Celestia 1: An Account

Chapter 3 : Nighttime

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It was a simple but effective trick. Since natural light didn't penetrate this far down, it was very easy to lose track of the time. To fix this the lights at the base dimmed the later it got, light street lights in revers. It was subtle but noticeable, and while it wasn't nearly as effective as the actual sun and moon, it got across the general time of day should anypony find themselves away from a clock.

Twilight hadn't noticed this, she had spent the last few hours staring out of the window of her undersea apartment. The base looked pretty, there was no doubt about it, all lit up and modern, but it was the nature and life outside that captivated her most. The only place you be able to see anything remotely similar to the view from her window would be an aquarium, but the two just didn't compare. Jelly fish caught the lights and lit up hues of pink and purple, fish reflected the lights with their scales, shimmering like stars, and in the distance, larger, more terrifying sea creatures were just about visible, but far enough away for comfort.

There was a knock at the door. Twilight answered it with a scowl, she did not like to be interrupted.

"Hello Twilight!" Fluttershy greeted her, but quickly noticed the look on Twilight's face. "Oh...I can leave if you want me to, I just came to get you for the tour. T-that is, if you want to go..."

"Of course I do!" Her expression lightened. "Sorry, I was just captivated by, well, out there!" She gestured towards her window.

"Oh yes, its magical isn't it? I could just stare out the window all day.."

Twilight left her room and the two of them made their way back down to the plaza. It could easily have taken longer than it should have, considering the amount of windows there were to distract them, but they arrived fairly on time, meeting up with the other ponies who were also being walked around the facility.

The group was guided around the commons area by one of the engineering crew, a unicorn by the name of Sully. He took the scientists around the building, pointing out things of note and where the exits were and so forth. After this they were left to wander around and find the other sections for themselves, seeing as the commons area was the only part of the facility where navigating could potentially be tricky. Plus in the other parts, they would be able to just ask around for where to go, but the commons area was for relaxing.

Twilight looked at the map, of which they'd all been given a copy. On one side was the commons area in detail; cinemas, restaurants, shops, everything they should want to find, as well as the locations of the entrances to other areas of the base. The place even had a bar! They had really made it as comfortable as possible to spend a long time down here.

The other side of the map showed the whole facility, albeit in far less detail. This side really brought out the scale of the whole thing. The commons area sat in the middle, the largest part. Residential was to the south, Oxygen and food production to the east, the docks and engineering centers to the west, science faculties to the north, and other departments shooting off in directions away from the middle. Everything was connected by tunnels, and somepony could easily spend a day making their way from one end to the other, and much much longer if they got lost or sidetracked in any way.

Twilight and Fluttershy broke away from the larger group, finding their way to a door labeled "Communications". A short tunnel led them to an off shoot of a building, connected in such a way to allow easy access from all sections of the base. Finding herself some paper, Twilight began to write out a note.

"Hey everypony!

We arrived safely at the base earlier, no problems at all. This place is incredible, its like an underwater town! And the views are something else! I think you girls would really like it down here, its just amazing. Right now we're making our was around the place, and getting familiar with were everything is, we should probably get back before anyone notices we're gone. We'll write again soon, I promise it.

Twilight Sparkle"

She put the letter into one of the devices in the room, an artificial dragon fire machine. The invention of the machine revolutionized communication in Equestria, making sending a letter large distances quick and easy. This one had been modified and designed to use extra magic, because of the extra distance the letter had to travel. It would make its way to the Ponyville post office and be delivered soon enough.

"Oh my..."

Twilight turned to find Fluttershy staring out of a window. A shark was attacking a large school of fish, fairly successfully, leaving a panicked crowd of animals, and a fair amount of fish bits behind.

"Come on, lets get back to the others." They turned to leave, but something caught Fluttershy's attention.

"Oooh, what's this?" She gestured a hoof towards the window. Climbing up the outside of the glass was a large, darkly camouflaged crab like creature covered in spines.

"It doesn't look like anything I've seen before in any books. It could be a new species!"

"Oh, how exciting!" Fluttershy beamed. "Should we tell somepony?"

"I shouldn't worry about it, I'm sure there will more of those around somewhere. Besides, we don't know for certain if it is a new species or not. I'll make a little note of it though, it could be useful." She quickly wrote down a brief account of the creature's appearance, she'd be able to research it more once she was back in her room, with her books.. "Come on, how about we go and get something to eat?"

The two mares left the communications sector. The crab like creature, however, did not move from its spot on the window.

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