Ultimate Equestria

by Leo Pachino

Chapter 060: Back to Normal?

“’And as Daring Do stood at the edge of the cliff, looking over the great blue sea, she took one final breath of the air, so rich in salt. She may not have found the true island known as Trihearth, but she was one step closer to find it and the treasures that it held.

‘One day’ she uttered beneath her breath. ‘One day, I’m going to find the truth about her, and him.‘”

Twilight sighed, closing the book before her. She placed it on her bed and went down to the main room of her palace. She found Spike sitting in a chair and reading a book. In his claws was a copy of ‘Daring Do and the Serpent Hunter’. A confused face was imprinted on Spike’s face as his eyes slowly glossed across the open pages.

“Sheesh, this stuff is hard to follow.” Spike muttered to himself.

“What is?” Twilight asked.

Spike turned his head around and saw Twilight.

“Oh, hi Twilight.” Spike said. “So, are the Federalists the good guys or the bad guys?”

“Uh…”

“Also, what’s with this sudden focus on micro-machines?”

“Well… It’s complicated.” Twilight said bluntly.

“I figured.”

Slowly, Twilight walked around Spike to the open window of the palace and stuck her head out into the day sky. As she took in her surroundings, a peculiar feeling tingled inside.

Instead of smelling the thick salty air of the ocean, she smelled the sweet zephyrs of the landlocked Ponyville. Instead of seeing just blue, white, and brown colours of the sea and ships, the entire rainbow of colour bathed the land. Instead of feeling cold water and brutal winds bash into her flesh, a soft breeze and the sun’s warmth brushed through her fur. Instead of hearing the endless waves of ocean sloshing around aimlessly, the calm rustling of the leaves entered her ears.

“You know, Spike, it feels like only a month ago when we were sailing the seas and fighting pirates.” Twilight said.

“It was a month ago. We even marked the day of Korsan’s defeat on a calendar.” Spike replied.

“Oh.”

Spike then exclaimed to himself, “Water Tiger?! What? Maybe I shouldn’t have skipped those chapters in the last two books…”

“That’s what you get for binging on those ridiculous comic books. You get bad novel-reading habits.” Twilight blissfully informed him.

“Ridiculous? Try saying that about ‘One Buck Mare’.”

Twilight simply rolled her eyes at Spike’s retort and continued to enjoy the peacefulness of the outside world. With Canterlot Castle in the distance, Twilight wondered how things were going with the princesses.

As Spike continued to read on, a sudden queasiness was felt in his stomach. In a split second, the dragon dropped the book and belched out a small burst of green flame. A scroll emerged from the fire and landed on the table. Twilight heard the commotion and turned around to see the scroll.

While Spike recovered from the message delivery, Twilight opens the scroll and read the letter.

Dear Princess Twilight Sparkle,

I hope you have recovered well from your injuries from Korsan. Although those deeper scratches may still be visible, they should be healed and only be scars at this point. The same goes for your friends as well. However, I do advise you and your friends to keep an eye out for any… psychological troubles that may still linger.

In regards to the castle, although the original ballroom was heavily damaged from the attack during the gala, it is nearly fixed. We’ve decided to reinforce the structure, as well as the exterior of the castle, with some of the super-steel salvaged from The Perfection (well, Korsan, technically speaking). I must say, the metal is thicker than what it looks like. Scientists claim it is five times thicker than standard reinforced concrete. Just imagine what that type of metal can do in buildings, vehicles, armour, and the list it quite extensive.

Speaking of Korsan’s technology, we’ve managed to reverse-engineer Korsan’s anti-magic substance to a degree where we can create a pseudo-anti-magic substance. It can’t really block more powerful forms of magic and spells, but it works. I can’t really get into details, but it involves a TON of cold-worked iron. In a year or two, the anti-magic is going to be everywhere in Equestria, helping further advances in technology, medicine, transportation, defense. It is only a matter of time.

In regards to Korsan himself, we’re unclear at the moment. The salvage search teams haven’t been able to find a body. That can mean a few things. Either his body disintegrated, his body drifted out somewhere, or he might’ve swum away a little bit before passing out. Luckily, there looks to be absolutely no chances that he’s still around at this point. There’s no need to worry.

Your ‘pirate’ friends here are doing fine. From what I’ve heard from the guards, they’re not causing too much trouble. In his words, they’re actually helping in providing ‘tight management’ of the other inmates. The small red unicorn is said to be the most effective. As for the other pirates, the ones that were loyal to Korsan, the other nations around the world have approved of their well-secured confinement. I was almost surprised how enthusiastic some of these kingdoms were in taking these pirates. They must’ve had a high value or something, though I question the clown’s actually value, he didn’t look as bad as they said he was.

One final note, Twilight, keep your eyes out for any suspicious activity going on in Ponyville. I’ve heard a few reports of some ‘spacial paranormal activity’ in the area. It’s not Korsan, but there is the chance whatever’s causing this activity is tough. Stay safe, feel better soon, and remember: Your friends will always be there for you. Keep the magic of friendship strong, my dear student.

Your loving teacher,

Princess Celestia.

“Looks like all is right with the world once more,” Spike remarked.

“Well, for the most part,” Twilight replied.

“What do you mean?” Spike asked.

“There are millions of ponies in this world. By statistics, at least one of those ponies would have a similar uprising as Korsan, a similar, terrible childhood. Give or take a while and we may have to deal with another supervillain, one that could take away something worse than what Korsan’s goals were.”

“Chill out, Twilight. Enjoy the peace while it lasts. If another bad guy shows up, we just stick together and take care of it like usual,”

Another mare spoke up from the other side of the room, “No matter how many philosophical speeches the next guy’ll throw at us, we’re still friends to the end.”

Twilight and Spike looked over and see Applejack, lazily resting back in a chair.

“No matter how many final forms he has, we can take care of it.” Rainbow Dash added, revealing herself in another chair.

“No matter how many times we’ll be separated, we’ll always be super-duper close each other in heart!” Pinkie cheered.

“No matter smart he acts or how dashing he looks,” Rarity chimed in. “If he’s a bad guy, we’ll stop him.”

“Yeah, what they said.” Fluttershy meekly announced. Her lines were inadvertently stolen by her friends.

“To friendship!” Twilight declared.

“To friendship!” The others cheered.

The entire room filled with laughter and cheer as their declaration echoed throughout the large room.

“…Now seriously, how’d you all get in here without me noticing?” Twilight asked.

“It’s surprising how effective boxes are in hiding ponies.” Pinkie casually answered.

---

Meanwhile, back at the slowly sinking wreckage of The Perfection, a small fleet of boats scavenged the area. Circling around the grounded behemoth, the pony crew scanned over the wreckage. They searched the floating wood, metal towers, and random debris, searching for anything salvageable.

“Hey, Ms. Parker,” one of the stallions on board one of the boats called out to the mare next to him.

“What is it, Rob?” The mare teasingly asked.

“It’s Mr. Goni, ma’am. You know I don’t like being called that.” The stallion coldly remarked. “But anyways, look at that.”

The stallion pointed a hoof at one of the larger pieces of airship floating by them. Ms. Parker examined the piece in question and noticed a large mechanical object inside.

“Looks like one of Korsan’s gadgets.” She replied.

“Didn’t they say something about some giant-machine-cannon-things back at Vanhoover?” Mr. Goni asked.

“This might be one of them. It looks like it’s still in one piece.”

“Finally, something we can get a good cut for.”

Mr. Goni yelled out to the captain behind him, “Bring us in towards Echo Seven!”

“Aye-aye.” The captain’s voice echoed back.

Their ship drifted towards the mechanical object. Ms. Parker slowly flew up to the cannon.

“Be careful.” Mr. Goni yelled out to her.

Ms. Parker turned around and teased Mr. Goni, fluttering closer and closer to the cannon.

“Don’t panic, Rob. It’s not like it’s alive.” She said.

The cannon instantly roared to life and aimed at her.

“Look out!”

The machine’s barrels whirred rapidly. Ms. Parker ducked. Everypony below scrambled into hiding, waiting for the worst to happen. However, after a few seconds of loud whirring, nothing happened. The crossbow-cannon didn’t do anything besides spinning and making noise.

Parker slowly hovered back up to her vantage point and examined the cannon from afar.

“Oh, it’s empty.” She sighed.

“Must’ve unloaded all of its ammo during the fight a few weeks ago,” Goni replied.

“Seems so, Rob.”

“…”

“Oi! We better hurry up and get that thing locked down and onboard. The weather pegasi said that a really bad storm’s comin’ our way soon.”

“How bad are we talking?” Ms. Parker asked.

“Apparently requiring the A.W.E. if I remember my flare colours right.” The captain replied.

“Alright!” Mr. Goni proclaimed. “You heard the captain. Load this thing up and let’s get out of here!”

---

The white hospital room contrasted greatly with the grey prison compound surrounding it. To Maria, it was like another world. This wasn’t the first time she was in here, but the feeling was still there.

She quietly lay on the soft hospital bed, waiting for a doctor to come. While she waited, she stared out of the window, out into the world beyond the prison. She only had another month before her parole. She thought about what she was going to do once she was released.

“Alright, Ms. Vanshwitz, I’m here.” Her doctor said.

Maria turned around in her bed and saw her doctor, sitting on a chair next to her bed. He had a pen in his mouth, and a clipboard in his thick Earth pony hooves. She giggled at the sight. It had been a while since she saw a non-unicorn do stuff like that.

“Hello, Doc.” Maria whispered from the pillows.

“Have you had a PTSD episode in the past week?” He asked, holding the pen in his teeth.

“Please, just get to the point.” Maria calmly demanded.

“Right…”

The doctor shuffled around his clipboard and lab coat. He was anxious.

Maria looked down at her right hoof. It was wrapped in a tight bandage to keep the infection from spreading. At first on The Perfection, it only appeared to be a black stain on her fur. At that point, Maria thought of it only as a spill of one of Korsan’s bizarre artifacts.

Then, the black stain was absorbed in her veins. Two weeks after in prison, her hoof started to deform or something. Maria wasn’t sure what it was, for she passed out when it happened. When she woke up, she was told to keep the hoof bandaged at all costs. Researchers, doctors, and scientists occasionally came by to examine the hoof. Now, two weeks after that first incident, Maria was getting answers.

Finally, after an awkward minute of fumbling, the doctor explained to Maria what was going on.

“You see, the ‘black goo’ you were handing was absorbed into your skin and blood. We aren’t sure how, but the goo is somehow sentient. It’s parasitic in nature, clinging to you, its host.” He explained.

“I have a parasite in me?!” Maria exclaimed.

“Don’t panic! We don’t want another episode… We tried our best to extract all of it from your bloodstream. You should be safe, but keep the wrap on.”

“I see… Anything else I should know about this goo?” Maria asked.

“No. Anyways, have you had any episodes of PTSD over the past two weeks?” The doctor immediately asked.

He was lying. The way he changed the subject, going back to something relatable, it was obvious he was hiding something. Maria wanted the full answer to what the black goo was. What did it do to her hoof? Why did she faint? Why were so many scientists interested in her?

Maria wanted to know.

However, as her train of thought returned to reality, she found herself on top of the doctor. A large needle was being rammed into her neck, prison guards were running right towards her, and her hooves were being wrapped around the doctor’s neck. It took only a moment to realize that her mouth was foaming, filled with curses to Hans, Korsan, everypony whoever had and whoever will abuse her.

In only half an hour, her parole was moved back a month, her body was chained to her cell wall, and her mind was back to shattered.

She needed a resolve. Her story would continue until this resolve came.

Author's Note:

👍 Remember to add this story to Tracking and follow me for updates regarding Ultimate Equestria.

Comments

[Indigo Tornado]

“It’s surprising how effective boxes are in hiding ponies.” Pinkie casually answered.

a solid snake reference, you had to make one didnt you