Twilight was horrified. She no longer could leave, not with her friend stranded. She grudgingly turned around and raced towards the house Rainbow Dash had just been in. She could hear muffled screams from inside and hastened her approach.
She kicked the door in and ran up the stairs then tried to find the stairs to the attic where she saw her friend. She could not find anything though. The ceiling had no creases where stairs or a ladder might come from, so she checked the rooms. Most doors were locked or bolted shut and wouldn’t budge, but the door near the front of the house was open. She rushed into the abandoned and empty room and found a small staircase ascending into the attic next to the door. She climbed the stairs as quick as she could to see another fish pony holding a tied up Rainbow Dash.
“She must return! She must serve her purpose!” The creature uttered in the horrible Innsmareth accent.
“Twilight, help!” Dash screamed as Twilight raced across the room, to reach the fish pony and her friend, but she wasn’t fast enough. The fish pony smashed the wall down with impossible strength and leaped out of it dragging Rainbow by her ropes.
Twilight paused for a moment, in disbelief of the strength of that thing then quickly rushed over to the edge to follow, but the drop was too high. She galloped back down the stairs, ran out the front door and followed where the fish pony had dragged her friend. They seemed to be heading towards the shore and Twilight knew that could only mean one thing - Devil’s Reef.
Twilight was still wary of the search party for her but saw no sign that they knew where she was. She followed the trail until she was back out on the shore and saw the disfigured pony loading Rainbow Dash on a small wooden boat and pushing it out towards Devil’s Reef. The reef was lit up even more now and a very large portion was sticking up out of the water during the low tide. Twilight had no clue what they were doing up there, but she didn’t want Rainbow Dash or herself to be any part of it.
She tried to reach the creature taking her friend, but couldn’t get to her in time. She swam as fast as she could to follow them but couldn’t keep up no matter how fast she swam.
Soon she saw the boat reach a low point in the reef and the creature pulled Dash out of the boat and began walking on her hind legs, carrying Rainbow Dash in her deformed claw-like hoof. They soon moved out of sight as they worked their way up a path Twilight assumed led to the top of the reef. Twilight herself didn’t reach the reef for another few minutes but she wouldn’t give up. Her friend had been there for her when Twilight needed it, and now Twilight would return the favor ten fold.
She reached the path, her legs aching from all of the running and swimming she had been doing and the cuts on her back from jumping out of the shattered window burned in the salt water, but she pressed on. She wouldn’t let them get away with taking her friend. She climbed the steep and narrow path around Devil’s Reef until she finally found herself on top. She saw no sign of anypony, not even the ponies who had torches up there earlier. She explored the reef, looking for any sign of where they might have gone, but found nothing.
As she was losing all hope, she came across a small cave she hadn’t seen before. There were three statues, each as frightful and hideous as the other. The names under them read “Father Dapon,” “Mother Hydra,” and “The Great Cutethulhu.” Twilights eyes fixated on the statue of Cutethulhu. This was the same face she had seen in her nightmares. She stumbled backwards as the realization hit her and nearly collapsed but forced herself to her senses. This would be a mystery to solve another time; she had to save Rainbow Dash.
She knew the statues meant something but didn’t know what, so she searched the small cave a bit more until she realized that there were buttons on the back of each statue. She pushed each one but nothing happened. She was feeling hopeless, if only she had the strength to teleport, she could have gotten to Rainbow quicker and they could both be far away by now.
She threw herself on the ground and began to cry. She had no idea what to do and just wanted it all to be over. She looked up and as if an answer to an unspoken prayer, she noticed markings carved into the walls. There were three symbols used in what appeared to be a code. She looked back at the statues and noticed that the symbols were written on the statues as well, but only one on each statue. She quickly looked back at the code then pressed the statue in the sequence the wall showed and her spirits were immediately lifted as the wall behind her began to slide apart and reveal another cave.
With hope renewed, she went into this second cave and found it to be empty, save a large hole in the floor. She peered into the hole, but couldn’t even see the bottom. This was the only path that the ponies could have taken Rainbow Dash that she wouldn’t have known about, but how did they get down? Twilight looked around for a rope or anything that could lower her into the tunnel, but found none.
After a few moments of consideration, she decided to take a leap of faith. She didn’t know why, but she just knew that’s what she should do. It was a long fall. Right after she jumped in she wished she hadn’t but she knew she might be able to slow her decent a little with magic if necessary. As she fell, she saw water beneath her, so she prepared to dive in, and began using her magic as best she could to slow herself down until she finally reached the water.
Immediately, she discovered it wasn’t water at all. She had no idea what, but instead of landing in a pool of water, she found herself sliding on solid, however wet, ground. She picked herself up and looked back to see a large triangular shape made of stone and filled with water. She didn’t know how, but somehow she’d been teleported or maybe this was some other dimension. She wished she had the time to study it, but there was little time. She quickly began searching this new place. It seemed like a large cave, maybe somewhere underwater since everything was so wet.
Twilight progressed through the cavern system until she came upon the most peculiar thing she’d seen since she came out of the water gate. There were only two walls and no ceiling in this cave. Somehow, the water was suspended in a bubble around the area. She walked up to the edge of it and stuck her hoof through it, and confirmed that it was actually water. Twilight was in awe. So many marvels in this place, yet she had no time at all to discover their secrets.
She brought her attention back to the task at hand and kept progressing through the caves. Seeing no life anywhere, she began to get worried. Where was everypony? She knew there was lots of life on top of the reef less than an hour ago, and now everypony was gone. She looked through every cave she could find hoping to find some sign of her friend.
She was feeling very lost in the caves, unsure which ones she’d traveled to, though when she came across the bubble rooms, she felt a little cheerier because she could recognize when they were different. She occasionally passed elaborate stone doors and some she looked in to find rooms with desks, tables, and even books. She still saw no sign of Dash.
After a while of searching she began to hear voices. She knew this was a good place to start, so she snuck around until she found the source. In a cave ahead she heard several ponies talking with the Innsmareth accent and she went to investigate.
Upon entering the room where the voices were coming from, Twilight saw that it was some kind of prison. The ponies in there seemed to be talking about Rainbow Dash.
“This one’s a fighter, but we got her finally.” Said one voice.
“How close is she?” Another said.
“She’s still got a few months, but by then she’ll learn to accept it. It’s a shame she’s delayed so long, if she’d grown up here, she probably would be developing much faster.” said the voice of the creature that dragged Rainbow out of the house.
“What about the purple one? Did she follow you?” Said the second voice.
“Yeah, but I’m certain I lost her on the reef. I’ve alerted everypony of her presence, by now the deep ones are probably having their way with her on top of the reef.” said the disfigured pony from earlier.
Twilight was somewhat relieved that she now knew where some of the missing population was, but she had to get Rainbow Dash out of there and fast. She crept through the door and found that this was a multi-level room. She peered over the ledge in front of her and saw a number of cells on the floor below her but saw nopony. To her right she found a ramp that lead to the first floor and proceded to go down it.
She opened up the first door she came to, but the cell was empty. She found the same within the next three cells as she circled the room, opening each cell as she came to them. The fourth cell she opened held a creature that looked somewhat like the two fish ponies she’d seen earlier, only this one looked even less like a pony. This thing looked more like a deformed frog or fish than a deformed pony, and she quickly closed the cell door before it was alerted to her presence. She tried several more cells until she finally came to the cell where Rainbow Dash was held.
Rainbow looked awful. Her ropes were removed but had rubbed her fur off in several places and she looked weaker than any pony Twilight had ever seen. She probably hadn’t eaten in days and was sobbing quietly as she lifted her head to see who was coming for her this time. Her eyes lit up with so much joy when she saw Twilight running to hug her.
“Twilight! You came for me!” Rainbow said with tears in her eyes.
“I couldn’t leave my friend at the mercy of these things! What were you doing here?”
“I couldn’t sleep. I decided to go for a flight and heard a voice. I thought it might be someone I knew. Next thing I know I’m tied up.”
Twilight held Rainbow Dash tightly. “We have to get you out of here. Can you walk?”
“Just barely, I can’t fly though. This is the worst thing in the world.”
They heard voices returning to the prison and knew there was little time before they were discovered.
“Come on, we have to go!” Twilight urged Rainbow to move.
Dash struggled to stand up, but succeeded and slowly limped off with Twilight. The voices were coming from the upper level, where Twilight had entered. Twilight looked around for another way out and saw an open door past a few cells to her right.
They hurried in the direction of their new exit and pushed their exhausted bodies to reach it before the voices noticed them, but their hopes were shattered. Just as Twilight looked back and noticed her mistake, the guards did as well.
“The new one’s cell is open! She’s escaping!”
Twilight and Rainbow forced themselves to move faster, Dash trying to use her wings to gain some speed.
“Over there! The purple one got in! Stop them!”
They couldn’t outrun them in their condition. Twilight had to do something.
The guards entered the hallway Twilight and Dash were using for their escape, and it was clear that they were like the fish ponies Twilight had seen earlier. The two guards stood on their rear legs and carried swords in their claws. Twilight grabbed a tall metal stand with a candle on it next to her and the candle fell off as Twilight pulled the spiked end from the rock in which it was embedded. Twilight held her place between Rainbow and the fish pony guards as they quickly advanced. The one to her right reached them first and twilight quickly used the metal stand in her mouth to deflect the fish pony’s strike, then followed through to stab the second guard that was approaching her in the neck. He fell to the ground clutching the bleeding hole in his neck as Twilight blocked an overhead strike from the first, but she lost her grip on the makeshift weapon and it clattered to the ground. The guard smiled sensing victory and raised his sword for a final strike, but suddenly dropped his sword behind him as his smile faded, looking down to see Twilight’s horn impaled in his chest. Twilight removed herself from him, letting him fall to the ground.
Blood dripped from her horn as she calmed herself to focus. Rainbow Dash was staring at her in shock and disbelief.
“Come on, I know the way out.” Twilight urged Rainbow Dash.
They backtracked to the prison now that the obstacles were clear. They ascended the ramp to the upper level and headed into the caves. Twilight wasn’t entirely sure she knew the path, but figured she could figure it out. The task wasn’t easy. They took many wrong turns and had many close calls with guards, but so far had been undetected. Twilight’s hopes lifted even more when she recognized the first bubble room.
“Come on, it’s not much further! We’ll make it.” Twilight tried to encourage Rainbow Dash, though it didn’t seem to be working very well.
Twilight recognized that they were close to the watery gateway she entered from and was beginning to rejoice, then suddenly lost all hope. The fish pony that had brought Rainbow Dash to this strange underwater civilization in the first place was standing in the middle of the path just 20 yards in front of the gateway. On each side of her sat a large creature. These creatures resembled the fish pony Twilight saw in the prison, only these had no resemblance to ponies at all. They were large, scaly, and slimy. These must be the deep ones Duke Bristle had talked about.
“She can’t leave!” The fish pony croaked at them. “She must fulfill her duty.”
“What duty? What are you talking about?” Twilight asked.
“Silence, foal! Rainbow Dash, what do you remember of your mother?” The fish pony asked with a wicked grin on her face.
“What do you mean? She got really sick and died when I was just a little filly. What does that have to do with anything?” Dash replied in an annoyed tone.
“Well, let me refresh your memory. Your mother’s fur started falling out, then her eyes stopped closing, then one day she was gone from your home in Cloudsdale. Am I wrong?” The grin grew wider.
“But, how did you-”
“Know? Because your mother is right here.” The fish pony gestured towards the deep one on her left. “Oh, I do love family reunions.”
Rainbow’s face turned to a look of shock and horror. How could that be? How could her own mother be one of those things?
“You see, your father once visited us, and he was struck by your mother’s beauty. She was a nice young filly, and your father was oblivious to the so called ‘curse of Innsmareth.’ She foolishly thought that she could escape the inevitability of the transformation by leaving the town, but it happened anyways, although delayed. The thing is though, you don’t have to be completely transformed to produce a deep one offspring. You, silly filly, will soon begin your transformation.”
“You’re lying! You’re just trying to trick her.” Twilight protested.
“No, she isn’t Twilight. I never knew what happened to my mom, but now it makes sense. But what if I don’t want to?”
“It’s not a matter of want, it’s a matter of duty. Your services are needed of father Dapon and no one says ‘no’ to Dapon. You will transform whether you like it or not, so why not stay with us and get it over quicker? Anyways, it would give you time to get reacquainted with our mother.”
“Our?” Rainbow Dash said in shock.
“Why of course, mother didn’t know it, but she was pregnant with a second child when she left you. It’s good to see you, sister.”
“Sister?” Dash and Twilight said in unison.
“Look, the family get together’s been a blast, but we should really wrap it up. Your unicorn friend has her own ‘duties’ to preform with some of the deep ones.” The two deep ones made a sound somewhat like laughter as Rainbow’s nameless sister said this.
“Can you run?” Twilight asked her friend.
“Not for long.” Dash replied.
“Run towards them and stay as close to me as you can.”
They took off at full gallop towards the monsters blocking them ahead. The fish pony wore a puzzled look, there was no way they could get around them. The deep ones prepared to attack as soon as they came close enough, but right as they were almost within reach of the deep ones, a bright purple flash lit up the cavern as Twilight and Rainbow Dash vanished from in front of the monsters and appeared a few feet from the water gate. They Tripped and mostly fell through it, as their former blockers began to pursue them.