//------------------------------// // Chapter 2: Call Upon the Seaponies // Story: Rainbow is Magic S2: Treasures of the Deep Blue // by aceotaku //------------------------------// As the various seadogs of the town chatted, drank and ate in the local bar of Shetland Shore, the door burst open as a mare trotted in, looking pale and wide-eyed, body utterly drenched. “Ey lass, what ‘appened to ye?” The yak sailor asked as he and the other patrons walked over. “And why ain’t those mares ye took on with ye?” The mare stared wide eyed, still shellshocked. “We were attacked! Our boat was sunk and I barely escaped with my life...but I couldn’t find hide nor hair of those mares....” The yak sighed mournfully. “....such a shame, they were such pretty mares too...what attacked ye anyway? What ‘appened?” “I saw a pirate ship in the distance, but before I could make preparations...something struck us from below...I saw a huge, green....THING tear through the ship like it was nothing!” The yak gasped, frowning grimly. “The slasher...those poor mares...I’m afraid they may have been dragged down to the depths, to a hellish fate we dare not contemplate...” ------------------------ Twilight groaned in her sleep. The air around her felt weird and everything smelt weirdly salty. As she started to drift in and out of consciousness, memories drifted...Shetland Shore...the boat...arguing with Rarity...the boat exploding. The mare quickly shot up, looking around herself as she panted heavily in fright. After looking over herself to ensure she was, in fact, not exploded, she sighed to herself as she tried to relax and gather her thoughts and then began to look around her surroundings. She lay on a bed made of several long  strips of a strange, black plant-like substance. Around her were several large structures and she could hear voices and music. She turned to the noise, seeing several figures dancing around a fire. Judging from one voice in particular, one of them was Rarity. She frowned as she forced herself onto her hooves, groaning in pain, noticing a few bandages around her left hoof, barrel and over one of her shoulders. She looked up, seeing several large bubbles floating in the air. And then she saw the figures ahead more clearly. They resembled ponies, at least their heads did, but from the neck down they had small bodies that resembled seahorses, the ends of their ‘tails’ curling inwards in a spiral, floating in mid air. Rarity danced around with them like she didn’t have a care. They floated in the middle of a large clearing, tables set up and lined with food. Along with several ruined buildings of various shapes and sizes, the large village was surrounded by a massive coral reef, the coral reaching several feet high above them in a perfect circle around the town. Twilight however began hyperventilating as she realised the creatures weren’t floating in air, no more than the bubbles above were. They were underwater. Twilight struggled for air as several of the strange ponylike creatures giggled at her. “What is wrong with you!?” Twilight screamed in horror. “We’re gonna drown!” Rarity laughed as she trotted over. “Twi, relax it’s fine, if we were drowning we would’ve done so by now, let alone even be talking.” Twilight blinked, taking several gulps of air despite clearly being underwater. “It’s been a while since I’ve read up on physics so I could be wrong, but shouldn’t we be...drowning? Or at least, not be able to talk or breathe, not to mention feel water in our throats?!” Twilight frowned. “In fact...where the hay are we? Who are these strange...creatures and why are you being so familiar with them?” One of the creatures drifted over, sporting a long red mane, her body and head a soft, warm yellow. “Do not worry, traveller, we saw you drifting in the ocean and brought you here. The reef surrounding us generates a magical bubble allowing us to breathe, swim and walk without feeling water pressure around us or impeding the lungs of surface dwellers like you.” Twilight tilted her head. “What are you...um...people, anyway?” “We’re the seaponies!” Every single one of them shouted gleefully. “Now that you’re awake, come join us for food and celebration! It will be so fun!” Twilight stared in amazement. “Oh my gosh...seaponies ARE real...” Rarity grinned and draped a hoof over Twilight’s shoulder, pulling the mare out of her stupor. “Come on, Twi, it’s the least we can do in return for them saving our lives.” Twilight pulled away from the other mare hurriedly, looking to their hosts. “Yeah...sure we can spend some time with you folks. Maybe you can explain what happened to us exactly?” The red haired seapony grinned and turned to look over at a dark shadow by some of the large coral structures surrounding the area. “Bubble Burst, you should join too!” A seapony drifted into view from the shadows, glaring at everypony dismissively. She had a turquoise body and short cropped light blue mane, but most strikingly of all were the various scars across her belly, chest, sides and most especially over her face, three scars going vertically down over her mouth, a couple across the bridge of her muzzle, and a large one going diagonally across her left eye with a thinner scar under her right eye. “These...creatures are outsiders. I don’t trust them, and neither should you. Enough of your parties and frivolity, when are you idiots going to take things seriously!?” The other seapony giggled. “Oh Bubble, you’re so silly! Just relax and have fun like the rest of us, you don’t have to be a Grumpy Gus all the time!” Bubble Burst grunted in exasperation and swam off, heading towards a large, dark ruin at the edge of the area, near the largest bunch of massive corals. Twilight and rarity blinked in confusion as the seaponies giggled obliviously. “What the hay was her problem?” Rarity wondered aloud. “Oh that’s just Bubble Burst!” one of the seaponies replied. “She’s just a grumpy fuddy duddy, don’t mind her! Come party, eat!” The seaponies lead the pair of ponies to the tables laden with plates of fish and kelp, fish eggs and even a plate of something weird and squirming that neither Twilight nor Rarity could identify. Rarity blanched, grimacing. “Um, don’t you guys have anything more...I dunno, pony-friendly?” Twilight rolled her eyes. “Rarity, we’re guests in a foreign land, in fact I think we’re probably the first ponies EVER to see real live seaponies up close like this. It’s common courtesy to accept the local cuisine. Besides, trying out seafood was part of the whole point of our whole trip.” The purple unicorn leaned in, taking a huge bite of some small pieces fish meat wrapped in seaweed...and her eyes widened as she swallowed. “This...this is...delicious!” “Mhmm that’s an old recipe of ours from the old times! It’s called sushi!” Twilight looked at the seaponies thoughtfully. “Honestly...I’m rather curious about your history...how long have you been down here? Why haven’t you made yourselves known to the surface world? Where did this ruins come from, and how did you find such a convenient place to live in?” The seaponies shrugged. “Dunno! It’s just always been that way!” Twilight furrowed her brow in annoyance. “You mean...you seriously don’t know ANYTHING about your history aside from some recipe?” “Well Bubble Burst might know, but I dunno why you care about that sorta stuff. Look, you’re all better now so just have fun with us! We can sing and dance and play and eat and all sorts of stuff!” Rarity chuckled. “See, now food aside, this is my kind of place!” “Rarity are you serious!?” Twilight growled. “We can’t just mess around all day, everypony on the surface will get worried, we need to at least make sure we tell somepony we’re fine. Besides, you can’t just play all day you’ll get fat.” She nodded to herself. “These seaponies are too carefree, surely they have jobs they should be worrying about right now?” “What’s a job?” A seapony asked. Twilight’s brow twitched. “You...none of you WORK at ALL!?” “Oh yeah I’m definitely gonna like this place.” Rarity chuckled. “No work means more time to myself and learning to fly and spend time with my friends.” She gave a cool gaze to Twilight. “Some of them, at least.” Twilight glared at her friend, lips thin, eyes narrow...however the argument was once more interrupted, this time from a large crash as a pair of large, wagon sized harpoons tore through a couple of the large coral structures, sending them floating gently to the ground, a dark shape loomed from behind the newly formed holes.” The seaponies gasped. “Oh no! PIRATES!” The sea dwellers scrambled, hurriedly swimming blindly in a panic as several figures swam through the holes in the coral to enter the area. A massive, blue creature resembling a crab landed in the middle of the square, though it stood upwards like a minotaur, sporting a strong muscular looking frame, two arms each ended end a serated claw (though his right claw was far larger and thicker), and sporting a multitude of long, spindly legs supporting his frame. He looked around at the panicking seaponies morosely but determinedly as a saw nose shark and a sword fish swam up from behind him. “The pirates are here!” The seaponies screamed as they swam to their homes to hide, the pirates in question scanning the city as if searching for something...the massive crab grunting in mild annoyance as a pair of hooves slammed into his chest and pushed him back about an inch. Twilight fell onto her hooves after her attack, gazing up at the pirates. “I’m not sure what’s going on, but I won’t let you hurt these ponies!” The crab gazed down at her evenly. “Stay out of this surface dweller, this conflict does not involve you. Go back to where you came from and forget about this.” “Sorry, but I can’t just forget about these ponies after they gave us some hospitality, I always pay back others what I owe them!” Twilight leapt up to strike again. “And a good friend of mine taught how you need to fight back to protect others, sometimes! Prepare for a generous beating!” She slowly floated through the water, her hooves gently slapping against the crab man, who merely grabbed her in his large claw, frowning. “Your surface combat doesn’t work here, surface dweller. Your movements are slowed, the water cushions your strikes. You will not be winning the day. So please, stay out of this matter.” He casually threw her away, causing her to hit one of the ruined buildings at a substantial velocity, hurting her back. “Twilight!” Rarity gasped and hurriedly ran to her friend, her speed slowed by the water around them. The mare looked around, frowning softly as all of the seaponies had gone into hiding, leaving her to tend to Twilight by herself. “I’m fine, get off me!” Twilight coughed out as she got up to her hooves, pushing the other unicorn away from her. “Where are they?” As the purple unicorn looked around herself, she spied the strange pirates walking around the seemingly now deserted town. “FILTHY PIRATES!” A new voice shouted, something moving at incredibly fast speeds through the water around them. The saw nose shark and swordfish swam towards the newcomer at fast past, flanking towards them in a wide arc, as they came close enough they slashed together at the figure simoultaenously in an crossing motion...only for their weaponised snouts to be sliced in half and they themselves were slashed across their bellies. The figure resumed their previous speed, slashing at the crab-like creature who caught the attack in his massive claw. “You again.” The crab glared angrily at the figure, who was now revealed fully: a massive metallic figure, its metallic frame largely a dark green with traces of darkened bronze, it had two strong arms holding a three-pronged trident, a strong looking torso and large, squat head with several thin rectangular openings where it’s face would be, its upper body reminding Twilight of a minotaur’s vaguely, while it’s lower half resembled a fish’s, though the tailfin was instead a whirring rotor, a pair of secondary rotors on the back of its upper body. A pair of bright lights shone above its ‘face’, making it look like it had large, glowing eyes. “You will NEVER get the Moonstone!” The figure cried out, their voice low and tinny, distorted slightly from the metal surrounding it. “I will kill every single pirate that approaches us to ensure that NONE OF YOU bother us again!” “Not if we kill you first!” a new voice called out as something leapt up from the ground, wrapping itself around the metal figure. Twilight leapt in, horn glowing as she shot a blast of the most concentrated amount of magic she could muster, knocking the pirate off the metal figure and tumbling onto the ground. “Murray!” The crab person gasped and ran to his fallen comrade, helping him up. “Are you alright?” “Y...yes!” The pirate wheezed, pride in his voice. He was a strangely bipedal creature with a round, metallic head with a round, glass-like face behind which lied only a veil of darkness, his rubbery yellow body standing on two legs in a vaguely upright position with his arms hanging loosely by his sides, his body moving in an awkward, unnatural manner. “I...I allowed myself to get hit by the attack to gauge the enemy’s strength! I threw myself off the enemy to catch them off-guard!” The crab man shook his head. “You and your ‘noble pride’...” he turned to the ponies and metal figure, lifting his massive dominant claw to them. “Look, we need that stone more than you do! Our livelihoods depend on it! We can settle this peacefully, even after you coldly killed our comrades! If this keeps up both us AND your precious seaponies could pay the price!” The metal figure drifted over, trident held in one, large, metallic hand. “The Moonstone shall never leave this place...it shall remain here forever, and it shall NOT be given to worthless, greedy pirates who have no idea of its true value!” They charged suddenly, swinging their trident. The crab man leapt aside, grabbing the figure’s head in his claw, glaring grimly as he squeezed and crushed the metal with effort. Twilight ran, pushing the crab off towards a large stone nearby, snarling angrily. “You maniac! You KILLED them!” With a ‘shunk’ sound, the mare froze, turning her head to gaze at the trident that now impaled the crab’s claw holding it in place against the rock. The metal figure stood, sans head, a pair of eyes glaring from just above the neckline. “Die.” The deep, feminine voice stated coldly, only to be held back by Rarity. “Don’t!” The unicorn protested. “I won’t let you hurt a helpless creature!” As the metal figure struggled to push Rarity off and twilight tried to throw in her two cents on the matter, the crab man yanked his arm off, grunting as his claw was torn off and he quickly hurried away and leapt off, swimming back to the massive structure lying in the darkness beyond the coral, his strange companion following suit. The metal figure spat in annoyance as she pushed Rarity off of herself. “They got away...look what you’ve done, Whitey.” “Name’s Rarity.” The unicorn replied. “And I’m sorry, but even if he’s a bad guy, I’m not going to let you MURDER someone in cold blood like that! That’d be no better than letting the pirates have their way!” Twilight rolled her eyes. “Rarity, I think things aren’t as simple as that! It may not have been exactly nice, but we don’t understand the situation at all, for all we know those pirates have killed a lot of ponies so far!” Rarity shrugged. “Nevermind all that!” She looked up at the trident wielding figure. “Are you injured? That creature really did a number on you.” “Not really, I’ve dealt with worse.” Her metal body whirred as she began to drift off, several seaponies swimming out from their hiding places. “Mean old pirates, messing up our celebration.”One of them pouted, then shrugged with a grin. “Oh well! Let’s get back to the party!” “Are you crazy?” twilight stared, flabbergasted. “A bunch of monstrous pirates attacked your town, scared you witless and caused who knows how much damage...and you’re just gonna forget about it and party!?” “Yeah, shouldn’t you guys, yknow, try and do something about it?” Rarity added. “I mean, I’m all for having fun and not worry about stuff, but you guys kinda need to strategise some sort of, I dunno, long term plan here.” The seaponies shrugged. “Bubble Burst will take care of it if they come back, she doesn’t seem to care about doing much else anyway, so why do we need to bother?” Twilight rubbed her head. “Look, can we get an explanation for what’s going on here?” “Ask Bubble Burst, she’ll tell you, we don’t really wanna bother with that boring stuff right now” One of the seaponies pointed at the structure the more anti-social seapony swam to earlier. “She’s right there, can’t miss it!” Rarity trotted off as the seapony finished speaking. “Sure! Come Twi, we really need to see if she’s okay anyway!” Twilight shrugged and trotted after her, glaring at the careless seaponies in annoyance. “No wonder that one was so grumpy...” ------------------------------------- There was a knock at Bubble Burst’s door. The seapony growled to herself as she swam over and opened the door, blinking in surprise as the two ponies stood before her. “Hi!” Rarity greeted, raising her hoof. “I wanted to make sure you really weren’t hurt at all in the fight.” Twilight stepped over. “We were told you could tell us about what’s going on here. I want to help, however I can, but knowing a little more about what’s going on would be helpful. Bubble Burst blinked, raising a brow in suspicion. “You...really wish to help me? Are you trying to me you aren’t with those pirates...?” “Of course not!” Twilight replied, stepping over. “And even if you don’t want any help, I’m not taking no for an answer! If I see somepony in need of something, I always give my best to give 110% of whatever I can offer in return!” suddenly she pushed past her, drifting into the room. “Now, let’s start with that wonderful machine you were wearing before! I’m guessing you keep it here too, along with all your tools!” Bubble Burst gasped. “You knew I was the one fighting the pirates!?” Rarity laughed. “Come on, it’s pretty obvious. We DID hear you speak. What, did you think everyone was as.....thoughtless as those other seaponies?” Bubble Burst looked away bashfully. “I...It’s been a while since I’ve spoken to anypony from the surface...hey wait a minute don’t mess with that suit! It’s precious to me and my work!” Twilight grinned as she spied the massive metal suit that Bubble Burst wore earlier to fight the pirates, standing in the middle of the room. A simple metal desk stood next to it with various tools used for maintenance, the remains of the helmet Twilight initially mistook for a ‘head’ sitting on the desk to be repaired. “Excellent! You can tell me all about it while I work! Don’t worry, I’m an expert with machines!” “But...” Bubble Burst lamel raised her tail to try and gain control over the situation, only for Rarity to put a hoof over her mouth in a shushing gesture as the white unicorn looked the seapony over for injuries. Bubble Burst sighed and relented, realising there was no stopping these strangers. “Very well, I will explain...everything...” -------------------------- The crab man kneeled in supplication, the stump that was his claw wrapped in a bandage. “Forgive me captain...we’ve lost two more loyal crew members...Saw and Pierce were taken down by that selfish witch...and we have nothing to show for it...” A voice called out from the darkness of the room the crab sat in, a hook glinting in the sunlight. “Oh don’t worry about it, Crabnasty, all that matters is that we get the Moonstone...all our troubles will be over... Don’t lose heart now, we’re so close, I can FEEL it.” “As you say, Captain Squirk.”