Myths and Birthrights: The Archive

Myths and Birthrights

By Tundara

Part Two: Tremors in the East

Chapter 9: The Sea Serpent

The wailing of the dead rose from the black river, lifting into the putrid fetid air like a fog. The noise was omnipresent, a constant single grinding sound that wore away at sanity, hope, and desire. Mortals that found their way to the river’s bank rarely survived long, a slight tingle of magic speaking of the haunting litany's true nature.

There was a second effect, a calling, a whispering undertone that begged those that heard the wails to come closer to the river, to sup of its poisonous water.

Those that did instantly and irreversibly lost themselves, their very souls pulled into the Styx.

A pair of ash grey hooves landed with a sharp report on the sole dock. A dozen withered specters looked towards the hooves’ owner, their open mouths and empty eyes gaping at the newcomer. A few tried to shuffle towards him, drawn like moths to a flame by the energy of life flowing from him. The sharp crack of a whip and acid tongue made them return to their ordered lines. A second crack of the whip and they began the long journey towards a distant palace of obsidian, violet lightning highlighting dark twisted spires that towered above the barren landscape.

The newcomer hesitated a moment as summer-blue eyes looked sadly to the sprawling complex.

“Brother, what have you been up to these last few thousand years?” a voice, rich and sad, asked.

The newcomer stepped past lines of chained and shackled spirits, their jailers and masters not looking at the intruder as they went about their duty. It took nearly half a day, as the clock would reckon time, for him to cross the empty featureless plain that stretched between the river and the palace. Small puffs of dust and ash swirled with each step, the cracked, parched ground emitting little squeals or moans as hooves churned the earth. A road did connect the dock and palace, but it was filled with endless throngs of the marching dead; grist for the palace’s mill.

At last he reached the palace, turning to the right as he passed beneath through a wide gate. The gate-house, and the wall surrounding the palace, were covered in sharp spikes that dripped with misery, lording over the flat barren lands they held back. Gargoyles sat along the parapets, occasionally leaping into the bleak sky to fly to a new perch. With every flap of their leathery wings the gargoyles shed scales of volcanic rock, the stones creating a harsh crackling din like hail.

Crossing the courtyard, the newcomer approached the doors into the palace itself. Before them sat a pale-white alicorn. He was gaunt and sickly looking, his features sunken and his eyes two dull black orbs. Hanging limply about his face and neck like a cloak was a mane of wiry black hair. On the alicorn’s flank was a smiling black skull.

“Uncle, what a... pleasure, to see you come visit our humble abode. Come to lord your sons’ victory over my mother’s slayers?” the pale-white alicorn asked in a voice like the hissing of sand falling through an hourglass.

“I have come to speak with your father, Achlys,” the newcomer said, his voice thundering across the desolate waste.

“Of course you have,” Achlys laughed sourly. “He sits where he always has this past while. You will find him at the graves, mourning our loss.”

“Alicorns do not die, as you know best.” The newcomer snorted and narrowed his eyes.

“Even gods can die. It is what happens after death that is uncertain,” Achlys slowly stood as his retort rolled from his tongue like drops of oil. “I, of all beings, should know." A black aura shrouded his horn as he turned, thrusting the door open.

The newcomer did not respond, simply following Achlys into the shadowed palace. Braziers of burning pallid green spiritual essence gave the halls, the inner walls as dark as the outer ones, a foreboding air. Hooves echoed among the almost deserted halls. There was little in the way of decorations. No banners or tapestries hung from the walls, paintings didn’t show previous tenants; not that there had ever been any. Even the roof was plain, with no lattice work or carvings etched into the obsidian. Other than the braziers the halls were completely featureless, devoid of life or creativity.

Both kept their silence as they passed libraries and grand bedrooms. These rooms, unlike the stark hallways, were filled with individual touches and flourishes. Achlys’ uncle’s eyes took in the rooms open to sight as the two passed.

The first, and largest, of the bedrooms hidden deep in the almost empty palace, was filled with oil paintings of a soft evergreen toned mare. Her blue mane was pulled back into a harsh bun in most of the pictures, her sickly yellow eyes gleaming above a smirk. In each her attire was different, some of the styles unfamiliar to the palace’s guest. In the center sat a hanging bed that took up half the room. The dark plum coloured sheets had a thin layer of dust covering them and a white dress had been left spread across the lower half.

The doors to the second and third rooms were both closed. From inside the later came the gentle morose tinkling of a wind-up music box.

Like the first room, the door to the fourth was open. Inside sat a room of simple earthy beauty. There was none of the extravagance of the first room, just simple brown tones and wood with carvings of woodland scenes. Above an empty hearth sat a ruined painting. A knife or claw had torn and ripped the canvass removing almost all trace of the subject. Only a few yellow and green tones could be seen on the dangling scraps. The small bed showed similar signs of mistreatment, the sheets tossed to one side and the mattress spreading its feathery guts across the floor. A lock on the door into the room had been shattered leaving a small hole where the doorknob had once been.

Achlys stopped in front of the room for a few moments, his lips peeling back to reveal broken yellow teeth.

“I cannot believe she is gone,” Achlys growled, the moment passing and the pale alicorn continuing to lead his uncle.

“Your sister?”

“She alone in this wretched realm understood me, pitied me.” The God of Death flicked his wings as he stared straight ahead. “She knew my loneliness well, for she shared it.” Achlys stopped before a small wrought-iron gate that led into an equally small garden. “This is as far as I go, Uncle. I’ll warn you this once, be careful around Father, he is not the alicorn you banished here all those millennia ago.”

Left alone, he waited until Achlys’ hoofsteps retreated into the palace before pushing the gate open. The grey alicorn stepped into an even greyer garden. There was no greenery or life in this place, just the withered and wretched stalks of flowers surrounding the bones of an apple tree. The air was heavy with the stench of rotting plants.

“So, the mighty Zeus has finally come to pay his brother a visit,” chuckled a sour and mirthless voice from behind the dead tree.

Trotting quickly around the tree, Zeus laid eyes on his elder brother for the first time since he had banished him from the mortal world of Gaea.

Hades, Lord of Tartarus, God of the Dead, was a pale sickly shadow of his former glory. Where Zeus remembered a stallion filled with the pride and arrogance to challenge for the crown to rule the alicorns, he now saw a being broken by grief. His obsidian coat was unkempt and filthy, covered with years of dirt and grime as it hung loosely on a frame as withered as the garden. Likewise, his once silvery-white mane and beard were messes of snarls and knots, clinging to Hades’ hollow face in oily clumps. A crack ran the length of his horn, Zeus cringing at the sight of the wound. It was the eyes though that effected Zeus the most. Gone was the brilliant cunning and ambition that once shone like a beacon, able to find the strengths and flaws, the truths and lies of a soul, replaced by nothingness. Only Hades’ mark remained the same, the golden gate on his flank sitting before the ghostly outline of a pony.

Zeus craned his neck to get a look at the object Hades ice-blue eyes never wavered from. A pair of mausoleums sat leaning against the garden’s back wall. Etched into their soft stone were only a few words; ‘Hecate, Wife’ and ‘Artemis, Daughter’.

“You mourn for no reason, brother,” Zeus snorted as he sat down beside Hades.

The garden trembled as a sharp thunderous crack echoed throughout, spilling onto the empty wastes of Tartarus beyond the palace. Zeus hadn’t even seen Hades move or felt the build up of magic before the blow was struck and the King of the Alicorns sent crashing into a wall.

“Do not presume to tell me whether my grief is in vain or not!” Hades howled, eyes bulging from his head. A bident hovered in his golden magic above Zeus. Green runes of sickly magic glowed along the haft as low tortured moans of the damned echoed from the weapon’s prongs. “I care not for your dominion nor your supposed and overly exaggerated wisdom. This is Tartarus, and here—,”

True thunder rang across the desolate plains as Hades was hurled away and into the opposite wall. Laughing, Zeus cracked his neck as he stood. Across the small garden, Hades snarled as he pulled himself up. Wafts of smoke and singed hair filled the air as the two elder alicorns glared at each other.

“I didn’t come all this way to fight with you, brother,” Zeus finally said, spreading his wings low in a gesture of peace. “I came to ask for your aid.”

“My aid, that is a laugh,” Hades snorted as he drove his bident into the ground. “What possible aid could you need from the lowly Lord of Tartarus?”

“I need to find my daughters, of course.”

For several seconds the two brothers stared at each other, then a thin smirk began to grow on Hades face. Zeus breathed a sigh of relief, lowering the magic filling his horn.

“Find your daughters, that’s all?” the black alicorn asked. His joints and bones snapped and popped as he slowly returned to his vigil before the graves. “What help do you need from me? They are not in Tartarus; I looked. When the Citadel of Light was consumed by tainted magic, I looked, wondering if any of them would be cast down to my home where I could exact my payment. Only a smattering of their mortal servants arrived, those from the kitchens, maids, gardeners or the like. Only the most sniveling and worthless came to Tartarus, as is the norm. Most went to Elysium. As for the alicorns, there was no sign.

“I cannot help you, brother.” Hades placed a hoof on the grave of Artemis. Tears welled in his eyes, but couldn’t be shed. Zeus looked on his brother with pity.

Glancing up to the clouds of eternal ash that hung above Tartarus, Zeus said, “I do not believe that those at the Citadel perished that night.”

“The mountain was sundered, ripped in half by the magic unleashed. Ares, Chranus, Achlys, and Baste were flung beyond the horizon by the force of the explosion. How could a bunch of wounded mares and un-awakened fillies survive?”

“You are not the first I have visited in search of answers. I went to the Fates, and the crones told me much of that night that was hidden to all but their eye. While the mountain was indeed broken, that was simply a cover to allow them to save their foals and possibly themselves.” Zeus began to pace as he spoke, his steps fast with agitation and suppressed hope. Hope, his beautiful niece, Authea. The old alicorn cracked a smile as he remember her infectious happiness and how she always seemed to know what do. If any pony could have anticipated that terrible night and prevented the worst of the tragedies, it was Authea. “There is a chance that they are out there, still.”

“Out where, brother?”

“There,” Zeus swept his wings indicating the horizon of Tartarus.

“I told you already, they are not in Tartarus. If they were I would know about it. It is almost impossible to step  a hoof or flick a wing in this realm without my knowing, even in my current condition.”

“No, not in Tartarus, but in the domains beyond.” Zeus’ smile cracked wider.

Hades turned his head from where Zeus paced and instead looked out across his realm. After contemplating everything he’d been told, he fixed a sharp glare on his brother. “You speak of the Seventeen Gates, don’t you?”

“I do indeed.”

“They say grief has driven me to madness... Clearly, I don’t have it the worst.” Hades shook his head as he stood, a grim disapproving pinch to his lips. Turning to leave the garden, he muttered, “You don’t know what you ask of me.”

“I ask you to find our missing fillies! I ask you to make amends for the imprisonment of the Moon and every hardship caused by your lust. I ask you to help me restore stability and harmony to Gaea. Damn it, brother, I beg you, help me.”

Zeus’ plea had the desired effect, halting Hades before the God of the Dead left the garden. Suppressing a grin of victory, Zeus knew he had to be extremely careful, more so than ever before in his ten thousand years of existence, for the next few moments. Wetting his lips, he waited for Hades to slowly turn to face his brother.

“You, Mighty Zeus, God of Storms, King of the Alicorns, you beg help from me and have the temerity to blame the war on my actions?” Hades pulled his face back into an enraged sneer. Zeus felt his heart beat quicker as his older brother approached. The next few moments sat on the edge of a knife, with failure lurking to cackle its mad laugh. “I brought her here because I wanted to keep her safe. I loved her, I still love her, I will always love her!”

Zeus almost let the smile of victory touch his lips as he said, “Then help me find her missing daughters! Help me find our daughters. They are out there, somewhere, beyond one of the Gates.”

Hades slumped back in defeat, a weary sigh leaving his body. “The Fates told you this?” Zeus nodded. “And you don’t believe they are playing their games, clearly.”

Leaning against the small iron gate, Hades turned to consider the right grave, the grave he had constructed only a month ago. She was alive, his most precious filly was still alive. Standing straighter, his wings tucked tight to his side, not dragging in the dust and ash, Hades said, “Very well, I will take you to the Seventeen Gates and see if we can re-unite our herds.”

Zeus finally allowed himself to smile again and slap a hoof on his brother’s withers.

Shooting him a sharp glare, Hades cautioned, “They may not be behind any of the Gates, and some of the worlds beyond them make Tartarus look tame in comparison. This is almost certainly a fool’s errand.”

“Then it is good we're mighty fools indeed, brother!” Zeus let out a booming laugh.

He could taste the scent of victory on the parched Tartan air and almost feel his hooves again able to wrap themselves around his eldest daughters. Then, maybe, he could finally figure out what exactly had caused his large and extensive family to feud so fiercely. Arguments and disputes weren't uncommon, and there had been fights, but never before had alicorn destroyed alicorn. Zeus had theories and ideas, a few clues as well, but no hard evidence or facts. He had to know, exactly, what had happened, and then he would punish those required.

“A pair of Titans once more, out to reclaim what is ours,” Hades agreed with his sharper laugh. "Not even one of the Quus could stand in our way."

* * *

It was with a profoundly weary sigh that Luna lowered the latest report from the Royal Scouts. To her left, Celestia was asleep, her head resting on the table as a thin trickle of drool leaked out onto detailed maps showing the entire province of Western Equestria. Luna was glad her sister was finally getting some sleep, even if it looked uncomfortable, not to mention how embarrassed Celestia would be when she awoke.

After three days of continuous activity, stopping wagon after wagon, searching every town and village along the roads from attic to basement, there wasn’t a sign of the silver filly except a few lingering traces of her essence being carried on the wind.

At first this excited Luna as she and her sister narrowed the search location. But the traces had no rhyme or reason to their movements or origins. It was Celestia who concluded that they were being led on a wild goose chase. This was very troubling to the princesses.

They had never encountered an alicorn that could purposefully hide or obfuscate her essence. That a filly was doing it, and without Awakening told them a couple things about her. Not being fostered, she had to be close to her Awakening for her to be able to even subconsciously use her alicorn abilities. It was very similar to pre-cutie mark magic unicorns began to develop in the few months before they discovered their special talents. The second was, once she awakened, it would be completely impossible to find her if she wanted to stay hidden.

Luna had started to scribble possible domains that would grant such an ability. So far she had Mysteries, Stealing, Shadows, Darkness, Secrets. It was far from a comprehensive list.

Celestia didn’t disagree with Luna’s assessment, but she also urged caution. The Solar Princess was secretly ashamed of her actions in Vanhoover, and wondered if the filly had seen her when she’d been consumed by rage and guilt. Tyr had been terrified of Iridia’s mere presence, maybe this filly was running and hiding because she was afraid of her. Celestia couldn’t shake the feelings of doubt and self-reproach. She worked twice as hard to make up for her actions.

One of the few bits of good news the sisters had received was that Puff was sighted fleeing up into the Crystalspine mountains. Up in those barren and foreboding peaks, it wouldn’t be able to harm anypony.

Luna hoped.

Setting the note down, Luna rubbed her red rimmed eyes. She needed sleep almost as badly as her sister. Coffee could only do so much, even for an alicorn, before the needs of the body would finally catch up. The beds put aside in one corner of the old campaign tent looked like sirens, begging and singing for the Lunar Princess to sink into their warm comforters and lay her head down on the plush duck down pillows. She could feel her eyes begin to droop staring at the beds.

"Good morning, Lulu!" chirped an aggravatingly perky voice, forcing Luna to snap her eyes off the beds and to the tent-flap.

Wrapped in the early morning light filtering through the flap like it was her green cloak stood Iridia. The queen had used a spell to hide her wings, making her appear like a tall Prench unicorn. She claimed it was to help her 'blend in' and not draw suspicion, but it did neither. Unicorns of Prench descent in Equestria were one of two things; part of the embassy or fashion models.

'At least she doesn't stick out like a broken horn as much without the wings,' Luna sighed to herself before asking, "Iridia, what are you doing here? I thought you were... uh... doing something."

"'Doing something'?" Iridia tilted her head and rolled her eyes. "I've had nothing to do for thirty years, and before that I was an amorphous energy... thing. Honestly, living in Canterlot is almost as bad as Reinalla. Though you and your sister are mildly less paranoid about me going all evil than the Halla. I was allowed two rooms, and to go to the garden with an escort consisting of their fastest, their strongest, their wisest, and their most magically gifted warriors." The Queen rolled her eyes as she picked up a report sitting on the table and began scanning its contents.

Rubbing her forehead, Luna barely managed to suppress a groan at Iridia's attempts at a pity session. Eyes fixated on her work, Luna reminded herself to avoid rising to Iridia's baiting. She couldn't afford to be distracted, not with a filly missing and in possible danger.

Laying down on one of the beds, peaking over the parchment to watch Luna's reaction, Iridia continued.

"I think after fifteen hundred years of oral tradition, they've gotten the facts of who did what to whom all muddled up. Yes, my behaviour may have been a little extreme, but really, It—,"

Luna's eye twitched, an image of a small filly laying in her hooves flashing through her mind's sight. The filly was so cold, cold as the white winds whipping through the mountains. She could feel the slight weight in her hooves again, even after fifteen centuries, pulling her heart down to the deepest pits of Tartarus.

She could feel the boiling rage as well.

Any idea of weathering Iridia's self-pity vanished as the memory surfaced, Luna's ears flicking back to rest along her head.

"Auntie, you are not the only one who those cultists wronged, and I am not speaking of Namyra. I was there before you. It was I who saw her final moments, who felt her small body grow still, and it was I who forced a star to fall to create a wish to save her. It was I who had to destroy the abomination that wish created!" Luna shouted, leaping up and stamping a hoof, her eyes flashing in time to the tent shuddering. "Yet, I don't go moping around wanting other ponies to feel sorry for me!"

"No," Iridia laughed, her mirth cold and cruel as the most bitter winter wind. "You sulk and worry your nights away tormenting yourself about the War of the Sun and Moon, terrified you'll fall and become Nightmare Moon again. I've seen the front you put on in front of our herd, and I've seen your face as you sit, alone, in the gardens staring up the moon."

"How dare you!" Luna eyes narrowed, her nostrils flaring as she snorted. "At least I admit my mistakes and attempt to atone, not whine and cry like a foal begging for attention after stubbing a hoof."

"Why you little...," Iridia's voice trailed off as the parchment held in her magic began to blacken and crinkle as if it was in a fire. Luna knew she shouldn't provoke her self-centered and volatile aunt, but she couldn't help but smirk as Iridia slowly advanced towards her. "I've attempted to atone! I tried everything within my limited power to ease the suffering of your heart because you were the one there for my Namyra when I failed as a mother! Me, the Goddess of Motherhood, of Life, of the Spring, failing at the very thing I symbolize."

The illusion Iridia had wrapped around herself to appear as a unicorn faltered, her wings flaring with trails of golden magic. Her mane came alive, whipping and cracking as if caught in a tempest.

"I killed my eldest daughter through my negligence and pride, Luna! Then, because of that same pride, I took my grief out on a world that had done nothing to wrong me!"

The air trembled and the earth shook as Iridia continued to advance towards Luna. Most ponies would have cowered before the display; Luna was not like most ponies. Instead, she almost felt a flicker of pity for the much older mare. She was not intimidated in the least, having once been prone to often giving such displays of pure unbridled power. The effect could not be maintained, the tent growing still as Iridia slowly closed her wings.

"Don't think I don't know, in my heart of hearts, that I alone bear the burden of responsibility for all the deaths that almost endless winter caused." Tears gathered in Iridia's eyes as she sat down and curled into a ball in front of Luna. Slowly, the tears began to trickle down her face. Luna was so stunned, she almost failed to snatch a small empty bowl from the table and place it under Iridia's chin before the first fell.

"I'm not as strong as you or Tia," Iridia whispered, "I'm just a bitter old mare lost in a world I hardly recognise or understand, weighed down by my innumerable failures."

For a minute the tent was filled only with the gentle clinking of two thousand years worth of tears falling into the bowl.

"I'm sorry," Iridia sobbed. "You should be finding that missing filly, not arguing with me. This is silly, I didn't even cry when Namyra was murdered," she added in a muttered undertone, growing silent afterwards.

"Crying isn't silly," came Celestia's voice.

Turning her head a little, Luna saw her sister still laying her head on the table, her rosy pink eyes half-lidded with the lingering drowsiness of interrupted sleep. Yawning, Celestia stood and stretched, her wings brushing against the top of the tent. A head poked into the tent, the new guard captain looking anxiously between the three alicorns.

"We... uh, heard raised voices. Is anything... amiss?" she asked, her voice almost as timid as Fluttershy's.

"No, captain," Luna said. "Just an ancient herd dispute being aired."

"Ancient dispute? How ancient?" the captain asked, her curiosity overtaking her common sense and training.

"From before Equestria, Captain." Celestia shook her head, then added, "You are dismissed and may return to your post."

"Yes, ma'am," the captain said as she saluted and closed the tent.

"I'm sorry, Tia," Iridia whimpered as she tried to wipe away the crystal tears clinging to her coat. "I know you've been working hard and I didn't mean to be a distraction, I just—,"

Iridia's voice was cut off and muffled as Celestia grabbed the smaller alicorn and gave her a stiff hug. Luna felt her mouth fall open at the sight, a sight she thought she'd never see.  Both sisters had held onto the anger and hurt Iridia had caused when she'd torn their herd apart and made ponies suffer under her tyranny, using it as a talisman against the past. Luna sighed, knowing that the echoes of that suffering that had contributed to her own fall into Nightmare Moon. She knew she needed to forgive, though not forget, and was surprised to find that the ancient pain had begun to lessen and mend.

Pushing Iridia back so they could look each other in the face, Celestia said, "I'm glad you finally admitted the truth, Auntie. Not a flippant half-admission like at Twilight's coronation, but the heartfelt truth."

Iridia's marine blue eyes darted between Celestia and Luna as she whispered, "I don't deserve forgiveness. Not for my apathy, not for unsealing the Windigos, not for manipulating and inciting the Halla into raiding pony villages." She took a shuddering breath, her wings drooping at her sides. "I'll be out of Canterlot as soon as Twilight returns so I can give her a proper good-bye."

"You don't need to leave," Luna protested, lifting a hoof ever so slightly.

"That's kind of you to say, Lulu," Iridia gave a wet chuckle. "But I should return to Reinalla before the Halla get it into their fool heads that they need to go looking for me."

Celestia nodded slowly, a pensive twist pulling down the corners of her mouth. The elder princess didn't say anything as Iridia moved to the tent's exit. Luna looked between her sister and aunt, an itching sense of doubt and wrongness dancing at the tip of her thoughts. Just as Iridia was slipping out into the sunlight, Luna called for her to stop.

"Auntie, before you return to Canterlot, I have a query; are you able to find this missing filly?"

Iridia tilted her head, and then sighed, turning away from the exit and returning to the table.

"I... uh, Maybe? Do you know her name? Age?"

Celestia and Luna both admitted that they did not.

"She was using the name 'Shy Spell', according to ponies interviewed in Vanhoover, but the name is almost certainly an alias," Celestia grumbled, her eyes dancing across the reports scattered atop the table.

Iridia thought for a moment, then shook her head.

"I'm afraid I can't help," Iridia sighed, again moving towards the exit. "I'd need concrete specifics; pictures, her real name, date of birth, so-on and so-forth. And then I could only tell you things like her parents, grand-parents and such. I can't just pluck her location out of the Aether. Not unless she was an expecting mother, or if I could remember the divination Scrying, or would Discern Location be more appropriate?" Iridia sighed then shook her head slowly.

"You can't remember the spells?" Luna asked, her brows shooting up into her ethereal mane. "But, you invented half the Divinations."

Shrinking down, her ears falling flat against her head, Iridia muttered something about being old, forgetful, and locked in stone for centuries. A dark shade of crimson touched her cheeks and she stared at a very interesting pebble sitting beside one of the table's legs.

"What about you?" Iridia peeked through the bangs of her mane at her nieces. "Don't either of you remember the spells?"

Celestia and Luna both shared bemused looks, before Celestia said, "Divination isn't a separate field of magical study anymore, Auntie. It hasn't been since the Third Magical Reformation in the second century, Equestrian Reckoning. Since then the spells have slowly been lost. I did try to Scry, with no success."

"Well, that's a shame," Iridia gave a weary sigh. Holding open the tent flap with her magic, she added, "I hope you find her. An alicorn filly left unprotected is in great danger," before slipping out into the day.

Moving back to the table, Luna sat down with a resigned thump. She scanned the reports again, but her mind was too pre-occupied. Iridia's visit had brought up too many memories, some good, others too painful to bear. She looked down at her hooves, and for a moment she thought she saw crimson stains. It was just a trick of the light, a shadow cast on her dark coat, but it still made Luna's heart race and her breaths become short. Snorting and shaking her head to clear the cobwebs, Luna turned to address Celestia.

She found Celestia staring at her, a distant glazed look in her eyes. Snapping out of her thoughts, Celestia cast a dismissive glance about the tent.

"Well, I think we've neglected our courts long enough, Lulu. We are getting nowhere searching like this," Celestia gestured to the reports.

"Maybe what we need is to try a different tact, sister," Luna said, her mind still on the events of her cousin's death, or rather, how she'd found the cave. "Somepony is looking after her, and they need food and shelter, just like any other pony. Even if they had some way to hide her appearance, we both know dozens of spells capable of such a thing, they'd still have to enter or travel through villages. So far we've been trying to keep her a secret, to keep her safe."

"You're not suggesting we tell ponies about her, are you?" Celestia's voice made it clear how little she thought of the idea. "If any of the Great Houses got their hooves on her, you know they'd try to use her in some way to gain favour or power."

"How do we know one of them doesn't have her? We can't rule out the Dust, Swirl, Almanac, or Warder Houses from having her even now. All of them have access to unicorns practiced or skilled enough to be able to hide her." Luna waved a dismissive hoof. "But that's not what I meant. I was trying to get at using the Arbiters and Mayors. Put out word that a small filly has gone missing and there is a reward, or something, for her return."

Celestia tapped a hoof to her chin as she thought the idea over.

Luna knew what was probably going through her sister's mind. Ponies went missing more often than either liked. The causes were as varied as the ponies themselves, with everything from animal attacks in rural areas to foalnapping in the cities. It was still, thankfully, uncommon, no more than a half-dozen going missing in a year.

"Okay, but we need to keep it low-key," Celestia finally relented. "We're getting nowhere like this and have probably raised a lot of suspicion already in Canterlot. Hopefully all the gossip about Tyr has kept the nobles busy."

Luna snorted her thoughts on the likelihood of the nobles having not noticed the princesses' absence.

A short time later the small camp was packed up and the princesses returned to Canterlot.

Only a few miles to the south Trixie and Shyara sat cooking dandelion soup over a camp-fire, both finally relaxing.

* * *

The salty spray of the ocean rushing up over Bellerophon's bow splashed into Twilight’s mane and face with every wave. Bending their knees to absorb the shock as the ship finished its fall and began to rise on the swell, Twilight and Pinkie both let out long joyous laughs.

“Best. Adventure. Yet!” Pinkie shouted, one fetlock wrapped around a shroud while she hung precariously above the frothing white water racing passed the ship’s hull. Over one side of her face she wore a black eye-patch with a skull and bones motif on the front.

Only minutes before Twilight had put the stars to bed. She should have gone to bed herself, but the rush and excitement had yet to leave her even after a week of sailing. Twilight wanted to spend every moment she could out on the deck. The ship felt alive as the brisk north-north-west breeze rushed over her decks.

Around Twilight and Pinkie flowed the sailors and crew of H.M.S. Bellerophon as the old 74 gun ship-of-the-line raced across the Equis Ocean. To the ship’s lee could be seen the islands of Marelantis, home of the Kestrel Pegasi. Somewhere ahead, far beyond the horizon, were the Cardinals, and beyond them the continent of Zebrica. As the ship lifted up high on the crest of a wave, Twilight fluttered her wings a little to lift her front hooves off the wooden deck, hoping to see the peak of Greater Cardinal. She knew it was impossible, the Cardinals were well over a thousand nautical miles away still; a journey of weeks for Bellerophon.

But knowledge did little to stop the fluttering in her heart and belly as the ship buried her bowsprit into a wave sending gallons of water rushing along her deck and over the two mares.

“Lady Pinkamena, Princess Twilight, I’m going to have to request that you return to your quarters,” Captain Hardy hollered over the wind rushing through the rigging, the huge stallion’s wiry light brown mane plastered to the side of his face beneath his simple hat. The blue frock coat he had worn when Twilight was brought aboard had been replaced by a simple rain coat. “Or at the very least step back to the quarter-deck with Ambassador de Lis and Lady Rainbow.”

“If you think it best,” Twilight called back, taking a moment to shake off some of the salt-spray. “Come on, Pinkie.”

Practically skipping, Pinkie didn’t even pout or complain as she joined Twilight at the railing on the port side of the quarter-deck. Twilight had been amazed with how quickly Pinkie had taken to life aboard ship. She had to have been born with sea legs; the moment Twilight and her small detachment of guards and retainers were aboard Pinkie had joined the sailors up in the rigging to loose the sails. The ship’s Master had even mistaken her for one of the crew and threatened to stop her grog when she’d started singing a sea shanty.

The same could not be said for Dash, Fleur, or any of the Royal Guard Detachment. Dash, in particular, stood at the railing, her face an aqua-marine in colour rather than its usual cerulean blue. Every few moments she’d dry heave, her wretched moans crossing the ship’s deck. Looking up with red rimmed eyes at Twilight’s and Pinkie’s approach, the pegasus moaned, “Please, kill me now. Letting me linger like this is just cruel.”

“Oh, come on Dashie, this is great!” Pinkie wrapped a hoof around her friend’s shoulder, the motion sending Dash back to the rail where she dry heaved again. “Still no sea legs, Dashie?”

Pinkie was answered by her friend's continued retching.

“How are you holding up, Fleur?” Twilight asked after giving Rainbow a sympathetic look.

Fleur, while not as green looking as Dash, clung to the railing for dear life, her back legs shaking so badly her knees almost knocked together. She gave Twilight a tepid smile, and muttered, “I-I’ll be fine, your majesty. I am just not too fond of the water.” Clutching the railing tighter as the ship pitched suddenly, Fleur added, “He’s not going to fire those Tartarus damned cannons again, is he? Le capitaine, that is?

“Not this afternoon, swells to high, and the way the barometer looks this weather will be with us another few days at least.” Striding easily across the swaying deck, the captain said, “Come, why don’t you go below and get both of your friends settled in—.”

“Ahoy, the deck, sail!” A strong voice called down from the top of the foremast carrying clear across the ship.

“Where away, Miss Pin?” Captain Hardy bellowed, turning and in a flash of his short horn, pulling out a brass looking glass.

“Two points off to port by the bow, sir.”

A sullen anticipatory silence grasped the ship, those who were able slid closer to the captain as he leveled his looking glass. Twilight cast a quick glance to her friends; Pinkie looked thrilled, Fleur was terrified, and Rainbow continued to almost droop down the ship’s side. Chewing on her lip a little, Twilight approached the captain.

“Can you see her sails?” Captain Hardy shouted, his deep voice almost knocking Twilight back with its force. “Is it a Kestrel fishing boat, mayhaps?”

“Ship, sir, hull down and running fast with the wind. Frigate from the looks of her.”

The anticipation among the crew grew, a few smiling and nudging each other while nodding towards Twilight. It had become apparent almost as soon as they left Baltimare that the Bellerophon's crew thought of Twilight as something of a good luck charm. Pinkie, who had taken to eating her food among the crew in addition to all her other antics, told Twilight that a hat the princess rescued from being blown overboard on the second day was being put into a small shrine near the chain lockers. Twilight really didn’t need Pinkie to know as much, the number of prayers in her name on the ship had increased exponentially. As the captain continued to search for the mysterious sail Twilight’s ears twitched towards no less than a dozen prayers.

“Got her,” the captain said to himself, then added to nearby midshippony, “Miss Tracer Round, the lead, if you please.”

Saluting, the pony, who looked like she was barely old enough to have a cutie mark, rushed to perform the order. Clicking her tongue, Twilight made the mental note to speak to Celestia about the navy’s recruitment policies when she returned home. She’d made the note at least two dozen times already, but it never hurt to be thorough. The midshippony quickly returned, saying the ship was moving at 8 knots.

Twilight continued to watch as a series of orders were given. Sailors scrambled up the shrouds into the masts and out onto the yard-arms. A drum began to beat, rousing the entire ship’s compliment. In a flash the deck was cleared for action, the long and jolly boats lowered over the side and the ship trembled as her guns were primed. Through it all, Captain Hardy remained staring across the heaving ocean towards the other ship, a predatory grin on his face.

Cresting a wave, Twilight finally saw the other ship as it emerged out of a short squall, the grey sheets of rain parting to white canvass sails and a blue painted hull. She was smaller than the Bellerophon, a single decker and mounting only half the number of guns. From her masthead flew a black flag, and beneath it a white pennant emblazoned with a golden serpent whipped and snapped in the gusting wind.

“It’s the Sea Serpent alright,” chuckled a mare beside Twilight that looked older than her parents. “The ship of Bloodrose ‘Bonnie’ Belle. Twenty three years she been on these seas hunted by the entire Royal Navy, and now she comes to us when we got a Princess aboard. Discord himself be at the wheel of that ship.”

Twilight gaped after the old sailor as she went back to her duties. Turning back to the captain, she saw Hardy had been joined by his First Lieutenant. Over the spray and happy rumble of the ship, Twilight listened to their short conversation.

“We can’t fight them, not when they have the weather gage and we have one of the Princesses aboard.”

“She’s the faster ship, Spirit.” Hardy pointed out, his unwavering eye on his enemy. “They have us by the hip, and I will not turn and run just to be chased down. I don’t trust them not to have a few friends waiting for us near the Marelantians, either. They’d have us well before nightfall, regardless.”

“How’d they find us?”

“It’s been long rumoured that the pirates have spies in Canterlot. No use dwelling on it now. See to the Princess and her friends.”

“Aye sir,” Spirit gave a quick crisp salute before turning to Twilight. “Princess, I’m going to have to insist that you and your friends go below.”

“No.” Twilight was surprised how forceful her voice sounded.

Fleur and Rainbow both were half-way to the hatch that would lead them to the cockpit, a dank area of the ship where the midshipmare and various officers berthed located just before the mizzen mast and below the waterline. Both stopped and gave Twilight curious looks until a wave slapped against the ship’s side. Fleur fell to the deck, grasping a crewmare by the neck while Rainbow turned and dove for the railing as sea sickness claimed her again. Pinkie had vanished entirely.

“I can help. I’m a sixth level Abjurer and Enchanter.”

“I don’t care if you could call your blasted stars down like meteors to blast that ship to splinters,” Hardy snarled, addressing Twilight for the first time since the sails of the Sea Serpent had been spotted, “it’s my duty to protect you. You don’t know the first thing about magical-naval combat, Princess. So get to the cockpit where you’ll be safe!”

Twilight’s ears flicked back against her head at the venom in the normally composed captain’s voice. Setting her jaw and widening her stance, Twilight made it clear that if the captain wanted her to go to the dark and fetid cockpit he was going to have to order his crew to drag her. For a few moments Twilight expected him to do just that, and then the Sea Serpent flashed out a dizzying number of pennants and flags, punctuating them with a gun.

“Code Book, what is she saying?” Hardy shouted to a junior officer.

Taking out her own looking glass, the officer peered at the flags for a few moments as the distance between the two ships continued to close. “’Truce. Hail the crown. Honour the sea.” Lowering her looking glass, Code Book gave her captain a puzzled look. “What does that mean?”

“It means they know we carry one of the princesses and we won’t engage them without being provoked,” Hardy snorted, snapping his looking glass closed. “Keep the mares at quarters, but the guns housed. I don’t want to be caught with my tail in the air if this is all a trick. Strike the topgallants as well. Let’s have a nice leisurely sail.”

“Aye sir, quarters, guns housed, and strike the topgallants.”

Closer and closer the two ships drew until less than a hundred yards separated the two. Twilight and the others were told two more times to head below, but she continued to stand her ground. Her gaze fixed on the Sea Serpent as the pirate frigate continued to approach the Equestrian Ship-of-the-Line until they were close enough that their yardarms almost touched as the ships swayed on the sea.

Through the rabble of ponies hanging on the rails of the Sea Serpent Twilight could see the pirate captain. Her long red coat and white duck trousers would have made Rarity faint with their out-dated style, and the tri-cornered hat on the mare’s head only heightened the perception. Streaming out from under the hat was a long mane of soft velvet and cobalt blue. A reddish-pink glow surrounded the pirate captain’s pink muzzle.

“Captain Hardy, been ages since we last bumped into each other. How’ve you been keeping?” The pirate’s thick mid-western accent almost knocked Twilight to the deck, both from its volume and the surprise of hearing it from the supposedly dastardly sea pirate.

“Bloodrose ‘Bonnie’ Belle, it’s a pleasure to see you again. Last I heard you were terrorising the coast of Germane.”

“That was over three years ago. Me and the girls here have been having a bit of sport the last while with them nice, slow Trotuguese merchant vessels loaded to the brim with silver and gold from the southern Zebrican mines. Then I got the most fascinating letter from my eldest daughter and the stars started doing the craziest things, and I thought to myself, ‘Why, Bonnie, perhaps it’s time to head home and spend some time with the herd. It has been a year since you last saw your youngest, after-all. Maybe go pay the new princess a visit.’”

The crew of the Sea Serpent cackled and jeered, a few waving their bottoms in the air. Some of the Bellerophones responded in kind, until their captain called for silence on the deck.

“The guard would have you in irons the moment you set a hoof in Canterlot,” Captain Hardy responded, earning a cheer from his crew and booing from the pirates.

“You’d be amazed at the doors open to me, Hardy, oh, you’d be amazed.” Bonnie Belle laughed, throwing back her head. “And Princess,” sweeping off her hat, Bonnie Belle bowed, “I’ll be sure to give my daughters a hug from you. They are rare, sweet things, my fillies.”

Spilling the wind from her sails, the Sea Serpent slowly turned away and for the east, her sails turning her into a white tower before she disappeared over the horizon a little after the noon bell was struck. Twilight sat watching the pirate ship until she vanished. A helpful Bellerophon crewmare pointed out that she was technically a privateer, given that Sea Serpent was said to sail with papers from the Prance National Congress to conduct her bloody trade against enemies of the nation, which currently meant Trotugal.

What puzzled Twilight were Bonnie Belle’s final words and the uncertain feeling she’d met the mare before, but couldn’t place where or when.

A little after six bells, or three in the afternoon, Twilight found herself still staring towards where the Sea Serpent had vanished when she was approached by the captain and the ship’s surgeon.

“Ah, Princess, still up I see,” Hardy said as he took a sip of some coffee. Twilight had no taste for the strong drink, and crinkled her nose a little at its aroma. Dabbing a hard biscuit into the cup, the captain turned to the stallion at his side, “This is my good friend, Timely Crown, the ship’s physician.”

Twilight gave the mentioned stallion a cursory glance and found his watery blue eyes and short, almost shaved, brown mane sent a small shiver up her back. He was polite, bending a knee gracefully enough, but there was something unsettling about the way he watched Twilight, like he was appraising her as if she were a body on his operating table.

“I’ve been wondering captain, what would have happened if there had been a battle?” Twilight asked, again turning her gaze to the gently rolling ocean.

“Well, I suspect they’d have stayed at range, relying on their long eighteen pounders and any unicorns with skill in combat magic. With the weather gage, they could have kept their distance and we’d have been roughly equal, all things told. If we could close and use our thirty-two pound carronades, it’d be another story entirely. Why do you ask?”

“I just never realised how dangerous the sea could be. In Canterlot and Ponyville, we don’t hear much about the navy or sea travel,” Twilight sighed as she accepted a cup of tea from the captain’s steward. “You’ve mentioned the ‘weather gage’ a few times, what is it, exactly?”

“Plainly, it means the wind was in their favour and they could dictate the terms of an engagement. I believe that if you hadn’t been present it would have been a bloody mess. Then again, they probably would have steered clear under regular circumstances. No profit in attacking a ship of your majesties’ navy.” Finishing his coffee and hard biscuits, the captain turned his eye to the horizon. “You’d best get some rest, Princess. We’re headed towards a storm, and she’s going to be a big blow.”

Twilight tilted her head and gave a little frown. “Why would ponies make a storm out here?”

“Ponies? Ha! The Ocean makes her own weather without our influence or interference,” Hardy chuckled as he left to begin his routine pacing of the quarterdeck.

“It is true, your majesty,” Timely Crown gave a weak watery chuckle as he lit a pipe. “I scarcely believed it myself at first, but the entire ocean is like one giant Everfree Forest. My colleagues at Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns postulate it has to do with the ocean currents picking up and conducting Ley Energy in wild and chaotic ways, much how the Ley Line beneath the old Everfree Castle was wounded during the War of the Sun and Moon in five fifty-two. I confess, I never fully understood all the magic involved. I am more into birds and medicine, naturally.”

Twilight remained silent, not that Timely Crown seemed to notice, as the physician began to discuss all the different seabirds that lived near the Marelantians. He followed up by detailing all the problems and issues dealing with health and medicine aboard a so-called modern naval vessel. No power for any of the devices doctors used on land, few resources besides what herbs and lotions he could cram into his medicine chest. His greatest asset was a keen medical mind and a sharp saw in the event the ship entered battle. Truthfully, while Equestria as a whole had progressed, life on the seas hadn’t changed in hundreds of years, sea-going ponies being even more suspicious and opposed to change than even the most stubborn pony on land.

Eventually, Timely finished his pipe and headed below to check on his patients, the hard and dangerous life of sailing always keeping him busy. Twilight gulped the last of her, by that time, stone cold tea and left the railing.

The captain’s warning proved true. Long before Twilight needed to wake her stars the ship began to shudder and skip under fierce winds. With storm sails rigged and the topgallants struck to the deck, Bellerophon raced through the night and next day, making almost eleven knots at every heaving of the log.

Below deck, in the spacious main cabin, Rainbow Dash and Fleur both lay strapped into their cots. At some point the captain’s steward had discovered the ambassador whimpering in a corner, an empty bottle of merlot clutched in her hooves. Rainbow had been put into a deep sleep by the use of magic, ending her torment at the hooves of seasickness. Even Pinkie felt the effects of the storm, sitting with her head on a table in the junior officers mess, sliding back and forth with slow languid groans and complaining about the ocean being a big grumpy rump. Twilight’s body lay in her cot, while her mind drifted up to the stars. From her vantage point above the planet she could see the spinning disk of the storm and the distant lights of the villages and towns on the Marelantians.

Luna visited briefly at sunset and sunrise, but couldn’t stay long to chat. The stars gleefully took Luna’s place, sharing stories from various times and ages. Rukbat and Brachium had the most, having spent their nights watching over and listening to writers, poets, and bards. Eventually, Twilight and the stars went to sleep, the sun glowering at them as she began to rise at Celestia’s behest.

Dreams came quickly, and in their warm embrace Twilight was oblivious to the goings on of the ship as they continued through the lessening storm. She was still asleep as night shrouded the sea, only a firm breeze and a few heavy grey clouds remaining of the storm. Briefly, Twilight’s eyes fluttered open as she prodded Polaris before the princess rolled back over and let sleep claim her again. The pleasant and needed sleep was shattered by a sharp and screeching sound that echoed across the rolling waves.

“What was that?” Twilight groaned as she rolled out of her bed. Slipping on her shoes, Twilight stifled a yawn as she stepped out of the cabin and onto the deck. Near the starboard rail she saw Captain Hardy, a worried pinch to his brow as he swung his looking glass out across the sea. “Captain, what’s going on? Is it the pirates again?”

“Pirates? No, this is something much worse,” Hardy shook his loose mane before returning to his vigil as the noise came again.

The entire ship grew still and tense, the only noise the wind whistling through the rigging and the occasional slap of a wave against the ship’s side. A couple of the crew started to whisper fearful words and prayers in Twilight’s name. At her side appeared Fleur, Rainbow and Pinkie, the three mares rubbing sleep from their eyes.

Twilight was about to tease Rainbow hoping to alleviate some of the tension gripping the ship like a vice when a great fountain of water burst just off the ship’s side. From the heart of the water flowed a tower of white scales. Mouth falling open, Twilight could only stare as the tower coiled around itself, the head of a massive serpent held high as the Bellerophon's mainmast. Tendrils of steam belched and curled from the corners of the serpent’s mouth as it smiled down on the ship.

Maw gaping wide, the serpent lunged forward striking as fast as lightning. Wood shattered and the Bellerophon trembled as a great chunk was torn from her side leaving a gaping wound. Lines snapping like cord, the ship shuddered as her sails flapped in the wind, and then the serpent sunk back beneath the waves. Captain Hardy staggered back to his hooves bellowing orders to the crew. Turning to tell the princess to go below, as futile as the order had become, he saw instead the princess and her friends gone with only the hole in the ship’s side in their place.

Inside the serpent’s mouth, Twilight clung to Pinkie and Rainbow. Surrounded by absolute dark Twilight couldn’t see her own nose, let alone Fleur, if the mare was with them.  She could feel the stars screaming her name, not in fear or hope, but in cold fury.

“Polaris!” Twilight shouted trying to reach the Lodestar.

A sharp pressure jabbed into the base of Twilight's horn, making her gasp. She tried reaching the lodestar again, but found the connection buzzing like a swarm of bees had entered her ears. She could hear the stars, and feel their magic, but it was as if a great chasm had opened between them, and in that chasm two massive eyes like swirling nebulas stared back at Twilight. It was only for an instant, the eyes vanishing as Twilight blinked and groped for the stars, making her wonder if she'd imagined the eyes.

Her attempts at contacting the stars were interrupted by a flick of the serpent’s mammoth tongue as it pressed Twilight and her friends against its teeth. The realization that she was about to die and be eaten along with two of her best friends slammed into Twilight. While terrified about the experience of dying, she was somewhat comforted by the idea that she’d probably reincarnate, maybe. By Luna’s own admission, she knew of no alicorn that had gone through the process, so it was all just theoretical. Being eaten by a giant sea serpent wasn’t how Twilight wanted to test the theory. Not that it would matter if she somehow survived, two of her oldest friends and a new one would be dead.

Forcing down her fear as the screams of Pinkie and Fleur assaulted her ears, Twilight began to charge her horn. With no time for anything fancy, Twilight lashed out with a simple telekinetic punch. Around the four ponies the serpent’s cheeks bulged and its teeth rattled, but Twilight’s magic did little else. Straining harder and changing tactics, Twilight gave a deep guttural growl as she tapped into the lines of energy connected to her magic pool.

Cold collapsed in around the four ponies for less than the flicker of a star, and then they appeared several hoof lengths above the water.

Twilight and Rainbow both thrust their wings open, and with a quick succession of flaps kept themselves from plunging into the water. Pinkie and Fleur were not so lucky, both mares screaming, one with excitement, the other in abject terror, before falling beneath the rolling sea with a pair of splashes. Twilight twisted and spun, her head darting around as she tried to spot the two mares.

“Over there!” Rainbow shouted, a single powerful thrust of her wings sending her blazing across the choppy waves.

Struggling more in the last lingering wind of the storm, Twilight fought to follow her cyan friend.

“Hey Dashie,” Pinkie called waving a single fore-leg, the other wrapped around a visibly trembling and struggling Fleur. Pinkie’s teeth chattered like she’d been outside all night in mid-winter. “This adventure is becoming a little less fun, Twi,” she added as Twilight back-winged into a sloppy hover.

“I know, I’m sorry. Here, let me help you two out of the water.” Twilight lit her horn with magic and picked Pinkie and Fleur up in a soft pink bubble. Straining her wings towards their untested limits, Twilight slowly began to fly higher, encouraged on by Rainbow. She needed to get them all back to the ship, and into warm blankets.

Though it wasn’t exactly cold, their latitude being just north of the tropics; the currents combined with the storm made the water in the mid-Equis to be close to freezing. With the wind-chill, they were all in trouble. Not to mention they were completely lost. The lingering clouds meant Twilight couldn’t see the stars, and the stars couldn’t see her. She knew that there was no land for hundreds of miles in any direction. Rainbow and her wouldn’t be able to fly that far, they weren’t Kestrel Pegasi, who could cover such ocean distances with ease.

“Uh, Twi, what happened to the boat?” Rainbow asked, a sharp tinge of concern in her words.

“It should be right over... there?” Twilight’s mouth dropped open as she turned to the direction she thought the Bellerophon should have been.

Flapping her wings harder to gain some more altitude, Twilight spun in circles desperately scanning for the ship. There was nothing. No masts and pennants flying tall and proud in the early night. Just the slap and roll of the waves and inky walls of night.

“Polaris, Regulas, I need your help!” Twilight shouted as Rainbow joined her.

We are all here, Mistress, answered the lodestar. Her words came fast, almost tripping over each other, and were forced, like the star was having to yell across whatever was trying to block the connection they shared.

“I need your help finding—,”

“Twi, dive!” Rainbow yelled, tucking her wings to her sides and colliding with the princess.

Twilight didn’t have time to reprimand her friend before she felt her left wing explode with searing pain. A low scream hung in the fading storm. Desperately, Twilight tried to regain some semblance of control over her flight, only for her left wing to prove unresponsive. Closer and closer the water drew, waiting to welcome all four mares with its icy embrace.

Use Watertouch, mistress, Regulas’s voice sliced through the fear and pain, jarring Twilight to quick action.

Purple light burst from her horn and up into the clouds, tingeing them an ugly cruel colour. As the magic began to fade, Twilight pulled Pinkie and Fleur in close. Turning around, she did the last thing she had time to accomplish, she tensed herself for the impact. She plowed into the water, digging a deep hole, like a stone tossed into a snow bank, but not breaking the water’s surface to plunge into the cold sea. Little pains and aches joined those in her wing as the hole they’d created began to shrink and retake its original shape, lifting the group back to the surface. Pinkie giggled as they found themselves laying on top of the rolling ocean.

“Okay, adventure is fun again!” she laughed, jumping up and down, the water acting like a trampoline.

“Pinkie, we don’t have time to play. Twi is hurt,” Rainbow snapped, as she pulled Fleur off Twilight.

All semblance of irreverent behavior left Pinkie, her mane smoothing ever so slightly. With a quick nod, she trotted across the waves to help Rainbow pick up Twilight and Fleur. The ambassador was staring at the water under her hooves, her eyes tiny pinpricks in her head, her lips moving soundlessly as she repeated words only she could hear over and over.

Twilight didn’t dare move, and gave a sharp intake of breath when Rainbow touched her wing. She refused to look, knowing that whatever had hit her had done some terrible damage. Rainbow’s cursing and the tears that began to stream down Pinkie’s face, the party pony’s mane going perfectly straight, confirmed her fears.

Instead, she asked, “What hit me?”

“I saw that big snake spit... something... at us. It’s so dark even I only barely noticed in time.”

Grinding her teeth together, Twilight slapped a hoof to her face. “Condensed super-heated balls of steam. It’s not a snake, Dash, it’s a Sea Serpent.” Slowly getting to her hooves with Rainbow's help, and finding her balance precarious from both the pain and the ocean’s rolling waves, Twilight added, “We need to get moving. Find someplace safe. That thing is still out there and probably knows where we are.”

Biting the inside of her cheek to help manage the pain, Twilight tried to come up with a plan.

Teleporting was out of the question; both to the Bellerophon or to land. She needed to know where she was going and visualise her destination. While she could clearly picture the ship's deck, she didn't know where it was. The closest point that Twilight felt confident she could reach with a long-range teleport was Canterlot. Such a distance wasn't out of her reach, not since Awakening, but the time spent within the field of Aether would be almost a minute. With the absolute cold and their coats soaking wet, the likelihood of freezing to death or blacking out and being lost inside the magical Ley Lines were too high to risk.

They could try to fight the sea serpent, but cold, hurt, and with little chance to strike at their attacker, trying to fight was even more foolish than teleporting.

From around them the sea bubbled and laughed, a deep menacing chuckle timed to a large white waving cresting and breaking to reveal the long spiny back of the serpent only a few yards away from the ponies. Behind them, two jets of steam erupted like geysers.

'Its toying with us,' Twilight realised as she did some quick calculations to figure out the sea serpents size, and concluding it had to be over two hundred hooves in length.

"Dash, can you fly?" Twilight asked out of the side of her mouth as a shadow passed underneath them.

"Of course," Rainbow puffed out her chest.

"Take Pinkie and—," Twilight was cut off as the sea serpent rose out of the water, a deep rending roar echoing from its cavernous mouth, less than three lengths in front of her. Twilight's eyes darted left and right quickly, looking for some sign of help in the empty ocean, and seeing none, before shouting, "Everypony, duck!"

Twilight called on her magic, magenta light streaming through her horn. Around them appeared a shell of brilliant energy that lit up the night like a beacon. As soon as the shield appeared, it flashed and let out a deep 'thoom' as the serpent spat out a ball of steam that exploded against the protective magic. Twilight's face twitched a little, the feedback reaching into her horn like an ant crawling across her skin. Again, she found herself silently thanking the increase to her pool of magic. In quick succession the serpent fired several more balls of steam, each exploding against Twilight's shield and creating a rolling field of fog.

Beads of sweat began to prickle her brow, not from strain, but from worry. She estimated she'd be able to maintain the shield for at least until morning. The trouble was they couldn't stay standing in the middle of the ocean. Eventually, Twilight would tire or make a mistake.

Rainbow was pawing at the water gently lapping the inside wall of the shield, while Pinkie sat holding Fleur as the ambassador continued to be lost in her own fear. Neither of her friends would be able to fight the serpent. More and more, Teleporting was looking like her only option. She was about to tell Rainbow and Pinkie to take a deep breath when, through the fog, she saw a rippling wave of orange flashes break the night.

"Huh?" Twilight said moments before a series of loud bangs echoed over the water.

What followed was a dull crash and huff as hundreds of iron balls each the size of a cherry slapped into the water, Twilight's shield, and the serpent. Several of the large scales on the serpent's neck cracked or were chipped off creating a small hole in its armour. Roaring, the serpent turned and dived, its spines breaking the waves as it swam towards the source of the attack. Twilight almost allowed herself to sigh in relief and relax as she dropped her shield and began to cast a short range teleport. There was only one source for the iron balls and flashes, and that told her which way she could find the Bellerophon. In twin bursts of pink light, Twilight pulled herself and her friends the short distance across the water, landing with a wet thump on the ship's rolling deck.

"Double time, lasses, double time!" roared the Captain as the four mares appeared on the Bellerophon's quarterdeck.

Captain Hardy turned towards the magic, a cross expression on his face, one that melted into concern as he saw the mares' bedraggled appearances. To his left stood Lieutenant Prism Flux, the officer in charge of Twilight's guard detail. The white dyed unicorn stood in his golden armour next to a group naval battle-mages in bright red coats.

"Princess," Hardy and Prism both shouted at the same time, the captain darting forward to stabilise Twilight as a sudden lurch coupled with the searing pain in her wing threatened to send her sprawling across the deck. Hardy took in the condition of the four, clucked his tongue disapprovingly, and called for a midshipmare to take them below.

For once Twilight didn't argue or object.

They were lead down decks, past gun crews furiously stuffing shot and powder into their weapons, and into the small, cramped, and musty medical bay. Timely Crown barely looked up from a pony on his table, a saw clutched in his magic, and the patient held down by a burly assistant. Above them the ship shook from the roar of her cannons, and from the sea serpent. Twilight sat with a dull thump, leaning back against a bulkhead. Rainbow sat to her left, the athlete's face white under her coat, while Fleur was laid in a swinging hammock, inaudibly muttering.

The sound of the saw biting into bone coupled with the pony on the table screaming through the leather bit shoved into her mouth made Twilight clench her eyes shut. A moment later she felt more then heard the operation, if such a barbaric act could be called such, as Timely Crown laid the saw aside and used a spell to put his patient into a controlled sleep. Out came a needle and thread, and with stitching that Rarity would have been proud of, if it had been in a dress and not the stump of a leg, sewed the wound shut. The pony, moaning in her induced sleep, was then taken to one of the many hammocks in the medical bay.

Twilight didn't see Timely finish the operation, but she did note his hooves approach Fleur's hammock.

Cracking an eye open, Twilight watched as Timely shone a light from his horn into Fleur's eyes, and then nodded to himself.

"Your friend is going to be alright. She's just beside herself with fear, from the looks of things. A few drops of laudanum will set her at ease," he said, his voice rather jovial in spite of the grim surroundings. Around them the ship shook again, and Twilight detected the tang of magic being added to the assault. "Would you be a dear and let me look at your wing?"

Barely even acknowledging the request, Twilight extended her wings, wincing as a dull throb echoed through her body.

"Remarkable," Timely muttered, lifting a pair of spectacles to his nose and a lantern up to shine more light on Twilight's wing. "Burns from Leviathan himself, truly remarkable." Lowering his lantern, Timely indicated that Twilight should follow him to the table.

Looking between the blood soaked sand on the decks to the even bloodier table, Twilight felt her stomach lurch, her eyes shrinking to pin-pricks.

"You're not going to cut off my wing, are you?" she almost screeched the question.

Timely looked baffled for a moment, then shook his head.

"Celestia, no! Such actions are only done when the life of the patient would be forfeit without a quick stroke of the saw. I simply want to apply a salve that will ease the pain and assist with healing. Nothing more, on my honour."

Still feeling apprehensive, and looking to Rainbow and Pinkie, only to find the pink pony missing, for support, Twilight begrudgingly trotted into the better light. Rainbow followed, shooting the doctor a look that said in no uncertain terms that she'd end him if he tried to hurt Twilight. He took it in stride, lifting a pungent smelling ointment from his medicine chest and spreading it conservatively across Twilight's burnt wing.

At once a cooling sensation began to spread through the limb, and Twilight almost wilted in relief.

While the medicine was being spread a stillness settled over the ship. The slap of water on her wooden sides and the gentle groan of her timbers the only sounds so deep inside her. Several more ponies were brought down into the medical bay, all suffering from burns. Twilight cringed, wishing she knew of a spell that could heal.

But no such spell existed.

Many unicorns had tried over the years to create healing spells, but they always came with terrible side effects. Attempts had been abandoned even before the War of the Sun and Moon.

Mistress, are you alright? asked Polaris, the lodestar's voice soft with concern and a hint of sadness.

"I'm okay," Twilight said, drawing a look from Timely.

Rainbow shook her head as the doctor opened his mouth to ask who Twilight was talking to, saying, "Don't bother, she's not paying attention to us. She's busy with them." Rainbow pointed a roof upwards as she spoke.

The clouds have begun to clear, and it looks like the sea serpent has left. Polaris shifted a little, her colour dull and listless. I'm sorry we were of no help.

"Yeah, why couldn't you help?" Twilight tilted her head a little as if the star could see her puzzled expression. "My head would buzz if I tried to talk to you."

I... don't know. Polaris admitted, growing even more downcast. Whatever was the cause is gone now.

Twilight's face fell, a slight tick in the corner of one eye. She didn't know what was more troubling, the idea that the Bellerophon had just been attacked by a sea serpent, or that something was capable of blocking her stars from coming to her aid. On the edge of a panic attack, her breaths coming in quick gulps Twilight found her mind unable to settle as, eventually, she and her friends were allowed back into the main cabin.

They found Pinkie sitting there, her face covered with soot and a sloppy grin on her face.

In a daze, Twilight was pushed into her cot as she came to a conclusion. There was only one creature that could interfere with an alicorn's ability, as far as she knew. Discord. But he was trapped in stone back in Canterlot. Trembling as she pulled her sheets up to her chin, Twilight wondered if, perhaps, another Draconequus was out there, waiting, watching. As she drifted off into a fitful sleep, Twilight failed to see a pair of massive twinkling eyes watching her through the large stern windows of the ship.