And Now Things get Serious
Fortunately, although we stopped tailing Celestia yesterday, she isn't hard to find again. The last thing she is doing on her little vacation is taking a private cruise with her guard, who all must be very pleased that they get a free cruise. Twilight and I awoke early as ever and flew over to the harbor and I spotted them immediately.
"Well well, look at that," I declare in amusement. "It looks like the princess is finally taking advantage of her position to do something extravagant for herself."
This wasn't a sarcastic statement either. Celestia and her guard are boarding a rather large wooden sea vessel. The decks are all dressed in finery and luxury befitting a luxury cruise, but the ship was shaped like no other in the harbor, and was also the biggest as well. I know very little about boats, so I decide to ask Twilight about it.
"That is clearly not a normal ship," I say observationally. "Certainly nothing else like it around here. What kind of ship is that anyway?"
Twilight stares at the ship critically for a moment before answering. "Discord, that's Celestia's private ship of the line, the Negotiatior. They have altered it so that it doesn't look as intimidating as it normally should, but I am fairly sure that is the Negotiator."
I give Twilight a dumbfounded look. "Wait wait wait, you're telling me that that is a war ship and it is called the 'Negotiator'?"
"Yes, that's right."
I burst out laughing.
"Celly... actually named her... the 'Negotiator'... oh my chaos, that's not like her and yet it is also just like her and at the same time so hilarious!"
Twilight blushed a bit. "I suppose the name is a bit ironic, especially if that ship is ever forced to fulfill the role which it is outfitted for, but it is not unreasonable for Princess Celestia to come to a negotiation while armed."
"Oh yeah sure," I say mirthfully. "I can see it now! That ship is just sailing along in the ocean and suddenly they get attacked by pirates and Celestia says to them, 'Nooooo we just want to negotiate,' and the pirates answer back 'Negotiate this!' and start shooting. And then..." I trail off as I realize exactly how the rest of this hypothetical situation would go. "And then they would be blown out of the water by that monstrously huge frigate. Actually, those pirates were a bunch of idiots for attacking that thing in the first place. What were they thinking?"
"That's what would happen if the Princess was not actually on board at the time," answers Twilight. "If she was, I don't think cannon fire would ever even reach the ship, and the pirates would probably all be out cold in an instant. Although, that's not the kind of business that the Negotiator takes care of, so it probably won't actually ever happen."
"And taking Celestia on a cruise is the kind of business that they get up to, is it?"
"Well, its purpose is to serve Princess Celestia's needs, so yes, actually. Although, I am fairly certain that the Princess is fully capable of teleporting directly to any meeting that she needs to, even in an entirely different nation, although of course she never does. Despite the frigate, she doesn't want to appear to be intimidating personally."
"Yes, I suppose it does make sense to make everyone else think that the big boat and the guard are the biggest threat around," I muse.
"More or less," says Twilight with a shrug.
I notice that Cellestia seems to have appeared from somewhere while we were talking. She is openly walking through the harbor without a disguise, but I guess there aren't that many ponies around that will bother her.
We watch in silence as she talks to a few ponies and eventually goes on board the gigantic ship.
"They'll probably be casting off soon," I say.
"So do you have any idea what you want to do?" asks Twilight. "Now that you've seen where she'll be?"
"Honestly, I don't, but I'm not worried about it. We should have all day to think of something. For now, I just want to see what Celestia considers to be a fun cruise."
The Negotiator (I have to interrupt my own thoughts here to snicker) set off soon enough into the wild blue yonder. It appears that all of the passengers have taken seats around tables on... the main deck. I don't know nautical terms, who knows what it's actually called.
"What is she doing?" I ask, looking down at the princess, who was sitting on a red cushion in front of a table and all by herself.
"She doesn't appear to be doing anything at the moment," Twilight answered. "She's probably just enjoying the air."
"You want to go down there and see what happens?"
"You mean try to land this thing on the deck of a moving ship?" asked Twilight in surprise.
"No, I just mean get closer in the machine."
"Oh, of course. Alright, I guess we can."
It didn't take much time to lower our blimp suitable near the Princess. By the time I was satisfied with our position, a rather amusing development had taken place below. One of the guards had pulled up a seat and was hoof wrestling the Princess.
And Celestia was just sitting there grinning at the guard as his face turned red with exertion.
"This is certainly odd," I say out loud. "How is she that strong? Physically, I mean."
"I have no idea," responds Twilight.
The other guards are taking note of the activity and many are now rising from their seats to crowd around the princess and her opponent. And now they are screaming encouragement at their poor comrade.
There are a few other ponies on board besides just the Princess and her guard. Probably sailors permanently stationed on the ship, if I had to guess from their uniforms. Several of them are watching the spectacle, but none join in.
It occurs to me that there is no way that the guard would act like this around royalty unless Celestia specifically invited them to.
Huh. Well, look at that, maybe she does practice what she preaches after all.
Suddenly, I can just barely make out the Princess's own taunting amidst the screaming. "If you require a handicap, I will not begrudge you for using two hooves!"
Her opponent groaned in frustration, but, to my surprise, actually took Celestia up on her offer and began using both front hooves in his attempt to bring the princess's own down.
But Celestia still hadn't stopped grinning, and even though I'm not particularly close to the competition, I am fairly sure that her hoof isn't budging.
"And now the fun has been doubled!" I hear Celestia cry out.
For some reason, this strange phrase causes the other guards to all stop their cheering and stare at her. And then they all start booing at her.
Celestia is of course unaffected by this, and if anything, her grin just grows even wider.
Her opponent suddenly and without warning begins using his horn to magically put even more power behind his hooves. I am pretty sure that this is blatant cheating, but the guy clearly needs all the help he can get. The others renew their cheering, even louder than before, strangely. And, yup, Celestia still hasn't stopped grinning at the fool.
He finally pulls his hoof away in surrender, eliciting a moan of disappointment from his peers. Almost immediately, another one steps forward and takes his seat.
And the whole process starts over again.
This guy doesn't have any more success than the last one.
And now both he and the previous guard are hoof wrestling Celestia at once.
Celestia appears to be delighted at this development.
"You're going to need more than that!" she cries at them.
Oh, by chaos, now she's actually taunting them.
Another guard joins the battle. And then another and another and another and another and another and holy cerulean cotton candy cookies how the hay is Celestia still standing?
Suddenly Celestia pulls away and the group of guards breaks apart. Wait, did they actually manage to take her down? Oh, no wait, there was somepony being swallowed up by the mob that they were suffocating under all of their bodies. Everyone else is helping the fellow to his feet and asking if he is alright, even Celestia.
I turn to look at Twilight, who is already staring back at me with a shocked expression.
"You know," I say slowly, "if I actually relied on physical prowess to fight, I would actually be a little bit scared of your teacher at this point."
"I had no idea she was that strong."
"Unless she was cheating too," I realize. "She didn't seem to be using any active spells, but I am almost positive that her regalia is enchanted, but I have no idea what with. So there is no telling how much of that was actually her."
"Still... Yikes."
"Yeah... But, you know, that was pretty funny too, the way that she showed up her entire guard like that. I like it. She should act like that more often."
I hear a cheer from below, and take a look.
Oh, its just the guards all being happy that their buddy is fine.
Celestia has started speaking to them, but now that they aren't all shouting, I can't hear what she is saying from here.
Suddenly I can hear her just fine when she loudly declares, "A fine idea! I will speak to captain Brackenhund!"
She walks away toward the helm.
"What was that about?" I ask.
"Discord, if you would just be patient and watch, I'm sure you will find out."
I watch as Celestia approaches the captain. Their conversation doesn't last long, and when its over, a piece of deck next to Brackenhund drops out like a trapdoor and some sort of metal thing comes rising out of the hole with a lever and a few buttons on it.
"What?" I ask in confusion.
"Uhhhh..." says Twilight, obviously just as surprised as I am at this.
The captain taps one of the buttons and hear a rumbling noise from behind the ship.
"What in the name of chaos is going on here?" I cry out, the noise still going all the while.
"Let's go see?" proposes Twilight.
"Of course we're going to go see!"
I get the blimp into motion and steer it toward the rear of the ship. It doesn't take long to see what is causing the noise, even before we're behind the ship.
"Why is the hull of the rear of the ship opening up?" I ask.
Twilight doesn't even answer me.
We race to get behind the ship, and when we get there, I can see exactly what's going on.
I can see that the sections of the ship where the hull retracted from is filled with some sort of machinery, and there are four giant propeller arrays that are being pushed out of the interior of the frigate into the water.
"Huh." I declare in deadpan. "I'm not easily impressed, but that's impressive."
"I had no idea that the Negotiator could do that!" cries Twilight.
The propeller arrays, now fully immersed into the water, suddenly kick on, and almost right away the ship starts moving away.
"Um, Twilight, I think we are going to need more thrust," I say as I begin the process of lifting the blimp higher into the sky.
"I think you are right," she answers back. She lights her horn up and flips the magic engine in our own craft on.
As the blimp starts to rise above the Negotiator, I see that the unicorns amongst the guard are retracting the sails of the ship. I realize then that they are doing that because the sails are actually going to slow them down if they don't.
The ship is rapidly getting away from us, and I let Twilight know this.
"I am aware, Discord!" she says in frustration. "We can't accelerate as fast as they appear to be! What in Celestia's name did they do to that boat, I mean it has got to be the fastest thing on water, holy hearthswarming!"
Fortunately, the ship seems to reach top speed quickly enough, and even though we are way behind, I think that we are catching up. There is an awful lot of wind going past us though, and this blimp is pretty far from aerodynamic.
"Are we catching up to them?" I ask Twilight, loudly to make myself heard over the wind.
"It looks like it, but only barely. We have our engine at full power."
"You know, I think the Princess pulled a fast one on us for once, and she still doesn't actually even know that we're here!"
"How does it feel?" asks Twilight.
"To be honest? I actually rather like it that she is making this so interesting!" I say with a grin.
With time, we eventually catch back up to the Negotiator and equalize our speed with it. And then I hear Twilight gasp.
"What have they done now?" I ask eagerly, looking down at the ship.
"It's not them, It's them!" says Twilight, motioning with her hoof.
I follow Twilight's motions to the sides of the boat, and then I see what she is so excited about.
There is a pod of dolphins swimming alongside the ship, apparently fast enough to keep up. They are swimming just under the surface, but as I am watching I see that they are all taking turns doing little leaps out of the water, as though they are begging for the attention of the ships passengers.
"Do they know that the princess is on that ship?" I ask in confusion.
"I don't think so, its not like they can actually see who is on the deck before they actually come and look over the sides."
Twilight is right, the passengers on the Negotiator have taken notice and are running to the edge to watch the spectacle.
One of the dolphins disappears into the depths. I was starting to wonder where it had gone when suddenly it came shooting way up out of the water and did a three-sixty spin in the air before splashing back into the ocean again.
"They're just doing this for fun?"
"I guess so! This is so neat!" cried Twilight in happiness.
The other dolphins seem to take turns doing flips for their audience. Celestia appears to have taken her cushion and seated herself along the railing and is resting her chin on it while admiring the show.
"I know that you weren't expecting this to happen," says Twilight, and I turn my head and see that she has taken a moment to look away from the dolphins and at me instead, "but I still have to thank you for taking me to this fantastic show. It's perfect." She leans her head into me in such a way that she can continue to watch.
I wrap an arm around Twilight even as I come to a startling realization.
I'm going to have to thank Celestia later for setting us up with another date.
The dolphin show lasted for at least an hour. Unfortunately for me, their repertoire of tricks was somewhat limited, so I honestly found it to be a tad boring after a little bit, but Twilight was perfectly happy to watch all the while, and that was good enough for me.
But now, without apparent ceremony, all of the dolphins turned straight around and swam away from the ship.
"Oh, that's disappointing," said Twilight. "I suppose they must have gotten tired."
"It looks like Celestia's guard is disappointed too," I mention uneasily.
Wait, why am I uneasy?
Having consciously asked myself this, I quickly realize why. There is another source of magic in the area, but it is completely foreign to me. Somehow.
"What is that...?" I mutter.
"Huh?" says Twilight. "What's what?"
I ignore her for a moment and focus on the new magic. It's... underwater? And... oh dear me, its probably quite powerful too.
"Twilight!" I say, suddenly very serious and speaking urgently. "Something is wrong! Something is coming!"
"Huh!" cries Twilight in bewilderment. "What are you talking about? What's coming?"
"I don't know!" I cry in frustration.
Suddenly a loud noise pierces through the air. It sounds like a mare singing some slow, drawn out garbage.
My insides squirm as I realize that I have encountered this magic before, albeit a long, long time ago.
"Oh crud." I deadpan.
Suddenly the propellers on the ship sputter and die, and the Negotiator rapidly decelerates.
All of the ponies have figured out something is wrong by now too. Celestia is really shouting her head off.
But the ordinarily obedient and rapid to respond guard aren't reacting to any of this at all. They're all just standing around at the edge of the ship like zombies. And the ship's dedicated crew too, captain included.
A giant green serpentine figure erupts from the water, its maw still wide open and emitting that freakin' siren song. Water rains down from her body everywhere as the ocean around her settles again from the sudden intrusion. Her scales are almost iridescent, and as I look at the enormous creature that is half the height of Celestia's ship, a sense of dread fills my heart.
She finally stops singing that terrible garbage she calls music and stares down at the ship, the masts being the only part that challenges her size, even though she is coiled up in the air like a snake preparing to strike, and they are thin and appear pathetic in comparison.
She speaks a single word with a voice that seems to echo in my ears. "You..."
Celestia starts to shout something back at the creature in the royal canterlot voice (A rarity for her, to be sure), but I suddenly realize that while my crazy anatomy makes me immune to her song, Twilight would not have that luxury. I look down to the pony still in my grasp and-
"Discord, what is that thing?" Twilight whispers in utter horror.
"How did you-" I begin, but then I cut myself off. It doesn't matter right now, I should just be thankful that Twilight doesn't seem to be under that thing's spell. "Never mind. That's a siren, Twilight."
"What's a siren?"
"It's a creature that can use their voice to enchant others into doing their bidding!"
Some of the color drains from Twilight's face.
"Oh no!"
"Oh no?" I cry at her. "That's an understatement! If I had my powers back, that stupid fish would be sorry, but..."
I let that hang in the air.
"Discord, I have to get down there and help the Princess!"
"Ugh, right!" I cry, suddenly feeling very meek. Together we set the blimp in motion.
"I don't think I can be of any help to you, you realize," I say to her as we drop down toward the ship.
"Maybe, maybe not, but either way, I am going to the princess!"
Now that Twilight and I have stopped talking, I catch what the siren and Celestia are saying.
"You will do as I say and lower your defenses against my song," stated the giant monster, "because they are already under my control. If you defy me, I'll order them all to jump into the water. And, furthermore, if Celestia attacks me, I order you all to jump into the water. And if you, Celestia, attempt to safeguard even one of them from me, I'll order them to jump in the water. You will probabily be able to save a lot of them, but you won't save them all."
Celestia doesn't answer immediately, but Twilight does.
"What did it just say!?
She scrambles for the altitude control and forces the blimp into a stop.
"You wouldn't!" cries Celestia.
"Normally, no, I wouldn't," answered the siren's booming voice. "Normally I just simply take control of every pony on board and take them away to worship me, But, I must confess that I originally had no idea that you were on board this vessel. You clearly have some form of protection from my song, and I am no fool. I am very much aware that I cannot get away from you now, and that I cannot beat she who raises the very sun in a fight. So I do what I have to ensure my victory and continued freedom."
"You are a monster."
"I am a queen," answers back the siren, having taken no offense to the petty insult.
"A queen of subjects with no free will!" shouted Celestia.
The siren shrugged. "That suits me just fine."
Celestia stayed silent.
"Twilight," I say nervously. "You know those miraculous solutions that you always do to save the day? You've got one of those ready, right?"
"No! I can't interfere now! You heard what she said would happen if I do!"
"You will regret this!" shouted Celestia spitefully.
"I very well might," the siren agreed, to my surprise. Normally giant monsters are dumber than that. "I have stayed safe for this long by never allowing myself to grow over-ambitious, and staying away from your gazing eyes. But here you are out in the middle of the ocean, away from your home and in the middle of mine, all alone. Even had I known you were here, I dare say I would have come for you anyway. The advantage is mine."
I feel a pulse of magic from Celestia, but nothing seems to happen.
"Wait," I say. "Did she just-"
"Do it!" cries Celestia.
The siren starts singing that infernal song once again.
Twilight starts screaming in panic. "Princess! Princess, no!"
The song ends as quickly as it began.
"There," declares the siren in satisfaction. "Now was that so hard, Celestia?"
"I live to serve, Lady Lento."
I blink in astonishment.
"No! NOOO" screams Twilight, squirming in my arms.
"Did that siren just do what I never could do and defeat Celestia?" I ask.
"Discord, this isn't the time for that!" bellows Twilight. "My mentor, my oldest friend in the world just got brainwashed into serving an evil creature!"
"So let me get this straight. That siren, who Celestia called Lady Lento, just defeated Celestia."
"Yes, Discord, we just went over that!"
"But," I continue, "the only reason that she was able to was because she threatened the ponies that Celestia was with?"
"Yes! The wretched thing is despicable!"
"Yeah she is, I never resorted to that kind of malevolence even in my most spiteful fantasies about getting revenge!"
"Celestia!" cries the Siren. "I want you to encase this vessel in a magic seal that will keep the air in and then follow me into the depths. Are you capable of doing that?"
"Of course, Lady," came Celestia's sickeningly cordial reply.
Celestia's horn lit up with a literal boatload of power and a gargantuan yellow sphere of magic rose up around her and spread out, enveloping the entire ship. And then the sphere began to sink down into the water, pulling the Negotiator down with it, although thankfully the ponies on board appeared to be safe from drowning, as magic shield was acting as a sort of air pocket that the sea water would not fill. I realized that this moment was one the likes of which I was unlikely to see again, prompting me to grab the camera with my free claws and holding it up toward the scene. I mashed the take-a-picture button about... twelve times or so. Finally the creature known as Lady Lento gave a satisfied nod and then dived down into the water, disappearing. The entire ship submerged entirely into the ocean and the water filled in the space which the shield had occupied. Although the shield did give off a radiant yellow light even underwater, it rapidly sank away so that it was impossible to see any more.
Twilight cried throughout the entire thing.
"And to top it all off," I said in a monotone voice, "Celestia, who is apparently under Lento's complete control, still has all of her magic power, and just pulled the entire Negotiator underwater, and we don't know where they went."
Twilight's crying escalates to howling sobs at this point.
I realize that I probably should be doing something to comfort her. I try patting her in a comforting manner, but it just seems awkward. But that's not the only thing I can do.
"Oh no, no no no no no, we're not having this. Nobody," I suddenly scream at the top of my lungs, "messes with Celestia, except me! Twilight, there's no need for tears. Not when we can be doing something about it!"
"What can we do!?" screams Twilight. "Even if I had all of my friends and the elements of harmony here with me, it wouldn't do any good because we don't know where they went, and even if we knew where they went and had the ability to get there, we can't do anything to Lento because she will just order Celestia to fight us, and if we try to use the elements on Celestia, Lento will interfere, and if we use them on Lento, Celestia will interfere, and we can't keep either one of them distracted because I would have to use the elements on whoever isn't being distracted, which means that I can't do the distracting, and I wouldn't be able to stand up to Celestia or Lento by myself anyway, and you can't do it either!"
"Right. Because I don't have any magic."
"Exactly! You don't have your-"
Twilight cut herself off and looked up at me. I waved my clawed hand at her in a motion that indicated 'continue'.
"But we can get your magic back!" Twilight cried out in realization. "We can go back and get it right now! And then the instant you get it back..."
"I can kick that siren's flanks," I finished.
"But what about Princess Celestia?" cried Twilight.
I thought about it for a second.
"Actually, I just realized that we're going to have to talk to Luna to get my powers back, and when we tell her what just happened, whew, she is going to be mad! At the siren, obviously, not us. Anyway, she'll be rearing for a fight. I'm sure that she'd be willing to help us out."
"You're right. You're right! That could actually work! If we leave right now, we can make it back to Manehatten in just over an hour and take the train to Canterlot. I'll ensure the train moves as fast as it possibly can go and we should be able to reach the palace by this evening! Once we get your powers back, you can teleport everybody right back here with just a snap! I... I just wish that this plan didn't involve leaving Celestia under that creature's power for half of a day..."
"It's the best plan we've got," I remind her. "Don't worry, Lento isn't going to hurt her. There is, however, the possibility that she will abuse Celestia's power somehow. Oh, and Twilight, we won't actually need anypony else to help us. You've got me!"
"Maybe..." says Twilight hesitantly. "But either way, we should really get moving!"
We both scramble to get this blimp the heck out of here.
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Going to be honest with you all here, this chapter scares me a little bit, because it probably changes the tone of the story more than any other chapter. And it started out all pleasant-like with dolphins and stuff too. I would like to know what you all think.
Ooooh, are we gonna see Discord kick ass when he gets his magic back?
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I have the exact same problem that the show writers have when it comes to Discord. He is so powerful that he could solve all sorts of problems without even trying, and so when writing a story where he has his magic and gets into conflict with someone, it's tricky to do without him winning effortlessly, and yet is also tricky to restrain him in a believable way. But I hope that I pulled it off satisfactorily. Yes, he does get to throw down. :)
hmmm seems a bit forced and came from nowhere but if you make up some sorta convincing backstory about this villain it should be fine.
Well, conflict is a thing, that’s fine. A few chapters covering the ensuing battles would be no terrible thing. Going all war dark and fellowship of the ring for the whole rest of the story may get a litttle wearing though.
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It is a little bit out of nowhere, I'll admit. But I didn't just pull some random villain out of nowhere just to stir things up. The reason that it is a siren is that it allows for me to set up a scenario where Discord can't just solve everything with a snap of magic even when he does get it back, and also sets up a real reason for Discord to get into a fight with Celestia. My system of story writing basically states that I don't write the story trying to make anything specific happen. Instead, I try to play out how the characters would realistically react to their situation based on their existing personalities and I don't actually make them do anything, the only thing I do is put things into the world for them to deal with, and then see what happens. If the way the way that they react isn't what I want, I think of a different idea instead. It is much more time consuming than making characters do what you want, but more believable that way. This villain out of nowhere is an example of me dropping something on them and seeing how they react, and it is much more intense than other parts of the story where I did the same thing because we're approaching the climax point soon. I do know that many people were disappointed that Discord didn't get to do anything really all that special when he went to the changeling hive, the only thing he did was something that anybody could have done, so, I'm avoiding spoilers here, but what I'm hoping for here is to depict a somewhat similar situation but with him being less restrained. The keyword being 'less' restrained. Of course, I'm not here to tell you to approve of what I'm doing before you've even read it. You'll have to wait for more chapters to judge whether or not the whole thing is likable.
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I'll just go ahead and give this small tidbit away so as to alleviate this particular fear. This particular problem will be dealt with within twenty-four of their hours. Changing the tone of this story to dark when it has been humorous and mostly lighthearted up until now would be a terrible idea and I'm not doing that. By the way, you can totally see why I said I was slightly afraid about this chapter, lol.
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Oh yeah, and I should also mention, even in the short time that they are in this tense situation, the Discord humor doesn't go away. So it's not even that dark during that either.
horse pun or raring? :)
(And Now Things Got Serious)
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. Also, if the only corrections you are offering are from the same chapter as where you are leaving the comment, then listing the chapter shouldn't be necessary.
Actually it is a pun this time, although when I make puns that look like errors people always have to wonder
sir we need a lot more firepower
Well of course somebody can complain! Hell, there’s this one ’tard on /mlp/ who is always bitching about Equestria Girls not being canon—
—carry on, good sir.
I would imagine Celestia's not faking her being under the Siren's pull, considering she suddenly knew the Siren's name. So there goes that option. Which I guess means it's left up to Twilight and Discord to save the day.
Still, this is the sort of thing that if you follow the canonical timeline, either it would have had to have happened off-screen and Princess Celestia somehow resolved it...or Discord's and Twilight's actions somehow make Celestia go off on vacation and run into the siren. I find that a little bit doubtful, to be honest. Or I could just accept that it's something made up entirely for this fic, because there sometimes has to be drama.
Still, Discord will school the siren pretty hard should he come back into his own quickly.