Chapter 26
Something was wrong. The passive observers found themselves standing in the middle of a black void. The memory had not transitioned between the last one and the next. Kelso looked around, but she found herself looking at nothing. They were in a realm of endless darkness that stretched on for as far as the eye could see, and even then, probably further.
‘What’s going on?’ Viola asked.
‘I’m not sure’, Kelso said as she turned around.
‘You don’t think something might have happened to the Unknowable Mare, do you?’ Dizzy asked, a look of worry forming on the nephite’s face.
Kelso shrugged. To be perfectly honest, she had almost forgotten about the Unknowable Mare completely. The mysterious earth pony mare that had covered her eyes with bandages had made this all possible through the use of her telepathy, but what would happen if she were harmed while they were all viewing these memories?
What would happen to them?
Kelso merely shrugged again as she looked around at her friends. They were in this for the long haul, but they were all exhausted. Who knows how long they had been at this? How long could they keep going? Given what they knew so far about the Unknowable Mare, she was likely not about to let them stop and take a break. She did not seem like the kind to care about the well being of others. As Kelso looked around, she noticed something out of the corner of her eye. She turned to look, and couldn’t help but double take.
Sitting on the immaterial ground, was another pony. However, it was not one of the members of their party. It was a pegasus mare with a pristine white coat and a straw yellow mane in a big poofy mess. Kelso’s eyes widened as she recognised who this pony was. ‘Hey! Look!’ Kelso cried out as she pointed to her.
Sparky and Dizzy’s jaw dropped open. Viola and Hopely looked at each other in confusion, but Kelso couldn’t do anything but stare, and watch as Surprise stared back at them.
Suddenly, Surprise gave them a big toothy grin, and began to wave. ‘Hi!’ she cried out. ‘Shortfuse Skydancer says hello!’
‘What?’ Sparky asked quietly to herself, unsure if she had heard correctly or not. Surprise, however, did not get a chance to answer, and a bright white light filled the void.
...
Kelso stumbled slightly as light began to filter into her eyes. It took a few moments for her eyes to adjust to the harsh sunlight that filled the room after being in the eternal darkness of the void. When her eyes finally adjusted, she looked around to discover that Pinkie Pie was lying on the floor, and that Princess Luna was standing over her.
‘What happened?’ Princess Luna asked her.
‘Twilight... she attacked me, she stole the book and teleported away...’ Pinkie Pie said as she rubbed her head where she had hit the floor.
‘This book... describe it for me’, Princess Luna commanded, the look on her face was one of worry, almost as if she knew what the answer was going to be, and was merely looking for conformation.
Pinkie Pie wracked her brain for a moment before answering; she closed her eyes and concentrated hard to remember the details of what she had seen. ‘Uh... big, it had to weigh at least a kilogram, black leather cover, there wasn’t any writing on it though, and I didn’t look inside, I could feel that the book was evil’, she said as opened her eyes back up to look upon the princess.
‘The Tome of Alhazred’, the princess of the night said in a matter of fact tone, frowning when she discovered that her suspicions were correct.
‘You know it?’ Pinkie Pie asked, raising an eyebrow.
‘Yes, come’, Princess Luna said, offering Pinkie Pie a hoof to help her get to hooves. ‘I will explain along the way’.
Pinkie Pie took the Princesses’ hoof and used it to stabilise herself as she rose. She quickly followed Princess Luna out the door, practically running headlong into Rarity as they exited Sugarcube Corner and startling the elegant unicorn mare in the process. Rarity looked over to Pinkie Pie and let out an audible gasp as she looked at her friend. ‘Pinkie Pie! You look terrible! What happened?’ Rarity asked.
‘Twilight attacked me’, Pinkie Pie said with a frown, causing Rarity’s jaw to drop, that most certainly did not sound like the Twilight Sparkle she knew.
‘Allow me to explain’, Princess Luna said as she waved for Rarity and Pinkie Pie to follow. ‘That book that came into Twilight’s possession is the Tome of Alhazred, an ancient magical artefact penned by the twin brother of the unicorn that would become known as Star Swirl the Bearded. Alhazred was a unicorn that lived long ago, and was insane. Long story short, the tome is the extension of his mad will. The Tome was in the possession of the royal family... until recently, when it went missing’.
Pinkie Pie and Rarity’s jaws both fell open. ‘How did it escape?’ Pinkie Pie asked.
‘I am not sure, my best guess is that the Tome influenced a weak minded guard into smuggling it out of the castle. The Tome is kept under close supervision at all times, its’ guards are chosen very carefully, one may have slipped through the cracks’, Princess Luna said. ‘Let’s focus on Twilight; however, did she have any major events in her life recently with a negative impact?’
...
The memory changed once more, and Kelso and company found themselves standing on the deck of a ship. Applejack was leaning over the railing, vomiting profusely, while Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie held onto her so that she wouldn’t fall into the water.
‘You know Dashie?’ Pinkie Pie asked. ‘We probably should have seen this coming’.
Rainbow Dash nodded her head in agreement.
‘Shuddup and keep holdin’ me!’ Applejack managed between rounds of vomiting.
'Gross', Dizzy said, suddenly feeling a terrible taste in her mouth and turning her head away.
Kelso, however was not interested in Applejack, instead, she turned to look at her surroundings. The air anything but quiet. Surrounding her was a highly chaotic environment filled with the lapping of the giant paddle wheel at the stern of the ship. Looking up, the ship’s single, tall smoke stack was billowing a dark cloud of thick black smoke into the air. The deck was bustling with sailor ponies, going about their business. A few pegasus ponies were in the process of hoisting the ship’s sails, intending to use the eastern wind for a little extra speed as the ship turned towards the southeast. That was when Kelso recognised where they were.
'Oh fuck', Kelso cried out, her voice beginning to fill with worry. 'Oh fuck no!'
'What is it?' Viola asked as she placed a hoof on Kelso's shoulder. 'What's wrong Kelso?'
'This ship that we're on! It's the SS Canterlot!' Kelso cried out. Each one of the passive observers, with the exception of Sparky, looked at Kelso bleakly. They all understood the significance.
'Yeah that's great...' Sparky said with a frown, her lack of historical knowledge shining through as normal. 'What does that mean?'
Dizzy let out a sigh of annoyance and shook her head. 'I'm buying you a history book for your next birthday, I swear to God...' she said, her voice trailing off.
'That means...' Kelso said. 'This ship is going to sink!'
...
The memory changed again, Kelso and company found that they standing in pouring down rain. Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash were leaning up against the deck railing, having a conversation that the passive observers were unable to hear over the howling gale of the rain storm.
‘Oh no’, Kelso said with a frown. She knew what came next.
the entire ship lurched, and the air was filled with the sound of metal scraping against an iceberg. It sent the ship rocking; Pinkie Pie lost her balance and tumbled over the railing and head first into the dark water.
‘Pinkie!’ Rainbow Dash cried out. ‘Pinkie!’ she called again desperately looking to find where her friend had gone under. Suddenly Pinkie Pie surfaced, and she struggled to keep her head above the water. ‘Hang on Pinkie! I’m coming!’ Rainbow Dash called out to her. She spread her wings and leapt over the side of the ship, making her way to Pinkie Pie’s struggling figure in the dark water. Rainbow Dash reached Pinkie Pie and grabbed her with her forelegs.
‘Dashie!’ Pinkie Pie cried out.
‘Pinkie Pie! On three, I need you to kick as hard as you can, you hear me?’ Rainbow Dash cried out. Pinkie Pie nodded in affirmation. ‘On three... one... two... three!’ Rainbow Dash cried out and began to flap her wings as hard as she could. The two mares rocketed out of the water and into the air, and came crashing down hard onto the deck, sore from the impact, but still very much alive.
‘We’re sinking!’ Rainbow Dash cried out as she noticed the ship listing. The iceberg had torn a large gash down the side of the hull, and it wouldn't be long before all of the lower decks were filled with water ‘Come on! We have to get everypony out of the lower decks!’
The two mares, quickly followed by Kelso and company, raced over to the access hatch for the lower decks and threw open the doors. Much to their dismay, the compartment below had already filled up with water.
The Canterlot had three compartments, the forward compartment was crew quarters, the middle was cargo and deck access, the aft was the engine room. The middle compartment was flooded with water, and they had no way of getting the trapped crew and their friends out.
‘We’ve got to do something!’ Rainbow Dash cried out and raced back to the forward deck of the ship and started pounding on it, hoping to break through, but getting nowhere at the same time.
Pinkie Pie began to smile. ‘Dashie! Stop! Wait right there!’ She cried out and scampered off to the aft end of the ship, returning only a moment later with a large briefcase in her teeth.
'Nice to see Pinkie Pie hasn't stopped being Pinkie Pie', Kelso said with a frown at the severity of the situation.
‘Pinkie Pie... this is no time to screw around!’ Rainbow Dash cried out at her. Pinkie Pie opened up the brief case to reveal what looked to be several bricks of plastic explosives. Kelso couldn’t help but watch in shock as Pinkie Pie pulled them out of the brief case.
‘Pinkie Pie!? What are you doing with those!?’ Rainbow Dash cried out at her.
‘Hey?! What was I supposed to do if I needed to throw an impromptu party on this trip!?’ Pinkie Pie reasoned. Rainbow Dash merely facehoofed.
‘Pinkie Pie! I applaud you for your thinking, but it’s pouring down rain out here! You can’t light a fuse for that dynamite here!’ Rainbow Dash said.
‘You’re right!’ Pinkie Pie said cheerfully. ‘But this isn’t dynamite! This is something I like to call, Composition B!’ Pinkie Pie said as she took two bricks of the stuff and began to flatten it onto the deck in a wide enough pattern to blow open a hole.
'She's a terrorist, I knew it', Kelso said with a frown as she examined just how much explosive material the obnoxious pink pony had been carrying with her.
‘Pinkie Pie!?’ Rainbow Dash cried out. ‘Is that safe?!’
‘Sure is!’ Pinkie Pie said. ‘It’s totally safe; it won’t blow up until it gets charged with electricity! Then we can save everypony!’ Pinkie Pie cried out with enthusiasm. Her plan was solid, she was going to save everypony below deck and she knew it. Pinkie Pie’s mane and tail poofed back into their normal shape causing a bright smile to form on the pink party pony’s face.
‘Okay... but where are we going to get electricity to blow it up!?’ Rainbow Dash asked.
‘I... don’t know’, Pinkie Pie admitted nervously, rubbing the back of her neck with a hoof in deep thought. A bolt of lightning cracked through the sky, followed by a quick burst of thunder, and that was when they knew. The two mares looked at each other and began to grin brightly. Pinkie Pie dug through the case of her explosives and brought out a spool of wire and stuck one end in the explosive that she’d stuck to the deck and gave the spool to Rainbow Dash. ‘Take this up to the top of the smoke stack and make sure the metal bits are touching metal. We can use the smoke stack as a giant lightning rod!’
‘I’m on it!’ Rainbow Dash cried out as she flew up to the top of the smoke stack. She got to the end of the spool and bit off the rubber coating at the end of the wires and began to wrap it to one of the smoke stack’s rivets. She weaved to Pinkie Pie that she had gotten it set up, and Pinkie Pie waved back in acknowledgement that Rainbow Dash could come down.
No sooner than that did Lightning strike the smoke stack. The plan had worked like a charm and the electric current travelled down through the wiring and blew open a hole in the deck with a tremendous explosion. Pinkie Pie smiled brightly, but that was when her tail began to twitch. Something was falling from the sky.
Pinkie Pie looked up to see that Rainbow Dash was falling, she must have been too close to the lightning strike when it happened and sent her tumbling. Pinkie Pie leapt into action, literally leaping into the air and catching Rainbow Dash on her back.
‘Pinkie!’ Rainbow Dash cried out in a sigh of relief. ‘You saved me!’
‘Uh huh!’ Pinkie Pie said brightly. ‘Now let’s save everypony!’
The two mares trotted back over to the hole that they opened up and looked inside, the entire crew, along with Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy, Spike, and Princess Luna were all standing in the centre of the room, which was knee deep in water.
‘Come on everypony! The ship’s sinking! Let’s get to the lifeboats!’ Pinkie Pie called out.
They needed no encouragement, one at a time they all filed out of the room and onto the deck, the crew rushed to get the lifeboats ready for launch. Rarity and Fluttershy leapt at Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash for saving them, giving them tight hugs.
‘Quickly! To the lifeboats!’ one of the crew members of the Canterlot cried out.
Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, and the rest of their friends quickly piled into one lifeboat as the crew lowered it into the water. Princess Luna and Rarity took the oars in their telekinesis and began to row away from the sinking ship. They could only watch in horror as the ship continued to sink, eventually slipping under the water completely, never to be seen again.