A grey haze forms in Rainbow Dash’s vision as the mare comes to her senses. After spending an unknown amount of time knocked out into an eternal darkness, this is an immediate relief. However, that relief is cut short by a sharp pain running through her forehead and a tight sensation around her barrel and legs. The only sound she can currently make as her senses return are small moans with her dry and tense throat. As the pegasus moans in the hazy black, several voices begin to echo around her.

“She’s coming to.” One of them proclaims.

“What should we do about it?” Another voice asks.

A familiar young stallion’s voice answers in the distance, “Let her come to. Just keep her secure.” Dash’s eyelids slowly open to reveal that she is swaying upside down on what appears to be a collection of upside down ancient ruins.

The pegasus stampers as she tries to make sense of her surroundings, “Wait, w-what? Where am I?”

“Vous détendre. Don’t work yourself up. You’re on Alicorn Island.” Looking to her left towards the voice, her eyes are immediately met by the heads of two pirates, and in between them, are Korsan and Rarity, examining a tall stone pillar, covered in engravings.

“Korsan! Rarity?! What’s going on?!” As Dash attempts to move herself towards the pair, she finds that her legs have been tied to a hovering log with thick rope as well as her wings tied about her torso.

“Shush, I’m reading.”

“You better let me go, or else I-”

“Or else what?”

“…”

“…”

“…Something really bad will happen.”

“Sure it will, to you at least.”

“Rainbow Dash,” Rarity replies, turning her head towards the trapped pony, “Please, just stay calm,”

“Stay calm? What are you doing with him?”

“Searching for something,”

“Searching for the thing that’s going to cause a lot of innocent ponies to die? Is that it?”

“Well…”

“Please,” Korsan irritatingly interrupts, “Rarity, if you’re going to continue to talk to our captive, at least keep it close and quiet. I’m about to crack this code.”

“Oh, sorry.” Quietly, the white mare darts across the cracked stone floor to her friend and whispers to her, “I’m trying to convince him to avoid the whole genocide plot and just continue being a simple pirate at the most. He’s been working hard towards this and I’d hate to see his dreams crushed.”

“His dreams are to crush us,” Dash retorts, “cut me down from here. You’re probably not going to make any progress persuading this guy.”

“I have made a little progress. At least you’re not starving in the brig. Just stick tight, I’ll get you down when the time is right.”

“Réjouir!” Korsan cheers out loud. “Follow me.” Closing a large book in his claws and placing it down against the foot of the stone tower, the caped pirate walks past the tall pillar and into a large area of shrubbery. The rest of the crew members, a fair seventy of them from what Dash sees, follow after their leader and into the verdant thick. Being carried across the vast area, Dash looks at her surroundings alongside Rarity to see massive decapitated stone structures, most with mushrooms, vines, and other plant life growing from their enormous cracks and engraved grooves.

“Where did these buildings come from?”

“I don’t know. An ancient civilization it seems.”

“The ancient ponies of Trihearth?”

“No, no, it’s way too old. Especially with the abnormal conditions of the Second Pulse, this place may be thousands of years old. Overpopulation may be the root cause of why it’s been deserted so long for this to happen. Though there are signs of significant water damage, look at this, pity. Perhaps flooding now that I think about it,” As the massive gang traverse the low jungle, they eventually stop at a cliff edge. From there, everypony stares in awe of what’s below. There, at the bottom of the cliff, a massive valley of ruins, an entire kingdom, lies, with towers and castles reaching as high as they are and piercing the high mist. On the opposite side of the valley stands a tall mountain, with a massive rock temple built out of its massive size. “Incredible,”

“How many ponies lived here?”

“A least five million. It’s amazing, so many lives, practically forgotten, vanished without a second thought. It’s a scary thought to say the least. Alright sea artists, our best bet to finding our goal is probably that volcano on the far side of the valley. It’s extinct, so that shouldn’t be a problem to worry about.”

“Captain!” A stallion’s voice calls out from far behind the group.

“Grevious?” Soon, a grey stallion in a fancy brown coat appears from the thick bushes behind the large group. “What’s going on?”

“We found these stowaways hiding in the brig.” Using his magic, the tall newcomer summons Applejack and Applebloom from behind the jungle growth, trapped in his iron magic grip. “If I were to recall sir, as well as what Sweetie Belle claims, these mares are part of the ‘peace’ compact you made with Princess Twilight.”

“It appears so.”

“Applejack, Applebloom,” Rarity and Rainbow Dash worryingly calls out to them, “what are you doing here?”

“I have the exact same question, plus a few more. How did yous sneak on board?”

“Hear us out, please,” Applejack frantically answers, “we were just staying below until we could find the right time to talk to you or somethin’.”

“Talk to me about what?”

“Joinin’ you-”

“Wait, what?! You have to be joking.”

“I’m not joking. I mean it! I want to protect my family and make sure nothing happens to them. And the only way I can see myself doing such is by joining you and also gainin’ some magic powers.”

“…I see.”

“Please, I mean no harm to y’all.”

“AJ,” Dash replies, trying to force herself to laugh and ease the tension. “You don’t really mean it right?”

“I so mean it! Unicorns and alicorns are superior.” Both Rainbow Dash and Rarity gasp upon hearing their friend’s confession. Even Applebloom appears shocked by this.

“Indeed,” Korsan responds, “I understand where you’re coming from. However, I must warn you, sometimes family isn’t always as, loyal, as you intend for them to be, especially after a turn like this.”

“Please, let me join you. I’ll help if needed.”

“…”

“Please.”

“Very well then. Alexander Grevious, release them.” With the flick of a horn, the orange and yellow Earth ponies are freed from their green auras and drop onto the green floor of the jungle. “Before we press onwards, I want to establish two things. One, when we reach our goal, I will be first to undergo transformation into an alicorn. Get it?”

“Yes.”

“Second, if you show one speck of a scheme against me, I’ll dice you into a million pieces and hold your sister for ransom. Get the picture?”

“…Understood, Captain.”

“Very well then, onwards my crew, to the heart of Alicorn Island,”

Meanwhile, at the shoreline of the other side of the great island, Lightning Rod is flipped over onto the sand, heavily destroyed after a brutal landing in the previous chase. Outside, at the edge of the green and faded stone ruins, Twilight and the remaining team are gathered around a small fire, providing them heat and light in the eternal darkness.

“So,” Pinkie speaks, “It’s only us five remaining?”

“Against a hundred pirates and Korsan,” Spike adds, “How are we going to stop them now?”

“Spike?” Fluttershy troublingly asks.

“Not that I’m saying that we have no chance, just curious if there is a plan. Twilight?”

“I have no idea.” Twilight answers in a defeated tone.

“Come on, you always find a way.” Pinkie cheers.

“We have no boat, we have no weapons or defenses, we have no magic, half of our team is gone, and Korsan’s about to become the most powerful pony in existence.”

Spike then replies, “Is that it, we’re just giving up?”

“…”

“Twilight?”

“…No. We still have Applejack and Applebloom hiding on The Perfection, they can steal it and we could probably fly out of here, leaving Korsan and the others trapped here.”

“What about Rarity and Sweetie Belle? And are you sure that Korsan won’t escape?”

“I don’t know about those two, I’m still sorting them out. As for Korsan, at least it’ll hopefully keep him here long enough for us to warn Celestia.”

“Are you sure AJ will find us?” Fluttershy asks, “If she even wants to?”

“What does that mean?”

“You and her have been arguing a lot recently, and, don’t think too harshly, but what if she, you know,”

“I see where you’re going with it. …Perhaps we should at least stall Korsan ourselves until we figure out a backup plan. We’ll improvise.”

“I’m coming with you,” Scootaloo declares.

“No!” Twilight retorts.

“Aww, cmon,”

“We don’t want you to get hurt. Just stick around Lightning Rod until we get back.”

“Fine.”

“Good.”

“Take care of yourself,” Spike proclaims.

“Hey, somepony needs to supervise her.”

“What?! Why me?”

“Would you rather fight Korsan?”

Fluttershy speaks, “I don’t want to fight Korsan.”

“You’re coming to help out with injuries and act innocent so they’ll try to avoid you Flutter.”

“Now that I think about it,” the purple dragon anxiously answers, “Scootaloo will need a guardians against crabs or something like that.”

“Good. Pinkie, Fluttershy, onward,” Promptly, the three older mares enter the verdant forest and ancient ruins, leaving behind Spike and Scootaloo on the beach.

An hour of silence follows between the two at the fire until Scootaloo finally speaks, “Spike, let’s follow them. We can help them out. Rainbow Dash might need me to save her and help her beat up Korsan.”

“Nope,” Spike retorts, “nope, nope, nope, nope, nope. Twilight said for you to stay.”

“Please?”

“No.”

“Come on, please?”

“No.”

“Please?!” Then, the orange filly walks up to Spike and stares into his green eyes with her slowly growing purple eyes. Her mouth slowly forms into a whimper and the blacks of her pupils eventually consume the baby dragon’s, causing a growing guilt inside Spike.

“Oh, no,”

“Hiya!” Korsan screams as he chops through a section of thick vines with his sword. Upon the green wall flopping onto the rocky slope, the pirate captain and his followers gasp as they gaze upon the massive volcano temple before them. With massive spirals that reach for the black heavens, millions of details and etchings sprawled across its several stories of height, and imposing shadows that make the towering structure all the more taller, all coated in a radiant cyan moss, the massive temple greets the band of explorers by mere sight.

“Do you think this is where it’s at?” Isyan asks in his dumbfounded state.

“…”

“Cousin?”

“Look,” the captain quietly announces in his long moment of awe. “Look at the details of this wondrous piece of architecture. The angles, the scales, the arches, the balances, the-the everything. Everything fits together so wondrously for such a giant building, built by ancients with little more than a hammer and chisel. It’s perfect. I have so many questions, so many theories, it may require a lifetime just to study this alone.” The captain then glances directly ahead of them and sees the front wall of the temple. He notes how it has a large set of circular symbols around the center of a section between two walls. “This way,” Korsan then giddily runs over the peculiar wall and runs his claws across the large symbols.

“Where are we going? It’s a wall.”

“It’s the front entrance, tightly sealed.”

“And how do you know?” Carefully, Korsan starts to push against the circles of the wall. Much to the crew’s surprise, this causes them to start slowly move around.

“I recognize these types of locks. Like tumblers to safe.” He then presses one of his ears to the overgrown door and listens intently while he turns the massive stone rings around each other. “It appears that all ten of these things have to align at once for this to even sound out. But there may be a loophole if I can feel the right frequency in my hooves. Now come on…” As Korsan continues to tediously crack the code, small talk erupts from his surrounding pirates.

“I wonder what they ate.” Applejack asks to one of the nearby pirates.

“Judging by the pots, plates, and whatever’s left of those crops we saw on the way,” Korsan loudly answers, “bananas, corn, grains, fruits, smaller vegetables, and honey. Notable thing about the honey, if you’re hungry, you can heat it up and eat it right out of the pot.”

“Ewww, that doesn’t sound good at all,” Applebloom replies,

“Actually, it should still be pretty fresh around this time.”

“I’ll pass.”

“Applejack?!” Rainbow Dash calls out to her from behind.

The orange mare responds, “Huh?” Turning her head back, she sees Rainbow Dash. “Oh, that’s right,”

“What are you doing joining his side?”

“I’m becomin’ an alicorn and protecting my kin.”

“Did you drink seawater?”

“Look, if Korsan’s findin’ a way to make himself an alicorn to use magic, I might as well join along and get some benefit from this losin’ fight.”

“Really, you’ll turn your back to Equestria and let this villain destroy us all?”

“I’m trying to convince him out of it,” Rarity retorts.

“That sounds fine enough with me.” Dash merely scoffs in response to Applejack’s reply before attempting to turn herself way from them.

“…Wait,” Applebloom nervously asks her older sister, “So, are we now the villains?”

“No lil’ sis. We aren’t.”

“Then why are with Korsan then? Isn’t he a bad pony?”

“No, well, yes, it’s, it’s complicated.”

“I’m confused.”

Rarity then adds herself into the conversation, “How about you play with somepony, except the two similar yellow stallions.”

“They all look pretty scary to me,”

“They’re not too bad once you get to know them.”

“I’ll try.” Cautiously, the yellow filly wanders into the herd of pirates, looking around for the least threatening face to talk to.

“So, Applejack, what convinced you to join?”

Applejack soon answers, “I thought about what Korsan said, and he’s right, unicorns are superior.”

“That’s not entirely true, I mean, you’re a pretty good pony,”

“Not good enough though.”

“Well, that’s a very crude way of putting it. I mean, you shouldn’t be putting yourself down like that.”

“What caused you to join?”

“To be honest, I’m not really sure. I guess the main reason is that I sort of want to see Korsan get to this goal of his, without any negative repercussions of course. I’ve seen him work so hard for it after so many struggles-”

“And murders!” Dash interrupts.

“An issue that’s being worked on, relax. But anyways, I do pity him.”

“Pity my flank! Let me down!”

“We can’t now.”

“Bah!”

“Huh,” Applejack quickly sighs.

Back at the front of the temple, Isyan approaches his captain and speaks with him, “Excuse me,”

“No please,” Korsan mockingly responds, “just start yelling at me. You’re clearly far above that and not minding that I’m busy.”

“Oh please, I don’t just scream.”

“Even Juliana knows that you constantly scream. Isn’t that right Missy?” A loud screech responds. “Exactly,”

“Besides that, there are more important matters at hoof.”

“In a minute,”

“I don’t like how you’re keeping the mares’ from Twilight’s team together and unmonitored.”

“Pop quiz, define ‘in-a-minute’.”

“Really, they could attack you at any moment.”

“Hey, hey, I’m the captain, you’re the boatswain. I’ll take care of bodies, you take care of wood.” A loud stony rupture then sounds off as the large stone rings retreat back into the structure and are pulled to the side by an unseen set of pulleys and rope. “There we go.”

“You are so full of yourself at times.”

“And you aren’t. Onward fellow boucaniers!” Sharp on command and lead by Korsan, the crew promptly walks into the dark entrance of the temple, entering a passageway with an unseen end. Mindful not to trip on anything, the pirates make slow progress as they travel inwards. As they draw away from the moon’s light, the long hallway ahead of them eventually becomes pitch black.

“Are we they yet?” Pip hollers.

“This might be a trap.” Yin declares.

“Quit shoving!” Yu barks to his unseen hustlers.

“I can’t see Jack.” One of the pirates grumbles as he aimlessly stumbles in the void. “Oh wait, there he is.”

“Hey, that’s my private part!” Jack immediately yells.

“We need a light.” Rarity proclaims to her captain right ahead.

“Quite,” Korsan replies, “I’m getting sick of this whining. There should be a torch up here,” Reaching a hoof upwards, the bipedal pegasus grabs what feels to be a wooden stick and pulls it down, causing a small cloud of dust and ash to pour on his followers. Rarity sneezes.

“Excuse me.”

“My apologies,” Korsan then holds the upwards end of the wood to his nose, sniffing it. “It still has some fuel in it.” Carefully, Korsan moves his front hooves away from his face and holds his free claw over the top end. He snaps his claws, causing a small spark to burst from the grinding metal. It lights the torch quickly and burns his hoof a little, causing the stallion to yelp and pull his burnt hoof back.

“Are you okay?”

“It’s just a burn. At least we have light.” With the burning torch now brightly illuminating the walls of the long corridor and the traveling ponies themselves, the crew press onwards and stop their previous complaining. With their forward pace now without potential obstacles, Korsan and the rest look to their sides and notice the massive paintings and etchings on the stone and pillars that stand along the walls. It surprises Korsan especially as to how well preserved they are and the amount of detail in each one. “It truly is interesting, these walls. Despite possibly being submerged in water as we’ve seen with the rest of the island ruins, this temple stays perfectly pristine. That gate had to be pretty tight in order for this to still be around for thousands of years.”

“Good thing,” Rarity adds, “These all look so beautiful.”

“I could try my hoof and interpret some of these. I memorized that book front to back now.”

“Sure.”

“Let’s see…” Korsan looks over to the right wall and analysis the painting. It appears to be six ponies, three stallions and three mares, all finely dressed in royal garments, sitting at a round wooden table with symbols surrounding the background. “To thy great kings of queens, we blessed thou many, for keeping order and strength throughout our lands three. With your children be blessed thou four, as they take the mantle and secure thy thrones three. May love fall either between them, or by us noble citizens. Yet rumours be told, told by the many, that struggle for harmony and power has corrupted thee six. Have thou turned all into shadows of themselves, bickering to each other and planning schemes of dark forces. We pray not. Let these rumours be nothing else but gossip, and give prosperity to all the same thy fathering generations as centuries ago.”

“What does that mean?” Applebloom asks out loud.

“Hmm?”

“Yeah,” Yu calls out, “I’m a bit lost.”

“That mural right there is probably a tribute to a generation of kings and queens that ruled this island. Sounds like they were having a bit of a scuffle though anyways while their children were going to be coronated at a relatively similar time.”

“Why?” Applejack questions the captain, curious as well.

“Who knows? Conflict of interests, desire for power, wealth, greater fame, tough times, could be multiple reasons.”

“Sounds so familiar,” Rarity speaks, “I just can’t put my hoof on it.”

“Perhaps you’re thinking of a book. I’ve read a good number with a similar premise.”

“Hey, what about that one up ahead?”

“Huh?” As the group walks past the first read fresco, they come across a solid bright red wall with black writing and glyphs all over it. “That’s a bit off-putting.”

“What does it say?”

“Well, let’s see, one sec for my memory…”

“…”

“Be warned by all who hath intruded this sacred temple. For many an ill heart and mind seek the Fountain of Balance’s power to bring envy and wrath upon thy neighbor and countries, it has been secured in the heart of this temple of earth, metal, magic, might, and fire to keep it secure. Mind thy movements, for tiles of gemstones and foils of the greedy. Mind thy mind, for the air of death and destruction of the soul. Mind thy body, for serrated spikes and impenetrable liquid and boiling stone and iron, all to pierce and melt and destroy thee. And most important, for what portion of thou shalt be altered and bent, be your fate and destiny. For you may avoid these defenses and tricks, once you reach the Fountain, you’ll never go back. Turn back now, or suffer a grim turn, sooner is better, later is never.”

“That doesn’t sound good.”

“The Fountain of Balance? Is that what the power of Alicorn Island is?”

“Are you sure we should be doing this.”

“Don’t worry. I’ve dealt with much worse than anything simple tools can build. Hold my torch.” With a flick of her horn, Rarity grabs the lit wand from Korsan with her magic and hovers it a bit further ahead. The caped captain then pulls out his two cutlasses and crosses them over his chest in a defensive position. “Lentement, onwards,” Slowly, the massive gang continues on forward, looking out for any traps straight ahead, on the walls, and on the ceiling.

“What was it that we were looking out for again? Just a reminder”

“Spikes, thick water, lava, poisonous gas, hallucinogenic gas, and one more thing, what was it…” Suddenly, the stone floor beneath Korsan, Rarity, Applejack, and Applebloom grouped together, is swept out from under themselves. The four ponies immediately drop down into a massive unlit hole, grabbing onto each other as they plummet down. However, Korsan acts quick and stabs his swords onto the hallway floor, anchoring himself down as well as the rest of the mares attached to him. “Trap tiles!” The stone floor that seemed to have disappeared then slowly moves back from slightly ahead in the hallway. Korsan tries to pull himself and the others up with his might. But as hard as he tries, the heavy floor shifts back into position, crushing the captain’s hooves. The stallion roars in pain as he accidently lets go of his swords above and fall down into the black with the mares, all screaming in terror of what awaits them.