Ultimate Equestria

by Leo Pachino

Chapter 061: Unanswered Questions

“You know, there’s this one thing that’s been pecking at my mind recently. How come that Fountain of Balance didn’t work on Korsan?” Applejack asked her friends.

An awkward silence faded in as the girls and Spike pondered on the question at hoof.

“I don’t know…” Rarity muttered.

“Wasn’t there some requirements that had to be done?” Spike asked.

“Like a blood ritual?” Pinkie asked.

“I just thought that was merely mumbo-jumbo.” Applejack replied.

“Both you and Korsan weren’t able to transform...” Twilight said. “The Fountain of Balance had to work at least once.

“What do I and Korsan have in common that makes us unworthy?” Applejack asked.

“Unicorn magic?” Fluttershy bashfully suggested.

“No, that not it. The fountain’s said to give magic to non-magic users.” Twilight replied.

“…”

The gathering of ponies turned.

“How about we backtrack?” Twilight suggested to the group. “Perhaps we’re looking over something we encountered on our adventure?”

“The island! What about the island? Its origins, how it made the fountain, how it even got into the Breach in the first place?” Rarity replied.

“I’ve been curious about the same thing. But after checking almost all of my books, there doesn’t seem to be any records of an island that far away. The Breach, up to this point, was nothing more than the edge of the world. I didn’t know it went farther.” Twilight said.

“What was with that sandworm? Heck, what was with that ‘breach’ altogether?” Dash asked.

“Is anypony else wondering how some pony found Alicorn Island the Breach in the first place and put it on a map?” Pinkie chimed in.

Twilight’s memory suddenly sparked and recollections of Alexander Maden’s writings burst into thought.

“He’s related to Korsan!” Twilight exclaimed.

“What?!” The other mares asked.

“Alexander Maden, he’s the stallion that found the Breach and found a translator for the Diamond Eye! He’s Korsan’s uncle if I recall correctly.” Twilight said.

“That’s right!” Rarity screamed, recalling how Korsan translated the Diamond Eye on his ship.

“What was the language called though… it’s on the tip of my tongue,” Twilight muttered. “It most likely came from a long dead civilization. Such a typeface that the Diamond Eyes and the fountain had on them is probably centuries old, maybe even millenniums.”

“Older than Equestria?” Rarity asked.

“Perhaps, the civilization might as well be even before the three ancient pony tribes.”

“Speaking of ancient ponies, where do you think Korsan heard about this ‘Alicorn Era’ he was blatherin’ about?” Applejack asked.

Promptly, Twilight answered Applejack’s question, “There’s an old tale of an island of alicorns that disappeared a thousand years ago. It’s not really talked about often.”

“Do you think there’s some sort of connection between that island and Alicorn Island?” Applejack asked.

At that moment, the entire room erupted in frenzy. Everypony was now talking at once, speaking out loud whatever theories, ideas, conclusions, questions, retorts, and demands of silence came from their minds. Some agreed with each other, some had polar opposite ideas, and some couldn’t even hear the pony right next to her or him. The havoc continued for several minutes, getting louder and louder with each word being spoken over the other.

Twilight finally got fed up with the noise and took action. With the flick of her horn, the entire room went mute. The ponies found each other’s mouths not producing any sound and turned their attention to a search for the source of this, quickly reaching Twilight.

With the six others now quiet and focused on her, Twilight removed the audio spell and spoke, “Alright, there are a lot of questions from our journey that have been unanswered to this point.”

“That’s an understatement.” Spike remarked.

“And as it seems, just us standing around and bickering is not going to answer any of them.” Twilight said.

“So, what do you suggest we do? Go out on another adventure?” Dash asked.

“…Actually, that sounds like a great idea.” Twilight replied.

“What?! We just came back from one!” Fluttershy exclaimed. “Can’t we take a break?”

“Who said anything about it being over?” Rainbow Dash slyly remarked.

“Yes, Dash. We all can use a break by now.” Applejack replied.

“How long of a break?” Pinkie asked.

“However long it takes for some new big-shot to try to pick a fight with us,” Applejack said.

“Sounds about right,” Rarity replied.

“Hey! Maybe we can take a trip to the beach!” Pinkie cheerfully suggested.

“Yeah!” Twilight, Spike, Rarity, Dash, and Fluttershy cheered in agreement.

“Oh, no!” Applejack strongly remarked. “I’ll just take a long nap at home. You girls and dragon can go without me. I’ve had enough of seawater.”

“What? Too salty to join us?” Pinkie joked.

The mares and Spike giggled for a quick moment.

“It’s fine, AJ,” Twilight replied, holding back her laughter.

---

As the harsh memory of Korsan’s terror disappeared over time, so did his scars upon the world.

Although the Diamond Eye weren’t recovered from their adventure, our heroes’ hopes were still on a high note. Every once in a while, be it a month or two, the ponies would return back to the wreckage of The Perfection and search around the ship. And everytime they would search, they either would learn something new or find a valuable artifact from Korsan’s trove, perhaps even both.

Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo were able to catch up in school after many weeks absent. The experiences they gained on this adventure gave them a fantastic advantage in projects.

The pirate friends that joined our heroes were released from prison one by one. With help from Twilight, her friends, and the princesses, the pirates were able to move on from Korsan and hold stable livelihoods for themselves.

Cecil became a traveling bard, gaining a large following from many kingdoms. However, he still enjoyed the quaint bar at Thieves’ Hold. Every once in a while, he’ll visit Ponyville and join Twilight and the others in whatever misadventure they were in.

Maurice became an international mail-pony, delivering letters across the seas to kingdoms across the globe. He was never caught for stealing from the Cervidas ship, despite Maurice’s constant bragging about it.

Jarvis returned to his life of piracy. With a large amount of competition now gone, he quickly became a very successful pirate. He even became the new Pirate King, reforming the pirate form to be kinder to the innocents of the sea.

November Gale, Nitin Gale, Slasher Gutzoult, Yu Shou, Grivs, and several other pirates returned to Thieves’ Hold. They finished the tavern renovations and reopened soon after. Within a month, it had become the most popular location of interest at sea, with pirates and even regular seafaring ponies visiting in tens of thousands per day.

Craig Y’ol Timber became a world-wide celebrity due to his knowledge of the underground tunnels. However, he preferred to stay out of the limelight and kept to a mostly tranquil position at the bar of Thieves’ Hold as a bouncer.

Yin Shou became a teacher of martial arts and swordplay, running his own dojo in the Crystal Mountain. Yu and Slasher occasionally visited Yin and helped teach students, effectively become co-owners of the dojo.

Alexander Grevious used his wealth and became one of the most respectable and honored citizens of Canterlot. He suffered from occasional hearing loss for an undisclosed reason.

Butch Taylor joined the Equestria military and quickly graduated into a captain after his successful capture of the infamous Phantom Blob.

Juliana adjusted to her new life alongside Princess Celestia, Luna, and Philomena. Juliana had a particular fondness in Luna.

Aran Ryan and Lilis Jewmerin also returned to a life of crime, but restricted their work to stealing from criminals and the disrespectfully rich. When not committing crime, Aran worked for an iron mill and Lilis worked as a doctor.

Maria Vanshwitz escaped from authority. During relocation from her prison to a mental institution, Maria lashed out against her handlers and vanished. No pony knew where she was or what she was doing. Not even rumours could accurately guess where Maria was now.

Shortly after Korsan’s defeat, many sightings of “polluted waters” were reported all across the world. The water appeared to be a puddle of black goo that moved on its own accord, regardless of current. Authorities removed the mysterious water shortly after.

After six months of searching, Korsan’s body could not be found. He was declared dead by the world. It is estimated that over 20 billion bits worth of treasure had been stolen by him. Over 7500 casualties are the result of him and his crew. Without the aid of Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Spike, the death count might’ve been in the billions. His anti-magic was successfully reverse-engineered, and now awaited to be mass-produced.

Korsan’s immediate family could not be located. During Korsan’s pirate career, it seemed like the Madens had disappeared off the face of the planet.

The Breach, and henceforth, Alicorn Island, was never found by authorities. Due to its chaotic nature, its uncharted location, or the anomalous effects it has, the Breach may never be charted. However, individual seafarers claimed to have seen it.

To this day, the Diamond Eye and the secrets that it held have never been found. There’s an unlikely chance that it ever would be found for the rest of time.

---

…As I write this letter to you, it has been seven months since our battle with Korsan, everything appears to be back to normal finally. I will never forget that adventure we had and what came from it. We might not have found the Diamond Eye and answered the questions that we still have to this day, but we gained something much greater. My friends and I, both the Elements of Harmony and the ones we made on our journey, have grown stronger. Our friendship is greater than any pony, or villain, or monster, or race, or magic, or power, or ideology that dare seeks to tear us apart. As many times it is put to the test, I will always remember that journey I took with my friends, and remind myself of how powerful it truly is once more.

About the language that the Diamond Eye and the Fountain of Balance: Rarity and I are still trying to recall it. We have not forgotten it, just can’t grasp it like we did before. Maybe it was one too many bumps to the head back then that’s giving us trouble. Until the Diamond Eye is recovered or some clue comes around, I will continue checking every language in existence until I find it. Even if it takes a hundred years, I will continue to persevere and answer those questions, and reclaim our ancient history. The world and its ponies deserve to know where we came from, and what is out there. And who knows, maybe a little understanding of history might take care of the next villain to come chasing after us. Happy holidays, Princess Celestia.

Your faithful student,

Twilight Sparkle

Comments

[Mr-Astounding]

going out on a limb here, but I'm guessing that the Alicorn transformation didn't work because the Fountain only works for the pure of heart

• Korsan: we seen time and time again that he had an abnormal amount of rage in his heart, that whatever "pure" intent he had in his work was eclipsed by a desire for power, so there was VERY little chance of it working for him even under the best of circumstances
• Applejack: I think she actually might have had a chance at having it work for her, but in that moment, she was letting fear and desperation cloud her judgement, making it easier for her to lie to herself and thus contaminate the connection with the source of power she already had access to: the Element of Honesty; that said, while she MIGHT be a worthy candidate for Alicorn status, in that very instance, she had been deemed unworthy