A guard at the head of a fresh wave that piled into Level Six sucked in filtered air through his gas mask. Two cells at the center of the Level were empty with their gates flung open. A few miasmic vapors mixed in with the gas that had managed to seep in through the elevator shaft, some spilt blood, and four sets of bizarrely severed cuffs were the only remaining signs of occupation.
What had made the guard gasp and stare along with the rest of the platoon was a corkscrew of stone that extended all the way to a massive hole in the ceiling. A few bits of decayed stone and dust rained down on the Level while the twisting path stayed adhered to the new exit in mockery of physics.
“You idiots,” a stern voice growled.
The head guard’s fur stood up at the voice and he spun in its direction. Sharp yellow talons reached out of a nearby cell. The way they clenched the bars made it appear that their owner could easily crush the metal. In the cell’s shadows, two piercing eyes stared back at the guard and made him gulp down all the air his mask would allow. “Head Jailer Shiryu.”
“You put me down here with the trash and everything falls to pieces.” Shiryu’s form writhed in the darkness and got up so that he could press his sloped muzzle against the bars. “Jinbei, Crocodile, and whatever that thing in Crocodile’s cell was escaped along with the three that came down here. So, here’s what you’re gonna do to set this right, give Magellan my message: I’m willing to help... this chaos will end with me.”
Shiryu’s grin reflected off the guards’ eyes and they felt an ominous chill. Chained and behind bars, the former Head Jailer’s expression cut just as deep as the “clean up” he’d enforced on prisoners and even other staff members.
~~~
“Jinbei, Crocodile, and the Changeling Queen? Dammit! Magellan is still ensuring Fire-Fist Ace’s secure departure!” Hannyabal screeched. His right hoof shot out and dragged the nearest guard close to his face. “Where are they now?”
“Surveillance confirms movement on Level Five near the stairwell to Level Four, sir!” the guard hastily replied.
Hannyabal shot a hoof into his new headpiece and extracted a small denden mushi from it. “Sadie! Saldeath! Get to Level Four with your subordinates immediately!”
~~~
“I still don’t like this,” Twilight grumbled.
“Oh, hush, Twilight,” Chrysalis replied from Luffy’s side. “After I was so close with your brother, you’d think we’d have a bit more of a connection.”
“The only connection I want is my hoof in your face,” Twilight snapped.
“Girls, girls, you’re both pretty,” Iva interjected, stepping in between Luffy and Chrysalis. He bent down and eyed the stone. “Besides, I won’t let her get out of hand. My time here has let me discover a few tricks about this body that’d I’d be happy exploit.”
“You know nothing, imposter,” Chrysalis snorted. “I’m ashamed to see the hive so poorly imitated by you and your flunkies. Even the one that can actually mimic others is defective at best.”
“I thought you were a annoying before,” Crocodile grunted. His bottom half was a swirl of sand that scoured the ground it passed over and left it brittle. It also lifted up the new heavy coat he’d procured from Level Five Point Five that draped over his shoulders similar to a cape.
A mishmash of ponies, changelings, and whatever Luffy and Jinbei now counted as surged behind him. Their size easily warranted the description of “small army” and the weapons many of them hefted on their backs and clenched with their fangs solidified that aspect. Without them, the collaboration might have resembled party-goers that only Pinkie crashing after her greatest sugar-high could have conceived. Coincidentally, she was in such a state in Canterlot, thus making her dreams quite prophetic.
Jinbei’s eyes flashed over to a skull shaped clock atop the stairwell with the short hand at a slightly acute angle and the long hand pointing practically straight up. “It’s nearly ten. If the guards were telling the truth, we have until three to stop Ace’s execution!”
“That should be a enough time!” Luffy huffed.
“If only,” Jinbei replied. “As soon as Ace returned to the human world, Whitebeard gained the ability to mobilize. He won’t wait until three to strike, so the war could begin at any moment!”
“Hmmph.” Crocodile’s sand coalesced back into his lower body and he slammed his front right hoof into the door that marked the end of the stairwell. The wood it was made of groaned and warped. Cracks branched out from Crocodile’s hoof and sand drizzled through them. The fissures widened while more and more sand gathered at Crocodile’s hooves until the entire door gave way, collapsing into fragments of wood, sand, and brittle metal. A bullet ripped through the air and Crocodile’s eye and part of his muzzle dispersed into sand, rendering the shot ineffective. Despite half of his teeth currently existing as particles, a malicious grin stretched across his stitched face and aimed at the collection of guards pointing guns at him.
“This is Level Four!” a dragon guard said into a denden mushi. “The escaped prisoners have been confronted! Send everyone down here, we’ll hold them until then!”
“Try.” Crocodile blew at them in a flurry. A trail of sand jutted out of the right side of his back, resembling something between a sickle and a ghostly wing. He lunged at a swath of guards and swung the collected sand through them. A few gasped in horror as the water drained from their bodies just as it had left the door. Guards, both pony and dragon, fell to the floor shriveled husks. “Crescent Cutlass.”
A nearby guard that had survived Crocodile’s swift attack let loose a panicked cry and rushed at him with a sword clenched in his teeth. A black shape slammed into him and Chrysalis sank her fangs deep into his neck. He didn’t get to scream before his eyes rolled up into his head and his coat went from blue to faded white. She brought her bloodless fangs out and smacked her lips. She glanced over at Crocodile. “Seems I’m not the only one who can drain ponies.”
Crocodile turned away from Chrysalis and launched himself at more guards. Chrysalis went in the opposite direction. At the same time, her nose sniffed through the air. A tiny smile came to her face as she forcefully sucked the love out of another guard. A scent only she recognized had wafted into her nose; it was weak, but its source was locked into her brain. I’m coming, children, and I have breakfast.
Nearby, Luffy leapt into the air and sent his balled up wings and all four hooves down into the sea of guards below in a storm of punches and kicks. “Gum-Gum Rain!”
Jinbei tucked a hindleg deep into his chest and aimed it at a squad of guards heading his way. He shot it out just as one guard got close enough to barely dodge the attack. “Arabesque Buck!”
The lead guard stared at Jinbei’s extended hoof. A thud made him glance back to see that another guard from the squad had collapsed with blood coursing out of his mouth. An immense wave of pressure then slammed into the lead guard and the rest of the squad, spreading like a ripple until all of them were knocked out cold. Jinbei towered over them and advanced onto more guards.
“Don’t let them advance!” one of the few still-conscious guards yelled and shifted his head so that his sword was raised high.
“Let the buffet come,” said Chrysalis.
~~~
Level Two
The prisoners in one of the many cells that made up Level Two gathered around their cell’s door. A few had to hobble over due to Saldeath’s earlier containment, but curiosity beat out pain. The cell’s lock was encased in a soft blue glow that made it clank after a moment. The door was opened by the glow with a whine and the prisoners cautiously shambled out.
“What is this, some kinda trick?” one of them asked.
Trixie stepped out from around the corner, but continued to hug the walls. Solidified wax was wrapped around her body, but broken into segments to allow her mobility. A space in the impromptu armor around her face allowed her grin to get through. “Of course it is and a simple one at that. Now, shall we escape?”
Buggy and Mr. 3 loomed over the Level, safe and camouflaged within a hollow wax cube. Trixie had remained in the miniature holdout too until a few minutes ago when the Blugori and guards had vacated the Level to go who-knows-where. All three of them couldn’t help but smile at the lucky occurrence. Then again, the past day was a series of lucky occurrences avoiding patrols, surveillance, and beasts all to get back to Level Two.
Mr. 3 lightly chuckled and held up a ring of faux keys. “Lets speed up and produce some pandamonium.”
Buggy nodded, attached four sets of keys to his legs, and sent them flying out across the Level. The echo of cuffs hitting the ground and doors screeching open filled the hall.
One of the small group of token guards left to watch over the Level also heard the sounds and moved away from the stairwell. His denden mushi blazed to life and Hannyabal yelled, “What are you doing? The prisoners are getting out!”
“What?” the guard shouted.
“Guess the cover’s blown.” Buggy’s limbless body flew down and knocked the wind out of the guard. He flipped around and addressed the Level. “Alright, men! Time for some fun! Raise some hell and we might just see the light of day again!”
A roar went up throughout the level. Prisoners bolted out of their cells and brought their hooves down on the guards, set fire to anything flammable, and unleashed bedlam on the Level. Trixie stared up at Buggy and smirked. “He does know how to win a crowd.”
~~~
A set of keys jingled in the air and flopped on the ground. A shabby pony leapt at them, but froze when he saw the orange pony with the golden hook and the stitched face standing outside the cell. “C-crocodile!”
Crocodile kept his eyes on the central figure in the cell, a pony with an archaic “one” symbol on his flanks. “I need some actual subordinates if I’m going back outside. How about it, Mr. 1?”
Mr. 1 lifted up the chains on his forelegs so that they produced a distinct clink. “Sure, I was getting bored anyway.”
~~~
“Hiyaa!” Bon’s front hoof crashed down on a guard. The attack made his whole body shudder and he collapsed in a heap. Bon used the momentum from the attack and propelled himself into the air, spinning at dizzying speeds. He fell into the never-ending onslaught of guards and unleashed more attacks until they were all unconscious or clutching their wounds on the ground.
“Iva’s energy thing is really working on you,” Luffy snickered.
“Yeah! I—” A series of flashes from nearby stopped Bon. Groups of guards fell to the floor with gaping cuts across their bodies. A few dragon guards had grizzly punctures drilled straight through their thick scales.
The only thing left standing in the wake of the devastation was bald pony. His legs were disturbingly angular and jutted into the ground. Their edges had the sheen of a chef’s knife and the sharpness as well. His spine had a similar glimmer to it so that it almost resembled a fin. Completing the blade ensemble was a tail that was morphed into a scythe shape.
Bon’s eyes latched onto the bald pony’s cutie mark, which now sparkled like polished steel, and widened. “Eh, Mr. 1?”
“Mr. 2.” Mr. 1 sent out a bladed leg and clotheslined a guard that tried to get the jump on him all without batting an eye.
~~~
“Send reinforcements to Level Two!” Hannyabal’s denden mushi screamed. There was a pause before a different voice yelled through it, “No! We need more reinforcements on Level Four! An army of changelings has appeared out of nowhere!”
Sweat soaked Hannyabal’s coat. He pressed his hooves into his face and shook his head back and forth. “What do I do?”
~~~
The waves crashed against the thick stone walls of Impel Down. The sky was foggy as it always was outside of the prison. The few ships left in its dock lightly listed in the current. Nothing of the exterior spoke of the madness going on within save for the gate guards’ expressions being more drawn back and stern than normal. They were also quicker to raise their voices.
“We didn’t request reinforcements!” one of them shouted and slammed his hoof into the wooden boards of the dock for extra emphasis. “It’s strictly forbidden for any pirate to enter this pri—”
“Like I care. We’re on the same team after all, but if ya won’t step aside...” A dusty red, practically brown horn crackled with arcs of black lightning. A stream of inky substance erupted out of it and swept over all the guards. Their screams were silenced as the shadowy wave swallowed them up and the false serenity returned to the dock. “Zehahaha.”