Ocean of Shadows

You probably don't know me. Indeed, nearly no one knew my name. I just gave everyone a fake name. I don't know why I did it. I just had a need to remain unknown. Forgotten. Erased. But that's besides the point. Currently, I'm hanging from the ceiling, wrapped up in webbing. You may wonder how I ended up here. Well, it's quite a long story that can be explained quite easily. Yesterday, my fellow crew-mates and I found a ship stranded in the middle of the ocean. Just washed up on some rocks. No life, no sounds...Nothing. We decided to investigate and straight from the start something came off as suspicious. All the doors were locked, there was nothing on-board, not even tools or food, and the closest thing we found to the remaining ponies were their bones. Cleansed to the white with not a scrap of flesh nor marrow remaining. Needless to say, it was rather disturbing. As we scattered in an attempt to learn more, we were ambushed by these weird clock bugs. I put up a bit of a fight, but they didn't stop until they swarmed me and suffocated me. Then, when alas I finally awoke, I was being carried somewhere. Wrapped up tight web. Plenty of webbing around my arms and legs prevented me from breaking out. I was a prisoner and hell knows what would happen to me now.

They tossed me on to a bench and I landed with a groan. It kind of hurt. I tested the webbing. It was laid on a bit thick and strong enough to prevent me from moving, but not from rolling…

When the little buggers finally passed by, I rolled off of the bench and out the door. It was tough avoiding notice, but they seemed busy. At least for now. I saw Sierra up ahead being transported to some chutes. It deeply unsettled me for what they were actually planning to do with her, but I couldn’t lose her. No, I owed her and it would simply be a horrid mistake for me to just let her die like this or whatever is going to happen. My eyes rapidly scoped the area for anything that could be used. Unfortunately, this place had all the weapons and equipment salvaged.

I sweared under my breath. Time was running out. I felt a rush of steam hit the back of my mane. “...Crap.” I said simply.

A large axe came down on me as I rolled to the side. it cleaved my side, but cut open the web. I struggled slightly and ripped it open; just in time to dodge another attack. I leapt on the arm and hung on as it lifted me along with its weapon and tried to shake me off. I focused on the bolts and parts in the arm and unattached it. I picked up the axe and drove it into the head of the clockwork machine, the blade of the weapon jammed up its gears and cut some tubes causing it to violently twitch before exploding in the center. I caught a glimpse of a semi-beating heart as I was sent inelegantly flying through the air. I managed to keep my grip on the axe as I barely hurled it. It sailed through the air and slammed into one of the constructs carrying Sierra with great force causing the stupid thing to split in half, cogs and bolts flying all around it.Sierra was dropped thankfully and rolled off slightly to the back of the deck. I landed on the second construct back first and crushed it against the floor.It squirmed underneath me so I rolled to the side and smacked it with the axe I grabbed. “Damn that thing is heavy” I groaned.

Sierra squirmed next to me. her eyes were blindfolded and she was almost entirely wrapped in that webbing, silk, string stuff. I gently led the axe across the cocoon on her body, its sharp edge slicing it open. I then ripped off the webbing on her mouth. She spat and gagged some of the non-dried up silk. It was all wet and gooey. “Eww…” I said as I wiped it off. She slightly glared at me.

“Took you long enough” she scowled. I rolled my eyes. She was sometimes like this when ponies helped her out.

“You’re welcome blue. But I had to get untied, kill two clocks, and get my side cut off...Oh yeah…” I said in minor worry. I glanced at my side. It was skinned and bleeding. The exposed flesh glistened crimson from the bloody mess that had coated it. I chewed my cheek a bit. “...Oh dear.”. Sierra stared at it for a bit.

“We have GOT to get you patched up!” she said nervously.

For the first time since we ended up in this exact position, we recalled our friends were still in danger and that we were, currently, surrounded by clockwork constructs bent on either killing us or sacrificing us to their weird boss. “Crap” we said at the same time.

I looked around. They were slowly converging in on us. There probably wasn’t a way to escape these monstrosities, but I had to figure out a way with the most dangerous and unreliable solution in the known universe: I had to use my BRAIN to THINK.

“Alright, one heavy axe, 14 constructs, 6 small, 4 medium, and 4 large…” My eyes slowly turned to the side of the ship which was possibly still submerged underwater. That could come in handy later. I picked up the axe and tied a rope to it which was connected to some sort of reel. I hurled the axe which impacted itself into a small construct. I smacked the reel and it dragged the axe back, along with two small constructs. The others slowly closed in on us. “Not fast enough…” I scowled. They were getting in slow…

“Hey ___? Do you have any good ideas yet?” she snarked.

“Yeah. Two.” I said as I grabbed the axe and ran around the constructs. I slashed and blocked whenever I could as I wrapped the rope around them. Once it was sufficiently wrapped around enough, I hurled the axe at a big one. The axe got stuck. I signaled at Sierra to smack the reel. She did and the reel was tightened and continued tightening. The axe was let loose and it slashed and hacked up most of the constructs as it was pulled around. I grabbed a wooden pole and smashed the remaining constructs with it until they were all scrap and corpse metal.

“There we go you fat sack of freaks!” I yelled at the chunks. I was still angry after what they did to my friends...Speaking of which. I waved for Sierra to follow and I ran to my room with the cocoons. I grabbed a small sharp shard of metal and hastily cut open the cocoons. Most of my friends and crewmates survived...Most. A few I didn’t get to know and a few from the Ghost Ship were already harvested for parts regrettably. It made me nauseous enough to vomit on a bench as I saw a pony with her gut sliced open and her organs, what remained of the them, spilling out.

Skye slowly got up on her feet. They were still wobbly. She looked ready to pass out, but thankfully didn’t. I walked over to her and stood by her side so she had someone to lean on to prevent herself from falling over. She shuddered a bit against me.

“Oh Goddess, the things they did…” she said in horror. “Those...Things...Crawling all over them. Nitpicking at their skin, slicing it open, harvesting the insides…” she wretched a few times, but merely succeeded in gagging a lot. She looked as if she was going to keel over and curl up in a ball. I held her close.

“Alright, Skye, calm down. It’s going to get better. I promise you. Sierra and I took care of most of the constructs. It’s safe out there. Okay?” I told her softly.

She weakly nodded with tears in her eyes. “Okay…” she whispered. She buried her face in my mane as she sobbed softly. She was probably one of the unlucky ones who was awake to witness the entire ordeal. Despite what I personally thought, I couldn’t help, but feel a twinge of compassion and sorrow for her. No one should have to watch all of that. No one.

Frost and Grey weakly stumbled over to me. They were both fairly battered. Bleeding as well. “___, you alright?” asked Grey.

I nodded. “Yeah. How about you guys?” I asked.

“I feel like battered pigeons and I have a concussion” spat Frost. Literally. He apparently had a dislodged tooth. It rolled around on the deck.

“Pretty bruised up, but I’ll live. I think they jacked my kidney while I was on ice…” said Grey as he checked his side. He indeed was missing one, but was sloppily stitched up. “Damn northerners…”

I chuckled lightly at his statement, but Sierra pulled me off to the side. She looked very worried. “___, look...They weren’t making more constructs. Something else was. A huge a arachnid-construct-clockwork thingy. It’s underneath us in a big chamber and making more of these things as we speak. We have to get rid of it. Now. Before it escapes and causes more trouble.” she said urgently. I nodded. PLAN C would work perfectly for that, but we needed at least 20 minutes to prepare as well as a martyr to go down there…

“Alright guys, I have a plan, but I’ll need a bit of time to set it up. Apparently, there is a motherbucking big construct right beneath our hooves. It’s why this ship hasn’t sunk or floated off yet. We’re going to have to take care of her. One way, or another. Now, this part of the ship is submerged so if we shatter the walls it will flood in the tunnels, rooms, and the deck. Unfortunately, whoever is left behind is probably done for so...I’m going to be doing it. I was the one who got curious about this ship and wasn’t careful enough so I got some of us killed. I’m staying behind. I owe you all that much.” I said somberly while trying to hide the emotion in my voice. I honestly didn’t want to die, but...I had to. To save everyone and whoever follows in our trails.

Rose, Grey, Skye, Sierra, Glade, Hawke, Frost, and some skinny mare all stared at me in shock. They didn’t expect me to say that. Not at all they did.

Rose gave me a curious glance. “Why? Why would you do that for us? To you, we’re practically strangers or obscure friends at most. You saved us more than once and risked your life plenty of times. “ she said in a dubious tone.

Skye bit her lip. She looked like she desperately wanted to tell me something, but didn’t have the strength to.

One of the newer ponies I haven’t talked to before spoke up. “Maybe he should go. After all, he volunteered. Why should we give our lives in vain in exchange for someone who seems so hellbent on dying for us.” she said. Rose gave her a nasty glare. “Shut up Dawn” she hissed

I raised an eyebrow at Dawn. Granted she was a very beautiful mare, but I didn’t like her too much. “Okay, get ready guys. I’ll also need some of that phos stuff that you have Frost.”

Frost nodded somberly. “Alright...And ___? Thank you. For everything.” he said quietly. I nodded back. “You too Frosty”.

A while passed as I set up for the big game, my plan slowly setting into motion. Frost and I had mixed together some of that phos-phor-us stuff on the walls before also lacing it with fire-reactive explosives he concocted using ingredients from the clockwork bodies and stuff from back in his lab. I was quite surprised to learn he was actually allowed to have a variety of dangerous chemicals and stuff when he imprisoned on the ship, but he apparently had some sort of family treaty that enabled him to, no matter what. Once that was done, we connected some oil soaked ropes to the walls and held in place with putty and I got ready. Before I set out, I had the delight of meeting a few extra ponies who were on my side. Brick Break, Cloud Chaser, and a cute mare named Raven. She was the oldest in our group, but I liked her for some reason. She was cool.

I set up and put my gear on. It mostly consisted of plate armor, a knife, and a long, lanky pole. That didn’t exactly help boost my confidence. I went to the chutes and watched my friends set off. The clock was ticking. I had to hold off that huge clockwork monster for at least 3 minutes before the explosives went off and sunk the ship...My odds weren’t that great and this is hoping that the phos-stuff will ignite. I jumped down the chutes.

A while passed until I realized that I stopped moving for a bit. I pushed myself down and finally got moving, but I lost my pole which got jammed in the chute. “Sonofa-” I groaned before I shot out into a wall face-first. “....I hate this day” I groaned as I slid down to the cold metallic floor. Around 20 incomplete clockwork constructs were wandering around. They were missing arms, legs, eyes, weapons, and some were just torsos with paddles for arms! I paused. “Wait...If these are just the new ones, then who’s making them?” I wondered. I looked up at the ceiling and saw a dark shape spanning around a ⅙ of the ceiling. “...Whoa.” I barely managed to utter. The room was rather huge, but barren. It appeared to be made of bronze or something. The massive construct-tarantula dropped down and fired a beam at me from one of its thingies on its shoulder. I rolled to the side and avoided the scorching orange beam and ran off. Being chased by a huge metal spider with lasers is very good for motivation I noticed. I ran behind a pile of junk and hid. The spider construct walked around slowly, watching for any signs of pony movements. I crawled on the pile very slowly and ducked into it when the Construct turned to look. It prepared to walk off so I got to the top more quickly and jumped on its back. “SURPRISE MOTHERBUCKER!” I yelled and stabbed the huge eyeball repeatedly. Orange blood gushed as the construct screeched in fury.I repeatedly carved the eyeball as the construct tried to shake me off by climbing the wall. I barely managed to hold on as I smashed my hoof into the open wound. “DIE, DIE, DIE!” I shouted at the nauseating crippled eyeball. The construct lost its grip on the ceiling and fell with me along with it. As if on cue, around the same time the phosphorus ignited and caused the explosives to detonate. The walls on the upper deck shattered in an orgy of splinter, wood, and water. All of it came rushing down in a fury as it smashed into the bronze walls and slowly began breaking them. I was only a few feet away from the water’s surface with the construct above me. I closed my eyes and hit the water in a mighty splash, the construct in tow. Then, a bright flare of agony all over and everything faded to black.

Frost watched the ship sink in the distance. He had to stifle a single tear from falling. There, because of ___’s bravery, they all managed to survive. The idiot took a step further and decided to take the whole place down with him simply to stop the Construct Queen and prevent this from ever happening again. It made Frost wonder, what kind of a pony would you have to be so that you would be willing to sacrifice everything to save everyone? He didn’t have an answer for it. Not yet.

“Rest in peace. We won’t forget you.” he said somberly as he trotted to the helm of the ship. The captain was gone. Dead. But their destination remained the same. The only difference was, it would be a much more lonely journey now. The looming horizon crackled in the distance with the coming signs of a storm. It was obvious that soon the ride would get rough, but they would brave it. Just as they braved everything before.