//------------------------------// // Part 4: The Journey Begins.... // Story: Going Deep Under // by The Bricklayer //------------------------------// Exactly thirty or so odd minutes before... Twilight Sparkle had to admit she was giggling like a little schoolfilly on her first day of class as she entered a doorway that led to the interior of the fine submarine known as the Moby Dick. She was completely in a state of ectasty and excitement. These first few steps, they weren't just the first few steps inside the Moby Dick, they were the first few steps to seeing if all the research she'd done in her life long dream was really worth it. She clasped her father's old journal tightly with one of her hooves and whispered "Don't worry daddy, I'll make you proud... I promise. We'll show everypony." Twilight knew it wasn't exactly logical and perhaps just a teensy bit crazy, but having her father's journal? It made her feel as if he was going to be right there beside her on this journey into the depths the whole time. All around her, she wasn't the only pony in a state of excitement, which you could almost feel building in the air. Ponies rushed by her, with one brown coated and white maned mare with a silver wrench for a Cutie Mark knocking her into to the bulkheads by pure accident. "Hey, if you're going to be bloody standing around in awe of this place at least do it somewhere out of my way, you git!" The pony snapped rudely as Twilight tried to stutter out a apology. "S-Sorry, but I... I... w-wasn't in y-your way!" She stammered as Silver Spanner scoffed. "Yeah right..." She muttered as she trotted off her hooves clanking on the metal floor beneath her and Twilight distinctly caught a almost inaudible "Plonker..." from the mare. She was then helped up by Sudoku who's eyes seemed to be smiling kindly from behind his glasses. "Sorry about her. She's... She's got a reason for acting the way she does." Sudoku apologized and Twilight raised a eyebrow in a inquiring manner. "Not my place to say. Doctor-Patient confidentiality, you know." Sudoku replied before Twilight could even ask. Twilight, due to her naturally inquisitive nature wanted to press Sudoku further and perhaps get some answers, but she understood that there was some things that were kept private for a reason. "No reason to be a jerk about it though..." The same orange coated pegasus mare from before, who Twilight now realized had a brown mane and tail with a feather for a Cutie Mark muttered/mumbled to herself as she walked by down a corridor with a sign in the wall reading "Crew Quarters" and a red arrow below that on it. Sudoku gestured after the mare, who Twilight would later learn to be named "Solar Blitz". "Come on, we better get settled in before the off." He said and walked after her with Twilight following... The Moby Dick: Crew Quarters "You gotta be kidding me..." Was Twilight's only thought when she saw where she along with the majority of the ship's population would be sleeping. The beds, if you dared describe them as such, were tiny bunks, with ponies sleeping atop each other. "Well, tiny beds are better then no beds, I guess." She thought before she chose a random bed and laid herself on it, but almost immediately felt something under the sheets. Quickly getting off the bed, she tossed the sheets and pillows only to find a collection of gold coins beneath them. "Hey hey, get away from that!" A white coated stallion with a pure black mane and a bag of gold coins spilling out as his Cutie Mark almost at once rushed in and pulled her away. "You know that's all I have left to my name right?" He demanded and gathered up the coins only to put them in a bag which he quickly hid away somewhere in his coat before rushing out of the room and past Grape Vine who could only groan to himself as he saw the stallion. "Oh no... Don't tell me HE's on this trip too..." Grape sighed mentally to himself as he rubbed his temples before entering and looking at Twilight with a raised eyebrow. "Messed with the coins huh?" He asked and Twilight nodded weakly, still confused on what just happened. "W-What's his story?" Twilight stammered nervously as Grape climbed up to the bunk above the pony's Twilight had just met. "I asked, found out I didn't want to know, and now I'm telling you that you don't want to know." Grape sighed wearily, and Twilight got the message as she chose the bed on the opposite side of the room and stuffed her dad's journal under her pillow. "Hey, look at the bright side. At least you don't have to sleep above him." Grape muttered before he finally formally introduced himself. "Grape Vine." He said politely and Twilight observed the grape furred pony with a brown mane and glasses similar to hers along with a sextant for a Cutie Mark adjust his pillow, and she smiled before giving out her own name. "Twilight Sparkle." Grape then noticed the set of bunks next to Twilight's and he noticed the name assigned to the bottom bunk. In a plaque, it read in bronze letters: "Lightning Dust". Grape's scream of terror could be heard throughout the corridors of the submarine. As she loaded away weapons in a storage locker, (Honestly, she thought, who brought flamethrowers on a deep sea voyage?) Lightning Dust smirked. She wondered when that poor pony would find out they shared the same quarters. Now: The Moby Dick: Bridge "Mr Gallants... Are all the final preparations done?" Rainbow Blaze ordered with authority echoing in his tone. The griffin nodded as he responded "Checking now sir." and saluted. Then, with one of his two front claws, Gallants pushed forwards a lever on a control panel directly in front of him as he spoke into a nearby intercomm. "Ms. Spanner, are the engines all set for the voyage?" He inquired and a female Trottingham accented voice crackled back through the speakers. "Yeah, course they are, you prat." Silver responded with a annoyed tone in her voice as she pushed power to the engines down in the boiler room and then wiped away a brow of sweat from her muzzle with a dirty rag covered in oil before she continued with a "These babies can take anything the Seven Seas can give out, I designed them after all." with that same arrogant, cocky tone back in full swing. "They'd better..." Rainbow Blaze murmured in a low tone to himself as he took a glance towards a model of the former USS Barracuda on one side of the room. On his flank, his speargun Cutie Mark looked practically menacing as Fancy, from his seat, had his gaze turning from the waters in front of them to it. In his mind, he was praying the Kraken didn't return at some point, otherwise he didn't know what would happen if it did and what his old friend might do. Dear Celestia, I hope to Faust that young Grape Vine's theory is right about that foul beast being dead." He mused. Obsession was a truly dangerous thing, and in a captain even more so. "Okay, reading power to the left thruster across all boards. They're all green Captain." A silver maned pegasus pony with a grey coat spoke up from her console. Nearby, a black mare with a scar across her face and a earring in one of her ears exclaimed "Same here with the right thruster!" Rainbow Blaze smiled to himself before saying "Okay then. Mr Gallants... Take us out." The griffin grinned as he switched on a recording crystal and Cab Calloway's "Minnie the Moocher" began to play even as he applied full power to both the thrusters on the rear of the submarine and it lurched forwards. The journey to find the long lost city of Neighlantis had finally begun, and nothing it seemed could stop it now. Back in the Crew Quarters Twilight, in her bunk, felt the distinct whir of the engines coming to life and the thrusting towards of the Moby Dick as it cut into the waters of Manehatten's East River. In her mind, she felt as if she were in one of her favorite books she'd read as a little filly, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by the truly great author Jules Verne. Even now, so early in this journey she could understand the wonder Professor Pierre felt even as he had been held captive by the mad Captain Nemo. She smiled, and Grape Vine noticed. "What is it?" He asked curiously. "Nothing... It's just..." Twilight trailed off and Grape almost immediately understood. "The wonders of the waves and whatever lies beneath?" He asked as Twilight beamed and replied "Yeah...", still in a soft tone of wonderment. "This ship..." Twilight trailed off as she felt it glide through the waves. Outside a small porthole, angelfish swam by in schools their bright coloring visible even in the River's murky waters. "Almost feels as if nothing can stop it. That it's unsinkable. ...Though I guess since we're underwater, we're already sinking so to speak." She said, quickly correcting herself. "Please don't call anything unsinkable. I was on a certain ship as a little colt, they called that unsinkable, ended up in a lifeboat in the middle of the freezing night." Sudoku said suddenly as he trotted inside the room. "O-Oh... Sorry." Twilight apologized with a wince and a blush. Sudoku shrugged it off. "Eh, don't be. It was there I met my future wife." Sudoku said lovingly as Grape listened with interest. "Wow, first the Titantic and then five weeks over Africa? You two sure lead a life full of adventure together don't you?" Grape commented on a admiring tone before he became curious about Sudoku's presence. "What are you doing here anyways?" He inquired. Sudoku's answer stunned him and Twilight both. "It's the Captain. He wants to see Ms. Twilight in his quarters." Sudoku replied and both ponies shared a look of wide eyed bewilderment...