Empty Horizons: Sea of Stars

Chapters

II - As the Leviathan Feeds
III - As Dark as a Starless Night
IV - As Sanctaphrax's Chain Trembles
V - As the Schools Research
VI - As Silver Stares
VII - As the Islands Float
VIII - As the Jungle Groans
IX - As the Cats Chatter
X - As the Paths Confuse
XI - As the Temple Gleams
XIII - As Doors are Opened
XIV - As Tirek Speaks
XV - As the Opposition Mocks
XVI - As Brats Investigate
XVIII - As Ascention Recurs
XIX - As Rockets Launch
XX - As Tirek Works
XXI - As Life Evolves
XXII - As a Seapony Struggles
XXIII - As With Time All Things are Made New
XXIV - As Ponies Cross New Horizons
I - As Below, so Above
XII - As the Rivals Clash
XVII - As the Fog Rolls In

II - As the Leviathan Feeds

Leviathan Wakes moved with the sea. This included every wind, every wave, and every storm. Ponies could attempt to steer the boat city as much as their resources would allow, but it was impossible to avoid every tumultuous brew the weather would throw at them. Sails were down, chains were fastened, and most sane ponies were huddled indoors.

It wasn’t the worst storm ever. Boats weren’t capsizing but the various scaffoldings that kept the mobile settlement unified were being strained considerably—not to the point of falling apart but creaking enough to keep everypony in a tense state of uncertainty. Anypony who’d been through a storm before knew the city would survive and they would too, so long as they weren’t stupid enough to go outside and risk getting tossed into the ocean.

Cotton Fluff was one of the ponies who liked to live on the edge just a little bit. Instead of hiding within his broken down ship apartment like most ponies, he was out on the deck holding tightly to the railing. Granted, he had a rope tied around his midsection that was affixed to several rungs inside his apartment, but he liked to tell himself that being out here at all made him a daredevil.

The rain crashed down all around him, having flattened his usually puffy white mane long ago. His coat was a dull blue that he believed went well with the ocean despite what his marefriend told him. After all, he was Cotton Fluff, he knew better.

With a creak, the wooden railing gave way a little, prompting Cotton to move to a more stable-looking area. Satisfied that the post he was on wasn’t about to give out, he looked up at the rest of Leviathan Wakes. It was impossible to see all of it in the storm given the rain, but he could see far enough to consider it a spectacle. At the furthest reaches of his vision he saw one of the most massive ships of all, the Cadenza, rock as a wave passed under them. The chains and boards that connected the Cadenza to the rest of the city pulled taut, straining some of the other ships. However, the chains had been measured out properly, so shortly after the chains were pulled the other ships began to roll up the incoming wave. A few rocked so far that massive quantities of water poured over their decks, but that was par for the course.

He should probably get back inside, given the size of the wave. Even with his rope getting hit by that wouldn’t be comfortable. As he took one final look around, he decided he’d had enough of being out in the storm.

Just as he was turning around, he saw them. Two ponies walking along a rickety line of rotting rafts below the railing of Cotton’s apartment ship. He wouldn’t have seen them at all were it not for the brilliant white coat of the lead pony—a pegasus, given the protrusions on her sides, though it was hard to see details in the rain.

“Hey!” he called. “Are you stupid!? The wave’s coming! I—UGH!” Before he really knew what he was doing, he slipped out of his rope and tossed it down to them. “HURRY!”

The rope hit the white mare on the head, upsetting her hat. She said something Cotton couldn't hear over the din of the storm, but she grabbed hold of the rope and began climbing.

Looking up, Cotton saw the wave getting too close for comfort. Without the rope around his barrel, it could very easily sweep him away and kill him. He retreated back to the open door of his apartment and began to pull on the rope from there. This way, if the wave hit him it would just shove him into his apartment. Painful, yes, but not deadly.

He closed his eyes and strained himself as much as his legs would allow, pressing two against the edges of the doorframe and using the other two to pull. Eventually, the rope went slack. Since there had been no sharp jerk from breaking, he assumed this meant the ponies had gotten over the edge of the railing. He opened his eyes.

The two of them had gotten over the railing, all right. But so had the wave. The next thing he knew his vision was replaced with the sense of salty burning. The water slammed him into the back of his apartment hard, hitting the knobby doors of his dresser. That didn’t knock the wind out of him, but the pressure of two mares slamming into his stomach did.

For a while, the world was spinning. He was vaguely aware of the rush of water leaving the apartment and somepony closing the door.

Eventually, he could hear voices.

“—this apartment is ruined,” one said with a light tone that Cotton decided was “cute.”

The other’s voice was deeper, but more dignified and authoritative. “He was the one who saved us. Plus, there’s not really much in here to ruin.”

“Saved? Really?” The cute one let out a childish giggle. “You and I both know we would have been fine out there. The Trinity was all of ten meters away!”

“So? Rope dropped from the sky. I seized the moment.”

“Yes, yes… oh, I think he’s coming back around!”

Cotton’s vision was, in fact, panning out. In front of him was one of the most beautiful mares he had ever seen, putting even his girl to shame—a thought that made him feel more than a little guilty. Her legs were thin, yet well toned. The water matted down her bright pink coat to make the presence of her muscles easy to see, giving her an alluring mixture of strong and delicate elements. In contrast, her mane was such a deep red it was almost black, so long that it was trailing along the floor and tied around one of her hooves. A few beads dotted the hairs here and there.

Her face, while no doubt just as beautiful as the rest of her, was shrouded by the damp mess the rain had made her mane, so all he could make out was her red irises. He soon decided it wasn’t worth staring at her eyes anyway, for on her bare flanks he could see the rare sight of a cutie mark—and what a mark it was! An exaggerated crimson eye with a star-shaped pupil and waves across it.

“Wow…” Cotton said, dumbly.

“Yeah, it’s something, ain’t it?” she laughed, and Cotton noticed soft sparks of magic around her horn. “Name’s Sparkler Depths. Thanks for tossing that rope.”

Cotton blinked. “But… didn’t you say…?”

Sparkler had the decency to look sheepish. “Heard that, huh? Yeah… sorry, we probably would have been fine. But it’s the thought that counts! You put yourself and this… place at risk just to help us!” When she gestured at the apartment, Cotton could tell she did it with a little disdain. He wasn’t surprised—she was a Gifted, after all, she probably rarely had reason to step into a place this cheap and run-down. Not to mention the fact that it was soaked.

It was going to take forever to air out the blankets.

“We can compensate you for the water damage,” the other voice said, reminding Cotton that there had been two mares. “This fun diversion was worth that much.”

“Th-thanks. I didn—” He stopped speaking the moment he laid eyes upon the other mare. She was white, all right, he hadn’t misjudged her color out there. But she definitely wasn’t a pegasus. Her wings had no feathers to speak of, replacing the natural fluff with harsh, leathery webbing. The water clinging to her coat revealed an angular posture, more predatory than any normal pony. No mark graced her flank and her luscious amber mane was just as messy as Sparkler’s, though nowhere near as long.

Despite the nest of hairs, he couldn’t look away from her eyes. Amidst her ghostly white form, the pale yellow within her irises sparkled like citrine gemstones. Where he had hoped to find a normal, round pupil he instead found an angry slit running from the top to the bottom.

A thestral.

His breath caught in his throat and he began to tremble in fear at the almost mythical creature before him.

At his response, she grinned, revealing a mouth full of sharp teeth. He had enough of his wits about him to notice that a tooth was missing—and subsequently realized that the missing fang hung around her neck on a white string. Out of her mouth it somehow looked sharper.

“S-stay back!” he stammered, pressing himself as far as he could into the damp wall, trying to run away. He glanced toward the door. Dare he take his chances out there, in the storm? If these two had ways to survive out there, maybe he could. It would be better than sharing a room with a monster.

“Sure,” the thestral said, sitting down on his soaked bed. She took a moment to adjust her pearlescent sailor’s cap, combing down the points on her ears in the process. “Guess I’ll just sit here, then, since I can’t leave without getting closer to you.”

Thestrals are tricksters. They toy with their victims from the shadows.

“How long do you think we give him?” the thestral asked. “Two minutes? Three?”

Sparkler shrugged. “You’re the Admiral.”

The Admiral smirked. “True, but this isn’t exactly a nautical decision, now is it?”

“I say the less time we waste, the better. I’d rather get as far away from those leviathans as fast as possible. It’s like they’re always watching me.”

“I suppose we’ll have to disregard our fine hero’s wishes, then.” She jumped off the bed.

Cotton glared at her. “I kn-know when I’m being toyed with.”

“Good boy.” She reached under her hat and tossed him a few bits. “Now you’ve got some bits. Might want to consider getting some wits, lest you fail to live up to your city’s reputation.”

“Lay off the poet speech,” Sparkler suggested.

The Admiral shrugged, jumping to the door and swinging it open. Her grin widened as the rain pelted her face. Sparkler followed her out, shooting Cotton a pitying smile as she closed the door.

Cotton heard a wave crash into the door a few seconds later.

Somehow, he knew they were just fine.

Why was a monster like that walking around in the open?!

~~~

The Admiral did not have far to travel through the stormy weather to get to her destination. She would have gotten the Trinity much closer so there would have been no need to travel anywhere at all, but sadly that wasn’t an option when going to Jester’s. There was a policy about not having subs of any kind beneath her ship and Jester had enough of a reputation that ponies actually followed it except in dire circumstances.

Thus, a trot through stormy weather. They were knocked into the water a few times despite their best efforts, but the Admiral’s leathery wings were excellent under the waves, allowing them to surface long before another wave came along. Absolute worst-case scenario, they’d have to go deep and signal for the sub to come get them.

As expected, the mini-sub did not need to be called. The Admiral and Sparkler arrived at Jester’s soaking wet but smiling nonetheless. Her ship was of a decent size and painted with notoriously bright colors. Usually, there would be torches lit around it to draw attention, but the downpour kept the festive exterior from lighting up. Even the bright pink doors they were standing in front of were muted.

The Admiral checked behind her to make sure this entrance wasn’t about to get bombarded by a wave. Upon convincing herself it was safe, she allowed herself to grin.

“...We’re not knocking, are we?” Sparkler asked.

“No. You know this is my favorite part.”

She whirled around and kicked the doors in, prompting light to flush into the grime outside. With her head held high and a smirk that showed off her fang she marched right in, wings spread.

Jester’s was a bar, though not the sort a pony would usually find in a city like Leviathan Wakes. There was far too much color, the drinks behind the counter looked like they might be the magic potions of old, and it was abnormally clean aside from the water pooling around the door.

The Admiral made it all of three steps before the first glass fell to the floor—the drink of a young green mare who was clearly trying to decide if she was hallucinating or not. The Admiral passed her by without so much as a pitying glance while the rest of the patrons of the bar slowly realized what had just walked in their doors. The regulars either groaned or tipped their drinks at her in respect. Others weren’t lucky enough to have context and there was a mixture of dropped jaws, drinks, and even a few heads as ponies passed out.

She carefully watched the one pegasus stallion in the corner who looked angry at her existence, but it didn’t appear like he was going to do anything due to the pressure of the other patrons.

Sparkler closed the door behind them, smiling awkwardly. “I think she broke your latch again, Jester!”

“I’ve learned to keep spares,” Jester said, sliding into view on the other side of the bar. She was a white unicorn with a short, pale pink mane resting below a pointed hat. Today, the hat was baby blue, but everypony knew she had a million different colors stored elsewhere. Reaching into the bar’s drawers, she pulled out an extra latch and tossed it to Sparkler, who caught it in her telekinesis and began affixing it to the door.

Wordlessly, Jester took out a golden brew from behind her and set it in front of the Admiral. Pulling a small pouch from her hat, the Admiral responded by dropping a handful of bits on the counter.

Jester raised an eyebrow. “They broke more glasses than usual this time, Admiral.”

The Admiral chuckled—a strange noise made with a slightly eerie hiss in the back of her throat. She tossed another bit into the pile. “I’d think the entertainment would be payment enough, Jester.”

“You may never think it gets old, but let me tell you about how Gruff went on a rant about you last week.”

“Wh—hey!” an old drunk stallion grunted.

“Shush, not talking to you, Gruff, just about you.” Jester winked. “So I’m afraid the price for your little power-play has gone up slightly. I’m sure you can afford to part with an extra bit with all that Sanctaphrax money of yours, hmm?”

The Admiral shrugged. Wordlessly, she removed a small black box from her satchel and set it on the bar counter.

Jester stared at it. “You really are insane.”

“You’ll get it to where it needs to go?”

“Obviously! But… I mean I know this has a reputation for being a safe place, but you’re just being ridiculous.”

“Nopony would dare mess with you. I think we’re good.”

Jester rolled her eyes “Well, yes, but it’s the principle of the thing. Stars, I swear, you either have more wits than anypony or none at all.”

“I think it’s a coin flip on any given day,” Sparkler said, taking a seat next to the Admiral. “Milkshake, please.”

“And you never drink anything alcoholic. You’re worse than she is.”

“Probably.” Instead of levitating her drink directly, Sparkler levitated her hair like a limb and picked up the shake, beginning to obnoxiously slurp it.

“Monsters… monsters!” a blue mare in the back shouted.

“Oh, quiet!” Jester shouted at her. “These are some of my best customers, shut your yap! ...No, don’t leave it hanging open, that attracts flies.”

“In this weather?” the Admiral asked.

“You know what I mean.”

“So, got anything juicy for us?” Sparkler asked, giving everypony a blessed moment of reprieve from her slurking.

“Juicy…?” Jester tapped her hoof on the counter as she refilled Gruff’s drink. “Well, there’s a particularly crazy rumor about a bunch of mares from Old Canterlot, frozen in time. Probably nuts, though, right?”

“And not worth our time,” the Admiral said. “Look where the old ways got us.” She gestured at the door. “We’re lucky we’re able to live through that.”

“Eh, it was just the most interesting thing I’d heard.” Jester shrugged. “Unless you want to hear about the falling rumors.”

“Already picked that place dry,” Sparkler said. “Where did you think we were?”

“I don’t know, the moon?”

A smile came to the Admiral’s lips. “I wish.”

“How’s that whole thing going for you, by the way?”

“It exploded. Again.” The Admiral downed her drink. “But you always learn from failure.”

“I wouldn’t know,” Jester chuckled.

“Oi!” Sparkler blurted. “Ya know everythin’, ya might ‘s well own up t’ it!”

“Accent slipping, dear.”

Sparkler flushed. “Er…” She coughed, indicating to the Admiral that she should change the topic.

“We’re heading back to Sanctaphrax after this,” the Admiral said, tipping her glass forward to get it filled up again.

“Not going to stay for the after-storm festival?”

“Too much cargo, too many thieves with wits and no bits.”

Jester raised an eyebrow. “You think a bunch of thieves are going to be able to storm the Algol’s cargo hold?”

“Oh, no, I just don’t like extra bodies.” She slid her drink to the side. “Contrary to popular belief, ponies taste terrible.”

A dramatic silence fell over the bar.

“Speaking of, got any mangoes?”

Jester laughed and grabbed some dried mango slices from under the counter. “Don’t have any fresh right now, storm and all, so half-price.”

The Admiral paid. It wasn’t anywhere near as good without the juices but it was still amazing. Most plants were boring and dull tasting, not worth her time if she had a choice. Mangoes were the exception. Their lavish flavor, the grainy texture that pulled into strands, th—

“You’re spacing again,” Sparkler interrupted her.

“I swear, it’s like drugs to you,” Jester said.

The Admiral shrugged, downing the dried fruit.

“Anyway, going back to Sanctaphrax? I might have something for you.” Jester walked over to a cork board and pulled off a small piece of paper. “Ship went down that direction. Not much valuable besides a family heirloom that this Violet Bow wants. Not much pay, either. Nopony’s picked it up because of that. Buuuut… you like raw materials, don’t’cha? Hmm? Free refined metal, sittin’ at the bottom of the ocean!”

Taking the note, Sparkler read through it. “That’s not far out of the way… Think we can get Orange off The Button long enough to jury-rig a net of some kind?”

“He’ll do it if I tell him to,” the Admiral said, taking the note and pocketing it. “We’ll do it. Let Violet Bow know it might be a few weeks before we get her heirloom back.”

“Caaaaan do!” Jester sang. “Now, I know my internal clock’s a bit off, but I think Rummy will be around soon for a game. He really wants a rematch.”

The Admiral made a show of thinking deeply about her response even though she knew exactly what she was going to say. “...I suppose I could be convinced to play if he would up the ante a bit this time.”

“Good,” Jester giggled. “Good…”

III - As Dark as a Starless Night

Beneath the rocking waves, the ocean appeared peaceful. Under natural circumstances it should have been dark beneath Leviathan Wakes, but the subsurface life of the city was anything but natural. Under the haphazardly rummaged together ships there were massive waterproof chains running back and forth. Deeper down, these chains fused with each other into even more massive restraints until a chain link was roughly the size of a pony.

At the bottom, these chains affixed to the two largest beings known to ponykind, the leviathans. Massive fish so tremendous in size that, no matter the quality of the water, nopony could see both ends of the scaled behemoths at once. It was these two beings that dragged Leviathan Wakes along through the ocean, guided by the fish dumped by the ponies above. The black one had slightly more girth than the red one, which had smoother skin and more graceful fins. Yet, nopony was entirely sure which one was larger, if any. They never exactly extended to their full length, and some ponies swore they were still growing in size.

Regardless, the deepfish monsters of the open ocean didn’t dare challenge the great leviathans, and so Leviathan Wakes was allowed to flourish.

While the surface ships suffered from the storm, the submarines below experienced little more than some slightly annoying jostling. They sat there, lights on, chained to one part of Leviathan Wakes or another, sitting and waiting. While it was dark above, below the subs blessed the sea with light. It was just a little less convenient to move through the water than the planks on the surface.

Unless a pony had access to an agile mini-sub, which the Admiral did. It was a small brass egg-shaped craft with a single reinforced window in the front and a large propeller in the back. The tube that usually ran from its top back to a source of air wasn’t present, but it didn’t need it since the journey wasn’t going to be long.

There were two seats within the sub and a small place for cargo in the back. The pilot—a young stallion by the name of Lime Lick—sat in the front with the Admiral, while Sparkler sat in the cargo hold. Though ‘sat’ was a bit of a stretch, since she had used her hair to tie herself to the ceiling and hang upside-down like a bat.

“You know, when I was a kid, I used to tell myself thestrals did this,” Sparkler said. “Then you came along and ruined that dream.”

“What were we going to hang onto the ceiling with?” the Admiral asked. “Our tails?”

“I was six and thought you were magic genies that gave me money for my lost teeth.”

“And thought we ate eyeballs.”

“Yes, our legends were very contradictory, woo.”

“Coming up on the Algol’s Shadow now,” Lime Lick tentatively announced.

Looking out the window, the Admiral saw her ship—and what a beauty it was. Most ships were long, pill-shaped things that had no flavor to them whatsoever. Hers was not only far larger than the standard sub, but it also had so much more character. Instead of a long barrel that looked like armor for a snake, the Algol’s shape was more ovoid, giving it substance and girth. Numerous bronze spikes studded out of the hull, illuminated brilliantly by the spotlights dotting the ship. Access ports stretched out from its main body, though there were currently no other submarines attached to them.

The mini-sub lowered itself under the Algol’s Shadow. “Trinity, requesting permission to dock,” Lime said.

“Granted,” an old, gruff voice barked from the other end.

The Trinity entered a small, square depression in the bottom of the Algol’s Shadow where five other similar mini-subs rested, all with an air tube connecting them to the larger ship. The Trinity docked at port number three, affixing its top to the small port jutting out of the Algol.

Sparkler whipped her mane off the ceiling and onto the hatch, using it to stabilize herself while her telekinesis turned the valve. On their side, the valve popped downward. They had to wait for a member of the crew to open the other side of the valve, twisting it up.

“Welcome back, Admiral!” a brown pegasus said, extending one of his wings down to help Sparkler up. “Long time no see!”

“In your mind, maybe, Granite,” the Admiral said, climbing out of the Trinity without any assistance from the pegasus.

“My mind is an endless maze of corridors and treasure for those who care to explore it.”

“Oi…” Sparkler grumbled.

“So, do we have any new jobs? Huh?” Granite tapped the ground excitedly. “My boys are getting a little itchy…”

Sparkler gawked. “Itchy? You raided a sub last week! A sub! That was one of the riskiest and most unusual things we’ve done and you’re already…”

“Keeps him eager and willing,” the Admiral said, putting down Sparkler’s complaints. “We’re still heading to Sanctaphrax.”

Granite deflated. “Damn intellectual pricks…”

“But we do have a stop we’re going to make on the way. Nothing fancy, so I don’t want you to get your hopes up, but some poor mare wants us to get a family heirloom that sunk to the bottom of the ocean. We get to pick up the excess scrap metal for our own uses.”

“I’ll take it,” Granite said, forcing a smile. “We don’t have any room left in the holds, though.”

“Which is why I need to see Orange. Know where he is?”

“The sky room, if I had to guess.”

The Admiral nodded, gesturing for Sparkler to follow with a wing. She grabbed onto a metallic rung and pulled herself away from the lowest level of the Algol.

The interior of the Algol, for the most part, was unimpressive compared to its powerful exterior. The passages were all dark while everything was designed with function over beauty. Ladders were simple, bulkheads were bare metal, and the lights were only enough to see by, giving a general ominous ambience. Everypony was used to it at this point.

To get to the sky room quickly, they had to pass by one of the main engines: a massive turbine fed by pressurized steam. Right now, the moisture in the room wasn’t oppressive, but when they kicked the engines into high gear the entire place became a muggy mist that only the engineers could stand. The Admiral nodded curtly to the engineers, showing them the respect they deserved for their position.

After climbing up another ladder, they ended up in the only place in all of Algol’s Shadow that the Admiral thought looked nice. The sky room. It was an almost perfect hemisphere with the stars painted on the ceiling, complete with names, nautical notes, and even faint paths that traced the locations of the sun and moon. In the center was a small clockwork piece of art that showed a globe with a chunk of marble and obsidian moving along the outside that represented the current positions of the sun and moon.

As a bonus, there was a little triangle at the bottom that showed the time.

The Admiral approached the central globe and examined it. Only a very small area of it had any detail whatsoever—marking the Canterhorn, Fellis, Sanctaphrax, and other locations. Leviathan Wakes was inscribed as well, though it had more of a ‘general area’ circle than a precise point.

“How little we know…” the Admiral said, turning to look at the stars painted above. “And how much less we know of them.”

“Ahem,” a small orange stallion with tar-black hair and glasses said. “Welcome back, Admiral.”

“Orange. Got a job for you.”

The frail earth pony nodded, closing the book he had been scribbling in. “That’s why I’m here.”

“Let us push The Button,” Sparkler said, grinning. “Come on, you know you want to…”

“No. Admiral, what is this really about?”

The Admiral smirked. “There’s a shipwreck on the way to Sanctaphrax. We’re going to pick it up.”

“Cargo holds are full.”

“I know. That’s why you’re going to get the nets together to hold a small ship. I think we’ll arrive in about four hours, you have until then.”

Orange nodded emotionlessly and trotted off, presumably to get to work.

“Is that the future of ponykind?” Sparkler asked. “As magic reduces to nothing we all tragically lose our personalities?”

“He’s good at his job.”

“But at what cost…?”

“No cost for me, that’s what,” the Admiral chuckled. “Let’s get to the bridge and set course. The less time wasted, the better.”

The bridge was at the second to highest level of the Algol, situated behind the observation deck and a half-meter of reinforced plating just in case something ever broke the windows in the observation deck. The bridge itself contained six seats and a lot of flashing lights that meant absolutely nothing to the average pony but were the distillation of Algol’s Shadow’s very essence.

A general rule was if there were no red lights and a lot of green ones, everything was fine. If there were ever more red lights than any other color, it was time to get worried.

Currently, there were only two ponies on the bridge. A bored-looking white mare who was staring intently at the pressure gauges and a silver, bearded stallion with a pipe in his mouth. There was no smoke coming out of it, since smoking in an enclosed space was something no considerate stallion would do. He refused to go anywhere without the pipe, however, so there in his jaws it remained.

“Captain,” the Admiral said.

“Admiral,” the Captain said.

“I’m gonna have to take control of the ship again.”

“She’s yours. Always is, always has been.” The Captain stood up from the Admiral’s chair and took his own position at the front console. Everypony called it the “wheel”, but there wasn't a wheel in sight among all the dials, buttons, and cranks used to point the Algol in the right direction. “Sanctaphrax?”

“A general heading, yes, but we also have to go here.” She handed him the note. “Small operation, assuming Orange does what he does best.”

“He’s proven to be quite the little tinkerer. Reminds me of ol’ Socket. In intelligence. The kid is as dry as a stump. Socket, now, there was a fiery mare…”

“Oh look, Orange isn’t at his console!” Sparkler grinned. “I wonder if he left the key in?” She jumped to the weapons control station and found that The Big Red Button to the left of the console wasn’t glowing. “Aw…”

“He’s not that careless,” the Captain snorted.

“I want to see what it does… You can’t tell me you’re not curious.”

“We will press The Button when the situation calls for it,” the Admiral said. “Not because you’re afraid of some giant fish watching you.”

“They are!” Sparkler blurted. “See, let’s do this…” She lit her horn, increasing the intensity of her spell. The Admiral felt the slightest twinge in the back of her mind, a feeling she’d needed to train herself to detect.

Sparkler’s horn dimmed down. “Okay, so, there’s a ton of fish, ponies, a griffon, and one of those unknown 'jabberwock' minds in the south sector of the city. Of them, only you two are looking at me. Then there are the leviathans. Yep, they’re looking right at me. So long as I’m in here. It’s creepy!”

“Their heads are facing the wrong direction,” the Captain pointed out.

“Then they’re looking at me in some other way, I don’t know!” She glared at the leviathans through the floor. “I hope you become sushi.”

The Admiral rolled her eyes. “Captain, take us away.”

“Aye, Admiral.”

The engines of Algol’s Shadow spun up, activating its many propellers. The chains that affixed the submarine to Leviathan’s Wake retracted into the sub and it cast off into the depths.

~~~

The wreck sat at the bottom of the ocean, far below a depth where any sunlight penetrated. It was a small collection of loose processed metal that had once been a great airship but had now folded itself down the middle, ending up a bit like a crinkled taco.

For the first time since it had reached the bottom several months ago, the wreck was graced with light. The rusted metal did a poor job of reflecting the light of Algol’s Shadow, but it did better than the dead seafloor.

The call went up from the lower decks—they had a visual on the wreck. The signals made it all the way to the bridge, where the Admiral sat with the Captain, Sparkler, and Orange.

“Sparkler,” the Admiral said. “Check as far out as you can.”

Sparkler nodded, focusing all her energy into her magic for a moment. Her horn went from barely glowing at all to a shining beacon of arcane energy. Her ping went out, tickling the Admiral’s mind.

A second later, she returned her horn’s glow to barely perceptible levels. “Wreck is abandoned except for one signature, a… well I think it’s a seapony based on how it’s moving, but the brain doesn’t feel quite right. There’s also a deepfish that has sensed our motion and is heading our way, I recommend a diversion torpedo at… thirty degrees port and sixty degrees up. Orange?”

“Confirmed,” Orange said, pressing a few levers on his console. “Torpedo away.”

The Admiral felt the familiar thunk of a torpedo being fired out of the Algol’s weapons bay. There was no way to physically see it from their location, and eventually it would be out of range for them to detect at all. She patiently waited two minutes before turning to Sparkler again. “Check.”

Sparkler flashed her horn. “Deepfish is now going to where I assume the torpedo exploded, not us. We’re good!”

“You hear that, Granite?”

“Loud and clear, ma’am!” Granite’s voice came from the other side of the radio. “The boys are ready to go!”

“There’s a single creature down there. Possible variant seapony. Be cautious.”

“Just one? Psh, we can handle that. C’mon Wiffle and Lob, let’s get down there and find ourselves an heirloom!”

“Also, subs two through five, prepare Orange’s netting. You’ll pick it up when the team confirms it is safe to do so.”

“Roger,” four voices returned.

The Admiral could see it playing out in her head. The Uno took Granite and his team down to the surface. The cabin slowly filled with water before the mini-sub’s hatch opened, allowing them all to climb out in their hard suits. She had been on many dives herself. When Granite said, “hatch open, heading out: harpoons ready,” she could almost feel the harpoon gun in her hooves.

Meanwhile the other four subs were doing something a bit harder for her to visualize. They took four parts of a net and spread it out along the Algol’s bottom, creating a sort of covering for the wreck. The moment they were given the clear they would descend and scoop the thing up, being careful not to tie their air hoses together.

Orange assured her it would work, and the Admiral trusted him. She definitely couldn’t do the kind of math required to ensure the giant net's function.

“Ship's in good shape, considering,” Granite said. “Main cabin’s still intact, though the door’s gone. Going in. Careful, boys…”

The Admiral knew neither Granite nor any of his boys were actually being all that careful. She knew his type—thrill-seeking adrenaline junkies who got a kick out of running into dangerous situations. Normally, she would chide him for it, but this wasn’t a dangerous location. One seapony, no matter how ferocious, wouldn’t be able to take out the squad.

She heard the clanking of their hooves upon a metallic surface. Granite told her no details, and consequently a familiar, tense feeling filled the Admiral. Every time she was listening to an audio feed from a team once they entered an unknown location, the slight sinking in her stomach arrived. They knew the situation better than her at this point and she had to wait for them to relay whatever they thought was pertinent.

The clanks stopped. “Well, that was easy,” Granite said. “Found the heirloom, right in the little black box.”

“Anything special about it?” the Admiral asked.

“It’s just a pink-diamond horn-ring. I’m no Gifted unicorn, but I don’t even think it’s magical. Missing that fancy spark, y’know?”

“And no sign of the seapony or anything?”

“None at all.”

“It’s right outside, guys,” Sparkler said, horn dimming from a recent cast of her spell. “It’s not acting like a seapony.”

“Well, whatever it is, it’s about to meet good ol’ Stabby.”

“I thought it’s name was Pointy?” Sparkler asked.

“I have more than one harpoon.”

“Focus,” the Admiral said. “Do you see the seapony?”

“Looking…” Granite reported. “I’ve got nothing, Admiral, it’s all normal out h—HOLY FU—”

There was a thunk from the other side of the line, followed by a few grunts and yelps of surprise, followed by an eerie silence. In moments like this, it was pure terror being up in the captain’s seat. Her mind began to spin several possible sequences of events, most of which were unreasonably bloody and involved a gruesome evisceration of pony organs by a ravenous seapony. It wasn't hard for her to imagine such things, given her experience on the matter.

She realized she could hear breathing from the other end.

“Report!” the Admiral demanded.

“This... is weird,” Granite said. The Admiral instantly knew nopony had died or even gotten injured.

“How so?”

“It hasn’t attacked.”

“...Come again, Granite?” the Captain muttered. “A seapony that didn’t attack? What did it do, serve you tea?”

“It’s currently cowering behind the loose door, shivering like a filly. Looks scared.”

The Admiral turned to the Captain, finding her utter bafflement mirrored in his expression. She didn’t even need to ask him to know he hadn’t even heard of anything like this in his decades of experience.

“I’m not gonna hurt you…” Granite’s voice came back over the radio.

“Granite, what are you doing?” the Admiral asked.

“Trying to talk to it.”

“Granite. You are in a pressurized suit. It isn’t going to be able to hear you.”

“She. Very clearly a mare.”

“She isn’t going to be able to hear you a—” The Admiral’s ears twitched. “And it is a damned seapony! What are you going to do, train it to play fetch?”

“Well, I don’t know, how about we see if I can calm her down first? Here seapony-pony-pony…”

“It can’t hear you.”

“Pony-pony-pony…”

“For the love of… look, Granite, if you’re determined to do this, at least tell me what it looks like and what it’s doing?” Trying to picture a seapony being scared was a bit beyond her mental faculties at the moment. Simply accepting it as fact was boggling her.

“Well, she’s poking her head out now—come on, I won’t bite. Quite a bit more colorful than your normal seaponies and as a bonus she doesn’t look like a rotting corpse. Her eyes still have irises, though I can see the blood lining and sharp teeth. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but those fins look mighty pretty.”

“Granite’s marefriend is a seapony,” Sparkler deadpanned. “That’s it, I’ve heard it all.”

“She just swam out, inching toward us like some lost puppy—that’s it.” The Admiral strained hear ears to pick up anything aside from Granite’s voice, but all she heard was the heavy breathing of his boys. “She’s got a cutie mark. Looks like a castle tower.”

“Don’t let her eat you,” the Captain cautioned. “This one might just be smarter.”

“If it was smart it would know it couldn’t take all three of us. Lob’s got a sight on her, don’t worry. A—” He paused. “She’s holding out a hoof.”

“Granite...” The Admiral sighed. “You already shook its hoof, didn’t you?”

“Yep!” Granite declared. “Seems pretty happy about it too, doing this fancy swim-dance. Looks like I’ll go down in history as Granite, seapony tamer!”

“If she doesn’t bite your lips off first,” Sparkler snorted.

“You wouldn’t do that, would you little… Tower?”

“Tower’s a terrible name. Seriously, who’d name their kid Tow—”

“Rook,” the Captain said, coughing. “Call her Rook. That’s probably what her mark is.”

The Admiral frowned. “What does that mean?”

“It’s from ancient game we salty captains used to play at the Ringer Dinger back in the day. One of the pieces was called the rook. Looked a lot like a tower.”

“Well, Rook,” Granite said. “We’re gonna take this ship if you don’t mind.”

“She can’t hear you,” Sparkler reiterated.

“Eh, body language gets it across. Leaving the wreck now.” A few seconds later, he spoke again. “Yep, she’s following me. Nothing can resist this charming face.”

“It has no attachment to the wreck?” the Admiral asked.

“None at all. Seems much more interested in the Algol, actually.”

“Keep a close eye on it. Mini-subs two through five, you’re clear to scoop the wreck.”

“Roger,” four voices said at once.

The Admiral tried to focus on the descending net for a minute, but the mystery of the seapony kept returning to her in full force, distracting her with all the uncertainty around it.

...But maybe it didn’t have to.

“Granite, do you think you could bring it up to the observation deck? I want to see it.”

“Let’s see if she’ll follow me in the sub,” Granite responded. He laughed a moment later. “Crazy girl just tried to get in the sub. No, out, shoo, there’s going to be air in here! ...She’s giving me a pouty face though the main window.”

The Admiral couldn’t believe it. Wouldn’t believe it, not until she saw it. This was simply beyond everything she knew.

And yet, when Granite brought Uno up to the observation deck, the seapony followed. The Admiral slowly rose from her chair and stepped through the metal hall, arriving in a room made mostly of glass, Sparkler close behind.

The seapony trailed Uno, swimming around playfully. She was the size of a full-grown pony and was a soft pink color. At first glance, the Admiral thought her front half was completely normal for a pony with two hooves and a normal face. Closer inspection revealed the blood clots under the eyes standard for monsters of the deep, through her eyes didn’t look dead. They locked with the Admiral’s own, telling of something more than animalistic intelligence. She smiled and waved.

The wave was cute.

The smile revealed her rows of sharp, rigid teeth.

“What a bundle of contradictions,” Sparkler commented.

Rook waved her tail a bit to turn around, giving the Admiral a good look at her cutie mark: a brick-red tower. Before she could consider it further, the Admiral realized Rook was pointing with one of her hooves, gesturing with her tail for them to look.

“Which heading is that?” the Admiral asked.

“One degree off of Sanctaphrax,” Sparkler answered. “...You’re thinking of following her, aren’t you?”

The Admiral nodded slowly. “If it’s on the way…”

“I smell a trap!” the Captain called from the bridge. “She’s a monster just like the rest o’ them seaponies, just smarter than the rest. Knows how to get everypony lured to their death. Reason we don’t hear about her is because everypony who’s met her is dead!”

The Admiral nodded. “Operate under that assumption. Orange, put out a bulletin for the crew, tell them to be on alert. Captain, set course one degree off from Sanctaphrax. We’ll follow her, but we’ll stop if she leads us beyond the Chain.”

“Yes, Admiral,” the Captain and Orange said without any fuss.

There was absolutely no way Rook could hear anything the Admiral just said. She smiled anyway, as if she understood they were going where she wanted.

The Admiral didn’t trust her in the slightest. But it wasn’t proper to throw anomalies like her away, even if they were dangerous. It was impossible to know how much could be learned without investigation.

IV - As Sanctaphrax's Chain Trembles

Rook was not happy when Algol’s Shadow turned away from her path to Sanctaphrax. The Admiral had expected this to mean rage-induced aquatic screams and murderous bites all over the Algol’s hull. Barring that, disinterest.

Instead, Rook had placed herself in front of the main observation window, crossed her arms, and fixed the Admiral with a pouting expression. Since the Admiral could see the observation deck from her seat, the pink face was always present, albeit distant.

“I have to hand it to her, she’s good at communicating her feelings,” Sparkler said.

“She’ll just have to deal,” the Admiral said, returning Rook’s pout with a steeled glare of her own.

“I’ll talk to her!” Granite said, climbing up the ladder to the bridge.

“...Talk?” Sparkler snorted.

“I shall endeavor to communicate with the maiden of the sea and tell her that we’ll be back on her path after we take a pit stop!”

“How do you plan to do that?”

Granite held up a small rock in the tips of his wings. “Why, through gestures and props, of course!”

Sparkler facehooved.

“Give it a shot,” the Admiral said.

“If she eats through the glass, we’re letting you drown,” the Captain added.

“Hah! Me, drown? We’re near the surface, I’ll beat her in hoof to hoof combat!”

The Admiral put her wing to her face and let out a sigh.

“Fine, fine, I’ll get on with it.” He trotted over to Rook and waved. Her pouty expression vanished, replaced with a warm smile as her attention fixed on him. In one wing, he held up the rock. In the other, he had a pointed piece of metal that represented the Algol. He had the Algol follow a straight path until it was about to pass the rock. It turned sharply, went to the rock, and then went back to its path.

“There’s no way she gets that,” Sparkler said.

Rook proved her wrong by taking some of the clotted blood from under her eyes and smearing it on the window, tracing the path Granite had just outlined.

“Well how about that!” Granite laughed. “You’re a regular genius!”

Rook tapped the detour on the path with her hoof and nodded while she traced it to the circle that represented Sanctaphrax. She shook her head when she traced it back up. Quickly, she moved her hoof along the path, went down to Sanctaphrax, and then went off Sanctaphrax at an angle.

“And she’s suggesting we don’t backtrack. Mare knows how to navigate.”

“She lives at the bottom of the ocean and hasn’t gotten eaten yet, of course she does,” the Captain said. “At least she’ll stop giving you the puppy-eyes, eh, Admiral?”

The Admiral tapped her wingtips together. “It’s acceptable. Are we approaching the Chain?”

“Should be in sight range soon,” the Captain reported. “Just a little longer…”

He was right—soon the pink of Rook was eclipsed by the massive girth of a chain link as large as if not larger than the ones used to anchor Leviathan Wakes to their massive fish guardians. Rook noticed it immediately and swam away from the Algol to investigate, swirling in and out of the links with ease.

“Begin general Sanctaphrax docking procedure,” the Admiral ordered.

“Already underway,” Orange said. “Channel open.”

“This is the Admiral to Sanctaphrax Chain Operations. We’re ready to deposit cargo. More than just the standard offload: we’ve got a netted wreck and a seapony. Recommend equipping six hooks to the platform, and give us the large tank with wheels.”

“Order received,” a slightly garbled but understandable voice came from the other end. “Deepfish status?”

Sparkler cast her spell. “Fifteen minutes away, roughly.”

“Roger. Splashdown in ten, message if status changes.” The feed cut off.

Granite glanced at the Admiral. “You’re going to try to get her in a tank?”

“I want Vespid to have a look at her.”

Granite stared at her slack-jawed.

“Relax, I’m not going to let her cut up your marefriend, we need her to take us wherever it is she’s been pointing this entire time. I’d just like some information.”

“I’m not sure she’ll want to get in a tank to begin with. I m—” He was interrupted by Rook tapping on the glass. She pointed at the chain and then pointed up. Granite was stunned for a moment. To make sure, he pointed at her with a confused look and then pointed upward. She nodded. “...I swear, it’s like she knows what you want.”

“She’s smart,” the Captain said. “She’s figured out we’re going up. She’s either curious about what’s up there and trusts us to keep her safe or, more likely, she wants to put herself in our hooves so we’ll trust her more. Maybe you should let Vespid cut her up.”

“She may also be seeking information,” Orange suggested.

“I said ‘curiosity’, Orange.”

“The curious drive is a very different one from tactical information gathering.”

“There are simply too many unknowns with this seapony,” the Admiral declared. “So I’m taking her up there to get as many questions answered as possible.”

Sparkler let out a giggle. “And, as a bonus, you’re going to parade around a friendly seapony to everypony that’s gotten far too used to seeing you walk around.”

“Well, yes, but that’s just a bonus.” She stood up, ruffling her wings slightly. “Sparkler, you’re with me. We’ll suit up at port three. Granite, you’re staying here. I want to see if she’s really willing to trust us or just you.”

Granite frowned. “Not sure that’s a good id—”

“Also, you’re getting too attached to the fish. I need to separate you for a bit.”

Granite’s wings sagged. “Yes, Admiral.”

“Glad we’ve reached an understanding. Sparkler, let’s go. Captain, ship’s yours.”

They made their way down to the edge of the deck below, taking their suits off the walls. The Admiral’s was a standard hard-suit with a bronze exterior and no decorations whatsoever. She could easily be mistaken for any other diver in it. Sparkler, on the other hand, had coated hers in dark red stripes with pink dots because she insisted it made her more threatening to everything that might want to eat her. No matter how many times everypony told her that was unfounded, she would just scoff. In her mind, she was still alive, so that must mean it worked.

The two of them stepped into a cylindrical room and closed the round pressurized hatch behind them.

“Go ahead and open us up,” the Admiral said, radioing the bridge. “No use wasting time. Might as well meet our new pet.”

“Venting now,” the Captain responded.

Water began to fill up the cylindrical room, starting at their hooves and slowly rising to the ceiling. The metallic exterior of their suits ensured they felt nothing as the water rose unless they tried to move, at which point they detected the added resistance of water. It wasn’t even difficult to see—the glass on their helmets gave them roughly equal visuals on the room both above and below the surface.

Once the room was full, Sparkler swam over to the other pressure door and opened it. Usually, when somepony left this way, there was another submarine on the other side. Today, though, it was just open ocean in front of the Chain. Algol’s Shadow was close enough to the surface of the ocean that the water was blue here, not black.

Strictly speaking, at this depth they could have made do with simple scuba apparatus, but the Admiral wanted the armor in case Rook decided to try something.

The Admiral pulled herself up over the edge of the Algol’s docking port. Soon she stood on top of the cylindrical protrusion and taking a look around. Here, she could easily see everywhere except behind the Algol itself, a state of affairs much preferable to being stuck on the bridge. Below, she could see four mini-subs detaching the net with the shipwreck in it from the Algol’s lower spines. The two other subs were at the Algol’s side, carefully removing a massive gray box with several pressure doors all along the outside. One of the cargo holds, ready to be dragged up to Sanctaphrax. They had three full holds this time, so loading would be a bit slower than usual. They still had plenty of time according to Sparkler’s earlier deepfish status check.

Rook swam over to them the moment she noticed two ponies walking on the outside the Algol. At first the seapony was excited, but she froze when Sparkler hefted up a harpoon gun.

“Sparkler, we do want her to go with us,” the Admiral reminded her. “Alive.”

“Fine…”Sparkler muttered, lowering the weapon.

Rook looked Admiral and Sparkler over with uncertainty. Despite this, she moved closer, waving tentatively.

It was outlandish to see a seapony moving toward her like a nervous colt trying to muster the courage needed to ask a mare out. Uncanny.

“Splashdown incoming,” the Captain called. “Hold onto something, we’re going to need to move.”

With a smirk, the Admiral grabbed hold of a rung on the Algol with a hoof, using another to point up. Rook followed her hoof with her gaze.

The splash was so large it pushed Rook about a half-meter away. Above them a massive donut-shaped basket descended into the ocean, the Chaingoing through the hole in its center while six smaller chains affixed to the railing kept the basket adhered to something far above the surface. There was enough space on it to hold six of the Algol’s cargo holds all in a ring. The basket itself was made out of a thick wire mesh that allowed water to pass through the holes but prevented all solid material larger than a golf ball from following the torrent.

To her delight, the Admiral saw everything she had asked for added to the basket. There were six anchor-like hooks placed in a circle on one edge of the basket, exactly what they needed to tie down Orange’s net. And, of course, there was the large tank, four times as large as Rook. As usual a massive tankard of fresh oxygen sat in the basket. The Algol didn’t need it since they had restocked at Leviathan Wakes, but it was standard procedure to drop one down every time and the Admiral wasn’t about to refuse it.

The Admiral let her subs get to work loading all the cargo and tying the net—they knew how to do it quickly. They had to, since every time the basket hit the surface it summoned every deepfish for leagues. The song and dance was always the same: unload everything quickly and then run away. Let the deepfish gnaw on the Chain for a while, they never got far into it. They’d grow bored after an hour or two and another drop could be made.

Activating her air jets, the Admiral jumped from the Algol to the basket. She trotted up to the tank as the two mini-subs dropped the first cargo crate onto the metal mesh. The tank itself had four wheels on the bottom though they were useless at the moment since each one was tied to the basket to keep it from rolling in the turbulent loading procedure. Glass lined four sides, with a metal floor and an industrial strength lid with a pressure valve on it. Luckily, the tank was already open, so the Admiral didn’t have to mess with the annoyingly rusty hinges these things tended to have.

“Say hello to your new home!” Sparkler chirped, gesturing at the tank with both of her hooves.

Rook looked at her with an unimpressed glare.

Sparkler pointed at the tank, pointed up, and then proceeded to grab her throat to mimic choking.

Rook nodded, a hoof to her chin. Slowly, she began to circle the tank, examining it. Eventually, she stopped at the hinges of the lid. Glaring at it, she bared her teeth.

Sparkler and the Admiral reached for their weapons when Rook lunged but she didn’t go for either of them. Instead, with two quick bites she broke the hinges on the lid, removing the potential to seal her within the tank. Upon completing her mission she spat out a few shards of metal and climbed into the tank with an innocent smile.

“...I guess she wants to go up on her own terms,” the Admiral noted.

“She does realize she’s still stuck in that tank while we’re up there, right?”

“Probably. Maybe she just doesn’t like the idea of being literally sealed in a box.”

Sparkler shrugged. “Weird.”

The Admiral found herself wishing an exasperated glare could be given through the suits.

The second cargo hold was deposited onto the basket and the netted wreck had finally finished being tied. As they waited for the last hold, the Admiral looked up to where the Chain vanished. The surface of the ocean. She hadn’t been above water since Leviathan Wakes, and before that the Algol had been in the depths for over a week. It would be nice to finally see some sunshine. She’d remove this stupid helmet and absorb the rays with her face.

In the midst of her daydreams, the third cargo hold was deposited on the basket. Immediately, the Algol’s engines activated and turned away, ready to play chicken with some deepfish. A few seconds later, the cage lurched and began to rise. The Admiral and Sparkler stood firm to the sides of the tank while Rook looked up with awe.

With an almost deafening cascade, the basket lifted out of the ocean dripping waterfalls onto the waves below. The sun shone down upon the endless sea, reflecting in Rook’s eyes.

She wore one of the biggest smiles the Admiral had ever seen on anypony.

I’m starting to think of her as a pony…

Slowly shaking her head, the Admiral reached her hooves to her helmet and twisted it to the side. Without the pressure of water on it, the seal around her neck popped with ease. She gently exposed her head to the air outside and breathed in. Unlike the stormy smog of Leviathan Wakes, the calm air out here smelled fresh. A good, long breath filled her lungs with cool, clean air and her nose with the smell of a calm sea.

It was a normal day with nothing to look at aside from the chains leading up into a cloud far above, but that didn’t matter. It wasn’t under the water and it was calm. That was all that mattered.

As soon as the basket was completely free of the water, it started rising faster, no longer pacing itself to escape the clutches of the ocean. What had once been a painfully slow motion gathered speed. Even with three boxes and a shipwreck tied to the basket it still wasn’t at full capacity, so the acceleration continued for quite some time.

Still, their destination was an absurd distance above them. They would not arrive for several minutes.

Rook tapped on the glass to get their attention. With a sigh, the Admiral ended her enjoyment of the open air and turned to the tank, more than a little surprised to see her head out of the water. “...I thought she couldn’t breathe?”

Rook shook her head, pointing at the gills on her neck below the water.

Sparkler gawked. “You… you can understand us!?”

She nodded in confirmation, winking at them.

“Can you talk?”

Rook frowned and shook her head. Opening her mouth she made a scratchy gurgling noise and shrugged.

“So… do you have a name?” the Admiral asked.

Rook nodded.

“Is it Rook?”

With a roll of her eyes, she shook her head.

“Have any way to tell us what it actually is?”

The seapony seemed stumped by this.

“Then you’re Rook until you think of something.”

The newly re-christened Rook folded her hooves in indignation and stuck out her forked tongue, reminding the Admiral that she was still talking to a monster. ...A monster that stuck out its tongue like some child.

This raised so many questions she wasn't sure she wanted the answer to.

Rook tapped on the glass again.

“What?”

She pointed up and cocked her head, asking a question.

“Sanctaphrax is up there. Smart ponies. They’ll know more than me.”

Rook rotated her hoof, quirking an eyebrow.

“And then we’ll go wherever you were leading us, yes, that’s the plan.”

“Oh, what’re you leading us to?” Sparkler asked.

After a particularly splashy facehoof, Rook pointed at her mouth.

“Right, so we’re going to have to play something like twenty questions. Is it treasure?”

Rook thought about this for a moment before nodding slowly.

“Yes!”

“There’s more than just treasure,” the Admiral commented. “Right?”

Rook confirmed this.

The Admiral narrowed her eyes. “Danger?”

Rook nodded slowly, biting her lip nervously. For a moment, a twisted expression of rage crossed her face. The Admiral was concerned for a moment, but all Rook did was angrily point at herself and flick her tail aggressively at apparently nothing. The rage faded shortly afterward, replaced with an aura of exasperation.

“You have arguments with yourself too, huh?” Sparkler asked. “Real annoying when you know what your best points are, isn’t it?”

Rook stared at the unicorn like she was the strangest thing the seapony had ever encountered.

“Not even the monsters of the deep appreciate me…” Sparkler put a hoof to her head and faked a swoon.

At this point the cage entered the cloud, surrounding all of them in fog. This visit through the puffy white area of the sky was brief, for the basket was moving along at a brisk pace now. Surfacing out of the cloud was a lot less dramatic than rising from the water, but it gave way to far more interesting sights for those riding.

Floating above them was a massive rock, the chain anchored to its narrow bottom. Since they were directly under the island, it was impossible to see what structures were built atop aside from the two massive airship docks that jutted out from opposite sides like comically undersized wings. This was not to say they couldn’t see anything on the rock. Where the chain affixed, there was a massive ball of chrome with a donut-shaped hole for the basket itself to slide into. Next to this was a complex series of pipes that snaked all the way up the island, used to pump air to the higher elevations where it was needed.

This was Sanctaphrax, island of the academics.

With a whoosh of air, the basket lifted into Sanctaphrax. Gone was the sun, sky, and sea—now replaced with a harsh metal rod in the center and rocky earth on the outer edge. The basket started to slow as it neared its final destination, decelerating smoothly until it came to a gentle rest somewhere deep within the rock.

Six massive reels billowed nebulous clouds of steam, releasing all the pressure they had used in the process of winding up the lengthy chains. They hadn’t seemed like too much while the basket was lifting, but spooled up they took up more than twice the space of the basket itself. Between these spools were metal walkways, each of which led into a different cave system within the island. Ponies stood at all six of these points, waiting for the stability of the basket to be confirmed. The moment it was, six planks flopped onto the basket and the ponies flooded onto it, beginning the long and slow process of unloading everything.

“It seems you’ve brought something unique back with you.”

Recognizing the voice, the Admiral was more than a little surprised to be receiving attention from so high up so quickly. Turning, she bowed her head slightly. “High Academe Iota, what brings you to the basket?”

Iota was a middle-aged mare of an unnaturally green color that screamed life and energy; traits that were completely absent from her blank, spectacled expression and wrinkled face. She had no mane or tail to speak of. The Admiral had no idea why this was. She never asked.

“An opening in the schedule, nothing more,” Iota said, turning her attention to Rook. “What’s unusual about this one besides the color?”

Rook waved and winked.

“Communication and higher intelligence. Unheard of. Good catch. Taking her to Vespid?”

“As soon as possible,” the Admiral said. “She knows the location of something.”

“What?”

“She can’t talk, we don’t know. Part of it could be understood as treasure. Barring unusual circumstances, I’ll be taking the Algol to investigate on my next outing.”

Iota nodded slowly. “Granted. Tell Vespid she cannot perform invasive experiments, no matter how much she thinks she may gain from it. I task you with uncovering the mysteries of this seapony myself.” Iota fixed the Admiral with a stern glare. “That is what you wish to extort from me, yes?”

The Admiral had to force a smile. “You see right through me, as always.”

Iota nodded slowly. “You are fortunate that your desires seem reasonable. My previous statements still stand. Before you take her, however, I wish to see what you’ve brought besides raw materials.”

“Sparkler?” the Admiral asked.

“On it!” Sparkler bounced away to the cargo hold labelled three and popped open one of the smaller doors. She took two long black cases out of the compartment with her mane and trotted back to Iota and the Admiral. “Here you are!”

The Admiral opened the latches on the first case, revealing it to be filled with nothing but unicorn horns, most of which were in excellent condition. “Found a town filled with them,” the Admiral explained. “There’s more than just this case, though these are of the best quality.”

Rook stared at the disembodied horns. Not in fear, but in thoughtful fascination.

“Excellent,” Iota said, her voice remaining emotionless. “The other?”

Sparkler popped the latches on this one, pulling it open with her mane. It wasn’t full like the last case, but what was inside more than made up for the lost space: three bright rubies that glittered with unnatural fires inside.

“We have no idea what these are,” the Admiral admitted. “But they’re magic, and strong at that.”

“Leyline will be most appreciative. Did you fail to procure any of the items we requested?”

“Only the eye of the golden deepfish that Bonzai asked for.”

Sparkler coughed. “Let’s be real, we were never getting that.”

Iota nodded. “Good work. Your payment will be with you tomorrow morning when you are ready to return to your ship. Enjoy your stay in the meantime.”

“Thank you, High Academe,” the Admiral said. “Vespid awaits.”

Iota dismissed them with a noninterested wave of her hoof.

Sparkler carefully removed the latches keeping Rook’s tank rooted to the basket. Using her hair to get a grip on every square inch of one of the sides, she carefully rolled the tank up a ramp and into Sanctaphrax proper. Some of the water sloshed out, but nowhere near enough to cause Rook any concern.

“Time to ride another basket!” Sparkler giggled, pointing at the elevator shaft. “Isn’t that exciting, Rook?”

Rook let out a bubbly sigh as her tank was carted into a small basket large enough for maybe six ponies. The doors closed and they began to rise toward the surface of Sanctaphrax.

V - As the Schools Research

If there was anything Sparkler loved about Sanctaphrax, it was how ridiculous it looked.

From afar, it could have been mistaken for a palace. For whatever reason, the original architects had decided “towers are awesome” and built every major structure as tall stone pillars that rose into the sky, coming to bright pointed tips or domes depending on the mood at the time of construction. These tips were almost always wider than the towers supporting them, giving them a feeling not unlike heads on a pin. This image of Sanctaphrax proper was eccentric, to be sure, but not ridiculous.

The ridiculousness came upon taking a closer look.

Because Sanctaphrax was at an exceedingly high elevation, air had to be pumped from below to ensure ponies had enough oxygen to go about their daily lives. It was safe to go outside for a short time, sure, but extended periods would result in suffocation, not to mention sunburn. However, the oh-so-wise academics of Sanctaphrax had decided the short amount of time it took to walk from tower to tower in thin air was unacceptable.

The solution?

Create glass tubes with color-coded stripes for ponies to walk in. Who needed to go outside? Just waltz through the glass tunnels, get some sun through the UV-blocking walls, and arrive at your destination without getting cold, running out of breath, or dealing with windy weather. Snow wasn’t a problem either, since the tubes were heated just like everywhere else and the white fluff could never build up.

The tubes were once confined to the ground where they didn’t interfere with the skyline; or so Sparkler had been told. When she first set hoof on Sanctaphrax all those years ago the tubes were already snaking through the sky in erratic patterns, sometimes coming together in small glass hub rooms, other times twisting around each other in a ridiculous attempt not to interfere with any other walkways. What resulted was a maze of endless glass with stripes of color that might once have looked ingenious but now appeared more like a foal had thrown color into a drawing randomly by smacking a crayon around in the blank spaces.

When the elevator rose to the surface, arriving in one of the ground-level tube nexuses, Sparkler turned to Rook with a grin. “So. Honest opinion, how does it look?”

Rook’s expression of wonder quickly turned to one of confusion and bafflement. The question “why?” was evident on her features.

Sparkler chuckled. “I’m telling you, it’s ridiculous.”

“It’s the way of the future,” the Admiral asserted, as she always did. “You won’t find this anywhere else.”

“Yeah, because it’s ridiculous!”

Rook pointed at Sparkler.

“Me? Ridiculous? Psh.”

Rook turned away from Sparkler dismissively. With a shrug, Sparkler pressed her copious mane onto the tank and started pushing. She followed the Admiral carefully through the tubes. Not that she needed any help figuring out where to go; at this point she knew Sanctaphrax’s lower tunnels like the back of her hoof. However, the Admiral was the boss, and she always lead. Sparkler didn’t mind—it was just how their dynamic worked.

They went right for the School of Medicine, a set of four massive towers tinged with the green of their school. Only one of the towers was topped with the proper vibrant green—the others were in different states of fading. This high up, the sun did a number on the paint and it had to be reapplied every so often. At one point, all the towers were painted at the same time, but as the years dragged on drift occured and now a tower was only painted when it was blanche white, creating a gradient effect.

The three of them entered the tallest tower, the Main Medicine Offices.

A crowd of medical students were expected to go into a bit of a frenzy over seeing a normal seapony dragged into their School. A seapony that waved back only heightened their reactions from fascinated to ecstatic.

“What is that thing?”

“Admiral’s really outdone herself this time!”

“How does it maintain mental cohesion down there?”

“The eyes aren’t blank, but the clots are evident…”

“Where did you find this beauty?”

“I see she’s brought another monster in for company.”

Sparkler winced at the jab to the Admiral’s race. She knew the Admiral sucked the attention—good or bad—up like one of the vampires of legend, but it still grated against Sparkler like a piece of splintery wood tangled in her hair. Out of respect for the Admiral, she didn’t shout out a biting remark. She did shoot the heckler a death glare, though, and that got him to shut up.

Parting the crowd with a hoof, the Admiral guided them to the lift. It was considerably nicer in appearance than the rickety wireframe thing that had brought them to Sanctaphrax’s surface, being made of smooth metal etched with elegant ponies. Sparkler rolled her eyes at the frivolity. She swore School of Arts only existed to make the others look good.

The Admiral pressed the second-to-highest button and waited. Through the ceiling, they could hear a muffled hiss of steam as the mechanisms pressurized.

Sparkler giggled and winked at Rook. “Hang on.”

Rook cocked her head just in time to get smashed into the floor of her tank as the lift rocketed to the highest part of the tower. Sparkler and the Admiral both winced as the pressure on their legs increased threefold, but they maintained composure.

The lift was merciful; it came to a stop slowly, letting out a soft ding as Rook rubbed her head in annoyance.

“I love this elevator,” Sparkler giggled. “The day they fix it there will be less beauty in the world…”

The Admiral gestured at the frivolous designs on the lift.

“That’s just mass produced decorum for ponies in fancy hats!” Sparkler huffed. “Real beauty doesn’t come from a factory… Real beauty comes when the factory messes up!”

“So progress isn’t beautiful then?”

“Uuuuugh, why do you have to be so literal-minded all the time? Look. There’s… spirit in this little lift.” She wheeled Rook out as she ranted. “But these little pony designs… there’s no beauty here. Maybe the first one had spirit, but they’re in all the lifts! That’s not progress, that’s stagnation, or… something.” She twirled some of her hair in the air. “But I don’t really know what I’m talking about. It’s not like I took any classes or anything.”

“But the idea of works of art having spirit is a curious one,” a new voice said. Standing before them was a middle-aged pegasus mare with a dull yellow coat and dark green mane streaked with pink. “And I would love to discuss the implications of such at a later time. Or, well, I would discuss it now, except you seem to have brought me the most beautiful creature I’ve ever seen!”

Rook waved nervously.

“Oh, and it communicates! Fascinating!”

“Her name’s Rook,” Sparkler offered.

“Hell-o Rook!” she said with a pitch that wavered so much it might as well have come from two different ponies. “I am Dean Vespid Pin of the School of Medicine, and I can’t wait to learn more about you!”

Rook glanced nervously at the Admiral. Coughing, the Admiral tapped Vespid on the shoulder. “Iota’s ordered you to not cut her into slices of bread. We need her alive to lead us to a location at the bottom of the ocean.”

Vespid’s left eye twitched ever so slightly. “Well… yes, I suppose Iota would have doubts about my ability to maintain this specimen’s health. It’s not like it’s my job or anything.” She flared her wings, no doubt wishing to impress upon her visitors that her surgeon’s feathers were up to any sort of complex task. While they were no doubt impressive and meticulously cared for, Sparkler had grown tired of Vespid’s pride in her profession ages ago.

“But nonetheless I shall listen to our High Academe’s wishes. A standard pony checkup will do - and yes, that will involve drawing blood and you all can shut up. If Rook here’s squeamish that is not my fault.”

Rook looked scared for a moment, but her face quickly became overcome with a twisted anger.

Vespid rolled her eyes. “I see numerous lacerations on your person, tears in your fins, and scars from bites. Suck it up and get pricked by a needle that won’t cause any lasting damage.”

Rook glared at her. She bared her sharp fangs, rising out of the water aggressively.

“Not so safe after a—”

Rook bit down on her own hoof, drawing viscous, red-black blood on her own terms. She shoved the hoof in Vespid’s direction, dousing the dean’s face in the substance.

Using a hoof—because Princesses forbid she get her precious wings sullied—she wiped her eyes clear. “Not completely mentally stable. However, I appreciate the spirit! This sample will do nicely.” She smirked. “Thank you.”

Even Sparkler could hear the venom in that voice. She made a note not to leave Rook alone in the same room as Vespid. Rook got the same idea, given the glance she shot Sparkler.

“I’ve gotcha, don’t worry,” Sparkler said.

“Vespid, checkup?” the Admiral asked.

“Right, right. To my terrarium!” She trotted down the nondescript hall until she arrived at a large door at the far end. Pushing it open, she led them into a large, semicircular room with a wall made entirely of glass and trees growing within. Only about half the trees were green; others were purple, orange, or slowly shifted colors. There were plants in here Sparkler had never seen anywhere else. A truly royal garden.

Contrasting this peaceful image were numerous cages and tanks filled with angry - and sometimes dead - creatures. There were at least four normal seaponies. Their flesh was all torn, their eyes blank white, and their muscles so ragged they looked like they might fall off. Monsters, pure and simple.

Rook shared some features with them: the blood under the eyes, the fins, the tail, and the sharp teeth. While she may have been scarred, she didn’t look ready to fall apart in a decaying mess like her fellow sea-creatures.

Vespid reached into a wall and pulled out a vial, holding it out to collect some of Rook’s blood drip. “So, she’s got somewhere to lead you, does she?”

“Yep!” Sparkler confirmed, taking a moment to tap the glass in front of the seaponies. The one that responded broke a tooth trying to bite through the reinforced wall.

“Somewhere further south,” the Admiral explained. “Treasure and something else. She can’t talk, so we aren’t sure what else is there.”

Vespid stood up on her hind legs so she could get her front hooves in Rook’s tank. “But she can communicate clearly, which is unheard of for wyrded beings…” Vespid pressed her hoof to Rook’s leg, feeling an active pulse. “Actually, it might be possible for her to prove my theories! Tell me, Rook, were you always a seapony?”

Rook shook her head.

“Were you a pony before?”

Rook nodded.

Vespid clapped her hooves. “Great! Great. Oh, but you’re not a normal seapony, it may not apply to them…” Thinking for a moment, the doctor pointed at one of the caged seaponies. “Did they used to be ponies?”

For a moment, Rook pondered this. Then, with a shrug, she nodded.

“Absolute confirmation of the existence of the corrupting wyrd influence. Yes!” She pulled a notebook off of a nearby wall and started scribbling in it furiously with one of her oh-so-agile wings. “They’ll have to give the theory some credence now, and real, proper research can begin…”

“What are you gonna do? Cure them?” Sparkler jived.

“Hah! Stars above, no, even if it were possible to remove the corruption the psychological damage is irreversible, and there’d be the annoying addition of having to treat the subject as a pony afterward, which severely limits progress.”

Sparkler shrugged.

“The point is, it’s knowledge. If we can isolate the pathogen that causes it…”

“It’s probably magic,” the Admiral pointed out.

“Then I’ll bring Leyline in on it, once I confirm that,” Vespid huffed. “Really… open your mouth, please.”

With a roll of her eyes Rook opened her mouth and allowed Vespid to put the popsicle stick on her tongue.

“So, what do you make of her?” the Admiral asked.

“Well, she’s either resistant to wyrdness or developed the equivalent of a mutated strain.” Vespid flashed a light into Rook’s eyes, blinding her temporarily. “Either way, she didn’t develop to the final stage. Or… I suppose she could be a recent patient.”

Rook shook her head.

“Live in Old Equestria, did you?”

With a smug, toothy smirk, Rook leaned in and nodded in confirmation.

“Fascinating… I’ll need to corroborate that somehow with the School of History at a later date. The chances of two sets of Old Equestrian minds surfacing at nearly the same time… Have you heard of the relics unearthed in Canterlot recently? Apparently there’s a unicorn who c-”

“We have Rook,” the Admiral interrupted. “There is literally no reason to go track any others down.”

Sparkler looked to the Admiral, a frown on her face. Are you really going to sideline Rook just because she’s from the past?

“Still, rumors are interesting,” Vespid said as she checked Rook’s ears. “She’s definitely got partial wyrdness, and I suspect she has some psychological disorder, but without further study there’s no way I could determine if that’s from the wyrdness or just being alone at the bottom of the ocean for a thousand years.”

Rook shrugged.

“If she were a normal pony I’d say the only concerning thing about her physical health is the blood under her eyes.”

“And the fins,” Sparkler pointed out.

“There were natural seaponies before the world flooded. We’ve found skeletons.”

Sparkler facehooved.

“Regardless, I’d like to keep her for observation overnight,” Vespid said, returning to her wall cabinet.

“I’m staying with her,” Sparkler said.

For a moment, Vespid’s smile was replaced with a scowl barely visible in the reflection of Rook’s tank. “Ah, well, unnecessary, but I doubt I can talk you out of it.” Vespid put a surgical glove over her wing and trotted over to a tank with a dead seapony in it. She plunged her wings expertly into the seapony’s exposed chest cavity and removed a small, blue crystal from it. “Silver, the reports on seapony decomposition are put on hold for now. We’re going to be watching this ‘Rook’ now.” She tossed the crystal ball to Rook. “There you go, have a toy.”

Rook poked it with a raised eyebrow.

“It just looks at you. Nothing else. Silver calls them ‘eyes’ anyway, so you might as well think of it like one.”

The Admiral turned to Sparkler. “You’ll be fine here?”

Sparkler smiled. “I mean, don’t abandon me forever, send one of Brusk’s kids to relieve me so I can sleep. Otherwise, I’m good.”

“Then have fun and keep the two of them out of trouble.”

Vespid snorted. “I’ll be keeping miss mane-iac under control if I know her…”

“Ooooh, such a creative nickname,” Sparkler snorted. “Did you get it off the school playground?”

“How could I? You never attended.”

Rook made a sound with her mouth that sounded vaguely like sizzling.

“Et tu, Rook?” Sparkler whined, faking a swoon.

Rook shrugged while Vespid let out a terse sigh. The Admiral, rolling her eyes, left the three of them to whatever annoying antics they might get up to.

Who was Sparkler kidding? Would get up to.

~~~

The Admiral’s last stop of the day arguably didn’t even take place during the day. This was intentional, on her part. For as much as she had rebelled from her nocturnal instincts, her favorite part of the world was hidden from sight by the glory of the sun. Only when the fiery master of the heavens dipped beneath the waves far below did the stars peek out from the blue shroud of sky. Only when darkness descended could the real beauty of the universe be seen.

Even though Sanctaphrax was well-developed and heavily industrialized, there wasn’t much in the way of artificial light to distract from the stars. The stars needed to be studied by many of the professors, after all, and light pollution wouldn’t do the School of Navigation any favors.

Speaking of which, that was where the Admiral was headed; walking through one of the highest tubes in Sanctaphrax to the Tower of Navigation. The School only had the one black-tipped tower, but it was taller than most of the others and outfitted with numerous windows. No doubt dozens of them had ponies looking out at the stars, charting maps, and taking careful notes on what the sky told them.

This was her destination, but it was not what drew the Admiral’s gaze. In this darkness, the glass around her might as well have been invisible. She was floating in the air with the stars above and the ground far, far below. If she spread her wings she could almost feel the wind whipping in her mane…

The time will come, she told herself. Patience.

Eventually, the black tip of the School of Navigation eclipsed the sky, bringing her focus back into the present moment. Entering through the highest door, she found herself in the main observatory. Extremely smooth glass lined the edges of the walls, each segment designed so that it could fold out to accommodate the excessive size of the massive telescope.

Speaking of, the device took up the majority of the room. Currently, only its tip was sticking out one of the windows, examining something only a short way above the horizon. The bulky lens took up the majority of the telescope’s front face, narrowing slightly as the encasing dark metal tube reached the telescope’s base. This base was anchored to the floor on a rotating track that allowed it to point in any direction. There was a mechanism beneath even that which could push the telescope all but out of the observatory entirely, allowing it to angle nearly straight upward, though the Admiral had only seen that done once.

In the center of the telescope was a seat, one occupied by a black, elderly earth pony stallion with unkempt white hair and an impressive, wiry mustache. He wore a thick white coat, which was to be expected given the altitude, and a small oxygen mask rested on his muzzle to counteract the thin air. The Admiral glanced at a pile of masks near the entrance but decided she wasn’t going to stay long enough to need one.

Littered around the edges of the observatory were various star charts, diagrams, and even a clockwork model of the world with the sun and moon around it not unlike the one in Algol’s Shadow. The Admiral passed a fresh diagram showing the orbits of the sun and moon that commented on day shift.

The black stallion noticed her before she spoke. Immediately, he popped the mask off his face and grinned widely. “Admiral!” he greeted with a voice full of energy, though it also scratched with age. “Welcome back!”

The Admiral shot him a genuine smile. “Been a while, Meteor.”

“Oh, it has, it has! Please, please, you simply must look at Ensa, it’s absolutely brilliant tonight.” He pushed her into the chair, all but smashing her eye into the tiny lens at the tip of the telescope.

Focusing, the Admiral was able to make out a soft-blue crescent shape in the center of the view with a small blue ring around it. “We must be at the perfect angle.”

“We are! In a few minutes the sun will move behind Equis and we’ll lose it. You really did come at the best time!”

“Learn anything knew about it?”

“Distance calculations are proving difficult without cooperation from the Baltimare Observatory, but I think I can use the rate of solar dissipation and relate it to the diameter of Equis to get a rough idea. It would help if we had a better estimate for Equis’ diameter…”

“You should get back to observing, then,” the Admiral said, jumping out of the chair and shoving Meteor back in much the same way she had been. “Who knows, you might miss something incredible!”

“Yes, yes…” Meteor chuckled, returning to his examinations. “Tell me, Admiral, how goes the quest?”

“For you? Found a store of ancient oil already packaged. The Chemists should be cooking it into kerosene for you as we speak.”

“Absolutely excellent! That should be the last of that we need. I trust it wasn't too difficult to get?”

“Granite blew up the foundry.”

Meteor let out a sigh. “Wasted materials… the secrets to large scale manufacturing could have been there.”

“We can rediscover that on our own,” the Admiral said with a smile. “After all, we’re doing something they never did.”

The Admiral strolled to one of the windows, looking down at the edge of Sanctaphrax. Near the western dock, on a patch of rock without any complex towers, there was a flat octagon of shaped metal. Littered around the edges were several small, metallic spikes with fins at the bottom. One of these silver objects stood in the center of the pad, pointing at the sky.

“How long until you test that one?” the Admiral asked.

“As soon as the sunlight fades from these rings,” Meteor said, squinting his eyes. “Which… it’s doing right now. Excuse me for a second, I have to get the timing down…”

He was silent for a moment as he scrawled a note with a pen. During this, the Admiral looked up slightly and blinked in confusion. There was what appeared to be a flat barge made of haphazardly slapped together materials floating out a short distance from Sanctaphrax, held aloft by propellers of all things. That had to be impractical. Then again, the Algol’s Shadow wasn’t exactly practical, either, so she supposed she couldn’t complain too much.

“I see you found Bonzai’s latest project,” Meteor said, having finished his notes. “The emergency platform, he calls it.”

“Why?”

“Paranoia, I suppose. An island fell into the sea recently, as I’m sure you’re aware, and the brightest minds are thinking of what to do if Sanctaphrax starts to drift down. That platform is Bonzai’s idea. The only other one that’s getting any traction is the expansion of the Cloud Loft. Hired a gifted pegasus to do nothing but fuse stone into clouds all day long. I’m surprised the fellow’s putting up with it.”

The Admiral grinned. “Before too long he’ll be making insulting cloud statues of the High Academe. She won’t be able to do anything to them.”

“Oh, if you get clever enough, anything can be destroyed,” Meteor chuckled.

“...Is our project safe?”

“Nopony has any reason to interfere. The worst that happens is we explode and destroy the launchpad. We have most of the materials; all that remains is some processing and last minute work before the big day.”

“Assuming it works. I remember last time.”

Meteor smirked. “Well… allow me to demonstrate.” He jumped over to a small radio in the floor and pressed a button. “Experiment R-17, begin.”

The spike in the center of the platform began to tremble. Had they been at the launchpad itself, they would have been witness to a countdown, but up here they got no such thing. They watched with anticipation as the experiment trembled, spurted some smoke… and then finally unleashed an immense burst of fire that pushed it into the air. Gaining speed alarmingly quickly, the pointed device itself was soon lost in the sparkling fire as it rose higher and higher into the sky - until it looked like the reverse of a shooting star, the noxious smoke trail all but vanishing in the dark night.

The Admiral narrowed her eyes. She had seen the devices last this long before, but, invariably, around this point they would explode and shower the sea below in fiery shrapnel. Time and time again Meteor’s precious work would be reduced to nothing.

This time, however, it was different. No explosion came. Instead, The Admiral was able to watch as the streak of fire became a curve that, minutes later, ran out of fuel and fizzled out—but it hadn’t exploded.

“A success!” The Admiral said, bouncing onto the tips of her hooves.

“Third one, actually. Got a few off while you weren't here. I’ll need to test a few more, naturally, just to be certain - but I think I’ve got the final design now! The Engineers are already machining the parts, I’ve got all the control mechanisms…”

The Admiral noticed he was trailing off. “What are you missing?”

Meteor sighed. “Silver’s not convinced he should give up one of his eyes for this. After all, if we succeed… it’s going to be stuck forever. He doesn’t think it’s worth it…”

“I’ll convince him,” the Admiral said. “I’ve got some time tomorrow morning before I head off. He’ll give up his eye one way or another.”

“Don’t be too rough with him, now.”

“This is the future of ponykind here, I’ll be as rough as I want. If we pull this off we’ll prove that we can take what the ancients couldn’t—the stars themselves. We’ll finish this rocket and we can finally turn all this nonsense around. A stingy stallion’s magic isn’t going to get in the way of that. If I need to I’ll call in…” she licked her lips. “Favors.”

Meteor nodded. “Only if you absolutely need to, you understand.”

“Naturally.”

“...Admiral, I do want to thank you for all you’ve done. Before you arrived, astronomy was a joke.”

The Admiral gave him a smug smile. “Just get us up there and that’s all the thanks I’ll ever need.”

“Oh, I will!” Meteor chuckled. “If it kills me, I’ll get this done…”

“The world will turn to the stars instead of the sea.” The Admiral tapped her hoof excitedly as the prospect danced in her mind.

Meteor tore his gaze from the window, turning to some paper with orbital sketches. “Speaking of the sea, anything of interest this time around?”

“A seapony that apparently wants to be our friend or something.”

Meteor stared at her.

“I’m serious. I’m still not sure what to make of her.”

“Well… I’d like to meet this seapony before you leave. Sounds like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

“I’m sure Rook would appreciate you.”

“She has a name!?”

VI - As Silver Stares

When the Admiral returned to Vespid’s office she was surprised to find Sparkler still there, chatting with a very bored looking Rook.

“...and she never removes that hat! Can you believe it?”

Rook glanced at the Admiral and smirked.

“See? You get it. You understand me, Rook. You have got to go diving with us sometime. I’ll have to think of some excuse to get out with Granite’s boys…”

“All you have to do is ask,” the Admiral said, tapping Sparkler on the back with a wingtip. Her massive mane stood on end and she jumped back, hiding behind Rook’s tank.

“S—you scared me!” Sparkler put a hoof to her chest, breathing slowly.

“Also, the hat is amazing.”

Sparkler groaned. “Sometimes I forget that you do know how to sneak…”

“There’s moments where it helps.” She took a moment to adjust her cap. “So, I thought I had one of the students relieve you?”

“You did, I just got back early because. Well. Rook!” Sparkler gestured at the seapony’s tank. “She gets me, y’see? I talk a lot, she doesn’t talk at all. Match made in the stars!”

The Admiral looked at the disgruntled seapony. “It would be even harder to get her up there with all the water…”

“Not like we have to worry about that or anything. Your little experiments aren’t getting ponies up there anytime soon.”

“You don’t have to worry,” the Admiral smirked. “Rook and I, though…”

Sparkler rolled her eyes. “Speaking of the stars… I hear I missed a rocket launch that didn’t explode?”

“You would have been bored. They’re more interesting when they blow up.”

“But… rocket!”

Rook tapped on the glass, making sure the two of them knew she was confused.

The Admiral cleared her throat, entering the well-known ‘lecture mode.’ “A rocket is a machine that uses explosive materials to fly through the air, leaving the world behind and entering the realm of the stars.”

Rook’s eyes widened, sparkling slightly at the edges.

“I think she’d like to hear the speech,” Sparkler said, nudging the Admiral carefully.

Tilting her hat up, the Admiral’s eyes lit up with childlike wonder. “In our current world, we are fixated on the past. We spend all our resources trying to reclaim what Old Equestria once had, diving beneath the waves to pick up remnants of a failed civilization. I understand it’s needed, but it has also brought a curse into the minds of our current generation. Ponykind, as a race, thinks only in terms of what is and what was. We don’t give the slightest pittance to what will be.”

She trotted to one of the windows of Vespid’s lab, pointing at the rising sun. In the sky around it were a few sparkling airships. “Even here, in the learned isle of Sanctaphrax, we don’t realize what we’ve done. Old Equestria didn’t have advanced airships, steam engines, or any complex manufactured industry! Yet we fixate on Medicine, Navigation, and History to bring society ‘back’. Bah. We already have society. We don’t need them anymore. We need to do something that’s truly us, to break beyond everything the past ever conceived of doing.”

Jumping on top of a crate of leaf samples, she pointed to the sky with her wing. “And to that end, we are going to launch something so high into the sky that there is no air. With so much force that it won’t fall back down. A new era that turns away from the ocean and toward the stars.” She grinned, pressing her face into Rook’s tank. “You in?”

Rook nodded quickly, jaw hanging open in awe.

“Great, you just indoctrinated a seapony into your wild daydreams,” Vespid muttered, walking into her lab. “She’d be much more useful as a subject of study than stuck with that sub of yours.”

The Admiral frowned, deciding it was best to just get to business. “Have you learned anything new?”

“Lots, mostly stuff you wouldn’t care about. I’ve been gathering information to substantiate Rook’s claims and have distilled several interesting chemicals in her blood. She is from Old Equestria, knows the names of all the major cities we know about. Even knew what Griffonstone was, bizarrely enough. How she knows that and yet was never taught to write is beyond me…” Vespid shook her head. “She’s an intriguing little mystery and I can’t wait to see what she brings back. I call dibs on any others like her.”

“Dibs? Really?” Sparkler groaned.

“Consider it my mission to you. If you see a sensible Wyrd, you’re bringing it back. The sooner, the better, so shoo.”

“We’re stopping by Silver’s first,” the Admiral said.

“Fine, fine, just get on with it, hmm?” Already she was bored of them and driving needles into a seapony carcass for some presumably scientific purpose. They left without another word.

Silver’s abode wasn’t far from the School of Medicine. One elevator ride later they were at Sanctaphrax’s surface. This time there were fewer ponies in the lobby interested to see Rook, but the moment they left the School they were mobbed by students of every school.

“Ugh, he must have blabbed,” Sparkler muttered. “Maybe I should have stayed there all night…”

“I need you awake.”

“For what? We’re just taking care of this and going back to the Algol! I could have slept it off in my cot.”

“We both know you don’t use the cot.”

“‘Scuuuse me if a’ don’ say ‘hair-hammock’ in public!”

The clamoring crowd stopped talking to stare at her in concern.

“Oi! Back off!” She shaped her hair into a fist. “Any o’ you wanna piece o’ me? Ay’ll show ya some real hair-hammocks if yer so curious!”

The students collectively took a step back.

At this point Sparkler realized her accent had slipped and was blushing furiously. Clearing her throat, she lowered her hair-first. “We need passage to Silver’s. Clear the way?”

The herd decided it was a good idea to listen to her request, parting to allow them passage through one of the main tubes. This did not stop them from getting as close as possible to stare at Rook, but they weren’t impeding their progress anymore.

Rook bared her fangs at them, but this did not have the desired fearmongering effect. If anything it made them more curious to get a look at her insides.

However, the crowd was gone by the time they arrived at Silver’s. It was no secret that the stallion hated noise and nopony wanted to upset him. His home was one of the few buildings in Sanctaphrax that wasn’t a tower; little more than a circular stone house with no windows and only one iron door. Somewhat unexpectedly, the door was ajar. Somepony was already visiting Silver.

The Admiral didn’t bother waiting for whoever it was to be done. She waltzed right in, gesturing for Sparkler to bring Rook in as well. Despite having no windows, the interior was well lit with an eerie, unnatural blue aura. It was a mess with massive rolls of paper everywhere—the walls, the shelves, the floor, even coiled up into rolls and wads in random places. Virtually every inch of the paper had some sort of intricate, lifelike illustration on it. A few images of Rook could be picked out alongside the inside organic structure of a dead seapony, several leaves, some careful gear-mesh designs, and endless charts and graphs the Admiral couldn’t hope to discern.

There were two ponies in the room.

One was an extremely elderly stallion whose every last hair had turned white, wrinkles invading every inch of his body. Despite this, he gave off an aura of power with his crimson hat and robe literally sparkling with magic and studded with ornate gemstones of a half-dozen colors. One would think he was the last true wizard in the world, and for the most part that assumption was correct.

He was not Silver. His name was Leyline and he ran the nearly defunct sub-School of magic.

Grumbling in annoyance, he left, barely registering the Admiral’s presence. “If we don’t find a new adaptable magic talent, Silver, the practice of spellcraft ends here! Maybe think about expanding your sights!” He stormed out, not waiting for a response.

“I hope he kicks the bucket soon…” Silver breathed. “Almost as much as I hope to get peace and quiet so I may WORK!”

He slammed his brown hooves on his desk as he stood up, facing them. His mane was a soft black, but nopony would notice that first. The fact that he had no eyes was so jarring most ponies became dumbfounded in his presence. Instead of normal ocular organs, two smooth glass spheres took up his sockets, giving a clear window to the inside of his head. Their purpose, to keep two marbles of blue light rolling around in his skull.

The crystal ‘eyes’ jostled around as Silver’s face poked in the Admiral’s direction. “You. The star coot sent you. Ugh, why must I be constantly assaulted by all the pointless—”

The Admiral slammed her hoof on the desk, making Silver jump. “Let me put this simply. We need one of your eyes.”

“You and everypony on the island, mutant sky rat.” To emphasize his point, he produced a small jar filled with a half-dozen of the magic marbles. “You know how this works. I own the spell, you own the fancy experiments that need to be watched all the time.” He pointed at Rook without batting an eye, and then at his own cutie mark. It was hard to see in the blue light, but his mark was three small, blue dots arranged in a triangle. “And then you give my eye back when you’re done.”

“Oooooh, I see the problem,” Sparkler said.

With a shake of his head, the marbles in his skull clattered around. “Of course you do you daft c-”

“What would I have to give you to launch the eye into orbit?” the Admiral interrupted.

“No amount of money. Iota couldn't get me to give it up.” Seemingly thinking the conversation was over, he returned to his pages. With a levitating pen, he began to fill in more details of a fish one of his far-off eyes were presumably watching.

“Do you see this seapony? Of course you do, Vespid used one of your eyes to observe her all night. You know exactly what she is and what she’s doing. I’ll bring you something back from where she’s taking us. Something unique, something that you can have and none of the scientists here.”

“I’ll make the decision when you get back,” Silver huffed, not looking up from his drawings. “It’s going to have to be something really impressive to launch part of me into a star. I can’t make more. I can only see what I see. Being that high up is bound to get boring after a while. So whatever this mysterious ‘super-treasure’ is, it better be legendary.”

“It will,” the Admiral said, glancing back to Rook, who nodded in confirmation. “And then you’ll give us that eye.”

“Let me guess, or else?”

“I’d rather it not come to that.”

“Oh, it won’t. Now get out.”

Before leaving, the Admiral leaned closer to Silver’s ear. “You’d make more history here than anything else you’ve ever done… think about that.” She backpedaled and followed Sparkler out.

“...That guy’s a piece of trash,” Sparkler muttered after the Admiral closed the door behind them.

“Absolutely. But he has the eye spell, and we need a way to get data back from the stars. It’s the only thing that’ll work.”

“He’s got this entire island eating out of his hooves.” Sparkler huffed. “Let’s just get back to the ocean already. I can feel him watching. Yes, I know none of his eyes are here, shut up.”

With a curt nod, the Admiral led them back to the Sanctaphrax cavern, soon to return to the Algol.

VII - As the Islands Float

The Admiral knew it was night. She had just been on Sanctaphrax and had already regained an appreciation for the cycle of day and night. Looking up and out of the Algol’s observation deck, there was nothing but darkness.

Last night she had seen the stars and had watched a machine rise to be with them. No beauty as they traveled through the ocean now. Just darkness.

And Rook. Staring at her. Creepily.

“What do you want?”

Rook pressed her ear to the glass and motioned for the Admiral to repeat herself.

The Admiral waved dismissively. “Doesn’t matter.”

Pressing her hooves to the glass Rook opened her mouth and scraped the outside of the glass, making one of the most shrill noises the Admiral had ever heard.

“Don’t scratch her!” she shouted.

Rook pointed to a much larger and glaring scratch made by a deepfish three months ago when they’d been particularly unlucky. The Admiral’s only response was a huff and a return to staring at the inky blackness outside.

Slowly, Rook drifted back into the Admiral’s field of view.

“What?”

Rook shrugged.

“You don’t know what. Great.”

“She’s just missing her favorite stallion in the whole wide world!” Granite declared, trotting into the observation deck, rolling into a slide he probably thought was suave when, in reality, he looked like he was doing a slug impression.

Rook rolled her eyes, though she pressed her ear to the glass anyway.

“See? She likes me! I’m what she needs to keep her boredom stave-”

With a scowl of rage that came seemingly out of nowhere, Rook swam out of sight.

“Remind me to try hitting on her to get her to go away next time,” the Admiral deadpanned.

“You’re no fun. Either of you.” Granite sagged against the back wall, looking out at the same dark murk as the Admiral. “I bet it was nice, seeing the sun for once.”

“I’m partial to the stars myself, but it was freeing,” the Admiral admitted. “...When was the last time you went to the surface?”

“Lost track at this point. A year?” He chuckled sadly. “It’s always ‘dive this’ or ‘dive that’ and then I don’t really need to go up anywhere. No action in Sanctaphrax, no action in Fellis…” He stretched his wings while he paused. “Maybe I should have gone up in Leviathan Wakes. Probably coulda got something at Jester’s. Ho humm.”

“I can probably get you surfaced next place we stop at.”

“Nah. I wanna get to lil’ Rook’s prize more than anything.”

“Then when we return to Sanctaphrax, remind me to take you up. The Captain doesn’t need you to keep everypony in line like he needs Orange.”

“The Captain keeping us in line? Hah. You’re funny. We all know Orange has us tied up in his web of cold hard logic. The moment he takes his hoof off the knot everything explodes.”

“I ran this ship just fine before he came around, thank you very much.”

“Oh yeah? Then why’d you need me?” The moment the words were out of his mouth he clamped his hooves over his face. “Th-that is to say, uh, well,”

“Whatever you two were about to argue about, we’ve got a situation,” Sparkler said, poking her head into the observation deck. “And by ‘situation’ I mean ‘Baltimate’s finest’.”

“For the love of…” The Admiral let out a sigh. “How far out are they?”

“Far enough we can outrun them. Not far enough to avoid radio contact.”

“Have they found us?”

“Do you hear incoherent babbling on all the public radios? No? Then they haven’t found us y—”

“HEEEEEEEL-LO my sweets!” One of the highest-pitched voices any of them knew screamed through the various radios. “Looky looky looky at the batty’s entourage, in our waters again!”

“...Respond?” Sparkler asked.

“Hell no, that’ll just give her reason to keep talking,” the Admiral muttered.

“Aww, no hello? Nothing at all? Why are you so ru-u-ude?” An exaggerated sniff came from the other end. “And here I am spending my Gift to talk to you! I wouldn’t want any magic to go to waste, would you?”

“Does she do this to everypony, or just us?” Granite asked.

The Admiral sagged. “Everypony, but we’re the only ones she can identify easily.”

“Why don’t you drop by Baltimare? It won’t be that much of a diversion on your… southbound course? My my, Admiral, what have you found? Swimming past the borders of Equestria? Let me check the maps…”

“Can we shoot a torpedo at her? Please!?” Sparkler asked. “Pretty please?”

“Tempting, but no,” the Admiral said.

The annoying rant continued. “...Yeah, nothing down there but Lynx Isle, and that’s a worthless hunk of nothing. Barely large enough to stand on. Planning on some more flying practice, little bat?” She paused, expecting a response.

The Admiral kept her expression as level as possible.

“Well, you certainly seem determined to keep swimming into the abyss. Have fun down there, and do tell me all about it when you get back! Hailing Fog, out!”

After a few seconds of silence, Sparkler let out a groan. “I hate that radio-filly’s guts! Next time I see her I’m gonna wrap her little neck and snap i-”

“Oh, and do tell Sparkler to stop all those filicide fantasies, can’t be healthy.”

“SHE WANTS A PIECE O’ ‘E!” Sparkler shouted. “LEMME AT ‘ER! I’LL DRIVE THESE HAIRS RIGHT THROUGH ‘ER EYE-HOLES I SWEAR BY ME-”

The Admiral let out a shriek right in Sparkler’s ear, stopping her short.

“You’re letting her get to you. That’s what she wants.” The Admiral trotted back to the bridge. “Let’s just try to forget her for now, hmm?”

~~~

The next day, Sparkler found something.

She didn’t know what it was, except that it was in the middle of the ocean and teeming with wyrds and kinds of minds she had never before encountered. She had no idea what to make of it.

They’d asked Rook if it was what they were looking for. Rook responded in the negative—their goal was on the seafloor quite a ways further south. She had no idea what this could be.

She had taken it… well when the Admiral had decided to take a slight detour to investigate. Which was to say she had created three new scratches on the observation deck’s glass and growled at nothing for a while before deciding to do a mixture of sulking and pouting on the Algol’s hull.

Algol’s Shadow sped off at a brisk pace through the unchanging sea until it arrived.

Turning on the Algol’s massive main spotlight, they solved Sparkler’s little mystery. They had found an island. One completely submerged and floating in the depths of the ocean. Upon realizing this, the Admiral glanced around at her crew, finding all of them to be wearing similar baffled expressions.

“Orange, let me pick that brain of yours,” the Captain grunted. “You know of every island we’ve discovered, right?”

“Yes,” Orange confirmed.

“Any of them so much as touch the water?”

“Not without artificial measures, such as Sanctaphrax’s, no.”

“Right. So, I know we’re south of all maps at this point, but we are not the first to be down this far. I find it very unlikely that none of the ships that passed through here had some kind of scanning spell or something.”

“Implying those ships are all unlucky…” the Admiral frowned. “Or they never made it back to tell anypony.”

“There are a ton of wyrd on the island,” Sparkler said, wrapping up another ping spell. “Hundreds, though they’re mostly coalesced in the center of the surface.”

“Must be something there…” the Admiral muttered.

“Permission to take Granite’s boys to find out?” Sparkler asked.

“Sure you want that, lass?” The Captain leaned forward in his chair. “Any one of those nasties could bite you in half, and then where would we be?”

“A normal submarine?” Sparkler scoffed. “I’ll be fine. We’ll take a mini-sub and everything!”

The Admiral nodded. “Go ahead. Granite’s in charge, you supervise. Don’t let him charge into the open maws of any giant reptiles.”

Sparkler giggled. “He is never going to live that down.” She jumped to the ladder and slid down to the lower deck.

The Admiral cleared her throat and pressed a button on her desk, leaning in to the radio pick up. “Granite, get two of your boys and Sparkler, you’re taking a mini-sub to the rock.”

“Yes’m! Soon as Sparkler gets down here.”

“HERE!” Sparkler called from the other end. “Let’s do this! Which one we taking?”

“Hex,” Granite explained. “Been a while since she’s been out…” his voice trailed off as he left the lower radio station to enter the sub.

The Admiral took the moment of quiet to lean back into her seat, letting out a sigh.

“Wish you were going?” the Captain asked.

“A little,” the Admiral admitted.

“You’re still young. You should take some while you can.”

The Admiral didn’t respond, instead focusing intently on the lights on the console in front of her. Hex had just been connected to one of the air tubes.

“Launching…” Granite said over the radio. “Four crew accounted for. Heading to the rock’s top.”

“Surface,” Sparkler corrected.

“Doesn’t matter. Going ‘up’, and there are four of us. Done and done.”

“There’s actually five.”

“Five? How in- oh.” Granite laughed. “Seems like Rook wants to come along!”

“She could be useful,” the Admiral admitted. “Watch her.”

“Oh I will,” Granite chuckled. “Anyway… Up up up…”

‘Up up up’ continued for a few minutes. As it became obvious that the air tube wasn’t long enough to give the Hex full range of motion, the Aglol ascended slowly. Still relatively far from the sub and the island’s surface itself, but getting closer all the time.

“It’s a jungle up here,” Granite reported. “And I mean that literally. It looks like an actual jungle. Trees and everything. So far, nothing else of note. I—” his voice was overcome with static for a moment. “—ook looks happy.”

“Connection issues,” Orange said.

“What was th—” Granite cut out.

“Connection issues! I repeat, connection issues!”

“—come bac—”

“Remain in the sub, stay near the edge,” the Admiral ordered. “I repeat, remain in sub. Stay near edge. Remain in sub. Stay near edge.”

“—ube stuck on tre—k-k-k-k-k—’s wrong w—k-k-k-k-k—wh—k-k-k-k-k.

His voice didn’t return.

“Start winding it back,” the Admiral said.

“...Trying,” Orange said, frowning. “Something’s pulling on it with a lot more force than the Hex should be able to produce.”

“They’re stuck in a tree! How could something be pulling them?”

“The island could be moving,” the Captain offered.

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

The Captain pointed down the hall to the observation deck where, even from their distance, it was pretty easy to see the island’s rocky side moving up, past them.

“That’s impossible,” Orange said, eyes narrowing slightly. “Islands don’t move.”

“This one is!” the Admiral shouted, jumping out of her seat. “Captain, you have the Algol. Take us up as fast as you can.” She slammed a button on her console. “Crew! Prepare to go vertical! This is not a drill!” She removed her hoof. “I’m going to access port two. Be prepared to blow it on my signal.” Without waiting for a response, she slid down the ladder and jumped to one of the access ports. Before she arrived, already she could feel the floor tilting out from underneath her as the Algol pointed its tip upward. Granted, the propellors didn’t offer anywhere near as much buoyant force as the ballast itself, but using both at once ensured maximum speed.

With a wing, she latched around the door to the access port. She made sure to pop the door open first before even considering grabbing her dive suit. Carefully, she tossed the helmet into the door, the rest of her suit and a harpoon gun following shortly thereafter. When she threw herself in, she slammed the door shut behind herself and sealed it shut.

Speed. She jumped into her suit. Legs first. Don’t adjust the tail. Fold wings back. Roll to seal the back. Snap front. Helmet. In her job, she was one of the fastest. It still took her a solid minute to place the helmet on her head and seal it. “Report!”

“No contact,” the Captain answered. “Island’s starting to move faster. We’re faster right now, though the engineers are panicking about overtaxing the engines.”

Needed more ponies with me. No time now. “Blow the port. Don’t pressurize, blow.”

“Aye, Admiral,” the Captain said. “Hold on.”

The Admiral latched a rope to one of the access port’s walls. “I’ll try.”

The manual hatch that led to the sea could not be opened in these pressurized conditions. However, in emergencies, there was a system in place to cause a purposeful breach around the circular exit. The Admiral heard a sharp hiss, followed by a pop and gallons of water rushing in with enough force that she was not only tossed to the hatch she’d just sealed moments before, she was also torn back out and tossed into the sea—only the rope keeping her attached to the Algol.

“I’m… out…” the Admiral managed, hoping that the pain in her wing didn’t mean it was broken. She let herself drift until the rope was taut, leaving her near the ‘stomach’ of the Algol, where the air hose was affixed.

“They’ll be surfacing soon,” the Captain reported. “We won’t be able to follow for much longer.”

The Admiral let out a shrill hiss. Using her suit’s air jets, she leaped for the air tube, wrapping all her hooves around it as tight as she could. “I’m on the tube. Sever it!”

The Captain sputtered. “Excuse me?”

“Sever it! We can’t drag the Algol above the surface!”

“...I’ve given the order. But Admira—”

“Do your best to find what Rook’s been looking for and give Silver something unique so he’ll give Meteor one of his eyes.”

“Admiral—”

“Captain, Orange, I have every intention of coming back, but we don’t have much time, so I’m covering my bases.” The Admiral felt the tube go slack. Looking down, she saw Algol’s Shadow receding into the depths as she was pulled higher by the tube, now connected only to the island.

“What are our orders?”

“Hang around here for… two days before continuing on. Loop back to Lynx Isle to get word to… Baltimare about a moving island. Then continue on Rook’s path, follow the seafloor.” The Admiral noticed the water was turning blue. They really were close to the surface, now. For all she knew the top of the isle had already breached.

“...Understood.”

“With any luck, we won’t have to wait long.”

“You’re being irrational,” Orange offered.

“And that’s why I’m in charge and not you,” the Admiral chuckled. “I’m going to have to ditch the suit. Salvage it if you can. I won’t be able to talk to you after.”

“Luna’s Speed, Admiral,” the Captain wished.

“Thanks.” Judging by the brightening of the water, she was probably safe to remove her helmet now, even though the pressure still wasn’t going to be pleasant. “See you soon!” Wrapping the hose tightly around her back leg, she placed her hooves to her helmet and took a deep breath.

The helmet popped off without too much difficulty. She tossed it to the side quickly—it would be best if she could get out of the suit before she breached. It would be heavy enough to cause problems in the open air, especially when dangling from a hose. She popped the chest lock first, allowing her to worm her front legs out. Tying her now free front hooves into the tube, she untied her back hoof so she could squirm out of the rest of the suit.

For a moment, she stood naked in the ocean save for a harpoon gun and the necklace that held her fang. The bright blue of the sea spread out before her framed by strands of her amber mane.

She breached, rising out of the water with only the air tube keeping her from falling. The sun had recently risen on a calm ocean. Behind and above her, the massive island soared higher and higher, dripping vast amounts of seawater onto the water below, essentially raining on the Admiral in the middle of a sunny afternoon.

Eventually, though, the dripping stopped. The motion of the island slowed.

The Admiral was hanging from a floating island by what amounted to a rope.

Looking at the fang around her neck, she sighed. Instead of waiting for somepony to pull her up, she started climbing. Her wings turned out to not be broken, so she used the extra limbs to their full extent, scrambling up the tube as fast as she could.

She’d save herself this time.

VIII - As the Jungle Groans

“It’s a jungle up here,” Granite reported. “And I mean that literally. It looks like an actual jungle. Trees and everything.”

He wasn’t lying. As the Hex puttered through the water, the trees below swayed with the currents of the ocean. It was a bit strange that the trees were normal in appearance with a few palms and gum trees here and there, despite living underwater. The pressure should have killed them.

“So far, nothing else of note. I guess Rook looks happy.”

“Con—” Orange’s voice came from the other end before it was absorbed in static.

“What was that?” Granite asked.

“—ion i—k-k-k-k-k—t, conne—”

“Should be come back? Repeat, should we come back?” Granite asked, ears swiveled directly to the radio so he could pick up everything he could.

“-ain in th—k-k-k-k-k—edge, I repea—k-k-k-k-k-”

“Remain in sub, stay near edge,” Sparkler translated.

Suddenly, the entire Hex jerked like something was pulling them back.

Granite frowned. That wasn’t the jerk of them reeling the tube back up, that was the jerk of the tube getting stuck on something. Probably a tree. What a time to have that happen.

“Tube stuck on tree!” Granite reported, twisting the Hex around to get a look at the impediment. He found the tube stuck in a tree canopy, all right, but the ground wasn’t in the orientation he remembered. “Something’s wrong with the ground.”

“It’s moving,” Sparkler said.

“What? Don’t be ridicu—”

The Hex hit the top of the forest canopy. Instead of bouncing up as the effectively weightless craft should have, it continued to sink into the trees.

“Okay, ground’s moving,” Granite agreed. “Up.” He pulled back on a lever, ordering the Hex to ascend. The propellers and air jets twisted it upward but he was too slow. The speed of the rising island had begun to increase faster than the sub could deal with, and it was soon pressed into the ground.

Granite took his hooves off the controls. “Well, boys, looks like we’re in for a bumpy ride! Make sure your suits are secure and you’ve got something to hold onto!”

Sparkler folded her hair into her suit. “Not that I have anything to hold on with…”

“The rest of us have to make-do without freaky hair-legs, deal.” Granite’s two present boys - Wiffle and Lob - nodded in agreement.

Sparkler sealed her helmet without another word.

A knock came at the main viewport where Rook was slamming her hoof furiously to get their attention.

“Yes, I know there’s a problem!” Granite said, finding it a lot harder to gesture with only hooves in a heavy suit.

Rook pointed up in panic and grabbed her throat, feigning choking.

“Oh. Crud.” Granite bit his lip. “I…”

Cozy started drawing on the window, creating a ‘V’ shape with the ripples of water in the top. She pointed to herself, and then to the ‘V’ shape.

She’s going somewhere with low elevation that’ll keep enough water.

“Lower!” Granite nodded, pointing down. “I got it!”

Rook forced a smile before crawling off into the blue murk, the acceleraiton keeping her from properly swimming. They were approaching the surface at an alarming rate.

Glancing at the radio, Granite frowned. Still nothing but static. Something had to be interfering with the radio, no doubt whatever was making the island rise. What could even do that? Islands didn’t move! It was unheard of.

The thought of discovering something completely new made him grin. This was shaping up to be quite the eventful outing… and it looked like he’d get to see the sun today.

“How long until we surface?” Granite asked.

Sparkler sent out a ping, using the relative location of fish minds to determine the location of the water’s surface. “Twenty seconds? Less?”

“Hold on, try not to get washed away!”

“We’re inside a mini-sub, how exactly are we going to do anyth-”

The top of the island breached the surface of the ocean, sending a massive wave through the rippling water. The rush washed over the Hex, twisting it around a nearby tree trunk and pulling the hose so tight that it ruptured, spewing pressurized air into the tormentuous sea. The remaining woven fibers of the tube held fast, tying into several knots as the Hex embedded upside-down in the rich, muddy soil.

Light.

The sun shone right into Granite’s eyes from the window, lighting up a blue sky dotted with calm, wispy clouds.

For a moment, Granite forgot that he was on an island shooting into the sky. All he could see was the sky.

How often he had told himself he never needed it, ignoring his instinct, only to feel complete ecstasy every time he returned. Ponykind was meant to be under the sun, not under the waves.

Unfortunately, his moment of bliss could not last, for the increasing acceleration of the island was starting to be painful. It wasn’t anywhere near as bad as some of the island elevators he had been on in his life, but the metal edges of his suit were poking into his limbs with enough force to be mildly concerning.

The pressure of acceleration lessened, allowing Granite to breathe.

“Well, boys,” he said, attempting to stand up in a pile of three other suited ponies. “Let’s go exploring.”

“Wait for it,” Sparkler said.

“Wait? Wh-”

The island’s deceleration began in earnest as Granite started to feel lighter. It didn’t reach the point where he felt like he would leave the ground, but it was certainly disorienting to feel no heavier than a cat.

“Ah, right, island probably isn’t calibrated to… whatever it is you and the Admiral are always on about,” Granite mused.

“Gravity,” Sparkler answered. “It’s an acceleration and any upward movement will assist or counteract t—”

“Uuuuugh,” Wiffle muttered. “Science…”

Sparkler tapped her on the helmet with her hoof. “Get used to it, physics like this is the way of the future! A—wait a minute, you two were educated, you know what gravity is!”

“Yeah. I just needed to stop you from going to explain-town.”

“...Great…” Sparkler grunted.

The light feeling in Granite’s stomach eventually ended, indicating the motion of the isle had ended at long last.

“Can I open the door now?” Granite asked.

“Yes, yes, get on with it.”

Granite moved to the hatch - currently residing in the ‘wall’ rather than the ceiling—and threw it open. On the other side, there was grass. Vibrant, green grass that had no right to exist under the ocean, but somehow managed to survive to give this new land a green carpet dotted under the wet, luscious trees covered in bright flowers and dripping leaves.

He hopped out. The ground was exceedingly muddy and adhered to his suit’s legs, but he didn’t care. He was in the air.

With a swift twist of his helmet, he removed the offending barrier so the salty breeze of fresh air could make it to his nose. He took in a sharp breath, getting a mixture of sea smell with mud, foliage, and what was likely the pollen of some flower he couldn’t identify.

He sneezed, but he loved it just the same.

Sparkler popped her helmet off as well to free her hair, though Wiffle and Lob kept theirs on.

“It’s a jungle,” Sparkler deadpanned.

“Yep,” Granite said. “So, first order of business, radio…” He poked his head back into the Hex and found it still sputtering static. “Second order of business, Rook. She said lower elevation, so we’ll need to follow the land a-”

“I’ll just find her,” Sparkler said, sending out a magic ping. Instantly, her confident smile was replaced with a look of horror. “Magic interference.”

“How bad we talking?”

“I can sense the three of you and a few fish that got stuck in that puddle over there. Anything further out is… fuzzy.”

“Jams radio, jams magic, just our luck,” Granite muttered. “Going down the old fashioned way it is!” He glanced around, looking for the steepest slope he could find. This task was mildly difficult given how flat most of the jungle was, but he was able to locate a small slope and set out. His suit was ridiculously heavy and even with it’s hydraulic assistance it was difficult to move in, but it gave him some protection from the ever-present mud so he opted to suffer the added strain. The rest did the same.

Shortly after they began their journey, they started to hear a rhythmic clack from somewhere nearby. Clack clack-clack clack clack-clack-clack clack clack-clack clack.

“That’s a pretty clear pattern,” Sparkler observed.

“I know what it is,” Granite said with a laugh, turning sharply to the left and following the sound. It took all of a minute to come to the shore of what appeared to be a massive lake where Rook was busy smashing a rock into a much larger rock embedded in the shore.

“Hey!” Granite called, waving. “Glad you could make it!”

Rook glared at him, dropping the rock unceremoniously into the salty lake water.

“Ouch, don’t shoot the messenger, I didn’t know this was going to happen! Islands don’t move!”

Rook let out a series of sharp grunts in a mockery of Granite’s comment.

“Aww, you two are sooooo adorable,” Sparky jabbed.

Rook picked the rock up again and threw it at Sparkler, missing by a mile. Sparkler stuck her tongue out.

“So, boss, what now?” Lob asked.

“Well… let’s see…”

Rook facehooved and pointed at the far side of the lake.

Granite’s jaw dropped.

There, situated atop a rocky hill in the midst of the jungle, was a stepped pyramid of a brilliant golden sheen, reflecting the sunbeams brilliantly in all directions. Massive amounts of moss and lichen grew around the edges, but somehow the golden shimmer was rendered all the more impressive. At the very top of the pyramid rested four curved spikes angled toward the center. It was almost as if the ancient structure was designed to hold the sun itself.

“What are the chances the magic interference is coming from that?” Granite asked.

“Pretty high, I’d say,” Sparkler said.

“Then it looks like we have our mission. Raid the temple, stop the interference, and get back to the Algol.” He grinned. “Been a while since I’ve done anything on land!” He excitedly tapped the ground with his suit hooves. “Can’t wait to see what this jungle throws at us!”

Rook stared at him, jaw hanging open.

“Yes, he’s insane,” Sparkler confirmed. “You’re the one who decided you liked him before even having a conversation with him.”

Rook started looking for another rock to throw.

Her search was interrupted when a nearby tree fell over and smashed into the ground next to them, sending splinters everywhere. A black, furred thing pulled itself out of the tree’s canopy, demolishing many of the trees branches with an excessive arrangement of deep red claws. As it arched its back, it revealed a tail that ended in a serrated blade that appeared to be made of metal. The soulless, blind, bloody eyes of all wyrd creatures were present on its angular face, the blood streaks dripping into its multiple rows of pointed teeth and angular whiskers.

The creature itself was not blind, however. Situated between its two useless spheres of gelatin was a singular, slitted eye with a white iris that sparkled like diamonds.

It looked right at Granite.

“...Is that a cat?” Granite asked, unsure what to make of the thing.

The “cat” answered his question by attacking, extending its claws to lengths over a foot long. Coming at Granite from both sides, it went for his exposed neck.

~~~

At the edge of the newly floating jungle, the Admiral heaved herself over the rocky outcropping and onto a flat, rocky surface mostly devoid of mud. She flopped onto her back and breathed heavily, taking several minutes just to regain some stamina.

Climbing up a rope that long was hard enough. Climbing up a weaved hose that had no proper hoofholds was much, much worse, even with her wings. She was so glad she decided to ditch the armor when she had. Even with its enhancements she might not have been able to climb all the way with it on.

She knew she needed to get up. Needed to go find Sparkler and rescue them from… whatever it was they needed rescuing from.

That could wait. Charging into the jungle right now wouldn’t help anypony. She was here, and that was what mattered. Just her, a harpoon gun, and… that was it.

Meanwhile they had a submarine, several suits that could function as armor, and possibly even Rook.

With a pained groan she put her hooves over her eyes.

They were better equipped to survive up here than she was. She didn’t have anything on them aside from her wits.

...Which included being raised in a jungle not unlike this one.

Okay, so maybe my coming here wasn’t pointless. She took a deep breath. I’ll just… get to it in a minute.

Letting out a deep sigh, she allowed her mind to wander and body to rest.

IX - As the Cats Chatter

The “cat” encircled its claws, creating an arc of sharp edges. Retracting them, it prepared to decapitate Granite’s neck from behind.

Two hisses of steam rang out as harpoon guns fired, embedding two pronged javelins into the feline beast. One lodged itself in an arm, the force flipping the cat over, pushing the retracting claws over Granite’s head as a consequence. The other harpoon punctured where a heart should have been, prompting a burst of black ooze studded with diamond dust.

It didn’t die. It didn’t react beyond a grunt that was forced out when it hit the ground. Leaping up, it pointed its claws at Granite again, this time extending them forward to stab him through the heart. His response was to shoot his harpoon into the monster’s open mouth, flipping it head over heels into the muddy ground once more.

Now with three rods of angled metal driven into its flesh, the creature was having a little difficulty moving around. It saw a mass of fist-shaped-hair coming for it and was unable to even attempt a dodge. Once again, it went flying—but this time it landed on its back legs. Using its unharmed paw, it extended claws at the closest target: Wiffle.

Wiffle, having already shot his harpoon, could do little to stop the claws. He rolled, but one of the bloodied blades drove itself into his armor, puncturing the hard metal with laughable ease. A stallion of muscle, Wiffle was not one to cry out when injured, but the sight of his blood let everypony know it wasn’t a shallow wound.

A splash rang out.

The next thing the furred wyrd knew, a pink seapony had driven her teeth into the back of its neck, tearing out the spine. All contact between the head and the body ceased, retracting all claws into the body—a state the wyrded creature was no longer meant to occupy. The fully retracted claws tore up its paws, reducing all four legs to stumps.

The head kept yowling until Rook sank her teeth into its third eye, prompting a gush of sparkling, silvery liquid to pour out onto the ground. Rook spat it out, gagging.

“Heh. Bet you wish you had one of these!” Granite laughed, hefting up his empty harpoon gun.

Rook didn’t stop gagging. She curled up and began flopping around frantically.

“There’s no way it tastes that bad…”

“She needs water, idiot!” Sparkler shouted, running to Rook with hair outstretched. She hit the seapony like a bulldozer, throwing her back into the lake.

A moment later, Rook’s face surfaced again, shooting Granite a death glare.

“In all fairness it looked like you were choking on the silver stuff,” Granite said, holding up a hoof in surrender. “Which definitely isn’t normal.”

Rook shot him a “no, really?” look.

“Heh… Wiffle, how’s the injury?”

“Hurts like an Ambrosian Savage Weasel,” Wiffle said with a bitter laugh, popping off the leg on his suit to get a look. It was a deep, but relatively small gash just under his shoulder. Not exactly life-threatening if treated, but a heavy hindrance in a tense situation.

“You’ve never been bitten by an Ambrosian Savage Weasel, have you?” Sparkler asked.

“What, have you?”

Sparkler raised an incredulous eyebrow. “I’m from Ambrosia, you daft twit. Of course I have. Getting one of those things on you is like having the raging fury of Celestia on your plot for hours while ants crawl through your bloodstream. ”

Wiffle stared blankly at her.

“Oi for the… just lemme patch you up.” Sparkler used her hair to pull out her miniature medical kit and set to work. She split her hair into several fine strands and took out a needle, holding it up to make sure it was clean. “Vespid don’t got anything on me.”

“Just get it over with,” Wiffle muttered, laying down, wound pointed upward for easy access. With a disturbingly calm and gleeful smile, Sparkler cleaned the cut, prompting Wiffle to hiss in pain.

Granite looked away from their semi-psychotic “medic” and turned to the corpse of the cat-beast. “I have seen a lot of wyrded things in my time. I even saw some cats before, though they were more catfish than anything else. I’ve never seen something like this. And that eye… that isn’t normal.”

“Something’s clearly up with this island,” Sparkler said as she lifted the needle and plunged it into Wiffle. “Stay still!”

“Has anypony heard anything about shiny eyes?” Granite asked, glancing around. Everypony shook their heads, including Rook. “Any idea what this place is?” Again, nothing. “Then it’s time to collect samples for the bigwigs at Sanctaphrax. Lob?”

Lob trotted up to the cat’s carcass and took out a few bottles, filling one with the creature’s blood and the other with the sparkling liquid that came from the eye itself. It sloshed around in the bottle rapidly, faster even than water. “Doesn’t feel like there’s anything in here,” Lob said.

“Hah! They’re gonna love that!” Sparkler chuckled. “What laws of chemistry?”

Granite didn’t care about the viscosity or weight of the material—that didn’t change their situation. Turning back to the golden temple in the distance, he set his jaw. “Wiffle, lock yourself in the Hex. Keep checking the radio. If they get through, tell them where we went.”

“Yes, s-AAAA—!” Wiffle screamed.

“Whoops! Hit a nerve!” Sparkler laughed nervously. “But hey, you’re stitched up! Good as new!”

Wiffle let out a groan.

“Well, you will be. Eventually.”

Granite continued. “Sparkler, Lob, Rook, we’re going to that temple. Be on guard for an attack. See a cat, aim for the eye. Sparkler…”

Sparkler sent out a ping. “Still can’t see far. Won’t be much help. Though when my spell wasn’t being blocked, most of the minds I detected were in the center. I’m betting that’s the temple.”

“Then we’re charging right into danger…” Granite grinned. “Excellent.”

Rook let out a grunt.

“We’ll figure out what to do with you when we get to the other side of the lake.”

Rook rolled her eyes and sighed.

~~~

The Admiral hadn’t been in a proper jungle in years. At first, she was a little concerned she would be rusty.

Her worries were unfounded. After setting out into the jungle she had identified a proper climbing tree and latched onto it with her wingtips, climbing to the canopy. She perched on one of the branches and glanced down at the forest floor, examining the wet ground for signs of life. Despite the rushing water that came through here recently, the plants still looked as though they were part of a proper jungle and she could already make out a few sets of animal tracks. Rodents, birds, snakes… and a copious amount of bugs.

None of which looked like they should be able to survive underwater. But here they were nonetheless.

It didn’t make any sense. She wasn’t complaining—if it did make sense she wouldn’t be specially suited for survival.

Sparkler mentioned the center of the island as the place where all the minds were congregating, so that seemed as good of a goal as any. Spreading her wings, she jumped to the next tree like a nimble monkey, latching onto branches with the tips of her wings and tossing herself forward. She may not have been able to fly, but wings were amazing for jump control if a pony knew how to use them. The harpoon gun slung over her back made things slightly more difficult, but not enough to concern her.

Her confidence faltered when she saw a massive paw print that left gashes in the ground below it. Some kind of feline creature with paws larger than the Admiral’s hooves and outrageously proportioned, numerous claws. A wyrd of some kind, clearly, though not one the Admiral was familiar with. The only wyrd creature she had seen with feline features had been catfish, and those were pretty rare. They wouldn’t make the track she was looking at, that was for sure.

The tricks for luring pumas away might not help very much here. She prepared herself for a sudden ambush.

What does it say about me that I know exactly how to prepare for a predatory ambush in a jungle? the Admiral thought to herself, laughing inwardly. We should have hunted those pumas to extinction, but no, had to keep the natural order of the island… It’s what Luna would have wanted, they said…

She shook her head to stop herself. Don’t dwell on the past. Don’t.

With a burst of speed, she swung to another tree, and then another, making brisk pace to the center of the jungle.

She stopped the instant she heard a yowl in the distance. Instinctually, she backed away to the densest portion of the tree, surrounded by so many leaves and branches it was difficult to see out, let alone in. It’d be hard to find her even if something was looking for her.

As it turned out, she likely didn’t need this level of stealth, since the wyrd cat had other things to worry about besides a nice meal. It barrelled through the jungle at high speeds, making as much noise as it could—not out of fear, since a wyrd couldn’t really feel such an emotion. No, it was calling for help.

The Admiral wondered what could cause such a massive, deadly mess of hair and claws to think it needed help. A massive wyrd creature? A dragon, perhaps?

No.

Just a pegasus.

The dark, feathered shape dropped out of the sky, pinning the cat against the Admiral’s tree. Here, the Admiral could make out the cat’s third eye, watching in disgust and fascination as the peagsus’ bony wingtips punctured the silvery organ, spewing an unnatural liquid all over the ground.

The pegasus itself was clearly a wyrd of some sort, with the blank white eyes with pooling red clots. It had gills like a seapony, but its mane was full and it had no fins to speak of, instead keeping both of its wings—even if said wings had more bone visible than skin or muscle, they somehow still allowed flight. All four of its hooves were cracked and sharpened along the edges, covered in dark blood and diamond liquid that definitely wasn’t its own. A compass rose cutie mark in almost perfect condition stood upon the wryd’s flank, but it was far from the most distinctive feature of this unnatural beast.

Not only did it have a third, silvery eye like the cat, but it was also wearing something. A hat. Pale in color, with a green wrap around the center. It looked almost new, as though sitting at the bottom of the ocean hadn’t even waterlogged it.

A jungle that shouldn’t exist and now a hat on a wyrd pegasus in perfect condition. What kind of ridiculous magic is this?

The pegasus turned from the Admiral’s tree and flared its wings at the jungle. As if on cue, three wyrd cats jumped from the foliage, thirsting for revenge.

They were no match for the pegasus’ sharp wings. Its first attack stabbed two of the cats in the eye, spewing the silvery substance over everything. The third cat extended its claws with the intent of cutting the pegasus through the stomach, but the wily wyrd jumped the claws and brought a bony stake to the last remaining eye.

Four dead cats in less than a minute.

The pegasus looked around for more opponents. For a moment, the gaze of its third eye rested on the Admiral.

All her nightmares came rushing back to her. Sitting in a tree, hiding with all the thestrals of the tribe. Deep within the shadows of the tree, they looked like nothing. Except her. She stood out like the moon itself and the pumas would find her and then the—

The pegasus turned away. It took off, flying away at high speed.

The Admiral’s fear turned to jealousy.

Even the monsters can do it...

X - As the Paths Confuse

To everyone’s shock, they made it to the other side of the lake without incident. No wyrd attacked them, be they cat, pegasus, or otherwise. The jungle itself was filled with the sounds of tropical birds and the occasional jaguar call.

Rook let out a harsh growl to grab the attention of Granite, Sparkler, and Lob.

“I know, I know,” Granite said, refusing to look at her—his gaze was planted firmly forward on the temple glistening in the brilliant sun. “We’ll find a way for you… or…”

“That is a lot of gold,” Sparkler observed. “That is a lot of gold.”

“Who makes temples out of gold?!”

“Anyone with enough gold. And it’s probably just a gold coating.”

“That is still a lot of gold.”

Rook let out a gurgle again.

Sparkler turned away from the temple, frowning. “You need water. We need to get into the temple. This is a problem, Rook.”

Rook nodded—registering for the first time that she was thinking of herself as Rook now—and started gesturing frantically for Sparkler to find some kind of way for her to go along.

“I don’t know exactly how we would do that…”

Oh, so I could have been Cozy all this time?

Not right now, Rook thought, I mean, yeah, sure whatever, you win, be Cozy.

It’s been a thousand years! I’m used to Glow already! And you just decide that, ooooooooh, they’re calling me Rook, that sounds GREAT!

Would you be quiet? I’m trying to listen to her.

She’s useless.

We already had this conversation.

Not in general. I agree that she has many qualities worthy of our purpose, she’s just blabbering about nothing right now.

She is not.

“—and, basically, the rivers flowing through here all have some kind of diversion quotient to them…”

“What on Equis are you talking about?” Granite asked.

Sparkler binked. “Uh…”

Lob coughed. “She’s stalling. She just doesn't want to tell Rook we have to leave her here.”

Surprise, surprise, Rook thought, grinding her teeth. Any chance you can get those vocal cords back so I can chew them out?

Not as of now. And it’s better if we can’t speak.

It would be more cathartic…

It most definitely would, and the devastation on their faces would be absolutely delicious, but we have bigger purposes. We cannot answer all questions.

I hate it when you’re right.

The feeling is mutual.

“...Rook? You in there?” Sparkler asked.

Rook splashed Sparkler. With a hiss, she pointed dismissively at the temple, telling them to just go already before disappearing beneath the waves. If she wasn’t going to be able to follow them, she was going to explore this lake she was in.

To her shock, she found a stone passageway built into the lake edge, absolutely waterlogged, but stable.

Convenient.

Yeah. I swear, this entire trip is just convenience marred with coincidence.

Maybe those magic theories aren’t completely bogus...

Rook didn’t respond, instead swimming deeper into the tunnel. It was devoid of any carving or decoration and went on for quite some time. Onward she swam, having no difficulty seeing in the darkness. She’d lived at the bottom of the ocean for centuries; this was nothing.

Eventually, the tunnel turned sharply upward in a perfect corner. Following along, she soon surfaced in a large room made to look like a sphere despite being built out of massive hard-edged bricks. There were massive stores of gold artifacts, precious gems, weapons, armor, and even a few magic artifacts dotted around the treasury.

However, what drew most of her attention wasn’t in any of the treasure piles. It was an orb of silver floating in the center of the room. Numerous rings of the bizarre liquid she had seen in the cat’s third eye orbited the orb. After squinting, she found that the orb wasn’t featureless—rather it looked like an eyeball with a clock instead of an iris. The clock wasn’t ticking, but it did have a purple, jagged crack across it.

It didn’t look at her. Rook wasn’t even sure it could see, it might have just been an inert magic artifact.

The third eyes.

Yes, but what do the third eyes DO?

Something to wyrds, perhaps indirectly. That cat was not standard.

No, really?

Indeed… The running of its fluids was… curious.

Rook rolled her eyes. She poked herself out of the water, intending to start harvesting some treasure and magic artifacts. She was here, why not get started? Maybe she’d even find something that could mess with the floating eye, stop this whole fiasco with the mysterious moving island…

An invisible magic barrier blocked her path.

Oh, come ON! She gave the barrier a death glare and screeched with the hatred of an Ambrosian Savage Weasel.

And you say I’m the violent one.

I swear I will find a way to devour whoever did this and crush them to DEATH an…

Just absorb it, moron.

Oh. Right… Focus…

Rook closed her eyes and tapped into her inert, oft-ignored pegasus magic. Even after all these years at the bottom of the ocean, it was still there, ready to be used. And with all this time, she had gotten at least some use out of it. She tapped her fins to the invisible barrier and let out a sharp breath of water.

With a shimmer and a pop, the barrier vanished, flooding into her body. Success!

The silver eye was looking right at her now.

...I think we tripped the security measures.

FACE THE EYE! REFUSE TO BACK D—

Whatever senseless act of violent power was about to be suggested, it died in the divided brain of the seapony when a monster rose from the gold. With fur as black as night and blank eyes where nostrils should be, it might have been mistaken for one of the cats if it weren’t so massive. It’s third eye occupied most of its forehead, far larger than any other feature on its face. As it neared Rook, drooling blood, she saw its tail.

It was a hand burning a deep, blood red flame.

I like the idea of running better.

Cozy didn’t object as Rook swam back down the tunnel.

The eye shot a beam of silver energy at her.

Ponyfeathers.

~~~

The entrance to the temple was wide open, which was to say it had no doors and likely had never had any doors. Right in the center of the golden steps was a square portal leading directly into the glittering maw that promised both treasure and danger.

They hoped there was more of the former.

Sparkler ran her hair across the smooth gold finish of the temple. “This should have been tarnished long ago. At least a little bit.”

“Almost no sign of damage at all,” Lob agreed.

“Unnatural.”

“Good news for us, it means there’s more gold!” Granite chuckled.

“It means there’s something mysterious and we should be on guard.”

“I’m always on guard,” Granite said, trotting into the temple.

“GRANITE, N—”

Granite shot her a look. “Yes, I see the trap, geez, what do you take me for, a rookie?”

Lob blinked. “...Trap?”

Granite pressed his hoof down on a stone slightly to his left, prompting a wall further in the temple to open up and shoot several dozen arrows at the opposite wall. Granite released his hoof, allowing the trap to close back up. “That trap.”

Sparkler pursed her lips. “You know you could have told me you saw that…”

“Why?”

“I don’t know, to keep me from stepping on it!?”

“You clearly saw it, so I don—”

“‘At’s not ‘e point ye daft loon!” Sparkler forced herself to take a long breath. “The point is that I thought you were going to get yourself killed!”

“Aww, I didn’t know you cared!”

“I swear, I don’t know why you’re in charge of exploration…”

Granite smirked. “There’s a fire trap activated by that brick over there, a pitfall triggered by a tripwire I presume is hidden by magic since I can only see where it attaches, and a tack coated with lethal poison on that wall.”

Sparkler stared at him.

“I make my keep, Sparkler.”

“...Right… Sorry.”

“No harm, no foul. Now, let’s enter this temple!”

They carefully made their way past the traps Granite had pointed out, triggering none of them thanks to his careful adventuring eye. It would not have been wrong to call Granite an idiot, but it would have been wrong to say that was all he was. The Admiral chose her ponies well.

After they passed the initial traps, Granite stopped short and laughed. “Oh, this is a fun one.”

“What?” Sparkler asked.

Carefully, Granite touched a brick ahead of them with his hoof. A few seconds later, the ceiling itself crashed from above and slammed into the hall in front of them with a force powerful enough to crush skulls.

“...Fun…” Sparkler breathed.

“Very fun,” Granite chuckled, pressing the brick a few more times, playing with the smashing hall as if it were some kind of large drum. “Heh.”

Sparkler swatted his hoof. “Let’s just remember where that is and keep moving.”

“Geez, fine…”

They walked forward. After the crusher, there were no more traps—apparently the designers had decided that was enough. Instead, the hall began to transform. Gone was the darkness lit only by Sparkler’s horn, in its place a hall lit by torches alight with a magical red fire. The walls now bore art instead of simple gold, ranging from ponies to dragons to impossible multi-headed creatures that snaked around the frames of other images. Most everything was carved out of precious metal, stone, or gemstones.

“Jackpot…” Granite grinned, peeling some of the precious gems off the wall. “Magic island that’s never been looted…”

“Too good to be true if you ask me,” Sparkler commented.

“I’m still taking them; there aren’t any traps attached.”

They continued to walk along the abandoned hall, finding no sign of habitation whatsoever. It was sparkling clean and perfect, but devoid of life. Who was here to clean such a place?

They eventually came to a large, black curtain blocking their way forward. Carefully, Granite pulled it aside with the tip of his harpoon, looking through to the other side.

The room was massive and perfectly cubical. Ruby dust was on every surface, enhancing the eerie light that came from the blood red torches. Multiple layers of balconies swirled around the cube’s edge, the railing carved from some kind of black marble, providing a place for an audience.

The stage in the center was empty. The audience was not.

Hundreds of wyrd cats sat at the railing, their silver eyes staring right at Granite and his friends. It was almost like there was only one cat looking at them through hundreds of bodies.

“...Run,” Granite whispered.

Lob, Sparkler, and the cats broke into a sprint at the same time. Granite took a second to fire a warning harpoon before joining them in the flight.

What had seemed like a comforting hall of treasure before looked like the run of death now. The monsters on the walls glared at them with intent to kill, their empty gem-less eyes seeking revenge for what had been done to them.

The three ponies didn’t care. They ran as fast as their hooves would carry them, stealing only occasional glances at the cats behind them. Not all of them had followed, merely a dozen, but none of them were under the illusion that they could take a dozen of those monstrous wyrd cats.

One of them was on fire, somehow. Granite didn’t want to figure out what that meant.

It was very fortunate for the ponies that they were ponies: creatures naturally designed for running for extended periods of time at high speeds. The cats had longer legs, for sure, but their mutated claws and soft paws made it difficult to keep up with the ponies.

“Suck it!” Granite called back to them. “You ain’t got nothing on u—”

The fiery one shot a fireball at them. It was a horrible shot, but the message was clear: the cats were still a threat, even back like this.

However, they were nearing the edge of the tunnel. The torches were behind them and they could see a light in the distance.

“Watch out for the traps!” Sparkler called.

“I plan on it,” Granite said.

“What?”

Granite slid to a stop and turned to face the cats.

“Granite what’re ya doing!?”

“This.” Granite pushed his foot down on a particular brick.

Several of the cats stopped short, realizing exactly what he was doing. But it was too late—the ceiling dropped on them like judgement from on high, shattering all their skulls to dust. The eyes that housed their unusual power were squished, spraying the silvery liquid everywhere. The cat with flames dissipated into nothing but ash as its body was pulverized.

Just to be sure, Grantie crushed them three or four more times.

“...Wow.” Sparkler blinked. “...Good work, Granite.”

“I aim to please. Now, we need a new plan for getting in here. Those cats clearly don’t use this entrance, there must be an alternative.”

~~~

The Admiral discovered that it was really easy to follow the pegasus around. Just follow the sound of screaming wyrd cats. It was almost comical how the outlandish wyrd dove from the sky, letting out a call not unlike a falcon before sinking its wings into a poor cat’s third eye.

All the wyrds on this island had that third eye. The Admiral still had no idea what it meant, but she knew it was important. It was clearly some kind of bizarre magic, perhaps related to the island itself…

These thoughts were pushed out of her mind when she saw the Hex tied around a tree, dented in a few places, but otherwise fine. She swooped down from the tree and tapped the door with her hoof.

Wiffle opened the door. “...Admiral? Admiral!”

“Yes, it’s me. Report?”

“Island rose out of ocean, Hex grounded, they went to investigate temple, Rook’s okay, as are all the others.”

“All right…” The Admiral scratched her chin. “Temple?”

“Massive golden stepped pyramid, we think it’s the center of the island.”

“I know where I’m going…” The Admiral frowned. “You’re injured.”

“Cat.”

“Weird things…” The Admiral pushed her tongue to the roof of her mouth, thinking. She wanted armor, but Wiffle’s was far too large for her, and she already had her harpoon gun. She’d have to do this the hard way.

“What are they thinking, running into some random temple…?” The Admiral grumbled.

“A way to get off the island and stop the magic from jamming Sparkler’s senses?”

“...I see. Wiffle, rest up, I’m going to the temple.”

“It’s that direction. ...You’re alone, aren’t you, Admiral?”

“Yes.” The word came with an unspoken command not to ask for details. Wiffle nodded in understanding and sat down, attempting to relax in the confines of the Hex as his superior left.

The Admiral jumped back into the trees and swung in the direction Wiffle had indicated. It was a surprisingly short time later that she saw the lake and the temple, the latter before the former. How beautiful the golden steps were to her.

Now THAT is a big payday. Silver won’t be able to say no to the treasures in there!

Before she could fully begin her journey to the temple, however, she noticed a pink form at the edge of the lake: Rook. She was driving a sharp rock carefully into her forehead, drawing copious amounts of sludge-blood from herself.

What in…?

The Admiral set down upon the ground, trotting up to Rook. Just as she arrived, Rook completed her task. With a powerful screech she stuck the rock into her flesh once more and tore away quickly. There was a burst of dark magic sparks from her fins and an un-equine shriek from her throat as she removed a tiny, silver object from her skull. The Admiral could make out holes in her now-exposed bone where silvery threads had once been.

The small, marble-sized object itself landed on the shore at the Admiral’s hooves.

It was a silver eye, quickly dissolving into nothing more than liquid.

The Admiral stared at the seapony with a massive hole in her head. The wyrd sludge was doing its best to reshape the wound, but for now the seapony was debilitated. Had she not been a wyrd, such a wound would ensure death from blood loss in less than an hour. Even with her nature, Rook was still barely able to stay conscious—she wasn’t even floating in the water, she had latched herself to the shore with a few rocks to ensure she wouldn’t move.

“What…?”

Rook let out a pitiful hiss and laid her head down, breathing water through her gills rapidly. She made no attempt to communicate anything further.

XI - As the Temple Gleams

“Wiffle!”

“AUGH!” Wiffle pointed his harpoon at the open door, ready to assault whatever was shouting at him.

The Admiral kicked the harpoon away. “I need your helmet.”

“Wh…”

“Wiffle. Helmet.”

“My suit’s not made to your specifica—”

“Not suit, Wiffle.” The Admiral tapped her head with the tip of her wing. “Helmet. Just the helmet.”

Wiffle stared at her.

“Just give it.”

Wiffle removed his helmet and handed it to her. She placed it atop her head and bounded away, leaving Wiffle alone with the Hex once more.

It was no longer convenient to hop to and from trees with such a bulky helmet on, but the trek to the lake wasn’t long enough to worry about stealth or the small speed advantage. It felt wrong to walk through the jungle so obviously with nothing more than a readied harpoon for protection, but she knew that was just instinct screaming at her.

She’d gotten really good at ignoring it over the years.

When she arrived at the lake, Rook was sitting on a rock, her eyes just above the water. She had wrapped a long strand of kelp around her forehead, covering the wound. The wyrd tar-blood was still leaking down her face, but it was no longer covering her eyes and blinding her. Her expression was one of… exhaustion.

Yet another face she’d never seen on a wyrd. One that showed weakness.

“It’s under the water,” the Admiral said, tapping her helmet. “Where?”

Rook looked at her like she was insane.

“They would have went through the front doors, they’ve got that avenue covered. You clearly found an alternate path. If I know anything about my ruins, the secret entrance is usually the best.”

Rook gestured angrily at her kelp bandage. With a smirk, the Admiral tapped her helmet. Considering this for a moment, Rook grumbled in defeat. Moving away from her wound, she waved her hooves like claws and let out a growl.

“I can handle a cat.”

Rook shook her head and held her hooves out wide.

“How much bigger we talking?”

Rook pulsed her gesture four times.

“...That’s a big cat.”

Rook rolled her eyes. Clearing her raspy throat, she made a noise that vaguely resembled a bark, if the dog in question had been run through a meat grinder while a static radio was playing in the background.

“Big dog. Does it have the eye?”

Rook nodded.

“Then all it’ll take is one carefully placed harpoon.” The Admiral secured her helmet and hefted her harpoon. “I’m going in. You can stay here and rest.”

Given the incredulous eyebrow, Rook probably wasn’t going to let the Admiral go alone. Fine by her.

Before the Admiral entered the water, a shadow passed over the two of them. It was the pegasus—flying directly for the golden temple, paying them absolutely no mind.

Rook looked at the dark form with longing.

“...Used to be a pegasus, huh?”

She responded with a slow nod.

“Who knows, maybe Vespid really will find that cure.”

Rapidly, Rook shook her head.

“You don’t want to go back? Why not?”

For a moment, Rook glanced at the receding pegasus. With a shake of her head, she bore her sharp teeth with an amused grin. She gestured at herself and laughed like a scratching record.

“You want to be a sea monster?”

Rook nodded vigorously.

“...You know, I wonder if that’s why you’re not completely off the deep end.” She took a step into the water. “Every pony I know would lose it if that started happening to them. You… like it.”

Rook shrugged, tapping herself in the side of the head.

“Vespid did say you probably had a condition.” For some reason, this made the Admiral chuckle. “But then again, who doesn’t?”

The scratchy laugh came to her ears once again. With a silly salute, Rook dove into the water - leading the Admiral across the lake.

~~~

Sparkler’s faith in Granite was falling rapidly.

“You sure you can find another entrance?” She asked, tracing the edge of the temple with her massive hair.

“There must be something,” Granite muttered, carefully examining the stepped temple’s exterior. “I’ll find it eventually.”

“We’ve walked around it twice,” Sparkler pointed out. “Nothing. Considering how quickly you saw those traps, I’m beginning to think there’s nothing here.”

“Impossible… how did those cats get in, then? There has to be another way.”

“Magic? There’s more than enough here to do some crazy crap.”

“No one has ever found a teleportation construct,” Lob reminded them. “They probably won’t start now.”

“Thank you, Lob,” Granite said, smiling. “We just have to find i—”

“Up!” Sparkler shouted, pointing her harpoon gun into the air. A… pegasus was flying overhead, approaching them but not going right for them.

“A pegasus that can fly…?” Sparkler dropped the harpoon gun. “What in…”

“That’s a wyrd,” Lob said, aiming his weapon.

“That’s not a seapony.”

“Doesn’t matter.”

“...It’s not after us,” Granite observed. “I’m sure it can see us, but… it doesn't care.”

Sparkler twitched. “Oi, everypony, Imma magic island, none o’ th’ rules matter on me! Lemme just right screw with ya’ ‘till your noggins esplode! BOOM!”

The pegasus flew over top of them and landed on the temple a few levels above them. With open jaws, they watched the wyrd tap a brick with its wing and reveal a secret passage. It waltzed right in.

Sparkler twisted her hair into a hand, pulling herself up the stepped temple to the pegasus wyrd’s previous location. Carefully, she tapped the brick on the wall.

It opened up a secret passage without much fanfare.

“Well. I think we have a way in.”

“Little help?” Lob asked, trying and failing to climb up the massive temple wall.

“Oh. Right. Hold on…”

Author's Note

Sorry for delaying this so much, there was a lot of stuff going on. However, the next two chapters are drafted, so updates should pick up once again soon!

XIII - As Doors are Opened

The Algol’s Shadow moved onward, following Rook further and further south, far beyond the boundaries of the known world and the “magic points” set up across the map typically used for undersea navigation. The charts the crew had of this area were spotty, inaccurate, and filled with conflicting information. Had they not been following Rook around, they would have needed to surface every now and then just to get their bearings from the sun and stars, and that attracted deepfish. They didn’t have an infinite amount of distraction torpedoes. So, while they weren’t exactly lost without their seapony navigator, they were putting a fair bit of trust into her.

The Admiral wasn’t worrying about that. If this ended up being a wild goose chase, she could always turn around. The Algol had enough air to last months, if needed, and she knew the stars well enough to find the cardinal directions in a few seconds. They weren’t anywhere close to her ship's limit. She already had something to give Silver, and that was enough for her.

If only she knew what it was.

“Okay, so, uh…” Sparkler poked the silver eye with her hair. It didn’t blink, though it did flash softly. “Yeah, I have no idea what this is, probably need Leyline to have a look at it.”

Sparkler, Orange, and the Admiral were sitting in the Algol’s central map room, examining the artifact on Orange’s desk. Orange was staring, unblinking, at it. He hadn’t said a single thing since he’d started.

“Aight, so…” Sparkler tied her hair in and out of knots, nervously. “What do we know? It only does stuff to wyrds.”

“As far as we know,” the Admiral reminded her, tracing the purple crack with the tip of her wing. “It might be corrupted by the wyrd for all we know.”

“Yep. So… gives the wyrd a silver eye and alters their behavior.”

“Still violent.”

“But they have other goals… that pegasus and that dog-thing. They were fighting each other over anything else.”

“I suspect that’s why the island was so strange. This eye… it was keeping it that way. Think about it, something had to keep that jungle jungle-like all these years. I wonder...”

Sparkler shrugged with her hair. “Well, whatever it is, it’s an eye and it’s silver, so Silver’s gonna love it.”

“That’s the plan.”

Orange spoke up, suddenly. “This is not of unicorn construction.”

The Admiral raised an eyebrow. “...Oh?”

“Oi, how’d ya know?” Sparkler huffed.

“Most all the artifacts we encounter are unicorn-made, infused with magic through a horn. That tends to leave behind residual sparkles. I’ve seen those sparks enough times to know this isn’t part of that.” He looked Sparkler in the eye. “If I had to guess, that temple wasn’t pony either.”

“What was it then?”

“The ancients had ancients of their own, Sparkler. I could not even begin to fathom what society of old constructed that place.”

“...Geez…”

“Older than dirt,” the Admiral grunted. “Hope Silver likes it.”

Sparkler shrugged. “He better. It’s basically got his name on it! And has enough power to move islands!”

“It’s dangerous,” Orange said, locking it away in a box. “We should not mess with it until we return to Sanctaphrax.”

“Agreed,” the Admiral said. “...Come get me if the box starts shaking. I’ll be on the bridge.”

~~~

Everyone was on the bridge when they arrived.

Rook had communicated to Granite through exaggerated pantomimes that they were almost there so everypony could get ready. The Admiral, Sparkler, Orange, and the Captain were all in their seats while Granite sat, ready to be deployed at a moment’s notice from the lower decks.

Rook swam a short ways ahead, directly in front of the Algol’s main spotlight. They had been descending to lower elevation for some time now, sticking close to the seafloor. The Admiral suspected they would have to get lower to see what Rook wanted them to see, which would require using a mini-sub.

This was not the case. The structure they came across was absolutely massive, so much so that it could easily be mistaken for a mountain; perhaps it had been carved out of one. Dark, black spires of rock rose from the seafloor, pointed at the blackness above, daring the waters to crush this bastion of earthly power. The base of the structure was dominated by a massive door. Compared to the girth of the mountain itself, this door was nothing, but it was easily large enough for sea monsters to enter.

It was also glowing a soft red. Weak, like a light that had been shining for too long… but still strong with magic.

Sparkler gawked. “That… hooooly weasels. That’s the biggest enchanted thing I’ve ever seen.”

“A seal,” the Admiral observed. “That door would not be able to withstand the pressure, otherwise.”

The Captain grunted. “So… any idea what this place is?”

Everypony shook their heads. Even Orange, who was regularly a repository of shockingly specific information, had nothing to say in response.

“Helpful…”

“Hey! Rook!” Sparkler jumped to the main observation deck and waved to the seapony. “What do you want us to do?”

Rook pantomimed opening a door.

“Open it?”

Rook nodded.

“Can we…” Sparkler used her magic to send her hair out in all directions, punctuating the motion with a “ker-splooshy-boom!”

Rook thought about this for a moment before grinning and nodding again.

“We can blow the door open!” Sparkler cheered, running back to her station. “Oooh, let’s shoot it up!”

“That’ll alert deepfish to our position,” the Captain grunted. “It’d have to be quick…”

Sparkler sent out a ping, frowning. “...Can’t see through the doors. The closest deepfish is twenty minutes away. We’d have to move fast, if we’re going to do this.”

Everypony turned to the Admiral.

“Load a torpedo. Let’s test this out.”

The Algol pointed itself at the dark doors as the crew below calculated a firing solution. With a rush of bubbles, the weapon flew true, hitting the door directly in the middle. There was a mixed green and orange flash as the enhanced warhead exploded, decimating some of the rock around the door.

When the smoke cleared, the door was unharmed.

“...Well,” the Captain said, rubbing his eyes. “That’s a strong door.”

The Admiral closed her eyes. Wait for it…

“OOH! OOH!” Sparkler raised her hoof, jumping into the air. “Can we… can we…”

“Sparkler…” the Admiral warned.

“Can we press The Button!?”

The Admiral was about to respond in the negative, but Orange interrupted her. “This seems to be an appropriate moment to use it.”

“...It is?” The Admiral cocked her head. “We aren’t in any danger, it’s just a door…”

“But it is proving impervious to our standard attack. We don’t wish to expend unnecessary resources. So let us use… ‘The Button’, as you are so fond of calling it.”

“YES YES YES YES YES!” Sparkler cheered, jumping around the room. “Oh can I push it? Please please please please pleeeeease?”

“Sure,” the Admiral said, stifling a chuckle at Sparkler’s childish antics. “Orange, activate it.”

Orange took a key out and placed it in one of the console’s receptacles. The Admiral placed her own in as well. The moment both keys were in, The Button started glowing a brilliant red.

“Are we still on target?”

“In the green,” the Captain reported.

Sparkler heard this and jumped on the button, hitting it with all four of her hooves at once.

The pointed front of the Algol popped off, revealing a cylindrical shaft that ran down the submarine’s center. A truly massive triple-pronged harpoon constructed of a pinkish metal poked out of the hole, aiming directly at the doors. The shaft began to glow with white, runic markings, creating a series of rings that ran down the harpoon’s length. The soft color of the harpoon intensified, rising to a blazing hot-pink inferno.

“Let’s see if Leyline’s life’s work really holds up to expectations,” Orange said.

The Algol shook with a thunderous noise. A burst of heavenly light cascaded from the interior cylinder, focusing into a precision laser. A mechanical spring in the back of the shaft engaged, launching the harpoon forward with the light. The supposedly impervious door was struck with the force of both light and an enchanted harpoon at the same time, focusing as much damage onto one point as possible.

This weapon was designed to skewer deepfish skulls and take out ships of war—be they submarines or low-flying airships who thought the Algol was defenseless near the ocean’s surface. It was meant to end conflicts quickly, before the Algol could take heavy damage. In theory, this was useful seeing as the Algol was often far from places it could restock and repair. In practice, it had never been used because the Algol never got into firefights and it was a much better to use trusted torpedos to fool deepfish. Really, it was a mad experiment the Algol lugged around because the designers thought it would be cool to make.

In any case, this weapon was not designed to break down reinforced, enchanted doors.

But it did anyway.

The ancient doors had been holding back the ocean’s pressure for too long. Once, they could have taken a blast from the legendary Princesses and remained standing. Now, this haphazard toy cobbled together by mad scientists was all it took to bring it to ruin.

The door crumbled inward from the harpoon’s force. Everyone expected the massive pressure of the ocean to rush into the cavern on the other side, compressing the air inside considerably, but nothing happened. The door was gone, but the opening kept the water out with a soft red shimmer. Some kind of magic field...

Rook swam up to the door and waved for them to follow her. She poked her hoof through the barrier, showing them that it would let solid objects through. It reminded the Admiral of the occasional preservation spell they ran across while on certain dives, though significantly stronger. None of those would have remained standing after the doors were bashed down.

“Retract the main harpoon,” the Admiral ordered. “Granite, prepare Trinity for an outing, we’re going in. Take Rook’s tank with you.”

“I’m coming too!” Sparkler chirped.

“No, I need you here.” The Admiral put a hoof on her shoulder. “I know you’re excited, but that will have drawn deepfish, and I need you to keep the Algol safe while the ruin is explored, no matter what happens. We don’t want to chance the radio going out.”

Sparkler was clearly disappointed, but she saluted nonetheless. “Yes, Admiral.”

“Good. Granite can handle it.”

“You sure…?”

“Yes, I’m sure.”

“Issue retracting the main harpoon,” Orange reported. “The chain’s jammed. We’re going to have to load it manually.”

The Admiral sighed in annoyance. Unreliable hunk of junk. The chain’s the simplest part of the entire thing! “Send a team…”

“Right away.”

“Setting off, now!” Granite’s voice called through the radio. “It’s me and some of the boys again. I wish I could take Wiffle along.”

“He’s recovering,” the Admiral reminded him. “You’ll be able to show him whatever you get. Now… make your way to the door. Slowly.”

The Admiral watched as the Trinity approached the door, connected to the Algol by the usual air hose. She saw it set down at the door itself, gingerly poking the magic barrier.

“I think we can make it in. Going slow…”

The Trinity all but scooted along the seafloor, passing through the barrier. There was a soft thunk as it passed to the other side, falling the inch to the ground. The Admiral couldn’t see much from her vantage point, but that was what the radio was for.

“A lot of cages,” Granite reported. “Most of them filled with bones. And there’s a three-headed skeleton sitting here outside a cage. Cheese and crackers, that’s a big dog.”

What is it with this trip and big dogs? “Is it safe to enter further?”

“The structure itself seems steady. Getting Rook in her tank and then we’re off.” There was some commotion as they unloaded the tank, pushed it through the barrier, and then pulled it back through with Rook in it. The Admiral was relieved the radio still worked as they went deeper into the structure.

“More cages, more cages, more… woah. This thing’s still alive.”

“What?”

“It looks like some kind of sea serpent? It’s looking at me out of a giant lake.”

The Admiral gawked—a sea serpent!? “Get out of there!”

“It’s not corrupted! Not even like Rook, it’s just… not. Real eyes and everything. Rook’s currently waving her hooves at it excitedly.”

The Admiral leaned back in her chair. “An uncorrupted sea serpent…”

“This place was sealed,” Orange suggested. “The corruption never got in.”

Nodding, the Admiral accepted this explanation, though she prepared to throw it out at a moment’s notice.

“It’s leaving now,” Granite said. “Jumped out of the lake and is slithering your way. I don’t think it’s dangerous, but be on guard anyway.”

The Admiral nodded to the Captain, who armed a torpedo—but didn’t fire. The sea serpent arrived at the barrier in a panic, flopping like a fish out of water, which it might well have been. It poked its head through the barrier and took in a massive breath of water before comically glancing to the left and right with fearful eyes. It looked at the Algol for a solid ten seconds before bolting into the dark waters above.

“Rook’s directing us upward, now. And… woah! There’s mountains in the mountains! And… unless I’m crazy, that’s rivers of lava below.”

“Go ahead and ascend,” the Admiral said. “Careful, do not fall into the lava.”

“Roger roger,” Granite said. “I’m seeing a lot more cages with bones in them, and some with fancy restraints. Some kind of monster zoo?”

“Or a prison,” the Captain said. “How many legends do we have of monsters sealed away in ancient times? Maybe they’re true.”

“Man this is a steep incline…” Granite said nothing as his team pushed Rook’s tank along, nothing but grunts reaching the Admiral’s ears. “We made it! And Rook’s pointing at… oh, well, that’s alive.”

The Admiral was about to say something, but she thought she heard a distant voice on the feed.

“Admiral, you’re not going to believe this, but it’s talking. It—he—wants to talk to you.”

“Who is… ‘he’?”

The Admiral heard the voice on the other end this time.

“I am Lord Tirek.”

XIV - As Tirek Speaks

The Admiral raised a hoof, indicating that everypony on the bridge should be silent. Tirek. The name made her uneasy, but she hadn’t the foggiest idea why. She had no reference for the name aside from his voice, and the voice reaching her through the radio was weak. Old, decrepit, but not hopeless. Like many older ponies, he had that determined ire to him, not unlike the Captain.

“I am the Admiral of Algol’s Shadow.” She focused intently on the speaker. “What are you doing here?”

“I sit here in a cell, awaiting the day I may be released of my… extended imprisonment.” The Admiral heard some shuffling, and something scraping against metal. “I have been locked in here far beyond my sentence.”

“You are a prisoner.”

“Unrightly so. There may have been cause to lock me away when Equestria was still around, but I’ve sat here, wasting away ever since the waters came.”

Definitely not a pony. Far too old. The Admiral re-adjusted her mental image to that of a dragon. In her entire life, she had only seen one, and that was from a distance. It had been flying across the sky and nobody had been able to catch up with it. She’d heard of others, but no meetings had occurred. The prospect of talking to one was both concerning and exciting.

But the Admiral wasn’t going to let that excitement distract her.

“What was your crime?”

“I stole the magic from a few ponies. It was not a spell they… respected.”

Can dragons use direct magic? “Do you still know this spell?”

“My dear, that curse you have never entered this place. All the creatures in here who still live have all their magic, including me.”

The Admiral didn’t need to be told how big this was. If there was a spell to take magic away from one source and give it to another, perhaps the Gift could be controlled. No longer would it be random, it could be given to those who deserve it.

The Admiral glanced at her blank flank.

Don’t get sidetracked, this is fishy.

“How do you know about the curse if you’ve been stuck down here for a thousand years?”

“Is that really how long it’s been?” Tirek chuckled. “I have my magic, and even if it is weak without a source, communication spells are no hassle. I have a ‘pen pal’, if you will. What do you call her? Rook?”

The Admiral heard Rook let out a gurgle that might have been happy.

“Yes, Rook. She has been in contact with me on and off for quite some time. She was the only active mind close enough to the Gates of Tartarus I could connect with, so I did. That was quite some time ago. It wasn’t until she found your impressive ship that there was finally a way to free me.”

“...Were you controlling her?”

“No, I have no mind control spells at my disposal. Though I understand if you’re paranoid. I fully expect to be treated like a dangerous prisoner until we return to Sanctaphrax, at which point I will likely be locked away and studied until I earn your trust. I am willing to accept these terms. Anything is better than this doomed prison.”

The Admiral had used the storage containers for magic artifacts as cells before; this would not be the first time a magic creature needed somewhere to be held. The coats at Sanctaphrax had a thing for live specimens. Even so, the Admiral didn’t like how this Tirek seemed to have everything planned out ahead of time. “What do you want besides your freedom?”

“Why, a chance to practice my magic craft once again. Rook tells me you have all sorts of interesting projects on that floating rock of yours. The maps, the rockets, escape from the falling islands… a cure for the corruption.”

The Admiral tried not to act too interested in the rockets. “You can cure corruption?”

“It is magic, and I can remove all magic from anything not protected. It would be a simple matter of taking it all out and putting it somewhere else. I would perform the service on Rook, but she is rather attached to the thing in her head. They’ve lived together for centuries, I’m sure you can understand.”

The Admiral paused. That… what? She turned around to check the faces of her crew, getting looks of confusion alongside that makes a lot of sense. “She has a… thing in her head?”

“The curse, Admiral, she has the curse. The corruption, the wyrdness. It festers in your mind and seeks to take complete control, like a ravenous predator. Which is what the beasts you face are.”

The Admiral took a sharp breath. While this information wasn’t exactly… surprising, it was still horrifying. Was it possible that every wyrd they encountered wasn’t a complete monster, but really had a trapped pony somewhere in there? Did they want to die?

“I doubt there would be anything left if I took the curse away from a full seapony, if that’s what has you so quiet. There is such a thing as too far gone, Admiral.”

The Admiral shuddered, taking a moment to gain her composure. She jumped back to the focus of the conversation. “You will be under armed guard and you will answer all questions we think of.”

“So long as you release me and allow me a meal, I accept.”

“Granite? You may release Lord Tirek if you think you have enough firepower to contain him.”

“He’s just a frail old centaur,” Granite said. “We’ve got him.”

Centaur. Centaur. That was the last thing I would have thought of. What does a Centaur even look like? It’s a cross between a pony and a minotaur…

~~~

Tirek sat on one of the taller spires of Tartarus, looking down on the lava rivers below. Had the spell on Tartarus’ gates not held, the entire cavern would have either filled with water or had the air pressure increase to such an extent that eardrums would pop. It had certainly been a risk blowing that door down...

But he lived. That was all that mattered.

Granite was right, though; he was frail. Shriveled, bony, and covered in wrinkles that made him look as though he were at death’s door. He hated being like this and was eager for a remedy.

As Granite’s boys opened the lock on Tirek’s cage, Rook poked her head out of the tank greeted him with a friendly wave. Shaking, he stumbled out of his cage and met her hoof.

“Thank you for all this,” Tirek told her. The words felt like poison coming out of his mouth, but he had appearances to maintain. “I owe you much.”

Rook saluted and grinned.

“We’re going to tie you up,” Granite said. “Don’t resist.”

“I won’t, but I wish for my meal first.”

“...Food’s back on the Algol.”

“Not that kind of food.” Tirek pointed at a cage on a nearby spire with a still-living crystal crab inside. The crystals sparked with blue energy as the creature tried, in vain, to break free from its prison. Tirek opened his mouth, tapping into the power of his horns… A small red spark appeared above his head, focusing on the crystal crab.

A beam of energy shot from the crab into Tirek as all magic within was converted to his. The crab was barely able to sense what was happening before it fell to the ground, motionless. It was of a kind that could not live without magic.

Tirek himself grew slightly, gaining a healthy amount of red coloration and losing most of the wrinkles. With a grin, he placed his hands behind his back and sank to his knees. “Now that you know I’m telling the truth about my power, we may return to your submarine.”

Granite blinked. “Huh.” He took out a rope and began restraining the strange centaur. “Gonna keep you away from Sparkler. ...If she doesn't charge you herself.”

Tirek grinned, saying nothing. Oh, I hope the situation will change soon, foolish pony. You are lucky I need to be on your good side.

~~~

The Admiral stared at her “guest” from the other side of the empty storage container. The Algol had not been traveling long enough to stock up on resources or treasure, so the massive hold was devoid of everything but Tirek.

He was a centaur. Redder than she’d imagined, but not all that shocking.

Both of them stared at each other, not saying a word.

“...You know, there were not many thestrals in Equestria. I am surprised your line managed to perpetuate itself this long.”

“We had our ways. Good for survival. Not much else.”

“A sore subject?”

“Quite, as I’m sure you don’t wish to talk about your past.”

“Part of the deal was that I would answer any questions. Though, yes, I would prefer not to talk about my past.”

The Admiral nodded. She understood perfectly. Already, she had him judged as a cunning criminal who would probably lie the moment she touched something he didn’t want her to touch, so demanding he speak about his past was likely a fruitless endeavor anyway.

The awkward silence returned to them.

“Maybe you can tell me about Rook?”

“She was born as Cozy Glow, though for some reason I can’t fathom she’s attached herself to the name Rook, calling the voice of the wyrd Cozy instead. Yes, it is quite confusing, but I haven’t been able to convince her to be more reasonable.”

“The voice of the corruption you mentioned earlier? How… what exactly is it? And what makes Rook different?”

“I suspect all cursed creatures have the voice, at first. It’s just that any sane person would fight hoof and claw to get the voice out of their head, which drives them insane. Our mutual friend was not and never has been sane. Her special talent is not playing chess, but treating the world as a chessboard. She didn’t have the weakness the ponies of old had.”

“Which was?”

“Naivete,” Tirek snorted. “Had they been smarter, they could have seen the truth the ‘corruption’ offered them. But no, only a filly born different from the rest could do anything with the darkness, the rest fell to madness because they couldn't accept anything new.” He leaned in. “I would be very curious to see what happens if the wyrd curse resurged in this new era.”

The Admiral frowned, noting the centaur’s clear delusion. “I hope never to find out.”

Tirek shrugged. “I suppose that’s fair. Why take unnecessary risks? The world is already fragile enough as it is.”

“Was it not fragile before?”

“You’d be surprised how a bunch of idiots herding together can make the stupid seem strong,” Tirek grunted. “They had gotten it into their heads that the world was all sunshine and rainbows and, if they were friendly enough, all of their problems would be solved. It didn’t save them from the water.”

“...Did you know the Princesses?”

Tirek snorted. “Yes. I only met two of the three.”

“Three?” The Admiral’s eyes widened. “There were three?”

“Celestia, Luna, and Cadence.”

“Who in the deep blue is Cadence?”

Tirek cackled. “Forgotten by history, apparently. She was Celestia’s little pet project, a ‘Princess of Love,’ if you will. She’d only been around a decade or so before the disaster. I never met her. But the other two…” He scowled. “They were the ones who locked me away. Didn’t take too kindly to the magic of their ponies being stolen.”

“You don’t regret it.”

“Does it matter? What ponies would I steal magic from now? You’re all dead in that sense, save for that Sparkler and the rare Gifted. A few Gifted do not provide enough power. Harvesting artifacts is much more in my interest. I’m told you have a lot of those?”

“It appears it is useless to hide anything from you.”

“Rook told me everything. You were rather open with her.”

I didn’t feel like she could squash me with a laser spell. For all her tricks, she’s just a seapony. You’re something much, much more dangerous.

Something about the Admiral’s face made Tirek break out into a grin. “I assure you, Admiral, you won’t live to regret this. I have much to offer you and your city of scientists. I have lived for millenia, I have more magic knowledge than any pony who has ever lived. And with your help, I can shirk the bonds the ponies of old placed on the practice. You want to do something new? I have the means.”

“My current project does not require your assistance. We have all we need.”

“Aside from Silver’s Eye, but I see your point. But why stop there? Why not go… beyond?” Tirek lifted a hand, snapping his fingers. “The sky is not the limit, Admiral.”

The Admiral narrowed her eyes. He’s trying to get me on his side. Is it working?

Tirek scratched his chin. “We shouldn’t hammer out the details now, I’m sure I’ll have to contend with Iota and that eagar Vespid, bu—”

The Algol shook.

“Admiral to the bridge!” Sparkler shouted over the radio. “We’ve got a problem!”

“On my way! What kind of problem?”

“Big fish problem!”

Joy.

~~~

The beast wasn’t a wyrd.

It was a long, golden eel with numerous rows of teeth, deep purple eyes, and a glowing lure larger than most ponies protruding from its head.

It slapped the Algol’s Shadow with its tail, tossing the submarine to the side. The ballasts righted the submarine within a couple seconds, but at that point the eel had slapped it again.

“How did it sneak up on us!?” The Admiral shouted, falling into the bridge from the side.

“It didn’t, we were keeping tabs on it!” Sparkler called back—currently buckled into her chair so she wouldn’t be thrown around like the Admiral. “A lot of strange stuff was coming out of the Gates, but it wasn’t acting like an aggressive monster... until it was real close!”

“Wyrd are simpler,” the Captain grunted. “This… is something a bit smarter.”

“Get it with a torpedo!” the Admiral ordered.

“Can’t,” Orange said. “An explosion this close would damage the hull.”

It’s going to be too smart to use The Button on it… The Admiral scowled. “Ram it! We’re covered in spikes for a reason! Why haven’t we torn its tail off yet?”

“It’s rolling when it hits,” the Captain answered, all the while turning the Algol according to the Admiral’s orders. “Engineering, I need more power to the forward engines! Everyone else, brace for impact!”

“Those must be some impressive scales…” Sparkler mused. “You’re on track… now!”

There was a rumble as the Captain smashed the Algol’s side into the monstrous fish. The roar it unleashed rang with pain and a tone the Admiral hadn’t ever heard in a sea monster: fear.

It really is just an animal.

“Pull us into a roll!” the Admiral ordered. The Captain pulled the Algol’s control to the left, initiating a controlled spin. The creature howled as the spikes tore through its flesh, opening massive wounds. The water outside began to take on a red tint.

The Algol shuddered backward. The ship’s metallic skeleton groaned, ringing like a massive bell as something punctured the hull with the sound of ripping metal.

All the red lights came on and a siren started blaring. Calls of panic came from the below decks.

“Breach!” Sparkler shouted. “It bit us!”

“Seal it!” the Captain ordered. “The surrounding decks too!”

“Sealing deck…” Orange said. “Sealed.”

“It’s running away,” Sparkler reported. “Running away fast. But the normal deepfish are moving in…”

“Keep torpedos armed and ready,” the Captain ordered. “Everypony else, hold on, I’m getting us out of here.”

The Admiral gripped her chair. “Orange, what’s the damage?”

“Section D7 is flooded,” Orange reported. “If something was strong enough to puncture that wall, that just burst our reserve oxygen tank.”

“...The one we haven’t been using.”

“Precisely.”

“Go assess the damage. I’m staying here in case any of those deepfish get too close. Sparkler, keep pinging. Captain, keep your hoof on that torpedo button, we might need it to distract them.”

“Yes, Admiral.”

~~~

Orange took the Quad out, alone, to assess the damage. Piloting a mini-sub while the Algol was moving at full throttle was difficult, to say the least, and would have been impossible if the Algol was operating at peak efficiency. Luckily, the Algol wasn’t, and Orange cared little for a comfortable ride. The currents wafting over the edge of the Algol jostled the Quad considerably, but Orange kept the craft pointed forward.

He passed the trouble area. Here, many of the Algol’s spikes were covered in bloody uncorrupted flesh, something the submarine had never seen before. Orange was more than a little fascinated by the signs of a living, non-wyrded monster, but that wasn’t what he was here to do, so he ignored it. Noting that one of the spikes was bent, he moved to the real damage.

One of the monster’s massive teeth had punctured the armor directly. Shards of bone littered the impact wound, indicating that the beast had bit off more than it could chew. But the damage was done: the hole was massive and clean, right through the reinforced metal that hid the oxygen tank. A better design would have kept the oxygen further in the Algol, but it was already an experimental craft; not everything was going to be optimized.

Shining a light in, Orange saw a dead earth pony pressed to the back wall. The pressure likely killed him long before he could drown. Orange saw no further signs of casualties aside from the blood of the creature itself.

In summary, the strike was both lucky and unlucky. One because very few ponies would have reason to hang out next to the secondary oxygen tank. The other because that was their secondary oxygen tank. It had been completely full. It was a miracle the thing hadn’t ignited.

Performing a quick calculation, Orange sighed. There probably wasn’t enough air to get back to Sanctaphrax, so they’d have to stop somewhere. The closest place equipped to deal with them was Baltimare, and the crew was not going to be happy about that. Even though it was the most logical course of action.

As Orange was contemplating how to explain the logic of stopping in Baltimare, a flash of pink startled him. Rook. She was swimming in and out of the hole nervously, examining the sharp edges and poking the hunks of eel flesh. The way she was gesturing, it was almost like she was talking to someone.

Tirek, possibly? Likely, even. He was the one she saved...

However, Orange found studying her to be of no use. She was just like him: there to report on damages and what had happened.

There were two bosses on the Algol now.

XV - As the Opposition Mocks

“So, you could eat me, right?”

Tirek glanced at Sparkler. “Easily.”

“Hmm…” She approached the centaur, poking his chin with her hair. “What else can you do?”

“Cut that mane clean off in an instant.”

Sparkler recoiled. “Oi! Rude!”

“You’re the one poking me. Were I a less civilized beast I would have tore at it with my bare teeth.”

“I bet you wish you did…”

Tirek lit his horns, creating a ball of magic between the bony protrusions.

“Ah-ah-ah-!” Sparkler sang. “You want to be on the Admiral’s good side, don’t you? Hmmmmmm?”

Tirek’s magic dissipated. “Certainly. Though why she keeps a fool like you around I’ll never know.”

“Fool?” Sparkler put a hoof to her face and gasped in mock offense. “Me!? That’s ridiculous! I’m not half baked in the head at all!” She giggled. Like a lightswitch, her smile dropped. “And yet I still see you, Tirek. Plotting. Scheming.”

“I’m in a difficult situation, I’m sure you understand.”

“I understand quite well.” She started tracing spirals in the walls of the storage container. “Do you know where I’m from? Ambrosia? Of course you don’t; the place didn’t exist in Old Equestria.”

“Enlighten me how this home of yours has anything similar to my predicam—”

Sparkler formed her mane into a blade and held it to Tirek’s neck, letting her accent drip out in its fullest. “It’s where Ah learned t’ do this. Ya think it’s all fists’n’tangles here, but when yer th’ only Gift’d on th’ island, ya make do. Every pony out for blood. The moon loves blood, ya know? Runnin’ down th’ ground t’ the pits of Tartarus. Did ya get any o’ mine down there, demon?”

“A foolish superstition based on legend,” Tirek said, unfazed by the hair at his neck.

“Right true, that, an’ we were killin’ each other fer nuttin’ then. But, oi m’ life was better wit’ that than what came next. The sands ran with blood, an’ then th’ ‘great flyin’ monstrosities’ appeared. Airships wit’ metal, and other nonsense. They took over in a week, packing us into cages like animals and teaching us to speak ‘proper-like’ with good diction and, above all else, an air of ‘civilisation’.” She pressed her hair in a little closer. “The great warlord-mage Spark-Skull, champion of the bloody sands of Ambrosia, put in a box and told everything she’d ever been was wrong. I think I have a pretty good idea what you were going though, centaur, and I know what it takes to get out.”

Tirek used his magic to push her hair-blade back. “Enlighten me.”

“Lies.”

Sparkler pointed at her eyes with her hair and then at Tirek. She backed out of the room, a smile growing ever-larger on her face.

Tirek stared at where she had been for several minutes before doing anything. Lighting his horns, he sent a message to Rook. That hairy friend of yours isn’t as trusting as you’d lead me to believe.

You just suck at being trustworthy, Rook messaged back.

Suck it,Cozy added.

He cut the connection with a grunt. How could she stand having a voice in her head at all times? It was maddening enough to maintain a connection for a minute.

~~~

The Admiral sat in her chair on the bridge, staring at the radio with a grimace.

Any minute now…

“Maybe she’s out exploring?” Sparkler suggested.

“We don’t have that kind of luck,” the Admiral sighed.

“I don’t know, there’s a chance we c—”

“HELLOOOO-O-O my boisterous batty buddy!” Hailing Fog called over the radio. “Looks like you’re back from your little trek into nowheresville! How’s it hangin’?”

With a grimace, the Admiral nodded to Orange, instructing him to open a channel. They had to respond this time.

“This is the Admiral of the Algol’s Shadow. We request permission to dock at Baltimare’s primary sea-mine.”

Fog gasped. “You responded? You really are my bestest friends!”

Sparkler opened her mouth. The Captain quickly slapped a piece of duct tape over her muzzle.

“I repeat: we request permission to dock,” the Admiral said, voice level.

“Oh fine, I’ll have to see which one’s open. Spades! Get on the junker, find an opening! ...I’m sure he’ll get one with a nice undersea cavern for you to hang in, don’t fret!” She practically sang the last word, driving her shrill voice even deeper into the ears of the crew. “But that’ll take a few minutes, until then we can chat!”

“I really should return to my crew…”

“Nonsense, they can handle themselves! Unless…” There was an overly long pause. “Something happened out there that needs your attention? Did you find something?”

“No. Got attacked by a big fish. Suffered heavy damage.”

“Sparkler! How badly did you screw up?”

Sparkler tore the duct tape off her face, growling through the pain. “It weren’t that kind o’ deepfish, t’was funky!”

The Admiral silently facehooved.

“T’was funky? My my, what interesting language. I do so wonder where it’s from…”

Sparkler twitched. “None of your business.”

“Naaaaw, really?” She giggled. “I assure you, I’ll make it well worth your while. You know I can.”

“Irrelevant,” Orange interrupted. “We are damaged and seek repairs. We will pay. That is the only reason we were here.”

“Ah. You. The new thinker, right? I wasn’t aware Sanctaphrax had finished their artificial pony project yet! ...Oh wait.”

Orange gave no response, but the insult had gotten everyone else riled up. Which was probably the entire point, if the Admiral was being honest. It was basically Fog’s pastime.

“Oh, look at that! Spades just told me Dock Seven is open! We’re in Dock Six! I’ll be able to come over and say hi!”

“That won’t be necessary,” the Admiral said. “You’re doing just fine as you are.”

“Nonsense! It wouldn’t be polite to ignore you! This is basic pony etiquette!”

“We would like to return to Sanctaphrax as soon as possible.”

“You have my promise that I won’t delay you at all! As soon as you’re patched up I’m off your fancy boat. See ya there!”

“Fog wai—” The Admiral stopped herself. “...She’s not listening anymore.”

“It seems unlikely,” Orange admitted.

“Right. Figure out how to hide Tirek. We can’t have her seeing him or… anything Sparkler got from the temple. Got it?”

“Yes, Admiral.”

~~~

Rook drifted around a fair distance below the Algol’s Shadow—literally in its shadow, since they were close to the surface at the moment. The area around Baltimare was rather shallow compared to the rest of the ocean, which is why the mining bases worked so well. The distant light they emitted was fighting with the sunlight for Rook’s attention, which was rare for undersea constructions.

We can’t go to Baltimare, Cozy said.

Aww, why not? Rook pouted. We went to Sanctaphrax!

We were protected in Sanctaphrax by our usefulness. We will not, here.

I’ll just work the magic on them too… Rook rubbed her hooves together mischievously.

The situation is more complicated.

Tirek. Yeah, he really does put a cramp in our style, doesn’t he? You’d think that now he’s free he’d be useful, but he’s just locked up in another box.

He will show those ponies what can really be done with power.

Yeah. Yeah… Rook scowled.

Reservations? Really?

Reservations? That’s ridiculous. I’m afraid Vespid’s going to cut him up and this will all have been pointless.

He knows too much. He is too valuable. Which is both the reason we are safe in Sanctaphrax and not safe here. Sanctaphrax is currently in possession of Tirek and, to some extent, us—as much as I hate to think of being owned by anything. If Baltimare knew of our existence, they would want it.

...Golly, do you think we could start a war?

Possibly.

That sounds fun.

And deadly to us.

We could run. Then we wouldn’t get to see it though…

Could we run?

The ocean is huge, we often went decades without running into anything.

That’s what I said! But no YOU were like—

Rook let out a pained groan. Bringing that up now? Really? Come ON, we’re so over that.

No, you were over it, I’ve been seething for three hundred years.

We were just arguing about time not being sensible!

There are no time warps in the ocean.

Golly, you’ve really been festering over this.

You’re backpedaling into ‘golly-ness’.

Maybe I’ve decided I like it.

You’re Rook now!

Then YOU start saying ‘golly.’

...Never.

Then there’s nothing to talk about.

I regrettably agree.

Rook looked at the seafloor. ...You were saying we could run. The ocean does have a lot of places to hide. They wouldn’t be able to find us.

The ruins of Tauryl sound far enough away.

Why are we even still here? We’ve done all we need for Tirek. We’ve earned our magic.

We could leave. I doubt we should, though.

Why not?

After an unnaturally long pause, Cozy responded. ...We wouldn’t get to see what brings these ponies to their knees.

...Yeah. Yeah, that’s a good reason. It’ll be quite a show!

And maybe we’ll start a war in the process.

They’ve got a giant magic harpoon, Tirek could definitely make it bigger!

We should brainstorm some ideas and give him the list.

Yes! More prongs. Pointed backward. Oooh, and poison barbs!

I’m thinking a more insidious curse that kills over years while feeding off nightmares…

Too complicated, be more creative.

Complicated is c— She stopped. Rook saw it too—a large searchlight was focused on the Algol.

I believe it is time for us to make ourselves scarce.

Agreed.

XVI - As Brats Investigate

Baltimare was one of the larger islands of Equestria, casting a massive shadow on the ocean most hours of the day. While the surface of Baltimare was decently high in elevation, it was large enough that the bottommost tip almost touched the ocean surface—and it did on particularly stormy days. However, unlike Sanctaphrax, nobody had bothered to install a chain or anchor of any sort. If one wanted into Baltimare proper, where the famous ancient ruins stood, they would have to take an airship all the way up.

The Algol’s crew wasn’t prepared to make the voyage to Baltimare proper, nor did they want to. In the Captain’s words, “the Baltimarians are so far up their own asses they find the idea of ponies smarter than them amusing. Doesn’t matter if you’re talking to an aristocrat or peasant, the arrogance goes right to the bone. Arguing is their favorite pastime.”

The mining operations were a different story, and one the Admiral prefered dealing with, though only barely.

Aside from the Baltimare Crater directly below the floating island, the ocean nearby was extremely shallow with occasional peaks from miniature mountains perhaps more accurately described as large hills. It wasn’t uncommon for a diver to be on the seafloor and still be able to see sunlight, though usually just barely. In the highest of these hills, mines were built. Many made use of tunnels already constructed by the ponies of old, with water pumped out slowly over time. They found vast amounts of raw materials and magic that drove Baltimare’s industry, the largest competitor to Sanctaphrax. They also found bizarre corrupted monsters seen nowhere else, but that was one of the hazards of work.

What Sanctaphrax had in quality, Baltimare made up for in quantity and size. They simply had more ponies and resources. They said their prowess came from their connection to Old Equestria’s heritage, but in reality it mostly came from their larger factories the miners who worked endlessly in a terrible environment until they died.

The Admiral had a hard time empathizing with the miners. Not because their situation wasn’t terrible. But because the miner she dealt with the most was Hailing Fog.

“The docking clamps are ready for your behemoth!” she called over the hijacked radios. “I’ve brought snacks!”

The Captain brought the Algol to the docking clamp, careful to bring the airlocks together perfectly. The Admiral stood with Orange at the airlock in question, waiting for it to open with no small amount of dread.

With a series of pops and hisses, the doors slid open, revealing a teenage filly with the smuggest smile on her face. She was an overly thin unicorn of a white-blue complexion, wearing a black shirt with gold buttons that marked her as a Guardian. There was another half to the uniform, but she had foregone it so she could proudly display her cutie mark: a series of sine waves interacting overtop a drop of water. Strapped to her back was a somewhat large radio, with most of its space devoted to the speaker.

“I’m sooooo glad to see you!” She pulled the Admiral into a very unwanted hug. “And boy, is your lopsided barrel a mess! Did one of the drill-teeth get you? Those are nasty, right?”

The Admiral carefully removed herself from the filly’s death grip. “They are.”

“Chatty as always! Of course, for my favorite bat, I’ll be sure to requisition the highest quality air for your refuelling, no extra cost.” She fixed the Admiral with a knowing glance. “That is the oxygen tank that’s blown out, right?”

“Correct,” the Admiral said, unflinching. She’d learned quickly not to underestimate the mind of Fog. Although a brat, she was a Mine Guardian for a reason, and it wasn’t just because of that special talent of hers.

For instance, while the “highest quality air” sounded like a great gift, it would take a significant amount of time to place an order and ship the tank. Time that Fog would use to snoop around the Algol, and there wasn’t a thing the Admiral could do about it. Fog held the cards here; this was her turf, and the Admiral was her favorite toy.

It took everything the Admiral had to smile instead of biting the filly’s head off.

Fog chuckled. “Anyway, I haven’t seen your ship in a while! Definitely not when it’s banged up like this, oh no. Please, give me a tour! For old time’s sake?”

At least she’s asking for a tour. I can easily avoid Tirek like this. “Right away—I’m assuming payment has already been sorted out?”

“Oh yeah, already sending the bill to Sanctaphrax.”

The Admiral’s smile remained, though now it was genuine. She thinks she’s getting me in trouble. Iota might be upset at first, but once she sees what I’ve got here…

“Why were you going beyond charted waters, anyway?” Fog asked. “Pretty dangerous, if I do say so myself! No maps, no idea where you’re going… You’re not a mapping ship. What were you looking for?”

“There was a lead to undiscovered ruins. Didn’t find anything before we got attacked. Had to turn back.” The Admiral didn’t even need to think: there was no way the filly believed her.

“Not even gonna tell me what you were looking for?”

“An ancient city of gold,” the Admiral said, forcing a chuckle. “Ridiculous, of course, but there might be something down there.”

“There’s always something somewhere. The question is, whose treasure is it?”

“Yours?”

“That depends.” She got a glint in her eye the Admiral couldn't place. She didn’t elaborate.

~~~

The instant the airlock was clear, Sparkler had ran off the Algol and onto the mining station. She didn’t want to spend a minute longer in close proximity to that brat than was absolutely necessary.

She tried not to think about how Hailing Fog probably knew exactly how Sparkler felt and reveled in her rage. Dwelling on it only made Sparkler more angry, which would only give Fog more of what she wanted…

“Why’d they give a kid that high of a position?” Sparkler muttered to herself. “Gifted prodigy or not…”

The area of the mines Sparkler was walking through was actually rather impressive: a miniature town situated in a glass bubble beneath the ocean. The bubble in question was reinforced with a web-like lattice of steel, strong enough to resist a deepfish attack for a short while if such a thing were ever to happen. Which it didn’t—the mining station didn’t move and didn’t make waves, so deepfish never saw it. And the few monsters who stumbled in by accident, well, they were taken care of by the Guardians. She could see one of their submarines drifting outside, armed to the teeth with harpoons, torpedoes, and who knew what else Baltimare gave to them. Probably something explosively dangerous without any safety precautions.

The town itself was composed almost entirely of metal with a few stone supports, since those were the materials they had to work with. They brought the metal out of the rock below, so they used it, giving the station a clean, reflective feel. Ironic, since the miners were basically poor as dirt. For all their shiny houses, every last pony in the place was covered in soot and dust.

Not to mention the air. It was almost unbearably low quality. Even though she lived on a submarine, Sparkler could barely stand it. Air was expensive, and the bigwigs wanted to keep the cost as low as possible.

Sparkler marched into a bar and rammed her face into the countertop.

“...Where did you come from?” the earth pony barkeep asked, noting her shockingly clean appearance.

“South.”

“There’s nothing south,” he responded.

“South. Just smack me with something before I lose my mind.”

“Ahhh, Fog’s newest playmates.” He dropped a glass in front of her and started filling it.

“Not new. Recurring.”

“Recurring?” He stopped pouring. “Wait, that would make you…”

“...Don’t you d—”

He knocked her drink over with a cruel smire. “A Phraxite Gifted! Hey boys, we got ourselves the elite here!”

“C’mon man, I just wanted a drink… I have money! I can pay you double!”

“We might get around to that,” he chuckled as several of the bar’s patrons stood up to surround Sparkler. “After we have a little fun showing a Phraxite what happens when they come to Baltim—”

Sparkler wrapped her hair around the necks of the barkeep and three of the patrons. “Ye ain’t a Guardian. I can snap yer necks without a problem. Don’t even think big daddy Baltimare would care.”

None of them said anything, mostly because she was cutting off their air. The rest of the patrons who’d decided not to get involved in the brawl looked at their food and drink even more intently than they had been before, heads down.

“Now, get me another drink. I’m not payin’ for what ya spilled. Oi?”

The barkeep nodded, and Sparkler released him without a hassle. She got her drink shortly thereafter.

~~~

“I always love this room,” Hailing Fog said, strolling around the center of the Algol and examining the clockwork map carefully. “They let you keep this marvel on your ship. It baffles me. You’re not flying to the moon!”

The Admiral smirked. “Maybe not in your lifetime.”

“And you think you’ll get there in yours?”

The Admiral refused to play her little game.

“I wonder, how long do you bats live?” Fog didn’t look up from the clockwork mechanism. “We don’t see too many of you. I’m only aware of two others in the whole world, right now. You, that mercenary mare I hear does good work, and that crazy guy locked in Riven’s funny farm. Hmm. You bats are really hurting for a gene pool…”

If only.

“Why don’t you ever talk about your past? I talk about mine all the time! I don’t understand what the big deal is with everyone and all these secrets.” Her usually sickeningly innocent face was suddenly replaced with a deep scowl. “I hate secrets.”

“When you’re older, you might have a few, and then you’ll understand.”

“Oh, I understand just fine. You’ve got it alllll in your big heads that ‘we’ve gotta be better’ and ‘we gotta protect our power.’ Pfft. As if keeping secrets does that. You think I don’t see everything fall apart on a daily basis because of some stupid secret a pony thought was a good idea?”

“I’m sure Baltimare is ever-so-thankful for your efforts.”

“They can stuff a sock in it. I’m a Miner. Like my father before me.”

The Admiral stared at her in shock. She found only an innocent smile looking back at her.

The filly’s ears twitched.

Crud.

“Oh, that was interesting…” Fog lit her horn, cocking her head. “That was the first transmission I felt from the Algol itself. You’ve been very quiet ever since I got here, almost like you’re hiding something. You wouldn’t do that to me, would you, Admiral?”

“You know I would.”

“Are you now?”

The Admiral looked her in the eyes. “I am always keeping several secrets from you. Take your pick.”

“Aww, why do you always get so serious every time I come over to visit?” Fog tossed her mane and turned away from the Admiral. “Sparkler’s much more fun than you are.”

“She tried to kill you last time.”

“How’s that burn I gave her doing?” Fog asked, smirking.

“Completely healed.”

“Good. I’d hate to see my favorite seamare permanently scarred.” Fog turned to the Admiral. “Now, you’re going to take me to the torpedo bay.”

The Admiral didn’t move a muscle. Tried to show absolutely no reaction. Fog, apparently, didn’t need one, because she broke out into a grin.

“I don’t know what you were transmitting with, but I still sensed it. Now… are we going to do this the easy way, or the hard way? Both are fun, so take your pick!”

~~~

Sparkler was just about done with the terrible mininer beer when the Mine Guardian walked in. Unlike Fog, who never held herself all that professionally, this pegasus stallion walked in such a way that made every motion powerful. His hoofsteps were slightly louder than the average stallion and he moved in a perfect rhythm. He demanded that everyone look at him.

Sparkler covered her cutie mark with her hair, suddenly feeling like she didn’t want to be noticed right now.

The Guardian sat down at the table furthest in the back. He didn’t order anything. He only stared straight ahead, waiting.

The pony he was waiting for arrived later. Not a Guardian, but not a miner either: she wasn’t dusty or grimy. She was foreign, like Sparkler herself.

Interesting.

Sparkler pointed her ears in their direction.

“She’s interfering,” the Guardian said.

“There wasn’t anything you could do about that?”

“She has too much loyalty. Barring her from something seemingly harmless would tip her off.”

“How in the name of the Princesses did you get an honest Guardian?”

“Family connections.”

“She’s a nuisance,” the mare grunted. “If she ruins the Admiral, the deal might fall through.”

Sparkler kept her breathing steady, but inwardly her mind started panicking. What have we walked into?

“We will protect her,” the Guardian insisted.

“You can’t even stop a child,” the mare hissed. “Forgive me if I don’t have much faith in your abilities.”

“We will—” the Guardian stopped short.

Sparkler tensed. I’m not even looking at him, how does he know? Her ears instinctively twitched away from him. Traitors. Trying to look natural, she downed her drink, left some bits on the counter, and trotted toward the exit.

She heard him get out of his chair.

She ran.

In truth, she could probably beat a random pegasus Guardian, but they weren’t like the miners. If one of them got beat up, ponies would notice.

“Stop right th—”

Sparkler grabbed a table in her magic and tossed it at the Guardian, toppling him to the ground. “Sorry!” She waved with her hair and bolted back to the Algol.

Something rotten was ahoof. She had to get to the Admiral quickly.

~~~

Torpedos were huge. Even with Sanctaphrax’s extensive research and development, they still weighed around a ton and, all together, filled up much of the Algol’s inner holds. They were kept deep inside the Algol so they weren’t easy to ignite by an attack. That said, at any given time, three were loaded in the torpedo tubes, ready to be activated and launched.

This was where Hailing Fog marched, the Admiral following her closely. Orange had vanished, no doubt to gather some Algol security, should it be needed.

The Admiral hoped her hiding spot was clever enough. Nopony would try to open a possibly live torpedo.

Fog frowned. “Well… this is a clever little game, hmm?” She turned to the Admiral with an innocent smile. “It’d be a shame if I could return the message. At a hundred times its original strength.”

She lit her horn.

The Admiral winced as she heard Tirek’s grunt from inside the third torpedo.

“There we go! Let’s crack this one open, there’s somepony in it! That can’t be safe for th—”

Tirek punched out of the torpedo’s casing, holding his second hand to his head. “BRAT! You don’t know what you’re messing w—”

There were two radios in the room: the Admiral’s personal one, and the one Fog had strapped to her back. Both shrieked with the loudest rendition of a chalkboard noise Fog could generate, dropping Tirek, the Admiral, and the torpedo crew to the ground. Fog herself remained standing, grinning. “Gotcha.”

XVIII - As Ascention Recurs

“I don’t like any of this,” the Admiral said, watching as the clockwork globe whirled in front of her.

Sparkler stopped flossing her teeth with her hair. “What about what?”

“Our ‘allies’. There’s no reason we should have special protection. We’re supposed to handle ourselves, and if we can’t, Sanctaphrax will find a new pony to do the hunting.” She narrowed her eyes. “Something’s very, very wrong.”

“Huh. Well, I’m more upset that we just let the brat go. She deserves a lot worse than that…”

“While I tend to agree, she’s never tried to kill us.”

“Oh for the—I don’t care, she made it her personal vendetta to make our lives a living nightmare for her own amusement, we’d be right to ram a harpoon right up her flanks, and we didn’t!”

The Admiral frowned.

“...I’m… I’m sorry, I…” Sparkler tied her hair up into a massive bun so it’d stop distracting her. “Look, we’ll sort this out. Iota will be able to find out what’s going on and we’ll put this whole thing to bed. You’ll get your fancy rocket and Tirek will revolutionize the way we think about magic!”

“Something’s still rotten,” the Admiral said. “I’m not one to complain about taking the shady route to success, but I’d like to know when I’m involved in it. Otherwise it could end in… disaster.”

“Like what, Tirek being a demon?” Sparkler chuckled—but as her laugh went on, it slowly died away. “He’s… dangerous.”

“An anti-Gifted weapon,” the Admiral mused. “Took Fog out, just like that. Withstood her burn…”

Sparkler glanced at the base of her front hoof. The burn she’d received from Fog wasn’t visible anymore. She glared at the offendingly perfect hoof as if it had insulted her family. “We can’t trust him.”

“We won’t.”

“Like we don’t trust Rook?”

The Admiral frowned. “She… proved herself.”

“I want to think so too, but… did she ever act outside of her own self-interest? She wanted us to let Tirek out. We did. And now she’s just hanging around because he’s there.”

The Admiral fell silent. You’re dealing with the past again...

The clockwork in front of them kept tick, tick, ticking away.

The Admiral stood up. “We’ll be at Sanctaphrax in a few days. We should start preparing for unloading and requisition more advanced repairs. I’ll look over Orange’s list.”

“I’ll check with Rook and Tirek. Maybe when we’re done here we can put this whooole thing behind us.”

“That’s the plan,” the Admiral said, a sparkle in her eye. “Put all of it behind us.”

~~~

The Algol arrived at the base of Sanctaphrax’s chain, ready for only minor unloading. They only removed a single crate containing Tirek and the handful of lesser treasure Sparkler had swiped at the last minute in the gold temple. Rook was allowed to ride in a glass box again—she had requested as much—but Tirek was kept out of sight in the main shipment.

The air seemed different when they rose out of the water this time. The sky was overcast and neither the Admiral nor Sparkler felt like chatting with Rook as they climbed up the chain. It was a long, silent ride.

As they passed through the cloud layer, the water condensed on their coats, dampening them considerably. When they came out the top, a breeze wafted past, chilling them both to the bone. The sun felt weak, somehow, despite usually being oppressive. It was soon eclipsed by Sanctaphrax regardless, blotting out all warmth with the shadow of the floating city.

The elevator rushed into Sanctaphrax, only slowing once it was within the rock. It came to a gentle stop amidst the giant coils of cable, but unlike last time there was only one unload team here. The Aglol didn’t have much to show for its work.

Iota was here, however, expression as blank as always.

“You are back early, with damage, and minimal cargo,” she deadpanned.

The Admiral nodded. “Complications arose. But what we do have is exceedingly valuable—and should be kept discreet.”

“Vacate the premises!” Iota ordered the unload team. They ran off without question. “Open it.”

Sparkler pried the side of the crate off, revealing the interior. A chained-up Tirek sat there atop a small pile of gold coins and gems, smiling. His face was covered in bandages, allowing only his horns, eyes, and mouth to poke through the cotton strips. “I am Lord Tirek. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, High Adademe Iota.”

Iota nodded. “Fascinating creature. Benefit?”

“I am a relic of Old Equestria untouched by the wyrd curse, High Academe. I have magic beyond that of even the best of your Gifted, and I have the power to transfer magic from one place to another.”

“I can confirm this,” the Admiral said. “I saw it done.”

Iota nodded. “I will be watching the reports on you closely, Tirek. Why the bandages?”

The Admiral answered for him. “There was an incident at Baltimare, which brings me to something troubling. Do we have any ties to the Baltimare mining underground?”

“No.”

“Then there’s either a third party invested in my crew that’s bribing guardians, or somepony on Sanctaphrax is dealing in Baltimare without your knowledge.”

“Concerning,” Iota said, not looking the least bit concerned. “Any idea who?”

The Admiral shook her head. “All those invested in my ship besides yourself wouldn’t have the resources to buy off the Guardians.”

“I expect a full report on the matter by sundown.”

“I have a meeting with Silver, but that shouldn’t get in the way.”

Iota nodded slowly. “Until further notice, Lord Tirek’s existence is classified, even to all Deans aside from myself and Leyline. I will let you know what I make of your report tomorrow. Sparkler, use my private elevator to transport Tirek to my office, do not remove his chains. I will be around shortly with Leyline.”

“Yes, High Academe,” Sparkler said.

“Looks like you’re with me, today,” the Admiral told Rook. “...I wish there was a way for you to cart yourself around.”

Rook shrugged.

“She still has her pegasus magic, she’s just being lazy,” Tirek said as Sparkler started sealing up his box again. “It’d be very windy, but I’ve taught her enough tricks she should be able to move herself.”

Rook snarled at Tirek’s box before jarringly putting on a toothy smile and asking the Admiral for forgiveness.

The Admiral frowned, considering this. “...That’d draw a lot of attention, more than we’re already getting. I’ll push you around.” She didn’t have Sparkler’s hair, so she had to push Rook the old fashioned way: with her hooves. Grunting, she wheeled the tank over to the primary elevator.

She had a meeting with Silver to attend.

~~~

Silver finished a rapid sketch of a deepfish devouring a corrupted squid that he saw through one of Sanctaphrax’s ocean buoys. It drifted through the ocean, alone, occasionally happening across something interesting.

Like this battle of deep sea legends.

His job was to draw. Draw, draw, draw. He was paid very handsomely for this work, so much so that he was likely the richest pony in Sanctaphrax. He didn’t flaunt this wealth, for doing so would have drawn more attention from outside than he would have liked. It wasn’t the money that gave him power anyway, it was his eyes. Everypony wanted to be on his good side, because he would only give the precious artifacts away if he felt like it.

In truth, “feeling like it” was often little more than being interested. As gruff and dry as he was, he really did enjoy seeing all the sights of the world while comfortably sitting in his little cave, drawing away. The crazy ponies of Sanctaphrax sometimes got his eyes into really incredible places, experiences that he relished.

And now the Admiral wanted to launch one of his eyes so high it would never come back down. Inside, Silver was beyond excited at the prospect. He really would see something nopony had seen before.

Outwardly, he had to squelch this completely. He didn’t need ponies trying to sell him on the experience of having his eyes used. That would make his position a lot less secure. No, he always needed compensation, and he always needed to make it difficult to procure his services. That was how he maintained his position within the elite.

When he asked the Admiral for something unique upon returning, he made it sound like he needed a legendary artifact. In truth, he likely would have accepted anything just for a chance to see the stars up close. But that reckless bat needed to think she had to earn it.

So when the Admiral dropped the silver eye on Silver’s desk, he made a show of examining it. Although clearly damaged, it still looked at him, as if some part of it were alive.

“What does it do?”

“It’s a magical artifact that altered every wyrd on an island and somehow controlled the island itself,” the Admiral said. “I don’t know how, that’s not my job. I do know it’s one of the most powerful magic artifacts I’ve encountered on my travels. And now it’s yours. I’m certain you can call in some favors from the other departments to figure out how it works.”

Silver dropped the silver eye into a sealed glass container and examined how it rolled. Then, after scrawling a few incoherent notes on his paper to make her think he was ignoring her, he spoke. “That will do. Take an eye. If your technology develops far enough within my lifetime, you’re getting it back.”

“Meteor would be thrilled to test a retrieval operation on your eye if he’s still kicking.”

“Fair enough. Now leave, there is work I must return to.”

Rook stuck her tongue out as the Admiral carted her off.

When they were gone, Silver did not return to work—there were no active experiments that needed his full attention at the moment. Instead, he watched them from the eye held carefully in the Admiral’s wing.

It was amazing how ponies knew the crystals were his eyes, but they rarely acted like they were being watched. To them, it was an object, not a pony. They always forgot he could see everything.

Maybe they thought he couldn’t hear them. That was true, but he could definitely lip read. His eyes had three-hundred and sixty degree vision, making that significantly easier.

“Here we go, Rook,” the Admiral was saying. “I hope he’s got it ready. You might get to see the stars through Silver’s drawings while you’re up here. History in the making.”

Rook flopped around a bit.

“I already gave you the spiel.”

Rook tapped her mouth and cocked her head.

“...You’ve gotten a lot better at communicating.”

With a flick of her ears, Rook raised an eyebrow.

“Or I’ve just gotten better at decoding you, probably both…”

Rook pedaled her hoof backward and tapped her skull.

The Admiral had to think about this for a moment. “There’s a lot going on. Possible tr—” she glanced at the eye. “Nevermind, we aren't as alone as we feel.”

It was at this point the Admiral stuffed Silver’s eye into her sailor’s hat, plunging his view into darkness. Annoying. But she’ll have to take me out eventually.

Several minutes later, the eye was removed and placed on a table in front of the dark face of Meteor.

“Well well… you got it,” Meteor said.

“Wasn't easy, either,” the Admiral added. Rook nodded in agreement, stabbing her head with a hoof for some reason.

“The rocket’s been ready for a week at this point, I was just waiting for… this.” He lifted the eye up and grinned. “Since you’re all here, I might as well go over the mission plan.” He ran to a large wall covered in paper and string, all focused around the design of the rocket. “This is currently sitting on the launchpad with enough fuel to break past the majority of the atmosphere and enter a hopefully stable orbit. It is only carrying one thing to the stars—this eye, weighing… precisely twelve grams. Much more efficient and useful than trying to cart a radio transmitter up there. The power required to transmit over that distance alone…”

He shook his head. “I’m getting ahead of myself. This eye will enter orbit and circle the globe. The mission is a success if we complete more than one complete revolution. I’m expecting many, many more. Silver, your job will be to record everything you see. A map of the entire world is in order, I would think.”

Silver agreed. If his eye flew overhead the entire globe, he may not be able to make out details, but he should be able to pinpoint every large island. Sanctaphrax may have been too small, but places like Baltimare would be no trouble. Maybe he would even get a better picture of the Gray. And… who knew what else.

The possibilities were tantalizing.

And that was just looking at the world. How would it feel to be able to, at any time, see all the stars above?

“We could launch tonight, actually, assuming I have time to clear it…” Meteor scratched his chin. “Neither of you go to sleep, we’re going to stare at the stars.”

~~~

Sparkler sat in Iota’s office with Tirek. He was still chained up but no longer locked in a box, and was allowed to move about the room as he wished. Which wasn’t saying much. The room was larger than most offices, but it couldn’t be considered spacious. Tirek’s horns almost scraped the ceiling and there wasn’t really anywhere for him to sit, either. The floor cushions were all pony sized.

Sparkler, to her credit, had made herself a hair-hammock in the corner and was quickly feeling like sleep was a good idea. It wasn't like she could do anything if Tirek decided to go on a rampage. Not even a full contingent of guards was likely to be able to do anything. If she had to guess, that was why the only security precautions were the chains around him: to give the illusion of restraint without wasting valuable resources on useless "protection." And yet, she couldn't bring herself to rest. Part of her wanted to be there when he tried something just so she could slice open one of his burned cheeks...

Tirek glared at her hammock. “Is it really appropriate for a High Academe to leave us waiting like this?”

Sparkler sighed. “Look, she has to get Leyline, and that guy’s going senile.”

“Why would we need a senile stallion?”

“He’s the only wizard in the world! ...Maybe.”

Tirek huffed. “Your magic stagnation is worse than I thought.”

“You betcha! We really don’t know what we’re doing, and he only knows because of some spooky magic order weirdness. Poor guy couldn’t find an apprentice, and now he’s way too old.”

“Perhaps I can allay his fears…”

“If he can remember you for more than twelve seconds.”

“Please tell me you’re exaggerating.”

“Absolutely!” Sparkler rolled over in her hammock, smirking at him. “He’s just crazy.”

“Not as crazy as your Admiral,” Tirek commented. “Did you know they’re trying to launch something so high it won’t come down?”

“Rook chattin’ with ya?” Sparkler didn’t wait for an answer. “Well, I know it sounds silly, but it really works. They’ve shot those sticks into the air and found out a few strange things. You know the moon and the sun, right?”

“Those are held aloft by ancient celestial magic. I do wonder how the Princess’ got their charges to move on their own, though…” Tirek frowned. “Perhaps they aren’t as gone as you think…”

“Pfft, yeah, right, the Princesses still being alive. That’s a laugh.”

“I underestimated them once before. I am slow to do so again.”

The conversation was interrupted by Iota bursting in with Leyline. “Leyline, Tirek. Tirek, Leyline,” the High Academe introduced.

“You…” Leyline pointed a frail hoof at Tirek. “You claim to have control over magic itself!?”

“Dean Leyline, I take it?”

“Yes…” With a tired wheeze, Leyline sat on one of the cushions, breathing heavily from the walk. “I wish… for a demonstration.”

Tirek raised an eyebrow. He lit his horns and levitated Iota’s desk. “More?”

“I mean your… your… magic transference. I must see it.”

“That would require a source of magic to take from,” Tirek noted.

Leyline put a hoof to his chin. “Oh, yes, it would…”

Iota coughed. “Sparkler, come down here.”

Sparkler growled. “I ain’t givin’ my magic to that beast.”

“Tirek, will you give it back?”

“I have no reason to keep it,” Tirek said.

Iota nodded. “Sparkler, you are to be demonstrated upon.”

Sparkler wanted to argue, but she quickly realized she wasn’t talking to the Admiral, but the High Academe. You didn’t argue with the High Academe. Slowly, Sparkler untangled herself from the mess of hair and dropped to the ground, fixing Tirek with an exaggerated smile. “Let’s go, big boy.”

Tirek grunted, opening his mouth. Sparkler tried to look enthralled while her magic was drained just to make everyone uncomfortable, but the shock of having her very core stolen from her dropped her to the ground with a panicked gasp. Her hair fell around her in a tangled mess and her horn felt like it was burning. It was suffocating—she was suffocating, back in the fatty hooves of Gutter Platinum. The whip cracked. The sand was swallowing her up and…

...she opened her eyes. Leyline was looking at her with concern. “Are you okay?”

“Ergh… Oi…” She rubbed her head. “Wot’s th’ number on that thin’?”

“...Excuse me?”

“Splittin’ headache, not inna mood,” Sparkler stumbled to the wall, using her magic to tie her hair back up. “Never doin’ that again, aight?”

“Understood,” Iota said. “Leyline, you have your demonstration.”

“You are exactly what I’ve needed all this time,” Leyline said. “I do not need to find another apprentice… I can use you to make one.”

“You could make as many as you want, if you had enough magic,” Tirek said, grinning. “Just provide me the means.”

Leyline chuckled. “They said it was impossible… They laughed… Do you hear that, Eclipse? We won’t die out yet!”

Iota coughed. “Tirek, in more official matters, I agree to keep you hidden and safe from the population at large. In return for this favor, you will assist Leyline in his experiments and answer any questions I see fit to ask. It this arrangement suitable?”

“It is. Though I do not believe I have a choice.”

“There is always a choice. Just not always a smart one.”

“I’ll watch him,” Sparkler offered. “At least until the Admiral goes out again.”

“A wise precaution,” Iota admitted. “We will move Tirek to the secluded lab posthaste. And keep it locked.”

“I get one of the secluded labs?” Leyline gasped. “It’s… it’s been decades…”

“Luck has fallen into your lap, Dean.”

~~~

A large, sleek airship made out of an unusual green metal docked at Sanctaphrax’s west landing. The harbormaster—a yellow pegasus mare—let out a whistle when she saw it. “Wow, that’s a beauty right there! What’s that alloy it’s made of? Haven't seen anything like it before!”

“Mythril,” Hailing Fog said, dressed up in a fancy merchant outfit. “And I might be willing to part with its secrets; for a price, of course.” She handed the harbormaster her official documentation and cargo manifest that was available for trade.

“Heh. You’ll get a lot of bidders.” The harbormaster stamped her approval on the documentation. “The profs love sinking their teeth into things they don’t understand yet.”

“Oh, trust me, I know.”

XIX - As Rockets Launch

Fueling complete. We are go for launch. Begin countdown when ready.

The rocket wasn’t much larger than the tests Meteor had been sending up over the last few weeks. Anypony who had worked on the previous devices would have seen a small change in mass, but otherwise the only distinction was the tip: a silver cone-shaped chassis specially designed to pop open and release a particular, tiny marble of magic once orbit had been achieved. The mechanism to do so was weight based; once a small weight no longer felt the effects of gravity, the cone would drift open and a small spring would push the marble away. The hope was that this would push the marble forward without initiating a disorienting spin.

For one final moment, the rocket pointed peacefully up at the night sky.

Begin launch.

Initiating… Ten.

Silver laid an entire scroll of blank paper out on his desk. He was going to fixate on this.

Nine.

Sparkler dragged Tirek away from a whiteboard where she had drawn a picture of the planet and a brief explanation of orbits. She pointed at the launchpad.

Eight.

Tirek could sense only a small amount of magic in the device. Definitely not enough to get it as high as Sparkler was suggesting. That was impressive.

Seven.

Leyline joined them at the window of his office, wondering what it was they were looking at. He was finally ready to move to the secluded lab and some spark in the sky didn’t seem that important.

Six.

Iota observed from the top of her tower, looking down with a blank expression. She sipped her tea.

Five.

Vespid glanced at the clock and immediately dropped the hamster heart she was sticking with needles to run to the window.

Four

Meteor’s grin widened as he leaned against the edge of the launchpad railing. “Final ignition.” A thundering roar shook Sanctaphrax.

Three

The back of the rocket exploded with brilliant flame, like a newborn star. For a second, there was no visible smoke, only light.

Two.

Rook poked her head out of her tank, jaw dropping. One of these days, when they make these things bigger, we’re getting on one.

Agreed.

One.

The Admiral spread her wings and focused on the rocket. Go. Fly. Fly higher than anypony ever has.

LIFTOFF!

The rocket lifted into the sky with much shuddering. Smoke billowed from the launchpad, following the spark of fire as it reached further and further into the night sky. The silver tip reflected the light of the moon brilliantly.

Hailing Fog looked up from the night market she was “working” in. Forgetting the customer she was talking to entirely, she turned her gaze to the rising light. Good for you. Hope your dream doesn’t come crashing down around you like it did me.

The few Sanctaphraxites attending the night market stopped their business to watch the spark fly. This was not the first experiment of Meteor’s they had seen, but they couldn’t take their eyes away.

The rocket rose higher and higher, until it was little more than a speck in the sky. Despite how exciting and monumental the moment was, it dragged as the fire continued without variation. As the distance between it and the island grew, it eventually seemed as though it wasn’t moving anymore. Yet, everyone watched until the light went out.

And then Silver kept watching. He couldn’t see anything through the eye at the moment, but he knew the engine would have detached, leaving only the cone. It would drift for a bit until it entered the full free-fall, and then the latch would open…

The Admiral, Rook, and Meteor arrived to watch him draw. He didn’t even look at them—all he did was wait carefully. It was as if the world was holding its breath.

Even though Silver was anticipating it, he was still shocked when the cone opened up and let a slit of light into his eye.

The Moon was right there. Glowing brightly against a backdrop of stars without a single cloud to obscure anything. He started drawing immediately: already more stars were visible than he knew. Already he could spot details on the moon usually visible only through telescopes. He didn’t waste time drawing them, since it wasn’t new information. Instead, he focused on what the eye saw behind it.

A small silver cone… and beneath that, the night side of the planet. The eye was high enough that the horizon wasn’t flat, rolling away from Silver’s eye in a sight nopony in recent memory had seen. Towards the edge of the curved world, there was a thin ring of blue. The entire atmosphere, condensed into a tiny bubble surrounding the dark sea.

Silver spotted a few lights, marking the larger cities on the more developed islands of Equestria. Through the location of Harvest, Heighton, Baltimare, and a few others, Silver quickly gathered his bearings. Compared to the entire ocean world, all of Equestria seemed insignificant, tiny, and empty. He started his first sketch with a simple circle, placing labeled dots where the islands he saw were. There was a dramatic lack of lights further to the south… and then a single speck at the horizon far beyond any charts they had.

He marked a dot with a question mark on it. His audience tried to ask him what it was, but he didn’t listen to them. He was too busy with this amazing experience.

And then the sun rose. Or, more accurately, he moved into the sun’s path. The world below glowed with a pristine light as the rays of celestial energy met Silver’s eye. It was, by far, the best sunrise Silver had ever seen.

But the world below was even better. With part of the world in day, he could see the brilliant blue of the sea easily twisting and swirling with massive clouds, storms, and even… a few islands? He couldn’t be sure, not this early. Looking to the northern edge, he could see the Gray—and the solid sheet of ice beyond that. From his current angle the southern edge wasn’t visible, but he knew the orbit would take him there eventually, assuming Meteor’s calculations were accurate.

Every ninety minutes, he would circle the globe. Over time he would have passed over virtually every part of the ocean… or beyond.

Is that…? No. It can’t be…

~~~

Several hours later, Silver was ready to begin proper work. No one who was watching had even tried to sleep.

The Admiral watched in awe as Silver took a metallic sphere coated in paper out from his desk, mounting it in an axis marked with latitude lines. He lifted a pen and set it carefully to the globe, marking the position of Harvest first, in the northern hemisphere. He moved out, drawing the other islands. Few were little more than dots with a name, one of the notable exceptions being Baltimare. Over time, the shape of Equestria began to stand out, including dots for Sanctaphrax and the Canterhorn; positioned from memory, not visibility. Once he was complete, he put the name EQUESTRIA in the midst of the floating islands.

It was smaller than the Admiral had expected.

Silver made the Gray next. Instead of drawing the drifting icebergs, he drew hashes across the area he’d seen them, an almost perfect circle around the north. Above that, he drew a solid circle, naming it THE WHITE.

The Admiral wasn’t all that shocked when he jumped to the bottom of the globe and created THE SOUTHERN WHITE and added a Gray circle around that as well. She’d talked with Meteor a lot about how the sun warmed different parts of the globe differently; it was natural to expect there to be two cold places.

What the Admiral hadn’t expected was what Silver did next. Above the Southern Gray, he drew several highly detailed sparks that didn’t look like city lights. He labeled these THE WANDERING LIGHTS.

“What are…?” She stopped asking since she knew she wasn’t going to get an answer.

He moved on, starting to draw dots for larger islands. They were dotted all around the map. A large number of them were clustered to the east of Equestria, but were otherwise sporadic. On the equator there were a small group of islands somehow in the overall shape of a crescent moon.

Just when the Admiral thought he was done filling in islands, he started drawing something big. A violent, swirling circle. She quickly realized it was drawn like a cloud, indicating it was a huge storm. Storms aren’t permanent…

Apparently this one was, since he labeled it THE ETERNAL STORM. He placed an island-indicating dot in the center of the storm, where no violent winds swirled. It was likely the island’s reference that convinced him the storm was permanent.

And yet, he still wasn’t done. Silver really had saved the best for last. He began to draw a confusing, sometimes jagged, sometimes smooth line running along the hemisphere opposite Equestria. It took a while for the Admiral to realize what it was.

That isn’t an island.

Once he completed the outline, he started filling in mountains and features that had stood out. Forests, deserts, rivers, lakes… and cities? Was that what he was marking? She wasn’t sure…

But she was grinning like a child when he labeled it THE MAINLAND.

“I will fill out more precise details in time,” Silver spoke. “But I believe this is mission accomplished?”

“Absolutely…” Meteor breathed.

“Good.” He turned to another sheet of paper, starting a star chart. “I will get more detailed drawings out within a day.” He didn’t ask them to leave as he started marking the stars.

The Admiral watched as the stars she’d obsessed over most of her life were put to paper. The stars she recognized… and then he moved to ones she didn’t. The stars of the other hemisphere of the world, connected in ways nopony had seen since the waters came.

There were less dramatic reveals: there were no new planets to find, nothing visible that wasn’t just new stars, but in many ways this enthralled the Admiral more than the map of the world did.

She eventually dozed off, standing, with the stars flitting across her vision.

~~~

Not all islands in Equestria had ponies living on them. Some were simply dead, lifeless rocks floating above the ocean with almost nothing of use to be found. Occasionally some mad airship pilot would fly to one of these to get away from the world, only to realize farming wasn’t exactly sustainable and water was hard to come by.

The last time this particular island had seen any visitors, it was one of these pegasus pilots. His bones still sat in the middle of the island where he had starved to death. The island was large enough that the ocean wasn’t visible from the bones’ location—the scenery consisted of oddly shaped rocks and the wreckage of his airship.

A light appeared in the sky overhead. At first, it appeared as a new star… but then it got larger, brighter, more intense. It was soon close enough to show the flames licking the metallic cylinder.

It was the main ignition stage of Meteor’s rocket, falling back to the world.

It smashed directly into the bones, disintegrating them and a large quantity of the earth around them. The last remnants of the pegasus were completely forgotten.

Two airships flying above the island recorded the impact.

It was exactly as they had been told.

The rockets were precise enough to hit islands.

XX - As Tirek Works

Sparkler woke up on a couch in Leyline’s new lab. Leyline himself was passed out on top of his desk, snoring loudly into a pile of sparkling emeralds he had brought in from his office the night prior.

Tirek was awake, carefully examining one of the many charts on magical theory Leyline had strewn about his office.

“The specifics of the theory have certainly progressed,” Tirek commented, tracing a finger down a diagram of a unicorn’s horn, stopping to rest on the circles made of variable-thickness lines that represented specific spells. “Spells were taught directly or stored within books via enchantment, not written down to be reconstructed from scratch. The spellbooks I acquired in my time relied a lot on instinctual knowledge to fully acquire. I admit, it is impressive that magic has been turned into a proper language that, in theory, requires no finesse to learn.”

“His order had a lot of fear of dying out completely,” Sparkler said. “They tried. And if you listen to him yammer on for a bit, they didn’t succeed. You can’t actually learn spells from the rings unless you’ve got an, ahem, ‘adaptable talent’ and ‘learn to read the rings from somepony who knows them’.” He’s convinced there’s some component that can’t be gathered from reading alone.”

“And he truly is the last one that can read these rings?”

“I mean… I know how,” Sparkler admitted. “My talent just isn’t adaptable enough to truly interface with it, or something.”

“One of his failed apprentices, were you?”

“It was my only shot to get admitted as a student. Failed.” She shrugged. “By the time the Admiral got enough money to pay for my tuition I decided I didn’t care to become a self-righteous brain-pig. It’s much better down there, on the edge of the world, where you’re free to think what you want.”

“Hmm…”

There was a knock at the door.

Somehow, this woke Leyline up. He stood bolt upright. “Hide, Tirek!”

With an exasperated grunt, Tirek stepped behind a large, white curtain in the corner of the room that Sparkler was sure hadn’t been there when she dozed off. It wasn’t the best hiding spot, since it was possible to make out his hooves under the folds of the cloth, but they could easily be mistaken for some kind of device.

“Remember what I told you,” Leyline added.

“What you… Oi!” Sparkler waved a hoof. “Didya talk while I was out?”

“Yes, now be quiet.” Leyline approached the door and opened it. “Yes?”

A brown pegasus stood on the other side, a bored expression on his face. There was a cutie mark on his flank: a brick-shaped cloud. “You wanted to see me?”

A Gifted pegasus? Sparkler blinked. Oh, is this the guy they hired to build the cloud escape plan?

“Ah, yes, yes! Bricklayer, have a seat, I want to talk to you about your talent.”

“I shape clouds into bricks and put stuff on them,” Bricklayer deadpanned, walking into the lab but not taking a seat. “I make bricks out of clouds. You lot hired me for that.”

“And, double checking, is your work done?”

“Yes.”

Leyline smiled wryly. “A good deal, to be sure. Tell me, Bricklayer, do you have any family?”

“No.”

“Do you do… anything besides sit on that cloud at all?”

“I drink.”

“Then I have a proposition for you.”

“What?”

Leyline uncovered a mirror in the back the size of a pony. Despite being immensely dirty and worn around the edges, Sparkler couldn’t stop thinking that its plain, tarnished silver rim was gorgeous, almost as if it weren’t completely there.

“Look into the mirror…”

Bricklayer grunted, but did as was asked.

From her vantage point, Sparkler saw it—the trail of Tirek’s magic. While Bricklayer was fixated on the mirror, Tirek’s magic grabbed hold of the pegasus from behind. The pegasus’ stoic expression vanished in an instant as his body wracked with pain, crumbling to his knees. His wings drooped and his eyes rolled into the back of his skull, no longer able to look at the precious mirror. Soon, his mark was gone, leaving only a blank flank.

Sparkler stared at him in disbelief, unable to form words. Is that what I looked like?

“Good. Hold on…” Leyline took a book out from his desk and flipped it open to a specific spell. His talent was light—’adaptable’ though it may have been, it couldn’t cast any spells not related to light in some way, and this was one of them. Luckily he was the Dean of Magic and had a myriad of artifacts for drawing specific kinds of magic when needed.

Today, it was a five-pointed amethyst stone shimmering with flecks of ruby. He focused his light on it, integrating his magic with it. Carefully, he traced his hoof over the circle in the spellbook, chanting to himself in order to keep the arcane energies focused.

After a solid minute the spell was cast. Bricklayer vanished in a puff of light.

“W-what did you do to him?” Sparkler gasped.

“Teleported him off the edge of Sanctaphrax,” Leyline grunted, leaning wearily back into his chair. “I still can’t imagine how the mages of old could teleport in an instant… even Eclipse took a few seconds.”

“I could have teleported him,” Tirek offered.

“Let an old stallion use his knowledge every now and then…” he coughed. “Now… we’ll start sending in the students.”

“What are ya’ goin’ t’ do t’ the students...?” Sparkler asked, spending considerable effort to speak in a calm, level manner, but her accent slipped through anyway.

Leyline grinned. “Why, my dear, we’re going to try to create a wizard with that pegasus’ talent!”

“...Tirek already had a talent, though, from Hailin’ Fog.”

“He did? Oh. Must have slipped my mind. No matter, nopony will miss that pegasus anyway, and now we have more magic to work with.”

Sparkler forced a smile. “Ah, right, makes perfect sense!”

Tirek placed a hand on her shoulder. “Do stay and watch, I’m sure you’ll be of great help.”

Dammit. “S-sure!”

~~~

“Come one, come all, buy the great and powerful metal mythril!” Hailing Fog called, holding up a shard of the green metal. This is totally just steel with a coloring agent, but you have no way to know that! “Unlike anything ever seen before! Feast your eyes upon its beauty, and wonder at its properties!”

She cared very little if she actually sold any of it. That wasn’t why she was here, not by a long shot. No, she needed to get a particular stallion’s attention. She scanned the market, finding a lot of ponies sitting at stalls much like her own, trying to sell wares to the students and professors of Sanctaphrax. The glass dome above their heads was barely visible in the daylight, though there were a few stalls that got significantly more sunlight than the others due to the lens-like nature of the dome.

There, in the crowd, was the pony she was looking for. Black, older, and with his head in the clouds.

Meteor.

“You, sir, look like you could use some mythril in your experiments!”

“Huh? What?”

She held out an ingot for him to hold. “Behold, the newest in metallurgical technology!”

He examined it. “Really?”

“Yes, really. Why, with this, I bet you could make a fancy flying machine like the one we saw last night! I wouldn’t be surprised if it secretly had mythril in it.”

Meteor chuckled. “I doubt it, seeing as I have never seen this metal before…”

“Oh, you were involved?”

“Yes, but I’m afraid I can’t give any details.”

“Understandable,” Fog said. It was no issue: she knew a lot about the rockets already, they weren’t exactly a secret and several other shoppers had treated them as a joke. Meteor’s Folly, they’d say, destined to go nowhere. No, she was here to gauge a reaction. “But maybe you’d like some mythril to take home and run some tests on? I’m sure you’d enjoy it! Might make some more rocket fun!”

“Hmm. I don’t suppose you have a sample?”

“As a matter of fact I do!” Fog finally had her excuse to dig around through her wares, dumping a small case of “mythril” chunks onto the table. Amidst the chunks was a single gold button that, at first glance, looked almost exactly like a Baltimare Guardian’s button. Closer inspection would reveal that the shield was the wrong shape and the ornate designs were too jagged, but anyone who saw it from a glance would recognize it for what it was imitating. Like a snake trying to appear poisonous, forcing a second, close look.

The effect was instant. For a moment, panic crossed Meteor’s face, followed quickly by relief. Now, why would a nobody from Sanctaphrax who stared at the stars all day be concerned if he thought he saw a Guardian button? He wouldn’t. Heck, he probably shouldn’t have recognized the button, where would he have encountered one before?

With a satisfied smirk, Fog held out a coin-sized sliver of “mythril” for him. “Here you are, free of charge!”

“Thanks.” He took the shard. “I may be back for more.”

“You’ll have to pay for it, y’know.”

“I know.” Examining the rock in his hoof, he walked away, miraculously managing not to run into anypony.

Not suspicious, as far as Fog could tell. “Have a nice day!” After he was out of sight, she ducked under her stand and touched a button on her radio. “It’s definitely Meteor. Which is good for us, because if it was Iota we’d be done before we started. If we blow up his precious toys we can end this nonsense and get back at the Admiral. Any luck with Tirek?”

“Negative,” Guardian Green reported. “We’ve come up completely dry on that front. Iota’s probably hiding him. If she wasn’t involved in the bribery, she wouldn’t want anypony to know about him.”

“Makes it a lot harder… keep looking. I’m going to the rockets.” She turned off the radio and started closing down her fake store.

~~~

A tall, pearly unicorn stallion walked into Leyline’s office. Tirek could barely see him through the slit in the curtains—but the stallion couldn’t see him, and that’s all that mattered.

Sparkler was standing to the side, trying to look like she wasn’t terrified.

You thought you had power over me, Tirek thought, chuckling inwardly. You thought because you saw what I was, you could stop me whenever you wanted. What are you going to do now, little pony?

“Ah, Marble!” Leyline said, inviting the unicorn in. “Come, sit… sit. Uh… ...Why did I ask you here again?”

“I don’t know, professor,” he said, mouth twitching nervously. “I was just told you wanted to see me.”

“I… hmm, yes, I did…”

Senile old fool, Tirek seethed. If you weren’t the one with all the magic artifacts, you would be the first to go.

“Right! You know that I’ve been seeking an apprentice, correct?”

“Yes, professor.” Marble glanced at his blank flank. “But I… do not meet the requirements.”

“You might…” Leyline said, pointing at the mirror. “We have a new artifact that can bestow power. We wish to see if it works on you.”

Marble’s eyes widened. “Who wouldn’t want to be Gifted?”

“Then stare into the mirror, and let it flood your being…”

Marble didn’t even blink. He stared right at it, as if focusing intently would give him more power.

I like his spirit. Maybe he will make a good servant… Tirek released some of his magic, infused with the talent energy of Bricklayer. The energy shot into Marble, making him shake, though not in pain. A smile came over him as the mark of a marble column appeared on his flank.

“I… wow, I feel so different, like… Like I could make anything!”

“What do you want to make?” Leyline asked.

“I… I want to build a house! No, a temple! I need… I need a hammer, where’s a hammer? I—”

“No,” Leyline said, sagging. “We need a pony with an adaptable arcane talent, Marble. I’m sorry to say I have to take it back.”

“Wait, what? No!” Marble backed away. “I ca—”

Tirek sucked the magic out of Marble through the mirror, dropping Marble to his knees. Sparkler ran to him, helping him to his hooves. “It’s okay, you’re going to be fine.”

“I… It was who I was… I…”

“I know,” Sparkler said. “I’m sorry.” She led him to the door and set him free.

Is she going to try to bolt…? She knows that won’t end well for her.

Sparkler shut the door and trotted back to the curtain. “That’s four that didn’t work. We’ve had a farmer, a swordspony, an actor, and what I think was an architect?”

“We cannot give up,” Leyline said.

“Maybe it just doesn’t work like this?” Sparkler suggested. “Picking and choosing talents isn’t a thing you can do.”

“Or we do not have enough power,” Tirek suggested, stepping out from behind the curtain—at least twice as tall as he had been at the start of the day.

“You’ve already eaten like five magic artifacts! I think that’s enough, buddy.”

Tirek smirked. “I have had more power than this in the past, Sparkler. I’m not in danger of exploding.”

“Not what I’m worried about…”

Of course not. The further the divide between us comes, the more helpless you feel. And yet, not helpless enough, since I still see that hope in your eyes. I look forward to squelching it…

“Sparkler is right, in a way,” Leyline admitted. “We could keep trying randomly, or we could see if there were a way to determine who might be a better candidate…”

Sparkler shook her head. “How can we tell? It’s basically random.”

Trying to convince him it’s pointless? Fool. He’s desperate enough to try anything at any cost. “There are other aspects to the magic of a special talent than magic, though it may seem like a purely arcane phenomenon. There are other aspects to study. The talent is usually something close to the pony’s very soul, so it may be partially psychological, or even biological.”

“Vespid,” Leyline realized. “She can…”

“She doesn’t have clearance,” Sparkler huffed.

“She can if I request it from Iota.” Leyline pulled a piece of paper out of his desk and grabbed a pen. “I’ll write up the request now. While it’s processing we can get back to giving some other unicorns talents…”

Sparkler forced a smile. “Great.”

Tirek reveled in her pain. She wanted nothing more than to get out of here and call in favors to bring Tirek down. But she knew all he had to do to stop her was open his mouth.

It was only a mild annoyance that he couldn’t take her out before she tried to bolt. Senile as Leyline was, he likely wouldn’t take kindly to him attacking her for no reason. So he kept Sparkler here, under his watchful eye and torments. The moment she tried something he didn’t like, he’d have to jeopardize his precious position.

The Admiral was too busy with her rockets and space to be of any assistance. Speaking of…

How is she? He asked Rook.

She’s still fast asleep, face pressed against my glass, Rook commented.

Those teeth are so ugly.

Ponies aren’t supposed to have canines, of course it’s ugly.

I’m referring to the incomplete transference. The thestral is the closest to the optimum form we have, but they still retain those useless flat teeth. Omnivore or no, you need more than just canines to effectively dig into meat.

I miss carrots.

We didn’t exactly have carrots at the bottom of the ocean.

We could have tried farming the kelp, but noooo, that was back when you were in MEAT MEAT MEAT MEAT mode.

Which I have realized was far too focused of a diet and limited our ability to enjoy our pallette. You were the stubborn one after I mentioned this.

Don’t you start…

Enough! Tirek burst. I do not need a massive report on the nature of equine teeth! I just need to know she won’t be coming over!

...Why? What are you doing that she could mess up?

She’s pretty harmless, Rook added. To you, anyway.

I am performing experiments with Leyline on pony cutie marks, and given Sparkler’s reactions, I doubt she would appreciate our methods.

Experiments on pony cutie marks? Fascinating. Can we see?

Tirek sent them a mental image of the last test just to appease the two of them. There. Can we please focus, now? I need you to keep her away as long as possible.

Problems? Rook asked. He couldn’t see her face, but he could hear her smirking.

We don’t have anything to show for it yet, Tirek sent. We need time.

Very well. We shall keep her occupied. Honestly should not be hard, given all the things Silver is drawing.

And the fat that she’s y’know, sleeping.

Right, Rook agreed. And Tirek? You are taking us to space one day. Got it?

She really wants to go to space.

SPACE!

She’s infected you with her delusions, Tirek grumbled. Just keep me posted.

And you’ll keep us posted?

This is a two-way street, Tirek admitted. Of course.

Secretly, though, he had other thoughts.

You have almost outlived your usefulness...

XXI - As Life Evolves

The Admiral lifted her head high and felt the wind blow through her mane. The stars swirled around her wings, little specks in the comforting black murk all around her.

Looking up, she saw her world and everything on it. The little lights that were Equestria, the multicolored meandering sparks at the south, and even the violent eternal storm looking at her almost like an eye. The sun flew past her, as did the moon, connected by strings made of the stars themselves.

With a laugh, she bounced off one of the stars, landing on the rings of a blue planet and sliding around as if it were made of ice. Some part of her mind told her this wasn’t right, but she told that part to shove off. She was going to have this.

“Admiral!” Sparkler called. “Admiral?”

“What is it?”

“Ship closing fast!”

The Admiral swiveled her smooth, white chair around to face her personal advisor. “How long do we have until they reach us?”

Sparkler pressed the neon buttons on the console with her hair, grimacing. “Hard to tell, the drive signature’s not of a recognizable make…”

“It’s them,” Rook said, hooves clattering on the smooth, metallic floors.

“How can you be sure?” the Admiral asked.

“I would never forget my people,” Cozy growled from within Rook’s throat. “They will not take kindly to our presence this close to the Neutral Zone.”

“Shields up,” the Admiral ordered, sitting down with a smirk. “They want to make trouble? They won’t stand a chance.”

“Torpedos ready!” the Captain barked.

“They’re charging weapons…” Sparkler whimpered.

“Hail them first,” the Admiral ordered, glaring at the forward window that didn’t quite look like a window. “Let’s see what they have to say…”

“It won’t be welcoming,” Cozy grunted.

“Connection established,” Orange reported.

The window jumped away from displaying stars to displaying utter blackness.

“GO BACK TO YOUR WORLD.”

“Never!” the Admiral shouted. She was no longer on the bridge of the ship. She was in the darkness.

“YOU CAN’T IGNORE THE PROBLEMS OF THE PAST. YOU MUST SOLVE THEM BEFORE YOU BRING THEM OUT HERE.”

“The past…?”

No response was forthcoming.

She felt cold. So very, very cold…

…

Rook was dripping water on her.

With a groan, the Admiral removed her face from the glass on Rook’s tank.

“Finally,” Silver grunted, still scribbling away at a diagram of the Eternal Storm. “I’ve had her drip water on you for about five minutes. You were really out. You’ve well overstayed your welcome.”

The Admiral rubbed her eyes, glancing around at all the new pictures Silver had drawn. “So many…”

“You’ll get them when Meteor does. I’m not seeing anything very new. Here.” He gave her one of the globes he had made. “This should fit into that fancy mechanism in your submarine. Have that Orange fellow crack it open and replace it.”

The Admiral took the globe, placing it in one of Silver’s sacks and throwing it over her back. “Is the packaging free?”

“All contained within the cost of the eye,” Silver reported. “Now take your seapony and get out of here.”

The Admiral took one last look at the maps and the star charts before grabbing Rook’s tank and pushing. They left Silver’s little cave, coming out into a midday Sanctaphrax, the oppressive sun reigning high in the sky.

“...Geez,” the Admiral rubbed her head. “I stayed up way too late.”

Rook gurgled.

“Well… hmm.” The Admiral stretched her limbs, waking herself up. The images of the dream kept flicking back to her… she wanted to laugh in excitement and grimace in confusion at the same time.

Rook tapped the glass.

“Hmm?”

Rook pointed a hoof to the air and jumped, breaching the water’s surface.

“Yes, we know you want to go to space. I do too.”

Rook nodded, but rolled her hoof, indicating there was more to it. Seeing that the Admiral wasn’t getting it, she drew a shape on the glass: that of a narrow triangle.

“The rocket? You want to see it? It’s gone.”

She drew two more.

“The rockets? You saw the rockets at…” Seeing the sparkle in Rook’s eye, the Admiral smilred. “Oh, you want to see how they work?”

Rook nodded vigorously.

“The best way to do that would be to visit the warehouse. There’s some partially built ones there. We could spend all day if we’re not careful…” She put a hoof to her chin. “The day’s shot anyway, though, and I’m not in the mood to be finding new jobs right now. Let’s just go.”

Rook clapped excitedly. The Admiral turned the tank toward the Navigation Tower, carting her along through Sanctaphrax’s tubes.

After a minute, she stopped. Rook looked to her with wide eyes.

“Rook?”

Rook stared right at the Admiral.

“And… Cozy too? You listening?”

Rook’s face twisted into a miffed expression, but she nodded again.

“We thestrals live quite a bit longer than ponies, but even with that… I’m not young. And we’re a long way off from getting up there. But you… you will still be around.” She put a hoof to the glass. “You… two. If I don’t make it to that time, you will. When you get there, remember to explore the stars.”

Rook placed her hoof to the glass and nodded vigorously.

“Good grief, I’m turning into Leyline…” the Admiral laughed to herself. “Let’s go Rook… Cozy. I’m going to teach you about rockets.”

Rook clapped her hooves excitedly.

“Also, Cozy? You’re the modern form of a curse. Your name doesn’t fit.”

Cozy glowered at the Admiral, making a throat-cutting motion with a hoof.

“...Message received, it’s your name.”

~~~

“Okay!” Vespid said, excitedly pushing a tank with a live seapony into Leyline’s new lab. The seapony in question was gnashing at the edge of the glass with a ferocity so intense it was a wonder nothing broke. Vespid ignored it. “I think I’ve gotten to the bottom of it! Behold!” She whipped out a syringe filled with thick, black tar, holding it high in her wing. “Pure, distilled wyrdness, taken directly from this bad boy right here!”

Leyline stared at her.

Sparkler stared at her.

Tirek stared at her.

Vespid was careful not to drop the syringe onto the floor in shock. Instead, she put on the most innocent smile she could manage, which wasn’t very impressive. “Leyline… what in the name of the two sisters is going on?”

“I…” A glazed look came over Leyline. “Well… you see…”

“Lovely, the schizophrenia's acting up.” She turned to Sparkler. “Explain?”

Sparkler coughed. “This centaur behind me is Lord Tirek, and Iota says you’re allowed to know about him. He can absorb magic and put it wherever he wants. Our current ‘goal’ is to create an apprentice for Leyline using him, but it’s not working. We’re able to create Gifted, but their talents haven’t been adaptable enough. I think it’s a lost cau—”

“It is not a lost cause,” Tirek said, his voice startling Vespid. “We just need to know more about how ponies attach to their special talent so we can choose one likely to display magic prowess or something similar.”

“You need me to analyze the nature of cutie marks, not the corruption.” Vespid raised an eyebrow. “I just spent the last few weeks slaving over a hot stove over this, using magic charms and nuanced circles and gathering everything I could about the life-force, and now you don’t want it?”

“I am the cure for the corruption,” Tirek declared. “You do not need to synthesize anything.” He opened his mouth and drained the seapony of every bit of the curse. The scars, tail, fins, and blood remained. However, as the cutie mark vanished, the irises returned.

The uncorrupted seapony sat there, staring blankly at nothing.

“As expected, there is nothing left of the original inside,” Tirek commented. “But I can remove any amount of the curse I wish. All you’ve done is distill a way to cause it.”

Vespid glared, putting the syringe away.

“Vespid, your research—” Leyline began.

“I’m still continuing it, senile old fool. But since you asked me here I’ll tell you what you want to know. Cutie marks!” She picked up a piece of chalk in her wing and ran to one of Leyline’s chalkboards, dusting away a magic diagram. “Cutie marks are a dumb name for one of the most fundamental aspects of ponykind that we’re losing. I am not lucky enough to have one, but both of you are.”

She noted that Tirek scowled when she ignored him. Good. He should know his place.

“From a magical standpoint, the mark indicates how your body is aligned with the thaumic field. Leyline already knows this. But he hasn’t the foggiest idea why ponies align with certain aspects of the field and not others, that’s biological. Or, if you wanted to be a bit more specific, psychological. Though even that doesn’t quite tell the whole story.”

“Get to the point,” Tirek grunted.

Vespid ignored him. “A Gifted comes about when a pony comes of age, mentally realizing they have the potential to do something. More often than not this is coupled with a physical action, cementing it within their psyche. This psychological imprint sends hormones through the body that coalesce at the pony’s flank and whatever their magical focus is: horn, wing, or hoof.

“The trick is that this happens in all ponies. The rush of hormones has been detected in every single one of us. It’s just that something changed about the nature of magic or our relation to it, because the alignment with the field fails. No connection is established. I suspect this was a rare medical condition in the Old World, but now we’re all cursed with it, only a select few being immune. The immunity doesn’t seem to be hereditary, nor does it seem to be related to the corruption at all, but you don’t want to think about causes, do you? You want results.

“Well, that’s simple. Find a unicorn who felt as though they were called to wizardry or magic studies in their young life, but were never gifted with the power to do so. Everypony has a talent, just not everypony is able to make the connection to the field to fully realize it. Give a construction worker the connection, they’ll probably get a talent in better construction. Give it to me, make my wings even more precise than ever. Give it to a unicorn who feels as though his life was stolen from him at a young age, you might get lucky.”

Tirek nodded. “So we need a personality test… annoyingly slow.”

“Put out an advert asking for unicorns interested in working with magic,” Vespid suggested. “The few who listen would be those with the calling.”

“Too public,” Sparkler said. “They could trace it back to Tirek, and he needs to be a secret.”

What are you up to, Sparkler? “Then… test for magical aptitude.”

Sparkler shivered. “No…”

“It’s just a needle to the base of the horn,” Vespid said, dismissively.

“I know,” Sparkler muttered. “I had it done on me. It’s not pleasant.”

“It’s still the most reliable way to test for it. Horn luminosity can be measured very precisely,” Vespid reminded her. “You could probably do a mixture of interviews and the test to narrow down the pool. Or, if you wanted to play the long game… raise a foal from birth surrounded by magic and teach him the ways of the spells. Upbringing has a very high correlation with special talent.”

“We don’t have that kind of time,” Leyline sighed. “I’m too old. I need to pass my knowledge on now. I’ll order the tests... “

“Some ponies horn’s break!” Sparkler blurted. “It’s not a safe procedure!”

“It’s not like they were using them anyway,” Tirek commented. “It’s just an ornament… but if they have the strength, they will be worthy of my power.”

“Then ah bet ya’d like t’ go through th’ experiment too, right!?”

Tirek grinned. “Of course. These horns aren’t just for show, after all… it will be nice to get a proper measure of my power.”

Vespid smirked. “I’m looking forward to sticking a needle in your head…”

~~~

Hailing Fog found the warehouse sitting just to the side of the College of Navigation’s tower. She was wearing a simple dress not unlike one a student might wear, since she needed to be inconspicuous. This was made difficult since she needed to be wearing her radio pack, but disguising it as a backpack was simple enough. Even though it was midday, she was still able to sneak around relatively easily through the various bits of discarded machinery littering Navigation’s grounds. It wasn’t exactly the most popular of the schools. Only two ponies were there: fellow students themselves, walking down a path, not paying her any mind.

She confidently trotted up to the warehouse. Unlike the towers, it was built out of solid sheet metal in a rectangular prism. There were two entrances: massive double doors that were locked from the inside, and a smaller door that was kept shut with a padlock. Her goal was the latter.

Luckily, it had not been hard to pay one of the local thieves to steal the key off Meteor as he’d stormed off in a huff. Maybe the hired little filly would be able to sell her “mythril” ingots for more than they were worth, perpetuating the fake market Fog had begun.

She became giddy as she thought about the amount of chaos the mythril would cause. She’d sold a lot more than she’d been expecting to as part of the act.

Strutting forward like she owned the place, she placed the key in the warehouse lock and walked right in. The passing students didn’t bat an eye.

It’s all in the confident strut.

She closed the doors behind her, taking a moment to examine the warehouse. It was a mess. Several globes were stacked in one corner, an unfinished personal airship occupied the center of the space, and numerous boxes of unused supplies sat collecting dust. Currently, there wasn’t a single pony in the warehouse.

Her goal was in the back: two dozen rockets in various stages of completion, ranging from barely more than a collection of spare parts to missing nothing but painted identification numbers.

Even though nopony was watching, she kept walking like she belonged here, not like she was in a panic to get in and out. Coming up to one of the all-but-complete rockets, she traced a hoof across its edge. “She puts so much work in you… heh.” She pulled a small, green explosive out of her dress’ folds, placing it on the rocket’s bottom edge, out of sight. “Boom goes the sky-stick,” she sang.

She removed the backpack-radio-pack and set it on the ground, under a convenient tarp. Methodically, she took wired explosives out of her dress and placed them under the other rockets, spreading them out so the few she didn’t mark would also be consumed in the ensuing fireball. All of them wired back to the pack with super-thin wire that was a lot more visually jarring than Fog would have hoped. She found some loose wire in a nearby box and dumped it out to disguise her work. Then she placed Meteor’s key under one of the explosives. It would be taken out as well, just to add to the stallion’s inconvenience.

If Fog’s colleagues were doing their part right, they should have been setting explosives on the rockets at the launch pad. They would send a signal that the radio boxes would receive and detonate the charges.

Down goes Baltimare’s corruption again. Such a shame these have to go with it.

The doors to the warehouse opened with a metallic echo that made Fog’s hair stand on end. She ducked behind a box of old sea charts.

She was lucky she did—Meteor was one of the ponies who came in, and there was a fair chance he would recognize her. She didn’t recognize the mare with him, though.

“Not all the merchandise is complete,” Meteor said. “But what is will be a wonderful addition to your armaments.”

The mare nodded. “Baltimare saw your demonstration. We are glad that our relationship has paid off. We will pay for however many units you can spare, assuming they are constructed properly.”

“As you can see…” Meteor tapped one of the rockets, sending the metallic echo through the already echoing warehouse. “I have many more under construction here. And I would be willing to sell you the blueprints… for a promise of continued support in other endeavors, of course.”

“Consider it done. A ship will arrive within two days. You will know who they are from the Guardian pin they show you.”

“I had to inspect some coin that looked very similar to one of those, today. Scared me a little, to be frank.”

“Hmm... We will devise some other method to contact you in the future, but there should be no imposters.”

Wanna bet? Fog thought, already plotting how to best make use of this information to make Meteor’s life living torture.

“I leave you to your devices,” the mare said, trotting out of the warehouse.

Meteor let her go, moving to work on one of the unfinished rockets. Fog froze; that was one of the ones she had put an explosive on.

Don’t see it…

Meteor glared at the pile of haphazard wire strewn between his rockets. “These damn interns, this is going to take forever to clean up.”

Whew…

Then he started cleaning it up. Tugging on it, the thin wire that connected the explosive to the radio box snapped. This should have made it harder to find the explosive, but inconveniently it broke in such a way that it stuck out from behind the rocket very awkwardly.

Meteor saw it almost immediately. Following the wire to the base of the rocket, he frowned as the device presented itself to him. “What are y—” Realizing what it was in shock, he backpedaled several steps. He almost ran out the doors of the warehouse, but something made him stop.

Turning back, slowly, he called out. “The door was unlocked. But there was nopony in here… you’re still in here, somewhere, aren’t you?”

If I had gotten out the door would still be unlocked, somepony could have forgotten to re-lock it when they left. This isn’t the most likely deduction to make!

“I know you’re in here…”

Think about it…

“You would have blown this up with me inside it already, if you could…”

That has nothing to do with this, gah! I mean, yes, I would, but I didn’t expect you to be here or blow a— Shaking her head, she stopped her thoughts. He may have used a few leaps of logic, but he knew she was in here. She’d have to get out despite that.

Meteor approached the rockets once again. He was still concerned about the explosive, but had convinced himself he was safe, so he took to examining it closer. “In fact, if you won’t show yourself, I believe I’ll just disable these. Just have to find the receiver.”

Can’t be having that. Carefully, Fog removed the safety on her hidden horseshoe blade and prepared to attack. There was a slight shik as the weapon extended, but Meteor didn’t appear to notice. His ears didn’t even twitch.

She jumped him, angling the blade for his neck.

From her vantage point, she hadn’t seen the pipe he had rested a hoof on. He kicked it around, hitting her square in the jaw. Such a haphazard attack wouldn’t have done much if it didn’t make her twist around, cutting her left cheek wide open. With a shriek, she fell to the ground, struggling not to let a single tear escape from her eyes. Don’t show weakness, even now.

Meteor slapped the knife out of the way with the pipe, glaring at her. “You… you’re that salespony!”

“No… refunds…” Fog managed.

“You have that right.” He lifted the bar up and brought it down on her head.

~~~

Sparkler didn’t know what to do.

They were about to start experimenting on living unicorns en masse, Tirek had some kind of plan for world domination, Leyline was too desperate to listen to reason, and Vespid was just as eager to dig her wings into living flesh as always. She was the only sane one in the room, and that was saying something! No one here was raised as a desert warlord, but all of them would have fit in just fine the way they were acting right now.

Sparkler didn’t know about Tirek’s backstory but she didn’t particularly care if he fit the bill or not. All she cared about was not letting some centaur with a vendetta against ponykind have any sort of power.

Also, experimenting on ponies was bad too. She was sure of that. Nopony should need to risk their horn like that.

But what was she going to do? If she acted out, Tirek would have every excuse to just take her magic. If she tried to leave, he’d stop her in some way. Leyline was too far gone, and Vespid was too fixated on scientific progress.

And even if she wasn’t, did Sparkler really expect Vespid to help? That mare’s moral code had left her before she was even born. Even now, Sparkler could see no emotions in her face. No remorse. She was sitting over a table, filling syringes with the complex chemical mixture used for the magic aptitude test.

The sights of the syringes made Sparkler tremble. She remembered having one of those pressed into the base of her horn. “The savage Gifted is remarkable! Such an unusual talent!” Not that unusual when you get it killing an entire tribe of ponies who marked you for death because there were too many mouths to feed. It helps to know exactly where they are!

She must have let out a pained wince, because suddenly Vespid was looking at her very closely.

Then Sparkler saw it.

The syringe of pure wyrdness.

Vespid had just put some of it in one of the magic test syringes. The first one.

Vespid nodded to Sparkler slowly, returning to her work as if no exchange had happened.

Sparkler glanced around. Tirek was busy reading a book on the effects of the aptitude test and Leyline was passed out on his desk again. Neither of them had seen Vespid dope the syringe.

And Sparkler wasn’t going to tell them.

Maybe Vespid would be useful after all.

XXII - As a Seapony Struggles

Vespid lifted the syringe. “It’s ready, Tirek. Left or right horn?”

“Left,” Tirek said, putting the book down. He walked over to the table, examining the various ingredients she’d mixed into the syringes.

He found nothing out of the ordinary because there was nothing out of the ordinary to find. She’d used only the proper ingredients to make the proper injection… with the exception of the one mixed with the corruption.

It wasn’t ideal. She would have preferred to directly poison this centaur who dared think himself better than the rest of them, but the risk was too high that leyline would notice she’d gathered an incorrect ingredient. The syringe of wyrdness was the only option she had. Currently, her plan was to “miss” the base of his horn and ram the chemicals right in his ear canal and to the brain. It wouldn’t kill him, unfortunately, but it would definitely cause some immediate brain damage even if the corruption wasn't in there. With the corruption… well, it’d hopefully drive him insane, giving her—and hopefully Sparkler—a chance to finish him off.

They might have been able to do it without the corruption, but Vespid had to give Sparkler a signal somehow and this likely gave them an edge they wouldn’t otherwise have.

An edge against the disgusting centaur.

Vespid kept her face completely level as she imagined Tirek writhing on the ground in agony as she sunk more needles into him. It was painfully obvious that he wanted power from them and Leyline was just a way to do it. There were many of his type working on Sanctaphrax; Vespid had dealt with so many of them. The difference between the other ponies and Tirek was that he had the power to actually do something. With time, he could turn the entire island into an assembly line designed to deliver magic to his fingers. Vespid suspected Iota knew this and was gambling on being able to work with him. Vespid also thought Iota was an idiot.

Contrary to popular belief, Vespid had not become a doctor to watch ponies suffer under experimentation. She was just a firm believer that medical progress required getting one’s hooves dirty.

This was another one of those times.

Just not in the way Tirek thought it was.

“Hold still, I have to get this very precise or we’re going to have to do it twice,” Vespid said. “And you won’t enjoy that.”

“I know,” Tirek growled. “I could do it myself.”

Not an option. “Do you want to argue about the finer points of using your giant hands or my fine surgeon’s feathers?”

“Just get it over with.”

“Leyline, be sure to measure the light output,” Vespid said, jumping onto his desk so she could reach Tirek’s ear. “Ready?”

“Ready,” Leyline said, surprisingly coherent for how asleep he had just been.

“Okay…” Vespid took one last look around. Everyone was in position. Tirek was leaning in, Leyline was ready to record, and Sparkler… was grinning.

Don’t do that, he’ll be suspicious!

“What’s got you so happy?” Tirek asked, leaning in toward Sparkler.

Sparkler’s smile didn’t falter. “This is going to hurt a lot. Have fun.”

“If you survived the procedure, it will be no trouble to me,” he chuckled. “And if we’re lucky I’ll be able to do it without all this mixing using my power. It would be so much simpler if we didn’t have to bother with all these ingredients.”

“Up here,” Vespid called. “Horn. Now.”

“Testy…” Tirek grunted. He leaned in… then leaned away, furrowing his brow. “Hold on…”

Vespid didn’t have any way to know he was in contact with a particular seapony and that this was normal behavior for him. She was convinced he’d found her out, somehow, so she moved to act.

She wasn’t going to get into the ear canal, so she was going to try the eye. It wouldn’t get as far into the brain as quickly, but it would be something.

The syringe embedded right into his pupil, pumping its contents through as violently as Vespid could manage. Tirek recoiled with an agonized shriek, swatting Vespid away like a fly. Sparkler charged, forming her hair into the rarely-used blade and going for Tirek’s neck.

He grabbed her in his magic, freezing her in midair. There was a moment where he tried to let out a biting comment, but he could only wheeze as blood poured from his eye.

It must not have gone far enough in, Vespid realized.

“LEMME AT YA!” Sparkler shrieked. “Ah’ll drive this right down yer throat an’ out yer ass! C’mon, lemme have a—”

Tirek threw her to the ground hard enough to crack the floor. “I was a fool to think I could use you…” He created a fireball between his horns. “There will be no more of this nonsense.”

“Stop,” Leyline declared, holding a red crystal in his hoof. “I will not have you kill her.”

“She—”

“Is a member of Sanctaphrax staff and will be dealt with through the proper channels,” Leyline said, legs starting to tremble. “Stand down and we can… discuss what happens next. Don’t and I will be forced to subdue you and we will discover your secrets through other methods.”

“Perhaps you don’t understand your predicament…” Tirek growled. “You clearly cannot provide me with what I require. Those you trust will seek my death. So I am taking this into my own hands. Comply or I drain the magic spell keeping this rock afloat. You will drown, assuming you find a way to survive the fall.”

“You really can…” Leyline breathed, shaking.

“I would much rather rule this rock… but if I can’t, I will destroy it.”

Slowly, Leyline put the crystal down. “W-what are your terms?”

“Your magic.”

Leyline wasn’t given a chance to respond. Tirek opened his mouth and swallowed every last ounce of magical energy from Leyline. For the most accomplished unicorn of the age, it wasn’t all that much power, telling of the times in which ponies lived.

The elder unicorn clutched his chest as the last of his power was drawn from him, keeling over backward. Instinctually, Vespid ran to treat him—but Tirek swatted her away.

“You killed ‘im!” Sparkler shouted.

“His body was too weak to survive,” Tirek grunted. “He had lived too long.”

“An’ you haven’t? Oi, there’s a hypocrisy right there if I’ve ever he—”

Sparkler’s magic went next. Her body didn’t go into cardiovascular shock, instead she just slumped to the ground, shivering.

Systematically, Tirek moved around Leyline’s office, grabbing every magic artifact he could and draining it of all its power. His eye was still bleeding, but the sustenance was more than enough to make up for whatever he’d lost.

Tirek turned to Vespid. He was about six inches taller than before. “You have no magic for me.”

“That’s right.”

He grabbed her legs in his telekinesis and broke all four of them in unison, dropping her, wailing, to the ground on her back. He kicked the table over, spilling syringes all over her. “Treat yourself with your medicine, doctor.”

The last image Vespid saw before she lost consciousness was of Tirek blasting a hole through the wall.

~~~

“There are a lot of other projects in the Navigation Warehouse,” the Admiral told Rook, fumbling for the key Meteor gave her. “It’s not as impressive as the School of Engineering’s warehouses, but you’ll see an unfinished airship in th—oh. It’s not locked. Maybe Meteor’s already in here.”

Rook motioned for the Admiral to get on with it.

The Admiral pushed the doors open with a loud groan, beaming as she wheeled Rook into the room. “Oh, and those are some of the old ma—”

She locked eyes with Meteor.

He froze, pipe poised above Fog’s shivering body.

“Meteor…” the Admiral said, cautiously. “What’s going on?”

“This filly was laying explosives all over our rockets!”

“Weapons…” Fog managed. “Baltimare. He—”

He brought the pipe down, and she was silent.

“METEOR!”

“She was spitting lies!”

“She doesn’t have a habit of doing that,” the Admiral said softly. “Meteor…”

Meteor’s stern expression vanished and he sighed. He dropped the pipe. “...I didn’t want you to worry.”

“Worry? Worry? What part of this looks like it’s for my sake?!”

“Your support wasn’t enough! There were unforeseen costs and complications and… I needed a patron, and that meant dealing with Baltimare. Iota would never approve a—”

“How’d you convince them to pay you? Not a single pony in Sanctaphrax would!”

“I promised them a weapon.”

Rook, who had previously been a silent observer, visibly perked up at the mention of this.

“A… weapon.” The Admiral tapped the ground with her hoof.

“...Admiral, I know you can be blindsided by your vision, but did you really never consider other applications of the project?”

“It shoots things into space.”

Meteor nodded, slowly walking toward her. “And it can bring them down. Anywhere in Equestria. Falling faster than any bomb ever could.”

The Admiral shook her head. “It’s not that precise…”

“With the discarded ignition cylinder from our satellite, I was able to hit a dead island halfway across Equestria.” He saw her confusion. “Ships were waiting to confirm it.”

“You… you told Baltimare to interfere.” The Admiral’s expression became hard. “

“I told them to ensure you safe passage whenever you passed through their territory. They were to do nothing else.”

“Yeah, well, that filly you’re beating up is one of their Guardians.”

“W-what?”

“Hailing Fog. That kid I keep telling you about. She couldn’t be bought out with the promise of… weapons. Weapons, weapons, Meteor, really?”

Meteor held a hoof wide. “Why not? Every technology comes with its alternative uses! If we go up there, something’s going to come back down as well. We won't have a monopoly forever, and it’s best to get a corner on the market to further more scientific advances.”

“And then islands start shooting rockets at each other! I…” The Admiral put a wing to her head—this wasn’t how it was supposed to be. They were escaping the world, not adding to its problems. “This ends now.”

“They won’t take kindly to their deal falling through…”

“We’re Sanctaphrax, they can deal with it,” the Admiral hissed. “We’re the only ones with working rockets, if they’re such good weapons we can…” She stopped herself, realizing what she was saying.

“And that’s why Iota shut me down when I brought it up with her,” Meteor said, sitting down on a nearby box. “Sanctaphrax is too small to fight a war. And she also spouted some nonsense about war not being profitable. I’ve been in the School of History; war is very profitable.”

“Not for… Sanctaphrax…” Fog grumbled, focus returning to her eyes.

Meteor stared at her in distaste. “You’re a pain in the flanks.”

“Glad to see I’m living up to my reputation…” Fog shakily sat up, holding the open wound on her cheek.

The Admiral trotted up to her, helping her balance.

“...Thanks…” Fog closed her eyes and took in a sharp breath. “Sanctaphrax’s economy works best when all the islands want to pay top dollar. Not when they’ll shoot you for selling to their enemies. Someone’ll try to capture the island.” She opened her eyes, fixing Meteor with an angry fire. “You’ve signed Sanctaphrax’s death warrant. Not to mention Baltimare might not win whatever conquest they’ll start.”

Meteor glared at her. “You’re a child, what do you know of economics?”

“More than you,” Fog muttered, tearing part of her dress off to use as a bandage on her slit cheek. She’d ignored it for too long. “Can you explain the fish?”

The Admiral was thrown for a loop until Rook hissed back at Fog. The Admiral had forgotten she was here. “Oh. Her. She’s… a sane seapony. Led us to Tirek.”

“More and more monsters…” Fog grumbled. “Tirek—”

“I’m not telling you where he is.”

“Why are you so dense?!” The shout drove pain into Fog’s mouth, forcing her to slow down and take a few breaths. “If your precious rockets can cause a war, what do you think a demon will do if given the chance?”

The Admiral glanced at Rook with a desperate expression. The seapony shook her head—but somehow that didn’t fill the Admiral with confidence.

“So, where do we go from here?” Meteor asked. “There’s a deal with Baltimare that needs to go well.”

“Not if we blow them all up…” Fog pointed at the explosives on the rockets. “I’ve set mine. My team should have already set charges on the others. As soon as they confirm I’m safe, they blow everything. All gone.” She glanced at Meteor. “And then you destroy the plans.”

“No!” the Admiral shouted. “We…”

“Is your dream of the stars really worth all this?” Fog asked.

“...We’ll get there eventually, one way or another.”

“Eventually. When we aren’t quite so ready to gut each other’s throats.”

“You and your harmony…”

Fog cracked a smile, though she couldn’t make it very large. “I sure try, don’t I?”

“You cause more discord than harmony, hypocrite.”

Fog shrugged. “Eh, you can see it however you want.”

The Admiral sat down, thinking. “...They’d just try to make their own, now. All we’d be doing was delaying the inevitable.”

Fog growled. “I’ll remove it from my end if you remove it from yours.”

“I don’t think you understand what you’re going up against,” Meteor said. “I don’t just have a few Guardians adhering to this. The primary patron is your boss. She really wants them.”

“I told her not to—” She winced, rubbing her cheek. “I guess if you care enough for your ponies, you want to destroy all the others, apparently. Zippity-doo-dah, there’s no way to win.”

“There has to be something…” the Admiral muttered.

“Baltimare will just figure it out on their own in a few years,” Meteor said. “If I don’t give it to them, they have enough scientists and working theory to make them. And they have enough ponies and resources to forcibly maintain their monopoly for personal use.”

Fog put a hoof to her head. “But, then… we could… twist the…” She closed her eyes, taking in a sharp breath.

“All we’d be doing is delaying the inevitable,” the Admiral said. Silence fell over the group.

Rook tapped on her glass.

“What do you want?” Meteor spat.

Rook wiped the underside of her eyes, placing some of the blood on her hoof. She leaned out of the tank and started drawing on a nearby box. Five pony faces quickly appeared. Rook drew a tall triangle next to each one.

“Selling to everyone won’t work,” the Admiral said. “We already discussed, they’d retaliate against us.”

Rook shook her head. She put her hooves into the water and pulled some out, dropping it in front of the Admiral.

“Give…? Give it to all of them?”

Fog gasped. “Oh. Oh, oh that just might work… Ooooh, seapony, you’re a monster but I like the way you think.”

Rook bowed with pride.

“What’s the point of this?” Meteor asked. “It just sounds silly.”

Fog tapped her chin. “It’s not. Think… if you’re the only one with rockets, you can attack without fear. But if everypony also has rockets… you’d have to be willing to take a counterattack that could hit you anywhere. Baltimare wouldn’t dare risk our precious ruins, Sanctaphrax is so small…” She couldn’t help but giggle. “That’s it! No explosions, no detonation, we just make sure to ship a rocket to every major player as a gift… or at least the plans or something.”

“We’d need to get Iota’s approval…” Meteor mused. “But I’m willing to try it if it keeps you from destroying my life’s work.”

The Admiral looked at him with disdain.

“It’s your life’s work too, Admiral.”

“I never let anypony think of it as a weapon.”

“This is the price of progress, Admiral.”

The Admiral turned away, hissing in disgust. She adjusted her hat. “Fog, can you call your ponies off?”

Fog nodded slowly. “I’m going to need your promise of protection, batty.” She winked.

The Admiral groaned. “You… have it. Though Iota can revoke it.”

“Great! Now, let’s get to Iota, I’m sure we can talk about Tirek there t—”

Cozy started banging on the sides of her tank, grabbing their attention.

~~~

Hey, guess what we just saved, Tirek? Rook asked, more than a little smug in her tone. The entire rocket industry.

Now is not the ti—

Rook and Cozy were knocked silly by the immense push of psychic information. Part of them felt Tirek get stabbed in the eye. Images of Tirek’s pain flashed through their mind.

They attacked him.

Obviously, but why? Was that Vespid?

We need more information. Tirek, wh—

SILENCE! Tirek’s voice came back, but his mind wasn’t calm enough to keep the state of his emotional state from them. They caught a glimpse of Sparkler lying on the ground. Of magic being drained.

Oh no oh no we JUST got the peace! Rook whined. We were going to get to the stars!

A childish thought. Tirek was always going to take control of this place, one way or another, and we knew it.

He’s hurting them. Nopony’s going to like that. Nopony’s going to like HIM. Rook racked her mind. That’s a weakness!

He may be able to control purely through power, though.

Will WE though?

...It seems unlikely.

Then this isn’t acceptable. I’m getting their attention.

We shouldn’t betray Tirek so hastily.

We’ve set up connections and built up a little world of our own here! They trust us, they… Rook waved her hooves around, scrambling for the right thought. We can do more with a group of ponies behind us than one ancient Centaur who wants to rule with an iron fist.

And what’s wrong with that?

Nothing. It’s just not as EFFECTIVE. It is better to be loved and trusted. Then they’ll die for us. Friendship is power!

...Agreed. Move aside, I’ll handle this.

Cozy took control of their body and banged against the glass with as much chaotic energy as she could muster, grabbing everypony’s attention.

“...Cozy…?” the Admiral asked.

Cozy nodded. She used hooves on her head to represent horns. Seeing the Admiral understood she was referring to Tirek, she didn’t waste any time waiting for verbal confirmation. She waved her hooves off her head, followed by tossing her head back as if she had hair—Sparkler. Getting non-verbal confirmation of understanding, she flopped over, doing a dead mare’s float.

“What did he do to her!?” the Admiral screeched.

Cozy opened her mouth and sucked in. Magic drain.

Your solution was charades? I could do charades!

Not angrily enough.

“What’s going on?” Fog asked.

“Tirek just drained Sparkler’s magic!” The Admiral flared her wings. “Where are they?”

Cozy didn’t get to try to pantomime something for Leyline—they all heard the explosion outside. The Admiral could hear the rush of air from a large pipe breach somewhere in the distance.

Fog pulled a small radio out of her dress. “That better not have been you. ...Good. Don’t blow anything up, we’ve got a situation with Tirek.”

They moved outside. Rook had to grab onto the Admiral’s tail to keep from being left behind. They could see smoke rising toward the center of Sanctaphrax, and ponies were screaming.

There was another explosion. To their shock, they saw a significantly larger than usual Tirek jump all the way from the ground to the top of the tallest tower of Engineering, punching through one of the upper walls with ease.

He’s going after Iota, Rook thought.

Obviously. We need a plan and a—where is she going?

The Admiral had taken off at a full gallop, heading right for the smoke.

Sparkler. Right.

She’ll do what needs to be done.

Are you sure it was a good idea to side with these sentimental morons?

Yep! Trust me, it’ll work out.

At this point we don’t really have a choice…

“We need to follow the Admiral,” Fog told Rook. “...You can’t move yourself.”

Rook closed her eyes and focused. Come on, do the magics! A powerful gust of wind surrounded her, coming from behind and blowing past her mane.

Her massive tank of water moved forward at a snail’s pace.

“I may be weak, but I can push something that’s already moving,” Fog said, pressing her back to the glass. With one of her front hooves, she took out the radio. “Coordinate with Meteor, guys.”

“Me?” Meteor gawked.

“If push comes to shove we might be able to use your weapons for some good here.” She turned back to her radio. “Call the Algol and get the Admiral’s personal frequency if you need to talk to me. Otherwise, I’ll contact you through hers.” She tossed the radio to Meteor. “Start fueling, or whatever it is you do to get those sticks in the air.”

~~~

The Admiral ran through Sanctaphrax as fast as her hooves and wings would let her. She needed to get to Sparkler. She needed to get to Sparkler now.

She knew she was close when she found the hole in the glass tunnel. There was enough air in the local pipe system that the air hadn’t thinned entirely yet, but it was cold. She saw a few downed ponies, but unlike many situations she’d encountered on the seafloor there was no blood. For all his talk, Tirek didn’t seem to be very carnage-prone.

The Admiral pushed this observation back into her mind. Sparkler first.

She followed the trail of rubble back to the College of History, finding a hole right where Leyline’s office was. It was on the second floor, but the rubble provided her an easy way to ascend to the ruined space. She saw Leyline first—not a spot of blood on him, but utterly motionless.

“Sparkler?” the Admiral called. “Sparkler!?”

“There…” Vespid grunted, pointing with her wings at the splayed form of Sparkler. The Admiral ignored the pegasus’ injuries; she ran right to the form of Sparkler.

Still breathing—awake even.

The Admiral pulled her into a hug. “Sparkler, it’s all gone wrong. It’s… all wrong.” Tears began to form at the edges of her eyes. “Tirek’s on a rampage, Leyline’s dead, Meteor was selling the rockets as weapons, and… and…”

“Admiral…”

“And I couldn’t see it!” the Admiral wailed. “I couldn’t see it… I wanted it so badly I ignored it and now we’re here and if I’d only seen it sooner this wouldn’t be happening. It’s all my fault and I’m sorry. Everything’s falling apart and I don’t know what to d—”

“Star.”

The Admiral froze at the sound of her name.

Sparkler looked at her with weak eyes and a completely flat mane that laid around her like a pool of blood. “Star, since when have you let a mistake stop you before?”

The Admiral released Sparkler from the hug, quiet.

“We’ve been through worse. Problems that both of us caused, one way or another.” Sparkler laughed bitterly. “Just because it’s close to home doesn't mean we can’t deal with it.” She set her jaw, fixing her friend with a serious expression. “The Admiral doesn’t break down in hopelessness. The Admiral sits back, adjusts her hat, and gets the job done.”

The Admiral sat back. Without thinking, she adjusted her hat. The moment she did so a dumb smile came over her face. “That’s not fair.”

“I don’t have my magic right now.” Sparkler flopped back, letting out an exhausted sigh. “I can’t afford to play fair. And neither can we.”

There was a loud gurgle from outside. Rook? She looked out, seeing Fog and Rook standing out there.

“Hi,” Fog waved. “Made it.”

“How did you…?”

Rook surrounded herself in a gust of wind.

“Oh, right. Tirek mentioned that…”

“Please tell me that’s not Fog out there…” Sparkler grumbled.

“It is. And she’s on our side, for once.”

Sparkler moaned.

“You wanted the Admiral to get the job done, this is how she gets the job done.”

“Yeah, well I don’t have to like it…”

“Glad to be working with you, too!” Fog called, finding it worth the pain to shout a snide remark.

“How good are her ears?”

“Unimportant,” the Admiral said, setting her face. “...What set him off?”

“Vespid and I tried to take him out,” Sparkler said. “Yeah, I know, Vespid turned out to be the good guy and Leyline went to the dark side, surprising.”

“I’m right here…” Vespid wheezed.

The Admiral stared at her in shock, registering for the first time that all her legs were twisted at odd angles. “Holy mother of…”

“I’ll live,” she grunted. “Won’t be of much more help…”

“What did you do?” the Admiral asked.

“Tried to inject a serum mixed with pure wyrdness right into his brain. I got his eye.” Vespid grimaced. “I shoulda been faster… Now he’s doing exactly what I was trying to stop…”

“We need to know how to stop him…” The Admiral poked her head out of the hole in the wall. “Hey! Rook! Cozy! How do we defeat Tirek?”

Fog answered instead. “We shoot him with a rocket. Meteor’s already working with my ponies to get that working.”

“Would that work?”

Rook thought for a second, then shrugged in uncertainty.

“...Anything you can tell me?”

Rook nodded. She pressed her hooves on her forehead, fell over like she’d just been shot, and then spread her hooves wide, splashing water everywhere.

“...What?”

“Defeat Tirek, his magic goes free,” Fog translated. “It’s simple.”

“Ya arrogant know-it-all brat!” Sparkler shouted, crawling over to the hole just to clare at Fog.

“Glad to see you up and about so quick,” Fog waved.

“That’s it. I’m gonna kill ‘er.”

“Wait until after we save Sanctaphrax, hmm?” the Admiral asked.

Sparkler let out a series of grumbles.

“What’s the plan?” Fog asked.

“I…” the Admiral closed her eyes, thinking of everything they had at their disposal. Rook, Cozy, Fog, Meteor… their enemy was Tirek… there had to be something else they had. Something that could combat his magic.

Wait…

The Admiral’s eyes flew open and she grinned. “I’ve got a plan.”

XXIII - As With Time All Things are Made New

Tirek was furious that none of the ponies who tried to stop him had any magic to speak of. They brandished rifles and blades—nothing to his masterful bubble shield. They fell like rats with a snap of his fingers. Even the structure of Sanctaphrax itself did nothing to stop him. Glass was pathetic, and airships, for all their powerful weapons, did not have the gall to fire upon their own city.

Tirek was not foolish—the mood of the airships could change at any moment as soon as a stray ship captain got scared—but for now, he was safe from their ire. He did not wish to chance much… though something in the back of his mind encouraged him to shoot them out of the sky.

He ignored it. They would be better if they served his whims, not if they were destroyed.

Which meant he needed to talk to the mare in charge of this city.

Channeling magic into his hooves, he jumped to the tallest tower and punched through the wall. He didn’t know exactly where Iota’s office was, but he knew it was somewhere near the top of this tower.

He grabbed a random mare’s neck in his hand. “Where is Iota?” he demanded.

Shakily, the mare held up a hoof to the stairs behind her. “F-four floors down.”

Fighting a momentary urge to flatten the mare’s skull, Tirek tossed her to the side and marched down the stairs. To his surprise, he wasn’t too large for it, and he suspected that was because sometimes large objects had to be hauled up here. It took an annoying amount of time to find the proper floor, making him wish he knew the layout of the tower so he could teleport wherever he wanted. But no, he had to walk; smashing through walls might kill a pony he needed alive.

When he entered the floor’s hallway, he discovered that he was slightly too tall for it. Clearly this part of the tower wasn’t designed for large cargo. He didn’t let the size stop him. The ceiling was shredded as his horns passed through and the walls buckled as his fists swung.

Soon, he came to a large set of oak doors. He bashed them down without a second thought, coming into an office space large enough for him to stand. It was most certainly the space of High Academe Iota, for not a thing was wasted on decoration. Everything was schedules, charts, budgets, and reference sheets. There was a map of Sanctaphrax, a fully detailed globe that looked very new, and a desk with a typewriter and a few other mechanical devices Tirek couldn't identify on it.

Iota was currently sitting behind her desk, talking to a pale blue unicorn stallion. She glanced at Tirek without emotion with her face.

“It appears I have pressing business to attend to,” Iota deadpanned, turning to the stallion. “While your talk of unity is intriguing, I fear it has to end. I suggest taking the back stairway for your escape since I cannot guarantee the elevator will be safe in a few minutes. Enjoy the rest of your day.”

The stallion glanced at Tirek with a curious eye before leaving through the back door Iota had indicated.

“Tirek,” Iota said once he had left. “What is the meaning of this rampage?”

“You have failed t—”

Iota whipped a device cobbled together from at least twelve different magic artifacts out from under her desk and pointed it at Tirek. It unleashed a beam stitched together from numerous different magic sources, both dark and light, with enough combined energy to vaporize a hole through an airship.

Tirek was fast enough to raise a shield. It didn’t take all of his power, but it was a significant task to push back against the High Academe’s personal defenses. He held fast, though, and the weapon couldn’t shoot for very long. It gave out, smoking in several places.

Iota set it on her desk without so much as a grimace. “You have earned your audience, Lord Tirek.”

“I would think so…”

“What is your complaint?”

Tirek couldn’t believe this mare, but he needed her. “You have failed to protect me. Dean Vespid, who you approved to see me, attempted to inject the magic aptitude testing solution into my brain!” He pointed at his bloodied eye. “It will take some time for me to muster the proper magic to heal this!”

“She was not part of any conspiracy. While her actions surprise me, thinking back I should not be so shocked. She was a doctor. You were ambitious. She acted rashly. It is unacceptable and she will be removed from her position if I have my way. My power is not absolute.”

“It does not need to be…” Tirek said. “I just need you to convince enough of them to follow me.”

“Why would I do that? You would be detrimental to the progress of this city.”

“I will absorb the magic from this rock you’re standing on and plunge it into the sea if you don’t.”

Iota nodded. “I see. A threat.”

“I already attempted to play the game your way. It did not go as anticipated.”

“Clearly.”

“Will you bow to me?”

“I do not bow to anything. But I will listen to your terms.” Iota adjusted her glasses. “It will not be easy to convince them of your control.”

“You do not need to.” Tirek pointed at the cobbled. “Tell them you defeated me. Turned me to dust. I will retreat to the core of this rock and tell you what I need from there. You will do everything in your power to provide what I ask, or I drop this city into the ocean. They will never need to know I am in control.”

“Leyline would sense your magic.”

“Leyline is dead. And Sparkler no longer has her talent. I do.”

Iota nodded slowly. “Very well. We can determine the finer details later. For now, we must hide you. It is imp—” She glanced out the window. “We have visitors.”

Outside, the “mythril” airship was hovering. Tirek could see a shadowy form looking at them through a window.

He shot a laser through the window, taking out the back half of the mythril airship. It flew back, hitting one of the towers of Medicine before crashing to the glass tubes below.

“We need to move you. They will have seen that.” Iota gestured with her hoof. “I do not wish to enter a firefight where my city crumbles.”

“A wise choice. I shall teleport u—”

The back wall of their tower exploded. For one moment, the metal cylinder of a rocket revealed itself. The next, the fuel within ignited in a massive fireball that consumed the tower’s entire roof, sending a shockwave and disorganized shockwave right into Tirek.

However, it was completely non-magical in nature. Without any unusual thaumic energy, a simple adjustment to his shield cancelled out any and all flames within his sphere of influence. That said, it took him about half a second to raise this shield, during which time the flames sent burns across several parts of his body and several pieces of shrapnel cut through his skin.

When the flames cleared, he was the only thing standing at the top of the tower, a few floors lower than he’d been previously. All else was ash

Like that, his easy way to the top was crushed. There was currently no High Academe for him to exploit. She was nothing more than ash in the wind.

But Tirek wasn’t done yet. He scanned the surrounding area, finding the launchpad. He teleported himself there, slamming his hooves into the ground so hard the pad cracked. “You will pay for what you’ve done!”

Fog, the Admiral, and Sparkler were the only ones standing there. He imagined all of them exploding in showers of blood.

“You know, I don’t think we will,” Fog commented.

“Have fun!” Sparkler waved with her hoof.

The Admiral took off her hat… removing a silver eye artifact with a purple crack in it.

Whatever it was, Tirek knew he wanted nothing to do with it. He charged his magic.

DISTRACTION!Rook’s voice came into his mind loud enough to make him grunt.

We learned this trick from a little FILLY and her RADIO!

Eat our words! EAT THEM! A sting of confused, angry pain ran through his thoughts, heightened by the force of Rook and Cozy.

Tirek tried to force the spell to come out. Something, anything… but he couldn’t do it in time. Not with the traitors shouting at him.

The silver eye latched onto the corruption within him, recognizing him as a wyrd. A burst of white light hit him in the forehead, creating the beginnings of a silver eye.

No! He shrieked, feeling his brain lose cohesion. Unlike Rook’s encounter with the eye, he wasn’t able to get away. There was nowhere to go—he was in plain sight. It drove needles of magic into his mind, particularly burning the part of his face where his eye gushed blood.

He was becoming part of its game. Already he felt his mind gelling like some kind of puppet… there was no hope to destroy the eye now.

He could only take its power and make it his own.

Opening his mouth, he tried desperately to drain the eye of its magic. There was no way he had enough time. The Admiral’s plan had made sure of that. The eye had too much magic to go all at once.

But, by sheer luck, Tirek’s spell grabbed ahold of the corrupted part of the eye before the eye itself. The purple crack running down the eye was removed, returning it to its fully functional state.

A state that didn’t involve any connection to corruption at all. The eye stopped forming in Tirek’s skull, no longer receiving any corrupted instruction.

Tirek heard a scream in his mind as the eye artifact’s wyrd died.

He let out a laugh. “You failed!”

The Admiral frantically shook the silver eye, trying to get it to work again.

Tirek prepared to give a big speech about his power and how he would take control. But… well, this place had already proven to be too much of a hassle, right?

Why not just burn it to the ground and start somewhere else? He was free. He didn’t need control right away.

So he turned away from the three helpless ponies and focused his magic on the rock of Sanctaphrax. “Say goodbye to your city. If any of you survive… remember, you could have served me! I could have restored your magic...” He pointed to Sparkler. “I could have given you power to control your fate…” He pointed to Fog. “I could have turned you into a prodigal spellcaster. And you…” He sneered at the Admiral. “I could have given you that talent you desire so much.”

And with that, he fixed his senses on the spell keeping Sanctaphrax rock afloat.

Fog and Sparkler tackled him, but they were uselessly tossed away. Somepony shot a harpoon, but the shield spell found its force pathetic. There would be no more rockets or magical artifact guns. They’d used all those up.

And he stole the very life of their island for it.

The spell didn’t disengage immediately. It started to fall slowly as the rock lost the energy to continue fighting gravity. Tirek felt his stomach jump into his throat, a feeling that made him smile. “Your end has come…”

He noticed the Admiral was staring intently at the silver eye. It stared back, doing nothing.

“What do you think you’re doing?” he asked, mockingly. A distant mare screamed.

~~~

“What do you think you’re doing?” Tirek asked, mockingly. A distant mare screamed.

“What do you think you’re doing?” he asked, mockingly. A distant mare screamed.

The Admiral looked up from the silver eye, confused beyond belief. “What in th—”

“What do you think you’re doing?” he asked, mockingly. A distant mare screamed. A second later, he was saying the same thing again… he spoke, the scream. He spoke, the scream. Over and over.

In fact, everything was stuck like that. Fog was struggling to stand up, but she was always pulled back to the ground. Sparkler was biting nervously at her hair, cutting off a strand that always replaced itself.

The Admiral glanced back at the silver eye. The clock face within its iris was spinning… the hands making a full revolution every loop of time.

The pegasus and that dog were stuck in a cycle, weren’t they? Always hunting each other… She looked up at Tirek’s smug, arrogant face. And he just stopped you from doing that. Would you have really coated him in silver? Or… She shook her head—no use theorizing. She had an advantage now. She could take him out.

She picked up a harpoon off the ground and stabbed at his neck. Even though he only had a few seconds in the loop, his shield spell had already been active. It wasn’t anything impressive, but it was more than enough to block a mare hurling a harpoon at him, even if he only had a split second to see it coming.

Instead, the Admiral waited for the instant he reset… and she jumped forward, skewering him through the adam’s apple. For a moment, she saw the magic release from his horn.

But he was reset back. The harpoon vanished, though the past version of it was still on the ground.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Tirek asked, mockingly. A distant mare screamed.

“There’s got to be a way to take advantage of this…” the Admiral hissed. She had all the time in the world… but every time she did something, it was reset. She needed to kill him and then turn the silver eye off.

The question was… how? She’d wasn’t even entirely sure how she’d turned it on. She’d just… stared at it intently. And if she turned it off she might not be able to turn it back on.

But she could try every time she killed Tirek…

Picking up the harpoon, she tried again. It took her a few swings to get past Tirek’s shield perfectly, but the moment she did, she smashed the eye into the ground.

It didn’t even crack.

She tried again, killing Tirek while staring intently into the eye. It didn’t shut off.

What else could have turned you on? The Admiral wondered. ...Tirek. Tirek’s unusual. His magic, maybe?

Holding it in front of his mouth did nothing, but one of the loops she saw him take some of its magic. Almost none… but some.

Perhaps… if all of its magic were stolen, it would turn off. It would have to. Right? Assuming this was right, there was still a problem. Tirek had to be alive to steal magic, but she had to end the loop after he was dead. So she couldn’t use him to drain it.

But… he wasn’t the only one who could drain magic, was he?

The Admiral galloped off the launchpad as the world looped around her. She jumped behind a large crate that had been set up near one of the glass tubes. Breathing heavily, she landed on the other side, stumbling. The air was thin with the glass broken as it was. Not enough to concern her, but it made every action that much harder.

Rising to her hooves, she glanced at what was hiding behind the crate. Rook’s tank, with her in it, out of sight so the eye wouldn’t grab her. In her loop, she was currently staring at the Admiral with a shocked horror at seeing the eye.

You’re going to be looping like that for a while, I need to be able to communicate to you what to do…

The Admiral took a page out of Rook’s book and bit herself, using her blood to write a message with her wingtip. Rook couldn’t read, so the Admiral had to put images on the shard of metal to get her point across.

I hope she can figure this out.

The Admiral jumped to Rook, placing the metal message and the eye into her hooves, giving the eye a new master. “It’s up to you!”

~~~

“It’s up to you!” the Admiral said.

“Where is she?” Tirek called.

A distant mare screamed.

“It’s up to you!” “Where is she?” A distant mare screamed.

What in the actual oceanic demon-shills is going on?

Rook glanced at the perfectly healed silver eye. Something eye-related.

I figured that out, Captain Obvious.

Yes, well, we have no idea how long this is going to last, so… She looked at the blood on the metal. How kind, she left us instructions.

The fact that you’re able to just accept this as a thing that is happening without so much as a moment’s pause is highly concerning.

Golly, I thought you were supposed to be the heartless monster?

And just like that, the feeling of helpless bafflement is gone and replaced with exasperation. You have a real talent.

Rook giggled. Welcome back. You’re welcome, by the way.

Message. Made of blood. Focus.

She’s put us in a time loop, we have all the time in the world.

We don’t know that for sure.

Right… They took a moment to examine the metal. The first image was of a clock with an arrow around it. Time loop, they’d figured that out. The next was of Tirek. Some of the images had an arrow stabbed through him, some had an arrow blocked by a curve. Uh…

She could only kill him on some loops. I bet it’s never permanent. He always resets.

So she couldn’t do it. And thinks we can… why?

Next image, genius.

It showed the eye… and a toothy mouth around it.

I find it hard to believe she wants us to eat it.

She wants us to absorb it’s magic to shut it off, Rook realized. If we kill him and deactivate it… it’ll stick. And all the magic will go back to where it belongs.

She’s overestimating us. We don’t have enough magic power in us to perform a drain of that magnitude that quickly.

Not yet, we don’t! She looked over the crate at Tirek, looping as he looked frantically for the Admiral. But he does. And he can’t stop us from taking it bit by bit…

Brilliant. All that power he stole… it is ours!

And time will reset so we get to keep it after we’re done! ...If I’m understanding how this works, right.

You’re probably not.

A mare can dream.

She used her pegasus magic to churn up a burst of wind, carting her tank over to Tirek. He looked terrible—an eye missing and festering with concentrated corruption, and a silver eye half-formed in his forehead that was oozing the unnatural silver liquid.

Rook smirked.

...We really doing this?

Aren’t we? We took their side.

But we don’t have to. We have all the time… we could stake out another claim. Find a way to abuse his powers… lock all these looped ponies away… take control. She tapped a hoof to the edge of the tank. Very tempting.

We decided not to be him. We do not take control through raw power.

Raw power is nice, though.

No doubt. And we will have some if all works as planned. But it is better for us if we end him without any backups.

It is.

It is.

They both chose not to deliberate on it any further. Together, they spread their fins wide, focusing on the magic Tirek had taught them. It was weak, almost pathetic, but it was enough to drain some magic into them. Usually any living magic source worth its salt would run away from such a slow drain, or retaliate with some feedback… but Tirek was stuck. Eternally living the same moment, resetting, replenishing his magic stores.

The dual-minded seapony grinned malevolently as the magic within her grew ten times, a hundred, a thousand. She could feel the magic of Tirek, Fog, Sparkler, Leyline, and so many magic artifacts it was a little ridiculous. This only ended when Rook and Cozy started to feel like this much power might be a tax on her body.

Rook had so much magic in her it was pathetically easy to lift a harpoon with a whirlwind. She angled the weapon right at Tirek’s neck, savoring for a moment the shocked expression that crossed his face every loop.

In a hoof, she held the silver eye.

Focusing, she narrowed her eyes.

The loop reset.

She shoved the harpoon forward, skewering Tirek in the neck.

In a second, she sucked the silver eye dry of all its magic.

The loop didn’t reset.

In an instant, all the magic she had stored up from Tirek vanished, only the silver eye’s power itself remaining in her. The magic could not be duplicated without the eye itself managing it. Disappointing.

Tirek stared at her in shock as his horns started to glow with the magic they could no longer contain. “Wh… Gh…”

Rook and Cozy said nothing. She just grinned and waved.

Tirek’s horns exploded, releasing his stored magic back to the world.

~~~

Tirek was, as much as he tried not to be, a remnant of the Old Equestria. As such, his evil came with a curious mitigation modern ponies might find “overly-convenient.” When defeated, his stored magic would immediately return to where it was supposed to be.

Sparkler and Fog? Restored in an instant.

The artifacts he had devoured? Back to full operation.

That crystal crab in Tartarus? It may not have been able to live without magic, but upon receiving it back it was resurrected.

The spell keeping Sanctaphrax afloat? Restored in full. All in all, Sanctaphrax hadn’t even been without its spell long enough to experience the full effect of gravity. For what had happened, there was surprisingly little damage.

Not everything could truly be returned, however. Leyline and a few others were dead, so when the magic returned, it came to a corpse no longer able to use it.

Tirek, however, was not in Old Equestria. He did not get to survive. The wound to his neck remained, though through pure hatred he managed to hold on a little longer.

Rook was staring at him from her tank… but it was the Admiral who held Tirek’s attention. She pointed a harpoon at his face. “I tried to help you. I gave you the benefit of the doubt.”

Even in his death, Tirek could still laugh. “That was your first mistake…”

She stabbed him through the silver eye, just to make sure. Then she threw the harpoon away, breathing heavily.

“We… we did it!” Hailing Fog shouted, too happy to care that her mouth was still torn down one side. “WE DID IT!” she shouted, using every radio she could get her magic on, including the one in the Admiral’s ear.

The Admiral glared at her.

“Not sorry,” Fog giggled.

Sparkler smiled despite her proximity to Fog. “Yeah. We did do it. Granted, we were part of the problem, but…”

“But Sanctaphrax is still around,” the Admiral said. “And we solved a crisis with rockets too. Both thanks to Rook and Cozy here.” She trotted up to the tank, smiling. “I never thought I’d see the day when a seapony became the hero of the day.”

Rook winked and did a backflip.

“I do need you to do something else.”

Rook stopped mid-backflup.

The Admiral picked up the dead eye. “I do need to give this back to Silver with it’s magic, or he’s going to go berserk. I don’t know what it is like when he goes berserk. I do not want to find out.”

With a sigh, Rook returned the magic she had taken from the eye. The Admiral suspected the seapony didn’t return all of it, but she wasn’t going to press. Carefully, she set the eye into a bag and sealed it shut. She didn’t want to start another time loop by accident.

“Well…” Meteor said, coming out from his hiding spot behind another storage crate. “What now?”

“We go somewhere there’s proper air,” the Admiral said, trying not to look out of breath. “And then we are going to discuss the deal with the rockets. And then I’m washing my hooves of you.”

“Admira—”

“You were one of my closest friends, Meteor. I trusted you. It’s not the fact that you turned them into weapons, though that hurts somewhere else. It’s the fact that you didn’t tell me. We’re done after this.”

“...If that’s what you want.”

“And…” the Admiral turned to look at Sanctaphrax. All things considered, it didn’t look that terrible. Most of the towers were still standing and somepony had gotten the fires under control. A large portion of the glass tubes were damaged, though, and that was going to wreak havoc on the air systems.

The Admiral sighed. “This is going to be a long cleanup…”

XXIV - As Ponies Cross New Horizons

Months later...

“She’s yours, now,” the Admiral told the Captain. “...Take good care of her.”

The Captain sat down in the Admiral’s old chair on the Algol’s Shadow. “I’ll do my best, Admiral. Though giving an old coot like me…”

“There’s no one more deserving,” the Admiral insisted.

“Statistically speaking…” Orange began from his post.

“Orange, since I am no longer your commanding officer, I can tell you this without fear of repercussion or misrepresentation. Shut your big fat mouth and go get a marefriend, you need one.”

Orange was stunned into silence.

The Admiral returned her original conversation. “Treat her… as you always have.”

The Captain saluted, a gesture the Admiral returned with a beaming smile.

“I’ll miss you.”

“With any luck I’ll be back.”

The Captain scratched his gray beard. “And how long will that take?”

“I… don’t know. But don’t you give up on me, old horse.”

“Not plannin’ on it.”

With a curt nod, the Admiral left the bridge of the Algol, stopping only when she got to the airlock. Granite was waiting for her.

“Still want to come?”

“Wouldn’t miss it for the world, Admiral,” Granite said, grinning cockily.

“Then let’s go.”

They set out in their suits, coming to rest on Sanctaphrax’s elevator. They rode the way up the chain in relative silence, taking a moment to appreciate the day around them. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky, and the sun was warm on the eastern horizon.

They entered Sanctaphrax not to be greeted by a crew for handling artifacts, but only one pony.

“High Academe Vespid,” the Admiral said. “This is Granite, my adventurer.”

Vespid grinned. All four of her legs had metal braces—they had never quite healed properly—but her smile was vibrant. “I’ve heard so much about you.”

Granite bowed overzealously. “Of course you have. What did they tell you? The time I saved us all from that three-headed shark?”

Vespid snorted. “Yes. That. And how stupid you are.”

“Wh…”

“A stallion of few, very particular talents.” Vespid led them over to the next elevator, clanking with every last one of her steps. “You’re a good part of this crazy, crazy team.”

“We try,” the Admiral said, grinning.

“Officially, I have to say I’m sad to see you go. Off the record? Good riddance, you all brought more trouble to Sanctaphrax than anything we’ve ever seen.”

“I didn’t do nothing,” Granite said, shaking his head rapidly.

“Yes. You are correct,” Vespid smirked.

“...Wait, what?”

“The reports of your intelligence were not exaggerated, I see.” Ignoring his sputtered gasps, Vespid turned to the Admiral. “Meteor’s working for Baltimare now.”

The Admiral frowned. “Getting rid of him didn’t really stop him then…”

“It was a long shot anyway.”

“How’s the status of Equestria?”

“From what I know, the islands aren’t busy blowing each other up, if that’s what you mean. I have my doubts it’ll stay that way, but your actions did keep us from having to deal with a Baltimare Empire, so there’s that. And I mean your actions with the rockets, not the whole Luna thing.”

The Admiral nodded, having nothing further to say. They reached the top of the elevator, appearing in the middle of Sanctaphrax. The street was cleared for them to walk all the way to the eastern airship dock, where a masterful ship stood. Made of a brushed white metal with wiry brass trim, from a distance it might have been confused for a living creature rather than an artificial airship. Windows dotted the lower sections, ponies bustling about within in preparation for launch. Along the side, in stylized letters, was its name.

Starjammer.

“It really does match you,” Vespid commented.

“And this city fits you.” The Admiral turned to Vespid.

“I just do my job.”

“You’re the only one who really did. Everyone else I trusted had a pathological case of forgetting where they came from. Who they were.”

“Admiral, you can’t start buttering me up when you’re about to leave.”

“That’s the only time I can. I won’t be here to see it go to your head.”

“Fair enough. Enjoy your voyage. Please stay out a long, long time.”

The Admiral chuckled, walking down the dock with Granite, leaving the High Academe behind. She stopped at the ramp connecting the Starjammer with the dock itself.

Sparkler was waiting at the door, her hair done up like some kind of crown.

“Look who finally decided to show up,” Sparkler snarked. “Welcome to your ship, Admiral. Does it tickle your fancy?”

As she walked up the ramp, the Admiral extended a wing to feel the smooth frames of the doorway. “For now, it’ll work.”

“It’ll work!?” Granite sputtered. “This place is amazing! I can’t even begin to think about what kinds of things we’ll find with this…”

“Nopony knows,” the Admiral said.

“I’m hoping for dragons,” Sparkler added.

“I’m not.” The Admiral shivered. “I’d like to keep this ship, thank you…”

“HEY! HEY! WAIT UP! V.I.P., COMING THROUGH!”

Sparkler tensed. “Oh no…”

None other than Hailing Fog stumbled onto the docks, dragging two suitcases behind her with her magic. She wore two pairs of comical sunglasses and a white wizard hat that went well with her silky wave-patterned robes.

“You can’t leave without your tourist!” Fog declared, marching onto the Starjammer like she owned the place. “What would you do without me? How would you even know what the really cool things were? You’d be totally lost, admit it.”

“...Do you have your magic books with you?” the Admiral asked.

Fog sighed, lifting both her sunglasses up in her telekinesis. “Yes, they’re right here. But if you want any snazzy poppy spells from little-miss ‘adaptable cutie mark learning by the seat of her pants’, I’ll need lots of meditation time. There better be a spa on this boat, and if there isn’t, I’m creating one.”

“Pretty sure there weren't spas in the Baltimare mines.”

“And you bats don’t hang from the ceiling, point?”

The Admiral said nothing.

Sparkler took the Admiral aside. “You can’t be thinking of letting her stay…”

“I already agreed to it,” the Admiral said. “Told you last night.”

“I must have blocked such a terrible memory. Or thought it was a nightmare. Or both.”

“She has skills and she hasn’t worked with Baltimare since she interfered with the rockets, you know this.”

“She’s still unbearable.”

“I have a teddy bear for you, Sparkler!” Fog called, pulling the stuffed animal out of a suitcase.

“Were you just waiting to use that!?”

“Yes. A grand total of… ten minutes, since I packed it. You really do make this too easy.”

“Golly, you think so too?” a scratchy, but somehow still adorable voice called.

“Rook!” Fog dropped her suitcases and pulled the seapony into a hug. These days, Rook looked a little like her old self. Cozy had been convinced that keeping all the battle scars and tissue damage had been a little silly, especially considering how she could rewrite their body over time. She still had two hooves and a tail, but they weren’t as jagged or predatory. Her eyes still had blood on the rims and her teeth were still sharp, but her mane was full, her fins were beautiful, and she had a voice box and lungs again. She still needed water to survive, but she could leave for extended periods without too many negative effects. On her back two fins were starting to take the shape of wings once again, but this was a much larger development project that wasn’t anywhere close to completion.

“Why must we engage in frivolous hugs?” Cozy asked, her voice coming out distinctly deeper than Rook’s.

“Because I like them, shush, Fog and I are having a moment,” Rook chided.

Cozy grumbled.

“I said shush.”

The Admiral looked at her crew. Sparkler, Granite, Rook, Cozy, Fog…

She had known some of them for years. Some of them had bad blood between them. One of them was literally a cursed being of darkness living in the body of a sociopath. It was far from the standard crew manifest.

Which was exactly the way the Admiral wanted it.

“Let’s get this show on the road,” the Admiral said, walking to the bridge. There, looking out over the world below with a huge window, was a proper, wooden steering wheel. She grabbed it with her wings. “Are we ready to set off?”

“We’ve been ready to set off for an hour, you just had to be sentimental and spend forever on the Algol.”

“I think I liked you better when you were mute,” Granite commented.

“What you see is what you get, numbskull.”

Granite pursed his lips. “Is today the ‘mock Granite’ day, or something?”

Fog gasped. “I’m marking it on the calendar, we’ll celebrate it every year!”

Sparkler facepalmed with her hair.

The Admiral grinned. “Let’s just… get going.”

“Where?” Rook asked.

“East. To the Mainland. Time to see what’s there.”

And with that, she pulled a lever, putting the Starjammer into gear. It drifted forward, away from Sanctaphrax… and into the rising sun. The ocean sparkled below and the blue sky welcomed them to unknown lands.

The Admiral, for a moment, looked up. It was morning, so it wasn’t surprising that no stars were visible, but the fact struck her nonetheless.

The islands of Equestria were still developing their rockets to probe the skies above and threaten each other, but… she wasn’t a part of that anymore. She was forging her own path now, to the unknown lands on the other side of the planet.

She didn’t need to ride a rocket away from this world.

There were things out there that didn’t require sailing on a sea of stars.

I - As Below, so Above

She was going to fly.

She’d decided it earlier that night. As the moon rose over the world, she told herself she would accomplish that. Climb up the edge of that brilliant, deep blue and look down upon the ponies below. That was the place for a pony to be seen: the realm of the clouds.

It had taken her almost all night to muster the courage to do it, but here she stood. Her hooves made hardly any noise as she snuck along the wooden dock jutting from the edge of the jungle-laden island she called home. Some might say it was odd there was a dock jutting out of the seemingly endless wilderness, but she would tell them they weren't looking close enough.

She only hoped the eyes in the jungle weren’t watching her now. They’d try to stop her and she couldn’t have that. How would she ever fly if she didn’t take a risk? That was how it always worked in the legends, after all. At the edge of a pony’s rope, their purpose was revealed.

Her favorite told of the pegasus who couldn’t fly but lived in the mythical cloud cities of old nonetheless. It was a silly story that made no sense—who would live in those places if they couldn’t fly?—but it was the best one. Because, just before she hit the ground, the birds grabbed her and showed her how to be strong.

With any luck, the water would make a good substitute for ground. At least it was softer, right? Right…

Time to be like the ponies of legend.

She spread her wings, catching the moonlight in her thin, leathery appendages, creating a spotlight for the rest of her body. Normally she would flinch away from this since it reminded her of her bright, obvious, attention-grabbing white coat. Today, she felt no fear of her brilliance, allowing herself to shine for the dark night. Strands of amber hair sparkled at the edges of her vision, framing her view of the open world before her.

For the first time, she didn’t feel ashamed of her appearance. She was beautiful. And the night would see her.

The ponies in the jungle would too, apparently, since she started to hear shouting.

Cursing to herself, she knew it was now or never. She flapped her wings and jumped off the dock. After a moment of weightlessness, she was plunging toward the waters far below.

The experience of dropping like a stone threw her stomach into her throat even though she was falling face-first. For a moment, her mind contemplated how little sense the sensation made, able to reason that it was backward before the panic set in. With the panic came the tumble; for while her wings weren’t helping her fly, they were certainly able to toss her around like a cyclone.

She had no control and she lost her previous meal of mangoes and snake within the first ten seconds. After this, however, the panic began to fade as the sensation of falling became familiar. Taking stock of herself, she knew she wasn’t dead. She also knew the water was rising to reach her quickly and hitting it at this speed was probably a terrible idea.

How did birds do it? They flapped, right. She forced herself into an upright position and began to flap as hard as her wings could manage. To be fair, her descent slowed, but given the tug of her mane on her scalp she was still falling way too fast. Taking a moment to think, she spread her wings wide for balance.

To her shock, the air caught under her webbing, turning her dramatic fall into a slope. The initial jerk from the wind tugged at her joints but she managed to hold her wings steady. Slowly, what had been a straight dive into the water turned into an angled one, until her mane was no longer pulling angrily at her scalp.

Flight.

With a toothy grin and the wind in her ears, she looked around.

The moon sat on the horizon, reflected in the eerily perfect calm of the ocean. For a moment, there was no up or down; the reflection in the water was so crisp. Before her was a full moon and all around were brilliant, shimmering stars. Sharp, blazing holes against a sea of darkness.

They were just like her.

She was a star.

There was no ocean, no floating islands, no lost history beneath the waves. There were no legends here, no ponies at all. The realm of the stars was beyond all that.

But she was a part of it.

A brilliant streak of white crossed the sky, shattering into numerous smaller chunks above her head. There was a thunderous boom as the cosmic event captured her imagination, but she scarcely heard it. She felt it, a tingling sensation running through her veins. This was it. This was the moment. She knew.

Carefully, she shot a glance back at her flanks.

Beautiful, white, perhaps even cosmic.

But still blank.

Her heart sank and she let out a hiss of anger. That was it! She’d been certain! Had she been Gifted, that… that would have been the moment that marked her destiny.

...Who needed to be Gifted? Who needed the stories of old, the magic, or some mark on their butt to tell them what their destiny was? If she wanted this moment to be her destiny, it was going to be her destiny! She would forge her own path. All ponies should forge their own path! Stop fixating on all those stupid legends. The ponies of the past had their chance.

Now, it was hers. She would fly right up to those stars a—

Wait. She didn’t get a mark. She didn’t have magic. How was she flying?

The moment she thought to ask that question she realized she wasn’t. With rising panic, she noticed she was simply falling slightly slower than usual and was about to hit the water. Remembering her training at the lake, she folded her wings back and pointed her hooves forward into a proper dive. Her reflection rose up to meet her, and for a moment she saw the terror in her eyes.

The lakes had trained her well, so the feel of cold water on her coat wasn’t startling in the slightest. The massive influx of salt in her mouth and nostrils was unlike anything she had ever experienced. Part of her thought it was fascinating while most of the rest thought it burned. A small part of her decided it would make a good seasoning. She wasn’t sure what to do with this information.

Ignoring her mind’s tendency to go the weirdest places at the least convenient times, she used her wings to swim to the surface, finding them very effective under the water.

If only there had been stars beneath the waves. Instead, there were only a few small fish that were quickly running away from the massive splash she had just made. Down here, the world did not accept those who were bright. Just like the jungle.

She breached the calm ocean surface, sucking a breath of air into her lungs. After rubbing the water from her eyes, she glanced around. The moon was still there, as were the stars… but they felt oh so far away. Not even the gift of flight would have gotten her to them.

Turning herself back the way she’d come, she noted that she had actually traveled a significant distance from her island floating above. It was still possible to make out the dock, though that was only because the others had lit the fires at the edge of it. She watched a light drop from the dock.

They were dropping ropes with fire at the end, hoping she’d see them and grab on.

With a sigh, she began to swim back, her wings propelling her forward like a torpedo. They were never going to let her hear the end of this. Probably grounded from the hunt and forbidden from eating mangoes. It was going to suck.

Feeling something brush against her leg, she decided getting eaten by a deepfish would suck a lot more.

Pushing herself, she dove slightly under the water and jumped out like a fish, spreading her wings wide to catch the air. She was far too heavy with all the water in her coat to glide like she had been earlier, but there was a second or two of extra airtime because of the maneuver.

If she had bigger wings, maybe…

That was something to think about later. Right now, she needed to get out of the ocean.

It didn’t take her anywhere near as long to get back as it had taken her to drift out. She spotted one of the ropes with a burning end just before it hit the water’s surface. She leaped onto it, latching on with her sharp teeth and all four hooves at once. That was enough of a jerk to get their attention—the rope began to move upward, slowly pulling her out of the ocean.

There were somewhere around ten meters of extra rope dangling under her. They had certainly made sure the rope would reach her no matter how far the wind may have taken it, even though there was absolutely no wind tonight. Looking up, she could see the bottom of her island.

She’d never seen it from this angle before. There were no trees, but it was still jungle-like in appearance with snaking vines that covered almost all the rocks and even a few flower buds awaiting the coming of morning. As she adjusted her eyes to take in the full scene, the island became a round spot of darkness surrounded by a halo of stars.

Never before had she felt so small.

She wouldn’t have expected herself to feel excited at the idea even if she had.

Her reveling in her size was interrupted by the rumbling of the waters far below. The calm, reflective sea had begun to churn with frothing, aggressive bubbles. The terrible maw of a deepfish erupted from the depths, lined with teeth larger than her entire body. The fish couldn’t reach her.

It could reach the bottom of her rope. The massive, interlocking jaws slammed shut on the dangling tip of her lifeline, giving her full view of its face.

The eyes were so much worse than the teeth. Each milky sphere was the size of a house, wrinkled like the skin of an old mare. There was no movement in the eyes whatsoever and caked pockets of blood had coalesced at their bases, looking more like a forest of some red parasite than a natural part of the fish. Its massive scales reflected the moonlight far better than the white thestral’s coat ever could.

She saw what was going to happen. The deepfish would start falling and pull on the rope with more weight than anypony could deal with. The dock would shatter after even a second of trying to hold this massive fish and she would fall with it. It would be certain death for her and whoever else up there didn't react quickly enough.

So she bit the rope and pulled back as hard as she could. At the end of her sharp motion, an immense pain drove through her jaw. She couldn’t help herself—she let out a bloodcurdling screech that would have shattered any windows on the island had they been present. Something had snapped in her mouth—a fang?

Forcing the scream down her throat, she bit on the rope again, not to cut it, but to allow herself to work through the pain and get a stronger hold on the only thing anchoring her to life.

Only then did she realize that she had succeeded. The bloody end of the rope below her was not connected to a deepfish.

Somehow, through some trick of fate, her broken fang was still there, dangling by a single, loose thread. She picked it up with her wing, folding it close to her body.

She spent the rest of the ride up trying not to pass out from the pain.

XII - As the Rivals Clash

Rook stopped just short of the end of the tunnel, refusing to go up into the temple itself. The Admiral would have asked her to elaborate, but both of them were underwater, so there wasn’t going to be much in the exchange of words. Rook gestured upward with her fin, made a neck-cutting motion, and pointed at her eye.

The Admiral nodded, keeping her helmet squarely on her head with her wing. There wasn’t much air within the bowl, but there was more than enough for her to swim through this small channel. Using her hooves and free wing, she kicked up, rising to the surface with Rook far behind.

The spherical room of treasure captured her imagination: so much gold, jewels, and other precious artifacts she couldn’t even begin to gauge the value of. And, of course, there was the centerpiece. That brilliant silver eye floating in the middle of the air, casting its gaze upon all the precious jewels.

And the massive wyrd dog, though that was currently sleeping like a dragon on its hoard.

Carefully, the Admiral rose from the water, keeping one eye on the silver eye at all times. It either didn’t notice her, or simply didn’t care.

I’ll grab you soon enough, the Admiral thought. But first, the primary obstacle. She lifted her harpoon and aimed right at the wyrd dog’s silver eye. If it was anything like the cats, a devastating blow to the extra organ would take it out. If not? She could always run back into the water. Even if it could swim, that tunnel was a little small for it.

She pulled the trigger with her wing.

The dog’s tail-hand grabbed the harpoon in midair and threw it to the side. All of the creatures’ eyes opened, bringing a guttural growl with them. The dog lashed out with the fire of its hand, the dark heat singing the Admiral’s exposed fur.

In the middle of the attack, the Admiral bolted for the water. She did a backflip into the pool she’d come out of, sinking beneath the waves. The beast’s paws plunged into the ripples after her.

One got her tail.

Oh for the love o—

The dog tore her out of the water, tossing her into a pile of gold coins. She hit hard enough to partially bury herself in the treasure. This did not deter the dog, for it jumped overtop of her, noxious saliva dropping down its face onto her.

“Nice doggy…” the Admiral said, cursing inwardly that she couldn’t load her harpoon while covered in gold. All she could do was lift the weapon to block the incoming attack, skewering the dog’s paw with the gun’s tip.

Like most wyrds, the pain wasn’t much of a deterrent. The flaming hand grabbed the harpoon gun and threw it away, leaving the Admiral defenseless.

So she grabbed a nearby diamond and threw it at the dog’s silver eye. The pointed section of the gem broke the silvery membrane—not enough to do any real damage, but enough to get the dog’s attention. In a half-panic, it lifted its front paws to its eye, assessing the damage.

Enough of an intelligence to feel threatened. What is it about this island? She glanced at the floating silver eye. What do you do?

Pushing the thoughts aside, she ran for the watery escape again, leaving her harpoon gun behind. She may have been plucky and clever, but this was an unknown wyrd she didn’t have the firepower to gun down directly.

She didn’t make it to the pool, but she didn’t need to. The wyrd pegasus dropped from a hole in the ceiling, landing on the back of the dog’s neck and driving its pointed wings into the dog’s rotting flesh.

The Admiral smirked. Thanks, whoever you are.

The pegasus whirled out of the way of the dog’s hand, not caring in the slightest about the fire’s heat. It sunk its wings into every point on the dog’s body it could reach—but it notably couldn’t reach the silver eye. The dog was protecting it religiously, while occasionally swiping out in an attempt to hit the pegasus’ eye.

The Admiral snuck over to her harpoon gun and picked it up. She loaded it once again, pointing the harpoon right at the dog’s eye. It was certainly a massive target, but the haphazard motion of the wyrd battle kept it from being an easy one. The Admiral closed one of her eyes, lined up the shot, and waited for the perfect moment.

The pegasus tossed the dog to the ground, exposing its eye. The pegasus would not be able to capitalize on the weakness, but the Admiral would.

She pulled the trigger…

Sparkler, Granite, and Lob fell out of the same hole the pegasus had come out of. They didn’t land on the Admiral, but their sudden appearance threw her aim off. She hit one of the dog’s normal eyes rather than the silver one.

“Admiral!?” Granite shouted.

“Shoot the dog’s eye!” the Admiral hissed, having shot both her harpoons.

Granite and Lob raised their guns and launched their spikes. The dog was already up, however, and took the shots in the chest rather than the eye. With a roar, it charged them.

Sparkler picked up a massive platinum scepter in her hair and smacked the dog across the face with it. “Back off, ya smarmy mutt!”

“Smarmy?” Granite raised an eyebrow.

“Pretty sure the word doesn’t apply here,” the Admiral added.

Sparkler cracked the dog’s skull. “Ain’t my problem!”

The dog opened its mouth wide, revealing rows upon rows of razor sharp teeth. Several of these teeth popped out like bullets, flying at the ponies. The Admiral was able to duck out of the way while Sparkler created a makeshift shield out of her locks. Granite’s armor protected him, but one of the teeth broke through a weak spot in Lob’s leg, knocking him down.

The pegasus apparently knew about this toothy attack, for it capitalized on it the very instant the dog started using it. It skewered the underside of the dog’s jaw, poking a bony wingtip through the beast’s tongue. Swinging around, the pegasus punched a wing through the top of the jaw as well, piercing the bone under the creature’s long muzzle.

The wings had missed puncturing the eye, but the Admiral suspected the pegasus hadn’t been trying to puncture the eye, anymore. It was trying to limit the dog’s movement… so the ponies could shoot the eye.

The Admiral rolled to the side, picking up Lob’s harpoon gun. It still had a second bolt strapped to it, lucky for her. While she reloaded, Sparkler assisted the pegasus wyrd by wrapping her hair around the dog’s mouth.

The dog, in turn, lifted its tail and unleashed a burst of fire. Sparkler was forced to release, but the pegasus held strong, keeping the head still.

The Admiral shot through the noxious smoke. Her harpoon flew true, spearing the dog directly in the silver eye. A flood of shimmering goop rushed out of its body, covering the treasure of the room.

The pegasus removed itself from the writhing body and sat on the gold, paying the living ponies no mind at all as it watched its ancient enemy suffer.

Several cats poured in at this point, ready to serve their dog. They stopped short, however, when they saw their master’s dead carcass on the treasure. Every last one of them looked up at the silver eye expectantly.

The artifact flashed. Every wyrd with a silver eye—dead or alive—was petrified into what appeared to be solid silver. Every last one became motionless and harmless.

Sparkler gasped. “My magic! It… it works again!”

“What was that?” Granite asked as he tended to Lob’s leg. “Seriously, what?!”

The Admiral looked at the floating eye. “...This thing. It’s done something to the wyrd.” She glanced at the dog and the pegasus. “It… did this, somehow. And now it’s done.”

A sinking feeling came over the Admiral, a sensation soon compounded by a feeling not unlike starting an elevator ride down.

“Grab the eye and get us out of here!” The Admiral shouted.

“The exit is up there!” Granite said while Sparkler grabbed the eye with her hair.

“Put on your helmets, we’re leaving this way,” the Admiral pointed at the pool of water. “Rook’s waiting for us.” She grabbed Lob, made sure his helmet was secure, and dove into the tunnel.

Rook was more than a little surprised to see her carrying Lob through the tunnel, but the seapony had enough awareness about her to know they had to move fast. She helped the Admiral move Lob along, giving them enough speed to keep ahead of Granite and Sparkler.

The temple wasn’t falling apart and they were not being pursued—but they were falling. And the further they fell, the less chance the Admiral would have to get the air she needed. The others had full suits available, all she had was a helmet. If they sunk so far the pressure became too much…

There was a thunderous rumble. No doubt the island had just hit the surface of the ocean. It would take some time for it to completely submerge, but there wasn’t much they could do to go any faster. It was just the five of them, swimming through an aquatic tunnel. The rumbling continued, but the Admiral heard no one. There was only the water pushing across her fur as she moved.

Just as she started to feel the weight of the water increase, they popped out of the tunnel into the lake. The Admiral looked up, relieved that she could see light coming from above. All she had to do was swim to the surface and breathe.

If only she hadn’t been exerting herself so much over the last few minutes, this would have been easy. As it was, there wasn’t as much air in her helmet as there should have been and she was using up what was there absurdly fast. She dropped Lob, trusting Sparkler to take care of him. Should have passed him off long ago…

With both of her wings, she surged upward like a furry torpedo, focusing on nothing but the light above her. She ignored the fact that her visor was fogging up something fierce and that she was starting to feel like her deep breaths weren’t restoring any of her energy. How much of that was psychological? What point did she need to force herself to stop taking in air to combat hyperventilation?

She wasn’t sure. Whenever she was in tense situations like this, she either had some way to read her oxygen levels, or she had no oxygen to speak of and just held her breath. In many ways, this may have been worse: how could she tell if she was exerting more energy attempting to breathe than she was getting back?

When her vision started to go fuzzy, she forced herself to take one more breath and hold it. She knew it was too late at this point: there was hardly any oxygen content left in the sweaty air. She closed her eyes, focusing on flapping her wings.

Flap.

She was flying…

Something hit her from behind, hard. The shock made her exhale and open her eyes, just in time to see the sun as she was thrown out of the ocean. She popped her helmet off and took in a breath of air before she hit the surface with an impressive splash.

Just below the water was the Hex, piloted by Wiffle… and led by Rook. Rook gave the Admiral a salute paired with a cheesy smile.

The Admiral would have laughed if she didn’t feel the pressing need to get more oxygen into her lungs. She poked her head above the waves and gasped several times before calming down.

“I really, really should have kept the full suit,” the Admiral muttered.

“That would probably have been a good idea,” Sparkler admitted, rising to the surface. She opened up the folds of her hair, revealing several precious gems, coins, and the silver eye. “What are we going to do with this thing?”

The eye reacted now that it could see the outside world again, pointing itself right at Rook. The seapony panicked, ducking away, but Sparkler sealed it within her hair before it could do anything.

“Keep it away from Rook,” the Admiral ordered. “It does things to wyrds. Other than that… I think this is the little toy we can give Silver when we get back. Something truly unique, he wanted.”

“If you think it’ll work…”

The Hex surfaced completely. Wiffle popped the hatch and called out excitedly. “Guys! I’ve got the Algol on the radio! They’re coming to get us!”

Sparkler sent out a pulse of her spell. “...And they’re a lot closer than any deepfish. We’re going to get out of this!”

Rook pointed at the Admiral and then to the south.

The Admiral nodded. “Yes, don’t worry, we’re going to finish your quest. I can’t imagine there’s much more between us and the goal, right?”

Rook shook her head—but after deliberating with herself for a moment that involved a glare aimed at seemingly nothing, she shrugged.

“...Then we can hope there won’t be any more interruptions.”

~~~

High Academe Iota of Sanctaphrax raised the part of her head where her eyebrow should have been, scowl deepening. “Leyline. You are wasting my time.”

Dean Leyline of the largely defunct School of Magic slammed his hooves on Iota’s desk. “I am not long for this world, High Academe! I need an apprentice, and I need one soon, or else the art of spellcraft will be lost forever!”

Iota glanced at the crystals Leyline wore around his neck. “Surely, if they had your artifacts and your books, they could learn. You have my word: the next unicorn with an adaptable talent will be given your resources.”

“Your word…” Leyline let out a bitter snort. “We all know how good your word is.”

“I say what I mean.”

“You change your opinion when convenient. Bah.” Leyline put a hoof to his horn, rubbing it to soothe the soreness. “There is more to magic than books and studying. Some of it must be taught. Experienced. I am the last wizard. I need an apprentice.”

“Magic is dying. You should be thankful your art lasted this long.”

“You have heard of the relic mare.”

Iota nodded. “Twilight Sparkle. I am aware of the rumors. I believe them. They are reasonable. If the more foggy details are to be believed, she has already received formal training in the art. More so than you ever will.” Iota leaned in. “You can teach her nothing.”

“I am…”

“...not the last wizard.” Iota pressed her hooves together. “There is no further need for us to put funding into your desperation.”

Leyline took a few steps back. “You just want to get rid of me.”

Iota said nothing.

“Wait for the old stallion to croak, is that it? Get rid of the last vestiges of proper magic in this world? I won’t have it! I…” He coughed hard enough to fall to his knees. “I’ll…” A clouded look came over his eyes. “...What am I doing here?”

“The usual,” Iota deadpanned. “You had just been dismissed.”

“I… right… right…” Leyline hobbled over to the elevator, leaving the High Academe’s presence. As he descended, he felt a surge of anger. Why was he so angry? It was unbecoming of a Grandmage to have such outward emotions. As his master and his master’s master, he needed to keep composure. Always.

He pulled a small locket out of the folds in his robe, holding a picture of a massive white mare with a solar eclipse cutie mark. The High Academe of Sanctaphrax while he had been a student here… back then, magic was respected. The hoof-full of students who studied the art were of the elite. She was given the position as the Dean of Magic.

Now, here he was, all that was left. The only remnant of her teaching. A failure who couldn’t keep the flame burning.

He exited Iota’s Engineering tower on a middle level, trotting haphazardly through the tunnels. He was not conscious of where he was going, but that was normal. Invariably, he would always end up in the Tower of Magic.

Or, the Tower of History and Magic, these days. The small schools had been folded together with continual cuts. Strange, how Sanctaphrax grew in profits, schools still had to be downsized so much. He knew it was all about the money, now.

What he wouldn’t give to be there when Sanctaphrax was new and founded purely on the ideas of learning. Just a few towers with ponies obsessed with the knowledge of the past and future.

Who could remember that, aside from himself?

With a sigh, he entered his School.

Meteor was there, talking with a brown earth pony Leyline had never seen before.

“And then we’ll need to ship the explosive components carefully,” Meteor was saying. “And we’ll need t—oh! Leyline! How’s life treating you?”

“...I remember the old days…” Leyline said, wistfully.

“Times change,” Meteor said. “As our mutual friend the Admiral is always saying, we have to look to the future, not the past.”

“...Mhm…”

“Do you need anything?”

“No, thank you.” Head hung low, Leyline shambled into his office. It took him a few seconds to realize there was a pony sitting in his seat. “...Who…?”

“Dean Vespid. You know. Medicine?” The yellow pegasus raised an eyebrow. “I haven’t exactly had this position for too long, but it’s been years.”

“Ah. Yes, yes, I remember now.” He couldn’t. “What can I do for you, Dean Vessel?”

Vespid twitched. “I have confirmed through rigorous testing and use of your prescribed methods that wyrdness is, most assuredly, a magical process. Using samples from ‘Rook’ and the captives in my terrarium, I was able to extrapolate a difference in progression.”

“We already knew it was a curse,” Leyline muttered. “Told you that years ago.”

“Yes, but this is quantifiable and is able to rule out a biological pathogen. I’ve introduced the two samples to each other; they are identical. The mutated cell structure is the same in ‘Rook’ as a full wyrd, there’s no biological reason it shouldn’t have completely converted her. In fact, from the cellular level, as far as I’m concerned she is completely converted. Something else must be driving the transformation since the cytoplasmic ret—” She shook her head. “Never mind, not important. What’s important is that I need your help finding out the exact mechanism behind this curse. The effect is largely biological, but the source…”

“Send me your observations,” Leyline said. “I will perform an analysis therein. Though if my current theories are correct, it will be affixed to the life-force itself.”

“...What?”

Leyline smirked. “For a pony of medicine, you lack knowledge in critical areas…”

XVII - As the Fog Rolls In

Hailing Fog grabbed some rope from her bags. “Sorry about the noise, I’ll be sure to make it up to you.” She didn’t particularly care that they couldn’t actually hear her, the words were more for her sake. She levitated the rope and walked over to Tirek, prepared to bind and gag him everywhere.

He let out an enraged roar and sent out a burst of explosive magic. He was very lucky the torpedo he’d been hiding in had been completely disabled, otherwise everyone present would have been vaporized.

Fog, to her credit, didn’t lose focus on the noise she was broadcasting as she was thrown to the ground. Without even standing up, she threw the rope at Tirek, wrapping it around his neck. She pulled tight: not enough to snap a neck, but enough to suffocate.

His magic was able to burn it easily.

What kind of monster are you?

Tirek opened his mouth.

Fog felt something latch onto her horn. She didn’t waste a moment wondering what he might be doing: she acted immediately. Focusing all her energy into the tip of her horn, she channeled her control over radio waves into a focused, high-energy beam.

In Old Equestria, what she created would have been called a microwave.

Tirek’s face burned as the spell impacted, igniting his beard and charring his flesh. Had he not already been in excruciating pain due to the noise, he might have flinched—but adding more oil to the fire had no effect on his constitution. He opened his mouth wider, allowing the invisible heat ray to char his tongue… as he tore Hailing Fog’s magic away.

Her spell ran out of energy quickly. The light of her horn went next, ending the painful sound. Finally, her cutie mark vanished completely and she fell to the ground, exhausted. “Wh…”

“You won’t live to regret this…” Tirek hissed, hand over his all-but-destroyed face. “Do your kind still pray to Celestia? You might want to start…”

“D-don’t…” the Admiral managed. “She has… allies. They will seek revenge.”

Tirek stopped the spell he was about to cast. “Very well. I shall return to my ‘room.’ Deal with her as you see fit.”

Orange arrived with backup that moment, realizing quickly the fight was over. “Tirek, report to the doctor’s office. She’ll need to have a look at that face of yours.”

“Fine…” Tirek said, stumbling away.

Orange glanced at the downed Hailing Fog. “...This is problematic.”

“Very,” the Admiral winced. “You can’t just attack a Guardian…”

“That’s… right…” Fog breathed, shakily standing to her hooves. “I… will make you pay for this. This…” She closed her eyes, trying not to cry or think about her blank flank. You are more than a child, Fog! You’re not going to break down in front of them. Not in front of ANYONE. “You don’t know the level of devastation I’ll bring to you for this. I brought down the Platinum Family with nothing but my looks and brains, I’ve got connections now.”

“We could just keep her,” Orange suggested.

“No,” the Admiral said. “They’d chase us. They have more subs that are significantly faster than ours. Not to mention they haven’t finished transferring the air, yet…”

“We could give them Tirek.”

“The last thing I want is to let Baltimare get something that powerful. They’re bad enough as it is.”

“We’re better than you,” Fog mumbled. “I wouldn’t let us make deals with demons.”

“He’s not a—”

“Tartarus is a real place, isn’t it?” Fog tried to look accusatory, but her forward motion made her stumble. “An ancient demon sealed away. And you’re working with him. You… you really are an idiot.”

The Admiral scowled. “It shouldn’t come as a surprise to you, then.”

She really never understood our dynamic, did she? Fog laughed bitterly. “That’s… funny.” She sat down, glaring at the ground. “Regardless, your only way out of this is to turn ‘Tirek’ in. We’ll find a way to make him give my magic back.”

“What if I ask him to give it back, and then I let you go?” the Admiral asked.

Fog scowled. “I’m not letting you get away with that demon. I don’t want the world to burn.”

“You’re being melodramatic.”

“No. Unlike you, I actually have some respect for Harmony.”

“Harmony failed us.”

Fog shook her head. “We failed Harmony. We strayed from it, and then the waters and the corruption ended everything.” Fog recognized doubt cross the Admiral’s face for a split second. “...What did you find? Was it the demon?”

“I don’t have to tell you anything.”

“Actually, you do. I may look weak, but I hold the cards here.” Keep breathing steady, stay in charge of the situation. “I like you, and I want you to keep exploring to give me something fun to think about. But if you don’t cooperate… Tirek or no Tirek won’t matter.” Steady. “My terms are simple. Give us Tirek and tell me everything you know about him. Then you go and do whatever it is you were going to do earlier. You still get the air. How’s that sound?”

The Admiral stared at her with a scowl.

“I do not believe we have a choice,” Orange pointed out. “All other courses of action result in them shooting at us.”

“Actually, I don’t think so,” Sparkler said, walking in. “You won’t believe what I just overheard in the bar. Looks like there are some corrupt Guardians out there that don’t like miss goody-four-hooves here.” She tapped Fog’s horn with her hair, grinning. “Your own colleagues hate you and would rather be rid of you.”

Don’t flinch. “...Unsurprising.” Who? Who is it!?

“And, for some reason, they want the Admiral protected.” Sparkler pointed at her friend. “So… I’m thinking we’re in the clear, actually. They really need us to escape.”

“Why?” the Admiral asked.

Sparkler shrugged. “I don’t know. I didn’t recognize the pony he was talking to, but she could have been from Sanctaphrax?”

The traitor Guardian is a stallion.

“Why are we that important to them?” the Admiral asked. “There’s no big project riding on us right now, aside from Silver, and he’d never bother with anything like this. Meteor wouldn't either, and he doesn’t have the resources to bribe Guardians with… anything.”

“Iota?”

“Iota’s way too straightforward for that,” the Admiral said. “If she’d hired help for us, she would have told us. Or me, at least.”

“A third party wants us alive, then,” Orange said. “Disturbing.”

“At least it’s useful!” Sparkler tapped Fog’s horn again. “It means we don’t have to hand anything over. We’ve got friends on the inside! Sorta. Kinda.”

“There are plenty of Guardians and miners loyal to me,” Fog asserted. “You can’t gamble that your… ‘friends’ will come through.”

“I mean, I’d do it just for a chance to get back at you and all the times you’ve tormented us…” Sparkler pointed out. “But I’m not the one who makes the call. Admiral? Is the risk worth it?”

The Admiral scrunched her muzzle. “For revenge? No. For Tirek? ...I’m thinking.”

“You know…” Sparkler wrapped her hair around the base of Fog’s horn. “I’ve always wondered how you’d scream if I snapped this off… Would it even hurt anymore? W—”

“Sparkler, that’s enough,” the Admiral chided.

“We have her where we want her! Come oooo—”

“Sparkler, no. She may be a brat. She may cause us more trouble than anypony. She’s not trying to take advantage of a conspiracy.”

“...I’m not the Platinum Family,” Fog added, slipping into a meek voice by accident.

“I think your father would disagree,” Sparkler hissed.

“Get off my case, mop-head! I’m not Uncle Gutter, I’m the one who brought him down!”

“A brat and a traitor, really good for y—”

“SPARKLER!” the Admiral yelled. “I know the Platinum Family was responsible for Ambrosia, but they’re gone now. She’s the reason they’re gone.”

“That… just…” Sparkler’s fire went out of her eyes and she hung her head. “I don’t…”

“We’ll talk later. Right now… Orange. Assuming we have friends on the inside, what’s the best way to communicate our intentions?”

“Since we do not know who they are, we have to be discreet.” Orange furrowed his brow. “I suggest leaving her behind in one of the mini-subs. They’ll pick her up and do as they wish.”

“Normally her disappearance would raise alarms…” The Admiral frowned. “But all it would take is one of them saying she intended to stay with us for a time to calm that down.”

“Precisely. So long as we don’t actually take her, they don’t need to chase us.”

“There are too many unknowns.” The Admiral tapped her hoof on the ground. “Way too many. We have to rely on an ally we know nothing about to behave in a way we expect to get away.”

“Take my deal,” Fog said. “It’s a guaranteed way out.”

The Admiral frowned. “...Here’s what we’re going to do. Orange, take her to one of the mini-subs. If nothing in Baltimare asks about her by the time they finish giving us air, we go with your plan. But if we get any indication they miss her, we go with her deal.”

“One of my Guardians will notice,” Fog seethed. “You’ll see.”

“I almost find myself wishing Baltimare’s Guardians have more integrity than this plan needs...” the Admiral admitted. “Orange? Go. I need to talk with Tirek.”

Orange led Fog away wordlessly. She knew it was pointless to talk to him—she knew when a pony was mechanically minded. It happened a lot down in the mines, ponies that just couldn't be worked over.

She needed a break, anyway. She knew she was close to breaking.

Orange led her to the mini-sub and sealed them in.

Fog sat and waited for somepony to come get her.

~~~

Hailing Fog’s tears didn’t come until she felt the mini-sub launch from the Algol.

The Admiral hasn’t received a single communication…

She slammed her head into the metallic walls of the pod, letting out an agonized wail.

Would they have let her just take me completely? Would they let that breach of security happen?

She kicked the wall with her back hooves, shaking the compartment.

I rooted the lie out of this place! I tore it down! Why is it BACK!?

With a scream, she tore a pane off one of the walls, revealing the radio compartment. Of course, it had been disabled. They didn’t want her calling out herself.

I’ve lost everything… my magic, my Gift… all because I didn’t like a secret. A demonic secret! I… I should have killed him. Should have skewered the heart. Or at least tried.

Falling to the ground, she let the tears pool at her hooves.

I’m still just a kid… Why does it all fall on me? Why…

She stopped. Slowly, but surely, she looked back at the radio compartment she had opened. It had been disabled, yes. But there were enough parts there…

What am I doing?

She pressed her hooves to the side of the compartment, assessing the materials she had to work with. The wires were all there, and the pod currently had power…

I’m the radio filly. Special talent or no… I. Know. RADIOS.

With a half-mad giggle, she tore some wires out of the compartment with her mouth, prompting sparks to fly. It wasn’t the smartest thing she could have done, but she wasn’t in the mood for caution. She popped open one of the pod control hatches. The engines were disabled and this wasn’t her area of expertise, so they wouldn’t be of much use. Everything within was hers to cannibalize to make a functioning radio. It wouldn’t be high quality, but she would be able to set frequency using the dials and buttons for driving the pod.

She had no magic, but before she’d gotten her Gift she’d learned how to work radios with her bare hooves and mouth.

I took the Platinum Family out without a Gift. This isn’t a problem. I’ve just gotten too used to it. You don’t need a Gift… it’s just a bonus!

Hailing Fog had no idea how long she worked to get a functional radio, but after no small amount of blood, sweat, and tears she had put together a shoddy metal box with multiple colored wires and one very long antennae. She hailed the Guardian Headquarters frequency.

“This is Guardian Hailing Fog,” she breathed. “Come in, HQ.”

“This is HQ,” a dispatcher Fog didn’t recognize said. “What can we do for you?”

“Patch me through to Guardian Green. He should be in. If not, he’ll be at the bar.”

“I’ll get him. Please hold.” The dispatcher didn’t start playing the infuriating “on hold” music, allowing Fog to hear her call, “Green? Call for you from Fog.”

“All right…” an old stallion’s voice came to the call. “Fog, what is it?”

Fog took a deep breath. “Green, we’ve got a—”

“By the depths, are you transmitting off something your cousin built in her shed?”

“Close enough. I’m stuck at the bottom of the ocean in an escape pod. There’s corruption somewhere in the Guardians. We need to handle this discreetly.”

“...I’m too drunk for this…”

“I know I can trust you. Hurry, please.”

“Only for you, lass.”

“Thanks. Soon, please.” She cut the transmission, a smile on her face. “I’ve still got it. Heh.”