//------------------------------// // Ch. 6 The Silver Chariot Coliseum pt.1 // Story: Twilight's Bizarre Adventure: Star Dust Crusaders // by Za Waruldo //------------------------------// “Why is the ship tilting like that?” Twilight asked as everypony in the room tilted forward as the ship dipped downwards. “Air is escaping from some of the ship’s gas bags, no It’s being vented must be the piping.This ship is going down everypony brace for a water landing.” Ripple started to twist the wheel to the right trying to counteract the tilt to no avail. The door to the cabin slammed open as Rainbow ran in, her wing still bandaged. “What the hay is going on with the ship?” “We’re crashing, the ship is going down.” Ripple responded as he fought the wheel as it tried to turn back to its original position. “Well what do we do?” twilight was panicked trying to find something to prevent the crash. “Twilight try to slow the ship down, there’s no way it’s going to fly so just focus on slowing us down for an easy landing.” Ripple pulled back the accelerator trying to slow the crafts forward momentum. The gauges were spinning out of control trying to readjust to the rapid shift in altitude and air pressure. “All right I’ll try to slow us down.” Twilight stood in the center of the room as her horn started to light up. The ship was enveloped in a purple glow and started to creak as if it was being squeezed like a wooden toy. Sweat started to form on Twilight head as she strained to slow the ships decent. “Come on Darling I know you can do this.” Rarity encouraged as she looked out the window to the rabidly approaching ocean and quickly pressed herself up against the wall. “600 meters everypony brace for impact!” Ripple held the wheel as the Ship crashed into the ocean almost vertically. The ship sank into the ocean and didn’t surface with the only visible portion on the surface being the balloon that hanged onto the ship acting like a ballast. “Did everypony make it?” Ripple asked as he let go of the wheel having realized it broke off upon impact. “Yeah I’m cool.” Rainbow answered as she brushed herself off. “My mane is ruined; do you realize how long it took to get it looking this good.” Rarity whined as she started to fix her mane. “Rarity’s fine and so am I” Twilight said as she got up from the floor. The cabin stayed mostly pristine since everything in the room was bolted down. “Look at all those fish they look so surprised to see us.” Pinkie was pressed up against the glass looking out into the sea. “Looks like we’re not sinking at least, the ship must still be attached to the balloons. The lower levels are likely flooded already.” Ripple peered out into the ocean as a crack started to from on the glass. “Out of the room!” Everypony scrambled out, once outside Twilight reinforced the door with her magic. They heard the glass shatter and water flood the now vacant room. The water slammed into the door which creaked under the strain but didn’t break. “I can’t hold this door forever do something.” Twilight’s leg started to wobble as she continued to keep the door sealed. “Hold on Twilight I have just the thing.” Gems started to lift out of Rarity’s saddle bag until they formed a sphere the size of her head. The sphere floated over to the door and pressed against is, as it pressed the gems seemed to spread out like water on a flat surface until it completely covered the door sealing it shut. “Well what do we do now?” Rainbow looked down the hall the exterior lined with windows. “Now we gather what we can and bring it to the escape hatch. We can wait on top of the ship’s air balloon and fire off some flares. Hopefully we aren’t too far from shore so somepony will find us out here.” Ripple looked at each window with suspicion expecting them to break at any moment. “This ship wasn’t built to be under water we have no idea how long it will last down here so everypony only take your essentials and hurry.” Twilight suggested as she walked down the hall, the others soon followed and headed to their rooms to gather what they could. Once they collected their belongings they met at the roofs hatch. Ripple looked in disbelief as Rarity brought back several cases stacked to the ceiling. “Rarity we are not hauling your luggage up to the surface, we have to our stuff to and once we open the hatch we’ll have to separate the boat from the balloon or it might pull it under too.” “But all of my makeup and clothing we can’t just leave them in this sinking ship.” Rarity looked back at all of her luggage and started to weigh which ones to save. The ship started to creak as the water started to find ways to trickle in. “Come on Rarity your cloths and makeup won’t be much use if you don’t survive to wear them” Pinkie said as Rarity continued to decide. “We’re running out of time Rarity just pick one so we don’t all die in here.” Rainbow started to eye the walls wondering just how long they could hold out the ocean. “We don’t have time for this, everypony take a deep breath and swim to the surface once the hatch is open, Ripple will separate the ship. Time to go Rarity.” Twilight’s horn lit up and her magic griped the bulkhead wheel. The wheel started to turn until the water pushed it open from outside and started to flood into the room. The room was completely filled in seconds with everypony quickly making their exit to the surface of the ocean. When Twilight reached the surface she quickly looked around to find that the Rarity, Pinkie and Rainbow had also made it. She turned to the balloon and teleported onto it. She started to levitate her friends up out of the ocean one by one until the balloon started to rise slightly before settling back into the water. Every pony looked over the edge to see the remnants of their ship sink into the depths and Ripple breaking the surface. “Got the ship unhooked, mind pulling me up?” Twilight pulled him, out of the water and onto the balloon. “So what do we do?” Rainbow asked as she surveyed the ocean seeing nothing but the sea in all directions. “Now we take turns firing out a flare every thirty minutes; Ripple, Rarity, and I can send up a flare with our magic, hopefully we’re found within a day or two.” Twilight explained as the others pulled off their saddle bags to check on what they took of the ship before it sank. Rarity opened hers to show it was filled with some gems, a brush, and a bag of bits. She then looked at the others after she emptied her bag. “What, it’s not like I had time to grab everything you rushed me.” “Well look at what I got” Rainbow emptied her bag to reveal it was full of medical supplies and a first aid kit. “I decided to raid the infirmary before we left, have to take care of my wing right?” “I got my camera and my bank card in case we need any money” Ripple said proudly producing the metal card from his pack. Twilight looked over all the items and realized that one particular thing was, missing. “Did anypony grab food before we left?” Twilight’s face started to turn to fear. How long could they survive without food and water? Would they make it until help arrived? All these thoughts filled her mind. All the possibilities, how to ration what they could catch who to feed would that be right to feed certain individuals instead of the entire group who gets priority? “I brought plenty of snacks for everypony.” Pinkie opened her bag and they saw it was full of snacks of all kinds and water. Twilight calmed down almost immediately once she realized they’d be fine for a few days. “Hey Rainbow let me try fixing up your wing we have some free time now.” Ripple walked up over to her and placed his hoof on her wing. “It’s not going to hurt is it?” Rainbow winced as he pressed into her wing. “Just relax; this shouldn’t hurt at all if I do this right.” Ripple started to empty his lungs before he took a deep breath. Once he did his hoof started to glow with a warm yellow light like the sun’s gentle heat. Once the glow stopped Rainbow flexed her wing lightly before giving it a few flaps, the wing was fixed. Rainbow took off for a second flying around the balloon before landing again. “That’s right nopony can keep me grounded.” “Alright take it easy Rainbow we have to conserve our energy out here until we get rescued we don’t know how long it could be.” Twilight explained hopping to get everypony out of this with as little problems as possible. “OK, Twi I’ll do what I do best and chill until help arrives, if you need me I’ll be sleeping.” Rainbow walked over to the end of the balloon before lying down and going to sleep. “I’ll shoot of the first few flares for tonight we can alternate so we can get some sleep.” Twilight raised her head and fired out a blast of magic that shoot into the darkening sky before it exploded into a ball of light that hovered in the air for a minute. “Wake me when it’s my turn” Ripple said before he went to get some sleep. “Twilight, I can’t let you do all this by yourself it wouldn’t be right.” Rarity added as she started to yawn and close her eyes. “Don’t worry; I’ll wake you once it’s your turn, just get some sleep we’ve earned it.” Twilight looked up at her flare as it continued to burn away in the night sky trying to draw in any ponies’ attention before it fizzled out after a few minutes. Twilight lifted her head and fired another flare from her horn; this was going to be a long night for her. “Twilight wake up we have a problem.” Ripple started to shake her awake trying to rush her up. “What is it?” Twilight asked while rubbing her eyes. “That” Ripple grabbed her head and turned it to the left until she could see the storm approaching their makeshift raft. The storm seemed to envelope over half the sky blocking out the horizon along with the sun. Twilight looked around only seeing Rarity and Pinkie on the balloon. “Where’s Rainbow?” “She’s trying to divert the storm” Ripple pointed to the storm and upon closer inspection Twilight could make out a blue flame rushing around the storm breaking up some clouds around the edge, but not nearly enough to dissolve the storm. Twilight couldn’t believe it they made it this far to be wiped out by a storm a group of ponies lost at sea to never be found. Celestia won’t even know their fate since she couldn’t contact her. It all ends because of some disaster the nature cooked up for them on the seas. That was when it suddenly hit Twilight. “A disaster is coming.” She said to herself as she stared at the storm rolling in. “Come on Twilight we can try to bare the storm and ride it out. If we’re lucky we can make it through this.” Ripple said as he saw Rainbow start to fly back to them. “No, I know what I have to do.” Twilight grabbed her saddle bag and pulled out her Stand along with a quill and a bottle of ink. She stood facing the storm as she dipped her quill and began to write. ‘This monstrous storm will swallow us whole as its rain pelts the surface of the sea ripping the calm apart. The howling winds that create crashing waves will drag us down. This storm that spells our doom approaches as I write. I will not back down, I will protect my friends from this ill fate that has been handed to us, and I will capture this disaster.’ The words flowed from Twilight's quill as she felt drawn to each letter placed; she felt right writing all this down as the end approached them at this moment. As Twilight wrote her last letter the ink she used started to conglomerate on the page. The ink pooled together at the center of the page before dispersing in a circle outwards. As it dispersed it left behind an image of the raging storm approaching Twilight with as much detail as a picture would hold until it reached the pages edge. When Twilight looked up the storm clouds where fading out of existence leaving them with a clear sky and a shining sun. “I did it I stopped the storm.” Twilight murmured to herself. “Twilight you actually pulled it off you stopped the storm.” Ripple started to look out over the horizon that once held the storm in disbelief. She had finally got her Stand to function and it took out an entire storm front. “Ship ahoy!” Pinkie yelled as she started to jump and wave at the approaching ship. “Well looks like we made it to Pone Song and it’s only the 3rd day, still making good time.” Ripple said as they stepped off the ship. “I just hope we don’t run into any more of Dio’s Stand users. I’m not sure my mane can take many more chance encounters.” Rarity continued to brush her mane as she stepped off the vessel. “Thanks again for the lift. Sorry we can’t repay you immediately” Twilight apologized to the pony crew before teleporting onto the docks. “Don’t’ worry about it lass, your pink friend made this our must enjoyable trips back to port in years.” The Captain pulled out a party hat and placed it back into his jackets pocket, as the rest of the crew softly smiled to themselves remembering the trip. Pinkie exploded out of the lower cabins and onto the deck. When the smoke cleared she was holding a cake with the words ‘Thanks For Saving Our Lives’ written on it in frosting. She handed it off to the captain as she rolled off the boat and onto the docks. “My way of saying thanks, hope you don’t mind I baked it while we were coming into port.” “Lass we don’t even have an oven on this ship.” The captain responded as he examined the cake looking for some deficiency. “I know that’s why I baked you one.” Pinkie answered honestly as she waved goodbye before trotting after the rest of the departing group. ‘What a crazy bunch, right captain?” One of the crew asked. “Yeah let’s hope they make it to wherever their heading safely lads.” They walked into a restaurant and took their seats around the circular table. Everypony pulled up their menu and started to gloss over the items. “Even without the airship we can still make it to Neighgypt in less than 47 days. If I can make a suggestion I think that we should take the sea route. We can get our own ship and sail around the coast then through the Native Ocean” Ripple suggested as he continued to review the menu. “I think that’s the best course of action as well.” Twilight said putting down her menu to look over the table. “If we go by land we’ll have to cross the desert and climb over some mountains that line the path. Not to mention the obstacles we could encounter.” “But what about Dio’s Stand Users? Dio probably has them located everywhere. How are we going to move without being detected?” Rarity asked, placing her menu down. “We’ll have to take our chances and get a boat we’re less lily to meet somepony at sea then on land anyway.” Ripple said as he pulled out a bag of bits and started to count them. “I can’t make heads or tails of this menu can anypony even read this chicken scratch.” Rainbow whined as she slammed her menu onto the table in defeat. “I stayed in Pone Song in the past so I can read a bit of the language. Let’s see this should be hay, daisies, oats, and some bread. Waiter we’ll have these.” Ripple pointed to the items listed on the menu. The waiter gave a nod before heading to the kitchen. “So all we need is a boat, some supplies, and a crew to take us past the Native Sea while fighting off some Stand users sounds awesome enough.” Rainbow said as she placed her hooves on the table rocking it slightly. “Sorry, but did you say Stand User?” One of the dinners walked over and began talking. “I’d be careful then, the current coliseum champion boasts that her Stand being unbeatable. Real scary too with how she fights.” “Wait you could see her Stand?” Pinkie asked. “Are you a Spy, did Dio send you, answer me!” Pinkie began to violently shake the customer. “I’m no spy ask anypony who was watching the daily matches that day. They could see her making that huge appearance one day in the coliseum. She set off some fireworks and started boasting about how her Stand could take on any challenger. To our surprise when the fight started a Unicorn about your size in armor just appeared floating next to her with a sword as long as Celestia is tall resting on its back. She then beat every ranking champion and now is the current head of the coliseum.” Pinkie dropped him and let the pony run out of the restaurant. “So should we find her? Dio might try to get her.” Rarity said remembering what had happened to her. “Or this could be a trap to get us to fight this user. Nopony goes around showing off their Stand. How in the world did she even make hers visible to the crowd?” Ripple said as he watched the room with suspicion. “It could be a bound Stand like Rarity’s though I wouldn’t know what it could be bound to with that description. Besides we can’t just let her fend for herself what if Dio targets her? We should at least warn her before we leave.” Twilight said trying to get Ripple to see her reasoning. “Fine, we warn her then leave on a boat as soon as we’re done. We’re not taking any chances while staying here.” Ripple reached for his hat to pull it down only to realize it was somewhere at the bottom of the sea. “That color did go atrociously with your coat color. We can get you another hat later, perhaps with me accompanying you. I could help you find one that goes better with your coat” Rarity suggested trying to forget that tacky yellow clashing with his grey coat perhaps brown would work or silver. The waiter came back brandishing five covered dishes once set on the table he removed their covers to reveal boiled frog, cooked fish, clams, and a soup with diced up carrots. “On second thought I’m not hungry lets go to the coliseum” Rarity pushes the frogs away as she got up and walked to the exit. “Me too, I’ll go with Rarity” Twilight pushes the plate of fish away before running after her. “Yeah what she said.” Rainbow quickly flew out the door leaving Pinkie and Ripple at the table. “I have no idea what their talking about this soup is delicious.” Pinkie tipped the bowl into her mouth drinking the rest of the soup. Ripple grabbed a clam and split it open with his magic before bringing it to his mouth and slurping it down. “Not too bad, not too great either, but edible.” Pinkie just stared at Ripple as he reached for a second clam. “I’m going to see if they need help with that thing their doing.” Pinkie quickly backed away before walking to the door keeping her eyes on Ripple as she left. “Waiter check please.” Ripple left his bag of bits on the table as he followed suite. “What do you mean nopony can talk to the Champion?” Rainbow was flying in front of one of the coliseum guards with her legs crossed in annoyance. “It means you can’t see her, she only meets with competitors. If you want to talk you’ll have to go sign up at the registry located at the front of the Entrance.” The guard was unmoving as he told Rainbow the current rules regarding the champion. Rainbow flew back to the others who were waiting just outside the coliseum. “So what did the guards say?” Ripple asked watching the crowds come and go from the entrance. “We’ll have to compete if we want to meet the Champion.” “This feels like a waste of time, it’s not too late to grab a ship out of here” Ripple interjected hopping to leave and not bother. “We’re entering this coliseum and meting the Champion whether you like it or not. We are going to help her.” Twilight said with a furry over Ripple’s lack of kindness for others. Rainbow flew off to the registry as Twilight fought with Ripple hopping to avoid the conflict. “Fine, let’s sign up for this death tournament and risk our lives for some stranger who might be trying to kill us.” Ripple retorted. “Now, now you two there’s no reason to be fighting each other. Ripple your just trying to look out for us and we appreciate that. But Twilight wants to help somepony who might need our help. Even if it’s just a slim chance we have to try.” Rarity defused the situation as the two arguing ponies both settled down and started taking deep breaths. “Alright I’ll help just don’t expect me to make it to the Champion I’m getting up there in age and I’m not as spry as I used to be.” Ripple said after calming down. Rainbow returned and stared at Ripple and Twilight for a moment. “So did they work it out?” Rainbow asked not wanting to contribute to the argument if it was still going on. “Yes they worked it out and decide to enter the Coliseum as competitors, where were you anyways?” Rarity asked. ‘I just went to sign us all up as a team for competing in the coliseum. As long as we alternate in the matches we can advance as a team.” Rainbow said beaming with pride over her decision. “Darling when you say you signed us all up you did remember to exclude me from that list?” “Sorry, did you not want to fight in the coliseum Rares.” “Why in Celestia’s name would I want to partake in such a barbaric competition? I could chip a hoof or ruin my mane.” “Come on Rarity we’re untouchable with these powers. We go in take down a few competitors then meet the champ easy as pie. Besides think about it you could win each fight with style and all that, be less barbaric about the thing.” “OK fine I’ll compete, but only because I can show those watching my elegance and grace in victory.” “Keep it up Rares and your heads going to be too big to fit through the entrance.” A booming voice was heard from the coliseum announcer. “Would team ‘Rainbow is Awesome’ please report to the competitors hall for your match line ups.” Rarity turned to Rainbow with a look of annoyance. “Be careful Rainbow or your head might not fit through the entrance.” Rarity mocked back to her as she made her way to the entrance. Everypony followed Rarity as she made her way down the winding halls until they came to a large metal door with a dented metal sign hanging above it which read ‘Competitors Hall’. They pushed the door open to see a large room filled with roughly twenty Ponies, four Griffons and a Minotaur all siting waiting to be called for their match. Rarity approached the barred window with a rather small unicorn mare working behind it. She rested her hooves on the counter until the unicorn looked up acknowledging her. “How may I help you today Miss?” “I’m part of team.” Rarity nearly choked trying to get the word out. “Rainbow is Awesome.” She nearly felt sick having to say the name in itself. “Oh, then you’re here for the matches don’t worry your team only needs to win five matches to qualify for a fight with the Champion. Also remember that each member has to fight once before the end of the competition so you only get one fight each.” "Thank you darling now if you’ll excuse me I have to talk to my teammates.” Rarity walked away to see the others all sitting together at a table in the room chatting as Twilight was reading a pamphlet titled ‘So You’re Fighting in the Coliseum the Do’s and Don’ts’. “I just spoke to the receptionist about our situation. We each have to fight once and win to meet the Champion. So now we just need to decide who gets sent out when.” Everypony started to think about how to decide the order when the announcers voice was heard through the hall. “Team ‘Rainbow is Awesome’ your first match starts in five please enter the arena or face disqualification.” “I call dibs on the first match.” Rainbow flew out of her seat and over to the door marked arena entrance faster than they could even blink. “Well lets watch and provide some moral support than.” Ripple stood up and headed to the competitors viewing seats as everypony got up to do the same. Twilight followed behind as she talked to herself. “Win a few matches and meet the Champion how hard could that be?”