The Olden World

by Czar_Yoshi

Everyone On Deck

"Alarms." Shinespark frowned at the ceiling, a voice constantly crackling over the intercom as sirens blared. "That's not good..."

"You think it's anything more than expected?" Belinda growled, limping along as Golbez took the lead, his fencing skills putting Gerardo's sword to expert use. "Took those fools long enough to notice us."

"That's the problem." Shinespark picked up her pace, Grenada at her side. "They spent all that time silent, and only start now? Not when Puddles boarded the ship, and not when we started freeing the prisoners? Something must have changed, and we don't know what it is."

Grenada solemnly hummed. "Maybe it is that they know this sword is dangerous, and were waiting to attack until it was far from the main force. We have not been seeing very many of them, even now that the alarm has been sounded. They are targeting something other than us."

Ahead, another sarosian vanished in a puff of ash, Golbez not discriminating between opponents who were hit and still fighting. Shinespark winced, but the griffon had made his logic clear: these were his enemies, and he had killed far too many of them over his career to worry about what manner he did it in. And a dead one couldn't recover and stab them in the back.

Shinespark frowned apologetically at another, sliced and bleeding as well as sad from the regular cutlass Golbez dual-wielded with his other talon. Her enemies were being mowed down by the dozen and there was no thrill in it, no adrenaline or even sense of duty. Trailing along in the wake of wreckage like this, even when she had been the one doing the cutting... it wasn't hard to see how a goddess could hate pirates on principle. There had to be less-barbaric ways of solving one's problems.

They burst into the final harpoon room, Golbez using the sword to carve an entrance in straight through the wall, ignoring the door barricade. Most of the batponies within were scared and fled out the harpoon gun's window, Golbez clipping the one he reached through the hoof, then flipping them downwards and stabbing through the chest until they shuddered and exploded. The harpoon was next to go.

"Arr. That be taken care of." Golbez nodded at the destroyed machine, the merchant vessel now tethered to the frigate only by ropes from the deck, with no more retractable grapples to catch it if it sailed away. "Now then, for our next order of business..."

Shinespark watched the boat out the window, briefly wondering why anyone would dare to sail a ship in waters as unsafe as these. "That window will let us fly out to the deck," she decided. "The Varsidelians are going to have to emerge there somewhere to get off this ship. We could try to hold a position, or pincer back and hit whatever they're battling from behind. We could also do recon for whatever set off the alarm, but I want to-"

"Shreeeeeee!" A screaming mare erupted from the ruins of the harpoon winch, having used its shadow to hide and not be ejected by the light of the unicorns' horns. Golbez reacted instantly as she launched herself at him, a fuzzy ball of dark-coated rage, and positioned Gerardo's sword so she cleanly impaled herself on it. The mare was struck, but it didn't halt her momentum, and she hit the talon holding the sword, sending it askew.

"Arrrgh!" Golbez collapsed as the sword hit his other foreleg and he tripped over the now-sad batpony's weight. The struck leg went completely limp, falling uselessly beneath him.

"Captain!" Belinda rushed to his side, trying to pick him up.

Neon Nova frowned, experimentally strobing his horn. "Huh. I thought for sure this kept them out of the dark..."

"I be alive," Golbez gasped, struggling and sitting upright. "Me leg... It still be there? No sensation whatsoever, not even pain. But I can't move it..." He glanced at Shinespark, brow furrowed. "Lass, what kind of accursed weaponry be this?"

Shinespark frowned, grabbing the sword in her telekinesis and stuffing it back in its sheathe. "A magic one, and I don't know how it works. And like any weapon, it can apparently hurt the wielder as well. I think I'll be hanging onto it again for now."

Golbez stood on three legs, unable to put weight on the deadened one. "So be it."

"Do we have a plan, then?" Grenada asked, glancing between the two leaders. Sirens continued to bellow in the background, though no more patrols came to seek the harpoon room. "Anyone?"

Shinespark nodded. "I'll fly us out to the deck. We need to rejoin the others. With Golbez and Belinda both injured and Howe and Neon Nova incompetent at fighting, I'm afraid I'll have to use this sword..." She glanced unhappily at it. "Any objections?"

Everyone shook their heads, and Grenada stepped closer. Shinespark nodded again and lit her horn. "Here we go!"

---

Meltdown kicked through a final door, breaking out onto the deck with a shove from a single armored hoof. The frigate's deck wasn't flat, several levels of cabins built up in the middle and on the ends with bridges to the masts between them, and they had emerged one tier up from the bottom. The batponies following Valey all blinked, and she did too; the sky was mostly empty of sentries, everyone having flown off to follow Gazelle's alarm. She could see warning lights flashing from the room below the bridge, its giant window looking back out on the deck space below.

"Alright." Valey swallowed; Meltdown clearly had a plan for where she was going, but she could just fly off if she wanted. The Immortal Dream would be somewhere on the horizon, she could smell Starlight and find it without effort, the Nightmare Module would be taken care of... but she still had friends here to find.

As if on cue, Shinespark floated over the far railing.

Valey groaned. She had that entire crew of pirates with her? Including Howe and Neon Nova? But she didn't have Puddles, at least. Meltdown appraised them instantly, walking forward to close the distance. She had remembered her, and she was a batpony in a crowd of batponies! Shinespark was armored, but had her helmet off. Meltdown would surely remember her too. She'd...

---

Shinespark landed and sighed, taking a moment to blow at her horn and cool it. Lifting that many ponies at once took at least a bit of effort...

"Well. This be unfortunate," Golbez remarked calmly beside her.

"What is?" Shinespark blinked, looked up... and in the night, saw a gaggle of batponies and one very familiar, imposing suit of armor. She swallowed. "Oh. She's here."

"Uhhh." Howe nudged Belinda. "On a scale of one to ten, how screwed are we?"

Golbez hung his head in respect. "This be our dyin' day, lad. Garsheeva's bane of all heretics. The law has come to collect, and we be in its crosshairs."

"This is stupid," Belinda growled, clutching her hurt shoulder. "She's standing with sarosians! If we're going to die to the Empire's justice, I for one intend to go down fighting!"

Quick as a blur, she lunged past Shinespark's side, grabbing the sword in her good talon and propelling herself forward on her wings, soaring toward Meltdown faster than Shinespark's magic could reach her.

Comments

[alamais]

welp. rip belinda.

[MagicS]

Looks like things are about to even get more chaotic.

And wow, congratulations on 1 million words. I just started reading this story when it was already like 800,000 words in but I've grown so attached to the characters and story and everything in such a short amount of time. It's become such a special fic to me. Good work!