As Lightning Rod is lowered onto the black waters by a small team of pirates, Korsan paces around the main deck of his ship, examining his surroundings. With the night sky above with very little light to shine onto this unknown sea, the glow of the unicorns’ magic, the torches of the boats, and the tint of anti-magic brightly illuminate their shadowy surroundings. The faint sounds of the rippling water and the creaking of the wooden ships occupy the otherwise perfect silence. Even the smell of saltwater was vacant from where it should be in this location. At the wandering captain’s side, Chopin is holding a scroll, an inked quill, and a lit candle in his magic.

As the caped pony speaks, the mine writes, “The Second Pulse; a mysterious body of water, locked inside the bellows of the Breach. An unusual place this is, with barely any sign of natural nocturnal and oceanic activities. No stars to provide light, no motion of the moon that is seen here, no waves or disruptions in the vast water, no clouds in the sky, no smell of saltwater, and no sound whatsoever to be heard. The whereabouts of this location are, as of this moment, are currently unknown in terms of geographic or scientific understandings. If my navigation skills are to be believed, the Second Pulse is in fact located either at the bottom or even below the vast oceans of the Old World. Now, how this is possible is still under questioning. However, the main focus of this location, and the only piece of above water land to be see is-” Amidst his monologue, a sharp pain suddenly strikes through Korsan’s body, “-my back!” As the captain kneels to the floor, he glances over to Chopin, who is including the scream in his writing. “Scratch that last bit.” He pants.

“Captain,” one of the lowering stallions at the edge of the deck calls out, “Are you okay?”

“I-I’m fine. I just need to recalibrate, that’s all.

“Need some assistance?”

“No, I’ll be fine.” Slowly, the bipedal stallion picks himself up onto his hind hooves, groaning in the process. “I can make it to the study from here. Just get The Perfection airborne and heading straight for Alicorn Island.”

“What about Twilight?”

“We’ve given her and her crew fair warning. Followe to what we’ve agreed to.”

“Yes sir.”

“Chopin, just keep that paper secure until I come back. Got it?” Chopin simply nods. “Yeah,” As Korsan now slowly hobbles across the deck, he sees Rarity alongside the unicorns lowering Twilight’s ship, staring out towards the thin vessel. “Miss Rarity,”

The mare quickly turns her attention to the brown stallion and replies, “Yes?”

“Meet me up in the study. I could use your help in recalibrating my mechanics.”

“What happened?”

“Oh yeah, I forgot that this is your first time to see this. Well, basically, my body and my mechanical suit occasionally become out of sync and I have to adjust the gears back. I overclocked my suit a little too far this time in the Breach it seems, and now it’s out.”

“I see. I’ll be right with you in a minute.”

“Take your time.” As Korsan limps onwards to his chambers, Rarity looks back out over to Twilight, now a fair hundred metres away on her boat peacefully sitting in the sea. From the poop deck of her ship, Twilight stares back towards her friend. Each mare now currently has one million thoughts of each other, dashing through their heads, as their eyes focus on each other.

“Twilight…”

As Rarity continues to stare out to sea, her ears pick up on a conversation between a pair of stallions at her right, having just finished lowering Lightning Rod. “You know,” the younger pirate proclaims, “I think the captain’s off of his rocker.”

“Who wouldn’t?” The older one replies, “He punched a giant monster and club hauled this boat twice in a row, on sand.”

“Wasn’t there a third one?”

“That was a flip, another item on his crazy list.”

“Well from the look of things, he looks like he’ll be feelin’ it in the morning.”

“Yeah, pity.”

“Which, his back or his sanity?”

“Both as far as I’m concerned,”

“Hey, speaking of his back. You know what I’ve heard from Butch?”

“The veteran? What?”

“I heard that when Captain first started this pirate campaign, he stood on all fours.”

“Shut up. We all know he was born like that or something. There’s no way he would have-”

“I’m being legit about this. And why he’s like that is because of those ‘recalibrations’. Despite what he’s been telling us, Butch says that it’s not the metal parts that the captain’s changing, it’s his own structure of his body. Pretty soon, I’m betting that Korsan’s going to be bendin’ backwards.”

“Like he doesn’t already? Look, if what he rambles about this here island is true, we could become the most powerful ponies in existence. You could also stop worrying your little skull about the captain’s back.”

“True, true, hey, ever hear about the Faction?”

“Those bunch of bums? They were just some fake gossip that died off two weeks ago.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, listen to me, aight?”

“Whatever.”

“From what I hear from Clara, that Frankie told Maria told Phlox told Lazarus told Ivan told Lilis told Lotus told Yin told Yu told her, that Faction’s going to strike soon.”

“Oh for-”

“Hey, hey, hey, you following me right?”

“Barely,”

“So yeah, from what I hear, Faction is meeting up once again at any time soon and they are going to-”

“Rarity,” A filly’s voice speaks from beside Rarity’s opposite side, causing her to jump. Snapping her head around, the white unicorn sees it’s her little sister with a look of concern on her face.

“Oh, it’s you.” Rarity answers in a gasp. As the Perfection begins to rise from the black ocean and take flight once more, the two mares walk away from the railing and head towards the quarterdeck, talking to each other along the way. “What is it?”

“Why aren’t we with Twilight and the others?”

“Well… It’s complicated.”

“Are we now enemies with Twilight?”

“No, no, no, we’re still their friends.”

“Are we still going to fight Korsan and the others? I don’t want to.”

“Not that either,”

“Is it because you and Captain Korsan are together?”

“Wai-what-I-I-mea-no-yes… Ahh, no, not that,”

“Aww, that’s too bad. You two seemed really nice together, you were even making the captain a lot nicer than before.”

“…”

“So why are we here?”

“It’s far too complicated for you to understand, just hurry along to your cabin. We had enough adventuring for a day.”

“Can you just tell me a simple answer?”

“…I don’t know.”

“…I don’t get it.”

“Please, just, go to bed, or play with somepony, like Yin and Yu.”

“I thought you told me never to play with them.”

“Oh, right, I mean, play with somepony other than Yin and Yu.”

“Okay.”

“Darn loose nut!” Korsan loudly groans as he yanks his large monkey wrench into his back piece at the main table of his library. His thin body is spread across the golden top as he is doing this while the Diamond Eye and whatever books that were on the table are strewn across the floor. Pain circulates through his body as he attempts to tediously work his black tool.

“Need some help?” Rarity asks from one of the open doors from the adjacent sleeping chamber. “Sorry I was late.”

“No problem, just slide the jaws around the top nut of the thirty-second gear.”

“Uh, okay.” Slowly, Rarity approaches her captain and grabs a hold of the wrench with her magic. Looking down into the mess of gears, pistons, nuts, bolts, and cables, she lowers the implement around a loose-looking nut on a gear and forcefully turns it inwards. Korsan hollers in agony.

“Thirty-second, not thirty-third! The one above!”

“Sorry!” Rarity quickly resets the nut to its loose position and tightens a different bolt on the above copper gear as said. A series of loud cracks and clinks erupt from the mechanical suit as well as a hard groan from its user as the lock is tightened.

“Gah,” Korsan sighs in relief as he climbs off from the large table. “Thank you. It’s always that one nut that gives me trouble.”

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Rarity asks as she returns the tool onto the empty tabletop. “It didn’t sound good.”

“No, no, I’m fine. Just a simple returning recalibration to the mechanical presets, that is all.”

“You look a bit taller than before, more upright.”

“It’s nothing, it probably fixes itself in time.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah.”

“…Okay, don’t want you to hurt yourself. Hey, mind if I ask you something?”

“What?”

“I don’t to get to personal, but, what’s with you and your cousin, Isyan?”

“The boatswain? It’s only a clash in intellectual statuses that’s all. Daft moron can barely keep track of the crew he so ‘desperately’ strives to protect. Speaking of which, I haven’t seen Ms. Gutzoult for the longest time,”

“Slasher? I haven’t seen her in a while either.”

“Probably been busy with her cats, that mare,”

“Actually, her cats have been roaming around the ship a lot more recently.”

“Odd, they usually stick around in her room. Remind me to do a headcount as soon as we reach Alicorn Island. For now, let’s see, what would interest you the most in here… ‘The Complete Guide to Walking the Plank’, no, ‘A Super Generic Romance on the Sea’, no, ‘My Little Kitten, The Pirate Doggy’, no idea how I got that, ‘The True Concessions of Charlie David’, ehhh, overrated, ‘Treasure Kingdom’, per-” The entire room out of nowhere jerks to a side and back, causing hundreds of books to fall from their shelves and bury the now fallen ponies.

“What was that?”

“Looks like somepony took the latter option.”

“Please tell me it isn’t,”

“It is. I can still smell that Northwestern Equestrian Oak, or maybe it’s just a stain on my cape.”

“Should go out there and help the crew?”

“Nah, they have this all under control.”

“We don’t have this under control!” Hans screams out from the gun deck, frantically aiming his cannon towards its speeding target.

“It just keeps moving everywhere,” Lazarus angrily replies as he blindly fires his cannon at from other side of the boat.

“Pip, Yin, I need more powder!” A small pink mare promptly hurries to the open end of the recoiled cannon with a full charge of gunpowder in her grasp. “Thank you Pip!”

“How hard can it be to hit them?” Yin casually remarks from beside the blue gunner.

“How about you try?” Lazarus furiously asks before backing away from the large weapon.

“Fine, watch and learn you colourblind jockey, it’ll be as easy as-holy cow, they’re moving fast.”

Outside the massive hull of The Perfection, zipping across the black waters of the sea, Lightning Rod is racing across the still ocean at double the speed of the former airship. With Twilight at the controls and Alicorn Island in her sights, she pilots the long speeder as Korsan’s crew vigorously tries to fire at her and her crew. Meanwhile, below deck, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Spike, and Scootaloo are firing their small cannons back at the pursuing pirate ship.

“Oh yeah!” Rainbow Dash proclaims, “This is what I’ve wanted to do ever since we left!”

“Just don’t hit any of the ponies on board.” Fluttershy replies.

“What about Korsan?” Spike asks.

“Except him.” As the longboat swerves around the massive cannon shots and accelerates, it quickly escapes the range of Korsan’s crew and speeds far ahead.

“Ha!” Dash boasts, “That slow-mobile’s got nothing on us.”

Pinkie Pie optimistically replies, “True, unless there was some special mode it can go in that dramatically increases its speed and catches up to us.”

“Oh please, that sounds…” Spike retorts before actually starting to think about it, “Somewhat plausible.” Soon, from being a fading dot behind them, the massive dot of a boat returns to its sheer up-close scale as it rapidly catches up to Twilight and the others.

“Called it!”

“Oh my skills at gambling!” Yu screams as tightly clenches the wheel of his ship, having activated the alternate levers and is now controlling the racing behemoth. “Now I know why this is so awesome for Captain!”

“Keep it steady!” Yin’s voice squawks from the metal speaking pipe.

Twilight watches in terror as the rival ship passes over hers and begins to lower onto hers. She quickly veers the vessel right. The Perfection slams into the cold water below, creating a large wave in its wake. Lightning Rod barely skims the edge of the port deck of the fallen giant. The ship quickly gets back up and attempts to land on the dwarfed boat again. The purple alicorn quickly reacts and dodges the dive again. With Alicorn Island coming closer and closer in view, the two pilots begin to grow desperate as to how to stop the other.

Yu then commands, “That’s it, going aquatic! Prepare to fire grappling shots at enemy vessel.” With a flick of a lever, Korsan’s ship drops back down onto the ocean water, but stays down as it chases after Twilight’s. The front cannons are quickly loaded and the starboard cannon is quickly aimed at the close vessel. Without a way to sneak under, Twilight finds herself trapped. The cannon fires and the large metal hook pierces the bow of Lightning Rod. “Bring ‘er in! Hahahahaha!”

“We’ve been grappled!” Twilight screams out to her crew below. Slowly, her boat is pulled towards the battleship, and if she doesn’t do something in time, Lightning Rod will be crushed by the massive hull. She attempts to pull her boat away, speed faster than the opposing vessel, and dislodge the grapple by some means from the wheel, all to no avail. The mares and Spike below see what’s going on from their open views below deck and are firing at the thick wall of wood with all of their might.

“The hull’s too thick!” Scootaloo exclaims.

“We’re going to sink!” Fluttershy squeals.

“Not on my watch!” Rainbow Dash declares before charging out from the gun deck and flying upwards from Lightning Rod. The cyan pegasus soars up to the quickly passing main deck of Korsan’s ship and darts her way to the wheel. Dash slaloms around the masts. She maneuvers through the rigging. She avoids the bolts of magic fired at her from the screaming lookouts above. Soon, the rainbow streak of blurred light reaches the quarterdeck and the wheel, only to be immediately enveloped in a brown magic aura and brought to a halt. “Oh come on!”

“Ha, ha-” Yu cheers as he reveals himself from behind the wheel, only to stop short upon seeing who he actually caught. “Wait, you’re not Twilight.”

“You’re not Korsan.”

“Oh well. I gotcha now!”

Rainbow then suddenly gasps in fear and screams, “Look out! Behind you!”

“You think I’m going to fall for that?”

“No, seriously!”

“Well I’m not.”

“Look out, look out!”

“I know you’re faking.”

“I’m not! Look out!”

“You are…”

“No!”

“Yes.”

“No!”

“Yes.”

“No!”

“Yes.”

“No!”

“Yes.”

“No!”

“Yes.”

“No, no, no, no! I don’t want to die!”

“I-I know you’re faking it…”

“Look out! Please! I’m begging you!”

Overcome with paranoia, the yellow stallion quickly glances behind him, “What is it?!” Falling for her trick, Dash quickly breaks herself free from the immediately weakened focus of the telepath. She then delivers a powerful kick to the back of the unicorn’s skull as he starts to turn back, flinging him across the poop deck and knocking him out.

Falling into unconsciousness, the pirate dizzyingly speaks, “Dem hills are alive, with the sound of gold…”

“Now to find the ‘Remove-the-Grapple’ thing,” Rainbow quickly grabs onto the deck and climbs her way to the wheel and levers. Overwhelmed by the number of controls, Dash quickly realizes that she has no idea what she’s doing. “Uh… Eeny, meeny, miny, moe!” Without hesitation, the mare randomly grabs onto a lever near the back and pulls it down.  Instantly, The Perfection comes to a sudden halt, sending its new pilot slamming headfirst into the wheel. Lightning Rod is flung up into the air by its momentum and the grappling cable. The grapple snaps from the violent take off. With the mares on board screaming, the speeding vessel is flung over the top of Alicorn Island, which turns out to be only a mere hundred metres from the stopped airship.

“That’s it!” Korsan’s voice angrily bellows from his quarters before the bipedal captain bursts out onto the open quarterdeck alongside Rarity and an unnerved ice phoenix. “What’s the meaning of this?!” Furiously, he climbs up to the wheel and discovers Rainbow’s and Yu’s unconscious bodies, surprising him. “What the hay,”

“No mommy,” Dash mutters, “I wanna ride the pretty cloud…”

“Well that’s odd.”

“Captain!” One of the lookouts above holler, “we reached-”

“Before you finish that, tell me what happened down here?”

“Well, it’s a bit complicated beyond what you’re seeing. But it did result in the removal of Twilight’s vessel and-”

“Define ‘removal’.”

“It was, it was flung over the island sir. We have reached Alicorn Island, Captain.”

“Wait, what?”

“We did it. We reached Alicorn Island.” Slowly, the caped captain looks behind him, to the bow of his boat, and is overcome with joy at what he sees. He frantically runs down the main deck to get a better look of the island he’s been searching for throughout his entire career. With a solid pale shoreline of fine sand, exotic brush, massive ancient ruins made of carved mountains of granite, and a towering volcano temple in the center of the perfectly circular isle, Alicorn Island peacefully stands strong and colossal on the still seas that surround it, right in front of Korsan.

“Yes. I did it. I finally did it. I have reached Alicorn Island!”

“We made it sis’. I’m making sure nothin’ happens to you from now on. I guarantee it.”