//------------------------------// // The sign of the Siren's Lagoon // Story: The Great And Powerful Fairy Tail // by The Corrupted Champion //------------------------------// Sunset Shimmer had arrived in Hargeon that morning, around 10:30; ready to face her first real wizard's job; Clearing out invading pirates who are attacking boats going in and out of an out of the way port called Coral Bay, an island port not far from somewhere called Galuna island...whatever. Dufflebag slung over her shoulder, she wandered down the streets of Hargeon to find they were rebuilding from what looked like a heavy bomber carpet bombed the place... "...what happened here?" she asked, more to herself then anyone else; she was caught off guard when someone actually responded. "It was Salamander!" a disgruntled voice hissed from her left. "say what now?" Sunset asked, surprised. She turned to see a middle aged man who seemed rather angry. The old man sneered at her. "Your boy, Salamander! the one with the green scarf!" he growled. Green scarf, huh? "um...pink hair? Uses fire magic?" Sunset asked dumbly. The man nodded vehemently. "Yes, that one! He got into some fight with another fire wizard and they damn near totaled half the town!" "...yeah...that sounds like Natsu alright..." Sunset sighed in defeat. "...well, if it makes you feel any better, you don't have to worry about me causing you any trouble...I'm just trying to find a boat that can take me to Coral Bay..." The man seemed to consider that for a moment. "Coral Bay...Oh! they're sending you to take care of those pirates harassing boats over there, eh?" Sunset smiled. "That's the idea, yeah." she said. "I'm a new recruit, so it's my first job with Fairytail." then something occurred to her. "Though...what exactly gave me away?" The man gave a smug smirk. "It's obvious that ya don't belong here, kid." he said, taking a moment to roll his shoulder. It was then that Sunset took stock of her surroundings once more. the man, it seemed, was rebuilding the front of whata looked like a restaurant. "...The shoulder patches and the 'fish out of water' look? ya might as well have a flashing billboard over your head." he chuckled lightly at his little joke. Sunset laughed as well. "Hahaha...yeah, I'll grant you that." she admitted. "anyway...yeah, this is my first time in this town, so I'm a little lost; could you point me to the docks?" He looked at her silently for a moment. "...you seem like a good kid, so I'll give you a warning; watch yourself around Coral Bay...the whole place is a den of vagabonds, thieves, and pirates... so keep your hand on your wallet." He pointed down the road. "Follow this road down to the canal, cross the bridge and turn right. That'll take ya to the docks." Sunset gave a bow. "Thanks so much!" she beamed before setting off down in the indicated direction. "Heh...God help those pirates if she's as destructive as the rest of Fairytail..." he mused to himself as he obseved her retreating form. He then returned his focus to rebuilding his bistro... ...........................................Ponyville Castle........................................... Twilight, Rarity, Rainbowdash, Applejack, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie all were scouring the extensive library for magic tomes that might have something on this 'warp gate' magic that Discord spoke of. One hour in...nothing. Three hours in...nothing. "Seven hours...nothing...nothing...NOTHING!!!" Twilight screamed in frustration. "AAAAarrrrrrrrrggggggghhhhhhhh!!!!" she howled. "HOW CAN THERE BE NOTHING?!" "No kidding!" Rainbowdash nodded in agreement, having lost her own patience for it long before Twilight did... "Seven hours into this and we've found nothing but vague references and nothing else!" she grunted, fluttering over the massive stack of books that she couldn't believe she'd gone through so many of them... Applejack collected her hat from a table and put it back on her head. "-sigh- I hate to be the one to say it, Sugarcube..." she began hesitantly. "...but I think we're gonna have to take a step back and approach this at a different angle." Twilight spun around to face her friends. "But what other angle is there?!" she wailed. "We've dug through nearly EVERY magical theory archived in Equestria!" "It's pretty simple, actually." Pinkie Pie said casually. "How so?" Rarity asked with a raised eyebrow. Pinkie smiled. "...well, when you're faced with a problem, but the solution isn't in our neat little box...then maybe we need to look in another box?" incomprehension and uncomfortable silence hung over the room until Twilight's face lit up with excitement. "PINKIE, YOU'RE A GENIUS!!!" Twilight was still bouncing ecstatically while Applejack and Rainbowdash looked at each other in confusion. "what, now?" Applejack asked dumbly. "yeah...lost me..." Rainbow deadpanned. Rarity smiled. "I think I get it too..." she said thoughtfully. "the reference of Starswirl the bearded using a mysterious magic from a far away land to banish the sirens to another world, if I'm not mistaken?" Twilight beamed. "Right!" "So, one mystery leads to another...?" Applejack mused. "How do we figure where this magic came from?" Twilight felt her confidence returning. "we have access to two sources of knowledge that might be able to shed some light on the subject..." she stated as if encouraging her friends to take a guess. Pinkie spoke up. "Princess Celestia, and Discord!" she cheered. Twilight was practically bouncing once more. "Right on both counts." she declared. Her horn began to glow. "Discord? can you hear me?" she called. A simple window appeared, suspended in mid-air; it opened, revealing Discord, sipping a cup of coffee. "Twilght! what can I do for you?" he greeted. "How goes the search on your end?" "I think we might have a good lead, but we need some outside information." Twilight explained. "Warp Gate magic is little more then a rumor...not even a researched theory in Equestria, but we found a reference of Starswirl the bearded using an ancient magic from a land beyond our boarders in order to banish a trio of sirens to another world." Discord listened intently, sipped his coffee and nodded as Twilight finished her explanation and actually seemed quite impressed. "Bravo, Princess...bravo!" he declared. "...so you think I might be able to shed some light on exactly WHERE this magic came from, hmm?" "That is what we were hoping, yes..." Rarity confirmed. "Well, I don't have anything for you right this moment..." he was cut off by disappointed groans. "...but not to worry, somepony's coming who might..." he trailed off smugly. "...I'll keep an eye and ear out, but right now I must get back to work. Ta ta!" with that, his window slid shut and disappeared. "Hey, wait!" Rainbow called in vain. "Awwwweeee man..." she groaned. That's when Flash Sentry, a young guard who had been recently assigned to Twilight's castle, slightly opened the door. "Excuse me, Princess, but you have a visitor; she's demanding to know what's happened to Trixie." he said grimmly. "Who is it?" Applejack asked. "Uh...She's saying that she's Trixie's old teacher...?" he offered. "You're testing my patience, colt!" a new voice boomed angrily, causing Flash to flinch. Rarity and Applejack exchanged worried looks. "She's in here!" he called back. "...Finally...I've been trying to navigate this town for three hours, and my patience is at its end!" Fluttershy shrank back at the sound of the shouting mare. "...Oh dear...she sounds mad..." she muttered. Then, a unicorn mare dressed in a beautiful flower printed kimono magically swung the door open; "I have come a long way to get here, and my apprentice has vanished from this world. I want answers!" she huffed. a strong oriental accent in her voice. Twilight nervously stepped forward. "...Um... My name is Twilight Sparkle...how can I help?" The mare paused to compose herself, but was still clearly not pleased. she bowed. "...Princess..." she greeted. "My name is Mist Whisper; please forgive my temper, but I sense something terrible has befallen my apprentice..." she stated with a strained voice. "The sacred flames showed me a vision of her being engulfed in darkness, then...nothing... something sinister is at play here..." She trailed off; clearly uneasy about the whole affair. "Yes..." Twilight began. "...you said Trixie was your student, right?" she asked, earning a nod from the elegant new mare. Twilight shared uneasy looks with her friends before turning back to the elegant new comer. "...well... you're right. something has happened; but no news has gone out yet... we're trying to avoid causing a panic." The mare nodded thoughtfully. "Wise...panicked riots would be bad for everypony..." "That bein' said, how did you say y'all found out about it, again?" Applejack asked calmly. "I am a miko... a shrine mare. my power is fortune telling and purification magic." she clarified. "I am able to see into a pony's future, past or preasent state by focusing into the flames made from burning the wood of a powerful magic tree; The Dryad Oak." she explained. "The kami project visions... sometimes what was, sometimes what is and sometimes what will be... through the flames." "Whisper-sama!" a new voice called out; before a bright red cat with two tails bolted through the door; splashes of white adorned its cute little muzzel, its pointed ears, its paws, and its two tails; each one tipped in a little blue flame. "Have you found oniichan yet?" the little cat asked with a chirpy feminine voice. The mare gave the talking two tailed cat an apologetic smile. "...not yet, Hino-chan..." she said. "these ponies say they know what happened to her, though..." "I'm sorry darling..." Rarity offered. "she was here, but not any longer." "That is to say, 'she was here, hoping to destroy an ancient dark magical artifact called the Alicorn amulet, but we ticked off the evil spirit that was inside so much that it sapped a bunch of energy from us, and used it to drag Trixie and several others through a portal to even Celestia doesn't know where...', and we're currently trying to figure out where they went." Pinkie said offhandedly. The elegant mare seemed thoughtful for a moment. "...where...did this take place...?" she asked. "In this very room." Twilight replied. The mare looked around thoughtfully. "...yes...I can feel the echo of it now..." she said. "Echo?" Fluttershy asked. "What do you mean?" "when something of such great importance occurs, it leaves... an echo or imprint in time and space; a bookmark in history if you will..." Mist Whisper explained. "...have you ever been in a place and felt in your gut that something terrible had happened there? ...or near an object of some kind?" "...you have NO Idea..." Rainbow commented. "...from time to time..." Twilight said awkwardly.. "This is the echo that you feel; albeit only slightly. There are some who can train themselves to hone in on these echoes and read them. It is the basis of my fortune telling magic..." Then what Discord said played back in Twilight's head. "We've been working on a means to find them, but we've hit a road block..." she admitted. Mist Whisper cocked her head to the side. "Is there anything I can do...?" Twilight looked at her friends. they all had the same thought, it seemed. "Possibly..." .............................................Hargeon Docks....................................................... Sunset Shimmer wandered through the town, following the directions given by that guy earlier, for about half an hour before finally the town gave way to the shipyard and docks. Sunset smiled. "Found it..." she said softly to herself. She took a moment to look over the docks. "...Now, to find to boat to take me over to Coral bay..." Sunset walked up to what looked like a fishing boat. "Excuse me." she greeted, drawing the attention of the man who appeared to be offloading crates of stuff from the hold. "Yeah, what can I do for ya?" he asked. "I was wondering if you could take me out to Coral Bay...?" "Nope." he stated simply. Sunset blinked. "...um...can I ask why not?" "This is an honest merchant vessel." he said sharply. "This ship WILL NOT make port in a place that's in the middle of a Pirate turf war!" Sunset took a step back at his outburst, putting her hands up defensively. "Okayokay!" she protested. "I'll ask someone else..." "Yeah, you do that!" he snapped at her as she retreated. Sunset dejectedly shoved her hands in her pockets. "...no need to be an asshole about it..." she mumbled. She asked another guy; "nope..." ...and another... "Hell no!" ...another... "Absolutely not!" "Uuugggghhhhhh!!! What is everyone's problem with Coral Bay!?" Sunset wailed. "This place can't possibly be so terrifying!" She couldn't believe that people here could be so...so...difficult... 'I'm not going to have to swim there, am I?' the horrifying thought crossed her mind. "Hey there!" a hauntingly familiar voice called, bringing her attention to her right, where the spitting image of a certain blue haired guitar player stood near a rugged looking boat. "Trying to get to Coral Bay, are you?" he asked. "You with a wizard's guild dealing with our request?" Sunset was shell-shocked. she stood there taking in his appearance. a more ragged version of the familiar black leather jacket the CHS Flash wore, but with studded shoulders and cuffs; dark red headband tied around his forehead, and twin daggers sheathed; one over his right shoulder, the other at his left hip. she had to remind herself that she was supposed to be having a conversation. "Oh, yeah! I'm with Fairytail!" she blurted holding out her hand. "I'm Sunset Shimmer!" And so 'not Flash Sentry' shook her hand happily. "Flynn Richter; it's a pleasure." he greeted. "hop on, I'll take you over!" Sunset beamed. 'Finally, some luck!' she thought. "Thank you so much!" she said. "Everyone around here has been refusing to even look at me once I even bring Coral bay up!" Flynn shrugged. "...well, to be fair, there ARE a lot of pirates in the area..." he said nonchalantly. "...some of them are former dark wizards who left their dark guilds..." "Really?" she asked. "Is that why the request was posted?" surely that had to be it; dark wizards breaking away from their dark guild to go solo and ending up building a pirate crew... Flynn had a thoughtful look on his face. "well, it's a little more complicated then that..." he admitted. "Just come aboard, Krysta can explain it better then me... She's the one who put in the request." Sunset nodded. "Okay." she lung her dufflebag on to a bench on the large powerboat-esque vessel while 'not Flash Sentry' got to work turning on the motor. "So, what kind of magic ya use?" he asked. Sunset took a moment to consider that question. Magic in this world worked so differently from Equestrian magic. "well...I use a lot of different kinds of magic, but if I had to sum it up in a single sentence, then I'd call it..." she paused for a moment. "Phoenix magic...?" Flynn turned around and gave her a skeptical look. "...Huh?" Sunset blushed. "Agreed, I'm not the best at naming things on the fly, but to be honest, I'm not really sure what kind it is" Flynn said nothing, but waved his hand for her to continue. "...I can use fire magic..." she said, creating a ball of golden flames that would flicker black every so often, to show her point. the golden fireball disappeared. "I can cast healing and barrier spells..." her eyes glowed bright green as a green bubble of energy formed around her for a few seconds before dissipating. "...and I can use telekinesis and even teleportation spells." she held out her hand, and her dufflebag was enveloped in a familiar green glow and was lifted off the deck of the boat. Flynn nodded. "hmm...you're definitely one of the more versatile wizards I've seen..." he granted. "yeah, it's difficult to put all that in a single category." Sunset said as she set her dufflebag back down on the bench next to her. "Yeah, I'll grant ya that..." Flynn said as he returned to the helm. " ...can't say I've ever seen fire that was black and gold, though; magic or not..." "Neither have I; hence my own confusion." she said. Sunset looked out into the ocean. They'd been out on the water for about an hour by the time Coral bay came into view...as well as many very large and intimidating pirate ships. Each of them having it's own unique motif. Flynn slowed his motor boat right down as he began weaving in between them. "...You picked a good day, they aren't shooting at each other yet..." Sunset blanched. "...Shooting at each other...? as in...?" "Yup, with cannons, magic...or both; the whole nine yards." he said as if such was simply part of the status quo around here... "...charming..." she mumbled. That's when Flynn pointed at one of the large ships. "see the one with the spear wielding skeleton on the front?" he asked, getting a nod from Sunset. "That's an actual Ogre skeleton." That was impressive. "seriously?" she asked. Flynn grinned and nodded. "Yup, The captain of the ship used to be one of those rogue wizards I told you about. He'd gone up to Mount Hakube about..." he paused to think for a second. "...twenty...two years ago; in order to take down an ogre that had made it's home in the icy caves up there, feeding on any poor sod that went up there for pretty much any reason." "...and he killed it, obviously." Sunset surmised. "Uh huh, they battled it out for three whole days before he finally beat the thing, and after that, the client, some lousy scum bag named Everlue refused to pay, payed off local law enforcement to chase him out of town and even put the bounty on his head that he has held even to this day!" Sunset laughed. "well, I'm sure the good Captain will be pleased to hear That after all these years, Everlue's illegal dealings have been exposed to the public and he's now penniless and in prison." she said, and couldn't help but beam at the look on Flynn's face. "...what's the guy's name, anyway?" Flynn grinned proudly. "The one and only Craven Richter." Sunset blinked. "...Richter...?" 'he's not seriously going to tell me...' "...My father..." he finally said softly. '...he did...' "It's a small world." Sunset said with a chuckle. "...I'm sorry I'm not the one who brought him down." Flynn waved it off. "ah, don't worry about it..." he said casually. Sunset noticed a contented smile on his face as they continued towards the docks in relative silence before he pointed to a beached ship off to the side of the small port town. "see that ship over there?" he asked. Sunset noticed that there were wooden staircases and bridges leading up from the remote dock up to the main deck. "Yeah?" Sunset answered. "there an interesting story behind that one too?" "Used to be called 'The Siren's Song', but Krysta decided she didn't wanna be a pirate anymore so she just had it beached and turned it into a restaurant. Now it's called 'Siren's Lagoon'. That's where you wanna go once we're secure at the docks." he explained. Sunset was hesitant. "...Is it true, what they were saying in Hargeon?" she asked. "...that there's some kind of turf war going on between these pirate crews?" Flynn was quiet for a long moment. "...like I said...Krysta knows the situation better then a lot of people..." he said uneasily. "...she may not be an active pirate anymore, but she's got eyes and ears all over the place... Everyone knows that there's something going on, but only a select few know exactly what..." A dark look took over his face. "...but one thing that everyone knows, is that Captain Kota is at the center of it..." he said pointing at another ship that...Good god; now there is a guy who isn't a believer in subtlety... A massive Cyclops skull was chained and bolted to the front with a large three barreled cannon sticking out of the open mouth. A slightly smaller single barrel cannon extended from the eye socket. The hull was black and the sails were dark red depicting a skeletal viking with a shield and and axe. it's entire body was portrayed dripping with blood. "That one's called the 'Abomination'..." he said "Abomination is right..." she said, not bothering to hide her disgust. "That ship is hideous..." she said. 'Rarity would have a heart attack at the sight of it...' Flynn began to steer their boat towards the beached ship; it wasn't long before a neon sign reading 'Siren's Lagoon' came into view. bordering the sign was a depiction of three mermaids circling around it. The imagery reminded her of a pirate movie she saw in the other human world with Rainbow Dash...but with an oddly contemporary upgrade to it... cool. Sunset allowed herself to close her eyes and drift along to the sound and smell of the sea around her. the smell of the shallow water as they neared the docks... the sound of the waves rolling against all the ships that surrounded them... the churning of bubbles coming up from beneath their boat- wait, what?! "Huh?" her eyes shot open and she leaned over the edge to see over. Flynn noticed this and that dark look returned to his face. "...don't lean too far out." he warned. "There's golems under these waves..." "Golems?" she asked. "Is that normal here?!" He was quiet for a short moment. "...Like I said..." he nodded once more toward the Cyclops skulled ship. "...Somehow, Captain Kota is at the heart of it..." "...I suppose they're why I'm here, then..." she muttered. "You are correct!" Flynn declared in an overly cheerful voice as he found an empty dock that wasn't too far away from 'the Lagoon' as most locals called it, and slowly apraoched it; finally docking. "Sunset Shimmer, welcome to Coral bay! keep your hand on your wallet and your wits on guard! head on over to the Lagoon and tell the ladies that Flynn sent ya! I have my own errands I still have to run." "Ok!" and with that, Sunset grabbed her bag and set off towards the neon lit ship...slash restaurant. Not two minutes into her walk, a young child aggressively shoved into her. "Ooof! hey, watch it lady!" he snarked before running off into the crowd. Sunset immediately recognized what had happened. and took off after the kid with a glare on her face. "Hey!" she barked after him, but the boy just kept running. "...great..." she grumbled before vanishing with a flash of green... ........................................................................................... Kobe Brackett had just ripped off some ditzy looking tourist and was making his getaway, "Hey!" she called after him, but he wasn't going to stop just because she wanted him to... ha! He didn't get too far as he ran down an alley and rounded a corner just to crash directly into the same lady and fall flat on his back. "What?!" "Hand it over." she ordered flatly. Kobe scrambled back to his feet. "Screw you, lady!" he barked before running off again. Once he was confident he had covered enough ground, he looked over his shoulder to see his red haired mark merely glaring after him as she just disappeared in a green flash. "Huh?! she's a wizard?!" he finally realized before turning his gaze back to the street ahead of him to once again crash into her and fall backward. "...That's right..." she hissed as she loomed over him like a hungry wraith; her eyes began to glow that eerie green from before and he was lifted off the ground by his ankles. "Uuuaaaaagghhh!!!" he cried out in panic. she turned him around in mid air so the were looking each other in the eyes. That same flat unamused look still on her face as she held out her hand. Kobe knew that gesture...that look... "You have something that belongs to me...I'd like it back..." she said, confirming his thought. "Fine, take your stupid wallet!" he shouted in her face and shoved the wallet into her waiting hand. She let him down gently and he ran off once more with a crafty grin forming on his face. "...sucker..." He didn't take five strides before he was once again hauled off the ground by his ankles... "OH, COME ON!!!" Within seconds all of his pockets were being pulled inside out as if by invisible hands until the pocket that he'd stashed the money he'd stolen was found; the money levitated back to the young woman's waiting hand as she leveled a dangerous glare at him. "...Nice try, punk..." she said coldly. She proceeded to put the cash back in her wallet, but stopped at the final bill. She stared at it thoughtfully, then looked back at him. "...you wanna earn this one?" she asked. Kobe gulped. "wh...what ya want me to do?" "...Tell me everything you know about this "Captain Kota" I've been hearing about..." ...............................................Later.......................................... There it was, right in front of her; the beached ship that had been converted into a restaurant and hotel, 'The Siren's Lagoon' "...Hm..." Sunset couldn't help but think this whole thing was a rather impressive setup as she climbed he wooden stairs that led to the main deck. Dozens of tables were set up in much the same style as one would at one of those outdoor cafe's back in Magnolia or the world beyond the mirror... There was also what looked to be some manner of stage like back at the guild hall... That's when she did a double take as she spotted three very familiar faces floating about the place with little aprons, notepads, and one of them actually had a serving tray adorned with food and drinks. Adagio Dazzle...Sonata Dusk...and Aria Blaze... She blink her shock away as she found herself wandering about with the pretense of looking for an Ideal table. "You'll want to head up to the Captain's cabin, sweetie..." came a voice from her right, shaking her out of her stupor. She spun on her heel to face Adagio-or rather, This world's Adagio giving her that same bemused look as that guy back in Hargeon. "Huh?" Adagio merely quirked an eyebrow as her smirk grew. "You stand out like a sore thumb with that dufflebag, hun." she said casually. "Talk to Krysta up at the bar to rent a room; that is why you're here?" That's right! Krysta! "Yeah!" Sunset blurted awkwardly. the way that this girl was leaning forward like that, showing off a generous view of her cleavage...Sunset would swear that she was trying to seduce her... a light blush tinted her cheeks at the thought. "It's just up the fancy stairs to the upper deck, sweetie; you can see it from here." Adagio instructed, pointing over to a pair of indeed very fancy dual staircases leading up to a large structure that was probably once literally the Captain's quarters. but it was, instead, an open bar with yet another neon sign above it that read, 'The Captain's Cabin: Lounge and Bar' "Ok, thanks." she said. "My name is Adena, by the way..." not-Adagio greeted. "Sunset; it's nice to meet you." Sunset replied, adjusting her dufflebag. "I'll probably be back for a table before too long..." Adena smiled. "Lookin' forward to it, Beautiful." she said with a wink before spinning on her heel and strutting down through the tables, playfully greeting patrons as she passed by. Sunset returned her gaze to the double staircase. "Right..." she said. "Time to get to work..." ...............................................................................................................