“Hey.” Applejack calls out to the cheering mares around her. They all instantly turn silent and look towards her. “You know, there’s this one thing that’s been pecking at my mind recently. How come that Fountain of Balance didn’t work on Korsan?” An awkward silence fades in as the girls and Spike ponder on the question at hoof.

“I don’t know…” Rarity mutters.

“Wasn’t there some requirements that had to be done?” Dash asks.

“Like a blood ritual?” Pinkie pipes in.

“I just thought that was merely mumbo-jumbo.” Applejack replies.

“Both you and Korsan weren’t able to transform...” Twilight restates the question, thinking deeply about it, studying every word in her head.

“What do I and Korsan have in common that makes us unworthy?”

“Unicorn magic?” Fluttershy responds.

“No, that not it.” Twilight mumbles. “The fountain’s said to give magic.”

“…” The gathering of ponies turns silent once more.

“How about we backtrack?” Twilight eventually suggests to the group. “Perhaps we’re looking over something we encountered on our adventure?”

“The island,” Rarity announces. “What about the island? Its origins, how it made the fountain, how it even got into the Breach in the first place?”

“I’ve been curious about the same thing.” Twilight replies. “But after checking almost all of my books, there doesn’t seem to be any records of an island that far away, or any islands really. The Breach up to this point was nothing more than the rumoured edge of the world.”

“What was with that sandworm?” Fluttershy asks.

“What was with the Breach itself?” Dash adds.

“Is anypony else wondering how some pony found Alicorn Island the Breach in the first place and put it on a map?” Pinkie chimes in.

Twilight’s memory suddenly sparks and recollections of Alexander Maden’s writings burst from her mouth. “He’s related to Korsan!”

“What?!” The other mares exclaim.

“Alexander Maden, he’s the stallion that found the Breach and found a translator for the Diamond Eye! He’s Korsan’s uncle if I recall correctly.”

“That’s right!” Rarity screams, recalling how Korsan translated the Diamond Eye on his ship.

“What was the language called though… it’s on the tip of my tongue,”

“Same here,”

“It most likely came from a long dead civilization. Such a typeface that the Diamond Eyes and the fountain had on them is probably centuries old, maybe even millenniums.”

“Older than Equestria?”

“Perhaps, the civilization might as well be even before the three ancient pony tribes.”

“Speaking of ancient ponies,” Applejack replies. “Where do you think Korsan heard about this ‘Alicorn Era’ he was blatherin’ about?”

Promptly, Twilight answers Applejack’s question. “There’s been an old tale of an island inhabited by alicorns that disappeared a thousand years ago. Not many ponies today have heard of it.”

“Do you think there’s some sort of connection between that island and Alicorn Island?” At that moment, the entire room erupts in frenzy. Everypony is now talking at once, speaking out loud whatever theories, ideas, conclusions, questions, retorts, and demands of silence from their minds. Some agree with each other, some have polar opposite ideas, and some can’t even hear the pony right next to her or him. The havoc continues for several minutes, getting louder and louder with each word being spoken over the other.

Finally, Twilight gets fed up with the noise, and decides to take action. With the flick of her glowing horn, the entire room turns mute. The friends find each other’s mouths not producing any sound and turn their attention to a search for the source of this, quickly reaching Twilight.

With the six other occupants now quiet and focused on her, Twilight removes the audio spell and speaks out. “Alright, there are a lot of questions from our journey that have been unanswered to this point.”

“That’s an understatement.” Spike remarks.

“And as it seems, just us standing around and bickering is not going to answer any of them.”

“So, what do you suggest we do?” Dash asks. “Go out on another adventure?”

“…Actually, that sounds like a great idea.”

“What?” Fluttershy replies. “We just came back from one.”

“Who said anything about it being over?” Rainbow Dash slyly remarks.

“Yeah, I could use another break by now.” Applejack adds.

“’The Quest for the Secret of the Alicorn’,” Pinkie Pie proclaims dramatically. “Quite a cute ring to it.”

“Where do we even start?” Fluttershy then asks.

“Just like before,” Rarity answers. “We look for the Diamond Eye. It has the language we’re looking for isn’t it?”

“And look on the bright side.” Applejack continues. “It’s not like we have to go into some giant hole in the ocean and deal with a monster again or anythin’.”

“But what if we do?” Fluttershy sheepishly replies.

“Then we’ll be ready for it.” Twilight declares. “If we can take down something the likes of Perfected-, or even Neo Korsan, we can handle any problem.”

“So what are we waiting for? Let’s go!” Pinkie cheers.

“May the adventure begin!”

Within only a week, Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Fluttershy were out at sea in an airship, heading towards the wreck of The Perfection. Now followed by a small crew of guards, scientists, and scavengers, they were more prepared than ever before for the long search, and grand adventure that they believed awaited them. Upon reaching the wreckage, the ponies on board quickly got to work, examining every nook and cranny of the wood and metal of the ship, both above and below the water. Rainbow Dash and Applejack even went to the bottom of the sea to examine the sunken portions of the ship. However, after several days of endless searching, they never found either half of the Diamond Eye, tons of loot perhaps, but nothing even comparable to the knowledge that pair of diamonds hold.  The books that were recoverable from Korsan’s library were each retrieved and carefully studied by Twilight, but none yielded any clues. Fluttershy and Pinkie found the whale Pinkie made friends with from the deserted island a long time ago. Rarity found Korsan’s old, broken, rusted blades deep inside what used to be Sweetie Belle’s cabin. Rarity’s cabin was right next to her sisters, and upon recollection, she realized that they were initially November Gale’s and Nitin Gale’s cabins. Spike during this time stayed in the airship and continued to read Daring Do books.

Although they didn’t find the Diamond Eye on this first trip back, their hopes were still on a high note as they headed back home to Equestria. Every once in a while, be in a week or a month or two, the ponies would return back to The Perfection and search around the ship and the seafloor that surrounds it. And everytime they’d search, they either would learn something new or find a valuable artifact from Korsan’s trove, occasionally both. Some would stay in Equestria during these adventures, and once in a while go on their own adventures, but the seven friends’ spirits stayed as one in support. Occasionally, Sweetie Belle, Applebloom, and or Scootaloo would tag along in these journeys to The Perfection, and pick up little tokens of their travels. These would usually range from a rare coin to a large, oddly shaped piece of scrap metal. Nevertheless, the fillies were always ecstatic to head out to sea every once in a while.

As the days, the weeks, and the months passed by, the chances of Twilight and her friends finding the Diamond Eye grew slimmer and slimmer. The mares and Spike understood this fact, and visited The Perfection less and less frequently, but their hopes only grew.  The fantasies of finding the diamonds and answering their questions still ran rampantly in their heads, and they would keep an eye out for it every day. Be it on one of their final runs out to The Perfection, during another seemingly unrelated adventure, or even in the market on one fateful day, they knew they will find the Diamond Eye. As their pirate friends were released from prison one by one, they invited each one of them in their quest, with some agreeing, and some not. With help from Twilight, her friends, and the princesses, the pirate friends were able to move on from Korsan, and hold stable livelihoods for themselves.

Cecil became a traveling bard, and gained a large following from many kingdoms, though he still enjoys the quaint bar at Thieves’ Hold. Maurice became an international mail-pony, delivering letters across the seas to kingdoms across the globe. Jarvis returned to his life of piracy, but with a large amount of competition now gone, he quickly became very successful, even becoming the new Pirate King.

November Gale, Nitin Gale, Slasher Gutzoult, Yu Shou, and several other pirates returned to Thieves’ Hold, finished the tavern renovations, and opened soon after. Within a month, it had become the most popular location of interest at sea, with pirates and even regular seafaring ponies visiting in tens of thousands per day. Craig Y’ol Timber became a world-wide celebrity due to his knowledge of the underground tunnels, but he prefers to stay out of the limelight and in the mostly tranquil position of bouncer at the bar of Thieves’ Hold alongside Grivs.

Yin Shou became a teacher of martial arts and swordplay, running his own dojo in the Crystal Mountains, which Yu and Slasher occasionally visit. Alexander Grevious used his wealth and became one of the most respectable and honored citizens of Canterlot, though does suffer from occasional hearing loss for an undisclosed reason. Butch Taylor joined the Equestria military, and soon graduated into a captain after his successful capture of the infamous Black Paladin, before he escaped. Juliana adjusted to her new life alongside Princess Celestia, Luna, and Philomena, with a particular fondness in Luna. Aran Ryan and Lilis Jewmerin also returned to a life of crime, but restricted it to stealing from criminals and the rich. When not committing crime, Aran worked for an iron mill while Lilis worked as a doctor.

After being the last of the pirates released, Maria Vanshwitz soon vanished. No pony knows where she is or what’s she’s doing now, and not even rumours are commonly accepted by many.

To this day, the Diamond Eye, and the secrets that it hold, has never been found, and there’s an unlikely chance, that it ever will be, for the rest of time.

“’…As I write this letter to you, is has been seven months since our battle with Korsan, everything appears to be back to normal finally. I will never forget that adventure we had, and what came from it. We might not have found the Diamond Eye and answered the questions that we still have to this day, but we gained something much greater. My friends and I, both the Elements of Harmony and the ones we made on our journey, have grown stronger. Our friendship is greater than any pony, or villain, or monster, or race, or magic, or power, or ideology, that dare seeks to tear us apart. As many times it is put to the test, I will always remember that journey I took with my friends, and remind myself of how powerful it truly is once more.

And about the language that the Diamond Eye and the Fountain of Balance, Rarity and me are still trying to recall it, we have not forgotten it. Maybe it was one too many bumps to the head back then that’s giving us trouble. Until the Diamond Eye is recovered, or some clue comes around, I will continue checking every language in existence until I find it. Even if it takes a hundred years, I will continue to persevere and answer those questions, and reclaim our ancient history. The world and its ponies deserve to know where we came from, and what is out there. And who knows, maybe a little understanding of history might take care of the next villain to come chasing after us. Happy holidays, Princess Celestia.

Your faithful student,

Twilight Sparkle’”