//------------------------------// // Episode 147: A Sparkle in the Depths // Story: Equestria Girls: Friendship Souls // by thatguyvex //------------------------------// Episode 147: A Sparkle in the Depths “You’re certain, sister?”  Celestia could well hear the gravity drawing Luna’s voice into an incredulous whisper. The two shared the open courtyard with none save a the pair of ever silent Royal Guard who watched the doors to the palace’s main entrance, neither of whom were in earshot, and a handful of birds perched upon the greenery flanking the pathway out past the castle walls. She was leaving for Ponehenge at that very hour. The Bount, Trixie, was being retrieved fro her secure quarters and prepared for the journey by a contingent of Celestia's best hoof picked guards, but Celestia also had Discord remaining nearby to ensure their guest didn't try any funny business. While she was confident Luna had likely sensed the same thing concerning Twilight that Celestia had, she'd wanted to at least briefly confer with her sister before departing. After all, even Celestia wasn't entirely sure how the confrontation at Ponehenge was going to turn out, despite all of her planning and preparations. “As certain as I can be," she told Luna, hoping she didn't sound as tired as she felt, "I haven't precisely felt this kind of thing often. Not since it happened to you." Luna cast an exasperated and quite agitated look towards the ground, her ears all but flattening, “I had hoped it was a mistake of my nerves. A frayed imagining. So, Twilight has one of the Relics. Fate must have it in for us, for her to stumble upon one in the middle of the ocean.” “Not so unexpected, when one considers the trouble we had with that pirate princess,” Celestia said with a long sigh escaping her, “Scylla was ever a raider of things precious and valuable. It’s my mistake to assume any problematic items she stole would remain safe, buried in Aqualania’s depths. I knew our dear Twilight’s journey would take her afield to those waters, but this outcome was one I’d considered a low possibility.” “And what will we do about it?” Luna asked pointedly, “If she breaks the seal on it, then all of them-” “We do nothing,” Celestia said flatly, “For there is nothing we can do, dear sister. This is Twilight’s battle to fight, now. Perhaps this was always meant to be. We were entrusted with safeguarding the truth, but even so, it seems fitting that all may come to light now. As if the fate of the human world and ours are so entwined that as their war comes to a head, so too do the shadow of our own world’s ancient conflicts rise once again.” A shade of moxy colored the resignation on Luna’s face as she gave a single, stiff nod, “A somewhat melodramatic way of putting it, but I suppose I should be used to this with you. I also imagine this means you’re dead set on going all out against Starlight Glimmer?” “If she forces me to.” “Oh, she will. Do kick her presumptuous rear for me, will you? I’d like to do it myself, but...” she looked to where her once severed wing was resting at her side, attached but thoroughly wrapped in ensorcelled cloth bearing spell runes to aid in the slow recovering process, “I’m not about to fly much of anywhere.” Heat entered Celestia’s heart as she looked upon her sister’s wound, then gave Luna a quick embrace, “Fear not on that count. I have choice words and choicer spells for when the time comes. In the meantime I just need you to focus on recovering, and ensuring nothing goes wrong while I’m gone.” “Knowing our luck, and the nature of our opponent, something most likely will go wrong, but we’ve prepared for that as best we can,” Luna said, hugging Celestia back, but quickly disengaging and looking up towards the sky, “It’s not us I’m truly worried about. You say this is Twilight’s battle to fight, but she’s not alone. What of her friends? We don’t know how the Elements will react. Even if the physical representations of the Elements are left with the Tree, that doesn’t change the nature of the connection those mares share.” “True,” Celestia replied, and in truth she’d been thinking about the very same thing. “Unfortunately there’s no telling what the effects of an Inheritor using a Relic might be when they already have such a strong connection to a similar type of magic. The Elements are... unique, and ever unpredictable, despite their intended use as a reliable defense mechanism in lieu of the divine.” “In short, we have no idea. And you wonder why I worry?” “I never said your worries were without merit, only that we have little influence on the outcome,” Celestia reiterated, “Whatever happens, it is in Twilight’s hooves. I have faith in my student. Even if she activates the Relic, I believe in her ability to retain her own identity. Besides, it may not come to that. We did arm her with the necessary knowledge to pursue High Magic, and given her aptitude and talents, I feel sorry for the first opponent who gives her cause to apply that newfound knowledge.” ---------- “Sphaera... Astralis?” Morgawr mouthed the unfamiliar words in a confused echo of Twilight’s invocation. While he had studied several surface languages in order to better understand the foes from beyond his watery home, he was not acquainted with the words that this pony had just utilized. The phonetics were strange indeed, and even made more so by the fact that thus far no other use of magic had required any verbal utterances at all.  Yet something was different about this magic, he sensed. The gifts of the Deep Mistress that filled his very soul and permeated his body granted some level of attunement to senses both magical and spiritual. He could feel the dynamic shift in Twilight Sparkle’s magical aura. A density that was not like the previous castings that had stemmed from the alicorn’s horn, which had been impressive certainly, but not like this. He, however, remained confident. His Mistress had filled him to the brim with her blessings! Every vein in his body was alight with a euphoric, blissful fire that made him feel decidedly invulnerable.  His heart sang with worshipful praise to the Deep Mistress, to Holy Charybdis! It was this power, this fire of purity, that saved his people from a miserable existence at the bottom of the Abyss, and reminded him of why she was so deserving of his undying faith. How could he feel anything but a conviction born of hate for any who would deny her? These unworthy surfacers who would dare tread their filthy carcasses into the path of her divine plan? To an outsider looking in, this light of faith would look akin to madness. Twilight certainly had no way of understanding why Morgawr was grinning like a madman... madfish? Madfishman. But he certainly was, and that told her that as much as she deplored violence, there was most assuredly no resolving matters today without it. On some days, the magic of friendship manifested as a solid heart to heart talk and a lesson well learned. On other days, it manifested as a severe flank-kicking to those who weren’t keen on listening.  And Twilight had a whole new method of administering the latter. Upon the final invoking of the High Magic spell, she felt it all snap into place like a jig-saw puzzle consisting of a thousand different components. Despite the complexity of the magic, once it was activated there was a beautiful simplicity to the way the flows of magic all come together in her mind, and she somehow knew that she’d have an easier time invoking this spell the more she used it. The first visual effect was that the magical circle she’d created between her wings exploded outward into a churning field of sparkling purple and blue stardust, which then rapidly rushed together like a vacuum sucking up a river of stars. This became a flickering point of light that then grew outwards with pulsations almost like that of a heartbeat. After only a few seconds, the point of light had grown to a diameter of approximately fifteen feet, and the light it gave off suddenly intensified for a brief moment before finally fading. Now, floating there in front of and a little above Twilight’s position was an illustrious shape, defined by a perfectly smooth surface within which spun a colorful void of radiant space. A sphere, whose dimensions carried not a single solitary iota of imperfection in its precise measurements. The surface of the orb was seemingly transparent as pristine glass, yet ingrained with a cutting gleam of astral light as if the sphere itself was a window to another galaxy. Gazing into the sphere one could see all the darkness of space, yet all the shimmering splendor of unknown stars, nebula, and other cosmic forms flowing by like reflections upon a grand galactic mirror.  Twilight Sparkle let out a deep breath, sensing her connection to the Sphaera Astralis, the Astral Sphere, not unlike a leash in her mind. There was a steady weight she felt in her core, her magic slowly being depleted to maintain the spell. This was well enough. Well within estimates. She gauged she’d be able to keep the spell going, even under combat conditions, for at least an hour.  “Alright, let’s see what you can do,” she told the sphere, and her eyes focused like two lasers upon Morgawr. Ever the experienced warrior, Morgawr had no intention of waiting for this surface Princess to strike first with her strange new conjuring. He took the initiative, crimson tattoos flaring over his body as he propelled himself forward and to Twilight’s left, all but vanishing from sight in his speed. A powerful thrust of Scylla’s spear extended the magical weapon in a fraction of a heartbeat, seeking to skewer through Twilight’s side like one might lance a fish from a river. At the same instance he cut a downward stroke with the energy spear in his other hand, exploding his magic and spiritual power out through the weapon in a vertical wave of force to try and limit the space Twilight had to dodge. Behind the organic helmet covering his upper face, Morgawr’s eyes widened as the tip of Scylla’s sphere vanished into the depths of the Astral Sphere, which in less than a second had moved to interpose itself between him and Twilight. At the same instance, the wave of energy his other spear had created was broken upon a magical wall of force that bubbled out from the sphere in a deep violet display of power, halting the attack dead. He tried to pull Scylla’s spear free of the sphere, but found even with his muscles bulging to yank the weapon out, it didn’t budge so much as an inch. At least not until Twilight herself allowed the weapon to be freed from the sphere’s depths, and even as it withdrew, Morgawr sensed a change in the ancient weapon, as if the magic in Scylla’s spear had been somehow diminished by its brief contact with the Astral Sphere. “I see,” Twilight said, eyes closed in pondering, as if she was not in the midst of a life or death battle, “Impressive transmutation combined with spells to remove friction and even briefly alter time to increase the speed of the extension. Not to mention so much tempering. That spear would go through a mountain if you let it. Neat.” “Grrr! Do not mock me, surfacer!” Morgawr increased his speed further, feeling his muscles screaming in protest as he started to circle Twilight in fast, curving patterns. He lashed out with his purely magic spear, manifesting several in quick succession and infusing them with explosive power as he threw them at numerous angles to try and strike a telling blow at the still stationary alicorn. “Huh? I’m not mocking you, just commenting,” Twilight said as the Astral Sphere disgorged half a dozen smaller versions of itself, each one forming a focused barrier of magic around itself as they moved to intercept the spears lancing towards her. The magic spears detonated with incredible force, like a barrage of high-explosive torpedoes, but Twilight was shielded from the shockwaves not only by the smaller sphere’s barriers, but the main sphere itself had interposed itself in front of her to absorb the blows. It had grown smaller in size when it had created it’s smaller duplicates, but still remained sizable at about ten feet across. Twilight was surprised. So far the Astral Sphere was responding even faster than she’d imagined it would. She’d known it’s function would be tied to her mind intimately enough that it would react to her needs and desires on an instinctual level, but this was beyond her expectations. It had immediately analyzed Morgawr’s attack and responded accordingly before the thought had even fully formed in her own head!  It was still Twilight’s thoughts controlling the Astral Sphere. It wasn’t truly autonomous. But the astral construct was so thoroughly tapped into her mind that it could predict her thoughts before she completed them. That was supremely useful for fast reaction times, but she could imagine it might be problematic under the wrong circumstances. She’d have to look for ways to adjust to spell in the future to account for that. In all other respects, the High Magic spell was performing exactly as her studies had indicated thus far. The Sphaera Astralis was nowhere near the most directly potent of High Magic spells. Indeed among the many spells in the book Celestia and Luna had given her, Twilight had considered trying many before she’d chosen the Astral Sphere. Other spells that created much more powerful feats of destructive force, or bent the laws of reality quite a bit further than she was totally comfortable with. However most of those spells were not only exceedingly draining, but were also essentially unwieldy one-shot deals. Twilight Sparkle didn’t need a spell to destroy mountains or lay entire armies low. She needed a tool with versatility. Something that worked with her analytical, knowledge driven mind. What the spell did, in essence, was create a construct that was a highly versatile multi-tool that drew a portion of it’s abilities from being a direct conduit to the astral plane. The astral plane was the layer of reality that overlapped the material world and was essentially the endless ocean of natural magic that permeated the rest of the world. The Astral Sphere was a tightly controlled faucet into that plane, one with a set of specific functions meant to make it equal parts combat drone and research tool. To be honest, Twilight had no idea who could have first came up with this spell, but they must have been somepony who had a thirst for study and practicality in equal measure.  The things it could do were actually fairly straightforward. Morgawr had experienced almost all of the Astral Sphere’s functions in just a few short moments of combat. The first was the ability to trap and analyze objects inside of itself. The sphere’s shell was insanely dense astral magic made solid, but it could be made so objects could pass through at will. Once an object was inside the sphere, it’s structure and magic could be analyzed and the information transmitted to Twilight’s mind instantaneously. This process did drain some magic out of said object for the analysis, although this was more a side-effect than a direct function. The next function, which was protecting Twilight so effectively, was spell amplification. The Astral Sphere was like one big focusing lens for spells, drawing directly from the astral plane to boost any spell cast through it. Hence Twilight’s already powerful barriers becoming next to impenetrable as she cast them through her link to the sphere.  Or spheres, as it were. Another handy function was the Astral Sphere’s ability to split itself into multiple parts, although it could only do so to a limited degree. A few dozen at the most, at which point each sphere might be less than a foot in diameter. Still more than sufficient to act as mobile spell foci.  It felt almost like cheating, really. Twilight might have felt a bit bad about this, if Morgawr and his warriors weren’t trying to kill her and her friends. High Magic really did break some of the normal limitations on magic, the Astral Sphere letting her amplify potentially dozens of spells at once, at a criminally efficient cost to her magic reserves.  Morgwar didn’t know any of this. He barely had time to be incredulously offended by the lack of results from his barrage of explosive spheres before Twilight counterattacked. Once more moving at a speed of near prescience with her own thoughts, the Astral Spheres went after Morgawr in a dizzying display of motion, each of the smaller spheres zipping around him almost as if teleporting. Twilight cast beams of punishing magic through the spheres, her magic transferring into the spheres and exploding out of them in amplified lances of purple magic that came at Morgawr from all sides.  No slouch in terms of speed, he wove through the beams, but the spheres were relentless, disgorging more cutting beams of purple that grew around him like a closing net. Seeing no room to evade, Morgawr growled deep in his chest and instead propelled himself backwards in a burst of speed, summoning numerous spears of crimson magic that he threw out around him in a twirling sheet. These spears acted as brief, explosive shields that caught a few of Twilight’s beams, making a small gap for Morgawr to gain distance with.  However the larger Astral Sphere, along with Twilight, both teleported behind his path, and she threw a hoof out to touch the sphere and send an amplified spell through it. Two conflicting fronts of crushing gravity appeared on either side of Mogawr, manifesting as two perceptible distortions in the water that sandwiched Morgawr between them and caused him to halt in place instantly as he was caught between the two waves of force like a fly being slapped between two massive hooves. This was a more potent and focused version of the gravity spell she’d unleashed upon the Bount known as Trixie, made even more damaging by catching her intended target between two opposing gravity fronts. She could see Morgawr struggling to budge his frame even an inch under the forces crushing his body from either side, and felt a twinge of sympathy. She honestly wasn’t trying to cause undue harm here, but she couldn’t afford to hold much back, either. Even as the plates of organic armor covering his body began to crack, he only growled louder and his muscles strained harder. The flares of sanguine red magic flowing through the tattoos on his body became so bright she actually had a hard time looking at them. Still, he wasn’t able to move more than a few, halting inches of movement with his arms and Twilight found herself unable to keep silent. “Why don’t you simply give up? What could Charybdis have possibly done for your people to warrant this level of blind loyalty!?” Despite what pain he must have been under as his muscles and bones strained under the powerful gravities all but pulverizing his body, Morgawr still spoke with clarity and conviction. “Not loyalty, surfacer. Faith. We were a race with nothing, not even the ability to hope for better than our miserable lot. Only She, only She brought purpose and light into our dark world. For that, our bodies, our souls, belong to Her. This pain is nothing in measurement against that!” He’d managed just barely to point Scylla’s spear downward with the minimal amount of movement he’d forced his body to pull off, despite the incredible forces crushing him. Even against that gravity, the spear was able to extend down at alarming speed and force, impacting the ground and creating a counteractive force that propelled Morgawr upward. The gravity planes still tore at his armor, ripping pieces off as he went, but he was still freed from the press and surprised Twilight when Scylla’s spear bent like a snake and actually sent him flying up and over her. He came at her from above, stabbing down with a spear of pulsing red magic. Luckily the smaller Astral Spheres were swift enough to react, even as Twilight herself sought to dodge. The tip of the energy spear still scraped her back, drawing a shallow cut, but one of the Astral Spheres had already encapsulated the spear’s shaft, halting it in place as she swam back and arrayed the other spheres around Morgawr and cut loose another volley of empowered beams. He was slower to respond this time, his injuries from the gravity spells hampering his movements. Scylla’s spear had returned to its original size, but he extended it again to spin in front of him, deflecting a few of Twilight’s beams, but he wasn’t fast enough to prevent others slamming into him from numerous angles. Morgwar was bounced around by the amplified beams, sent tumbling into the bottom of the Treasury’s hull, where he recovered enough of his wits to better dodge as Twilight sent the smaller sphere’s chasing after him. This time the spheres extended crackling aruas of shocking energy that looked very much like purple electricity. It wasn’t actually electricity, otherwise the energy might have spread through the water, but it was magical energy modified to induce a taser-like effect. Twilight wanted to avoid using beams while Morgwar was near the ship’s hull, so making the spheres into melee weapons made the most sense to her until she could drive him into a more open space. She kept the larger Astral Sphere closer to her as a defensive measure. A smart choice, as it turned out, for Morgwar had been holding back a trick or two of his own. As he started racing along the bottom of the ship’s hull, juking about through the buzzing assault of the empowered stun spheres, he began launching further barrages of magic spears. Only instead of targeting Twilight directly, he began flinging spears in clusters of three to five spears in various directions. Twilight was confused for a second, until she realized the spears of ruby power were now moving independently, curving about to start surrounding her and attacking her at random intervals.  This would either force her to create more small Astral Spheres from the large one, further diminishing it, or make her recall the ones she’d already made, hence taking the pressure off Morgawr and letting him increase his own offensive. It was a smart tactic, if not for the fact that Morgawr was underestimating the Astral Sphere’s versatility once more. Instead of making more spheres, Twilight stepped into the large sphere which still had plenty of space to accommodate her.    There was no water inside the sphere, so she had the rather unusual feeling of having air on her body again after spending so long in the water, but since there was no gravity inside the sphere, she just floated there with droplets of water rising off of her body. The interior of the Astral Sphere was deceptively large, almost like being suspended in a star scape, but she could still make out the definition of the sphere’s exterior and could see what was outside of it as if the nebulous starstuff automatically cleared a window for her wherever she looked. The moment she entered the sphere she cast her magic through it to harden the exterior shell. This occurred just as the first of Morgawr’s magical spears hit, exploding in concussive blasts of crimson force. More came in, striking in rapid succession, surrounding Twilight’s sphere in a growing bloom of destructive force that sent shockwaves through the hangar and cracked the ground beneath the impact points. Even the Treasury itself shook from the blows, and on the inside of the bridge those present could feel the tremors. “What in blazes is going on out there?” Trixie said, face pressed against one of the bulbous windows lining the main deck of the bridge, “I can hardly see anything!” “Looks like your alicorn Princess is getting hammered by that pumped up blowfish,” Tempest said, looking through a monitor device next to the helm that she’d parsed out how to operate, showing a screen of the battle taking place beneath the ship’s belly. Next to her, Starlight frowned, but not in worry, but rather curiosity. “I don’t think so,” she told Tempest, “I’ve fought Twilight before, and while I might have pushed her around back then, she was never trying to hurt me. Trust me when I say she’s got a lot more juice under the hood than either you or I’ve got. And that spell she’s using... I’ve never seen anything like it.” “That so?” Tempest said, eyeing the spot where Twilight and her Astral Sphere had been covered in explosions of red magical might, “Neither have I, but that Morgawr is showing way more power now than when we took him on just a little bit ago. Whatever his boss did to pump him up, it’s serious business. You really think the Princess and her Friendship Squad have this?” Starlight could only nod with a small smirk, “Just watch, Tempest. I think you’re about to see for yourself.” The disturbance of the successive explosions had churned up a cloud of bubbles as the light of the blasts faded. Morgawr knew Twilight must have survived his assault, however, for the smaller Astral Spheres remained charged with stunning energy and continued to pursue him like a swarm of mad piranha. He was forced to keep moving to stay ahead of the pack, but even as he did so he moved in a curving motion that would take him towards the area of dissipating bubbles where Twilight had been. For all of his faith and conviction, Morgawr was not entirely blind to the fact that this alicorn Princess was proving more formidable than he’d given her initial credit for. This new spell of hers was beyond troublesome, giving her an incredible defense while similarly augmenting her attack options. He’d barely scratched her so far, and she’d already dealt him several telling blows that left him in a state that, even if he won, he’d be in need of weeks of healing.  In his mind, he could not afford to let this battle drag out further. In a battle of pure attrition, it was clear this Twilight Sparkle would best him. It was only a matter of time before he could no longer dodge these damned spheres, or she’d catch him with some other spell like that hellish gravity press!  He had to end this in a single, decisive blow, and now! If he didn’t... was a part of him truly fearful this surfacer posed a threat to his Mistress? It seemed impossible that Her magical might could be so challenged, yet something about this blasted purple interloper left a hint of genuine unease in the sahuagin warlord’s heart. An unease he’d erase with her death upon his spear Having borne witness to what this Sphaera Astralis was capable of, Morgawr knew he could not rely on overpowering Twilight’s defenses. His only chance would lay in creating an opening. With that in mind, he delved deep into the gifted power his Mistress had granted him. Unafraid of the damage he’d be doing to his own body, he pushed the power of the tattoos to their limit, ignoring the tearing of his muscles and the strain on his very spirit to move even faster.  He became as a ribbon of ruby light, spinning swifter and swifter in ever changing, curving patterns around Twilight’s location, moving with such speed that the motions began to create a maelstrom in the water.  Twilight Sparkle observed this as the bubbles finally dissipated fully around her main sphere. Seeing the speed at which Morgawr was moving, she realized the smaller spheres just wouldn’t be able to keep up, so she instead bid them to join together so that now she had two spheres of roughly equal size; one she stood within, the other now stationary and remaining charged to the brim with stun magic.  She realized it was pointless to try and follow Morgawr’s motions with her eyes at this point. She could have tried amplifying the haste spell on herself to try and keep up with his speed, and it would probably have worked, but she had a simpler solution in mind. With a flare of magic from her horn she drew upon the astral mana stemming from within the sphere and charged it with elemental properties. Magic spells that commanded physical elements were usually fairly energy efficient as long as one had a ready source of said element to use as an initial spark. Not necessary, of course, for an alicorn with vastly ample energy reserves and a spell that actively drew additional mana right to her.  Temperatures dropped with shocking instantaneous speed around the Astral Sphere Twilight stood inside. So fast and complete was the temperature shift that the water froze outward in a mere second, turning swaths of the water beneath the Treasury into an ice sheet. Fast as Morgawr was moving, the rapid expansion of ice in all directions was still not something so readily dodged. He was caught within the ice, but rather than freeze in place along with it he ended up barreling through it like a plough through snow. That said, it was hardly an elegant thing, the impact into the ice, hardened as it was by the magic suffusing it, was more like running headfirst into a reinforced stone wall. The ice broke, yes, but Morgawr was sent spinning away, his speed working against him now as he bounced off the floor and tumbled away like a skipped rock. Twilight, wasting not a second, mentally commanded the second Astral Sphere that was still very much charged with stun energy to move, sending it right towards Morgawr like a magical cannonball. He saw it coming, but was at a bad angle to move out of the way. He instead threw out his hands and within them created a pair of pure magic spears, which he crossed in front of him to block the oncoming sphere. Spears forged of equal parts magic and spirit energy met in crimson embrace with the crackling form of the charged Astral Sphere, and for a second or two the pair remained locked in equal balance. Seeing that Morgawr was presently occupied with defending himself, Twilight felt confident enough to step back out of the Astral Sphere she’d been occupying, shaking a bit inside. She actually couldn’t afford to spend too much time inside the Sphaera Astralis, as potent a defensive move as it was. The amount of raw mana that flowed in from the astral plane was not meant for any being to bath in. A pony’s magic, even an alicorn’s, was still fundamentally attuned to their own body. Drawing in or being exposed to high quantities of magic in its purest form was disruptive to one’s inner balance, to say the least. Still, a few minutes of exposure had probably been safe. Shaking herself off, Twilight directed the sphere she’d just exited to start moving towards its brother. It looked like Morgawr was still holding that one at bay, but as soon as the other sphere joined it, she ought to be able to overwhelm those two spears of conjured magic he was holding... Wait? Morgawr was using two spears of pure magic? Then where was Scylla’s- Her only warning was the sound of ice breaking apart as errant chunks of it that had floated above her were smashed to pieces by the oncoming attack. Instinct was all that saved Twilight, instinct that had come from more light or death experiences than she’d ever wanted to have. There wasn’t time for a protective barrier, but the Astral Sphere’s tie to her instincts allowed one small sphere to break off from its brethren to come flying towards her, essentially knocking her partially out of the path of Scylla’s spear as the point was driven down. Morgawr, amid all of the high speed movements he’d performed earlier, had thrown the spear up towards the Treasury’s hull, causing it to lay floating against the bulkhead of the ship. Then it had simply been a matter of waiting for Twilight to drop her guard, to step out of the Astral Sphere and become focused solely on finishing him off. In that moment Morgawr had commanded the magic in Scylla’s spear to strike, the weapon magically extending and curving down to try and impale the Princess from above in a sneak attack.  It had nearly worked, but the small Astral Sphere had knocked Twilight aside just in time to prevent her from being lanced like a fish. Instead the spear’s tip managed a deep, but non-fatal gouge down her left side. It hurt incredibly, like a small river of molten metal searing her, but Twilight had enough presence of mind to know she wasn’t about to die. At least, not as long as she took action. Swallowing her sudden spike of fear, she had the small Astral Sphere that had saved her entrap Scylla’s spear, keeping the shaft from retracting back. She wasn’t sure, but she believed from her earlier analysis of the spear’s magic that it could only extend and retract once per attack. It couldn’t keep bending around like some kind of snake.  With that done, her eyes narrowed dangerously and she focused all of her remaining attention on Morgawr.  “Enough is enough.” With but a thought and gesture of her wing she bid the two larger Astral Sphere’s joined. With the Sphaera Astralis now back to largely being one sphere, minus the small one that still held Scylla’s spear, Twilight charged up her horn and cast a beam of magic directly into the large sphere. Already empowered to near bursting with pulsating stun magic, the sphere now gleamed brighter still, and Morgawr found his two magic-forges spears being driven back and him along with them. With a loud growl of denial, Mogawr tried to push forward, but Twilight redoubled the magic flowing from her horn and into the Astral Sphere. The sphere then discharged all of its magically amplified energy, point blank, right atop Morgawr. The result “stun” beam was more like a deluge of might that smashed the burly sahuagin right into the ground, then drove him further into the wall in a continuous river of magic that then traversed up the wall of the hangar. Stone was shattered in a furrow up the wall until Twilight had to cut the beam to avoid hitting the Treasury. Even so, a cut several meters deep ran from floor to wall, and tons of stone broke apart and collapsed in a pile that caused the whole chamber to rumble.  Twilight, breathing heavily and bleeding, but still very much alive, floated there for a few seconds to catch her breath. She couldn’t perform any immediate healing magic, but she did cast a quick spell to help numb the pain burning in her side. At a glance she gauged her wound wasn’t going to be an immediate problem, but she’d need to get it treated and stitched closed before it got infected. As for Morgawr... Twilight saw him lying pinned halfway underneath the rubble fallen from the wall. He wasn’t moving, and within the next second the pieces of organic armor that were still left on his body began to crack and release small flecks of fading red magic. Seconds later the armor vanished entirely as more energy just seemed to leak out of Morgawr’s body, his torn muscles, bulged to the point of twisted parody, shrank back down. More than that, they contracted until he looked thinner and more withered than he’d been before Charybdis had charged him up. Twilight couldn’t even tell if he was still breathing. A part of her hoped he was, as she hadn’t been intending to kill him, but she didn’t have time to go check on his condition either. He was clearly down for the count, and her friends might still need her help. With him down and out, she allowed the smaller Astral Sphere holding Scylla’s spear to let go of the weapon and bid the different spheres rejoin back into a single Sphaera Astralis. Scylla’s spear retracted to its base form and slowly floated down to the broken floor, amid melting chunks of ice. Twilight, deciding it was best not to leave the weapon just laying around again, collected it in her magical grip and placed it inside the Astral Sphere for safekeeping. She then turned and rapidly swam back towards the bow of the Treasury, rising up from underneath the vessel and into the front area of the hangar chamber to see how her friends were faring with the rest of the sahuagin. A single glance was enough to tell her she needn’t have worried.  By this point the sahuagin warriors had been forced onto the defensive, nearly half of their initial numbers now floating in pained or unconscious heaps around amid the chamber’s waters. Twilight’s friends had largely regrouped into a single unit, with the exception of Rainbow Dash, who had broken through into the hangar’s control room while the rest of the group kept the sahuagin busy.  “Twilight!” she heard Flash Sentry cry out as the Soul Reaper bobbed aside a sahaugin’s clumsy thrust and in the same motion reflected himself in several different locations while performing a spinning strike that knocked out not only his attacker, but half a dozen others. “Are you alright!?” Not far from him, Wavecrest was busy weaving the tip of her glowing staff in a smoothly curving arc around her. The water churned in front of the seapony witch, bubbling with heated lances of scalding temperatures that Wavecrest then sent stabbing out at clusters of sahuagin, preventing too many from grouping up to surround the group. At Flash’s shout, she paused her spell casting to look Twilight’s way, forming a small, satisfied smile. “Ah, it seems the duel has reached its conclusion.” “An’ it looks like our Twilight took care o’ the big fella,” Applejack called out, raising her shillelagh to block the oncoming rush of three sahuagin, catching all three of their harpoons at once before shoving the warriors back and then winding her club back for a potent swing that sent the fishmen tumbling back like pins struck by a bowling ball. “Than goodness for that,” Rarity commented, her eyes never ceasing to move as she expertly directed her chakram within her magical fields in a glittering metal shroud around her, keeping a dozen wary sahuagin at bay who seemed genuinely terrified to get closer to the mare. “We were starting to worry a tad that you might need some assistance.” “Naaaah, I knew Twilight had that. Didn’t you see my hooves wigging out earlier? Definite sign of imminent victory for team Equestria,” said Pinkie Pie, casually swimming in tight circles around a group of dazed sahuagin that were covered head to fin in bruises. Bruises the origin of which began evident as they kept trying to strike Pinkie Pie, yet never seemed to manage to get close and instead kept striking their nearby brethren as the giggling mare swam by.  A short gasp from nearby stemmed from Fluttershy, who saw Twilight’s injuries and covered her mouth with her free hoof, “Oh my! Twilight you’re hurt!” Despite having ten or so sahuagin in front of her, the shield bearing pegasus went off like a shot and barreled right through them with her shield held in front to batter through opposition like so much debris. Smart sahuagin moved aside, while the more bold among them tried to stab at Fluttershy, only to find the demure looking mare packing more than enough momentum to overpower their attempts to bar her path to her injured friend.  Twilight, for her part, just blinked at the scene, and had the presence of mind to rubbed the back of her head as Fluttershy reached her and hastily say, “I-I’m okay, Fluttershy, really! I mean, it’s more than a scratch, sure, but it's still just a flesh wound, as they say.” “Who says that?” Fluttershy asked, giving Twilight a look of immense caring as she immediately began to examine the wound, all but ignoring the wake of groaning sahuagin she’d left behind her, “This needs immediate looking to! Oh, I am so... so... steamed right now! Hurting my friends like this.” At that moment the chamber was filled with a droning groan that rang out with the bone shaking rumble of what at first may have seemed like an earthquake. However the flash of light from a dual set of blinking crystal fixtures on the chamber’s back wall drew the attention of all to the source of the sound, which was a pair of truly gigantic doors starting to grind open. Rainbow Dash poked her head out of the hangar’s control room, “Hey, it worked! I was pushing every button I could find in there until- Whoa!” She ducked as a sahuagin tried to stab her from above and she smacked his trident aside with a sweep of her swordbreaker, then rammed the pommel of the weapon right into the poor fish man’s sternum, “Don’t interrupt me, dude. Super rude.” More sahuagin came at her, and she licked her lips, “Alright, fine by me then. Check this out! Rainbow Whorl!” Wings and fined tail swishing together, Rainbow spun herself like a drill, with the swordbreaker held out between her hooves so it formed a whirling line of steel around her as she rushed forward into the oncoming sahuagin. The maneuver served to scatter them, snapping weapons in half and just as often breaking limbs as well. In a prismatic rush of speed, Rainbow rejoined her friends, who had now fallen back towards Twilight amid a barrage of Kido spells from Flash to help disperse the sahuagin some more. “Good work, Dash. Knew you’d get those hangar doors open in no time, although not quite your standard ten-seconds flat,” Flash said, grinning.  “Cut me a break, Flash, there was like a million fish dudes between me and that control room!” Rainbow protested, “And once I got through there were, like, a thousand levers and buttons. Not my fault I only got two front hooves to hit stuff with.” “Hey, not complaining, you pulled it off,” he said, then his mirth vanished rather quickly as he floated over to Flutteshy and Twilight, his eyes softening at the sight of her wound. Twilight felt a familiar warmth as he laid a hoof over the injury, gentle green light appearing over both hoof and wound, “This won’t do much for now, but better than nothing.” “I appreciate it,” she said, then glanced between the ship and the sahuagin. The remaining sahuagin had reformed ranks, but now that it was clear their leader had been defeated, they appeared hesitant to advance. Many of them looked at one another and shared fearful whispers, as if trying to decide who was in charge right now, and if any among them would make the call to retreat or resume the attack against these surprisingly potent ponies.  “So what’s the deal with this thing?” Rainbow Dash asked, pointing with a wing at the Sphaera Astralis, which remained hovering near Twilight like a protective canine.  “Oh, just a High Magic spell,” Twilight said, “I’ll explain later, but for now think of it kind of like an extension of me.” “Shouldn’t you dispel it, now that the fight’s over?” asked Flash, “It’s draining you, isn’t it?”  She appreciated the concern in his voice, but she shook her head, “Not as much as you might think, and I don’t know if I’ll need it again soon, so I’ll be keeping it out for a bit longer until I’m sure we’re all safe and away from the city.” “In which case I would say this is our cue to leave,” Rarity said, “I doubt we’ll get another window, and I’d rather not wait for these brutes to recover the broken remains of their courage, or for reinforcements to show up for that matter.” “That would be wise,” Wavecrest said, eyeing the other mares with a look of newfound respect, “While I’ve no doubts as to your prowess in battle, if the sahuagin continue to come at us in numbers it is only a matter of time before exhaustion takes its toll. We have what we came for, so there’s no further reason to linger.” “I don’t know, I could go a few more rounds-” Rainbow Dash began to say, but Fluttershy turned a firm gaze towards her, which caused Dash to cut herself short. “Twilight’s hurt, and unless we have to, there’s no more reason to fight,” Flutteshy stated simply. “Okay, okay! Guess we can go,” Rainbow Dash relented, sheathing the swordbreaker in the scabbard she’d strapped across her back.  The sahuagin made no move to interfere with the mares as they swam back towards the cargo bay doors. Only a small group made any motion at all, and that was only to swim to Morgawr to check upon the fallen warlord’s condition. Then, just as the ponies reached the cargo bay doors, Twilight heard the gurgling, rising moans of the sahuagin chanting. She wasn’t sure, but something about the growingly resonant, dirge-like tone sounded almost familiar. Her head began to pound with the throb of a hammer on smelted iron. She clutched her hooves to her head, and felt a heartbeat pulse of magic in her core. Her eyes were drawn to the silver mace, the top of which was still poking out of her saddlebag. That glowing sigil of magic blazed bright on its surface, the symbol of chains standing out clearly.  “Argh! What n’ tarnation’!?”  “Owie zowie! My head’s about to explode!” “Ohmygosh what the hay!? Why does it feel like the morning after a cider binge all of a sudden!?” “I think I’m about to faint. Is everypony-aaaagh!” “G-girls, is everypony feeling the same thing?” One by one each of Twilight’s friends were suddenly either pinching their eyes shut in pain or rubbing hooves to their foreheads as if in great pain. Twilight had to assume that they were feeling the exact kind of jolting headache and ringing sensation that she was. But why? Why had the mace abruptly acted up again and why were her friends from Ponyville being affected? As the pain and noise in her head rose together like a surging tide, she also wondered why this was different from the first time the mace had affected her. It hadn’t caused pain like this. Focusing on the magic emanating from the mace, she realized it was not only much stronger than what she’d sensed before, but it was fluctuating in an unstable fashion. As if whatever enchantments were on it had been exposed to... Oh horseapples, I didn’t think of that! Twilight realized, glancing at the Astral Sphere. She’d stood right inside it for at least a minute or two, exposing not only herself, but the mace to a continuous stream of raw astral mana. She’d been so wrapped up in fighting Morgawr she hadn’t even considered what side effects that might have on the artifact! And now-! “Twilight!? Twilight!” Flash was holding her, and Twilight realized she couldn’t feel her body anymore, floating in the water like a literal dead fish. Her friends were all similarly incapacitated, Wavecrest looking among them with shocked eyes. As Flash’s face filled her vision, she managed to nod towards the mace, but couldn’t say anything as her eyesight was blanked out by an all encompassing wash of light. ------------ Twilight was more aware of herself, this time. It was as if her consciousness now rode as a proper passenger inside the body of another, rather than her mind blending with the other occupant. She knew this had to be Astra, or at least it felt like the same alicorn that Twilight had been a part of before.  She, or Astra, was walking with a slow, deliberate pace across a narrow bridge of rock that spanned from one edge of a towering cliff face behind her, and stretched over a chasm of churning, endless water that appeared to extend to her left and right forever. However just ahead this water only went on for what she guessed might be a few miles before falling off another edge, although this edge ended only in an expanse of eye bending colors, like a horizon painted in countless bleeding oils and glossed over with glittering dust.  The bridge itself led to an edifice rising from a tooth of stone that jutted out over the terminus of the edge. It looked like a globe of interconnecting rings, each ring hundreds of paces wide, and from with extended walkways and smaller globe shaped buildings that gradually formed together into a larger sphere in the edifice's center. Countless lights of astral magic flowed like glowing power lines between the rings, and to odd devices of every shape and function that hung off the odd building like barnacles. At the end of the narrow bridge of rock was a bronze platform, wider than an airship, and accommodating a set of three different walkways that led either into the main sphere itself, or the nearest adjoining rings.  Waiting for Astra on the platform were five other alicorns, who all turned to greet her upon her approach. Twilight recognized Tachys from the previous vision, with his well toned physique and rainbow colored mane giving her a swift sense of correlation to her familiar pegasus friend. And the same could be said for the others, although in different ways. “Hahah! You took your time, little star! I was getting hungry, waiting for you!” said a warm voice who’s friendly candor was not ill affected by her sheer volume. This stemmed from an alicorn mare with a coat like polished gold and a mane of wild yellow curls that hung low around her head. She was several heads taller than any other present, with a body of thick muscle that looked more solid than steel. Smiling green eyes matched her warmth as the giant mare hugged Astra tight, all but picking her up off the ground.  “You’re in good spirits, Althea,” Astra said, once she’d been put down. “Insufferably so, I must say,” said a male alicorn just behind Althea’s left. He had a whipcord frame, with a marble colored coat and a well groomed, short mane that was nearly black, but carried a hint of purple to it. While neither tall, nor short, he carried himself with a graceful confidence that made him seem larger than he was. He regarded Althea with clear blue eyes that held equal sparks of fondness and sarcasm, “I mean really, it’s the end of the world, and all you can do is laugh and think about food?” “Bah, Zosimos, I’ll not have our reunion tainted by gloom,” Althea said, smashing a hoof to her chest, “If this is the last time we friends stand together, I’ll have it be a glad time!” “Besides, Z, it’s not as if we know for sure the world is doomed. Could be we’ll get lucky and Astra’s crazy plan for fixing the mess we’ve made of things will work,” spoke a mare who’s straight pink mane contrasted rather severely with the plain gray of her coat, but her own lighter blue eyes did hold a familiar glint of laughter in them as this alicorn bumped Zosimos with her flank and grinned at Astra, “And we all know your plans have never blown up in our faces before, right Ast?” Astra sighed and hung her head, “You never fail to remind me of that time with the Sun Court Gala, will you? Malva, it was one time! One! I thought I had the correct formula down!” “Hehehe, and with your horn writing, all sevens really do look like fours. But seriously, you learned your lesson to never leave baking to me, especially when you decide to stick experimental alchemy into the mix,” said Malva with a chuckle, “Good times though. I swear, I thought Eos might fry me then and there, if she could see me through the mountains of fizz.” “Those were such simpler times, when Eos and Iah weren’t at each other's throats... before we drew lines between Preserver and Reformer,” said the last of the gathered alicorns, one who was second tallest of the bunch, if still dwarfed by Althea’s golden frame. This mare had a verdant green coat of fur, like that of an unspoiled field, combined with a mane of flowing locks that were colored a gold much softer than Althea’s gleaming coat, and instead was more like fresh wheat. Flowers were interwoven with her mane, which seemed to stir with a slight breeze.  “Everything might have been simpler back then, Penthia, but those sister’s always had bad tempers,” said Malva, “Of course the war made it all way worse. The battle at Prism Valley was as bad as I’d ever seen them get. Hmm, how’d my verses for that one go...?” With a gesture and a glint of bright blue magic from her horn, Malva summoned forth an ornate lute into her waiting hoof. The instrument was forged of a deep dark wood gilded in silver studs, with strings that shone bright with rainbow colors, for they were made of the same hardened astral mana that had built the famed Rainbow Bridges. Without missing a beat, Malva began to strum a melancholy tune that resonated with a mixture of tired sadness, yet was lifted up by rising notes of resolution. Astra let a content smile touch her face as Malva sung in her silver voice that never had ceased to touch her soul. ” Through mortal lands did fray       The bonds of divine sway      Against the Moon Court’s eternal tide      The host of Eos’ light did ride      Preservers of the mortals’ chains      Shed blood unto a deluge of crimson rains      Yet ‘twas not until the break of the thirteenth day      That either side began to give way      Haggard, desperate, all near lost       Then did Iah call forth her black frost      All who touched it did turn to ice hard as stone      Even the warriors who were Iah’s own      So in turn did Eos’ wrath rise in vengeful might      A blaze of sun so bright it drowned out night      We five friends stood among the battle weary mass      And had to pick up our tails and run before the sun melted our as-” Malva’s verse was interrupted by Zosimos conjuring forth a stylishly polished cane of ashen wood, fashioned with a serpent’s head wroght jade, and he bonked the songtress on the head lightly. “Now I know those last two verses you just made up. Let us not be crass, my dear.” “Ye gads, Z, you never lighten up, do you?” Malva said, rubbing her head and floating her lute beside her as she shrugged with her wings, “The song could do with some spicing up. Heh, not that there’s many left to hear it these days.” “Not a battle I’m fond of remembering, anyways,” Tachys said, still standing with a tall and proud stance, but Twilight could see a weariness in the male alicorn that hadn’t been there before. While the others wore little in terms of articles, he wore armor in the form of a chest plate of faded and scratched steel, along with smaller plates across his sides and flanks woven into thick white cloth. The armor was well cared for, but clearly worn from long use, and Tachys’ fur where it was visible had gained a few more scars. All of them had some signs of old battles, Twilight noted, although far fewer than in comparison to Tacyhs.  Astra cleared her throat as she saw the mood shift among her friends, “Yes, well, we’d best get inside the bastion. Wouldn’t do to keep the High Sage waiting, and while this experiment may have been my idea, I wouldn’t have been able to accomplish all that was needed without the help of my fellow scholars.” “Yes, let’s get this started,” Penthia said, “The sooner to stop the disasters befalling our mortal friends.” Twilight’s mind was cataloging everything she was seeing and hearing, running wild with theories as she rode within Astra, the group of alicorns now making their way towards the front entrance of bronze steps leading into the central sphere. She knew this couldn’t be just some random dream. These were clear visions of actual events. Had all of this happened in the distant past? Why did Astra and her companions bear faint if difficult to mistake similarities to herself and her own friends? What had happened with this seeming war between deific forces, and what was Astra trying to do now, here, at this strange “bastion”. Even as she tried to process this, the vision continued, with the alicorns reaching the sphere’s exterior, where bright runes of searing light formed along the metal surface in a circle. Within the circle of runes, the metal parted almost like liquid metal, with no seams opening, but rather the metal flowing aside silently. Within the sphere, whose size was as big as a Manhattan office building, was a brightly light and hollow interior within which Twilight saw an amazing contraption of spinning, layered rings surrounding a painfully bright blue crystal. This device took up much of the center area, like a statue or monument, but surrounding the inner wall of the sphere were walkways and passages seemingly leading elsewhere within the sphere itself. Other alicorns were present, all wearing white robes trimmed in gold script. Many floated vast tomes or lengthy scrolls beside them that they read as they trotted from one walkway or door to another, while others talked in low whispers to one another as they passed. Some few gave the newcomers curious looks, although upon seeing Astra there were familiar nods, as if upon seeing her they all understood why she and her companions were there. “All the centuries I’ve known you, I never did get around to visiting your home,” Zoismos said, tapping his serpent cane lightly on the metallic floor, “Whatever is that spinning apparatus for?” “Oh! Um, well it’s rather complicated-” Astra began to say, but was cut off by a voice from above calling out to them, in a distinctly smug and bored tone of voice that for Twilight was instantly recognizable and left her mind reeling further. “It’s about time you lot showed up. I was going out of my mind waiting here amid these unbelievably dull, knowledge-addled, walking libraries you call kin, Astra.” Astra actually made a small growling noise in her throat and Twilight felt her host’s heart rate increase as she looked up at a figure floating down from the ceiling, “If you don’t like my home, Paralogos, you didn’t have to volunteer yourself for this experiment.” “But didn’t I? Our grand and noble Lady of the Night bid I render unto you, her favorite star-child, all manner of aide, now that the nasty business of all that war has petered out unto a delightfully barren ruin. Whatever is a draconequus to do when the highest god remaining in the heavens snaps her fingers at him to go hippity hopping about? Well, not that she has fingers, but if she did, you can bet Iah would snap them most ferociously.” He looked nearly identical to the Discord that Twilight knew in her time, although there was a certain... youthful vitality to him that didn’t quite match her memory. The frayed white mane and short beard Discord usually sported was now a dark gray, and his mismatched body of various creature’s body parts had a certain vigor about it as he floated in front of the alicorns in a lazed position, hands resting behind his head. “That sounds dangerously close to an insult,” Tachys said in a dangerous tone, and Discord... Paralogos, cracked smarmy smirk. “Wouldn’t dream of it. Especially given Iah’s portfolio. Really, she’s a delight compared to Eos. I’m still nursing that sunburn from Prism Valley, which I heard Malva belting about outside. Really Mal, centuries of practice, and those are the best lines you can come up with to mark such an apocalyptic event?” “Yeash, everyone’s a critic,” Malva muttered, rolling her eyes at him, “It’s not like I had time to bust out a scroll and write things down while the world was getting exploded in front of my face.” “Just, um, why are you here?” Penthia asked, “Astra didn’t mention you coming.” “S-sorry about that,” Astra said, “I wasn't even sure anyone was going to come, but I had asked Iah about finding a volunteer among the greater spirits to participate. This whole plan might work without them, I mean, I’ve calculated all the variables and I’m fairly certain it will work with alicorns alone, but our chances increase vastly if we extend this to every possible source of divine magic.” “And here I am,” Paralogos said with a mocking half-bow, “Your guinea-pig in shining armor. You're lucky I find this truce so boring that I’m willing to let you poke me with every little device you have in your labs, just to alleviate the malaise.” “You ought to take this seriously, chaos spirit,” said Althea, snorting as her golden body grew bright and a bit of smoke exited her nostrils, “If Astra’s plan fails, the world is doomed to a slow death.” “So she claims, but I find the world is a resilient place,” he countered with a wave of his hand, “Save away, of course, but even if this fails, something is always rising up from the chaos. That’s the beauty of it, you know?” “Then if everyone is prepared, follow me,” Astra said, taking a deep breath. Twilight could feel Astra’s body shaking a bit, her legs weakening from either excitement, fear, or a fair dose of both, “Today, we see if we can fix the imbalance of magic our war has caused. Today, if all goes as planned... we face tomorrow no longer as gods, but as mortals.” A heavy silence fell over the group, each alicorn showing the quiet reflection of what they were about to embark upon. Althea, despite her massive golden frame, like that of an potent colossus, looked almost foal-like in her subdued unease, but she was also the first to break the spell of quiet and take a deep, emboldening breath. "It can't be that bad. Why, if mortals can put up with it, so can we!" "Yes but..." Zosimos shook his head, "I don't deny the need of us to do this, but it's still disquieting. To live only a hundred more years at most. To die so soon. Blast it all, we're gods, we're only supposed to die through violence, accident, or the passage of ten thousand years or more. To just willingly give up what makes us what we are..." "We have to, Z," Malva said, shrugging her shoulders with a mirthless smile, "Think of it as our last, big adventure together!" "Hmph, you'll think of anything as an adventure, you loopy bard," Zosimos said, but did smile at his companion. "I've made peace with death plenty of times during the war," Tachys said, although his face was now devoid of bravado, "And I always figured I'd fall in some gloriously awesome fight. Never imagined I'd just grow old and keel over someday." "You might still find a death in battle, Tachys," Althea said warmly, "I know that means a lot to you, and even as a mortal, we should still be plenty strong enough to have a few more fights left in us. I'll certainly stay by your side. I don't need divine magic to do that!" The two shared a look of mutual warmth, leaning a bit closer to one another. Penthia smiled brightly at the pair, then looked at Astra, "I want to think we'll all stay together until the end, but what do you think will happen to us afterward? We'll be changing the way it all works, the Cycle, everything. What becomes of us once we're... gone?" Twilight had not yet gained much of an insight into what Astra was feeling or thinking up to that point besides physical cues like heart rate or breathing, but at that moment she could swear she felt a wave of uncertainty and hope in equal measure gripping the very soul of the body she was occupying, as if the emotions and thoughts were her own. "I can't say for certain," Astra said, looking into the faces of each of her friends in turn, friends she loved with every beat of her heart, and feared losing with just as much intensity, "All I can say is I sincerely pray that whatever happens, we'll still be together in some fashion, even in death." "Hah, a goddess praying, now there's an ironic note to go out on," Paralogos said with a dry chuckle, and Astra flattened her ears at him. "You've as much to lose as we do. We know even less how this experiment will affect a divine spirit like you." He gave her a manic, snaggle-toothed smile that Twilight had seen so often on Discord's face. "My dear, not knowing what's going to happen next is precisely the way I like it." ---------- When she awoke, it was with Flash’s worried visage hovering over her. He’s hooves were held over the wound in her side, an aura of healing Kido emanating from him. The injury still hurt fiercely, but the bleeding had stopped, at least. Her headache was gone as well, and as she raised herself up she realized she and her friends had been moved to the Treasury’s bridge.  The bridge was more than twice the size of the one that she’d seen on the Odyssey, and Twilight could see the extra care that had gone into its engineering, with much smoother metal walls running in a bubble shape which seamlessly transferred to thick, transparent glass on either side that allowed a very dynamic view of the surroundings outside the ship. A central platform extended out into the center of the bridge’s “bubble” shape, it’s circular edge lined with control stations that glowed with magi-tech displays, centered around a wide helm platform with a curved metal seat situated in front of a dual handled control stick and flanked by lines of levers.  Her friends were beside her, all waking up, and the rest of Twilight’s group of allies floated nearby, all wearing looks of concern.  “Twilight, what happened?” Starlight was the first to speak, floating close, opposite of Flash’s position, “Flash and Wavecrest just brought you all in, out like lanterns.” “I’m... not sure yet,” Twilight said, looking at her friends, who all wore expressions of varied confusion and degrees of shock. Rarity gathered her wits a bit faster than the others, looking straight at Twilight with a rather intensely questioning look. “I don’t suppose you just had a peculiar dream concerning a group of alicorns entering the most bizarre building I’ve ever seen?” Before Twilight could answer, Rainbow Dash blurted out, “You too!? That was so weird! I was, like, a stallion, which...ugh, way uncomfortable. And this smart looking mare that kinda looked like Twilight but taller and darker was leading us into a big metal jawbreaker with rings around it. And I think Discord was there? Am I remembering that right?” “I remember it too,” said Fluttershy, hugging herself, “It felt so real. I was this Penthia. I could almost hear what she was thinking.” “Huh...?” Pinkie Pie, scratching her head, picked up the lute she’d taken from the artifact room. She experimentally strummed it, but being underwater, the sound wasn’t the same, so she shrugged, “Guess I didn’t become a musical genius in dreamland. So, who wants to guess how important that cutscene just was to the overall plot?” “Not now Pinkie, we got a downright odd mystery on our hooves,” said Applejack, “What do ya think this means, Twilight? What just happened ta us an’ why?”   “I don’t know!” Twilight said, realizing she was raising her voice and specifically took a moment to take a deep breath, hoof to chest, and let the breath out with an outward hoof motion, “I can’t fully explain it yet, but I think this is because of the mace I picked up.” “This thing?” Starlight asked, gesturing at the item in question, still in Twilight’s saddlebag. Starlight’s eyes narrowed and her horn lit up for a second, Twilight recognizing the form of a probing spell. Starlight’s expression paled a second later, “Twilight, were you aware how much magic is coming off this thing?” “It wasn’t like that when I first picked it up, but I had a vision like the one we just had not long after I did. Furthermore, I don’t know why I felt compelled to pick it up. It was like I was just drawn to it, and even when I tried to put it down I found myself picking it up again without thinking about it,” Twilight said, and Applejack gulped. “I don’t know a’ whole lot ‘bout magic, Twilight, but that sounds pretty ominous ta me.” A flush of guilt struck Twilight as she looked away from her friend’s searching gazes, “I’m sorry, I should have said something, but the sahuagin were coming and everything was happening so fast. I thought I’d have time to figure things out before another vision happened.” “Oh, relax darling,” said Rarity, “We’re all fine, headaches notwithstanding. We’ll piece together this puzzle in due time, but before we start the speculation train, perhaps somepony would be so kind as to tell us our current situation. Admiral Seaspray?” He’d remained a bit back from the group, near the helm, but upon Rarity’s question the hippogryph was quick to raise his head and speak in a swift, clear tone, “Marm! The sahuagin have withdrawn from the hangar, dragging their defeated leader with them. The hangar doors remain open, and our newly acquired vessel is ship shape, near as I can tell. I could pilot us out of here at your ladies’ convenience.” “Then I suggest we make our exit,” Rarity said, “Unless anypony has any objections? I don’t know about the rest of you but I’ve had quite enough of Aqualania, or the ocean in general at this point.” Wavecrest gave her a sidelong look, “Some of us rather like the ocean, but I take your meaning, Miss Rarity. We should indeed depart, but I feel compelled to remind all present of the danger that may well await us above. There remains at least one sahuagin shaman out there, with a monstrous beast at his command. Furthermore, there’s the unknown force young Flash Sentry has sensed...” “Yeah,” Flash said, closing his eyes and etching a deep frown on his features, “And I still feel it, whatever it is, waiting for us outside the palace. Aqualania isn’t quite done with us yet.” Rainbow Dash smashed her hooves together, nostrils flaring, “Then we go full speed ahead! And break through anything that gets in our way!” “Trixie seconds, thirds, fourths, and passes this motion unilaterally!” Trixie declared, “Can we please leave now?” “I know I’ve seen enough of this depressing tomb of a city,” Aria said, and Sonata nodded in enthused agreement.  Taking a steadying breath, Twilight rose up and gave her allies an affirming nod, “Then that’ settles it. Admiral, the Treasury’s helm is yours. Please, take us out. Everypony else, prepare yourselves. We’re leaving Aqualania, and may well have to fight our way out to do it.”