Surviving was paramount. Skyheart was capable, but she recognized her limitations when her life was on the line. She glared up at the large looming pony-griffon hybrid, with a drooling muzzle and hungry eyes staring back. The other pirates holding her down looked a little apprehensive at their ally, who was showing signs of Skyheart in that glare.

Skyheart herself saw only one thing: An opportunity.

Rather than pushing herself up into the resisting hooves, Skyheart rolled her plump body in place. The distracted pinning pirates lost their balance, just as their captain predicted. Skyheart grinned, gripped the sides of their heads, and clocked them together. The crack snapped Seras out of her hunger as she saw her fellow pirates collapse to the ground and Skyheart roll onto her hooves. “No!” she exclaimed with Skyheart leaping onto the starboard railing. Seras drew her cutlass, handle clasped in her strong jaws, and leapt forward.

Skyheart didn’t bother looking back at the sea of stunned pirates. She took a quick glance down at Baleful Bay and spread her wings for flight. She was all set to leap off when she felt a biting sting lance across feathers: Her right wing splurted a bit of blood and faltered, a gasp of pain escaping Skyheart. The copper pony glared around, seeing a grinning Seras, cutlass in maw, edge tinged red. “Bitch!” Skyheart roared, throwing her hind hooves back at a speed that would make an apple farmer blush. Seras’ eyes widened and tried to duck but wasn’t fast enough. The copper hooves cracked head-on into her large muzzle, a tooth ejecting along with droplets of red, nose crunching, Seras stumbling backwards onto her butt. Skyheart didn’t wait to see what damage she did and ignored her own wounds, diving off the railing with wings spread as wide as they could muster. “You’ll all pay for this, traitors!”

Skyheart scrunched her eyes against the sudden rush of warm air, mane and tail flapping all about as she plummeted towards the island. She tried flapping her wings to slow her descent and was partially successful, though a shock of pain shot through her right side on every beat. She managed to settle into a slow, circling descent, wobbly with one wing dripping blood and slightly crooked. The fat mare was aiming for the beach, but her injury lilted her towards a thick part of the jungle-like foliage the bay sported. Despite the unsteady drop, Skyheart was content knowing the Wind Runner’s weaponry was not suited for air-to-ground combat: Angry as Seras and her crew might be, the only way to take her out would be to follow her. And nopony was dumb enough to try and take Skyheart on one-on-one!

The rush of wind slowed but Skyheart ended up crashing through the dense tree leaves blotting out the ground fully. She prepped for a fast landing as she propelled through, only to find the trees standing over 30 meters high! The pegasus yelped and kicked her legs haplessly, but the misjudged landing sent her careening to the ground most unprofessionally. She thudded hard into the soft, fertile soil, and tumbled to a stop with her back to a tree. Skyheart laid there a moment or two to recover from the rough landing, a cacophony of wildlife sounding out all around her.

“FUCK!” Skyheart cursed, quelling most of the noises around her. She climbed to her hooves and furled her wings, wincing as the right did so with a little effort. “Those fucking assholes! When I get my chance I’m devouring every one of their asses!” The infuriated mare paced about the clearing, glancing up to see a Skyheart-sized hole in the floral canopy. She could just make out the airship – her airship – idling where it was. She stopped and glowered: Her crew were more than capable of making off with her airship. Why weren’t they leaving?

It came to Skyheart in a flash. “They’re going for the treasure. Damn it.” She sighed and closed her eyes, rubbing a temple. She knew that between the crew and the griffons, she had a lot of enemies with which to vie for the treasure. “All I gotta do is find it first. Hide it. Take back control of my ship. Leave their mutinous asses on this rock.” She glanced back at her own rump. “Excepting meals for the trip back of course. Seras is gonna get it worst of all.” Skyheart allowed herself a few more minutes of fuming and revenge-plotting before clearing her head and looking about her surroundings. Survival was important, above all else. Even vengeance.

“Now just where the hell did I land?” The pegasus started to unfold her wings on instinct, only stopped when a shock of pain raced through her body. “...Yeah, that’s not happening for a few days,” she muttered. “And I can’t see anything in this dense jungle… Hmm...” Skyheart sat and curled her tail about her, pondering. Where could she go? What should she prioritize? She glanced about, looking for any sort of geographical hints.

“I could probably get my bearings better out by the beach.” Her original plan was to invade inward and explore the bay in sections. Even all by herself, that still sounded like the smartest thing to do. “But my crew’s all set to start their exploration. Tomorrow, hopefully, while they raid my stores and lick their wounds.” Skyheart allowed herself a chuckle at what mess Seras must be after getting a Skyheart kick. She peered deeper into the jungle. “A gamble could put me ahead of the game. Those traitors wouldn’t get near here for days, and the treasure could be right around me.”

What would the former pegasus captain do? Scout the island more effectively from the beach? Or dive deep into the jungle in hopes of stumbling across the treasure first?