Ultimate Equestria

by Leo Pachino

Chapter 030: Déjà Vu (Part 1)

Back on The Perfection’s deck, a vicious battle between Twilight’s crew and Korsan’s crew had unfolded, and was growing more intense by the second. Twilight, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Spike, and the foals were trapped on Lightning Rod surrounded on all sides by pirates. They fired the small cannons of the speeder into the incoming hordes of armed pirates. Cannon balls bulleted the floorboards and sent pirates flying across the ship. As they fought, Lightning Rod slid and whipped across The Perfection, smashing into masts and forming craters in the woodworks.

All was at the whim of the giant carnivorous worm, with chaos being all that could bee seen.

Several pirate members eventually reached the deck of the invading vessel. They open to door to below deck, only to be met with Pinkie’s iconic blue party cannon, which blasted them off with a blast of confetti.

The Perfection took a sharp turn to the left. Lightning Rod slid towards the starboard edge and grinded along the withering railing to the bow, bashing into each mast on its way. The pirates caught in the path of the rampaging boat were squished under the thin keel and thrown out the other side.

In the kitchen, Sweetie Belle and the cooks were avoiding falling pots and pans. They heard the blasting noise outside.

Sweetie, fully afraid, asked Ivan, “What’s going out there? Some sort of battle?”

“Aye,” The black pony nauseously replied.

“With what?”

Curious, Sweetie snuck out to the main deck, where she saw the thin grey ship drifting across the deck. She was immediately taken back by the insane sight, but then noticed a familiar pair of mares running from the second ship. They were sneaking along the port side, away from the pirates’ view.

A surge of joy and shock overwhelmed her as she darted towards the two, Applejack and Applebloom.

“Applejack! Applebloom!” She exclaimed.

“Sweetie Belle!” Applebloom yelled back, darting towards her incoming friend.

The two foals greeted each other with a tight, warm hug.

“How did you find us?” Sweetie asked.

“Twilight found Korsan was going to be here, so we got this really, really fast boat and came here. You should’ve been there, there was this exploding island!”

“That sounds so cool!”

“It was! Scootaloo is practic’ly dyin’ to tell you about it.”

“So are you here to save me and Rarity?!”

“You betcha!”

“We first need to take care of something.” Applejack said.

“What is it?” Sweetie asked.

“Eh…” Applejack was hesitant to answer.

Before she could answer, a shockwave tore across the ship. The three mares looked back to see a bunch of pirates on the deck, groaning in pain.

“Yin! Yu! Friends!” Sweetie gasped.

“You’re friends?” Applebloom asked.

“Yin, Yu, Horus, they’re friends I made. Now they’re going to get hurt fighting Twilight and the others. We got to stop them!”

“The pirates?!” Applejack exclaimed.

“You two tell Twilight to stop fighting. I’ll try to convince Captain Korsan to stop as well.” Sweetie commanded desperately.

“Wait, what?! Captain? Stop? What’s going on with ya?” Applejack asked, overwhelmed with what’s going on.

“No time to explain! Where is he?”

As if her question was answered by fate, Korsan appeared. A hundred metres away from them on a parallel sand path, the massive sandworm’s head burst from the golden surface. Everypony on the boats looked over to the roaring monster. Their jaws dropped on sight. There, riding the top of the great beast, was Korsan and Rarity. Their life-line was wrapped around themselves and lassoed over the worm’s upper jaw. They were proudly riding the sandworm like it was a chariot.

“No… way…” Sweetie gaspd.

“I am the master of all beasts!” Korsan triumphantly roars to his crew from afar.

“Very nice!” Isyan yelled back, uninterested with Korsan’s riding skills. “Now set us loose!”

“Got it!” Korsan replied.

---

Korsan turned to Rarity at his side.

He asked her, excited as ever, “You ready for this?!”

“With you?” Rarity answered, half-confident. “Even when we’re about to do the stupidest things imaginable, you make it sound so easy.”

“Is that a yes?”

“Sure.”

Rarity firmly wrapped her hooves around the pirate captain. Korsan bent down and carried Rarity and himself to the lodged anchor.

---

The onlooking ponies stopped their fighting and watched Korsan and Rarity climb down the side of the living train.

Spike mumbled in distaste, “You better stay away from Rarity you little p-”

The two ponies then suddenly slipped down a couple of metres, causing all to gasped. Luckily, Korsan quickly recovered and continued to dig his claws into the sandy scales of the beast. The black anchor was just ahead at this point. At this point, everypony watching had dropped their weapons and were now leaning on the ship railings.

Korsan and Rarity eventually reached the anchor, tightly lodged in the worm’s mouth. Korsan removed the life-line rope and ties it the anchor. Rarity secured herself on the iron mass, leaving Korsan to do what he needs to do. Without hesitation, Korsan fired a powerful punch into the flesh wall. The sandworm roared, causing the anchor to loosen.

“Get hoisting the anchor now!” Korsan’s scream echoed across the void.

He then violently pounded the sandworm. Again and again, his metal fists flew in a series of devastating jabs and hooks.

“Is he punching that thing?” Hans, asked out loud.

“He’s insane!” A mare pirate said.

“Even Tempocart’s afraid!” Another pirate cried out.

“It looks to be workin’.” Yin declared.

“Hey!” Yu called out to his fellow members. “Who wants to call bets on whether or not this is going to work?”

“He always makes it out alive. He’s impossible, that stallion.” Yin replied.

“Shhh, don’t tell them that.” Yu whispered.

Upon delivering a final strike right to the jawline, the sandworm finally had enough. It frantically shook around. The anchor immediately dislodged and swung down into the black abyss, taking Rarity and Korsan with it as it faded away from bystander view.

Several seconds passed before the thick chains actually begin to lift. Its slow pace brought forth anxious unrest at the bow.

“Are they dead?” Maria asked.

“Did they slip?” Lilis, the nurse, asked.

“Were they too heavy?” Butch asked.

After a minute of waiting, the anchor emerged from the black haze. There was Korsan and Rarity, hanging on to the black metal. The entire collection of ponies cheered as they watched the two climb up the anchor chain and into the chamber below the forecastle deck.

A peaceful atmosphere came to the ships. Though this was short lived.

“Wait, what about Twilight and the others?” Yu finally asked upon realizing this.

Yin and the others turned shocked at the realization as well.

“Kill ‘em, I guess.” Yin said, a bit hesitant. “That’s what the captain said.”

The pirates looked back at Twilight and her friends. The two sides entered an awkward silence, for the hype of battle had dried out.

“Are we waiting for them to make a move?” Yin asked the others, drawing out his sword. “Let’s get this over with.

“But we agreed back in Gorgonzola to never attack a non-retaliating enemy. They’re not fighting us.” Yu whispered to him.

“That was so many years ago, and things are different.” Yin whispered back.

“This is not the right thing to do.”

“It’s not my choice to make, Yu. It’s them or us!”

“Don’t!” Sweetie Belle screamed out, running towards Lightning Rod. “Don’t hurt my friends!”

“Sweetie Belle!” Twilight and the others onboard the speeder cheered.

“Can’t we sort this out without fighting?” Sweetie asked the crew.

“Sorry,” Yin solemnly stated. “Captain’s orders. If we don’t obey them, we’re pretty much dead.”

Yin slowly revealed his katana and walked towards the heroes, soon followed by the other pirates.

“No!”

“Sweetie Belle,” Twilight commanded. “Stay back!”

Twilight rushed down to the gun deck along with the others. They aimed their cannons at the approaching pirates, ready to continue the battle. The pirates held their weapons at the prime, and sped up their run. The two sides knew a battle was going down, whether they wanted it or not.

“Wait! These guys are my friends!” Sweetie cried to both Twilight and Yin.

“Wait, what? You made friends with the bloodthirsty pirates?!” Twilight exclaimed.

“Wait, should we fire or not?” Dash asked.

“There’s a lot of waiting around here it seems,” Pinkie spoke out.

“Is this a truce or something?” Yu asked.

“No!” Maria Vanshwitz barked, her dagger clenched in her teeth.

“Maybe?” Yin confusingly replied.

“I don’t like this confusion!” Fluttershy squealed.

“Horus?” Yu asked.

The albino pony stammered, unable to answer.

“Isyan,” Yu called back to the boatswain. “Should we attack?”

“How should I know?” Isyan screeched back. “Ask, Horus!”

“We did!”

Korsan then emerged from the trapdoors of the anchor deck with Rarity at his side.

“What’s with all of this shouting?” He asked.

The captain became stunned upon seeing the absence of a battle.

“Hey!” Spike yelled at him. “Get away from her!”

“How about no?” Korsan replied.

“Don’t make me come down there and teach you a thing or two about messing with Rarity!” Spike hissed.

“Oh, and what are you going to do about it?”

“Captain!” Horus called out from the other side of Lightning Rod. “What’s your call at this point? Should we continue the fight?”

Before answering, the captain took a small glance at Rarity. He remembered his promise. Whether it was from desperation or actual thought, he had to follow through with it.

“Well… Detain them, nicely. Throw them in the brig.” Korsan said.

“Nicely?” Horus asked.

“…Yeah. Just capture them. We’ve taken care of the bigger issue-”

“Incoming pinpoint turn!” Isyan screamed. “And the worm’s coming back!”

“Come on!” The crew collectively groaned.

Korsan and the other ponies looked behind them, and were greeted with said turn of sand current. To their calamity, the path made a devastatingly sharp two-hundred and seventy degree turn, too sharp for The Perfection or any ship to handle.

Korsan immediately restated himself.

“Okay, never mind, leave them. Battle positions, quickly now!” He said.

With some hesitation, the pirates followed their leader’s orders and headed back down below.

Korsan turned his attention to Twilight and the others, peering out from the cannon windows back at him. They shared an sharp glare, with a disdained look on their faces.

“I’ll deal with the lot of you later. Right now, we got bigger issue. If you all want to stay alive, then keep out of our way.” He warned them.

Korsan ran across the main deck to the wheel, leaving behind Rarity and Sweetie Belle with their original friends. He climbed up the stairs, and was immediately met by a furious Isyan.

“We aren’t going to be able to make the turn at this speed!” Isyan yelled at him.

“I figured.” Korsan said dismissingly, trying to cope with the ever-rising anxiety.

“What are we going to do? We’re going to drop!”

“We aren’t, just keep your brain inside your head for a wee bit longer. I just gotta figure out something…”

“Like what? The anchors won’t cling to the thin sand, the anti-magic controls are non-existent, and there’s a monstrous sandworm coming right at us!”

Peering over to the parallel track, Korsan analyzed the beast as it sunk down into the sand. It was reaching the end of the turn and coming right at him and his crew. He remembered how tough the worm’s scales were. He then looked back to the returned port anchor, then the cannons.

An idea immediately surfaced.

“We’re going to club haul.” Korsan said.

“Wait, what?!” Isyan exclaimed.

Korsan declared. “Attention sea artists! All hooves to starboard cannons, prepare to drop port anchor on my command.”

“Are you daft?! The sand’s too thin! And the beast is-”

“-going to be what’s getting us out of this mess and give us a free shot at it.”

“You’re-you’re mad!”

“Yes, we’ve been through this. Make yourself useful and get to a cannon.”

Seeing as he had no other option, Isyan grumpily trotted down to the gun deck, muttering inaudible sayings on the way down.

“Alright! Here we go!” Korsan roared. “Five…”

The captain set himself to the wheel, his ice phoenix climbing up his left leg and onto his shoulder.

“Four…”

The sandworm reaches the two-thirds point of the turn.

“Three…”

The behemoth galleon was only a short ways away from hitting the deadly bend.

“Two…”

Korsan’s claws dug into the wood, his muscles tightening.

“One…”

The sandworm reached the underside of the ship. It rose into the keel. Its body was directly under the anchors now.

“Drop!”

The port anchor dropped and sunk below the golden sand. A loud whip sounded out from below. Suddenly, the entire bow started to dip into the sand. The back and middle portions of The Perfection swung around the anchored front and drifted along the sharp bend. Lightning Rod slid across to the starboard side alongside Rarity and Sweetie, having been overtaken by the unexpected maneuver.

As the airship finished the drift, the sandworm’s head was yank above the sand and dragged out into the open void. The crew had clear aim at its head.

Butch roared out as he set his hoof on the trigger string. “Lead’s drop some lead on this f-”

“Fire!”

All fifty cannons on the side of drifting ship fired onto the monster in unison. Metre thick balls of solid metal bashed into the sandworm, causing it to roar in pain. It’s body seized and released the anchor wedged in its side. Korsan straightened the ship on the dunes and sped forward. The sandworm, now furious, dove through the currents and entered another parallel stream alongside them. It was preparing another charge attack to the keel.

Korsan saw another super sharp turn, this time towards the right. He had to perform that club-hauling maneuver again.

“Hoist port anchor! Prepare to deploy starboard anchor! All hooves shift to port side!

As the beast dove underneath once more for another attack on The Perfection, Korsan gave the command.

“Drop!”

The anchor immediately dropped, digging into the scaly skin of the monster once more. The Perfection drifted once more. It slid along to the parallel path and further curve. The sandworm is pulled from hiding and the crew fires onto it once more. The sandworm shrilled and retreated. The anchor dropped from its body was hoisted back. Twilight and the others on the main deck hung on as the boats grinded against each other.

Author's Note:

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