Episode 149: Inheritors
Even with the water surrounding him acting to slow his motions, Flash Sentry became a sliver of fast flickering images as he made full use of Flash Step to traverse his way out of the Treasury’s bridge and down the corridors leading into the ship’s aft section. He could sense the pockets of Wraiths that had slipped into the vessel, like painful blots on his spiritual senses. They stood out in a way even Hollows didn’t quite match, as if their reiatsu was somehow innately caustic. No matter how often he’d fought Hollows, he’d never quite felt that their spiritual energy was unnatural or out of place in the world. Negatively charged and violent, yes, but not outside of the bounds of the world’s nature.
These Wraiths felt like wounds in the spiritual fabric of Equestria, left festering.
His Zanpaktou felt heavy in his grip. He sincerely hoped that his blade could provide some kind of release, some manner of salvation, for these tortured spirits. There was no way of knowing for certain just what would happen to the soul of an Equestrian native when “slain” by a Zanpaktou. This was a question of spiritual mechanics that was way outside Flash Sentry’s level of knowledge. Perhaps if Captain Starswirl were here, he might have offered some insight, or at least a working theory. Regardless, Flash had no real choice. While the effectiveness of the Treasury’s mana cannons proved that magic would work to at least momentarily dissipate a Wraith’s semi-corporeal form, Flash had sensed no overall lessening of the number of Wraiths out there, so his present assumption was that magic might keep a Wraith at bay or temporarily knock them out of commission, but actually stopping them would require spiritual power.
Keeping a close sense of the Wraiths’ presence, Flash sensed they had split into two groups, one heading for the far aft of the ship, while another was going up through the lower decks towards where the brig was. Most likely the Wraiths sensed the living souls of Trixie, Aria, and Sonata in the aft observation room, and Applejack and Ulgriv near the brig. He didn’t think they were heading for Twilight and Starlight in the engine room, given the Wraiths’ course, and even if they were, he knew those two were more than capable of protecting themselves. As for Fluttershy, the infirmary was in the top deck, closer to the bow, and he didn’t sense any Wraiths heading her way, at least for the moment.
He was closer to the brig, and while he hated having to make priority decisions like this, the only rational course was to go for the place of closest conflict. He’d just have to hope Trixie and the two sirens could hold out for a minute or two.
Fortunately those com devices were spaced pretty evenly throughout the hallways of the ship, so Flash passed by one almost instantly and halted for just a second to click the button for an all ship broadcast. He really didn’t have time to work out which of the other buttons might go to the spots he needed.
“Trixie, Aria, Sonata, you’ve got incoming Wraiths! I’ll be there soon, but they’re going for Applejack too and she’s closer. If you can get to the engine room, Twilight and Starlight can shield it until I get there.”
He didn’t wait for a response, hoping that they’d be able to think fast enough and move even faster. He began to move again, starting a Flash Step, but halted halfway as he saw, of all ponies, Pinkie Pie swimming past him.
“No worries, Flashie, I’ll go help our siren buddies and Trixie!” she said, throwing him a salute with the lute she carried. Flash tried to contain the minor brain seizure he had over trying to figure out how Pinkie had kept pace with him while he’d been Flash Stepping, but for his sanity he decided the fewer questions he asked, the better.
“Fine, just don’t do anything crazy and get them over here fast!”
“Can do!” she replied and zipped off like a cartoonish streak of pink.
Rather than puzzle further on the strange pink pony’s casual abuse of physics, Flash resumed his own high-speed motion towards the brig. He could feel the Wraiths closing in on Applejack’s spiritual signature, and he transformed his Zanapktou to it’s Shikai state in between Flash Steps that took him through several corridor turns and down a stairwell before leading to the short hallway to the brig’s circular chamber. There, four different bulkhead doors of heavy steel led to individual cells, with a door of metal bars cutting off half of the circular room they all connected to.
Applejack was floating on one side of the bars, her shillelagh clasped in her hooves as the farm pony cast about with sharp emerald eyes. Her tension and fear were apparent, but so was her alertness, as her ears perked towards him before he’d even finished his Flash Step, which impressed the hell out of him.
“Flash,” she said, “Glad ta see ya. Where’re them Wraiths at?”
No sooner were the words out of her mouth that the water surrounding them both dimmed like someone had turned down the lights, and grew chill with an unpleasantly cloying cold that seeped right past the skin and into the bones. When the Wraiths struck, there was no preamble. They burst through the floor and walls like howling shadows, contorted faces of darkness screaming rage and violence in an ear bleeding wave of sound. There were only three of them, but all three went right for Applejack, as if her beating heart were some manner of offensive thing to them. Hooves of shadow sharpened to deadly points stabbed with oil-slick speed at Applejack’s flesh.
To her infinite credit, she’d not only been alert for the attack, but didn’t hesitate for an instance in her response, despite a look of outright fear paling her features. She swam back while bringing the shillelagh down hard in an overhead arc. The wooden club struck home upon the head of the lead Wraith, passing through it like a darkened cloud. The Wraith’s form billowed about like mist, unstable for a second, but only for a second. It reformed swiftly, while it’s companions pressed in on Applejack, hooves still stabbing.
She slipped aside one, but the second would have gotten a clean hit on her side if Flash hadn’t been swift on his own reaction. He didn’t need to close the distance, Kochi Yojinbo reflected his body right into place beside the striking Wraith, allowing Flash’s swiping blade to cut right through the Wraith’s middle in a clean arc.
This was the moment of truth, and Flash could feel the resistance to his Zanapaktou’s edge as it cut through the Wraith. It certainly felt like a physical body to his bladed tonfa, much like when he struck a Hollow. But would this “kill” the Wraith?
The resulting scream that vibrated the chamber certainly showed that the strike had an effect. The Wraith flailed and writhed about, it’s form tearing and flickering almost like an unstable television image. Then it imploded upon itself, becoming a pin-hole sized speck of darkness that then puffed out like a mote of dust in the wind. Flash felt a few trace specks of it’s reiatsu, but for all other intents and purposes, the Wraith was gone. Gone where, he had no idea. Destroyed? Purified? He had neither the time nor expertise to figure it out, and there were still plenty of Wraiths left to deal with.
“Nice goin’ Flash!” said Applejack, hefting her club and swinging it sidelong at the Wraith she’d dodged a second earlier, “I’ll disrupt ‘em, and you take ‘em out!”
“Good plan!” he called back, thrusting forward to match her strike, letting his Zanpaktou create a reflection of himself on the Wraith’s opposite side. The shadowy spirit contorted it’s body, slipping around his thrust, but Applejack was on point, her shillelagh striking true. As it made contact with the Wraiths’ body, Flash couldn’t help but notice that the weapon was emitting the faintest of glows, and that there was almost a faint heat haze surrounding Applejack herself as she struck. The Wraith’s body burst like a cloud of smoke, disrupted by the club passing through it, even more so than before, it seemed to Flash. He immediately shifted from a thrust to an upward cut, his double mimicking his move and allowing his Zanpaktou to split the Wraith in half. As with the first one, the spirit howled before imploding into a small point of darkness that rapidly winked out.
Finally sensing the threat that Flash was, the remaining Wraith, having reformed itself, turned it’s full attention to him and began to move in an erratic, twitching manner. Suddenly spikes of solid darkness erupted from its body and speared at him in a jagged mass. Flash threw himself forward, blitzing through the attacks with a combination of Flash Step and using his Zanpaktou to slice through the spikes, but the Wraith wasn’t done. It went right through the metal bars of the chamber’s partition and expanded its mouth to a horrific size, snapping a yawning maw of ink black fangs at his face.
He shoved Kochi Yojinbo into that mouth, propping it open. He then thrust a hoof forward and rapidly chanted.
“Hado Number Fourteen: Hisui no Hari!” (Jade Needles)
From his palm exploded a swarm of glowing, jade green needles in a conical burst. The needles of swiftly condensed spirit energy punched dozens of holes through the Wraith’s body, causing it to reel back in a writhing mass of wailing shadow. Flash wasted not even a split second in using that opening to stab Kochi Yojinbo hard into the Wraith’s center. This time he focused as hard as he could on the Wraith’s spirit energy, trying to get a clearer idea of what was happening to it when it dissipated.
As the Wraith imploded, he sensed it’s spirit energy shearing off, like a fruit being peeled. It was like the corrupt layers of the soul were being torn off, leaving the impression of a faint spark, a last shred of intact core that then vanished from his senses, leaving behind only the faintest trace of itself.
Flash was breathing hard, eyes staring before he was given a rough shake by Applejack’s firm hoof.
“Hey, Flash, ya alright there?”
“I... think so,” he replied in a breathless tone, “These Wraiths aren’t quite like Hollows, is all.”
'Downright unsettlin’ buggers is what they are,” said Applejack, looking around at the walls, floor, and ceiling with a wary glare, her club at the ready, but Flash noticed that she gave the weapon a shifty sideways glance as well.
“Something wrong?” he asked, recalling the momentary glow he’d seen in the club just moments ago.
“Nah, don’t rightly think so,” the farm mare said, “Thought I heard this ol’ whackin’ stick like it was tryin’ ta say some such, but I ain’t hearin’ it clear. Felt warm, too, like holdin’ my hoof in front o’ a camp fire.”
“Must have something to do with those visions coming from that mace Twilight grabbed,” Flash said, “I don’t like that these artifacts are doing stuff even Twilight doesn’t understand.”
Applejack just gave him a knowing smile, “Worried ‘bout her, ain’t ya? Don’t go frettin’ too much, ya hear? If anypony in all o’ Equestria can work out some magical oddness, it’s our Twilight. Sideswich, I ain’t gonna worry much ‘bout what’s goin’ on with them visions, long as this stick is helpin’ me thump some troublesome pests. Now, ya sensin’ any more Wraiths comin’ our way?”
He checked, just as the whole ship gave a hard shudder from an exterior impact that caused a boom to rock the chamber, akin to being inside a church bell as it was rung. No doubt the battle with the host of Wraiths and the transformed whale monster proceeded even as Flash dealt with the intruders. He just hoped Seaspray had things handled. Refocusing on his senses, he said, “There’s a few between us and the ship’s aft, while the rest are moving in on the engine room. Trixie and the sirens must have taken my advice. Dammit, but Pinkie Pie went on ahead of me!”
“Pinkie did? Well what’re we waitin’ for!? We gotta git after her!”
Flash agreed, but he glanced at the brig doors, “Can we just leave that sahuagin here?”
“I sure as hay ain’t lettin’ him out,” Applejack said, but he could see from the sour look on her face that she also wasn’t keen on just leaving a helpless prisoner to be killed by any stray Wraith that came by, “But I won’t leave him, either. Ya go on, Flash. Buck these wailin’ varmints off our ship, I’ll be fine here.”
There was hardly time to argue, so he didn’t bother. He just gave her a firm nod and rushed back the way he’d come. As long as he dealt with all the Wraiths between him and the engine room, Applejack would probably be safe. As he streaked down the Treasury’s corridors, swiftly making his way towards the aft, the ship rocked once more as the violent battle continued outside.
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There was a burst of eye-searing blue light as one of the crystalline power conduits running along the bridge’s ceiling exploded. The water inside the bridge rippled with the force, but it didn’t distract the crew from their tasks, each member on the bridge utterly focused on their tasks. The terror beast had come in from the starboard side this time, dipping low to avoid a barrage of mana cannon beams before rising swiftly to ram it’s spiked head into the ship’s shields. While the potent magical barrier held, Rainbow Dash being faster than the wind itself in realigning the shield properly, the blow still forced the Treasury to careen to the left where one of Aqualania’s many spires loomed ahead.
“The shield is down to fifty percent power, Admiral!” reported Rarity, “Oh, and there’s a building in front of us!”
“I see it!” Seaspray said, cranking the helm controls to the right and diving the Treasury down towards the broad street between the spire and the sprawling corpse of hollowed out apartment buildings, “Hang out, this will be a tight squeeze. Tempest, Miss Dash, fire all aft cannons on my mark! Target the base of the spire!”
“Roger that!” Rainbow Dash replied, Tempest echoing the sentiment with a grunt.
Twilight’s voice spoke over the com, strained by focus, “Admiral, I’m reading a lot of fluctuations in the power grid now. You might want to give the weapons a minute to cool off.”
“Would that we could, Princess. Can you do anything to stabilize it from your end?” Seaspray asked as the Treasury cut through the dark waters, it’s sides just barely avoiding scraping the buildings to either side of it as it passed by the spire at full speed. The terror beast, letting out a hungry bellow, was chasing them not more than a hundred meters behind.
“We’ll try,” Twilight said, then Seaspray heard a door opening and shouting from the com.
“Close the door, fast!” said Trixie’s voice.
“Don’t be an idiot, those things go through walls!” growled Aria, “Hey, crazy strong magic alicorn, we’ve got ticked off ghosts right on our tails!”
“Like, a lot of them!” said Sonata.
“Twilight, take care of the engine,” said Starlight’s voice, “I’ll take care of this!”
“O-okay! Sorry Admiral, we just got busy down here. I’ll try to stabilize the power.”
“Do what you can,” Seaspray said, his own attention now riveted to the ship’s course. They’d just cleared the spire and apartment structures, and he pulled the ship into a swift climb, relying solely on his instincts and spatial awareness to gauge just the right moment when the terror beast would be passing under the spire.
“All aft cannons, fire now!” he commanded. Rainbow Dash and Tempest were already poised on their own controls, activating the cannons at the same precise moment. The four aft cannons on the Treasury swiveled towards the base of the spire and let out a quartet of burning bright beams. The condensed mana sliced through ancient, worn stone like it was sizzling flesh, and with a groaning crack the spire that had stood watch over the dead city for centuries came crashing down.
Chunks of stone hammered down upon the terror beast, each an avalanche unto itself. The jet dark waters became ever more murky from a goliath cloud of silt and mud kicked up by the fallen spire, and the gigantic whale was obscured by the collapse. Rarity, eyes piercing as daggers, gazed intently at the imagery of the auger array.
“Did we get it?” Rainbow Dash said, while Seaspray began to turn the ship to the left to circle above the cloud of rubble. Around the Treasury the host of Wraiths followed like angry wasps, sparking off the magical shield that still kept the majority of them at bay.
“Doubtful,” Tempest said, “And don’t slack off! Keep firing at those bloody ghosts!”
“I’ll give the orders if it’s all the same to you,” said Seaspray, “But yes, keep those cannons firing, but alternate salvos. We must give Princess Twilight time to adjust the ship’s power and not overheat the weapons. Miss Rarity, what of that sizeable dome the Wraiths came from?”
“It remains as dense as ever, and it keeps disgorging more of the Wraiths,” Rarity reported, then her eyes flicked swiftly towards the auger array, taking note of a sudden change in the display, “Wait, it appears to be... growing some kind of protrusion.”
“Fix the lights on it,” Seaspray commanded. The ship continued to fire its cannons to try to disperse the Wraiths, albeit now at a slower rate. At the same time it’s search lights cut through the darkness and focused upon the dome of solid shadow that had encompassed the palace.
From the top portion of the dome an immense limb was forming, and all those on the bridge could see how thousands of Wraiths were combining together in the mass to form the humongous tendril. Then the limb grew a long, clawed hand large enough to even encompass the Treasury and with sickening slow motion reached forth towards the ship.
“Oh that’s just not fair!” Rainbow said, and Seaspray yanked the controls hard to the left and pulled up, sending the ship into a nearly vertical climb while also rotating the hull so that both port and starboard cannons could aim up at the descending hand.
“Concentrate fire on that hand, ladies! Give it everything, even if it means melting the barrels!”
He knew it was risky, given what Twilight had said about the power situation. He’d known going into this fight that the Treasury, for all its splendor, was a ship completed centuries ago and left to languish in drydock without so much as the benefit of a single shake down run. All things considered it was an absolute miracle the ship was running as well as it was under such sudden, harsh combat conditions. The hippogryph had a long career as a man of the sea, and had taken plenty of ships into battle. He had an intuitive sense of what each vessel he’d commanded could or couldn’t handle, and even with having just gotten to know the lady, he could feel the Treasury and sensed the potential of the ship. She could do a lot, but she was only just awoken, and not used to the demands being placed on her.
Just a bit more, my darling ship. I know this has been a rude awakening for you, what with all this foes trying to damage your beautiful hull and strangers at your proverbial sails, but bear with us a bit longer and I swear we’ll treat you as a ship of your caliber deserves.
One might call it silly sailor superstition, but Seaspray did believe each ship had a spirit of its own, and he almost thought he felt a warmth in the helm’s control sticks in response to his thoughts.
Rainbow Dash and Tempest had followed his command and targeted the gigantic shadow claw coming towards them. All twenty mana cannons split between the port and starboard side, along with the three clustered triple cannons behind the bridge, swiveled in their ball turrets and fired as one. It was a shockingly bright display of light as so many beams of iridescent magic lit up all of Aqualania as one. The near two dozen blinding lances of pearl white light smashed into the claw of condensed Wraiths, boiling through them like drills. The enormous hand grew ragged, like a torn doll of stuffed cloth and cotton being shorn by scissors. Yet it still descended, if only being partially intact now, and raked the Treasury across the belly of the ship. The shield sparked like a lit up mirror, and barely held. The whole ship trembled from the blow, but the shadow limb that had struck them was coming apart now, it’s already damaged state made worse by the impact on the shield.
Yet any sense of victory was short lived as Tempest let out a deep growl, her weapon console showing an entire wreath of red icons, “Dammit! I’ve lost power to half my cannons!”
“Same here, only made that more than half,” Rainbow Dash reported, her own screens bleeding red light, “That last salvo must have seriously overdone it.”
Seaspray took a deep breath, “That’s fine, as long as we dealt those Wraiths a blow. Miss Rarity, what of the terror beast?”
All of them heard it as a vast howl of primal fury shook the very bolts of the ship, and Rarity looked back at Seaspray from her station with her ivory complexion looking even paler, “About that, it seems to have broken free of the rubble we dropped on it and is coming at us from directly below.”
“Admiral,” Twilight’s voice said, somewhat hampered by pops of static, “Whatever you just did, the ship can’t take another of it. I recommend shutting all the cannons down, otherwise we might start causing ruptures in the power grid that I doubt we’ll be able to repair.”
“C’mon Twilight, can’t you do something?” said Dash, “What are we supposed to fight with if we shut down the boom guns?”
“I’m sorry Rainbow, but there’s only so much I can do down here, and we’ve got a bit of a situation on our hooves. Wraiths are trying to break into the engine room, and Starlight is barely holding them off. I might need to help her, or we’ll get... huh?”
“What is it, Princess? What’s happening?” Seaspray asked, adjusting the Treasury’s course to take the ship towards the rim of the vast underground canyon that housed Aqualania. The terror beast was in hot pursuit, sensing the ship was damaged, and the Wraiths themselves formed a dark cloud around the mutated whale as it charged it’s violent course after the ship.
“Something is drawing off the Wraiths,” Twilight said over the com, “At any rate, we still need to take the canons offline. I’ll reroute the power to the shields. You still have the harpoons. Oh, and the ‘Lance of Scylla’, which doesn’t use up a lot of power.
“The what?” said Tempest, and Seaspray’s eyes were drawn to the front of the ship, past the bridge’s front view windows. There, the massive spear-like protrusion that gave the Treasury it’s swordfish appearance loomed, gleaming in the darkness.
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Starlight panted heavily, her magic having been exceedingly taxed that day. Between everything that had happened she was surprised she had much juice left, and keeping a magical barrier up around the entire engine room to ensure the Wraiths couldn’t get in had been draining what she had left.
Trixie nervously paced around, while Aria and Sonata floated nearby, each clutching weapons. Aria had a finely crafted, curved dagger that ended in a handle of dark coral carved into a guard shaped like a pointed fin, while Sonata cradled some manner of clockwork crossbow fashioned from bronze.
“Ugh, why didn’t I think of snatching a weapon from that flashy armory room?” Trixie groused, and Starlight gave her friend a flick of her tail.
“Relax, Trixie. It’s not like weapons would matter against these Wraiths,” she said, frowning at the door out of the engine room, “But it’s weird how they all just... left. What happened?”
“Don’t know, don’t care,” said Aria, “Just glad they decided to go somewhere else.”
“They’re probably going after everyone else,” said Sonata, “Should we, like, do something?”
“I desperately want to,” said Twilight, her own attention focused almost entirely on the engine room’s main console, “But I can’t afford to leave here.”
“How can you be so calm, Twilight!?” Trixie said, looking towards the engine room’s door and chewing her lower lip, “I... blast it all, I feel like I’ve had enough panic attacks to kill half a dozen ponies. We should go help your friends, even if I don’t know how.”
“No Trixie,” Twilight said, although her voice was gentle and she gave the showmare a soft smile, “I know you’re braver than I usually give you credit for-”
“Aw, that’s nice. Wait, what do you mean ‘usually’!?”
“-but right now charging out there won’t help. We have to trust Flash when he says he’ll take care of it.”
Trixie still looked worried, but nodded and went back to silently pacing. Starlight looked at Twilight and could see the way the alicorn’s wings were stiffly held down at her sides, and the uneasy twitch in Twilight’s eyes. The Princess was stressed, more than she was letting herself show, but Starlight didn’t think it was just the danger they were in. She noticed Twilight’s eyes would occasionally shift towards the mace in her saddlebag.
Slowly, Starlight floated over to Twilight, her voice lowered to a faint whisper, “Twilight, what’s wrong?”
Twilight glanced at her, gulped, and said, “I can feel it, Starlight. The mace, it’s like a tug on my brain. There’s so much magic in there, and it’s like it’s calling to me. That glowing symbol on it, the chains, I think it’s some kind of seal.”
Starlight turned her attention to the mace, her own sense of magic giving her some impression of it. She could tell there was a suppressed well of mana inside the mace, held back by something akin to a cork. She could see the symbol Twilight mentioned, like a brand of light shaped in a circular chain.
“Okay, but what does that mean?”
Twilight closed her eyes as the ship shuddered again from the ongoing battle, “I don’t know, but a part of me... wants to break that seal. I don’t know why, but I feel like if I did, I could end this fight. I just don’t know what will happen if I do. But I have to do something, Starlight. I want to free those tortured souls, stop Charybdis, get all of us out of here alive.”
Starlight considered that, along with their situation. Among many hard lessons she’d had to learn over the time she’d spent with Twilight and her friends, one of them was to have a certain amount of faith in the sometimes eccentric alicorn.
“You will, Twilight. Whatever happens, I know you can do pretty much anything. You certainly saved me when I had my head shoved up my rear, so I’m sure you can deal with whatever this mace and it’s wonky visions will have in store.”
“We’ll see if it comes to that,” Twilight said, wincing as another rough tremor ran through the ship’s hull and the engine room’s main console started showing her a projection of the Treasury lined with blocks of red, “If the ship can’t hold up much longer, I may have to.”
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Flash didn’t know what was happening outside, but he sensed even more Wraiths had managed to slip past the weakening shields and enter the Treasury. Worse, this new batch had entered the upper decks, and were making their way towards Fluttershy in the infirmary.
But he was already mostly towards the aft, rushing through a corridor that led to the ship’s main galley, which wasn’t far from the engine room. And directly ahead he sensed a large mass of Wraiths that were coming right towards him. They’d apparently abandoned the engine room for some reason and were now flowing in a tight pack towards his location.
The reason why became clear when he burst into the wide galley, a rectangular room lined with tables bolted to the floor, with an open walled kitchen lining the left side and a set of doors on the wall opposite the one Flash had just entered.
“Hiya Flash! I was thinking some music might cheer these grumps up, but man this audience is killing me!”
Pinkie Pie somehow managed to bounce like a rubber ball despite being still immersed in water, hopping through the galley while awkwardly strumming her lute in tone deaf fashion. Wraiths boiled through the walls, floor, and ceiling, all howling for the smiling mare’s blood. They swiped at her with scything or spearing limbs, but Pinkie had a truly uncanny capacity for being anywhere other than where her foe’s attacks landed. Flash was momentarily fascinated by the way she could somehow contort herself while somehow making her motions seem like simple pratfalls or bizarre dance moves.
Still there had to be a limit on how long she could pull that off with near a score of bloodthirsty undead spirits converging on her like a pack of piranha, so Flash leaped right into the fray, calling upon his Zanpaktou’s power to duplicate himself a dozen times over.
He threw himself into a spinning slash with his tonfa blade, his duplicates mimicking the move as they hurled themselves through the crowd of Wraiths like a series of blending propellers. He managed to slice apart eight or so with that maneuver, but cried out in a sudden rush of pain as at least one of the Wraiths managed to rake one of his duplicates with a shadowy blade-limb. Being that the duplicates were not separate clones, but his true body reflected in multiple places at once, the blow cut a searing red line down his side just below the joint of his right wing. He focused through the pain, removing his duplicates and swimming fast to the side while performing a curving cut in front of him. This time he only created three duplicates, surrounding the pair of Wraiths closest to Pinkie Pie, cutting them in half to give the pony a clear path towards the door out of the galley.
“Pinkie, get moving! There’s another pack after Fluttershy!”
“Yikes! Those poor Wraiths!”
“Pinkie, I’m being serious!”
“That’s really half your problem, Flashie,” Pinkie Pie said, zipping not towards him or the door, but instead swimming in a swirling pink streak into the kitchen. “If you’re gonna date Twilight, you got to learn to lighten up and trust her and us a bit more!”
“D-date!? Who said, I mean, dangit don’t distract me!” he said, Flash Stepping across the room to avoid a pack of Wraiths that tried to rush him with dozens of slashing protrusions of shadow that whipped from their bodies. He got behind one and shoved his Zanpaktou through the back of it’s head, ignoring the way the wound beneath his wing screamed raw hot pain into his brain as he moved. Captain Celestia’s lessons on letting pain pass through him stayed clear in his mind as he focused his reiatsu into a Kido, spinning away from the swings of several other Wraiths and aiming his left hoof at the densest portion of the pack. He traced a rapid series of motions, forming a sigil of red light in front of him.
“Bakudo Number Eleven: Haba Geki!” (Wide Strike)
He was trying to avoid using too many destructive Hado-class spells while inside the ship, so the binding Kido suited the situation better. Haba Geki was a more potent version of the Number Nine Bakudo, Geki, which directly infused reishi into a target to temporarily halt its movement. In this Kido’s case, it spread that effect to a small area, causing four Wraiths to briefly become outlined in red light as the Kido forced them to halt in place. It was still a fairly low level Kido, so it wouldn’t hold them for long, so Flash rapidly dispatched the Wraiths with a duplicate that sliced through the immobile spirits with ease. However he sensed danger behind him and turned in time to see a pair of Wraiths had slipped under the deck, only to rise up through it directly behind him with stabbing limbs bared to strike.
Then a set of kitchen pots when sailing through them at far faster speed than the water really should’ve allowed for, and Flash heard Pinkie Pie shout, “Galley’s closed, you undead bums! You want to eat, you come back during regular business hours!”
She’d grabbed up a whole miniature mountain of kitchenware and floated it in front of her, then was using her lute to bash the pots, pans, knives, ladles, and anything else for that matter, right into the Wraiths. What was strange was that, much like with Applejack’s club, there was a faint glow of light around the lute now, although instead of creating a sound like a hammer at a forge, this was more a musical chime as the lute hit each piece of kitchenware and launched it like a baseball into the Wraiths.
This didn’t serve to damage them much, but like with Applejack and the shillelagh , their incorporeal forms were made to billow about like unstable mist.
This bought Flash time to strike, creating even more reflected duplicates of himself to slash and stab about the room and take down the majority of the remaining Wraiths in the galley. What few remained actually backed off, then swiftly retreated through the floor or ceiling, and Flash could sense them fleeing to the ship’s exterior. They might still be a problem, but for the moment the galley was clear.
Pinkie Pie was hopping towards him, patting the lute, which had lost it’s glow, “Easy peasy, crowd pleasy. I’m totally going to learn how to play this bad girl when I get back to Ponyville.”
“Girl?” Flash asked, and Pinkie Pie grinned at him.
“Oh yeah, this lute’s totally a gal. Or was owned by one. I can almost hear her voice.”
“Applejack said something similar...” Flash pondered, then shook his head, “No time to think about it. We’ve got to get to Fluttershy.”
“Okie dokie, but I’m telling you, she’ll probably have it taken care of by the time we get there.”
----------
“It’s okay Mister Snuggles,” Fluttershy said, petting the shark on the nose, “I know all the noise outside is scary, but everything is going to be just fine. You’ll see.”
The shark rubbed it’s snout against her, and proceeded to keep swimming around the infirmary. It was a well sized room, big enough to hold eight seapony “beds” along with a number of metal cabinets filled with medical supplies that were in pristine condition, likely due to spells worked into the containers to preserve the contents. There was a circular window on one side of the room, directly across from the entry hatch, and Fluttershy had been doing her best to try to keep track of the fight. She hadn’t been able to see much outside of the mana cannons firing, or the occasional flash from the shields taking a hit.
It certainly seemed intense, and Fluttershy sincerely hoped her friends would all be alright. But if not, she had plenty of supplies to treat injuries with.
Suddenly she noticed Mister Snuggles turn sharply, and for a second she thought he was charging right at her! However he instead went right past her head and slammed, teeth first, into a ink black form that had dropped down through the ceiling like a puddle of oil poised to strike Fluttershy from behind.
“Mister Snuggles!” she cried out as her shark friend wrestled with the Wraith. While not truly solid entities, the Wraiths still had some physical presence, but it was like trying to touch a very heavy fog. The shark’s teeth could discorporate parts of the Wraith, but not truly harm it, and the Wraith in turn howled at the shark and formed a spike with one arm, stabbing down. The spike spear the shark’s tail, causing it to writhe in agony.
Seeing the shark injured and in pain caused a rush of white hot fury to bury Fluttershy’s brain, and before she knew it she was throwing herself at the Wraith, her right foreleg swinging. The leg that had the shield strapped to it, a shield that proceeded to faintly gleam with a soft white light, and created a distant sound like a brass horn as it struck.
Fluttershy almost thought she heard a voice in her head, although what it was saying was indistinct. All she knew was that her shield, upon impacting the Wraith’s head, made it burst like oil. The Wraith’s dark body writhed, and started to reform, but Fluttershy was having none of it, especially now that she saw several more Wraiths slipping through the walls and floor.
“Mister Snuggles, get behind me, now!” she said, although she mostly ended up moving in front of the shark, which couldn’t move very well with it’s injured tail. The Wraiths opened their dark, oily jaws wider than any biology would allow and howled in Fluttershy’s face with immortal fury.
She glared back with a Stare that quieted the Wraiths immediately, her eyes reflecting a quiet, resolved anger. “I feel for all of you, but you will not take your pain out on us!”
The Wraiths charged, and Fluttershy held her shield before her, meeting them head on. And as she did so, the shield from a bygone era seemed to shed a sliver of its age worn state and gleam just a bit brighter, as if slowly awakening from a long sleep.
----------
Rarity had only known a state of absolute mental focus such as this when in the caffeine strewn depths of a three o’clock in the morning sewing session or design brainstorm. She’d long felt a healthy dab of pride at her ability to multitask without losing the ability to see all the finer details of the project she was focused upon, and it seemed now this translated thoroughly to her task at the augury array.
The magical device provided plenty of images, some indistinct, others clearer, but all swirling from the enchanted orb in such a dizzying display that other ponies might have grown utterly confused and not been able to provide the bridge crew much information. Yet Rarity was not overwhelmed, but rather every passing second seemed to hone the edge of her instincts and she was picking up information from the haze of images that felt more like intuitive premonitions than anything else.
“The beast is turning course to five o’clock low, coming at our starboard aft quarter. The Wraiths have gathered up on the port side, eighty meters off, looks as if they are joining together to form some kind of battering ram.”
“Thank you Miss Rarity. Looks like those blighted spirits are getting more canny in their attempts to break the shields,” Seaspray said, smoothly turning the helm to dip the Treasury in a corkscrew motion that let it skim the side-rim of the canyon wall and then hug the seabed. The maneuver got them just out of the way of the charging whale’s attempt to sideswipe them, and the beast crashed into the canyon wall instead, causing an echoing rumble to be audible even in the bridge.
Rarity spotted distinct heat blooms stemming from the beast, “Energy build up detected, Admiral! It's about to fire directly at our stern!”
“All shield power to the rear, now!” Seaspray said, and both Tempest and Rainbow Dash adjusted their individual shield sections to concentrate the power of the magical barrier directly behind the vessel.
Throwing its head back and forth to tear itself free of the canyon wall, which had a devastating crack down it’s length from the impact, the terror beast reared about. Within it, Charybdis’ magic coursed through it’s twisted body, streams of pulsating purple light oozing through the poor creature’s veins until raw power built up at the tip of it’s spiked head. A erratically writhing beam of magic scoured the water between the beast and the Treasury, it’s consuming path halted by a shimmering corona of magi-tech protection. The reinforced shield struggled to withstand the blow, hexagon patterns in it’s domed form cracking under the strain, yet it held. If barely.
“Hate to say it, but we don’t have enough juice to take another hit like that,” said Tempest as she readjusted the shields, “Not even sure we’ve got enough left to form a proper full screen on all sides.”
“The Wraiths are coming in again,” Rarity reported, “Starboard side, just below the bottom deck. Five seconds to impact.”
Joining together like clay figurines, the Wraiths took on a shape like the jaws of a tremendous squid’s beak, like the very maw of a Kraken given form from solid darkness. It tore apart the seabed as it came, smashing through the long dead manor house or two of Aqualania’s nobility.
“Princess, dump all power into the engines if you would be so kind!” Seaspray said, and cranked the ship throttle forward all the way. The Treasury bucked forward, its weapons and even shield momentarily shutting down as all it’s magical reserves were poured directly into the engines themselves.
Seaspray then reached over and opened a closed hatch on the side of the helm, pulling up a small handle with a trigger on it. At the same time he started to edge the ship upward, taking it soaring over the Aqualania cityscape as both the Wraiths and the terror beast pursued a few hundred meters behind.
“Good, now, Princess, on my mark I’ll need you to transfer power to the Lance, just enough to activate without losing too much engine power. Miss Rarity, I’ll rely on you for course correction. This needs to be aimed perfectly, and you’re my eyes.”
“If perfection is what you require, you’ve come to the right mare,” Rarity said, licking her lips and narrowing her eyes at the augury array. Unseen by her, the chakrams at her sides began to become suffused with a faint light, although she did hear an amused, masculine chuckle in her head that she swiftly dismissed as just her nerves.
“We’re ready for the energy transfer when you are, Admiral,” said Twilight’s voice from the crackling com.
Admiral Seaspray nodded, and Rainbow Dash said, “So do we know what this Lance thing actually does?”
“Grant us victory, hopefully,” Seaspray replied, “But if not, at least we shall die in a most dramatically spectacular fashion.”
“Just what I always wanted,” Tempest droned.
While he jested, Seaspray did have some small notion of the Treasury’s final weapon, having learned what he could of the ship prior to launch. Granted he was partially operating off of educated guesswork, but really, it was a massive spear blade mounted on the bow of the ship, it’s function couldn’t be that complicated.
Just as they were reaching a point above the central portion of the city, just south of the palace, Seaspray yanked on the controls and threw the rudder to allow the ship a sudden and drastically swift turn. Everypony felt the momentum of the move press them into their seats, and in seconds the Treasury had pulled a full one hundred and eight degree turn and was now barreling directly at the terror beast and Wraiths.
“Now, Princess! Activate the Lance of Scylla!”
He saw the power indicator just below the trigger flip to green as magic energy surged from the engine room towards the bow of the ship. His left talon gripped that trigger and squeezed down on it, activating the weapon as he guided the Treasury on a direct charge at their foe. The Lance did not require a great deal of power, but that was partially because it made use of the ship’s energy shield. What power was left to dedicate to the shields was sent forward, but rather than form a protective dome, the planes of the magic barrier wrapped around the prominent sear blade mounted there. Then, the blade began to turn, potent gears within the ship spinning the blade, and the wrapped energy barrier, until it became like a titanic drill.
Light from the overcharged shield planes now illuminated the area in front of them, showing a rather surprised looking terror beast, and the maw of Wraiths barreling forward heedlessly. The Wraiths hit the Lance first, and the shaped beak of shadow was torn to ribbons by the piercing swirl of the humenous blade sheathed in potent magic energy, along with the pure momentum of thousands of tons of metal moving at high speed.
The terror beast, under Charybdis’ control, tried to maneuver out of the way, but was not wholly successful and in fact largely made things worse for itself as the Lance struck it in it’s softer armored side rather than clash head on with the whale’s spikes.
A part of the Admiral felt sorry for the unfortunate creature, so transformed by dark magics without its consent, but he consoled himself with the notion that any pain it must have felt upon being impaled by the Lance was probably no worse than what it was already enduring. The impact certainly shook the Treasury no less than the terror beast, but the Lance’s drilling spear head still cut a clean path through near half of the whale’s body before the creature let out a terrible howl and went spinning downward until it crashed, head first, into the ruins of Aqualania.
There it lay still, blood seeping from it in a dark cloud, unmoving.
“I... do believe we got it, Admiral,” Rarity said, her eyes still locked on the augury array, “I’m not seeing a hint of movement, and the heat is dissipated from it too.”
“Does that mean we won?” Dash asked, but Seaspray held up a talon to quiet her.
“Let us not declare ourselves victors until we know for a certainty. Miss Rarity, what of the Wraiths?”
She shifted her attention to the collection of splotches and dots that represented most of the Wraiths, at least the ones outside the main mass at the palace, and her lips pressed into a worried frown. “They appear to be regrouping, but I doubt we have long before they come for us again. More are sallying out of the main mass, and what’s worse, they seem to have hit upon the notion of joining into larger forms. I’m seeing more than a few bigger shapes taking form out there.”
“Then it seems we’ve still got a fight on our hooves,” said Seaspray, at which point Twilight’s voice spoke over the com once more.
“Admiral, about that... I wish I could give you better news, but using the Lance has burnt up the last reserves we had for the shields. I might be able to squeeze a bit more power to use a few of the mana cannons, but besides that we’re effectively defenseless.”
“No shields means those things can get in here and just overwhelm us with numbers,” Tempest said, “Which means our only choice is to make a run for it. Try to get to the surface and hope the bastards don’t follow us.”
Just then, a laugh raked all of their ears, ringing through the ship with magical potency. Charybdis’ voice spoke with pronounced enmity and a crack like a bullwhip.
Feel free to flee. How far do you believe you’ll get? You’ve no other option left, battered as my sister’s toy ship is now. So run, and we’ll see if my beloved citizens of Aqualania will let you escape their grasp. I’ll just enjoy the show.
Whatever part of Charybdis’ magic and spirit that had been occupying the terror beast now fled the slain creature, although there was no visible sign of her presence amid the darkness of the waters surrounding the city. Yet each individual on board the Treasury could feel the powerful sea witch’s eyes upon them, as if a cold, slick touch on the back of their skull.
Seaspray tightened his beak, not liking their chances, but seeing little choice but to put what power was left into the engines and try to make a break for the surface.
However before he could do so, another voice answered Charybids’, that of Twilight Sparkle’s. The Princess’ voice rang out clearly like a silver bell, amplified loud as Seaspray realized she was transmitting not just through the ship wide coms, but to exterior speakers as well.
“No, Charybdis. We’re not running.”
That right? Intending to make a brave final stand? Typical. You and my sister would get along-
“Be quiet.”
Charybdis’ voice halted mid-sentence at Twilight’s cutting verbal command, somehow amplified even louder than natural. Those native to Equestria recognized an alicorn making use of the “Canterlot Voice” occasionally used by Princess Celestia or Luna when making proclamations. Whether Twilight was using it intentionally or just had her emotions running high enough to be turning her volume up unconsciously was unclear, but the Princess’ voice boiled with anger.
“Listen to me, Charybdis. Listen closely. I am a very patient, understanding pony. I believe in the harmony Equestria stands for, and spreading that to every single creature I possibly can. And I believe magic is the most powerful tool of all to spread that harmony, most especially in its purest expression of friendship. But you... you twist magic into something it’s not meant to be. You’ve abused thousands of innocent souls, and treated living creatures like playthings. I won’t stand for it. Charybdis, my friends and I will not run from you.”
A fine speech. You are, of course, wrong, but far be it from me to separate a fool from her chosen course of self destruction. I do not ‘twist’ magic. I have not ‘abused’ my people’s souls. I preserve them, just as I preserve a tradition of magic that predates your childish modern spellcasting. But come then, show me how a Princess of ‘Friendship’ does magic.
Upon Charybdis’ challenge, her voice faded, but Rarity saw that amid the Wraiths there was a distinct increase in the number of them bubbling up from the domed mass over the palace. “I do believe our monstrous host intends to make good on her threats, Twilight. It won’t be long before a veritable wave of Wraiths overtake the ship.”
“I know, Rarity,” Twilight replied, her voice returned to normal, but no less resolute, “Girls, I need you all to meet me on the top deck of the ship. Flash, you too. Admiral, we’re going to face the Wraiths ourselves. I want you to take the Treasury and everypony else as far from here as you can.”
“Wait, are you crazy?” Tempest near shouted, “If you mares go out there alone you’ll get slaughtered! I know you’re an alicorn, Twilight Sparkle, but there’s limits to what even you can do!”
“I’m afraid I must agree with Tempest,” Seaspray said, “This sounds utterly foolhardy, Princess. Potent and capable as you and your friends are, what can you hope to do against an army of Wraiths even a warship as advanced as this one struggled to keep at bay?”
“I know how this sounds, Admiral, but please just trust me. If it makes you feel better, consider it a royal order.”
Seaspray looked ready to keep arguing, but suddenly he felt a hoof on his shoulder. All through the battle, Wavecrest had remained quiet, observing with a near fatalistic stoicness that only now faded to an expression of serene clarity, “Trust them, Admiral. I have had my doubts since the moment I decided to join my quest with theirs, but I have become convinced that this is as the spirits of the sea will. It is by no mere fluke that these mares have unlocked secrets that have slept for ages, and thrust us upon a collision course with the very forces that plague our ocean. Trust them, and watch what unfolds.”
Seaspray frowned, but took a deep breath and said, “Very well, Princess Twilight. You and your friends take the field. But I’m keeping the Treasury close, just in case. I am not leaving any of you behind.”
“Fair enough, Admiral,” Twilight said, “Okay, girls, meet me up top. Uh, assuming everypony is hearing me?”
“Read ya loud n’ clear, Twilight!” Applejack said, “Hey Admiral, just send someone down here ta keep an eye on the prisoner, eh?”
“Hmm, sounds like a task for you, Tempest,” Admiral Seaspray said, and Tempest gave a brief nod of acknowledgement.
Meanwhile Rainbow Dash was already out of her seat, “I’ll be up top before you can blink, Twilight!”
“While not as fast as Rainbow, I’ll be right behind her,” Rarity confirmed, joining her friend’s eager egress from the bridge.
There was a pause, and Twilight said, “Uhhh, Fluttershy? Pinkie Pie? Flash?”
----------
“We, uh, hear you Twilight,” said Flash, blinking in astonishment, “We’ll, um, be up there soon.”
He and Pinkie Pie floated in the doorway into the infirmary. They’d rushed there as fast as they could to get to Fluttershy, assuming the mare would be in dire need of assistance against a Wraith attack.
At the moment there were no Wraiths to be seen, and the infirmary was something of a disaster area consisting of broken beds, a wall dented inward like a ten ton bull had charged into it, and a torn down cabinet that looked as if it’d been used as a bludgeon.
Fluttershy was tending to her shark friend in one of the few remaining intact beds, having finished binding up the injured creature’s tail. She looked up at Flash Sentry and Pinkie Pie and smiled sweetly, “Oh, sorry, I didn’t hear you come in. Does Twilight need help?”
“Uh...y-yeah,” Flash Sentry said, “Are you... okay?”
“Hm? Just fine. There was a slight disagreement with some Wraiths that I had to explain manners too,” Fluttershy said, and after giving the shark a comforting pat on the shout she took up her shield and swam up to Flash and Pinkie Pie, “And it sounds like there’s even more in need of my polite explaining of how to properly behave.”
“That would be a yes, I think,” Flash Sentry replied, still a tad dazed but he quickly shook it off, ignoring the way Pinkie Pie was giving him a half grin as Fluttershy swam past them and they started to make their way towards the top deck.
“Told ya,” Pinkie said with a wink.
----------
It only took a minute or two for the mares from Ponyville to gather on the top deck of the Treasury. A grand stairwell on the upper deck opened to a wide double hatch that opened onto a railed open-top deck space that ran over a large middle portion of the ship, ending just behind the rising bubble and arched housing of the bridge itself.
The darkness of Aqualania surrounded them, but the palace and the darker mass of Wraiths there could still be made out amid the backdrop of the ruined city, and Twilight could see at least ten sizable forms that were likely joined together Wraiths that had taken larger shapes that loomed in the distance like the shades of nightmare leviathans.
She took a calming breath, turning without apprehension to her friends as she used her magic to withdraw the mace from her saddlebag and levitate it before her. “I know my plan will sound just a smidge nuts, but considering circumstances, I don’t think we have many other options.”
“We’re kinda used ta nuts, Twilight,” said Applejack, “Why don’t ya tells us what ya got n’ mind? Ya figure somethin’ out ‘bout that there clobberin’ stick o’ yers?”
“I’ll keep this brief. From the visions we saw, and based upon the magic I’m sensing within the mace, I believe a fair portion of magical power is locked up inside it. Moreover, I suspect this power is somehow tied to all six of us who became attuned to the Elements of Harmony. There’s a resonance or sorts between the mace and the five of you, including the items you picked up from the armory.”
“You think it’s like how you felt like nabbing the mace without thinking about it?” Rainbow Dash asked, to which Twilight could only offer an apologetic shrug.
“I don’t know, but regardless, I sense the connection. So, to the point, there’s a seal placed on the mace. A seal I believe I can break.”
Flash Sentry gave her a serious look, “Are you sure that’s a good idea? You don’t know what will happen if you do, and seals tend to be put on things for a reason.”
“That may be so,” she replied, “But if we’re going to save the souls of Aqualania’s residents, we need all the power we can get. Flash, you’re the key to this plan. You and your Zanpaktou.”
“Me? I mean, my Kochi Yojinbo has been able to cut down the Wraiths, but I’m not completely sure what even happens to them after that. I don’t know if it’s purification like with a Hollow or not.”
She nodded, eyes grave, a weight on her shoulders as she understood the burden being placed on him, “It’s risky, but it’s our only chance. Their only chance. Charybdis has them bound here by a spell. A spell that connects to all of them. My theory is that if you perform that Soul Reaper technique that purifies souls, Konso I think you called it, at the location of the spell binding, it will free all of the Wraiths’ souls.”
“Quite the tall order,” Rarity said, “Do we know where this binding even is?”
“I can use my Sphaera Astralis to help me scan for it, but it has to be in the city itself. Once I find it, we have to fight our way to it and cover Flash while he uses his Zanpaktou to undo the binding,” Twilight said, and raised the mace, “And that is where this comes in. It’s a gamble, I admit, but I’m betting on this mace containing enough power to help us fight the Wraiths.”
“Sounds like a plan to me!” said Pinkie Pie, “I got a good feeling about this.”
“Glad one o’ us does, but what the hay, Twilight ain’t steered us wrong before. Not when it counted,” Applejack said, hefting her shileigah. “Let’s do it.”
“And perhaps do it fast,” Fluttershy said, nodding towards the army of Wraiths, “Because they seem like they’re done waiting.”
Indeed, the Wraiths in their multitudes were coming forward in a wave of howling shadow. Hundreds of small ones surrounded grotesque clusters that had joined together in misshapen hulks of dark matter that took the appearance of every deep sea monster imaginable. Amalgamations of tentacles, shark maws, giant pincers, and spiked stalks create horrific shapes in the darkness that was coming at the Treasury and the mares standing on it’s deck.
Looking once more at her friends with a final nod, Twilight turned and bore the mace aloft in front of her. She concentrated upon it as her five friends arrayed to either side of her, along with Flash Sentry who remained closest to her side, Zanpaktou at the ready.
The magical seal on the mace glowed in front of Twilight’s eyes, chains of ethereal blue coated the mace’s head. Her horn lit up and she directed a firm stream of purple light into the seal. She knew how to open the seal partially due to the fortunate fact that while inside the Astral Sphere, she’d been able to properly analyze the mace and it’s magic. She knew it’s structure, and the vast well of magic pooled within, like some vast lake just beneath a seeming desert. The seal itself was a complex lock, one that could be brute forced open, but that was unnecessary. As if the seal itself recognized Twilight’s magic, it all but welcomed the influx of her power, taking it in and converting it into a pattern that fit the seal perfectly.
Well... here goes nothing, she thought, truly unsure of what to expect once the seal was open. She gave her magic a little tug, and the seal opened with almost anti-climatic ease, the image of the glowing blue chains falling away into sparkling dust with not so much as a hint of resistance.
Silence held breathlessly for a second or two. Rainbow Dash cocked her head and began to say, “So, is it, like, gonna do something or-?”
Light. Light crossing all the spectrums filled the pitch black ocean with it’s all consuming radiance.
Starborn luminescence engulfed the deck of the Treasury and tore through the countless fathoms in a pillar of prismatic magnificence that touched every corner of Aqualania, banishing all but the darkest of the city’s shadows for a moment of near daylight. The advancing Wraiths actually halted in their fury, brought up short by the sight, sensing a release of magic so potent and ancient that even they, in their centuries of mind-numbing rage and hate, felt a moment of near clarity.
Inside the mass of those Wraiths, Charybdis watched from the projection of her mind’s eye. Her true self lay innumerable leagues to the north, within the confining depths of her bastion at the bottom of the Abyss, but she still saw all clearly through her projection magic. Her skill at such magic was what allowed her to even touch the distant human realm across dimensional barriers, so it was no trick to feel and see all that was occurring before her, even through a mere projection.
And she was just a tad unsettled. She knew what to expect of course. She’d partially goaded Twilight into doing this, but to actually witness the awakening of an Inheritor, let alone six was... impressive, even to the ancient and powerful sea witch.
The light continued higher, reaching upwards until it was lost to view to the waters above.
So high it reached, that even upon the distant surface, the waters began to bubble and light up.
Captain Celano and her crew, waiting anxiously upon their airship that still rested upon the very waters they’d watched Twilight and her party descend down, saw the light on the waves’ surface and looked at each other in confusion.
“What’cha reckon that there is, Capt’n?” asked one of Celano’s crew, and she could do little more than rub her chin thoughtfully and shrug.
“Ain’t got the foggiest, but...” she paused as the waves grew brighter still, and she then had to shield her eyes as the pillar of many colored rays shot up from the water and reached up into the sky itself. She gulped, taking her hat off, “But I’m gonna venture a guess that those ponies are having one heck of a time down there.”
----------
Flying high above Equestria’s eastern hills, Celestia carried along the Bount Trixie within a globe of magic as she flew her way towards Ponehenge.
Although she hardly halted her flight, she did look off to the eastern horizon as the faintest hint of light touched the sky that was not of the sun’s making. More than that, she felt the instant, heated response inside herself as the magic being released sent a jolt through any and all Inheritors. Hidden as it was, she could feel the broken blade she carried veritably buzzing with excitement, sensing the release of it’s cousin’s power, and it’s own seal weakening ever that much more in response.
“What is that?” Trixie asked, hooves propped up on the shell of the barrier she was carried in, “I thought I saw something.”
“Nothing you need to concern yourself with,” Celestia replied, but inwardly she was overcome with worry.
Even if Twilight contained this, with another seal broken, the other Relics would be all the more active. Even those who weren’t aware of their nature as Inheritors would be able to feel the change as more divine magic was released back into the world. They would even likely be drawn to their Relics now, like moths to a flame.
For better or worse, the eons buried history of the world was waking up, and it was unlikely that it would be possible to put things back to the way they were once all would be said and done.
----------
As intense and encompassing as it was, the light did eventually begin to fade, although it did so by bits and pieces. Slowly did the pillar of rainbow lights lessen, and even when near gone they still left shimmers and motes of light like sprinkled stars upon the night sky.
Flash had closed his eyes when the light hit, but even so he’d felt nearly blinded, his eyelids not stopping the shear brightness around him. Now that it was faded, he blinked and looked beside him to see what had become of Twilight and her friends. At first he didn’t see them, but his senses told him to look up. Doing so, he spotted them. They must have risen up partially in the pillar.
He could only stare, not even managing to keep his mouth closed.
Each mare was changed, although one could still tell who they were. They’d lost their seapony shapes, reverting to their natural forms, yet this didn’t seem to affect them at all despite still being underwater.
Rainbow Dash’s mane and tail remained as prismatic as ever, but now both flowed and flickered like they were made of mist rather than hair. Her head bore a polished helmet of silvery white, a crest slit down it’s center allowing her mane to flow out freely while the front shielded her eyes with a visor. Further armor, slim and form fitting, wrapped her chest and legs, but left her back free, as well as her wings, which were encased in a stream of seemingly ever present air current that flowed around her body. The swordbreaker she carried had changed as well, becoming the same gleaming white metal, while lengthening and curving without losing the swordbreaker notches on it’s blade. Along its edge was a pattern and clouds, and similar flowing currents of air, stirring the water around it.
To Rainbow Dash’s right was Applejack, her fur turned to a burnished gold color that reflected light like metal. Even her mane and tail had a metallic quality, and all her body seemed to produce a haze of heat that boiled the water around her. She had grown in size, gaining easily an extra foot of height, and a broader set of shoulders to match. Black iron armor, thicker and more heavily plated than Rainbow Dash’s, rested in angular segments over Applejack’s chest and back, but left her legs bare save for iron bands around the hooves. Even her stetson hat was different, it’s brim clad with an iron band and a circular iron crest mounted to the front of it. Still shouldering her shillelagh, the club had transformed into a hunk of forged iron, still shaped the same but now bearing a more hammer-like head.
To the left of them, Rarity examined herself with casual grace. Her coat was now speckled by scale-like growths of sapphire gems, like the hide of a dragon or serpent. These crystal growths mostly coated her front and back legs, and parts of her neck and cheeks, while her chest and back were instead covered by a gorgeously tailored dress and cape made from a dark blue cloth trimmed in sinuous patterns of gold that looked like coiled snakes. Her mane continued the serpent motif, coiling and moving as if alive, and even her gem blue eyes had become slit like a cobra’s. The charkams she bore had tripled in number, six of them now floated beside her, and their blades had grown deadly curved side-blades, which dripped faintly with different colored substances, one for each chakram; red, green, blue, orange, purple, and black.
Over on the other side of Flash, a harsh rift of powerful music cut the water, and he looked to Pinkie Pie. She was literally bursting with energy, her pink hide now streaked with stripes of hot neon light. Her poofy mane and tail had a jagged look to them now, as if spiked through with electrical current, while even her eyes sparkled near solid blue with energy. She wore a chest piece of gold armor that had an array of pipes coming off the back of it like the horns of a dragon but shaped into the pipes of an organ. Over the armor she wore a neon pink trench coat laden with scaled straps of armoring, all of thick cloth rather than leather. The lute in her hooves, which had produced the rift of music, was now cast out of silver white metal and it’s studded sides now sported full on spikes.
Beyond Pinkie Pie was Fluttershy, cutting an imposing figure. While Applejack had been the only one to gain any noticeable size, Fluttershy was the more intimidating sight, for she was clad nearly head to rear in crimson armor. The armor was made from sharp edged plates, designed to give the appearance of form fitting deadliness as each limb sported a razor curved protrusion. This continued in the form of two blades covering wings now clad in blood red metal, and even a helmet that produced two forward curving horns ending in edged tips. Fluttershy’s mane and tail had become, oddly enough, braided through with dark vines sporting white flowers. Still strapped to her right leg, her shield had grown a little in size, and unlike her armor clearly remained a tool of defense, despite also turning a crimson color.
Then, finally, there was Twilight herself.
Flash wasn’t sure where to focus his attention first. Was it her wings that were most striking? Four of them now, and within their feathers was a deep, star speckled void as seemingly endless as space itself. Was it her mane, like a sheet of wavering nebula containing colors of deep purple, blue, and black akin to a dusk sky? Perhaps her attire was most striking, crystalline robes of violet and blue that wrapped her body with a high neck and low, sharp edged sleeves that looked as if she solidified the essence of magic and hardened it around herself. Or was it her weapon? No longer a mace, the shaft had grown to triple the length, the head opened up like a blooming flower to reveal a perfect orb of night black within. A staff, held aloft and brimming with power that crackled along it’s white metal surface like miniature storms. Or maybe most striking was her eyes, still Twilight’s, still enthralling to Flash, but now swirling with starlight as if her eyes reflected the bodies of galaxies.
“Uh... Twilight?” Flash said with breathless hesitance.
She looked at him, and he felt a distinct sense of unease as he didn’t see recognition in her eyes. Her voice was Twilight’s, but the words that came out only increased his concern.
"Twilight? My apologies, but that is not my name. I am called Astra."