The Deepest Seas

by Waxworks

The Musical Surface

When she had settled, Bon Bon left her. She shut the door to the room and lamented the lack of locks, but she had to accept it. Locks on an underwater habisphere were senseless at best, and deadly at worst. While you wanted the doors sealed, you didn’t want them to prevent ponies from getting place to place. The magic should have been enough security, even with sirens and seaponies all around. She just had to be better at hunting down anything dangerous. For Lyra’s sake.

Bon Bon crept back to the magic wall in the storage room. It shimmered at the back, locking out the seawater. The floor was still wet from her entering and changing from seapony to pony, but there was only the one set of tracks. Nothing else marred the floor with its trail, and no water entered the room in even a trickle. Whatever was affecting Lyra, it was doing it from outside, and she’d have to take the battle to it. She sighed, touched her flank with the necklace, and jumped in.

The dark waters were cold at first, but the further she changed, the easier it became to handle. She struggled while the changes finalized, then her hind became fins and she propelled herself easily through the dark ocean. She held a lantern clasped tightly in her teeth, the light not nearly as effective as Lyra’s horn, but she had to make do. She swam, ears pricked to pick up the slightest noise as she made yet again another circuit of the habisphere. She’d done this several times throughout the day already, but there had been no signs of ne’er-do-wells or monsters anywhere to be found. The ability of everything down here to float made tracks impossible to find, and without a nose or mouth that could smell or taste the trails of any creatures, she was running on sight alone.

When another circuit raised no alarms, she decided to follow the outside shell of the hab. She swam up and down, flipping her tail as she went around the spheres, hunting for anything out there. She started low on each spherical room and worked her way slowly up, and up, and up in a circular pattern. The first few revealed nothing, but the sphere of the entertainment room, much to her surprise, had a trail of slime on it!

Bon Bon reached out and touched it with a hoof. It was viscous and slightly sticky; unusual for underwater, but not super rare. Many sea slugs and bottom-feeders were known to use it as a form of self-defense, or to create nests in sand. Bon Bon didn’t know all the creatures that would do such a thing, and certainly didn’t know if sirens were known to do it, but it was something, and she had nothing else to go on, so she followed it.

The trail led down off the hab and into the sand. It disappeared, seemingly invisible, which would have been why she couldn’t find it before, but a quick touch of her hoof to the sand and she found where it was all clumped together. Other small creatures were there, feeding on it, which she found disgusting, but it was the ocean. Anything could be food. She kept a hoof on the sticky trail and swam into the wilderness, passing over sand, crabs, starfish, and up and down craggy portions of the ocean. She kept an eye on her compass as she went, until she found herself near a dark, craggy bit of rock and reef. Her pitiful lantern made an attempt to dispel the black, but its efforts were weak and hopeless. Her ears were tuned and she listened for the sound of swimming. She tried to appear tough for Lyra’s sake, but Bon Bon had to admit that even she was frightened by the dark of the ocean. Even moreso now that she was here, at the edge of visible and safe sandy landscape, looking into a craggy cave that could be filled with any number of ocean creatures. She was afraid, but for Lyra’s sake, she swam forward.

Inside the darkness, there was a rushing sound. It was like the sound of a waterfall hidden deep under the ocean, pushing at her ears and invading her space. It got louder the deeper she went inside, the light pushing back the darkness bit by bit. She watched to all sides, keeping an eye on the walls of the hole for any branching paths that might be used to attack her. When every direction was dangerous, Bon Bon had to watch every direction.

Inside the hole, Bon Bon felt the water around her tug on her. It was a light, but insistent pulling, like there was a current. This deep underwater, Bon Bon knew it had to be volcanic activity. The magma would heat the water, causing it to rise, which would pull water in, but the water didn’t feel warm, and she couldn’t see any light. She followed the current, tracing its trail to where it might be coming from. She came to an open space and followed it (quickly) to another hole. She kept careful track where she was going, but her first goal was to ensure Lyra’s safety. She would worry about getting out when she’d dealt with the slime-creature.

She thought it might go on for some time, digging deeper into the reef and rocks, but Bon Bon eventually came to the end of a path and heard singing. She was immediately wary, and pulled out her earplug, but she didn’t feel any different. She got the feeling the singing wasn’t for her, but for Lyra. She swam closer, peering around the reef to find the creature, and saw what she could only describe as “horrible”.

It was a siren, of that she was sure, but this deep-sea siren was unlike the ones she’d heard about and seen picture of further above. It was slug-like, that was her first thought. The trail of slime she had followed came from the creatures disgusting lower body It had no shell, just an amorphous mass as its lower self. It’s limbs were fins it used to hold itself mostly upright, and its head was that of an anglerfish, all teeth and mouth, with a little lamp dangling in front of its face.

The water around was warm, Bon Bon noticed. There was light coming from one side of the room the siren was in, so she assumed that was where the magma was hidden. Her own lantern didn’t make much of an impression on it, but she kept it hidden and covered anyway. She was going to have to fight this thing, and she couldn’t risk losing it. She needed to make it back to Lyra safely. Was there more than one, though, she wondered?

As if to answer her question, something heavy landed on her back. She was pushed down to the ground and felt something stick to her fin. She turned and swung at it, and her hoof struck the glowing light of an angler fish. It screamed melodically. Her punch didn’t do much damage to it, she couldn’t get a good swing going underwater, but she was no slouch. It must have hurt.

The singing from the room ahead—which had been incredibly beautiful—stopped, and Bon Bon knew the second one was coming to help the first. They were bigger than her, so she didn’t think she could take them both on at once, but she wasn’t going to give up. Bon Bon had tricks upon tricks, and had prepared for the worst the ocean had to offer. She was ready.

She reached down to her bag and pulled a knife off the side. She slashed at the slug on top of her, hearing it shriek in its weirdly musical voice. It released her and threw her away toward the other one coming from behind. Bon Bon spun in the water and swung at that one, and it balked. She kept them both at bay with a constant barrage of desperate swings. They stayed back, but she was trapped between them.

Her bag was filled with tricks, and the knife wasn’t the only one. For underwater missions S.M.I.L.E. had taken a page from every evasive and dangerous sea creature they could imagine. Bon Bon pulled out a black orb and squeezed it, it burst into a concentrated cloud of ink. The ink blocked the light from her own lantern, and the siren’s glowing lights. She felt the movement in the water as they lunged at her, but she’d already swum to the side. She pushed off the jagged walls with her forehooves and swam for the lit room ahead. The water got warmer still when she burst out of the ink cloud. The room she entered was chewed or cut out of the surrounding coral and stone. It was uniform in shape, and true to her expectations, ahead of her, flush with the stone and spouting out of it in little rivulets and traveling to the top, was magma.

The heat was feeding myriad creatures, the shells and husks of which littered the floor of the chamber. The sirens here were well-fed, and had nothing to do but eat and sing, which is where their idleness and interest in Lyra and the hab must have come from. Unless she could get rid of them, they might need to abandon the hab entirely!

The beautiful scream came from behind her and one of the sirens came floating out of the ink cloud, mouth wide-open to try and catch her. Bon Bon swam to the side and slapped it with her tail, sending her into the coral wall. The other one crawled underneath her and reached up, snagging her tail with one of its claws. Bon Bon pulled away, tearing her fin slightly as the claws ripped through it. Bon Bon swam up into the center of the cave and dug through her pouch. She pulled out a miniature crossbow and aimed at the one below. She fired, and the bolt pierced the rear of the beast below. A faint stream of green blood spilled out of its slug-like tail, and it cried out in melodic pain.

The siren on the wall opened its mouth. Bon Bon reloaded, waiting for it to jump at her, but it didn’t. It sang instead, a beautiful tune issuing from its mouth, piercing her mind like her bolt had pierced its friend. The second siren took its cue from the first, and sang out as well, adding to the music assaulting Bon Bon’s head. She had the crossbow reloaded, but though she tried to aim she found her vision swimming. She fired, but it went wide, ricocheting off the coral.

Bon Bon felt their wordless song burrowing deep into her mind, and against her judgment found herself wanting to put down the crossbow. Her training was enough to defend her for now, but it wasn’t going to help for long. Sirens were magic, and mental acuity only helped for short durations. She dropped her crossbow and reached into her bag, pulling out a wad of gum. She squashed and split it, one bit for each ear.

She smelled blood before she noticed the siren below was holding on to her. Her hooves hadn’t gone to her ears and she recognized, dimly, that it shouldn’t have worked this way. She should have already had the gum in place. She struggled, but the siren’s slug-like body was stuck to her, and its hooves were tight against hers, holding her still. The music penetrated the deepest parts of her mind and she couldn’t bring herself to fight it much longer. She had failed. Oh, Lyra…

---

Lyra’s eyes opened. She was tired, she was sore, and she felt irritable, like a hangover without the headache. But, she noticed, there was no music. No voice, no singing, no sounds, no nothing! Despite how crappy she felt, she smiled. She lay there in bed, enjoying the silence. Bon Bon must have succeeded. She couldn’t wait to give her the biggest hug ever when she got back. Lyra curled up, enjoying the softness of the bed for a while.

A gurgling in her stomach rudely roused her. She’d need to eat. She couldn’t remember the last time she had eaten, and she’d also need to use the toilet, get a drink, and probably shower. It wouldn’t do to smell bad when Bon Bon got back. Thanking her while stinking wouldn’t be a good welcome. She tossed the covers aside and rolled out of bed. She washed up, relieved herself, and grabbed a small bite to eat. Bon Bon wouldn’t mind, especially since she’d been out of it for a day or two? She wasn’t sure how long. After she’d eaten, she tried to entertain herself. She rattled the dented locker where she’d tried to get her lyre back from, but it was locked tight. She’d have to go get the key, but it was too soon after the problem to leave her feeling comfortable. She left it there for now and waited for Bon Bon.

The sound of a door slamming had Lyra on edge at first, but she couldn’t hear the voices or music, and was happy that it meant Bon Bon was back. She trotted happily out of the entertainment room and through the halls to the storage room. Standing at the end of the hall, inside the doorway to the storage room, Lyra saw Bon Bon. She rushed up and hugged her, despite the seawater.

“Welcome back, Bon Bon! You did such a good job, I—” She stopped and stepped away. Bon Bon wasn’t hugging her back. “Bon Bon?”

The sound of something wet slithering by made Lyra look past Bon Bon. The door at the far end was open, and there was water on the ground besides where Bon Bon had walked. She felt a chill. She looked back at Bon Bon, who was just standing there, staring straight ahead. Lyra felt the water on her hooves, and was disturbed to notice it was slimy. In addition, Bon Bon was missing her pack, which was where she was supposed to be keeping Lyra’s necklace!

“Bon… Bon?” Lyra asked.

“Yeah?” Bon Bon said, slowly blinking, but still not looking at Lyra.

“Is everything okay?”

“Everything is… fine.”

Everything was not fine. Bon Bon wasn’t herself. Lyra’s head snapped back to the trail of wetness and open door on the far side. Something had come with Bon Bon, and Lyra knew it was sirens. No wonder she couldn’t hear the singing anymore! Bon Bon was under their spell! She left Bon Bon and ran. If the sirens were here, they were coming for her lyre, and if they wanted it, she couldn’t let them have it!

Lyra raced for the office. It was closer to her door than the other, with the lockers on the far side. She had separated them specifically so she couldn’t easily get inside and play to draw their attention, but now she was grateful she’d done it for a different reason. If they were banging on the locker, they weren’t in the office. It wouldn’t make it easy for her to get inside the locker, but she would handle that problem when she came to it.

The office was empty when she burst inside. There was no trail of wet or slime outside, and nothing dangerous waiting for her. She trotted in and rummaged through the already strewn-about desks, looking for the key. Despite her search, just like earlier, she couldn’t find it. She had papers, instructions, booklets, security information, magic information, checklists, and even a list of incoming supplies that they had already checked off. Despite that, there was no key.

The sound of slithering outside drew her attention to the door. Lyra had left it open for a quick escape, but now something was coming in! She ducked behind the desk and waited, holding a pair of scissors and a letter opener in her magic. The moment she saw the thing come around the corner, she’d hurl them! When it finally hove around, unfortunately, she halted, stunned by its appearance.

It looked exactly like she remembered in her vision. It had a mouth full of angry, dangerous teeth and a little light dangling from its forehead. It had dark, bulbous eyes and a pair of forehooves that transformed into a slug-like body the further down it went, until its hind hooves were nothing but an amorphous, slimy mess. Lyra choked in revulsion, unfortunately, the sound drew its attention, and it focused its beady, ugly eyes on her.

It opened its mouth and a single note came out before the letter opener stabbed into its face. It shrieked a melodic shriek and Lyra was up, over the desk, racing for the door! She hurled the scissors into its torso and jumped over its head, cantering down the hall. She couldn’t find the key, but she didn’t need it. For Bon Bon’s sake, she was going to rip the thing off its hinges and they were going to leave. They would deal with this some other way, some other day, bringing far more horns and many more earplugs!

A musical note came from behind her, worming its way into her ear. Lyra hummed as loud as she could, drowning it out. It was still there, underneath her own song, but it wasn’t dominating her mind.

Ahead of her, inside the assembly room where chunks of the next hab were put together, Lyra saw trails of slime covering the hab. She looked down at her hooves to follow the trail the first one had left, but it didn’t look like they matched up. Either the trail had been cut off somewhere she couldn’t see, or there were multiple sirens. The latter would be terrible.

She ran through the room, giving the partially-assembled hab a wide berth. Thankfully, her caution paid off as another siren leapt out at her from behind it. It had probably heard her coming, but she wasn’t going to ignore the possibility that they communicated by magic means. She slapped it away with a magic hand, summoning multiple fists to pummel it into the ground, her anger at the sirens manifesting with her spell. Only two of the fists hit it before a clear note rang out, shattering her concentration and dissolving the fists.

The siren from behind her was singing and the one next to her joined in. The music was forcing its way into her head and ruining her spells. She hummed as loud as she could, but it wasn’t enough. She could still hear it behind her. She needed to get her lyre! Then she could play along with it! She ran.

She was faster than them, thankfully. Their slug bodies weren’t fast enough to keep up with hooves. She wondered idly if they could transform, since they appeared to be fine out of water, but if they could, wouldn’t ‘they have done so inside the habisphere? She shook her head and ran, focusing on her target. She couldn’t afford to speculate at the moment.

With the music and sirens following her, she continued down the halls until she came to the lockers. Standing in front of hers, where she was keeping the lyre, hunched a siren. This one was silent, and even when it turned to look at her it made no noise, despite having its mouth open. Lyra deduced that this one was the one keeping Bon Bon in check. She narrowed her eyes and grabbed a nearby selection of several books.

“You let go of her right now, you bitch!” Lyra screamed. She hurled the books in quick succession, only the first one hitting its target. Despite the creature’s bulky body, it was surprisingly nimble. It slithered back and forth, dodging the projectiles. When Lyra ran out, she picked up one of the tables and wrenched the leg off, then threw the table at it, holding onto the leg for a club. “Give me back my Bon Bon!”

They battled, the siren in the room with her continuing its open-mouthed stare while it dodged her swings. It lashed out with its own hooves, keeping her away while it waited for its friends to come help. Lyra knew she didn’t have much time, so she swung rapidly, driving it away, then grabbed the dented locker. She wrenched at it, humming as loud as she could to drown out the sounds behind her that were steadily rising in volume. The siren nearby kept back, out of easy reach, knowing that its friends were on the way. If Lyra got the locker open and all three were there, they could jump her all at once and take it, and have her.

“Arrrrgh! Give it to me!” She rattled the locker violently, then screamed and dropped the club to rip at it with her magic. The door squealed as it tore off its hinges, and the lock gave way.

Lyra reached in and grabbed her present from inside. The tortoise shell built in traditional style calmed her nerves as she held it in her hooves. She backed away from the locker and turned to see all three sirens staring at her, smiling with gaping maws and sharp teeth. Their high-pitched singing still tugged at her mind, but she could ignore it now. They stayed a fair distance away while they sang, louder now, the music hitting her like lead. The calm, cool feeling of her lyre kept her grounded. She stared at them and backed away, horn lighting up. She took a deep breath and took it in her magic, then strummed.

It was fitful playing at first. She flubbed one of the notes and the sirens moved closer, the volume of their singing rising with their confidence. Lyra backed away, shuffling toward the door to the hall while she tried to get her bearings. The notes of the siren’s music confused her, directed her magic, but she pushed, thinking about Bon Bon.

When she hit the first notes of the chorus of her song, the sirens balked. For a split second, there was no sound, and she heard a cry from Bon Bon for the moment the sirens all stopped. It disappeared, and Bon Bon didn’t come running looking for her, but it was there! Bon Bon would be okay! She just had to keep playing!

One of the sirens lurched forward, forehooves and teeth flashing at her. She danced away, continuing the song. She strummed louder at a portion of her own song and kicked the siren in the face. A tooth broke, but it didn’t slow. The second one joined its sister and they pushed her down the hall. They went back and forth, the sirens and Lyra attacking each other in turn, but Lyra was losing ground. She was pushed all the way back to the storage room where Bon Bon stood still. Lyra looked at her with a pained expression and opened her mouth to sing along with her music. Bon Bon shuddered, but didn’t say anything.

Heartend by Bon Bon’s movement, Lyra sang louder, played harder, and put all her effort into her music. She drowned them out, pushing them back, back away from Bon Bon, and away from her. Bon Bon moved!

Then the third joined in.

It had let go of Bon Bon to help its sisters, and the song, pushed by all three of them, ugly, toothy, and slimy as they were, struck Lyra and tore her own song away. It crashed upon her, beautiful at first, but it soon became cacophonous, terrible, and discordant. It hurt her ears and made her forget herself, stripping her songs away from her.

She was caught by Bon Bon.

Warm hooves grabbed her. She felt them pull her away from the sight of the beautiful creatures before her. She felt a hug grip her tight, and a kiss on her cheek, and words she couldn’t quite hear tickled her ear. She knew she loved those words. With them came a single song, dredged out of the screeching noise filling her head.

“Remember this, remember me…” she sang. It was their song, written early in their relationship. Short, simple, but theirs, and about the two of them together.

“Remember what we’re meant to be,” Bon Bon sang with her. The sirens stopped, their noise quieting.

“Through thick and thin, and bad and good,” sang Lyra, playing the notes along with it.

“We’ll fight for ‘us’, we know we should.”

“We’ll argue, yes,”

“We’ll even fight,”

“We’ll both think that our side is riiiiight…” they sang together, leaning on the other one for support. They held the note and Lyra strummed a build-up to the final line. Their backs were to the barrier, and Bon Bon held up the single necklace. Lyra nodded.

“But know, my dear, that though I’m mad, the one thing that will make me glaaaad…” The sirens squawked nearby, trying to drown them out, but their song couldn’t be silenced. The three sirens couldn’t beat the two of them when they stayed together.

“I see your face, and feel it too…” Lyra looked into Bon Bon’s eyes as their hind legs changed into fins.

Bon Bon looked back with a loving smiled and finished, “I’m happy just to be, with, you.” The sirens screamed. Blood poured out of their gills as their own song was ruined. Lyra and Bon Bon dove into the abyss and swam away, propelling themselves from the habisphere, not looking back.

---

Lyra waited on the beach until Bon Bon came out to meet her. The mint-green mare held her lyre in her lap until she heard her voice.

“We’re done. I’ve told them everything,” Bon Bon told her.

“Are they going to make you go back?” Lyra said as she stood up.

Bon Bon shook her head. “No, they’re done with it until they get help with the sirens. We’re free.”

Lyra sighed and strummed a few notes. “I’m glad. I like being able to sit under the sun.”

Bon Bon nodded. “Me too. I was happy to help, but it was clear you didn’t like it, and those sirens were unexpected.”

“It’s my fault for being musical. I drew them in.”

Bon Bon pushed close and rubbed her cheek on Lyra’s. “Don’t you ever apologize for being musical. It’s what saved us, too.”

“Only cause I had you with me.” She shoved back against Bon Bon.

“It’s true. I’m helpful.”

“Why don’t you help me get something to eat then?”

“Sure! How about… escargot?”

Lyra smacked her and ran away down the beach, blowing a raspberry at Bon Bon. Bon Bon laughed and chased after her.

“It’s delicious! Like music in your mouth! Trust me!”

“Noooooo!”

The End.

Comments

[Orion Star]

OOOOOOOOHHHhh yes My pants love this so much COOL STORY MANN vs machine i love the scout hes my fav..

[Waxworks]

9190599
Scout is okay, but I prefer Heavy because I'm a casual.