//------------------------------//
// Assembling The Party 
// Story: The Olden World 
// by Czar_Yoshi 
//------------------------------//

Shinespark stepped so that she was between Gazelle and Golbez's pirates, aura tingling around the hilt of Gerardo's sword. "Slow down," she demanded, short mane blowing in the ocean wind. "Don't bring this to a fight!"

Gazelle stuck out his lower lip. "Awww. But I wanted a fight. To watch, more than anything. Meltdown, would you be a dear and let her duel you for the pirate's soul?"

"No." Meltdown stepped forward, looking cross. "Gazelle, while you're down here, who's keeping an eye on Puddles and the Varsidelians? We are here to save them, you remember."

"Oh, psssshh..." Gazelle waved a careless paw over his shoulder. "They'll be fine! Last I saw the windigo was on her last legs and you all were cleaning house with your pretty sword and... huh." He stopped, holding a paw to his chin. "But if you're all up here bantering with me, who's off defending the Varsidelians?"

Meltdown gave him a flat look. "That's the point."

Gazelle's pupils slowly shrank to pinpricks.

Shinespark glared at him. "You think maybe you should have been doing your duty as a leader of your country instead of playing games with us!? Where are they? Do you at least know?"

"Yes, yes, I'll play with you later." Gazelle gave her a distracted wave, then snapped out his feathery wings and took off further down the ship.

Valey turned to Meltdown as he departed. "Your high prince isn't very stable," she remarked.

Meltdown returned the look. "Gazelle is an actor who knows how to intimidate people, as well as tell who's worth intimidating. He's lived his whole life getting his way for what he does rather than who he is, so don't doubt that he has motives to his methods. I'm going to help him."

The unspoken implication to flee now if they didn't want the Empire's wrath for piracy hung over everyone's heads as Meltdown coiled her legs and jumped, clearing an entire level of the cabin and bounding away out of sight. Shinespark winced.

"So, uhhh..." Valey blinked around. "What are we doing? Gonna bail? The skies are as clear as they're gonna be, and I'm not sure how much fight I've got left in me. Kinda could do with a long nap right about now."

Shinespark gave her an unhappy look. "Valey, I caught up with and followed Puddles, and she somehow knew that Melia was imprisoned on this ship. You know... the missing Firefly Sister. They're both down there somewhere. At the very least, we ought to help Melia, but Puddles said she just wanted an audience for proving she could be good, so... it might be worth trying to save her too. And there's an army of trapped Varsidelians that..." She gritted her teeth. "You know how I feel about abandoning fighting forces to die."

"Uh huh." Valey nodded. "But the lunatic and whatever Meltdown is are totally working on that. Pretty sure they have enough firepower to get them safe, because I've seen Gazelle fight and if that armor doesn't shoot something scary, I'll eat my hoof. And if I'm reading this right, that there is one of your henchmares from the Spirit who is totally not caught up in pirate shenanigans and about to face the wrath of the top Empire dudes whose job it is to be wrathful about this? Even if you don't wanna bail, she really, really should." She appraised Golbez, Belinda, Howe and Neon Nova. "Also all those dudes you have for backup are either wounded or useless. I've fought with them, I'd know."

Shinespark folded her ears, teeth bared. "...I hate leaving ponies behind."

"Yep. Stinks." Valey scratched at the back of her neck with a wing, then looked over her shoulder. "Speaking of which, I'm still not exactly sure what to do about these dudes."

"...Who are they?" Shinespark blinked at the crowd of sarosian mares, properly evaluating them for the first time. "They look like pirates..."

"They sure are." Valey nodded at them, most of the mares awkwardly staring and fixed in place. Grapejuice was the only exception, kind of just doing her own thing on the side. "Totally didn't come try to plunder your ship while we were floating around guessing where you had gone. And if they had, I definitely didn't kick all their tails and then chase them back to this place." She blinked. "And I totally didn't convince them I'm an avatar of the Night Mother or something so they always follow me around now, either. This time I'm serious; I have no idea why they do that. Pirates are weird."

Grapejuice finally wandered over and clued in, standing a full head shorter than Valey or Shinespark. "Hey. Nice job with those imperial losers. I didn't really think it was my style to take that..." She stretched and yawned, fluttering her wings, then bobbed her head appreciatively at Shinespark. "You two friends, or something?"

"Does it look like it?" Valey raised an eyebrow at her. "Look, uhh... I kinda told you to speak for all of them, so what are you guys doing in all this? Really trying to figure out what to do, here."

Grapejuice casually shrugged. "Do I look like I know? I think we're just taking orders, or something. Beats me why everyone's so obsessed with you. Maybe they like your flanks. I just go with the flow."

Valey sighed. "Cool. So I have a tiny army that's already in bad shape 'cause I just finished roughing them up, and all together they weren't even worth a fraction of one of me in a fight. So... what, are we mareing up and busting in there to back up those clowns and fight a huge ton of pirates and maybe save someone, or what?"

Shinespark glanced to Golbez's crew.

Golbez raised an eyebrow back. "What be ye lookin' at us for, lass? Just humble pirates here. We don't do heroic charges, and yer' the one with the magic sword."

Shinespark's horn trembled, and she looked back at Valey. "...Tell me if I'm being stupid, but they'll be captured at best if we leave them here, and I don't know how far it is to land."

"The Dream is your boat." Valey shrugged. "Starlight's on it. I can give you a direction. Right nearby. Wanna send them off in that direction, if they can all fly?"

Neon Nova climbed on Howe's back. Golbez and Belinda flapped their tired wings. Grenada fidgeted.

"You're staying with me," Shinespark decided, grabbing a surprised Grenada in her telekinesis and pulling her to her side. "If they want to go to the Dream, tell them where it is. But there are still batponies flying around out there, and I don't want you out of my sight until I know the way out is safe."

Golbez bowed. "If ye have a ship of yer' own and be willin' to lend us passage to shore, we'd be very appreciative, lass."

"Slick." Valey nodded, sniffed, and pointed a hoof. "Fly, uh, due that way. Look for a big bird called Gerardo and tell him Valey sent you and you promise to clean up any messes you make, and don't tick off either of the fillies. They're scary. Oh!" She jumped, then turned to the sarosians. "If any of you have any reservations whatsoever about being creamed by your own buddies, I'm about to go wreck some face with Sparky here. So, uhh... Those dudes?" She pointed at Golbez's crew. "Hang out with them until they get past any sentries that are still out there and make sure they don't get messed up, and then you're released from my service, or something. Take care of yourselves. Get a nap, sleep off your bruises and all that."

With a storm of leathery fluttering, the batponies moved, and Golbez's crew made to take off as well. None of them needed any bidding to leave, and soon the only ponies left were Valey, Shinespark, Grenada... and Grapejuice.

"Huh." Valey blinked at her. "Why am I not surprised you're the one who stayed?"

"I dunno." Grapejuice shrugged. "Talking real for a second, I'm bored and you're hot and it seems like a safe place to hang. Don't really mind that I got beat up. Happens to everyone all the time."

"So." Shinespark drew her sword, then offered it to Valey. "We're badly outnumbered. This evens our odds a lot, depending on how many we run into..." She sighed. "But, since coming here, I've found that apparently it works differently on batponies than everyone else. It doesn't paralyze them, it... first makes them depressed, and then kills them. And I know your usual style is to leave more spinning heads than blood in your wake, so..."

"Batponies, huh?" Valey took the sword in her hooves, feeling it, and carefully ran a hoof along the blade's edge. "Weird. You sure about that? 'Cuz honestly, I'm getting exactly the same level of danger from this as any old sharp edge. Which is actually a little strange since you'd think paralysis wouldn't count as physical harm at all, but my senses are weird like that. Either way, whatever. We've got Gazelle and Meltdown. Just, like, do what you need to and I'll keep us all safe."

Shinespark frowned. "Are you okay promising that?"

"That I'll keep you safe in a nasty tunnel mob combat situation? You mean after that stuff in the Flame District you weren't even there for?" Valey frowned back. "Yeah. I am. Maybe it'll be like a second chance to bust some friends out of a really tight spot, and honestly, a lot of wimpy pirates are gonna be easier than a dozen strong mercenaries. I doubt they're conditioned for fighting batponies, either, and just like last time we've got a last resort." She hoofed the blade back to Shinespark. "The moment I go down, if I go down, go ham with this if you're not already. Otherwise, do what you think you can. Deal?"

Shinespark extended a metal-clad hoof. "Deal."

Valey bumped it, then glanced to Grapejuice and Grenada. "You two stay behind us, then? Do your best to stay safe. Remember, you can share shadow sneaking with non-batponies to hide. And light from your horn if they're hiding in the shadows against you. And, uhh..." She glanced around, grabbing a cutlass one of the pirates had dropped and tossing it to them. "Here. Defend yourselves. And now..."

With a deep breath and an extended sigh, Valey spread her wings, flapped them once, and stared up at the rest of the ship. "Let's go hunt some pirates."