Shorelock, San Palomino Desert

Day 22

“How the fuck did Shattered Moon get that in port?” Hearty asked, looking up in awe at the steel behemoth of a warship currently above us. “No, seriously, how?!”

“Magic?” Gemmy asked, staring at it not too differently to how the ghoul did, but with a little bit of fear added in. “I’ve picked up and moved things with it before. Maybe they did it with the Hurricane.”

The answer was perfectly Gemini, and therefore very naive.

“I may be wrong, but something tells me no telekinesis is that powerful,” Falke answered.

“None that I’ve met, that is for sure,” Open Heart said. “Maybe one of those big storage containers, but not an entire ship.”

Yeah, nopony was lifting up the Hurricane. Looking down on it from up above was one thing, but from the ground? The ship was big enough to shade an entire side of the harbor by itself. Long ago this had been just one of my battleships in Equestria’s navy, seemingly no different from any other besides not actually being made in Equestria. Well, that and the fact there was a megaspell hidden somewhere in its hull…

And a monster willing to eat foals, but intelligent in how they do it.

“How spacious is it inside?” I asked myself.

“Knowing that it was mainly earth ponies and unicorns inside,” Falke said, his own wings uncomfortably fluttering, “not very.”

“Eh, the rooms themselves aren’t probably not that bad,” Hearty said, shrugging. “Just the halls.”

“Great,” Falke and I groaned.

“Oh come on, it can’t be that bad,” the ghoul said, rolling his eyes.

“You don’t have wings,” I replied. “You don’t have to deal with the stress that comes with not being able to open your wings completely.”

“Is the once mighty Enclave soldier saying they have claustrophobia?” Hearty asked, smirking mischievously.

“It’s not just Miss Danse,” Falke replied, answering for me. I let out a sigh, knowing that now I wasn’t the one feeding the ghoul ammo. “It’s not just pegasi either. It’s a thing for griffons and hippogriffs too.”

“Maybe I’m part pegasus then,” Gemini said, “because I also don’t like tight spaces either.”

Harmony had led us to the Harbor after a quick breakfast, staying quiet out of the conversation to my relief. Her wing was over her head to keep the sun out of her eyes as she scanned the docks for any Shattered Moon numbers within the vicinity. The only ones she came across were a group of three stations at a retractable stairwell that led up into the ship itself. As her wing folded back against her side, she rubbed the underside of her muzzle in curiosity and confusion.

“Huh, she’s not here already,” she mumbled to herself. “Rather unlike her.”

“Unlike who?” I asked.

“Lady Hash,” Harmony replied, looking at me. “She told me that she would be personally escorting your changeling ‘friend’ to the harbor. Hash is one for arriving early, and given we are on time and she isn’t–”

“That’s probably just the bug causing some trouble,” Hearty replied, rolling their eyes. “Haven’t known them for long, but they don’t take me as the type of creature who likes being ordered around.”

“Considering she nearly got herself killed after Miss Danse saved her,” Falke said, “that is an accurate description.”

“Sounds like you got your hooves full,” Harmony said, snorting in sympathetic amusement. Her eyes flicked to me, that sympathy quickly turning to worry. “Why did you take up such a dangerous client?”

Everycreature else had their answer, but I knew the question wasn’t aimed at any of them. Harmony’s eyes stayed on me, even as she gave the others nods when they explained their reason. She was waiting on me, hoping for a decent explanation on why her own foal would help out what she likely viewed as an enemy. Even after all this time, with me all grown up, she was still trying to be a mother.

How did I tell her the truth, though? All of this was because of revenge, for a mare that I used to be. She wouldn’t find that answer acceptable. My ears looked to the stone road beneath us as I tried to come up with some manner of excuse. The moment I realized what I was trying to do, my train of thought altered.

I was caring about what my mom thought, despite everything she had done. The foal she killed, who haunted her even to this day. The agony I endured in her absence. By all means I shouldn’t care about what she thought and yet here I was, doing just that. It didn’t make sense, yet telling her the truth… what would she think of her daughter?

Stomping a hoof into the ground, I tried to shove all care surfacing for my mother and answered.

“I have somepony in Our Haven I need to kill,” I stated bluntly. “At first it was for the Enclave, but now it’s simply for myself.”

I half-expected Harmony to try and chastise me for my wanted revenge. Instead, she only frowned, and nodded. Her eyes finally moved off, head perking up slightly at something out of my field of view. A wing went to her muzzle, but everypony heard the giggle that came out of her.

“There they are.”

At those words we all looked back in the direction we had come from, noticing a group of numbers, Lady Hash, and a rather familiar blindfolded changeling heading our way. To say Amaryllis was grouchy would be an understatement. If it wasn’t for the ring around their horn, I have no doubt that they would have shown up with some cracks in their chitin and maybe a broken mandible from the amount of fight they’d put up. Tartarus, who knows if they would have shown up alive at all!

The moment Amaryllis showed up, the eyes of everypony in the harbor that wasn’t a part of our group was on her. It didn't matter how different Amaryllis looked from most changelings, their chitin, wings, and tail made her stand out like an earth pony in an Enclave city. Guards were up, glares were cast, and no doubt there was mumbling about why Hash had a creature they saw as a danger to their way of life near them. The anti-magic ring made no difference there.

“Morning Ama!” Gemmy shouted, waving at the currently blind changeling. Amaryllis turned their head this way and that, trying to figure out exactly where my daughter was.

“Had a good night, oh wise and humble prophet?” Open Heart asked, smugly smirking at them.

“Yes, actually. The bed was not to my standard but it was serviceable," Amaryllis replied. They attempted to smirk right back at Hearty, but her head was turned to me instead. “Oh, you meant to mock me didn’t you? Well despite what you may think I am not as gullible as a young grub.”

“Certainly fooled us all yesterday.”

“Enough, you two. Save it for after the mission,” I said. They did as requested, thank Celestia, allowing me to turn my attention to Hash. “So what you’re looking for is in there, somewhere?”

“Correct,” Hash replied. With a motion of her hoof, one of the numbers with her quickly took the blindfold off Amaryllis. The changeling instantly shut her eyes due to the sudden sunlight. “Of the few modifications the Equestrians made to the Hurricane, one just so happens to be a megaspell bay. We would have found it by now, but I believe you’ve all heard from Danse what the problem is.”

“Some monster with a taste for pony flesh,” Falke replied.

Hash nodded, and then forcefully nudged Amaryllis forward. The changeling leered back at them for a moment before trotting over to the rest of us.

“You’re not to come out until both the megaspell bay is found and the creature inside is neutralized,” Hash re-explained. “Am I clear?”

“Crystal,” I replied, giving her an Enclave salute in a sign of respect. She matched mine with one of her own, foreleg to the top of her foreleg and standing straight as an arrow. I’m certain she was smiling under that mask. “Alright everycreature, let’s get moving.”

As Harmony started to lead us towards the stairway, I circled around the group to get to Gemini. She was trying her best to look brave, but the tension in her lips and more stilted motion of her legs said everything. This was the first time she had participated in anything truly dangerous since the Trotson sandstorm, and the first time that pistol at her flank might be used for more than practice.

“You remember everything I taught you about firearms, right?” I asked.

Gemmy looked up to me, nodding her head. “Don’t aim it at good creatures, magic off the trigger till I fire it, and don’t look into the barrel.”

“Good job,” I said, nuzzling into her mane. She smiled so proudly, and if I wasn’t in soldier mode I would have returned it. Instead my face went stoic. The nuzzle was all she was getting. “This is your first real mission, and real missions come with real risk. Creatures won’t wait for you to line up a shot, they will kill you if you aren’t fast enough.”

Any pride she had was dismantled, pupils dilating in fright. Any attempts to soothe her fears would have been lies, and I wasn’t going to do that. It was better to expect the worst possible outcome, and be relieved afterwards if we avoided it. The proper military mindset, one which I wore with as a testament to my survival. That meant Gemini had to understand there would be no coddling, no do-overs, nothing of the sort while onboard the Hurricane.

By all means she was a fresh recruit, seeing the battlefield for the first time.

“When we get in there, I need you to follow my lead perfectly,” I explained. It was easily the most stern I had been with her since when I had first taught her gun safety back in Trotson. “Do that, and we all leave together.”

At that moment we reached the stairway up into the Hurricane. Open Heart was first, followed by Amaryllis and then Falke. The lattermost was mumbling about the heat of the metal as he started making his way up, making me aware we were likely heading into something comparable to a sauna. I motioned with a wing for Gemini to get behind me as I took my first steps on the hot metal stairs. Thank Luna for hooves.

The climb up was slow, dreadful, and silent save for the creaking of the Hurricane itself. It didn’t bob in the water like some ship with both its weight and the fact it had been dragged into a bank of sand, but it still swayed. It wasn’t obvious from below, but when I reached the top of the stairs and only a step was left between me and the hippogriffian warship’s insides, I saw it. Then I felt it as I placed a hoof through the ship's doorway.

One hoof in the ship was all I needed to question whether it would have been worth dying back in Shorelock Prison too.

Once upon a time this place had some form of air cooling talisman. It was one of the many things that had stopped working in the time of the Last Day and the Shattered Moon pulling it into harbor. Even with a door open and whatever holes the Hurricane had gained from age, it was an oven. I swear my mane was sticking to my neck within seconds. Nopony else was doing any better.

“Sugar, as much as I love you for saving my chitin,” Amaryllis said, “the Messenger will not look kindly upon the fate you’ve inflicted upon Her Voice.”

“I did not know it would be like this,” I said, trying to spread my wings enough to fan myself. “Besides, it’s just some heat. What’s the worst it can do?”

“Heatstroke,” Hearty replied. His horn lit up as he fidgeted momentarily with his PipBuck, pulling several canteens out of his saddle bag. “Thankfully, Musical Harmony had some form of preparation for that.”

He passed them out quickly. More than a few of us, including myself, immediately took a sip of nice, cold water. Those of us who had saddlebags or similar kept the canteens on ourselves, the rest hooved it over to the closest creature. That meant I got Gemini’s, and Falke got Amaryllis. Wasn’t going to bother asking why mom had several of these; they were probably from her time in the Shattered Moon.

I opened up the local map the MentaBuck had of the Hurricane, and then briefly questioned how StableTech had gotten away with putting map data for an Equestria warship on their hardware. It wasn’t ArcanaTech who had made this, that much was clear based on how Hearty had also found the very same map I did on their PipBuck. The high-ranking officer in me couldn’t help but feel my insides boil at the security risk this would have posed back during the war. There was no reason for the ministries to give StableTech this data, no matter what ties Applebloom or Sweetie Belle had to the ministry mares.

“You can question Equestria’s ministries later. Just be happy we have a map at all.”

The soldier piece of me wanted to go into a tirade on national security, but I relented. My inner selves were right. Focus on the task at hoof, like I had to. A map was more than any of us could have expected when it came to navigating this place.

Now if only the map was readable. For all the wonders and capabilities of the computer that had been shoved into my head against my will, clarity on the map turned out to not be one of them. I thought I understood where the hall’s walls were on the green picture obscuring my vision, but everything was blurry. Figuring out where something started and ended. Multiple floors overlaid over each other, creating incoherent messes in some places with no indication of what was above or below us.

“At least we know the general direction is down,” Hearty said, turning back to us at the same time I had willed the MentaBuck’s map away. “Now it’s just a matter of finding out how to get down.”

“Yes, and quickly at that,” Falke replied. “There isn’t enough clean water for us to be dallying.”

It didn’t take long into our exploration for us to realize how much of an issue navigating the Hurricane would be. The ship was nearly a maze, with shallow corridors and dozens upon dozens of rooms whose purposes were all lost. Some might have been common areas, or washrooms, or maybe they had been cabins for the soldiers. Impossible to tell a lot of that now, with how the Shattered Moon had stripped its upper levels bare. When we had found one stairway, we had expected to be free of it.

It didn’t take us as far down as I wanted too. Only two floors, due to the way the ship curved. We were stuck finding another flight.

“At least we know what to climb if we need to get to the main deck,” Hearty said. “Not the worst heat I’ve dealt with in my life, but it certainly is up there.”

“What manner of torture have you been through to find something worse?” Amaryllis asked, a glint of terror visible in those bright blue eyes.

“Radiation sickness,” Hearty answered.

Amaryllis didn’t ask further. The way her eyes suddenly snapped back in front of her made it clear it was less because she didn’t need it and more because she wasn't afraid to. Others besides me probably would have noticed if they weren’t too busy lagging behind us from the heat.

“It still sucks, don’t get me wrong,” Hearty said. “You all might be roasting but I swear my skin is turning black like it was left in an oven for too long.”

“If this is what an oven feels like, then I feel bad for the meat and veggies Miss Harmony cooked last night,” Gemini said. “I hate this, it’s aw… ful.”

Nocreature else paid the way she drew out that last word any mind, leaving me to be the only one to realize that Gemini had stopped. Small droplets of either water or sweat ran down her chin, her eyes looking down a corridor we had ignored. I pulled away from the front of the group and made my way back to her. She noticed me approaching before I had reached her.

“Something up?” I asked.

Everycreature stopped, turning back to the two of us. Instead of replying, she looked back down the corridor. I followed her gaze, only to spot nothing. It seemed as metallic and lifeless as the rest of the artificial beast we stood in.

“There was somepony there,” Gemmy finally said. “An earth pony. They were staring at me, and when you came back they took off.”

Amaryllis groaned. “Great, we’re already hallucinating."

“I’d agree if it was you, Falke, or myself saying that. Gemini, that’s a bit tricky,” Open Heart replied. He trotted over to join us, momentarily looking down the hall Gemini had been staring at, and then to the mare herself. “Were they wearing anything?”

“Yes.”

“What did it look like?”

“It was…,” Gemmy’s hoof stomped the ground as she thought. “Black? A lot of it was black, but there was some white.”

Open Heart tapped his chinning, mumbling to himself. Falke had made his way up to us in that period of time, brow raised as he looked from the ghoul to Gemmy. Finally he landed on me.

“I assume there is something you haven’t told us about your daughter,” he said.

“Hard to tell if it is exactly the case here, given nopony but Gemini has seen them,” I replied, shrugging with my wings. “Though assuming the guards outside did their job of making sure nopony got in, that leaves spirits.”

“And she can see them?” he asked.

“Just as well as I can,” I said.

“Whether your daughter saw a spirit or not, is this really necessary?” Amaryllis asked. She had barely moved, staring at us with unamused, eyes narrowed specifically on Open Heart. “We came here to kill a monster and find some secret room at the bottom of the ship. I need not ask the Messenger if this is a waste of time or not.”

“You do realize that we can cut our time down greatly if the ghost she saw was a member of the Hurricane’s crew, right?” Hearty asked. “White and black do match up with the colors Equestria had for its navy. They’ve been on here for two centuries and likely know more about this ship than you know about your digestive system.”

Amaryllis’ eye twitched, mandibles out and spread as some form of subconscious threat. Open Heart merely smirked at the sight, much in the same way he would when we had first met. Not even the oven-like environment of the Hurricane could stop him from purposefully riling up those he hates.

“If it was indeed a spirit of the ship’s crew, we could possibly learn where the megaspell bay is. They might also know what in Tartarus killed the creatures the Shattered Moon sent,” he explained. His smirk grew just a little wider. “Is it a waste of time now, bug brain?”

“You are the most insufferable rotting corpse I have ever met,” Amaryllis growled out through gritted teeth. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and then leered at Hearty with enough venom to instantly kill a young foal. “Yet the Messenger alerts me that there is truth in your words. Is the spirit still there, Gemini.”

“I think so?” Gemini replied, tilting her head. She looked back down the hallway. “It seemed like they were watching from one of the rooms at the back and not from another hall.”

“Then by all means do it, you and your mother are the ones who can talk to them. I will wait here.”

I turned back to my daughter, motioning with a wing for her to take the lead. Gemmy smiled for the first time since stepping in the Hurricane and did just that. I followed her down the hall. She had seen the spirit, watching the other rooms just in case I saw any others. They were empty, however, just like every other room the Shattered Moon had stripped down till the only things left were the walls, floor, and the occasional pipe.

“How many ponies were stationed here?” my inner selves asked. “Most cloudships in the Enclave only have a couple dozen or so crew members. Even the biggest ones only have up to one or two hundred.”

“How should I know?” I asked back. “I know as much about these ships as you two.”

“Well an estimate would still be nice.”

I tried. By Celestia I tried really damn hard to come up with what my mind could view as a reasonable answer. No cloudship in the Enclave could compare to the Hurricane, not just in size but in the sheer amount of living quarters. I knew the majority of them likely held more than one pony – unless they were officers – but that was it. The number of rooms, the lack of beds to get some form of a body count, it made estimating the number of ponies impossible.

“Got nothing,” I told myself.

“Damn,” my inner selves replied. “That’s going to frustrate me for the next several days.”

“Who are you talking to?” Gemmy asked, looking back to me. She had stopped near the end of the hallway, body facing a room that was on my right.

“Nopony,” I said, convincingly of course.

Gemmy blinked, and then looked towards the aforementioned room. “I think they came out of there.”

“You think so?”

“I mean, maybe it came from that room instead,” she pointed at a door to the left of the one right in front of us, “but it isn’t any of the others, I’m sure.”

I nodded, and then pointed at the second door she mentioned. “You go in that one, and I’ll check this one. If they are there, let me know.”

Gemmy nodded, and without further word trotted over to her room. I did the same with my objective, eyes peeled on the furthermost wall. Not that turning my head would have done anything in the end. The moment I entered it, something collided into my side…

And wrapped their hooves around my neck.

“Got you, monster!”

Everything happened too fast for me to see who had just grabbed me. I was dragged into the room against my will, then thrown to the floor. As soon as my hooves were under me there was weight on my body, pinning me to the ground. It didn’t feel like there was any pressure in the places I was being held, nor the touch of hooves, fur, or mane. It felt almost like the wind itself was holding me down, yet it was as stale and lifeless as the pony-made beast we were currently stuck in.

“You’re the one that’s been sending creatures in here, haven’t you?” the pony holding me asked. Their voice was gruff, deep, a bit twangy too. “Feeding them to your fellow freaks?”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” I said.

“Don’t bother trying to trick me. We’ve been stuck on this ship forever, of course we know what your kind look like,” he said. I tried to turn my neck to get a better look at him, but all I managed to catch was the semi-transparent sight of a purple and blue mane. “Now all I have to do is figure out exactly what can kill you and–”

The weight on my back disappeared in an instant, and I watched as the ghost of an earth pony landed head first on the floor. They were the owner of the mane and tail I had seen moments earlier. Their similar blue coat was mostly hidden under an unfamiliar but recognizable uniform. Mainly white with black outlines, a patch indicating rank near the chest, and a logo that I was unfamiliar with on a beret. The latter didn’t move an inch from their forehead stuck to their spiritual form for reasons only Vigil probably knew.

I slowly stood back up with the help of hooves and my daughter’s familiar magic aura. A look to my side was all the confirmation I needed to know who had gotten the ghost off of me. Her eyes looked up into mine, a question having formed in her mind but unable to say anything. A smile seemed to lessen her concerns slightly, though not exactly by much.

Apparently I had taken my eyes off the spirit of this old soldier for too long, because I hadn’t noticed him trying to escape until an ‘oof’ hit Gemmy and I’s ears. As we turned back towards the door, we found him once again having fallen backwards, this time having run into the body of Falke. His frame blocked the spirits retreat, though he likely didn’t know that at all. His focus was on me after all.

“Everything okay?” the griffon asked.

“Overall, yes,” I answered, before glaring at the spirit. They were looking back at me, what bravado they had gained in attacking me moments earlier gone as they quivered in fear. “And it seems we found the spirit Gemmy mentioned.”

As I trotted towards them, they spun themselves around and tried to scurry back towards Falke. “N-n-now now, don’t do anything hasty. I’m sure I’m not as tasty as the other two.”

I hooked a hoof around one of their homes and yanked them up. They looked about ready to piss themselves with how small their pupils were.

“You're going to answer our questions. Refuse, and I can’t promise your safety,” I said. The threat was a fib (I doubted there was anything I could actually do to hurt him after all) but he was far too afraid to realize that. Several hasty nods were his response. “Good, now take a seat over here please.”

“I think we’ll be fine, Mister Falke,” Gemmy said as I dragged the spirit over to the wall.

I barely heard the faint clink of the griffon’s talons on metal, my hooves making far louder and more aggravating noises against the floor. I swung the spirit in front of myself, his back up against the wall, trapped by my larger frame. It was the first time the height I had gained from Rhapsody and DH merging proved to be anything more than slightly disorienting.

With a wing, I pointed back towards Gemmy and then to my side. She got the hint, trotting up next to me and looking at my attacker with a rare sign of anger. Probably would have done more if it wasn’t for the fact said pony was dead, and her slightly skewed view on respect wasn’t stopping her.

“We should probably correct that sooner rather than later.”

“Yeah,” I mumbled. Then, leaning down towards the earth pony spirit, I did my best to take all emotion out of my face. I’d never seen a spirit’s face go pale before, not until that moment. “Name, rank, job. Now!”

“P-P-Petty Officer Bowsprite, e-engineer for the ESS H-Hurricane,” he replied.

“Petty Officer? I’d expect you to have your emotions under control sailor, considering your station,” I replied. I placed a hoof on the wall next to him. “I’m Danse Macabre, and this here is Shining Gemini. Us and our companions are here under order of the Shattered Moon to find a megaspell bay that is supposedly hidden here. You wouldn’t happen to know where it is, do you?”

Bowsprite looked to my daughter, and then to me. “I-I’m not telling you. I’m not letting your kind kill more ponies.”

I felt my eyebrow twitch, and I leaned even closer to him, parting my bangs to reveal my horn.. “You want to repeat that, petty officer?”

“Th-they got an alicorn?” he whispered, brow shooting up as high as physically possible.

“Now listen, no matter what you heard of the Shattered Moon all those years ago, they are not the bad guys,” I explained to him. “They run Southern San Palomino since Equestria's government is long gone. They want to decommission this ship, use the material for other things to better the lives of the ponies they protect. That’s why we need to know where these megaspells are. Mind telling us now?”

Terror and awe filled the spirit’s face, probably thinking they had just insulted some form of modern day royalty. I expected him to immediately spill his guts out, but instead something about it seemed to steel his resolve. He glared at me with the confidence that finally fit his job. It had taken him long enough.

“I-I’m sorry your highness, but I will not,” Bowspirit said. “I will not put your charges in any danger.”

“If you mean the monster on this ship,” Gemmy replied, “we already know about it.”

“It’s another reason we are here,” I said. “A young colt was found murdered by something that was clearly not a pony. It came only a day or so after another group went missing before us directly from the Shattered Moon. We’ve been sent to deal with it.”

“You… want to kill it?” he asked. I narrowed my eyes at the question, his brow shooting up once again as he realized how that sounded. “I-I-I mean, that’s a good thing but… I’m just surprised.”

I tilted my head. “Surprised how?”

“It’s, well, no offense your majesty but…,” Bowsprite gulped, “you look just like them.”

Without even thinking, I pressed into the spirit further. A growl rumbled through my threat, face pressed against face. It didn’t hit me that in some strange way, I was actually touching the spirit before me as if they were a living being. His forehooves were pressed against my chest, somehow managing to hold me back the tiniest bit.

Gemmy, while not the target of Bowsprite’s words, had a very similar look of fury on her face. When I had attempted to flatten the spirit into a spectral pancake, she had pressed her face as close to his as she possibly could.

“What do you mean by that?” I asked.

“I-I mean exactly as I said,” Bowsprite answered. “None of us have any idea what that creature is. We had sent ponies down to fix damage to the hull and they never came back up. After I tried to sacrifice myself for the crew, the other spirits showed me what it was.”

He shuddered, his forehooves trying and failing to reach and protect his face. His form faltered momentarily, distorting like Stardust had when I first met her.

“So when I say you look like them, I mean it. You can still talk, but your form is somehow just hunger and fury.”

Hearing those words, it all clicked together. I backed up, a wing reaching out in front of Gemmy, silently informing her to do the same. She looked at me, confused, but didn’t fight against it. Closing my eyes, my other wing reached towards the base of my muzzle and started massaging it.

Bowsprite declaring me a monster made so much more sense, same with how other spirits have treated me since becoming Danse Macabre. The way my mind had seen it up to that moment, Singing Rhapsody and Dead Hooves were the only things that made up who I was. Yet Dead Hooves was not whole enough upon her original death to hold herself together, Vigil had said as much. The only thing holding her together was the mlafi that had infected her.

A mlafi that, as I understood it at that moment, was keeping me together as well. The only reason I hadn’t noticed, was because of how absent the hunger was. It made so much sense why the filly haunting my mom was afraid of me now.

“Bowsprite,” I said. “You see that in me too, right? Hunger and rage?”

“Yes, your highness. Not just me, but every other spirit on the ship,” he said. “One of us noticed you all from the deck before you had entered the Hurricane and alerted the captain. We thought you were maybe responsible for the others who had died on the ship, Shattered Moon or not.”

“Others have been on here?” Gemmy asked. “I mean, besides those from the Shattered Moon.”

“Yeah. Probably thought it was easy scavenging and a quick bit,” he replied, nodding. “If they were early they had stuff on these middle and upper levels to take. It’s barren now, as you can see, meaning anything of value is down below.”

“Meaning they would have walked right into the mlafi’s territory.”

My words quickly drew the spirit’s attention. “A mlafi, your majesty?”

“A creature of undying hunger, who can take over the bodies of those who’ve eaten their own kind,” I explained to him. His ears folded back, terrified. “Did things get to the point where you and your fellow soldiers considered cannibalism?”

Bowsprite looked away, grimacing in disgust. “A few of us did when supplies ran out. They started attacking and killing others for no reason as time went on so we killed them. After that most of us either attempted to swim back to shore – which was too far away for anyone to reach – or took the easy way out.”

“Do you think it was possible for one of those who did eat a pony to go unnoticed?”

“Maybe, but the monster can’t walk on land like a pony can,” Bowsprite answered, shrugging. “All we knew was that, at some point, it wandered in through one of the holes in the hull. Called the bottom of the Hurricane home.”

“So whatever the mlafi got hold of, it wasn’t a pony,” I muttered.

Bowsprite looked back at me, disgust turning to fear as the information I was presenting to him clicked. Not just in terms of what the creature at the bottom of the ship was, but to what was before him. I thought I understood what the wide eyes and hanging jaw he wore on his face meant, and with the knowledge I had told him what seemed to be the truth.

“I’m… a bit of a complicated case. I got a mlafi possessing a part of me, but it doesn’t have any power,” I told him. “Trust me when I say I’m not the same monster that we are here to kill.”

That didn’t calm him down at all. With the space I had given him, he had more than enough room to move, and he used it immediately. Faster than I could react, his head impacted into my neck. One of my forehooves immediately went to my neck, the other collapsing, and with my attention firmly on myself Bowsprite rushed off. My vision locked itself on the floor, the metallic grey only getting interrupted by the grey of my daughter’s coat.

“Mom!”

“I’m…,”

A cough left my throat as I tried to speak. Gritting my teeth, I laid down a bit more comfortably and continued to rub in the area Bowsprite had rushed into me. It didn’t hurt, or at the very least there was no pain, but my esophagus still acted like it would if a real pony had done that. Granted, if Bowsprite had been alive, that might have done a little more than wind me.

“He hurt you?” Gemmy asked. It was as much a question about my safety, as it was confusion.

“Yeah, just like he held me down earlier. Not sure how he managed that,” I said, smiling as the hoof on my neck joined the rest on the floor. “I’m fine though. No damage done.”

Gemmy let out a sigh of relief, and then wrapped her forelegs around me in a hug. I returned it briefly before standing back up. Looking towards the entrance to the room, there was no sign of the spirit, and moving into the hallway showed the same. A frown took form on my muzzle.

“Rather cowardly for being a member of the equestrian military,” I said. “Doesn’t put forth the greatest of impressions, that’s for sure.”

“I don’t get him,” Gemmy replied, tilting her head. “He tries to hurt you, then stops us from finding the creature, and then hits you and runs off. Is that how other military ponies act?”

I shook my head. “Not the good ones. If the ponies supposed to protect you are running away, they aren’t good protectors.”

“Are you two done yet?!” Amaryllis shouted from where the rest of our group was, my daughter and I turning around to look at her. “My insides are boiling under my chitin.”

“Just finished, calm your wings!” I shouted back at her.

The changeling glared at me and, in immature spite, started rapidly buzzing her wings. The display was more adorable than anything.

The farther down we went, the more we all got to see of the damage done to the ship during its two centuries stuck out in the bay. Far less had been taken from down this far, allowing us to see a rusted, moldy, sickly version of what certain rooms may have looked like. Being where we were in the ship, a lot of it came in the form of the bits and pieces that actually made the ship run, storage, things that a soldier wouldn’t go to unless the work they did required it.

Rhapsody had worked at the gunsmith whenever she was on base or deployed. That would have been on a floor higher than these; she would have no reason to venture this direction.

With the rust and mold, the heat was no longer on any of our minds; the closer we got to the water, the cooler the Hurricane got. Instead we had to deal with the smell and sights. If it wasn’t metal, an item either looked incomprehensible or was covered in stuff nocreature but Open Heart likely knew. Discolored, smelling wrong, breaking or tearing at the slightest motion, and more often than not some combination of the three.

“All of this damage just because of age and salt water,” Amaryllis remarked, the tiniest hint of discomfort in their voice as she spoke. “I’m amazed the ship didn’t tear itself apart on the way back.”

“I assume you don’t see this much in Our Haven,” Falke said, tapping his claws against the rusted metal. The sound gave the impression of sturdiness, even if coloring didn’t. “This is common in many places where the Enclave covers the sky. Things don’t try unless you can create a fire.”

“And ponies choose to live in such awful places?” they asked.

“The large majority of them don’t know the cloud layer ends. You spend so long with it above your head, everywhere you go, that its ending feels impossible,” Falke explained. He turned to Hearty. “I assume you thought that, much like I once did.”

“For longer than you have any idea,” He replied. “Can’t remember what it felt like, seeing sunlight for the first time. Was so long ago now.”

“You’ll have to forgive me for viewing that as impossible,” Amaryllis said. “The idea of never seeing the sun feels too foreign to picture.”

“Guess it goes both ways then,” Hearty said, shrugging. There was a slight pause, and then, “What?”

“That was rather civil, considering how you typically act to each other,” Falke replied.

“The Voice of the Messenger is always civil,” Amaryllis said. “The rotting nature of a ghoul’s brain just has trouble understanding what that means.”

Said ghoul rolled his eyes. “Yes, clearly it’s my brain and not yours.”

Falke groaned, and then another groan-like sound echoed back from further down the hall. Every creature stopped where they were, eyes forward. The sound lasted too long to actually be an echo, and voice just off enough for us to tell it was not Falke. As if desiring to confirm our suspicion, the groan rolled through the halls of the Hurricane, sounding even less like Falke then before; his was born out of annoyance, this one sounded like a pain in the form of a melody.

As I reached for the Trench Buster with my magic, Amaryllis frowned. “Is that really necessary?”

I looked at her. “I’m sorry?”

“It’s clearly another of you idiot heretics. Probably tried to swim in and cut themselves open,” Amaryllis replied. “I’d hardly call that a reason to bring out weapons.”

“Miss Amaryllis,” Gemmy said. She had followed my lead, taking out her own pistol, looking at it terrified. “I don’t think that was a pony.”

The changeling furrowed her brow, frown deepening. “What do you mean?”

“Until Gemini and I talked to that spirit, we only had the knowledge that whatever was down her sings,” I told them. “Now we know it is some type of aquatic mlafi. They have the ability to mimic voices to some extent. Open Heart and I have seen it ourselves.”

“Is this true?” Amaryllis asked, turning to the ghoul.

“Yeah, and my wi… I had heard the sound even earlier than that,” he answered.

Both he and Falke had their own firearms ready. This was the first time I had actually paid any real thought to the griffon-made rifle Falke had on him, old but exceedingly well cared for. I made a mental note to myself to ask him for a chance to fire it, purely to sate some curiosity.

Amaryllis focused their attention back down to the end of the hall, where ‘singing’ was coming from. They eyed the walls as if to measure it, mandibles twitching in anticipation. With a sigh, their frown turned into a scowl. She turned to me.

“A hellhound wouldn’t fit in here, and as unfamiliar as I am in the nature of this creature you call a mlafi…,” they held their hoof out, “I fear I’m going to require a weapon.”

I was about ready to point out the fact she had even less firearm training than Gemini, but Falke beat me to it. He took his knife and placed it in her outstretched hoof. Amaryllis glared at him with mandibles raised high, but he simply looked back at them exhausted, like an out of shape pegasus having their first day in boot camp. When it did not change what was held in their hoof, they snorted and scrunched their muzzle. Everycreature present knew that would do jack against the beast we would be fighting.

“Amaryllis,” I said. “I’m teaching you how to shoot a gun if we make it out of here.”

“You need not chastise me, the Messenger is already doing that,” Amaryllis replied. Their magic grabbed the combat knife, lifting it from her hoof into the air. “Shouldn’t you be telling me we will make it out of here, though?”

“And get your hopes up? I’d be a poor officer if I did that,” I said.

Wasn’t going to let them argue that, so I started trotting down the hall once more, shotgun up and ready. Amaryllis still tried, but as soon as I refused to answer their third attempt at calling me out, they gave up. It allowed me to focus on the sounds of the mlafi in the distance as we made our way through the ship. We reached the next staircase without any sight of them.

If the effect of water on metal was shown on the floor above, reaching the bottom of these made it clear that it was more that kept it from getting back to harbor. The first step I took was met with a small splash, leading me to look downwards. A thin line of water, just deep enough to cover my hoof, dirty and still. I could hear Hearty gag at the sight of it.

What I suddenly didn’t hear, was the mlafi’s singing.

The dripping of water, Gemini’s breathing, my hooves going out and back into the water, all were present. The thing that had led us and multiple others down here, however, no longer wailed in some approximation of a melody. My eyes looked to my left, down one hall, and then towards the one in front of me. I didn’t see anything, the still water filthy enough to block sight of the metal below me. Something was wrong, but I wasn’t entirely sure what.

Not until I found a large hole directly in front of me.

It was like missing a step when going down the stairs, my body attempting to tumble forward as my hoof sunk lower than. My wings spread out as much as the corridor would allow, flapping to keep myself from falling into the water. It likely wouldn’t have been enough if not for being magically tugged backwards and onto my ass by several ponies.

“You good?” Hearty asked.

I tilted my head back enough to look at him, giving a very awkward nod to him. “Yeah. Make sure to watch your step, the flooring isn’t all there anymo–”

A loud splash interrupted my warning, the wasteland deciding that it wanted to show instead of tell. Several of my companions' eyes lit up in shock or fear, guns up as they readied to fire. My head snapped back in front of me, not carrying as I got sprayed by water, trying to see exactly what they were aiming at.

All I saw before me was a mass of flesh leaping out of the water, looking nothing like that of a pony. A fact that I only became more familiar with when I felt a large maw clamped down on my chest and up and, without any time to grab my weapons, I was dragged into the pit I had barely escaped from.

Author's Note

Sorry this took me so long everyone. Spent some time focusing on another Fallout Equestria story that has been uploaded onto her in the past few months, and then tie that in with holidays and how badly I handle traveling, writing got put on the backburner for a little bit. Even when I did finally get back it took some time to really find my footing again, and I'll admit that, if this chapter feels a little weird, that might be why. Half of it was written at a far different time than the other, and while I did my best to make sure things are in sync I can only hope that it doesn't feel too disjointed.