The Olden World

by Czar_Yoshi

Those Who Hunt

Valey watched from out of sight against the hull as the pirate ship pursued its prey. The merchant ship the lookout had spotted was real, and was sailing away from them as fast as it could... but the pirates had chosen theirs for speed, and were gaining rapidly. No attempt at stealth was made, their flag flying proud and the entire crew jeering and salivating on the deck. They wanted the merchants to know they were dead.

"Settle down, seaweed!" the female voice from the bridge Valey supposed was the first mate shouted, her vocal chords breaking through the din of the crowd. "You know Cap'n Golbez's rules! First we find out if they're respectable folks, and if they are, we ask politely and professionally that they pay the toll for us keeping the seas safe from the other gangs! And if they don't pay, or if they're Goddess-hating sarosian huggers..."

The crowd roared, too many different answers blending into a soup of sound in Valey's ears for her to make out. Still, she didn't attack, memories of the Flame District fresh in her mind. These pirates weren't nearly as well-equipped, but they were still on advantageous terrain with her starting off weakened, and now the entire group was clustered together in one place. She frowned, thinking... If the rest of the boat was unguarded, could she sabotage them? Or was she just underestimating her own skills? But some of the pirates might be veterans. She could fly up and strike from behind...

The merchant ship was drawing closer, enough that Valey could make out worried faces on the deck watching as the pirates approached. Whatever she did, she would have to act fast.

"Nnngh... Need an idea, here..." she muttered under her breath. The pirate ship's trajectory was slightly off from the merchants, she realized: they weren't intending to ram from behind so much as pull up alongside to board them. Most of the pirates were crowding around the ship's starboard side, leaving their backs to her. Would they be crossing with a gangplank? Maybe while they were preoccupied with that, she could make her move. Or, depending on how many fliers the crew had, she could take out the bridge halfway through the boarding, letting her split the pirates in two and fight a smaller force on the merchant ship, then fly over to take on the rest on their own boat. She might also be able to sneak up from behind and pick a pirate or two off in the pre-boarding chaos, and everyone would be so focused on the other boat they wouldn't notice...

She had to move then. Spreading her wings, Valey launched herself upward as quickly and quietly as she could, making her way to the crow's nest. It was inhabited by a lone griffon, and all Valey had to do was lock her hooves around the watchbird's neck and slam her head into the mast to knock her unconscious. From below, nobody looked up. It would be an effortless shot to dispense of the unconscious griffon then and there... but Valey still held her hooves and didn't strike.

With a grinding of rubber on metal, the boats collided, sides scraping together, and Valey saw an aged, tar-black griffon in the most majestic sea coat of all and a tri-fold hat standing calmly at the crew's back. Definitely the captain, she decided. He would be a true veteran, and her most dangerous opponent. Maybe she should take him out first... but if she got distracted fighting him, the rest of the crew could jump her and make the element of surprise not worth it. In fact, if he was competent, he'd have heckled his crew member for no reason and taken his warning seriously that she was there.

It was him or the gangplank. Two ratty stallions were pushing it out by hoof, and Valey realized there was a harpoon head smashed into the other ship's hull preventing it from getting away. Time was passing far too quickly, and she needed to decide what to attack. The crew looked evenly comprised of ponies and griffons, meaning more than half of them could fly...

The pirate crew was shoved aside roughly by a less-scarred female griffon with a heavily-plumed hat. The first mate? She strode out onto the gangplank alone, clearly fearless, apparently preparing to negotiate. Valey held her breath as the pirates quieted, waiting for her chance.

"We are here to parlay!" the griffon shouted, voice carrying everywhere on both ships. "I am Belinda Goldfeather, right talon to His Eminence Captain Golbez The Black! We keep these waters free of lawless freebooters and heretical sarosians! If your crew is pure, a small fee for our services will be all we require!"

"A-All we have are cloth and textiles for Varsidel!" one of the besieged ponies replied, shivering and bowed with his head to the deck. "How much do you want!?"

Belinda drummed her talons along the gangplank. "Captain Golbez is fair," she mused. "A quarter regent, in whatever form of payment you can provide." Her beak cracked in a knowing smile.

"R-Regents!?" The captive ponies started milling around, turning to each other in panic.

Belinda frowned. "I didn't think I was asking that much. Maybe you aren't-"

"Excuse me," said a voice from nowhere that set Valey's cutie mark tingling with danger, causing her to look wildly around. "Did you say your name was Goldfeather?"

"Yeah?" Belinda smirked, lifting her right talon and holding it across her face as if showing something off. "Someone who's heard of my heritage? That could change things. Who said that!?"

A figure robed so thoroughly in black that not a single hint of their body was visible stepped out of a door on the merchant ship and crossed onto the gangplank, causing Belinda to take a step forward aggressively. She kept her talon up, though, and the newcomer seemed to regard it with passing interest.

"You have the markings," he acknowledged. "Giovanni Goldfeather, who ascended to his own house in the year 926 and saw it dissolved upon his passing three years later. I bet he was your grandfather, or great. He had nearly eight hundred regents; actual ones and not equivalent value. And you rob merchants for a fourth. Such a pity so many of the old lords see their bloodlines lost to piracy and heresy against our great goddess, wouldn't you think?"

Valey sat frozen, watching the confrontation play out as Belinda backstepped, confidence suddenly wavering in the face of her brash aggressor. "Who in the Misty Mountains are you!?" she spat. "No one pities me and lives to tell the tale!"

"Do you have any children?" the intruder asked, entirely unperturbed as she reached for the scimitar at her side.

"That's none of your business," Belinda snarled, whipping out her sword and wasting no time in slashing it in a nasty arc at the cloaked creature's neck. "This is for your insolence!"

CLANGGGGG!

"No, it isn't," her opponent agreed, shaking his head as the blade cracked and shattered, having struck something far harder and better-maintained than itself. A gleam of silver sparkled through the small gash she had cut in the cloth, and the hood slipped slightly, revealing a wide row of jagged, perfectly-interlocking teeth. "I just wanted to know if I'd be ending a royal bloodline today."

With a surge of steel, two razor-coated wings sliced their way through the black robe, and Belinda was left defenseless as her opponent surged forward, catching her helpless in a full-body hug as her talons scrabbled defenselessly against metal. She shrieked in pain as he jumped up, flipped both of them around, and slammed her against the bridge in a heavy suplex. With the splintering of wood, the gangplank collapsed under the impact, sending Belinda plunging into the sea.

Her opponent ignored her, spiraling upwards until he faced the pirate ship and roared, tattered cloak falling away to reveal a tan pegasus in a gleaming suit of silver armor. Only his ears were rounder, tail long and thin and tufted at the end, his eyes slitted like a batpony's and mouth a row of glimmering fangs... and his hooves were replaced with paws, gleaming metal spikes on the ends of the armor acting as reinforced claws for stabbing and tearing.

The entire deck of pirates cowered under the metal sphinx's radiance, some covering their heads and others snarling back battle cries in defiance. The captain, Valey realized, was gone, already winging away over the water to who knew where and abandoning his crew to their fate. She was half-tempted to follow him, waves of danger rolling across her from the sphinx: she was on the wrong boat, and as far as she knew that meant he would target her in an instant. He was a lone opponent, clad in likely heavy armor and only able to attack from one direction at once, so she was fairly confident she could beat him, but fighting with a member of the Griffon Empire's nobility would be a very good way to start out her time there with powerful enemies.

He didn't dive, though, hanging in midair and grinning at the pirates as though he was having the time of his life. Some flew at him with barbaric courage; they were speared in flashes of red by his bladed forelimbs and wings. Below, the grounded ponies fought between running and getting closer, colliding and tripping over each other as they pushed in different directions, those who managed to break loose and flee for the hatches belowdecks being flattened as the sphinx flung impaled assailants at them. Most of the thrown got back up and charged again, injured and enraged, and Valey blinked. His slices were aimed to hurt, not disable or kill. And he kept grinning with adrenaline, even laughing as the ponies surging around the deck beneath him and throwing whatever they could get their hooves on accidentally pushed one of their own into the sea. Valey narrowed her eyes. Was he doing this for fun?

...She used to fight ponies for fun all the time, she realized. And now she couldn't even launch herself into a twenty-against-one in defense of a merchant ship without wasting precious time hemming and hawing about safety and things. Was this what she used to look like to others?

As the fight wore on, though, more and more fliers getting too injured to come back for more, the sphinx's temperament started changing. He kept glancing over his shoulder at the merchant ship, frustrated, as if waiting for something, and his strikes grew broader and more brutal. The thrill of battle faded from his eyes, until he simply closed his wings and dropped into the pool of ponies stuck on the deck beneath him. With no flair and a shower of red, they fell as one, his armor absorbing every blow, and in seconds the deck was empty, every pirate who remained dying or dead.

"Geribaldi Stormhoof!" the sphinx shouted, standing up and glancing over his shoulder to the merchant ship. "Aren't you going to join in the fun?"

Every onlooker from his ship had retreated for cover, but at his call another robed face with the hood drawn back poked around a door. "Gazelle, you realize how barbaric you look right now, don't you?" the newcomer said with another flash of sphinx teeth. "Please clean and shed your armor before bringing it back into our quarters."

"Hah." Gazelle removed his helmet, the battle over, and shook his mane, restoring its size and shape. "Barbaric or not, your mother asked me personally to get you out of the castle and enjoying the real world, and you were the one who didn't suggest anything when I was deciding what to do. So don't you complain about my choice of sports, Baldy."

Valey crouched in sudden interest in the crow's nest, making sure to stay out of sight. Gazelle? That was the Empire's High Prince, to whom Kero had requested they deliver that package...

"Get on over here," Gazelle was saying, urging Geribaldi over with a beckoning wing. "It's shameful to leave a pirate hunt with no kills to your name. Come, I saved you a few!"

Geribaldi looked incredibly skeptical, but still spread his wings and soared over, trailing robes that looked more academic than like a disguise. He wrinkled his nose at the smell. "I stand by my assertation that this is barbaric," he informed the prince, touching a paw to the bridge of his nose. "And against the law. You know it is Garsheeva's divine right to give judgement to heretics."

Gazelle looked mock-offended. "So it's against the law to defend a citizen ship from attack, is it? If Garsheeva wants so much to kill them herself, she can beat me to them. Besides, it's good sport."

"Then why'd you let the captain get away?" Geribaldi asked, pointing a skeptical paw at a black dot on the horizon.

Gazelle shrugged. "Why shouldn't I? Hunt them too efficiently, and the population will dry up! But if you leave the biggest alive, there will be more for next time. Same reason I didn't check to ensure that Goldfeather was finished. She'll make an interesting rival if she survives, becomes stronger and hunts me down. So much spunk..." He glanced fondly at the water between the two ships.

"Gazelle, she is tainted with heresy," Geribaldi protested, looking for a way out. "Don't praise her!"

"Once again, why shouldn't I?" Gazelle threw a winning look over his shoulder before marching forward, looking for the source of the harpoon that trapped the merchant ship. "Always respect your opponents. And get your head out of books from time to time! You'd enjoy the world so much more if you realized it doesn't work in such simple, idealistic ways!"

Geribaldi glanced again toward the water where Belinda had fallen. "Make up your mind, Gazelle!" he sighed with the conviction of someone who knew they were right and were speaking to a child. "Either take the pirates into custody and submit them to the Goddess, or end them yourself. All of them! But letting them get away and talking like you admire them is..."

"Is what?" Gazelle raised an eyebrow. "Brash? Foolhardy? No behavior for a leader?" He shrugged, tossing off the allegations. "Good thing I'm hardly destined for that. Lyn's the one modeling agendas, not me. Until Lord Izvaldi finally passes on and I get my own house, my political influence is limited to my charm and good looks, and that's all about what I say, not what I do. And you have even fewer expectations than I do! Come on, Baldy, live a little! I didn't see anyone fly in or out of the crow's nest, so there's probably a nice and easy lookout cowering up there just for you."

"Don't patronize me, Gazelle," Geribaldi huffed. "I have political influence too, and the knowledge to use it!"

"The influence of a cucumber, perhaps," Gazelle countered, "next to what I have purely by being active in the world. Go and get yourself a pirate. Just one; enough to get your paws dirty. And I'll tell your mother all about what thrilling adventures we had together! And make it sound like you were a real team player. Come on..."

His eyes started to water in a ridiculous pleading expression, growing so large his pupils were almost round. Geribaldi growled and rolled his eyes. "Fine! Prince of overstepping your boundaries..."

Valey blinked, realizing a very disgruntled sphinx was coming her way. There was a shadow she could hide in, but the sentry she had knocked out was only just starting to stir...

There was nothing for it. She dove out of sight, hoping Geribaldi wouldn't blow her cover.

With a flapping of wings, he landed in the nest. "Uhh..." He glanced at the stunned griffon, refusing to touch her and looking like she smelled bad. "Did she faint from fear, or something?"

He looked a little longer, saw that her sides were moving with breath, and shrugged and turned away. "Gazelle! I got one! Now come look and then leave me alone!"

"You did?" Gazelle sounded half-surprised and half-delighted. He soared up himself, perching with limber legs on the sail's rigging, and examined the griffon, prodding and checking her himself. "Hah! I knew you had it in you!"

Valey was beyond certain he knew the other sphinx was lying, but had absolutely no intention of outing herself. "So what did you think?" Gazelle went on. "Your very first pirate victory? We'll make a sphinx out of you yet, Baldy! Care to go clean out the ones that are hiding belowdecks?"

"I think I'd rather not," Geribaldi said sourly. "Let's go home, Gazelle. Tell the captain our business is done, pay him in full, and have him take us back to Stormhoof Fortress."

Gazelle grinned straight in his face. "Or we could fly back together. Call it a victory lap?"

"No." Geribaldi spread his wings and left for the merchant ship, abandoning Valey and the stunned griffon. "I'm going back inside."

Gazelle stood and watched him leave, then sighed. Turning back to the unconscious griffon, he lifted her head and examined it carefully... then straightened up. "To whoever's watching me right now..." he said under his breath, low enough that the other ship definitely wouldn't be able to hear it. "Thanks for not killing him. That would have gone over poorly with his parents at Stormhoof."

Then he leapt from the crow's nest and was gone as well, leaving Valey alone and blinking on the pirate ship.

Comments

[Lexicon_Spark]

Huh, wonder if Valey's gonna renovate the ship's looks and be an Admiral again.

[Sypher]

Gazelle sounds like a fun person to meet in the future!

It was him of the gangplank.

"on" the gangplank, right?

[sploopy slooder]

id appreciate it if the author didnt literally nerf valey EVERY time she has too fight. seriously all of her fights have happened when shes injured and/or massively exhausted. if you dont want her to be so op, just write her as weaker, but dont pull this shit over and over again.