The Olden World

by Czar_Yoshi


All Caught Up

Shinespark growled. If she had given herself time to think, she might have determined that chasing an old betrayer had nothing to do with her bigger mission of getting Valey and Puddles back, but in the heat of the moment she connected Neon Nova with Ironridge and Ironridge with Valey and that meant not letting this slip past. Why did he have to be able to teleport?

Neon was a stage magician. His magic couldn't be that powerful, so he couldn't have gone far... They were in an alley, but the buildings on both sides had entrances. He'd be stupid to hide in there. He'd have to go further out, and that meant she could watch from above.

Shinespark rocketed upwards, only to flip about at the sight of him hobbling along a rooftop on his disabled hoof. Changing her momentum with a grace borne of years of practice, she pivoted and landed on the roof behind him. She cleared her throat.

"Oh, this party was over before it even started!" Neon groaned in exasperation, giving up and flinging himself prone. "Joke's on... Ehhh... Did you really come all this way looking for me?"

"No." Shinespark stepped closer with a clank of metal. "I just happened to be-"

"Halt!" another voice exclaimed, and a less-familiar pegasus with a very garish mane vaulted onto the roof's edge, running to the fallen unicorn. "Brother, what are these words that reach my ears!? You share my exalted bloodline! Do not succumb to the accursed temptation to sur..." He trailed off mid-word, realizing who was chasing Neon. "Uhhh... This doesn't look good..."

"She's not with the empire! She followed us from Ironridge!" Neon yelped. "Bro, you didn't run when I gave you the distraction?"

Shinespark's eyes narrowed. "Seems I finally get the pleasure of meeting Howe outside of in passing. I don't like either of you, but I have bigger things to deal with right now. Valey is here. Do you know where she is?"

"Run, Bro!" Neon winced. "I'll hold her off! Save yourself; let me make my last stand!"

Before Shinespark could threaten or clarify, something tapped the side of her armored neck, and an old voice cleared its throat behind her. "Let's not have any of that, now. There be no need to go makin' sacrifices when we're so short on hooves already. What do ye say we parlay and talk things out diplomatically, no?"

Shinespark furrowed her brow inside her armor, freezing in place and dimming her horn. "You really think your sword can cut through this much armor with no power behind the strike?"

The metal presence left, inviting her to turn around. "Nay," a thin, scarred black griffon replied, tipping his hat. "But we'd be both happier if neither of us had to find out. It sounds as if ye've some history with me crew, now. Why don't we clear the air a little? Justice comes for every soul, eventually."

Shinespark consciously avoided turning in a circle. She already knew she was surrounded; Howe and Neon Nova at her back and this griffon in front of her, backed by a much younger, spryer griffonness who was nursing a talon and a large number of cuts. She didn't think there was anything they could do to her if she tried to flee... but she wasn't sure, and it wasn't a risk she could afford to take.

"Crew?" she asked, looking back toward the two brothers. "You signed on as pirates when your mercenary work fell through?" She let out a dirty sigh.

"Arrr..." The captain sagged, his tricorn hat drooping along with his crest. "Firstly, ye must not be from around these parts. Else ye'd know anyone who dresses this obviously has nothing to be fearin' from the law. Secondly, that's the second time in a few measly hours I been yelled at by a stranger for takin' you two on with no questions asked. Why must good help be so hard to find these days...?"

"The second time, you say? That you've ran into someone who knew them?" Shinespark gestured at Howe and Neon Nova with her telekinesis. "Let's pretend I could care less about all of you and just want to know who this someone was, and then we all happily go our separate ways. How's that sound?"

Howe and Neon Nova both nodded emphatically behind her, begging the captain and his stoic golden bodyguard to say yes. The captain frowned at them. "Ordinarily, I'd ask what ye plan to barter in exchange, but these days be difficult enough already. How are ye with drinks, lass? This be a story ye might want to be tipsy before hearin'."

Shinespark shook her head. "If it sounds implausible, it's probably what I'm looking for."

"So ye say." The captain shrugged. "I be sittin' in yonder tavern, drownin' me woes in good honey mead, when all of a sudden two mares waltz in and demand to join me crew. Barely looked past their teenage years, both of them, and the one was a coward and the other didn't know how to stop blubberin' at the slightest setback. One was a heathen, the other a normal pony. Whether they were lovers, heated rivals, partners in crime or all three be up to the sea. If that's so, romance don't be nearly as romantic as it once was... Arrr. Then it turned out the one most eager to join us was a mage of some sort, and she handed Belinda here her tail and then some. It certainly be a relief to have them gone."

Shinespark tensed. That description wasn't spot-on, but she could more than see it applying to her targets. "Was it Valey?" she asked, turning and glaring at Howe and Neon Nova.

The latter waved his working forelimb in self-defense, but Howe whistled. "In the very flesh itself! Truly, it put my heart at ease, seeing how she had survived the horrific ordeals of the-"

"Thanks," Shinespark interrupted, cutting him off and turning back to the captain. "I need to know where they went. It's very important I find those two."

The captain gave a giant shrug, then pointed in a direction. "They flew off that way. Seemed to be havin' a quarrel, so we left them to it. I wouldn't be puttin' any gold on them stayin' together long-term, though. That be all. Have ye finished yer business with us?"

Valey followed his talon, inland and slightly to the south. Valey could fly, but Puddles couldn't... she hoped. "I think that's everything," she decided, giving a slight bow. "Thank you for your-"

Flash!

A light sheet of frost suddenly covered the roof, bolting Shinespark's and everyone else's hooves in place.

"Nnngh... Puddles... finally made it back..." A chartreuse hoof reached over the edge, planted itself on the rooftop, and pulled up a panting, evilly-grinning face. "Hiya, pirateses! Who's ready for more Puddles?"

The captain looked unamused. Belinda, the other griffon, looked furious. Neon Nova was only concerned with the cold on his hooves, and Howe tapped his wings, grinning apologetically. "You reeeally shouldn't have phrased it as a jinx..."

Puddles rolled over the edge and onto her back, panting hard and occasionally kicking her legs in the air. "Cities are big!" she complained, getting to her hooves once her chest slowed down and raising an eyebrow at Shinespark. "Well, well, well. What do we have here?"

"Hello," Shinespark greeted coolly, staying put in the armor. Her own horn was strong enough to teleport out if she wanted, and the armor's thermal insulation let her almost not feel the ice that was anchoring her hooves in place. If Puddles didn't know that, it was an advantage she wanted to hold secret as long as she could.

"Did you come to find me?" Puddles asked, voice deepening and bordering on a chuckle. "Yes! Oh, you did! That's wonderful. Who are you? The orange one? Not a whole lot of unicorns to go around... Are more coming? Say we're going to have a whole party..."

"Puddles," Shinespark said. "Where's Valey? I'm not interested in you."

"Orange one...?" Howe murmured from the sidelines.

"What, my cute little Valey?" Puddles made a snuggly face. "Not here! Somewhere else. Somewhere I know and you don't. Interested in me now?"

Shinespark gritted her teeth, but before she could act there was a crash of shattering ice to her side. The captain was standing, a sword held in his tail that he had just used to cut his paws and talons free, and he stalked over to Puddles with a demeanor that said he had faced so much worse, she wasn't even worth being concerned. "Well well well yerself, lass," he countered, determined to make the conversation about him and not Shinespark. "It seems yer' back. Still be wantin' to take up salin' with me crew?"

Puddles licked her lips, predatory grin briefly disappearing behind a mask of beatific cheer. "Sure thing, mister griffon! Puddles wants to go that way!"

She tapped the ground, causing a sculpture to erupt of an ice hoof pointing out toward the water, and Belinda rolled her eyes. The captain sighed. "First, I be Cap'n Golbez the Black, not Mister Griffon. Ye best be rememberin' that. Second. Are ye serious?"

Puddles sidled over to Shinespark. "Yup!"

"Arrr." Golbez hung his head. "Then kindly unhoof me crew, and we might as well be off. I be done with this port town."

Puddles winked, and the ice retracted around everyone but Shinespark. Howe and Neon Nova immediately bailed, while Belinda stuck around, keeping a very cross eye on the mare.

"Hey, lady," Puddles giggled, getting close enough to Shinespark to lift her visor and then standing face to face, her eyes peering directly into the slit. "Puddles is a pirate now. Wanna try and catch me?"

Shinespark narrowed her eyes in return. "If it's a choice between you and my friend, I know what I'm taking. Where is Valey?"

"Hee! Puddles knows and you don't." Puddles reached a hoof through, booping Shinespark between the eyes. Her voice dropped to glacial. "And you're going to follow me as soon as you break that ice, because I want an audience for what I'm going to do. The bigger, the better. Don't slack off, now. Remember you've got my cute Valey to think of..."

Shinespark shuddered; Puddles' words were physically cold. But the pirates... sailors... whatever were leaving, and Puddles quickly jumped off to join them. Shinespark wasted no time in blasting her hooves with her horn, quickly freeing herself. The situation reeked of her being baited, but she had to follow. There was nothing else she could do.