Twilight rose from her bed, stretching out her joints until she was satisfied by the nearly silent popping noises they emitted. Dropping her hooves to the floor, she made the early morning commute from her bed towards the computer, so that she could check her email.
As she opened up the computer and sat down to wait for the device to load, she remembered some of the things that Maestro and Excalibur talked about. Such as the threat creating their own anthros, Discord (apparently) doing the same but for a good reason, Maestro gifting Twilight and her friends (those that have changed) with magical buffs that relate to their specific race and their talents. And lastly, the still little known reason as to why the threat wanted a spark of Twilight’s Magic.
“Why did this threat want some of my Magic? Do they intend to infuse it with their own body or use it to power some diabolical machine that affects everyone on the planet in a unique way?”
Twilight thought. She still found this whole thing incredibly weird and crazy, but she had to trace it all back to the source.... when she looked at that video from the Analysts.
Speaking of the Analysts, Twilight felt urged to see if they had sent her a new message. And as luck would have it, they did send her one. Clicking on the message, she began to read with growing excitement.
“Dear John (Twilight),
We are grateful that you obtained the elements from the Star Caster… but now, recently, we have learned that our enemies successfully stole some of your magic. This is unfortunate, but can be fixed. Another wreck lies off the Western Australian coast, located near a sandbar roughly 250 km from the mainland; The HMS Lazarus sits at a depth of about 50-60m. She holds a relic that will be able to help you greatly in fighting this growing threat. We suggest you take your friends on this mission.
Now, we are sure that you are curious about one thing. Why haven’t marine archaeologists found the relic already?
Well, the reason is that the relic was covered in a spell that lets only ponies (or in this case Anthro ponies) see it. In a sense, those that do not believe in magic will not even notice it lies in the wreck.
We hope that you will find the relic and -considering your maritime interest- enjoy seeing an 17th century wreck on the sea floor.”
Twilight leaned back in her seat, her hands covering her face. She couldn’t believe it! Another wreck related to her predicament and this time it was out to sea! Twilight couldn’t contain her giddiness. She jumped out squealing like a lunatic, furiously obtaining clothing while texting her friends to meet up at the park in about 30 minutes. She rushed into the bathroom, cleaned her teeth, brushed her hair and returned to her bedroom where she placed fresh clothing on for the day. Giving herself a once over in the mirror, she proceeded to sprint downstairs for breakfast.
=================
Entering the kitchen at breakneck speeds, she came face to face with Maestro sitting at the dining table eating cereal. “Maestro? Why or how are you here?” Twilight questioned her fellow anthro.
Maestro pulled a confused look. Finishing the food in his mouth, he explained his reason for his presence. “Did you forget? I asked you if I could stay the night so that I could regain my strength and you allowed it.”
Twilight scratched her chin for a moment, then suddenly gave a sheepish grin. “Oh yeah… hehe.” Twilight rubbed the back of her head. Twilight’s mother came up beside the lavender anthro without her knowing and grinned evilly.
“I must say, dear, you sure know how to pick a boyfriend.” Mrs. Radderson taunted.
Twilight looked toward her grinning mother and then back to Maestro, -who went back to eating his breakfast- then blushed heavily. In classic anime style, Twilight shouted back at her mother, redder than anything she could think of, “HE’S NOT MY BOYFRIEND!”
This elicited a chuckle from both Maestro and Twilight’s mother. Twilight, in turn, slumped her head and slowly entered the kitchen to acquire her own breakfast.
“Why me?” she muttered, first Harry made her wear some embarrassing clothing and implied using a design for a date, and now her mother taunts her with Maestro.
Internally growling, she set her bowl down at the opposite end of the table and began to eat her breakfast, emphasising her anger in each bite.
Maestro couldn’t help but grin at Twilight’s fuming face. He knew how embarrassing it must have felt for a guy to not only change form but also gender. While Maestro couldn’t fathom the gender part, he felt like it was his obligation to try to comfort the mare. She did let him stay in her house, after all.
Maestro finished his cereal and got up from his seat. Twilight noticed the sound and looked towards the now standing Maestro. “I didn’t mean to laugh at you.” he said.
Twilight instantly flicked her head to the side with an annoyed look. “I know, but the fact that you did is what hurt me.”
Maestro hoped that Twilight was a bit more lenient with her reply. Unfortunately that was not to be the case. He needed to take a different approach. Recalling Twilight’s previous excited mood, he decided to poke at the idea of why she was so excited.
“Why were you so excited before?”
“Hmm? Oh, well… it’s none of your business, okay?” Twilight replied, unintentionally snapping at the end.
‘Stubborn, I see.’ Maestro thought. With a grin, he continued to speak. “If I were to guess… it is actually my business. The analysts gave you a mission, didn’t they?”
The stubborn alicorn opened her eyes wide.
“How did you know?” Twilight asked.
Maestro shrugged, “I didn’t, it was just a simple guess and it seems like I was correct.”
Twilight hated to admit it, but Maestro was correct and she showed that by explaining what the Analysts had told her.
“So they tampered with Earth’s history again and placed a relic -that can help us, by the way- on this Lazarus ship that can only be seen by people like us?” Maestro evaluated.
Twilight added, “Well, they didn’t say that they placed the relic themselves, but considering that they knew of the spell… I’m sure they implied it. But anyway, yeah. You got the gist of it.”
The male anthro adjusted his glasses. He fumbled about with his phone for a brief moment and returned to Twilight. “I would be happy to come with you… but I unfortunately have important things to do. You need me to trace Chessmaster’s location, after all.”
Twilight sighed. “Sorry, I got angry before. I just lost it. I always did have a heated temper, so when I get mad… I get Mad!”
Maestro gave a genuine smile. “Don’t worry about it.” he turned his head towards the door. ”I’ve got to get going. I’ll see you around.”
Maestro gave a wave and departed for the door. Twilight returned the wave as he did. As he left, Twilight finished her cereal up and returned to the kitchen, where she met her mother’s grinning face. Twilight growled, “Not one word” she muttered.
=============================================================
18 minutes later, Twilight met up with her friends and discussed the game plan. “So... who’s up for a little diving?” she finished.
Terrance (as expected) shrank down and shook her head furiously. Twilight couldn’t help but internally squeal at the Pegasus’s cuteness. The group managed to get her at least to come out on the boat. It could also be an advantage if one of the gang got in trouble. Rina agreed on reflex, Matt and Ashley seemed fine with it too, and after convincing Harry that his hair wouldn’t get too wet, they were all ready to go.
All they needed was to get the equipment and a boat.
“So, fearless leader. How, pray tell, are we gonna get out there without any proper equipment or a boat?” Matt said sarcastically.
“I’m working on it!” Twilight yelled.
The group stood on the beach looking out at the sea, Twilight frantically coming up with ideas. “Why don’t we just hire a boat and a set of wetsuits?” Rina asked.
“Not enough money Ri, even between the six of us.” Twilight responded with a groan.
“I… do” a small voice said.
“Who said that?”
“M-Me.” Terrance responded.
Harry suddenly face palmed. “That’s right! how did we forget that Terrance was rich?”
The rest of the group mimicked Harry’s actions. Twilight completely forgot that Terrance was a rich boy -erm, girl. The Valermont family was originally from France and they were well known for owning a car brand that was seen all over the world. Terrance, however, was pretty humble with his title and he preferred to not exploit it unless he was forced to. He had lived in Australia for most of his life when his family's vacation in the country had been so enjoyable, they decided to make a secondary home down in the Margaret River wine region (one of their favourite places). But soon enough, they were aware that their stay in Australia couldn’t be permanent. Terrance as a young boy didn’t want to leave. It was a hard choice, but his parents decided to allow him to stay. He got foster parents to look after him, (unfortunately he wasn’t allowed to stay in his real parent’s home) applied for Cape Navaus High and soon enough he became friends with the rest.
But while Terrance saw his parents for roughly 2 or 3 months of the year, he got money from them nearly constantly, and he had to always carry a fair amount in his wallet at the request of his father. Something about women liking guys with money. In real sense that would just attract gold diggers, but… Twilight decided not to think about that too much.
“So ya think you could help us out, Terrance? You are normally the type to be kind.” Matt asked the timid girl.
“Well, I guess it would be fine… I wasn’t really using this $6500 anyway.”
The group shared a collective gasp. “6500 dollars!” Rina shouted.
It was a good thing that nobody was drinking anything.
Terrance nodded. “That’s just what I’ve got on hand.”
“Aw, man! We should go get something way better than scuba gear and a boat!” Matt cheered, Ashley made the choice to pull on the rainbow haired girl’s arm.
“We ain’t gunna blow Terrance’s money on something you want. We need that gear and boat for a reason and if we go with yer idea...we’ll just be in trouble.”
Matt pulled her arm from Ashley’s grasp and began to grumble. “So Twi, we gunna get the gear?”
Twilight nodded affirmatively. “You bet! Let’s head for the dive shop and get the scuba gear, then we need to hire a boat.”
The other five understood their task and proceeded to leave for the dive shop, Twilight gazed out at the flat ocean and smiled “Soon enough I’ll see your carcass, Lazarus.”
“Uhh guys?” Rina suddenly asked, “Do any of you know how to scuba dive?”
“....Damn it.”