Episode 161: Final Preparations
The storm battered at the hull of the Treasury with relentless abandon. Wind and hail caused a continuous racket of noise that was distracting, but the thunder was louder still, echoing through the ship with it’s furious roar. Fortunately the seapony vessel had been built to withstand such hurricane-force winds and could readily deflect the harmful effects of such intense, even unnatural weather. The deck still lurched and shook on occasion when a bad patch of storm struck, but otherwise Twilight and her companions could plan their assault upon the Abyss with minimal issue, save a sudden bout of airsickness on Sonata’s part.
Twilight had chosen to use one of the Treasurey’s meeting rooms for the gathering, a fairly large rectangular chamber mostly taken up by a single oval table that everypony could find an easy seat at. One end of the table was curved inward like a crescent, with one larger seat clearly meant for the ship’s captain. Twilight occupied that seat, since she was more or less in charge of this affair, and Admiral Seaspray needed to remain on the bridge to maintain the helm. They were nearing their destination, but the storm’s size plus it’s unpredictable nature was slowing their progress somewhat. Twilight surmised the storm’s magical nature was more of a byproduct of Charybdis’ magic rather than a directed tool, but a byproduct the sea witch was still using to her advantage.
Regardless, they’d reach the area directly over the Abyss soon, and so they needed to plan their line of attack.
Everycreature was present save the Admiral, Aria and Sonata who were currently in their quarters, and Trixie who had volunteered to monitor the engine room. Most notably, Ulgriv was present, albeit under very watchful guard by Flash Sentry and Wavecrest, who flanked the sahuagin at the opposite end of the table from Twilight. She wanted the captive sahuagin here in case they could get any information from him while working out a plan.
“Alright,” she began, “We don’t have a lot to go on, but if nothing else I should be able to use my own magic to get a general idea of where Charybdis is located. Wavecrest, do you have any knowledge of what we can expect once we star our descent?”
“Only a little, I’m afraid. It is rare, but there have been a few times captured seaponies have escaped sahuagin captivity and brought with them tales of the Abyss,” Wavecrest said, eyes shifting towards Ulgriv, “Of course what of these tales are true and what was exaggeration or misremembered due to the poor mental state of those poor souls is debatable.”
Ulgriv didn’t say anything, but Twilight sensed the young fish man was more uncomfortable than usual. His hostility towards them all was still there, like a low simmering heat, but it wasn’t as outright sharp as it had been the other day.
“Might as well tell us what you can,” said Rainbow Dash, “This place is, what, one big hole in the ocean floor?”
“More like a series of wounds, like several great claws dug deep gouges into the seabed,” Wavecrest explained, “It is a maze of underwater canyons and rifts that go on for uncounted miles. The sahuagin build their settlements amid the natural caverns that interset the walls of these trenches. The stories of those rare few escapees of the sahaugin’s clutches speak of one settlement most of all; Rift Mouth.”
That caused Ulgriv to stirr, lips pulled back in a gurgling snarl. Nearby, Fluttershy looked to him with an open look of understanding hardened only by a plain honesty as she said, “You recognize the name.”
“My home,” Ulgriv grunted, “How much damage will you do to it?”
“We don’t wanna do no more harm than we gotta, but dependin’ on how ornery yer kin git, things’ll probably be more n’ a touch rowdy,” Applejack said, all flat honesty, “Ain’t no gettin’ ‘round that fact, less ya want ta give us somethin’ ta help us avoid a dust up.”
“I... don’t understand your strange surfacer talk, but there is no way to avoid a fight,” Ulgriv stated simply, sounding miserable in the admission, “If Morgawr has returned in defeat, it will be the other champion’s of Charybdis’ turn to gain honor and favor.”
“Other champions,” Rarity said with a tired voice, “I suppose it would’ve been to much to expect that Morgawr fellow to be the only one. Just how many ‘champions’ does Charybdis have?”
“Her chosen, they are not many,” Ulgriv admitted, “And fewer still of enough strength to be considered Morgawr’s equals. Two, perhaps three.”
Twilight briefly considered that, asking pointedly, “Would Charybdis empower these ‘chosen’ like she did Morgawr?”
Ulgriv bit his lip until it bled, shaking his head, “I’ve said more than I should already.”
“Ulgy, the more we know, the more likely we can do this without making a big mess of your home,” Pinkie Pie said, but the sahuagin clamped his mouth shut and shook his head again, and the mare gave a sigh and hapless shrug to Twilight, “Well, on the bright side, least we kinda know what to expect from two or three more Morgawrs.”
“He was formidable, but Twilight did readily deal with him prior to unlocking the power of her Relic,” Rarity pointed out, “I dare say that all of us together should prove more than a match for any of these fishy brutes.”
“Easy for you all to say that who happen to have Relics,” Trixie said, but Starlight, who was sitting next to her, gave the magician a reassuring elbow.
“Relax Trixie. Tempest and I held our own against Morgawr, and you’re no slouch, Relic or no Relic. Personally I’m feeling pretty confident of our chances of at least getting to Charybdis, assuming we can figure out how to navigate the Abyss without getting lost.”
“Like I said, I should be able to track Charybdis’ magic to at least give us some direction,” Twilight said, giving her chin a pensive rub with a wingtip, “Although chances are she’s thought of that and may have set up something to interfere with tracking magic.”
“Look, if Ulgriv doesn’t want to give us directions to Rift Mouth, I can get the info more directly,” Starlight suggested, but Wavecrest interjected.
“Rift Mouth’s location should not be hard to find. I may not have knowledge of a direct route, but the escapee’s old tales have enough pieces for me to work my own magics upon the Abyss’ currents to find the source of the warmest ones. Keep in mind, the Abyss is a place of near freezing waters, so any current of slight warmth is where the sahuagin would build their homes. The largest and warmest currents would lead to Rift Mouth, as it is their largest settlement.”
“Coulda said so from the start,” Applejack muttered, and Wavecrest coughed politely.
“I was not asked.”
“Right, so we have a means of knowing where to go, but what do we do when we get there?” Starlight asked, “I have a bad feeling that charging in blindly isn’t going to work in our favor.”
“I don’t know, seems to have worked pretty good for us so far,” Rainbow Dash pointed out, and Starlight put a hoof to her own forehead.
“If minimizing casualties is part of the plan, we probably want to avoid just blasting away with the Treasury’s armaments, Rainbow. On top of that we don’t really know for certain how powerful Charybdis really is. Just by exerting her magic over a distance she gave us plenty of trouble back in Aqualania. Now I’m all in on kicking her flank into next week, but we’ve got to approach this carefully.”
“Hmph...” Rainbow Dash blew out a breath and flexed her wings, but did relent somewhat in the face of Starlight’s pragmatic words, “I get it, and you’re probably right. Still, how much planning can we really do when we don’t know anything? We’re pretty much stuck just going headlong into things and working out a plan on the fly, aren’t we?”
“Not entirely,” Twilight said, “If nothing else we can agree on some basic ideas before we reach the dive point. For example, we can expect resistance from the sahuagin, and that will slow us down considerably. While I don’t know for certain what Charybdis is working with her magic, my initial analysis of the storm suggests that the amount of magic that Charybdis is conjuring up is consistent with a High Magic ritual. Gauging the amount of magic being produced as a by product I can estimate the timeframe such a ritual will take to complete, and I believe we have somewhere between ten to sixteen hours.”
“Oh my, is that a long or a short time for magic on this scale?” asked Fluttershy, and Twilight found herself chuckling awkwardly.
“Honestly it’s hard to say, since I still don’t know for certain what Charybdis is trying to do, only that it’s pretty large, and involves some manner of spatial magic. I can tell that much just from the combination of magic elements in the storm.”
“Ten hours at the minimum, hmm?” Rarity mused aloud, “Will we even arrive in that timeframe?”
“Admiral Seaspray is putting all he can into our engines to get us there, but it will be cutting things very close,” Twilight admitted, “Which is why letting the sahuagin delay us is a problem. If we’re tied up for even an hour it might make us too late to stop Charybdis from doing whatever it is she’s planning.”
“Ulgriv, do you have any idea what she might be up to?” asked Fluttershy, causing the sahuagin warrior to very reluctantly speak after a long pause.
“The will of the Deep Mistress is not known to the likes of I. She protects us, and the shamans pass down her words to her children. It is said she seeks to lead us to a place of warmth and bounty, but most warriors assume that means one day retaking our place in the rest of the seas.”
“Whatever the truth is, our goal of stopping her doesn’t change, does it?” asked Wavecrest, “Regardless of the dark magics she is working, halting the ritual and defeating her can only be a good thing.”
“Agreed,” said Twilight, although it did still bother her that they were going into this situation largely blind to their enemy’s true goals. She could theorize, and had a few ideas, but Wavecrest was right. They didn’t need to know what Charybdis’ goals were to stop her dead in her tracks. Her ill will towards all other beings on Equestria besides her sahuagin servants was plainly evident. And in the sahaugin’s case, Twilight felt removing Charybdis’ influence might do the species some good as well, although she was not so naïve as to assume things would change quickly or easily even after Charybdis was dealt with. There was a vast history of pain, bloodshed, and hatred involved in the sahaugin’s activities over the years, and the seapony’s themselves shared deeply in that history.
One way or another, peace was a long ways off, but Twilight believed it was her duty as not simply a Princess, but as a creature of good heart, to do all she could to begin that process of teaching peace and friendship to every individual possible. Charybdis herself notwithstanding. At least not without a long, long stint in Tartarus. She sighed, not liking the somewhat vindictive part of her that Charybdis had awakened. Few had ever earned Twilight’s ire quite as potently, and for the first time Twilight actually looked forward to the fight to come. It wasn’t becoming of an emissary of friendship, but the truth was that Twilight wanted very badly to knock Charybdis’ teeth in and put her in Tartarus personally. She wasn’t even certain of why she was so hostile towards the seapony witch, other than the absolute bastardization and abuse of magic as a tool to control and manipulate others, and quite frankly Discord or Chrysalis had been just as bad in that vein.
Is it simply because Charybdis reminds me a little of myself? Bookish, always studying, obsessed with magic. I was a lot like her, before moving to Ponyville. Am I this mad because I know it’s possible I could have ended up the same way?
Her thoughts were interrupted by Ulgriv’s voice, the sahuagin letting out a quiet but somehow incredibly steel hard tone as he stared at her.
“You, leader of the surfacers.”
“Y-yes?”
He reached up to clutch the talisman he wore around his neck, the symbol of Charybdis he bore, and clearly treasured deeply. There was a youthful hesitance and pain in his aquatic features, and fear, quite a lot of it. Yet he still kept his voice firm, “I cannot betray my people. I will not betray my faith in the Deep Mistress. I can see you all believe her to be an evil to be cast out. You think she uses my people. So be it, think that if you will. She is all I have known, and every moment of suffering I’ve endured in life, I’ve been able to endure because of her grace. That cannot change, even if... I am starting to believe you surfacers actually believe you are doing right by opposing her.”
He let out a frustrated gurgle and smacked his other hand onto the table, “And I am powerless, no matter what I do! I cannot stop you. I can do nothing, because you have strength and I do not. So all I can do is provide you a path to avoid harming my people, and to confront my Deep Mistress directly.”
“You will?” Twilight asked, and the captive sahuagin met her stare with a flat one of his own.
“Do know this, suracer Twilight Sparkle. I only do this because I have faith you will lose. My people, my fellow warriors, will be spared fewer deaths, and when you confront the Deep Mistress, I trust in her will and that you will fall. And if... I am wrong, then it will not matter, for my faith and soul will truly be dead, and I’ll care not what happens to me.”
“Ulgy, no need to be so dark,” Pinkie Pie said, her mane wilting slightly, but he just made a low burbling snort at her.
“You are too strange for even your own kind, pink one.”
“We dig Pinkie’s unique vibe, fish dude,” Rainbow Dash said, “So you’re gonna change your tune and let us know a safer way into this Rift Mouth place?”
“Safe?” he shook his finned head, “There is no ‘safe’ in the Abyss, less so if there are chosen champions of the Deep Mistress preparing a defense against you. All I can provide is the best possible methods to approach those defenses and get through without slaughtering my people. The actual doing of this remains your own to do, crazy surfacers.”
“Hah, fair enough!” Rainbow Dash said, cracking a smile.
“Thank you, Ulgriv,” said Twilight, “It may mean little to you, but I do give my word as Princess of Equestria that I will do all in my power to minimize the harm done to the sahuagin people and Rift Mouth when we arrive. Now, please, tell us all that you can...”
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In the depths of a jungle filled to the brim with every conceivable form of deadly wildlife, Chrysalis and Ocellus lounged amid a devoured pile of soul remains of that very same wildlife. The empty husks of various beasts lay like discarded candy wrappers around the two Arrancar, the souls of the creatures torn free and consumed with greedy abandon.
Ocellus licked her lips of the last traces of blood from a soul taken from a giant panther, and laid back on the sandy shore of the jungle lake she and her mother were having their “picnic” at.
“Aaaah, so good! I wish my brothers were here to enjoy this. I don’t know what it is about the souls in this world, but they’re just way more flavorful than the ones back home!”
Chrysalis flashed a warm smile at her daughter. She was laying on her side, head propped on a hand, one knee drawn up in a lazy pose as she had finished her own snacks. There was a terrifying ease in which she had drawn in the souls of the beasts around her into her mouth, like a suction vacuum pulling in errant dust.
“It is the magic of this word, Ocellus. Even mere beasts like this offer quite the expansive spectrum of taste.”
Ocellus flipped to her feet and went to splash in the lakeshore, dancing around and regarding her mother with a curious look, “But they don’t feel stronger than the souls back home. Different, but about the same in terms of filling me up. Is Tirek really sure that taking this world is gonna be such a big deal?”
A low, rich laugh came from Chrysalis, her eyes closing slightly as she measured her daughter with a mother’s loving mindset. Thorax may have been her clever eldest, but her youngest was sharp in her own unique way. Chrysalis didn’t rise much, but did sit up and held out a hand as if holding up an object, “Tirek sees power like a physical thing, Ocellus. A weight, if you will. The more power one has, the greater the ‘weight’, like a big rock on a weight scale.”
She lowered her hand slightly, “And while magic may have no more ‘volume’ than spiritual power, the amalgam of magic and spirit energy generates a greater force, an increase in ‘mass’ if you will, even if the ‘volume’ of a soul remains unchanged. Haven’t you noticed that, merely by being in this world and consuming such small souls here, there has been a subtle increase in pressure of your reiryoku?”
“Ummm...” Ocellus tapped her chin, then snapped her fingers as her face lit up, “I haven’t paid a lot of attention to my own reiatsu, but Pipsqueaks has been growing by leaps and bounds! Before Starlight got herself all banished to the shadow realm or whatever, she was talking about Pipsqueak being ready to control his Inner Hollow and mask up!”
“Ahah, I suppose I should have expected you’d be focused on the boy,” Chrysalis said with a fondness in her voice, “But yes, even he, with minimal exposure to this realm’s magic, is feeling the affect of having his reiatsu altered slightly by magic. Now imagine what would happen if one such as Tirek arrived and reaped a harvest of many souls.”
Ocellus scratched her head. Although a changeling in Equestria, she could shapeshift into her more human form, as she and Chrysalis were currently doing, so it was with a hand that she ruffled her own pink mohawk while kicking at the water of the lake. “Guess he’d get even bigger and badder than he already is. And so would you, mom. So why don’t you go eating up every soul you can, now? Starlight isn’t around to stop you, and everyone back at the base is pretty scared of you. You might get strong enough to even take down Tirek, right?”
Chrysalis made a ‘come here’ gesture towards her daughter, and Ocellus bounced on over. Chrysalis reached out and pulled her daughter down into a hug, patting the girl’s head. “Ocellus, tell me something. What do you think of when you hear the word ‘monster’?”
“Hmm, lemme think... I guess I think of something huge and scary. Something that makes me feel helpless in front of it. Like I’m nothing more than a little piece of meat to be eaten.”
“A good definition. Some might categorize a monster by the ‘evil’ they do without remorse. Others might think of something beyond their comprehension, something unknowable. You have a very instinctive notion of a monster as something more powerful than you are, that can choose to eat you at its whim. Just like we did here,” she gestured at the piles of soulless, drained jungle beasts.
“To some ponies, these beasts might be ‘monsters’, especially if they found themselves lost in this jungle, alone, in the dark, being stalked. Their blood would run cold, their breath quicken, sweat would pour from their faces as they ran from the danger, terrified of the ‘monster’ that was hunting them. And even if the beast is just following its nature, the pony would scream and think of how monstrous the beast was as they were devoured.”
Ocellus shivered a bit, although she leaned a bit more into her mother’s embrace, feeling comforted even as a part of her knew that her mother was also a ‘monster’ who had the power to devour her at any time. “I guess by that line of thought, I ought to be scared of anything stronger than me.”
“Fear is good, Ocellus. It tells us when we’re in danger. It’s how we identify ‘monsters’. And I am most certainly a monster to many.”
“Not to me,” Ocellus said, but Chrysalis made a ‘tut-tut’ sound and patted Ocellus’ head.
“Keep a clear view at all times. Know who to fear, if only so you know who to become stronger than. Including me. But the point I’m driving towards is this... why would Tirek of all beings, the most powerful of all Hollows, seek to become even stronger?”
Ocellus thought about that for a second, settling out of her mother’s hug to instead sit on Chrysalis’ lap in careful consideration. She snapped her fingers, “Because there are monsters he’s afraid of!”
“Now you see why he wants this realm. Tirek is a monster among monsters. Yet there remains those he fears.”
“Those you fear too, mom...?” Ocellus asked, and Chrysalis’ face grew filled with a brew of volatile unpleasantness, although not directed at Ocellus, and it vanished quickly at the young Arrancar girl’s questioning gaze.
“Those I hate.”
Chrysalis’ words were as blunt a statement of unconquerable fact as a dropping guillotine’s blade. There was control in her words, but only just. A slender hand reached out to caress her daughter’s cheek with protective intensity. “And yes, also fear. Do not tell anyone else, hm? I’d not like to fracture my unflappable image.”
“Hard to imagine you and Tirek being scared of anything,” Ocellus said, but there was a ponderous light in her eyes that Chrysalis appreciated. Her daughter may have seemed like a playful child to most eyes, but the girl could consider a problem from many angles at once. “Sooooo, that must be why you’re still playing nice with Firefly, Platinum, and all those Reigai. We still need them. Or more specifically, we still need Starlight. Wait, no... you want to play with Starlight, but you don’t really need her, do you? It’s something else. Oh! That’ spiffy gem in her chest!”
A pleased bop of Chrysalis’ finger touched Ocellus’ nose, “Mmmhmm. The enemy I must kill are a group of monsters like me, Ocellus. They don’t enjoy my appetites, but they are monsters all their own, and have made our world into a place I can’t abide. Tirek can’t kill them. I can’t kill them either. And technically Starlight can’t, either. But the Hogyoku, on the other hand... well, that silly little ball that Discord made is capable of doing rather impossible things. Yet it bound itself to Starlight, and no other. Even if I tore it from her chest, it wouldn’t do me any good.”
“But you just said Starlight can’t kill these big bad monsters you’re so worried about,” Ocellus pointed out.
“Not as she is now, she can’t. Hence our entire venture here, and why even if she’s currently indisposed I’ll continue to bide my time,” Chrysalis said, and added with a hungry smile that flashed sharp teeth, “And in the meantime it isn’t as if I haven’t found a playmate to entertain me.”
“The pink Princess, right?” Ocellus snorted a little giggle, “She must have left a real impression on you.”
A content sigh escaped Chrysalis as she laid herself back down and stretched, thinking back to her battle with Cadence. A warmth spread through her as she grinned almost like a child herself as she held a hand up to the sky above, a shade of blue not unlike the Crystal Heart itself. “Oh Ocellus, she was magnificent! You should have seen it. Such poise and grace under pressure! Such fierce heat in her hateful stare! I could taste her righteous anger like the finest of spices! Ahh, I’m missing her already, but I have to be patient and wait until she gets stronger before I play with her again.”
“Heheh, you get such a weird look on your face when you’re fantasizing about being hated,” Ocellus laughed, shaking her head, “I don’t really get it myself.”
“Oh, perhaps you will when you’re older, honey. Right now you’re still learning what kind of ‘play’ you enjoy, and I respect that. I’ve certainly noticed how close you’re getting to that Pipsqueak boy,” Chrysalis said with a teasing note, poking Ocellus' ribs in a ticklish manner, “Don’t you just want to take a little nibble on his soul, hmm?”
“Pfft, you’re such a dork, mom,” Ocellus plopped down on Chrysalis’ stomach, straddling her mother while giving Chrysalis a flick on the forehead. To this, Chrysalis chuckled dryly and sat up, picking up a startled Ocellus and playfully tossed her daughter up into the air, to which Ocellus did a backflip and landed on the air itself in a playful crouch.
“Aww, how disrespectful to your loving mother! Your brothers would never dare call me a ‘dork’,” Chrysalis pouted, and Ocellus just responded with another snorting laugh.
“That’s just because they’re momma’s boys. I know better.”
Ocellus’ Sonido was impressive. Even Chrysalis had to admit her daughter was growing up so fast. Still nowhere near as strong as she needed to be in order to live without Chrysalis’ watchful protection, but one day, if she lived long enough, Ocellus and Chrysalis’ other children would all grow into Arrancar capable of standing amongst the Espada. It pleased her immensely, while at the same time reminded her of her singular weak point. And not the Hollow hole in her stomach, although that indeed was a weakness that all Hollow’s had. And not the Womb of the Soul Queen that was bonded with her Hollow hole. That afforded her the power to have genuine children, although the cost of that was that her body’s incredible regenerative properties could be weakened by damaging that part of her.
No, Chrysalis knew her only true weakness were her three true born children, whom she could not help but want to indulge, protect, force to grow, and leave them their freedom all at once.
She didn’t try to catch her daughter or move as Ocellus used Sonido to quickly appear behind her. There was no attack in this, and even if there had been Chrysalis could have readily halted it. No, she just felt Ocellus hug her from behind, chin resting on Chrysalis’ shoulder to whisper into her ear.
“You’re a monster, mom. I know that. Could be I’m one too. But I know something else... you’re always gonna be my mother, and I love you. I’ll love you even after you’re gone and the rest of the world breathes a big sigh of relief that you’re not in it anymore.”
“Hah,” Chrysalis closed her eyes, sighing once more in contentment, “My clever little girl really is growing up fast. Could be by the time I leave this world, you and your brothers won’t need me.”
Her eyes sharpened to emerald jewels of flame, “Because by then I’ll have killed every other monster, so I’m the only one left. Then...”
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There was always something faintly saddening about the Castle of the Two Sisters, at least as Cadence saw it. Looking at the worn down walls and faded stained glass it was easy to imagine the rundown ruin as it may have once been, as a vibrant and elegant edifice within the vast and otherwise untamed wilds of the Everfree Forest. It was a pleasant day, although winding down towards evening by the time she, Celestia, and Luna arrived. There had been quite a few matters of state that had needed attending before three of Equestria’s reigning rulers could temporarily hoof over administrative affairs to lesser delegates for a few days.
A few days. Cadence had to wonder if that was remotely enough time for her to get any stronger. Celestia and Luna both appeared confident that in a short span of time they could gain a better amount of control over their Relics, but Cadence had to wonder if that wasn’t just optimism. Or perhaps she was infected with a severe case of pessimism after her failure to defeat the Hollow Chrysalis...?
She kept trying to assuage her fears, wounded pride, and guilt by convincing herself that she’d done all she could, but her mind remained mired in the endless corridors of doubt. What tactics had she not tried? What spells had she failed to consider? What hidden advantages had she not been swift witted enough to make use of, or what weaknesses in her foe had she lacked the perception to spot? Again and again her mind went over the fight in it’s every gory, painful, horrifying detail, asking herself at every freeze frame of memory what she could have done differently.
A wet splat of rain on her head made Cadence look up sharply, only to see a tiny dark raincloud hanging directly over her head and nowhere else, drenching her in a brief flood of water. Making an undignified noise, Cadence side stepped the cloud, saw it dissipate, then looked over with an eye twitching glare at the two sisters. Celestia was hiding a laughing behind a hoof while Luna whistled innocently while looking away, all the while forgetting to diffuse the glow of magic from her horn.
“Really!?” Cadence said, and Celestia sputtered, whilst Luna coughed politely.
“My apologies, but your gloom was such that I simply felt it appropriate to add a suitable environment to the scene,” Luna said, before giving Celestia a hard glance, “Besides, Tia put me up to it!”
Celesita let out a guffaw and flicked at her sister with a hoof, which Luna danced away from, “Snitch! Ah, but I apologize too, Cadence. That said, you looked as if you needed something to snap you out of your dark reverie.”
With a sputtering sigh, Cadence used a wash of magic to run a sky blue strain of light over her body, drying herself out. “The thought is appreciated, but I’m not exactly in the mood for frivolity. We’re here to train, not play pranks, aren’t we?”
The levity in Celestia’s expression switched in a blink to a hardened seriousness, the eldest of the alicorns approaching the stone steps to her former home and turning to face the two younger Princesses. “Quite right. Although I confess training alone is not my sole intention in coming here.”
“Hm?” Cadence made an inquiring sound, despite not being all that surprised. Celestia usually had a monopoly on ulterior motives, in her experience.
“You see, when Luna and I were growing up here, it was Starswirl who was primarily responsible for raising us and teaching us,” Celestia explained, gesturing with a wing at the cracked walls of the heavily aged castle ruins. “During that time it was he who passed on the knowledge or the Relics and our eventual role as Inheritors, including our responsibilities in managing the Relics and curtailing the formation of any serious religions in Equestria.”
Not all of this was news to Cadence, as when she had gone through the transformative process of becoming an alicorn, she had at least the basics of all this taught to her by Celestia. Still, she hadn’t known for certain who had taught the sisters, who were naturally born as alicorns, unlike herself or Twilight.
“I see. How did he come to know about them?”
“The knowledge was passed down specifically through a particular family line that Starswirl was a part of, going back to the time of the ancient alicorns. Granted this, over a long period, became less a family bloodline and more a particularly small and exclusive order of knowledge keepers. There was never any guarantee of maintaining a singular bloodline, nor ensuring when or where natural alicorns would become reborn. It was only known that alicorns of a certain level of ‘Dominion’ would lead to natural born alicorns once their souls returned from the Cycle.”
As Celestia spoke, Luna had trotted up the stairs and hauled open the huge doors leading into the broken interior of the castle, “Tia, we don’t need to spend all day lecturing her on this. Especially considering it doesn’t help us much with our present problem.”
“Pfft, have patience, Lulu. This is important for Cadence for reasons other than simple history or posterity,” Celestia said, joining her sister by the doors and gesturing with a hoof for Cadence to follow. Entering into the main hall of the castle, which was strewn with fallen columns overgrown with moss, Celestia continued to say, “Of all ponies, Cadence has a very personal reason to understand what it means to be born as a natural alicorn.”
Cadence paused in her step, feeling the chill of a slight wind that whistled through the crackled roof of the main hall. Yes, she knew what Celestia meant, for the thought had been crossing her mind ever since Flurry Heart was born. She was also acutely aware of what it may mean for her second foal, slowly growing inside her.
“What you mean to say is that not only is my daughter in Inheritor, but she’s like you and Luna... and Inheritor to an alicorn on the same level as Eos or Iah.”
Long and weighty was the silence that followed, but eventually Celestia said with a meaningful nod, “Yes. Among the alicorns, society was separated by three Dominions. The Lesser Dominion were what made up the bulk of the civilian population, who enjoyed peaceful lives but held at best only minor positions of office or power. What few workers or clerks were needed came from the Lesser Dominion. Above that was the Middle Dominion, those born with exceptional magical talents even by alicorn standards. These individuals could hold rank over entire settlements, or positions of authority in an ‘Order’, or what you might think of as an organization dedicated to a particular field of study or influence.”
Cadence listened intently, following Celestia and Luna until the three of them reached the far end of the hall, where two sets of curving stairs led to a higher balcony that stood over a doorway leading deeper into the castle, flanked by several similar doors, although one of them looked entirely collapsed in on itself. Celestia took a brief look around and then went up the left set of stairs, continuing her lecture as she did so.
“Then there was the Highest Dominion. Such alicorns were the pinnacle of their species. While mortal races that eventually emerged would worship Middle Dominions as deities, it was the Highest Dominions that inspired that worship to begin in the first place. Their power was such that they held sway over fundamental forces of creation that stemmed from the Astral Sea. Each one was infused with an innate connection to one or more elemental magics, and together they formed the highest body of authority in alicorn society. Such was their influence that when only two of them, two sisters, came to blows over ideology, it was enough to fracture alicorn society in half and led to a war of such devastation that we’re still dealing with the fallout of it all, untold thousands of years later.”
“Just how many alicorns of that rank were there?” Cadence asked, her mind picturing her daughter’s loving, innocent smile and guileless eyes.
“Only six,” Celestia replied simply, having led them down several smaller hallways by now. The second floor of the castle was in no better shape than the first, and the alicorns had to hop over a few holes in the floor here and there, but soon enough they reached a worn door that was halfway off it’s rusted hinges, leading into a modest sized chamber. Cadence saw spartan furnishings, all of which were long rotted and barely intact. Yet shockingly enough, there remained walls of bookshelves that were in far better condition, as were the dust and cobweb slathered books sitting upon them. A brief glance confirmed to Cadence that this was due to preservative magic enchantments placed upon the books themselves, which had bled into the bookshelves to keep them intact as well.
Her attention focused back on Celestia’s words, she asked, “So Eos and Iah make two, then who were the other four? Which one... is Flurry Heart?”
“That, I cannot say for certain,” Celestia said, “Of the remaining four Highest Dominions I know of none whose Relics have even been uncovered. As I assimilate Eos’ memories I will be able to know more, but for now I still lack detailed knowledge of Eos and Iah’s peers. In Flurry Heart’s case it is impossible to know for certain who’s Inheritor she is until she finds at least one of her Relics. And at her age, I would not allow her near one. Hard enough to contend with such an alicorn’s memories when one is a full grown adult. I fear your daughter’s mind would not withstand such an infusion of memory and personality.”
“As if I don’t know that!” Cadence snapped, although she was quick to soften her tone, even if she was unable to keep a swell of pained emotion from entering her voice, “Why do you think I want to know what alicorn’s Relic she’s tied to? So I can keep her as far away from it as possible! I’m not about to let my baby’s mind get taken over. This whole Inheritor system is so flawed, I can’t imagine why they came up with it.”
“Don’t be too harsh on them,” Celestia said as she began perusing the bookshelves, while Luna looked around the small chamber with a look of melancholic nostalgia that Cadence couldn’t fail to notice.
“In truth, they didn’t have any better options,” Luna said, “Even from my own somewhat incomplete memory of Iah’s, I can tell you that they only enacted this plan because they were out of time and did not have the means to devise something else. It may seem unfair to us that have to deal with being Inheritors, and it is, but it is a burden that the alicorns of old did not deal us without heavy hearts.”
“For all the good that does us now,” Cadence said, sucking in a deep breath and sitting down on her haunches, “What are you looking for here, anyway?”
“Starswirl’s journals and notebooks are many, as you can see,” Celestia said, her eyes never ceasing to scan books as she used magic to remove them from the shelves and hold several open at once, “And these represent just a fraction of them. He had several ‘note rooms’ like this that he’d use to jot down his thoughts, experiments, findings, musings, whatever came to his mind.”
“The two of you were close to him?” Cadence asked, seeing the shade of memory on both the sisters.
“He may not have been our father by blood, but he did teach us,” Celestia said, making a small laugh as if at a fond remembrance, “At least when he could. He was ever a busy stallion, especially once he formed his band of adventurous companions.”
“We saw less and less of him during those days,” Luna said, “Although by that point Tia and I were getting old enough to have a few adventurers of our own, before we were asked to take charge as rulers.”
“As to your question, Cadence, what I’m looking for is information on Stygian,” Celestia said, frowning as she floated more notebooks across her scrutinous gaze, “Specifically what happened between him and Starswirl. I never thought that prison would be breached, and now that it has happened once, I wish to be prepared for it happening again. If need be, if I can find the spell Starswirl used to create the portal into Limbo in the first place I can reenact it.”
“Or break it,” Luna pointed out, but Celestia gave her sister a swift sidelong glance, to which Luna simply held up her hooves, “I did not say we should, of course.”
“Hmm. At any rate, this could take me hours, or days, to pour over every one of his journals,” Celestia said, “So in the meantime, Cadence, how about you and Lulu begin with the physical training? Once you two have been at it for a while, I’ll tag out with Luna and she can get book dust all over her.”
“Is that a good idea? I mean, the two of you training with just me alone?” asked Cadence, “What if one of you succumbs to the Relics’ memories?”
“That’s precisely why I want us to spar with you one on one,” Celestia said, “If something does go wrong, it means that whichever one of us is doing research here will be rested and fresh to come in and help restrain the other. If we’re both exhausted sparring for hours, or goodness forbid we both succumbed to Eos and Iah at the same time, then things would become quite dicey, wouldn’t they?”
Cadence couldn’t find a hole in that logic, so she merely nodded and looked to Luna, “So, you and me, then?”
“Indeed,” replied the Princess of the Night, looking ever more jovial as the prospect of contest and challenge loomed before her, “And since my sister will be sticking her snout in dusty tomes for some hours, I look forward to putting you through the paces. Come, our arena awaits.”
“Arena? We’re not just going to fight outside?” Cadence inquired as Luna led her away from the small, moldering chamber where Celestia remained focused upon Starswirl’s notebooks. Luna proceeded swiftly and with lighter steps that approached a canter down an adjoining hall which then led to a sharp turn to a stairwell leading down. However, rather than begin to head down the stairs, Luna paused by the entrance and started to run a hoof over the wall next to the stairs.
“Ummm?” Cadence was well aware Luna hadn’t answered her question, and now appeared to be fondling a moss covered wall.
Cadence’s apprehension was not assuaged when Luna let out a foalish giggle and then pressed a spot on the wall, where a circular indentation then recessed inwards. A rough grinding of stone sounded and Luna said without looking at Cadence, “You might want to brace yourself.”
“For wh-” Cadence began, then abruptly felt the floor drop out from under her. Gravity took its course, Cadence tumbling straight down the trap door that had opened beneath her. The sharp drop near immediately turned into a smooth slide of polished stone, taking a surprised Cadence on a swift trip down a sliding tube that corkscrewed left and right several times while continuing to remain at a steep incline. Dizzy, Cadence still managed to right herself just in time for the trap slide to terminate in an opening that shot her out of a tall wall into a vast, dark chamber.
Spreading her wings, she controlled her fall, which lasted for at least fifty or so feet before she landed on... sand?
Beneath her hooves were the grains of well worn sand, although all around her was darkness. A moment later she heard a joyous whoop as Luna came sliding out of the same hole in the wall, spreading her wings and performing a graceful flip before landing next to Cadence.
“Ahah! I forgot how fun our old slide was! Heh, Tia will be thrilled the trap door still works, too.”
“Yes, I’m sure she will be,” Cadence said with absolute dryness in her voice, then she quickly cleared her throat and gestured around her, “Where are we, exactly?”
“Just a moment,” Luna said, and raised her forehooves to clap them together twice. As if awaiting that command, lights started to spring up from huge lit torches built into the walls of what Cadence could now see was a truly massive, circular shaped, underground arena.
The magical torches flared up ina alternating flames of yellow and blue, coating the arena in an oddly uneven and ethereal light. The floor of the huge circle shaped arena was all solid, packed sand. The walls spanned a diameter of at least the same size of the castle above, with a ceiling nearly sixty feet high. Cadence didn’t see any obvious doors out, but she assumed there had to be more hidden passages like the one that had brought them here. Along some parts of the wall she noticed weapon racks, all bearing old, dusty, but still very functional looking weapons of all styles and make.
“This is Tia and I’s personal little sparring ground,” Luna explained, “When we began teaching ourselves the arts of war and spell combat, we used this arena to test our skills against each other.”
“I see. I hope you don’t mind my saying so, but it seems a little barebones,” Cadence mentioned, and Luna gave her a rueful grin.
“Announcer, are you still here?” Luna called out, and Cadence gave a startled yelp as she felt the sands shift around her. The arena’s sands trembled and then, just a few paces away, the sand rose up in motes of blue and gold light, churning together until the sand formed the shape of a pony... in a top hat? It was still clearly a construct of sand, but the details the sand could form were quite detailed, and the sand pony was clearly a mare from her figure, with a neat short clipped mane and tail. Eyes of solid light, one blue and one yellow, popped to life in the sandmare’s face and she took off her top hat in a flourish, bowing.
“Good day Mistress Luna!” Announcer said in a sing-song, enthusiastic voice, “It’s been three hundred and eighty three thousand, six hundred and fifty six days since your last visit! Will Mistress Celestia be joining you for today’s training session?”
“Ah, Announcer, I’m so glad to see the enchantment is still holding. I wasn’t sure it would,” Luna said as she walked around the sandmare.
“Of course, Mistress Luna! As long as this arena exists, so too shall I. How may I help you? I see we have a new participant? Is Mistress Celestia not with you?”
Cadence could almost hear a note of nostalgic longing in the construct’s voice, although that must have been artificial. Constructs of magic didn’t have actual emotions, at least no research on the subject had ever confirmed such. A construct, no matter how life-like, was still just an artificial creation able to perform a limited number of expressions and functions based on the spells used to make them. It wasn’t unheard of that a construct could last thousands of years, if the spells making them were sufficiently powerful, but it was still impressive that this ‘Announcer’ was still fully responsive and intact after such a long time.
“Oh, Tia’s here, but she’ll be joining us later,” Luna replied to the construct’s earnest inquiry, while trotting ahead a number of paces so that she could turn to face Cadence at a distance that Cadence recognized as traditional ‘dueling distance’ of ten paces. “In the meantime, Announcer, meet Princess Cadence, ruler of the Crystal Empire, fellow alicorn and Inheritor.”
The lights of Announcer’s eyes lit up like flaring torches and she made a sound akin to a ‘squee’ as she flopped her tophat right back onto her sandy head and twirled to face Cadence, “Oh my gosh, it’s such an honor! I was made specifically to help train personages just as distinguished as yourself, Princess Cadence, so allow me the absolute pleasure of formally welcoming you to my humble arena! I am Announcer, and I control the environs of this arena, and provide my distinct and colorful commentary to the bouts that take place here! Heh, not that many bouts have happened in quite awhile.”
At this, Luna’s voice did take on a faint not of apology as she bowed her head, “I am sorry for that, Announcer. Sadly the enchantments that give you life are tied solely to this place, and cannot be transferred.”
“Oh I know, Mistress Luna! It’s no trouble at all, really!” Announcer waved a hoof in flustered flutters at Luna, “Truly I sleep like a foal whenever I’m not activated, so what’s a thousand years or so to me? I’m just happy to know that you and Mistress Celestia are in good health and that another alicorn walks among us now. I exist solely to fulfill my duty in training those who enter my arena and helping them upgrade their CPR.”
“Huh?” Cadence said, “What is that?”
Luna chuckled, “Tia’s idea. She programmed it into Announcer when we made her.”
Cadence blinked as Announcer was suddenly in her face, grinning broadly and her twin light eyes shining like stars, “I’m so glad you asked! CPR stands for Combat Potential Rating! It’s a system for analyzing and quantifying the battle capabilities of those who train in my arena! You could call it my special skill. As you fight, the magic that infuses me and my arena carefully probes and scans every part of your abilities and compiles it into an easy to understand rating system to determine how powerful you are! By doing this, you can also figure out how to improve.”
“I...see,” Cadence said, and Luna smiled at her reassuringly.
“Don’t think about it too much, Cadence. Like I said, this was Tia’s idea, back when she was going through her ‘roleplaying’ phase. Very into numbers, charts, and stat ratings. Did you know she’s a co-producer of Ogres and Oubliettes? At any rate, don’t mind the CPR thing too much. I’ve always considered it a dubious means of figuring out our strength, and real battles tend to be chaotic enough that rating your own abilities or those of your foes don’t give a proper indicator of who will win.”
“Aw, you wound me, Mistress Luna,” Announcer whined, “I work really hard on my analysis skills! And I love explaining how it all works! You see there’s five basic categories, rated 1-100; Strength, Mobility, Magic, Experience, and Ability-”
“Skip it for now, Announcer,” Luna said, using a gleam of magic to withdraw an ancient bow from a shimmer of magical sub-space. Announcer immediately went quiet upon seeing the bow, understanding what it was. A Relic. Announcer bowed her head deeply to the alicorn.
“I understand. What parameters would you like to set for your battle? I trust it is Princess Cadence, versus you, Princess Luna, with no other participants?”
“Correct. Let us set the initial fight for a time limit of one hour, just as a warm up. Variable terrain, if you please, Announcer.”
“Righto!” Announcer said, her exuberance infectiously filling her voice as she leaped into the air with an impressive backflip. The sands of the arena trembled once more, and a pillar rose up from the center of the chamber, made entirely of hard packed sand. Yet as Cadence watched, transmutation magic flowed through the sand and turned the pillar into solid metal, which Announcer landed atop of. There, she struck a pose with one hoof thrust high in the air as the rest of the arena continued to shake.
One after another other obstacles began to appear around the room, forged from sand that then transmuted into other materials such as stone, metal or wood. In seconds the arena began to resemble a giant foal’s jungle gym.
“Mares and gentlestallions, we’ve got ourselves our first match in over a thousand years! Our humble arena is pleased to host two contestants who are as beautiful as they are powerful! In the Blue Corner, our very own hometown heroine, returned to her old stomping grounds. Put your hooves together for the Knight of Dreams, the Guardian of the Night, the Terror of Tea Time, Princesssss Luuuunaaaa!”
Announcer proceeded to mime a few crowd cheering noises, while Cadence just looked at Luna with an every raising eyebrow, “Terror of Tea Time?”
Luna sighed, “I had a habit of ruining Tia’s tea parties. She holds a grudge for a long time.”
“Aaaand in the Red Corner, hailing from the Crystal Empire, we have a fresh new face ready to rumble! Let us hear a hearty welcoming cheer for the Pink Princess of Pain, the Crystalline Crusher, Princesssss Caaaadennceee!”
“Does she just make up nicknames for everypony she meets?” Cadence said whilst Announcer performed a whole chorus of additional mimed cheering. Luna just laughed and readied her bow, although Cadence noted that it didn’t have a string, nor did Luna carry a quiver of any arrows.
“You get used to her. Now, do me a favor, and prepare to draw forth the power of your Relic. I am going to try to make use of Iah’s power here, and truth be told I do not know for certain how this is going to go.”
Cadence took a deep breath and much as Luna had withdrawn her bow Relic from a magical pocket of space, she too did the same with Anteros’ ring. She had not known the full history of the ring when she’d made use of it, other than it was a Relic, but now that she had some of Anteros’ memories she knew what had meant to the former deity of Love and Art. With no small amount of respect she carefully placed the ring on her horn as she faced Luna.
“I’m ready. If things do go wrong and Iah takes over, do we have a plan?”
“Yes,” Luna said simply, and held the bow up, focusing a sudden and powerful aura of her magic around the Relic, “Survive.”
Sensing the tension in the air, Announcer all but vibrated with excitement as she raised a hoof high into the air, and then cut down hard with it as she shouted, “Match...staaaaart!”
----------
The energy of unease mixed with bloodlust was enough to make Morgawr’s claws twitch. These feelings were a palpable vibration in the water around not only him, but the entirety of the gathered host of warriors. At the moment it was only himself, his fellow champions Rezarra and Berokar, and the dozen or so warband leaders who were assembled at the peak of a curved and sharp spire of rock that rose from the side of a sheer cliff that rose for miles of watery depth above their heads. This spire was one of many that jutted upwards from the bottom of a vast cavern mouth in the cliff wall, alongside a set of similar downward curved spires that, when combined, gave the cavern mouth an appearance of having vast stone fangs.
Within the cavern opening itself were rows of similar, if smaller, fortifications, mostly meant to provide cover for warriors to cast harpoons from. Behind that the cavern expanded into a short underwater tunnel that extended half a kilometer, leading to the deeper trench beyond it that was one of several routes to reach the settlement of Rift Mouth. This fortress was one of several built to act as a bulwark to block those potential routes to the sahaugin’s largest home and the liar of their goddess. In front of the fortress was the length of an expansive trench, with jagged rock walls stretching to either side for miles. To navigate to this depth one would need to pass through a confusing mass of seeming endless, pitch black stone trenches. The cold of the water was something that could sap the strength of even the most hearty creature, the sahuagin among the few adapted enough to it that they could live in this lightless, heatless domain.
In some ways it struck Morgawr as contradictory that he took such pride in his and his kind’s ability to withstand and survive in this cold place, yet yearned for the day they could claim the warmer waters from the soft kin such as the seaponies. Or the waters of the new world the Deep Mistress would lead them to, if... when her magic opened the way.
And yet apprehension and worry tore in gnawing teeth at his gut like maddened bonefish. He gripped hard the trident he carried, not his enchanted one stolen by the surfacers but a plain trident of simple bone and coral.
He’d faced the might of the surfacers once, and knew in truth that this fortress and the legion of warriors gathered to mount a defense here had no true hope of stopping the surfacers.
“Your thoughts, Morgawr?”
It was Rezarra who had spoken and her respectful but pointed tone snapped him out of his gloomy reverie. Berokar and Rezarra were floating at the tip of the fortress spire where they’d used knives to carve maps and plans upon a tablet of large slate carried by a pair of burly warriors who kept the tablet steady. On the tablet was a general map of not just this fortress, but it’s cousins placed along the other routes through the Abyss’ many trenches. Morgawr knew every crevice of the Abyss and the simple map gave him a perfect mental image of the entirety of its vast maze.
“Hmm,” he grumbled, giving himself a moment to think. He hadn’t heard Rezarra’s question, but he guessed she was seeking his advice on her chosen deployment of forces. “There are but three true routes to Rift Mouth. Other means exist to reach it, but the ship the surfacers are using is too large to fit all but these three...”
He pointed them out with his trident. If one looked upon the map as a general top-down view of the Abyss, then the three fortresses were situated in a near triangular pattern at the tip of three curved paths, one generally curving out to the north west, another south east, and the third one that the fortress they were currently at curved almost straight east then slightly north. Simple, X-shaped marks indicated warbands, etched next to each fortress.
“The bulk of our force remains here, which is wise,” he said, “We cannot know from which direction the surfacers will come. If we spread out too thin, we’ll lack the force to delay the enemy for any length of time.”
“Hmph, or just destroy them,” Berokar said, toying with one of his daggers, “I still say that the moment we know where the surfacers are coming from, we swarm them.”
“And by doing so, consign most of our warriors to meaningless death,” Morgawr said, “I am telling you Berokar, do not take these ponies lightly. Our task is to slow them down, and so we must plan around that as our objective. Anything else will lead to further failure.”
“Which is why I wanted to ask you where you think they will come at us from,” Rezarra said, giving Berokar a meaningful hiss as she placed a claw upon her own circular blade of shark teeth, “And if Berokar wishes to seek command from me, he is welcome ot challenge for it.”
“Tempting, but I’ll not second guess the Deep Mistress’ choice to place you in command now,” Berokar said, “I merely grow impatient for the bloodletting to commence. I know Morgawr fears these surfacers, but the force he had in Aqualania was but a fraction of the forces we have here in our home turf. Here in the Abyss we hold every advantage.”
“If these were normal foes, you would be correct,” Morgawr said, causing Berokar to give him a surprised glance, but Morgawr was quick to continue in blunt, clear words, “But what we face are not seapony hunters, or an ocean beast. You were not in Aqualania Berokar. You did not see what I saw, or fought what I fought.”
“Then enlighten us, please,” Rezarra said.
“Hmm, about your question, I suspect they will come at us from the most direct route, here,” Morgawr said, “While they split up to infiltrate Aqualania, i believe that was only because they had two objectives back then; to find that ship, and to rescue the ancient kin that our Deep Mistress desired captured. However now that they have but one objective there is no reason for them to split their forces, and the route to this particular fortress is the easiest to navigate, which will draw them in given their lack of knowledge of the Abyss itself.”
“That does make sense,” Rezarra said, “But I will keep a recon force at the other routes to scout those areas, just in case. I have a gut feeling that these surfacers will do the unexpected. Now, how do we slow them down? You seem to think direct attacks will fail.”
“They are not invincible,” Morgawr admitted, “Yet the power at their disposal was enough to dispatch entire warbands individually. Instead of coming at them head on, we should distract their attention and if possible disable the ship itself.”
“Why not bring down parts of the trench wall on it?” said Berokar, “It would not be hard to weaken a few sections that would then come down from a potent enough strike from one of us blessed chosen.”
He was of course referring to the incredible physical might one of the Deep Mistress’ champions could be infused with, just as Morgawr had when he battled Twilight Sparkle. While that might had availed him naught against the potent alicorn, it did not change that such strength would be enough to tear down a section or two of the Abyssal trench wall. Enough tones of stone may well damage the surfacer’s stolen ship and slow it’s progress, at least.
“That may work,” he said, after which Rezarra chimed in.
“We will still need to deal with the surfacers directly, even if we damage their ship. Did you see any weakness in their abilities, Morgawr? Any ideas on how to best bring down our prey?”
“I only fought a few of them personally,” he replied, gnashing his teeth at the shameful memory of defeat, “First two unicorns, both purple but one was much lighter in shade than the other, who had a broken horn. The former was highly skilled with magic, but lacked physical strength, so if you see her, get close, and do not give her time to focus her magic. The other, the broken horned one, has less control over her magic, but is a skilled close range fighter. Temperamental, from what I saw, so make her angry, then strike when she lets her guard down. As for the one who... defeated me, Twilight Sparkle, for her I can offer little advice. She possessed a special spell that created a sphere of magic that was able to halt my trident, analyze its magic, and amplify her own spells to incredible degrees. While she did not strike me as a trained warrior, her reflexes, intuition, and tactical ability allowed her to keep pace with me no matter how I tried to strike at her.”
“Heh, such praise given to a surfacer,” Berokar said, shaking his head, “You sound almost as if you admire this creature.”
“Not admiration, merely acknowledgment of the danger she poses as a foe,” Morgawr said, growling deeply in his chest, “Face her yourself, Berokar, and you shall understand. If what Devistus told me of what happened after my defeat is true, then Twilight Sparkle has become even more powerful, as have a number of her companions. They possess some manner of new magic that allows them to transform in a manner not unlike when the Deep Mistress empowers we champions.”
“Troubling,” Rezarra said, “If we face them, then we should strike at them before they can transform.”
“Leave that to me,” Berokar said, showing teeth in a smile as friendly as the maw of a feeding piranha, “When I get serious on the hunt, my prey never knows I’m there until I’ve already slit their throat and cut out their heart.”
“If you can kill even one of them before they can transform then it will be a boon,” Morgawr said, “The less our Deep Mistress will have to face, herself.”
“You speak as if you do not have faith that we can stop them,” Rezarra said, and he just huffed out a gurgling noise of agreement.
“Because I do not. Neither does our Deep Mistress, otherwise she would have given us orders to slaughter the invaders rather than merely buy her time. She is wiser than all of us combined, and knows our foes abilities and powers better than we do. She is right. We cannot stop them. But we can slow them. Hurt them. Weaken them in any way we can. Anything to tip the scales in our Deep Mistress’ favor in the inevitable fight that is coming,” his hands clenched harder with every word, for he hated that this was the truth of things. He wished to do so much more for his Deep Mistress, to give his all so that she never had to face any danger. For as much as he hated to admit it to himself, Charybdis was in danger.
His faith in the power of his goddess was absolute, but even absolute faith could be shaken, and Morgawr’s had, to his core. Twilight Sparkle had seen to that, even before she’d obtained a frightening new power. And now, in his heart, Morgawr feared for his goddess. He knew that the next twenty four hours would alter the fate of his race. Either their Deep Mistress would emerge victorious and lead them to a glorious new future, or these powerful surfaces would strike her down and hence doom his people to a slow death without her guidance and protection.
And he feared, all the way down to his soul, that the margin between victory and defeat was going to be razor thin.
----------
Approximately half a mile above a frothing ocean dotted with ice flows, the Treasury hovered like a circling hawk. To the north the uneven glacial shore of the northern icecaps began, spreading to the east and west horizons in a white sheet. The lightning strewn clouds of the magical storm formed a cylindrical cyclone around this singular eye of relative calm, situated directly above the waters where, deep in the frozen depths, the Abyss awaited.
Magically reinforced against the cold via Twilight’s spells, the Princess’ party of companions gathered.
All were present save those who would be operating the Treasury itself during the mission; Admiral Seaspray, Grubber, Ulgriv, Trixie, Aria, and Sonata. Rarity had trained Grubber on the sensors, while Aria and Sonata would control the weapons, leaving Seaspray to control the helm. Ulgriv would remain in locked quarters rather than a cell, with the agreement to release him once all was said and done, regardless of the outcome of the coming battle. Trixie had been very vocal about staying on the ship, but Starlight had convinced her that it was necessary for somepony to be in engineering, and that she had full confidence that Trixie could handle the challenge. The showmare had acquiesced, but only after much grumbling and extracting a promise from Starlight that she’d be careful.
This left Twilight and her five closest friends, alongside Starlight Glimmer, Tempest Shadow, Wavecrest, and Flash Sentry assembled on the deck, still shivering a bit in the arctic winds of the storm despite magical protection.
“We’re in position, Princess,” Admiral Seaspray’s voice said over an external ship communication crystal, “Trixie reports engines are at full charge. We can begin at your command.”
Twilight drew in a deep breath through her nose and let it out slowly before turning to face her friends and comrades, who all looked at her earnestly and she saw in each of their eyes an equal resolve to her own.
“This is it,” she told them, using a wing to point down, “The Abyss is right below us, and within its depths somewhere is Charybdis. Everypony here I trust to do whatever you can to keep yourselves safe and come back from this alive, but we cannot retreat from this. Once we descend, there’s no turning back until this is finished.”
“We’re right with you the entire way, Twilight,” said Flash, Zanpaktou already drawn and ready.
“I did not join your quest simply to bow out before it is done,” Wavecrest said, readying her staff for the spell to adapt them for survival in the ocean depths once more, “Even if some manner of peace can one day exist between my people and the sahuagin, it can only come after their mad, false goddess is cast down and the Eye of the Sea reclaimed. For this, I will willingly give my life if need be.”
“Hey, a little less ‘giving my life’ talk and a little more ‘kicking their butts’ talk!” said Rainbow Dash, pumping a hoof, “We’ve got this!”
“We’ve certainly done all we can to prepare at any rate,” said Rarity, “And our track record in dealing with world threatening evils I believe speaks for itself.”
“I’ll admit I at least feel a little more confident you ponies aren’t entirely crazy,” Tempest commented, keeping her new trident propped over her shoulder, “So guess I won’t complain this time.”
“Seeing what we all bring to the table now, right, Tempy?” Pinkie Pie said with an enthusiastic bounce to her hooves, and Tempest made a low grunting noise that might have been agreement or not, it was difficult to tell.
“I think we’re all ready, Twilight,” said Starlight Glimmer, “We all know our roles in the plan. Only thing left to do is make it happen.”
Twilight returned the unicorn’s look with an affirming nod, quieting the butterflies of doubt and fear in her stomach. Turning away from the assembled group she spread her wings and flew up to the point of the deck furthest along the bow, alighting upon the railing. She withdrew her Relic mace and used it like a baton, holding it high above her head.
“Everypony, the mission to defeat Charybdis begins now! Admiral Seaspray... take us down!”
“Aye aye, Princess! Treasury, descending now!”
And with that the ship pitched into a near vertical dive, flying straight down into the gullet of the swirling dark waters of the ocean, and the Abyss awaiting deep below.