“W-what?” Korsan stampers as he looks over the rippling water of the Fountain of Balance. With the golden goblet still held in his iron grip, the pirate captain scoops another cupful of water and drinks it down in a single chug. He shakes his body around a bit and waits for the legendary effects take effects on his body. After a minute of waiting and anticipation, nothing happens still. “It doesn’t work!”

“What do you mean it doesn’t work?” Isyan asks in confusion.

“I mean it doesn’t work! I’m not an alicorn!”

“Is there something wrong with the fountain?”

“Is it that anti-magic you have on your suit?” Alexander asks.

“Have you tried turning it off and on again?” Ryan asks.

Korsan exclaims in response to Alexander, “Wait, the suit!” Frantically, the bipedal stallion begins to claw at his metal parts. Grunts of pain and strain escape from his throat as the tight mechanisms across his body snap and buckle, but still hold firm to him.

“Korsan!” Rarity exclaims as she watches her captain rip himself apart.

“Gotta get this thing off!” Applejack and Applebloom slowly climb up to the stone top of the grotto, curious and fearful of what’s going on.

“Are you okay?” Applejack nervously asks.

“Don’t you touch that fountain! I’m becoming an alicorn first!” As Korsan examines his attire, he notices the large anti-magic container in the center of his harness. Quickly, he reaches out his long claws at his chest and scratches into the center piece. The liquid anti-magic pours out of his harness, as well as the rest of his suit, all across the stone floor, filling in the cracks with its green glow. “I’ll have to refill at the ship after this.” Slowly, gallons of liquid flow from the captain’s system as he prances around the golden spring. He impatiently waits for a long minute, waiting for every last drop to pour out and make himself pure. “Please,” he pants as he hangs his head over the basin of holy water, “don’t fail me. Not after all of what I’ve done to get here.” Seeing her friend’s distress, Rarity gently places her bandaged hoof onto Korsan’s hunched over shoulder. He gives an aside glance to her before shrugging off the comforting hoof.

“Just so you know Captain,” Rarity calmly speaks to the stressing stallion, “even if this doesn’t work, I’ll still be here for you.”

The captain hesitates before solemnly replying, “…No, this has to work. It must work. It will work.” As the final droplet of substance falls to the damp rock bottom, Korsan returns his glance at the fountain. He slowly scoops the water up into his grail. He drinks from it once more. A few loose drips escape from the stallion’s lips and soak into his heaving chest. He once again waits in silence, holding back his impatience for as long as he can. Everypony watches in stiffness as well, not daring to twitch a muscle. Twilight eventually comes back to her senses amidst the quiet, softly moaning and barely opening her eyes to see the statue that is Korsan. Korsan continues to waits long and keep his figure form, but to no avail during this time. Eventually, his claws begin to twitch, his eye starts to rapidly blink, and the gears in his suit jump to whir into speed. One by one, the brain stems in Korsan’s head pop one by one as rage and humiliation starts to pump into his steaming blood. His dark brown coat of fur soon saturates into a burning red brown mat. His breathing speeds up from long and slow lungsful into rapid and shallow hyperventilation. A small tickle of a twisted giggle escapes from his gritting teeth.

“Korsan? Are you well?” The white unicorn beside him slowly, uneasily asks.

“Hehe, this has to be some cruel joke right? Perhaps some delayed effect? That could be it, yeah, yeah. Perhaps I need to actually bathe in it!” Rapidly, the pirate leaps into the fountain basin with a large splash and begins to push himself below in rapid dives. “Come on. Come on. Come on! Work!”

“Korsan, please calm down!”

“I will not! Applejack! Get over here! Now!” Carefully, the orange Earth pony approaches the edge of the fountain, keeping a fair distance from Korsan.

Seeing the goblet Korsan dropped in his rage now floating towards her, Applejack turns at the frantic stallion and asks, “Do you want me to-”

“Just do it!” Carefully, the mare picks up the half-filled chalice with her hooves and holds it up to her mouth. Slowly, Applejack drinks the pure blue water from the cup, only to experience no changes to her body either.

“It isn’t working.”

“No!” Korsan angrily smashes his metal fists into the rim of the fountain, denting the golden metal. He slowly then lays his body over the edge of the pool as the feeling of utter sadness and defeat take place of his fury. His body winces and twitches as he lays there, with the sounds of sniffling and sobbing echoing across the walls of the grotto. His cheeks turn bright red as trails of tears run down them from both of his eyes. “No-no, no, no… No, this can’t be… This can’t be… This can’t be!” Applejack and Rarity soon follows as a few sniffs escape her nose.

“You mean, this was all for nothin’?”

“…”

“I’m so sorry.” Rarity quietly cries, pitying her leader. She gently rests her quivering chin on the pegasus’ head. Korsan slowly reacts by wrapping his arms around her upper back.

“…Why? Why does it always have to be me?”

“I don’t know.”

“…I-I want to go home…” The surrounding crew members slowly advance towards the fountain as well, most of them showing their sorrow for their leader. As Isyan coldly watches over his weeping cousin, he can’t help but to feel a single tear swell up in his right eye. “…That’s it. That was my only shot at being able to harness magic. And all it was was a blank volley over the edge of the world.”

“I’m so, so sorry. Is there another way?”

“No, the only other way is ascension. But that’s impossible. Only the most powerful of magic users can do it. No unicorn on the face of this world, Tartarus, or Heaven, can match the magical supremacy required. And alicorns are almost myth at this… point…” With a snap of the neck, Korsan’s head turns to face Twilight, who is now stumbling to get up onto her hooves. “Alicorn,” Rarity looks over to Twilight as well. A bad feeling in her gut arises as she figures out what Korsan is thinking.

“Korsan,”

“Twilight Sparkle…”

“Korsan, please don’t hurt her.” The pirate captain doesn’t acknowledge Rarity’s request as he rises from the fountain and walks towards Twilight. With a cutlass still between his claws, Korsan flips the sword into an icepick grip with a wide smile growing on his face. “Korsan don’t!”

“Come here ya pretty little pony,” Seeing the fearsome pirate approach her in such a mincing fashion, the Twilight fearfully backs away from him before hitting a giant iron bounder at her back. With her senses still returning, the confused mare frantically sputters in panic as the monster raises his blade high above his head.

“Stop it!” Rarity grabs Korsan’s tail with her magic and yanks him away from Twilight.

“No!” With a quick burst of rage, Korsan swipes his open hoof at the white mare, causing her to back away and release him. The pegasus returns to Twilight and thrusts his sword downward.

“No!” An ear-piercing shriek of grinding metal ruptures across the grotto. Twilight, panting in absolute shock, sees the long weapon deeply stabbed into the boulder, only an inch away from her left eye. Rarity watches in shock and terror as her joints lock up.

Words finally come to Twilight and she instantly whimpers, “K-K-Korsan.”

“Princess Twilight Sparkle.” Korsan replies in a classy, yet frustrated tone, “I’ve entered a bit of a predicament. You see, the fountain isn’t working, and I’m not an alicorn. And well, the only way I can become one now is if you, an alicorn yourself, casts an ascension spell onto me.” The frozen mare stays silent as she recollects herself from the startling experiences of her wake up. A minute passes as Twilight watches the pirate pegasus pace back and forth in front of her. Her mind quickly retraces what has happened to lead up to this, and the mare soon gives Korsan a spiteful look upon her face. Anger soon swells in the purple pony’s mind as she’s utterly bewildered and offended by Korsan’s audacity to ask such a thing. “No.”

“No? No-no-no-no-no-no-no? Do you see that cutlass right next to your eye? I can very easily pull that thing out at this moment from that rock you lean on and stab you through the heart. And I will do it. I will so willingly do it, if you don’t turn me into an alicorn.”

“Never. And besides, I could never do such a thing.”

“Oh? Really? You are an alicorn aren’t you?”

“Not a naturally born one. You should know that. The ones that are born naturally as alicorns are incredibly stronger than an ascended pony like me. They’re immortal to aging unlike me.”

“Oh course I know. I also know that Princess Celestia, you’re leading princess of Equestria, likes to keep a few secrets. You could be very well a naturally born unicorn and are just lying.”

“Well either way, I’m not going to do it. You can kill me-No! You can torture me all you want, and I still won’t do your bidding. You hear me you monster? I will never turn you into an alicorn even if I had the power. What say you now?”

“…”

“What say you now?”

“…” A light snicker exits from Korsan as he continues to pace back and forth.

“What’s so funny?”

“Do you honestly think I would simply give you a death threat only towards you without some sort of backup plan?”

“What are you saying?”

“Crew! Bring me the yellow pegasus.” With a small moment of hesitation, the crew members slowly hover a large potato bag to the captain. The cloth bag shifts around a little upon being set down along with the sound of a muffled grunt.

“Fluttershy?” Korsan then walks up to the exhausted Twilight, still attaching herself to the iron boulder, and pulls out his sword.

“Oh, is that her name? Fluttershy? A cute name, don’t get me wrong. Just a shame that it’s now the only name that’ll be on your mind after this for the rest of your life.” With one swift slash of his sword, the bag rips open and reveals its contents. Fluttershy, tied from neck to hoof in thick rope and having a large bandana tightly covering her mouth, screams Twilight’s name in inaudible mumbles as she’s freed from the bag.

“Fluttershy! Let her go!”

“Let her go? No. It’s a pirate tradition for this sort of thing to happen once in a while during a loot. Ransoms are some of the easiest ways to score some treasure out there at sea.” Slowly, the pirate captain slides the edge of his curved sword around the front of the yellow pony’s neck. The trapped mare’s eyes shriek and her voice attempts to scream.

“No! Don’t! I’ll do anything you want, just don’t hurt her!”

“Oh? Even turn me into an alicorn?”

“I can’t! Anything else?!”

“Ooh, either you start working your ascension magic on me now, or this place is about to get a whole lot messy. What do you have to say about that, Ms. Fluttershy?” Gently, Korsan uses a free claw and slices the bandana off from Fluttershy’s mouth. The yellow mare immediately screams with her free mouth and tries to kick herself out of the ropes.

“Twilight!” Fluttershy screams, “Help me!”

“Tick tock Ms. Sparkle, your minute has begun.”

“Save me!”

“I’m trying!” Twilight frantically replies. With a sudden burst of energy and bravery, the purple mare leaps from the iron chunk and charges towards Korsan. However, she is cut off as a large magic shield is casted between her and Korsan. The pirate captain grins wider as he silently congratulates the crew member that projected the shield. “Let me in!”

“Turn me into an alicorn from out there. Perform teleportation or any stunt like that, and this mare goes bye-bye. Do it!” Seeing no other option, Twilight immediately attempts to turn Korsan into an alicorn. With a faint purple aura now surrounding him and her horn, Twilight focuses her mind with all of her might. Fear and terror quick set in as the squeals of her friend and the cackles of the pirate roar in her ears. “I don’t have all day! Just do it!”

“Captain,” Alexander calls out to the captain as his horn projects the shield, “Isn’t this taking things a little too far?”

“What do you mean Alexander? We’re pirates, we’ve always done this!”

“Don’t hurt Fluttershy!” Rarity screams as she begins to run down the sandy hill towards him.

“Stop her!” Maria Vanshwitz quickly follows orders and tackles Rarity down to the floor.

“No! Captain! You promised!”

“Running out of patience Twilight!”

“Applejack! Stop him!” As the pinned unicorn looks up at the stone flat, she sees Applejack watching over the ordeal with a horrified glance. In her hooves and pressed up against her chest is Applebloom, too scared to look. The two Earth ponies are frozen just like what she was a second ago, overcome with the immediate terror before them. “Fluttershy!”

“Only a few seconds left you wench!”

“I can’t!” Twilight cries out, still trying with all of her might to cast that one spell.

“It really looks like she can’t Captain!” Hans declares, “You’re scaring half of the crew sir, I think it’s best that you stop this!”

“No! Ten…”

“You’re just upset Captain!” Rarity screams as Maria holds her down into the sand. “Please! Spare Fluttershy!”

“Nine…”

“You’re insane!” Twilight screeches as her tightly sealed eyes begin to pour rivers of tears. “I’m giving it all I got!” Her horn begins to spark vigorously as her magic power reaches its limit.

“Eight…”

Isyan then proclaims to his cousin, “Just finish her off already! This tension is doing nothing!”

“Seven…”

“This is beyond cruel, Sir,” Ryan Aran speaks up as he speedily gallops at the captain, “stop this now-”

“Why are you all suddenly pansies?! What do you think you signed up for when you all joined me? Six. Besides, you never had that much trouble three years ago when you destroyed that kingdom. Five…”

“You don’t think I regret that? Every night, I’m haunted by the screams of all of those ponies who posed no threat to us!”

“Four… Then why didn’t you leave me? You saw how generous I was with November and Nitin Gale.”

“…”

“My point exactly, you want to live the good life. And the only way you’re getting to that good life is by paying the price of blood. Hear me fellow stallions and mares?! If you don’t want to spend your days scraping the dust from the floor just to get a decent meal, then you all stick with me! Three!”

“Twilight!” Fluttershy screams.

“Fluttershy!” Twilight screams.

“No!” Rarity shrieks as she tries to kick off the powerful mare. With her horn buried in the dirt, the purple maned unicorn can only watch as the seemingly inevitable comes. “Get off of me!”

“The captain has given his orders!” Maria retorts with a certain shakiness presence in her voice.

“You can’t let him do this!”

“I can and I will!”

Korsan loudly barks, “Two!” He gently presses the sword deeper into Fluttershy’s neck, almost cutting the weak flesh. As Ryan reaches the pirate captain’s shoulder, he stops dead in his tracks, thinking of what he’s about to do.

“Don’t just let him do this!” Rarity calls out to the red pony, “Stop him!”

“One!”

“Korsan! Think about what you’re doing!”

“I know what I’m doing! And I’m doing it now!”

“No!”

“Time’s up!” The scared frozen Applejack ducks her head into her shoulder to avoid looking. Rarity, Twilight, and Fluttershy scream out to each other in intense desperation. However, a few seconds of screaming pass and Korsan has not moved his sword a centimetre, surprising the long shocked onlookers. Carefully, the bipedal pony draws his weapon away from Fluttershy’s throat. His smile quickly degrades into a solemn grimace. As he walks away from the yellow mare and purple princess, he insets his cutlass into his back piece. “Alexander Grevious, lower the shield and project it over me.”

“S-Sir?” The dark blue unicorn stampers in surprise and misunderstanding of his leader’s sudden action.

“Lower the shield between Twilight and Fluttershy and cast it over me.”

“Okay…” With a flick of his long horn, the magic barrier disappears between the two friends and reappears around the pirate pegasus. Twilight and Fluttershy quickly lung into each other and give each other a tight, embracing hug.

“Twilight!” The pegasus cheers in celebration.

“Fluttershy!” The alicorn cries in joy. Waterfalls of tears coat the two ponies as they hold each other with all of their might.

“I-I thought he was going to-”

“I-I did to!” Korsan then looks over at Maria, still pinning Rarity to the beach. Swiftly, he snaps his claws, prompting the fighter to release Rarity, who instantly rushes towards the hugging mares and joins in the warm embrace.

“Rarity!” Twilight and Fluttershy cheer.

“I’m so happy you’re all okay!” Rarity cries as she nestles herself deep within the circle.

“C-Captain,” Ryan asks, “Why didn’t you-”

“If she was an actual natural alicorn,” Korsan stiffly replies, “she would’ve done it.”

“You mean it was all a test?!” Isyan shouts.

“For lack of a better word, yes.”

“So, what now?” Horus asks from behind the leader.

“Honestly, I don’t know. Heh, I got no ideas, no plans, nothing. For some reason, it feels a bit nice, amidst all of the sentiments I’m going through at this moment. Perhaps we can just, go back to our old ways as normal pirates.”

“Really? You were so-”

“I know, I know. But I know when I am beat, as any honourable ship captain is. This quest was a lost cause, I admit it.”

“What do we do with the rebels sir?” Korsan turns his glance towards Applejack, who and Applebloom are now looking back at him in a most startled manner.

“Hold them for ransom, including Applejack and Applebloom, like we usually do. But please, be gentle with them, they’ve been through a lot.”

“You’ve been awfully generous,” Isyan replies as he trots over to the group of mares, “it’s very unbecoming coming from you…”

“Just do as I say. The rest of you hurry along, it’s going to be a long way back to our ship.” Slowly, the rest of the unicorns walk over to cuddling mares, with a few splitting off towards the Earth ponies. As Korsan looks over the unhurried capture, he senses Maria right beside him, staring out over the deed as well. “Maria Vanshwitz.”

“Captain,” the pale mare quietly replies.

“Are you okay?”

“…I’m fine.”

“You’ve been acting a lot different lately. What for?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Two weeks ago, you were so joyous, so optimistic. You even asked me about my love to Miss Rarity. Now, you’ve taken a dark turn, taking down Rarity without a second thought. What happened?”

“…”

“I’m fine with this transition if it’s merely a change of heart. I just want to know why in case this may be hurting you.”

“Recently, a lot has been on my mind. Ever since Rarity showed up, Hans and I have been thinking about our relationship. Let’s just say that he and I aren’t really doing that well.”

“I see.”

“Am I, never mind…”

“What?”

“No, it was a stupid question and I knew it.”

“No, go on. It can’t be that bad.”

“Am I… Am I a good crew member?”

“What do you mean?”

“Am I a truly loyal mare to you Captain? Do you believe I am a worthy member of your team?”

“Of course you are.”

“Captain!” One of the pirates from the larger group calls out, “We’ve captured the rebels, we’ve taken care of the fellow members who’ve fallen, and we’re waiting for your order for us to head back to the entrance.”

“Really? That easy?”

“Yeah, they were too exhausted and couldn’t put up much of a fight, so we separated Rarity and put the two in a bag.”

“Let me see. Alexander, lower the shield.” As the green shield fades away upon command, the pirate captain walks over to where the three mares were gathered. There, he sees a large potato bag containing Twilight and Fluttershy. Hovering next to it are two other bags, one containing Pinkie Pie and the other containing Applejack and Applebloom. Next to the three bags is Rarity, quietly sitting on the sandy floor, facing away from Korsan. Although he cannot see her face, the stallion knows what is going on inside her head. “Rarity, I-”

“I heard,” the mare replies in a deadpan tone, “it was all a test.”

“Look, I’m sorry for scaring you. But I had to convince-”

“Had to convince what? That you’re a monster?”

“That I was going to do it. I had to apply some leverage.”

“…It’s always leverage with you isn’t it? No just convincing, generousness, or persuading, no, you just strike fear and death into whatever stands in your way to get what you want. Isn’t it?”

“…”

“It only gets you so far doesn’t it? And to think I thought there was some good in you.”

“Rarity, I’m sorry, I can change-”

“Please, just leave me alone. Let’s just go back to the ship.”

“…Very well then.”  Korsan slowly walks away from the large gathering of pirates and begins to head towards the Fountain of Balance. As his private walk takes him farther and farther away from his crew, Juliana appears from behind an iron boulder and flies up to her master’s shoulder. The ice phoenix rubs her head against his cheek, causing the captain to breathe out in relief. “Hey there Juliana, hopefully you’re doing well. Today’s been a pretty poor day for me though. My dreams of being able to use magic are crushed, my crew will probably distrust me for a long while, and I just lost my special somepony. Figures for that latter one, I thought I could overcome the obvious fact that she’s with them and make her fall in love with me. Boy was I blind and stupid. I’ve been reading too many books, that’s it. Actually, speaking of ‘them’, where did Twilight and those two mares come from?”

A loud male’s voice then screams out from the walls of the grotto, “Twilight!”

“What the,” Rushing to the source of the noise, Korsan sees that it’s Spike, yelling out of the previously unseen exit hallway. “Speak of the devil…”

“We heard a lot of screaming!” Scootaloo’s voice follows from behind the baby dragon, “We’re coming to help you!”

“Over here! I found an exit!” Quickly, Korsan slides down the sandy slope and leaps into the hallway, coming face to face with the ill-prepared Spike and Scootaloo.

“Uh oh…”

“Well, well, well, what do we have here?”

“You better watch yourself Korsan!” Spike snaps at the towering figure, “If you did anything to Rarity I don’t like, I’m gonna knock your block off.”

“Spike?!” Rarity’s voice echoes from behind Korsan.

“Rarity!”

“So, you wanna play rough huh? Yeah, I could fancy a bit of fun to lighten my mood.” Slowly, Korsan reaches his hooves behind his back to grab his cutlasses, only to feel one of them. “Oh.” He turns his head back into the grotto and yells, “can somepony get my other sword? I think I left it on the sand!” He then fully reveals his only sword on him and returns his attention to the now shivering dragon. “Now, where were we? Seems you’ve gotten a little nervous. Psyching yourself out maybe?”

“Me? Uh… No!”

“Uh huh, sure.”

Scootaloo steps in front of Spike and bravely proclaims at the tall stallion before her, “We aren’t scared of you!”

“Even if I don’t have magic, you still should have every right to fear me ya little filly.”

“Either let my friends go now or you will get hurt!”

Korsan lets out a menacing, yet defeated chuckle before replying, “You, know you remind me of me when I was just a little colt.” The orange pegasus doesn’t pay mind to the pirate’s comment and charges right at his chest. Her rival quickly reacts by grabbing her by the nape of the neck with his free hoof and holds the now flailing body up to eye level.

“Scootaloo!” Spike exclaims as he jumps up and grab onto Scootaloo’s bottom hooves, holding himself up above the ground. Korsan doesn’t budge from this sudden increase in weight however.

“Running around in the streets, going headfirst into trouble with little chances of me escaping, always ready for a fight I was. Actually, that pretty much sums up me now…” As Korsan examines the squirming and kicking foal, an odd feeling triggers inside of him. His heart soon begins to harden and cramp itself into a ball, his head begins to swell and heat up to temperatures that rival the sun, and his eye’s vision begins to contort and see things beyond his comprehension. He loses track of his own words as he begins to ramble. “…I am still an inferior pony. I have so little power, but at the same time, I have so much. It’s like a little game. An almost fun game it is, feeling this, this pain, and then giving your enemies the same feeling, and laughing at them. And I’ve been through a lot of pain, of-of suffering, of sickness of this pathetic struggle. Surely, I can vent this all into something with so much power. I-I, I can still do something. Yes, I’ve done it before, I can surely do it again, and again, and again, and again. Ha, ha, who said I needed magic? Me of course, plain old inferior me, yeah, and why should I take his ideas instead of the obvious path? Yes, yes, I’ve always had the magic. I may not be a part of it, but I will surely lead the way as an unseen hero, yes...”

“What are you saying?!” Scootaloo squeals as she continues to struggle in his iron grip.

“Hm-what? Oh, nothing,”

“Scootaloo, Spike, what are you two doing here?!” Rarity screams as she reaches the three at the exit.

“Probably following their leader. Don’t worry Miss Rarity, I won’t hurt a hair on either head. Also, can you please lead the rest of our crew to this exit path?”

“…”

“Would you rather risk drowning your friends?” Silently, the white unicorn walks away from the confrontation and towards the others gathered at their entrance of the grotto. “Well, I’m going have to be careful and pick the right hair to pull out…”