//------------------------------// // Daybreak: Ship of Fools // Story: Sigil of Souls, Stream of Memories // by Piccolo Sky //------------------------------// The door barely had a chance to be thrown open before both women were roughly flung inside. After chaffing each other being shoved through the doorway, they both spilled on the hard, rusted, dirty floor and sprawled out…not much considering they were both bound wrists and ankles behind their backs with bags over their heads. Instead, they both moaned in pain and rolled there momentarily. Verko, framing the doorway with two of his goons, grinned at both of them. “Enjoy the luxury cabin, ladies. Try to get comfy. Wouldn’t want any damaged goods now, would we?” They heard the door slam shut behind them, before two bolts and the sound of a heavy padlock rang out. Verko’s laugh echoed away before fading to the sounds of the seashore and sailors at work. The floor beneath both of them rocked back and forth slowly, indicating that they had indeed arrived on a boat, but neither of them said a word at first. They only took the moment to stiffly drag themselves up into seated positions. “Keep it quiet…” one of them finally whispered. “Wait until the engines are running or they’ll hear us.” The other one simply nodded. As it turned out, both of them ended up sitting there for nearly an hour before the sounds of steam being pumped through the pipes in the floor beneath started to resound. The engine slowly picked up in intensity, and not long after that the propellers came to life. Soon after, they felt the ship lurch a bit as it started to pull out. Nevertheless, both of them kept quiet until the ship had turned about and accelerated to full speed. True to being the leaky, rusted bucket that it was, it didn’t take long for the noise to become rather loud. Only after it had been running for a time did one of them start to go to work. At first, she inched her way over to the nearest wall. Once there, she ran the bag along it gently until she found a rusty piece curled and protruding. She quickly hooked the end of the bag upon it with a gesture and then tugged and snapped at it. It took some work, but eventually she ripped enough of a gash on the bottom in order to yank it off. Sunset breathed a bit heavily, much of her former anxiety as well as her lingering recovery striking her, before she looked around the “cabin”. Aside from a couple of fold-up bunks connected with chains to the walls and a tiny porthole letting light in, it was nothing but a grimy, rusty cell. She also saw Twilight was still sitting there with her bag over her own head. “You can get that off now, I think.” “What?” “The bag on your head.” “I can’t reach it! My hands are tied!” Sunset exhaled as she leaned back against the wall. “Figure it out for yourself. That’s what I did.” She proceeded to watch for the next several minutes as Twilight, looking mostly confused and overanalyzing the whole thing, finally began to scoot around on the floor back first and feel out with her hands. It took her some time before she finally found the edge of one of the bunks. Using it as a lever, she slowly manipulated her head down and around to the seam of her bag and used it to pry it off of her head. As soon as she managed to get it off, she exhaled and shook her hair, clearing it from her eyes. “Alright…” She held her hands behind her, closed her eyes, and began to speak. “Member of-” “Not yet!” Sunset snapped, so loud that she quickly looked around to make sure her voice hadn’t carried far enough to be heard over the engines. Sighing, she looked back to her. “Wait until we arrive in Abyssinia! Do it here and we’ll still be in Trottingham waters! And trust me, you do not want to get on the bad side of that new admiral.” Twilight winced before slumping into a seated position of her own. “And don’t forget, we have a deal. Any time you think of ditching me or turning on me, I’m the one who knows all about Celestia’s secret collection. I’ll only spill it once you get me my pardon.” Twilight frowned. “You don’t really trust anyone, do you?” Sunset eyed her oddly for a moment before scoffing. “I think that’s the dumbest thing I’ve heard out of you yet. First of all, you are the last person in the world that I would trust, and don’t think I’m naïve enough to think you’d believe in ‘forgive and forget’ after everything we’ve been through. I’m not that stupid. Second…” She began to ease herself against a wall after that, frowning a bit more. “Even if we didn’t have the issue of our past with each other, I wouldn’t trust you. Trust is for fools. It’s a fairy tale.” “You really believe that?” “Anyone with any sense does. There’s no such thing as trust; just mutual exploitation. Everyone always gets something out of someone else. Once that breaks down, so does their precious ‘trust’. Some are just more honest about it.” Twilight frowned a little more. “You’re wrong about that. The reason we were able to beat Nightmare Moon was because we trusted each other. As friends.” Sunset let out a snicker. “Yeah right… ‘Friends’. You had a common cause is all. Nothing more.” “It was more than a common cause! When I ran back in to face you at the Castle of the Two Sisters, they wouldn’t let me go alone! They could have run and saved themselves but they had my back the whole way!” “Really…” She rolled her head back and let it set against the wall. “Ok, Twilight. Tell me more about your special friends. Like how did you meet them?” Twilight paused momentarily, a bit surprised by the question. “Well…um…the first one I met was Applejack. She let me tag along with her family when they were headed toward Fort Chestnut. That’s when her cousin went wild from his Promethian Sigil and I had to seal it. Soon after, Applejack got her own, and she…she…” She trailed off. She realized what she was about to say, and it made her tense. “Go on, Twilight,” Sunset smugly retorted. “What did she do?” The woman didn’t answer. She hung her head. Sunset smirked. “She wanted you to stick with her to make sure that she didn’t go crazy like her cousin did, didn’t she? She wanted to make sure you could use your binding charm on her if she needed to, right?” “Well, maybe at first…” Twilight hesitantly answered. “But then once we were on the run we met Fluttershy! She didn’t want anything from us!” “Fluttershy…oh yeah, the one with the special animals that she was keeping from being turned into Nighttouched, right? I’m sure she wasn’t hoping that you’d know a way to cure them, or that you’d be able to help her defend them and move them before the next surge hit.” Twilight blanched again at that, but kept firm. “What about all the others? Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash…” “Oh yeah. Three people who had Promethian Sigils and knew nothing about them, but had one person nearby who did.” She leaned her head up. “One person who was staying tight-lipped about all of it, just like a good little student of Headmistress Celestia, but letting out enough leaks to let them cling to hope she’d eventually spill something that would guarantee they’d either gain control or keep from going crazy, right?” Twilight twisted her lip uncomfortably. “Face it, Twilight. I flaunted my status, but you never realized your own good fortune. You were a rare commodity all along. You’re one of the only people alive who knows anything about the Promethian Sigils. Right now, everyone wants to be your ‘friend’. Well, take a good long look at me. Because if you share enough of your secrets and something happens to take away your power, you’ll be as useful to them as I am. They’ll try to dispose of you like trash too.” Twilight didn’t answer. She frowned and turned her head away, looking to the floor. Sunset snorted again before leaning her head back. “This world is a rotten place and it’s filled with rotten people. All I ever did was try to play according to its rules and that made me the bad guy.” She sighed; her face sinking and becoming more morose. “Now I’m back to where I was when I was a kid…spending my life getting the raw side of every deal. I guess Celestia’s last cruel joke to me was leaving me the memory of all my power, then living the rest of my life without it…” Twilight said nothing more. The two sat silently from that point onward. “No… I’m sorry… I’m sorry…” Twilight let out a slight moan as her eyes cracked open. The sun had long since set after she and Sunset managed to drag themselves up and onto the foldaway bunks to try and get some sleep, but there was sufficient moonlight shining through the porthole to provide at least some illumination. As a result, she was able to faintly see Sunset’s outline on the bench across from her as the ship’s engines continued to chug along. “I’ll forget… There’s nothing down there…” she mumbled as she twisted and turned. Her eyes were shut as she did, and her voice was so muddled that it was immediately clear that she was dreaming. However, Twilight’s own wits were sleepy as she had just been roused by the noise, and she was only slowly becoming aware of all of this. She stared at her and blinked several times, her own consciousness coming up as she saw her move. Sunset abruptly went still after letting out an inaudible mutter. Beads of sweat broke out on her forehead but she lay still. Twilight continued to fully awaken, but as she stared on at Sunset and saw her remain there, she began to think that it was over and she had gone fully back to sleep. That was, until she suddenly went rigid. “Ahh…ahh…aaaaaaah!” Abruptly her eyes shot open as she sat bolt upright in spite of her bindings. The scream had been so loud that it made Twilight shoot up as well in alarm, for it resounded through the metal cabin even louder than the engine noise. She stared at Sunset, but the woman only glared forward; her pupils pinpricks, her breathing heavy, and sweat running down her face. She looked half scared to death. Twilight was stunned at the look of her, but gained enough of her own bearings to try and respond. “What’s-” She went rigid instead a moment later as a loud banging rang against the door to their cabin. “Hey! You two keep it down or I’ll come in there and give you something to really moan about!” Twilight, shaking a little from the surprise, took a moment to swallow and straighten up again. Sunset, on her part, slowly eased down in her breathing. Her body gradually relaxed and she swallowed, but she continued to shake a little as she started to look around. She eventually glanced up and noticed Twilight staring at her, which made her frown a little before looking away. “Stop staring at me. I’m tired of you seeing me at my most pathetic.” “…Nightmare?” “What do you care?” Twilight looked back at her for a moment in silence. “Was it about…the thing in the Northern Keep?” Instantly, Sunset snapped her head back up and over to her. “What did you just say?” She scarcely kept it in a whisper. Twilight swallowed a lump of her own, starting to tremble as well. “I…get nightmares about it every once in a while too. I’ve been trying to do what Celestia told me to do and forget it, but…every time I start to forget it I hear its voice again. Its…its horrible laughter… I never should have gone there. She told me not to. I don’t know why I decided to disobey her just that once, but it was the last time I ever did…” Sunset, forgetting her own fear, turned fully to her. “Did you hear it? Did you…did you see it?” She shook her head. “I didn’t dare get any closer once it heard me. I couldn’t have if I wanted to. I was terrified. I thought any second it would come around the corner and rip me to pieces. If Celestia hadn’t grabbed me and carried me out of there, I would have been rooted to that spot all night. I thought I was dead once we got out of there, though. That she’d throw me out of school on the spot. But she just put me to bed and told me to forget all about it. She wasn’t angry with me at all. She’d never been angry with me…” Twilight trailed off at this point and looked up. Sunset was still staring at her, but she had actually formed a small smile. Now she was snickering at her. She frowned. “What’s so funny?” “You.” Her eyes narrowed. “Well I’m glad you think I’m so amusing, especially when you’re relying on me to get you out of here.” “No-no, that’s not what I meant. You just admitted that you disobeyed Celestia.” Twilight’s frown faded. She was caught a moment, before she began to blush and look down. “I…I guess I did… But it was just that once!” Sunset snickered some more. “And here I took you for some goodie two-shoes teacher’s pet. I can’t believe you actually disobeyed her. And about that rule, of all things.” Twilight flustered more. “Yes, but…but look how wrong I was! Both of us are still having nightmares about it!” Sunset shrugged. “Maybe, but we still have something in common after all. It looks like both of us wanted to find out more and got impatient waiting for her to teach it to us.” Twilight nearly protested again, but this time she stayed silent and let her mouth slowly close as the same conclusion slowly dawned on her. Her face, however, remained blank afterward; clearly not certain how to react to that knowledge. “Say…I know she taught you that binding charm. Anything else she teach you that she never taught me?” Twilight snapped out of it when she heard that. However, on looking back at Sunset, she started to look hesitant. “You might as well,” she shrugged. “I can’t do magic anymore. No harm in telling me, right?” The woman hesitated again, taking a moment to muse over this logic. “It’s not like I’m going to be going back to sleep again anytime soon. I never can after one of those nightmares… Besides, what’s a bit of ‘lesson swapping’ between two star students? She always wanted all us classmates to work together, didn’t she?” Twilight let out a slow exhale. A moment later, she leaned back down on the bunk. “Well…I honestly think she taught you more than she taught me, but there were a handful of things she said were special…” The sound of the heavy latches being undone alerted both Sunset and Twilight to look to the front of the room, but both regretted it a moment later when the door was flung open wide and bright, clear sunshine blinded both of them. They winced and recoiled on their bunks, barely noticing the man walking in with a tin tray. “Oh look,” a gruff voice sounded as they both struggled to squint and adjust to the view, “seems you two managed to get the bags off your heads, huh? Well good. Makes things easier.” Both of them managed to look as he roughly set down a tray on the floor. They barely made out a pair of bowls and two cups along with them, both of which spilled a little from how roughly he deposited them on the ground. “You two can make like a couple of bitches and lap this stuff up with your tongues then. Have fun.” With that, he stepped back, slammed the door shut (spilling a little more) and then bolted it again. The eyes of the two had just started to adjust to the sunlight when they found themselves thrown back into the darkness of the cell again, causing Sunset to sigh and lean back against the bunk. “Great… I’m not sure why I expected these traffickers to treat us with the slightest hint of human dignity…” Twilight didn’t answer. Instead, Sunset heard a loud thump against the ground nearby. She looked up and over, and saw that her cellmate had already rolled off of the bunk and painfully to the floor. From there, she winced and writhed like a worm as she slowly turned herself around, before beginning to inch her way over toward the food and water on the floor. Sunset stared at her a moment before shrugging. “Might as well. Not like this is getting any easier…” Taking a deep breath, she rolled herself off the side and dropped to the ground as well. It was a rather hard, rough impact, making her wince and grit her teeth, but soon she began to inch around as well. After that, she began to squirm after Twilight. While she was still a distance away, she was able to recognize what they had gotten. Nothing more than a couple of cups of water and bowls of what looked like burned porridge. Despite her own hunger and thirst, Sunset couldn’t help but wrinkle her nose in disgust and irritation at it. “Wonderful… They put our water in cups. We’ll be able to drink half of it at most before we spill the rest trying to get to it.” Twilight still didn’t respond. Instead, on reaching the tray, she stopped. She took the moment to sit up again and wiggle around so that her back was to it. After that, she slowly inched her way back, feeling out with her bound hands and being careful not to spill any more. This made Sunset pause in her own squirming. “What are you doing?” After a moment of work, Twilight was finally able to grasp one of the bowls. Holding it firmly, she began to tuck her legs in. “What do you think you’re going to do? You’re not going to try and free yourself just so you can eat, are you?” “No,” she answered, “I’m going to feed you and give you water, and then you can do the same to me.” Sunset paused, surprised at the suggestion. Twilight simply turned her head and looked at her. “Come on. Just get over here and get on your knees and I can lower it to you from behind me.” Still the woman didn’t move. She just stared. “What’s wrong?” “Is…is this a trick?” Twilight looked puzzled at the hesitation in her voice. “What?” “I mean…I…uh…” “How could I trick you with this? I didn’t even make the food and water.” “Well…are…are you just going to dump it out when I try to eat it?” Twilight sighed. “If I did that, then you’d just do the same to my food and water when you do the same for me. Come on. There’s nothing to be afraid of.” Sunset reacted at that word. “Afraid?” “Yes! You don’t have to be afraid! Come on!” Sunset’s face twisted a little at that. For a moment, it grew indignant and upset, but that didn’t last. Realization eventually came over her that fear was the reason she was holding back. As a result, she continued to lay there for a bit longer, wrestling with whether or not she wanted to keep going. Yet she considered her hunger and her thirst… Finally, swallowing a little, she inched forward again. It was more slowly this time, and Twilight had more than long enough to get her legs underneath her and get into a standing position. Once there, Sunset came up behind her. She looked at her uneasily before she only slowly pushed herself up into a kneel. Once there, the bowl of porridge was right in front of her. She stared at it but made no move. “If you need me to tip it or want me to go for the water, just tell me.” Sunset didn’t answer. She continued to stare at the bowl. She did so for several seconds longer before finally inching her head forward. Almost as if it would bite her, she put her head out toward the edge. Putting her lips over the top, she grabbed some of the porridge and drew it into her mouth. It was horrible tasting, mostly due to being burnt, but she forced herself to eat some regardless. She took a second bite soon after. By the time she got to the fourth, she hesitated momentarily. “Um…tip it please.” Twilight did so, allowing her to eat more. As bad as her hunger was, however, she couldn’t manage to choke down more than a little over half of it. The rest of it was fairly indigestible no matter how much of an appetite she would have had. When she finally ate as much as she could scrape off with her teeth, she backed up. “I…guess I’m ready to try the water.” It took Twilight some time to lower to put down the bowl and take up the water, and getting back up with her hands bound and not spilling it proved to be a real chore. However, the effort was worth it. Rather than having to lap at it, Sunset managed to get most of the precious water out of the cup as a result. It wasn’t the best tasting water in the world but, again, she couldn’t complain. “Ok,” she finally said, “it’s empty.” “Alright then. My turn.” Twilight began to get down on the floor. Sunset watched her a moment as she got into position, then looked to the remaining cup and bowl. She slowly dropped out of her own kneel. “Could I…get some of the water first? I think I’m going to need all the moisture I can get to gnaw through the porridge…” Sunset didn’t answer. She was looking at the cup and the bowl. She stared at it for a moment before she finally sat and began to shimmy up to it carefully just as Twilight had. Her hands reached out and gently felt along, and after a short time they finally found the edge of the bowl. Moving past that, they went on and felt the cup. Yet as soon as she gripped it, she hesitated. The cup was in her hand now. The water inside it was in her power. Lifting it up would be rather difficult. She’d have to move very slowly to make sure not to spill any more. On the other hand, it would be a very simple matter to just dump it out to one side. Let it fall and let its contents run everywhere. Claim it was an accident. Watch as the person who took everything from her and yet fate had left her completely dependent upon her go thirsty the rest of the day… Her hands didn’t even make the motion to do so, however. Instead, they gripped the cup more firmly, and she slowly tucked her legs underneath her to begin to rise. Not two minutes later, she was helping Twilight sip from the cup. There were no other meals that day, so both Twilight and Sunset lay back on their cots and went hungry for that evening. As the sun slowly went down, both of them tried to close their eyes and to go to sleep to forget about it. It wasn’t easy. The burned porridge hadn’t settled down easily, but there wasn’t so much as a hole in the floor within their cabin and Sunset didn’t want to risk trying to relieve herself when she couldn’t move her hands from her back region. She tried her best to ignore it as she lay back down on the bunk and closed her eyes, but every time she opened them she was aggravated to see the sun was still up and only slowly setting. She lost track of how many times she checked, seeing the day give way to shades of red that only slowly grew darker. Occasionally, there was laughter over some dirty joke audible through the wall, but Sunset was grateful for that. It broke up the endless monotony as the only other stimulation was the ship slowly rocking back and forth along the ocean waves and the ever-present, somewhat-headache-inducing pounding away of the engines. Lastly, the memory of last night’s nightmare kept her awake, especially the thought of having it again. Finally, the sun fully set. The sky turned dark with only a pale light from the waning moon. Sunset let out a long sigh and closed her eyes one more time. She wasn’t sure if she lay there for hours with her eyes shut or if she actually managed to nod off once or twice. All she knew was that a feeling of motion sickness woke her up again. It was a most surprising sensation, feeling her stomach dip like that. Her eyes opened up soon after. As she tried to figure out what had caused it, she became aware of several things. First was that the ship was rocking a lot worse than it had been before. After several seconds, she heard a dragging and rattling. She looked up and saw the discarded cups and bowls from that morning were rolling about on the floor. The rocking had gotten so bad that they were now sliding around. She looked up to the porthole at that, half-expecting to see the sky clouded over from storm clouds. Yet on the contrary, the view was still clear. When the ship pitched again soon after, however, a cloud of spray went up and through it. That was all she needed to see. “Twilight.” The woman let out a small moan, but then rolled over and opened her eyes. Apparently, she had been lightly sleeping as well. And just like Sunset, she blinked a few times, but then began to look around herself. She soon seemed to pick up on the situation as well. “What the-” “I don’t know, but I think something’s wrong.” She began to sit up and started to look around. “We’re rocking too much. We’ve got to be headed for rough water, but I don’t hear anyone on deck moving around.” Twilight sat up and started to look around as well. She only did so for a moment, however, before her face looked confused. “Where’s that music coming from?” “Huh?” “That music.” “What are you talking about? There’s no…” Sunset trailed off in mid-speech, however. Now that Twilight mentioned it, she was hearing something faint from the porthole. It seemed distant, like it was off the ship all together, and it was so faint that one almost mistook it for a breeze. However, there was definitely a song on the wind. As she listened to it, it was like no song she ever heard before. She couldn’t honestly tell if it was someone singing it, a group of people singing it, or some strange animal noise. It was strangely melodious and beautiful, and yet it was also haunting. Eerie. Even chilling… “I think we should get out of here.” Sunset turned to Twilight as she stood up from her bunk. “Are you crazy? We’re still at sea! We can’t run this boat by ourselves! Even if we could, we may not be in international waters!” “We can’t worry about that now.” Her voice had turned grim and serious. “Something’s wrong here. Very wrong. We need to go.” “But-” It was too late. “Member of my house, I command you to come to me! Master of Sorcery—Starswirl the Bearded!” Sunset winced and drew her head back as Twilight’s aura erupted, and in moments she was standing there in the full regalia of a Caster. She nervously looked to the door to their cabin, expecting at any moment for it to burst open and for the thugs to break in on them. There was no way that unique sound hadn’t resounded over the engine and through the ship. Yet no one came as Twilight generated a fireball in her hands and used it to melt her bonds off her wrists. She sighed in relief as she rubbed both wrists in relief at last, then quickly did the same to her ankles. Sunset was still watching the door when Twilight came over to her and cut off her own bonds with a sharp piece of ice, but when she was done there was still nothing. Only at that time did Sunset’s unease turn to puzzlement. “There’s no way someone didn’t hear you change just now…” “That’s just it. I’m scared they did hear me change.” Sunset looked up to her. “What? What do you mean?” “Let’s just get out of here now.” Sunset exhaled and began to rise. Twilight took a moment to look through the room, trying to find anything she could transmute into a wand, but the crew hadn’t even left them a spoon to work with. Eventually, she gave up and went to the door. Sunset couldn’t help but notice that the ship was rocking a bit more by the time she did, and that the song seemed a bit louder and closer. In fact, the louder and closer it was, the more she found herself focusing on it… Giving up her search, Twilight went to the door. “I’ll just have to brace myself for whatever comes…” Extending two fingers, she used that as her focal point as she quickly traced out the symbol for fire and extended it against the door latch. A bright flame erupted and burned against it, and after several seconds of burning it caused the iron to gleam and deform. Several seconds later and slag rolled out from the latch, destroying both bolts and the padlock on the other side, and the door suddenly gave a creak as it was free. Twilight quickly pushed it open against a cool part and stepped outside; Sunset falling in behind and walking out as well. They didn’t get that very far before both froze on the spot. The guard was right there, standing straight and tall. They thought they had to have been spotted for a brief moment, before they realized he wasn’t looking their way. In fact, his gun had fallen from his grip, and he was staring forward straight ahead at the prow. He neither seemed to hear them or acknowledge them. After a moment, both women eased on seeing his lack of reaction. Twilight stepped forward and past him, looking on down the deck. Sunset herself moved forward and turned to look at his face. It was hard to make out in the pale moonlight, but it was expressionless. The jaw was slightly ajar and his eyes had a glazed look to them. In fact, in the darkness, his pupils looked like they had almost faded into his retinas. She hesitated a moment, then risked raising a hand and waved it in front of his face. No reaction. She snapped her fingers next. Still nothing. A bit longer, and she even reached out and pushed against him. He shifted a bit, but no other action. Nothing except him staring there…and that song. That song growing louder and louder yet… More potent…more haunting… Sunset felt her eyes drifting upward as she listened to it, before suddenly snapping out of it. She didn’t realize when she had started to focus on it, or when her head had started to move, but suddenly she found herself looking up and back toward the stern. However, no sooner had she come to when she realized that the guard wasn’t the only one on deck standing still. She stepped out further from the cabin entrance and looked up, and saw three different people were all standing around the helm, including the one steering. Each one was frozen in place. Each one had the same glazed look in their eyes. Each one was staring along the prow as the ship continued to rock and roll in the waves… She turned and looked forward to try and see what they were staring at, but in doing so she fully faced the source of the music. Immediately, that was all she could hear. Suddenly, the rest of the world seemed to fade around her. The song was all that mattered. She thought she could make out voices on it, but it still sounded so natural and yet so inhuman at the same time. The mystic quality of it… The resonance of the notes… It was all around her. Inside her and outside. All she could focus on. All she could think of… “Oh no…look!” This time, Sunset really was snapped out of it. She blinked a few times, but the world around her remained gray and disconnected. Like she was coming out of a dream. It took several moments before it cleared up enough for her to see Twilight on the prow pointing out ahead. When she did, the song was stronger yet, but she saw something else to capture her attention. The reason the ship was rocking and the sea frothing around it was because they were headed straight for a collection of jagged, razor-sharp rocks surrounding a bare rock atoll shrouded with fog just up ahead. The waters were getting more shallow and violent, but the ship’s course laid straight in. They were going for a direct collision. There was no question that the song was coming from within the fog above it. As they drew closer it seemed to be radiating an ethereal greenish tint or glow from inside it. It became unmistakable in moments. Even if certain death didn’t await them on the rocks, she knew right then and there she didn’t want to get any closer to that light. Fear now seizing her and sharpening her senses, she spun around and shouted out to the helm. “Hey! You up there! Turn the ship around!” The three didn’t even act like they heard her. They remained fixed in their current positions, continuing to listen to the song, and continuing to drive the ship onward. “Hey!” Twilight joined in, running back up the deck. “Turn! We’re going to run into the rocks!” She ran up to the guard, who was just as immobile as the others, seized him by the shoulders and gave him a shake. “We’re going to crash! We need to turn the ship!” The guard didn’t move. He barely even shifted his feet in order to keep himself balanced from the crash. Twilight’s shouts fell on deaf ears. Sunset looked about only a moment longer before taking off for the rear of the ship. Fortunately it was rather small and she reached the helm in no time. She didn’t even bother trying to shout at any of the three rough-looking men staring agape at their incoming doom. Instead, she rushed over to the wheel, ignored the fact that the helmsman was still grasping it, and seized it herself. Quickly she gave it a sharp yank, trying to turn it. Immediately, the hands of the helmsman solidified and tightened, becoming as hard and unyielding as iron. He locked the wheel right in its place, not letting Sunset move at all. She grit her teeth and dug her feet in, trying to fight him for control of it, but, without even looking at her, he made his own body just as hard and rigid and wouldn’t allow it. She continued to struggle with him for a few more seconds nevertheless… Until she cried out as she found herself seized roughly by the shoulder by one of the other men. A moment later, she yelled again as she was violently flung away from the wheel and smacked shoulder-blade first into the railing around the steering column. She was still weakened, but even if she wasn’t the force with which she had been flung alone was painful, let alone her collision on top of it. She quickly fell to her knees and cried in pain. She struggled to get back up, hoping to try again… Before she could, a fist connected so solidly with her head that she collapsed to the deck all together. Her senses went swimming as she sprawled out, and the song as well as the rocking ship faded momentarily. Somehow she managed to push it away, though. Lip now bleeding, she looked up, and saw one of the zombie-like men was now barring the way between her and the helm. While still staring ahead at the incoming atoll, his shoulders and hips were squared between her and the wheel. However, Sunset didn’t push it. Instead she looked away and quickly began to scramble as far from him as she could. As she did she grunted and started to pull herself to her feet. She was halfway up when Twilight finally rushed up deck to her. “I can’t get him to wake up! Even shocking him with a mild electric bolt didn’t…” She trailed on spotting her. “What happ-” “Get to the tender boat!” Sunset cut off, finally pulling herself back to her feet. “Hurry!” “The tender boat? But-” “Don’t argue! We don’t have time!” She shouted back as she staggered forward, putting an arm around Twilight both for support as well as to force her on. “If we don’t run now, we’ll go down with this ship!” “But…but…!” Sunset used her hesitation to force her on. Her eyes looked up and ahead. The boat in question was on deck, just tied down with a few lines to keep it from rolling about. She practically shoved Twilight forward toward it, and as soon as they arrived she frantically went for the ropes in the back and started to undo them as quickly as she could. She managed to untie one line before Twilight got enough of her bearings. “What are we doing? We can’t leave… I mean… We shouldn’t…” “Just burn through the ropes and hurry!” Sunset shouted, looking up again to see their time. “We got to get in the water before…” She trailed off herself. She had scarcely looked at the prow of the ship before she saw the vessel plunge again with the rising and falling waters. And as it went down, it exposed a massive horizontally lying slab of rock eroded down to a tapered tip; like a giant spear just waiting to impale their boat, and only seconds from impact. “Oh no…” Twilight turned and looked, but only managed a gasp. Moments later, the vessel collided with the rock. As a thunderous sound of rock piercing and scraping metal resounded throughout the air, the sudden stop flung Sunset violently off of her feet and right into Twilight while the entire ship around them began to break and compress. Just before the world vanished into the chaos and oblivion, her eyes looked into the green fog. She swore she saw the shadows of three gigantic hellish mixes of horse and fish swimming within it.