The boat sped across the sea swiftly, the small waves licking at the boat’s hull as they went along. Occasionally the sound of these waves could be heard slamming into the hull and echoing out for all to hear. Florence, unfortunately, took the sounds as the most terrifying thing and claimed that the boat was breaking apart. All of us knew that this was complete rubbish, but poor Florence couldn’t stop shaking like a fragile leaf every time the sound made itself known.
Twilight had half a mind to slap the girl and bring her back to her senses. However, Twilight couldn’t bring herself to inflict harm upon another (minus Trixie), especially one of her friends. Even if it was for a good cause. Ashley decided to use a different method.
Scooting over to the shy girl, the farmer brought her into a hug and explained that everything was fine and that the boat would not sink, despite Florence’s protests. Eventually she calmed down after confirmation from Excalibur that her boat was perfectly safe and that
she'd had only one case of the boat sinking...although she probably intended it as a joke. Something Matt found hilarious.
Speaking of which, during the trip, the others forced Matt to use a new name, now that he/she was anatomically female. She dreaded it, but admitted that it would be strange if she kept the name Matt, and so she went with the name Micaela. With that minor dilemma resolved, everyone went back to casual chatter and Twilight stared out at the clear water, pondering on the wreck and the relic aboard it.
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“We’re here~!” Excalibur announced suddenly as the boat came to a halt, rousing Twilight from her thoughts.
“Well, I was expecting something a bit more... eye catching, if I’m being real with you all” Micaela now stated. The others agreed... except Twilight.
“If the wreck had beached on land and was abandoned, then we would see it, but frankly that isn’t the case. That small sand bank helped to save the crew.” Twilight pointed to a sand bank several meters from their position.
Twilight then proceeded to explain further “But due to the ship’s weight, the steep incline of the bank broke apart and slipped back down the incline into the water not long after the crew fled.” she continued. “That buoy over there marks the general location of the wreck.” she added, directing them to look at it.
The others collectively gazed at the colourful bobbing buoy and all gave a united “oh”, encouraging Twilight to sigh.
“So... shall we get in?” Harry suggested.
“After you, then.” Micaela said, and grinned.
“Why me!?” Harry shouted.
“Because you asked first if we should.” Micaela responded.
“How cliche can you get?” Harry joked.
Micaela gave him a giggle that was intended to be a normal laugh. “Are you really asking me that kind of question?”
Harry stared intently at the smirking Micaela, who shot him a gaze, indicating that he should jump in. Which he did eventually give into.
“Fine.” he sighed, as he proceeded to put on the rest of his gear, sometimes flicking a glare at Micaela’s grinning mug.
After everything seemed in order, Harry jumped into the ocean with a typical splash and proceeded to bob about sculling the water patiently as he watched the rest of the group follow suit after their equipment check.
Except for Twilight and Florence. Twilight’s reason for still being on the boat was understandable, as she was going over a map of the wreck site with Excalibur, pinpointing ideal locations of the relic’s current resting place. But Florence let her many fears creep back upon her once more. “I can’t do it.” she softly spoke.
“For crying out loud, Flora! We’re already here and you just now decide to chicken out?” Micaela shouted in agitation.
“That’s not the best thing to say to her, Micaela, if you ever want to see her dive with us.” Rina opined.
Micaela spun around to face Rina. “Says you. I’m sure after that little stunt with the shark, she became so traumatized that she probably won't ever get in the water again.”
Rina took offence to that remark “Hey, I resent that! Everything worked out perfectly. Besides, if that shark came back with any of his buddies…”- she did a quick one-two motion into the air- “...they’d have to deal with me!”
Ashley gave a chuckle. “Only you would punch a shark, Rina. Only you.” she muttered.
“Anyway, back to the matter at hand. Florence, get in here!” Micaela ordered.
Florence refused, comically gripping the boat and showing a look of pure fear, gasping heavily and imagining a million crazy ways that everything could go wrong with one fell swoop of her jumping into the liquid pit of death.
As Twilight finished discussing the map with Excalibur, she turned to see the frightened girl clutching onto the railings of the boat. Pulling a small grin, she stepped up behind Florence and gave a gentle pat on the shoulder to ease her worries.
“If you don’t want to go with us, Florence, I’m all but happy for you to stay here with Excalibur and the boat. All we are going to do is check out the Lazarus, quickly find the relic and be back before you know it. Can you handle that?”
Florence managed a small but knowing smile. She nodded sweetly and eased off the railings. With her mind at ease, she plopped onto the side seat and sighed, her ears drooping expressively.
Twilight had hoped for the whole gang to go together and see something spectacular, but she was well aware of the fears that Florence had over everything deep sea related. -Heck, Twilight herself was afraid- And she couldn’t simply ignore them for her own intentions. Plus, it did double as an apology for the thought of slapping the shy girl earlier, despite said shy girl knowing nothing about that.
Twilight attached the last of her gear. Things like mask, air tanks and flippers, which -for some odd reason- seemed to be perfectly fitted to her hooves. She wanted an explanation, but since she was afraid of the answer... she opted to keep her mouth shut. Lastly, she checked everything over twice and with a thumbs up to Excalibur, she leaped into the sea with a great splash.
Returning to the surface to meet up with the group, she waited for the other Alicorn to step up and tell them their time limit and the site in general.
Excalibur gave them them the briefing. “The wreck is mostly in pieces, but some of its lower hull at the stern region still retains a slight structure. If we stick to the mission accordingly, this should only take about an hour, two at the most. So no messing about down there.”
The Alicorn shot a stern face at Micaela. “Understand, Miceala?”
The cyan pegasus just grinned.
“Well... off with you guys, hop to it. Or rather, swim to it.”
With the green light set, the group dipped below the waves and dived down towards the wooden carcass of the once great naval ship.
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The water was incredibly murky as the group descended deeper. Twilight found that diving wasn’t all that too difficult. It was like snorkeling... but with a ton more gear and used for much deeper parts of the ocean. After a while, Twilight began to have doubts that the wreck laid here and muttered profusely at the false information the analysts fed her. But suddenly she was halted by something not organic looking at all. Reaching a hand out, she touched it and gasped at the odd feel of wood.
She signaled her friends to come over to her location and they acted accordingly. She showed them what she found and declared (although mentally, as they couldn’t speak underwater) that they had indeed found a ship... but was it the Lazarus?
Twilight used simple hand gestures to direct everyone to search the ship for anything of the “magical” sort. Honestly, Twilight was at a loss as to what they were looking for. The analysts were rather vague on what the relic was and what it did exactly. Maybe they would explain its purpose when she acquired whatever it was.
Although, Twilight managed to keep her questions to herself for the time being. She was giggling internally at sight before her. Sure, the Star Caster wreck was extraordinary, but the supposed Lazarus was beneath the waves. It had a completely different story to tell in full and it was much harder to discover those secrets. It made it so much more wondrous to explore and Twilight couldn’t contain her love for it anymore.
She swam about the wreck looking for where cannons lay, masts, she searched the cabins that were still intact... to a degree, and even the figurehead, which turned out to be a man of sorts. ‘Most likely the namesake of the ship’ Twilight thought to herself.
While making goo-goo eyes over the dead ship, someone shouted from behind Twilight. Rina was the easy culprit for this, but she hadn’t changed yet and thus wasn’t able to see any Equestrian magical items, which went for Harry too. Twilight went wide eyed as she found these massive holes in her plan and it made her embarrassed that she failed to see them earlier.
Twilight frantically swam over to the source and found Micaela holding what she hoped was the relic, although knowing Micaela, she probably decided to do it as a prank.
Or not. It turned out the sporty girl had indeed found something and it seemed like what they were looking for. The object was a strangely symmetrical golden orb with etchings of equines on it. Rina handed the orb to Twilight and she inspected the relic further. She judged it to weigh roughly as much as a standard watermelon and was the size of a basketball, lines traced the top of it in a pattern that didn’t look like mere decoration. She ran a finger along them and found that they were seams. The top clearly was meant to be opened up.
While inspecting the relic, she felt something odd in her chest, a warm, tingling feeling. It was there for a mere second, but it felt too unnatural to be simply shake off. However, she couldn’t dwell on it here. She needed to check if it happened again later. Twilight gave the gang a hand gesture pointing up towards the surface. They obeyed her command. Well, half of them did, anyway.
Micaela and Rina decided it was a brilliant idea to try and take a cannon up with them. Twilight could've done the right thing and ordered them to leave it be, but she came up with a much "better" solution. She actually encouraged the two misfits to pick it up. They took the strange encouragement as suspicious, but pushed the thought aside fairly quickly and returned to act upon their devious plan.
However the two girls failed to take into consideration how heavy such a thing was going to be. Realizing that Twilight knew this information, they felt both annoyed and embarrassed that she had played them both so easily.
With all antics now put to rest, the group swam back to the surface.
The relic had been found and Twilight felt one step closer to stopping the threat. Now if only she could figure out what that strange, warm feeling spreading throughout her chest was...