Part 23: Paradise Lost
Grape blinked in surprise, slightly unsure what he was looking at, and Skystar blinked back, mimicking his actions. Grape tilted his head to side slightly in confusion, and Skystar did the same.
In the background, Lightning facehoofed and muttered “Like watching a two pony theatre piece here. Or a combination of Fatty Arbuckle and Charlie Chaplin…” to herself as she looked on in a mix of amusement and embarrassment.
Then, the silence finally broke.
“You do this with all the ponies you meet, or is it just me?” Skystar asked as she rested her fins on the water’s edge, and placed her head atop said fins.
“Ah… Ah’m sorry, this is just a lot to take in,” Grape stuttered out, taking a few steps back and holding his head in pain. It seemed the shock of it all, entering Neighlantis and seeing actual Seaponies amongst other creatures had finally caught up with him upon meeting Princess Skystar. His hooves clopping against the rocks, Grape Vine sat down on his haunches. “Neighlantis, actual honest to Celestia Seaponies, Dragons, and Gawdess only knows what else…” he said, taking short sharp breaths, beginning to hyperventilate.
“Deep breaths, deep breaths...” Grape reminded himself as his breathing began to slow, and his demeanor grew calmer.
Skystar then took a flying leap out of the water and with a white flash, changed forms completely. Her scales turned to a fur coat, and she grew wings and her mouth changed to a beak. Her fins were replaced with a tail and legs. Her rear legs had hooves like a normal pony, but her forelegs ended in paws like a lion.
“Okay… Seapony to a Griffon…” Lightning Dust murmured to herself, unable to keep herself from staring at Skystar’s new form. “What are you, some kind of sea-dwelling changeling?”
“Okay, firstly, I’m a hippogriff, not a griffon. Big difference,” Skystar replied, looking somewhat offended by Lightning Dust’s mistake. “Secondly, ...what’s a changeling?” she asked in an honestly confused tone.
“A changeling’s this species that well… can change forms into anything they desire, even, say a rock,” Lightning Dust explained. “It’s in the name, really. Said to look like a cross between pony and insects, but nobody ever really knows, considering that one could be standing right next to you and you’d never know it! Bit of a scary thought, really...”
“Well, I can safely assure you I can’t change into a rock… or anything else really besides my Seapony form. So, no changelings here!” Skystar said cheerily. Grape was beginning to think that was her default demeanor.
“...Or are there?” Skystar teased, leaning in close with a wink and Grape broke out into a small laugh.
“Well, if ya are a changeling, least you’re a funny one!” he guffawed.
“Thanks, I guess…” Skystar shrugged, with a slight hint of sadness in her tone. “First comment I’ve had in awhile that didn’t felt… forced.”
“What do you mean?” Lightning Dust asked in concern, wrapping a wing around the younger female. She had to be in her late teens, at best by Lightning’s approximation.
“Let’s see, I’m one of the two Princesses of this kingdom, and my adoptive sister is a fierce fire-breathing dragon who trains the Royal Guard and who nobody wants to tick off. You do the math…” Skystar trailed off.
“Ah, I see…” Lightning trailed off. She could only imagine how hard it was on Skystar, everyone being afraid of her older sister and not being able to make any friends because of that. “Well, you have us now,” she said, as Grape put a hoof on the hippogriff’s shoulder.
“Thank you…” Skystar whispered. “B-But just so you know, I do have friends! Here, see?” Skystar asked, holding up two clam shells. One an indigo color, the other a burnt orange. “This is Shelly, and the other’s Sheldon! Oh! Oh! There are so many things we can do together now! We can make friendship bracelets out of shells, and... picture frames outta shells, and... decorative wastebaskets out of shells... Oh, I have so, soooo many projects that involve shells! Like my necklace here, did I tell you I made that?” Skystar babbled in a tone of excitement. Although if you listened closely, you could tell it was a forced tone. “Now I have someone new to share them with. I mean, aside from my shell friends here. Oh, did I tell you I named them Shelly and Sheldon?” she asked sadly, visibly deflating as she sat ‘Shelly’ and ‘Sheldon” aside for the moment atop a rock.
“Ya’ve… Ya’ve been alone for a very long while, haven’t you?” Grape Vine asked. “Never quite being able to fit in for one reason or another… Just tryin’ to make the best of yer situation, and putting up some sort of false front just so nopony could see ya cry...”
“No, no, I’m perfectly fine!” Skystar stammered out, sounding close to tears.
“Trust mah instincts, and the fact that Ah’m speaking from experience here, Ah can tell when a pony’s lying to themselves, lying to everybody around him. Believe me, in that kind of state there, yer about as far from as fine as it gets...” Grape trailed off.
Skystar’s head whirled around to face him in shock. “You… You do?”
Grape Vine nodded and muttered “Gawd knows it’s what Ah’ve been doing for the past few months. Just ‘nother misfit who can’t seem to find his place in life…”
Lightning Dust then gave him a stern look, before slapping him across the face. “Look at me now, you found your place on the Moby Dick or did any of what I just told you a few minutes ago just go in one ear, and out the other with you?” She asked, glaring at him.
“Yeah… I know, but it’s hard to be a moral officer for a submarine, when the damn submarine doesn’t exactly exist anymore, does it?” Grape Vine snapped.
“You’ve still got a crew to keep cheery right, and from what I can see, that doesn’t just extend to the crew,” Lightning replied, gesturing to a certain hippogriff. “From what I can see from where I’m standing, you were able to figure out Skystar here in an instance!”
“She’s right, you know…” Skystar admitted sadly, giving him a small nuzzle which made Grape blush.
Inwardly, he repeated to himself: “Happily dating Trixie, and Ah promised mah dad Ah’d marry her when I got back home! Not if, when!”
“Say…” Skystar began. “You two want to know an extra special secret about Neighlantis, and get the private tour of its historical section? ...Well, more historical than Neighlantis is already, of course,” she babbled. “Would make a great story to tell your friend Twilight… Er, something or other about!”
“Sparkle,” Lightning answered her before a thought came to her. “Wait, how’d you know about Twilight?”
“Oh please, hard not to, with all the talk going throughout the city,” Skystar said, waving a paw dismissively before she flushed red. “...Plus, I may have spotted her from a pool when Ember was leading them into the city. Wait, that doesn’t count as spying, does it? Does it?” Skystar squeaked out somewhat nervously and Grape burst out laughing again at her antics.
“What, what’s so funny?” Skystar asked in confusion.
“Might be the first hippogriff Ah’ve had the luxury of meeting, but by Gawd if yer not a charmin’ one!” Grape said, his dixie accent and southern charm making Skystar flush red. Little did Grape know it, but he was giving Skystar a small crush on him.
“Oh, I just remembered!” Skystar said, before clasping another necklace with her paw. This one was much simpler, with a pearl bead attached to the seaweed constructed string. “Before I give you two the tour, you gotta get a change first. ...Well, unless you want to drown I suppose…”
With that, she pulled both Lightning and Grape into the pool and a bright, nearly blinding flash enveloped the area as they were pulled under. When it cleared, Skystar was back in her seapony form, her ‘mane’ flowing in the water. Grape and Lightning found themselves as seaponies as well, their legs and tails replaced with fins. Lightning had gained two see-through dorsal fins resembling wings, while Grape had earned a dolphin’s fin.
“Okay, well I can’t say this I expected…” Lightning murmured, as she looked over her new form. “Okay, I have to ask, how’d you pull this off?”
“Oh, this?” Skystar asked, as she swam down a corridor. “It’s this pearl I have around my neck, all of the members of the guard and both me and Ember have one! Allows us to change into forms more suited for seawater. Allows us to flee from our enemies… Er, well, swim from them or take them by surprise when we leap out of the water and change into dragons, ponies or hippogriffs! Pretty cool, huh?”
Grape noted the many ancient hieroglyphs lining the stone walls of the dimly lit hidden corridor, glowing green whenever Skystar passed them. Another one of her many necklaces, this one with a aqua gem around her neck glowed as well, almost as if in response. Also lining the walls were Pleurobrachia Bachei, or Sea Gooseberries -A type of comb jellyfish- to the common tongue.
“These passages, these aqueducts?” Skystar began to explain. “They’re a refuge, in case our city was ever attacked for whatever reason. A place to hide out when things get tough. Plus, as it turns out, they’re a great place to chronicle our history.”
“I sense there’s a but coming up somewhere along the lines,” Lightning Dust noted, as a school of Red Sea Bream swam past them.
“Yeah, you sensed correctly,” Skystar said sadly as they descended deeper into the caverns, and into a giant dome-shaped room. A giant blue collection of crystals, glowing the same shade as the one around Skystar’s neck jutted out from the ceiling. All around her, ancient runes and characters, unrecognizable by anybody covered and lined the walls. “Our home, it’s not as much as a paradise you’d probably think it to be. We’re… We’re, well, we’re losing our history. As time goes on, things have begun to stagnate. Nobody knows how to read our written language anymore. We’ve been forced to borrow, as you saw earlier, hieroglyphs from the Egyptians!” Skystar continued, before gesturing down another hallway, where lights flashed on and off. A form of bioluminescence, as would later be learned. “And if you go down that way, you’d find katakana from the Neighponise!”
“So, wait… You’re saying the only languages you can read are ones your civilization probably helped create, if what Twilight’s saying about your shared history with ancient peoples lines up?” Lightning asked, and Skystar nodded.
“Yeah… I get the feeling we were once a great civilization, but now…?” she trailed off, looking forlorn. “We’re just dying, slowly sure. But dying all the same. Memento Mori I guess...”
And on that note, Skystar sighed as she swam further into the tunnels, with Grape and Lightning following.
Neighlantis: Main Temple:
Meanwhile, unaware of the new information about the supposed paradise that was Neighlantis that Grape and Lightning were just learning from Princess Skystar, (Or Skystar’s existence in general really) Twilight along with Night Glider and Fancy joined Ember in the main temple for a grand feast.
Columns lined the room, six by six on either side of them. Ancient hieroglyphs lined the walls, and flanking the entrance to the room were two obsidian statues of jackals, with gold and gem-encrusted necklaces. The ponies found themselves seated on fluffy purple pillows, with gold trim. Like inside the blue dome Skystar had shown Grape and Ember, a giant blue collection of crystals was above them, like a chandelier. And exactly like Skystar before, they glowed the same color as the gem on Ember’s necklace.
Guards, holding spears kept a firm eye on the newcomers, eyeing them with a wary gaze. In the corner of the room rested their leader, the pony who Nimbus had almost come to blows with.
“I’m sorry for the bad show of form we… Er, Nimbus displayed upon arrival.” Fancy apologized, breaking the incredibly awkward silence that had filled the room.
Ember, after finishing biting down into a chicken leg, sighed. “Yes, well, Xenophilius over there -Here she pointed to the pony with the strong resemblance to Twilight’s brother- could have been less… antagonistic as well,” Ember apologized after swallowing the meat. She then began using the leftover bone as a makeshift toothpick. “He could have refrained from almost letting loose his… pets for lack of a better term.” the dragoness muttered as she continued cleaning her teeth.
She then offered another chicken leg to Fancy. “Want some? Slaughtered by our finest!”
“I’ll… pass, thank you.” Fancy said politely.
“I’ll gladly take it if the commander’s not having any,” Night Glider said and swiped the chicken leg from Ember’s grasp, not being turned off by the prospect of meat. Half bird as she was, it needed to be a regular part of her diet. Built up muscle strength. She, with a smile, tore off some of the meat from the bone. “Mhmm, good stuff. Freshly slaughtered you say? Compliments to those who did the deed!”
Twilight, trying to force the bile back down her throat upon seeing her marefriend chow down on meat. She instead turned her thoughts to Ember.
“You know, with all of this tolerance towards other races, and so much culture mixing, you could teach the world above a thing or two,” Twilight commented and Ember sighed sadly.
“Yes, the world above is strife with prejudice, is it not?” she replied before the dragoness shook her head. “But we must stay down here, for better, or for worse...”
“But why?” Twilight asked in shock.
“This isolation, it’s not just a matter of the fact that we can’t leave. We all easily could if we wanted to. It’s a matter of self-imposed isolation,” Ember replied. “Ask yourself Twilight Sparkle, if the world above us saw our society what might happen? I’ll tell you what I think would, they might loot and plunder what little we have. We’re a dying society, and although revealing ourselves to the surface world might be a wise course of action in the end, it’s one we cannot take… At least not now. Ponies, like all herd animals, fear what they do not understand. They would fear us, they would fear me. Negotiations, they’d be a moot point. War would be upon us, and we could not fight off powerful nations like the ones that dwell above us,” she continued. “So, you see, we must stay down here, and if it comes to that, die with what little dignity we have left.”
Sighing sadly to herself, Twilight shook her head knowing Ember wouldn’t budge on the matter. She instead tried to turn her attentions back to Xenophilius, who she admitted, was a subject of her curiosity.
“So, just asking here, but what’s with Xen-Zeno-Zxeno…?” Twilight said, fumbling with Xenophilius’ name before finally saying: “Oh, I give up… My brother’s doppelganger?”
“Oh, you mean Xenophilius?” Ember said, pronouncing the name perfectly -Making Twilight emit a small growl, and her marefriend patted her on the back with a wing in sympathy- and raising an eyebrow.
“Yeah, him,” Twilight said. “As far as I can tell, he’s definitely not a seapony like the rest of the ponies here seem to be, so what’s his story?”
“I’d honestly like to know that myself, truth be told,” Nimbus said, as he walked into the room, and almost at once had crossbows pointed at him. Lowering one of the weapons with his hoof with a calm expression on his face, he looked at the pale white unicorn stallion. “He’s got my attention. ...Well, him and those creatures of his he has as his personal guard.”
“If you mean the seaponies, I’d like you to call them something more than just ‘creatures’.” Xenophilius stated, a low growl present in his tone. Night Glider rolled her eyes.
“Alpha Males in their natural habitat, everypony…” she muttered to herself as she shook her head, and Twilight nearly spit out her drink in sheer amusement.
“I meant those things you nearly had attack me back in the marketplace. Glowing eyes, sharp teeth, ring a bell?” Nimbus commented in a dry tone.
“That’s my secret,” Xenophilius shot back. “Neighlantis has some mysteries that normal surface dwellers aren’t meant to know about.”
“Funny thing, you seem to be a surface dweller yourself, given you look nothing like any of the inhabitants here, and actually look like a normal pony.” Nimbus drawled.
“Geez, you can feel the testosterone in here…” Night Glider deadpanned.
“Now, that’s a tale in itself…” Ember began before Xenophilius stopped her and held up a hoof.
“And one I’d like to tell myself, actually,” He interrupted before turning back to Nimbus. “You’re right, I’m not from around here. Came from the earth above, actually. These people, they took me in and treated me as one of their own. It was 1918, March if I remember correctly. The USS Cyclops, my ship went by the name of.”
This time Twilight really did spit out her drink.
“Wait, the USS Cyclops? That ship vanishing in the Bermuda Triangle, it made all the papers!” Twilight sputtered out in excitement. “I remember combing through the archives back in Manehatten just to find out what happened to it! They, especially this one purple maned mare, (Twilight failed to see Xenophilius’ eyes light up at this) all say it sank in an unexpected storm, and no traces were ever found…” she trailed off.
“Well, that’s the thing,” Xenophilius replied. “You’re not going to find any traces, and those papers of yours, they’re not wrong. It did vanish in the middle of a storm, -I was the only survivor in fact- but the real truth is far stranger…”
And so he began…
Lightning flashed and lit up the sky in a shower of color, and thunder rolled in the distance as hard, heavy rains poured down on the deck of the Proteus-class collier known by the name of the Cyclops. A name that would eventually go down in history as one of the most infamous craft ever to be swallowed up by the Bermuda Triangle.
Not that any of the crew knew this at the time, of course. Drenched to the bone, and with guns in hooves, they were in route from Salvador, Brazil all the way to Baltimore, Maryland back in the US. Onboard was tons of manganese ore -11,000 tons to be exact- to be used as munitions to fuel the war effort. The Cyclops, it had been commissioned the year before into service. After leaving port with the ore, one Commander Worley had submitted a report that one of the ship’s starboard engines had a cracked cylinder due to the sheer weight of the ore carried. It was just about a little 3,000 tons above the ship’s 8,100 ton normal carrying capacity. The ship’s sisters had a fault in them, that the central I-beams often weakened due to the corrosive nature of the ores they often carried. If they were to hit a storm like the one currently brewing right now, strong enough waves would leave the bow and stern intact, but the middle section might have been ripped apart.
But that wasn’t the only theory.
One or two ponies had noted more than a few Germanics aboard, and paranoia ran rampant that there were sympathizers aboard amongst the crew. In the years that would follow, that would be one point of speculation about what may have happened to the Cyclops, that the sympathizers had sunk the boat themselves.
That was not to be the case, however. The truth was, it would be a much, much stranger fashion that the USS Cyclops would go down on its fated final voyage.
For the past few days, two ponies had noted a strange shadow following them in the waves. Xenophilius, was one of them. The other was a fellow crewmember, a lavender-coated mare with a deep purple mane tied in a ponytail. Sugar Belle, she was called. There they stood, on the deck, fighting against the battering wind and rain.
“See, there it is again!” Sugar shouted, pointing with a hoof to the thrashing seas beyond them. A pistol rested in a holster on her right hind leg. Xenophilius pulled out a pair of binoculars and peered out to the horizon where a shadow did indeed cut through the waters. It was impossibly long, and looked to have multiple tendrils. Xenophilius swallowed nervously, it couldn’t be what he thought it was… could it?
No, Xenophilius thought to himself. That legend was just an old sailor’s tale, just malarky, plain and simple! Made to scare little ponies in their beds, or to be the subject of bar talk. Hardly worth thinking about for any length of time, in his honest opinion.
“Well… Whatever it is, doesn’t seem to be worth our attentions, does it?” Xenophilius asked, a clockwork style assault rifle slung onto his back. “If it wanted to sink us, it would have attacked by now wouldn’t it? Might just be trying to make it through the storm, same as us. Probably figures we know the safest route through this Hell, and wants to stick close to us,”
“Possibly…” Sugar Belle noted not entirely believing her friend’s words. “Best we get inside, before the weather gets any worse...”
Xenophilius snorted, he could hardly see how the weather could get any worse than this!
Then, one giant glowing green tendril shot up out of the water and grabbed Sugar by her hind leg just as she was heading back inside. She let out a scream of fear, and pulled out her pistol.
She fired several shots into the Kraken’s head just as it leered up out of the waves. Xenophilius pulled out his rifle and fired several shots at the beast, and it roared out an ear-piercing sound of pain.
Sugar was flung somewhere out of sight into the thrashing waves and one giant tentacle came crashing down on the deck. Metal shrapnel flew everywhere, and some grazed Xenophilius’ sides, drawing blood.
“Kraken!” a shout went up from somewhere on the deck as soldiers poured out of the woodworks and fired their guns. Another tentacle came down, and not just reduced those poor souls to bloody smears, but smashed the Cyclops directly in half. Not coincidentally, it was exactly where the I-Beams were said to fail should a strong enough blow hit this area.
Xenophilius found himself hitting the smashing waves and his lungs breathing in water. He raced towards the surface and found himself in the middle of a searing blaze, but a blow to the head from a barrel sent his way by the turbulent waters knocked him under again Then, in the midst of all this chaos, he saw it. A serpent-like form, light blue in scale color with two tusks jutting out of the side of its head and twin piercing amber eyes. A necklace, with a pearl strung into it rested around the creature’s neck. It glowed white, and then Xenophilius found his entire body structure changing to that of a finned creature, with a blue sail on his back, like that of a swordfish. Wounds healed in almost the blink of an eye, and Xenophilius found his lungs changing into gills to adjust to the water.
“Come with me! The Kraken, we’ll be able to escape his notice thanks to our size. Hardly worth any sort of a meal in his eyes right now!” the serpent shouted before rocketing off down into the darker waters of the deep. Seeing no other option, and taking in the fact that only death, turmoil, and chaos awaited him above, Xenophilius quickly made up his mind and followed after her...
Stats
Page generated in 0.019 seconds
Total duration
819 users online
1,127,843 hits today, 2,054,621 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Sugar
I like where the story is going though I am confused at the sudden inclusion of Gawd from Fallout as the Gawdess instead of Faust as the 'Creator' given that Celestia is the equivalent of Jesus in this world. And I would also like to know how Skystar knew what the languages were called in that era though I suppose the Seaponies could have mounted brief exploratory expeditions to the surface to assess the state of affairs there.
Or Xenophilius simply told them after he was taken in though that's my thoughts, what's yours Brick?
8602589
Yeah, originally, Sugar was going have an OC in her place, but I remembered how badly I treated Sugar last time I used her character, I decided to make up for that in a small way. (And given I have her slanted to appear in the sequel, she'll get even better treatment there.)
Oh, the Gawd thing? That would just be Grape's accent coming out. For anyone else, it would be Goddess, or Faust. Take your pick.
As for Skystar knowing the languages... Yeah, your first guess about expeditions would probably be the closest to being correct given that Xenophilius doubtfully knows every language in the world unless he was some sorta secret linguist before he came to Neighlantis.
Another update? Whew, I like it!
Good chapter, hehehe, we're learning a bit about the survivors of some missing ships... most interesting.
I'm waiting for Gallants to mess something up.
So Neighlantis is a dying paradise. Well not that surprising since total isolationism only lead to one outcome.
At first, I thought the title would be a reference to a song from Hollywood Undead, but it seems not. The Tomb Raider songs were nice anyway.
Mistakes found:
*full stop*
*full stop*
*full stop*
its
8604164
Yeah, loved the mystical atmosphere the two Tomb Raider tracks provided when using them. Cervantes' theme may be useful for high-seas dangers, and the Africa Suite from Halo 2 may make you want to get up and dance, but I still loved the two Tomb Raider pieces the best for the atmosphere.