//------------------------------// // The Dangerous Depths // Story: LEGO Equestria Girls 3 // by Chronicler06 //------------------------------// Chapter 6 The Dangerous Depths Deep beneath the waves of the open ocean, two small submarines descended down to the ruins of the Atlantis Region. It was a rather dark and dangerous place, with craggy structures that could easily trap a diver and inhabited by some of the most unusual sea creatures. Of course, there was also the one thing that brought both of these subs down to these ruins: a great hidden treasure, just waiting to be recovered. The first sub to arrive at the site was carrying four Shadowbolt agents. With Lemon Zest at the controls and Twilight Sparkle busy setting up some gadget that she claimed would help them find the treasure more easily, that left Sunny Flare and Sour Sweet as the ones who were putting on scuba suits and preparing to head out into the water. Although they had no idea why they were told to recover this treasure, they were nevertheless more than ready to carry out their orders. A little further behind was another sub, except this one was carrying all six members of Canterlot City’s LEGO Team. These girls were also here to retrieve the treasure, but it was with the intent that they keep it out of the hands of bad people like the Shadowbolts. But they also had to be careful to not let the people in that other sub know they were following, so they held back for now near the edge of the sunken ruins. Although there were six people on board this second sub, they had enough diving equipment for only three people, so it was soon agreed who would be suiting up to go diving outside. Well, mostly agreed. “Do I really have to do this?” asked Fluttershy uneasily as she looked at a scuba mask in her hands with uncertainty. Behind her, Rarity and Pinkie Pie were already attaching flippers to the bottom of their feet. In front of her, Applejack sat beside Rainbow Dash, who was lying on her back while breathing slowly through an oxygen mask she held over her face, while Sunset Shimmer remained seated in the pilot’s seat. “We don’t really have much of a choice,” Sunset pointed out. “Rainbow Dash is in no condition to go diving, I need to stay here and keep an eye on these systems, and Applejack, well…” She turned to the apple farmer and asked, “How many hours of diving experience do you have?” Applejack glanced at Sunset in confusion as she replied, “Uh… zero.” “My point exactly,” finished Sunset before returning her attention to the controls. Fluttershy let out a sigh of disappointment and mumbled, “Why me?” “Don’t feel so bad, darling,” assured Rarity as she put on a pair of oxygen tanks over her back and attached them around her neck. “Swimming around through an underwater environment can be quite enchanting.” “And scary,” added Fluttershy worriedly. “There’s no telling what kind of dangers might be waiting for us out there.” “Ya keep a pet shark, Fluttershy,” Applejack pointed out irritably. “How can ya be afraid of the ocean when ya ain’t even scared of one of the scariest things swimmin’ around out there?” “Bruce was raised in captivity,” stated Fluttershy. “He knows better than to hurt me, but I definitely can’t say the same for any wild sharks that might be out there.” “Maybe we can find some cute dolphins,” suggested Pinkie Pie as she placed a helmet over her head while keeping the diving mask flipped open so she could keep talking. “I’ve heard that they can actually scare off any sharks.” She suddenly pointed towards the nearest window and excitedly exclaimed, “Oh, look! There’s some dolphins right over there!” Everyone glanced in the direction Pinkie was pointing and, sure enough, they saw at least four dolphins were slowly swimming by near their sub. Fluttershy was especially intrigued by the sight of those aquatic creatures, and as she heard the occasional chirping noises they made, she began to smile. “Actually… I think I will go out into the water,” she said. “In fact…” Before she resumed putting on her diving suit, she reached into one of the boxes they had brought aboard and pulled out some device that she attached to her right wrist. “I think this would be a great opportunity to try this thing.” “What is it?” asked Rarity as she curiously glanced over at the gadget. “It’s a dolphin communicator,” answered Fluttershy. “It listens to the sonar noises dolphins make and translates it into understandable text. It also works the other way around. I can type a message into this thing and it turns it into a series of chirps and whistles that dolphins can understand.” “Wow, that’s really neat!” said Pinkie Pie excitedly. “Where did you even get such a device?” asked Sunset. “I… I honestly don’t know,” replied Fluttershy. “It just showed up on my doorstep one day with no return address on the package.” “That does sound kinda strange,” noted Applejack. She then shrugged and added, “But Ah don’t see anythin’ wrong with receivin’ somethin’ so useful.” “Agreed,” said Rarity with a nod. As she began to carefully fit her hair inside the helmet she was about to put on, she remarked, “Perhaps you could use that to ask the dolphins where the treasure might be located.” “Hey, that’s actually not a bad idea at all,” said Sunset with a smile. “There’s nothing like local knowledge to help you find what you’re looking for, and in a place like this, dolphins are pretty much our only option.” With an endorsement like that, Fluttershy agreed to finish suiting up for underwater exploration. Once she, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie were all set, they each stepped into separate airlocks and closed the inner hatch. As the chambers began to fill with seawater, they each flipped down their diving masks and began to breathe from their oxygen tanks. After a few minutes of waiting, the chambers were completely flooded and the three divers opened the outer hatch. Each of the three girls could only hear the light hissing of their breathing apparatuses as they slowly swam away from the sub and towards the nearby pod of dolphins. As the dolphins began chirping, Fluttershy swam ahead of her two friends and focused her attention on her dolphin communicator as a conversation between minifig and marine mammal began. What brings you to these waters? We are looking for the lost treasure of Atlantis. We need to find it before it gets taken away by the evil Shadowbolts. Yes, we know where that treasure is located. We can take you there, as long as you promise to not harm our habitat. Absolutely. I would never dare to do something so terrible. The dolphins chirped in approval and turned towards the ruins of Atlantis. Right behind them followed the three divers, each with a unique method of swimming. Rarity swam with a graceful breaststroke, Fluttershy held her legs together and moved them back and forth to swim almost like a dolphin herself, and Pinkie Pie somehow managed to keep up with a silly doggy paddle. As they followed their guides, they knew it would not be much longer before they would find the treasure. Inside the submarine piloted by the Shadowbolts, with Sunny Flare and Sour Sweet already fully suited up and ready to go, Twilight Sparkle was smiling as she read the messages on her special gadget. “Good thing I invented the dolphin communicator and anonymously sent one to Fluttershy,” she remarked. “Since sound waves travel more quickly through water than through air, that means I can easily eavesdrop on the conversation she just had with those dolphins.” “That sounds pretty neat!” praised Sour Sweet’s sweet face. Her head then spun around to her sour face and irritably asked, “But how is that gonna help us?” “Just follow the dolphins,” replied Twilight. “According to these translations, they know exactly where to find the treasure and are already leading the LEGO Team right to it.” “Sounds simple enough,” acknowledged Sunny Flare. “Let’s go, Sour Sweet.” As the two Shadowbolt agents entered the airlocks, Twilight quickly added, “Try not to make too much movement. Dolphins can echolocate.” The two divers nodded in acknowledgement before they shut the inner hatch of their respective chambers and flipped down their diving masks. They waited for the chambers to fill with seawater, then opened the outer hatch. They swam around to the front of the sub and grabbed a pair of motorized propellers before swimming towards where they had last seen those dolphins. The two Shadowbolt divers stayed close to the seafloor and swam slowly from one piece of ruin to another. It wasn’t long until they found that pod of dolphins and the three LEGO Team divers in the middle of what was left of a great temple. At the ruined temple, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy pushed aside some light grey Lego bricks that were in a pile until they uncovered three large treasure chests. Now that the treasure had been located, Fluttershy thanked the dolphins through her communicator. The dolphins chirped in gratitude and the whole pod began to swim away. Not far away, the two Shadowbolt agents held their ground until the dolphins were gone. Now that the risk of being detected had been significantly reduced, they carefully began to move in. As they slowly approached the temple ruins, the three LEGO Team divers were too occupied with pulling those chests out of the rubble to notice they were not alone. By the time all three chests were completely free, the two Shadowbolts were right behind them, and immediately made their strike. Sunny Flare grabbed Fluttershy from behind and tossed her aside, while Sour Sweet did the same for Pinkie Pie. Rarity’s eyes widened as she realized she and her teammates were being ambushed, but had no time to react before Sunny punched her in the abdomen and tossed her aside as well. The two Shadowbolt agents quickly went to work grabbing various bricks from the surrounding ruins and putting them together to hold the three large chests together. As they worked, their enemies tried to stop them, but they managed to keep holding them off. Sunny Flare kicked Fluttershy in the chest, Sour Sweet spun Pinkie Pie around and around and leaving her highly disoriented before kicking her away, and Sunny Flare flipped Rarity upside down before slamming her down against the floor of the ruined temple. Once the Shadowbolts completed their crude bracket around the chests, they attached the two motors on opposite ends and aimed the propellers downward. The small propellers weren’t powerful enough to raise the chests, but they did provide enough downward thrust to lighten them enough that the two minifigs could easily lift it up and push it along with them as they swam back to their sub. The two Shadowbolts were so focused on completing their objective that they failed to notice Pinkie Pie drifting close to them and, as they swam past her, one of the propellers sliced right through her scuba suit’s air supply. As all that air began to rapidly escape in a column of large bubbles from the back of her neck, Pinkie immediately grasped the air tubes around her neck and thrashed around in panic. The eyes of both Rarity and Fluttershy widened in shock when they saw their friend was suddenly in dire threat of drowning. Rarity moved first by rushing over to her helpless friend and pulling out her grapple gun. Ironically, Rarity had seen no reason to bring these along while it was Pinkie Pie who insisted that all three of them have one. As Pinkie’s wild movements began to slow down, Rarity wrapped her left arm around Pinkie, while she used her right arm to aim the grapple gun at their team’s sub and fired it. The grappling hook took a few seconds to shoot through the water, but it did manage to latch onto the sub. With no time to lose, Rarity immediately began to reel in the grappling hook, causing her and Pinkie to be quickly pulled towards the sub. Fluttershy had been frozen in shock during the ordeal. As she finally came back to her senses, she quickly felt a wide range of emotions. The first was obviously fear and worry of Pinkie’s life hanging in the balance. The second was relief that Rarity had managed to move as quickly as possible to save their friend. The third was concern that, despite her best efforts, Rarity might already be too late to help Pinkie. As Fluttershy turned her attention towards the two Shadowbolts fleeing with the treasure, she felt another emotion: anger. She was angry. She was furious. She was enraged. How dare they severely harm her friend at a moment when she was so helpless! Without any consideration for the consequences, she immediately picked up an old trident on the floor of the ruined temple and quickly swam after the Shadowbolts. Meanwhile, Sunny Flare and Sour Sweet hauled the treasure chests onto the storage rack just under the sub’s front window. Once they were sure the cargo was properly secured, they swam around to the airlocks and closed the outer hatch. Now all they had to do was to wait for the water to drain from those chambers before they could reenter the sub, then they just had to return to the vessel and bring the treasure home to complete their mission. However, as the airlocks were almost completely drained, Lemon Zest noticed something in the water outside. It was another diver heading right towards them, and as the Shadowbolt pilot looked more closely, the look on this diver’s eyes was definitely not something one would want to see underwater. “Rogue diver!” shouted Lemon Zest in panic. “Incoming rogue diver!” It was right at that moment that the inner hatch of the airlocks opened, and as Sunny Flare and Sour Sweet stepped back inside, Twilight walked over to Lemon Zest. “Rogue diver?” asked Twilight in confusion. “What do you mean by that?” “I mean that!” exclaimed Lemon as she pointed at the incoming diver. Outside, Fluttershy felt nothing but pure, unfiltered rage as she swam towards the Shadowbolts’ submarine. She didn’t care about what she was about to do or the morality of her actions or even her own safety. All she cared about was making them pay for what they did. As soon as she arrived at the sub, she immediately started beating the shaft of the trident against the hull. By the time she moved over to the top of the sub, she also used the prongs of that trident to pry off individual parts and pieces, fully intending to tear apart this vehicle piece by piece. They had seriously harmed her friend, so now she was going to seriously harm them! Inside the sub, the constant banging and scraping made all four minifigs aboard very concerned. Twilight quickly turned to Sunny and Sour and exclaimed in panic, “Keep your suits on and help me find some spare oxygen tanks!” As she and her teammates began to quickly search through their supplies, she muttered, “I do not intend to lose my Creation Spark at the bottom of the ocean!” Meanwhile, Rarity had finally returned to her team’s submarine with Pinkie Pie in her grasp. By now, Pinkie was no longer moving and had fallen completely limp, but Rarity refused to give up on her. She quickly swam over to one of the airlocks, threw open the outer hatch, then tossed Pinkie inside before slamming the hatch shut. Inside the sub, Sunset Shimmer, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash had all seen Rarity rush back towards them with Pinkie in her arms and they knew right away that something really bad had just happened. As soon as Pinkie was inside the airlock, Applejack immediately tried to open the inner hatch, despite the fact that chamber was still full of seawater. The door groaned as the apple farmer struggled to turn the wheel to open that hatch. Her mighty strength eventually won out and she pulled the hatch open, flooding the interior of the sub with a few inches of seawater. Pinkie Pie’s motionless body flopped out of the chamber and came to rest on her back on the floor of the sub. Applejack quickly removed her diving mask and helmet and was horrified to see no response at all on her friend’s face. Without any hesitation, Applejack quickly began compressing Pinkie’s chest repeatedly in an effort to get her breathing again. “C’mon, Pinkie!” Applejack muttered desperately. “C’mon!” After nearly a dozen quick and hard pushes, the pink party girl still gave no response. “Dang it, Pinkie! Don’t give up on us!” shouted Applejack as she began to roughly beat on Pinkie’s chest. She pounded so hard that Pinkie’s body actually bounced a bit with each impact. With Applejack doing her absolute best, the others couldn’t do anything but watch helplessly. Sunset Shimmer lowered her head in sadness, convinced that they were too late to save their friend. Rarity watched from outside through the front window, wondering if there was anything she could have done differently to have given Pinkie any chance of survival. And Rainbow Dash sat up and removed her oxygen mask, knowing that her recent ordeal with tear gas paled in comparison to what had just befallen one of her closest friends. When Applejack pounded Pinkie’s chest for the seventh time, two very unexpected things happened at the same time. Pinkie Pie lurched forward and let out a loud cough, while Applejack suddenly found herself slapped in the face by a big fish. “The heck?” asked Applejack in confusion as she removed the live fish from her face and held it up by its tail. Miraculously, Pinkie Pie was sitting up and rubbing her throat as she looked at the fish in Applejack’s hand. “Wow,” she remarked hoarsely. “Good thing that fish got stuck in my throat. Otherwise I might’ve drowned!” Applejack was left dumbfounded as she glanced back and forth between the flopping fish in her hand and the revived Pinkie Pie in front of her. Eventually, without saying a word, she just smiled and rolled her eyes as she tossed the fish behind her back. Even with her life in jeopardy, Pinkie still had moments where she was just being Pinkie, though that didn’t diminish just how relieved Applejack was that she was okay. And based on the looks of the others, it seemed that everyone else shared that same thought. Sunset turned around and smiled at Rarity, silently thanking her for bringing Pinkie back to the sub as quickly as possible. Rarity responded with a single nod. Sunset thought about just how fortunate they all were that nobody had been seriously hurt, but then her smile faded when she realized that not everyone was accounted for. Where’s Fluttershy? she thought as she gazed around over the surrounding ruins. When her eyes fell on the other sub in the distance, her eyes suddenly widened in shock. Not only was Fluttershy near the Shadowbolts’ sub, but she was also beating on it with some kind of weapon. Knowing right away just how badly that could end, Sunset turned back to Rarity outside and banged on the window as she desperately shouted, “Stop Fluttershy! Stop Fluttershy!” Rarity was confused by Sunset’s demand, but it was at least loud enough for her to barely understand it through the surrounding water, so she turned back to look in the direction Sunset was gesturing. As soon as she realized what was going on at the Shadowbolts’ submarine, her eyes widened in shock. Once again, she knew she had no time to lose and immediately began swimming towards Fluttershy and the enemy sub. After a few seconds, she decided to speed up her journey by pulling out her grapple gun again and firing it at a piece of ruin near that other sub, then rapidly winched herself towards it. Back at the LEGO Team’s sub, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie crowded around Sunset near the front window. They all felt very concerned as they watched Rarity go after Fluttershy, who was savagely attacking their opponent’s submarine. Rainbow Dash, with her voice still a bit more raspy than usual, simply said, “I don’t know what’s scarier underwater: a shark or an angry Fluttershy.” Fluttershy was beyond angry as she continued beating on the enemy’s submarine. She had already pounded a few dents in the top of the hull and torn off some exterior parts and showed no signs of stopping. She was so blinded by rage that she failed to notice the arrival of another diver. Rarity swam frantically towards the Shadowbolts’ sub. By the time she arrived, Fluttershy had moved forward along the top of the sub and started pounding that trident near the main window on the front. She beat the shaft of it against the glass a few times until she put a large crack in it, but that was the last piece of damage she managed to make before Rarity suddenly dropped down in front of her and shook her violently. Fluttershy tried to resist, but Rarity grabbed her by her head and forced them to stare each other in the eye. Fluttershy was forced to stare into those desperate and pleading eyes and soon managed to snap out of it. As she finally began to relax, she continued to stare at Rarity, then glanced behind her towards their team’s sub in the distance — and saw a bit of pink in the window that could only come from Pinkie Pie — and then she glanced around at the damage she had done to the Shadowbolts’ sub. When her eyes fell on the trident, she quickly cast it aside. With her rampage now over, Fluttershy turned her head down in shame. Rarity placed a hand under Fluttershy’s chin and lifted her face up so they were looking each other in the eye again. Once the now sad eyes of Fluttershy were directed at her, she gave her a single nod, silently assuring her that everything was okay. Fluttershy remained still for a few seconds before she embraced her friend in a hug, which Rarity gladly returned. Inside that sub, the four Shadowbolt agents stood completely still as they realized all the horrifying banging and scraping had ceased. “She stopped?” asked Sunny Flare in confusion. With no way to look outside at the top of the sub, they had no way of knowing what was going on out there. Twilight glanced over at the front window and immediately noticed that big crack near the top. It may not have seemed like much on such a massive window, but considering the surrounding water pressure at these depths, even a small crack could cascade into a catastrophic failure. “This is getting way too dangerous,” muttered Twilight worriedly. She then suddenly rushed toward the front of the sub and declared, “I’m pulling the plug on this operation.” She ignored Lemon Zest’s protest as she flipped a lever that dumped the treasure chests on the front rack. Outside, Rarity and Fluttershy heard a faint mechanical whirring noise. They glanced over the front window and saw the storage rack tilting downward until all three treasure chests tumbled off and down to the seafloor below. They glanced at each other for a moment before they both pushed off from the sub and swam down to go after the treasure. Inside the sub, the three other Shadowbolt agents could hardly believe what Twilight had just done. “What was that for?!” Lemon Zest shouted furiously. “This sub’s taken too much damage, and we need to return to the surface before it implodes!” Twilight frantically explained as she rummaged through some of her gadgets. “Dumping the treasure should distract the Canterlot girls long enough to let us make a quick and safe escape.” “Yeah, I can see what you mean,” agreed Sour Sweet’s sweet face. But then she switched to her sour face and furiously exclaimed, “Except our primary objective was to leave with the treasure!” “Yes, I know,” acknowledged Twilight as she continued rummaging. “But there comes a point where you need to just cut your losses and go home. And with damage like that…” Twilight pointed at the cracked front window. “…we have definitely reached that point.” Sunny Flare sighed and shook her head. “Miss Cinch is not going to be happy when she finds out,” she stated. Twilight grabbed a gadget that resembled a translucent red 1x1 round plate as she said, “I don’t know about you, but I’d rather keep my Creation Spark.” She then added under her breath, “It’s not like I have any friends worth sacrificing it for.” As she made some final adjustments to the gadget, she continued “Besides, I prepared a backup plan in case something went wrong down here. Indigo Zap and Sugarcoat are still on the vessel, so they can bring us back aboard if we need to make an emergency ascent — which we certainly do right now. That way, we can take control of the vessel and leave without the other sub, leaving the Canterlot LEGO Team stranded at sea.” “And how can you be sure they won’t follow us?” asked Sunny Flare. “With this tracking device!” answered Twilight with a smile as she held up the completed gadget. As she then walked over to the port side torpedo tube, she continued, “I’ve read the official Shadowbolts report regarding the events of when the Dazzlings had attempted to take over the world, and I’m not gonna repeat the same mistake they made by letting the enemy go with no way to know where they are.” She removed the torpedo and began to modify it. “Of course, I need to somehow plant the tracking device onto their sub without any of them realizing it. My solution is to disarm this torpedo, place the tracing device on the end of it, then fire it at them. They’ll just assume they got hit with a dud and think nothing more of it.” The other Shadowbolt agents stared silently at Twilight. After a brief moment, Sour Sweet switched to her sweet face and praised, “That’s good thinking, Twilight. That’s some really good thinking!” Sunny Flare had to admit that it really was quite an ingenious plan. “How long should this take?” she asked. Twilight attached the tracking device onto the end of the modified torpedo and contently stated, “Done!” She then reinserted it into the port side torpedo tube and turned to Lemon Zest. “Okay, Lemon Zest,” she carefully explained, “I need you to aim for the bottom hull of the other sub and fire the port side torpedo — I repeat: port side torpedo.” Lemon gave Twilight a nod of acknowledgement before turning her attention to the controls. She let out a sinister chuckle as she carefully aimed the sub in the right direction. Finally, once she was on target, she shouted, “Torpedo away!” She hit the red button on the left, firing the port side torpedo and its modified payload. Just under the Shadowbolts’ sub, Rarity and Fluttershy had just finished making sure all three treasure chests were undamaged when they suddenly heard a loud rush of water above. They both looked up and were very shocked to see that a torpedo had just been fired directly at their team’s sub. The four girls inside the LEGO Team sub had seen Rarity calm down Fluttershy, much to everyone’s relief. Then they were astonished to see the Shadowbolts had simply dumped the treasure they were after. Whatever the reason for that, they were at least glad to see Rarity and Fluttershy quickly swim down to where in had landed. But then came something that absolutely terrified them all: the Shadowbolts had just fired a torpedo right at them! “Torpedo!” screamed Sunset Shimmer, followed by the panicked screams of all four girls as they immediately rushed towards the back of the sub. That torpedo was only seconds away from impact, and there was no guarantee that any of them would survive. Dong… All four girls had huddled near the damp floor, fully expecting the inevitable. But there was no massive explosion. There was no hull breach with tons of water gushing inside. In fact, as everyone slowly opened their eyes and uncovered their ears, they realized that nothing had apparently changed and all systems seemed to still be functioning just fine. They all slowly got up and looked around, hardly believing what they thought was an incredible stroke of good luck. “Huh, what do ya know? It was just a dud,” remarked Applejack. “Ha!” shouted Rainbow Dash triumphantly. She rushed back to the front of the sub and pointed out the front window as she taunted, “Nice try, Shadowbolts! You’re gonna have to do better than that!” Twilight gazed down at a small signal receiver in her hand. After a few seconds of watching the information on the screen, she smiled. “The tracking device has been successfully planted on their submarine, and the signal is coming in perfectly clear,” she contently announced. “Job well done, Twilight,” commended Sunny Flare. “Yeah, nice work,” agreed Sour Sweet. She then switched to her sour face and added, “At least we got some success on this total failure of a mission.” Before any of the four Shadowbolts could make any further comments, a low groaning noise began to echo all around them. They had momentarily forgotten that their submarine was still damaged, and the surrounding water pressure at these depths meant there was a chance it would get only worse. BANG! All four girls yelped and flinched as the whole sub suddenly jolted. As they all quickly glanced around, they were relieved to not hear any running water that would indicate a hull breach, but when their eyes fell on the front window, they were all shocked into silence. The small crack near the top had now suddenly expanded into a massive spider web system, as if the window had just been impacted by a large object. “We gotta get outta here now!” Twilight quickly noted. “Yeah, no kidding,” acknowledged Lemon Zest as she grasped the controls and immediately began to pilot the crippled sub back up to the surface. “Hey, look! They’re leaving!” Pinkie Pie pointed out as she and the others watched the Shadowbolts’ submarine turn away and begin ascending to the surface. “Yeah! That’s right! Run away!” gloated Rainbow Dash with a huge grin on her face. “You know you can’t beat us, so just give and go home! Which, by the way, is exactly what you’re doing right now, so in your face!” “Quit yer gloatin’ Rainbow,” Applejack spoke up. “We still gotta grab that treasure before we can call this mission accomplished.” “Right you are,” acknowledged Sunset. She grabbed the controls and began to pilot the submarine downward. “I’ll bring us closer to Rarity and Fluttershy so they can load up the treasure more easily.” Down on the seafloor, Rarity was holding up some bricks that used to be part of the bracket that had held the three treasure chests together. She had intended to rebuild that bracket for the sake of convenience, but was confused as she failed to visualize a creation like she always did. When she felt a hand on her shoulder, Rarity glanced over at Fluttershy and saw the sad look in her eyes. It didn’t take long for the fashionista to understand what her friend was trying to convey to her. She had just recently lost her Equestrian magic back aboard the vessel, which also meant that she was no longer a Master Builder. It was a truly devastating loss, to say the least. The arrival of their team’s submarine reminded Rarity that they still had a mission to finish. Without that bracket, she and Fluttershy silently agreed to simply haul the three separate chests onto the cargo rack on the front of the sub. It was going to be more time-consuming, but at least now they didn’t have to worry about any more interference from the Shadowbolts. The Shadowbolt’s submarine resurfaced next to the Deep Sea Explorer. Just seconds later, the crane swung over, latched onto the sub, and lifted it out of the water and up onto the main deck. Right at the exact moment the sub touched down on the deck, the front window completely shattered, bits of broken glass falling into a pile on the deck just in front of the parked submarine. Inside the sub, Twilight breathed a sigh of relief and remarked, “And not a moment too soon.” With the front window now completely open, the four girls inside decided to simply step through it rather than go up the hatch and over the side. As they gathered in the middle of the main deck, they were soon joined by their two remaining teammates, Indigo Zap and Sugarcoat. Twilight turned to the two Shadowbolts who had remained on the vessel and asked, “What’s the status up here?” “The whole crew’s been rounded up and locked inside the brig,” Indigo proudly stated as she rested her laser blaster on her shoulder. “The ship is all ours.” “Nice work,” commended Twilight with a smile. “We’ve placed a tracking device on the LEGO Team’s submersible, so now we can just take this vessel and leave without them, all while keeping track of where they might go next.” Sugarcoat glanced over at the parked sub, then turned to Twilight and stated, “You didn’t return with the treasure.” Twilight sighed and confessed, “No, we had to dump it on account of needing to make an emergency ascent.” She gestured towards the broken bits of glass under where the front window used to be. Sugarcoat raised an eyebrow. “How did you manage to take on that much damage?” she asked. Sunny Flare stepped forward and replied, “Let’s just say we’ve all learned a valuable lesson regarding… certain people: Don’t make them angry. You won’t like them when they’re angry.” “So who did all this?” asked Indigo as she eyed some of the other damages to the sub. “I bet it was one of those tough girls.” Twilight answered, “Based on the Creative Mark shown on her diving suit… it was Fluttershy.” Indigo was left speechless as she glanced back and forth between the destroyed submarine and the four Shadowbolt agents who had been inside it. She eventually managed to say in disbelief, “Fluttershy did this?!” “I know!” added Lemon Zest. “I was totally surprised, too!” “Let’s save our thoughts and reactions for our post-mission reports,” stated Sugarcoat. “Seeing as there’s no way we can take the treasure away from those Canterlot girls, leaving them stranded in the middle of the ocean will have to do as the next best thing.” “I’ll take the bridge,” said Twilight as she made her way over to the stairs towards the front of the vessel. “The rest of you are free to do whatever you want until we return to Baltimare.” As Twilight left, the remaining five Shadowbolt agents simply remained standing on the main deck and glanced at one another, unsure of what to say. Without the treasure of Atlantis, this mission was not a success, but with the Canterlot LEGO Team about to be left behind, this mission would also not be a complete failure, either. It was a rather peculiar position to find themselves in, as they had no idea how Cinch would react to such a mixed result. Back under the sea, Rarity and Fluttershy finished securing the last of the treasure chests to their team’s submarine. With that task complete, there was nothing left for them to do out in the water, so they returned to the airlocks and shut the outer hatch for their respective chambers. After waiting a few minutes for the chambers to completely drain, they both opened the inner hatch and rejoined their friends inside the sub. Rarity removed her diving mask and remarked, “I must say, darling, this deep sea dive was quite the experience. I’m not sure if I would call it outright traumatizing, but it will certainly be rather memorable.” “I would rather forget this whole dive,” muttered Fluttershy sadly after removing her diving mask. She then turned to Pinkie Pie and smiled. “I’m just glad Pinkie’s okay.” “Yeah, so am I,” agreed Pinkie. “Well, I guess that’s mission accomplished,” Sunset happily declared. “Let’s return to the Deep Sea Explorer and head home.” All of her friends voiced their agreement as Sunset handled the controls to pilot the submarine back up to the surface. A few minutes later, the sub resurfaced next to the vessel. They all waited a moment to be pulled back aboard, but no sign of such movement ever came. Figuring that the crew had simply not noticed their return, Sunset grabbed the radio and spoke into it, “Deep Sea Explorer, this is one of your submarines. We’re ready to be brought back aboard.” Everyone waited for a response, but all they heard was some faint static. Sunset returned the radio to her mouth. “Deep Sea Explorer, this is one of your submarines. We have just resurfaced and are waiting for you to pull us out of the water.” Again, everyone waited for a response. At first, all they heard was the usual faint static. Eventually, they got a response, but it was nothing like they had ever expected. “Sorry, girls, but this ship is now under Shadowbolt control,” said the voice of Twilight Sparkle over that radio. Everyone inside that submarine was suddenly left completely speechless. Even though they had seen the Shadowbolts flee, it had never occurred to any of them that those agents would instead try to take over the vessel and thus deny them any chance of returning to port. The fact that they received word of this devastating news from the smug voice of Twilight Sparkle left them especially crushed. “Goodbye!” finished Twilight cheerfully as the vessel began to leave the site. “Have a nice day!”