"Shinespark?" Grenada swallowed, looking up at the dark, overcast sky. "We need to go. Now."
"Agreed." Shinespark lit her horn, giving one last glance at Puddles and her insane, icy charge. "Sorry if I'm stealing your crew, Captain, but she was my friend first!"
"Ye dallied too long, lasses," Golbez sighed, holding his tricorn hat to his chest. "It looks like the window be vanished."
S-s-s-s-swoooooshh!
An entire platoon of batponies dropped onto the deck between them and the bridge, at least twelve strong, a mare screeching something at a stallion who instantly took wing and soared away again. She turned, evidently the leader, and stared Shinespark and the pirates down. "What kind of machine is this? Airships defended by magic do not belong in our waters. Surrender whatever you're guarding!"
"Uhhh..." Howe took a nervous step back. "My divine instinct of self-preservation is tingling?"
The lead mare made a signal with her wing, and suddenly there was a second squad of batponies in the air around them. "No retreating!" she barked.
A talon cracked against the floorboards, and Captain Golbez stepped forward. "The only things I be defendin' are me life, me honor, me goddess and me crew."
The batpony clicked her tongue saucily against the roof of her mouth. "I've heard of you. Thought you died in a skirmish weeks ago. What honor? Coward."
"Those are fighting words," Belinda growled, drawing two scimitars and standing on her hind legs, using her wings for balance. "We can take however many of you."
"Lass?" Golbez growled at Shinespark. "That be a fancy sword strapped to yer' side. I hope ye know how to use it. Sarosians! On Cap'n Golbez the Black's dyin' day, have at ye!"
Gerardo's sword was in front of Shinespark's face almost as quickly as a batpony was, held in her sapphire aura. She had forgotten about that! The flier didn't think much of it, anticipating her swing and darting to the side to intercept with his shield and thrust with his javelin, using the block to create an opening for two more. He didn't expect the sword to cut through his shield like it was made of air.
Silently, the telekinetic blade swished through the three batponies, and the clatter of dropped weaponry rang out on the deck an instant later. But... they kept flying, wings beating as their legs dangled and their eyes went unfocused. In no hurry, they landed on the deck, then just sat there, staring at the floor in silence.
Shinespark didn't have time to question it. That wasn't what the blade was supposed to do, but it was still effective and she had a battle to fight. Sarosians were everywhere, and the ally most in need was... Grenada! Telekinetically, she grasped the fallen armaments as she ran, hurling them as projectiles and swinging the sword ahead of her.
"Bananas," Valey said for the billionth time that night. "Is this some kind of crazy pirate mothership, or something? Come on, just... give me my bags? I really don't want to fight that!"
All the stallions had left the skiff, leaving only the mares remaining: presumably, the only ones that could understand her. She raised an eyebrow at them. "Well?"
Every mare who could was still bowing, trembling. "W-Who are you?" one managed in a shaking voice. "You come with invincible skill, claim authority over the Night Mother's sacred treasures, y-yet don't hail our night!"
"What are my options, here?" Valey tapped a hoof; the ship engagement was getting closer. "Like, maybe I'm just really cool? Or maybe I'm some kinda something from the moon here to blow you all up for being naughty?"
The mares fidgeted heavily, and again one managed to speak up. "P-Please don't make fun..."
"Major cultural barrier, here," Valey sighed. "I'm a lazy banana-eating fruit thrower with a butt brand from the moon that lets me see the future to know when you bums are going to attack me. Believe it or not. I want my bags and my Nightmare Module."
All the mares hissed. "You've been blessed by the Night Mother..."
Valey frowned. "Yeah, yeah, cool! Listen, if you don't have my bags, where would the one idiot who stole them be? On there? Because that's a really nasty-looking ship, and if I have to beat up that many dudes, I'm probably gonna have to hibernate to get a long enough nap after that."
The mares all went back to bowing, and none of them wanted to speak.
"In there?" Valey frowned, repeating herself, and pointed a hoof at the frigate, its masts towering like an angry set of claws.
Still only trembling. Valey hopped down into the skiff, picked out the cutest of the pirates, and grabbed her by the shoulders, lifting her so they were face to face, eyes almost touching. "Listen up," she whispered to the terrified mare, then repeated it louder for everyone to hear. "You all are, like, higher-ranking than grunts or something, right? You." She tapped the nose of the one she held. "Once we get on that huge boat, you're gonna lead me to whoever the head honcho is. Be my navigator and translator and stuff. The rest of you are gonna follow us around and be my muscle. Anyone says I can't go somewhere, you all eee at them and tell them I'll bust them up, since I'd rather talk stuff out than fight stuff. And then I'm gonna get the honcho to do a shakedown of the whole ship and give me my bags. You're all spooked enough of me to do anything I say, yeah?"
There was a lot of swallowing, nodding, and soft eeeing. The mare Valey held looked at her with something approaching wonder.
"Yeah, you're cute too." Valey patted her on the head, not thinking about how long it had probably been since her purple mane had been properly cared for, and set her back on her hooves. Her cutie mark was tingling, but not enough for someone in the boat to have an attack trained on her. "Now let's get this thing moving! I wanna be in and out as fast as I can, and then sleep sleep sleeeeep..."
Ch-tinnngg!
With a ring of metal against metal, Belinda parried a final swing and sliced back, finishing the last of her opponents. She wiped her sword clean and stood, turning to the others.
"Arrr..." Golbez stared down the length of his soiled blade. "It seems we be in for a break between waves. Rest yerselves while ye can. I intend to take as many down with us as fate permits."
Shinespark stood up from her own work, Grenada, Howe and Neon Nova behind her. The former two had barely been able to win one-on-ones without help, but Neon had some sort of magical flash attack that the batponies all seemed scared of. Except the ones that had been hit with her sword, at least.
All around the deck, batponies had landed, showing no outward signs of distress aside from looks that were either generally miserable or frowns of concentration. They did move; one was pacing as if walking could save his life. Another coughed; in the dim light, it looked like a few flakes of something drifted from his mouth.
"What the...?" She curiously regarded the blade, its surface clean and black and unblemished. Why was it working different on the ponies here than in Ironridge? Was it because they were batponies, and not regular ones? The ones she had hit looked in all different states, too. Some seemed not sad or weak at all, only not caring to go on with their fight.
"If you want to live, move!" Belinda snarled, shoving her out of her reverie. "More are coming, but look down there! It's safe on that bridge!"
Shinespark blinked. Puddles was almost to the frigate, and as batponies dove toward her icy bridge, spikes shot up from it that forced them to dodge and wheel away. The bridge itself was a living construct, its staircase head seeming to beckon them to follow.
"I... think I shall take my chances with the magic of mythos over the armies of eternal eeeing!" Howe declared, being the first to dash for the staircase. "Wow! It's not slippery!"
He successfully entered, and everyone else looked at each other. Another flock was on their way...
"...We stick with Puddles," Shinespark decided, fully aware that the sarosians could outfly her if she tried to break for shore. "Grenada!"
"Coming!"
The rest of the pirates charged too, reaching the safety of the icy staircase just as the next wave struck.