//------------------------------//
// A Night Without Light 
// Story: Night's Deceit 
// by RegalBrony 
//------------------------------//

	Rarity strutted across the deck of the Brutus, drawing glances from the deckhands, along with a few whistles. A smile formed on her face, and then lifted slightly to the right, turning into a smirk as she turned her back on them. Not that they minded having her turn her back in their direction. Rarity enjoyed stunning an audience, but, sadly, it was the captain that really needed to be entertained. He was a handsome devil of a pegasus, something that Rarity quite liked. It was rare that a captain of a simple barge was so enticing to the eye, and he was proving quite a challenge as well. That was the problem with the run-of-the-mill beer belly captains these days, they saw a pretty pony and they had to cross their legs for the next week. 
Her thoughts stopped running out of control as she approached his door and knocked. The brown pegasus opened his door before she was even finished and she fell inside...right into his hooves. She couldn't have planned it better if she had tried. Which she had, for several hours beforehand.
"You really much watch your step, Ms. Treasure. You never know where you'll be falling next." he said, with what he thought was a seductive smile. In reality, it looked cheesy, but Rarity would never tell him that. It would ruin her plan, after all. And besides, it looked rather adorable on him. 
"Oh, please, Captain, call me Starlight. After all, I would like to know you on more than a simply formal basis. And it simply won't do for you to call me miss if that is to happen." He tried to politely say no, as he had done to all his advances. Somewhat of a formality for the married captain, since she knew what he wanted, and she knew precisely how to drive him to it. She had lots of practice, and it was about to pay off. She shrugged off his excuses and slowly eased the door behind them shut. The captain noticed this but, for once, made no move to stop her. Rarity could tell that it was time to finally make her move, as the moon shone full through the window. She did not see a small pegasus peeping in through that window, eagerly awaiting what was bound to happen next. 
The pegasus at the window was the ship's new cabin boy, and despite his young age, he hungered lustily at the scene playing out below him. The white and purple unicorn talked to the captain for several minutes, before slowly easing the nervous stallion onto the bed. The captain's stallionhood slowly spilled out for the white unicorn to admire, and the cabin boy grinned-until he saw the white unicorn suddenly put a ring around the captains most essential equipment and squeeze the metal ring with magic as the captain cried out with obvious pain. At this, the cabin boy left. He thought that sex was meant to be fun, and that did not seem fun at all. 
"Oh well, I guess some mares are just really into that kind of thing, I guess." he mumbled as he flapped back down to floor level and trotted off to his sleeping quarters. At least the mares in his dreams weren't so utterly abusive.
Meanwhile, Rarity was brushing her hair. The screaming had stopped, and now the stallion was on the floor, gasping and begging for the pain to stop.
"Well, all right, since you insist, you big baby." The ring around the stallion loosened enough for blood to finally reach his nether regions, and he started to cry, tears leaving his eyes like small streams. 
"However." At this the captain sat up, all ears. Rarity grinned at his obvious submission to her. "Unless you want me to do that again, you will listen very carefully to what I have to say." The captain nodded and began to speak. Rarity put a hoof across his lips and quietly said, "Shut up. Tomorrow morning a...friend...of mine will be paying your ship a small visit. You are not to fight. You are to give her all your money and cargo of value. My little gift will be staying with you until then. When we are half a mile away, I shall deactivate my spell and it will fall to the ground." Rarity's head swerved to look at the captain and she gave him a cold, hard stare. "But. If you attempt to resist, I shall make my spell much more...effective. It shall squeeze you until you scream in agony beyond what you have already felt. It shall squeeze until it has nothing left to squeeze. At that point you will cease to be a stallion, if you catch my meaning. So, just in case you weren't listening, me and my friends take all your money, and you do nothing, or you become a mare like me. Understood, Captain?" The stallion nodded. Then screamed as the ring tightened again for a good five seconds. 
"Y-y-yes Ms. Treasure. Of course." Rarity smiled for a second, and then her face tightened again, and she gave a despondent pouty face. 
"Oh come on, Captain. I thought I asked you to call me Starlight." The screams resumed, and Rarity went back to brushing her hair, a smile lighting up her face as she turned to the mirror.

Twilight woke to the daily souffle explosion. She sighed. It never failed. Every morning, at precisely 8:42 in the morning, Pinkie Pie would try-and fail-to make the ultimate dessert for her friends to enjoy at breakfast. Of course, on a sky ship, buffeted by the winds, the incredibly difficult dessert would explode in the oven, and Pinkie Pie would-
"GAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!! I HATE souffles!" Pinkie stormed into her cabin and exploded in a fit of rage about how long she had been trying to make that dessert, and how long she had continually failed. It was an explosion of noise, and Twilight could hardly bear it this early in the morning. Once the Pink Storm had stopped for a breath, Twilight did what she had to. 
"STOOOOOP! PINKIE PIE, MY HEAD IS GOING TO EXPLODE!" Pinkie Pie ceased her barrage. "Now, if you could get me something to eat-Mmmmffff thake thath cufcathe outh of my mouth!" Pinkie Pie removed the cupcake. Twilight coughed and cleared her throat. "Now, Pinkie, we aren't having breakfast this morning. We have to be ready to attack the Brutus at midday. Now, go get outfitted for attack and ready all cannons. Oh, and tell everyone else to get ready without breakfast too. I want them lean and mean for the attack. 
Pinkie Pie pronked off, and Twilight took it to herself to start outfitting herself. She looked at her new favorite book. Well, second favorite. Nothing even came close to The Eggheads Guide to Lists. But How to Be a Villain: Pirate Edition had been coming in quite handy. She grabbed her cutlass, with a slight notch near the end, just like the book said, and began the slow process of equipping her black leather armor. She looked at herself in the mirror and realized that something was missing. 
"Oh, the eyepatch! Of course. She bumbled through her piles of books, looking for the essential aesthetic piece. It took her half an hour to find it. 
"Spike would've found that in less than a minute." She sighed and her eyes drifted down to the high-cut leather boots she had on. Twilight really missed him. But he had refused to betray Princess Celestia, and she simply couldn't stay there for another minute. If she had been forced to act like a princess any longer, she probably would've killed her own brother just to escape from the hell her stupid new wings had put her in. 
She quickly turned her thoughts to putting on the eyepatch. She then reached towards her bed to put on her favorite part of the ensemble: the signature tricorn hat. It really worked with the eyepatch and she gave a grim smile towards the mirror, testing out her intimidation factor. She picked up the list she had made the night before and checked off another box.
A cutlass, an eyepatch, and a tricorn hat. Not too shabby, she thought.
She opened her door with gusto to the sight she knew she would see. Her four crew members, standing at attention and awaiting her orders.  
Applejack, outfitted with her very rare tail-chain, with a diamond spike on the end, with each section of chain expertly sharpened, the steel links glistening in the sun.
Rainbow Dash, with a weapon that only she could wield. Many other pegasi had tried and failed to fight with her signature wing blades, clipped to the forefront of each wing. Several of these hopeful pegasi had killed themselves instead of their foes. 
Pinkie Pie, with a party cannon armed and ready, and seventeen throwing daggers stashed across her armor.  She was truly a sight to behold with her maniacal smile. Twilight laughed as she spread her pupils apart to purposely look insane.
And Fluttershy. The usually gentle mare was equipped with a rapier-quick and precise, for Fluttershy hated to see her enemies suffer.
Twilight stood stock still, then lifted one hoof and carefully gazed skyward, casting a majestic pose as dark clouds swirled around her and her friends. Then she slowly grinned and launched into speech.
"My friends. For two hundred years ships have graced the skies of Equestria. And..." She paused for dramatic effect. "For two hundred years the corsairs have hunted them!"  The cheer she was expecting did not occur. She stomped her hoof and said,"You're supposed to enjoy the speech."
"Well, we can't if it's boring, Twilight. Make better speeches, we make better cheers. Well, except for Fluttershy."
"Rainbow Dash, just give it a rest. My speeches aren't that boring!"
"They're like five percent less boring than your lectures. Just get to the strategy already, will ya?" Twilight groaned and rolled her eyes.
"Alright, fine. If Rarity has done her job, then a white flag will be flying. If not, we come in from straight above, and Rainbow Dash will remove the cloud hiding us only,"and here she glared at Rainbow Dash,"if quite a few of them seem to be noticing it. At that point the sun will blind anyone looking up, and I will cast an mirror spell putting a fake image of us precisely within the outer limits of their port firing range. The illusion will fly the Jolly Roger, and when they turn to attack it, they will leave their starboard side open for fire. At this point Pinkie Pie will fire all cannons straight into their ammunitions bay,so that they can no longer attack us if we need to utterly destroy them. Meanwhile Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and I will swoop down and board the ship. We will than proceed to kill anyone with a weapon and without a logo signifying that they are of importance in locating the cargo. Applejack, I will teleport you into the communications room and you will ensure that no messages are sent for help. We don't want this to turn into a chase. I would rather not waste a day running from the royal fleet when we could be fencing the cargo in the Crystal Empire. Is this plan understood?" Her friends nodded once, and Twilight smacked her hoof across the deck. She gave them a very grim smile.
"Then let's get this party started."