Going Deep Under

by The Bricklayer

Part 9: A Little Slice of Paradise

Rainbow Blaze, as he leaned back in his chair actually smiled. That little plan Lightning Dust had cooked up had actually succeeded in bringing up crew morale. He had to admit, he never thought it would actually work, or that Lightning Dust could actually sing a note. But sing she did, and sing her heart out. Nor did he actually expect himself to actually enjoy the song and loosen himself up a bit. Privately, Rainbow Blaze had mixed feelings about this. A captain of any sort of ship was supposed to be stern and hard-assed on his crew, and now here he was putting on karaoke nights for his crew. Of course, on the other hoof, if it kept them happy and from rebelling against him, all was well in his world.

"Now, I've called you all here for a reason." Rainbow informed, and at once whispering broke out among the assembled crew. Whatever could that reason be? Was it something bad, or was it something good? Ignoring the whispers, the Captain continued.

"I've been... informed by a source who wants to be kept anonymous that crew morale is... dropping. So, I've organized a few things for this week to keep everypony happy and let them unwind for a little while."

"...And here I thought he was heartless." Silver Spanner dryly stated.

Ignoring her remark, Rainbow moved out of the way to let Lightning Dust (Who tossed a surprised Grape Vine a wink, and he at once knew who this "Anonymous" source was.) step up to the mic.

"Now this is a song I heard a while back and to be honest, it actually reminds me of a story I was told only yesterday by a dear friend of mine about somepony he'd left behind, and I want to sing this little number just to cheer him up a bit." Lightning stated, and pressed a recording crystal on one of the control panels and at once big brass band music began to play. Lightning threw a pink feather boa around herself and began to sing.

She sung of a country guy who hadn't seen a lot, but as soon as somepony came along, their heart went pop. Grape felt the emotion and passion in the song, and he felt every memory of the time he had spent with Trixie, including their last day (And night) together come back to him in a flash. Lightning, as the music swung sang "Of my bad, bad Angel who put the Devil in me..." and Grape along with the rest of the assembled crew (Even Rainbow Blaze was nodding his head back and forth and shuffling his hooves as he danced with Solar Blitz. Nearby, the Blast Sisters both grabbed Mister Gallants and, one after the other, kissed him passionately, much to his shock and surprise.) bobbed their heads along to the beat. Suddenly he felt a hoof taking one of his own.

"W-Want to dance?" Twilight asked nervously, as if she had never done this before, which was probably true. Grape could only laugh and say "Sure, but just to let you know, I'm spoken for!" and Twilight laughed along with him as they took up the dance...

Privately, he did wonder where Lightning actually got the feathers for her boa. He severely hoped she hadn't just gone around plucking feathers from the Griffin and Pegasi members of the crew when their backs were turned. Just to be on the safe side, the Captain of the Moby Dick turned his head to one of his wings, and sure enough some of his feathers had gone missing. He growled and thought one single thing to himself.

"I'm going to kill her."

Rainbow then sighed to himself, no use getting all worked up over one tiny thing. After all, Lightning's reasoning behind going on her feather stealing spree was for a good purpose, and he couldn't fault him for that. Tartarus, he had to give her due credit for nabbing some of his feathers when he wasn't looking, like some sort of ancient Neighponese ninja or something. Rainbow chuckled at the image in his mind, of a Lightning Dust covered head to hoof in black ninja garb plucking feathers from his back and then vanishing in poofs of smoke. At least it wasn't the worst or downright strangest thing one of his crew had done. He sighed in resignation as he remembered one of the Blast Sisters tricking Twilight Sparkle into thinking she had drunk nitroglycerin a few days ago.

The Moby Dick's Mess Hall, a few days before...

Twilight smiled as she played a game of chess with Spent Thrift. She had just taken one of the older pony's Rooks, causing her to throw her two front forelegs up in the air and shout in triumph causing everypony else in the Mess Hall to stare at her, except for Bulk Biceps, who shouted "YEAH!" in return. It was an evenly matched game, and that was just the way Twilight liked it. She was happy, if not a bit surprised. Back at the Manehatten University, nopony had ever been able to beat her at her favorite game, except for that exceptional oddity of a stallion that taught science and who called himself Time Turner, who claimed he had played many games of "Live Chess", whatever that meant. He'd also claimed he'd traveled in time and space, but Twilight had laughed that off as impossible. Nopony in this day and age had that capability, and that wasn't speaking of the risks of ripping a hole in the continuum and the possible paradoxes that could possibly result. But Time Turner had just laughed his head off and winked at her before saying "Allons-Y, Twilight, Allons-Y. Merde, you ponies can be so simple minded." He then gave Twilight a long sad look, almost as if he hadn't seen her in a very long while before walking off leaving the eighteen year old very confused indeed.

"So, you took my Rook Sparkle, impressive." Spent mused as he thought over his next move and rubbed his chin with a hoof. During the weeks they had spent on the journey, Twilight, along with everypony else on the crew had discovered Spent's annoying habit of calling everypony by their last names, even if he knew it ticked them off. And that was to say nothing of him flirting with practically everypony of the opposite gender even close to his age that he met. He'd even dared to try it with Silver Spanner, but all that resulted was a hard slap to the face that had left everypony laughing at him for days on end.

"But the game's not over yet, I still have many moves to make. I can out think you Sparkle, with age comes wisdom." Spent bragged and Twilight couldn't resist getting a snarky remark on her part.

"And a perverted and dirty mind, it seems." She deadpanned and Spent gaped at her for a second before laughing his head off. Twilight mused on the strange pony, he was still a mystery to her, even more so than the rest of the crew. He hadn't said a word on his past, except for slight hints here and there every so often. It was a great source of thought for the rest of the crew as his past, with everypony betting on who he was, with each scenario becoming more ridiculous than the last. It was at this moment both of the Blast Sisters came over, ginning madly enough to make Twilight nervous. Grape Vine looked up from what he was doing, strumming a purple acoustic guitar that had grape vines painted on it's body and singing "...Talking to the Alicorn Mare from Galilee..." and muttered "Oh no, this isn't going to be good." to himself. In one hoof, the elder Blast Sister held a bottle of something unknown.

"Here, try this! Something we just cooked up in the kitchens!" She said. Twilight knew the Blast Sisters had been assigned to cook in the Mess Hall, often resulting in small fires and explosions, but the meals they often cooked up were, admittedly, pretty good. So with a bit of trepidation, Twilight drank the bottle all the way down.

"What is it?" She asked curiously, and both the Blast Sisters rubbed their hooves together and cackled madly.

"Oh, nothing much..." The elder one began with a giggle in her tone. "Just a bit of nitroglycerin."

Twilight immediately began to panic and make herself gag all the while screaming "What do I do, what do I do?" at the top of her lungs as everypony watched the developing situation nopony knowing exactly what to do before the younger of the two sisters answered.

"Don't move, don't breathe, don't do anything...except pray." The elder one said in a solemn tone before screaming loudly "BOOM!" making Twilight yelp and jump in her seat as the two sisters walked off laughing. As soon as Twilight realized she'd been pranked, she gave them dirty looks even as the silver maned pony named Night Glider got up out of her seat with Silver Speed looking at her uneaten food and asking "Hey, can I eat this? Seeing as how you're not..."

When she received no reply, she shrugged to herself and began to eat it. Meanwhile, Night Glider grabbed the elder Blast Sister by the shoulder and gave her a hard right hook to the face and she went down, blood gushing from her nose.

"Really not funny dude." She growled before walking back over to Twilight and putting a hoof on the still trembling pony's shoulder.

"Hey, you alright?" She asked kindly.

"Y-Yeah, I'll be fine. W-Why'd you do that for me?" Twilight stuttered in shock. Nopony had ever stood up for her before, she'd always been downtrodden and pranked upon for years, even when she was just a schoolfilly, all because she was an easy target and seen as weak.

"Because, just because." Night Glider answered with a smile.

Rainbow Blaze felt his head throb from the memory, Fancy Pants had not been pleased with either of the Blast Sisters in the slightest and had said "If those two ruffians were not mares, and if I weren't a gentlestallion, I would be the one doing the throttling myself." He, with a sad look on his face and to get his mind off the memory, glanced towards a small picture on his desk, showing him holding a very small, two years old at the most, prismatic maned filly, looking almost exactly like him, except for a lighter shade of blue in her coat. Her name was Rainbow Dash, his only daughter and the greatest gift Celestia had given him in his mind. Though he never exactly remembered the mare who had conceived her, and knew he wasn't the best father in the world, what with him always going off on these sea voyages and leaving her alone, with only Grape Vine to watch her, he would always keep her in his mind and heart, and he knew that even if he didn't make it back from this journey, there would always be somepony to look after her. His son in all but blood, Grape Vine.

"I swear, I will get back to you."

Then, the greystone furred griffin known as Gallants came in with a happy look on his face. Rainbow looked up from his picture and raised an eyebrow.

"What is it?" He asked simply and in a no nonsensical manner.

"Sir, we've found something."

---

"Now... that is paradise." Rainbow said in awe. In front of him was an island with long white sandy beaches, deep jungles, high mountains and deep blue waters filled with the most beautiful of coral fish of every size, shape and color imaginable. All and all, it was paradise. Rainbow turned to Gallants with a smile on his face.

"Gallants, tell the crew they're on shore leave."

---

As soon as the news was broke, great joy went up and down the hallways and corridors of the Moby Dick. Finally, a chance to relax and unwind! No more searching for this Neighlantis nonsense, at least for the time being. This was their chance to be themselves, and not be cooped up in a great metal tub of steam and sweat and claustrophobia inducing passageways. The crew were loaded into small pods that were attached to the sides of the sub, and eagerly sat at the controls. Now, these pods varied in size, from small enough just to fit a few crew members (These were the ones being currently used) to large enough to fit things like the military trucks and weaponry that had been loaded up back at the docks in Manehatten. As the Moby Dick surfaced, and the pods were released, Twilight took in the scenery of the ocean around her through the bubble shaped window in front of her. The skies were clear and blue, except for a few cumulus clouds scattered here and there. She couldn't wait to be on that beach and tanning herself while she read a nice book. It didn't take long before she was fulfilling her desires. There she sat, on the pristine white sand reading her favorite book, "Daring Do and the Griffin's Goblet", by A. K. Yearling. Nearby, Night Glider, Eclipse Moonshine, and Silver Spanner (Who'd had to be convinced to pry herself away from her pipes and wrenches, her "Precious babies" as she called them, much to the amusement of the crew.) splashing each other in the waves and laughing joyously.

"Hey, c'mon Twi, join us! Life's not all spent in a book, ya know!" Night Glider called, just as she was splashed by Silver Spanner and the blue coated pony laughed "I'll get you back for that, ya know!"

"Try it, you blighter!" Silver Spanner challenged. Twilight gazed at the threesome, but most of all Night Glider. Twilight couldn't believe she was even thinking it, but the pegasus mare looked absolutely beautiful with the water dripping off her fur and feathers, and that big ass grin on her face.

"What am I thinking? A mare, beautiful? That's... That's not what I'm supposed to think... Am I?"

Putting aside her thoughts for a later date and filing them away in the recesses of her brain, Twilight grinned and ran towards the water...

---

Meanwhile, Grape Vine had been pulled away from his guitar practice (He had been singing "Gimme me a T for Texas, gimme me a T for Tennessee, gimme me a T for Thelma, that there mare made a fool out of me.") and taken to a hastily made target range by Quartermane and Bulk Biceps, where some coconuts had been sat up on rocks. They had figured Grape Vine needed more practice using his six shooters, after the "Incident" at the Manehatten Docksides with those bigoted stallions and Gallants.

"Now, it's real simple see, all you have to do is get your aiming eye in and shoot those damn things to bits!" Target ordered, and to demonstrate, she pulled out her shotgun and blasted one poor coconut into a sea of white juice and brown skin. "See, easy peasy."

"I-If you say so..." Grape Vine muttered nervously to himself. Here he was, on a beautiful island in the Caribbean on a beautiful day, the kind he promised Trixie they'd experience when he got back from all of this, supposed to be kicking back and sipping drinks on a hammock, and yet here he was, being dragged into target practice. Not his idea of fun, lemme tell you.

Grape, concentrating as hard as he could, lined up his shot and fired. But that's when things went all wrong. The bullet bounced, yes it BOUNCED, off a palm tree and went straight into Grape Vine's hoof, causing him to start cursing and swearing like a sailor. Target could only facehoof.

Sigh...

"...Well, at least he hit something, right?" Bulk asked and Target sighed once more.

---

The Moby Dick

Elsewhere, back in the submarine known as the Moby Dick, Gallants and Rainbow Blaze were sitting back in the main control room and having some whiskey that they'd snuck onboard. Suddenly, an alarm connected to the sun's main sonar dectors began beeping and Rainbow at once became alert and ready.

"What is it?" He asked, and Gallants ran over to the control panel.

"Dunno sir, but whatever it is it's big and it's coming fast." Gallants responded in an urgent, and perhaps somewhat worried tone of voice.

Rainbow Blaze sighed to himself. Well, there went the crew's shore leave...

Author's Note:

Well, from where we last left off it was the end of November for us here in the modern times, and now it's the first of December. The nights have gotten colder (Yes, even here in Florida it gets cold, hard as it is to believe. 63 degrees tonight I believe! Better bundle up!) Anyways, it being December now I know some of you in the colder parts of the world wish you were living the life our heroes are currently living now on a Caribbean island sitting back in a hammock and drinking martinis. But, alas, no such luck for me. I have to settle for Ginger Ale and pictures of the Galapagos. Ya know, I almost named this chapter "Two Tickets to Paradise till I realized two song titled chapters one after the other would be a bit much. Anyways, another chapter of fun and relaxation for the crewmembers of the Moby Dick before the action picks back up again, and soon, as evidenced by that strange blip on the Dick's sonar. If anyone cares to offer guesses as to what it is (Black_Knight, I know you know, but please, don't spoil it.) feel free to do so. (Also, if anyone has any questions on the Doc-Sorry "Time Turner's" appearance here, consider it foreshadowing to events in The Return of Doctor Whooves. Can you even do that? Foreshadow events to a story sat in another universe, I mean?) Finally, I want to give a shoutout to Darkfire Pon3 for masterfully pranking me into thinking they had no idea what Past Sins or who Nyx was. Congrats sir, you made me laugh so hard when I realized I had been "Gotchaed!" and I tip my hat to you. Here, have a moustache. Next time, danger on the high seas and as Gallants will so elegantly put it,

"Calling all the crew back to the ship so we can all die together sir."

Comments

[Black_Knight]

Well here goes my guess for Lightning collecting discard feathers from preening session. Then again knowing her character I should have guess otherwise.

The Doctor couldn't stay out of the spotlight for one story eh?

And so the TwiGlider ship as begun.

And yes it's getting cold. My days and nights are now covered in fog. But I still prefer cold weathers rather than hot ones.

[The Bricklayer]

7763923 Nope, I couldn't resist. Twilight's luck, as it goes is to attract all the weird ones. (I'll leave it up to you and your imagination as to what their little scene together foreshadows for the Return of Doctor Whooves.) And as for your experiences with cold weather, I kinda envy you a bit. I don't mind a bit of a chill, ironic considering where I live, but the likelihood of me seeing snow in Florida is... pretty much the chances of us getting a Celestia focused episode. And as for the Doctor's little (Okay, not so little) French swear, remember Captain Picard of Star Trek: TNG fame was very classy, and yet I distinctly remember him using the word in one episode.

[tuntematon]

"Don't move, don't breathe, don't do anything...except pray." The elder one said in a solemn tone before screaming loudly

I love that Atlantis the Lost Empire reference, that was one of the funniest parts in the movie I liked. Its also nice we got more insight on what Rainbow blaze was thinking during the party. Too bad the Beach party is about to be crashed .

[Black_Knight]

7763937

For now I had only one day of snow. It's getting rare due to global warming, which is a shame since I used to have snowy Christmas during my childhood.

I'm not a Star Trek fan, so no I don't

[Not so New Brony]

Wow, Lightning actually crept around stealing pegasi and gryphon feathers? That's actually something she might be capable off if you factor in her 'Charge first, think later' attitude from the canon without regard to the consequences.

Oh Spend Thrift(might need to correct this later), you not-so-sly dog, who knew you were so good at chess cause I sure didn't. It's nice to see some backstory for him, in a manner of speaking and the Doctor's cameo feels so heart breaking for some reason cause you know its bad when the Doctor is sad.

p.s: I haven't read that story yet so no spoilers please.

p.s.s: I live in Asia so weather is tropical as usual though the rain is a little colder so its a nice tradeoff.

[Dustchu]

7764197
*Shrugs*
No idea.

[The Bricklayer]

7764197 It came from a mistake on my part where I accidently got her age wrong in writing one of Twilight's mental panicked thoughts, which has since been rectified.

[The Bricklayer]

7764895

p.s: I haven't read that story yet so no spoilers please.

I actually haven't even gotten to the events foreshadowed yet in The Return of Doctor Whooves and won't for a while so you don't have to worry about having missed anything.

[Dustchu]

Hahaha, awesome chapter dude!

Twilight knew the Blast Sisters had been assigned to cook in the Mess Hall, often resulting in small fires and explosions, but the meals they often cooked up were, admittedly, pretty good.

Sounds about right, hahaha XD

Also, punching my dearest Blast Sister and drawing blood? Better prepare your butt Nightglider... they'll get payback...

Nicely done!

[The Bricklayer]

7765150 Well, if Night Glider is anything like Rainbow Dash, (And she pretty much is) she'll be ready with a few pranks of her own.

[Dustchu]

7765155
:
I sense a hardcore prank war onboard this ship...