//------------------------------// // Chapter 12: The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea // Story: Twilight's Dawn // by Dinkledash //------------------------------// Dear Diary, Apparently, we were all killed at the Battle of Canterlot, except for Twilight and the children she was protecting! Think of it, ME killed in a battle? How atrocious. I must have looked awful! All that dirt and blood! I do think, however, that Princess Celestia came up with a simply marvelous plan! We all died, the monsters went away and then Twilight brought us back! At least, I think that was her plan. But that doesn’t matter now, because we’re together again! And all those other ponies are in Elysium, and I can tell you, Elysium is just heavenly! Well, I suppose that is a given. But most everypony I knew was there except for Twilight and the young ones. And my poor little Spikey-Wikey. He was so brave. He refused to go with the children as Twilight had ordered him. He swore on his dragon code that he would fight beside me to the very end and he could not be moved. Why, I don’t know how he managed to make it to the battlefield! Twilight had bundled him up with magic and was taking him with her into the mountainside the last time I saw him. Then once our ranks had been broken and the demons were coming in to finish us, as I lay dying, I looked up and saw him above me, tall as a mountain, sweeping those chitinous things away with his tail and melting them with his fire. And then I was in Elysium. Twilight has told me since that he died defending me. Poor little Spike. Oh, Twilight. You must feel like you failed to protect him, poor thing. I have my Sweetie Belle, Applejack has Apple Boom, Dashie has Scootaloo, Pinkie has the Cake twins, and Fluttershy has Discord, though I simply don’t get that, not one little bit. But you Twilight, you don’t have your Spike any more. Except for us, and Owliscious, all you have is your crown. You must be so tired of it already. I know! When we make landfall, we shall have a makeover day. Surely they have spas in Vanish Rotor or whatever it’s called. Ah, memories. I didn’t see Spike in Elysium, and I’m sure he would have sought me out. But wherever good and brave dragons go when they die, I’m sure he is there. I will think of him always. So let me catch you up, diary. Quite a bit has happened since we were resurrected. Twilight was organizing things as usual, the other crusaders were interrogating Babs and trying to find the location of the Manehattan ark, Rainbow Dash flew as high as she could to try to spot the ship, Applejack was getting food for everypony, since apparently resurrections stimulate one’s appetite, Fluttershy was speaking with some seabirds, Pinkie Pie was still celebrating (does she ever truly stop?) and entertaining the children, and of course, I was looking just fabulous. Just back from the dead and I was turning all those dragons’ heads! A little toss of the mane, a flick of the tale and four of them came over and started speaking to me, asking me how I was and whether there was anything they could do for me. I suppose I must have some sort of power over dragons, and while I loved Spike dearly, he was only a baby dragon you know. These ones are soldiers; muscular and, well, tall, and their scales were the most lovely colors. Ruby, garnet, topaz, sapphire, emerald… they must have very varied diets here. Of course, their names are utterly unpronounceable. I shall have to work on that; I don’t want to appear rude. Their king Dakroon Veigh is the most splendid of all, so powerful and masculine and in control of himself. Mmmmm. I could definitely see how Princess Celestia could have fallen victim to his charms. And Discord is her son? He certainly doesn’t favor either of them, poor thing. If I was born a mismatched set of parts, with parents on two different continents, I am sure I would have found growing up to be quite difficult. Perhaps I’ll give him another chance, for Fluttershy’s sake. Well, as my admirers tried to get to know me better, Fluttershy thanked her bird friends and walked over to Twilight. She said something and then Twilight was calling for Dash and the king and Prince Snargle to join her in her cabin where her map was. I didn’t want to be left out, so I oh-so-graciously detached myself from my admirers and trotted after. “Twilight darling, what is it?” She looked over her shoulder and continued to walk. “Fluttershy told me that the gulls had seen a large ship about 1,200 furlongs north by northeast. We need to organize a search and rescue party.” She stopped right outside her door. “Rarity, could you please call the other elements for me and get them ready to go?” “Go? How?” What was she talking about? “Dragonback, of course.” She winked and went into the cabin. I admit to being a little worried. My last attempt at flight didn’t work very well. I suppose my body is designed for aesthetics rather than aerodynamics. I turned to trot back and accidentally brushed against the side of Prince Snargle. His scales were warm and fine against my coat as we passed, and he paused. “I do beg your pardon, my lady.” His voice, like his scales, was smooth, warm and beautiful. I am sure I flushed. “The fault is mine, your highness.” I must have been scarlet under my coat. Goodness, what a fine drake! Dragonback… I cantered to the mid-deck and tried to regain my composure as he bowed his slender neck to me and continued on to Twilight’s map reading session. I gathered up the crusaders, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie, and then Applejack showed up with some dates and dried apples and hard biscuits. It was a decent enough first meal; I was in fact famished. As we were finishing up, Twilight and the others burst from her cabin. “Dash and Scootaloo, follow this marker,” a purple light suddenly melted off her horn and shot off to the north west, “and establish a search pattern where it stops. When you see the ship, make a rainboom. We will follow as fast as we can, and under no circumstances should you engage in any sort of combat. Evade, escape and fly back to join us if you run into trouble. And whatever you do, stay well above the water at all times, minimum altitude is 200 yards, got it?” Dashie and Scootaloo saluted and shot up off the deck; blurs chasing after the willow-the-wisp Twilight had invoked into the moonlit night. I had not seen Scoot’s contrail before. It was quite impressive, especially in the night, and I heard Fluttershy gasp as Applejack said something that may have been a dirty word. I must look up the definition of hornswaggled; if anypony ever threatens to swaggle my horn, I want to know what they are suggesting. Two of the dragons whistled as the pegasi shrank into the distance. Twilight turned to face the king. “Your majesty, who is your fastest flyer?” The smallest of the guards stepped forward and bowed. “This is Irgard Denn. He holds the combined course airspeed record and has been flight champion for the past five years.” “Can you send messages, Irgard Denn?” The scout held forth the satchel he bore under his right wing. “Then, with your leave great king, we would desire he follow the pegasi and send reports of any significant happenings back to us as we all follow on.” The king nodded and Irgard Denn lept into the air, speeding after the contrails. Not as fast, I must say, but still quite impressive. Rainbow Dash I could understand being so fast, but Scootaloo? The last I saw, she couldn’t even fly. I shall have to get all the details from Twilight when we are taking our mud baths. Twilight clapped her front hooves together. “Now everypony listen up! The king has agreed to have his company fly all the elements who cannot fly themselves to the Manehattan ark in case we need to be able to use the elements to give aid! The remaining three dragons will stay behind to guard the colts and fillies until we get back! So pick a partner and let’s go!” She took off and started flying north next to Dakroon Veigh, a beacon of magic upon her horn lighting up the night. Pinkie jumped up on the back of a glittering emerald fellow with a gleeful shout and off they went. Applejack was scarcely a wingbeat behind on ruby colored specimen. Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and the still somewhat shocked Babs Seed ascended the three smaller dragons and launched into the night. Fluttershy and Discord brought up the rear, leaving me alone with Prince Snargle. “Beautiful one, we must hurry.” There really wasn’t any choice, so I positioned myself as best as I could without saddle or harness, my forelegs in front of his wings and my hind quarters behind and held on as securely as I could as his powerful wings swept us up and away from the deck. I closed my eyes and held on even tighter. After Elysium, I don’t think I am truly afraid of death, but I’ve found myself falling from a great height a few too many times in the past few years. Snargle’s back was warm and the feeling of strength and power in his wingbeats was very reassuring, so I opened my eyes and looked around a bit. We quickly caught up with Fluttershy and Discord, who were engaging in some sort of friendly chit-chat about the virtues of critters with “enhanced capabilities” as Discord was saying. We passed the three crusaders who rode wide-eyed. Sweetie Belle saw me in the moonlight and waved. “Sweetie Belle! Both forelegs if you please!” She rolled her eyes at me and complied. Then we pulled into formation behind the other two mares and their dragons. Twilight and the King were still about a furlong ahead of the pack. “Are you well, Rarity?” The prince turned his head back to look at me, his wingbeat steady as a heartbeat. “Oh, very well your highness. Thank you so much for your concern, I feel quite comfortable and safe.” I patted his shoulder then quickly hugged him again, as I was comfortable but did not feel safe. “There is nothing to fear, beautiful one. I’ve only ever dropped two or perhaps three riders in my life.” Was he kidding? After a moment he craned his neck to wink at me. “Oh! Please your highness, I am quite afraid of flying as it is! I don’t need to also be afraid of being toyed with!” I pouted. “Do you know why I insisted on carrying you?” That was interesting. “No... Do go on.” “Because all the other young dragons are already hopelessly in love with you. I am the only one who could possibly resist your wiles.” He was utterly deadpan. “Well of course they’re in love with me. Really, they’re in love with me?” At this point I had forgotten that I’m was a furlong in the air on dragonback in the middle of the night. “Quite so. You are, oh what is the word… dragonbait.” “Dragonbait? Are you being rude to me your highness? I’ve had quite enough dealings with rude princes before, thank you very much!” The cheeky scoundrel! “Forgive me for offending you. I only meant that dragons find you exceedingly attractive. Your coat is like a pearl, your hair is like sapphires and you do realize that you smell like a hoard, don’t you?” “I BEG YOUR PARDON!?” What did he just say? Don’t hit the driver, don’t hit the driver… “A hoar-dah, of gems. You smell like every gem that ever was and a few that weren’t. Right now you are angry with me and you smell like rubies. I have to admit the effect is difficult to resist.” “Oh. I’m sorry. Do I really smell like gemstones?” “Yes, and it is quite distracting when you change scents like that. Now you smell like amethyst. That’s one of my favorites. Your scent changes with your mood. A dragoness will anoint herself with crushed gemstones to achieve a similar effect when she wants to attract a mate, but with you, it just comes in waves. It’s overwhelming for the young ones.” Oh. Oh, poor Spike, he never had a chance, did he? “I had not realized that gems even have a smell. I’m sorry, is there anything I can do to stop it?” I thought I heard him say “I hope not,” under his breath but it was difficult to tell with the rushing air. “I don’t know, perhaps you could cover it with a different scent. But I suspect that it has something to do with your body chemistry. In any event, my father didn’t want you causing jealousy among the rankers, at least not during a mission. And of course, I am the most disciplined of dragons. I would not think of allowing sentiment to interfere with accomplishing my mission.” Oh, discipline, hmm? I started to allow myself to think about the fact that I was more or less alone with a handsome, educated and charming dragon, on a moonlight night flying high above the ocean. His warm scales pressed against my coat and the rhythm of his flight... ahh, how romantic… “OK, you win. Stop that please. I don’t want to crash into the sea.” Suddenly to our right we saw a silvery flash, perhaps 200 furlongs away. I never saw a sonic rainboom performed at night before and the effect was much more subtle in the moonlight; you could just make out the component colors, but there was still enough light to see by. I could just barely make out a fiery line streaking towards it from our left. Twilight and the king saw it and adjusted course, the rest of us following suit. “So, you were saying something about discipline?” The Prince cleared his throat. “Miss Rarity, what was that flash from?” “Oh, Rainbow Dash can fly faster than the speed of sound, that’s all. And when she breaks the sound barrier, the magic potential in her contrail collides with the shockwave and creates a rainbow light effect that can be seen for hundreds of furlongs.” Twilight had explained it to me once, and I’m not just a pretty face. Snargle craned his neck to look at me. “Are you making that up? She flies faster than sound?” I nodded. He returned to watching where he was going, grumbling about ponies and their ridiculous magic. There was some green light that illuminated the king’s face, and then he appeared to be holding something in his claw, reading by the light of a flame coming out of one of his nostrils. He said something to Twilight, who nodded, and then she disappeared in a flash. She reappeared several hundred yards ahead, then flashed out again. Blips of light expanded and contracted as she disappeared to where Rainbow Dash, Scootaloo and Irgard Denn were. We continued on in silence, watching the events in front of us with fascination as lights winked and fires blazed in the distance. Then suddenly, Twilight was back with the king and speaking urgently with him. He nodded, turned and slowed the procession by raising his claw. She teleported away again, a series of popping sounds filling the silence. We all came to within speaking distance. “It is Charybdis.” How horrible! Even the fillies would have heard of the titanic water elemental. Its mindless hunger was known to be endless. “You can see it from here; look at the horizon, see the water foaming?” In the moonlight, you could see white glints even from this distance. The whirlpool must be miles across. “And the Ark?” Applejack, always with the practical questions, but the dubious etiquette. Still, the king seemed to take no offense at the omission of his honorific. “The Ark is caught in her current. Charybdis’ strength is only exceeded by her hunger. We shall have to evacuate those we can. Loyalty returns that she can see a unicorn stallion on board valiantly fighting the current with his magic, but to no avail.” “Babs, how many are on the Ark?” As I spoke, I wondered that nopony had thought to ask that before. “Eighty three colts and fillies on board, counting me. Twenty two foals. And the prince.” Shining Armor? No wonder Twilight sped away like that. Snargle looked to his father. “One hundred and six, sire? How much time do we have?” “From what this report says, an hour, perhaps.” A death sentence was spoken in such tones. “Come.” We flew as fast as we could, and within ten minutes we were above the ark as it sped in a circle around a vast hole in the ocean. Below we could see two forms on deck, white and purple magic pushing against the current, but to no avail. The king winged over and approached for a landing and the other flyers all followed suit. At least it would be good to see Shining again. When we landed, I saw Twilight beside the tall white stallion, his horn down as he labored mightily to push against the current at the bow of the ship. I went to join them to do what I could. I saw the compass rose cutie mark. It was Prince Blueblood. Poor Twilight! What was left of his dress uniform was in tatters. Half-healed scars crisscrossed his once sleek body and a horrible puckered wound slashed across his formerly beautiful face, an eyepatch covering whatever horror had become of his pale blue eye. His blonde mane was black with grime, stiff with salt, tattered and torn. He strained, pushing against the current. I joined him. The current was irresistible. I could tell my effort made no difference. Blueblood looked at me with his good eye and nodded grimly. Then he called out over the maelstrom howl, “The cables! Have the flyers take up the cables, they can pull too!” The king barked out some commands and then he, his dragons, the pegasi and Discord all flew to the sides of the ship and gathered up the ropes. The ship groaned as they took up the slack. That seemed to make a difference. I looked hopefully at Twilight, and she shook her head. Not enough. I yelled over the grinding and popping noises, “Perhaps we can do something with the elements!” “Like what!? Turn Charybdis to stone!? I don’t feel that magic right now, do you!?” “No, I don’t! What about Discord!?” I called back. “I think if he could do anything he would have! We’re talking about one of the Titans here!” The ship shuddered, and listed a bit to port. Blueblood ceased casting his magic. “We’re just making it worse! Get as many of the children as you can…” He stopped in mid-sentence. “I’m so stupid!” Earlier I may have agreed but this past month seemed to have changed him in ways other than the merely physical. “We’re making it worse this way, so let’s go the other way, with the current!” Twilight popped herself in her head with her hoof. “Of course!” She cried out to the flyers in the Canterlot voice, “THE OTHER WAY! WITH THE CURRENT!!” and we all raced to the stern. The flyers let the cables slacken as they carefully reoriented themselves so as not to let any of the hawsers snag or cross one another, then they picked up the slack as the three of us, now joined by Sweetie Belle, went to the back of the ship and pushed. We picked up speed quickly. The wind howled loudly now, even over the roar of Charybdis as we sped along the tilted ocean. The wind was really starting to pick up and it was getting hard to stand, so I used some of my magic to secure Sweetie Belle to the deck. She didn’t look up; she just kept pushing as the moonlight glimmered off her beautiful silver breastplate through the great gouts of sea spray that were drenching us. So much for my chignon! We gained momentum, the ship righted and the sea flattened out as we pulled away from the vortex. We kept pressing and the cables sang with tension. If one of them parted now, it could cut pony or dragon in half, but they had been made well by the ropemakers of Appleoosa, and there were none finer. I hope they are having a real hootenanny (is that really a word?) at the big rodeo in the sky; they earned it. After several minutes of this mad career, we were out of the trap. Charybdis still roared, but she roared her frustration. The ark shot across the water. It seemed more streamlined than the one built at Canterlot, lower to the water and broader, harder to capsize. That may have helped save the ship from the monster. It had the remains of two thick poles along the center line, which appeared to have been splintered, and nets of rope and scraps of canvas were snagged here and there wherever they could gain purchase on the deck. The danger past, the flyers returned to the deck and the unicorns ceased their castings. Blueblood seemed barely able to stand on his feet, but he bowed as King Dakroon Veigh approached. “Your majesty.” The king gestured for him to rise. He could not. He fell before the royal dragon. I surprised myself with the amount of concern I felt for this former popinjay. He spoke quietly as Twilight bent over him, inspecting his many injuries. “Seaponies. 68 degrees, 32 furlongs. A small island. Scylla.” Then he closed his eyes as exhaustion claimed him. Twilight looked up at the stars, oriented herself to the pole as best she could on the rolling deck and tilted her head to the right at a precise angle. A purple glow formed at the end of her horn and another navigation beacon shot off to north east by east. Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo made to follow but she called to the “Keep higher altitude this time. 500 yards at a minimum!” “But we won’t be able to see anything at that height!” exclaimed Rainbow Dash. “You’ll be able to see Scylla, but hopefully he won’t see you. Send Scootaloo back instead of making a rainboom this time.” The pegasi looked at one another briefly and set off to chase the beacon through the night. The door to the cabin opened up and dozens of colts and fillies spilled out on the deck. One smallish colt ran up to Blueblood, ignoring the rest of us. “Captain! Captain!” It was Pip Squeak. On his flank, he bore an anchor encircled in rope. Twilight spoke. “He’ll be alright, Pip. He’s just worn out. Watch over him.” “Yes, and thank you, your highness!” Then he finally saw the dragons and looked around wide-eyed. “Your majesty, will you help us rescue the sea ponies from Scylla? I think the first mate here has the situation in hoof.” Twilight smiled slightly as Pip blushed. “It will be our royal pleasure. Lancers! Mount up!” Flyers flew and the rest of us rode and we followed our pathfinders into the night. This business was serious, so I stopped flirting with Snargle for the remainder of the mission. I just held on and felt comfort in his strength. In a short time, Scootaloo’s contrail became visible. “Your majesty, your highness!” Scootaloo called out as she approached. “It’s enormous! We think it has the sea ponies trapped in a sea cave!” She did a half roll and looped back towards where Dashie kept watch on the sea monster. We followed. Snargle looked back to me as we flew. “What will you do when we get there?” “I don’t know. Maybe we’ll try to distract it and give the sea ponies a chance to escape.” He nodded. I looked down and saw another frothy sea in the moonlight, but from that froth arose five enormous misshapen dragon heads. One vast neck must have been more than a furlong in length. 500 yards gave us a safety margin, but not as much as I’d like. We stopped and hovered over the beast. “SCYLLA!” Twilight cried out with the Canterlot voice. “WE ARE TWILIGHT SPARKLE, PRINCESS OF CELESTIANA! WE COMMAND YOU TO LEAVE! QUIT THESE WATERS AND RETURN TO YOUR USUAL HAUNTS OR FACE THE CONSEQUENCES!” The heads hissed in defiance. A vast white tail lashed up and the wind whistled. Did I feel water droplets? “THIS IS YOUR LAST WARNING!” The heads laughed. The largest, ugliest one spoke. “PONIES? HA! WE HAVE YOUR COUSINS HERE! WE HAVE EATEN THEIR WHALE AND DESIRE OUR DESSERT! DO YOU WISH TO WATCH US CONSUME THEM?” The other four heads laughed at us. “YOU SHALL HAVE YOUR DESSERTS THEN, TITAN!” I felt Generosity pulse warmly against my throat. “Oh, here we go!” I was lifted off Snargle's back as Harmony was invoked by the presence of such a great evil. The magic surrounded us as we all formed up around Twilight Sparkle. Her eyes opened, glowing white hot, and she spread her wings and breathed out. Harmony danced all around us, shimmering flashes of rainbow color as magical potentials bounded back and forth between reflective gemstone surfaces, amplifying and reinforcing, over and over until the rainbow power streamed forth through Twilight, shooting down at the ancient thing beneath us. It caught the rainbow beam in one of its many mouths. And then it pulled. The horizon spun as we were all shaken like kittens. Fluttershy screamed. Applejack swore. We lost altitude. Scylla’s heads cackled maniacally. “ALICORN! WE’VE NEVER HAD ALICORN BEFORE! WILL YOU BE DELICIOUS?” It pulled again and we got closer and closer to those horrible maws. Barnacles and seaweed festooned one particularly evil looking pale head and an eye big as a house looked up at me. A scarlet tongue licked dead-fish-belly lips. More magical light blossomed and I looked up to see the Cutie Mark Crusaders surrounded by a bright red nimbus. A beam flashed down at the breast of the beast, but one of the heads grasped that beam of power as well. “FOOLS! WE HAVE NO HEART!” The Crusaders cried out as they too were pulled to their dooms. “ENOUGH!” The Royal Canterlot voice is exceedingly loud and clear, but it must bow before the Royal Vanash Ritoor voice. The King, Discord and Snargle were surrounded by a blaze of white light, the king at the peak of a triangle with Discord on his left and his half brother on the right. “SCYLLA, IN THE NAMES OF LAW, FREEDOM AND DISCIPLINE, WE JUDGE YOU AND SENTENCE YOU! LET JUSTICE BE DONE!” The light of Justice became blinding as the great ruby in the Crown of Law joined the white diamond and blue sapphire in gold settings at Discord and Snargle’s throats, the three forming a great balance. Scylla shrank before it, releasing his hold on the power of Harmony and Love. “YOU CANNOT JUDGE US! WE HAVE BEEN HERE SINCE THE BUILDING OF THE WORLD, NEWCOMER!” A thick shaft of light shot down from the Crown of Law and the ocean boiled. Steam erupted all around the creature and it screamed like the death of a world. The thick beam of white hot light shot away to the south west carving a deep and wide canyon as the waters split before it. The shrieking sea demon was forced down the ocean crevasse by the pressure of the water behind it and the power of the Elements of Harmony and Love. As the first rays of dawn broke over the horizon, we could see the froth of Charybdis swallow the screaming beast. Then the waters calmed. After untold millennia, the hunger of the Titan was at last satisfied. The King of Dragons looked to the sun and smiled. The magic faded and the flyers retrieved the land-bound as we floated down. The Element of Discipline flew up under me and caught me gently. “What do I smell like now, my prince?” “Perfection, sweet one.” I snuggled. We flew back to the Manehattan ship slowly, while the sea ponies followed us, singing their strange but beautiful songs. I found out later that Blueblood is a very skilled sailor and navigator, and that his ship, now named Her Royal Highness’ Ship Celestia, was what is called a sloop, and not an ark. It was in fact his royal yacht and the only truly seaworthy ship in all of Equestria. He captained it at the direct orders of Celestia and Luna, because he was the only pony with the skills to do so. Do not think he sought to save his own skin in fleeing the cataclysm. He is no coward, and he is no longer the spoiled twit who mistreated me, it must be a lifetime ago. His ship had lost her masts (ships are female; I think that’s rather romantic) in a storm and the sea ponies found them bobbing about trying to jury-rig a sail. They towed her for several days towards the west before Scylla had come hunting and taken their poor whale. When they fled, the current carried the hapless Blueblood and his crew to Charybdis. Now he is the captain of the first, and currently only, ship in the Celestian navy. And Pip is his first mate. They look like a couple of pirates; they're so cute. The trip to the Crusader Coast was rather uneventful. We got to know the dragons better, and when we had beached the ark, and the HRHS Celestia rode at anchor under repair, the seaponies of both tribes sang us a farewell. What does Shoop-bee-doo-shoop-shoop-bee-doo mean, anyway? As we lay on the beach, exhausted, I realized that I may be falling in love with a dragon. But that is another story. I have makeovers to plan!