“Well what do you think?”
“I think it’s cramped.”
“Rainbow Dash, shut up.”
Ballast, Rainbow Dash, and Daylight Gleam were currently inside The Breakwater as it was underwater and towed behind the Heart of Azure. They were going to be down here the rest of the day until Breakwater (the captain) stopped for the night, then the submersible would be allowed to rise back up to the surface and they could come out. There wasn’t any major reason for them doing this, Rainbow and Daylight were just curious and wanted to see what the inside of The Breakwater was like. To be honest, Gilbert and Senax were just as curious but they didn’t want to make things cramped so they’d switch off tomorrow.
Even then, it was still a little cramped, as Rainbow Dash was happy to point out.
“Well she’s not wrong,” Ballast said as he looked around the interior of his creation. “I didn’t make this with comfort in mind after all, that can come on the later models.”
The interior was all a dull grey color, unpainted unlike the outside, it was just plain metal surfaces. The only color came from the various switches and devices at the control station and the black seats sitting in front of it. And of course there wasn’t much room for moving around, with lockers, pipes, machinery, and braces crowding the inside. The entire back half was taken up by an engine room to boot, giving them even less space. It could fit all six of them when the time came if some of them stood together and huddled up but it wasn’t going to be a nice trip to the bottom of the ocean.
“It certainly is an impressive piece of machinery though,” Daylight said. “I’ve never seen anything quite like it and I’ve been to quite a few different places in my life.”
“Yeah me too. I’ve seen some big machines and stuff but this thing is certainly cleaner for sure,” Rainbow nodded.
“Gotta make sure it’s clean, can’t have any dirt or grime getting in any of the instruments,” Ballast said.
“Instruments?” Rainbow raised an eyebrow.
“Just a word for all the controls and equipment on The Breakwater,” Ballast said as he stepped towards the controls and took a seat in front of the wheel. Rainbow and Daylight followed to stand behind him, together all three could look out the reinforced viewport in the front of the submersible. Right now it was just dark blue water, impenetrable to their eyes. “Let me give you a quick tour in case for whatever reason you need to know what this stuff does.”
“Oh. Learning. Cool,” Rainbow Dash sighed before Daylight smacked her.
“Here’s the most important switch for when we’re actually going down to Merlantis,” Ballast said and flipped a switch right next to the wheel.
Immediately powerful searchlights came on underneath the viewport and illuminated the ocean in front of them. A huge school of fish suddenly swam out of the way in fright. Besides that there wasn’t much more to see just yet—merely water, water, and more water.
Ballast grinned. “Even in total darkness this will give us fifty feet of vision. There’s also this-” he tapped at a screen that was black at the moment with a series of buttons and switches beneath it. “Sonar. That’ll make it easier to avoid rock formations too. We don’t want anything to sneak up on us. Uhhh, most of the other stuff here is to measure things like the oxygen levels inside, the pressure, the depth, hull integrity, and stuff like that. I’ll probably save the real lesson for Breakwater. Lot of jargon and gobbledygook that you two wouldn’t know.”
“As long as it works I don’t think I can complain,” Daylight said as she looked at the controls just out of her natural curiosity.
Rainbow Dash meanwhile tried opening one of the lockers but found it was locked. “Hey, what’s in here?”
Ballast looked over his shoulder at her. “Hm? Oh—those hold diving suits. In case you need to leave The Breakwater, either to fix something outside, or to abandon in case of an emergency, or just if we need to get from The Breakwater to somewhere else underwater and there’s no way to get there otherwise.”
“I suppose unless there’s some sort of underwater port or docking bay at Merlantis those might come in handy,” Daylight said.
“I bet Merlantis has a ton of different ways in and out,” Rainbow said, walking back over and staring out the viewport. “From what Senax said it’s a whole city down there after all.”
“We shouldn’t assume that. The merponies of old very likely had an entirely different way of building things from the ponies we know. From every land-dwelling civilization for that matter,” Daylight frowned.
Rainbow shrugged. “We’ll see. Once we get there we’ll figure it all out anyways.”
Daylight rolled her eyes. “What a wonderfully smart way to do things—no planning or forethought whatsoever.”
“Yeah—the fun way,” Rainbow grinned.
“You know the two of you are a little different from how I expected you to be out on an adventure like this,” Ballast said.
“Not taking things seriously at all?” Daylight raised an eyebrow.
“Pretty much,” Ballast nodded.
“You can blame me for that. But to be honest I find that things go best when you take a relaxed approach,” Rainbow said. “Believe me I’ve been in enough—and all kinds—of different situations to know what I’m talking about when it comes to this. Call me the expert on adventuring nowadays.”
“I think the expert on making a fool of yourself is even more fitting,” Daylight snorted.
“Nah—that’s Gilbert.”
Daylight Gleam opened her mouth to respond but had to pause. “Well… true.”
“He wouldn’t even take offense to it either,” Rainbow shrugged.
“And you all argue like this all the time?” Ballast asked.
“Yep,” both mares responded together.
“Well alright then, far be it for me to worry about you if it’s just your usual thing. First though, let me show you where the emergency supplies are. Hope we don’t need em but it’s best to go over this stuff just in case,” Ballast said and stood up from his seat in front of the wheel.
“Yeah might as well get the boring stuff out of the way on the first day,” Rainbow nodded before Daylight elbowed her in the ribs this time.
Ballast took it in good humor, chuckling as he went to a locker on the bottom of the floor, right beneath the taller ones on the wall. “You’re not wrong about that. But I’m sure Breakwater drilled it into you pretty quickly that most of ocean travel is just boring monotony.”
“Oh yeah. I’ve realized that by now,” Rainbow agreed. “I don’t handle boredom well.”
“She certainly does not,” Daylight smirked.
Before Rainbow could respond to that snipe, Ballast opened up one of the lockers and pulled out a life jacket. “Anyways—life jackets, inflatable raft, emergency rations, compass… uh, mostly stuff that wouldn’t really be necessary for a few of us to be honest. But still.”
“Better to be safe than sorry,” Daylight said. “Either way I’m still really impressed with this thing, Ballast.”
“Me too,” Rainbow said.
“Thanks!” Ballast grinned happily. “Have spent years of my life working on making it after all. I’m real proud of it. And you won’t find anything else like it on the entire Grand Ocean!”
“And please tell me why I should do something so time-consuming and dangerous without any sort of compensation whatsoever, you crazy old pest?” Dredge asked Old Diver.
“Because it will be great!” Old Diver replied.
“For you. Great for you,” Dredge scowled at the old codger. “I couldn’t care less.”
They, and Old Diver’s two butlers, were in Dredge’s shop at the port of Malkonrik—practically right next to Ballast’s. Because they were in the same business, and probably because Ballast mentored Dredge in the past, their shops were very similar in design. Dredge had his front office, his personal living and working space, his own planning room, and then the big dock behind it all where he could work on ships. That “#1 Shipwright in the World!” sign out front wasn’t just for show in his opinion. There was a big difference though between the two shops, whereas Ballast’s dock went right into the water and was open for the ocean to rush in and out, Dredge’s was a total dry dock blocked off from the ocean when closed. It was just his preferred way of working on, fixing up, and building ships.
Dredge flipped some of his rusty mane away from his gray face before scowling harder at Old Diver and trying to shoo him away. “Now get lost, I’ve got some real investors coming by later to check out the prototype. Heh, can’t wait to see the look on that fool’s face when he sees what I’ve made. I’d like to see him try and say it was his idea then!”
“But we need your new ship! It’s the only thing that can take us down to Merlantis!” Old Diver shouted, spittle flying from his mouth. The old green pony hobbled over to the dry dock and pointed at the brand new vessel, newly completed, that was sitting inside. “I know where Merlantis is and you can take us there! Why not help me make the discovery of a lifetime?!”
In the dry dock was a metal ship of similar design to The Breakwater but different in a few superficial ways. It was close to being twice as wide, with two propellers at the back instead of just one, but it was squatter too. No paint job adorned the outside, leaving it a pure reflective gray. It had a more boxy and angular look to it in general compared to the smooth cylindrical look of The Breakwater. But it was obvious they were the same type of vessel and built for the same kind of underwater, deep-sea travel.
Dredge walked up to stare proudly at the submersible. “This thing is going to be the proof that I’m better than that fake. I’m going to get back at him for throwing me out—saying I stole his darn idea!” He turned and glared at Old Diver. “And I can’t do that if I’m out gallivanting around on some fool’s errand! There are important ponies from Malkonrik and other Kingdoms coming by to see my submersible, I need them to acknowledge it and spread the word! Then I can rub my victory in Ballast’s face for the rest of our lives!”
“The word’s already been spread. To some people out there at least.”
Dredge, Old Diver, and his two butlers, looked to the front door of Dredge’s workshop. In the open doorway, a large griffon was standing with four harsh and strong looking stallions right behind him. Together they stepped in and let the door swing shut behind them. The griffon was wearing a tricorne hat, large black overcoat, he had a cutlass in a scabbard on his left side, and a golden necklace around his neck. The stallions each held a spear and some of them had jagged and painful looking scars on their faces. Though they were scary looking enough, it was still the griffon who chiefly grabbed the attention of everyone. Even for Dredge and Old Diver, who hardly left the port of Malkonrik, they recognized the most famous and feared pirate of the Grand Ocean.
“You’re that pirate...” Dredge said as he backed up to the edge of the dry dock, his face paling. “What do you want with me?”
Meanwhile the two butlers, scared as they were, went to stand in front of Old Diver.
Godfrey just smiled. “I want you to take me to Merlantis with that new ship of yours.”
“What?! You too?!” Dredge asked in befuddlement.
“What? What?!” Old Diver yelled and pushed his butlers aside, who immediately tried to grab him and hold him back. “No! Never! I’m the one who will go to Merlantis!”
Dredge shook his head. “Merlantis isn’t even real! Why are you all just coming here to waste my time when I’ve got something really important coming up?!”
Godfrey rolled his eyes and ran his talon across the crystals hanging from the Necklace. Interrupting the argument, a golden glow came from the Necklace and then a thin beam of light shot out from it, through the doors of Dredge’s workshop and towards the ocean. The others blinked in surprise at it while Godfrey stepped towards them. “The Necklace of Ponyseidon. A magical artifact connected to the Trident of Ponyseidon that rests in Merlantis. I can assure you that it’s indeed real, shipwright, and I have the “map” to get us there. All that’s needed is your ship that can travel underwater.”
“You’re kidding me...” Dredge said as he looked at the Necklace.
“B-But... how can you have that? And Merlantis is my discovery to make, not anyone elses!” Old Diver shouted at Godfrey, surprisingly fearless, or perhaps just senile.
Godfrey shrugged, smirking with amusement at the old pony. “All I care about is getting the Trident, and some revenge, like my new friends-” he hooked a claw at the four stallions behind him. “If you want to get the credit for discovering Merlantis I couldn’t care less.”
“That makes it sound like you’d have him come along...” Dredge said.
“The more the merrier. We’ve got some problems that we’re going to have to deal with when we get to Merlantis, might as well have a lot of allies,” Godfrey said.
Dredge bit his lip. “Look, I still can’t take you there. I-I’ve got some really important stuff to do today and you’re a wanted criminal!”
“Uh-huh. Well what if I told you that your rival is currently on the way down to Merlantis with his own new submersible?” Godfrey said.
“He what?” Dredge’s eyes narrowed.
Godfrey grinned. “You heard me. And it doesn’t matter if you show this thing off to some rich and important ponies before he does. When everyone hears that the maiden voyage of his ship was going down to and finding Merlantis? His fame will skyrocket and everyone will forget about your invention. They’ll all be talking about him and no one else.”
The gears in Dredge’s brain were grinding together.
“And really, you should consider yourself lucky,” Godfrey continued. “Since normally in a situation like this I’d just kill you and take your ship. But I don’t know how to pilot something like that, in fact I get the feeling that you’re the only pony who knows how to?”
Dredge gulped and nodded. “Y-Yeah.”
“Then you are indeed very lucky,” Godfrey patted him on the shoulder.
“I uh... I guess it’s worth it if I can still stick it to Ballast...” Dredge wiped some sweat from his brow.
“That’s the spirit!” Godfrey laughed and turned to the four stallions behind him. “Well you heard him, we’re on our way so gather up all the food and supplies we need. There’s no time to waste since Rainbow Dash and her friends already have a head start.”
“This is really not how this day was supposed to go,” Dredge shook his head.
“Ahahaha!” Old Diver started laughing like a maniac, going cross-eyed. “I’ve got it! I’ve got it! Finally I’ll be able to prove everyone wrong and make them pay for all their insults! Merlantis will be mine! The discovery of the millennium! Bahahahahaha!”
His butlers shared an uneasy glance.
Godfrey meanwhile cracked his knuckles while everyone else got ready. “Oh yes, this is most definitely going to be something to celebrate.”