The Plea of General Torrente
Dear Princess Celestia,
Until now, the story I'm about to tell you will never be found in a book. It is often said that history, such as that of Equestria, was written in your image, a victorious one. However, like many images, such as those of the eyes, they only tell as much of the story as is possible. We only observe what we can, but sometimes we are afraid to see everything else. This is a story that has gone missed for centuries, and it's long overdue for your subjects to know of our adventures.
As I watch my esca dangle from my head the way you see your horn, I identify myself not so much as a pony, but as one of the many species of sea pony, residing in what we call the Basaltic Republic. When we came to the section of your sea where we take pride in inhabiting, our ancestors were a group of nomadic peoples and species: You may have seen the hippocampi, the most common of the namesake sea ponies. You also have the kelpies, magic users such as myself not unlike the unicorns. Third, you have necks; you'd know them with the large fins or tentacles on their sides, and to assume strong and speedy forms to manipulate the currents the way your pegasi manipulate the water in the sky.
The earliest days of the Basaltic Republic were riddled with all kinds of political and social unrest; it is said that you and your sister introduced us to a divine right of ruling, which has had terrible results over the years thanks to countless acts of corruption within the families. For a time, our civilization went absolutely nowhere without some form of a leader. We water ponies had even endured long periods of isolation: the hippocampi would inhabit the daylight zone, so they had the most food; the kelpies such as myself spent their time in the twilight zone, using an abysmally black barrier to shield themselves from the outside world and feeding on marine snow that the camps leave behind, and warmed by the seamounts that stink with sulfurous brimstone. Meanwhile, the necks constantly conspired with the pegasi to bring about hurricanes to attack the earth ponies out of spite for the rest of us with their powerful tentacles and fins. There was no trust in anyone, especially under your colleague, Prince Igneosi.
Even though we would not interact with anyone other than our own species, the isolation ultimately brought out traits in us all. The hippocampi reproduce at rather rapid rates, using males to breed dozens of fry in a matter of months and assuring a large work force. Even their leader, General Sirenia, was instrumental in promoting a civilian happiness. The kelpies, like myself, became interested in certain forms of dark magic -- magic that would afford us the power of camouflage, cloaking, and mastery of assassination. This was, of course, necessary if we as a people of sea ponies were going to dwell in a realm filled with all sorts of leviathans; the sea serpents were almost always blasting vitriol and eating the hippocampi, the smoozes would bloom in the summer and spread infection and darkness with the necks who would carry them, and the krakens -- those big fish -- would show up out of nowhere and snatch up our food. Kelpies became dangerous in the world of espionage, even to where we were sometimes regarded as heroes in retrospect. It's a rite of passage for a kelpie to slay a leviathan, and some of the stronger ones are harder to find, as they are more likely to assume total transparency in the water. The necks learned little else, but they became masters of weather and meteorology, especially having to keep the currents in check.
I am told that when I was born, we were attacked by a remorseless leviathan, a member of a militia of dragons and sea monsters alike. We are not sure what he wanted besides control of Equestria's seas -- he was a dragon of unforgiving power. His eyes darkened with the abysmal shadows of the seas and his scales forged from steel. His strength comprising of the accretion of the ocean's fury. In one of the last decent things the royal family did, Igneosi and the rest went to the unicorns of Equestria for help, such as the bearded warlock he called "Stwirrell." He gave him seven stones that would be an important treasure in the Basaltic Republic: The Keys to Leadership, a means to make sure that his military strength is rigid. It is not known what happened to the unicorns who dwelt upon the coastline, as they were largely considered to have disappeared with the tides, but they told Igneosi to bestow the treasures upon the sea ponies who were most deserving and most showing of character.
Yea, it was the power of leadership that slew the beast, as well as seven sacred stones like your Elements of Harmony: Loyalty, for faith and fealty; Duty, the will to keep promises; Respect, like your kindness; Selflessness, the ability to die for your nation more than for yourself; Honor, for honoring your family and your ancestors; Integrity, in the name of ethics; and last but not least, Courage, we cannot let anything get in our way to distress us. It sounds like an old pony tale, but it has guided our military operations for the last few centuries.
Even now, as a true leader, The most courageous thing for me to do is know to call for help when I am in distress. As elections approach for the Basaltic Republic, we are broken again. A military coup displaced the very family who helped spare us from the wrath of all kinds of sea serpents and leviathans, but that is not to say that we are a bunch of despots. Unlike your kingdom, we can be identified as a military democracy; the people in charge are elected by the people, but they are all the top brass, like myself. Our next threat comes from a mob that has eaten away at the fabric of our society. They have terrorized innocent civilians, trapped sea pony and earth pony alike in sin, and move around silently with their thing. I personally believe that they killed some of our most promising leaders, such as the father of my student, Colonel Corvus. To make matters worse, attacks by leviathans, especially the dragons, have increased five-fold every few years. If you have anyone to answer our SOS, we will wait for as long as we can continue fighting the war at home. We will stop at nothing to protect the seas so that your subjects can live in peace.
Your hopeful ally,
General Torrente
Author's Note
Not too long ago, I had been visiting the teachings of Sun Tzu's "Art of War."
Apart from my respect for G1 and my experiences with the JROTC in high school, I had taken some interest recently in the subject of deep sea creatures.
The Plea of General Torrente
Torrente's letter had weathered several important events in the Basaltic Republic. This is what gave the letter its first nick.
Brimstone. Murk. Grit. That's what his lure shines through. Barely able to make out any geoforms in the confusion, Colonel Corvus swam and felt around for any rocks that were right in the environment that were not yet destroyed. As he hopped, skipped, and flipped his thin fin, he had to trudge through the taste of the water, which was often fouled by salty rocks near the seamounts and the impurities propogated by the metal bits of sunken treasure ships. Ultimately, Corvus' head slammed into the saturated wood of one of these vessels, only to be met with a nauseating fluid emanating from a large snake-like form. His vision was lost for a moment; the contrasts he made out were largely compromised by his mild concussion. Not a minute too soon, however, he shed light on the reptile; a large sea serpent bearing a large set of spines and fins in his head, his teeth rotting and blooded with a kill about three-fifths his size, his tail and body bearing a razor-sharp ribbon on either side and scales protecting him like chain-mails. When he became aware of his exact location near his mouth, the reptile lunged his large mouth towards him, snapping him and missing him by a hair's breadth. Corvus had made a simple mistake in slaying him.
"How," he thought, "How exactly do I trick him?"
Remembering what he learned from his mentor, the General, he remembered a magic spell that could irradiate metal with light with just the slightest amount of magma. Right when he dodged a decapitating crunch, he tossed up a fallen coin from the ground and caught it in his mouth. His swimming, not as good as a neck because of his frontal hooves, was barely enough to evade the reptile as he came swimming up behind him at speeds exceeding those of a dolphin. In addition to this, he had to really focus, as his magic power was grossly reduced by the pressure and the water itself. In time, he found himself dogfighting with the sea serpent; as much as Corvus could dodge and duck, each burning scar became evidence of a near miss. Snap. Snap. The smell of blood now on the reptile's mind.
"What kind of fool do you think I am? Did you really think I would let you, my little prawn, take my son's life the way your mare tried?!" he cried. "This embarrassment will end with you, you little wrasse!"
Concentrating so hard that he almost swallowed the coin in his mouth, he slammed his psi-charged hooves into a medium-sized rock and right into his right eye in such a way that blinded him on his three. He made some progress, and now it was time for him to find some light in the abyss.
Fleeing, Corvus found himself swimming across a sea wall, moderately irritated by a colony of elastic tube worms. The worms themselves ultimately led him to a magma flow from a seamount.
Picking up speed now, the worried kelpie started swimming in vertical loops around the red and yellow glow, his lure glowing green with the coin in his hoof, and getting closer and hotter each time and becoming more increasingly susceptible to blindness if not for the membrane shielding his eyes.
The dragon, however, still following his blood's scent, found him in a matter of seconds, only to be lost in the murkiness near the flow. Right as he opened his mouth to snap the head off the warrior, the coin, the aura, and the magma all met to produce a blinding flash. Illumation filled the immediate area and the sea serpent's dark eyes were melted out of his head to where he would never see anything. This was now Corvus' chance. Another big vertical loop brought him underneath the leviathan. He charged his bladed shoes with whatever magic he needed to enchant them, and as the reptile swam around in the heated confusion and pain, his underside and chin were met with a deep gash. The salt and pillow lava singed at his skin, leaving the dragon in deep agony. Then, he somersaulted and launched himself off another rock and smashed his head into the magma, reducing him back to the metals of Equestria.
Corvus had escaped with his life that day as the dragon's body was incinerated in the otherwise frigid abysmal waters. He protected his family from a bane of the Basaltic Republic.
"Torrente," he cried, "let's move. I screwed up."
Torrente could not be seen. Only an incinerated sea serpent's body, magma, and settling sand on the seafloor.
"He saw me. No one should be able to see me," he thought to himself retreating from the field.
Colonel Corvus swam and swam across the sparkling sea's abyss. Lifeless as it seemed. His esca lit the way as he looked for another bounty to hunt, only to find other krill, black smokers to cauterize his wounds, and corals that reminded him of the apple trees he saw pictures of from the above worlds. The pressure really started to get to him, in addition to what the peoples of the sea were starting to face.
"That sea serpent could have easily taken me," he thought, "but here I am. I need a vacation. A very long vacation from this."
"Corvus," Torrente said, "the ship. It must be raised. They must see."
With that, swimming to a glitter belonging to jellies, they came to a medium vessel, greened by years of algae and slightly bluish from traces of dead smooze and heavy metals, supposedly propelled by a large team of rowers across three decks, and adorned with a sail bearing the decayed paint of a sun-inspired graphic. Like before, their lures glowed with a silver hue and connected with a white bridge. They then straddled the decayed ship, bow to stern, and lifted it from its rocky bed, being careful to make sure the wood did not fall off. Bits fell to the floor and small fish fled as they hoped to get the attention of Princess Twilight Sparkle or some of the others in the overworld.
Author's Note
Corvus slays a dragon, but a ship long lost will remind the ponies of the overworld of their existence.