The Pirate Master

It was getting close to evening. The day was very calm and silent. Rusty liked this. However, he still had this bad feeling of something was going to happen, like always. White Sail had told him to calm down. Rusty would try to do what White Sail had told him to do.

It was foggy around the ships. They couldn't see much, so they were careful to not crash into anything.

Rusty checked everything on the deck, some of the crew were getting tired of all the work. "Only a few hours left before we arrive, guys," Rusty said. He tried looking over in the horizon, but the fog made it difficult.

He went to the back of the ship, looking behind them. The ships had managed to keep up with their speed.

"Objects in the horizon!" Cold Wind shouted. Rusty wanted to check what he was talking about. Because of the fog, it wasn't easy to figure out what that was.

"Is that a..."

In about 150 feet in front the Crusador, was what seemed like a destroyed ship. White Sail rotated the wheel so that the Crusador was at the side of the wreck.

"Seems like a trade ship got destroyed," Rusty said, looking at the wreck.

"How did it get destroyed?" Evening Rain asked.

"I'm not sure. Slow down the Crusador," Rusty commanded. He wondered how the ship could get destroyed. He also noticed there were no ponies in the ship.

Another destroyed ship could be seen, not too far away.

"Hey, do you think..."

The loud noise of cannon shots could be heard, preventing White Sail from finishing his question.

Rusty looked behind of the Crusador, noticing several frigates attacking the Royal Navy ships.

"Turn the ship!" Rusty ordered.

Something that looked like a giant galleon ship appeared out of the fog. "We're surrounded!" Cold Wind shouted.

"Ready the cannons!" Rusty shouted. He looked over to the side of the Crusador and noticed the galleon ship firing it's cannons. The cannon shots destroyed parts of the Crusador, and the front sail got destroyed.

"Fire the cannons!" Rusty ordered as the crew fired cannons at this unknown galleon ship. It nearly dealt any damage to it.

"We must help the Royal Navy, White Sail. Sail towards them!"

"Okay sir," White Sail replied to Rusty. The ship went towards the other ships. It seemed like the Royal Navy ships couldn't hold out much longer.

White Sail turned the Crusador, allowing the crew to get a good aim at one of the enemy frigates. Two rows of cannonballs were shot at a frigate, destroying it.

"One down, a lot more to go," White Sail said, getting nervous about the situation.

Rusty noticed the galleon ship come at full speed towards them. "Brace for impact!" was the only thing Rusty could say before the two ships collided.

Several hooks were thrown from the galleon ship. "They are boarding us, captain Rusty," White Sail said. Rusty levitated out his sword. He saw one of the Royal Navy frigates sink into the deep ocean, and a few enemy frigates left.

"How could this have happened?" Rusty asked himself. Several ponies came on board the Crusador from the galleon ship. One of them went for Rusty.

The pony charged towards Rusty, but the attack got blocked. he slashed his sword, damaging the pony, but another one had appeared from the side of Rusty and knocked him backwards. Rusty lost his footing, tripping on the deck. He could feel a heavy buck sending him out of the Crusador.

Rusty sank down the water, slowly loosing sight of what happened above the water surface. A silhouette of a pony could be seen, and it lifted Rusty out of the water. And then... darkness.

___________________________________________________

Rusty woke up. He breathed, trying desperately to get air. "Ugh, what happened?" Rusty asked. He looked around him, noticing he wasn't on his ship anymore. "The Crusador..."

Rusty looked over to the side, noticing the Crusador was still fine. However, he and all of the crew were now on this unknown ship. Rusty assumed they were on the galleon ship. He tried standing on all hooves, but found it very difficult. Rusty looked around him, noticing the crew was fine. A stallion trotted towards him, which he assumed was the captain of the ship.

"Are you captain Rusty?" the stallion asked. He was clearly older than Rusty. He was a yellow coated pegasus pony with a golden gear as cutie mark.

"Yes, I am," Rusty answered. He looked around the horizon, noticing the fog was gone. Rusty wondered how long he had been unconscious. "What have you done...?"

"To the ships? We sunk them, the HMS Solar is fine, but we have already boarded it and killed all it's crew," the stallion said. The stallion trotted around the ship. "I want no harm to your crew, however, I've been sent here to find you," the stallion said, looking at Rusty.

"Why me?" Rusty asked.

"You are the pony who have won against two pirate masters. You are obviously a captain Celestia sent to eliminate all four," the stallion said, with a bit anger in his voice.

"Why does that bother you..?" Rusty stopped. The stallion gained an devilish grin across his face. "You're a pirate," Rusty said.

"Not only that," the stallion said. "I'm captain Yellow Gear, one of the pirate masters," Yellow Gear said. "And I see you've got two gold medallions from the previous pirate masters."

"What do you want?" Rusty asked, both angry and nervous at the same time.

"I want you dead, Rusty," Yellow Gear said, while taking his sword. "And as a pirate master, I will make sure your death is slow and painful."

"You won't get away with this," Rusty said.

"What can Celestia do?" Yellow Gear asked. "We are the most powerful ponies in all of equestria! When our plans are done, even the Royal Navy will fear us."

Two ponies grabbed Rusty, preventing him from escaping. Rusty's crew couldn't do anything either, because they were now captured in what seemed like a big fish net.

"It's kind of funny, actually. This ship used to be owned by the Royal Navy. What was it's name again...? The HMS Destroyer?"

Rusty had heard about this ship. If he would have guessed right, he would know exactly where everything would be, according from what he knew of equestrian sea history.

Rusty attempted a spell, making a part of the ship blow.

"What the..?!"

"An explosion from a gunpowder storage would create enough time..." Rusty said as he levitated a sword owned by a pirate and used it to kill the two ponies holding him. "...to get myself free."

Yellow Gear quickly charged towards Rusty, slashing his sword, desperately trying to land a hit on Rusty. However, Rusty had experience in different fights and blocked the attacks. Rusty focused and tried to find a perfect time to hit Yellow Gear, but it was difficult. All the pirates took their swords and trotted slowly towards Rusty.

Rusty levitated his pistol and tried to focus where to shoot, but noticed the pistol was out of ammo. Rusty galloped towards his crew and slashed his sword across the fishing net, releasing the crew.

"Attack!" Rusty shouted.

Unlike the pirates, some of Rusty's crew were experienced in combat. They managed to fight back against the pirates pretty well. White Sail threw his pistol to Rusty. He quickly aimed at Yellow Gear, but noticed the pirate master grabbed a pony from Rusty's crew.

"Try to shoot me, and it will most likely end with another pony's life instead," Yellow Gear said.

'No, I will need a better aim at him if I want to kill him,' Rusty thought to himself. A pirate galloped towards Rusty, and Rusty shot the pirate.

Using the time Rusty spent, Yellow Gear drew his pistol at Rusty.

"I win," Yellow Gear said. "There is nothing more you can do, Rusty. You have done all you could."

"He can't, but maybe I can," Cold Wind said as he quickly drew his pistol and shot Yellow Gear.

A loud noise and a warm feeling in Yellow Gear's chest was all he could feel now. His body felt slowly down onto the deck of the ship. The pirates noticed this and dropped their weapons. They were already less in numbers than Rusty's crew.

Rusty trotted over to Yellow Gear. "You... pirate. You kill me, you kill my crew... You're definitely a pirate," Yellow Gear said.

"I am no pirate. I'm a captain of the Royal Navy. Killing you is necessary to stop your plans," Rusty answered.

"Any sailor with three gold medallions would already be considered a pirate master. Why did you want to be a captain?" Yellow Gear asked.

"I guess I like being one," Rusty said.

"I don't get it..." Yellow Gear said, before closing his eyes.

"Three down..." Rusty said while slowly levitating the pirate master's gold medallion off. "One left," he said to himself. Rusty trotted slowly to White Sail. "We'll be sailing three ships home."

"What?" White Sail asked.

"Yeah. The Crusador, the HMS Solar, and of course we're going to keep the HMS Destroyer," Rusty said with a grin on his face.

"Can I get to sail one of the galleons?" White Sail asked.

"Of course. I'll sail the HMS Solar, you'll sail the HMS Destroyer and maybe Cold Wind gets to sail the Crusador," Rusty said.

"Really?" Cold Wind asked, hoping for the answer to be yes.

"...no," Rusty answered simply while trotting towards the front of the ship. "I'll give that job to Evening Rain."

Rusty looked at the crew. "Okay, new orders. Let's sail home," Rusty said.

The crew felt relieved after all that happened this day. Finally they could travel home.