The Plea of General Torrente

by Greatmewtwo

Grit

Torrente's letter had weathered several important events in the Basaltic Republic. This is what gave the letter its first nick.

Brimstone. Murk. Grit. That's what his lure shines through. Barely able to make out any geoforms in the confusion, Colonel Corvus swam and felt around for any rocks that were right in the environment that were not yet destroyed. As he hopped, skipped, and flipped his thin fin, he had to trudge through the taste of the water, which was often fouled by salty rocks near the seamounts and the impurities propogated by the metal bits of sunken treasure ships. Ultimately, Corvus' head slammed into the saturated wood of one of these vessels, only to be met with a nauseating fluid emanating from a large snake-like form. His vision was lost for a moment; the contrasts he made out were largely compromised by his mild concussion. Not a minute too soon, however, he shed light on the reptile; a large sea serpent bearing a large set of spines and fins in his head, his teeth rotting and blooded with a kill about three-fifths his size, his tail and body bearing a razor-sharp ribbon on either side and scales protecting him like chain-mails. When he became aware of his exact location near his mouth, the reptile lunged his large mouth towards him, snapping him and missing him by a hair's breadth. Corvus had made a simple mistake in slaying him.
"How," he thought, "How exactly do I trick him?"
Remembering what he learned from his mentor, the General, he remembered a magic spell that could irradiate metal with light with just the slightest amount of magma. Right when he dodged a decapitating crunch, he tossed up a fallen coin from the ground and caught it in his mouth. His swimming, not as good as a neck because of his frontal hooves, was barely enough to evade the reptile as he came swimming up behind him at speeds exceeding those of a dolphin. In addition to this, he had to really focus, as his magic power was grossly reduced by the pressure and the water itself. In time, he found himself dogfighting with the sea serpent; as much as Corvus could dodge and duck, each burning scar became evidence of a near miss. Snap. Snap. The smell of blood now on the reptile's mind.
"What kind of fool do you think I am? Did you really think I would let you, my little prawn, take my son's life the way your mare tried?!" he cried. "This embarrassment will end with you, you little wrasse!"
Concentrating so hard that he almost swallowed the coin in his mouth, he slammed his psi-charged hooves into a medium-sized rock and right into his right eye in such a way that blinded him on his three. He made some progress, and now it was time for him to find some light in the abyss.
Fleeing, Corvus found himself swimming across a sea wall, moderately irritated by a colony of elastic tube worms. The worms themselves ultimately led him to a magma flow from a seamount.
Picking up speed now, the worried kelpie started swimming in vertical loops around the red and yellow glow, his lure glowing green with the coin in his hoof, and getting closer and hotter each time and becoming more increasingly susceptible to blindness if not for the membrane shielding his eyes.
The dragon, however, still following his blood's scent, found him in a matter of seconds, only to be lost in the murkiness near the flow. Right as he opened his mouth to snap the head off the warrior, the coin, the aura, and the magma all met to produce a blinding flash. Illumation filled the immediate area and the sea serpent's dark eyes were melted out of his head to where he would never see anything. This was now Corvus' chance. Another big vertical loop brought him underneath the leviathan. He charged his bladed shoes with whatever magic he needed to enchant them, and as the reptile swam around in the heated confusion and pain, his underside and chin were met with a deep gash. The salt and pillow lava singed at his skin, leaving the dragon in deep agony. Then, he somersaulted and launched himself off another rock and smashed his head into the magma, reducing him back to the metals of Equestria.

Corvus had escaped with his life that day as the dragon's body was incinerated in the otherwise frigid abysmal waters. He protected his family from a bane of the Basaltic Republic.
"Torrente," he cried, "let's move. I screwed up."
Torrente could not be seen. Only an incinerated sea serpent's body, magma, and settling sand on the seafloor.
"He saw me. No one should be able to see me," he thought to himself retreating from the field.
Colonel Corvus swam and swam across the sparkling sea's abyss. Lifeless as it seemed. His esca lit the way as he looked for another bounty to hunt, only to find other krill, black smokers to cauterize his wounds, and corals that reminded him of the apple trees he saw pictures of from the above worlds. The pressure really started to get to him, in addition to what the peoples of the sea were starting to face.
"That sea serpent could have easily taken me," he thought, "but here I am. I need a vacation. A very long vacation from this."
"Corvus," Torrente said, "the ship. It must be raised. They must see."
With that, swimming to a glitter belonging to jellies, they came to a medium vessel, greened by years of algae and slightly bluish from traces of dead smooze and heavy metals, supposedly propelled by a large team of rowers across three decks, and adorned with a sail bearing the decayed paint of a sun-inspired graphic. Like before, their lures glowed with a silver hue and connected with a white bridge. They then straddled the decayed ship, bow to stern, and lifted it from its rocky bed, being careful to make sure the wood did not fall off. Bits fell to the floor and small fish fled as they hoped to get the attention of Princess Twilight Sparkle or some of the others in the overworld.

Author's Note:

Corvus slays a dragon, but a ship long lost will remind the ponies of the overworld of their existence.