"So tell me why we're doing this?" Scootaloo asked.
"We need an article for this week's issue of the Foal Free Press," Apple Bloom said.
"And Featherweight said we need to write about something different than our families," Sweetie Belle added. Scootaloo face lit up and she opened her mouth to make a suggestion, but Sweetie Belle cut her off. "And no Rainbow Dash. He was quite clear on that."
"Aww," Scootaloo said with a pout. "Stupid editor."
"Three of our last eight articles have been on Rainbow Dash. Featherweight just wants us to do something different," Apple Bloom explained.
"So I suggested we interview some other ponies in town," Sweetie Belle said, her smile beaming nearly as brightly as the soon. Scootaloo looked bored already. "And I figured we could ask them about how they got their cutie marks. It might give us some ideas about how to get ours."
"Of course, you'd have known all that if you'd been at the meeting," Apple Bloom said.
"But Dash was practicing her new move. As her number one fan, I had to be there," Scootaloo said. She looked around, taking in the buildings and the river that ran past them. "So, where exactly are we going?"
"Well, we asked Pinkie where Sea Swirl lived and, according to Pinkie, she should live in a house just past the river bend. Supposed to be a very big house."
"Oh. Who's Sea Swirl anyway?"
"She's a unicorn, like me, with a pale pink coat, two-toned purple mane," Sweetie Belle said. Scootaloo's expression was blank.
"Likes to bowl?" Apple Bloom offered. Scootaloo shook her head, still unclear as to which pony her friends were talking about. "You almost hit her with your ball when you lost control on the eighth frame?"
Still Scootaloo's expression was blank.
"Oh, I know. She's the one with the dolphins as her cutie mark," Sweetie Belle added. "You couldn't have missed that. She's the only one in town with a cutie mark like that, which is why we thought she'd be such a good choice."
"You mean the one with the two fish swimming in a circle?" Scootaloo asked.
"Dolphins aren't fish," Sweetie Belle said.
"Are too. They live in the water and have flippers, don't they? I remember Miss Cheerilee saying those are fishie things," Scootaloo retorted.
"Are not."
"Are too."
Before Sweetie Belle could further the argument, Apple Bloom pointed to a large house just ahead. "That must be it," she said.
Pinkie had said the house was big, but Apple Bloom had not imagined it would be that big. It was easily three times bigger than any of the surrounding houses, which were no slouches in the size department. Looking more carefully, she could see that the house seemed to be made up of two parts. One part looked to be an actual house, and that was about the same size as the other houses in the neighborhood. The rest of it was more like her family's barn, if her family's barn had a large landscape painting of the beach painted upon it.
"Sure is big," Scootaloo said. "And uniquely painted."
"I bet it's bigger than Diamond Tiara's house," Sweetie Belle said, her eyes wide. Then she started to grin. "I'm so going to tell her that the next time she bothers us." She took another look at the house and whistled. "Sea Swirl must be rich or something if she can afford to live in that."
"Something else to ask her, Ah reckon. Come on, girls. Let's go," Apple Bloom said, walking up to the front door. Like the one for the Golden Oak Library, the door was split into two parts, with the top and bottom able to be opened separately. She grabbed hold of the octopus themed door knocker and knocked loudly.
They could hear someone calling, "Just a minute," from inside, and the top half of the door flew open, nearly knocking the Crusaders silly. Luckily, riding around with Scootaloo had taught all of them the importance of ducking quickly to avoid serious head injuries.
Sea Swirl's head popped out, looked around, from side to side. "Hmm," she said, confused. "I could have sworn I heard somepony knocking."
"Down here," Apple Bloom said, from where she huddled on the ground.
"Oh, what are you doing down there? Crawling on the ground is a rather strange way for ponies to travel. Are you perchance a new breed of pony, like the crystal ones?" Without waiting for a response, she slapped the magnifying glass attached to a headband into place. In rapid succession, she inspected them, paying particular attention to Sweetie Belle's horn, Scootaloo's wings, and Apple Bloom's hooves. With a disappointing sigh, she set them back down and slid the magnifying glass upwards. "Nope, you seem to be nothing out of the ordinary."
"Actually, we are here to—" Apple Bloom started.
"Oh, I know why you must be here," Sea Swirl said. "What's-his-name sent you, right?"
"What's-his-name? You mean Featherweight?" Scootaloo said.
"Featherweight... That could have been his name, I suppose." Sea Swirl rubbed her hoof along her jaw, trying to remember. "I'm sorry. I suppose I should explain. I'm terrible with names much of the time. If I can see a cutie mark, I do fine, but usually without that, poof, gone. Silly, I know. I can remember the species name of hundreds of types of starfish, yet I have trouble remembering the name of a single pony." She laughed awkwardly.
"Anyway, so Featherweight sent you." She looked them over again. "You do look a bit young, but I did ask for small ponies."
"Ah'm a big pony!" Apple Bloom protested.
"Of course you are. I'm sure..." Sea Swirl's eyes shifted as she tried to remember the name, before she shrugged and decided these must be the ponies she was waiting for. "I suppose he wouldn't have sent you if you weren't capable." She opened the bottom half of the door and invited the fillies in.
The crusaders looked at each other, wondering if this pony might not be a little crazy. Finally, Apple Bloom shrugged and started to follow inside. "She's not much worse than Twilight."
"Guess science makes ponies a bit strange," Sweetie Belle said, following along.
"Maybe somepony should do a study on that," Apple Bloom suggested.
"Could you trust the results though? It being science and all, I mean?" Sweetie Belle asked.
"She actually kind of reminds me of your sister when she has a new fashion idea, with the prodding and the poking and the measuring," Scootaloo said.
"She does not do that!" Sweetie Belle protested, causing Scootaloo to stop and look at her. "Okay, maybe she does a little." Scootaloo's look continued. "Okay, a lot," Sweetie Belle conceded. Scootaloo grinned and started moving again. "Hmm... I bet other ponies probably think the same thing about us and our crusading ideas."
"Ah guess all ponies can get a bit silly when it is about something that gets them really excited," Apple Bloom said. "Why Ah bet— Oh wow."
All three crusaders stopped and gazed around the room they had just entered in wonder. Aquariums lined the walls, some built right into them. Near each one were several plaques. But what had the attention of the crusaders was the content of the tanks. Each teemed with brightly colored fish swimming amidst coral and seaweed, and several were the size of a full-grown manticore. The crusaders rushed from tank to tank, gawking at the spectacle.
Sea Swirl nodded knowingly. "Beautiful, aren't they? And these hardly do the reality justice. You should see some of the actual locations. Reefs going on for as far as the eye can see. I love the water and all things aquatic. I'm planning to open this place as an aquarium, once I have enough specimens and all my paperwork in order with city hall."
"An aquarium? Is that why you painted the outside of the house that way?" Sweetie Belle asked, tearing her eyes away from the aquariums.
"Oh, no. That's just because I find it pretty. Reminds me of the beach in Acucoltco. Spent a great summer there studying swordfish. Shame my neighbors don't agree though. They're all eyesore this and eyesore that. No eye for beauty in a single one of them."
"Well, I like it," Sweetie Belle said.
Sea Swirl smiled. "Of course you do. What's not to like? But my neighbors, they complain. It's what they seem to love doing most in life. Painting this, explosions that, don't hit stuff with hammers late at night. It never stops."
"Explosions?" Scootaloo asked.
"Oh yes. 'Your explosions are too loud,' they say. Ha! You try to get explosions to be quiet. I mean, you can ask them beforehand, 'Please be quiet,' but do they listen? Nope. Kaboom! As loud as they can be. Maybe even louder, just because you asked them to be quiet. Quite ornery, explosions. Let me tell you, if an explosion ever wants to blow you up, I advise you run away, fast as you can. Else you could get hurt, big time."
"But why are you blowing stuff up?"
"Ah, now that's a good question. And I've got a good answer. I study things underwater, see? Now, you might not know this, but underwater, if you go down far enough, it is dark. So how can I see where I'm going? No can do. But then I figured maybe I could hear where I was going instead." She gestured up to a red fruit bat than hung from a rafter. With a squeak, the bat flew down, making the crusaders jerk aside reflexively, and clung to Sea Swirl's neck. "It was actually Fruity that gave me the idea. Bats can fly safely in the dark because they use sound, use echoes, to know where things are. And I thought, 'That's a good idea, Sea Swirl. All you need is a very loud sound.' And so explosions.
"Didn't work so well though. Never did solve the hearing side of things. Tried out the sound generation system though. That's how I lost the Mark II. Good thing I tried it in shallow water, let me tell you. Otherwise I wouldn't be here and we wouldn't be taking the Mark V for a spin."
"Mark what now?" Apple Bloom asked.
Sea Swirl seemed to ignore the question as she pushed open a pair of double doors. The crusaders followed and found themselves in a barely lit room. There was something large in the middle of the room, but they couldn't make out what it was. Sea Swirl felt along the wall and flipped a large switch. Row by row, lights flickered to life in the ceiling.
The crusaders' jaws dropped open at the sight before them. Held up by thick chains from above and supported by large wooden blocks from underneath was a giant metallic fish shaped contraption. The light reflected off the grey metal hull, lined with brass and other metals, while crystal windows lined the side. A pair of larger windows were on the front, looking like eyes. Completing the fish look was the mouth-like opening beneath the 'eyes'.
"Behold, the Mark V," Sea Swirl said proudly. "Fins for stabilization and lateral movement. Tail fin for forward drive. The mouth contains the first functioning prototype of my FRUBAR device, that's short for Fruit Bat Acoustic Ranging device. The view ports are made from the strongest crystal, just picked them up from the Crystal Empire. He'll hold a crew of four, plus a fruit bat, and should have a safe diving depth of just under three hundred feet."
Sea Swirl looked over at the awestruck crusaders, grinning. "So, what do you think? Up for being his crew? Ready to take him for a spin?"
"You want us to crew him?" Sweetie Belle asked.
"Well, of course. That is why you are here, right?" Sea Swirl asked.
"Hold on just a second while we talk it over," Apple Bloom said.
The three crusaders huddled together. The fact that they were apparently not who Sea Swirl was expecting fought against the opportunity to try something brand new. The possibility that they might not be able to do what was expected against the certainty that they would not know for sure that they could not unless they tried. There was also the question of whether or not it was safe.
Sweetie Belle popped up out of the huddle. "Is it safe?" she asked.
"Oh, most certainly," Sea Swirl answered. "Well, as safe as any such venture can be. I mean, a few of the earlier Marks sank, but this one incorporates everything I've learned from the others. That's why I got the windows from the Crystal Empire. They are much stronger than the ones I used in the Mark IV. I certainly wouldn't be trying it if there wasn't at least an above seventy percent chance of not sinking."
Sweetie Belle nodded and ducked back into the huddle. The discussion continued, but the tide was turning in favor of going.
"What about the explosions?" Scootaloo asked.
"Explosion free since the Mark II. No, the FRUBAR system doesn't rely on blowing up a single thing. Instead, I've trained Fruity here" —she lovingly rubbed the side of the bat's head— "to emit sounds through a special microphone plate and listen through some hydrophones, my own invention, then signal the results with his wings."
Scootaloo nodded, looking slightly disappointed, and returned to the huddle. The thought of seeing things very few ponies had ever seen before was compelling, and how awesome of a story this would make for the paper? Most importantly of all, of course, was the possibility that this was the way to get their cutie marks. How often would they get a chance to try this sort of thing? One possible objection remained though.
Apple Bloom popped up. "How long will the trip take?" she asked, worried, as were the others, about having to explain a long absence to their families.
"Oh, this first trip is just a shakedown cruise. We'll follow the river to Deepbottom Lake, dive down, then return. So about three hours, barring a major storm leaving us stranded on a tropical island," Sea Swirl said. At the Scootaloo's worried expression, she continued, "That was just a joke. There's no tropical islands near here. Nope, we're far more likely to sink to the bottom, never to be seen again."
Apple Bloom ducked back into the huddle. The three fillies looked at each other, then nodded. They were in. The possibility that their cutie marks awaited below the surface of the water was too strong of a lure to ignore.
"We'll do it!" all three exclaimed.