//------------------------------// // Episode 26: Seaquestria Arc; Part Two // Story: The Drake Six // by JNKing //------------------------------// Despite his worry for Twilight, Spike felt he and his friends had made the right decision; especially when they saw what had become of the Hippogriff home.  Or rather, what was left of it. A lonely gray mist hung over the abandoned ruins. Sad buildings sat covered in moss and dust. Dead trees reached out feebly with rotten branches.  “Kinda a dump, right?” Jackknife asked, noting the expressions on everyone’s faces. “Now ya can see why I left.”  “Come on, Jack,” Storm asked. “You know this is just the outer level.”  Spike perked. “Outer level? Like a… camouflage or something like that.” “Exactly,” Storm said happily. “People don’t pay that much attention to abandoned ruins. Well, except for archeologists, and explorers…” “And overall adventurers,” Night Fire added, eagerly looking around the ruins. “We always know that ruins like this hold some sort of secret.”  “But usually, you have to know where to look,” Storm noted. “Or what to do.” Taking a breath, he gave a soft, crooning whistle.  For a moment, the dragons waited, listening as the whistle echoed off the sad buildings and faded away into the gray, ghostly mist.  But then, off in the distance, a humming, melodic tune answered.  Storm grinned at the shocked expressions on the other non-sea dragons. “This way,” he said.  Jackknife followed with a glower. “And be ready,” he added.  “For a fight?” Swift asked.  “Can’t be,” Spike said. “Storm said you guys needed help.” “And I told you,” Jackknife replied. “I didn’t leave these guys on the best of terms.”  The group followed Storm regardless, arriving at an abandoned pool. Though the rest of the ruins were gray and bleak, there stood a single bit of color: a pink water lily. Behind the water lily, something resembling a cross between a pony and a sea serpent poked its head out and gazed at Storm curiously with big blue eyes.  “Storm?” the creature asked.  “Hey Skystar,” Storm said.  With a burst of water, the sea creature leaped from the pool and embraced the younger sea serpent.  “Storm!” she cheered. “You’ve been gone for weeks! I was so worried you weren’t coming back like…” she caught sight of Jackknife.  Jackknife grimaced and looked awayl… only for his eyes to widen as Skystar embraced him like a long lost brother. “JACKKNIFE!” she cheered… only to freeze and look around with horror, as if worried she drew the attention of something. Storm glanced around worriedly too. “We should probably discuss this back home.”  “W-Wait,” Swift said, “What about the dark forces?” “Indeed, we should stay focused on why we’re here,” Diamondback noted, giving a wary look to the pool. Skystar, however, gazed at the rest of the dragons with awe in her eyes.  “Oh… My… Goodness,” she whispered, turning back to Storm and Jackknife. “How did… are they your…” “They’re my friends,” Jackknife said with a grin. “They got my back. All the time.” He added with a glare at Storm.  Though Storm wilted under Jackknife’s gaze, his barb went right over Skystar’s head.  “That’s incredible!” she said, careful to keep her voice down this time. “I’m totally taking you to see my mom.”  Now it was Jackknife’s turn to wince. “That ain’t necessary…”  “Nonsense,” Skystar insisted. “She’ll want to know you’re okay. Same for Queen Sapphire. Come on!” Before Jackknife could protest, Skystar waved a fin, and the pool suddenly surged up with a wave, swallowing the dragons up as Diamondback let out a shriek.  “DB, you okay?” Spike stammered.  Diamondback shivered, even as an air bubble formed over her face. “I’m not exactly a fan of water,” she stammered, shivering in the liquid.  “It’s a fire thing,” Phoenix admitted. “You guys can feel it too, right?”  “Eh,” Night replied, already trying to challenge Skystar to a loop-the-loop competition.  Spike had to admit, the cool water did seem to have an ominous presence around him, like if he didn’t have the air bubble to let him breathe, drowning would be too easy.  But Skystar and Storm were watching over them. And with the threat of whatever dark forces they had yet to challenge looming over them, they followed the two sea creatures through the darkness, and to a glowing underwater kingdom.  More sea ponies and even sea serpents like Storm and Jack emerged to watch them. Spike caught sight of a particular sea pony with pink fur, who tried to approach them, only to be held back by an important looking sea pony with darker green scales.  Heading straight into the castle, they soon found themselves in an underwater variation of a throne room. Just like Celestia and Luna, two thrones stood on a small mountain of coral.  A sea pony and a sea serpent sat on each: the sea pony was a brilliant white with some sort of purple frill resembling hair. The sea serpent beside her was a beautiful sapphire blue, with even deeper blue eyes that were locked with the purple eyes of the sea pony, as they engaged in some sort of conversation.  Spike noticed Jackknife glaring at the sea serpent’s seat; much like Luna’s, it was smaller and more shunted to the side than the sea pony’s seat. “Mother!” Skystar called. “Auntie Sapphire. Look what I found.”  The sea pony rolled her eyes. “Is it another shell?”  However, the sea serpent turned to Skystar, and immediately caught sight of Storm and Jackknife. Her eyes widened. “No, Novo, it’s… much more than that.”  The sea pony - Novo - glanced at the group… and gasped. “Storming Seas! You…” she then noticed Jackknife, and glowered. “...brought Jackknife back.”  Jackknife glared right back and cocked a sarcastic salute. “Nice to see you too, Nova.”  “It’s ‘Queen Novo,’” Sapphire reminded him sharply. “And you better have a good reason for coming back here, Jackknife.”  Jackknife scoffed. “Ask Storm; he’s the one who dragged me and my friends back.”  Sapphire groaned. “Storm, how many times did I have to tell you? Whatever’s going on with the surface is not our concern.”  “It will be if you bring surface dwellers down here,” Novo grumbled.  “It will be a threat regardless,” Storm insisted. “Your majesties, I really do believe that Jackknife can help us. His family saved the hippogriffs in the past.”  “At great personal cost,” Jackknife added with a glare at Novo, though she merely turned her nose up at him. “And now he’s got friends,” Storm added. “Really powerful friends.” He grinned over… only to find Night had somehow flipped herself upside down. Diamondback blushed at the sight and tried to flip Night back right side up.  “HEY!” Night snapped, pushing herself away from DB. “I like this.”  “Make yourself look presentable!” Diamondback seethed.  “No!” Night pouted and pushed herself further back, slamming into a wall, and drifting away. “Ow.”  Diamondback rubbed the bridge of her nose, before taking a breath and trying to swim gracefully up to the royals. “Your graces,” she said gently. “Queen Novo, the savior of the hippogriffs…” Jackknife made a gagging noise in the background, “...and Queen Sapphire, the light that shines in darkness. We intend no ill upon your kingdom. We only seek its safety. No matter what conflicts have arisen between your subjects, our goal is solely protection and defense. Nothing more.”  Novo grinned at Diamondback’s praise, while Sapphire chuckled. “At least one of them knows how to forge words like silver,” she mused. “You should take lessons from them, Jack.”  Jackknife narrowed his eyes with a scoff, while Novo sighed dramatically.  “Fine,” she said. “If you’re truly the guardians you say you are, I suppose you can handle whatever is going on up at the surface. But that also means that you won’t mention we were here. Even on pain of death.”  Swift and Spike exchanged terrified looks, but Jackknife laughed.  “And she speaks for you as well, Saph?”  “We both speak for the good of Sequestria,” Sapphire replied.  Jackknife chuckled and shook his head. “Then Sequestria’s gonna be remembered as the land of cowards and toads.” Novo drew herself up with a dark look. Skystar and Storm both exchanged horrified looks. “Is Toad a bad word in these parts?” Night asked. “Hope you guys never visit the Mushroom kingdom if that’s the case.” But no one had time for Night’s feeble attempts at comedy. “Jackknife, why…” Storm stammered, while Skystar swam to her mother.  “Mother, wait, he didn’t mean it the way you’re thinking…” But both Sapphire and Novo glowed with an ethereal light. And the next thing Spike or any of the dragons knew, they were flung out onto a rocky beach. Night coughed and sputtered, shaking herself off like a dog. “Smooth, Jack,” she noted. “I can tell you were the real life of the party back there. A regular…” “Oh, shove it!” Jackknife snapped, stomping out of the water and glaring around at the mountains that had replaced the former hippogriff home. “All of em are either cowards or weak-willed toads and you can see that. Storm dragging me back, and then those dumb queens making us do their dirty work?” He looked around. “Oh, great. Storm ain’t even here. He dragged me back and ran!” “W-Well, maybe the queens just stopped him,” Swift offered.  “Either way, I thought we agreed that this dark force was a threat to all of Equestria,” Phoenix protested.  “Well, it wouldn’t be if the people of Sequestria had even one set of cojones on them!” Jackknife snapped.  Night gasped and covered Spike’s ears. “Language, Jack,” she chastised. “He’s too young for that!”  Spike swatted Night’s talons away. “Stop it!” he said, before looking to Jackknife. “Look, Jack, I know that I’m probably stepping into hot water here…” “Oh, you are throwing yourself into a boiling pot, buddy boy,” Jackknife said, keeping his back to them. “Nova has always forgotten that she and her people are alive solely because of the sea serpents! We risked our tails and our freedom to help them, and now that they have a chance to repay it, what do they do with it?” He indicated Diamondback. “They leave it to us. Ruddy cowards, the lot of them. And Saph’s no better; just going along with what Nova wants. Like she owes Nova instead of the other way round?” He looked back. “Maybe…” He went silent.  Spike cautiously approached him. “It’s okay, Jack,” he said. “Speak your mind.”  Jackknife looked back at him, worried, but let his anger vent. “Maybe we should just leave this to them. Whatever this dark force is… just… let em…” “Are you FREAKING KIDDING ME?!” Night stammered, scandalized. “We just promised we’d defend them.”  “Indeed,” Diamondback said. “We can’t break our promise now!”  “You made a promise to someone that’d abandon you at a moment’s notice!” Jackknife protested, turning back to her. “They’re more than happy to have you defend them, but you can’t expect them to lift a finger to do the same. Why should we help those that would never help us back?”  Diamondback bristled, but had no words. Phoenix backed up and even Night looked conflicted.  But when Spike looked to Swift… he saw Swift looking up at something. And shaking in utter fear.  “Does anyone deserve to be left to that?” he whimpered, pointing up.  The others followed his gaze, and their eyes widened. A fleet of ships were rising over the mountain, shrouded in black fog. Faintly, they could see furry armored beasts milling around on the deck, preparing spheres cracking with a sickly green light, or sharpening blades that looked like they could cut through steel like hot butter.  But the thing that drew Spike and Jackknife’s attention the most was the sigil emblazoned on the mast: two cyan lines, jagged like lightning bolts, almost like the cruel eyes of some vicious predator.  “W-What is that?” Spike asked.  “It can’t be…” Diamondback mumbled.  Jackknife, however, deflated in resignation. “That’s the sigil of the Storm King,” he admitted. “The evil that we saved the hippogriffs from in the first place.”