In the heavier portions of the thick jungles of Alicorn Island, a short distance away from the center mountain, Twilight, Fluttershy, and Pinkie are sifting through the grown-over ruins in search of something. With the black of night overhead and the thick green completely covering the stone remains, searching for anything special among the ruins is nearly impossible.

“What are we looking for again?” Pinkie asks, poking her head under an uprooted tree.

Twilight answers as she paws at the floor, “We’re looking for some sort of tunnel, or a passage into the temple.”

“Why not take the front entrance on the other side?”

“There had to be an escape route for the miners that worked on the temple in the event of a cave in. From what it looks like, the temple goes deep underground. They also probably didn’t think anypony wouldn’t take the obvious front entrance, so there shouldn’t be any traps this way.”

“Aw, but traps sound so fun to trip and escape in a really impractical manner.”

“I don’t think they’re fun.” Fluttershy replies.

“Don’t worry Fluttershy,” Twilight reassures her friend, “the way we’re going will be safe.”

“Do you think Rarity and Sweetie Belle are safe right now?”

“I can’t really say. Korsan seems to know what he’s doing about these things. They’re probably just flying past all of those setups.”

Korsan, Rarity, Applejack, and Applebloom continue to scream in panic as they fall straight down into the darkness for what seems to be an eternity. Soon though, a small green light emerges far below, signifying the bottom it appears.

Korsan pants as he sees they’re falling too fast towards the bottom of the hole, “We gotta slow this train down!” Quickly, the mechanically aided captain stabs his front hooves into the caverns walls beside him. However, as soon as they latch onto the wall, they immediately slide out from an unseen flow along the walls. Korsan tries again, only to slip out once more. “Come on!” The pirate tires one more time, putting all of his might and metal into the force of his claws. The metal tips etch themselves deep into thick rock and grind against the falling chain of ponies. Sparks and icy water pour out from the metal fingers and pour over the decelerating mares and stallion. “Hot-and-cold-hot-and-cold-hot-and-cold-hot-and-cold-hot-and-cold-hot-and-cold-ho-” The ponies brutally slam onto the metal floor in a large pile and shout in pain and discombobulation.  A small moment of silence soon follows as the four recollect themselves and breathe out the pain.

“Is everypony okay?” Rarity speaks out.

“A loosened bolt and gear, but I’m good here.” The thunderous sounds of snapping wood then blares out from under. The circular green and yellow floor starts to shift and tip over to the pile. Panic immediately sets in as the ponies quickly scramble to their hooves.

“What’s going on?!”

“The floor’s tilting over!” The ponies scramble over to the rising half of the metal disk. It quickly stops and instead begins to fall in the other direction where they’re at. “It’s a pivot at the origin, everypony, take to a corner of the platform and balance this thing! Now! Filly, stay put and hang on tight!” Immediately, Rarity, Korsan, and Applejack climb up the rising slope to the sides and top of the stage. They tightly latch their hooves to the etched metal floor as it rocks. The platform slowly balances back to being flat once more. The four separated ponies gasp in relief, but remain uneasy as the sounds of loud wood creaking still echo from below their standing. “Okay, I think we’re stable.”

“How do we get out of this mess?” Applejack rapidly asks.

“Well,” Korsan sighs, straightening out his thoughts and examining his surroundings. “We’re on a large platform made of solid gold that is balanced on a central pillar in the middle, an ironic way to kill off any intruders that stepped on the trap tiles that were apparently lined with riches by dropping down to whatever awaits at the bottom. Not sure how the floor is glowing, not important. The walls are too slippery for me and my crossbow due to a heavy flow of water. And there appears to be no ladder or doorway to exit.”

“So, we’re just stuck here forever?” Applebloom worryingly cries.

“I never said there was an exit. Miss Rarity, give us a light.”

Rarity stampers in response, “Oh, yes,” and using her horn, the white mare emits a bright purple light from it, illuminating the chamber far more than the green tint of the disc. There, Korsan can see a black hole in the stone walls just above Applebloom’s head.

“There.” He points to it. “Could you possible levitate this platform up to it?”

“Let me try.” Cutting her light off for a moment, the unicorn aims her horn to the gold floor and attempts to levitate it. However, no aura appears around the disc, and Rarity finds herself unable to grasp it, similar to how her captain’s anti-magic behaves. “I can’t.”

“Too heavy?”

“No, I just can’t get a hold of it. It’s like it’s lined with anti-magic or something.”

“What? That shouldn’t be…” As Korsan crotches down to better examined the engraved loop of gold, he notices a solid green substance deep within the grooves that he instantly recognizes. “It can’t be. Girls, it looks like we’re playing by new rules.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’ve given these ancients credit for their advanced infrastructure, but I would’ve never expected something this advance. It appears that they know about the secrets of creating physical anti-magic, and have probably lined every pebble of this temple with it.”

“What now what?” The orange mare asks, now beginning to panic.

“Don’t worry yourself. This temple may be untouchable, but we aren’t. Now, I’m going to need everypony’s cooperation if we’re going to get out of this trap. Now Rarity, when I give the signal, you-” Before Korsan can calmly finish, the wooden stilt holding the platform up suddenly snaps from the weight. The ponies panic as they frantically shift themselves to balance out the structure that is about to collapse. “Okay! We gotta go fast! Rarity, do you know how to teleport?”

“Only once before exhausting!” Rarity immediately answers.

“Good, on my command, you will teleport to the exit. When you go, Applejack, you will go to the middle, while I and the filly balance it. Got it?”

“Yes!” The mares reply.

“Ready, set, go!” With a twitch of her horn and magic, Rarity disappears from her corner in a flash of light and reappears on the edge of the black exit cavern. As the gold disk starts to tilt, Applejack runs to the center while Korsan and Applebloom counter the tilt back. The balance is restored once more, and now the three remaining ponies stand in a line that makes up the diameter of the circular teeter. “Next part, levitating Applejack to you. Ready?”

“Yeah,” Rarity answers. The crumbling pivot below snaps once more, shaking the gold platform and offsetting Korsan and the Earth ponies.

“Now!” Applejack is then promptly lifted from the center and into the air by a blue magically aura. “Come to me little filly!” Hastily, Korsan and Applebloom follow up Rarity’s action by running towards the center in place of Applejack. Applejack soon reaches the black cavern alongside her carrier and is gently placed now next to the white pony.

“Now this ankle biter last!”

“Wait, what about you?” The support emitters another earth-shattering crack.

“Don’t worry about me.”

“But I won’t be able to grab you.”

“Get the kid!” Seeing as she has no other option, Rarity quickly picks up Applebloom and sets her down next to her and Applejack. Korsan is now the only one left as the gold platform starts to slowly sink down.

“Let me get you out of there! Drain your anti-magic or something!”

“It’ll take too long! Just back up!”

“I’m not leaving you!”

“Back!”

“There must be some way, we can figure this out!”

“As your captain, I command that you and the others go on!”

“No-”

“Now! Now! Now! Now! Now!” Frightened by Korsan’s screaming, the mares slowly back away from the edge of the cavern entrance. “Hopefully this ends well…”

“What?” Rarity looks over the lip of the cave to see the caped pony slowly back away from her and towards the edge. The giant platform tilts back to him, causing the other end to rise up to her. “You aren’t-”

“Rahhhhhhh!” Korsan then frantically races up the sloped disk to the cave and Rarity, digging his bottom claws into the gold floor to boost him. Halfway there, the pivot finally shatters. The entire stage plummets down with him. He reaches the edge of the platform. He jumps high into the air with all of his might. However, Rarity sees that Korsan doesn’t have barely enough height to grab the edge. Without hesitation, she reaches her hoof out for her captain’s outstretched claws, much to his disapproval. “No!” But it’s too late. Korsan’s razor sharp claws dig into Rarity’s flesh and latch into her muscle, causing the mare to scream. Applejack and her sister watch in horror as Rarity’s right hoof quickly turns into a bright shade of red and pink.

“Help me!” Quick to respond, the large Earth pony bites down on Rarity’s swirly tail and pulls her back into the exit. Using a great deal of strength, Applejack tows Korsan up to them, where he’s able to set his hooves onto the flat stone floor.

“You idiot,” Korsan angrily grumbles, like a mother scolding her child, “Look at this.” With his claws deep inside the whimpering mare, Korsan carefully draws out his metal parts from her, one long claw at a time.

Rarity sobs in agony, “Y-you were g-going-g to f-fall.”

“I probably was in hindsight. Thank you for that. Stay still for a tick,” As the bipedal pirate pulls out the final claw, he examines his fellow crewmember’s pierced hoof. “I’m sorry for doing this to you. First that rapier two weeks ago and now this. It’s like you want to wreck your hooves.”

“D-don’t be ridiculous.”

“Let me just wrap this up here,” Swiftly, Korsan flings his black cape around Rarity’s hoof, tightening it upon contact.

“Ow,”

“Sorry.”

“How do you do that, making your cape snap like that?”

“Prehensile micro-cables inside the cape fabric, they tense into specific forms and bends by my muscle commands, just like everything else that’s my mechanical suit. It can be flaccid in public gatherings for appearance and imposition, but can be restrained in its movements when I’m fighting and need open space.”

“Interesting, what’s it made of?”

“A titanium alloy over a Kevlar structure-”

“No, the cape fabric,”

“Oh, Darwing Bark Spider silk dyed with crushed Ancient Pingwin Mollusk shells.”

“Beautiful.”

“Applejack, and eh…”

“Applebloom.”

“Right, her, go ahead until you reach the main path. I’m sure my stallions will find you. Redirect them over here with a surgeon ready.” The two Earth ponies nod and scamper into the exit. Gently, the brown stallion caresses the wrapped leg with his claws retracted into the boots, causing his white partner to sigh in liberation of the pain and the tingling of pleasure. As Korsan massages the wounded leg, Rarity looks to his exposed back. A wave of disgust and pity washes over her as she sees Korsan’s wings. They are mangled, covered in bald spots that reveal his pale flesh, black and red bruises dotting his fur, deep scars that run along every inch of his skin, and large hunks of metal parts, large and small, bars and complex mechanicals, piercing from his wings and tangling with everything in contact.

“Your wings, they’re, they’re,”

“It’s nothing.” Korsan quietly retorts in attempts to be relaxed, but with a sense of shame present in his current tone.

“That is not nothing. What did you do to them?”

“A few experiments in the mechanical arts went sour. I was seeing if I could perhaps fix my wings after an, unfortunate happening.”

“Does it still hurt?”

“Not as much as it did before, at least I can sleep.”

“Have you gotten this checked out?”

“No, no, there’s no need for that. I’d rather deal with it myself.”

“Okay… Captain, can I ask you something?”

“Anything,”

“Have you considered, I don’t know, being less, violent, when becoming an alicorn?”

“…”

“Korsan?”

“I had a feeling you’d be asking me about that sooner or later. Look, I-I’m not the most usual of ponies, neither am I the most sane. You know that right?”

“…Yes.”

“But what I am, is a thinker. Somepony that understands a lot and can draw some conclusions with a lot of fair reason. I have also firsthoof felt what it means to be on the bottom. And really, I don’t want anypony else to experience that same pain I felt for so many years. So, my ultimate plans after this venture, is more of a means to fix everything.”

“By killing millions though?”

“It’s an unpleasant thought, I understand. But genetics have a very dangerous role to play in the creation of these terrible lives.”

“Please, you don’t have to kill. You could still create change and get your point across by simply talking.”

“That’ll never work. I know it already.”

“Are you sure?”

“Mostly,”

“But are you absolutely sure?”

“…”

“Captain!” A series of voices echo from deeper in the large cavern, ringing loud and clear in the captain’s ears.

“…”

A low growl bellows from the far bottom of a tight stairway, deep underground and long, needle-like stalactites reach down from the uncarved ceiling, barely touching the damp, mossy steps. As Twilight and her two friends with her walk down the ceaseless flight, natural chitchat is being held between them to pass the time.

“I am so happy I found that trapdoor leading to here!” Pinkie cheers as she rather hops down the wide steps, “I almost never lose a scavenger hunt!”

“And so are we,” Twilight calmly replies, having heard the pink pony’s unintentional gloating about the subject several times, “this should lead us to the artifact that Korsan’s after.”

“And even closer to Rarity, Sweetie Belle, Applejack, and Applebloom!”

“Yes…”

Meanwhile, Korsan and his small team have already reunited with the other pirates as they walk down the slowly descending hallway lined with murals, directed by a leading torch carried by Chopin in the far back. With Rarity’s hoof now firmly wrapped in soft, white bandages, the mare gently hopples alongside her captain, leaning onto him at times for support.

“So, the rest of yous have already figured it out by now I assume.” Korsan proclaims. “This temple is lined with anti-magic.”

“It became especially notable in the spear chamber sir,” Horus answers from directly behind, “luckily, no pony was injured… greatly anyways.”

“I see, so I and the others missed a trap, darn. Sounds like a fun one too.”

“I wouldn’t recommend it.”

“Understandable.” As the crew continue to pace onwards, a light green mist starts to blanket the slanted corridor. “Careful. It appears we’ve reached the gas area. It’s either poisonous, or hallucinogenic, either way, don’t breathe it in. Just hold your breath and hustle.”

“What’s the difference?” Isyan asks from the far back.

“One kills you on the spot, the other makes you wish you were killed on the spot.”

“…wait, wait, wait. It gets better. When the patient woke up, his skeleton was missing, and the doctor was never heard from again!” Pinkie exclaims, having finished a long ramble. A small beat of silence follows as the mares continue to walk down the stairs and process what the hyperactive mare was saying. Unbeknownst to them, a faint yellow mist floats in on their decent.

A confused Fluttershy then asks, “What were we talking about again?”

“How I lost my medical license.”

“Wait, wha-”

“Hey,” Twilight interrupts, “do you hear something?”

“Where?”

“I don’t know.” In the corners of Twilight’s twitching ears, a small metallic clinking sounds out from an unknown location. The purple alicorn looks around for the sound she hears, only to see Pinkie and Fluttershy walking down with her, blankly looking forward. She then looks back ahead of her, and notices an orange dot in the distance. “Hey, do you see that?” As Twilight returns her glance to her friends to see their reactions to this suddenly appearing spec, she’s shocked to find that they both are now gone. “Hey, where did you two go?” Stopping her walk, Twilight circles around herself and looks everywhere to the vanished ponies, only to find no trace of them.

“Do you have a point?” A familiar mare’s voice echoes all around the confused loner. Twilight frantically snaps her head everywhere once more in search of the source, but to no avial.

“Who’s there? Where are you? Where are my friends?” Twilight then looks back to the orange dot and sees that it has grown into a blurry figure now closer to her. Curious, the alicorn walks towards the mysterious being, not noticing how the stairwell has begun to spiral onto the walls and ceiling and defying gravity. As she proceeds closer and closer to her target, the dark and grey stone surrounding her slowly begins to change into different colours and textures.

“Of course I have a point!” A male voice then answers.

“There’s two of you?”

“What? Don’t you recognize me?” The female voice asks.

“Who are you?”

“It’s because we’re villains isn’t it?” The male voice replies.

“Villains?”

“Or is it you, who is the villain?” The mare’s voice questions Twilight, who is now losing her sense of scale and depth perception.

“Me? The villain? No!”

“Quite, so many lives, suffering, just waiting to meet there end and have better ones replace them.” The stallion adds. At this point, the walls have turned into a solid white and its texture has turned into some sort of soft padding. “Don’t you see the obvious?”

“What?”

“The point?”

“Who-”

“The sanity?”

“I don’t-”

“Surely at this point, you would have figured this out. Why don’t you see what everypony is seeing?”

“What am I not seeing?!” Furious, Twilight starts to run on what appears to be a long sheet of dark metal, twisting and bending beyond normality.

“She must be insane.” The unseen mare replies to the invisible stallion.

“I’m not insane!”

“Quite frankly,” Another familiar mare’s voice suddenly speaks, right behind Twilight, “You appear to be.” Twilight immediately looks back and sees Rarity, now taking the shape of Korsan. She yelps in fright and stumbles back.

“Rarity?!”

“Hello Twilight Sparkle.”

“What happened to you? Why are you in Korsan’s suit?” Slowly, the Rarity and Korsan hybrid walks around the baffled pony. As Twilight examines the figure, the metal path fades away from the corner of her eyes.

“Poor, poor, Twilight. Korsan is our king. He is worthy of the throne to all life.”

“What are you even saying?” Twilight is then grabbed by the shoulders by metal claws and turned around to have her face pressed up against Applejack, also sporting Korsan’s body structure. “Applejack?!”

The orange being screams, “The electrolytes!”

“The what?!”

“You still don’t get it do you?” The two bipedal mares soon being to circle around the shriveling pony, constantly talking at her with no breaks or a moment to breathe.

“It’s complicated.” Rarity states.

“He has a point.”

“He interests me.”

“It’s not all black and white.”

“I love him.”

“I must protect my family.”

“There’s no going back now.”

“You’re fighting a lost cause.”

“We should’ve tossed you into the brig.”

“The crazy house,”

“The asylum, toss her in!”

“You don’t have a single point!”

“Twilight.”

“Twilight.”

“Twilight.”

“Twilight.”

“Twilight!”

“Twilight!” The purple alicorn snaps under the screaming and starts to sob uncontrollably. The walls of the padded hallway begin to shink all around her with the darkness from the two exits drawing closer as well.

Twilight woefully cries, “Stop it! Stop it!”

The two beings don’t stop and continue to angrily scream her name together, “Twilight! Twilight! Twilight! Twilight! Twilight! Twilight! Twilight! Twilight! Twilight! Twilight!”

“Please stop!”

“Twilight! Twilight! Twilight!”

“I’m begging you!”

“Twilight! Twilight! Twilight!”

“No more! Please! I’m begging! Stop it! I can’t breathe!”

“Twilight!”

“I want my mommy!”

“Twilight!”

“I want my daddy!”

“Twilight!”

“I want my brother!”

“Twilight!”

“Just make it end!” As the two hybrid ponies continue to spiral and harass the fallen princess, a brown shadow appears in the distance, walking to her. Teary eyed and having her eyelids almost entirely shut, Twilight barely recognizes the approaching third being. However, as it enters a metre’s distance, it becomes clear who it is. It is Korsan as a monstrous alicorn, with a smiling set of razor sharp red teeth, and solid black eyes, with only red pinpoints for pupils. With his ear to ear grin never changing, Korsan reaches down and grabs the mare by the throat, stabbing it with his long, barbed, talon-like needles. He then reaches into his back and pulls out an enormous version of his cutlass, emitting a black aura.

As he raises the blade high above and ready to strike, he speaks in a most demonic cackle, “Pegasi and Earth ponies are inferior, we must shape the world to what it should be, all unicorns, no more suffering…”

As the heinous beat swings down his weapon, a final scream erupts from the surrounding duo, “Twilight!”

“No!” Twilight gasps. As she opens her eyes from the expected sensation of being chopped in two by the massive cutlass, she unexpectedly finds herself back on the stairway, laying in her own sweat and tears while Fluttershy and Pinkie are standing over her, concerned of their friend’s condition. “Wait, wh-wha-what?”

“Are you okay?” Fluttershy asks, tightly clutching onto Twilight’s head with her soft hooves in an effort to keep it stable.

“What happened to Rarity? Applejack? Korsan?!”

“Calm down Twilight, you were only hallucinating.”

“Wait, what?”

“There was some gas we walked into that was being expelled in from some sort of ventilation system. When we saw you rambling and going into a spasm, Pinkie I and realized that we were as well falling under the effects. So we held our breaths, grabbed you, and carried you down and out of the gassed area. At this point, now we’re just waiting for the effects to wear off.”

“Oh, so it-it was all a dream?”

“Yeah.”

“Hey, where’s Pinkie?”

“Huh?”

“Oh my Celestia!” Pinkie screams out from up the stairs, “I see everything!”

“Oh, she’s doing it again.”

“Those shoes are awesome trains!”

“Doing what?” Twilight asks.

“Cucumbers are just beds with alien technology!”

Fluttershy answers, “She’s poking her head into the gas for fun. Pinkie, please pull out.”

“It’s so beautiful!”

“Pinkie, come on out, Twilight’s back.”

“You betrayed the law!”

“Pink-”

“Lawwwww!”

“Pinkie!”

“I am the law!” Now agitated, Fluttershy walks up to the dazed mare and pulls her down to Twilight by the ear. “Hehe, it tickes!”

“When you’re ready Twilight,”

Twilight stampers for a moment before replying, “Yeah… yeah, yeah-yeah I’m fine. Let’s go.”