//------------------------------// // Part 15: "From Hell's Heart, I stab at thee." // Story: Going Deep Under // by The Bricklayer //------------------------------// The klaxon continued to blare as anything and everything that could be managed to be fit inside a truck was loaded up. Vehicles varied from 6x4 Lanchester Armored Cars to Technical Improvised Fighting Vehicles or TIFVs for short. But perhaps the most notable of all was a huge half-tracked drilling machine powered by twin boilers and hissing hot steam. Rather frighteningly, there was a warning painted in big red letters on the back of the drilling machine. It read: “Blast and Powder, please stay away from this vehicle AT ALL TIMES!” Once these vehicles were loaded up, they themselves were loaded up into giant sub-pods. Once again, the klaxon, despite warning of imminent danger, in this case, a sub that had been set to implode, was starting to grate on everypony’s nerves. “Okay, that’s enough out of you,” Spent muttered and once again fired his shotgun at the klaxon hitting it dead on. Ender Knight trotted up with a look of disbelief on his face. “You do realize those things are there for a reason, right?” Ender deadpanned. “I mean, it’s not like everypony’s all in danger or anything when those things are blaring.” Spent gave him an equally deadpan look as he re-holstered his shot-gun. “Well, considering we’re about to blow this rustbucket, which I might add is going to implode anyways so those things are going with it, I don’t think it really matters.” “...Point.” The stone gray unicorn admitted. Nearby, Twilight was starting, her mouth slack-jawed with a look of shock upon her muzzle as both Powder and Fuse loaded up as many explosives as they could into an old Germane army half-track troop transport. The German flag symbol had been painted over with the word “Liberté!” “Do I really want to know what it is you’re loading into that thing… Or how you even liberated a Great War era half-track?” Twilight asked with more than a hint of trepidation in her voice. Fuse chuckled before smiling and booping Twilight on the nose making her face scrunch up in a rather cute manner. She chuckled before saying “That’s for us to know and for you… Well, to not to.” Powder on the other hoof smirked “As for your first question... Oh, ehh, gunpowder, nitroglycerin, notepads, fuses, wicks, glue, and uhh… Paperclips. Big ones,” she commented in a carefree manner using her hooves to gesture how big the paperclips indeed were. They really were quite big, if the distance between her two front hooves was to be correct. “You know, just, eh, your basic office supplies.” “How does gunpowder even count as… Wait, strike that, I don’t even want to know.” Twilight mused to herself as she walked off muttering “This whole crew is crazy. Completely crazy. Wouldn’t be surprised if I was crazy by the end of this trip.” Elsewhere, Wildfire and Silver Spanner were having to break up a fight between two of Sudoku’s clients, with the pegasus himself watching in the background as he leaned up against a wooden crate and sighing to himself. “Now listen you two, my advice…” Wildfire began in a calm and thoughtful manner before shouting “GET A DAMN DIVORCE!” “Probably should, England must never merge with Prance anyhow,” Silver commented, completely missing the point entirely. “Though to be honest, with the way those two go at it, sadly… It already has... many, many times.” “That’s what I’ve been thinking about those two the whole trip, even before I got hit on the head by a piece of pornography.” Sudoku mused to himself, rubbing his head with a wing without even realizing it. Fancy then walked into the room, and Gallants put his claws into his mouth and let out a sharp whistle. “Everypony, stand attention! Commander on deck!” He yelled and the various crewmembers dropped whatever they were doing and saluted. Fancy nodded in approval. “Good, now you all know the crisis on our hooves and what we are about to do. I make no qualms in saying this, this is our darkest hour. We’re gambling here on a myth and old maps that may lead us to nothing but death. But in truth, during when the skies were alight with gunfire during the battles of the Great War against the Germane menace, I was gambling as well. Me and my squadron nicknamed the Flying Freedoms, we gambled with our lives every day, knowing we could get shot down and torn to pieces by enemy fighters at any given moment. But I survived that, and I’m willing to believe we can survive this,” Fancy spoke, remembering the gun and cannon fire, the explosions and the dying screams of the wounded. “Now, we set out on this journey with the mission to find Neighlantis. We’ve already lost crewmembers, and we’ll probably lose more. But I will be DAMNED to the fiery pits of Tartarus itself if I don’t complete this mission, whether it be Tartarus or High Tides or even that bloody Kraken standing in our way. I made a promise to a very dear friend of mine to prove this legend existed, and I don’t intend to break that promise. Not now, not ever. And I’m glad I have you lot by my side, as you could be the finest crew any Commander, or Captain could ask for. Thank you. Thank you all.” With that, he was greeted with a round of applause and stomping hooves before Gallants spoke up. “Well, what are you swabbies waiting for eh? We’ve got jobs to do before that Calamari to be gets here and gets served up on one VERY big silver platter!” Soon, it was time. With narrowed eyeballs, Fancy watched the Kraken remove itself from the rubble of the Neighlantis gate, with silt from the sea-beds being stowed up in huge clouds. The Devil Fish’s tendrils began glowing green and it’s single remaining eye narrowed in anger. It let out a loud screech before heading right for the Moby Dick. Fancy turned to Blast and Powder and looked at them. “Are the charges ready?” They both nodded and Fancy sighed and looked at his chair one last time with a mournful expression. “Time to give the order. Ah well, for what it’s worth, this sub was probably a waste of money anyhow.” He mused to himself. “Okay, once we’re far enough away from the Moby, blow them.” Fancy said and both sisters nodded before Fancy gave the one order he never wanted to ever give again in his lifetime. “All hands, abandon ship! I repeat, abandon ship!” He yelled over the comms, the order reaching every portion of the submarine. Everypony ran for the sub-pods and strapped themselves in. Fancy was the last to reach his personal pod, sitting right beside his adopted niece. The pod compartments opened themselves up to the deep and water began to fill the area around the pods as with tiny explosions they burst free from their housings. The Kraken wrapped it’s tendrils around the Moby Dick and began to crush it as the sound of metal began to groan and creak under the strain. “NOW!” Fancy yelled. Charges placed all over the sub, in very specific locations blew one by one and the whole area around the sub shook as Fancy yelled “Here comes the shock wave! Brace for impact!” Each and every sub was sent flying off in various directions as the Moby imploded and took the Kraken with it, the water around them being filled with red blood. Fancy sighed in relief. That creature was dead at last. Then, they entered the tunnels that led to where Neighlantis’s second gate was supposed to lay, waiting for them. In their own sub-pod, Grape and Ender held onto each other screaming at the top of their lungs. In Fancy’s pod, Twilight whispered to herself as she held onto a cross around her neck: “It's only a grease trap, it's just like a sink, it's only a grease trap, it's just like a sink… IT’S JUST LIKE A SINK!” Just then, Silverspeed’s pod flew by and slammed into Silver Spanner’s who flipped her off with a hoof as they collided. Then, her eyes widened in horror as she saw Silverspeed’s pod hit a cavern wall and go up in a fiery explosion with Spanner’s own pod emerging from the flames outer shell scorched. “It’s getting tighter!” she shouted. “Damnit Spent, you better be right about this! We just lost Silverspeed!” “I am! I am!” Spent shouted back at her. “I know my information! I was down this route before, remember! ...Just not this far down it, that’s all.” Silver muttered something quite rude under her breath as she slammed her head against the console and muttered “She was right, we’re all going to die. Hate to admit it, but the bloody cloud-hoofer was right. ...My sister always did have the last laugh, even in death it seems.” Then, she saw the tunnel opening up and saw a light ahead and poured on the speed shouting “”Everypony, follow my lead! We’re getting out of here!”