For a few minutes the whistle of the wind and the breaking of waves were the only sounds in the world at the cliff’s edge.

“Princess Luna, are you… we presumed too much, didn’t we?” Silverwing said. His disappointment was obvious, as was his even greater self-chastise. “We are sorry. We- we believed you-”

“Whoah, hey,” Leaf Stream said, stopping the stuttering, old Thestral in his tracks. “How about you give us a chance to actually think about it for a little while first, huh? I mean, seriously, you drop this on us out of the blue and expect us to have a plan five seconds later?”

“Oh. I’m sorry, you’re right. Of course, I’ll-”

“Why don’t you head back? Give us some time? I mean, we still got some time, right? That thing ain’t reaching Horseshoe Bay tomorrow, eh?” Leaf Stream laughed. “It doesn’t, does it?” she added in a desperate, worried tone.

“No. It stays stationary for a random amount of days, but we never have any idea how much distance it will actually cross or when-”

“There you have it!” Leaf Stream interrupted once more. “Now shoo, off you go. Give us some privacy.”

“I- yes, yes. If somepony can deal with this, it is our princess. Princess Luna, by your leave…”

Luna nodded to the elderly stallion without turning away from the sight of the maelstrom. Silverwing audibly swallowed and left without another word, his steps down the path much heavier that when he climbed up a few minutes ago.

Leaf Stream’s eyes tracked the Thestral until he had gone far enough. She quickly turned back to her two bosses. “Please, tell me you guys have a plan!”

Everypony around turned to them. Luna and Raegdan were still sitting on the ground, eyes locked on the impossible task ahead of them. They both shook their heads as one. “It’s… It’s impossible! You don’t kill Leviathans. You can only run. Move everypony away and hope someday it may die of old age!” Luna whispered.

Applejack started to slowly understand the magnitude of what they really were up to. “Only thing ah heard about Leviathans is that they are really big monsters… ah don’t know if ah ever believed they were real.”

She remembered Granny Pie telling her about them once. Too be honest, she had thought it was more of her “in mah time, everything was different! The apples were sweeter. The monsters were bigger,” spiel.

“Oh, they’re real enough,” Solid Charge said. “Too few of them, thankfully. This is the fourth one in recorded history.”

Luna was standing up in an instant, the hairs of her coat risen up straight. “There is a third one now?” she screamed, terrified.

“Yes,” Cast Iron replied. “I, uh, I guess you must have missed it. It’s northeast of Minos.”

“What is that one like?” Luna asked with eyes wide with fear.

“Have you seen the Ironscape mountain range?” Solid Charge asked while sitting down himself.

“Once or twice.”

“If you go there now you will notice there’s an extra mountain. That’s what it looks like.”

Rarity was doing her best to make her trembling lips work properly. She finally managed to get enough control to ask her question. “What- what if that thing attacks?”

“The plan so far is to evacuate as soon as we notice it so much as lightly shake. We pray it’s hibernating, but we can’t know for sure. Every team that has been sent there so far hasn’t returned. We can only hope it keeps sleeping or waiting for as long as possible, and that it moves real slow when it wakes up,” Solid Charge finished saying.

“But… that doesn’t sound anything like the one here!” Spike pointed out in a hurry. The little dragon’s imagination, spurred on by the tales he read, had gone into overdrive. His small arms were shivering.

“They are all different,” Luna shakily said, sitting down next to Raegdan once more. “The other two… One of them is also a sea creature. I believe it might resemble an octopus, though one of unimaginable size. I only ever saw two of its tentacles. It swatted Celestia and I like flies. I managed to dodge far enough to the side to escape with only a couple of broken legs and ribs. Celestia tried to put up a shield. That thing almost killed her while we only managed to annoy it. We were lucky. We weren’t able to give it cause up to that point to take us seriously. We left it alone. It seems content to eat whales in the south seas, and we think it likes the warmer waters. Celestia tries her best to keep the temperature there ideal for it ever since. The other one is… more terrifying. There’s a reason they are called the Badlands now. It lives in there. It hasn’t tried to approach the mountains so far… or as much as I know. Has it?” Luna anxiously asked Leaf Stream.

Leaf Stream shook her head. “No. That’s the good news. Bad news is it’s still spry as anything. We’re starting to think that waiting them out is not going to work but we don’t know what else to do. If one of them changes its habits or something provokes them we’re toast.”

Applejack thought she knew about monsters. Celestia knows she had seen her share of them. She thought hydras or dragons were as big as you could get. Maybe the Ursa Major they had never seen, the baby one was certainly big enough. These things were striding her world and she had no idea they were out there.

How did anypony who knew of them sleep at night? How could she from now on?

“Where the hay did those things come from?” she asked, scared out of her wits, turning to stare at the maelstrom. What if there were more of this? She tried to imagine the endless ocean in front of her filled with whirlpools as far as the eye could see. It was scarily easy to do so.

“No idea.” Cast Iron shrugged. “I know they tried to see if the Mountain left any hoofprints… they found a huge, vast trench behind it leading north, as if it dragged itself to its current position.”

“Well, then we know, don’t we?” Rarity exclaimed. “Where did that trench lead to?”

“Nowhere,” Solid Charge said, scowling. “It just ended, miles away, as if the damned thing dropped from the sky.”

Applejack wanted to ask Luna if she knew anything more. While everypony else was looking at the surface that hid the newest terror that had been thrust onto Equestria she had turned to look behind them. That’s the only reason she caught sight of Raegdan and Luna exchanging knowing glances.

“You know where they come from! You named it,” she said to Raegdan, pointing a hoof at him. Everypony looked at her. “When ya saw it, ya said a name. Haribdal or something.”

“Charybdis,” Raegdan corrected her absentmindedly. He immediately covered his mouth with his palm. “Crap,” he swore.

“Aha!” Applejack yelled, triumphant. She pointed with her hoof even harder.

“The Leviathans came from your home?” Rarity asked.

“No! No, we don’t have things like that where I come from. It’s a shame actually. If they appeared there instead my kind would be able to deal with them easily.”

“Easily?” Solid Charge asked, disbelievingly. “What kind of weapons do your people have?”

“You don’t want to know.”

“Then you can kill it!” Leaf Stream said.

“With what? Swim over there and whack it with my hammer?”

“How did ya know its name?” Applejack insisted.

Raegdan let out a frustrated breath. “It’s from a- a myth. A very old story, over two thousand years old.” He pulled his legs, crossing them in front of him. Spike sat in front of him, like a child waiting to hear a story.

A story he was going to get. Raegdan closed his eyes, his shoulders relaxed, and his hands rested on his knees.

“There was an ancient hero. His name was Odysseus. He was a king, a warrior, and among the heroes of his age the one most renowned for his cunning and intellect. He and his fellow kings had laid a bloody, ten year siege on a city. It finally fell thanks to a plan he had made to successfully sneak himself and a few soldiers beyond their mighty walls. The city had fallen and pillaged. The alliance of kings dissolved, and each and every one of them returned to their home.

Odysseus’ journey back to his own kingdom was filled with perils and danger. He had made an enemy of the god of the sea and for ten long years, fraught with battles and monsters, he wandered from one adventure to the other, delaying him from returning. Ten years of this until he made it home to his family. One of the obstacles in his way was Scylla and Charybdis.

There was a narrow passage, a strait he had to cross with his ship. At one side, in a cave among the rocks, nested Scylla, a gigantic monster with six heads. At the other side…” Raegdan pointed towards the maelstrom. “Lied Charybdis. A monster of insatiable thirst that three times a day would swallow the sea whole and spit it back out.”

“How did Odysseus kill the monsters in the myth?” Cast Iron asked, excited. “If he managed it we can try to do the same thing. Myths usually have a grain of truth. If it’s the same beast it might work!”

“Odysseus had to cross the narrow passage to reach his home. So he made the best decision he could. He sailed the ship near Scylla. She ate twelve of his soldiers. Twelve of his companions who travelled for years with him, dead. He considered it a good trade. Charybdis would have eaten all of them.”

Cast Iron sagged. “Oh… I hoped…”

“Yeah, well, hope in one hand, shi-”

“Raegdan, please! Language!” Rarity yelled.

“Oh, you know that one, don’t you?” Raegdan smiled briefly.

“Where did it come from in that myth?” Applejack asked.

Raegdan closed his eyes tightly and gently hit his head with his fist a couple of times. “Uh, I know that one, I know I do… I almost remember it.” He rubbed at this eyes, groaning as he tried to pull the memory forth. “I, uh… Charybdis was made. Yes, that’s it. She was made that way.”

“She?” Rarity asked, incredulous. “It’s a female?”

“The myth says that the god of the sea had a- a contest or argument with his brother and king of the gods, the ruler of the earth and sky. Each of them claimed they held domain over a larger kingdom than the other. So the god of the sea decided to sink a couple of islands to show his brother that he couldn’t only deny territory from him, but also add it to his own. The king of the gods didn’t take well to that, so in order to punish him he targeted one of his brother’s daughters and turned her into… well, that.” He pointed to the sea once more.

Everypony watched the distant whirlpool for a few minutes. It felt so peaceful up here. A soft breeze was blowing over them and she could smell the sea, so powerful that it felt as if the air was partly made of salt. Even the view was something outstanding, only demolished by the knowledge that there is something alive down there causing it. Something that moved. Something horrible.

“These two gods sound like real jerks,” Spike noted.

Raegdan shrugged. “Eh, I think the idea behind those myths was to show that no one is perfect, not even gods. So yeah, they really were jerks.”

“Can’t ya make something to kill that thing?” Applejack asked. “Luna said you had brought explosives along in the cart. Won’t these work?”

“They did what?” Rarity shouted. “Explosives in our cart? I was riding on that!” She fell backwards fainting. Cast Iron quickly grabbed her before she touched the ground. “Thank you darling,” she whispered sideways, sounding extremely conscious despite her closed eyes and slackened body.

Raegdan mulled over Applejack’s suggestion. “The hand bombs won’t so much as scratch it… We brought chemicals along so we could make a much stronger explosive, just in case. One of the strongest ones actually. But I doubt we have enough. Did you see the size of that shadow under the water? It must be as big as the castle!”

“Then make as much as you can and dump them in there!” Applejack said.

Raegdan shook his head. “I simply don’t think I have enough. Even if we did- It’s too sensitive. It’s not meant for… gah, what’s the word? Depth... bombs I guess. It doesn’t mix well with water or sudden movement.”

“It’s worth a try though, doesn’t it?” Leaf Stream pointed out.

“Alright,” Raegdan conceded. “We have a plan B for boom. It might be made out of tissue paper, why not? Luna, we need to find someplace to mix the explosives. I hope you can do your telekinesis thing from far enough. That stuff can go off with a simple shake.”

“Can’t you make them more stable?” Cast Iron asked.

“Oh sure, of course.” Raegdan’s tone of voice left no doubt on what he thought about Cast Iron’s question. “I just don’t want to because I like the idea of risking dismemberment because I hiccupped at the wrong moment. It adds some needed spice in my boring life.”

“I just thought that you could-”

Raegdan shoved him away with both arms. “No, you didn’t! Do you have the slightest idea what it took to make what little we have been able to make so far? How do you find a chemical or element when you have no idea how it’s called in Equestrian? Let me tell you, trial and error is no fun at all when the right answer is the one that can kill you! I’m not about to start mixing it further with stuff I have no idea about.”

“We do have one more option,” Luna reminded Raegdan.

Raegdan’s anger was replaced by an instant of visible fear. “Oh, no. Better leave it alone to eat whatever it can. Let it swallow Baltimare if it wants. It’s not worth it.”

“Hey, if you have something that can kill it we should think about it at least,” Leaf Stream said.

“You don’t want it dead that much,” Raegdan insisted.

“Why not? What’s the worst that could happen?”

“Think of it like this. There’s a good side and a bad side. The good side is that what Luna’s suggesting will kill it so dead we might never find a piece of it.”

“And the bad side?”

“The side effects. How do you feel about a huge cloud of invisible energy that travels with the wind and can cause death, incurable diseases, and birth defects?”

“Not- not a fan,” Leaf Stream stuttered.

“Me neither. Last time I set one of those off I made sure I was really, really far away and I would never return there again. Anyone else have any other ideas?”

“Poison?” Applejack suggested. “We could throw some in there and it will swallow it.”

Luna stroked her chin. “If that thing can withstand eating some of the things that live in the sea, I doubt we could find something strong enough to affect it. Simply put; it’s too large, too alien, Applejack. A lot of poisons can barely affect me or even Raegdan. On the one occasion where Raegdan imbibed an exceptionally lethal one for ponies it did nothing to him but make him queasy and give him dia- umph!”

“Let’s- let’s hold off on the unnecessary details Luna, please?” Raegdan interrupted her with a hand across her muzzle.

“Sorry. The point being… we have no idea if the poison we would choose to use would even do anything apart from waste our time to amass the necessary quantity.”

“We’ll just go with plan boom for now. I don’t see any other option so far,” Raegdan told them.

“Sir, before that,” Solid Charge said, standing up. “You left a question unanswered. Do you know where the Leviathans came from? Or how they got here?”

“No. I have no idea,” Raegdan answered.

“They can’t have popped out of thin air.” Solid Charge said.

“Of course not. That would be ridiculous. Luna and I have work to do. As for you all… you either find us a small boat or build a raft.”

“Ah’ll be blunt,” Applejack said to the young Thestral in front of her. “Ah didn’t expect ya to have a small pier of your own out here.”

“We like fish,” Sheer Drop explained. “We all pretty much look forward to returning here every time. I know that most pegasi don’t like swimming that much with all these feathers, but…” He unfurled a leather wing. “Not much of an issue with us, eh?” He smiled. “You should meet my brother. He’s even doing scuba diving.”

He led her to a small rowboat that was rocking in the waves. “Are you sure this will do? We have larger and better ones if Princess Luna wishes for them.”

“Ah’m pretty sure they intend to send that one straight to the monster’s mouth. Let’s not waste one of your good ones. If it floats it will do.”

“Oh, it floats. It’s not much good for anything else but it can float. I’ll row it over to the beach as you asked. Want to come along?”

Applejack remembered the giant shadow underneath the water. She shiverred. “Nah Thanks but… no. Ah’m not really in the mood of getting in the water after seeing that thing.”

“I understand. That monster is a real horror, no question about it. Not only that, it has eaten all the fish! I swear on Princess Luna’s moon, I haven’t seen so much as a sardine these last few days. You’d think the fish would be smart enough to stay away from it.” Sheer Drop sighed, wistful for some of his beloved delicacies.

“Maybe it pulls them near it somehow,” Applejack speculated. “Ya know, like a smell or something.”

“Probably,” the Thestral agreed, climbing on the boat and grabbing the oars. “It makes as much sense as anything. You need anything else? I need to head for spear practice afterwards.”

“We’ll be fine. Ah give ya a holler if we need ya,” Applejack assured him with a smile.

By the time she made it to the small, sandy beach the rowboat was already there with Sheer Drop nowhere in sight. Rarity was lounging there, lying under an umbrella that Spike held for her. The other three rookie members of the Lunar Guard were filling up the boat with straw.

“Luna and Raegdan ain’t here yet?” Applejack asked.

“I’m pretty sure they’ll be here soon,” Leaf Stream said. “They are finishing up their explosives.”

“Huh? Ah thought they were done with them. Ah heard a loud bang about two hours back, ah thought they were testing them.”

“Oh, you didn’t see them coming back afterwards,” Leaf Stream snickered. “They returned to pick up some more of their chemicals. Their first try must have been a bust. So, here they come, both of them covered in dirt as if they dug themselves out of a hole in the ground. The princess walks in front, head low, and our glorious commander follows behind her, drilling into her ears. “Once more, what did I say?” And Princess Luna answers, sounding like a scolded filly. “Pour everything drop by drop from a close distance so it doesn’t splash, keep it cooled down.” He nods, she nods… and he says. “Once more, what did I say?” It went on and on till they left. All the time, non stop. Me doth think the princess almost blew them both up to kingdom come.”

“Oi, you find that funny, do you?” Spike shouted at her, dropping the white umbrella.

“They are fine, aren’t they? Jeez, lighten up. So I make some fun of your daddy. In case you didn’t notice he did something far worse! I think I’m being extremely gracious when you consider he tortured me and left me grounded for life.”

“In her defense though, it really was pretty funny in hindsight.” Raegdan arrived on the beach along with Luna. A wooden box was floating in front of Luna who had her gaze locked at it, barely daring to blink. Raegdan, walking much further away from Luna than he used to, was carefully keeping his eyes on the path in front of Luna.

“Is… do you have them in that box?” Rarity asked with dread.

“Yep.”

“Is it… dangerous?”

“Yep.” His eyes flicked to her for a second. “You might want to take some distance and let us finish up here.”

They left as they instructed and watched from a distance. The pair carefully put the box on the boat, securing it tightly and bracing it with cloth all around it. Luna used her magic to gently push the boat on the water and took to the air. She grabbed hold of a -very long- rope that was tied to the stern of the rowboat and, flapping slowly, dragged the boat and its cargo towards the whirlpool, letting it go when the current took hold of it.

Luna returned to shore to watch the little boat head for the titanic maelstrom far away. Rarity peeked her head over the rocks they were all hiding behind. “Is it safe to come out yet?”

“You do realize that Luna had everything under control? She put an incredible amount of magic over that box to make sure it wouldn’t go off,” Raegdan called out in answer.

“Then why didn’t ya tell us?” Applejack asked as they came out of their cover and headed towards them. The minotaurs complained about the beach and its sand as they walked back. They kept losing their balance all the time.

Luna was chuckling. “We’re sorry. It’s just that the image of all of you scouring behind the rocks like rats…”

“That wasn’t funny!” Rarity said.

“Let’s agree to disagree and leave it at that.” Luna turned back to watch.

“When will it go off?” Solid Charge asked after a couple of minutes.

Raegdan answered. “There’s a spell that will light it all up in about… twenty more minutes, give or take. Hopefully that will be enough time for Charybdis to swallow it.”

“Is that what we are calling it now?” Leaf Stream asked around her.

“It’s as good a name as any,” Cast Iron said, standing next to her.

“Will that be enough to kill it?” Leaf Stream asked again.

Raegdan frowned. “No chance in hell. It’s too little. Also, this explosive is much less effective as distance increases. If we could put that box next to somewhere vital? Then yes. It might.”

“Then what’s the point of this?”

“The point is that we are testing it. I’m also hoping it will do some damage in its insides, maybe make it splash around a bit and surface. I want to see how it looks like, if it has something vulnerable we can target!”

“And if it does? What happens ne-” Leaf Stream halted mid sentence, interrupted by probably the loudest noise Applejack had ever heard. It was no mean feat. She had heard a sonic rainboom go off more than once.

Applejack saw a great spray of water launch in the air. She tried to see if the boat was still there, but it was too far and the tumultuous sea around Charybdis didn’t even let her get sight of the whirlpool. “That wasn’t twenty minutes,” she commented.

“No. It damn wasn’t. What happened Luna?”

Luna gulped heavily. “The explosive is too sensitive and the sea is raging too much! The magic of the enchantments drained themselves in their effort to keep the explosives from going off much faster than the runes could collect ambient magic to keep powering them.”

“We just wasted half our supply for a fart in the water. It’s no use trying that again unless we can work something out.” Raegdan kick the sand at his feet. “And we would need far more. We might end up having to head to Baltimare after all. Another waste of time.”

“Now what?” Rarity asked.

Luna’s wings unfurled. The hesitation was replaced by fury. “Now we try something else. I have some new spells in my arsenal. I won’t give up so easily,” Luna snarled.

Raegdan held up his hand. “Luna, wait, don’t-” Luna flew, heading for the whirlpool. “Damnit!”

They watched, Raegdan gritting his teeth and tightening his fists hard enough for his fingers to whiten. Luna crossed the kilometers that separated them from Charybdis quick enough. They could see her form, a single distant speck of almost black against the gray sky.

Light gathered bright around the Alicorn, like a newborn star. Everypony’s breath was cut as an impossibly bright and thin beam of blue seared across the whirlpool. It lasted for two or three seconds. The airborne figure stopped it soon enough. Luna lightly dipped in the air before regaining her altitude. After a small wait it became obvious this attack did not faze the Leviathan at all. Light amassed around Luna again as she tried more spells.

She made a few more different attempts, but they didn’t see any visible results. There was a slight buzzing in their ears for one second, but apart from that nothing else. Lights flashed down, vanishing under the sea. After a short while Luna started gathering her magic again. Another beam like the first one erupted outwards.

This one lasted much longer. Steam rose from the surface of the water. Luna kept pouring on her spell for long seconds until the bright light flickered and died.

The whirlpool was still there. Charybdis did not even respond. The Alicorn did not fare as well. Luna suddenly dipped again and then quickly regained her height, only to lose it again, much faster.

“The idiot exhausted herself! She’s going to fall in there!” Raegdan ran towards the waves, kicking off his shoes and ripping his shirt in his haste to take it off.

Cast Iron managed to catch up and grab him by the shoulders. “Hey, hey, what do you think you’re doing?”

“Let me go you moron! She’s going to fall in,” Raegdan shouted.

“You can’t reach her in time and if you go all the way out there that thing might pull you in. We have to call the Thestrals, they can fly there and-” Raegdan swiftly crouched, momentarily escaping Cast Iron’s hold, and thrust his elbow behind him, right on the minotaur’s side, causing him to fall back with a pained grunt.

“Get in my way like that again and I’ll gut you alive!” Raegdan warned him before diving in the water.

Raegdan was deep in the water, swimming towards the maelstrom when Leaf Stream shouted. “She’s coming back. Look!”

Luna was indeed coming back, but with great difficulty. She kept losing altitude or veering sideways. She was still away from the shore when she fell into the sea. Raegdan was already swimming towards her and reached her before she could vanish under the waves. He grabbed the Alicorn from behind her back with one of his long arms wrapped around her. He used the other one to paddle them back to the shore, slowly but steadily fighting against the pull of the sea.

He reached the shallows and lifted Luna in his arms in front of him, holding her protectively. He slowly made his way out of the water and on the beach, the waves and shifting sand threatening to throw him and his precious cargo down to the ground.

“Give me those towels, now!” he ordered Rarity, breathing hard, as soon as he stepped on dry sand. Rarity and Spike quickly obeyed. “Put one down for her to lie on.”

He gently lowered Luna on one of Rarity’s soft, fluffy towels. Luna was awake but gasping for breath. She looked exhausted. Her muscles were spasming. Applejack was certain that even if she hadn’t fallen in the water she would still be drenched, only it would have been in sweat. She was lucky Raegdan was already so close to her. There was no way she would have been able to keep herself afloat from the looks of it. She would have drowned for sure.

Raegdan took a towel from Rarity and with delicate softness started drying off Luna’s coat, mane, and tail, lightly massaging the tired muscles at the same time. Luna accepted the treatment silently, focusing on getting her breath steady and coughing out a little saltwater every now and then.

“I tried- I tried everything,” she said, struggling to speak amidst rapid breaths. “Even the half-finished sonic spells. There’s too much water and it- it flows around it like a shield, a wall. I didn’t even- even scratch it! Tartarus, I didn’t even breach the water enough to approach it.”

“We saw steam rising,” Rarity said.

“Just- just the surface. The water moves too fast. I tried to heat it, maybe force it- force it to move, make it shift even a little. Nothing,” Luna gasped, bitter. “It’s too large. I don’t have the magic to sustain the spells long enough to even discomfort it. I thought the spell of focused light might make- make it. Too much water, too much turbulence, not enough strength. It never even realized I was there. I did nothing!”

“That’s enough,” Raegdan said. “We did fine. We know what doesn’t work. We will think of something else to try next. Come on, climb on my back. You need to get some sleep.” He helped Luna to her legs and with help from Cast Iron and Solid Charge got her on his back.

“You need- you need to dry off too,” Luna said.

“I will.” He turned to Applejack. “Get someone to bring something for Luna to eat. We will continue this in the evening after Luna gets some sleep.”

“You too,” Luna said, resting her chin on the top of his head. “Get something for him to eat too.” She closed her eyes.

“No worries princess,” Applejack said. “We’ll all take care of ya both.”

Luna snored gently in response.

Spike retched and letters came out.

“We’ve got mail,” the gentle dragon croaked after he spat out everything. His claws grabbed everything around him and tapped them straight. He headed towards his father and the princess. They were sitting on the open threshold of the residence the Thestrals gave them, talking among the soft lights of the Thestral caravan.

The Thestrals were keeping themselves busy with their own daily routine. All of the girls had speculated that they would be strictly nocturnal. They were for the most part. Living out at places away from everypony else, with nopony else to rely on, meant that they couldn’t afford to sleep the day away, not in safety. They kept a rotation, shifts of some sorts. The Thestral caravan was always full of activity. Ponies above were flying, either for joy or practising combat maneuvers. They were working their own metal, they carved wood, they weaved, they cooked, played music, and talked.

They lived as if they tried to live life to the fullest, cramming as much in one second as they could.

“It felt… strange when I was flying above it. Invigorating,” Luna was telling Raegdan. Applejack was sitting nearby, listening but not trumping in. They seemed to have a strange vibe going on, one line feeding into another from each of them, sometimes reaching conclusions together, and finishing or complementing each other’s sentences.

“Like magic?” Raegdan asked.

“No, magic I would recognize. There was none there. It was the air. It felt crisp and clean. Pure.”

“Huh. Wonder what that means… Got something for me little flame?”

Spike passed a couple of scrolls to Raegdan. “This one’s from Princess Celestia, and I’m pretty sure this one’s from Pinkie Pie. It smells like candy.” Luna leaned in to inhale deeply of the aforementioned scroll. “I don’t know who sent this one.”

“They wrote my name wrong. This one is meant for Wrecked Tan. Please tell me this hasn’t been the literal translation of my name all this time.” Spike laughed along with Luna.

“It’s not. Your name doesn’t have any meaning in Equestrian,” Luna said after being done with her short laugh.

“It’s probably from Rainbow Dash. She doesn’t really care about spelling at all, she just rushes to get it over with as soon as possible,” Applejack said. She moved a little to keep her legs from numbing. “Does your name mean anything in your language?”

“It’s just a description for me,” Raegdan said as he also took a sniff of Pinkie’s letter.

Spike quickly interjected in the brief lull as Raegdan opened the scrolls. “Hey dad, I’ve been watching Charybdis all day and she hasn’t spitted out the sea so far.”

“That would be a neat trick to see. That thing’s huge, but it’s not that huge,” Raegdan said, smiling.

“Well, your story said it did it three times a day. It hasn’t done it once so far,” Spike said, full of disappointment.

Raegdan put the scrolls on his lap, forgetting about them for the moment. “No. It hasn’t has it?”

“Perhaps it’s not the same beast,” Luna speculated.

“Maybe. It makes me think, though. Charybdis’ obviously isn’t drinking all that water does it? What’s the reason for the maelstrom it creates?”

“It’s obvious, isn’t it? It does it to feed.”

“Why like that? Have normal mouths gone out of fashion? It seems like too much effort to go through. How much does that lardass need to eat?”

Luna considered the question. “I don’t think it uses magic to create the whirlpool. It must need an outstanding amount of energy. It is probably the reason it moves. Drain the area of marine life, move a number of kilometers away, repeat.”

“Hmm. What if it also eats like a blue whale?”

“You mean if it… Oh, I understand. Yes, that would make more sense and it explains why it stays in this area even when seemingly all the fish here are already gone.”

“Ah missed a step there,” Applejack said. “Can ah have a translation?”

“Charybdis might be using the whirlpool as a means to funnel water through it to eat… everything it can eat. Like a sieve, filtering every living thing out of the water, not just larger fish but smaller lifeforms too, and perhaps the plankton as well,” Luna explained.

“Where does the water go then?” Spike asked.

Raegdan’s fingers dug into his hair and scratched at his scalp. “I had this picture in my mind of a monstrosity with a huge bloated stomach or a jellyfish resembling a fleshy balloon,” he said. Applejack frowned at the disgusting images he laconically conjured. “What if it’s more like a tube? Water goes in one side, comes out the other, drained of everything worthwhile.”

Spike snorted with barely restrained laughter. “Like a non-stop fart.”

Raegdan snorted too and stroked Spike’s head. “Careful there little flame. Your age just showed.”

“I believe it must be more complicated than that,” Luna continued, thinking out loud. “It must also have a mechanism to consume it’s larger prey. Charybdis is large enough to swallow whales easily.”

“Maybe these go into… a more traditional type of… stomach?” Raegdan hesitantly guessed.

“If that was true then wouldn’t swallowing a ship possibly damage it?”

“Maybe. No, I don’t think it works like that. It would be too easy. It must have a way to tell them apart and get the trash out quick.”

“Why do you think that?” Applejack asked.

“Because if it didn’t it then letting Charybdis swallow some ships could probably give it enough of an indigestion to kill it. No way in hell it’s that easy. I gotta jump through hoops to open a jar of jam under normal circumstances. What are the chances a monster of that size will get killed by sitting on the sideline and letting it be when it can screw with me magnificently instead?” Raegdan finished his rant and started reading Rainbow Dash’s letter. Every so often he would wince at an exceptionally horribly misspelled sentence.

“Speaking of screwing me over…” he groaned.

“What is it?” Luna asked.

“There are rumors spreading about me and… my culinary choices. She- oh heavens help us all, she says she can deal with that, and of course she won’t say how. That will end great, I can tell.”

“Anything else?”

“Let me read further. Some hopefuls recruits… how the hell did she manage that, nice going! If they pan out I owe her something nice in return. And, uh… oh. Here’s the rake I was stepping around for. Read this,” he directed Luna and held up the scroll for her, one finger pointing at the proper section.

“My stars, she has slain Equestrian grammar, leaving nothing but burning schools and crying scholars behind her,” Luna gasped. Applejack decided then and there to do something about her cyan friend. There’s a new low for you when a stranger the likes of Raegdan and a pony who was gone for a thousand years are the ones who lament about your writing skills.

“Let’s see…” Luna was reading, half mumbling. “I haf… haf? She is writing in phonetics? I have made sure that… about Princess Luna and what she used to do… oh. Oh no.” Luna turned her head to look at her flank. “I swear, one of these days I will look at my behind only to find out I’ve managed to acquire a more suitable mark depicting a shovel.”

“What did Rainbow do?” Applejack asked.

“She let word spread about Luna’s duties in the past,” Raegdan said. “You know, the monster slaying?”

“But that’s good! That will help, won’t it?”

“Oh sure, sure. Unless it turns out that in our first outing we run back shouting, “a Leviathan is coming. Run for your freaking lives. We can’t stop it”, etcetera, etcetera,” Raegdan said with an air of surrender. “So much for that. Let’s see what little pink has to say…”

A strong confectionary smell spread around as soon as Raegdan opened the scroll. His expression was one of bewilderment as he scanned the parchment.

“So?” Spike prompted.

Raegdan didn’t answer. He just turned the scroll around for them to see. There was nothing to be seen written on it. The scroll had been covered with a layer of pink frosting.

“It’s kind of comforting to know there’s someone like little pink out there,” Raegdan told them with a smile as he opened Celestia’s letter. “I thought I had problems in the head, but then she hops in the room and I feel absolutely normal.”

“What news of my sister? Is she asking after me?”

“Yep. Also after Spike. And Applejack. Let’s see… Rarity too, here’s the part where she hopes that Leaf Stream is not unreasonably stressed and hasn’t had her injuries worsened… She asks after the minotaurs too. Let me check something… Ah, there it is, she asks about me in the post script. Sneaky little princess is trying to have fun on my expense.”

“Anything else apart from social niceties and ribbing?”

“Give me a second,” Raegdan requested. A frown turned to a scowl as he read further. “She knows about the whirlpool. She knows it’s moving but they don’t know why. She wants to know if this is what the Thestrals wanted us to deal with. If it’s not, she asks that we look into it. She will wait for us to send a message back until tomorrow. After that we won’t have to bother since she will be here herself with the damned Solar Guard, damn it all to hell!” he screamed, crumpling the paper into a ball and throwing it away as hard as he could. Movement around them ceased as every Thestral around abandoned what they were doing and gazed wide eyed at the raging biped that was letting out a manic string of words in an unknown language.

Rarity made a valiant effort to run towards them while trying to keep a sedate expression. “Have we missed something important?” she asked. Leaf Stream, Cast Iron, and Solid Charge were walking along behind her.

“Princess Celestia is coming,” Applejack let them know.

“Oh. Good. I am certain with her help there will be no problem bypassing that creature’s defenses this time,” Rarity said, relieved.

“That’s not going to be an issue because she is not coming here,” Raegdan growled. “Little flame, I want you to send her a letter, right now. Tell her that we don’t know what caused that whirlpool. It turned back, far to the south, before we could look into it. It’s already gone.”

“But… that’s lying,” Spike said.

“Right. Then I’ll write it myself. Someone get me a pencil.”

Luna had used her magic to bring the crumpled letter back and read it herself. “Raegdan, when she arrives the first thing she is going to do is to attempt to pierce the Leviathan’s defenses with her own magic,” she said, her expression as immobile as stone.

“...I didn’t think of that. Damn it all, this is so much worse than I thought. There’s no way we can let her come here. It’s all going to blow up in our faces.”

“Hey there, think about this for a second ya big lug,” Applejack told Raegdan. “Luna said she doesn’t have the magic to get through to that thing, right? If two Alicorns work together they might make it. That’s exactly what you need.”

“No, what we need is for her, the Solar Guard, and everyone else to stay away.”

“Ah don’t believe this. Why? That thing’s gonna kill ponies if we don’t stop it. You have to at least let her know what it is so she can keep ships from sailing into it. They need to evacuate all ships from Horseshoe Bay and redirect everything away from it.”

“Applejack is correct Raegdan. There are too many lives at risk. We have to write back with the truth. We can’t keep this secret from Princess Celestia,” Rarity agreed.

“Sir, miss Rarity has a point. We don’t have the resources to deal with the Leviathan ourselves in any meaningful way,” Solid Charge said.

“You’d be surprised how easy it is to keep things secret from her nowadays. We will do this on our own! There will be no help.”

“And if ya can’t?” Applejack insisted. “You admitted it, you have no idea how to stop that thing. Baltimare is just around the corner. We have to warn them. Princess Celestia will be able to deal with that while you two try to deal with Charybdis if it means so much to ya.”

“Did I stutter? I said no. No messages telling the truth. No warnings to Baltimare or anyone.”

“This is wrong,” Applejack declared.

“Wrong is relative,” Raegdan countered.

Applejack stared right back at the tall figure, both of them refusing to budge. “What if that thing moves? What will happen if it heads straight for Horseshoe Bay tomorrow?”

“No. Messages. To. Celestia.”

“Ah’ll tell you what’s gonna happen. It will kill ponies. Scores of them. Whole ships will go down screaming. And that’s just the start. It’s going to destroy lives. Families. It will ruin and annihilate all the trade that the ponies there rely on. Ah know what’s going to happen even to ponies who have no family members on these ships. They’ll go destitute. They’ll starve. They will lose their homes. They will lose everything. And it will spread all around, all because you refused to send a piece of paper.” Applejack hit the ground with her hoof. “Well, ah’m not letting that happen. Pride’s all well and good, but you are playing with lives other than your own here. We’re telling Princess Celestia, and we ask for help.”

“Applejack,” Luna spoke up, gently. “What if I was the one asking you to keep the situation a secret for the time being?”

“Ah’m… ah’m sorry princess, ah really am, but this is too big.”

“Applejack. I am asking you to trust Raegdan. Trust me. We can find a way to stop it.”

“Ah don’t know if… Ah want to trust you princess, no, scratch that, ah do trust you well enough. But trust should go both ways, ain’t it? Why don’t ya want to tell your sister? Can ya tell us this at least? Can ya tell us anything that would explain why we’d risk so many lives?” Applejack asked, desperation in her voice.

“If I tell you no, would you do as I asked nonetheless?”

Applejack hesitated. She wanted to believe in Luna and Raegdan, she wanted to believe that they could stop Charybdis. But it was so big, it was so terrifying. On the other hoof, she considered those two her friends. Applejack always put her trust in her friends.

But there were lives on the line other than her own and Luna asked her to sacrifice these lives for… for what?

Silence reigned. Everypony hesitated and look downwards in shame. They had seen that titanic maelstrom. They knew how battles against Leviathans ended. Even the Thestrals, with all their vaunted trust in Princess Luna hesitated, holding their tongue a second too long. Applejack tried to force her lips to say yes, yes ah trust you, but every time she did she saw a ship sinking into that thing’s mouth and heard ponies scream, leaving her mouth paralyzed with fear.

“I do,” Spike shouted, shattering the silence. “If dad believes in you then I’ll believe in you too. If you say you can do it then you can. I’m not going to send any letters at all!” the young dragon declared around him.

“I’m- I’m honored, young drake,” Luna said with feeling. Raegdan was looking at the dragon child he had all but adopted with a smile that screamed to the world the pride he felt.

“No!” Rarity shouted, pushing herself to the front. “You can’t put such a weight on little Spike. What if you can’t stop Charybdis? I won’t have my little Spikey Wikey feel he has to blame himself so you can hold onto your stupid pride.”

“Rarity, they can do it-” Spike tried to plead.

“Enough!” Raegdan shouted. “This is not up for debate anymore. No one sends a message and anyone who tries… well, never say I didn’t warn you.”

“Oh?” Applejack challenged him, spurred on by the fact that he just threatened them. “Are ya saying that if ah were to try to save lives you’ll do… what? Hit me?”

Raegdan stepped closer to Applejack, crouched down, and looked her square in the eye. “I’d do what I’d have to do. I’ll hesitate, I might regret it, but I will do it. Don’t make me be that person again.”

“You will do no such thing Raegdan,” Luna said from somewhere behind him. “Let them send their warning, and let Celestia know.”

“What? Luna, we can’t-” Raegdan turned around to face Luna and saw she was sitting down as her magic brought the rusted, ancient remains of the shovel to her. “No. Luna, no! Don’t even think about this.”

“Raegdan…I can’t- we can’t repeat old mistakes. Not when we don’t have to. I don’t know if I can do this based on an if, not here, not now,” Luna said, contemplative.

“Luna… If you just let me… damn it, fine. Fine! Tell Celestia whatever you want,” he said to Applejack, waving his arm weakly towards her with a stance of utter defeat. “Then what are we going to do Luna? What will happen after Celestia arrives? She might be here as soon as the day after tomorrow.”

“Then what we must do is simple enough.” Luna forcibly steeled herself. “We will- we will kill Charybdis tomorrow.”

Raegdan tried to speak but all he could do was move his mouth with no sound coming out, and a series of disbelieving and shocked expressions interchanging across his features.

He pretty much looked like he was having a seizure while still standing up.

Applejack along with Rarity and the recruits of the Lunar Guard… she held off that particular thought. Was there still going to be a Lunar Guard? The moment they needed their support everypony just… just kept quiet. All of them. What kind of friend does that? What kind of a pony talks back to her princess and tries to set terms on her?

The kind that drives off her friends and diarch to kill themselves apparently.

She had kept awake almost all night, wondering. If that had been Princess Celestia there, asking her to trust her… would she have dared to think of saying anything apart from a resounding yes? She tried to deny the truth, and that single act shamed her greatly, adding more to the growing pile, but she wouldn’t have. She would have trusted Princess Celestia, no questions asked. Celestia had been a constant in Equestria for so long. A truth as solid as the earth beneath her hooves. Luna was still unknown, despite all these days spent at her side. But it wasn’t just that. Celestia, for all the friendliness she displayed, always felt like something bigger than life. Luna had been like a friend so far. Almost a normal mare like the rest of them, full of so many faults. She couldn’t see a normal mare facing off against a Leviathan. So when she had to treat her like the princess she was, an Alicorn equal to Princess Celestia… she didn’t do it. She couldn’t.

But that was not an excuse for what she had done. Of course, she wasn’t sure on what she had actually done with her inexcusable actions yet. That’s what they were about to find out.

“Ah see ya have gotten all prepared, but… what exactly are you going to do? What’s the plan?” Applejack asked.

“Remember when I joked about swimming over and whacking Charybdis with my hammer?” Raegdan asked.

“...yes…” Applejack hated the plan already, even if she hadn’t heard it yet.

“That’s the basic notion.”

Leaf Stream snorted. “Yeah, right. You have a plan, I know you do. No way you guys are seriously throwing your lives away on a hope and a prayer. You just try to make us feel worse for not standing up for you yesterday.”

“Alright.” Raegdan clapped his hands and walked towards them and away from the rowboat. “Here’s what we have we so far. The only thing that we believe has a solid chance of tearing a nice big chunk out of Charybdis are the explosives we made. I don’t care how big or strong you are. An explosion in your insides will hurt. Unfortunately, we can’t get them down there on their own. With me so far?”

“We follow.”

“So, the only way to make sure they don’t explode prematurely -don’t you smile like that- is to keep them stable with magic since we can’t afford the time or limbs to find another way. The spells fail too fast however, so to counter this we are going down there with them. Luna will keep them stable and carry them. I won’t be able to even touch them. If I do, I disrupt the spells and we… well, you can imagine what happens. I want to go on record here and tell you all how much I hate your stupid magic not working around me right now.”

“If it did you’d insist to go there on your own,” Luna said.

“I’m insisting now. If you let me blow some smoke up your sister’s ass I’d have some time I could use to make some kind of casing that would have a pretty good chance of not blowing me to pieces. Probably.”

Luna put out her tongue at him.

“Buck me,” Leaf Stream said, breathless. “You are going down there on a hope and a prayer. Are you insane? If you touch the explosives at the wrong moment or something stops Princess Luna from renewing the spells you will both die.” Leaf Stream lifted her head higher as if hit by something. “What am I even saying? You’re gonna let that thing eat you! You are insane. I knew it. I called it, I totally called it!” she cried out, lifting her hoof in a dazed, confused triumph, looking for somepony to hoof-bump.

“You won’t make it past the whirlpool! How are you going to even survive that?” Solid Charge asked.

“Hence the ropes,” Raegdan said, keeping a thick, looped cord in the air. “It will let us stay together. We have gotten our hands on some air tanks so we can, you know, not drown. We are banking on the hope that Charybdis swallows its prey whole and doesn’t chew until it gets to what it uses as a stomach. If it doesn’t do something cute like melt us in acid as soon as we are in...”

“Cast Iron, could you be a dear and pinch me please? There is no way I’m really hearing this,” Rarity said while fanning herself.

Raegdan continued on. “Once we are inside Charybdis we will, uh… Ok, this is as far as we’ve got. Go inside, find something important looking, blow it up.”

“Oh, swell, you’ve obviously got it all down to a tee,” Leaf Stream said. “Here’s another idea. It’s not as suicidal but I think of that as a plus myself. You wait for Princess Celestia and we try to fight that thing with an army, as we should, instead of throwing yourselves down its throat like hors d'oeuvres.”

“Not an option.”

“I swear, you are giving me the greatest headache ever known by ponykind. Why the buck not?” Leaf Stream screamed in frustration.

“You want an answer?”

“Buck yes.”

“Tough. You are not getting one. Not today.”

Leaf Stream let out a scream of utter frustration. Solid Charge was pulling at his mane while Cast Iron was simply listening with his mouth open wide. Applejack felt tempted to join in.

“Ok, let’s get serious for a moment here. I have some things for you to do.”

Applejack breathed out in relief. There was more to it than what he had just described, thank Celestia. “Ah knew that you were just pulling mah leg. What do ya need?”

Raegdan passed her a bunch of scrolls. “We wrote these yesterday. If we don’t make it back you will deliver them.”

“What?” Applejack whispered, her voice suddenly as weak as a newborn kitten.

Raegdan knelt in front of her. “The air will last us out an hour at best. Even if we kill it there’s a very good chance we won’t make it out.” He grabbed a scroll and showed it to her. “This is for Celestia from Luna and I both. This is for Twilight. Some of the answers she wanted are in here. This is for Spike. Make sure you let them both of them know that… nah, forget it. It’s all written in there. Twilight Velvet and Night Light. Shining Armor and Cadance. Little pink. And this one’s for you.”

“Me? Why me?” she asked weakly.

“There is something I thought you should know. Look, if we-”

“Can’t ya tell me now?” Applejack felt her voice break a bit. He wasn’t really believing they were gonna die, did they? This wasn’t the last time she saw them. It couldn’t be.

“...I’m sorry Applejack. I’m truly sorry. Leaf Stream,” he said, turning to the crippled pegasus.

“...yes commander?” For the first time ever there was no trace of sarcasm in the title.

Raegdan gave her a very thick package of papers. “This is for you.”

“What is it? It seems you have written your life’s story in here.”

Raegdan chuckled. “Sorry, it’s not that. It’s instructions. If we don’t make it you will take over where we left off. You will find recruits and finish forming the Lunar Guard. We have left you as much as we could in there. Everything you will have to do and how to do it. Ideas we have, designs for equipment, tactics, everything we could cram in the time we had. Celestia will support you as soon as she reads her own letter. You will also need what we have in the tower. Applejack will show you how to get in the room. Just remember to be careful. It’s trapped.”

Leaf Stream stared at the biped she so bitterly hated and Luna. “You- you can’t seriously- You are making me- you’re putting me in charge? You are trusting me with this?”

“We believe you might be able to understand further when the time comes,” Luna told her. “It will be hard, but we both believe you’re the only one we know who has a chance of doing so.”

Applejack and Rarity exchanged glances, both of them taking note of of each other’s wet eyes. This wasn’t turning out to be a joke. They were serious. Deadly serious.

“Raegdan, Luna, don’t-” Applejack gulped. Her throat was closing up. “Don’t, please don’t-” Applejack tried to start again.

“Oh, be silent. It’s not the first time we face long odds. Hold your head up high Applejack,” Luna ordered her. “This is not the way to send us off. You have a job to do. This is ours.”

Rarity blinked hard and wiped her eyes, sniffling.

“Oh come off it,” Raegdan said, with an air of fake disgust. “You thought this kind of business always ends in parties and celebrations? Sooner or later we were going to bite the dust. If not today then another day. Get over it for heaven’s sake. By the way, you don’t open these until you are sure we are dead, and if a miracle happens you are giving them back, unopened. Clear?”

“Luna, please. This is senseless,” Applejack tried to convince her one more time not to throw away her life and that of Raegdan.

“The Leviathan must be stopped and it must be stopped today. There are things you do not know Applejack, but I assure you that this is not senseless. Have some trust in us, at least in the end.” Luna gave them a comforting smile before turning her head to the distant, submerged Leviathan. “It’s a little bigger than what Raegdan or I have dealt with so far. So what?”

“Luna, can you pass me those hooks?” Raegdan asked as he tightened straps on his body and secured a rope on a metal ring on one of them. His smaller bombs were across his chest with a pair of daggers and a long, hacking blade on his belt.

“Here you go. We will be fine. In a few hours we could be laughing about how melodramatic we all were.”

Applejack made her decision. “Let me come with ya! I ain’t lettin ya go on your own- hurrk!” Applejack choked on her sentence as Raegdan’s hand wrapped around her throat. He pulled her close and looked at her with naked rage burning in his eyes.

“If you ever come closer to that thing than you already are I will come back from death and beat you down to the ground so hard that you will have no choice but to stay in a hospital for a year. That counts for Twilight and all of the rest of you. Not one of you comes near that thing! Ever! Do you understand me?”

“Y- yes,” Applejack choked out. The hand left her throat and patted her on the back as she urgently filled her lungs with sweet air again. Luna winked at her when she caught her eyes for a second as if what happened was normal or funny.

“Keep little flame safe,” Raegdan said to Applejack and Rarity. “Don’t tell him what’s going on unless we haven’t returned. Tell him this has nothing to do with last night. We were going to do it this way anyway. Don’t look at me like that. I know you like the truth, but here, on this, you will lie. You will lie as much as you have to spare him the worst. Goodbye.” With those last words Raegdan jumped into the boat and he pushed it away from the little pier. He started rowing towards the maelstrom with Luna sitting patiently on the other side of the boat.

Neither him nor Luna looked back.

Raegdan rowed until he felt they were close enough for the current to start pulling them in. He let go of the oars and cut the ropes that were holding them in place, letting them sink into the sea. He adjusted the air tanks on his back and made sure the breather was right in front of him. He checked Luna over, making sure hers were fine too. He examined the rope that connected them, testing it. When he was done he put his hands through the handles of the long hooks, one on each arm, and waited.

“Do you really think you will be able to get a grip with them?” Luna asked.

“If I get close enough to something meaty. Eh, chances are we'll just tumble inside and break our backs or get impaled where we land,” Raegdan said, turning for a moment to glance at the maelstrom.

“I’m… really sorry for ending up dragging you to your death so soon,” Luna apologized.

Raegdan laughed. “We almost wrestled each other because we both wanted to do this on our own. You didn’t drag me into anything.” He sighed. “It’s Celestia I’m worried about. She won’t take this well. Neither will Twilight and Spike.”

Luna let a hoof in the water. She noticed how their speed was steadily increasing. “They will be fine. We wrote them comforting lies. I’m more worried about what might happen if Leaf Stream discards our directions and explanations as a flight of madness. Maybe- maybe if there was no way for Celestia to banish me then we could have… I don’t know. More what-ifs.” Luna looked up at the gray, stormy sky. “What do you think we will be remembered as after today? Monsters? Heroes? Or Idiots?”

“What’s this? Do we care what the gravestones say now?” he teased.

“Hmm, well, it’s not like I’ll be able to get up and read it myself. I admit I am somewhat curious. Maybe I worry about nothing. We might make it.”

“What do you think the chances of that are?”

“With this meagre amount of explosives? About as much that this thing might be allergic to the likes of us and choke to death. Like peanuts,” she said, making Raegdan laugh.

“Maybe I should have killed one of the girls. Long before they ever came to us, when they were still in Ponyville. Go in, go out,” he said when the last echo of laughter faded away. “That would have given us so many more options.”

Luna snorted. “Which one would you even choose to remove now? I think you have taken too much of a liking to all of them. I’d choose Fluttershy, but that’s only because of the element she bears.”

“True. Well, certainly not Twilight, no question about that. I’ve sworn to never hurt Applejack or her family so she is out too unless there’s no other choice. I don’t think I could hurt little pink now either. She is too… I don’t even know what she is. One of the other three then. Depends on which one I could drag away unnoticed at the time.” Raegdan scratched his facial hair. “You know, if we make it, maybe we could arrange for Rarity to be tragically killed by a monster while on the road. I could make it look convincing.”

“I think I’d rather we give it a pass. If we make it out alive there won’t be such great need.”

“Until something similar happens. We didn’t expect this either and now look at us. It would help a lot if there were no stupid Elements of Harmony, even for a little while.”

“All the same, I’d rather they survive unscathed if possible. They’re not at fault. I don’t want any of them to die or get hurt at all, not if we can help it.”

Raegdan let out a strained sigh. “Yeah. Me too. I’d like for all of them to get some kind of happy end at least.” He looked behind him once more. “From the looks of it they will, on the short term at least.”

They let the current pull them in silence for a while.

“You never told me the tale of Odysseus before,” Luna remarked.

“I must have thousands of stories. They are one of the few things I reliably remember. It’s not that strange to share one you haven’t heard before. You already know all my favorites.”

“I know, I know. I would have thought that you’d do so anyway with the way it hits so close to heart.”

“Luna, I’ve caught glimpses of some titanic monsters, but I haven’t seen Charybdis before. I didn’t expect this to be real.”

Luna smiled, wide and honestly. “You can be so blind and stupid sometimes.”

“Are you blaming me for not seeing the future?”

“So blind,” Luna said with a loving smile.

“Whatever.”

More minutes passed.

Raegdan broke into a grin. “You know what I can’t help but think about? We never went for that bar crawl we were always talking about.”

Luna hit her forehead in exasperation. “Son of a- You’re right! Damn it all, we could have brought the girls along. It would make the perfect excuse for a night out in Canterlot.” Luna smirked. “They could help me carry you back when you’d get drunk just from a few glasses of wine.”

“Rub it in, rub it in. I tried to work on my liver’s endurance but you wouldn’t let me.”

“I had to put a stop to it. You are a pitiful sight. You either get mopey or you start pinching my flank and believe you are being suave and sophisticated.”

He laughed. “On second thought, good call on that. I doubt the girls would be letting us have a bar brawl as we wanted to though,”Raegdan remarked.

“I’d like to see them try to stop us,” Luna said, raising her muzzle up in a snooty manner. “If I want to break a chair over somepony’s back, I will. If I can’t find an excuse, I’m pretty sure I can make one up on the fly.”

“Celestia would get mad.”

“I can break a chair over her back too.”

They laughed together.

“Luna-”

“Raegdan-”

They smiled awkwardly. As one they leaned forward and hugged. Neither of them wanted to break the embrace, not until the whirlpool gripped them tight and the small boat started going in a tighter circle, rocking violently. Raegdan pulled back and Luna hastenedly renewed the spells on the explosives, keeping them dry and cancelling any vibration or shock from reaching them.

“Out of all of my regrets, it is that we didn’t have more simple times together that pains me most,” Luna shouted over the roaring water.

“Out of mine, it’s that you get all formal at the worst possible times. You’ll get out of this alive Luna. Trust me!” Raegdan yelled back in good spirits, holding tight as he could onto the boat’s side that threatened to turn them over any minute now.

“No. Together. One way or another.”

“...Alright. Together. Put on your breather, and get ready my princess. We’re going in.”

“This is so mind-numbingly stupid, what the tartarus were we thinking-”

The boat vanished into the maelstrom.

Back on the pier, everypony’s head sunk with despair as soon as they lost sight of the small boat. High over them, on the cliffs overlooking the sea, the Thestrals began wailing for their lost princess.