Ultimate Equestria

by Leo Pachino

Chapter 055: Perfected Korsan

“Think you got what it takes to beat us?” Twilight asked Korsan.

The new, “Perfected” Korsan accepted Twilight’s challenge. His giant metallic head released an ear-splitting roar.

The battle had started. Twilight and the heroes galloped forward from the bow. Ahead of them was an obstacle course like no other. Korsan’s alicorn powers were constantly rebuilding the airship the heroes stood on. Jagged metal, weapons, and warping structures flew across the deck. No spot was safe to stand on. It was the equivalent of a mile long path of burning coals plus spikes added for good measure. But this didn’t deter the heroes in the slightest.

As Twilight and her friends charged on, they were attacked by a group of mechanical tentacle cannons. The cannons floated ahead of them and open fire onto them. The twelve ponies dodged the incoming volley of cannonballs. The cannonballs exploded upon contact with the wood and metal deck behind the ponies. Debris, brimstone, and molten rainwater showered the area. Another volley was unleashed. The ponies barely avoided it. The flaming cannonballs scraped against their sides. A third volley was fired onto them. The ponies jumped over the incoming fireballs, just barely escaping the blast.

---

Rainbow Dash left the group and flew into the air, set to take the cannons out. Three of the cannon tentacles turned to her while the others continued to fire onto the ponies on deck. One after the other, each cannon fired at Dash in rapid succession. Although the hurricane rain and lightning staggered her speed, Dash persisted, and was able to avoid the cannon fire.

She flew away from the airship and into the open and right into the thick of the storm.

A lightning bolt struck her. The raw electric energy was absorbed into her mane and hooves. She returned to the cannons, now covered in electric static and sparks. One of the cannons fired. The flaming cannonball charged right towards Rainbow Dash. It was a perfect point-blank shot. Dash flipped backwards and sent a powerful kick into the cannonball. The force and electric energy combined in her hind hooves split the ball in half and fires it back. The halves smashed into two of the cannons at the necks, shattering theming.

As the killed cannon heads plummeted below, Dash then bolted into the last cannon hooves first and punched through the barrel and flew out the other end. The cannon exploded behind her. The tentacles that once held the cannons dropped limb, shredded on the inside. Victorious, Dash joined back with the others.

---

Twilight erected a magic shield ahead of the on-deck group. The shield deflected cannon fire as the team presses forward. At this point, it looked like the tentacle cannons were absolutely powerless.

With Fluttershy at the back of the group, she could hear something going on behind them. She looked behind the group and watched in horror as the tentacles destroyed by Rainbow Dash slithered behind them.

“Dash! Those tentacles are still here!” Fluttershy exclaimed.

“What’s the worst they can do? They can’t keep up with us without any weapons.” Dash replied.

The naked tentacles dove into the hull of Korsan and burst back up, carrying metal debris at their ends. The metal constricted and reformed into a new set of cannons. This time though, the cannons were much stronger and were armed with two barrels instead of one. The reformed tentacle cannons filled with a green glow. They had evolved to use anti-magic.

The cannons took aim and fired at Fluttershy. Applejack lunges into Fluttershy’s side and shoved the both of them away. The cannon fire blasted away a large chunk of the deck, irradiating the area in a green mist of anti-magic.

With Applejack and Fluttershy separated from the group, Korsan attacked. He raised an electric mega-blade and swung it down on the two. However, Pinkie dove into them and shoved all three of them away as struck down on them. The slice created a canyon in the ship that was quickly repaired.

Eventually, all of Korsan’s airship form stared to glow green.

“Korsan’s fixed his cannons already!” Fluttershy exclaimed.

“That’s the least of our problems!” Rarity replied. “He’s protected himself with anti-magic!”

“How is that even possible?!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed in question.

“I don’t know. His anti-magic requires a lot of time and materials to create.” Rarity replied.

“Korsan must be using every advanced magic spell he knows.” Twilight figured. “He might be using his alicorn magic to materialize his body and materials for anti-magic. He creating anti-magic with magic!”

“Is that bad?” Maurice asked.

An electric sword then smashed into Twilight’s shield, shattering the shield instantly.

“It’s absurdly bad!” Twilight exclaimed.

---

The giant sword rose into the air. It attacked Rarity and November. The two mares rolled out of the way in time. The sword missed and pulled back up. As the sword rose, Rarity and November quickly leapt onto the tip of the metal shell of the top of the sword. They ran down the long length of the sword covering. More cannon tentacles burst from the ship and fired at the mares.

The duo leapt, ducked, and teleported away from the cannon spam. They deflected cannonfire back with their weapons, only to do minimal damage to Korsan. Rarity and November did everything in their power to avoid the almost random and chaotic firing barrage of cannonballs.

---

Celestia’s battleship fired harpoons into Korsan and pulled him down. The ship appeared behind the edge of the deck and fired at the tentacles. The cannonballs tore through the tentacles, decapitating them on the spot. Korsan retaliated with returning cannon fire. He rose back up high into the raging sky, pulling the battleship out of the sea. With the battleship powerless, dangling in the air, Korsan rebuilt his tentacles.

---

November and Rarity continued to gallop across the top of the long sword. They pulled ahead of the others below. At this rate, they’ll reach the quarterdeck and Korsan’s true body in no time. However, a second electric sword appeared from above. It slammed its edge onto the lower sword at its base. The sword grinded against the top of the metal cover and charged right at Rarity and November. The electric energy of the blade shredded into the sleek metal shell below, creating showers of metal shards and daggers of steel. Rarity and November jumped onto the second blade as it reached them. They continued forward like nothing happened.

A fiery haze fell onto the living airship as Korsan climbed higher and higher into the storm. Rarity and November could barely see ahead of them as the haze thickened. As they got to the halfway point of the sword, Rarity and November noticed a white figure approaching them in the distance.

It was Maria. At first, she appeared to be joining her friends in the fight against Korsan. However, as Maria drew closer, a chilling realization came. Maria’s movements were unnatural. Her eyes were going crazy. It soon became obvious: Maria was under the control Korsan now. Maria prepared herself to fight Rarity and November, pulling out five daggers from her clothing.

“Maria! Break free from Korsan! You can do it!” Rarity exclaimed.

Maria chuckled, “Hahahahaha, she’s long gone now!”

“November, don’t hurt her.” Rarity told November. “She’s being controlled by Korsan.

“I’ll try not to, much.” November said.

“You know, I first thought doing all of this stuff would be too much. But I was gladly wrong. It turns out being a supercharged alicorn gives you so much control and power.” Korsan said through Maria’s body. “Becoming an airship, creating anti-magic, controlling these tendrils, swinging these massive swords, mind control, it’s all so easy! I will it, and it comes to be! I am a god!”

“That’s only a temporary high. In a few minutes, that initial spike of magic on ascension and all of that alicorn power you sucked up will die.” November told Korsan. “You should know, you taught my dad about it.”

“Hmph, should’ve killed that old fool long ago.” Korsan said.

Rarity and November held their respective rapier and dagger at the ready. They and Maria then charged at each other and battled on the long sword. As the fought, the sword moved over the edge of the deck. It moved downward, creating a steep incline for the mares to fight on. They slowly slid on the metal slope, but kept fighting onwards. They pushed against gravity and slowly made their way to the top of the sword arm.

---

Twilight watched as the three mares battled on the sword-top, dangling over the edge of the ship. She separated from the main group and jumped over the edge of the deck. She flew down to the mares in attempts to help her friends. However, she was stopped by one of Korsan’s tentacles. It wrapped around Twilight and pulled her back to the deck and high into the air.

Six cannon tentacles circled the trapped mare and took aim. Twilight used her Earth pony strength and broke out at the last second. The six cannons fired late. Aimed at each other, they accidently destroyed each other in a massive fireball of destruction.

Twilight turned around towards the Korsan’s giant floating head blew a raspberry at it. She proceeded to fly towards the head. She was suddenly stopped however as a massive volley of giant cannonballs soared over her from behind. She stopped just short of them. The cannonballs smashed into the deck below, blasting almost half of the middle out.

Twilight turned around and saw that the seven tentacles from before had reformed into one massive super-cannon.

“You’ve got to be kidding me…” She groaned.

The super-cannon fired again. Twilight weaved between the clusters of cannonballs twice her size. The cannon fire blasted the ship again. The airship split in two, but was immediately reforms, stronger than before. It seemed like everything Korsan had that wasn’t completely disintegrated came back stronger.

After a good look at the new weapon, Twilight had an idea how to beat it. Twilight darted towards the cannon, avoiding the incoming volleys. The cannon switched tactics as Twilight approached. It sprayed her with an endless stream of cannonballs. She swiftly drifted along the stream, eventually reaching the cannon.

The super-cannon backed away and tried to slam her. Twilight caught the cannon in her hooves. She then swooped under the cannon head and flew between the arms holding it up. The tentacles tried to grab her and trap her, but she evaded them. Left, right, up, down, the tentacles chased her all around. Before Korsan knew it, the tentacles had accidently tied themselves up. The super-cannon ended up fixed at the sky, firing aimlessly into the clouds.

Twilight clapped her hooves together in triumph before flying back down to support her friends on deck.

---

Twilight and the others on deck reached the middle and, sure enough, Korsan threw another obstacle at them. The crossbow cannon from Korsan’s chambers burst from the floor and took aim at the ponies. It roared with the hunger of blood.

“Hold still!” Twilight yelled out.

Everypony obeyed and froze on the spot. However, despite all expectations, the cannon fired at them.

“What?!” Twilight gasped.

The ponies immediately scattered. They took cover behind chunks of debris littering the deck. Their manes, tails, and ears had been nicked by the fury of metal bolts.

“That’s not how it worked before!” Twilight exclaimed in surprise and terror.

As she poked her head from around the corner, she saw the machine travel towards her. It was being operated by a long mechanical tentacle revealed behind it.

Korsan was controlling it. He knew the crossbow cannon’s weakness when it was automatic, and acted accordingly.

The machine bolted around the corner of the debris and fired at Slasher. Slasher could only panic and flail as the cannon fired at her mercilessly.

Twilight then remembered what Korsan did.

“Slasher! Deflect the bolts! Go ham!” Twilight yelled out.

Slasher listened and quickly pulled out her war scythe from its metal scabbard on her back. She rapidly twirled the blade in front of her. The crossbow cannon followed the scythe and fired at it. The scythe deflected the metal bolts.

Maurice, Cecil, Jarvis, and Nitin watched this from behind a nearby fallen mast piece. They whooped and roared in zeal, cheering for their friend. However, they then noticed another crossbow cannon emerging from behind Slasher, preparing a surprise attack. The stallions immediately galloped to her aid. They pulled out their weapons and deflected the incoming metal bolts from the other cannon just before they hit her. While Maurice, Cecil, and Jarvis took care of the rear, Nitin turned around to help Slasher.

“Thanks!” Slasher thanked the stallions.

“No problem,” Nitin replied, groaning as he wildly slung his blade around.

Another crossbow cannon suddenly burst from behind the debris wall, flanking the five.

“A third one!” Maurice cried.

Maurice and Nitin jumped front of it and defended from the flank attack.

“Slash, are you okay?” Nitin asked.

“I’m fine!” Slasher replied.

A fourth cannon then appears from the other side.

“Aw, come on!” The five collectively groaned.

Nitin flipped around and dealt with the fourth cannon’s barrage of bolts. The other ponies run to help the five pirates, but were stopped by Nitin raising a hoof at them.

“Go on without us!” He declared.

“No!” Fluttershy retorted.

“We got this, Pinkie’s friend.” Jarvis muttered, his weapon in his mouth.

“Take care of Korsan!” Cecil yelled out, his weapon being tossed around in his wings.

“Take care of my daughter!” Nitin croaked.

Reluctantly, Twilight and the others agreed. They pressed on across the deck.

Korsan saw the five remaining ponies still charging forward. He roared in rage, absolutely lost as to how they keep coming. All of the tentacle cannons of the gun deck rose to the main deck and concentrated their fire at them. Not a millisecond pasted without a cannonball being fired. The cannons were practically melting at their barrels. Nonetheless, Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy pressed forward. They dodged every projectile, every explosion, every lightning bolt, every pellet of debris, and every drop of crimson rain.

The wood and steel deck turned into the crater of a volcano, being constantly attacked and melted by cannon fire. The deck started to be destroyed faster than it is being repaired. A portion of the deck in front of the mares snapped. The deck piece pulled away from them, creating a tall wall before them. The surrounding cannons forced them into a corner, unable to escape.

However, just as all hope appeared to be lost, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy played their trump card.

The both screamed out, “Whale!”

Immediately, whale, from before, rose from the water and rose to Korsan. It burrowed through the bow and breached the deck. With the red smog in the sky, the rising whale appeared to be on fire as it smashes into Korsan. The entire airship nearly snapped in two as the front half bent by the whale’s weight. However, the airship didn’t sink, and continued to rise higher into the sky.

The armed tentacles of Korsan quickly moved away from the mares. They wrapped themselves around the whale and trapped it on deck, beaching it.

“No!” Fluttershy and Pinkie screamed.

“We have to help him!” Pinkie cried.

“Go on without us.” Fluttershy told the others.

Fluttershy and Pinkie bolted away from the group and went to save the whale.

Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Twilight were fine with this. They continued onwards to stop Korsan and to end this madness. The wall that Korsan erected before had crumbled into rubble and the three remaining mares climbed over and proceeded onwards.

“We’re almost there!” Applejack told Dash and Twilight.

“How many more tricks is Korsan going to pull on us?” Rainbow Dash asked, now tired and annoyed of Korsan’s hindrances.

“He’s being absolutely reckless with his magic spike. He may be an alicorn, but he’s still a pony. His mind and magic will tire out soon.” Twilight said. “Let’s end this.”