//------------------------------// // Celestia Departs! Magellan Summons his Forces! // Story: My Little Pirates: Luffy's Adventures in Equestria // by Fullmetal Pony //------------------------------// A few minutes ago on Level Three         “You want to explain why we’re not heading for the exit?” Buggy grubbled.         Trixie gritted her teeth and glared ahead at Mr. 3. “Trixie agrees. At least on the other Level, Trixie had her cell.”         “If you’ll both shut up for a few minutes, you’ll see that I’m helping our escape.” Mr. 3 kept his head forward and marched his two collaborators through the twisting maze of Level Three while he kept his ears perked up. They all walked in a silence punctuated by an “Un, deux, grah!” from time to time. Whenever the noise was produced, Mr. 3 halted the group and swiveled his ears around before either walking on the same path he was on or going down a different corridor.         The chant grew louder and louder the further Mr. 3 went until he came upon a cell. It was identical to all the others his group had passed save for one small detail: there was movement within. Inside, a black four-legged figure twirled around and around while other similar creatures that were slumped against the walls clicked and hissed to one another. All of their blue compound eyes drooped and their fanged mouth hung low.         “Spin, spin, spin!” the creature in the middle of the cell proclaimed. True to its word, it continued to pirouette while its cellmates made noises that sounded a lot like sighs. “Come on! Get up, you guys! Oh hey! Visitors!”         The creature stopped its odd dance and rushed over to the cell’s bars. “Odd, you’re not guards, but who has time to escape these days?”         Trixie flinched back and hid herself behind Buggy. “I-it was bad enough when they weren’t moving.”         “Whatever these things are, this one is unique.” Mr. 3 brought his eyes up to the creature in the cell. “Am I correct, Mr. 2?”         “Hey, I know that voice!” Mr. 2 jabbed a hole-filled hoof through the bars’ gaps. “Well, if it isn’t Mr. 3! You got captured too? What a shame! Shall we dance? Oh wait, you got out of your cell! Oh! Maybe we can escape together and then dance!”         “What sort of odd creature have we come upon?” Buggy wondered aloud.         “Quiet!” Mr. 3 snapped before turning back to Mr. 2. He lifted up a hoof, which turned a pasty white before part of it solidified into a key and the rest back into a normal hoof. The key went into the cell’s lock and turned to a rusty whine. “As a matter of fact, we are escaping. It seems fate has decided to be funny and send Straw Hat Luffy as our savior from this pit.”         Mr. 2’s eyes went wide. He darted out of his cell and grasped Mr. 3 by his neck. “Mugi-chan is here?” “Y-yes!” Mr. 3 answered while Mr. 2 shook him back and forth. “He kept going on about getting to Level Five for his brother or something.” “I see.” Mr. 2 relinquished his hold of Mr. 3 and smiled. While Mr. 2 spoke, Mr. 3 produced another wax key and inserted it into the locks that bound Mr. 2’s legs. “To think that Mugi-chan would actually come here. Getting caught I can understand, but breaking in is a whole different deal!” “A foolish deal,” Mr. 3 joked. “Who would ever willingly go further do—” “I’m coming, Mugi-chan!” Mr. 2’s wings fanned out and he buzzed off down a corridor. Trixie stared in the direction Mr. 2 had run off to and then leaned over to Mr. 3. “Trixie thinks you keep very bizarre friends.” “Think of him like a business associate,” Mr. 3 sighed. “Darn, his powers could have greatly assisted us. Still, him adding to the chaos Straw Hat is causing will help. Let him do what he likes, as long as the guards care more about him than us.” ~~~         “I thought for sure that you died!” Luffy cried out to Bon Clay.         “We swans never die!” Bon proclaimed. He loosened his grip on Luffy and jumped back to inspect his hooves. “Or whatever the hell I am now.”         “Changeling,” Twilight shuddered from the stone on Luffy’s leg. “Luffy! How in Equestria could you be friends with a changeling?”         “Changeling? That what this ugly thing is?” Bon playfully wailed and flapped a hoof in Luffy’s direction. “Eh? Mugi-chan, who said that?”         “That’s none of your business!” The stone shifted from magenta to sky blue. “Luffy! Don’t trust this guy! He’s probably just imitating your friend’s voice to trick you!”         Luffy held a blank gaze down at the stone. “He did that before he became a weird bug pony though.”         A tiny trickle of tears fell down Bon’s face. “Don’t remind me! The only good thing to come of this form is it has a nice sheen! But the holes! Oh, the holes! They're absolutely hideous!”         The stone changed from blue to a pearl white with a purple tint on the edges. Rarity’s voice now came through it. “It does have a point there. I’d be appalled too if I had to work with such an encumbering form.”         “Oh?” Bon twirled his way over to Luffy and lightly tapped on the stone. “I like whoever this is. It’s been too long since I’ve had a person to wax dramatically with.”         “You have no idea, dear,” Rarity chuckled.         “Wahaha! Mugi-chan, it seems you’ve made even more great friends! Now if only I could meet them!” Something zipped past Bon’s face and bore into the ground. Both he and Luffy looked at the fresh bullet hole and then at the direction the attack had come from. A new wave of guards had appeared from around a corner and rushed at them. “We’ll save the talk for later! For now, lets get away from these guards and down to Level Five!”         “Really?” Luffy asked with a wide grin, ignoring a bullet entering his leg and ricocheting back at the guards.         “Yes!” Bon exclaimed, his breathing shallow. He serpentined through the air and the hail of gunfire that filled it, yet he still kept a grin on his face. “There’s someone I want to see down there as well!” ~~~         “What?” Magellan roared. “What the hell do you mean Straw Hat Luffy has infiltrated Impel Down?”         “W-we tried contacting you earlier, W-warden, but you w-wouldn’t pick up,” a guard stuttered. “T-the prisoners are also loose on L-level Two without the d-dragon to keep them in the cells. W-we’ve got our forces currently s-split there and on Level Three.”         Fumes bellowed out of Magellan's nostrils and mouth and down on the unfortunate guard. He collapsed to the floor with a thud. Magellan shifted his eyes over to the other staff in the room, all of them now wearing their gas masks. “Darn it. One of you get him to the medical bay. Where is Saldeath?”         “He was on Level Three, but his trap was dismantled by Straw Hat and now we’ve got reports that a changeling prisoner is aiding Straw Hat in taking down the Blugori,” a different guard answered. “Between that and the Level Two riot, he’s withdrawn and only left a token force on Level Three.”         “Mmmm, but the minotaur is still down there,” a female voice purred.         “Hmm,” Magellan grumbled. “If the reports are accurate, Straw Hat is deliberately heading down. If the minotaur should fail, Straw Hat and his accomplice will have to go through Level Four.” He raised up a hoof and slammed it into the ground with enough force to shake the floor. “Deploy the rest of our forces not handling the riot to Level Four! We’ll corner them here and I’ll execute them myself!” ~~~         Luffy’s hooves clacked against the dry and dusty stones that comprised the majority of Level Three’s floor. Ahead, Bon Clay’s wings hummed through the air as he guided Luffy through the labyrinthian Level. He rounded a corner and fell to the ground with his wings going back to his sides. Luffy galloped over and went to Bon’s side. “Hey, why’d we stop?”         Bon gestured to his sharp ears and then to the area around them. “Listen. The guards have been pursuing us for a while and now we can’t even hear their hooves.”         “Eh?” Luffy swiveled his ears around. Something close by produced a low thump sound that was akin to a thick piece of metal slowly banging against stone. “Then what’s that?”         Bon’s head darted over to where the sound had come from. “That’s too heavy for even a fully armed guard to produce.” His compound eyes shrank into his skull. “Oh no!”         The sound repeated itself, faster and louder. It now came in rapid succession, a steady tempo like a great metal gong being hit over and over. Something flashed to the duo’s left and then a shadow appeared in front of them. A large black object lashed out at Luffy and Bon and they both stepped back to avoid it as it cut through the air they’d previously occupied.         Luffy shifted his stance and prepared to fight. Ahead of him, the giant shape lumbered forward, its form partially obscured by the dust its attack had kicked up. “What is that thing? Did you see the way it moved?”         “It’s the minotaur,” Bon grimaced. “It’s one of the four jailer beasts, vicious creatures that treat prisoners like trash!”         “Hey!” the shape called out. It slashed away the dust with another swing of its weapon and stepped forward. Its cloven hooves smacked at the ground and made it slightly tremor, which was understandable given the immense height of the creature they belonged to. Its size was only increased by the massive pair of horns that sprouted out of its head and appeared sharp enough to gouge through rock. In its right hand, it held a giant club that could have been mistaken for a metal support beam save for the onyx spikes the covered it. In contrast to the rest of it, the beast’s eyes were small beady things, as black as the weapon it held. “Stone Wall resents that statement!”         Luffy’s stone went yellow. “Oh my, that sounds like Iron Will. What’s he doing there?”         “Iron Will?” Stone Wall raised an eyebrow. “How the hay does an intruder know my co—” “Meat!” Luffy screamed. He rushed forward, his eyes completely white ovals. His mouth expanded open until it was bigger than his entire head and then clamped down Stone Wall’s left arm, who proceeded to rightfully scream bloody murder. ~~~         Wave after wave splashed against the great Marine battleship. On deck, Celestia stared out from the bow of the ship. The ship’s course was concealed by fog, but the so-called “tub” current was as sure a guide as any navigator. She remained anchored in that one spot until a splotch of darkness appeared out of the fog. Soon, a Gate of Justice loomed over the ship. So this is it.         “Experiencing trepidation?” asked Momonga. Since they’d left Impel Down, he’d patrolled the deck, always keeping one eye on Celestia. “I won’t fault you on that. Only a fool would go into battle with Whitebeard without feeling some twinge of fear.”         And you are all fools to think any shred of good can come from this. Celestia gazed up at the monolithic gates and watched as a small part formed in them. “These are turbulent times we are entering.”         “We can agree on that.” The ship passed through the gate and subsequently passed through a second one as well. The second gate was invisible to the eye but it gave Celestia a light jolt on her forehead at the base of her horn. It left the rest of the crew with a slight taste of cotton candy and chocolate milk in their mouths. The taste was overpowered by the return of a sensation they hadn’t felt since entering Equestria.         The remnants of the tub current that managed to slip through the Gate of Justice were highly useful in steering the ship while the crew regained used of the fingers and walking on two legs. Cracks and pops were heard all around the ship as sailors flexed regrown fingers and shifted around clothes that had disappeared when they entered Equestria and reappeared upon leaving it.         Momonga merely cracked his neck and bellowed out orders to the crew to resume their positions and make haste for Marineford. When things appeared in order once more, he focused back on Celestia. She alone was the only entity on the ship that still stood on four legs. “If I may ask, your Highness, when you attend your meetings, do the other Warlords simply assume you’re a Zoan user?”         Celestia gave a polite chuckle in reply. “The less anyone sees of my true form, the better. Questions like yours draw too much attention Equestria, so I choose to go as something more convenient.”         Celestia’s horn came to life and a thick golden aura spread from it across her whole body. She reared up and her form shifted and glistened like rays of sunlight. Her hind hooves extended and smoothed out while their golden casings changed to match their new form. Her tail wrapped around her legs, which were turning a pinkish hue and losing their fur, and flattened out, elongated, and bleached itself until it resembled the bottom half of a white sari dress. The fur on her front legs receded up to her shoulders, leaving only slender pink arms behind and turning gold where the fur stopped and the skin began. Her muzzle pushed into her face and turned pink as well until all that was left of it was a small yet elegant nose and a pair of light red lips. Like her muzzle, Celestia’s horn shrunk and ultimately vanished underneath her tiara. Finally, her mane fell back over wings, which stuck to her back and transformed into golden loops that attached to the dress her fur and tail had become.         The glow around Celestia ceased and she took a deep breath. Where a pony once stood there was now a young woman with blazing amethyst eyes. “Besides, a smaller form such as this is much more conductive to battle.”         For a second, Celestia dared glance back at the way she had came. Impel Down and the rest of Equestria were lost in a haze and then sealed off behind the Gate of Justice. The ship moved onward, but Celestia’s mind remained behind the Gate. Straw Hat, make it in time.