“’And as Daring Do stands at the edge of the cliff, looking over the great blue sea, she takes one final breath of the air so rich in salt. She may not have found the true island known as Trihearth, but she is one step closer to find it, as well as the treasures that it holds.

‘One day’ she utters, ‘one day, I’m going to find the truth about her, and him.‘” Twilight sighs as she closes the book before her. She then places it on her bed and proceeds to head down into the main room of her palace. There she finds Spike seated at one of the seven thrones around the crystal table in the center of the room. In his claws is a copy of ‘Daring Do and the Serpent Hunter’. A confused face is imprinted on Spike’s face as his eyes slowly gloss across the open pages.

“Sheesh, this stuff is hard to follow.” Spike mutters to himself.

“What is?” Twilight asks. The baby dragon turns his head around and sees Twilight.

“Oh, hi Twilight. So, are the Federalists the good guys or the bad guys?”

“Uh…”

“Also, what’s with this sudden focus on micro-gears?”

“Well… It’s complicated.”

“I figured.” Slowly, Twilight walks towards the open window of the palace and sticks her head out into the day sky. As she takes in her surroundings, a peculiar feeling tingles inside. Instead of smelling the thick salty air of the ocean, she smells the sweet zephyrs of the landlocked Ponyville. Instead of seeing just blue, white, and brown colours of the sea and ships, the entire rainbow of colour bathes the land. Instead of feeling cold water and brutal winds bash into her flesh, a soft breeze and the sun’s warmth brushes through her fur. Instead of hearing the endless waves of ocean sloshing around aimlessly, the calm rustling of the leaves enters her ears.

“You know Spike, it feels like only a month ago when we were sailing the seas and fighting pirates.”

“It was a month ago. We even marked the day of Korsan’s defeat on a calendar.”

“Oh.”

“Water Tiger? What? Maybe I should’ve have skipped those chapters in the last two books…”

“That’s what you get for binging on those ridiculous comic books.”

“Ridiculous? Try saying that about ‘One Buck Mare’.” Twilight simply rolls her eyes at Spike’s retort and continues to enjoy the peacefulness of the outside world. With Canterlot Castle in the distance, Twilight wonders how things are going with the princesses. As Spike continues to read on, a sudden queasiness erupts in his stomach. In a split second, the dragon drops the book and belches out a small burst of green flame. A scroll emerges from the fire and lands on the table. Twilight hears the commotion and turns around to see the scroll.

While Spike recovers from the message delivery, Twilight opens the scroll and reads the letter inside out loud,

“'Dear Princess Twilight Sparkle,

I hope you have recovered well from your injuries from Korsan. Although those deeper scratches may still be visible, they should be healed and only be scars at this point. The same goes for your friends as well. However, I do advise you and your friends to keep an eye out for any mental damage that may still linger.

In regards to the castle, although the original ballroom was heavily damaged from the attack during the gala, it is nearly fixed. We’ve decided to reinforce the structure, as well as the exterior of the castle, with some of the super-steel salvaged from The Perfection (well, Perfected Korsan if we’re going by specific names). I tell you something, that metal is thicker than what it looks like. Scientists claim it is five times thicker than standard reinforced concrete. Just imagine what that type of metal can do in buildings, vehicles, armour, and the list it quite extensive.

Speaking of Korsan’s technology, we’ve managed to reverse-engineer Korsan’s anti-magic substance to a degree where we can create a pseudo-anti-magic substance. It can’t really block more powerful forms of magic and spells, but it works. I can’t really get into details, but it involves a TON of cold-worked iron. In a year or two, this stuff is going to be everywhere in Equestria, helping further advances in technology, medicine, transportation, defense, just you wait.

In regards to Korsan himself, it’s unclear at the moment. The salvage search teams haven’t been able to find a body. That can mean a few things. Either his body disintegrated, his body drifted out somewhere, or he might’ve swum away a little bit before dying. Luckily, there looks to be absolutely no chances that he’s still around at this point. There’s no need to worry.

Your ‘pirate’ friends here are doing fine. From what I’ve heard from the guards, they’re not causing too much trouble. In his words, they’re actually helping in providing ‘tight management’ of the other inmates, with the small red unicorn being the most effective. As for the other pirates, the ones that were loyal to Korsan, the other nations around the world have confirmed of their well-secured confinement. I was almost surprised how enthusiastic some of these kingdoms were in taking these pirates. They must’ve had a high value or something, though I question the clown’s actually value, he didn’t look as bad as they said he was.

One final note Twilight, keep your eyes out for any suspicious activity going on in Ponyville. I’ve heard a few reports of some ‘rogue paladin’ in the area. It’s not Korsan, but we both know how tough some of our newest… occurrences, are becoming. Maybe it’s because of Korsan’s downfall, maybe it’s not, who knows. Stay safe, feel better soon, and remember, your friends will always be there for you. Keep the magic of friendship strong, my dear student.

Your loving teacher,

Princess Celestia.'”

“Looks like all is right with the world once more,” Spike remarks.

“Well, for the most part,” Twilight replies.

“What do you mean?”

“There are millions of ponies in this world. By statistics, at least one of those ponies will have a similar uprising as Korsan, a similar, terrible childhood. And don’t even get me started on alternate dimensions. We’ve seen what the concept of infinite possible universes looks like. It doesn’t go pretty for a good number of cases. Give or take a while and we may have to deal with another supervillain, one that could take away something greater than thousands of lives.”

“Chill out Twilight. Enjoy the peace while it lasts. If another bad guy shows up, we just stick together and take care of it like usual,”

Another mare’s voice speaks up from the other side of the table. “No matter how many philosophical speeches the next guy’ll throw at us, we’re still friends to the end.” Twilight and Spike look over and see Applejack, lazily resting back in her chair.

“No matter how many final forms he has,” Rainbow Dash adds, revealing herself in another crystal throne. “We can take care of it.”

Pinkie Pie then pipes in from another chair, “No matter how many times we’ll be separated, we’ll always be super-duper close each other in heart!”

“No matter smart he acts or how dashing he looks,” Rarity chimes in. “If his ideas are ridiculous and will go through with them at all cost, we’ll stop him.”

“And don’t worry about the statistics,” Fluttershy concludes. “We’ll make steps to make sure that everypony is happy.”

“To friendship!” Twilight declares.

“To friendship!” The other mares including Spike cheers. The entire room fills with laughter and cheer as their declaration echoes throughout the large room.

“…Now seriously, how’d you all get in here without me noticing?”

Pinkie casually answers. “It’s surprising how effective boxes are in hiding ponies.”

“’Chomh maith leis na aithreacha d'aois, go bhfuil mé phléadáil ar feadh aghaidh, a bheith liom. Láithreach, an log na trí thy cumhacht mhór, dall, agus ar an drochuair fear bocht a íonaithe. Tabhair dúinn inniu, ar mhaithe mhaithe bhua an chumhacht draíochta. Beannaigh an chumhacht chun bharda as an bhagairt na moille. Magical Beannaigh dom, fiú aon uair amháin a roinnt, is féidir iad a leasú fiú do foirfeachta. Beannaigh an dóchas muiníneach go bhfuil an chinniúint faire nua, nó tú chugainn a shábháil ar fud an domhain ó loch síoraí-’”

“Sister?” Her sister’s voice calls out from behind Princess Celestia, whose face deep in the fading pages of an old book in front of her.

Celestia immediately gasps, “Huh?” and looks behind to see Luna from the doorway connecting the hallway outside to her sleeping chambers. “Oh, didn’t see you.”

“My apologies, sister. What are you reading if I might ask?”

“Just an old book I found in the library.”

“Do you understand what it says? If I recall, your tongue lacks whatever words your voice has interpreted. Not to mention your sloppy execution with some of the phrases.”

“Not really. It doesn’t match up with any known languages.”

“Perhaps it is an older form of tongue?”

“Incredibly older if that’s the case, it might even be a father language of multiple modern languages.”

“What has made you so interested in this book if you can’t understand it?”

“…”

“Was, he, able to read it?”

“Yes. However, he may not be the only one. From what Twilight told me about her encounters with Korsan, she told me that he was able to read text made of similar symbols to this book. There was a reason he took the Diamond Eye in the first place, it was a piece of an ancient map that he can read.”

“But, how? He would never divulge such knowledge to a pony he knew was plotting genocide.”

“…”

“…Right?”

“His thinking’s very different compared to ours, even more so than Korsan’s.” As Celestia takes a moment to think, her eyes glance over to the glowing fireplace against the wall. The gears in her mind begin to clink together one by one. “What if…”

“What if what, sister?” Luna questions.

“What if he did reveal the tongue to him, or even, a close relative? What if he knew that Korsan would lose to us? But why?”

“No idea.”

“Was it to test us?”

“Or perhaps,” Luna adds, “he was preparing us.”

Meanwhile, far out at sea, back at the slowly sinking wreckage of The Perfection, there is a small fleet of four boats circling around the grounded behemoth. Each crewed by about ten ponies each, the boats scan the floating wood and metal towers and debris, searching for anything salvageable.

“Hey, Ms. Parker,” one of the stallions on board one of the boats calls out to the mare next to him.

The mare teasingly asks. “What is it Rob?”

“It’s Mr. Goni. You know I don’t like being called that.” The stallion coldly remarks before answering. “But anyways, look at that.” The beige stallion then points a hoof at one of the larger pieces of ship floating by them. Ms. Parker examines the piece in question and notices a large mechanical object inside.

“Looks like one of Korsan’s gadgets.”

“Didn’t they say something about some giant-machine-cannon-things back at Vanhoover?”

“This might be one of them. From here, it looks like it’s still in one piece.”

“Finally, something we can get a good cut for.” Mr. Goni then yells out to the captain behind him. “Bring us in towards Echo Seven!”

“Aye-aye.” The captain’s voice echoes and the ship soon drifts towards the mechanical object. As Ms. Parker flies up to the cannon, it instantly roars to life and turns to face her. “Look out!” The machine’s barrels whir rapidly. Ms. Parker ducks. Everypony below scrambles into some form of hiding position as they wait for the worst to happen. However, after a few seconds, the cannon doesn’t do anything besides spinning and making noise. The flying mare slowly hovers back up to her vantage point and examines the cannon from afar.

“Huh.” She sighs. “It’s empty.”

“Must’ve unloaded all of its ammo during the fight a few weeks ago.” Mr. Goni replies.

“Seems so Rob.”

“…”

“Oi,” the captain calls out. “We better hurry up and get that thing locked down and onboard. One of the weather pegasi just signaled a really bad storm coming our way.”

“How bad are we talking?” Ms. Parker asks?

“Apparently requiring the A.W.E. if I remember my flare colours right.”

“Alright!” Mr. Goni proclaims. “You heard the captain. Load this thing up and let’s get out of here!”