//------------------------------// // LXIII - Waking The Nautilus // Story: Mortal Coil // by Reeve //------------------------------// As I emerged on the other side of the portal, I found myself in a very peculiar location. Twilight and Pinkie were already walking about, examining our new surroundings. As I stepped away from the portal, I did the same. The room we were in was large and rectangular, both the walls and floor made from dark grey stone. The two longer walls of the room were lined with alcoves; within each was a stone basin that held a pale blue flame. The collective effect of all these gave this room a soft blue glow, just like the secret room we had discovered in the Demon Shaft. The floor was fairly featureless, comprised of simple square slabs, but a large section was cut out of the middle of the room to reveal what looked like a pool of dark water. Within the pool, there was a strange object, shaped like a broad fish and crafted from some kind of deep blue metal. It was very large, but mostly submerged, with only the curved top poking out of the water. The whole thing was held in place by four long, metal arms that hung down from the corners of the ceiling. At the front of the room was a simple stone door, flanked on either side by two more stone basins with blue flames, and beside each of them were two pillars engraved with strange waving patterns. There seemed to be other levels to the room, one small balcony right above the corner where the portal was, this was connected by a staircase to a much higher balcony at the adjacent corner. The whole room had a very damp feeling to it, despite the only water apparently being in the pool at the centre, both the walls and floor were slightly wet to the touch. On top of this, despite the high number of blue torches, the room still felt very dark and oppressive, it was a complete mystery as to whether we were still in the Demon Shaft or not. “Well this is certainly not what I was expecting,” Twilight stated, breaking the eerie silence of the room. “Where do you think we are? The air feels so… thin.” “And moist,” Pinkie added as she examined the strange metal fish in the water. “What about this thing, anypony recognise it?” “I can’t say that I do,” I admitted. “But Pinkie, doesn’t your mask let you breathe under water? Why don’t you go down there and take a look?” “Sure, and you can Twilight can search through that door,” Pinkie suggested. “Try and figure out where we are.” “Alright, we’ll meet you back here in a little bit,” Twilight told her, as we began making our way across the room to the stone door. Pinkie slipped on her mask and pulled up her hood, before diving into the water and out of sight. As we neared the door, Twilight felt about it before trying her magic on it. Instead of swinging like a normal door, it slid upwards from the floor until the doorframe was open. I stepped in first while Twilight followed, as soon as her magic left the door, it slowly slid down again, closing us in the new room. This room was more circular, with three more doors leading off from it, one to each side, and the third at the opposite side form where we entered. Interestingly, while there were still stone basins with blue fire in this room, one stationed halfway between each of the doors, the three doors also had two flaming torches mounted on either side of their frame, but none of them were the same colour. The door to the right was flanked by two turquoise flames, while the door to the left were flanked by two purple flames, finally the door directly ahead was flanked by two golden flames. In the centre of the room was a raised platform, with steps leading up to it from each of the four doors. Sitting in the centre of this platform was a great statue, crafted from the same dark blue metal as the strange fish thing in the previous room, just looking at the metal sent chills up my spine for some reason. Unlike the last statue we had seen in the tomb, this one depicted three figures. At first they seemed equine in their facial features and their forehooves, but instead of manes, they had oddly shaped fins, and their entire lower halves were that of fishes. Looking above the statue, I saw that the domed ceiling of the room was made entirely of glass with metal framing, beyond which was only darkness that occasionally rippled. “Those statues...” I began, addressing Twilight. “Sirens,” she replied simply. “I learned about them years ago, never seen one for myself, but the red gemstones in their breasts are a dead giveaway.” I followed her gaze and saw that there were indeed hexagonal rubies implanted into the chests of all three stone figures. “I think it’s safe to say we’re no longer in the Demon Shaft,” Twilight went on. “Or the Nether Vale for that matter, it looks like we’re under water.” I considered that for a moment, but as I thought back to the wet environment we found ourselves in, it made a lot of sense. In this room alone there was a thin layer of water covering the lower section of floor that circled around the raised platform, and what I was seeing outside the glass dome was merely the water at night time, with no light shining through it. “So we’re under the sea,” I stated. “Is that not a bad thing?” “Not necessarily,” Twilight argued. “Let’s keep looking, see if we can’t find something that will help us get back.” Our hooves splashed through the shallow water as we made our way to the door on our left, Twilight once again opening it up for me with her magic. As I stepped through it, I found myself in a room of similar style to the others, although like the first one, this room did not have a glass ceiling. The room was much smaller than either of the previous two, a short staircase to the left led up to a balcony and a set of double doors that looked relatively normal compared to the ones that slid upwards, while directly ahead of us was another door of the same type on the same level we had entered from. While I walked across the room to the door opposite us, Twilight went to the right to examine a strange cylindrical capsule that stood against the wall, once again made from that same blue metal. Similarly there were two pillars on either side of the door I was approaching, made from the same metal, but unlike the ones in the first room we arrived in, these didn’t seem to be for decorative or support purposes. I walked up to the door and frowned when I saw it had no handles, I then tried my magic on it and found that it wouldn’t budge in the slightest, not because it was locked but… there was something else, like an immense pressure on the other side. “We’re not getting through this door,” I announced in a wary tone before turning to Twilight. “I’m not sure what this is,” she began, grabbing the front of it with her magic and tugging at it. “But I think there’s something inside.” After a little heaving, she managed to pull the front panel aside to reveal the capsule was hollow inside, the same soft blue glow emanating from within it, as we had seen in the portal. Twilight poked her head inside and hummed curiously as she examined it, while I looked to the outside of the capsule once more. On either side there were tubes, not dissimilar to the ones connected to the portal, they ran up the length of either side before disappearing into the ceiling. “There’s a lever inside here,” Twilight informed me, pulling her head back out. “Although I think we should keep looking around before we go playing with things.” I nodded, and together we left the open capsule behind for a moment, to ascend the short staircase to the second set of doors. These ones responded much more positively to magic, swinging open easily and allowing us to walk straight through. We found ourselves back in the first chamber, only this time we were standing on the small balcony situated above the portal. As we stepped out, we heard a loud splashing noise, as Pinkie’s head emerged from the pool. “Hey girls!” she called up through her mask as she clambered back onto the solid floor. “Good timing, I think this place is underwater!” “Yeah,” Twilight replied awkwardly. “We kind of figured that out… did you at least figure out what that metal thing is?” “Well it has doors,” Pinkie informed us. “And a large window at the front of it, it’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before.” While Twilight contemplated that, I walked over to the edge of the balcony, examining a large flat tablet angled on it. I was immediately reminded of the screen I had seen at Arclight, the one that controlled the teleporter in the Tower. Now that I thought about it, the number of strange contraptions we’d seen since discovering the teleporter room beneath the tomb, they did seem very reminiscent of the sort of things I’d seen at Arclight. As I tapped the screen, hoping it would come to life, I wondered if the two things were connected. The screen remained stubbornly blank, no digital display appear in response to me tapping like it had done back at the Tower. Twilight appeared beside me in a flash of purple light, I hadn’t even noticed her disappearing to begin with. She told me that there was an identical screen like the one I was abusing on the higher platform, but it too was failing to respond. “Twilight…” I began in a curious voice. “Have you noticed any similarities between this place and… Arclight?” Twilight frowned at me, clearly not having considered that. “I don’t mean aesthetically,” I added quickly. “But these weird contraptions, the teleporters, they’re the sort of thing I wouldn’t be surprised to see at the Tower or the Arclight University.” “That’s a good point Rarity,” Twilight admitted as she considered it. “You know, nopony really knows if the natives who built Arclight ever lived elsewhere, perhaps this place is somehow related to them.” “And we found a teleporter in the Demon Shaft,” I reminded her. “Does that mean it too is connected to Arclight, and whoever used to live there?” “It’s very possible,” Twilight said with a contemplative nod. “Oh, if only we weren’t so busy, this is all so fascinating!” “So what’s our next move?” Pinkie asked, bouncing up from the ground floor to join us on the balcony. “Well there’s a room through that door,” Twilight indicated the first door we had went through. “From there we have two doors left to explore; you could try searching one of them.” “Won’t she need magic to open the door?” I asked. “I’ll find a way,” Pinkie assured me as she pulled a crowbar from her mane. “What about you two?” “There’s a weird thing back in this room,” Twilight said, gesturing to the door we just came from. “We’ll check it out.” “Aw, I love weird things,” Pinkie huffed. I opened my mouth, intending to tell her she could check it out if she really wanted, and I would check the other rooms instead. Before I could however, she immediately brightened up, gave a small shrug, before hopping off the balcony and bouncing towards the far door. As we returned to the previous room, we both made our way over to the capsule,.Twilight glanced at me awkwardly for a moment, before pulling the lever with her magic. The glowing platform immediately began to descend at a fairly quick pace, revealing the capsule to be a tube that travelled down some distance. We both peered down over the edge, watching as the platform grew smaller and smaller until it finally came to a stop some ways down. Giving a little nod of approval to Twilight, she flipped the switch once more, this time we watched as the platform began to rise back up to meet us. “So this will take us to some lower floor or room,” Twilight commented thoughtfully. “It’s a very ingenious device, it conserves so much space.” “Shall we get in?” I asked, still unsure whether it was safe. “Yeah, don’t worry though,” she assured me. “If something goes wrong I’ll teleport us right back here.” I nodded in response and together we stepped into the capsule, a task that proved considerably more difficult that we had imagined, we ended up having to balance on our hind legs just to fit inside. Once we were steady, Twilight flipped the switch again with her magic and we felt ourselves begin to drop. As we were lowered down, the front section of the tube changed from the blue metal to glass, allowing us to stare out at the vast nothing. Perhaps during daytime, enough light penetrated the sea to make this journey down a little more scenic, but right now there was only smooth darkness. When the platform began to slow, the glass became metal once more and before long we arrived inside a second capsule, this one already open at the front to reveal a new room. This new room was very small and cluttered, there were stacks of odd metal crates and heaps of metal scrap that made it look like a giant clock had exploded at some point. There was another set of double doors to the right, but these refused to open just like the ones upstairs. The only thing that remained was a large panel on the far wall, resembling a magnified version of the tablets we had seen in the first room. It too was blacked out, but another lever was placed on the left hand side of it, on metal box mounted on the wall. Twilight walked up to this, and after testing to make sure the screen was as unresponsive as the others, she turned her attention to the lever. She was hesitant this time, but after receiving an encouraging nod from me, she stood well back and flipped it with her magic. There was a shower of electrical sparks from the metal box which caused Twilight to leap back in surprise, but then the large screen blinked into life, a blue digital display appearing over it. That pretty much proved to me that it was the same kind of thing I had seen in Arclight. “Right…” Twilight said slowly as she approached the display. “This is… confusing.” “Can you not make sense of it?” I asked as I looked it over. It looked like a map of some kind, I wondered if maybe it would line up with where we were and we could use it to find our way around. As I looked it over, there did seem to be rooms that could match to those we’d been in already, but there were a great many rooms where the outline was blinking from blue to red repeatedly. As well as this, there were a number of rooms with a flashing red lightning bolt in the centre of them. “A little bit…” Twilight replied uncertainly. “Like I said, I was rarely allowed to travel to Panchea or Arclight after my… uh, disobedience the first time. The few times I came over during my studies, I was more interested in magic rather than technology, and later I would have been too busy with work and politics to take the time to look into it properly. I did however once meet a nice stallion at the Arclight University, he gave me a crash course in it and I still remember some of it.” Twilight hummed and mumbled to herself as she looked over the screen, her eyes narrowing as she did. “I believe it’s some kind of map of the whole building,” she announced finally, confirming what I had already guessed. “If you look here, you can see the room we entered, followed by the circle room which seems to be the centre point of the whole complex, and finally these rooms.” The first room she indicated had a small blue circle in the corner, which made me think it was indicating the teleporter we came through; however it was also one of the rooms with a blinking lightning bolt. “There seems to be a lot of areas shut off,” Twilight mumbled. “You see these red blinking rooms, there’s always one through the doors we couldn’t open, and I’m guessing these numbers relate to pressure…” “You’re going to have to dumb this down for me,” I muttered as I looked at the considerably higher numbers beside those rooms compared to the ones with solid blue lines. “I believe they’re closed off because the rooms have flooded,” Twilight explained. “It’s certainly going to make getting around difficult, but hopefully we’ll find everything we need in the rooms we can go to.” “And these bolts?” I asked, indicating the one in the first room. “At a guess, I’d say they have something to do with power,” Twilight proposed as she began tentatively tapping certain parts of the screen. “I think… I think this screen, perhaps this room, is used for supplying power to the others. Watch, if I tap this room here you can see the bar fill up, then the bolt disappears.” “So if you send the power from here to the first room,” I began as I tried to wrap my head around it. “We can work those other screens?” “I think so,” Twilight agreed. “Why don’t you head on up there and see if anything’s changed? I’ll catch up a little bit.” I gave a small nod and moved back to the rising platform while Twilight continued to fiddle with her new toy. After flipping the switch and ascending to the room high above, I stepped out and immediately noticed a difference. The two metal pillars on either side of the sealed door that I had taken note of, were now pumping up and down in a rapid piston motion, making a great deal of noise as they did. While I was staring at them, wondering what that meant in the grand scheme of things, Pinkie walked in through the side door, looking freshly soaked. “Did you go for another swim?” I asked jokingly, but stopped smiling when she gave me a worried look. “I went through that door to the right like you suggested,” she began in a low voice. “There was an office or something, lots of notes and files. Anyway, there was a glass wall, and while I was searching… something swam up and smashed into it.” “What?” I uttered, suddenly taken aback. “Did you see what it was?” “No,” she replied shaking her head. “But it hit the wall a second time and broke the glass; I only just got out and closed the door before the whole place flooded.” “We’ll have to be careful of… whatever that was,” I muttered. “Did you find out anything before you were attacked?” “Yeah actually,” she said, producing a file that flopped about in her grip, it was so wet. “This is what I was reading before it hit, it’s about that metal fish thing in the first room.” She passed it to me and I opened up the front cover, glancing over the text and design. “Nautilus,” I read aloud. “Is that what it’s supposed to be called?” “Looks like it,” Pinkie replied with a shrug. “It sounds like it’s supposed to be some kind of boat that swims under the water.” “Sounds crazy, but then I’ve seen plenty of crazy things,” I mumbled as I confirmed what she had said. “Me too, centuries worth of crazy,” Pinkie added. “So do you think that could be our ticket out of here?” “We’ll see, let’s get back into that room,” I suggested. “Twilight thinks she might have got power working there.” We climbed the steps to the balcony door and returned to the room where the Nautilus was docked; both screens were now alive with digital text and diagrams. After several minutes of examining the screens, we finally came to the conclusion that we could make… something happen, if we each activated one of the consoles at the same time. After quickly coordinating ourselves, we tapped in some quick commands and watched as the metal arms began pulling the Nautilus up out of the water. Once it was almost fully emerged, a hatch on the side opened automatically, giving us access to the interior. “Neat!” Pinkie exclaimed as she descended the staircase to where I was on the lower balcony. “Looks like we’ll be out of here in no time,” I said confidently. “Let’s go take a look inside; I’m sure Twilight will be…” I was cut off as the whole building shook, the screens flickered and died, while the sound of the pistons in the other room were blotted out by a terrible wrenching noise that sounded like metal being ripped apart. We both stumbled, but managed to stay upright, Pinkie shooting a concerned look at the room we had just come through. Without a word, we opened the door and charged in. Not much had changed as we had assumed, the pistons had ceased their movement, but it was the capsule that drew my attention. The platform was nowhere to be seen, Twilight must have pulled the lever and called it down, but now the interior of the capsule was flashing from blue to red. We both darted over to it and stuck our heads through the open panel at the front. Staring down, I felt my stomach lurch upon seeing the tube rapidly filling with water from the bottom up, I guessed something had broken the glass and it was pouring in from there. “Twilight’s still down there!” I exclaimed in a terrified voice. My mind quickly leapt into gear as I began assessing the situation as best as I could, trying to devise a novel solution that would rescue Twilight before the water rose as high as this room and we would be forced to evacuate. Before I could think of anything however, Pinkie pushed past me, diving down into the tube, her mask drawn over her face. “Dammit Pinkie, this is no time for heroics!” I yelled after her, although there was no way she would have heard me as she splashed into the churning water down below. With no choice other than to trust that Pinkie would be able to save Twilight, I stepped back from the capsule. I paced the room to try and take my mind off the rising water level, and the fact that if they didn’t make it back in time, I would have to seal the doors lest I get trapped as well. Minutes ticked away, and I was really starting to panic as I saw the water bubbling up over the edge of the capsule and begin seeping out over the floor. My mind began screaming at me to run for it, but my body refused to move, my eyes glued on the hole where the platform should have been. As the water began lapping around my knees and I was sure my friends weren’t going to make it, there was an explosion from within the tube, as two heads broke the surface. I waded over to them as quickly as I could, ready to help carry the unconscious Twilight back to the door, but I froze when I saw it was Pinkie who was unconscious, and Twilight was the one wearing the mask. I didn’t think too long about it before I continued rushing forward and helped the pair of them out of the capsule and out of the room. Once I had slammed the double doors behind me, Twilight lay Pinkie’s body down on the balcony, her horn lighting up as she began drawing the water out of Pinkie’s lungs, although I noticed the light about her horn did flicker and die out occasionally. I waited until she was done, and Pinkie began coughing and spluttering before I dared speak. “What happened down there?!” I demanded in a stressed voice. “Why didn’t you teleport?!” “I …couldn’t,” Twilight replied in a muffled voice, I wasn’t sure if it was because of the mask or… something else. “I tried… but I couldn’t. There was something down there… it broke the tube and stunned me.” “I’m sorry,” I mumbled, realising I shouldn’t have snapped. I wanted to ask what happened after that, why Pinkie ended up being half drowned while Twilight had the mask, but for some reason I decided not to probe into that. Instead I glanced down at the Nautilus, which was still pulled out of the water despite the power shutting off again. “Look, we found a way out of here,” I informed her. “That metal fish thing is some kind of underwater boat, let’s get Pinkie on board and get out of here.” Twilight nodded, and together we levitated Pinkie’s still dazed body down to the ground level, before hopping down after her. We carried her into the Nautilus and found it to be incredibly cramped, lots of panels and consoles with lights and dials, which indicated a great many things I couldn’t begin to fathom. While Twilight took Pinkie to the back and got her comfy, I went to the front where the window was, and began examining the controls. I was reminded slightly of the glider I used to destroy the Dreadnaught, the controls all seemed very basic, as if they had been dumbed down for anypony to use. I saw a switch which was kindly labelled to indicate activating it would cause the metal arms to release the Nautilus; there were also the main steering controls, which again reminded me of the glider. The only problem was that none of the controls did anything, no matter how much I fiddled with them. Something seemed to be lacking, and it quickly became apparent that ‘something’ was a power source. In the centre of the steering wheel was a hexagonal indent, I immediately remembered the gem set into the breast of the Siren statues, as well as the crystals that powered the teleporter back below the tomb. “We need some kind of gem to start this up,” I told Twilight as she walked up behind me. “Well where are we supposed to find that?” she asked in an agitated voice. “There’s still one door we haven’t checked,” I pointed out, remembered the door marked by yellow torches in the central room. “It’s also the only way that isn’t flooded; if the power source isn’t there then… then I don’t know what we’ll do.” “Can you stay and look after Pinkie while I…” Twilight began, but she was cut off when I stood up and shook my head. “No, you stay and keep an eye on her,” I said as I made my way towards the still open hatch. “I’ll go look, you need to let your magic recover in case that thing is still out there.” “Fine, but take this,” Twilight said, pulling off the mask and passing it to me. She didn’t look at me as I took it, instead averting her gaze to the front window. “Hurry back, and be careful,” she instructed in a quiet voice. I didn’t dally, jumping out of the Nautilus and trotting across the room to the door. After raising it with magic and entering the central room, I made my way up to the statues. I very much doubted it would be as easy as that, but I plucked the centre Siren’s jewel using my knife none the less. Anypony could guess from my cutie mark that I knew a thing or two about gems, and they would not be wrong. I knew instantly that while these stones would be incredibly valuable, they didn’t have a trace of magic about them, they were merely replicas. After pulling the other two free and depositing all three in my satchel, I made my way over to the third and final door. It might have been disrespectful, but I couldn’t help but think about how much easier our travels would be if we had some extra coin among us, and those rubies would certainly fetch a fair price, even in the current economy. Entering through the door, I gulped upon finding myself a short corridor where only the floor was made of stone. Instead of walls and a ceiling, there was only an arched walkway made from glass and metal frame. I started walking down it, very aware that I probably looked like a tasty treat for whatever it was that kept trying to break in. Quickening my pace, I made it to the other end of the hall and quickly opened the double doors, entering into another circular room. This one had two more doors leading away, placed at equal intervals around the room, while the walls between here were also made from glass. In the centre of the room was a narrow pedestal, it looked relatively featureless until I began to draw closer, and saw that there was a mesh grate on the top surface of it, sealing off a shallow basin. As I neared it, I noticed the faint red glow coming from within the basin, and knew I had found my objective. Grinning, I began feeling about the pedestal with my hooves, looking for some switch or opening. Before I found anything however, I briefly caught a glimpse of something dark moving towards the window in front of me, a difficult feat considering everything beyond the glass was dark. I glanced up just in time to see whatever it was collide with the glass, causing the whole room to tremble, and a spider web of cracks to appear on the pane. Panic fuelling my power, I reached out with my magic and wrenched the mesh grate off the pedestal, reaching in and scooping out the gem, just as I saw the thing approaching a second time. I ducked down as it collided and the sent shards of glass flying outwards, cascades of water flooding into the room. I quickly donned the grinning mask, finding it surprisingly easy to see out of, as I stood up and turned to face whatever was trying desperately to squeeze through the opening. My jaw dropped as much as the mask would allow, as I looked at the creature, took in its deep blue and purple scales, its mantle and six octopus arms, and the flailing tentacles beneath. My first thought was that it was the same monster we had fought at Anchorage, but then I reminded myself how thoroughly Twilight had killed it. As well as that, this one was considerably smaller, but no less savage as it thrashed out desperately at me, the broken glass doing nothing to its toughened flesh. Storing the gem in alongside my spyglass, I turned and bolted out the double door, not bothering the close them behind me as the area began swiftly filling up with water. I could still hear the monster stuck in the hole it had created, so imagine my shock when something else crashed into the glass walkway above me, taking me completely by surprise and causing me to fall flat on the floor. All around me I could hear the sound of smashing glass; I was only able to briefly glance up at the several points along the walkway where cracks were appearing simultaneously before having to shelter my head from the shower of shards. There was pretty much no time between the shattering of the glass and the entire corridor being filled with water. Before I knew it, I was caught up in the churning water and felt myself being dragged off. My immediate instinct was to hold my breath, it taking a few seconds to reach my brain that the mask would allow me to breathe safely… somehow. I floated about in the darkness for a moment, my hooves swishing about to make sure all my items remained fastened to me. It turned out I wasn’t very good at breathing through the mask, for some reason trying to rely upon it made me feel very anxious and I would immediately attempt to clamp my mouth shut and simply refuse to breathe. While I tried to calm myself down, I was sure I felt something large ripple through the water to my right, and I remembered that I was currently floating around underwater, amongst an unknown number of monsters. In the distance, I could still see the blue flames burning brightly in the ruined walkway at the room where I found the gem, the water having done nothing to extinguish them. I started paddling my way towards them, silently wishing I could see the monsters as well as I could see the flames. Then, as if the mask was responding to my thoughts, more colours began to illuminate within the darkness all around me. I could see the first monster still trapped in the broken glass, now represented by a cloud of deep purple aura. As well as that, I could see dozens of other clouds, some small and faraway, while others appeared dangerously close. It was obvious the mask had a life detect enchantment for this very scenario, I wandered what else it could do, and if it could all be activated simply through thoughts. Once I got that idea in my head, it was difficult to shake, but none of the fantastic things I imagined occurred, so I decided that even Pinkie had limits. Now that I knew how far or close the monsters were, I was able to speed up as I returned to the flooded corridor. Along the way, I had to splash my hooves rapidly to slow myself down in time to avoid colliding with one of the monsters. As it floated past me, the purple cloud began to take on a more distinct shape, essentially showing me an outline of the creature in detail. It was identical to the other one, pretty much just a smaller version of the monster from Anchorage. It was bad enough to think that the Covenant were creating these abominations, but the idea they might be able to reproduce after that was downright scary. I wasn’t sure why they were unable to detect me, perhaps their sight wasn’t intended for hunting this deep in the water. Whatever the case was, I wasn’t about to complain, as I finished my swim to the corridor and made my to the door that would take me back into the central room. I quickly learned however, that the pressure of the water on my side, would not allow the door to be opened. Cursing to myself I began to turn around, wondering where else I might be able to enter from, only to widen my eyes and have to kick myself out of the path of one of the monsters. It shot down the remains of the corridor, breaking off more glass as it went; I managed to sink low in time to avoid it as it crashed into the wall behind me. I tried to swim out beneath it while it thrashed about trying to find me, but as I did, one of its lower body arms swept out beneath it, a few of the tentacles on it raking across my face. The hit itself didn’t hurt, the tentacles floated about too listlessly for them to carry any impact. But as I felt them sweep across my head, the mask protecting most of my face, I felt dozens of hard flicking sensations as they began shocking me. It reminded me of a jelly fish sting, and even as I flailed to get away from it, I felt one of the tentacles zap my horn and felt my whole head go cloudy. I did wonder how a unicorn as powerful as Twilight Sparkle had managed to get stunned by one of these, but it seemed their tentacles were specifically designed for nullifying magic. I did manage to get free of the monster and the corridor, my head spinning as I tried to put enough distance between myself and it, that the light of the blue fires wouldn’t reach me and reveal me to them a second time. Unfortunately that one hadn’t been the only monster to have seen me. Looking around, I saw I had two more converging on my position, so I quickly began kicking myself over the top of the building, making for the glass dome over the central room. They were much faster swimmers than I, there wasn’t a hope of me being able to escape them without first losing them in the darkness. I seriously doubted I would even make it that far before they caught up to me, and in the open sea, there would be nothing stopping them from tearing me apart. As I swam over the top of the domed roof, I glanced back to see one of the monsters right on my tail. Thinking quickly, I pressed my body close to the glass, preparing myself to kick off at the last second. My plan worked well enough, although I did feel several shocks in my hind legs from where the monsters tentacles brushed into me. Looking back I was pleased to see the monster flailing about; its body trapped half way through the glass, water rushing in through the gaps around it. Before my window closed, I turned and began to push myself back down, my eyes scanning over the dome for the weakest point in the glass since the monster was blocking the only entrance big enough for me. Once I was close enough, I risked drawing one of my knives which I plunged down into the cracks, constantly aware of the second monster closing in on my position. The glass shattered beneath me and I felt myself get drawn down with the torrent of water, I landed hard on the floor below, while the monster that had been stuck fell right onto the blue metal statue, warping and twisting it out shape as it flailed about, trying to catch hold of me. The second monster joined it, two of its massive tentacle arms diving in through the large opening in the ceiling and thrashing around, trying to strike me. I began sidestepping, drawing its attacks closer to the door that would take me back into the room with the Nautilus. I was faintly aware of the water quickly rising up past my knees and knew it wouldn’t be long before the pressure made it impossible to open this door too, but any worries were quickly assuaged as one of the arms punched forward, smashing right through the stone door while I ducked beneath it. With the way to the Nautilus clear, I turned and sprinted from the room, quickly crossing the chamber, even as the water began to flood in from the central room that the two monsters were still ripping apart. Twilight was there to meet me at the hatch, looking terrified as she reached out with a hoof to help me on board. Once inside, she asked what was going on, but I chose to ignore her for the moment. Instead I pulled off Pinkie’s mask and chucked it to the floor, sheathing my still drawn knife as I ran over to the front window. I hastily jammed the red gem into the slot, breathing a sigh of relief when I heard the Nautilus hum into life, lights blinking on all around me. I quickly familiarised myself with the controls, flipping the switches to shut the hatch and detach the Nautilus from the metal arms. The whole ship shook as it hit the water surface, and Twilight and I watched as the water level began rising up past the front window, the Nautilus slowly sinking down and out of the undersea temple. With the immediate panic over, I slowed down and took my time over deciding what to do next. “Will you be able to sail this thing?” Twilight asked uncertainly. “Uh… sure,” I said with false confidence. “Sailing is in my blood, I’m sure I can’t go too far wrong.” I grinned as I saw a button that looked promising, reached out and pressed it. From the front window, we both saw the Nautilus’s front lights switch on, casting a pair of bright cones out, illuminating the sea in front of us. As well as the eight or so monsters that were floating just ahead of us… all of which spun around to face the source of the light. “Uh…” Twilight began. “Not… a… word,” I growled as I pushed a lever forward, hearing the rear propellers kick into life and pick up speed.