//------------------------------//
// Homesick Part 10 
// Story: The Shadowbolts Adventures 
// by DragonShadow 
//------------------------------//

It was as if she entered a third world. During her studies, Sunset Shimmer had certainly read about the oceans of Equestria, but she had never seen one, let alone entered one. Now as she clung to Aria Blaze and watched the world pass by her, she was drowned in the sheer scope of it. 

Every sound that reached her was far quieter than on land, and seemed to be coming from every direction at once. Mixed with the pressure of the dense submarine atmosphere, it felt oppressive and closed in, which created a bizarre dissonance in Sunset's mind when paired with the visuals surrounding her. Vast fields of sand and rocks stretched out in all directions. The familiar horizon was absent from her sight, the ocean floor fading away into a blue fog, instead. Little gold and silver fish swam through a labyrinth of colorful coral, like tiny citizens roaming a sprawling underwater city. A school of fish flowed in unison out of Aria's path, as though the critters shared a single mind. 

The bottom drifted away from them as they headed farther out, the water getting deeper with each pump of Aria's tail. Eventually, the floor gave way entirely to a dark, seemingly bottomless abyss, the sight of which made Sunset's heart feel hollow and cold. Colossal rock formations jutted up from the darkness, seeming to dwarf Canterlot Mountain in size. Dark shapes swam past from every angle, some of them almost too small to see, and others too big to ignore. The long, haunting call of a lonely whale washed over them, answered by another a few short moments later as the two breathtaking creatures met and began to spiral around one-another on their way into the distance. 

Her miraculous breath almost ceased entirely when the scattered golden light from the ocean's surface shone across the blubbery flesh of a creature she could only describe as a giraffe the size of ten houses with fins where its legs should have been. She had never known of anything like it before, not even in her browsing of the old Canterlot Archives. The rumbling sound that echoed through the ocean waves was as chilling as it was beautiful, though despite the chill it made no motion to give chase as the two of them passed directly between its swaying fins. 

"What is that?" Sunset Shimmer asked breathlessly as they move beyond the majestic creature. 

"Oh, that's Nessie. She's been around since I was here last." 

"How do we not have any books on her in Canterlot? She's huge and gorgeous!" 

"It's the weirdest thing, no matter how many times she pops to the surface nopony up there ever believe she exists." Aria shrugged. 

"Well I'll make sure to tell them..." 

"You do that." Aria smirked. "Let me know how it goes." 

They continued to fly through the waters until eventually Aria seemed to tire out, grunting and panting as she moved. "I think I need to rest for a minute..." 

"Then let's rest... um, this charm will last for a while, right?" 

"It'll last until you leave the water again." 

"Then yeah, let's rest." 

Aria stopped moving entirely, swiftly coming to a stop. For just a moment, they floated silently in the gentle ocean current. Then gravity did its thing, and the two of them began to drift down from the golden waters near the surface and into the depths. In the growing dark, the rocks and reefs blended together to look like massive, misshapen monsters, motionless as they waited for prey. Occasionally, one of the freakish shapes got up and moved. It felt like an alien world that had never before been explored by either human or pony kind. 

Aria still held Sunset in her fins as the two at last reached the deepest waters they had yet seen, reaching the ocean floor. Creatures skittered and scrambled to get out of the way before they were squished. Little clouds of sand and dust swirled outward as they landed amid piles of seaweed. Little light came down from the surface, and it was already fading rapidly as the day came to an end. 

"Uh... Aria..." Sunset squinted, but almost immediately found it was no use. "How do you get around down here? It's so dark..." 

"Give it a second." Aria insisted. Sunset gulped, but waited patiently as the darkness cut them off from the rest of the world entirely, plunging them into pitch blackness. 

They sat in the void with the water rushing in their ears until slowly, like dozens of stars beneath their butts, a soft blue glow began to light up the ground around them. Unlike the stars however, this glow was moving around, trekking back and forth across the rocky terrain. Sunset gasped and wanted to retreat at first, but she quickly realized that there was a bubble around them where the moving lights didn't approach. It was as if the lights could sense them. 

"What are those?" Sunset asked breathlessly. 

"Some kind of algae or bug, I think." Aria's fishy tail flicked carelessly at the rock beneath them as she watched the little lights march along on their seemingly designated paths. "I'm no biologist; they could probably tell you more in Aquapolis." 

Sunset put a hoof to her chin. "So much down here is undocumented... are things between the sea ponies and land ponies really that cold?" 

Aria shrugged. "I'm no politician either, and I don't really care either way. But if you still don't know anything about the oceans after all this time..." She snickered. "Let's just say I still don't feel that bad about using the Siren Stones." 

"I see... I had no idea that kind of rift still existed in Equestria. With all the talk of harmony between the three pony races I thought it was..." 

"All of the pony races? Guess not." 

They lapsed into silence once again in the soft blue glow of the moving algae. It was several more quiet moments before Sunset suddenly realized she was sitting on Aria's lap, and the sea pony hadn't said a word about it, instead just watching the lights move with a half-interested gaze. The unicorn slowly slid off of her tail to plop down on the rock instead. The lights moved out of the way to keep the same bubble around them as before. 

"Do you want to go to Aquapolis?" Sunset asked. 

"Not really." Aria shook her head. "This is nice enough." 

"Why not? It's your home, right?" 

"Nah. My home's wherever Adagio and Sonata are. Has been for a long time. I probably wouldn't even recognize Aquapolis if I went there." 

Sunset nodded. "I understand." 

Aria spoke again after several long moments of silence. "Thanks for this, though." 

"You're welcome." Sunset smiled brightly. "Is it safe to sleep here...? It's getting really late." 

Aria nodded. "Yeah, but you might wanna come closer. It's easy to be separated by the current if we pass out here." 

Sunset yelped and practically threw herself back into Aria's fins. "Don't you leave me down here..." 

Aria laughed and threw herself down flat on the small rocky outcropping with her fins wrapped around Sunset's back. The water was clearly softening the pressure, however. She was half lying and half floating. "I'm not leaving you down here. I need you to get me home." 

Sunset nodded and lay her head on Aria's chest, staring down at the glowing critters that surrounded them until her eyes began to close, and she began to drift to sleep along with the drifting ocean currents.