A deadly dive?
Hippocampi!
Fluttershy gazed across the brilliantly glistening ocean, the lush, tropical turquoise enticing her in. The calm, rhythmic swoosh of the waves upon the golden beach had long since had her in a trance. The sun was high in the sky now, its heat gratefully accepted by the beach. The beach itself was a quant bay bordered by low rocks of headland extending no further than ten metres into the sea. Verdant meadows extended into the distance from which bird song and crickets could be heard over the gentle sea breeze.
However, Fluttershy wasn’t here for the meadows, but rather for the tranquillity of the sea and its mysterious creatures.
“Ready”
“Ready,” Fluttershy agreed.
“I’m so excited to be able to finally see the wonderful life of the sea. Thank you so much for taking me, Twilight!” Effused Fluttershy.
“Fluttershy, of course! Who else would I have taken when Princess Celestia approved my request to research Hippocampi!”
“Um… Twilight, what exactly are Hippocampi?”
“They’re large aquatic horses,” Answered Twilight. “Not much is known about them, so my work will be ground-breaking. Amazingly, fossils have been found which appear to be Hippocampi, dating back
to 40 million years ago!”
Fluttershy’s eyes widened in surprise as she nodded in understanding.
“We’re not going too far out, are we? Only, I’ve never been very far from the shore,” Fluttershy asked, a hint of worry in her voice.
“Oh, don’t worry, we’re not going very far, and this dive is only a preliminary dive,” Twilight reassured. “We won’t spend very long with them. The purpose of the dive is merely to sight hippocampi, confirming their position and to see if it is realistic to study them by diving with the limited equipment we currently have.”
Twilight had chosen this beach from which to dive from on the east coast of Equestria because it was near to where a herd of Hippocampi had been sighted a few days ago; furthermore, it was empty and serene, being quite a distance away from the nearest town. It was for this reason that, as the two mares finished their conversation, they paused to admire the scenery surrounding them and the near silence that came with it. Fluttershy took the time to appreciate the juxtaposition of the soft yellow sands and calm azure blue of the clear sky with the striking vividness of the sea and the divine heat of the sun on her skin. The blissful sunlight washed away any worry Fluttershy had about the dive.
They both fixed their masks and began to wade into the sea. The water was cool, but not sharp. The two ponies waded until they were shoulder deep and then stopped to put on their fins.
Much grunting and a rather comedic scene later both Twilight and Fluttershy had their fins secured around the pasterns of their hind legs, breathing regulators fixed and now began to swim away from the shore.
The time was 12:32.
Upon submerging, Fluttershy was relieved of the burdensome weight of her dive tank from her back, which had been crushing her underneath it. The visibility underwater was fairly good, however, there was nothing to see, just sand dunes blending into water. Fluttershy looked over at Twilight who was at 2 o’clock from her, she had on a black wetsuit which covered her from neck to fetlock, luminous yellow fins, and a large silver diving cylinder, her BCD and dive belt were difficult to see and just above her hoof on her left forward leg was a dive watch. Behind her trailed various lines: her pressure and depth gauges, BCD inflator and the bright yellow octopus. Twilight was an experienced diver and looked elegant in the water as she effortlessly drifted her hindlegs back and forth in a freestyle kick, waving her fins to glide her through the water.
Her mane, like Fluttershy’s, was tied in a half-bun ponytail so as to avoid it trailing behind her. It was for this reason that their tails were tucked in to their wetsuits, somewhat uncomfortably in Fluttershy’s case. Twilight looked round at Fluttershy, twisting her body in the water and turning her head, she bent her left foreleg into an ‘L’ shape with her hoof pointing upwards, the signal for “Okay?”, Fluttershy repeated the action, signalling that she was okay.
The sun shined through the water forming brilliant rays and painting captivating patterns on the sea floor upon which plants were dotted sparsely, they weren’t much to look at though, all of them being the same bland green colour. Occasionally small slithers of silver attracted Fluttershy’s attention as tiny fish darted about, catching the light of the sun.
As they continued away from the coast the depth increased and the landscape became more interesting, rocks became discernible below them. Clinging to the rocks were plants and corals of various colours: vibrant oranges and fiery reds; vivid pinks and pastel greens. Fluttershy was thrilled to see the new features, however, it wasn’t this which occupied her attention, for along with the increase in frequency and diversity of the flora came a similar increase in the fauna. Multi-coloured angelfish passed between corals, their scales shimmering in the dampened light. Twilight pointed out a Yellow Tang gliding over a pale cream fuzzy ball of coral, which then dived between a crevice between two rocks.
These islands of coral became more numerous until they blended into a full coral reef, a forest of ocean life. Corals of all shapes and colours, tall and thin, short and wide. Shoals of fish drifting over the corals, stripes of colour dancing in a sea of colour.
Twilight looked round at Fluttershy to see her lost in the stunning imagery, her eyes lit with wonder, wide to take in all of the delicious scenery. Twilight, despite being a much more experienced diver than Fluttershy, was not immune to forgetting herself to wonder either. They both watched as a sea turtle elegantly sculled over the reef, appearing out of the gloom to their left, it’s shell brown with splashes of yellow, four green scaly paddles sprouting out from it and a similarly scaled bald head hanging as if tired. The large oval shape of a triggerfish appeared from under a rock – white with dazzling cyan stripes below the small, set-back eyes and a cyan tail. Following behind were a couple of Moorish idol fish with their distinctive compressed and disk-like bodies, black, white and yellow vertical stripes and long, trailing spines extending from their dorsal fins.
Twilight checked her depth gauge, it read 14m, while her pressure gauge read 165 bars. The time was now 12:40. Twilight calculated that they had about 30 minutes of air left at a cautious estimate, which, considering Fluttershy’s inexperience, might be more realistic an estimate than she would like. This meant at best another 10 minutes of descending. However, Twilight knew this estimate was only a rough guide as the rate of air usage depended greatly on the individual diver and the depth to which they dove.
Twilight tapped on Fluttershy’s shoulder, signalling for them to move on, after all the whole reason for this dive was to sight and study the Hippocampus and time was getting on. Fluttershy was disappointed to be leaving the reef but knew that if they saw hippocampi they would be a rare and spectacular sight.
The two mares swam in formation a few metres above the coral, continuing to observe the reef as they swam with purpose onwards. The reef was only small and soon the coral and calcium carbonate structures gave way to a flat bed of seagrass. This scenery was comparatively mundane, looking like a submerged overgrown lawn.
Looking around, Fluttershy gulped as she saw nothing but water everywhere but below her.
About a minute of swimming later they came to an escarpment separating the higher lying reef from the continental shelf below. It was an extraordinary sight, the shear rock face leading down into the deep blue of eternity. Thankfully, they did not need to descend any further because hippocampi could be found swimming relatively near the surface of the ocean, they would stay above the seagrass hoping to catch a glimpse of a hippocampus feeding.
Fluttershy looked ahead, there was nothing, only the overhang and the encompassing shades of blue, getting darker with depth. All of the life in the reef might as well be a world away.
Fluttershy felt her heart quicken as she stared in a mix of awe and horror at the sight.
She had tears in her wide eyes as the deep blue confined her. She felt vulnerable, at the mercy of whatever came out of the murkiness. Yet also trapped. Unable to escape the dark. She had never before seen so much – so much nothing.
Up was the only escape and Fluttershy had to get out.
In a panic the yellow mare forgot about decompression sickness and the safety stops needed to prevent it. She forgot about Twilight and the hippocampi. She just knew she had to get out. Fortunately, she also forgot about the air in her BCD maintaining her neutral buoyancy.
Twilight turned around to look at her friend and almost died. She wasn’t there. She darted her head around frantically and saw Fluttershy’s luminous yellow fin flapping wildly. Fluttershy was practically vertical with her forelegs flailing desperately and her hindlegs kicking fast but ineffectively.
Hurriedly, Twilight kicked hard and fast to catch up with Fluttershy who had only ascended a few metres. She was soon able to grab onto her fin.
Fluttershy was breathing heavily, using her air fast, but she didn’t notice that. She just knew that she had to reach the surface and she had to do it now. She couldn’t ascend fast enough. Then she felt a tugging on her leg, pulling her back down, trying to stop her from reaching the surface.
Trying to kill her.
She kicked at the impediment, eyes mad, fixed on the surface.
Despite the kick, Twilight held onto Fluttershy’s fin. However, she couldn’t stop her from swimming nor could she work her way up Fluttershy to grab and stop her. Then she remembered she could use magic underwater. Twilight let go of Fluttershy and lit her horn up.
Fluttershy was still set on the light above when suddenly she was trapped, unable to move. She had felt like that upon seeing the huge expanse of water, but now she was physically disabled. Surrounded by a pink bubbly cloud, Fluttershy - even in her confusion - realised that Twilight had encapsulated her using her telekinesis.
How could her friend betray her like this? Why did she want her to suffer?
With Fluttershy safely restrained Twilight caught up to her, and was shocked by the look in her eye. She should’ve expected it. Why else would anypony charge for the surface like that unless they were crazed? The wide, demented eyes unsettled Twilight, especially considering the dangerous context.
Having had a moment to realise herself, Fluttershy began to calm down, her pulse, still high, began to slow. Then her eyes widened once again as she realised the seriousness and danger of what she had done. Twilight comforted her as best she could underwater, rubbing her leg and holding a reassuring look.
After a moment Twilight bent both of her forelegs at the knee, hooves pointing up, the signal for ’up/end dive’. Fluttershy, still shocked but to her senses, repeated the signal, confirming her understanding of it.
In all the confusion, they realised that they had lost their bearings, fortunately it only required a look at the sea floor to find the direction to shore. The two of them shifted into a horizontal position and kicked off towards land. This time they swam side-by-side and close together so that Twilight could see Fluttershy and help comfort her.
They slowly ascended until their gauges read 6 metres before levelling off. They swam at this depth for five minutes, swimming past the reef below them. This time barely even noticing it. This was their decompression stop which allowed nitrogen to slowly seep out of their bloodstream, hence preventing decompression sickness.
By the time they breached the surface they had swam most of the way back to the beach. The two of them paddled until the depth of the water was below their shoulders then they stopped to take off their fins and wade to the beach.
“Sorry…” offered Fluttershy, her voice trailing off.
“That’s OK,” answered Twilight.
“And thank you,” Fluttershy added weakly.
They arrived on the beach and both slumped down onto their haunches. Fluttershy slipped out of her BCD and attached tank and tore off her mask. She then looked over to see Twilight do the same. The experience had proven overwhelming for them both.
However, despite that ordeal Twilight was not satisfied, she had not seen a hippocampus.