Heavy balls of iron sailed through the air, the powerful winds not altering their course—until they came into contact with one of the many waterspouts and were yanked around—carried by its current and thrown in another direction entirely. Some ended up shooting to the north, the south, even back west. Others ended up hitting second waterspouts and were practically pinballed around until they lost momentum and fell into the water. Godfrey’s orders were turning an already dangerous and chaotic place into a Tartarus-forsaken death trap.
Rainbow Dash stood on the deck of the Heart of Azure as cannonballs rained down on the waters around them. Most falling like rocks after having their momentum stolen—but that hardly mattered. They were heavy enough where if one landed on their ship it would punch right through the deck, maybe even right through the hull as well. And if one hit the mast then that would be game over too.
That’s nothing to say about one of them being directly hit by the cannonballs.
Rainbow Dash couldn’t block or knock them out of the way either, not with just her own body, she didn’t have the physical strength or weight. They just had to hope they stayed lucky and the cannonballs didn’t strike them directly. Of course now it was yet another huge obstacle combined with the lightning and waterspouts. They were running out of safe room to sail over.
“We have to get out of here as fast as we can,” Daylight said as more cannonballs shot all over. “Giant waves are less dangerous than being stuck in a part of the storm like this. We need to get completely out of Godfrey’s sight.”
“Believe me, I’m as aware of that as you are, but we can’t go any faster. There’s too much danger all around us,” Breakwater said.
As if to punctuate his words, a bolt of lightning crashed into the waters off the port bow.
“The Scourge is just firing blind anyways. They can’t possibly expect to actually hit us or know exactly where we are right now either. And soon the currents will pull their ship somewhere else if they keep firing broadside at us like they are right now. We’ve actually got time on our side here, even if it doesn’t look like it right now,” Breakwater said.
“No we don’t,” Rainbow Dash said.
The others turned to look at her and saw her looking into the sky, above and behind their boat. Her eyes were narrowed and affixed on one spot. On one thing, traveling through the sky.
“He can’t be. Flying out in this weather, after ordering his cannons to fire at us, is he mad?” Daylight asked as she too stared up with Rainbow Dash.
“That’s just my brother,” Gilbert frowned.
Godfrey was flying through the sky towards them, just a small point, but clearly visible all the same. Despite the waterspouts, the lightning, and now the cannonballs, he was coming at them. The griffon pirate clearly had no intention of letting them go.
“Can we fight or defend ourselves from him while all of this is going on?” Daylight asked. “He could potentially just come down and tear our sail to pieces or threaten you while you’re trying to steer the ship.” She said to Breakwater.
Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow at her. “No camouflage?”
Daylight shook her head. “I can’t do that in a place like this. There’s too much movement and stuff flying around. Any illusion, mirage, or invisibility shell I create is just going to get distorted immediately.”
And as if on cue…
“Hey! How’s the weather down there!” The loud voice of Godfrey pierced the stormy weather—the griffon pirate now flying close enough overhead to be heard. “By the way, the cannons won’t stop firing unless I go back and tell them to! Do you think you can survive out here with all this going on? Or maybe one of you should come up here and force me back to my ship to make them stop!”
Rainbow Dash glared up at him and turned to look at her friends. “Well—he’s got the right idea.”
“You can’t possibly be thinking of-” Senax started.
“Yep,” Rainbow cut her off. “That’s what I’m thinking of doing.”
“Allow me to help then,” Gilbert said and opened his wings but Rainbow Dash put a hoof across his chest.
“Sorry, Gilbert. I appreciate it but you aren’t a strong enough flier. It’s too dangerous in this weather. I’ll deal with Godfrey myself.”
“Like last time?” Daylight frowned at her. “You recall that didn’t go too well, don’t you?”
Rainbow Dash merely grinned back. “It’ll be different this time.”
“How will it be different?”
Rainbow looked into the sky at Godfrey, and at the stormy ocean around them with its waterspouts, bolts of lightning, and now all the cannonballs raging through the air as well. “I’ve got a few ideas. You all just do your best to keep safe on the ship. I’ll be right back.”
Before anyone could protest further, Rainbow Dash flew off from the Heart of Azure and went up to join Godfrey. The winds howled and blew harder and harder the further she flew up, and the constant roar of thunder and blasts of rainwater didn’t make the trip any easier, but soon she rose to hover right across from Godfrey. The griffon pirate grinned at her arrival as lightning flashed around them. A cannonball that had been fired from The Scourge even zoomed just a few feet over Rainbow Dash’s head, but she didn’t flinch.
“Nice of you to join me, was wondering if you had the guts to come up here,” Godfrey said to her. “Look—I didn’t bring my sword either, since it’s kind of dumb to be waving a piece of metal around with all this lightning. So maybe you’ll actually stand a chance against me.”
Rainbow Dash just raised an unimpressed eyebrow at him. “Oh, that’s why you didn’t bring it? I thought maybe you were just tired of trying to overcompensate for something.”
“Gehahaha! I guess you really are just as full of confidence as I thought! Good. That’s good, Rainbow Dash. I didn’t want you to be the type that gets intimidated easily,” he winked.
Rainbow Dash just snorted at his words and looked behind Godfrey. Far in the distance she could see the swaying and bobbing form of The Scourge as it continued to fire volleys of cannonballs with reckless abandon into the storm. She glanced back at him and narrowed her eyes. “Whatever, Godfrey. Are we doing this or what? Cause I don’t have the time with everything else going on in this storm.”
“Afraid of some cannonballs?” Godfrey sneered.
“They’re just as likely to hit you as they are to hit me up here.”
“Hah! Don’t look down on me so much, Rainbow Dash. It’s easy to keep track of the cannonballs and where they’re going so long as you know where the waterspouts are and what direction they’re twisting in. I’ve been watching them all since I started flying out here to greet you. No matter how many times my cannons fire, I won’t be taken off-guard. Can you do the same? Or are you going to have to constantly worry about getting swatted from the sky?”
“So you’re a real genius with a snazzy memory. Big whoop. Yeah, I can keep track of things too. Especially when flying,” she folded her hooves in front of her chest.
With poetic timing, a cannonball zoomed between the both of them.
And Rainbow Dash and Godfrey flew at each other as soon as it had gone by.
Her hoof and his fist went straight for each other’s heads. Naturally, Godfrey had a longer reach than she did, so Rainbow Dash had to duck under his balled up talon before her hoof could reach him. But Godfrey merely effortlessly turned his head to the side and allowed the much smaller pegasus to simply fly right past him entirely. Opening up his talon he swung it around towards her to rake the sharp claws across her wing and side, Rainbow Dash twisted over and kicked him in the wrist to knock his talon away and flapped her wings to shoot backwards and make a little more space.
A bolt of lightning crackled in the air and struck the ocean not far from where the two of them were flying. Briefly the bright flash silhouetted both their faces and a steady rain fell over them.
Godfrey charged at her while a duo of cannonballs came in from her right. Rainbow Dash ducked below them and continued to fly down closer to the ocean’s surface. There, heavy waves rose up and could potentially swallow them if they got too close, but the cannonballs wouldn't be directly blasting at them this low. The winds were just as terrible closer to the water as higher in the sky, and a roaming waterspout was coming closer to them to make everything worse.
“Tch,” Rainbow Dash clicked her tongue at the constant hazards. As if Godfrey wasn’t enough of a pain on his own. It was quite the challenge, she had to admit that, but this was all a little insane even for her. But she still had to beat him.
She swiftly made an about-face as Godfrey was coming at her and deflected another punch of his with her wing. The second punch coming right for her stomach she blocked by putting all four of her hooves against it and kicking herself away. The force of the blow was completely absorbed and Rainbow wasn’t hurt at all.
“Nice reflexes,” Godfrey grinned.
“Nice punches,” Rainbow smirked. “But why don’t you try landing one next?”
“Why don’t you try taking one? How about I let you punch me first and then you let me punch you back? That’s pretty fair,” he chuckled.
“Sorry—my pride isn’t going to make me that stupid.”
Godfrey cracked his knuckles and flew towards her as a wave came up behind her. A huge wave that was tall enough that its breaking tip would wash over and pull her down. But it was slow, the top of the wave was just starting to curve when Godfrey reached Rainbow Dash. He had his fists raised and instead of throwing wide swings and sweeping hooks designed to knock her out in one blow—he started swiftly jabbing at her with short straight punches. Rainbow Dash mirrored him and raised her hooves, doing much the same. They dodged and weaved around each other’s blows like expert boxers with their limbs moving so fast they would’ve only appeared as blurs to most creatures.
Right as the top of the wave came crashing down and created that brief tube of air inside of it, Godfrey flung himself at Rainbow Dash and clotheslined her, carrying her into and through the back of the wave. She coughed and sputtered as she went through the cold water—thrown out in an instant after holding her breath—and kicked Godfrey in the side to force herself away from him even as he attempted to carry her down to the ocean’s surface. It was tough, the air pressure around him was tough to get away from when he was flying strongly like that.
“Gehahahaha!” Godfrey laughed at her and brought his wing out towards her, aiming to hit her in the throat with the powerful limb. Right now they were both flying nearly vertically downwards.
Rainbow brought her own wing up to hit the underside of Godfrey’s to make it simply sail over her head. The two of them then barely leveled out as they skimmed the surface of the water, the wind from their wings creating small waves that joined the raging ones around them, with Rainbow Dash slightly ahead of Godfrey as he chased her. She decided to make ample use of her position and the cold saltwater directly below her. Turning on her side she dipped her wing into it and created a long splash that leapt up at Godfrey’s face.
It was just a minor distraction but unlike when he carried her through the wave he wasn’t expecting to suddenly get water in the face. He closed his eyes shut and sputtered when the saltwater hit him—it was all Rainbow Dash needed to zoom towards the nearby waterspout. She spun around it at high-speed, being boosted by the natural powerful winds that created it, and shot out towards a more open spot on the ocean that also wasn’t covered with gigantic waves.
Godfrey came careening from the waterspout quickly afterwards—the distraction only hampering him slightly, not that she expected more.
Rainbow Dash glanced back at him and narrowed her eyes, as soon as he got close to her she flew around in a wide but fast circle before shooting back into the sky.
“You just wanna turn this into a chase or something?” Godfrey shouted at her.
“Just getting my blood pumping!” Rainbow shouted back.
A series of cannonballs shot around the two of them as they rose higher into the sky, but the two fliers easily dodged them all. When she reached the apex of her flight, Rainbow Dash turned around and went on the offensive, flying towards Godfrey right as a bolt of lightning flashed and thunder roared around them.
He was ready to meet her and his forearm blocked a heavy punch she delivered to him. A kick from one of her back legs was summarily blocked by his other front limb. He leaned his head back just slightly and then brought it down and towards her in attempt to headbutt her—something that would’ve surely knocked her out cold if not outright crack her skull if she met it. So Rainbow Dash pushed away from him and zoomed to his right with another punch aimed at his shoulder. He dodged down and brought an open talon up at her stomach that Rainbow only barely avoided—she could almost feel the sharp claws rake across her stomach.
Godfrey went right back on the offensive then and came at her even as more rain poured on them and a few cannonballs whizzed by. They traded a flurry of blows with each other, neither being able to land a solid hit. At the same time they had to manage flying through the harsh winds and not let themselves get carried away.
A kick towards Godfrey’s head was blocked. A punch at Rainbow Dash’s face was dodged. An uppercut to Godfrey’s chin was deflected. A wingstrike to the side of Rainbow’s head was parried.
Godfrey’s talon slashed at her head and Rainbow Dash ducked under it, only losing a few strands of mane in the process. She punched up towards him but her hoof only lightly tapped his stomach before his wings carried him out of the way. She quickly went after him and aimed a kick at his chest but Godfrey put his arms in front of his chest and blocked it, knocking her away as soon as he threw his arms back out. The two of them then hovered in position, staring at each other. Rainbow with a hard frown on her face and Godfrey with an eager grin.
“So is it good for you too?” Godfrey snickered.
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. “You know what? It would be if we were just fighting for fun, or you weren’t some evil pirate and we were competing like friends. But right now I’m just worried about my real friends.”
“Heh, that’s the big difference between us then. Friends? I don’t need or care about things like that, they’re just something that holds you back. Like with you now. You care too much. It’s stopping you from being as free as me. You’ve got the power to do what you want, Rainbow Dash. But you’re letting things like “good” and “bad” influence you instead of going all out. You think I have any rules? Anything I won’t do if I feel like it? Anything that I’d regret? I don’t. Nothing holds me back from doing what I want! I almost, for a moment when we first met, thought we might actually be kindred spirits. But I guess not,” he finished with a shrug. “You’re just not as awesome as me.”
Rainbow Dash’s eye twitched. “Godfrey… normally I’d feel bad about this, like it’s cheating, but because of all of that stuff you just said? I’m not going to feel bad one bit.”
He raised an eyebrow at her. “What are you-“
A cannonball slammed into his side, hitting his wing and front right arm.
“Grrk!” He grunted in pain and faltered as the cannonball fell. It had already lost most of its momentum before it hit him so it didn’t break his sturdy body or bones, but it still hurt a lot. “W-What?! There shouldn’t have been any coming from there…”
“You kind of forgot to take something into account,” Rainbow told him, not smiling or smirking at all.
He glared up at her angrily.
“You’re as fast as me, and way stronger. But I’m still a pegasus. Manipulating the weather is second nature,” Rainbow Dash said and pointed behind him.
Godfrey looked and saw a small waterspout spinning about in the middle of the stormy eye. “That one wasn’t there before. When…”
“I started it up when we flew in that circle earlier—and it finished forming when we were fighting just now. It sent a cannonball in a different direction than you were expecting. Sorry,” Rainbow shrugged and the slightest of grins now appeared on her face. “That’s not all either, I kind of messed with the course of that other waterspout we flew around.”
Godfrey blinked in surprise and looked at it, seeing that the bigger waterspout was now going in a completely different direction as well.
“And that’s going to cause some problems for your ship,” Rainbow said.
Together they watched as The Scourge fired another volley into the storm—right as the waterspout moved into the perfectly wrong position for it. The cannonballs were plucked out of the air and flung around it at high-speed before being sling-shotted directly back at The Scourge. Quite a few still missed the large galleon entirely but some smashed into its sides and on deck, onto the cabins at the back and into the sails, causing damage and shooting holes into the vessel. One—the unluckiest of all—smashed into the middle mast of The Scourge and almost snapped it in two. It tipped over and brought its own sails and almost the other masts down with it thanks to all the rigging running through them.
“Maybe you want to go back to your ship now. I think I win today,” Rainbow told him.
“You!” Godfrey growled as he turned on her, his eyes full of rage. His talons balled into fists and they shook with rage as it looked like he wanted to attack Rainbow Dash… before they steadied and he calmed down. Godfrey took a deep breath and a smile emerged across his beak. He gave her a few slow, mocking claps. “Heh… heheheh. Alright, you win today, Rainbow Dash. One to one. But I’ll see you at the Smoking Island again soon.”
Rainbow’s eyes shot open wide. “How do you-“
“Hah! So that is where you’re going. I knew it,” he pointed at her and grinned. “Going to the east around the Strip of Storms, looking for rumors of treasure? And I’ve heard those same rumors about the Smoking Island. Call it an educated guess. It’s the closest island to the Strip of Storms that your friends would have any reason to go to. Thanks for making me sure though.”
“You jerk,” Rainbow glared at him.
“Bye, Rainbow Dash! Maybe see you tomorrow if we both make it out of the Strip of Storms alive!” He laughed and turned around, flying back to his damaged ship.
“Just great…” Rainbow Dash grumbled and shook her head, turning as well and looking for where the Heart of Azure was now.