DEEP
Celestia stepped carefully around some stone cutters who were busy working on a section of the castle wall. The building was new, and some final construction tasks were still being performed.
Hurrying forward through the hallways, Celestia checked her saddlebags to make sure she hadn’t forgotten anything important. Her long legs quickly crossed the main hall and carried Celestia up the stairs to the royal quarters. Pausing for breath just outside an ornate office door, Celestia raised a hoof and knocked. A voice invited her in, and she opened the door.
Queen Harmony was tending to paperwork at her desk. She looked up and smiled at her visitor. “Thank you for coming so quickly, Celestia.”
“Absolutely, your highness.” It was not ordinary for Queen Harmony to call on Celestia so urgently, even if she had been the Queen's aide and confidant for a little while now. Celestia shifted her hooves nervously. No matter how warm and inviting the Queen was, Celestia always felt awkward around her. Although to be fair, Celestia felt awkward around most ponies. Even as an adult, albeit a young one, it sometimes seemed that she still hadn't grown accustomed to her outsized body, wings, and horn that stood out in any crowd. There was definitely something different about her, as anypony would attest.
“You know something about radiation, don’t you?” asked Queen Harmony without further preamble.
“Er...yes, I suppose.” While Celestia had never formally studied anything like that, the cutie mark depicting a blazing star on her hip signified her inherent understanding of how molecular fission and fusion could produce energy. Well, that in addition to moving the sun around.
After finishing school, Celestia had taken a government job with the dream of helping ponies. It wasn’t like her special talent of controlling sunlight was very useful to her in day-to-day life. The task of managing the heavens was the Queen’s responsibility.
Perhaps that was why Queen Harmony had taken the awkward young mare under her wing. As the only other pony who was qualified for the job, Celestia was a smart choice to have around. Lately, she had noticed the Queen giving her more and more responsibility and more important tasks to complete. It almost felt like training of some sort.
Instead of talking about the sun, however, Queen Harmony laid a map of the Equestrian Ocean on her desk. “Scientists calibrating their equipment recently discovered an unusual type of emission coming from a point off our east coast.”
Celestia noted a small X placed on the map. The Queen went on. “The signal is believed to be low-level radiation of some sort. It doesn’t appear to have an organized pattern, so it’s unlikely to be a message.”
“What could it be, then?” Celestia wondered aloud.
The Queen smiled. “It could be an artifact of the forerunners.”
The significance was not lost on Celestia. Based on archeology findings, scholars had theorized that perhaps an ancient civilization came before the rise of ponies. Very little existed in the way of old written records to know how things like magic, language, and ponies themselves first came about. A link to the past could provide valuable insight.
“This discovery sounds amazing, your highness.”
Queen Harmony nodded. “I would like you to be my personal representative on the expedition to survey the site. In fact, I want you to lead the group.”
Celestia sputtered. “M-me? I don’t think I can.”
“You’re qualified to give your opinion on the source of the radiation. Furthermore, I believe you have what it takes to manage everything else. Have a little faith in yourself, Celestia. I believe that you can accomplish great things. You’re more capable than you think. Now, go have a look and report to me what you find.”
The Queen had already made travel arrangements, and almost before Celestia knew it she had been ushered out of the castle and down to the coast to catch a research vessel that would be sailing soon. She wanted to protest at the suddenness of it and the magnitude of the task, but there was no way she could bring herself to go against Queen Harmony’s orders.
The crew was mostly composed of scientists but there were a few salty sailors mixed in to handle the running of the ship. All of them looked to Celestia for guidance. She stood all by herself in front of the crowd.
Celestia had watched Queen Harmony deliver speeches before. Trying to draw from the Queen’s presentation, Celestia squared her shoulders and lifted her head. “Fillies and gentlecolts, we are embarking on an very important mission today. The Queen herself has taken a special interest in this. No matter what we find out there, I hope all of us will do our best.”
Her words seemed to carry weight with the crew, and they seemed to take them to heart as they went back to their tasks. Celestia knew little of ships and felt that it was best to let the other ponies do their jobs without her interference.
She retired to her room with a package of information the Queen had sent along. The trip would take most of a day, and Celestia wanted to be ready when they got there.
There were a few unicorns on board who were good with environmental control spells. These would give any pony venturing below the surface of the ocean the ability to breathe as well as protect them from anything harmful. It had already been decided - against her will- that Celestia would be the one to make the trip to the bottom.
She concentrated harder on reading, trying to stave off the nervousness of the task she had been burdened with. Celestia was naturally attracted to sunlight and open air. Venturing into the depths of the ocean did not sound easy, entertaining, or without risk. Still, she couldn’t very well ask the crew to do everything else and then not follow through with her own task. Plus, the Queen had ordered it.
By the time the ship reached the dive site, Celestia had steeled herself for what lay ahead. Ponies scurried around the ship getting things ready. The environmental experts came to see her in order to prepare for the dive.
A unicorn named Fresh Air was busy setting up the magic that would keep Celestia safe beneath the waves. When it was time to begin, his horn began to glow. “Here, let me get the spell for the oxygen bubble started and then I’ll pass it to you.”
Celestia nodded, preparing her magic to power the spell after Fresh Air gave it over. The scientist conjured a shimmering bubble about as large as he was. Glancing up at Celestia, he grinned sheepishly and expanded it to her size. “Okay, get ready.”
Delicately balancing the bubble between them, Celestia took over the handling of it. The magic required to sustain the spell was a pittance once Fresh Air had gotten it started. Celestia slowly maneuvered the bubble until she was inside.
A few other ponies came over to add their own spells to the mix. Iron Butterfly, whose special talent was weight manipulation, added a layer to the bubble that allowed Celestia to easily control her descent or ascent through the water. A pony named Shield provided a spell to absorb any radiation in higher levels, as it was not yet known how that might affect ponies.
Celestia had not studied magic extensively. While she had enough raw power to move the sun, she lacked more the more delicate finesse required for precise spells. However, once the other ponies had passed control of their charms over to her, she had no trouble keeping them running.
“The water is quite deep here,” one of the scientists provided. “It will be dark at the bottom.”
Celestia nodded and lit up a soft glow from her horn. She could increase the output later if required. Turning, she saw that the whole crew had come to see her off. The sight of them helped reinforce the nature and importance of her mission. I’ll do this just like you said, Queen Harmony.
With a nod of farewell, Celestia stepped over the side of the ship and plunged into the ocean. She sank slowly at first, beginning to pick up speed. The pressure of the water tried to collapse the air bubble and form it tight to her body, but Celestia applied a bit of magical effort and got it to expand into a sphere again.
As the light filtering through the water from above began to fade, Celestia brightened her personal illumination into a tight beam focused downward. She rolled a bit in her bubble, assuming a head-down posture like a show diver. She smiled a little, amused with the slight diversion.
Her downward speed only increased and the water continued to darken until it was black. Celestia didn’t know how far she had descended, but when she had been told that the water was “quite deep,” it was not an exaggeration in the slightest.
A few minutes passed before Celestia caught a glimpse of anything that wasn’t dark water. She slowed herself slightly and began to reorient her hooves for a possible landing.
Slowly, a swath of silty ocean bottom came into view. Celestia hovered above it for a moment before gently touching down. It squished slightly but her bubble kept her from sinking in.
Celestia glanced up briefly, but she was so deep that the sunlight overhead was completely obscured. It was entirely possible that there was a blanket of water above her that was deeper than the height of the Canterlot Mountain. That was not a reassuring thought and Celestia pushed it from her mind.
Closing her eyes for a moment, Celestia tried to focus on detecting any nearby sources of radiation. She knew what the sun felt like, and figured that the feeling should be somewhat similar. Sure enough, there was a signal not far away, making itself known to her like a beacon.
Inside her sphere, Celestia was not sure she could swim or even extend her wings to “fly” underwater. She resolved to walk, the bubble of air moving with her across the ocean floor. Searching ahead with her light, she tried to pick out where the signal calling to her might be coming from.
Something like a wall appeared in the gloom. Celestia quickened her pace, eager to see what it might be. As she drew nearer, both the top and bottom of the wall appeared to curve away, disappearing in the gloom. It was definitely not natural, and Celestia’s heart began to beat faster at the discovery. From the dark water a cylindrical metal shape oriented horizontally emerged. It was enormous, much taller than Celestia, and in the darkness she could not see either end.
Celestia adjusted her bubble’s buoyancy and floated up off the bottom, trying to get a look from above. She drifted over the top of the strange object, observing that it was mostly shaped like a tube. Gingerly, she allowed her hooves to touch down on top.
The surface of it was caked with waterlogged clumps of rust and residue from the ocean. Celestia began to walk, her hooves thumping on the unidentified metal. The surface began to taper downward, sloping to a set of fish-like fins and some kind of shrouded propeller.
So it was a ship, then. Celestia frowned. She could understand having a rudder to steer left and right, but why did it also have horizontal fins? Perhaps for going up and down? In addition to that, there were no visible windows. It must be some kind of underwater craft, then.
Pleased with her discovery and eager to learn more, Celestia turned and headed back towards the other end of the mysterious vessel. A taller structure rose from the hull in front of her. Perhaps it was some sort of command post or bridge.
Celestia spotted something slightly raised on the side of the tower. She raised a hoof and brushed the rust from it. It seemed to be some sort of letters or glyphs made of metal and attached to the hull.
With a start, Celestia realized that the letters were in recognizable script. While they were shaped somewhat oddly to her eye, this must still be clear proof that the forerunners theory was correct. She stared at the words, mouthing them slowly to herself: Yuri Dolgorukiy...
They meant nothing to her, but it seemed clear that it was the name of the vessel. Filing the information away for later, Celestia decided that she should try to find a way to access the inside of the ancient ship.
At the top of the tower, she found a hatch with a locking wheel on it. It was a relatively small diameter, but she decided that it would be possible to wriggle inside.
Celestia wondered if the vessel had remained watertight after all these years. Positioning her bubble around the hatch to equalize the pressure, she tugged on it with magic. The rusty wheel begrudgingly started to turn and Celestia pried it open.
She was faced with a dark tunnel leading straight downwards. It was dry, at least. Carefully moving her body inside the bubble of air and turning the sphere into more of a tube shape, Celestia managed to slip through the open hatch. It was clear that whoever had designed it wanted function over form.
After taking care to pull the bubble inside after her, Celestia slowly let it prop up the hatch and then slowly close it. She spun the wheel shut and checked for leaks.
It was not until after she had sealed herself in that it became apparent that the narrow shaft was tight and uncomfortable. Celestia quickly found another hatch in the bottom and descended through it.
She found herself in a fairly large compartment with pipes, wires, and other pieces of technology covering the walls. There was no way of telling what the interior atmosphere might be like on the other side of the bubble. Judging by the lack of rust, there might not be any oxygen at all.
Here too, Celestia found legible writing. It all seemed to be mundane things, such as gauge readings. Shining her light around, Celestia decided to look further into the interior of the strange craft. She walked through an open hatch into another compartment.
There was something on the floor here, a stain. Everything else seemed to be fairly clean and orderly, so the color spilled on the deck seemed out of place. Celestia kept walking. Entering the next compartment, she stopped short with a gasp. There were bodies on the floor.
They were like no creatures Celestia had ever seen before. They wore clothing, the similarity between the outfits suggesting some kind of uniform. They were not recognizable. Decay had seen to that, the low oxygen content in the air leading to a mummified state.
Swallowing hard and turning her head away, Celestia thanked her luck that her sphere of air blocked any smells from her surroundings. Starting to leave the room, she stepped on something and stopped. It looked like a small, cup-shaped object, about the size of a thimble but more uniformly cylindrical. It was made of a highly polished material that Celestia at first took for gold but realized that it was only brass. Several more were scattered over the floor. Nearby was a metal object with some of the brass things inside it. These seemed to have copper tips.
Deciding not to touch anything, Celestia moved on. To her dismay, she found more bodies and stains that she was coming to realize were blood.
A console of some sort presented itself. Celestia couldn’t tell what it was for, but there seemed to be piles of parchment on it. She paused for a better look, her eyes widening in wonder. It was hard to truly call it parchment, with the perfectly white color and smooth surface. The sheets still contained readable text, so her eyes scanned them.
Message received... attack... orders to launch... comply at once... missiles... thermonuclear yield... destruction... death... The phrasing and words were difficult to understand, perhaps having changed format over the years before turning into modern language. Certain words jumped out, however. Celestia put the documents down, unsure how she wanted to proceed.
She noticed that her steps took her closer to the source of the radioactive signal, her goal, so she forced herself to press on. Small signs began to appear on the walls. Danger - radiation; Use Caution Around Missiles; Authorized Personnel Only
Here too there were dead creatures. Some were huddled in small groups, seeming to have died from natural causes rather than bloodshed. Behind them, tall metal cylinders reached from floor to ceiling. They were arranged in two rows that stretched away into the darkness. All were marked again with radiation warnings.
Celestia kept walking. From each of the tubes, she detected a source of energy. The warning signs worried her, but what she felt did not seem dangerous. It was not exactly what she felt from the sun, but the similarity was close enough that it almost felt like she was basking in sunshine as she walked through the dark metal passage.
Celestia knew that the radiation from the sun could be harmful to ponies in large amounts. However, it had never seemed to affect her. Even with Celestia’s pale coat, she had never been burned, even after falling asleep for hours in the summer sunshine. Her parents sometimes joked that she was solar powered. Maybe with her cutie mark, it was true.
The line of vertical tubes ended and Celestia entered yet another compartment. Here, she felt the strongest source of radiation yet. There seemed to be pipes and other contraptions scattered around the room. A panel with clearly labeled speed controls was off to the side, indicating that Celestia had found the engine room.
She did not see anything indicative of steam power, like a boiler or firebox. Furthermore, there would be no way to burn coal underwater. This ship must have some sort of specialized source of power. That in itself would be a great technological achievement, but everything else about this vessel could be a huge boon to Equestria. Metallurgy, chemistry, history. Celestia was almost physically staggered by the implications. Queen Harmony would be very pleased.
She turned and trotted back towards the hatch where she came in. Passing the strange room of cylinders again, Celestia glanced to the side, glimpsing a small book lying near the appendages of one of the ship’s former crew.
It seemed wrong, but Celestia couldn’t help but to pause. There would be plenty of time to inspect everything later when the scientists began to study the vessel, but curiosity won her over and she picked up the book.
It appeared to be a small journal, and was filled with untidy printing. A diary? Celestia felt conflicted about reading it. Not that it was easy to read. The ink had faded and was barely legible.
Squinting at the writing, Celestia managed to make out a few phrases.
We had our orders...
...launch our missiles...
...disagreed...
...couldn’t allow...
...wrong...
...mutiny...
Celestia swallowed hard and looked up from the journal for a moment. What she managed to understand did not paint a pretty picture. The crew of the ship had turned on each other. Celestia could not understand the catalyst for such an action. Why did some object to their orders?
...decision...
...not easy...
...couldn’t, or else...
...millions dead...
The journal dropped from Celestia’s grip and she whirled to face the towering cylinders that cluttered the compartment. This ship was full of weapons, unimaginably destructive ones. The crew had fought each other to stop them from being used, unwilling to kill so many in an armageddon.
Seconds passed. Slowly, Celestia began to move again. This technology...this horrible technology. How could science be so thoroughly abused in pursuit of weapons? She was simultaneously disgusted and frightened. Would Equestria’s scientists ever produce something so destructive? Would the military use them?
Walking as if in a trance, Celestia made her way back to the hatch where she had entered. Without pausing for a last look around, she make her exit. After negotiating the narrow tube again, she used her bubble of air to equalize pressure and opened the hatch to the ocean.
Standing on top the ship, Celestia considered abandoning the hatch and letting water pour in. Good riddance. However as she considered it, there was something to be said about the courage and valor she’d read about in the journal. This was an honorable grave site for at least a few righteous souls.
Gently, Celestia closed the hatch and sealed it. She paused for a moment to take a deep breath before beginning her ascent. She ended her light spell. There was nothing that needed to be seen. The ship below her disappeared, hopefully never to be seen again.
Queen Harmony had told her that this would be a good leadership opportunity. Celestia had to make a decision about what to do. She could affect the future all by herself.
Celestia closed her eyes, knowing the choice would not be easy. There was so much potential, so much to be gained. There was also so much to lose. Weapons that could end the world as they knew it. Was that what had happened to the forerunners?
The minutes passed as Celestia’s bubble continued to rise. Inside, she wrestled with her own mind, knowing what her conscience wanted and what cold duty recommended. It was not dissimilar to the choice faced by the sailors.
Celestia felt the bubble begin to oscillate with wave action. She opened her eyes, looking gratefully upward to the sunlight as the sphere came to the surface. The crew of the research ship fished her out and brought her to the deck. It took only a moment for the spells to be deactivated.
“Well, what did you find?” one of the scientists eagerly questioned.
“Nothing. There’s nothing there for us.”
There was a collective sigh of disappointment that echoed across the deck. Celestia shared their sorrow, but not for the same reason. She’d learned a powerful lesson aboard the stricken vessel. The mistakes made in the past would not come to haunt Equestria in the future, she decided. As terrible as the past had been, what was done would stay hidden. It was Celestia’s decision, the Queen had given her that power.
She turned to walk back to her cabin as the research ship began to head back to port. The heavy mass of responsibility for her actions felt almost like a physical burden. It would have been easier if the choice was more clear cut in the way of right or wrong. Leadership was not always a clear path.
Celestia couldn’t justify to herself that she was doing the correct thing. She knew what the lonesome crew aboard the forgotten ship had done because they believed it right. They had never asked for acknowledgement, nor been praised. They had simply vanished into the deep, knowing that what they had done had attempted to make the world a better place.
Rays of sunlight fell on Celestia’s shoulders as she paused for a moment to gather her thoughts. This was not about her. It was about a bigger picture, something deeper than what could be seen. Nopony would know what Celestia had done today, least of all Queen Harmony. There was a difference between what was commanded and what was correct.
The decision had been made. Celestia would have to live with it, but at least it was something worth living for.
Author's Note
Ever wonder why Equestria looks like it's got old technology? Think maybe the Princess has been suppressing some things?
This story was conceived, designed, cover art drawn, and produced in less than eight hours. I would appreciate it if you point out the errors inevitably caused by the rapid pace.
This tale is kind of, sort of, not really related to Here Comes the Sun
Now with reading! Check The Living Library Player Society for more!
