Episode 142: Stealth With a Side of Action
The very first thing Twilight Sparkle learned about underwater combat was that she didn’t move nearly as fast having to push her body through water as she could when moving through air. This meant the fundamental timing of every motion was slightly off from what she was used to. While many would have called the studious alicorn a bookworm and general nerd, far from the athletic type, years of adventuring with her friends had left her far more hardy than the average geek. Also, being an alicorn helped. She might not have had the time yet to properly grow into all of the outstanding alicorn physical traits Celestia and Luna had had centuries to mature into, but Twilight’s body was precisely normal, either.
So as it stood, she misjudged her first dodge when a crab scuttled towards her and swung it’s pincer her way, not moving as fast as she anticipated she should. That said, she took the blow with grace, feeling a jarring pain but finding herself more than able to roll with it both figuratively and literally as she rolled over in the water and aimed her horn at the offending crustacean.
A pure beam of violet magic lanced into the crab, not only hitting it with tremendous physical force, but flooding the crab’s synapses with a jolt of stunning energy that Twilight interlaced into the beam. It was blasted back into the side of the dome wall it had crawled out of, legs twitching in an erratic dance.
Rarity had adjusted a bit better to underwater movement, and hence managed to glide smoothly through another crab’s grabbing pincers whilst unsheathing the dagger she’d brought with her. Rather than any conventional attack, Rarity used her magic to take hole of a clump of seaweed and tied it to her dagger, using the weapon like a sewing needle in a flourish of rapid motions that tied together her attacker’s legs.
“Shouldn’t we just swim up out of reach of these guys?” Flash Sentry said, his body bursting through the water in a use of Flash Step that left a swirling tunnel current in his wake. It was much harder to use the technique underwater, and it left a more obvious trail of his motions, but these giant crabs weren’t exactly the most swift or canny opponents, either. He got behind one and cut down with his Zanpaktou, cutting clean through the arm of one of the crabs.
To his question, Wavecrest shook her head as she floated back from a crab’s grasp, “No, were we to swim too high, we would be visible to any watchers from afar. It is the ground and buildings that mask us from sentries.”
She spun her staff, chanting under her breath, and the water turned saturated with a soft green glow. The water began to bubble around two of the crabs, who halted and waved their arms about, trembling and flailing as the water temperature began to boil in a sphere encasing them.
“She’s right, we’d best just finish this quickly so the noise doesn’t attract attention either,” said Seaspray. The hippogryph was back to back with Applejack as four of the other crabs surrounded the pair. He used his harpoon to deflect a pincer coming for him and smoothly spun around, whipping the weapon forward in a jab that punched a hole in the pincer of another that was trying to bash him. Applejack carefully eyed the two coming for her, slipping to the side as one tried to grab her with both pincers. When the other snapped down with a pincer of it’s own she threw up her hooves to halt it, and had to use her tail to brace against the bottom part of the pincer that came up from below. She grunted for a moment, then grit her teeth and pitted her muscles against the crab’s. As it turned out, even if her trusty rear hooves were replaced by a fin, a lifetime of bucking apples out of trees still translated into fantastic levels of earth pony strength.
The lower part of the pincer gave out first, nearly breaking off entirely and freeing Applejack to spin around and give the other crab a solid whack with her tail, which made it reel back.
“Heh, these fella’s ain’t too tough,” Applejack said with a surge of optimism.
“Even if they’re not, they seem to have a growing advantage in the numbers department,” Rarity pointed out, gesturing at the domes. While only ten crabs had scuttled out at first, more were crawling out to join their fellows. Twilight counted over twenty at this point, and realized that trying to brawl this out was a bad idea. Even if they won, taking on this many crabs would cause too much commotion and draw the sahuagin’s attention.
“If we can’t go up, we go forward!” she said, “Follow me!”
With a burst of magic she erected a double wall of purple force that split the crab’s formation in two and left a clear corridor that led deeper into the zoo. She swam for it, and the others followed her. The crabs beat upon the walls of magic force with their pincers, but to little avail.
Twilight led the group ahead, where the central dome of the zoo spanned above them. At a whim, she chose to head left, down a wide open street that ran around the central dome, with smaller paths branching off to run between a series of smaller domes. Some were about the size of the one the crabs had come from, while others were smaller, but all had the same broken, dilapidated look. Twilight saw motion from several, or the glint of strange eyes looking out at them from within, and got the feeling that stopping for too long was a bad idea.
Unfortunately they didn’t have much choice but to halt as they came across something blocking their way. It was a colossal shell, splotched with spiked protrusions and coated with mounds of algae. It was empty, save for ancient scraps of dead flesh that hung like banners from it’s cavernous entrance. Some titanic hermit crab must have once called the shell home, but it was long dead now, in what Twilight imagined had been an incredible struggle. She saw several smaller, smashed domes nearby, and it looked as if the shell itself had been hurled into the central dome with impressive force, tearing open a hole with the impact.
“We’ll just have to swim around it,” she said, turning to the left, upon which she saw a strange flickering of lights approaching through the gloom, “Huh, what are those?”
Wavecrest was the first to recognize the approaching danger, her pupils shrinking and her tail fin curling, “Perhaps the ocean spirits are a tad upset today. Don’t let them touch you. They’re Agony Fish!”
“They’re what fish!?” Applejack shouted, then made a yelping sound as she had to swim back from the grasping strands of deathly purple tentacles, each no more than an centimeter wide, but there were dozens upon dozens of then whipping out from the unusually bulbous and mobile blobs that swam towards them.
“J-Jellyfish?” Twilight cocked her head curiously at them. It was a school of perhaps a dozen of the balloon-like creatures, but they were moving with surprisingly swiftness, and appeared to be able to control the motion of the many tentacles that grew from their bodies. Their color was a sickly dark purple, with waving white stripes that formed a pattern vaguely like that of a screaming face.
She’d never heard of this species before, but judging from the name, she was going to guess the sting of these creatures would be far worse than the average jellyfish.
“Why would anypony keep something like this in a zoo!?” Rarity shouted, also darting back as she used her dagger to slice away some tentacles that reached for her, “This is totally inappropriate for a public attraction!”
“Well, we have kept dangerous creatures in Equestrian zoos as well,” Twilight commented while shaping a protective bubble of force around the group. To her surprise, the Agony Fish weren’t dissuaded by the magical force field and started to wrap their tendrils around it. Twilight noticed the tentacles were having a corrosive effect on her magic, and while it held up just fine, she noticed more of the horrid jellyfish incoming and she wasn’t about to see just how many of them might try to pile on.
“Hey Twilight, expand your force field,” Flash said, pointing back at the hole the giant shell had made in the center dome’s wall, “If you can make it large enough to get us in there, I can collapse the wall to block the passage.”
“What, and go into the Kraken’s dome?” Applejack asked, “Are ya nuts?”
“I’m sure the Kraken is long gone, and once we’re in we can cut through it to get to the zoo’s other side,” said Flash.
“We don’t have much time to consider this,” said Rarity, nodding towards where not only were more Agony Fish swimming towards them, but the crabs were catching up as well, “We’ve become very popular, and personally I’ve no desire to become a permanent attraction. Into the dome, I say!”
Twilight gave an affirming nod, “Okay then, everypony get ready.”
She thrust her horn up and flared it’s magic brighter, causing the purple bubble around them to expand rapidly, even as it was sizzling from dozens of Agony Fish tentacles corroding it’s surface. The bubble increased in size until it enveloped the portion of the center dome with the hole punched through it. Twilight had adjusted the spell on the fly to let water through, so they could still swim for the hole, and took off as fast as she could while the others swam beside her.
Once they were inside, Flash Sentry turned around and pointed a hoof at the top of the hole, where numerous cracks spread up the wall.
“Hado Number Thirty One: Shakkaho!”
A compacted ball of explosive red power flew from his hoof and detonated along the unstable portion of the cracked wall. This caused a short tremor as rubble broke off and collapsed downward, blocking the hole the group had just swam through.
“Guess that oughta slow ‘em down,” Applejack said, “Good thinkin’.”
Flash turned around, wearing a humble look, “Twilight could’ve done the same, right?”
“True,” admitted Twilight, “But I was holding the shield up anyway, so this worked out fine.”
“Capital work, but we’re not out of danger yet,” said Seaspray, pointing upwards with his harpoon at the vast opening that had been torn open out of the Kraken dome’s ceiling, “If those beasts are determined to get to us, they can still get in through the top.”
“True, dear Admiral, but they’ll have to swim up there, or in the crabs’ case, crawl,” pointed out Rarity, “We should have some time to find our way through this place. On that note, is now a good time to ask if this is quite what we expected to find in here?”
Her query got the others looking around at their surroundings. The enclosure of the dome was a wide open area, spanning an incredible length to the point that Twilight’s vision couldn’t even properly make out the far walls. A series of rocky formations rose up from the ground like the grasping limbs of the very beast the dome once held, providing a wealth of eerie shadows to waver across the walls. Over a hundred paces up was a series of glass and coral tubes, ancient walkways where supposedly visitors to the zoo could swim through to view the Kraken in its habitat. Most of these tubes were now broken, jagged pieces of glass littering the rocky fields beneath like glittering snow.
Perhaps most notable was the shape of something huge, yet broken in half, akin to the corpse of a huge creature if not for the gleam of metal. Twilight’s eyes flickered in a squint as she made out details of a sharp, pointed bow, with serrated metal blades leading to a point like that of a swordfish. The twisted remains of metal fins on the sides ended right in a torn hole where the back half of the object hung in a crushed, limp array of wreckage only vaguely resembling a whale’s tail, yet bearing twin props like the propellers on an airship.
“Oh...” said Wavecrest, swimming forward almost unconsciously, “So this is where it fell.”
“Where what fell? The tarnation is that thing?” asked Applejack.
Wavecrest ran a hoof over her head crest, “Legends of Princess Scylla’s personal ship, the Odyssey, still live on in my people’s memory. If the stories can be believed, it was made by Aqualania’s finest artisans and enchanted by its greatest witches. Scylla used it to travel every sea in search of treasures and artifacts from all the world’s cultures. I knew it had been used in the final battle for the city and had been lost, but I never imagined it had made its final resting place in the Kraken’s den.”
She began to swim towards the ancient wreck, almost as if in a daze, but Twilight swam in front of her with a worried look, “I don’t think we have time to look through it, Wavecrest. We need to find the exit, before those crabs and jellyfish find us, or something worse does.”
“I... understand, but surely we have a few minutes to look?” said Wavecrest, “The Odyssey was a powerful ship, and Princess Scylla must have kept some personal items on board. Who knows what we might find of value to my people in there? We may even find weapons we can salvage to aid us in our mission here.”
Twilight was hesitant, but Flash Sentry swam up to her and gave her a reassuring nod, “Why don’t you girls go check the cool looking seapony warship, while the Admiral and I keep watch? If those creatures start coming in through the roof, we ought to be able to keep them busy for a while.”
“Quite right,” said Seaspray, “I must say I’m curious what you might find in there, so far be it from me to curb the explorative urge. Just don’t take too long.”
“Okay, okay, but just for a few minutes,” Twilight agreed.
She didn’t like spending any more time than was necessary right now. Normally she’d be more than excited to explore something of cultural or historical significance like the Odyssey, but not while she had friends out there in danger. So far her team had already run into trouble, and they hadn’t even gotten close to the palace yet. Twilight sincerely hoped things were going smoother for the other team.
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“This is going too smoothly,” Tempest said, eyes keenly watching for any signs of more sahuagin that might be trying to find them in the ruins. “He’s almost too cooperative.”
“Oh hush,” Starlight Glimmer said, tossing her a flat look, “The spell is supposed to make him cooperative. That’s the point.”
“Let’s just hope the intel he gives us is good. Now, ask him again about the sirens.”
“Ugh, I already asked him!”
“Do it again. Try to get more detail.”
Starlight rubbed a hoof over her face but sighed heavily and turned to their captive sahuagin. Ulgriv as they’d learned his name to be, was looking at her with that expectant and empty gaze Starlight was all too familiar with. Her friends were familiar with it, too, with Rainbow Dash giving a slight shudder.
“Whoa that is creepy. Did we look that empty headed when you brain zapped us, Starlight?”
“Eeeh, maybe little?” Starlight said, then glanced at Pinkie Pie, who had acquired a stick from somewhere and was poking Ulgriv in the face with it. Where Pinkie Pie even got a stick underwater was anypony’s guess. Starlight shrugged, “At any rate, let’s try this again. Ulgriv, do you remember capturing two sirens, a purple angry one and a blue ditzy one?”
“Hey, I wouldn’t call Aria ‘angry’, just very, very grumpy,” said Pinkie Pie, then rubbed her chin, “But yeah, Sonata’s kinda silly.”
At everypony’s look, she blinked in oblivious query, “What?” She then went back to poking the sahuagin with a stick, while Ulgriv began to speak in an emotionally devoid monotone. Or as close to a monotone as his odd, gurgling voice could get.
“Warleader Morgawr was pleased we captured the two of the first kin who traveled with the land dwellers. They were bound and taken with us to this city.”
“Right, you said that, but are you sure you don’t know where they are right now? Where they’re being held?” Starlight pressed, and Ulgriv’s orb-like eyes twitched slightly.
“I do not know. Morgawr had them taken into the palace, but I saw not where. One as lowly as I would not be allowed into the palace until it was time to return home.”
“Oh? What’s your home like?” Fluttershy asked, and at Starlight’s glance the pegasus turned aquatic equine blushed with a hint of rose as she said, “I was just curious.”
“Home is deep, and dark, and ever cold,” said Ulgriv, “It is where we, the strong kin, have dwelled since the higher waters were denied to us by the soft kin and first kin. There, in the Abyss, we remain the strong kin, surviving and fighting against all the many teeth in the darkness.”
“Oh my, that doesn’t sound very pleasant,” said Fluttershy, “Why can’t you leave if this Abyss is so dangerous?”
“We leave to raid, but cannot settle. Too many soft kin, too many other dangers, so says our wise Deep Mistress.”
“You mean that Charybdis chick?” said Rainbow Dash.
“Only the most honored warriors and shaman may speak the holy name of the Deep Mistress,” said Ulgriv, shuddering slightly, and Starlight waved her hoof at Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy.
“Don’t confuse him with random questions, girls. I need him focused. Now Ulgriv, try to remember, do you recall anything about the palace’s interior? Any place at all inside where this Morgawr might keep prisoners?”
Another brief quake of twitches ran over Ulgriv’s broad face. His mouth hung open and then closed a few times before he answered in a halting voice, “I know only the grand entry hall, courtyards, and outer walls. We came through the shaman’s great translocation sphere. I’ve seen no other parts of the palace. But I have heard other warriors higher than myself speak of it. It has many chambers, many halls, and many places forbidden to us by the Deep Mistress. If Morgawr were to keep prisoners someplace, perhaps it would be near the translocation sphere?”
“Translawhat?” Rainbow Dash blurted, and Starlight’s face shadowed with a contemplative frown.
“That sounds like a magical item, and judging by the name, it must be for travel. Ulgriv, where is this translocation sphere located?”
“In a courtyard within the palace’s southern block. It is right next to the fallen temple to the soft kin’s false gods.”
“A temple?” Starlight’s confusion mounted, “And what do you mean ‘false gods’?”
The sahuagin’s limbs wriggled in a spastic show if distaste and his lips pulled back to show his rows of needle teeth. Even his monotone faltered for a second, “The soft kin believed themselves chosen by the false gods to rule the seas forever. We strong kin were abandoned by the gods, according to the soft kin’s legends, and so we were driven into the Abyss. All lies. Only the Deep Mistress is worthy of being called holy, of our prayers. You can see the soft kin’s temples littering this corpse city, filled with images of the false gods.”
“Whoa, this guy is sounding kind of nuts,” Rainbow Dash said, “Who the heck even believes in that stuff?”
“I dunno, mom and pop believe in all sorts of stuff, like the Choosing Stone,” said Pinkie Pie with a hefty shrug as she twirled her stick and stuffed it back into her mane, from where she presumably got it, “There’s some pretty wacky stuff out there, Dashie.”
“Do you think that building we hid in was one of these temples?” suggested Fluttershy, “That would explain all the statues and murals we saw.”
“It might also explain why the sahuagin were afraid of it,” said Tempest, although there was a strong note of doubt in her voice, which Starlight agreed with. Ulgriv’s words made it sound more like the sahuagin detested the seapony’s old beliefs, which wouldn’t fully explain why they’d avoid the temple. Well, no time like the present to ask.
“Ulgriv, why would a sahuagin patrol avoid going into one of those temples?”
To this, Ulgriv paused, then said with a pinch of nerves, “Our wise and powerful shaman keep the palace safe, but not the rest of the city. Our patrols move swiftly and stick together, to avoid the attention of the angry spirits that still dwell here. The temples especially are a dangerous place to enter. Violating one would certainly enrage Aqualania’s spirits.”
“Spirits? As in, ghosts?” Starlight asked, filled with a certain incredulity that didn’t quite stick as she began to feel a sense of chilling unease. Sure, she’d never technically seen a ghost before, but then again, she hadn’t met a Soul Reaper until recently either. As far as she knew Equestria didn’t have anything like spirits or ghosts or anything of the sort wandering around, but she wasn’t inclined to completely dismiss her instincts, which were raising some alarm bells.
“That is what is said,” Ulgriv spoke in a hushed tone, “Rigash laughs at me for believing. Many others do, too. But I do not scoff at it. Warriors vanish when separated from their patrols. One time a patrol dared to break a statue in one of the temples, and one by one they all vanished from the barracks, with no trace save for scraps of flesh and a small cloud of blood. Aqualania is a dead city, but those that lived here may still dwell in the shadows, waiting for a chance at vengeance.”
“Okay, that’s enough of that,” Tempest said, “I think we’ve learned all we can from our prisoner and I’m not interested in ghost stories. Got enough on our plate without making us jump at shadows.”
“We might be able to still learn more about the approach to the palace,” Starlight suggested, and Tempest swam over to pat Trixie on the shoulder.
“If you can keep him dosed up on your charm magic, Trixie can keep him held tight. We’ll bring him along to get intel as needed, but I don’t want us sticking around here any longer than we need to.”
At Tempest's words, Trixie looked briefly miffed at Tempest’s proximity, but with an ego-pleased smile said, “Oh, holding him won’t be a problem. I could do both, honestly, and probably keep up an invisibility spell at the same time. I’m just that good.”
Tempest eyed the showmare with a brief stare, then turned to the unconscious Rigash, “No need, we’re not taking the other one.” She began to swim towards him with her harpoon poised. Fluttershy made a soft gasp and swam forward, getting in Tempest’s way.
“W-wait, you can’t mean to-?”
“The alternative would be to leave him here alive for his comrades to find, and alert every sahuagin in the city that we’re here,” Tempest replied in a cold but practical voice, “If that happens it’ll be a miracle if we can even get into the palace to find your siren friends. Do you want our mission to fail?”
“No, but I don’t want to hurt anyone unnecessarily either,” Fluttershy said, and Pinkie Pie floated up above her, upside down, hooves crossed as she gave a firm nod as well.
“Yup, there’s no need for the pointy’s and the big scary murder-face, Tempy! That’s not how Team Equestria rolls.”
Tempest scrunched her face in a look of equal parts confusion, frustration, and annoyance, “Tempy...? Ugh, look, if this guy reports back to his literal army of violent fish monsters, ‘Team Equestria’ is going to roll right into its own graves, dragging me along with it! What else would you have me do?”
“Uhhh, why not just tie the dude up somewhere hidden where he won’t be quickly or easily found, which’ll buy us plenty of time to go get our rescue gig done and jet out of here with Twilight and the other team. Duh.” Rainbow Dash managed to sound both smug and reasonable at the same time, and Tempest sent her a sharp look, but Starlight swam next to her and held out her hoof.
“Look, they’re right. We’re not here to kill unless we have no choice. Believe me, if it comes to a serious fight, we might have to, but before then we’ve got our own way of doing things. I can find a spot to stuff our second prisoner, and I’ll make sure he can’t get away any time soon. That work for you?”
Jaw clenched tight as a vice, Tempest took a few seconds to take hold of her frustrations and let them out in a deep, grumping sigh, “I still think it’s too risky, but I literally can’t force you idiots to do things the smart way, so just get it done with so we can move out.”
Trixie huffed, “Idiots, she calls us. Does it not occur to you ‘genius’ that if you killed the prisoner, that’d still leave a body for the other sahuagin to find? We’d be just as compromised. Did your brain get damaged along with your horn?”
At Trixie’s words, Tempest’s horn sparked, an erratic set of magical arcs rising from it’s jagged tip. A look that could freeze a volcano came over Tempest’s face as she looked at Trixie, who gulped and backed up a bit. However before anypony else could act or remark, Tempest’s horn calmed down and the unicorn’s expression went back to neutral.
“Fair point, magician. Dead or alive, the prisoner would get found eventually, which puts us on a timer to finish our mission. That said, make another crack about my horn, and you’ll be eating that hat of yours from the other end.”
Tempest swam past Trixie and headed off to take up a watch position while the others dealt with finding a place to stash Rigash. Trixie was a tad pale but also looked a bit baffled as she murmured, “Eat it from the other end...? Oh. Ew.”
“Yeah, working with her is about as uncool as I thought it’d be,” Rainbow Dash muttered.
“Well, she is kind of rough around the edges, but I think she’s just very upset and lonely,” said Fluttershy, who then glanced at Rainbow Dash, “She actually reminds me a bit of Gilda.”
“Hmph, maybe,” Dash said, grabbing up Rigash’s unconscious body, “C’mon Starlight, let’s go find a place to stick sleeping beauty here.”
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The interior of the Odyssey was not unlike the rest of the city, a contrast of ancient elegance coated by a miasma of death and loss. The corridors were wide and oval, almost like swimming through the veins of a living creature forged from metal, but every inch of it was filled with the sediment of passing ages. The rotted skeletons of long dead crew floated in twisted heaps, causing Twilight to clench her mouth shut to keep bile from rising up. The damage done to the ship from the battle so long ago was apparent everywhere, from rent bulkheads to torn sections of corridor that forced Twilight, Wavecrest, Rarity, and Applejack to maneuver around the wreckage to make their way further inside.
“The hay are ya even lookin’ fer in this sunken coffin?” asked Applejack to Wavecrest, to which the seapony paused at an opening to their right.
“Anything we can use,” Wavecrest replied, swimming inside. Within was an oval shaped room with a concave wall upon which was mounted a large mechanism of metal shaped very much like a four armed ballista. Twilight could tell from a seam in the wall that the wall likely opened up and let the weapon roll out on a rail, upon which it could fire the large, wicked looking harpoons that were mounted in racks upon the side walls.
Guessing from the number of similar openings she’d seen in the hallway, the Odyssey had been equipped with at least ten of these per side. Wavecrest examined the ballistae carefully, running a hoof over it while tapping one end with her staff, “The making of such weapons has been lost to my people. The metal alone is treated in such a way to prevent rusting, something we’ve long forgotten how to do. Recovering even a piece of this would be invaluable to my kin.”
“That’s lovely and all, but it doesn’t help us much in the immediate sense,” Rarity said, “I’d rather not make the gentlemen wait on us too long, so perhaps we should speed this along?”
Wavecrest glanced back at her, then nodded slightly and chanted a brief spell, causing a small glow to infuse the ballistae. A piece of the weapons firing mechanism came loose and floated to Wavecrest, which she grabbed and put into a pouch laced around her chest, “I couldn’t move the whole weapon anyway. Come, we should check the bridge. I know Scylla was not on board during the final battle, but she still had a cabin here from when she took this vessel across the world. Something of importance may still be there. Checking won’t take long.”
She led Twilight and the others deeper into the wreck, making their way towards the bow. There they came through an opening into a wide, circular room. A glass dome on the front acted as a viewing window, while the rest of the room was given over to a number of chairs with harnesses, most of which sat in front of short pillars bearing various levers and wheels. Metal tubes ran from the ceiling to several of these stations, with open ends like the horns of an instrument. A large chair in the center had more of these than most, and Twilight looked at the tubes curiously.
“Hm, were these for speaking into? They look like something you’d speak into and the tube would carry the sound.”
“Yer guess is as good as anyone’s, hun,” said Applejack, “All this fancy fangled contraption stuff just gives me a headache.”
“I’m just impressed at how advanced the seaponies were,” said Rarity, “Huge underwater metropolis. Underwater ships of metal. It’s all quite impressive.”
“It is,” said Wavecrest, “Perhaps now you can understand why my mentor and I both felt it so important to find Aqualania and explore it. To just reclaim even a tiny piece of its former glory would do wonders to help my people.”
“We’re happy to help,” Twilight said, looking towards an ornate door barring an opening to the left of the bridge, “Now, I’m guessing this must be the door to Scylla’s cabin? It’s the only other passage here.”
“Yes, it must be. Help me with the door,” Wavecrest said, and the four of them swam up to the heavy metal hatchway. Hooves gripped around the edges while Twilight used her magic to probe the door itself. She found the gears holding it shut and with a bit of magical force helped the others turn the lever that operated the gears. Countless years of disuse made it difficult, but Twilight had plenty of magical muscle to throw around and in short order the door opened with a loud, metallic groan.
Within was a room that might have once been opulent, but was now a literal mess, although from the look of it Twilight got the impression the chamber had always lacked organization. To her surprise books and scrolls floated in the water with no visible damage, as if kept intact underwater by magic. Shelves filled with odds and ends lined the walls, with much of the strange junk piling them at random still present. An oval bed, more like a tub than any traditional bed on land, was stuffed into one corner, next to a large table pinned with charts and more books.
Floating inside, Twilight and the others began sifting through what was there, Wavecrest immediately going for the shelves of strange baubles, while Twilight aimed for the table of books and charts.
Rarity laid down on the bed, stretching herself in it like she was lounging in a tub. The bottom had a padded surface, and she sighed, “Oh my, this is surprisingly comfortable. At least this Princess Scylla traveled in style.”
“Rarity, show a bit o’ respect, will ya?” said Applejack, “Yer restin’ in a dead gal’s bed.”
Rarity paused, then winced and swam off the bed, “Point taken.”
Meanwhile Wavecrest grunted as she went through the shelves, grabbing and examining the random items piled there, “Hmph, none of these look like real artifacts, just souvenirs taken from the Princess’ journeys.”
“What do you mean?” asked Rarity.
“The Princess must have only kept the truly potent items in the Treasury,” Wavecres sighed, “I was hoping she may have left one or two here on the ship. Something we could use against the sahuagin. Sadly these just appear to be trinkets. I sense no power from any of them.”
“Power isn’t everything,” Twilight said, cracking open one of the books, her eyes alight with focus, “Knowledge alone can often be more valuable. Besides, aren’t you at least a little curious about one of your historical figure’s journals?”
“Journal?” Wavecrest turned about and swam right over to Twilight, her own curiosity now piqued, “That is one of Princess Scylla's journals?”
Twilight flashed a knowing smile, “Not sure why anypony else would keep a journal in Scylla's quarters. I’m checking the entries now to see if they mention anything about the Treasury. Maybe we’ll learn more about it to make our quest easier. Oh, but I’m also pretty curious just what kind of pony Scylla was. There’s a lot of entries here. She wrote almost every day, it looks like.”
“Please, let me see it,” Wavecrest said, and Twilight offered no objections, offering the thick tome over to the seapony, who eagerly started skimming it’s pages.
After a moment or two, Wavecrest’s eyes narrowed and her scaled brow furrowed. Twilight floated over her shoulder, “What is it?”
“I’m just reading bits and pieces here, but it’s strange. So many of these entries are about Scylla's sister. It’s almost obsessive.”
This got the Equestrians in the group to look at each other, Rarity offering a somewhat embarrassed look, “Well, take it from us, royal sisters are known to have odd relationships.”
“What do the entries say, exactly?” said Twilight, and Wavecrest closed the journal with a thump, stuffing it into her pouch and floating away from the three ponies.
“It doesn’t matter. I saw nothing in there about the Treasury, and Scylla's relationship with her sister is irrelevant to our task,” Wavecrest said, “I apologize for wasting our time coming in here. It seems it was rather useless.”
“I wouldn’t say that,” said Twilight, “That journal has historical significance, if nothing else, and I find these charts fascinating. It looks like Princess Scylla really did travel every ocean there was, including a few I haven’t even heard about. Huh... that’s odd.”
“What?” Wavecrest eyed Twilight while the alicorn swam closer to the charts, examining them more closely. Twilight’s head tilted as she looked over the lines and notations upon the charts and realized that they didn’t merely travel over sea, but land as well. Through every land, in fact. And in each land were notations, lists, often accompanied by pictures and number references. Although she didn’t speak the language, Twilight understood the references were likely in regards to other books on the table, as the symbols on them corresponded to the symbols on the charts.
Without saying anything to answer Wavecrest, her mind now taken over by curiosity, Twilight used her magic to lift a number of the other books and leaf through them. Inside were images and descriptions of not only items, but cultures of the land nations, including various histories. Much of it pertained to items of power, and as Twilight looked at the way numerous items on the charts were crossed off, like a list, she had a thought.
“Wavecrest, you said Princess Scylla traveled the world in search of artifacts, right?”
“Yes, she was an adventurer, always seeking items of power or great treasures to enrich Aqualania,” Wavecrest said proudly.
Twilight’s expression grew still, “I see. It’s just that, looking at these charts, it looks as if she traveled on land fairly often as well, and studied the histories of various nations. I recognize some of the artifacts in these books from my own studies. Not all of them were lost to time. Some of them were stolen, according to the history I’ve read. Were they... stolen by Scylla?”
A stiffness overcame Wavecrest’s features, “Stolen? Even if that is so, it happened centuries ago. What does it matter now?”
“Hold up Twilight, are ya sayin’ this Princess Scylla was runnin’ around stealing artifacts like... like that Caballeron fella from Daring Do’s adventures?” said Applejack, and Twilight gave a pensive look towards her, then at Wavecrest.
“Look, I’m not trying to make an issue of this, I was just saying that I noticed a lot of what appears to be on Scylla’s charts correspond to artifacts recorded as stolen in the histories I’ve read. It just stood out to me.”
“Whatever Princess Scylla did, no doubt it was for the good of all seaponies,” Wavecrest said, one of her hooves reflexively, almost protectively holding the journal she’d put in her pouch, “One does not need to be a saint to be a good leader to one’s people. Now come, we’ve spent long enough on this.”
Without waiting for a reply, Wavecrest turned with a swish of her tail and swiftly swam out of the room, leaving Twilight, Rarity, and Applejack to share mutually wondering stares.
“Am I the only one who thought that was a tad odd?” said Rarity, and Applejack just crossed her hooves and bobbed up and down with stiff motions of her own tail.
“Gal’s got a bug in her mane, ain’t no denyin’. Guess I can’t go blamin’ her. If I learned Princess Celestia or Luna went on a stealin’ spree in other lands, I’d be a mite miffed myself.”
“Maybe I shouldn’t have said anything,” Twilight said, lowering her head, “Wavecrest has done nothing but help us, and doesn’t need us digging up any past issues of ponies she clearly admired.”
“We’d best follow her, before something goes wrong outside,” Rarity said. Her words were followed by the sound of a muffled thwump, and Twilight could feel the vibration through the hull of the ship from something exploding outside.
Rarity sighed, “I didn’t mean to jinx us for Celestia’s sake!”
“Let’s go!” Twilight said, and the three rapidly followed in the direction Wavecrest had gone, retracing their path through the ship’s wreckage until they got to the large, torn opening that had bisected the vessel.
As they exited, Twilight saw a flash of red, and the brilliant ruby sphere of another of Flash Sentry's Kido spells flew up and exploded towards the massive opening in the top of the dome. There, a large school of Agony Fish, over twice the size of the first one they’d encountered, had started entering the dome.
Nearby, Flash looked over to them, along with Wavecrest who’d exited only a few seconds earlier, and shouted, “Good timing, ladies! Our unwanted admirers have caught up with us. Trying to send them the message to buzz off!”
His Kido, another Shakkaho, had scattered a number of the Agony Fish, but the determined and monstrous jellyfish still gathered like a violet cloud and began to swarm inside. Admiral Seaspray pointed across the dome towards the north side with his harpoon, calling out to the group.
“I see a structure over there. Perhaps a way out? If nothing else it’d give us cover!”
“Right! Everypony move, head for the structure the Admiral spotted!” Twilight gave the order, and as one they took off, swimming as fast as their fins could carry them. The Agony Fish descended towards them, and Twilight, Rarity, and Wavecrest joined Flash Sentry in trying to slow the growing swarm down.
Rarity used her skillful telekinesis to collect loose debris from the ship, metal plates and pieces of twisted pipe, and hurled them with surprising pin-point accuracy at the jellyfish. She managed to smack down more than a few, and didn’t break stride in her swimming while keeping the debris field swirling about, attacking the creatures left and right.
With her staff glowing bright, Wavecrest chanted in swift, harsh words of her language, and swept the staff forward. The water churned in front of her, and seemed to condense into crescent currents that cut forward like blades. Several Agony Fish were severed in half by the suddenly compressed waters that blasted through them.
Twilight herself was of a gentler nature, but was also willing to tap into a greater portion of her magic. Since they had the cover of the dome, she wasn’t as worried about any sahuagin sentries or patrols seeing her cut loose, so she delved into the deep well of arcane power inside her and focused it upon the dozens of poisonous jellyfish that were rapidly closing the gap between them and her friends. Strands of solid purple magic exploded out of her horn and shot up, multiplying dozens of times over. The strands criss-crossed with each other until they formed a dense net, nearly fifty meters across. She then wrapped that magical net around a large portion of the jellyfish swarm and tied the magic off, letting it float off to bounce the bundled bunch of Agony Fish against the far wall.
Flash whistled appreciation for Twilight’s efforts and swam forward to meet the creatures that had still managed to escape the net, his Zanpaktou cutting through the water. Admiral Seaspray was right behind him, and Applejack followed only after taking a moment to take a metal pipe offered by Rarity from her collection of debris. The trio slashed, stabbed, and smacked their way through the dozen or so remaining Agony Fish, and Twilight saw ahead that the structure Seaspray spoke off was close.
It was a small half-dome that extended out into the central dome, and she saw several hatchways on it’s side, one of which was open. In front of it was a large, bowl-shaped object, reminding Twilight of some kind of gigantic dog dish. Was this where the zoo caretakers placed the Kraken’s food? Well, if it was open, then through that area there had to be a way out of the dome.
She and Rarity reached the open hatchway first, with Wavecrest not far behind. Flash, Seaspray, and Applejack lagged a bit due to having to clear away the last stragglers of Agony Fish, but things looked clear as Twilight waved, “Come on, this way!”
All three of them turned to put on a burst of speed, but Twilight saw motion from the very last Agony Fish that Flash Sentry had cut down. Despite the deep gash in it’s translucent body, the jellyfish twitched and it’s tendrils flailed about in an explosion of motion. Flash saw Twilight’s look and took it for the warning it was and moved before she even had time to shout a warning. His Flash Step was still slowed by the water, however, and she heard him let out a startled cry of pain as one of the tendrils lashed his right wing.
“Flash!” she shouted, grabbing him with her magic and hauling him towards her even faster than he could have swam. Once she had him through the hatch and she was sure Seaspray and Applejack were through as well, she hauled the huge metal door shut.
Inside was a plain room that was probably used to load the bowl outside, with a closed doorway leading further inside, but for the moment Twilight didn’t care about that and quickly set Flash down to check on him.
“Are you okay, Flash?” she asked, looking with concern at his pained face. He was taking deep breaths and trying to talk, but any word he tried to get out was choked by grunts of pain. Twilight looked at his wing and was shocked at the ugly, purple welting that was already spreading across the area the tendril had lashed.
“Move aside!” Wavecrest said, all but pushing Twilight out of the way, “This poison is lethal if not treated immediately.”
Twilight didn’t resist Wavecrest’s attempt to push her away, but she did swim around to Flash’s other side and grabbed his hoof with her own, “You can do that, right? Treat it?”
The way her heart was bucking against her chest was felt with every second it took for Wavecrest to run her staff’s magical glow over Flash Sentry. She felt his hoof clasping her’s tighten and every inch of her was awash in fear at seeing him in so much pain. His eyes were bloodshot and his teeth now clenched, his wing a twitching mess that was growing more purple by the second.
“Wavecrest!” Twilight said, “Tell me you can help him!”
“I can, but I must concentrate. Do not keep distracting me,” the seapony replied while she closed her eyes and spoke a rapid, soft chant under her breath.
The others gathered around, but kept a decent distance to give Wavecrest her space. Seaspray had a solemn but controlled look of a warrior who’d seen plenty of soldiers injured in battle. Rarity and Applejack both had equal levels of worry, although Rarity showed it through wringing her tail with her hooves while Applejack looked ready to chew rocks.
The next five or so minutes were a slow agony for Twilight as she watched Flash breath heavily and make more pained sounds as Wavecrest worked. Green magic surrounded Flash in a bubble, concentrated around the poisoned wing. Slowly Twilight watched the purple bruising slow its spread, then stop completely. After another few minutes the poison started to recede, but every inch seemed to take a painful toll on Flash as he shuddered and Twilight held his hoof tighter.
Eventually the purple bruising receded, and Wavecrest let out an exhausted sigh as she lowered her staff, “Lady Sea be praised. You have no notion of how lucky you are, young buck, that I am as skilled at my art as I am and that the ocean can be as merciful as it is deadly. Had you been lashed by that Agony Fish without one such as I right next to you, you would have died a most painful demise.”
“G...gee... comforting thought,” Flash said weakly, breathing in and out like he’d just run several marathons, “But, uh... thanks. Would’ve sucked to bite it... before we even got to the end.”
“Are you sure he’s going to be okay?” Twilight asked, and Wavecrest held up a hoof.
“Rest easy, Princess, your bodyguard will live another day. Or at least until something else happens. I suggest letting him rest for a bit. The poison, and the healing, is draining upon both of us.”
“Feel like I’ve... been put through a week of the Captain’s extreme training,” Flash said, not even trying to rise from where he lay.
“Hm, if young Mister Sentry requires rest, I suggest the rest of us take a moment to scout out the rest of this structure and confirm a path out,” said Seaspray.
“That’s probably a good idea,” said Twilight, “Why don’t the rest of you follow the Admiral’s suggestion. I’ll stay here and keep an eye on Flash.”
“Are ya sure, Twi?” asked Applejack, but Rarity touched the farm mare’s arm and Twilight gave both of her friends a meaningful look, and Applejack raised an eyebrow and nodded, “Right, we’ll leave ya two alone fer a bit.”
As the rest of the group left, Twilight adjusted herself so she was laying with her lower body on the floor of the room, letting Flash rest his head on her lap. He protested a bit, but she just put a hoof on his chest and pushed him down, “No, you rest. Princess’ orders.”
“Okay, Your Highness,” Flash said, managing a weak half smile, and easing his head on her lap. A few moments passed, and she saw his eyes slowly glance up towards her, then flicker away with heat blossoming on his face. With her vision now keyed to the infrared spectrum the blush looked more like a bloom of white upon his cheeks. Feeling a similar response in her own face, she imagined she looked the same.
Screw it, she was starting to realize just how foalish she was being about all this. The terror a short while ago of realizing how close Flash had come to death painted it clearly in her own heart how she felt. This quest might not give either of them another chance to be open with each other.
“Heh, nearly killed by a jellyfish,” she heard Flash say with a light chuckle, “And here I’m supposed to be the big bad Soul Reaper guarding your life, and you’re the one who saves me from a poisonous underwater trash-bag. You sure you need me as a bodyguard-”
She stopped his self-deprecating spiel with her lips. That got him to quiet down. She didn’t really know what she was doing, but figured for once in her life it didn’t matter that she didn’t have a manual or guidebook for this. She just let the kiss linger a second or two, then pulled away and ran a hoof over his head.
“Hush,” she said, “None of that kind of talk. I don’t want any bodyguard other than you.”
“Wu-whu?” Flash looked dazed, blinking up at her. Twilight started to realize how forward she’d just been and her own eyes widened a bit, her face now blazing hot.
“W-was that too much? Did I do that too soon? It felt right at the time, because you were coming down on yourself and I really think you shouldn’t because you’re actually amazing and I was so scared of you dying just now that I realized how important you are to me and did I just screw this up-”
This time it was Flash’s turn to silence her babbling, reaching up behind her head with a hoof and pulling her down into another kiss. This time the kiss lingered longer as the two shared the moment. When they finally parted and Twilight looked down in Flash’s eyes, he smiled up at her.
“You’re important to me too. Don’t plan on dying on you, Princess. I want to protect you, for as long as you’ll have me by your side.”
She gulped, her heart creating a thunderous pounding in her chest, ”W-w-well I am an alicorn, so it’s entirely within the realm of theoretical possibility that I might be around for a very long time.”
“Heh, well, Soul Reapers don’t age fast, so I don’t think that will be a problem,” Flash said.
A wide, goofy smile lit up Twilight’s face at his words. “That’s true, isn’t it? Lucky me.”
Despite the warmth spreading through her, Twilight’s mind quickly pulled up some problematic elements that put a slight damper on the mood, “Although I’m probably getting ahead of myself, here. Flash, I really want to talk this out more with you, but we’re in the middle of something too dangerous and important to get distracted, so...”
“Say no more,” he said, taking a deep breath and experimentally flexing his wing, grimacing slightly, “I don’t want to move too fast with you, Twilight. I’d like to do this properly, you know? And yeah, there’s a lot we’d need to figure out if we’re going to do this. Not sure what the actual protocols are for a Soul Reaper dating a magical princess from another dimension.”
She nodded slowly, then turned her attention to his wing, “Does it still hurt?”
“Y-yeah, some. I think I can move it alright,” he said, “I just need to remind myself I can’t move half as fast as I should while underwater. Not making that mistake again. Hey, awesome job with that magic net, by the way. Without that we’d have gotten swarmed.”
She couldn’t help but feel a moment of pride, “Magic is my specialty. I’ve still got plenty in reserve, too, that trick was just me warming up.”
“Almost a shame this is a stealth mission. I like seeing you go all out. It’s, uh...” he lowered his voice to a shy whisper, “It’s kinda hot.”
“Oh,” she said, faze blazing.
“Am I interrupting?”
Twilight and Flash nearly tumbled apart at Wavecrest’s voice, the seapony floating at the doorway as she looked at the pair. Wavecrest’s lips quirked slightly at scene of Flash and Twilight both flashing enough body heat to light up like torches, and she let out a low chuckle, “I could of course come back in ten or so minutes if you need some time, although I did say Flash Sentry should rest, not... engage in anything strenuous. Healing takes its toll on both the caster and the healed, after all.”
“S-strenuous? There’s nothing strenuous happening here!” Twilight said, “I mean, biologically I’m not even certain how that works for seaponies so clearly I couldn’t- I mean, not that I was thinking- Nevermind, did you find the exit?”
“We have, and the others are keeping watch for further trouble while I came back to check on you two,” Wavecrest said, glancing at Flash, “While it might be safer for you to rest a bit longer, as long as you are careful I think we can move on. Just remember that while I may have removed the poison, your body has not recovered yet.”
“No need to tell me, I can feel it,” Flash said, “And Soul Reapers are made of tough stuff.”
“Hmm, as you say. Then let us go, the Treasury still awaits us.”
----------
Having a cooperative captive who had first hand knowledge of patrol routes made the process of getting close to the palace remarkably simple in comparison to the slower trek the team had initially. With Starlight maintaining the mental domination on Ulgriv to keep the sahuagin compliant and answering questions, they learned not only what areas to avoid, but several key pathways through the ruins that acted as shortcuts through the labyrinthine ruins of Aqualania.
So it was that not very long after they’d left the spire they’d captured Ulgriv at that the collection of transmogrified ponies found themselves looking at the front entrance to Aqualania’s Royal Palace from a hiding spot amid the broken columns of what was once an open market. The market itself consisted of a pavilion that was partially collapsed, half of the columns that had held up it’s conical roof having crushed the store kiosks below it. This made the whole affair look like a sagging lean-to, with half of the broken columns still holding up one end, which faced a huge broadway that led to the palace gates.
The gates themselves were thick affairs with cross bands of metal across heavy stone, wide enough for a pair of whales to swim through. Smaller portcullis were mounted into the lower portion of them, four across, in front of which loitered a whole school of sahuagin warriors who had formed a makeshift camp. The walls of the palace stretched both up and to the sides in a curved manner, the palace’s shape like that of a monolithic conch shell giving it the impression of something more organic than artificial, with spiked spires protruding out from it at various angles. Openings inside were few and far between, with only narrow slits and small windows mounted near balconies and terraces that fanned out from the wall like large clam shells or barnacles. Unlike the rest of the city that was overgrown with algae and seaweed, the palace itself had a more pristine look about it, with its stone walls shining white in the darkness.
“Oooo, it looks even fancier up close,” said Pinkie Pie, her head poking out from behind one of the columns. Above her head, Rainbow Dash’s head appeared, eyeing the palace critically.
“Yeah, it’s pretty weird. Everything else is a spooky, smashed ruin, but this place looks barely touched. What gives?”
Below the pair, Fluttershy poked her head out, musing, “Maybe the sahuagin are just really good housekeepers?”
On the other side of the pillar, Trixie’s head poked out, the magician’s eyes giving the building a careful once over, “Fancy or not, we have to find a way inside. Starlight, has our ‘friend’ got any insights to share?”
Behind the pillar, Starlight, Tempest, and Ulgriv floated, and Starlight looked to the captive sahuagin, “Ulgriv, is there any other way in besides those front gates?”
“You could swim to the upper bastion and enter the doors there,” he replied in his warning monotone, “Or to the gates on the west or north side. There are also the upper defensive spires.”
“Are all of those guarded?” Tempest asked, “I’m going to bet they’re all guarded.”
“Yes, every way into the palace has at least a half warband on watch,” Ulgriv said. When he’d been interrogated about the patrols, the group had learned the sahuagin organized themselves into ‘warbands’ of around ten to twenty individuals. Multiple warbands were brought together into a ‘tribe’ ranging from fifty to several hundred warriors, then if one stuck several of those together, one ended up with what Morgawr led, a legion. Compared to some armies it might have seemed a small number, but to the Equestrian’s, who never had a large military to begin with, it felt intimidating enough.
“Hmph,” Tempest grunted, rubbing her chin, “Means at least five to ten guards, probably more at the bigger gates.”
“Yeah I can confirm that up here,” Rainbow Dash said, “I’m counting, like, fifty fish dudes hanging out by the gates alone, and I’m thinking more chilling out on these shell shaped terrace thingies spread up and down the walls.”
“That’s too many to fight, isn’t it?” said Trixie, but Starlight and Tempest shared a look with one another.
“Probably,” said Starlight, “Although if we took them by surprise...”
“I’d rather keep the element of stealth going until we get to the sirens,” said Tempest, “If we cause a scene right now they might move the prisoners somewhere else before we can get to them.”
“Oh! Oh! I’ve got an idea!” said Pinkie, “Why don’t we pretend to be prisoners? Ulgy can take us in, just like in that play, Star Mares!”
“Won’t work, Pinkie,” said Dash, “As cool as it’d be, who’s gonna believe that Ulgriv captured all six of us? And could he even fool anyone while under Starlight’s control.”
“And it’s not like I can hide my magic,” Starlight said, pointing at her glowing horn, “Going to look pretty suspicious.”
“Dang, then how are we going to sneaky-sneak into the final dungeon area?” Pinkie said, scratching her head, “This is a serious brain teaser.”
“And it’s not like we can pull off another eel illusion,” Trixie said, then flashed a thoughtful look as she eyed the gates, “Although...”
“Got something, Trixie?” Starlight asked, and her friend pursed her lips and then grew a devious smile.
“Ulgriv thinks the city is haunted, doesn't he?” said Trixie, rubbing her hooves together, “And sounds like there’s plenty of these other tuna brains that buy into those ghost stories too. Heheheh, muwhahaha!”
“Uhhh, is it a good or bad thing that Trixie is laughing evilly?” asked Pinkie Pie.
“Trixieeee, what are you planning?” Starlight asked, and Trixie’s mouth grew in a mischievous crescent of white teeth.
“Just thinking that if they’re afraid of ghosts, let’s give them some ghosts.”
----------
Even the most staunch and dutiful soldiers tended to get a bit bored during guard work. That was just the nature of sentry duty. So it wasn’t that the sahuagin on guard were being lazy, simply that as the largest group assigned to guarding the main entrance to the palace, where essentially nothing ever happened, had left the collection of warbands on watch relaxed and unsuspecting of trouble. Sure they knew that in the outer regions of the city some warriors succumbed to the rumors of the city’s deadly and angry spirits, and certainly gossip about those who had gone missing was told back and forth over meals of fish and crustaceans.
But those rumors only ever applied to the outer ruins. Things were always quiet at the palace itself, as if the supposed spirits that may or may not have been haunting the ruins still held reverence for the home of the royal family and did not wish to tread upon it.
Whatever the reasons, things were quiet at the palace gates, and the sahuagin warriors didn’t have any expectation of trouble. Which is why when an otherworldly and unnaturally pulsating blue and green glow of light started to appear less than a hundred or so feet into the ruins just outside the gates, it got all of the fish men looking that way instantly. They grabbed up weapons and murmured uneasily to one another as warband leaders called orders for their warriors to take formation.
However no enemies appeared before them to attack or defend against. Instead that sickly glow of light started to grow, spreading out wider and brighter amid the ruins, while tendrils of it rose up like splashes of pulsating color. Then the sahuagin heard a noise, a terrible, ungodly noise. It was a high, screeching wail that tore at the sahuagin’s ears. The noise was reminiscent of some of the sounds they had heard while the shamans had performed their rituals inside the palace, and might have made them think that one of the terror beasts the shamans controlled had gotten loose... but no, this wail was even higher pitched than a terror beast’s. It waved unnaturally, and held a bone freezing note of something not of this world.
The first hints of fear started to enter the sahuagin warriors as the tendrils of pulsating light grew wider and stretched out to appear almost like faces, faces with screaming mouths and black eyes, howling for retribution.
The ghosts of Aqualania!?
As feared whispers and cries started to spread among the warriors, one warband leader gave off a harsh shout to silence them, “Cease blubbering you weak limbed hatchlings! Are you soft kin or warriors of the Deep Mistress!? Whatever that is, be it spirit or not, we will chase it down and kill it with Abyssal steel!”
There were a few resounding cries in response, although the unease of the warriors was still apparent. However, being reminded of their duty to their Deep Mistress was enough to fortify their courage and when the warband leaders charged first, the rest followed. Well, almost the rest. One warband still remained behind to guard the gate, just in case.
The pulsating lights began to move as the bulk of the sahuagin rushed forward, pulling back into the depths of the ruins and moving slightly to the west. This seemed to embolden the fish men as they surged forward faster, chasing after the ghostly light show. The flickering specters of faces howled louder, and still chilled the sahuagin’s hearts, slowing their pursuit to a degree as they followed the lights further from the gates. The exact origin of the lights was hard to pinpoint, and the warband leaders started to split their groups up, trying to find the center of the mass of writhing wraith-light.
Then the lights started to move faster, much faster, as if the spirits were being sucked away through a vacuum. Shocked, the sahuagin paused at the sight, unsure of whether they should continue the pursuit. The warband leaders were equally confused, but also their blood was up, heated to a hunting frenzy. Whatever this thing was, it was fleeing from them! Did ghosts flee!? Their desire to kill, or at least vent days of boredom and frustration, rose high and with a battle cry the warband leaders led their warriors to chase after the rapidly withdrawing lights and their eerie wailing.
Unbeknownst to them, while they were drawn far from the gate, the remaining warband of only about ten warriors was left watching the distant spectacle. This also meant they didn’t really see the attack coming until Starlight and Tempest were upon them.
Starlight conjured a sweeping wave of magical force that bowled over four of the fish men before they even realized they were under attack, and she was still able to maintain a spell that had created a one-way screen of invisibility above the area of the fight. This might not dampen the sound of it much, but if any sahuagin were further up on the walls they wouldn’t see the flashes of magic from her and Tempest. Hopefully the distraction being carried out by Trixie, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow Dash was making enough noise to make it hard to tell what was happening down by the gate.
Tempest used both her magic and her body to equally deadly effect. She swam right between the other half of the warband and lashed bolts of scintillating magic from her broken horn that struck like an exploding whip and sent three sahuagin careening away in bone broken wrecks. The harpoon she carried twirled expertly as she cracked one sahuagin warrior across the skull, and jabbed the butt-end into the sternum of another. She followed that up with a roundhouse slap of her fish tail that gathered up both foes and smashed them into the ground in an unconscious heap.
Only one sahuagin was even left conscious within that mere few seconds of surprise, and there was a dull bonk of noise just a second before his eyes rolled up and he went limp, floating away to reveal Fluttershy demurely behind him, carrying in her hooves a metal pot with a long handle that she’d taken from one of the smashed stores back in the pavilion.
With the guards dealt with, Tempest took one quick glance up the wall to make sure Starlight’s spell had helped conceal their surprise attack, then turned her attention to the distant lightshow.
“Looks like Trixie’s plan actually worked,” she said with a note of surprise, “Let’s get inside. We’re not going to have long before the rest turn and find out the palace is breached.”
“How fast do you think it’ll take Rainbow Dash to-” Starlight began, but halted as there was a flash of rainbow motion from the ruins to the northwest, and suddenly Rainbow Dash was there.
The mare carried in her hooves a manically satisfied looking Trixie, and a grinning Pinkie Pie.
“Whooee, that worked really well,” Pinkie said, holding out a hoof to Trixie, “You make some really convincing spookies, Trix!”
“Please, don’t call me ‘Trix’, but yes, the illusion craft of the Illustrious Illusionist Trixie cannot be compared to the spellwork of mere mortals,” Trixie said, reaching out to hoof bump Pinkie Pie, “And it did help that you added some adequately convincing ghostly wailing to make the performance complete.”
“And don’t forget having me here to ensure we could make a fast getaway, ditch the loser patrol, and get back to the gates in ten seconds flat,” said Rainbow Dash, wagging her finned tail, “Think I’m finally getting used to this whole swimming thing.”
“Talk later, into the palace now,” Tempest said. In the distance it was possible to just barely make out the warbands that had been drawn off by Trixie’s illusion. They were now spreading out and searching for where the ghost lights had gone, but who knew how long they would do so before giving up and returning to the gates, whereupon they’d find their comrades had been attacked.
Once that happened, the alarm would be raised everywhere, so time was short to get into the palace and find Sonata and Aria. Fortunately the sahuagin had kept one of the portcullis open for traffic heading in and out of the palace, so as one the group swam through the gates and entered Aqualania’s Royal Palace.