Their journey was quickly coming on its next leg. Helpful sailors informed Silver that they were only a few days out. Silver surveyed the remaining single mare, and felt a bit of pride in having taken care of so many of them. With time rapidly closing, he looked at the last one uncertainly. She was far from the healthiest, or youngest. Perhaps she would never go into heat? It hardly felt fair to condemn her for simply being old, to say nothing of the males remaining who had no marefriends to claim them.
"Are you awake?"
She looked up at him, perking up a ratty ear. "Whattaya want? I ain't gonna give ya any foals, so don't even go asking."
Silver nodded. "Quite fair, but I would like to offer something else. Your friends will need something that you are eligible to give, and would be far better than being turned over to the authorities." He pointed at the mare. "They need friends, foalsitters, confidants, and just ponies they know and trust. Will you remain at their side, and support them as their lives change?"
She looked surprised, then angry, but it quickly moved on to curious. She pushed up to her hooves and came up to the bars. "You want me to be their grandmother?"
Silver shook his head. "More of their mother, and their foal's grandmother. You will be a pillar in their life, and they will be grateful, and you will always have a place."
She smiled a little. "The captain said I was getting too old to be useful."
"I said that to get you to retire, you crazy old mare." Bright Eyes emerged, moving to stand beside Silver. "Go, be a grandmother. You already were! You know they looked up to you like one."
She shuffled in place a little. "Maybe... Maybe..." She locked her eyes on Bright. "And you're happy with how things are turning?"
Bright snorted softly. "I've seduced a prince and now I don't have to be a captain for you needy sons of whores any more."
The old mare burst into a fit of laughter. "You haven't changed one bit, mare. I'm glad you still can see the brighter side of life's situation." She leaned forward and squinted at Silver. "Is he treating you right?"
She glanced aside at Silver, then back at her. "He makes interesting noise, is well hung, and is a prince of a nation. He'll do."
Silver frowned a little. "None of that says if I'm treating you well."
Bright Eyes rolled her eyes. "Right right, you're a gentle kitten. Now, are you coming out of there?"
The last mare was released, and went off to play elder for the other expecting mares. Silver looked to Bright curiously, and was rewarded for his examination with a harsh nip to an ear. "What are you staring at?"
Silver shook his head quickly, snorting. "A mare I'm still getting the feel for."
She raised a hoof and tapped him on the nose. "I have you figured out. You and that bangle you have hanging under that cloak. I won't be losing any more fights to you. Now what did you plan to do with the stallions?"
Silver immediately disliked the idea of leaving them to rot for the crime of not having a marefriend. "We could offer them the same out? The others will be a lot happier with a network of support if they all helped each other out."
Bright Eyes leaned in. "Ye are daft in some ways, prince. Why don't ye just give them back their ship and set them on course for merchantry. Sailing they know how to do."
Silver came up short. "Would... would they do that?"
She snorted softly. "Ye went and broke most their spirits! They'll do what ye ask, and it'll still be a far sight better than what the Saddle Arabians would offer." She lowered her eyelids to half-closed and peered at Silver. "You big-dicked trickster, were ye planning to just unload them all where we set anchor and hope for the best? Get that thought out of your head!"
Shei emerged from outside with a delicate scowl. "Stop speaking about our prince that way! He's done nothing to deserve your scorn and everything for your respect."
Bright Eyes pointed at Silver. "He clapped me in chains. Sure, they're very pretty chains that glitter in the sunlight, but I know chains when they're on me." She turned to show her profile to him. "I'll be his advisor and broodmare, but I'll be damned to Tartarus if it means I have to not rub his nose in his messes."
Silver felt uncertain. Her angry scorn but acceptance tripped over the hole that Aila's departure left behind. He wanted a strong female, that wouldn't be scared to 'rub his nose in his messes', without the overwhelming might of the princesses that made him feel tiny. He advanced on her and nipped her ear softly. "We should try to uphold some decorum when around others. My position is now your position, and we don't want me to gain a reputation for weakness."
Bright snorted loudly. "Right, aye. I can't argue that. Just expect your well-deserved talking-tos the moment we're out of sight. So, you going to do something, or did your big balls distract you again?"
Shei glared at Bright as Silver shook his head. "I like your idea. We'll release the boat to them, after we get them all to the dock and make sure they're ready to make a peaceful journey, together, with goods to sell."
Bright smiled. "They'll need a captain..."
She was trying to be subtle, but it felt obvious to Silver. "You're mine. They'll have to find another captain."
Her smile dissolved and she huffed. "Fine. Permission to search the town for a pony at least half as good as myself for that sorry lot?"
Silver pointed at Shei. "Provided you go with company."
Shei paled a little. "I... must I?"
Bright pointed at Shei as well. "You heard your prince. We're to follow his orders, not second guess him, eh, isn't that what you were saying?"
Shei sagged a little. "Yes, of course. I'll accompany her."
Bright moved in quickly and nipped at Shei's throat, easily reaching the throat of the larger mare. "Good. I like the curves of Saddle Arabian mares." Shei quickly blushed as Bright nuzzled the soft fur. "We may get... distracted..."
Silver tilted his head a little. "So long as you find that replacement, and if Shei says no, then it's no."
Bright flashed a bright smile. "I'll make sure she says yes, loudly and frequently."
Shei turned away, red as sunset with embarrassment. "You're just saying that to confuse me."
Bright Eyes shook her head. "That's where yer wrong, mare. I said I prefer mares, especially tall and graceful ones, which ye are."
Silver left them to feel one another out, or up, as the situation demanded. He found Celestia in the solarium, enjoying the day and reading a book. "Everything alright?" he asked as he slipped into the room.
She nodded at him. "You've handled things well. What do you plan to do about the last of them? If you plan to wait for that mare, you may be in for quite a long wait indeed, and stallions will never pay the price you are demanding."
Silver settled beside her and snuggled in. "We were just going over that. The pirates will be released as one, back to their ship, which will be retrofitted and ready to serve as a merchant vessel." A new thought came to him. "We'll make sure the un-attached stallions help with the retrofitting. Helping to make the ship look appealing and inviting instead of brooding and pirate...y will help them adjust to the new role."
Celestia smiled gently. "Good good. What of their cutie marks?"
Silver tilted his head. "What?"
She rolled a hoof. "You should check them. Most are likely nautical, and it's good you don't plan to take them away from the sea."
Silver felt a bit silly for not thinking of that, and rose back to his hooves. "I'll check on that. Thank you." He departed the warm room and went to the room full of mares, where he was greeted with curious looks and a few brave nuzzles. He returned those, even if he felt odd to be greeted so warmly by them. He began looking over flanks, for once with entirely non-sexual purposes. Celestia was right, most were very water-related, but only one had a clear pirate theme, with a flag with an equine skull and crossbones on it. How had they discovered that?
Asking seemed the best course, so he pointed at it. "How did you get that?"
She glanced back at it, then shrugged at Silver. "I was foalnapped as a little filly and raised among pirates. It's worked out well enough."
Silver frowned with thought, how did he turn that around... "Well, now you'll be in charge of scouting out prices."
"Prices, m'lord?" She looked confused.
Silver smiled. "Yes. You are a new kind of pirate. You'll find cut-throat prices, buying and selling. Anyone who sees that flag should know you mean business, and blood will be spilled, the blood of their coin purses."
She looked uncertain at first, but her friends goaded her on eagerly, nudging her and smiling. She began to warm to the idea under the pressure of the room. It was terrifying, to Silver at least. Were ponies such herd creatures that their very purpose could be bullied along by peer pressure? Of course, humans could do that too, it just usually took longer. Silver departed, feeling secure the job was done there.
A quick flight took him to the other boat, and he approached the stallions. "I have good news for you all."
One of the sad lot looked up. "You've caught something incurable?"
Silver shook his head. "Not quite that lucky. You're all being released."
That perked them up as a group. "What? Why?" asked another stallion, rising to his hooves. "We can't give you foals, and we don't have any mares to protect us."
Silver pointed at the first ship. "Your mare friends will need your help, and their coltfriends too. They're turning this ship into a respectable merchant vessel, and they'll need strong and able crew to sail it straight and well. They're going to get very round, and, while I'm sure they'll keep working as long as they can, they're going to need friends, which you all are, I hope?"
The response was timid at first, with only two of them looking immediately eager to get to it. He let those two out and checked their cutie marks. One had a dolphin, the other a bag of coins. He pointed at the coins. "A new treasurer, I see."
The stallion smiled proudly. "Yes, sir! I'll make sure every coin's accounted for."
The others looked a little more motivated. With jobs being handed out, they didn't want to have last pick, and soon Silver was welcoming more stallions to the merchant's life. He spotted another troubling cutie mark, which showed a blunt object impacting a pony's skull. "Are you good at fighting?"
He grunted. "If I wasn't outnumbered six-to-one, I would have won!" He suddenly ripped a pin off the wall and glared at Silver. "Fancy a rematch?"
Silver smiled. "No no, that won't be needed. What your friends need is a good fighter, to protect them. Some ponies think merchants are an easy target, and you'll be there to prove them wrong, just like I proved attacking a royal vessel wasn't the best idea."
He tossed the pin aside. "I'll crush anyone that looks at me mates funny."
Silver felt a muzzle go right up between his hindlegs and nuzzle at his sheath and balls without shame. He squeaked in an undignified fashion and jumped forward, spinning around to spy a lanky-looking Saddle Arabian stallion that looked at him shyly, despite his bold actions.
A chuckle rose up in the crowd as another stallion helpfully explained. "That's Bottom Rung. He's a colt cuddler, and he's attracted to power, which makes you the most attractive thing he's been around."
Bottom went red as he was explained. "I'd give you a foal if I could..." he weakly muttered, everything in his posture seeming to reflect utter submission to Silver. Silver wasn't sure how to react. His still-present homophobia made him nervous, even scared. He had nothing against, er, colt cuddlers, but he didn't want to be one.
"So, what's your talent?" Silver asked, hoping to change the topic.
The same helpful stallion as before laughed. "He ain't got one."
Silver leaned to the side and saw that there was no cutie mark on Bottom's bottom. "What did he do, for the ship?"
Bottom shrank a bit. "I... I served them, your majesty. They were kind enough to let that be enough."
Silver balked. Bottom was literally the ship's bottom. He felt awful for the blank flank colt cuddler. "Tell me, how did you get on the ship?"
Bottom shuffled a little before looking up at Silver. "They found me in irons, your majesty."
The same stallion nudged against Silver. "They thought putting him in irons would beat some sense into him. He was barely a stallion at the time. We broke him free and took him, and he's been the stallion's outlet ever since."
Bottom looked crushed at the memory of his past abuse, and Silver felt his heart ache. This was a poorly treated pony, even if he enjoyed the pirates' attention. What could Silver do...?