//------------------------------// // Victory? // Story: A Twist in Evolution // by Dark Nightshade //------------------------------// Twilight had climber back onto the boat and started piloting it, following Submersive Exploration, who made it easier for Twilight to see her by jumping out of the water every five seconds.They did this for a few minutes, with Twilight answering what few questions she could from the others. Submersive Exploration stopped, and Twilight stopped several feet away from her. "Okay, you want to help?" Submersive Exploration asked. She pointed downwards, at the murky water, where they could faintly see some kind of light, along with the faint outline of the leviathan. "What is that?" Flash asked with a mix of awe and fear in his voice. "A leviathan," Submersive Exploration said. "One of, if not the most dangerous creature we control." "You mean there are more dangerous?" Rarity asked. Submersive Exploration nodded gravely. "Unfortunately, yes," Submersive Exploration said. "What is that?" Twilight asked. "The name of the creature you can't control?" "The Formidata," Submersive Exploration said. "But that's not important right now. What is important right now is that you help me find something." "What does it look like?" Twilight asked. "It's a helmet made of coral and pearl," Submersive Exploration said. "The Ultimate Manic. It's the most powerful beast controller ever made." "How do we stop it?" Sunset Shimmer asked. "I mean, someone has control of a leviathan! If the legends that humans have about it are even half true, then we are dead." "Oh, human legends of leviathans are true," Submersive Exploration said. "About baby ones. Fortunately, this one is still pretty young." Sunset Shimmer and Twilight looked doubtful. "It looks pretty big," Twilight said. "Are you sure it's a baby?" Submersive Exploration shrugged. "Eh, last time I checked, it was only 300 years old," she said. "That's like, 13 in human years." "That's another question I wanted to ask, actually," Twilight said. "How long do merfolk live for?" Submersive Exploration glared at her. "Lets get back to that later," Submersive Exploration said. "But right now, we need to get down there, and get the Ultimate Manic out of the hands of whoever has it! Now who's with me?" Everyone raised their hands. "Then lets get going!" Everyone dived into the water, excited, but nervous. They swam for several minutes through the murky water, not sure if they were close to crashing into something, or how they would fin this Ultimate Manic. But then the water cleared, and Rarity gasped. Below them lay a shining city, somehow gleaming in the murky water. But the shining was the beautiful part about it. Circling the city was a giant creature that only could have been the leviathan. It was huge. It looked like a giant armored serpent, with appendages lashing around buildings, destroying them, pulling them over. "That's a baby?" Twilight asked. "Believe it or not, but yes," Submersive Exploration said, the ethereal edge back in her voice. But there was something else in her voice. Anger. "We need to stop whoever it is who is controlling that leviathan. He's destroying my city!" Submersive Exploration started to change again. Her nose started to sharpen, and she started to thin out. A ridge started growing along her back. She had taken on some kind of sailfish mermaid form. She shot downwards at an amazing speed, leaving the others in her metaphorical underwater dust. They started following her, but she was far ahead, already halfway to the leviathan. As Submersive Exploration neared the leviathan, she looked for something that wouldn't normally be on a leviathan. Nothing. She started swimming over it, doing the same thing, but the leviathan roared at that moment, and she saw it. In its mouth, in between its teeth, was someone. She dashed towards it, but the leviathan closed its mouth before she got close. How am I going to get in? Submersive Exploration thought. Wait...I can stab its mouth. I practically have a knife for a nose. She dashed towards the leviathan, her nose pointed at, but then the leviathan opened its mouth before Submersive Exploration could stab it. She shot into the mouth, deeper than she had wanted to, and she turned around. In between the teeth was someone she hadn't expected to see. "Mom?!?!" Submersive Exploration yelled. "What are you doing in here?" Her mom's bright orange face turned to face Submersive Exploration with a shocked expression, her seaweed green hair flowing along with it. "You're still alive?!" her mom exclaimed. "Oh my gosh, I thought you were dead! Come over her, help me get out!" Submersive Exploration swam towards her, grabbing hold of her arms, and pulled. The leviathan's mouth closed. "I've got this," Submersive Exploration said as she turned into a angler. This subspecies was known for its resemblance towards the angler fish, specifically for the bio-luminescent bulb hanging above their heads. Said light was now lighting up the insides of the leviathan's mouth, and her mom. She hugged Submersive Exploration tightly. When they pulled away, and out of the teeth, her moms eyes were turning red. "Where have you been?" Mom asked. "Do you know how long you've been gone for?" Submersive Exploration shook her head. "I don't know, but can we please return to this later?" she asked. "What's happened? Who got the Ultimate Manic?" Mom shrugged. "I don't know, but he got past all the guards with some kind of....thing," she said. "Your father, who managed to get the job for protecting the Ultimate Manic, by the way, was fighting this pale brown skinned man, when the attacker pulled out this silver thing and threw it at your father. It missed him and hit the wall, freezing everything within like, five feet." "A pale brown skinned man?" Submersive Exploration asked. "Oh, he's why I've been gone for however long its been." "Oh, that explains a lot," Mom said. "Yes, a pale brown skinned man. He froze your father in ice, got the Ultimate Manic, and, well, you can probably guess the rest." "Okay, yes, but how did you get here?" Submersive Exploration asked. Mom's head lowered. "When the pale brown man took the Ultimate Manic, one of the first things he made the leviathan eat was the building that had held the Ultimate Manic. I was in there, with your dad, trying to free him." Submersive Exploration's eyes widened and she gasped. "No," she said, her eyes filling with tears. Mom nodded. "I'm sorry, but yes," she said. "Your father passed through the digestive system a long time ago." Submersive Exploration started crying, her mother wrapping her arms around her, pulling her close. They stayed like this for a minute. Until Submersive Exploration pulled away, her face contorted with rage. "Where is the pale brown man?" she said, hate clear in her voice. "In the old visitors center, but you can't-" Mom started saying, but Submersive Exploration cut her off. "This guy can't be allowed to continue doing this," Submersive Exploration said. "He must be stopped. Permanently." Her mom was silent for a few seconds before saying something. "At least let me come with you," she said. "Fine, but stay behind me," Submersive Exploration said. The pale brown man smiled as he watched the city fall under the leviathan, his new tail flapping slightly. He had wanted to test out the full abilities of the Ultimate Manic. He had to fight for it, but it was worth it. He had seen some idiot enter the mouth if his leviathan, but he was now seeing two mermaids exit. One pointed at him, and he smiled. He was going to get to kill some more. Everyone else was wisely swimming away from the leviathan, evacuating the city. He had come prepared, armed with weapons that the merfolk had never seen. They had ever stood a chance. He watched as the duo of mermaids turned into strange sailfish mermaids. He couldn't remember the exact name of the subspecies, but that didn't matter. He started to transform. It didn't go as smoothly as a naturally born mermaid, and was a little painful, but he smiled nonetheless as he turned into a piranha merman, his teeth sharpening, his jaw jutting forward a little, and his size shrinking. He had always been teased for being short, but now he was dangerous and short. His tail started flapping, projecting him forward, and the two women started changing as well. The orange one changed into more of a sturgeon like form, and the turquoise one, who was strangely familiar, changed into a fang tooth form. When they got near, the turquoise one lunged at him, trying to sink her teeth into his arm, but he dodged, punched her in the back of the head, and lunged at the orange woman. He managed to grab her arms and twisted behind her, trapping her in a position with his teeth just above her neck. "Make another move, and this one kicks the bucket," the pale man said. The turquoise girl glared at him, and he remembered where he had seen her before. "You're the one I got the mermaid genetics from," he said. The girl nodded. "Why are you doing this?" she asked. She spread her arms gesturing at the falling, destroyed city behind her. "What did we do?" The man shook his head. "No, it's not what your kind did to me," he said. "It's what the rest of the world did to me. And I'm going to kill the for it." "Seriously?" the girl asked. The man frowned. "What?" he asked. "You've probably been planing this for a long time, right?" the girl asked. The man nodded. "And that's your speech?" The man nodded. "I never needed to make a speech," he said. "Well, if you've been making this plan for years, then you probably should've made some kind of plan," the orange one said. "Shut up," the man said, tightening his grip on her arms and pulling them closer. The orange girl started making pain filled sounds. "Let her go!" the turquoise girl said. "We will defeat you!" The man laughed. "You two?" he asked. "Really? You think that you two can defeat me? I control the levia-" There was a sudden loud cracking sound, and the man's eyes crossed before rolling back in his head. His figure slumped, letting Submersive Exploration's mom go, and reveled Twilight holding a prison prism. Apparently, she had used it to knock the man out. "You used that wrong," Submersive Exploration said. Her mom, on the other hand, looked fascinated that a human was all the way down here. "Who are you?" Mom asked "I'm Twilight," Twilight said. "Who are you?" "Oh, I'm Broiling Striker," she said. "Submersive Exploration's mom. Do you two know each other?" "We just met this morning," Twilight said. She reached her hand out. Broiling Striker looked at it confusedly. Submersive Exploration giggled, grabbed her moms hand and guided it towards Twilight's hand. Twilight grabbed it and started shaking. "Up and down," Submersive Exploration said. "Don't worry, I was confused at first too. Hey, where are the others?" Twilight pointed behind them. Submersive Exploration and Broiling Striker turned around to see Sunset Shimmer, Flash and Rarity. "Oh, is that a boy?" Broiling Striker asked mischievously. Submersive Exploration groaned. "Mom!" she whined. "Why? Is now really the time?" Broiling Striker giggled. "I'm only playing," she said. As the three others neared them, Flash asked "Did you call her mom?" Broiling Striker smiled, stuck out her hand and said "Yes, I'm Submersive Exploration's mom." Rarity was probably smiling as wide as her face would let her. Rarity shook it. "Hi, I'm Rarity," she said. "It's so good to meet you!" "You too, Rarity," Broiling Striker said. "All of you know Submersive Exploration?" They all nodded. Broiling Striker turned to Submersive Exploration. "Well then, you have some explaining to do." "Fast version, I got stuck on a coral reef, Flash woke me up, I didn't know where I was, he and Sunset Shimmer took me to Flash's house, I slept there, and I met some of their friends," she said, pointing at Flash and Sunset Shimmer when she said their names and inhaled some more oxygen. "Then Twilight asked if she could see me in the ocean, we came out here, the leviathan started destroying stuff, we got here, then I found you." Submersive Exploration inhaled some more. "And you know the rest." Broiling Striker raised her eyebrow. "You slept at a boys house?" she asked. "With your legs and everything?" Submersive Exploration blushed as the others giggled. "Mom!" she said. "Do you have to?" Broiling Striker giggled. "Yes, sweetie, I'm your mom," she said. "It's my job to." The next few hours were fairly interesting, to say the least. Twilight was thanked for defeating the pale brown man, and Broiling Striker talked to Flash about moving into his house for a little while, until her house was fixed. "It's going to take a while, and I'm willing to work if I need to pay rent," she said. "Unless you except crokners, agoms, gongics, or precious gems." "Ah, don't worry, I don't need you to pay," Flash said. "I'm just amazed I got to meet one of Submersive Exploration's parents. By the way, where is her dad?" Broiling Striker's smile turned into a sad expression. "He's dead," she said. "But he wouldn't have wanted me to be sad. I'm just glad that Submersive Exploration has final met a boy!" Flash blushed. Broiling Striker said, in a strangely sultry voice "Do you find her attractive?" Flash's blush deepened. "Well, she's not....not attractive," he said. Broiling Striker stared at him until he started talking again. "Yes, she is attractive. I can see where she gets it from." It was Broiling Striker's turn to blush. She was trying to embarrass one of her daughters friends, not set her up! "You really think both of us are attractive?" Broiling Striker asked. Before Flash could answer, Rarity swam up to them. "Are you two ready to get going?" she asked. "Flash, remember, tomorrow is school, and I still have some work I need to do." Flash and Broiling Striker nodded, and ten minutes later, they were on the boat, speeding back to the Canterlot City port. Fortunately, Rarity had packed some extra clothes, including Submersive Exploration's new clothes, so Broiling Striker had something to wear. The clothes Rarity had given her fit, but just barley. They clung to her tightly, accenting her figure, much like it had done with Submersive Exploration. Not that Flash was complaining or anything. But, unfortunately, Broiling Striker was like Submersive Exploration in more ways than just their figures. After Flash had dropped everyone off and gave the scuba gear back to the rental place, Broiling Striker started to fart. Like mother like daughter, Flash thought.