Grey Laddie Down
"Pump faster!" Sea Swirl bellowed. "Fix stuff! Plug leaks! Go, crew!"
"I'm... pumping as... fast as... I can!" Sweetie Belle replied, gasping for breath as she moved the handle on the pump back and forth as fast as she could.
Apple Bloom moved a beam into position. "Just a little longer, Sweetie. We've almost got it."
With several blows of a hammer, Scootaloo wedged the beam into place, and another stream of water stopped.
"Good job, Scootaloo," Apple Bloom said. "Now to get that last one under control…"
The last one, however, was ornier than a dieting manticore at an all you can eat sheep dip. It had resisted all efforts to bring it under control. Water still sprayed into the submarine despite the use of a wood, tar, and glue. It had even resisted Sweetie Belle's most earnest pleading.
Apple Bloom chewed on her lip as she stared at the leak. "The harder woods didn't work. Neither did softer ones. We need..." Her eyes scanned the interior, shifting rapidly as one possibility after another was analyzed and discarded, until she found herself staring at the drive mechanism. "That."
"The drive band?" Sea Swirl asked, following Apple Bloom's gaze.
"Won't we need that to get home?" Scootaloo asked.
"Not if we drown first," Apple Bloom said.
She hopped forward and began taking the machinery apart. Scootaloo stood frozen for a second, then joined in. With the two fillies, the work went quickly, and it wasn't long before Apple Bloom triumphantly held up the band.
"Okay, Scootaloo, remove the bracing.... Now I'll put this in place… and put the bracing back! Hammer it down!"
With repeated hammer blows, the steady spray of water was quickly reduced to a trickle. With the threat of imminent drowning removed, Scootaloo moved over to help Sweetie Belle with the pumps, and it wasn't long before most of the water was out of the submarine.
Apple Bloom looked over at the scattered parts that had been Scootaloo's station. "Now all we got to do is fix that."
Scootaloo whistled at the mess. "At least we got plenty of time."
"Yeah, about that…" Sea Swirl said.
"What?" all three fillies said.
"Well, see, we sort of need oxygen to stay alive, and we can't exactly open up a hatch down here to let in some fresh air."
Sweetie Belle leaned on handle of the pump. "You mean there's no way to refresh the air?"
"What? Of course there's a way. I built in an emergency air renewal system. It should be in that cabinet above your head, wings."
Scootaloo popped the latch on the small cabinet. Small paper packets rained down upon her head. Some stayed there, while others slipped off and fell to the grating or water below.
Apple Bloom picked one up and opened it. "Seeds? Your emergency air renewal system is seeds?"
"Yup. Nature's oxygen refresher system," Sea Swirl said. "We'll just plant them and boom, a near infinite supply of oxygen."
Apple Bloom arched one eyebrow. "Plant them in what exactly? And even if we had something to grow them in, just how fast did you expect them to grow?"
"Oh. Well, I guess it is a good thing I wasn't born an earth pony then. On to Plan B. Everypony… try to breath as little as possible." Sea Swirl took a breath so big her cheeks puffed out, and held her breath. Her face started to turn blue beneath her coat. With a gasp, she exhaled. "Okay, that won't work."
Scootaloo shook her head. "Just how much air do we have?"
Sea Swirl used her magic to float over her notepad and pencil. "Let me see. Carry the four. Divide by the circumference of the moon. Multiply by i to the power of four. And that means… two days."
Scootaloo breathed out a sigh of relief. "Two days isn't so bad. We should be able to figure out something by then."
"Give or take three days," Sea Swirl added.
"So we could run out any time then?" Sweetie Belle asked.
Sea Swirl nodded, and tore off several sheets of paper from her notebook, floating one to each filly. "If you feel like you can't breath, be sure to write down all your observations."
Apple Bloom just shook her head and turned her attention to the scattered parts laying at her hooves. "Well, Ah reckon I'd best get this drivetrain fixed as quickly as possible then. Ah don't suppose there's any spare parts?"
"Well, remember when I said it was the green or the red button for the hydra repellent?"
Apple Bloom nodded.
"Whichever one it was, the other one dumped the spare parts."
"Oh, great. Real good design there," Scootaloo said.
"You really think so?" Sea Swirl asked. "I was kind of worried that it could result in a mix up."
"Well, we're at the bottom of the lake, with no hope of rescue, and we can't fix the stupid boat because the spare parts got dumped, not that we could have reached them anyway, because they were on the outside of the boat!" Scootaloo said. "So no, I don't really think so."
"Okay, then I'll just add a note to do it different on the Mark VI," Sea Swirl said.
"What's the point in doing that right now anyway?" Sweetie Belle asked.
"Nothing else to do until that one there" —Sea Swirl pointed at Apple Bloom— "gets the drive fixed. So I might as well science."
"She's got a point, guys," Scootaloo said.
"About science?" Sweetie Belle asked.
"Not about that. About not having anything else to do until Apple Bloom thinks of a way for us to get out of here."
"Wait an apple pickin' minute. Why do Ah have to fix it by myself?" Apple Bloom asked.
"Well, you are the chief engineer," Scootaloo said. "My job's running on the treadmill. Your job's making sure the treadmill works. Besides, having two ponies in there just means they'd get in each other's way."
"And you're usually pretty good at fixing stuff," Sweetie Belle said.
"Ah'm not sure if Ah can fix this though," Apple Bloom said, looking forlornly at the broken drive system.
"You will," Sweetie Belle said hopefully. "I just know you wouldn't let us down."
"Of course she will. It's her job as chief engineer," Sea Swirl said, without looking up from her sketching. "Besides, I'd have to fire her if she couldn't fix it, and we wouldn't want that, now, would we?"
"Right… but what I was thinking is that, we should do our interview for the paper while we wait," Scootaloo said. "If that's alright, Captain?"
"An interview? I love those! Well, except when they're by psychologists." Sea Swirl's body gave a shudder. "Not a real science that. Just a bunch of mumbo-jumbo."
"Good thinking, Scoots," Sweetie Belle said cheerfully. "It'll take our minds of things at the very least." She slipped past where Apple Bloom was staring at the drive system to reach her pack. Digging through it, she pulled out a notebook and pencil. "Okay, ready when you are."
"Okay, first question: What's up with having fish as your cutie mark?" Scootaloo asked.
"Believe it or not, when I was young, I was actually afraid of the water. It was so bad I could barely stand taking a bath. Needless to say, I wasn't the most popular filly at school. But then one day, I met a strange half-cow thing who told me to be more assertive. I resolved then and there to face my fears. And I decided to do it in a big way. No river or pond for me. Nope, if I was going to conquer my phobia, I was going to take on the biggest bunch of water there was: the ocean."
"Just a sec," Sweetie Belle said, as she furiously scribbled down words, trying to keep up. She paused for a second, chewing on the end of the pencil, then sounded out a word. "Pho, bee, ah.. F-o-b-i-a-h. Phobia." She nodded and started to write rapidly again. "Okay."
"Turns out that when you're scared of water and never learned to swim, heading out into the open ocean probably isn't the best idea. Especially not in an area with a strong tidal current. But I got lucky. A pod of delphinia, that's scientificese for dolphin, helped me. They pushed me back to shore. Saved my life. And right then and there, I knew I wanted to study all things water related. I wasn't scared of the water anymore, and I had my cutie mark." She laughed. "Good thing those dolphins didn't leave the area. They had to save me twice more the next day."
Sweetie Belle jotted all that down.
"Also, dolphins aren't fish," Sea Swirl added.
"Told you!" Sweetie Belle hissed at Scootaloo.
Scootaloo scowled back, before turning her attention back to Sea Swirl. "And what exactly made you want to make a boat that sinks?"
"Well, I started out with regular ships, but that didn't work so well because of my seasickness. So I tried boats, and that worked better, but you can't really see underwater from them, you know? So I had them put windows in the bottom. Piece of advice, if you make a boat with windows in the bottom, don't make them openable. It can be very hard to resist the urge to brush the mane of a lionfish. Also, I don't advise brushing the manes of lio fish. Unless you want to study the biggest hives you've ever seen. Which I certainly didn't. But that's what gave me the idea: What if I could make a boat that not only went under, but then could come back up again?
"So that's when I designed the Mark I. Wasn't even a boat, really, just an upside cauldron with a thick rope attached to the top, raised and lowered by a crane. But it was a start. And that led to the Mark II, III, IV, and now the V. Which I guess might be an end. But hey, that's science. Can't unravel the secrets of the universe without breaking a few beakers."
Apple Bloom looked up from where she was working and asked a question of her own. "All this stuff can't be cheap." She circled her hoof around indicating the sub. "And then there's yer big house. How do you pay for it all?"
Sea Swirl looked up from her sketching. "Oh, my family is very rich, dating back to before the classical era. Started with some patents on some magic spells and we've built on that throughout the years with additional patents."
"How big is your family anyway?" Apple Bloom asked.
"Let me think... At our last family reunion four years ago, there were seven of us. And since then... Earthquake. Lab explosion. Lab explosion, then trampled by a marching band. Lab explosion. Labrador explosion. And bunny stampede. So just me now," Sea Swirl said cheerfully, until it hit her what she had just said. "Oh. Guess there's not much point to holding a reunion next year." Her disappointment did not last long though, as she perked right back up. "But that just means more time for science!"
"What's with this science obsession anyway?" Scootaloo asked.
Sea Swirl shrugged. "It's in our blood, I guess. We Swirls have always been fascinated with how things work. Started way back with my great ancestor Star Swirl, who was determined to unravel the secrets of growing the perfect mustache and beard, and it's been with us ever since. Sometimes it skips a generation, but something always pulls us back, be it the smell of a Bunsen burner, a desire to breed the perfect squash, or an obsessive-compulsive need to find unnamed things to name. And just look at what science has done for Equestria." She gestured dramatically with her hooves. "Why, someday science might even make it possible to banish common criminals to the moon, and not just princesses."
"Any special somepony? Because if not, Apple Bloom's brother is available," Sweetie Belle said, pushing Fruity away to stop him from nibbling on the pencil.
"Hey!" Apple Bloom snarled. "I thought we'd agreed no more trying to fix up my brother?"
"How about your favorite color?" Sweetie Belle asked quickly.
"Well, I've always been fond of puce. I know, I know. You're thinking, 'OMC, I was thinking she'd say aquamarine' or something. But I'm not a one note pony, you know. I know that for a fact because in college I was in a punk band that required the ability to play at least three chords, as well as grimace musically, so that's way more than one note. Our lyrics left something to be desired, though. It was mostly screaming."
"Aaah!" Apple Bloom screamed.
"Yup, like that."
"No," Apple Bloom said, kicking the hull in frustration. "It's this stupid drive shaft. All I've got here is wood and paper, and neither of those things will work to replace that drive band."
"Hmm… Maybe your..." Sweetie Belle started to suggest.
"Maybe my what?"
"Your bow?"
"My bow?" Apple Bloom's eyes rolled upward as she tried, unsuccessfully, to see her bow. Reaching up a hoof, she tried feeling the fabric instead. "It just might work. Sweetie, you're a genius!"
Apple Bloom quickly undid the bow from her mane. With a few twists and tugs, she got it situated in the drive system. For good measure, she gave the system one last smack. Once it was in place, she rapidly reassembled the machinery.
"That should do it."
"What about those pieces?" Scootaloo asked, pointing at several bolts and gidgets still lying on the ground.
Apple Bloom shrugged. "They probably aren't essential?"
"That's the spirit!" Sea Swirl said. "You sure your fix will hold though?"
"Well, it won't last long, but hopefully long enough for us to get to the surface,' Apple Bloom said. "Give or take a trip to the surface."
"Good job, formerly bow. Man the depth controls, and let's give it a go. Horn, keep manning the pump. Wings, let's get you hooked up to the propulsion system."
With help from Sea Swirl and Apple Bloom, the various cables and wires were quickly attached to Scootaloo. At Sea Swirl's command, Scootaloo began to slowly walk forward, powering the treadmill.
"Looks like it's holding," Apple Bloom said. "Going to start blowing the tanks."
She spun the handles, and the boat shuddered, trying to rise, but failing.
"More speed, wings," Sea Swirl ordered. Scootaloo dutifully speed up, and the shuddering increased. The boat, though, stubbornly remained fused to the lake bottom.
"Flank—"
"No!" Sweetie Belle said. "The fabric is giving it all it's got, Captain. Any more strain and it'll rip!" Seeing Sea Swirl's doubt, Sweetie Belle explained. "Trust me. I've accidentally destroyed enough of my sister's fabric to know."
"She really has," Apple Bloom said.
Sea Swirl sighed. "Full stop, wings."
"So now what do we do?" Apple Bloom asked. "We've got to break free from the mud."
"It's the suction," Sea Swirl said. "It's got us stuck like a tongue to a frozen flagpole. Not fun that, by the way. I wouldn't advise it no matter how much that barber shop pole looks like a peppermint popsicle."
"Well, what do we do now?" Sweetie Belle asked. "We can't just give up."
"Of course not," Apple Bloom said. "Crusaders never give up!"
"Just like science." Sea Swirl practically sang the last word.
Fruity chirruped his own agreement.
"Hey," Scootaloo said, "remember when we tried to be arctic explorers and the sled got stuck?"
"How could I forget?" Apple Bloom asked. "Winona wouldn't let me come within two yards of her for three weeks."
"We gotta do what we did then," Scootaloo said. "We gotta rock the boat!"
"Aren't they always telling us not to do that?" Sweetie Belle asked.
"This time is different. This time the boat needs rocking!" Scootaloo said. "Besides, there's nopony down here to tell us not to, so now's the perfect chance to see if we can get cutie marks in boat rocking!"
Sweetie Belle stopped her pumping. "I suppose it is worth a try. Certainly beats waiting down here for the air to run out."
"Okay, um, brown one, horn, ready yourself to throw yourself against the sides of the boat on my signal." Sea Swirl moved to the front of the boat and turned to face her crew. "Ready?" Sea Swirl asked. Her crew nodded. "Okay, port!" she commanded, throwing her body to the right. Her crew, however, didn't move.
"Your port or our port?" Apple Bloom asked.
"Just port. Port is always port."
"But I thought port was left, and your left is different than our left," Scootaloo said, confused.
"Not mine or yours," Sea Swirl explained. "The boat's left. Fore, port, aft, and starboard." She pointed in each direction as she said the word.
"Oh. That makes much more sense," Sweetie Belle said. "I was wondering why they used a special word."
"I think it's stupid," Scootaloo said. "How are you supposed to remember which one is left and which one is right? Why can't they just call it boat-left and boat-right, like they do for stages?"
Sea Swirl smiled. "I used to think the same thing. Such a major pain. Why, I was on the verge of coming up with my own terms. Something in Latin, I was thinking. But then this old sailor told me a handy trick. He had a peg leg, a pipe, and everything, so I knew he knew what he was talking about. And what he told me was this: 'All you need to do is remember that both port and left have four letters," Sea Swirl said, "and you'll never be confused again."
"That is handy!" Sweetie Belle exclaimed, picking up her notebook. "That's going in the article for sure!"
"Can we give it a try already?" Apple Bloom asked. "The air's starting to get a bit stale…"
"Okay, places," Sea Swirl commanded. Once everyone was ready, she called the directions. Port, then starboard, over and over. At first, the only result was a slight clouding of the water. The ponies' bodies ached from the abuse, their muscles screamed in protest at the effort, and still they kept on. When Sea Swirl's voice faltered as the boat slightly tilted to starboard, Scootaloo took over, shouting encouragement.
"Come on, once more!" Scootaloo said. "Once more and we'll be free!"
With a shout that would do a ki-master proud, the three ponies hurled themselves at the wall with all the strength they could muster. The boat lurched to port.
Their efforts paid off at last when the Mark V tilted to port and slowly began to rise, amidst water clouded with stirred-up mud.
"Engage the drive!" Sea Swirl commanded.
The battered form of the Mark V broke the surface of the lake. With a hiss of air, the hatch opened. Within, four ponies and bat eagerly breathed in the fresh air. After a brief celebration about being alive and seeing the sun again, the crew returned to work. Like a salmon determined to reach its spawning grounds, the Mark V struggled upstream, trying to return to its home.
As the doors of the dry dock slammed shut and the mooring cables were attached, the gangplank lowered. The instant it made contact with the hull, three eager fillies raced up it, eager to be back on solid ground, at least one going as far as to kiss it repeatedly. Behind them followed one unicorn mare, a fruit bat clinging to her to back, and carrying her notes from the journey. As she stepped off the gangplank, she took a look back at her submarine.
"You did us proud, Mark V," she said, offering a salute.
Almost as if it had been waiting for just that, there was a loud screech of metal tearing. Air bubbles broke the surface of the water. The Mark V listed to starboard. More sounds of metal bending, being crushed, and snapping could be heard, and the list increased. The portside flipper stuck up in the air, moving of its own accord. It almost seemed as if it were waving goodbye.
With the sound of tearing metal, the tail fell off. One of the forward view ports flew up into the air before splashing just aft of the boat. The flipper waved once more, then it disappeared, as the metal plate it was attached to came loose and sunk beneath the surface of the water. Bubbles continued to burst, so many that the water seemed to be boiling. By the time they quit, nothing could be seen of the Mark V but a pile of parts on the bottom of the dry dock.
"Guess my patch finally broke," Apple Bloom said.
Sea Swirl peered into the water and shook her head in amazement. "Well, guess it is time to starting working on the Mark VI then. Can I count on you girls to crew him when he's completed?"
"You mean go back under the water?" Apple Bloom asked.
"Where you can barely see 'cause it is dark?" Sweetie Belle said.
"And it's boring most of the time?" Scootaloo said.
"Except when it's not, because there's water pouring in," Apple Bloom said.
"Thanks to giant hydras that want to attack. Or possibly mate," Sweetie Belle squeaked.
"Meaning we could get stuck on the bottom, never to be seen again?" Scootaloo added.
"Um... yes?" Sea Swirl said.
"Sure!" the three fillies yelled out in unison. "For science!"
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And that concludes the journey of Sea Swirl's Mark V submarine.
I liked it. A short and sweet adventure. The only string left hanging is "what happened to the actual crew she was waiting on to arrive"? But still, nicely done!
6984283 I did contemplate addressing that. Had three thoughts on it. The first was to have an aside of the three ponies waiting at her door, complaining a bit. And the second was tossing in a line of dialogue from Sea Swirl in chapter one about how they were a week or two early, but that she liked that enthusiasm. And the third, and let's go with that as canon, is that Sea Swirl put in a request for a crew meeting certain standards, and there was no set time for them arrive, nor guarantee one would. More of an open recruiting situation :)
This was pretty darn funny, IMO. Needs more views.
Is that even possible?!
I like this 'emergency air renewal system'. I'm sure it is 100 % biologic, and if you are hungry you can even eat it!
You are already on the ground of the ocean. You can't get more down; even if you want to.
(Don't tell them that. I'm sure the CMC will find a way.)
You genius!
[After that I quote realised I was starting to quote your whole story, so I stopped. It was hard (very hard, since there are so many good parts) but I did it! (Somehow...)]
Very good story!
Like I said before, Sea Swirl's personality is simply hilarious.
This needs more upvotes! Really!
Waiting for Mark VI!
(Whenever it's ready to leave the dock.)
One question:
What do you mean with that one?
Fond two small (very small) errors:
Edit: fixed
6985652 Hopefully, it will build them up over time. Though I certainly wouldn't object if people helped that along
6986169
Exactly. The idea was genius. It isn't her fault that a unicorn can't be expected to understand fully how those plant things work.
"i" is used to represent the imaginary unit, which is the solution to X^2 = -1 aka the square root of -1. Which means i^4 = 1. It's a silly little math joke tossed in for people who know what i is. Which based on the italics, I believe includes you
And fixed x2. Thanks again.
I'm just happy people enjoyed my dabbling with Sea Swirl. And so is Sea Swirl.
mlpforums.com/uploads/monthly_07_2014/post-26933-0-06657900-1406245648.png
Admiral Sea Swirl is a very likeable character.
This was adorable and ridiculous. Have a thumb.
The marching band refused to yield.
7036490 Thanks.
I started this story a few years ago and only got it about half finished at the time. In part because I worried about how/if it would work, with essentially the high point of adventure happening in the second act. But the main goal was to mess around with Sea Swirl, so hence why the adventure wasn't super long. Thankfully, Sea Swirl did not let me down and she successfully carried the story to its conclusion.
And glad to hear you enjoyed Sea Swirl. I expect I'll be writing more about her in the future. I've got a pair of rough ideas about her bouncing around in my brain already, and one or both might get written. The longer of two will be a longer adventure tale featuring Sea Swirl and Daring Do, as they travel in the Mark VIII in search of Atlantis. Though I'm not starting another long story before I finish my current one.
Always feel free to let me know these things so I can fix them, be it by note or comment.