Survival Begins at Home

Shining was out the door earlier than usual today. Cadance had slept beside where he had been all night while he was packing up his things. He was going to pay for a smaller room closer to the ground floor so as not to wake her up in a screaming fit again. He thought it best that she have the opportunity to sleep comfortably. He paid for the room and had his luggage brought there, and requested that the staff not tell his wife. They were clearly uncomfortable with the notion, but agreed to do so as professionals.

He made his way down to the harbor to see if Boom had started work on the new weapons. He had, as there were five smiths taking measurements of one in preparation for casting. That was certainly a faster response time than Shining had expected.

"Trouble sleeping?" came Boom's voice from behind him. "I spent my night trying to find out everything I could about these things. Very cool stuff. All of these smiths together were able to quote me ten of them by the end of the week, so we're going to mount some on an ironclad."

"That sounds like a good idea."

"Don't I know it. We've also received reports of ships we thought lost making their way up here. It's no secret that we suspect that the ships are loaded with zebras. I was about to take the Aeolus out to meet them head-on. Give them the surprise attack they gave us. Except, we hope to survive the attack.

"I'm pretty sure they all hoped to survive their own attack," chuckled Shining. "If we're going to survive it, though, we need to know how to surrender."

Boom shook his head. "My crew is mostly stallions. We would all be killed off. We aren't suitable slaves, as far as the zebras are concerned."

"Then I suppose we'd better win, then."

Boom laughed as he boarded the Aeolus, which was shy one weapon, one crate of special stone, and one keg of black powder. The fuses were very easy to produce, it was just a paper tube with some black powder twisted tight. Making new fuses was not a problem now that they knew what they were made from. A whole box of them was really no problem. Boom would be taking command of that operation, and to be perfectly frank, he deserved the glory.

Shining would be serving as both the distraction and as backup. He would be taking an ironclad out after the Aeolus, launching his catapult after her, conveniently missing every time. This would continue on until the Aeolus was surrounded by enemy ships that thought she was still on their side, turning their attention to the ironclad. When no zebras were watching, the Aeolus would turn around and fire at them.

Shining would not be alone in his pursuit. Four other ships were to follow him to make sure the zebras were pinned down. There wasn't a number attached to the ships, so they didn't know exactly how many were coming. They estimated thirty ships unaccounted for, and a possible ten more might have been built according to the schematics. They were all small ships, though. Fluyts and schooners, mostly. The Aeolus was one of three brigantines that had disappeared, and those were the largest ships that had disappeared. A handful of galleons, an ironclad cruiser, and a brigantine with the element of surprise was probably enough to take care of the entire zebra fleet at this point, even with their new weapons.

At the end of the day, everything went according to plan for Equestria. Some of the smaller ships were sunk after all of the damage they'd sustained, but these were not recent captures. There were no slaves aboard these ships, only zebra soldiers. After all was said and done, Shining was left in charge of one of the schooners, sailing it by himself with all of the zebras that surrendered tied up in the cargo hold. He couldn't believe that he was treating these prisoners better than they had treated theirs. The pony stallions that had worked aboard this vessel had all been killed, and the mares had either joined the men or been sold as slaves. These horrid beings were to be placed in a secure stone building and given food, water, a place to sleep, and release at the end of the conflict. There would be no such release for the Equestrian citizens. Thinking about it made him sick.

"You're going to regret this, you doughy pawn!" called one of the prisoners through the grate. "We'll have broken out into your city by dawn!"

"You will do no such thing," growled Shining, doing his best to remain calm. "You'll be lucky to have your own bed. You're already in luck, because you're zebras captured by ponies. If you were ponies captured by zebras, we'd just kill you and dump your bodies on a sandbar. So you can shut your mouth and let this happen, you rancid cunt."

"You would not be so tough if you were down here with us. Come on down below, so we can better hear you fuss."

Shining shook his head. "That would do you little good. You'll have plenty of time to think about what you'll say to apologize to me from inside your cells."

"Joke's on you, because in the afterlife, we'll be treating your bitch sister as our cumdumpster wife."

Shining's eye twitched. His blood pressure spiked as his hands began to shake again, though it was less out of fear this time. "Keep your mouths shut. Not another word."

"We'll spent the mornings dressing her in naught but socks, then the whole afternoon, she will worship our cocks. In evenings, we'll take turns stretching out her arse. Your desperate attempt to save her was no more than a farce."

"Shut your gobs!"

"Or maybe we'll hold her with her head down south, force open her jaw and shit in her mouth."

"THAT'S ENOUGH!!"

"And your wife, when she joins us, will lick up our piss, all while being watched by your bitch of a sis."

Shining couldn't take any more of this. He was alone with the zebra prisoners, and they had driven him over the edge. As his blood pressure skyrocketed, the world around him blurred away, and turned black as he collapsed against the wheel.