Diamond glanced over to Button and Luna who were snuggled up in the corner, whispering and talking to each other. She grinned and then walked over to Silver. “So, all in all, this trip wasn't so bad. Right?”
“It has cost me sooooo many bits,” the earth pony said with a sigh. “But, no. I suppose all in all it wasn't so bad. Those magical barriers daddy worked on will probably be enough to pay for the whole thing, even. The world is going to want those. With fine tuning, they'll probably be able to block out physical things, too.”
The alicorn nodded. “Yup. I ummm... I am sorry I got your super expensive flying fortress destroyed. I really didn't mean--”
“You didn't,” Silver said with a shake of her head. “It was just bad luck. That place hates us. Hates everypony, I think. It would have probably crashed the ship whether you were there or not.” She then chuckled. “Besides, I've spoken with Daring. Most of the pirates there lived there their whole lives, with ships designed for that place. They still crashed all the time. As foal proof as I thought the ship was, I just didn't know what I was facing, so there wasn't much any of us could do.” She frowned. “Aside from making something cheaper.”
Diamond nodded. “But nopony died, so you still did plenty.” She then glanced towards the back of the ship. Prism, Ironwing, Rainbow and Daring had all managed to form some kind of pegasus sleep pile, lounging on some clouds they'd managed to attach to the boat. “And... well, Prism and Ironwing can stand each other. Mostly. They haven't tried to kill each other with any sporks, at least.”
Silver chuckled and glanced back as well. “Yeah, they are almost adorable, you know. Like giant winged cats. I think Rainbow and Daring are infecting those two, though. Up all night, sleeping all day.”
“Mmmm hmm. When's the last time you saw Ironwing doing his exercises? Well, except when he's training Daring?”
The two shared a look and burst into giggles moments before the ship on their left exploded in a circle of rainbow colored light, the hull cracking into small pieces of wood. The burst of magic sent their ship veering hard to the right as the barrier around their boat struggled, and failed, to absorb the full force. A rainbow colored line zoomed off, circling around them.
Chaos reigned as the ponies tried to regather themselves. Diamond was sent flying back against the side of the boat, hitting it so hard she was sure a rib cracked. She could see the exploded ship falling to the ground, the ponies in it not moving, plummeting with it. Many having been impaled by wood fragments. She could hear screams from all sides.
The rainbow colored line then turned back towards them, racing forward.
“Shining!” Rainbow screamed before she flew out towards the front of the ship. The rainbow light veered back, slowing down before coming to a stop, a good twenty feet ahead of the other mare.
“Ah, so you WERE on this ship, eh?” the other pegasus asked. She had a wild, erratically colored coat and her mane was long, wild and silver. “Long time no see, old rust wings.”
“How are you here? You're supposed to be in prison!” Rainbow asked, her wings twitching.
Diamond finally fell forward, her entire body aching. The ship finally stopped shaking and she could slowly get to her hooves, though it hurt. She crawled to the other side of the small ship, peering over the side towards the ground below.
She could see the ponies and the ship on the ground. Nothing seemed to be moving, or if it was, not much.
“I let myself out, what can I say? Prison was boring.” She turned back around. “Why don't you come and try to stop me?” she taunted before taking off like a bolt.
Rainbow let out a roar of frustration before racing after the mare.
“Mom! Don't!” Prism yelled as he finally disentangled himself. “Buck it! Daring, Ironwing, we need to--” He stopped when he looked down and saw them. “Ironwing?”
The stallion was wrapped up into a little ball, his eyes closed as he rocked back and forth. “No no no no no...”
“Ironwing? Come on! We need to go help them! They got hit!”
“No no no no,” he said softly, shaking his head. “I... I can't... please...”
Daring looked down at him, before diving over the side of the boat towards the crashed vessel. Prism shook him again. “Ironwing, come on!”
“I... I can't... I can't... I just...”
“Ugh! You're useless!” Prism yelled before taking to the air and racing after Rainbow.
Silver frowned as Rainbow and Shining veered through the air, going lower and lower towards the ground. She couldn't tell if the former was driving her down, or if the latter was leading her. It was just--
Her eyes widened and she felt a surge through her heart. She quickly raced to the controls of the boat, slowly turning the ship to the right. “Diamond!”
“W-what?” the alicorn rasped.
“Get on the cannon, fire it up!”
“W-what? But--”
“Just do it!”
Diamond blinked, but slowly crawled to the cannon. She glanced back towards the other side of the ship. The others were crawling out of the collapsed supplies, at least looking better than she felt. But then, they had been surrounded by blankets and pillows.
------
If Rainbow could see, it would be nothing but red. She raced after Shining, her hooves out as she tried to catch up on the mare. She was gaining, slowly, but Shining had a small lead.
“Come on, you old hag! Try to keep up!” Shining yelled as she raced lower and lower towards the ground, skimming just above the sand.
Suddenly, as she passed a sand dune, it exploded out. Three ponies were inside it, though that didn't worry her.
Until one of them stepped forward and lifted a hoof towards her.
It felt as if her entire body split in two separate directions. Her bones and skin wanted to keep going, but all the liquids in her body stopped and started going in the opposite direction. She slowed down and stopped, whatever the magic was holding her slowly making her spread out, gasping with pain.
Shining chuckled as she lowered herself to the ground. “Wow, teach. What do you think of my new friend? He's a blood bender, pretty cool, huh?”
“Will you cease your incessant prattling and kill her already?” the pony asked.
“Ugh, fine.”
------
Diamond stared down at the ponies, her eyes wide with horror. The unicorn was wearing white robes and had a glimmering silver mane and a blue coat. There was an earth pony with them as well, he had a red coat and black mane. But the last one was what had her frozen in place.
Meadowbrook. The mare stood there, a new staff in hoof, her mask over her face and cloak over her body. Slowly the mare looked up at her and the alicorn froze in place.
“Diamond! Shoot! Shoot them!” Silver yelled.
“H-huh?” the Avatar asked, before getting shoved aside. Silver took the cannon, turning it directly at Meadowbrook before flipping the switch. An ominous hum filled the air, moments before a magical bullet shot out of the chamber.
Meadowbrook and the earth pony leaped away, the blast leaving a crater in the ground and sending sand flying through the air. Shining flew back and the unicorn holding Rainbow was sent flying to the side, allowing the mare to fly back. She didn't waste any time, flapping her wings once and sending a blast of air at the unicorn, hurtling him across the sand.
“T-that's... that's impossible...” Luna said softly as he gazed over the side of the ship. “How can Dazzling be here?”
Silver tried to reposition the cannon and once again the hum filled the air. “Celestia! Hit our shields with your lightning bending again! I need to charge it, quickly!”
Shining raced across the sand, grabbing Dazzling and then hauling him back. Meadowbrook and the earth pony gathered up. Rainbow sent a burst of wind at them, but a wall of solid sand launched up, enveloping the four.
A moment later, the sand fell and they were gone. Rainbow flapped her wings, sending the sand scattering into the air but there was no sign of them. She let out a roar of frustration so loud they could even hear it on the ship, before turning around and racing towards the broken ship.
------
A somber silence had fallen over the remaining vessels as they slowly made their way towards Harmony. The attack had been quick, but violent. Of the ten ponies on the ship that had crashed, only three had survived, and even they were in critical condition. Their healer was doing the best he could, but they needed to get real medical help if they were going to have any chance of survival. Not just a bit of healer bending.
Diamond didn't think she'd ever forget the sight of those who hadn't survived. They'd been inches from the sonic rainboom when it'd gone off. The boat they'd been on had been torn to pieces, wood chunks everywhere. The ponies had been skewered by the wood, torn apart by the rainboom and then fallen hundreds of feet to the sand below. The fact there had been any survivors had been a miracle.
Rainbow and Ironwing were both a mess, now. The former was furious and kept flying off on her own, trying to find any sight of the four. The latter was on the other ship, buried in blankets and refusing to come out. At first Prism had been angry with him, but now they were starting to get concerned. Something was definitely wrong with the pegasus and there was nothing they could do about it until they got to Harmony.
Yet Diamond couldn't shake a feeling of dread as they kept flying over the horizon towards the city. Something horrible must have happened back home. Meadowbrook was free. Shining Blast had somehow escaped and joined forces with that mare. The unicorn was Dazzling Sapphires, if Luna and Celestia were to be believed. The last pony was most likely a stallion known as Hothoof, another great threat and student of Applejack.
Whatever Meadowbrook had planned, it couldn't be good. Gathering together ponies that powerful didn't bode well for any of the countries.
------
The four ponies burst from the ground, miles away near a large mountain range. Shining took to the air, circling around and shaking the sand from her feathers. “Ugh, was all that really necessary? I'm going to be picking sand out of my feathers for weeks.”
“Please stop your inane chatter,” Dazzling said before he started walking towards a small cave in the side of the mountain. “If you had acted quicker, Rainbow would be dead and we wouldn't have to worry about her.”
“Bah, you worry too much,” Shining said with a dismissive wave of her hoof. “Trust me, she's good, but she's nowhere near as good as me. She--”
“Remains a dangerous threat and it would have been best to eliminate her now, while we have the element of surprise. Now that she knows we are here, she'll get in the way.”
“Yah know, yah two should jus' start makin' out already, the way yah two fight,” the earth pony said.
Shining groaned, shuddering. “With him? Ewwwwww. I'd rather kiss a minotaur.”
“Hothoof, please keep such ridiculous notions to yourself,” Dazzling said with a shake of his head. He then glanced towards Meadowbrook. “Now, Lord Tir... Mistress Meadowbrook, did we succeed?”
The mare nodded and trotted towards the cave, holding the staff in front of herself. “Perfectly. Discord's little chosen one is right where I suspected, near the Avatar. Now all I need to do is narrow down who it is,” she said coldly.
The cave was small, with a few baskets of food and sleeping bags. In the corner opposite the entrance a pink mare sat, rocking back and forth. Meadowbrook walked over and lightly tapped the staff on her head. “Hello, Starlight.”
“Unmarked, save, equality, chaos...”
“Yes, yes, truly fascinating,” the mare said with a shake of her head. “Sometimes I wonder why I ever saved you to begin with. You'll be happy to know we've found your cutie mark, though. And soon, we'll have the Avatar and... the other one in our hooves.”
“An' then we'll be in control, right?” Hothoof asked, a big grin on his face.
“Of course,” Meadowbrook said with a nod. “All your greatest dreams will come true once they are gone. Riches beyond your wildest dreams.”
“So, where we going next, then? We got the Avatar's attention, there's a next part to this plan, right?” Dazzling asked.
“Of course,” Meadowbrook said with a smirk. “Now we get to have a bit of... fun.”
------
Diamond's heart beat faster as she was led through the streets of Harmony. They'd come straight to the city, not even stopping at the outposts for help, so they could get the wounded to the best hospital available. Once they were safe, Shadowbolts had come down to gather her and her friends.
The city wasn't in shambles, but ponies were watching her closely as she walked. They looked scared. She couldn't blame them. If Meadowbrook was free, there was no telling what would happen now.
She let out a soft gulp once she was led into the council building, the seats all filled. She let out a yipe when Blaze rushed forward and hugged her. “Oh, Diamond! Thank heavens you're okay!”
“Ahem?” Prism asked, cocking an eye.
“I knew you were okay, you're not an idiot,” Blaze said.
“Hey!” Diamond objected. “I-I'm not an, just shush,” the alicorn said huffily.
The pegasus chuckled and took a step back. “Avatar, we--” She then paused, her eyes going over to Rainbow. “L-lady Rainbow. I... I had no idea--”
“Oh, don't you 'lady' me, Blaze,” Rainbow said with a shake of her head. “It's Rainbow, that's all. Now, I think you have a job or something for the Avatar?”
“Ah! Right, Avatar,” the pegasus said before flying back and landing in her chair. “It's disastrous. Meadowbrook has escaped and--”
“We know,” Diamond said with a nod of her head. “We were attacked by her, and a few other ponies.”
Blaze blinked, before slowly nodding. “Yes. Shining Blast, Dazzling Sapphires and Hothoof. Every one of those ponies are extremely dangerous, with powers beyond what most ponies could ever hope to have. I... have no idea how Meadowbrook even knew about them to begin with. While they all have a... well known history, their imprisoned locations were...” She sighed and rubbed her temple. “I suppose even they were well known enough. But for her to be able to release all of them. No, even worse than that. Meadowbrook's magic has gotten stronger.”
Diamond's eyes widened. “Wait, stronger? What do you mean?”
“She's not just stealing cutie marks anymore. The ponies she steals them from have lost all their magic.”
“W-what?”
“Every single ounce of it. The pegasi can no longer fly, the unicorns can't even do the smallest amount of magic, the earth ponies become sluggish and worn. Their minds are left unaffected though, it seems. But this is still quite dangerous, even deadly. One of the greatest threats Harmony has ever known has managed to draw three of the greatest threats the world has ever known under her banner.” She gave Diamond a nervous grin. “I'm... afraid to say, this is no longer just a threat for us to deal with.”
“What do you mean?”
Blaze took a slow, deep breath. “We've reached out to all the other nations and they are offering what assistance they can. Wonderbolts are out, constantly looking for them. And... well...”
There was a light knock on the door.
“That'd be them.” She gave a nod and the guards pulled the door open.
In the doorway stood Rarity, Sweetiebelle, Scootaloo and two orange earth ponies. One with a yellow mane and a cowpony hat, the other with a red mane and a big ribbon in her mane
“Applejack, Rarity!” Rainbow called out, a wide grin on her face.
“Rainbow? What are yah doin' here?” Applejack asked, her eyes widening. “An' here ah heard yah gone an' disappeared!”
“Well, you know me, always there when you least expect it,” Rainbow said with a big grin.
Rarity opened her mouth, before coughing. “Errr, as much as we'd love to go down memory lane, there are more important matters at hoof.” She turned towards Diamond. “Now, Avatar, normally I would never dream of stepping on your hooves and intruding on your matters, but... I'm afraid in this situation I truly must. Dazzling is a problem of the Water Nation and, even more so, he is a problem of my sister and I. We cannot allow him to continue. So we really must insist your allowance on aiding in this matter.”
Applejack snickered. “Allow nothin'! Hothoof is a plum idiot, but he's a mighty tough idiot. More'n that, he was mah student an' that makes 'im partially mah responsibility. Ah ain't gonna stand around while he goes an' gets somepony killed. Yah are welcome tah take the help of me an' mah sis, but if yah ain't, well, too bad.”
“Rainbow Dash...” Scootaloo said in awe, her eyes wide.
Diamond coughed into her hoof, quickly shaking her head. “A-ah. Uhhh... sure. I mean, I'd be... very grateful to have your help.” She bowed her head politely. “Thank you.”
Rarity chuckled into her hoof. “Oh, it is no matter, Avatar. We could hardly just stand back and say it's not our problem anymore, now could we?”
Rainbow grinned and then turned to the side. “Well, since most of the group is here together, I guess now's as good a time as any. Allow me to introduce Daring Do. Twilight's younger daughter.”
Silence reigned in the room for a few minutes as Daring raised her hoof in a small wave.
Finally, everypony spoke at once. “WHAT?!”
A few days late, but as promised, my season end review.
So this book was the equivalent to Spirits: the almost universally agreed worst book in the Avatar series.
Sad to say i think this is the weakest overall book other than Pegasus, and i can identify the reasons why.
Spirits was too ambitious for its own good, this series has the opposite problem, it felt too safe and low key. As bad as Spirits got, it was never boring. That isn't to say i dislike the book, i'm just a bit let down.
The Plot: I can directly point to the point where things started to go down hill, that village. Up until than the book was keeping up a good pace with a clear objective and character dynamics and goals. As soon as the group hits the village, the plot grinds a halt, and the character dynamic meanders around a lot. The big problem is the lack of direct conflict, or any challenge the group can just walk away from. Which brings us to...
Silver Spoon: I have to say that Silver was the biggest let down of the book. At first she was great, she played the two faced manipulator egging the plot along in her direction very well, and you could slowly see the doubt etching its way into her thinking. But then, she just kind of tapered off and never came back. She felt like she was just going through the motions. By the end Silver has accomplished her goal without any interference and she hasn't changed her viewpoint of herself, she just feels really bad about it now, as shown by her genuine attempts to help the group. We needed to learn more about Silver's past, we needed to see her interacting with Trixie, we needed to say Alicity's poor parenting have an affect on her, we needed Discord's Avatar to take center stage in a book called Discord, and we don't get it.
Diamond Tiara: Sad to say, but after Harmony, Diamond was a bit of a bore in Discord. Obviously we needed to have her spend some time rebuilding herself after she was torn down in book 1, but she barely made any progress. She still has her bad social skills, brutal honesty, and complaining, The latter two are part of her character and shouldn't be discarded, but we have very little new to replace the old. Diamond simply had to character arc in this story, just an objective. We know she would put her friends before anything, but that was played as a far bigger moment than it warranted. Diamond needs to get the self confidence back and soon, the best scene with her in this book was her owning Rainbow Dash in their first meeting. Diamond sees an issue, and isn't afraid to dispense with niceness to get something done, boom she near effortlessly owns a veteran by cutting through the bullshit.
Luna and Button: Ok, full disclosure, these two saved the book. Their romance and the interest surrounding it was way more interesting character stuff than anything else going on. It dodged a bunch of the romantic cliques and was just sweet in general. But the truly amazing thing is that it improved everything it was involved with. Best tense moment: Luna and the shmooze, best DT and SS moment: them debating on Button telling the truth, best moments for Celestia and Acrylic: giving advice to these two.
Acrylic and Celestia: Honestly, so little happened with these two that its not even worth commenting, not bad by any means but nothing great either.
Prism, Ironwing, and Rainbow Dash: These three have a good dynamic and there talk of the past makes for some of the strongest scenes in the book. Unfortunately it climaxes about halfway through leaving Prism with almost nothing to do. The others chummy relationship with Daring was good and i look forward to more.
Daring Do and Sunset Shimmer: I love that Twilight proved to be a believably loving but also not great parent (kind of a running theme with this series). Both show the effects of a poor circumstance upbringing well, and their interactions with Diamond, Dash, and each other were believable in their awkwardness and hostility. My only complaint was that we needed a scene after the fact that showed the two confronting each other over their respective poor points of upbringing.
The Big Problems:
1. Almost no wham moments. The shmooze almost getting Luna and maybe Twilight's death are all we get, but we already knew about the latter, so it has much less impact then it felt like it should.
2. Little pay off or resolution, their was no climax to all of this, DT, SS, and several others feel like their plots hit the end of a part 1 movie rather than a natural stopping point.
3. Way to much exposition, especially the origins backstory, that could've easily been made into a flashback.
So yeah, its still a good book, but it was lacking compared to the last 4.
4. Trixie remains completely uninteresting in something that features her head in the cover image.
5. All three of Tirek's henchman were related to past group teammates? That feels awfully contrived.
Briefly my Hopes for book 3:
1. Diamond gets her mojo back and stops taking shit
2. Big One: don't kill the old cast, there is so much more they can do for this story alive then dead, and killing them would be the cheapest way possible to raise the steaks, especially since we've already been shown that our cast aren't invincible with Twi's death and Rainbow's ambush.
3. More focus on Celestia and Acrylic, they need it.
4. Don't focus too much on the villains, the heroes are what we are here for. Korra made this mistake far too often.
You did an amazing job setting up the villains of the next book while still keeping the focus on the main story. We were given most of their back stories, and their abilities, and we were given them in an unobtrusive way. Hats off to you, and may the next story be posted soon.