“I think we’re about to enter the central dome.”
“What was your first clue?”
Daylight glared at Rainbow Dash but had to admit that what she stated was pretty obvious. After traveling through more of the city they emerged into a large atrium where the walls and ceilings were all glass, held up by a frame of golden metal. Outside they could see the endless waters of the ocean and more of Merlantis all around them while directly ahead was one of the large towers that shot up from the base of the central dome. There was nowhere else they could be going.
And thankfully they hadn’t seen anymore disturbing paintings or anything else on the way here.
“How much further is the Trident?” Breakwater asked Senax—cutting off Rainbow and Daylight before they could get into another argument.
“I don’t know for sure but it’s definitely inside there,” Senax said, looking up and up at the towers and the dome itself.
“That’s still quite a lot of space to search...” Gilbert said.
“Well we know the direction to go in so that’s going to help,” Senax said.
“Is the Trident up or is it on the ground floor?” Daylight asked.
Senax closed her eyes and concentrated briefly, vaguely feeling out for the Trident with the connection she had to it. After a second she opened her eyes and frowned. “It’s up… but not at the top. It’s somewhere else on the higher levels.”
“I would’ve figured it was at the very top,” Rainbow Dash shrugged.
“Me too,” Gilbert nodded.
“Maybe they wanted to put it somewhere less conspicuous,” Breakwater said. “We won’t know for sure until we actually find it.”
“Well we aren’t getting any closer by just standing around out here. Let’s go,” Daylight said and walked to the tower, ushering the others to follow her.
Again they had to open up another garishly large door to get inside the tower and then the dome itself. Immediately inside the tower they could look up and see almost all the way to the top as a large staircase on either side of it led up dozens of floors. That wasn’t where they planned on going though. Instead, ahead of them was another atrium with doors and hallways going to the north and south, running along the outer perimeter of the dome. And to the east was an extravagant series of marble steps. No mere staircase or stoop, it was like the entrance to a palace with how wide and high up the steps went. Hundreds of ponies could go up or down it at a time. And with the golden archway at the top of it they knew it had to lead into the heart of the central dome of Merlantis.
“Hopefully no more big doors for a little while,” Rainbow Dash said.
“My legs are getting a little tired of pulling them open...” Senax agreed.
“Well I’m going to head up those steps the fast way-” Rainbow said and flexed her wings for emphasis. “Gilbert—you can come and join me if you feel like it.”
“Very well, I’ve been walking enough,” Gilbert said and joined her on the quick trip up the steps while waiting for the others.
“Oh yeah, meanwhile we’ll just walk up the gigantic steps,” Daylight rolled her eyes.
From by the archway at the top, Rainbow Dash looked around at the next level of the dome and then back to her friends. “If you want to hurry up a little bit, you guys are going to want to see this.”
“Indeed,” Gilbert nodded.
“Something special up there?” Daylight asked.
“You’ll see,” Rainbow said.
When the rest of them finally made it up the steps and joined Rainbow and Gilbert at the archway, they saw what she had been talking about. The archway led into a gigantic galleria several stories high that gently curved in both directions until they couldn’t see where it ended. It was possible that it curved around the entire dome and made a full circuit. Along the floor was an even amount of statues and fountains built at regular intervals, stairs and ramps led up to other floors and hundreds of doors that were visible across both sides of the dome now. Surprisingly there were hanging plants of a viny and green type on a lot of the higher floors as well. There were plenty of walkways going from one side to the other so you had easy access to wherever you wanted to go whichever floor you were on. Down at the ground floor were plenty of doors and halls too, so much that they had no idea where to go next.
“Well this is just great, now where do we go?” Daylight frowned. “And are those really plants up there?”
Rainbow Dash shook her head. “They’re fake, I can tell from here. They’re just decorations or whatever.”
Breakwater scratched his head. “Daylight’s right though, there’s not just a straight path we can take anymore. This place is becoming a maze.”
“Got any suggestions, Senax?” Gilbert asked her.
“Umm...” Senax looked at the imposing wall of floors and doors in front of them. “Well we need to go up at least… and… I think to the left a little bit. It’s not like I can see through walls to make sure we won’t have to backtrack but that’s still the general direction we need to go in.”
“Works for me,” Rainbow shrugged and started lazily flying ahead, not going too fast so the others could keep up with her.
When they went up the very first level, curiosity got the better of Rainbow Dash and she opened the first door they came across. Only to find an empty room about the size of a small house. Strangely though, despite how abandoned it and the rest of Merlantis clearly was, there wasn’t a speck of dust. It was like dust simply didn’t exist in Merlantis. Just one more additional weird thing that was probably magical about it. They silently walked up several more floors, continuing their way left around the dome. Clockwise technically. North technically. Not that descriptions like that particularly mattered right now with Senax steering them on.
“There must be a break at some point. Some change in the structure and some new path that leads further into the dome,” Daylight said as they walked. “There’s no way there’s only one way into this place and it doesn’t lead anywhere else.”
“It’s very big though, we might be walking for a while again,” Gilbert said.
Daylight sighed and looked over at Rainbow Dash. “Rainbow Dash? Would you mind flying out ahead a bit and seeing if you find anything?”
“Mind? I think I’d prefer it,” Rainbow grinned at her and took off once more.
She probably could’ve made a full revolution around the entire dome (if this place actually went the whole way around) before the others could blink if she wanted. Instead she kept a simple pace while looking out for anything different. She found it when she reached around what would’ve been about the 10 o’clock position of the dome. From floor to ceiling at each individual floor there was a short hallway that led to a golden door. It might’ve just been another door to nowhere, but it was certainly something different looking so Rainbow was willing to call it a successful flight. Quickly she made her way back to the others.
“Yo! Found some doors that might take us deeper inside this place,” Rainbow Dash told them.
“What floor are they on?” Daylight asked.
“Every floor, they all look the same so I bet they go to the same place or same kind of place.”
Daylight looked to Senax. “Which floor should we go to?”
“The top floor, if they’re all the same. That’ll take us closest to where the Trident is,” Senax said.
“More walking then? I was hoping we wouldn’t have to go up anymore stairs,” Breakwater said.
“I could carry you,” Rainbow Dash smirked.
“No thanks, that’s just embarrassing in a situation like this,” Breakwater rolled his eyes. “I’ll keep my whining to myself.”
First the group had to travel upwards to the top floor of the great gallery but then it was really just a straight shot onward to the golden door Rainbow Dash had seen. The whole time they walked, Senax concentrated as best she could to feel out if they were getting closer or farther from the Trident. At best she still only had a vague idea of its location. She was certain though that if they were able to turn into the deeper reaches of the dome again that they’d be on the right path. After a few minutes they reached the spot where there was a break in the seemingly endless wall of doors. A marble finish highlighted the floor, walls, and ceiling, with a thin golden threshold going around the perimeter. Together they looked down the new hallway at one of the golden doors she had seen. It held the promise of allowing them further into the dome and that was all they needed right now.
This time Daylight decided to open the doors with her magic and they all entered the new room. On the interior was two decorative suits of armor on stands flanking the door—different from the plain statues they had been seeing. The armor was blue and back, shiny, and more ornamental looking than practical, with numerous fins and greaves studding it. They stepped past the armor after a curious look or two and really looked around the circular room they were now inside.
It was just a connecting room so there wasn’t much actually inside this small space besides the armor, it just led to a few different places. To their right was a stair well going down, likely connected to similar rooms below. The fact that the stairs ended here made them think it was only for all the rooms that went up in this spot. To their left was a small empty doorway that led to another room, where the sound of rushing water was coming from. And directly ahead was another hallway leading to yet another golden door that was flanked by two more suits of armor.
“Alright, where to?” Rainbow Dash asked Senax.
“Well we need to go ahead but… what’s that sound?” Senax said as she started walking over to the left.
“It sounds like running water,” Daylight said.
“Yes, but it’s not a fountain, it sounds far too fast,” Senax said.
The others followed her over to the other room and walked into it, where they found possibly the strangest thing they had seen so far. They didn’t really know what to make of it. In the middle of another small room was a circular railing, about chest height for a pony, running around a hole in the floor. The five walked up to the railing and looked down at the hole to see it was covered by a metal grill and below it was a swiftly running stream of water. Very swiftly, it would’ve pulled any of them under if they had somehow accidentally fallen into it. The hole itself was easily big enough for that too if there wasn’t a protective grill over it.
“What is this thing?” Gilbert asked.
Senax shrugged. “I honestly have no idea.”
“Hm...” Daylight rubbed her chin as she looked at it.
Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow at her. “Got an idea?”
“I think maybe...” Daylight trailed off as she looked around the walls of the room and found what she was looking for on the opposite side of where they had come in—a small lever attached to the wall. “Aha!” She walked over to it with a grin on her face and placed her hoof on it. “Stand back from the railing for just a second.” She said before pulling it down.
The other four backed up and as soon as Daylight pulled the lever, the grill split down the middle and swung down like a trapdoor. Once she released the lever the grill swung back up and locked into place.
Daylight proudly walked back over to the railing with a smile on her face. “This is a garbage chute.”
“Garbage chute?” Rainbow said.
Daylight nodded. “I’m almost certain of it. Think about it—how else would they get rid of trash in a place like this?”
“Good point...” Senax said as she looked down at the rushing water.
“Where does it go though?” Breakwater asked.
“The water has to be flowing through some kind of tunnel or pipe built between the floors of the dome, I’m willing to bet it’s connected to one on every floor and probably part of a much larger system spread throughout the dome. There must be hundreds of spots like this. Looking at how fast the water goes it’s designed to carry out any sort of refuse. It probably either then expels it directly into the ocean through special holes or takes it to somewhere else in Merlantis where the garbage is actually processed and recycled,” Daylight said. “I’m amazed something like this is still working—but then again everything else in Merlantis still seems to be working just fine too.”
“Well that’s interesting—I guess—but it doesn’t help us with finding the Trident,” Rainbow Dash said and floated up to head out of the garbage room. “Come on, let’s go to that next room.”
Senax gave a lingering look at the “chute”. “I hope we don’t just throw our garbage out into the ocean...”
They filed out and approached the other set of doors that was flanked by the two suits of armor, opening those up, they emerged into a larger square room with doors on each wall and an ornate ceiling decorated with chandeliers and a painting of the sky. It was different than other artwork they had seen down here so far which was mostly ocean themed, this one really was the bright blue sky with swirling clouds, birds, and rays of sunlight painted around the glowing orb in the center of the ceiling. Directly opposite on the floor was painted a very specific emblem, right under the “sun”. The Horn of Listening and the Trident and Necklace of Ponyseidon all crossed over each other in a circle.
“Fascinating. I wonder if there’s something special about where we’re going for the art to change like this?” Daylight wondered as she strode in and looked around.
“I have a question,” Gilbert said as he walked into the center of the room. “This painting of the treasures… is this what the Trident of Ponyseidon actually looks like?”
The others walked over to look at the emblem as well. Rainbow Dash, Breakwater, Daylight, and Senax all peered down at it. Before this they had only seen that giant golden Trident to go along with the huge statue of Ponyseidon. This painting was far different. Unlike the golden color of the Horn and Necklace, the Trident was a deep sea green, with its outer prongs having barbed edges while the middle prong went so thin it practically became a needle at the end. Directly below the three prongs a series of sapphire jewels were inlaid in the neck of the shaft. Meanwhile the pommel at the other end was rounded before the last few inches twisted out in a drill shape and ending at a point. If the painting was to scale it would be about six feet long in total.
“I think it is. I just… feel it,” Senax said, blinking in wonder. She reached out a hoof to gently drag it across the emblem…
The moment she did so a pulse of light came from the emblem, shooting out across the room and through the walls. A small vibration went through the floor and everyone looked around in a panic as the room shook.
“Well uh, that can’t be good,” Breakwater said.
Heavy thuds then came from behind the doors. Plodding, the grinding sound of metal, stomping, from behind all four doors that led out of this one room. The group formed a circle to watch each other’s backs and saw as the doors were all opened at once—revealing the suits of merpony armor, empty, but animated and moving. Two stood at each door, but behind them more could be seen coming.
“Isn’t this just perfect,” Rainbow Dash snorted.
“Should’ve known there would be a problem or two to be honest,” Daylight sighed.
“Oh dear...” Senax grimaced. “Um, don’t worry about damaging them, I won’t hold it against anyone if something here gets broken.”
Rainbow Dash grinned. “Thanks for the okay.”
Ballast slowly paced back and forth along the cement floor near the pool The Breakwater was securely floating in. He was kind of bored—and halfway to thinking maybe he should’ve just gone along with the others.
“Maybe we should’ve brought a deck of cards down here with us like Rainbow Dash said,” Ballast murmured.
His musings were interrupted however when the water next to The Breakwater started to bubble.
“Huh?” Ballast blinked right before the head of a gigantic green eel shot out of the water.
He backed up.
“That can’t be good.”
The eel though didn’t take any notice of him whatsoever. It simply rested its chin on the cement and opened up its wide mouth. And then something very strange to Ballast happened. Ponies in black cloaks started to walk right out of it and into Merlantis, being led by a mare with a sandy mane full of seashells, with a confident and powerful smile on her face. She walked right onto the floor and stood up tall and proud, the light reflecting off her deep purple eyes.
“Merlantis. Where the treasure I have been destined to claim is to be found,” Coral Sea said. A low chuckle came up from her throat. “Still—we have work to do. Wasabi? You and three others will come with me, the rest of you will stay here and watch that strange ship. I don’t know who came here before us but we won’t be letting them get away and-”
“Ahem, Priestess,” Master Wasabi cleared his throat and pointed over at Ballast—who had so far gone unnoticed by the High Priestess as he stood off to the side like a statue.
Coral Sea blinked at him for a moment, a brief embarrassed look of bafflement and surprise on her face before she regained her smile. “Well, well, well… if it isn’t Ballast the shipwright. Friend of Captain Breakwater and Senax the merpony. You must have quite a lot to tell us right now, don’t you?”