In The Deep

Just my fucking luck.

I knew that I shouldn't of have had taken that flight. I never trusted flying at all. Oh no, I'd rather stay on the ground, where I can manipulate solid things with my magic. Now, I'm swimming in the middle of the ocean, my airship falling into the water in flaming pieces. Luckily, I seemed to of have crashed next to some sort of tower in the ocean. I managed to swim over to it, climbing up the steps as best I could with my wet pink mane in my face. As I finally made it to the top, I looked up and was taken by surprise at the awe-inspiring picture in front of me.

The dark skies above made the tower in front of me seem like the base of operations for a Saturday morning cartoon's villain. As if on cue with my thoughts, a lone lightning bolt flashed behind the tower, showing me the dark entrance. Wanting to escape the rain, I fled indoors, where I was met with a mostly empty room. Mostly. In the center was an odd looking sphere that had a glass door that was open, as if it were waiting for me. Being the curious colt I am, I stepped inside, where I was awestruck yet again.

The two sides of the sphere had a red fleece couch lining the side, and in front of me was a golden lever. I trotted up to it and pulled it, which was the biggest mistake of my life. THWHAM! I turned around to see the water rising above the glass door. This wasn't any random machine, this was a bathysphere! As I made this realization, a light outside caught my attention. A golden set of numbers reflected off of the bathysphere's light. 10 fathoms deep. Another sign signaled that I was 15 fathoms deep. More time passed by, and a third sign said I was 20 fathoms deep. However, before I could see any more signs, a projector screen rolled down in front of the window, playing what felt like an in-flight movie. There was an advertisement that read, "Fire at your hooves! Incinerate! Plasmids by Sparkle Industries." A second slide popped up not long after. It showed a picture of a mare leaning back in a large sofa chair. To the right of the screen read, "From the Desk of Sparkle." The screen switched yet again, but it was accompanied by a mare's voice.

"My name is Twilight Sparkle, and I'm here to ask you a question. Is a pony not entitled to the sweat of their brow? No, says the mare in Manehatten, it belongs to the poor. No, says the mare in Canterlot, it belongs to Celestia. No, says the mare in Hooviet Russia, it belongs to everypony. I rejected those answers. Instead, I chose something different. I chose the impossible. I chose Rapture."

The movie stopped and the screen rolled up to show the most shocking thing my eyes would most likely ever see. A giant underwater city sat right in front of me. Whales swam around the tall skyscrapers (or were they waterscrapers?) and between the glass tubes that connected each of the buildings. The mare's voice continued on, saying, "A city where the artist would not fear the censor, where the scientist would not be bound by petty morality, where the great would not be constrained by the small. And with the sweat of your brow, Rapture can become your city as well."

Suddenly, the bathysphere turned towards a glass tunnel, where words lit up along to read, "All good things of this world flows into the city." When it reached the end, it stopped for a moment before rising up into a large room, where two ponies already stood. One of them was backing away from the other, who had two hooks fused to their front hooves. The first pony said in a voice on the edge of weeping, "P-please, just… just l-let me go! I have a f-family! D-don't… no… nonononoNONON- AAAAAAUUUUUUUUGGGGGGHHHHH!"

The second pony decided to lunge forward and shove both hooks into the chest cavity of the first, who was currently giving off a bloodcurdling scream. He continued to scream as the second pony drew one of the hooks up his body, and was finally silenced with a gurgle when the hook reached his jugular and ripped straight through it, exiting his lifeless husk through his bottom jaw.

I backed away. What the fuck had I gotten myself into? I should have never pulled the lever! However, backing away did nothing, as I heard a raspy mare's voice say, "Ooooohhhh… is there somepony new to play with?" She had found me, and it was even clearer as the ceiling of the bathysphere started to have holes punctured in it by the pony's impromptu claws. This was it. This was how I was going to die.

The scraping and ripping suddenly stopped. Maybe it was gone? My suspicions were confirmed as a mare's voice came from almost nowhere.

"Could you kindly pick up that shortwave radio on the wall?" it asked, and I obliged. I levitated the radio to my mouth and said with a voice that betrayed my fear moments ago, "What… what happened?"

"Well…" started the voice, "you somehow survived that airship crash. I don't know how you did it, but I've never been one to question luck. My name is Princess Cadence, and it's my goal to keep you surviving." Cadence. I had heard that name somewhere before, but where? Nevertheless, I put the radio to my mouth again and said, "Name's Sharp Shot, now can you please tell me what the hell happened here?"

"No time to talk, you have to keep moving. We need to get you to higher ground. Now, just take a deep breath and take a step out of the bathysphere." The door to the bathysphere opened, and I quickly ran outside. The door shut behind me, and the vessel sunk back underwater. A chilling thought hit me: What if the pony wasn't gone? What if it was here, ready to kill me?

Again, Cadence chimed in at just the right time. "We need to draw that splicer out, but you absolutely have to trust me. Understand?" I nodded and said, "Yep. So, where do I go?"

"Take a left. You should find the rest of the way by yourself." I did as I was told, which led me to enter what looked like a baggage claim area. I didn't stroll very far before a bright spotlit turned on, centering on the splicer from earlier. It hissed and started to climb up the wall as Cadence shouted, "Hah! How do you like that, splicer!?" I also gave a victory shout before the mare said to me, "Alright, would you kindly find something like a crowbar to fight with? These damn splicers are everywhere…"

"Sure thing." I replied. I hopped over a fallen pillar and found a large, red wrench. Good, this'll keep me alive. I grabbed the wrench with my magic and swung it as hard as I could in front of me, accidentally hitting a piece of a pillar stuck under a door. The wrench fell with a loud CLANG! as I jumped back and quickly yelled, "Holy shit!" Eventually, I figured out what I had done, and I climbed underneath the door just in time to see a flaming couch barrel down the stairs. I yelled again and jumped out of the way, just barely missing the couch. After I had caught my breath, I slowly walked up the stairs, not knowing what was up there.

When I reached the top, I couldn't believe my eyes. There were windows poking out into the ocean as if it were an everyday thing. Above the giant door in front of me read, "Welcome to Rapture". So, this place was called Rapture. Seems kind of fitting. My train of thought was derailed as a stallion from behind me yelled, "I'm not a bad pony!", which was accompanied by a sharp pain to the back of my head.

"Ow! That fucking hurt!" I yelled back as I swung around to face my assailant. All I could notice was the rage in his eyes before he swung at me again. I was prepared for this, though. I ducked underneath him and swung my wrench around, smashing it into the side of his head. I heard his skull crack as he fell limply to the ground. I bent down and look around his body for anything of use, which I did. The first two things were large hypodermics, one red and one blue. I stashed them inside the third thing I took off him, a belt to carry multiple tools with.

Suddenly, I heard a filly's voice come from upstairs. It was hard to make out due to the blow to the head I had earned, but it was saying something about her daddy. I went up to the balcony to find a machine that looked like it was called "Gatherer's Garden". On the little table in front sat another red hypodermic, this one being a bit longer. I picked it up and took a look at it. Seeing nothing wrong with it, I jabbed it into my hoof and pressed on the plunger.

Pain erupted throughout my body like no pain I had ever felt before. Veins of electricity ran up and down my front legs as I started backing up. Cadence's voice came on the radio, saying, "Calm down! Your genetic code is just being rewritten, everything will be fine!"

Ironically, at that moment, I backed up against the railing of the balcony and keeled over the edge, letting out a loud scream the short way down. My world turned black before I even hit the ground.