//------------------------------// // Part 7: More than one kind of Sharptooth (Expanded Edition) // Story: Going Deep Under // by The Bricklayer //------------------------------// As he took the both metaphorical and literal plunge into the waters of the Bermuda Triangle, Grape Vine took several deep breaths from a breathing exercise he'd learned a little while back to calm himself down. This was it. There was no turning back now. Like it or not, he was now diving in the waters of the Bermuda Triangle. Now, only time would tell if the Triangle would swallow him up like it had probably done to the many wrecked ships all around him, laying in wrecked heaps like a giant child has crushed them in his hands during a temper tantrum. "Okay, this is officially creepy." Grape Vine mused on seeing the many wrecked ships seemingly just put there to freak him out. Nearby, Night Glider noted his fears, and looked at him, an expression of deep concern visible under her diving helmet. "Hey, you alright?" She asked him, looking at him in worry. One of the main rules of diving was to never panic, and at that very moment, that's what Grape Vine looked to be doing. "Oh yeah, I'm fine." Grape responded sarcastically. "How could I not be fine? I'm in the damn Bermuda Triangle for crying out loud." "Well, when you put it that way..." Night Glider replied, noting his point and taking it. "Well, look at the bright side." Ender interjected, trying to put a good spin on things. "Least you'll have a grand story to tell your kids." "Yeah, if I live long enough to have them." Grape muttered to himself as he kicked his back legs and swam forwards through a hole in one of the wooden ships all around him and out the other side of it. Grape nervously wondered what could have happened to this particular ship and made these big enough holes to make it sink to the bottom of Davy Jones's Locker. A storm perhaps, or maybe, like Grape had heard of many times happening before in the Triangle, a compass gone haywire long enough on another ship for said ship to run into this other one. "Okay." Gallants's voice caIm voice came though over the radio. "The Sharptooth should be not too far ahead. Just keep on swimming and you should see it." Then another familiar voice joined it. "Hey, if you find any treasure, it's mine alright?" Spent Thift's voice interjected, and then Gallant's voice began to argue with him. "Hey, get off the comms!" He yelled angrily, annoyed that the pony had jumped in on a conversation he wasn't meant to be in on. "How'd you even get in here anyways? You're not even meant to be on the bridge anyways!" There was then the sound of a lightshove and somepony shouting "Oof!" as they literally hit the deck. "Sorry bout him." Gallants apologized profusely to them. "Dunno how he got onboard the bridge in the first place to begin with." By this time, Grape and the others had passed another ship, a old ironside type ship, if dating was correct, probably from around the time of the Neighmarican Civil War. It had obviously sunk thanks to several large holes in the side of it, around the size of cannonball blasts. "Oh wow... It can't be." Silver Speed gasped out in complete and utter shock at the sight that lay before her and the rest of the small expedition crew. What she was seeing was something she remembered from old nautical and Civil War history books, but never believed she would actually see for herself one day. But lo and behold, there it was. "I... I never thought I'd actually see this... Those two ships..." She continued to gasp and stammer out in disbelief. Now that Grape actually looked about him, he saw that there was yet another ironside, not too far away from the first one, also with this one having quite a few cannonball shaped holes in it. "What? What is it?" Night Glider inquired in curiosity. She really wanted to know had her friend and fellow crewmember all worked up. "It's... It's them." Silver Speed stammered out. "The USS Hawk and the USS Falcon. I never thought I'd actually see them in the flesh." "Wait, why are you so shocked?" Ender asked her in confusion. "They're just some old ironsides." Silver Speed then gave him a distinct dirty look, and looked as if she might smack him around the back of the head. "Idiot. Do you not remember your Civil War history?" Silver chastised him in disgust and annoyance. She really hated it when other ponies didn't remember things she otherwise thought they should have. "These two ships were involved in an accident when they each thought the other a enemy vessel. Blasted each other to pieces during an particularly nasty storm." Silver Speed explained in a haughty tone of voice, smirking as she explained the story to the others. She loved knowing everything about nautical related stories, and she loved letting everypony else know it as well. "Is the arrogance really needed?" Grape murmured largely to himself. Silver was now giving him a distinctly dirty look. "Is it really arrogance if you know everything?" Silver asked him, annoyed by being questioned. "Well, lemme think about that for a moment." Grape asked dryly, and Silver rolled her eyes as Grape continued with a "Yes, it's arrogance if you let everypony know you know everything." "If you two lovebirds are finished?" Gallants asked with a distinctly audible sigh of resignation over the radio. "I'm not... We're not..." Both Silver and Grape sputtered back in response unable to form a complete sentence due to their shock. "Anyways, the Sharptooth should be directly ahead of you." Gallants continued, ignoring them both. Sure enough, he was right on the money about that. Directly ahead, sitting on the edge of a giant underwater volcano was the submarine known as the USS Sharptooth. "Well, there it is boys." Night Glider stated. "We've found it Mister Gallants. What are we looking for anyways?" She questioned, and Twilight's voice chimed in at that moment. "Okay, what you should be looking for is the captain's log. Anything in there might help us narrow down the location of Neighlantis." Twilight explained to everypony as they swam towards the submarine, spearguns in hoof, as they tried to keep an eye peeled out for sharks or any other any form of dangerous marine life. The corridors of the Sharptooth were in a remarkably unusally good form of condition, no damage to them at all. It was like nothing had ever happened to the Sharptooth in any form of way whatsoever. "I don't like this. Not one bit." Ender muttered nervously, as they passed through the mess hall. Nobody was there, but silverware floated around the room. Like the rest of the sub, this room was in remarkably good condition. "It's like an underwater version of the Mary Celeste... What the Tartarus happened here?" Grape nervously wondered aloud. "Yeah, I know what you mean." Ender put in, agreeing with Grape. "It's like everypony just up and left. I mean, you think there would at least be bodies of some sort..." He trailed off. Eventually, everyone made it to the door that behind it, was the captain's quarters. It was shut tight, with no way to force it open by regular pony strength alone. "Okay, anyone got any ideas?" Ender asked, and Night Glider smirked before producing some explosives. "Where'd you even get those?" Ender inquired, not sure if he really wanted to know. "One of the Blast Sisters let me have it. Said it might come in handy." The dark blue, grey maned pegasus responded before placing the explosives next to the door and arming them. Everpony moved back just in time to escape the explosion. KABOOM! The door was blown clean off it's hinges, and silt flew everywhere obscuring everypony's vision for just a moment. But when it cleared, the captain's quarters were now visible. Everypony sooner got to searching the room, looking for the submarine captain's journal. A few minutes later, there came a shout from Target. "Hey, I've found it!" She yelled, holding up a locked box. "Now, let's get out of here so we can examine this back at the ship." Nobody bothered to refute her statement. They, like Grape, didn't want to stay in the waters of the Triangle any longer than was needed. Soon, they were swimming out of the submarine only to be met with a school of sharks, led by one giant dark, almost blackened like the night, colored one. This particular specimen of Great White had bite marks all over it, chewed on dorsal and tail fins and a bloody maw. Everypony knew exactly who this particular shark was, though they could scarcely believe it. This was the infamous shark Thanatos, and it's naming after the Greek god of Death was well earned, with many a sailor falling victim to it's jaws. "Well, I think we know what happened to the crew..." Grape trailed off nervously. "I... I don't believe it..." Night Glider gasped out. "it's Thanatos. But what's he doing here?" Night Glider was right to be curious, When most stories of Thanatos came about, they came from his normal hunting grounds, the Aegean Sea and more specifically the Cicercos Strait. For Thanatos to be here in the waters of the Bermuda Triangle was extremely odd indeed. "Looks like he's decided to take up the sun and nice beaches." Silver Speed deadpanned out. "Why he's here doesn't matter, but us leaving does!" "Swim for it!" Target yelled, going for her spear gun. She fired and with a whooshing sound from the gun, she ended up scoring a direct hit through the head of one of the sharks killing it almost at once. The largest shark then charged towards Grape, and he rolled out of the way to avoid the angry shark. "Well, now you've gone and done it haven't you?" He said dryly as the shark snapped it's bloody jaws at him with Grape only managing to move back just in time. A few seconds later, and he would have been shark chow. "Back to the Moby Dick!" Target exclaimed. "It's our only chance!" She knew that nopony would survive a prolonged fight with these creatures, and somepony would probably end up dead if they tried. "Go, now!' She barked at them in a tone that left no room for argument. Soon, everypony was swimming away back towards the Moby Dick but suddenly found their way blocked by another shark with quickly got spearguned and it's dead form drifted away. But Thanatos saw this and blocked their way with his own jaws spread open wide as they could be. "We're not going to make it!" Night Glider yelled out, panic visible on her muzzle from under the diving helmet she wore. "Hold on, lemme try something I heard works on sharks!" Grape yelled back. "What? Are you crazy in the head!?!" Target yelled out in shock. Grape ignored her before he swam close enough to Thanatos but not too close enough to be eaten alive and he then punched the giant shark in one of his eyes stunning it and making it back off just long enough for everypony to swim past him and just barely manage to get inside the airlock of the Moby Dick a few seconds before the rest of the sharks swarm them in a mobbing fashion. "Did anypony get that? Cause I won't be doing that again." Grape nervously said to break the silence before his eyes rolled up into his head before the aptly named pony fainted dead away.