Episode 146: Relics
It’s fury far from spent, the enormous terror beast hurled itself against the wall of the old tomb, the crash of thunder echoing in a dull roar through the chamber. Morgawr looked upon the fifty ton beast with a displeased twist of his wide lips, then he shot an impassioned glance of anger towards the creature’s creator.
“You try my patience, Divistus. Did I not forbid you from further sacrifices until we returned to the Abyss? Where were you hiding the prisoners to create this beast?”
The shaman turned a look of perfectly mixed placation and mocking towards Morgawr as he made an exaggerated bow, “Pray forgive me, warleader, but I touched not a single throat of a soft skin for this working of the Mistress’ will. Only a few spare sharks that none would miss.”
Morgawr made a threatening gurgle deep in his throat, “Without seeking my approval first, I see. I should gut you for such overreaching. Just because your master is gone you seem to think you have leeway to do as you please.”
“Is this the time for such bickering, warleader?” Divistus asked, gesturing to where the terror beast floated in front of the open hole in the wall where the surfacers had fled, “Do we not have a greater concern at the moment?”
“Hmph, yes, but do not think this over between us. Now call your howling beast off, it is wasting it’s time trying to break through that wall,” Morgawr commanded, and Divisted made another exaggerated bow that made Morgawr desire to rip the shaman’s throat out with his teeth. Divistus gestured towards the terror beast, a line of black and red magic forming like a chain between him and the symbol carved onto the whale’s head. The creature stilled, and slowly swam around to clear the way to the hole.
Morgawr ordered his remaining warriors to form up around him, and he gave the gathering a dismal look. He’d come through the translocation sphere to Aqualania with a legion of a thousand. While casualties were to be expected, and the losses at Mt. Aris had troubled him not, he realized he was now down to half the total strength of the forces he’d arrived with.
Had he underestimated the surfacers? In truth, he knew some of the surfacer races were strong, yet he’d not expected them to prove so problematic. Their magic wielders were fierce and versatile, while even the physically inclined ones were not so easily dispatched. The terror beast alone should have guaranteed their demise, yet it had been halted in its tracks by just one surfacer, while the other had scattered his warriors readily.
He banished the troubling thoughts. It was simply a matter of bad fortune and the surfacers taking his forces by surprise, he surmised. Once he had them cornered and there was no more running, no more tricks to play, it would be a different matter, he assured himself. He could feel the power of the Deep Mistress still surging through his body. Surely it would not fail him once he could properly bring it to bear against his foes.
“Divistus,” he said, “Your beast will do us no good now, so you and it return to the courtyard and secure it against any further incursion. Send whatever remaining warriors you find down here when you do. And finish prepping the translocation sphere. I do not intend to remain here once we deal with the surfacers and recapture the ancient kin.”
“As you command... warleader,” the shaman said, and swam up to ride upon the head of his terror beast as it swam out of the tomb chamber.
With that, Morgawr led his remaining warriors down through the hole in pursuit of his quarry.
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Flash Sentry reached the hangar bay’s control room just in time to nearly get bowled over by a streak of pink he almost didn’t see coming.
“Whoa, Pinkie!? Watch it, you could take a guy’s head off, moving like that,” he said, then turned as he saw not only Pinkie Pie emerge from the tunnel entrance, but Aria and Sonata, Fluttershy alongside a shark of all things, and a sahuagin!?
He already had his Zanpaktou drawn, but even as he readied it Fluttershy swam in front of him and laid a hoof on his own.
“Don’t,” she said, “His name is Ulgriv, and he’s, um... well not exactly on our ‘side’ at the moment, but he’s kind of not with the others right now either.”
“Okay, that’s supremely unhelpful, Fluttershy,” Flash said, not taking his eyes off of this ‘Ulgriv’, who was nervously floating back from him while the sahuagin’s eyes turned even more wide and bulbous as he took in the now brightly lit hangar and equally lit up underwater battleship.
Indeed the ship had drawn attention from the others as well, Aria sucking in a breath and saying, “Well hot damn, now there’s a ride out if I’ve ever seen one.”
“It’s so shiny!” Sonata said, “Oh tell me we get to keep it!”
Pinkie Pie, her own eyes sparkling at the sight of the Treasury, clapped Sonata on the back, “You know it, sister! We’re at the part of the game where the party gets it’s airship, only ours is a seaship, and probably also an airship too! I can’t wait to hear it’s launch theme!”
“I don’t know what you mean, but same,” replied Sonata.
Meanwhile Flash was still giving Ulgriv a harsh glare, but he did manage a questioning glance at Fluttershy, “Where’s everypony el-”
“Comin’ through ya’ll!”
Applejack swam into the control room with Rainbow Dash at her side, Rarity right behind them, and a heavily breathing Trixie bringing up the rear. Flash immediately noticed that Applejack’s arm was injured and went to check on her.
“You alright? What happened up there?” he asked, and Applejack waved him off.
“My arm’s fine, just a’ teensy bug bite from some o’ that ugly as sin fish magic. A whole army o’ the buggers are up there, probably comin’ after us right this second.”
“With a big, crazy mutant whale!” Rainbow Dash said, “It was kind of awesome, but freaky as all get out! But Applejack punched it, so it didn’t eat any of us. Also, I'm pretty sure it can’t fit down the hole to get here.”
“While true, that still means we have a small army of angry fish people coming after us,” Rarity said, “I do hope Twilight and the others have worked out how to operate the Treasury.”
“Trixie is confused,” said the showmare, “That is not a pile of gold, jewels, or artifacts. Also is that a dead body laying there!?”
“Relax Trixie, it’s not gonna hurt you,” Rainbow Dash said, then her ears flicked as the distant sound of sahuagin war cries echoed out of the tunnel, “And that’s also our cue to keep moving, folks! All aboard the spiffy submarine airship thingie!”
“Hold on,” Flash said, approaching the tunnel entrance, “This will only take a few seconds.”
He inverted his Zanpaktou in his grip and held up his other hoof in as close an approximation of the hand gesture he was supposed to use as he could manage. With a deep breath he calmed himself and focused his reiatsu as he started to chant.
”Burn solid to hardened perfection
Still the flow of the earthen stream
Breath halts, skies dim, snow falls
Sleep now in a cradle of bedrock.”
“Bakudo Number Forty Seven: Dorogame Koro!” (Mud Turtle Shell)
Upon invoking his incantation, five translucent yellow talismans appeared in the air before him, like paper slips etched in light, each engraved with one kanji symbol representing the elements of fire, earth, water, air, and wood. The talisman of light then shot out and arranged themselves in a wide circular pattern around the mouth of the tunnel, sealing themselves to the wall. From there, the talisman glowed brighter and erected circular bands of light that acted as the foundation for a barrier that had a vague resemblance to that of a turtle's shell, blocking the way.
“Nice,” said Rainbow Dash, “Think that’ll hold ‘em off?”
“Probably not for long,” Flash said, his expression growing more pensive as he focused his spiritual senses outward, “You said something about a mutant whale?”
“Uh-huh, big feller,” said Applejack, stretching her legs, “Gave the bugger a solid tail whack, which he didn’t seem ta like none, but he was more solid than a boulder or stubborn oak. Good thing he was pretty dang slow, too.”
“There was also this big fish dude with glowing tattoos,” said Dash, shrugging, “He didn’t seem too tough to me, but definitely the guy in charge. Also was another who looked like a total creepazoid with all these bones on him, and he flung around some more of that freaky magic we saw on Mt. Aris.”
“Hmm...” Flash listened while picking out what he could with his senses of what was coming towards them, and further beyond. While he still sensed the unpleasant mass of reiatsu outside the palace, he could now get a clearer read on other spiritual signatures. There were two moving away, one that pulsed unsteadily but strongly, like an irregular heartbeat, and another that felt fuzzier, somehow darker. Then there was a third rapidly approaching, pulsating with a stronger fervor than the other two. However it was difficult to gauge just how strong the reiatsu was, as it was blanketed by the buzz of magic as well.
Still, this is stronger than what most Lieutenant’s give off. Why didn’t I sense any of this earlier? It must have something to do with the magic the sahuagin are using.
“I don’t know how long this Kido will last,” he said, “Might only be minutes.”
“Then let’s stop gabbing and move,” said Aria, “Even if there isn’t a way out of here, that ship has to have weapons on it, and I am not letting me or my sister get captured again without a fight!”
“No objections from us,” said Rarity, “I’m quite tired of running away myself. If we’re to make a stand here, let us reunite our forces and present a proper front to our ungracious hosts.”
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Twilight shook her head, unable to quite banish the strange thoughts of familiarity with the mace in her hooves, but equally unsure of what to do about it other than to temporarily set the weapon back on the shelf containing the case she’d taken it from. She wasn’t even sure what possessed her to pick it up in the first place.
“Hey Wavecrest, have you found the Eye yet?” she asked, turning to regard the seapony, who herself was carefully going over each shelf and display case one at a time with a look of growing frustration etched on her features.
“No,” Wavecrest said, that one word carrying a mountain’s worth of anxiety in it, “But it must be here.”
Swimming forward to join Wavecrest, Twilight asked, “Are you certain you know what it looks like?”
“Yes! Well, I mean... mostly,” Wavecrest admitted, doubt creeping into her worried look as she pulled out her mentor’s journal once more, and flipped to a page to show to Twilight. On the page was a depiction of a large, beautiful seapony mare who’s mane flowed like waves, and who cradled a shining orb between her hooves, “The depictions of Domare all show the same thing. A great orb of light. Some accounts suggest a ball of crystal, while others something of metal or even coral, but all agree upon the shape of an orb. I.. I imagined I’d know it when I saw it. How could such an artifact not stand out?”
Twilight adopted an understanding expression, reaching out a hoof to instinctively comfort the other mare, “Some objects can have an exaggerated form in historical accounts, but if we keep-...huh?”
She’d reached out to pat Wavecrest on the shoulder, but drew up short as in her hoof was the mace. She blinked at it, while Wavecrest gave her an odd look.
“How did that-? But I put it...?” Twilight looked back at the shelf, the mace already gone from there and clearly the same one that was in her hoof. But she hadn’t picked it up again, had she?
“Are you well, Princess Twilight?” Wavecrest asked, “And just what is that you’ve found?”
“I don’t know,” Twilight replied, “I just found it in that case over there. I set it down, but I guess I must have picked it up again without thinking. Um, a-at any rate, about the Eye, if we keep looking I imagine we’ll find it. It just might not look like you imagine, you know? Maybe something smaller, easier to overlook?”
While tension still made the seapony mare’s motions stiff, she gave Twilight a shallow nod of acceptance and said, “You are likely right. I merely need to take my time. Would that we have time to spare.”
“As long as we escape from here with everypony alive, we’ll have all the time we need to search more thoroughly,” Twilight said, “In the meantime, we can give this room one more solid look, but then I think we should go to the bridge and...”
It was like someone opened up a drain plug inside her. Her eyes drooped and her body abruptly felt leaden. As her vision dimmed, she thought she saw something appear alongside the head of the mace in her hoof, a symbol that briefly glistened with the image of a binding chain wrapped in a helix pattern, the color of amethyst.
Then everything flashed in and out and she found herself-
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-standing on the precipice of the Rainbow Bridge, it’s countless colors merged into an endless roadway that bound every portion of the world’s many enclaves upon the ocean of magic that separated the Two Realms.
Astra shook her head, trying to get her thoughts back together. For a moment she thought she was someone else? Twilight...something...?
“Astra, you losing your head in the clouds again?” said a familiar jovial and joking voice behind her, and Astra turned to look at her approaching companion.
“No more than usual, Tachys,” she said, warmly embracing her hooves around her friend as he flew in for one of his iconic tackle-hugs. His silver armor grated against the fine white robes she wore around her equine frame, but she was sturdy by the standards of one aligned with the Dominion of Knowledge, rather than War.
Tachys on the other hoof certainly showed his orientation in every bit of lean muscle, sleek and cutting as a storm born gust of wind, his coat a brilliant blue hue that contrasted with her dark purple. Indeed she often figured she was his opposite in every way. Yet they got along, for a wonder.
“The others not here yet?” Tachys asked, pulling off his helmet to let a rainbow colored mane fly loose, “I came right from the front. Figured I’d be last to arrive”
“With your speed?” she asked, quirking an eyebrow up, her mane of void black, sprinkled with violet stardust, rising in query with it, “I scarce imagine you ever being anything other than first. At least I live here, and even then I sometimes think you’d beat me to a meeting in my own home.”
He gave a great belly laugh, clutching his side, “Hahaha! This is why I like you, Astra! You’re nowhere near as stuffy as others of your Dominion.”
“I believe I very much have my friends to thank for that,” Astra said with a smile, but soon her expression turned serious as she looked Tachys over, noting a few more errant scars on his otherwise pristine form that had not been there the last she’d seen him, “How are things out there?”
His own jovial looks faded somewhat, golden eyes downcast, “Worsening. Oh, the Preservers gain no ground, but neither can our Reformists dislodge them from the Mortal Realm. Every day new bastions rise, and more mortals spend their souls in worship at Preserver churches. We have our own faithful, true, but the reserves of our own magic drain a bit more with every passing cycle. Unless something drastic happens soon, I’m concerned with how this will end.”
“A fear those of my Dominion share,” Astra replied, the curled spindle of a horn upon her brow gleaming with radiant mana to produce a large tome bound in plates of silver, which she opened to the latest page of complex chiseled graphs within, “My research, er, our research shows what we Reformists have long suspected. The Mortal Realm is not a limitless source of souls, but rather a natural resting ground for our own spiritual makeup upon a gods’ passing. By absorbing magic from mortal worship, we’re draining that ground, preventing a natural cycle of rebirth for souls on either side of the divide. It has to stop.”
“The Preservers won’t hear any of it,” Tachys snapped, sparks of elemental wind and lightning coursing over his armor and spilling from his eyes for a moment as he looked up at the sky above as if to ask it for answers, “No matter how much evidence they’re shown they have made it clear they will fight any change, any breath of doing things differently.”
“But they must! If things do not change, both the Mortal and Divine Realms are at risk. If things continue as they are, we won’t have any good options to fix the damage we’re doing!” It was hard for Astra to not show her own frustration visibly from the churning magic inside her body, both horns and wings spilling an aura of umbra radiance as she needed a moment to take hold of her own emotions. A few passers-by, either minor alicorns like themselves or mortal servitor spirits, gave the pair wary looks and a wide berth as they finished crossing the Rainbow Bridge into the streets of the bastion city. Tachys seemed to realize they were making a scene and coughed, shaking his wings and using his own horn to gesture down a side street that ran along the Bastion’s vast circumference, where the wall dropped off into the sea of clouds and churning magic below.
“Let’s talk of better things, Astra, before either of us blow our tops and scare the locals.”
Astra turned redder than a polished ruby, partially hiding her face with a wing as she got her magic back under control. “Good idea. Although let’s not stray too far from the bridge until the others arrive.”
“Of course not. Doubt we could miss spotting any of them anyway. Althea couldn’t hide if she wanted to.”
“Don’t make fun of her size. She’s sensitive about it.”
“What? I didn’t say I didn’t like it. Just, uh, don’t tell her that...”
Twilight didn’t comprehend, and the voices, the images, all of it was blurring together like the reflection upon a lake being disturbed by a ripple. The sense of being in a another body, the sight of a vast city of glittering silver and gold spires perched atop a mountain floating in a sky, connected to other such places by an ever splitting road of rainbows... the deep fear and tension underlying the feeling of a war unseen, a catastrophe looming, and the knowledge that there may be no avoiding what was to come.
All of it faded, even as Twilight was still left clinging to a sense of personal identity that felt as fluid as water. Who was Astra? What were Dominions? Preservers? Reformists? What had-
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-happened?
Twilight groaned, feeling dizzy and sick. She felt gentle hooves touching her back as Wavecrest looked at her, floating nearby with wary concern, “Are you well, Princess? You clutched your head for a moment, and it looked as if you were about to faint.”
“I... I don’t know,” she said, trying to scrape together whatever bits of memory remained intact of what she’d experienced. She knew that couldn’t have just been a dream. There was certainly a small chance that exhaustion was catching up to her and she’d simply fainted, but she wasn’t so foolish as to just discount it as that. She looked at the mace, still weakly clutched in her right hoof. Already the memories of the vision were becoming like motes of mist in her mind, but she still clung to a few things. The name ‘Astra’, and something concerning a ‘Mortal Realm’, alongside a war.
It rather reminded her of the circumstances facing Sunset and her human friends in the other world. Had... had similar events taken place in Equestria as well? But if they had, was there no record of them? Considering this, she carefully tucked the mace into the saddlebag she wore. Whatever it was, it seemed obvious she couldn’t just set it aside, but neither was she comfortable just using it, either. She would need to carefully study the artifact and discern its properties when time allowed.
“I’m alright,” she told a still worried looking Wavecrest, “The mace has some kind of magic on it, but I think it’s fine for now.”
“I am not convinced,” Wavecrest said, “But you’re an adult, so I’ll not admonish you like one of my children. Besides, it is not as if I have much room to talk, given my interest in the Eye.”
Mention of the Eye again made Twilight think of something Wavecrest had said before, “Hey, I’m curious, you said earlier that the Eye is a Relic left behind when the ‘gods’ left this world. Does seapony mythology mention exactly why the gods left? What exactly happened?”
A pause came over Wavecrest, followed by a curious and measuring look at Twilight, then at the saddlebag with the mace’s handle poking out of it. “Stories vary. That said, most of them do speak of a terrible conflict that arose between the gods. The myths do not all agree on the cause of the war, but that there were two sides split between preserving the world, or remaking it anew.”
Preservers. Reformists. Twilight fought down a shudder and gulped, “Do the myths say which side won?”
“Ah, on that, most myths agree,” Wavecrest said, an ominous twist to her lips forming as she answered, “...Neither. The destruction was so great, so terrible, that the gods wept for the world and chose to leave it. That is why, at least according to our myths, that the world is filled with so many different species of mortals, left scattered and without unity by the gods that abandoned them.”
“Well ain’t that a right depressin’ story?”
Twilight whirled about to see that the doorway to the artifact chamber was now filled with the familiar faces of her friends, Flash Sentry floating right behind them alongside the larger forms of the sirens Aria and Sonata looming over the heads of the rest. Applejack, who’d spoken, was cradling a freshly bandaged leg as she swam in, “What’s got you two historians talkin’ ‘bout gods now?”
“Oh, um, well,” Twilight wasn’t quite sure how to explain what had just happened to her that triggered her interest in questioning Wavecrest, but at the same time she wasn’t sure she wanted to try and explain it right then and there, “C-curiosity.”
“Twilight being curious must mean it’s a day that ends in ‘day’, hehehe!” Pinkie Pie giggled as she bounce on into the room alongside the others, almost immediately stretching her leg out in a random direction to grab an object off a shelf, which turned out to be an intricately carved wooden lute lined with what appeared to be metal studs of iron, “On that note, this place has got some neat thingamajigs in it! I used to play lute for the Rock Valley Rock Farmers Rock n’ Roll Festival, but never did actually win anything. Now Limestone? She really knows how to handle a banjo if you know what I mean!”
“Nopony knows what you mean Pinkie, but we’ve learned to roll with it,” Rainbow Dash said, “Why would you even play lute or banjo at a rock n’ roll festival anyway?”
“They were electric!”
“And thank you for proving my point,” Dash said, casually backstroking over the display cases, eyes gradually lighting up, “But all that aside, this stuff all looks pretty spiffy. So Twi, which one of these things is the magical doo-dad that’s got the most juice in it? At least tell me there’s like a super arcane bomb or something in here we can use to just blast our way out of this mess?”
“Considerin’ we’re underground, Dash, I ain’t thinkin’ explosions is what we want,” Applejack replied dryly, “But with a’ whole mess o’ stinkin’ death guppies knockin’ on the door, if there’s anythin’ in here we can use ta fight, that’d be fine by me.”
“The sahuagin are here?” Wavecrest said, scowling, and Flash raised a hoof.
“I put a barrier around the entrance, but anyone’s guess how much time that buys us. We’ve also got a sahuagin... prisoner with us?”
“More like a less than willing guide, but for the moment he seems docile enough,” Rarity said, to which Wavecrest immediately sent the mare a questioning look.
“What!? You brought one into the ship? Where!?”
Rainbow Dash swam by Wavecrest and made a calming gesture with her hooves and wings, “Chillax. We went to the bridge before coming here, and Tempest was all over putting the dude in the brig, so he’s locked up tight for now. Don’t go blowing a gill.”
“For the record, I think her reaction is perfectly understandable,” said Aria, giving a brusque wave at Wavecrest, “Hey. Heard you’re the one who helped these gals out in coming down here to rescue me and my sister. So, you know, thanks for that.”
“The pleasure is mine, ancient kin,” Wavecrst said, crossing her staff over her chest and bowing, to which Aria looked confused and Sonata raised a hoof.
“The sahwhatevers called us that too,” Sonata pointed out, “Like, what’s with that? We’re not that old, right Aria?”
“Been wondering that, myself,” Aria said, “I’ve never once heard anyone refer to me or my sisters as ‘ancient kin’ before. So what’s the deal?”
It was Wavecrest’s turn to look briefly confused, looking at Aria and Sonata as if truly seeing them for the first time. Her eyes twitched narrower as she looked upon the sirens’ chests, “You... don’t have the gems? But in all other ways you resemble the progenitor species from which all other mer-folk spring from.”
“Huh?” Aria and Sonata glanced at each other, Sonata self consciously rubbing at the spot where her gem had once been. Aria pressed her lips tight, arms crossing over her chest.
“Look lady, we used to have gems, but... things happened. And I don’t know anything about ‘progenitors’. My sisters and I, we come from an ocean a good ways off from here, and there weren’t a lot of other sirens there to begin with. Far as we know, there aren’t many sirens in the world. But so what? Why does that make us special to those fish faced bastards?”
“That I cannot say. All I know is that whether you are aware of it or not, there are many tales that hold your kind in a place of some reverence... and fear,” Wavecrest said, shaking her head, “I wish I could tell you more, but even I can’t fathom all of what may be in the minds of the sahuagin.”
“Not exactly the answer I was hoping for, but screw it, if it comes down to it I’ll just beat the answer out of Charybdis’ face myself,” Aria said, and cast a heated glare around the chamber, “Now I just need something to do the smacking with. There anything useful in here?”
“Waaaay ahead of you, Aria,” Rainbow Dash said, zipping left and right around the room faster than most could follow as the rest of the group entered. Dash halted in front of a particular weapon rack, eyes glossing over happily as she reached out to pick one of the objects up. “Whoa-oho! Check this out!”
“Rainbow, that’s a...uh... what is that?” Applejack asked, scratching her head as Rainbow Dash set aside the cutlass she’d been carrying and unsheathed her new acquisition from a sheath made from a polished, red lacquered wood. It was a sword, roughly a foot longer than the cutlass she’d been carrying, but with a straight blade that was single edged. What was odd about it were the grooves along it’s blunt side, wide notches with capped tips. The weapon’s metal itself was also unusual, filled with wave-like patterns that gave the sword a more liquid look. Flash gave the sword an odd look, floating a bit closer to look at it as Dash hefted it around in an experimental test of it’s balance.
“It’s a sword breaker,” he said, voice puzzled, “Damascus metal. Never seen one that big before. Usually sword breakers are one handed weapons..”
“All I know is that it’s light as a feather, but wicked cool,” Rainbow said, testing the blade with a few swings, which seemed to cut through the water rather effortlessly. The sword breaker’s cross guard was curved back like an inverted set of horns, the handle itself wrapped in black cloth.
“I believe the weapon design stems from pre-Princess era unicorn culture,” Twilight said, “Unicorn duelists used them in conjunction with rapiers, back before dueling was considered too, um, violent and was banned. I don’t remember reading any books talking about one this big, though. I wonder who it was made for?”
“It’s certainly an elegant sword, Dash darling, but do be careful where you swing it,” Rarity said, ducking around the pegasus as she ran a critical eye over a neighboring shelf that had various bits of jewelry and similar odds and ends on it, “However if we are arming ourselves, I suppose we could all do with a little something extra. Twilight, I see you procured something of your own?”
“Oh! Umm, heheh, this thing?” Twilight pulled out the mace with an embarrassed flush, “I just sort of picked it up without thinking about it. It has magic in it, just about everything in here does, but I have no idea what it’s properties are. Look girls, if you want to grab something, I won’t stop you, but be careful. We don’t know what most of these artifacts are meant to do. I suggest only grabbing one object, and if you feel anything... weird, just let me know immediately, okay?”
“Can do Twi’,” Applejack said, following Rainbow Dash’s lead and looking around at some of the weapon racks, rubbing her chin all the while, “Kinda just used ta usin’ my hooves, but can’t quite git used ta this dang fishtail I got. Could use somethin’ with some heft ta it. Ah! Just like this!”
Twilight hadn’t even noticed the object in question, as it was tucked away in the corner and nearly blended into the wall, but when Applejack picked it up she almost wondered how she hadn’t seen it earlier. It was... well, not a staff, but rather a huge length of dark mahogany wood that grew into a sizable knot on one end, like the world’s biggest walking cane. Applejack hefted it like it weighed next to nothing and gave it an experimental whack with her hoof to test it’s solidness.
“A big stick?” Dash asked, “Really?”
“Ain’t no ‘stick’,” Applejack defended, “It’s a shillelagh.”
“She lays what?”
“Dang it Dash, it’s a’ right proper whackin’ club! Granny’s got one like it, just a whole lot smaller. This one here’ll seriously bust a knee or two, just you wait n’ see.”
While that exchange was occurring, Pinkie Pie was strumming her lute, seemingly content with that as her chosen item. None of her friends questioned it. It was Pinkie Pie, after all. Besites, the lute was covered in metal studs and looked sturdy enough. Fluttershy and Rarity took a bit more time perusing the vault’s offerings, Rarity being exacting and choosy, and Fluttershy simply being hesitant to pick up a weapon at all.
Twilight went to Flash, quickly conferring with him to learn that Trixie had stayed on the bridge with Starlight, and that it sounded like Admiral Seaspray and Tempest, when not bickering with one another, had mostly gotten the Treasury’s controls figured out.
“Seaspray said that he can get us moving, but weapon systems are still going to take awhile before they can be used,” Flash said, “The ship hadn’t gone through any calibration tests or shakedowns, so trying to charge up anything like the cannons might well do more harm than good until we’ve had time to check everything out.”
“That’s alright,” Twilight said, “I was hoping to avoid more violence if we could, although it doesn’t sound like we have a lot of time. Hmm, I just realized, can we even open the hangar doors from the ship?”
Flash opened his mouth, but said nothing as her question hung before them and he slowly ran a hoof over his face, “I’m going to guess, given our luck, that no, we can’t. That’s probably handled in the control room!”
“Which the sahuagin will be in the moment they break your Kido,” Twilight said with a groan, “We’ve got to get back there before it’s too late.”
There was a crackle of noise as the ship’s intercom magically buzzed to life and Trixie’s voice spoke over it, “Ahem, is this thing on? If any of you can hear me, the Clear and Communicative Trixie has been informed to relay to all of you that there was just now a bright flash from the control room and it seems like the sahuagin have gotten through the barrier and are pouring into the hangar. In other news, I’m having a panic attack.”
“Sounds like we just ran outta time!” Applejack said, “Rarity, Fluttershy, you two done yet?”
“As it so happens, I am,” said Rarity, who had moved to one of the central display cases. After opening it with a flourish of magic, Rarity had lifted a pair of objects from within that now spun around her in an aura of her soft blue levitation magic. “I do believe these will suit me just fine, although I confess it was the color that drew me in.”
By color, she likely meant the combination of carved jade set with stunningly bright sapphire stones that made up the handles of the two circles of polished silver metal. Twilight recognized them as chakrams, a favored weapon of the kirin colonies in the far east. The handles that made up one fourth of each deadly circle of sharpened metal was actually meant to be held in the mouth, so chakram were rarely used in pairs, but these two had clearly been forged to be a set given the complementary nature of the classic ‘yin-yang’ teardrops carved into either handle.
“Yeah, those are definitely you,” Rainbow Dash said as Rarity spun the two chakrams about her a few times with her magic, then used a small cloth strap to tie the pair to the bandolier that held her dagger.
“Fluttershy, you ready too?”
“Oh, um, yes?”
All eyes turned to the demure mare who floated up to the group with something strapped firmly to her right arm. It was a shield made from a strangely white metal, shaped like an oval with small, semi-circular portions missing from two sides. To Twilight’s knowledge, the design was congruent with the hoplites of ancient Pegasopolis, and despite the somewhat worn tarnish to the metal she could just barely make out the center emblazing of the historic pegasus city-state’s symbol there; that of a laurel wreath surrounding a cloud shooting lightning.
“A shield, eh? Yup, that checks out for Fluttershy,” said Pinkie, “Now we just have to teach you to throw it like a boomerang!”
“It’s, um, kind of strapped to me, Pinkie,” Fluttershy pointed out, “And I really don’t want to hurt anyone. I picked it so I could block attacks, not make them.”
“Well, never underestimate a good shield bash,” Flash said, then chuckled without humor, “Although I think Sunset is the only Soul Reaper I’ve ever known who has a shield.”
“Do we have time for idle chatter now?” spoke Wavecrest in a quickened tone, already halfway out the door, “The sahuagin come.”
“You’re right, we need to get out there,” Twilight said, and swiftly swam out to the hallway with the intercom. Pressing the button she assumed was the activation switch, she said, “To everypony on the bridge, my friends and I, Flash, and Wavecrest are going out there to stop the sahuagin and get the hangar doors open. Be ready to start moving the ship when we do.”
“Wait, Princess Sparkle,” said Admiral Seaspray’s voice, “There’s near two hundred of the ugly blighters out there, and it looks like more are coming as I speak! You may need our help.”
“We need somepony to control the ship, Admiral, and that’s you. And you might need more crew to handle the bridge, so it’s best whoever is on the bridge stays there.”
“Are you sure, Twilight?” asked Starlight’s voice, “You might need all the spell power you can get out there, and me and Tempest are still pretty fresh. Plus, we fought that big war leader of theirs already, so we know some of his tricks.”
“Starlight, I’d rather you and Tempest stay there in case any sahuagin get past us and board the ship,” said Twilight, then glanced back at her friends, freshly armed, and took a deep breath that was followed by a relaxed smile, “Don’t worry. We’ve got this. You just make sure the ship stays fish free until we get back.”
“If you’re sure,” Starlight said, and Twilight could hear the hesitance in Starlight’s voice. Understandable, to a degree, as they’d spent so much time either trying to do this stealthy or simply withdrawing from direct confrontations with the sahuagin. However the entire point of stealth had not been to simply avoid danger, but to ensure they could reach Aria and Sonata without the sahuagin doing anything to the sirens. Even the group’s primarily seeking to flee a fight rather than stand ground was a matter of ensuring the split party could properly reunite.
Now that everypony was reunited and the two sirens were safe, priorities could be shifted. The sahuagin wanted a fight? They were about to get one.
“Hey, what about us?” asked Aria. She and Sonata had been sifting about the artifact vault as well, although neither had grabbed anything yet.
“Stay on the ship, please,” Twilight said, and upon seeing a flare of challenge in Aria’s eyes, she held up a hoof, keeping her voice firm but understanding, “We just got you two back. I’d feel a lot better knowing you were on the bridge with the others.”
“She’s got a point, Aria,” said Sonata, “Reaaally not feeling like getting captured again. Not a flattering look for us, you know?”
“Ugh, fine, we’ll stay,” Aria grumbled, and shot a hoof towards Twilight, “But you’d better kick their asses extra hard for us, you got that!?”
“Thinking we can manage that fer ya gals,” Applejack said, tapping her new shillelagh over her shoulder. Fluttershy smiled at the two sirens and beckoned over her pet shark, who’d been hovering just outside the door. Fluttershy stroked the creature’s snout.
“Mister Snuggles, this is Aria and Sonata. Will you do me a favor and look after them while I’m out giving those mean sahuagin a stern talking to?”
The shark, for an otherwise expressionless creature, managed a rather animated nod and happily swam over to protectively circle the two sirens, neither of which looked entirely comfortable with the situation, but offered no argument.
That taken care of, Twilight and her chosen allies departed the artifact vault and made their way towards the cargo hold.
The Treasury had multiple airlock doors and other ways in and out of it, many laid out on all sides of the hull. Aside from the largest, main airlocks on either the port or starboard side, there was also the cargo hatch to the main hold located in the ship’s aft belly, not far from the artifact vault. Twilight decided that would be their best exit, as the cargo hatch was faster to open or close than the airlock’s themselves, and it was large enough for her and all her friends to charge out as one.
As they made their way to the cargo hold, she took a moment to briefly and somewhat subtly probe the artifacts her friends had chosen to take. She’d observed them carefully during the time they’d been in the vault, and she didn’t notice anything that had seemed unusual to her. Unlike the mace, which she’d seemed unconsciously drawn to for no reason she could identify, the objects her friends chose were all based on personal preferences. Rainbow Dash had chosen an ‘awesome’ looking sword. Applejack had taken a weapon that reminded her of her family. Pinkie Pie had snatched a lute of all things, seemingly at random but also due to a bit of family history. Rarity had chosen as much for aesthetics as practicality, seeking grace as well as functionality. And Fluttershy had taken something to protect others with, rather than harm.
All of that aligned with a choice consciously made based on what her friends would want. No hint of a choice coerced magically, or made inexplicably due to unknown forces. Not like with her and the mace.
On top of that, while she’d experienced that strange vision within just a minute or two of picking the mace up, she saw no hint of her friends reacting strangely to the objects they’d taken from the vault. So in all likelihood the oddity of her mace was something specifically affecting her and not them. And yet...
Each of the items chosen definitely contained magic. She could tell that much with even a hidden, cursory scan with her own magic. She wouldn’t be able to learn more without a more thorough examination, but time was stacked against them for now. It would have to wait. However, even that brief look at the magic surrounding her mace and the items her friends held suggested something unusual was taking place. There was a faint pulsation, barely discernible, within the mace that almost felt like a signal of some sort.
A part of her thought she ought to say something, but the last thing her friends needed right now was a distraction, or for them to worry about her. Soon as they were clear of Aqualania she’d tell them about the vision she saw, and hopefully they could then piece together what it might all mean.
But first, the sahuagin and their leader needed to be dealt with.
----------
A short time earlier...
Morgawr observed the barrier separating himself and his loyal warriors from the path the surfacers had taken down into the palace’s depths. In a way he was almost grateful to the invaders. They had managed to open up a place so long sealed that previous generations of sahuagin had given up on ever breaking through. It was a tad galling, actually, that surfacers would be granted the honor of being the first ones to enter such a sacred place and discover it’s secrets before he and his kin.
The barrier itself was not a thing of magic. He was nowhere near as gifted in the arts of the Deep Mistress as a shaman might be, but his senses were sharp enough to realize the difference between this barrier, and one formed of magic. He ran his hand along the translucent yellow surface, his gills opening wide as he took a deep breath.
“Soul magic,” he said, “So they have a spirit warrior with them.”
The Deep Mistress divulged her secrets only to the chosen few, and even then only in an appropriate drip feed. He understood, of course. Mortal minds could only contain so much truth. Before the attack on Mt. Aris he had communed with his Deep Mistress, and she’d revealed to him that there was a strong chance the surfacers had a most strange ally with them. A warrior from the other realm, a warrior of spirit. Such beings, she had told Morgawr, were deadly and diabolic foes, who enslaved the souls of the dead in their own bizarre and twisted world. That such a being was here now was proof positive that the surfacers were being undermined by the corruption of the other realm.
All the more reason to crush them now, and further ensure the Deep Mistress’ plan for her chosen people came to fruition!
“Stay back,” he told the warriors that had floated closest to him, entranced and curious about the odd barrier in their way. They warriors followed his order without question, floating back quietly as Morgawr cocked back his right fist.
As he’d been taught, he reached within himself, to the places carved out in his flesh and soul by the Deep Mistress’ magic. He touched both that magic, and his own soul, pouring it out like blood into his fist.
The tattoos gleamed red around his body, growing especially bright around his arm and his fist.
Unbeknownst to Morgawr, had by some trick of fate a Quincy been present to witness the event... why, that Quincy might have noted how the gleam of red in his tattoos and the flow of magic and spirit energy seemed so very similar to the techniques of Blut Vene or Blut Arterie. Not identical, but similar enough to have made said hypothetical Quincy observer raise an offended eyebrow at the fish man.
He rammed his fist forward, ruby magical power surging from the limb in a spiraling torrent. It impacted the barrier like a battering ram into a stout castle gate. The barrier fluctuated with a ripple of unstable light. It held, but was rocked by the blow. Morgwar did not stop, pulling back his fist while ramming the other one forward just as hard, eliciting a similar ripple of resistance from the barrier.
Again and again he struck, faster and faster, until his fists seemed like a crimson blur of hammer blows.
Soon, the barrier started to form cracks with each ripple that undulated over it’s punished surface. The sound of Morgawrs strikes became akin to an endless ringing of a gong. Then with a final strike, his fist ripped through the Kido barrier and caused it to scatter like so much golden dust.
His warriors gave a gurgling cheer behind him, emboldened by their war leader’s displayed might. He wondered if any of them understood how blessed they were to see him using the Deep Mistress’ knowledge and techniques? How rare it was for one of her chosen warriors to make use of the power she had etched upon their souls?
Well, hopefully the surfacers would provide even more opportunity for him to do so, as with the heady rush of power fueling the heat in his blood, he was rather enjoying himself. The shamans could keep their dark rituals, sacrifices, and spells. A warrior only required the pulse of blood in his veins and an enemy’s flesh in ready reach of claw, tooth, and weapon.
Sweeping forward into the room beyond the dissipated barrier, followed closely by his warriors, Morgawr took the surprising scene in at a glance. He had not expected to see the odd control room, shaped like a bubble upon a wall. He certainly had not expected to see the unbelievably large and potent looking vessel of metal that lay in the vast chamber beyond the control room. Legends had spoken highly of the soft kin’s fondness for forging objects of power, but this ship was beyond what even those stories told. Capturing it would surely catapult him to an even higher place of esteem in the Deep Mistress’ eyes.
Then his attention fell upon the corpse in the room, the ragged skeleton that wore unmistakable armor and still carried in one bony hoof a magnificent spear of bronze.
The body of the Deep Mistress’ very own blood sister!?
The second his eyes laid upon it, he felt Her.
Had She been watching the entire time? Perhaps. Her eyes spanned many places, he knew, and Morgawr did not so much as offer an iota of resistance to Her holy presence as she filled his mind, body, and soul with a light as dark as the Abyss’ very heart, yet as bright as the surfacer’s vaunted sun.
My Mistress.
----------
While there was little time to take in details, Twilight’s analytical mind did still manage to take note of the state of the Treasury’s cargo hold in the brief few seconds that she and her allies were rushing through it. The expansive hold was two decks high, and was already packed with an assortment of clay or coral carved containers, with pots being largely in place of what would have otherwise been wooden crates on a ship that didn’t operate while entirely submerged and filled with water. It made Twilight briefly wonder if the ship had a system for pumping out all the water when it went to the surface?
The idle thought was banished quickly as a mechanical groan filled the cargo hold and on one side of it the floor started to slip downward like an opening jaw. Admiral Seaspray’s voice spoke over the ship’s intercom.
“Opening the doors for you now, Princess. Do be careful. Something is happening out there. The sahuagin are not advancing, but there was a strange light just a second ago.”
Without being at a com terminal there was no way to respond, so instead Twilight looked to her friends as they made their way towards the opening hatch, “Let me take the lead everypony. Our only goal is to get the hangar doors open, not take down every sahuagin in sight.”
“Hah, says you,” Rainbow Dash quipped, but at a look from Twilight the pegasus relented with a wave of her wing, “I hear you, though. All we gotta do is hit some button while keeping the scalies at bay.”
“I’d say ‘leave that to me’, but honestly Dash, you’re probably faster than me,” said Flash with a humble nod to her.
“Then we let Rainbow do her zip-zoom while we play with the fishies,” said Pinkie Pie, “Easy as pie. Or easy for a Pie.”
“Here’s hopin’. Showtime girls,” Applejack said as they rushed out of the lowering hatch and swam alongside the ship’s belly towards the open area in front of the bow. Once there they had a clear look at the far wall where the glittering bubble of the control room’s dome was, and all of them halted in surprise. While they had expected to see the sahuagin swarming forward, possibly already trying to overrun the ship, instead what they saw was that the fish men had halted in a cluster in the water around the wall.
And they were all prostrate.
Every single sahuagin warrior, nearly two hundred of them, were arranged in a loose set of semi-circular formations around the control room’s bubble, but each one had their heads bowed low, any arm that wasn’t holding a weapon outstretched as if in supplication. A deep, resonating moan rose and fell in a steady rhythm through the hangar, and it took Twilight a moment to realize it was the sahuagin making the noise.
“What in the world are they doing?” Flash asked, but before Twilight could answer, another voice did. A voice that rang unnaturally like it was distorted through a hundred echoes, but was distinctly female and laced heavily with an intense wealth of supreme confidence.
“They are worshipping, Soul Reaper.”
Morgawr emerged from within the control room, but his motions were not wholly smooth or natural, but rather it almost seemed as if he was being pulled along by a force outside himself. His body was still marked by numerous swirling, sharp angled tattoos that glowed a fierce sanguine hue, but he was now also surrounded by an ever shifting nimbus of darkness, as if he was outlined by a fragment of the very Abyss he called home. This ink-like cloud sported several strands of pale yellow and red lights that spilt from it like strands of sun from behind a cloud, and his eyes filled with a similar cloud of uneven light that blotted out the war leader’s expression with another that was clearly not his own.
The sahaugin’s worshiping undulations escalated upon Morgawr’s arrival, and they parted for him with utter reverence as he swam forward a short span before stopping and with a gentle gesture made a motion behind him towards the control room. From there a similar nimbus of darkness emerged, a field of magic pulling along the body of Princess Scylla and her spear. Morgawr called the spear to one hand, and the skeletal corpse to the other.
Twilight and her friends all looked at one another, and then Twilight moved a short distance forward. She suspected she knew who this was, but it was best to let this new... entity confirm its own identity. If this was who she thought then if she was in a talkative mood they might learn something useful. In Twilight’s experience the bad guys did like to listen to themselves talk.
“How do you know what Flash is? You’re not... that’s not your body, is it?”
The ‘occupant’ of Morgawr’s body looked at her and cracked a wide smirk, “Observant, Princess Twilight Sparkle. I’m temporarily borrowing my sweet Morgawr’s body so I might speak with you. I decided I owed a dignitary from another country visiting my realm that much, for the sake of international diplomacy.”
“Horseapples,” Applejack breathed, and ‘Morgawr’ let out a deep laugh that reverberated off the walls.
“Why yes, I suppose it is! We are enemies, and I won’t hold my beloved people back from seeking your to end your lives for as long as you continue to interfere with my plans. I could ask you to hand over the sirens and I’d let you all live, but we both already know you’re not the sort of individuals who would do such a thing.”
“Of course we’re not,” Twilight said, “Charybdis.”
Charybdis, possessing Morgawr’s body, let out a happy sigh and with a rather gentle hand stroked the skull of her sister’s body. “I must thank you for opening the way to my sister’s remains. While they do me no good, it is a final loose end I never did get to tie up. And now I see how she’d wasted so much of the kingdom’s resources on. Can you not see how ill suited she would have been to be Queen? She was a child, building toys to play at conquest and adventure. She’d have ruined our people.”
“From what we’ve seen you both did quite the number on seapony society together,” Rarity pointed out, “As the old saying goes, it does take two to tango.”
The cordial mien fell almost instantly from Charybdis, Morgawr’s body twitching as the play of light and shadows intensified around his body and Charybdis’ voice range out like a undersea quake, “It’s her fault for killing mother! I had to take matters into my own hooves, before she took the throne. There was too much at stake, more than she could ever understand, mostly because she never listened to me.”
“What makes ya so sure she killed yer ma?” Applejack challenged, “Saw how ya wrecked her room, so no doubtin’ you believe it, but did ya ever dig up any proof or did ya just leap ta conclusions?”
Charybdis’ voice turned to acidic scorn, “There’s no other explanation for how our mother died of ‘illness’ so swiftly. Our mother was the healthiest damned judgmental woman in the world, then suddenly becomes deathly ill out of nowhere? I may not have discovered what poison was used, but that doesn’t change what it had to have been, or that my dear sister was the only one whom mother trusted enough to let close, even when ill. Given how badly Scylla wanted the throne, both means and motive are accounted for. I certainly never wanted the throne like she did.”
As if swatting away an errant fly, she flung her hand out and the remains of Princess Scylla floated away, then were wrapped in a field of dark tendrils until they vanished; destroyed or transported, who could say? Charybdis kept a firm grip on the spear however, and after a moment of taking a calming breath, she regarded those in front of her with a refreshed gaze of self-control.
“But enough of my family drama. I’ve long since moved past that to more meaningful work. You asked how I knew your handsome friend is a Soul Reaper? Well you should know the answer to that already, considering you started this journey to take from me something fairly given; the shard of Adagio’s soul that she offered to me in exchange for my teachings.”
Twilight nodded, “You’ve had eyes on the human world for awhile now, it seems. You have a means of traveling there besides the mirror portal.”
“Only partially. It’d be more accurate to say I have made connections to those who can allow some small level of travel between our realm and the human one. However I’ll soon have a more stable, permanent means of entry, and oh Princess Twilight... once that happens the sky’s the limit. I’ll be able to do so much with that world and this one, soon as I get that door opened. Even the Soul Reapers don’t have the kind of knowledge I do when it comes to manipulating the soul, particularly because they don’t have magic like I do. Heheh, it’s been heartwarming to know my little Adagio has done so well for herself, partially because of the skills I taught her.”
“But why did you ask for a piece of her soul as payment for those skills?” asked Twilight. She had never quite understood what it was that Charybdis would gain from such an exchange. Was Adagio’s soul special in some manner, or was this something Charybdis often sought from her victims?
Charybdis waggled a finger at her, “Ah ah ah, I know you’re fishing for answers, Princess, but it’s honestly more fun watching you struggle in ignorance... although...”
Her attention became focused upon Twilight’s saddlebag, and the silver handle of the mace extending from it. Charybdis’ eyes narrowed slightly and her mouth opened in a small ‘ah’ of understanding. “I see. Seems like my sister’s hoarding obsession has left a few problematic things laying about. I should have known she’d have snatched up more than one Relic during her idiotic piracy spree. Poor Princess, you’ll find out on your own soon enough the nature of the object you’ve picked up, assuming the visions haven’t already begun.”
“Wait, visions? What do you know!?” Twilight said, her voice rising, wings spreading out as she moved forward unconsciously, “Have you seen them too!?”
A hint of something that almost approached pity entered Charybdis’ voice as she laughed bitterly, “I almost forgot how confusing the first few times are for an Inheritor. Unfortunate child, will you even keep your own mind intact, I wonder? Your Princess Luna fell quickly to her own Relics, and she had centuries to prepare herself. What chance do you have? Killing you right now would practically be an act of kindness, before you learn the sad truth of our world and the lies it’s built upon.”
Abruptly the shifting cloud of shadow withdrew from Morgawr’s body like it was being bodily ripped out of him. Morgawr groaned as it did so, his eyes returning to normal as the cloud of darkness filled with shards of light now hovered above his head. He looked up at it, smiling in reverence, “Holy Deep Mistress, what would you have of your servant?”
Charybdis’ voice rang from the nimbus of shadow, “Beloved Morgawr, chosen champion, I ask of you to dispose of those who would threaten our people. Capture the sirens, but the rest can be killed. In your hand you weild my sister’s spear, and I shall grant you the boon of further might. Use it to end these invaders.”
Morgawrl threw his arms wide, “Thy will be done, Deep Mistress!”
With a resonant rumble of power the cloud of jet black shadow let loose a dozen beams of darkness encrusted light to stab into the chest of Morgawr. Twilight instantly felt the intensity of the magic at play, and could tell from the look on Flash Sentry’s face that there was also some level of spiritual energy at work as well. Morgawr’s body began to ripple and swell with fresh musculature, his scales cracking as a layer of extra armored bio-organic growth formed over his chest and limbs.
In the span of seconds he grew several feet in size, the tattoos of deepest crimson now coursing over near every inch of his body which had grown a layer of organic armor like the thick hide of an oceanic sea serpent, lined with spiked fins. To complement the spear of Princess Scylla he held in his left hand, he extended his right hand and rivulets of arcane light gathered in a dark, wine red orb in his palm which he then gripped, forcing it to extend out into the shape of a trident formed out of pure magical force. His head became covered in a sharp angled helmet with curved fins on the side that covered his eyes, but left a giant, glowing red eye in the center of the helmet that opened up and looked around with pulsating veins. An continuous ruby aura of power poured out of his body now, and Twilight noticed that despite the extra mass he’d gained and the twisted, organic armoring, it was as if the skin and bones of his body were also being contorted beyond their physical limits. It looked painful, to say the least, yet Morgawr wore a wide smile, his needle teeth open in seeming ecstasy.
Next to her Flash Sentry solemnly invoked his Zanpaktou, “Serve faithfully; Kochi Yojinbo.”
In a brilliant wash of blue light the katana transformed into the shape of the lrage, five foot long bladed tonfa on his right arm. He glanced at Twilight, whispering, “Be careful with this guy. I can’t get a full read on his power, but there’s a lot more reiatsu than there should be, and if we account for the magic he’s got pumping him up, he might be on the level of a Captain at this point.”
“Are you sure about that?” she asked, and he gulped, giving her a boyish smile of uncertainty as he shrugged.
“Like I said, it’s hard to tell with all the magic involved. We’re about to find out, I guess. Just saying, now’s not the time to hold anything back, Twilight.”
“There,” Charybdis said in satisfaction, the tendrils of light leaving Morgawr once his body was sufficiently transformed. “I’ve expended what power I can at this distance to empower you, my champion. Besides, any more and even your beautiful vessel would not withstand it. Do not waste my gift, and make me proud to have chosen you as one of my favored.”
“I shall not, Deep Mistress.”
With that, the nimbus of darkness faded, as if folding in upon itself. Whatever means Charybdis had been using to extend her consciousness here was now gone. Twilight wondered just how far this abyssal witch could perform such feats, as nothing like this had happened at Mt. Aris. There had to be a range limit, and perhaps a limit based upon the nature of her followers. She hadn’t empowered any of the other warriors, just Morgawr. Was it because of the tattoos he had? Perhaps only specific sahuagin could act as channels for Charybdis’ magic.
She’d hoped to get far more answers out of Charybdis, especially considering she seemed to know a lot about the mace Twilight had found and what that vision might have meant. Apparently Princess Luna knew something, and presumably Princess Celestia as well? What had they not been telling Twilight? She’d always known that Celestia, at least, tended to keep certain things to herself but Twilight had never been bothered by that. After all, Celestia was thousands of years old and ran a whole country, it made sense she’d have a few secrets to keep close to her chest. Twilight even knew that there was probably quite a bit about being an alicorn that Celestia had not yet told her about, as the nature of alicorns and their origins had always been a somewhat murky topic.
But now Twilight was starting to realize just how much she didn’t know.
For now it didn’t matter. She and her friends had a fight on their hooves.
“Here he comes! Get ready, everypony!” she said, flaring up her magic into her horn. Now would be the best time she could think to break out some of that High Magic she’d been studying.
Morgwar pointed at them with Scylla’s spear, and roared, “Sahuagin of the Abyss, our Deep Mistress requires the heads of these surfacer fiends! Destroy them all!”
As one the sahuagin warriors gave out a collective roar and began their charge, their empowered leader at the head of them.
And Twilight Sparkle and her friends all charged to meet them.
Morgawr chose her as his target, and behind him the very water began to boil and turn burning red as magic energy shot from his armor and propelled him towards her at a speed reminiscent of Soul Reaper’s Flash Step. Yet Twilight had anticipated he’d become faster with Charybdis’ empowerment and had already begun to teleport herself, while enacting several other spells simultaneously that poured from her horn in rapid succession.
His energy trident passed right through the space she’d just occupied as she teleported out of the way, but she left behind a small shell of magic energy that the moment his weapon made contact with it, exploded in a sphere of incandescent light. Morgawr was forced back a step by the blow, his reinforced body absorbing the impact of the magical mine, but even as the crimson eye on his helmet searched for Twilight she was already acting. The other spell she’d cast upon herself was a hastening spell, boosting her reflexes and perception of time, allowing her to better react. This also let her aim a charged up piercing bolt of magic at Morgawr’s back.
The eye of his helmet appeared to sense the attack even before he did, twitching in her direction and allowing him to move without actually looking. Even so, her bolt scored a piece of his shoulder armor off as he turned around and threw his energy trident at her. The trident, in mid-air, split apart into a cluster of twenty. Twilight would have teleported away, but there was no need. Fluttershy and Flash both moved defensively around her, both pegasi turned seaponies moving with remarkable swiftness.
Flash swung his Zanpaktou, the tonfa’s power reflecting his presence in half a dozen places to swat down the magic trident clones. Fluttershy braced her shield and with her fishtail and wings both moving in a buzz, she slammed the shield into two of the tridents of magic energy that were close together, knocking them into a third whereupon the magic energies exploded. Flutterhy kept her shield braced in front of her, weathering the explosive force as the shield’s white metal glinted for a moment with an almost mirror-like quality.
Between both Fluttershy and Flash’s efforts they had created enough of a gap that Twilight didn’t have to teleport and could focus another magical blast at Morgawr. He created a fresh magic trident in his hand and crossed it with Scylla’s spear, using both weapons’ shafts to block Twilight’s beam, yet even so the concentrated lance of violet magic shoved him down at an angle until his armored feet smashed into the ground. His feet dug trenches in the stone floor of the hangar as he was pushed back towards one of the walls, Twilight keeping her beam output up to try and keep Morgawr pinned while she began weaving magic for a separate spell.
Slowly a magical circle began to form around her back, where her wings outstretched, the circle’s edges touching each tip of her wing. What she was doing wasn’t going to be easy, as this was her first attempt at trying to channel a High Magic spell. The principles of it required significantly greater focus than what she was used to, a problem compounded by casting other spells simultaneously. But she was confident she could pull it off, it’d just take a little bit.
“Keep them occupied, guys,” she told Fluttershy and Flash, referring to the sahuagin coming their way out of the cluster of combat that had erupted around them.
Applejack and Rainbow Dash had gone right into the dead center of the oncoming sahuagin rush. The farm mare bulldozed right into the lead element of the creatures, cracking her neck before hefting the shillelagh between both of her hooves and swinging it like the world’s largest baseball bat. The wound on her arm burned fiercely, but Applejack ignored it as she swung. One could actually see the pressure wave of water being moved by the force of the swing, and a hole was blasted right through the front of the sahuagin line with over a dozen being knocked senseless by the swing.
“Go fer it, Dash!” Applejack said, now wheeling her weapon about left and right as fishmen tridents and harpoons stabbed at her from all directions.
“On it!” Rainbow Dash said, turning on her speed and transmuting into a multi-colored bolt, even as she drew the swordbreaker she’d sheathed across her back. Moving in a corkscrew motion too fast for the eye to catch, Rainbow zipped by several dozen sahuagin that tried in vain to try and stab the ribbon of colors swimming past them faster than anything they’d seen. Most of them found their weapons torn right from their grasp, the swordbreaker’s notches catching trident and harpoon shafts with ease and sending the weapons spinning away.
Meanwhile Wavecrest, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie found themselves at the center of the sahaugin’s left flank, fighting back to back to deal with enemies coming in from all angles, even above and below. The sahuagin were, if anything, experienced underwater combatants, so they knew to surround a foe from all conceivable sides. However they were contending with more than simple seapony hunters or unaware crews of surfacer merchant ships.
Wavecrest’s staff was suffused with solid green light as she chanted to the waves, and spoke to the spirits of the ocean to bend water to her whim. Claws of cutting water slashed out in fans from wherever she motioned her staff, cutting down several sahuagin apiece. Yet for all the seapony witch’s magical fury, the sahuagin were familiar with her kind of magic and could anticipate it enough to dodge in many instances, while aiming harpoons at the mare when she was focused on chanting.
It was the ponies that confounded them. Each harpoon was delicately and deliberately cut down before it reached Wavecrest. One after another sahuagin warriors found their hands cut deeply, or their legs similarly sliced by arching glints of metal that moved in such fast, intricate patterns that it left many of them dizzy.
“I do so prefer to pursue artistic endeavors, but I suppose there’s little choice you brutes have left us,” Rarity said. The mare hardly moved much, staying close to Wavecrest, but her eyes flicked about with a detailed gaze that never blinked. Her magical might may never match that of her alicorn friend, but even Twilight would have admitted that when it came to delicate precision, Rarity’s skill in telekinesis was among the best of any unicorn in Equestria. When applied to sewing dresses, it created works of art. When applied to the pair of chakrams she now wielded in her firm blue grip of levitation magic, it wove a complex and painful dance of slicing metal that the sahuagin could barely follow.
The circular blades cut through the water with fierce but utterly accurate and dexterous motions, never ceasing the curve in an endless waltz around Rarity. The assault took the fish men by surprise, but soon they sought to overwhelm with sheer numbers, clustering together to try and rush the mares.
Only when they did they found a pink mare had somehow gotten behind them when none of the sahuagin were looking, tapping one on the shoulder to get his attention, whereupon he got a face full of lute.
“C’mon guys!” Pinkie Pie said, floating back and running a hoof over the chords of the lute, “Don’t any of you just want to quit this whole creepy undersea cult gig and try something different?”
Tridents aimed at her face, but Pinkie kept smiling, “No? Well okay then, but I don’t think you guys get medical insurance.”
The sahuagin warriors thrust at the mare, but she seemed to treat physics as a polite suggestion and contorted her body through the melee, moving right through the throng, which led to more than a few sahuagin stabbing one another rather than her.
“Ow, that looks painful! Yikes, watch it buddy, you nearly put your friend's eye out! I swear it’s like you guys are trying to hurt each other instead of me, which, you know, whatever kink works for ya, but leave me out of it!”
“Pinkie, darling, I don’t think they appreciate your brand of humor,” Rarity said, sending her charkrams over to help clear some of the sahuagin trying to surround Pinkie Pie, who continued to bounce around the center cluster of sahuagin while occasionally giving one a smack with her lute.
“You ponies certainly talk quite a bit during a battle,” Wavecrest noted, sweeping her staff out to form a blast of scalding water that sent several more sahuagin reeling back with pained screeches.
“Just how we alleviate the unpleasantness of battle,” Rarity replied, ducking a harpoon that managed to get past her guard, and frowning as she sent a chakram flying out to slice the arm of the offending sahuagin, “None of us enjoying this kind of thing. Well, mostly. I’m sure Dash is having the time of her life.”
Speaking of Rainbow Dash, while Twilight was trying to keep Morgawr pinned down with a relentless torrent of magic, and Fluttershy and Flash kept any sahuagin at bay who might have interfered with that, Rainbow herself was making straight for the control room. A troop of sahuagin had taken up a defensive position around it, all but trying to bar the way with their bodies. Dash hit that line like a high speed meteor. The swordbreaker in her hooves remained a light weight, despite it’s unusual size, and she found she could use it as easily in the water as if she was in open air.
Given her speed, the sahuagin were having trouble so much as grazing her, but there were a lot of them, and they all but formed a complete wall with their weapons. She had to catch those weapons one at a time with the swordbreaker, avoiding the porcupine wall of other tridents that stabbed at her. The sahuagin could barely see her, rainbow blur that she was, but Dash had to be careful about her own exuberance, lest she impale herself by accident. This led to a somewhat slowed process of disarming and clobbering the sahuagin one at a time, using the notches on her weapon to rip away their weapon before using the blunt end to smack the offending individual and yank them out of formation.
It’d probably take a minute or two to actually clear the door to the control room this way, but there weren’t a lot of other options.
Morgawr and Twilight remained locked in a battle of contested might. He had been driven right up against the wall, where he braced himself as his two spears were kept thrust out in front of him, cutting into the torrent of Twilight’s magical beam. The wall itself started to crack under the strain, and Morgawr let out a feral shout from deep in his chest. The magic spear in his right hand flashed, and exploded, creating a momentary burst of arcane energy that obscured him from view. Twilight kept her magic beam going, but wasn’t sure if she was still hitting him, and let out a sharp gasp as she saw him leap up from the dust of the explosion and come right at her again, this time leading with Scylla’s spear.
She felt magic inside that spear, and also felt it intensify as Morgawr thrust it forward, despite still being a fair distance away. White light erupted around the bronze spear, and it suddenly extended in the blink of an eye! Twilight was able to see it coming due to the hastening spell she’d cast on herself, allowing her to swim to the side just in time to turn what would have been a skewering blow into a mere shallow cut. Scylla’s spear retracted in an instant, and Morgawr, not halting his motions, thrust again. He moved around her in a weaving pattern, thrusting multiple times, each thrust extending the spear at Twilight in like a sudden missile impact.
“Twilight!” Flash called out. He and Fluttershy were both surrounded by sahuagin at this point, although they were holding their own quite well against the horde.
“She’ll be alright,” Fluttershy told him, while at the same time blocking a sahaugin’s harpoon with a deft flick of her shield, “Oh, I’m sorry mister sahuagin.”
She apologized profusely to every sahuagin she engaged, using her shield to deflect blows while slipping in and around them and yanking their limbs into painful angles. She never went so far as to break bones, but she left a trail of groaning sahuagin with arms and legs bent at awkward angles, and for all their attacks they couldn’t seem to penetrate that white shield of shining metal.
Flash kept them on their toes simply through continued use of Flash Step combined with duplicating himself around them. His tonfa had already cut down a fair number of warriors that weren’t expecting him to suddenly appear in multiple places at once.
However, with Twilight being attacked, Flash’s attention was split. Yet Fluttershy’s words proved true, as he needn’t have worried so much.
Despite the storm of spears coming at Twilight, she had a simple and effective defense. A magical barrier shaped like a diamond with multiple inner layers sprang up around her, and it absorbed the blows of Scylla’s spear with a resounding bell toll. Morgawr growled as he added his magical trident to the attack, summoning several as he cast them into the barrier and with a gesture caused the crimson tridents to erupt in spherical detonations across Twilight’s shield.
The explosions rocked the hangar, but Twilight’s barrier held, albeit with several cracks in it. By now the magic circle she was forming between her wings had grown in size and complexity, nearly complete. Twilight was also noticing a resonant sensation of magic coming from her saddlebag and glanced at the mace.
It had regained that small, purple brand of light on it, the one in the form of a set of chains. Was she about to have another vision? This would be the worst time for it!
Yet no vision came this time. Instead she just sensed a faint sensation of magic reaching out from the mace. It left no visible trail, but it was like the magic in the mace was looking for something nearby.
She had no time to contemplate that now. Her attention went back to Morgawr, who twirled both his weapons in his hands and then bloody red energy poured out of him in a tide as he gathered it up behind him for a second before launching himself at her with even greater speed than before. He impacted her barrier with both spear and energy trident thrust forward at once, and the protective shell around Twilight did start to buckle, but she was not surprised by this. Charybdis’ magic had pushed him to a particularly potent level, but she could see it was wreaking a terrible toll on his body.
Twilight teleported out of her barrier just as it shattered, a concussive wave stemming from the impact that it sent a shockwave strong enough to rattle the entire hangar. Morgawr’s charge took him past the broken remains of the shield to smash into the hangar floor so hard that the energy from his blow cut a shockwave ripple through the ground all the way to the far side of the hangar.
Yet for all that force, he hadn’t hit Twilight, who appeared behind him now with her horn glowing so bright it turned most of the hangar a bright shade of violet. The magic circle between her wings was now complete, filled with a complex set of sigils as the Princess raised her head and gave Morgawr a flat stare. An aura of magic built up around her, so thick as to appear almost like a solid object rather than a mere light, it’s color a darker purple than the depths of dusk, and speckled with motes of incandescent starlight. The water around her was actually pushed backwards by the force of the magic at work, creating a small bubble around her. With a breath, she invoked the High Magic spell, the first she’d learned and hoped to master.
”Sphaera Astralis.” (Astral Sphere)