The Olden World

by Czar_Yoshi

Closing The Distance

C-c-c-crack!

The ice bridge flickered around Shinespark as she flew, not trusting her hooves on its slippery surface. Its magical connection to Puddles far ahead still empowered it, and the batpony army gave it a careful berth, well aware that its cruelly-shaped railings could knife out and stab them if they drew close. "Hold on, Grenada," she whispered as she flew, holding the unicorn against her with her telekinesis and a hoof. "I wish we had left when we could, but we didn't. Now we're taking our chances with a madmare, because that's better than no chance at all."

Behind her, Belinda flapped, lithe and powerful and bearing plentiful signs of day-old injury. Golbez trailed her, still swift despite his age and the battle, and Howe brought up the rear, lugging Neon Nova along and panting in exertion. Nobody actually stepped on the bridge besides Puddles.

Grenada shivered, the cold from the bridge radiating upward hard enough to chill even Shinespark through her insulated armor. "I'm s-sorry..."

"For nothing," Shinespark insisted, Gerardo's sword at the ready. "I wasn't ready for Braen's last action to be disappearing on her ponies, and I'm not ready for it to be losing to a bunch of pirates, either. We are getting out of here."

---

Valey stood at the prow of the skiff, watching as the ship battle drew closer. Now that she was this near, it was readily apparent that the smaller vessel was some sort of merchant ship, loosely-organized patrols of pirates guarding the skies but most working to haul cargo off it and back to the frigate. She frowned. They could have taken the whole ship... Was it a batpony policy to always spare the ship and crew?

A mare eee'd softly at her side, peeking conspiratorially over the boat rim.

"Yeah, yeah." Valey nodded absentmindedly, eyeing the various doors and battlements along the frigate's side. "So, uhh... how do we get in? Just fly? Or do you guys have a loading bay for these things?"

"Winches, yo," the smaller, purple-maned mare she had chosen as her translator and spokespony replied, pointing a scruffy hoof at a set of small cranes along the ship's edge. It looked like there was room for four ships alone on this side, though Valey didn't see... No, there were two there, just carefully wrapped and covered.

They continued advancing, and one of the circling patrols quickly spotted them and swooped down to investigate. With four sets of thuds, a mare and three stallions landed, all tilting their heads. The mare asked something in sarosian.

At the skiff crew's response, the patrol mare paled, though her stallions looked excited. "Is this true?" she managed, glaring at Valey with a mixture of fear, distrust and reverence.

"Is what true? That I kicked their rears?" Valey winked. "Yeah, pretty. Seen anyone fly in here recently with some filly-sized saddlebags? They're mine, and I want 'em back."

More sarosian muttering. The patrol mare stiffened, gritted her teeth, and saluted, flying off back to the boat.

"Sweet. Got our clearance to board," the small mare announced, grinning hopefully at Valey. A piece of lettuce was stuck in her teeth.

"Yeah, uhh... cool. Let's do that, then?" Valey shrugged, very much aware that she had no idea what she was doing.

---

The ice bridge started to fracture. One sea wave struck it, and then another, and from cumulative pounding damage the ice cracked and separated, Puddles' magic no longer holding it together.

"Looks like she made an entrance!" Shinespark shouted back to Golbez's crew, eyes focused on a rough hole in the hull at the surviving end of the bridge. It was just a little further... but now that the ice had lost its connection, it was no longer empowered, and the flocking sarosians were quickly realizing it had ceased trying to repel them.

"Shreee-eee-eee!" Most of the airborne ones were checking out the floating airship gondola, but at least five dove for Shinespark and her allies the moment one touched the ice and realized it was safe. Shinespark drew Gerardo's sword in a flash, shifting Grenada entirely to her hooves so she could focus her telekinesis on the blade, meeting the two that came for her head-on and cleaving their weapons in half as they swung. The black tip clipped their unkempt chests, leaving both stallions hovering in surprise, looking too glum to continue fighting.

The next two went for Howe, actually smart enough to leave the battle-weathered griffons and powerful unicorns alone. Flash! They were met with a dazzling gleam from Neon Nova's smile, causing both to screech and fall behind long enough for Howe to pull ahead. "Haha!" the pegasus gloated. "Behold our ancestral might, knaves!"

Shinespark blinked. Wasn't there a fifth...!?

T-Thwing! Two arrows zipped past her close together with a rush of wind, leaving a flurry of golden movement in the corner of her eye. Shinespark flipped around to see Belinda dart in front of Golbez, catching the first arrow expertly in a talon... and the second cleanly in her shoulder. "SCRAWWWWW!"

With a flash of her horn, Shinespark let out a wall of random, chaotic telekinetic force in a bubble around herself. Several more arrows tore toward her, but the magic was harsher on their aim than gale-force winds, and every one of them went astray.

The patrol leader frowned, holding a curved bow bigger than she was and hovering in place. She had backup by now, four more batponies with various archery contraptions of their own. It looked like they had wizened up about coming in range of her sword.

"Nnngh... I was not ready for this..." Grenada clung tighter to her armor, eyes closed against the chaos and dark. "There is nothing I can do, here, Shinespark! I d-do not want to be dead weight..."

"We'll talk about it... later!" Shinespark grunted, adjusting her height midair to let her field cover as many of her flagging allies as possible. She couldn't actually put them inside without the winds affecting their flight, though, and the sarosians started to circle around for a better sniping angle. But Puddles' entrance was rapidly closing...

FLASH! A giant ice sculpture of a crocodile burst out of the water and lunged straight up, its frozen maw causing the archers to scatter and buying the pirates the last few seconds they needed to follow Shinespark to the entrance. There, in a square hole in the hull near the waterline that looked like it had been carved out with a giant sword, was Puddles, tapping a frost-covered hoof against the floorboards and looking on in impatience.

"Is my audience coming, or what?" she demanded as they tumbled in a heap through the door, sealing it with a thick iceberg and surveying everyone on the floor. "You'd think cute little Puddles would have to foalsit less. Oh well. Pirates!" She casually swiped Golbez's hat, dropping it on her own fuzzy head. "Follow Puddllles!~"

Comments

[Sharp Quill]

Isn’t that so cute? Valey has found some groupies to call her own.