“It's working!” Digiff shouted. He stood with another dredger in a tower flanking the bridges that led to the central platform. More and more Red Bargers crossed the canal to join the group huddled beneath the middle structures. Meanwhile, the guards in the towers fired all manner of harpoons and projectiles at the attacking pirates, reducing their numbers to bloody heaps. “Nix! It's working!” Digiff pointed a hoof northwest at the scattered attackers. “Their forces are breaking! I don't think they even know how to advance!”
“Probably because they didn't plan it,” Nixkit said with a grunt. He swung his shark prod high, slashing a diving pegasus in the chest. The winged pirate crashed into a bulkhead behind him as the dredger panted, sweated. “Good job, everypony! Now throw everything you've got at these damned fliers—” Just as he said this, he caught the unmistakable glimmer of underwater shapes surging beneath the struts. Nixkit pivoted about, squinting at the space between canals.
“Rnnnngh! Eat metal and piss fire!” Saxon fired a crossbolt or two into the distant crowd of charging pirates. He too caught a glimpse of what Nixkit saw. The dredger pivoted about on a narrow strip of welded ships between two canals, gawking at the submerged streaks. “Ha! Hahah!” He turned to grin at Nixkit, eyes twitching. “Hey Nixkit! Check it!” He motioned with his hoof. “Guppies!”
SPLOOSH! That very instant, a pair of seaponies leapt out of the canal behind him. Each creature gripped the opposite end of a double-hilted sawtooth blade... and they passed straight through Saxon as they dove into the canal on the other side of the deck. SCHLUNK!
Saxon jerked in place; his grin tilted towards the heavens. A second later... his body fell to the right while his head rolled to the left, rattling into the muck with a limp splash.
Nixkit blinked, his eyes tracing after the glowing attackers underwater. “...Muck.” He galloped to the far end of his strut. “Digiff!” he shouted towards the platform. “Get everypony away from the canals! They've got damned sea ponies swimming beneath us!”
“What??” Digiff stammered. SPLOOSH! In a glowing streak, an aquatic equine leapt up, swinging a loop of garrote wire in the air. It noosed around the neck of the dredger right beside Digiff, yanking him clear off the tower and into the canal on the other side. Digiff gasped, his coat baptized in fresh blood. “Muckin' A!” He spun the turret of his post and fired a harpoon randomly into the waters.
All across the edges of the central platform, wet splashes of dirtied water lit the air, followed by panicked screams as the Red Bargers ducked to avoid the leaping attackers from below.
Nixkit galloped towards the nearest bridge. “Just run in! Get to solid decking!” he hollered breathily. “You'll be safe so long as you—”
SPL-SPLOOSH! A pair of seaponies leapt at him, dragging a chain.
Nixkit gasped and fell to the floor. He avoided the length of metal links—but the stallion behind him was not so lucky. Nixkit spun and watched as the chain caught the other dredger's fetlock, dragging him across the deck and into the next canal.
“No! No!” The stallion fought and clambered over the rusted hull blurring by. “Please—Goddess—Nooo—Blbllblbbllbb!” And with frothing bubbles, he was dragged to the murky depths... where ferocious lights consumed him.
Nixkit gnashed his teeth. Schiiiing! “The waters!” He shouted into the glow of his taser. “Shock the waters!”
Digiff was already tossing his electrified polearm down into the depths like a javelin. “Hrkkkt!”
All across the edges of the central platform, dredgers stabbed, shoved, and threw their tasers into the drink. The ocean lit up with blue lightning. In random spots, loud pops echoed to the surface, followed by thick coats of seapony blood.
Keris saw this. While running towards the centermost platform, he hollered: “No! Imbeciles!” He sneered through his beak. “You can't kill all of them that way! They'll dive lower!” He perched on a crumpled smokestack and shouted. “Save your weapons, blast it! We've still got wingponies to fend off—”
P-POW! An errant shell exploded behind Keris, sending chunks of debris flying over his feathery head.
Wincing, Keris spun and squinted his hawkeyes north.
One of the five pirate ships was keeling over to its side, its cannons aimed awkwardly in a skyward arc. As the crew on board struggled to regain balance...
...Monket's ship closed in for the kill. The slaver of the waves stood close to the bow, frowning into the salty wind. “Turn us broadside!” he hollered.
“Broadside!”
“Hard to starboard!”
With chugging engines, the vessel turned about. The other steamship followed suit, and soon both sets of cannons were facing the ailing pirate ship.
“On my mark!” Monket raised a hoof. His pale red eyes flared. “FIRE!”
“Fire!”
“Fiiiiiiire!”
P-POW!
POWWW!
A solid wave of cannonfire burned over the waves—searing, burning, surging straight into the decrepit hull of the lopsided ship. There was a brief blast of hellish screams, and then all was flames and splinters. A tall burning plume separated Monket's miniature armada from their targets.
Every slave and servant on board the two vessels shook with roaring cheer.
Monket afforded himself a brief smirk. “Not so fast, you mud-birthers!” He pointed. “We've still got a fight ahead of us! Let's put the dredge coal ordinance in their holds to good use and send them swiftly to Hell!”
“Two ships advancing!” a crew member hollered from the stern. “They're moving to flank us!”
“Thread the needle!” Monket hollered. “Full speed ahead! Signal the other ship to keep their cannons facing north! We'll sweep them off the waves before they can get a hit in!”
“Aye! Full speed!”
“Ready the cannons!”
Somewhere else...
Somewhere cold and rusted...
“What in blazes are you two urchins doing here?!”
“How'd they even survive that mess out there?!”
“Please. We need a place to stay... won't you help us?!”
“This isn't where seafoam shits are supposed to fester.”
“But if we stay out there, we'll die!”
“Mrmmfnnngh...” Swab opened his eyes, squinting.
The dim interior of the brig came into focus. Several dredgers frowned down at him. He sensed the limbs of Croche grasping him... dragging him down the ramp.
“For the last time, you're not supposed to be here!” a stallion said.
“Send them back out,” another dredger grumbled. “They'll be more useful as a distraction.”
“Especially with that colt on the edge of bloating.”
“He's not bloating!” Croche's voice cracked. “He just hit his head, that's all! Please... w-we can be useful! I promise!”
“Kid, for the last time...”
“Croche?” Swab wheezed, sitting up, wincing.
“Swab!”
“How did we...?” He rubbed his missing ear, hissing through clenched teeth. Blood dribbled down his forehead. “Ungh... Rainbow? Where's Rainbow...?”
Just then, the air shook with flapping wings. Several voices echoed from high above.
“There!”
“In there!”
“That's where they're holding the beast!”
One of the stallions inside the brig gasped. “You mucking idiots! You led them right to us—”
Four pegasi galloped down the ramp. Upon seeing the thick group of guards, the pirates jerked to a stop, forming a miniature phalanx with daggers and swords drawn. “Shit! They got a whole nest down here protecting it!”
Schiiing! The dredgers ran past Swab and Croche. “You want Skagra's prize?! Come pay for it with your blood!”
“Raaaaaaugh!”
“Make 'em bloat!”
“Yaaaaaaaah!”
The air filled with a claustrophobic cacophony of rattling blades and sliced limbs. Shrieks echoed through the bars between every other sword swing and rapier parry.
Meanwhile, Croche frantically dragged Swab away from the melee. Swab shivered, watching past his aching limbs as stallion fought stallion, staining the rusted walls with blood high above. In swift order, the dredgers overpowered the tiny invasion party, fighting them back up the ramp and above deck.
“Move! Move!”
“Shove 'em out!”
“We've got these bastards! Hit 'em where it hurts!”
“Watch it! Friggin' barnacle biters! Suck on dredge steel!”
At last, Croche had scooted the two of them into a corner, nestled between a pile of debris and one of the cells.
“There's...” Swab gulped, his eyes narrow and his voice breathy. “There's j-just so much of it...”
“Swab...” Croche panted, fussing with his neck and skull. “You're... you're hurt bad! I... I-I don't know how to stop the bleeding!”
“...maybe we were foaled on it,” Swab murmured deliriously. “Everything is blood. And... and the ocean...” A slight curve to his lips, despite the tears welling in his eyes. “The ocean's the real thing that's made up.”
“Swab...”
“No wonder m-my parents can't find their way back...” He squeaked, his eyes thinning even more. “When everything's all red... how do you know east fr-from west?”
“Swab, stop talking. Please. Just... just try to stay awake. I need... I-I need to...” Suddenly, Croche gasped, her sunken eyes lit up by a bright ruby glow.
Swab suddenly found it easier to breathe. He didn't know why, but his senses returned intensely enough for him to feel a strong set of hooves reaching through the bars behind him and holding him close.
“Shhhhh... do what she says, kiddo,” the voice rasped. “Stay awake. It's okay. I've got you.”
“You...” Croche leaned back, lips quivering. She stared in horror at the pegasus behind Swab. “You're the... the...”
“Calm down,” Rainbow said, her voice rolling past Swab's good ear. “It's going to be okay. Do you see the cabinet right beneath the ramp? Where the fight just left?”
Swab blinked. She spun and looked at the distant chunk of furniture. “Uh... yeah?”
“Third drawer from the bottom, left-hoof side. There's some gauze and bandages. The drawer to the right of it has some disinfectant. Go grab it. Be quick.”
“But... b-but how could you possibly know that?” Croche breathed. “You've been in this cell the whole tim—”
“It's in there. Believe me,” Rainbow said. “Now go. I've got him.”
Croche bit her lip. Nodding, she scampered off to rummage through the cabinet.
“Shhhhh...” Rainbow's grip of the colt tightened. Her voice echoed to the side. “It's okay, Flutters. I've got him. Stay with me, girl. Let's concentrate on the living for once, 'kay?” Her voice grew closer. A fuzzy chin nuzzled Swab's good ear. “Just relax, kid. But don't relax too much. I need you awake for when we patch you up.”
“I... I...” Swab sniffled. “I-I didn't mean to get myself hurt. Or Croche. Or y-you...” He wheezed as more blood trickled down his skull. “I swear... everything I-I touch falls apart—”
“Uh uh...” Rainbow pivoted—as did the source of the glowing ruby light. Swab felt an intense warmth coating his wounded skull from behind. Almost instantly, the pain went away. The blood flowed less liberally, and a toasty calmness filled his being. “That may be true. Celestia knows it's true for me. But I swear... if there's any good left in me... I'm not gonna let you fall apart.”
Swab gulped, struggling with a hard lump in his throat.
Croche scampered back. “I've got the bandages!”
“Good. Start making his skull all mummy-like,” Rainbow said.
Croche was already wrapping the gauze around the wounded half of his head.
“Not too thick at first. Be gentle.”
“Okay...” Croche complied, trembling.
“What's your name, girl?” Rainbow spoke above the muffled thuds of the battle above deck.
“Uhm... Croche...” she murmured.
“Hrmmf... that's a lame name,” Rainbow Dash muttered. Her lips curved in Swab's peripheral vision. “Think I'll call you Kera the Third.”
“Uhm...” Croche blinked. “...okay?”
“Who... wh-who's Kera the Second...?” Swab wheezed.
“Heh... I'll tell you later, kid,” Rainbow mused. “But you have to promise to stay with me. Okay?”
Swab sniffled, clutching the strong hooves that held his tiny figure. “I... I-I think I can do that...”
“I know you can,” Rainbow Dash said. More thuds echoed overhead, and she breathed into the air around the foals. “Shhh... just chillax, everypony. It's gonna be okay. I promise...”