Winds blew strongly, but stably, as a single trading airship sailed over the land of Equestria from the Crystal Empire with a shipment of valuable gems and resources that can only be found in the arctic. The ship's captain, a unicorn named Portside, stood at the ship's foredeck, feeling the breeze through his mane as he gazed up at the nighttime sky. The stars twinkled silently alongside the full moon's gentle glow, giving him just the right amount of light to study the star chart that he held aloft with his magic. If his assumptions were right – and they usually were – they would arrive at Canterlot by noon tomorrow.
Portside nodded with small smirk as he rolled up his map and stowed within one of the pockets on his uniform, right next to the finely crafted sword that was more for display than anything, though that's not to say that he didn't know how to use it. He stayed where he was, though, admiring the elegant night sky that Princess Luna must've worked rather hard on. The weather complimented the sky's beauty as well; tranquil, calm, soothing. Perfect for sailing.
After a few minutes, he heard the sound of somepony coming up from below the deck, and turned to see the stallion who had signed on as a temporary guard until they got to Canterlot. The white unicorn stallion saw the captain and made his way over to his side.
"Good evening, Captain," greeted Shining Armor.
"Evening, Princey," Portside replied jokingly. "Why are you up so late? Can't sleep?"
Shining chuckled at that. "I could ask you the same thing." He looked up at the sky for a moment, then back to the captain with a serious expression. "Honestly, I'm getting kind of anxious here. There've reports of pirates in this area recently."
Portside nodded with an equally serious look. "And they only strike at night, when it's more difficult to see." The captain made an almost disgusted expression. "Cowards, the lot of them! But I have to admit, it does make for an effective strategy."
"They hit hard and fast," Shining Armor agreed. "They rarely leave anything of value behind except for the ship and its crew. They're almost frighteningly thorough when they strike."
"Aye," Portside stated. He gave a confident smirk then. "But that won't help them here. If they think they can take this ship, then they've never dealt with Captain Portside and the crew of the Sun's Blessing."
Shining Armor shook his head with a light chuckle. Portside certainly wasn't lacking in confidence in his crew. Though maybe he had too much confidence. "I've heard of your record, Captain. The last time Equestria had pirate troubles, your crew was the last to be attacked, and the pirates were finally apprehended. You did good work. But these new guys are said to be mostly unicorns and pegasi, and that each unicorn is highly skilled in magic. You can't take any of them lightly."
"Bah! You'll see. Those pirates come around tonight-!" He stopped in the middle of his sentence. He looked around, looking perturbed. "Hold on. Something's not right."
"What do you mean?" Shining asked with a raised eyebrow. "Everything seems fine."
"No," Portside responded. "The wind just changed. It was moving us forward not two seconds ago. Now it's pushing against us." The captain held a look of suspicion. "My pegasi said that the wind would guide us all the way to Canterlot, and that we wouldn't face any kind of storms or anything. Something is very wrong here."
Shining Armor looked around as well, trying to see anything out of the ordinary. He felt himself getting tense all of a sudden. He could sense that the captain was right. Something felt… off now. He kept searching for anything abnormal until his eyes fell upon a strange-looking cloud that hovered by the moon. It was vaguely shaped like another ship. And it was drawing closer. And as it did, a fog began to envelop the ship. An unnatural fog.
"Okay," the white unicorn said as his horn began to glow, preparing himself for an attack. "This doesn't seem totally normal." He took a step back, feeling nervous as the fog fully surrounded the ship. He could barely see his own hoof in front of his face. He could just make out the captain's own horn glowing with a ready spell as well.
Suddenly, something ran into the ship's side, knocking both unicorns off balance. Shining Armor had had only just gotten back into a stable stance when he heard the sounds of dozens of hooves thundering over the deck. There was shouting as well, as the crew of the Sun's Blessing came up to confront whoever was attacking the ship.
"Something's hit the starboard hull!" somepony shouted over the sound of clashing metal.
"All hooves on deck!" Captain Portside shouted as he drew his sword with his magic. "We're under attack! Pirates!" He turned to Shining Armor. "I hope you're good in a fight, Princey. It's about time you pulled your own weight around here!" The captain then charged off into the fight, leaving the other stallion at the ship's foredeck.
Shining Armor immediately made his way toward the main deck, where most of the fighting was going on. The instant he stepped hoof down there, someone charged him with a sword held high with their magic. The white unicorn quickly erected a barrier to deflect the blade, then shot a bolt of magic at his attacker, who was sent flying across the deck. He looked around frantically. The fog was only just beginning to clear up. He could make out the appearances of the attackers now.
They all looked like they hadn't bathed or showered in a few days, wearing ragged clothes with the occasional bandana, uncovered heads being home to wild, unruly manes. Each of the pirates looked as though they were thrilled to be in a fight.
In almost no time at all, Shining Armor was surrounded by six of the attackers. One of them, a pegasus, rushed in to tackle him. Shining created another barrier, which the pegasus bounced off of painfully. Two other pirates, both unicorns, shot bolts of magic at his barrier, to which he responded with his own burst of offensive magical attacks, which knocked the attackers back several feet away. The remaining three pirates, two pegasi and one Earth Pony, all rushed in an almost berserk fashion. Shining bucked the Earth Pony right in his face and shot the two pegasi down with bolts of magic, then galloped his way through battle, hitting the pirates where he could.
Eventually, Shining managed to find Portside, who was busy fending off four pirates with his magically held sword. The captain actually laughed as he fought his attackers, yelling at them to fight harder. Out of instinct, Shining Armor blasted two of the pirates away, catching the other two and Portside by surprise. Fortunately, Portside was the first to recover, and shot one pirate away with his own magic bolt, then swung his blade at the last pirate's feet, tripping him to the ground, then kicked him in the face, knocking him out cold.
Portside faced Shining Armor with a slightly annoyed look. "I didn't need help, Princey," he said over the sounds of fighting.
"We don't have time for pride, Captain!" Shining responded. "We have to get these pirates off the ship before they cause any significant damage!"
Portside looked like he was about to argue, but instead nodded in agreement, even grinning a little. "Let's teach these dogs a lesson, then!" With that, both unicorns charged back into the fray, duking it out with any pirates that were bold enough or dumb enough to challenge them.
The fighting lasted for a good full hour before any real progress was made. The crew of the Sun's Blessing managed to chase most of the aggressors off the ship. Soon enough, all of the pirates had retreated back to their own ship. All, save for one.
Portside approached the pirate with a smirk on his face. The pirate wasn't easy to make out in the darkness raised by the fog, though his unicorn horn was easy enough to notice. "So, lad, you're still willing to attempt to pilfer our cargo, eh?"
The cocked his head slightly to the right. Then he chuckled… in a mare's voice.
"Attempt?" the lady pirate parroted in mocking tone. "We already have what we came for."
"What?" Shining asked in surprise.
"Nonsense," Portside replied skeptically. "You couldn't have gotten our cargo. All of your crew were chased back to your ship. Besides, even if you got everything, we aren't about to let you go." The crewmen all shouted their agreements and bared their weapons. Portside once again wore that cocky smirk of his. "Give up, lass."
The pirate chuckled again. "You really shouldn't underestimate me," she said.
Portside rolled his eyes. "Get her, boys!" At the order, the armed crew charged at the lady pirate.
She just laughed in response, her horn glowing with a dark blue aura, drawing a pair of long rapiers from her hips. She swung her blades around in rapid, graceful movements, moving her body right along with the twin weapons, occasionally shooting a bolt of magic at somepony to thin out the number of aggressors some. By the time she reached Portside and Shining, everyone else was either unarmed and shocked or out cold. She held her blades in place in an X around Portside's neck, freezing him place, his eyes wide. The pirate mare's grin was invisible in the darkness, but obvious to everyone.
"Remember this night, Captain," she said calmly. She then suddenly turned and bucked him in the chest, launching him right into Shining Armor. She then sheathed her blades as she galloped off back to the edge of the ship and jumped onto the railing. She faced the crew of the Sun's Blessing. "This was the night that you met Captain Raven Blackmane of the Queen Nocturne! Farewell!"
With that, she leaped off the railing and levitated herself safely onto her ship. When she landed, she even gave a mocking salute as her vessel sailed off faster than any other ship.
Portside managed to recover from the mare's attack on him and hurried over to the edge of his ship, but Raven Blackmane and her crew were already gone from sight. He was already in a cursing fit when a crewman galloped out from belowdecks and approached the captain. "Sir! Our cargo's gone!"
"What!?"
"There were holes drilled into the floor from the outside! They must've had pegasi fly under us and steal everything while we were up here fighting."
Shining Armor then trotted up to them, and, just before Captain Portside could go into a rage, said, "We have to get to Canterlot and tell the princesses what happened here. And I'll need to write a letter explaining the situation to my wife."
Portside looked as though he was about to argue, but stopped himself. He sighed in defeat, unable to think of argument to Shining's words. "Fine," he said. "But my crew is going to bring those pirates down. Even if it's the last thing I do."
"Fair enough," Shining replied. The captain grumbled something under his breath and headed off to his cabin, ordering his crew to get back to work to get them to Canterlot as soon as possible. As the sky captain entered his cabin fuming, Shining Armor sighed and looked off in the direction that the ship called the Queen Nocturne had sailed off in. He narrowed his eyes, knowing one thing for certain: Portside wasn't the only one who wanted to be a part of the group that took down Raven Blackmane.