The Pirate Master

Rusty and Shadow went into the observatory, where they found Celestia. "We got good news," Rusty said. "We bought a new ship, defeated some pirates, stole their cargo and made it back."

This made Celestia confused. "You managed to do all that?" she asked the two unicorns.

"Yes, I can confirm that," Shadow said. "And if you don't believe us, you may see Rusty's new ship 'The Crusador'."

Celestia found herself shocked as she got to know that Rusty succesfully took a pirate ship and got himself a working new ship.

"How..." Celestia mumbled. She coughed and then began to be serious. "Congratulations, Rusty. You have proven yourself worthy of being a captain," Celestia said. "You surprised me."

"So you're going to forget the fact that we exploded our own goods and let me sail even when Shadow thought it would be storm?" Rusty asked.

Celestia looked at Rusty. "Did you really think those small things would make you a bad captain?" Celestia asked. "I know you did those things because you felt you had to make hard decisions, which in fact makes you a good captain."

"Um, thanks. I guess," Rusty said.

"You may do what you want to do freely now, I will not do the choises for you, but you will have to do them on your own," Celestia said. "I expect you to come to Canterlot University tomorrow to continue your studies."

"Okay Celestia. I got it," Rusty said.

_______________________

Rusty came home again. He thought he probably would need to learn a spell that would transport him between places faster. He felt kind of tired by doing all of this. But his thoughts wasn't focused so much on that now.

Opening the door, Rusty went into his house. He trotted towards his bedroom and laid away his book on a desk.

Rusty went through the things in his saddlebag. A compass, which he used when he had to find out where north was. A small map of Equestria. A gun without any ammo. Rusty also noticed he forgot to take off his sword holster. Using his magic, he levitated the holster and his sword away, and laid them on the desk, together with the map, compass and book.

_______________________

In the following morning, Rusty woke up early, hoping not to sleep too long again.

He trotted towards Ponyville Docks. The trot felt nice. It was nice weather this morning. Rusty could see the sun rise up in the horizon. He had big plans for this day.

Because of the bigger size of The Crusador, it could load more cargo, meaning he could get more money for each time he sailed to trade.

Rusty saw Shadow and the crew prepare for the journey. Today they were going to sail to Saddle Arabia. It was going to be a long journey.

"Y'know. We would probably need to find a way to get enough food for the journey," Shadow said. "One thing we could try could be to fish something for dinner."

"Yes, but how would we cook the fish?" Rusty asked. "I don't know of any fire spells. Besides, the ship could catch fire."

"Well, let's sail to an island then. We could cook the fish with the wood from the trees," Shadow said. "And maybe collect a few fruits."

"Good thinking, Shadow. I shall think of that when we would need it," Rusty answered.

Rusty went to check the supplies they had to deliver. It was mainly corn, sugar and cocoa powder. Nothing more, but it was worth alot of bits.

"They are ready to sail, Captain Rusty," Shadow said. He seemed nervous, but Rusty couldn't figure why. "Do we have enough cannonballs and gunpowder?" Shadow asked.

"Yes, I have checked our storage. It is enough in case we will get attacked," Rusty answered.

"I have read the news, and it says that alot of piracy has been done lately. We should be careful," Shadow said.

Rusty nodded. "Ok, let's go then," Rusty said, while going on to The Crusador, greeted by the crew.

They left the docks and sailed out in the ocean. The smell of salty water could be noticed. There was a lot of wind. Rusty ordered the crew to release all sails.

_______________________

A few days had passed since they left the docks. Rusty ordered the crew to gather some fish from the net they sat out.

But Rusty could hear waves moving that didn't come from The Crusador.

Shadow looked around the ship, and there was a sight he did nit expect to see.

"Uh, Rusty..." Shadow said. "There is something you should see."

Rusty looked where Shadow was looking, and had a very surprised expression on his face.

Behind The Crusador came a pirate frigate at a full speed towards them.

"That ship... I remember that," Rusty said. Indeed that was true. It was the ship he feared on the first time he sailed his ship.

"That Frigate..." Shadow said. "Is that the first pirate ship we encountered?"

"Yes it is," Rusty said. Now getting nervous.

"Everypony prepare the cannons!" Rusty shouted. "I will not want this to end with failure."

"Same strategy as last time, Rusty?" Shadow asked.

"No, we can't risk that, we will need to sink them," Rusty said.

Rusty turned the ship so the side faced the front of the pirate ship. "Fire the cannons... NOW!" Rusty shouted

The cannons from The Crusadors shot cannonballs at the pirate ship, making a few holes in it.

"Look out! They are gonna fire at us!" Shadow shouted.

The pirate ship shot 3 rows of cannon shots at The Crusador, destroying a bunch of their cannons and the side of the ship.

Rusty watched as their cannons got destroyed, and some small fires spread around them.

"Great! Their ship is stronger than ours," Shadow said.

"We will need to escape, The Crusador can't take anymore damage," Rusty said, while turning the wheel. The Crusador turned at a high speed away from the pirate ship, but not fast enough to get away from them.

"They are getting closer!" Shadow shouted.

"Throw away the barrels to slow them down," Rusty said.

Two of the crew threw some barrels with gunpowder overboard, surprising the pirates.

Rusty saw the enemy frigate colliding with the barrels, exploding a bit of the front of it.

Rusty turned the ship quickly to the right.

"Fire the cannons, aim at their sails!" Rusty shouted.

The Crusador's cannons fired away shots at the enemy frigate, but also destroyed the sails.

"Good thinking, Captain Rusty. Now they can't move!" Shadow said. This was clearly going to be successful.

"Cannons ready, Captain Rusty!"

"Fire the cannons!" Rusty said, making The Crusador fire at the pirate ship, sinking it.

Rusty watched as the pirate ship sank into the deep ocean. A bit satisfied, he began to speak. "Time to go now. Now we can leave."

The Crusador sailed away towards Saddle Arabia at a fast speed.

In the horisont, Rusty could see Saddle Arabia ahead. This meant their travel was complete.

But that was only what they thought would only happen...

... Because two shadowy figures watched as the The Crusador sailed into the docks.

"What's your orders?" the first figure asked.

"Time to execute the plan," the other figure answered.

"Let's see how the captain will handle this." the figure said while gaining an evilish smile.