Bakasura didn't look up at him until his boots were stomping along the deck, and the wintry scowl the Rakshasa sent his way actually gave him pause for a moment. He slammed a lever into position and slurred through a mouthful of fangs. “You are far more vexing than something of your years has any right to be.”
Raj got his hammer into swinging position and answered “Step away from the console.”
“Of course,” He said back as he stepped away from the console. “I need this ship intact as well.” He looked him over for a moment, a faint tingle coming to the back of Raj's mind as he felt the thing reading his thoughts. “I can tell you came here for a fight. Might I present another alternative?”
“You may.” Raj wasn't really interested, but every second he kept the thing talking was a second closer to the others getting into the chamber.
“Let me take you home Captain. Back to earth.”
Raj stiffened, the mention of his homeworld drawing a visceral reaction from him. He shook his head, tamping down the feelings as best he could. “S-so it's true? This thing can go through space?”
“Indeed. That is its purpose. The Asura built this vessel and imbued it with the power of starflight. It was gifted to my brother Vibish so he might gather intelligence from every front of the Forming Wars.”
“So Jolly Roger was a Rakshasa.” Raj said, revelation heavy in his voice. “I thought so, but I wasn't sure. It's how nobody was sure of his race, he wore different forms.”
“Indeed. After the war, my brother embarked on his preposterous career as a sky pirate, squandering the gifts given to him by our father for plunder, pleasure, and chicanery.” Bakasura said, a good deal of venom in his tone.
“You're the one that killed him?”
“I am. But the fool gave me a lie about the location of the ship with his dying breath.”
“Classy.”
“I do not ask for your judgment. Only your acquiescence." He spread his arms, projecting contrition. "Let me help you Rajrishi, and you can be home within the day. Back in your house, hugging your wife and son. I will even offer to return to Ponyville and retrieve your dog as well. Anything, just allow me to leave.”
Raj sucked his teeth. “Why? Why offer me this?”
“Practicality. If I were to fight you, we would likely damage the ship and I do not have to time or skills to repair it. And while I am fairly certain of my ability to defeat you, I doubt it is possible before your allies break through the collapsed tunnel. If the only way to achieve my goals is the suffer a brief detour across space, then so be it.”
“You kidnapped Twilight. You killed our crew. How can I trust you not to kill me during the trip?” Raj asked, his voice going reedy.
“If you cannot keep your guard raised for a single full day then you are not an opponent I need concern myself with after all. Besides, a battle of any sort aboard the ship while we are in interstellar space would be foolhardy.” He glowered. “You and yours killed hundreds of my companions over the last few days. If such a massacre stains my honor then yours is black already.”
A section of rock fell free of the collapsed pile with an audible clatter, the stones falling loudly enough to echo off the walls and ceiling. Bakasura's eyes went frantic and he looked back over to Raj. “Captain?”
Raj paused. He considered it. He honestly considered the offer. He knew it would mean betraying everyone in Equestria, every oath and promise he made. But then he thought about the smell of Mari's hair, the curve of her hip. He thought about the crack of his son's voice, the feel of his own bed, and a hundred other things, each one bearing a deep ache of longing.
More of the rubble rolled away and something that may have been a muzzle pushed through the crush of stone and dust. Bakasura drew his scimitar and stepped forward, his voice going frantic. “Captain!?”
Raj opened his mouth to speak but it was lost to a din of squeaks and squeals as a cloud of bats washed out of the narrow gap in the rubble. The bats swarmed towards the boat, already coalescing into the shape of a pony.
Bakasura roared in frustration and charged for Rajrishi, his window for escape gone. Raj saw him coming and got his guard up just as the Rakshasa shook and warped, settling on the form of an enormous rhinoceros.
Understandably surprised by this turn of events, Raj let his hammer go and juked to the side. The beast's bucking horn swept to the side and caught him under his chain mail and hook there, attaching him to the thing. Raj went down, sliding next to the thing and kicking wildly to keep his feet from being crushed by the Rhino's piston legs as it continued to charge.
And then they were falling off the ship. Raj hit first, the glowing water punching him in the back like a boxer. Bakasura hit next and the surface of the water exploded in a fountain of luminous green, throwing him free of the thing's horn. He grabbed and kicked at the water, but the weight of his armor and gear proved too much to swim with easily and he started to sink.
Raj looked to the side and saw the Rhino sinking alongside him, trunk-like legs paddling uselessly. Raj had a moment to find that funny before the thing's form shivered again and he was suddenly looking into the bulging black eyes Great White Shark.
His scream was lost to a cloud of bubbles as the thing's tail sliced through the water, propelling it along the glowing grotto. Raj kicked to sink faster, hoping to find a crevasse he could tuck into that the creature couldn't reach. He hit bottom and felt around, finding nothing more than algae slicked rock. He looked up to see Bakasura's form cut through the water with terrifying agility, angling itself for a run on him. Panic bubbling at the back of his mind, his heart beating faster and eating through his air.
Bakasura shook, propelling himself along like a bullet. Bakasura drew close, eyes rolled back and jaws distended. In a moment of panicked terror, he kicked at the ground hard and propelled himself up, over the giant monster fish narrowly enough the fin of its tail ground along the side of his boot. A surge of elation burst through him that was cut short as the thing started angling back on him for a second run.
The shark started to undulate again, kicking up to speed for a charge when it was harshly tugged back. The thing's body thrashed, struggling against something. Looking closely, a faint glow could be seen clinging to the shark's tail.
And then it was gone, yanked up violently. It cleared the water and continued up, slapping the roof of the cavern hard enough blood streamed from its gills. On the ship, Luna grit her teeth and scowled, her horn blazing with light. She grunted and swung her head, swooping the captive fish in a great curve that terminated against the wall of the cave. Bakasura hit hard enough his sides burst open, spilling black viscera down the stone.
Raj saw none of this, all he knew was that the monster fish was no longer threatening him and he could finally focus on the task of not drowning.
He grabbed at the hem of chain shirt, trying to lift it off of him so he could swim out but the links were snagged on the clothing underneath and over it, locking it to him. He started trudging along the bottom, spots already swimming in his vision. He hit the wall beneath the dock and tried to climb, but the slick stones gave him no purchase, algae rubbing off under his fingers. He was fumbling for his axes, either thinking he could cut the armor off of him or use them to climb, when a pair of gentle limbs tucked under his arms. Thinking the shark was back somehow, he started to struggle but then looked up.
Fluttershy, she had come in after him. The green glow of the algae made her coat look sickly, but she stared down at him with a look of serenity that immediately dispelled his panic and calmed his frazzled mind. She unfurled her wings and flapped them down, the feathers grabbing at the water like paddles and they launched up, closer to the dock.
They breached the surface and Raj drew in a chestful of air like he'd never tasted anything sweeter. He grabbed the edge of the dock and hauled himself up, dragging Fluttershy with him. He laid there, laboring for breath for close to a minute before Fluttershy rolled off of him. “Raj?”
“No. I'm not.” He pushed himself up and looked over at the ship. An eagle was dog-fighting with Rainbow Dash in the air over the boat while Luna fired potshots from her horn when the opportunity presented itself. Further up the steps, the rubble shook as the others squeezed their way through the narrow gap. Raj coughed out a sigh and stood up, axes sliding from their holsters. “I gotta go kill that thing.”
Fluttershy nodded. “I know.” and she stepped out of his way.
Rainbow Dash pulled a loop over the chasing eagle and flared her wings open. She planted her backhooves on the eagles shoulders and somehow flapped up, propelling herself and the eagle down towards the ship. They hit the deck with a terrible crunch and Rainbow pumped her arm, shouting “Yeah! Take that!”
The eagle melted and Bakasura stood up in his hybrid form underneath her. He swung his scimitar at her drunkenly and she fluttered to dodge, earning a slice in the wall of her hoof for the trouble. Luna fired another pair of beams that he sidled away from and spun, hurling a knife in her direction. A shield started forming to block but wasn't fast enough to stop it before the blade sunk into her shoulder.
Raj vaulted off the edge of the ship, screaming rage. He came down on the Rakshasa with both axes, golden blades meeting golden blade in a ringing crash. Bakasura faltered under the hit and stepped back, reeling. Raj pressed the advantage and struck hard and fast, raining down blows. Bakasura withered under the assault and took a hit to his wrist, severing the backwards hand with a gout of black.
The Rakshasa cawed in pain and struck back, blade moving lightning fast. Raj saw it coming and caught it on the haft of his axes, locking it in place. He twisted the weapon in his hand and ground it down the flat of Bakasura's sword, sending a spray of burning sparks into his eyes.
He screamed in pain and staggered back, swinging blindly and hitting Raj across the armor as he clutched at his face. Luna charged, head low, and drove the point of her horn into the monster's chest, hilting all the way to her forehead. Bakasura coughed up a spray of black and shivered into the form of a gorilla, still impaled by the horn. He grabbed Luna by the neck before she could pull back and bashed her to the deck with his other hand. She took the hit and cursed, legs going out from underneath her. Bakasura roared and raised his hand to hit again.
“Hey!” They all heard a voice cut over the din, an instant later a boulder the size of cantaloupe struck the gorilla's elbow, bending it at a sick angle. Down on the dock, Applejack was standing with her hindlegs curled up, a small pile of large boulders next to her. Rarity lifted another into position and Applejack lashed out at it, firing it at the gorilla.
Luna drew out of the line of fire just as the second boulder struck Bakasura squarely in the face. The gorilla staggered back, blood streaming down his muzzle and head lolling on a broken neck. Raj stalked close, axes up again.
Bakasura shivered once more and uncoiled in the form of a giant snake. It lunged, faster than Raj could defend. It didn't have venom, but it did have terrifyingly large fangs that sunk through the links in his mail and into the meat of his chest and neck. He dropped his axes and grabbed at the thing, struggling to dislodge it. The snake clenched its jaw and drew back, lifting him up by the wound. Raj screamed in pain as it thrashed and hurled him away to skid along the deck.
Luna fired another beam, carving a burning line down the length of the thing's coils. She stood up, spine re-aligning itself with wet clicks. The Rakshasa writhed and lunged, turning back into the rhino mid-charge. Luna fired more beams, but the giant beast ignored the hits as they burned along its dense hide. Luna gathered energy for another beam when a yellow shape landed in front of her. She started to shout a warning to her when Fluttershy's wings flared, her eyes widened, and she stared down the charging Rhinoceros.
The effect was like being punched. Bakasura's legs went out from underneath him and he slid to a halt, slowly recovering his footing after a second. The rhino looked around curiously, seemingly unaware of where it was or what it was doing. Fluttershy folded her wings and wiped a layer of sweat off her brow, suddenly very tired.
Bakasura shivered back into his hybrid form and spat. “What did you-” but was interrupted when a boulder crashed into his leg. The ape came back and charged for Luna but was brought down by a flying kick from Rainbow Dash. He shivered into the crocodile and made for the edge of the boat but was almost sawed in half by a tightly focused beam of magic. It turned back into the snake and continued for the edge but was blown back by a wave of confetti and cotton candy scented air as Pinkie floated up with her party cannon, both tethered to a huge cluster of balloons.
The Rakshasa turned back into the hybrid beast, missing a hand and coughing blood. He rose up on his one good leg and shouted out. “This is my ship! My treasure! It belongs to me you thieving nags!” He lifted his sword, still ready to fight.
That changed when Raj slid in, giant hammer held in his grip. He stepped into the swing, arcing it like a big league hitter. The Rakshasa put his sword in the way, but it was akin to using a dowel rod to stop a cement truck. The head of the hammer smashed through his guard, into his chest, and launched the creature up, and up, and up. Bakasura flew away, screaming rage all the while. He managed a few seconds of hang time before he slammed into the curved edge of the roof. He stuck there for a moment and peeled off, falling the thirty or so feet to the mouth of the entrance.
Raj breathed, suddenly very tired. The hammer fell from his grip and he clutched his vicious snake wound. Rainbow fluttered to his side, one leg curled up underneath her. “Did... did it work?”
For a single, crystalline moment, he thought it had. Then he saw the prone monster cough and stagger up.
“Ye must be jesting.” Luna said, disbelief thick in her tone. Bakasura stood on unsteady feet, leaning on his sword. He looked back at the group of them, bloody and tired, and turned to the entrance to the cavern, slowly hobbling away. He stumbled to the ground, crawled for a bit, and got up in a limping run.
Rainbow flared her wings, ready to take off to go finish the monster, but Raj stayed her with a hand. She looked up at him questioningly and he shook his head. “Just, just give it a minute.”
Bakasura kept going, reaching the bare edge of the entrance and slid to a halt in surprise. In front of him, looming larger than life, was the Break of Day, close enough to see the ponies busying about on the deck and the rents and tears in the armor from their recent fight. Close enough to see the gunnery craters along the hull swing open.
Bakasura turned about slowly, yelling something as he tried to run somewhere, anywhere. Cutting over the din of the engine, Topsail shouted. “Port Side!”
The world caught fire as the cannons let loose, annihilating the Rakshasa Lord. Raj covered his eyes from the sudden flare of light that was brighter than the sun in the tiny space. Sound assaulted him, making the hairs on his body dance and jump from the sheer power of the assault. It was over after a minute, the sound echoing around in the space long after the source had died.
Raj looked down at the fire clinging to what remained of the rock shelf and pooling over the green water. He stared for a moment and nodded. “That should do it.”
* * *
It took a good few minutes for the fires to die down enough that they could send Rainbow Dash out to signal the Break of Day. A flight of airponies came back with her and they spent a while staring in awe at the Vow of Poverty and then a longer while staring at the ridiculous amount of treasure upstairs, which turned out to be par for the course as most of the remaining crew came over to secure the area. Rajrishi was fairly certain that the presence of a Princess was the only thing keeping the whole crew from filling every pocket and bag they had with gold.
Twilight and the remaining engineers came over from the ship and once they were done staring in stark disbelief they began going over the Vow of Poverty. While their training did not cover the arcane mechanisms behind the function of ancient, god-built spaceships, they were able to come to a single conclusion almost immediately.
“What do you mean it's broken?” Raj said, his voice as level as he could manage under the circumstances.
“That is not what I said.” Twilight defended rapidly. “What I said, is that it doesn't work.”
Raj stared at her levelly for a few seconds. “Twilight, how is that possible? It was working an hour ago. I saw it, it was glowing, there were puffs of exhaust coming out of the little ports on the bottom. It was functioning, alive. What happened?”
“Maybe it got busted up in the fight?” Applejack offered. “There was a whole lot going on. Something got shook loose. Could that of happened Twilight?”
The unicorn shrugged. “It could have. More likely what you saw was just some remaining energy in the system sputtering out. If I had to guess, something simply degraded from sitting idle for centuries. But I can't even talk about that with any authority. This ship is on an entirely different level, we don't even have the mechanisms to understand how it works, much less what isn't working on it.” Despite the situation, Twilight couldn't keep the glitter of excitement out of her eyes at the prospect of such an intriguing puzzle to solve.
“And the only guy who might have known anything about the boat just got obliterated.” Raj sat down on the cavern floor, his head in his hands.
Pinkie slid in and said. “Maybe he made it out? That guy was super tricky, he might have survived.”
“I looked over there. There's nothing left to him, just some greasy rocks. I couldn't even find his orichalcum sword.” Raj said back tonelessly.
“Oh...” Pinkie answered back, slowly slinking away.
The lot of them sat in silence for a while until Rainbow crouched next to him and elbowed his side. “Hey, don't be so glum dude. So what if that guy is gone, who needs him? You've got Twilight Sparkle! Her and every other egghead in Equestria will be trying to figure this thing out until they crack it. Heck, I'll bet they're making their own Vows of Whatever before winter's done.”
“That's right Raj.” Twilight said cheerily. “We won't give up until we have this thing solved.”
He looked up. “I know that, but-”
“And you did so much else!” Pinkie chirped, suddenly in front of him. She reached both hooves into her mane and pulled out a double armful of gold coins. “Look at all the treasure you found!”
“And ya got rid of a dangerous monster 'n his band 'a pirates!” Applejack said, beaming a smile.
“You also solved one of history's greatest mysteries and gave reason to a myth. Well, I suppose you also ruined one of my favorite literary characters by revealing that he was actually an ancient shapeshifting demon, but there are other book series to follow.” Rarity said with a diplomatic smile.
“But more importantly, I think you've gotten over your fear of heights!” Fluttershy said with a smile. The others looked at her quizzically for a moment and she blushed under the scrutiny. “W-what? You all were there when he jumped off the ship. He didn't, he didn't pause or anything. I don't, I mean, nevermind.” she let out a quiet squeak and ducked behind her mane.
Raj smiled at her and slowly, very slowly, broke into a fit of very tired, very relieved giggles. After a moment the others joined in, all the stress and anxiety from the previous weeks bleeding out of them with the laughter.
He so close, Raj thought. He came so close to finally doing it, just a breath away from doing it. It hurt to think about, to still smell her hair and hear his voice. But here laughing with these ponies, maybe it hurt a little bit less. That was good enough.
It would have to be.
END OF BOOK TWO