The Mere-ponies did the best approximation to a charge, I conjured forth flames, creating a wall of superheated steam that blocked off their path.

“YOU PICKED THE WRONG DAY TO KIDNAP THE SON OF A TOA OF FIRE!” I yelled, dispelling the steam, several of them looked to be scalded slightly, Scars mask glowed and the same glow enveloped the mere-ponies, who promptly fell to the seabed, overpowered by their own gravity “Gravity!?” Scar nodded, we then swam past the pod, and we could see the two mere-ponies and Garnet in the distance, heading towards a city underneath a large dome

“What the fuck do we do now” Vinyl said “because I don’t speak fish-pony”

“We go in there and take back what is ours” I said “come on” I then swam forward with an extra burst of speed, I saw one of the Mere-ponies look behind them and go wide eyed, they then began to swim faster.

“Oh no you don’t!” Autumn said, blazing past me and tackling one of the sea ponies and knocking Garnet away from them “Vuur, get Garnet” I wasted no time in swimming over and grabbing the Kirin as Autumn proceeded to batter the shit out of the mere-ponies.

“Take Garnet” I said to Minion as I passed him the Kirin and swam towards Autumn and held her back “hey, stop!” she struggled against me.

“Who’s side are you on!?” she spat, I turned her around.

“Do you want to go rouge and kill them!?” I yelled, the two mere-ponies looked on in confusion and fear “we have Garnet, let’s just go, before more arrive” Autumn relaxed and hung her head.

“Err, Vuur” Scar said “about that?” I looked over to see the pod from before surrounding us, and looked the other way to see more were approaching from the city, Autumn and I swam over to the other Toa and we formed a circle around Garnet, I activated my Kenohi Hau.

“IF ANY OF YOU CAN UNDERSTAND ME THEN YOU WILL NOT BE TAKING MY SON!” I bellowed, an older looking one in more showy armour swam forward, I pointed my sword at him “STAY AWAY, IF YOU DARE…”

“Please, surface dwellers” he said, I pretty good Equestrian “lower your shield and weapons, I come bearing you no ill will”

“We aren’t the one who has an armada” Scar said, the older mere-pony said something in his native language and the guards brought their spears away from us.

“Now” he said “why did you attack those two?” he looked at the two beaten mere-ponies.

“They took my son!” I shouted, gesturing to Garnet, who was actually starting to come around, he started to panic but Autumn began to comfort him

“He doesn’t share your features” the mere-pony said.

“Adopted son” I said “biological or not, he is still my son, and I don’t know about in your city, but on the surface we don’t take kindly to others kidnapping our children” the mere-pony looked at the two who took Garnet and began talking to them in his language, and he didn’t sound too pleased, after a few moments he turned back to us.

“They didn’t mean any harm, they are terra-biologists, and assumed that your son was an undiscovered type of animal” he said “they didn’t know that he was sentient, let alone someone’s son, please, as an apology, let us take you to our city and show you true Atlantian hospitality”

---

They soon escorted us into their city, which was under a giant bubble of air, John Henry, Aurora and Ruby were now with us after Autumn went back to the beach with a couple of Mere-ponies, or rather Atlantians, who spoke equestrian, we were now being taken to their palace, it turned out the older mere-pony was brother to their king, and in charge of their armada.

“This place is incredible” I said looking around in awe, many of the Atlantians began to stare at us as we walked past, I took note of this “I take I they don’t go up top much” Harbour-wave, that’s the brother of the king shook his head.

“Unfortunately, no” he said “most assume that as the open waters are dangerous, then visiting ‘up top’ as you put it is suicide”

“Shame” I said “I hear the Crystal empire is nice this time of year” he looked at me with interest.

“It seems you have a story to tell, perhaps over lunch with the king?” he suggested.

“That sound great” I said.

“My I ask, what do you call yourselves?”

“We all have individual names, but collectively, we are known as the Toa Jörmungandr of Equestria” I said “not including the younger ones of course, they are just the children of some of us” Harbour-wave nodded and led us to two large metal doors.

“Please wait here” he said “better to warn my brother first” I nodded and Harbour-wave walked through the doors, I quickly turned to Vapaa.

“American or not” I said “when we enter that room, I don’t care if it goes against what you believe in, or social norms in the U.S., you…will…bow!, I’d rather not end up with our heads mounted on tridents because of petty cultural differences, you are under my command now and you will follow my orders, am I clear?” he looked like he was about to retort but didn’t.

“Crystal, Sir” he said, scowling.

“Good” I said, Harbour-wave walked back out, he noted the look on mine and Vapaa’s faces.

“Am I interrupting anything?” he asked.

“No” I said “we’ve just finished”

“Very well” he said, the doors then opened and Harbour-wave began announcing us in his language, in the middle of a large hall was a round table, sat in one seat was an Atlantian who I assumed to be the king, myself and the rest of the Toa bowed, if a little hesitantly for some.

“This is my brother” Harbour-wave said “King Archimedes”

“It is an honour your majesty” I said “I only hope we haven’t offended you with our little…incident earlier” the King nodded.

“Such a reaction to having one of your own taken is understandable” he said, he then gestured to the table “please, take a seat and tell me of your adventures, you look like you have had quite the journey” we all sat and I began telling the tale that I had told many times, this was also the first time Vapaa, John and the twins had heard the story, turns out King Archimedes had been to the surface to other countries several times, and he had also had the displeasure of meeting the Griffin king, so he liked how I had handled the situation.

“It’s about time someone put that idiot in his place” Harbour-wave said “although I hope you were joking when you were mentioning the weapons from your lands”

“Unfortunately no” I said “even the griffins would get decimated if they went up against our world, I’m pleased I don’t have any weapons from my world, I dread to think what the griffins would do with them”

“Quite” Archimedes said “now please, continue”

---

“And that about wraps it up” I said

“And you still have more to see!” Archimedes said “and your powers, they are truly remarkable, may I ask, why do you plan to visit the by your reckoning undiscovered southern lands”

“You remember what I told you about Mata Nui?” I asked, Archimedes nodded “his civilisation was around millions of years before this era of life, some kind of natural disaster happened and as far as we know, he is the only one left, we are going to try and look for any remnants of their civilisation, at least so we can work out what happened”

“Ah” Archimedes said, nodding “so you are seeking closure then?”

“I guess” I said.

“Well, I truly wish you the best of luck” he then paused, as if considering something “hmm, I have a…proposal for you” I leant forward.

“I’m listening” I said.

“I give you several terra-biologists” he said.

“And in return?” I asked

“You allow them to study whatever they please, within reason of course”

“As long as we don’t have a repeat of earlier” I said, he nodded “very well, I’m sure we have room on our ship”

“How big is your ship?” Harbour-wave asked “you have mentioned it several times, but you haven’t given a clear impression of its size” I thought for a moment.

“Length is 3620 metres, height is 720 metres, gross tonnage is just over 2 ¼ million tons, maximum possible crew is 70’000 personnel, current crew is just over 50’000 personnel” their jaws dropped.

“And you are in command of all of it?” Archimedes asked.

“Technically it’s split between me, Autumn, Vinyl and Minion” I said “but yes, I’m the captain of the ship”

“I’m thankful your ship isn’t submersible” Archimedes said.

“I’m not the type to destroy a city over a kidnapping, burning it to the ground?” I said “maybe”

“WHAT!?” Archimedes and Harbour-wave exclaimed, I burst out laughing.

“I’m kidding” I said, conjuring a fireball and letting it hover above my hand, they both went pale, Autumn slapped me on the arm.

“Stop intimidating them” she said, at this point a young female Atlantian, in her late teens, waked in, she froze when she saw us, she then turned to Archimedes and said something in their language, Archimedes said something back to her and she walked over and sat down at the table, he then turned to us.

“This is my daughter, Orca” he said

“Hello” I said, giving a wave, the rest of the Toa all gave their greetings, she just stared at us, wide eyed.

“Err” she said, in a thick Atlantian accent “hi?”

“Never seen my kind before?” I asked, she shook her head “you aren’t the only one” Orca began talking to Archimedes in Atlantian, they seemed to be discussing something, and neither wanted to back down, eventually Archimedes had a resigned look on his face and slumped before nodding, he then turned to us.

“Orca wants to join you on your travels” he said “would you be generous enough to let her join you?”

“Your majesty” I said “it would be an honour to have your daughter join us” Orca’s face lit up.

---

We were swimming back to the beach, we now had five terra-biologists and Orca with us, as well as Garnet, Ruby, Aurora and John, we were just reaching the canyon when Vinyl spoke up.

“Hold up!” she said “I’m picking up movement on my radar, and it’s not us”

“How many?” I asked.

“A lot” she said.

“Aright” I said “Weapons ready and form a circle around those that can’t fight, we don’t know what could be heading towards” the Toa began to surround the Atlantians and the children, weapons drawn, I peered through the murky water but I couldn’t see anything.

“Contacts to my left” Vinyl said, I looked to the right and saw movement in the distance.

“oh no!” Orca said.

“What?” I asked.

“There is more than one type of sea-pony” she said “Atlantians, and Carcharo’s”

“I’m guessing the Carcharo’s are those ones” Minion said.

“Yes” she said “and they always hunt in groups” the group of Carcharo’s began to swam closer, sure enough, instead of them looking like Atlantians, which were ponies with grey skin, an eel like tail and fin like frills instead of a mane, these ‘Carcharo’s were more like a cross between a pony, a shark and a deep sea fish, instead of four hooved legs of the Atlantians, they had two arms ending in webbed claws, a shark like fin on each elbow, a sail like fin running along their back, their faces were so ugly not even a mother could love them, with a huge under-bite and lots of needle like teeth poking through and a shark like tail

“Those things are ever-ugly!” Boris said

“Tighter formation” I said “we have to protect the princess and the others, our safety comes second, understood?”

“Yes sir!” they said.

“Vuur Koning” Vapaa said “I have an idea, but it’s risky”

“Let’s hear it” I said, the Carcharo’s we beginning to swim closer.

“I need you to keep their attention off of me whilst I swim towards the canyon” he said.

“Are you insane!?” I asked “you want us to keep them distracted so you can ditch us?”

“No, just trust me” he said.

“Alright, but you better come back” he nodded and swam off towards the canyon, drawing the attention of several of the Carcharo’s, I yelled over to them “Hey, fish sticks!” they stopped and looked at us, my sword began to glow red hot, causing bubbles of steam to start forming, one of them growled and the charged towards us.

“Vinyl” I said, she looked at me “DROP THE BASS!” she smirked and levelled her cannon on the Carcharo’s, she pulled the trigger and a massive shock wave blasted across the sea bed, sending up dust and mud, the Carcharo’s wreathed in pain at the force of the shockwave, a massive glow emanated from the canyon and Orca let out a scream, I turned to see a colossal monster rise out of the canyon, it had long, scythe like horns either side of its head, and four arms, one set was almost comically small compared to the larger pair, it placed a two large clawed hands down on the seabed and stared down at the Carcharo’s, who promptly swam for cover, the creature let out a roar that could be felt more than heard.

“What is that thing!?” Orca shrieked.

“That is a category four Kaiju” I said, smirking “also known as Vapaa” the Kaiju promptly began to shrink back down to Vapaa’s size, before turning back into Vapaa, who collapsed.

“I won’t be doing that again anytime soon” Vapaa said, holding his head, he winced.

“Are you alright” Orca asked, he nodded.

“I’ll be fine in a few hours” he said “changing into something large like that always does a number on me”

“Why change into something so big?” Orca asked.

“If it’s worth doing?” he said “it’s worth overdoing” I scoffed.

“Show off” I said “alright, let’s get out of here”

---

We soon reached the beach and the kids resumed playing almost straight away, myself and the rest of the Toa were resting on the beach, out of our armour, Orca seemed fascinated in Minions and Vapaa’s tattoos

“Why would you do that to your body?” Orca asked Vapaa, looking at a tattoo of a rattle snake wrapped around his right leg in a striking pose with the words ‘Don’t tread on me’ above it.

“Personal reasons” Vapaa said

“I personally don’t see the point of stretching your ears to the size of the moon like Minion does” I said, laying in the sand in shorts and covering my face with a black Stetson that Applejack had given me for hearths warming “Tattoos, I don’t have I problem with” I then sat up and showed her the tattoos on my shoulder.

“What do those symbols mean?” Orca asked.

“The one on my left shoulder stands for the three virtues; Unity, Duty and Destiny, the one on my right shoulder is the album cover for a band that I listen to, and represents the symbols of four major religions from my world” I then counted off on my fingers “the pentacle of Paganism, cross of Christianity, Islamic crescent and the Jewish star of David, together they represent ‘universal belief’”

“How is it ‘universal’ when it doesn’t include the Terran religion?” Autumn asked, I thought for a moment.

“Maybe I should design an ‘updated version or something” I said.

“Could do” Autumn said “but I can’t see how you could fit it amongst all of that” she then began idly tracing out the patterns on the tattoo with her finger, I looked at her and raised an eyebrow.

“Having fun?” I asked, she jumped and blushed.

“Sorry” she said.

“I’m not complaining” I said, smirking.

“Stop it” she whined, hiding her face.

“Stop what?” I asked, still smirking.

“That look” she said.

“OH, you mean this look” I intensified my smirk and she burst out laughing.

“Now you just look like a prat” she said, I pouted.

“Thanks a lot” I said.

Next Chapter: Chapter 38 Estimated time remaining: 12 Hours, 52 Minutes