The Sea Singer

The Sea SingerChapter Seven: Peacemaker(Fair warning: Most of the Sea Singer has been pretty tame so far, but this chapter will feature the first real battle in the storyline, with intense amounts of sweet, sweet violence. It won't have absurd quantities of blood and/or gore being flung around, but it'll definitely be a few shades darker than it has been so far. So if you don't like reading about red-shirted crewmembers and nameless troops being shot to death and stabbed in the face, click away.)...     Predator and Prey.     It's one one of the oldest and most basic relationships between two sentient beings that has ever existed. The predator chases after the prey in a desperate quest to sate its hunger, to stave off starvation as it grows nearer and nearer with each passing day. The prey, in turn, flees with all the haste that it can muster, using any means necessary to escape the fierce predator's grasp and maybe live another day on this planet. The predator gives chase, the prey runs. Nature at its most primal.     Hundreds of thousands of years of evolution and scientific development later, this relationship still remains the same. Kill or starve, flee or die. While, in the case of the Sea Singer, the concept was made a little more complicated than a wolf chasing a rabbit through the forest, the general principle still stood. The government ponies wanted to arrest us, and we didn't want to be arrested. They were predator, we were prey. They gave chase, we fled.     And flee we did.     I was leaning on the guardrails of the ship's stern looking through a long polished brass spyglass. The foreleg-sized device gave me a uncomfortably close image of the angry mass of military hardware that rolled across the Green Sea at an alarming speed. The hulking airship was probably a few tons heavier and a few knots faster than a standard Gemini I model of airship, and that meant we were about to meet a full battalion of troops that probably wanted nothing more in life than to manhandle every one of us into a four-by-four jail cell and throw the key off the side of an airship.     Peacemaker, the black and blue behemoth said on its forward hull. Ironic, since ships like that made no peace with my type. If we didn't surrender immediately then it's likely that they'd try to board by force. If they couldn't capture the ship on hoof, then they would just blow us out of the sky. If they can't blow us out of the sky then they'd try to catch up with us. If they couldn't do that...well, that's when we were okay. I've seen them try the same damn thing over and over, as per standard operating procedure for chasing crooks. The EBRoT military might have been the most well equipped and well trained force on the whole planet, but they were SO damn predictable some times.     I fished a little black trottie-talkie from my coat and flipped the "On" switch "Crowe, how long do we have 'til those EBRoT clowns are crawling up our plotholes?"     My security officer's voice came in clearly through the radio "Gimme a sec..." he mumbled back. There was a short pause and the sound of wood scraping on wood came through as Crowe fiddled with his abacus. "Alright, I got it. If I did the math right and both of us go on full burn the whole time, the ship should be on us in aboooout... thirty minutes."     "Crap."     Thirty minutes. We were on a clock now. I checked my watch: half past twelve. Half an hour. Time to get going.      I stuffed the trottie-talkie back into my coat and did an about-face. I ran down the stairs that led up to the platform above my quarters, taking them two at a time. I rushed into the middle deck where every one of the sailors gave one another nervous glances. There were few things in this sea that made the  mares and stallions on the Singer skiddish. Unfortunately for us, pursuing military vessels were one of them.     I hopped up on top of a conviently placed shipping crate, grabbing everypony's attention. Clearing my throat, most of the crew gathered in a loose semicircle around me "Alright fillies and gents," I said "I'm sure your all aware of the ship full of angry EBRoT goons on our tails." This gained me a few yeps and no shits from the crew.     "I won't lie to you, were in deep shit...again. I just talked to our security officer, he said that they'll be within spitting distance in thirty minutes, and we'll be crawling with troops in thirty one. We're not going to let them get that close."     A dirty, beefy, red mare with an anchor for a cutie mark separated herself from the group, I think her name was Helga or something. "How the hell are we going to do that?!" she demanded "This ship ain't fast enough to get us the hell outta' dodge! And they'll outnumber us two-to-one!"     "We're going to fight." I answered immediately, eliciting several groans from the sailors "Sure, those guys have a bigger stick than us, and way more ponies that can swing it. But we can do some things that they can't. We can play dirty."     I cracked a confident smile at my crew "We don't follow the rules of engagement. They do, and we can use that against them. All's fair in love, smuggling, and war. Am I right or am I right?"     "Yeah..."  nine or ten of the fifty total sailors half-agreed.     "So... I want every one of you land-kissing milk-drinkers to get you dirty flanks down the the armory and load yourself with guns til' you can barely walk! I'm talkin' about a rifle in every hoof that can hold one, and a pistol in every holster that didn't have one before. If we run out of guns, use your swords, and if those are gone, you beat them with your bare hooves! If your hooves start bleeding, use your skulls! Celestia knows how thick you ponies are in the head. But you don't stop fighting until they do! Agreed?"     "Yeah!" About half of the crew heartily cheered.      "I want you all to kick, bite, claw, and use any means that you can send these pigs packing, back to their pathetic excuse for a boat. Gouge the eyes, pull the manes, go for the throat, and (Celestia willing) hit below the belt."     "YEAH!" All of the sailors agreed in a chorus.     "These navy clowns are gonna come at us with everything that they've got. They'll hit fast, and they'll hit hard. But we're just going to have hit faster and harder! Those assholes are coming for us, coming to take away our way of life so that they can continue theirs! Are we gonna sit around with our hooves in our mouths and let them do it? Are we gonna take that?!"     "NO!"     "Repeat after me: WE'RE NOT GONNA TAKE IT!"     "WE'RE NOT GONNA TAKE IT!"     I cupped a hoof to my ear and leand closer to the ecstatic group of sailors "WHAT?! Are you all half -asleep? Once more."     "WE'RE NOT GONNA TAKE IT!" The noise from the vocal chords of fifty airponies was deafening.      "That's right!" I stood on my hind legs in a showmanistic way and pointed off to the starboard side of the Singer "I want all artilleryponies to ready the canons, and pray that we won't need to use them. Also, somepony tell Doctor Cotton to ready the infirmary,  she's gonna take on some patients."     The ponies gave a collective "AYE CAP'IN!" and bolted off.     I drew an invisible line with my hoof down the center of the crowd "I want that half of you to go set up barricades in case they take the fighting below deck! Go go go!" They all galloped off as well "The other half of you grab as many guns as you can carry and pass them out like they were peices of candy! If I see a sailor without at least a loaded flintlock and a sword at their side, I will personally shove a cannon ball where the sun ain't shinin'. Got it?"     "AYE CAP'IN!"     "Good. Off with you, then." And so, they all dispersed in the other direction, leaving the main deck empty.      Well, relatively empty. Alone stood one little pegasus filly looking up at me with determined eyes.     "Breeze," I said "Go to my quarters and grab that pistol under the desk like I showed you. If anypony that isn't part of the crew comes in, shoot 'em."     "But I want to help fight!" she instantly responded, as if fully expecting me to say what I said "You know I can shoot a gun just as well as any other part of the crew."     "Oh goddesses, this again." I jumped off of the box and looked my niece dead in the eye "No."     "But--"    "Nope."     "I won't--"     "Not a chance in Tartarus."     "But I'm just as much a part of this ship as anypony else is! Why can't I help keep it safe?!"     "Now listen here, Easybreeze, and listen good. I ain't sayin' that you're any less a crewmember than any other pony that flies under these sails, but the difference between you and them is that you're young. You got plenty of good years ahead of you. Puttin' your life on the line for your ship might sound nice in your head, but you won't be thinkin' those thoughts any more when a bullet tears through your skull."     She grunted and stomped her hoof on the floorboards "But Sweetie, Scootaloo, and Applebloom were, like, three years younger than I am when they started sailing with you like this!"     "That was when we didn't have an evil government bureau snapping at our hooves."     Before she could retort, my trusty, ditzy first mate loudly burst through one of the hatches that went below deck. She spotted Breezy and I and galloped over to us, momentarily tripping over her own forelegs and landing right at my hooves. "Captain!" she said, springing up  "We got a ship named Peacemaker calling on the short wave, they're asking for you."   I snorted "Probably to "accept our surrender" or something." I checked my watch: twenty seven minutes. "Can't I just let it go to voice mail?"     The two ladies stared at me blankly.     "Fine."X-X-X-X-X     Scootaloo was furiously mashing buttons on the console and hollering engineer-speak at AB through the intercom when I trotted onto the bridge.     "What do you mean flooded?!" she hollered angrily into the comm.     "Zzzt Ah'm sayin' we done pumped too much coolant into the number one chamber in engine two!" Applebloom said through the speakers "We're gonna need at least three minutes to drain it, else we end up shutting the whole engine down for three hours. bzzt"     "We don't have three minutes OR three hours! I can't do anything less than full burn until that ship is a speck on the horizon."     "Zzzt Well, we ain't got no choice! bzzt"     "Just see what you can do, okay?"     Silence from the other end.     "You two alright?" I asked.     Scootaloo, not looking away from the flashing lights on the console, waved at me dismissively "We'll get this sorted out. AB's always holding back on something. She'll fix it, whether it's impossible or not."     "Anyway," Scoots grabbed the radio from its position on the console and passed it to me "You've got a call on the short wave. Must be telemarketers or something."     "Funny." I switched the radio on "This is Captain Cloudstrider of the Airship Sea Singer speaking...who the hell are you and what do you want from us?"     "Cloudstrider..." the radio crackled. The voice on the other end was masculine, but not too deep, and sort of smooth in a way. Whoever it was sounded like he belonged on a radio talk show "I've been waiting a long time to hear your voice."     "Cut the bullshit, bub." I gruffly said into the mic "I know you're here to either capture my ship, or sink her into the Green Sea. So just do your little monologue song and dance about how you're going to mount my balls above your fireplace and convert my ship into a fast food joint, and then maybe we can both get on with our lives."     "Not one for formalities, are you?" He hummed thoughtfully, then line went silent for a few moments "That makes two of us. And you're right, for the most part. I am here to ruin your day. To rain on your parade, as it were. I'm that stallion who would like nothing more than to see you in chains. So if you hand your ship over immediately, I get my wish, and you won't have to worry about getting caught anymore. Oh, but who am I kidding? After all, you are the unflappable Captain Cloudstrider, the dashing hero of this mad work of fiction! You'd never give in to a "corrupt" military mind like myself, now would you?" He chuckled darkly "No... you'll run away like you always have. That, I am sure of."     "Well, you're not an idiot, I'll give you that." I replied "It's good to know that there is at least one EBRoT officer that's decent enough to be earnest with me. I like you. Don't get me wrong, I still hate every aspect of your little government bureau, but I still like you."     "How civilized of you. You may not be the barbarian that EBRoT made you out to be after all. Be you a decent pony or not, it's still my duty to arrest you. Prepare your ship to be boarded."     "I'm guessing you didn't get the memo, huh? Celestia wiped my slate clean in exchange for a favor. A favor which I'd get right back to, if you'd let me."     There was the longest pause at the other end of the line. Scoots, Derpy, and I silently shared looks with one another. Then he came back and said "My records don't indicate anypony by the name of Cloudstrider on the royal payroll, much less a smuggler. I must warn you that lying to me any further would be a poor career choice on your part."     "I'm sure it would, but you do realize that I won't give my ship up without a fight, right?"     "I do. In fact, I'd be dissapointed if I didnt cross swords with you at some point. I'll see you on deck, Strider."     "That's Captain Strider to you!" I barked into the radio before immediately hanging up.     "That didn't bode well." Scootaloo dryly observed.      "No kidding. He's coming for us for sure." I sighed heavily and massaged my temples. This was turning out to be a stresful day "Looks like a battle is enevitable. Scoots, when I give you the word, I'm going to need you to use it."     "Wait, you mean it? That it?!." she groaned " We only have two more its left, and I'm pretty sure it's terrible for the engine. We just had it tuned up for Sisters' sake!"     "Well, we don't have another choice, now do we?"     "No, but..."     "No buts. That's an order."     "Aye, Captain." She said with obvious reluctance in her voice.X-X-X-X-X     They were on us.     The Peacemaker was less than klick away when the first set of Berau troops set their horshoes on the deck of my ship. It was a tactic that EBRoT used once in a blue moon, the commanding officer would send five groups of two pegasai and one unicorn over to cause a hundred different kinds of mayhem. The pegasai would drop the unicorn down to the main deck, who would in turn try to zap the crew and torch the sails with destruction magic. Then the pegasai come in behind them with their blades and muskets, highly trained to use both weapons with deadly efficency.      I watched five vague specks flying in a tight formation slowly become larger shapes on the horizon. The cluster of ponies broke off into three groups; two squads going on either side of the Singer, one flying over the stern and dropping directly from above.     The one from above was the first to touch down. The armored battlemage dropped like a block of concrete from ten feet high.... That poor sailor never saw it coming, those bastards must have been aiming for him. The crewmember, his name was Smithy as I recall, had served for quite awhile on the Singer, and he was one of the nicest stallions that I had ever met. He had been serving on the ship for five whole years, going on six. Everypony knew him, he was alway a hard worker, and an avid joker. That guy had a sense of humor that'd make a brick wall crack a smile every once in a while. I remember loosing a hooful of bits to him a few times in poker, but he was always a good sport about it. I liked Smithy.    Smithy's bones made a stomach-churning crunch as three hundred pounds of muscle and steel landed atop him. He was killed instantly, thank the Sisters that it had been quick.     I had no time to process what had happened, no time to mourn for my friend, I only had time to react. The unicorn's horn was already flaring with a red hot fire spell, and he was looking directly at another sailor, poised to let it loose.     My hooves were moving before I even knew it. With an adrenaline-boosted leap, I threw all my weight against that goon. It hurt my side like hell when I collided with the heavy armor, but it barely even registered in my head, all that mattered to me was eliminating the threat to my crew.     With all my momentum, I fell down along with the soilder. We were sprawled out in a tangle of limbs and metal, both a little bit stunned. My first reflex was to draw my iron cutlass and drive it through his eye socket, but the reinforced helmet visor deflected it uselessly. With a swift headbutt, said visor impacted against my skull, forcing me to cry out and loose the blade from my jaws.     Nursing a newly formed migrane, I rolled off of the nameless EBRoT solider. We both picked ourselves off of the deck. By now the whole ship had erupted into chaos, with five armored unicorns and ten bladeslinging pegasai versus thirty or so armed smugglers and their captain. The boat rocked with iron clashing with iron and musket shots being exchanged between enemies. There were gunshots that rung in your ears hours after the fight was  over, primal cries of pain that could drive a lesser pony mad, and harrowing near death experiences that would haunt your dreams for years to come.     My foe took a leap backward, moving with ease that should not have been afforded to somepony wearing armor like that. His horn lit up in a dull red light as he prepped another destruction spell. I, in response, drew my flintlock and leveled it at his head. He aimed the spell at me, I aimed the gun at him. Nopony fired, both combatants awaited the other's move.     "It appears we have ourselves a Marexican standoff." I shouted over the clatter of combat. These kind of things happened all the time in the Green Sea. Both ponies have the chance to kill one another, yet neither of them moves. It's a pause in which the two parties take time to whip their muddled thoughts into order. You see it in the movies all the time. I don't know why either pony takes advantage of their opponent's hesitation.      Boom! My flintlock roared, and in the blink of an eye, the half-face visor was nothing but cracked glass, and the pony behind it was dead. His body clattered to the ground lifelessly. I dared not look under the tinted glass, fearing the face of the pony I had just slain. I didn't even learn whether he was a he or a she. It was better that way.     I cooly shoved my gun back into its holster and drew a fresh one, shot and powder already loaded into it. Oh goddeses, I had just killed another pony. I hate killing ponies. Some psycho criminals out there get a rush from ending another's life, ponies like mercenaries, serial killers, and hitmares. Maybe doing it makes them feel more alive. Maybe they're addicted to the adrenaline high that comes from combat. Who knows? All I know is that I'll never throw my hat in with the likes of those ponies. Ever. I hate killing ponies.    I shook those thoughts from my head. No time to dwell, I've got a battle to win.     Just as the thought of fighting entered my head, an enemy pegasus solider flew over it. With the biting noise of metal on wood, he crashed into the deck less than five feet away from me. I only had enough sense to gape as the black towering figure that was Oakfang almost casually sauntered over to the prone goon. With practiced ease, the diamond dog brought his lengthy oaken longbow up to bear and nocked an arrow. Oak only needed to draw the string back halfway to do what he intended to do.     If somepony was looking very carefully at Oakfang that day, then they could see the dog use his claw to slice a small notch into the bow.     "Cloud!" I heard the strained voice of one of my sailors from behind me. I whipped my head around to see an armored pegasus charging my way, the cutlass clenched in his or her jaws shone for a split second as the sunlight caught it at just the right angle.     My one and only pistol shot merely grazed off of his armor, doing no damage at all to my attacker. I dropped the second gun and out came my sword for a block-- Argh! Damn thing was still lying somewhere on the deck. His blade barely missed my neck as I weaved under the first blow. I tried to counter with a swift punch in the gut, but my hoof just erupted into pain against that rutting barding. I hate armor.     His next attack came as a forward thrust at my chest Thankfully, I backpedaled far enough so that the tip of his blade only dug a gash into me about an inch deep. I stumbled backward and clutched a hoof to my wound. My normal navy blue hoof came back a color of crimson red.     That was gonna hurt like hell later.     The pegasus followed up that small victory with another thrust at a slightly different angle. My only choice to avoid being  impaled was to lose balance and fall on by back.      The solider took advantage of my brief moment of total vulnerability and swung her blade in an overhead arc. I rolled away on to my stomach and the sword cut a chunk out of the ship's deck rather than myself. I silently thanked the Sisters when I saw my own cutlass within hoof's reach. I barely had enough time to pull myself upright and bring the sword to bear before my attacker had pulled her own sword out of the wooden floor.     We were on even ground now. Well, even-ish ground; he still had his barding. There were only a few weak points on a fully-armored EBRoT solider: the one opening between the helmet and the shoulder where their jugular vein was exposed and the four soft chain mail spots where their knees bent. All of those weak points had a problem, unfortunately. The neck one was only usable when he stretched it forward to thrust and stab and I could only reach the knees when he wasn't facing me. Of course, as a highly trained agent of EBRoT, he wasn't stupid enough to not be facing me at all times.     I still felt a hundred times better now that I had a blade to attack and defend with. He swung high, I was able to block it. He thrusted forward, I could parry it. Then again, this guy was no no pushover. Even with his armor, he could still defend as well as I could, so trying for the weak spots yielded no victory whatsoever. This fight was still horribly one-sided, and it could only end with me making a mistake and him gutting me. I needed a new plan.     Or did I? Without any warning, the EBRoT goon tensed up and began so spasm and shake violently as if having a seizure. The armor made a horrible metallic clatter as the plates rubbed up against one a other. He shrieked like a filly, then went silent and collapsed into a heap of helpless horse, mercifully falling into unconsciousness.     Standing behind him was the cocky smirk of one Harvest Moon, her horn smoking like the barrel of a gun. Farther behind, I found that the fighting had ended. Funny, I was too caught up with my own battles that I hadn't noticed the other ponies had stopped. Thirty or so rag-tag sailors had defeated fifteen highly trained EBRoT troops. I was instantly proud of these fine ponies.     But it wasn't over yet. A quick glance told me that the Peacemaker was less than ten minutes away from boarding us. These next few moments would be crucial.     "I told you to stay out of our way." I said coldly to the government mare, sheathing my cutlass.     "My word, Cloudstrider, are you going to be alright?" she asked with what I though sounded like actual concern. "You're bleeding like a busted pipe!"     Not responding, I bent down over the knocked out solider. I removed the helmet from his...her head, causing a shock of golden yellow hair to spill forth. I checked her pulse, it was going pretty fast, but that meant it was still going. This one was alive. Good, because I hated killing ponies.     "Somepony tie this goon up and send her to Dr. Cotton." I ordered nopony in particular. Goddesses, I felt so dizzy.      As they dragged our new prisoner off, I pulled that trottie-talkie out of my coat. "Scoots, you ready to use it?"     "I'm not exactly ready on the emotional side," her voice came back "but I can do it when you give me the word."     "Good." I regarded the crew, who were busy dragging the corpses of the EBRoT goons to the side and pitching them over to be eaten by the Everfree. I've rather given them a proper burial, but we're too far away from ground to have over a dozen dead bodies stinking up half of the ship.     We couldn't take their armor, either, no matter how bad the world was running low on iron and steel. It's just plain bad luck wearing the clothes of a dead pony, even if those clothes were made from metal.      "Oakfang!" I shouted, stifling a cough "Where the hell are you?"     The diamond dog, whose towering self was easy to pick out of a crowd, turned and cocked an eyebrow at me.     "I need you down in engineering with AB. We're about to use it."     Oak's eyes flicked to my chest, then, to my surprise, he said "You're bleeding."     I looked down at the nasty gash in my chest that the EBRoT goon left for me. By the sun on Celestia's butt, it stung. Crimson liquid seeped out of my wound like a faucet,  running all the way down my leg and pooling on the deck. "Huh." I answered, before passing out.     My limp body made a dull thudding sound as it collapsed to the deck. Heh heh. I guess blood loss does things to a pony. My lightheaded feeling quickly faded away as the deep embrace of dark sleep encompassed me...X-X-X-X-X     I'm sure that you're all probably wondering what "it" is by now. Well, the guy who gave it to us was a bit of a whack job, and he never gave it a real name. We were doing a less-than-legal arms run to an outer-rim colony somewhere on the west coast, the place was a nice enough little village called "Shoreshire" or something. The whole place was built on five foot tall platforms on the sandy border where the Green Sea ended and the beaches began. Despite being literally on the blue sea, most of the ponies lived dry straw huts. It was a pretty cool place.     Anyway, in that village lived this crazy middle-aged alchemy professor that went by "Herbert." He was the town's mayor-slash-medicine pony. Herbert was really into homemade herbal remedies using weird weeds that he found in the Everfree. The guy could just go on and on about how many new species of plants cropped up when Nature's Curse hit and how many diseases that they could potentially cure and blah blah blah. Well, when we made port to drop off the guns, ol' Herb didn't have enough platinum to pay for the whole shipment. He tried to pay off the rest in barter. I'm the kind of stallion who prefers cold, hard coins, but I've been known to accept trades every now and again.      The alchemist dug a little lead case out of some chest in his hut and presented it to us. He said that these things could be worth twice what he owed, maybe more if I found the right buyer. Inside was a trio of shiny reddish-yellow rocks. He told us that he made them from coal, some blend of natural herbs, magic, minerals and junk. How that guy cooked them up, I'll never know. But appeantly they supercharged whatever fuel-burning machine that you put them in, made them work faster and harder than I could ever imagine. Like if you put it in a stove, you could boil water in seconds, or you could stick it in a forge and it could get hot enough to melt down diamonds.     So naturally, we put it in the Sea Singer. Woah nelly, did she go fast. With only a little chunk of it in her belly, the old girl traveled three klicks in two and a half minutes. No ship, and I mean no ship, that big can go that fast. That was the speed that professional racing ships went, on a good day. It was unheard of... and defianatly worth a half-crate of guns. I took the deal in a heartbeat.      We had already used one in a little escape from a merry band of mercenaries up at Keldigram. Heh, poor bastards had no idea what happened when we left their ship in our trail of smoke. After that, Derps made me swear to use the remaining two only in emergencies.     Being chased by EBRoT qualified as an emergency.     I wasn't awake to see the Sea Singer get away. Though, I wish I had been. Just as some of my faithful sailors hauled my lazy ass to the med-bay and plopped me down with all of the other wounded, AB and Oak had simultaneously threw open the two furnaces that kept the Singer's heart beating and chucked a piece of the wonder fuel straight into the hot bed of coals. They slammed the big iron doors as hard as they could and took a cautious step backward.     At first, nothing happned. There was a pregnant pause as everypony on the ship held their breath and awaited what was to come.     ...     Nothing.     ..."Well, that was mighty usele--" And then Applebloom was forced to eat her words when a huge, ship-shaking explosion was muffled by the sturdy interiors of the furnaces. A wave of sweltering heat washed over the two engineers as the rocks inside let off untold amounts of raw energy.      Just outside of engineering, the normal bluish exhaust flames that the Singer's engines produced was magnified a hundredfold. Scathing jets of magical red flames erupted from both engines to lengths of more than twenty feet, or so I had been told. The metal machine parts instantly began to glow a hot orange as their temperatures nearly reached the melting point.     Then, the Sea Singer moved like it had never moved before. Oh, if only I could have seen it with my own two eyes! She tore and screamed across the Green Sea like a bat out of hell, faster than any ship in the sky. The crew aboard panicked and flailed around limply, making a mad scramble for something to hang on to. The sailors desperately clung to whatever was firmly attached to the Singer, unlike themselves.      We were gone.     Farther behind, a ship full of EBRoT goons stared blankly at the supposedly slow and weighty airship that was becoming smaller and smaller by the minute. "That wasn't supposed to happen." one of them uttered dumbly. "But it did." another answered. "Damn!" exclaimed another.    The crew of the Peacemaker gave a collective "What the hell?" and scratched their heads repeatedly.      Inside, on the bridge Peacemaker, a lone pegasus stallion watched the Sea Singer dissappear with furrowed brows. His prey had escaped. I was now a dot on the horizon, and there was not a damn thing that he could do about it. The commander grimaced, this would not look good on his report. Not at all.      "Bested by a criminal." he grumbled to himself. Then again, how was he to know what the Singer had up her sleeve? No ship on the sea could fly like that. But how would he explain to his superiors what had justed happened? They likely wouldn't take "he outran the fastest ship in its weight class by sixty five knots like it was nothing" for an explanation.     He huffed and silently retreated from the ship's wheel and slipped away to his lavishly decorated personal quarters. "I'll find him again." he muttered. He plopped himself in front the mahogany work desk in his room and laid his elbows on it, hooves folded together in deep thought. The Green Sea was big, but not big enough to hide that giant freight ship for too long.     "I'll find him."