Ultimate Equestria

by Leo Pachino

Chapter 015: Attack on Korsan

“Bring it.” Korsan declared.

The pirate captain and the bounty hunter lunged towards each other. Their blades struck in middle of the bar, and the battle began. Twilight observed the two fighting, almost rapt by Korsan’s fighting style. Every action was extremely fast and power, but kept a flare consistent with Korsan’s motif.

The metal blades struck each other in a harmonious rhythm, with every strike, lunge, parry, jab, and grind, all perfectly timed. As Korsan and the bounty hunter dueled, Korsan’s crew flooded into the bar and formed a circle around them. They were making sure the challenger isn’t going to escape.

Customers observing the brawl joined in the action. Shouts rung out among the patrons behind the crew’s backs, calling bets on when the grey pegasus is going to die. Not even Cecil, Maurice, and Jarvis were immune from the heat, as they were throwing the most bets around.

Eventually, the challenger gained the upper hoof and hit Korsan’s left cutlass at the hilt with a quick swing, launching it across the bar and hitting the bullseye on a dartboard.

“Ha!” The bounty hunter cheered.

His other wing blade and Korsan’s right sword collided together. The weapons locked together and grinded each other vigorously. Sparks showered down onto the wet floor, illuminating the fighters’ faces. The bounty hunter then swung his free wing once more, aiming for Korsan’s side.

Just as it was about to slice, it stopped. A loud metal clang echoed from the blade and through the building, bringing a wave a silence to the area. The hunter looked down to see Korsan’s unarmed metal fist, grabbing hold of the wing. The trapped pegasus immediately shook it side to side, but Korsan wouldn’t let go.

“Impressive.” Korsan said.

The grey stallion’s gaze returned back to his rival, who had the most mischievous grin plastered on his face.

“Though, another design flaw I’ve noticed is that, pegasi weapons…” Korsan said.

Before finishing his statement, Korsan pulled the wing blade to him. His rival’s entire body was launched into the air with Korsan. Everypony watched in awe as Korsan performed three sideways twirls in midair with the opponent still in his clutches before landing. The bounty hunter’s body smashed into an empty table.

With apple cider from the table pouring on his face, the bounty hunter was frozen stiff as pain rippled throughout his veins. All the defeated pony could do was to pant and wheeze, frozen in shock of whatever maneuver Korsan had just pulled. His eyes looked to his right to see Korsan kneeling next to his paralyzed body, still clutching onto the wing.

Korsan finished his previous statement, “…They tend to be a bit clingy, don’t you agree?”

The bounty hunter stuttered, “K-K-K-K-ma-ka-ko-”

“Don’t strain yourself, it’ll all be over in a minute.” Korsan assured him.

The pirate let go of the wing blade, only to grab the collar of the vest once again. He then raised his prey up into the air with one claw and his sword in another.

Korsan announced to the attendants present, “Behold! This is what happens when you try to mess with me! Any Earth pony or pegasi that gets in my way will not live to see the next day, so you all better watch yourselves. Am I clear?”

The room remained quiet, as all of the patrons were still shocked silent of the battle.

“I said, am I clear?!” Korsan barked.

“Y-Yes.” They all nervously responded.

“Good.”

Korsan’s glare turned to the barmaid. He slowly walked to her with his fallen rival in tow.

“Hey, November Gale, open for the weekend? My ice phoenix Juliana has learned a new trick I would like to show you.” Korsan said in pride.

“Go away Korsan,” she sternly replied. “You’ve already caused enough damage to this place. I don’t want your parrot to freeze this place.”

“Come on, November, you know you can’t resist a pony like me.” Korsan gloated.

“Yes, I can, and if you’re going to be causing any bloodshed, do it outside.”

“Fine. If you’ll excuse me, I have some business to attend to.”

With that said, Korsan carried the bounty hunter through the open door and into the rainstorm, having grown even more severe over the past hour. As the wooden door slowly swung close, Twilight and the others caught a glimpse of Korsan’s ship parked right outside the bar. Faint mumbles were heard amongst the rain through the walls of the tavern.

Slowly, the patrons inside that are wearing hats took them off and held them up to their chest. The other patrons followed by simply clutching their chests. Korsan’s crew, however, roared and cheered as they seated themselves at any empty seats they can find.

Twilight and the gang looked back at November to see her clutching her chest as well.

“Poor soul,” November uttered below her breathe.

The mumbling noises outside stopped abruptly with an audible clunk sound.

“Poor, poor, soul,” November silently cried.

“Did he just,” Twilight asks, her face rapidly turns pale.

“Yes... I feel so ashamed just for even being associated with him. You’ve paid off your bounty. Get out of here now while you still have the chance.”

“I’m going to pass out!” Fluttershy quietly exclaimed, her stomach growing queasy.

“I’m gonna puke.” Pinkie and Spike groaned.

“That atrocity to all pony-kind!” Rarity hollered.

“We want to go home now!” The three fillies cried out in fear.

“That’s it,” Applejack declared. “I’m drawing the line here, somepony’s gotta stop him.”

“Yeah!” Rainbow Dash agreed, smacking her hooves together.

“Don’t!” November snapped. “You saw what he did. Not even a seasoned bounty hunter could stop him. He could kill all of you!”

“Not if we work together.” Dash said.

“Even if the entire bar joined in, Korsan and his crew will just kill us all. I don’t want to let you all get sliced up into tiny pieces by him. Get out!” November demanded, stamping a hoof into the floor.

“We ain’t leaving.” Applejack snapped back, “Us friends are going to stick together and take on any weather he throws at us.”

The front door then was thrown open, as Korsan returned into the tavern with Chopin, the mine, trailing behind. The white unicorn stallion was levitating the Diamond Eye and its counterpart behind him.

“The Diamond Eye!” Twilight silently exclaims. “And its other half! They’re here!”

“Just put the Diamond Eyes on that table,” Korsan told to his mime accomplish, pointing at a large round table right beside Twilight’s. “I have some things to sort out.”

“Two Diamond Eyes?” Twilight asked herself.

While Chopin set down the two large crystals on top of each other, his captain walked over to the dartboard where his sword got stuck. He yanked it out and returned it back behind his back with the other sword.

“If you can get the jump on them, we might be able to snatch the Diamond Eye and get out of here.” Twilight whispered to Rainbow Dash.

“In our wreck of a ship?” Rainbow replied. “And we aren’t fleeing, we’re going to stop Korsan.”

“His fighting technique was perfect against a veteran bounty hunter armed with his own technology. November’s served Korsan for quite some time, she probably knows we can’t win.”

As Twilight and the others watching quietly argued, Korsan walked away from the dartboards and billiard tables and approached the serving counter.

“November Gale,” the pirate pegasus said to her. “I assume that at least one of my bounties have been caught by now.”

“I’m sorry, but they paid off the bounty, all ten million bits.” November retorted in spite.

“They what?! Impossible!” Korsan exclaimed.

“A messenger brought us the money from an anonymous source. If you don’t believe me, look at what Grivs is guarding back there.”

Korsan’s single eye rapidly switched to the back of the room and saw the giant grey unicorn sitting next a massive crate with golden bits visibly seen brimming the top. He examined the wood, noticing a familiar look and scent in the planks.

“Northwestern Equestrian Oak, it is them.” Korsan hissed.

“Well, now that that’s been taken care of, how about you leave?” November rudely asked.

“Ha, ha, ha, I have some business I want to attend to, regarding your father.”

Slowly, the brown stallion reached behind his back and caressed the metal hilts of his swords.

Korsan told her, “I want to have a wo-”

“Captain Korsan!” Maria called out to him from Chopin’s table.

“What?!” Korsan barked back.

“You might want to check this out.” Maria said.

Now annoyed, Korsan stomped away from the serving counter and met up with Maria and Chopin, both carefully observing the Diamond Eyes stacked on top of each other.

“What is it?” Korsan asked.

“Well, while you were preoccupied, Chopin was organizing the Diamond Eyes and made an interesting discovery. The two parts fit together not by their edges, but by their faces.”

“Demonstrate.”

Quickly, Chopin levitated the top crystal and motioned his hooves over the bulges underneath. He then motioned his hooves over the grooves on top of the lower Diamond Eye before putting the two together, with the bulges fitting inside the grooves and making a single Diamond Eye.

“Impressive, they do go together. But why like this? Not all of the grooves have been filled. Yet, nothing seems to be missing. It’s like those grooves were made to be like that.” Korsan stated.

Taking advantage of the moment, Twilight slid out of her seat and snuck up behind the captain. She was terrified, but knew this may be her only chance to get a good look at the Diamond Eyes. Peering over his shoulder, Twilight examined the crystals, trying to figure out what was going on.

“These symbols still don’t correlate with any of my studies on that blasted island. What am I missing? Another piece perhaps?” Korsan asked his crew.

“Could very well be, Captain.” Maria said.

Carefully, Korsan grabbed the two pieces together and lifted. The faces of the crystals faced Twilight and the lantern at the center of the table, inadvertently causing the light from the fire to magnify and refract through the crystals. Refracted light blasted in Twilight’s eyes, temporarily blinding her. Quickly, the purple alicorn hovered up in the air and recovered her vision.

Korsan, unaware of what happened, continued to ask himself questions, “Where would it be though? In the middle of Eternity’s Crossing? No. Under Vaporia? No. Lost in the Ley Lines? No, no, no, it would’ve never gotten to any of those places. Based on records and my studies, there shouldn’t even be a third part. So what am I not seeing? Maria, Chopin, Have you tried swapping the top and bottom?”

“Yes, but they don’t fit Captain.”

“Blast…”

“Careful, you might blind yourself with that reflected light.”

“You’re right.”

Immediately, a memory flickered in Twilight’s mind.

Wait, Twilight thought to herself. At the gala, when Luna’s moonbeams hit the Diamond Eye, symbols appeared on the wall because of the light. What if the second eye…

With a snap of the neck, Twilight looked behind where she was hovering and saw a line of symbols made of light glowing on the wall.

What if the second eye is a filter to condense the reflections into one image?! Twilight internally exclaimed.

“Bah,” Korsan groaned. “I may have to look at this later. I have some business to take care of. Maybe another minute of looking,”

Time had become sparse. Twilight had to gain as much of a lead ahead of Korsan as she can.

Now filled with a sense of urgency, Twilight hastily scanned the image top to bottom in her mind, memorizing every symbol and their position. Upon finishing, Twilight looked back over Korsan’s shoulder. After what Korsan had just done, Twilight decided to rub in her victory by blowing a silent raspberry.

Unbeknownst to her, Twilight raspberry released a scent from her body, permeating the air between her and Korsan.

Wait a minute. Korsan contemplated to himself as the scent wafted into his nose. Northwestern Equestrian Oak.

Within half a second, the pirate captain snapped his focus to the outer part of the combined Diamond Eyes. He saw a blurry, purple reflection. Korsan drops the crystals immediately, leapt from his position, and swiped his hoof to where he saw the blur. His claws snapped and slashed, only to swat at nothing.

“Where did she-” Korsan said to himself.

“Is there a problem?” Maria asked.

Korsan remained silent, dumbfounded at what had happened.

“…None, I think it’s time that I finish my business.” Korsan said to his crewmember.

Korsan walked back up to the serving counter, oblivious to Twilight hiding under his table. Carefully, the cloaked alicorn crawled her way back to her seat. She and the others listened in on Korsan as he engaged with November.

“You again,” November groaned upon seeing him. “You don’t have any more business with me and my father anymore.”

“Oh really?” Korsan asked with a grin, resetting his clawed hooves over his swords. “Because I’ve heard he’s been doing a bit of talking recently, making a little stain upon my mark.”

November bent her head down, defeated.

“That bounty hunter told you, didn’t he?” She asked.

“Sang like a canary, he did. Now, I don’t want to cause anymore killing sprees, I want to save those for when my image has been affiliated with being a unicorn. However, if somepony wants to keep talking about my inferior self, I going to have to take action. May you please get your father out here?” Korsan demanded.

“No. Go away.”

“I’m not asking a question, I’m issuing a command. Get Nitin Gale, out here, now.”

“No!”

“Get him out here now!”

“Never!”

“I will climb over this counter and get him myself!”

“Stay back!” November screamed, revealing a small dagger from underneath the counter.

She held it up to Korsan’s chin and poked at his flesh. Korsan retaliated by grabbing November by the neck with one hoof and tossing her aside, causing her to smack onto the side of the counter. A pain-riddled gasp escaped from the mare.

“Time we meet again old mate!” Korsan screamed Nitin on the other side of the kitchen doors.

As Korsan climbed over the counter, Twilight jumped into action and swung her wooden chair at him, smashing it against his back. Roaring in shock and pain, Korsan hastily grabs one of his swords and swiped it behind him. Although the blade missed Twilight, the gush of wind caused by the speed of the swing blew off the hood of the mare’s cloak. As Korsan turned around to fight, Twilight had been revealed right before him.

Korsan exclaimed, “Twilight Sparkle!”