//------------------------------// // Chapter 041: It Doesn't Work! // Story: Ultimate Equestria // by Leo Pachino //------------------------------// “W-what?” Korsan stammered. He examined the rippling water of the Fountain of Balance and its surprisingly non-anomalous traits. With the golden goblet still held in his iron grip, Korsan scooped another cupful of water and drank it down in a single chug. He shook his body around a bit for safe measure and waited a moment. Surely, the legendary effects the water bestows has to show on his body at some point. After a minute of waiting and anticipation, nothing happened still. “It doesn’t work!” He gasped. “What do you mean it doesn’t work?” Isyan asked, confused. “I mean it doesn’t work! I’m not an alicorn!” Korsan yelled back. “Is there something wrong with the fountain?” “Is it that anti-magic you have on your suit?” Maria asked. “Have you tried turning it off and on again?” Yu syggested. Korsan exclaimed, “Wait, the suit!” He frantically clawed out his metal parts. Grunts of pain and strain escaped from his throat as the tight mechanisms across his body snapped and buckled. Yet they still held firm onto him. Korsan then resorted to bashing himself against the fountain edge to get the suit off. “Korsan!” Rarity exclaimed, watching in horror as her captain ripped himself apart. “Gotta get this thing off!” Korsan angrilly gasped. Applejack and Applebloom climbed up to the edge of the pavilion, fearful of what’s going on. “Are you okay?” Applebloom nervously asked Korsan. She slowly extended a hoof to Korsan, only for him is violently hiss in response. “Don’t you touch that fountain! I’m becoming an alicorn first!” Korsan yelled at the filly. Korsan examined his attire. He noticed the large anti-magic container in the center of his harness. Quickly, he scratched at his chest with his long claws and scraped into the center piece. The liquid anti-magic rapidly poured out of his harness and the rest of his suit. The green fluid sprayed all over the stone floor, filling the cracks with its green glow. “I’ll have to refill at the ship after this.” Korsan told himself. Gallons of liquid anti-magic flowed from Korsan’s system as he paced around the golden spring. He waited for a long minute, impatiently awaiting for every last drop to pour out and make himself pure. “Please,” He begged to everything that had brought him here. He panted as he hung his head over the basin of holy water. “Don’t fail me. Not after all of what I’ve done to get here.” Seeing her friend’s distress, Rarity gently placed her bandaged hoof onto Korsan’s hunched shoulder. He gave an aside glance to her before shrugging off the comforting hoof. “Just so you know, Captain,” Rarity calmly spoke to the stressed stallion. “Even if this doesn’t work, I’ll still be here for you.” The captain hesitated before solemnly replying, “…No, this has to work. It must work. It will work.” The final droplet of anti-magic fell to the damp rock bottom. Korsan returned his glance at the fountain. He slowly scooped the water up into his grail. He drank from it once more. A few loose drips escaped from his quivering lips and soaked into his heaving chest. Korsan once again waited in silence, holding back his impatience for as long as he could. Everypony watched in stiffness, not daring to twitch a muscle. Twilight eventually came back to her senses amidst the quiet, softly moaning and barely opening her eyes to see the statue that was Korsan. Korsan continued to wait and keep his cool. But to no avail. Eventually, his claws began to twitch. His eye started to rapidly blink. The gears in his suit jumped in place. His pistons whirred into speed. One by one, the brain stems in Korsan’s head popped. Rage and humiliation pumped into his steaming blood. His dark brown coat of fur saturated into a burning red brown mat. His breathing sped up from long and slow lungsful into rapid and shallow hyperventilation. A small tickle of a twisted giggle escaped from his gritting teeth. “Korsan? Are you well?” Rarity uneasily asked. “Hehe,” Korsan giggled. “This has to be some cruel joke right? Perhaps some delayed effect? That could be it, yeah, yeah. Perhaps I need to actually bathe in it!” Without warning, the deranged pony leapt into the fountain basin. He pulled himself below the water in rapid dives, almost causing him to choke. “Come on. Come on. Come on! Work!” He demanded. “Korsan, please calm down!” Rarity cried out. “I will not! Applejack! Get over here! Now!” Korsan roared. Slowly, Applejack approached the edge of the fountain, keeping a fair distance from Korsan. Seeing the goblet Korsan dropped in his rage now floating towards her, Applejack turned to the frantic stallion and asked him, “Do you want me to-” “Just do it!” Korsan yelled. Carefully, the mare picked up the half-filled chalice with her hooves and helds it up to her mouth. Slowly, Applejack drank the pure blue water from the cup, only to experience no changes to her body. “It isn’t working.” Applejack said. “No!” Korsan angrily smashed his metal fists into the rim of the fountain, denting the golden metal. He laid his body over the edge of the pool and collapsed. The feeling of utter sadness and defeat replaced his fury. His body winced and twitched as he lied there, with the sounds of sniffling and sobbing echoing across the walls of the grotto. His cheeks turned bright red and trails of tears ran down them from both of his eyes. “No-no, no, no… No, this can’t be… This can’t be… This can’t be!” Korsan cried. Rarity couldn’t help herself but fell sniffles escape her nose. The sight of such a powerful stallion now turned into a helpless foal was utterly devastating. “You mean, this was all for nothin’?” Applejack asked. “…” Korsan didn’t answer. “I’m so sorry.” Rarity quietly said to him. She gently rested her trembling chin on the pegasus’ head. Korsan responded by slowly wrapping his arms around her upper back. “…Why? Why does it always have to be me?” Korsan asked, to either Rarity or himself, no pony knew. “I don’t know.” Rarity replied anyways. “…I-I want to go home…” Korsan said. The surrounding crew members slowly advanced towards the fountain as well, most of them showing sorrow for their leader. Isyan coldly watched over his weeping cousin. Je can’t help but to feel a single tear swell up in his right eye. “…That’s it. That was my only shot at being able to harness magic. And all it was… was a blank volley over the edge of the world.” Korsan said. “I’m so, so sorry. Is there another way?” Rarity asked. “No, the only other way is ascension. But that’s impossible. Only the most powerful of magic users can do it. No unicorn on the face of this world, Tartarus, or Heaven, can match the magical supremacy required. And alicorns are almost myth at this… point…” Korsan’s head turned with a snap to the neck. He turned to face Twilight, who was now stumbling to get up onto her hooves. “Alicorn…” He hissed below his breath. Rarity looked over to Twilight as well. A bad feeling in her gut immediately arose. She knew what Korsan was thinking. “Korsan,” Rarity said. “Twilight Sparkle…” Korsan said. “Korsan, please don’t hurt her.” Rarity said. The pirate pegasus didn’t acknowledge Rarity’s request as he got out from the fountain and walked towards Twilight. A cutlass was still between his claws, tightly clenched. He flipped the sword into an icepick grip with a wide smile growing on his face. “Korsan, don’t!” Rarity yelled. “Come here, ya pretty little pony,” Twilight saw Korsan approaching her in a menacing fashion and fearfully backed away. He rear hit a giant iron bounder and stopped her retreat. With her senses still returning, the confused mare frantically sputtered in panic as Korsan raised his blade high above his head. “Stop it!” Rarity yelled. She grabbed Korsan’s tail with her magic and yanked him away from Twilight. “No!” Korsan immediately howled. With a quick burst of rage, Korsan swiped his open hoof at Rarity. She backed away and released him in shock. Korsan returned to Twilight and thrusted his sword downward. “No!” An ear-piercing shriek of grinding metal echoed across the grotto. The pirates and heroes were in absolute horror of what they saw. Their joints locked up, unable to move. Twilight, panting in absolute shock, saw the long weapon deeply stabbed into the boulder. It was only an inch away from gouging out left eye. Words finally came to Twilight. She whimpered, “K-K-Korsan.” Korsan replied in a classy, yet incredibly frustrated, tone, “Princess Twilight Sparkle. I’ve entered a bit of a predicament. You see, the fountain isn’t working, and I’m not an alicorn. And well, the only way I can become one now is if you, an alicorn yourself, casts an ascension spell onto me. So, how about it? Just cast the spell on me.” Twilight stayed silent. She recollected herself from the startling experiences of her wake-up. What felt like an hour passed as Twilight watched Korsan stare into her soul. Her mind quickly retraced what had happened to lead up to this. A spiteful slowly appeared on her face. Anger swelled in Twilight’s mind. She was utterly bewildered and offended by Korsan’s audacity to ask such a thing. “No.” She sternly said. “No?” Korsan asked. “No-no-no-no-no-no-no? Do you see that cutlass right next to your eye? I can very easily pull that thing out at this moment from that rock you lean on and stab you through the heart! And I will do it. I will so willingly do it if you don’t turn me into an alicorn.” “Never. And besides, I could never do such a thing.” Twilight replied. “Oh? Really? You are an alicorn aren’t you?” “Not a naturally born one. You should know that. The ones that are born naturally as alicorns are incredibly stronger than an ascended pony like me.” “Of course, I know. I also know that Princess Celestia, you’re leading princess of Equestria, likes to keep a few secrets. You could be very well a naturally born unicorn and are just lying.” “Well either way, I’m not going to do it. You can kill me-No! You can torture me all you want, and I still won’t do your bidding. You hear me, you monster? I will never turn you into an alicorn even if I had the power. What say you now?” “…” “What say you now?” Twilight asked again, pride bursting from her voice. “…” A light snicker escaped from Korsan. He backed away from Twilight and began to pace back and forth. “What’s so funny?” Twilight asked. “Do you honestly think I would simply give you a death threat only towards you without some sort of backup plan?” Korsan asked, snickering. “What are you saying?” “Crew! Bring me the yellow pegasus.” With a small moment of hesitation, the pirates brought forth a large potato bag. They dropped it at the captain’s hooves. The cloth bag shifted around a little upon being dropped. The sound of a muffled grunt echoed throughout the pavilion. “Fluttershy?” Twilight gasped. Korsan walked up to the exhausted Twilight, still pinned to the iron boulder. He pulled out his sword and gave a snide glance at her. “Oh, is that her name?” Korsan asked Twilight. “Fluttershy? A cute name, don’t get me wrong. Just a shame that it’ll be a name that’ll haunt the rest of your life,” With one swift slash of his sword, the bag ripped open and revealed who was inside. Inside the bag was Fluttershy, tied from neck to hoof in thick rope and had a large bandana tightly covering her mouth. She screamed Twilight’s name in inaudible mumbles as she’s tumbled from the torn bag. “Fluttershy!” Twilight exclaimed. “Let her go!” She demanded Korsan. “Let her go? No. It’s a pirate tradition for this sort of thing to happen once in a while during a loot. Ransoms are some of the easiest ways to score some treasure out there.” Korsan informed her. Slowly, Korsan slid the edge of his curved sword around Fluttershy’s neck. Her eyes bloated in terror and her voice ripped itself apart in its attempts to scream. “No! Don’t! I’ll do anything you want, just don’t hurt her!” Twilight begged Korsan. “Oh? Even turn me into an alicorn?” Korsan asked. “I can’t! Anything else?!” “Ooh, either you start working your ascension magic on me now, or this place is about to get a whole lot messy. I’ll give you a minute to decide. What do you have to say about that, Ms. Fluttershy?” Korsan gently sliced the bandana off from Fluttershy’s mouth with his claw. Fluttershy loudly screamed with her free mouth. She tried to kick herself out of the ropes, only to be pulled closer to the sword. “Twilight!” Fluttershy screamed. “Help me!” “Tick tock, Ms. Sparkle, your minute has begun.” Korsan taunted.