Down into the Deep

by DenyTheWitch


What Now?

It was so dark. Why was it so dark?

Everything was wet, had she gone swimming? Something was falling, a strange rock, the colours of a Rainbow. She opened her mouth, and the taste of saltwater rushed in. She was underwater, in the ocean.

She looked up, or was it down? It was so dark, she couldn't tell. She started kicking, but she didn't know where she was going.

Suddenly there was a roar, echoing, seeming to come from every direction. Was that fear? Yes, now she was afraid.

She kept looking, turning in every direction, then a flash of blue light, and another roar. And for a moment she saw something, large, pale with red streaks. Then it was gone.

She couldn't breath, where was up? Where was the surface? She kept kicking.

Another flash of light, another roar, this one sounded louder. She looked back, but saw only another glimpse of white and red.

Her lungs where burning, she needed to breath, but where was the surface? More roars, more flashes, she kept kicking.

Then her hoof kicked something, fleshy, but strong, she looked down and saw the giant serpentine body, pale while, rimmed with red. She gasped, a mistake.

The water rushed into her lungs, she was downing! She kept looking, and at last she saw it, the glimmering blue light of the surface. She started kicking towards it, but now she wasn't moving. She was sinking, the surface getting further away.

NO!

She kicked harder, felt herself rise again. She was gonna make it.

Then she heard the roar again, this time from below, she looked down.

Four massive claws around a gaping toothy maw, and four black soulless eyes rushed up towards her. She started kicking harder, desperately trying to reach the surface, but the monster was faster. And just as she dared to hope and the surface was juts in reach, the jaws of the monster filled her periphery, and then slammed shut.

"Ghaaa!"

Rainbow Dash awoke with a start, cold matted fur stuck to her skin. She looked around and saw the stale white walls, and sighed. Right, Ryley's place, not underwater.

Okay technically she was still underwater, but inside a base.

Look the point was she could breath.

For a moment she lay down, considering trying to get some more sleep, but as soon as she closed her eyes she felt it, the water in her lungs, that roar, those eyes. Rainbow Dash groaned, rolling onto her side, looking up at the stale white light coming from the roof. "What time is it?"

The trip to the island had taken maybe ten minutes in the submarine, the trip back from the island has taken over an hour, an hour spent getting water constantly splashed in her face, and constantly worried that the Sea Monster might be chasing them.

A shudder ran up her spine when she thought about it again, that thing, it wasn't like any monster she'd seen before, and the way it managed to sneak up on them, she barely saw it in time as it was. And it had still nearly killed them.

"Nothing that big should be sneaking anywhere."

Being stuck in the open water with a Sea Monster and not even being able to breath was hardly an experience that Rainbow Dash wanted to relive. That creature was large, fast and strong, very strong. She'd put everything she had into knocking it off course when she saw it charging Ryley, and it had just barely been enough.

And then the drowning. Feeling that water rush into her lungs, Rainbow Dash had been through a few scrapes before, plenty of crashes and even a few fights, but drowning. That was an experience she could do without. She'd spent her whole life in the sky, in the air, but underwater? Rainbow Dash had never felt so powerless, so helpless.

She shook her head, standing up and starting to wander around, there where no locked doors in this base this time, so that was nice, but it all felt, claustrophobic. A quick test of the wings told her they were healed enough, and so she started to leisurely hover her way through the base. Passing what looked like large glass lockers filled with mostly metal things from the looks of it.

"And to top everything off, I dropped my bags and the communication gem, so I'm right back where I started only now my stuff's being guarded by a Sea Monster!"

It didn't take long to get to that families corridor, and she dropped down to look out at the alien ocean once again. The immediate vicinity was mostly sand and rocks, with many corals around, some large tubular and colored the same as the rocks, and others bright red plates sitting on the edge of those rocks. There where weird purple mushrooms, and strange wavy reeds with glowing blue tips. The fish where especially strange, and most of them seemed to glow in some form or another, some had giant eyes, others where shaped like boomerangs. She'd gotten a look whilst in the submarine, but staying here right now, one hoof against the glass, it reminded her again how strange this ocean was, as well as distract her from her previous thoughts.

"Fluttershy would have loved this." Great, back to sad thoughts then. The thought of her friends was just perfect for getting her down again, the thought of them, worried about her. She shook her head, that's right, she couldn't let them worry, they where absolutely trying as hard as they could to reach her, she couldn't let them down. Now was no time to be mopey, now was the time for action!

"Right, I just need to get it back again, treasure guarded by a sea monster? That's just like a Daring Do book, and that stuff's why I came here in the first place." She felt a slight smile creep across her face as she muttered to herself. Then she looked back up as she shook her other hoof at the ocean and started to shout.

"You hear that ocean!? You haven't beaten me yet! I'll get that gem back, and then I'll find a way home to my friends, just you wait!"

*Knock Knock*

"Ghaa!" She jumped back as she heard a loud knocking on the glass behind her, and whirled her head around to find Ryley currently floating in the ocean right behind her, one hand held in a fist and the other one waving at her, a smile on his face behind the mask. She let out an embarrassed chuckle, quickly smoothing down any ruffled fur or feathers before looking back at him. He was waving over to the left, where she remembered the exit was, before then swimming over there himself.

"Probably wants to talk, and we need to figure out a plan." She turned to make her way to the hatch, then stopped int he middle of her first step.

"Wait, why do I need to make a plan with him?" It was strange to think, they where still both aliens to each other, come to think of it they'd only met yesterday, and she'd paid him back for saving his life, so why doesn't she just head off on her own? Her wings where better. Why does she need to make plans with him? Why would he need to make plans with her?

"Because he's all I've got." She frowned at that thought, but it made sense. They had only just met, but he was the first creature she'd met that seemed in any way intelligent, and thinking about heading back out there without any company, honestly it scared her. True there was that thing that had spoken to her at the base, but she had no idea where it was or if it was friendly, not to mention no way to talk back, at least Ryley wasn't overtly hostile.

Besides, he had let her stay in his underwater home, which was much better than sleeping on clouds in that open untamed weather. They had only just met, but he was the only company she had at the moment, and that was worth something.

"I just hope he feels the same way."

Any further musings where interrupted by the sound of the PDA voice in the air, saying something in Ryley's weird language, before that loud clicking sound filled the space, and she rounded the corner to see Ryley closing the hatch behind him, his other hand removing his mask and body still dripping with water.

He gave her only a brief wave before walking to one of small modules attached to the wall, his slight limp in his left leg making her wince. The wall module was around his chest height, and when he approached it opened up to reveal a small bench in front of him and show a bunch of glowing symbols. She flew up to look as he placed a bunch of metal objects on the bench. "What'cha doing?" He turned his head slightly to look at her, then suddenly jerked back with a shout. Rainbow Dash backed off reflexively, then started looking around in confusion.

"What is it?" Ryley held a hand over his chest and took a few deep breaths, reminding Rainbow Dash very much of what Twilight did to calm down. Then he said something under his breath, but the PDA was much louder and clearer in its translation.

"Right, it breaks the laws of physics, of course it can fly here." She scowled at that as Ryley's eyes widened ever so slightly before he glared down at his tablet.

"And what's that supposed to mean?" But he just shook his head and waved her away.

"Not important, trying to make something important." And he looked back to the wall module placing a few more objects on it, these ones looking more like coral. She thought about pressing the issue, but ultimately managed to hold her tongue.

"Working together. Working together." Instead she silently watched as he touched a few of the floating images and then stood back from above to blue lasers shot down and started to wipe out the objects. Once that was done, the blue lasers started to form the outline of a small object, before that outline was rapidly filled.

Once the arms stopped moving where once there was a collection of metals and wires, now there was a tiny black object attached to a hook shape which Ryley picked up before crouching down and holding it to her.

"In the ear. Let us talk better." And he tapped at his left ear, which Rainbow Dash could just make out had a similar small object placed inside as well. She gave the small device in his hand a quick once over, the object in the middle was round and it seemed straightforward, there was two hooks which seemed like that clipped together around her ear.

It's probably like some kind of radio." Eventually she nodded and held out her hoof. Ryley however just stared at the outstretched hoof, opening his mouth as if to say something before stopping, leaving him just silently staring. Rainbow Dash let the awkwardness hang for, well honestly just a moment before she got impatient and scowled.

"Well give it to me already." That seemed to shake him out of, whatever just happened and he dropped the device onto her hoof. She slipped the device over her own left ear, looping the hooks over the top before clicking them together whilst leaving the round object sitting in her ear socket. Once it was there she felt it move ever so slightly, pushing in a little but not uncomfortably. This done she looked back at Ryley who again had what Rainbow Dash was now deciding to call his, stupid surprised face, eyes slightly wide and mouth slightly open. She frowned at the silence, then asked.

"So what does this do anyway?" That seemed to shake him out of it, almost literally as he shook his head, and then he replied.

"It should tell you everything I say, does it work?" And sure enough it did. Usually Rainbow Dash would just hear gibberish and then waiting for the PDA to translate it for her. But this time she heard him speak his language, but also then heard his voice in her ear, in her language, at nearly the exact same time.

"Whoa cool." She started poking at her ear as Ryley continued.

"So that means it works yes? The telling you in your words still won't be good, missing a lot of your words, but deal with that later. For now I think we need to start thinking about what we do next." That got her attention, and stopped her prodding to look straight at him.

"Right, yeah, I wanted to talk about that too." He nodded.

"Good, okay, first our problems." He raised one of his hands, and raised one finger like she'd seen Spike and Gilda do when they where counting.

"We need to get home, we can still try the portal, but from what I found out at the alien tower they aren't letting anything leave because of a sickness. We should try the portals but they where also made by the aliens, so probably won't work, still worth a try." She nodded, so far what she expected. Ryley raised a second finger.

"Second problem, my people cannot save us until we shut down the alien tower, it is a weapon that kills any spaceships that come near this planet." She almost simply nodded along with what he said, before she fully processed what he'd just said.

"That whole alien tower is a weapon? That shoots down spaceships! Who builds weapons that big? Why did they need to shoot down spaceships?" Suddenly that tower felt even more ominous than it had when they'd left it.

As Rainbow Dash continued to think she noticed suddenly that Ryley hadn't said anything else, and she looked back up to see him looking at her, hand waved in her direction.

"Oh, right. Well Twilight's working on a way to help, and so are my friends, and I'm sure the Princesses are helping." She trailed off as she noticed his face going blank. Right, he didn't know who any of those pony's where, probably had no idea those where even names.

"Ahem, yes, my people are trying to help." He nodded.

"So they will send a rescue." She almost answered immediately, then she remembered something that made her hesitate.

"Well, yeah, but I was trapped here by accident, so it might take a while for them to work something out." He sighed.

"Thought so, anyway." And he held up a third finger.

"Third problem, we are sick, it will kill us, don't know how long that will take, but eventually it will probably kill us. It probably killed the aliens too." Suddenly, Rainbow Dash jerked her head up as a rather bleak thought came to her head.

"Wait, if the disease killed the aliens, and they made all those really powerful portals and weapons, then how bad is this disease?" Ryley said nothing, so Rainbow Dash continued.

"What if... What if we get everyone else sick when we go home? What if they can't fix it when we go home?" Ryley frowned, looking down at his PDA, which wasn't the answer Rainbowdash was hoping for. Equestrian healthcare was very good, she knew from personal experience, magic, medicines, heck Twilight had once mentioned that Equestria was the world leader in healthcare. But these aliens, they made portals that could reach other planets, built a laser that could shoot down spaceships, from everything she'd seen they were pretty powerful aliens, but if they couldn't stop this disease, then maybe...

She was interrupted as Ryley suddenly shook his head. "Lets not think about that right now, just part of the third problem, solutions will come next. Anyway current problem's, I don't have a submarine, and we're still not sure how to use those portals." She frowned, but dropped the subject, she wasn't exactly sure what solution they could come up with, but she supposed it was worth it to sort things out one at a time.

And then he added the dreaded question.

"Anything else?" She squirmed for a moment.

"Uhhh, well..." Ryley raised an eyebrow at that, but gestured his hand for her to continue. She sighed.

"I dropped the communication gem with the Sea Monster, and I need to get it back." Ryley just stared at her for a moment, then he sighed.

"Okay, get gem back from Sea Monster." He placed his hand over his face in a manner very reminiscent of a face hoof. Then he abruptly pulled it away and looked back at her.

"Okay, now I can make a new submarine no problem, and we have a good guess to what makes the portals work. But that still leaves us with the big problems."

"So the submarine is an easy fix, good. That means we won't have to swim everywhere." Further thought was interrupted as what Ryley said next suddenly peaked her interest.

"In the Alien tower, I found out where a few more alien bases are. One of them is a disease learn to fix base, and the other is a power base that powers the others. If we get to the power base we can maybe turn the weapon off, then we might be able to get a ship off this bad planet." But that wasn't what interested Rainbowdash.

"That alien disease base, you where saying research right? If we go there we might be able to find a cure for this disease! Then the aliens might let us leave!" He stopped at that, looking down again for a moment before looking back at her.

"Maybe, but we still need to go to those bases, and they are down, very deep down, way too deep to swim and far deeper than any submarine I can currently make can go."

"...Currently?" A nod from Ryley and he started to point down.

"I might be able to find the parts to make other submarines, ones that can go much deeper, deep enough to reach the alien bases. But we need to find the parts to know how to make them, and the parts to actually build them." Now Rainbowdash was starting to get excited, and she felt the slightest tugs of a smile on her face.

"Sounds like an adventure." Another nod.

"Maybe your people can save us, mine certainly can't, and maybe the portal will take you straight home. But if the portals don't work I don't want to just wait around, so I think we should go down to those bases ourselves. But we will need to prepare, I don't know where we can find all the parts or if they are even all here, but we need to look." This was all sounding much better to Rainbow Dash, a proper adventure, the reason she went through that dumb portal to begin with. She leapt up to her hooves.

"All right, that's a plan I can get behind. So, what do we do first?" Ryley also stood up, holding a hand out as if to try and calm her down.

"First, we need to get you some swimming gear."