20,000 Legumes Under The Sea

“Fuck, why does it reek so much in here?” Sunset asked, holding her nose as the walked passed a bathroom that seemed to be missing a door. “I thought this place was supposed to be a state of the art technological marvel that was in perfect shape, ready to be shown off to me.”

Twilight followed behind her, casually floating a foot off the ground. “Look, it turns out building and maintaining an underwater research lab slash amusement park is a lot harder than it sounds, and is incredibly difficult to maintain. Everything we managed to get spotless for your arrival is on the other side of the park, most of which is now underwater.”

It pained Sunset to even think of asking, but the question drew her like an inescapable itch. “Twilight… how much did this place cost?”

With one hand resting on her hip, Twilight smirked. “Billions,” she said, stressing the B. “Mind you, most of the investment capital was put forth by Seaquestria. Thanks to some creative accounting on our part, we won’t even be on the hook when this thing fails. Seaquestria won’t be happy, but you know what I always say. You can’t fry up a garbonzo bean omelette without breaking a few eggs.”

Sunset frowned, then turned to face Twilight. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard you say that."

Twilight faltered. “Oh. I mean I have been, I guess… you were just gone when I started.”

“So what then. This whole place is just what now, a trash heap at the bottom of the ocean? Billions of dollars wasted to accomplish nothing?”

“Oh, we accomplished a lot.” Twilight’s eyes sparkled with green fire. “I managed to get a lot of really crucial data out of this place before this whole, uh…” she gestured around them. “Incident.”

“Mmm.” Something about this didn’t feel right. “Twilight, are you sure you can’t turn the whole… Midnight, thing off?’

Twilight’s features softened, and she floated back to the ground. “I’m sorry,” she mumbled. “I can suppress it a little if I concentrate, but as long as I’m down here… I’m kind of freaking out too much for it to go away.”

Just like the first time they’d met, underneath the terrifying avatar of destruction was a sad, scared little girl. “Hey,” Sunset said. She took a step towards Twilight, then pulled her into a tight hug. “We’re going to get out of here, alright?

Twilight let out a choked sob, and hugged back, squeezing back as hard as she could. Her demonic features flickered slightly, but didn’t disappear fully.

Sunset wondered if she could reach in, and go deeper. It was rude to do to a friend without permission, but…

Nothing happened. Sunset blinked, pulled out of the hug and felt at her neck. Only bare skin greeted her touch. “Where’s my necklace?”

Twilight winced. “I, um. I didn’t see it when I found you, so…”

“Fuck!” Sunset turned and punched a nearby wall. Her hand hurt. That was stupid. “That’s a priceless magical artifact, Twilight! What am I supposed to do, just leave it at the bottom of the ocean?”

“I mean…” Twilight shook her head. “No, you’re right. We can send down robot submersibles to comb the ocean floor for it later. We’ll be able to detect its magical signature, so it shouldn’t be too hard.”

Sunset let out a sigh of relief. “Right. Good thinking. Sorry, just freaked out down here myself.”

Twilight smiled, then floated ahead. “Come on, we’re almost there.”