The Lost City of Equalantis

Youtube Video

Click for atmosphere. Or rather, watersphere :)

Or whatever combination of greek/latin words to make up a word. Whatever. Just click it.

After putting on and packing her dive suit with whatever useful items she could fit, Twilight came towards the edge of the ship and peered into the water below. She checked the map one more time. Whatever it is that was supposed to be indicated by the symbol was directly in front of where she was looking. She just wondered what it was going to be.

Behind her, the rest had put on their diver's suits. The light tan suits completely covered their body and legs, and thick metal helmets covered their heads with only a small glass circle to see out the front.

"Well, I suppose doing my mane was an entirely useless effort..." said Rarity as she donned the helmet, her voice becoming muffled in the process.

"Echo! Echo!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed with her helmet on.

"You sure this is the best way a' goin' about things, Twilight?" Asked Applejack. She was putting her hooves into the suit.

"Yes," she replied. "As far as I know, there aren't any spells that allow you to breathe underwater."

The rest put on their diving suits, including Spike, whose suit was considerably smaller but helmet the same size. He put it on and wobbled slightly to the left before regaining his balance.

"Is everypony ready?" Asked Twilight.

"I suppose so," said Fluttershy.

"You bet! Let's do this!" replied Rainbow Dash.

"Wait--" said Twilight, but with a trot and a dive, Rainbow Dash jumped over the edge of the ship and plummeted into the water.

"Wait, Rainbow Dash, we're supposed to--" Twilight stopped herself and dove after her.

Pinkie Pie galloped to the edge and jumped off. "CANNON BALL!"

Following suit, Rarity, Applejack, Spike and Fluttershy jumped off the edge into the water beside the ship. Underneath the surface, Twilight's horn glowed with magic and slow blue tendrils made their way out from her towards everybody like a spiderweb.

"Hello? Can everypony hear me?" said Twilight.

"Whoa, you can talk inside my head?" replied Rainbow Dash.

"Yes," Twilight replied with a sigh. "That's what I was trying to set up before getting in the water."

"Oh, sorry."

"No worries. All's good. Everypony else there?" A series of responses confirmed her query. "Okay, let's head downwards and see what this is all about."

Twilight ran a rope through each of their suits, tying them together to ensure they couldn't drift too far apart. As they descended, the shimmers of light from the sun above the surface gradually became dimmer as they descended further into darkness. Above was the light blue color of seawater in sunlight and below was the gradient of blue to black in a seemingly never-ending abyss. The eerily silent sounds beneath the surface filled their helmets, as well as any noise that anybody made due to Twilight's spell that tethered their voices together.

"Fluttershy, are you doing alright?" Asked Rainbow Dash. The sounds of more rapid breathing were filling up everybody's helmets.

"I'm...okay," she replied and put on a more determined demeanor. "I'm fine. It's just that, well...anything could be out there...anywhere..."

Rainbow Dash slowly drifted towards her as they descended deeper into the darkness below, until she could see her directly through the small window in their helmets. "Fluttershy, if anypony here is the safest, it's you. Even that giant tentacled monster was happy to see you."

Fluttershy smiled and thanked Rainbow Dash.

After several minutes of delving deeper, a dim light far below them appeared in their vision. "Does everypony see that?" asked Twilight. It was a pale blue circle of light, but as they came closer, it became more pronounced and several others began appearing nearby. "What are those?"

"They look like big bubbles," said Pinkie Pie.

"But," Twilight replied, "bubbles can't possibly get that big under the immense surface pressure at such a depth."

Rainbow Dash entered the conversation. "Unless...somepony put them there."

They slowly neared closer to the light blue circle of light beneath them and things gradually became even more clear. Smaller objects and creatures appeared to be inside the bubble, moving about in every direction. Things suddenly became very apparent and they could see an entire city of bubbles with tubes connecting them along the sea floor. One larger bubble was in the center and several medium sized ones connected to it. Some smaller bubbles attached to those as well. The area nearby was lit by the light blue glow, casting shadows on any sort of features on the sea floor. Like a candle in the night, it was the only source of light in a sea of darkness.

"Somepony? I a'int heard of anypony making anything underwater like this before," said Applejack. "What kind of pony would live way down here?"

Twilight squinted her eyes looking inside the main bubble. She saw the faint figures of underwater creatures moving about inside. It didn't appear as though there was any air inside the bubble like she had previously assumed. She reasoned it must just be water at a lower pressure. "I think I know what kind of pony," Twilight replied. "Seaponies."

"Sea ponies?" said Rarity. "I thought those were just a myth."

"Apparently not so," Twilight replied. "I'm just as surprised as you are. In all my readings I've never come across any scientific literature about seaponies. Only folklore. If this is true, that there is a fourth race of ponies, then this is an absolutely monumental discovery!"

"Don't you mean fifth?" said Pinkie Pie. "Earth ponies, unicorn ponies, pegasus ponies, alicorn ponies and sea ponies?"

Twilight smiled. "Well, kinda. Alicorns are more of a combination of the three land-dwelling ponies."

"I thought they were just pegasus and unicorn?" replied Rainbow Dash.

"Well," replied Twilight, "that's a common misconception, you see--"

"Um," Fluttershy softly interrupted, "we appear to have been seen by somepony. They're heading right towards us."

Two mysterious-looking creatures swam up to them, their skins appearing to be scaly and black with two small blue eyes on their heads. Their forefins looked similar to theirs, but were more slim and flat. Their hindquarters were joined at the base and ended with a tail that flapped back and forth as they came closer towards them. A light atop one of their heads flicked on and shone across the seven of them in their diving suits.

A few moments of silence went by, before a blue tendril of magic appeared from the creature who had a light on their forehead. The tendril slithered through the water until reaching Twilight.

Suddenly, she heard a voice. "Who are you?"

"Uhhh," Twilight fumbled for words. "My name is Twilight Sparkle. I am the Princess of Friendship in the world above the surface. The world of Equestria. These are my friends and the bearers of the elements of harmony."

The tendril of magic shot back towards the two black creatures and they appeared to be conversing with one another. A couple seconds later, the connection was re-established. "Princess Twilight Sparkle," the creature addressed her. "We are the race of seaponies that reside in the city below the surface. The city of Equalantis."

Nobody could think of anything to say, so the voice continued. "Come, we'll bring you into our city and allow you to see things properly. Much like you, we wear these suits because the immense pressure of the water that surrounds us would be too difficult to withstand. Except in our case, we can also breathe in it."

The two seaponies grabbed hold of the rope that bound the seven of them together and dragged them towards the city of Equalantis. As they drew closer, they briefly saw a city of seaponies living within the domes before they descended into an underwater cave. The two seaponies led them through it for a bit, until reaching a room with a circular door at both ends. They let go of the rope and one of them closed off the door behind them. A strange sound emanated from all around them and the water vibrated slightly for several moments. Suddenly, they felt as if the pressure on their suits was considerably less.

"You can take off your diver suits," said one of the seaponies. He took off his own suit and hung it up on the wall nearby. He was a dark blue seapony with a unicorn's horn. The other seapony did the same, revealing himself to be a dark green seapony.

"But, we can't breathe in the water," said Rainbow Dash.

"Trust us, it will make the transition much easier. It will only take a moment."

"Transition? What transition?" Twilight replied.

"Well we certainly can't have you clunking around in those suits the entire time. Not to mention your limited air supply."

"You don't mean..." Twilight muttered, and then began to remove her diver's suit. She held her breath and took off the helmet.

Everybody else did the same. They held their breaths for several moments as the blue seapony's horn glowed a brilliant white color and surrounded them with an aura of magic. The water swirled gently at first, then began to pick up speed. Bubbles of air obscured their vision as the vortex picked up speed and the magic increased in magnitude. Then, in a brilliant flash of light and bubbles, it dissipated, revealing six seaponies. And one seadragon.

"Sweet heavens, we're seaponies!" exclaimed Applejack as she turned her head to look at her tailfin.

"Weeee!" Pinkie Pie squeed in delight as she swam around the small cylindrical enclosure.

"Hey, where did my wings go?" Rainbow Dash said disappointingly. "Ah, who cares. This is awesome!"

"Just think of the fabulous designs I could make for seaponies," said Rarity.

"And sea dragons," Spike added as he swam around getting used to his fishly appendages.

The circular door in front of them swung open and the two seaponies swam through it, revealing a colorful landscape beyond imagination. The domes they had seen on the sea floor were only scratching the surface. Below them was a vast, underwater cavern filled with buildings and homes that rivaled Canterlot and the Crystal Kingdom in complexity. Artificial lights and bio-luminescent organisms fully lit the cavern. It was a conically-shaped structure, with the point ending near the bottom far, far below them and rings of structures populated the outsides in several layers. Seaponies and some other marine creatures swam from place to place below them. What was on top of the sea floor was only the beginning. The city of Equalantis was more like a sprawling civilization.