The blasts of cannons ring across the sea. Screams of pirates and soldiers screech around the world. And the entire universe hears the massive explosions of ships burning with a trembling ear. Amongst the roaring skies of darkness and wrath, the war has begun between Korsan’s crew and everypony else. Solid balls of lead and iron are exchanged across the lightning filled clouds between the aircraft and whittle each other down. Volleys are thrown in rapid succession, turning the tips of their cannons to a scorching shade of red and white. The fabrics of the balloons and sails are pierced and shredded apart, falling between the aircrafts like the red rain. One of the cannon shots from The Perfection nails the powder room of one of Equestria’s blimps, causing a massive explosion to erupt on the unlucky vessel and set fire to it. Celestia’s mighty zeppelin rises above Korsan’s pirate ship and smashes down onto it. Chunks of wood rain down onto the ponies fighting on deck, soon followed by dropped soldiers. The zeppelin then rises and continues its distant cannon fire at the massive ship.

On the main deck of The Perfection, Faction Two and Celestia’s soldiers, led by Twilight Sparkle, are fighting their pirate rivals. Swords, arrows, spears, chunks of boat, cannonballs, and bolts of magic bombard the deck area in a blanket of chaos over and between the heads of the fighters. In the center of this, Rainbow Dash forms a tornado with her rapid flying speed. The flying projectiles and smaller weapons are sucked into the massive gale. The pirates immediately try to run away from the metal tornado, but a few get sucked in and bashed around in the deadly vortex. As Dash continues to fly around, she is suddenly stopped short and trapped in a magic aura. The tornado immediately burst, sending the beaten pirates over the edge and into the water below where the pirates of Thieves’ Hold will take care of them. Rainbow Dash is then pulled downwards towards the raised claymore of Pip, the small pink pirate mare. The filly evilly snickers as Dash’s rump is drawn closer to her pointed sword. However, Applejack leaps behind Pip and smashes her hind with a powerful buck, sending her and her sword off of the airship screaming. One of Korsan’s stallion sneaks up behind Applejack and attempts to stab her in the back. Free, Rainbow immediately springs into action and bashes herself into the stallion, shattering the wood floor and sending the two into the gun deck below. On top of a large loaded cannon, the two ponies enter a hoof fight with the cannon’s gunner jumping away from the fury. The gunner then aims his horn at Dash and prepares to fire a fireball. Applejack leaps into the hole as well and stomps onto the end of the barrel. The cannon bounces off of the floor from the sudden force. Dash throws her opponent into the gunner and both Rainbow and Applejack then buck the cannon. The cannon fires into the deck above and its midair recoil launches it into the two pirates, sending both of them into the floor below with it. The two mares nod each other in congratulations before they see a wave of pirates, all armed to the teeth, heading towards them. They stand tight together and prepare to fight some more.

In the galley, Pinkie Pie, Butch Taylor, Yin, and Yu, are being backed into the captain’s seat as they are being approached by a group of twelve of Korsan’s crewmembers, lead by Ivan and Horus. Each better armed and better in combat, Pinkie and her troop appear to be helpless. The twelve villainous criminals snicker as the watch the five stopping upon bumping the edge of Korsan’s throne and table. They draw closer and closer, seeing the beads of sweat pouring from their victims faces.

Just as their weapons are about to make contact with flesh, Pinkie suddenly declares, “Wait!”

The pirates stop in surprise, with one of them asking, “Why?”

“Uh… Does any pony have a birthday today?” The twelve pause and look at each other with a confused look.

“I had one yesterday.” Another one of them replies.

“Well Happy Belated Birthday!”

“Thanks, I guess.”

“Enough of this!” Horus exclaims.

Ivan confirms with his partner, “Aye.”

“They’re just buying themselves some time,” Horus proclaims, “let’s get them.”

“Hold on Horus!” Yu retorts.

“Oh come on-what is it?”

“Before I die, I need to know something, something about Hoofball.”

“What?”

“So about the most recent game, the one where our favourite team’s going against some foreign team. You know the one, Who’s on first, What’s on second, and I-Don’t-Know’s on third.”

“I don’t know.”

“That’s third.”

“Who?”

“No, Who’s on first.”

“Wait, what?”

“What’s on second.”

“I don’t know what you’re-”

“Third base.”

“What?”

“Second.”

“Who?”

“First.”

“Huh?”

“Shortstop.”

“Alright, enough of this, I’m getting a headache.”

“Wait!” Yin exclaims.

“No! No! No!” Horas screams as he raises his spiked mace at the yellow stallions. “No more delays! Time to die!”

“Aye.” Ivan confirms before raising his massive knife at the five ponies in front of him. As the twelve pirates prepare to strike, the earth-shaking sound of a window shattering erupts behind them. They quickly turn around to see a red unicorn, a blue pegasus, and a green Earth pony, charging through the front window and aiming their cutlasses at them.

“Maurice! Cecil! Jarvis!” Pinkie cheers.

“Hey Pinkie!” The trio replies. “We’re here to save you-” With a flick of their horns, the twelve unicorns pin Cecil and Jarvis to the ceiling. Horus then walks up to Maurice and slams the small stallion’s cutlass aside with his weapon. Maurice backs away in fear before picking up a small spoon from the floor and holding it up to the albino pirate as if it’s a shield. Horus chuckles upon seeing the tiny utensil before his red eyes.

He taunts, “By thunder Pipsqueak! If you think that this mundane spoon is going to stop me, think again.”

Maurice simply replies, “You might want to take a better look at it.” Curious of what that statement meant, Horus squints at the spoon, noticing something peculiar about its reflection. An immediate feeling of fear builds inside and Horus realizes that the wide reflection is showing something outside the two sides of the galley through the windows. As he snaps his head to a side to look out of the windows to his left, a wave of pegasi come bursting through them, showing millions of glass bits onto the pirates. The other side soon is bombarded with a second swarm of pegasi as they make their way into the galley. In seconds, where the twelve ponies once stood is now a raging river of motley ponies that flows both ways. Pinkie and her four close allies watch in shock and awe as the wall of pegasi soon clears to reveal the rivals with benefits cheering at the other side of the galley.

“Wow!” Pinkie exclaims as she scurries to her other friends. “That was incredible! I would’ve never have seen that coming! I didn’t even know you guys came to help us!”

“Thank you. The princesses picked us up and sent us here to help ya.” Jarvis replies.

“How did you even pull this off?”

Cecil answers, “We got some help.” Slowly, Fluttershy flies in through one of the now shattered windows. Upon seeing her, Pinkie immediately runs up to her and gives her a tight squeeze.

“You did this Fluttershy?!”

“…Yeah.” Fluttershy chokingly replies, feeling her lungs deflate in her friend’s hooves.

“Did you secretly fly off to one of the pegasi platoons in Celestia’s army and organized a surprise attack to wherever Cecil, Maurice, and Jarvis would find a group of pirates to strike?”

“…Yeah.”

“Thank you, thank you, thank you! The only things that could make this more awesome are a lemur and a whale!” As if on cue, a black and white lemur emerges from Fluttershy’s massive mane. Pinkie gasps and backs away from the small critter, “Witchcraft!”

“No, I just took him along with us. When the volcano was erupting on that island we were on, I couldn’t just leave him behind.”

“Great! Now that we have a lemur, all we need now is a whale. And guess who brought the whale?!”

“A whale?” The three rivals with benefits ask out loud. A massive and powerful moan suddenly roars from below, shaking The Perfection entire. Except for Pinkie Pie, everypony immediately stops in their tracks in unknowing horror of that that sound was.

“Yep, a whale.”

“Pinkie Pie,” Fluttershy nervously asks, “remember two weeks ago when you said you were preparing a surprise.”

“Yeah,”

“Is this the surprise?” Looking out of the galley’s front doors and broken windows, the nine ponies inside see a massive blue whale rise from the ship’s stern. Everypony gasps as they set their eyes onto the whale, collecting into one breath of fear.

“On the nose!” The gigantic whale then slams into the main deck of the equally gigantic airship, causing the ship to plummet down and tilt into the beast’s weight. Everypony screams as they all tumble towards the stern.

“Great mother of mercy!” Korsan’s voice hollers from above, fighting the weight with his grip on the steering wheel.

“Okay big guy!” Pinkie sheiks out to the whale. “That’s enough.” The blue whale moans out to the pink pony and slowly slides off of the ship. Immediately, Korsan stabilizes the ship and attempts to return it to normal, but he as well as everypony else soon realizes that massive chunk of the hull that has been taken out as well as the serious loss of altitude. Looking to her sides, Pinkie sees the frozen faces of her comrades beside her, processing what has just happened. “Hm… Perhaps I should’ve warned everypony about the whale.”

“Why didn’t anypony tell me about a whale?!” Korsan groans as he reclaims control of his vessel. Above him, Korsan sees Celestia’s airships still high up in the air, firing their cannons down to his lower ship. He quickly sets the steering into its second mode and attempts to pull his airship upwards. However, the ship instead jerks down, as the pirates of Thieves’ Hold have fired roped harpoons into the hull and are now pulling the ship down. Cannonballs hail from the sky and quickly turn the top decks of the airship into an infernal ruin. One of these massive balls strikes right beside Korsan, creating a hole to the room where his crossbow-cannon is. Thinking quickly, Korsan thrusts Juliana into the air and leaps into the hole. “Free The Perfection and get it flying! Use Artic Wind if you must!”

The ice phoenix screeches in compliance and flies around to underneath the sinking hull. As she flies around the grappling ships below, the rain that’s caught in her icy wind is turned into a hail of spikes. The ponies below retreat from the barrage of ice darts. One by one, the ropes holding The Perfection down are cut by either the ice spikes are Juliana’s beak. As Juliana soars around the boat, she dodges the storm of metal, wood, and lightning. The final rope is cut, and she quickly swoops up to the wheel and surrounding levers. From there, she then begins to imitate her master, and starts to drive their massive airship up and away from the fight.

“Don’t let them get away!” One of the soldiers in the massive cloud of pegasi declares. Quickly, the swamp of flying ponies chases after the fleeing airship. The ship suddenly turns its starboard towards the group. A portion of the quarterdeck wall is blasted away by something behind it, revealed to be the massive cannon with Korsan right behind it, aiming it directly at the incoming mass.

“You ponies look mighty hungry for some metal!” The machine then roars to life as its long barrels and gears rapidly move and shift. The herd of pegasi immediately scramble away as hundreds of bolts start to launch from the cannon’s six barrels. Rapidly firing metal rods into the heard, the machine moves on its own to shoot down anypony that tries to escape. Hundreds of soldiers and other ponies fall from the sky as their armour is pieced and bodies are flung into each other, all under the sound of the roaring crossbow and Korsan’s maniacal laughter. Two of Celestia’s airships then pull up to Korsan’s ship and fire a volley of several cannonballs at the machine and Korsan. However, the cannon quickly shoots each of the incoming metal balls out of the sky in rapid succession, never missing a shot. Upon finishing off the volley, the cannon then proceeds to take down the approaching airships. In less than two minutes, the balloons holding the boats are shredded into pieces and the two vessels plummet into the raging seas, crushing any sailing ships underneath. “Is that the best you got? Ha! Six mere mares put up a better fight then the lot of you!”

“How about you stop hiding behind your toys and actually fight like a stallion?” A mare’s voice yells out from behind Korsan and his cannon. Reaching for his cutlasses, Korsan slowly turns his head to see exactly who he expects it is.

“Why hello…”

Inside the vast cargo hold of the ship, Sweetie Belle, Applebloom, and Scootaloo are being chased down by Chopin. Upon reaching a wall, the fillies turn around to see the mime slowly stalking them with his long, curved knife in tow. Chopin’s smile grows the closer he draws to the fillies.

“Keep away from us you clown!” Sweetie Belle barks. She appears to attempt to pick up the stallion with her magic, only to lead to no avail due to his sheer weight. Slightly offended by the name-calling, Chopin’s smile cuts down to a small scowl.

“Yeah you clown! Shoo!” Applebloom screams before throwing a nearby plank of wood at Chopin. Now aggravated, he grabs the plank with his teeth and chomps it, snapping the board in two. The trio immediately back away in terror, except for Scootaloo.

She instead declares, “Don’t you take another step forward you clown!”

“Yeah!” The two others remark. “Clown!”

Finally sick of this, Chopin steps forward and screams into Scootaloo’s face, “I’m a mime!” The sound of a rope snapping suddenly sounds out from below Chopin. In an instant, the mime is suspended up into the air two metres from the ground and held upside down. Chopin soon discovers that a rope has been tied around his hind hoof that is hanging from the ceiling. Looking back down, he sees the three fillies running around and away from him, giggling all the way. “When I get down from here, I’m gonna-”

“Gonna what?” A gruff, ominous voice sneers from behind the mime in a very threatening tone of voice. The rope is then slowly spun around by the initially unseen figure and Chopin comes face to face with Grivs. The massive grey stallion grins as he stares down the mime.

On top of the tallest yard, on the highest mast, Twilight is fighting against two mare pirates. Without any weapons, she has to quickly project shields to defend against their swords and spells. One of them teleports to Twilight’s behind and swings her sword. Twilight ducks under the slice. The other then swings her hoof below Twilight crotched and makes her loose her hoofing. The two then raise their swords and swing them downwards. Twilight quickly moves her fallen self between the blades as they strike the wood below. She then flies upwards and performs a split kick. The hooves smack into the two pirates and instantly knock them off of the yard. Landing back down onto the mast, Twilight grabs the swords with her magic.

She then leaps from the wooden pole and falls towards the deck. She positions the blades below her hooves and stabs them into the sails, riding them down as they slice the black fabric behind her. Below her is a small mass of Korsan’s pirates, waiting for her with their weapons trained on her. Thinking quick, Twilight aims herself downwards and fires a magic fireball at the mob. It explodes upon hitting the floor and buries the area in a flaming cloud of smoke. She then leaps into the darkness with her swords and fights the pirates. Twilight uses the burning wood to her advantage by swishes her swords into the fire and flinging it at her foes, keeping them distant while she takes on others at the same time. The rain barely even hits the metal blades and other weaponry as they are all rapidly being flung around in the cloud of turmoil, with Twilight being the epicenter of the chaos.

However, one of the pirates overpowers Twilight and slices at her cheek with a small knife. She screams in pain and tries to back away, only to find herself now completely surrounded. She immediately attempts teleportation. Another pirate stops her by tacking her to the wet floor. Just as it seems all is lost, a collection of unseen ponies swoop in on Korsan’s crew members and fight them off of Twilight. Twilight tries to see who they are, but the smoke is too thick. Eventually, as the pirates start to flee, the haze clears as well, revealing her saviors to be November Gale, Nitin Gale, Princess Cadence, and Craig Y’ol Timber.

“November! Nitin! Cadence! Craig!” Twilight exclaims with joy. As the four ponies turn to look at her, they notice the red scratch along her cheek.

“Twilight!” Cadence worryingly gasps. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.”

“That’s what they all say before it gets infected.” Craig mutters.

Nitin then speaks, “We came as soon as possible. Princess Celestia got your letter.”

“What can we do?” November asks.

“Thanks for your help,” Twilight cheers. However, her joy is cut short by the roaring wails of Korsan’s machine firing at pegasi and ships flying in front of it. “Okay, first we need to stop that machine. Cadence, get everypony away from anywhere within viewing distance of the cannon. They’ll listen to you on the spot.”

“I’m on it.” Cadence declares and flies off.

“Nitin, you know this ship better than any of us. Sabotage whatever’s keeping this thing flying and whatever’s helping the machine.”

“Understood.” Nitin nods before leaping into one of the many blast holes of the withering ship.

“Craig-”

“Now you shut your piper right there,” Craig Y’ol Timber interrupts, “I do what I want to do.”

“…Fine.”

“And me?” November asks.

“You,” Twilight replies, “are going to help me destroy the cannon and stop Korsan.”

“Alright!” The two mares immediately start galloping towards the quarterdeck. As some of the remaining pirates try to block their path, Twilight and November quickly push past them and continue to keep their momentum.

As they reach the stairs leading up the quarterdeck, Twilight informs November of the machine, “It tracks you by movement relevant to its position by scanning what’s in its view overtime. It doesn’t seem to identify the ship itself as a target, so if it moves, you have to move along with it as if you were still. Stay stiff when it is facing you, it will usually do a quick scan before turning around in search of a target.”

“Got it.” They leap up the stairs, reach the poop deck, and see the hole where Korsan leap down. Swiftly, the two leap down behind the roaring cannon and immediately prepare to face off against Korsan. However, to their surprise, the captain is nowhere to be seen. “Where is he?”

“It doesn’t matter. It’s actually a good thing. Now help me stop this thing.” The two quickly examine the device for any weaknesses or a shut-off switch. Eventually, Twilight spots a small lever deep inside the back of the machine. She tries to use one of her swords to flip the switch. It however snags on one of the whirring gears and lodges the blade over the lever, covering it. The cannon chokes and sputters for a moment, but continues shooting onward. “Shoot.”

“Wait, what if you jam the machine?”

“Good idea.” With her other sword now positioned, Twilight prepares to stab it in with the first. However, just as she about to strike, an unseen force pushes her forward and towards the open edge of the room. Her wings instantly spring open. Twilight immediately stops herself from falling and entering the machine’s line of sight. Her sword however falls forward and the cannon instantly shoots it down. The sounds of clanging metal ring from behind her ears, a sign that November is in trouble. Now teetering between life and death, Twilight tries to fly back inside. But an unseen weight is pulling her down by her hind hooves. She immediately looks down to see it’s Rarity, having slipped over the edge and desperately trying to climb back up. “Rarity?!”

“Pull me up!” Rarity exclaims. With all of her might, Twilight pulls the two of them back inside. November suddenly screams behind them as the unseen pony knocks her into Twilight and Rarity. However, Twilight stays strong and keeps the mares stable. The now trio get up onto their hooves and face the fourth pony, revealing himself to be Korsan.

“Korsan!”

“Twilight!” Korsan excitedly exclaims. He then kicks the nearby cannon with his hind hoof, causing it to spin the place.

“Hold still!” The four ponies instantly turn frozen as the machine’s barrels rapidly turn towards them. As soon as the machine passes them, Korsan immediately swings his cutlasses forward. Rarity and November block the blades with their rapier and knife. November leaps forward and into Korsan’s chest. The two fall back, but Korsan stops the tumble midway as the machine loops around them again. Upon passing, Rarity hops into the fray and swings her rapier at Korsan’s legs. Korsan finishes his fall and rolls back to the wall, dodging the slash and throwing November to the floor. They freeze once more and the cannon circles past them once more. Having enough of this, Twilight stops the cannon’s spin and aims it towards Korsan. With no other choice to avoid being shot at, Korsan holds still, groaning in defeat. The three mares immediately aim their horns at him. Each of the three horns brightly glow as they are about to fire their spells at him.

“What are you going to do huh?” Korsan mutters in her still breath. “Use magic?”

“I’m not falling for that again.” Twilight retorts. “This time I’m finishing you off.”

“You think this is the end? Please, this is only the beginning. From as I see it, we are going to have a great, long history together, if you don’t die anyways. If you stay alive, I’m going to make sure you wish you died on this day. I’ll make sure you wish it everytime you look to the sky!” Immediately, Korsan rapidly rotates his claws and spins his swords. The cannon instantly fires at him, but his swords catch the metal rods and deflect them at the mares. The trio quickly scamper away as a fury of metal bolts soar at them. As fast as the machine can spit out bolts, Korsan’s makeshift shields deflect them and fire them everywhere around the chamber. The mares leap. They dive. They teleport. They do everything within their power to run away from the barrage. Exhaustion soon takes place for them, but Korsan doesn’t even drop a sweat.

Just as it seems all hope is lost, the entire ship suddenly jerks around, throwing Korsan, Twilight, Rarity, November, and the machine off balance. It is as if an earthquake is on the airship and tearing it to shreds. The Perfection then starts to float down towards the ocean, and everypony inside begins to float around in the interior. The cannon starts to hover to the ceiling. Aimed at Twilight, she quickly pushes herself up in order to keep the same distance from it. Rarity and November meanwhile continue to fight Korsan, clashing their blades against him in the lower gravity. The three ponies maneuver around the cramped chamber as The Perfection soon reaches terminal velocity. Eventually, the machine slowly turns around on its own to face Rarity and November, who instantly freeze. Seeing this as an opportunity to escape, Korsan uses his claws to dig into the wood structure and run out.

“Hey! Get back here!” Twilight immediately soars after him.

“Juliana!” Korsan yells as he runs across his quarters to the doors out. “Keep this thing even!” The ice phoenix above screeches once more in agreement. Twilight chases down Korsan as he heads below the main deck and goes down deep in the ship’s deteriorating hull. Korsan climbs along the walls, ceiling, and floor with incredible maneuverability while Twilight struggles to fly alongside. Chunks of the walls, furniture, and loose weapons turn into obstacles as they wiz by the two. As they continue to run, Twilight fires bolts of explosive magic at Korsan, barely hitting him in the tight corridors of the cabin areas. Korsan returns by firing his crossbow at her, counting the bolts fired as he runs and avoids her shots. “One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten,” They soon reach the medical bay, in which Korsan quickly turns around and heads behind the stairwell. Twilight continues to keep chase, following him into the massive room ahead. Upon entering, Korsan and Twilight are immediately hit with a flood of green glowing liquid and the sounds of machines screaming.

“What the-”

“The generators, they’ve been sabotaged! No wonder this thing is going under!” While Twilight is shoved back by the tidal wave on anti-magic, Korsan presses onward into the opposing current, burying his claws deep into the floor on each step. The room soon drains, and Korsan sees who’s responsible. In front of the massive tank of anti-magic at the back of the huge room, past the twenty large generators that line the walls, is Nitin Gale, chopping into the pipes with an axe in his mouth. Immediately, Korsan charges forward and screams, “It’s been about time we meet again ye old stallion!”

“Indeed!” Nitin replies. Soaked in anti-magic, Nitin has to rely on his hooves to operate the axe as Korsan reaches him and swings his swords. A loud clang erupts as the weapons collide. Korsan and Nitin withdrawal and strike again, and again, and again. The two stallions rapidly continue to trade blows without rest. Korsan eventually backs up Nitin against the room sized container. However, Nitin keeps his ground and uses his axe to trap the dual cutlasses in a blade lock. Twilight then flies into the generator room and charges at the two. Along the way, she picks up a long, broken pipe in her mouth and prepares to use it on Korsan. In the corner of his eye, Korsan sees in incoming enemy and decides to switch targets. In one swift motion, Korsan drops on of his swords and snaps his cape at Nitin’s hind hooves, causing him to trip and fall. Korsan then grabs his second sword again and engages Twilight. With the pipe being soaked in anti-magic, Twilight has to also rely on her body and keep Korsan at bay. For a minute, Twilight and Korsan continuously fight each other, matching each other’s attacks and counters.

“Impressive,” Korsan congratulates Twilight with a sadistic smirk, “but let’s see you deal with me on overdrive!” The gears in Korsan’s back piece immediately accelerate and thunder as his speed and power against Twilight increases exponentially. With most of the anti-magic already washed off, Twilight powers herself up with a quick spell and can finally use magic on her weapon. Twilight and Korsan reach their limit and their fighting becomes untraceable. The two rivals clash their weapons and bodies against each other with the greatest of precision and focus, never letting each other out of their sight. Leaping over and dodging each other’s attacking in the plummeting airship, the dancing of the metal continues for several never-ending seconds. Eventually through, Twilight strikes Korsan in the face with a long swing of her metal pipe, knocking him back into anti-magic container behind him. She then lunges forward in attempts to stab him. Korsan quickly evades the attacking, causing Twilight to jab the jagged end of pipe into the glass. In less than a second, the glass bursts and anti-magic begins to flood the area once more. Korsan shoots the metal pipe out of the glass. “Eleven.”

Twilight attempts to kick her rival, but outstretched hoof is grabbed. She is then shoved through the wall of glass by Korsan in an attempt to drown her. With liquid already pour down her throat and into her lungs, Twilight tries to swim back out frantic hurry. However, Korsan jams his back piece into the hole and blocks her exit. His rapidly rotating gears become a deathtrap as the churning anti-magic starts to pull Twilight to them. Twilight immediately switches her flesh gears and tries to swim away in a mad dash.

“No!” Nitin Gale exclaims, running at Korsan with a plank of wood. Korsan quickly reacts and breaks the wood with an iron kick. He then grabs the charging stallion’s head and pins him to the wet floor.

“Twilight!” Korsan taunts with his back turned to his victim. “Either you drown, or you’re grated into bits! Either way, I win!” Twilight’s eyes soon begin to burn from the thick substance, her heart fills with acid, and whatever breath she has left is being spent by she silently calling out for any of her friends, any of her family, any pony to save her.

Back on the main deck, under the vicious rainstorm, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Slasher, Yin, Yu, Princess Cadence, Cecil, Maurice, and Jarvis are all back to back as they are fighting the last remaining waves of Korsan’s pirates. As a tight circle, they dodge the incoming slashes and punches of the ferocious pirate as one body. Magic shields, wind gusts, and earthquake pounds are being tossed left and right by the huddle, knocking down the pirates one by one. However, the fallen crew members eventually pick themselves back up and join their fellow members once more as if they weren’t even hit. As hard as the eleven ponies try, their stamina and strength is nothing compared to the pirates. After several minutes of grueling battle, they all begin to turn tired. Seeing this, Korsan’s last thirty crew members surround the ponies and draw their weapons close to each of their victims’ bodies, ready for the kill. The pirates slowly draw themselves so close to their rivals, that they can practically see their salty sweat mixing with the fresh rain in the rampant cracks of lightning.

“Any last words?” One of the mare villains in front of Dash proclaims.

With a grin on her exhausted face, Rainbow Dash asks in response, “Do you?” The stallion replies with a confused look on his face. “Look behind you.” Curious, he and the two pirates beside him look behind them towards the bow. Charging right at them is Celestia’s massive zeppelin, showing no signs of slowing down. The pirates immediately scream as the blimp smashes into The Perfection, sending everypony backwards along with the entire airship with one swift jolt. The front of the zeppelin shatters open and two large figures leap in front of the ponies from it.

Several bolts of lightning then strike the surrounding sails and structure of The Perfection, creating a wall of flame around the two figures and the others. And in the light of the burning flames, reveals the two figures to be Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. One armed in gold and white armour from horn, to wings, to hooves and wielding a massive battle axe made of gold, the other armed in black and blue armour covering just as much and wielding a sword of silver, the two alicorns instantly strike fear in their foes by them merely standing and staring with the most determined eyes imaginable.

The pirate that spoke with Dash silently gulps before muttering, “…M-Mother…” With a flick of their horns, Celestia’s axe and Luna’s sword spring to life and lung at the pirates. One of them holds her sword forward to deflect Celestia’s axe. The axe instead chops the blade in half with one mighty swing. The axe then travels below the mare and slings her into the air, launching her several metres high in altitude. Celestia then soars up above the pirate and smashes her down with a powerful kick, sending her crashing through each of the airship’s floors and out the bottom. Three of the remaining pirates aim their crossbows at her and fire. The arrows speed at Celestia, but Luna’s sword swings over and deflects the arrows. Luna herself then zips across the flaming arena and rapidly head-butts the three in several looping circles. Celestia darts down and finishes them off by blasting them off with powerful bolts of magic.

The two alicorns then meet in the middle above their surrounded allies, join back to back, aim their horns at the pirates, and scream, “Duck!” A burning beam of magic and midnight beam of magic instantly burst from their horns and drill through the ship. The two then circle their beams around and blast the pirates all the way through the disintegrating wood and sending them into the sea. A whole chunk of the bow falls from The Perfection and is pulled away by the massive zeppelin as Celestia and Luna continue their joined attack.

Juliana swoops out from behind the wheel and attempts to attack the princesses. However, a light green magic aura surrounds the phoenix. She is then dragged by Sweetie Belle into a small bird cage with her, Applebloom, Scootaloo, and Spike waiting for her. Juliana is soon gently placed in the cage and the metal door closes on her.

She shrieks and flails, but Sweetie tries to calm down Juliana, “Hey, don’t worry. You’ve be taken good care of.”

“Not to mention rehabilitated.” Spike adds.

“You even have a friend!” Applebloom cheers as Scootaloo reveals the fire phoenix known as Philomena from her small wing.

The last of Korsan’s pirates, the one who was teasing Rainbow Dash, manages to sneak away from the fire ring and attempts to crawl away to the galley. A sharp wooden pain suddenly strikes the top of his head though, stopping him in his tracks.

An old, craggy voice soon follows, “Is that you Bainbro Bash, ya darn kid?” Instantly, the pirate grabs a nearby knife with his mouth and attempts the stab the unseen pony, but is cut off by a wooden staff. “Hey! Respect your elders why don’t you? Blasted kids these days, getting involved with knife tricks and ridiculous magic acts...” The stallion runs forward and turns towards the pony, turning out to be Craig Y’ol Timber. The pirate chuckles for a moment, feeling a sense of relief upon seeing that his rival is an old stallion. Unexpectedly, Craig charges forward and immediately overwhelms the pirate. He strikes the stallion’s head with a series of quick whacks of his stick. Craig then finishes him off by delivering a powerful smack upside the chin, sending the stallion over the railing screaming. The old Earth pony looks over to see the pirate as he continues to fall. “Nope, that wasn’t her.”

Celestia and Luna finish their ultimate attack and slowly drift down onto deck to greet the others.

“Thank goodness you two came.” Applejack cheers. “One moment later and we would’ve been pony-sushi.”

“That was awesome!” Dash exclaims.

“Thanks.” Fluttershy gasps in relief.

“Again!” Pinkie demands.

“Wait,” Celestia asks, “where’s Twilight and Rarity?”

“Princess Celestia! Luna!” Rarity screams as she and November are galloping to the group from the quarterdeck.

“Rarity!” Rainbow, Applejack, Pinkie, Fluttershy, and the pirate allies cheer in unison.

“Did you take care of the machine?”

“That’s not important,” Rarity declares with a panicky tone in her voice, “Have you seen Twilight?”

“No, no pony here does apparently.”

“Wait!” November exclaims, “What about my father!”

Rarity immediately screams, “In the anti-magic generator room!”

“It’s over Twilight Sparkle!” Korsan cackles. His back gears continue to shred through the green fluid at a rapid pace, trying to get to Twilight. However, Twilight still continues to swim against the current with all of her dying might. All of her organs are burning and melting. Her eyes see only black and white and her ears can only hear laughter and Death’s drink swirling in the undertaker’s claws. As hard as she tries though, the back of her hoovers are eventually drawn in and begin kicking against the whirling blades. A sharp series of metal clangs ring throughout the liquid tank in response. Twilight’s mind frantically races against the clock of life. She tries to think of an escape, but sees none other than to submit to Korsan’s rampant current. As Twilight is further drawn in, Korsan’s voice can be heard from the other side of the glass wall, “You know, it’s a shame you weren’t born an alicorn, thinks would be different. I would’ve become an alicorn, you and your friends would be set free, for a fair share of time, and the world would be restored to normality. Fate certainly has a way to throwing a monkey wrench in the clockworks.”

Wrench in the clockworks! Twilight’s mind suddenly screams out in triumph. With an idea instantly blooming, Twilight looks behind to see the series of gears at her hooves. She studies them quickly before finding what she needs. Carefully, she floats up towards the top of the back piece and by Korsan’s nape. She then flips over to face Korsan, reaches a hoof forward, and slams it in between the whirring gears. The gears suddenly stop with a loud clang. A rush of pain suddenly strikes Twilight, but doesn’t let it bother her. With her free hoof, Twilight immediately begins punching at her rival’s nape. Korsan pulls himself out of the hole, only to bring Twilight stuck on him and still fighting. Nitin is subsequently releases from Korsan, and he immediately rises to join Twilight in the fray. Korsan tries to fight back with his swords, but his movements are stiffer and slower as well as a persistent jolt to the back of his brain due to Twilight. The room begins to fill up once more with anti-magic as the three fight on, making it harder to maneuver on the ground. Nitin attempts to punch Korsan in the stomach at one point, but Korsan grabs the hoof with a hind leg. Twilight attempts to intervene by swing over Korsan’s head to body slam his face. However, Korsan performs a backwards roll and knocks Twilight off onto Nitin. Korsan then rises to his legs, pulling out his crossbow from one of his bottom hooves, causing him to stand on one hoof.

He aims from the fallen ponies, breaths in for a second, and silently whispers, “Twelve.” Just as he pulls the trigger through, a silver pipe flies in from seemingly nowhere, flicking the crossbow to the side and firing a metal bolt into the floor. Korsan looks over to his side and see Celestia and Luna, followed by the other heroes, charging at him. He turns to face them instead of Twilight and overcharges his suit again. “Come and get me!”

“Stay back!” Celestia declares to her followers as she and Luna leap forward at Korsan. Korsan raises his three armed hooves and blocks the first strike. Korsan then begins his attack as Celestia and Luna continue their forward lung and the immediately enter combat. Celestia’s golden axe, Luna’s silver sword, and Korsan’s dual cutlasses and crossbow slam into each other before backing up and slamming into each other again and again. The air roars with the sounds of grinding metal and the rushing wind of the three dashing around the room. Fire starts to enter the area as well, but the three continue to fight on as their lives depended on this battle. Eventually, the two alicorns back Korsan into a corner.  Celestia takes the opportunity and swings her axe forward. Korsan quickly reacts and shoots his crossbow at the axe, impaling the weapon with a metal bolt and flinging it across the room.

“Thirteen.” Korsan mumbles as he enters an intense black lock with Luna. His two blades grind against Luna’s, sending sparks flying in between them. Soon, Luna begins to overpower Korsan, and her sword draws close to Korsan’s neck. However, Korsan shoots his crossbow again and pins Luna’s weapon to the ceiling. “Fourteen, one more…” Now with the upper hoof, Korsan roars and slashes his swords at his two rivals. Celestia and Luna instantly back away side by side. They then lower their horns and instantly fire their magical beam attack at him. The two conjoined pulses rip through the ceiling and floor as they dart at Korsan. Quickly, Korsan holds his two swords in front of him and shields himself from the beams. Upon contact, his swords disintegrate the powerful magic with only minimal recoil. The attack dies down and Korsan instantly charges at the two alicorns. Dropping his two swords, Korsan uses his three free hooves to rapidly claw across the floor. He leaps with his front claws at the ready. However, Twilight suddenly soars into Korsan’s open side and sends the both of them out of the air and slamming into the glass wall. The two then tumble out into the middle of the floor in a small hoof fight, with Korsan slashing at Twilight’s face and chest.

“Rainbow Dash!” Twilight screams in struggle. “Finish him off!” Dash immediately springs into action as she breaks through the ceiling above Twilight and works her way towards the deck.

“Twilight!” Spike yells out as he and the others draw in around the wrestling pair, ready to help.

Twilight immediately shouts, “Stay back, I got this!”

“Hahaha!” Korsan cackles below Twilight. “You think you are stronger than me? At best we’re equal! You hold back you’re true power, your superiority, for no good reason!”

“I am no superior to the ponies around me as you are to every other villain I have encountered. What makes me stronger is my friendship, something that you lack. If you claim that magic is power, then I am infinitely more powerful than you are, because I have the ultimate magic, the magic of friendship!”

“Good thing I have an ace up my sleeve!” Korsan hollers before revealing the crossbow in his right upper hoof. He instantly holds it up to Twilight’s temple and screams, “Fifteen!” He pulls the trigger, but a loud metal click sounds from the small crossbow. “Gah… I hate my cousin…” Twilight then delivers a powerful head-butt into Korsan’s skull before rolling off of him. Korsan grunts from the hit and as he begins to climb back up, his eye notices something above. Through the smog of the fire and the wooden debris, Korsan sees Rainbow, diving straight at him. “Nooooo!” Within a second, Rainbow Dash bursts back down into the room and slams into Korsan’s chest, sending him crashing through the floor. The wood floorboards are flung across the room and cause the surround ponies to back away as the pirate captain plummets through the floor below and the bottom of the ship, with his screams echoing all the way down. Eventually, Korsan’s screaming dies down, and the ponies inside look at each other in utter disbelief of their feat.

“We did it…” Rainbow declares in shock, looking down the newly created holes that lead to the raging seas below.

“We did it.” Twilight confirms.

“We did it!” Pinkie exclaims. Everypony then cheers and leaps into the air. They have finally done it, they thought to themselves. The battle was over, and Korsan’s army has been defeated. Pats are being thrown around the group, as ponies praise each other and reminisce about their previous experiences.

“Hey AJ,” Dash exclaims, “Remember when you and I were fighting the pirates, and when we got a cannon and threw it onto a bunch of them?”

“Sure do!” Applejack replies. “Hey, Fluttershy, that was an awesome trick you pulled with the other pegasi in the quarterdeck.”

“Thanks.” Fluttershy humbly responds.

“You can say that again!” Pinkie cheers. “It saved me and some of our friends.”

“Wait, speaking of friends,” Rarity replies, turning to Celestia and Luna before asking, “Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, what’s going to happen to them?”

“The pirates?” Celestia answers.

“The ones that helped us.” Sweetie Belle helps, “November, Nitin, Yin, Yu, the ones with us.”

“Well,” Celestia takes a moment to think before actually answering Rarity’s question.

“Can we be let off free?” Maurice loudly asks.

“Considering you are most likely wanted in several countries…”

“I never messed with you guy-”

“Perhaps for punishment, you all can serve lightened jail time, maybe even just community service.”

“Really?”

“You are all heroes of the entire world. I’m sure the world will have a mostly similar opinion.”

“…Sure,” Slasher replies, “I can live with that.”

“Wait,” November asks, “What about Thieves’ Hold?”

Nitin promptly suggests, “What about that Craig stallion?”

“Craig?!” Dash exclaims in a immediate wave of panic. “As in Craig Y’ol Timber?”

“Yes.” Nitin replies.

“He’s here?!”

“Yes.”

“Oh, no-” Suddenly, a wood stick smacks Rainbow Dash in the head before falling to the floor next to her and Twilight. “Ow!”

“Hehe,” Twilight giggles, “looks like he already found you.”

“Twilight!” Spike nervously exclaims once he actually examines her.

“What is it Spike?”

“Are you alright?”

“Huh?” Curious of what he meant, Twilight examines herself, only to discover that her purple fur is now tarnished with a veil of red and pink and her flesh is covered in bruises, cuts, and light scars, especially noticeable around the hoof she stuck into Korsan. “Oh, it’s just a flesh wound, nothing to worry about.”

“We should head back to one of the blimps,” Luna calmly retorts, “this ship will hit water at any minute now.”

“Quite right.” Celestia nods.

“Oh yeah,” Jarvis realizes, “we’re falling. Heh, never noticed.”

As the remaining ponies on The Perfection board Celestia’s crashed zeppelin, a swamp of pegasi, including Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, are holding up the two collided vessels, keeping them from falling at high speeds like before. One by one, Celestia, Luna, Cadence, Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, Philomena, Juliana, Spike, Yin, Yu, Slasher, November, Nitin, Cecil, Maurice, Jarvis, and the rest of the pirates in Faction Two hop into the opening in the bow of the zeppelin, with Twilight on The Perfection monitoring the line.

“That’s it everypony.” Twilight announces. “Keep it single-file, no shoving, keep all of your weapons sheaved, no stealing, make room for others,”

“Twilight,” Celestia speaks, hovering above the mob.

“Celestia,” Twilight replies whilst turning to look at the white princess.

“I’m sorry I only left you and your friends with the SS Raindrop. I didn’t know you would need reinforcements, or even an airship instead of a boat.”

“It’s fine. None of us knew something like this was going to happen. And besides, it probably was better that we went alone.”

“Is the SS Raindrop still in good condition?”

“…It served well.” Princess Celestia humourously rolls her eyes, knowing what Twilight implied.

“How about the Diamond Eye?” Twilight instantly gasps, realizing that she has forgotten why she and her friends even started this journey. “One quick second, I’ll be right back!” Immediately, Twilight takes off towards the quarterdeck while the last ponies board Celestia’s airship.

“Alright, start pulling out! Twilight will catch up to us.”

As Twilight searches through the slowly decaying treasure room, she notices large amounts of the captain’s booty has already either been claimed by her pirate friends or fallen into the sea, indicated by the massive holes in the floors and walls. However, in the back of her head, Twilight is sure that the Diamond Eye is still here. Continuing to search deeper and deeper into the vault, an eerie feeling also tingles in her spine, as if there was another presence in the massive and dark room. Eventually though, Twilight finds the two massive diamonds in the back of the room and picks them up with her magic. She then turns around and as she heads for the exit, the eerie tingling grows stronger. As she proceeds to walk out of the door, a white blur suddenly passes in front of her, causing her to jump back and reach for an antique sword from the floor. But a red aura surrounds the long blade and flings it out of a hole in the wall.

Twilight gasps, “What the-”

“Stay.” A familiar mare’s voice calls out from behind. When Twilight attempts to look behind, a small dagger charges at her, stopping in front of her throat. Frozen, Twilight examines the levitating blade, noticing the groove designs and the red aura surrounding it.

“Maria?”

“I said stay.” Slowly, the white mare emerges from the unseen corner of Twilight’s vision and walks in front of her. However, Maria looks and acts different to the last time Twilight saw her. All over her body, even her face, mane, and tail, are metal pads and cables that stretch into the darkness behind, her horn is covered in a metal clamp with a series of cables and electric wires poking from the base, and her red eyes are shrunken, darting all around as if she was terrified of something.

Horrified, Twilight asks whilst still at the dagger’s end, “What happened to you?”

A voice chuckles in the darkness in response, “Don’t you recognize the mechanisms? Doesn’t it look familiar to somepony’s work?”

“Korsan!” From the dark corner behind Maria slowly emerges Korsan, limping towards the pair of mares. “How did you-You climbed the outside of the hull, didn’t you?”

“Cleve-” Korsan groans midway through his taunting, grabbing his beck piece and shredded cape in agony. As Korsan moves his claws into the light, Twilight sees that Maria’s cables and wires connect to Korsan’s mechanical suit.

“What did you do to Maria?”

“A new step forward in my technology, the ability to control larger masses beyond your own body with muscle-operated mechanics. It definitely serves well when your suit is busted and you need a little help. Impressed?”

“Let her go!”

“Don’t worry, it isn’t that painful. In fact, to Maria, it probably feels nice, being put down into submission after such naughty behaviour.”

“You’re a monster!”

“So I am, but not for long. After seeing Princess Celestia and Luna in action, I am certain that they were born alicorns.”

“No…”

“Oh yes. Come with me!”

“Where is she?” Luna grumbles as she and Celestia look over The Perfection from their now distanced blimp.

“It’s a big ship.” Celestia replies, trying to calm her sister down.

“I know, but I’m getting this bad feeling about this. Something doesn’t sit right.”

“What do you mean?”

“Did we actually see Korsan plummet into the ocean?”

“No, there were wood pieces flying everywhere.”

“Exactly, what if he-”

“Don’t worry Luna. Rainbow Dash gave a most powerful attack. I’m confident that Korsan wouldn’t be able to pull off something like-”

“Attention alicorns!” Korsan’s voice roars from the deck ahead. Immediately, the two alicorn princesses look over to see Korsan, Maria, and Twilight at the end of an outstretched plank. Twilight is completely wrapped in metal chains and three anti-magic straps tightened around her horn while Korsan and Maria are hunched over her body, each with dagger at her throat. The two alicorns gasp upon the sight, prompting everypony else on board to see what’s going on.

“Twilight!” They all exclaim.

“Maria’s been taken over by Korsan!” Twilight yells back, trying her best to explain the situation.

“Let her go Korsan!” Celestia demands.

“Turn me into an alicorn!” Korsan replies, shaking his shuttering hostage. “Or else this little beauty’s gonna have her gizzard cut out! And don’t think about pulling anything fancy, for if I die, my puppet here will do the job for me!”

“You’re mad!”

“Isn’t it always the case? Hey Twilight, how about you sing a song for us?”

“Celestia!” Twilight screams. “Don’t give into his demands!”

“Ohohoho!” Korsan manically cackles, “Looks like somepony’s dying for some tension!”

“Celestia and Luna will never give in! I’d rather die than let you destroy the world!”

“Hahaha! So what’s it going be Princesses? You have about twenty seconds before the anti-magic completely drains from my suit, and if you don’t comply within the second, Twilight’s head is going to be mounted on Dane Jonas’ Locker at the bottom of the sea!”

“Don’t-” Before Twilight can retort, Korsan shoves his cape into the hostage’s mouth.

“Tick-tock Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. Ten… Nine… Eight…”

“No!” Celestia screams. Her mind overheats as she tries to decide. Both options have disastrous consequences that will surely affect the entire world. The terrified eyes of Twilight beam into Celestia’s soul, silently screaming for her to both not let her die, yet die at the same time.

“Seven… Six… Five…”

“Luna!” The two naturally born alicorns look at each other, seeing each other’s terrified faces. They look back at their crew, only to be met with the same response from all of them. “Cadence?”

“Four…” Korsan continues.

“I don’t know!” Cadence rambles. “I’m just as lost! And besides, I wasn’t born one!”

“Three!” He now screams.

Celestia turns back to Twilight, fanatically muttering to herself, “What do I do, what do I do, what do I do?!”

“Two!”

“…”

“One!” Finally, Celestia makes her choice.

“Fine! Luna!” Instantly, Celestia and Luna aim their horns at Korsan which soon begin to glow. A white and black aura immediately surrounds the pirate and gently lifts him into the air. The aura suddenly envelopes Korsan and turns into a star of light, blinding everypony. The raging storm circles above the star and lightning immediately converges into it. Electricity rapidly sputters around the aura. Spurts of white, black, and icy blue magic blast from the star and soar through the air. Rain begins to gravitate to Korsan, soon followed by The Perfection. The swarm of pegasi holding up the pirate aircraft immediately scatters and narrowly escapes the growing power. Twilight watches in horror as she sees the black outline of Korsan from below transform, watching as his body begins to slowly grow and a small horn emerges from his skull. The remnants of his suit snap off in thousands of metal bits and orbit the aura along with the rain and woodchips of boat. The air vibrates with the low rumble of power accumulating in this star, as if the entire fabric of space and time is about to rip in two.

Inside the manic ball of energy and magic, Korsan’s voice, now deeper, booming, and dominant, roars in both pleasure and pain, “Yes… The power… The absolute power! Must… Have… More!” As Celestia and Luna attempt to pull out of the spell, a hellish red beam burst from the star and strikes the two, holding them in place and forcing them to transfer more magic. The small white star immediately expands into a black, blue, and red black hole of magic. Everypony freezes in total horror, their jaws dropping and their trains of thought are derailed on the spot.

As the transformation reaches its climax, all Twilight can do is mouth, “What have you done…” Eventually, the black hole collapses in on itself, absorbing into a solid black figure floating at the center. It shifts around in place, slowly moving its limbs and examining its own body. A pair of bloodshot eyes opens from the being’s face, with the center of its pupils burning with icy fire, staring down the onlookers. It looks down at the now exhausted princesses, then Rarity behind them, then below to Maria, now free of her binds and wobbling around the deck. He finally sees Twilight, looking back at him, scared, horrified, but also, furious. The black being once known as Korsan then dives down the deck and bolts into the quarterdeck. The back section of The Perfection immediately explodes in a massive fireball, only for the fire and pieces of the woodwork to levitate back. Massive metal beams and spiked bars reform the destroyed area. Quickly, the almost alive metal structure corrupts the rest of the airship, transforming it into a spiked behemoth of misplaced metal and wood. The cannons still on board burst from the sides of the ship and are turned into mechanical tentacles, aiming at every living thing in sight. The two masts remaining shatter in the middle and fall into the ocean below, and are replaced with ten massive caped robotic wings that burst from the sides of The Perfection. Entire lengths of the hull break away into separate tentacles, reformed by the being’s infection and transformed into six three-hundred metre long razor blades of ice. The bow of the ship blasts off and reveals a massive cannon that replaces the interior of the entire metal body.

Finally, The Perfection’s transformation ends with the quarterdeck forming a gigantic head of a metal dragon on top of it, with Korsan’s voice roaring from it, “I am reborn… I am perfected… And I am going to perfect this world… No matter the costs… I am the Judge… Jury… Executioner… I am Korsan Perfected…” The dragon’s head rises and delivers a metal screech that blows the surrounding airships away. The storm above grows even more furious than before. Twilight, still wrapped in her chains, can only watch as one of the massive ice swords raises into the clouds above her and dropping down. However, just as the blade is about to hit, Rainbow Dash soars in and shoves Twilight out of the way. The two ponies tumble to the middle of the deck while the blade strikes the side of the deck, creating a small shockwave throughout. As Dash then proceeds to free Twilight from her bindings, Celestia’s blimp pulls over them and Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, Slasher, November, Nitin, Cecil, Maurice, and Jarvis leap from it and land next to the two.

“What are you guys doing here?” Twilight asks as she climbs to her hooves, surprised of their audacity to hop onto the monstrous ship.

“You think some giant mechanical monster is going to get the best of us?” Applejack confidently retorts, though a small sense of nervousness is also present in her voice.

“This is practically a Tuesday.” Pinkie Pie declares.

“Let’s have some fun with this guy!” Rainbow Dash roars.

Fluttershy also adds, “As scary as this is, we’re probably going to deal with worse things in the future.”

“It may be crazy,” Rarity announces, “but it seems to work for Korsan.”

“It is better to die trying than to run away.” Cecil declares.

“Here, here!” Maurice cheers.

“And besides,” Jarvis concludes, “there isn’t really anyplace to run away to.”

“For friends…” November speaks.

“For family…” Nitin continues.

“For freedom and happiness to all!” Slasher exclaims. Twilight looks at the eleven ponies surrounding her, side by side. An overwhelming sense of confidence rises between each of them as they stand before their mighty foe.

Standing at the ready alongside her friends, Twilight looks towards the dragon’s head, staring at her back. She knows that inside that mechanical head is Korsan, now an almighty alicorn thirsty for blood.

She speaks, “Bring it on, Perfected Korsan.”