Kirsarnia

by Urimas Ebonheart

Arc 2 - Chapter 1: The city of Marelantis Part 1.

Frank opens his inventory and pulls out both of the Marelantis scrolls and the single Appleloosa scroll.

"Here you go, Jack," Frank tells the Warrior while holding the Appleloosa scroll to him.

"Thanks, well let's go see if it actually is a western themed place by the sound of the name," he says as he unrolls the scroll and looks at it. "Errrr... how do I use this?" he asks confused as he tries to read it.

The others look over his shoulder to see strange runes, magical looking circles, and writing on the old paper. 

"I have no idea what that says," Laura says with a frown.

"Maybe the princesses would know?" Satoshi suggests and looks around for the Princesses.

Fortunately, the Princesses are near the back of the plaza overseeing the construction of the next section of housing, as well as the first three buildings that will be shops and stores.

"There they are," Satoshi says pointing towards them.

"Then let's get some answers," Jack says and rushes off towards them.

The group stop behind the Princesses who turn to greet them.

"Hello everyone. What can we help you with?" Celestia asks while Luna yawns and looks through her inventory.

"Do you know what this says?" Jack asks and holds the scroll out to Celestia.

Luna turns to look and goes wide eyed at the scroll. "Is that ancient Valian!?" she says in shock.

"Valian?" Frank asks Luna with a curious expression.

She looks from the scroll to Frank with a serious expression. "It is said the Valians were the first and only intelligent race that predates all other races at the time about sixty-thousand years ago, we don't even know what they looked like. Very few of their ruins survived the passage of time, even fewer are the stone tablets and murals that remained intact. We've managed to translate most of their language, but some were incomprehensible, or no word that matched ours existed," she replies and looks back to the scroll.

"Ver-ruth... tel-ris... ha-ru-nil-ka..." Luna mutters and the scroll shines brightly, blinding all present. When the light dies down, Celestia is nowhere to be seen, as well as the scroll. "Whoops..." Luna says with a sheepish grin.

Jack looks sadly at where Celestia was once standing. "My scroll..." he says dejected that his adventure was taken from him.

Frank sighs as he gets the second Marelantis scroll out and holds it out to Jack. "Then you're coming with me to Marelantis," he says making Jack happy again.

"SWEET!" he yells and opens it up. "Wait, could we teleport a whole group if the others are touching the one holding the scroll?" Jack asks in a child like curiosity.

"Perhaps?" Frank says unsure and looks to Luna. "Care to read it again?" he asks her while putting his scroll away and Jack holds out the scroll in his hands to her. The others place their hands on Jack's back.

"You just need to repeat the same phrase I spoke earlier," she says and reads the scroll. "Ver-ruth tel-ris ha-ru-nil-ka."

The party's vision goes white and after a few seconds, they all appear around a new anchor crystal and the group takes in their surroundings. They appear to be in a large underwater air bubble the size of the anchor crystal's barrier, a large temple like structure just to the north and big shell shaped buildings around the crystal. The colours of the place are vibrant with glowing coral and small fluorescent shells.

Street lamps are lined up along the light blue bricked roads, softly illuminating the place with a pale bluish white light.

"INVADERS AT THE CRYSTAL!" The party hears someone yell in alarm. The sounds of footfalls and screaming echoes throughout the area and before they knew it, they're surrounded by ponies wielding tridents, shields, and wearing scalemail. 

The ponies also have no fur or manes and tails but fish scales on their forearms, shins, and around their faces. The rest of their bodies are covered in smooth oily like skin, fins are also on their head and back, a set of gills on the sides of their necks, and a fish like tail, some have shark like features while others have a dolphin or an orca like appearance.

Most of them have some form of skin tight scalemail armour equipped as well.

"Whoa whoa whoa!" Jack says and tries to draw his Bronze Warhammer, but the anchor crystal's anti-hostility effect prevents him from drawing it.

"Stand down, Jack," Frank tells the warrior while slowly raising his hands up to show no aggression. The others follow suit while Jack groans and stops trying to draw his hammer, then raising his hands as well.

"Who and what are you!" a silver coloured shark pony demands while holding his trident right at Frank's throat, sharp rows of teeth bared in aggression.

"Frank Johnson, Human," the guardian calmly replies.

"How did you get in here!?" the shark pony then demands.

"We used a scroll that teleported us here, I have another scroll with me if you wish to see it," Frank replies and waits for an answer.

"A scroll brought you here? Show me!" he then orders Frank who slowly opens his inventory which confuses the marelantians, but they gasp as a scroll appears in front of Frank who carefully grabs it and holds it out to the shark pony.

"Here you go," Frank says and opens his hand, leaving the scroll to rest on his palm. The shark pony takes it with his left hand and lets it roll open.

After looking at it for a few seconds, he growls and holds it in front of Frank's face. "I can see this is a spell, but this isn't any magic or language I've seen before! Are you the Jadara's monsters!?" he says angrily while the other marelantians get ready for a fight.

"The who?" Jack asks with a frown.

Silence hangs in the air before an elderly looking female orca pony coming from the Temple wearing an ornate scaled robe with shells, fish bones, and coral decoration walks over to the group. She has a long pink coral staff in her right hand with a light green crystal on the end.

"What is going on here?" she asks in a curious tone, no fear or worry at all in her question.

"Priestess!? Stay back, we'll deal with these monsters!" the shark pony warns her and without warning, thrusts his trident through Frank's neck.

"FRANK!" the guardian's party all yell. But everyone gasps as Frank just frowns at the shark pony, no wound or blood visible as he swats the trident away with his left hand, the trident phasing out of his neck as if he was a ghost.

"That was uncalled for," Frank tells the pony sternly.

"What?... I knew it! They're monsters!" he says with fear in his tone.

"We're not monsters!" Jack tells him as he walks over and pokes him in the chest twice. "We fight and kill them! And besides, we have a pony with us as well!" he then says gesturing to Daring who now looks relaxed as she realised they can't harm her.

"Who are you?" the elderly priestess asks the group while the shark pony just stares at the tip of his clean trident.

"I am Frank Johnson, leader of this party, and Guild Master of The Dungeoneers," he replies with a small bow of his head. The others also introduce themselves to her.

"And why have you come here?" she then asks them.

"We're on a mission to cleanse the dungeons that have shown up and find the one responsible for making them," he tells her as she walks up to him, the other marelantian ponies getting tense as she does.

She looks at the members of the group and then back to Frank with slightly narrowed eyes. "And how do you accomplish this? Our warriors and tide mages have not been able to harm the monsters since they arrived two decades ago," she asks them while leaning on her staff.

"We have the power to kill the monsters and grow stronger as we do so. With this we can cleanse the dungeons and reduce the monsters they produce to a more manageable rate. We have already cleansed two dungeons in Equestria," Frank replies in explanation.

"Equestria? We have not heard of any news from the surface for decades," she says and sighs. "Tell me, do the alicorn princesses still live?" she asks Frank with hope in her eyes.

"They do. Now that we've arrived here, we can go to Equestria and back again whenever we wish. If you have a message for the princesses, I'd be happy to deliver it for you," he replies and retrieves a quill, inkwell, and paper from his inventory.

He holds them out to the Priestess who just stares dumbfounded that they came out of thin air.

After a few seconds of just staring at them she slowly speaks up. "Follow me to the Temple please. We shall discuss what to do next," the Priestess says and shakes her head. "Where are my manners, I am Priestess Sea Song, and my role is to keep the waters around us calm and safe. But my job has been impossible to perform since I can no longer reach the Great Current Shrines safely to reapply the seals. I fear the ocean will soon become too unstable to leave the great barrier at all," she informs Frank with a sigh.

"Hmmm," Frank hums as he looks to his friends. "We may be able to escort you to them once we figure out the level of the monsters here. If they're lower or equal to ours, we can deal with them ourselves, but I'm not sure how we'll be able to breath underwater," he says and turns back to her.

"As priestess and a tide sage of the ocean, I have a few spells that allow surface dwellers to breath underwater for up to five hours," Sea Song replies and holds her staff out to Frank whose eyebrows rise as a thin transparent bubble forms around his head. "This spell draws oxygen from the sea and filters out the old," she tells him as jack pokes the bubble which just jiggles.

"Alright, looks like it'll work fine. So then, shall we head inside and discuss what we shall do?" Frank suggests and Sea Song nods in agreement.

The party follows her inside the temple, while the marelantian guards follow behind them. Along the way, Frank sends a message to Luna informing her that they’re fine and have reached Marelantis. Luna replies letting them know that Celestia is also fine and that the Appleloosa area is level fifteen with a dungeon nearby, She’ll stay there for a while to help the ponies there before returning to the Guildhall.

The interior of the temple is decorated in mosaics and tapestries made from strange cloth of past events down the hallways to the left and right. The group enter the doorway ahead of them and see furniture mostly consisting of benches and tables made from coral and that strange cloth dot the main chamber which is at least twenty feet high.

The priestess heads to a single door at the back of the large chamber where fifteen marelantians are sitting on the benches while staring at the party and whisper to each other as the group of friends pass by.

Sea Song and the party pass through the door into a clean and tidy study or office, a coral table and chair sit at the middle back of the room. A coral bookcase with strange books not made from paper sit upon it to the left of the desk. To the right is a cabinet with many different objects, a necklace, an orb with swirling water within it, a book with paper pages and an old cracked brown leather cover, and a three inch wide stone coin like object with a stylised water current engraved on it.

The room is illuminated by a cleanly cut crystal in a candle holder on the desk, giving the room an effect of rippling light reflecting off a surface underwater.

Sea Song sits at her desk and sighs in relief as she puts her staff on a rack next to her chair.

"I'm getting too old for this..." she says and looks to Frank as he and the others stand near her desk. "I believe we have at least five more years before we'll be unable to leave the great barrier ever again. If that happens, we'll be trapped in here with no way out. The currents will be too strong to swim though and we barely have enough room for fish farms and housing. If you can escort me to the three shrines, I can reapply the seal and calm the ocean currents, allowing our warriors to hunt and gather again," she explains to the guardian.

"Alright, we'll need to have a look around first to see if the monsters aren't too high a level, otherwise we'll have trouble with them. If that's the case, we'll have to level up some more and then return," he replies and turns back towards the door. "We'll return to the anchor crystal once we've finished our scouting," he tells her and stops in front of the glaring shark pony that ran his neck through with his trident before.

Sea Song also stands and picks up her staff. She casts the bubble spell on all six of the party members where Sam yelps quietly as it startles her. "Razor, please escort our guests to the great barrier that's closest to the nearest shrine," she asks the shark pony who growls quietly.

"Yes, Priestess," he replies unhappy with the order and walks away.

Frank ignores his hostile attitude as the party file out of the temple and follow Razor through the still functional areas of the city.

Whispers and gasps can be heard as the group pass by the marelantians on the street, some carrying baskets of fish or seaweed, while others carry coral and materials to their destinations.

After a silent ten minute walk, the party reaches the edge of the barrier where the ocean waters are pushing against it, but the barrier doesn't even strain under the pressure.

"Follow this path to a small temple at the end, there you will find the shrine. I will wait here for your return... that's if you return," Razor says and frowns at the group.

"The fuck's your problem? We're trying to help your ungrateful ass and you're just being a colossal dick!" Jack asks Razor with a frown of his own.

"You are outsiders that somehow got into our city undetected! Until you prove your intentions, I will not trust any of you. Now get going," he replies with a snarl, making Jack growl and turn back to Frank.

"Let's get going before he has an aneurysm!" Jack says and walks through the barrier in a huff.

"Alright, let's move out," Frank says and everyone steps through and begin to swim through the water.

The city outside the barrier is in ruins, buildings collapsed or covered in barnacles, seaweed, and coral. Everyone keeps an eye out for monsters that might ambush them. The current of the sea is making it difficult to swim through but they are making progress.

After a seven minute swim, a large deformed green fish with small eyes, gnarled teeth, and bone protrusions from its jaw attacks the party.

"Green Snappa, level twenty-one, this is acceptable," Satoshi comments as he draws his bow and notches an arrow.

Frank uses his shield charge skill and gets the aggro, followed up with a shield bash to add more.

Jack then jumps in with his leap skill, but yelps as instead of landing like he would, he just tumbles through the water past the monster.

"Be careful! Our skills may not function well in the water!" Frank warns the others as the fish bites into him, dealing a good 254 damage to the guardian. He swings his sword in retaliation, but its slow as the water drags against his arm and blade.

Samantha begins healing him while Daring swims up and latches onto the fish by grabbing its dorsal fin and continuously stabs its side for 40 damage a hit.

Laura is forced to fire mana bolts and ice bolts only as fire won't work and chain lightning backfired dealing 345 damage to herself.

Satoshi is forced to use mana arrows as his normal arrows didn't go far or fast enough to do any damage.

Jack recovers from his tumble and swims over to the fish and uses his warcry followed by a cleave.

Frank is taking a bit of damage but Samantha is keeping up with it. It takes a while but the monster eventually is slain and the party cheer.

Frank loots the bag getting three gnarled fangs, a snappa fin, and 16 bits.

"That was a struggle," Jack says as he just floats upside down for a bit until the current starts to drag him slightly away.

"Let's keep going, we know we can fight them, but that was just one alone, a group will prove a challenge," Frank says as they continue swimming.

"I feel so gross," Samantha comments as the fur on her hands and paws is soaked and gathering grime.

"Just bare with it for now, Sam," Laura replies feeling sorry for the Leoness.

The party comes across a couple more Green Snappa and manage to take them down for a few more fangs, fins, and bits.

The party pass by broken homes and what appears to be a children's playground, broken and overgrown. Sam sheds a few tears seeing the skeletal remains of some children among the debris as they all glance at them.

After a few more fights with more Green Snappa and a school of bone fish, which were just twenty level 10 skeletal fish, simple enough to fight but they nearly killed Frank with how often they kept hitting him.

After an hour of swimming and fighting, the group arrive at a ruined looking temple, similar to the one they saw in Marelantis, just half of the size.

"This looks like the place," Daring comments, as she examines the ruin.

"Let's have a peek inside and then head back to Marelantis," Laura says and swims over to the doorway, but yelps as an octopus tentacle shoots out and grabs her. "AAHHHHH!" she screams as she's pulled in.

"LAURA!" everyone yells and swims into the temple to save her.