//------------------------------// // The Lone Ocean // Story: The Deepest Seas // by Waxworks //------------------------------// The hippogriffs had been accommodating enough. They had given the ponies amulets that allowed them to change from pony to seapony at will. They could investigate whatever they wanted whenever they wanted on the sea floor, without worrying about specialized equipment. What they hadn’t foreseen, however, was the absolute plethora of strange creatures down in the deep water. Queen Novu had warned, them, but actually getting there and seeing them was, to say the least, disturbing. “Why did you insist I come along, Bon Bon?” Lyra said as she looked out of the glass dome into the pitch-black water beyond. There were a few magical lights outside, but they illuminated precious little of the water. “Because,” Bon Bon said. “A unicorn will make my job a lot easier, and a unicorn who’s my best friend—” she grunted as she pulled open one of the waterproofed crates. Foodstuffs spilled out in a mess on the floor. She sighed. “—will make being down here bearable.” Lyra turned and walked away from the glass window. She shut the door behind her and started cleaning up the mess Bon Bon—or Special Agent Sweetie Drops, depending on who you asked—had made. Her magic enveloped most of it and organized it into a nice, neat pile. “Case in point,” Bon Bon said. Lyra touched a hoof to the amulet around her neck. “That’s all well and good, but how long are we supposed to be down here? Didn’t they build it all up before we arrived? You haven’t fully explained your job down here.” “My job is to both establish a roster of creatures that might be a threat to Equestria and the hippogriff kingdom, and finish assembling a neighboring habisphere.” “At the same time? Why not send mechanics and engineers?” “Because most mechanics and engineers don’t know how to fight as well as I do.” Lyra grabbed Bon Bon’s face in concern. “Is there really going to be that much fighting?” Bon Bon grabbed her partner’s hooves in her own and smiled reassuringly. “No, not at all. They only encountered one belligerent creature while making the first habisphere. They don’t expect anything else, but they sent me because it makes the brass feel good about themselves.” “Okay, okay.” Lyra let her hooves drop. “I guess that’s fine. I’m just worried about what’s down here. It was hard enough getting into the water without coming this deep. Now that we’re down here… eugh.” She shivered. “It’s so dark!” “At least you have your horn. I have to rely on things I can potentially drop that take up valuable hoof space.” “Then I guess you’ll just have to never leave me alone, won’t you?” Lyra said with a grin. “Only when we’re building. I can study the local wildlife alone.” “Why? Because it’s dangerous?’ “You know that’s precisely why.” “I can help!” “Oh, really? What about that adorable little octopus that swam by?” “Adorable? It had hooks on its tentacles!” “And that one glowing eel?” “It had teeth the size of my horn!” “And that crab just outside the habisphere?” “What crab?” Bon Bon pointed to the glass dome Lyra had been in. Through the sturdy window, legs twice as long as she was covered the glass as a giant crab crawled slowly over the habisphere. Lyra shivered as she looked, but she didn’t make a noise. “You were brave coming down here, but I don’t need you to cause an disturbances while I’m studying them. Just leave them to me, okay?” “Fine, fine. But everything else I’m coming with you!” “I can agree to that.” Bon Bon hugged Lyra, and she hugged her back. They stayed like that a minute before Bon Bon let go. “Come on. Let’s get the rest of this stuff unpacked. This is supposed to last us the month, so let’s ration it out and make sure it will.” “How exciting.” “It’s necessary. It won’t take us very long,” said Bon Bon. “Fine.” They counted through it all. Bon Bon called out the list and Lyra checked it all off. With the arrangements being handled by Princess Twilight Sparkle, she had sent along an exhaustive list of everything they were expected to do while they were down here, and measurements that detailed how they were going to do it. Each item had a following check box, and they were ordered in the way the princess expected them to handle it all. It was a little boring, and a little grating. It was convenient, though, they had to admit. When they finished, Lyra rolled up the scroll and tossed it back into the pile. The habisphere wasn’t very big, but the storeroom where they were now was packed full of crates and things, all slid in through a magic wall that only opened with one of the amulets. There was an exit that anypony could use if they didn’t have one, so that the seaponies could come and go if needed. It was set in one of the room off to the side in the floor. A big hole in the ground that led to the dark waters. Lyra hated that hole. “So now what? Can we eat? I’m hungry.” Bon Bon checked her waterproof watch. “Not yet. In an hour. We need to ration.” “Ugh, fine. What else?” (Dark waters) “Now… we can read if that pleases you. I’m going to double-check a few things, but we’re free to get accustomed to the place. Find out where things are.” “Well, alright. I’ll go take a look around. Maybe I’ll find something fun.”The two split up, with Bon Bon staying behind to go over some of their supplies, and Lyra investigating the rest of the habisphere. It wasn’t large, by no means, but there was enough to accommodate six ponies, easily. Lyra and Bon Bon were going to be the first to live in it for any length of time, just to test it. The hippogriffs weren’t willing to hand out the necklaces for free. Two was all they got, so they needed to prove the place could hold and survive the rigors of the deep before they started transferring ponies down here without them. Lyra walked through the living quarters. Six spheres built off a central sphere that housed entertainment, each one had the same dimensions and the same amenities. The entertainment area housed exercise equipment so they would have a good way to blow off steam while spending time locked up underwater. There were belts on the walls any pegasi could use to hold themselves still while they flew in place, stretching their wings, and the weights on the exercise machines went up high enough that even an earth pony would strain. Unicorns like herself could just use the weights to “stretch” their horns, as it were. It had everything they would need. Lyra continued past the living quarters to the labs. There were three; one for biology, which could house any deep-sea creatures they might want to study (up to a certain size, of course), one for examining minerals and substances found in the deep, or extracted from the creatures, and one for any magical or theurgic studies of the strange essences deep underwater. Past that, there was an engineering section, with a wide-open door at the bottom of a sloped incline that led out into the water. This was for building new habisphere parts and taking them out into the water. It served a functional purpose, and in general, anything that might swim into the wall and examine it wouldn’t be able to survive out of the water, but still, looking at that dark, yawning portal, with only two magic lights down on the ground underneath it made Lyra uncomfortable. She could imagine the strange animals swimming out there in the dark, and she didn’t like the thought. They were all teeth and danger. No beauty was allowed down here because it served no function. As she hurried past, something glowing caught her eye. Swimming past the open doorway, Lyra stopped at the edge of the doorway and watched as something glowing in myriad colors idled along. In the lights outside, and the light cast by itself, she could see it was all feathered fins and strange lights. The lights were moving in a soothing pattern, and Lyra had to blink. She might have almost said it was hypnotic in a way, likely used to get the attention of prey. That made her take a step further out the door. Only something that was confident in its ability to kill other things would advertise its presence so blatantly. She reminded herself of that fact as she watched it swim past, then unlatched the door and slipped through. The doors were all hermetically sealed to prevent water getting into one from leaking to the next, and Lyra double-checked the one she’d just passed through to make sure it was latched and sealed shut. She wasn’t taking chances. She barely wanted to admit that thing that she’d just seen was beautiful. As she trotted away to the library, she reminded herself that everything down here was vicious. Bon Bon, meanwhile, was checking the boxes for all the requested supplies, making sure there wasn’t a single thing missing. If she was going to build the barest basic habisphere, she needed specific parts. She double-checked the checklist twice, and somewhere, Twilight Sparkle was shedding a single unknown tear of happiness, she was sure. If the princess wanted this to work, she had damn well better hope she had everything in order. Unfortunately for her, it would appear they were missing something. A single crate of beams was nowhere to be found. Even after the double double-check, there was nothing. That was unfortunate. Bon Bon sighed as Lyra walked back around the circle and through the doors. She was in time to hear the sigh. “What’s up?” Lyra asked. “We’re missing a crate.” “What?” “Yeah, one of the crates of support beams is missing Can only put up half the habisphere without them.” “Well, that’s no good. What do we do?” “Well, we have a month to wait before the next check-in. We can either leave and ask for another one, or we can check the ocean floor nearby, see if it was just lost in the shipping. Since we came straight down, I’d assume it’s either on the boat still, and they’ll be coming to us with it soon, or it’s on the seafloor somewhere nearby.” Lyra looked wary. “So… you’re suggesting we should… go find it?” “We may want to. We can assemble some of it, but we won’t be able to finish or get it in place without that last crate,” Bon Bon said. Lyra sighed and flopped to the floor. “Damn. I was really hoping I wouldn’t have to go out in the water so soon.” She tapped her necklace with a hoof, reassuring herself it was still there. “Did you want to go now?” Bon Bon looked at Lyra and smiled. “We don’t have to go out there immediately. Whenever you’re ready.” “Ugh. Let’s just get it over with sooner rather than later. I don’t want to have to agonize over it for long.” “I find that’s usually best. Come on.” Bon Bon walked over to the magic wall keeping the water at bay. She held up her necklace and grinned at Lyra, who followed her. The two of them looked out into the dark waters beyond and Lyra took a deep breath. “You ready?” Bon Bon asked. Lyra held up her own necklace and shivered. “As ready as I’m gonna be. Let’s just do this, get it over with, and come back so I can look at what terrible books Twilight saw fit to fill the library with.” “Then let’s go.” Bon Bon held up her necklace, then touched it to her flank. Her body shimmered and her back half changed into that of a seapony. Her rear lowered to the ground and she flopped over to the water and dove on it. She floated outside in the dark, waiting for Lyra. Lyra touched hers to her back half and dove into the water, not waiting for the transformation to complete. She closed her eyes as the abyss closed over her head and held her breath until she felt her gills working against her will. She opened her eyes when bon Bon grabbed her hoof and sighed. “Where are we looking?” She lit her horn and illuminated a wide area around them. The light didn’t penetrate far, but it was enough to make her slightly more comfortable. “They dropped everything off just in front of the habisphere, but if anything went amiss, one of the crates would have been swept a little bit with the current. The currents in this part of the ocean flow south, so we’re going to check just a little bit south.” Bon Bon pulled a compass out of her saddlebag and turned until she was facing south. She tugged Lyra along, who stayed as close as possible while they swam through the darkened waters. They swam close to the seafloor, but not too close. Bon Bon knew some creatures lived in the sand at the bottom and wasn’t willing to take the chance with Lyra that something might jump out from below and cause her a fright. Nothing came, however, and they swam in silence, only the distant sounds of sea vents and other strange things hitting their ears through the water. “I think, if something fell and we didn’t get a report of it, or if the water pushed it off course, it should have ended up over here. Unless, of course, the currents changed. We’re not going to go far, we’re just going to make a quick circuit, then we’ll head back. Maybe come out again later.” “Okay.” Lyra wasn’t comfortable, but she kept the light going and held on tight to Bon Bon. They swept around in a quick circuit, but after all that, all they found was a lot of sand and a fallen whale’s clean-picked corpse. There were some rocky hills off to one side, but Bon Bon didn’t take them outside their predetermined course. When they found nothing, she just made a note of them and turned around to head back. When they got back, Bon Bon shook her head sadly, then rapidly shook herself to dry off. Her back half changed back to a pony and she sighed. Lyra dove in, scrambled further away from the door, then shook herself. She breathed a sigh of relief. “Sorry we didn’t find the crate, Bon Bon, but I’m glad we’re done.” “Ah, well. We’ll find it later. Not like anything down here is going to eat it, and it’s waterproof. It’ll last for a week or two. We can go look later, after we’ve eaten and had time to relax.” “Yes, please. I’m gonna go sit and look at the books after I dry off. I need someplace with no windows and a touch of surface, even if it’s a book about the ocean.” “Hah! That’s fine, Lyra. Thanks for humoring me. I’ll bring in the rations in a bit.” “Thanks, Bon Bon.” The two of them touched noses and Lyra disappeared into the halls. She was trotting a little faster than normal, but after being out in the pitch-black abyss, all she wanted was to hide and feel like she was back in Ponyville. She hurried to the bathroom, rinsed off and dried herself, then rushed back to the study. The room was lit with lamps like Ponyville, and it had no windows. Thankfully the creators of the hab had decided they, too, would like someplace where they didn’t have to look at the darkness surrounding them at all times. She thanked her lucky stars, curled up on the couch and pulled a book out of the bookshelf nearby at random, hoping it was good. Unfortunately, it wasn’t. After about five minutes of reading, it was clear this book was another long, drawn-out treatise on something called “electricity” some pony from a few years back had written about. Lyra had heard of it, but why would you rely on some external power source when you could just use magic? It seemed dumb. She put the book aside and waited for Bon Bon. Bon Bon came in soon after bearing a small plate of food and a package. She sat next to Lyra and they ate happily and quietly. Bon Bon finished first and looked at the book. “Anything interesting?” “No. Something about electricity. I don’t know anything about it, but why would the princess think anypony would want to read it about while down here in the ocean?” “Well, she is a princess. Who knows what goes on in their heads. I didn’t even understand Twilight before she got her wings. Now she’s even worse.” “Yeah, who knows.” Lyra chewed her food slowly and leaned on Bon Bon. “At least we get all this alone time.” Bon Bon rubbed a hoof in Lyra’s mane and kissed her on the cheek. “Not too much. There’s work to be done, remember?” “Ugh, don’t remind me. I just got done outside in a pitch-black abyss. At least let me have a few minutes.” “Of course. We’ve earned it.” Bon Bon leaned back and let Lyra rest. Her hoof had ruffled the mare’s hair and it stuck up in places. She smoothed it out, then reached over and picked up the package. She held it out to Lyra, who took it and sat up, confused. “Is this what I think it might be?” Bon Bon nodded. “I thought the dismal darkness could do with a little bit of music from my very own siren, don’t you?” Bon Bon smiled innocently. Lyra tore into the oiled paper. When it came away it revealed a brand-new lyre, made in the traditional manner out of a tortoiseshell, with seven strings. She gasped at the sight and lightly ran a bit of magic across the strings. It was slightly out of tune, but she could fix that easily enough. She turned to Bon Bon and leaned up to rub her nose on the mare’s cheek. “This must have been expensive! Where did you get it?” Bon Bon looked sheepish. “Admittedly, it wasn’t. I got it for free from somepony I helped a few weeks ago. I was going to give it to you sooner, but when I got permission to bring you down here I thought I would present it to you as a thank you, and apology at the same time.” “Well, it’s the thought that counts. This is a well-made chelys, no matter how you got it.” “I thought we could use some music down here, and I know you didn’t want to bring your other lyre, for fear of losing it, so I brought one for you. Special shipping of course. I’m just glad it didn’t end up in the lost crate.” “Yeah, we’re still going to have to find that, aren’t we?” “Eventually, but not right now. Play me something, would you?” “Of course.” Lyra took a moment to tune the instrument, strumming each string in turn and adjusting the strings accordingly. Bon Bon sat in silence, looking at the titles of the books next to their seat while Lyra occupied herself. When she finally had the instrument tuned properly, she rand her magic across the strings and began a song. The music wafted through the room, bouncing off the walls in a pleasant, echoing tune. Lyra lost herself in the music, able to forget that she was deep under the ocean in a part of the land outside Equestria. All her worries and cares disappeared one after the other as she played a song about the rolling fields of their homeland. She sang along, voice quiet and soft as to not take away from the music itself. She recited it like poetry as she played, her voice lilting up and down with the music. Bon Bon closed her eyes and listened like she always did; with rapt appreciation. When Lyra finally stopped playing, she clapped her hooves. “Thank you, Lyra. Lovely, as always.” “Hah. Thanks, Bon Bon. The acoustics of the room do me no favors, but if I play quiet enough, it’s not so bad.” “I don’t think these rooms were built with an orchestra in mind. You’ll just have to make do.” “I know. But thank you again, Bon Bon. For a little while I was able to forget where I was. It helps a lot. This will help a lot.” “You’re welcome. But as much as I hate to ruin it, we’re going to have to go unpack some more. Think you can stare at the dark water a bit?” “Yeah, now I can.” “Then come on.” Bon Bon stood up and Lyra followed. They returned to the shipping room where all the crates and boxes waited for them. Bon Bon went to one and started pulling out the pieces of the next habisphere, and Lyra dragged them with her magic to the assembly room. The gaping holes into the ocean stared at her, cold air wafting off the water and through the magic field to chill the air. She shivered, and she wasn’t ever sure if it was the air, or the water. She didn’t really care which. She misliked them both. After they had moved some things and unpacked more, Bon Bon decided it was time for them to head to bed. There were clocks everywhere throughout the habisphere, and Bon Bon kept very strict track of the time. For Lyra, this was pretty normal. There were always periods where Bon Bon would get a lot more strict about time and the keeping of it. Now that she knew what Bon Bon did for work, she understood it a lot better, but it was still strange to be there for it when it happened. She knew she was just trying to keep her superiors happy, but going to bed at 9:00pm? Lyra usually wasn’t usually required to join her, and only did so for intimacy. Today, she found herself lying awake in bed with Bon Bon next to her. Bon Bon was asleep, as soundly as could be. Lyra looked at her in the darkness, unable to see many of her features in the near pitch blackness. They had minor lights to provide a simulation of starlight, but it was still dark. She didn’t, however, light her horn as she slipped out of bed, until she was out of the room and in the hall with the door shut behind her. Lyra trotted slowly down the halls, passing by windows looking out into darkness. She studiously avoided looking at them as she went. She opened the door to the library and shut it quickly behind her. She trotted over to the seat where she and Bon Bon had eaten supper, and picked up her new lyre. In this strange place, the instrument was comforting. Like a piece of home that made her feel at ease. She picked it up and strummed a few notes, closing her eyes with a sigh. She played, then. The music lilting away from her was calming. She sang sweetly along with it, letting the sounds fill the room until the creaking and straining of the habisphere were drowned out. She trusted the building, and even if it broke, they had the necklaces to allow them to survive. It was the anonymous darkness outside that scared her. While she sang, Lyra heard another sound creep into her music. At first it wasn’t very loud, but the longer she sang, the louder it became. It didn’t ruin the song, in fact, it improved it, but it didn’t sound like her voice. Had she woken Bon Bon? She stopped suddenly, pressing her magic against the strings to stop them. The sound stopped as well. “Bon Bon? Did I wake you?” Lyra asked. There was no response. Lyra put it up to her own fear of the darkness and ocean and plucked at her lyre once more. She sang along, and it wasn’t long before she heard the same strange voice singing along with her. She stopped again, and the voice stopped, when she started, the voice started, without fail every time. Lyra stood and walked around with her lyre, playing her song the whole while. She heard the voice singing along, and wondered if it was perhaps the acoustics, so she left the room, moving down the hallways of the habisphere. She went into the storage room and listened while she played and heard the voice even louder. She stopped without warning, pressing the strings to halt their strum, and listened. The echo of the extra voice came from the water nearby. Lyra felt a chill, and not from the cold. “Hello?” she said into the darkness. A whisper answered her. “Hello?” Still trying to convince herself it wasn’t an echo, Lyra plucked a few strings and sang a few notes. When she heard the voice singing along with hers, she stopped singing, but kept strumming. The voice continued without her. It was beautiful. Hauntingly so. Without her voice to cover it up, she could hear it singing, wordlessly, but utterly on key and on time. It was a high alto, rich, but filled with feminine beauty. It knew where she was going with her music, and while at first it followed her, eventually it was leading her along, taking her lyre with it as it sang up and down. Lyra continued, despite her misgivings. She wanted to believe something so beautiful could only be good, but with the darkness waiting just outside the magical gate of the storage room, her fear got the better of her. Eventually she stopped, and the voice stopped soon after. “Why?” the faint voice asked. “I… I’m scared,” Lyra managed to answer. Her eyes were locked on the dark gateway. “More,” the voice said. Lyra shook her head. “Please?” Lyra watched the darkness. The lights outside were magical and secure. They likely wouldn’t go out anytime soon, if at all. If they remained unbroken, magical lights could continue for years. The immediate area outside the gateway was well-lit, and there was nothing outside. She should have been fine. “Please?” Something moved just outside the gate, beyond the limits of the light. She only caught a glimpse of it, but Lyra immediately jumped in panic. She dropped her lyre and ran, slamming open the door to the hall and tearing down it. She slowed as she reached the bedroom, and shakily trotted up to the bed. She slipped in next to Bon Bon and pulled the blankets up. She tried to forget. The next morning was difficult for Lyra. Bon Bon woke her up when she shifted out of bed. Lyra jumped in alarm and rolled out of bed herself, startling Bon Bon. “Geeze! Good morning to you, too, Lyra!” Bon Bon said. Lyra looked around, confirming that things were normal and safe, and that she was in the bedroom with Bon Bon. “Sorry… I didn’t sleep too well last night.” “Being in the deep sea’s getting to you, huh?” “Yeah, I guess. I knew it would.” Bon Bon looked at her with concern. “You didn’t have to come. You can leave if you want.” “No!” She said vehemently. “I’m fine staying! I want to stay. It’s just going to be tough to get used to. I just need time.” “Okay. I understand. We’ll take it slow, but let me know if it ever becomes too much for you, okay?” “Okay…” “Now, let’s get breakfast and get assembling! We won’t go outside today, just to make it easier on you.” “Alright. Thank you, Bon Bon.” Bon Bon trotted over and rubbed her nose on Lyra’s. “Anything for my little sweet.” Lyra laughed and pushed her away, and the two went out to the assembly room. They worked hard. Lyra spent her time in the room following the instructions to piece together the pre-assembed chunks of the habisphere. She knew it was just supposed to be a basic starting room and they would replace it with a better one later, but she worried that her work wouldn’t be good enough. She painstakingly checked each piece she fitted to each other piece to make sure the rubber was in the right spot, the screws were tight, and everything else was neat, tidy, and functional. The further she got into it, the more convinced she was she had ruined it, but Bon Bon reassured her she was doing just fine.