The Lost City of Equalantis

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"Uhh, Twi?" Rainbow Dash asked nervously. "Was this in your books?"

One of the slimy, dripping tentacles tipped forwards and began to sweep towards the deck, smashing into pile of crates sending wood and splinters flying in every direction.

"Now's probably not the time!" Twilight replied, readying her horn for magic. Standing together in the middle of the deck with eight tentacles surrounding the ship, everybody readied themselves for whatever was about to happen next. Spike cowered behind Twilight's rear leg, Rainbow Dash rose quickly into the air, Rarity's horn glowed with magic, Pinkie Pie put on a determined face, Applejack stood by some crates, and Fluttershy was already high, high up in the air.

An ear-piercing screech and a thundering roar put tension into the air right before another tentacle came crashing down directly onto the deck with a loud thud. Waves around the ship were created as the ship was pushed into the water several feet from the impact, and the tentacle began to thrash back and forth. Taking action, Applejack readied some random debris on top of the crates and started using her hooves to buck them at the tentacles. With her hind-legs, she bucked the debris towards the tentacle on the ship's deck. It stopped for a moment, then rose into the air directly towards her.

Applejack took a step backwards as the tentacle moved towards her. "Uhh, little help somepony?"

"Over here, you wet, slimy behemoth!" Rarity called out from the other side of the tentacle. She tossed a piece of broken crate at it with her horn but it seemed un-phased and continued to move towards Applejack. She backed up further towards the edge of the boat until her hind-legs were up against the railing.

"Jump over!" Rarity called out.

"What? The edge? Why in Equestria would I do that?"

"No, the tentacle!"

Applejack readied herself, charging towards the tentacle as it swept down towards her. In the last moment before impact, she kicked up from the deck into the air over it and found herself much higher above the ground than she expected. She flew towards Rarity, whose horn was glowing white, and landed next to her.

Meanwhile, Twilight had positioned herself near the edge of the ship to cast a spell on the water nearby. Her horn glowed coldly and a beam of white burst from it onto the choppy waters, freezing the area around one side of the ship. But the tentacles quickly broke free, so she continued the process and built upon the ice over and over.

Spike leaned over the edge and watched, unsure of what he could do to help at this moment.

Rainbow Dash had risen higher into the air to gain a better vantage point. Below her she saw all eight tentacles, four per side of the ship, sprawled out around the deck like they were trying to crush it in half. Thinking quickly, she circled downwards and flew as fast as she could on one side just above the water. A whirlpool quickly formed on that side of the ship and the tentacles on the other began to shrink down into the water due to being pulled from the whirlpool.

"What should I do?" Rarity called out helplessly.

"Help me load the cannon!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed from the other side of the ship.

"What? We have a cannon?" Rarity and Twilight both replied in unison as Rarity galloped over to Pinkie Pie.

"You can't seriously think I wouldn't have packed my party cannon!" Pinkie Pie answered them. "Rarity, load one of your bags!"

"What? Why my bags?"

"Because, they're heavy!"

"Well, I suppose that's true..." said Rarity as she quickly retrieved one of her bags from a nearby crate.

Pinkie quickly loaded it into the cannon and lit the fuse, sending one of Rarity's bags at one of the tentacles in the air around the ship. It hit with a soft thud and several colored fabrics fell out above the water.

"My sailor-pony designs..."

"Next bag!" Pinkie Pie ordered.

Rarity reluctantly grabbed another one of her bags and Pinkie shot it towards another tentacle and a shower of food bits exploded in every direction.

"The fine cuisine I packed for celebration..."

"Got any more?"

"I suppose..." replied Rarity, grabbing one more bag.

"Ready? Aim...Fire!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed with vigor and excitement as she lit the fuse on her cannon, sending a barrage of fashion supplies at one of the tentacles in an explosion of color. The ear-piercing screech returned and that tentacle retreated into the water.

"What was in that bag?" said Applejack as she bucked another piece of debris at a tentacle. "My efforts ain't doin' much!"

"My collection of sewing needles..." Rarity replied dejectedly.

"Uhh, girls?" interrupted Twilight. Her ice barrier had broken and another tentacle came thrashing downwards in a swiping motion, knocking the four of them off their hooves. Twilight lost her grip on the map, and it landed near the edge of the ship where water was intended to drain out from. From the ground, Twilight called out to Spike. "Grab the map!"

"On it!"

Spike quickly ran towards the map, only to suddenly find himself leaning sideways.

"I think that's enough whirlpool Dash!" Twilight called out again.

The eight-tentacled creature was beginning to get sucked into the whirlpool, but so was the ship. The map began to roll towards the other side of the ship as the whirlpool sucked them in further and further. Spike scampered downwards along the deck, digging his claws into it to keep traction. The map was now sitting precariously on the railing of the ship, and the whirlpool was spinning full force.

"Spike!"

"Map, I know!"

"No, watch out!"

In an apparently last ditch effort, the creature extended one more tentacle towards their ship, knocking Spike into the air, and the map as well. The ship was nearly vertical as it spun around the center of the whirlpool and the creature disappeared beneath the surface. Like a bolt of lightning, Rainbow Dash flew towards Spike and caught him above the water's surface. The map however, was not caught, and began to slowly disappear below the surface.

"The map!" Spike called out as Rainbow Dash let him down on the deck of the ship. The whirlpool had begun to subside and everybody was regathering their bearings.

Rainbow Dash quickly flew down in an attempt to retrieve the map, but the creature resurfaced in that very spot, showing its rows of sharp teeth and horrifying mouth as it screeched directly into Dash's face before diving beneath the surface once more. She flew back to the deck to meet with everybody else.

"Did you get the map?" Asked Applejack. Dash's face gave her the answer.

"Consarn it," Applejack continued. "What in Equestria are we supposed to do now?"

Twilight pondered for a moment, but couldn't think of anything. "I don't know..."

"Major bummer..." said Pinkie Pie.

"My sewing collection..." added Rarity.

"Well, at least we're all alright," said Twilight. "One, two, three...where's Fluttershy?"

"Over here!" said the faint voice of Fluttershy from a faraway distance. She was above the water but below the deck of the ship on the other side. They rushed over, only to see the yellow pegasus gently massaging the monstrous creature's tentacle that had tried to attack them just moments prior.

Applejack stood in awe. "What in the..."

"The poor little guy had urchins stuck all over his suction cups," said Fluttershy as she plucked one out.

Mouths still agape, they watched as Fluttershy finished consoling the monster, returning with the map in her hooves.

"The map!" exclaimed Twilight. "How did you--nevermind. All that matters is we're safe and we still have the map."

Fluttershy handed it to her. It was soaked with water, but the writing appeared to still be okay. The eight-squiggled symbol on the map slowly faded away, leaving only  their ship in the middle and the open ocean surrounding them on all sides.

"Well, that was quite the surprise," said Applejack. "But the map did say there might be trouble."

"Well, let's just hope that's the worst of our troubles," replied Rarity as she began the lengthy process of wringing the water out of her mane.

An hour or so later, they had mostly cleaned up the damage that the creature had done to their ship. Spike was sweeping up splinters on the deck, Rarity was styling her mane, Applejack and Pinkie Pie were scrubbing off the slimy residue left by the tentacles, and Rainbow Dash was steering the ship.

"Keep on swabbin' the poop deck, mateys!" Dash called out from behind the helm of the ship.

Spike looked up at her with a raised eyebrow. "I think it's time for somepony else to steer."

Before any further discussion could result, Twilight came out from inside the ship. "It looks like we might be getting somewhere. There's a symbol on the map that I don't quite recognize."

Rarity stopped styling her mane. "Does it have eight squiggles on it?"

Twilight smiled. "No, it looks like an island."

"Land?" Asked Rainbow Dash. "Where? I don't see anything on the horizons."

Twilight looked for herself. "Hmm...that's weird. It should be right over...there!"

She gestured to the right of the boat and looked at the map. Their position was in the center and the symbol was to the right, but now it appeared to be heading north as if they had just passed it.

"Turn around," said Twilight.

"Aye aye, captain," replied Rainbow Dash as she pulled the ship's helm to the right. The symbol on the map appeared again and they slowly began to approach it.

"Hoist the sails to slow our speed," she instructed. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy flew towards the mast and pulled the ropes to let the sail up into the air. The ship slowed until they were no longer moving swiftly in the water.

"Hmm, it should be right here," Twilight reiterated. She looked out to the side of the boat to where the symbol appeared to be but saw nothing except empty water stretching all the way to the horizon.

Fluttershy landed softly next to her. "Um...could it be that it's...under the water?"

Based on how Fluttershy had said it, Twilight realized it wasn't exactly something she was excited about. "Maybe. But there's only one way to find out."

"I don't suppose there is a submarine attached to this vessel, is there?" said Rarity.

"Unfortunately not," Twilight replied as she trotted over to an unopened crate. Her horn glowed with magic as she opened it up and lifted 7 light tan diver's suits.

Rainbow Dash oogled, Applejack looked uneasy, Spike did a hoof bump with Pinkie Pie, Rarity sighed and Fluttershy turned pale.

"Drop the anchor," said Twilight with a grin. "We're going under."