Fallout Equestria: Desperados V2 (of Blood and Dirt)

Desperado’s V2, Chapter 17

The Cold Below (Part 2)

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It felt a bit odd, dressed up in ancient sailor's cloths, with a decorative sword on my hip and a musket made by Hardballer on my back. I was even given a beautiful smooth bore pistol that I shoved inside my shirt.

"Are you sure you got a hoof on loading?" My father asked.

I nodded. "Brass cartridge ammo is expensive, along with the smokeless gunpowder. So, it was just easier to shoot black powder pipe guns much of the time. Hardballer was animate that Bridget and I knew how to do it, since guns are my daughter's heritage."

Dead Reckoning sighed. "Aye, there were several artifact guns back at the estate, me brothers and sisters all got to use them, I only got to watch. Always wanted to shoot my father with Alginate's pistol, and I know the bastard knew it."

I watched as he expertly loaded the mucket, doing it in less than half the time as I had. It was all still so strange to me, as I had thought the bullets were lead at first, only to see that they were made of hardened bone, and the powder was a dark blue, not black. Even the metal was something called cold flame iron, a native metal here in the land of the dead. From what my father told me, it was all made by hoof and claw in Tartarus, where the condemned seeking redemption by working nonstop.

I could imagine that I'd see some familiar faces if I ever end up on the shore of Tartarus. Hardballer among them unfortunately.

Looking around, many of my ancestors were also getting ready for combat, it was a strange mix of ponies from different era's, each having their own perfred melee, but still taking the muskets. Though a few took bows, some crossbows, including the ancestor with griffin claws.

Armed and ready, both Dead Reckoning and I went back to the top deck, where my eyes took a long moment to adjust. "How the fuck is such a dim sun still hurting my eyes?" I asked out loud.

"Magic be like that." Dead Reckoning said as he too took a moment for his eyes to adjust. "If you're expecting to go up and down the decks often, get an eyepatch. Doesn't help when going back up, but at least you got one eye already set for the dark."

"Ahh, I miss those days." Alginate said as she trotted down the stairs. "Then I got me eye gouged out by a damned nightmare." The captain then motions for us to follow her. "Let's talk while we have the time."

Following her, Dead Reckoning and I followed Alginate to the captain's quarters. It was everything I had ever dreamed about how a captain quarters should look like. Weapons everywhere, trophies galore, gold coins littering every nook and cranny. Strangest of all was in the center, surrounded by an iron cage and several panes of glass was a small white orb. It then moved, revealing a gold iris that glared at me with pure hate.

"Took some revenge on the bitch when she did finally fall. Hades was pissed but talked him down into letting me keep one of Phobetors eyes." Alginate said as she tapped on the glass.

"That eye, I've seen it before. Quicktrot's own eye turned into it." I commented, remembering how the digital wraith flipped out.

"And that's why we need to talk with you." Ancestor Star Charter spoke up as she trotted over from the back. "As much as we like to let fate run its natural course, when grater powers are involved, fate tends to be… irrelevant."

I cocked my eyebrow at her. "So, you mean what, I get some help?"

My ancestor nodded. "It's why you're here after all. Amongst other things. But first of all, we need to get your natural magic in order. Living on the land has left you unfortunately stunted."

Alginate let out an annoyed huff. "That you can say for sure. You should have long since found a body of water and submerged yourself in it. But at least you have an excuse, if flimsy as it is."

They were right, I guess. Having moved to the wasteland, mom kept me away from any large bodies of water. She always seemed worried that I'd run off and disappear on her whenever near water. Maybe her worries were dead on.

"But why?" I had to ask, needing more clarification.

Ancestor Star Charter then pulled out a potion, passing it to me. "Drink this, then we can explain. And don't worry, it's not a thing of the land of the dead, it's no pomegranate grown by Hades."

Taking a deep breath, I chose to trust the mare I was named after and drank the potion.

Nothing then happened, leaving me rather disappointed. "… aren't I supposed to writhe in pain or something?"

Alginate chuckled as she pulled a small mirror from her pocket and held it up to me.

Looking back at me was me, but off. My main looked even more like kelp, even a bit sprouting from my ears. My eyes, they were now slitted, like a snake. My mouth opened in shock in which I saw more fangs than I should have. Grabbing the mirror with my hooves, I was further shocked to see my hooves had split, much like cloven hooves, but not. When I relaxed my hoof, they split further apart, looking more like one hoof, but backwards, and with a fin-like skin stretched between the gaps.

"I… what am I?" I asked myself.

Alginate laughed. "It's called being a kelpie, like all of your ancestors and at least your first born. It seems you were just a late bloomer and needed a bit of a push for you to show your true form."

I looked over at my father, who had also changed into a kelped mane split-hoofed pony. "Kelpies are like that. Some never know about them being kelpie until they accidentally drown, or something like it. I never told your mother in case you weren't, and she'd kill you trying."

"But… how… How do I even explain this, my friend and anypony?" I asked, feeling panicked.

"Whenever you feel ready." Alginate said, and when I turned to her, she looked like a normal earth pony. "Were no changelings, but…" she lifted up her hoof, and it shifted between split and not split. "But a Kelpies form is rather malleable. Just envision what you originally looked like, and it should be okay."

I shut my eyes, envisioning what I normally looked like, what I am… no, what I thought I was. Opening my eyes, I saw my normal self again… for only a few seconds.

Taking the mirror away, Alginate chuckled. "It'll take a bit of time to get use too, but you're on a kelpie ship, so you got a lot of ponies to help you."

"Along with proper combat training." Ancestor Star Charter then told me. "If you're going up against the remint fragment of Phobetor, among other dangers, then you will need to learn some proper technique. You're not an immortal, nor has fate hoofed down a grand destiny for you to rise into. You simply have a duty, passed on by blood, of which if you die, then it falls to your first born. Do you understand?"

I did, and it caused me to clench my teeth in frustration. Whatever I fail to achieve, my darling Bridget will be burdened to do. No, I want my daughter to not have to suffer this madness.

"Yes, I understand completely." I told them.

The boat then rocked as yelling could be heard outside. "Well, looks like you're getting a crash course in dealing with assholes who refuse to stay dead." My father said with a huff.

Alginate then let out a bellowing laugh. "Too true. Now let's go and send this Damned back to Tartarus."

Rushing out and up to the quarterdeck, where Alginate took the helm. The ancient pirate happily spun the ebony wooden wheel, its polished and etched brass decorations shining in the dim light. "A Redrum thinks he can outsail me, then I say let him try."

Ancestor Star Charter then tutted her daughter. "You know what hubris does to a pony. He may have a few tricks waiting for us."

"He's a Redrum, mother, they're always up to something." Alginate said as she passed me her spyglass.

Looking through the ancient and beautiful spyglass, I saw the bone-built ghost ship in better detail now. The front of the ship looked odd, like it had some sort of contraption on it. "Is that a catapult?" I asked.

"Aye, it must be. Grapeshot knows he can't win a fair fight with us; my guess is that he's planning to slow us down somehow." Alginate said as she left the helm to her mother and trotted to several brass pipes, flipping a few open, and yelling into them. "We're conducted a cut off strike, aim at all supporting sails and ensured the Damned can't just run away. But prepare for something nasty. Who knows what monstrosity they got ready for us, so be sure they will strike us with it as we strike them." She then pulled a nearby lever, which shot up several different colored flags for all to see.

Dead Reckoning chuckled as more sails then dropped around the Aron's First Born, and the ship picked up speed. "Pay attention Star, this is naval combat not seen since before the great war."

I held onto the railings as the wind blew through my mane, letting smell the stagnant salty air. The more the ship rocked, the more the water splashed and sprayed, the more I felt… at home. The dry wasteland felt restrictive to me, like a bird with bound wings, needing to fly but unable to. Out here over the waters, even dead waters like here, I felt… free.

"Here it comes!" One of my ancestors yelled as he jumped from up high, holding onto a line of rope. A sail opened as another closed, causing the First Born to lurched to the side hard. The ghost ship didn't stop as we came closer to crossing its path.

Closer, and closer still as the Aron's First Born leveled out. Where we were about to crossed paths, the front of the ghost ship and the side of our black ship.

"Fire!" Alginate yelled as she fired a pistol.

Crossing in front of the ghost ship, the Aron's First Born let loose a volley of cannon fire, ripping through the ghost ship, tearing up its sails. But it fired back, letting loose what actually was a catapult, lobbing a large ball that then broke up and landed all over the deck.

One of which, landed near me.

Looking down at the thing as our ship then lurched in the other direction in a hard turn, the thing rolled and hit the side, where it jumped up to reveal a green creature. Unfolding itself, the creature stood on to lanky legs. On its side were two lanky arms which at each end had some kind of strange paw with three very long and thin digits that all had thin claws at the tips. Its head was round with absurdly large ears, and it opened its absurdly wide mouth to reveal two sets of saw-like sharp teeth.

The creature's Head then exploded; my father having used his musket on it. "It had to be funking gremlins!" He shouted.

Alginate didn't waste time, opening up all the brass toubs and pulling another lever as she yelled, "gremlins repeat, we have gremlins!"

"The fuck is a gremlin?" I asked.

"They break shit, all the shit!" My father said as he reloaded his musket. "We need to kill em all before they break our shit!"

A brass nut then fell next to me, and I looked up to see a gremlin hard at work dismantling one of the sails. Grabbing my own musket, I took aim and fired. The shot missing the bastard by but a hair.

A second shot from my father then hit it, blowing up the thing and sending green gore flying.

"Aim into the wind, Star, these muskets don't fire at supersonic speed." My father instructed.

Nodding, I quickly reloaded, and put the muskets onto the railing that overlooked the ship, bracing myself as I took aim. Another gremlin was attempting to dismantle the crow's nest as one of my ancestors did her best to fend it off. Aiming into the wind, and predicting the gremlin's next move, I fired. The monster jumped out of the way of a spear from my ancestor, only to get a paw blasted off as it grabbed a hold. The gremlin fell, hitting the deck headfirst and spraying green blood all over it.

As I loaded my next round, I saw many more gremlins ran about on the deck as my ancestors fought them. One poor pony was trampling one gremlin as another was biting his leg, and a third dressed up like a stereotypical pirate, rode on his back.

Loud cackling caught my attention, and I turned to face three gremlins with mischievous smiles showing their sharp teeth. One of them who then knocked my muskets out of my hold with a long rusty rapier. Among the three of them, the one who dare try and damaged Hardballer's gun was dressed in a red jacket and a floppy red hat, both too big for it. It was as though it was a captain itself, or a mockery of one. The gremlin in red also sported a hook in place of a paw, and an obnoxiously long pencil thin mustache.

Just looking at it pissed me off.

It pointed its long and thin sword at me and took a stance as though demanding a duel. I looked over at my father and Alginate, only to see them busy shooting at other gremlins. So, with a sigh, I drew my cutlass, which shined with blue fire.

The gremlin in red bounced about and thrusted at me. It's reach managing to cut my cheek before it could deflect the hit. Causing the gremlins to laugh at me, even the one in red. Glaring at my opponent, the gremlin in red was frozen in place, giving me the opportunity to dashed forward and lob off his head. The other two gremlins gasped in shock right before I then dashed forward at them. With one wide arch, cut them down as they attempted to scramble away. The burning blue blade gratefully cauterizing the gremlins, saving me from their green blood.

Sheathing my cutlass, I rejoined the extermination as the gremlins numbers quickly were reduced to zero.

With calm returned, Alginate went back to the brass pipes, yelling, "Damage report!"

As she held her ear to the pipes, one of my winged ancestors flew over, partly covered in green blood. "Bad news! The binding on several sails were damaged, and we're not going to be able to lower them back down with the ropes to catch the wind!"

"How badly damaged?" Dead Reckoning asked.

"Damage enough that the bastards will get away by the time it's fixed and we can get back to full speed." She told him.

Alginate then laughed. "Then we don't try en fix it!" Pointing at one of the now disabled sails, she then said, "cut the ropes loose and use your bodies to hoist 'em down."

The Pegasus saluted, then quickly flew off.

"Star!" Alginate called to me as she pointed at the center mast, the large canvas sail now only half extended. "The rope binding those sails are thick and not easily cut." She then smiled at me.

I smiled back. "Aye aye captain!"

Rushing over to the center mast and climbing up it, I was followed by Dead Reckoning. "As a colt, I always dreamt about doing this shit." He yelled up at me.

"Ya, same here! Like daughter, like father, I guess." I yelled back as I reached the midpoint where the mainsail was stuck. Grabbing onto the sail, I drew my sword and got to work.

Joining me on the mainsail, my father gave a bitter laugh. "Probably, which only pissis me off more that I never got to see you grow up. Never… got to be a real father."

I paused for a moment as I looked at him. A stallion that sacrificed everything and got nothing in return. His only child left with a cruel uncaring mare, in a place filled with mad zealots following a false prophet. It must have been eating him up inside.

Several more of my ancestors joined us, pushing the sail down only a bit as the rope holding it in place tightened. Nodding to my father, he nodded back, with one last slash, the rope was cut free, and the sail unfolded.

Holding onto the rope with all I could, it hit the bottom with a heavy jolt, knocking me off. My cutlass falling from my muzzle and sliding off to the other end of the deck.

One of my ancestors, the big stallion, whistled with a surprised and impressed tone. "Not even dead yet and already doing mighty fine work." He told me as he picked up my sword.

I laughed. "Let's just say I already have one hoof in the grave." Then I remembered something. "Actually, twice now a pony has tried to put me in a grave. Three times if you count now."

Trotting over, he gave my sword back to me. "Three is a powerful number, used in rituals and rights. Maybe you should get a mithril charm in case you're cursed."

"Mithril charm, I have a mithril sword, would that work?" I asked.

"Aye, that would work. The Alginate family itself keeps a mithril chests to hold all their gold doubloons in." My father said as he joined us. "It's a strong metal that you can't cut with fire, but also in case cursed gold gets slipped in, the curse will stay inside."

"Does that happen often?" I asked him.

"More than you'd think." My father said as he flicked one of his earrings. "Since obsession with gold runs through our blood. Or was it that gold itself once ran through our blood? Either way, gold is easily cursed, and our family always finds our way to that gold."

The boat rocked as we hit a swell in the water, causing everypony to lean with the boat, everypony but me.

Falling over, several ponies laughed as my father helped me back up. "When was the last time you were out at sea, Star?"

"Eleven, maybe twelve years." I admitted as I straightened myself out. "But that's not it, it's these…" I raised one of my split hooves. "These backwards hooves. How do you even trot with em?"

"Trust me, you'll just get used to it." Dead Reckoning told me before looking out over the waters. "But the dancing lessons can wait, we're about to catch up to the ghost ship."

Looking myself, the bone-built ghost ship was struggling to keep one of its main sails up, and because of that, the distance between our two ships was quickly closing. On the ghost ship, I could see the gaunt and robed form of the necromancer, the feeling of hate and malice radiating off of him. A strange sickly blue light came from the necromancer, and from behind the ghost ship a massive amount of water was pulled up, up, and up high into the air. Then dropped.

"Fuck!" I and several of my ancestors yelled as everypony on deck scrambled to grab onto anything nailed down.

The swell of water dwarfed the Aron's First Born, like a wall of death it came at us. My world turned vertical as I held onto the mast for dear life, the ship now sailing on the water straight up to the sky, as though we were heading into the dim sun before the ship righted itself.

Then my stomach churned as I felt weightlessness.

I then came eye to eye with one of my Pegasus ancestors, the one from the crow's nest. Hovering in the air, she smiled and waved at me as she said, "going down." In a sing-song tone.

We all dropped, and I was sure we were going to die, and looking over as the direction of our fall didn't help, seeing the water race towards us. The First born crashed into the water, front first, and holding onto the mast tightly, water enveloped me.

Holding my breath, and keeping my eyes shut, I didn't want to see the destruction and death that surrounded me.

"Star, it's okay." My father said, "Just open your eyes and breathe."

Slowly, I opened my eyes, and found the ship intact and underwater. Skeletal fish swam all around us, and I even saw one skeleton sea serpent in the distance. Taking a deep breath and letting the water fill my lungs, it felt… normal. "Oh, thank the Goddesses." I said, then raised an eyebrow. "I can talk under water?"

Dead Reckoning shrugged as he trotted through the water, his mane and tail acting like fins. "I don't question it, but it's probably magic. Anyways, you need to let go and help."

My father then swam to the back of the ship, and letting go of the mast, I moved my legs, but only moved at a slow pace. The ship moved without me, causing me to tumble in the water as I struggled to swim. Taking another deep breath, I then concentrated on my mane and tail, imaging the fin like things my father had.

And hot damn, the, straighten out flat, even wiggled when I thought about it.

As the ship passed under me, I then saw my father and a shit ton of kelpies pushing the ship. Joining them, I placed my hood on the ebony wood, and did my best to push.

"Is this normal?" I asked my father.

"No, but it's really fun to do when we have the opportunity." Dead Reckoning said.

"Quit yar yapping and get pushing!" Alginate yelled, and everypony doubled their effort.

It felt as though we were flying through the water as we pushed, the surface shimmering above us. I then saw it, the bottom of the ghost ship cutting through the water above, unaware of us below.

The ship lurched up, and we began to quickly surface as everypony pushed everything we had into it. it was as though we were rushing toward a mirror, or another world, and it felt… natural.

The First Born burst out of the water, and we all found ourselves flying up and over the ship, where everypony us land safely onto the deck as the ship itself dipped and bounced on the water.

"Fire!" Screamed Alginate, and I turned just in time to see the ghost ship next to us get lit up from the bombardment cannon fire. The ghost ship attempted to fire back, but unlike the Aron's First Born, its shots were wild and panicked, with many missing our ship entirely.

"Star!" My father yelled as he pulled me down right before a cannon shell neatly hit me and took out the mast. From the floor I watched as it tilted and snapped, falling to the side and in the water.

"That's… not good." I said as I got up. Already the ghost ship was pulling ahead as the First-Born lost speed.

"It's fine, they already lost." My father said right before the cannon at the stern of the ship fired, deafening everything with the blast.

I watched as the harpoon was shot into the ghost ship, and now a thick chain connected the two ships, which began retracting. Slowly, but eventually, the two ships were pulled together, and everypony aboard the Aron's First Born drew their weapons.

"Cut down those sons of a biscuit eaters, bilge-sucking, scurvy dog, mother fuckers!" A ghostly stallion yelled from the ghost ship, which ponies, and other creatures then jumped from it and onto our ship.

All of them looked half rotten, burnt, and utterly dead, but still they stood, crude weapons at the ready, and murder in their glowing eyes.

Drawing one of the pistols I was given, I took aim at one of the Damned as it charged. Firing, the bullet missed and hit another of the Damned, causing the thing to be engulfed in blue flames.

The one charging at me quickly got close, so I unsheathed my cutlass again and charged at it myself. Our blades clashed, and blue fire sparked from my blade. I tried using my cursed eyes on it, but the Damned was unaffected, only continuing its attack. Backing up as it swung for my face, then leg, its moments were brutal, yet efficient. But years of being an exotic dancer had made me quite nimble, and like flowing water, I danced around the thing. I only needed an opening, and then it was all over.

But then the damned spat at me, spraying bile at my face and eyes, causing me to stumble. My side burned as though on fire, the crude blade stabbing into my side. Snarling at the bastard, I leaned into the blade pushing it into me to its hilt, and as the pain snaked through my body like fire, I swung at its neck and lobbed off the undead pony's head.

I turned to see two more Damned charging at me, but the two ancestors with wings fell onto them. The Pegasus stabbing one with a bayonet and firing her musket, blowing the rotting bones of a pony to bits. The pony-griff, armed with two hatchets, threw one, cutting off one of the pony's legs, then finishing it off by splitting its head open.

More shots rang out as my ancestors fired at more of the boarding party as they jumped over, reducing them to piles of bones before hitting the deck.

"Star, you okay!?" My fathers panicked voice filled me with guilt as he looked at the sword that ran me through.

"I'll… fuck this hurts… but I'll be fine." I said as the burning only got worse.

"Dipshit!" Ancestor Star Charter said as more of my ancestors ran past her to board the ghost ship themselves. "Magic of the dead attacks the soul, it's a blow no mortal can simply recover from, you are far from fine!"

"Trust me, I've had worse… maybe." Is said, trying to defend myself.

"Can you help her?" Dead Reckoning asked, his voice almost pleading.

She nodded. "Pull the sword out and I'll mend the wounds."

I cocked an eyebrow. "With what?"

Letting out a gasp of pain as my father removed the sword, my blood smearing it as nearly black fire danced across it. Then I watched as my ancestor pulled an odd deck of playing cards and slapped one on both holes in me.

Another fire burned, worse than before, forcing me to grit my teeth, and endure. But it quickly faded to a dull pain that I could ignore. The cards then fell, and my wound was gone.

"How?" I asked.

She chuckled as she shuffled the strange deck. "One does not need a horn to cast magic my dear decedent. Along with the gift of foresight, I dabbled in the shamanistic arts. Even learned necromancy, with the permission of the spirits of death of course. You see, the healing of flesh and mending of souls is always useful, even after joining the dead."

"Among the most dangerous necromancers here in the land of the dead, my mother is one of them." Alginate said as she joined us, "if she wanted to, she could have kept herself from ever dying."

"Immortality may seem fun, but living on as a rotting corpse is… not how I want to live." Ancestor Star Charter said with a serious tone. "Anyways, I studied the necromantic arts to help the dead move on, not bind them to slavery. The flow of life and death must never be tampered with, such things only belong to the gods, and even they refuse to mettle in such things."

One of my ancestors came tumbling back from the ghost ship, sliding across the deck and past us. "There ye are ye scurvy riddled tarator!" A dark blue glowing skeleton shouted, dressed in a ragged captain's outfit, and trotting with one peg leg. "Alginate, I'll be finally tearing ye soul to sunders!"

Alginate sighed. "Grapeshot Redrum, as tenacious as you are dim. Just accept your torment like your ancestors, and let your soul be purified already!"

Grapeshot laughed a beloing and cruel laugh. "Not when my darling Thorn calls to me, not when we are close, so close to finally ending that farce of a nation!"

"He's talking about ending Equestria." Alginate answered my question before I could ask it. "How pathetic that you and your abomination of a daughter can hold a grudge for over two hundred years."

The undead pirate captain smiled, showing two rows of sharp fang like teeth, "a good grudge ages like fine wine. Isn't that what ye made as your family motto?"

An annoyed look formed on Alginate 's face. "No, that would be my damned-"

"That be I!" Yelled Alginate's son as he and the Celestia decorated cannon were lifted up onto the deck. "But like wine, it can spoil and turn to vinegar if let for too long."

Holding a lit rope and aiming the cannon at Grapeshot, he jammed the burning rope down, but only to freeze.

Not just him, everypony… everypony but Grapeshot.

The undead pirate laughed, trotting up to Alginate and slapping her. "Ye didn't think me be prepared? Ye think me a fool? Nay, I will win this fight, and thanks all to my new friend… isn't that right, Filius."

I didn't move, not that I couldn't, but because I knew I shouldn't just yet.

A cold shiver ran down my spine as the sound of hooves lightly trotted onto the deck, the hooded necromancer taking slow and careful steps as he joined Grapeshot. "Friend is a strong term." Filius said as he looked at us, his eyes glowing with a green flame that reminded me of my own evil eyes. "But yes, this day we return to the land of the living, and none here can stop us. How foolish you all are, thinking that the dead can stand up to I, king of the undead, bringer of the unending winter!"

Filius trotted over to us, strutting with each step. "I know that the element of hope still sleeps, and its bearer is unwilling to take the mantle. Yes, this time none can stand in my way, not princess Platinum, not Celestia or Luna, and certainly not Storm Rider!"

He then stopped in front of me, giving me a view of his ugly mug up close. Nothing but dry rotting flesh and bone, along with a noxious smell that assaulted my nose and cause me to-

"Achoo!" I sneezed.

Filius stumbled back in shock. "Y… you're alive! But h-?"

Glaring at him, my evil eyes took hold, and locked him into my gaze. I pushed everything at him, all my pain and suffering. All my regrets and shame. But he pushed back, and I felt it, the pain of the torment of Tartarus. How it feels to be undead, and it's unending suffering. How it feels to die, and then die again.

"You think a borrowed curse can overtake me!" Filius snarled, "I have over a thousand years of a cursed existence, you are but an ant to me!"

*BANG!*

The nearby cannon, sending bits and pieces of Grapeshot Redrum all over the place, breaking my eye contact with Filius. "One down!" Alginate yelled as she looked a Filius. "And one to go."

"You think you can st-" a card flew over and slammed into the necromancer's muzzle, sealing it shut.

"Your kind loves to talk too much." Ancestor Star Charter said with annoyance. "Never knowing that you have lost while you flap your muzzle." The ship rocked and from under the ghost ship a massive skeletal sea serpent shot up, smashing it to just scattered bones. "Where you are but a mere king of the dead, I am a court mage of the dread mare herself, the Goddesses of life and death. You lost the moment you left your little box."

Several more cards surrounded Filius, and created a phantom blue chain around him, binding him in place. "And to the box you shall return ya pathetic wretch." She muttered.

Looking at the display, I felt… small. "Wait… if she could do that, then why did we do… any of this?"

Alginate laughed as she picked up Grapeshot's very angry looking skull. "Oh, and what fun is it if we just end the game as soon as it starts. Eternity is a very long time, and we need to keep our minds sharp if a true disaster were to happen."

"And now that these fools can go nowhere, we just need to gather them up and take them back to Tartarus." Ancestor Star Charter said as she trotted up to me. "But before that, you and I have a different boat to catch."

I cocked an eyebrow, "a… different boat?"

She nodded. "Well, this boat can't take you back to the land of the living, now, can it? But until then, spend some time with your father. You won't get this opportunity again, my dear decedent."

I looked over at Dead Reckoning as he helped collect the bones of the undead. "Thanks, for giving me this chance."

She chuckled a little, holding a cloth draped hoof over her mouth. "Oh, save the thanks. I may have the power to pull souls, but not the authority."

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