//------------------------------//
// Chapter 56: Submersion 
// Story: The Trinity of Moons: Mending Shards 
// by Cloud Ring 
//------------------------------//


☄☄☄


The flight over the land had been uneventful. Technically, an aviette that Cursory rented using an option provided by her status  was a six-seater, but for a full compartment of six ponies it was still too tight in there — and too disturbing to look at Gentle this up close, so Cursory chose to fly outside. Over the past two cycles Gentle Touch's age has become noticeable — she became a bit hollow-cheeked, her neck thinner than before. Gentle still had about nine rounds or so— or two more cycles at this rate, Cursory thought, to catch up with her. But judging by what she saw on the atoll beyond the mirror, aging had just begun.

Cursory flew on her own wings much faster than the aviette, even with sleep breaks — so she side-tracked to her own home to get ‘Guiding Starfall-TX’ from a secret compartment of her wall cabinet.

The flight of the aviette, according to the order, was slow but continuous, with three pilots included in the rent working in shifts and keeping the transport afly. After each long break Cursory waited for it on major nexuses, and then for a time kept her speed equal, allowing herself to rest at this leisure pace, until making a rush forward again right before her sleep.

During the third cycle she had to ask for a place in the cabin as the muscles under her left wing,, began aching, drawing too much of her attention to just keeping the rhythm and fly straight. Gentle Touch sat close, caressing her wing, where she got poisoned by Blue Moon more than a luster ago, and continued to do so for the entire remaining cycle of flight, distracted only by sleep and other needs of their bodies. It made the pain go away, but at the cost of Gentle becoming more focused and quiet over time.

When they landed on a snow-covered hilly shore — only once did the whitish winged predators pursue the aviette, but even so, they did not attack it — Cursory took Gentle and Plum Jam aside and asked them straight, “Do you need Starfall? Gentle, you said you needed it as you borrowed it from the time flow, and then you,” Cursory turned to Plum at that, “seemed to take what we got, and didn't even ask us about that. Are you sure it will get to the right pony?”

Plum nodded, “You won't find it anymore. It is already in Pink's hooves, and there had been a time for Pink to give it away. This debt is repaid, don't worry about it.”

Cursory sighed and led them on to the submarine’s dock. Like the point of departure into space, it was completely invisible from the outside, if one did not know the exact coordinates. Until the last beat, Cursory low-key expected there to be nothing of note. After all they were only five throws away from a loose bunch of one-story houses. Still, a mnemogram receiver in black and green colors, the traditional colors of Black Moon, was in the indicated place. It did not respond to them. They had to wait for Solid Line, as she had the keys.

Before accessing the submarine, Solid Line asked everypony to once again look for the Moons and tell Them where and why the team was going, “so that nopony would tell us that we had not warned Them in advance. Does not matter if They are above the horizon or not, do try anyway.”

They stood in a circle and, as far as each of them could, reached for the Moons together. Cursory did not ask for help, approval, or disagreement. Nothing more than "We are here, and this is what we are going to do."

Well, her Moon was here too, and Cursory had been heard — she saw a faint ray falling on her, and felt a connection, a rapport. But do the Moons agree with their plan? This was unclear. She asked Gentle and Solid, and the answers were more or less the same — the Moons did respond to them, but only confirming that connection had been enabled and stable, without saying anything in response. They were truly free to choose for themselves.

Solid Line entered several mnemograms, the receiver confirmed that the messages were acceptable, and gave authorisation to control the local installation's ontological shield.

A few lines appeared on a receiver in a dim yellow font, "Status Blue: no imminent disturbances on the timeline sensors; minor background disturbances within acceptable levels; batteries at 74 cubic kairos squared / maximum safe long-term charge. The charge is estimated to suffice for protecting the whole volume of the installation from up to two full rearrangements, plus or minus any adjustments for additional or reduced volume coverage. Estimated time until depletion from minor background disturbances: 820 cycles. Recommended battery replacement in: 543 cycles."

The first thing Solid did was go through full diagnostics.

"Do you want to perform a full test involving shield activation? Warning: shield activation should only be performed when all personnel have been warned in advance due to possible side effects."

Only after this statement did she leave the controls alone.

Cursory hugged Gentle and whispered to her pony, “If we die and we have at least a few beats before that, we'll share this bottle of ‘Starfall’ for us two, okay? I want to spend my life with you, even if that one would be alternate; even if we come back”

She did not want to and could not explain the notion in more detail — Gentle Touch nodded.

No submarine surfaced though. They decided to wait for Storm and went towards the nearby village, keeping each other in sight. Plum gathered the local ponies for a momentous celebration and, although no word was said about the Red-below-the-waves, it was Plum and Gentle who were the main attraction of the event. Ponies of the village looked at them first and foremost, anticipating and expecting. "Hungry," as Gentle Touch noted in passing. 

"It's like they're waiting for something and we are the ones to provide it," Gentle said.

Cursory herself has several times heard that "the traveler returns victorious", as if it were a password and a hint in the same vague phrase. Cursory noted that it was customary to keep pet animals here, from lizards to cats and snow ferrets — unusual for far-away settlements but not unheard of, so Signal was lost in their background. Solid Line mentioned that pretty much all the pets of the village were reimplants.

Nevertheless, none of the guests were left to be bored or hungry, and the locals asked not so much about the merits or life of Metropolis, but about themselves — less about Heralds, them being 'unhealthy', more about Plum and Blacklight. Gentle Touch had been, strangely, left out of conversations, even as ponies were constantly checking up on her. Dartline made an effort to separate and disappear.

Then Storm found Cursory, and the pegasus did not even recognize her right away without a suit. Storm hugged her without permission, and it was so indecent that Cursory did not even find appropriate words — she just freed herself, pushed Storm away and looked at her with a frown.

“We're making a dive as soon as you're ready,” Storm said. “She is down there, and she is powerful enough to crush us — but the sub's shield will hold out for a while. I would like to stay at a distance and control the shield at your request, but this post will be occupied by Sapphire, while I will seek the anomalies from the submarine.”

“Have you already tried talking to her, the one under the water? I mean, in the past, your moonless ponies,” Gentle asked.

“Yes, many times,” Storm replied as if it was the most usual thing to do.

“Does she answer?” Cursory asked, raising an eyebrow. They stood not far from the tables with a meeting still going on, and Cursory did not want to be the one who would tell her friends and fellow travelers that they should stop the moment of joy. The dead pony in the ocean waited for many rounds, so she will wait for another slice, while for them this feast may be the last. “By the way, how do you feel under moonlight without your protection?”

“There are remedies,” Storm said, wiggling her ear. “If I return home, I will have to undergo decontamination. Also, yes, she does answer. Among moonlit ponies there are those who consider her a Moon.”

“You lied,” said Cursory, “Not about the underwater Moon, a little earlier.” She heard it — a short pause for ‘if’, then too quick and even words after a hesitation.

Storm did not deny, “Yes, you’re right, I will not be able to return the same. Only as one of the moonburnt ones, like you. The mission was deemed important enough—”

Cursory waited for the rest of the sentence. There was none. She invited Storm closer to the tables, found a place for her and treated her to local fruits, small, wrinkled, sweet and sour. Only belatedly did she realize that this could be offensive. But Storm took the treat without question or visible thought, more like a machine. Following her gaze, Cursory found Sapphire — the metallic blue unicorn had been here for a long time, but before that he appeared to them a resident of the coast.

“So what do you know about the drowned part?” Cursory asked. The team ponies approached her, greeted Storm, and even Dartline emerged from the darkness.

Storm replied to everypony, “Not much. One of many fairly strong immortals. Weaker than Moons, stronger than Melody, comparable to the Oracle of Oak Leaf. Is a part of several prophecies to come.”

“How do we find her?” Blacklight asked curiously, “Is there a customary place for your meetings?”

“Wherever there is a community of those nearby who…” Storm moved her hoof in the air,  “...might follow her if their life turned out to be different. Like here. We clean out active and growing cults, while those that could have been are the actual points of her power. Look at the fields around, at the holly on the hills — under normal circumstances they couldn't even grow under the snow. Fertility is one of her hallmarks. For health treatment, whether they know the reason or not, ponies also come to this place when Blue Moon fails.”

“Then why didn't you drag her to the surface before?” Cursory asked, annoyed that an outsider, apparently, is informed more about her world than she is, “Since you know everything so well and are friends with her.”

“Why would we?” Storm answered a question with a question. “Prior to the latest protocol updates, it was not in our best interest to empower Moons and other immortals. And this is not as easy as it seems — all the basic means of getting her from there are impossible in practice. You cannot even approach these solutions. For example, we tried a variant with a phylactery that would accept her soul. The submarine actually went down but never resurfaced. I have no doubt that she would have found a way — but she has no desire to look for it. She, too, is satisfied with her half-life, her own domain and the way it works.”

“What is she like in appearance and behavior?” Blacklight cut in again; she wrote down the entire course of the conversation in a notebook with a purple cover.

“An ordinary pony, not even an alicorn. She often provides gifts and souvenirs, sometimes asks that guests stay with her, and tries to fulfill her wishes, if they are within her limits. Sometimes she won't let go of the expedition, but it's really rare,” Storm answered dryly, but a spark of a hidden smile flashed in her eyes. “Still, we come in protected.”

“And what after the latest updates? Are you now ready to help us get her out because something has changed? I remember that you were strongly against even the one Herald of the Red, calling her an existential threat,” Cursory glanced at Gentle, and she waved her hoof in the spirit of "what is done is done", but leaned towards Storm — she was also interested.

Storm replied, looking straight into Cursory’s eyes, “The decision of the superiors. The Moons’ endless war is killing the world. And we... even in the worst case scenario, our stations will withstand the change. And your Moons don't seem to be against your plan either. The starting position looks promising.”

Cursory realized that she didn’t know what to ask or add, and jumped a little on the spot, hearing Plum Jam's quiet and confident voice, “Then we are ready. What should we take as a gift for her?”

“The last few times, donated blood has been accepted with gratitude,” Storm smiled, and Cursory winced. “But she also loves citrus fruits.”


∿∿∿ 


The submarine was even narrower than the aviette and much louder. Solid Line expected to see the actual shield device but, as Storm clarified, it was sealed between  the hulls, running throughout the sub, from the tail to the head. 

According to the terminal, the local battery was topped off at cubic nine of kairos. Even with the sub's compact frame, withstanding a full rearrangement would consume about seven square nines, after all adjustments. After that they would be on their own — the best bet would be to try contacting other survivors of the ontoclysm among the denizens of the new world.

Solid requested an elaboration on these adjustments. Turned out, the presence of the moonburnt ones aboard had a detrimental effect on the field’s integrity. Storm’s presence, on the other hoof, had a stabilising effect.

"That is why I’m here without my armor,” clarified Storm. “But don’t worry — against a less drastic disturbance, nine cubes are plenty. Enough to weather the immortal''s assault as long as it takes to  to a safe depth.”

"But why didn’t you wear it before getting aboard, then?" Solid Line asked.

"We are to work together," Storm shrugged. "You requested to be safe, so safe you are. The suit serves as a weapon too, after all. I am not saying that I am comfortable like this."

Soon the water rose behind the windows of the small capsule — more precisely, a sealed chain of joined spheres. Storm kept counting the depth in steps, not rounding up to throws, and after the third double nine, when the water turned black and blue and the faint reflections of bioluminescent fish and drifting animals were seen, she leveled the submarine to be more horizontal. An imperceptible fall became a controlled descent, Blacklight stuck to the window, all but piercing it with her horn, Plum laid out bright shiny fruits on a small table in a semicircle, Signal was habitually sitting on Solid Line's back.

They did not know what the contact would look like, and Storm said "Different every time." Blacklight suggested calling Sunset Shimmer by her real name — plain and simple, out loud. Storm, without a word, pointed to the multifunctional transmitter with a microphone, and each of them asked Sunset to come. In response, there was a whisper of marine life — apparently, the fish knew how to speak, and their voice had been inviting.

Blacklight was the first to turn around, noticing the reflection in the dark glass.

“Why were you calling?” Sunset Shimmer, a light orange unicorn with a two-tone red and yellow mane, asked with a quiet smile. She did not occupy the volume — even the projections appeared more real than this ghost — so from Cursory's side she was a barely noticeable spark in the middle of the cramped cabin. Solid poked her with a hoof, and the hoof went right through.

Cursory walked around Sunset in an arc, accidentally touching her too while doing so. 

“It seems that you are called by your older sister — the one beyond the mirrors and sometimes in heavens too. She misses you,” Cursory said with a smile.