craven pushes the pain to the back of his mind trying to focus on the more pressing issue, the fall. He flips around and spreads his wings, stopping his descent. 

The archer glares down at him, arrow no longer in hand. Craven swings his spear around and holds it in both claws. “You dare underestimate me again and you won’t be alive when you hit the ground,” she growls. She pulls another arrow out of her quiver and holds it in the same bloodied paw.

His back burns with pain everytime he flaps his wings. With a flick of the wrist he twirls his spear until it’s pointing at the sphinx once again. Getting a firm grasp of his spear he charges at her. Can’t let her get a shot on me. So long as I’m moving and have the further range I should be able to win. The archer doesn’t move as she watches the sharp tip race toward her.

Then, just before he reaches her, she rolls having the staff of the spear brush against her coat. Craven barely manages to stop as the arrow slashes a few inches away from his eyes. Flapping his wings in different directions he spins around and swings his spear hoping to cause a bad enough injury with the shaft given that she’s too close to hit with the tip.

He feels a solid impact as he scores a hit on the archer’s shoulder. Before he has anytime to praise himself for actually hitting her the sphinx grabs the shaft in her free paw. She tries wrenching the spear out of his talons, but just pulls him forward instead. Craven spots a flash as the sphinx places the arrow in his path. He hesitates for a second, either he lets go of his weapon or she sinks an arrow into his throat. 

His talons loosen and he lets go, though a little too late. Pain erupts from his left shoulder as the arrow tears into his flesh and muscle. The spear is flung out of the archer’s grasp and is sent falling to the ground. But, he’s not going to let her win that easily. He reaches out with his talons and slashes at the sphinx’s side, he hears a sharp gasp and he feels her letting go of the arrow.

He flaps backwards, just till he’s out of her range. Steadying himself he snaps the shaft off the arrow and turns back to glare at the sphinx. A small smile parts his beak when he see the blood flowing from her side, must have cut her deeper than he thought. The sphinx reaches back for another arrow but finds the quiver empty, all the arrows having fallen in the tussle. She growls and flashes her claws.

Good now we’re on even footing. The sphinx’s amulet starts to glow again and with a flash she disappears. Right, she can teleport… I’m screwed.

*****
Ebony brings two swords in front of her just in time to block a strike from River. Her magic falters slightly as it take the blow, but it holds. She moves the swords so one is still in the way of River’s sword while she moves the other to the sphinx’s side. However, River flaps her wings and presses down harder on the sword sending it tumbling out of the magic field and her charging towards the changeling once again.

She jumps to the right bring her sword around and striking at the sphinx’s side. The sword slams into the armor, staggering her slightly but does little more. A growl escapes the sphinx’s lips and she shrugs off the blade and it tumbles out of the magical grasp as well. Turning back to Ebony a volley of green bolts fly at her.

River swings her left forepaw around easily blocking the volley with her shield. Her wings kick up a cloud of sand as her wings her forward. A few more bolts slam into her shield, but she pushes through the magic. She fails to notice the buzzing through the clatter of clashing swords and screams. A shadow passes over her, and Ebony delivers a quick kick to the back of the neck.

Her shield digs into the ground, flipping around and sending River tumbling over it. She uses the momentum to roll back onto her paws and turns back to face Ebony. The changeling already has a sword slowly orbiting around her with another two floating towards her. Ebony changes the course of one of the swords and sends it at the recovering sphinx. River strikes it out of the air with her own.

Better trained than any pirate, Ebony thinks bring the sword back into an orbit around her. The sphinx quickly throws her shield back over her back and starts walking around Ebony, slowly and low to the ground, stalking. Ebony turns to keep River in her sight. Armor isn’t something too commonly seen outside of Equestria. Sunny wore some, but I think it was lighter armor than this. But, she doesn't seem too slowed down by hers.

Ebony looks at the black scorch on River’s chest, a few scratches dot her armor. She has yet to cause any actual damage to her. Sparing a glance at the burning forest she thinks about getting the ship and bringing it around but decides against it since it would make the Misfortune an easy target and the sphinxes could easily fly onboard. She turns her focus back to the fight afraid that the sphinx might have taken the second of distraction, but instead it looks sphinx herself is distracted.

Her gaze is still on Ebony, but one of her ears have swiveled towards the forest and she is moving slower than before. In an eye-blink River pivotes and spreads a wing, a something sparks off the armored wing and buries itself at Ebony’s hooves, a dart. Willow! she realizes a split second before River pounces at the bushes.

The deer bursts out of the bushes sliding under the sphinx and immediately gets to her hooves. River doesn’t stop however, instead she flies straight into the air, angling herself so her armored back is to them. Willow quickly runs over to Ebony, careful to keep some distance between the two.

Ebony looks over at her friend, a burn runs along her side with quiet a number of small scratches covering that side as well. Must have gotten caught in that explosion. She looks up to the sky making out River’s silhouette out of the smoke filled sky, her armor makes for poor camouflage “Are you alright?”

“No, I damn near died in there! That bucking blindfolded one nearly turned me to ash!”

“The what now?” she asks looking back at her friend, only to see Willow pulling her blowpipe back out. Willow shoots a dart into the air only to have it be blocked by one of River’s wings. “Don’t bother, attacking from one direction does nothing. We have to wait till she comes at us.” She hears Willow drawing out her dagger. Blindfolded one… didn’t I spot Howler fighting someone like that. Another shiver runs down her spine.

Ebony focuses back to the air, just as River drops into a dive. She sends two of her swords into the air to meet the sphinx. However, River simply draws her shield and tucks in her wing becoming completely hidden. Ebony tries to stop her swords, but they spark against the shield and are knocked out of the magic field again. Shit.

The pirates sprint out of the way, Ebony being sure to head in a different direction then Willow. She skids to a stop in the sand, turning to watch the sphinx plummet to the ground. What are you gonna do now?

She feels a small wave of surprise as River simply lets go of the shield and starts pulling up. The shield crashes into the ground with a resounding thud but River skims just over the sand, heading straight for Ebony. She quickly snaps out of daze and brings her sword out in front of her, holding it in her hooves so it won’t simply be knocked out of the air.

Pain shoots through her shoulder as she takes the brunt of the force. The feeling is just short of being run into by a cart. She is sent tumbling across the ground, feeling herself hit the rock surface just below the sand more than once. Still, her sword saved her from having her whole right shoulder from being chopped off.

She stops rolling in a dazed state. Her vision is blurred, but she can still make out the shape of the sphinx as she circles around. Every part of her is sore. Ebony says a quick thanks to the Queen, more out of habit, thankful that she feels the pain lancing up through her legs, rather than being able to feel nothing at all. She blinks her eyes a few times to try and clear her vision.

Looking back at River as she circles around she finds Willow running to her. Her heart skips a beat as River makes an abrupt turn and heads straight at Willow. “Watch out!”

Willow only spares a glance behind her, but doesn’t stop running. She leaps once she reaches the shield, swinging a forehoof through the straps of the dented shield. Dropping into a roll she lifts it off the ground bringing it between her and River. As the sphinx quickly closes the distance she sheaths her sword. River rams into the shield, landing on top of it and crushing Willow beneath it.

Willow tries to catch her breath, but the armored sphinx pinning her to the ground make the task nearly impossible. River leers down at her, baring her sharp teeth inches from Willow’s neck.

*****
Howler lunges forward only to have his strike parried away. He jumps back, immediately getting out of range of the staff before it can strike at him. The sphinx simply keeps the momentum and swings back around, ready to parry another strike. She looks back at him with smile, or rather he believes she’s looking at him.

He lunges forward with his free paw grabbing at the staff. An odd chiming comes from her wings as she begins to twirl. Howler jumps to the right just as the staff passes through the air where his arm had just been. Seeing an opening he charges, bring his sword down at the sphinx’s neck. But, she continues twirl sweeping her staff at his feet as she comes back around. He falls onto his back, but the sphinx jumps back.

Getting back to his feet he looks around, annoyed at the few pirates and sphinx that are simply watching the fight. He continues to scan the surrounding mayhem for the rest of the crew. Captain is the easiest to find fighting alongside the two other pirate captains against the leader of the sphinxes. He is vaguely aware that Craven is somewhere above fighting an archer. After a second he finds Ebony fighting the armored one, doesn’t seem to be going her way.

A feeling of restlessness passes through him, knowing he should be protecting Ebony but he is stuck fighting this annoyance. He looks back at the pale sphinx growling at the fact she didn’t even bother to attack him while he wasn’t looking. The fact that she’s winning without even trying is starting to grate on his nerves.

He slowly approaches her, waiting to see if she’ll act first. Her smile twitches as does one of her ears. “Tired of running at me?” He pauses for a second, blinking a few times. But the confusion last only a moment then he’s moving again, inching ever closer. “You don’t like to talk? You must have suffered a terrible betrayal.” He looks at her in shock, her smiles twitches again. “I see… it was your brother... you betrayed him.” With a bark he charges her, completely forgetting his plan, wanted to shut her up. Now, she uses the opportunity.

A sharp pain shoots through his right arm the end of the staff ramming into the crook of his elbow. She twists around, keeping his momentum and sends him crashing to the ground. Dropping to the ground she brings the other end of her staff around straight for his head.

Howler throws out one of his arms, blocking the blow. Pain explodes through his arm as he tumbles across the sand. He digs his claws into the ground to stop himself and looks back at the smirking sphinx. He starts growling at her, and he digs his other claw into the ground. “Even I can see why he didn’t want you anymore,” she taunts. 

That’s it, he starts pawing at the ground, less than a second later his claws are scraping against the stone beneath the sand. Then he starts tearing at the rocks, pieces flying into the air. It takes him less than five second before he’s underground.

The sphinx’s smile twitches again. She shifts her weight and flaps her wings a few times, resulting in that odd chiming, and readies to take flight. She isn’t kept waiting long, the ground at her feet shakes and erupts. Howler sharp claws rip through the rock a few inches from her chest, he lunges with his sword that held in the other. 

A smile crosses his lips when he hears, and feels, metal sinking into flesh. A gasp comes from a watching sphinx, he quickly glances at her but flies away. The sphinx lets out a shuddering breath looking down, even though she has a blindfold, at her gut. Blood seeps out from around the sword staining her coat near the wound red. He rips the blade out, aiming for the throat this time.

Howler hears the odd chiming of the sphinx flapping her wings, a moment later a powerful gust of wind whips around him. The wind lifts him off the ground and sends him tumbling backward. It quickly dies down and he rolls back onto his feet, digging his claws into the ground to stop him. He looks back at the sphinx only to flinch back slightly.

The amulets hanging around her neck begin to glow, as does the writing on the blindfold. The wound in her side begins closing leaving a red stain. More chiming as she lifts off the ground. She grins down at him, the same mischievous grin as when they started. “Good, I was afraid no one here would be much of a challenge… Not saying you will be.” She lands back down standing once again on her hindlegs. “But, once I show them true power, they’ll see the only way to stand a chance against me is if they fight me, together.”

Howler takes a few steps forward, more annoyed at the fact she healed herself than shocked. Her amulets and blindfold are still glowing, but she still looks the same. Lacking any other plan, he charges. He growls as chiming rings through the air and the sphinx lifts off the ground until she is just above him. He swings his sword back around, seeing as to how she’s still within range of his sword. Then he spots a small wisp of fire and smoke rise from the end of the staff.

A fireball forms on the end of the staff and Howler figures out who made the explosion in the forest. He sprints away from he as she starts to twirls in the air, fire spreading from her staff to the ground before quickly expanding into a spiralling wall of flame. Howler manages to get out of range, two other pirates however do not.

He goes into a roll as the blastwave pushes him away. He turns around and digs his claws into the ground to stop himself. The sphinx lowers her to the ground and lands on the searing sand, fire still runs along her staff. “No, I won’t be doing the same trick I did in the forest, but I doubt that’s much comfort to you.”

*****
Blackmane takes a step back, looking from the body of the unicorn to Hunter’s odd weapon and back again. He stops himself and steels his nerves. There’s still two of us and one of him. A new explosion shakes the ground, Blackmane whips his head around in time to watch two of his crew members being caught in a torrent of flame. He turns back and starts running to his ship the few crew members who notice follow.

Captain watches the pirate flee. He thinks about running as well, but he turns back to Hunter. He sees Ebony in a fight in the background. Not going to lose.

“Not going to run?” Hunter asks.

“Don’t know, are you?”

Hunter glares at him. “Very well then.” He bursts forward with the flap of his wings. His claws dig into the ground in front of Captain bringing him to a full stop while he brings one of the crescent blade around at Captain’s shoulder.

Captain barely has time to block before the shaft slams into his own sword. The screeching of metal on stone rings through the air as Hunter pulls his weapon back toward him also bringing one of the blades straight for Captain. With a turn Captain that puts the shaft of Hunter’s weapon against his shoulder, he blocks the blade. He thinks of grabbing the weapon, but before he can try the pressure against his sword goes away. Dropping into a forward roll the blade on the other end streaks through the air where his head had been.

He stops rolling a few hooves away only to see the same Hunter swinging his weapon down at him. Rolling onto his side the blade misses his back by inches and sinks into the ground. Captain rolls onto his back and slams his hindhooves into the weapon pushing him further away and snapping the blade off. Even before Captain gets to his hooves he see more sand already forming into a new blade.

He can attack from two different directions, how can I stop that? Maybe if I get too close… But how do I-- He jumps back with a yelp as Hunter lunges forward. He avoids the first strike, letting it pass just to his right and lunges forward himself. Hunter deflects the strike with the shaft, and Captain jumps back before the other end can come around.

Captain deflects a jab from Hunter only to have the other end come around. He ducks under the blade. Getting back onto his hooves he strikes at the sphinx’s back. With a flap of his wings, Hunter leaves Captain in a small cloud of dust and gets out of range.

“Hunter!” The two fighters turn to face the sphinx that’s flying over them. “We have an issue.”

“What is it? I don’t see these fools giving us any problems,” he says pointing at Captain whom growls back.

“The navy is moving in. They’re going after the ship that left, but they’ll be coming here soon.” Captain pauses and looks up at the sphinx.

So I’m outgunned by these guys and outnumbered by the navy, Captain thinks. He hears a loud groan come from Hunter. “Of course… maybe letting them go was a bad idea…” Hunter looks over at the wreck. “I’d much rather not deal with pony politics.” Hunter surveys the rest of the shore, watching one fight then another.

Captain smiles to himself. He only manages one step. The other sphinx lands between him and Hunter wielding a spear. “Dare and I’ll skin you like the meat you are.”

“Start loading the ship,” Hunter says. The sphinx goes to question the order, but a quick glare sends him flying. “Pirate, I’d rather not deal with the navy, and I’m not being payed to kill you. So I’m going to give you an offer, leave and take your crew with you, or we slaughter the lot of you. Your choice, but mind you, I’d rather not waste my time fighting you.”

I’m a waste of time?! Jackass, I’ll show you a slaughter. He drops into a crouch and paws at the ground. A scream catches his attention, in the background he watches the armored sphinx slash at Ebony with her claws. Ebony! Another explosion shakes the ground and a wall of flame streaks across the shoreShit, none of us are winning. Even if I somehow manage to beat this guy, everyone else will die! He grits his teeth but stands back up. “Fine, we’ll leave, now leav--”

Before he can finish Hunter presses two fingers against his lips and blows a sharp high pitch whistle. The sphinxes stop fighting and turn to their leader, most of them taking to the air to avoid whoever they were fighting. “Ignore them, the navy is coming and we to load the cargo. If they try to fight you, kill them.”

There are a few quizzical looks pass through them, but they follow the order and head for the ship. Hunter grabs his two swords from the ground and sheath them. “That’s it?” Hunter raises an eyebrow and faced Captain. “All that and you’re just going to let us walk?” Captain asks.

“Not everything has to be solved by death. Really the only reason I’m letting you leave with your crew is because I have a time limit I have to respect.” Hunter starts walking to the ship. “Also, if you ever happen to get between me and my pay again, the only solution will be death.”
> Chapter 34
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ebony tips the bottle back and quickly empties it. She looks to her left, where Captain would usually sit. Instead of him a cream colored mare sits on the stool, her red mane falls down almost reaching the stool. Rose has a mug of her own in front of her.

“So, how are they holding up?” Rose asks. She shifts around to face her friend with a smile.

“Not sure,” Ebony replies. A shiver runs down her spine as she remembers the feeling of helplessness when Willow got pinned. I’m not doing so hot either.

“Are you saying a creature that feeds off of emotions can’t tell how your friends are feeling?” Rose says adding a good deal of sarcasm.

Ebony sighs and puts the empty bottle back onto the counter. “Well, I haven’t seen Captain or Howler for a while, I don’t think they took the idea of losing too well. Starry is busy tending to Arrel all day. Craven is on the ship resting, Smokey is looking after him. Twigs is fine, he’s busy looking after the ship. Oh, and of course you’re looking after Willow.”

“So, no one’s taking it too well?”

“No…”

Roses smile falters and she looks toward the stairs. “Sorry about all that, I shouldn’t have sent you into that death trap,” she says her gaze falling to the floor.

Ebony looks back over at her friend with mild surprise. That’s right you sent us. You think it’s your fault that we almost died. “It wasn’t your fault, we just didn’t know who would be there, or how strong they would be.”

Rose slams her hoof into the counter giving Ebony a good show of her earth pony strength as it leaves a dent. “But, I told you guys about it! I even knew the navy would be there, but I still told you!”

Ebony reaches over and gives her friend a hug. “It’s fine, we’re okay… kinda. If you had known what would happen you would have never told us.”

Rose leans into the hug. “No, it’s not fine. Everyone nearly died, I nearly got you killed.”

“I’m fine, a little sore, but I’m alright asides from that. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

Rose stays silent for a few second with her head resting on Ebony’s sore shoulder. “You know, you’re one of the best things to come through that door. Of course, had you never come I wouldn’t be worried of losing you, but I also wouldn’t have you as a friend.”

“Glad to go against the changeling stereotype.” Ebony chuckles a little at the idea.

“Yeah, you guys are supposed to be stone cold killers that eat love, well you’re pretty nice for a ‘heartless monster’,” Rose says.

“And you seem a little too affectionate. Are you sure you’re not part changeling.”

“No, not sure. But we can test it out though,” she says puckering her lips and turning to Ebony.

Ebony pushes her away, keeping her at an arms length. “No thanks, I would rather not wake up between you and Willow.”

The two laugh together. Ebony levitates over two bottles, giving one to Rose. “Keep drinking like that and you might owe me as much as Captain does,” Rose says nudging Ebony on the shoulder, getting a little yelp in response. “And I’ll only accept one kind of payment from you.”

“Too bad I won’t be paying up today, I doubt you would want to wake Willow.”

The two start laughing again until a knocking at the tavern door catches their attention. “Some ponies simply don’t understand when something is closed,” Rose grumbles. With a sigh she gets up from her seat and walks over to the door. “Now listen here, the tavern is closed and if you want to try coming in I have a changeling with me!” Rose says as she swings it open. 

The pony on the other side is a green-blue earth pony, he mane is a swirling mix of orange and green. Rose stares at him for a few moments in surprise and confusment. Ebony can hear him whispering something to Rose but can’t make it out. Rose snaps out of her stupor and looks around the tavern.

Rose turns back to Ebony. “Uh, Ebony could you leave us for a moment. He’s a, uh, business associate.” Ebony raises her eyebrow, but complies. She jumps off the stool and trots out the door. Rose gives her a nervous smile before she close the door. 

Great, now what? Green flames surround her as she takes on a new disguise. A bit more of a target without Howler or Captain around. Satisfied that no one well figure her out she starts heading further into town.

Along the road a few sailors are milling about, chatting about the recent fight on a nearby island. “I heard the griffons tried taking the ship at some point, but the navy stopped them,” says one of them. We would have been lucky. 

She thinks of heading to the Misfortune, but decides to go find Starry given that she probably knows where Captain is. It doesn’t take her long before she is standing out front of the off white house. After a few knocks the door is covered in a dark blue aura and swings open. “Come in.”

“Not afraid of letting the wrong person in?” Ebony asks. She swings the door shut behind her and drops the disguise.

“No,” Starry replies bluntly from a room off to the right. Ebony walks into the room and almost leaves immediately. Starry is lying in bed next to Arrel, the pegasus has bandages wrapped around his head and shoulder, and one of his forelegs is covered in a cast. “Going to leave so soon?”

“Sorry, didn’t mean to interrupt.” A blush creeping across her face.

“I’m only making sure he’s comfortable. We’re not doing anything.” Starry gets up from the bed being careful not to disturb Arrel. “So, why did you come?”

“Oh, I was wondering if you knew where Captain is. I want to make sure he’s alright.”

Starry shakes her head. “I saw him stumbling his way into the jungle. Not sure what he's doing, but that was a few hours ago.

“Jungle’s still a pretty big area… Can--”

“Nope, I’m tending to Arrel, and I’m not stupid enough to go into a jungle again. You’ll have to find him on your own.”

“Oh… well, thanks anyways.” She turns to leave, Starry stays at the bed’s side. “It’s not your fault he got hurt.”

“Yes, I know. Still, I should have been there.” She sits back down on the bed.

Ebony goes outside, not bothering with a disguise. Once she’s outside her wings buzz to life and she flies up over the trees. She hears a few ponies shouting behind her, but she ignores them.

While the island of Neighsau might not be the largest, it is still a lush and dense jungle. A few areas near the town have been clear cut to build ships and houses, but still leaves plenty of jungle. Below the canopy of leaves Ebony spots a few figures moving about, but it’s impossible to make out what they are. She flies a little closer to get a better look, but soon starts gaining altitude again seeing that none of them are even shaped like a pony.

She drops into a steep dive straight for the jungle floor, buzzing her wings to stop herself from crashing into the ground. Her hooves skip across the ground a few times before she comes to a stop. Where are you? she thinks staring down a worn path. 

A paranoid sense that someone is following her picks at the back of her mind. She looks behind her, nothing but a few monkeys swinging between the trees. “Captain?” After a few seconds without a reply she shrugs off the feeling she continues down the path.

Could really use Willow’s tracking abilities now, Ebony thinks. Maybe I’m just best off waiting for him at the ship… No, I need to make sure he’s okay. Her ears catch the sound of snapping wood. She looks behind her, but finds that the sound is coming from off the path.

Rather to not make her way through the bushes thorns her wings buzz to life and bring her above the tree line. Further away she can barely make out a small clearing. A few birds fly into the air as one of the trees around the clearing falls with the sound of crunching wood. “Of course, what else would you be doing out here?” Ebony sighs. She shakes her head and heads off toward the clearing.

Once she’s above the clearing she sees that the cut down trees are simply left where they fall. The clearing is littered with tree lying about in haphazard ways. It takes a moment of searching before she spots Captain’s pink mane against the greenery. He is lying against one of the trees on the other side of the clearing.

She flies closer, flying just over the tree line. Captain doesn’t make any kind of move to show he notices her. Only when she lands a few hooves in front of him does he actually look up at her. “Hey, Ebony.”

“Hey, Captain, uh, what are you doing?” Ebony asks walking next to him. He wraps one of his forelegs around her when she sits down.

“Me, nothing. All this is his work,” Captain says. He points toward the other end of the clearing. Ebony can barely make out the dog-like head through the leaves. “Doesn’t seem happy with the fact that he lost.”

Ebony gulps as Howler slashes through another tree with little trouble. “Oh… And you’re just out here watching him?”

“No, I’m thinking,” he says after a moment. 

“It’s about that loss isn't it?” Ebony asks. She leans against him. “It’s not your fault, you’re a great Captain, we just didn’t know what we were sailing into.”

“It’s not that we lost, I’m fine with losing. The problem is that I almost lost you. I was caught up in a fight while you were about to die.” He pauses for a moment to look her in the eyes. “Ebony, are you sure you want to keep doing this? I don’t want to watch you die.”

“Captain, you should know by now, I don’t die easily. I will always stand at your side. Besides, where would I go? I have a higher chance of dying back in the hive, and I’d never see you again,” she finishes by giving him a quick kiss. “How about we go to the tavern? I’ve never seen you thinking without a bottle of rum next to you.”

He chuckles a little. “Bah, I can think without the bottle sometimes, but it does help. But, if I go I might lose you to Rose…”

“I love you too.” They hear heavy footsteps coming toward them. Howler smile down at them, though Ebony can feel sense some anger under it. “You want to come too?” He shrugs and sheaths his sword.

Captain looks around the clearing again and lets out a low whistle. “I think you cut down enough trees to build me a second ship.” He looks back toward, where he thinks, the town is. “Too bad it’s a pretty long way to drag them back.” Howler just shrugs and walks off into the jungle left of where Captain is looking, toward the town.

Ebony sighs and gets up, she help Captain up and they set out for the town as well. “So, why did you come all the way out here?”

“I kinda got lost and stumbled onto his little clear cutting area. So, I just sat down and figured I follow him when he was done.”

“Of course, you would never have found your way out there had you not been lost.” She uses her magic to hold a bush out of the way. Just a bit ahead of them Howler limps forward, his leg still injured from the fight. “I guess he came out here to do a bit of training.”

“Probably, I don’t exactly think he was cutting wood so he could build a house. From what I saw he didn’t improve much, just kept cutting through the trees in one swing.”

He might have just been blowing off some anger, she thinks. A shiver runs down her back. She turns around, once again sees no one following them. Ignoring the feeling she catches up to Captain. 




“You know, I heard that there’s a Zebrica merchant passing through. Suppose to have a lot of medicine,” Ebony says as they reach the edge of town. She casts a quick look at Starry’s house.

“Nah, we need a bit of a break.” He pokes her in the shoulder earning a yelp. “See?”

“Fine, I would just rather be on the ship out to sea rather than here.” She looks at the ponies that walk along the road. They all keep their eye trained on her. However, none of them dare to go after her with Captain and Howler nearby. “I think they still don’t like me.”

“Their problem, they’re just going to have to get used to you. After all, you did say you weren’t leaving,” he says with a laugh.

“You just really love to piss everyone off, don’t you?”

“Of course!” He gestures to the ponies around them. “Look at how fun it is!”

“Yes, real fun…” Ebony pauses for a moment and looks over at the Misfortune. A few ponies are moving around onboard. Looks like Smokey is feeling better.

“Where’s Rose’s ship?” Captain asks.

Ebony quickly looks across the harbor, but she can’t spot Rose’s schooner anywhere. Looking over at the tavern she sees the door is still closed, no one is moving behind the windows. “No clue, when I last saw her she was talking to an associate. She might have had to make a delivery. Guess that means the tavern’s closed though.”

“Captain!” They turn to a tired Twigs running toward them from the Misfortune. He takes a moment to catch his breath.” We… we have to leave.”

“What’s wrong?” Ebony asks.

“I don’t know, but it has something to do with Gale.”
> Chapter 35
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rose lets out a sigh once the door is closed. She turns to face the the stallion. “So, what brings you around, Current?” she asks.

Current looks from Rose to the door. “Sorry about that, but this is important.”

She walks back over to the other side of the counter and grabs her bottle again. “No need to be sorry, The Lucky Mare is closed anyways. Besides, I’m always willing to help a friend. So, what’s the problem?”

Current shifts nervously still standing in the middle of the room. “Some pirates are looking for the trident.”

Rose pauses for a moment, after a few seconds she starts laughing. “Is that all? If I knew that was it I wouldn’t have told Ebony to leave.”

“Rose, I’m serious. These pirates have been asking around and have been sailing the area for at least a week now.”

“Pirates sail everywhere, what makes them so different?” She finishes her bottle.

He stops his hoof onto the floor. “They passed right over the temple! They’re getting close to it, I’m sure.”

“And what do you think I could do? Fight them, sorry but my ship happens to be about half the size of most pirate ships. Don’t you guys have a military anyways?” Rose retorts.

“Not really, they’re all busy trying to stop the smugglers and sea beasts. I just think you should follow them, I know you’re ship has the firepower to stop them if you need to.”

Rose sighs and ducks under the counter for a moment. “Fine then, let’s pretend that they really are after the trident and they actually know where it is. How are they going to get it, it’s at the bottom of the ocean for buck sake.”

“Did you already forgot that I said we have smugglers? It’s not hard to pay them off to get anything.”

She pokes her head over the counter again. “Wait, are they willing to betray their entire race for some gold?! I don’t think anyone is stupid enough to paid to steal the most religious and powerful artifact of their own race!”

“You’d be surprised what some sea-ponies are willing to do.”

She thinks it over for a few seconds. “Fine, I’ll help you keep your bloody trident. But, only because no one should have something like that. So, what’s the ship’s name?” she asks heading for the door.

“Sea King.”

There is a heavy thud as Rose stops abruptly. “Gale! You mean the pirate you want me to go after is Gale!”

“I told you it was important.”

She simmers, glaring daggers at him. “Now, I don’t have a choice. Out of anyone, he should not have that type of power.” She points at the door. “Go and guard the stupid temple, while I get ready, and you had better damn well give me a hell of a night once this is all done.”

He gives a half-bow and walks out into the street. Rose huffs and heads up to the second floor. Remembering that Willow is still there she opens her bedroom door quietly. Willow is lying on her bed sleeping soundly. Rose creeps over to her drawer. Pulling it open she takes out an elegantly made sword, the blade has a red tint to it and a jewel is embedded in the hilt. The next thing she takes out is an odd metallic device, it looks to be able to fit a hoof. Rose slips it onto her right forehoof. The last thing she takes out is a saddle bag.

After attaching the sword belt around her waist she walks over to Willow. Smiling down at her friend she whispers, “I’ll be back soon.” With that she walks out the door, quickly throws a few bottle of rum into her saddlebag and starts for her ship.




Captain slams his hoof down on the railing of his ship, the part of the railing snaps off and falls into the sea. “Why would she go after him?”

Willow slinks back away from him, having already seen him in a rage and not wanting to go through it again. “Calm down, Captain,” Ebony says placing her hoof on his shoulder. She turns to Willow. “So, how do you know all this?”

“Because they didn’t know I was awake,” Willow says a bit more confident that Ebony is there.

“And why didn’t you stop her?”

Willow stammers for words, thankfully Ebony speaks first. “Captain, Rose wouldn’t have told us anyways. We’re hurt as it is.” She looks over the deck, they had brought the rest of the crew with them, even the unconscious Arrel though he is in the hold.  

“Don’t worry about her,” Starry says. “She owns a tavern, she knows how to handle a fight. What I would like to think about is how she is involved with sea-ponies, more so when it come to the matter of defending one of their most prized possessions.”

“I don’t know, they never really spoke much about it when they were talking.”

“Do you at least know where she’s going?” Captain asks. 

Willow points southward. “I saw her ship taking off that way.”




Rose leans against the railing breathing in the ocean air. An island sits off in the distance, not too far. A galleon is anchored just off the shore of the island. Her own schooner is anchored, and simply watching them.

“Do you think your friend could have just been over reacting?” asks the navigator, who is at the helm of the ship.

“No,” Rose replies, she keeps her eyes on the ship. “They might not be after the trident, but he’s up to something. Why else would he anchor here?”

“The why didn’t you just send Captain?”

“They’re busy recovering.” She looks down on the deck at her small crew, although larger than Captain’s, still smaller than what Gale has. She looks back up at the island, there’s no doubt they know she’s there.

The navigator sifts his stance but leaves the side of the helm to stand next to her. “So we just sit here till what happens?”

“We sit here until my friend comes.” A sharp whistle from her cuts across the deck catching the attention of a particular crewmate. Rose points to the crate he is sitting on. He cracks a smile and throws her a bottle of rum. “Might as well get ready,” she grumbles.

Just as she opens the bottle she spots a green-blue pony climb up over the railing on the portside. “Good to see you decided to tell us we can go,” she shouts then takes a swig.

He walks up the steps to stand next to her, he has a grim look to him. “It was taken, they slaughtered the guards and took it, I was lucky to get out.”

Rose winces at the statement. She looks back down at her crew who look up at her expectantly. “Fine, unfurl the sails!” She takes another swig. “Let’s get to them before anything else does!”

“What part of the military that I could muster together should be here soon.”

“Rose, we have a problem!” shouts the lookout. She turns to watch the Sea King’s sails fall into the wind. The galleon starts moving away from the shore, though Rose can still see a fair number of crew on the sand.

“Don’t bother fighting, just run. There’s no way you can win against that!” Rose starts making her way through the crowded deck. A few of her crewmates notice and start to follow behind her.

“Where are you going?” Current asks.

“They’re waiting for something, they could have easily waited for the few minutes it would have taken to get the rest of their crew onboard! I’m going to snuff out the welcoming party.” She walks up to a blue unicorn stallion with a green mane, a pair of glasses sit on his nose Rose punches him in the shoulder to catch his attention. “Starlight, get us over there!” The unicorn nods, but pop and flash of the teleportation is drowned out by the thunder of the Sea King’s cannons as it open fires.

Rose and her few crew mates appear in the jungle off the side of the beach. From where they appeared Rose can see the cannonballs ripping across the deck of her ship as it slowly turns away from the giant. She tries to look away from the scene and looks back at the beach. I hope Current’s army decides to help my crew first. Followed by her three crew members she makes for the cover of the bushes.

On the beach are about twenty crew, no crates or barrels, only crew. Gale is nowhere to be seen. Twenty against four. Rose turns back to Starlight. “How many do you think you can handle?”

“How many do you want me to leave for you?”

“How about you take those two," she points at her other two crew mates. "And maybe twelve of those guys?” She takes one of the bottles from her bag, a piece of cloth is sticking out of the top. With a quick twist a spark shoots from the device on her foreleg. “I get the rest.”

The unicorn nods. With a flash and a pop the three stallions are gone, so are most of the pirates on the beach. Those that remain look dazed and confused. With another twist she lights the cloth hanging out of the rum bottle on fire. She pulls out her other bottle and takes another swig. Time for some fireworks. 

Rose chucks the flaming bottle over at the pirates. None of the pirates notice it until it shatters on one of them, the pirate is engulfed in a ball of fire which also catches on another. The two pirates scream and flail as they burn. Rose doesn’t give the others time to figure out what’s going on. She jumps out of the bushes, she twists the device again and sprays out the rum she had drank. The spark catches on the alcohol quickly transforming the rum in a torrent of flame. Another pirate is caught in the fire breath.

A bullet flies past her as the pirates begin to fire at her. She jumps to the side avoiding another bullet. Neither of them bother to reload their guns, instead they draw their swords. Rose grins as they approach her, clearly weary of the fire she had used on the three others. She draws her sword and holds her ground. “I see you guys don’t recognize me. That’s fine, not good for your health though.” They continue all the same.

“Alrighty then.” She strikes at the nearest one, who lifts his sword to defend. Rose’s sword glows bright red and slashes straight through the blade, turning the area it made contact with into slag. The pirate doesn’t have time to scream as the sword burns it’s way through his chest. He fall to the ground in a flaming heap, the other stop and stare in shock. 

“I am Rose Wine, I have other names, but that is the most common. My enemies generally know me as Fire Rose, or Dragon-Breath Wine.” She swings her sword to the side sending a wave of fire over the sand. “I think you can guess why.”




Captain growls under his breath as he scans the horizon. Where are they? The ships leans slightly to the starboard as Howler makes a slight turn.

“Staring angrily at everything won’t solve anything,” Ebony says. She’s also leaning against the railing.

“It’s not that I think she’s in danger. It’s not that I want to be the one to beat him. It’s that he’s after some sort of super weapon, and if he gets it who knows what kind of damage he’ll cause.”

“Calm down, Rose can handle it. You should just take this as an opportunity to relax.” She gives him a kiss on the cheek, but his mood doesn’t improve. She sighs and walks away.

“How you holding up?” she asks the diamond dog. He gives her a nod. Ebony smile at him and walks to the hold of the ship. She uses her magic to light the lanterns that hang from the wooden cross beams, giving the inside of the ship an eerie glow.

“Yes, make this place more depressing, why don’t you?” Starry calls from further inside the hold.

Ebony sighs as she walks between the crates toward one of the cabins. “Sorry, the lanterns don’t tend to like my magic,” she says. Starry is sitting in the room next to Arrel. The pegasus is still heavily wrapped in bandages. “Still hasn’t woken up yet?”

Starry give Arrel a concerned look. “No, not yet.”

“Why did you bring him, knowing that me might end up in a naval battle?”

“I couldn’t just leave him!” Starry shouts. “I need to look after him. He saved me, now it’s my turn.”

Ebony is about to say something, but far off cannonfire kills the words before they form. She shares a glance with Starry before sprinting for the hatch. The ship veers suddenly to the portside sending her tumbling until she hits the hull. Once the ships evens out she runs up the steps.

Captain is at the helm as usual, the ship is pointed toward a small dot on the horizon. “What happened?” Ebony calls to him.

“Don’t know, but I do know that’s my old ship’s war cry though.”




Without giving the four remaining pirates time to do anything she swings her sword in a wide arch, a wave of fire flying off the edge. The closest one goes up in flames and screams as the wave washes over him. The other three jump out of the way, though not fast enough. The leg of one of them gets caught in the fire and he falls to the ground screaming in pain.

Getting back to his hooves one of the pirates charges her. Rose jabs her sword at him, even though he a good ten hooves away. A bolt of fire shoots from the tip of her blade, the pirate jumps to the ground. The bolt burns away a large section of his mane, though he avoids taking any actual damage, the bolt continues into the jungle. Before he can get back up another wave of fire washes over him.

She sends a blade of fire in the direction that the other two were in, this one traveling vertically. There is a new scream added to the mayhem as the one with the burnt leg is caught in the fire. Rose watches the last remaining pirate scurry off into the jungle.

The fire running along Rose’s sword dies out and she sheaths it back into her scabbard. She looks back out toward the sea as her ship circles back around. Better get out of the open before Gale comes back around. “Hmm, never expected to see you here.” Never mind.

She turns toward the jungle, the dark grey pegasus is standing before the trees. “Not on your ship?” she asks.

“Not in someone’s pants?”

“Oh, touché. Normally I would be willing to solve that problem, but this isn’t one of those times.” She draws her sword again. “Now, you can leave, and leave my ship alone. Or, I burn you to a crisp.” He grins at her and spreads his wing, a long metal weapon falls from under it. Oh, buck me straight up the ass.

She launches a wave of fire at him. He rolls out of the way, but not before he slips his hoof around the trident. Everything between Rose and the trees erupt in flames. She hears the hiss of extinguishing fire from behind her and soon she feels water lapping against her hooves. “Sure you want to fight me?” Gale shouts. A familiar low roar comes from her left, the type that only the sea can produce. She watches as a line of blue rises over the trees.

Rose quickly runs toward the line of flaming trees, knowing the alternative wouldn’t even give her a chance of survival. The roaring grows louder and is soon followed by snapping wood. She jumps through the fire, she screams as the fire licks at her side. Thankfully she lands on her unburnt side, she wipes away a couple of tears and sees Gale standing further inside the jungle.

Before she can move any further, the tidal wave slams into her and easily sweeps her away in the current. The water slams her into a tree and she gasps for breath but only gets water. A snap resounds around her and the tree give away, once again leaving her to the current. Another tree stops her, this time meeting with her back. And, as quickly as it came, it leaves and with it the laws of earth reasserts itself. She falls to the ground, coughing up water as soon as she hits the mud.




Captain watches as fires erupt across the beach of the island. He can see his old ship sailing around the island chasing after Rose’s far smaller one.

“Looks like we got here just in time,” Craven says.

“The heck is that?” Captain asks. More fires spread across the beach.

“I told you she’d be fine,” Ebony says. Rose’s ship passes in front of the island. Once it passes the tree line bursts into flames. “But, I never knew she could do this.”

“Uh… I mean the heck is that?” Captain points to the side of the island, a massive swell of water rises above the horizon. Before anyone can answer it starts rolling forward, morphing into a homemade tidal wave. They watch in horror as the wave rips across the beach, putting out all the little flames, uprooting trees, even picking up Rose’s ship and pushing it onto the island. Once the wave reaches the other end it disperses into the sea.

“Was that the trident?” Willow shouts from the other end of the ship.

The Sea King pulls along the beach, stopping for only a moment before continuing on. It completely ignores the beached ship and starts heading south. Misfortune veers wildly as Captain steers for the galleon. “Captain, Rose is still on the island!” Captain looks between Gale’s ship and Rose’s a few times, then he steers his ship back toward the island. 

Before they get much further something jerks the ship. The crew stumble back as the water beneath the ship begins to move. Large waves rise around the island, forming a wall of water around it. All at once they crash down on the small landmass. Rose’s ship is caught by one of the waves and is pushed across the island until it arrives in the middle where it meets the others. In less than five minutes, the island is gone.




Gale stands completely awed by the primal force ripping across the island less than a hundred hooves away. The barmare is gone, any trace of her gone. The wave passes and then disappears into the sea. He takes few steps onto the newly muddy ground, uprooted trees cover the ground, even the schooner his ship had been chasing is now on the island.

He smiles to himself. Nothing can stand against me. He slips the trident back under his wing and starts walking to the, now closer, shoreline. His ship comes around the island, he signals to them, the anchor falls into the murky water.

Not bothering to climb up, he grabs the steel chain of the anchor and signals to them to lift the anchor. He reaches over the side of his ship and lifts himself up. Taking a look at his crew they all seem to be keeping a good distance between him and them. “Well, what are you waiting for? Set sail for Kigerston!”

They scramble to get moving, afraid their captain will turn his newly acquired strength on them. One of them is brave enough to speak to him. “Sir, what's the plan now?”

“Don’t know, let’s see what I can do with it first.” The sailor nearly trips over himself trying to get away, almost positive that Gale meant testing it on him. Gale grabs the trident again and swings it around to the island. A low rumble fills the air as a wall of water rises up around it. With a quick swing the waves come crashing down. He loses sight of anything on the island, the ship, trees, small hills, in fact even the whole island. 

He smiles when the island is completely gone. “Well, I think we’re going to hold the entirety of Kigerston for ransom.”

“Uh, S-sir, what about the other ship?”

“Other ship?” He looks to the stern at a black-flagged brig. The ship, he learnt, that belongs to Captain. “Leave it, if he follows tell me. We’ll see how well he deals with the sea.”




A rumbling fills the air, with the sound of cracking wood. The ground trembles as a wall of white water comes crashing toward her. Nothing works, nothing wants to work. Her legs won’t move, she can't even lift her head, it’s getting hard to breath, all Rose can do is watch her impending death come rushing toward her.
> Chapter 36
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The crew of Misfortune watch in horror at the churring water where the island used to be. Some how Rose’s ship had survived, it leans heavily on it portside and it’s easy to see that it’s missing it’s sails and one of the masts. Slowly the water begins to calm down, until it shows no evidence that it just sunk an island, save for the number of trees floating in the water.

“Rose!” Ebony’s wings buzz to life and she hoovers a few hooves in the air. But, before she can fly over to the crippled ship there is a flash and pop onboard the Misfortune. She whips around to find Rose crumpled on the deck, her breathing is shallow and slow, Starlight stands nearby. Ebony zips over to Rose, closely followed by Starry. “Rose! You’re going to be okay, just stay with us.”

The rest of the crew quickly crowd around the barmare. Howler picks up Rose and rushes her down into the hold. Ebony splits off the group and heads over to Starlight and gives him a hug. “Thank you for bringing her back.” With that she heads down into the hold as well. 

Captain slumps down against the railing slowly coming to terms with what he saw. He sank an island, a whole island… Only a few trees dot the area where the island had been. Just gone… He looks over at the ship retreating in the distance. You’ve gone too far, Gale.

Getting back to his hooves he once again steers his ship for Rose’s schooner. There is another flash and pop and then Starlight is gone, probably back to the schooner. Captain spots Twigs walking toward him, the smaller stallion gives him a concerned look when he gets up to the helm. “So, what’s the plan?”

“Stop that thing from sinking, then go hunt down Gale.”




Starry and Ebony start to cast healing spells as soon as Howler sets her in one of the cabins. With a respectful bow he leaves, quickly ushering everyone else away as well. Starry slowly strokes her wet mane. “You’ll be okay.”

Ebony tries to focus on the massive bruise that covers her back. “What can simply get rid of an entire island?”

“I don’t know, but I would guess the trident,” Starry replies. She gets up and heads out of the cabin, she comes back less than a minute later with variety of medicines in her magic.

“And now Gale has it.” Ebony finishes on the back, it’s not great, but it is better than before. “Is there even any way we can beat that?”

Starry starts applying some ointment to the burn on Rose’s side, getting a groan out of her. “Probably not, do you think that’ll stop Captain?”

“No, it won’t. Gale’s going to need more than that toy to stop Captain. He’s going to need more than that to stop me, he hurt Rose and I ain’t just letting him walk away.”

They hear some chuckling coming from the bed, Rose smiles up at them. “Dream come true, waking up with two mares in my bed.” She chuckles again but it quickly turns into a coughing fit.

“Rose!” She barely manages to stop herself from hugging the barmare, instead she starts tending to the wounds again. “Calm down, you shouldn’t even be awake.”

She groans and rolls over, much to Ebony’s dismay. “Sweetie, there’s something a little more important than that right now.” Stumbling onto the ground she uses the bed to try and balance herself. “I remember fighting Gale, where is he?”




Misfortune easily bats the tree trunks way with it’s ram as it cuts through the water where the island should be. The usual crystal blue water is a murky brown, thankfully hiding what happened.

“It’s a miracle that thing’s even floating,” Twigs mutters. Indeed, Rose’s ship has several massive gashes in the portside, even the remains of a tree sticking out from the hull. The mast it lost is floating about two hundred hooves away.

Captain looks back over to where Gale went, the ship is little more than a dot in the distance. Where are you going now? Shouting from below deck draws his attention, Rose comes limping out of the hold followed immediately by Starry and Ebony. She seems to be barely able to walk, but still she makes her way toward Captain.

“You recovered quickly,” Captain says.

“Ha ha,” she says wincing. “Not that I’m grateful, but what are you all doing here?”

“I may have told them,” Willow says from off to the side.

She smiles at the deer, then turns back to Captain. “Well, thanks for the help. But, you should really shouldn’t get involved, this isn’t exactly your issue to deal with.”

Captain slams his hoof into the deck cracking a few of the boards. “I have nothing to do with this!? Gale is my problem to deal with and not yours!”

Rose meets his glare in full. “You guys are in no condition to fight him, just leave him to me.”

He snorts and nudges his head to the portside as his ship pulls up next to the schooner. “I think you’re in worse condition than us.”

She looks down at her crippled ship, her crew running around trying to keep it afloat. Her crew has been cut down to less than half of what it originally was. “Sweetie, I understand you want to do this, but you don’t know what he has. He--”

“Has something that can sink an island , I don’t care. He has it, and he’ll use it against anyone that’s in his way. I’m not going to let that happen.”

“Trust me, sweetie, this is not something you want to deal with.” She takes a step forward, but there is a green flash and she stumbles to the deck. Her vision fades and her eyelids become heavy.

“Sorry, but I don’t want you getting anymore hurt. We’ll handle it,” Ebony says, her horn still glowing green as Rose slips into a sleep.

Captain nods and takes a step forward. “Howler, get her back onto her ship. Twigs, make sure it doesn’t sink and make it fast, we have some water to cover. Craven, help with the repairs. Smokey, Ebony, load the cannons. Starry, I want a course to wherever they’re heading. Willow, go get Arrel, we’re sending him back as well.”

“No we’re not,” comes a voice from the hold. A light blue pegasus limps up to the group, keeping all his weight off his broken leg. He looks downs at the crippled ship then back at Captain. “Not sure what’s going on, but I’m helping.”

“Arrel!” Starry runs forward and takes him into a hug, completely ignoring his yelp of pain. They stay like that for a moment before Starry holds him back out at arm’s length and gives him a stern glare. “You’re leaving, I don’t want you getting hurt.”

“Too late for that, honey.” Before he can let her protest he points down at the schooner. “Also, I’m not about to let anyone get away with hurting a member of our crew.”

Captain smiles down at him. “You sure you want to do this, do you even know what we’re up against?”

“What?”

“Gale with a god-weapon.”




Several hours later, Gale leans against the mast of his ship smiling at the harbor of Kigerston. He tightens his wing against the trident at his side. Let them quake before me, or let them sink under me.

Out in the harbor one of his rowboats paddles toward the docks, but is cut off by a navy galleon. Gale watches silently as the galleon takes everyone onboard the boat and heads back to the fort. “I don’t think they’re going to pay the ransom,” he says. He turns to look at the other galleon in the harbor, Nightmare’s Revenge.

“What are you gonna do, Flint?” he says under his breath.

“Well, that was a bust,” someone mutters. Gale gives him a quick glare, causing the sailor to skulk away.

“I haven’t shown them what I can do, I don’t expect them to pay it… yet.”

“Sir, the ship is back.”

“Hm?” Gale turns to spot Misfortune in the distance off the stern of his ship, but is quickly approaching. He laughs and looks back at Flintlock’s galleon as it and the other navy ship leave the port and head toward him. “Would you look at that, it’s a little reunion!” Swinging the trident into his hooves he points it at the harbor. “Let’s show them the power of a god.”

“Sir, should we be doing this?” one of the braver sailors ask.

“Hm, what do you mean?”

“Think of how many lives you’re about to take. I’m one for money, but I don’t want to kill an entire city to get it.”

“I don’t really care,” Gale replies bluntly. He focuses on the weapon in his hoof. The water to the bow of the ship begins to swell as he prepares a tidal wave. “Well Flint, let’s see how well--”

Distant cannons roar and a volley of cannonballs slam into the hull of the pirate galleon jerking the whole thing forward a little. Gale stumbles forward and swings the trident around to balance himself, unleashing the wave in the process. The wave tears across the harbor before crashing into a small neighbourhood. The two navy galleon veer away from the Sea King.

Gale whips around to face Misfortune as the ship sails through the cloud of smoke it let up from its volley. He growls and tighten his grip around the trident, winds begin to blow and the ocean’s waves begin to pick up. “Fine, if you want to fight, so be it!” Swinging the trident around he lets out a massive wave toward the brig.




With the wind at their back, the Misfortune races over the waves as the island comes over the horizon. Captain can see the black sails of Gale’s ship sitting outside the harbor. Thank the seas we’re faster.

“Is he going to flood Kigerston?” Ebony asks from his side.

“Seems that way.”

“You sure we can beat that type of power?”

“Yeah, but if we don’t it’ll be one hell of a blaze of glory.”

Ebony looks over at the ship for a few seconds, then down at the crew. “So, how are we going to beat a weapon from the gods?”

“Because I know everything about that ship. I can tell you we’re faster than it, and, unless he changed the cannons or ‘munitions, we have a longer range than it as well.” He takes out his spyglass and looks out toward the galleon.

He can make out Gale, barely, but can still see the one-winged pegasus. Gale is paying no mind to the Misfortune, rather he is smiling out over the harbor. The trident pokes out from behind his wing. “Well, he doesn’t seem to notice us.” One of the sailors comes up to Gale pointing in Captain’s direction, the pegasus glances at the ship then shrugs it off. “Or, he doesn’t care…”

Ebony looks down at the cannons. “How ‘bout we give him something to focus on rather than the city.”

Captain watches Gale draw the trident. He put the spyglass away and grabs the helm again. “Hold on,” he shouts and veers the ship hard to port. The crew grabs what they can to keep balanced, though Smokey starts aiming the cannons. “Aim!” The cannons glow with dark blue magic and turn to aim at the distant galleon. “Fire!” With a roar the cannons breath fire and launch the iron balls at the ship.

Misfortune veers again as Captain turns back toward the galleon, wanting to have the ship a bit further within their firing range. A small smile forms as the cannonballs find their mark and splinters of wood fly from the ship. “Reload the cannons!”

To his dismay he sees an abnormally large wave wash into the harbor and crash into a section of the coast. Houses are flatten, trees uprooted, and ponies washed out to sea with the water. Within seconds the water becomes rougher, the waves higher, the wind stronger, and the skies darker. “Captain, I don’t think we have the longer range,” Ebony says.

Captain looks back at Gale’s ship fully expecting a barrage to rain down on Misfortune, but what he sees is far worse. A wall of white water roars toward them hiding the ship behind it. “Oh, Celestia help us,” Starry mutters.

“Hold on!” Captain tries shouting over the approaching roar. He turns the ship toward the wave, and charges at it head on. The wave is as tall as the mast. Soon the roar of the wave drowns out any other sounds, save for the sound of the ship slamming into it. The water rises up to the railing of the ship, quickly washing across the deck.

Misfortune rears back as the wave simply starts pushing it along. The ship starts turning to the starboard and threatens to capsize. But, before long the ship bursts over the top of the wave and splashes down behind it.

“Arrel, Craven, distract him!” Captain shouts turning his ship back around. They nod and fly off.

The Sea King’s sails flutter flutter open and catch the strengthening wind. It begins to turn, aiming to get Captain in their range. Even before it gets into firing range Gale launches a torrent of high pressure water.

Gale smiles as it rips along the portside, leaving a large gouge in the ship. “You were always too stubborn to accept defeat.” He starts moving the torrent across the rest of the ship ripping away more of its planks. “You’re hopelessly outgunned, yet you--”

“Watch out!” one of his crew shouts as he tackles Gale to the deck. Less than a second later a pegasus slashes through the air where he had been. Gale kicks the crew mate off him and gets back to his hooves. He turns just as Arrel comes back for another strike. 

The sound of the clashing weapons is unheard through the thunder of the cannons as Sea King unleashes a barrage. Arrel’s sword deflects harmlessly off of the trident and he starts circling around. Gale goes to launch a torrent of water at him, but finds something quite a lot larger before him.

Craven lunges forward, Gale catches it with the shaft of the trident and shifts it away for him. The pegasus rams into the him sending him stumbling back. Once he regains balance, he sees the blue tinted metal of the trident as it comes streaking at him. He tilts his spear and blocks with the shaft, but the trident simply slides along it until it hits the spearhead and snaps it off.

With a few flaps of his wings Craven skips backward a few hooves before he flies. He turns to fly back to the ship, but a tendril of water wraps around his torso. Gale motions toward the water and the griffon plummets into the sea. In the background he sees Misfortune cominga bit too close for comfort.

He rises the trident, but a quick dot speeding across the sky catches his attention before he can crush the ship. Arrel makes a sharp turn straight at Gale again. Gale draws his arm back, ready to lunge forward and impale the pegasus. 

As Arrel closes the gap between the Gale lunges forward. Arrel rears back and flaps harder, bringing him to a full stop almost instantly. Without anything in his way Gale tumbles forward, quickly going into a roll and comes out striking at the pegasus again, who is well above him at that point.

“Sir!” one of the crew calls out.

Before he can turn he hears someone else shouting, “Brace!”

With a the sound of crunching wood a terrible impact shudders through the ship. The force sends the ship turning to the portside. Gale falls to the deck, landing on his back. A another set of sails comes into view. Slowly the sound of snapping wood dies down only to be replaced by water as it rushes in through the damage.

Captain is sent slamming into the helm of his ship as the two collide. But, nevertheless he smiles as the ram of his ship cuts into the hull. He stands back up as the sounds of the impact fade away. “Howler, get rid of the interior cannons. Ebony, Smokey, clean up the top deck and disable the cannons. Arrel, cut down their sails, stopping them from running. Starry, and Willow, kill anyone that comes onto my ship.”

He vaults over the helm and runs for the bow of the ship. He jumps into the other ship through the hole in the side, landing with a splash in the quickly filling hull. Most of the pirates inside ignore him and try to patch up the damage, but those that go after him soon find Howler in their way.

A few sailors rush down the steps into the hold to help stem to flow of water. They don’t pay Captain any mind, more focused on the source of the flooding. It doesn’t take long before Captain is above deck looking at the chaos as Gale’s crew try to deal with the long range fire of Ebony and Smokey.

Gale himself is standing in the middle of it all, shouting commands at his crew, trying to restore some sense of order. That is, until he spots Captain, he growls and starts making his way him.

Captain unsheathes his sword and makes his way toward his old friend. “What’s wrong with you? Why would you attack Kigerston?” he shouts, but Gale doesn’t bother answering, instead he charges at him. Captain slashes at him, the pegasus drops and slides along the deck, he takes out Captain’s legs with the shaft of the trident.

The earth pony hits the deck with a thud, he rolls onto his hooves. Just as quickly Gale gets to his hooves. Gale lunges again, Captain’s blade slides between two of the three barbs that top off the weapon, stopping the lunge. With a twist he points the barbs away from him and taking a step forward winds up a punch. Gale brings the shaft up, but it doesn’t stop the punch. Captain’s hoof still sends him sliding across the deck.

He cringes against the throbbing in his shoulder. Bucking brute, Gale thinks. Heavy vibrations through the deck tell Gale that Captain is charging. He opens his eyes to see that Captain is almost at him. Captain jumps at him, prepared to crush Gale’s head.

“I won’t lose!” Gale shouts. He swings the trident over him, focusing as much energy as he can into it. It hits Captain in the side of the head and he falls down a few hooves to the side. Gale uses the trident to lift himself up as Captain staggers onto his hooves as well. Gale charges again, but three bolts of green magic cut him off and leaving small scorch marks on the deck. 

Gale whips around to the changeling hovering off the portside, above the deck of the Misfortune. He jumps back as another volley of magic bolts hit the deck in front of him. Out of the corner of his eye he sees Captain getting back on his hooves. He looks back at Ebony, a grin forms at the growing line of water rising over the horizon. Captain follows his gaze and takes a step back at the approaching wave.

Slowly, the sounds of fighting and chaos die down only to be replaced by the roar of the wave and panicked shouts. Ebony and Smokey fly higher up trying to get above the wave. Before they can get too far the wave slams into the stern of the Misfortune. The impact pushes it further into the portside and the pirate galleon begins keeling over. The sound of the ram cutting through the barnacle encrusted planks can’t be heard over the roar. The water quickly washes over it and slams into the galleon.

Ebony zips between Smokey and the wave as though being there could stop it. The wave swats them out of the air and easily crashes over the deck of the large ship. For an instant the world becomes nothing more than blurred colors and a deafening roar for Captain as the water slams him against the railing. He barely even recognizes one of the mast snapping off and destroying the rail and few hooves away from him.

Gale gazes in amazement at the water rushing around him. He leans on the trident held in front of him taking a closer look at the wall of water rushing past. It tears away at the deck outside of his protective circle. He leans further forward as the ship begins to turns over, but before it capsizes the wave passes leaving the ship at an odd angle.

“Not even Celestia can match me,” he says looking at the water filled with floating corpses, masts, planks, and panicking pirates. He sees Captain crumpled up against the rail, the rising and lowering of his chest showing that he is still alive. Gale sighs and walks over to him being careful to keep his footing on the angled, wet deck. “You really are too stubborn for your own good.”

He pokes Captain with the shaft of the trident earning a groan of pain. “You don’t sound too good.” He pokes him again getting the same response. “This would have never happened had you just let me be. But, you always thought you were stronger, tougher, always thought everything was your business.”

Captain reaches over and grabs the trident. Gale frowns down at him and tugs it away, but finds that it won’t move. Slowly Captain starts getting up, Gale kicks him to try and free the weapon, but it does nearly nothing. Soon Captain is back on his hooves.

He delivers an uppercut to Gale’s chest, lifting the pegasus and throwing him over his shoulder. Gale uses his one wing to roll midair to avoid being smashed into the broken mast. The quick twist make Captain lose his grip on the trident and Gale is sent falling over on the other side of the mast.

Gale swipes the trident upward, the deck under Captain begins the rumble and crack. He jumps back as a geyser of water shoots out of the deck where he had been standing. After a few seconds Gale decides to stop the torrent of water. As soon as the water stops Captain jumps over the newly formed hole and the mast and charges Gale.

The pegasus immediately starts the torrent again, but not before Captain jumps the hole. The water blasts some of the planks into the air. He sidesteps Captain’s slash, but Captain presses forward and rips his blade out of the deck. Gale deflects two more strikes, then tries impaling Captain. Captain catches the trident just below the blades, and as soon as he touches it the geyser of water stops.

Gale jumps back, bring the trident with him, and the geyser starts again. Captain looks back at it then to the trident. So, it doesn’t work when someone else is holding it? Before he can question it any further the deck starts the tremble again. He jumps to the side a moment before another geyser rips through it.

He quickly close the distance between the two again. Gale jabs at him to keep him away, Captain blocks it. Captain slashes at his head, but Gale ducks below the blade and bring the trident close. Gale lunges forward, the three barbed prongs sink into Captain’s gut, at the same time the geyser stop again.

Captain inhales sharply and doubles over. He feels Gale tug on the trident, but he grabs it to stop it from being pulled out. He stands up again and kicks Gale in the hip, earning a loud crack and screams from the pegasus. Gale falls back bringing the trident with him, Captain screams as the barbs rip through his flesh.

Through the pain Captain pulls Gale toward him, and punches at him again. His hoof connects with the side of Gale’s head, the blow knocks him out and send him crashing to the ground. Captain throws the trident out to sea and falls to the deck himself clutching at the gaping wound.

He looks over at Kigerston harbor and the two navy galleons. “Thanks for the help, assholes.” The docks lie in tatters from the massive waves and most of the building near the dock look a little flooded. Nightmare’s Revenge is docked on one of the few surviving docks helping manage the damages. “At least Flint’s helping someone.”

Then the boom of cannon ring through the air. Captain looks over at the other galleon, partially hidden in smoke as it open fires on the crippled ships. The deck around him explodes showering him with in splinters. The blast sends Gale falling into the sea and leaves Captain’s ears ringing. He tumbles down the deck until he hits the railing again with a sharp gasp of pain.

His vision slowly fades to dark, and the sounds become muffled. He only hear the roar of the next volley before everything goes dark.
> 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.”