Pirates of Equestria

16: Aftermath

Shining Armor steps off the deck of the Crystal Princess and into a hellish nightmare. His current outpost is little more than a charred remnant of what it once was. Crumbled wall sections and small craters give a clear indication of the cannon fire that recently ravaged the base. Buildings lie on the ground in heaps of ash and soot with dozens of charred bodies buried under beams of charcoal. Bodies line the ground, covered in blood and soot. The smell of burnt flesh fills the air along with the lingering smell of the flames that ravaged the former outpost.

Shining immediately begins a search and rescue operation to recover any pony that is still alive and gather together those already gone. Soarin heads the recovery team while Braeburn stays near the ship, unable to maintain his constitution. Shining explores the base for any evidence as to what had happened and who was responsible, though he has his suspicions. Those suspicions are confirmed at the sight of twelve guards lying in a pile in a large pool of blood at the center of the base. Surrounding the center are eight makeshift gallows with ponies strung up by their necks.

“Sky Runner.”

Shining can hardly believe that Sky would be capable of destruction on this scale. Did he have assistance or is he truly a demon? Sky was well known for his skill in combat and tactical prowess but there is no way that he could have pulled off an attack of this scale. The prince wonders how much he is underestimating his old friend. His thoughts are interrupted momentarily when one of the guards on recovery detail reports a finding.

“Sire, we found nine bodies that do not belong to the Royal Guard or Wonderbolts. We suspect they may have been pirates and were part of the attack.”

“Thank you. Please continue your efforts.”

The guard gives a short bow and returns to the rubble, leaving the prince to ponder. Nine dead from Sky’s group compared to nearly eighty highly trained Royal Guards and Wonderbolts. Saying that he underestimated Sky is the understatement of a lifetime. Shining wonders how many ponies were with Sky during the attack. Given the kill to death ratio, however, it gives him little ease. The fewer ponies that there were with Sky, the more unfathomable this attack seems. This would have to explain the evidence of cannon fire. Only a sudden strike with overwhelming fire power could have evened the odds. But one question still remains unanswered. Why is Sky hanging ponies?

Shining watches as several guards lay the scattered and piled bodies in rows in an effort to keep an accurate count of the dead. They cut down the hung guards and begin to place them with the rest until Shining interjects.

“Place those ponies over here for now,” he says, indicating a space off to the side. “I wish to make my own examination first.”

“As you wish sire.”

The guards place the bodies down before returning to their previous work. Shining looks over the dead for any indication at all as to why these ponies would be singled out amongst so many to hang rather than be executed in the same manner as the rest. There is nothing overly remarkable about them save for that one was an officer. Aside for that the only connection they have is that all eight are unicorns from the Royal Guard. This, however, is unremarkable as well as the majority of the Royal Guards are unicorns. Each is of a variety of ranks, colors, likely other characteristics. One pony is even a rare female guard.

Shining nearly gives up in his futile attempt to solve Sky’s mystery clue until a realization hits him. He recognizes each of the guards that lay before him. He thinks back to when he arrived back at the first outpost with Braeburn and the ponies that gave the settler the foul looks. The eight ponies before the prince were included in that group. Despite this realization, Shining still is at a loss as to why these ponies among all the others were hung.

“What are you after Sky?” he says aloud.

His examines the ponies over and over again, working his brain until it hurt. But for all his efforts, he cannot come up with even one reason why Sky would do this. Sky does not act on a whim. Was he sending a message to the other prisoners before he executed them? Was this some sort of interrogation method? If so, what was he interrogating them about? Was he sending a message to the Royal Guard as a whole? Does any of this happen to have any ties to the assassination attempt on Celestia? Is he investigating it in some cruel, harsh way or seeking revenge for being accused of such an act? Is the old Sky Runner even inside this new “Demon Captain?”

“If the dead do talk, then these only ask questions and give no answers.”

The prince signals to the recovery team to place the hung guards with the rest of the dead. He watches for several minutes as more bodies fill the center of the ruined outpost. Some are charred so bad that their bones are brittle and breaking. Some leave a trail of blood as they are carried to the sorting area. The prince turns and gags, finally recalling the pungent stench of the death, blood, and burned corpses. The shock of the event had dulled his senses earlier keeping him from hardly even hearing anything save for the echo of the ponies as they cried out before dying.

Shining heads to the edge of the base in an effort to escape the horrific stench and the terrifying scene. As he reaches the walls he looks back, realizing yet another question. Why attack this base? Did Sky know that Shining had established his base of operations here? Did he know Shining was out at sea? Was Sky after the prince at all or did he believe that Shining had died in their first encounter at sea?

Shining hurries to the dock to clear his head of the storm of questions whipping about in his mind. For every question he has, a swarm of others follows. What is Sky after? What does he hope to achieve through his actions? Nothing seems to make sense anymore. Shining’s thoughts are given a moment’s reprise when Soarin arrives with the report on the search and recovery operation.

“We managed to recover nearly forty ponies so far with the rest either buried under rubble or missing from the scene. So far, no survivors have been recovered, but we believe it highly unlikely that all were killed in the attack. We expect to find some pony still alive soon.”

Shining gives a deep sigh of depression. “When we find survivors, we will be able to get a better idea on what happened here. I would like to know how Sky managed to overpower so many at a fortified location like this.” He sighs again, trying to keep his mind on the task at hand rather than solving the puzzle that is Sky. “How much longer do you anticipate the recovery will take?”

“Probably another day or two to recover all of the bodies. After that I anticipate about a week to a week and a half for clean up until a properly equipped crew can arrive. Finally another four days or more to relocate to another base and a day to set up. That is if we don’t wait for reinforcements which could add another week.”

Shining gives the idea a moment’s thought. With nearly eighty ponies killed in this attack, their force is now reduced by half. Given the fact that Sky had just succeed in such a large scale attack, having more troops on hand puts more ponies at risk for being slaughtered by the “Demon Captain.” In order to keep casualties to a minimum, the best option would be to keep his numbers limited to the crew of the Crystal Princess and a small reserve unit in the event of casualties at sea. That is so long as the entire crew is not slaughtered as easily as the unit at the base.

“Focus on the recovery effort for now. We’ll deal with the other things once we have recovered all of the dead and given them a proper burial.”

“On it.”

Shining watches Soarin return to his tasks and contemplates the next step. Whatever Sky’s motives, he must be stopped before anything like this base attack can happen again.