Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Equestria, student of the Princess Celestia, bearer of the element of magic, she was powerful indeed, but, now she felt scared, not for herself, but for those behind her.
She was running, following a Colt who seemed to know something, perhaps a way to get out of this ship, but at the same time, she was wary, cautious of any single sound or smell that revealed any kind of danger, however, it was pretty much clear that the danger seemed to be focused on something else.
The defeated bucanneers laid on the floor, bruised and unable to do anything to the group, a curtain of smoke covered several of the ship halls, as if there was a fire somewhere.
And yet, the war cries of the griffons could be heard all around, just to be silenced eventually, turning into screams of pain or plain silence, whatever that thing was, it was clearly well trained into fighting, whenever it went, several griffons were defeated, and judging by the damage the creature really knew where to strike.
The few pegasi in the group couldn't help but shudder noticing the broken wings of the pirrates, but at the same time, they didn't seem that scared.
"Princess, if we find that weird ape again, please don't hurt him, he is friendly" One stallion, pretty much the only unicorn in the group told Twilight, as he used his magic to lift a key he found in the floor, Twilight heard him and felt the need to question, but chose not to "He is as scared as we were, however, the griffons drugged him with something, I was chained with him in the same room, whatever that thing was, it allowed him to break free from his chains, but at the same time hurted him so badly I saw how he began to bleed, both from his mouth and his nose"
"It was horrible, it was like seeing some poor colt be drugged in a corner of Manehattan, but instead of dropping to the floor, he began to kick away, throwing himself against the griffons, he moved so fast and with such strenght that I'm not even sure if he is an stallion, or a Mare"
Almost as if answering that question, a loud shout was heard, masculine in nature, as chest soared in front of the group, towards a griffon who was pointing her weapon against someone in the next hall, the chest hit her straight in the beak, knocking her out, as the ape made its way towards that hall, carrying an statue of sorts as if it was a club, swinging it with violence, breaking everything on his path to make way towards that position.
"DAMN IT, GENTLEHENS, AFFIX BAYON!" The voice was cut short as the loud sounds of pummeling could be heard all around, small bits of the stone statue being thrown in all directions, as the shadows in the wall gave a perfect idea of what was happening, the griffins in their desperation affixed some sort of knives to their weapons, but it was useless, the monster merely hit them with his club, sending two of them flying while the third one had somehow a worst luck, since a second strike went straight to her belly, sending her flying upwards a few centimeters, a wet cough noise coming a bit after.
"SHIT!" The scream of surprise coming from another set of griffons who where just opening a door judging by the shadows was cut short by the creature, wich threw the statue at them before closing the door as fast as it could, lifting some debris from its onslaught to make a makeshift barrier, keeping the door shut "Ah... ah... damn it... it hurts"
The masculine voice could be heard once again, but this time, the monster wasn't shouting, neither running or fighting, it fell to the ground on all fours and began to crawl towards the wall, lifting himself a bit until he was again on two legs, but hunched, making way towards the hallway where Twilight and her group were.
Instinct and logic demanded Twilight to prepare to defend her fellow ponies, but something winthin her heart told her to not search for conflict, instead, await to see what that creature would do, so far it seemed that she was right, that creature could in fact, be a sapient being, not different from her, not different from anypony.
Slowly, she began to walk towards the intersection, as slow as she could, being wary, but not hostile, mumbling something to herself, while focusing on the shadows, the light from the torches made the shadows look big, but that was a blessing in disguise, she could see how the creature heard her hooves, and stood a bit more straight, but yet hunched, taking one of the weapons of the griffons on his claw.
Twilight felt marveled, despite only watching the shadow, she could see how smoothly that thing moved, how his body quickly recovered balance after staggering so much, in just a few seconds she saw it pass from a dangerous hunter, surpisingly fast for its size, to a sluggish tired mess once it seemed to reckon some safety just to take a preventive pose, stopping on its tracks just as she did.
"I... I... I am princess Twilight Sparkle... Princess of Equestria and Friendship... I was captured too, there's no need to be afraid" Twilight spoke, as soft as she could, almost as if soothing a foal, her legs trembling like the time she had to face with an Ursa minor, but at the same time, feeling confident, an small flashback of her fight with Tirek reasurring her that she could take down this thing if it was hostile.
The male seemed to stop for a moment, its shadow revealing that its body language wasn't that convinced, but, soon Twilight decided to do something else, something to get a message quickly and clearly.
"I will walk to the front, then, I'll bow so you can see that I pose no harm, we've got a deal?" Twilight lifted her front hoof, waiting for a response, getting her herself ready to do what she suggested, the answer she got was a mumbled mess she couldn't exactly understand, but took as some sort of yes " A...allright... here I come..."
Slowly, she landed her hoof in the intersection, while keeping her head as down as she could, closing her eyes and getting her ears down, she even made sure to have her tail and wings as down as possible, to present herself as small and less threatening as she could.
Her soft steps were suddenly stopped when something swooped her up, lifting her to the air with ease, a warm, thick liquid falling on her fur, just as the screams of the stallions hit her ears, but at the same time another voice came, a masculine one, the same voice she could now associate with the creature.
"Run!, RUN little donkeys, we've got to hide, those things brought a cannon!" The voice of the male, deep and strong, made Twilight confused, it was the voice an stallion, an scared one, and yet, it clearly came from the creature wich was holding her as if she was nothing but a ragdoll "GO, GO, GO, COME ON YOU COCKSUCKERS, I'M NOT JOKING, RUN!"
Opening her eyes, Twilight finally could see how this creature finally looked up close, on top what she saw last time she met him, she could now see that he had a long mane, black in colour, the movement and perspective making it look as if it was covering his face as he ran, it was unkept, greasy and dirty, covered in mud and blood.
But the blood wasnt from anyone else, it was his own blood, she could see it, he was full of bruises and wounds, but most of the blood came from his mouth, several broken teeth could be seen, shattered, while also his nose was broken, crooked in a clearly painful way, courtesy of some griffon since there were several claw markings all over his face.
It ran fast, but clearly cared for the ponies, leaving her into the ground after a few seconds in the run, just in time as an explosion shooked the hallway, the door and several debris being thrown away into the intersection, the light allowing several shadows to dance in the middle of the smoke.
"Let's see how that demon deals with some good'ol gunpowder, let's go Hens!" The voice of a griffon resounded as the shape of something cilindrical began to poke from the broken door, Twilight could guess it must have been big since its shadow was outright massive.
The creature kicked open a door with ease, and beckoned for everyone to enter, it was silent, clearly scared of whatever was casting that shadow, not a fear to the unknown, but a fear that only knowledge could bestow, Twilight obeyed and entered as fast as she could, lifting the door and putting it back into its frame, just in time as the being entered too.
"Quick, help me to get this secured" It told her, asking for her aid, he quickly ran towards the other corner of the room, taking a huge wooden desk, dragging it by strenght alone towards the door she held in place, several stallions joining him, some pushing the desk, some others dragging or lifting another pieces of furniture to help to get the barrier up, until it finally was in place, just in time as someone tried to kick the door open "We've got you cornered demon, surrender this instant!"
"I AM NO DEMON!" The creature shouted in rage before falling to the ground, in such a pain that even Twilight felt a bit of it, gulping loudly, Twilight decided to do something more as the griffons tried to tore the door open.
Breathing as deep as she could, Twilight began to channel magic, closing her eyes to focus a bit, this kind of spell would usually mean her no effort, but right now she was confused and certainly a bit scared, so, it forced her to make an extra effort to conceal her fears and get herself to focus as much as she could.
After a few seconds, she managed to let an small stream of energy from her horn, it flowed towards the roof in a beam, while also falling down to the floor like an small string, slowly but surely coating the wood with magic, an small purple membrane forming all around the room, until a feeling of safety began to enter the hearts of everypony in there, even Twilight herself, after a few seconds more, the aura dissapeared, but, the door no longer budged, at the same time, the sound of claws and hits was no longer heard, it was as if they were isolated from the outside.
"Huh... a magic shield... like the one the captain used during his wedding?" One colt asked Twilight, and she nodded, smiling softly "Is everyone here?"
"Yes, thankfully those pesky mares decided to make us stay on the same room with the big guy over there, once he set himself free he helped us too! however... I'm a bit scared, he looks really hurt" One pegasus said as he walked closer to the ape, lifting one his wings to try and clean his face from the blood covering it, only getting a painful grunt as a response "Eeeep!"
The poor stallion got scared, jumping behind and landing against Twilight, stomping one of her hooves and getting her to drown an scream, covering her mouth with her other hoof.
"um.... sorry Princess..." The pegasus said sheepishly before bowing several times, Twilight felt the need to tell him not to bow, but couldn't bring herself to speak, her eyes glued on the thing before her "N...no problem... hehe..."
Twilight walked closer to the big male, sitting down to look at him, he was breathing, but it did so with clear pain, its claws twitching, opening and closing, as it trying to grab something, his long legs trembling, squirming a bit, his torn clothing allowed her to watch its body work.
Despite its deplorable state, it was clearly beautiful, taller, stronger than the average pony, with an sturdy black mane, it lacked any sign of fur and clearly felt cold, if the slow, subtle but noticeable change in his skin colour meant something.
"C...cold..." he spoke, closing his eyes in pain as his mouth began to twitch too, the broken teeth touching each other in a painful manner, the clacking usually present in shaking chills gone since his teeth were now both, shorter and sharper, hurting his mouth a bit more as blood gushed out, not too much, but enough to worry her.
Worried Twilight hugged the giant, making it slowly stop shaking, soon a few colts joined in, until everyone was huddled together, the big ape slowly opening its mouth to speak, a single, simple pair of words.
T...t...thank... You....