After packing a few of her weapons, and straightening her royal dress, Twilight Sparkle takes flight with a few flaps of her wings, eyes narrowed in determination as she heads for the Shrike harbor with Luna in tow. "Well, the big day's almost here..." At the same time, out in Truce, Shining Armor lifts his gaze skyward, frowning as his horn lights up. "I hope Twily's going to be alright... I should go, too."

Trixie was down inside the Crusader, having commandeered a room to work as a lab, working on her new plan to assist the PDF, a few disclike objects lying around here and there, already completed.

Meanwhile, not far behind Shining Armor, there's a squeal of tires and a distinctly electronic shout as Optimus Prime and Vinyl speed through the twilight-blanketed Truce towards the docks.

"It is good to be by your side again, brother. Oboyo seems to have gathered many capable people here. It will be interesting to see how they face the spirits." said Nanaki, sitting among a large crowd in Shrike near the docks next to Sutan. The native grunted, prompting a quick nod out of Nanaki. "I see. Any moment now, he will arrive and share some words with everyone."

The crowd consisted of more than just people associated with the Jinsaka Manor. Families of the warriors who have volunteered to go were present as well as various onlookers.

Oboyo had arranged quite a show: speaking from the Crusader with the MK II docked nearby. At the end of his speech, Launchpad hovered above the Crusader in the Gitmidur with a rope ladder down, where Oboyo had grabbed ahold of it and called for one last rousing cheer for success as it carried him away.

"Inspiring, don't you think?" asked Nanaki after Oboyo flew off. Sutan merely grunted and headed for the Crusader. "I agree." With that, Nanaki made his way to the boarding ramp and waited there to ensure that everyone was on board. He gave a nod to each of Hastur's masters, particularly to Ip Man, who he recognized as a fellow leader assisting the Paranormal Deliverance Force.

Once she's closer to the docks, Twilight Sparkle and Luna touch down on one of the piers, horns lighting up as the duo seal their saddlebags shut and fold two pairs of wings tightly against their bodies. At the same time, though, Optimus, Shining, and Vinyl stealthily board a ferry, intent on a rendezvous with the Crusader.

With the last of the Crusader's crew on board, Nanaki rose a paw up to join them himself until one final crew member made his way to the loading ramp. "Huh..? Aren't you just a merchant?" asked Nanaki to this final boarder. "'Just a merchant', you say! Hah! I'm the reason we're borrowing this ship! I've got a loooot of money on the line, so I'm here to protect it!" explained Adonis Moit, who performed a quick Moit family dance before joining the others.

Rolling his eyes, Nanaki ran up the loading ramp and towards the bow of the ship, overlooking the Shrike docks as it began to depart. For a long couple of seconds, his eyes met with Mogusao's, who stood next to the MK II's hatch.

Hastur smiles a bit at his ward, nodding at Luna and the others. "Good luck to you all, and stay safe, okay?"

"Thou hath no need to worry about either of us. We, verily, shall return in good health, and with victory smiling down on us! ONWARD!" Even with Luna's bold and confident declaration, Twilight simply nods, forcing a small smile in response to Hastur. "Don't worry, we'll do fine..."

---The three vessels departed for the Noctog Ocean, where they lied in wait until the sun sat. Just as Oboyo saw in his vision, an unusual fog formation began to appear seemingly from no where towards the east, causing the Gitmidur to take off from the MK II's pad while the MK II submerged under the water.---

"Impressive..just as he said it would happen. We will have to express gratitude for the seer responsible for this." noted Nanaki before nodding at Ip Man. "Warriors of Cosmo Canyon! Long has it been since our people have gone to war, but there was a time when we stood our ground against the Gi Tribe! And long after their deaths, their shadows sought to terrorize us from below! We are a people who have endured hateful lingering spirits, and we have freed them from their torment!"

"Our enemy is no different! Trust in the spirits who guide us, trust in each other, and trust those who have been destined to be here this moment! For Cosmo Canyon! For the White Tiger School! For the Paranormal Deliverance Force! AND FOR THIS WORLD!" With that, the warriors of Cosmo Canyon roared in unison as slowly, an old rotten ship emerged from the thick fog formation. Dozens upon dozens of red phantoms began to pour out of it, all armed with single, deadly red blades.

Meanwhile, things on the ghost ship were coming to a head rather quickly. A loud "KRAKOOM" echoed out from amidst the scuffle on the main deck of the ghostly vessel, followed by a rapidly expanding starburst of spirit rune energy. Though it lost most of it's power as it expanded across the gap between the chost ship and the Crusader, the burst of spirit rune energy was enough to make the majority of the ghosts onboard the PDF's ship tangible. The M85 dove off the side of the ghost ship a moment after, splashing down into the water and not surfacing afterwards.

At the same time, both Twilight and Luna make their way to one of the Crusader's windows, looking out at the sky with unreadable expressions at the same time. "This promises to be far tougher than even the fight with Sombra... But we can handle it, right, Luna?" Unbeknownst to the crew of the Crusader, though, the ferry with Optimus, Vinyl, and Shining Armor is making its way ever closer.

Amidst all the noise, Trixie walked up the steps, more than a few discs of some sort floating around her as she made her way toward the front line of the ship "Hey, how many of you kids have a good arm? Trixie has a few... traps that need someone to launch them. There are 15 ready, but if Trixie had thought of it before, we could have had more." she gave a shrug "They amount to low power fragmentation grenades, with a frisbee for a delivery system. Trixie figures, with flares already active, we can use them to take out small chunks of the enemy at once."

The discs get grabbed up quickly by the larger students in hide coats, Hastur taking a few for himself. Everyone heads out to the deck to meet the enemy head on, the Cosmo Guards behind the students, those with rifles set up to fire before the warriors rush in.

"Very efficient, Trixie. This will help us in fighting them off." Twilight and Luna, after nodding to Trixie's explanation, take a seat near one wall, just as heavy footfalls and the much fainter sound of hoofsteps resonate through the ship - a clear signal that the ferry-goers found their own way on the Crusader.

The discs get grabbed up quickly by the larger students in hide coats, Hastur taking a few for himself. Everyone heads out to the deck to meet the enemy head on, the Cosmo Guards behind the students, those with rifles set up to fire before the warriors rush in, the ones with the discs ready to throw afterwards. The phantoms eye the Crusader, massing up into what can be assumed to be the major attack force.

Hastur yells "Get ready! here they come!" right as the phantoms begin to fly at the Crusader, quick as death. Gunshots ring out from the other side of the Crusader, from Roche's attempt to shoot them with his pistol, futily.

Though it takes Twilight a little longer to prepare a medium-strength fire-orb defense, Luna, Optimus, Shining Armor, and Vinyl immediately launch into their own counterattacks, filling the air with numerous magical projectiles and Energon blasts. "Everyone, turn them back!"

Trixie waited with a flare ready, pointing for the ghosts approaching her position, waiting for the ghosts to actually get in range of the flare, before firing off both it and a blast of colored beads like a shotgun.

Hastur threw his discs as hard as he could as soon as he thought the ghosts were in range, followed by the students throwing theirs and the guards opening fire. The combined total of all of the ballistics thrown at the ghosts took out a large chunk of the phantoms, at least a third, before the guards and students, hastur included, rushed ahead and leapt into close combat.

In rapid succession, even as the others launch their attacks at the phantasm horde, Twilight Sparkle sends numerous orbs of fire flying with a single toss of her head, quickly following through with the magic-wrapped discs near her. "YAH-!"

Trixie stayed behind the crowd, taking pot shots with her flare through lines of the translucent, giving the students and soldiers ahead of her a more fitting chance, sending beads floating into the air beside her, spinning as they take on ice and go careening through the air as crescent blades, a deep magenta glow around each.

Hastur fights like hell along his fellow students and masters, pummeling and crushing ghosts all around him, throwing them into each other and setting up his fellow warriors to defeat them. The guards were fighting admirably, even as they began to take on wounds. The continued ranged support helped out a lot, saving many.

With nothing more than a single sidelong glance at Luna, and a nod, Twilight Sparkle takes flight again, air seeming to solidify around her horn before expanding to encompass her entire body. "Get ready to clear a path for this...! Dance of Blades II!" Following a pulse from her horn, airblades rush out at the rampaging phantasms, mixing with Energon or magical projectiles.

Trixie launched a spear at the growing wall of phantoms, a few small explosions rocking and spinning it in the air as wires flung out from it, though significantly less stable, taking out a few extra ghosts with the whipping metal before it sank into the sea.

With the combined efforts of the warriors and the support from the ranged fighters, Hastur's group was quickly turning the tide with minimal losses. However, some phantoms break off from the main force, flying past the group to be heading towards Shrike. The guards work to take some out, as does Roche, but some remain.

Trixie launched more cutting blades of ice through the foes, letting them slowly grow larger as she trotted toward the waves of phantoms approaching the ship, starting to huff a bit as a red tinge came over her eyes.

"I've got the group breaking away! Keep me covered, everyone, and take them down!" With rapid strokes of her wings, Twilight Sparkle speeds off after the smaller group, with her horn and forelegs turning a pale blue. Meanwhile, Luna nods to her friend's request with a bit of cybernetic whirring, and turns to fire off a dense ball of water. "HOLD, CORPOREAL KNAVES! HAVE AT THEE!"

Trixie began fielding full items made from ice as she stepped to the edge of the ship, continuing to launch flare rounds through groups, her wires whipping out at any ghosts stupid enough to float into range as she begins launching double ended scythes out to sea, the center support blowing apart to send the blades careeening sideways and slicing through ghosts.

"Careful with the masts! This ship's a rental, you know!" shouted Moit from the deck as a phantom swooped next to him, raising its bladed arm to chop the merchant in half. "Yipes!" Standing nearby, Sutan let out a grunt as he pushed the merchant out of the way, taking a swipe across his bare chest. Hundreds of phantoms poured out of the ship, targeting the Crusader. A couple dozen phantoms proceed to bank away from the Crusader and float off towards the northwest.

Nanaki snarled at the phantoms breaking away. "Where are they going?! Not to the manor!?"
A portion of the getaway group broke down thanks to Roche's and Jaa's efforts, but the bulk of them continued on towards Shrike. "You don't think they can sense the Rune of Punishment?!" asked Nanaki towards Master Ip Man before before lunging onto phantom, tearing into it with his fangs.

As the battle continued to rage on, a large black knight in heavy armor slowly trotted in on a hellish horse, blood red eyes on both. It dismounts, its armor clinking loudly, drawing a pitch-black blade like a claymore, hefting it one-handed. Hastur rushes to take on the rider himself, and students or guards following him are quickly battered and ramemd back by the horse, a demonic whinny coming from it.

'Thank Celestia for Undine's blessing...' As she pursues the phantasms heading for Shrike, Twilight Sparkle cuts her speed sharply, taking a deep breath as she angles herself for a splashdown in the Aegiran and invokes one of the blessings she received much earlier. 'These things shouldn't be able to track me that well in the water, if they know I'm following them...'

Trixie looked up from the waves as she began to trot over the heads of the students on a slowly forming bridge of ice, looking straight at the rider and his horse with as much hate as she could muster "You should flee now, back to your own dimension, while you have the opportunity." she snapped her metal whips around her as a spear rose from her cloak, tipped with ice, bound in metal wire, and filled with who knows what "Unless You're Ready To Die Again!"

Even as Twilight continues following the runaway horde, Princess Luna turns her attention to the armored black paladin, robotics whirring as she stares fiercely at it. "Art thou trying to intimidate us? WE ARE NOT IMPRESSED! COME, AND EXPERIENCE OUR POWER!"

Dark energies whip out from the horse as it lets out a horrid whinny, slashing across students and guards alike, opening wounds on their way to the collection of ranged supporters. Hastur's master work to try to get people out of the way of the horse, trying to get it's attention to no avail.

Trixie stopped at the apex of her ice bridge as her cloak and mane began to crackle with static, drawing back with the spear and grinning "Say hello to what I like to call, Gungnir." she fired a flare at it for good measure and launched the spear straight for the horse, sparks sizzling within the tip as light glowed brightly out of it, electricity rushing down the wire as it neared the phantom beast.

Though she's facing against darkness overshadowing her realm of the night and the twilight transition, Princess Luna bravely stands her ground, starlit mane flowing effortlessly as she takes flight and fires a blast of gravity at the demonic paladin. "THY EFFORTS ART IN VAIN, DEPRAVED BEAST! GROVEL BEFORE THE POWER OF THE FORMER NIGHTMARE MOON!"

Back with Twilight... She continues moving rapidly through the water, hoping to catch up with the rogues near Shrike and vanquish them. 'I won't let you down... Just hold on, everyone...!'

The horse takes the spear full on, stumbling a bit, then letting out another demonic whinny. It uses the energy it has left to pull the gravity blast to it, taking the full force... right as everything in the spear goes off. The horse is largely blown to peices, only a small about of corporeal material attempting to stay together, letting out a weak whinny. One of Hastur's masters approaches, but backs away again quickly.

"HUZZAH!" Princess Luna returns to her place on the Crusader, forcing the glow in her eyes to dissipate as she touches down near Optimus, Vinyl, and Shining Armor. "Now, comrades, capture the vanquished beast, and finish these attackers!" As she nears Shrike, at about the same time, Twilight Sparkle slows down in preparation to jump out of the water.

Trixie gave a shout of laughter as she walked along the edge of the bridge, hopping off and jumping in a life boat to drop it to the sea "Fools, know who I am! And Learn To Fear The Great and Powerful Trixie Lulamoon!" waves arose around her, forming into white and blue spears which launched into the air, a red aura practically engulfing the mare by this point.

Despite her best efforts to keep up with the rogue spirits, Twilight Sparkle looks around the moment she surfaces before sighing and diving again to swim back with Undine's blessing. "...shoot, lost them. Guess I should head back to the Crusader..." Luna and the others, though, continue watching in full combat readiness.

Hastur walks back to this side of the Crusader, having assisted in the defeat of the actual rider with the others. He looks to see Trixie sending spears everywhere, hitting ghosts and almost hitting their allies. However, a ghost begins to fly to her form her blindspot, then swipes at her.

Trixie's laugh wavered and turned into a rough rhaspy sound as her wires rose to wrap up the ghost who struck her and squeeze it into bitesized bits, before she wobbled and stumbled face first into the base of the lifeboat "Oh, goodie... and Trixie is all alone... heha, hahahahh.... her laughs were more of a whine as the small boat began to drift.

"TRIXIE!" Hastur ran and dived into the water, swimming as quickly as he could to Trixie, the students and his masters and the guards mopping up what was left of the phantoms on board the Crusader.

'Well, at least we're turning the invasion back...' Twilight Sparkle, by now, is considerably close enough to pick up Hastur's shout through the water, though it's rather muffled as she swims back to the Crusader and her teammates. 'Hold on, I'll be right there...!'

Trixie gave a wheezing chuckle up at Hastur, giving a smile for good measure "Hey you... Trixie got one of them.... a b-big one." the mare sweated a bit as she panted, a bloody gash between the ribs on her left side, not very long but somewhat deep "D-did you see Trixie?" it didn't seem to be bleeding anywhere near as much as it should, the mare coughing with another wheeze.

Hastur smiled back weakly, nodding as tears form in his eyes. "I did, Trixie. You were fantastic. Now, you hold still and rest, okay? You got hit a bit, and I'm gonna take care fo that, okay?" He puts his hand against Trixie's wound, applying pressure and chanting "Narokath Aretak Chattur'gha!" Healing energies flush through Trixie, while the water around Hastur turns red.

Despite being underwater, Twilight Sparkle's horn is flickering brilliantly, just before she disappears and rematerializes near Trixie a moment later, looking singed.

A stream of cyan light shot up through the bottom of the phantom ship leaving a fairly large hole in its wake, its presence sending the remaining phantoms into a state of confusion. Was something happening to their master?
"That color..was that the Spirit Rune..? Look..the phantoms, they're confused! Oboyo must be facing their leader as we speak!" noted Nanaki, taking advantage of the situation to devour a helpless phantom. "We can't pass this chance up! Some of you go in there and support Oboyo, we can't afford to lose to that thing!"

Sutan nodded and grunted towards Nanaki, impaling another phantom with his spear before taking the wide leap over to the ghost ship, hopping into the hole below.

Hastur pants heavily, the water around him red. "Let's... get in there..."

With her attention now focused on the muddled phantasms, Twilight Sparkle extends her wings, horn glowing.

"Good, then! Then we can take the Crusader back and..yaaaaah!" shrieked Moit as a confused phantom picked him up from the Crusader, carrying him over to the ghost ship. "Let me go, you swine! Waaaaaaah!" screamed the merchant as he smacked the phantom, dropping him down the hole.

Sutan nodded and grunted towards Nanaki, impaling another phantom with his spear before taking the wide leap over to the ghost ship, hopping into the hole below.

Trixie nodded a bit, gulping and gasping as her aura enveloped the craft, only faintly glowing magenta, pushing the small craft toward the hole in the ship "Trixie... can get us there... but you need to take us in.