CRISIS: Equestria - Divergence, Book 3

by GanonFLCL

Chapter Seventeen: Realization

Twilight hadn't originally given Queen Blackburn's statement much thought when she'd said that this expedition could take days. True enough that the trip from Hope's Point to the edge of the Belt had taken a full day, and true enough that it took almost an entire day after that to reach the ruined structures that the Comet Chaser crew had originally found, but she had not expected it to take two more after that before anything of note came up.

Supplies were in good order at least, as the Comet Chaser was equipped to support a full week of exploration for the crew of three and up to seven passengers, which they had packed for. With only five passengers, they had extra food that could be rationed if need be so that the ship could stay out an extra day—and only one—but hopefully it wouldn't be needed.

It was late at night when the ship spotted anything of any particular note. Up until that point, all that they'd found was crumbling structures of little importance to the mission: remains of what could have been guard towers or small business at best, judging by the manner in which the buildings were constructed and their location. Pandemonia had said that in her last memory, her Warden, Peach Blossom, had arrived at the city's docks. That meant, logically, the southern edge of the city.

And now, they had found it.

Twilight had expected to see eroded buildings and sand in the same state as she'd been seeing for much of the past few days, but this was far different. The ground here was mostly intact; there was still plenty of sand due to two thousand years of erosion, but there was also lots of solid rock. A giant cliff, actually, much like the cliff that Hope's Point was built on now, only buried under an unknowable volume of water.

Most of the buildings weren't just crumbling either, but had been utterly broken, ripped apart by an unknown force that had also left great chasms in the rock. The black marble-like material that the minotaurs supposedly used was on full display here; entire buildings were built into the cliff and made of such material. It was no wonder that the southern ponies in ages past had nicknamed the city "Blackcliff".

"The city didn't just disappear," Twilight noted as she observed their discovery from the cockpit viewscreen. "It sank into the sea. The entire piece of land it was built on sank into the sea." She turned to Captain Ember. "And you're certain that none of the other exploration vessels have seen anything like this so far?"

"No, Princess," Ember said, her wings tilting ever-so-slightly so that the Comet Chaser would dive and curve around a large chunk of cliff. "We're the only crew that found anything at all. Granted, we're the only ones who went far enough into the Belt, but still…"

"What's your thought here?" Winter asked, giving Twilight a curious look.

Twilight tapped her chin, then gestured towards the map that the ships' crew had been charting of their discoveries thus far. "The fact that the only evidence of the minotaurs is along such an isolated area suggests that their city wasn't built along the entire coastline, but was built more like Hope's Point is. Larger, certainly, but similar in design.

"For it to reach this far out, it would suggest that either Athenos was built on an island or a peninsula; the difference is negligible, but an island would better explain why there's no evidence whatsoever of the minotaurs on the northern continent. The island certainly could have been close enough to the mainland to be considered part of it, however."

"Why does that matter?" asked Ember.

"It makes more sense for an entire island to sink into the sea than a peninsula. Rather, it's more believable… or less unbelievable?" Twilight shook her head. "It's not really relevant at all, actually. Just trying to make some sense of it. If the minotaurs had any settlements on the continent itself outside of Athenos though, surely the gryphons would have found them."

"Not really somethin' worth makin' theories on at the moment, I'd say," Winter noted, turning her attention fully to the viewscreen. "What's important is findin' someplace where we can investigate what happened here, what happened to Pandemonia's Warden and thus to her." She turned to Copper, who was seated at a station in the cockpit. "Anything?"

Copper scratched her head. "All of my readings so far suggest this is just one big old hunk of rock, my dude. Apart from all the cracks and stuff, yeah? But even those are just that: cracks."

"If you cut a slice of cake, the cake isn't suddenly hollow," Ember noted with a sagely nod.

"Weird analogy, but okay," Winter grunted. "So it's not exactly like Hope's Point, then. Hope's Point has a massive underground section built into the hollowed-out cliff. Looks to me like the minotaurs just built on top of and onto the side of the cliff and that was that." A pause, then she turned back to Copper. "And none of these buildings are big enough to be worth lookin' at?"

"Noperino, dude."

"Fuckin' hell, this is startin' to feel like a waste of time."

"We can't give up yet, Winter," Twilight said, setting her hoof on Winter's shoulder. "This is the best evidence we've gotten so far. There's got to be something around here that we can look into. Let's consider Pandemonia's story. Is there anything she said that we can use to narrow our search?"

Winter gestured out at the bottom of the cliff, where there were tons of small, demolished harbors. "She said the last thing she remembered was her Warden gettin' off her boat at the port and goin' into a temple. Any one of those docks down there could be it, and we don't know what buildings could be temples."

Copper's eyes widened, and she pointed up at the corner of the viewscreen. "That looks pretty temple-y to me, dudes."

Ember shifted the spotlight up to where Ember was pointing, and now Twilight and Winter could see it clearly too. It wasn't a building, no, but it was certainly a structure, one that would definitely indicate something of major importance nearby.

A minotaur statue. A big minotaur statue. Twilight was rather reminded of the Statue of Friendship on Friendship Island off the coast of Manehattan, only much bigger. Considering how big the Statue of Friendship was, this fact was actually quite alarming; that statue had been built in Manehattan less than two hundred years ago, but this statue was built over two thousand years ago. How? The logistics of such a feat with that technological level and without magic seemed impossible.

The minotaur depicted was mostly featureless, so if it represented any particular minotaur, nopony present could possibly know. The statue's arms were outstretched, its legs tight and its hooves together at the base, a grand welcoming gesture if there ever was one. Odd, considering that Pandemonia claimed that the minotaurs were raiding the ponies' coastal settlements and ships, but then the statue was surely meant to appeal to other minotaurs.

More importantly, though, was the fact that a large harbor was build all around the statue—it was not built upon an island like the Statue of Friendship was—and that directly behind the statue was a large, singular structure built into the cliff that stretched all the way up from the base to the very top. It was somehow miraculously and mostly intact; the same could be said of the statue, which was made of some kind of metal rather than stone and yet had barely oxidized whatsoever.

"That's a big dude," Copper observed succinctly.

"You can say that again," Winter said with awe. "Fuck me, how'd they build that thing so big, eh? This fucker's as big as some of the smaller skyscrapers up in New Pandemonium."

"Judging by the physique of the minotaur depicted here, and assuming that that could be considered an average base from which to measure other minotaurs, it could be just sheer strength and numbers," Twilight suggested. "That's still impressive, of course."

"That structure behind it seems important," Winter noted, pointing at said structure. "It's the only one in this area that hasn't fallen apart. And with this big fuck-off harbor here, I'd say we found our landing point."

Copper nodded. "Yeah yeah, good call. That structure's built into the cliff just like all the others." A pause while the equipment scanned the area. "Aww, bummer dude. It just goes up the cliff like all the others too. Nothing special about—" Another pause, and her eyes widened. "Whooaa, no way. There's, like, a tunnel system under it."

Twilight and Winter moved over to take a look at her console. Sure enough, the image displayed an image generated by seismic resonators that indicated there was a hollow section underneath the main entrance of the structure. As the equipment continued scanning, it was clear that there was a large section of the cliff that had been hollowed out behind the structure.

"That's the best lead we've had so far," Twilight said firmly. "This spot here is definitely where Warden Peach Blossom disembarked, and that structure is definitely the temple." She tapped her chin. "But how do we get in? The tunnels are much too narrow for the Comet Chaser to fit, and we don't want to use the mining laser here in case we damage something important."

"Not to worry, Princess Twilight, this ship's equipped with state-of-the-art diving equipment," Captain Ember said with a proud smile. "And I'm not talking about something silly like scuba gear, no sir. Well, it's kind of like scuba gear, but better. Much better."

"Are we going to be getting off the ship?"

"Yup!"

"Uh, y'know the pressure outside'll kill us, right?" Winter noted.

"Oh yeah, sure, if the diving gear wasn't equipped with personal shields like the Comet Chaser itself is." Ember nodded firmly, then turned to Copper. "Copper, take them down to the passenger cabin and get everypony together, please. You and Sparky can get them all situated for disembarking procedures."

Copper gave a little salute. "You got it, Cap." She hopped out of her seat and headed towards the exit of the cockpit. "Follow me, dudes. We're gonna get you all set up for some righteous deep sea diving. Lucky."

"What about you?" Winter asked, tilting her head up at Ember. "What're you gonna do?"

"Oh, I'm just gonna park the Comet Chaser right over here next to the temple entrance while you folks go on your expedition. I'll be here when you're done to pick you up and take us home."

"Right. Just, uh… watch out for sea serpents I guess."

"Will do, Miss Glow. I hope you guys find whatever it is you're looking for. Have fun!"

Twilight and Winter followed Copper back to the passenger cabin, where the other expedition members were all firmly glued to the windows.

Rainbow noticed the pair coming in and immediately pointed out the window excitedly while giving Twilight a big, bright smile. "Yo Twi! You seein' this?! There's a giant statue outside! A giant minotaur statue!"

"Yes, Rainbow, we saw it," Twilight said with a cheeky grin. "And yes, I've already had the same thought: it's just like—"

"—just like the Colossus of War from Daring Do and the Marauders of The Forbidden City! One of the lost Wonders of the World! I mean, this is a minotaur, not a unicorn, but the point still stands. So. Awesome!" Her face then slapped back onto the window as if drawn there by a magnet. "I am so glad I came along."

"Remember, Rainbow, this isn't a field trip, it's a legitimate expedition," tutted Winter. "We're not here to have fun."

"Yeah yeah, I know. But I can have fun and be on the lookout for clues. Don't you worry, I won't let you guys down."

Twilight stepped over to Hourglass and Sunspire on the opposite window. "Are you guys ready to get moving? Captain Ember's gonna take us closer and then we're gonna… get out of the ship, apparently, and go inside the temple."

Hourglass's eyes widened in surprise. "We're getting off the ship? What about the water pressure?"

"That's what these are for, little dude!" said Copper, who had come back from a supply room in the back of the ship, along with Ensign Spark.

The two were carrying a set of five diving suits that absolutely reminded Twilight of scuba gear, only much more robust and high-tech. They were all colored in the Comet Chaser's crew colors, black and light blue, but also had some of Hope's Point livery on the more technical bits of equipment.

"All of the deep sea vessels have a full set of these babies," Copper explained, holding one of the suits up. They looked rather… small. Not just for Twilight, but for everypony. Even Winter, actually. "Like the Cap said, they're state-of-the-art diving suits equipped with a shield projector that works just like the Comet Chaser's shields do. The included battery gives you one hour of use."

"We only have one hour to get our work done?" Winter balked. "Are you fuckin' jokin', mate?"

"Oh, naw, but don't you worry bro, these suckers only drain the juice when the shields are on. If you don't need 'em, don't use 'em. And we can recharge 'em on the ship, too, so no worries! Just come back, take a break, then go back out."

"They're also equipped with nifty breathing apparatuses," said Spark as she tapped a nozzle on the front of the suit. "It actually filters out oxygen from the water for you to breathe and filters out the carbon dioxide you exhale, all without impairing your ability to talk. The captain's using a simpler version of the same tech, and the ship itself uses the tech so that we all have air to breathe in here."

Copper smiled wide. "See? High-tech! State-of-the-art! Totally rad!"

"They look… small," Twilight noted, scuffed her hoof nervously on the floor. "I don't see how I'm gonna fit into one of those."

"Ohhh hey, no worries, Princess dude! The suit material is elastic! Fits any size, guaranteed. It's totally righteous stuff, I'm tellin' ya." Copper offered a suit to Twilight. "Here, give it a try. Go on. Put it on."

Twilight looked around at the others present, then tilted her head. "You… want me to get undressed right here in front of everypony? I thought there were rules?"

Copper blinked, then laughed. "Aha! Oh no, no way Princess dude. We've got a changing room in the back. Haaa. No way I'd make you get all nudie in front of your friends. That'd be gnarly. I mean, unless you're into that sort of thing, right?" A pause, then a look at Sunspire. "Oh. But I wouldn't let you do it in front of the squirt, anyway. Most uncool."

Sunspire tilted his head. "Huh?"

"R-right." Twilight cleared her throat, then took the suit and headed past Copper and Spark into the back area.

Spark followed and showed Twilight to where the changing room was, and even graciously stood outside to… stand guard, or something. The changing room wasn't built for a pony of Twilight's size, obviously, but she tried her best to finagle her way into the suit in such tight quarters.

She was surprised, actually, at how easy it was to do so. When she placed her hoof into the opening at the top and pushed inward, the material stretched dramatically until she stopped. There weren't any sleeves to insert herself into, oddly, not that she could feel at least, so she just placed another hoof and leg all the way in, then another, then another.

She then tugged the material up and over her body with incredible ease, including her wings, which she stretched out fully so that she'd have full use of them, finishing it all off by pulling the "hood" with the breathing apparatus over her head. It even fit nice and snug over her horn.

Everything about it felt exactly like a scuba suit. The odd thing was that she was certain that it should have felt incredibly tight against her skin and coat, and yet it felt immensely comfortable. If not for the fact that she couldn't feel the sensation of air against her bare coat, she'd have sworn she wasn't wearing anything whatsoever.

Once she felt comfortable, she exited the changing room, and Ensign Spark was on her almost immediately, adjusting various pieces of equipment and ensuring that everything was snug and safe; she didn't need Spark to tell her what she was doing, she just knew it, and the young mare was quite efficient at it it seemed.

After Spark was done, Twilight headed back into the passenger area to where the others still were. To… show it off, she supposed.

She was surprised when Rainbow let out a loud wolf whistle. "Daaang, Twi, what'd they do, pour you into that thing? Lookin' good!"

Twilight lifted up a hoof to examine herself slightly, considering the statement, then nodded. "I mean, technically, yeah. It's pretty elastic. It stretches and then snaps tight against your body like a… a second skin, kind of. It's actually pretty amazing stuff, whatever it is." She turned to Copper. "I don't suppose you can tell me what it's made of?"

Copper zipped her hoof over her mouth. "Trade secret, Princess duderino. I can tell you that it's a modified version of our military-grade bodysuits, though, the kind the militia ponies wear under their armor. Isn't it rad?"

"I'll say it is," Rainbow quipped. "Let me get in on that action next." As Rainbow grabbed her suit, she nudged Copper in the side gently. "And, uh, if you can tell me where I can get one of these for my wife, I'd owe you a favor big time. Like, the hugest. We'll talk."

As Twilight headed off to get changed, Twilight stepped over to Winter and gave her friend a little smile. "I really was worried for a bit there that it wouldn't fit. This is some pretty impressive stuff if it can accommodate even a mare my size." She tapped her chin. "I wonder what the limit is?"

Winter, who was sweating profusely and whose face was terribly red, just licked her lips and nodded. "Ah… r-right. It… it sure looks… c-comfy."

Twilight smiled and nodded. "Oh, it is. I was telling myself earlier that it feels like I'm wearing nothing at all," she said as she turned in place briefly, making sure she didn't accidentally whack Winter in the face with her flank.

Winter let out a noise that sounded like a bizarre mix between a tea kettle and a grunt, then grumbled something under her breath and directed her gaze directly at the floor. And, when Rainbow was done getting changed, Winter almost immediately grabbed her own suit and bolted straight for the changing room so quickly that nopony'd even realized she'd done so until she was already gone.

Rainbow blinked and watched her go, then scratched her head. "Dang. I thought I was fast. What was that all about?"

Twilight shrugged, a small grin on her face. "I'm not sure. Probably just excited to head off on the expedition so she can answer all the questions she's been looking for answers to, y'know?"

Once everypony had gotten changed—Sunspire seemed a little nervous about the whole deal, though everypony had the tact not to acknowledge it—it was time to disembark, a process that Twilight had been most curious about but which turned out to be rather simple, yet elegant, like a lot of the things Hope's Point seemed to strive for in their technology.

The expedition team gathered inside the boarding hall; it was a tight fit with all five of them at once, so Twilight had to scrunch up right on top of Winter to take advantage of their size difference. Twilight was sure she heard Winter make that weird noise again, whatever it was.

Then, Copper sealed the hall behind them, and the boarding ramp deployed to allow them to exit the ship. The Comet Chaser's shields were remarkable in that they allowed air and water in but not foregin particles, but also allowed the expedition team to pass through, as though the technology could be tweaked with a list of "friendly" objects.

Twilight and her team made for the entrance of the temple structure—they were still assuming it was a temple for now—under the guidance of the Comet Chaser's searchlight. The entrance was suitably huge, not just because it was used by a race of creatures that stood tall and bipedal, but because the structure was obviously important to their culture. The doors at Canterlot's Royal Palace were also quite large for much the same reason.

She once again had to marvel at the technology used in the diving suits; the water at this depth would surely be freezing beyond just crushing, but she felt pleasantly warm. And the shields were all working perfectly; the subtle golden glow around herself and her comrades proved that.

Once inside, Twilight lit up her horn… only to remember that her horn was covered in the suit material and as such her light spell wasn't visible to anypony; her magic was essentially unusable. Luckily, Winter was already two steps ahead and knew how to turn on her diving suit's flashlight, which was located on a small attachment just over the breathing apparatus so that it shined wherever Winter's muzzle was pointed.

The others followed suit, and now they all had flashlights, even Rainbow, the only non-unicorn present. Just another nifty little feature of this technology, it seemed.

The entrance to the tunnel system they'd seen on the sensors was not right out in the open, but hidden underneath a seemingly random floor panel behind a seemingly random pillar. Luckily, two thousand years of neglect and erosion had chipped away at the methods used to hide the entrance; the trapdoor was warped, and if there had been a rug or something over it, it had long since rotted away.

The decorations and architecture of the temple entrance should have been mesmerizing to Twilight, but she could tell three things about everything right away: one, everything was so eroded and warped that there was no way anypony could gather any meaningful details; two, the "black marble" that everything was made of wasn't extraordinary, just black-colored marble and that was it.

Three, exploring up here was a waste of time, since if some mysterious circumstances had caused the disappearance of Pandemonia and her Warden, the source of those circumstances was not about to be out in the open for all to see. Maybe it would, but it was far more likely to be located underneath a hidden passageway. Rainbow wasn't the only one who could follow Daring Do logic.

From there they descended down a long, spiral staircase—swimming, not walking—until they reached the bottom, then continued along a relatively short corridor until they came across something truly remarkable and bizarre: the water just… stopped.

An invisible barrier of some sort stood in the path ahead, cold, crushing seawater on one side, open air on the other. The barrier had clearly been in place for quite a long while, as the walls on the watery side had abundant evidence of erosion while the walls on the other side were in pristine condition. There was otherwise no indication that anything was amiss.

"Okay, that's a bit freaky," said Rainbow as she moved up closer to the divide, her voice distorted by her apparatus. "It's like there's a pane of glass here or something."

Twilight lit her horn briefly, then nodded in understanding; her magic could at least still be used to detect things. "It's definitely some sort of barrier magic, but not like anything I've ever seen before." She then lurched forward; Rainbow had reached out to touch it. "Rainbow!"

Rainbow knocked her hoof against the invisible barrier to find that it wasn't just invisible, it was intangible. Her hoof went right through it. "Whoa-ho, neat." She shoved her whole limb inside, wiggled it around, then pulled it back out. "Awesome. It's totally dry on the other side!"

"Which means this thing isn't an illusion," Winter noted, tilting her head at the divide. "What kind of barrier magic would only keep out the water?"

"Maybe it works like these shields?" Rainbow suggested, tapping the golden glow that flickered over her chest. "Or like, the shield around all of Hope's Point or something?"

"Hope's Point's shield is primarily technological in nature with only minor technomagic elements just for operational purposes and power supply. The minotaurs didn't have technomagic."

"That we know of," Twilight quipped.

Winter blinked. "Yeah, fair enough. Still, it's more likely this is purely magical in nature. How the minotaurs used magic is anypony's guess, but unless ya wanna tell me that we stumbled across an air pocket in the middle of a hallway, magic's involved."

Twilight nodded. "Like I said, I definitely detect magic from this… division here."

"You can see it too, right Sunsy?" Hourglass asked, nudging Sunspire.

He shook his head. "Not with my goggles on, and I can't take them off while I've got this mask over my face."

"Well why do you still have them on in the first place?"

"All the magic from the storms out there just… they overload my senses." He pressed his hoof to his temple. "I tried to look at the storm when we first entered it and I got the worst headache ever."

Hourglass frowned and hugged the colt close. "Aww. Are you feeling alright now? I don't want to sound like a jerk, but we might need those powers of yours, and I don't want to force you to use 'em if you're feeling ill."

He smiled back at her. "I'm fine. I haven't taken my goggles off in days now, except for when I'm sleeping. I'm in good shape to look for clues… once I can get these goggles off, of course."

"What're we still waiting around out here for?" Rainbow groaned. "I don't know about you guys, but I wanna get a move on. Adventure awaits!"

Before anypony could say anything else, Rainbow swam through the barrier and landed on the solid floor below, safe and sound. She even examined herself to check for any sign of injury or change before pumping a hoof and taking a few steps further in. Since nothing seemed to be wrong, Winter shrugged and followed suit, then Twilight, then Hourglass and Sunspire.

True enough, the hallway beyond the divide was totally dry; no water had even clung to their diving suits and as such no water dripped onto the floor whatsoever. Nothing else about the ponies or their suits changed; all of the gear still worked as far as Twilight could tell, and she couldn't feel anything different about herself either.

The subtle golden glow of the shield technology was gone, though, which should have been worrying because it meant that the ponies were no longer being protected against the crushing pressure of the bottom of the ocean. If the shields weren't glowing though, that meant there was nothing exerting pressure on them. To Twilight this seemed bizarre; surely there was still pressure down here even without the water?

She wasn't quick enough to stop Rainbow from removing her breathing apparatus and peeling off her hood. "Rainbow! What are you doing?!" she exclaimed.

"What?" Rainbow asked, tilting her head. "There's no water down here so we should be able to breathe just fine."

"What if this was a vacuum and there wasn't any oxygen in here at all? Or what if the air in here was poisonous or… or filled with alien particles that could be lethal to your immune system? What if—"

"Nothing happened, Twi, relax," Rainbow said with a wide grin. "This is just a regular old archaeological expedition in some old ruins of an ancient dead race hidden under the ocean, not on another planet. Technically. Firmly rooted in standard action-adventure stuff, fantasy at best because of that magic barrier. This ain't no sci-fi story."

"Would you have acted differently if it was?" asked Winter, also taking off her mask.

"Oh heck yeah. If this were some weird alien planet I'd be the last one to let anypony take their masks off even if you were all yelling at me how safe it was. That's how you get the alien virus spore in your brain that turns you into a mutant zombie that makes you kill your starship crew until they bring out the flamethrowers." Rainbow shrugged. "Basic stuff."

Twilight ran her hooves over her face as both Hourglass and Sunspire followed suit and removed their own apparatuses. "And how is this any different from what you just described? What if the minotaurs died out due to some… some unknown magical disease and now you're all breathing in the spores?!"

"Well we'd be right screwed, wouldn't we?" chuckled Winter. She reached her hoof into her diving suit and pulled out her Timekeeper pocket watch. "If it makes ya feel any better, Timekeepers come with all sorts of automatic warning systems to alert me to those so-called 'invisible' dangers."

Hourglass nodded in agreement. "Besides the obvious Void energies, it also detects radioactivity, airborne bacteria that don't register as benign, fungal spores that don't register as benign, natural gas leaks, aaaand carbon monoxide. Among other things."

"Even detects poisons in food and drinks," Winter said with a grin. "We have to calibrate them so that it doesn't go off around the alcohol of whatever world we're in. Shot of certain tequila brands from this world would register as poisonous in yours."

"Oh good, that makes me feel better about your drinking habits."

Winter rolled her eyes. "I don't have a drinking habit, I have a drinking problem. Usually that problem is that I'm not drinking enough." She then gestured for the group to follow her. "Come on, everypony. We've got ruins to explore. Stick together, don't wander off, and if you need to stop for anything let the group know first."

"Pretty basic survival horror stuff," Rainbow agreed with a sagely nod. "Never split the party."

Twilight sighed, shook her head, then removed her own apparatus and followed after the others.

The hallway turned out to be a lot shorter than Twilight expected it to be, ending in a stairwell that led up and into another room. As soon as the lead pony, Winter, stepped up the stairs and into the room beyond, though, the group all jumped at the sudden appearance of a lightsource. A lot of light sources, actually.

"What the f—" Winter started, startled and glancing about for any source of a threat. "Who's there? Come out!"

But there wasn't an answer.

Twilight poked her head up—it was easy to press ahead and get a good vantage point due to her height—to see if she could see anything.

The light source that had suddenly appeared provided ample lighting throughout the new room that they'd found, its source being assorted lanterns hung strategically from the walls, ceilings, and pillars to give everything just this perfectly sinister glow. The lantern lights were blue rather than the typical orange-yellow glow of a regular fire.

The room seemed to be a foyer of what definitely looked just like an ancient foreboding temple should look like, at least according to, again, every Daring Do book ever. It was bizarre how even across entire worlds with different cultures and histories that the ancient civilizations just seemed to have this aesthetic to them that felt so sinister.

With that thought in mind, Twilight wondered if this world had its own Daring Do-like adventurer, and if they happened to moonlight as a world-famous author who wrote about their adventures into a series of novels intended for young colts and fillies, but enjoyable at any age of course.

Actually, now that Twilight got a good look around, the foyer here looked exactly like the foyer outside, the one that was buried under immeasurable tons of seawater. They'd even ascended up into it through a small stairwell at the end of the hall and up through a hidden passage located in the same position as before, though this one was not actually hidden, not when they found it at any rate.

Curious, Twilight lit up her horn to investigate the lanterns' light source. "Aha! It's a continual flame spell, a pretty basic enchantment that utilizes runic markings. That's how the minotaurs were capable of using magic: they were masters of Runomancy."

Winter raised an eyebrow. "Like the zebras?"

"Like your zebras, yes. Our zebras are masters of Alchemy. Or… one of them is, anyway."

"Whatever. So, who turned them on?"

"We did," Twilight said with a sagely nod. "The spell is proximity-activated so that the lanterns are only lit while somepony… er, some… sometaur?" A pause. "They only light up when someone—minotaur, pony, whatever—is in the vicinity."

Winter glanced up at the lantern closest to her, then shook her head. "Well, at least they're bright. Saves us the trouble of using our own lights."

Twilight called down for the others to come up, and everypony got a chance to look around, though they made sure to stay in the foyer where there was light. A large archway ahead led on to another room, but the other room was pitch dark; none of the lantern light from the foyer seemed to penetrate the darkness beyond the arch. As if the place wasn't creepy enough.

Rainbow in particular took to the air to examine the ceiling, which towered even above Twilight. Based on the size of the hallway and the stairs, Twilight could tell that minotaurs were tall, about Celestia's height—or Pandemonia's, to use an example from the current world. The ceiling's height was clearly just for aesthetics.

Speaking of aesthetics, since this section of the temple was intact, Twilight now had ample opportunity to observe the sort of architecture these ancient minotaurs used. They were definitely fond of columns, that much was obvious, with a copious amount of fluting leading up to rather elaborately-designed capitals. There was a definite sense of balance and proportion to how the columns were spaced; it explained how the structures had stood the test of time so well, even out in the waterlogged section.

There was plenty of iconography around so that, just in case anypony had any doubts, anyone would know that minotaurs used this temple. Minotaur forms had been sculpted into the walls to make them sort of "pop" a bit, giving off the impression that hordes of the creatures were gathered behind the wall and reaching out, hands outstretched, faces contorted in desperation. They were disturbingly lifelike.

"Okay, so, this is creepy," Rainbow said bluntly as she landed back with the others. "I'm not the only one that thinks that, right?"

"Hardly," grunted Hourglass, who was busy keeping herself very close to Sunspire, and thus in turn to Twilight. "The gryphon ruins at least felt like a regular city wherever you went, even in the secret vaults and such. This temple feels bloody spooky."

"It's the lighting that does it," Winter said simply. "The gryphon ruins don't have lighting of their own anymore, so we just use our own; whatever lights the gryphons used have long since run out of juice or got looted. These lanterns are giving us just enough light to see but not enough to feel… safe?"

"Yeah, that's a good call. I don't feel 'safe' in these lights."

"We may as well move forward," Twilight suggested, gesturing with her hoof into the darkness of the next room.

"Yup. Into the next dark, scary room," Hourglass muttered. "No problem at all there. No sir."

And so they did proceed into the next dark, scary room, Winter in the lead as she seemed to want to do, and as soon as she passed through the threshold of the archway, the next room slowly lit up as lanterns strewn about ignited in blue flame. The room much resembled the one they were just leaving, only quite a bit grander and with a lot more space to move and breathe; it had to be nearly thirty feet tall!

Twilight's guess was that this was some sort of main hall that led to every other possible section of the temple. The royal palace in Hope's Point had a similar chamber, as did her own palace back home, as did her old castle back in Ponyville, though the latter also originally contained the Friendship Map and thus also served as a sort of meeting room. In the dim, appropriately creepy lighting of the room, she could just make out a large stairwell that led upwards.

The room was decorated again with elaborate columns, these ones much more artistic in a sense. Rather than just fluted columns, they were also composed of carved minotaurs posed to look as if they were holding the columns up.

Each pose was different: one was taking a knee and bearing the weight with his shoulders; another was standing tall, arms stretched over his head; another was using one hand only, the other hand reaching down as if towards a passerby. The carvings were utterly perfect so far as Twilight could tell; having never seen one of this world's minotaurs in person—and they were certainly more menacing than Iron Will back home—she could only guess that these were true to life.

Incidentally, once everypony was out of the previous room, its lanterns turned off automatically and instantly.

"Oh good," Hourglass muttered as she looked up at one of the statues, this one holding up his column as if it were actively trying to crush him. "More creepy statues."

"I don't think they're creepy at all," said Sunspire, admiring the same statue she was. "I don't know much about art, but I'd say a lot of effort was put into these to make them seem so lifelike."

"Lifelike, yeah. Is that why it feels like their eyes are following me?"

"That's just a trick of the light," said Twilight, observing the same statue as well. True, slight moves left or right did make the statue's eyes look like they were following her, but she knew it was an optical illusion. "There's nothing to be afraid of down here, Hourglass. And if there is, you just stay by me and I'll keep you safe."

"It's kinda lame if you ask me," Rainbow huffed, fluttering up to get right in the face of the one-hand-lifting minotaur. "I thought for sure we'd have come across a trap or something by now. There wasn't even a trap when we walked through that wall or whatever it was."

Twilight grunted. "Rainbow, are you trying to tempt fate here?"

"No, I'm just saying that if I was a group of ancient minotaurs that was trying to protect a hidden temple where there was obviously something fishy going on, the first thing I'd do is hide it behind a secret passage. Check, done-zo, they did that part already.

"The next step, naturally, is to boobytrap the ever-loving heck out of the place. Where are all the flame jets that shoot out of the walls? Where are all the pressure plates that make boulders fall out of the ceiling? Where are all the pitfalls hidden underneath breakaway sections of floor?"

"What is your obsession with traps?" Winter scoffed, shaking her head. "I said this before we left: real life doesn't work like your little storybooks. The minotaurs wouldn't set up traps in this temple to guard it against anyone because this is where they lived and practiced whatever religion it is they followed."

"And what if they had a super valuable treasure that needed to be guarded from folks like us, huh?"

"Then they'd put 'traps' and security measures into the vault where that stuff was located, not at random in a part of the temple where everyone moves through constantly."

"She has a point, Rainbow," Twilight said. "I know, I know, this is just like—"

"—Daring Do and the Eternal Labyrinth! I mean, c'mon, look at these minotaur statues, guys." Rainbow brazenly tapped her hoof on the one she was closest to, right on the nose. "These things should totally be waking up and attacking us right now."

Hourglass let out just the oddest sound Twilight had ever heard. "Did she seriously just touch it?!"

Everypony, even Twilight, braced for something to happen.

But nothing did.

"See? Lame!" Rainbow scoffed. "They're just regular old statues."

"That's what I've been tryin' to tell you!" Winter groaned. "This isn't like—"

"Hey. Listen," Rainbow said, swooping down next to Winter and putting her hoof around the smaller mare's shoulder. "I know, you think I'm just basing this all off some fantasy baloney. But trust me, I lived it. Daring Do is real. Her adventures are real. I was in one of her books because I was there."

"Daring Do and the Ring of Destiny," said Twilight with a smile and a nod. "I've read it three times."

"Only three?" Rainbow snorted, giving Twilight a bewildered look.

Twilight shrugged. "In my opinion it's actually one of the weaker books in the series. I found the sidekick kind of grating at the beginning. A little whiny, kinda useless, made Daring Do do all the work, and then just bragged about how cool they were."

Rainbow's jaw dropped. "I'm the sidekick. You know that, right?"

"You know she's just messin' with ya, right?" snickered Winter.

Rainbow paused, looked at Winter, then looked back at a smiling Twilight before grinning herself. "Oookay, Twi. You got me. You really had me going there for a bit. I thought maybe you'd forgotten that I autographed your first edition copy."

Twilight giggled. "I still have it in the case you gave me to keep it in. It's in my private library."

"This is all well and good," said Winter, unlatching herself from Rainbow, "but the point still stands: no traps to worry about unless we're given actual reason to suspect them. These statues aren't even magical."

"That's not entirely true," said Sunspire; he'd taken the goggles off of his eyes sometime during the conversation.

"Huh?"

"Each of these statues has a very faint magical signature inside of it, in the chest cavity. It's not any particular spell or anything like that, and the source is very faint, but there's definitely something in there."

"In the chest?" asked Twilight. "Ooh, maybe the sculptors embedded a magical gemstone into their chest to serve as a 'heart' or something?"

"It could be. I don't know anything about minotaur anatomy, but that sounds like a reasonable guess to me. The magic feels… weird. I think it's only a regular gemstone, but it resonates as if it were alive, like any one of you."

"Oh yeah, that doesn't sound creepy at all," Hourglass whimpered. "Why did I agree to come down here with you lot? This place is bloody awful."

Rainbow held up her hooves. "Okay, so these statues have magical gems inside their chests, gems that feel like they're alive, but they're not traps? Somepony make sense of this for me, 'cause I'm not getting it. Why is it on the inside? Wouldn't that be really hard to do?"

"Could just be part of their culture or religion, Rainbow," Twilight said, patting her friend on the back. "Like how in some Daring Do adventures, the statues have eyes made out of valuable jewels? Like… Daring Do and the Idol of Mysteries. The Idol itself had little rubies in its eyes, right? And they were magical, too!"

"Yeah, okay, I guess that works. This is just that on a bigger scale." Rainbow tapped her chin. "Do you think those gems might be a clue to what we're looking for?"

"I don't see why they would be," Winter said, looking up at one of the statues and shaking her head. "They seem pretty innocuous to me, weird bits notwithstanding."

"Same here," Twilight agreed. "I think they're just decorations, nothing more. I don't know what to make of the gemstones, but since we can't even see them we're making assumptions anyway. Probably not a good idea to go breaking anything."

Rainbow rolled her eyes. "Great, so we've spent all this time talking about the lame decorations. Lame. Lame. This is the least Daring Do-ingest adventure ever."

"Well, I'm sure glad that you guys don't think they're scary," said Hourglass with an audible gulp. "Can we just move on and out of this room now? Please?"

Nopony argued the point, instead making straight for the stairs at the end of the room and heading up into the darkness beyond, the lights behind them in the grand hall winking out as soon as they were gone.

The next room at the top of the stairs was yet another grand hallway, this one shorter but still plenty wide. The lanterns this time were just a little brighter, mainly because they seemed perfectly positioned to highlight assorted murals along the walls. The murals were all in perfect condition so far as Twilight could tell, and were carved directly into the walls with such skill and detail that the images depicted looked strikingly realistic and with surprising depth.

"Wow," Twilight breathed as she got closer to the first mural in the sequence, which was on the right wall; the opposite wall instead had assorted artisan works on display, such as vases and sculptures and old weapons. "This is some amazing craftsmanship. It looks almost lifelike."

The mural—Twilight hesitated to call it a diorama but the depth of the display nearly resembled one—depicted some sort of tremendous event in minotaur history. A collection of minotaur "figures" at the forefront of the mural looked off towards the backdrop in awe. The backdrop appeared to be fire; the way the flames of the lanterns danced to light the display was just perfect at making it seem so real.

She looked for some sort of plaque or something of that sort.

"What are you lookin' for, mate?" Winter asked from behind.

"Something to tell me what's happening in this artwork here. Surely this is some sort of representation of the minotaurs' history," Twilight said, not at all stopping her search and looking at every inch of the wall she could. "There might be some clues here as to what happened to Pandemonia in one of these."

"You think they recorded their city sinkin' into the sea? What, as it was happenin'?"

Twilight paused, then shook her head. "Unlikely, but nobody knows what the timeframe is between when Peach Blossom disappeared and when the city sank into the ocean. It could've been days, weeks, maybe months or years."

"Hmm. A sound theory. Even so, how much do ya think other aspects of their history would help in this case?"

"I don't know, but it won't hurt to try." Twilight shook her head. "But there's nothing here. No plaque, no signs, no inscriptions. How was anyone supposed to know what this display was supposed even be depicting?"

"Maybe magic would help?" suggested Sunspire.

"Hmm?"

Sunspire gestured at the mural. "Every inch of that mural there is coated with some sort of magic I've never seen before." He gestured at the next mural down the line, far enough away that Twilight couldn't make out any details. "Same with that one over there, and every one down the line."

He then gestured around himself in general. "That same magic is all over this section of the temple. It doesn't coat everything, though, but like… it connects everything. Like a… a circuit board, or power lines."

"And it's a type of magic you don't recognize?"

"Nope. It's definitely Darkness magic, though. That much I can tell at least."

Twilight lit up her horn and tried to get a reading on it herself, but she didn't come away with anything more than he did: just Darkness magic in abundance, but not any kind that she recognized personally. She'd studied many, many different kinds of magic, even the evil sorts of magic that villainous individuals like King Sombra made use of, but there was only so much empirical evidence she could find on those sorts of things.

It unnerved her though, that was for certain.

What unnerved her more though, what unnerved everypony in fact, was when a voice echoed through the hall, seemingly originating from the mural itself: "Hmm… it would seem as though I have some unexpected visitors."

Hourglass leapt back several feet and nearly backpedaled right into a vase on display; instead she hit the wall next to it. "What the bloody hell was that?!"

Twilight's horn alighted, ready to protect against whatever threat came her way. "Who are you?" she called out. "Show yourself!"

"Be at ease, stranger," the voice said; it had a rich, powerful, reverberating baritone that seemed to come from everywhere at once yet was very clearly originating from the mural. "You are not in danger here."

Winter snorted loudly; her horn was also lit, and she stood back-to-back with Rainbow. "Oh yeah, because that's not somethin' ya hear all the time right before danger decides to rear its ugly head, eh?"

"Yeah! Come on out, pal!" shouted Rainbow, rising up on her rear hooves and raising her forelegs up in a show of bravado. "You want us to take it easy, give us a good reason!"

"I cannot reveal myself to you at the moment, unfortunately," the voice said. "However, further down this hall I have means of presenting myself, if you so desire."

Rainbow scoffed. "Oh sure, and we're supposed to just walk on down the hall all 'la dee da' and trust you?"

"It is not my intention to inspire a lack of trust. Perhaps there are some other means that can put your minds at ease?"

"Tell us who you are, for starters," Twilight said firmly.

"I am Malygnes, High Priest of Athenos. Welcome to the Temple of the Beyond."

Twilight and the others shared looks with one another briefly. "You're a minotaur then?" Twilight asked the voice.

"I was."

"You were? The hell does that mean?" Winter asked.

"I think it is self-explanatory. I was, and now I am not."

"So what are you?" asked Rainbow. "A ghost? Are we talking to a frickin' minotaur ghost?" A pause. "That's so rad."

"A 'ghost'…?"

"A spirit. A phantom. Wraith, specter, poltergeist, whatever you want to call it," said Twilight; she stopped herself before she went into a Dawn-style tirade. "Are you a dead minotaur speaking to us now from beyond the grave? The name 'Temple of the Beyond' seems a little on-the-nose."

"Then no, I am not."

"Then what are you?"

"I am Malygnes."

"We're just goin' around in circles," Winter grunted. "What do you want then, Malygnes?"

"I do not 'want' for anything, stranger, for I remain dormant within these walls. I was awoken by your magic, and so it is I who must ask you what you desire."

"He's got you there, Winter," Rainbow said quietly with a little nudge.

Twilight relaxed her guard a little bit, but didn't not relax the magic in her horn by even the slightest iota. "We're here looking for information. Maybe you could help us?"

"Information. Yes, there is much information to be found in these halls, stranger. How I can help depends on the information you seek. I cannot help you find what I do not know."

"That's fair. Let's start off with something simple then: why is this section of the temple hidden?"

"This was my private sanctuary."

"And what was the purpose of that barrier? To keep the water out?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Because the water would flood the sanctuary."

Twilight blinked. This Malygnes fellow was certainly straightforward with his answers; it was almost refreshing, if it weren't also so roundabout. "Okay. Um…" She gestured at the mural that she'd been so focused on before. "Explain this mural to me then. What event is being depicted here?"

To Twilight's surprise, the lanterns that were illuminating the display brightened to make it much easier to see, as if Malygnes had just turned up the intensity on the spell. The mural wasn't exactly clearer, so to say, but it was easier for everypony else to see from where they were.

"The Season of Fire," Malygnes said. "In ancient times, the northern lands were dominated by two opposing forces: the dragons, and the phoenixes. Their war was thought to be eternal. And then it ended." The lighting of the mural intensified. "The Mother of Calamity awoke and bathed the north in fire and ash. And when her work was done, she entered into a deep slumber within the red mountains to the west."

"Who or what is this 'Mother of Calamity'?" Twilight asked.

"I do not know. I know only the tales passed down over generations."

Twilight nodded, then briefly conferred with Winter. "You think maybe this 'Mother' was Nihila? She certainly would want to destroy everything in her path, and she's got a lot of association with the north."

Winter seemed to consider it, then gave a small nod. "Maybe. We can't make that jump yet though, and it doesn't help us with what we came here for. Let's try to stick to the plan; I know learnin' their history is fascinatin' and all, but—"

"Don't worry, Winter, I'll keep on track," Twilight said with a wink and a grin. She turned back to the mural, feeling a little odd to be talking to what was essentially a painting that was exactly talking back the way she'd have expected a painting to do. "This 'Mother of Calamity', you say she brought an end to this war between the phoenixes and the dragons. How?"

"The minotaurs of old were in awe of her power," Malygnes replied. "The legend says that she burned the entire continent in mere hours. Nothing survived."

"But she left the minotaurs alone?"

"The minotaurs were not involved. We were beneath her notice, far from her fury, and so she did not burn us."

Twilight frowned with thought. She figured that if this "Mother of Calamity" actually was Nihila, she would have destroyed everything, the minotaurs included. It would have potentially given a source for what had happened to Athenos to send it to the bottom of the sea. With that avenue seemingly exhausted—Malygnes didn't seem forthcoming with information unless asked directly—she decided to move on.

"I've heard that your people, the minotaurs, used to raid the shores of my people, the ponies of the south," she said, keeping her story simple and straightforward in order to maintain the lie. "Why did your people attack us?"

"Our people took what we needed from wherever we found it. If ponies had what we needed, then we took it."

"Why not start trade agreements with them? Why not bargain for what Athenos needed rather than take it from others?"

"It was easier to take it."

Twilight waited for more, but Malygnes didn't elaborate. "That's it? Your people just raided pony villages and ships, hurting and even killing innocents to get these things your people needed… because it was easier?"

"Yes."

Twilight sighed, then shook her head. She wasn't about to get into a philosophical debate with this… whatever Malygnes was now. "But at one point, your people agreed to have some sort of peace agreement? The minotaurs wanted to open up negotiations with the ponies?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"King Magnus believed that it would better our people to do so."

"Did a pony come here? To Athenos? To this temple?"

A pause. "Yes."

Twilight smiled; confirmation that Pandemonia's Warden had indeed arrived here in the city, even visited the temple. Now she just needed the most important part: "And what happened after that? What did King Magnus do with her?"

"I do not know."

"You… you don't know? But you're the High Priest! Surely you'd know what happened if a pony had been allowed into your city and then she came into your temple, wouldn't you?"

"No."

Twilight balked. "What do you mean 'no'?!"

Another pause. "You desire information that I do not have. King Magnus invited this pony here, not I."

"How in the hell did you not know what your king was doin' in your temple?" Winter scoffed.

"It is not my place to question the actions of those superior to me."

Winter stamped her hoof on the floor. "Shit! Useless-ass ghost. Now what?"

"You're sure there's nothing else that you can tell me?" Twilight pleaded, stepping towards the mural. "There's no other information that you can give me about this?"

"No."

"Gah, we're back to square one," Rainbow grumbled. "All we managed to do was confirm what we already know. Or, I guess what we already believed. This bites."

"You mean we came all the way into the spooky underwater temple for nothing?" Hourglass groaned.

Twilight held up her hooves. "Now hang on, everypony, it's not a total lost cause just yet. Maybe Malygnes doesn't know what happened to Warden Peach Blossom, but maybe he can tell us what happened to Athenos, why it sank into the sea. The events might still be connected." She turned back to Malygnes. "Right? You've gotta know what happened to your city."

"Yes."

"Wonderful! Then, tell us what happened."

A pause. "If that is the information you desire, then you should proceed further down the hall here." As Malygnes said the words, the lanterns along the hall lit up brighter along the right side. "It will be easier to understand."

Twilight looked to the others, biting her lip as she did so. "What do you guys think we should do? I'm not sure that I like this, but we need that information or we're basically stuck at square one, like Rainbow said."

"Are we even sure this dude can do anything to us?" Rainbow asked, scratching her head. "It feels like we're talking to a… a computer or something. Pinkie and I talked to some computer programs and stuff up north. I mean, we didn't do it quite like this, but if you typed a question into the computer it would give you an answer."

"Those are the really basic search engine programs," Winter said with a nod. "But I see your point. If I didn't know better I'd say that this Malygnes turned himself into a computer program to live forever or somethin'. Same concept."

"Well, whatever, I say we play along for now," Rainbow said, crossing her hooves over her chest. "Twi's a super-powerful alicorn, I've got superpowers, and Winter's not bad in a fight. I think we can handle ourselves if he tries to go all robot uprising on us. Or… ghost uprising. Ghost robot uprising?"

Hourglass scooted up alongside Twilight's legs, practically hugging them. "Y-yeah, good idea. If we're gonna go through with this, though, I'm staying right by Twilight." She grabbed Sunspire and pulled him over to her. "You too, Sunsy. Stay safe with me, yeah?"

Sunspire took a moment to respond—his attention was on the mural—but he eventually whispered, "Yeah. I'll stick with you, Hourglass, and we'll stick with Twilight."

Twilight glanced at Sunspire, then the mural, then back to Sunspire. "Is something wrong? You're staring at that mural like it means something."

Sunspire gulped and continued to whisper. "Do you remember how I said I could see the magic in the mural, and how it's connected to everything else around here?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, when that voice, that Malygnes guy, was talking to us through the mural… I could see his face. In the magic, I could see his face."

Twilight's eyes widened. "Really? You saw him? What did he look like?"

"I… I don't know. It was just… a formless mass of magic to me, but I could tell that it was his face. He didn't have eyes or anything, but I felt like he was looking right at me."

Rainbow blinked, scratching her chin. "He looked at you, but he didn't have eyes?"

"N-no, no eyes, but I… I could just tell that he could see me. I could feel it. I… I don't know how to describe it better than that."

Twilight glanced down the hall in the direction that the group was supposed to be moving, then let out a breath through her nose and nodded firmly. "Stay near me, Sunspire. You too, Hourglass. If anything happens, I'll keep you safe, and then I want you to run as fast as you can for the exit. Got it?"

Hourglass gulped and nodded. "Got it."

"Got it," said Sunspire, almost in unison.

The group moved down the hall as they'd been instructed. The lantern lights brightened as the group passed by them, then dimmed once they were a fair distance away; Twilight was beginning to suspect that they were no longer reacting to proximity, but that the presence of Malygnes was simply watching them. Knowing that someone was watching her but not knowing from where, or why, did not do any favors for Twilight's sense of security.

At the end of the hall, the group stepped into another room, this one lighting up just as Winter entered into it as the other rooms had done before. It was a large, circular room with no other exits that Twilight could see, with a high, domed ceiling that was barely visible in the lantern light.

The walls of the room were decorated with murals similar to the ones she and her friends had passed by earlier, or rather, one huge mural that encircled the entire room. At the center of the room was a raised dais, perfectly flat and smooth and carved not from black marble like the rest of the room, but from stone. Strange markings—runes—were carved into the stone, though Twilight didn't recognize any of them.

At the opposite end of the room, though, across from the hallway entrance, was some sort of altar. Twilight had seen religious altars before in her own world—ponies didn't use any, but some other creatures did—and this met all of the hallmarks: large, elaborate, centralized, and inspiring. She supposed that the feelings it inspired should have been awe and wonder, but instead it inspired dread and confusion.

The base of the altar was held up by more minotaur statues—several such statues also "held up" the ceiling—in poses evoking offerings or uplifting. What they were uplifting was a formless mass of… something. Twilight couldn't think of any other way to describe it: a formless mass of something.

"Ooookay…" Rainbow muttered. "We have officially reached the capital of Creepy Town, everypony."

"Oh, we're only now getting there?" Hourglass huffed.

"Looks like we've finally found out where these minotaurs worshipped… whatever it is that they worshipped," Winter said, glancing around but staying near Rainbow rather than moving ahead. "What exactly is it that they worshipped?"

"Malygnes said something about the Beyond," Twilight said, her eyes darting about looking for some sign of the High Priest. "I'm still convinced that that means some sort of afterlife." She cleared her throat. "Malygnes? We're here. You said you had more information for us?"

"Yes," echoed the High Priest's voice from everywhere in the room.

Twilight was able to narrow down the origin of the voice to a section of wall nearby. The mural here was much the same as it was elsewhere along the wall: countless minotaurs who appeared to be in various states of distress. Some of them were fleeing some unseen threat, others screaming in terror, and more writhing in agony. Disconcerting, to say the least.

But then the image shifted slightly, as part of the wall itself changed shape to accommodate something else. Twilight took half a step back in shock as the image of a minotaur seemed to just melt into existence, as though the walls were made of clay and an unseen sculptor had just added to his work, shaping the material with expert precision.

"There," said Malygnes, his voice now emanating mostly from the mouth of the figure on the wall, yet still from everywhere else in the room. "You requested that I 'show myself' earlier. I believe that this will suffice."

Twilight couldn't help herself from tensing up when he spoke. The wall's material, which should have been utterly solid, shifted and shaped itself to accommodate his words. The movements weren't liquid-smooth, either, but were strained just enough so that Malygnes didn't look like he was really there speaking to them. His dead eyes and neutral expression didn't help matters any.

"How are you doing that?" she asked, gesturing with her wing towards the muraled wall. "This isn't like any sort of magic that I've ever seen before, not from creatures that don't have magic like unicorns do. I know that runic magic can replicate many effects, but this is… there aren't any runes anywhere on your mural."

"Runic magic was only one of the types of magic that my people used. We also made use of magical gemstones and alchemy."

"Well obviously it isn't alchemy that's doing this. Are you saying you achieved this effect with magical gems? How?"

The "figure" of Malygnes "walked" along the wall, looking very much like a stilted animation rather than a living, breathing creature. The despaired minotaurs at the base of the mural served as a surface for him to walk on, and to Twilight's bewilderment, they even seemed to react to his steps.

"This mural has been inlaid with one thousand soulstones, marvelous gems with immense magical potential." His eyes shifted and two such gems—green and shimmering with purple energy—appeared for a brief moment, then vanished back into the mural. "Our people made use of soulstones in all of our work. Art. Weaponry. Tools. Ships. Everything."

Twilight raised an eyebrow. "I can't say that I've ever heard of a soulstone." This was true; if her world contained any such magical gem, she'd never read about them or encountered one before.

"You would not have, for they do not naturally occur on your southern continent."

"And you used these soulstones to create this mural?" Twilight gestured back towards the previous hallways. "To create all of those other murals? Are they in the statues as well?"

"Yes. Our people made use of soulstones in all of our work, as I said."

Rainbow let out a nervous laugh. "Yup. That's not creepy at all, a bunch of magic gems called 'soulstones' in the hearts of some statues."

"Why do you call them 'soulstones'?" asked Twilight.

"Because they contain souls within them, and because they resemble simple gemstones. When applied properly, the souls within them can still be of use."

Twilight balked. "Wait. What?"

Malygnes's form gestured out with a hand—it only extended about a foot from the wall—towards the mural that surrounded the room. "This work of art contains within it one thousand soulstones. One thousand souls. Mine was the last to enter, and as the master of the spell it allows me to communicate with you, as we are now."

Twilight gulped and turned to the others, silently indicating to them that she wished to talk in private. Once they'd all gathered up, she whispered, "Okay, so… I'm pretty sure at this point that we're dealing with someone that's either straight-up evil, or severely misguided. Not just him, but all the minotaurs."

"No shit," Winter said bluntly. "How could ya tell? Was it the fact that he said a thousand souls were used to make the mural here, eh?"

"More than that, but yes. Soulstones by themselves sound like they're simply a magical tool, and even if someone were to contain a soul within one, I don't think that would necessarily be wrong. I suppose it depends on the views your world has on life after death from a religious and moral standpoint—"

"Get to the point, Twi," Rainbow huffed.

"Right, sorry. Using the soulstones to power their spells like this is far different though. It's one of the worst kinds of Dark magic that there is: Pneumancy. Soul magic." Twilight shook her head. "It's what we'd call one of the 'Big Three' types of utterly evil magic. The other two are Enthrallment, better known as mind control, and Necromancy, which is the raising and manipulation of the dead."

Winter nodded in understanding. "The three types of magic that take away a creature's free will."

"Exactly. Not all forms of Dark magic are evil, but these three are universally so. Even using one of these types of magic for some benevolent means is considered morally wrong on several different levels. I've attended over twenty different ethical and philosophical discourses on the topic."

"Is that why you gave the Crusaders that big talking to after that Hearts and Hooves Day incident?" Rainbow asked. "Y'know, with Cheerilee and Big Mac and the love potion? 'Cause that was creepy. Funny, but creepy when you stepped back and looked at it."

"Yes, that's exactly why I did it. I don't know who's bright idea it was to list that love poison's ingredients in a book that's so easily-accessible, and I blame myself for letting them have access to it in the first place. But yeah, that was a Bad Idea. It's why I've pushed so hard to get Starlight to change her ways."

"Yeah… since you mention it, I guess Starlight has done some pretty evil stuff. I, uh… I guess I sometimes forget she mind-controlled me into doing chores. She apologized, sure, but… well, kudos to you for turning her around, Twi."

"Thank you, Rainbow. For giving her another chance."

Rainbow nodded firmly, then turned her attention to the mural. "Okay, so, we just gotta keep an eye out on this bozo, more than we already were I guess."

"It is peculiar that you come to me for information, yet consistently make attempts to avoid speaking with me," Malygnes said, though his voice contained no mirth whatsoever, still the same disconcerting reverberating baritone as always.

Twilight and the others rose up immediately; she was concerned that he'd been able to hear what they'd been talking about. "Oh! Sorry. Just… having a little private conversation. So that we could… figure out what questions we wanted to ask next! Ahaha…"

"You asked earlier about the Fall of Athenos. Is that still the information you desire?"

"Oh, yes, certainly."

The form of Malynes continued walking further along the wall, and Twilight and the others followed along so that they could keep him in their sights. "The Fall was sudden. All of Athenos, and the island upon which it was built, sank into the sea. One hundred acolytes and myself were here, in this sanctuary, when it happened.

"Through our combined magic, we were able to prevent our temple from flooding. The same I cannot say for the rest of the city. As far as I know, we were the only survivors. As my acolytes starved to death, one by one I implanted their souls into this mural, to join with the congregation within. Mine was the last to join them."

"Hold on now, ya say that you and your acolytes protected the temple," Winter interjected. "This private sanctuary of yours is safe and dry, sure, but the temple outside is flooded just like the rest of the city."

"Yeah, what gives?" added Rainbow.

"The temple outside, the Temple of the Night, was not spared from its fate because the acolytes still there were not strong enough to protect it."

Twilight tilted her head. "I thought this was the Temple of the Beyond?"

"This is. The temple outside was the Temple of the Night. The majority of Athenos revered the night's darkness. This temple had a different purpose."

Twilight and Winter shared a brief look. "So… your people worshipped Pandemonia? The Alicorn of the Moons?"

"No. They worshipped the night itself, the darkness that came with it. The moons are no more dark than the lanterns in this room. Pandemonia was not worthy of the minotaurs' reverence."

"So you know who Pandemonia is?"

"Yes. The ponies of the south worshipped her. Their religion held no water here."

Twilight considered this, brimming with joy and excitement; more confirmation of Pandemonia's story! Sure, he only seemed to know Pandemonia as just a goddess that the ponies revered, the same as his people revered the night, and whatever this "Beyond" was, which she was more convinced than ever simply referred to an afterlife of some sort.

And since he seemed to have no knowledge of what his king, Magnus, had planned for her Warden—if he even knew what a Warden was—it was unlikely that he knew what had happened. She needed more details.

"Tell me more about the Fall," she asked. "When did it happen? You said that you knew about a pony coming here to your city, a guest of King Magnus. How soon after that did the Fall occur?"

"That very night."

Twilight's eyes widened: another connection! "Really? Can you tell me what happened? Did this pony have something to do with the Fall?"

"Yes."

Even Winter seemed excited now, moving forward to engage in the conversation like he was really there. "Well? Go on, tell us what happened. Don't keep us in suspense here."

"It is a long story."

"That's fine, we've got time."

The image of Malygnes gave a short nod, then turned to start walking along the muraled wall again. "In the decades before the Fall, when I was still young and had only just become an acolyte, I would often meditate on the nature of the night, of the darkness it brought. Over time, I realized that I had… philosophical disagreements with the scriptures.

"The night is not true darkness, you see. Darkness is the absence of light. They are opposing forces, polar opposites. And yet in the night's sky, the moons and the stars shine bright, tainting the darkness, staining it. No, how could the night be true darkness when it was so polluted?

"In my meditations, I sought answers for what was true Darkness, the complete absence of Light." The image of Malygnes seemed contemplative, almost mystified. "That is when I learned of the Dark Beyond the Dark. True Darkness, one that was untainted by Light, that was pure."

"How did you learn about this… 'Dark Beyond the Dark'?" Twilight asked, curious and just a little frightened; just the name alone sounded terrifying. "Just through your meditations? This was a philosophical realization?"

The form of Malygnes turned to face her, his face contorting in an odd grin. "A presence resided there, in the Dark Beyond the Dark. Through my meditations, it noticed my search for answers, and it provided me with everything that I sought. It taught me about the Dark Beyond the Dark, taught me how to control it."

"It taught you magic?"

"More than just magic. It taught me power. In return, the presence only asked me for one thing: a vessel. A vessel with which it could enter my world and bring the gift of true Darkness to all who dwelled here." Malygnes's image shook its head, despondent. "I was not fit to become the vessel myself, even after I became High Priest. So I looked elsewhere. I looked to the south."

Twilight and Winter shared a look; Twilight was beginning to understand where this conversation was going, and she didn't like it one bit.

"I went to King Magnus and told him of my visions, though I hid from him the existence of the presence, for it did not want itself revealed. Magnus believed that my visions were a prophecy, a vision of greatness for our people. I allowed him to believe that until his final days.

"Our ships raided the ponies' coasts and tested their naval prowess. The ponies were weak, and we took whatever we needed from them: food, goods, slaves. King Magnus was ready to invade, but then we received a plea for peace from the ponies. I convinced King Magnus to accept the offer; he doubted my strategy, but he did not doubt my vision.

"He invited a representative to come to Athenos to negotiate; it was to be a 'Warden', a religious and political leader of the ponies. I told him that he must specifically request the presence of the Warden of Pandemonia, for it was Pandemonia's Light-tainted night that was preventing our people from rising to greatness."

Twilight balked. "Wait a minute, you said that you didn't invite a pony here to Athenos. You said you didn't know what King Magnus did to her in the temple. You lied to us!"

"I never lied. I said that I did not invite the pony here; King Magnus did. I also do not know what they discussed in the Temple of the Night when she arrived. It was irrelevant to my plans."

"What happened to Pandemonia's Warden?" Winter demanded. "What did you do to her? You, specifically."

"In the dead of the night, my acolytes brought her here, to the Temple of the Beyond. She did not resist; the power I wielded, the power given to me by the presence, was too great for her. We brought her here to this very room." The image of Malygnes gestured at the dais. "We brought her here before the altar.

"The ritual was complex. Difficult. Several acolytes gave their life blood to fuel it. But it worked. The presence used the ritual to enter our world, using the Warden as a conduit. And the Warden would serve a second purpose: a conduit to Pandemonia herself." Malygnes tilted his head. "The Warden naturally did not survive."

Winter's eyes narrowed. "Does this 'presence' have a name?"

"Yes. Before the Warden died, the presence used her to thank me for my service. She revealed to me her true name: Nihila. Then, as a gift to her, I offered up the souls of every minotaur in Athenos. She used her power to drown our great city beneath the waves of the sea."

Twilight's eyes widened. "You… you're the one responsible for helping Nihila take over Pandemonia. No wonder she doesn't remember anything: she wasn't in control of herself at all! And by doing what you did, you killed every single minotaur in Athenos. Maybe not by your own hand, but by helping Nihila!"

Malygnes's expression was mostly unchanging, though if anything he seemed curious. "Yes. Nihila wanted her vessel, and I delivered it to her. My only regret is that I will not get to see her bathe this world in Darkness as she promised she would."

Winter grunted. "For the record then, pal, Nihila tried it twice already and failed both times."

Malygnes paused for a moment, then nodded. "Then she will succeed on her third attempt. Or her fourth. Or perhaps her fifth. It doesn't not matter; she will succeed eventually."

"Ha! Fat chance, bub," Rainbow taunted, flying right up to the mural. "She can try all she likes, but she's not gonna win."

"You intend to stop her, of course. It is only natural that creatures who do not understand the Darkness would seek to prevent its coming. You must be truly desperate to seek out our fallen city, to walk into a den of 'evil' as you call it, all for measly scraps of information."

"Information which you provided us," Twilight pointed out. "If you're so certain that we're going to lose, why help us?"

"Because you cannot stop her. Nihila is Darkness incarnate, and she will not be denied her victory." His image then shifted back into the mural, and he was now just a voice again. "I will not let you."

Twilight's ears perked up, and she noticed a huge slab of marble slide down and seal the room; all of the lights shut off at the same time, leaving her and Winter as the only light sources.

Then, she heard movement from all around them. To her surprise and horror—she knew what the gemstones were now—the minotaur statues that stood around the room all started moving, stepping away from their positions and moving towards the ponies. And, because of where they were positioned, they had the group of ponies surrounded. And they did not look friendly.

She leaned down to speak to a nervous Hourglass and Sunspire. "Get ready to run. Once we clear a path, you two make a break for it, got it?"

They nodded back without a word.

"Good." Twilight then lit up her horn and stepped over the two in a defensive position. "Get ready, everypony. Looks like we're in a Daring Do adventure after all."

"About time!" Dash chuckled, rolling her shoulders and getting ready to fly. "You get the kids to safety, Twi. I'll take care of these chuckleheads."

Winter snorted and ignited her own horn. "Don't hog all the glory there, Dash. We'll take these things together. You get the ones on the left, I'll get the ones on the right."

Rainbow glanced behind her—she and Winter were back to back—then asked, "Whose right? My right? Your right?"

"Just start blastin' 'em!"

Twilight had been involved in many battles before alongside her friends and sometimes her family, but this was the first time she'd ever done so since her growth spurt and the subsequent power increase. She didn't realize her own strength at all in combat terms yet, at least not outside of her barrier magic.

So she was a little surprised when she blasted the minotaur statue closest to her in the face and watched the entire thing's head just disintegrate into so many particles of dust.

Unfortunately, that didn't seem to stop the statue from moving, because it leveled a punch right at her, and she had to raise a shield spell to protect herself and her young wards. The punch wasn't particularly strong against the shield, but it was constant, and the other statues joining in already started to put on a lot of pressure

Behind her, meanwhile, Winter was using her magic to blast away not at the statues' heads, but at their legs. She wasn't as powerful as Twilight was, so the blasts didn't shatter the marble, but it did at least keep them off-balance enough to buy her some space to breathe and pull away from the main group; it seemed best if they weren't all crowded together.

Rainbow, meanwhile, took to the air and swooped around the ceiling. Twilight hadn't seen her using these new "superpowers" of hers just yet, so she was pleasantly surprised when Rainbow kicked her rear hooves together and generated a trail of lightning behind her, replete with the sound of thunder echoing throughout the chamber.

When Rainbow kicked one of the minotaurs in the back of the head… nothing really happened. Rainbow seemed surprised, particularly when her target turned and took a swing at her. "Aww, come on! What gives?!"

"Marble doesn't conduct electricity, Rainbow!" Twilight shouted, more focused on keeping her shield up while several marble minotaurs pounded away.

"Oh. Well dang."

"If you could get some water in here, that'd be good!" Winter called up to the pegasus.

"Yeah, sure, I can do that!"

Rainbow took to the air again, and this time she did a sort of tight looping roll at the highest part of the dome. Twilight wasn't sure how it worked, but she could see that Rainbow was forming a dark cloud in the center of her lopping formation. After only a few seconds, the cloud was fully formed and almost immediately started pouring rain.

Winter then used her magic to splash the water against the legs of the minotaurs before freezing it solid. There was barely enough water to make enough ice that Winter could do this at all, so she could only make due with one statue at a time and keep it locked in place. But it was enough that when she blasted the legs with a burst of kinetic magic, it shattered the ice and cracked the marble underneath.

Though it took a few attempts, Winter was eventually able to completely break through one of the statue's legs and render it… well, not helpless—it still tried to hop around and then dragged itself along after it fell over—but effectively disabled.

"If you desire water, you should have just asked," came the echoing voice of Malygnes.

Twilight's ears perked up again when there was a resounding crack from the ceiling. She and all of her pony comrades looked up—the minotaurs did not relent or get distracted—to see that the ceiling was crumbling. And that there was water pouring through the cracks.

"Uh oh…" Rainbow muttered.

It only took a few seconds for the ceiling to crack apart enough that water was able to pour into the room at a rate that Twilight was worried that the whole chamber would be flooded.

"We need to get out of here!" she called out to Winter and Rainbow. "I'm going to blast the door open! Winter, keep me covered! I can't use a barrier and a blasting spell at the same time!"

Winter was right at Twilight's side almost instantly and raised a barrier spell to underlay beneath Twilight's; Twilight could feel their magic intertwining slightly, a pleasant sensation, but not one to focus on right now. She was more focused actually on the fact that the water level was already rising; she was already hoof-deep.

"I've got you. Do your thing, Twilight," the smaller unicorn said with firm confidence.

With Winter's barrier up, Twilight was able to drop hers—she heard Winter grunt as the minotaurs started pounding away at her shield instead—and light up her horn for a blasting spell.

It took a few shots to weaken the integrity of the door, and then she called out to Rainbow: "Dash! Kick the door out!"

Rainbow swooped down and kicked the door as hard as she could, knocking out a huge chunk of marble where Twilight had been working her magic earlier. The hole was large enough that even Twilight would be able to fit through.

Twilight then flared her horn up and blasted all of the minotaur statues around herself and the others back and away. "Move!" she shouted. "Through the door!"

Nopony needed to be told twice, all of them running and clamoring through the hole that Twilight and Rainbow had made. Twilight was the last one through, and as soon as she was, she lit up her horn again and put a barrier around the hole to keep the statues from climbing through after them, just in time before one of them managed to reach through and grab her tail.

The group took only a few seconds to breathe and think, but Twilight was already ready with the next step: "Everypony get your breathing gear on," she said, watching the room beyond her shield filling up with water; the statues were undeterred, though in the water they were more sluggish. "We need to get out of here and back to the Comet Chaser."

"What about you?" Winter asked, though she was already putting her gear on after helping Hourglass and Sunspire with theirs. "You're gonna have to drop that barrier to get your gear on. It won't work through the material."

"Don't worry about me," Twilight replied. "I can keep this barrier up from a distance and then put my gear on once everypony's safe and ready to move. I'll have time to get it on and make a run—"

There was another crack, and Twilight looked up at the ceiling of the hallway as she felt a few small chunks of marble and drops of water fall on her head.

"Oh dear. Go. Go go go!"

"What about your—" Winter started.

"Just go!"

The group started running again down the hall as the ceiling started cracking all around them. Everypony else had activated their flashlights so that they could see, luckily, since the hallway wasn't lit by lanterns anymore and neither was the main hall beyond it.

Twilight wasn't surprised at all that the larger minotaur statues in the main hall were already moving and waiting for them. Luckily, she'd been expecting it and, as the only pony who could still do anything here—Winter's horn was covered and thus her combat magic was unusable, and Rainbow's weather powers weren't particularly helpful under the circumstances—she knew it was left to her to protect the group.

Also luckily, she'd seen how Winter had disabled the statues earlier—without their legs, they weren't as dangerous—and she had the power to do the same with regular blasting spells. Just as she'd disintegrated the statue's head earlier, she did the same for the legs of the statues currently blocking the way, then used telekinetic magic to knock them aside. Fairly simple.

She had to drop her barrier magic to do so, though, and already she could hear rushing water behind them as it flowed out of the ritual chamber. They needed to hurry.

The group descended down the stairs and into the hallway that led out of this temple and into the main building. Once here, Twilight took a moment to breathe; the minotaurs couldn't get them down here, as they were much too big to fit through the passage. Not that they weren't trying, of course; Twilight could see one of their big, marbley arms reaching down to try and grab them, well out of reach.

"Whew," Twilight breathed as she started putting her own breathing gear on. "Okay, now—"

"This temple has been my tomb for many years," came the voice of Malygnes from up ahead. "Now it will be yours."

Twilight's eyes widened, her ears perking up, as the sight and sound of rushing water from up ahead echoed throughout the hall.

Winter practically leapt up onto Twilight to help her get her breathing gear on. "C'mon! Stop gawkin'!"

It only took seconds for the two working together to get the breathing gear situated, just before the entire ocean came crashing down through the hall. The sheer strength of the rushing sweater swept everypony in the group right off their hooves and sent them spinning back down the hall towards the outstretched hand of a minotaur.

Rainbow was quickest to recover her balance, and she grabbed Hourglass and Sunspire to steady them and keep them from being swept any further. Twilight only barely recovered in time to grab Winter, stopping her mere inches away from the clutches of the minotaur statue as it reached out to grab her.

Twilight instinctively pulled her friend close to ensure that she was safe. "You alright, Winter?" she asked, her voice distorted by the breathing gear again.

Winter let out a breath. "Yeah. Thanks." She paused, seemed to notice that her face was pressed right up against Twilight's chest, then pushed herself out of Twilight's grip. "C'mon, let's get out of here. We're out of the temple now, so that fucker can't get at us anymore."

Twilight nodded, and she and the others just wordlessly made their way back out of the hallway and into the ruined main temple before making for the main entrance and swimming out into the open waters of the ocean once more.

The Comet Chaser was exactly where the group had left it, it's boarding ramp open and a member of the crew waiting just outside in her own set of diving gear. From this distance it looked like it might've been Starlight Spark, especially since she only seemed to give a tepid little wave.

Before the expedition crew could even swim very far, though, there was a great creaking sound that reverberated throughout the water, enough to unsteady them when the change in water displacement followed.

"What was that?" Rainbow asked. "Now what?"

Hourglass tapped Twilight's side and pointed up and off into the distance a ways. "Um…"

Twilight looked off to where Hourglass was pointing, and her eyes widened. "Really? Really?"

The massive minotaur statue that stood in the center of the harbor was moving. Slowly, because of the literal tons of water surrounding it, but it was moving nonetheless, turning away from the open sea and towards the city. Or more specifically, towards Twilight and company.

"Are you fuckin' kiddin' me…" Winter grumbled.

"Go!" Twilight shouted, pushing Hourglass and Sunspire forward. She turned to Rainbow. "Get them to the ship!"

Rainbow didn't even hesitate, she just moved in and grabbed the two before swimming forward like a fish; between her quickly-kicking hindlegs and her wings, Rainbow could swim faster than any of them, nearly as agile underwater as she was in the air.

Ensign Spark managed to usher the three of them in just as the huge statue swung its huge hand down into the ocean floor not too far away. The sheer strength of the blow sent a shockwave through the water that knocked Twilight and Winter tumbling backwards towards the cliff—Twilight barely managed to grab Winter so that they weren't separated—but it didn't even knock the Comet Chaser off-balance whatsoever.

The Comet Chaser pushed forward at a… respectable pace. Twilight didn't know what to do next—she and Winter were too far away to make it to the boarding ramp—but she knew that there was a threat before them and that she needed to do something. But with her magic effectively unusable inside this diving suit—the worst mixed blessing she'd ever encountered—she didn't even know what she could do.

Once she regained her sense of direction, she tried to find where the Comet Chaser had gone, but it was too dark to see without the ship's spotlight—the little flashlights in the diving suits weren't quite strong enough. She could see the giant minotaur statue, however, as the glimmer of her and Winter's flashlights reflected off of its metallic surface.

And it was coming right at them.

And it was raising its clenched fist to strike at them again, and this time it was a lot closer.

Twilight braced herself for impact, not sure if the shields in these little suits could take that kind of impact.

Luckily, she didn't find out. The Comet Chaser had swung in just in time and took the brunt of the impact. The statue's fist collided with the ship's shield and slid right off of it, impacting several dozen yards to the left of where it had been aiming and impacting the cliff instead. The shockwave was still severe, but Twilight and Winter were mostly shielded by the outcroppings nearby; she could hear sand and debris impacting all around her, and their suits' shields were protecting them quite admirably otherwise.

Twilight saw the boarding ramp deploy, with Ensign Spark there waiting and waving frantically at them.

Twilight moved as quickly as she could, using her wings and legs to swim faster than she'd ever swam in her life. She could feel Winter clutching onto her for dear life, and Twilight was glad that her friend was trusting enough to rely on her to do this.

As soon as they were safely on the ramp, Spark closed it and shouted "Got 'em!" into the intercom. Twilight felt the ship lurch slightly as it headed off at full speed.

For about three seconds.

The ship jostled heavily, as if it had been struck by something hard. Twilight couldn't see it yet but it was obvious what it was. She and Winter entered the ship after the boarding room finished draining water out—the process was quick but they had to wait until the entire process was done—and immediately made their way up to the cockpit. Twilight only stopped briefly to see that the minotaur's hand was gripped around the ship's shields, which were glowing a brilliant gold to try and repel it.

"You guys sure attracted all the wrong kinds of attention!" shouted Captain Ember. "Copper, is the laser charged yet?"

"I've got it at fifty percent now, Cap," Copper said from her seat at the drill's operating panel.

"That's good enough, let's get this thing off our ship. Fire!"

Twilight watched through the viewscreen, which had been toggled to give a rear view of the ship, as the mining laser sliced through the fingers of the statue. It wasn't a clean cut, but it was enough to loosen its grip slightly, and the Comet Chaser started to drift away.

Until the minotaur's other hand swung around to tighten the grip.

"This fucker isn't giving up!" Winter snapped. She turned to Twilight. "There's gotta be something we can do!"

Twilight just stared at the giant statue for half a moment, then was struck by an idea. "Get Sunspire up here."

"What? Sunspire? But—"

"Please, Winter, hurry!"

Winter ran off to fetch the young colt.

While that was happening, Twilight watched as the brilliant golden glow of the shields outside struggled against the tightening grip of the minotaur.

"Uh, Cap, shields are at twenty percent and falling!" announced Copper, shaking but otherwise professional. "Secondary shields haven't finished charging yet, not enough for this!"

Ember grunted and tried to use her wings to wriggle the fins out of the statue's grip. "How's the laser drill coming? What's the charge?"

"Thirty percent. It'll cut through the metal but I don't have a good firing angle," Copper said, pointing at the drill's camera; it was pointed at the statue's chest.

Winter returned with Sunspire. "Alright, Twilight, what's your big idea?"

Twilight was about to speak when the entire ship jostled again, even the cockpit; the shields had just gone down, and now the minotaur's hands were directly in contact with the ship's hull. The cockpit, which had already been glowing red and blaring a warning klaxon, was now going crazy with alarms.

"Warning. Hull breach imminent," droned a masculine computer voice. "Warning. Hull breach imminent. Warning. Hull—"

"Over here, Sunspire!" Twilight called, waving the young colt over to the drill station. "Take off your goggles and tell Engineer Copper where you see that thing's soulstone."

Sunspire paused to stare wide-eyed at Twilight for half a second, then nodded in understanding and situated himself right next to Copper at the firing station.

"Whoa, what's the little dude doing here?" Copper asked.

"The statue has a gem in its chest that's controlling it," Twilight explained quickly. "Sunspire can see it. Hit it with the laser."

Copper blinked, then nodded. "Righteous." She turned her full attention to the drill's operating joystick. "Point it out to me, little dude."

"A little to the left," Sunspire said, his gaze shifting constantly between the drill's camera and the main viewscreen. "A little more…"

The ship jostled again, so harshly that everypony except Captain Ember nearly fell over.

"Warning. Hull breach detected in rear cargo bay."

"A little higher…" Sunspire said, licking his lips. "Higher…"

Another jostle, this one so rough that Twilight had to brace herself against the wall to keep from falling over, and used her wings to keep Copper and Sunspire from tumbling away from their station. Twilight saw Winter completely lose her balance and roll right out of the cockpit and into the short hall outside.

"Warning. Rear starboard engine has suffered catastrophic failure."

"There!" Sunspire shouted, his hoof shooting into the air.

Copper fired the mining laser directly into the chest of the minotaur statue. It melted straight through the oxidized metal in a burst of steam, cutting all the way through the accursed thing and straight out the other end.

In an instant, the statue's grip relaxed just enough that the Comet Chaser was able to squeeze its way out; the statue then toppled over, completely stiff as… well, a statue.

"Activate secondary shielding!" Captain Ember shouted.

Copper had already been in the process of doing so, and after pressing a few buttons, the shimmering gold of the backup shield popped into view.

"Shields up and holding, Cap," Copper breathed, slumping back into her seat. "I also sealed the rear cargo bay and deactivated the rear starboard engine."

"Are we good, Copper?" Ember asked, calm and resolute.

"We're stabilized for now, but we're just barely afloat here. Engine strength without a full allotment…" She bit her tongue as if doing a calculation in her head. "Naw, it won't be enough to get us back to Hope's Point before supplies run out. We need repairs."

Ember sighed and shook her head. "Damn."

"Repairs?" Twilight asked. "How are we supposed to get repairs down here?

"We'll have to search for an air pocket large enough to park the Comet Chaser in so that we can divert all engine power to the shields. With more power, the shields can be tweaked to extend outwards enough that Copper can work on the damage from outside."

"An air pocket… I don't think we saw any on the way here, did we?"

"No. No we did not."

Copper sighed, having only had about a minute to relax, before hopping up and straightening out her coveralls. "I'll see what damage I can get repaired from inside for now, Cap. I'll keep you posted."

"Thank you, Copper."

As she left, Copper tousled Sunspire's mane; the colt was already putting his goggles back on. "Awesome job, little dude."

Sunspire smiled. "Happy to help."

Once Copper left, Twilight let out a sigh of her own and gestured for Sunspire to follow her. "Come on, Sunspire. Let's let the others know what's happening, and we'll see if we can help Copper out in any way."

"Sure thing, Princess Twilight."

Ember cleared her throat to get Twilight's attention. "Princess, please tell me that you got something useful out of all this? I'd like to know that my ship didn't just take a beating for nothing."

Twilight gave her a small nod. "We did, Captain."

"Good." Ember tilted her head towards the passenger cabin. "Go relax with your friends. You've earned it."

"You be sure to take a break yourself, Captain."

Ember nodded, then turned her attention back to piloting the ship.

*****

The next several hours were just a little tense, as most of the expedition team was growing restless to say the least. Rainbow was practically pacing a hole into the floor of the ship, or at least she would be if the floor wasn't made of metal. Hourglass and Sunspire were playing some sort of heated card game together to pass the time; Ensign Spark had joined them, and looked to have grown attached to the two younger ponies.

Twilight and Winter, meanwhile, were seated next to the portside window looking out into the darkness of the ocean. Ember and Copper didn't need anypony's help in searching for a cavern or cave that could potentially have an air pocket, though it wasn't like they were having any sort of luck.

"Welp," Winter grunted while she sipped from a cup of coffee—Spark had made one each for her and Twilight. "I gotta tell ya, I never expected this to be my last hurrah."

Twilight raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean? You don't really think we're gonna die out here, do you?"

"Ehh… maybe, maybe not. But that's not what I meant. I meant more… me, my job. I never imagined that my last assignment was gonna be anything like this." Winter shook her head and set down her coffee. "The world hangin' on by a thread. The weight of it all on my shoulders. Knowin' that if I fuck up, everypony's gonna die."

"You've always made it sound like that's how your entire day-to-day job is like."

"Yeah. That's the point. Today's just like any other day, just worse. That's not how I was expectin' my last job to go."

Twilight took a sip of her coffee. "What were you expecting it to be like, if you don't mind my asking?"

Winter smirked. "I was hopin' my last day on the job would just be me sittin' on a couch at home gettin' piss drunk and fallin' asleep in front of the telly. Then Hourglass would come home and we'd celebrate her accreditation… with me gettin' more drunk, of course. Then I'd fall back asleep, and wake up in Chronomancer HQ and get ready to go off to work for the rest of my life teachin' others how to be good at what they do."

"I don't know what sounds more miserable: that last day on the job, or your outlook on the future," Twilight muttered.

"Yeah, well, life's not always sunshine and gumdrops, Twilight. Sometimes life is hard, and you don't get everything handed to you on a silver platter just because you know somepony important."

Twilight frowned. "Is that what you think of me? You think that I didn't work hard to get where I am?"

A long pause. "No… no, Twilight, I don't think that about you at all. I know that ya worked hard to get where you are, and I know that ya earned everything you've got." Winter sighed and put her head in her hooves. "Sorry. I'm just venting at you. You don't deserve that."

"It's alright. I understand. You're stressed. I'm stressed too, and I know what it's like to feel like the entire world is on your shoulders, believe me." Twilight paused, then slumped back in her seat slightly. "I haven't had the chance to tell you the story about Starlight Glimmer yet, have I?"

"I've only heard snippets about her," Winter said, taking another sip of coffee. "Basic gist I've gotten is she was runnin' some kind of… cult? And you and your friends chased her off, but then she tried to get revenge and you made friends with her after that or somethin'. I mean, I don't know how that works, but hey, this is me we're talkin' about."

"Right. The revenge bit is… actually what I wanted to discuss. You see, Starlight got it in her head that if she could make it so that my friends and I never met, we wouldn't become who we are now, then we wouldn't have been able to stop her plans from before. So… she figured out a spell that would let her go back in time to try and rewrite history."

Winter nodded. "Right, right. Pretty standard-issue megalomaniac behavior."

Twilight was given pause; that was not the reaction she'd expected. "I… you're not surprised? I thought for sure you'd be all sorts of upset that somepony I know tried to use Chronomancy magic to take revenge on me and my friends."

Winter set down her cup of coffee. "Answer me this, Twilight: did Summer Rains come to see you after this event? I know she was still your world's Chonomancer at the time since she only retired last year."

Twilight blinked, tilting her head in thought. "No, now that you mention it. I haven't seen her since we came home from our first trip."

"That's because she took care of any problems that would come from that sort of spell. And before you ask…" Winter paused, scrunching up her nose in thought. "Okay, listen. I'm not gonna invalidate what you likely went through tryin' to 'fix' the problem yourself. You put in the effort and your heart was in the right place. But, ah… that's not how time travel works."

"Huh?"

"Everypony has their own concepts on how time works—fuckin' everypony—and that's just not it. You can't 'rewrite history' like that. Time is like a clock. That's why we use them to measure time, eh? It moves forward at a steady rate. You can't travel back in time like it works in the movies. You can rewind it like a clock, or turn it forward, but you can't travel directly from, say, six o'clock in the mornin' back to midnight. If you do, the entire timestream rewinds with you."

"But… but I saw alternate timelines and everything," Twilight muttered, lost.

"Exactly. Alternate timelines. They're like… miniature worlds, like the difference between my world and yours, but… not. But they're not your timeline, because your timeline can't be changed; even if you could rewind time so that you could attempt to change the past, you can't because your memories rewind too."

"So… if I went back in time, I wouldn't know that I'd gone back in time, and I'd make the same decisions?"

"Exactly."

"But… but I've done that before. I did it before we ever met. I went back in time to warn myself about something, but my past self didn't listen and then got in trouble trying to figure out the warning, so she went back in time to warn her past self—"

"Alternate timeline, alternate timeline, aaaand alternate timeline. Summer would've had to twist a knob somewhere so that you didn't create an infinite time loop by accident, that's all."

"Buh… wuh…" Twilight shook her head. "It's really that simple? You're really serious that time works like that?"

"Yup. You cannot change the past. Period. The amount of magic needed to retain your memories of events is astronomical, far more than any god, any alicorn, or any talented mage could possibly muster. It's been proven. It's impossible."

"Can Chronomancers do it?"

Winter paused slightly, then leaned back and smirked. "I can neither confirm nor deny whether or not we can. And if we did have that kind of power and you found out about it, well, I'd have to use it so that this conversation never happened, wouldn't I? But it is happening. Or maybe it isn't? Hmm?"

Twilight returned the smirk. "Fair enough. So, if that's the case… what did I accomplish with Starlight? If she can't change the past, then what actually happened? You mean I didn't really save the world countless times from alternate bad futures?"

"You prevented those alternate timelines from being created in the first place, which is the same in spirit if not the same in letter." Winter shook her head. "Like I said, I don't want to diminish what you did. You saved a lot of 'worlds', a lot of heartache, surely. But those 'worlds' aren't yours. Technically they don't actually exist, by Chronomancer definitions.

"What you did do, though, is convince this Starlight Glimmer that what she was attemptin' to do—even though she didn't know that it was impossible either—was wrong. If ya hadn't tried to stop her, who knows, maybe she'd get the idea in her head to try somethin' worse once she realized her plan wasn't actually workin'."

Twilight nodded solemnly. "That's a good way of looking at it. She was at… a very low point in her life. I'm glad that I helped pull her out of it. Everypony needs a friend sometimes, Winter." She reached her hoof across the table. "Yes, even you. Even though you think you don't deserve it."

Winter stared at Twilight's hoof for a moment, then shook her head. "I don't know why you'd want to still be my friend after how I've treated you lately…"

"Because we're friends, Winter. Sometimes friends fight. Sometimes they say hurtful things to one another. But as long as they're willing to talk it over and accept one another for who they are, and to apologize for whatever it is that made one another upset, then they can still be friends."

Winter paused, then closed her eyes. "I am sorry for the things I said to ya, Twilight. I was a nasty piece of shit, and no matter how much ya say otherwise I know that that's what I was, what I am. I said things that ya didn't deserve to hear, things that I don't even believe are true… and I'm sorry."

"And I accept your apology. I'm sorry too, for doing what I did. I know that you said that it wasn't actually my fault, but… I still did it. What if it had been my fault? What if my world really was in danger right now because of my actions? You're right, I didn't think about any of that. All I could think about was you."

Winter's face reddened and she looked out the window. "Yeah, well… thanks, I guess." Another pause. "Does that mean we're… still friends…?"

Twilight reached her hoof over to take Winter's in her own; Winter didn't pull away. "Of course it does. A little fight isn't going to change that. Friends fight sometimes. It happens. But we push forward, and if all goes well, we'll come out stronger for it. Okay?"

"Yeah… okay."

Twilight smiled. She couldn't really put into words how glad she was to be able to put everything bad that had happened between them behind them and to just move on. Together. As friends.

Just then, something out of the corner of Twilight's eye caught her attention. A little glimmer of light in the distance. "What's that?" she asked suddenly.

"What's what?" Winter asked, looking off and out into the dark water.

"I swear that I saw— There it is again!"

Winter nodded. "I saw it too. Ya don't think it's that fuckin' serpent comin' back for us, do ya?"

"Gosh, I hope not. But I don't think so. It's— There! Again! It's moving a lot differently than the serpent did. It has to be something else. Where did it go?" Twilight shook her head. "Come on, we should go tell the captain."

"Right."

Twilight and Winter headed up to the cockpit, where Captain Ember and Engineer Copper were currently just pushing the ship along on their search, still with no results—of at least Twilight hoped that if there were results, they'd have informed the passengers and crew—and looking just as restless as Rainbow did back in the passenger area.

"Princess, Miss Glow," Ember greeted. "Still nothing to report. Anything I can do for you?"

"We saw something," Twilight said. "Something's out there, but I don't think it's the sea serpent."

Ember raised an eyebrow. "Really?" She turned to Copper. "Are the scanners picking up anything?"

"I've had the seismic scanners working on full power, Cap," Copper said, scratching her chin. "All the other sensors are off so that I could extend the range."

"Where did you see it?" Ember asked Twilight.

"We were seated at the portside window," Twilight replied. "It was just a light in the distance. I thought it might be our light reflecting off the serpent scales again, but you've got the spotlight firmly straight ahead."

Ember glanced out the viewscreen, then back to Twilight. "Fair point. You think it's something—"

The four mares all let out a collective yelp of surprise when something very suddenly put itself directly into full view of the viewscreen camera. Twilight knew immediately what it was, though the others reacted a bit faster with their confusion.

"Is that a fuckin' giant seahorse?!" Winter blurted, pointing at the offending creature.

"It's not like any seahorse I've ever seen before!" Ember said, shaking her head. She seemed to calm down quickly enough, at least. "But then I've only seen pictures of them in books. Do they not get that big?"

"That's not a seahorse at all," Twilight said, taking a step forward and tilting her head. "That's a seapony." A pause. "It's an… odd distinction."

The seapony in question was recognizable as a seapony, but it was like no seapony that Twilight knew from back home. The same basic shape and gentle disposition, certainly, though its face lacked the same elongated features of the seaponies she knew. Actually, it looked more appropriately proportioned like she and her friends had been when they'd briefly become seaponies themselves.

The most distinct difference though were the two antennae on the top of its head, curved around and tipped with little "bulbs" not unlike an anglerfish. They even briefly lit up when the seapony looked off to the side, and Twilight knew then and there that that had been the light that she'd seen before.

"Okay. So. Besides there being sea serpents down here, apparently there are seaponies," Captain Ember muttered, her body still a little stiff in surprise. "This has been a weird week. I'm glad I got some stress relief in before we left. I'm gonna need to book some more appointments if this trip keeps up like this."

"What does it want?" asked Copper, scratching her head. "It's just swimming there, all mysterious-like and stuff. You think it's friendly?"

Winter grunted. "Considerin' we just finished findin' out that the minotaurs used evil soul magic in their fuckin' artwork, I'm not ready to give anythin' the benefit of the doubt so quickly just yet."

"They're friendly where I come from," Twilight said as she watched the seapony curiously examine the camera. "Of course, that doesn't necessarily mean anything." She turned to Ember and Copper. "Is there any way that we could potentially communicate with it?"

"I haven't the slightest idea," Ember said; her eyes hadn't left the seapony's image even for a second.

Twilight hummed, then turned and headed back towards the passenger cabin. "I'm going to see if I can get its attention."

Winter followed after her. "How?"

"Easy." Twilight stepped up to the window, lowered the tinting filter that kept the light from inside the ship from giving them away, and gave the glass—not actual glass, obviously—a few light taps. "Now we wait—"

The seapony was down at the window so quickly that Twilight hadn't even finished formulating her thoughts. She could see the seapony clearly now, and without the tinting filter, the seapony would be able to see her too. Twilight couldn't think of any appropriate response on such short notice, so she just waved.

Rainbow came up behind her, eyes wide with wonder. "Whoa, no way, is that a seapony?"

Even Hourglass, Sunspire, and Ensign Spark had come over to look, but they stayed quiet for now, apparently just so awed by what they were seeing that they had no words to express. Which was good; Twilight needed some quiet so that she could think of what to do. The seapony was eyeing her curiously, and the others as well, but mostly her. Apparently even a seapony was amazed by the sight of an alicorn.

Should she try to talk to it? Was this seapony friendly, or a threat?

"You don't need to 'talk'," said a feminine voice in her head. "And I am a friend. I hope."

Twilight stumbled back and nearly tripped over Winter in the process.

"Bloody hell, are you alright?" Winter asked, helping Twilight keep steady. "What's the matter?"

"You didn't hear that?" Twilight asked, looking right at Winter.

"Hear what?"

"She spoke to me. The seapony spoke to me!"

Winter looked at the seapony, then at Twilight. "I didn't hear anything."

Twilight paused, then stood up and walked back over to the window. "Can you… hear me?"

The seapony tilted her head. "I can hear your thoughts," she… said. Twilight noticed the seapony's antennae bulbs were glowing in time with the words she was "saying", not quite like morse code or anything similar to it. "You do not need to be afraid. I do not want to hurt you."

"Are you using some sort of telepathy?"

"I can communicate with others of my kind through our thoughts and emotions, if that is what you mean. I am as surprised as you that it works with a surface dweller. And glad that it works, too."

"What's going on, Twi?" asked Rainbow, her gaze shifting between the seapony and Twilight. "Are you talking to that seapony out there or something?"

"I'm trying to, yes," Twilight said.

She looked at the seapony's form carefully just to make sure she didn't look dangerous. The sea… mare? The seamare had a lovely pink body with red fins, which like the seaponies back home also served as her "mane". But unless the seamare's sleek, slender frame made her dangerous, Twilight couldn't think of any reason to feel threatened. Besides, there was an entire ship's hull between them, why should she feel threatened anyway?

"Who are you?" she asked. "What's your name?"

"My name is Corelia. What's yours?"

"I'm Twilight Sparkle. It's nice to meet you, Corelia." Twilight tilted her head. "You seem awfully friendly for someone that's just meeting strangers from the surface for the first time."

"Oh, that is because we have already met." A pause. "Technically. I did not know what you looked like or who was who within this contraption of yours, but I recognized it from the other day."

"'The other day'?"

"Yes. You saved me from the leviathan with your contraption's strange red fang."

"Saved you from…" Twilight brightened instantly. "Oh! The sea monster? It's called a leviathan?"

"That is what we call it, yes. I was foraging for gemshells when it attacked me. Your contraption saved my life."

Twilight turned to Winter. "She says that we saved her from that sea monster the other day. I knew it looked like it was chasing something when it spotted us."

Winter scratched her chin. "And we probably looked like a bigger, better meal to it compared to her." With a grin, she added, "First time I've ever been able to say anythin' like that. Usually it's the other way 'round."

"So she recognizes us?" Rainbow asked.

"That's what she said," Twilight replied.

"Cool! We're like her heroes or something."

Winter leaned over and gave Dash a look. "None of us did anything. Captain Ember and Engineer Copper did all the work. You were down here twiddlin' your hooves."

"Psh. Part of the crew, part of the ship," Rainbow scoffed. "If a boat saves you from drowning, you thank the whole crew, right? Not just the guy or gal that pulled you up?"

"You're not part of the crew either. You're a passenger. What, do you think she should thank the luggage too?"

"Aww bite me."

Twilight rolled her eyes and turned back to the seapony, to Corelia. "Sorry about that. My friends sometimes like to bicker a bit.

Corelia smiled. "It is quite alright. I do not feel any anger or hatred coming from them." She tilted her head and looked towards the rear of the ship. "When I saw you again, I had to come and say 'thank you', but now I see that your contraption has been damaged. Is there any way that I can help? You saved my life, and I would like to return the favor."

"Oh! Yes, that would be great! We're trying to find a cavern or something with an air pocket so that we can perform repairs. Do you know where we can find one?"

Corelia nodded. "Yes. I can lead you there, if you'd like? It isn't far."

Twilight smiled and nearly bounced in place. "Yes! Thank you so much. I'll go tell the captain to follow after you, okay?"

Without even waiting for a response, Twilight bolted up to the cockpit and got Captain Ember's attention. "Captain! Good news! This seapony—her name is Corelia—was being chased by the sea serpent—it's called a leviathan—the other day, and we saved her! She wants to return the favor so she's gonna show us where to find a place to make repairs!"

Ember blinked a few times, then nodded. "Yeah, okay. Tell her to lead the way."

Twilight turned to head back to the window of the passenger cabin, but Corelia had already swam up to the top of the ship where the viewscreen camera was located, where she was currently waving at the two.

"I cannot see you, Twilight Sparkle, but I can sense where you are and that you can see me through this device. I can sense your captain, too. Tell her I said 'thank you for saving me'. She is very brave."

"She wants to thank you for saving her the other day. She asked me to tell you personally," Twilight said with a big smile. "She says you're very brave."

Ember just stared at Twilight a moment, then turned her gaze back to the viewscreen. "Huh. Telepathy. Makes sense. How else would you communicate under the sea, unless they… I dunno, did that whole 'whale' thing. Y'know." Ember then proceeded to, for some reason, demonstrate that she could mimic a whale. "Hellllooooo. Hoowwww arreee yooouuuu?"

Twilight blinked. "I don't think that's how it works."

"Tell your captain I am doing well," giggled Corelia. "And that she speaks very good Whalish. It took me years to learn."

Twilight blinked again, then turned back to the captain. "She says you speak very good Whalish," she said flatly.

Ember smiled. "Oh, thanks! I've been practicing."

The Comet Chaser then proceeded to follow after Corelia as she led the ship through the calm waters of this particular eye of the Belt of Tranquility. Though it took a couple of hours because of their slower speed, eventually they managed to reach a large chasm then spread out into the storm, which Corelia then proceeded to move through with, to the surprise of Twilight and Ember, very little trouble.

"How are you able to move through the storm without protection?" Twilight asked, mystified. "We have to use shields on our ship to survive it."

Corelia was so unbothered by the storm that she could even stop to turn and answer the question while swimming backwards. "My people have lived in the Great Maw since it first appeared. Though it was hard at first, my ancestors adapted to the new environment, and those adaptations have passed on through their children."

Twilight considered the name, "Great Maw". The name the seaponies gave the Belt, obviously. "Evolving like that would take several generations. It really happened that quickly?"

"Ah, you are predisposed to the lifespans of surface dwellers. Seaponies have much shorter lifespans than you. I am only six years old, but in your terms, that would put me at the equivalent of thirty years old. I have a mate and children of my own already."

Twilight was amazed at how quickly this seapony was learning things about her and the ponies on the surface. That empathic ability was clearly a lot more potent than it seemed.

"Huh. Interesting…" Twilight tilted her head. "Where do you and your people live? You talk about it as though you have a civilization like we do on the surface."

"We do, although none of you surface dwellers have found it yet. The city of Aquas. I would show you were it is, but we are forbidden from showing it to outsiders." A pause. "Not that there actually ever have been any outsiders. It is a silly rule. But it is a rule. One day, your contraptions will find it."

"Well, when we do, I hope that we can make good friends with your people, Corelia."

Twilight was barely constraining herself from making plans to introduce Queen Novo to whoever ruled this Aquas that Corelia belonged to. She'd already seen how potent the seaponies' empath abilities were, she didn't need to let slip too many sensitive bits of information.

Corelia led the Comet Chaser down into the chasm, into a tunnel deep inside, which led up and into a cavernous chamber that had a sizable air pocket. The ship was able to surface, and, though it took a few moments to prep, the crew got repairs underway. The repairs would take hours, but even once they were done the Comet Chaser would still need to take some test runs to make sure the repairs were working. They weren't going anywhere soon.

The passengers, in the meantime, were able to disembark and relax outside of the ship for the time being. Since the repairs would be a while, the group was encouraged to get some sleep after a rough day, now that they knew things were going to be safe again. Hourglass and Sunspire took that advice pretty quickly; Rainbow tried to fight it, but she eventually did the same. Winter stayed up, however; she always maintained a strict sleeping schedule.

Twilight, however, used this opportunity to talk some more with Corelia. She seemed like such an interesting creature, similar to the seaponies of her own home but also different in ways that Twilight could never have thought of. She was actually pretty sad when the seamare had to leave.

"It is getting late, and I should return home to my family," Corelia said. A pause. "Oh! I know just the thing."

Twilight watched as the seamare reached her muzzle into a pouch—a pouch on her body, like a kangaroo's—and pulled out a shiny seashell that glittered like a diamond. Corelia handed it to Twilight, who took it delicately; the thing looked precious and fragile and practically radiated magic, so she was extra careful with it.

"That is one of the gemshells that I found today. I want you to have it."

"Wow. It's so pretty," Twilight said breathlessly. "Thank you. Are you sure it's okay to take it?"

"Very sure. You are a nice pony, Twilight Sparkle. I know that you must return to your surface world, but that token will be proof that you have a friend here belows the waves."

Twilight smiled. "I wish that I had something to give you in return."

"There's no need. I wish you well on your journey, Twilight."

"Safe travels to you too, Corelia."

With that, the seamare dove beneath the surface of the water and off into the tunnel. Twilight lost sight of her in seconds, and though she knew it was unlikely that she'd ever see the seamare again until this journey was over, she knew now that she had just one more reason to make sure that this world survived. A powerful resolve filled her like never before.

If Nihila wanted to try and destroy this world, then she was going to have to go through her.

Comments

[RoboRed]

Well, I guess that's some of the dark past revealed. Doesn't seem like the Minotaurs were very good dudes, not just for raiding ponykind but also for bringing out Nihilia.
I don't know who's going to make the calls on what does and doesn't get ported over in the world merge but, uhhh...Malygnes and his legion of soulstoned acolytes aren't making a good case of picking them over Corelia and the seaponies.

Winter let out a noise that sounded like a bizarre mix between a tea kettle and a grunt, then grumbled something under her breath and directed her gaze directly at the floor.

That something was probably something along the lines of "stupid sexy Twilight"

"Even detects poisons in food and drinks," Winter said with a grin. "We have to calibrate them so that it doesn't go off around the alcohol of whatever world we're in. Shot of certain tequila brands from this world would register as poisonous in yours."

"Oh good, that makes me feel better about your drinking habits."

Winter rolled her eyes. "I don't have a drinking habit, I have a drinking problem. Usually that problem is that I'm not drinking enough."

*concern*

Got a good kick out of Rainbow going "genre-savvy" over the ruins.

[readsponies]

The sheer strength of the rushing sweater

Nice one, autocorrect.

By the way, it's "make do," not "make due."