//------------------------------// // Leviathan // Story: Rainbow Dash Around the World // by MagicS //------------------------------// “Is it supposed to be this cold in here?” Rainbow Dash asked Ballast as she—and the others—shivered. “Sorry… I guess it might have been something I overlooked, or underestimated. I figured the heat from the engine, and the electrics, would keep whoever was in here warm. I didn’t think going down this deep into the ocean would still make everything so cold despite all that,” Ballast answered. “We can’t exactly light a candle either,” Breakwater said, his breath visible. “P-Promise that this’ll be the first thing I update when we get back to the surface,” Ballast uneasily grinned. “I just had no idea the deep ocean got as cold as this at all, brr!” Gilbert said. “Yeah it’s pretty annoying—and most of us are used to cold temperatures even,” Daylight said. “Seriously,” Rainbow nodded. “Being used to the cold doesn’t mean I have to like it though. After all that time in the True North I’d be a-okay never having to deal with snow again.” “But aren’t you going to the south pole after the Grand Ocean?” Gilbert raised an eyebrow at her. Rainbow Dash deflated. “Uhh… yeah. I am. Ugh, thanks for reminding me. I really hope it’s somehow not as bad as the north was.” “Merponies aren’t made for such cold waters that you’d find south of here,” Senax said. She frowned as she looked out the viewport and tried to also avoid shivering. “It makes me wonder if the waters might warm up when we get closer to Merlantis. Or maybe after all the time spent in East Glade our physiology changed...” “Could be that Merlantis was built around some underwater volcanic vents,” Daylight shrugged. “I hope we’re lucky enough that that’s the case,” Senax said. “I really don’t like dealing with the cold either. That short time we spent in the north when we found Gilbert was more than enough.” “Now I wish we actually had brought a deck of cards with us to take our minds off this,” Breakwater said. “Ballast could’ve joined us in losing every game to Rainbow Dash,” Gilbert grinned. It also didn’t help that it was still night and completely dark aside from the light coming from The Breakwater itself. Although they were already far too deep for the light to really reach or do anything anyways even if the sun was out up above. They were just going to have to deal with the cold confines of the submersible until they got to Merlantis—and hope that it was somehow much warmer. Considering the magical nature of the underwater city, none of them were ready to doubt that just yet. Outside the viewport they only saw the occasional interruption from the endless water and steady stream of bubbles. An underwater rock at one point, the highest tip of a mountain, a small shark that went past the lights once, a school of fish, most might have been avoiding the strange vessel entirely. Rainbow Dash surprisingly found herself not very bored despite the lack of things to do or look at. She was more than excited enough thinking of their eventual arrival at Merlantis. “So Rainbow Dash, you really win at every card game you play?” Ballast suddenly asked her. “Every game,” Rainbow corrected. “Huh, maybe I should join in and try my luck sometime later then. If we did have cards I’m sure I could have Breakwater take the wheel for a minute.” “Believe me—you’ll get tired of losing pretty quickly,” Daylight told him. “Stop scaring him away!” Rainbow Dash frowned. “If you guys are going to be chicken I want to at least have somebody else to play cards with.” Daylight rolled her eyes. “Fine, fine, but just remember Ballast, we’ve given you fair warning.” “Don’t play for money,” Gilbert put in. “Noted,” Ballast smirked. “Maybe if we can find a game where you guys can all team up against me that’ll be enough to get you to play...” Rainbow Dash grumbled. “Even if we won you’d just complain about it,” Daylight said. “Would not!” “Would so.” “Well you would double complain if somehow you still lost!” “No I wouldn’t!” “You so would!” “Daylight, Rainbow Dash. Please,” Breakwater interrupted, glaring at the both of them. “Sorry,” both mares said. Gilbert though merely twiddled his mustache as the two argued. “Perhaps something like that is what we need right now though to take our minds off the cold?” “My mind was off the cold until you just brought it up again,” Daylight snorted. “Mine too,” Rainbow said. “Oh. Well. Forgive me,” Gilbert bowed his head. “T-The more we talk and get aggravated though the more things will heat up! Figuratively and literally!” “Uhh, I kind of said this before but you all really are a whole lot sillier than I thought you were. Even you, Breakwater.” Ballast said as he kept slowly steering the ship through the depths. “I’ve really tried to not let myself get dragged down into their silliness,” Breakwater shook his head. Senax smiled at him. “You like it.” “Ughhh...” “Hey Daylight? You do light magic and stuff so can’t you make a little heat too? Turn that horn of yours into a heat lamp for us,” Rainbow said, pointing to the appendage. Daylight batted her hoof away. “That’s not how magic and special talents work. I can’t just generate heat from my horn with my light manipulation skills. If you want me to make an illusion of a camp fire, or a sun, I could help you out, otherwise there’s not much I can do right now. Furthermore I should conserve my magic as much as possible. I’m not some sort of limitless battery.” “I know, I know, I’m just used to working with unicorns—and former unicorns—who can do everything. Sorry,” Rainbow shrugged. “When you put it like that it sounds like you’re demeaning me,” Daylight frowned. “I’m not, just saying why I may have a warped view of unicorns and what the average one can do with magic.” “Daylight is still well above-average when it comes to magical ability,” Breakwater said. “Sure is,” Senax also comfortingly laid a hoof on her friend’s shoulder. “Yeah, yeah, you don’t need to cheer me up...” Daylight tried to say but there was still the hint of a blush on her cheeks. Something then caught Ballast’s attention on the controls of his ship and he leaned over to look at the sonar screen. “Hm? That’s weird.” “What is it?” Breakwater looked over too. “Weird doesn’t exactly sound good when we’re in an experimental tin can thousands of feet deep in the ocean.” “Something just pinged on the sonar,” Ballast said as he tapped the screen. “Something big ahead of us.” “So? Couldn’t it just be another underwater mountain?” Daylight asked. “Uhh… no. Cause it’s moving,” Ballast said, eyes not moving from the sonar screen. The others crowded around him and Breakwater now and tried to look at the sonar screen as best they could. What they saw was a mostly black screen with the steady beat of a green line as it blossomed out of the bottom middle of the screen. At the top of the screen though, instead of fading away uninterrupted like it had been, it now hit a large oval shaped object that was briefly registered before fading away. Waiting until the next pulse. They were facing the long end of it and from what it looked like on the screen the oval at least wasn’t coming towards them but moving perpendicular, heading to northern waters. “So Ballast… according to this thingamajig, how big is that thing up ahead?” Rainbow asked. “Big. Very, very, big. And it’s moving slowly, we might come close to hitting it if we don’t slow down or change course a little,” Ballast said. “Just keep those lights on and take it slow for now,” Breakwater said. “I can’t imagine what this even is. There can’t be a ship that size, especially one so advanced to be down here in the first place. And it can’t be an animal either unless it’s Mother Ocean herself again. But what are the chances of us actually coming across her again?” “Perhaps better than we could’ve thought,” Gilbert said. “And perhaps we don’t need to be so curious at all...” Senax gulped. The group slowly watched the lights of The Breakwater illuminate the darkness ahead. Waiting as they steadily approached the large “thing” in the ocean depths. Waiting until whatever it was became visible to them. However, because of the short range of the lights and limited view through the glass, it was going to be tough to actually see anything until they were practically right on top of it. Rainbow Dash didn’t like the idea of that—or the idea of maybe missing this giant mystery object completely—so she tapped Daylight Gleam on the shoulder. “What?” Daylight raised an eyebrow. “I know you said you wanted to try conserving your magic or whatever but do you think you can make a brighter light for us? Or send some ball of light out ahead of The Breakwater to light up more of the ocean?” “I… suppose so. The actual spell won’t be difficult to perform, maintaining shouldn’t take much extra effort either,” Daylight rubbed her chin as she thought it over. “Did anyone ever tell you you get this big wrinkle in your forehead whenever you think hard about something?” Rainbow said. “Did anyone ever tell you how annoying you can be?” “Yeah. A lot. Quite often from you.” “Rainbow Dash just let her concentrate,” Senax rolled her eyes. After a second a glowing white ball was created at the tip of Daylight’s horn. It was so bright directly in front of them that they had to close their eyes until she shot it out past the viewport and into the ocean. It passed through the glass like it didn’t exist and very quickly started to light up more and more of the ocean in front of them. Everyone watched with bated breath, according to the sonar screen the large thing they had come across should be right there and visible any second. They saw a shadow through the ocean waters. A shape growing larger and more pronounced. Bumpy gigantic, moving slowly from south to north, the light finally reached it completely and everyone couldn’t stop themselves from gasping. The grey skin of a massive creature the size of a small island was swimming before them. It had the general shape of a shark or whale, but was so much larger and so… wrong. “I don’t know what that is, but it’s not Mother Ocean,” Breakwater said. The others who had also briefly seen the mythical whale earlier in their journey had to agree. Spikes and horns dotted the sides and back of this creature, its spine was visible through its back, pushing against its own flesh, while its massive dorsal fine was serrated and torn looking. Most convincing of all that it wasn’t Mother Ocean was the fact its tail fin was vertical and not horizontal. There was also something else, coming from the front of the great beast, drifting in the water from its mouth. Though they couldn’t see its face or eyes, they could see what looked to be large tentacles or other appendages connected to its mouth. A dozen in total, they worked to make the creature even stranger. Though it had to know they were there thanks to the bright light from Daylight and The Breakwater, it didn’t turn to or acknowledge them in the slightest. They were beneath notice. “By the ocean itself… I-I can’t believe it but… but I think that’s the Leviathan,” Breakwater said in wonder. “The what?” Rainbow asked. “I think I mentioned it to you once a while ago. A legendary creature, more legendary than Mother Ocean who at least comes to the surface sometimes, it’s a tale that’s been passed down in multiple Kingdoms and islands, from seafarer to seafarer. The gigantic Leviathan that swims the ocean depths. Meer considers it some evil counterpart to Mother Ocean—so do a lot of cultures for that matter. I just can’t believe it’s actually real,” Breakwater slowly shook his head, as if he didn’t quite believe what he was seeing. “Are we in danger?” Daylight asked. “I… I really don’t know,” Breakwater answered. “Doesn’t seem to care about us,” Ballast said. “So long as I don’t accidentally hit it I doubt it’s going to suddenly change its mind and come at us.” “It doesn’t look… right. Like a normal sea creature, you know?” Rainbow said as she looked at all the random horns and spikes across its body. “More like some kind of monster,” Gilbert nodded. Daylight glanced at Senax. “Do you think this ‘Leviathan’ has anything to do with Ponyseidon or Merlantis?” “I have no idea either. There were no tales about such a creature in my tribe. I hadn’t heard of anything like it until we met Breakwater,” Senax said. “How did rumors of something like this even spread if it always stays down here?” Rainbow asked. “Pff, beats me,” Breakwater shrugged. “These are old, old, tales we’re talking about. Older than any of the Kingdoms for that matter. Maybe no one ever actually did see the Leviathan and the idea of it just came from ponies who saw Mother Ocean and other ponies later on twisted the message. I have no clue, my father told me about it first and my grandfather told him and so on.” “Fair enough...” Rainbow trailed off and returned to look at the great Leviathan. At the rate they both were going they’d pass by each other fairly quickly. She was still in awe of its size, just like Mother Ocean it would’ve shadowed the entirety of Ponyville just with its tail fin. The strangeness of its body was nagging at her too—there’s no way it was just some bigger version of a shark or whale. But if it was a monster of some freakish amalgamation she was happy that at least it didn’t seem malicious. There wasn’t a whole lot they could’ve done if it was. Their trip would’ve been over veeerrry quickly. All of them were silent, their eyes glued on the Leviathan until it safely had gone out of their way. It took several minutes because of its size but eventually it left far enough that even the light from Daylight’s spell no longer reached it. Now it was just a fading shadow to the north. “I’m not sure I like deep ocean travel so far,” Gilbert said. “Even I might have to be with you on that...” Senax said. “Well let’s at least be happy that there definitely shouldn’t be anything else like that down here,” Breakwater said. “Yeah,” Ballast nodded. “Also it should be morning soon… not like we’ll be able to tell, but still.” “As long as Daylight still has her light ball up that’s all we need. You can keep it going until we get to Merlantis?” Rainbow asked the unicorn. “Of course,” Daylight answered. “Just gotta keep on chugging then,” Rainbow Dash said. They had all forgotten about the cold.