Fluttershy's eyes widened as the ivory-white hull of the Deepsea Echo loomed into view through her window. The schematic had done little to prepare her for the enormity of the machine, with each spherical module emerging the size of a building out of the darkness into Wonderbird Four's spotlights. She pulled back on her control yoke, the craft rising to a level bearing and approaching the nose of the front-most module. Through a series of large portholes, she could see the main control room of the vessel. Flashing red lights within illuminated control panels and a sophisticated array of levers, left abandoned as the occupants had fled the craft.
According to their information, the malfunctioning escape pod had been attached to module number thirteen. Not wanting to consider superstition, Fluttershy eased her thrust lever forward, pulling back on the yoke to pass above the stationary craft. She didn't even need to count off how many modules she was passing over: the designers of the lab had stencilled large numbers on top of each one. All she had to do was proceed to the thirteenth one.
"'Four, you read me?" came Rainbow Dash's voice into Fluttershy's earpiece, startling her.
"Loud and clear,'One. What's the matter?"
She listened as Rainbow Dash recounted the events that had transpired on the surface. How the laboratory ponies were all being arrested. How Dash had gotten herself kicked off the Seaquestria for standing up for them. How one of them had tackled Dash to the ground, and the panicked confession he'd made to her.
"He said something came out of the darkness and attacked the lab?"
"Yeah. You know fish and stuff better than any of us, does anything live that deep that could do that kind of damage?"
"Nothing I can think of," Fluttershy mused. "At least, nothing that I know of. There's theories about giant undersea creatures that could have inspired what we see in the mythology of some ancient pony societies, but nothing that's ever been proven."
"So something could be down there?"
"It could be," she admitted. "But the likelihood of that is so low it's not even worth thinking abo..."
Her voice trailed off. As the floodlights of Wonderbird Four had reached the twelfth module of the craft, a horrific sight had come into view. Fluttershy eased back on her thrusters to bring the craft to a stop. At the point where one of the spindly legs should have attached to the lab was only a stubby protrusion of twisted beams, hanging limp in a cloud of hydraulic fluid. A few feet back from it, a long trail of dented and scraped metal reached sternwards towards the thirteenth module. It was reminiscent of damage Fluttershy had seen on ships that had struck rocks or clusters of ice.
Except the angle was all wrong. The damage had only started hundreds of meters from the front of the craft. Conventional wisdom suggested that the front would have impacted first. And with its design, and the manoeuvrability it was capable of, any obstacle would have been easy to avoid.
She twisted one of her joysticks, facing Wonderbird Four out into the gloom and using her floodlights to light up the surrounding area. Where she might have expected to see a large rocky formation, or a towering hydrothermal vent, was only darkness. With another flick of her controls she aimed the submarine downwards, only illuminating the sea bed below her.
"Base from 'Four, can you see this damage?" she said into her headset.
"We can, 'Four," Twilight replied. "We're discussing it here, trying to work out what might have happened. My first thought was some kind of obstacle too, but evidently you thought the same. We can see as clearly as you can that there's nothing nearby that it could have hit."
Fluttershy tensed up, a question forming she already suspected she knew the answer to. "Is it possible that it hit something and kept moving before it stopped?"
"Negative. The automatic shutdown procedure would have kicked in the moment that an impact occurred."
"I really kinda hoped you wouldn't say that."
"Look, whatever's happened, right now our priority is to free the ponies trapped in the escape pod. Let's keep our head in the game, 'Four, and do our job."
"Copy that," Fluttershy replied with a squeak.
She pulled back on her controls, levelling Wonderbird Four off before she eased the thrusters forward again. The floodlights passed back across the hull of the lab as she progressed forward, more and more of the damaged plating appearing from the gloom. It was testament to the design of the structure that anypony had escaped. In oceans as deep as she was in now, any compromise in the integrity of the hull was likely to cause the entire section to collapse in on itself. This was due to the enormous pressure of the water at this depth. The metal was buckled, but it had not torn, nor had it caused a catastrophic failure.
The scrape continued from one module into the next, seeming to go on forever, until it finally yielded and faded away, ending just before a protrusion of orange metal jutting out from the side of the vessel. Fluttershy gave a start as she realised that in her fixation on the unexplainable damage, she'd missed the fact that she was drawing alongside the escape capsule.
She adjusted her controls once again, examining the small craft hanging from the side of the lab that now looked comically large in comparison. It was a bright orange cylinder, about twenty feet in length with no visible windows, pointed outwards from the side of the craft. With the combination of its colour and its proportions, it looked to resemble a giant can of soda embedded into the side of the of the spherical module. Aligning Wonderbird Four with the outer end of the escape pod, Fluttershy tapped a small button on her control joystick. This instructed the automatic bosun to hold its current position.
Various manoeuvring thrusters on the outside of the hull would counter any sudden currents that might cause Wonderbird Four to move unexpectedly. Fluttershy was then able to reach out to operate a second joystick, this one giving her control of a grappling claw on the end of a long metal arm. The claw still held the end of a cable, attached to Wonderbird Two almost seven miles above. Hanging from the end of the cable was a large magnetic clamp.
She eased the joystick forward, until with a satisfying thud the magnet jumped forward. It attached itself to the flat section at the front of the escape pod. Wonderbird Four lurched with this movement, and Fluttershy pulled a trigger on the backside of the joystick which instructed the claw to open and release its hold on the cable.
“’Two from ‘Four, we have a successful magnetic seal,” she announced as she tapped a button which instructed the arm and claw to retract back into its housing in the hull. “Keep the cable slack until I can get the docking clamps released.”
“Copy that, ‘Four, an’ well done,” Applejack replied.
Fluttershy pulled back on the control joystick, which disengaged the automatic bosun and tilted the nose of the submarine upwards. Taking care to avoid the hanging cable, she nudged the thruster forward and moved Wonderbird Four up and over the top of the module. Once on the other side, she switched the largest of her control screens onto the feed from the camera located at the rear of the craft, and began to ease her controls backwards.
Several months earlier, Rainbow Dash had pranked Fluttershy by adding a reversing siren when Wonderbird Four was configured to dock with an airlock using the universal seal at its stern. The onboard controls hadn’t been built to make harsh noises, so the resulting siren turned out as a gentle, rhythmic humming once every two seconds. To Dash’s surprise, Fluttershy had not only found it funny but it seemed to aid her concentration. The humming resonated through the cockpit as she eased her joystick, inching her craft closer and closer until, with a thud and a hiss, Wonderbird Four attached itself to the airlock on the lab.
"Base from 'Four, I've successfully docked with the lab. I'm entering now," Fluttershy reported, flicking a few switches on the overhead panel as she rose out of her seat.
"Copy that, 'Four, keep us updated."
After passing through two sets of waterproof bulkheads, Fluttershy found herself at the main airlock hatch at the rearmost section of Wonderbird Four. She checked her wrist-mounted display, confirming her suit was maintaining correct oxygen levels and air pressure. Then she reached up and pulled a large lever mounted to the hull. With a loud hiss the rear section of hull opened outwards into the laboratory, split across the middle like the tailgate of an SUV.
The inside of the vessel was dimly lit. Orange strips illuminated left and right, outlining the corridor in each direction at the points where the walls met the floor. Flashing red beacons hung from the ceiling, sending strips of light spinning across the dark walls. The interior reminded her of some of the more violent video games Rainbow Dash would enjoy playing. These games tended to involve underground facilities dealing with outbreaks of otherworldly creatures, ones that required a gentle but firm introduction to a machine gun.
Having already studied the schematics of the module she was currently in, Fluttershy already knew where to go. She switched on the small torch mounted on her helmet, and turned to her right to make her way towards the nearest watertight door. Each module was laid out the same: a narrow circular corridor looped the full width of each sphere, leaving a large room in the centre. The outer corridor was segmented into watertight sections, so if flooding ever occurred the breached section could be isolated and locked off to prevent a catastrophic failure that could destroy an entire module.
The purpose of the central room varied from module to module, with some containing accommodation, but most served functions associated with the maintaining and operation of the lab. In the case of the module Fluttershy was currently in, the internal room was designated as both a storage room and as a server farm for the various onboard systems. Given the current crisis, it worked to her advantage that the central room of the module contained a server farm. Direct access to the onboard systems would make it easier for Twilight to hack her way in.
Fluttershy progressed through several watertight doors, each of which gave a sharp hiss as it opened and a dull thud as it closed behind her. After passing through several segments, she reached a door that accessed the inner room. She pressed a button on the wall next to it, finding herself yelping with surprise and sidestepping as it opened and a small pile of fresh apples spilled out into the corridor. True to the schematics it was a storage room, and as she leaned through the doorway to let her helmet light illuminate the space within, she saw dozens of rows of shelves. Almost all the boxes and crates that each shelf had held were strewn across the floor, scattered no doubt by the impact that had rocked the lab.
With a grimace, Fluttershy stepped inside. She made an effort not to focus on the unpleasant squelching of the assortment of fruit and vegetables underhoof, instead focusing her attention on the far end of the room, where she could see the flickering lights of computer panels. It took some effort, including climbing over some wooden crates that had remained intact, but she soon found herself at the back of the room. The server farm was walled off from the main storage area, no doubt a design choice intended to keep the precious computer components safe from any potential contaminants. Large windows gave Fluttershy a view into the small dark space, where she could see several server towers sat flush with the circular outer wall.
She pushed through the door and closed it behind her, as her wrist display beeped to indicate a noticeable rise in temperature. This was likely a side effect from the emergency shutdown sending the computer systems into overdrive to keep the life support running and ventilation flowing. She tapped at the small display on her wrist, which slid up to reveal a compartment out of which Fluttershy retrieved a USB stick. Making her way over to an interface terminal, Fluttershy tapped at the keyboard to bring it out of sleep mode, and plugged in the stick.
"Base from 'Four, I'm in the server farm now. You should have access to it from my hard-line now."
"Copy that, 'Four, running diagnostics now. Stand by and give me a few minutes," Twilight replied.
Her computing skills must have been as sharp as ever, as ten seconds passed before the lights flickered back to life. Both the server room and the storage room beyond came into clear view. Fluttershy winced as the bright light filled her vision, the photoreceptive sensors on her helmet taking a few seconds to process the sudden change. They caught up, dimming and adjusting to reduce the glare. Fluttershy's eyes adjusted, and she took in a better view of her surroundings. As she looked through the window back into the storage room, something caught her eye.
"Base from 'Four, what's the signal range between the uplink and my computer?"
"Err... about fifty metres, maybe a bit less if it's between walls. Why?"
"I just want to have a look around these rooms. It's going to take you a few minutes, right?"
"Yeah it will. Have a look if you want, but stay nearby. It's a no-go on forcing the clamps to disengage from my end, I'll need you to do some manual inputs on the terminal once I've reset the system. 'Five is on standby if you need anything."
"Copy that," Fluttershy replied.
Leaving the humming computer servers behind, she stepped back into the storage room. On the far side of the room, hidden by the many rows of shelves, she could see a workbench against the wall. As she got closer she could see an assortment of scientific equipment. Racks of test tubes along the wall, an autoclave and a centrifuge teetering on the edge of the work surface, and a bunsen burner that was still spewing blue flames. A tap dripped into a sink sat next to the workstation, the gentle pittering of water hitting metal growing louder as Fluttershy drew nearer.
She passed the last shelf and froze. On the floor lay a smashed pile of glass and metal framework in a rainbow streaked puddle of chemicals. Whatever the scientists running the lab had been doing in this room, it was more than storage. The equipment here had been in use when the vessel was struck. There were half a dozen designated scientific laboratories on board, with all the same chemical apparatus she could see in front of her now, and must have been much better stocked.
The setup she had in front of her here was slapdash. What she had assumed from a distance to be a proper worktable, she could see on closer inspection was actually the top section of one of the rows of shelves. The test tubes hanging from the wall were held up by zip ties that had been glued onto the metal plates. There were several more machines she didn't recognise that, along with the autoclave and the centrifuge, were being powered by wires haphazardly pulled from gaps in the wall plating. This wasn't a proper lab. This was a poor imitation of one, thrown together by somepony trying to hide their work. Whatever she'd stumbled into, it wasn't good.
"'Five from 'Four, do you read me," Fluttershy asked.
"Loud and clear, 'Four," Rarity's dulcet tones chimed back. "I'm watching your video feed darling, I must say I don't think that's a properly built laboratory in the slightest."
"It's not. Not at all. Whatever they've been doing here, they don't want it seen. My guess is they've put this here so they can quickly hide it all if they ever get boarded."
"But why in Equestria would they do that?"
"I have a hunch," Fluttershy mused, her eyes falling on the centrifuge. "They're working on something they don't want anypony to see."
She walked over to it and lifted the lid, revealing eight sealed vials. Each one contained a liquid of dark, sea-green colour. Fluttershy gingerly picked one up, holding it up to the light to examine it.
"Very peculiar indeed," Rarity marvelled. "Shall I run a chemical analysis on it?"
"Sure, I guess we should know what we're looking at here," Fluttershy said, popping the lid off of the vial and placing it down on the worktable.
She tapped at her wrist display again, opening the compartment to retrieve a small pipette. She dipped it into the vial, soaking up a few small drops before returning it to its slot. She slid the display back into place, and it trilled a few musical beeps at her to confirm it was analysing the new substance. Not wanting to take any further risks, Fluttershy put the lid back on the vial, and returned it to the centrifuge.
"Running chemical analysis now, 'Four," Rarity confirmed. "I can tell you straight away, I don't think it's anything 'recreational', it doesn't appear to have any toxins in it."
"Hooray," Fluttershy replied, jokingly punching the air with a hoof. "That's one thing they're not up to down here. It still doesn't explain all the secrecy."
"Yes, it's a little 'cloak and dagger' for a gardening club."
Fluttershy's ears perked up. "Gardening club?"
"Hmm? Oh no, don't mind me darling, just a little joke. There's a large shrub on one of the shelves behind you, I saw it when you walked past it."
She turned and looked around, spotting where Rarity had meant. It was on a low shelf, hidden out of view of the server room windows, so she wouldn't have spotted it if she hadn't come out to have a look around. It certainly looked out of place, as much so as the thrown-together lab did among the rows of shelves. But there was something she couldn't put her hoof on.
Fluttershy walked over to it, leaning in for a closer look. It was large, about the size of an exercise ball, and it wasn't planted in a pot. It had been cut at the roots and laid out sideways on the shelf. Its stem was green and thick, much thicker than she'd seen on any other shrub. Even up close, there was something off that she couldn't quite wrap her head around. It didn't actually have leaves, it had large flower heads, almost like...
She froze. Her mind reeled. It couldn't be...
Fluttershy double checked her wrist display. Confirming the air was safe to breathe, and was of sufficient pressure, she reached up to her helmet, and twisted it off. It gave a light hiss as the safety seals disconnected, and Fluttershy placed it on the floor next to her. Then she leaned in closer, her face inches from the plant, and inhaled deeply through her nose.
She was right. It was.
"'Four to 'Five, come in," she called as she re-donned her helmet, clicking it back into place. "It's not a shrub. It's broccoli."
"Don't be ridiculous, darling," Rarity scoffed. "Broccoli doesn't grow that anywhere near that large."
"Maybe it does if there's an illicit laboratory nearby producing a chemical that nopony is supposed to know about?"
The line was silent for a moment, before Twilight Sparkle's voice cut in. "It's theramine."
"Theramine?" Rarity asked. "You mean that strange musical instrument."
"That's a theremin. Theramine is an outlawed food additive that was trialled a few years ago as a potential solution to global hunger. It was used to accelerate crop growth as well as increase yield, but then livestock started to eat it. It caused uncontrolled growth in any animal that consumed it, and the enlarged creatures displayed dangerous levels of aggression. The UNEQ had to step in to ban the substance after an incident involving... well, alligators."
Silence hung in the air again for a few seconds, Fluttershy pondering the consequences of a giant, hyper-aggressive alligator, and she expected Rarity was as well. It was a chilling prospect.
"So why is it here?" Fluttershy asked.
"Best guess? They're trying to work the kinks out of it in secrecy. Maybe they had a breakthrough recently? That might explain why they missed their last surface rendezvous. Stay down here, keep working until its done."
Fluttershy considered this. If the scientists on the laboratory were working with illegal substances, it seemed a plausible explanation for why they hadn't met with their surface rendezvous as scheduled. But a more troubling thought crossed her mind as she looked around, again spotting the sink beside the workstation.
"And what if they dumped any of the chemicals overboard?" she asked.
"Impossible," Twilight declared. "Pintocific regulations prohibit that. Each module on Deepsea Echo has its own standalone storage tank for waste water. It's subject to the same laws that prohibit cruise ships from dumping their sewage overboard."
"Okay, it was just a thought," Fluttershy said, though she thought she heard doubt in Twilight's voice. "How are you getting along with the computers?"
"I'm almost finished, actually."
"Do you need me to do anything?"
"Just be ready to go in the server room, please. I need to force a full system reset, after which you should be able to release the pod from your end. I'll make sure 'Two is standing by for the release."
After casting one more uncertain glance at the makeshift laboratory table, Fluttershy made her way back to the server room. As she stepped in she noticed it felt much cooler than before, the computers no longer operating at battle stations to maintain the various onboard systems. She positioned herself at the terminal where she had plugged her hardline USB in, then called in to Twilight that she was ready to go.
All the ceiling lights went out in unison. The screen of the terminal switched off. Darkness and silence fell across the room, as the multitude of fans keeping the servers cool slowed to a stop. The illuminated panels on the outside of each server unit went dark, one by one until Fluttershy found herself in total darkness and utter silence.
Then the screen on the terminal flickered back on, only showing a spinning progress wheel on a black background. It beeped at Fluttershy once. Then twice. For a few tense seconds, nothing else happened. Then the fans in the server room began to whir back into life. The panels on the server units flickered back on one by one, and the ceiling lights followed suit moments after. Finally the computer terminal gave a chime, and the loading screen vanished to make way for a simple interface of various menus and sub-menus.
"System reset complete," Fluttershy reported.
"Copy that, 'Four," Twilight replied. "You can disconnect the hardline now, this part I'll need you to do manually."
Fluttershy stowed the USB device back in its compartment on her wrist computer, then listened carefully to Twilight's instructions. She followed along each step as dictated, navigating her way through the maze of administrative controls. Apparently the designers of the laboratory had never thought it was possible for the clamps holding the escape pods to fail. Twilight resetting the computers had been necessary to create a backdoor into the maintenance software, which was only normally accessible when the craft was in a dry dock at the surface level.
As instructed, Fluttershy eventually found herself at the menu that controlled the various functions of the escape pods. Even though Wonderbird Four had docked with the vacant docking station on the port side of the craft, the computer registered it as a vacant dock. The starboard dock however, despite still being connected, only showed an error message. Again, a design oversight. The computer simply did not understand how the water seal had breached, but the pod was still docked. The designers didn't seem to have the same knack for safety features as Twilight.
They did, however, get at least one thing correct. The latches holding the escape pods in place operated on a spring-loaded ram, held into place by a locking pin and hydraulics. Rather than using the hydraulic pressure to push open the latches, the system instead had a two step system. The locking pin would release the ram, then a valve would be used to drop the hydraulic pressure. This would allow the springs to push the ram and the latches would move aside, detaching the escape pod.
Navigating her way through a couple more sub-menus, Fluttershy found the controls for the release mechanism. The locking pins had released, but the hydraulic pressure was still at full. She marvelled at how Twilight had been able to figure out the problem and how to resolve it. All within the hour it had taken them to get from Harmony Island to the danger zone. She entered the command to release the hydraulic pressure and the computer requested confirmation. She pressed 'confirm' and watched, as the bar representing the release ram began to inch from one side of the screen to the other.
"Docking clamps released," she declared.
Fluttershy smiled to herself, satisfied at the job well done. Though she only had a few seconds to enjoy the satisfaction, after which a deafening sound of screeching and scraping metal erupted though the walls of the lab. She operated on raw instinct, dropping to her belly and covering her head with her hooves as the world around her creaked and moaned. The floor began to shake, sending waves of vibrations up into her chest. If the module collapsed under the water pressure, her foetal position would do her little good.
But she didn't dare move.
She imagined this was what it sounded like at the epicentre of an earthquake. Time seemed to slow to a crawl, but finally the noise stopped. The floor beneath her heaving chest gave one last jolt, and settled back into place. The silence was deafening after such a horrific noise. The Fluttershy of years gone by would have been immobilised in place by such a traumatising event. But this Fluttershy had spent over a decade building herself up to be more confident in herself. She knew, from a large part of that decade being spent training as an aquanaut, she didn't have the luxury of time.
"Base from 'Four," she declared as she rose to her hooves, making her way out of the server room and towards the door. "The laboratory was just hit by some kind of seismic activity. Is the escape pod clear yet?"
"Err, sorry 'bout that there, 'Four," came, to Fluttershy's surprise, Applejack's voice in reply. "There musta been some kinda current down there, swung the pod back at the lab as 'ah started reelin' her up. Scraped along the hull somethin' fierce but 'ah don't reckon it did any damage that was too severe. Not from whut 'ah can see, at least. The pod ain't leakin' or nuthin'."
"Is it clear from the lab, 'Two?" Fluttershy asked again, this time directing the question at Applejack.
"Affirmative, 'Four. 'Ah'm reelin' her in at full speed, she's clear of the lab. With the cable comin' up as fast as it'll go, should only be 'bout half 'n hour an' then we'll have her out in the dry."
"Copy that. Base, do you still need me on board the lab, or am I cleared to return to Wonderbird Four?" Fluttershy asked as she made her way back across the room.
"Get out of there and escort the pod back to the surface please, 'Four. Did the lab sustain any damage from the impact with the escape pod?"
Fluttershy paused at the display panel near the door. It displayed a floorplan of the module she was in. She recognised the layout from the schematics she'd looked over during her descent in Wonderbird Four. The central room was highlighted green, as were most of the segments that represented the assortment of watertight bulkheads that divided the outer corridor. On one side of the module, however, were two segments that were flashing orange.
"The computer is detecting water breaches in two compartments," Fluttershy reported back. "The doors will be locked to prevent further flooding, but it's the opposite side of the module to Wonderbird Four. I'll be able to get back without any problems."
"Copy that, 'Four, and glad to hear it."
Passing back through the door, Fluttershy began to retrace her path from her earlier arrival back to Wonderbird Four. When Twilight had reset the computers, it should have returned the corridor lighting to its normal mode. However this must have been undone by the breaching of the two watertight compartments, as it was still dimly lit. Even the emergency beacons were still spinning.
"'Five to 'Four, do you read me?" Rarity's voice chimed in once again on Fluttershy's radio.
"Go ahead, 'Five."
"I was listening earlier, regarding what you said about dumping chemicals overboard. Yes, we clarified with base that they don't do that, I know she said there were laws against it, but I did some digging on the design of the laboratory, just to clarify some things."
"Clarify what, exactly?" Fluttershy asked.
Rarity cleared her throat. "Okay, so essentially: we know the laboratory is required to surface weekly. This is as much a maintenance requirement as it is a regulatory one. Since the designers built it to Pintocific standards, it was built under the assumption that a weekly rendezvous would be made. For resupplying and such. But also, as it turns out, part of that weekly rendezvous includes a full purge of the waste water tanks onto the resupply ship. It brings them the essentials while taking their waste away for processing."
Fluttershy stepped though the last watertight door and onto the ramp of Wonderbird Four's rear airlock, processing this information. "So how long could those waste water tanks last between each rendezvous?" she asked, closing the ramp behind her.
"Exactly what I wondered," Rarity said, evidently pleased Fluttershy had clocked on to the correct piece of information. "The lab was designed to account for redundancies, and they always carry three times as many supplies as they need at any one time. Three times as much food, for example. The waste water tanks are the same. Emptied weekly, and they have the capacity for three weeks. Given an assumed average water consumption, of course."
"And the lab has been underwater for a month."
"Therein lies another redundancy. In case of emergencies and to prevent the crews exposure to hazardous water, each tank will automatically purge itself and dump its contents when the level reaches critical. The crew might have gotten by with their food supply if they rationed carefully, but there was no chance of them overriding this function."
Her mind reeling, Fluttershy began to join the dots as she sat back down in Wonderbird Four's cockpit. A manic scientist declaring something had attacked the lab. An enormous scrape along one side of the laboratory. The lack of any clear source of said enormous scrape. A secret lab working on an illegal substance know to cause uncontrollable growth in animals.
"So the question remains," Rarity added. "Is not if they've accidentally spilled a growth substance into the water."
"It's how much have they spilled." Fluttershy concluded.
Her lightbulb moment was interrupted by a loud ping from the console in front of her. She'd been so lost in thought that it took her a few seconds to compose herself and locate the source of the noise. She looked up at the sonar screen, where a shape had just faded away. A few seconds later, the sonar pinged again, the shape reflected back at Wonderbird Four now much clearer.
It was big. Very big, and approaching with alarming speed. By the scaling on her sonar, Fluttershy estimated it to be about eighty feet in length. It was less than a mile away but with every ping it drew nearer and nearer. Fluttershy's heart began to race as she disconnected Wonderbird Four from the lab. The airlock hissed as she let her sub drift away in the current, watching as the anonymous shape got closer.
Her rational mind was in conflict. In all likelihood it was another submarine approaching. The distress call had been made on an open frequency, after all. Maybe it had reached somepony else, and not just Wonderbird Five? But on the other hoof, the escape pod being dragged and scraped across the hull of the lab had made a lot of noise and vibration. To any predatory creature lurking nearby, it would have been akin to ringing a dinner bell.
The shape on the sonar slowed its charge, bringing itself to a halt about a quarter of a mile away. Fluttershy's breath caught in her throat as she nudged on her joystick. Wonderbird Four spun, her nose and her floodlights now pointed in the direction of the shape but still revealing nothing. It had to be some kind of submarine, it just had to be.
Then out of the gloom, it began to appear. Slowly inching into view. A gray conical shape, pointed straight forward, grew and grew as it thrust itself forward into the light. Then came the teeth. On the underside of what Fluttershy now realised to be a snout, sat a row of wicked-looking teeth. Horrible white needles, sticking out in every which direction. So fixated was Fluttershy on processing this, she gasped when she looked up and saw that the creatures eyes had drawn into view. Terrible orbs of pure black, that somehow seemed to absorb all the light around them.
For a horrifying few seconds, Fluttershy's mind failed to come to terms with anything other than the raw image in front of her. She looked from eye, to tooth, to snout. A single descriptor formed in her mind: Goblin Shark.
The gargantuan creature hung there for a few more moments. Only its head was illuminated by the powerful floodlights of Wonderbird Four. It dawned on Fluttershy how much her submarine was completely dwarfed by the shark in front of her. It felt like a sick, twisted spin on an old expression: the shark may have been in her headlights, but in this scenario, she was most definitely the deer.
Its jaw twitched and it began to surge forward again, barrelling straight towards Fluttershy.