My Little Pony Heart of Friendship: Tales of the Outbound

Chapters

Rock Farmin' and Rollin' Part 1
Island Adventure a Go Go: Part 9
Rock Farmin’ and Rollin’ Part 2
Rock Farmin' and Rollin' Part 3
Rock Farmin' and Rollin' Final Part
Island Adventure a Go Go: Prelude
Island Adventure a Go Go: Part 1
Island Adventure a Go Go: Part 2
Island Adventure a Go Go: Part 3
Island Adventure a Go Go: Part 4
Island Adventure a Go Go: Part 5
Island Adventure a Go Go: Part 6
Island Adventure a Go Go: Part 7
Island Adventure a Go Go: Part 8
ANNOUNCEMENT: Apology from Author
NOTICE OF INDEFINITE HIATUS
Island Adventure a Go Go: Part 10
Island Adventure a Go Go: Final Part
Island Adventure a Go Go: Postlude

Rock Farmin' and Rollin' Part 1

Author's Note

There's four parts and an epilogue to this one. But this volume, I'm counting stories rather than chapters. You'll get 8 at the minimum, and maybe more depending.

Also, I'm publishing this story once a week. Once it's over, I'll have the first part of the next one up by two weeks at the soonest and a month at the latest.

Edit 1: Revisions to grammar, punctuation, and sentence and paragraph structure upon a late but needed proofreading.

Rock Farmin' and Rollin' Part 1

Pinkie Pie beamed as she got to her favorite part of the story she was telling. “...and when I wished Maud an early birthday a month ago, she said that she was invited back to the rock farm to celebrate! She figured I’d want to plan it, and you know how she likes things small and personal, so she said…” Pinkie then shifted her features to match her mentioned sister’s. “...If you want to invite any of your marefriends, I’d prefer it if you’d just pick one.” With a blurring shake of the head, she put her face back to normal and moved to give Fluttershy a hug, who awkwardly smiled back. “...and I knew that Fluttershy had some time off that week, so I’m bringing her along to help prepare!”

On the train seat opposite of the mares, Alphonse slapped his magazine down onto the cushion. “So why’d you bring me along if she only wanted one friend, huh?”

At that Pinkie Pie giggled, and with a goofy grin tapped her forehead with a hoof. “Well, SOME of us know how to read between the lines, silly! When she said she wanted me to bring one marefriend, she meant that she wanted me to bring a few of my new manfriends!”

At that, Alphonse made a hacking scoff and crossed his arms. “What kind of logic is that?”

Wilda bent close to wrap an arm around his quirky friend and held his other hand to Alphone’s ear. “Silence, you fool! Free eats for a whole week, remember? And we could definitely do with some references if we’re gonna find some good work!” At this, Alphonse made a low grumble as he shook his head, then picked back up and opened his magazine.

A couple more hours passed as Pinkie Pie dramatically posed to add a visual element to her many, many stories about her childhood on the Pie Family rock farm. Wilda was learning forward with clasped hands and an unfocused gaze as he gave a nod every couple of seconds. Alphonse was on his fifth magazine, having placed an invisible bubble of silence around his head when nobody was looking. Fluttershy, meanwhile, had a content expression as she watched the scenery pass, but her smile seemed to slack a bit as the green pastures and vibrant patches of forest gave way to the dull grayish crags of the Rockville countryside.

Eventually Alphonse felt the train slow as it pulled into the Rockville station. Glancing at Pinkie hopping on her back hooves with her mouth wide open as she gazed out the window, he steeled himself before popping his construct with a poke, wincing slightly as the excitable Pony’s squeal filled his ears.

The group grabbed their carry-on luggage, the experienced human warriors knowing well enough to pack light. But as the doors opened and the group stepped onto the platform, they immediately noticed the ground shaking. Wilda squinted as he gazed into the distance, then his eyes went wide as he pointed at a dust cloud. “Stampede! Quick, get behind the biggest, broadest thing you can find!”

Alphonse, never one to miss a beat, immediately hopped into the air, leaving behind the bright green spring of energy aiding him, and clung to the mountainous shoulders of his beast elemental friend while Pinkie and Fluttershy zoomed around right behind Wilda’s back. Rushing onto the platform was a veritable herd of farm folk ponies carrying with them the barest of necessities, making a brief divide around Wilda before corralling into the train. Fluttershy halfheartedly extended a hoof and softly made an inquiry. “Um… Excuse me, but what’s got you all into such a tizzy…?”

A brown coated colt in an old-fashioned wide-brimmed hat slid to a halt, turned his head to her and pointed a hoof back and forth. “It’s a disaster! They’ve overrun the whole countryside and taken all the farms for themselves! Get out of town quick, before they-” He then turned his head towards Alphonse and Wilda, who spared a wave. His eyes went wide. “SUFFERIN’ SLATE! There’s more of them now! Get the train moving now, before it’s too late!” The rest of the panicked ponies quickly zoomed behind the doors, which snapped shut as the whole train seemed to recoil before rocketing off, zooming over the hills.

Alphonse gingerly slid back down Wilda’s back and turned towards Pinkie with narrowed eyes. “Did that seem strange to you? Or is that some kind of rock farmer tradition you may or may not have mentioned on the way here, like a holiday or something?”

Pinkie raised an eyebrow and scratched under her chin with a hoof. “Not that I’m aware of. Believe me, if there were a holiday that crazy, I’d know about it!” Then, Pinkie hopped into the air, doing a drawn-out gasp amid her (too-long) hangtime. “Unless… There’s a new holiday! And it falls right on Maud’s birthday! We’ve got to get to the rock farm, pronto!” With that, Pinkie’s legs whirled into wheel-like blurs with a loud revving before she zoomed off into the distance

Alphonse stepped forward with a lopsided frown, scratching his chin. Then, he tipped his head to the side as he shrugged. “When in Rockville…” He abruptly crouched, pulling his arms back. Then he briefly dashed before jumping forward. Before he landed, a big wheel of bright green energy appeared encircling him and he zoomed off following the dust trail of the hyper earth pony.

Fluttershy and Wilda just stared into the distance for a moment. Then, Wilda turned to his pegasus friend and raised a hand to tap on his shoulder. Fluttershy held a hoof to her muzzle for a moment, then nodded. She gently flew upwards and layed herself over Wilda’s shoulder. She then pulled out a pair of goggles and wrapped them over her eyes. Wilda smiled a toothy grin and gave her a thumbs up as she smiled and nodded. Wilda coiled his body as his feet began to glow with a bright blue light, extending the transparent dark-spotted legs of a cheetah. With an imaginary 3-2-1-Go! The elemental warrior and his ride-along took off after both their friends.

***

Pinkie held a hoof over her squinted eyes at the sight of her family home. “Huh…! Well, all this definitely wasn’t here before!”

Wilda and Alphonse turned towards Fluttershy, who closed her eyes and shook her head. “This is my first time here too…”

The main house and some of the buildings like the silo had a freshly-built but big and sturdy-looking wall of tightly fitted rocks surrounding it. But the land around it, including the rock fields, had towers of raised terrain in a circle with clusters of spikes made out of the same material filling out the space between them in an impassable ring. Alphonse stepped forward while scratching his chin with a finger, followed by Wilda with a focused, lopsided frown. “You know… In a way, it kind of reminds me of all those drills Master Noxus put us through for our advanced warrior training.”

Alphonse proceeded forward, tightening his gaze as he shook a finger towards the site ahead. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say that that your family’s farm is under some kind of-” But with a shrill yell, the land under Wilda and Alphonse abruptly gave way. Pinkie and Fluttershy rushed up to the edge of the newly-revealed pit and gazed in at the two out-of-sorts elementals. Alphonse, the smaller and therefore the one who landed lighter, managed to sit up and regain his senses first. “-siege!”

Both Pinkie and Fluttershy stumbled back as the ground suddenly started shaking more violently than with the stampede before. From out behind the surrounding hills slinked out several narrow waves of roiling earth. With the group of friends surrounded, the humans hopped off their improvised mounts as they sank back into the ground.

Each one, wearing a dull gray padded jacket, gave the mares a sinister smile. One of them with wild brown hair tied back in a spiky ponytail stepped forward, letting out a wheezing chuckle as the ponies stumbled back. “Well, looky here! Seems like we’ve got ourselves a couple hostages, boys! But, maybe… hasn’t it been a while since we’ve had some fresh meat?”

Alphonse didn’t like what he was hearing one bit. He got on top of Wilda and gave him a pair of hard slaps to the face. Wilda quickly shook his head and focused on his friend on top of him. Alphonse quickly held his forearm vertically and gestured, pumping it upward twice while flicking his two fingers in the same motions. Wilda quickly furrowed his brow. He grabbed Alphonse with both hands, jumped to his feet, and threw him straight up with a holler.

The interlopers craned their heads upward, following Alphonse. At the height of his ascension, he held an arm horizontal to his chest, made a series of elaborate gestures, and swung his glowing hand in an arc overhead, creating seven wisps of bright green energy that soared outward, leaving behind narrow tail-like streaks. Three of them, including the spikey-haired one, acted quickly and swung up their arms to rip broad chunks of dirt out of the ground that shattered as they dispelled the projectiles on collision. The other four weren’t so quick and were blasted off their feet and lie strewn on the ground.

Once his hang time was over, Alphonse extended an open palm upward and above it appeared a bright green asterisk-like shape that seemed to grant him a controlled descent as it spun. As Alphonse glided into the distance, he extended his other hand to make a rude gesture and blew a raspberry as he stuck his tongue at them. They each grit their teeth at him and braced themselves as they made an upward pulling motion and ripped bowling ball-sized chunks from the ground. As they were taking aim with their free hands extended, Wilda came springing out of the pit with his cestus materialized, his feet covered in an aura Fluttershy recognized as the back legs of a puma. He swung a fist overhead and sent the spikey-haired human stumbling back with a powerful slam.

The spiky-haired human quickly regained his posture, then gave Wilda a ferocious grimace, who pulled one cestus back and held the other extended with a wide, forward stance. The spiky-haired human held up a hand and the nail of each of his extended fingers began to glow in a pale light before each extended a thin, inward-curling claw-like blade of energy.

He dashed forward but stopped short of striking distance of Wilda before swinging his magicked hand in a wide uppercut. The energy from each claw leaped onto the ground and spread towards Wilda in a cluster of curving blades. Wilda brought his cestus together to guard but was sent sliding back by the force of the attack, and found himself teetering on the edge of the pit.

The spiky-haired human took this opportunity to rush to his nearest downed ally and scoop him up onto his shoulders. He turned his head to his companions. “They’ve got top-classers with ‘em! Grab the others and fall back!” The remaining interlopers summoned more waves or land and pulled their downed cohorts onto them before racing off back over the surrounding hills.

After a moment, Wilda managed to steady himself and stepped towards the two ponies with Alphonse coming in from the side after crossing the distance he flew on foot. He dispelled his cestus and cracked his neck a couple times. “Welp… Looks like you’ve got bandits.”

Alphonse managed to finish brushing the dirt from the pit off his backside. “And pretty good ones, unfortunately. That one with the tectonic shockwave claw spell must be their lieutenant.” He then made a loud sniff and scratched his nose. “The fact that he could size up the situation so quickly and coax the others into taking action in addition to having one heck of an ace up his sleeve means that they’ve definitely got an ironclad chain of command. Their boss must definitely be a doozy!”

The whole thing happened so fast that Fluttershy was briefly sent witless, then she shook her head and focused her eyes. “What do we do now? We shouldn’t stay here if they might come back with backup…!”

Pinkie abruptly pulled Fluttershy’s face into her own. “Forget that! What about my family? Mom! Dad! Marble! Limestone! I need to check if they’re okay!”

Alphonse made a cocky grin and held high a finger. “Just like the drills: When in doubt, fall back and regroup! I’ll lead the way and see if I can make a bridge past those barriers!”

Alphonse quickly turned around and rushed towards the Pie Farmhouse, his finger still extended. Pinkie galloped close behind while Fluttershy flew alongside a jogging Wilda. As they approached the outer barricade, Alphonse extended an open palm and a bright green arching stairway appeared stretching over it that he and the rest of the group rushed across, doing the same for the wall encircling the central property.

Pinkie didn’t waste time and rushed past Alphonse right up to the door, getting on her back hooves and beating on it with both of her front, making a sound like a woodpecker. “Dad! Mom! Everypony! Are you alright? It’s me, Pinkie!”

Pinkie got back down on all her hooves as she heard a ruckus on the other side. She trotted back right as Alphonse and the others and the door slowly opened. However, they all ducked and covered as they were met with an onslaught of jagged rocks and various odds and ends. When they got the chance to spare a look they saw a line of dull-colored earth ponies, each wearing an anxious expression and holding a rough and worn farming implement, shaking towards the group.

Pinkie’s father, Igneous Rock Rock Pie, trotted forward holding a chipped spade. “Pinkamena, my dear… Take thine friend and slowly trot away from yonder vandals!”

Pinkie raised an eyebrow for a moment, then glanced back at Wilda and Alphonse and at her family a couple times, then made another drawn-out gasp as her shuffling legs blurred. She quickly zipped back, standing on her back hooves again, extending her front ones to cover her human friends. “Wait! You don’t understand! They’re my friends, from that huge underground city I mentioned in my letters! They can help, too!”

Limestone groaned, practically growling with the trowel in her teeth. “Dodn’t madder! Hwee don’ gnuw dem! Zhey coot vee shpiez!”

Pinkie rapidly shook her head a few times. Then stared at her family with her big, sad eyes. At the sight of this, Marble’s expression softened. She spat out her garden cultivator and trotted forward, turning to face her family. Cloudy Quartz, shaking a garden weasel, gave her daughter an angry look. “Marble! Dost thou stand in defiance of thine clan’s welfare?”

Marble squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head a few times. “Mm-mm-HMM!” She turned back, looking deep into Pinkie’s eyes for a moment. Then she turned back to her family, furrowed her brow, and bent low.

Limestone’s scowl softened ever so slightly. She turned towards her father, meeting his gaze for a moment. Igneous Rock took a deep breath and relaxed, blowing it out his nose. “If thy heart sayeth so, and thou believest these bipeds shall risk thine own peril on behalf of the clan, then so be it. Come, knaves!”

Igneous Rock turned around and his wife and daughter followed him back into the farmhouse. Pinkie trotted up next to Marble and gave her a sentimental smile. “Thanks a bunch, Marble! I owe you big!”

Marble gave Pinkie a smile and nodded. “Mm-hm!” And with that, the both of them trotted into the doorway with Fluttershy, Alphonse, and Wilda following behind.

Pinkie was met with unfamiliar sights in what should have been a familiar place, as the Pie Family den had been converted into a war room, with the ancestral cards table having a chart of the farmlands with several miscellaneous objects serving as tokens for things and units in the vicinity. At one of the corner windows, her great-granduncle’s telescope stood pointed to gaze into the hills in the distance.

Alphonse quickly took stock of the place and extended a finger. “Okay, so, first thing’s first… How long have these bozos been here and what have they been doing this whole time?”

Limestone raised an eyebrow and made a grimace at that display of presumptuousness. However, Igneous Rock gave her a scowl and she rolled her eyes. Limestone reached a hoof upward and pulled down (from nowhere) a chart of the surrounding countryside of Rockville and began pointing at several marked spots with a hoof. “It didn’t take two days for those big monkeys to blitz and take over every farm in the tri-county area. As far as we can tell, there are at least sixty-four of them put together, and they’re all grouped into four divisions of sixteen. The troopers don’t have anything to write home about besides pulling walls up from the ground and hurling big chunks of dirt, but they’re each headed up by a captain that can do some big and weird stuff. Nopony’s seen him, but they’ve been heard talking about a boss that they’re all scared of.

“There are a few holdhouts in some shelters and cellars between farms, but the bandits say they won’t let anypony have their land back unless everypony pays them a hundred-thousand bits per acre! Highway robbery, I tell you! But apparently, they’ve also been planting some gems, like they’re prepared to swindle a few packs of diamond dogs as a backup plan. As far as we know, we still have a chance as they’ve spread thin at garrisons in every county to chase away every charge to take the land back through force.”

Fluttershy softly coughed into her hoof, drawing the room's attention. “Um… When we got off the train, it looked like everypony in Rockville got on and left…”

At that, Limestone pulled the chart back down with a deep inhalation and let it wind back up with a defeated sigh, all while maintaining her sour expression. “Well…! I guess we’re all doomed, then! Once they regroup, they’ll storm the Pie Family farm all at once and that’ll be that!”

Alphonse extended a hand and gestured at Limestone. “Whoa there, bronco! Can it with the pessimism and ‘tude!” He then gestured at himself with a thumb and made a cocky grin. “That’s MY exclusive schtick! Too many cooks in the kitchen, I’ll have you know!” Then, he held out an upturned hand and shook his head with a lopsided grimace. “Besides, it’s not completely hopeless now that we’re here!”

At this, Limestone loudly snorted and spat a loogie to the side, getting a bad look from her mother. “Oh, come on! What can two mares and a couple of hairless apes do against a horde of brutes with some crude but effective magic?”

Alphonse made an arrogant smirk and snickered, gesturing at himself and Wilda, who decided to flex despite his awkwardly flat expression. “Well, I’ll have you know, just these couple of brutes with sophisticated and extremely effective magic sent almost half of this quadrant’s squad packing in two attacks. And I personally laid out four of them flat with a spell seasoned with a little extra something to make them completely useless for the next day and night!”

Limestone could only roll her eyes at that speech. Then she raised a hoof at the fairy elemental, deepening her scowl. “Fine then! If you’re so confident, then why don’t you two go out there and bear the brunt of their oncoming assault!”

Alphonse threw up a hand and rolled his eyes, giving his head a shake for good measure. “Well, alrighty then! Wilda and I will take point and do just that!” He theatrically turned around and marched back towards the door in an overexaggerated manner with Wilda following along. Then he abruptly paused at the threshold and raised a finger. “And when we’re done cleaning up, we’ll send you an invoice for the bill for our services…” He lackadaisically pointed at Wilda behind him. “...Because I’ll have you know he’s a one-man riot squad…” Then raised his hand to point at his own head, spinning his finger. “...And I’m an expert on indirect fighting! Your enemy’s worst enemies!”

Alphonse continued the way out. Before following behind, Wilda turned around and gave the pie-family a one-armed shrug and smirk. Then he turned to Fluttershy and gave her a wave. “Bye-bye, Fluttershy. See you soon.” Fluttershy waved her hoof at her friend as he followed his own out the door.

As both human warriors went out the door, Limestone made a contemptful, drawn-out groan, then raised a hoof and eyebrow at Pinkie while maintaining her frown. “Where do you even find creatures like that, Pinkie?”

Pinkie gestured here and there with her hoof, whirling her eyes around. “Oh… Thousands and thousands of miles underground, give or take.”

Limestone put her hoof down and rolled her eyes. “Of course…!”

Island Adventure a Go Go: Part 9

Author's Note

The "Final Part" was starting to run on a bit, so I decided to make this a ten-parter. I'm also publishing this one a bit earlier than normal as recompense for the delays.

Island Adventure a Go Go: Part 9

After Miss June, Crazy Joe, and a roundaboutly directed Gyre found their way into the now unsealed chamber, they found that a block in the exact center of its ceiling had descended, revealing itself as a lift into another room above. After a brief debate on whether or not they should investigate, especially after securing their objective, Gyre hopped on and it rose up faster than Crazy Jane could object to being called an objective.

A few minutes later, she came back down, visibly excited. “You guys NEED to see what’s up there! I’ve never seen anything like it, and I’m pretty sure I’d need a bit of help to understand it!”

Assured that the way ahead was perfectly safe, the group boarded the wide lift and rose up beyond the ceiling. Above the ceiling, they found another room, a bigger room with one big peculiarity: A scale model of the entire island. Around the edge were several grooves for thin posts carrying lenses to be rotated to look at the model from different angles.

Sloop approached this map with his natural eye for cartography, amazed at the level of detail right down to the distinct varieties of trees at different climate zones on the island. Then, he decided to look through one of the lenses, and after his eyes went wide, he looked away to rub his them. Gyre approached, concerned. “What’s the problem?”

Sloop turned to her and rotated the lens to the front of the model. “See for yourself, sister.” Gyre approached and looked through, and was amazed as she saw the island take on a completely different yet very familiar form. Through this looking glass, the model had changed from one of the island to one of the lake and hills zone. Every sea stack was a perfect replica, from even the log bridges connecting parts where there were no land-based ones.

Gyre practically bounced in excitement. “This is amazing!” She pulled a few other lenses into place, getting a model of the marble buildings and lava zone, as well as an ant farm-like structure providing a multi-sided view of the winding underground pathways they were currently in. “This would have been really useful early on! I wonder why I never found it until now…” Upon pulling another lens into place, her excitement turned to mystification as her sudden energy gave way to concern. “Huh. Never saw this one before.”

Sloop raised an eyebrow at that. He gestured for Gyre to pass him that lens and he beheld an entirely new sight: Across the circumferences of several large mountain peaks and a dozen smaller ones were elaborate structures with the sophisticated engineering of a city, buildings with windows running up and down their sides had wide terraces, squares, and streets connecting them, along with bridges of at least two different types liking the different mountain tops. Sloop turned to Crazy Jane. “Didn’t you say that you saw a city before you dropped off the boat?”

Crazy Jane’s brow raised, and she strutted over, exclaiming as she peered into the lens Sloop passed to her. “That’s it! That’s exactly what I saw! Minus the clouds and stars above, of course.”

Gyre looked startled. Scratching the side of her head. “I’ve never found a city-based zone before. It usually takes me months and a few concussions to stumble on an entrance to one!”

Sloop furrowed his brow and gave this model a scrutinizing look, sweeping his gaze all around it. “Maybe… If this thing can show the zones themselves, it can also show their entrances…” He eventually stumbled upon something sticking out of the side of the table-like platform the model was sitting on. He bent down, gripped it, and pulled, revealing a single faceted crystal of light on a handle.

He scratched his chin with his free hand, looking at it for a moment before getting an idea. He held the crystal right up to the lens that showed the lake and hills zone. After a moment, the lens began to glow before letting off a beam that bent to point at the side of the island’s lake that they first entered. Then he did it for the lens showing the lava and marble zone, the light pointing to the part at the base of the mountain where the archway would be. Nodding with a confident smile, he pulled the lens for the new zone back into place and held the light up to it. The beam that emerged bent slightly to point at a specific angle just below one of the mountain’s peak.

Gyre’s eyes went wide, and she quickly pointed. “Oh! Oh! I know that place! There’s a cliff right there that curls down and back up just like a ramp!”

Applejack raised an eyebrow at that. “Uh… How big a ramp we talkin’?”

Gyre spread her hands. “Huge! If you go fast enough, you could probably fly all the way to the next mountain!” Then she dropped her hands as her excited smile faded. “If… You know… You survive the landing. That’s kind of why I never attempted it myself.”

At that, Crazy Jane gestured upward, striking a pose. “Well, show me the way, and I’ll make the leap myself if you’re all too scared!”

Rarity gulped and made a confident expression of her own. “She’s right! We haven’t time for inhibitions now, especially after everything we’ve done so far!”

First Applejack gave a hearty hoo-rah! at that, followed by a roaring from Crazy Joe, and double-forearmed fist pumping from Percival. The group, in total agreement but varying levels of enthusiasm, went back to the lift. As they sunk back into the floor, Sloop gave a look as he noticed that there were at least four other lenses they’d yet to inspect.

***

“Uh… Sloop? Are you sure this is a good idea? Or maybe... Is this the best approach to this idea?”

Sloop pressed on, keeping his eyes on the rocky ascending path before him. “What do you mean this time, Gyre? We finally have all of our urgent objectives in place, and now that we know where our most important, final objective is, we’ve got to secure it!”

Gyre rolled her eyes around and waved a hand back and forth. “Well… It’s just that every time you saved one of your crew, you rested for a night before going to save the next one. We’ve had good results that way so far, so… Why change it up now?”

Rarity huffed, scowling at the wheel elemental as she passed her on the path. “I’m sure Sloop knows what he’s doing, dear! Besides, you saw his mark! Sweetie Bell, Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Roux have gone into the red! We can’t afford to hesitate!”

Up ahead, Percival bent his head to the mare next to him while he held his arm ahead as his bright, flaming focus floated a distance ahead of his open hand. “I think there’s a difference between hesitating and just being smarter about something, but it’s been a long time since I’ve dropped my battle form. I’ve noticed we’re all going a bit slower than normal, regardless of the incline.”

Applejack spared a moment to look back at the tail of their train of travelers. “Didn’t ya tell me one time that fire tribe elementals have neverendin’ stamina?”

Percival’s eye holes widened completely round, then he held out his other open hand and shook it a bit. “There’s always a bit of nuance to these things, even moreso on a case-by-case basis. Bottomless stamina doesn’t really mean anything if you’ve got a broken arm and it's the one you hold your weapon with. Wear and tear without rest just means that even if you don’t stop moving for anything, you won’t be able to move very far or very well. Kris learned the hard way early on that even the greatest warriors ever need their rest.”

Finally, they’d made it to the side of the peak with the cliff Gyre mentioned. The light of the evening sun revealed that Gyre’s words were true. Minus a few extruding boulders, the land smoothly sloped downward before ending in a steep upward incline at the bottom. It was hard to tell if this formation was a natural one like the path they took or something hewn artificially. The shadows under the sunset gave it an air of foreboding, making the dip in the land look much steeper and the gap to the next peak look like a pit with no bottom.

Applejack, elected foremare due to the nature of the plan they came up with to get the zone all at once turned to the group and raised a hoof. “Alright, y’all! We gotta lotta’ work to do, so let’s giddup and go! Positions everypony and everybody!”

At this encouragement, Miss June stepped forward as everyone stood back. She firmly planted her feet, pointed her hands forward, and squeezed her eyes shut. With a series of loud snap-like cracking sounds, a broad, long, concave shape started appearing on the ground in front of her. Once it got to the right size and shape, she loudly gasped for breath, and Rarity helped her sit down on a nearby rock.

Next, Percival stepped up. He placed his hand on the shape and furrowed his conceptual brow. His body shook a bit as the brittle glass chassis turned into a heavier, softer, but less brittle solid wood. Applejack trotted up and gave the chassis an inspection, then took an improvised sheet of sandpaper and began smoothing out the external surface.

While Applejack worked her role, Gyre acted next. She extended a hand making a distinct sign and waved it around as she chanted. What looked like a simple spoked wagon-wheel appeared before her, and a couple seconds later, another one plopped down on top of the previous one.

Sloop then took position at the top of the inner slope. He summoned his arrowguns and combined them into their composite bow form. He took aim at the very top of the far end of the slope and let his arrow fly, trailing a row of runes like a ribbon which snaked its way back up the slope down the middle.

As Rarity floated around some improvised rulers, protractors and yardsticks, she made a few marks all across the chassis with a handcrafted pencil. Percival, growing his hands and muscles big, went to one side while Crazy Joe went to the other and the both of them lifted the chassis up. Applejack took one wheel in her jaws and slung another over her back and went to the marks on the outside, placing them against the wood while they attached just like Gyre said they would. After this was finished, Applejack and Crazy Jane carried over a pair of dark red solid rocket constructs conjured by the latter, affixing them to a pair of key points on top of the rim of the chassis.

Finally, all of them took positions on the outside of their hodge-podge vehicle and wheeled it over to the line of Sloop’s runes, the whole thing suddenly affixing to it like a monorail to its rail. Percival nodded and stretched a hand to the rim of the chassis and the ground. “All right! Time to board! Express one way to the children and the zone they're in, plus whatever hazards await us there!”

Whether it was the situation or the joke itself, Percival’s attempt at tension-dissolving humor went over like a lead balloon. When Sloop approached, he reformed the top of his arms and shoulders into what looked like the steps in a short length of stairs. Once everyone went in the chassis with greatly varying degrees of strain on Percival’s person, he circled around the back and began pushing it forward. Once it looked like gravity was about to take effect, he pulled himself aboard by his arms.

Once the funny-looking cart went over the bend in the mountain, it quickly began picking up speed. A bit earlier than Crazy Jane expected, she snapped both fingers as they nearly passed the midway point down the slope, picking up a much more radical speed that had them hanging onto one another and the cart alike for dear life. Finally, several of them felt like they left their guts back on the slope as they finally took flight. They quickly climbed high into the sky at a forward angle, a few of them breaking out into screams.

Once they reached the apex of their ascent halfway to the next peak in the mountains, their jury-rigged vessel and the tops of their heads alike started trailing the bright sparks indicating the approach to a nearby zone entrance. Right when they were thinking they were about to plow straight into the very solid, very huge mountain, they finally disappeared in a flash that lit up the surrounding evening like a second sun.

At the very least, most of the group had now gotten used to the utter mindbender that was the process of going into and out of the space between the zones and the island itself. Emerging out into a dark, flat area, their vessel came to a screeching, sliding halt. Everyone waited for a moment, still clinging to whatever they could grab for safety.

A moment later, Percival was able to form a part of the side of the hull he touched into an opening for everyone to get outside. Sloop got out first and scratched his chin. “I guess when we warped, the phenomenon killed most of our momentum.” Gyre got out next and he turned to her. “Did you know about that?”

Gyre screwed her eyes around haphazardly like she often did when trying to find the right words for her thoughts. “I guess I never thought about it that much. But now that I have, it is strangely convenient that no matter how fast I go to get into a zone, I’m always able to gently touch down on the ground.”

Then, Crazy Jane practically barreled out of the improvised hatch, pushing Sloop and Gyre aside. A distance outward, she made a few unpleasant retching sounds, but thankfully they were mostly dry heaves. Finally getting a chance to compose herself, she looked around. “Yep. This is definitely the place we crash-landed all those days ago.”

The rest of the vehicle's occupants made their way out one by one. Miss June looked around herself for a moment. “I suspect that since Miss Jane led the way out and Mister Joe was protecting our rear, she must have seen a lot more of our surroundings before we fell.”

They landed in some kind of flagstone square part of a larger structure built around the apex of a mountain high in the sky. The stars and moon illuminated their terrain minimally, but the details were revealed by street lights high atop some metal poles and built into the tops of some of the architecture.

The whole place was the closest they’d seen yet to something with modern construction sensibilities. On their peak was one tall building that resembled a skyscraper with the darkened glass windows running up and down its sides. Surrounding them were different levels in the structure leading to smaller buildings with windows and doors of their own, sometimes dividing up different levels of one taller structure. For the most part, the different levels of the foundational architecture were divided by either inclined roads or stone stairways depending, with a few buildings having metal scaffolding and ladders extruding.

Sloop extended an arm and pointed down a way to the other side of the mountain. “I can feel it! The kids should be that way! From what I remember, there’s about two or three interconnected peaks in that same direction! Come on!” Hinting at how he knew that they had no idea what to expect, Sloop summoned his arrowguns and took the lead with Rarity cantering behind him. Percival summoned his focuses and advanced alongside Applejack. Miss June conjured her evocation locus again followed by both Crazy Joe and Crazy Jane with her bright red cannon taking point at the rear.

Taking a path to the other side of the mountain, they came to a truss bridge to a nearby, much larger square built around its mountain. A few of them looked down to see a solid layer of vapor, but they couldn’t tell if it was fog or cloud.

This one had a much more straightforward path to the other side. Unfortunately, this one was a movable bridge, and it was raised. Miss June pointed at a structure on their side that looked built into the bridge. “I believe that’s the control house, the means to lower the bridge should be in there.”

Gyre raised a hand. “We should probably approach with caution. We haven’t even seen any sign of the endemic beasts, so I’m beginning to think that they may dwell only indoors.”

Keeping this in mind, the group stayed together as they climbed up a scaffolding criss–crossing to the top of the tower-like structure. They entered past the unlocked door and paused, staring at the sight of the many, many buttons, switches, and meters. Sloop cleared his throat. “Um… Miss June? Would you mind taking the lead? I’ll do what I can to help figure out how to lower everything.”

Miss June gave her boss a Yes sir, and moved to the long control panel in front of the surrounding length of glass windows. Though they flipped and pushed lots of things here and there, Miss June found something and called for attention. “I believe this is our present obstacle, Mister Masters.” She pointed at an empty ignition keyhole in the center of the control panel facing the bridge proper.

Sloop swept his arm out at the greater part of the group. “Alright everyone, look for that key! Hopefully, it’s not all that far away!” The whole group moved out, scrambling to find the missing key. Crazy Joe dumped out what looked like the contents of a wastebasket while Rarity shone her horn’s light into every nook and cranny such a small object could be wedged into.

As the search was dragging on, Sloop grew worried about the childrens’ circumstances and moved directly to the ignition again. He traced a glowing finger in a few circles around it, leaving behind his red and blue runes. With a final flicking gesture, the runes swirled, converging right on top of the keyhole, before a light pulsed for about two times a second, and a sensation appeared inside Sloop’s head.

Sloop pointed out the window in the direction they came to the bridge from. “The key is a few blocks that way. Since I can feel it hanging in the air, it’s likely that it’s one of the high-rise buildings”

Percival turned to his old friend, his virtual brow raised in sympathy. “Did… You just improvise a sympathetic magic-based locator spell with runes?”

Sloop indignantly raised an eyebrow and laid a hand on his hip. “So what? We’re kind of in an emergency and short on time, aren’t we?”

“Well… I think that’s precisely why we should prioritize the long-term! What if you bust out right when you need your magic the most?”

Applejack interjected into this argument with a good old throat clearing, nice and rough. “I beg your pardon, but what the hay’s this all about?”

Turning his white improvised face to his close friend, Percival gestured to Sloop. “Well, like I said earlier, we’re running on fumes and sheer adrenaline to begin with! And he just did something that likely took as much magic as nine or ten of his normal spells!”

Sloop just crossed his eyes and jerked his head away from Percival. “Well, I don’t see the point of saving for the future if it’s one where the kids are-”

“Stop! Both of you just stop!” Gyre silenced both the arguing friends and stepped between them in a rare display of genuine frustration, her hands extended. “The only thing worse for our present mission than wasting unnecessary energy or taking too long would be to lose our cohesion and forget our cause entirely!” She then began gesturing to each of the surrounding group before pointing out to the other peak. “If time really is of the essence, I could fly a group of three, four including myself, across the gap and go directly to the kids and the boat! The rest of the group should stay behind and go the proper way, because if they can open up obstacles like this bridge and any other along the path, it’ll serve as a good path to leave!”

Everyone thought about that for a moment. Crazy Jane stepped forward first. “I haven’t been using much magic the last day or two since I was trapped in that chamber, so I could probably be handy in the thick of it.”

Percival’s eyeholes widened and he raised a hand. “Even if transforming that flying deathtrap’s chassis took a bit more out of me than I’d like, my abilities would probably be for the best in facing the unknown.”

Applejack and Rarity approached one-another. The earth pony reached into her saddlebags and brought out a bit in her jaws. Rarity scratched at her jaw before pointing with a hoof. “Flip for it, dear?”

The unicorn floated the coin between them with her dark blue magic, freeing Applejack to talk clearly. “You flip, I call?” Rarity nodded, then with a small glint from the tip of her horn launched the coin spinning upwards. At the peak, Applejack abruptly declared “Heads!”

With a soft plink sound, the gold coin hit the floor, revealing the back hooves of a pony with their tail curving downward. Applejack adjusted her hat, wearing an odd mixture of pride and mild disappointment. “Well, if it had to be one of us… I suppose we both have a big stake in this.”

Rarity gave a sincere smile and shook her head. “It’s only natural to help somepony just to help somepony. I would have done it for any who’d need it.”

Their formation set, they made their way back to their side of the raised bridge. Gyre hoisted up her wheel weapon and took flight. Hovering over the volunteers, she summoned her purple wheel configuration and sent three of them looping around the three of them and back to tether on the spokes of the side of the wheel she was holding onto. Guided by another brand made by Sloop, Gyre and the advance rescue party disappeared into the darkness directly towards the boat and the children it carried.

Finishing his wave goodbye, Sloop turned back to Miss June, Crazy Joe, and Applejack, getting their attention with a single, loud clap. “Okay! This isn’t exactly the time for tearful goodbyes. We have our own part in this mission!” This sudden enthusiasm got an And how! out of Applejack and another one of Crazy Joe’s enthusiastic roars. Miss June would later wonder if she should have added something to this fervor, but Sloop believed even presently that her deeds so far had spoken for themselves.

Rock Farmin’ and Rollin’ Part 2

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Rock Farmin' and Rollin' Part 3

Author's Note

Sorry for the slight delay, woke up a litte later than I wanted today.

Rock Farmin' and Rollin' Part 3

The squads of bandits from all over the county assembled altogether in formations with three of their lieutenants: a silver-haired one with a bowl-cut, a black-haired one with a mohawk, and a red-haired one with a braid to the side of their face. The lieutenant that was injured by Wilda, his hand wrapped in bandages and fingers done in splints, hung a distance behind after opting to observe and organize, distributing his remaining able-bodied units among the others. But despite insisting that he could defend himself with his mallet alone, the others each sent one of their own as bodyguards.

On the opposite side, their foes had divided their limited defense into what appeared to be some semblance of a strategic series of lines: At the front was Alphonse… and Alphonse, and Alphonse, obviously some manner of illusion as each of the two-dozen figures blatantly mirrored the subtle actions of the original likely hiding among them as they all held his bright-green polearm. A fair distance behind this was a figure that had the bandits much more wary: The illustrious beast elemental Wilda who’d single-handedly driven off an entire squad’s worth of their forces, and the rumors had only grown exaggerated. Behind him was a shorter outer wall built in front of the very quickly reinforced first wall, the trench between the two occupied by the newcomer Oro, holding from what looked like in the distance an attuned single-handed crossbow.

Mohawk raised his club high and the forces behind him struck stances. He gave out a cry and pointed it forward, beginning his own charge once at least half his troops rushed past him. With a flick of the finger, the group of Alphonses lit their weapons’ spearheads in a bright green flame-like effect and held them forward at ready. They then met the coming charge with a lancing thrust that carried with it a wide crescent of energy that blasted back the centermost of the frontal troops.

Mohawk condescendingly sneered at how his foe opted for the most obvious position in his illusion. He raised his free hand encased in a thick shell of terrain and sprinted towards the only real enemy. When he swung his magical boxing glove, instead of a satisfying crunch followed by the shock of the erupting earthen spikes, he was sent spinning out of sorts by the added weight of his blow passing through the thin air of a very transparent illusion. Alphonse gave a smirk of his own as he hefted his weapon in an overhead spinning sweep, sending the Mohawked lieutenant flying back into his collapsing men from a blow from his far-right side. Then, from the middle left of the group of illusions, Alphonse let fly a slowly moving orb of energy that gave every goon it made contact with a stunning shock before erupting into a concussive green blast once it reached optimal position to utterly break their formation.

Alphonse could barely suppress a loud cackle. He'd wished he'd thought of placing a meta-magic effect on his mobile illusion spell that enabled him to switch places with any of his false doppelgangers at will the moment he'd heard the idea from Oro, but even he was surprised at just how effective this strategy was. Whereas delivering a solid blow among hollow ones was normally detrimental to the ruse, this approach turned that weakness into the bait for many traps within traps, creating panic and confusion upon the prey realizing they'd walked into a hunting ground where they could be attacked from many possible angles, impossible to know which one as the whole of the facade would mirror any abrupt twitches or flinches as their core image instantly changed places.

Just like what Oro predicted what would happen, Bowl-Cut’s and Braid’s forces charged past Alphonse as he kept the vanguard at bay. Braid’s squad took point to engage Wilda, and with a short leap, Braid slammed his open palm on the ground in front of the line. With a quake and cloud of dust, a giant amorphous mouth of terrain emerged from the ground between the bandits and Wilda. Narrowing its small beady eyes and flashing its multiple rows of jagged triangular teeth, it roiled the ground before it as it charged Wilda.

Wilda didn’t hesitate, he rushed to the large autonomous construct and extended both his arms as they began to glow with his blue magic. Wilda adjusted his footing as he grabbed onto both jaws of the artificial creature with two giant gorilla hands of magic, stopping it short. However, Braid and his forces came together and began pushing the construct with all their might from behind. Wilda grit his teeth and put all his energy into keeping this blockbusting attack where it was.

As Bowl-Cut’s forces advanced beyond this struggle, he made a signal by flinging three different colored clouds of clay dust above him. From across all three units, bandits carrying distinctively-crafted pellet bows broke off from their groups and rushed on strips of land that flowed and moved like conveyor belts to the frontmost lieutenant's squad almost instantly.

Bowl-Cut raised his falchion high and all of the archers knocked small balls of dirt into their weapons’ slings and drew them all at once. Bowl-Cut lowered his weapon to point at the inner wall and each of the archers took aim. With a flick and a shout from their lieutenant, the archers sent out a salvo of pellets that quickly grew many times their own size before accelerating and blasting on contact with their target. Though some of the rocks along the top had been pulverized, the bonds of the whole of the structure withstood this attack.

Oro, experience making him count on the tunnel-vision ranged fighters get when they find the perfect series of movements to hit a stationary target, bent his arm to slip one of his rings into his grip. It began to glow as he threw it up into the air and fixed it in place. Then, he reached into the transparent yellow light within and pulled out a chain of dark-yellow crossbow bolts connected horizontally by an invisible tether.

He fitted the first into a slot into what upon closer inspection was a large, thinly-spoked wheel that appeared at the center of the crossbow connected to a rather elaborate mechanism built into the whole thing, then with a few brief turns fitted more into half the slots on one side, more bolts being tugged out of the floating ring. Oro adjusted his footing and took aim with his latest weapon transformation at the line of archers right as they took aim at the wall. Bracing himself, he squeezed the release and the whole thing practically shrieked as after a brief wind-up a barrage of bolts flew, propelled by the twin strings of the metallic bows alternatingly pulled and released by the internal mechanism.

The entire squad was sent out of sorts, their jackets protecting them from the worst of each bolt’s tip but the blows hit hard enough to send them tumbling. Then the ammunition released from their wild shots came raining back onto them in blasts, forcing both ranged and melee units alike scrambling in a hasty retreat.

Holding his polearm to the wary disjointed units before him, Alphonse held a hand over his eyes to see the squad that attempted to assail the wall directly fleeing. He decided to put the final nail in the coffin of this attack and erected a semi-transparent bright green wall between his illusionary squad and Mohawk’s fighters. Then, he dematerialized his weapon and made a series of gestures with one hand while speaking a series of five inscrutable utterances under his breath.

A green wispy mass of energy appeared on top of the clenched fist he was extending forward. He used his other hand to grip it on the edge and pull on it as it elastically stretched back. He aimed it over the struggle between Wilda and Braid’s forces and let it fly by the snapback he released. Once directly over the amassed squad, the energy mass burst and from it dropped a squall’s worth of bright green needles, enough to hit the entire unit.

However, as he passed, Bowl-Cut manifested a jar of earthenware and pointed its opening angled up. Suddenly, with the howl of a vortex, the spell was drawn into the mouth of the vessel. Bowl-Cut pulled this construct in close even as green fumes puffed out the top and made a self-satisfied sneer right at Alphonse. Alphonse’s eyes grew wide and he recoiled. “Crud! A snaring spell!”

Bowl-Cut took his jar in one hand and used the other to let out a whistle to Braid, who turned his head to his fellow lieutenant and nodded. He turned back and gave his construct a couple slaps on its back with the palm of his hand. As the construct’s beady eyes narrowed, two giant clawed hands emerged from the ground on both sides of Wilda and managed to grab him by his lower body, locking him in place. Bowl-Cut then sprinted and dashed past the construct’s body, then he heaved his jar at Wilda. The jar let out a burst of green smoke tinged with brown upon shattering that enveloped him. Once it cleared, Wilda’s face suddenly appeared slack, with his tongue and a line of drool hanging out of the corner of his mouth and his aura dissipated as his arms began to droop. The construct released him as he plopped onto the ground, his limbs strewn about in an awkward arrangement.

Alphonse knew he had to act fast. He stretched his arm out to his barrier, made a gesture then a pulling motion. The barrier shrunk to a smaller flat rectangle that billowed slightly and zoomed towards Alphonse, who’s illusions burst like soap bubbles as he hopped on and rode the repurposed spell two stories into the air. As he passed Braid’s squad and the autonomous construct, he stretched out his open palm and a green tether of energy whipped out and wrapped around the paralyzed Wilda, lifting his limp body right on top of the flying construct.

As Alphonse took Wilda to the safety of the trench past the outer wall, the remaining lieutenants gave each other a high-five, then sent up a few more clouds of different-colored dry clay even higher into the air. The forces still standing across all three squads rushed to regroup behind them as one each conjured a wave of land to take the fallen fighters to the safe zone by Ponytail. They then continued their advance behind the persistently crawling construct as their formation’s spearhead.

Oro bent down to Wilda, then looked at Alphonse. “Can you revive him?”

Alphonse briefly squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head. “I’m not like Kris! I’m better at inflicting hexes instead of lifting them! Maybe there’d be a chance if it were made of nothing but my own magic, but that snaring spell corrupted it with its user’s!”

Oro sighed and stood back up straight, then slipped another ring into the grip of his free hand. “Then I suppose it’s time to deploy Russ’s ideas. Thank Ultima I managed to convince him to save them as a contingency for a scenario just like this. With a numbers difference like ours, any loss will be catastrophic regardless of sheer magic and martial power!”

Oro crouched briefly and sprung to throw his gripped ring high into the air. It began glowing and soared far above the tall inner wall, then it fixed into the air as it grew several times larger. The ring then began rotating, letting out a yellow flash with each full revolution.

Meanwhile, high above the battlefield, sitting upon the overcast cloud mass, Fluttershy gulped as she saw the signal. She’d spent the couple days they’d had to gather as many clouds she could find in the normally clear and sunny Rockville sky as he could find, the new coming bandits not knowing the normal climate. Taking a few deep breaths, she counted the number of flashes, then took flight as they reached the number corresponding for her to engage her part of the plan. She flew in an arc around the inner circumference of her cumulonimbus, rapidly picking up speed. Eventually, the swirling motions she exerted upon the cloud began to leash the whole area’s atmosphere, and the tumultuous air pressure conjured an abrupt windstorm.

On the ground below, the bandits paused their advance to brace themselves against the unexpected gale. However, even they fared better than the giant construct in front of them. Its entire form shuddered and spasmed in the blustering air. Eventually it yielded entirely to the environmental form of the elemental magic that naturally defeats the kind composing its very being, and it disintegrated into dust in the wind.

Russ, behind the inner wall with the others, counted the number of flashes with narrowed eyes. At the appropriate count, he swung down a raised arm. On his signal, Igneous Rock, Cloudy Quartz, and Limestone kicked the flat-broad switch on the three complex mechanisms of levers and pulleys Russ assembled with all their might, sending the small boulders loaded into the slings soaring over the walls. Limestone and Maud rushed with new boulders and fitted them on the slings after Russ reset the mechanisms.

Back out on the battlefield, one bandit managed to open his eyes despite the stinging, dusty wind and pointed upward, letting out a holler at the oncoming projectiles. Upon the first impact, irregardless of them hitting anyone, the fighters were sent into a panic and what little formation remained broke down completely. Bowl and even Ponytail far behind enemy lines cut tried sending up all sorts of signals, but it seemed futile, exactly as intended.

Briad managed to get a response from the primal approach, shaking his club aloft and letting out a loud series of cries. About a dozen fighters strewn across the battlefield noticed and managed to regroup behind him. Pointing his weapon and letting out another shout, he led one last charge to the wall.

Raising his hand raised once again, Russ counted the flashes from Oro’s signal after it had yet to be dematerialized after the catapults began firing. He pointed at Pinkie sitting atop the strangest apparatus he’d assembled thus far. With a serious salute followed by an excited grin, Pinkie flipped a lever with one of her free front hooves and the platform rose into the air on its mechanical leg.

Braid extended an arm to his squad to stop them short over caution of yet another surprise coming from behind the wall, holding his hand above his eyes as he hardly believed he was seeing a bright pink pony with a huge mane sitting on what looked like an exercise machine like they used to have in Core Metro hooked up to several other moving parts.

Pinkie then began to pump the wooden pedals in the blur of her usual Pinkie speed, the spokes hooked up to the multiple rigid slings sending out a hail of hard, pointy pebbles that Marble and Maud kept supplied carrying buckets of them to a larger container that brought them up along a pulley system of scoops. Braid recoiled, attempting to shield his face with an extended arm. He spared a glance and his eyes grew wide as he found his rally running off, his further cries and goads proving fruitless.

Bowl-Cut rushed and grabbed Braid’s free arm, pulling him out of range of the barrage. But even then, the boulders dropped crashing all around them.

Bowl-Cut grit his teeth and began digging into a pocket on his jacket, taking out a shard of layered semi-transparent rock. When Braid saw this, he gasped and recoiled. “ARE YOU CRAZY? You know what the boss will do to us if we-”

Bowl-Cut silenced him with a quick hand waving in his associate’s face. “What he’ll do to us now will be nothing compared to what he’ll do to us if we screw up the whole operation!”

Bowl-Cut jabbed the tip of his falchion into the ground to take the shard in both hands. When he broke it in two, the both of them began glowing in a pale gray light. Bowl-Cut then threw the shards upward, causing both of them to rise into the sky leaving trails like fireworks. And just like fireworks, upon reaching a certain height, they erupted into two distinctive shapes of light:

One was the outline of an octagon, and within was the outline of a semi-triangular series of jagged cliffs, one short but broad and the other two tall, but one taller and more narrow than the one before it. The symbol beside it was a series of three broad lines stacked upon one-another, the one on top whole and the ones below it broken in the middle.

Back behind the wall, Russ alongside Marble and Maud had his neck craned up looking at the lightshow. “I’d say… That’s an-other summonin’ spell like th’ one that called us. But unlike ours, which sorta worked ‘cause we knew the symbol and were friendly-like to it, this one seems a lot more person-alized.” He turned his head toward the ponies and pointed upward, making some haphazard gesture. “Th’ first one’s the symbol of the rock element, a derivative of earth like mine and Wilda’s, ob-viously. Th’ second one seems familiar-like, but I couldn’t really name it. I think Slash once called a thing like that part of somthin’ or an-other called the bagua…”

At that, Maud’s normally stony expression betrayed something, her eyes widening ever so slightly. “Rock… Element…?”

Oro’s eagle eye trained into the distance to spy something huge fade in, looming out of the far side of the battlefield. The figure pulled out something with one hand and in another, something narrow and light gray appeared that they affixed to the other. This new figure then raised their makeshift white flag.

Oro’s eyes went wide for a moment, then he extended an arm and snapped a finger. The ring high above stopped spinning and let out one long golden glow before shrinking back down into Oro’s grip. Russ waved his hand and let out a shout, halting the Pie Family’s onslaught.

Fluttershy gently soared down to the trench the human fighters were crouched in. Having seen what happened from above, she swiftly went up to the immobilized Wilda, lifted him up in a hoof and touched the surface of his body with the other, dragging it along his torso and extremities as if searching for something by touch. After a brief pause, she made three swift, strong jabs into his flesh at different angles with the edge of her hoof. She quickly strode back as Wilda spasmed in three strong twitches, then he managed to sit up as he belched out a brown and bright green vapor that dispersed into the air before scratching the back of his head, stretching and groaning.

At this, Alphonse and Oro gave Fluttershy confused and amazed expressions respectively. Flutterhsy blushed and turned her head away. “Um… Wilda once told me about how some humans like to test their powers on… lower lifeforms… So he had Kris and Otto teach me an old technique to find and stimulate a series of energy points that can expel low-tier malignant elemental magic from living things…”

Wilda managed to stand back up, cracking the joints in his neck. “Wuff… and I’m glad I did it, especially now!” He then turned towards the others with a raised eyebrow. “Speaking of… What happened to the battle? I couldn’t really see or hear anything zonked out like that. What gave us this chance to regroup?”

Oro pointed out into the battlefield. “After our contingency went into effect, at least one of them realized that it’d be impossible to regain their advantage. I’d wager their boss gave them a pre prepared summoning spell of their own to call him if things started falling apart. And now it looks like he wants to negotiate.”

Alphonse sighed and shrugged with upturned hands. “Regardless, we’ll be in a heap of trouble ourselves if we violate such gestures. Being the good guys can be hard like that, especially since there’s no reason that we could wind up losing our advantage and never get it back depending on what he wants to say.”

Wilda, Alphonse, Oro, Russ, Fluttershy, Pinkie, and Maud, acting as representative of the Pie Family proper, strode out to the battlefield as one to meet the lone figure coming in from the other side. He was a mountain of a man, no less as tall as Wilda at minimum and at least three times as wide, impossible to tell if his bulk was fat or muscle underneath his layered gear. He wore wadded clothes like the other fighters beneath a set of crude blackened solid pig iron plates covering his extremities and a pair of shells with the bagua symbol from before painted at the front beaten to curve around both sides of his torso with a skirt hanging down made up of a pair of horizontally linked rectangular plates. However, Russ could see that what looked like crude rope securing the whole of the structure to the interloper’s body were in fact high-quality monster sinews: durable as diamond filament but infinitely more flexible, guaranteed to last for practical use long after the armor they’re looped in and the obviously pragmatic wearer were dust.

Alphonse’s keen perception noticed other details: A fair, weathered complexion with dark hair shaved at the sides but the thick, shaggy locks that remained curved in broad a line over his head and leading to a queue braid that hung all the way down to the base of his back. However, what caught his attention were his eyes.

Alphonse honed his numerous small talents towards a fighting style allowing him to do things most orthodox warriors and layman would judge and condemn him for, all so as to bring a potentially perilous situation to an end before the things he cared about most wound up broken, as they often risked as they took up arms at his side. To do so, he had to learn how to see the things most others couldn’t at first glance and immediately size up whatever situation they found themselves in. However, what he saw made him have absolutely no idea what could happen next, and that made him very, very afraid. He’d rarely seen anything that gave him the impression of such depth, determination and unseen strength. First in his own Master Warrior, and sparsely in the rare occasions he’d faced opponents significantly more powerful and skilled than he was.

His own animal-like intuition sensing the unseen distress of one of his wise friends, Wilda summoned every drop of valor in his gut and heart. He stepped forward with a heavily planted foot and leaned forward, peering up at his enemy from his bent head. “I am Wilda Urson of the Prancing Pony Adventurer’s Guild, present defender of the Pie Family and their land! In the name of the tales of the warriors of old, I command you to tell us who you are!”

The interloper raised an eyebrow for a moment. Then, he planted his feet, arched his back, and swept out a diagonally extending arm. “I am Bruce Masson! Founder and leader of the Feared Cliff gang of bandits! By right of pillage, I and my younger brothers lay claim to all surrounding land in this locale!” He then straightened up and pulled in his fist pointed upward. “However… I must confess that I seek simple solutions to drive away the weak out of a dislike for seeing my sworn brethren come to harm, and you have shown your strength marked by their many injuries. Therefore, as representative of the family of this hold, I demand that you stake their claim upon it by right of the Bout!”

At this display, Maud leaned in towards Russ and added a greater softness to her monotone voice. “Can you tell me why they’re doing all that?”

Russ bent a bit lower and held a hand to shield his mouth from the front. “Us earth tribesfolk tend to be big on history and tradition. Even if many will passionately disagree, it’s not for any rational reason. When we invoke them with their many predetermined movements and phrases, it gives us courage. Makes us feel like regardless of the situation, we’re standing on firm, even ground among equals that we share it with.”

Wilda, retaking a natural posture, turned his head to peer at Bruce from the corner of his eye. “You do realize… That since you’re invoking the Bout firsthand, we get to decide what kind of bout it will be, right?”

Bruce crossed his arms and made a big, full upper body nod. “I understand. As well as I understand my right to tack on suggestions that you can’t outright refuse without a compelling argument over how it gives me an unseen advantage.”

Fluttershy bent her furrowed gaze low, scratching at the side of her head with a hoof. “Um… What is all this about? Why are they trying to… Negotiate with the bandits?”

Oro bent his tin-soldier posture towards the pegasus to his side. “The Pitch Accords: A rite that was ancient when the Immortals were new, from all the way back to the Age of Fire: Our earliest recorded history.

“Even the most hardened warlords and criminals can’t last on the wrong side of law and order if their word amounts to a pile of dirt. Outlaws and raiders always think of themselves first, and paradoxically, you’ve got to be known for your ability to negotiate if you want to survive among them. If you can be a wolf among sheep, strive to be the herder who knows how to hunt.

“Some believe that the term Pitched Battle originated from the Pitch Accords. When the flames of conflict go out, you want to have something to build with from the remains of what was destroyed. And if necessary, start a new fire with, good and hot.”

As Fluttershy was lost with a look of incomprehension, Wilda had just figured out a really good idea for how to do their pitched battle. He leaned towards Bruce and pointed a finger, thumb extended upward. “How about this: We make a circle and choose an equal number of fighters. If you’re forced out of the circle, you’re out. Last team with members in, wins.”

Bruce’s expression remained stony. However, he took one step towards Wilda. “I cannot deny that those are good terms, but let me offer this as an amendment: You may have as many fighters as you desire, but I will fight alone. Also, you must be forced out by the action of an opponent; If you throw yourself out of the circle, you may re-enter. One last thing, my fighters are allowed to take places outside the circle. They’ve always been enthusiastic and spirited, and wouldn’t be able to help but cheer anyway, but I give my word they will not interfere with our match within the circle. Even outside they will not touch your team; everything they do will be for my sake, lest they bring shame upon me.”

Wilda’s eyes went wide when the interloper finished. He leaned back to a neutral posture, scratching at his chin-hair for a moment. Then, he spared a moment to turn and take a look at Oro. Their tactical specialist took a few deep breaths, rolling his eyes into a few different positions in a deep consideration. Then, he shut them with a solemn expression and made a quick, shaking nod. Wilda turned back to Bruce. “We cannot find an argument that gives you an unequal advantage in the rules themselves. Therefore, we must accept. Summon your men to form the circle, and let the bout begin!”

Rock Farmin' and Rollin' Final Part

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Island Adventure a Go Go: Prelude

It was an enriching sight to behold: A sunny blue sky peppered by just the right amount of cloud, the relaxing sound of the waves gently lapping against a pearl-white beach dotted with several large shells of different shapes, sizes, and patterns. To complete the picture, the fronds of the sparse palm trees and other vibrant greenery gently swayed and fluttered in a tropical breeze.

Suddenly, a dark spot appeared in the water a distance off the coast that slowly made its way to the beach, beginning to trail a small wake as it evidently approached the surface. Out of the water and onto the beach stepped a human wearing a black tricorn hat and undershirt with a red coat accented by golden trim and tassels distinct to a nautical officer. Interestingly, despite having freshly emerged from the sea, he didn’t appear to be trailing any water and even his perfectly windswept brighter-than-dark-brown hair didn’t show any sign of suffering from seawater.

Sloop Masters swept his gaze out onto the scene before him, appearing to take stock of the beach around him and the sheer slope of darker, rockier terrain that led into a denser cluster of greenery. He made a satisfied smirk and nodded, then brought up his right arm pulled at the sleeve to gaze at three face-like marks upon the skin of his forearm: A white coated equine with a stylish purple mane and a single straight, spiraling horn, a bright orange coated equine with a bright blond mane done in a more practical style wearing a simple stetson hat, and what looked to be a partially-featureless white mask with two hole-like eyes. Each of these faces thankfully weren’t distressed, but clearly not happy. Below each of them in wavy calligraphy was the same word: ‘Traveling’ each in a bright green color.

Sloop made a relieved expression and slipped his sleeve back into place. Then closed his eyes with a serene expression and held both of his arms extended outward. In both hands appeared his distinctively-designed arrowgun twin weapon. He then brought both arms together and placed the front end of one of them to the back of the other, and with a brief flash of light and a twist, both of them merged into a larger projectile weapon. Sloop aimed the horizontally-gripped front end upward and gave both handles a squeeze with a specific set of fingers.

From far out into the ocean with the island and its beaches, hilly grasslands with more arboreal trees, tall rocky mountains extending from the other side and their waterfalls pouring into a large lake with a few rivers snaking down the land to pour into the ocean in the distance, two bright flashes shined from the front-facing coast. From these flashes, two bright projectiles erupted skyward both with a high-pitched continuous noise, trailing streaks of the same color, and loudly erupted in the sky to send out a pair of simplistic willow effects, one slightly lower than the other.

Out in the gently curling waves of the open ocean was a solid-black boat with an unusual figurehead emerging from the apex of the bow: A humanoid upper-body with a flexible, leather-like form and a mask like the one marked on Sloop’s forearm. Percival held a hand above his narrowed eyeholes. Then they brightened up as he clapped his hands together and rubbed them. “That’s Sloop’s ‘I’m okay, it’s safe to come here’ signal!” He then twisted on the upper prow to look at both passengers in his present boat-like form. “He must have found the island where the ship and the others washed up on in the storm!”

Rarity, once again holding the end of her split-end forming mane in a hoof as she sat in Percival’s form, pouted and made a high-pitched sound. “The sooner we find my luggage and the brushes I packed for this ‘easygoing’ voyage, the better, darling!” She then sadly looked at her life vest and loudly sighed. “And this shade of orange is definitely not my color!”

Applejack tore away the gaze she desperately kept fixed on the horizon to look down with discomfort and rub her belly. “I regard myself as as hardy a pony as any… But honestly, just driftin’ like this for ‘s long as we have is startin’ to make something ache like the neck of a ram with overgrown horns in the bottom of my stomach!”

Percival’s eyes gave a look of mirth and he softly laughed in his many-layered voice. “Well then, hold on tight! Because this water taxi’s shifting into ‘Express!’” Perrival turned back forward and extended his arms outward. In six yellow flashes, his enchanted weapons appeared at his sides. With a few motions the focuses floated to the port and starboard sides of his form, three each pointing back at a different angle spreading outward. Percival then clasped both hands with a clapping sound and each focus suddenly became enveloped in a watery membrane. Holding his hands overhead for a moment he quickly brought them downward in a spreading motion and each focus began firing an intense jet of water which began to propel him and his passengers to the island at a breakneck speed.

Amid Percival’s hearty laughter, Rarity slid back to the stern with a look of terror, trying to keep herself upright by pressing against the tapering sides of the inner boat with her hooves. Applejack, however, abruptly forgot her onset of seasickness and stood up to hang onto the portside edge of the bow with her front hooves wearing an excited expression. She held onto her hat with one of her hooves to keep it in place amid the sudden salty wind, then cried out an enthusiastic “YEE-HAW!” as they all raced to the beach where the signal came from.

***

Roughly two days earlier, while maintaining his practiced nonchalant demeanor as he stood on the edge of the Silver Shoals’s docks, on the inside, Sloop was as giddy as he was when he learned his first spell as a little kid. Though he’d practiced his boatmanship in the many underground lakes and rivers in the caves within the Heart of the World, some of which being oceans in their own right, this was his first time captaining a voyage across the sea.

As images of the free open sky and the vast living woods were held in the hearts of every air and earth tribe elementals, the deep, mercurial ocean was the dream of the water tribe of Core Metro for the thousands of years they’d lived so far underground. The memory was kept alive across the generations by the endless stories of romance, discovery, and thrills their ancestors experienced every day. And now, it was his turn.

He barely suppressed an embarrassing squeal of glee like he used to do when he was an apprentice upon hearing the distinctive sound of hooves on a plank deck at the anointed time, but his intentionally daring grin fell upon turning to take a look.

A couple weeks prior, he’d heard that the ship he’d sunk in what was left of his share of the McMasters fortune to build was nearing completion, but ever since he signed the last invoice he’d been doing a lot of reading. Sea charts, oceanography, published ship logs, and economics surrounding shipping all from the last half of the millennium.

Taking all that into consideration and what he could pick up around Canterlot any opportunity he got a chance to bum a room in the castle, he’d decided what kind of voyage he wanted first, and who he wanted to crew it. Much like the socialites down in Core Metro’s Grand District, the upper crust of Equestria's capital were always on the lookout for something new and exotic so that they could reserve the right to say that they liked the next big thing before it was so popular.

So naturally, he was met with unpleasant surprise when Rarity and Applejack were followed along by three fillies running around and chanting “Tropical vacation! Tropical vacation!”

Sloop did not let his annoyance overwhelm him, but scrunched his eyes shut to pinch at the top of his nose and sigh. Then he looked back at his guests and their plus-three. “What’s this, Miss Rarity? When I told you about my idea to gather in bulk several unique species of fruits from the various desert islands off the coast of Southern Equestria, I knew you’d jump at the opportunity to help if it meant you could shmooze with potential clients for yourself at the events and dinners with those fruits at the centerpeace. And I even agreed to give a generous percentage to Applejack here if she helps with the manual labor and her experience with handling fruit. But you didn’t mention that I should have added a daycare center to my new boat!”

Rarity narrowed her eyes and made an elegant smirk, scratching under her lower jaw before pointing with her hoof. “Oh… Really, Mister Masters, then who’s that on the dock behind you?”

Sloop turned around for a moment, spotting none other than Miss June wearing a light green blazer of a tougher material open over a white tube-top with knee-length denim shorts. She spared a glance and a wave at Rarity just as she finished crunching the numbers to assess the additional passengers on a glass terminal-like archival construct floating in front of her.

Sloop turned around with a squinting-eye sneer and pointed with a thumb back at his secretary. “Do you have any idea how hard it is to find good help these days? Especially willing to work pro-bono amid hard times?”

Miss June dispersed her construct in flecks of light with a flick of a mint-green manicured finger and gave a soft laugh. “I’d bet not half as hard as finding a good boss, hard enough to be willing to work pro-bono if you know they’re good for it!”

Rarity’s face brightened up at Miss June’s glance, then she gestured with a downward hoof. “It’s been ages, June dear, and you look as elegant as ever, darling! And I just love what you’ve done with your hair!”

Miss June blushed at that and made a tight smile. Shyly turning away as she fidgeted with the dark plait hanging frontward over her shoulder.

Applejack decided to take her chance to get the conversation back on track. “Rarity certainly can’t watch the Sweetie Belle and the others if she’s not home, Big Macintosh is spendin’ the whole week at his wife’s, Granny Smith is helping out with some relatives’ farm’s applebuck season while they’re shorthoofed, and Scootaloo’s Aunt Lofty’s got herself a cold and her Aunt Holiday wants her out of the house while she nurses Lofty back to health. So that’s that I s’pose.”

After confidently delivering that bit of exposition, Applejack swept out her gaze across the dock with a concerned expression. “Say… You said Percival was comin’ along too. So where is he? And while I’m askin’, where’s the boat?”

Sloop took this opportunity to put back on a confident smile, gesturing out into the open waters. “He’s turned into my likeness and is taking his turn with my new boat. He definitely has my instincts in that form, but practical experience is the best way to hone them into something useful. Just like the first two laws of the sea: Bring a backup of everything, and never take something you can’t afford to lose!”

While Rarity’s eyes went wide and she floated her luggage to unzip and take a look, Applejack trotted to the edge of the dock and peered out with a hoof held over her squinted eyes. “Uh… Where’s he sailin’ at? There’s nopony or nobody out there!”

At that, Sloop made a cocky chuckle with a fist held to his chin, making a knowing look at Miss June, who rolled her eyes with a smile and shook her head. Sloop began gesturing while looking at Applejack. “Oh, don’t worry! Considering the time, he should be back right about…”

With a quick point, a huge, dark shape appeared in the water at the edge of the dock. Applejack’s eyes went wide as she stumbled back at the water so close to her began to swell as something big began to surface.

First, Percival in the form of Sloop poked out of the water with one hand tightly gripping a spoke on a small external helm in front of him, his other hand on a supportive enclosed ring around him. Next, an airtight cabin with paned windows at the front plus portholes and a valved hatch door lined against the side surfaced with the water streaming down its inclined walls. Finally, the deck surfaced with the water easily flowing down its slight inward inclines and out of the grated hole at the bottom of the center of the gunwale. Alphonse turned and waved at the cocky and amazed crowd from the top of the just over thirty foot-long structure.

After descending to the dock on an automatically-deployed gangway, Percival and Sloop gripped each other’s shoulders in an embrace. Percival gestured at his temporary twin. “She handles just like life: a dream! A triumph of nautical engineering! But you’d know that most of all, friend!” They then shared a hearty seaman’s laugh in stereo. When Percival saw Applejack, his expression brightened, then he separated from Sloop then melted into her form in the same motion, tipping their spontaneously manifested hat. “Howdy, Applejack!”

Applejack tipped her own hat with a cocked eye. “Howdy, Perce’...” She then gave the ship a similar expression accented by rubbing the bottom of her chin with a hoof. “So… is that a boat or one a’ those fancy submarines like that really fancy colt with the beanie and air tank cutie mark uses?”

Sloop made a chuckle and extended an arm to the vessel. “That’s the beauty of it, it’s both! Supposedly, the shipwright who drafted the design once saw a rare sight during his youth as an adventurer: While swimming the underground lake in the salt-crystal pillar cave system, he supposedly saw a basking shark straight from the surface ocean and based the whole thing on how it swam through the briny water of the lake! It can pull itself through the top and bottom of the ocean with a set of fin-like oars that can correct and adapt their strokes to any conditions based on a system linked to the ballast tanks that automatically monitors the surrounding waters and any seafloor terrain through the water pressure and flow of the currents!”

Applejack’s eyes went wide as she scratched the side of her head. Though this was beyond her expertise, her range of worldly skills allowed her to understand the wonder of such a work. “Golly… I reckon’ the right cap’n could take it just about anywhere in the whole ocean, above or below!”

Percival gave his friend a big grin, appreciating the value of her praise. “You reckon’ right, partner!” They then held out a hoof pointing near the top of their side of the bow. “All she be need’n now is a name stenciled on, and she’ll be ship-shape and ready for her maiden voyage!”

Giving his new flagship (and only ship) a warm smile, Sloop dismissively waved a hand from his crossed arms. “Oh… that can wait. I just thought I’d give it a name based on a sight I’d see on its first adventure.”

At that, Percival suddenly made a very less confident expression, than craned to look at his friend with a raised eyebrow and an upturned hoof. “Uh… Isn’t that bad luck? In fact, wouldn’t most sailor folk consider that… ivitin’ disaster?”

Sloop let out an arrogant guffaw and shook a hand at his formless friend. “Anyone can tell you that to invite hardship is to bring prosperity! It only makes sense!”

At this, Percival turned all the way around to give his old friend a worried look, his words taking on a heightened tone. “Now you’re tryin’ to be all logical with superstition? Have you been drinkin’ sea water again to see if it can hydrate you as a water tribe elemental?”

Sloop made a high pitched laugh, then dropped his crossed arms with a relaxed sigh. “Don’t worry! What’s the worst that could happen?”

Suddenly, all of them were surprised by a sudden cry from the landward side of the dock. “Yoo-hoo…! Navy boy…!”

Strutting out into the jetty was Crazy Jane, with a pair of rounded sunglasses even Rarity found gaudy; wearing a hot pink waterproof robe and white bikini set that in the tactful opinions of a conflicted Sloop and Percival left nothing to the imagination. Following a close distance behind was her younger brother Crazy Joe carrying several large bags in his arms and dragging his spiked ball by the chain behind, the only addition to his underworlder attire being a straw hat he'd clearly attempted to fashion himself from the quarter of the brim made up of unwoven stalks. Behind him was a younger human boy half their height in a dark-red hoodie and baggy denim pants with the same dark complexion and white hair of the bomb elemental siblings, all tied back sticking out of the rear of his head. This new character followed along despite his downward bored gaze looking at the yo-yo he was playing with, his toy tethered to his forearm by a rigid band.

Confidently walking past everyone and everypony that quickly made way for her, Crazy Jane came to a stop in front of Sloop, who took off his hat. “Cra-! er… Miss Jane! To what do I owe this… Visit!” In spite of his calm tone and inviting expression, Percival and Miss June recognized from the rough way he twisted his hat in his hands that Sloop was fighting back a lot of tension, desperately trying not to show his displeasure.

Crazy Jane, either ignorant or indifferent, made a sassy sway and accompanying chuckle before pointing a bright-red nail at the compass elemental. “I seem to recall a little deal we made. I would peacefully rot in that big hole in the ground you lot call a prison up here for a few months, then you would take me and my cute little brothers on a nice tropical cruise, three months all expenses paid!”

At this, Sloop avoided her gaze for a moment, rolling his eyes around as he cluttered for a few moments. Then he blinked and returned her gaze. “Well, this isn’t exactly the best time for that. This is the boat’s first voyage and it’s really not supplied for pleasure. I’d intended for it to be a business venture so I could actually pay for some expenses. Besides, we’re not even supplied to stay out for a week to make room in the cargo hold!”

Crazy Jane just nonchalantly waved her hand by the wrist. “Oh… It doesn’t have to be for three months straight! I’m fine with getting my dues cumulatively, even intermittently!” She then abruptly turned around and pulled down her sunglasses to look at the youth at the back of the line. “Those are some pretty definitive words, ones you’d find in written agreements and contracts! You better remember them, Roux!” The youth didn’t change his expression, but made an acknowledging if not annoyed utterance.

Crazy Jane then replaced her sunglasses and turned back forward, pushing past Sloop to make her way up the gangplank with Joe and Roux following up. At that sight, Sloop sighed and turned his gaze downward before replacing his hat back on his head, to Rarity’s relief being completely unharmed. “At this rate, I may as well have this thing registered as a passenger vessel…” Miss June perked up at that and with a wave produced a large pane of glass and numerous chip-sized ones below it. However, as Sloop ascended the gangplank, he raised an arm with an upward-pointing finger. “Jo-king Miss June!” Miss June dispersed her archival construct with a snap of the fingers and awkwardly turned her gaze away, the cutie mark crusaders giggling at that humorous display.

Author's Note

Same as before, one chapter a week from this point, then a hiatus to start writing the next story arc.

Island Adventure a Go Go: Part 1

Author's Note

Sorry for the late publication/post. My insomnia's gotten into a bad state again, and once I get into an unwanted rhythm, there's no telling when or how it'll go away.

Island Adventure a Go Go: Part 1

Applebloom licked the scarlet juices from around her lips. “This one tastes like grape jelly, but it’s got a texture like a marshmallow!”

Scootaloo took a bite and made a Mmm! Sound before leaping upward and hovering for a second and a half. “That one tasted sweet, tangy, spicey, and a bit dry all at once despite being so juicy!”

Sweetie Belle floated a whole bunch in her mouth and chewed for a moment. “Zhiss uhn taes like hauw I thing saffirrz taes fer drwagunz!”

While she was carefully floating a fresh piece of fruit in a crate after tossing three rotten ones in their pile, Rarity’s eyes went wide and she pointed a hoof at her sister with a furrowed brow. “What have I told you about talking with your mouth full?”

Sweetie Belle rolled her eyes and gulped. “I think after about five-hundred times of saying the same thing over and over, you just told me that I could do it all I wanted if I just didn’t do it around you.”

At that, Rarity made a deliberate, self-satisfied nod. “Ex-actly!” Applejack, carrying a basket of freshly-bucked fruit on her back, rolled her eyes and gave a glance at Percival going the other way with an empty basket, the both of them sharing a giggle. Meanwhile, Sloop wheeled some full and marked crates on a hand truck up a wider, longer gangplank on the island’s beach up to the deck and towards the open hatch in the back leading directly to the cargo hold. Sloop got a catcall out of Crazy Jane as he passed her and her lounge chair sitting on the deck at the bow, then she extended her arm to the edge of the bow and rattled the ice at Miss June. After capturing some images of some new types of fruit and logging the fillies’ takes on their tastes and textures, Miss June sighed and banished her archival construct before marching back into the cabin to get her another cola out of the cooler in the pantry.

Just over an hour later, everybody was back in the cabin with the equipment stored back in the hold. Sloop, at the internal helm behind the paned windows with the more elaborate controls and meters, flipped a few switches. With a hard but slow pull on a big lever, he brought up the anchor and shoved off, getting some momentum accelerating parallel to the coast before making a big but gentle turn back towards open sea. Checking a smaller chart of the local area, he corrected his course and adjusted his speed, then threw a switch to lock the heading in and turned back to descend the ladder down to the cabin proper.

The crew and passengers lie either sitting on the sea-green padded seats against the long pear-white walls of the room or on the floor between, lined with solid-blue waterproof carpeting with a pale-yellow design in the center: A spoked tiller with the design of a compass in the inner ring and a line stretching below before expanding into the curving hooks of an anchor. The portholes lined up above provided light for the various activities each person aboard adopted.

Rarity was using a set of implements to clean the sand from her hooves while Applejack was using an abacus and pencil in her jaws likely to tally the expenses for her percentage for her labor, Percival in her form looking over the documents to proofread. Crazy Joe was using a whetstone to maintain the spikes on his unnatuned meteor hammer while his elder sister sat bored, her sunglasses on her forehead as she read a magazine.

After putting away a board game upon deciding they couldn’t agree on which pieces went where after the swaying of the boat tipped them off, the Cutie Mark Crusaders laughed as they played what was no doubt an advanced-level game of jacks provided by the present conditions. Roux sat on the other side practicing his yo-yo with a sour expression. After Scootaloo failed to coax him to join the other youths, Sweetie Belle had absentmindedly called him Crazy Roux, only for him to snarl at her and roughly utter “IT’S. JUST. ROUX.” Thankfully, Apple Bloom deescalated that debacle and both parties quickly agreed to leave one-another alone.

Sloop took point and got everybody’s attention with a single clap of his hands, then eagerly rubbed them together. “Ladies and gentlemen, It pleases me to say for more reasons than one that our expedition has proven very fruitful!”

He made a short laugh at his own joke, followed by a giggle from Percival and an eye rolling from his current twin. “We’ve managed to save room in the cargo hold by storing only three crates of any specific species of fruit we’ve found, and thanks to our unexpected team of taste testers, we’ve loaded up on five crates of any species that stands out from the rest!

“I feel I should reiterate that our end-goal isn’t to build up a bulk supply, but rather introduce a sampling to build up a demand for a clientele that’ll pay for contracts for bulk supply! In turn, this should attract investments in futures to pay for infrastructure for shipping and cultivating! And I want to assure all parties that any of you who assist in this preparatory endeavor shall receive shares in addition to their percentages expected to grow manyfold over time!”

At that, Applejack rapidly began doing some more numbers to account for this, while the Cutie Mark Crusaders made exaggerated looks of incomprehension at one-another before giggling. Crazy Joe turned to look at his sister, who made an indifferent expression and a dismissive hand waving before returning to her magazine.

With an enthusiastic nod, Sloop decided to continue his speech in his boardroom voice regardless of a lack of expected input. “We should make it to the next island by sunset, where we’ll make camp for the night before resuming work bright and early. Halfway to evening from there, we’ll start sailing back to Silver Shoals and repeat the process on another island before heading homeward in earnest. So if anyone would like to go back up on deck for the view, I’d suggest you take the opportunity now! I myself will be at the bow to get a feel for the wind and waves before manning the external helm. Remember the third law of the sea: Use the Buddy System! Never go to any remote point on a boat alone!”

About an hour later, Sloop was leaning against the port bow gunwale. The smile he was wearing for such a long time was gone as he gazed out into the distance with a look of deep contemplation. He was so deep in thought that he didn’t even notice the rather large figure come up behind him until they were already facing them leaning on the stern bow gunwale. “Hey…”

Sloop flinched, then briefly shook his head before adopting a more confident posture and expression, leaning back on the gunwale with an extended elbow. “Miss Jane! I didn’t even see you there!”

Crazy Jane made a relaxed chuckle at that routine. “Oh, drop the act, Navy Boy! You ain’t foolin’ anyone here!”

Sloop just silently held his posture and expression for an uncomfortable few moments, then he sighed and went back to his natural manner. “Was it really that obvious?”

Crazy Jane made a nonchalant laugh and waved her hand dismissively. “Of course not! But you can’t beat my woman's intuition!” Then she turned to place both hands on the gunwale but turned her head to keep looking at Sloop. “But even I’m not impertinent enough to tell you to just drop it and be real from here on.”

Sloop lowered his head, but turned it to Crazy Jane and gave her a more relaxed and sentimental smile. “I suppose I don’t need to mention how I’ve pretty much been doing that my whole life as the first son of a proud but decadent family of aristocrats?”

“Family, huh? I admit that I had to become the person I am now having to raise my younger brothers at least somewhat. But I definitely think that I would have become as tough and sharp as I am regardless.”

“I’ve stopped thinking of it as pretending or faking a long time ago. ‘Fake it until you make it’ definitely has some negatives attached to it, but people generally desire to change for the better. Nobody wants to think about how to do just that, because it definitely isn’t an inevitability even with believing it's possible. If you try to be the person you want to be for the genuine sake of self-betterment, you can become that person from the inside-out.”

Crazy Jane then gazed out into the sea with her own sentimental look. “Elemental spiritualism, now? Become the vessel and then become? ‘Water is the element of change. It can take any shape and reach any destination with the slightest of ease. If poured into a vessel, it becomes the same shape as the vessel. If it meets an obstacle, it takes the path of least resistance, either circumventing it or wearing it down over time to go through.’ You really are Kris’s brother. Your strength is his strength, and your trials are his trials.”

That speech gave Sloop a tremendous wave of sentiment. He stared out into the horizon, lost in nostalgia. He thought about how Master Noxus strove to make all of them feel as not special as possible, and how he didn’t come to appreciate that until a very, very long time later. But he began to understand early on as he picked up on the strain of the burden of all those compliments and praise placed upon one of his closest friends.

Sloop sighed again, then craned his neck upwards to the bright blue sky. “She never even tried to pretend. But she didn’t let things like perfection and greatness tie her down either. Nothing could ever slow her down. How did she literally do it all without losing the wind in her sails?”

Suddenly, Sloop’s eyes went wide and he straightened his posture. He started sniffing the air, swinging his head hither and about with deep nasal inhalations. At that display, Crazy Jane turned back towards him with a raised eyebrow. “What’re you doing now? Did you catch the scent of more fruit in the wind?”

Sloop closed his eyes with his nose held high for one last deep inhalation. Then he looked directly at Crazy Jane. “I don’t know. But something’s different now. Very different. Can you go into the cabin and tell Percival to release the control lock?”

Crazy Jane stopped leaning on the gunwale and turned around. “Well… Aye aye Captain, I guess.” She strode back into the open hatch to the cabin.

After climbing into the external helm on top of the cabin, Sloop was dreading the fact that his worries were not unfounded. The waves had quickly become much more choppy and tumultuous. The wind had also picked up much more noticeably, requiring him to take off his hat and tuck it inside his jacket. However, he didn’t accept the fact that they were in trouble until the clouds started rolling in. Like an oil stain on a white sheet, they seemed to fluidly yet quickly creep out and amass from beyond the horizon. Sloop quickly took his hat out of his jacket to keep the rain out of his eyes, clamping it on his head with a free hand.

Taking a few brief moments to make a full three hundred and sixty degree look at the surrounding ocean, he heaved on the helm and attempted to sail directly into the direction of the waves. Though the boat didn’t lean to the side nearly as much, every lift against the hill-like waves ended in a crashing fall back against the surface of the sea that Sloop felt in every bone in his body.

Tightly shutting his eyes for a moment upon realizing what he had to do, he flipped open the speaking tube to the side of the helm. “Percival! Tell everybody to get their life vests on! Then come out on deck with Rarity and Applejack in your battle form!”

Percival quickly cranked the hatch shut once he and the requested ponies made it out on deck. The vested mares and amorphous Percival raced back on the open bowside deck looking up expectantly at their captain, Applejack holding onto her hat with a hoof and Rarity bracing against the extra drag her mane and tail put on her in the wind.

Sloop tucked his hat back in his coat to gesture at the trio and shouted as loud as he could against the howling wind and pouring rain. “DUMP THE CARGO OVERBOARD! DON’T KEEP THE HATCH OPEN FOR LONGER THAN YOU HAVE TO!”

At first, Applejack doubted her ears heard amid the storm. “WHAT IN TARNATION? WE NEED ALL THAT, OR ALL OUR HARD WORK WILL BE FOR NOTHIN’!”

Sloop shook his head as vigorously as he could with accompanying gestures. “WE HAVE TO SLOW THE BOAT DOWN OR WE’LL CAPSIZE! WE CAN’T DIVE OR THE CURRENTS WILL SMASH US AGAINST A ROCK OUTCROP! THE ONLY THING WE CAN DO TO SLOW DOWN IS TO KILL OUR MOMENTUM! THE CONTROLS WON’T HELP US, THE ONLY WAY TO SLOW DOWN IS TO LIGHTEN THE LOAD!”

Seeing what she did in Sloop’s expression, Rarity suddenly narrowed her brow and raced to the stern side deck along with Percival and a now only half-reluctant Applejack. She shot a beam of magic and erected an elegant semi-transparent awning tied firmly down on the surrounding cleats over the cargo hatch, then the trio raced down into the opening.

Rarity came out floating four crates of fruit and released her magic to lob them over the edge before turning back. Next, Percival came up carrying one crate in each of the six arms he formed and with a full-body lashing motion flung them into the drink. After he went back in, Applejack came sternside with three crates on her back and with a spring flung them up to kick them all overboard in rapid sequence.

Slowly, Sloop could feel the boat’s movements ease ever so. Even after being lifted on top of an oncoming swell, she managed to slide much more gently back to a level position rather than be flung up and smack down like before.

Right when Sloop was starting to feel at ease, he felt something else in the atmosphere. Suddenly, the wind shifted, pulling everything in the same direction with a slight upward draft. Then, he saw it in the distance: A dark spot on the water’s surface with bands of dark water and white foamy spray. As time went on, the motions started throwing a spray of the sea water outward. Finally, he saw it come down from above: A funnel cloud began descending as if the sky itself were taking a curious poke at the very surface of the world.

Moments after it touched down, the waterspout whipped up the wind and waves to a whole new magnitude. Sloop could barely keep himself secured to his position, much less steer the boat to safety. Meanwhile, after ejecting some of the last of the fruit, Rarity found herself flung outward along with her crate. Applejack sprung to grab her tail in her own jaws, but the wind carried her even further outward towards the water. Percival lashed himself hooking and looping through the drainage grate on the amidship side of the gunwale, then stretched his other arm to grab onto Applejack to keep them all secure.

As a last resort, Sloop hit his palm against the metal ring encircling him and cried out. “North!” But before he could cast the complimentary aura effect on himself, a lightning bolt came down and forked in two, furiously shocking both Sloop and the now lightning rod-like Percival. Both pairs of warriors and mares were left paralyzed and sent out of sorts as they lost their grip on the boat, cast out into the dark briny deep while leaving the passengers in the cabin at the mercy of the wind and waves.

Island Adventure a Go Go: Part 2

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Island Adventure a Go Go: Part 3

By the time they’d managed to catch up to Gyre she was already waiting for them at the top of a hill above the incline leading into the woods. An exasperated Sloop stepped forward. “I thought you said your house was by the water?”

Gyre appeared to be taking some kind of measurement with one closed eye, pointing a palm forward on an extending arm. “Yes, I did say that my house was by water.”

“So… Why did you rush all the way back here then, Gyre?”

Gyre rolled her eyes and made a gesture in an arc following the slope in the land. “Because this is the best way to my house!”

Sloop, dumbfounded, gestured back the way they came. “But the lake is that way! Lake. Water! Like you said!”

“Sure, my house is by the water, but you won’t get there by heading directly to the lake!”

Sloop paused for a moment, then attempted to convey his thoughts by moving an upturned hand held forward. “So… Is there another big source of freshwater away from the lake?”

Gyre shook her head with an amused grin. “No, silly! If you want to get to my house, you have to go towards the lake!”

Sloop tried to keep himself composed, but he began wringing his hands rather fast. “But… You lead us away from the lake, dear sister!”

“Well, how else are we supposed to get to the zone where my house is?”

“You keep using the word zone. Which zone do you mean? The north, south, east, or western zone of the lake?”

“None of those! We need to go to the zone where I built my house!”

That whole exchange made Applejack’s head spin. She tightly shut her eyes and held a hoof to her forehead. Rarity trotted up alongside her and giggled. “Reminds you of talking with Pinkie, doesn’t it?”

Applejack took a deep breath, then nodded back at her, smiling. She turned to Percival. “Was she like this when all y’all were younger?”

Percival held a finger to the lower part of his face for a moment. “Well… I probably shouldn’t toss around stereotypes and assumptions so much, but… Gyre and Sloop have always exemplified the natures of the Air and Water tribe respectively to us. Water is smart, methodical, and practical. Air is wise, intuitive, and conceptual.” Percival looked at Gyre at the apex of the slope. “Gyre has always been the type to mean what she says over saying what she means. Always relaxed when Sloop gets uptight. Nobody really seemed to understand her, but she never seemed to care about that, and she’s also been able to make sense of anything and find solutions that made all of us feel stupid over how obvious they were in hindsight.

“In fact, she didn’t even stay at Prancing Pony for long. She spent years bouncing from guild to guild, soaking up everything each of them had to offer and leaving for the next when she mastered everything. It wasn’t the most typical thing to do, but it definitely helped that her family status and ability to pay any fine or charge allowed her to live like that for so long. At the tail end, she settled on serving a full apprenticeship at the courier’s guild, but right when she was about to join as a full member, The Central Administration announced the abolishment of the guild system. After that, she just disappeared. Her family had magic in place that could tell she was still alive, but nothing could tell us where she was, exactly. And we weren’t sure if she was trapped somewhere or just didn’t want to come back.”

Sloop had given up on trying to make sense of what his elder sister was saying and just opted to let her show than tell like he used to. After finding contentment with whatever measurements she was taking, she licked a finger and held it upward. She brought both palms together, appearing to center herself. Suddenly, she just hopped forward into open air and with a flick, the heels on her boots flipped back on an elaborate hinge mechanism that even Rarity could’t find a reason for.

Amid her hangtime, a pair of ring-like wheels of solid cyan light with four broad spikes each appeared floating in the diagonal gap between her arch and heel. She hit the slope once gravity reasserted itself and she started rolling, rapidly accelerating forward, dashing off past Sloop who barely evaded his sister’s charge.

When Gyre disappeared back into the woods, Sloop did an about-face, taking off after her tailwind with a rough “Ohforgoodnessakesgyre!” Attempting to catch up by releasing a bright red arrow with an extending palm and flinging himself forward jumping into it. He took off with a rapid footfall upon meeting the ground. A nearly dumbstruck Applejack and Rarity galloped behind following, Percival morphing his lower body into a centaur-like structure to keep up.

Sloop managed to keep up close enough to keep Gyre in sight. When the sparkling lake started coming into view, he released another arrow and leaped into it for another dash to get to a closer position. However, once Gyre cleared the treeline, her body suddenly started trailing sparkles in her wake. He abruptly started doing the same once he passed the line. Before he knew it, Gyre vanished in a bright flash right before crossing into the water. Then, so did he.

Sloop didn’t know where he was. He just felt like he was hurtling, tumbling in inconceivable directions all at once at impossible speeds. All he could see was a swirling, glimmering void of infinite lights. And for some reason, a school of fish passed by that somehow shifted into a flock of birds and back again, over and over.

After what felt like an eternity of this, the next thing he knew, Sloop found himself plopped face down into the grassy ground barely five seconds later. His head finally clearing after the brief rest his state provided, he raised his face, starting a groan, then paused it as his eyes went wide at the sight before them. He smoothly got up standing and swept his gaze all around him, each sight leaving him more and more confused. He scratched his head and raised his brow in an uncertain expression. “Gyre…? Gyre…? Where are you? More importantly, where am I?”

“I told you, this is the zone where I built my house!” Sloop jumped back, hollering. Like she used to do a lot when they were younger, his sister literally dropped in from above before answering his call for her.

Sloop quickly recomposed himself, again. Correcting the position his hat sat on his head. “Zone, nothing! Are we even on the same island?” Sparing another moment to look around, Sloop could still hardly believe his own eyes.

They appeared to be in the middle of a giant islet inside of a colossal body of water. Theirs wasn’t the only one, the whole place was dotted with islands rising high up like sea stacks. Each one had multiple layers of plateaus big and small forming surfaces and paths for bright green vegetation like grass, tropical ferns, and palm trees. Many were connected by bridges of geologically-formed terrain, other empty spaces and many small lakes at the bottom of various waterfalls seemed to have their gaps exceeded by numerous log bridges. Surrounding this body of water were cliffs that stretched even higher into the sky dotted with waterfalls above pouring into the lake and big trees growing out of the side of the sheer slopes below.

Gyre looked away thinking, holding her hand to her chin. “Hm… We must be! I’ve always been able to go back to the main island from this zone and do the same back and forth in the other zones!”

Sloop gaped at that for a moment. “You mean…” He winced, motioning all around. “...there’s MORE places like this on this demented island?”

Gyre made a big, bright grin at that and fervently nodded. Sloop paused for a moment, took a deep breath, and let out a groan, pinching at his face. Bringing his face back up, he pointed at his sister with a pair of fingers. “Okay… So if you’ve been living here and can navigate all that insanity easily enough, I assume you can tell me where you spotted Crazy Joe?” Suddenly, on a distant islet at the end of a chain of four, a huge, loud explosion went up; the bright, erupting flames going up and billowing at their peak in a mushroom cloud. Gyre turned back to look at Sloop, then casually pointed out at it. Sloop rolled his eyes, then they went wide. “Wait… I got here by accident chasing you! And… we left my other, highly capable friends behind! If we went back the way we came, could we-?” However, Gyre frowned at that and shook her head no, getting yet another groan out of her brother. “You know, if you would have said something…” Gyre’s eyes went wide at that, and she made a slight intake of breath, but at Sloop’s despondent grimace, she could only make a sympathetic smirk and shrugged.

Sloop tightened his expression and rolled his eyes. Then he straightened up, held face high for a moment, and summoned his arrowguns. He took off running, following the shortest path down the islet towards the way to the next one with Gyre running behind. The next one had a much more confusing topography with several possible routes, but with a bit of concentration, his compass element guided him down the one that would lead him to his destination the quickest. When Gyre saw this, her eyes went wide and she started shouting to get her brother’s attention. In his present state, Sloop couldn’t register his sister’s cries. He also didn’t notice some of the foliage to the side ahead of him start rustling as he approached, and something big dashed out charging and knocked him to the ground on collision.

His training kicking in, Sloop followed-through on his momentum to roll to his feet and stood up quickly, pointing his weapons at this assailant. However, even his focused brow raised at what he saw: It was a bug, a beetle. A ladybug specifically, and a big one at that. The apex of its shell would have been as tall as the top of the head of a standing dog, and Sloop did not like the way it snapped its mandibles at him.

The ladybug charged again. Sloop let loose a barrage of three bullets, but the ladybug made a sudden diagonal dart forward, avoiding Sloop’s initial attack. Once it got close, it made a lunging tackle at him, but Sloop dodged with a dash to the side and followed up with a quick point-blank hipshot, blasting the thing helplessly onto its back.

However, he tensed up when he heard another disturbance in the surrounding vegetation. Three more ladybugs scuttled into place, surrounding him in a triangular formation.

Sloop aimed and fired a shot diagonally. The bullet passed two of the ladybugs passing the empty gap between them. One of Sloop’s compass points appeared in a red flash and rebounded his shot, blasting into the side of one of them to flip it over like the other.

Sloop took off, taking advantage of this break in the enemy formation and turned to face both of his remaining enemies. Both ladybugs made a headlong charge towards him in a pincer formation. Sloop aimed with both arrowguns, twisting them to point both of their tops parallel as both began to glow. He let off a triple-size bullet flying towards the ladybug to his right, but as it made another diagonal charge, his big bullet hit another compass point he left near his previous spot in in the battlefield, bouncing it to hit the rear of the ladybug and sending it flying over the plateau behind him.

Getting an idea from that development, Sloop flicked one of his arms and erected an arrow of energy pointing upward, diagonally in his direction. He jumped into this emanation and was sent spinning in a backflip upward, landing at the high ground and pointing his weapons at the last interloper.

The last ladybug paused, as if sizing up the situation. Suddenly, it lifted its shell-like elytra and extended its membranous wings, taking off directly to Sloop. He let off three more shots that the big bug swayed on its course to avoid. When he finally had the creature dead in his sights, he squeezed the handle of his weapon to find that he was out of bullets, only suddenly remembering the one he left as the keystone to sustain his rune array back at the beach.

Right when Sloop could hear the snapping of the giant ladybug’s mandibles as they flew right for his throat, the creature was sent tumbling down as something hit it hard in the side. Sloop looked in the direction the projectile flew back and saw it return to the raised foot of Gyre, stopping to reveal that his sister’s energy spur had turned a darker solid blue as well as changed shape, becoming thinner and more tapered as the spikes inverted their position into four curving spokes meeting in the center of the circle the wheel made.

Carefully descending his platform with the aid of his elemental magic, Sloop made his way back to congratulate his sister. “Your wheel element came to my rescue again, Gyre. First time in a long time, but welcome nonetheless!” Gyre grinned and blushed, scratching the back of her head. Sloop gestured in the direction of their destination. “So… I take it there’s more where that came from, right?” Gyre gave a sympathetic look and nodded with a smile. Sloop nodded with a determined expression and gestured to the path ahead. “Alright! Lead on, sis!” He re-materialized his arrowguns, furrowing his brow in concentration as they reloaded in a pair of flashes. “Just let me know if you need any obstacles cleared!”

With the elder leading the way, the Masters siblings proceeded onward. In spite of taking a longer series of paths, Sloop now had the forbearance to appreciate Gyre’s firsthand experience with this familiar-looking yet totally alien landscape to lead him away from any more hidden perils. Suddenly, Gyre held up a hand signaling Sloop to stop as they came to a rope bridge stretching over a pond, a sign that this may be a very visible peril they must face.

Gyre made a series of gestures that likely only someone with Sloop’s degree of familiarity could decipher, getting the point to prepare some magical defenses. He deliberately swept his weapon-carrying hands across the outer part of his forearms for a moment. Giving another determined nod to Gyre, she turned back and proceeded at a slow, deliberate pace across the bridge followed in turn by Sloop.

Once they were halfway across, Sloop barely had half a second to register disturbances in the water on either side of them before the things under the surface leaped out at them. Sloop raised his forearms and sent them flying back where they came, short-bodied fish as big as the ladybugs before with huge mouths full of razor-sharp teeth. Gyre, meanwhile, leaned out of the way of each oncoming charge with grace that could have only come from anticipation provided by extensive firsthand experience.

Coming up onto the third island in the chain, they approached a steep valley running horizontally down the center between the different leveled plateaus, the only way across a narrow land bridge with a rocky underside. However, scuttling in sideways, a giant crab barred their way, snapping its raised claws at them. It was a bit taller than the ladybugs and counting the points its legs touched the ground would have been as wide as three of them side-by-side.

Sloop immediately struck a stance, aimed, and let loose a clip-emptying barrage at this new obstruction. The crab merely braced itself, holding its claws in as each of Sloop’s shots ricocheted off its sturdy shell, Sloop flinching when one was sent in their direction. After reloading, he lowered his weapons and turned to Gyre, who turned her head to him. “This one’s really sturdy. It won’t move to attack once it stands its ground, but it needs a really heavy blow to bring it down.”

Sloop made a confident smirk, raising one of his arrowguns pointing upward. “I would say that heavy blows are your department, but we both know that you’re practically a department store by yourself! Now, if only someone with good taste could do the decorating…”

Gyre giggled at her little brother’s clever joke, then turned back to the big, snapping crab. Hardly adjusting her already perfect posture, she held a hand forward and in it appeared one of the hinged handles on her very distinctive weapon in a flash of a warm-colored light.

Sloop knew that Gyre’s weapon was classified as a focus like Percival’s: A nonspecific object the user exerted an influence over either through a built-in enchantment or the object falling under the domain of their magic. Gyre’s was the latter, but he was still shocked to see it as the day she pulled it out of the pile of garbage they passed on one of their family’s outings and added the metal leafs and thin, ring-like handles herself. He was simultaneously as amazed as the day she’d made it her own after it turned red orange.

Gyre hefted to her side the spoked wagon wheel as tall as the length between her knees and shoulders and noticeably broader than the length between said shoulders with the slightest of ease, making a big, innocent, wide-eyed smile. Gyre got a running start, swinging her weapon to grasp it in the other handle before making a single twirl. The crab braced itself, but could do nothing as Gyre released one of her grips to send the weapon swinging outward with another twirl, crashing into the big critter and sending it flying into the crevice below.

Sloop and Gyre went to the edge and peered down. The crab struggled on its backside for a moment, but its legs found some purchase and it flipped itself back up. It shook the mud off itself, then it scuttled sideways down the length of the valley.

Crossing the land bridge into the second half of the island, they came to a curving stretch of flat, wide land leading to a beach stretching into the shallow water leading to their final destination. Gyre stopped Sloop yet again, swinging her head around, and cupping her ear pointing upward. Moments later, Sloop could hear it too. A low, continuous buzzing. Zooming from beyond the raised plateaus at both ends of the land, a swarm of nine giant, narrow-bodied insects swooped in hovering above them. Judging from their characteristics, Sloop could tell that they were the mud dauber species of wasps, each of them even carrying clumps of dirt clinging to the lower half of their abdomens.

Suddenly, both Sloop and Gyre were sent dashing back as three of them abruptly flung large clumps of mud at them. At the spots where they hit the ground, the mud started giving off fumes and a patch of surrounding grass darkened and withered.

Normally, Sloop would take charge of this encounter, but he knew that Gyre had both the skills and know-how to meet it as well. He watched as his sister raised her foot yet again, a white ring of light forming against her heel turning yellow this time, morphing into a circle of six smaller circles with a gap in the middle. With a series of almost jab-like recoils, she let fly a barrage of six bullets of magic from this emanation. As they approached the wasps, they suddenly began to spread as if losing accuracy. Reflex took hold of the wasps regardless as they veered far out of the way of the geometric line the scattering cluster of projectiles made, but two of them took a direct hit and fell down to earth, their legs and antennae twitching.

Sloop made his move and raised his arrowguns to let fly a barrage of his own, but like the previous encounter, his sister’s attack proved far more effective in comparison as all the wasps he was aiming at deftly maneuvered to avoid each of his shots.

Sloop let out an annoyed groan after reloading his weapons. He started the maneuver to combine and transform them, but Gyre paused him with a touch to the shoulder. Sloop looked into his sister’s wide, honest eyes. “Are you making the thing you used to make that big signal at the beach?”

Sloop raised an eyebrow at this prompt. “Yes…? Why do you ask?”

Gyre paused for a moment, her eyes trailing off as she attempted to put her very abstract thoughts together into something to express with words. “Why did you have to transform your weapon to do that?”

Sloop paused in a more awkward manner, but decided to humor his quirky but dependable sister. “Well… That way it's more like a bowgun, the technical predecessor to these things. A weapon that allows you to exert an influence over the payload of your magic projectiles. I can also use it to let off a rapid-fire that splits one bullet into a burst of ten.”

Gyre raised a finger to one of his twin weapons’ current form. “Then why didn’t you use that for that bigger bullet you used on the ladybug?”

At that, Sloop’s eyes raised at a line of thinking even he hardly considered. “Uh… Arroguns are less specialized that way.” He raised one to point one barrel at the other’s body. “This model is specifically configured to exert more of an influence over the bullets themselves rather than the payload, like letting me pack multiple into a bigger one. These ones are a bit more agile for me than the bowgun as my weapon’s base form, just been using them for longer.”

Gyre gestured back to the flying wasps waving her open hand, the bugs pausing to betray their wariness of them. “Well, how is that influence any different from the influence of those emanations you leave behind when you move to a new position, then?” Sloop rolled his eyes and opened his mouth to give his reply, but as he looked over the words he was about to speak in his head, his brow raised as he slowly closed his mouth.

Gyre backed off as Sloop raised his weapons again with a new look of determination. He pointed them upward, pausing seemingly to twist them with his wrist as he aimed with one shut eye. Taking a breath, he focused on one wasp, but relaxed an arm and let an arrow gun droop. With a shout, he swung his weapon in an arc and let the bullet fly. Initially, the bullet took a normal, linear path that the bug anticipated and darted sideways to avoid. Then, the bullet made a sudden, dramatic curve, colliding with its target thanks to this new trajectory and sending it to the ground.

Sloop gave a confident smile before crying out and swinging out his arms to make a series of regular gyrations, letting each bullet in both clips fly out at specific points in the circles the weapons traced in the air. The wasps darted around, making a precise series of motions as they sensed and anticipated the trajectory of each new projectile, but they started falling one by one as each bullet deviated from its course, curving to hit their evasive targets. The ones that didn’t hit forced some of the wasps into the path of others before they could adapt to this new onslaught.

Once all the wasps were on the ground, Sloop pointed his weapons upward with arched elbows and opened his hands as they disappeared, taking one final breath. He turned his head to his grinning sister, who dashed towards him. Sloop met her charge and they converged with a high-five.

After their laughter died off, both of them took a moment to steel themselves. They faced forward and proceeded onto the final island where neither of them had any idea what could possibly be waiting for them.

Island Adventure a Go Go: Part 4

From behind the big rock, Gyre mournfully gazed at the hut she’d tenderly built and humbly lived in for so long atop its hill. Sloop found his determined gaze was occupied by the really large form of Crazy Joe standing in the middle of the open plateau whose terrain was seared black and pitted with craters by its own occupant. What was putting Sloop off was the way Crazy Joe was standing. He couldn’t find the words, but he could just tell there was something off about his acquaintance presently.

Sloop rematerialized one of his arrowguns and aimed it pointing at Crazy Joe’s head. When Gyre took notice, she gave Sloop a shocked expression and was about to say something, but when she looked into Sloop’s eyes when he turned to her, she remained silent and turned to look at his target.

Sloop, willing a great speed into his stun-set bullet, squeezed his handle just right and let it fly, near-immediately hitting Crazy Joe in the temple. He was sent stumbling, but he quickly righted his footing. Crazy Joe turned his masked face in the direction of this attack and extended an upturned hand for a bright red energy bomb to appear. Sloop and Gyre split up, running as the lobbed spell blasted their cover to pieces.

Sloop strafed, firing off five more shots: Three straight-on, two curving to his side. However, Crazy Joe barely reacted as he seemed to absorb the attacks with his own body. He retaliated by swinging his spiked wrecking ball in three horizontal arcs, Sloop evading each with a simple backstep. Crazy Joe finished up this onslaught by quickly lobbing an energy mass to Sloop, who evaded the short blast radius with a jump to the side.

At that development, Sloop got curious. He made another charge to Crazy Joe but this time didn’t attack. Crazy Joe retaliated the same exact way as before: Three horizontal wrecking ball swings, one quickly lobbed energy bomb. Sloop evaded as previously.

Sloop dematerialized his depleted arrowgun and swung his free arm in an upward arc, creating a flat, bright red arrow on the ground before him. Running into it, he was sent rocketing forward at an enhanced pace. Crazy Joe couldn’t do anything as Sloop passed him, but Sloop took this opportunity to get a really good look at his acquaitence’s face. Sloop suddenly got a shocked look that he carried to an equal distance he started at on the other side of the plateau.

Sloop turned around, pointing his arrowgun in a faint hope that it would deter an attack, but unsure considering what he could glean from Crazy Joe’s present state. What he saw was that Crazy Joe’s eyes were glowing with a pale, yellowish light with an unresponsive expression. What’s more, there was a mass of crystal sticking out of the side of his head, tan brown with a darker shade of the same color within, the whole thing glowing with magic.

Sloop turned to look at Gyre as she rolled in, coming to a stop next to her brother. Sloop pointed at his impromptu companion. “I think I figured out what’s wrong. Looks like he’s under some kind of mind control effect. It’s gotta be powerful to enslave someone like him, but it seems that all it has left is to force him to follow a simple, reactive attack pattern. I think it’s caused by some crystals attached to his head.”

Gyre’s eyes went wide at that. “Crystals?” She looked away for a moment, putting a curled finger to her chin. “Now that you mention it, I’ve always found all kinds of crystals that gave me weird vibes in the right places to look on this island. I’ve never tried to use them, but I guess this is proof some of them can go as far as to control your mind.” Sloop understood, unphased by this confession. Someone like Gyre wouldn’t need any more magic than they have to thrive just about anywhere, so she wouldn’t take a risk going looking for magic she didn’t fully understand.

Their attention immediately snapped back to Crazy Joe at the sound of a bloodcurdling roar. His body spasmed and twitched, flexing in several odd angles for a moment. Then he started whirling around his wrecking ball, flinging around it to slam into the ground while also flinging exploding energy masses haphazardly in all directions.

Sloop’s eagle eye zeroed in on what he knew to look at, and he saw that the light in the crystal on Crazy Joe’s head had grown dimmer while in this state. Once his sudden rage had left him winded, the crystal mass on his head brightened up again, and he assumed his previous neutral posture from before. Sloop snapped his fingers and pointed. “So THAT’S why Crazy Joe was acting crazier than normal around you! He’s fighting whatever’s controlling him! So he’s gotta be still in there!”

“So, do you think we should capture him?”

“Hm… I don’t think we should be so direct about it. If he has an episode trying to regain control while we’re trying to bind him, he could seriously hurt himself and us while we’re in a pretty awkward position. We’ve got to take him down first! He’s tough, he can recover from anything we hit him with, and I’ve got a plan to hit him good and hard enough to free him!”

Sloop quickly tried to get his idea across. Gyre’s expression betrayed absolutely nothing, but he knew she could follow through on whatever he needed.

Gyre re-materialized her weapon. Then with a surprising ease, she lifted it over her head as it made a slight but noticeable transformation. The wheel split in half, becoming two thinner wheels separated by a short axle extending horizontally from the hub of the now two sets of spokes. Then, it started making a noise that quickly became a roar as the upper part started spinning. Now hanging from the handles, Gyre took to the air using what could only be a very intuitive kind of magic that she could only ever say “Felt right enough”.

When Gyre was in position about five or four and a half stories up, she extended a foot and summoned a new solid green energy wheel. The four spokes lengthening to the size of her foot as they took a structure fanning wider as they met the wheel rim. Which itself grew broad enough to serve as an effective shield covering her whole body from whatever angle she pointed it at, which was presently straight down.

At the same time: Sloop materialized his arrowguns and combined them, this time in their composite bow form. He knocked an arrow and chanted to send his rune arrays down the shaft to the arrowhead, this time in another configuration. The eight red runes formed a cross shape extending directly from the arrowhead while the eight blue ones filled up the gap between the red ones to make a circle, all together looking like a crosshair.

Sloop raised his bow, aiming at his sister’s barrier and let the arrow fly, taking with it the blue part of the array to mark Gyre’s shield after the bullet disappeared on contact. Next he nocked another one of his bullets with the remaining half of the array moving to affix to it from the riser as it extended to become the arrowhead. He aimed right at Crazy Joe and let it fly. After a brief pause for the arrow to vanish and the array to fully attach, Crazy Joe himself vanished and instantly reappeared with the center of the half of the array at the same spot the other half sticking to Gyre’s shield high above was. Both halves of the arrays vanishing upon their predetermined function being fulfilled, Crazy Joe dropped. Falling one, two, three, four stories, then Wham! Right on the ground. Whatever controlled him was insufficient to force him to ignore this hit.

Sloop took his chance to race over to one of the people he was responsible for as captain of the whole voyage. He bent down, taking a close look at the crystals extending forward in a point emerging above his closed eyes. He took a second to check and found that Crazy Joe was still breathing, frighteningly easily considering the fall the bomb elemental had. But regardless, Sloop rematerialized one of his arrowguns and swung it down to the crystal, one half breaking off with one hit with the handle and the rest coming loose with another.

Following protocol (taught to him by Boros Noxus), Sloop gave Crazy Joe’s face a good smack to coax him awake, yelping at the pain of hitting the metal mask over his mouth and nose, which now that he noticed was on nice and tight despite all the punishment he sustained and must have undoubtedly received on his way to this very location. Nonetheless, Crazy Joe let out a moan and began to stir. He sat up and opened his eyes, which rolled around pointing in different directions for a moment before the bomb elemental whacked himself upside the head with a fist (a tip given to him by Boros Noxus). With a final shake, he looked around with a confused expression, then flinched a bit when he saw Sloop so close.

Sloop awkwardly coughed into his fist. “Look, I know you might be really confused right now on account of still getting over an ol’ brain bleaching, but you’ve gotta tell me how you wound up here! And if you can, tell me where the others are!”

Crazy Joe paused for a moment, eyes trailing off in concentration as he rubbed the lower part of his mask. He turned back to Sloop and began a very elaborate series of his typical yet completely inscrutable grunts and mumblings, adding color with a few gestures with his free hand and moving his head while changing his expression to match whatever he may have been trying to describe. Sloop wasn’t the only one who thought that Crazy Joe did this because he thought it made him seem cool, but once a human like him commits to such a thing, there isn’t much anyone can do about it.

“He says that it was a few hours into the storm before they all realized that there was nobody at the helm. His sister tried to take the wheel herself, but even if she knew how to operate the controls, she couldn’t see where to steer. Then, everything started spinning and they felt like they were being thrown somewhere through the air. After a while, they came to a crashing halt and everything was quiet. When they thought they were safe, he, his sister, and someone named June went up on deck to investigate. The boat looked like it was caught in a crevice between some rocks, but all they could see was a bunch of fog and a ton of stars shining above in the night sky. Then, they must have upset something delicate by all going to the bow at once because the three of them were sent tumbling as it abruptly tilted downward. All he can remember from there is everything going dark as he fell into a big hole in the ground. He’s got no clue how long it's been, how he got here, or why he’s so sore.”

Both Sloop and Crazy Joe were stuck dumb as Gyre slowly descended to the ground while perfectly interpreting the story, Crazy Joe somehow even more shocked than Sloop at the latter. Dematerializing her weapon upon touching down, she stood silently for a few awkward moments.

Sloop jabbered for a moment, then cleared his throat holding his hand out to her. “Uh… Crazy Joe, I’d like you to meet my long-lost older sister, Gyre Masters. As far as any of us could tell, she’s just been up here on the surface for the last… Ten years… On this very island… That all of us somehow… Wound up on…”

Doubletaking between Sloop and Gyre a few times, Crazy Joe gave Sloop what he could swear was a look of sympathy and laid a hand on his shoulder for a moment. Sloop awkwardly averted his gaze and patted Crazy Joe’s hand a few times before lifting it off. “Yeah… Well… Gyre here is our only hope of surviving, finding everyone, and getting off of this screwy island! So we’ve got to follow her lead back to the others and the base camp we set up!”

At that, Crazy Joe nodded and made an affirmative-sounding grunt. Gyre and Sloop helped the really big warrior up, then Gyre stepped back and took a look upward holding her palm to the sun, giving it careful looks with squinting eyes as she extended and closed her fingers. Even Crazy Joe seemed weirded out by this display, but Sloop patted him on the arm, giving him an assured expression and holding a thumbs up. They both took off as Gyre suddenly dashed away, climbing up the slope to her hut.

***

“...and then Gyre let us take a generous share of supplies from her stores like food and containers for water we filled up at that crazy hilly zone, which is really fresh, surprisingly. Afterward, with Crazy Joe here doing most of the heavy lifting, we rigged up a complex structure combining all of our magics and rocketed everything through the entry point back where we left all of you!”

The story left all the listeners utterly aghast. Even Rarity couldn’t tell how inelegantly wide her mouth was with a fire-crisped root on a stick floating halfway to it, her focus trying to digest and unravel everything she’d just heard. After a brief silence, Applejack looked into the even darker shade of the foliage growing away from the beach, then forlornly gazed up at the starry night sky. “At least we have reason t’ believe Apple Bloom and the other young-uns are alright where they are. They should have enough water and victuals to last ‘em a month since we’re not there to have any.”

Percival nodded, pressing another berry to his mask-like face to have it bewilderingly absorbed into the mask-like shell. “Glad to hear some optimism based on fact. Even I can’t let myself be carried by a blind faith that all will be well.”

Finally regaining her senses, Rarity took a small bite from her toasted root and dabbed at her mouth with a clean palm leaf. “Hopefully, we won’t have to stay on this island for that long, dear. I’m thankful Naster Sloop here had such a fine boat built that could remain in-tact after so much punishment! If we can find it, we should be able to sail back home!”

Gesturing with a pointed finger from a half-eaten bun she made from crushed up acorns she took from the arboreal trees, Gyre gulped down her last bite from it. “Still, the real trouble would be finding them! At the speed the boat was flying, they could have popped into any random zone on this island! I can’t quite say with confidence that I’ve even begun to unravel the great mystery of this place!”

Sloop finished off a banana and added it to the pile of scraps they made to the side of their fire pit. “And it definitely doesn’t help that all the spatial anomalies creating the zones are messing with the abilities from my compass element! Wish I’d spent more time trying to learn more elaborate navigation and locating spells! The thing about the more primal and intuitive kind of elemental magic is that it’s hard to work with things that already have integral magic properties of their own, especially if it doesn’t fall into the exact domain of the element you have! It's why Kris doesn't like to use the Omega Weapon, his fighting style is all about primal and intuitive magic!”

Sloop fell quiet for a moment, holding his normally high head quite low. Crazy Joe, after slipping another strip of cooked seaweed into the air holes of his mask, laid a hand on his compatriat’s back. After mumbling a sincere sounding string of his usual nonsense, the group turned back to Gyre. “He said not to worry about that kind of thing! The life you chose to live means that billion to one flukes like this are going to happen nine times out of ten! But all they are is just an opportunity to overcome and get harder, faster, better, and stronger the only way facing confrontation can do!”

Sloop looked up at his cousin-in-arms. “That definitely sounds like something Master Noxus would say!”

Nearly an hour later, they decided to head to bed. Dousing the fire with some scoops of nearby sand after packing all their supplies and materials away, they made for the shelter, going on both sides of the privacy curtain Rarity and Percival wove from thinned wooden dowels. The next morning, after being coaxed awake by a still-on-farm-time Applejack, they spent a couple hours eating breakfast and the like, took care of some chores and tasks with Crazy Joe being surprisingly industrious and persistent with hand crafting some supplies. Then, they made their way up the sheer slope and took a different route through the grassy hills led by Gyre.

They came to some of the rocky foothills near the mountains. Passing these, they came to an expanse of natural hot springs, a long stretch of mostly even rocky land dotted by large pools of water that perfectly reflected the blue sky above. Each one letting off puffs of steam that drifted on the gentle breeze over the narrow, winding paths between each pool.

Rarity floated out what looked like a clam from a hoof-woven bag and opened it to reveal a reflective surface of polished mother of pearl. She quickly poked and prodded at her face, then moved to use her hoof to inspect her mane. “While I admit a good steam would do wonders for the havoc the all salty sea air and stress is wreaking on my features, I feel we should prioritize finding the other castaways and the boat!”

Gyre turned her head and gave Rarity a smile despite the issue she raised, pointing out towards the sheer slope of the distant mountain wall. “If Crazy Joe found some way to the lake and hills zone, there’s a good chance the other two who fell off the boat tumbled into zones all across the island! There are entrances here and there you can pop through if you’re going fast enough, but the one up ahead is the best way to one of the more… quirky zones! And the part you wind up in is the safest in that one in particular.”

Applejack tilted her head to her twin Percival as they poked her with a hoof to get her attention, spending an extended period transformed as such to recuperate from the strain from his battle form. “You better mind the fact that when Gyre uses the word ‘quirky’, you can bet your tail it’s definitely lethal and treacherous-like.”

Sloop peered ahead, noticing something carved into the rockface. A large archway with a pair of grooved columns and a floral pattern design on the side of the stone above stretching to connect them. He also noticed that on the ground level of the uncarved rock within, there were clusters of cracks across multiple depressions in the wall about as tall as Gyre. He gave his sister a cocky smirk and gestured at it with his thumb. “Did you have a little bit of trouble before you figured this one out, Sis?”

Gyre unexpectedly let out a loud laugh. But then crouched and made a more daring look that reminded all present of her brother. “Yeah…! It happens!” With a leap, she conjured her cyan energy spurs and accelerated downward, rolling from the crest of the foothill the group was standing on.

Transfixed, the group watched the wheel elemental as she deftly maneuvered throughout the narrow, winding, and scarce paths in the land. Not losing speed as she jumped from one level in the springs from the next, she began trailing sparkles like she did by the lake as she made a direct beeline to the archway. When a few among them turned away while peeking or covered their faces with eyes exposed, expecting her to slam into the wall of solid rock, she disappeared with another flash, two streaks of light leading to that point disappearing into a sparkling mist in the breeze.

Eyes wide and shining with a sudden onset of reverence, Crazy Joe walked over and picked up both Applejack and Rarity in his arms. Ignoring the protests from both, he leaped down into the expanse, then he abruptly furrowed his brow and crouched. His feet then started glowing, which was enough to quiet and still the strong-willed mares. Once the light receded and concentrated around the bottoms of his feet, Crazy Joe took off like a hundred-ton rocket-powered train.

Sloop and Percival marveled at the sight of the trails of rocket fire blasting from the bomb elemental’s heels each time he raised one of his rapidly moving feet. Unlike Gyre, Crazy Joe picked up more and more speed as he went further and further, eventually reaching a pace where he could cut through the pools without losing speed, leaving behind a length of wet land before the water rushed back into place.

At the same point as Gyre did, Crazy Joe started trailing sparks along with the ponies in his arms, their cheeks, manes, and eyelids flapping in the wind before they practically exploded right before hitting the wall in the arch, their flash several times as big as the already large human.

Looking at one-another for a moment, Sloop and earth pony-form Percival seemed to have come to a silent agreement. Percival narrowed his brow and jumped down first, then Sloop leaped and landed on his friend’s back. Rearing back and kicking the air for a moment, Percival took off. Along the path they tread, Sloop laid out bright red arrows with a bicycling series of flicks from his glowing hands, Percival gaining more speed as they hit each one with their hooves while keeping to the narrow path like a well-maintained monorail from back in Core Metro.

At the key point, they began trailing sparks too. Right when Percival was expecting a facefull of mountain, the both of them disappeared with a bright flash. The white light expanded before their eyes right before they tumbled into the nowhere zone between the island’s spatial anomalies

Island Adventure a Go Go: Part 5

Author's Note

Sorry, technical difficulties while making light edits across multiple chapters.

Island Adventure a Go Go: Part 5

After sniffing deeply for a moment, Applejack’s eyes widened, then she winced as she waved a hoof in front of her face. “Gol-ly Rarity! I know the fiasco from before was mighty shockin’ and all, but warn a downwind mare if you’re gonna just let one off like that!”

At that, Rarity peeled her eyes away from the intricate architecture from the hoof-carved stone all around them and gave Applejack a tight-lipped scowl. “What kind of lady do you take me for?” She made a much lighter series of sniffs compared to her friend's more snort-like inhalations, then cringed for a moment, shaking her head. “I’m afraid that’s a parfum I’m well-acquainted with from my occasional foray into the Dragon Lands. Brimstone, or sulfur for the non-archaic term. Perhaps Master Joe was onto something when he decided to stay behind with Mister Masters…”

Crazy Joe had finally decided to set Rarity and Applejack down once they’d emerged onto an enclosed hall. Gyre was there waiting for them. She explained that this was a zone prone to shifting periodically, so she would go out further to scout ahead to find the safest route. Eventually, Sloop and Percival emerged following behind.

However, Sloop abruptly screamed at everybody to rush to the exit when he felt his foot trigger a pressure plate in the flagstone floor. Applejack, Crazy Joe, and Rarity had made it outside when the stone blocks around the hall’s exit had collapsed completely. Percival turned into his battle form and managed to squeeze through a gap in the stones. Talking through that gap, Sloop professed that he was never any good with moving rubble with his magic, which worked best with masses and bodies that already had some energy or velocity and could produce results with individual objects of great size.

When Applejack had the notion of Crazy Joe blasting him out, Sloop and Rarity strongly rejected the proposal over the possibility of bringing down the rest of the structure on top of him. The next idea was for all of them to participate in digging his way out, but Sloop prioritized Miss June’s safety. Not only had his spell revealed that she was indeed in this zone, but her status had shifted from a yellow Peril to a red one. It took them a minute to notice that Crazy Joe was peering into the distance with a tight look in his eye, making deep, hollow inhalations from his mask’s breathing holes.

He then went to the rubble pile and started lifting them out of the way one at a time by himself. When they reported this to Sloop beyond, he stated that it was likely for the best and that he trusted Crazy Joe’s insight. He let them know that Percival should be able to locate June by transforming one of his focuses to compass elemental magic.

Stepping forward, Percival summoned one of his sharp focuses to his hand and willed the sensation linked with his take on Sloop’s compass element to spark like how he typically flexes a muscle in a human form, aiming it at a memory of June’s face the same way a creature anticipates a particular scent as they inhale through their nostrils. However, his narrow, slitted eye holes widened to circles as after the red aura with a blue outline wrapped it, it pointed ahead at a steep downward angle.

He spared a moment to crane his head around and take in his surroundings in earnest. This landscape was dotted with mountains shorter and broader than the sea stack-like islets strewn throughout the first zone he visited on this bizarre island. Between the dense greenery of the many fern trees filling out the expanse were grassy clearings peppered with marble structures of many sizes but a generally consistent shape across the lot of them in regards to architecture. But the booby trap that Gyre seemed to not know about likely meant that there was definitely more to this zone than what was on the surface.

Applejack bent low, appearing to be calling on her inner bloodhound as she honed in on the unpleasant scent. She passed Percival and steadily made her way to a pair of shorter, bush-like fern trees at the foot of a mountain with a fallen column laying on its side pointing upward at an angle. She got on her hind legs and parted the fronds to reveal a marble-block archway over a tunnel with stairs of the same stone leading downwards. She peered back at Percival. “Y’all think this might be a good path to take to June?”

Percival extended an arm, forming it into a scythe-like shape. “The magic points forward and downward. And this is the most downward path forward. I’d say the urgency justifies taking an unknown route.” He bushwhacked their path clear with a few whipping slashes, but when he took the first step downward, he felt his foot sink as it activated another pressure-plate. He hollered as they all dashed away from the entrance of the tunnel, but the only effect triggered seemed to be fires igniting in alcoves on both sides to light the way ahead.

Sparing a few moments of caution, the group approached the tunnel once again. Percival moved forward with a hand formed into a large shield ahead and his focuses deployed pointing forward floating behind him. They managed to descend a dozen steps with nothing else suddenly happening so far, but they halted their careful march as a new sound from below assailed them. Twitching her ears for a second, Applejack slowly tensed up as she recognized this particular cacophony. “Bats! Skedaddle back the way we came!”

The trio rushed back out onto grassy terrain yet again, but this time they were followed by a colony of pursuers. There were only three in this one, but their size made up for their number. Their bodies alone were the size of small wolves, to say nothing of their wingspans. They could easily be mistaken for the notable flying fox if not for their faces bearing the distinctive appearance of a carnivore species.

One flew straight for Percival, baring its fangs. With some raised fingers and a forward double-point, he sent two of his focuses to the agitated creature. The spatially-aware predator merely flew at an angle to evade the attack on its big weak points, but with a couple snaps from his fingers, Percival’s weapons sparked as their transformed lightning magic ionized, shocking the bat as it was caught in the arc of equalizing electricity.

A seasoned Applejack made her bat halt its charge and hover in place as she made a series of shrill cries and began loudly stomping the ground in front of her. She then took a coil of rope made from twisted palm tree fibers in her teeth and was able to lasso one of the bats legs as it attempted to evade. She swung it around, getting the beast nice and dazed, and with a snapping motion from her head flung it over a nearby hill landing on the other side with a ka-thump!

Rarity managed to send the bat coming for her to the ground by reflexively bashing with a shield of ethereal crystal, but it managed to stand itself up on the ghastly digits at the middle of its membranous wings and scurried on with a horrific skree-ing sound. However, that development gave her an idea.

She floated her shield over to the snapped-off stump of what was another majestic marble column and started rubbing it against the edge to produce a high-pitched cacophony of her own. The bat abruptly paused its charge, and Rarity almost felt sorry for it as cringed, burying its head under its wings. When it couldn’t take anymore, it unfurled its wings and took off to the sky.

Waving away the burnt bat hair fumes from his virtual nose, Percival moved to Applejack and gave his friend a playful nuggie with his instant knuckles. “Nice going! Not often do adventuring parties get an early warning both to oncoming danger and its specific identification!” However, the glad look in his eye holes fell as he stepped back towards the tunnel. “But I’ve got a sinking feeling that most of the danger we’ll face ahead won’t give us a warning until it's already hit at least one of us.”

Rarity rubbed the bottom of her jaw with a front leg, gazing at the tunnel’s entrance with a cocked eye. “Maybe… Then again, maybe not, Percival-darling.” Rarity pranced over to the tunnel’s entrance and lit up her horn, focusing the magical light into a directable cone. She examined the slab Percival stepped on which triggered the alcoves. “Hm… Yes… Yes! I knew it! I didn’t get the chance to look at the one Sloop triggered at the hall we came in at, but this stone is different from all the others! A different grain in the cut and mineral strata now that I get a good look at it up close! I wonder if…”

Rarity tightly shut her eyes and concentrated as her horn’s light started glowing more intensely. Then with a ballet-like tilt and flourish, Rarity’s horn let off a sparking flash and the flagstone-pressure pate suddenly began glowing in Rarity’s sparkling bluish magic. Looking down into the tunnel, they spotted more flagstones among both the stairs and walls glowing the same.

At that sight, Percival’s eyeholes betrayed amazement as he scratched the side of his amorphous head. “Leapin’ father of Ultima! Sloop’s been trying to learn spells like that for years! Would’ve definitely made the trips we took in the caves way simpler and easier!”

Applejack cantered forward with a stern look. “I like hearin’ about how amazing we are as much as the next mare, but we were on a time limit even before all the hoopla with this tunnel!” The harsh but sincere words sobering them, Rarity proceeded downward behind Percival with Applejack beside her.

At the bottom of the stairs, they came upon another long hallway full of marble carvings and architecture accented by wrought iron. Along with the flames in the alcoves, the place was illuminated by some lattice windows whose view was nearly ground-level, revealing this structure having been built into a dug-out hill. Rarity barely had any time to admire the surrounding fineries as she had to periodically use her spell to reveal the triggers for any hidden trips and traps. However, all that was waiting for them was a dead end at the other side of the hall.

Applejack gave the back wall a few hard taps with her hoof, then held it to the tip of her jaw with a raised eyebrow. “Don’t tell her I said this, but I really wish Rainbow Dash were here right now.” She swept her gaze all around. “This whole place seems just like one of her Daring Do books. There’s gotta be somethin’ around here to open the way forward. But I don’t wanna trigger a trap by accident.”

At that, Rarity smirked and raised an eyebrow. “Well, if I know my Daring Do and Shadow Spade, darling, then that’s exactly what whoever built this place would want us to think!” Rarity let out one last flash, revealing the pressure plate closest to the dead end. “To go forward and help Miss June, we may need to take a risk or two…”

Bracing herself to expect the unexpected, Rarity raised her front leg and laid a hoof on the pressure plate. They were suddenly beset by a prolonged cracking and crackling sound that echoed throughout the room, all of them sweeping their heads around, bracing themselves for the source to reveal itself. However, the danger proved itself closer than they thought, as Applejack had to jump as the floor gave way beneath her, coming up short as she clung to the edge of the hole in the floor.

Applejack twisted her head around, her eyes wide at the pit of lava below her in a hole with more rough-hewn stone walls. Her eyes went even wider when she felt the edge of the stone floor she clung to give way with a loud crack. But right before she plummeted, Percival stretched his arms out and grabbed onto her flailing front limbs, pulling her back to safety as she was able to grab her hat before it fell in. Adjusting her stetson, she tipped it at her human companion. “Much obliged, Perce’.” Percival’s eyeholes betrayed a hint of shyness, pointing his mask-like face away as he fidgeted.

Taking a breath now that the crisis was over, Rarity continued her search for the way onward. The good result of the bad situation before had given her what could be a very important clue: Whoever built the place would definitely make it so that the mechanism to open the path would be very different from the traps, which would be positioned to be triggered accidentally by intruders.

Her eyes halted at something different: A large stone block with a lit brazier on top that glowed as the same stone the pressure plates were carved from. She cantered over to it and pushed after placing her hooves against it. After struggling for a few moments, she gave a furrowed expression at the vacant looks on her companions. “A little help would be appreciated right now, dears!”

Flinching in realization, Applejack and Percival raced over, the other pony pushing on the block with her shoulder and the human growing ten extra arms and four extra legs to add as much strength as he could create at once. With all the assistance, the block began to slide across the ground as if it were one of ice instead of stone. Eventually, it stopped fast and with a few mechanical clanks, the blocks making up the hall’s back wall began to shift, revealing another flame-lit way ahead.

Percival scratched the back of his head, forming his fingertips into fork-like points. “Well…! I never would have guessed!” He summoned a focus to channel the compass magic yet again, the sharp tip pointing straight down the way. With a few arm motions, Percival hurried the ponies along as he led the way, wary of any parts of the floor and walls that glowed as Rarity repeatedly flashed her magic.

The group accelerated once they saw the light at the end of the tunnel, but as the one getting there first and taking a look, Percival stopped right at the edge and attempted to bar the ponies by expanding his arms over the exit, but the ponies sent him and themselves tumbling down the steep slope heading straight for the lake of lava at the bottom of the valley. Percival managed to regain his focus and expanded his torso into a broad flat shape that the ponies rolled into, but they were still sliding into the molten danger below. Extending his fingers, Percival rematerialized his focuses and with a pair of clenched fists covered them in a layer of rocky terrain. Flicking his arms as dramatically as he could despite not having much of himself to spread any thinner, the focuses lined up and expanded into large pizza slice-shaped slabs of crack-covered but solid rock that they zoomed across to the safety of an island made out of a hill.

Rarity sat down for a moment to straighten out her mane with her front hooves. “It’s my pleasure this time to thank you, Percival, for saving my life from hot lava!”

Applejack approached the edge of the island, and gazed out with a worried expression. She experimentally kicked a dirt clod into the lava lake, watching as it caught fire and blackened before sinking into the molten earth. “I’m mighty grateful to be alive and all too, but honestly, it looks like we can’t go any further.” She gave a cocked-eye glance at Rarity with a raised hoof. “Unless’n you think you could float us all over the rest of the way?”

Rarity briefly reminisced about an incident in her youth where she had an idea after contemplating how easily she could float a mobile clothes rack, and the neck brace she could only bear to wear for the whole month after bejeweling it. She quickly shook her head. “Certainly not! Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to if I could, dears. Believe me!”

Percival crossed his arms in a tight coil and nodded. “I definitely get how fickle that kind of alteration magic can be! I’d offer to float us over on my focuses, but it takes everything I have just to get myself across a gap!” Percival walked over to join Applejack gazing out into the expanse of lava. “I can make wings to fly short distances pretty well, but too short a distance for this, and even less with passengers! I can’t touch the lava to transform it without losing a hand, and I can’t use the earth configuration for my focuses to cross this distance with just six, and it’s way too risky to turn this place we’re standing on into something to cross the distance!” Percival made a sigh, then flowed sitting on the island’s ground. “Honestly, after saying all that, I’m starting to feel pretty useless!”

“It’s good to gain gratification by being helpful, but bad to base your self-worth on your usefulness to others. Life’s interesting that way.” Everyone and everypony was startled by Gyre droping down from out of nowhere into their blind spot, Applejack nearly slipped into the lava at the shock of her unexpected voice. Even the innately analytical Percival had absolutely no clue exactly how she’s always been able to do that.

Completely indifferent to the reaction of her previous action, Gyre continued her line of thought, gesturing out into the lava. “If no one magic or skill you all have can cut it, try using more than one! Could be all at once, one at a time, or a mix of those!” Finishing her insights, Gyre rematerialized her weapon, raised it up gripping it by the handles and with a jump out into the lava rapidly ascended as it began spinning. When she was up above the tops of the immediate surrounding mountains, she kicked with both feet and her energy spurs took a new orange colored form. These had a more tire-like shape with two broad spikes pointing in opposite directions emerging from the center of the wheel and smaller, narrower, more numerous spikes extending outward from around the circumference. As Gyre dropped, she extended her limbs fully outward and her energy spurs flew and affixed into the gaps between her arms and legs, somehow altering her fall into a tightly diagonal forward glide as they spun, eventually making it to the far shore of the lava lake they needed to go. She gave a wave to the completely overwhelmed trio.

Percival was the first to shake himself out of his stupor, holding his fists to his hips. “Well… Now I think you can understand why Trace always had the biggest crush on Gyre. But don’t you tell Sloop, and definitely don’t tell Trace that I told you!”

Still mulling over what Gyre told and showed them, Applejack approached the edge of the lava again, sweeping her gaze up and down across the distance to the far shore, scratching her jaw with a hoof. “Y’know… Gyre’s given me an inklin’ of an idea! It’s not much right now, but bare with me as I talk my way through it.” Applejack gestured hither and about with her hoof as she methodically explained her partially-formed plan. Percival and Rarity were struck with inspirations of their own that they unhesitatingly shared with Applejack. Eventually, once it was just about finished, Rarity stammered trying to come up with a different way of playing her vital but embarrassing role, but their brainstorming went nowhere that way. Conceding out of urgency and necessity, they all took positions docking together around Percival’s new form.

Percival sat on Applejack’s back with all six focuses manifested as he spread as much of himself to a pair of the biggest wings he could make while Rarity had her hooves draped forward over his shoulders as she sat at between the bases of the tapering strips taking the place of plumage.

Applejack cantered to the opposite side of the island, then took off in a gallop. Rarity’s magic covered her and Percival right before she jumped, Percival extending his wings as far as he could to add to their extended hangtime. Right when they were at the end of their descent a fifth of the way across, Percival extended a hand and one of his focuses flew below and turned into another slab for Applejack to jump off of with a kick. They each gave their all to repeat this process again and again. Right when Percival ran out of focuses and all of their strength was about to give out, Applejack scurried away from the edge of the lava with her front hooves, pulling her rear-end away from the burning red death before all of them tumbled to safety inland, collapsed, exhausted, and thankfully still raw and uncooked.

Gyre strode up to the panting pair of ponies and amorphous anthro. “There you have it! You had an idea and went with it! Sometimes, flying or falling is just a leap of faith!” She gazed back out into the lake. “I can only imagine how Sloop is going to make it across!”

Rarity raised her head, wincing at the aching in her neck from forcing herself to lift all of them as much she could. “Actually, we ran into a bit of a debacle and Master Sloop is rather… Stuck.” The three of them explained how Sloop accidentally triggered a booby trap that collapsed the end of the hall, how Crazy Joe opted to stay behind and clear a way out for him, and how the spell monitoring Miss June had gone to urgent.

Gyre’s smile fell and she put her chin in the crux of her thumb and forefinger. “Oh… I guess that makes sense. Rubble would be next to impossible for a compass elemental with his range of spells to clear themselves… But it’s just odd! I’ve had to have taken that way to this zone hundreds of times and I never triggered something like that…”

Percival stepped forward, his recalled focus pointing forward as it let off its two-tone glow. “I like deducting solutions from problems as much as the next sentient being, we have no idea how much time Miss June has!” Finding some extra vim in the sense of urgency, the trio plus one took off at full speed down the path forward.

Island Adventure a Go Go: Part 6

The land steeply sloped downwards, leading to a smaller pit of lava where in the center, some thin but numerous steel bars were holding up a flat-bottomed boulder. Inside, sticking out of the lava was the torso of Miss June. At the sight of this, Rarity’s eyes went wide, then she collapsed to the ground, crying into her crossed hooves. “WE’RE TOO LATE! SHE’S ALREADY BEEN BURNT IN HALF!”

However, the very much alive top half of Miss June raised a hand. “Actually, I’m okay.”

Rarity’s heavy sobs abruptly stopped, and she gazed from behind her hooves with makeup-streaming eyes. Applejack trotted forward with her mouth wide open and an eye wincing. She coughed, trying to regain her composure, then gestured to Miss June from out of the corner of her squinting eyes. “Uh… I beg your pardon, but HOW IN CELESTIA’S NAME ARE YOU OKAY?”

Miss June could only make a dismissive hand waving. “I’m a glass elemental, a fire tribesfolk. Non-elemental fire can’t hurt me, just like how lava can’t hurt dragons.”

Percival scratched the back of his head, his eye holes miming a raised eyebrow expression. “If you’re not in danger from the lava, why did Percival’s search spell say you were in fatal peril?”

Miss June sweeped her gaze to the lava beneath her waist. “Well… It hasn’t stopped rising yet. And I can still drown.”

Gyre stepped forward this time. “Huh… Maybe if you can tell us how you got trapped here, it might give us a clue on how you can get out.”

The pragmatic and logistical-minded Miss June kept her priorities in mind, and disregarded any scruples about this newcomer. “About a day or two ago we all got lodged in some mountains after the storm blew us away. When we went up onto the deck, we weighed down the ship enough to abruptly tilt it forward and Mister Joe, Miss Jane and I fell off. I don’t know how, but I wound up here and decided to explore and see if I could find a means to signal for help.”

She swept an arm in an arc above herself. “This whole place was some kind of dome. When I got to the center, I felt a pressure plate give way and some steel spears shot up and corralled me. Then the dome collapsed with the capstone coming down and impaling on the spears’ points before the whole thing rose up on a telescoping pillar. I was fine for a while and survived by making some glass jugs to catch rainwater for a few days. But then I felt the ground quake and some streams of lava burst out from the walls of the surrounding pit and started slowly filling it. Next thing I knew, it rose up above my hips and then you all found me.”

Percival’s eyeholes cocked an eye, then he extended a hand to Miss June and her prison. “That… doesn’t really give us anything to work with.”

Gyre, however, beamed and rubbed her hands at this development. “It’s for the best! I had a plan worked out already, and I was a little worried I’d have to change it. Everybody and everypony, get into position!”

With a few gentle and not-so-gentle nudges, Gyre managed to get Applejack and Rarity turned around standing parallel a distance facing away from the cage. Then she raised a foot and summoned a new configuration for her energy spurs: These ones were purple, they looked a bit like in-line skates with four wheels, but on closer inspection, they were more spool-like with thin flanges extending from a narrow drum core on each. With a few elaborate swings of her foot, she let fly two wheels trailing thin strings of purple magic that looped around the mares’ torsos before doing the same to two of the steel bars on Miss June’s prison.

With a big grin, Gyre hopped, manifesting the other set on her other foot and landed on the wires one foot each, somehow not encumbering the anchoring ponies. After a few embarrassing moments of haphazard gestures, Percival finally got the point and shrunk down just smaller than a human torso before stretching to hang onto Gyre’s back, still not causing any strain to their pair of living moors. With an odd humming sound, the docked duo rolled down the strings to stop in front of Miss June’s prison for Percival to stretch out his arms to grip, changing them to a much less heat-resistant tin that melted in the heat of the lava to provide a way out for Miss June.

Bending down to take her hands in her grip, Gyre pulled Miss June out of her prison and managed to pull her across the deep, inescapable pit of lava towards the safety of the pit’s edge. However, about halfway across, Miss June abruptly made a face. “Wait, hold on! I think I felt something brush up against my leg!”

At that, Percival rolled his eyeholes. “It’s got to be over two-thousand degrees in that stuff! What could possibly-” But Percival’s thought was interrupted as something huge and long erupted from the lava beneath them, dispelling Gyre’s emanations and flinging her and Miss June on the ground behind Applejack and Rarity.

The mares quickly helped the girls up and they got a chance to behold their new crisis. It was a caterpillar or centipede-like insect covered in solid black plates with softer tissue between glowing red hot. At the front of its body was a pair of glowing segmented eyes and a pair of extended, scissor-like mandibles it snapped at them as it coiled above the lava.

Taking a break from gaping at this development, Applejack swung her head back and forth for a moment. “Wait… Where’s Percival?”

Gyre’s eyes went wide. “I guess since he was smaller and lighter, he got flung farther.” She then started slowly turning around, keeping her eyes on the creature. “These things might be quick, but they can barely move from the points they emerge from, we should be safe if we can get out of striking distance!” The group slowly started backing away from the caterpillar, seeming to not rouse its reflexes. Unfortunately, in their path emerged two more creatures right from the sides of the mountains their path ran between, lava pooling on the ground from the holes they made. Gyre frowned and held a finger to her chin. “Unless… They’re part of a pack. In that case, they’ll burn their way through the ground in a surprisingly tactical manner to outflank prey.”

Rarity quickly erected an open-topped wall of ethereal crystal to divert the lava. Gyre manifested her weapon while Miss June flexed a clawed-fingered hand as a red-hot ball of molten glass appeared in it despite her anxious look.

Meanwhile, Percival groaned as he slowly regained consciousness. He stretched and scratched around, trying to get his bearings and push himself up. He managed to get on one foot as his vision cleared. He could see that he was indoors, and from the architecture he was in one of the same kinds of places as in this zone, except this one in particular seemed tailored for personal use rather than be one of the public spaces he found on his way through the zone. Too small to be a real living space, but from the presence of an anvil and sets of tongs, hammers, and a dark, sooty fireplace, this was some kind of forge or workshop.

He suddenly felt a stream of debris fall on his head from above. He turned his head around a full one hundred-eighty degrees on his neck to take a look directly above him and saw the hole he made in the roof falling in. However, he abruptly felt the room shake and a couple more blocks from the ceiling fell down one after the other. Then, all at once the whole place started coming down on top of him. He barely had time to sweep his arm up to shield himself, let alone the time to will it into an effective barrier.

All he could hear was the storm of falling debris and terrain, yet strangely, he felt nothing. A few seconds later, it all stopped. He opened his eye holes and saw a strange sight: The rubble seemed to have been warded away, diverted from a small circle surrounding himself, leaving only a layer of detritus. Sensitized by his previous moment of terror, he’d just now realized that this whole time, he’d been tightly gripping something in his free hand. He brought it to his face and saw that he was holding a red crystal that glowed with a warm orange core inside. He turned his head and found that right where his hand would have been strewn out when he’d fallen in was a chipped, overturned pot whose contents on the floor were the same kind of crystal.

Percival relaxed his grip on this curio and suddenly whatever force was shielding him fell, along with a cloud of dust. Waving it all off while paradoxically coughing, he managed to stand up and make his way out of the collapsed hill back into the open, where he could hear a distant ruckus past some familiar-looking mountains. He dashed towards it when he’d seen a jet of lava erupt from below, carrying his unexpected boon with him.

Back in the literal heat of it, Gyre and Miss June had taken opposite positions to better ward off the nonstop attack of the lava bugs’ attack as best as they could. Gyre had taken the rear, splitting her wheel in two and adding spikes sticking outward from the edge and spokes while holding it with both hands, generating enough force and friction to deflect the two bugs’ strikes with powerful spins timed to them. Miss June tried her best to be more proactive with her bug, lashing at it with a thin, sharp stream of semisolid glass extending from what she said was an evocation locus, slightly grateful over the situation not drawing attention to her favoritism for this small but highly efficient bit of magic as her weapon, which tends to be a big tell for elemental’s lack of aptitude in combat.

However, Miss June’s dread appeared to suddenly be made manifest as she made one awkward lash that the bug was able to weave around and make a rapid strike at her. Applejack sprang into action and gave the bug a hard bucking kick in the face to repel it before it could close its shear-like mandibles around Miss June, but she let out a muffled cry as she dragged her back hooves against the ground to relieve the painful burning from the bug’s intensely heated body. Rarity could hardly spare anything but her sympathies as she was putting everything she had into maintaining the barrier to keep out the certain doom of the lava from the holes the bugs bored upon their arrival.

The cavalry seemed to arrive with a loud trumpeting sound that carried. Enough to catch the bugs’ attention, halting their attacks. The group looked over to see Percival having extended a large horn from his free hand somehow being sounded pressed against his mouthless, mask-like face. They could see something glowing in his other hand, but couldn’t make it out.

Apparently satisfied with what he’d done so far, he retracted his horn back into a normal hand and slid down the slope right into the lava… Or so they’d thought, but on making contact, the lava was somehow parted in a wide circle around him. He paused halfway to Rarity’s barrier, then attempted to taunt the bugs into attacking him by stomping and shouting.

The bugs shuddered and arched their bodies at this new, more interesting prey. All three of them struck at once while Percival never raised any kind of guard, but when none of them (besides Gyre) heard any blood curdling sounds while looking away, their eyes went wide. The bugs seemed to be repelled, striking fruitlessly as some kind of unseen barrier denied their offensive.

Once the bugs’ fury had seemed to reach its blinding peak, Percival’s eyeholes narrowed and he tensed his arm, his free hand morphing into a steel ball studded with morningstar spikes. With a shout, he flailed around his improvised hammer on an elastically whipping arm, striking each of the bugs directly in the head with their own momentum slamming into the heavy blows as his attacks seemed unaffected by whatever phenomenon was shielding him.

The impacts carried each of the bugs’ long bodies a fair distance away as they hit the ground, stunned and twitching. Percival hurried over to the side of the barrier. Once he was sure the lava was pushed clear of his side of it, he gestured at the inhabitants. “Come on! Who knows how long they’ll stay down!”

Hesitating for the briefest of moments, Rarity gave her horn a twitch and a hole opened up next to Percival. Applejack didn’t hesitate and cantered out first, and the force protecting Percival from harm seemed to allow a proven helper like her into its fold. She turned back and gestured, swinging her head. “Come on, y’all! We got what we came here for, and we’re not comin’ back!”

Everyone poured out of their instant but thankfully solid fortification, falling as Rarity was the last one out. With the crystal raised in an upwardly-extending hand, the group slowly but carefully maneuvered across the lava-covered ground, making sure they stayed in formation under the protective sphere of influence.

***

Percival yelped in Sloop’s voice and pulled his finger back from the fire, waving it around. “I guess the magic faded when the glow did after all.”

Miss June entered this new finding into her archival construct. “We’d better keep it anyway. It might be a key comparative part of an experiment if we plan on selling it to researchers.”

Sloop groaned, spending a minute swishing around the coconut juice he gulped before swallowing. “Priorities, Miss June! I know business calls for ruthless pragmatism, but I’ve always been a dreamer who thought that compassion can win if it has fangs. Though, I really feel that we should focus on everyone’s safety before we try to figure out how to get rich from this opportunity!”

Floating the shard to her face after having Percival pass it to her, Rarity also floated a rudimentary jeweler's lens she had Miss June make for her. “But my word, even without the magic, I can safely say I’ve never seen anything quite like these crystals before! The things I could MAKE with gems like this…!”

Applejack gave Rarity a somewhat contemptful look, then held up her pineapple to take a bite. “I’m in agreement with Sloop! We can think about what we’ll do when we get off this crazier-than-a-color-blind-toucan island after we find the kids!” She forlornly gazed up at the mountains in the distance. “I’m glad we’ve finally got some idea as to where they might be, but I’d like to know why we’re not makin’ plans to head right to ‘em!”

At that, Crazy Joe briefly gave Applejack a look of his own, then after stuffing a berry into his mask through an air hole waxed in his usual untranslatable grunting gibberish that Gyre cleared her throat upon hearing it in its entirety. “He says that we need to weigh the facts against the priorities. We know where the kids are and we have good reason to believe they’re safe where they are. But we only think we have an idea as to where his sister may be and have no clue as to what’s stalking her right now. Jane might be able to handle just about any normal situation, but this island has proven that it’s full of almost nothing but abnormal situations!”

Applejack didn’t like it, but the fact was that Crazy Joe was making a lot of good points, so she knew the most honest thing to do was just to not say anything. When they were done eating and talking, they all went to bed for the night.

The following morning, Gyre led them to another point on the lakeside that she said was the entrance to one of the only zones they had yet to visit, so odds were that it’s where Crazy Jane may be found. Once she led them to a cape cliff overlooking the water near the falls, she told them that they had to wait for a while as “This particular entrance to this particular zone is a bit odd, and only opens up at certain times every day.” Explaining why she insisted on bringing a picnic lunch.

At about high noon, they’d paused packing away their hand-made supplies into their personally woven basket when Gyre suddenly started going towards the cliff’s edge. The group approached behind their guide and followed her gaze down into the sparkling, reflective water below. However, the water abruptly darkened as the surface suddenly became disturbed and tumultuous. Then, a large pinhole appeared as if a drain had suddenly been opened up at the lake’s bottom, steadily growing in size and volume until a full-blown whirlpool formed directly beneath them, the vortex in the center gaping into the unknown.

Rarity’s eyes went wide, and she flinched, cantering backwards with clenched teeth. “Tell me you don’t want us to-” But she shivered at how eagerly Gyre smiled and nodded at her, and felt faint at the sight of Gyre putting her hands together and extending them in a diving motion.

Applejack trotted up next to Rarity with a sympathetic expression and pursed lips. “This time, I’m in total agreement!”

Sloop prepared himself to give a really good speech to ease their concerns, but he wasn’t prepared for Crazy Joe to push past both of them and move to stand next to Gyre at the cliff’s edge. He took a deep breath that produced an eerie moaning through his mask’s breathing holes. Then, he hopped off the edge to everyone and everypony’s shock, plummeting in a butt-bomb position as his body started trailing sparks as he fell, finally disappearing in a bright flash right at the dark hole in the center of the swirl.

Before any of them could catch their breath, Gyre followed along in a more orthodox dive, even adding a couple flips for good measure that sent the sparks in all directions like a human firework. She straightened out right as she disappeared, letting off a pillar-like flash just like the tail of a rocket.

The rest of the group shifted their gaze to Sloop, who raised his hands. “I might be a water tribesfolk, but this is a new one for me, too.”

Battle-form Percival approached Sloop, then opened his hand. Sloop’s tense expression softened as he took his friend’s hand, then the transformation elemental extended his other hand to Applejack, who gazed at it before raising a leg and placing her hoof into his grip. Sloop turned to Miss June and extended his hand to her. Despite the familiarity, she hesitated. Rarity circled around to the other side and looked deeply into the glass elemental’s eyes for a moment, then smiled and raised her own leg, that she slowly moved to grip, then turned to her benefactor to return his previously-denied gesture.

Sloop, as the centermost link in their chain, led the lot of them right to the edge of the cliff. He gave both halves of their formation a look, then closed his eyes to take a deep breath. Finally, they all dashed forward and leaped off. As they fell, they let loose a wide trail of sparks like the tail of a majestic peacock, disappearing into nowhere all together at once before hitting the water.

Island Adventure a Go Go: Part 7

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Island Adventure a Go Go: Part 8

Author's Note

Sorry about the delay. This was due to obligations and external circumstances.

Island Adventure a Go Go: Part 8

“Here! This is it, it has to be!” Rarity’s hoof shivered as it pointed at a wall that she recognized as a closed doorway, the sensation bearing an intense feeling of finality. She shined a light from her horn as she focused upon the seemingly flat, featureless wall, even placing her well-groomed hooves sliding against it. “There has to be a way to open it! But how…?”

Sloop, ceasing his pause after seeing the outline of the doorway, approached and placed his hand against the stone wall after covering it in a red aura with a blue outline. “Ah…! Figures that there’d have to be a ton of metal for a hidden door! Now where does it all lead…” He slid his hand up, down, and all around the wall, getting a little further by the second. He seemed to decide to go in one specific direction, and stopped as he reached an alcove with a single narrow faceted glowing crystal. “Ah-ha! Of course, nobody ever suspects the infrastructure!” He gripped the crystal and pulled, lowering it on an axis with a slight resistance before it stopped.

After a series of loud clanks and a drawn-out metallic groaning, the rectangle of solid stone slowly rose up, opening the way forward. Sloop and Rarity proceeded through this path, coming into a seemingly empty chamber. Suddenly, a voice cried out. “Quick! Go back before-” but the voice cut off as the doorway far behind them abruptly slammed down, then the voice let out a groan. “Great! Now you’re stuck in here too. With me!”

From out of a corner strode a despondent-looking Crazy Jane. Rarity clopped forward. “Whatever do you mean, Miss Jane?”

Crazy Jane sighed and hung her head for a moment. “I’ve been wandering this place for days, ever since I fell down here off the boat after it lodged into the rock of a mountain with a city built out of it high up in the clouds. Water was no problem to find, and with a bit of preparation I could improvise some heat and flame with my bomb element to cook anything that came my way.” Then, Crazy Jane raised her head and looked around the top of the chamber. “But about half a day ago, a stray shot from my cannon triggered something and opened an entrance to this chamber, but before I knew it, the doorway slammed shut on its own and I’ve been trapped here! I couldn't find anything else that could open the way from the inside, and the walls, floor, and ceiling barely singe when I try to blast my way out!”

Flinching, Sloop raced back to the long pathway with the entrance he and Rarity went through at the end. He engulfed his hand in the same aura as before and laid it against the same stone as he did before. This time, however, he felt absolutely nothing with his metal-detecting spell, even though he knew for a fact that there was a mechanism within the barrier. In fact, he should have felt the absence of metal from the feedback of the pulse it sends by touch, which is still something. But it felt like the wall was blocking anything of magical origin from penetrating its surface.

His magic fading with his falling spirits, he backed away from the wall. He materialized his arrowguns and combined them into bowgun form before stepping back and launching a few shell-like blasts at the doorway. However, when the light and smoke cleared away, the door remained unharmed. Sloop tensed up, then began frantically beating against the walls with his fists.

He suddenly felt a gentle touch against his coat and turned back to see Rarity give him a very concerned look. Sloop took a deep breath, then sighed as he laid his forehead against the doorway. “Darn it…” After a moment spent in silence, he turned back to Rarity. “I don’t suppose you know any teleportation magic?”

Rarity defeatedly shook her head. “Not part of my repertoire, darling. I’m afraid I’m not that kind of unicorn.”

After a minute of bereavement, Sloop and Rarity made their way back into the chamber proper. They were about to say something to Crazy Jane to get more insight, but they were interrupted by a newcomer. “What’re y'all standin’ around fer? Y’all wouldn’t wanna be caught in winter like a sharecropper who mixed up his irrigation water with picklin’ brine, would ya?”

The whole group whipped back to look at Applejack and Percival nonchalantly striding across the chamber towards the rest of them. Percival’s eyes went wide as he quickly pointed. “THE DOOR! HURRY!” The three occupants rushed past the newcomers to their shock and confusion, but they barely made it past the entryway to the other hall when the door slammed shut again.

Percival made his way over to them with a cocked eye hole. “What was all that about?”

They quickly filled their new prison mates in on the circumstances, and their confusion quickly turned to horror at what they learned. Applejack cantered down to the other side of one of the halls and stomped around next to the sealed doorway. Percival’s hand extended like a funnel over where his ear would be, then he nodded. “Yep, seems like the halls are made to dampen sound so any occupants wouldn’t be aware of a new door opening until it’s too late.” Percival then went down the hall himself and placed his hand against the door and concentrated, his face’s virtual brow furrowing. However, nothing happened, so he just sighed and dropped his hand. “And… I guess these walls really were treated with something that resists all magic…”

Crazy Jane strode over with an annoyed look. “What’s the point of going over all that? We’re stuck, aren’t we? No way around that!”

Percival stepped towards the warrior woman, his eye holes narrowed. “There’s always something new to learn from things like this. Everything that has to do with magic has some kind of logic to it, not always about energy but about complexity. To broaden the range of the things it can do one way, it needs to narrow it in another way. If we can find that area, we might be able to find our way out!”

Crazy Jane paused for a moment, wearing a tight look on her face pointed at the amorphous transformation elemental. Then it gave way to a more tired expression, and she turned away, throwing a hand in the air. “Fine! Do what you like! Until you can find something I can use, I’ll just be over here.”

While Percival and Applejack went around poking and prodding throughout the chamber and Crazy Jane sat sulking with sass in a corner, Sloop held his head low and slowly made his way to the nearest wall. Rarity took notice and trotted over, concerned. “Bit for your thoughts, dear?”

Sloop threw back his head and groaned, then he tipped it back, placing his forehead against the wall. “This is twice now. On this trip, I’ve been trapped, helpless, and utterly useless on this incident two times! And that’s not even counting the fact that I was the one that sailed all of us into this island of one insanity after the other!”

Rarity paused for a moment to contemplate her choice of words amid this delicate situation. “Well… if you hadn’t come here in the first place, you would have never found your sister.” Rarity then drooped her eyes and frowned. “I can’t even imagine what it would feel like to be separated from my sister for so many years, and I likely wouldn’t even know if she were alive or…” Rarity couldn’t bring herself to finish the thought.

Sloop definitely picked up on the sincerity in the mare’s words. “Well, I suppose I’ve definitely got some conflicting feelings about that. If I think about whether or not it was worth risking everyone, including the children, just to find Gyre thriving and free like she’d always wanted. You, Percival, Applejack, at least Crazy Joe and Jane are full-fledged warriors, Miss June-”

Suddenly, Sloop's head snapped straight up and his eyes went wide. He reached into his coat and pulled out one of Miss June’s beacons, getting a rearing-back gasp out of Rarity. He turned around and marched to the center as he fiddled with the bauble in his hand. He finally managed to get it to let out some noise. Sloop held it close to his face. “Hello? This is Sloop Masters, I’ve located and secured Crazy Jane, but we’ve all fallen victim to a trap, a room that can be entered easily, but is inescapable from the inside! Do you copy? Percival, Rarity, Crazy Jane, Applejack and I are trapped in a room that cannot be exited from the inside. Do you copy?”

After waiting for a moment, a reply came through, but it was garbled up with some kind of interference. Right when Sloop and Rarity were about to lose heart, a sharp ruckus came from the bauble and a clear voice came through. “Pardon the previous copy, Mister Masters. That was Mister Joe’s attempt at replying to your transmission. I got some of it, but can you go over that one more time?”

Then, another disturbance on the bauble rang out, followed by Gyre’s voice. “Hey, can I get in on this action, too?”

Sloop relayed the details of their situation once more. Eventually, Percival and Applejack took notice and they gathered with Sloop and Rarity. Percival’s eyeholes went wide. “Huh…! I guess since this transmitted magic isn’t touching this chamber’s walls, it’s not being blocked!”

Sloop felt the need to keep the conversation on the task at hand. “If you converge onto and follow my path, you should reach a semi-visible doorway that triggers the response on the mark I made! On the wall at about three o’clock, there’s a light in an alcove. Pull it, and you should raise the doorway. But do not enter! Signal us when the path is open!” For good measure, Percival gave instructions on how to find the entrance he and Applejack took to the chamber and how they opened the way.

“What are all of you going on about?” Crazy Jane strutted over to the convening group once she noticed. When she heard the details, she suddenly became incensed when they got to the part about Crazy Joe. “But… He fell off the boat too! When you found him, was his mask still on? Please tell me his mask is still on!” When Crazy Jane stopped shaking Sloop, he eased her worries, but when she was asked why it was so important that her brother’s mask remained where it was, she suddenly became quite demure, and fidgeted for a moment before answering. “Oh… No reason…”

Elsewhere, outside the chamber, Crazy Joe pulled down the glowing crystal with a bit more ease than the previous one who attempted to do so. However, Miss June shook her head as the hall she was keeping watch on showed no change. “Figured as much…” She took out one of her beacons and held it close to her face. “It seems that once a door has been used the first time, it won’t work again!”

With a sound that sounded like a vocalized attempt to mimic a radio crackle, Gyre responded. “Same on my end, too. I did run into a trap like this once that had a switch which opened the room from the inside. But… It was also a trap that slowly filled the room with water until I did so. Since they’re not in any immediate danger, this one’s likely different.”

After a moment of silence. Sloop’s voice came back out of the beacon. “There may be another way. There might be another, different mechanism in the stone close to the outer dimensions of the room! Take paths that circle around, and if you can’t find any, try to find something either above or below.”

After another brief stint of silence, Gyre answered again. “Hm! That’s a really good idea! There are actually a couple places down here like that!”

Miss June had an idea. “Mister Masters. Please perform your metal-detecting spell again and touch it to the beacon! With your permission, I should be able to osmose and copy it into my archival construct for the rest of the day and deploy it as a function through my beacons as an intermediary!”

With one last brief pause, Sloop gave his answer with an impressed tone. “That's… Really neat! I mean, you have my permission, Miss June! I’m using the spell… Now!”

Miss June summoned her archival construct and saw the prompt to osmose and copy the magic’s essence and aspect. She danced her fingers across her glass keys, then held up her beacon, which she and Crazy Joe both agreed that she should hang onto after a few clumsy mishaps on his part early on, and gave it a few taps and swipes across its surface. She went up to the sealed doorway and placed it against the stone wall, feeling a sound and vibrating pulse.

Gyre’s voice let out an exclamation from the beacon. “Now THIS is really nifty! I just might have to take you out to dinner a couple times myself if my kid brother insists on being so hesitant!” After the cacophony of the siblings’ argument silenced across the network, Miss June followed the mechanism in the wall by the pulse from her beacon while Crazy Joe kept a vigil on their surroundings for any more sneak attacks from the labyrinth’s bizarre endemic life.

After chasing away several herds of giant urchins after smashing apart their assembled forms with a few good swings of his wrecking ball, Crazy Joe gave his all-clear grunt for Miss June to come into the next chamber. She expeditiously swept the beacon all across the wall that would have curved around the sealed chamber. Eventually, it led her to another pool in the floor. This one went very far down, noticeably difficult to see the bottom.

Miss June turned back to Crazy Joe. “Madam Applejack mentioned that she’d discovered a variety of crystal that allows the holder to breathe underwater. It’s a solid blue stone with a lighter blue core. Do you think you can find it?” Crazy Joe nodded and gave an affirmative-sounding grunt, turning back only to take the beacon so he could find his way back before taking off.

After a few minutes and several loud blasts ringing out through the halls, Crazy Joe came back into Miss June’s chamber with his typical booming lumber carrying a pile of several different-colored crystals while his wrecking ball dragged behind him on its chain. He sat down and spread them all out on the ground between himself and Miss June who managed to pick out two of the particular variety she needed for herself and her present partner. “I think I’ll hold on to a couple more that we know the properties of just in case.”

Crazy Joe gave another affirmative grunt as he reached out to take his crystal. However, he paused as he appeared to be contemplating his actions as he passed the crystal between both hands. Eventually, he held it up to one of the breathing holes in his mask and managed to cram it halfway through. Miss June quickly realized that this may have been the best course of action as he definitely required the full range of motion of both hands to optimize his fighting style in the present conditions, impressed as she often was by the simple and incredibly practical ideas the warriors she knew often had.

Miss June and Crazy Joe got up and approached the pool. Crazy Joe went in first with another butt bomb, his weapon allowing him to quickly descend to the bottom. Miss June paused a reflexive deep breath before diving in headfirst, making her way to the bottom with a vertical crawling motion. At the bottom of the shaft, there was a passage leading forward to a space directly beneath the sealed chamber.

At the end of the channel was an entrance to a larger chamber roughly the same size and shape of the sealed chamber above. The only difference was the presence of three extra-large pull-levers in cardinal points in the corners of the chamber. Crazy Joe didn’t hesitate and dog paddled his way over to the nearest one, planting his feet firmly on the chamber’s floor and pulling it into place.

At first, a new series of metallic clanks echoed through the water, then, four doorways opened up in the middle of each wall in the chamber. Miss June, after altering her beacon to compensate for the water, was about to ask if something happened in the sealed chamber. However, her attention was caught by a nearby blast and flash as she saw Crazy Joe disperse an entire school of sharp-toothed fish that came out of the closest doorway to himself. She had a sudden epiphany about the situation and turned her body around with a twist, then awkwardly kicked and cycled her arms to dash backwards through the water as fast as she could as fish from the opposite entrance closed in on her.

Crazy Joe took notice and moved into position to intercept, extending an arm to deploy his only waterproofed attack spell: A light red bubble that shimmered with a chromatic surface, lazily floating forward as he attempted to deploy it with as much forward momentum as he could pass into it with his limited agility. The fish converged upon the shiny bait before scattering and going belly-up, stunned by the blast.

Crazy Joe kept a vigilance, but relaxed when no other fish entered through the new passages. He then made his way to another lever, but Miss June had no way of getting him to stop after she noticed that the lever he pulled earlier flipped back into place on its own. After Crazy Joe pulled the next lever in place, another series of metallic noises filled the water before a much larger entryway appeared out of a corner whose stone opened up in an elaborate series of foldings and retractions.

Out of the new passage swam the biggest beast yet. It was some manner of alligator gar, and its body as a whole would have been as long as three ponies lined up. Remembering his role, Crazy Joe attempted to draw its attention by rattling the chain of his wrecking ball. The alligator gar hardly gave Crazy Joe time to clumsily guard with his chain-covered forearm as it darted to him like a torpedo, passing him with a hollow clink from its teeth striking the steel as it passed and made a wide turn back around.

It definitely became apparent that while this beast only had one definitive way of attacking, it suited it just fine in this environment while the same couldn’t be said for Crazy Joe as he could barely move his arm into position while the big predatory fish was already repositioned for another pass, much less summon the focus to make his specialized underwater bomb. At this sight, Miss June knew she had to do something. She attempted to go through the crystals she had on her person, but dropped them as the alligator gar passed very closely to her this time, nearly choking on the water as she found herself holding her natural breath.

Miss June quickly decided on her priorities and grabbed at one of the light green crystals, squeezing it while concentrating on a very specific image. Right when the alligator gar was about to make a sure-to-hit snap right at its prey’s neck, it froze as it sensed a new occupant in its waterspace. Even if it couldn’t see the detailed image of the giant non-gar alligator, its instincts flipped a switch in its mind to I am the hunted now!

As Miss June saw the giant predatory fish’s tail disappear back the way it came, her lungs started to burn and she turned her attention back to the group of crystals that now lie on the floor of the flooded chamber. She quickly grabbed at one of the blue ones, but nearly choked as the mouthful of water obviously provided no respite.

However, as her vision started going out of focus, she found herself drawn to the arrangement of big and small blocks making up the walls of the chamber. The lines between them suddenly started flashing a lighter blue that she realized was the same color as the stone she was holding, not the darker blue of the one that provided underwater breathing. Then, new images began imposing on top of the arrangement of lines, mathematical numbers and symbols. Her computing mind realized that it was a code, one that revealed the proper order of switches to throw to engage… something. Right when she was about to see what, her vision started darkening completely as she lost consciousness.

…Suddenly, her lungs were filled with something nourishing and she snapped back to consciousness. She found herself in the arm of Crazy Joe as his other hand was enclosed around her own made to squeeze the darker blue crystal, one she noticed he pulled from his own mask. After recovering with a minute of deep breaths, she was able to float into a standing position on her own.

Holding her breath for a moment, she managed to gather all of her dropped crystals, then she took one of the light green ones and pointed to the levers, making a 1, 2, and 3 of light appear next to them in the order. Crazy Joe, his own breath crystal back where it was, momentarily hesitated, but then proceeded to pull the remaining lever. He flinched as the sounds rang out like before, but relaxed as nothing seemed to happen. Once he flipped the ones he did before in the right order, a whole bunch of sounds rang out.

First, some narrow openings appeared across the floor that drained the water out of the chamber. Then, on the side of the wall, a staircase popped out beneath an entrance in the ceiling. As they proceeded to the base of the stairs, Sloop appeared at the top, gesturing at them to come. “You guys might want to see what dropped in up here.”

ANNOUNCEMENT: Apology from Author

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NOTICE OF INDEFINITE HIATUS

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Island Adventure a Go Go: Part 10

Author's Note

I intend to give Island Adventure a Go Go it's proper conclusion as soon as I can before stepping away. There isn't much left to tell of it, at least. Just one last chapter and maybe a postlude if I can't fit it in.

They'll come as I finish them rather than how I've been doing it so far.

Island Adventure a Go Go: Part 10

They soon made their way to the high-rise that Sloop sensed the key to the bridge in. He quickly turned back to the group. “We don’t really know what might be in there, so I feel like I should volunteer myself to go in alone.”

Crazy Joe flinched at that, then made a string of serious-toned grunts. Applejack nodded her head and pointed a hoof at their squad’s leader. “I think I get the jist of what he means, and he’s right! This has to be the worst kinda place to go in alone at! Anything that lives in there’s gotta be the best at huntin’ in there!”

Sloop crossed his arms and made a sincere expression. “Exactly! If we all go in there knowing absolutely nothing and get ambushed, we’ll all be gonners, and who knows how everyone else will be able to cope without us! If I only have my own back to worry about, I should be able to maneuver a lot more easily and handle a sneak attack better. What’s more, if I use one of Miss June’s beacons, I should be able to relay anything I learn back to you guys and raise our odds of success however I can.”

Applejack had to (silently) admit that Sloop had a good point. Miss June conjured her archival construct and with a few rapid taps manifested a beacon. She took it in both hands and approached Sloop with it. “You’ll need this if you want to communicate your findings. And if you… Need help.” Sloop stared into his help’s face for a moment. He reached for the beacon, then pulled back after touching Miss June’s hand. The both of them turned away, blushing.

Placing his beacon into his pocket, he turned towards the doorway of the building, summoned his arrowguns to his raised hands, and entered the uncharted territory alone. A couple of minutes later, Miss June’s archival construct let out a noise and Sloop’s voice came through. “Hello? Do you copy?”

Applejack trotted up to Miss June, who lowered her construct with a motion from her hands. “Breaker, breaker, loud and clear, ten-four, roger-wilco.”

Sloop paused for a moment. “Um… What does all that mean?”

Applejack’s eyes widened, then she shook her head before placing a hoof on her temple. “I have no idea… Felt like something came over me for a sec…”

“Well… I just wanted you to know that I’m in the entry hall and nothing seems unusual so far. Big front desk, slate flooring, a few tacky paintings and statues. There’s an elevator right here, I think I can feel the key somewhere on the twentieth floor, roughly.”

The construct let out a ding and then a few minutes of easy-listening music. Then another ding out before the music faded out against the taps of Sloop’s boots. Suddenly, they stopped. “Oh… no…”

Applejack’s eyes widened. “What? What is it, Sloop?”

“It’s… terrible…! Absolutely horrific!”

“What? What is it?”

“It has to be one of the worst sights I’ve ever had to behold!”

“What is it for Celestia’s sake? What?”

“It’s… It’s…

“An office! Full of… cubicles!”

Even Crazy Joe betrayed a shiver at those words. Miss June, meanwhile, was trying her hardest to keep her lunch down as she was beset by a rapid chain of flashbacks from a period in her life she preferred to avoid thinking about. Sloop finished with a series of deep breaths to center himself. “Alright, the key should be about seven rows in at the third nearest cubicle. I’m going in.”

Sloop’s footsteps rang out at an even tempo against an eerily silent background, the observers only able to imagine what might be going on. Suddenly, a ruckus came through along with a grunt from Sloop. Then, the distinctive sound of his arrowguns letting off shots came from the vibrating glass. Applejack extended her neck to get closer to the construct. “What is it? Sloop! Come in!”

Thankfully, they could hear Sloop letting off a heavy breathing. “I… Don’t know. It felt like something came out of nowhere, really fast! Rushed me low, swept me off my feet. I got back up as quick as I could and let out some retaliatory shots, but I didn’t see it or where it went!”

Moments later, after sloop had successfully slowed his breathing, they heard the slow, gingerly taps of his footsteps as he likely advanced while carefully maintaining a cautious vigilance of his surroundings, the image of him with his arrowguns extended evident in the minds of all listeners. As quickly as before, another ruckus rang out followed by some shots from his arrowguns.

“I’m still okay!” Sloop spoke before anyone could prompt him. “This time, I might have something! I heard a rapid, sharp scurrying that could have only come from more than four legs! It’s got to be some kind of bug, another big one like all the others we’ve been finding across the island’s zones! But despite being bigger than any normal bug, it’s definitely got to be small enough to retreat from sight as quickly as it- URK!”

A sharp disturbance following Sloop’s grunt rang out from the construct, then silence. Miss June floated it back up to herself to inspect it, and her aggrieved expression did not ease Applejack or Crazy Joe. “The signal’s gone… Something must have happened to the beacon…!”

Applejack took a drawn-out breath, then with a furrowed brow let out a deep snort. She trotted towards the doors of the building, then turned back to the others. “I’m going in! Sloop needs us, and that’s all I need to know!”

The somewhat impressionable Crazy Joe enthusiastically rang out some tones beating against his chest plate before giving an enthusiastic cry. The mare and man continued to the door, but the woman stood stiffly as they left her behind. Realizing, Applejack craned her neck back with a raised eyebrow, and Miss June cringed under her scrutinizing gaze, turning her face away to avoid it. Applejack’s expression drooped at that, and she let out a tired, if not disappointed sigh before turning back and marching ahead.

The foyer was as Sloop described it. Fancy enough, but only meeting a standard typical to places like this. Applejack stopped in front of one of the elevators and Crazy Joe pushed the call button. Paradoxically after a long boring stretch and before they realized, the duo found themselves in the wide space positively cluttered with thin, fabric walls creating something resembling the labyrinth they’d visited barely a day previously.

At the sight of this, Applejack took a deep shaky breath before proceeding followed by her really large, somewhat silent shadow. “Seven across, three down. Seven across, three down. Seven across, three down. Sweet Celestia, how could anycreature work a day in a place like this? And some ponies spend their whole lives like that… Here?”

Crazy Joe, despite being very on-edge, comprehended and agreed with every word his present company was muttering with his surprisingly refined listening skills. He was glad to delegate most of the responsibility of making calls to somepony else despite his earlier enthusiasm.

In fact, his head snapped to the side the moment he heard some faint but powerful movement in the vicinity. Then, he twisted his whole body the other way when he heard a similar disturbance in another direction, this time getting the attention of Applejack. “What’re y'all…” But with a yelp, Applejack was cut off as something hit her legs as hard as a whiplash, sending her falling onto her side.

Gut instinct kicking in, Crazy Joe smoothly adjusted his footing and assumed a wide, low stance. He felt something hit him low and reflexively kicked outward, absorbing the blow and toppling the would-be assailant instead.

Applejack finally managed to stand herself up and her eyes went wide momentarily at the long, pale creature that briefly squirmed in place on the floor before flipping itself over and dashing out of sight like a bolt of white lightning. “I know that varmint! We always get a barnful of ‘em every corn harvest season! They probably have a fancy-like name Twilight could tell ya’ in a heartbeat, but let's call ‘em silverfish.” Then she looked down and held a hoof to her lower jaw. “But honestly, I don’t get the short name either. They’re a bit more of a tin-can shade to me, and they definitely ain’t fish…”

Suddenly, a loud bang let off deep among the cubicles along with a bright red flash. Applejack stretched her neck out and cocked an ear. “Wasn’t that Sloop’s arrowguns?” Crazy Joe gave a hard nod with an affirmative-sounding grunt before the both of them took off down a row, making a hard turn towards the cubicle where the flash came from.

They stopped when they found Sloop casually sitting on top of a desk at the back of an enclosed cubicle with an arrowgun in hand. Applejack gave a lopsided smile. “Well, ain’t you a sight for sore eyes! I don’t reckon you’ve found the key to the bridge?”

Uncharacteristically, Sloop gave a forlorn sigh before raising his free hand, making a clink with the key ring around his finger. “Yep. Of all the good it does me now…”

Now, Applejack’s patience and good humor found itself tested at this sudden unfamiliarity with a friend she’d grown very familiar with over the past few days. She stomped and thrust her head at Sloop. “Aw, what of it! Ya’ had all of us worried sick! Thinkin’ some kind of boogin had ya’ll in its jaws, and now we find ya sittin’ and sighin’ with the loot in hand! So what gives?”

At that outburst, Sloop scoffed and rolled his eyes. “From the ruckus I heard, I assume you’ve met the bugs in this place?”

Applejack raised an eyebrow at this, then hacked before spitting to the side. “Just a bunch of lousy silverfish! They’re fast, and they know how to tackle ya’ down, but not much else! So what about the bugs?”

Sloop stared out the corner of his eye and placed his chin in the crux of his thumb and forefinger, clearly ruminating over that new bit of information. “Silverfish, eh? I thought I spotted a glint of a familiar color out of the corner of my eye.” Then he hung his head with a sigh and placed both hands on his knees. “There’d be nothing to this if it were just a bunch of quick and sturdy wormy things.”

Applejack was about to retort with something sarcastic, until Sloop reached down his leg to pull up the leg of his pants, then she recoiled with a dropped jaw. At the side of Sloop’s calf was a wicked-looking gash, with some skin hanging off by a flap. But the real concern was the flesh around this injury. The skin around the circumference had turned a sickly green, and from the wound itself was spreading several visible bright red veins.

Crazy Joe’s eyes went wide and he immediately lumbered forward and bent his face close, his eyes narrowed in concentration. Applejack, with an eye narrowed and a hoof raised, motioned at the wounded warrior. “Poison?” As the seasoned bomb elemental looked back at her and nodded, she composed herself and gulped.

She was about to grab her hat from off her head, but Sloop groaned and waved the thought off. “Don’t waste anything over that! Just listen.” Applejack took her neutral stance and trotted forward. Sloop sighed and craned his gaze upward. “It happened about the third time I was knocked down. Another one followed in succession, but it was clearly different from the others, likely extruding sharp, venomous spines. When I flinched, I flung the beacon hard out of my own grip and it shattered. I managed to limp to the key with reckless abandon and get myself off the ground, but by the time you two made it up here, my whole leg had gone almost completely numb! I’m not sure how many of the poison ones are among them relative to the other silverfish, but I got off lucky! If one gets you in the torso or face while you’re down, it could be deadly!”

Applejack made a breathy groan as she turned her head back to the entrance of the cubicle. “If only I had my spray from the farm…! Not like I’d bet on it working on these super-silver whatsits! Just short of traps, how’re we supposed to attack something that’s gone as soon as we attack where it is? It’s not like we can attack where they will be, right?”

However, at that, Crazy Joe’s eyes went wide and he snapped his fingers. He lumbered past Applejack and took a place at the entrance of the cubicle. He looked around for a second before softly (as he could) stepping out into the row and bending down to the floor. He pressed his palm down and a bright red and pale yellowish half-sphere was left behind before he traced a circle of runes of the same interchanging colors around it. Finally, he let down a doubled length of his chain and rattled it for a minute before quickly pulling back into the cubicle.

A few moments later, the magic mine he placed ignited with a muffled blast as the explosion and all its force seemed to have been concentrated into a pillar-like phenomenon that flashed straight up for a brief moment before fading away as quickly. Another moment after that, the silverfish that triggered the blast fell back down, blackened and letting off smoke.

Sloop gave a smirk and nodded at that. “Some good old fashioned landmines definitely work. And thanks for using that rune array to keep us non-bombers out of the collateral damage! But do you think you could apply one to a bunch of them as we make our way out?”

At this, Crazy Joe’s brow arched. And he shrugged while grunting in the negative. Sloop just sighed and shook his head. “It figures. You’re certainly a magnificent warrior, but you’re still a mid-classer. You’ve still got a long way to go on your journey, not to say I don’t trip and stumble every once and a while on mine…”

Sloop forlornly looked down and gave his hurt leg a nudge, making it swing limply. However, his eyes suddenly went wide as he caught sight of Applejack’s working orange-coated legs. He stared for a moment, mumbling under his breath and fidgeting with his hand. Applejack twisted her mouth after this went on for a few more moments then she liked. She turned her head, looking at Sloop from the side as she crossed her front legs. “I feel bad ‘n all for yellen’ without knowin’ what happened, but I ain’t gonna let that excuse you from bein’ cheeky all of a sudden!”

Sloop scrunched his expression, shaking his head and waving his hand. “No! I think I might have the beginnings of another idea! But what else…” He trailed his gaze throughout the enclosing space surrounding him. Then he stared at Crazy Joe for a moment, then gave a look at the crispy silverfish and snapped his fingers with a smile. “I think I’ve got it!” Held up his arms. “Hey, big guy, would you mind helping me onto our pony friend’s back?” Crazy Joe paused for a moment, sparing a look at Applejack, who nodded.

Crazy Joe lumbered over to Sloop and picked him up with a slightly frightening ease, turning around to set him onto the back of Applejack, who raised an eyebrow at this development. “Okay… Now what?”

Sloop closed his eyes, abruptly took a deep breath and relaxed his body. Then he straightened his posture while tightening his core, clasping his palms together as one hand glowed blue and the other glowed red. Finally, he separated them and fully extended his arms to trace a circle of runes in front of the two of them, before it reoriented itself, floating to a horizontal position encircling the pony and their mounted human.

Applejack swung her head with a curious expression, sternly regarding the luminous symbols surrounding her despite their proven reliability. “I think I’ll just let you explain how this is gonna be different from the last time you used these rune thingums, cause’ aren’t you running on fumes?”

Sloop relaxed more casually as his magic settled into place. “This shouldn’t make that much of a difference, because what I did right before was an exercise in the major fist of wisdom. Whereas Slash’s fist of discipline expressed through his self-restraint enables him to use magic far beyond his capacity but once a day, this technique lets me get the most out of the minimal amount of magic after performing a predetermined routine. Only a shame that I’d never have the opportunity in the heat of an encounter, but an expanded arsenal is an expanded arsenal.”

Sloop’s face fell as he turned his gaze downward. “My loss against Oro finally made me know how much I still have to learn.” Then he raised his head with a more serene expression. “But seeing Kris’s duel against Slash had me understand how much there is for me to learn!” Then, he looked at Crazy Joe before raising an arm and summoning an arrowgun. “Still, there isn’t much that finely-executed creativity can’t beat. And I’ve always had that in droves!”

Crazy Joe flinched as Sloop pointed his weapon at him, knowing its sting firsthand. Sloop let off a shot, but right before Applejack was going to buck off her new rider, injured or not, the bullet stopped in midair right at the threshold created by the ring of runes.

Applejack raised a curious hoof at the frozen bullet. “What in the hey is this all about?”

Sloop finally gave a smile as he raised both his twin weapons. “Master Noxus used to tell me about arrowgun specialists who could do all kinds of crazy stuff with their ammunition, even make their bullets hang in the air until a foe crosses the path it points to! I’ve only recently gotten the knack of using mine in more elaborate ways, so I’m using this rune array to improvise. It’s basically a trap, and in many ways a means of striking first!”

Sloop raised both weapons this time and shot more bullets out at different angles, surrounding himself and his willing mount with a circle of eight. “If any of those bugs get near, one of these should send it back! I’ll keep three loaded just in case.”

Applejack’s expression brightened as she considered this new factor in their situation. She gave a hearty nod with a smile and looked at Crazy Joe, pointing her hoof to the exit. “Sounds to me that we’re ready to move out and regroup with the others! Ready big guy?” Crazy Joe’s eyes brightened and he gave an enthusiastic grunt, Applejack trotting back out into the open office as he followed behind.

Once they were nearly to the end of the rows of cubicles, Applejack and Sloop flinched as a bright flash of one of his bullets went off. Before they knew it, a silverfish had been flung back, its legs weakly twitching. While they were still reeling from this, three more bullets were released from their places, blasting away the same number of silverfish in an instant, with one of the downed creatures having a row of sharp spines across both sides of its narrow body.

Sloop loudly gulped. “That’s… Four gone in less than a minute, pretty much half our defense. This may have been a bad idea. So… run!” Applejack took off in a gallop with Crazy Joe barreling behind as fast as he could.

One more silverfish was blasted before they finally made it to the elevators. Sloop repeatedly mashed on the call button with a pinky extending adjacently from his grip on one of his weapons. “Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on!” Suddenly, the last two of the bullets flew from their place, and the encircling array disappeared. Sloop raised his arrowguns out of anticipation. “That’s it! We’re vulnerable! Stay alert, people!”

Their salvation seemed to come when the bell from one of the elevator doors sounded, but seemed to have been paired with misfortune as this moment of distraction allowed another silverfish to fly across the floor, sweeping Applejack’s feet from under her and causing both of them to hit the ground. When Sloop opened the eyes shut by his cringe response to the fall, he just happened to spy another silverfish looming out from behind a corner desk, one with the poison spines.

It took off right when the doors to their side opened up, but when it was halfway to them a second later, it somehow paused. The oversized wormlike bug spasmed, as if in great pain. Then, it took off again, this time in retreat. As Crazy Joe helped the pony and his fellow warrior back up, he could swear he could hear all of them rushing away from this space, along with something else with a faint ambiance that made his ears itch.

When Applejack and Sloop were still regaining their senses, the closer elevator let out a tone before opening up. Noticing that it was empty, Sloop realized that this was the one they called. Applejack turned slightly and saw that the occupant from the one before was Miss June, who had a handheld version of her archival construct high up with a couple of floating chip-like panes vibrating slightly.

When she noticed all the eyes on her, she timidly looked away and pulled in her arms, the vibrating from her construct ceasing. “Um… When I was alone, I thought about all the dangerous bugs we met here and remembered an old trick I used to do to chase out the roaches from the apartments I lived in….”

Sloop brightened up at that. “Ultrasonic vibrations! Of course! And with an archival construct, it’d be easy to figure out how to adjust for the size!”

Crazy Joe coughed to get everyone’s attention, then started motioning to the elevators repeatedly. Sloop’s eyes went wide with comprehension. “He’s right! That trick might work, but not for long! We have what we came for, now we need to get out of here!” The lot of them were sent scrambling. All crowding into the same elevator, sucking in their guts as the doors closed.

Island Adventure a Go Go: Final Part

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Island Adventure a Go Go: Postlude

Sloop absentmindedly scratched at the part of his calf where the scar from his poisoned injury formed. Then he straightened up and pushed the hand truck laden with jangling crates up the gangplank. Miss June, who for the last few days had preferred to be called Vitra June, or just June especially by Sloop, entered something onto their cargo log. When their eyes met briefly, they both turned away, their tanned faces glowing a bit more brightly.

Back on the beach, Rarity gave a long, passionate sigh at the sight of that brief exchange. She stared into space for a moment until Applejack came up and gave her a poke in the flank. After a shocked but elegant jump on her part, She followed the other mare, trotting onto the ship carrying crystal-laden baskets lashed onto some hand made saddles.

Out of the foliage came a train of bipeds. Leading the way was Crazy Jane carrying jar and pottery-laden boxes that jingled as she swayed forward. Behind her was Crazy Joe lifting a bigger crate even bigger than he was, but he breathed easily through a woven mask with several blue crystals embedded into it. At the back came a battle-formed Percival, carrying three boxes in a stack each in his six arms, all surrounding a torso elongated for extra stability.

The last of the cargo loaded into the hold, the crew went back up onto the deck to mingle and take it easy. Crazy Jane strode up to Sloop at the bow as he was crossing the last few things off of a to-do leaf with an ink-dipped stick. “You know, I happen to be acquainted with a few collectors that’d pay a fortune and then some for artifacts from a newly-discovered civilization.”

Sloop paused, then turned to his guest with a furrowed brow. “They’re going to the Canterlot historical society and various universities for the standard rate, just like the law says where historical treasures are supposed to go. It’ll be my honor to know that the real value of what I found lies in what can be learned and discovered.”

Crazy Jane made a short giggle and rolled her eyes. “Oh… What does following the rules and every law like a goody two-shoes get you in life? Self respect? Direction, purpose, and security in life? The esteem and respect of your peers and betters? Some of us just prefer doing what we love in life for money.”

Sloop scoffed and gave her a smirk. “Just don’t let me be the one to catch you ‘Doing what you love’, or I’ll be the one to send you back to Tartarus as one of the things I love to do for money!” Even after Sloop turned back to his checklist, Crazy Jane stood stunned at that. Then she smiled and gave him a smirk with some dreamy eyes, staring at him for a moment before looking at June and sighing. She strode over to the other fire tribeswoman and decided to offer her some very particular advice (whether she wanted it or not).

Finally, the time came. Sloop stretched over the gunwale to look at Gyre standing in front of the surf. Though she appeared to just be staring blankly at the boat, Sloop could somehow tell that at the moment, she was feeling extremely conflicted.

Sloop looked away, scratching the back of his head for a moment. “Um… I know you’ve spent so many years here, and have basically built a life by now. We’re both adults, and we need to chart our own lives by having faith in ourselves. I won’t beg you to come just for… My sake…”

Gyre’s eyes went all over the place. She started fidgeting heavily with her hands and her posture flexed one way and the other, practically rocking on her feet. Finally, she took a breath and looked her brother in the eyes. “Are there… Mossnuts where you all came from…?”

Sloop froze for a moment. He broke out in a big, confident smile, looking away as he casually leaned his elbow onto the top of the gunwale. “Oh, BOY Gyre…! The things they have here on the surface! Most of the simple pleasures we had in Core Metro were just pale imitations of the things our ancestors left behind! I can’t even begin to find the words for just a single bite of a donut-”

Somehow, in the blink of an eye, Gyre was on the deck of the boat. “Well! What are we waiting for then! Anyone want to help me with my luggage?”

Rarity could have sworn there where there was nothing but warm tropical air a second before, there was a small pile of crates and baskets right behind her. She looked back and forth at the two anomalies mouth agape, weakly gesturing with a raised hoof. Applejack trotted over wearing a cocky smile. She bumped against Rarity’s side with her shoulder and just laughed until her expression eased.

Percival walked to Sloop in a wiggly, cartoonish gait. He turned to him, bracing himself on the gunwale, deciding not to let on how his legs felt like they were about to melt. “So… Now that our voyage is pretty much finished, have you decided on an awesome name for the awesome ship we worked so hard to rescue?”

Sloop took a moment to stare at his sister, Percival recognizing a tremendous sentiment and just a bit of true love. “Now that you mention it, how does… The Homebound Courier sound to you?”

Percival paused for a moment, his eye holes wide. Then he started laughing. His whole body jiggled until he’d turned into a puddle of goo from the knees down. “That… Is WAY too geeky!” Then, with a deep inhalation of unknown origin, he reformed enough to lay a hand on his friend’s shoulder. “But… There isn’t another name I’d rather have.”

With everything in the hold loaded and accounted for, Sloop gave the boat a final once-over from atop his external helm. Seeing that all of the hatches were battened down, he twisted one of the spokes and gave the whole thing a push as the boat shoved off, turning to port and accelerating back to Silver Shoals. Once the island was farther into the distance, Sloop held up his hand to the sun and stared carefully. However, his expression turned to one of displeasure. He scratched at his chin after turning back to the waters ahead.

Eventually, Sloop got back down and went into the cabin right to the internal helm to consult his charts, compasses and timepieces. Eventually, he turned back to the cabin proper, sparing enough of a look to see Roux and the fillies playing a game where he’d perform a series of tricks with his yo-yo and they’d try to repeat with hoofmade ones, laughing when they’d accidentally nail one-another in the eye.

Sloop abruptly remembered what he’d come to do in the first place and coughed to get everyone and everypony’s attention. “Gyre, dear sister, can you tell me… How did you come to reside on that island in the first place?”

Gyre paused, her blank expression not easily betraying the complex, abstract thoughts rapid-firing behind the face. Eventually, she stood up from her seat and began gesturing with a hand, the other held to her chin. “Well, I was in a bit of a funk after the guilds were abolished when I’d believed I’d found my place after so long. In fact, ‘funk’ doesn’t even begin to describe what I was feeling at the time. I suppose in the midst of deepest despair, I wanted to try some new things.

“Didn’t really think of a lot of things I hadn’t done, I’d even considered taking a bath fully clothed if you’d believe it. So I decided to fly as high as I could and see if I could touch the roof of the cavern, maybe even plant a flag. When I got there, I heard what sounded like someone moaning. I guess I forgot some of the adventurer’s rules and went over to look, but what I’d found was a big, deep crevice and the next thing I knew, I’d been sucked in by the wind. I passed out in the darkness and the next thing I knew, I was blinded by the sunlight lying on grass I’d only ever heard about in my lessons.”

Everyone seemed bewildered by that tale. Percival, relaxing at last in someone else's form, spoke in Applejack’s voice. “I guess it makes sense. There were tall tales all through Core Metro’s history of mysterious things found in the caverns that could have only come from the surface, which definitely kept the memory of the surface alive. It just makes sense for the process to work in reverse.”

Sloop looked away, scratching at his chin. A moment later, he seemed to have come to a kind of resolution and turned back to the controls. He fiddled with a specific order of levers and buttons before speaking into a pipe that sent his voice throughout the cabin. “Brace yourselves, everyone! We’re about to DIVE, DIVE, DIVE!” Everyone scrambled to occupy the seats next to the bolted support rods as a low, mechanical horn rang a series of long tones with a red light flashing in the center of the roof.

Sloop took a steady footing as his view of the bow began to sink into the water, first with the waves overtaking the deck, then the waterline quickly rising over the multi-layered, reinforced glass. The boat continued like this, plunging at an angle into the deep, dark blue as the fathometer on the control panel just kept rising. Aware of the rapid, intense, but silent debate among his passengers and crew, he heard someone climbing the ladder as the most likely to reason with what seemed like their mad captain.

Rarity carefully trotted up to Sloop in the upraised helm, attempting to maintain sea legs normally accustomed to platforms on top of water. “Pardonne-moi, Capitaine, but we all feel like we’ve had enough excitement for a lifetime or two between us, and we’d like to retire to more familiar beds for a good, long while. So on behalf of your crew, might I ask, what in Celestia’s name do you think you’re doing?”

Sloop paused, but held up a finger to indicate that he’d heard the prompt from his friend. Then, he pointed it forward. “Don’t you notice something odd about this sight, Miss Rarity? Something important that should be there, but isn’t?”

Rarity, already exhausted beyond her limit despite appearances, couldn’t muster much of a retort and just trotted up next to Sloop to take a look for herself. She narrowed her eyes painted with natural, organic makeup made out of necessity. “I can’t pretend I know what you mean. It’s just the ocean, the deep open sea and the rocky, flat… sea… floor…?”

Sloop let out a hearty laugh and snapped a finger, pointing straight ahead. “Exactly! We’re not all that far from the island, yet we’ve already passed the dropoff into the open ocean! For an island that big, we should be seeing some shallows or a shoal for at least a league! But there’s nothing like that out here!”

Sloop took hold of the helm and a lever. He turned to the speaking pipe. “Hold on, all! We’re gonna make a hard about-face turn!” The crew scrambled to hang onto anything they could grip as Sloop gave the wheel a spin, laughing maniacally all the way as the interior of the ship pitched hard.

Finally, they came back up to the island. Or rather, to Rarity’s amazement, they came up to the bottom of the island. Sloop let out a cry and pointed. “I knew it, I KNEW IT! That is definitely NOT an ordinary island, but that’s obvious! THIS is the reason for all of that wonderful lunacy!”

Finally at their limit with Sloop’s sudden bout of madness, the whole crew climbed up to the helm, prepared to stage a mutiny. However, they all froze at what they saw beyond the glass. Sloop spared a moment to look smug, wiggling his eyebrows before turning back and pointing at the sight before them.

“A phantom island! An island that’s not rooted to the crust of the world, but floats on top of the surface of the ocean, never staying in one place for long. A real wonder of wild magic! I could tell from the constant starlight in that last zone we discovered that our position had shifted from where we should have been in the sea!”

Underneath a halo of beach sand, an enormous cluster of rock tapered to a long, extended tip in the center like some kind of upside-down mountain. However, sticking out of this were giant spires of crystal, six of them each a different color. Sloop scratched his nose as he made a knowing smile at this. “In fact, I’d wager that this one is a very particular phantom island… I’d say it’s the fabled South Star Island! Legend has it that it’s supposed to be a remnant of a time when magic reigned supreme, it was the most southern point in the world back when it was flat like a pizza pie!”

He turned to give a look at Rarity, Applejack, and the fillies. “Just like the way the sun and moon need to be raised and lowered with unicorn magic! It’s said to call out to and draw in beings with longing and ambition in subtle ways, and it rewards the worthy and brave who seek its mysteries! In spite of a lot, we probably haven’t seen anything yet!”

Sloop turned back to his passengers with a face full of pride. However, alongside the wonder and awe in each of their expressions, he also saw extreme exhaustion. He turned back and gripped the helm, looking here and there as he thought. He had a much more flat expression as he gave a nod, and he threw the throttle once again and turned back around much more gently, shocking everyone as he smoothly guided the vessel to the surface and back to its previous heading.

Applejack raised an eyebrow and tilted her head. “What…? You seemed really excited! Like you’d found the adventure of a lifetime!”

Sloop turned back and gave the mare a much more gentle smile. “Yeah… But like you all said, we’ve all probably had enough adventure for a good, long while! Even the greatest warriors and heroes ever needed their rest! Vacations and holidays are nice only because they give you enough time away from your mundane life so that you can return to it with a new, better outlook!” He turned back to the helm and steadied the course. “All that stuff will be there when I get back, but that’s a story for another time. Especially since as a compass elemental, I should be able to home in on it if I try! And by then, I’ll be smarter, tougher, and much more prepared!”

The whole crew now felt a little less guilty in breathing a sigh of relief. They all returned to their seats and got settled in for a nice, comfortable journey home.

About an hour later, Rarity started fidgeting in her seat. It was a nice upholstery, and she was tempted to ask Sloop who did it so she could have one of her void-lounges made by them. Yet, she felt like she was on pins and needles, that she should be doing something except sitting and waiting. She looked around the cabin and her gaze fell onto Gyre. She made a soft coughing and held out a hoof. “I beg your pardon, Miss Masters, but could you tell us the story of what happened with you and Sloop when you went to that one zone to rescue Master Joe?”

Gyre paused for several moments, obviously contemplating her words. She gave a bit of a smile before speaking. “Well… I made my way there first and landed okay, but since it was Sloop’s first trip though the nowhere zone between zones, he kind of did a belly-flop into it, and even when he got up he looked really, really confused!”

Everyone stood entranced, listening to Gyre’s perspective on the first part of the group’s big adventure. They shared a laugh at some of the embarrassing scenes she painted at Sloop’s expense, to which he could only laugh at himself while at the helm. Next, Percival took over to tell the story about the zone with the lava and marble ruins. He embellished by turning into the likeness of his companions, but despite contesting the accuracy of the events, they couldn’t help but join in laughing. From there, they went back and forth trading their own experiences they’d had on the trip. Despite remembering them as something terrifying, the way they shared them, they couldn’t help but feel proud at what they’d done in the midst of peril. The children were the most captivated of them all, and even the typically reserved Roux couldn’t help but interject with a question or two when a subject came up that caught his interest, wanting more details.

On the island, they’d suffered so much fear, doubt, uncertainty, and even pain, but after talking about it for hours, they’d begun to see all of that in a new, better light, along with the island itself.

Eventually, they all decided to go abovedeck straight to the stern just to see the island, as it now looked so small on the horizon. The fillies suddenly began waving at it, shouting a spirited farewell. With another moment or two to shed their inhibitions, the others joined them. Miss June rubbed her hands and spread flecks of glass like glittering confetti while the bomb elemental siblings sent out fireworks. Rarity lit up her horn and shook it above while Applejack stomped her hooves on the deck and hollered, whirling her hat around in her jaws.

However, they all suddenly went silent as what looked like an aurora appeared in the sky above the island, undulating as if it were waving a flag. Then, it all swirled downward before several small bright lights flew back upward, exploding like fireworks in recreations of all of their faces. Even Sloop was utterly flabbergasted at that, and could only tip his hat as he turned back forward on the external helm.

Author's Note

Well, there you have it. I'd like to thank anyone who stayed on to see this story out to its conclusion.
From this point, I'm going to devote my time to a book I can publish as a legitimate debut work as an author, but I'd love to return to this ongoing series someday.