High Seas of Adventure

Dragon of the Dragon of the Depths

One Month three days into the Voyage

Dragon of the Depths’ Armory

Each of the Ponies from the Traveler, joined of course by the Student Six, were all gathered around the Dragon’s Armory waiting for Zenith to arrive. There had been talks between the group and the Head Officers and both sides agreed it might be time to learn about the various firearms used by the Outcasts, now there was hope that they never need to use them but at the same time each of them thought it might be a good idea to at the very least have basic knowledge of the subject.

The Armory was a large and long room with the right wall from entering through the door covered top to bottom in gun racks which had heavy cage doors protecting them, the left wall held cupboards of the could be assumed to be cleaning and maintenance equipment, the walls on either sides of the door held cabinets which were also locked, in the center of the room was a large and long table, and finally opposite of the door was a indoor gun range set up with various targets and several shooting stations separating the range from the rest of the armory.

They didn’t have to wait long until the Zebra Mare entered and sat down at the end of the table. She wasn’t alone as Fire Gem and four Abyss Guard soldiers followed Zenith, Fire Gem sitting down a little aways from the table and the guards spreading out around the room. Crossing her forehooves over the table she addressed the youngsters.

“Greetings everyone, welcome to my armory. As you know there have been talks about you lot learning about and how to use the various firearms the Outcasts have in service. Now we’ll start with the four main rules of gun safety, and pay close attention, as I’m only saying it once.”

The tone of her voice at the last part made the Traveler group freeze; they all knew that kind of tone. The kind that meant serious trouble if you didn’t listen. And from what the group had learned by talking to the other crew members in the armory, Zenith’s word was law. The armory was her realm, her kingdom. Anger her and she’d make sure you only did it once; the stories the group had heard were the stuff of nightmares.

So each of the group gave Zenith their full undivided attention, which the Zebra grinned in response to.

“I see you heard the stories, good. Now;

Rule one: Always, always treat ALL guns as if they are loaded, no exceptions!

Rule two: Never, ever, point the gun at anything you are not willing to destroy! Firearms ARE. NOT. TOYS!!” Zenith said very firmly, tapping her hoof on the table with each word for emphasis. “They are lethal weapons that can and will easily end a life. If I catch any of you waving a gun around like a flag pole, you’ll be swabbing every inch of every single deck of the Dragon from top to bottom. With. Your. TONGUE!”

Behind her, Fire Gem winced hard and grimly nodded his head, a look of terror on his face. It wasn’t much but the message was clear: Zenith was not joking. At all. Said Zebra continued as if not noticing how scared her audience now was of her.

“Rule three: Always keep your hoof, claw, finger or whatever you're using OFF the trigger until your sights are on target and you’ve made the decision to fire.

And Rule Four: Be sure of your target, and what’s behind it.”

Her audience rapidly nodded their heads, paying rapt attention and hoping they didn’t trigger her wrath. Even Gallus and Smolder were wary of it. Zenith stood up and walked over to the gun racks, pulling out a ring of keys before unlocking the cage doors and gathering several weapons. Once Zenith was finished, her audience both surprised and a little scared by the fact she was able to carry them all without any obvious effort, brought the collection over and laid them out on the table.

“Now today we will only be covering the more common firearms the Outcasts use, which we have here;

Up first is the Percussion Cap, or Caplock, Revolver(1). This is the most common of our firearms and can hold anywhere from three to eight shots of .44 caliber rounds, with six being the default and most common choice. Now while six is the most common, our larger members use ones that can hold up to twelve rounds, and these can take cylinders holding as little as three and everything in between the former and latter.”

Zenith then pulled out a plastic container from her coat and placed it on the table.

Now while we have the ability to make metallic cartridges like the one the G82 rifle uses, I’ll get back to the ammo and their different types soon, because this Caplock Revolver has been in use for most of our history actually retiring it is going to be a long-term thing.”

Soarin raised a hoof.

“Yes Soarin?”

“Just something I’m wondering; I’ve heard the crew mention that the Outcasts’ industry wasn’t yet at “the level”. At least I think that's how they said it, I only heard it in passing a while ago.” Soarin finishes rubbing the back of his head, to which Zenith gave him a soft smile.

“Well Soarin, you are right in that regard. By now all of you likely know that most of the islands in the Sea of Legends either can’t support factories or already have something built on them, which means we have to use Factory Ships and those are both expensive and take time to build. Now having said that, our industry is getting to “that level” but it’s still going to take some time to get there.” Zenith explained, Fire Gem adding, “Another reason is that Razor gave standing orders that units like the Homeguard and Anti-Slaver Fleets get first priority for things like this.”

“That’s right, and as I said before with the Caplock Revolver being so wide-spread everyone figured it’d just be easier to keep using it until its replacement can be fully mass-produced so everyone can get it in one go, or something like that. Anyway, time to show you how to reload these.”

She opened the container and pulled out six items: An hourglass-shaped object, a small funnel, several small sheets of yellowish paper, a plastic cylinder, a bunch of circles made of the same yellowish paper, and a glue stick. As the group watched Zenith laid the items out and turned back to them, showing them the steps as she spoke.

“This here is the standard paper cartridge kit used to make the rounds for the Revolver; the hourglass object here is the “former” and the dye, the funnel is for the powder, the papers, bullet lubricant, a hundred pre-cut circles, and a glue stick. All you need now is some powder.” She pulled out a flask made from a curved horn and set it on the table. “And of course the bullets” She pulled out a box clearly marked with the rounds from her bag.

“Now the first thing you want to do is cut these papers in half and see how they feel, the reason for this is that these papers are soaked in wax to better protect them from water as powder wouldn’t work if it’s wet, last thing you is a gun not firing because of wet powder in a fight. If the paper feels waxy then it’s good, if not then you’ll want to fix that. Then you take the glue stick and rub some glue on one end of the paper, you don’t need much, just a quick thin layer will work perfectly. Then you take the former, take the dye end off and press the unglued end of the paper against the former, you can see where the cut guideline is here and put the paper just a little over it and then wrap the paper around the former as tight as you possibly can. If you don’t get it as tight as you want this former has a tapered end so you can slide the paper on until it's tight. Are you all following me so far?”

After they all confirmed that they were following, Zenith continued with the demo.

“After that you take a cutting tool and after feeling around and finding the cut guideline run the blade all around the former, then take the excess paper off. Then you cut right along the top of the former, or bottom depending on how you’re holding it, just to trim off that excess paper as well, leaving it like this.” She set the blade down and showed the group how the paper fit the former, making sure they all saw it and then picked up the dye and one of the little paper circles.

“Next you take these two and lay the circle on top of the dye right above the hole, this can be a bit tricky even for those experienced with this sort of thing, then you take the former with the paper still wrapped around it and roll about a quarter of an inch of the top in it and finally press that end right through the circle and into the dye like that. Then you press it down until you feel resistance, then press it back down, lift it up, and there is the finished “envelope” portion of a paper cartridge. Now once that’s done you very carefully slide it off, take your time doing this as going too fast could rip the paper leaving it useless to you. And you just repeat those steps for however many cartridges you want to make, and let them dry for a few moments. Once it’s dry you pick it back up with the former, not all the way, just enough to get ahold of it, and lay it back down in the dye. Then you flip the former around to the other end, which you’ll see as a built-in powder measurer which holds twenty-five grains of powder. So you fill it with the right amount of powder, it is very important you do this right as while you can pour in more powder you need to be very careful of how much you add over the standard charge, as having too much carries the very real risk of the gun exploding like a grenade in you hand, hoof, claw, whatever you’re holding it with.”

Fire Gem nodded grimly. “Trust Zenith here, one poor Unicorn overloaded a cartridge and it exploded the gun in his hoof. He survived, but his hoof was so badly mangled it had to be amputated.” He shuttered. “It was… not pretty.”

Right away every member of the traveler group looked at their own hooves and claws, before collectively shivering at the thought. Giving them a moment to recompose themselves and focus back on her Zenith continued.

“After you’re finished pouring you take the blade and gently scrape the excess powder off onto a sheet of paper. Nice thing about having some extra paper is that it protects the surface of whatever you’re working on from glue and powder. Then you take the funnel, put it into the paper cartridge envelope, and just pour in the powder and remove the funnel. Now we’re ready for a projectile.” Zenith then set out a box of bullet heads on the table and pulled out one.

“You take a bullet and you’re glue stick then roll the edge of the flat end in the glue, though you can roll the whole thing if you wish, get it nice and coated then set it carefully on top of the cartridge, then press it down until it’s tight; you’ll her the powder crunch, that’s when you’ll know it’s tight. Finally you lift the dye up which crimps the paper onto the bullet like that.”

She checked to make sure the group understood, then continued.

“Now we can just press it down and the finished round pops out, then take the former and give it a nudge to remove it from the dye, and we have a perfectly formed .44 caliber round. The next step is to lube it up.”

Zenith picked up the tube from the case as she explained. “This is a stick of lubricate that’s a mixture of beeswax and lamb tallow which works very well for this type of round. You’ll notice that the bullet has two grooves towards the flat base, this is what holds the lube. Now round ball bullets you’re better off “dip lubing” but this is a conical bullet so I don’t need to show that today. Now you melt some lube into a shallow container and then carefully take a little bit, you don’t need much, and rub it into the grooves. You don’t need to cover the whole cartridge, just the bullet then let it cool down, repeating that as needed.”

Zenith then picked up the revolver. “Now for the fun part: First you pull the hammer back to a half-cocked position, that’s what frees the cylinder and allows it to turn easily. Then you take one of the paper cartridges and place it into a chamber like so… rotate it under the ram, grip the loading level, and pull it back to drive the cartridge all the way down into the chamber, make sure it’s all the way down, and repeat that for as many chambers as the cylinder has. Also; notice this thin ring of lead here…” Zenith brushed said ring of the cylinder and onto the table. “That’s a good thing; if you get that while loading that tells you the chamber is fully sealed correctly. Now since the cartridges are already lubed you don’t have to rub any more over the chambers, but you’ll find many Outcasts that do this just to be sure. Finally we take the precession caps and place them on the tubes(2) on the back of the cylinder, these do require a bit of force to get on but once they’re on they finish sealing and makes the chamber waterproof, though I wouldn’t try firing these weapons underwater if I could avoid it.”

Once Zenith was done she waved the group over to the firing range. “Now each of you have a pair of earmuffs, the kind used in industrial work, that will allow you to hear me talk while protecting your hearing; firearms are loud and in an enclosed space like this they’re even louder so make sure those earmuffs are on good and tight. You also have goggles, don’t want anything flying into your eyes unless you fancy a trip to Medical.”

After the group had put both on and confirmed, Zenith and Fire Gem gave them a demonstration by firing their revolvers down range, the first shot causing the group to either jump or flinch at the sound. The two Head Officers emptied their weapons’ chambers then Zenith signaled the all clear and turned to the group as they removed their goggles and earmuffs.

“And that’s the basics on the Caplock Revolver, any questions.

There were several which she answered, and once the questions were answered, Zenith brought the group back to the table and picked up the next weapon.

“This one I’m sure you recognize; this is the Gewehr 82 Bolt-Action Rifle(3), or G82 for short, the first of our metallic cartridge-firing weapons chambered in 11x60mm or .43 caliber rounds. Simple and cheap, but reliable, powerful, accurate, and deadly. It comes in two variants; single and double-barreled, the latter of which is the standard issue to our Rifle-armed Gunners. Of all our various firearms, this rifle had the most variants as it is the base for all our “two-handed” firearms. Because of this and the fact the G82 is the most common “visible” weapon it has become something of an icon for the Outcasts.”

The group nodded, having seen images of the rifle before, as Zenith set it aside and picked up what looked like the G82, but instead of one or two barrels it had ten. Five per side arranged in vertical rows with three barrels inward and two outward in a half-triangle or trapezoid shape, along with two triggers.

“This is a Volley Gun, and as its name implies upon pulling one of the two triggers five of the ten barrels will fire. You could fire all ten at the same time but I don’t recommend it as the recoil just firing five barrels is extreme since it uses the same caliber as the G82; unless you’re braced properly and experienced with it firing all ten barrels will knock you over backwards.”

Fire Gem nodded. “Trust me it will; I find that out the hard way.”

Next Zenith grabbed a second G82, but this one was longer at over seventy inches in total length and had a few modifications which included a long, thin scope only a little bigger than the base of a Unicorn’s horn, a two-branch level mounted on the right side, and instead of a bolt it had a different kind of breach.

One of the Stallions couldn’t help but comment. “Now that’s a long rifle.”

Zenith chuckled. “Indeed it is. This is the sniper variant of the G82, nick-named the “Longshot” for obvious reasons, chambered in 13.1mm or .50 caliber rounds as is reliable, simple to use, powerful, robust, easy to handle, long range, and accurate single-shot rifle, used by the Outcast Snipers. This weapon isn’t a bolt-action and instead uses something called a breech block and a cocking lever which is mounted on the side, known as a “Falling-Block Action”. Observe.”

Zenith reached down and grabbed the trigger guard and pulled it down, which caused the breech block to slide down and allow a round to be loaded.

“Now as mentioned this rifle is only a single shot, but one shot is all it needs; this rifle and the bullet it fires was designed to bring down Buffalo-sized targets with only one hit, so you can imagine what this can do to a Pony or Griffin-sized target.”

Right away, each member of the Traveler group looked quite scared at the thought of the rifles, which wasn’t helped by Fire Gem saying. “Not to mention our sniper units are very deadly with it.”

“Now for our last weapon for today…” Zenith reached down and pulled a much larger weapon which caused the group’s eyes to widen at the sight of the 60mm barrel.

“This puppy is the Handcannon, as the size of the barrel likely told you. It uses the same loading method as the G82 Longshot, only it works more akin to a Blunderbuss and while shot-ranged… let’s just say you do not want to be on the receiving end of this weapon.”

The group nodded in agreement, gazing warily at the size of the barrel.

“So before we have you lot try firing these weapons down range, we’ll be covering the different ammo types the Outcasts use.”

Standing up again Zenith picked up a small crate and set it on the table before opening the lid and pulling out several different looking rounds.

“Now besides the standard bullets which have nothing special, we also make use of special rounds; starting with the ones used in pistols(4) and rifles, the first up is Incendiary: This bullet contains a small phosphorus charge that ignites when fired and sets flammable targets alight. Though a visible tracer can give the shooter's position away.”

Zenith held up the Incendiary, showing the group a round with a silver bullet with a red band at the base.

“You sure that’s not used for hunting vampires or werewolves.” Gallus joked before he could stop himself. Luckily, even Zenith found that funny as she snorted.

“Okay that was funny Gallus, and I understand why you would say that considering the color, but no we don’t use this type for that. Moving on; next up is the Poison: This bullet shatters on impact, releasing a toxic agent fatal in high doses. But the cost is reduced stopping power and penetration.”

She showed the group a rod-shaped bullet however all but the base and tip were a clear case filled with a green fluid.

“We tend to not use this type too much, as while it is only lethal in high doses it is still a nasty round. Next is the High Velocity: Which is a hot-loaded bullet with a stronger powder charge combined with a lighter projectile tip significantly boosts the muzzle velocity but increases recoil slightly. This makes it great for ranged combat and is the standard round for our sniper units.”

This bullet was covered in the same metal as the casing, with only a silver tip.

“This next one is the Spitzer: Spitzer rounds are new and have already revolutionized rifle ballistics, improving both penetration and muzzle velocity, though adding slightly stronger recoil. They are more stable in flight and can punch clean through multiple targets, but often cause less severe wounds.”

The Spitzer took the shape of a “necked-down” round with a long, pointed projectile.

“This here is a “Dumdum” round, which is a modified bullet that expands and shatters on impact, causing severe bleeding, but at the expense of penetration power and muzzle velocity.”

The Dumdum round had a head with a hollow center and four cuts into the side, resembling a closed flower with a black band at the top of the casing.

“Next is the “Full Metal Jacket” or FMJ for short; this round has a hardened casing which increases this bullet's penetration power, though additional weight reduces muzzle speed. This one is a favorite of units like the Tide Gunners and the pistol-wielding Abyss Guard.”

The FMJ round was a shiny black in color with two grooves cut into the base just above the casing which had a “pinched neck”.

“Now we come to the last three and perhaps the most powerful. First is the Explosive: This bullet contains a small charge that bursts on impact, scattering shrapnel over an area--the larger the bullet size, the greater the area. But as a cost it has reduced penetration, velocity, and damage, but a well-aimed shot can tear apart enemies.”

The Explosive round had a shiny black casing that was “pinched” half-way with a small brass band near the base and a large projectile with a silver band at the base.

Hearing “explosive” caused the group to wince, Smolder in particular eyeing the round with caution. One of the first things the Dragon’s crew taught her was that while Dragons would very rarely encounter threats around their lands, out here in the Sea of Legends it was a whole different story.

Seeing a rampaging adult Sea Dragon, this one being as big as Torch, slain with some ease as it attacked an island village by both the crew and the village inhabitants was something that really scared Smolder if she was being honest, which was only boosted by her learning that hunting Leviathans like a Sea Dragon was a full profession in the SOL.

She hoped the Dragonlands never got into a war with the Sea of Legends.

Zenith meanwhile picked up the second to last round.

“This one is the Shredder round: These modified bullets expand and shred on impact, causing severe bleeding in a similar manner to the Dumdum round. But unlike the latter, the former does not lose all of their penetration power, and only loses some muzzle velocity.”

The Shredder round looked like the Dumdum but with a longer projectile and a shiny black casing.

“The final one is specially designed for penetrating armor, including Dragon scales and plates.” Zenith said, looking right at Smolder who flinched at the gaze.

“This is the Sabot round; a long dart made from hardened steel encased in a wax shell to keep it aligned in the center of the barrel when fired. Not a commonly used round as it’s fairly costly, but its ability to pierce even heavily enhanced armor made from the best materials known in this time makes it worth its price.”

Setting the Sabot round into the box Zenith pulled up the second box, picking up the first round.

“Now for the ammo used in the Blunderbusses and Handcannons; starting with the Mini-Grapeshot, which is basically grapeshot in a Blunderbuss or Handcannon-sized round(5).”

Zenith held up a 60mm casing that was made mostly with red wax paper with a cap of brass at the base.

“Next up is the Slug; which is a single solid projectile that can be used in shotguns to provide an advantage in range and penetration over buckshot. Though it is not effective at long distances.”

The Slug round had dark green wax paper with a silver cap and base.

“This next one is Flechette; this shell contains a number of smaller dart-like projectiles which fan out in a tight spread. Cannot pierce most surfaces but can saturate an area and cause bleeding damage.”

The Flechette round had brownish-gray paper with an orange band on the bottom half edged with silver bands, and a metal base of the same color.

“This next one is Dragonbreath; this shell creates a several-meter-long jet of flame that ignites anything flammable in its path, but it has reduced range over mini-grapeshot.”

The Dragonbreath round had orange paper with a clear “Dragonbreath” mark on it, a brass base, and a red tip.

“This one is a bit of an unusual one called Coin Shot; coins replace the shot pellets in this shell for a more powerful, if erratic, barrage. Shreds skin and flesh, but cannot penetrate harder obstacles and is unreliable at a distance.”

The Coin Shot round had shorter brown paper with a brass base and five stacked bronze coins with a hole through the center as the projectile.

“And finally we have the Starshell; this shell that launches a flare that descends slowly, illuminating the area. It also ignites everything flammable it touches. We usually use it for singling and lighting up an area, but it has been used against enemies… with obvious results.”

The Starshell round had white paper with a red band towards the top, a brass base, the wording “Starshell” along the side, and a red cap.

Setting the Starshell round back into the box Zenith crossed her hooves on the table in front of her and addressed the group.

“Alright, now that we’ve gone through the ammo types it’s time for you lot to learn how to operate them, for this lesson we’ll just be using the standard ammo; better you get used to that before trying the more specialized rounds. Any questions? Ask away.”

After answering some, mostly related to the weapons and ammo, Zenith led the group back to the range where the four Abyss Guards and Fire Gem and set-up the weapons and ammo. Looking over the group for a moment Zenith selected the first few and the training began. To no one's surprise; the Pegasi did really well with the G82 and its Longshot variant.

“Pegasi, along with other flying creatures, tend to have better eyesight than non-flyers. In fact most of our Snipers tend to be flyers of some kind.” Fire Gem noted.

Sky Slinger braced the handcannon against his shoulder with Vapor Trail behind him, standing on her hind legs and using her wings to help balance with her forehooves on his back to brace him.

“Ready Vapor?”

“Ready Sky.”

Sky nodded and lined up the shot.

“Three… two… one… Brace. Firing.”

After saying “Firing”, Sky squeezed the trigger and the handcannon fired, and while it worked like it was supposed to, Sky and Vapor had underestimated the recoil, which sent the two backwards head-over-tail with yelps as the handcannon crashed to the floor but thankfully it held only one shot so it wasn’t loaded.

Vapor lifted her head up, only to find herself staring into Sky’s eyes as he stared back into her’s. Both blushed brightly at their position: Sky was on his back while Vapor was on top of him, their noses and lips touching.

“Ummm…” Sky tried to speak, but no words came out as Vapor squeaked. After a moment Vapor then kissed Sky, who jumped in surprise, but reached up and hugged her as he returned the kiss. They stayed like at for a moment then pulled apart, smiling softly at each other.

“Ahem.” A certain Zebra said, amusement clear in her tone.

The two love Pegasi then remembered that they were not alone and their faces turned bright red as they blushed, those around them looking on in amusement.

“Okay you two, as much as we’d hate to rush you we still have work to do.” Fire Gem siad, trying and failing to keep a straight face.

Sky and Vapor got up, embarrassed but smiling at each other.

Elsewhere on the ship, a certain Changeling Queen sat ramrod in her chair.

“I sense that a ship has finally set sail.”

Razor looked over from the map on his table at his wife with a “Huh?” face.

“What?”

“Nothing honey.”

Twilight’s Group

It was nightfall and Twilight’s group had anchored as Flash took the first watch, but he wasn’t sure how useful that would be because a thick fog had rolled in and limited their sight in any direction. Soon lights around their ship turned off and they went to bed, tired after sailing through a storm earlier and having not found any trace of the Dragon or their missing friends, so they hoped they would have better luck tomorrow.

Unfortunately for them, someone had other plans.

Just out of their sight was a navy blue, red and white colored NTU Brigantine with its Captain watching Twilight’s group through his spyglass, grinning as he watched the lights go out.

“Looks like they’re turning in for the night, good.”

One of his Officers came up to him.

“What’s the plan sir?”

The Captain lowered his spyglass and turned to him.

“We wait until they are fast asleep, which shouldn’t be long thanks to that storm as unlike us they are not used to them.”

That caused the crew to chuckle; they’d see Rainbow Dash trying to break the storm up and get zapped for her troubles.

“Once they’re asleep we’ll sneak aboard and capture the watch first so we don’t risk him alerting the others, then we go through the ship and capture the rest one at a time. However our biggest threats will be the Princess, her father, and the pink one. Also watch out for their little pet Dragon; he might be a young one, but he’s still a Dragon and that includes the flames. Those four will be our top priorities.”

The Officer nodded and walked away as the Captain turned back to looking through his spyglass, an evil grin on his face.

“We finally have you Princess Twilight, we lost our chance with Princess Luna’s daughter years ago, but now you will do nicely for our plans.”

A not-so-sane giggle left his mouth.

Four hours later that Night

Flash was bored, his watch ended up being a moot point as the fog was just too thick and while Pegasi had great eyesight not even they could see through fog. Still, he stayed at his post like he was supposed to and did his job, or at least as much as he could with this fog, his ears could also pick up the sounds of a lightning storm coming their way.

It was a few minutes later that his ears then picked up a new sound; the sound of covered hooves on the deck below. Flash slowly stood up and looked down, but because of the fog he couldn’t see too well and cautiously climbed down from the crow’s nest and onto the deck, his head on a swivel as he looked for the source of the sound.

He knew that couldn’t have been any of his friends as they were fast asleep.

As he looked around, something landed in front of him; a small white sphere the size of a golf ball, and the second he saw it he knew just what it was…

A Sleeping Sphere! Used to knock targets out for easy capture as its gas was odorless, clear, and even a single tiny whiff of the gas would instantly knock the target(s) out. Strangely, all of the Pony/Dragon Hybrids were immune to the effects and it actually could enhance their senses.

Sadly, Flash was a Pegasus and despite his trained reflexes it was already too late. The sphere burst and he was hit with the clear odorless gas, and he was out like a light.

Seconds after Flash hit the deck, literally, the forms of the NTU Soldiers came out of the fog, the Captain smiling as he held four more sleeping spheres.

“Ha, worked like a charm.” He said grinning as some soldiers placed a heavy steel muzzle, wing cuffs, and hoof cuffs on the knocked-out Pegasus. “Get him into the brig, we’ll go after the others.”

Carefully, the soldiers moved throughout the ship, successfully capturing Pinkie and getting her off the ship, then things went wrong for them.

A clap of thunder rang out and was close enough to raddle the ship, waking Applejack from her sleep, right as a flash of lightning happened and revealing the intruders to her. She was able to get out a warning, waking the others up, before the gas hit her and she went down because one of the soldiers threw his pack of sleeping spheres which popped upon impact, which besides Applejack was able to knock out Fluttershy, and Rarity also knocked out the throwing soldier and three of his comrades.

Rainbow Dash quickly plug her nose with a piece of cloth and was able to fight off several soldiers and even knocked four out, but sadly even she had to breath and while she was able to get out of the first cloud, a sleeping sphere burst under her as she was taking in a breath and the gas entered her lungs. Rainbow tried to fight against the effects and actually held out for a moment, but it was too strong and she hit the deck out like a light.

Twilight, Spike, Nightlight, Velvet, and Flare Warden were able to fight their way onto the deck where the open air made the sleeping spheres less effective and put up quite the fight, taking down several soldiers with Twilight knocking two unlucky ones off the deck and into the drink with her wings. However Flare was the first to fall as she had taken the brunt of the gas as the five were running to the deck and finally passed out, Velvet fell soon after when she was distracted by the four first soldiers, who had woken up, came charging out onto the deck with their tails on fire and got a sleeping sphere popped in her face. Turns out at some point someone fell on Spike which caused him to exhale a small puff of flame, which had it a barrel of cotton, so now the ship was rapidly being consumed by flame.

Then something else happened…

Nightlight had successfully sent the NTU Captain into some crates with a hit to the face with both back legs and the Captain, engaged by his now broken jaw, pulled out his pistol and aimed. He had been aiming for Nightlight’s legs, but a sudden flash of lightning (which hit the mast) and a wave hitting the side of the ship knocked the Captain off-balance and his gun fired.

Nightlight’s head jerked to the side and he fell sideways and into a lifeboat, taking Spike with him as the little Dragon had been on Nightlight’s back, as a splash of red fluid hit the deck.

Twilight saw the whole thing.

“DAD!”

She shrieked in horror but that second was all the soldiers she was fighting needed to pop a sleeping sphere in her face and knock her out.

The lifeboat Night and Spike had fallen into came loose as the fire from the mast fell onto the ropes holding the lifeboat to the ship and burned through them, causing the lifeboat to fall into the water and thanks to the mini-storm raging around them it was gone in seconds.

The Captain, holding his jaw, ran to the railing and looked out over the water.

“BLAST IT!”

The rest of his crew, who had all either woken up, climbed out of the water soaked to the bone, or put their tails out waited for what came next. The Captain growled at the loss but turned his attention to the unconscious Twilight, who had a very strong horn ring, muzzle, and wing and hoof cuffs on her.

“Well, we might have lost General Nightlight and the Dragon, but we did get the Princess.” He grinned evilly. “Finally, the NTU’s plan can move forward.”

Quickly the NTU got their captives into their own lifeboats and rowed away from the burning Schooner as the fire spread and soon slipped under the water.

1. The Caplock Revolver used by the Outcasts mostly resembles the Colt 1851 Army Revolver, but Outcast weapons tend to be a bit customized by their owners so some different models might appear. The biggest change is that the ram rod used to load the bullets into the chamber, while still under the barrel, is moved over to the right (from behind the weapon) so a bayonet or similar mounts can be attached.
2. I know the correct term is “nipple”, but I’m not sure if I can have Zenith say that, so I just thought I’d play it safe.
3. Based on the German Gewehr 71 Bolt-Action rifle, the Outcast version is a renamed and slightly changed design based on the in-universe version of the real-life rifle, only like the Caplock Revolver these rifles tend to be a bit customized by their owners.
4. For the Cap-and-Ball Revolvers only the actual projectile is used.
5. This is basically in-universe Buckshot.