//------------------------------// // III - As Dark as a Starless Night // Story: Empty Horizons: Sea of Stars // by Insipidious //------------------------------// Beneath the rocking waves, the ocean appeared peaceful. Under natural circumstances it should have been dark beneath Leviathan Wakes, but the subsurface life of the city was anything but natural. Under the haphazardly rummaged together ships there were massive waterproof chains running back and forth. Deeper down, these chains fused with each other into even more massive restraints until a chain link was roughly the size of a pony.  At the bottom, these chains affixed to the two largest beings known to ponykind, the leviathans. Massive fish so tremendous in size that, no matter the quality of the water, nopony could see both ends of the scaled behemoths at once. It was these two beings that dragged Leviathan Wakes along through the ocean, guided by the fish dumped by the ponies above. The black one had slightly more girth than the red one, which had smoother skin and more graceful fins. Yet, nopony was entirely sure which one was larger, if any. They never exactly extended to their full length, and some ponies swore they were still growing in size.  Regardless, the deepfish monsters of the open ocean didn’t dare challenge the great leviathans, and so Leviathan Wakes was allowed to flourish.  While the surface ships suffered from the storm, the submarines below experienced little more than some slightly annoying jostling. They sat there, lights on, chained to one part of Leviathan Wakes or another, sitting and waiting. While it was dark above, below the subs blessed the sea with light. It was just a little less convenient to move through the water than the planks on the surface. Unless a pony had access to an agile mini-sub, which the Admiral did. It was a small brass egg-shaped craft with a single reinforced window in the front and a large propeller in the back. The tube that usually ran from its top back to a source of air wasn’t present, but it didn’t need it since the journey wasn’t going to be long.  There were two seats within the sub and a small place for cargo in the back. The pilot—a young stallion by the name of Lime Lick—sat in the front with the Admiral, while Sparkler sat in the cargo hold. Though ‘sat’ was a bit of a stretch, since she had used her hair to tie herself to the ceiling and hang upside-down like a bat.  “You know, when I was a kid, I used to tell myself thestrals did this,” Sparkler said. “Then you came along and ruined that dream.” “What were we going to hang onto the ceiling with?” the Admiral asked. “Our tails?” “I was six and thought you were magic genies that gave me money for my lost teeth.” “And thought we ate eyeballs.” “Yes, our legends were very contradictory, woo.” “Coming up on the Algol’s Shadow now,” Lime Lick tentatively announced. Looking out the window, the Admiral saw her ship—and what a beauty it was. Most ships were long, pill-shaped things that had no flavor to them whatsoever. Hers was not only far larger than the standard sub, but it also had so much more character. Instead of a long barrel that looked like armor for a snake, the Algol’s shape was more ovoid, giving it substance and girth. Numerous bronze spikes studded out of the hull, illuminated brilliantly by the spotlights dotting the ship. Access ports stretched out from its main body, though there were currently no other submarines attached to them.  The mini-sub lowered itself under the Algol’s Shadow. “Trinity, requesting permission to dock,” Lime said.  “Granted,” an old, gruff voice barked from the other end.  The Trinity entered a small, square depression in the bottom of the Algol’s Shadow where five other similar mini-subs rested, all with an air tube connecting them to the larger ship. The Trinity docked at port number three, affixing its top to the small port jutting out of the Algol.  Sparkler whipped her mane off the ceiling and onto the hatch, using it to stabilize herself while her telekinesis turned the valve. On their side, the valve popped downward. They had to wait for a member of the crew to open the other side of the valve, twisting it up.  “Welcome back, Admiral!” a brown pegasus said, extending one of his wings down to help Sparkler up. “Long time no see!” “In your mind, maybe, Granite,” the Admiral said, climbing out of the Trinity without any assistance from the pegasus.  “My mind is an endless maze of corridors and treasure for those who care to explore it.” “Oi…” Sparkler grumbled.  “So, do we have any new jobs? Huh?” Granite tapped the ground excitedly. “My boys are getting a little itchy…” Sparkler gawked. “Itchy? You raided a sub last week! A sub! That was one of the riskiest and most unusual things we’ve done and you’re already…” “Keeps him eager and willing,” the Admiral said, putting down Sparkler’s complaints. “We’re still heading to Sanctaphrax.” Granite deflated. “Damn intellectual pricks…” “But we do have a stop we’re going to make on the way. Nothing fancy, so I don’t want you to get your hopes up, but some poor mare wants us to get a family heirloom that sunk to the bottom of the ocean. We get to pick up the excess scrap metal for our own uses.” “I’ll take it,” Granite said, forcing a smile. “We don’t have any room left in the holds, though.” “Which is why I need to see Orange. Know where he is?” “The sky room, if I had to guess.” The Admiral nodded, gesturing for Sparkler to follow with a wing. She grabbed onto a metallic rung and pulled herself away from the lowest level of the Algol.  The interior of the Algol, for the most part, was unimpressive compared to its powerful exterior. The passages were all dark while everything was designed with function over beauty. Ladders were simple, bulkheads were bare metal, and the lights were only enough to see by, giving a general ominous ambience. Everypony was used to it at this point.  To get to the sky room quickly, they had to pass by one of the main engines: a massive turbine fed by pressurized steam. Right now, the moisture in the room wasn’t oppressive, but when they kicked the engines into high gear the entire place became a muggy mist that only the engineers could stand. The Admiral nodded curtly to the engineers, showing them the respect they deserved for their position.  After climbing up another ladder, they ended up in the only place in all of Algol’s Shadow that the Admiral thought looked nice. The sky room. It was an almost perfect hemisphere with the stars painted on the ceiling, complete with names, nautical notes, and even faint paths that traced the locations of the sun and moon. In the center was a small clockwork piece of art that showed a globe with a chunk of marble and obsidian moving along the outside that represented the current positions of the sun and moon.  As a bonus, there was a little triangle at the bottom that showed the time.  The Admiral approached the central globe and examined it. Only a very small area of it had any detail whatsoever—marking the Canterhorn, Fellis, Sanctaphrax, and other locations. Leviathan Wakes was inscribed as well, though it had more of a ‘general area’ circle than a precise point. “How little we know…” the Admiral said, turning to look at the stars painted above. “And how much less we know of them.” “Ahem,” a small orange stallion with tar-black hair and glasses said. “Welcome back, Admiral.” “Orange. Got a job for you.” The frail earth pony nodded, closing the book he had been scribbling in. “That’s why I’m here.” “Let us push The Button,” Sparkler said, grinning. “Come on, you know you want to…” “No. Admiral, what is this really about?” The Admiral smirked. “There’s a shipwreck on the way to Sanctaphrax. We’re going to pick it up.” “Cargo holds are full.” “I know. That’s why you’re going to get the nets together to hold a small ship. I think we’ll arrive in about four hours, you have until then.” Orange nodded emotionlessly and trotted off, presumably to get to work. “Is that the future of ponykind?” Sparkler asked. “As magic reduces to nothing we all tragically lose our personalities?” “He’s good at his job.” “But at what cost…?” “No cost for me, that’s what,” the Admiral chuckled. “Let’s get to the bridge and set course. The less time wasted, the better.” The bridge was at the second to highest level of the Algol, situated behind the observation deck and a half-meter of reinforced plating just in case something ever broke the windows in the observation deck. The bridge itself contained six seats and a lot of flashing lights that meant absolutely nothing to the average pony but were the distillation of Algol’s Shadow’s very essence.  A general rule was if there were no red lights and a lot of green ones, everything was fine. If there were ever more red lights than any other color, it was time to get worried.  Currently, there were only two ponies on the bridge. A bored-looking white mare who was staring intently at the pressure gauges and a silver, bearded stallion with a pipe in his mouth. There was no smoke coming out of it, since smoking in an enclosed space was something no considerate stallion would do. He refused to go anywhere without the pipe, however, so there in his jaws it remained.  “Captain,” the Admiral said.  “Admiral,” the Captain said.  “I’m gonna have to take control of the ship again.” “She’s yours. Always is, always has been.” The Captain stood up from the Admiral’s chair and took his own position at the front console. Everypony called it the “wheel”, but there wasn't a wheel in sight among all the dials, buttons, and cranks used to point the Algol in the right direction. “Sanctaphrax?” “A general heading, yes, but we also have to go here.” She handed him the note. “Small operation, assuming Orange does what he does best.” “He’s proven to be quite the little tinkerer. Reminds me of ol’ Socket. In intelligence. The kid is as dry as a stump. Socket, now, there was a fiery mare…” “Oh look, Orange isn’t at his console!” Sparkler grinned. “I wonder if he left the key in?” She jumped to the weapons control station and found that The Big Red Button to the left of the console wasn’t glowing. “Aw…” “He’s not that careless,” the Captain snorted.  “I want to see what it does… You can’t tell me you’re not curious.” “We will press The Button when the situation calls for it,” the Admiral said. “Not because you’re afraid of some giant fish watching you.” “They are!” Sparkler blurted. “See, let’s do this…” She lit her horn, increasing the intensity of her spell. The Admiral felt the slightest twinge in the back of her mind, a feeling she’d needed to train herself to detect.  Sparkler’s horn dimmed down. “Okay, so, there’s a ton of fish, ponies, a griffon, and one of those unknown 'jabberwock' minds in the south sector of the city. Of them, only you two are looking at me. Then there are the leviathans. Yep, they’re looking right at me. So long as I’m in here. It’s creepy!” “Their heads are facing the wrong direction,” the Captain pointed out. “Then they’re looking at me in some other way, I don’t know!” She glared at the leviathans through the floor. “I hope you become sushi.” The Admiral rolled her eyes. “Captain, take us away.” “Aye, Admiral.” The engines of Algol’s Shadow spun up, activating its many propellers. The chains that affixed the submarine to Leviathan’s Wake retracted into the sub and it cast off into the depths. ~~~ The wreck sat at the bottom of the ocean, far below a depth where any sunlight penetrated. It was a small collection of loose processed metal that had once been a great airship but had now folded itself down the middle, ending up a bit like a crinkled taco.  For the first time since it had reached the bottom several months ago, the wreck was graced with light. The rusted metal did a poor job of reflecting the light of Algol’s Shadow, but it did better than the dead seafloor.  The call went up from the lower decks—they had a visual on the wreck. The signals made it all the way to the bridge, where the Admiral sat with the Captain, Sparkler, and Orange.  “Sparkler,” the Admiral said. “Check as far out as you can.” Sparkler nodded, focusing all her energy into her magic for a moment. Her horn went from barely glowing at all to a shining beacon of arcane energy. Her ping went out, tickling the Admiral’s mind.  A second later, she returned her horn’s glow to barely perceptible levels. “Wreck is abandoned except for one signature, a… well I think it’s a seapony based on how it’s moving, but the brain doesn’t feel quite right. There’s also a deepfish that has sensed our motion and is heading our way, I recommend a diversion torpedo at… thirty degrees port and sixty degrees up. Orange?” “Confirmed,” Orange said, pressing a few levers on his console. “Torpedo away.” The Admiral felt the familiar thunk of a torpedo being fired out of the Algol’s weapons bay. There was no way to physically see it from their location, and eventually it would be out of range for them to detect at all. She patiently waited two minutes before turning to Sparkler again. “Check.” Sparkler flashed her horn. “Deepfish is now going to where I assume the torpedo exploded, not us. We’re good!” “You hear that, Granite?” “Loud and clear, ma’am!” Granite’s voice came from the other side of the radio. “The boys are ready to go!” “There’s a single creature down there. Possible variant seapony. Be cautious.” “Just one? Psh, we can handle that. C’mon Wiffle and Lob, let’s get down there and find ourselves an heirloom!” “Also, subs two through five, prepare Orange’s netting. You’ll pick it up when the team confirms it is safe to do so.” “Roger,” four voices returned.  The Admiral could see it playing out in her head. The Uno took Granite and his team down to the surface. The cabin slowly filled with water before the mini-sub’s hatch opened, allowing them all to climb out in their hard suits. She had been on many dives herself. When Granite said, “hatch open, heading out: harpoons ready,” she could almost feel the harpoon gun in her hooves.  Meanwhile the other four subs were doing something a bit harder for her to visualize. They took four parts of a net and spread it out along the Algol’s bottom, creating a sort of covering for the wreck. The moment they were given the clear they would descend and scoop the thing up, being careful not to tie their air hoses together. Orange assured her it would work, and the Admiral trusted him. She definitely couldn’t do the kind of math required to ensure the giant net's function.  “Ship's in good shape, considering,” Granite said. “Main cabin’s still intact, though the door’s gone. Going in. Careful, boys…” The Admiral knew neither Granite nor any of his boys were actually being all that careful. She knew his type—thrill-seeking adrenaline junkies who got a kick out of running into dangerous situations. Normally, she would chide him for it, but this wasn’t a dangerous location. One seapony, no matter how ferocious, wouldn’t be able to take out the squad.  She heard the clanking of their hooves upon a metallic surface. Granite told her no details, and consequently a familiar, tense feeling filled the Admiral. Every time she was listening to an audio feed from a team once they entered an unknown location, the slight sinking in her stomach arrived. They knew the situation better than her at this point and she had to wait for them to relay whatever they thought was pertinent.  The clanks stopped. “Well, that was easy,” Granite said. “Found the heirloom, right in the little black box.” “Anything special about it?” the Admiral asked. “It’s just a pink-diamond horn-ring. I’m no Gifted unicorn, but I don’t even think it’s magical. Missing that fancy spark, y’know?” “And no sign of the seapony or anything?” “None at all.” “It’s right outside, guys,” Sparkler said, horn dimming from a recent cast of her spell. “It’s not acting like a seapony.” “Well, whatever it is, it’s about to meet good ol’ Stabby.” “I thought it’s name was Pointy?” Sparkler asked. “I have more than one harpoon.” “Focus,” the Admiral said. “Do you see the seapony?” “Looking…” Granite reported. “I’ve got nothing, Admiral, it’s all normal out h—HOLY FU—” There was a thunk from the other side of the line, followed by a few grunts and yelps of surprise, followed by an eerie silence. In moments like this, it was pure terror being up in the captain’s seat. Her mind began to spin several possible sequences of events, most of which were unreasonably bloody and involved a gruesome evisceration of pony organs by a ravenous seapony. It wasn't hard for her to imagine such things, given her experience on the matter. She realized she could hear breathing from the other end.  “Report!” the Admiral demanded.  “This... is weird,” Granite said. The Admiral instantly knew nopony had died or even gotten injured.  “How so?” “It hasn’t attacked.” “...Come again, Granite?” the Captain muttered. “A seapony that didn’t attack? What did it do, serve you tea?” “It’s currently cowering behind the loose door, shivering like a filly. Looks scared.” The Admiral turned to the Captain, finding her utter bafflement mirrored in his expression. She didn’t even need to ask him to know he hadn’t even heard of anything like this in his decades of experience.  “I’m not gonna hurt you…” Granite’s voice came back over the radio. “Granite, what are you doing?” the Admiral asked. “Trying to talk to it.” “Granite. You are in a pressurized suit. It isn’t going to be able to hear you.” “She. Very clearly a mare.” “She isn’t going to be able to hear you a—” The Admiral’s ears twitched. “And it is a damned seapony! What are you going to do, train it to play fetch?” “Well, I don’t know, how about we see if I can calm her down first? Here seapony-pony-pony…” “It can’t hear you.” “Pony-pony-pony…” “For the love of… look, Granite, if you’re determined to do this, at least tell me what it looks like and what it’s doing?” Trying to picture a seapony being scared was a bit beyond her mental faculties at the moment. Simply accepting it as fact was boggling her.  “Well, she’s poking her head out now—come on, I won’t bite. Quite a bit more colorful than your normal seaponies and as a bonus she doesn’t look like a rotting corpse. Her eyes still have irises, though I can see the blood lining and sharp teeth. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but those fins look mighty pretty.” “Granite’s marefriend is a seapony,” Sparkler deadpanned. “That’s it, I’ve heard it all.” “She just swam out, inching toward us like some lost puppy—that’s it.” The Admiral strained hear ears to pick up anything aside from Granite’s voice, but all she heard was the heavy breathing of his boys. “She’s got a cutie mark. Looks like a castle tower.” “Don’t let her eat you,” the Captain cautioned. “This one might just be smarter.” “If it was smart it would know it couldn’t take all three of us. Lob’s got a sight on her, don’t worry. A—” He paused. “She’s holding out a hoof.” “Granite...” The Admiral sighed. “You already shook its hoof, didn’t you?” “Yep!” Granite declared. “Seems pretty happy about it too, doing this fancy swim-dance. Looks like I’ll go down in history as Granite, seapony tamer!” “If she doesn’t bite your lips off first,” Sparkler snorted.  “You wouldn’t do that, would you little… Tower?” “Tower’s a terrible name. Seriously, who’d name their kid Tow—” “Rook,” the Captain said, coughing. “Call her Rook. That’s probably what her mark is.” The Admiral frowned. “What does that mean?” “It’s from ancient game we salty captains used to play at the Ringer Dinger back in the day. One of the pieces was called the rook. Looked a lot like a tower.” “Well, Rook,” Granite said. “We’re gonna take this ship if you don’t mind.” “She can’t hear you,” Sparkler reiterated.  “Eh, body language gets it across. Leaving the wreck now.” A few seconds later, he spoke again. “Yep, she’s following me. Nothing can resist this charming face.” “It has no attachment to the wreck?” the Admiral asked. “None at all. Seems much more interested in the Algol, actually.” “Keep a close eye on it. Mini-subs two through five, you’re clear to scoop the wreck.” “Roger,” four voices said at once.  The Admiral tried to focus on the descending net for a minute, but the mystery of the seapony kept returning to her in full force, distracting her with all the uncertainty around it.  ...But maybe it didn’t have to.  “Granite, do you think you could bring it up to the observation deck? I want to see it.” “Let’s see if she’ll follow me in the sub,” Granite responded. He laughed a moment later. “Crazy girl just tried to get in the sub. No, out, shoo, there’s going to be air in here! ...She’s giving me a pouty face though the main window.” The Admiral couldn’t believe it. Wouldn’t believe it, not until she saw it. This was simply beyond everything she knew. And yet, when Granite brought Uno up to the observation deck, the seapony followed. The Admiral slowly rose from her chair and stepped through the metal hall, arriving in a room made mostly of glass, Sparkler close behind. The seapony trailed Uno, swimming around playfully. She was the size of a full-grown pony and was a soft pink color. At first glance, the Admiral thought her front half was completely normal for a pony with two hooves and a normal face. Closer inspection revealed the blood clots under the eyes standard for monsters of the deep, through her eyes didn’t look dead. They locked with the Admiral’s own, telling of something more than animalistic intelligence. She smiled and waved. The wave was cute.  The smile revealed her rows of sharp, rigid teeth.  “What a bundle of contradictions,” Sparkler commented.  Rook waved her tail a bit to turn around, giving the Admiral a good look at her cutie mark: a brick-red tower. Before she could consider it further, the Admiral realized Rook was pointing with one of her hooves, gesturing with her tail for them to look.  “Which heading is that?” the Admiral asked. “One degree off of Sanctaphrax,” Sparkler answered. “...You’re thinking of following her, aren’t you?” The Admiral nodded slowly. “If it’s on the way…” “I smell a trap!” the Captain called from the bridge. “She’s a monster just like the rest o’ them seaponies, just smarter than the rest. Knows how to get everypony lured to their death. Reason we don’t hear about her is because everypony who’s met her is dead!” The Admiral nodded. “Operate under that assumption. Orange, put out a bulletin for the crew, tell them to be on alert. Captain, set course one degree off from Sanctaphrax. We’ll follow her, but we’ll stop if she leads us beyond the Chain.” “Yes, Admiral,” the Captain and Orange said without any fuss.  There was absolutely no way Rook could hear anything the Admiral just said. She smiled anyway, as if she understood they were going where she wanted.  The Admiral didn’t trust her in the slightest. But it wasn’t proper to throw anomalies like her away, even if they were dangerous. It was impossible to know how much could be learned without investigation.