Adventures in the Bermikun Triangle

by Rakoon1

A Vortex Away From Home

With the last Waypoint unlocked, all the pillars of light released from the opening of the other Waypoints came together in Vapir and, before the amazement of everypony, a vortex appeared at the other side of the room, one that seemed different from the others in the Bermikun Triangle.

They all approached it and Dusk exclaimed:

“Wicked!”

“It’s the way out of the Triangle” Clover said.

“Once we step into the vortex, everypony will return home” Star said, with a little sadness in his voice.

“Mallet won’t see friends again?” Mallet asked.

“Oh no…” Opal said, also sad.

“We really were an awesome team, but don’t you want to go home?” Dusk asked. “You finally got to have your body back, Clover.”

“I’m gonna miss you, guys” he said, while hugging Opal and then Star.

“I’ll never forget you” Dusk told him.

Mallet then came to give a big hug to Dusk.

“I’ll miss your cooking, Mallet” Dusk replied, while massaging his shoulder after Mallet released him from his tight hug. “And, Opal, I hope you can fix your relationship with your father.”

“You can bet on that” Opal said. “Thanks to you, I was able to overcome my fear to disappoint him… or anyone for that matter.”

After that, Dusk took Calabrass and told him:

“Calabrass, I really would have like to see your face.”

“Well, I wouldn’t want to make you jealous, captain” he replied, while blinking his eye to Dusk.

“Are we all going at the same time?” Dusk asked to his friends.

But when they all prepared to advance towards the vortex, a voice said:

“Change of plans, lads.”

They all turned and saw Golden Bones, who was holding Steam hostage while holding a saber with his hoof.

“I’m going home” he said, while starting to move towards the vortex. “And you’re all staying here… for eternity!”

“Bones!” Dusk exclaimed, with his rage starting to boil, as he and the others prepared their weapons.

“Step away from the vortex…” he said to the others.

It was then that Chaos hit him with one of his legs, causing Bones to release Steam who went to Opal’s side, hugging her, while the golden skeleton rolled over to the vortex. He stood up and laughed, while retreating to the vortex.

Suddenly, a beam came out of the vortex and hit him. Golden Bones felt an immense pain, while he felt the beam starting to pull him.

“But… what sorcery is this?!”

And the beam pulled him over to the vortex, crossing it. Everypony got confused for what just happened. It was then someone crossed the vortex into the Bermikun Triangle, with that one being none other than Heartbeat, who was holding the cell blaster with a life cell that now contained Golden Bones.

“The best type of sorcery around, my dear Bones” she said, replying to what Golden Bones had just asked. “I hope you enjoy your new cell in Tartarus. It’s even smaller than the brig of your ship.”

Having said that, she summoned the prison-book and proceed to place the life cell there. After that, he made both the prison-book and the life cell disappear and turned to the others, saying:

“Hi, guys! Miss me?”

“Oh great…” Calabrass said. “What are you doing here?”

“Come on, now, Calabrass” Heartbeat said, always with her childish smile. “Don’t be such a grumpy. I just came to congratulate you all.”

“I think what Calabrass is saying…” Bright Night’s voice was heard, as she also crossed the vortex. “… is that he is not very pleased to see you. And I don’t blame him after what you did.”

“Hey, he was the one who wanted the Eyes of the Seven Seas so desperately” Heartbeat said. “I just gave him what he wanted.”

“Tell that to my blade, you blasted witch!” Calabrass exclaimed.

“Hey, calm down, Calabrass” Dusk said to him.

“I am calm…” Calabrass said. “If I wasn’t, I would be saying much worse to her!”

“You haven’t changed a bit, have you, Calabrass?” Heartbeat noted. “Now, I hope you can put that behind now that I got you a good influence… I’m talking about Dusk, if you’re not getting what I mean.”

“Oh, I’ll show you how I will do that, you…” Calabrass started.

“Chaos!” Heartbeat exclaimed, turning to the living ship and advancing to him, cutting what Calabrass was saying and ignoring him completely. “Oh, I miss you my little baby…”

She started caressing his husk at the bow, while Chaos released sounds of contempt, much to everyone’s shock.

“Wow, Chaos is looking enjoying that” Opal observed.

“I’ve seen Heartbeat do many weird things, but this…” Star commented. “I don’t know what say.”

“What’s weirder is that Chaos is enjoying it” Dusk replied, knowing how peaky Chaos was.

“Of course he’s enjoying it” Heartbeat said. “I’ve the one who made him.”

That revelation clearly caught up the others of guard.

“You… What?!” Dusk asked.

“How do you think we crossed the Seven Seas to create the Waypoints?” Heartbeat said, addressing then to Chaos. “I’m sorry to leave you here for so long. But you won’t believe what I’ve been through. First I got my star seed out and turned into stone for a thousand years, got back but without memories for two decades and then I had to deal with all the Lord of Chaos drama with the tailed beasts.”

“I think you’re forgetting I also helped creating the Chaos” Bright Night told. “I was the one who built his internal complexity with my space magic.”

“But I was the one who gave him life” Heartbeat replied. “And it’s thanks to me his antibodies can recognize danger. You have to admit that is much more impressive.”

“Okay, can you two stop with this ridiculous competition and tell us what is happening?!” Star asked in a way that surprised everyone else, including Dusk.

The two Generals looked at him for a moment and then Heartbeat told Bright Night:

“Oh, I know that look. He’s very serious, like Goldy serious. We better give him the answers he wants.”

“Yeah, I agree with you” Bright Night replied, turning then to Star. “What do you want to know?”

“Everything” he replied. “Starting with… Why did you do all this… with the Triangle? We all know about the reason why you sealed it, that it was to prevent it from causing some major damages to the balance. But why wanting to unseal it, even more why give Dusk the Eye of Beru?”

“Star…” Dusk started.

“Dusk, you know how the things went for us here” Star replied. “Sometimes, we barely got out of the problems. I want to know why.”

“Well, that question is for you” Bright Night told Heartbeat.

“I know that…” she replied, turning to Star. “The reason why I did the Eye of Beru to Dusk is because I knew he was up to the challenge. Even more with you helping. It was quite a surprise when you ended up going with him, but it worked out even better. As for the reason of all this… Well… You know how we sealed the Triangle, right? With the Waypoints and the guardians… The thing is the Waypoints were made Bright Night, so that means…”

“You were the one who created the Guardians…” Star realized.

“Not all of them” Heartbeat replied. “I bound the lineage of that wyvern in Sino and the Ziteans looked after the Zite Waypoint. But others… Yes, they are my creations. The one in Aeria, in Blazz, in Beru, that jackal in Dezer and…”

“Skullivar…” Dusk finished. “You created Skullivar?!”

“So basically everything was her fault!” Calabrass exclaimed. “I knew you were a villainous traitor!”

“Hey, Skullivar was the one who betrayed me!” Heartbeat replied. “He was supposed to guard Vapir and get rid of any treat. It’s not my fault he got greedier. Besides, that only happened because I got in a stone sleep and then in an amnesic state… You all heard what I told Chaos, right?”

The others just rolled their eyes and Heartbeat continued:

“The thing is I would have stopped Skullivar when he started to get out of line, but that was not possible. However, I knew everything would be fine.”

“And how is that?” Dusk asked.

“Because everyone that was stuck in the Triangle and got out returned to their respective places in the timeline” Bright Night replied.

That answer confused everyone and Clover asked:

“Okay, I’m not the only one who got lost with that answer, right?”

“The thing about the Triangle is that time doesn’t pass to the ones who arrive here” Bright Night explained. “That is because they are still connected to the world outside. Once they leave the Triangle through that vortex, it would be like they had never left. It was a little magic I got from Time Turner to not interfere with the timeline.”

“That is true” Dusk said to others. “When I went home when we opened the Beru Waypoint, it was like no time had passed at all, only a few hours.”

“This vortex will remain open until everypony who wants to return to their old life passes it” Bright Night said. “Once this vortex closes, time will resume to those who are here and the Bermikun Triangle will get connected to the outside world like a normal realm.”

“So, when you said you already knew everything would be fine… you really meant it” Dusk said.

“Yeah, but we didn’t know how they got out of the Triangle” Heartbeat said. “I was the one who had the Eye of Beru, so either the stone would be stolen from me or I would give it to one who would be able to open the Waypoints.”

“Why didn’t you do it yourself?” Opal asked.

Heartbeat just limited to point to Calabrass and asked:

“Do you thing he would let me use him? Or Bright Night?”

They all looked to Calabrass who then asked:

“How did I just became the villain here?!”

“Okay, okay, let’s end this conversation now!” Dusk said. “We all got the answer we wanted so… isn’t time to go home?”

“Right… so, who’s going to be the first one?” Heartbeat asked.

“I think it should be Clover” Dusk said.

Clover got surprised to hear that and he saw that the others agreed with him.

“Really?” he asked.

“You’ve been a ghost for too long” Dusk said. “You deserve this.”

“But… what about Calabrass?” Clover asked.

“Don’t worry about me, kid” he replied. “You’ve earned it.”

Clover looked to the others who nodded with their heads. Clover smiled emotionally and said:

“I love you guys!”

And he proceeded to hug all of his friends. After that, Clover approached Chaos and told him:

“I’m going to miss you, buddy. You’ve been through a lot.”

Chaos replied with a gentle sound. Clover then approached the vortex, with the chain connecting him to Chaos appearing. He took one last look to his friends before crossing it. After a while, the chain that connected Clover to the Chaos broke, disappearing after that, meaning that now he was free.

“Who’s next?” Bright Night asked.

The others seemed hesitant, but then Mallet took a step forward and replied:

“Mallet go.”

“Mallet…” Opal said.

“It was a honor for Mallet to be by your side, Princess Opal” Mallet told.

“As it was for me, my dear friend” Opal replied, with tears on her eyes. “I’m going to miss you, you big dummy.”

“We all will” Dusk said, with Star by his side nodding.

Mallet exhibited one of his big smiles, followed by tears.

“Mallet now goes!” he exclaimed, running then to the vortex and passing by it.

“Mallet will never change…” Dusk said. “He’s very tough on the outside, but, on the inside, he’s so soft.”

There was a pause and then Opal turned to Steam and told him:

“Why don’t you go now, Steam? After everything you’ve been through under Skullivar’s mercy, you deserve to go home.”

“Returning home would be un sogno come true” Steam said. “Ma… Io have come to feel like home qui, nel Triangle.”

“Seriously?” Dusk asked, surprised.

“Io have been living here for quite some time” Steam replied. “Io have mie invenzioni in my island and… the Triangle is not così male. Ma…”

He turned to Opal and told her:

“Io will miss you, Opal.”

The two engaged in a hug, but when they separated, she told:

“You will not have to.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m staying as well.”

“What?!” everypony asked.

“Opal, are you sure?” Star asked.

“I thought you wanted to go home and fix your relationship with your father and work to improve the life of your kingdom” Dusk said.

“And I still do” Opal replied. “However… according to what you’ve told me, my father is missing me for quite a while. If what they told about the time here in the Triangle is true, then I didn’t make it through that vortex. And I think I know why.”

She then placed her hoof over Steam’s, much to his embarrassment what caused him to blush, and she continued:

“It’s because I did what you have taught me, Dusk: follow my heart.”

She and Steam traded a smile and the former added:

“Also, it’s not like we’re not going to see each other again. Hopefully, I will be able to see him again.”

“If that’s what you want…” Dusk said, understanding her friends and accepting it with a nod.

Dusk then saw that there were only him and his brother remaining… or so he thought that. Turning to Heartbeat, he took Calabrass and told her:

“Turn him back to what he was.”

“What?” Heartbeat asked.

“You heard what I said” Dusk said. “Break your curse on Calabrass so that he can have his pony form back.”

“Dusk, I admire your courage to demand that to the General of Affection, but you’re wasting your Latin with her” Calabrass said. “I doubt she will…”

“Okay” Heartbeat replied.

“What?!” Calabrass asked.

“I’ll do it” Heartbeat said. “I can give you back your pony form. However, I won’t be able to break the bond between you and the Eyes of the Seven Seas. And since it’s necessary for the eyes to remain in the Triangle…”

“You won’t be able to leave the Bermikun Triangle, Calabrass” Bight Night concluded.

“Wait, so Calabrass will have to remain here?!” Dusk asked. “That’s… so unfair!”

“Don’t worry, laddie, I’ll take the offer” Calabrass said.

“But, Calabrass…”

“I’ve been in the Triangle for long enough that now I don’t see myself elsewhere” he said. “This way, I can get my body back and be the pirate you helped me become, my friend.”

“You… you mean that?” Dusk asked, touched by his last words.

“Of course!” he exclaimed. “You made me become a better pirate, Dusk Storm. You can be sure of that.”

“Thanks, Calabrass” Dusk told.

“Okay, okay, no more sappy moments” Calabrass said, turning then to Heartbeat. “Do your worst, red witch. I’m ready for it.”

“You could at least ask it with proper manners” she replied.

Heartbeat charged her horn and then casted a magic beam against Calabrass. He was raised in the air and was involved with a red light. From the top of the skull a star seed immerged and, once it left the sword, it fell on the ground, with no life in it. The star seed then summoned a pony body, disappearing then inside its blossom. The body descended and landed and, when the light disappeared, they all could see what Calabrass really looked like.

He was an earth stallion with a light orange coat, a light amaranth and moderate scarlet mane and mustache, vivid tangelo hooves and deep green eyes. He had a pirate attire, which covered his Cutie Mark, and included a tricorn hat. When he noticed his body, he exclaimed:

“I can’t believe it! That’s actually me!”

“Wow, Calabrass, so that’s how you look” Dusk said.

“I have to say, it’s rather surprising you weren’t kidding about the mustache” Opal commented.

“Tinker princess, if there’s one thing I never lie is about my mustache” Calabrass replied, while curling his mustache, proudly.

Bright Night approached Calabrass while holding the sword he once inhabited and told him, while extending it to him:

“I hope you can be the keeper the Eyes of the Seven Seas need or else you can be sure the next curse will be far more severe.”

“You don’t have to worry about that” Calabrass said, while taking the sword.

“Looks like you’ll be a lot busy” Dusk said. “Are you sure you can handle watching over seven different seas at the same time?”

“Isn’t that what we’ve been doing all this time?” Calabrass replied.

“I guess you’re right” Dusk said. “So, I guess you’ll need a ship. I bet Chaos will be more than pleased to sail around the Seven Seas with you.”

The Chaos moved towards Dusk and appeared to not get away from him.

“Sorry, kid, but I don’t think that busted ship is suited for me” Calabrass said. “I like to be the one to command the ship, not the other way around. Besides, it would appear he has no intention in coming with me.”

“Yeah, mustache face here is right” Heartbeat said. “Chaos really took a liking with you, Dusk. And since his mission here in the Bermikun Triangle is finished, I suggest you take care of him.”

“Well… I guess I can do that” Dusk said, turning to Chaos. “What do you say, Chaos?”

The ship just made a sound that appeared as a yes.

“At least, we’re going to get back home in style” Star commented.

“That’s for sure” Dusk replied.

The two brothers got on board on Chaos and turned to their friends, with Dusk saying:

“Don’t turn into a stranger, Opal. You can visit us whenever you want.”

“You too, Steam.”

“The same goes for you two” Opal replied.

“Yes, don’t forget about us” Calabrass said.

“As if that was possible” Dusk told, turning then to Star. “Are you ready?”

“Ready to return home?” Star replied. “You can bet I am… captain.”

“I have to admit, I’ll miss be called captain” Dusk said.

“You’ll always be the captain of the Chaos, don’t forget about that” Star said.

Dusk made a smile, agreeing with what Star said, and then taking the helm, he told to his trusty ship:

“Okay, Chaos, full steam ahead.”

Walking with his metallic legs, the Chaos advanced and passed through the vortex which then closed behind them…