Chapters CHAPTER 1: SPLASH
995 ANM (After Nightmare Moon)
Middle of the Celestial sea.
Torrent Tide gazed out at the dark purple water from the deck of the S.S. Whirlpool, watching as the stars danced and swooned in the lapping waves.
The unmistakable smell of the sea overpowered by the ever beautiful night’s sky, and the smooth rocking of the boat nearly putting her to sleep.
But Tide was suddenly jolted back to wakefulness at the sound of hoofsteps approaching behind her.
“Shouldn't you be in your bunk, Private?” Asked the gruff no-nonsense voice of Tide’s commanding officer, sergeant Intimidating Presence.
“Sorry Sergeant, couldn't sleep.” Tide responded hurriedly, turning to face the sergeant.
“Why not?” Sergeant Presence questioned, his one raised brow telling Tide she was already on thin ice.
“It’s nothing, really,” Tide tried, but the look from her superior told her he wasn't buying it.
“Just… some personal matters, I probably shouldn’t have let it bother me anyway.” Tide finished, she was hoping to weasel her way out of the situation as quickly as possible.
“Hold on a second Private,” the Sergeant ordered. Tide winced, and swiftly debated if it would be better to stay, or just gallop for her life.
“If something is bothering you it would be better to just let it out, bottling it up will get you or somepony else hurt.”
Tide looked up to the gray furred face of the older stallion, she could see the hint of pain in his eyes, and she knew he was speaking from first hoof experience. She realized then and there, there was no way to get out of this.
“I’m.. just bored, Sergeant. We’ve only been on this tub for a few days now, but my entire career it's just been ‘stand there’ or ‘keep watch’ here, nothing ever actually happens.”
Tide could see the Sergeant think over her words, but she wasn’t quite done.
“I hoped when our unit got signed up for this trip to Griffonstone, it would be… y’know, exciting? But, then I learned we weren’t going to be allowed to leave the docks for the whole trip, so there goes that, and I dunno… I guess it's just getting to me.”
Sergeant Presence stared Tide down for a long moment, before looking away and letting out a loud sigh. He turned back to Tide and spoke again.
“Private, I understand how you feel. When I first joined the guard I thought it would all be fighting with glory and honor to defend my home and country, when I realized that all those things were nothing but quotes in the sign up posters… it crushed me.”
Tide stood silently, allowing her commanding officer to continue.
“But, if I've learned something during the 20 years I’ve been in service for Equestria it’s that what we do for our country may not be glorious, or exciting, but it’s what needs to be done.”
It was Tide’s turn to raise a brow now, causing her Superior to chuckle lightly, a rare sound from the old Pegasus.
“The royal guard’s duty is to protect and serve , when you help an old mare cross the street, or get a cat out of a tree, they might seem like small things to you, but they mean the world to the ponies you do them for.”
Tide took a long moment to think over the sergeant's words, she had never really thought about it that way, but it made sense, and it made Tide feel a little bit better.
“Thanks, Sarge,” she said after a long moment of silence.
“Think nothing of it, now how about we get back to bed eh? Still got a long day ahead of us.”
As the two ponies turned to walk back to their quarters, they were rocked by the roar of an explosion underhoof.
Looking around, Tide could see deckhooves begin running across the boat, some heading for the lifeboats, others heading into the bowels of the ship to the sound of screaming and shouting.
Sergeant Presence didn’t hesitate to go into action, grabbing one of the passing crew members by the tail to get his attention.
“What's going on!” he questioned.
“Looks like somepony didn’t pack the black powder away right and it went off!”
"Anything we can do to help?" The lieutenant asked.
"If you can, see about getting ponies out from the lower deck and over to the lifeboats."
With nothing else to say, the crew member ran over to said lifeboats and began helping others in taking them down. Sergeant Presence swiftly turned to Tide.
"I'll go get Ponies to the boats. You go help get the boats ready" He ordered, before swiftly galloping below deck.
As Tide ran up to the rack where the boats were stacked She took notice of how much they seemed to be struggling, and quickly located the problem, a knot tied at the top of the boat rack, nearly impossible to reach for an earth pony, but easy to fly to for a Pegasus.
Without a second thought, Torrent Tide unfurled her ivory white wings, flapping once to get herself into the air, and again to prevent the weight of her armor from dragging her back to the ground.
She soared to the top of the rack, landing right on top of the knot, unsheathing the utility knife from her left leg guard, she pushed it underneath the rope and cut through it in one swift, clean motion, quickly slipping the blade back into its holster and gliding back down to the deck below. She wasted no time in helping the crew unload lifeboats.
Before even the first boat could be unloaded, there was another ghastly roar of black powder below deck, and Tide could feel the side of the ship beginning to give way.
Thinking quickly, she grabbed one of the ropes that had been undone from the rack, and tied it to the ends of two lifeboats, then, tugging the middle of the lead with her teeth, began flying out over the water, pulling the boats with her. When they finally cleared the last of the deck, they landed in the waiting sea with a loud splash.
Sergeant Presence had reappeared and was aiding the crew members in ushering ponies into the dinghies, some of the crew began tying boats together, and Tide was joined by more Pegasi in repeating the process of dragging boats off the ship allowing Ponies to jump in.
Once Tide was confident there were no more passengers on the vessel, she landed down on the deck just above where the lifeboats were being unloaded, she was just about to board the last boat when a rumble from below caught her attention.
Before she could even react, Tide was launched into the air by the biggest explosion she’d ever seen. Tide desperately tried to fight against the weight of her armor, trying in vain to splay her wings and ease into a glide, but before she could gain enough surface for air resistance, she felt herself be enveloped in the dark, cold, abyss of the Celestial ocean.
***
Torrent Tide did everything in her power not to open her mouth, lest she let in the thousands of gallons of water that surrounded her as she fought with every ounce of her being to swim upwards.
But she couldn’t, the weight of her armor kept her held deep beneath the surface of the waves.
Wait, Her armor! Tide reached to her head quickly lifting off her helmet, she tapped the magic sigil inscribed just above the face opening.
Tide could feel the helmet begin to lift upward as it's buoyancy enchantment took effect, grasping on to it with all her strength, the magic inscribed in it began pulling her up. She held on for what felt like an eternity before she finally felt herself break the surface.
Taking a deep breath as she rose above the ocean waves, Tide began to take in her surroundings.
Destruction.
All around her were the shattered flaming remains of the S.S. Whirlpool, but Tide’s attention was quickly pulled away from the ship itself, doing a quick once over of the area but what she found shook her to her very core.
Bodies of ponies floated about the dark purple waters, many charred or dismembered, clearly killed in the explosion.
Tide could feel the bile fighting to escape her stomach, but with a heaving gag and every ounce of willpower she could muster, she managed to keep it down.
If there was anypony still alive she needed to find them, but she couldn’t do it in her current state. She scanned her surroundings for a flotation device with more area then her helmet. To her relief she caught sight of a somewhat still intact dinghy.
Eventually she managed to paddle over to the boat, climbing inside she shook off the majority of the frigid sea water. Setting her helmet in the crook behind her, she took hold of the paddles and slowly began to row.
“Hello!?” Tide called out, the lack of a response adding to her already growing terror.
“HELLO!?” This time she outright screamed. She but the only sound that met her was the crackling of the flaming wreckage, painting a horrible picture in her head.
The idea that maybe, she was the only one who survived.
No! She couldn’t be the only one alive! She just couldn’t!
Despite her trepidation's she was running out of options, she began to scan the bodies around her. Hoping for some sign of life, any life.
Finally Tide caught sight of a coat of familiar gray fur, broken up by the unmistakable gold plated armor of the royal guard.
“Sergeant Presence!” Tide called out hoping to catch her superiors attention. But, as she drew closer she saw it. The Sergeant’s entire bottom half was gone, what was left of his intestines caught on a jagged piece of the ship’s remains.
Tide couldn’t fight it this time. Leaning over the side of her boat Tide emptied the contents of her belly into the Celestial sea.
Tide couldn’t look at it, she couldn’t let the last sight of her leader to be him torn in half floating in the middle of the cold merciless ocean. With no other option, she stared up. She stared up at the dark night sky, quickly her eyes found something to focus on.
The moon, she stared at the moon, adorned with the black silhouette of a unicorns head, she stared at the moon for what felt like years.
As Tide sat there losing herself in the faint moonlight, she felt herself collapse. It was all too much for her, she couldn’t handle it, pulling her legs tight against her chest, she curled up at the bottom of the small lifeboat, she felt cramped, but she didn’t care. She couldn’t bring herself to care as she slipped into merciful unconsciousness.
Tide awoke slowly. The soft moonlight of the night’s sky shone down on her as her eyes slowly opened.
As Tide stirred to full wakefulness, she quickly realized that the soft rocking of the boat in the waves had stopped.
Taking in her surroundings Tide realized she had beached. Shooting up in alarm Tide looked to the small island in front of her, consisting of nothing but a large stone lighthouse.
Tide couldn’t believe what she was looking at She swiftly rubbed her eyes, just to make sure this wasn't a trick of the light. As she looked again her vision was still filled with the looming form of the art deco structure. Quickly hopping out of the boat, she made a bee-line for the stone giant in front of her.
As Tide approached the large brass double doors built firmly into the base of the building, she noticed that one of them was slightly ajar.
Pushing on the open door she found that it resisted more than she thought it would. Undeterred, she pushed harder, forcing it to swing wider and swiftly slipping inside.
Tide realized she hadn’t thought this all the way through when the door swung back on its own weight, slamming shut with a loud thud.
Tide stood frozen in the pitch black darkness for a long moment, then without warning there was a click from somewhere above her. To her shock, the room was suddenly bathed in light.
Tide blinked rapidly, trying to adjust to the abrupt change, but as her eyes adjusted she nearly wished they hadn’t.
There, built into the very walls of the lighthouse, was a humongous gold statue of a creature Tide had never seen before.
It looked vaguely similar to a monkey, but lacking any fur or hair, except what seemed to be a short mane on its head, and a small pencil thin mustache.
Below the monument was a crimson banner embroidered with golden letters.
NO GODS OR KINGS.
ONLY MAN.
Tide swallowed the lump in her throat, turning her gaze as she noticed a small plaque at the base of the statue.
In what country is there a place for men like me? -Andrew Ryan
Tide was already starting to paint a picture in her head of this Andrew Ryan character. Large gold statue. Propaganda. Ornate lighthouse. Clearly he was some sort of ruler, she just hoped he was half as benevolent as Princess Celestia.
Tide scanned the rest of the room, setting her eyes on two identical doorways, stepping up to the one on the right, she took notice that it, (as well as the door on the left) led to a single stairway.
With nowhere else to go, she took a moment to ready herself, and descended the stairs.
As Tide made her way down the steps she found herself led into a large chamber, along the ornate rounded stone walls were three inscribed gold plaques. SCIENCE, INDUSTRY, and ART.
So this ruler worshiped science industry and art? Well Tide supposed there were worse things to deify.
Making her way around the room, she took notice of what seemed to be the centerpiece.
A large bubble made almost completely of brass except a glass window on the front. Through it she could see two long velvet benches, and in the middle a large podium. On the top sat a bright red lever.
As Tide approached, the glass front of the bubble swung open, allowing her entrance.
Tide assumed this to be some sort of elevator, reluctantly stepping inside, she grasped the lever in her mouth and pulled.
Author's Note
This used to be two chapters, but i deleted the original chapter 2 and just added it to this chapter sense it made more sense that way.
EDIT: Was a complete doof and mixed up the ranks, Not sure how THAT happened but I fixed it!
Torrent Tide watched out the window with bated breath as the brass bubble began to descend, realization slowly dawning on her as she took notice of markers passing by her vision.
10 FATHOMS
Tide quickly realized she made a slight miscalculation.
18 FATHOMS
This wasn’t an elevator.
26 FATHOMS
It was a submarine.
Tide was distracted from her mounting dread by the sudden lowering of a large projector screen from above. She stared patiently at the aging white paper as a film began to play.
In front of her was a picture of the being she had come to recognize as Andrew Ryan, comfortably seated behind an ornate wooden desk.
Tide’s ears swiveled towards the sound of words erupting from some hidden speaker above her.
“I am Andrew Ryan, and I’m here to ask you a question.” The narration began simply.
“Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his brow?” The question was followed by a new image, this one a depiction of a so-called ‘man’ seemingly a farmer standing in his field, wiping his forehead with a rag.
““No,” says the man in Washington, "it belongs to the poor!”” The narration continued, now accompanied by a picture of the farmer, running in terror from an impossibly large bald eagle, soaring from a rounded towering stone building, talons posed as if ready to whisk the farmer away to some unseen nightmarish fate.
““No,” says the man in the Vatican, “it belongs to God!”” This time the screen depicted one ginormous hand, reaching down from the clouds above. Palm outstretched, beckoning to the still terrified farmer.
““No,” says the man in Moscow, "it belongs to everyone!”” Once more the image changed, now ushering a hammer and sickle descending from the sky above some sort of foreign palace. Tide wasn’t sure what they were trying to do to the farmer this time. But he was still horrified nonetheless.
“I rejected those answers, instead I chose something different. I chose the impossible! I chose…” Tide watched with undivided attention as the projector screen pulled away. For a moment her vision was filled with nothing but rocks and coral, but as the submarine rose over the surrounding terrain, she saw it.
“Rapture.” Tide couldn’t believe her eyes.
In front of her was what she could only describe as a metropolis. An entire city, sprawling across the seafloor.
As the submarine began to glide and weave between monolithic skyscrapers and the clear glass tunnels that connected them, the voice piped up again.
“A city where the artist would not fear the censor.” Tide tore her focus from the grandiose speech for a moment as she noticed that the craft was growing closer to one of the buildings.
“Where the scientist would not be bound by petty morality.” The narration once again grabbed Tide’s attention.
“Where the great would not be constrained by the small. And with the sweat of your brow, Rapture can become your city, as well.” With that the spiel finally came to a close.
Tide watched as her vessel effortlessly soared through the water, slowly approaching a small tunnel of metal rings. She could see something written out on each one and quickly began to read them.
ALL GOOD THINGS
OF THIS EARTH
FLOW
INTO THE CITY
As she made out the writing on the final ring the submarine came to a sudden stop. Tide stared at the beautifully chiseled wall in front of her, for a moment she thought her vessel had reached a dead end, Tide realized she was wrong as the craft began to rise.
As the submarine breached the top of the chamber, Tide could see from inside as the vessel broke the surface of the water.
With a hiss from somewhere within the brass bubble, Tide felt nearly weightless for a moment before the craft hissed once more and the feeling completely turned Tide now felt like she was made of lead, and if that wasn’t bad enough, she also felt a splitting headache begin pounding in her head.
After what felt like an eternity, her headache seemed to quell and with that her focus returned to the world around her.
The first thing she took notice of was the sound of static from somewhere near her head, looking up and to the left, her eyes landed on a small device covered in knobs levers and buttons, for a moment she thought it was some sort of control panel, but turning her eyes just a bit higher she noticed a sign reading ‘SERVICE RADIO’.
Carefully sitting back on her haunches, as to avoid crushing her ocean blue tail, Tide reached up with her front hooves and unhooked the radio from the wall of the submarine.
Tide reached for one of the knobs at random and, after a moment of trying and failing to turn it with her hooves, twisted it with her mouth and much to her surprise, the static cleared slightly, turning the knob even more revealed a voice trying, and nearly failing to be heard.
“Whoev- static -in the- static -sphere- static - get movin-” it ordered, barely piercing through the scratching and buzzing of the static.
Despite the fact she could barley make out what had come through the speaker, Tide was intuitive enough to understand what it meant by 'sphere' she quickly hung the radio on the neck of her armor, located, and turned a lever on the side of the glass door.
With the hiss of releasing pressure it swung open to reveal what Tide could only recognize as a grand hall of some kind and she took a moment to register the state of the cavernous expanse as she stepped out.
The room appeared to be a station of some kind. Tide weaved between the benches and schedule charts that adorned the area, the only sound was the clacking of her armored hooves on the off white tile floor as she carefully dodged between the scattered suitcases, duffel bags, and even the occasional dog cage or two.
A ceiling of glass stretched down along the wall in strips, broken up by whatever gray stone the rest of the building was made of.
But what was most off putting to Tide, was just how abandoned the lobby was. It looked like nopony had been here for at least a decade. The outside of the glass walls were covered in overgrown algae and she could make out the occasional starfish stuck to their surface.
The once plush leather benches were now torn and cracked from years of neglect, and every single schedule on the charts read ‘CANCELED’ in bold red letters.
Tide took in the smell of dust and saltwater as she traversed through the maze of abandoned luggage, occasionally stopping to gaze at the colorful deep sea creatures that swam just outside the windows. Tide stopped as she noticed something sitting on the sill of the window just outside, she took a seat on the cold tile floor and craned her neck downwards to study the specimen.
It appeared to be a sea slug of some kind, dark almost gray in color with small glowing bright red dots lining its sides. On top of its wide squatty head was an exceptionally large red bulb, yet its eyes were a dark empty orange. Tide had never heard of a slug like this before, but considering Equestria’s lacking submersible technology it wasn’t shocking that some underwater species had yet to be discovered.
Now there was a thought. Technically, Tide was the first pony to ever discover the underwater city of Rapture. Her mind slowly began to swim with possibilities as she stood up and continued through the deserted station.
When Tide returned to the surface and made Princess Celestia aware of Rapture’s existence, she would be awarded a medal, or a promotion, or maybe she would task Tide with discovering other forgotten civilizations. Her heart fluttered at the idea of navigating through old ruins, dodging traps and solving ancient puzzles.
Tide quickly shook her head clear of all her fantasies, she had been reading too many Daring Do novels.
Tide absentmindedly fiddled with the radio hung from her neck guard as she reached the end of the lobby. Turning the same dial that had lessened the static earlier, she waited patiently to hear any more from the voice on the other end of her impromptu accessory.
As Tide approached a large archway set into the wall in front of her, she turned her attention to the sizable gold sculpture of a bull mounted above the it, hung between the bovine’s frighteningly long horns was a limp red banner, the yellow words inscribed onto it proudly proclaimed:
WELCOME TO THE
TARTARUS CLUB
Tide could feel the lump form in her throat as she stopped dead. It took a long moment of struggle before she finally managed to swallow it. Looking through the doorway she could see nothing but darkness. Steeling herself, she slowly made her way into the abyss.
Torrent Tide slinked down the dark hallway, barely able to make out the beautiful patterns carved into the white marble walls on either side of her. The sound of her hooves clip-clopping on the tiled floor failed to overpower the thunderous beating of her heart as she slowly grew closer to the dim light emanating from the end of the corridor.
As she grew closer to the archway, she began to make out the sound of arguing from somewhere in the next room.
“I don’t care ! I DON’T CARE! You told me the DOCTOR would give us more ! But now you’re telling me he won’t’!? You say he ‘won’t let you in’. But the doctor let HIM in! Or… are you just lying to me? Trying to keep all the Adam to yourself, aren’t you! ” The voice was crazed, boiling with a visceral rage teetering on the edge of insanity.
Tide poked her head out of the doorway, quickly scanning the moderately sized room for the source of the shouting. Her eyes located it in an quickly as her vision focused on two tall bipedal figures standing in the middle of the barely lit room.
One was thin, his small frame was made even more pathetic by the second figure, who loomed above him as he cornered him against a column in the middle of the room. A heavy pipe wrench clenched tightly in his bandage wrapped hands. Tide couldn’t make out many details about their faces in the dim light of the room.
“Tony p-please! I asked the d-doctor to spare us a bit of Adam, but he said he wasn’t gonna! Said it was b-bad for us. Told me to n-never come back! Please Tony, I'm telling the truth!” The meek creature placated, raising his hands in a symbol of surrender looking on the verge of tears as he pleaded with this newly dubbed ‘Tony’.
“Don’t LIE to me Willy! I know you have the Adam!” Tony snarled, his high pitched, screeching voice grated Tide’s ears as he pushed ‘Willy’ hard against the pillar via a sudden tight grip on the frail bipeds shirt.
“P-please! The doctor won’t see us! He won’t see anybody! Please, I promise that’s the truth! I’d never try to sneak Adam from ya Tony… You’re like a brother to me!” Willy’s tiny wispy voice pleaded again, his feeble body shaking with apparent terror.
“Don’t BULLSHIT me! You’re just a backstabbing snake ! Trying to pull the wool over my eyes, well I'm not gonna let you get away with this shit you fucking RAT!” Tony shrieked. Tide watched as he raised his wrench high above his head.
Tide was frozen.
A gasp caught dead in her throat as she stared at what was the second of the two creatures, now slumped, sitting against the bottom of the column. The lone creature stood. Towering over its fresh victim, warm crimson red dripping from its impromptu weapon. Tide could feel her body begin to tremble as she stared at the monster in front of her, her breaths grew quick as panic set in, her muscles tightened and her throat grew dry as every fiber of her body screamed at her to run away.
She decided to listen to her body, taking a shaky step backward, readying herself to bolt. But her mind was derailed in a moment as one of her armor clad hooves collided with something hard and cold forming a loud -tink-.
“Wha- who’s there?!” The tall being hollered, turning to the source of the noise. That was all it took to set Tide’s flight instinct to overdrive, as she whipped around and began galloping back down the dark hallway she had entered from.
“Hey! Get backhere!” The biped shouted. Tide was suddenly aware of the heavy footfall of the monster behind her as she ran down the hallway and back through the lobby.
As Tide ran, she felt her hoof catch something hard and jagged, sending her face first to the ground. Looking back, Tide laid eyes on a piece of rubble laying on the ground only a few hoofsteps away. But behind the rock stood the imposing form of the monster, his wrench hung tightly in his right hand, still dripping hot blood onto the tile floor beneath him. Tide gagged at the sight.
“Why?! Why are you running from me?! I’m not a bad person! You shouldn’t RUN from me!” The creature screeched, his voice manic and crazed, cracking slightly as he shrieked at her.
In the marginally brighter light of the lobby, Tide could make out more details about her assailant, his tattered black formal vest, thrown over a torn up off-white dress shirt. A chipped porcelain masquerade bird mask obscured the entirety of the individuals face, all except his bugging, yellow eyes, which stared needle sized pupils straight into Tide’s soul.
It was a long moment before Tide even realized she had been asked a question, taking a moment to swallow the lump in her dry throat, before she calmed her breath enough to give an answer.
“Y-y-you killed him! You killed another of your kind! You’re-you're insane !” Tide stuttered, her moral indignation temporarily impeding her sense of safety as she berated the monster now staring daggers at her.
“Are you calling me crazy?! I’m not crazy, It’s the voices who are crazy! I’m FINE, I’m not crazy at ALL!” Tony squawked in his shrill, deranged voice, as he began advancing on Tide.
“It's YOU people who are crazy! I just wanted my fair share ofADAM! But Willy had to go and take it all for himself! He got what he DESERVED! And you call ME crazy!” For every step Tony took toward Tide, she only managed to get half a step back.
Tide’s mind raced for any way out of this situation, for anyway to escape the insane man infront of her, finally her mind came to a decision.
The submarine.
She was in the lobby where it docked, all she had to do was get back to it and she would be home free.
Her mind finally formed a plan. Tide nearly didn’t have time to register as the monster above her brought his wrench above his head, Tide only saw it at the last moment, barley rolling out of the way as it came down on the dirty tile floor with a loud -crack -
Tide used the momentum from her roll to throw herself to her hooves, and began galloping through the rest of the lobby, her aggressor still hot on her tail as the large brass bubble came into view, all she had to do was reach it and she would be safe.
With a whiff of air over her backside, she felt the heavy wrench brush against the brass plating of her armor. His pounding footsteps grew closer mocking the thundering of her own.
“I’m not crazy! I”M NOT CRAZY! I’ll prove it! Just come here! JUST STOP RUNNING! I’m NOT crazy!” He growled.
Tide’s hooves skidded on the smooth floor as she dodged a pile of abandoned luggage, a flare of panic rushing through her as she scrambled to stay upright, the brackish air burned her lungs as she frantically raced down the station hall.
As Tide grew only hoofsteps away from her saving grace, a large metal gate swung closed inches from her face, completely blocking her access to the sub.
Tide pushed, shoved, even kicked the gate, but it refused to budge. And she watched as her only way to the surface sunk back below the pool of water, Tide could swear she saw the shadows of figures inside. As it disappeared below the waves.
Fear slowly began to set in as Tide realized the situation she was in. She was cornered, with nowhere to go, as the footsteps of her aggressor grew closer behind her.
-CRACK-
The sound of Tide’s hooves colliding with the creature behind her rang throughout the station as she kicked it with all of her strength.
What followed was nothing but deafening silence and the stench of seawater as Tide stood frozen, unable to do anything but listen for sounds of activity from her attacker. It wasn’t until a few minutes had passed that she finally dared to make a move.
Turning slowly, she was met with the sight of the lanky creature laid on the ground, completely unmoving. Despite all common sense Tide drew closer to him, examining his form and she nearly felt like throwing up for the third time in the past forty-eight hours.
His porcelain mask had shattered, revealing his face, which looked like it had exploded inward, leaving nothing but gooey, bloody soup.
And, it had been by Tide’s own doing, she had killed this crea… No. This man, she had killed a man named Tony, while her only experience had been near death at his hands, did he deserve to meet such a cruel and meaningless end? What of his family? Did they deserve to bury a son, a brother, perhaps even a father? Did his children deserve to grow up wondering what had become of one of their parents? Having disappeared, lost in the depths of this strange underwater city.
No, they didn’t. But, neither did the family of his victim, someone that appeared to have been a close friend. Yet her aggressor had killed him all the same. Still, Tide hated that she had been forced to take a life like that.
“You alright there Doll?” Tide was shaken from her revere (and nearly her skin,) at the now much clearer voice on the radio hung from her neck.
The voice was male, rough with a strong accent that reminded her of the mobsters from the days of Manehattan’s prohibition.
“Who-who is this?” she stuttered into the radio, hopeful to have possibly met somepony who wasn’t crazy.
“Name’s Dolus, Bennett Dolus, was the proprietor of this fineestablishment before Rapture went a-bust.” His voice oozed a slimy confidence like that of a used cart sales mare.
“Fine establishment?! I was almost killed three steps out the gate!” Tide snarked into the radio’s speaker.
“Well, you might wanna get used to that quick, with that Bathysphere gone your one way out-a here just floated off into the deep blue.” His voice gained a sudden weight as he spoke, as if he was familiar with the subject.
“Are you telling me I’m stuck down here?!” Tide exclaimed, dread threatening to overtake her at the thought of her death at the hands of another creature, trapped alone far under the waves.
“You ain’t the only one, Doll.” Well, maybe not entirely alone.
“But you're in luck, Kid, I have a way out, only problem is… I can’t reach it.” His previously impenetrable confidence is now pierced with a hint of embarrassment.
“So, what does that have to do with me?” Tide could feel her voice lighten with faith as she asked.
“Well Doll, if you can reach me, we can work together to reach my private sub, and sail our way right up to the surface.” His words finally gave Tide what she had been hoping for. A goal, something to work to, something to fight for. To reach him.
How hard could it be?
“Great! Where are you?”
“Trapped in my office, on the other side of the building.”
Apparently, very hard.
Well, she better get a move on if she wants to get there any time soon. With a hard shake to get the majority of dirt and grime out of her coat, and one last mournful look at the corpse she had made, Tide started back on the path that had forced her to take her first life.
***
Amazing.
That was the only word Tide had to describe the view from the solid glass tunnel she found herself in.
Everywhere she looked she saw the swimming of sea life, the flowing of kelp and seaweed reaching up from the ocean floor like the gasping of a flower from the cobblestone streets of Canterlot.
The entire way was lit by a mixture of the lights mounted along the ceiling and the shining of the bright neon signs from outside, beaming through the murky water to reach her like the light of the sun stretching from the sky.
But, as she looked out into the foggy depths, she caught sight of something else coming towards her.
High above the skyscrapers, she could see the shadowy outline of something huge, growing even larger as it sunk into the blue abyss.
It was with dawning horror that she realized, it wasn’t getting bigger, it was getting closer .
Tide broke into a gallop, she could see the door at the end of the tunnel, it was so far away, she would be cutting it close.
No, she wouldn’t be making the cut at all .
The hulking object was getting faster by the second, where in Tide had been worn out, and slowed down by running and constant stress.
The incoming mass was now close enough to make out in detail, while the exit only seemed to have grown farther, and Tide stared in disbelief as she made out half of the metal hull of a ship.
Her ship, still dotted with holes where gunpowder had blown in out from the inside, and still dragging the remains of its cargo.
Tide was out of time, only barely halfway down the path as the debris made impact.
Only it was too high for the glass, instead it collided with the wall above, showering the passageway in giant chunks of stone and iron.
The hallway was filling with water, and the door she had been trying so hard to reach was buried in rubble.
As the color drained from her face, Tide couldn’t even bring herself to react as the frigid cold sea water began to pool around her hooves. She had stopped completely, simply staring ahead as the one way she had out was lost to her.
“ON YOUR RIGHT KID!” Dolus shrieked from the radio, with little other option, Tide turned to her left, and saw it.
A fork in the tunnel, a straight turn right led to a door not even 20 hoofsteps away.
With renewed vigor, Tide made for the new found exit faster than she thought possible, barely slowed by the rushing water under hoof.
The large mechanism in the middle of the door spun for a moment as it unlocked, allowing Tide to quickly duck inside before dropping closed and locking again.
“Thanks.” Tide rasped into the radio, still out of breath from running for her life.
“Don’t mention it, Doll. If you die, I die.” Dolus ‘soothed’ over the radio. She didn’t really need the added pressure of knowing her failure would result in another death, but she didn’t feel like bringing that up right now.
