After a solid minute of wading through the thick green fog with their breath held, with barely any visibility of the walls due to a suffocating torch light and their turns, Korsan and the others reach a clearing beyond the haze. Being the first to escape the deadly air, Korsan gasps out for clean air and is soon followed by everypony else.

“D-did,” Korsan pants, pressing a hoof to the wall to support his failing body, “did anypony inhale the gas?”

“No.” The others reply in a heavily unsynchronized moan.

“Juliana?” The ice phoenix immediately soars over from the back of the group to on top of his shoulder, rubbing her cold head on her master’s deflated cheek. “There you are. Who’s a sweet little lady?” Juliana coos in response. “Yes, yes you are.”

“Aww,” Rarity giggles at the sight ahead of her. With the torch’s red flame slowly returning, the murals on the wall begin to return as well, displaying gorgeous frescos. As the team continue down to the end of this long path, their eyes glance at the paintings and discover something strange about them. Most of the paintings portrayed an alicorn of some kind, rising from what seems to be a golden fountain, each with a different background and text engraved at the top.

“That’s a tad suspicious.”

“Hey Korsan,” Dash calls out from the back of the herd, “how about you read some of these.”

“I guess so.” The pirate captain takes a moment to clear his throat and begins to read one of them. “’Lady Joan, the Mare of Justice, twas a brave mare of beauty and chivalry. When the royals’ corruption befell upon her kingdom loyal to the forest, she bathed in the holy waters to achieve thy power necessary to overthrow. Queen she then became, and her descendants still rule fair to this day.’”

“She does look pretty.” Applebloom remarks, entranced in the detailed portrait of the young white alicorn. Behind her and the fountain is a starry blue sky with a golden light emanating from the sides. The torch then floats towards the next painting. This time, it is a black stallion against a bright red sky with dark clouds and volcanoes in the background. The fountain in this piece looks slightly withered, and sporting a moat of lava around it.

“This guy looks like a piece of work. ‘Sir Cystic, the First of Fury, twas an angry, yet powerful stallion. Cousin to the younger heir to the throne of iron and steel, he sought out the fountain to make himself more formidable to be king. War broke between the soldiers of the cousin and the single alicorn for one hundred years. In time, the cousin died of age, and Cystic took the throne, which he held to with the clench of unwavering strength. To these times, his descendants uphold his power in the heart of fire, but fear his cost in a terrible end.’”

“What end?” Applejack asks.

“No idea.”

“Maybe it was the fall of this island, whatever it was.” Alexander Grevious declares.

“It’s a pity that all of this amounted to nothing in the end.” A pale mare pirate adds besides the formally dressed stallion, “Almost as if their lives were pointless.”

“Don’t be such a downer Maria,” Yu replies, “that’s my brother’s job.”

“Hey!” Yin barks as most of the others silently chuckle.

“Still,” Maria retorts, “seeing these tales of such great ponies, forgotten. It might as well be the same fate as for us.”

“Don’t worry,” a darker yellow stallion gently replies at her side, “I’ll always remember you.”

“Thanks Hans, for your pleasantries.”

“Anything for you m’lady.” Upon hearing this from Hans, the yellow brothers make silent barfing noises in relflex.

“What a butt kisser,” Yu silently remarks to his brother, both right behind Applejack who’s listens in.

“Don’t even bother.” Yin whispers back, “You couldn’t even hold one night with a mare.”

“I did.”

“Uh-huh, sure,”

“It’s true, you just never saw it.”

“Hey, if I know that those two lovebirds are sneaking out of their cabins every night to do who knows what, then I would tell if my brother’s ever spent the night with a mare.”

“Wait, Hans and Maria sneak around at night?”

“Exactly,”

“What would they be doing?”

“I don’t know, they always head down the back into the farm and kitchen.”

“Maybe they’re getting a drink from the cellar.”

“Nah, Butch would’ve caught them, he always checks the barrels at night. And you know how protective he is about the cellar.”

“True, true,”

“Who’s Butch?” Applejack accidently asks out loud to the two stallions behind her.

“Hey, were you listening in on us?”

“Uh…”

“Take it easy,” Yin speaks to Yu, “she’s one of us it seems.” The calmer brother then turns to the orange Earth pony, “Butch Taylor’s our cook. He’s also the one who’s looking after your friend Sweetie Belle.”

“I know, I saw her in the kitchen with him. Saved our skins she did.”

“Good for her.”

“Hey, if you don’t mind me asking, how did you twos end up here?”

“My brother and I were arrested for supposedly sneaking cards in our hats.”

“Wait,” Yu asks, “wasn’t it that we were bribing the dealer?”

“That was Las Pegasus, not Monte Canter, supposedly.”

“But I remember that in prison at Gorgonzola, you were getting flirty with one of the mares that was arrested alongside us that worked as a show-”

“We don’t speak of her.”

“Yeah, yeah, that one time when she dropped the-”

“Shut it! There are foals with us.”

“Oh! And then there was that moment with Bubbles and Pablo-”

“Captain Korsan! Want to read another wall?!”

“I’m looking, I’m deciding,” Korsan yells back as his eye glosses over the murals. “Fascinating these things are, all dedications to ponies that became alicorns with the Fountain of Balance.” Soon, the group comes across a portrait of a purple stallion with two heads. The background is a warped pattern of black, white, and grey tiles, with the golden fountain now looking very simplistic compared to the previous iterations and very unfinished. “’Sir Dolum, the Serpent of Lies, a selfish stallion that abused his generosities. Despite his raise to be kind and thoughtful, he grew himself spoiled and greedy. Sowed lies upon the earth and used the power of the fateful waters to grow them to his throne. May the golden heart of the fountain treat upon him and his followers as he hath treated others.’ Well, maybe not that one.”

“Hey,” Yin asks out loud, “do you think there are any funny ones?”

“Why would there be ‘funny’ ones?”

“I don’t know.”

“…”

“Idiot,” Yin subtly coughs.

“Keep moving forward, we’ll reach that fountain at any moment now.”

“Come on!” Isyan groans,

“Oh boy, maybe we should backtrack into the poison gas again. I liked the quiet.”

“We’ve been walking for an hour. Can’t we take a break?”

“No! We are reaching that fountain as soon as possible.”

“Bah…” Eventually, the sounds of gentle splashes echo in the darkness straight ahead.

“Is that it?!”

“Hallelujah.”

“Go, go, go!” Quickly, a second wind bursts across the crowd as they blindly charge forward. “This has to be it, this has to be it, this has to-Ah!” Korsan shrieks as the floor disappears from under and he and the others plummet into a large body of water. The lit torch stays stationary with Chopin and Rainbow Dash as they stop at the edge of the stone floor, revealing that Korsan and everypony else merely slipped off an unseen end of the corridor. The pirate captain swims back up to the surface with an agitated ice phoenix and wades, finding it surprisingly easy. The other fallen members soon follow suit as they float up to the top of the end of the hallway. “Well, that happened.”

“My suit!” Alexander proclaims in terror.

“Speak for yourself.” Isyan grumbles.

“Where do we go now?” Hans asks.

“Oh no!” Rarity exclaims, “Korsan, your dress, I’m sorry-”

“Relax,” the captain interrupts, “that can be easily cleaned and dried back onboard. Now the real issue is where’s forward?”

“The place might have caved in,” Horus suggests, “We could just use the Perfection and drill our way-”

“Absolutely not. We want to preserve every millimeter of this place for future study. And I don’t think we’re caved in. See the walls here, they’re carved, this is clearly intentional.”

“But for what?”

“…How deep do you think this water is?”

“I’m not sure. Let me check.” With a flick of his white horn, the albino pony’s horn shines a bright red, revealing the flat bottom and walls of the pool of water.

“About equal to the dimensions of the hallway we’ve been in, search around for a tunnel.” Listening to the captain’s commands, Horus shines his horn around the deep water, soon coming across an underwater section of the path that leads under the end above water.  “Aha! There we go.”

“Are you expecting us to go in there?” Rainbow Dash screeches, “Do you even know how long that thing is? We’ll probably drown.”

“Not on my watch. Attention all unicorns! Use your magic to create a large air bubble now and set your horn glow to its brightest. Your bubble will be your only means of oxygen, so I suggest you swim easily and take adequate breaths. The water is also probably mixed with a thin layer of anti-magic, making it so thick, so don’t try anything fancy with your already weak magic. If you mess up, remember, you are swimming in dense water, so you’ll only be able to move a little to reach a partner’s air bubble. Isyan, supply air to Juliana. Horus and the Shou Brothers, supply air for Applejack and Applebloom. Chopin, supply air to the loud thing on the stick.” With a twitch of Korsan’s shoulder, the ice phoenix leaps from her master and flies onto Isyan’s head.

“Hey! No way I’m trusting that clown with my life.”

“He’s a mime. Now let’s move out!”

“Wait,” Rarity asks, “What about you?”

“I got tough enough lungs, I can keep myself alive.” Soon, tens of colourful bubbles of magic form in the air and are placed over the nozzles of the pirates, with Dash, Applejack, Applebloom, and Juliana sharing a large bubble with their designated unicorns. Korsan leads by taking a deep breath and diving down into the water. One by one, the other ponies join and dive under, following their captain as he leads the way in the dimly lit head of the group. Silently, the mass of ponies paddle through the underwater halls, using fair bits of their strength to push the thick liquid behind them. The warm water flows between the ponies’ fur coats and cleans their clothing. Eventually, the struggle starts to become relaxing, as the team finds themselves cruising through the water with little worry for air. Even Rainbow Dash finds this pleasant, as the comforting liquid eases the tension in her stiff and tied regions. Korsan slowly drifts to the back of the group over time, though he doesn’t mind. A couple of minutes pass, and a faint golden glow can be seen in the distance straight ahead. Exited to see this, the crew starts to speed up their swim, especially Rarity in contrast to the deadpan Isyan. As she draws closer and closer to the light of the exit from this submerged hall, the more and more reckless she becomes with her purple air bubble.

The white unicorn takes another deep breath from her air pocket. The bubble suddenly bursts. Immediately, water pours into her open mouth and nose. Rarity attempts to swim to a nearby pony, but she’s too far from anypony else in the thick water. She reaches her hooves out, screaming in the water. They tire and drop helplessly under, next to her burning body. It feels as though her lungs are filled with acid ever ripe and ready to burst. She attempts to call for help, yelping for help, but her voice is muffled. Her hooves are clenched. Her fading blue eyes widen in terror. She mouth slowly comes to a still shut. She pushes once more, reaching for anything. It fails. She tries to relax, but the burning inside keeps her frantic. She then gulps as much as she can, wanting this nightmare to be over. It exits her mouth and bloats her other parts, looking for any pathway it can find to finish her. More water soon comes and refills her mouth and throat, making the agony even more intense. Soon the water rushes up over her head. At this point, Rarity has tried everything. She reaches out with all of her might, as if a last resort, trying to grasp the dancing light, but she can’t reach it. The last bubbles of life escape her mouth as she frantically reaches for any form of oxygen. She feels, she expects, she knows she’s going to die. It seems inevitable by now. She is out of air and too tired to fight anymore. She soon begins to feel like crying, and she is sure she would have been if she was above water. She reaches one last time, a futile attempt in her mind, for the shimmering lights. Everything starts to turned black and the golden heavens are fading away. One last bubble loses its perch in her mouth and swims to the stone top. Random singular thoughts run through the mare’s head as she watches the images of her hope fade.

However, as darkness consumes her final visions, a bright light flashes in front of her eyes. A sudden relief pulsates across her entire body. Rarity senses fresh air as it flows through her, yet her skin still feels the thick water crushing her body. Her eyelids open wide and her pupils saturate with life, setting upon Korsan right in front of her. A realization hits her as she stiffly examines the position of the stallion right in front of her and her senses flaring up. His lips are locked with hers, as the captain pumps water from her and replaces it with his air. Rarity tries to gasp and pull away from the surprise, but Korsan’s holding her close to him as he restores her life. Up close, Rarity can see the determination and passion in the stallion as barely any bubbles of airs escape the transfer. After giving her a fair share of air, Korsan pulls away and tightly shuts her lips closed. He then begins to frantically swim to the golden lights ahead, holding Rarity close to his chest with his front hooves. With all of his might, Korsan kicks his hind hooves and snaps his cape up and down through the dense liquid as he slowly speeds to the exit. A solid minute of furious thrashing ticks on as the two ponies draw tantalizingly close to the surface. Both of the ponies’ internal air supply drops more and more on each paddle. The burning unleashes itself inside both Korsan and Rarity. Now only a metre away, their vision starts to fade away. With one final heave, the pirate pegasus lunges himself and Rarity towards the golden glow above before blacking out. As everything turns to black, the sounds of splashing water and fainted voices ring in their ears.

Reaching the bottom of the staircase, Twilight and her followers exhale their tension in relief and rest themselves against the stone walls. Ahead of the trio stands a long golden corridor that’s dimly lighted with small torches hanging from the wall. At the end of the kilometre long stretch is a golden glow, as welcoming as the sun.

“There it is,” Twilight murmurs in her heavy breaths, “we got this.”

“Do you think Korsan and the others are already there?” Fluttershy asks.

“I don’t know.”

“What if it’s a trap?”

“There we better get ready for it.” Twilight rubs her hoof across her mane up to her horn, feeling the black strap still wrapped around it. “How is this thing still so firm after all this time? I should have found something to at least break the-” A idea immediately bursts in her head. The purple alicorn snaps her head back to the stairs and sees a thin stalactite up a few steps, a solid metre above the floor. She then quickly runs up to the spike and positions the anti-magic strap right below the tip. Carefully, she thrusts the glowing central device into the stalactite, piecing the strap and causing the green liquid to spit from the crack upon retracting her horn. Twilight wipes off the liquid matter from her forehead and turns back to her friends, both watching her in bliss of her success. “I got it!”

“You sure did!” Pinkie exclaims. “Can you do magic once again?”

“Not now, it’s still leaking out. May take a while. But right now, let’s go fight some pirates!” With the strength of pride and confidence on their side, the three mares gallop into the golden hallway and charge for the golden aura that awaits them. “Korsan! We’re coming for you!” As Twilight heads down the long stretch with her team, her mind begins to wander across what has built up to this confrontation.

Invading the Grand Galloping Gala, Twilight’s inner voice speaks to her mind’s eye, stealing the Diamond Eye, throwing us into a trap, attacking us at Thieves’ Hold, destroying Celestia’s ship, kidnapping Rarity and Sweetie Belle, tempting them into joining your crew, attempting to crush us, kidnapping Rainbow Dash, and now going to use the power of this island to cause global genocide of millions of innocent lives. No, I will not stand for this. You’re going down this time Korsan. Prepare for justice!

“We’re coming to save you Rarity and Sweetie Belle!” Pinkie and Fluttershy proclaim.

What about those two… I’ve been avoiding trying to think about them all this time. But now I’m going to have to make a decision if they’re on Korsan’s side. Should I fight them? I have to, I must, no matter how much I don’t want to. I’ll try my best to convince them first. And what about Applejack? Is she still going to help us after the fighting we’ve been through? What if she joined Korsan’s crew as well? No, that couldn’t be. Korsan would never let an Earth pony join him, he’s too cruel. Right?

“We’re almost there!” The three ponies gallop into the blinding golden glow and immediately find themselves in a massive underground grotto. It is a round cavern chamber about one hundred metres in diameter and fifty metres in height. A pitch black ceiling of darkness hangs over the explorers’ heads, with small stalactites emerging from the darkness as well as small twinkles of unknown light. At the edge of the this chamber is a surrounding moat of glistening water, only rising up to the mares’ knee height. Past the small body of water is a small hill of golden sand with an unseen flat top, with large boulders of pure iron strutting out from the beach. Curious, the trio silently wades across the clear water and fluid sand, ducking behind the iron stones in case of Korsan or any of his crew members spotting them. As they climb higher and higher, the mares start to see a tall, slightly decayed gazebo of stone peak out from over the flat top’s edge, covered in thousands of strands of thick moss and completely layered with finely detailed carvings and designs. A small golden aura emanates from what appears to be the center of this large structure.

“What is this place?” Twilight whispers as she nears the flat top of the sandy hill. Upon climbing onto the rock porch, the mare’s purple eyes snap onto the source of the glow as if by instinct. At the center of the chamber is a large golden fountain, encrusted with millions of gemstones of various shapes and colours. From the three tiers of the towering center pillar, pure blue water gently flows from and into the shallow basin below. Slowly, Twilight approaches the great fountain, tracing her eyes along its height and sees the night sky above through a small hole in the black ceiling, directly over the golden orb that tops the spout. “Is this it? Is this the artifact that Korsan wants to use to make himself into an alicorn?” Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy join by their friend’s sides and gaze upon the magnificent treasure.

“Shiny.” Pinkie comments.

“It most certainly is.”

“What do you think will happen if you touch the water?” Fluttershy gently asks. “It looks weird.”

“I’m not sure. I don’t think we should try touching it, something bad might happ-” Twilight immediately cuts herself off as the sounds of distant voices echo across the paddling of the fountain water and into her ears. “Shhh, I hear somepony,” Stealthily, the purple alicorn hovers over to the other side of the flat with her wings and peaks over a boulder to the origin of the noises. Her jaw drops as her eyes gaze upon over the seventy pirate ponies that came with Korsan to Alicorn Island, all gathered around an unseen event going on at the water’s edge. Twilight’s eyes dart to most of the visible swashbucklers and get a good look at their gleaming weapons strapped to them, ranging from swords, to crossbows, to axes, to maces, to daggers, to more abnormal weapons that the spying alicorn had only read about in books. She turns around to the approaching friends and frantically whispers, “It’s them! It’s Korsan!”

“What?” Pinkie exclaims, “Let me see.” The pink mare pokers her head above the hiding boulder and sees the mass gathering. “I don’t see Korsan.”

“Shhh, I think I hear them talking.” The three ponies set themselves firm onto the iron chunk and silently watch as the pirates talk amongst another.

“Hey!” Alexander proclaims near the center of the mob, “Make some room! Make a hole! They’re coming back!” The crowd quickly backs away and parts to make a clear path of view between the spies and the activity that’s going on. There, at the edge of the calm waters, stiffly lay Korsan and Rarity, with the white mare being tightly held to the captain’s exposed chest.

“Rarity!” Twilight silently screams. The two damp ponies stay motionless for several seconds before a faint collection of groans can be heard. The large brown mass starts to move first, sliding off of Rarity and collapsing onto the sand. Korsan then releases a horrific cough from his throat, spewing a bit of water out as well. Rarity soon follows as she begins to roll in her place while coughing small gags and spitting drops of water from deep inside her systems. The pirate captain then cements on of his hooves into the loose floor and pushes himself upward, opening his icy eye to examine his blurry surroundings.

The stallion then speaks in a scratchy voice, “This is most certainly not Heaven if you are all here.”

“Captain!” The crew cheers, jumping up and down in place to see their leader is back with his sense of humour still intact. With his ears catching Rarity’s soft coughing, Korsan turns his attention towards the white mare, reaching out his other front hoof and gently grabbing her shoulder.

“Miss Rarity?”

Upon unleashing a powerful bark to finishing clearing her throat, Rarity’s bright eyes open up to his him before answering, “Y-yes Captain?”

“Thank goodness you’re still alive. Rest here,”

“Aye,” Slowly, the pegasus unsteadily picks himself up onto his hind legs and takes a brief moment to check the current situation. “So, where are we?”

“Unsure Captain,” Horus explains, “we’ve been taking care of you and Rarity.”

“And how is the crew?”

“All well and accounted for.”

“Well, wherever we are, we made it without too much trouble. And you wanted me to blow up this place, how ridiculous.”

“Ridiculous?! You and Rarity nearly died.”

“We weren’t going to die. Seeing our lives flash before our eyes? Probably,”

“Do you think this is a game?!” Isyan yells as Juliana aggressively pecks and screeches at her holder, “You must be going absolutely mad if you’re really trying to blow this off with your cockiness. Ow!”

“No, I just prefer to see everything in a better light unlike you. And what the hay did you do to Juliana? She’s going nuts on ya,”

“I didn’t do-Jack!”

“What can I do?” The stallion known as Jack responds from the back.

“Get this parrot off of me!”

Korsan rolls his eye and scoffs, “Sheesh. Come Juliana.” Promptly, the large bird flies onto her master’s shoulder, chittering into his ear. “Take it easy, take it easy.” Slowly, the captain paces up the hill and towards and around the other side of the lead boulder Twilight and the others are hiding behind. “Quite an interesting cave, a bit rough around the edges, but nothing a bit of dusting and a decent chisel can’t fix.” As his one eye peers over the sand hill to the gazebo in its whole, the pirate pegasus stops on the spot. His jaws turn into mush and drop, his mechanical systems lock, his pupil grows into that of a child’s wish come true. “…”

“What is it?”

“I-I-I-I found it. There it is. There it is! There! It! Is!” Swiftly, the other crew members hustle up the sand dune and see the fountain as well. “The Fountain of Balance! I found it! We found it! We all found it! After over five years, it has finally payed off! Ha, ha, ha!”

“You found it?!” A surprisingly familiar voice echoes over the iron boulder to the unseen Twilight and company. The purple alicorn snaps her head over to the right side of the rock and sees Applejack and Applebloom, walking right alongside the others to look at the legendary fountain.

Overcome with rage, surprise, confusion, and a million other emotions, Twilight screams out without any regards to secrecy, “Applejack?!” The orange pony, as well as everypony else, looks back and sees the trio of mares.

“Twilight?!”

“Twilight?!” Rainbow Dash exclaims from her hovering log. Twilight looks over to sees the trapped Rainbow Dash and instantly uses her magic to shed to ropes to pieces. Now freed, Dash kicks Chopin in the back of the head as she flies down alongside the trio of heroes.

“Twilight?!” Korsan roars as he reaches for his cutlasses, “I will not be stopped now! Attack!”