"Herald!" Remna shouted, stomping forward on heavy hooves. "Brace yours—" CRACK! Two separate wooden spears shattered across her skull. The draconian bounty hunter barely had a moment to shake off the splinters when three leather bodies tackled her, shoving the equine to the metal deckplates. Cl-Clank!
Rainbow gasped. "Axan! Hold up!" She scampered over. "I'm com—"
"Dashie!" Pinkie's voice echoed. Rainbow sensed the mare's scalp frizzing in the corner of her vision. "Duck!"
"...!!!" Rainbow Dash pressed her belly to the ground. Sw-Swissssh! Two bladed javelins sailed a hair's breadth over her ears. She looked left, eyes twitching.
Thwoooooooosh—Chtungg! The spears embedded on either side of Bard—with one of them pinning his tail-hairs to the deckplate. "Whoah dayum!" He hollered. Wildcard rushed to his side in a blur, grabbing at the spear. A loud shriek echoed overhead . Bard looked up to see Ariel fighting off four leathery bodies against the starlight. "Not me!" Bard growled, slapping Wildcard across the headcrest and pointing. "Her!"
Wildcard held his breath and—SWOOOOSH!—shot straight up in a gray blur. Schiiiiiing Nighsticks brandished, he spiraled into the midair melee, knocking the attackers away in every direction.
This gave Ariel the moment she needed to catch her breath and flap her wings freely. Spinning around, her blue eyes reflected a gaping set of fangs. "Hrnnngh!" She backflipped in time to uppercut the incoming attacker. As the figure reeled with the wild flapping of leather wings, she twirled about and flew in orbit around Wildcard, knocking his opponents off-balance with well-timed dips and dives.
Rainbow Dash watched worriedly. Sploooosh! Cold water showered her from a liquid explosion behind. She turned and gazed off the port side to see yet another ship of gnarled, twisted vines rising from the depths. Specks of silvery metal glowed through the rippling waves.
"Holy—" Rainbow couldn't even finish. She felt two bodies pouncing on her from behind. The pointed ends of spears scraped into her shoulders—
"Rrrrrrrrrngh!" Logan rushed in, axe swinging.
Wh-Wham! The two figures flew off Rainbow Dash, rolling painfully across the deck.
Logan spat, standing over Rainbow Dash like a protective pit bull. "Who here wants to drop anchor first, shitbuckets?!"
"Logan!" Rainbow wheezed, flailing to get back up. "Go help Remna—"
"Grrrngh!" With a grunt, Remna flexed her invulnerable muscles. The air rang with discordant shrieks as the bodies that tackled her flew off in random directions. She stood up, frowning into the fight.
"Oh. Never mind." Rainbow spun about. "Guys, we gotta—!"
"Frrom starrboarrd!" Kepler hollered from above. He pointed through the starry mist. "Coming fast!"
"Ten of them!" Fluttershy yelped. "A full phalanx—"
Sp-Sp-Sploosh! Nearly a dozen athletic bodies rocketed out of the tempestuous surf like living torpedoes. With ridiculously perfect coordination, they landed on the Stardust's starboard deck, dripping and forming a solid line. Each equine was garbed from head to tail in segmented plates carved from pale whalebone, and they brandished what looked like narrow wooden tubes lined with glowing gray stones.
"More intruders!" Rainbow shouted.
Remna snarled, marching towards the line. "More meat." Logan joined her—
"No!" Twilight Sparkle suddenly yelped. "Rainbow! Tell them to stop—!"
Just then, each sarosian held their tubes out and breathed into their glowing fuses. "H'rhnum!"
"H'rhnum!"
"H'rhnum!"
P-P-POW! Chunks of gray shrapnel flew out of the tubes and sailed across the deck.
Logan gasped. Yanking Rainbow towards him in a blink, he held his axe up and shielded them both at the last second. Cl-Cl-Clank! Errant shards knicked and sliced at the stallion's body, making him bleed in several places.
Bard yanked his tail free of the spear in time to roll away from the weapon discharge. "Whoah—!"
Th-Th-Thunk! Remna simply took the brunt of the shrapnel. She blinked, hissed, and galloped straight forward. "Raaaaaaaaugh!"
Unflinching, the sarosians drew back, twirled their staves until the other ends faced her, and all shouted as one: M'wynhrm!"
Each tube burst in a silver light and expelled a frothing wave of flame.
PHWOOOOOMB!
"Gnnnnnghhh!" Remna threw her shoulder into the billowing fire. Slowly, she marched her way towards the group.
"What in the hay are those varmints throwin' at us?!" Applejack shouted.
"Runes!" Twilight shouted.
"R-runes?!" Rainbow wheezed, clinging to Logan.
"Yes! Pieces of moonrock! Enchanted by lunar magic!" Twilight gulped. "The same weapons used during the War of the Regal Sisters—"
"Axan's almost reached them!" Rarity shouted, pointing.
"You think... you know... fire?!" Remna hollered, coming within a hoof's kick of the phalanx.
But they were ready for their opponent. Just as she reached their line, they pivoted into a semi-circle, snapped their tubes in half, and aimed the exposed ends at the fuming equine. "Y'mnym!"
Bzzzzzzt! A brief web of electrical discharge connected with the bounty hunter. Shocked, Remna stumbled in place.
Two of the attackers who had boarded the Stardust a minute ago rose up, galloped across the deck, and threw their weight into her. Whump!
Flailing, Remna was shoved overboard with a resounding splash!
"Marre overrboard!" Kepler hollered, struggling to steer the boat out of the trap that the other vessels had made. "I can't get us out of this pocket, frriends!"
"All well and fine..." Logan spat blood and broke into a charge. "Got them right where I want 'em! Yaaaaaaugh!" He charged the sarosians and engaged them before they could shout out another spell. The attackers used the remainders of their staves to parry and deflect the Job Squadder's violent offense. Within seconds, Logan found himself reeling in the center of a well-coordinated squad of pirates.
"Big Show?!" Flynn's voice echoed from below deck. He scampered up to the entrance, eyes wide. "Holy shit!"
"I know!" Echo nodded. "It's all sunshine and rainbows, isn't it!"
"Johnny!" Nicole grimaced, clinging to the entrance's frame as her slitted eyes reflected the battle across the deck and above. "They're everywhere!"
"Then we gotta be everywhere all over them!" Bard picked his staff up, gestured to Flynn, and went charging into the fray. "Don't let them fangs scare ya! Anything that's gotta a skull can crack!"
"Hold on, Big Show!" Flynn gnashed his teeth, using his telekinesis to lift loose stone shards and fling them back at the group. "We've got your back!"
"Rrnnnngh!" Logan took swing after swing at the nimble figures surrounding him. "Don't... ruing... this for m-me! Raaaaugh!"
"Celestia!" Rainbow Dash hollered, rubbing her pendant in desperation as the chaos swirled and swirled. "Princess Celestia! We need Luna on the double!"
"Why isn't she answering?!" Rarity exclaimed.
"Could them magic thingamabobbers be messin' with the communication?" Applejack exclaimed.
"I don't know!" Twilight trembled all over, eyes darting about. "I-I don't think so! Lunar magic isn't stronger than harmonic magic!"
"Then what do we d-do?!" Fluttershy exclaimed.
Rainbow cracked the joints in her neck. "What else?" She stretched her wings and—FWOOOSH—propelled herself forward in a blur.
WH-WHAM! She plowed two bodies aside, then went fetlock-to-fetlock with a third sarosian, wrestling for dominance of a wooden spear. Beneath the attacker's whalebone mask, she saw a snarling muzzle—cold gray hair soaked in seawater. Thinking fast, Rainbow tilted her neck up—shining the ruby pendant square into the assailant's slitted eyes. The pirate instantly collapsed, covering his skull with a high-pitched shriek.
Grabbing the invader's staff, Rainbow spun about and swung it in a full arc. "Rnnngh!" She tripped two thugs, giving Flynn room to gallop over them—knocking the air out of their lungs. She twirled to her other side and raised her staff to block the swing of another thug. The two wrestled for a bit—until Bard's metal staff made contact with his skull. The sarosian collapsed, and before Rainbow could thank the Desperado—
"Aaugh!" A voice yelped from above. "Dammit!"
"...!" Rainbow looked up.
"Rrrngh!" Ariel shook and struggled, grasped by two bat ponies from behind. A third rushed towards her, spear-first. Wildcard was too far away and too encumbered to intervene.
"Is it just me?" Pinkie blinked. "Or does that mare need saving a lot?"
Rainbow exhaled. "Works just fine in my book." She then exhaled, rushed forward, and flung the staff in her grasp like a javelin. "Mrggh!"
Swoooooosh—CLANK! The end of the weapon ricocheted off a sarosian's skull. He released his grip of Ariel, freeing one of the mare's wings.
"Httt!" Ariel flapped the limb, sending her body in a spiral. She ended up tossing the other midnighter straight into the pirate sailing towards her. Both fell into the drink while Ariel rushed in to assist Wildcard. "Thanks a bunch, sexy!" she exclaimed.
Rainbow managed a sweaty salute. "Don't mention—" A muscular sarosian pounced and shoved her to the deck. "—ittttttttttt!" She stared up into the attacker's gaping fangs.
"Rainbow!" Echo's voice hollered over the bedlam. "Plug your ears!"
"Do as he says!" Applejack exclaimed.
Rainbow's feathertips were already rushing to her cranium. She managed to plant her wings as firmly as she could over her folded ears as—
"Shreeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" The sarosian on top of her emitted wave after sonic wave into her skull.
Rainbow winced. Hard. Despite the last-second save, she could already feel her vision fading from the sheer torture bubbling in her head.
Then—just as she swore she was about to go deaf—"Have at youuu!" A winged figure of a different kind glided down from the top deck.
Whump! Kepler knocked the attacker off of Rainbow. As Rainbow's senses gradually returned, she scooted across the battle-scarred deckplates and watched in shock.
"Grrrraugh! Rrapscallion!" Kepler locked claws with the pirate's fetlocks, shoving him against the side of the deck. "I know forr a fact, waywarrd brrotherr, that you arre farr noblerr than this! But you will have to convince my tusks!" And with one simple chomp, he bit into the bat-pony's shoulder.
The creature shrieked, reached to a whale-bone bandolier, then grabbed a round pale object. "W'lynmh!" the pirate yelped, and the object began to glow.
"It's a grenade!" Twilight shouted.
Ariel already saw it. "Kepler!" She uppercutted two attackers, folded her wings, and dove like a bullet. Breathless, she snatched Kepler off of the pirate and away from an exploding pocket of hot gas.
Powwww!
Rainbow winced. She struggled to stand up, supporting herself against the starboard edge of the deck. Somehow—as the ship stopped rocking from the last explosion and as the fight continued on beside her—she heard peculiar splashing sounds just below. She glanced over the deck to see a violet figure flailing in the choppy surf. "Remna?!"
"Austraeoh..." Remna bobbed in and out of the waters, wheezing. "I... s-seem to have reached an impasse..."
"Just climb on board!" Rainbow sputtered. "We need you—"
"I... d-don't think I can!"
Rainbow ducked a loose staff flying over her head. "Why not?!"
"I... do not possess the ability to swim..."
Pinkie Pie grabbed at her ghostly mane. "She can't swim?!"
"Accursed..." Remna bobbed. "Pony..." She bobbed again. "Body...!"
"Just hold on!" Rainbow Dash reached over and grasped her fetlock. "Rnnngh... okay! Now... j-just try to climb up my body and—"
"Aaaah!" A voice shrieked from behind.
Fluttershy blanched. "Nicole!"
Holding onto Remna, Rainbow looked over her shoulder.
Four pirates had converged on the deck entrance. They yanked Nicole away while Echo attempted to stop them. Enraged, the outcast leapt onto one of the pirate's backsides and sank his fangs into his neck. This only enraged the attacker, and he let go of Nicole and punched Echo savagely in the face. Echo fell to the deck floor, yelping in pain as a dogpile of sarosians began beating him senseless.
"No! Echo!" Nicole hollered. "Johnny!"
"Nicole!" Bard gnashed his teeth, tangling with too many pirates than he could count. As the seconds burned by, more and more sea-soaked figures jumped off the surrounding vessels and overwhelmed the Stardust. "Rnnngh—Dubya! For all that's holy!"
Wildcard heard his partner from below. Frowning, the griffon shoved off his airborne assailants with a burst of strength. In the millisecond of freedom that he afforded himself, he attached both ends of his nightsticks together—cl-clakka—and spun the improvised staff around in a full circle. Wh-Wh-Whap! He impacted the skulls of three sarosians—then used one of their bodies as a springboard as he dove down towards the deck. Swoooosh! The Desperado flew towards the stern in a serrated streak.
"Here!" Bard held his breath and tossed up his staff. "All you, mofo!" Snarling, he resorted to fighting off his enemy bare-hoofed.
Wildcard stretched a metal hoof out. Vrommmm! Bard's staff flew into his grip. Thkkk! A heartbeat later, he made contact with the deck's floor, sliding violently through the group that was accosting Nicole and Echo. He tripped no less than four bodies, and as soon as he came to a stop, he spun violent cyclones—swinging the combined nightsticks in one talon and the cowboy's staff in the other. Thw-Thw-Thw-Thwissh! Skulls rattled and legs buckled. Half of the sarosians entangled with Bard, Flynn, and Logan rushed in with their staves drawn.
Wildcard spun to face them, deflecting the attacks from all angles. A few well-timed thrusts from the pirates struck his agile body, but the pain only accelerated him. Hissing through his beak, he twirled and spiraled even faster, shattering several staves and knocking the leathery bodies back. Soon, he was completely surrounded. With a graceful flick of his claws, he detached the nightsticks again and tossed them high in the air.
As they flew up, Wildcard gripped Bard's staff in two talons and smacked a sarosian so hard that his whalebone helmet shattered. As the nightsticks fell down, Wildcard stretched out his metal talon and flicked the wrist. Thw-Thwissh! The weapons were magnetically propelled in opposite directions, pinballing off multiple batpony bodies. Wildcard spent the next two and a half-breaths twirling the staff over his neck and wings and then bringing it down with painful finality over many an exposed hoof and fetlock.
Heaving, he pinned one sarosian to the hull with the staff while reaching his metal claw skyward again. Vrommmmm! The nightsticks flew back, clipping more limbs and leafy ears. Three sarosians charged Wildcard from behind. With a mute grunt, he ducked low, threw their combined weight over his feline shoulders, and shoved them straight into the cabin behind Nicole and Echo just as the nightsticks returned. Wildcard allowed the metal weapons to fly over his head, following the sarosians into the cabin. Sweating, he jerked into place, aiming his curved metal claws straight towards the claustrophobic interior. Cl-Cl-Cl-Cl-Clankkkk! Sparks flew from Wildcard's metal joints as he pinballed the nightsticks across every conceivable surface, rendering the sarosians inside to tenderized meat. As he heard their collective groans, he jerked his red-hot prosthetic back, catching the blood-stained nightsticks in steaming knuckles.
Splooosh! Yet another vessel surfaced—this one bumping deliberately into the Stardust.
Wildcard and every other combatant on board was thrown off balance.
"Guh!" Rainbow winced, nearly losing her grip of Remna. Her ears drooped as she heard wooden hatches hissing open and more wet bodies leaping into the starscape.
"H'rhnum!"
"H'rhnum!"
"H'rhnum!"
The latest wave of attackers bore double-barreled tubes—and these fired fibrous cables lined with lunar pebbles. Rainbow looked over her shoulder as they looped around Wildcard, reining the griffon in place before he could stand up.
"Y'mnym!" the attackers collectively shouted. Within a blink, electrical energy rippled up the cords and into Wildcard's exposed body. The Desperado thrashed and twisted in pain... ultimately falling in a slump as several feathers fell loose—burning and sparking at their ends.
"Dubya?!" Bard wheezed, being wrestled to the ground. "Dubya!"
"It's no use, frriends!" Kepler shouted as he stood back to back with Ariel. "We arre outnumberred—" Cords flew in and wrapped around the two of them, discharging more electricity. Both fell in meaty slumps amidst a column of steam.
"Rainbow!" Rarity whimpered. "We've lost, darling!"
Rainbow winced as her eyes reflected the full force of the sarosians descending on Logan, Flynn, and Bard.
"Austraeoh!" Remna wheezed, dipping in the water. "Release me!"
"Axan—"
"I alone cannot take you to the Midnight Armory!" Remna sputtered as her chin bobbed among the waves. "The Herald! You might still be able to save them—"
"Rrrrgh..." Rainbow Dash gritted her teeth. "Luna! Where... are... you—?!"
No less than half-a-dozen sea-soaked fetlocks grabbed Rainbow from behind and hoisted her away.
"Guh!" Rainbow's eyes twitched as she was pulled backwards. "Axan—!"
All she saw was a pair of slitted eyes... flashing... and then a cold splash of sea water.
"Rnnngh... dang it!" Rainbow fought and wrestled with the countless limbs shoving her to the deck. "You jerks! You don't know what you're doing! Princess Luna sent us!" She winced as pirates stood on her—meanwhile others tied her hooves painfully behind her back with seaweed. "The Mother of Nightmares! The Mother of Nightmares sent—" She was silenced with a violent kick to the teeth. "Grkkk!"
"Rainbow!" Fluttershy yelped, looking around as the rest of the Herald were likewise being strung up, one by one.
"Aaaaugh!" Logan spat and snarled and bit at the bodies around him—all in vain. "You guano-huffing bastards!"
"Please, Big Show..." Flynn whimpered, being shoved to the ground as a pale cap of lunar rock was slapped over his horn. "Prettier last words—" Just then, a pirate reached down and yanked the lens off his mechanical eye. Plkkk! "Ow!"
"Mrmmmff... Johnny..." Nicole hyperventilated. "Echo... he's bleeding bad..." She grimaced. "None of these creeps are even listening to me..."
"It's alright, darlin'—"
"Johnny..." Nicole panted and panted, eyes streaming with tears. "I'm scared."
"Shhh... just close yer eyes, sis. It'll be alright..."
Th-Thappp! A firm set of hooves landed in the middle of the deck.
The sarosians parted ways—but not without shoving the hapless members of the Herald together like a meat pile in the center of the deck. The pirates formed a line for the latest midnighter to land.
A mare with a snow-white coat and pronounced ears stood near the bow. Her skin was wrinkled and gnarled with age, and several slender whalebone shafts were grafted into her flesh—collecting near the shoulders and front fetlocks. When she looked up, she breathed in and out of a scarred nose that had been modified to have one flaring nostril. A necklace of wingbones and unicorn horns dangled beneath her chin. She opened her muzzle wide, exhaling heated vapors past fangs fitted with metal ringlets.
"M'shrynmh w'ynlppa yln H'Luuuuuuun," she gurgled.
Schiiiiing! One sarosian hoofed the warrior a large jagged hook fashioned out of coral and moonstone.
The sarosians slammed their staves and weapons into the deckplate in a rhythmic fashion, chanting repeatedly with each thrust: "W'ynlppa! W'ynlppa! W'ynlppa! W'ynlppa!"
The mare licked the rings dangling from her fangs. Smiling, she slowly marched forward down the lines of chanting pirates. She dragged the hook over the rusted metal with bloodthirsty menace.
Rainbow, her friends, and the Herald watched hopelessly as the warrior crossed the deathly distance between them.
"W'ynlppa! W'ynlppa! W'ynlppa! W'ynlppa!"
Nicole grimaced. She hid her face in Bard's shoulder.
Kepler calmly closed his eyes.
"Rrrrrr—" The pale warrior raised the hook high. "Skreeeeeeeeeee—!"
And that was precisely when Rainbow Dash's pendant flickered with piercing white light.
"OH FOOLISH WAYWARD FOALS!"
Every sarosian instantly froze in place. Jaws dropped. Those still minding the vessels popped their heads out of the hatches and gaped from a distance.
The warrior blinked, her slitted eyes squinting in shock.
Rainbow looked at them, then at her pendant. She immediately wished that she hadn't, for the ruby lightning bolt exploded in a beam of pale luminescence. The air rang with pure harmonic energy as the light shot straight up into the sky, piercing the heavens. Within seconds, the pulsating light resonated with a bombastic voice that drowned out the thunder and surf around them.
"BE STILLLLLLL!"
FLASSSSSSSH!
A veritable spotlight shone around that pocket of the ocean—almost to the point of blinding even the Herald.
The warrior's legs buckled. Cl-Clank! The hook fell to the deck. Soon, she was hobbling backwards, plopping onto her scarred flank. "Hmmm... H... H'Luun...?!"
Once more, the glowing sky rippled: "N'WYNLMMUU Y'LNHMEM H'JYMWYN NYL H'LUUN!"
The warrior whimpered like a foal. She fell over, planting her bowing forehead to the deckplates as her elongated ears drooped on either side of her skull.
Instantly, the rest of the sarosians followed suit, bowing low. Most of them hyperventilated. Some were even sobbing.
"H'WYSSM." Princess Luna's voice boomed, slightly softer now—if that was even possible. "SLY'WYNNHM H'LUUN H'JYNMYMUU WYNSHM!"
One by one, the members of the Herald began breathing in relief. Wincing, Wildcard, Ariel, and Kepler came to... glancing around in utter confusion.
Rainbow blinked. Squinting in the enchanted light, she exchanged glances with her friends.
"Huh..." Pinkie Pie smiled crookedly. "Y'know... now that I think about it... that was worth the wait!"