Chapter Thirty One

Full-Blown Gale

Trixie wasn’t exactly happy at the end of the week after she had found out about her missed orgy. “I would have liked to have been in on that,” she mumbled in a pouty voice as they boarded the ships. The rain had finally stopped, and right now everypony on the island was trying to dry out anything that was still wet.

“Trixie, I already gave you a “gift” in the bathtub, remember?” Spike said as he helped them over a narrow gap.

“I know, but still, it would have been nice. I’ve always wanted to be in one, especially with those I care about,” Trixie said, before noticing something odd. Maria and Chrysalis were walking side by side on the ship: not talking, but they didn’t look unhappy either. “They make up?” she asked nodding their direction.

Spike knew in an instant to whom she was referring. “Not exactly: they’re on much friendlier terms, but it’s going to take more than an orgy to make them friends again.” A pair of zebra mares walking by gawked at Spike when he said this, their stares lingering on his frame as they continued on their way.

“Best be careful when you say things like that, husband,” Asalah said right behind the dragon, making him jump slightly. “There are plenty of mares out there who would adore having your “main mast” probe their unexplored depths.” Ah, dirty nautical terms: if the ship had been out at sea, and they were the only ones on it, Spike would be fine for another orgy: or two.

“I’ll keep that in mind, Asalah,” Spike said in a mock-serious tone, his grin and twinkling eyes betraying the laugh he was suppressing.

“I don’t know, Spikey-Wikey here is more than capable of pleasing any lady he meets,” Trixie said, her tail flicking against his crotch as she walked past.

Meanwhile...

“Dammit! There it goes again!” Rarity shouted after her fist involuntarily put a hole through the table she was sitting at. She looked up to see the confused faces of her friends. “What?”

“Rarity, are you okay?” Twilight asked slowly, her magic fixing the hole.

“I’m sorry Twilight dear: it’s just... someone is using my pet name for Spike,” Rarity said. “I don’t know how, but I can tell when someone does. It’s the second time it’s happened in a week!”

“Rarity, sugar, don’t ya think you’re bein’ a bit... overzealous?” Applejack said, earning a stare from a few of the others. “What? Can’t a farm pony know some fancy dictionary words too?”

“Dictionaries aside,” Twilight began. “Rarity, I’m sure it’s nothing.”

“Yeah, it’s not like they’re screaming his pet name during climax or anything,” Pinkie Pie said in an entirely calm voice. “Ponies don’t usually do that during orgies: not that I would know or anything,” she added, seeing the looks on everypony’s face.

“Pinkie, I don’t know where you get your ideas, but now is not the time to mention that kind of thing,” Rainbow Dash said in an oddly lady-like manner, which was gone in an instant as she smiled in a mock-lusty manner. “Everypony knows Spike is not the kind to descend into an orgy with his wives.”

Pinkie’s tail twisted behind her, but she didn’t say anything to that. Fluttershy, on the other hand, had her eyes go wide at the mention of an orgy and politely excused herself from the table, heading up to the bathroom for some “personal time”.

Back in Maredagascar, the ships had finally cast off from the port and were on their way to Saddle Arabia. The skies were clear, the wind was strong in the sails, and the sea was rather calm in comparison to the Barnlantic Ocean.

It didn’t stop things from getting heated down below. “How long until we get there?” Maria asked as she looked over her letter to Spike’s friends back home. Deciding now was as good as any time to do so, Spike had them all begin new letters, with Chrysalis still writing under the guise of Meia.

“A week or so, given this wind doesn’t quit on us,” Spike said, remembering what the captain had said. “So, we have a free week of nothing to do.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t say nothing,” Trixie said, rising from the bed as her horn glowed. The door to the room shut, and an audible click was heard: she had locked it. “There is one thing we can do.” The other three mares looked at him: they had been planning this.

“Play some checkers?” Spike asked meekly as the four mares pounced on him.

Meanwhile...

The spray of the sea splashed against the decks of the gathered ships, the cloudless sky still seeming gloomy amidst the bright rays of sunshine. Hundreds upon hundreds of zebras milled around, loading supplies onto the ships and generally preparing themselves for what was about to come. Paint covered much of their exposed bodies, the red making them look all the more fierce.

A single zebra stood at the head of the lead ship, his own war paint a black that covered his white stripes. He looked out over his gathered fleet and forces, his black heart filled with malicious glee and a burning hatred.

“We are almost ready, sir,” a red-painted zebra said, bowing before the first.

“Excellent,” Undi said, his eyes never leaving the gathered forces. “When we are, we set sail: any stragglers are to be executed immediately.”

“As is your will, sir,” the second zebra said, bowing again before leaving the insane zebra alone.

“You will not escape this time, dragon,” Undi said softly. “You have no airship this time, and your wives cannot fly away like you can.” He smiled at the thought of those mares.

“I will kill his descendants before his very eyes.”

Meanwhile...

After three days of intense, uh... checkers, Spike was sore. Okay, he was more than sore: he ached, and he was pretty sure he was chafing: Tartarus, his dick even felt like it was on fire half the time.

Coming up onto the deck, Spike looked out over the horizon, the soothing wind relieving some of the tension in his muscles. The smell of the salt from the splashing waters stung his nose, but it still was refreshing from the sex-filled air of down below.

Some ships off to the side of the convoy had a few smaller ones sidling up near them, but he paid them no mind. It was so nice out as the sun began to dip towards the horizon, where it would eventually disappear in a few hours.

“Having a nice break?” a voice said behind him. Turning around, Spike saw who it was.

“The first in too long,” he said as Maria came up alongside him. “Why are you four so damned horny? Can’t you let me sleep at night without having to wake me up by sucking me off?”

“We can’t help it: you taste too good,” Maria said, absentmindedly flicking some of her hair behind her shoulder. “Besides, I came to talk: Chrysalis is having mood swings again.”

“Third day in a row,” Spike muttered, wondering why Trixie, who was further into her pregnancy, was not experiencing the same. They had awoken to find Chrysalis almost shanking a zebra mare maid who was eyeing her husband, and then the poor mare had almost been sexually assaulted by the changeling when she tried to apologize. Chrysalis had been locked in their room since then, and right now, it looked like she wasn’t going to change soon: her last emotional outburst had been some lewd sexual insults at some dolphins that jumped past their porthole.

Thankfully the pheromones had finally dissipated, or else Spike might have gotten every female on board pregnant, and then moved onto the other ships. That would not be something easily dismissed or pushed aside in political circles: “Royal dragon impregnates hundreds in massive pheromone-fuelled orgy” was not a title he ever wanted to see in a newspaper, or anywhere else for that matter.

“Talk about what?” he asked, snapping out of his trance.

“Saddle Arabia,” Maria said softly. “I was wondering about their-,”

Her words were cut off by a massive explosion: off in the distance, the ship that had been surrounded by smaller ones exploded, sending a massive fireball into the air. Wooden shards, some of them the size of a pony, rained down all over the place. The mainmast of the doomed ship fell over, causing the burning wreck to fall over onto its side.

The shockwave of the blast reached their boat in an instant, knocking Spike over and making Maria land on top of him. Warning bells and horns rang as sailors rushed out of seemingly everywhere, shouting and bellowing orders as they did so. Some began to load the cannons, while others pulled ropes and opened up the sails to increase speed.

“What was that?” Spike shouted as he and Maria rose to their feet and hooves, respectively.

“Pirates!” the captain shouted as small plumes of smoke came from the smaller vessels: soon the air was filled with steel shot, the small projectiles cutting through the mainmast and punching holes in one of the crew. Blood spurted everywhere as crew fell, some instantly dead and others unfortunately still alive. One screamed when he saw his hoof above his head: it had been completely severed.

“Get down below!” Spike yelled to Maria, who took no time in doing just that. There was another plume of smoke from the ship as they circled the convoy like sharks, this time larger steel balls slamming into the ship’s mainmast. Splinters rained down, and one of the larger rigging poles fell, its ropes severed by the shrapnel.

Spike managed to throw himself out of the way of the falling piece of timber, looking in time to see it crash onto the deck, buckling and splitting the wooden surface beneath it. That had been close: too close. Another shard of wood, easily three inches thick, thudded into the deck where his tail had been.

“Return fire!” shouted the captain, blowing into a horn soon after. All around, the convoy ships revealed their own cannons and fired, sending hot death towards any pirate ship too close to their hulls. Most of them missed, as the panicked crews had not taken the time to aim and lead the target. The ship Spike was on, however, got in a lucky hit on one ship: a massive plume of fire erupted from near the rear of the enemy ship, signaling one of the smaller powder stores had been struck.

The pirates returned fire, strange twirling things spinning through the air from the cannons. “Chains!” shouted the captain, the tone of his voice making everyone, including Spike, dive for cover. One crewpony was too slow: the chain impacted and wrapped around him so quickly and with such force, it tore him in half, both bloody halves soaring back over the side. The other chains impacted the sails and tore through the support beams like a hot knife through butter. More wooden splinters, some of them a good three feet long, rained down on the crew, one of the sharper one piercing the hand of one: he screamed as he found himself pinned by said hand.

Spike ran over and yanked the wood from the floor, freeing the zebra’s hand even as a spurt of blood followed it. With a whimper, muffled by him biting down on his arm, the zebra nodded in thanks and went over to another who was handing out bandages as fast as he could. The few dead on board were being quickly moved over into a row, though there was no time for them to be properly honored as of yet.

“Can you help us?” the captain shouted to Spike as another volley from their ship went into the lines of the pirates. One of the mainmasts on a pirate ship collapsed in on itself, effectively rendering the ship dead in the water. That did not mean it couldn’t still fire at them, as it did before the other pirate ships.

“I guess: what do you want me to do?” Spike shouted as another plume of smoke rose from the pirate ships. More of the sails of all the convoy ships became tattered from the shot, and one of the others began to exude smoke from all the hatches: a furious fire was burning below.

“Set those ships on fire!” the captain shouted, pointing at the pirate ships. Wooden hulls, cloth sails, gunpowder stores on so many of the decks: it was a pyromaniac’s dream target come true.

“Okay!” Spike said, opening his wings. With a gust of wind aiding in his ascension, he flew into the air. Mere seconds later, the burning ship’s powder kegs lit, and the tremendous explosion knocked over everyone on the top of the ship he had just been on. That same shockwave made his blunder through the air, regaining his sense of direction before he could splash into the water below. The impact would have likely knocked him silly, if not outright unconscious.

Flying like a massive bat, Spike flew low over the water, avoiding dozens of crossbow bolts as he approached. Why the zebras still used crossbows, he didn’t know: nopony in the world had discovered a way of miniaturizing a cannon, so they remained a staple long-ranged weapon. He spun in time to avoid what looked like a combination of a giant crossbow bolt and a grappling hook: a ballista bolt. Lowering his shoulder, he flew straight into the side of the ship, punching through the wood and into the interior of the ship. Rolling onto his feet from the landing, he met a machete blow with a swipe of his tail, sending the snarling zebra through the hole he had just made and back out into the sea.

Opening his mouth and sucking in a large lungful of air, Spike let loose a torrent of fire, setting ablaze the other zebra pirates headed right towards him. They dropped, screaming in agony as they tried to put the flames out. The rest of the interior was soon filled with hungry flames, which inched closer and closer to barrels of explosive powder.

Spike jumped back out through the hole he had made, performing a swan dive into the water. Seconds later, a massive eruption of fire spread over the surface of the water, making the clear sky above the water turn a fiery orange. The ship blew apart, chunks of flaming debris, some of it former pirates, splashing into the water everywhere.

Swimming up to the surface and leaping out the water, Spike flew off towards the next ship, just as a plume of smoke erupted from its side. Spike spun, hearing as the larger shot whizzed past him. Then, there was one big puff of smoke, and almost in slow-motion, Spike saw the seemingly massive cannonball travel past him and strike the side of the ship he had been on, punching right through near the waterline...

“No!” Spike shouted, his thoughts immediately going to his wives. They were in the lower hull of the ship! Flying over the enemy vessel, he let loose more flames, a virtual geyser of super-heated plasma, setting the whole ship ablaze like a massive torch. Turning as flaming zebras, screaming bloody murder, jumped off the dilapidated vessel, he flew back to his own ship, flying through the large hole the cannonball had left behind. The hole grew smaller, and then he forced himself through to enter where it must have almost come to a complete stop.

He found himself in one of the store-rooms, surrounded by debris. “Trixie? Asalah? Maria? Somepony speak to me!” he shouted, digging his way towards where he knew his room to be. Somepony, anypony: answer me!”

“Spike!” a muffled voice said, causing Spike to renew his efforts. Bursting through a few fallen beams, he found himself in the hallway that lead to their room, with a great gaping hole going right through the wall. Kicking the door open, he found Maria, Trixie, and Asalah all huddled on the floor.

“Oh thank goodness,” he said, kneeling down to hug them. “Are you all right? Are any of you hurt?”

“No, no, we’re fine: it missed us,” Trixie said, her body still shivering from the shock of so narrowly escaping death.

“Spike looked around. “Where... where’s Chrysalis?” he asked. She was nowhere to be seen.

“You have to stop her, Spike!” Maria said, causing Spike to look at her in confusion and concern. “She’s experiencing another mood swing? She went up topside!”

Without saying another word, and giving them all a quick hug, Spike ran up the stairs in the ship, jumping up on the deck in time to see another one of the pirate ships explode in the distance. There were only a few left, but now they all seemed to be heading in his direction...

“Chrysalis! What in the name of Celestia do you think you are doing?! Are you insane?!” Spike shouted, seeing her standing in the middle of the deck, her gaze out at the pirate ships. He rushed up to her side, but as soon as she did, she looked him in the eyes, and.... and...

“They almost killed me,” she whispered, the sounds of battle seeming to fade away as she did. “They tried to kill me, and our foal.” Spike felt afraid at that moment: the green fire in her eyes was almost as palpable as the fire and smoke swirling around them.

“I will not stand for this!” she cried out, her horn glowing a bright green. Then, in a voice not entirely her own, she shouted: “Dark skies, blacken the sea: rain down retribution for me! Thunder, lightning, winds of doom: send them all to a watery tomb!!” Her horn shot a large beam of green light high into the sky, causing what looked like a small firework to explode where it ended. In an instant, the clear sky above began to form small white clouds, which grew steadily larger, and darker, and fiercer-looking, until...

Darkness descended over the ocean as a wall of rain came down from on high, many of the fires on the ships being put out in an instant. Thunder rumbled, and from up above, a bolt of lightning shot down from the sky, it’s jagged arc searing itself into the visions of anypony who happened to be looking in its direction. It impacted the waterline of one of the pirate ships, right where the powder room was located. In an instant, the wooden boat was vaporized, flaming little bits of it falling here and there.

Spike looked back from the carnage to see Chrysalis swaying, her eyes wild, her lips pulled back in a vicious snarl and her mane whipping around her in the suddenly intense wind generated by her magic-induced storm. Her horn glowed brighter as she fell back, her eyes closing as Spike caught her.

As the warm rain continued to pour, soaking the mare to the bone, Spike rushed back down the stairs, bursting back into the room where his other wives were. “She’s passed out,” he said at their terrified looks. “She summoned a storm out of nowhere!”

“She summoned a storm? By Celestia...” Trixie muttered, her eyes nearly bugging out of her skull. Storm spells that acted instantly were reserved for only the strongest of magic-users.

“We’ll take it from here,” Maria said, taking the soaking Chrysalis from Spike’s arms and laying her on the bed after clearing it of some woody debris. Nodding in thanks, Spike rushed back up in time to see one of the cannons gets blasted apart by a pirate cannonball, sending one of the crew into the ocean in several pieces. He spotted the captain and rushed over, noticing the pony’s arm in a sling.

“What’s the situation?” he asked the zebra. The rain was washing away some of the debris, but at the moment, the cannons on the top deck couldn’t fire: their powder was soaking wet. This severely reduced the firepower and defensive capacity of the ship, making it an easier target for the pirates.

“They’re almost done for, but so are!” the captain said, not even flinching as another cluster of cannonballs impacted what was left of the mainmast. “I don’t suppose you can just light them on fire again?”

“Not in a rain squall like this,” Spike said as another bolt of lightning struck near another pirate ship, the sheer power of it making the water flash-boil and cooking a few pirates standing too close to the side. If they weren’t careful, they themselves might stray too close to where the lightning was and get themselves zapped to oblivion.

“Well, can’t you breathe any other kind of fire?” the captain shouted as another volley slammed into the side high above where Spike’s wives were. “You’re a dragon!”

Spike ignored the little pieces of wood that bounced off his frame. “I’ll think of something,” he said, leaping into the air and flying off. Circling the ship like some great bird of prey, he spotted one pirate ship in particular moving closer to his own ship, bypassing the smoking wrecks that were two of the convoy ships. Diving down, he landed on the deck, or more specifically, on a zebra pirate, crushing him as he landed.

Spike let loose some flame, but it went out quickly in the heavy downpour. Backhanding an attacking zebra so hard his neck snapped, Spike tried again, this time putting more force into it: the same result.

“Dammit, this isn’t working!” he thought as he used his tail to smash a pirate into the mainmast. Luna had taught him so much about pyromancy and the ways of dragon-fire. If only he could remember...

“Wait,” he thought, a lesson coming back to him as a zebra struck with a machete: it bounced off and went back into the zebra’s eye, making him howl in pain as blood spurted everywhere. Dragon-fire had many properties, as well as many uses. There were the cleansing flames he had used before, the fire he had just used, and the slow fire he had used to heat the tub...

“Ah,” he said, remembering the right combination of phlegm and fire to create just what he needed.

Meanwhile...

“I said fire again, fools!” Undi shouted, walking past his cannon crews as they hurried to return a salvo of steel shot. The deck was splattered with blood, bits of bone, and uncounted numbers of wooden shards.

“The cannons are overheating, sir!” one zebra shouted. “If we try to reload too soon, we’ll risk blowing it up!”

“Silence!” Undi responded, smacking the zebra upside the head with his machete, the blunt side leaving a nasty-looking but relatively harmless gash. “If you don’t reload, the next thing fired at those ships will be you!”

All of the crew who heard this tripled their efforts at reloading and firing, not wanting to be used as ammunition for the cannons they were working on.

“Sir!” another zebra said, rushing up to the warlord with a bandage covering one of his eyes. “Sir, another ship just went down!”

“How? This storm is putting out any fires out there, and they're down to less than half strength!” Undi shouted. "This rain is taking out their deck cannons!"

“Not all of them, sir,” the zebra said, his voice hushing when he said this. A peal of thunder, punctuated by cannon fire, sounded off in the distance.

Undi’s eyes narrowed: “Not all of them? What fire can withstand such rain?”

“You... you might want to look for yourself, sir,” the zebra said, trembling as his eyes watched the machete in the warlord’s hand drip some blood.

Huffing in annoyance, Undi followed the zebra up on the ship’s deck, the rain instantly drenching him to the bone. He looked out at the somewhat intact convoy, and then he saw it.

A flaming streak arced through the sky and impacted a distant pirate ship, punching a flaming hole through the side. Undi watched as the streak came out the other side: seconds later, the powder in the ship exploded, lifting the entire boat out of the water as its hull shattered. A massive, rolling ball of flame spread out into the sky above as the ship fell back down: in seconds, it slipped beneath the waves like a stone.

The flaming projectile turned up from its water-bound trajectory and turned up, flying up into the sky before it turned again and went back towards the ocean.

“That is no projectile,” Undi said as the flaming stream impacted another one of his ships.

“Then what is it?” the other zebra asked as the fiery mass exited the ship and turned in their direction. That ship, the last of the other ships under his command, detonated as well, splitting apart like a ripe mango falling off a mountain.

“Get down!” Undi shouted as the mass of flame passed overhead. One zebra on deck was not fast enough, and his torso toppled over, his lower half still standing: the flames had scorched it completely, so there was no spray blood.

The fireball turned up and spun down, landing on the deck. Rising up onto its feet, it looked around, the flames boiling over its body like a curtain of unearthly death.

“You thought you could threaten my family and get away with it?” Spike asked, his voice a roar as bits of flame dripped off of him, just like burning oil. “You thought you could justify the death of your son by taking my family from me?” He didn’t need to know it was Undi: Bara’s promise had been valid, but the deluded fool had had no idea what happened when a dragon was truly pissed. Besides, the zebra looked exactly like his son, only this time... he wouldn’t burn as long.

In an instant, he was upon Undi, his flaming claws grabbing the zebra by the throat and lifting him up. As his throat burned, Undi could not say a single word as this flaming specter looked him over, disdain filtering through the flickering flames.

“Goodbye, Undi: we shall never meet again.” With that, Spike wound back and tossed the zebra off the ship, watching him soar through the air and into the water. Looking around and ignoring the zebras who simply tossed themselves off the ship, Spike found what he was looking for: the powder store. Flying up into the air, flames still trailing after him, he spat out an enormous fireball, watching it burn as it fell towards the ship. When it impacted, the ship cracked down the middle, splitting amidst a roar of flames and breaking wood.

The two burning pieces fell over, secondary explosions littering the burning frame as Spike descended into the water. Emerging amidst a geyser of steam, now flame-free, Spike rose up and flew back to his own ship, truly noticing the damage for the first time. It looked as though a giant had grabbed it between two massive hands, had shaken it, and then drop-kicked it across a football field. Other ships in the convoy looked the same: the ones that weren’t sinking, anyway.

Landing on the deck, Spike saw dozens of bodies lying in a row, the blood smearing all over the deck as the rain washed it away. Small burning embers here and there still persisted, but they too were soon extinguished. The captain was leaning against a table, watching as a zebra patched up a limping sailor: one of his legs was gone right above the ankle.

“Is it over?” the captain asked when Spike approached, having helped another amputee to his hooves.

“Yes,” Spike said, looking out over the horizon as the wind and rain continued to batter the weary and injured crew. “Yes: it’s all over.” His family was safe, and the pirates were dead: all that was left was to arrive in Saddle Arabia before their ship sank. Landing on shore was a no-go: pirates not on the ships still controlled the shores, and they would all be easy pickings in their current state.

He was not sure if they would make it to Saddle Arabia: all he could do was hope the ship would hold itself together long enough for them to do so.

Author's Notes:

Well, there you go: an action-packed chapter. So, what did you think? And if you think I'm done with the action for this story... you all have another thing coming.