Chapter 10:
Encountering Sky Pirates
After dealing with a few sky pirates, Twilight and her friends have just learned from Spike and Pinkie that there are some ships on the shores of the Ancient Grove, which means their troubles are far from over.
So continuing on their quest to find the tree and to deal with more pirates, Twilight and her friends started to make their way through the cliffside they were on right now. They were just near a ledge that would have them fall into the poisonous waters if they're not careful. Ahead of them was a river without any platforms to hop across.
But Twilight and her friends jumped across the purple water onto another piece of land.
But when they walked to the other side, they saw the next piece of land was much further away from them and there was a large amount of purple water in their way.
"Um, Twilight? Any idea on how we're going to get across that?" Fluttershy asked, seeing that it was too far for them to reach by either flying or jumping.
"I think I might have one trick that might help us," Twilight said, thinking this might be a perfect chance to use her new Water Magic on the purple water.
And using her Water Bomb she did. Twilight shot her Water Bomb across the purple water and thanks to Twilight's new Water Magic, a huge platform made of purple water spewed out of it.
Rainbow Dash, Pinkie, Rarity, Fluttershy, Applejack, Sunset, and Spike had a look of awe and surprise from seeing their friend's sudden recovery of the element like that, they didn't even know Twilight could do that with her Water Magic nor have they seen Twilight getting the hang of Water.
Twilight took notice of their reaction and turned to them, "It's a little something that Mistmane has taught me while reawakening my Water element," She said before gesturing her friends to follow her as they hopped onto the platform.
Luckily for them, they didn't fall through as it was solid enough and the platform was big enough to hold all eight of them. This has Twilight's friends a little confused about the platform being made of the poisonous purple water, while Rainbow Dash finds it cool and unusual, and Rarity finds it unique that Mistmane has taught Twilight this move.
Twilight has made a few more platforms and defeated some Grove Worms with her Water Magic Bombs until they finally made it to the other side and continued on their way down a path to find the tree and deal with more pirates.
Along the way, they have a few encounters with some bulldog-like monsters, but Twilight and Sunset Shimmer handle them with ease using Fire and Magic to defeat them.
After defeating them, The Mane 7 and Spike have found themselves arriving at their destination at the end of their path…a huge Pirate base that has been built down here for who know how long.
"Looks like we're here," Twilight declared as she and the others found themselves in an area of the Ancient Grove where all around them, they saw three pools of fiery bubbling purple water, huge crates with bars, and a big Pirate Ship with a red and white striped sail.
Appearing from the ship and jumping off it are more of the Pirates as they jumped off their ships, some with swords in their hands. They hopped onto the crates and got ready to fight the Mane 7 and capture them too.
"Is it okay if I can stick here? Spike asked, knowing this is more of a job for the Mane 7 to handle the pirates while he just stays put.
"Sure, Spike. Come on, girls. Let's stop these pirates once and for all," Twilight said as she and her friends ran toward the pirates with a battle scream and began fighting them.
Twilight was using her magic and her all-new aerial combat skills to fight three of them.
Sunset was using her Fire Magic to burn the pirates she was fighting, and she even managed to swat some of them away from her using her tail.
Stomping her hooves on the ground, Applejack uses her Earth Magic to make rock pillars appear below her enemies, catching them by surprise.
Rarity found herself surrounded by four more pirates, but she didn't let that stop her for she had them right where she wanted them. Using her magic, Rarity was able to use the purple fiery water and splashed it on the pirates, burning them and defeating them.
On the crates, were three more pirates and each of them was holding a stick of dynamite, ready to throw them at their unsuspecting enemies. At least until one of them felt a hoof tapping on its shoulder. One Pirate looks behind themselves and only sees Pinkie Pie smiling.
"Hi, there," She said, before zapping him with her Electric Magic and doing the same to the other two pirates.
Fluttershy finds herself being cornered by pirates as they unsheathed their swords, ready to finish her off. But what they didn't know was that at the bottom of Fluttershy's hoof, it was glowing a light green color, which means Fluttershy has a secret on how to defeat them. And when she secretly tapped on the ground, out came huge vines as they entangled the pirates and trapped them.
As for Rainbow Dash, she handled the pirates by creating a sphere made of wind and spun it around like a top. Defeating every single pirate with ease and without breaking a sweat.
While the Mane 7 were busy fighting the pirates, Spike was flying stealthily above the crates and noticed a string that led to a barrel filled with dynamite.
"Twilight, I think I found something over here," Spike said, calling to Twilight as she finished defeating the pirates using her magic and head on over to the dragon.
But as Twilight makes her way to Spike, a lifeboat appears with three small pirates riding on it as they hop off, ready to fight to the bitter end. Before Twilight could fight them, she saw the string that Spike saw herself as the dragon picked it up.
"What's this thing?" Spike asked, scratching his head.
"Spike, light up that thing while I handle the pirates," Twilight ordered as she turned to the pirates and faced them.
Spike did what he was told and used his fire to light up the string. The spark follows the string until it reaches the barrel hanging from behind some crates and…
BOOOOOOMMMMMMM!
The explosion has managed to clear away some crates, making a path for the Mane 7 and Spike to reach the ship. Seeing that the path is clear, Twilight gestures her friends to follow her and they did. But as they arrived at the ship, another lifeboat appears with two more pirates and more of them jumped off the ship to continue the fight.
That didn't stop the Mane 7 and Spike though. Because they know that these pirates are no match for them or their teamwork.
"Sunset, can you and the girls keep these pirates distracted?" Twilight asked, turning to the fiery Alicorn.
"We'll keep them distracted as long we as we can. But what are you going to do?" Sunset asked, wondering what Twilight is going to do while they were busy distracting the pirates.
"Spike and I will get on that ship to use one of their cannonballs so we can get out of here. Come on, Spike," Twilight said as she and Spike head off to get on the ship while Sunset and the others handled the pirates.
"So how do we get on the ship?" Spike asked, wanting to know how they would get on the ship since there was no plank for them to get on.
"On there," Twilight replied, pointing to the lifeboat where two pirates were standing guard.
At least until Twilight and Spike stealthily approached from behind them and raising their hoof and claw from behind them, they slapped them into unconsciousness.
Getting on the lifeboat, Twilight and Spike rode it until they reached a spot within the crates, and then they jumped off it.
Climbing and jumping on the crates, Twilight and Spike glided to the ship and landed on it. Two more pirates appeared but Twilight won quickly by using her magic and her aerial combat moves on one of them and kicks him to the other, defeating them in the process.
Afterward, Twilight finds a barrel and hits it, which releases a cannonball. With some help from Spike, they loaded the cannonball into the cannon and shot it up into the air, and it landed on some wood, exploding and breaking them. Clearing up a path for them and their friends.
Twilight and Spike flew down to meet up with their friends, who had finished handling the pirates.
"Think that might be the last of them," Sunset said, informing Twilight about the pirates' distraction process.
"Alright, now we better get going. We still have to find that tree and answers to my visions. So let's move out," Twilight ordered as her friends began heading out to continue their quest to find the tree from Twilight's dream.
"Twilight, you sure we won't get lost this time?" Spike asked, being a little concerned about them becoming lost in the Ancient Grove again.
"Mistmane and Flash Magnus once told me that as long as the spirits of our ancestors are with us, we are never lost. So if they are with us, it's that way," Twilight said, gesturing for Spike to follow the others to continue on the quest.
Twilight was about to follow them as well until she suddenly heard a voice calling her name…
"Twilight…"
Twilight stopped for a minute and whipped back around when she heard something that sounded like a mare's voice calling her name. She moved her eyes left and right trying to see what it was.
"Twilight? What is it?" Sunset Shimmer asked as she noticed her scarred purple Alicorn Warrior Friend had stopped and was looking around.
"I thought I heard…Nevermind, it was nothing, let's just go," Twilight started, but shook her head, and then trotted ahead of Sunset. Sunset shrugged and followed her as they and their friends continued on their quests to find the tree.