//------------------------------// // Chapter 027: What is Love? // Story: Ultimate Equestria // by Leo Pachino //------------------------------// It was a golden evening for The Perfection. The clear, distant waters shimmered in golden light and rich waves. The sky, just like treasure found at the bottom of a sea of blue, was a gradient of oranges of yellows. The sun that evening was a gold coin, shining blinding light from the sheer wealth and power it wielded. The crew aboard The Perfection silently agreed together, “This is a golden evening,” before going back to their regular work. The sounds of clashing blades echoed throughout the ship, though not like a battle was taking place. Rather, it was more melodious, with each strike set to a certain, yielding power. These were the sounds coming from the galley, as Korsan and Rarity sparred. Korsan, wielding his dual cutlasses, swung at Rarity, wielding a pair of rapiers with padded tips. Rarity caught the cutlasses and swung below Korsan’s body. She rose from behind and went in for the stab. Korsan deflected the stabs with a blind cutlass swing. He turned around and defended a volley of stabs. Korsan saw an opening and attacked. He sliced his cutlasses at her. Rarity barely deflected the attack, her fur fluffing from the subtle wind of the blade. At the table, watching the fight from afar, sat Yin, Yu, Hans, and one or two other pirates. They had finished their shifts and were interested in, what is strongly implied, their new crewmate, Rarity. “Look at her go,” Yu commented. “She is hustling him like crazy.” “Too bad her form’s all sloppy,” Yin pointed out to his brother. Yu silently agreed with a nod. “Look at that,” Yin said. “She’s folding her swords like they’re scissors.” “Here comes the cross-wedge.” Hans said, watching Korsan prepare his next attack. CLANG! “Perfect.” Hans said. “So, you think Korsan’s going to win ‘er?” Yim asked. Yu answered, “I don’t know. His chances of winning her are about likely as… as-” “You getting Slasher?” Yin cracked. “Hey! I’m going to ask. I mean, how can she say ‘no’ to a skilled, handsome stallion like I am?” “Easily.” One of the other pirates joked, immediately met with laughter and applause. “Ha-ha, very funny.” Yu sarcastically replied. “Speaking of failing relationships,” Yin said, turning to Hans. “Where’s Maria, Hans?” “She had to clean up a mess below.” Hans replied. He slowly turned from the others and stared out the window. He and Maria had not been getting along over the past few weeks. Their ideals had been clashing against each other more frequently, and it’s tearing a deep hole in their relationship. “Here comes the finisher.” Yin said. Korsan’s mechanical suit accelerated its processes as he unleashed his final attack. He violently threw a cutlass at Rarity. She barely caught it with her crossed swords. The three blades collided and scattered. Korsan lunged forward towards the mare. He held his other cutlass in both claws and rammed towards her. SHING! Rarity opened her fear-stuck eyes to see a metal blade right between her eyes. She was alive, as Korsan had stopped the attack just before it made contact. The pirate slowly returned the cutlass to his back piece before reaching out a hoof to the mare. “Close.” He modestly said. Rarity rolled her eyes and replied, “No, that was horrible.” The spectators turned to each other and nodded. “The problem is in your rhythm and focus.” Korsan said. “You have the melody of the attack down, but if your soul and heart don’t beat in tune with your attacks, then it’s easy to be overwhelmed by a pony who has a stronger fighting spirit.” “Hm… I get it. It is like wearing a dress. You don’t just put it on you,” “You embrace it. You make it your own identity.” Korsan finished Rarity’s analogy. “Quite right!” Rarity exclaimed, rather shocked at Korsan’s proficiency in fashion. “Perhaps changing styles will help.” Korsan suggested. He walked over to the fallen blades, picked up a rapier, and gave it to Rarity, who gladly accepted it. Korsan kicked aside the other rapier and grabbed his fallen cutlass. The two then stood in their battle stances, now only equipped with one weapon each. The onlooking pirates fell silent, and watched as the two then slowly approached each other. “Korsan doing singles,” Yu said, confused. “Why is he taking it so easy on her?” “This is all probably some long con he has going on.” Yin replied. “Or perhaps,” one of the older pirates cut in. “He’s showing a bit of true compassion for once.” The Shou Brothers, as well as every other spectator, turned to the lone pirate. “…Yeah, that’s stupid.” He clarified. “Here they go.” Hans said. Korsan and Rarity stared each other down for a minute. They scanned each other extensively, seeing what parts were twitching and which were not. They looked into each other’s eyes, trying to peak at what their souls were plotting. “Ready for Round Two?” Korsan said, cocky as ever. “I don’t know, ready to lose?” Rarity returned, equally as confident. Korsan pridefully sneered. Rarity lightly chuckled. With a might kick to the floor, Korsan lunged at Rarity. Rarity held her blade to defend, and caught Korsan’s diving attack. The two held each other in blade lock, separated, and returned to blade lock. It was an endurance game, to see who will lose more energy in the first phase of the duel. The watching pirates cheered as the metal weapons smashed into each other, generating sparks and satisfying pops of energy. “That ferocity, that power!” Yu exclaimed. “They are certainly not holding back.” “Not quite,” his observant brother replied. “This is only to tire out each other. In a moment, the real battle begins. Combat depends a lot on psychological advantages, something even we have yet to even understand.” “Rarity seems to already be ahead of us.” Yu said. “Indeed. It almost scares me, like Korsan.” “You want to see something actually scary?” “What?” “Check out Ivan when he isn’t wearing that shirt of his. Blister City,” “Oh my…” Yin could barely hold back his vomit. Just thinking about it made his stomach perform loops. “Will you two pipe down and focus on the fight? You could learn something.” Hans hissed. “Will you patch things up with Maria? The ship reeks of yous’ foul mood.” Yin retorted. Korsan and Rarity had finished their slug-fest and have moved on to the actual fight. With precise movements and control of power, the two attacked and defended in near-perfect timing. Although the sparks of power had died, the onlooking crowd remained as drawn in as ever. It seemed as if Rarity and Korsan would always land an attack on each other’s weapons. At one point however, there was a miss. Rarity lunged her magic-guided rapier at Korsan’s face. She missed through, and the padded tip only brushed Korsan’s fur. Before Korsan could retaliate, Rarity pulled her sword back and lunged again. She missed again, and again, and again. The crewmembers were in shock. It was a rapid barrage of near misses and almost blind jabs. None of Rarity’s attacks seemed to make an effort in connecting to Korsan at all. What is she doing?! They all thought. The pirates looked to their captain for a meaning to this. Korsan simply stood there, letting the attacks whiz by his face. A small smile grew on him as he stared down Rarity. “This isn’t an immediate bad stroke of luck! This is a mind game!” Yu exclaimed, absolutely dumbfounded. “Rarity is intentionally creating a barrage of missing attacks as to lure Korsan into a state of stillness. If he moves, he could risk getting hit by a random jab. Once Korsan is not expecting it, Rarity will strike him!” Yin explained, overwhelmed by the lightning speed of Rarity’s magic. Korsan already knew all of this, and knew what to do to counter this. Ignoring the flickering silver in the corner of his eye, he kept his focus locked on Rarity’s eyes and horn. The instant her eyes twitch and the aura of her horn warps would be the moment she goes in for the blow. I find your methods amusing, Korsan internally spoke to Rarity. However, you are no match for- A flash of silver overtook Korsan’s vision. “What?!” He gasped. Rarity had changed up her barrage attack. Instead of simply brushing his face, Rarity had her rapier swipe in front of his face between the jabs. This was her plan all along. Overtaken by a slower, but blinding, barrage of misses, Korsan can’t tell what Rarity is plotting. As Rarity’s rapier flashed in front of Korsan’s vision, he thought he saw Rarity signaling her actual attack. He quickly swiped his weapon in front of his face. If Rarity’s rapier would hit the cutlass, Korsan would be able to perform a quick retaliation and defeat his rival. A faint whoosh of air brushes the fur on the left side of his head. A look of shock was engraved on Korsan’s face. With Korsan now in the midst of a deflecting move, Rarity unleashed her true attack. She lunged her rapier into Korsan’s exposed gut. Korsan jumped back and blocked the. He tried to keep distance, but Rarity pressed onward. She went in for another jab. Then another jab. Then another. Korsan couldn’t keep up. He was slowly backed into a corner. The onlookers roared in surprise. Was this the day Korsan was bested? As Rarity went in for the finishing stab, Korsan caught the rapier with his cutlass. He locked the two swords together, keeping his final ground. “Hey, Korsan, good match.” Rarity said. “Indeed,” Korsan said, still as confident as ever. Rarity immediately knew by the tone of his voice; Korsan had one final trick up his cape. With a powerful, proud roar, Korsan yelled, “Overdrive!” In seconds, his mechanical suit went haywire. The gears rotated at blinding speeds, the pistons hissed and cried, and the bearings and joints gyrated to no end. This was Korsan’s Overdrive, his suit’s final resort. With now more than quadruple of his original strength, Korsan threw Rarity off of him. She slid back into the dining table. She didn’t even have a moment to breath before being assaulted by a barrage of slices. Korsan’s overdriven speed, added atop of his pegasus assets, allowed him move at incredible speeds with incredible accelerated. Sound barely stood a chance against Korsan, let alone a unicorn. Rarity didn’t even realized what had just happened. One moment, her back was being struck against the table. The next, a cutlass was pointed right at her throat. Her rapier hung from the ceiling, wedged between the wood boards. Korsan had not only turned the tide of battle, but won in the blink of an eye. Korsan backed away from Rarity and withdrew his sword. His mechanical suit shrieked and spewed steam as it exited from Overdrive and returned to normal. The gears, pistons, and Korsan’s body froze for a moment, like he skipped a beat. But Korsan recovered and went to his chair. He sat down and let out a deep sigh, exhausted. Rarity slumped down to the floor, her head rested against the edge of the table. The pirates around her were dead silent, not only for the sake of modesty, but also that they have never seen Korsan use Overdrive on a rookie who had only been on the ship for about two weeks. Korsan and Rarity looked at each other, eyes half-open. They analyzed each other, and mentally congratulated each other for a good sparring. She read right through me, Korsan thought to himself. How could she have known what I was planning? Huh, turns out that fantasy romance novels do have some realism in there, Rarity thought, reflecting on her barrage attack. “Good fight.” Korsan eventually told her. “Your form still needs some work, but you have shown great wit.” “Yeah, thanks.” Rarity panted. Korsan then said to his crew, “The rest of yous, scram. I’m taking a rest.” “Aye-aye, Captain.” The onlooker pirates replied. Two by two, they left the galley and returned to their regular work or leisure. The only pony who remained was Hans, staring out the window and thinking. “How’d you know to catch me off guard with that blinding maneuver?” Korsan asked, honestly intrigued. “...Good intuition,” Rarity said, softly lying. She didn’t want to say that she made a blind decision based off of a fantasy novel. Korsan gave an accepting huff and eased deeper into his chair. At this point, all the captain wanted to do was rip off his suit and sleep in his bed. Of course, the captain knew, that until the moon reaches its peak, there is no time to sleep. A creaking sound was heard at the closed galley door. “Hm?” Korsan groaned, his head strained to raise itself an inch. At the other side of the galley was Maria, holding a jar of black goo. She looked exhausted, not just physically, but also mentally. At any moment it seemed that everypony would just drop to the ground and take a snooze. Maria’s voice was frail, struggling to escape her throat. “The goop spilled outside the vault again.” Maria said, absolutely exhausted. “I did my best to clean it up.” “Again?” Korsan groaned, rising from his chair. He slowly staggered to Maria and picked up the jar. Rarity noticed that the white fur of Maria hoof was stained in the mysterious goo. If she wasn’t so exhausted, she could’ve sworn that her veins also had a black semblance in them. “I was certain I sealed the thing up. It’s like the goop has a mind of its own.” Korsan said. “I’m sorry if it was valuable.” Maria apologized, modestly bowing her head. “Well, no pony has appraised it yet, so I can’t really be mad at you, especially at this time. Wash up and take the night off.” “Aye.” Maria left the galley and went below into the cabins, followed behind by Hans. There was a darkened look to his face as he followed behind, private, but painted with a vast array of emotions. Perhaps it was also tiredness; Rarity did not know. With the jar in his hooves, Korsan approached Rarity, still slumped on the floor. “Have I shown you this yet?” He asked. “No.” Rarity replied. A warm smile appeared on Korsan as he reached Rarity. He slumped over and sat next to her, giving her a good look at the black substance. It was extremely thick, but flowed quite quickly around the bottle. It was almost alien to her. “We found this stuff in a temple in Wisteria. The walls were absolutely coated in it. I guarantee, there’s nowhere else in the known world that this is found in.” “It looks like tar.” “It may look like tar, but I assure you, this is something far from tar.” Carefully, Korsan uncorked the bottle. He held the bottle over one of the floorboards of the galley, keeping it a far distance from his suit. A faint, green glow emanated from the floorboard due to the anti-magic that was in it. Korsan tilted over the bottle, and a few droplets of the black ooze fell onto the floor. In seconds, the green glow died down, and the floorboard hissed and boiled as if it was being eaten by acid. “What is it doing?!” Rarity asked, a bit shocked. “The black goo is eating the anti-magic in the wood. Eventually, it will eat through the lower floors and leak out the bottom.” “So, it’s an anti-anti-magic substance?” “Yep, as stupid as it sounds,” Korsan nodded. He put the cork back onto the bottle and rose to his hind hooves. “I’m putting this back in the vault.” He told her. “Hopefully it doesn’t get out.” “Alright,” Rarity replied. “Be ready for tomorrow. We’re expected to hit the Breach by then.” “Aye-aye, Korsan. Goodnight. See you tomorrow!” Rarity cheered. “…Goodnight.” Upon closing the door behind him, Korsan slammed himself onto the wall. He looked out over the deck and the evening sky, processing what just happened. It wasn’t common for a pony to wish him goodnight, especially in such a happy tone and even more especially when it came from a prisoner. It felt nice, not in any winning sense like in looting or pirating, but in a reassuring sense. It was the first time in a while since Korsan felt somepony was by his side, ready to greet the day with him rather than just nearby him. As the sun set in the horizon, Korsan looked over the scenery surrounding The Perfection. “It is a golden evening.” He said with a smile.