Antipodes- Chapter 29
Antipodes
Chapter 29
By PK
The sea serpent undulated as it prepared to let loose a deadly blast of energy.
“Move!” Tiptoe shouted as she darted up high into the air.
Jigsaw and Incendia glanced at each other and each galloped off in opposite directions. The beam of light burst forth from the serpent’s throat, blasting a crater in the rock where they had been standing.
Incendia flashed bright orange, igniting a whirlwind of flame. Digging her hooves into the ground, she slid to a stop, turning to face the serpent as she took aim. Tongues of flame sprouted from the ground at her feet and shot towards the sea serpent, wrapping it in white hot strands of flame.
The serpent writhed and shrieked, smoke rising in oily, black coils as the fiery ropes constricting around the serpent burned into its flesh. However, with a mighty jerk of its serpentine back, the bonds around its body broke in a flash of light. The charred skin underneath the bonds oozed a pale green fluid.
Incendia allowed herself a small smile upon seeing the damage her flaming ropes had inflicted, but it was quickly wiped off her face. The serpent hissed and the flesh seemed to knit itself closed, as though time were running in reverse. The flesh slowly uncharred and the green fluid retreated back into the creature’s torn veins.
“Jigsaw!” she shouted, “It can regenerate! It can—”
“I know!” Jigsaw called back. “Just give me a second. I have an idea!”
New skin glistened on the monster’s side as it bared its terrible fangs, readying a strike against Jigsaw. As it reared back to strike, Tiptoe dove down from the top of the cavern, bringing the full force of her hooves squarely on the serpent’s triangular nose. Tiptoe felt the cartilage in the beast’s nose snap under her hind legs as she pounded her wings to propel herself downwards.
The serpent roared in agony and withdrew back into the murky water of the cavern.
“Is that it?” Tiptoe asked. “Is it over?”
“I doubt it,” Incendia said. “That thing regrew muscle and skin like it was nothing. I don’t think we’re done.”
“But how could it do that?” Tiptoe inquired. “I had to fight that same thing off when Jigsaw and I were here last time, and when I kicked it, it stayed hurt!”
“I don’t know!” Incendia responded. “Jigsaw, what do we do?”
“Just keep it off of me!” he shouted. His horn glowed a brilliant blue as pieces of pipe and mechanical components began to swirl in the air above his head.
“What are you going to do?” Tiptoe asked.
“Well, it can regenerate damage, right? So I was trying to think of ways to stop it, and I thought if we could just—”
Suddenly, a massive eruption of water burst from directly underneath Tiptoe. The serpent’s trunk-like body shot out of the water like an arrow, mouth wide open, horrible fangs glistening in the pale light.
Tiptoe fortunately jerked away from the spray of water, and the serpent’s deadly bite missed her by several feet. The serpent splashed down into the water momentarily before rising again and opening its jaw wide at Tiptoe, priming another burst of light from deep within its throat.
Incendia took aim at the creature and gritted her teeth. In the pit of her stomach, she felt the arcane pressure of a powerful spell building. When it was finally too much for her to take, she forced the energy up her body and through her horn, where it manifested as a small sun that raced directly into the spine of the serpent.
The ball released its magical payload on contact. It exploded in a sphere of white-hot flames, singing the end of Tiptoe’s tail and gouging a crater in the serpent, exposing a stark, white bone to the air.
A sharp pain stabbed at Jigsaw’s forehead where his horn met skull, but he ignored it. He concentrated his energy on the contraption before him: an ever-narrowing series of pipes connected to the central water main jutting out of the cavern roof.
The tattered flesh finally closed and the serpent turned its attention once again to Incendia. As it opened its mouth to strike at her, it froze. For a second, Incendia saw its eyes flash green, and a torrent of green flames emanated from the monster’s throat.
Incendia froze in horror at the green flames hurtling towards her, remembering the only other time she had seen them: her skirmish with Tantalus outside Canterlot.
Her hesitation cost her. Though she was able to gather her wits enough to leap to the side, the green flames caught her right flank, and an utterly alien but horribly sharp pain shot through her— the pain of a burn.
“It’s Tantalus!” she shouted. “He’s controlling it or giving it power or something! Only his flames can burn me!”
“That would explain why it can regenerate!” Tiptoe exclaimed. “He’s making it stronger!”
“Jigsaw, do you still have a plan?” Incendia gasped, trying to block out the searing pain in her shoulder.
“Get it over to me,” Jigsaw said through gritted teeth. “I think I’ve got it.”
Incendia started at the contraption Jigsaw had designed: a bunch of broken and twisted pipe segments, held together with bonds of Jigsaw’s blue magic, quivering slightly with Jigsaw’s effort to keep it together.
“What are you going to—” Incendia began.
“Just get it over here!” Jigsaw shouted. “And watch the water!”
Incendia gave up trying to argue and turned to face Tiptoe.
“Tiptoe!” she shouted, “I’m going to try and rope it in! You fly behind it and pummel it with your hooves to stop it from bucking out of my binding!”
Tiptoe nodded and, without further ado, Incendia focused her magical energies. From the tip of her horn sprouted a tube of fire bordered on the sides by a orange halo of telekinesis, shaping and focusing the flame into a lasso. Incendia whipped it around her head once before sending it sailing around the monster’s neck.
The monster writhed again against the flaming rope that held it, and again, Incendia felt her control pushed almost to breaking point. This time, however, as the serpent began to push in the opposite direction, Tiptoe dove, hooves out, and ploughed directly into the serpent’s eye.
The serpent, momentarily blinded by pain, ceased resistance to Incendia’s tugging. She gave one mighty jerk of her horn, bringing the serpent’s head crashing down to the stone pathway where it twitched and undulated.
As the creature came crashing down, an enormous sphere of light erupted from Jigsaw’s horn and rose up into the ceiling. An immense rumbling and gurgling could be heard throughout the cavern, resonating off the uneven, craggy walls... Incendia glanced around, afraid the cavern was collapsing.
“Look out!” Jigsaw warned as a jet of water began to hiss out of the end of the tube he was levitating in front of him.
Incendia was utterly baffled. She had no idea how this tiny stream of water could possibly help them— until Jigsaw began to move it. As Jigsaw slowly brought the jet closer to the serpent, a visible, black groove appeared in the rock. Tiptoe chose that moment to speak up, confirming her suspicions.
“Jigsaw forced the full pressure of the system into that jet! That beam could cut through solid steel! Jigsaw, are you insane? If you let go of any of those pipes for even a moment, we’d be flooded!”
Jigsaw didn’t answer. As the jet made contact with the base of the serpent’s neck, its slit pupils dilated and flashed green. It began to struggle harder against Incendia’s fiery bonds, but with a renewed effort, she summoned another two wisps of flame and wrapped them tightly around the creature.
With one final motion, Jigsaw sent the water jet sweeping up and across the neck of the sea serpent. For a moment, the serpent’s headless body began to flail sickeningly, finally snapping the fiery bonds that held it, and jerking from side to side on the stone platform.
However, the head of the sea serpent lay still against the sand-colored stone, its wide eyes unseeing.
Another flash of light burst from Jigsaw’s horn, and the jet of water slowly settled into a spray and then, finally, a trickle. The pipes dangling from the cavern ceiling shuddered and collapsed onto the platform behind him.
For a moment, there was an eerie silence in the cavern as Tiptoe alighted next to Jigsaw and the trio stared down at the blood-soaked head of the beast in disbelief.
Without warning, a sickly green cloud burst out of the mouth and ears of the serpent, billowing into the empty space of the cavern.
Jigsaw collapsed as a wave of nausea and pain overtook him, stronger than it had ever been before. Something told him that that green mist had to be Tantalus— or whatever force he had sent into the serpent.
It hung in the air for just a moment before it rushed into the dark surface of the lake, leaving a roiling greenish tint to the water for a few seconds before it dissipated. As the two mares watched the slowly fading green light, Jigsaw staggered to his feet, breathing slowly to try and calm his upset stomach.
“Are you alright?” Tiptoe asked.
“I’m fine,” Jigsaw said. He shook his head to clear it. “Is everypony else okay?”
“I’m alright,” Tiptoe confirmed.
“It got me,” Incendia said through gritted teeth. Her right flank looked like the gashes on the serpent’s neck. Almost all of the cutie mark had been burned away, leaving the muscle under the skin exposed to the air, a stream of blood spurting from the wound with each pounding beat of her heart.
“Oh, Goddess,” Jigsaw said. “Let me try and do something about that. Hold still.”
Jigsaw’s horn began to glow, although the halo of light surrounding it was flickering and sputtering. Incendia felt the pain in the wound ebb and the bleeding slow to a trickle. Jigsaw’s eyes were shut tight and his whole body was tensed.
“Incendia,” Jigsaw said, “I don’t have the power to heal you fully right now. If I did, I wouldn’t be able to fix the water system.”
“You think you can fix it?” Incendia asked, looking at the pile of twisted metal behind Jigsaw.
“Not like it was, no,” he replied, “but I can at least make sure water gets up to the lower levels again. Just force the system to be perpetually on maximum. It’s an ugly solution and will wear out the purifiers about ten times faster, but it’s better.”
Incendia shifted her weight to her right hind leg, testing it, and winced as a fresh jolt of pain shot through her body. As her mind turned back towards the mass grave in the arboretum, she knew there were things more important than her injured leg.
“Okay, Jigsaw. The water system is more important right now. My leg feels better, anyway.”
“Thank you Incendia,” Jigsaw said softly. “I’ll make it up to you somehow.”
“Tiptoe,” he said as he turned back to Tiptoe, “I can’t do this all by myself. I’m going to need you to help me out. We need about forty yards of pipe at least a foot in diameter, and I need you to start placing them end to end. Try and gather up any bolts you see.”
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Tiptoe asked. “I don’t want you to burn yourself out...”
Jigsaw sighed and leaned forward to kiss Tiptoe on the tip of her nose.
“I know my limits. I’m okay.” Jigsaw smiled. “Let’s get to work.”
As Jigsaw and Tiptoe went to work fastening pipes together, Incendia craned her neck around to get a better look at her injury. The skin was no longer charred. Instead, it was an angry, glistening shade of red. Gingerly, she took a few steps forward. Though each step caused a fresh white-hot jab of pain, she was able to walk.
“How’s your leg holding up?” Tiptoe asked as she lifted a thick iron pipe into the air.
“It still hurts, but I can walk alright. As long as you’re sure there’s no more giant snake monsters down here, I think it’s going to be okay. I’ve taken worse back in Stalliongrad. Just... never burns.”
“I’m pretty sure the water’s mostly safe now,” Jigsaw said. “Monsters like that tend not to crowd together. Try soaking in it. Might help the burn.”
Incendia trotted over to the bank of the underground reservoir and cautiously dipped in a hoof. The icy cold water made Incendia shiver she and withdrew her hoof quickly. Surreptitiously, she glanced up at the two other ponies to ensure they weren’t watching. Once she had made sure they weren’t, she ignited her horn and aimed a small jet of blue flames at the surface of the water.
After a few seconds, she dipped her hoof back in. The water had become refreshingly cool. Gingerly, she began to ease herself in, deeper and deeper, until the lukewarm water began to lap up against her burn.
She bit her tongue to stop herself from crying out in pain. For a moment, the cool water intensified the pain of the burn so much she could barely stand it, but it soon ebbed, and even soothed the stabs of pain from the burn.
She slowly lowered herself onto her haunches, making sure she kept the burned flesh exposed to the water. As the water flowed around her, she let out a relieved sigh. The water felt so good against her burned skin.
Incendia glanced up to see Tiptoe hovering overhead, helping guide a pipe that Jigsaw was levitating into its correct position.
Incendia’s gut tightened as Tiptoe glided overhead. She watched the pegasus soar back and forth through the air in graceful arcs, following Jigsaw’s instructions. She knew she had no logical reason to feel upset. Jigsaw hadn’t been unfair or unkind, and neither had Tiptoe. In fact, their reactions had been better than she expected.
So why did she still get a twang of despair when her thoughts turned to Tiptoe?
Suddenly, she found herself wishing another sea serpent would rise out of the lake. At least When she was fighting her mind was clear.
At the moment, she felt as though her insides had been thoroughly torn up. She hadn’t done anything wrong, had she? Hadn’t she spent her whole life to helping other ponies? Didn’t she deserve some happiness too?
A stabbing pain in her side distracted her and she noticed for the first time that the water around her was boiling.
“Ah!” she yelled, scrambling backwards toward the shore.
“Incendia?” Jigsaw called. “Is everything alright?”
Incendia backed up onto the shore, panting heavily.
“Everything’s okay!”Incendia shouted, a little hysterically. “It was just a little stab of pain in my side. I’m fine, don’t worry about me.” Jigsaw shrugged and went back to work bending a length of pipe.
The pipe structure nearly reached to the far wall the far wall by this point. Incendia was impressed— clearly, Jigsaw and Tiptoe knew what they were doing.
“Actually, Incendia, could you come over here?” Jigsaw called. “We can’t seem to get these pipes to fit together as snugly as we’d like.”
Incendia slowly trotted over to the edge of the cavern, where a very broad pipe rose out of the ground.
“What’s that?” Incendia asked.
“That’s an auxiliary pipe to the water purifiers. Ordinarily, the water is pumped directly from the lake and down into the purifiers as needed, but since we have no way of getting down there, this will have to do,” Jigsaw explained.
“Wait a minute. We’re not at the deepest level of the caves?”
“Not quite,” Jigsaw replied. “The water purifiers were designed to last a lifetime before they need to be repaired, though. I’ve never gone down there. But with the pumps running on max all the time now, they’re probably going to burn out in ten years instead of a hundred.”
“At least they had the foresight to build an auxiliary pipe,” Tiptoe said. “Our ancestors understood engineering pretty well.”
“Maybe even as well as you two,” Incendia said with a wry smile. Her heart nearly skipped a beat when she saw how hard Tiptoe was blushing.
“Anyway, what did you need me for?” Incendia inquired.
Jigsaw levitated another, slightly smaller segment of pipe.
“This pipe is just a little too small to fit onto the auxiliary pipe. Can you possibly melt the mouth of the pipe so it just forms a seal around it?”
“Oh, sure. No problem,” Incendia replied. Incendia trotted over to the pipe, and with a burst of orange light, a beam of blue flame shot form from the tip of her horn.
Slowly, she began to work her way around the mouth of the pipe, making sure the molten metal was spread evenly over the gaps between segments. After a few minutes, the two pipes were firmly fastened together by a small ring of steel.
“That is the ugliest weld I’ve ever seen in my life,” Incendia said, giggling in spite of herself.
Jigsaw gave the pipe a firm kick from his back legs. The pipes didn’t budge.
“As long as it works, I don’t really care,” Jigsaw said. “Tiptoe, do you think we’re ready for a test run?”
Tiptoe leapt into the air and flew over the length of the mishmashed series of pipes, surveying the construction.
“Looks okay to me,” she said. “As long as the water can make it through without bursting the pipes, I don’t think it’s going anywhere.”
Jigsaw nodded. “Okay. I’m going to turn on the pumps. We should probably stand back.”
The trio backed up to the entrance of the cave and Jigsaw’s horn glimmered with blue light once more. The monolithic rumbling sound once again emanated from the ceiling of the cavern as the unseen pumps again resumed activity.
The pipes suddenly began to groan and creak, moaning in protest as the massive torrent of water was forced through them for the first time since Jigsaw and Tiptoe had left.
“Are you sure this is going to hold up?” Incendia said with a nervous laugh. “After all, that water was strong enough to cut through that snake...”
“Only after I forced it through a tiny nozzle. These are tough old pipes” Jigsaw said with a grin, rapping a pipe protruding from the wall with a hoof. “These survived ten thousand years of this. I can’t imagine they’d break now.”
Sure enough, after a minute or two of loud groaning and rumblings, the noise calmed down until only the rushing of water could be heard.
“So... that’s it?” Incendia said. “It’s fixed?”
“The upper levels should have water again,” Jigsaw confirmed. “But like I said, there’s no fine control here, and if anything goes wrong, they can’t just shut off water to one part of the caves like they used to. Still, though...” Jigsaw’s tone became somber and serious. “Hopefully it can undo some of the damage that’s been done.”
“Come on, Jigsaw,” Tiptoe said sweetly. “We shouldn’t hang around down here too long.”
Jigsaw nodded and together the trio began the long ascent to the upper levels.
~~~
Before they even entered the main chamber, Jigsaw could hear the splashing.
As he pushed open the ornately carved stone door, he couldn’t help but smile.
From every household, ponies were celebrating. Unicorns ran through the streets, some levitating huge buckets over their heads to catch the water pouring from every faucet, others forgoing even that and levitating amorphous blobs of water collected from nearby fountains. Earth ponies drank greedily from the water troughs lining some of the houses. What few pegasi were left did loops in air over the chamber, their water-soaked fur dripping onto the bystanders like rain. Foals frolicked in the fountains, playfully splashing water on each other.
Tears of joy formed in Jigsaw’s eyes, and swallowed hard, trying to get rid of the lump in his throat.
It didn’t last long.
One of the earth ponies, a sky blue mare, caught sight of the three of them entering the chamber and the smile vanished from her face. She stumbled backwards, eyes locked on Jigsaw, before she whipped around and began galloping in the opposite direction, towards the central spire of rock that jutted up from the middle of the room.
“What was that about?” Tiptoe said, cocking her head to one side.
As if in answer to her question, a moment later, the blue mare came trotting back up towards the trio with an elderly pony in tow.
“Starburst!” Jigsaw and Tiptoe gasped in unison.
“Who’s Starburst?” Incendia whispered to Jigsaw.
“One of the tribunal,” Jigsaw whispered back. “I thought they were all dead!”
Starburst was dressed in a tattered red cloth that had clearly been regal and stately once . His dark grey skin was dried and cracked, but a sheen of water glistened on his lips.
“Jigsaw, Tiptoe,” he said, his voice quavering, “Come with me.”
“What about Incendia?” Tiptoe inquired. “We’re not going without her.”
“She’s part of this too. Bring her,” Starburst replied. He turned and began to trot slowly back towards the pillar of shaped stone.
The trickling of water and the lapping tongues of thirsty ponies continued, but gasps of shock and horror as well as hushed whispers replaced the sounds of celebration as the trio made their way down the main chamber.
The three ponies reached the base of the tower and Starburst pushed the door open, bathing them in the light of the magical torches that burned on the walls. In spite of the strange situation he was in, Jigsaw was struck by the fact that his old office was only a few floors down from him right now. He wondered if it had been destroyed in the intervening time.
“Come. To the tribunal chamber,” Starburst said. “There is a very important matter we must attend do.”
The tribunal chamber was a circular room located in the dead center of the tower. Nine wooden seats, the only wooden constructs in the entire cave system to have survived the centuries, were arranged in a semicircle around the wall opposite the doorway. Ordinarily, the tribunal members sat there – three of each race – and made decisions that affected the lives of those living in the caves. Now, however, all that seemed to be left was Starburst, who took a weary seat in the central chair.
“Jigsaw, do you remember me?” he asked.
“Yes, of course,” Jigsaw said. “You were on the tribunal. Are... are there any more left?”
“It’s just me, I’m afraid,” Starburst confirmed sadly. “Dehydration isn’t any less harsh on rulers, I’m afraid.”
Jigsaw shifted uncomfortably.
“Jigsaw, I brought you in here for one reason: punishment.”
Jigsaw blinked, dumbfoundedly. “What do you mean, punishment? We just fixed the problem! The water’s flowing again!”
“I know, I know,” Starburst said, “but do you think they’re just going to forget what happened? Every one of us lost loved ones. We saw our very society collapse around us, and... the public needed a scapegoat, someone to blame for it. To keep order.”
“What are you saying?” Jigsaw asked, his voice strained with the effort of containing his anger.
“We, The tribunal, decided to blame you. Can you blame us? You went missing that day. It was too convenient to pass up.”
Jigsaw’s control broke. “So you decided to pin the blame on me? Let me become a monster in their eyes to stop them killing one another? What did you tell them? Did you say I deliberately sabotaged the water pumps?”
This time, it was Starburst’s turn to look uncomfortable.
“Well, did it work?” Jigsaw snapped. “Did it stop them?”
“Of course not,” Starburst murmered. “I’m not saying it was right. I just want you to understand.”
“Why didn’t you blame Tiptoe, then?” Jigsaw demanded.
“Relations between the pegasi and the other two races were tense before the drought. If we blamed this on one, the other races might attack. The official story painted her as an unwitting accomplice.”
“So what happens now?” Jigsaw asked harshly.
“They’re going to want your blood in exchange for the lives that were lost during the drought,” Starburst said bluntly.
Jigsaw was so stunned he couldn’t speak. Tiptoe, however, managed to squeak out “E-execution?”
“I’m not going to allow it,” Starburst said solemnly. “I don’t want any more innocent blood on my hooves.”
“However, I can’t let you stay, either. The best I can do is exile you. I don’t know how you came to be here from the surface and, truth be told, I’d rather not know. Go back where you came from and leave us alone, or else my power will not be able to protect you again.”
Jigsaw stared at the grey earth pony in stunned silence.
“So this is the thanks I get?” he said quietly. “I just risked my own life and the life of my friends to correct a horrible accident and this is my repayment?”
“It isn’t right,” Starburst said with a sigh. “I know. But it’s the only way to keep the peace.”
“Fine!” Tiptoe shouted, so loudly and unexpectedly that both Jigsaw and Starburst jumped in surprise.
“I suppose this what I should expect. Being a pegasus down here, I never got the same treatment as anypony else, and now I’m being exiled for saving the lives of everypony that’s left? Fine. I don’t want to stay.”
A few seconds of stunned silence followed Tiptoe’s outburst, broken only by Starburst rising from his chair.
“It has to be a public affair to have the effect it needs. Please, follow me. And...” Starburst sighed again. “I’m truly sorry.”
The trio followed Starburst out in front of the pillar of stone, where a few dozen ponies had gathered to watch the announcement.
“Jigsaw and his cohorts have committed the worst crime imaginable– the shirking of duty to his community. Due to his actions, hundreds lie dead. Crimes of this magnitude have only one sentence: death.”
The crowd began stamping their hooves and cheering.
“However,” Starburst called over the din, “due to their work on the water system, I have decided to spare them the death penalty.” The crowd grew silent and still as statues.
“Instead, I have decided they are to be exiled, never allowed into our home again.”
The crowd’s reaction was instant. Disapproving jeers and boos filled the room.
“Kill them!” shouted a stallion.
“An eye for an eye!” yelled a mare.
“Silence!” Starburst shouted. “My word is final. They are to leave the way they came and never return. You are to allow them safe passage to the surface.”
The crowd parted reluctantly and allowed the trio to make their way to the exit of the main chamber. As they passed through the ornate carved doors, Jigsaw glanced back over his shoulder to get one final glance at his home. What he saw was the face of every pony he had ever known staring back at him, hatred etched in their faces.
~~~
The sunlight blinded the trio as they stepped out of the cave. Thankfully, the protective shield of the airship was still operational, and the intense sunlight was relegated to a mere annoyance.
As they reached the base of the airship, Jigsaw sunk to his haunches and began to shake. Tears fell from his eyes and on to the thirsty ground below, knocked loose by his ragged, shallow breathing.
“Jigsaw, are you alright?” Incendia asked softly.
“What do you think?” he snapped back. “That was my home back there, Incendia! Everyone I ever knew is dead or thinks I’m some kind of mass murderer!”
“Not everyone,” Tiptoe said, sitting down next to him and gently nuzzling his neck. “You still have me.
Though Jigsaw allowed her to gently rub her head against his neck, he made no effort to respond.
After a few moments, he managed to stop the flow of tears and his breathing slowed.
“Wasn’t there supposed to be a fragment here?” Jigsaw said. “Wasn’t that the whole reason we—”
As if on cue, a blinding flash of light that outshone even the sun itself gleamed from the mouth of the pit, hundreds of feet up. Slowly, a swirling ball of pure white light, like a miniature sun, began to lower itself into the pit before finally coming to a rest at Jigsaw’s hooves.
“Are you serious?” Jigsaw shouted at the sphere. “After all that, after all we just went through, you appear now? I just got kicked out of my home! Incendia nearly died! We all nearly died, and it was for nothing?”
“It wasn’t for nothing,” Incendia assured him. “You saved the lives of everypony that was left.”
“So what?” Jigsaw snapped back. “There can’t be more than fifty of them left! You can’t sustain a breeding population with that few specimens. They’ll all be dead in a few generations, anyway. All we did was delay the inevitable!”
Neither Incendia nor Tiptoe conjured a response.
“And what was it for?”
Jigsaw was screaming at the sphere now, tears once again rolling down his face.
“What do you want from me? What do I have to do? Tell me! You can help me heal Tiptoe, and you can teleport me halfway around the world, but you can’t just tell me why? What is Tantalus, really? Why is any of this happening to me?”
Jigsaw backed away from the sphere a few steps and let out a sob. Then, without warning, he charged at the serene sphere, the tip of his horn impaling the swirling surface of the fragment.
Instantly, Jigsaw was lifted off his feet as a tornado of light surrounded him. Yellow and white light from the sphere spiraled around Jigsaw, flowing into his horn, which glowed so brightly that Incendia and Tiptoe had to look away.
Within moments, it was over. The white halo of light began to fade from Jigsaw’s horn as he gently floated to the ground.
When his hooves finally touched earth again, Jigsaw turned to face the airship and let out one more strangled cry of defeat.
Gingerly, Tiptoe approached him.
“Are... are you going to be okay?” she asked, so softly that Jigsaw could barely hear her.
“I... I don’t know, Tiptoe. I really don’t,” Jigsaw said dully.
“Let’s get inside,” Tiptoe said. “There’s fresh food and water in there. It will help clear your head.”
Robotically, Jigsaw nodded and shuffled up the small staircase into the lobby of the airship. Incendia and Tiptoe followed behind, glancing nervously between each other.
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Another spectacular chapter i liked the water cannon part very clever very clever.
welp they probably just screwed any hope for them coming back and bringing them to the surface assuming they bring back celestia and luna....
Hrrm, that's an interesting twist. Usually fire deals with regenerators pretty well.
I will never go near another power-washer as long as I live.
yay ponies
So, how many of each shard do they have now? I've lost track.
yay
546575 2 luna and 2 celly I do believe
546575 546631
Yup, two of each.
546250
No joke, guy came into my dad's work once having pressure washed off his own cornea. Those things are SCARY.
I'm getting fallout vibe here
547213 Someone has to say this:
NO SHIT
Awesome! Another fantastic chapter! Great work!!!
Great an update! This is one of my favorite oc stories!
Poor Jigsaw~ That guy has it rough...He needs a super hug..
The whole thing here seems to be a parallel, if not a reference, to the same thing in Fallout 3.
Nicely done, i think, and hopefully they will head for the surface at some point, and find it's not all a wild wild wasteland
548238
It is definitely a homage to the first Fallout game. I drew a lot of inspiration for the beginning of the story from the Fallout series.
548269
that much is apparent, and is well done through the post-apocalyptic setting you've created , along with the focus on one person who can make it all better
and sorry for not knowing which fallout, I'm not much of a Vault Dweller
Magnificent as usual. I'm starting to ask myself the same frustrated questions as Jigsaw, though
This is a great chapter, except for the sequence with Starburst. This felt really shallow, it felt like it was a 10 pony city; it took me a while to accept Jigsaw's breaking. Even if it's only 50 ponies; it still feels too shallow. With this few background characters you can somewhat list them (though it is a difficult undertaking to do so and still sound interesting). Also, with this few people, the dynamics between people change a lot, he's acting like he's dealing with the task of appeasing a couple thousand people; and then when he's calming them in public he's just too quick to be successful.
Also, why is Tiptoe so conspicuously unaffected by this??
Awesome! Saw the exiling at the end coming a long way off, too many shades of Fallout for that to not happen.
I wonder if something dramatic will happen when they get the next fragment, since that will give them all three pieces of one of the Alicorns, or if Jigsaw will have to collect all six first.
548426
Tiptoe just kinda hated everything about the caves so was like "FINE FUCK 'EM", basically.
I found one little error:
"The pipe structure nearly reached to the far wall the far wall by this point."
Beside the fact that the 4th fragment just casually flew to Jigsaw without him doing anything I enjoyed the chapter.
To be honest. I would kill the entire crowd for that. Ungrateful bastards....
547317
Not like that, I was referring to the vault/cavern exile thing
549345 Once again:
NO SHIT
548513 Yeah, that makes sense, now that I re-read her snapping at Starburst (I really like the irony of such a name for a cave-dweller under eternal daylight lands, by the way). Come to think of it, in a situation like hers, Jigsaw's mood would matter much much more.
Yet, Starburst's dealing with this size of public still made me go meh. Maybe it's just me because I've been runing a mini-con with this size of attendance for 5 years and I'm really used to dealing with the fickleness of such a small crowd (plus they're usually in a good mood, when it's not raining (most of our activities are outdoors)). It's hard, but it's no big deal, but when we have a serious situation we always need a duo:
one to be the smiling face to do the big long talk and make crap sounds great (usually the chairman, but I do that often too), and 
one to be the seriouspants who says only the worst few words (if any) of it all and interrupts the interruptors (I love doing that part when I'm already mad).
549434......
Sorry just clicked
At least When she was fighting her mind was clear.
Error. I'm pretty sure I saw a line with a missing " in there too.
Otherwise, good job, and another great chapter.
549695
I have to agree with Ekevoo here, Starburst's scene struck me as a tired reiteration of the "Big Bad Government blames the Hero for all the Bad Stuff that happened." His conduct seemed rather flat.
The thing that really bugged me, though, was how quickly their homecoming was handled. I mean, seriously, I was hoping that they'd be spending some time here to try and right the wrong, so to speak.
fabulous
Stupendous!!!!!
Awesome chapter!
We don't know what to expect now...
But you left us with no Cliffhanger!
Congrats on 100,000 words
561272
... Oh, god, I did break 100k didn't I? That's insane.
I've been told that this is the best post apocalyptic event Equestria OC fic. Better than Fallout Equestria? I'll be the judge of that. Currently trying to make time to read this,but I hear it'll be time well spent.
564008
hoo boy
I don't know about that. But I hope you like the story!
564993 I just finished reading and so far I loved it. This is by surely one of the best fan fictions I have read.
I'm eagerly waiting for more. 
Keep up the good work mate and ummm, don't end it too soon kay?
572979 Ha ha ha
that was the worst and my bad its hard to tell if someone is a guy or girl all you have is picture and username (both of yours is pretty gender neutral) and the comment. And comment struck me as slightly more female but that's just my opinion. I'm a pretty manly guy.Now i'm off to go hunt dragons with my bare hands.
574588
Know what's funny?
I've never played a single Final Fantasy game. I barely even know anything about the series, haha.
Who's a silly pony? You're all silly ponies! Such silly silly ponies!
Norly, rather than send just a handful they should have sent the whole dang town to follow the pipes and find the water source. Such silly thoughtless ponies.
YAY! I CAUGHT UP! 8D Now I can... Wait... For the next... DAMMIT!!!
So wait, how many shards were there each? 3?
I have to say, this is the first long fanfic I've read and, oh man, I'm now addicted.
I had only began reading this fanfiction a few days ago, prior to its popularity. And honestly, the start seemed a little weird for me, but slowly as the story wen ton, and everything was revealing, I must say this. This has become one of the best fan fiction I have ever read, honestly. It is original, intense, tragic, adventurous, and all around awesome. The characters, the drama, the relations, it's all amazing, and honestly, I think this fic deserves an award. I cannot wait to read the next chapter. Keep up the glorious work. Thank you for sharing this story with us.
The entire scene with Starburst, I kept waiting for him to say, "You're a hero, and you have to leave." Then I read the comments. Glad to know I'm not the only one who enjoyed Fallout.
This story is great. My only complaint is that it updates so slowly, but if that is the price to pay for such an awesome story, so be it.
Very nice story, just got through reading the whole thing, now i have to sit back and wait long months for updates, whaa!
...the FiMfiction banner! It changes!!
I commend you, sir. A good premise, and well-written, too!
Tantaulus kinda reminds me of Alduin from Skyrim.
574588 You've just described all the elements of the fantasy genre. Final Fantasy invented nothing new - these concepts have been fantasy tropes for over half a century (the airship dates back to Jules Verne - back when airships were still considered sci-fi!)
Great chapter, but I hate how the other ponies treated Jigsaw.
(Emoticon-overkill)
Oh Celestia, still trying to watch over your little ponies from beyond the grave. That or troll them...Maybe both. (The shard of Princess Celestia didn't appear until AFTER Jigsaw, Tiptoe, and Incendia saved the rest of the colony from dehydration, and it waited for Jigsaw to understandably break-down a bit, before revealing itself.
545995True, but remember that in this case, the regenerator is being controlled and enhanced by another fire-user, one who also has a resistance, or even an immunity, to flame