“5000 feet”
Further and further, the walls of the submarine shuddering and shaking now, the pressure outside enough to crush a barn silo, Sweetie Belle pushed farther in her little contraption, remembering Scootaloo telling her how they’d never find their cutie marks if they wouldn’t even try a little expedition such as this. Sweetie Belle, as always with her adventures with the Cutie Mark Crusaders, had not planned or researched any of it, thinking that if she was good at this, she’d know what to do by instinct. Instinct, unfortunately, does not pilot submarines, and while Sweetie Belle had managed to go down, she had still yet to learn how to do anything else in the cramped little death trap Apple Bloom had built for her, Apple Bloom having now finally earning her Cutie Mark in construction, thus not piloting the dirigible in question.
“6000 feet”
The pressure at this depth was starting to become a little worrisome now, the craft now rattling harder than before, but still managing to stay alive. The power system on the craft however, was not built for this depth, and had short circuited four minutes ago, leaving Sweetie Belle in the dark, the cold, sharp, painful dark that only exists deep under the sea. Sweetie Belle now panicking, flipping every switch and turning every knob to no avail, manages to produce a little light from her horn, which she uses to look at the gauges and dials, one of which didn’t require power to operate: the depth gauge. Apple Bloom had told her not to go past 8000 feet, when asked why, Apple Bloom merely stated “You don’t wanna know.” Sweat rolled down Sweetie’s mane as she realized her fate if she couldn’t stop herself from sinking.
“7000 feet. Pressure failure detected”
Bolts shot off from the side of the craft one by one with an ear-piercing shriek each time they did. Water had not yet begun to seep into the craft, so the pressure inside had remained at a safe level. Sweetie, however, did not know what any of this meant, and had already wished thirty times that she could go back home to her sister. The more Sweetie Belle thought of her sister, the more she knew she had to escape this terrible fate somehow. But with the power shot completely, and the craft now falling backwards, she had no idea how much more she had to sink or what fate lied for her at the bottom. The surface seemed to be a thing of the past now, as she had been sinking for a straight hour without stopping, and she could not see all the way up there with her horn, as she would be able to with the lights on the craft.
“Thunk. 7500 feet”
Sweetie Belle thanked Celestia that she had found the bottom, and wiped the sweat off her brow. She went to the storage container and looked over to see if she had enough food. Sweetie had figured that since she hadn’t responded on the radio in so long, that maybe somepony would go looking for her. The thought had never occurred to her that not only did nopony else have another submarine, but at the same time that she didn’t have enough air to survive for much longer. It may have been only this naiveté that allowed her to lift up her little horn and shine a light into the darkness of the sea around her, arguably the reason she came here for. She thought to herself “Well, I’m not getting an undersea exploration cutie mark any time soon, but at least I can look at what’s all the way down here.” Looking around, Sweetie Belle quickly understood that unlike the coral reefs she had found while scuba divng with the Scootaloo and Apple Bloom, the bottom of the ocean was a rather uninteresting and dull place, a place which she had approximately ten more minutes to enjoy. But through the corner of her eye, Sweetie Belle noticed a shining tentacle touch the craft, powering on every system. Immediately she wanted to rush towards the surface and be free of this prison. But she wanted to thank the strange force that saved her, so she followed it as it slithered away.
“7000 feet”
It had been eight minutes now, and about five different signals have alerted Sweetie Belle that she’s in a bind, all of which were quelled by Sweetie turning them off. Yet still, beyond all reason, she continued to follow the strange slithering shape as it moved into a dark cave. The onboard lights were far more powerful than Sweetie’s horn, and now she could see clearly where she was, which was still in the absolute middle of nowhere. All the interesting parts about the deep were in the trenches, but Sweetie Belle did not know or care, and continued to follow the slimy, slithering shape, up until she found the creature it belonged to, albeit obscured by the murky water. As she came up to it, she stood up on her hind legs and waved. Right as the air tank ran out, with the last bit of air in the cabin she said thank you to the kind creature, and immediately began to choke. There was no more air left, and Sweetie Belle knew this. In fact, she had remembered there being an alert about this very thing that she had simply not paid attention to at all. Sprawling around on the floor looking for a way to survive, she had thought herself a very silly pony indeed. The creature seeing this, had been at this time struggling to open the door to the cabin, which it could not, forcing the creature to pull the whole craft into an air pocket in the cave, where the whole craft smacked right into the wall, dinging holes into it and letting air in. One tentacle slithered back into the craft, noticing a limp pony lying in it, breathing heavy, hard breaths.