Fallout: Equestria - The Spark of Life

Chapter 8: Under the Dark Sea

Princess Skystar, whatta you done?! You know surface dwellers are forbidden here! Guards!

I’ve struggled with loss before. I’ve seen firsthoof the effect loss has on us all. Ponies losing their lives to senseless violence in a Wasteland that cares nothing for them. It came for me when Steeljack died. I felt a profound emptiness deep in my very soul that day. I wanted to give up the Good Fight, to let the Wasteland hollow me out from the inside.

I knew as I watched what was coming next that there would be that profound emptiness once more. That the mare in front of me would feel it intensely, perhaps even more than any of us could ever understand.

All I needed to do was be there to help her.

* * *

“I’m going to assume you aren’t deaf, so I’m going to ask again,” Tempest said, her voice more forceful this time. “Where is Glitter Drops? What did you do to her?”

I scowled deeply, looking down for a brief moment. “There isn’t an easy way to say this, Miss Shadow… but you’ve been in stasis for over two hundred years.”

Tempest’s eyes widened as she struggled to take the news in and process it. I could see her working things out in her head. She pushed herself to a sitting position.

“You’re lying,” she said finally. “There’s no way that is even possible.”

“I’m afraid she is most assuredly not lying, Fizzy,” Trick Shot’s gruff voice said from next to me.

“My real name, who… who are you?” Tempest replied cautiously. “Do I know you?”

“I’m a little worse for wear so you probably don’t recognize me,” Trick Shot said. “It’s me, Trick Shot.”

“Trick? What… what happened to you?” Tempest said, scowling. She looked back at me. “Now I know you’re lying. If Trick was alive… then Glitter should be…”

“Star’s not lying to you. I’m alive only because I was pretty much cursed to live like this. It’s called being a ghoul. I’ve been alive for over two hundred years,” Trick Shot said softly. He looked up at me. “Star, she probably needs to see for herself.”

“See what? What should I see here?” Tempest asked angrily.

I nodded, moving aside so that Tempest could clearly see the bed at the edge of the room and the unicorn skeleton it contained. The broken-horned mare pushed herself to her hooves and made a beeline right for the bed. She sat by the bed, placing a hoof on the skeleton there.

“She stayed with you, it looked like,” I said softly as I walked up behind her. “Until she died, likely of old age. We don’t know how long that was.”

“I… I should have saved her, should have been there for her,” Tempest muttered mostly to herself. Tears streamed out of her eyes. “She shouldn’t have… that stupid filly! She shouldn’t have sacrificed herself for me!”

“Knowing what we know about this complex, it’s likely she was unable to leave here,” Violet said, stepping up next to me. “At least not without exposing herself to massive magical radiation levels.”

“What… what do you mean?” Tempest asked, stifling away the tears. “Magical radiation?”

“What’s the last thing that you remember?” I asked. “We can get into the messy details later, but first we need to know what you know.”

“Glitter and I were working on a final experiment with the pearl. She thought she’d cracked it, but it came too late. We lost contact with Canterlot and even the Ministry of Arcane Sciences had gone dark,” Tempest worked out with her words. “Something went wrong with the experiment. I don’t remember much after that.”

“Glitter had you placed in stasis while the medical programs here corrected whatever damage had been done to your body,” Violet explained. “I’m guessing that once she realized she couldn’t leave, she chose to stay to watch over you.”

“Then why didn’t she do what you did? Wake me up? Why? Why did she leave me in that thing?! TELL ME!” Tempest shouted angrily, her horn growing an angry blue. “Why did I have to wake up and lose my best friend?!”

“She couldn’t!” Sunshine interjected, catching the mare off guard. “She couldn’t. The process of healing whatever happened to you took a very, very long time. Glitter stayed with you as long as she could, but she was not immortal. She died long before the healing magic finished on you. By then… you were already alone.”

Tempest scowled angrily and turned to the skeleton once more. A book floated in the air next to her as I levitated out her journal and set it in front of her.

“She left this though,” I said. “Perhaps there’s something here… something that might explain.”

Tempest glanced back at me, her eyes red and puffy. Her gaze hardened intensely before picking the book up in her own magic. “There’s a note inside the cover,” she said.

Fizzy,

I know when you finally wake up you’re going to hate me. I’ll probably be long dead by the time it happens, but don’t worry about me. I’ve lived a good life here being taken care of by the maintenance bots. We have a food replicator and an underground orchard. I have had to be careful when I go down there though… the ghouls from Seaquestria have tried to attack me more than once.

I’m old, Fizzy. Older than you look inside that tank. I may only have a few days at most before I die. I’m currently stuck in my bed, looking at you. I wish you could see what I see. How amazing you are, and how much I miss you. You’re a good friend, Fizzy. No matter what happened in the past, you came back to me.

Do you remember that night with the Ursa? When you first came back after that nasty business with the Storm King? We were so cold with one another. So much hate and hurt and old memories getting dredged up. But we made it through that night and every night after that, knowing we could do anything together.

The war made it hard, but the war is over now. Has been for years. I still can’t go home though. I’m not even sure if my home exists anymore. The radiation and megaspells destroyed Equestria, and I can only hope one day things will be fixed. Unfortunately, I won’t be alive to see it.

I left you this journal. Much of it is simple musings of a lonely mare, but I wasn’t lying around the whole time either. I used my time wisely, studying the effects that the pearl had on you. It’s still there, inside your body. I suspect it’s what allowed the healing spells to work as well as they have so far, even if they are glacially slow.

The magic of the pearl is beyond anything I’ve ever studied. It can change the world. You can change the world, Fizzy. I know you can.

I believe in you.

Love,

Glitter Drops

Tempest closed the book and set it down. Silence reigned for several long moments before she shifted and looked up at me.

“She’s really gone, isn’t she?” she asked softly.

I nodded, offering the best smile that I could muster. “She’s gone physically… but she’s not gone entirely. She’s still right here.” I lifted a hoof and placed it on Tempest’s chest. “She’s always going to be with you. She gave you the greatest gift of all. She gave you her friendship.”

Tempest looked down for a moment and nodded in turn. “I… I’m going to miss her. Glitter was… she was my best friend. Even when things got really bad, she still cared for me,” she said, her eyes hardening once more to the steely gaze I remembered in the memory orbs. “I won’t let her sacrifice be in vain.”

“I think she would approve of that,” I said, standing. “I suppose introductions are in order. I feel like we probably didn’t have much time for that, and we all know who you are… but you don’t know any of us… well most of us, I should say.”

“Yes… Trick Shot,” Tempest said softly. “It… it surprises me to see him here. I have a lot to catch up on I suppose.”

“Indeed. My name is Radiant Star, and well, it might shock you to find out that I’m an alicorn,” I said with a deep grin.

“I gathered that much already,” Tempest replied wryly. “I’m sure you’re going to explain that as well? The only alicorns I know were the four Princesses.”

“Yeah, I can bring you up to speed on a lot of stuff, for sure,” I said, motioning to the others. “The pale green unicorn is Violet Iris, my partner in life. The pink unicorn is Sunshine Sky, a friend of ours and a fellow member of an organization called the Followers of the Apocalypse. You already know Trick Shot of course, and our kirin friend’s name is Bright Ember.”

Tempest smiled sheepishly and bowed her head in turn to each of them. When she locked eyes with Trick, she scowled. “I’m sorry,” she said suddenly.

“For what?” Trick said, looking surprised.

“For not telling you what I was doing for the Princesses. It was necessary to keep the entire project an absolute secret. I couldn’t tell anyone what I was doing,” Tempest explained. “Only very few ponies knew the scope of the entire project.”

Trick looked down and sighed. “You don’t have to be sorry for anything, Fizzy. I didn’t know why you left the service, but now I know. It doesn’t change anything at all,” he said. “You were the finest commanding officer I ever had the pleasure of serving under, and you were my friend. Besides, in the end… this project seemed to work out somehow it seems.”

“I’m still not sure what really happened, but yes, it seems so,” Tempest said.

“This project was attempting to harness the magic of this pearl,” I said, interjecting. “A magical artifact, based on my understanding of it.”

“Correct. The pearl was an artifact that had been harnessed by Queen Novo of the Hippogriffs during an attack by a creature known as the Storm King,” Tempest explained. “They used it and transformed themselves into creatures known as seaponies before retreating into the depths below the island.”

“The pearl had the power to transform living matter into other forms?” Sunshine said. “That is… is incredible. We had no idea what it did based on the journal.”

“Journal?” Tempest said quizzically.

I pulled the book out of my saddlebags and floated it over to her. “There’s a lot we couldn’t make out in it, but it says it was authored by you.”

Tempest’s eyes widened before softening again. “I wrote much of this in code. The only ponies who knew of the ciphers were the Princesses. Where did you find this?”

“In a warehouse that was once used by Twilight Sparkle to store her books,” Violet said. “There’s a series of them in a town we call Fort Knowledge. It’s a base for the Followers of the Apocalypse.”

“I guess I’m not surprised that Princess Twilight would keep a book,” Tempest said with a chuckle. “This is what led you here? A book?”

“Sort of… do you recognize the symbol on the cover?” I asked hesitantly. “It’s extremely important.”

Tempest scowled. “Of course I do. It’s the symbol of the Storm King,” she said. “Why?”

“Weeks ago, one of our outposts on the edge of Equestria in Hope Hollow was attacked by an army. An army wearing this symbol,” Sunshine said. “We ran into more of them on our way here… and possibly their leader.”

“He was a monster half-formed out of a storm cloud,” I said flatly.

“He couldn’t… he couldn’t be alive…” Tempest said, looking down at the symbol in the book. “I am missing a lot of context now. I think you’d better start at the beginning.”

* * *

After a few hours of discussion and move back downstairs to the main console room, we had finally managed to bring Tempest up to date on the state of Equestrian civilization at the end of the war and what had happened when Littlepip had brought back the sun to the ponies across the land. Tempest had stayed silent for most of the tale, asking the occasional question but for the most part letting us share what we knew.

When we were finished, Tempest sighed and began her own tale.

“When I was young, my friends and I went into a cave belonging to an Ursa. Glitter Drops was one of those ponies. The circumstances of this journey are meaningless at this point. Suffice to say, the danger was very real, and I suffered because of it. I lost my horn and received this scar on my eye. I became… disillusioned with Equestria. My friends no longer wanted anything to do with me, or so I had thought until I finally reunited with Glitter Drops,” she explained. “At the time however, I felt real hatred in my heart, and I left Equestria to find something to restore my power. I had felt that as long as my horn was broken, I too was broken and I needed that magic to be myself again.”

Tempest shifted in her seat uncomfortably. “He found me. I had stolen a magical item that he had coveted from one of his crashed airships. He offered me a job, a job which I accepted as his second in command. His name was the Storm King. He offered me the very thing I desired in exchange for my loyalty. He was… powerful and persuasive. He had a plan to invade the very heart of Equestria and steal the magic from the Princesses there. He almost succeeded.”

Tempest sighed before continuing. “We identified a celebration known as the Friendship Festival. An event that would have every Princess in attendance. I acquired another item for him, known as the Staff of Sacanas, which would allow him to absorb the magic from the Princesses. I led the attack myself, but a certain purple pony Princess and her friends escaped our grasp.”

“Twilight Sparkle,” I said knowingly.

Tempest nodded. “Twilight and her friends were crafty, seeking the Hippogriffs for their power and assistance against the Storm King. I followed them to the very shores before Mount Aris and I captured Twilight. Twilight… she changed me. She showed me how much friendship mattered. During the struggle, the Storm King betrayed me after taking the magic. He cast me aside, denying me the very thing I wanted. When Twilight and her friends stopped him, he was petrified and broken by one of his own magical items. I nearly was lost to the petrification myself, but Twilight saved me.”

“With the Storm King gone, the Hippogriffs, whom Twilight and her friends had met during their journey, returned to Equestrian civilization. Their Queen was quite wise and forgiving, and I spent much time with her after that in my journey to spread the word of the Storm King’s defeat,” Tempest continued. “But… as we all know… things changed. The war started. I thought my place was as a soldier. It was what I had always known in my life, but Twilight thought differently.”

“She approached me with the idea of harnessing the power of Queen Novo’s magical pearl. A project that could potentially save millions of lives. She had also arranged for Glitter Drops, who at that time had become my best friend once more, to work on the project. That helped my decision,” she said. “I wrote the journal as a way to remember what had happened and shared it with Twilight and the other Princesses. It was a reminder of who I once was and what I would not let myself become again.”

“And now you think he has returned,” Sunshine said. “This… Storm King.”

“If what you describe is correct… yes. I don’t know how he returned, but he has. And it seems he has his heart set on conquering Equestria once more,” Tempest said, scowling. She lifted the journal. “You said that Twilight had created a megaspell to fix the magical radiation?”

“Gardens of Equestria,” I said. “It was finally used when all of the Bearers of Harmony were assembled.”

“What if… what if that is what brought him back to life?” Tempest said, putting a hoof up to her chin. “He had been frozen, petrified. What if…?”

“What if the magic provided by Gardens was a boost enough to bring him back?” Violet finished for her. “We still don’t know one hundred percent what the ramifications of Gardens was, so it’s thoroughly possible. If that is the case… can the magic of the pearl help us here? We came looking for it because the journal led us to believe its power could stop this threat.”

Tempest rubbed the back of her neck with a hoof. “That might be problematic. Glitter’s notes are very haphazard. It’s going to take time to piece things together. I don’t feel any different than I did before, so I can’t access any of the pearl’s magic.”

“And we don’t have the time to stay here and wait for that,” I said. “Perhaps we should rest and find a way off this island?”

“With the teleport device disabled, it might be difficult to leave,” Tempest said, moving to one of the consoles in the room. “It might be possible to go through the old Seaquestrian capital below and out that way, but we’d need gear to breathe down there.”

“Maybe we could retrofit some of these power armor helmets to act as rebreathers,” Violet said, walking over towards the armory section. “Would that work?”

“As it happens, there is a full stock of rebreather devices in this very facility,” Tempest offered. “We needed them as a way to be able to go down to Seaquestria in case we had to run any tests there with Queen Novo.”

“She didn’t approve of your project,” I stated matter of factly.

Tempest started to respond, but the alarm began to go off all around us. Sunshine looked up from the main control panel. Her eyes widened.

“We have a real problem here,” she said, pointing at the screens.

Storm Guards appeared on the screens, huddling around where we’d come through the teleporter, which appeared to be working just fine. The portal closed behind them. Mixed in with them were raider forces and ex-Enclave pegasi. The lead Storm Guard pointed at the tower and they started marching.

“Seems like the Storm King tricked you,” Tempest said coolly. “He wanted you to come here. He must have known somehow that I was here.”

“The teleport device had a genetic bypass on it though,” I said, growling under my breath.

Tempest scowled. “Unfortunately, it did not. It was supposed to, but it never got installed in time, and then well… Twilight was gone,” she said. “The Storm King is a liar and a thief. We must get out of here.”

“What are the chances of getting back through the portal?” Bright Ember said.

“And go right back into the Storm King’s clutches? I doubt that is the best idea,” Trick Shot replied. “Will this facility hold up to an attack?”

“Doubtful,” Tempest said. “We need to find those rebreathers and get down to the tunnel to Seaquestria. It’s the only way out.”

“They’re going to be here in minutes,” Trick said. “I’ll hold them off so you all can find the rebreathers. I’ll be right behind you.”

“But what about your rebreather?” Tempest asked frantically.

“Ghoul, remember? Don’t need one,” he said, pulling up his rifle into the air with his magic. “Fizzy, I’ll be fine. I’ve had a lot of time to practice over the past two hundred years.”

Tempest scowled deeply and nodded. “I expect you to be right on our tail, soldier,” she said. “That’s an order.”

“Sure thing, mum,” Trick Shot replied with a toothy grin. He headed off towards the nearest balcony exit up the stairs to find a vantage point to fire from.

“Okay, everypony else, look out for those rebreathers!” I said, using my magic to pull apart boxes and crates of supplies as quickly as I could without breaking the contents.

I heard gunshots from up above. Trick had engaged the enemy. I could see on the screens the raiders and pegasi taking the fire and many of them dropping like flies, but the Storm Guards marched on. It took far more to deal with these things than a bullet. I rumbled under my breath, continuing my search for the rebreathers while trying to rack my brain if I knew any spells that could conjure up a breathing apparatus. Even digging into the magical reserve of knowledge left behind by Twilight, I couldn’t find anything.

“Found them!” Sunshine shouted, lifting a box of multiple rebreathers, enough for all of us. Small capsules of oxygen accompanied each one.

“I certainly hope there is enough oxygen there,” Violet said. “If not… we’re dead.”

Large pounding came from the walls, and the gunshots kept going. “If we don’t move, we’re also dead,” I said. “Not much of a choice.”

“Come on, follow me,” Tempest said, her horn igniting as a large hidden door slid open in the far corner. A set of stairs led downward into what appeared to be a large cavern.

We moved down into the cavern itself as the tunnel opened up into a much larger structure. In the center of the room was a massive pool of water, swirling about in the form of a whirlpool. It was pulling the water down into the depths below. A rocky cliff sat over the top of the pool.

“Everypony, take a rebreather and prepare to jump,” Tempest said. “This is the fast track down to Seaquestria.”

I started to grab one of the rebreathers from the box Sunshine was carrying when something fell out of the air onto the box. It was a pony. It was not just any pony.

It was Trick.

The ghoulicorn appeared to be breathing still, but just barely. Black ichor streamed from his sides, his ghoulish blood spilling all over the floor. He groaned loudly.

“Trick!” Tempest shouted, kneeling by his side. “Trick, can you hear me! This is your commanding officer! You need to listen to me!”

Trick tried to mumble something, but I couldn’t hear what it was. My eyes were solely on the creature walking down into the tunnel. It was the massive Storm Guard from Klugetown. The one that Bright Ember had driven off. Its red eyes regarded us carefully, settling on Tempest. Below her, I could see that Trick wasn’t doing so hot. In fact, he appeared to stop breathing. Tempest’s eyes watered and she looked up, glaring hot white murder at the Storm Guard.

“You son of a bitch,” Tempest uttered angrily, standing up over Trick’s form. “I’ll fucking kill you!”

The mare’s horn lit up brightly, sending an explosive blast of magical energy across the room at the creature. It tried to dodge, but the magic tore into its body, ripping one of its arms clean off. The thing howled in pain. All around us, the tower began to shudder as stray bolts of magic struck the concrete foundation. The large Storm Guard stood once more, blood spewing from where its arm should have been. It gurgled loudly, its other hand lifting a device that it tossed onto the ground.

An image shimmered into existence, revealing the creature we’d met in the Abyssinian capitol. The Storm King himself. His blue eyes pierced the veil and narrowed in on Tempest.

“Well now… isn’t this a pleasant surprise… hello… Tempest,” he said, his voice modulating through the image.

“You…” Tempest snarled. “I’m going to make you pay. You’re going to die this time.”

“I very much doubt that, my hornless friend. You see, I have the upper hand here,” the Storm King said. “You are surrounded, and your magic won’t outlast the power of my minions. Be a good little pony, and give up.”

Tempest looked down at Trick, tears flowing freely from her eyes. “Never!” she shouted. “I will end you.”

Sunshine moved over to Trick’s side, reaching out to verify the ghoul’s status while Tempest stared down the Storm King. Her eyes closed and she looked at me, shaking her head. The little pony inside my head screamed. Trick didn’t deserve this. He never deserved to die. I stepped up next to Tempest, placing a hoof on her shoulder.

“I’ll help,” I said angrily. “I’ll destroy you, Storm King. Not just for Equestria, but for Trick.”

“Ah but consider this, Ministry Mare,” the creature said with a chuckle. “I have the firepower.”

The device began to beep loudly and my eyes widened. I pulled Tempest back away from it as the thing exploded, dislodging the cliff and sending us all tumbling through the air into the water below. I tried to shout before I hit the water, the impact stealing my breath away as I struggled to wrap my friends in a magical shield to protect them from falling rubble.

The water was freezing and dark, the whirlpool pulling us down. My vision grew hazy as I struggled to hold my breath and keep my magic extended around the others.

It wasn’t enough. My shields began to fail, exposing the others to the freezing water. There was no end to this. We were going to die. I could feel myself slipping into unconsciousness already.

Then a bright light emanated from the darkness. It was every color of the rainbow, and it seemed to be coming from Tempest herself, floating in the center of the group. Tendrils of magical power ripped out of her body and extended to each of us in turn.

Then I passed out.

* * *

“Star! Wake up! Star!” I heard a voice calling from a distance.

“Five more minutes…” I mumbled. I was cold, so very very cold, but yet… It felt natural. Why was that? Was I dead? Had I finally shuffled off this mortal coil?

“STAR!” Violet shouted in my ear.

My eyes jolted open and I struggled to gain my vision. Bubbles floated in the water around us and I couldn’t figure out what had happened. All I knew is I couldn’t feel my legs. I looked over at Violet and my eyes widened.

Instead of hind legs, Violet’s body had been replaced by a long tail with a beautiful green fin. I glanced over at Sunshine. She was the same, except her fin was a bright pink and shimmering. Bright Ember was the strangest of all, with multiple fins and a split tail. Tempest shined brightest of all with a brilliant deep magenta body running into a razor sharp tail streaking with a fin the color of her mane.

I glanced back. My own body had been changed too. A tail of beautiful blues and streaks of white and black flowed from my fin. My mind couldn’t process it all at once.

“We’re… we’re alive,” I said finally.

“It seems as if the magic of the pearl is active inside of Tempest after all,” Sunshine said. “It saved our lives.”

“I don’t… I don’t even know how…” Tempest stammered, closing her eyes. “I don’t know how I did it though.”

I flexed my tail, attempting to swim over to the other mare. It seemed much easier than I thought it would have been to get accustomed to. I placed one of my forehooves on her shoulder blade.

“We’re safe. That’s all that matters…” I said, sighing. “I’m sorry about Trick. He didn’t deserve to die.”

Tempest’s eyes drifted downward. “I… I loved him, before the war ended, that is. I couldn’t have ever been with him while I was still in command. Those sorts of relationships earned you dishonorable discharges in the service… It was one of the reasons I took the job from Twilight. It let me quit my command so that after everything was all said and done… I could have been with him.”

“You never got to tell him that,” I said quietly.

Tempest shook her head. “It was such a shock seeing him. I…”

“It’s okay,” I said, giving her a smile. “I know Trick felt the same way as you. He wanted to find you, and he did. He didn’t deserve his fate, but we’ll honor him like a hero, because that’s what he was.”

“The Storm King will pay for what he did. He just made it personal,” Tempest said, glaring at me, anger in her piercing stare.

“The important thing here is to get out of this place. Find our way back to Equestria,” Sunshine said. “If the Storm King wanted us out of the way, it means he’s afraid of what our presence there might mean. We have to get home any way possible.”

“That is odd, isn’t it? If he wanted the pearl’s magic, why didn’t he just take it?” Violet asked. “He could have taken Tempest at any time just now. He chose to try to kill us.”

“He doesn’t want the power of the pearl. He can’t touch it. It’s anathema to him,” Tempest said. “Its power is too strong for a foul creature like him.”

“Well, we aren’t getting anywhere just floating here,” I said. “We should be moving. The question is… where to?”

“The castle,” Tempest said. “There was a backup portal there. Not sure where it went though. They never told us. If it’s still working, it could be a way out.”

I nodded, grimacing. All around us the pressing darkness of water gave no indication as to which way was which. I lit my horn, providing what I could in the murky foul depths we found ourselves in. A tunnel led away into the darkness. It was the only way forward. Tempest nodded silently and started swimming towards it.

Shadows fluttered at the edge of my eyesight as we made our way through the bleak underwater tunnel. More than once I felt like we were being watched by something. My PipBuck appeared to still be intact, warning me that there was a low level of magical radiation in the water. It didn’t seem to be affecting anypony though. Perhaps some side effects of the pearl’s magic? I wasn’t sure.

The tunnel opened up to reveal a massive cavern, lit only by ambient light provided by what appeared to be sea anemones. In the center of the cavern was a massive purple structure set into the ceiling. Buildings littered the floor of the cavern, making up what looked to be a proper town. There was a very clear undersea motif to everything, with structures built from shells and coral reef. A deathly pallor was cast over the whole area. The palace above seemed to pulse with energy.

“Wow…” Bright Ember said as he floated up behind us.

“Wow doesn’t even begin to describe it,” Violet said.

“Seaquestria. The shared capital of the hippogriffs and the seaponies,” Tempest said solemnly. “Also where the hippogriffs were supposed to escape before the end.”

“There’s nopony here,” Sunshine said. “Where’d they all go?”

“I don’t know, but everyone keep your eyes peeled. Just because it looks deserted…” I said before turning to Tempest. “The portal is in the palace?”

She nodded. “It was intended as a last resort plan in case the zebra caught wind of the installation,” she said. “To allow us to escape with the pearl and keep it out of their hooves.”

Through the murky waters I thought I saw movement. I blinked and it was gone. We needed to move as quickly as we could to the palace. I felt it in my bones. We were not alone here.

I motioned to the others to follow me upwards towards the palace, taking care to avoid the city below. If there were any survivors they would likely be in the palace. We swam up as I kept a close eye on my PipBuck. Nothing appeared, but the E.F.S. wasn’t perfect, and I had no idea how good it would work underwater.

The palace’s main hallway was simply open to all as we floated inside. The queen of the seaponies had held no secrets from her populace it seemed. The throne room lay barren, save for a lone skeleton sitting upon the throne itself. The bones had been preserved. Someone had taken care to make sure of it. All around it, groupings of coral had been placed, almost as if it was some sort of memorial.

The glass panes around the room depicted a struggle, the history of the hippogriffs and their transformation into seaponies to escape the Storm King. The final pane was broken in multiple pieces, leaving us unable to parse what it was supposed to depict.

“Queen Novo,” Tempest uttered finally. “They gave her a memorial. Enshrined in the one place she had served her ponies from. Even when the hippogriffs rejoined Equestrian civilization, Novo remained here. Look around, the portal has to be here somewhere.”

“She must have been well loved by her ponies,” I said, floating up to the memorial. As I scanned the coral surrounding the ancient Queen’s bones, I caught something glinting in the darkness. I reached out with my magic, and pulled it away from the coral. It was a disk-like device.

I pressed the button on the side of the disk and it suddenly flared to life. A massive image of the most regal looking seapony I had ever seen in my life appeared in the center of the throne room. Without a shadow of a doubt I knew that this had been Queen Novo, except I could tell she was wearing thin. This was taken near the end. After a few long seconds of silence, she began to speak.

“If you’re seeing this… my body is failing. The ambient radiation in the water from the megaspell fallout above the surface is finally getting to me and my ponies. The shields I’ve employed to help keep it at bay have steadily failed day by day. Food is growing scarce. We’re dying. I’m dying.

I fear the worst, that we will never be able to rejoin Equestria above. That Equestria is no more. Worst of all, I fear that the magic of the pearl has been lost forever. The pearl could have halted the radiation, its power is that great. I regret allowing the Equestrians to study it. I should have taken it when we fled below. But there was no time… the world was already dying. There are things I must impart before I die. In case somepony ever finds this place.

The magic of the pearl is one of the strongest pieces of magic the world has ever known, close in part to the Elements of Harmony themselves. Its magic is that of transformation. Not just on the surface, but at the very core of a creature’s existence. The magic infuses every bit of a creature, and not just ponies. This is the reason we used it to flee the Storm King. The pearl’s magic in that creature’s hand would have had the potential to be used for great evil.

I won’t lie. I don’t trust the Equestrians with it. They do not understand how powerful this magic truly is. They want to use it for their army, to keep the zebra at bay. I found myself caught in the political machinations of a government gone wrong, subservient to the more powerful Princess Luna. I had no choice but to go along with this program under threat of economic sanctions on my people, but I had my own reasons for going along with it.

It was a ruse. While I did allow the pearl to be studied, and yes I had to abandon it to flee here, the Equestrians will never know the true extent of the pearl’s magical capabilities. Its transformative capabilities are beyond anything ever found on this planet. The truth is that the pearl is not from this planet. Even Princess Luna is unaware of the pearl’s origins, as long lived as she is. The pearl fell to this planet a long time ago, creating a massive crater in Equestria. Its magic suffused the soil of the planet, forming a series of crystals that grew over the top of it. Eventually the mountain it sat on became the mountain where Canterlot was built by Celestia and Luna. Celestia knew the power that lay below her city, a place she came to refer to as the ‘Heart’.

The pearl did not remain in one location for very long. The dark mage Grogar attempted to steal it from the Heart, revealing its existence to Celestia. Celestia took the pearl and secreted it away, granting it to the Hippogriffs to protect. The Hippogriffs were a warlike society, feared throughout the land by many for their martial prowess. They were the perfect protectors.

Celestia is unaware that I know this much about the pearl’s origins. I used her and Luna to find out more about the pearl after the Storm King was defeated and the Equestrians demanded to study the pearl. Celestia’s archives revealed one very key thing about the pearl that I had not known during my time caring for and protecting it.

The longer the pearl is away from the Heart of Equestria, the power it contains seems to seep away. The more it is used the more that power dissipates. I don’t know what will happen when the pearl is fully used up, but it’s possible it may never be able to be used again. This is why the Equestrians have had such a hard time accessing the magic it contains. The pearl was used by the Hippogriffs many times over the years, and the magic is nearly spent.

The only way to save the pearl’s magic is to take it to the Heart of Equestria. I had planned to take the pearl myself there, but alas I am too late to do this. By the time this message is seen, if it is ever seen at all, the pearl will have likely completely died. I could not rest finally without talking about what I had seen. I could not sleep peacefully, the thought of this weighing deep in my mind.

If you are seeing this… I am sorry. I could not protect my people. I was cowardly. I did not do what was required of me as a leader to save them. Now… we are all dying.

No… we are already dead. We just don’t know it yet.”

The image flickered out of existence. My eyes widened as I looked down at Tempest. She had been eerily quiet while the recording had played. My mind started to put two and two together. If the pearl had been infused into her body and its magic was being used up every time it was used, what was going to happen to her when it expired?

I didn’t have time to think about it any further. My eyes caught just the barest glimpse of an increasingly dark shape forming outside of the palace. Out of the darkness a massive shark-like creature appeared, its many teeth glinting even in the murky depths. It rammed the side of the palace and everything shook. Silently the thing moved back around and struck again.

“It’s too big to get in so it’s trying to shake us loose!” Sunshine shouted. “Everypony, swim to the center!”

We huddled closer together, watching closely as the beast came back around for another pass. I tried to access my magic, finding it much more difficult in the sluggish underwater world to pull together enough magical power to create a substantial shield in front of the creature. It slammed into the purplish magic and shook its head. It must have considered the effort too great, because it suddenly turned away and swam off into the darkness. After several long seconds, I lowered the shield and let out a sigh of relief.

“What the fucking fuck was that thing?” Violet said. “It looked like a giant shark. It must live in the caves.”

“Why did it run away? Why just not continue ramming the palace?” Sunshine said. “It could have dislodged the whole thing.”

“I think it ran away because of them,” I said, pointing down across the throne room.

Several forms had appeared along the floor of the palace, floating slowly in the water. They appeared to be seaponies, but I knew from the pace of their swimming and the fact that their eyes were glowing a deep red that they weren’t just regular seaponies.

Ghouls. And it wasn’t just a couple. The whole city had come to call as my E.F.S. began to light up with red.

“We need to find that portal, fast,” I uttered softly.

Author's Note

SEAQUESTRIA. MORE TO COME.