Going Deep Under

Chapters

Part 1: Twilight Sparkle and the Legend of Neighlantis...
Part 2: The Ports of Manehatten and the Moby Dick
Part 3: More Crewmates and making (And saving) new friends... (And making enemies as well...)
Part 4: The Journey Begins....
Part 5: A Captain's Concern
Part 6: A Graveyard of Ships
Part 7: More than one kind of Sharptooth (Expanded Edition)
Part 8: My bad, bad Angel put the Devil in me...
Part 9: A Little Slice of Paradise
Part 10: Battleship
Part 11: Logbooks
Part 12: Conversations (An Old "Friend" Part 1 of 3)
Part 13: In Too Deep (An Old "Friend" Part 2 of 3)
Part 14: In Troubled Waters (An Old "Friend" Part 3 of 3)
Part 15: "From Hell's Heart, I stab at thee."
Part 16: Remembrance
Part 17: The Zeppo
Part 18: The Pony in the Dark
Part 19: Fury
Part 20: Route de la mort
Part 21: On the Matter of Seaponies
Part 22: Neighlantis
Part 23: Paradise Lost
Part 24: Forging Unexpected Connections
Part 25: Desperation and Heartbreak
Part 26: The Codex/A Fool's Hour
Part 27: Epilogue
Prologue: The Beast from the abyss...

Part 1: Twilight Sparkle and the Legend of Neighlantis...

Manehatten, Rainbow Blaze's apartment: 1931

Exactly five years on, (Give or take a few odd months) and Rainbow Blaze now at the ripe age of twenty one years still hadn't forgotten his encounter with the legendary infamous beast known as the Kraken and it's destruction of the USS Barracuda and the massacre of the late ship's crew. Oh sure, it had never been seen since then, but that didn't mean it wasn't still out there lurking somewhere beneath the surface of the seven seas. Rainbow Blaze was sure of it in fact! And nopony could or would be able to convince him otherwise. Although, that didn't mean it stopped other ponies from trying. Take for example one Grape P. Vine, a fellow member of the group known as the Gun Club, of which Rainbow Blaze was also a member.

"Oh come on, Rainbow, you've been hunting that thing for the past five years like Captain Ahab and his great white whale!" Grape argued passionately to his friend and master, but to little if any success like all of these arguments of this type had gone even as the eighteen year old Floridian pony muttered something to himself resembling "Yeah, Ahab... And look how that turned out..." in a disgusted tone of voice.

"Hey, I think I probably am providing the world a great service by ridding the oceans and surrounding seas of that thrice be damned beast!" Rainbow Blaze shot back and Grape sighed to himself and rubbed his temples with one of his hooves. Sometimes, he supposed it would be easier to just try and go to the moon than argue this with his master. He understood that need to avenge one's shipmates but he guessed Rainbow might very well one day drag himself and his whole crew into the jaws of Tartarus in his quest.

"Besides, I provide jobs to those who want to sign up and score the catch of the century!" Rainbow Blaze continued only for Grape to provide a quick retort.

"It's the middle of the Great Depression for crying out loud! Ponies will take any job, no matter how stupid!" He argued but once again his concerns were brushed off as if he were talking to a brick wall instead of a pony.

"Hay, that thing probably has gone and died of old age by this time. If the stories go back as far as they do, that creature is probably getting up there in years..." Grape mused only for Rainbow to get in his face and snarl "No, it is STILL alive, I can feel it. Only way that thing is dying is by my hoof and harpoon."

Suddenly a new pony joined them, as evidenced by the hoofsteps and the opening and then the shutting of the door. It was Fancy Pants, a fellow member of the group known as the Gun Club and their main source of funds. Their "honeypot", as Grape often snarkily called him.

"Gentleponies, cease this argument at once. It is folly and to be honest I have something else that could focus your attentions of you'd just hear me out." Fancy's cool and crisp English accent clashing quite well with Grape's own southern one.

Grape leaned over to the late thirty-something year old pony and whispered "If you're here to offer suggestions on something else to hunt, don't you bother. You'll be ignored." He grumbled with a roll of his eyes.

Fancy smirked before replying.

"Not with this I think. Tell me gentleponies, have you ever heard of the lost city of..." Fancy waited till their interest was appropriately peaked before continuing. "...Neighlantis?" Fancy finished and was greeted with raised eyebrows from both of his friends. Of course, who hadn't heard of the famous lost city? Rainbow was the first to scoff, followed by a noise of disbelief from Grape Vine.

"Wait, don't tell me you've actually found this lost city? Emphasis on "Lost" remember?" Rainbow Blaze laughed and Fancy could only chuckle in response.

"Not I, but I did find somepony who just might be able to lead us to it... In fact it was only just a few short days ago, in this very city!" Fancy proclaimed...

Manehatten University, a few days before...

Now, to understand the meaning of Fancy's words, we must turn back the hands of time to the first of those few days and travel to Manehatten University, the place of where many great ponies got their degrees and went out to make their way in the world. Others stayed, simply to teach. But our hero is not a teacher, although she very well could be if she put her mind to it. She's a student, around Grape Vine's age and goes by the name of Twilight Sparkle.

"Okay, before we begin, I-I just have to remind you all no talking during my lecture o-okay?" Twilight asked nervously as she practiced her report on Neighlantis down in the University's basement, a slideshow behind her with a projector to project it. Twilight took a deep breath before saying."L-Let's begin shall we?"

"Say there was a city, a great one with technological and architectural advances far beyond ours, even today. To give you an idea of what the city might have been like during it's golden age, here is an artist's impression of it." Twilight said before advancing to the first slide, only to accidently show a picture of her as a filly trying on glasses for the first time. Twilight blushed, she didn't know as to how that got mixed up in there.

"L-Let's move on shall we?" She stammered before finding the right picture, a beautiful piece of artwork depicting the lost city as it might have been. There were gleaming spires resembling but not quite Greek design, and a grand temple in the middle of the city as ponies walked in the streets. Then she showed another piece of artwork, of the same city falling into the seas and being swallowed up.

"Then, there was a great disaster, nopony knows what kind, but one that sent this city into the abyss below." Twilight said sadly with a shaking of her head before she went through several more slides showing the many possible locations theorized about Neighlantis's location before holding up a journal.

"Now, there have been many expeditions to find this lost city but all have failed this far. However, I b-believe with the help of my father's journal I just might be able to be the first to find this city and p-prove it exists!" Twilight exclaimed, confidence filling her. She just hoped she had that very same confidence when she gave this lecture for real in a few minutes. With great gusto, she gathered up her things and ran upstairs to the history classroom where she hoped to give this exact same report to her history teacher, Written Script.

Sadly, when she got there she was in for a surprise. Class was already letting out, a hour early in fact! With a confused expression on her muzzle, she walked up to Script.

"W-What's going on, I thought class was supposed to be starting!" Twilight exclaimed only for Script to reply to her in a mock confused tone "You sure? Maybe your watch is off."

Twilight's eyes narrowed. She couldn't believe this, and yet now that she thought about she shouldn't have been so surprised. She knew exactly what had happened.

"How much did you take?" She growled. She knew the head of the University, Spoiled Rich must have bribed Script to move up the class. Spoiled had always had it out for her and her "nonsense" theories.

Script looked ashamed of himself and hung his head before replying.

"I'm sorry Twilight, but money's tight and-"

Twilight however was having none of it and she snapped "Oh yeah, if you were really sorry, you would haven't accepted the bribe and got your money some other way." before she walked off with her head hung low in sadness...

Twilight say on the front steps of the University sobbing to herself. Not again! It was always like this, with everypony mocking her and never giving her a chance to at least try and prove her and her father's theory. She remembered each and every name they called her.

"Foolish filly!"

"Head in the clouds!"

"Over-thinker!"

She thought she would have gotten used to it by now, but the names and accompanying rejections always hurt when they came. The afternoon rains had come, and they were pouring. Twilight was just about to pack up her things and head home for the day when suddenly a big black sedan pulled up alongside the curb. It was obviously of expensive taste, so in this day and age it certainly stood out. Then, the door opened and a pony with a dark grey coat and a dark indigo mane stepped out.

"Twilight? I have somepony who'd like to talk to you." The pony said, he was about her age if she had to take a guess.

"Why should I go with you? Oh, I get it!" Twilight suddenly laughed bitterly as a conclusion came to her mind. "This is too much, let me guess... The pony who wants to talk to me is Spoiled Rich. This is all going a bit far to mock me and my crackpot theories isn't it?" Twilight snarled and the newcomer laughed nervously but shook his head.

"Hardly. Got the gender wrong for one thing. Just get in and come with me. You'll see." The pony replied before gesturing to the car and Twilight nervously stepped in as the pony introduced himself with "Oh, by the way... Name's Ender." and a smile.

Twilight found herself led out of the sprawl of Manehatten and into the forests somewhere outside it where the car suddenly pulled up to a huge manor home. Now Twilight was really confused, where was she and who wanted to meet with her?

She only grew more confused when she was led to the manor's library where a fire crackles in the hearth and a white coated pony with a blue name sat with his back to her reading "Moby Dick" at a desk. Suddenly the pony turned to face Twilight and her jaw dropped. She knew that face!

"U-Uncle F-Fancy Pants?" She stammered out in disbelief and he nodded.

"So sorry for all the theatre, but you know me. Besides, these matters of which we want to speak best be spoken in private. Ender, leave us." Fancy said and Ender left the room as Twilight sat down in a nearby chair with a eyebrow raised.

"What matters?" She asked and Fancy gestured to her father's journal with a "May I?"

Twilight gave it to him, more confused then ever.

"You know what these matters are, they're the same thing both you and your father have been trying to prove for years now." Fancy began and his niece's eyes widened as she realized even as Fancy continued on. "You'll have to excuse my language but Tartarus, I've been trying to do the exact same bloody thing as well even if those sods won't hear a word of it."

Twilight gaped at her uncle even as he took a sip of wine. She never knew this about her uncle!

"Your father and I... Even if we were never related by blood we might as well have been. I supported him in his darkest days. But alas, with funds running low and his... advanced age things never came to pass. Your father never did see our dream come true." Fancy said sadly as Twilight raised a eyebrow.

"Where are you going with this?" She asked and Fancy answered almost at once as a smile came back to his face.

"I'm mounting a expedition, the wheels are already in motion. All we need now is a guide." Fancy said as he gripped Twilight by her shoulders and looked her dead in the eyes.

"Are you with us, or against us?" Fancy asked and Twilight hugged him in a excited manner before replying.

"What do you think?"

Author's Note

Now that's better in terms of chapter length! Back up to my usual standards. Well, so now we catch up with Rainbow Blaze and learn about what has happened to him in the five year timeskip. And if you caught the Jules Verne reference in this part in the beginning, I tip my hat to you. Also in this part, we meet Twilight and learn how desperate she is to find the lost city and exactly why along with learning Fancy's reasons for going on the voyage.

Finally, a few brave users have signed up to join the journey, included but not limited to my friend Ender Knight already shown alongside Gallant. Not revealing the full list, but rest assured you will get a chance to meet them. Next time, we take a trip to the ports and finally see the Moby Dick and some more of it's crew...

Part 2: The Ports of Manehatten and the Moby Dick

Rainbow Blaze's apartment: Now

Now let us flash back to the present time where both Rainbow and Grape sat stunned into silence and disbelief at Fancy's story of his niece and how she and her father's journal (The contents of which Fancy still hadn't divulged in the slightest) could lead them to the location of one of the world's greatest, if not THE greatest mysteries.

"I'm sorry, no disrespect to you and your family and all..." Grape began slowly before he grabbed Fancy by his suit and yelled "BUT ARE YOU CRAZY?"

Realizing everypony was staring at him, Grape flushed red which created a nice contrast against his dark purple coat after he'd realized his mistake and quickly backtracked.

"What I mean is... Er, well to be honest I can't think of a way to put this delicately so I'll just go back to the yelling and questioning your sanity bit." Grape admmitted/mumbled to himself in a small voice, flushing even redder then before.

"I'm with my servant in this." Rainbow Blaze agreed, to which Grape looked very pleased with. "Neighlantis is just a legend."

"So was the Kraken." Fancy pointed out, and Grape's jaw dropped considerably at the Canterlot borne pony's audacity. Rainbow looked as if he was about to explode like a powder keg, but eventually leaned back in his chair and let out a resigned sigh of "...Fair enough."

Manehatten Dockside

Ah, the ports of Manehatten, one of busiest and most bustling ports in Neighmarica, if not the whole world. Ships came and went daily, carrying with them loads of cargo or passengers to and from the ports to their intended destinations. You can imagine the daily chaos in the ports with everpony running which way trying to get to a ship for one of those long cruises you took not just to go somewhere, but to have an adventure in the days long before the Wall Street Crash and the ensuing Great Depression which currently gripped the world tightly in it's harsh uncaring grasp and showed no signs of ever letting go.

But Twilight Sparkle cared about none of that right now. Currently the only thing on her mind was the smell, the smell that wafted off a nearby garbage barge as it pulled into port. And what a smell it was indeed! Certainly, if all the filth of Tartarus itself could ever come up back to Earth, this was probably what it would smell exactly like in Twilight's mind as she, Fancy and Ender pulled up to the docks in that same black sedan Ender had first met Twilight in a few days earlier.

"This stinks." Ender muttered to himself as he took in the surrounding smell.

"Yeah, pretty sure we already clarified that." Twilight replied in a completely deadpan tone of voice and had a annoyed expression on her muzzle as she adjusted her glasses. If it was from Ender's statement marking him as "Captain Obvious" in her mind or from the general smell wafting in the breeze, it was pretty much next to impossible to tell.

"No, not the smell, though I have to agree with you on it, it's..." Here Ender paused as he searched for the right word which Fancy was quick to offer with a "Horrid?"

"Yes, that. But as I was saying I wasn't talking about the smell. I meant THIS." Ender grumbled in disgust as he produced a newspaper (The Manehatten Chronicler to be presice) or tabloid if I was to be honest and placed it soundly on the sedan's hood. Both Twilight and her uncle took a quick glance at it's title, and both sighed in resignation. They should have expected something like this.

"Well, suppose we'd better go on and read this..." Fancy sighed as Twilight began to read off the headlining story.

Fancy's Folly?

Just yesterday, one Fancy Pants of Canterlot announced he was undertaking a great voyage. Now readers, you may be asking, where does this planned voyage intend to go and what kind of voyage is it actually? Well, you shall now have to wonder no longer!

This "Grand" voyage is to the bottom of the seas in search of the famous lost city of Neighlantis. Yes, that one. A great craft has been designed for this purpose, although this reporter soundly suspects one of Manehatten's richest residents (Not that's saying much in these harsh times.) may be using up the last of his fortune to...

Twilight stopped reading in rage along with complete and utter disgust. The article, if one could call it that as it barely reached the ability to be deserving to be called as such, went on to insult Fancy, along with the crew he'd gathered (The only useful thing Twilight gained from this was a few of the names of her fellow crewmates) several more times calling into question her uncle's sanity and/or soberness, among other things. You get the picture.

As Twilight seethed, she was stunned to see Fancy not looking angry at all despite the many sordid things said about him in this work of "Journalism". In fact, he looked more confident then ever before.

"A folly eh? Well! We'll be showing them once we find Neighlantis and who'll be laughing then? Us, that's who!" Fancy proclaimed and soon another voice joined them accompanied by two sets of hoofsteps.

"So, I don't suppose you've seen the new article then?" Grape's own dry voice asked as he and Rainbow Blaze walked up, their own car parked nearby, a brillant cyan blue coupe of Neighmarican make if Twiligh had to venture a guess.

"...Soooo, I guess you have then?" Twilight asked, going back into that dry deadpan tone of voice she'd used in Ender just a few moments beforehoof.

"Tell me about it. Ghastly, isn't it?" Grape replied before he checked a watch on his right foreleg. Grape frowned, had to be a few minutes off. "Can't be 5:00 already can it?" He mused privately to himself and have it a small tap with his hoof as his eyes narrowed behind his glasses.

"Something wrong?" Twilight asked in concern, as she noted the purple pony's expression.

"Hope not, my watch says it's 5:00 on the dot. Wouldn't want to be late for the final preparations for the off." Grape replied nervously. Rainbow and Fancy shared a look and checked their own watches before sighing in relief. It seemed Grape's watch was off, as their own said only 3:00. Rainbow smirked as a idea came to his mind. Fancy saw said smirk and groaned to himself. He could see what was coming, it wouldn't have been the first time Rainbow had pranked his servant.

"No, you're not wrong. My watch reads 5:00 as well." Rainbow Blaze began and Twilight tried to tell the truth as she saw what her own watch said and knew Grape was being filled with. But before she could say anything, Ender shook his head and whispered "No, don't. Trust me, this'll be hilarious."

As for Grape, he blinked as his brain processed the information before letting out a loud shout of "WHAT!?!" as Rainbow's statement registered with him before he fainted all four hooves pointing skywards as Ender and Rainbow snickered while Fancy sighed and rubbed his temples.

"I fail to see to see the humor." Twilight could only remark upon seeing this.

Later...

Eventually, Fancy took pity on Grape Vine and informed Grape he'd been pranked and needless to say he wasn't pleased with the news in the slightest. As everypony made their way to the other side to the docks, Grape shot his master the odd dirty look and muttered various unkind things under his breath.

Soon however, Twilight gasped upon seeing a sight that would distract her from Grape's mutterings. In front of them all, suspended above the water by several cranes was the submarine. No, submarine wouldn't do it justice. A work of art would be the better term. Obviously designed after a sperm whale or some other similar species, the gigantic size of the sub was awe inspiring. It was in various shades of bronze and gold, and had portholes at the tail section, obviously where the crew quarters were. Now normally where a whale's teeth would be, there was glass plating arranged in a dome style design instead where you could see the sub's controls and captain's chair behind it if one were to look close enough. The "head" of the ship even looked as if it were able to ram something and take very little damage. Despite all of this, Twilight could easily imagine this creation as a living being, swimming through the seven seas.

"I... I..." Twilight gasped, too stunned to speak. Fancy smiled at his niece's wonderment. He too had a similar reaction when the plans for the sub had been shown to him by it's designer, Silver Spanner.

"Thought you were done with the theatrics..." Ender mumbled towards Fancy in shock, who smiled at him.

"Now when did I say that?" Fancy asked mysteriously.

"The Moby Dick..." Rainbow Blaze breathed in surprise. "You actually finished it."

He'd known for a while his friend had been making this, but he never imagined in all of his wildest dreams it was actually completed, not did he think that THIS was the sub to be used in their journey with him at it's helm guiding it beneath the waves.

"Of COURSE it was finished!" A female voice with a English accent spoke up from behind everypony. "What'd you blokes expect with a damn genius like little old me?" The voice bragged and everypony turned to face the speaker who had a brown coat, a white mane and a silver wrench for a Cutie Mark. At the sight of her, Fancy smiled.

"Silver, nice to see you again. Top of the morning to you." Fancy greeted the mare, who looked to be twenty at the very most.

"...He does realize it's actually the afternoon right?" Ender whispered to Grape Vine, who could only shrug and whisper back "Gotta be a English thing."

Twilight meanwhile took note of Silver's two companions and nearly gasped like a fanmare when she saw and recognized them. The first was a male pegasus with a white coat, red mane and glasses. The second was another mare, an Earth Pony with green fur, a cowcolt's hat, brown mane and a target for a Cutie Mark, which befitted her as she carried various guns on her. These were Sudoku and Target Quartermane, the duo who'd made worldwide news when they both spent five weeks over Africa in a hot air balloon.

This last shock was too much for poor Twilight, who fainted even as Target walked up to Grape and greeted him like a old friend. Well, they were actually as they were both fellow members of the Gun Club.

"Good to see you again." Grape greeted politely and was surprised to be handed a set of Colt six shooters by Target.

"And you're giving these to me why?" Grape questioned with a raised eyebrow. Target shrugged and responded "Thought you'd like them."

At this, Grape took great offence.

"Oh, so you playing to stereotype then? Just because I'm a Neighmerican and from the South to boot makes you assume I'm some sort of gun loving lunatic!" He snapped, already annoyed from his master's prank from earlier as he began to rant. "Well I'll have you know that-"

Whatever he had to say next was cut off with a "If you don't like guns why are you in the GUN CLUB?" from Target who said this in a dry tone. The sound of Grape's teeth grinding could be heard before he argu-No, asked nicely "What do you need all those guns for anyways? We're going UNDERWATER, no lions there last I checked."

"What about sharks?" Target asked and at this Grape finally gave up and facehoofed as he muttered "She's bringing harpoons isn't she?" to himself even as Target finally took notice of Twilight and walked over to the unconcious mare.

"She going to be alright?" Sudoku asked in concern. Then there came a shout of "Help me!" from somewhere nearby.

"Yeah, she will. But I don't know about him. Come on!" Target shouted before taking off towards the direction of the shout.

Grape took a quick glance at his pistols, before sighing and then shouting "Hey, wait for me!" and running after Target...

Author's Note

Yeah, so sorry for the wait and would have had this up yesterday but I do have a explanation that can be summed up in four words. Binge. Watch. Of Daredevil. Finally finished Season 2 (Epic ending! Punisher=Badass) and now haves moved onto Jessica Jones.

Anyways, so as you can see we finally get to see the Moby Dick at last! Tried to make it as accurate to the cover art as I could and give it a good description as well. More difficult then you might have thought. (Also, 'nother Jules Verne reference in this chapter, can you spot it?)

Lastly, we start meeting more of the crew including two more OCs. And yes, Sudoku and INGEN Hunter, I made your characters married. If you don't like that, just tell me and I can edit it in such a way to remove that.

Part 3: More Crewmates and making (And saving) new friends... (And making enemies as well...)

Grape Vine and Quartermane, even as they ran through the docks, past wooden crates and barrels, (Nearly bumping into several other ponies along the way and in one case knocking a cyan furred pegasus with a golden mane into the water causing her to curse quite severely at them.) could still hear the increasingly loud screams of a male voice shouting "Help me, somepony!"

This urged the twosome, now joined by another crewmate who heard the exact same shouts, a dark blue furred pegasus with a silvery mane (Went by the name of Night Glider if Grape had heard correctly) to only run ever the more faster. Eventually, the group came across some big burly stallions beating up a mainly grey furred griffin who'd they cornered.

"Hey, you there! Yeah, I'm talking to you, ya jerks!" Night shouted, catching the stallion's attentions and causing them to face the threesome. There were at least five of them, all of a tough looking sort.

"Well... T-They're certainly b-big..." Grape stammered out nervously and swallowed hard causing the stallions to chuckle. Grape seemed to have conviently forgotten about his pistols.

"Don't worry, we can take 'em." Target stated, loading her buckshot and aiming it directly at the stallions. "Now, I have to ask, what the Tartarus do you think you're doing to that poor griffin?" She snarled.

The stallion who seemed to be the leader of the group spoke up.

"What does it look like? Teaching this birdbrain a lesson, and by that we mean giving him a good solid thrashing. What do you care anyways? He's an inferior species!" The stallion scoffed and Target could only roll her eyes behind her sunglasses.

"Funny, I was thinking the same thing 'bout you." She stated dryly. The griffin gasped, he wasn't used to ponies sticking up for him like this, all they really did most of the time was shout racist insults at him and tell him to go back to the cotton fields in the South.

"Y-You want to shoot ME? Shoot him, that's all these griffins are really good for anyway, that and slave work." The lead stallion growled in a menacing tone.

"Funny, I once shot a sheriff in Africa who thought the same as you. Didn't shoot the deputy though, he was smarter." Target retorted.

"A-And I once met a griffin who could make some real good fine acoustic blues down in Jacksonville, Curtis something or other." Grape stated although he did it nervously, but his rage was beginning to overtake that. He had a real problem with bigots, and was beginning to reach for one of his newly gained Colts. At this, the five stallions seemed to look as if they were to going to explode with rage. A southerner, like them, taking a griffin's side? This was surely the last straw!

"Alright, that's it! Time for a thrashing of your own, traitor!" The lead stallion roared and pounced but was bucked backwards by Night Glider while Target fired her buckshot in the air causing the other stallions to scatter like flies. She turned to their leader, and smirked.

"Seems your boys have all flown the coop, best you do the same because the next shot won't be in the air. Actually, it will but it won't be going up in the air if you catch my drift." Target threatened and the stallion got her message and ran off while Grape helped the unknown griffin up.

"T-Thanks." He said.

"Sure, no problem. What's your name anyways?" Grape asked in reply.

"Gallant ." The now named griffin responded and Target's eyes widened in recognition.

Back at the Moby Dick...

"Wait, so you're saying he's one of ours? A fellow crewmate I mean?" Grape Vine asked in shock once Target had finished explaining. Apparently, he was another of the crew Captain Rainbow Blaze had chosen personally. Grape didn't know why, but the idea of his master picking out crewmembers without telling anypony else just rubbed him the wrong way for some reason. Maybe it was because this was Fancy's voyage, not his. Grape sighed in frustration and thought to himself.

"Agh, maybe I'm just being paranoid about all this." Grape mused to himself. "I mean, he is the CAPTAIN, so I suppose he does have the right to choose some crewmen, and besides Master probably consulted Mr. Fancy on who he chose. I can't see him not doing that. Yeah, that's right. Just me being paranoid."

Quartermane's voice brought him squarely back to reality.

"Yeah, I was wondering if he was late or something. Like he forgot his watch was set to the wrong time." Target smirked in a amused way, and Grape groaned. It seemed word of that prank his master had played on him was already making rounds.

"Must you bring that up? Wasn't very funny at all." Grape grumbled to himself as Gallant looked confused.

"Something I missed?" He asked and Grape shot him a dirty look that said all over his face in big bold letters "Don't ask."

Then there was a very loud shout, but this time not one of fear but one of pure unbridled rage.

"Hey, you there!" A pegasus, one that Grape recognized as the one he knocked in the river earlier was trotting up to them, soaked and quite, quite furious.

"Another thing I missed I presume?" Gallant asked even as the newcomer began tearing into poor Grape Vine, who couldn't get in a word in edgewise as the pegasus ranted and raced in fury for a good several minutes.

"Should we... help?" Gallant asked nervously.

"And get in the middle of THAT? No way." Night Glider responded in a equally nervous tone.

"...And now for all I know I might bare mutant children you asshole, all thanks to you knocking me into the Faust-Be-Damned East River!" The still unnamed pegasus roared, finally reaching the end of her rant.

"Now, now Lightning, it was a accident. We were in a hurry."

Lightning scoffed.

"Oh yeah, I'm quite su-"

Grape then picked up on the fact that Target called this pegasus by her given name. In a panic, he realized this could only mean one thing.

"D-Don't tell m-me..." He stuttered out nervously as Lighning smirked in a almost predatory way. "She's one of ours?"

Target began to nod, but then there was the sound of a loud explosion with several loud cackles from somewhere nearby causing her to groan and rub her temples.

"...The Blast Sisters, more of our "Crew". Must be testing some of their infamous explosives." She muttered to herself in distaste, and caused Grape to let out a small squeak of shock and faint once again.

Elsewhere...

In another area of the docks nearby, Fancy was sighing to himself and running his temples as both Sudoku and Twilight looked at the burning blaze of crates nearby and gaped in shock, with two twin sisters standing nearby them and grinning without a ounce of shame.

"Was that really needed, ma'ams?" Fancy asked them both as he tried to keep his famous manners that he had become known for over the years even though he was just obviously exasperated by what had just happened.

"Weeeeelll... No, not really but it sure was fun!" The first of the Blast Sisters answered with a possibly mad cackle, but her twin was inclined to disagree and smacked her on the back of her head.

"Of COURSE it was needed, you numbskull! We needed to see if this batch worked as it was intended to!" The second answered before trotting up to Twilight, who looked understandably nervous, and handed her a card before whispering in her ear.

"Custom made stuff of course, if ya ever need to blow something up and blow it up good, we're your gals!" She said and added almost as if as a afterthought "Accept no substitutions."

As the Blast Sisters left, another pony came up. The first thing Twilight noticed about him was his size. There was no getting around it. This pony was BIG. He was pure white, covered in muscle and had two tiny wings.

"Hey, you're our guide right?" The stallion asked. When Twilight began to nod, next thing she saw was a mass of white as the stallion excitedly hugged her exclaiming "Yeah! You're awesome!" with Twilight squeaking out "...Help me."

Fancy sighed and rubbed his temples.

"Bulk, remember to restrain yourself." He reminded, and the newly named stallion let Twilight go at last blushing as he did so.

"...Er, sorry. I tend to do that. Ponies call me Bulk. Bulk Biceps." He said, shaking Twilight's hoof with his own.

"Nice... grip. And yeah, I can see why they do." She answered nervously and as Bulk walked off Twilight turned to Sudoku.

"Hey, you're a licenced therapist right?" She asked and when Sudoku nodded Twilight replied wearily "Good, I think I may need one by the end of this trip."

"Yeah, me too." Sudoku agreed.

Twilight was then too stunned to speak then, as she was watching military type vehicles get loaded up into the Moby Dick via a big ramp. Sudoku then voiced his thoughts.

"W-What's with all the heavy hardware? I highly doubt we're going to be making landfall anytime soon. Neighlantis is underwater, remember?" He reminded, only for Rainbow Blaze to chuckle at Sudoku's words.

"Can never be too careful. Got to be prepared for anything down there." He answered simply but still provides no answers. "Yeah... Anything." He mused sadly, thinking once more of the Kraken and The list crew of the late Barracuda.

Just then a pegasus mare with a amber coat and a almost coal black mane walked up to him and saluted.

"What is it, crewman?" Rainbow asked gruffly. Twilight frowned at the Captain not even acknowledging this pony's name. It seemed too cold and impersonal for her taste. Fancy noticed her unhappiness and put a good on her shoulder to reassure his niece.

"Don't you worry none, this is usual for him. Rainbow has always had trouble letting other ponies in after the... Incident." Fancy whispered kindly with a hint of sadness in his tone. Somehow, Twilight wasn't reassured.

"Silver Spanner sent me. She requested... No, sorry, she demanded your help on the final checks for the Moby's escape pods. She was very... adamant about that." The new pegasus explained in a hurried voice to Rainbow who nodded in turn.

"Can never be too careful." He repeated in a tone of voice in which one could only barely hear the sadness in his tone before trotting off. As he did so, Fancy, Sudoku, and Twilight all gave his form a look of pity.

"Poor guy..." Sudoku said sadly.

Later...

It was time. Inside the Moby Dick's cockpit with ponies at the controls all around and the waters of the East River in front of them, Rainbow Blaze smirked from his captain's chair.

"Take us out Mr. Gallant."

Author's Note

Well, and we're off! Time to take the journey of the century as INGEN Hunter once said. We've met more crewmates, (although still not all of them yet) and even saved one's life from some bigoted ponies. If anyone has any questions about that, I am trying to make this version of the 1930s as realistic as possible, and that unfortunately means 1930s values.(Sorry bout this by the way, Gallant) :fluttershysad:

Now, on two completely unrelated notes, I finished watching Jessica Jones (Never knew David Tennant could be so terrifying) and I now have a question for you. Do any of you listen to music while you write. Some might say it would distract you, but not in my case. Anyone else similar to me in that aspect? :unsuresweetie:

Part 4: The Journey Begins....

Exactly thirty or so odd minutes before...

Twilight Sparkle had to admit she was giggling like a little schoolfilly on her first day of class as she entered a doorway that led to the interior of the fine submarine known as the Moby Dick. She was completely in a state of ectasty and excitement. These first few steps, they weren't just the first few steps inside the Moby Dick, they were the first few steps to seeing if all the research she'd done in her life long dream was really worth it.

She clasped her father's old journal tightly with one of her hooves and whispered "Don't worry daddy, I'll make you proud... I promise. We'll show everypony."

Twilight knew it wasn't exactly logical and perhaps just a teensy bit crazy, but having her father's journal? It made her feel as if he was going to be right there beside her on this journey into the depths the whole time. All around her, she wasn't the only pony in a state of excitement, which you could almost feel building in the air. Ponies rushed by her, with one brown coated and white maned mare with a silver wrench for a Cutie Mark knocking her into to the bulkheads by pure accident.

"Hey, if you're going to be bloody standing around in awe of this place at least do it somewhere out of my way, you git!" The pony snapped rudely as Twilight tried to stutter out a apology.

"S-Sorry, but I... I... w-wasn't in y-your way!" She stammered as Silver Spanner scoffed.

"Yeah right..." She muttered as she trotted off her hooves clanking on the metal floor beneath her and Twilight distinctly caught a almost inaudible "Plonker..." from the mare. She was then helped up by Sudoku who's eyes seemed to be smiling kindly from behind his glasses.

"Sorry about her. She's... She's got a reason for acting the way she does." Sudoku apologized and Twilight raised a eyebrow in a inquiring manner. "Not my place to say. Doctor-Patient confidentiality, you know." Sudoku replied before Twilight could even ask. Twilight, due to her naturally inquisitive nature wanted to press Sudoku further and perhaps get some answers, but she understood that there was some things that were kept private for a reason.

"No reason to be a jerk about it though..." The same orange coated pegasus mare from before, who Twilight now realized had a brown mane and tail with a feather for a Cutie Mark muttered/mumbled to herself as she walked by down a corridor with a sign in the wall reading "Crew Quarters" and a red arrow below that on it. Sudoku gestured after the mare, who Twilight would later learn to be named "Solar Blitz".

"Come on, we better get settled in before the off." He said and walked after her with Twilight following...

The Moby Dick: Crew Quarters

"You gotta be kidding me..." Was Twilight's only thought when she saw where she along with the majority of the ship's population would be sleeping. The beds, if you dared describe them as such, were tiny bunks, with ponies sleeping atop each other.

"Well, tiny beds are better then no beds, I guess." She thought before she chose a random bed and laid herself on it, but almost immediately felt something under the sheets. Quickly getting off the bed, she tossed the sheets and pillows only to find a collection of gold coins beneath them.

"Hey hey, get away from that!" A white coated stallion with a pure black mane and a bag of gold coins spilling out as his Cutie Mark almost at once rushed in and pulled her away. "You know that's all I have left to my name right?" He demanded and gathered up the coins only to put them in a bag which he quickly hid away somewhere in his coat before rushing out of the room and past Grape Vine who could only groan to himself as he saw the stallion.

"Oh no... Don't tell me HE's on this trip too..." Grape sighed mentally to himself as he rubbed his temples before entering and looking at Twilight with a raised eyebrow.

"Messed with the coins huh?" He asked and Twilight nodded weakly, still confused on what just happened.

"W-What's his story?" Twilight stammered nervously as Grape climbed up to the bunk above the pony's Twilight had just met.

"I asked, found out I didn't want to know, and now I'm telling you that you don't want to know." Grape sighed wearily, and Twilight got the message as she chose the bed on the opposite side of the room and stuffed her dad's journal under her pillow.

"Hey, look at the bright side. At least you don't have to sleep above him." Grape muttered before he finally formally introduced himself.

"Grape Vine." He said politely and Twilight observed the grape furred pony with a brown mane and glasses similar to hers along with a sextant for a Cutie Mark adjust his pillow, and she smiled before giving out her own name.

"Twilight Sparkle."

Grape then noticed the set of bunks next to Twilight's and he noticed the name assigned to the bottom bunk. In a plaque, it read in bronze letters: "Lightning Dust".

Grape's scream of terror could be heard throughout the corridors of the submarine. As she loaded away weapons in a storage locker, (Honestly, she thought, who brought flamethrowers on a deep sea voyage?) Lightning Dust smirked. She wondered when that poor pony would find out they shared the same quarters.

Now: The Moby Dick: Bridge

"Mr Gallants... Are all the final preparations done?" Rainbow Blaze ordered with authority echoing in his tone. The griffin nodded as he responded "Checking now sir." and saluted. Then, with one of his two front claws, Gallants pushed forwards a lever on a control panel directly in front of him as he spoke into a nearby intercomm.

"Ms. Spanner, are the engines all set for the voyage?" He inquired and a female Trottingham accented voice crackled back through the speakers.

"Yeah, course they are, you prat." Silver responded with a annoyed tone in her voice as she pushed power to the engines down in the boiler room and then wiped away a brow of sweat from her muzzle with a dirty rag covered in oil before she continued with a "These babies can take anything the Seven Seas can give out, I designed them after all." with that same arrogant, cocky tone back in full swing.

"They'd better..." Rainbow Blaze murmured in a low tone to himself as he took a glance towards a model of the former USS Barracuda on one side of the room. On his flank, his speargun Cutie Mark looked practically menacing as Fancy, from his seat, had his gaze turning from the waters in front of them to it. In his mind, he was praying the Kraken didn't return at some point, otherwise he didn't know what would happen if it did and what his old friend might do.

Dear Celestia, I hope to Faust that young Grape Vine's theory is right about that foul beast being dead." He mused. Obsession was a truly dangerous thing, and in a captain even more so.

"Okay, reading power to the left thruster across all boards. They're all green Captain." A silver maned pegasus pony with a grey coat spoke up from her console.

Nearby, a black mare with a scar across her face and a earring in one of her ears exclaimed "Same here with the right thruster!"

Rainbow Blaze smiled to himself before saying "Okay then. Mr Gallants... Take us out."

The griffin grinned as he switched on a recording crystal and Cab Calloway's "Minnie the Moocher" began to play even as he applied full power to both the thrusters on the rear of the submarine and it lurched forwards. The journey to find the long lost city of Neighlantis had finally begun, and nothing it seemed could stop it now.

Back in the Crew Quarters

Twilight, in her bunk, felt the distinct whir of the engines coming to life and the thrusting towards of the Moby Dick as it cut into the waters of Manehatten's East River. In her mind, she felt as if she were in one of her favorite books she'd read as a little filly, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by the truly great author Jules Verne. Even now, so early in this journey she could understand the wonder Professor Pierre felt even as he had been held captive by the mad Captain Nemo. She smiled, and Grape Vine noticed.

"What is it?" He asked curiously.

"Nothing... It's just..." Twilight trailed off and Grape almost immediately understood.

"The wonders of the waves and whatever lies beneath?" He asked as Twilight beamed and replied "Yeah...", still in a soft tone of wonderment.

"This ship..." Twilight trailed off as she felt it glide through the waves. Outside a small porthole, angelfish swam by in schools their bright coloring visible even in the River's murky waters. "Almost feels as if nothing can stop it. That it's unsinkable. ...Though I guess since we're underwater, we're already sinking so to speak." She said, quickly correcting herself.

"Please don't call anything unsinkable. I was on a certain ship as a little colt, they called that unsinkable, ended up in a lifeboat in the middle of the freezing night." Sudoku said suddenly as he trotted inside the room.

"O-Oh... Sorry." Twilight apologized with a wince and a blush. Sudoku shrugged it off.

"Eh, don't be. It was there I met my future wife." Sudoku said lovingly as Grape listened with interest.

"Wow, first the Titantic and then five weeks over Africa? You two sure lead a life full of adventure together don't you?" Grape commented on a admiring tone before he became curious about Sudoku's presence.

"What are you doing here anyways?" He inquired. Sudoku's answer stunned him and Twilight both.

"It's the Captain. He wants to see Ms. Twilight in his quarters." Sudoku replied and both ponies shared a look of wide eyed bewilderment...

Author's Note

Well, it's officially begun now hasn't it? Okay, so the sea and all of it's wonders await you! So, Twilight's been summoned to the captain's quarters. Anyone want to place guesses why? Okay, I think I've introduced everyone's OCs. If I left anyone out, let me know okay?

On that note, if anyone wants to use Grape Vine or any of my other OCs from any of my other tales in one of their stories, you can feel free to do so as long as you ask my permission first.

On a note related to one of my previous Author's notes, I did listen to more music while writing this chapter, in this case famous film scores. Even heard the themes from Superman and Jurassic Park! :yay:

Part 5: A Captain's Concern

Author's Note

Okay, time for another chapter me hearties! ..Sorry, just couldn't resist. :twilightsheepish:

Part 5: A Captain's Concern

Twilight, even as she walked through one of the many corridors that made up the bulkheads of the Moby Dick, was understandably nervous. You just didn't get called into a meeting with the captain of not just this ship, but any ship really just because he wanted to make idle chit-chat with you about whatever he wanted. More often then not, you got called into a meeting because he wasn't particularly pleased with you about something. Twilight's thoughts wandered, then going into increasingly impossible scenarios as she frantically wondered what she'd done wrong enough to raise the captain's ire and get on his bad side with them not even spending a day out at sea already.

"Has to be a new world record or something." Twilight thought nervously to herself as she wondered what her tombstone would look like when they got back home. "Twilight Sparkle: Born 1911. Died 1931. Ticked off her captain, thrown out an airlock."

Twilight then took a moment of her probably now very short lifespan to take a few deep breaths to calm herself down and steer things back to the realm of sanity. She probably was quite right about her earlier state to Sudoku. No, she mentally corrected herself, she was definitely right on the money about it, she was almost certainly going to need a licensed professional therapist after this whole thing was over.

"Come on Twilight. Now you're just being really rather silly, stupid even. There's no way Rainbow is going to kill you." She reminded herself as she continued walking down the corridor even as a nasty little voice from the back of her mind added "...At least nowhere where anypony could see it."

Twilight hissed "Shut it you!" even as she turned a corridor and trotted past Night Glider, who mouthed "Who, me?" and turned to one of the Blast Sisters, who could only shrug in response.

Eventually, she made it to the Captain's Quarters, where above the door which had a bronze wheel used to open it, had a sign above it reading in big golden letters "Rainbow Blaze" with a smaller sign on the door itself reading "Keep out!"

Twilight made a very long a and very deep sigh of resignation. Well, whatever was about to happen, she had to meet her fate.

Moby Dick: Rainbow Blaze's Private Office

Twilight was very relieved to see that when she entered the office that she wasn't alone in the room like she half expected to be. Her uncle was in there as well. If she was going to get chewed out by the Captain about something, at least she had Fancy there to back her up if she needed it and jump to her defense if necessary. Now, before we get to see what happened next, let me take a moment of my time to describe the office for you just so you can imagine the atmosphere of the room. It was very nicely detailed, with wooden paneling all around the room and a wooden ship's wheel above the door which Twilight had just entered through. In one corner of the room, there was a round fish tank lit up all blue from the inside which allowed you to see some Purple Tang swimming about the inside of the tank itself.

"Uncle Fancy, so do you know what this is about?" Twilight asked nervously and got a shaking of the head in response.

"No, but I think I might have my suspicions." Twilight's uncle replied as he frowned and rubbed his chin with one of his hooves before taking off his monacle (A nervous habit, if Twilight remembered correctly) and wiping it off with a small washcloth.

"About what? Nothing to worry about is it?" Twilight asked again, this time even more nervous than before.

"No, it's nothing that you should be panicking over." Fancy replied and Twilight raised a eyebrow. At this point, she was more curious about what was going on then nervous.

"Although, I figured as much that this might come up sooner or later. Probably should have warned you it might happen, just so you could be prepared for when it did." Fancy mused to himself, a embarrassed blush covering his face by this point. Twilight's eyebrow arched even further than before.

"Warned me?" She asked. "About what?"

Then, before she could ask Fancy anything else, the very same door which Twilight had just entered, and presumably Fancy as well, opened and then shut again with a loud slamming noise as Rainbow entered the room. The atmosphere of the room got even more tense than it had been before. Both Fancy and Twilight found themselves saluting even if it wasn't exactly necessary on Fancy's part. Rainbow Blaze just had that affect on other ponies, a aura of authority coming into being whenever he entered a room. Nopony ever could manage to figure out exactly how he did it, all that anypony knew was that he just did it somehow.

"You didn't have to salute Fancy, you know that right?" Rainbow Blaze asked, himself now having an eyebrow raised. Fancy still kept on saluting still, as he got flashbacks to his old commander back at the RAF's version of boot camp as he said "Sorry sir, it won't happen again sir!" to Rainbow.

The pegasus sighed in a exasperated manner as he muttered to himself "Never mind... Just drop your hoof right now okay?"

Again, Fancy replied as if he were speaking to his old squadron commander.

"Sir, yes sir!" He responded and dropped his hoof as Rainbow groaned again. Once Fancy realized what he just did and how he had just acted, he blushed bright red once more and whispered to Twilight "That does not leave this room understand?" and she nodded.

"Alright, what's this about?" Twilight then asked Rainbow.

"Your father, or rather his journal." Rainbow replied, gesturing to the rather beat up old book.

"What about it?" Twilight asked him curiously. Rainbow thought about his response for the next few moments while he looked for the best way to phrase the question without coming off as rude.

"I... I just want to know if there's any real truth behind this mission, make sure we're not going off on some wild goose chase." He replied at last. Truthfully, the prismatic maned pony still thought the whole Neighlantis business to be a whole load of hogwash, even if he never said it aloud. Privately, he thought that the story was something some idiot thought up in a drunken stupor and mentioned while he was out with his friends in some bar someplace. Never mind the fact that there had been many studies of the legend itself, (After all, stories just grew more complex the more ponies told and retold them.) all Rainbow Blaze could care about was the fact that there had been no real solid proof about the legend that anypony could say was concrete and that said that the legend had any fact to it whatsoever and was more then just fisherponies's talk. And honestly, he probably wasn't going to change his stance on the legend no matter what Twilight's journal had to say on the matter. Until Rainbow Blaze actually glimpsed the city with his own two eyes and felt the cobblestones under his own four hooves, the myth would remain just that to him: a simple myth. Nothing more and nothing less.

"Of course there's plenty of truth in the matter old boy!" Fancy laughed to his old friend and patted him on the back. "You just need to know where to look!"

He then turned to his niece and nodded at her even as outside a window, a brown and grey fish known as a Giant Grouper swam outside it before being snapped up by a very big shark like creature with dark scales and a bloody maw before it vanished into the dark waters once more as quickly as it came. If Rainbow Blaze had actually seen this, he might have grown concerned to say the least. After all, if something larger then a Great White could swim by that fast without being seen until it would be far too late for a crewman to escape it's sharp jaws, who knew what else might be around hiding in the shadows along with it?

"Twilight, if you please?" Fancy asked and his niece nodded back to him as she opened up the book.

"Ah... Yes, I know exactly where to start!" She replied in a excited tone of voice before clearing her throat.

"The legend of Neighlantis had been around for centuries, during which time the great philosopher Plato first remarked on it's glory and the mystery of it's vanishing." Twilight began, reading off the page as Rainbow thought privately to himself. "Okay, very old bar talk."

"He theorized that there had been a great storm at one point in Neighlantis's lifespan, one that lasted for fourty days and fourty nights and flooded the city." Twilight continued but at this point was interrupted by the Captain.

"Hold on, didn't I read about this in the Bible?" He remarked, and Twilight glared at him harshly, annoyed by his interruption.

"So what? You probably did." She said before explaining that "A lot of old cultures, including the ancient Greeks had this myth about this great disaster of a flood which seemed to go on forever. Anyways, the point is, there's plenty of fact to support the myth, you just-"

"Need to see it as such instead of old sailor's ramblings?" Rainbow interrupted in a dry tone of voice as Twilight glared at him once again.

"As I was saying..." She continued before flipping through the pages of her father's journal once more and bringing up a picture of a submarine.

"Anyways, as you might have guessed, we weren't the first to mount a expedition to find the city. A few years back, this navy submarine, the USS Sharptooth, supported with funds by the US Government even, set out to find the city."

"What happened to it?" Fancy asked in interest.

"Nopony knows actually." Twilight said with a shrug. "The government lost track of it near the islands of Bermuda (At this, Rainbow swallowed nervously although he tried to hide the fact.) and it's last transmission placed it somewhere about there. I suggest that's where we go now. We look there, we might just find out whatever the Sharptooth did, and be one step closer to finding Neighlantis."

"Yeah, and what else along with it?" Rainbow asked mentally with more then a hint of nervousness. Right into the heart of the infamous Bermuda Triangle, that was the last place he wanted to be.

Part 6: A Graveyard of Ships

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Part 7: More than one kind of Sharptooth (Expanded Edition)

As he took the both metaphorical and literal plunge into the waters of the Bermuda Triangle, Grape Vine took several deep breaths from a breathing exercise he'd learned a little while back to calm himself down. This was it. There was no turning back now. Like it or not, he was now diving in the waters of the Bermuda Triangle. Now, only time would tell if the Triangle would swallow him up like it had probably done to the many wrecked ships all around him, laying in wrecked heaps like a giant child has crushed them in his hands during a temper tantrum.

"Okay, this is officially creepy." Grape Vine mused on seeing the many wrecked ships seemingly just put there to freak him out. Nearby, Night Glider noted his fears, and looked at him, an expression of deep concern visible under her diving helmet.

"Hey, you alright?" She asked him, looking at him in worry. One of the main rules of diving was to never panic, and at that very moment, that's what Grape Vine looked to be doing.

"Oh yeah, I'm fine." Grape responded sarcastically. "How could I not be fine? I'm in the damn Bermuda Triangle for crying out loud."

"Well, when you put it that way..." Night Glider replied, noting his point and taking it.

"Well, look at the bright side." Ender interjected, trying to put a good spin on things. "Least you'll have a grand story to tell your kids."

"Yeah, if I live long enough to have them." Grape muttered to himself as he kicked his back legs and swam forwards through a hole in one of the wooden ships all around him and out the other side of it. Grape nervously wondered what could have happened to this particular ship and made these big enough holes to make it sink to the bottom of Davy Jones's Locker. A storm perhaps, or maybe, like Grape had heard of many times happening before in the Triangle, a compass gone haywire long enough on another ship for said ship to run into this other one.

"Okay." Gallants's voice caIm voice came though over the radio. "The Sharptooth should be not too far ahead. Just keep on swimming and you should see it."

Then another familiar voice joined it.

"Hey, if you find any treasure, it's mine alright?" Spent Thift's voice interjected, and then Gallant's voice began to argue with him.

"Hey, get off the comms!" He yelled angrily, annoyed that the pony had jumped in on a conversation he wasn't meant to be in on. "How'd you even get in here anyways? You're not even meant to be on the bridge anyways!"

There was then the sound of a lightshove and somepony shouting "Oof!" as they literally hit the deck.

"Sorry bout him." Gallants apologized profusely to them. "Dunno how he got onboard the bridge in the first place to begin with."

By this time, Grape and the others had passed another ship, a old ironside type ship, if dating was correct, probably from around the time of the Neighmarican Civil War. It had obviously sunk thanks to several large holes in the side of it, around the size of cannonball blasts.

"Oh wow... It can't be." Silver Speed gasped out in complete and utter shock at the sight that lay before her and the rest of the small expedition crew. What she was seeing was something she remembered from old nautical and Civil War history books, but never believed she would actually see for herself one day. But lo and behold, there it was.

"I... I never thought I'd actually see this... Those two ships..." She continued to gasp and stammer out in disbelief. Now that Grape actually looked about him, he saw that there was yet another ironside, not too far away from the first one, also with this one having quite a few cannonball shaped holes in it.

"What? What is it?" Night Glider inquired in curiosity. She really wanted to know had her friend and fellow crewmember all worked up.

"It's... It's them." Silver Speed stammered out. "The USS Hawk and the USS Falcon. I never thought I'd actually see them in the flesh."

"Wait, why are you so shocked?" Ender asked her in confusion. "They're just some old ironsides."

Silver Speed then gave him a distinct dirty look, and looked as if she might smack him around the back of the head.

"Idiot. Do you not remember your Civil War history?" Silver chastised him in disgust and annoyance. She really hated it when other ponies didn't remember things she otherwise thought they should have.

"These two ships were involved in an accident when they each thought the other a enemy vessel. Blasted each other to pieces during an particularly nasty storm." Silver Speed explained in a haughty tone of voice, smirking as she explained the story to the others. She loved knowing everything about nautical related stories, and she loved letting everypony else know it as well.

"Is the arrogance really needed?" Grape murmured largely to himself. Silver was now giving him a distinctly dirty look.

"Is it really arrogance if you know everything?" Silver asked him, annoyed by being questioned.

"Well, lemme think about that for a moment." Grape asked dryly, and Silver rolled her eyes as Grape continued with a "Yes, it's arrogance if you let everypony know you know everything."

"If you two lovebirds are finished?" Gallants asked with a distinctly audible sigh of resignation over the radio.

"I'm not... We're not..." Both Silver and Grape sputtered back in response unable to form a complete sentence due to their shock.

"Anyways, the Sharptooth should be directly ahead of you." Gallants continued, ignoring them both. Sure enough, he was right on the money about that. Directly ahead, sitting on the edge of a giant underwater volcano was the submarine known as the USS Sharptooth.

"Well, there it is boys." Night Glider stated. "We've found it Mister Gallants. What are we looking for anyways?" She questioned, and Twilight's voice chimed in at that moment.

"Okay, what you should be looking for is the captain's log. Anything in there might help us narrow down the location of Neighlantis." Twilight explained to everypony as they swam towards the submarine, spearguns in hoof, as they tried to keep an eye peeled out for sharks or any other any form of dangerous marine life.

The corridors of the Sharptooth were in a remarkably unusally good form of condition, no damage to them at all. It was like nothing had ever happened to the Sharptooth in any form of way whatsoever.

"I don't like this. Not one bit." Ender muttered nervously, as they passed through the mess hall. Nobody was there, but silverware floated around the room. Like the rest of the sub, this room was in remarkably good condition.

"It's like an underwater version of the Mary Celeste... What the Tartarus happened here?" Grape nervously wondered aloud.

"Yeah, I know what you mean." Ender put in, agreeing with Grape. "It's like everypony just up and left. I mean, you think there would at least be bodies of some sort..." He trailed off. Eventually, everyone made it to the door that behind it, was the captain's quarters. It was shut tight, with no way to force it open by regular pony strength alone.

"Okay, anyone got any ideas?" Ender asked, and Night Glider smirked before producing some explosives.

"Where'd you even get those?" Ender inquired, not sure if he really wanted to know.

"One of the Blast Sisters let me have it. Said it might come in handy." The dark blue, grey maned pegasus responded before placing the explosives next to the door and arming them. Everpony moved back just in time to escape the explosion.

KABOOM!

The door was blown clean off it's hinges, and silt flew everywhere obscuring everypony's vision for just a moment. But when it cleared, the captain's quarters were now visible. Everypony sooner got to searching the room, looking for the submarine captain's journal. A few minutes later, there came a shout from Target.

"Hey, I've found it!" She yelled, holding up a locked box. "Now, let's get out of here so we can examine this back at the ship."

Nobody bothered to refute her statement. They, like Grape, didn't want to stay in the waters of the Triangle any longer than was needed. Soon, they were swimming out of the submarine only to be met with a school of sharks, led by one giant dark, almost blackened like the night, colored one. This particular specimen of Great White had bite marks all over it, chewed on dorsal and tail fins and a bloody maw. Everypony knew exactly who this particular shark was, though they could scarcely believe it. This was the infamous shark Thanatos, and it's naming after the Greek god of Death was well earned, with many a sailor falling victim to it's jaws.

"Well, I think we know what happened to the crew..." Grape trailed off nervously.

"I... I don't believe it..." Night Glider gasped out. "it's Thanatos. But what's he doing here?"

Night Glider was right to be curious, When most stories of Thanatos came about, they came from his normal hunting grounds, the Aegean Sea and more specifically the Cicercos Strait. For Thanatos to be here in the waters of the Bermuda Triangle was extremely odd indeed.

"Looks like he's decided to take up the sun and nice beaches." Silver Speed deadpanned out. "Why he's here doesn't matter, but us leaving does!"

"Swim for it!" Target yelled, going for her spear gun. She fired and with a whooshing sound from the gun, she ended up scoring a direct hit through the head of one of the sharks killing it almost at once. The largest shark then charged towards Grape, and he rolled out of the way to avoid the angry shark.

"Well, now you've gone and done it haven't you?" He said dryly as the shark snapped it's bloody jaws at him with Grape only managing to move back just in time. A few seconds later, and he would have been shark chow.

"Back to the Moby Dick!" Target exclaimed. "It's our only chance!"

She knew that nopony would survive a prolonged fight with these creatures, and somepony would probably end up dead if they tried.

"Go, now!' She barked at them in a tone that left no room for argument. Soon, everypony was swimming away back towards the Moby Dick but suddenly found their way blocked by another shark with quickly got spearguned and it's dead form drifted away. But Thanatos saw this and blocked their way with his own jaws spread open wide as they could be.

"We're not going to make it!" Night Glider yelled out, panic visible on her muzzle from under the diving helmet she wore.

"Hold on, lemme try something I heard works on sharks!" Grape yelled back.

"What? Are you crazy in the head!?!" Target yelled out in shock.

Grape ignored her before he swam close enough to Thanatos but not too close enough to be eaten alive and he then punched the giant shark in one of his eyes stunning it and making it back off just long enough for everypony to swim past him and just barely manage to get inside the airlock of the Moby Dick a few seconds before the rest of the sharks swarm them in a mobbing fashion.

"Did anypony get that? Cause I won't be doing that again." Grape nervously said to break the silence before his eyes rolled up into his head before the aptly named pony fainted dead away.

Author's Note

Okay. so as I promised here is the expanded edition of this chapter to replace the older version. Now, as you'll notice the scene with the sharks has been expanded a little, and that was the sole thing that bothered me about the previous version. This time around, it's been fixed/

Part 8: My bad, bad Angel put the Devil in me...

The Moby Dick: Grape Vine's Quarters

Grape Vine sighed to himself, it had been only two weeks since they had set out on this journey (Even though it had felt like months at times.) and already he was feeling the strain. He wasn't the only one, he could tell the rest of the crew was feeling it as well. Just a few days ago, Lightning Dust had gotten into a fight in the mess hall with Bulk Biceps over a plate of hay fries. Hay fries, for crying out loud! Needless to say, it hadn't ended well for the smaller mare. At the time, Grape had to admit it was certainly entertaining to see his least favorite pony on the Moby Dick get chewed out by Captain Rainbow Blaze for starting a fight over something as simple as food in which they had plenty to go around, now he knew something was going to happen, and soon, and he also knew it would be bad if the crew didn't get the rest and relaxation they sorely and desperately needed. Ever since this journey had started, it had been nothing but non stop action, which made for a good novel by somepony like H.G. Wells or Jules Verne, but in real life it put immense strain on all those involved.

"For what it's worth, this whole journey may very well just turn out to be nothing but a test of our endurance and sanity." Grape Vine mused to himself as he looked at a small golden pocket watch he had kept always by his side since this journey had started. It had been a gift from someone he cared deeply about. With a soft clicking sound, he flipped it open and gazed longingly at the small portrait inside of it, which consisted of a unicorn mare about his age with azure blue fur, purple eyes, and a mane as blue as the Caribbean sky on a clear summer's day and although it couldn't be seen, he knew this mare had a magic wand with dust trailing behind it and a blue star the same color as her mane on it's tip as her Cutie Mark.

Just then, as he mused on his thoughts about what he had left behind and what he had to give up for him to be able to even make this journey and keep an eye on his Master, and although he never said it aloud, adoptive father, the door to his quarters opened and Lightning Dust stepped in. She eyed him gazing upon his precious pocket watch and raised a eye brow.

"So, got an interest in time keeping do you?" She asked teasingly. Grape Vine gave her a soft sad look, one which made Lightning's feelings towards him change, if only for a moment. Those feelings, they weren't ones of hatred for knocking her into the Manehatten river waters, but one of curiosity. Something was obviously bothering the younger pony, and although she didn't want to admit it, she did feel a small amount of worry towards him. She too had noticed the strain this journey was taking on the crew, and if somepony as tough as her could be driven as far as she had been a few days before, there was no telling what kind of reaction would eventually develop from a pony that was such a nervous wreck as Grape Vine.

"If it were only that." Grape murmured to himself, making the only other pony in the room with him raise an eyebrow before he took a chance and gazed at Lightning questioningly.

"You... Did you ever have to leave something behind to go on this adventure?" He asked sadly, and Lightning laughed. What a silly question! Of course she had to leave something behind, her home, her belongings! Why was Grape Vine asking her this? Then she realized, Grape wasn't talking about things like homes or possessions, he was talking about far more important things. Things like... Love. Sitting herself down on the bed beside him, she looked at him with an equally sad look, showing an emotion other than rage and humiliation towards him for the first time.

"Yeah, maybe I did. We... we all probably did." Lightning whispered as she looked at him in a compassionate way, now fully understanding, or at least partly why Grape was so sad today. She took a quick look at the mare in the portrait, and sighed long and hard.

"You too huh?" She asked before her expression turned almost kindly, surprising Grape Vine even more. Here they were, two ponies who hated each other over one minor mishap, and now they were talking like they were almost old friends.

"I... I had this stallion back in the Bronx, dock worker." Lightning began to explain as she remembered her memories of the one she loved. Big, very big in every sense, yet so kind. The kindest pony you'd ever meet in her mind, and yet it was due to a cruel twist of fate that she had to leave him behind when she was called upon this journey that may very well turn out to be a farce of grand foolishness, all based on the whims and suspicions of a rich pony and his adopted niece.

"He... He was so kind, always putting up with me, even when I got mad over the smallest things." Lightning whispered before laughing to herself.

"You have noticed I have a temper haven't you?" She remarked lightly.

"Yeah, I kinda did." Grape responded with a dry tone in his voice. "So... Tell me more about him, and I'll tell you about mine."

"Cherry red fur, biggest guy you ever saw. Strong too, strong enough to give ole John Henry himself a run for his money. Southern too, just like you. And when he ever spoke... And that was a rare thing let me tell ya, it was always with the kindest and most compassionate voice you ever heard. He... He always knew the right thing to say, the right thing to cheer me up even when I'd had the worst day you could possibly imagine." Lightning continued, her voice breaking as she began to tear up. Grape felt his heart go out to her. He'd never realized it before now, but they were a lot more alike than they realized. They'd both had to leave somepony they loved behind, and for they knew they may never see them again, and it was starting to affect them both.

"So... Tell me about yours." Lightning asked after a few moments of silence between them. And Grape laughed sadly before smiling at the memories of his love, his Great and Powerful love. Taking off his glasses to wipe a tear from his eyes, he began to speak.

"Oh, what can I say about her?" Grape began with another laugh. "Welp, she was certainly a character that was for sure. Stage magician, like Hoofdini, ya know? Celestia above, I dunno what attracted me to her, still don't actually, but attracted I was. For some reason, she was attracted to me too, probably because she felt sorry for me or somethin'." Grape laughed, this time bitterly. Lightning's eyes widened. Was Grape's opinion of himself truly that low? For the past few minutes, Tartarus, now that she realized it, it had been for the past few weeks if she hadn't been so blind, she had seen what a truly courageous and kind pony he was. Always trying to be nice to his fellow crewmates, keeping them from growing truly exhausted by telling jokes and things like that, and when he took on that shark in the ship graveyard to save his friends, he never let his fear get to him, even in the face of Death itself. Without even realizing it, Lightning found herself wrapping one teal blue wing around the purple colored pony's shoulder.

"Don't worry, I'm sure you'll get back to her." She replied kindly, and Grape gave her a grateful look before responding.

"And I'm sure you'll get back to yours." He said, and Lightning actually gave him a smile towards him for the first time.

The Moby Dick: Rainbow Blaze's Office

With an urgency in her step, Lightning Dust made her way to the personal office of the captain. There were matters she needed to discuss. Her conversation with Grape Vine had enlightened her to just how low crew morale was, and his especially.

"Yes, crewmember Dust?" Rainbow asked, looking up from his sea charts as soon as his fellow pegasus came in and noted the look on his face.

"There are... matters we need to discuss..." She began, and prepared herself for the long conversation to come...

That night, Grape Vine found himself tossing and turning in his sleep as he remembered of days long since past, of a conversation he'd had two weeks and one day before this epic journey ever started. A conversation, the last one he knew he would have in a long while, perhaps the last one ever with his love. It was a cold and rainy day in Manehatten, the kind of day that made everypony miserable and just want to stay inside. But on that day then and there, Grape couldn't find it in himself to be miserable, despite the circumstances. In actuality, he was happy. The joy he felt on that day could only ever be brought on by one pony in particular, the one he left behind.

"So... You've been... recruited, is that it?" The mare sitting across from him at their table at a small cafe in Brooklyn, Donut Joe's Donuts, inquired in curiosity. She matched every detail of her portrait perfectly, right down to her purple eyes that Grape could just lose himself in to the very tip of her tail. Grape laughed at her question.

"Hah! Recruited? More like dragged along if I'll be honest." Grape remarked to his marefriend who chuckled. Grape smiled, he always loved that laugh of hers, along with everything about her.

"Might be dangerous, scary as Tartarus even." The mare remarked offhooftandly. "Sure you can handle it?"

Grape laughed again after taking a bite of his donut. Did she really have no faith in him? He was as brave as they came! After all, all the dangerous stunts he'd preformed in her stage shows certainly attested to that!

"Please! After all the things you've made me do for your acts? You shot me out of a cannon into a Manticore's mouth for crying out loud!" Grape replied, shuddering at the memory. Sure, he had been teleported into a box afterwards, but still!

"You survived didn't you?" Grape's marefriend asked him before her tone became softer and less haughty. Her concerned eyes seemed to drill into his very soul. Grape swallowed, she'd caught him. Trixie always seemed to know what he was thinking, for better or for worst.

"Trixie knows what you're trying to do. You're trying not to talk about... us." She said sadly. "You and I know perfectly well you can't take me along on this journey to look after you. Ever since you came to this city, you've had it rough. But I've been there to look after you, keep you safe." Trixie continued, fear for him in her eyes. "I know you have big dreams, become a blues guitarist, ever since you listened to the music of that Curtis Loew fellow. But look at you, you're never going to make it big if you keep protecting that Rainbow Blaze pony. His obsession is going to get him killed one day, you know that? I swear... He must have sold his soul at a crossroads to have encountered those sea beasts he's captured over the years.

"And yet that Kraken still eludes him..." Grape muttered.

"And that's exactly what I'm talking about!" Trixie exclaimed angrily. "I get that he lost his crew, but that obsession makes him dangerous to himself and everypony around him! I... I just don't want you to go down with him..." Trixie whispered, holding back a sob. Grape reached across the table and dabbed away at her tears with a napkin and laid a reassuring hoof on her shoulder.

"Don't worry, I WILL come back, I promise you that." Grape said before an idea came to him. "Hey, say I do come back with treasure from Neighlantis? Let's you and me, we hop on a sea cruise across the Caribbean, lay back and drink on the beaches? Does that sound like a good idea?"

Trixie blinked back her tears and smiled before saying "Yeah, that sounds like a great idea. And now Trixie has one of her own." She said, before she stroked his chin and her tone became seductive. "Let's you and me, head back to our apartment and have some Great and Powerful fun, hmm?"

"Oh, you're so bad." Grape grinned and Trixie smiled back at him.

"But that's why you love me so much isn't it?"

That very next morning, Grape found himself being shaken awake by Sudoku. Grape rubbed his tired eyes and put on his glasses at once seeing the urgent look on Sudoku's face.

"What... What is it? Sea Serpents? Kraken?" Grape panicked, his mind going to the worst possible scenarios he could think of immediately. Sudoku only laughed and shook his head.

"No, none of that. The Captain wants to see us all on the bridge pronto." Sudoku replied. "Now come on, you know how your Master doesn't like to be kept a-waitin'."

Grape nodded his head and threw off the covers and together he and the tan psychiatrist pony rushed towards the Bridge where they found the whole crew gathered and Rainbow Blaze setting up a microphone. After tapping it with his hoof a few times to make sure it was working, he spoke into it.

"Now, I've called you all here for a reason." Rainbow informed, and at once whispering broke out among the assembled crew. Whatever could that reason be? Was it something bad, or was it something good? Ignoring the whispers, the Captain continued.

"I've been... informed by a source who wants to be kept anonymous that crew morale is... dropping. So, I've organized a few things for this week to keep everypony happy and let them unwind for a little while."

"...And here I thought he was heartless." Silver Spanner dryly stated.

Ignoring her remark, Rainbow moved out of the way to let Lightning Dust (Who tossed a surprised Grape Vine a wink, and he at once knew who this "Anonymous" source was.) step up to the mic.

"Now this is a song I heard a while back and to be honest, it actually reminds me of a story I was told only yesterday by a dear friend of mine about somepony he'd left behind, and I want to sing this little number just to cheer him up a bit." Lightning stated, and pressed a recording crystal on one of the control panels and at once big brass band music began to play. Lightning threw a pink feather boa around herself and began to sing.

She sung of a country guy who hadn't seen a lot, but as soon as somepony came along, their heart went pop. Grape felt the emotion and passion in the song, and he felt every memory of the time he had spent with Trixie, including their last day (And night) together come back to him in a flash. Lightning, as the music swung sang "Of my bad, bad Angel who put the Devil in me..." and Grape along with the rest of the assembled crew (Even Rainbow Blaze was nodding his head back and forth and shuffling his hooves as he danced with Solar Blitz. Nearby, the Blast Sisters both grabbed Mister Gallants and, one after the other, kissed him passionately, much to his shock and surprise.) bobbed their heads along to the beat. Suddenly he felt a hoof taking one of his own.

"W-Want to dance?" Twilight asked nervously, as if she had never done this before, which was probably true. Grape could only laugh and say "Sure, but just to let you know, I'm spoken for!" and Twilight laughed along with him as they took up the dance...

Author's Note

Well, it's finally back! The colts, and mares are back in town! (Cue Thin Lizzy :coolphoto: ) I'm sooo so sorry for such a long wait, but that's what happens when you get writers block I'm afraid. :twilightsheepish: I know no apology can make up for such a long wait, so I hope the chapter is a acceptable substitute. Anyways, I've come back, and with the longest chapter in the story so far! :yay: Now on that subject, the coming chapters will be of varying length, some will be short, some will be long. I'm just going to take the Once a Time Lord route and see how each chapter turns out, and if I think they need any more added on, I'll add things at a later date. Anyways, as I promised we see some HUGE character development for Lightning Dust, and she and Grape go from feuding to actually having a shared bonding moment of those who they left behind. And on that subject, bet you weren't expecting those shippings huh? Trixie and Grape, along with Big Mac and Lightning. Yeah, I like to try odd and unusual pairings from time to time. Personally, my favorite part of writing this chapter was the flashback scene to Joe's Donuts with Trixie and Grape and revealing their relationship and just how sad Grape was to leave her behind, which actually reminded me of this song a bit.

Anyways, now that I'm back I promise to have a less... erratic update schedule shall we say and put out chapters at a more steady rate like I used to. Till next time, cheers and you have a very happy Thanksgiving! :scootangel:

Part 9: A Little Slice of Paradise

Rainbow Blaze, as he leaned back in his chair actually smiled. That little plan Lightning Dust had cooked up had actually succeeded in bringing up crew morale. He had to admit, he never thought it would actually work, or that Lightning Dust could actually sing a note. But sing she did, and sing her heart out. Nor did he actually expect himself to actually enjoy the song and loosen himself up a bit. Privately, Rainbow Blaze had mixed feelings about this. A captain of any sort of ship was supposed to be stern and hard-assed on his crew, and now here he was putting on karaoke nights for his crew. Of course, on the other hoof, if it kept them happy and from rebelling against him, all was well in his world.

"...And here I thought he was heartless." Silver Spanner dryly stated.

Ignoring her remark, Rainbow moved out of the way to let Lightning Dust (Who tossed a surprised Grape Vine a wink, and he at once knew who this "Anonymous" source was.) step up to the mic.

Privately, he did wonder where Lightning actually got the feathers for her boa. He severely hoped she hadn't just gone around plucking feathers from the Griffin and Pegasi members of the crew when their backs were turned. Just to be on the safe side, the Captain of the Moby Dick turned his head to one of his wings, and sure enough some of his feathers had gone missing. He growled and thought one single thing to himself.

"I'm going to kill her."

Rainbow then sighed to himself, no use getting all worked up over one tiny thing. After all, Lightning's reasoning behind going on her feather stealing spree was for a good purpose, and he couldn't fault him for that. Tartarus, he had to give her due credit for nabbing some of his feathers when he wasn't looking, like some sort of ancient Neighponese ninja or something. Rainbow chuckled at the image in his mind, of a Lightning Dust covered head to hoof in black ninja garb plucking feathers from his back and then vanishing in poofs of smoke. At least it wasn't the worst or downright strangest thing one of his crew had done. He sighed in resignation as he remembered one of the Blast Sisters tricking Twilight Sparkle into thinking she had drunk nitroglycerin a few days ago.

The Moby Dick's Mess Hall, a few days before...

Twilight smiled as she played a game of chess with Spent Thrift. She had just taken one of the older pony's Rooks, causing her to throw her two front forelegs up in the air and shout in triumph causing everypony else in the Mess Hall to stare at her, except for Bulk Biceps, who shouted "YEAH!" in return. It was an evenly matched game, and that was just the way Twilight liked it. She was happy, if not a bit surprised. Back at the Manehatten University, nopony had ever been able to beat her at her favorite game, except for that exceptional oddity of a stallion that taught science and who called himself Time Turner, who claimed he had played many games of "Live Chess", whatever that meant. He'd also claimed he'd traveled in time and space, but Twilight had laughed that off as impossible. Nopony in this day and age had that capability, and that wasn't speaking of the risks of ripping a hole in the continuum and the possible paradoxes that could possibly result. But Time Turner had just laughed his head off and winked at her before saying "Allons-Y, Twilight, Allons-Y. Merde, you ponies can be so simple minded." He then gave Twilight a long sad look, almost as if he hadn't seen her in a very long while before walking off leaving the eighteen year old very confused indeed.

"So, you took my Rook Sparkle, impressive." Spent mused as he thought over his next move and rubbed his chin with a hoof. During the weeks they had spent on the journey, Twilight, along with everypony else on the crew had discovered Spent's annoying habit of calling everypony by their last names, even if he knew it ticked them off. And that was to say nothing of him flirting with practically everypony of the opposite gender even close to his age that he met. He'd even dared to try it with Silver Spanner, but all that resulted was a hard slap to the face that had left everypony laughing at him for days on end.

"But the game's not over yet, I still have many moves to make. I can out think you Sparkle, with age comes wisdom." Spent bragged and Twilight couldn't resist getting a snarky remark on her part.

"And a perverted and dirty mind, it seems." She deadpanned and Spent gaped at her for a second before laughing his head off. Twilight mused on the strange pony, he was still a mystery to her, even more so than the rest of the crew. He hadn't said a word on his past, except for slight hints here and there every so often. It was a great source of thought for the rest of the crew as his past, with everypony betting on who he was, with each scenario becoming more ridiculous than the last. It was at this moment both of the Blast Sisters came over, ginning madly enough to make Twilight nervous. Grape Vine looked up from what he was doing, strumming a purple acoustic guitar that had grape vines painted on it's body and singing "...Talking to the Alicorn Mare from Galilee..." and muttered "Oh no, this isn't going to be good." to himself. In one hoof, the elder Blast Sister held a bottle of something unknown.

"Here, try this! Something we just cooked up in the kitchens!" She said. Twilight knew the Blast Sisters had been assigned to cook in the Mess Hall, often resulting in small fires and explosions, but the meals they often cooked up were, admittedly, pretty good. So with a bit of trepidation, Twilight drank the bottle all the way down.

"What is it?" She asked curiously, and both the Blast Sisters rubbed their hooves together and cackled madly.

"Oh, nothing much..." The elder one began with a giggle in her tone. "Just a bit of nitroglycerin."

Twilight immediately began to panic and make herself gag all the while screaming "What do I do, what do I do?" at the top of her lungs as everypony watched the developing situation nopony knowing exactly what to do before the younger of the two sisters answered.

"Don't move, don't breathe, don't do anything...except pray." The elder one said in a solemn tone before screaming loudly "BOOM!" making Twilight yelp and jump in her seat as the two sisters walked off laughing. As soon as Twilight realized she'd been pranked, she gave them dirty looks even as the silver maned pony named Night Glider got up out of her seat with Silver Speed looking at her uneaten food and asking "Hey, can I eat this? Seeing as how you're not..."

When she received no reply, she shrugged to herself and began to eat it. Meanwhile, Night Glider grabbed the elder Blast Sister by the shoulder and gave her a hard right hook to the face and she went down, blood gushing from her nose.

"Really not funny dude." She growled before walking back over to Twilight and putting a hoof on the still trembling pony's shoulder.

"Hey, you alright?" She asked kindly.

"Y-Yeah, I'll be fine. W-Why'd you do that for me?" Twilight stuttered in shock. Nopony had ever stood up for her before, she'd always been downtrodden and pranked upon for years, even when she was just a schoolfilly, all because she was an easy target and seen as weak.

"Because, just because." Night Glider answered with a smile.

Rainbow Blaze felt his head throb from the memory, Fancy Pants had not been pleased with either of the Blast Sisters in the slightest and had said "If those two ruffians were not mares, and if I weren't a gentlestallion, I would be the one doing the throttling myself." He, with a sad look on his face and to get his mind off the memory, glanced towards a small picture on his desk, showing him holding a very small, two years old at the most, prismatic maned filly, looking almost exactly like him, except for a lighter shade of blue in her coat. Her name was Rainbow Dash, his only daughter and the greatest gift Celestia had given him in his mind. Though he never exactly remembered the mare who had conceived her, and knew he wasn't the best father in the world, what with him always going off on these sea voyages and leaving her alone, with only Grape Vine to watch her, he would always keep her in his mind and heart, and he knew that even if he didn't make it back from this journey, there would always be somepony to look after her. His son in all but blood, Grape Vine.

"I swear, I will get back to you."

Then, the greystone furred griffin known as Gallants came in with a happy look on his face. Rainbow looked up from his picture and raised an eyebrow.

"What is it?" He asked simply and in a no nonsensical manner.

"Sir, we've found something."

"Now... that is paradise." Rainbow said in awe. In front of him was an island with long white sandy beaches, deep jungles, high mountains and deep blue waters filled with the most beautiful of coral fish of every size, shape and color imaginable. All and all, it was paradise. Rainbow turned to Gallants with a smile on his face.

"Gallants, tell the crew they're on shore leave."

As soon as the news was broke, great joy went up and down the hallways and corridors of the Moby Dick. Finally, a chance to relax and unwind! No more searching for this Neighlantis nonsense, at least for the time being. This was their chance to be themselves, and not be cooped up in a great metal tub of steam and sweat and claustrophobia inducing passageways. The crew were loaded into small pods that were attached to the sides of the sub, and eagerly sat at the controls. Now, these pods varied in size, from small enough just to fit a few crew members (These were the ones being currently used) to large enough to fit things like the military trucks and weaponry that had been loaded up back at the docks in Manehatten. As the Moby Dick surfaced, and the pods were released, Twilight took in the scenery of the ocean around her through the bubble shaped window in front of her. The skies were clear and blue, except for a few cumulus clouds scattered here and there. She couldn't wait to be on that beach and tanning herself while she read a nice book. It didn't take long before she was fulfilling her desires. There she sat, on the pristine white sand reading her favorite book, "Daring Do and the Griffin's Goblet", by A. K. Yearling. Nearby, Night Glider, Eclipse Moonshine, and Silver Spanner (Who'd had to be convinced to pry herself away from her pipes and wrenches, her "Precious babies" as she called them, much to the amusement of the crew.) splashing each other in the waves and laughing joyously.

"Hey, c'mon Twi, join us! Life's not all spent in a book, ya know!" Night Glider called, just as she was splashed by Silver Spanner and the blue coated pony laughed "I'll get you back for that, ya know!"

"Try it, you blighter!" Silver Spanner challenged. Twilight gazed at the threesome, but most of all Night Glider. Twilight couldn't believe she was even thinking it, but the pegasus mare looked absolutely beautiful with the water dripping off her fur and feathers, and that big ass grin on her face.

"What am I thinking? A mare, beautiful? That's... That's not what I'm supposed to think... Am I?"

Putting aside her thoughts for a later date and filing them away in the recesses of her brain, Twilight grinned and ran towards the water...

Meanwhile, Grape Vine had been pulled away from his guitar practice (He had been singing "Gimme me a T for Texas, gimme me a T for Tennessee, gimme me a T for Thelma, that there mare made a fool out of me.") and taken to a hastily made target range by Quartermane and Bulk Biceps, where some coconuts had been sat up on rocks. They had figured Grape Vine needed more practice using his six shooters, after the "Incident" at the Manehatten Docksides with those bigoted stallions and Gallants.

"Now, it's real simple see, all you have to do is get your aiming eye in and shoot those damn things to bits!" Target ordered, and to demonstrate, she pulled out her shotgun and blasted one poor coconut into a sea of white juice and brown skin. "See, easy peasy."

"I-If you say so..." Grape Vine muttered nervously to himself. Here he was, on a beautiful island in the Caribbean on a beautiful day, the kind he promised Trixie they'd experience when he got back from all of this, supposed to be kicking back and sipping drinks on a hammock, and yet here he was, being dragged into target practice. Not his idea of fun, lemme tell you.

Grape, concentrating as hard as he could, lined up his shot and fired. But that's when things went all wrong. The bullet bounced, yes it BOUNCED, off a palm tree and went straight into Grape Vine's hoof, causing him to start cursing and swearing like a sailor. Target could only facehoof.

Sigh...

"...Well, at least he hit something, right?" Bulk asked and Target sighed once more.

The Moby Dick

Elsewhere, back in the submarine known as the Moby Dick, Gallants and Rainbow Blaze were sitting back in the main control room and having some whiskey that they'd snuck onboard. Suddenly, an alarm connected to the sun's main sonar dectors began beeping and Rainbow at once became alert and ready.

"What is it?" He asked, and Gallants ran over to the control panel.

"Dunno sir, but whatever it is it's big and it's coming fast." Gallants responded in an urgent, and perhaps somewhat worried tone of voice.

Rainbow Blaze sighed to himself. Well, there went the crew's shore leave...

Author's Note

Well, from where we last left off it was the end of November for us here in the modern times, and now it's the first of December. The nights have gotten colder (Yes, even here in Florida it gets cold, hard as it is to believe. 63 degrees tonight I believe! Better bundle up! :derpytongue2: ) Anyways, it being December now I know some of you in the colder parts of the world wish you were living the life our heroes are currently living now on a Caribbean island sitting back in a hammock and drinking martinis. But, alas, no such luck for me. I have to settle for Ginger Ale and pictures of the Galapagos. Ya know, I almost named this chapter "Two Tickets to Paradise till I realized two song titled chapters one after the other would be a bit much. Anyways, another chapter of fun and relaxation for the crewmembers of the Moby Dick before the action picks back up again, and soon, as evidenced by that strange blip on the Dick's sonar. If anyone cares to offer guesses as to what it is (Black_Knight, I know you know, but please, don't spoil it.) feel free to do so. (Also, if anyone has any questions on the Doc-Sorry "Time Turner's" appearance here, consider it foreshadowing to events in The Return of Doctor Whooves. Can you even do that? Foreshadow events to a story sat in another universe, I mean?) Finally, I want to give a shoutout to Darkfire Pon3 for masterfully pranking me into thinking they had no idea what Past Sins or who Nyx was. Congrats sir, you made me laugh so hard when I realized I had been "Gotchaed!" and I tip my hat to you. Here, have a moustache. :moustache: Next time, danger on the high seas and as Gallants will so elegantly put it,

"Calling all the crew back to the ship so we can all die together sir."

Part 10: Battleship

Grape Vine groaned in pain, blood dripping from his hoof even as Bulk and Target helped the limping pony to his hooves and got him up off the bloodstained sand, with a nearby Ender Night levitating Grape Vine's Colts into his own saddlebags with an aura of midnight blue magic surrounding them. Grape Vine felt a singe of pain go up through him each time his shot hoof touched the sand, so he quickly decided to not walk with that hoof and use his three remaining hooves (Along with Bulk and Target's help) to support himself.

"Does it hurt?" Target inquired. Grape Vine gave her a dirty look.

"No, it feels like a Valkyrie's touch." He commented with a distinct rolling of the eyes before switching from a sarcastic tone to an angry one. "YES, OF COURSE IT HURTS LIKE A BITCH YOU IDJIT!" He snapped. It surely was a testament to Target's fortitude that she didn't flinch at Grape's shout at her or shout right back at him.

"...How do you manage to shoot yourself in the hoof anyways?" Ender asked to nopony in particular.

"I dunno, really bad luck or just being a terrible shot?" Bulk suggested. Now he was the one getting an angry glare and a sarcastic remark from Grape Vine.

"Gee, thanks for the support man." Grape said dryly before a scorching pain shot through him, but this time not coming from his hoof, but from his head. Images began to flash in his mind, almost so fast that he could barely make them out. But make them out he did, and a few of them he was able to discern. The first thing he saw was the entire Neighlantis crew (Give or take a few members) in an underground cavern surrounded by winged reptilian like creatures in armor, (In the background was a grand stone city made up of a mix of Greek and Roman architecture sitting atop a plateau with waterfalls on falling down all sides of the plateau itself) the leader of which was light blue and wearing gold encrusted armor with two small horns on either side of his/her (Grape Vine couldn't honestly tell which gender the creature was) head. And then, the creature removed it's helmet, but the image changed to another before he could see the creature's face. This next image was of him and the rest of the Neighlantis Crew being approached by a pure white unicorn stallion with dark blue hair holding a wooden staff with a blue gem at its tip. Strangely, his eyes were like that of a dragon's. The image changed again, and this time Grape Vine saw himself, standing over a bruised and bloody Rainbow Blaze holding a Colt in his hoof and pointing it directly at his captain/surrogate father figure.

"F-From T-Tartartus's Heart I stab at thee." Grape whispered, and then Grape noticed tears were rolling down his own cheeks before the sound of a gunshot went off and the image changed once more. This time, he saw ponies dressed in all white garb with their muzzles even covered digging up something in ancient ruins. Then the wind, sounding almost unearthly howled and a gaping maw appeared in the sand and moaned out "I have been released..." Before Grape could even process this one, the image changed again, and he saw a yellow pony with a grey and black mane wearing a light green jacket and tan pith helmet with pink eyes and a compass for a Cutie Mark smirking at somepony unknown.

"Well, looks like you guys could use my help."

Another image. Grape, along with what looked to be archeologists were faced with a skeletal Alicorn pony slowly stumbling towards them. One final image appeared. It was Egypt, judging from the pyramids and the Great Sphinx seen in the distance, and Grape Vine along with Trixie and the yellow pony from before were standing on a hotel balcony in an unknown city watching the sky turn red and balls of burning ice rain down all around them with one hitting a pyramid and completely smashing the top sending bricks flying everywhere. Then, Grape Vine found himself back in the present, clutching his head in pain and falling back into the sand. Ender rushed to his side at once.

"What is it, what's wrong?" He asked urgently.

"My head... It hurts... Strange images..." Grape screamed out in pain as he tried to quell the throbbing inside his head. Target immediately picked him up and hoisted Grape up onto her back.

"C'mon, we'd better get him back to the Moby Dick. There's a medical bay there where we can figure out what's going on. I'll give him some Morphine to quell the pain when we get there." Target ordered. "Now come on people, let's move it!" She barked.

Back with Twilight and the others, they continued to splash in the waves. Solar Blitz sent a wave of water with her wings towards Twilight, who laughed joyfully and swelled it up into a ball and sent it back at her.

"Hey, no fair! You can use magic if the rest of us can't!" Solar laughed.

"Well, if this is a war, I call it a tactical advantage then." Twilight snarked back at her and Night Glider grinned in an almost flirtatious manner (Least that's what Twilight hoped it was, although she didn't quite know why.) before smirking in an evil manner.

"Well, guess I'd oughta use my own "Tactical Advantages" then shouldn't I?" Night Glider laughed before she lunged at Twilight who cried out "Oh no, don't you dare!" and soon found herself relentlessly tickled on the belly by Night Glider over and over. She soon found herself laughing uproariously along with the rest of the small group while in the background Silver Spanner chuckled "Oh, she's got you now doesn't she?"

Then, Eclipse Moonshine saw something out towards the direction of the sea. Slowly, everypony's heads followed her own and they saw what she was seeing. A few miles away, beyond the Moby Dick whose top half was sitting exposed to the sunshine, a swirling blue portal of energy was opening. Then from out of the tip of the portal came a grey looming ship. It was obvious it was a battleship, but not like any the ponies had seen in this particular time and place. Silver Speed then summed up pretty much everypony's thoughts in a singular sentence.

"What... The... Tartarus...?"

Moby Dick: Bridge

"Sir, whatever it is, it's big and it's coming fast!" Gallants cried out and Rainbow Blaze let out a small "Damn!" in response before ordering "See if we can try and hail them. I want to know who they are, what nation they work for, and where they came from."

"Sir..." Gallants began, and Rainbow looked directly at him.

"You have something to say Mister Gallants?" He asked, getting very close to the Griffin's face.

"We're in the Bermuda Triangle. Lots of strange things have happened here over the years. I think we need to consider not just where they're from... But what time as well."

Rainbow Blaze sucked in a breath. Gallants was right and he knew it. Over the years, many ships like the USS Cyclops back in 1918 had vanished in the Bermuda Triangle and right now the Moby Dick was directly in the heart of it. It seemed once again, the Triangle was showing it's notorious power. Finally, after a few minutes of decision, Rainbow made up his mind.

"Hail them." He said at last.

"Hailing them sir."

Gallants pressed a button and spoke into a speaker. "This is the Moby Dick, hailing the unknown vessel. Please state who you work for, your designation and... (Gallants took a deep breath before speaking again) what time you are from."

Then, a strange piece of music began to play over the comms. It sounded bluesy, but not like any blues anypony had heard before. Next, there was the sound of somepony being shoved aside and a male voice came from the comms.

"This is the USS Hayler, designation DD-997 (Gallants and Rainbow both let out a sigh of relief at this. The ship was Neighmerican.) and we're from the time 2002, although we question why you ask us this."

"Your name and rank?" The voice asked.

"Captain Rainbow Blaze of the Moby Dick, now what about yours?"

"Captain Steel Armor. What is your mission here? We have no subs under your designation nor any that even look like yours if I'll be honest. State your mission or we will be forced to blow you out of the water. And I really do like blowing up tiny little subs with my guns." Steel commented.

Rainbow Blaze immediately got on the defensive.

"If you think you're going to blow up my submarine, then you've got another think coming Armor!" Rainbow shouted into the comms and Gallants groaned. Now Rainbow had done it. He really wished to Celestia his captain hadn't done that and kept his temper reigned in.

"Oh, so you're challenging us are you? Very well then. You asked for this." Steel said in a tone of finality before cutting the feed. Next thing either of the two knew, explosions came from nearby. Warning shots fired at the water. Rainbow snarled at his own stupid mistake and slammed his hoof on the control console and turned to Gallants.

"Get everypony back to the ship and bring us up to Red Alert. We're getting out of here." He ordered and Gallants sighed.

"Calling all the crew back to the ship so we can all die together sir." Gallants said in a dry tone before pressing the comms feed again and then he spoke into it. "Calling all Sub-Pods, get back to the ship. We are going into Red Alert status and then into Deep Dive mode. I repeat, Red Alert status and Deep Dive mode."

The calls reached Target, Ender, Bulk and Grape, who were loading themselves into their Sub-Pod. Target sat herself at the controls while in the background Grape called out "My guitar!"

"Forget about your damn guitar! You want to be blown out of the water?" Target snapped as another explosion of water came very close to the Moby Dick. Ender shouted "I got it!" as he rushed inside the sub, Grape's guitar in hoof as the door closed behind him. The Hayler continued firing its cannons creating explosion after explosion, each getting nearer and nearer to the Moby Dick as Steel's crew got their sights on it. Back on the Moby Dick, the entire submarine shook from each explosion.

"You know eventually, they are going to hit us. Just wanted to point that out, sir." Gallants stated.

"Yes, I noticed." Rainbow Blaze dryly stated before muttering to himself "Here's hoping that defensive system Silver Spanner installed works... Gonna need to buy some time."

He pressed a button and then the entire Moby Dick hummed and lines on the ship, ancient runes that had been built into it, glowed a bright green and then the entire sub was covered in a bubble of magical energy. At about this time, Target's Sub-Pod, cruising towards the Moby, met up with Twilight's and Silver Speed's, each dodging and weaving a fired cannon shot till they reached the Moby Dick and back themselves up into little holes in the side of it into hanger bays with the doors shutting behind them as they entered. It was just in time too, as the shield then vanished, due to it not being able to run for very long due to it being just a prototype.

"Damn it, I thought I told the Captain not to use that bleeding thing! He knew perfectly well I said it wasn't ready for a field test!" Silver shouted as Bulk let out a "YEAH!" in celebration of their narrow escape. Then, there was another explosion.

"Don't celebrate yet, we're not out of the woods yet." Target commented before handing Grape off to Solar and Bulk. "Get him up to Medical. I have to get to the control consoles and help that idiot Captain of ours, (as I know somehow he's behind our current state of peril,) get us the Tartarus out of here!"

"Y-Yes Ma-am!" "YEAH!" Came the twin answers of Solar Blitz and guess who. Target groaned to herself as she let a hoof slide down her muzzle. "Oh, that shout of his is going to give me a headache someday, I just know it..." and walked off down a corridor grumbling to herself.

Author's Note

Well, sorry for taking so long. I know I said I was going to try and have a less erratic update schedule, and it seems I completely failed on that for this chapter didn't I? Annnnnyyyyways, first off, I'd like to thank Black_Knight for giving me the idea for this chapter, you're the best man! Bit of history for you, the USS Hayler was in fact a real ship. And I do mean was, as it was sunk in a target practice exercise back in 2004. If you want, you can read up more on it's history here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Hayler

Now, on Grape Vine's future visions. Yes, that is what is in store for him later on in the story, and it's sequel. (Yes, there is one planned.) Feel free to speculate on them any way you like. I'd love to hear your thoughts on them. Okay, next time, nothing too perilous for the Moby Dick's crew, as Twilight tries to figure out the mystery of the journal recovered from the wreck of the Sharptooth and Grape Vine... Well, he once again shows evidence of being the resident butt monkey of the crew by getting completely stoned on Morphine. Poor guy.

Part 11: Logbooks

Moby Dick: Mess Hall:

The mess hall was unusually quiet except for the mutterings of a certain lavender unicorn and the flipping of pages of a logbook. The Captain's Logbook recovered from the USS Sharptooth to be precise. Actually, it wasn't that strange for the mess hall to be this quiet, devoid of its usual assortment of ponies and griffins chattering over each other and the sound of silverware plunging into meat and assorted fruits and the sound of trays hitting the tables along with the occasional explosion coming from the kitchen with the sound of a fire extinguisher spraying soon following. None of that was occurring right now, for it was 3:00 in the morning and most of the crew was fast asleep. Celestia knew they deserved it after the hectic chaos of the past few days...

Three days before...

KA-BOOM! KA-BOOM!

That was the sound of torpedos hitting rocks and coral stirring up silt and clouding the water all around the Moby as it dived deep into the waters to escape its pursuer, the USS Hayler. On the Bridge, it was chaos, with everypony at the controls trying to get the large and very obvious submarine out of the range of the Hayler's weaponry. Rainbow Blaze, in full Captain mode, was shouting (Only thing louder than him was the klaxon that was currently blaring over and over as red lights flashed everywhere.) coordinates to direct the Moby Dick towards. With a powerful burst of it's rear thrusters, it surged under a colorful orange and purple coral archway which was swiftly blown to pieces by a well fired torpedo shot.

"Damnit! That last one nearly hit us! I've got to say, Steel and his crew have certainly got their sights trained on us. Compliments to the crew and their shooting skills." Rainbow mused in respect towards his fellow Captain, never mind the fact that said fellow Captain was trying to currently kill him and the rest of his crew.

"Sir, not to object, but can we save the compliments towards the Hayler and her crew till... I don't know, AFTER they're done trying to kill us!?!" Target shouted from her position at the controls.

"Engage defensive shielding!" Rainbow barked, ignoring her and then a voice crackled from over the comms. It was from Silver Spanner down in the boiler rooms, trying to keep the rear thrusters going. She was hot, and covered in sweat and oil as steam burst from pipes all around her.

"Excuse me? Did you just ask what I think you bleeding asked you bloody parasprite for brained cloudbucker?" Silver Spanner snapped, her temper just short of completely blowing up entirely, which coincidently was what some of the boilers that powered the Moby Dick were very close to doing right now. "She's barely holding together as it is, and you want more power diverted to the ship? Let me remind you, CAPTAIN, that shield is still a prototype and barely held together the last time you used it! Power's not restored completely anyways!"

In the background, a tan pegasus pony mare with a black mane and tail spoke into her radio seemingly oblivious to the chaos surrounding her "Honey, if he just walked out of your quarters during sex before you finished, I don't think he's into you. Piece of advice. Dump him like a bad habit." before Silver Spanner turned on her after letting out a mutter of "Bugger him and his whole family!" after getting shouted at by Rainbow to and I'm quoting directly here "GET THOSE DAMN SHIELDS UP OR I'LL SEE YOU THROWN OUT AN AIRLOCK!"

"Wildfire, stop talking to your friend about her sex life and help me here with these damn shields, or we'll all get blown to pieces and you, nor your friend's sex life won't matter one jot anymore!" She barked and Wildfire at once dropped what she was doing with a "Sorry hon, gotta call you back. Let's just say somepony's thrown a spanner in the works of our conversation." She said, giving a dirty look towards Silver before grabbing a wrench and the twosome set to work. Soon, after a couple of minutes, Silver got back on the comms to Rainbow Blaze.

"Okay, I've managed to work on a few things down here to keep this whole bloody ship from blowing up, but I can only give you rear defensive power for a few minutes. So piece of advice... DON'T WASTE IT AND GET US ALL KILLED!" She shouted and Rainbow could swear he could feel his ears ringing from the shout. Once his ears had stopped ringing, he turned to Gallants.

"Mister Gallants, you know what to do." He said simply and the griffin replied with a "Aye-Aye sir." and once again, all the runes on the Moby Dick glowed green and before you knew it, a shield enveloped the entire rear aft section of the ship, tail, thrusters, and all. Some torpedoes hit the shield only to blow up on it, harming nothing. Soon, a few minutes later, with another powerful surge of the thrusters, the Moby Dick was well out of the Hayler's range and was delving ever deeper into the depths. Rainbow wiped some sweat off his brow and let out a breath he hadn't known he had been holding. They were safe... for now at least. Target sighed in relief before turning her head to the captain.

"Sir, requesting permission to go to the medical bay and visit a friend?"

Rainbow smiled, as he knew exactly who she was talking about. Truth be told, he'd like to visit Grape Vine as well, but his duties on the bridge prevented him from doing exactly that.

"Permission granted."

Moby Dick: Medical Wing

When Target made her way to the medical bay, she found herself seeing a rather out of the ordinary (even for this ship) sight. There lay Grape Vine, on his bed with Solar Blitz next to him, who was looking rather embarrassed and had a Celestia-why-did-you-do-this-to-me?-look on her muzzle, which was rather understandable as Grape was chewing on one of her wings.

"Mmm, bananas." Grape Vine, who in his completely stoned as Tartarus state obviously thought poor Solar's wings were bananas hanging off a palm tree. "Just like the ones they grow back in Florida... Or was that oranges? I'm not sure." Understandably, Target was gaping and found herself unable to get words to form in her mouth. Solar mouthed "Help me." and eventually Target sighed to herself and smacked away Grape's head.

"How...How long has he been like this?" Target asked once she'd finally regained the ability of speech. Solar blushed.

"Ever... Ever since I gave him the Morphine like you asked."

"And how much did you gave him?" Target inquired, a raised eyebrow visible from behind her red tinted shades.

"Er... Er... To be honest, I'm not sure. H-He was screaming in pain so I just gave him as much as I-I thought would work. I'm not a doctor, so I-I have no idea how much that is! I-I just guessed at the top of my head!" Solar squeaked and Target facehoofed. Honestly, the idiots she worked with sometimes. Then she noticed Bulk lying on the floor.

"Er, do I really want to know what happened with him there?"

"He... He may have fainted at the sight of all the blood coming from Grape's hoof?" Solar admitted sheepishly while blushing causing Target to let out a loud groan and mutter "Great, Hemophobes, that's the last thing I need..."

A dazed voice came from Grape Vine's mouth.

"Did... Did you guys know my daddy, my real one, not Rainbow, decided my middle name should be Sue? Had... Had it changed of course. Didn't want to be laughed at." Grape commented lightly with a laugh. "You... You know somepony should write a song 'bout that. Hey, maybe I could do it!" He cried in a giddy tone of voice before he seemed to notice something else.

"Hey... You know how all the colors look so pretty from where I am? Seriously, you should try this stuff! It feels great!" He laughed before turning his head back to Solar.

"Hey, she says she's hit the Mile-High club with her coltfriend, some Griffin, I think he is, but you know what? I don't believe her!" Grape commented as Solar blushed redder than before looking rather like a tomato. Target sighed before glaring at Solar who could only laugh nervously.

"Um... Sorry?" Solar replied in that same squeaky tone of voice before Target's glare harshened.

"Just get him off it. Last thing we want is him exposing everypony's secrets to everypony else on this ship like some sort of Gabby Gums." Target muttered before saying to herself "Celestia above, I need a stiff drink!"

"See, I told you she was a drunkard, I told ya!"

No prizes for guessing from who that came from.

Present Time:

Twilight yawned and took off her glasses to rub away at her eyes. She was tired, and she knew it. She'd been trying to translate this book all day and so far, had no such luck. It was in ancient Sumareian, which was about as useful to her as if the book had been soaking wet. Twilight sighed. She was lucky the box the book was in had been protected by Griffin Runes, otherwise she wouldn't have gotten as far as she had. So far, the log had been in plain Griffin-Tongue, which she knew how to translate but now she'd hit a wall. The only useful thing she'd learned was the Sharptooth captain's identity, from a picture in the book showing a white feathered female griffin with light green feathers around her eyes and at the back of her head with the name Captain Greta Stone beneath it. (Twilight had pumped her hoof in victory when she saw it. A Griffin, a female one at that reaching the status of Captain? That was a very impressive feat to say the least, especially in this day and age, where Griffins were looked down upon as a lower class and females much the same.) Then, Twilight's ears perked up at the sound of hoofsteps behind her and she whirled around only to see the white maned, black coated form of Spent Thift walking up towards her.

"You're up late." Twilight observed.

"Yeah, sorry. Couldn't sleep. Been an insomniac most of my life sad to say." He admitted with a small blush before observing Twilight's mane, which was tied neatly in a bun. "You know, you should keep it like that. You look quite cute, dare I say."

Twilight glared.

"You know, I may be tired, but not enough to punch you."

"...Sorry, force of habit. Trying to break it." Spent apologized before he noted the language of the book in front of Twilight. "Say, that's ancient Sumareian isn't it? I studied that in college! Mind if I give you a hoof with that?"

"Sure. I've been getting nowhere fast." Twilight admitted with a blush. And so, Spent translated...

May 16:

Welp, we've finally done it. We've discovered the Neighlantis Gate, the Lonely Mountain known on our sea charts as the Pillar of Fire. It's actually not far out of the Bermuda Triangle, surprise surprise, and in the area known as the Sea of Monsters. If I remember correctly, it was so called that because this area was the supposed resting place of the Kraken, King of the Seas, the Devil Fish. But honestly, so far I've seen no evidence of it actually existing, if it ever did at one point. One would expect to at least to see some remains. But in all my years as a Captain, I've learned that there are many mysteries about the sea. For all we know, considering how far back the legends go, it may be a immortal creature (Scary as the prospect is) so it may exist, but why have we yet to see it?

May 17:

Nothing much happening today, really. The crew is... rather excited that we've discovered the entrance to the Lost City. When we get back, this will be the finding of the century! Griffins and Females alike will finally be respected among others! No more mockery, no more scorn, no more segregation! I've done a grand thing today, and I feel as if I should treat myself to a stiff drink. Only proper way to celebrate after all.

May 18:

Happy Day Today! Married my Number One. Not much to write really, as I'm more interested in OTHER things...

May 20:

Heard rumors from my Number One. And I don't like them. He says the crew is planning an uprising against me, for not continuing further into the Neighlantis Gate. But how can we? Our fuel supply is low, and we don't know what lies beyond the gate, how far the city is! If we ventured further, we may never return. That's why we've got to go back. There's an island nearby, we can refuel there and then try our luck once more.

May 22:

The crew's been getting restless, antsy you might say. Questioning my every judgement. I'm beginning to wonder if Number One is right. I hope to Boreas he's wrong for once. But he never is, never is...

May 22:

This is perhaps, no, I know it to be my last entry. The rumors were true. They're at my door now. I can hear them pounding. Dear Boreas, they've got explosives with them, probably raided from the weapons lockers! I leave this final note, along with the enclosed map, not for myself, but for the benefit of any creature who finds this, so that they too know how to find Neighlantis, and hopefully find the lost secrets of the city. This is Captain Greta Stone/Thrift, signing off for what I know to be the last time. Number One, if you ever find this, just know that I love you. G-Goodbye...

The last few pages were stained with teardrops, and the writing was hastily written. Twilight whispered "Dear Celestia..." before she noted Spent Thrift's expression. He was crying, tears streaming down his face and whispering "I'm... I'm so sorry my love. I failed you! I... I failed."

"Spent... You were the Number One aboard the Sharptooth?" Twilight asked in shock.

"DON'T CALL ME BY THAT TITLE!" Spent suddenly shouted, tears still coming from his eyes. "I failed her! I don't deserve that title anymore! Tartarus, I don't even deserve to be called her husband!"

"W-What happened?" Twilight asked nervously, suddenly very scared of Spent's fury. He took notice and looked ashamed of himself for scaring the young mare.

"I'm sorry... I never meant to frighten you." Spent said, pulling her into a hug. "As for what happened... I was there, for every second of it. I watched... Celestia above, I watched, as my wife was killed, all by that BITCH of a Griffin, Gilda, who dared to call herself Greta's most loyal, shoot my beloved wife three times! In the back! IN THE BACK! They forced her to turn her back to them, just as one last piece of humiliation towards her! Those damned greedy pieces of FILTH I shared a ship with!" Spent roared before his voice turned heartbreakingly soft once more. "She... She never had a chance. If... if only I could have defended her and got the scene quicker!" Spent whispered and for the first time Twilight noticed a marriage bracelet around one of his legs.

"You would have been overrun, it sounded like it was the whole crew after all, and probably would have been killed as well." Twilight replied, in an attempt to reassure her crewmate.

"...It would have been better that way." Spent growled before he walked off with Twilight watching him every step of the way with a sad expression on her face and let a tear slip from her eye...

Author's Note

Okay, did I say no action? Okay, I admit it, I lied. :trollestia: But with the ending of the previous chapter ending like it did, I knew I couldn't just leave it there. Besides, this is an adventure story, you must have action every few chapters and after the last few chapters having nothing but slice of life elements, some action was definitely needed. As some of you may have noticed, the character tags have been changed to reflect the newly added ones by Knighty. Twilight's been changed to her Equestria Girls counterpart, as that was the one I was going for here originally and the Self-Insert tag has been added, as half of the characters you guys contributed are self-inserts anyways. (Oh, I do hope that last tag won't turn off any future readers, as I have been hearing people making jokes about how that tag tells people which stories to avoid. :fluttershysad: I'm having a hard enough time getting readers to this story as it is! :raritydespair: ) Also, as you can see Princess Ember's been added, so yes, that means our favorite dragoness will appear, fulfilling the role of Princess Kida. On another note, think I've found the perfect theme for Captain Rainbow Blaze.

What do you guys think? Does it fit him well? Anyways, Twilight's gotten clues to Neighlantis's location courtesy of Captain Greta the Griffin (Celestia rest her soul) and Spent Thift, who finally unveils his full backstory to her, and ouch, talk about heartbreaking. (If anyone wants to write a spinoff story about the entire incident and how the Sharptooth ended up with it's crew missing, and in the Graveyard of Ships and how Spent escaped, you have my official permission to do so. Trust me, I'd love to see it! :raritywink: ) Next time... Well, I won't spoil it for you guys, but trust me, it'll be awesome.

(Note: Wildfire belongs to Sibsy so all credit for her creation goes to her.)

Part 12: Conversations (An Old "Friend" Part 1 of 3)

Manehatten: New Jersey District, Grape and Trixie's shared apartment...

"Mmm... Can please somepony close the drapes?" Trixie moaned as the sun shined in her and Grape's shared bedroom window, which had the blinds up and was wide open. The sun was just beginning to rise over the horizon casting it's orange and yellow glow over the sprawling cityscape of Manehatten. Grape looked out the window to see the sun behind the Statue of Liberty illuminating it in its warm and comforting glow. The weather was a far cry from what it had been last night, the pouring torrential rain being replaced with not even a cloud in the sky.

"I rather like the change of pace." Grape commented as he bathed in the warm sunlight with the old song "Sinnerman" playing in the background on a recording crystal. There was a distinct odor of sweat, and... something else as well perforating throughout the room, thanks to last night's activities between him and Trixie.

"That damn weather last night wasn't really my idea of a good time. Soaked to the bone, we were." Grape commented in an offhoof manner. "Cold and wet. Could have caught Pneumonia or some other Tartarus damned disease, like Diphtheria or somethin'."

"Pretty sure some rain won't give you Diphtheria, Trixie thinks." Trixie remarked. "Now close those damn drapes and get back in bed and give the Great and Powerful Trixie some Loving and Affectionate cuddles. Trixie demands it!"

Grape sighed, and closed the silver star covered drapes which were a dark blue color which worked nicely with Trixie's purple cape and wizard's hat that had been hung on a hat stand in a corner of the room near the bedroom door which led to the kitchen. Grape then got under the covers and put his glasses on the bedside table to the right of him and snuggled his head into the crook of Trixie's neck as Trixie wrapped her forelegs around his body and breathed in Grape's scent, which unsurprisingly, given his Floridian heritage smelled like oranges and given that he worked in a restaurant for vegetarians, other fruits as well, the most prominent being (Trixie chuckled softly to herself) grapes.

"I hate it when you get all assertive with me..." Grape mumbled as he nuzzled her and Trixie smirked at him.

"Don't think you were thinking that way last night." Trixie put in and Grape sighed. She was right, as always. There was never any use in arguing with Trixie, you always lost and she got her way in the end, for better or for worse. To be honest, Grape needed somepony like her in his life, somepony to smack him around the head when he was being an idjit and whenever he needed some sense knocked back into him, just as he often tried to do with his adoptive father.

"...In fact, I seem to remember you crying "Celestia above, Trix, just like that, make me your assistant!" over and OVER again." Trixie continued and Grape blushed a deep red. He actually said that? Grape took a long hard look at Trixie, her every feature, right down to her pale cerulean mane and eyes that were like a mirror he could lose himself in and sighed to himself. She was so beautiful and he wasn't exactly the picture of a handsome stallion nor was he particularly assertive or brave, or even being able to make it through the week without making a fool of himself somehow. Trixie looked at him quizzically, confused as to why he had stopped his cuddling of her.

"Something wrong?" Trixie asked in confusion and slight disappointment. Grape's cuddles always felt so nice. He was so loving, so attentive no matter what the situation, from something as simple as cuddling to something like dressing her up for one of her street shows.

"Trixie, why do you like me? I'm not brave, I'm not handsome, and I can't stop making a fool of myself. Why do you stick with me?" Grape asked desperately, hoping to finally find an answer to the question that bugged him ever since he and Trixie started dating.

"Because you're-"

And just before the answer could be given, Grape Vine woke up with a start and found himself in his bed on the Moby Dick. It was just a dream... No, it was more than that, a memory. A memory of the last morning she and him had spent together before he'd left on this Tartarus be damned crusade. Grape took out his pocketwatch from under his pillow and opened it, and upon seeing Trixie's face smiling back at him, he completely broke down and tears started streaming down his face and he put his face into his pillow and sobbed into it and cursing "Damnit Trixie, I said I loved you but then I left you and now look at all of what's happened..."

He could only hope he could make it up to her, somehow...

Elsewhere on the Moby Dick, Twilight sighed to herself sadly after letting out a big yawn, her mane not tied in its usual bun and in a messy fashion. She hadn't slept a wink at all last night. Ever since last night, she had felt incredibly guilty for accidently dragging Spent Thrift into the memories of his past and his late wife.

"Spent... You were the Number One aboard the Sharptooth?" Twilight asked in shock.

"DON'T CALL ME BY THAT TITLE!" Spent suddenly shouted, tears still coming from his eyes. "I failed her! I don't deserve that title anymore! Tartarus, I don't even deserve to be called her husband!"

"W-What happened?" Twilight asked nervously, suddenly very scared of Spent's fury. He took notice and looked ashamed of himself for scaring the young mare.

"You would have been overrun, it sounded like it was the whole crew after all, and probably would have been killed as well." Twilight replied, in an attempt to reassure her crewmate.

"...It would have been better that way." Spent growled before he walked off with Twilight watching him every step of the way with a sad expression on her face and let a tear slip from her eye...

"What have I done?" Twilight whispered to herself as she wandered aimlessly through the hallways of the Moby Dick not looking where she was going and accidently bumping head on into her adopted uncle, Fancy Pants, sending them both sprawling to the floor and knocking Twilight's glasses from her face and Fancy's monocle from his eye.

"Sorry! So sorry, if I had been looking where I was going...!" Twilight frantically apologized to her uncle as she scrambled for her glasses and hastily put them back on her face.

"Something on your mind?" Fancy asked as he put his monocle back into place and adjusted his suit and tie and dusted them off with a hoof.

"No... It's nothing..." Twilight lied, but Fancy could see right through her.

"Twilight, I know you're lying, and you haven't looked like you've slept a wink." Fancy replied sternly before his voice became softer again and put a hoof to her chin and lifted her tear stained face up to face his. "Now tell me what's the matter."

Twilight sighed, and dabbed away at her tears before telling her uncle everything, and he sighed deeply as he took it all in.

"By Celestia..." He murmured. "I knew Spent was always hiding something, always keeping secrets and he never told us why, but now I understand."

"What do I do Fancy?" Twilight asked desperately, unsure of what to do next.

"He can't keep this bottled up forever. He needs somepony to talk to." Fancy replied after a few moments of deep thought. Twilight suddenly got an idea.

"And I think I know just who that might be..." She smiled.

Sudoku Quartermane's Office

Currently, right now the pony in question was in the middle of a therapy session with a pure white feathered Griffin by the name of High Wind, alongside his wife, a unicorn with limestone grey fur.

"Okay, just to be clear now, she (Here he pointed to High Wind's wife) did not marry you for your penis. She married you just because she loves you." Sudoku sighed, a throbbing headache beginning to form. Little did he know it was about to get worse. And before you ask, this was the same couple Wild Fire was talking about in the previous chapter. Odd relationship, these two had if you ask the writer. Divorce might be a good suggestion.

"Then how come she always manages to fake her finish?" High Wind asked Sudoku who slapped a hoof to his forehead and sighed. Sometimes he really hated his job.

"And you know that how?" Sudoku questioned, a raised eyebrow from behind his glasses.

"B-Because a husband always knows these things!" High Wind stammered out. With a groan, Sudoku tossed two identical books from a nearby bookshelf to both High Wind and his wife. Both had different reactions. High Wind's wife screeched out "Book of Evil!" and burned it at once while High Wind himself took the book and began beating Sudoku over the head with it shouting "You dirty perv!"

After they'd stormed out, Sudoku nursing a big fat goose egg on his head sighed in resignation and thought "How did I ever get a degree as a relationship consular with this success rate? And besides, I thought all Griffins loved the dirty stuff? That's a new one, a prudish Griffin." as he reached for an icepack.

Meanwhile Grape was wandering the halls to Sudoku's office when he heard the sound of screaming coming from a bedroom. Eyes widening, he reached for one of his Colts and kicked the door in only to be met with a... rather interesting sight indeed involving Mister Gallants and Solar Blitz.

"OH MAH SWEET FAUST!"

"Aaah, ahh! Harder!" Solar Blitz panted out as she was in the middle of an... Well, guess.

Grape rapidly shut the door and thought to himself "Okay, firstly, need to discern between the different types of screams. And secondly, seriously talk to the Captain about inputting some serious internal fraterization rules aboard this ship. Yep, serious internal fraterization rules..." Little did he know he would never get that chance...

Eventually, he did make it to Sudoku's office and politely rapped on the door with a hoof and heard "Alright, already, I'm coming. I swear, if this is those two sisters coming to talk to me about constantly being mistaken for a couple..." and the sound of hoofsteps against carpet and then the door opened only for Grape to be greeted with an irritated Sudoku with an ice pack on his head, although that irritation soon changed to a smile when he saw Grape's face.

"Oh good, I thought it was somepony else." Sudoku sighed as he invited Grape in. His office was colored in pleasing and soft warm colors like yellow walls and pictures of things like kittens playing and other calming scenes. Grape and Sudoku sat on two couches opposite each other and the tan pegasus took out a notepad.

"Okay, first off, do I really want to know what that was all about or why you have an ice pack on your head?" Grape asked curiously and received an annoyed look in response.

"No, and definitely no." Sudoku repiled before his expression became soft and caring and Grape felt immediately at ease, unlike he had with about every other psychiatrist he'd been to, possibly because he knew this one beforehand. And so Grape explained his problems.

"...A-And that's just it. I feel inadequate. I mean, I'm not handsome, I'm not brave, I prefer to be shut in with my adventure novels, imagining myself in far off situations that'll likely never happen or studying music and for all I know Trixie's laughing at me, and going off on rendezvous with other stallions. I'm... I'm worthless to her, just like I'm worthless here." Grape whimpered and Sudoku actually got up off the couch and wrapped his wings around him in a hug before he released it and gave Grape a serious look.

"Listen, never tell yourself that. You're not worthless, you were appointed the ship's morale officer for a reason. Those songs and jokes of yours? They keep the crew happy and their minds off their problems, if only for a little while. Being appointed to that position, that shows how much the Captain really trusts you."

And he wasn't done yet.

"And as for bravery, facing down that Death God in the Ship Graveyard to give your fellow crewmates a chance to escape? If that's not courage, then I don't know what is. If I was in your position, I doubt, and I'm ashamed to admit this, I would have done the same thing."

"Now as for Trixie, if she truly loves you, you'd know, and from what you've said about her relationship with you, I think she does. If she doesn't love you and really is gallivanting off with other stallions, then she's a fool not to see you for what you really are."

He noted Grape fiddling with something in his jacket pocket and urged him to bring it out. When Grape did so, Sudoku gasped as in Grape's hoof was a small black box.

"Saved up all my money to get it, and I swear, if we ever get back from this journey, I will propose to her, especially with the confidence you've just given me."

Sudoku, with a smile and a tear in his eye watched as Grape left the room and a few minutes later, got another knock on the door. His job wasn't done yet it seemed...

"What do they call it? The never ending battle? But it's one I'm proud to fight." Sudoku mused.

Moby Dick: Bridge

Meanwhile, Rainbow Blaze was frowning to himself. The food stores for the pegasi and the Griffin's particular diets were running low, and although pegasi could eat fruit and regular pony food if they had to, the Griffins could not. Meat was needed, and it was needed now.

"Target, we have a problem with our food stores." Rainbow explained.

"Yeah, I'm aware. I checked when I was going for a mid-night snack last night." Target replied, and Rainbow raised an eyebrow.

"What, don't judge me! We all do it, feel the need to splurge on food from time to time." Target said defensively and Gallants nodded along with her and said "Mare's got a point."

Rainbow sighed (After sniffing the air, Gallants had a rather odd odor about him) and rubbed his temples with a hoof. "...Anyways, you've heard the problem. I need you to lead a small team and nab us some meat. A good few schools of fish will do I suspect."

"Oh oh!" Blast Powder piped up excitedly. "Can I help? Me and my sis can cook 'em up, Cajun style just like our daddy taught us!"

"NO! We need the fish intact, not blown to smithereens." She deadpanned and Blast Powder looked offended.

"I can show restraint. Is that so hard to believe?" She asked and everypony present gave her deadpan looks as Target continued.

"Yeah, sorry, but I'm not leading anypony out on a suicide mission. This particular stretch of water, it's a game trail. And do you know what hunts on game trails? Sharks! I'm not chancing a meeting with one of those bastards. Could swallow you whole in one gulp. Now see, there's another problem as well. Captain, it's all psychological. You yell barracuda, everypony says, "Huh? What?" You yell shark, we've got a panic on our hooves. Everypony gets stupid and everypony dies. End of story. Just like a Greek tragedy." She snapped, and she wasn't done yet. "And for the record, I'm not going to waste my time arguing with a man who's lining up to be a hot lunch on his date with a Kraken if it ever shows up!"

Just when Rainbow was about to snap at her, Gallents suddenly spoke up.

"Sir... We've got a problem. Something big just popped up on our scanners, and it's moving fast."

Rainbow's eyes widened.

"All engines, full stop, now, and go to Red Alert." He ordered. Back in Sudoku's office as he finished talking to Spent, (The contents of which will be covered in the next chapter in a flashback) he felt the Moby grind to a halt and the alarms began to blare and muttered "Oh, that can't be good."

Back on the Bridge, the entire Bridge crew just saw black outside their window. Pure black, until one truly gigantic red demonic like eye opened in front of them and the blackness began to move and writhe about... Almost... Almost like tentacles and then they glowed bright seaweed green with ancient runes. Rainbow's eyes widened in fear, along with everypony else as Rainbow whispered one word, the word that had haunted his nightmares for five long years.

"Kraken..."

(To Be Continued)

Author's Note

Okay, whew, longest chapter yet! First off, Fancy Pants, think I'd forgotten about him didn't you? Nope, he's still here, and from this chapter onwards will be back in more prominent roles. Plus, we get more Trixie. Originally, that part of the chapter would have been a one off one shot side story, but I figured that I might as well input it in the main story. Also, we finally get one of the Blast Sister's names! It was only a few days ago that I actually learned their names while finding a fic posted by their creator Dustchu, which made them Cajun and engaged in incest. (Personally I hate the all southerners are in love with their family members stereotype, but I'm not willing to make fun of it as shown here. After all, Dean and Sam from Supernatural got mistaken for a couple so many times and it never stopped being funny. So, that doesn't mean if I hate a stereotype, I'm not allowed to laugh at it. Mind you, not going to even try to write a Cajun accent as it's a real pain in the ass, plus it would contradict canon established with this story, as the Blast Sisters have never been heard speaking with a Cajun accent.) Anyways, Grape's issues with romance do reflect my real life problems with romance. I'm not handsome, I'm a complete nerd and a Brony to boot, and I'm a shut in. Let's face it, no woman's ever going to look at me twice with those kind of issues. So you can imagine Valentine's Day for the past few years has been pretty much Hell for me. But enough about my problems. Not too along ago, I made this video set to the Rossington Band's song Take it on Faith as a tribute to you guys and this story. Mind you, I had to take a few liberties for obvious reasons and the Moby Dick came out looking more like a shark than a whale, but...

And as for those thieves https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8u3GSSIdRzdcqnf8zcOdJQ/videos (William Toon) and https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4lWhcYU9k5TN5h1uAnCe2g/videos (My Little Comic), if you ever think about stealing my videos, just know that you already got Autum Breeze's followers trying to take you down, do you really want another author and his band after your scaly hides? Anyways, next time: The crew finds themselves way in too deep...

Part 13: In Too Deep (An Old "Friend" Part 2 of 3)

Author's Note

So, the great battle and long awaited battle between the Moby Dick and Kraken finally begins. And as I said, in this chapter, somepony is going to die...

Edit: Changed Spent's scene from him cutting himself to him just being a drunk on Not So New Brony's suggestion. Also edited out Ain't it a Sin? from the previous chapter.

Part 13: In Too Deep (An Old "Friend" Part 2 of 3)

Fancy Pants groaned in pain as his head struck the deck as the Kraken rammed the ship once more. Blood trickled from the wound. Fancy snarled to himself as he picked himself up off the deck and wiped away the blood from the side of his head. He could worry about injuries later. Right now, there were more important matters, like the safety of his crew to worry about.

“Cock! If that thing hits us again, we might just burst wide open. I’m already getting reports from multiple decks of internal flooding. We’ve sealed them off, but I don’t know how long she can hold together…” He mused mentally as he thought over his next move. He had to give the Kraken respect. It was a mighty beast, and deserved that kind of respect even if it had been the terror of the seas for centuries, rendering many a ship asunder. He could see the many tendrils of the creature, writhing and squirming outside the bridge’s main window as they reached for various parts of the ship and tried to break through its defenses.

Right now, the Kraken had latched onto the ship and had grabbed it in a hold and was trying to crush it. It had tried this several times before, but each time, Fancy had managed to put up the Moby’s defensive shielding. He thanked Faust for both Wild Fire’s and Silver Spanner’s ingenuity in diverting whatever power they could find to the shields to get multiple negative charges out of them to keep the Kraken off.

“Gallants, get this thing off my ship!” Fancy shouted even as the alarms blared and multiple warning signals flashed on every console in Fancy’s line of view.

“Again!” Gallants shouted, and once more the Moby’s runes glowed green and the Kraken was thrown soundly off. Fancy snarled as he adjusted his monocle. Suddenly, he heard a groaning and then the sound of metal tearing as Silver Spanner radioed in over the intercoms.

“Fancy, we’ve just lost one of our thrusters! That bleedin’ creature just ripped the whole damn thing off! We lose another one of those, and we’re dead meat, right for that thing’s fancy dinner plate!” She shouted. Fancy Pants made a quick choice.

“Divert all reserve power to the remaining thrusters. We need to be ready to get the Tartarus out of here if we can’t kill the Kraken!” Fancy ordered, but in his heart he knew running, or at least making a tactical retreat was the best option. He hadn’t survived the muck and the squalor of the Great War by charging headlong into battle against the overwhelming odds of the Kaiser. He was a commander of a flight squadron back in the RAF, so he knew when it was best to turn tail and run for it in a dignified tactical retreat.

Fancy flashed back to when he was back in the RAF, fighting in the skies above the Prench fields of Verdun. Down in the trenches, it was a losing battle. Every time the Belgians and Prench thought they had a opening, the Germanes just brought out bigger artillery. It was like they were one step ahead of them the whole time. Morale was dropping by the minute, just like it constantly was aboard the Moby Dick. The soldiers in Verdun even had a name for the road leading to battle. “The Road to Tartarus.” they called it. Honestly, the journey to Neighlantis was just like that at times. Fancy remembered a quote from the Germane General Erich Georg Anton von Falkenhayn. “The string in Prance has reached breaking point. A mass breakthrough—which in any case is beyond our means—is unnecessary. Within our reach there are objectives for the retention of which the Prench General Staff would be compelled to throw in every man they have. If they do so the forces of Prance will bleed to death.”

Fancy had even heard rumors of a Neighmerican mare faking her identity and going into battle as a Belgian, but he honestly didn’t know what to make of those rumors. Still, if they were true, she was a brave mare.

“Faust above, I’m lost in my reveries when I should be focusing on the battle right now, The one against the Kraken and the Moby Dick.” Fancy chastised himself as another slam against the bulkheads sent him crashing back to reality.

In the end, the battle in the skies turned against Fancy and his squadron was forced to pull out. And honestly, in the present time against the Kraken that was the best play he could make right now. He could feel the Kraken’s tendrils just squeezing the Moby Dick, and the metal groaning under the strain. Another ram was felt, and the bulkheads shuddered.

“Alright, you beast. I’m stallion enough to admit you have us outgunned, but not outsmarted,” Fancy muttered. He knew from the maps of the surrounding areas Twilight had provided that there was a small area nearby that the Moby Dick could squeeze through. Hopefully, that passage would get small enough for the creature to be simply too large to fit through.

Hopefully…

After all, it was a Captain’s duty to see his ship and crew to safety.

One Hour Ago: Sudoku’s Office...

Spent Thrift put his hooves into his face and sighed heavily to himself. Where could he begin? It was hard enough letting Twilight see him at his most vulnerable moment, but talking about it again to somepony else was another matter altogether. Sudoku laid a reassuring hoof on his shoulder.

“Just speak whenever you feel comfortable. You can take your time.” He said softly.

“A-Alright…” Spent replied softly. “It began around the time I married Greta, the Sharptooth’s captain. But you’ll need some backstory for this. As you probably know, the Sharptooth was sent on an expedition to find Neighlantis, just like what we’re doing now. Though it really was just some publicity stunt gone wrong. The expedition was just a sham being used to placate all the second class citizens, the griffins, zebras and the like. Show them that they could be heroes and earn the respect they wanted. Problem was, the Sharptooth was crap. It was an old decommissioned prototype sub that probably would have fallen apart mid-expedition if it weren’t for the chief mechanic.” Spent paused to sigh.

“Do you wish to have a moment?” Sudoku offered.

“Nah, just remembering the past. Anyway, I was assigned to the Sharptooth as first officer, or number one as Greta called me.” Spent said sadly before he continued, “Gilda, Greta’s best friend and long time first mate, wasn’t happy that I took her place. There was a big argument but we eventually agreed on a compromise where she’d be second officer, or second mate as she called it. The expedition started without issue and we searched for an underwater passage somewhere along the area of the sea known as the Lonely Mountain that would have led us to Neighlantis. Months passed and we were no closer to finding it than when we started. Morale was dropping fast.” Spent continued, tears beginning to form in his eyes as old memories were brought up.

“Did you ever find this passageway?” Sudoku inquired.

“Yeah… well, more like we stumbled on it while replenishing our food stores. But we were low on fuel and if we had gone down that passage, we would have been dead in the water. We had to turn back. But one thing neither me nor Greta counted on was greed. Everyone wanted to get to Neighlantis and the treasures they thought were in it. The bastards probably thought they could use it to get themselves better lives amongst the upper classes and show them that they were worth something too. It was inevitable really what happened next. I had begun to pick up rumors amongst the crew of Gilda starting a mutiny. If… If I had put a stop to this sooner, what happened next might not be on my head.” Spent continued, the tears now streaming down his face.

“If you don’t want to continue, that’s okay. I can tell this is really difficult for you to talk about.” Sudoku said.

“No… No, I have to. I have to get this out of my system. The mutiny happened. Gilda took control of the crew and turned them against me and Greta. They killed all the navy personnel and those that refused to join them. I somehow escaped and tried to get to Greta… but I was too late.” Spent said as he kept crying.

Sudoku stayed silent as he listened to the broken stallion cry for his wife.

“I… I was forced to watch as they shot her in the back three times and then they saw me. I ran, I took down as many of those bastards as I could as I headed for the pods. I ejected as many as I could, letting those traitorous rats get what was coming to them, but I got into the last one and just ran. I eventually made it to an island and made it back to civilization.”

“Then how come the government didn’t tell the public what happened on the Sharptooth?” Sudoku inquired.

“There was a damn cover up. Tensions among the population were high. The government didn’t want the cause of the expedition’s failure to get out and create havoc and ruin whatever reputation they had left. They even paid me to keep my silence.” Spent said as he took out the bag of coins he always carried with him.

“I finally found love but I lost it...for this?” Spent said as he looked at the bag before tossing it away. “If I had just warned Greta sooner, this wouldn’t have happened and she would still be alive!” Spent snarled as he reached into his jacket and took out a small steel flask which he opened and started drinking from. Sudoku frowned and wrenched the flask out of Spent's hoof. "Hey! That's mine!"

Sudoku held Spent at bay as he held the flask close to his chest but nearly gagged at how strong the liquor inside smelled. "Stop this Spent! You can't drown your sorrows like this! You won't find peace at the bottom of this flask!"

"Whether I drink or not is none of your Celestia damn business. Now give that back!" Spent shouted as he made another lunge for the flask.

"What if Greta could see you now, blaming yourself like this...what would she think?" Sudoku asked.

"She'd think I was right! I could have saved her! If I had just been faster, I could have saved her!" Spent said tearfully before Sudoku pulled Spent into his arms and as soon as he did, Spent broke down as he sobbed into Sudoku's tan fur. "I'm sorry Greta, it was my fault. It was my fault!"

Sudoku didn't say anything as he just patted Spent's back comfortingly and let him cry his heart out. Eventually, Spent's tears stopped flowing, so he got up. His face was a mess as his eyes were red from the crying and his muzzle was smeared with tears. Sudoku gave Spent a towel he kept for these kinds of situations and waited patiently as Spent cleaned himself up.

"Thanks...I needed that." Spent said.

"Everyone needs a good cry once in a while, even us stallions." Sudoku said before Spent passed the towel back to him. "Er, you can keep that."

"Oh, right..." Spent said when he noticed how damp the towel was before he let out a laugh, "You know, this is the first thing I ever got from another guy that wasn't a punch to the face for flirting with his girl. Er, sorry about trying to seduce your wife. I didn't know she was married."

"It's fine, I'm more sorry for what Target did to you." Sudoku said as he thought back to the scene and winced from what he witnessed back then. Just then, something rocked the bulkhead and alarms began to blare.

“What was that?” Sudoku asked.

“Trouble.” Spent replied grimly.

45 minutes ago: The Bridge…

“NO! NO! NO! It can’t be him!” Was the general train of thought going through Captain Rainbow Blaze’s head at that very moment, as he stared down and peered into the sightless demonically bloody red eyes of the Kraken, which seemed to stare right back at him, unblinking and unrelenting. Every detail from five years ago was the same, right down to the glowing green tendrils and the blinded eye from the Barracuda’s Tartarus-Piercer.

“...We’re going to need a bigger sub.” Twilight squeaked to herself, her father’s diary falling right out of her hooves and landing on the metallic floor below with a soft thudding sound.

“Bloody Tartarusfire.” Fancy whispered as he rubbed his monocle with a handkerchief to make sure he wasn’t seeing things. “I… I never thought he was real!” Old age is always wakeful, as it seemed to Fancy as if, the longer one was linked with life, the less man ought with that looks like the maws of his death. Perhaps now this was the meaning of death of which Herman Melville spoke.

“...You gotta be kidding me.” Mister Gallants said, completely astounded.

“Ah knew this here scenario would happen, Ah knew it. Ah just knew it.” Grape muttered to himself, curled up in a corner, whispering these words to himself, almost as a mantra.

“Celestia above in Heaven, Hallowed be thy name, save us from this monstrosity, this beast from not just the abyss, but the fires of Tartarus below.” Twilight said to herself, as she took out a small emblem of the sun and began to recite a prayer. Rainbow’s head whirled around to face the Blast Sisters.

“Get those explosives ready! We’re about to blow this damn thing back to it’s maker, Tirek below!” He roared, and as if he was Captain Ahab reborn, he snarled as he got up off his chair and his cutie mark of twin harpoons crossed never looked so potent and so fitting at that moment in time. He was a stallion possessed, and both Grape Vine and Fancy Pants knew it.

At that very moment, Fancy remembered a quote from Moby Dick, the novel which gave the great ship her name and was becoming more and more true by the hour. “I have no objection to any pony’s religion, be it what it may, so long as that pony does not kill or insult any other pony, because that other pony don’t believe it also. But when a man’s religion becomes really frantic; when it is a positive torment to him; and, in fine, makes this Equus of ours an uncomfortable inn to lodge in; then I think it high time to take that individual aside and argue the point with him.”

That was what Fancy was thinking of his Captain as he became more and more frantic in his quest to kill the great black squid of death, the Devil Fish, the Kraken.

“Fire one!” Rainbow ordered, and the first of the torpedos fired even as the tendrils closed in on the tiny sub. And it was tiny, at least in comparison to the truly gigantic mass of the squid which had beset itself upon it. Fancy could only imagine the size of the squid compared to a small fishing craft like the late Barracuda. There was a great explosion and silt from the ocean floor was stirred up obscuring the vision of the crew outside the window.

“We’re going to live!” Somepony, from the sound of their voice the crewmember probably being Ender Knight shouted.

But then, as the smoke cleared, to their horror, the Kraken was completely intact.

“...Nope, we’re all going to die.” Silverspeed deadpanned.

“Fire two!” Rainbow shouted yet again, and the second torpedo was fired but like before, not a single scratch mark was laid upon the Kraken.

“So… That’s what it’s come to eh?” Rainbow snarled. “Ram him! Let’s show this creature the power of this sub! All forward shielding to maximum!”

"Sir, maybe it's best we retreat?" Gallants suggested, but was soundly ignored.

"NO! I'm going to kill this creature if it's the last thing I do! Now ram him again!" Rainbow roared, a stallion possessed.

"It may very well be the last thing any of us do if the Captain doesn't see sense..." Gallants mused to himself but carried out his orders anyways. And so, with a great show of force, the Moby Dick headbutted the Kraken on the beak, all forward shields at maximum power and the entire forefront of the submarine glowing as green as the Kraken itself, it slammed itself into the monster from the depth’s of Discord’s wildest nightmares. The Kraken’s beak shattered! At last, a blow! And from this, Rainbow Blaze crowed in triumph.

“Now how’s that feel, you bastard? That was for my crew, and so is this! Fire the Tartarus-Piercer, Mark 2! We’ll get this creature in it’s very brain, we’ll see how it’ll manage to fight back with a lobotomy done to it!”

And so, with great clanking and whirring sounds, great gears grinding and steam valves hissing, the very top of the Moby Dick opened and a great harpoon cannon with a silver tip painted red in a crimson shade like blood was revealed, and launched its payload right where the Kraken’s brain would have been. But to everypony’s shock, it shattered upon impact.

“I… I don’t believe it! The damn thing’s head is armored!” Gallants squawked in disbelief. It wasn’t really surprising really, if one thought about it. The brain is the most important organ in the body, aside from the heart so it makes sense a highly evolved creature would have created armor to protect itself from damage to it’s most sensitive areas.

“Ram him again!” Rainbow roared, but suddenly he heard a clicking sound from behind him. The sound of a Colt Revolver cocking. He whirled his head around to see Grape Vine with a gun pointed right at him. Grape Vine knew what he had to do. His captain, his father had gone mad in his quest to exterminate the Kraken and avenge his crew, but in doing so he was putting the rest of ship and its crew in danger. Now it had all come full circle. Now Grape Vine understood what one of those visions meant and when it was supposed to come to pass. That time was now.

"F-From T-Tartarus's Heart I stab at thee." Grape Vine whispered in sorrow and fired, hitting Rainbow several times in the chest and sending him sprawling to the floor, blood gushing from his wounds, and rapidly forming a puddle on the deck. Grape rushed over to his adoptive father and began whispering “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” over and over again. Rainbow, using some of the last of his strength he had left, grabbed him by the chest and stared him straight down.

“No… No, I’m sorry. I led you on this quest, not to find some damn long lost treasure, but to find this beast, and I found it, and in doing so put you, one of the ponies I care about most in danger. That’s not what a father should ever do. Now you listen to me, and listen hard. There’s three things I want you to do for me.” Rainbow said, coughing up blood. “One, stop blaming yourself for every little thing that goes wrong. Two, when you get back to Manehatten, marry that girl of yours. She’s the one for you, I know it. I’ve seen you two together, you’re absolutely perfect for each other. Finally… Do me a favor and I want you to promise me this… When you and Trixie do get married, don't go after the Kraken like I did, just take care of my little girl..."

And then as Grape held his father’s hoof, Rainbow breathed his last. The great sea captain was dead.

“I… I promise.” He whispered.

Right Freaking Now!

Fancy snarled as he made his choice. The crew, despite the loss of Rainbow Blaze had adapted quickly to the change in captaincy. They did not have time to mourn, did not have time to grieve. What was more important right now was staying alive. The loss of a great individual, flawed as he was, could be dealt with later. Right now the crew’s only focus was on outrunning the great beast that which pursued them.

“Mister Gallants, divert all power to the remaining thrusters! We’re getting out of here!” Fancy boomed over the chaos and din of the Kraken’s repeated shrieking sounds as it roared in anger as it’s prey tried to elude it.

“Don’t have to ask me twice sir!” The griffin shouted back before taking one last look at what used to be his best friend and crossing himself.

“May you find peace in the skies and seas above us of which we can never know on this mortal plane.” Gallants mused.

“Silver Spanner, what’s the damage report? How soon can you get the aft shields up?” Fancy asked over the comms. In the engine room, lights were flashing red everywhere and water was pouring in from every direction. Both Wild Fire and Silver Spanner made a dash for the nearest door and sealed off that section of the boiler room just as it flooded.

“Well, I’ve got good news, and bad news. Actually, that’s a bleedin’ lie. It’s all bad news down here.” Silver Spanner reported. “We just lost one of out main boilers. Been completely flooded, it has. Aft shields, completely fried from Rainbow’s repeated use of them to ram the Tartarus out of that beastie out there. ‘Ey, speaking of which, where’s Rainbow Blaze? I’m used to him shouting my ears off, I am.”

“He’s…” Fancy trailed off, unable to speak. Both Silver Spanner and Wild Fire shared a look.

“Dear Faust…” Wild Fire whispered as Silver Spanner crossed herself with a hoof, a single tear slipping from her eye before her normal demeanor resumed itself.

“Well, isn’t that just damn great! Now we’ve gone from an actual sea captain who knows his way round a ship to a ‘effing rich berk who just rolls in money while the rest of us try to make due with what little we have!” She snapped, and Fancy’s temper finally flayed.

“NOW LISTEN HERE! I AM A FORMER COMMANDER OF THE RAF, SO I THINK I KNOW HOW TO LEAD PONIES AND WORK MY WAY AROUND A DAMN CRISIS, SO CLAM UP YOUR MUZZLE AND DO GET US SOME GOOD NEWS!” Fancy roared, and thoroughly quayed, Silver Spanner growled and held up a wrench before tossing it to Wild Fire and pulled out another wrench of her own.

“Y-Yes sir.” She stammered out before muttering to herself “Alright Spanner, time to work one of your famous miracles…”

It was Silver Spanner’s time to shine, and she knew if she didn’t think of something fast, they were as good as dead…

(To Be Continued…)

Part 14: In Troubled Waters (An Old "Friend" Part 3 of 3)

Fancy snarled as the Kraken fired green spiraling energy beams with the sound of lightning cracking from the ends of it’s tendrils that scored blow after blow on the already weakened Moby Dick. Small explosions rocked the ship, and sent poor Twilight into the side of a console, drawing blood. Spent Thrift abandoned his position at his own console and quickly grabbed ahold of her and inspected the head wound.

“You alright, Twilight?” He asked, calling her by her given name for the first time, a showing of his change in demeanor.

“Y-Yeah, I’ll live…” Twilight murmured as Spent bandaged up her head wound and stopped the bleeding. “Though for how much longer is a good question with the Kraken hounding us like a bat out of Tartarus.”

“Well, we’ll just have to go faster than it then,” Spent murmured before his head whirled around to face the now Commander Fancy.

“How goes the repairs on the thrusters?” He asked as he looked worriedly at the consoles all around him. Damage reports were in the red and a klaxon was blaring at an almost deafening tone. With a snarl, he unholstered a shotgun from his back, before pumping it and firing at the klaxon bursting it open like a pinata.

“There, that ought to shut that thing up. Least it’ll do is help our ears a bit,” Spent thought to himself, though a loud screech from the Kraken cut that train of thought off right at the crossing. “Then again, with that thing bellowing at us we may lose our hearing yet.”

“Celestia above, I hope somepony figures out a way to kill it before it kills us, or worse… makes us all go deaf.” Spent muttered before Twilight gave him a stare.

“You might need to reexamine your priorities.” She deadpanned before Silver Spanner answered over the comms, the headset making her voice crackle.

“You don’t want to know, boys. That thruster… Lost to us entirely. I’m working on getting an alternate source of power to the shielding but I’m not making any promises mates.” She said, before there was another explosion that sent Twilight flying out of Spent’s forelegs and into Night Glider, knocking her down. With a blush, Twilight helped the night blue pegasus up and whispered a small “Sorry.”

Night Glider smirked a flirty grin.

“It’s alright, wouldn’t be the first time a mare barreled me over for my affections.” She teased, making Twilight blush red and Night Glider cackle before another explosion sent Night Glider into Twilight’s arms.

“H-Horseshoe’s on the other foot now, i-isn’t it?” Twilight teased, still blushing as red as a tomato. Night Glider could only snicker.

“You’re getting good at the jokes. I’m surprised no filly or colt your age has asked you out on a date yet.” Night Glider complimented.

“W-Well… I… Uh…” Twilight stammered, unable to come up with a good response to that.

“Shame, bet they’re missing out on a really good time. It’s always the quiet ones, y’know.” Night Glider continued to tease.

“Oh will, you stop your flirting?” Silver’s voice yelled after she muttered out a curse while hitting something hard with a metallic object, probably one of her infamous wrenches. “Starting to sound like a Dostoevsky novel up there.”

“Weren’t those novels filled with lots of sob stories?” Twilight asked her.

“Pretty sure there was some romance in them… Or maybe it was that trashy porn novel I picked up in Sudoku’s office.” Silver responded, in a tone of voice that made it impossible to tell if she was being entirely serious or not.

“...What was your name again egghead?” Wildfire’s voice asked in a questioning tone.

“Her name is Twilight Sparkle, but you can call her “Idiot” for not knowing her Dostoevsky novels!” Silver deadpanned before she hit something again. Twilight was somehow beginning to get the feeling the thing feeling the abuse and being hit with a wrench was Wildfire.

“Damn it Spanner, get us something we can use!” Commander Fancy snarled over the comms.

“Well, here’s a thought… You’ve got custom made artillery by the Blast Sisters and that company of theirs, whatever its name is… SO START BLOODY USING IT!” She snapped back. “It should make a nice boom.”

Fancy nodded before shouting “Powder, Fuse! You know what to do.”

“Time to make things…” Blast began in rising excitement.

“Go boom?” Powder continued, finishing her twin’s sentence and Fancy nodded before both mares hoofbumped and yelled out in unison. ”Finally, we thought you’d never ask for what we call BOOM TIME!”

Fuse smirked before she said “Alright, it’s finally time to break out the big guns! Time for us ragin’ cajuns to show that there oversized octopus the meaning of HEAVY artillery!”

She then slammed a hoof on a big red button on Gallant’s console marked “In case of emergency only!!!” and with heavy clanking and whirring sounds, the bottom of the Moby Dick opened up and a huge double barreled cannon was revealed turning itself all 180 degrees to fact the Kraken behind. The barrels extended and lit up bright red and made audible humming sounds of magical charges loading up. Then, the weapon the twosome nicknamed “How we do things down South” fired its payload. With heavy thudding sounds that sounded like thunder breaking open through the atmosphere, crimson red balls of magic were unleashed at the Kraken and hit it with tremendous force doing damage to it’s armor again and again.

“Hope you can smile even without a beak, you sunnuva bitch,” Powder snarled.

“Now, we’re making pro-” She smirked before soundly being cut off as the Kraken shrieked again and fired more energy blasts and another series of explosions rocked the ship.

“...Hey, wasn’t this thing compared to the Titantic? Y’know, unsinkable?” Twilight pondered.

“Wasn’t the Titantic a giant luxury cruise liner that hit an iceberg and we’re in a submarine that’s being attacked by a giant squid?” Silverspeed deadpanned.

“OCTOPUS!” Twilight corrected. “And the point still stands!”

“Well, guess we’re going down with the ship. Like I said before… We’re all going to die.” Silverspeed replied still in that deadpan tone of voice.

“Not today we aren’t,” Fancy snarled as he looked out the sub’s window and saw what looked to be a giant Neighponise style gate made of solid stone in front of them.

“Powder, Fuse, as soon as that thing gets below the gate, smash it to pieces!”

“Got it!” Powder responded with a salute. It wasn’t long before the Moby passed under the gate and soon the Kraken was nearing it as well.

“NOW!” Fancy barked.

With twin blasts of magic, the gate was smashed in two down the middle and the remains crumbled on top of the Kraken, burying it in the rubble.

“T-That thing must have taken thousands of years to build! Thousands!” Twilight stammered out in shock.

“Who might need to reexamine whose priorities now, Twilight?” Spent thought with a chuckle.

“And what, we just killed a Kraken with it in what… Oh, ten seconds?” Fuse asked with a laugh.

“No, not kill. Only buy us some time and give us some breathing room.” Fancy muttered knowing perfectly well that dropping a gate on top of the Kraken wouldn’t kill it. Even as he wiped sweat off his brow in relief at their very narrow escape before Spent spoke up.

“...Guys, I know where we are. We just passed the Neighlantis gate.” He said, stunned beyond belief. Fancy let that sink in for a moment before his expression turned firm.

“Alright, that does it. I’m calling a meeting in the Captain’s personal quarters with all senior members and Twilight at 1800 hours. We’ll discuss our options from there and see if we can think up a way to actually finally find a way to kill that Kraken, and let Twilight tell us how we get from here…” Fancy said before taking a deep breath. “To Neighlantis.”

Fancy sighed as he adjusted himself in Rainbow Blaze’s chair. He felt uncomfortable sitting in it, it wasn’t his chair nor desk he was sitting at, it was the Captain’s. Fancy knew he could never take up that position, Rainbow had led the crew this far, despite a few… minor missteps along the way. He looked skywards even as the hour hand ticked down.

“Rainbow, wherever you are, I hope you can send me some sort of sign that I’m cut out for this job, and not just filling in for you like I deeply suspect half the crew thinks I probably am. I’m just a simple RAF Commander, not a sea captain who led his crew through treacherous storms and brought down mighty beasts time and time again. Bloody Tartarus… Silverspeed’s probably right, we’re all going to die aren’t we? Please… Somepony give me a sign that I’m wrong.”

Fancy waited for a few minutes, and when he received no answer he slammed a hoof on the desk and swore quietly to himself. Something shattered and hit the floor. Fancy at once looked downwards to what had fell. It was a glass framed picture of Rainbow playing with a younger filly that looked almost exactly like him, except with a lighter shade of blue as her fur color with Grape Vine looking on the background smiling even as he polished a speargun mounted to a wall. Fancy somehow got the feeling this was one of the few happy moments Rainbow ever had in his sadly too short of a lifetime.

Fancy’s resolved tightened. He’d lead this crew to safety, no matter what it took, if only to get Rainbow Blaze a proper sendoff and to help Grape fulfill his adoptive father’s last dying wish. That was his main goal now, not to find the treasure of Neighlantis and prove it existed. That one was still on his to do list, as he still had a promise to keep to Night Light, but he wanted more than anything for a little filly to have a father figure in her life. He knew the feeling all too well of growing up without a dad, his father had passed away when he was just a colt, and it was only his nannies and servants that kept him well-fed and the like. But money didn’t solve all of the world’s problems. Sometimes… All you needed was somepony to love you. Fancy didn’t have that luxury growing up. He would make sure that this little filly did.

With a little bit of help from Spent Thrift, Twilight sat up a very heavy projector on top of a table and let the film reels roll as she cleared her throat and began a speech she had always wanted to say.

“Take it away, Miss Sparkle.” Fancy said.

“O-Okay… Say there was a city, a great one with technological and architectural advances far beyond ours, even today. To give you an idea of what the city might have been like during its golden age, here is an artist's impression of it." Twilight said before advancing to the first slide, only to her great embarrassment find herself showing a slide of herself trying on an inner tube and snorkel for the first time.

“Why does this always happen…?” She thought as she blushed red and Silver Spanner snickered.

“Sheesh… I used to take lunch money from girls like this.” She muttered before Night Glider smacked her in the arm and hissed “Be nice!”

“A-Anyways, let's move on shall we?" She stammered before finding the right picture, a beautiful piece of artwork depicting the lost city as it might have been. There were gleaming spires resembling but not quite Greek design, and a grand temple in the middle of the city as ponies walked in the streets. Other buildings were built in styles resembling that of other ancient cultures like the Mayans giving the impression that Neighlantis was the source of all great civilizations that were known today. Twin statues of Kitsunes flanked a grand palace with ancient runes written above the entrance.

Twilight quickly checked her father’s book for the translation and it read “The Dragon’s Den”. Twilight frowned to herself, nothing about Neighlantis said anything about dragons or even hinted at it.

Then she showed another piece of artwork, of the same city falling into the seas and being swallowed up by the very ocean which it rested upon.

“How… How did that happen?” Spent questioned and Twilight quickly flipped through her father’s notes.

“I… I’m not quite sure. My dad’s journal mentions a great power but nothing more. It’s not quite clear.” Twilight murmured causing Silver to mutter out “Wonderful…”

“Facts on this city are quite hard to come by, if you haven’t noticed.” Twilight deadpanned before she looked at a particular passage and her face paled, going white as a ghost as she let out a small “Oh dear.”

“What? What is it?” Fancy asked in worry.

“...There’s a guardian.” Twilight squeaked out in a small tone of voice.

“Of course there is…” Silver Spanner muttered as she thrust her forelegs up in the air.

“They call it the Leviathan. It was mentioned in the Book of Job, some sort of giant sea beast. Probably some sort of tall tale to scare off the locals, but after meeting the Kraken, I’m not quite so sure.”

She then quickly re-read the passage again and her face paled even further, if that were possible.

“Oh boy… Crap, crap, and more crap,” Twilight muttered. “That guardian… It also goes by the name The Devil Fish and we all know what that means.”

A collective silence filled the room.

“It gets worse. That Kraken, it won’t stop hunting us, no matter what.”

“Is there any way to escape it?” Fancy asked, with a hint of worry in his tone. Spent nodded.

“Yeah, there is. There’s a little passage, goes down into the depths of the Lonely Mountain and then goes right back up again into an open cavern. Gets very tight. It’s quite difficult to put into words. Just imagine it as one of those grease traps in your sink, if you will.” Spent explained.

“Don’t think the Kraken can follow us there, can it? Damn thing’s just too big.” Powder said with her twin nodding along with her.

“You’re forgetting one important fact. How big is this sub again?” Fancy pointed out, and everypony nodded as this simple fact sunk in.

“We’ll just take the Sub Pods in through and leave the Moby Dick for the Kraken to have as it’s meal ticket. We’re going to blow this sub up, and hopefully take that beast with it.” Fancy said firmly. “As far as I can see, an implosion of that size and magnitude will be the only thing to finally kill that creature.”

“As much as I hate to destroy my baby…” Silver Spanner trailed off. “You’re right, we’re going to have to take that thing out by whatever means necessary before it gets us.”

Commander Fancy nodded grimly.

“Then it’s settled. We’re blowing the Moby Dick.”

Part 15: "From Hell's Heart, I stab at thee."

The klaxon continued to blare as anything and everything that could be managed to be fit inside a truck was loaded up. Vehicles varied from 6x4 Lanchester Armored Cars to Technical Improvised Fighting Vehicles or TIFVs for short. But perhaps the most notable of all was a huge half-tracked drilling machine powered by twin boilers and hissing hot steam. Rather frighteningly, there was a warning painted in big red letters on the back of the drilling machine. It read:

“Blast and Powder, please stay away from this vehicle AT ALL TIMES!”

Once these vehicles were loaded up, they themselves were loaded up into giant sub-pods.

Once again, the klaxon, despite warning of imminent danger, in this case, a sub that had been set to implode, was starting to grate on everypony’s nerves.

“Okay, that’s enough out of you,” Spent muttered and once again fired his shotgun at the klaxon hitting it dead on. Ender Knight trotted up with a look of disbelief on his face.

“You do realize those things are there for a reason, right?” Ender deadpanned. “I mean, it’s not like everypony’s all in danger or anything when those things are blaring.”

Spent gave him an equally deadpan look as he re-holstered his shot-gun. “Well, considering we’re about to blow this rustbucket, which I might add is going to implode anyways so those things are going with it, I don’t think it really matters.”

“...Point.” The stone gray unicorn admitted. Nearby, Twilight was starting, her mouth slack-jawed with a look of shock upon her muzzle as both Powder and Fuse loaded up as many explosives as they could into an old Germane army half-track troop transport. The German flag symbol had been painted over with the word “Liberté!”

“Do I really want to know what it is you’re loading into that thing… Or how you even liberated a Great War era half-track?” Twilight asked with more than a hint of trepidation in her voice.

Fuse chuckled before smiling and booping Twilight on the nose making her face scrunch up in a rather cute manner. She chuckled before saying “That’s for us to know and for you… Well, to not to.”

Powder on the other hoof smirked “As for your first question... Oh, ehh, gunpowder, nitroglycerin, notepads, fuses, wicks, glue, and uhh… Paperclips. Big ones,” she commented in a carefree manner using her hooves to gesture how big the paperclips indeed were. They really were quite big, if the distance between her two front hooves was to be correct. “You know, just, eh, your basic office supplies.”

“How does gunpowder even count as… Wait, strike that, I don’t even want to know.” Twilight mused to herself as she walked off muttering “This whole crew is crazy. Completely crazy. Wouldn’t be surprised if I was crazy by the end of this trip.”

Elsewhere, Wildfire and Silver Spanner were having to break up a fight between two of Sudoku’s clients, with the pegasus himself watching in the background as he leaned up against a wooden crate and sighing to himself.

“Now listen you two, my advice…” Wildfire began in a calm and thoughtful manner before shouting “GET A DAMN DIVORCE!”

“Probably should, England must never merge with Prance anyhow,” Silver commented, completely missing the point entirely. “Though to be honest, with the way those two go at it, sadly… It already has... many, many times.”

“That’s what I’ve been thinking about those two the whole trip, even before I got hit on the head by a piece of pornography.” Sudoku mused to himself, rubbing his head with a wing without even realizing it.

Fancy then walked into the room, and Gallants put his claws into his mouth and let out a sharp whistle.

“Everypony, stand attention! Commander on deck!” He yelled and the various crewmembers dropped whatever they were doing and saluted. Fancy nodded in approval.

“Good, now you all know the crisis on our hooves and what we are about to do. I make no qualms in saying this, this is our darkest hour. We’re gambling here on a myth and old maps that may lead us to nothing but death. But in truth, during when the skies were alight with gunfire during the battles of the Great War against the Germane menace, I was gambling as well. Me and my squadron nicknamed the Flying Freedoms, we gambled with our lives every day, knowing we could get shot down and torn to pieces by enemy fighters at any given moment. But I survived that, and I’m willing to believe we can survive this,” Fancy spoke, remembering the gun and cannon fire, the explosions and the dying screams of the wounded. “Now, we set out on this journey with the mission to find Neighlantis. We’ve already lost crewmembers, and we’ll probably lose more. But I will be DAMNED to the fiery pits of Tartarus itself if I don’t complete this mission, whether it be Tartarus or High Tides or even that bloody Kraken standing in our way. I made a promise to a very dear friend of mine to prove this legend existed, and I don’t intend to break that promise. Not now, not ever. And I’m glad I have you lot by my side, as you could be the finest crew any Commander, or Captain could ask for. Thank you. Thank you all.”

With that, he was greeted with a round of applause and stomping hooves before Gallants spoke up. “Well, what are you swabbies waiting for eh? We’ve got jobs to do before that Calamari to be gets here and gets served up on one VERY big silver platter!”

Soon, it was time. With narrowed eyeballs, Fancy watched the Kraken remove itself from the rubble of the Neighlantis gate, with silt from the sea-beds being stowed up in huge clouds. The Devil Fish’s tendrils began glowing green and it’s single remaining eye narrowed in anger. It let out a loud screech before heading right for the Moby Dick.

Fancy turned to Blast and Powder and looked at them.

“Are the charges ready?”

They both nodded and Fancy sighed and looked at his chair one last time with a mournful expression. “Time to give the order. Ah well, for what it’s worth, this sub was probably a waste of money anyhow.” He mused to himself.

“Okay, once we’re far enough away from the Moby, blow them.” Fancy said and both sisters nodded before Fancy gave the one order he never wanted to ever give again in his lifetime.

“All hands, abandon ship! I repeat, abandon ship!” He yelled over the comms, the order reaching every portion of the submarine. Everypony ran for the sub-pods and strapped themselves in. Fancy was the last to reach his personal pod, sitting right beside his adopted niece. The pod compartments opened themselves up to the deep and water began to fill the area around the pods as with tiny explosions they burst free from their housings.

The Kraken wrapped it’s tendrils around the Moby Dick and began to crush it as the sound of metal began to groan and creak under the strain.

“NOW!” Fancy yelled. Charges placed all over the sub, in very specific locations blew one by one and the whole area around the sub shook as Fancy yelled “Here comes the shock wave! Brace for impact!”

Each and every sub was sent flying off in various directions as the Moby imploded and took the Kraken with it, the water around them being filled with red blood. Fancy sighed in relief. That creature was dead at last. Then, they entered the tunnels that led to where Neighlantis’s second gate was supposed to lay, waiting for them. In their own sub-pod, Grape and Ender held onto each other screaming at the top of their lungs. In Fancy’s pod, Twilight whispered to herself as she held onto a cross around her neck: “It's only a grease trap, it's just like a sink, it's only a grease trap, it's just like a sink… IT’S JUST LIKE A SINK!”

Just then, Silverspeed’s pod flew by and slammed into Silver Spanner’s who flipped her off with a hoof as they collided. Then, her eyes widened in horror as she saw Silverspeed’s pod hit a cavern wall and go up in a fiery explosion with Spanner’s own pod emerging from the flames outer shell scorched.

“It’s getting tighter!” she shouted. “Damnit Spent, you better be right about this! We just lost Silverspeed!”

“I am! I am!” Spent shouted back at her. “I know my information! I was down this route before, remember! ...Just not this far down it, that’s all.”

Silver muttered something quite rude under her breath as she slammed her head against the console and muttered “She was right, we’re all going to die. Hate to admit it, but the bloody cloud-hoofer was right. ...My sister always did have the last laugh, even in death it seems.”

Then, she saw the tunnel opening up and saw a light ahead and poured on the speed shouting “”Everypony, follow my lead! We’re getting out of here!”

Part 16: Remembrance

The Neighlantic Ocean: Unknown Location: Unknown Depth:
The splash of the Sub-Pods breaking the surface of a small pool, situated in front of a temple of unknown origin and age was like a breath of fresh air for the remaining crew of the Moby Dick. The deep-sea voyagers had endured many perils to even get this far, so reaching this destination was like reaching the climax of a book. They knew the worst had to be over, and now it was all downhill from here, so to speak. But this breath of fresh air was not without a great feeling of loss. Their captain, along with far too many of their other crewmates were dead. Silver Spanner sniffled, the shock of losing her sister, and perhaps her only real friend, finally setting in. She was gone, lost to the dark abyss below. And the last words she said to her, if not verbally, while she was alive were ones of pure anger.

“It’s getting tighter!” she shouted. “Damnit Spent, you better be right about this! We just lost Silverspeed!”

“I am! I am!” Spent shouted back at her. “I know my information! I was down this route before, remember! ...Just not this far down it, that’s all.”

Silver slammed a hoof on her console in rage, anger, sadness, or perhaps even frustration. She honestly couldn’t pin down what it was.

“Why… Why can’t I take it all back? I… I flipped her off and then… Fire and death. That’s all she knew. She probably died thinking I bloody hated her,” Silver Spanner sobbed quietly to herself “Honestly… If I could, I would take her place. She was a better pony than me, that’s for damn sure.”

She then flashed back to better days, when the twosome weren’t quite so estranged.

Sixteen Years Ago: 1915: The United Kingdom: Silver Family home:

Two sisters trembled in their room, late one night as a radio blared of the ongoing crisis of the Western Front of what was called the Great War, or as history later termed it World War One. The entirety of Europe had become engulfed in a hellfire of chaos that would do the ancient chaos deity Discord proud. Honestly, some suspected he was laughing at them, the devil. Mind you, neither Silver Spanner nor her older sister could comprehend the muck, the squalor and the madness. Nopony could really. All they knew was that the calm peacefulness of the world they knew had been shattered, all thanks to the arsehole that had shot Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria. What had replaced it was Hell. Complete and utter hell. William Tecumseh Sherman’s quote was apt indeed. Thankfully, it seemed England had been spared from the insanity, but for how long… Nopony knew.

Silver Spanner sobbed in her sister’s wings, the grey feathers wrapped around her younger sibling protectively.
“...When?” Silver Spanner asked, looking up at her. “When is it going to end?”

“Honestly sis, I don’t know. I wish I did, but I can’t give you an answer.” Silverspeed replied.

“B-But you always know the answer to everything!” Silver Spanner sobbed. “Math tests, history… You know it all So why can’t you tell me when this Tartarus is going to end!?!”

Her voice had become a shout and Silverspeed just hugged her sister tighter even as her hooves pounded her chest fur. She had no answer. But she could provide comfort, that she did know.

“Perhaps this war may go on for years, perhaps it won’t. But I do know one thing little sis, I’ll always be there for you. No matter what. I promise you that.”

Silver Spanner looked up at her sister with tear stained eyes, her brown form shaking.

“R-Really?” She quavered. Silverspeed nodded.

“Yeah, I promise. Love’s a promise, and I love you my dear sister. So, no matter what happens, Tartarus or High Tides, I’ll be there for you. Count on that, if nothing else,” Silverspeed said resolutely, and Silver Spanner would believe that for the rest of her life. With a grimace, Silverspeed used one of her wings to turn the radio off.

“Now, enough of that. You need your sleep.” She said before picking up her younger sister and tucking her into bed. Then, Silverspeed began to sing softly to her.

“Hush now, quiet now
It's time to lay your sleepy head
Hush now, quiet now
It's time to go to bed.
Hush now, quiet it now, it's time to lay your sleepy head.
Hush now, quiet now, it's time to go to bed.
Hush now, quiet now, close your sleepy eyes.
Hush now, quiet now, my how time sure flies.
Drifting, drifting off to sleep the days excitement behind you.
Drifting drifting off to sleep let the joy of dreamland find you.”

As Silver Spanner’s eyes slowly slid shut, Silver Speed kissed her younger sister’s forehead and dimmed the lights.

Now:

“Where… Where did it all go so wrong? We were supposed to be together, watch out for each other… But instead, look what happened.” Silver mused, her voice choking up with sobs. She wiped away her tears. She couldn’t let anypony see her cry. She was too tough for that.

“Yeah… I’m the tough one, and I have to look the part. For better… or for worse.”

As each of the Sub-Pods protective glass bubbles opened up with hissing sounds, Fancy turned to his niece who gazed up in awe at the temple before them. Nearby, other Pods, the larger ones, were unloading the various vehicles and supplies that had survived the journey.

“I… I don’t believe it,” Twilight thought in awe as she gazed up at the temple, her jaw dropping. Two tall statues of twin dragons, easily 33 feet in height if she had to make a guess, flanked either side of the temple entrance. The entrance was truly gigantic, both equally taller and wider than even the largest vehicle the crew had on them. For what reason for its size, that was a mystery in itself. The temple itself was inscribed in hieroglyphs, easily thousands of years old. How long it took to carve them into the walls was impossible to guess. “First, we encounter a giant sized version of a Torii Gate and now this… That temple, it looks Neighgyptian in design! I… I was right! This lends credence to my theory that all of ancient civilization as we know it stems right down from Neighlantis!”

“By Celestia’s holy white wings…” Fancy whispered breathlessly, unable to believe the sight he was seeing himself. He then turned to his niece.

“About how deep are we?” He asked. Twilight checked one of the gauges of the sub-pod and her eyes widened in shock. She checked, then double checked. Heck, she even triple checked! She rubbed her glasses to make sure she wasn’t seeing things, but the gauges didn’t lie.

“We’re… We’re 20,000 metres down! That’s about double the known depth of the Marianas Trench in the Pacific Ocean!” Twilight exclaimed in shock. “No… Nopony’s ever been down this deep before!”

“This entire bloody journey's turning into something out of one of Jules Verne's novels!” Fancy thought to himself as the two climbed out of the subpod and Twilight magically teleported her books into the back of a supplies truck.

Fancy walked up to another truck, and pulled out some candles and plates. He, with a golden aura of magic levitated the plates and candles to the water. With great poise and delicacy, he began placing the candles atop the plates and lit them one by one. Each flame lit was for each member of the crew lost in the Kraken’s massacre and the escape from the gigantic sea beast. Privately, Fancy lit one of these candles in respect for the monster, as it was something that gave up a good fight despite the terror it wrought. Then, he turned to Grape.

“I believe it is only fitting you light the last candle for Rainbow Blaze. He was your adopted father after all.” Fancy asked.

“Ah… Ah’m sorry, but Ah can’t,” Grape said, his southern accent coming out due to his emotional state, letting everypony hear it for the first time. “Ah just can’t.”

Sudoku pulled the younger pony into a hug with his feathered wings.

“His death… It wasn’t your fault,” Sudoku tried to reassure, talking in an emotionally detached tone of voice. It wasn’t all that dissimilar to how a professional coroner might talk to a corpse. “His pride, his anger and lust for revenge… That’s what killed him in the end.”

“But Ah was the one who fired the final shots that did him in!” Grape half shouted, half sobbed. “And for Gawd’s sake, Sudoku, stop talking about my father like you’re his undertaker or somethin’!”

“But-”

“Let me ask ya one thing, and one thing alone.” Grape snarled.

“Go ahead.” Sudoku replied.

“If ya were responsible for doing in yer own father, his murder, would ya have the strength to light up a candle in respect for him?” Grape roared before he broke down, his voice choking up. Sudoku tightened his hug, but he had no answer to give. Even as he cried, Grape flashed back to one of the last conversations, possibly the last he ever had with the late Rainbow Blaze.

A few days before, somewhere in the Bermuda Triangle:

It was late one night, atop the hull of the Moby Dick. The only sounds that could be heard were the gentle lapping of the waves and the metal thudding of hoof-steps as Grape Vine pulled out a telescope and looked skywards. The night sky was clear, no clouds of any type to speak of allowing every star in the night sky to be seen in all of their beauty. Grape could count off and name the constellations he could see from his position in his head. Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, Canes Venacti, Sagittarius, Leo Minor, and Camelopardalis just to name a few.

“Up late again?” Rainbow Blaze’s voice asked from behind him. Grape nearly jumped from fright.
“Yeah… I suppose.” Grape said. Rainbow sighed to himself.

“You can drop the act you know, drop everything. It’s just you and me out here.” The Captain of the Moby Dick replied.

Grape gave out a sigh of his own, and with a shimmering of purple colored magic, his Cutie Mark of a sextant faded away. It found itself replaced with the real one beneath it, a pair of double eighth notes.

“You know, you can’t keep hiding this forever, you’re going to have to give up the truth someday.”

“Why though…?” Grape asked him. “Better the crew think Ah’m actually of some use as a navigator, then let them know the truth that Ah’m of no use to anypony… Least not here.”

“And yet they’ll get suspicious eventually when they see you barely do any of what you claim to be,” Rainbow pointed out. “Tartarus, they probably already have. They’re not stupid after all. And you’re wrong. I appointed you personally as the ship’s morale officer for a reason. That’s your job, that’s what makes you useful.”

“Least give me this… A few more days of peace and serenity before Ah drop things entirely, or ya force me to.” Grape replied to him.

Rainbow sighed before a few minutes later he finally gave his answer.

“...Alright. A few more days, and that’s it. I love you son, you know that right?"

"Ah know. Ah love you too. "

Now:

"Ah... I just wish Ah could have told him one last time..." Grape thought.

Fancy, as he lit up the last candle in a flame of many colors as one last tribute to Rainbow, turned back to the crew. It was a small bunch, consisting of less than thirty.

“We started out on this expedition with a crew of 200 ponies, Griffins and others. Now… All of you who I see before me… You’re all that’s left. But, as I mentioned before I couldn’t ask for a finer crew and I doubt Rainbow Blaze would have either. Now… We’re stuck down here, possibly forever but I intend to continue this journey. After all… What else can we do? And maybe, just maybe, perhaps we’ll find Neighlantis and a way out of here,” Fancy said before his gaze turned to Twilight and her father’s diary.

“All of our hopes rest with you, Twilight.”

Mister Gallants shouted “Advance!” with the power of a battle tested military commander and the whole convoy started into the gigantic temple entrance. As she looked upwards into the carvings, Twilight swallowed nervously and thought to herself.

“So, no pressure huh?”

Part 17: The Zeppo

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Part 18: The Pony in the Dark

After passing through the doorway, the warning above it still weighing heavily on most, if not all of the convoy’s minds they came to a very large canyon. It was as wide as the streets in Manehatten, and quite possibly as deep, if not deeper than the Grand Canyon in Arizona. At their end of the canyon lay two pillars. Columns, really if you wanted to be accurate in your terminology. The other side of the canyon was exactly the same in design, with another door at the end. Nimbus let out a low whistle as the convoy ground to a halt at the sheer size and depth of the canyon.

“By Tartarus…” Powder muttered as her sister crossed herself. In the background behind them, a supply truck driver peered out from his seat and rubbed his glasses with a soft cloth to make sure he wasn’t seeing things.

“Ain’t getting across there, not easily at least.” Lightning commented. Twilight meanwhile, was focused on something else, namely the columns.

“W-Will you just look at the size of these?” Twilight said excitedly, grabbing onto her Uncle’s foreleg and pointing at the objects in question. “It's gotta be half a mile high, at least. It must have taken hundred — no, thousands of years to carve these things,” she whispered in awe, and quickly took out a notebook and began jotting everything she could about it, from the design to the hieroglyphs down in it. Nimbus on the other hoof was focused on more important matters.

“That’s one long fall… One wrong step, that’d be the end of you mates.” Nimbus muttered.

“Like we didn’t need enough fuel for nightmares on this journey already…” Fuse muttered to herself. “What, you trying to make us acrophobic as well?”

“A-Acro what?” High Wind asked in bewilderment, scratching his head with one of his paws. A couple of the crew stared at the snow white furred griffon.

“Acrophobic, it means somepony has an extreme or irrational fear of heights,” Twilight said, almost as if she were quoting something from a medical journal. Probably was, really.

“Ir-Irrational?” High Wind stuttered out, quite offended. “It’s not irrational! You’ve seen how deep that damn thing is! You peer down it and call me irrational!”

“You’re deflecting,” Sudoku commented simply. Now High Wind looked really confused. In unison, Sudoku and Nimbus slapped their hooves to their faces.

“Do you ever read, actually, strike that,” Nimbus asked sarcastically looking skywards as if to ask why oh why he put up with some of these idiots. “Have you even touched a book in your life?”

“Well, somepony gave him what was practically a porn novel to help him through his marriage issues.” Riptalon cackled. Sudoku blushed quite red at the reminder and was trying to look at anything but High Wind himself. It seemed that little incident had made its way through the grapevine as it were.

“What happened to Doctor and Patient Confidentiality?” He wondered to himself. “Has to be the guy’s wife, she never could keep a secret for the life of her.”

“Yeah, and that worked out oh so well,” Lightning snarked. “Snowball over there probably only got hitched because his wife loved his penis. Probably regretting that choice now, eh?”

“Oh shut up…” said “Snowball” muttered to himself, but it was useless as the crew around him erupted into laughter at Lightning’s remark. Well, most of them did anyways. Twilight on the other hoof blushed while everyone’s favorite resident unicorn mechanic muttered “Perverted gossip mongering idiots.” among other less nicer things.

“Suppose we could all fly across,” Lightning theorized before she smirked. “That is unless Mr. Scared of Heights here but denies it profusely isn’t willing…”

A few chuckles ran amongst the group at that remark. Twilight coughed nervously and pointed to her, Silver Spanner, Grape, and Fancy. Then she pointed to the various convoy vehicles which were in no way suited for flying in any sense of the word.

“...Right, ignore everything I just said.” Lightning muttered, her cheeks flushing red in embarrassment.

At about that moment, rocks fell down a nearby hill and everyone pointed their weapons in that direction. A shadowy figure with a pony like form, carrying a tall wooden staff with a glowing blue tip and piercing sapphire blue eyes was gazing in their direction. Nimbus pulled out a flashlight and shone it in the direction of the figure. He was revealed to be a pure white unicorn stallion, with a mane covered in varying shades of blue.

“Halt, sir! I beseech you to halt!” Nimbus bellowed out as his order. The figure ignored him and scampered away into the darker corners of the hillsides.

“Okay, only chance and he gave it up,” Nimbus muttered to himself before shouting “Men, you know what to do!”

“Wait wait, he might be able to help us out!” Twilight shouted out over the din.

“Or he might be a threat, can’t take any chances down here. One thing I've learned lass; if you don't draw first, sometimes you don't get to draw at all,” Nimbus commented, looking directly at the figure and not at her which showed how much he valued Twilight’s opinion at that moment. “Alright, light him up!” He shouted.

Battle Saddles wound up and unleashed a flurry of bullets sparks flying off the rocks before the figure’s staff glowed a bright blue. A flash lit up the area creating a moment of temporary blindness for everyone.

“Celestia dammit,” Nimbus muttered to himself once the bright blue flash cleared before he shouted “Can’t you morons do anything right? Just hit a target, that’s all I bloody well ask of you!” as he turned to his men, who all took a step or two back at the sheer rage shown on Nimbus’s face.

“...Yeesh, and they call me a quick-tempered one.” Lightning thought to herself and laughed nervously when she realized she’d said that aloud with everypony staring at her.

“Great, you might have scared off a pony who might have been able to get us another way around this gap,” Twilight snapped. “Or worse, he might have gone on ahead to alert any other sentries to our presence. If they didn’t know we were coming before, they do now…”

“Oh please, we can handle them,” Nimbus said dismissively. “Why should I be bothered, or worried, about them? For all we know, your theory may be wrong and that’s just a lone pony who somehow made his way down here, same as us.”

In his heart though, he didn’t believe a word of what he was saying. Twilight might have somehow suspected that as well, as she asked “Oh, really?” and raised an eyebrow.

“Right, and pigs will start flying and Celestia herself will come down from the skies to bless everypony and turn us all into Alicorns,” Nimbus thought sarcastically. “Much as I hate to admit it, girl’s got a point. That may not be the last we see of that stallion, and who knows what lies ahead… What’s that old quote? Oh yes, here be dragons.”

“Alright everypony, simmer down,” Fancy stated, no, ordered as he checked his pocket watch. “We’ll make camp here tonight, and tomorrow morning we’ll think up a solution to our problem at hoof.”

“Sounds good to me, I got some us s'mores that are just ripe for the cooking,” Grape stated, rubbing his hooves together gleefully. Behind him, Spent began sharpening some knives in a rather scary looking manner, blade grinding against blade creating sparks. “Good old southern style cooking, that’s what you all need.”

“Joy.” Nimbus muttered.

Later that night, or what Twilight assumed to be nighttime as she’d long lost track of the switches between day and night long weeks ago, the group made camp. Cooking around a campfire was a variation of different types of fish for the pegasi and Griffons amongst the convoy (As both species were half bird, so it was a required dietary supplement) along with fried hay and some s’mores, as Grape had promised. As it had turned out, among other things, Spent was a rather good cook.

“Seriously Spent, despite your many moral failings, you could make a living off of this.” Lightning complimented as she bit into a Gray Triggerfish (Balistes capriscus in its Latin naming) on a stick.

“Gee, thanks,” Spent commented dryly, not missing Lightning’s snideness towards him.

“She’s not kidding, this stuff is great!” Powder put in. “Where’d you learn to cook like this?”

“Ah, a guy on a previous sea expedition taught me when he had the spare time,” Spent remarked as he sizzled some Yellowfin Tuna (Thunnus albacares) over the fire. "Despite him being of the mind that the only real food you needed was baked beans, the guy was a real artiste when it came to good food.”

“So, what next, should we tell ghost stories?” Twilight asked cheerfully. Night Glider had to stifle a giggle at that. She had to admit even if only to herself, Twilight could be rather adorkable at times, and this was one of those moments.

“Oh, if we're going to tell ghost stories,” Fuse put in, and Powder smirked, knowing exactly where her sister was going. “Then I've got a real good one! Comes directly from my home town, Neigh Orleans.”

“Go on, share it with us.” Spent said, somewhat intrigued.

“Righty-O, ya asked for it. But don't say I didn't warn you… This one’s a real hoof-biter!” Fuse began, the red and orange flames illuminating her face as she gave off a rather ghoulish grin. “It was late one night, about 1912 if I remember correctly. Moon was full and a train full of iron ore from Oklahoma was trundling down the lines heading south bound down towards the coasts. The conductor, he was a real womanizing sort. Very lucky with the mares. Nopony knew how he exactly did it, but he always managed to invite a mare or two onto his train. Anyways, as he was approaching a station late that night, he noticed a mare. There she was, standing on the platform all alone. She’d been waiting all day and night in the sweltering heat for a train ride all the way to the coasts lantern in hoof. Now, as it happened, the conductor took pity on her, don't ask me why, and invited her onboard. Now, I admit the train wasn't the most romantic of spots but like always, the mare fell in love with the conductor. Now, when she learned of the conductor’s past history, she got real mad. Righteous, Celestia-given fury possessed her and they fought. Fought so hard in fact, conductor forgot about his duties. The train picked up speed and missed a junction. End of the line was coming up fast. The brakes were slammed on hard, wheels screeched against the rails but it was too late for them. The train smashed into the barrier at the end of the line and rocketed off the rails into a swamp full of alligators. The whole hulking mess sunk to the bottom of the bog, taking both the mare and the conductor with it Celestia bless both their souls. Now they say, and this is just a rumor really so make of it what you will, but that mare, she sometimes still appears on lonely station platforms late some nights when the moon is full and the mist just right. Now, whatever you do, never invite her on board your train otherwise you'll go the same way that poor conductor did.”

By the end of Fuse’s little tail, Twilight was shivering, and not from the coldness of the cavern or the wind whipping up from the canyon.

“That’s… That’s awful!” Twilight whispered nervously.

“Like I said, I did warn ya,” Fuse shrugged.

“Seems like something out of a sorry knock-off of a Forelock Holmes novel if you're asking me,” Fancy remarked, voicing his opinion. “Loads of old tosh.”

“Believe what you want, but that mare is real. I swear by it.” Fuse stated as her final words on the subject. To get her mind off the ghastly tale she’d been told, Twilight’s eyes roamed to Nimbus, who was sitting away from everyone else and drinking a cup of coffee.

“What’s his story?” She wondered aloud. Spent leaned over to her.

“Now, I don't know all of it, but I do know this,” He began. “Poor guy has a rather sordid past. The fact that he was once part of the Pinkertons and thrown out for “Excessive Behavior”, says quite a bit really.”

“The Pinkertons?” Twilight asked in surprise, wracking her brain in an attempt to remember where she’d heard that particular name before. “Weren't they the guys sent to break up worker’s strikes?”

“That’s one way of putting it,” Spent said delicately. “Least, the nice way. Trust me on this Ms. Sparkle, there are some things in life you're better off not knowing about.”

For the next few moments, Twilight’s thoughts were solely on Nimbus and Spent’s words. She was only snapped out of it when a few minutes later, Fancy called for lights out. Twilight wandered to her tent and as there were so few, she was forced to share her tent with Night Glider.

“So, guess I’ll be sleeping with you tonight,” Night remarked before she grinned roguishly. “Unless of course, you’re opposed to that?” she teased. Twilight could barely manage to give out a response, blushing profusely.

“I… Uh, no, of course not! W-Why would you ever think that?” She asked, and Night Glider laughed and shook her head as in the background somepony exclaimed: “Night night, don’t let the Changelings bite!”

“Oh Twi, you’re so easy to tease. Never change, just don’t okay?” Night Glider asked.

“I-I’ll try not to.” Twilight stuttered. Night Glider smiled as she snuggled up next to Twilight, who was placing her glasses next to the lamp on the ground. Twilight blushed even redder than before, if that was possible, as she felt the wings of the midnight blue pegasus wrap around her and felt her fur. Twilight smelled the familiar smell of dahlias and moonflowers and let her eyelids droop, falling asleep and drifting off to the land of dreams almost instantly...

Author's Note

Not much to say about this chapter really, aside from how long it took to come with an idea for it. Just hope you enjoy it.

Part 19: Fury

Later that night…

While Night Glider slept softly beside her, Twilight was tossing and turning, eyes flicking to and fro behind her eyelids as she slept, lost in the dream world.

And it was anything but pleasant.

She found herself sitting in a red cushioned seat, the sounds of a train click clacking down the tracks filling the otherwise empty car. The entire carriage invoked that of the Golden Age of train travel with nicely adorned carpets, and gold brass everywhere with each window having a curtain over it. Soft piano music, sung by a female singer from a gramophone played in the background with the record crackling as it played. She couldn’t help but wonder why she was the only passenger on board this train… and why was she here?

She had no idea.

The train kept on click clacking down the tracks before the wheels screeched in protest as the brakes were applied. She was jostled in her seat with a sharp cry, whatever she was holding flying from her hooves and landing on the floor in front of her.

It was a book.

She made to pick it up when the doors nearby opened and in walked a mare who paid Twilight little attention as she took a seat nearby. The mare wore a black feather boa around her neck and was an eerie ghostly white in color. She picked up her book and laid it in her lap as the train began chugging along again. She could hear the sharp blow of a steam whistle as the pistons began to move and the wheels began to turn. The rails rattled beneath the train, it was an almost comforting sound. Almost.

Twilight opted to make conversation with the other mare but found she couldn’t so much as utter a single word. Twilight’s eyes then averted themselves to their situation. There was was, in a cocktail style party dress, golden in color and with her mane tied nicely in a ponytail.

“First question: Okay, so where am I?” Twilight thought quite unnerved by the whole situation, putting her analytical mind to work. Her eyes found themselves drawn to a window, where outside she saw the snow-covered tips of the Swiss Alps mountainside with pine trees outside the other window. She knew where she was and had a guess as to the timeline as well. The Simplon Orient Express, running from 1919 to today, one of the most legendary trains of all time going from Paris, Prance all the way to Istanbul in Turkey.

Twilight, mustering up her courage followed the mare all the way to the next train carriage all the while shouting for her to wait up, but the mare never slowed down. Twilight’s hooves galloped against the floor as the train kept running along the tracks over a wooden trestle bridge across a great expanse of river, rushing and flowing down beneath the train. The Orient Express then went around a sharp bend jerking Twilight to the left and sending her smacking into a window knocking the glasses off her face and sending her sprawling to the floor. Twilight picked up her glasses and then dabbed away at the side of her face, seeing small droplets of blood on the floor.

Twilight then shuddered and shivered as the carriage got uncomfortably cold. She let out a short, nervous breath and a fine mist formed in the air as the windows began to ice over.

“Please… Somepony… Anypony… Help.” Twilight whispered as the lights began to flicker off and on over and over again before they went out entirely. Next, inexplicably, the floor dropped out from under Twilight and she found herself falling into darkness. Faster, and faster she fell screaming at the top of her lungs till she hit bottom with the ground rushing up to greet her. The scenery changed, and she found herself in a swamp, frogs croaking and various animal eyes appearing from the moss-covered trees. The owners of those eyes were far too engulfed in darkness for their forms to be seen. Then, Twilight heard it.

A train rushing down the tracks, steam whistle screaming at the top of its lungs and brakes screeching but to no avail. She saw a light and saw a steam train barreling right towards her with no intention of slowing down…

Twilight awoke with a start and a scream then checked her surroundings. Yeah, she was still who-knows-where at the bottom of the ocean in a cavern inside her tent. Night Glider, upon hearing Twilight’s scream saw the younger mare sniffling to herself and clutching her pillow like it was her only lifeline.

“It… It wasn’t real… No, it couldn’t have been,” Twilight whispered to herself. She soon found herself pulled into a wing hug by Night Glider.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” The dark blue mare whispered in a soft and comforting tone of voice.

“I… I was on a train, the Orient Express… T-There was this mare, ghostly white and…” Twilight whispered. Night Glider growled, she had a suspicion of what, or rather who was behind this.

“I-I’m sorry, I never wanted you to see me like this…Me, looking like a weak little crying filly because of a simple little dream... ” Twilight apologized and Night Glider let out another small growl of anger.

“It’s okay, you don’t have to continue if you don’t want to,” She said reassuringly.

“N-No, I feel I need to say this, get this out there,” Twilight answered wiping away a tear before continuing. “S-Suddenly, everything went dark and I-I found myself falling into a swamp and then I saw it. A-A train rushing towards me…”

Night Glider pulled her into an even tighter hug and let the mare cry into her shoulder all the while whispering lovingly into her ear, “It’s okay, it’s alright. It never happened, it was just a simple nightmare. I’m here now…”

Eventually, Twilight fell back into a sleep her chest gently rising and falling, and Night Glider stayed by her side all the time, just watching her protectively...

The Next Morning:

Night Glider and Twilight awoke to the sound of a whistle being blown and saw Mister Gallants dragging everypony out of their beds and shouting “Come on, we have to get a move on here! Haven’t got all day!”

Groaning, Silver Spanner mumbled “And how do you suppose we do that, you plonker? In case you haven’t noticed, the bleedin’ Grand Canyon is in our way!” as she rubbed her tired eyes.

“Ah, glad you asked,” Powder chirped cheerfully, not noticing the dirty glare Night Glider was giving her. “All that talk about flying over the canyon gave me and my sis an idea!” She proclaimed.

“Oh, well this ought to be good…” Silver muttered.

“Fire in the hole!” Fuse shouted and pressed down on a big red plunger. Everypony covered their ears as sharp explosions came from the pillars on both sides of the truly gigantic canyon. They came crumbling down and formed a bridge large enough for even the largest vehicles in the convoy to cross if not pass each other. Twilight gaped in shock.

“D-Did you know how old that was? Thousands of years to carve! Thousands!” She yelled out in disbelief.

“Hey, look, we made ourselves a bridge. It only took us, like, what? Ten seconds? Eleven, tops!” Fuse said proudly with a gleeful look on her face.

“And destroyed who knows how much of Neighlantis’s written history in the process!” Twilight snapped back in retort.

“What would you have us do then? Build a giant catapult and have us thrown all across that gap? We’re demolitions experts, not miracle workers here!” Powder put in. Before the two could come to blows, Gallants pulled the two apart.

“Hey, hey! Got enough troubles around here without mares beating the crap out of each other, which while I’d like to see in any other situation… Just not here.”

Powder muttered “Perv…” under her breath as she walked away glaring at Twilight.

“Advance!” Gallants shouted, and so the convoy did. Slowly, carefully they made their way across the hastily built bridge. It cracked and crumbled under the weight of the convoy, but seemed to show no signs of giving way.

“Now… Slowly now…” Fancy murmured as Silver slowly and trepidatiously drove the gigantic drill machine across the makeshift bridge.

“Bulk, get your arms out of my face!” Silver shouted as she fought for control of the steering wheel.

“Not my fault!” The gigantic and muscular pegasus apologized. Silver wasn’t having any of it.

“Well, yes it is, ‘cause you’re so damn big!” She snapped trying to shove him out of her field of view.

“Hey, mares go wild for me!” Bulk defended himself holding his hooves up in a surrendering motion, quite intimidated by the hot-tempered mare.

“...Not this mare, ya hunk of ‘roid rage...” Silver muttered to herself. Why’d she have to get paired up with him again? She then realized exactly what she’d said and thought “What the Bloody Tartarus?” in shock. Not helping the matter at all was the song Makin’ Whoopee by Eddie Cantor playing over a recording crystal in the vehicle for all to hear. Both Powder and Fuse sniggered.

“Alright you two, quiet down,” Fancy warned, giving them both a look. Both ponies very quickly shut up at the Commander’s glare.

“Whatever you do… Don’t look down.” Target warned. Nopony dared disagree with her… Well, almost nopony. Grape, out of pure instinct looked down.

“Ah-Ah’m lookin’ down! Ah’m lookin’ down!” He squeaked in fear as he looked right down into the yawning abyss which seemed to be greeting him with open arms. Target quickly pulled the stallion away from the edge, as parts of it fell away and into the depths of the river below.

Eventually, the convoy made it to the other side and found themselves blocked by a huge pile of what was once a cliffside, that, thanks to the Blast Sisters’ explosives had become dislodged and was now blocking their path.

“Oh, well isn’t this just wonderful?” Silver exclaimed as she threw her forelegs up in the air in frustration before banging her head on the steering wheel.

“Think you can… remove it?” Fancy asked delicately as he looked at the Blast Sisters.

“Nah, it’s a no go least on our end. We could un-roadblock that if I had about two hundred of these.” Powder stated as Fuse pointed to the crate of dynamite in the back of a supply truck. “Problem is, we only got about ten. Plus, you know, five of my own and couple of cherry bombs, road flare...” she commented. Right about then, an amused smile came to Fuse’s face.

“Hey, too bad we don't got some nitroglycerin eh, Twilight?" Fuse asked and both she and her sister cracked up as Twilight whimpered. Night Glider gained a truly venomous look on her face, she’d had enough of these two as she could stand. Slowly trodding forwards, both the Blast Sisters noted the look on her face and shared a nervous swallow.

“You know, I’ve had enough of you two picking on Twilight. Just last night, I had to comfort her from a nightmare that you two morons caused thanks to your ghost story!” Night Glider roared as both sisters looked defensive.

“H-Hey, w-we were just joking around! T-That story was made up, and besides, in our defense, we did warn everypony!” Powder stuttered out, now quite afraid of the enraged pegasus. Night Glider didn’t care and threw a strong right hook to Powder’s jaw knocking her flat and drawing blood.

Sudoku, in the background, muttered “Oh boy.” while Nimbus facehooved and let the hoof slide down his muzzle in an annoyed manner. They didn’t have time for this…

High Wind meanwhile shouted “Catfight!” as Twilight whimpered. No, she didn’t want this… She could have stood up for herself if she wanted to.

“Oh, so you want to continue what we started on the Moby Dick, do you?” Powder snarled as she stumbled to her hooves before headbutting Night Glider who grabbed the pegasus and threw her into the side of a supply truck.

“Oh yeah, we’re finishing this,” she said in response before being bucked towards Riptalon, who caught her with his paws.

“Go get her.” The griffon commented as Powder ran towards Night Glider who socked her again and Powder was about to respond in kind before both of them were pulled apart by an aura of purple magic.

“Stop it! Just stop it!” Twilight said, eyes brimming with tears. She turned to Night Glider and did the last thing anyone, including herself, expected and slapped her.

“But… But I just wanted to help…” Night Glider murmured as Twilight choked back a sob.

“Yeah? Well, hope you’re happy.” Twilight growled before trotting off tears dripping from her eyes. Night Glider screamed and swore before punching the ground in frustration.

“Where… Where did I go wrong?” She asked herself.

Author's Note

First off, huge thanks to Dustachu for helping me with the opening nightmare sequence for this chapter, I definitely needed some help getting a good starting point. Anyways, Night Glider's finally had enough of the Blast Sisters and's screwed up in the bargain with Twlight.I think Sudoku summed it up best...

Part 20: Route de la mort

The mood between Night Glider and Twilight, even as the convoy marched on through the tunnels again could very accurately be described by one as frosty for the next few nights, at least on Twilight’s part. She refused to even look at the pegasus in question, much less even speak to her. In her mind, Night Glider was just another member of the expedition, not even worth her notice.

After all, if you didn’t think about one pony in any personal way, you could spare your own feelings from being hurt right? At least that’s what Twilight’s mind was telling her. Her heart on the other hoof spoke differently.

“Sure, it was just one incident!” It had argued. “She was trying to defend you from the Blast Sisters’ constant teasing!”

“But that’s just it!” Twilight reminded herself. “I don’t need defending, and anyways, that’s all it was, just teasing.”

“But what about the nightmare that story they came up with gave you? What about that?”

“It was just a nightmare, everypony has those,” the logical part of Twilight’s mind put in. “Your imagination got the better of you. The way the story was told, wasn’t really that scary anyhow if you think about it. I mean, the ghost of an angry mare haunting a train late on certain nights all because of one perverted pony long ago, one who may not even exist? It’s silly!”

Love and logic were two different things, however. They never went hand in hand. Twilight supposed you could rationalize it as hormones just calling out for you to continue your gene line, However, there was one key problem with that, the logic seemed to fall flat on its face when you were a mare in love with another mare, didn’t it?

Night Glider on the other hoof kept giving looks to Twilight when she thought the unicorn wasn’t looking. Discrete peeks at the bookish unicorn, before quickly looking back at the road in front of them before Twilight could even realize that Night Glider had even looked at her.

Night Glider’s head hit the dash of the truck and she hit her hoof on the horn in frustration.

“You know, keep doing that and you’ll probably just get a headache,” Gallants remarked, as he sat beside her in the passenger’s seat. Behind them sat the remaining food supplies of the expedition.

“Tartarus of a lot better than how I feel right now. I screwed up, you don’t have to tell me that,” Night Glider remarked. “Twilight hates me, end of story. Should have just stowed my temper and let the Blast Sisters be. Celestia above, probably be better off if I just keep my distance.”

“Yeah, an angry mare isn’t something you trifle with, I’ll give you that,” Spent Thrift said from the back of the truck, shotgun by his side. “Or griffon in my particular case, but you get the picture,”

“Gee, thanks for the input,” Night Glider deadpanned. “You’re a real Sigmane. Remind me to hire you next time I need love advice.”

“Take it from somepony’s who actually been married, for as short as it was. Love… Well, it’s a… Oh, how do I put this?” He pondered before sighing. “Ah, I know. It's a very dangerous state. You are inclined to recklessness and kind of tune out the rest of your life and everything that's been important to you. It's actually not all that pleasurable. I don't know who the Tartarus wants to get in a situation where you can't bear an hour without somepony's company. But I’ll be damned if I don’t say that if it’s not a pleasurable feeling,” He continued. “Love hurts, and it sucks, I get that. Life sucks in general, to be honest. But get over that. Take what you do have in life that makes you happy, and grab it by the reigns before it slips away,”

With that, he sighed again and muttered to himself “Times like these make me wonder why I gave up drinking… Celestia and Luna above, I hate romantic drama.”

“You know, he’s probably right,” Gallants put in. “I mean about love, not the drinking thing. Might do you and Twilight a whole heaping load of good if you just listened to him.”

Night Glider scoffed.

“Yeah… Listen to a flirt and a guy who’s never been in love for one minute with anypony for his life.”

Gallants could only raise an eyebrow.

“Who says I haven’t?” He remarked with a wink of his eye. Night Glider allowed herself to spare a look towards the narrow pathway below. Almost directly below her line of sight in a rather tiny Neighamerican made Austin roadster (Looking very much out of place in the mostly military convoy) sat directly behind the tunnel drilling machine, Twilight was skimming through her father’s journal. The only light sources in the current cavern were the headlights and headlamps of the various vehicles making up the convoy. You couldn’t even see rock bottom. Nimbus had tried to see how far down it was by throwing a small stone to the bottom of the pit, but even with one ear trained to the ground, he couldn’t hear it hit anything.

Put simply, one wrong step, one wrong turn of the wheel and that’d be the end of you. It was no small wonder the Prance borne and raised High Winds had named the pathway “Route de la mort” or in standard Equestrian… The Road of Death.

Night Glider smiled to herself as she continued to watch Twilight, still keeping one eye on the wheel, flip through the pages of her book. That was her egghead alright, always lovably nerdy and always with her nose in a book.

Sadly, the thing about keeping one eye on the steering wheel and another on a small vehicle almost directly below you was that you could only focus on one thing at once. And right now, almost all of Night Glider’s focus was on Twilight. Her hoof made one small movement to the left, and the supply truck turned. A screeching and squealing of tires could be heard and before Night Glider knew it, she and her truck were partially over the side of the road and hanging precariously over one very deadly drop.

“Shit, shit, shit!” Gallants swore very loudly as there came a thudding sound and then Spent’s shotgun plunged through the front window just barely missing Night Glider’s head. Glass shattered, and fell piece by piece into the pit below, the darkness welcoming it with open arms.

“What the…?” Twilight asked as she heard a scream and looked upwards and her jaw dropped freely of its own accord as she saw it. There it was, the front end of the supply truck hanging just above her head, and ready to drop right on top of her.

Fancy slammed one of his hooves on the brakes and the little Austin’s tires squealed and made a cloud of smoke as it pulled backwards. This was just around the same time as a box full of fruit fell from the back of the truck and smashed onto the road in front of them, its contents spilling all over and some tumbling over the side and into the darkness below.

Twilight’s eyes widened, as they met Night Glider’s own. The pegasus’s eyes were as wide as saucers, with their owner gripping the steering wheel tightly for dear life, full of fear.

“Twilight, help! J-Just do something, anything!” Night Glider squeaked out, almost too softly to hear. Almost. Forgetting all of her previous rage and anger towards her, Twilight became filled with determination as she stared Night Glider down.

Twilight’s magic energy, all that she could muster went into her horn and a purple glow enveloped the truck in an aura, grasping it tightly. The truck began to move upwards, little by little, but Night Glider knew something Twilight didn’t. For all of her magical strength, the truck was still very, very heavy and filled to the brim with food crates, not to mention two fully grown ponies and one griffon.

Twilight soon began to figure this out as well, as she felt her strength leaving her and the truck beginning to tilt back towards the chasm.

“I… I can’t hold it!” Twilight strained out, sweating hard just from all the magic she was being forced to use. But then she saw Night Glider again, the fear in her face, and the acceptance of death.

“Just let me go, Twi!” Night Glider shouted back before turning to Spent and Gallants. “You two, get out of here while you still can!”

Twilight shook her head no in a pleading manner before her eyes narrowed. She just had to push herself, she just had to! No, she’d lost too many friends on this journey, and she wasn’t about to lose another one!

“Come on… Just a little more!” Twilight murmured to herself as the truck creaked and began to tilt further still, each time getting more and more closer to going over the side completely and taking those inside with it.

Suddenly, a light gold color, gamboge really, joined that of the lavender aura encompassing the supply truck.

“Not going to let my niece do this alone, I left you alone in your quest for Neighlantis for far too long, let them scorn you and let you get treated to years of mockery and laughter. I abandoned you when you needed it most. I’m never going to do that again,” Fancy stated, his horn glowing brightly like the midday sun.

“Thank you…” Twilight whispered and her horn began to glow ever brighter still as well. Fancy smiled and nodded at her before Twilight returned the nod. “Let’s do this… together.”

Little by little, the truck began to move upwards again. Gallants and Spent shared a look, jumped from their seats and ran to the back end of the truck. Their weight now distributed to another side, balancing it out, the truck began to move back towards the road. A sound like an explosion went off, and a grappling hook grabbed onto the back of the truck’s rear bumper.

“Alright you sorry excuses for explorers, pull it back! Put your backs into it!” Riptalon snarled out as he turned his head back towards High Wind and another pony manning the grapple cannon. The cannon, mounted on the back of their truck began to slowly pull Night Glider’s vehicle back towards the road.

Down below, Fancy and Twilight continued focusing their magic on the truck before it was lifted upwards and then gently sat back down before the twin auras released it. Night Glider sighed, letting out a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding.

“Yeah… Maybe tossing the bottle out wasn’t such a good idea…” Spent muttered largely to himself clutching his chest, feeling his rapidly beating heart.

“...Okay, okay… It’s all good. All good,” Twilight whispered to herself, taking deep breath after deep breath to calm herself.

Fancy looked up towards Nimbus and the two shared a look. No words needed to be spoken between the two. Fancy then turned to the drill machine in front of him and shouted for it to halt as Nimbus did the same with his section of the convoy. There’d been enough drama and scares today, now a good long rest was in order.

Later that night, Night Glider flew down towards Fancy’s Austin where she saw Twilight curled up in one of the seats like a rather large kitten and resting her head on her father’s journal, fast asleep. Night Glider smiled as she saw the soft rise and fall of Twilight’s chest and gently removed the journal and replaced it with a pillow she’d stolen from Fuse’s supplies. The pegasus could rage at her in the morning, right now only Twilight mattered. After today, she deserved a nice peaceful long sleep and Night Glider was determined to help out with that in any way that she could.

However, as soon as the journal was removed Twilight moaned softly and her eyes fluttered open.

“Ni-Night Glider?” She asked wearily, her eyes widening a little.

“Yeah, it’s me,” the pegasus answered before replying in a teasing tone “Who were you expecting, Lady Celestia herself?”

“You should be asleep,” Twilight groaned out.

“After today?” Night Glider muttered. “Yeah, don’t think that’s going to happen. I’ll skip the nightmares, thank you very much.”

“I’m… I’m sorry.” Twilight whispered and her companion raised an eyebrow in surprise as she draped her forelegs over the Austin’s door.

“For what?” She asked.

“For the past few days… I’m been acting like what Grape would probably call an idjit. Been treating you so coldly… Trying to rationalize things,”

“Rationalize? How so?” Night Glider asked.

“Feelings. I’ve never been much an expert on love, never felt it,” Twilight explained and Night Glider’s eyes widened. “Always told myself it was just hormones. A body’s natural instinct, seeking out a mate. Trying to be logical about everything,”

“Never change Twilight, never change.” Night Glider laughed as she fluttered her wings and sat down beside her fellow mare.

“But… the hormones argument can’t work, not with me. It sorta falls flat on its face when you look at another mare and feel those sort of… emotions,” Twilight said, her muzzle drawing closer to Night Glider’s. Both mare’s faces flushed red. What she had to say next made the pegasus’s eyes widen even further, if that were possible. “Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.” Lao Tzu, ancient philosopher, helped found Taoism. Another quote of his that you’re probably more familiar with. “A journey of a thousand miles starts under one's hooves.”

“Yeah, I’m familiar with that one,” Night Glider replied. “Always sounded a bit different to me. Thought it went “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”?”

“Same proverb, but translated differently. Comes from Chapter 64 of the Tao Te Ching. Written in Classical Chinese, very difficult to understand properly unless you’re as well read as I am.” Twilight explained, blushing beet red before stuttering out “B-But that’s besides the point.”

“Then what is?” Night Glider curiously inquired.

T-That quote, while you were teetering off that precipice about to go over the side (At this point, Night Glider muttered “Yeah, don’t remind me.” to herself) and I was trying to save you… I thought of it at one point. That’s what probably did it, I think. Those words… They inspired me. That’s what did it today, allowed me to save you.” Twilight continued to explain before a hoof was gently placed over her mouth.

“Don’t get all sappy on me Twi, just don’t. I hate that sort of crap,” Night Glider said, cupping Twilight’s face before booping her on the nose, making Twilight’s face scrunch up in a rather cute manner. Night Glider giggled. “And throw out your logic, hmm? The heart wants what the heart wants.”

With that, she closed the gap between them.

Author's Note

Okay, so that's the end of that subplot. Now, before you balk at the idea of Austins back in the 1930s, there actually existed a few. Namely, from the
American Austin Car Company. To be honest, I was thinking of this car when I wrote up Fancy's personal vehicle.

You can read up on it here. Now, credit where it's due. The quote below is attributed to Colin Firth, so credit where it's due.

"It's a very dangerous state. You are inclined to recklessness and kind of tune out the rest of your life and everything that's been important to you. It's actually not all that pleasurable. I don't know who the hell wants to get in a situation where you can't bear an hour without somebody's company."

Incredibly anachronistic, as Colin wasn't even born yet in this time period but I think it's a very fitting quote.

Part 21: On the Matter of Seaponies

Area: Unknown. Depth: Unknown. Time of day: Unknown

The road through the underground seemed to continue on like it was never going to end. If Neighlantis really existed, any signs of had seemed to vanish into thin air.

Finally, Nimbus Breaker had enough of roughing it on a path that seemed without end. Morale in his troops was low, and breakdowns in his vehicles were constant it seemed. Just a few short days ago, the gigantic half-track tunnel drilling machine that had been very costly to build had suffered a failure in its twin boilers. The age of brass and steam, gilded as it was, was not without its… Problems.

“Damn you, just bloody damn you!” Nimbus Breaker shouted at the beast, hissing angry hot steam. “They claim they build these things to perfection, and then they break down on ya!”

“Hey, it’s a prototype. Not like there’s any other things like this out there,” Silver Spanner said calmly, trying to act as the voice of reason even if inwardly she was frustrated with the thing herself. “There’s bound to be a few mechanical… gremlins,” she replied delicately.

“That’s one word for it…” Nimbus muttered in disgust, shaking his head before looking skyward and muttering “I wonder if Captain Celaeno had this many troubles when she traveled the globe via sailing ship…”

Sighing to himself, Nimbus threw a leg up in the air in frustration casting one last glance at the hissing, snarling beast of a machine behind him as he did so, and stormed off, shouting “I'll be in my tent if anybody needs me!”

“...Celestia above, if this wasn't in an era of Prohibition, I'd be asking for a drink ‘bout now…” the silvery gray pegasus murmured largely to himself, shaking his head and cursing Robber Barons named Fancy Pants and their whole lot. Nobody, not even his second-in-command bothered to tell him the age of monopolies and “Robber Barons” was long since over.

“Geez, what’s his problem?” Night Glider asked, staring at him in disbelief. Fancy put a hoof on her shoulder.

“He’s just frustrated, we all are. The journey’s starting to wear on us, we don't have the luxuries of things like tropical islands anymore to improve crew morale,” Fancy replied calmly. “All we have is each other now.”

Inwardly, Fancy had doubts about this entire journey himself. Or to be more accurate, his ability to lead it. The late Rainbow Blaze, -despite his many faults- had this ability to keep a crew and their spirits up no matter how tough times got. Fancy… he didn't think he had the same resolve. He was an explorer now for Celestia’s sake! That RAF training… it had no place for adventures under the deepest parts of the sea. This was a whole new world for him.

He thought to himself, what would Rainbow Blaze do at this point? How would he fix this? Fancy then had to sternly remind himself he wasn't the Captain, no matter how much he wanted to be. He had to lead the remainder of the crew his own way, not how Rainbow would have led it.

Meanwhile, a certain scholar was sneaking up behind the tunnel driller. She, with a determined look set upon her muzzle, trotted forwards and clambered up, -mind you, not without no small amount of effort on her part- up to the boilers. She grabbed a pipe wrench in her mouth and began setting to work. After a few minutes of assorted bangs, clatters and grunts of frustration, the tunnel driller roared to life, boilers back in working order much to everybody’s shock.

“How the…?” Silver Snapper asked in disbelief.

“Well…” Twilight replied sheepishly, rubbing the back of her head. “Those boilers… Not too dissimilar to the ones back at the one back at the university. That model… always been a bit moody.”

Night Glider, extremely proud of her marefriend grabbed her by the face with her hooves and kissed her passionately, a thin strand of saliva connecting the two when they finally came up for air.

“When… when did this happen?” Riptalon asked, his and Sudoku’s noses bleeding. Target noticed and smacked them around the back of their heads.

“Er… Last night?” Twilight stammered out, face flushing red.

“Crikey Moses... “ Silver Spanner murmured to herself. “...Wish I'd snatched her up earlier for meself…”

“Whole journey’s been fraught with problems… Fraught…” Nimbus was now grumbling to himself, his Whinnychester Model 1892 hunting rifle in hoof. It was a beautiful thing, constructed of carved dark oak wood along with being inlaid with various gold detailing here and there. An elegant weapon, from a more civilized age of warfare, given to him as a gift by a fellow member of the Gun Club. Nimbus had been old enough to fight in the Great War, in his late thirties at the time, but he’d learned many things during that time, chiefest amongst them that the generals didn’t care about you and only thought of you as pawns. It was the soldiers on the ground, in the muck and the squalor of the trenches that did the real work even if it get meant getting chewed up by the Central Powers’ Maschinengewehr 08 machine guns. He considered himself to be one of those soldiers, not one of those generals he so despised.

He grimaced as the tunnel drilling machine broke on through another pile of rubble that had been once part of the ceiling above them, intricate hieroglyphs not too far removed from Ancient Neighgypt’s covering the entire ceiling depicting what could only be the various stories of Neighlantis. Or curses for tomb robbers and trespassers, he wasn’t really sure if he was to be honest. Nor did he really care anyways. Translation of ancient linguistics was never something he was particularly good at.

“Well, at least this is probably proof for a certain Bookworm that Neighlantis is the probable ancestor of all known civilizations,” Nimbus thought to himself with a tone of disgust as he imagined Twilight looking quite, if not uncharacteristically, smug.

“You know, now that I think of it…” said Bookworm commented, a hoof to her chin in thought as the grinding and whirring of the drilling machine filled the cavern “Neighlantis’ main population was said to be Seaponies. Not too far removed from us, except with y’know, fins instead of legs and a tail. I’m curious as to what happened to them, they might be a missing link in the chain of evolution between the modern pony and our ancestors!” Twilight rambled in excitement. “After all, all life is supposed to be said to be descended from ancient sea creatures.”

“Yes… That is one working theory,” Fancy Pants remarked, in full scholar mode. “There was some sort of great apocalypse that sent Neighlantis beneath the waves below so it’s entirely possible they were all wiped out. ...At least, that’s what an idiot who knows nothing about evolution would believe. After all, if they’re the missing link you propose and they were all wiped out, how could we be standing here today?”

“It’’s entirely possible some of them… mingled, so to speak,” Twilight answered, with a blush on her face and Fancy nodded.

“Basically, you mean they had sex with other races,” the almost completely black pegasus known as Eclipse remarked bluntly and Fancy adjusted his monocle as he and Twilight blushed red, but nodded all the same.

“Yes, if you want to be indelicate about it,” Fancy replied. “But I was trying to keep things phrased for polite company.”

Target burst out laughing at that as well as Eclipse, Night Glider, and Silver.

“I hardly think we’re in “Polite” company,” the green mare commented. “I mean, half of us are very willing to talk about sex openly, or have you forgotten who’re you’re on an expedition with?”

“Yes… Well…” Fancy stammered out which only increased the laughter further.

“Can we focus on more important matters instead of things like sex or what happened to a race nobody really cares about?” Nimbus Breaker asked in a grumpy tone, holding his hunting rifle over his shoulder. “Like say, how long till we’re through that rubble over there? Commander, a piece of advice I hope you’ll heed, but if you want to keep yourself from further embarrassment, I’d just suggest you shut up and stop digging your hole deeper. You should have quit while you were behind.”

“I… I care about what happened to the Seaponies…” Twilight murmured to herself quietly going unheard. “I even looked into my dad’s journal about any information on Seapony etiquette…”

“Nimbus, you were picked to be on this journey for one reason, and one reason only. To command the troops that were to serve as security and bodyguards in case we ran into any hostile forces,” Fancy growled out. “So, I hardly think you’re in a position to offer advice on this particular matter.”

“Yes,” Nimbus argued. “And as a commander, I’m also obliged to offer a voice of reason whenever necessary aren’t I?” he questioned.

“...Now I’m beginning to see why the Pinkertons threw you out…” Fancy muttered to himself. “You do have a love of questioning authority, don’t you?”

“When they’re being stupid, or illogical, yes,” Nimbus snapped back. “Which, for the record is what I think you’re being at the time. We should be focused on the job at hand, not about possibly extinct species!”

“Can I just propose a question?” Twilight asked, mustering up her courage. “Remember that pony we ran into not too long ago? The one you ordered your troops to fire at?” She questioned, looking directly at Nimbus, who could only sigh. Oh yes, he remembered alright. Along with Twilight’s stark objections to the matter.

“Halt, sir! I beseech you to halt!” Nimbus bellowed out as his order. The figure ignored him and scampered away into the darker corners of the hillsides.

“Okay, only chance and he gave it up,” Nimbus muttered to himself before shouting “Men, you know what to do!”

“Wait wait, he might be able to help us out!” Twilight shouted out over the din.

“...Yeesh, and they call me a quick-tempered one.” Lightning thought to herself and laughed nervously when she realized she’d said that aloud with everypony staring at her.

“...Would you get to the bleedin’ point?” he grumbled out.

“Perhaps, and this is only a hypothesis at the moment, but maybe some Seaponies escaped the cataclysm that supposedly wiped them all out,” Twilight theorized.

“Any evidence for that?” Nimbus asked.

“No, but…”

Any further arguments were quelled when a male voice shouted “YYEEEEAH! We’re through!” from the tunnel driller as it finally cleared away the rubble, leaving an open passageway.

“And… MARCH!” Nimbus called out as everybody stepped into the warm welcoming light onto a good-sized cliff, and were greeted with a veritable paradise. Plants with flowers of every size and description bloomed, as water fell from all sides of a tall plateau into a lake below that. On each corner of that plateau stood tall statues of what could only be Seaponies, the fins that served in places of arms holding up grand blue orbs of solid glowing amethyst. And in the center of that plateau stood a grand city of solid stone and marble. Several members of the group sighed in contentment as they felt the warm sunlight coming from a hole in the truly colossal cavern’s roof hit their bodies and they felt the cool grass and moss beneath their feet.

“We’re here… Neighlantis…” Twilight breathed out, hardly able to believe her own eyes. She sniffled and wiped away a tear. Her father’s dream… It was true, and she was here to see it all! Twilight smiled as Night Glider wrapped a wing around her and grinned as Fancy laid a hoof on her shoulder in support.

Just then, an arrow whizzed by Twilight’s head making her let out an eep as it impacted a tree trunk behind her. Everybody present with a gun drew their weapons at that action.

Then, from out of the shadows, several ponies in armor, with masks covering their faces carrying bows led by a cyan serpentine winged creature (Twin horns jutting out of the head) covered in gold gilded armor and a helmet appeared, carrying a scepter with a blood-red ruby atop it. Even with the masks, Twilight could feel the glares settle upon her.

“Stamatíste, dilóste tin epicheírisí sas! Giatí írthes edó? Pós mas vríkate?” The leader of the group demanded and Twilight swallowed nervously.

Author's Note

Okay, first off, I'm so sorry for the longer wait than what you should have gotten. To be honest, I wanted to get this chapter written and completed last month, but between schoolwork (I'm very close to getting my reading GED, or at least taking the test for it and the same with Social Studies) and my other projects, I didn't have enough time as I would have liked. I hope y'all can understand. Anyways, on Nimbus and more specifically, his timeline. I'm... to be honest, not entirely the best at math so the time between him probably being kicked out of the Pinkertons in the late 1890s, right before the passage of the Anti-Pinkerton Act in 1893 I'd guess would probably place him in his late thirties. If someone feels my math is wrong, feel free to correct me so I can fix it. Also, while I'm not an expert on guns, I did do a bit of a research and the Winchester Model 1892 would have been the most likely hunting rifle he might have carried considering it started production in... Well, 1892 and only ended in 1940. On a side note, though I'm horrible at describing guns and descriptions in general, this is what I based it's appearance off of, the M395 Designated Marksman Rifle with the Monocle Skin, or Halo 4's version of the DMR for short. http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/M395_Designated_Marksman_Rifle

Now, on the Seaponies... Well, I'm not saying much on them right now but I will tell you they were a last minute addition as ever since someone brought up the possibility of them appearing (Forgotten who, it's been months since the comment was made) I've been searching for a way to get them in somehow. The MLP movie finally provided it. If anyone's seen it, you should probably have figured out where I'm going. And please, don't spoil what I'm getting at here for my readers who haven't seen the film.

Part 22: Neighlantis

Outside the City of Neighlantis: Unknown Depth

Twilight gazed in equal amounts of awe and terror at the creature in front of her. Well, that’s what she’d like to have said, but to be frank with you dear reader, it was mostly terror. And who could blame her really?

After all, considering the creature in front of her was only spoke about in hushed whispers and legends, tall tales to frighten the weak and yet here it was. Staring right at her with a mask Death herself would probably have been proud of, eyes boring into her soul, Twilight’s legs began to quiver no matter how much she wished they wouldn’t.

Twilight would later swear that she was imagining things, but under that helmet of gilded gold, she saw a smirk. It was almost as if the owner of that smirk was sizing her up.

“Um… Okay… Let’s see here…” Twilight muttered as she flipped through the pages of a journal (Not her father’s) that she’d pulled out of her saddlebags. “That sounded like ancient Greek, not a language I’m fluent in I admit, but who is these days -Well, you apparently- but I think I can at least…” Twilight rambled before she said this in return: “Eímaste exerevnités ...?”

That only got crossbows aimed at them.

“Our situation has not improved…” Spent stated, master of the obvious.

“Here I thought you were a linguist,” Nimbus muttered, as he leaned over to Twilight. “The kind that speaks a dozen languages, knows every local custom, could blend in, disappear, I’d never see you again.”

“Are you kidding? ...I got lost in my own school once or twice,” Twilight admitted with a sheepish grin, forgetting for the moment about the angry dragoness and seaponies pointing weapons at them. “T-to be perfectly fair, i-it was a big school, but…”

“Is everypony on this journey utterly useless in some facet?” Nimbus exclaimed in frustration, throwing up his hooves in the air in disgust. Then, everybody could hear a rattling sound come from underneath the helmet. It took Twilight a minute, but she realized it was very amused laughter.

“Glad you think that’s so funny… Dragon bâtard.” Twilight grumbled under her breath, not meaning to say that last part, but it had slipped out in both sheer frustration and embarrassment

“Pour l'anecdote, je serais une chienne.” the dragoness replied as she laughed again, and Twilight’s jaw dropped.

“You… You speak Prench?” She squeaked out in amazement, before flushing red as she realized said dragoness had heard every word she’d said. Including the part about her being a ‘bâtard’.

“Assez couramment, oui,” she answered, taking off her helmet to reveal an aquamarine patterned face, with slitted amberish eyes and two tusks sticking out of her head. “Nom de Madame Ember.”

“Twilight Sparkle de nom,” Twilight replied, “Lady… of, um… Books, I guess?”

Ember only laughed at the pony’s awkwardness before she barked out in Greek an order. Although Twilight couldn’t quite catch what she said, the meaning was quite clear visually as her troops lowered their weapons.

“Wait, she speaks Prench? The language of love?” Spent said, almost at once cottoning on an idea before he stepped forwards to Ember in a grand moment of combined idiocy and his hormones doing the thinking for him. “Voulez-vous coucher…”

Almost at once, Ember recoiled in disgust and socked him in the jaw with a powerful right hook sending him flying backwards.

“You know, I think we’re getting somewhere!” Spent said, with a doofy grin.

“Moron…” Gallants muttered as he shook his head. “You don’t just go up and ask a woman for sexual intercourse! Not outright!”

Sudoku facehoofed and muttered to himself: “I thought Italian was the language of love?” as he shook his head in disappointment.

“Glad Ah’m not the one translating here…” Grape Vine muttered as he plucked an arrow from his flank, wincing as he did so. “Ah’d have gotten us all killed by now…”

Nimbus groaned, the combined idiocy of who he had to work with was absolutely ridiculous.

“Heh…” Silver Spanner trailed off, barely hiding her amusement. “'bout time somebody, or in this case, somedragon hit 'im for that. I'm just terribly sorry it wasn't me and that somebody beat me to it.”

That, Ember burst out laughing and said in perfect English: “I like you.”

“Well, you’re sorta growing on me as well,” Silver replied. “Anybody who could put that perv in his place automatically shoots to the top of my good books.”

“What’s a… good book?” Ember asked quizzically and Silver only laughed good-naturedly. Not demeaning, not in a mocking way as one might have expected, but just in a genuinely amused way.

“Lady, you’ve got a lot to learn about the modern ways of speaking,” she chuckled. “I’d be glad to offer myself as a tutor…” Silver said. Ember smiled before leaning forwards.

“And in how many other ways are you willing to offer yourself up? I’m a Lady after all, and you’d make a fine addition to the Royal Harem. Been a long time since I’ve had anybody other than a Seapony. Celestia knows I need a change of… pace.” She trailed off, waggling her eyelashes. Silver’s jaw dropped, and so did Spent’s. Albeit for entirely different reasons.

Then Ember burst out laughing at Silver’s expression, and the mare realized she’d been completely and utterly trolled. By a dragon no less, who were said to have no senses of humor whatsoever!

“I’m… I’m sorry, it’s just been so long since I had somebody to mess with. You provided me with the perfect opportunity, really,” Ember apologized with a bow. “Please forgive me.”

“No, no need. That was actually sorta funny, now that I think of it,” Silver replied. “So… No hard feelings. Believe me, anybody who can get their bee under my bonnet like that, well… I do like them. Still, all the same, you’re getting a tutor like it or not!”

“I look forwards to it,” Ember stated before she gestured with a claw towards the city and a long wooden rope bridge that led to it. “Eh, I suppose I can let you inside. For now at least, as long as you don’t cause too much trouble.”

“Can’t promise you that, not with this crew,” Fancy said, muttering that last part largely to himself. “But we’d been glad to accept the invite.”

“And you are?” Ember asked.

“Commander Fancy Pants, leader of this expedition.” Fancy introduced himself and kissed Ember’s other claw like the gentlestallion he was. “And might I say, it’s an honor and an absolute pleasure to finally meet you.”

Ember smiled, and blushed slightly. “Well, the honor is all mine. Like I said, it’s been a long time since we’ve had visitors of any kind. So then… Welcome to Neighlantis!”

Twilight found herself at a loss for words as Princess Ember -Staff in claw, tip glowing with a blood red ruby, marking her place in the status quo- led them through the outskirts of the city. All around them, signs of a thriving civilization were abundant. Market stalls, made of wood and leather hide, had seaponies (Seaponies! Twilight had to let out a squee at that, though she kept it suppressed as much as possible.) selling their wares. Haggling over prices, shouting to make their voices heard over the din.

Fish of all kinds were on display, amongst other things like various fruits and pottery and Fancy gaped as he saw a live Coelacanth in a glass tank.

“By Celestia…” he whispered, taking his monocle off his face and rubbing it with a small cloth to make sure his eyes weren’t deceiving him. But there it was, still swimming about atop a market stall inside its tank.

Twilight was jotting down notes left and right in her notebook at everything she saw, frantic scribblings at every little thing that caught her eye. The wonders this could do for both history and science, it could change the world’s understanding of culture as they knew it!

“They called me foolish…” she whispered, tears of joy leaking from her eyes. “Called my whole theory of this place’s existence a folly! Laughed in my face!” she shouted before asking to nobody in particular as she looked skywards. “Well, who’s laughing now, huh?”

Then, her mood turned sad again, and her voice lowered as she whispered: “Dad, I finally did it, just wish you were here to see this…”

Fancy smiled as he looked at his niece. “I’d like to think he is, he’s with us both, in spirit.”

Twilight sniffled and wiped away her tears, before smiling sadly. Yeah, he was.

Tall pillars, ancient in both design and age with flowering vines creeping up their sides were all around, roman or classical greek in build. Could have been a mixture of both. And at the far end of the city kingdom, lay a giant pyramid. Fantastically impossible, this city could have been described as if you were wanting to sum it up in two words. It’s blend of different cultures, from all across the globe, and these cultures mixing and meshing so well when in the surface world above, ponies were still struggling to get over long held prejudices.

To Twilight, this was as close to heaven as she could ever think existed on the mortal plane. Poets and philosophers had long since spoken of its beauty, but nothing ever came close to seeing the real deal.

“Stagger onward rejoicing;
And even then if, perhaps
Having actually got
To the last col, you collapse
With all Neighlantis shining
Below you yet you cannot
Descend, you should still be proud
Even to have been allowed
Just to peep at Neighlantis
In a poetic vision:
Give thanks and lie down in peace,
Having seen your salvation.” said once by W.H. Auden of York in the United Kingdom. But even he failed to capture in words, in all of its majesty Twilight thought to herself. Perhaps nobody ever really could. There was that saying, a picture was worth a thousand words, and perhaps in Twilight’s mind for Neighlantis at least, it probably could have been more. After all, how could you sum up this grand, ancient city in just a measly thousand words? Perhaps you could, it would just take a better writer than her to do so.

She noted small little gems hanging around everybody’s necks, (Even around Ember’s) glowing light blue, glinting in the light from the hole in the ceiling above.

“Princess Ember, what’s with those-” Twilight started, before the dragoness gave her a look, telling her not to press. It seemed, some secrets of Neighlantis would have to stay just that… A secret. At least for now anyways…

Twilight then heard the cocking of a rifle as Nimbus pointed his Whinnychester hunting rifle at a very familiar stallion walking up the path. Gasps echoed throughout the street, and a few shopkeepers hid behind their wares. Said stallion resembled her brother in some ways, right down to the mane style and coat coloring. But while Shining was calm and collected in most situations, this stallion was anything but.

A look of anger was on his muzzle, as he stared down Nimbus. In one of his hooves was a scepter, not that far removed from Ember’s, but tipped with a glowing blue gem instead of a crimson one.

“Well, look who it is. The coward who runs from a fight.” Nimbus growled out, gripping his rifle tightly before he found it flung from his grip by an aquamarine aura of magic energy. The newcomer’s horn was alight with that same color, making another difference between him and Twilight’s older brother.

“Well, look who it is,” the Stallion stated, echoing Nimbus’s words right down to the letter. “The stallion who disobeys orders and common sense when it suits him.”

With that, Nimbus had finally had enough of him and pulled out an old Colt M1892 -Great War era dated if you wanted to narrow down an exact date for whatever reason- and pointed it at the Stallion.

“Ask yourself…” the stallion asked, as low growls echoed from the alleyways, and Twilight spared a quick glance towards one. Something, with two glowing blue orbs was hidden in the darkness. A quick check towards the other alleyway to the right of her, and there was another set of eyes gleaming out of the darkness. Interestingly, the Stallion’s eyes were glowing the exact same shade as well, indicating some sort of connection. “Would you really want to do that?”

Twilight then remembered something, an old mural she’d seen a while back.

There was a depiction of a winged lizard of some sort, alongside a duo of nine-tailed canid creatures. Both canids held staves, both glowing with light somehow, both a calm cool blue. Ancient characters were inscribed below the creatures.

“Praise the foxes, for they are the protectors of the lamb…” She murmured under her breath. “So that’s what it meant!” Twilight thought to herself, eyes widened in realization. It seemed this city had many more mysteries to it yet!

“I’d advise you to listen to what he says, and calm yourself Nimbus,” Fancy said warningly. “No need to pick a fight where there isn’t any.”

Nimbus growled, before he re-holstered his pistol and muttered a few none too kind curses under his breath. He then turned to find himself face to face with a very displeased Fancy.

“What the Tartarus were you thinking? We’re guests here in this city, and we could be very easily thrown out, just as easily as we were let in! I’m trying to open up diplomatic relations, and you threatening to shoot somebody isn’t helping!” He hissed out.

“Yeah?” Nimbus growled out, his wings flaring slightly in his anger. “Well, just so you know, not everypony can be trusted. Just ask Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria! He trusted his allies, and where is he now? Oh right, dead! Shot through the jugular, am I not correct?”

Fancy shook his head and sighed as Nimbus walked off grumbling to himself. That pony, he saw enemies where there were none at times. Sometimes he wondered if you could take the pony out of a war, but not the war out of the pony. He’d have to keep a closer eye on him, otherwise, things could go sour really fast…

Later that night, Grape sat on near a small watery pool on the edge of the City. Nearby, a few of the surviving pegasi and griffon crew members from the Moby Dick played in a water fountain, bathing themselves almost like birds did. Sudoku looked on and shook his head while sighing.

“Idiots…” he muttered before walking off. “Least they could do is have some respect for these things, or at least pretend to show it…”

“Gawd…” Grape muttered to himself, while looking at the Colt Peacemaker in his hooves, before tossing it away in disgust. “Not just a failure and a fraud, but Ah’m a murderer as well.”

“You still beating yourself up about that?” Lightning Dust asked, as she trotted up to Grape, and put a wing around him. “Listen, you did what you had to do. Madness overtook him, we all saw it.”

“Yeah?” Grape asked in disgust. “Still doesn’t make it right as rain, now does it?”

“Maybe not… But honestly, it was a spur of the moment choice, if you asking me.”

“Ya’ve got a heck of a way of making me feel better about mahself, ya know that right?” Grape asked, nickering in derision.

“My point is, you saw no other way out, than to stop your father before he killed us all with his bloodlust for the Kraken. Might have done the same thing myself, if I was in your place,” Lightning Dust replied. “Besides, you’re beating yourself up over it. Hardly what I’d call the actions of a monster, right?”

“Yeah, Ah suppose…” Grape murmured.

“Now, what’s this about being a failure and a fraud?” Lightning asked. Grape sighed.

“Suppose it had to come out eventually…” he muttered, and with a purple glow of his horn, his false Cutie Mark of a sextant began to fade away, and was replaced by a double eighth note. Lightning’s jaw dropped.

“Now ya see… Not a navigator, not by a long shot… Just somepony who pretended to be, just get on this here crew, and be close to my pa and make sure he didn’t do anything stupid. Fine job of that, Ah did, didn’t I?”

“Hey, you’re no failure, not in my eyes. Remember all those times in the mess hall, you and your guitar? The crew loved to hear you practice, even if it got on someponies’ nerves about your seeming love for that thing…” Lightning Dust joked. “Tartarus, sometimes I swear you loved that thing more than your marefriend…”

Grape actually burst out laughing at that.

“Now, how did that song go? The one that Trixie and yours relationship reminded me of? Oh yes, I remember…” Lightning trailed off before she began to sing.

“You looked at me, my heart began to pound
You weren't the sort of guy I thought would stick around
Hey, but it don't have to be eternally
My bad, bad Angel put the Devil in me
You put the Devil in me…” Lightning began to sing, and Grape, slowly but surely joined in along with her.

“You lured me in with your cold grey eyes
Your simple smile, your bewitching lies
One and one and one is three
My bad, bad Angel, the Devil in me!
You put the Devil in me!”

Little did they know it, but their singing hadn’t gone unheard. A splash, and a figure poked her head out of the pool.

Grape and Lightning both blinked in surprise. It was a pegasus mare. But at the same time, not exactly a pony, to be entirely honest really. In actuality, it was rather a seapony in their real form. Half fish, half pony. She had a wavy cyan mane that flowed like the water itself, ruby-colored fins on her back resembling pegasi wings, and a tail that like her mane, was cyan colored. Her main body was a tannish color, and a necklace of seashells rested around her neck. Two big, innocent eyes rested on her freckled face.

“Er.... Hi! Name’s Princess Skystar! Absolutely lovely singing, by the way!” the pony introduced herself before looking at Grape and Lightning’s bewildered expressions. “...I’m sorry, did I interrupt something?”

Author's Note

Phew! I honestly didn't think I was going to get this chapter out within this month. Honestly, this was one of the more difficult chapters to write. Stuck at it for a while, until I started writing, and like it sometimes happens with this story, the ideas started flowing until I got this!

Favorite part, honestly? Grape and Lightning's long overdue conversation. Been a while since I highlighted their brother and sister relationship, thought I'd go back to it for a bit. Funny thing was, it wasn't even planned, nor Princess Skystar's surprise apperence. The chapter was just supposed to end with Fancy's musings, really.

Actually, on Skystar, I'd like to credit my good friend Son Elec on helping me describe her, or at least get me a starting point. Also, I recently got this piece done by NanyaNomNom on DA, a headshot of Nimbus Breaker, or Iron Skies as some of you reading IWTFL might know him.

Part 23: Paradise Lost

Grape blinked in surprise, slightly unsure what he was looking at, and Skystar blinked back, mimicking his actions. Grape tilted his head to side slightly in confusion, and Skystar did the same.

In the background, Lightning facehoofed and muttered “Like watching a two pony theatre piece here. Or a combination of Fatty Arbuckle and Charlie Chaplin…” to herself as she looked on in a mix of amusement and embarrassment.

Then, the silence finally broke.

“You do this with all the ponies you meet, or is it just me?” Skystar asked as she rested her fins on the water’s edge, and placed her head atop said fins.

“Ah… Ah’m sorry, this is just a lot to take in,” Grape stuttered out, taking a few steps back and holding his head in pain. It seemed the shock of it all, entering Neighlantis and seeing actual Seaponies amongst other creatures had finally caught up with him upon meeting Princess Skystar. His hooves clopping against the rocks, Grape Vine sat down on his haunches. “Neighlantis, actual honest to Celestia Seaponies, Dragons, and Gawdess only knows what else…” he said, taking short sharp breaths, beginning to hyperventilate.

“Deep breaths, deep breaths...” Grape reminded himself as his breathing began to slow, and his demeanor grew calmer.

Skystar then took a flying leap out of the water and with a white flash, changed forms completely. Her scales turned to a fur coat, and she grew wings and her mouth changed to a beak. Her fins were replaced with a tail and legs. Her rear legs had hooves like a normal pony, but her forelegs ended in paws like a lion.

“Okay… Seapony to a Griffon…” Lightning Dust murmured to herself, unable to keep herself from staring at Skystar’s new form. “What are you, some kind of sea-dwelling changeling?”

“Okay, firstly, I’m a hippogriff, not a griffon. Big difference,” Skystar replied, looking somewhat offended by Lightning Dust’s mistake. “Secondly, ...what’s a changeling?” she asked in an honestly confused tone.

“A changeling’s this species that well… can change forms into anything they desire, even, say a rock,” Lightning Dust explained. “It’s in the name, really. Said to look like a cross between pony and insects, but nobody ever really knows, considering that one could be standing right next to you and you’d never know it! Bit of a scary thought, really...”

“Well, I can safely assure you I can’t change into a rock… or anything else really besides my Seapony form. So, no changelings here!” Skystar said cheerily. Grape was beginning to think that was her default demeanor.

“...Or are there?” Skystar teased, leaning in close with a wink and Grape broke out into a small laugh.

“Well, if ya are a changeling, least you’re a funny one!” he guffawed.

“Thanks, I guess…” Skystar shrugged, with a slight hint of sadness in her tone. “First comment I’ve had in awhile that didn’t felt… forced.”

“What do you mean?” Lightning Dust asked in concern, wrapping a wing around the younger female. She had to be in her late teens, at best by Lightning’s approximation.

“Let’s see, I’m one of the two Princesses of this kingdom, and my adoptive sister is a fierce fire-breathing dragon who trains the Royal Guard and who nobody wants to tick off. You do the math…” Skystar trailed off.

“Ah, I see…” Lightning trailed off. She could only imagine how hard it was on Skystar, everyone being afraid of her older sister and not being able to make any friends because of that. “Well, you have us now,” she said, as Grape put a hoof on the hippogriff’s shoulder.

“Thank you…” Skystar whispered. “B-But just so you know, I do have friends! Here, see?” Skystar asked, holding up two clam shells. One an indigo color, the other a burnt orange. “This is Shelly, and the other’s Sheldon! Oh! Oh! There are so many things we can do together now! We can make friendship bracelets out of shells, and... picture frames outta shells, and... decorative wastebaskets out of shells... Oh, I have so, soooo many projects that involve shells! Like my necklace here, did I tell you I made that?” Skystar babbled in a tone of excitement. Although if you listened closely, you could tell it was a forced tone. “Now I have someone new to share them with. I mean, aside from my shell friends here. Oh, did I tell you I named them Shelly and Sheldon?” she asked sadly, visibly deflating as she sat ‘Shelly’ and ‘Sheldon” aside for the moment atop a rock.

“Ya’ve… Ya’ve been alone for a very long while, haven’t you?” Grape Vine asked. “Never quite being able to fit in for one reason or another… Just tryin’ to make the best of yer situation, and putting up some sort of false front just so nopony could see ya cry...”

“No, no, I’m perfectly fine!” Skystar stammered out, sounding close to tears.

“Trust mah instincts, and the fact that Ah’m speaking from experience here, Ah can tell when a pony’s lying to themselves, lying to everybody around him. Believe me, in that kind of state there, yer about as far from as fine as it gets...” Grape trailed off.

Skystar’s head whirled around to face him in shock. “You… You do?”

Grape Vine nodded and muttered “Gawd knows it’s what Ah’ve been doing for the past few months. Just ‘nother misfit who can’t seem to find his place in life…”

Lightning Dust then gave him a stern look, before slapping him across the face. “Look at me now, you found your place on the Moby Dick or did any of what I just told you a few minutes ago just go in one ear, and out the other with you?” She asked, glaring at him.

“Yeah… I know, but it’s hard to be a moral officer for a submarine, when the damn submarine doesn’t exactly exist anymore, does it?” Grape Vine snapped.

“You’ve still got a crew to keep cheery right, and from what I can see, that doesn’t just extend to the crew,” Lightning replied, gesturing to a certain hippogriff. “From what I can see from where I’m standing, you were able to figure out Skystar here in an instance!”

“She’s right, you know…” Skystar admitted sadly, giving him a small nuzzle which made Grape blush.

Inwardly, he repeated to himself: “Happily dating Trixie, and Ah promised mah dad Ah’d marry her when I got back home! Not if, when!”

“Say…” Skystar began. “You two want to know an extra special secret about Neighlantis, and get the private tour of its historical section? ...Well, more historical than Neighlantis is already, of course,” she babbled. “Would make a great story to tell your friend Twilight… Er, something or other about!”

“Sparkle,” Lightning answered her before a thought came to her. “Wait, how’d you know about Twilight?”

“Oh please, hard not to, with all the talk going throughout the city,” Skystar said, waving a paw dismissively before she flushed red. “...Plus, I may have spotted her from a pool when Ember was leading them into the city. Wait, that doesn’t count as spying, does it? Does it?” Skystar squeaked out somewhat nervously and Grape burst out laughing again at her antics.

“What, what’s so funny?” Skystar asked in confusion.

“Might be the first hippogriff Ah’ve had the luxury of meeting, but by Gawd if yer not a charmin’ one!” Grape said, his dixie accent and southern charm making Skystar flush red. Little did Grape know it, but he was giving Skystar a small crush on him.

“Oh, I just remembered!” Skystar said, before clasping another necklace with her paw. This one was much simpler, with a pearl bead attached to the seaweed constructed string. “Before I give you two the tour, you gotta get a change first. ...Well, unless you want to drown I suppose…”

With that, she pulled both Lightning and Grape into the pool and a bright, nearly blinding flash enveloped the area as they were pulled under. When it cleared, Skystar was back in her seapony form, her ‘mane’ flowing in the water. Grape and Lightning found themselves as seaponies as well, their legs and tails replaced with fins. Lightning had gained two see-through dorsal fins resembling wings, while Grape had earned a dolphin’s fin.

“Okay, well I can’t say this I expected…” Lightning murmured, as she looked over her new form. “Okay, I have to ask, how’d you pull this off?”

“Oh, this?” Skystar asked, as she swam down a corridor. “It’s this pearl I have around my neck, all of the members of the guard and both me and Ember have one! Allows us to change into forms more suited for seawater. Allows us to flee from our enemies… Er, well, swim from them or take them by surprise when we leap out of the water and change into dragons, ponies or hippogriffs! Pretty cool, huh?”

Grape noted the many ancient hieroglyphs lining the stone walls of the dimly lit hidden corridor, glowing green whenever Skystar passed them. Another one of her many necklaces, this one with a aqua gem around her neck glowed as well, almost as if in response. Also lining the walls were Pleurobrachia Bachei, or Sea Gooseberries -A type of comb jellyfish- to the common tongue.

“These passages, these aqueducts?” Skystar began to explain. “They’re a refuge, in case our city was ever attacked for whatever reason. A place to hide out when things get tough. Plus, as it turns out, they’re a great place to chronicle our history.”

“I sense there’s a but coming up somewhere along the lines,” Lightning Dust noted, as a school of Red Sea Bream swam past them.

“Yeah, you sensed correctly,” Skystar said sadly as they descended deeper into the caverns, and into a giant dome-shaped room. A giant blue collection of crystals, glowing the same shade as the one around Skystar’s neck jutted out from the ceiling. All around her, ancient runes and characters, unrecognizable by anybody covered and lined the walls. “Our home, it’s not as much as a paradise you’d probably think it to be. We’re… We’re, well, we’re losing our history. As time goes on, things have begun to stagnate. Nobody knows how to read our written language anymore. We’ve been forced to borrow, as you saw earlier, hieroglyphs from the Egyptians!” Skystar continued, before gesturing down another hallway, where lights flashed on and off. A form of bioluminescence, as would later be learned. “And if you go down that way, you’d find katakana from the Neighponise!”

“So, wait… You’re saying the only languages you can read are ones your civilization probably helped create, if what Twilight’s saying about your shared history with ancient peoples lines up?” Lightning asked, and Skystar nodded.

“Yeah… I get the feeling we were once a great civilization, but now…?” she trailed off, looking forlorn. “We’re just dying, slowly sure. But dying all the same. Memento Mori I guess...”

And on that note, Skystar sighed as she swam further into the tunnels, with Grape and Lightning following.

Neighlantis: Main Temple:

Meanwhile, unaware of the new information about the supposed paradise that was Neighlantis that Grape and Lightning were just learning from Princess Skystar, (Or Skystar’s existence in general really) Twilight along with Night Glider and Fancy joined Ember in the main temple for a grand feast.

Columns lined the room, six by six on either side of them. Ancient hieroglyphs lined the walls, and flanking the entrance to the room were two obsidian statues of jackals, with gold and gem-encrusted necklaces. The ponies found themselves seated on fluffy purple pillows, with gold trim. Like inside the blue dome Skystar had shown Grape and Ember, a giant blue collection of crystals was above them, like a chandelier. And exactly like Skystar before, they glowed the same color as the gem on Ember’s necklace.

Guards, holding spears kept a firm eye on the newcomers, eyeing them with a wary gaze. In the corner of the room rested their leader, the pony who Nimbus had almost come to blows with.

“I’m sorry for the bad show of form we… Er, Nimbus displayed upon arrival.” Fancy apologized, breaking the incredibly awkward silence that had filled the room.

Ember, after finishing biting down into a chicken leg, sighed. “Yes, well, Xenophilius over there -Here she pointed to the pony with the strong resemblance to Twilight’s brother- could have been less… antagonistic as well,” Ember apologized after swallowing the meat. She then began using the leftover bone as a makeshift toothpick. “He could have refrained from almost letting loose his… pets for lack of a better term.” the dragoness muttered as she continued cleaning her teeth.

She then offered another chicken leg to Fancy. “Want some? Slaughtered by our finest!”

“I’ll… pass, thank you.” Fancy said politely.

“I’ll gladly take it if the commander’s not having any,” Night Glider said and swiped the chicken leg from Ember’s grasp, not being turned off by the prospect of meat. Half bird as she was, it needed to be a regular part of her diet. Built up muscle strength. She, with a smile, tore off some of the meat from the bone. “Mhmm, good stuff. Freshly slaughtered you say? Compliments to those who did the deed!”

Twilight, trying to force the bile back down her throat upon seeing her marefriend chow down on meat. She instead turned her thoughts to Ember.

“You know, with all of this tolerance towards other races, and so much culture mixing, you could teach the world above a thing or two,” Twilight commented and Ember sighed sadly.

“Yes, the world above is strife with prejudice, is it not?” she replied before the dragoness shook her head. “But we must stay down here, for better, or for worse...”

“But why?” Twilight asked in shock.

“This isolation, it’s not just a matter of the fact that we can’t leave. We all easily could if we wanted to. It’s a matter of self-imposed isolation,” Ember replied. “Ask yourself Twilight Sparkle, if the world above us saw our society what might happen? I’ll tell you what I think would, they might loot and plunder what little we have. We’re a dying society, and although revealing ourselves to the surface world might be a wise course of action in the end, it’s one we cannot take… At least not now. Ponies, like all herd animals, fear what they do not understand. They would fear us, they would fear me. Negotiations, they’d be a moot point. War would be upon us, and we could not fight off powerful nations like the ones that dwell above us,” she continued. “So, you see, we must stay down here, and if it comes to that, die with what little dignity we have left.”

Sighing sadly to herself, Twilight shook her head knowing Ember wouldn’t budge on the matter. She instead tried to turn her attentions back to Xenophilius, who she admitted, was a subject of her curiosity.

“So, just asking here, but what’s with Xen-Zeno-Zxeno…?” Twilight said, fumbling with Xenophilius’ name before finally saying: “Oh, I give up… My brother’s doppelganger?”

“Oh, you mean Xenophilius?” Ember said, pronouncing the name perfectly -Making Twilight emit a small growl, and her marefriend patted her on the back with a wing in sympathy- and raising an eyebrow.

“Yeah, him,” Twilight said. “As far as I can tell, he’s definitely not a seapony like the rest of the ponies here seem to be, so what’s his story?”

“I’d honestly like to know that myself, truth be told,” Nimbus said, as he walked into the room, and almost at once had crossbows pointed at him. Lowering one of the weapons with his hoof with a calm expression on his face, he looked at the pale white unicorn stallion. “He’s got my attention. ...Well, him and those creatures of his he has as his personal guard.”

“If you mean the seaponies, I’d like you to call them something more than just ‘creatures’.” Xenophilius stated, a low growl present in his tone. Night Glider rolled her eyes.

“Alpha Males in their natural habitat, everypony…” she muttered to herself as she shook her head, and Twilight nearly spit out her drink in sheer amusement.

“I meant those things you nearly had attack me back in the marketplace. Glowing eyes, sharp teeth, ring a bell?” Nimbus commented in a dry tone.

“That’s my secret,” Xenophilius shot back. “Neighlantis has some mysteries that normal surface dwellers aren’t meant to know about.”

“Funny thing, you seem to be a surface dweller yourself, given you look nothing like any of the inhabitants here, and actually look like a normal pony.” Nimbus drawled.

“Geez, you can feel the testosterone in here…” Night Glider deadpanned.

“Now, that’s a tale in itself…” Ember began before Xenophilius stopped her and held up a hoof.

“And one I’d like to tell myself, actually,” He interrupted before turning back to Nimbus. “You’re right, I’m not from around here. Came from the earth above, actually. These people, they took me in and treated me as one of their own. It was 1918, March if I remember correctly. The USS Cyclops, my ship went by the name of.”

This time Twilight really did spit out her drink.

“Wait, the USS Cyclops? That ship vanishing in the Bermuda Triangle, it made all the papers!” Twilight sputtered out in excitement. “I remember combing through the archives back in Manehatten just to find out what happened to it! They, especially this one purple maned mare, (Twilight failed to see Xenophilius’ eyes light up at this) all say it sank in an unexpected storm, and no traces were ever found…” she trailed off.

“Well, that’s the thing,” Xenophilius replied. “You’re not going to find any traces, and those papers of yours, they’re not wrong. It did vanish in the middle of a storm, -I was the only survivor in fact- but the real truth is far stranger…”

And so he began…

March, 1918:

Lightning flashed and lit up the sky in a shower of color, and thunder rolled in the distance as hard, heavy rains poured down on the deck of the Proteus-class collier known by the name of the Cyclops. A name that would eventually go down in history as one of the most infamous craft ever to be swallowed up by the Bermuda Triangle.

Not that any of the crew knew this at the time, of course. Drenched to the bone, and with guns in hooves, they were in route from Salvador, Brazil all the way to Baltimore, Maryland back in the US. Onboard was tons of manganese ore -11,000 tons to be exact- to be used as munitions to fuel the war effort. The Cyclops, it had been commissioned the year before into service. After leaving port with the ore, one Commander Worley had submitted a report that one of the ship’s starboard engines had a cracked cylinder due to the sheer weight of the ore carried. It was just about a little 3,000 tons above the ship’s 8,100 ton normal carrying capacity. The ship’s sisters had a fault in them, that the central I-beams often weakened due to the corrosive nature of the ores they often carried. If they were to hit a storm like the one currently brewing right now, strong enough waves would leave the bow and stern intact, but the middle section might have been ripped apart.

But that wasn’t the only theory.

One or two ponies had noted more than a few Germanics aboard, and paranoia ran rampant that there were sympathizers aboard amongst the crew. In the years that would follow, that would be one point of speculation about what may have happened to the Cyclops, that the sympathizers had sunk the boat themselves.

That was not to be the case, however. The truth was, it would be a much, much stranger fashion that the USS Cyclops would go down on its fated final voyage.

For the past few days, two ponies had noted a strange shadow following them in the waves. Xenophilius, was one of them. The other was a fellow crewmember, a lavender-coated mare with a deep purple mane tied in a ponytail. Sugar Belle, she was called. There they stood, on the deck, fighting against the battering wind and rain.

“See, there it is again!” Sugar shouted, pointing with a hoof to the thrashing seas beyond them. A pistol rested in a holster on her right hind leg. Xenophilius pulled out a pair of binoculars and peered out to the horizon where a shadow did indeed cut through the waters. It was impossibly long, and looked to have multiple tendrils. Xenophilius swallowed nervously, it couldn’t be what he thought it was… could it?

No, Xenophilius thought to himself. That legend was just an old sailor’s tale, just malarky, plain and simple! Made to scare little ponies in their beds, or to be the subject of bar talk. Hardly worth thinking about for any length of time, in his honest opinion.

“Well… Whatever it is, doesn’t seem to be worth our attentions, does it?” Xenophilius asked, a clockwork style assault rifle slung onto his back. “If it wanted to sink us, it would have attacked by now wouldn’t it? Might just be trying to make it through the storm, same as us. Probably figures we know the safest route through this Hell, and wants to stick close to us,”

“Possibly…” Sugar Belle noted not entirely believing her friend’s words. “Best we get inside, before the weather gets any worse...”

Xenophilius snorted, he could hardly see how the weather could get any worse than this!

Then, one giant glowing green tendril shot up out of the water and grabbed Sugar by her hind leg just as she was heading back inside. She let out a scream of fear, and pulled out her pistol.

She fired several shots into the Kraken’s head just as it leered up out of the waves. Xenophilius pulled out his rifle and fired several shots at the beast, and it roared out an ear-piercing sound of pain.

Sugar was flung somewhere out of sight into the thrashing waves and one giant tentacle came crashing down on the deck. Metal shrapnel flew everywhere, and some grazed Xenophilius’ sides, drawing blood.

“Kraken!” a shout went up from somewhere on the deck as soldiers poured out of the woodworks and fired their guns. Another tentacle came down, and not just reduced those poor souls to bloody smears, but smashed the Cyclops directly in half. Not coincidentally, it was exactly where the I-Beams were said to fail should a strong enough blow hit this area.

Xenophilius found himself hitting the smashing waves and his lungs breathing in water. He raced towards the surface and found himself in the middle of a searing blaze, but a blow to the head from a barrel sent his way by the turbulent waters knocked him under again Then, in the midst of all this chaos, he saw it. A serpent-like form, light blue in scale color with two tusks jutting out of the side of its head and twin piercing amber eyes. A necklace, with a pearl strung into it rested around the creature’s neck. It glowed white, and then Xenophilius found his entire body structure changing to that of a finned creature, with a blue sail on his back, like that of a swordfish. Wounds healed in almost the blink of an eye, and Xenophilius found his lungs changing into gills to adjust to the water.

“Come with me! The Kraken, we’ll be able to escape his notice thanks to our size. Hardly worth any sort of a meal in his eyes right now!” the serpent shouted before rocketing off down into the darker waters of the deep. Seeing no other option, and taking in the fact that only death, turmoil, and chaos awaited him above, Xenophilius quickly made up his mind and followed after her...

Author's Note

Ha, bet you thought you'd seen the last of the Kraken, huh? Not!

Okay, here we go. Whew, never thought this chapter would come out as long as it did. I thought the only 4,000-word chapter in this story would be the one that contained Rainbow's death scene.

Now, on the Cyclops. Did a bit of digging around the web, and all the facts I listed about it are true and are theories on how it sunk. If you want more info, check here. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Cyclops_(AC-4)

On Sugar Belle, I promised a friend (And myself) that next time she came around in a story, I'd treat her a lot nicer than she was in Griffons, Ponies, and Taboo Subjects. Granted, this isn't much of a step up from being a bigot, but she's implied to be alive so that's one good thing right?

Anyways, might be my last chapter for this month, considering y'know, Christmas and all, and if that turns out to be the case... Feliz Navidad, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, or whatever it is you happen to celebrate.

Note: Credit to Xenophilius belongs to Xenopony.

Part 24: Forging Unexpected Connections

Somewhere in Southwest Africa: November, 1914

Gunfire echoed in Nimbus’s ears as he held his rifle in his hands, the dirt, the sand and the screams of men cut down by the Germane forces somewhere in the distance all around him.

Nimbus was a bitter pony, to say the least. There he was, expecting to be sent to the firefights over in Europe on the Western Front, and yet here he was defending British land in some backwater hole nobody probably cared anything for.

Like being sent to the moon, in some ways, Nimbus supposed. Nobody really cared about what was going on here. There’d be no medals, no recognizing of his accomplishments here. Just another forgotten pony, in a forgotten part of the war. A tiny -And for the most part useless- cog in the great war machine, if you will.

But Nimbus Breaker was a professional soldier all the same. He’d been placed here, sent to do a job and by god if he wasn’t going to do it! Even if he had to battle the heat and disease that ran rampant through what would be the future Belgian Congo. Even if he had to deal with limited food and supplies, he would manage.

Pride and loyalty to one’s country, he supposed. A number, and a name, yes, that was true. But by Faust above, he was going to see this through.

Nimbus had to suppress a smirk as he saw the Germane forces were no better off than he was. Like his own regiment, only the commanding officers were ponies. The rest, they were zebras.

He’d idly wondered how prejudice like this could run rampant, when half of the plans that won the day in the end -At least in the battles he was fighting- were concocted by zebras. He’d asked an old friend of his, Target Quartermane and she’d told him that it was the same within the Germane, Prench and Belgian systems as well. Over here, the ponies ran the show. It was a sad, but true fact of life.

A sniper shot rang out from the trees, and he saw her distinctive form barely visible within the jungles nearby. A scream ran out and a Germane soldier fell to the ground with a thud, a bloody hole in his head. He chuckled. With her on their side, the hardest part of the day would be burying the bodies when this was all over and done with.

A few years after the war ended, both of the two would find happiness in their own ways. Nimbus, with Windy Whistles, and Target with Sudoku. He would later find Target had found fame by spending her honeymoon with Sudoku by taking a five-week trip over the country in a balloon trekking new territories and gaining worldwide fame and recognition in doing so. As for Nimbus, he’d just be trying to spend the quiet life with his wife shaking away both the memories of the war and before that, his time in the Pinkertons. Keyword, trying.

Another shot rang out, and another body fell, seemingly confirming Nimbus’s earlier thoughts. If this was Hell, least he was in some very good company. Men, and women he’d proud to be fighting alongside.

“Forwards!” he barked out before shouting in Swahili: “Kwa heshima, utukufu, na nchi!” spurring his troops onwards and over the top.

He smiled, if there was one thing good about being in the African campaigns, it was less likely you’d run into a wall of bullets than you would in a place like say Verdun or somewhere else on the Western Front. The rifles, they might pick off some of his men, but if they moved fast and quick enough and kept low to the ground, the battle was theirs.

A fighting chance, that was all a soldier could expect and hope for in any battle.

Nimbus’s men roared in challenge at the Germane troops as they fired at wooden barricades, rifle shots ringing out once more. Nimbus pulled out his pistol from its holster, and took aim. A shot went off, and an enemy troop hit the ground. Several more were to soon follow. A bullet whizzed by his head, nearly missing it. If it was from his side, or the opposition’s, he couldn’t tell.

Then, with a throwing off of a tarp, the Germanes whipped out their trump card. One thick bodied heavy Maxim machine gun. And in Africa, Nimbus’s worst nightmare.

Bullets cut down troops like a farmer cut down his crops with a scythe. The entire charge of troops dropped low the ground as the gun thundered above them.

“Bunduki la mashine ... Faust inatusaidia …” some zebra muttered from beside him. The gun continued to thunder, and through the shroud of smoke, Nimbus snarled as he saw a smirk of victory creep onto the Germane commander’s face.

“Not today, you bastard…” he muttered. He then had a smirk of his own creep onto his face as a minor miracle happened. It seemed Faust had heard them, and the machine gun had jammed.

He knew that he had only one chance, and he had to take it… Fast. As he crawled up to the Germane lines, he saw a soldier spitting and cursing in his native language. (Nimbus had never bothered to learn Germane, although he figured he probably should someday.) With a quick chop to the back of the head, the soldier was knocked out unconsciousness.

Nimbus shoved the body aside, and rapidly turned the machine gun on its former owners. Soldiers began to fall like leaves. Adrenaline poured through Nimbus as he grabbed the searing hot barrel, barely thinking about what he was doing. He just knew he had to do it.

A victory was to be secured that day, and surprisingly, Nimbus didn’t feel any satisfaction from it. He just looked at the blood, and the carnage and felt sick with himself. So that’s what it felt like to win a battle, he thought. Didn’t really feel like anything at all if you asked him. Not even the Zebras chanting their victory cries could fill him with anything, and take away the bitter taste of what he’d just done.

There would be many more days like this to come, and Nimbus hated every one of them.

Now: Neighlantis

But that was the past, this was the present day, Nimbus thought to himself as he sat on the edge of a reflecting pool. His rifle rested itself against a rock. The water was calm, peaceful and sat undisturbed. It was almost like a glass mirror in some ways. In fact, if Nimbus looked hard enough he could see small little fish of some sort swimming down there.

“Something on your mind?” he heard a familiar voice ask. Nimbus turned and saw Xenophilius walking up, staff in hand. Nimbus’s fight or flight instincts were in overdrive. He knew more than likely, waiting in the shadows were the pony’s personal bodyguards.

“Just thinking… On the past, and what the Tartarus I’m doing here,” Nimbus muttered. “Got a wife back at home, waiting on me. She wants to see Prance, we both do. Paris was my idea of a good destination before all of… Well, this came up.”

“Yeah, Paris is nice. Now that the Great War’s over, it should be peaceful and quiet. I wouldn’t know, of course, seeing as how I’ve been trapped down here since 1918. Could leave anytime I wanted to of course, but I feel a…”

“Duty?” Nimbus asked. “Yeah, suppose getting your life saved by the local Princess, a quite beautiful one I might add -For a dragon at least- would kinda keep you from wanting to leave.”

Xenophilius snorted.

“What’s so funny?” Nimbus asked.

“You’re misguided. I have no desires in taking Ember for myself. She’s too fearsome to approach, and ponies would talk anyways. Her captain of the guard, and the Princess courting each other? It’d be a scandal,” Xenophilius replied.

“So, not much else choice wise when it comes to romance down here,” Nimbus butted in. “Besides, it actually sounds remarkably sweet. Like something out of one of those dime-store romance novels my wife likes… Okay, I admit they’re crap from a literary perspective, but she likes them, and you don’t argue with your wife. Not unless you fancy sleeping on the couch.”

Xenophilius actually laughed at that.

“Yeah, that’s quite true. Had an argument with Sugar Belle back on the Cyclops once. Kicked me out of my quarters for the night. Trust me, on that ship, female companionship was hard to come by and having to snuggle up to a sweaty, stinky midshipman for the night for warmth… Not pleasant to say the least…”

“Well, might be for some ponies… Probably for that midshipman you mentioned. Buck doesn’t see a mare for months on end, might find himself being more interested in his own sex,” Nimbus replied, with a small snort.

“You might have a point there,” Xenophilius replied. “Nothing against him either or his tastes for that matter. We did get to talking in the mess hall the next morning, and he gave me advice on mares and romance. Chief piece of advice he gave me is something I was too stupid to realize. Don’t piss ‘em off.”

“So what are we then?” Nimbus asked. “Two soldiers out of time? Just two old bucks, reminiscing about the loves we’ll probably never see again? ...Funny, this is the first conversation I’ve had with you that I haven’t wanted to kill you.”

“Yeah, I noticed,” Xenophilius deadpanned.

“Guess it took me learning you were a fellow soldier in the War to remove the urge. Might be an ass… Hell, I might be one as well, but we’re corpsmen. Brothers, and we have to stick together,” Nimbus replied and Xenophilius ‘mhmmmed’ to himself.

“If we’re brothers in arms, we’re quite the pair. A very weird pair, I should add. You, a former Pinkerton and Neighmarican who transferred over to the English just so you could join the fight against the Central Powers, and me, a sailor lost at sea who now controls mythical nine-tailed foxes and lives in an ancient undersea city.”

“See you’ve done your reading…” Nimbus remarked.

“Ponies talk,” Xenophilius commented dismissively.

“Don’t they just?” Nimbus replied. “Sometimes, it seems like that’s all they ever do…”

Xenophilius laughed again at that, and Nimbus had to laugh along with him.

Meanwhile, Silver Spanner found herself wandering through the halls of Neighlantis’ main temples, gasping in wonder at the sights around her. Glowing glyphs, tall pillars of untold age and treasures of gold, silver and numerous gems of varying color and rarity to satisfy even the greediest pony’s desires. Suppose that’s what happened when you had a dragoness in charge. Good way to ward off thieves, if the local Royal Guard didn’t do it for you.

But all the same, exploring this city of wonders just felt… empty she supposed. It was a hollow victory, now that she didn’t have her sister to celebrate it with it.

“You look glum, something wrong?” Skystar asked, suddenly popping out of seemingly nowhere in her hippogriff form making Silver let out a yelp.

She held a wrench dangerously in her hooves, once she’d regained her composure.

“Do that again, I dare ya…” She growled and Skystar hung her head.

“Sorry… Just trying to cheer you up, you looked like you needed it…” the Princess whispered softly. “Or at least get you out of that funk you looked to be in, and change your mood…”

“Well, you certainly managed to do that.” Silver snapped, and Skystar whimpered a little, as tears started to come to her eyes.

“Great, now look what you’ve done…” a voice in Silver’s head said, as the mare felt incredibly guilty. “Gone and scared her, you arsehole!”

Silver Spanner then laid a hoof on Skystar’s shoulder. “...Sorry about that, just been in a mood as of late. Well, guess I’m always in some sort of bad mood as my sister would say…” she trailed off.

“You have a sister, what’s she like?” Skystar asked curiously, perking up at once, always eager for new gossip.

“Had, as in past tense,” Silver Spanner said, swallowing slightly. “Gone now. She didn’t make it here like the rest of us…”

“I-I’m sorry…” Skystar stammered out, once she realized the verbal blunder she may or may not have made.

“Save it,” Silver Spanner replied grumpily. “I don’t need any of your damn sympathies. Nor anypony else’s, so don’t try to go up and round up other ponies to start giving me bloody sympathy cards.”

“See, that’s where I think you’re wrong,” Skystar said, laying a claw on one of Silver’s shoulders. “You’re just hiding your sadness behind other emotions. In your case, anger. Take it from somegriff who knows what that’s like…”

“Oh, and I guess you’ve got me all figured out like some sorta Sudoku Quartermane style shrink, right?” Silver growled. “Well, guess what. I’ve put my past behind me, and that’s that. My sister’s dead, and there’s nothing I can do to change…”

“Change what?” Skystar pressed, even if common sense told her Silver Spanner was ready to blow. But surprisingly, she didn’t.

“What the last thing I told her was… Right before she died. Basically told her to go screw herself or some such shite, and then her sub-pod smacked headlong into a cavern wall and exploded right in front of my eyes. How… How do you deal with something like that? When the last words said to your older sister were ones said in anger?” Silver asked Skystar. “Honestly… If I could, I would take her place. She was a better pony than me, that’s for damn sure.”

“Maybe she wasn’t, maybe she was, I didn’t know you sister,” Skystar said in reply. “But I don’t think she would have wanted you beating yourself up like this. She would have wanted you to… move on.”

Silver scoffed.

“Hah, that’s a laugh… Me, asking me to move on from something…” the mechanic muttered to herself.

“Per… Perhaps I can help,” Skystar started, still slightly in fear of Silver Spanner and her wrench. “Whenever… Whenever a member of this city dies, someone somepony was especially close to, I sorta try and help them move on the best I can. Work a bit of my skill with arts and crafts into things, and we make seashell necklaces inscribed with sayings on them, and an engraved portrait of them in the center shell. Would… Would that work for you?” she asked cautiously.

“It… it might,” Silver admitted. Not sure what else to do by this point...” She then muttered.

“Just the small things help,” Skystar said reassuringly and Silver smiled. Her newfound hippogriff grief counselor looked confused at that.

“What’s got you smiling all of a sudden?” Skystar asked quizzically.

“Just the small things help, that’s something Silverspeed always liked to say…” Silver Spanner admitted.

“One small thing, it's a good place to start
One small thing, and we don't seem so far apart…” Skystar found herself singing to herself softly as she led Silver to another part of the temple, her personal quarters if Silver had to guess judging by all the seashells of varying types and the various arts and crafts projects strewn around the room. Well, that and the small pool connecting the temple to the underground passageways was sorta a dead giveaway.

Skystar grabbed a string, some seashells, and a feather and began to set to work. As Silver Spanner told her about the various things her late sister liked to say, she dipped this feather in squid’s ink like a quill and wrote them down in the seashells before finally, after Silver Spanner fished a picture of her sister out of her coat, drew an amazingly done portrait of her on the final shell accurate down to even the tiniest detail. She then strung them together and hung the finished product in front of Silver.

Silver smiled, and repeated “Just the small things…” to herself and gladly accepted the gift, starting to feel as if a great weight was beginning to lift...

Author's Note

Okay, so resolved, for the most part, two character arcs in this chapter with Nimbus/Xenophilius and Silver Spanner/Silverspeed. Honestly, I really wasn't sure what to do with Skystar's grief therapy role, as I'm not a licensed therapist. I was just grasping at straws the entire time really.

Now, on the West Africa flashback, inspired by a scene from a Young Indiana Jones Teleplay, set in the congo of December 1916. ...Which last I checked, troops had pulled out of Africa by then. Then again, the only source I was for my information on the west African campaigns was Wikipedia, so... Shrugs As always, comments and thoughts are appreciated.

Part 25: Desperation and Heartbreak

Neighlantis:

To say Fancy, Twilight, Night Glider and Princess Ember were all shocked at what they saw when they ventured outside the main temple was an understatement.

There they were, Nimbus Breaker and Xenophilius laughing and joking together over a bottle of the city’s finest wine.

“No, I’m bloody serious mate, this guy… And I’m not joking when I say this… My drill sergeant, he was a literal Ass!” Nimbus laughed. “He was an actual donkey, and I’m not using a metaphor!”

“Oh, I have every reason to believe you, man…” Xenophilius sniggered as the white unicorn took another sip from his goblet. “What, did he have you do 50 laps around the base, wings strapped to your body so you wouldn’t cheat?”

“Yeah, he did, now you bring it up! The guy was always keep up the pace this, keep up the pace that, so cranky! Swear he had a whip on him, just so he could crack it just for kicks!” Nimbus replied, still laughing. If it was from the wine, or he was actually quite amused by the whole thing… Well, it was impossible to tell really. “Seriously, a party or two probably wouldn’t even make the Ass, both literally and metaphorically, crack a smile! He wouldn’t know a joke if it danced up to him in the shower, completely in the nude, singing hello my baby, hello my honey!”

“Yep, that’s him alright!” Xenophilius chortled. “That’s Cranky alright. Always was a hardflank, that one…”

“Well, I’ll be damned…” Fancy whispered in shock. “Never thought I’d see the day when those two got along...”

“Yeah, idiots, the both of ‘em…” Night Gilder agreed, before realizing who she was with. She let out a small whimper, and gulped as she looked up at a certain dragoness. “...With all due respect ma’am, I mean that in the best possible way.”

But to her surprise, Ember was laughing as well.

“Yes, they are idiots aren’t they?” she agreed. Meanwhile...

“You mean hardass!” Nimbus shot back, and that set off another wave of laughter from the two, as they pounded their hooves against the table. “...Seriously, you’d think he’d know my credentials just from where I came from, former Pinkerton and all. One who got thrown out, I might add!” the stormy gray furred Trottingham borne pony continued. Yeah, he was definitely completely and utterly plastered, alright.

“Well, did you forge your identity like I heard that young mare named Daring did, or did you go with your real name?” Xenophilius asked.

“Forged my-” Nimbus began, before he blanched in shock. “Wait, you mean that story’s actually true? There was this mare who really forged her identity as a Belgian and pulled it off, just to fight in the war?”

“Yep, that wasn’t just a story. I actually met her once, while me and my troop had made a stop-off in Prance one day to help rescue this Prench noble, Lady… Oh, I forget her name. White as snow, and had this pink mane. Exceedingly beautiful…”

“Miss Fleur Dis Lee?” Nimbus guessed, and Xenophilius smirked.

“Yeah, that’s her! What a mare!” he exclaimed, with a wistful smile.

“You’re drooling,” Nimbus deadpanned before Xenophilius flushed red and quickly wiped away said drool. “Ugh… Please don’t tell me you’re fantasizing…”

“I was not,” Xenophilius denied a little too quickly for Nimbus’ liking. “Besides, wouldn’t you?”

“Oh, if I wasn’t already in love with somepony at the time… But c'est la vie,” Nimbus admitted using some of the only Prench he knew before his eyes narrowed. “You do not repeat that, understood?”

“Aye-aye, sir!” Xenophilius saluted, before the two broke down laughing once again. With a smile, Fancy continued onwards.

“Oh, if they only knew…” he thought to himself, thinking of a picture of the mare and him -Taken by a budding photographer in his troop- they were talking about when he was in Prance back during the war. He remembered the day all too well, he’d just been shivering in the cold on a bench trying to stay warm, when Fleur had come up to him in a light blue coat, wearing the most adorable earmuffs. In an act of sheer kindness, she’d taken off her coat and wrapped it around him.

When Fancy had asked why she would do such a thing and risk freezing, she’d said: “Prench Hospitality. I may be a lady, but you are a guest in my homeland, and I know there are others like you less fortunate than I.”

Fancy still remembered those words to this very day.

Later that day, he had learned she’d been giving out to the ponies rendered homeless by the war warm home-cooked bread made by her own hooves. Prench Hospitality indeed, he’d mused. If any mare deserved a medal for sheer kindness, it was her.

Speaking of seeds of romance blossoming, there was Grape and Princess Skystar.
“Honestly Princess... Ah'm waiting the day Ah get back to the surface world... If that ever happens…” the purple unicorn muttered, shaking his head as he looked up towards the giant skylight that provided one of the only natural light sources in the underwater city. He long suspected, ever since seeing Neighlantis's layout, that the entire city was part of an underground -And hopefully extinct- volcano. The pony shuddered involuntarily, he’d hate to see that thing go off. No, it wouldn't go off, he reassured himself. After all, Neighlantis had been here for thousands of years, and it was still standing wasn't it?

“Mental note, don’t let any of the Blast Sisters test any of their explosives down here…” Grape thought, sweating slightly. Skystar must have mistaken his worry over the Blast Sisters and their antics for something else.

“Aww, don't worry buddy, I'm certain well get home soon! Especially if we all work together!” Skystar said, patting him on the shoulder. Grape blinked, as he heard a splash from behind him.

“We, who said anythin' about we?” Grape asked in surprise, quirking an eyebrow in confusion quite oblivious to Skystar's advances. Speaking of the Princess, currently, she was in her seapony form in one of the city's many natural pools -Least to the naked eye, Grape knew better- flipping up out of the water again and again, much like a dolphin would.

“Uh heh heh, we're both stuck down here aren't we?” Skystar asked nervously, popping her head out of the water, and resting her fins on the pool’s edge. If a fish could blush, Grape would swear she was.

“Uh... Not exactly... Ya can fly, can't ya?” Grape asked. “Ah mean, just change out of that there fish form of yers, and ya'd be able to fly away from this place…”

“But then how do I know you can get home?” Skystar had to ask, looking quite worried as with a flash of light, she changed back to her hippogriff form and shook herself like a dog to get the water out of her feathers. She laughed nervously and said: “Oops. Sorry, I sometimes forgot which form I’m in, and where… Rather embarrassing really...”

Grape had to chuckle at her antics a little. She was rather adorable, in her own way. He then smiled. “Ya'd be quite a catch for any of the seaponies down here, really... Just sayin'.”

“Oh, heh, really you think so?” Skystar flushed through her feathers, tracing the ground with a paw nervously.

Grape nodded. “Probably even mahself, if Ah wasn't already promised ta somepony back home…”

Skystar let out a little squeak of surprise, her beak dropping slightly in shock. “Did... did Ah say somethin' wrong?” Grape asked with more than a hint of trepidation.

Skystar tried to say something back in reply, but it was to no avail, as all that came out of her beak were little squeaking noises once more.

Grape slapped himself on the forehead, and muttered "Idjit, idjit, idjit!" to himself. How could he have not seen this one coming, with the way Skystar had been acting around him? Even now, he was flashing back to their first meeting.

Of course, she'd gain a crush on him, someone so lonely like that, with only one male acting kind towards her and extending a hoof of friendship... it was inevitable really.

“Skystar…” Grape asked, his breath trembling with every word. “Do... Do ya have a crush on me?”

“I um…” Skystar laughed nervously. “No of course not, haha!”

Grape looked at her directly. “Yer deflecting. Little trick Ah picked up from reading Sudoku's books. Now tell me the truth. Do ya, or do ya not have a crush on me?”

Finally, Skystar gave up the ghost.

“Alright… Fine, yes… I do sorta, maybe, have this tiny little crush on you… But can you blame me, you’re so cute, and so kind…” she replied, pressing her paws together nervously.

“Ah'm... Ah'm sorry Princess, Ah really am…” Grape whispered as he tried not to look at her in shame, thinking of things that could have been. If things had been different, if he wasn't in love with Trixie back home, they might have had a chance. “But... But Ah promised mah father, Ah'd marry this mare Ah'm in love with back home…”

“No no it’s not your fault, of course, someone like you would already have a special somepony…” Skystar whispered, sounding completely heartbroken, tears dripping to the floor from her cyan orbs.

Grape placed a hoof on the bottom of her head and moved it up so that she could look at him. “For the record... If things were different, if Ah wasn't really, truly in love with this girl, and Ah wasn't intent on respectin' a dyin' stallion's wishes... Maybe, just maybe…” he trailed off.

Skystar didn’t respond.

“Ah'm truly very sorry....” Grape whispered to her.

Skystar could only look away, and say: “Go… Just go…”

As Grape walked off, he felt a part of his own heartbreak, and a tear of his own slipped from his eye. “What have Ah done?” he asked a part of himself. He knew it was for the best, but why did he feel so sick with himself?

The Great Temple:

Twilight, as she’d seen all throughout Neighlantis, really believed that they, with all their technology, could really change the world for the better once they learned to use it again.

“Yeah… Once they learn to use it again…” she muttered. “Damn it dad, wish you were here right now… You knew more about Neighlantis than me. You could help…” she thought sadly to herself, as she sat across the negotiating table from Ember.

“Twilight. Are you really sure that this is a good idea?” Ember slightly raised her claw to the table. “Isn’t this magitech stuff kinda dangerous?”

“Ember, I appreciate your concerns, but think about how much we could accomplish with all this technology,” Twilight gazed out towards the rushing walls of water around the room. “All the ponies in the world. We could make their lives much easier this way!”

“Or you could be playing with fire, Twilight,” Ember crossed her arms. “And even dragons know that if you play with fire, then you’re gonna get burned.

“It’s a danger I’m willing to risk if it means we can better everypony’s lives,” Twilight took a deep breath and pushed her hooves out. “And once we learn how to properly refine the magitech, then we wouldn’t have to worry about all the bad stuff anymore. Only the good.”

“Twilight. Don’t you think there’s a reason this kinda stuff stayed down here all this time?” Ember’s wings started to curl up. “Other than the people of Neighlantis going down with their city and all?”

“Ember, this technology could help millions! And not just ponies, but for all of the other creatures in the world!” Twilight smiled from ear to ear. “What pony wouldn’t want to take that chance?”

“I wouldn’t.” Ember stood up. “What you’re proposing is just an experiment. You can’t honestly think that this stuff is safe to use. Who knows what lives you could be putting in danger because of this?”

“Ember. Are you… against this?” Twilight blinked rapidly. She couldn’t believe Ember was still being as stubborn as a mule.

“This kind of stuff doesn’t belong in the surface world, Twilight.” Ember’s claws tightened up into fists. “If you take it out, you’re essentially robbing Neighlantis and then try and use this magitech on ponies who may not even want it! Do you want to be seen as a thief?”

“No… I… I just want to help the world… Once you learn your own language again…” she trailed off.

“Twilight,” Ember violently slammed her right claw down on the table, the noise reverberating out through the room. “You’re just a foreigner to our lands. Why would you want to take what’s rightfully ours and use it on a whim on ponies who have no idea what this stuff even is, or what consequences it could have for them?”

“I… I just want to help. That’s all I ever did want…” Twilight whispered softly, tears coming to her eyes.

“I know you mean well, Twilight. But let me be perfectly clear with you,” Ember crossed her arms. “There is no way, no matter how much you beg to me and my kind, that we would ever give our technology away to the surface world,” Ember’s eyes gleamed with flame as she gripped her scepter tightly. “I swear it on my mother and the others before her, that our magitech shall not fall into the hands of ponies who would dare abuse it’s power.”

“But here you are… Living in prosperity amongst sea-ponies and hippogriffs, while up above… Others, we’re still mired in prejudice. Griffons, zebras… They’re treated as second class citizens!” Twilight snapped back.

“That’s enough!” Ember roared, sending another loud blast of sound across the conference hall. “Don’t make me do something I’d regret, Twilight Sparkle.”

“Maybe you’re not the perfect leader I envisioned. You’d leave the surface world to rot?” Twilight snarled, a mixture of rage intertwined with her sadness. “You could teach others how to live together in harmony, help do away with prejudice!”

“Or we could be stripped of our powers, captured, locked up by greedy surface dwellers, and have Neighlantis conquered,” Ember’s brows arched down so much that they almost made a perfect ‘V’ shape on her forehead. “I’ve seen the way your kind acts, Twilight. They act all innocent on the outside, but inside, they all have their own personal agendas and goals that only benefit them and nobody else. Ask yourself, am I wrong?”

Twilight sighed as she sat back in her seat, no… Ember wasn’t wrong at all. The first expedition to Neighlantis, the one Spent Thrift was on, fell through to the greedy desires of ponies like the ones Ember talked about.

“Exactly,” Ember finally sat down again. “Now. Think nothing more of that and I’ll put this little spat behind me. We can be friends again.”

“Yeah…” Twilight whispered, lying through her teeth as she got up to leave, wiping her tears away. “I’m sorry dad… I failed you. I failed everypony…”

Her slow trots broke into a sprint, and then into galloping as she rushed out of the temple, past the twin Anubis Statues on either side of the entrance, tears rolling down her face. The Blast Sisters, and Solar Blitz all shared looks of shock and surprise as Twilight ran past them.

“There just has to be something I can do!” she thought to herself as she found one of the reflection pools, and let the tears flow freely. After a few minutes of quiet sobbing, her eyes looked towards the water, and Night Light’s journal sticking out of her saddlebags.

She quickly pulled it out, and began flipping through the pages in search of a solution. Then, perhaps she found one. Perhaps.

“Neighlantis continues to elude us,” she began to read, her father’s words flying off the pages. “And my insistence that we press on in spite of these failures has moral low. I suspect Jenkins to be the author of this sedition… And now, I find it’s my own dearly beloved daughter Twilight alone who I can turn to…”

Author's Note

Okay, and here we go... Coming up on the end of the story here. Just two more chapters left, and things have reached their highest point in drama yet! Grape's found himself in the middle of a pickle with Skystar, and Twilight's found her efforts to convince Ember thwarted. Two princesses, two different kinds of problems.

(Thank you to RainbowSurvivor and Shadowmane PX-41 for their help here, Rainbow for helping me with Skystar and Grape's scene, and Shadowmane for his help with Ember. Thanks, dudes!)

Part 26: The Codex/A Fool's Hour

“Neighlantis continues to elude us, and my insistence that we press on in spite of these failures has moral low. I suspect Jenkins to be the author of this sedition… And now, I find it’s my own dearly beloved daughter Twilight alone who I can turn to…”

Those were the words that Twilight read off the pages of her father’s journal, and even as she continued to read, the very words her father had written down so long ago seemingly transported her back in time…

July: 1915: The Mediterranean Sea

Soft waves gently lapped against the side of a boat, as the sun shone down on the seas of a reef off the coast of Lemnos in the Greek isles. According to ancient myth and legend, the island was sacred to Hephaestus, the Greek God of the Fire and Forge. According to legend, here, on this exact isle, he fell once Zeus threw him from Mount Olympus.

While some accounts stated that he was thrown down there by his mother Hera in pure shame and disgust and raised by Thetis, the mother of the famous hero Achilles, there were others. Greek Mythology, for anyone who ever studied it, quickly found out for themselves that it was often convoluted and elements often disagreed with one another.

As one legend stated, Hephaestus, attempting to rescue his mother from Zeus’s advances, was cast aside and flung down from the heavens and for an entire day, he fell till he hit the island. There, he was cared for and taught to be a master craftsman by an ancient tribe native to that island, the Sintians.

Even now, an azure blue stallion standing on the top deck of the small fishing boat he’d rented, found himself with a headache just trying to make sense of all of this. He was a unicorn, with a dark blue mane. On his flank, he bore a light yellow waxing crescent moon with a waning white moon inside it for a Cutie Mark.

“This is a foolish endeavor, and you know it Night Light!” a stallion said from behind him. Jenkins was his name, with a caramel brown coat and an even darker mane. “I’ve spoken with Midnight, and he agrees we should call this whole thing off!”

Behind him, nodding, was the stallion obviously known as Midnight. His fur was as black as coal, and his mane, -even darker if possible- was like that of a lion’s. He bore a set of blood red eyes.

“Sorry mate,” Midnight apologized. “But we’ve been at this for days, funds are starting to dry up. And we still haven’t seen hide nor hair of Neighlantis. Hell, your wife thinks this was a foolish endeavor! Got a telegram from her, she’s finalizing the divorce papers as we speak.”

Night Light grimaced, but his resolve was only strengthened as he turned to look at his two compatriots.

“So, that’s it then?” He barked, his horn beginning to glow with a light blue aura. “You all take me for a fool then? Well, if this fool has anything to say about it…” he growled out, tossing his journal towards Midnight. “He’ll be back with something to show for your troubles, although don’t expect to get paid for all your ‘Help’!”

With that, he created a small bubble of air around his head and then dived into the waters below with the splash hitting both Jenkins and Midnight.

“You think he’ll be back?” Midnight had to ask, somewhat nervous for his former friend.

“Hardly, now turn this boat around. We’re heading back to port… Let that fool drown.”

With a sad sigh, Midnight looked at the seas below him, and the rapidly vanishing form of Night Light, before he turned and walked away.

But as he started to trot off, he stopped for a moment and thought back. They’d been in the jungles of Thailand not too long ago, and Midnight had been cornered by tigers. Night Light had shown up in the nick of time, when the rest of his companions had left him for dead.

“No!” Midnight stated as he gripped the journal tightly to his chest. “I will not be the same as them… Not ever! If this is a fool’s hour, then I shall be a fool alongside my friend...”

Down below, Night Light had found a tunnel deep within the rock and was following it to the very end, when he suddenly saw light, and surfaced to find himself in a small cavern. A stone passageway lay beyond him as he clambered up onto the rock, his hooves trotting up against marble stone as he looked up to the words written above him.

“Niflheim…” Night Light whispered as he dispersed the air bubble around his head. “The land of Mists.”

One of the Nine Worlds in Norse Myth, Niflheim was a land of both primordial ice and cold from where the frozen rivers of Élivágar and the well of Hvergelmir, from which came all the rivers in the world, lied. According to the ancient text Gylfaginning, it was connected to that other primordial realm, Muspelheim, the realm of fire. These two realms mixed to create a river of creating steam, whatever that meant. Later, it would become the home of Hel, one of the daughters of Loki -The Norse God of trickery- and her realm, the afterlife for those who did not die a heroic or notable death.

Night Light shivered, it was certainly chilly this deep down if anything else, but onwards he must go.

He continued walking forwards down the corridor, and eventually he reached a small room. In the center of the room lay a small plinth, covered in ancient runes. On top of that plinth lay a small cylindrical object, covered in those same runes. Night Light gasped… No, it couldn’t be. The ancient script of Neighlantis!

In awe and wonder, transfixed by what he saw before him, Night Light slowly started forwards towards the object. He reached out to grasp it with his own two hooves, and as soon as he touched it, he received a vision…

Fire, that’s what he saw… Hell and fire. Great war machines marching across barren landscapes, giant metal wheels from the abyss itself crushing everything that stood in their path. Night Light’s eyes widened as he saw the once green hills of Trottingham scorched to a crisp, trees reduced to ashes, and buildings lying in ruin.

Gunfire echoed from somewhere in the battlefield, and Night Light saw an old stallion, stone gray in coat color with a white mane, firing a machine gun at soldiers, gunning them down in spurts of blood. He was hidden away in the ruins of an old farmhouse, with golden shell casings lying all around him. Behind him lay a dead soldier, looking about only fifteen or so. A hole went right through his head, and a crimson red pool lay near his body. Far too young to be in war, Night Light thought sadly.

The soldiers’ uniforms, the ones they wore bore patches of black eagles on their shoulders. They shouted in the Germane language. Night Light couldn’t catch much of it, but some of it came out as “Death to the lower ponies!” as they fired their guns. One shot caught the stormy grey soldier in the side, grazing him before more bullets hit and he went down in a storm of gunfire.

A magical energy beam fired, and whatever was left of his body was incinerated in an instance. To his horror, Night Light saw the beam come from a rifle covered in Neighlantian runes.

“Forward!” the commander shouted in germane. “Crush whatever is left of them!”

A sniper round rang out, and it came from one of the few trees left standing. In the tree was a tan pegasus stallion, with a red mane holding a sniper rifle. He fired again, and the commander went down.

Sadly however, this was all for naught as bullets riddled the pegasus’ body and he went down in a bloody heap.

The scene changed, to a giant monstrous collection of flying wings made of metal, iron and steel. High in the clouds, they flew. On the back of each wing, was that same black eagle.

The bottom of each wing opened, and great metal explosives covered in those same horrific runes emerged and fell to the ground below at frightening speeds. To his horror, Night Light realized what he was seeing below, as the clouds cleared away, was Manehatten. Then, in an instance, it was gone. Just one large explosion of balefire enveloped it and left nothing but a barren crater in its wake.

As if to twist the knife in even further, right before the bombs hit, he saw his wife, along with a pony he could only know to be his daughter, peek out from an apartment window before their whole world became that of fire and flame.

Trembling, Night Light emerged from the vision, and went for his saddlebags. He knew what he had to do, nopony could ever get their hooves on this, and the spells this codex possessed. He raised a hammer, and brought it down, and a powerful explosion from a combination of the codex being shattered and the magic spells inside being destroyed sent him flying backwards.

Night Light ran, and dove back deep into the water below, the runes he did see transfixed in his mind. They could never be allowed to be seen by anypony other than someone he severely trusted. Emerging from the water, he was surprised to see the small boat he’d rented still there, and a hoof extended to help him out of the waters.

“M-Midnight?” Night Light asked, scarcely able to believe it.

“Those who abandon their comrades are worse than trash. You saved me in Thailand, when everypony else threw me out like yesterday’s garbage. I’m returning the favor. Come on, we’re getting you home to see your daughter.”

“Not yet… My journal…” Night Light coughed out, his lungs quite strained.

“Easy now…” Midnight whispered as he helped Night Light up. “You’re in no condition to-”

“Screw my condition! I need to do this, journal. NOW!” he barked, and Midnight hesitantly handed him the journal. Quickly, Night Light wrote something down, the Neighlantian runes he’d seen and what he had seen in Niflheim, and with the last of his magic, blood-binded them so that only he or someone related to him could see them.

With that, he collapsed to the deck, heart finally giving out…

The Present:

“I write this to you now Twilight Sparkle, forewarning you of the danger of what you’re reading, and letting you know exactly what happened to your father. Your mother no doubt told you he died foolishly, and perhaps he did, but I do know he died seeking the truth, and he found it… If you follow the same path and do not tread carefully, you may very well end up causing the future he so desperately tried to prevent by destroying the Codex. These blood-bound runes, they contain the last samples of the Neighlantian language and how to teach it. Use them wisely.

Sincerely yours, Midnight Radiance.” Twilight read. As she let the message sink in, she began to cry. Tears were rolling down her face, not from just reading the very last words her father ever wrote, but learning how he died as well.

Suddenly, she found herself brought into a warm feathered hug by her marefriend.

“Night Glider?” she sniffled out.

“Yeah, I’m here…” she whispered as she held her marefriend tight and let her cry into her shoulder. “Those Blast Sisters, idiotic they may be, saw you run out of the great temple and got worried,” she explained.

Panting and sweating, both Powder and Fuse went for the campsite outside of Neighlantis, where they knew Fancy had made camp. Sure enough, he was there, drinking a cup of tea alongside Night Glider, one of the transport trucks behind them.

Almost at once, he rose from his seat and onto all four legs as soon as he saw the worried look on the twin’s faces. Night Glider was soon to follow.

“Yes, what is it?” he asked gruffly.

“It’s… It’s… Well, it’s Twilight,” Fuse explained, and both Fancy and Night Glider shared a look of alarm as the sister continued to explain. “Saw her running out of the city’s main temple, looked like she was about to break down and cry if you’re asking us…” she said, with Powder nodding at her sister’s words.

“I’ll see what I can do to help, she’s family. I haven’t looked after her as much as I should have these past few years, and it’s about time I started back up again…” Fancy replied, some traces of sorrow and self-disgust in his tone.

“And she’s my marefriend, so I’m coming too.” Night Glider nodded, before she extended her wings and flew off towards the city.

“...Oh for the love of Faust, I’m getting too old for this…” Fancy muttered as he ran after the much younger pegasus.

“So, they came to us, knowing we might be able to help you. Might be arseholes, but it seems they do care, deep down anyways,” Fancy’s voice said as he trotted up. “Now tell me, what’s wrong?”

“I… I finally found out how to save Neighlantis, but…” Twilight asked, wiping away her tears.

“But what?” Night Glider asked gently, being careful not to press too hard.

“I… I also found out how my father died…” Twilight whispered and Night Glider pulled her into the hug ever tighter.

“Oh, Twilight…” Fancy whispered sadly before looking at his niece’s marefriend. “If I may?”

Night Glider nodded before she released Twilight.

“You father… Despite his, I admit, many flaws, loved you very much,” Fancy said. “He knew his search for Neighlantis might consume him, just as both me and your mother feared, end up getting him killed,” Fancy said sadly, and at Twilight’s shocked look towards him, he continued. “I do not mean to sound insensitive, but it was both me and your mother’s worst nightmare. We loved him. Me, like a brother, and she as a wife should have. When your mom divorced him, she did it out of love, so you wouldn’t have to see what your father had become, so you could keep this image of him in your mind as some great hero. Honestly… We all hoped you wouldn’t follow down his path, but we knew it was inevitable, as you’d inherited the same obsessive tendencies as he did. The sins of the father…”

“Will be passed down to their child…” Twilight finished. “But I will break the cycle, I’ve found Neighlantis, and-”

“What then? How far will your journey take you?” Fancy had to ask. “Sure, you want to save Neighlantis and her people, but what next? Will you take this technology to the surface world? Your father… He bound those runes to me as well, so I read what he saw if Neighlantis’ power was ever unveiled to the surface world. Now I ask you Twilight, what will you do next?” Fancy asked as he and Night Glider walked off leaving Twilight to think.

She had a huge number of questions on her mind. She was thankful to her late father for the Neighlantean runes, but as she took a glance at them, Ember’s words from the conference reverberated in her mind. But she had come this far, and wasn’t going to give up now that she had found the runes. Now, not only could she learn how to use Neighlantis’s magitech, but she could teach the rest of the people who had forgotten the language so long ago.

“Dad…” Twilight started to decipher the runes, a small smile molding onto her face. “Thank you. Thank you for everything.”

Now that she was this deep into her journey to find and discover Neighlantis, Twilight couldn't back down now. Even if what she was doing could land her in hot water with the people of the kingdom, she wasn’t about to abandon knowledge; especially not if she was to re-teach everyone their own language. She spent near hours reading and then copying the runes and their translations into a book of her own, as a contingency if her father’s journal were taken or destroyed.

“This language is so complex! Some of these characters look almost identical, but sound totally different!” Twilight whispered giddily as she continued to replicate the symbols. “But… I still don’t know why the Neighlanteans would ever forget this kinda stuff. Surely, they would’ve done what I’m doing. Right?” She gave a quick look around the room, only to find nopony else. “And I’m talking to myself. Again.” she laughed nervously.

But then she remembered the vision her father described in his journal, and Midnight’s words on the runes, to use them wisely.

“Maybe… Maybe Ember’s ancestors chose to forget…” Twilight whispered to herself, not hearing the flapping of leathery wings from behind her. “After all, if their magic could turn ordinary pony weapons into ones of mass destruction…”

“Now you see,” Ember said as she walked up. “Now you see exactly why we couldn’t let any of our magitech reach the above ground. My father, he chose to destroy Neighlantis’s written language, long before I was born. In fear of what might happen. He knew someone would discover us eventually, the way pony-kind was advancing, and their dreams and desires of further exploration into the unknown. Now, I ask you Twilight, what will you do?”

Twilight thought about her answer long and hard, and after about a good half hour or so of complete silence, she finally answered.

“Save Neighlantis and her people, but that’s as far as it will go,” Twilight said as she lit up her horn, and touched it to her father’s journal, setting it ablaze. Twilight mourned the loss of her father’s words briefly, they’d been a source of guidance to her throughout this entire journey, but now it was time for a new beginning. She had her own life to live, one not connected to her father’s. “You and my uncle were absolutely right, nopony should have access to this kind of power.”

So, over the next few hours, she, with the help of Fancy taught Neighlantis’ people everything they could about their language, helping them relearn what had been lost oh so long ago.

Twilight smiled to herself as Fancy put a hoof on her shoulder as she slowly watched the ancient city come back to life, lights and runes flickering on all over the old city.

“Now, what do we do?” Twilight has to ask, and Ember provided the answer as she flew over to them on a gem powered hovercraft themed after a hammerhead shark.

“Well, I think getting you all back to the surface world is a small show of gratitude for getting our home back on its feet, yes?” Ember asked, and Twilight smiled. “We’ll drop you off on the nearest inhabited island, under the cover of night so we won’t be seen, and then we’ll dip back beneath the waves.”

“Wait!” Grape suddenly spoke up. “Before we leave y’all, there’s somethin’ Ah have to do.

“Which is?” Ember asked, an eyebrow raised.

Then, surprising everyone, even himself, Grape lunged forwards towards Princess Skystar and passionately kissed her. Her eyes widened, but she slowly sank into the kiss before she let go, wiping away both tears of sadness and joy from her face.

“Somethin’ ta remember me by…” Grape smiled as he clambered onto a barracuda themed hovercraft. Then, as one last gift, he levitated his beloved guitar towards Skystar, and smiled at her once more as he and the rest of the Neighlantis crew slowly rose up towards the sky...

Author's Note

Well, here we finally all are, the penultimate chapter! Shifted into overdrive with writing, knowing I was getting close to the end. (Well, not entirely, as I still have an epilogue chapter to craft to tie everything up) Now, huge thanks to Shadowmane once again for writing some of Twilight's reaction to her father's journal entry and to Midnight Radience for letting me use his ponysona.

Now, questions. I have to ask. One, did I go too far with both the mythology displayed in this chapter, which while I loved delving into, was it really needed? Secondly, Night Light's vision, did I go a bit too far there with the scenes that would have been right out of the Fallout: Equestria world?

As ever, comments and thoughts are appreciated.

Part 27: Epilogue

The Caribbean: Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands

It was under the cover of darkness they arrived on the island of Saint Thomas. It was just a few hours away from daylight, and all of the island was asleep except for the rare few guards who took up the night watch there.

You see, Saint Thomas, at the moment, was playing host to a US Naval Base. Ember and her companions were smart enough to just leave the remaining crew of the ill-fated Moby Dick near the shoreline and let them swim to the beaches while they themselves remained undetected and slipped back beneath the waves. Magical spells, cast long ago, afforded them the luxury of being able to avoid detection by any source and that included modern-day radar if you believe it.

It had been a few months since the journey to find Neighlantis had begun -Five to six months exactly- and it was now February of 1932 by Fancy’s calculations. He chuckled, he couldn’t believe he’d missed the New Years festivities.

As he walked up the shoreline, palm trees swaying in the early morning breeze, he smiled in exhaustion. Solid land once more, and no more adventures beneath the depths of the sea. At least, not in his lifetime. He’d set out what he’d started to do, and looking at Twilight Sparkle, he knew she shared the same thoughts. Now, a quiet life with what little funds they had left was in order.

Twilight chuckled, she didn’t need riches of any kind to be happy. She had a wonderful uncle, a beautiful marefriend and above all else, memories of a grand adventure. She sighed to herself, she’d set out what she’d planned to do -Prove her father wasn’t a fool- and although nopony would ever know this, she’d done it all the same.

Nearby, the Blast Sisters were starting to ramble to anypony who’d listen on how they discovered their love of explosives. Our family owned a flower shop in Neigh Orleans. We would sell roses, carnations, baby's breath, you name it, we had it. One day, I'm making about three dozen corsages for this prom, you know, the one they put on the wrist, and everybody, they come. “Where is it?”, “When is it?”, “Does it match my dress?” Whining all about that crap, really, It was a friggin’ nightmare…” Fuse had grumbled before her sister picked up the story. “Anyway, our best guess there was this leak next door of gas or what. BOOM! No more Chineigh laundry place. Blew us right through the front window, if ya can believe it. It was like a sign from the Lady Faust above. We found ourselves that boom, our calling, y’know?”

“But you know something guys?” Fuse asked. “After all this… Think I need to slow down a little. You know, when I get the proper funding, I'm gonna reopen the flower shop, and I'm gonna think of you guys and gals every. Single. Day. Monday to Friday, 9 to 5, Saturday to 2. Sunday...I'm gonna take Sunday off, probably... Maybe I'll go in for a couple of hours, dunno. But...August, I'm gonna take August. August is definitely off for me…”

Gallants chuckled, and muttered “Well, who’d have thunk…?” to himself. Talk about hidden depths really. He smiled, as he looked back at his former crew, they’d come a long way from the rag-tag bunch of scoundrels hired for the expedition. Now, they were something more, a family.

“So... “ Nimbus asked Gallants, Xenophilius by his side. The former soldier had decided he’d spent far too much time in the depths of the sea, hiding away from his duties, and it was time to return to civilization. “What now?”

“Life. We just go on with it, I suspect…” Target answered for them. “After all, isn’t that what all old soldiers do?”

Nimbus and Xeno shared a smile and continued walking. Eventually, they strode up onto the military base and were cornered by MPs in jeeps and soldiers with rifles pointed at them.

After a bit of talking and a whole lot of negotiation with the odd remaining bit passed around, Fancy eventually managed to convince them they weren’t trespassing and asked them if they remembered a news report about a journey to find the lost city of Neighlantis a while back. That’s when the recognition set in.

“So, what’d you manage to find? Did the lost city ever turn up?” a soldier asked.

“No, it was a fool’s errand in the end, just a folly by a rich man…” Fancy lied. “Only saw rocks, fish, and maybe a couple of sponges. Well, that and one big shark.”

Grape shared a smirk and a shudder with Ender, he knew exactly what shark that was. He then braced himself for what came next, although deep down he suspected it wouldn't help anyway.

“And of your captain?” another soldier asked.

“He… He had a nervous breakdown, Ah’m sad to say… We… We lost him.” Grape replied sadly and the soldier put a hoof on his shoulder.

“Don’t worry son, you’ll pull through.” he was told. Grape looked up at him, and asked him this simple question.

“Will Ah really?”

Eventually, everyone was returned home. For Twilight, she managed to make it through her studies in Manehatten -Though, with no shortage of mockery or scorn, I’m sad to say- and managed to become an Archeology teacher there.

During one class, she stated this: “So forget any ideas you've got about lost cities, exotic travel, and digging up the world. We do not follow maps to buried treasure, and "X" never, ever marks the spot.” with a small sad, but wistful, smile.

As for Grape, he returned to his father’s apartment, -With Trixie by his side, a engagement ring around her horn- and was greeted with warm hugs by the maid Sugar Belle and Rainbow’s young daughter.

He braced himself for the question that was surely to come next and sighed when it did.

“Will… Will my daddy ever be coming home?” the young Rainbow Dash asked, and Grape just brought her in for a hug and cried, thinking of times long since past...

The End

Author's Note

Ah... What to say? Well, I suppose a huge amount of thank yous are in order, to everyone. Both for lending me your OCs, and for joining me on this journey. I'd start listing names, but then we'd be here a while I think. Besides, Y'all know who you all are.

Agh, endings are hard. To paraphrase a quote from Supernatural, and I'm sorry if this is offensive, "Any monkey with a keyboard can type out a beginning, but endings... endings are impossible. You can't please everyone, people will always bitch and there will always be holes. And since it's the ending, it's all supposed to add up to something. Raging pain in the ass."

But enough of that, I knew from the moment I killed off Rainbow Blitz that this ending was going to be bittersweet, at least for one character, but not bittersweet for Twilight as well. That sorta just... happened as the plot went along and developed. But, I suppose nothing really ever ends, does it?

Prologue: The Beast from the abyss...

It is a well known and considerably well documented indeed factoid that the many oceans, seas and underwater passageways of the world are hugely unexplored. Therefore, it is also a reasonable assumption just about anypony, even one with a minutiae amount of intellect could and probably would assume that they would hold many mysteries with answers that when found and solved, could astound and capture the imagination.

It was one such mystery of this type that captured the world in the year 1926 of the Solar Princess's reign that in some ways starts off our story. Actually, it was two such mysteries of this type that did so that although at first never known to be interconnected and interweaved, they would eventually be discovered to be just so. To begin our tale of intrigue, we start with the first part of the mystery, the first one of the two of them to be more exact. Just like any good mystery of it's odd, yet somehow wonderfully grand splendor, It had everypony from the great thinkers of the age to the local town drunks at their favorite watering holes caught up in it. As I have previously stated, it was 1926 and something had telephones ringing and newspapers in a flurry across the United States of Neighmaerica.

Something was the only real appropriate term for it, and it wasn't just Neighmaerica that the mystery had encaptured in it's grasp. All across the world, a creature had been spotted in every ocean and in every sea. And I do mean EVERY sea and ocean. What made it all the more baffling was the type of creature, or maybe perhaps more frighteningly there was more the one of the beasts. The monster in question? A giant squid, or The Kraken as it had been known throughout history in many of a fisherstallion's tales. But on one particular night and for one particular stallion this monster would cement itself in his memory for a very long time to come...

The USS Barracuda: Somewhere in the Atlantic ocean...

The thunder boomed and it's parental lightning flashed in the sky as wild and untamed waves battered the fishing trawler as it cut through the waters. It was a rough night for such work indeed, but that was never going to stop the captain of this particular vessel, one Sharpened Spear. He had sailed through worse, and therefore this gale did not frighten him in the very slightest.

"Is this all you can muster up Discord, this is your idea of a challenge?" Sharpened called out to the God of Chaos from inside his cabin, which was decorated with maps and charts of all sorts along with a speargun attached to the wooden walls. Spear was a gruff sort of pony, and his muzzle showed the passing of many a year.

No answer except of course the howling of the winds and crack of thunder came to Sharpened, although he smirked at it. That was good enough of an answer for him. Believe it or not, it spurred him on further, made him more than ready to get his crew home to their families, although he had none of his own. They had passed away long ago. The sea was his only companionship now.

The fishing had started out so well, as it always did, but then the storm had come, as they always did.

"Sir, the ship, I don't think she can take much more of this!" A young fisherstallion of fifteen years, Rainbow Blaze exclaimed as he burst into the cabin drenched to the bone.

"Nonsense! This ship can take whatever you could throw at it, so think before you speak boy!" Sharpened retorted back and sighed as he shook his head. Rainbow Blaze was young and foolish in Sharpened's mind, so of course he didn't know as much as he should to him.

"But-" Rainbow began, before being cut off by the captain who roared back "No buts boy, I know of what I speak of!"

But Rainbow Blaze yet still begged to differ.

"I really wish I could believe you sir but..." Blaze trailed off sadly, completely devoid of hope of ever seeing the land again. Then there came a shout from another crew member outside the captain's cabin.

"Sir, I really think you should come and see this!"

Both Sharpened and Blaze rushed outside to see another crewmate pointing outwards in the fierce stormy waters. At first, they could not see it, but then there it was! A dark shape, cutting through the waves with ease. Neither pony had to even speculate for second in what it was, they already knew from the many stories the newspapers reported about the Thing. And then the captain let out a shout.

"Kraken!"

This single horrific and fear inspiring word soon passed along the ship like wildfire and soon shouts of everypony going for the spearguns followed it. There was a great shrieking sound, indisputably from the beast itself as it realized it had been spotted.

"And so the tempest fury sends it's next challenge, that beast of the seven seas!" Sharpened roared as he along with everypony else saw great black tendrils glowing green via some sort of slime rise up from the waves and surround the boat with one wrapping itself around the crane arm used to haul up fish and snap it off with ease.

Spearguns were fired at whatever tendrils that could get themselves in their sights and pierced them, drawing blood as the Kraken shrieked once more, this time in rage from being wounded. And then, the head became visible as it rise up out of the waves at the Barracuda's front. Sharpened then let out yet another shout.

"And so, the hour of this beast's reckoning is at hoof! Fire the harpoon!" Sharpened roared showing none of the fear his crew showed as the great speargun nicknamed "Tarterus-piercer" at the front was fired with a mighty whoosh.

Even as it happened, Rainbow Blaze gazed into the creature's demonicly red eyes, and he felt as if they were gazing into his soul, judging him. And then what seemed to be just a 5th of a second later, one eye was lost as the Kraken turned it's dark head ever so slightly but just enough to avoid being gored in it's bulbous brain's encasement. A screech of rage it made, and a howl of triumph from Sharpened as he scored his victory, which showed how quickly it could turn to defeat with what happened next. Alas, the tentacles came down apon the Barracuda with unrelenting fury ripping and smashing wood. A board came down on Rainbow Blaze and he felt a sharp pain and the loss of consciousness...

Rainbow Blaze groaned and rubbed his multi-colored head in pain as he felt himself return to the waking world. He blinked from the sunlight that shown down on him from the clear sky. The storm had passed, and although Rainbow did not know how he survived it he thanked whatever deity that allowed him to do so and escape death the previous night.

The seas around were calm, and Rainbow figured he must have drifted miles away from the storm and the beast which had undoubtedly claimed the lives of his fellow crewmembers. Rainbow let out a long hard sob as he mourned for them and a snarl of rage towards the Kraken which had shamelessly killed them without remorse or reason. Truly a monstrous beast it was! Although he would eventually be picked up by a Navy ship, Rainbow Blaze never forgot that night, and he never forgave the Kraken...

END OF PROLOGUE...

Author's Note

Yeah, I know. Way below my usual standards in terms of chapter length but this is a prologue after all. So, interested enough yet to join Blaze on his hunt for the Kraken? If so, just tell me basic information about your ponysona in the comments below. And above all else, just enjoy! Your voyage has only just begun...