Empty Horizons: Sea of Stars

by Insipidious

First published 29th of August, 2019

The Admiral spent her youth looking to the stars and wondering what secrets they hid. Now she commands a submarine, and if she dives just a little deeper, maybe she'll find out.

Sanctaphrax, the city of knowledge. Wherever there's a question, there you can find the answer.

For the right price.

Unlike most of the citizens of The Ivory Island, the Admiral doesn't concern herself with economics. Her wealth comes in knowledge and the never-ending struggle to pull the future into the present. As long as she has the bits to keep Algol's Shadow running and its crew fed, she dives, and Sanctaphrax pay is more than enough.

When a routine salvage job leads to a discovery that could change the way the world sees the sunken ruins of Equestria forever, she can't help but get a little excited. She can hear the future knocking, just another dive away. The very stars themselves might as well be in her grasp.

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This story takes place in the world of Goldenwing's story Empty Horizons, but it can be read without context.

I - As Below, so Above

She was going to fly.

She’d decided it earlier that night. As the moon rose over the world, she told herself she would accomplish that. Climb up the edge of that brilliant, deep blue and look down upon the ponies below. That was the place for a pony to be seen: the realm of the clouds.

It had taken her almost all night to muster the courage to do it, but here she stood. Her hooves made hardly any noise as she snuck along the wooden dock jutting from the edge of the jungle-laden island she called home. Some might say it was odd there was a dock jutting out of the seemingly endless wilderness, but she would tell them they weren't looking close enough.

She only hoped the eyes in the jungle weren’t watching her now. They’d try to stop her and she couldn’t have that. How would she ever fly if she didn’t take a risk? That was how it always worked in the legends, after all. At the edge of a pony’s rope, their purpose was revealed.

Her favorite told of the pegasus who couldn’t fly but lived in the mythical cloud cities of old nonetheless. It was a silly story that made no sense—who would live in those places if they couldn’t fly?—but it was the best one. Because, just before she hit the ground, the birds grabbed her and showed her how to be strong.

With any luck, the water would make a good substitute for ground. At least it was softer, right? Right…

Time to be like the ponies of legend.

She spread her wings, catching the moonlight in her thin, leathery appendages, creating a spotlight for the rest of her body. Normally she would flinch away from this since it reminded her of her bright, obvious, attention-grabbing white coat. Today, she felt no fear of her brilliance, allowing herself to shine for the dark night. Strands of amber hair sparkled at the edges of her vision, framing her view of the open world before her.

For the first time, she didn’t feel ashamed of her appearance. She was beautiful. And the night would see her.

The ponies in the jungle would too, apparently, since she started to hear shouting.

Cursing to herself, she knew it was now or never. She flapped her wings and jumped off the dock. After a moment of weightlessness, she was plunging toward the waters far below.

The experience of dropping like a stone threw her stomach into her throat even though she was falling face-first. For a moment, her mind contemplated how little sense the sensation made, able to reason that it was backward before the panic set in. With the panic came the tumble; for while her wings weren’t helping her fly, they were certainly able to toss her around like a cyclone.

She had no control and she lost her previous meal of mangoes and snake within the first ten seconds. After this, however, the panic began to fade as the sensation of falling became familiar. Taking stock of herself, she knew she wasn’t dead. She also knew the water was rising to reach her quickly and hitting it at this speed was probably a terrible idea.

How did birds do it? They flapped, right. She forced herself into an upright position and began to flap as hard as her wings could manage. To be fair, her descent slowed, but given the tug of her mane on her scalp she was still falling way too fast. Taking a moment to think, she spread her wings wide for balance.

To her shock, the air caught under her webbing, turning her dramatic fall into a slope. The initial jerk from the wind tugged at her joints but she managed to hold her wings steady. Slowly, what had been a straight dive into the water turned into an angled one, until her mane was no longer pulling angrily at her scalp.

Flight.

With a toothy grin and the wind in her ears, she looked around.

The moon sat on the horizon, reflected in the eerily perfect calm of the ocean. For a moment, there was no up or down; the reflection in the water was so crisp. Before her was a full moon and all around were brilliant, shimmering stars. Sharp, blazing holes against a sea of darkness.

They were just like her.

She was a star.

There was no ocean, no floating islands, no lost history beneath the waves. There were no legends here, no ponies at all. The realm of the stars was beyond all that.

But she was a part of it.

A brilliant streak of white crossed the sky, shattering into numerous smaller chunks above her head. There was a thunderous boom as the cosmic event captured her imagination, but she scarcely heard it. She felt it, a tingling sensation running through her veins. This was it. This was the moment. She knew.

Carefully, she shot a glance back at her flanks.

Beautiful, white, perhaps even cosmic.

But still blank.

Her heart sank and she let out a hiss of anger. That was it! She’d been certain! Had she been Gifted, that… that would have been the moment that marked her destiny.

...Who needed to be Gifted? Who needed the stories of old, the magic, or some mark on their butt to tell them what their destiny was? If she wanted this moment to be her destiny, it was going to be her destiny! She would forge her own path. All ponies should forge their own path! Stop fixating on all those stupid legends. The ponies of the past had their chance.

Now, it was hers. She would fly right up to those stars a—

Wait. She didn’t get a mark. She didn’t have magic. How was she flying?

The moment she thought to ask that question she realized she wasn’t. With rising panic, she noticed she was simply falling slightly slower than usual and was about to hit the water. Remembering her training at the lake, she folded her wings back and pointed her hooves forward into a proper dive. Her reflection rose up to meet her, and for a moment she saw the terror in her eyes.

The lakes had trained her well, so the feel of cold water on her coat wasn’t startling in the slightest. The massive influx of salt in her mouth and nostrils was unlike anything she had ever experienced. Part of her thought it was fascinating while most of the rest thought it burned. A small part of her decided it would make a good seasoning. She wasn’t sure what to do with this information.

Ignoring her mind’s tendency to go the weirdest places at the least convenient times, she used her wings to swim to the surface, finding them very effective under the water.

If only there had been stars beneath the waves. Instead, there were only a few small fish that were quickly running away from the massive splash she had just made. Down here, the world did not accept those who were bright. Just like the jungle.

She breached the calm ocean surface, sucking a breath of air into her lungs. After rubbing the water from her eyes, she glanced around. The moon was still there, as were the stars… but they felt oh so far away. Not even the gift of flight would have gotten her to them.

Turning herself back the way she’d come, she noted that she had actually traveled a significant distance from her island floating above. It was still possible to make out the dock, though that was only because the others had lit the fires at the edge of it. She watched a light drop from the dock.

They were dropping ropes with fire at the end, hoping she’d see them and grab on.

With a sigh, she began to swim back, her wings propelling her forward like a torpedo. They were never going to let her hear the end of this. Probably grounded from the hunt and forbidden from eating mangoes. It was going to suck.

Feeling something brush against her leg, she decided getting eaten by a deepfish would suck a lot more.

Pushing herself, she dove slightly under the water and jumped out like a fish, spreading her wings wide to catch the air. She was far too heavy with all the water in her coat to glide like she had been earlier, but there was a second or two of extra airtime because of the maneuver.

If she had bigger wings, maybe…

That was something to think about later. Right now, she needed to get out of the ocean.

It didn’t take her anywhere near as long to get back as it had taken her to drift out. She spotted one of the ropes with a burning end just before it hit the water’s surface. She leaped onto it, latching on with her sharp teeth and all four hooves at once. That was enough of a jerk to get their attention—the rope began to move upward, slowly pulling her out of the ocean.

There were somewhere around ten meters of extra rope dangling under her. They had certainly made sure the rope would reach her no matter how far the wind may have taken it, even though there was absolutely no wind tonight. Looking up, she could see the bottom of her island.

She’d never seen it from this angle before. There were no trees, but it was still jungle-like in appearance with snaking vines that covered almost all the rocks and even a few flower buds awaiting the coming of morning. As she adjusted her eyes to take in the full scene, the island became a round spot of darkness surrounded by a halo of stars.

Never before had she felt so small.

She wouldn’t have expected herself to feel excited at the idea even if she had.

Her reveling in her size was interrupted by the rumbling of the waters far below. The calm, reflective sea had begun to churn with frothing, aggressive bubbles. The terrible maw of a deepfish erupted from the depths, lined with teeth larger than her entire body. The fish couldn’t reach her.

It could reach the bottom of her rope. The massive, interlocking jaws slammed shut on the dangling tip of her lifeline, giving her full view of its face.

The eyes were so much worse than the teeth. Each milky sphere was the size of a house, wrinkled like the skin of an old mare. There was no movement in the eyes whatsoever and caked pockets of blood had coalesced at their bases, looking more like a forest of some red parasite than a natural part of the fish. Its massive scales reflected the moonlight far better than the white thestral’s coat ever could.

She saw what was going to happen. The deepfish would start falling and pull on the rope with more weight than anypony could deal with. The dock would shatter after even a second of trying to hold this massive fish and she would fall with it. It would be certain death for her and whoever else up there didn't react quickly enough.

So she bit the rope and pulled back as hard as she could. At the end of her sharp motion, an immense pain drove through her jaw. She couldn’t help herself—she let out a bloodcurdling screech that would have shattered any windows on the island had they been present. Something had snapped in her mouth—a fang?

Forcing the scream down her throat, she bit on the rope again, not to cut it, but to allow herself to work through the pain and get a stronger hold on the only thing anchoring her to life.

Only then did she realize that she had succeeded. The bloody end of the rope below her was not connected to a deepfish.

Somehow, through some trick of fate, her broken fang was still there, dangling by a single, loose thread. She picked it up with her wing, folding it close to her body.

She spent the rest of the ride up trying not to pass out from the pain.

II - As the Leviathan Feeds

Leviathan Wakes moved with the sea. This included every wind, every wave, and every storm. Ponies could attempt to steer the boat city as much as their resources would allow, but it was impossible to avoid every tumultuous brew the weather would throw at them. Sails were down, chains were fastened, and most sane ponies were huddled indoors.

It wasn’t the worst storm ever. Boats weren’t capsizing but the various scaffoldings that kept the mobile settlement unified were being strained considerably—not to the point of falling apart but creaking enough to keep everypony in a tense state of uncertainty. Anypony who’d been through a storm before knew the city would survive and they would too, so long as they weren’t stupid enough to go outside and risk getting tossed into the ocean.

Cotton Fluff was one of the ponies who liked to live on the edge just a little bit. Instead of hiding within his broken down ship apartment like most ponies, he was out on the deck holding tightly to the railing. Granted, he had a rope tied around his midsection that was affixed to several rungs inside his apartment, but he liked to tell himself that being out here at all made him a daredevil.

The rain crashed down all around him, having flattened his usually puffy white mane long ago. His coat was a dull blue that he believed went well with the ocean despite what his marefriend told him. After all, he was Cotton Fluff, he knew better.

With a creak, the wooden railing gave way a little, prompting Cotton to move to a more stable-looking area. Satisfied that the post he was on wasn’t about to give out, he looked up at the rest of Leviathan Wakes. It was impossible to see all of it in the storm given the rain, but he could see far enough to consider it a spectacle. At the furthest reaches of his vision he saw one of the most massive ships of all, the Cadenza, rock as a wave passed under them. The chains and boards that connected the Cadenza to the rest of the city pulled taut, straining some of the other ships. However, the chains had been measured out properly, so shortly after the chains were pulled the other ships began to roll up the incoming wave. A few rocked so far that massive quantities of water poured over their decks, but that was par for the course.

He should probably get back inside, given the size of the wave. Even with his rope getting hit by that wouldn’t be comfortable. As he took one final look around, he decided he’d had enough of being out in the storm.

Just as he was turning around, he saw them. Two ponies walking along a rickety line of rotting rafts below the railing of Cotton’s apartment ship. He wouldn’t have seen them at all were it not for the brilliant white coat of the lead pony—a pegasus, given the protrusions on her sides, though it was hard to see details in the rain.

“Hey!” he called. “Are you stupid!? The wave’s coming! I—UGH!” Before he really knew what he was doing, he slipped out of his rope and tossed it down to them. “HURRY!”

The rope hit the white mare on the head, upsetting her hat. She said something Cotton couldn't hear over the din of the storm, but she grabbed hold of the rope and began climbing.

Looking up, Cotton saw the wave getting too close for comfort. Without the rope around his barrel, it could very easily sweep him away and kill him. He retreated back to the open door of his apartment and began to pull on the rope from there. This way, if the wave hit him it would just shove him into his apartment. Painful, yes, but not deadly.

He closed his eyes and strained himself as much as his legs would allow, pressing two against the edges of the doorframe and using the other two to pull. Eventually, the rope went slack. Since there had been no sharp jerk from breaking, he assumed this meant the ponies had gotten over the edge of the railing. He opened his eyes.

The two of them had gotten over the railing, all right. But so had the wave. The next thing he knew his vision was replaced with the sense of salty burning. The water slammed him into the back of his apartment hard, hitting the knobby doors of his dresser. That didn’t knock the wind out of him, but the pressure of two mares slamming into his stomach did.

For a while, the world was spinning. He was vaguely aware of the rush of water leaving the apartment and somepony closing the door.

Eventually, he could hear voices.

“—this apartment is ruined,” one said with a light tone that Cotton decided was “cute.”

The other’s voice was deeper, but more dignified and authoritative. “He was the one who saved us. Plus, there’s not really much in here to ruin.”

“Saved? Really?” The cute one let out a childish giggle. “You and I both know we would have been fine out there. The Trinity was all of ten meters away!”

“So? Rope dropped from the sky. I seized the moment.”

“Yes, yes… oh, I think he’s coming back around!”

Cotton’s vision was, in fact, panning out. In front of him was one of the most beautiful mares he had ever seen, putting even his girl to shame—a thought that made him feel more than a little guilty. Her legs were thin, yet well toned. The water matted down her bright pink coat to make the presence of her muscles easy to see, giving her an alluring mixture of strong and delicate elements. In contrast, her mane was such a deep red it was almost black, so long that it was trailing along the floor and tied around one of her hooves. A few beads dotted the hairs here and there.

Her face, while no doubt just as beautiful as the rest of her, was shrouded by the damp mess the rain had made her mane, so all he could make out was her red irises. He soon decided it wasn’t worth staring at her eyes anyway, for on her bare flanks he could see the rare sight of a cutie mark—and what a mark it was! An exaggerated crimson eye with a star-shaped pupil and waves across it.

“Wow…” Cotton said, dumbly.

“Yeah, it’s something, ain’t it?” she laughed, and Cotton noticed soft sparks of magic around her horn. “Name’s Sparkler Depths. Thanks for tossing that rope.”

Cotton blinked. “But… didn’t you say…?”

Sparkler had the decency to look sheepish. “Heard that, huh? Yeah… sorry, we probably would have been fine. But it’s the thought that counts! You put yourself and this… place at risk just to help us!” When she gestured at the apartment, Cotton could tell she did it with a little disdain. He wasn’t surprised—she was a Gifted, after all, she probably rarely had reason to step into a place this cheap and run-down. Not to mention the fact that it was soaked.

It was going to take forever to air out the blankets.

“We can compensate you for the water damage,” the other voice said, reminding Cotton that there had been two mares. “This fun diversion was worth that much.”

“Th-thanks. I didn—” He stopped speaking the moment he laid eyes upon the other mare. She was white, all right, he hadn’t misjudged her color out there. But she definitely wasn’t a pegasus. Her wings had no feathers to speak of, replacing the natural fluff with harsh, leathery webbing. The water clinging to her coat revealed an angular posture, more predatory than any normal pony. No mark graced her flank and her luscious amber mane was just as messy as Sparkler’s, though nowhere near as long.

Despite the nest of hairs, he couldn’t look away from her eyes. Amidst her ghostly white form, the pale yellow within her irises sparkled like citrine gemstones. Where he had hoped to find a normal, round pupil he instead found an angry slit running from the top to the bottom.

A thestral.

His breath caught in his throat and he began to tremble in fear at the almost mythical creature before him.

At his response, she grinned, revealing a mouth full of sharp teeth. He had enough of his wits about him to notice that a tooth was missing—and subsequently realized that the missing fang hung around her neck on a white string. Out of her mouth it somehow looked sharper.

“S-stay back!” he stammered, pressing himself as far as he could into the damp wall, trying to run away. He glanced toward the door. Dare he take his chances out there, in the storm? If these two had ways to survive out there, maybe he could. It would be better than sharing a room with a monster.

“Sure,” the thestral said, sitting down on his soaked bed. She took a moment to adjust her pearlescent sailor’s cap, combing down the points on her ears in the process. “Guess I’ll just sit here, then, since I can’t leave without getting closer to you.”

Thestrals are tricksters. They toy with their victims from the shadows.

“How long do you think we give him?” the thestral asked. “Two minutes? Three?”

Sparkler shrugged. “You’re the Admiral.”

The Admiral smirked. “True, but this isn’t exactly a nautical decision, now is it?”

“I say the less time we waste, the better. I’d rather get as far away from those leviathans as fast as possible. It’s like they’re always watching me.”

“I suppose we’ll have to disregard our fine hero’s wishes, then.” She jumped off the bed.

Cotton glared at her. “I kn-know when I’m being toyed with.”

“Good boy.” She reached under her hat and tossed him a few bits. “Now you’ve got some bits. Might want to consider getting some wits, lest you fail to live up to your city’s reputation.”

“Lay off the poet speech,” Sparkler suggested.

The Admiral shrugged, jumping to the door and swinging it open. Her grin widened as the rain pelted her face. Sparkler followed her out, shooting Cotton a pitying smile as she closed the door.

Cotton heard a wave crash into the door a few seconds later.

Somehow, he knew they were just fine.

Why was a monster like that walking around in the open?!

The Admiral did not have far to travel through the stormy weather to get to her destination. She would have gotten the Trinity much closer so there would have been no need to travel anywhere at all, but sadly that wasn’t an option when going to Jester’s. There was a policy about not having subs of any kind beneath her ship and Jester had enough of a reputation that ponies actually followed it except in dire circumstances.

Thus, a trot through stormy weather. They were knocked into the water a few times despite their best efforts, but the Admiral’s leathery wings were excellent under the waves, allowing them to surface long before another wave came along. Absolute worst-case scenario, they’d have to go deep and signal for the sub to come get them.

As expected, the mini-sub did not need to be called. The Admiral and Sparkler arrived at Jester’s soaking wet but smiling nonetheless. Her ship was of a decent size and painted with notoriously bright colors. Usually, there would be torches lit around it to draw attention, but the downpour kept the festive exterior from lighting up. Even the bright pink doors they were standing in front of were muted.

The Admiral checked behind her to make sure this entrance wasn’t about to get bombarded by a wave. Upon convincing herself it was safe, she allowed herself to grin.

“...We’re not knocking, are we?” Sparkler asked.

“No. You know this is my favorite part.”

She whirled around and kicked the doors in, prompting light to flush into the grime outside. With her head held high and a smirk that showed off her fang she marched right in, wings spread.

Jester’s was a bar, though not the sort a pony would usually find in a city like Leviathan Wakes. There was far too much color, the drinks behind the counter looked like they might be the magic potions of old, and it was abnormally clean aside from the water pooling around the door.

The Admiral made it all of three steps before the first glass fell to the floor—the drink of a young green mare who was clearly trying to decide if she was hallucinating or not. The Admiral passed her by without so much as a pitying glance while the rest of the patrons of the bar slowly realized what had just walked in their doors. The regulars either groaned or tipped their drinks at her in respect. Others weren’t lucky enough to have context and there was a mixture of dropped jaws, drinks, and even a few heads as ponies passed out.

She carefully watched the one pegasus stallion in the corner who looked angry at her existence, but it didn’t appear like he was going to do anything due to the pressure of the other patrons.

Sparkler closed the door behind them, smiling awkwardly. “I think she broke your latch again, Jester!”

“I’ve learned to keep spares,” Jester said, sliding into view on the other side of the bar. She was a white unicorn with a short, pale pink mane resting below a pointed hat. Today, the hat was baby blue, but everypony knew she had a million different colors stored elsewhere. Reaching into the bar’s drawers, she pulled out an extra latch and tossed it to Sparkler, who caught it in her telekinesis and began affixing it to the door.

Wordlessly, Jester took out a golden brew from behind her and set it in front of the Admiral. Pulling a small pouch from her hat, the Admiral responded by dropping a handful of bits on the counter.

Jester raised an eyebrow. “They broke more glasses than usual this time, Admiral.”

The Admiral chuckled—a strange noise made with a slightly eerie hiss in the back of her throat. She tossed another bit into the pile. “I’d think the entertainment would be payment enough, Jester.”

“You may never think it gets old, but let me tell you about how Gruff went on a rant about you last week.”

“Wh—hey!” an old drunk stallion grunted.

“Shush, not talking to you, Gruff, just about you.” Jester winked. “So I’m afraid the price for your little power-play has gone up slightly. I’m sure you can afford to part with an extra bit with all that Sanctaphrax money of yours, hmm?”

The Admiral shrugged. Wordlessly, she removed a small black box from her satchel and set it on the bar counter.

Jester stared at it. “You really are insane.”

“You’ll get it to where it needs to go?”

“Obviously! But… I mean I know this has a reputation for being a safe place, but you’re just being ridiculous.”

“Nopony would dare mess with you. I think we’re good.”

Jester rolled her eyes “Well, yes, but it’s the principle of the thing. Stars, I swear, you either have more wits than anypony or none at all.”

“I think it’s a coin flip on any given day,” Sparkler said, taking a seat next to the Admiral. “Milkshake, please.”

“And you never drink anything alcoholic. You’re worse than she is.”

“Probably.” Instead of levitating her drink directly, Sparkler levitated her hair like a limb and picked up the shake, beginning to obnoxiously slurp it.

“Monsters… monsters!” a blue mare in the back shouted.

“Oh, quiet!” Jester shouted at her. “These are some of my best customers, shut your yap! ...No, don’t leave it hanging open, that attracts flies.”

“In this weather?” the Admiral asked.

“You know what I mean.”

“So, got anything juicy for us?” Sparkler asked, giving everypony a blessed moment of reprieve from her slurking.

“Juicy…?” Jester tapped her hoof on the counter as she refilled Gruff’s drink. “Well, there’s a particularly crazy rumor about a bunch of mares from Old Canterlot, frozen in time. Probably nuts, though, right?”

“And not worth our time,” the Admiral said. “Look where the old ways got us.” She gestured at the door. “We’re lucky we’re able to live through that.”

“Eh, it was just the most interesting thing I’d heard.” Jester shrugged. “Unless you want to hear about the falling rumors.”

“Already picked that place dry,” Sparkler said. “Where did you think we were?”

“I don’t know, the moon?”

A smile came to the Admiral’s lips. “I wish.”

“How’s that whole thing going for you, by the way?”

“It exploded. Again.” The Admiral downed her drink. “But you always learn from failure.”

“I wouldn’t know,” Jester chuckled.

“Oi!” Sparkler blurted. “Ya know everythin’, ya might ‘s well own up t’ it!”

“Accent slipping, dear.”

Sparkler flushed. “Er…” She coughed, indicating to the Admiral that she should change the topic.

“We’re heading back to Sanctaphrax after this,” the Admiral said, tipping her glass forward to get it filled up again.

“Not going to stay for the after-storm festival?”

“Too much cargo, too many thieves with wits and no bits.”

Jester raised an eyebrow. “You think a bunch of thieves are going to be able to storm the Algol’s cargo hold?”

“Oh, no, I just don’t like extra bodies.” She slid her drink to the side. “Contrary to popular belief, ponies taste terrible.”

A dramatic silence fell over the bar.

“Speaking of, got any mangoes?”

Jester laughed and grabbed some dried mango slices from under the counter. “Don’t have any fresh right now, storm and all, so half-price.”

The Admiral paid. It wasn’t anywhere near as good without the juices but it was still amazing. Most plants were boring and dull tasting, not worth her time if she had a choice. Mangoes were the exception. Their lavish flavor, the grainy texture that pulled into strands, th—

“You’re spacing again,” Sparkler interrupted her.

“I swear, it’s like drugs to you,” Jester said.

The Admiral shrugged, downing the dried fruit.

“Anyway, going back to Sanctaphrax? I might have something for you.” Jester walked over to a cork board and pulled off a small piece of paper. “Ship went down that direction. Not much valuable besides a family heirloom that this Violet Bow wants. Not much pay, either. Nopony’s picked it up because of that. Buuuut… you like raw materials, don’t’cha? Hmm? Free refined metal, sittin’ at the bottom of the ocean!”

Taking the note, Sparkler read through it. “That’s not far out of the way… Think we can get Orange off The Button long enough to jury-rig a net of some kind?”

“He’ll do it if I tell him to,” the Admiral said, taking the note and pocketing it. “We’ll do it. Let Violet Bow know it might be a few weeks before we get her heirloom back.”

“Caaaaan do!” Jester sang. “Now, I know my internal clock’s a bit off, but I think Rummy will be around soon for a game. He really wants a rematch.”

The Admiral made a show of thinking deeply about her response even though she knew exactly what she was going to say. “...I suppose I could be convinced to play if he would up the ante a bit this time.”

“Good,” Jester giggled. “Good…”

III - As Dark as a Starless Night

Beneath the rocking waves, the ocean appeared peaceful. Under natural circumstances it should have been dark beneath Leviathan Wakes, but the subsurface life of the city was anything but natural. Under the haphazardly rummaged together ships there were massive waterproof chains running back and forth. Deeper down, these chains fused with each other into even more massive restraints until a chain link was roughly the size of a pony.

At the bottom, these chains affixed to the two largest beings known to ponykind, the leviathans. Massive fish so tremendous in size that, no matter the quality of the water, nopony could see both ends of the scaled behemoths at once. It was these two beings that dragged Leviathan Wakes along through the ocean, guided by the fish dumped by the ponies above. The black one had slightly more girth than the red one, which had smoother skin and more graceful fins. Yet, nopony was entirely sure which one was larger, if any. They never exactly extended to their full length, and some ponies swore they were still growing in size.

Regardless, the deepfish monsters of the open ocean didn’t dare challenge the great leviathans, and so Leviathan Wakes was allowed to flourish.

While the surface ships suffered from the storm, the submarines below experienced little more than some slightly annoying jostling. They sat there, lights on, chained to one part of Leviathan Wakes or another, sitting and waiting. While it was dark above, below the subs blessed the sea with light. It was just a little less convenient to move through the water than the planks on the surface.

Unless a pony had access to an agile mini-sub, which the Admiral did. It was a small brass egg-shaped craft with a single reinforced window in the front and a large propeller in the back. The tube that usually ran from its top back to a source of air wasn’t present, but it didn’t need it since the journey wasn’t going to be long.

There were two seats within the sub and a small place for cargo in the back. The pilot—a young stallion by the name of Lime Lick—sat in the front with the Admiral, while Sparkler sat in the cargo hold. Though ‘sat’ was a bit of a stretch, since she had used her hair to tie herself to the ceiling and hang upside-down like a bat.

“You know, when I was a kid, I used to tell myself thestrals did this,” Sparkler said. “Then you came along and ruined that dream.”

“What were we going to hang onto the ceiling with?” the Admiral asked. “Our tails?”

“I was six and thought you were magic genies that gave me money for my lost teeth.”

“And thought we ate eyeballs.”

“Yes, our legends were very contradictory, woo.”

“Coming up on the Algol’s Shadow now,” Lime Lick tentatively announced.

Looking out the window, the Admiral saw her ship—and what a beauty it was. Most ships were long, pill-shaped things that had no flavor to them whatsoever. Hers was not only far larger than the standard sub, but it also had so much more character. Instead of a long barrel that looked like armor for a snake, the Algol’s shape was more ovoid, giving it substance and girth. Numerous bronze spikes studded out of the hull, illuminated brilliantly by the spotlights dotting the ship. Access ports stretched out from its main body, though there were currently no other submarines attached to them.

The mini-sub lowered itself under the Algol’s Shadow. “Trinity, requesting permission to dock,” Lime said.

“Granted,” an old, gruff voice barked from the other end.

The Trinity entered a small, square depression in the bottom of the Algol’s Shadow where five other similar mini-subs rested, all with an air tube connecting them to the larger ship. The Trinity docked at port number three, affixing its top to the small port jutting out of the Algol.

Sparkler whipped her mane off the ceiling and onto the hatch, using it to stabilize herself while her telekinesis turned the valve. On their side, the valve popped downward. They had to wait for a member of the crew to open the other side of the valve, twisting it up.

“Welcome back, Admiral!” a brown pegasus said, extending one of his wings down to help Sparkler up. “Long time no see!”

“In your mind, maybe, Granite,” the Admiral said, climbing out of the Trinity without any assistance from the pegasus.

“My mind is an endless maze of corridors and treasure for those who care to explore it.”

“Oi…” Sparkler grumbled.

“So, do we have any new jobs? Huh?” Granite tapped the ground excitedly. “My boys are getting a little itchy…”

Sparkler gawked. “Itchy? You raided a sub last week! A sub! That was one of the riskiest and most unusual things we’ve done and you’re already…”

“Keeps him eager and willing,” the Admiral said, putting down Sparkler’s complaints. “We’re still heading to Sanctaphrax.”

Granite deflated. “Damn intellectual pricks…”

“But we do have a stop we’re going to make on the way. Nothing fancy, so I don’t want you to get your hopes up, but some poor mare wants us to get a family heirloom that sunk to the bottom of the ocean. We get to pick up the excess scrap metal for our own uses.”

“I’ll take it,” Granite said, forcing a smile. “We don’t have any room left in the holds, though.”

“Which is why I need to see Orange. Know where he is?”

“The sky room, if I had to guess.”

The Admiral nodded, gesturing for Sparkler to follow with a wing. She grabbed onto a metallic rung and pulled herself away from the lowest level of the Algol.

The interior of the Algol, for the most part, was unimpressive compared to its powerful exterior. The passages were all dark while everything was designed with function over beauty. Ladders were simple, bulkheads were bare metal, and the lights were only enough to see by, giving a general ominous ambience. Everypony was used to it at this point.

To get to the sky room quickly, they had to pass by one of the main engines: a massive turbine fed by pressurized steam. Right now, the moisture in the room wasn’t oppressive, but when they kicked the engines into high gear the entire place became a muggy mist that only the engineers could stand. The Admiral nodded curtly to the engineers, showing them the respect they deserved for their position.

After climbing up another ladder, they ended up in the only place in all of Algol’s Shadow that the Admiral thought looked nice. The sky room. It was an almost perfect hemisphere with the stars painted on the ceiling, complete with names, nautical notes, and even faint paths that traced the locations of the sun and moon. In the center was a small clockwork piece of art that showed a globe with a chunk of marble and obsidian moving along the outside that represented the current positions of the sun and moon.

As a bonus, there was a little triangle at the bottom that showed the time.

The Admiral approached the central globe and examined it. Only a very small area of it had any detail whatsoever—marking the Canterhorn, Fellis, Sanctaphrax, and other locations. Leviathan Wakes was inscribed as well, though it had more of a ‘general area’ circle than a precise point.

“How little we know…” the Admiral said, turning to look at the stars painted above. “And how much less we know of them.”

“Ahem,” a small orange stallion with tar-black hair and glasses said. “Welcome back, Admiral.”

“Orange. Got a job for you.”

The frail earth pony nodded, closing the book he had been scribbling in. “That’s why I’m here.”

“Let us push The Button,” Sparkler said, grinning. “Come on, you know you want to…”

“No. Admiral, what is this really about?”

The Admiral smirked. “There’s a shipwreck on the way to Sanctaphrax. We’re going to pick it up.”

“Cargo holds are full.”

“I know. That’s why you’re going to get the nets together to hold a small ship. I think we’ll arrive in about four hours, you have until then.”

Orange nodded emotionlessly and trotted off, presumably to get to work.

“Is that the future of ponykind?” Sparkler asked. “As magic reduces to nothing we all tragically lose our personalities?”

“He’s good at his job.”

“But at what cost…?”

“No cost for me, that’s what,” the Admiral chuckled. “Let’s get to the bridge and set course. The less time wasted, the better.”

The bridge was at the second to highest level of the Algol, situated behind the observation deck and a half-meter of reinforced plating just in case something ever broke the windows in the observation deck. The bridge itself contained six seats and a lot of flashing lights that meant absolutely nothing to the average pony but were the distillation of Algol’s Shadow’s very essence.

A general rule was if there were no red lights and a lot of green ones, everything was fine. If there were ever more red lights than any other color, it was time to get worried.

Currently, there were only two ponies on the bridge. A bored-looking white mare who was staring intently at the pressure gauges and a silver, bearded stallion with a pipe in his mouth. There was no smoke coming out of it, since smoking in an enclosed space was something no considerate stallion would do. He refused to go anywhere without the pipe, however, so there in his jaws it remained.

“Captain,” the Admiral said.

“Admiral,” the Captain said.

“I’m gonna have to take control of the ship again.”

“She’s yours. Always is, always has been.” The Captain stood up from the Admiral’s chair and took his own position at the front console. Everypony called it the “wheel”, but there wasn't a wheel in sight among all the dials, buttons, and cranks used to point the Algol in the right direction. “Sanctaphrax?”

“A general heading, yes, but we also have to go here.” She handed him the note. “Small operation, assuming Orange does what he does best.”

“He’s proven to be quite the little tinkerer. Reminds me of ol’ Socket. In intelligence. The kid is as dry as a stump. Socket, now, there was a fiery mare…”

“Oh look, Orange isn’t at his console!” Sparkler grinned. “I wonder if he left the key in?” She jumped to the weapons control station and found that The Big Red Button to the left of the console wasn’t glowing. “Aw…”

“He’s not that careless,” the Captain snorted.

“I want to see what it does… You can’t tell me you’re not curious.”

“We will press The Button when the situation calls for it,” the Admiral said. “Not because you’re afraid of some giant fish watching you.”

“They are!” Sparkler blurted. “See, let’s do this…” She lit her horn, increasing the intensity of her spell. The Admiral felt the slightest twinge in the back of her mind, a feeling she’d needed to train herself to detect.

Sparkler’s horn dimmed down. “Okay, so, there’s a ton of fish, ponies, a griffon, and one of those unknown 'jabberwock' minds in the south sector of the city. Of them, only you two are looking at me. Then there are the leviathans. Yep, they’re looking right at me. So long as I’m in here. It’s creepy!”

“Their heads are facing the wrong direction,” the Captain pointed out.

“Then they’re looking at me in some other way, I don’t know!” She glared at the leviathans through the floor. “I hope you become sushi.”

The Admiral rolled her eyes. “Captain, take us away.”

“Aye, Admiral.”

The engines of Algol’s Shadow spun up, activating its many propellers. The chains that affixed the submarine to Leviathan’s Wake retracted into the sub and it cast off into the depths.

The wreck sat at the bottom of the ocean, far below a depth where any sunlight penetrated. It was a small collection of loose processed metal that had once been a great airship but had now folded itself down the middle, ending up a bit like a crinkled taco.

For the first time since it had reached the bottom several months ago, the wreck was graced with light. The rusted metal did a poor job of reflecting the light of Algol’s Shadow, but it did better than the dead seafloor.

The call went up from the lower decks—they had a visual on the wreck. The signals made it all the way to the bridge, where the Admiral sat with the Captain, Sparkler, and Orange.

“Sparkler,” the Admiral said. “Check as far out as you can.”

Sparkler nodded, focusing all her energy into her magic for a moment. Her horn went from barely glowing at all to a shining beacon of arcane energy. Her ping went out, tickling the Admiral’s mind.

A second later, she returned her horn’s glow to barely perceptible levels. “Wreck is abandoned except for one signature, a… well I think it’s a seapony based on how it’s moving, but the brain doesn’t feel quite right. There’s also a deepfish that has sensed our motion and is heading our way, I recommend a diversion torpedo at… thirty degrees port and sixty degrees up. Orange?”

“Confirmed,” Orange said, pressing a few levers on his console. “Torpedo away.”

The Admiral felt the familiar thunk of a torpedo being fired out of the Algol’s weapons bay. There was no way to physically see it from their location, and eventually it would be out of range for them to detect at all. She patiently waited two minutes before turning to Sparkler again. “Check.”

Sparkler flashed her horn. “Deepfish is now going to where I assume the torpedo exploded, not us. We’re good!”

“You hear that, Granite?”

“Loud and clear, ma’am!” Granite’s voice came from the other side of the radio. “The boys are ready to go!”

“There’s a single creature down there. Possible variant seapony. Be cautious.”

“Just one? Psh, we can handle that. C’mon Wiffle and Lob, let’s get down there and find ourselves an heirloom!”

“Also, subs two through five, prepare Orange’s netting. You’ll pick it up when the team confirms it is safe to do so.”

“Roger,” four voices returned.

The Admiral could see it playing out in her head. The Uno took Granite and his team down to the surface. The cabin slowly filled with water before the mini-sub’s hatch opened, allowing them all to climb out in their hard suits. She had been on many dives herself. When Granite said, “hatch open, heading out: harpoons ready,” she could almost feel the harpoon gun in her hooves.

Meanwhile the other four subs were doing something a bit harder for her to visualize. They took four parts of a net and spread it out along the Algol’s bottom, creating a sort of covering for the wreck. The moment they were given the clear they would descend and scoop the thing up, being careful not to tie their air hoses together.

Orange assured her it would work, and the Admiral trusted him. She definitely couldn’t do the kind of math required to ensure the giant net's function.

“Ship's in good shape, considering,” Granite said. “Main cabin’s still intact, though the door’s gone. Going in. Careful, boys…”

The Admiral knew neither Granite nor any of his boys were actually being all that careful. She knew his type—thrill-seeking adrenaline junkies who got a kick out of running into dangerous situations. Normally, she would chide him for it, but this wasn’t a dangerous location. One seapony, no matter how ferocious, wouldn’t be able to take out the squad.

She heard the clanking of their hooves upon a metallic surface. Granite told her no details, and consequently a familiar, tense feeling filled the Admiral. Every time she was listening to an audio feed from a team once they entered an unknown location, the slight sinking in her stomach arrived. They knew the situation better than her at this point and she had to wait for them to relay whatever they thought was pertinent.

The clanks stopped. “Well, that was easy,” Granite said. “Found the heirloom, right in the little black box.”

“Anything special about it?” the Admiral asked.

“It’s just a pink-diamond horn-ring. I’m no Gifted unicorn, but I don’t even think it’s magical. Missing that fancy spark, y’know?”

“And no sign of the seapony or anything?”

“None at all.”

“It’s right outside, guys,” Sparkler said, horn dimming from a recent cast of her spell. “It’s not acting like a seapony.”

“Well, whatever it is, it’s about to meet good ol’ Stabby.”

“I thought it’s name was Pointy?” Sparkler asked.

“I have more than one harpoon.”

“Focus,” the Admiral said. “Do you see the seapony?”

“Looking…” Granite reported. “I’ve got nothing, Admiral, it’s all normal out h—HOLY FU—”

There was a thunk from the other side of the line, followed by a few grunts and yelps of surprise, followed by an eerie silence. In moments like this, it was pure terror being up in the captain’s seat. Her mind began to spin several possible sequences of events, most of which were unreasonably bloody and involved a gruesome evisceration of pony organs by a ravenous seapony. It wasn't hard for her to imagine such things, given her experience on the matter.

She realized she could hear breathing from the other end.

“Report!” the Admiral demanded.

“This... is weird,” Granite said. The Admiral instantly knew nopony had died or even gotten injured.

“How so?”

“It hasn’t attacked.”

“...Come again, Granite?” the Captain muttered. “A seapony that didn’t attack? What did it do, serve you tea?”

“It’s currently cowering behind the loose door, shivering like a filly. Looks scared.”

The Admiral turned to the Captain, finding her utter bafflement mirrored in his expression. She didn’t even need to ask him to know he hadn’t even heard of anything like this in his decades of experience.

“I’m not gonna hurt you…” Granite’s voice came back over the radio.

“Granite, what are you doing?” the Admiral asked.

“Trying to talk to it.”

“Granite. You are in a pressurized suit. It isn’t going to be able to hear you.”

“She. Very clearly a mare.”

“She isn’t going to be able to hear you a—” The Admiral’s ears twitched. “And it is a damned seapony! What are you going to do, train it to play fetch?”

“Well, I don’t know, how about we see if I can calm her down first? Here seapony-pony-pony…”

“It can’t hear you.”

“Pony-pony-pony…”

“For the love of… look, Granite, if you’re determined to do this, at least tell me what it looks like and what it’s doing?” Trying to picture a seapony being scared was a bit beyond her mental faculties at the moment. Simply accepting it as fact was boggling her.

“Well, she’s poking her head out now—come on, I won’t bite. Quite a bit more colorful than your normal seaponies and as a bonus she doesn’t look like a rotting corpse. Her eyes still have irises, though I can see the blood lining and sharp teeth. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but those fins look mighty pretty.”

“Granite’s marefriend is a seapony,” Sparkler deadpanned. “That’s it, I’ve heard it all.”

“She just swam out, inching toward us like some lost puppy—that’s it.” The Admiral strained hear ears to pick up anything aside from Granite’s voice, but all she heard was the heavy breathing of his boys. “She’s got a cutie mark. Looks like a castle tower.”

“Don’t let her eat you,” the Captain cautioned. “This one might just be smarter.”

“If it was smart it would know it couldn’t take all three of us. Lob’s got a sight on her, don’t worry. A—” He paused. “She’s holding out a hoof.”

“Granite...” The Admiral sighed. “You already shook its hoof, didn’t you?”

“Yep!” Granite declared. “Seems pretty happy about it too, doing this fancy swim-dance. Looks like I’ll go down in history as Granite, seapony tamer!”

“If she doesn’t bite your lips off first,” Sparkler snorted.

“You wouldn’t do that, would you little… Tower?”

“Tower’s a terrible name. Seriously, who’d name their kid Tow—”

“Rook,” the Captain said, coughing. “Call her Rook. That’s probably what her mark is.”

The Admiral frowned. “What does that mean?”

“It’s from ancient game we salty captains used to play at the Ringer Dinger back in the day. One of the pieces was called the rook. Looked a lot like a tower.”

“Well, Rook,” Granite said. “We’re gonna take this ship if you don’t mind.”

“She can’t hear you,” Sparkler reiterated.

“Eh, body language gets it across. Leaving the wreck now.” A few seconds later, he spoke again. “Yep, she’s following me. Nothing can resist this charming face.”

“It has no attachment to the wreck?” the Admiral asked.

“None at all. Seems much more interested in the Algol, actually.”

“Keep a close eye on it. Mini-subs two through five, you’re clear to scoop the wreck.”

“Roger,” four voices said at once.

The Admiral tried to focus on the descending net for a minute, but the mystery of the seapony kept returning to her in full force, distracting her with all the uncertainty around it.

...But maybe it didn’t have to.

“Granite, do you think you could bring it up to the observation deck? I want to see it.”

“Let’s see if she’ll follow me in the sub,” Granite responded. He laughed a moment later. “Crazy girl just tried to get in the sub. No, out, shoo, there’s going to be air in here! ...She’s giving me a pouty face though the main window.”

The Admiral couldn’t believe it. Wouldn’t believe it, not until she saw it. This was simply beyond everything she knew.

And yet, when Granite brought Uno up to the observation deck, the seapony followed. The Admiral slowly rose from her chair and stepped through the metal hall, arriving in a room made mostly of glass, Sparkler close behind.

The seapony trailed Uno, swimming around playfully. She was the size of a full-grown pony and was a soft pink color. At first glance, the Admiral thought her front half was completely normal for a pony with two hooves and a normal face. Closer inspection revealed the blood clots under the eyes standard for monsters of the deep, through her eyes didn’t look dead. They locked with the Admiral’s own, telling of something more than animalistic intelligence. She smiled and waved.

The wave was cute.

The smile revealed her rows of sharp, rigid teeth.

“What a bundle of contradictions,” Sparkler commented.

Rook waved her tail a bit to turn around, giving the Admiral a good look at her cutie mark: a brick-red tower. Before she could consider it further, the Admiral realized Rook was pointing with one of her hooves, gesturing with her tail for them to look.

“Which heading is that?” the Admiral asked.

“One degree off of Sanctaphrax,” Sparkler answered. “...You’re thinking of following her, aren’t you?”

The Admiral nodded slowly. “If it’s on the way…”

“I smell a trap!” the Captain called from the bridge. “She’s a monster just like the rest o’ them seaponies, just smarter than the rest. Knows how to get everypony lured to their death. Reason we don’t hear about her is because everypony who’s met her is dead!”

The Admiral nodded. “Operate under that assumption. Orange, put out a bulletin for the crew, tell them to be on alert. Captain, set course one degree off from Sanctaphrax. We’ll follow her, but we’ll stop if she leads us beyond the Chain.”

“Yes, Admiral,” the Captain and Orange said without any fuss.

There was absolutely no way Rook could hear anything the Admiral just said. She smiled anyway, as if she understood they were going where she wanted.

The Admiral didn’t trust her in the slightest. But it wasn’t proper to throw anomalies like her away, even if they were dangerous. It was impossible to know how much could be learned without investigation.

IV - As Sanctaphrax's Chain Trembles

Rook was not happy when Algol’s Shadow turned away from her path to Sanctaphrax. The Admiral had expected this to mean rage-induced aquatic screams and murderous bites all over the Algol’s hull. Barring that, disinterest.

Instead, Rook had placed herself in front of the main observation window, crossed her arms, and fixed the Admiral with a pouting expression. Since the Admiral could see the observation deck from her seat, the pink face was always present, albeit distant.

“I have to hand it to her, she’s good at communicating her feelings,” Sparkler said.

“She’ll just have to deal,” the Admiral said, returning Rook’s pout with a steeled glare of her own.

“I’ll talk to her!” Granite said, climbing up the ladder to the bridge.

“...Talk?” Sparkler snorted.

“I shall endeavor to communicate with the maiden of the sea and tell her that we’ll be back on her path after we take a pit stop!”

“How do you plan to do that?”

Granite held up a small rock in the tips of his wings. “Why, through gestures and props, of course!”

Sparkler facehooved.

“Give it a shot,” the Admiral said.

“If she eats through the glass, we’re letting you drown,” the Captain added.

“Hah! Me, drown? We’re near the surface, I’ll beat her in hoof to hoof combat!”

The Admiral put her wing to her face and let out a sigh.

“Fine, fine, I’ll get on with it.” He trotted over to Rook and waved. Her pouty expression vanished, replaced with a warm smile as her attention fixed on him. In one wing, he held up the rock. In the other, he had a pointed piece of metal that represented the Algol. He had the Algol follow a straight path until it was about to pass the rock. It turned sharply, went to the rock, and then went back to its path.

“There’s no way she gets that,” Sparkler said.

Rook proved her wrong by taking some of the clotted blood from under her eyes and smearing it on the window, tracing the path Granite had just outlined.

“Well how about that!” Granite laughed. “You’re a regular genius!”

Rook tapped the detour on the path with her hoof and nodded while she traced it to the circle that represented Sanctaphrax. She shook her head when she traced it back up. Quickly, she moved her hoof along the path, went down to Sanctaphrax, and then went off Sanctaphrax at an angle.

“And she’s suggesting we don’t backtrack. Mare knows how to navigate.”

“She lives at the bottom of the ocean and hasn’t gotten eaten yet, of course she does,” the Captain said. “At least she’ll stop giving you the puppy-eyes, eh, Admiral?”

The Admiral tapped her wingtips together. “It’s acceptable. Are we approaching the Chain?”

“Should be in sight range soon,” the Captain reported. “Just a little longer…”

He was right—soon the pink of Rook was eclipsed by the massive girth of a chain link as large as if not larger than the ones used to anchor Leviathan Wakes to their massive fish guardians. Rook noticed it immediately and swam away from the Algol to investigate, swirling in and out of the links with ease.

“Begin general Sanctaphrax docking procedure,” the Admiral ordered.

“Already underway,” Orange said. “Channel open.”

“This is the Admiral to Sanctaphrax Chain Operations. We’re ready to deposit cargo. More than just the standard offload: we’ve got a netted wreck and a seapony. Recommend equipping six hooks to the platform, and give us the large tank with wheels.”

“Order received,” a slightly garbled but understandable voice came from the other end. “Deepfish status?”

Sparkler cast her spell. “Fifteen minutes away, roughly.”

“Roger. Splashdown in ten, message if status changes.” The feed cut off.

Granite glanced at the Admiral. “You’re going to try to get her in a tank?”

“I want Vespid to have a look at her.”

Granite stared at her slack-jawed.

“Relax, I’m not going to let her cut up your marefriend, we need her to take us wherever it is she’s been pointing this entire time. I’d just like some information.”

“I’m not sure she’ll want to get in a tank to begin with. I m—” He was interrupted by Rook tapping on the glass. She pointed at the chain and then pointed up. Granite was stunned for a moment. To make sure, he pointed at her with a confused look and then pointed upward. She nodded. “...I swear, it’s like she knows what you want.”

“She’s smart,” the Captain said. “She’s figured out we’re going up. She’s either curious about what’s up there and trusts us to keep her safe or, more likely, she wants to put herself in our hooves so we’ll trust her more. Maybe you should let Vespid cut her up.”

“She may also be seeking information,” Orange suggested.

“I said ‘curiosity’, Orange.”

“The curious drive is a very different one from tactical information gathering.”

“There are simply too many unknowns with this seapony,” the Admiral declared. “So I’m taking her up there to get as many questions answered as possible.”

Sparkler let out a giggle. “And, as a bonus, you’re going to parade around a friendly seapony to everypony that’s gotten far too used to seeing you walk around.”

“Well, yes, but that’s just a bonus.” She stood up, ruffling her wings slightly. “Sparkler, you’re with me. We’ll suit up at port three. Granite, you’re staying here. I want to see if she’s really willing to trust us or just you.”

Granite frowned. “Not sure that’s a good id—”

“Also, you’re getting too attached to the fish. I need to separate you for a bit.”

Granite’s wings sagged. “Yes, Admiral.”

“Glad we’ve reached an understanding. Sparkler, let’s go. Captain, ship’s yours.”

They made their way down to the edge of the deck below, taking their suits off the walls. The Admiral’s was a standard hard-suit with a bronze exterior and no decorations whatsoever. She could easily be mistaken for any other diver in it. Sparkler, on the other hand, had coated hers in dark red stripes with pink dots because she insisted it made her more threatening to everything that might want to eat her. No matter how many times everypony told her that was unfounded, she would just scoff. In her mind, she was still alive, so that must mean it worked.

The two of them stepped into a cylindrical room and closed the round pressurized hatch behind them.

“Go ahead and open us up,” the Admiral said, radioing the bridge. “No use wasting time. Might as well meet our new pet.”

“Venting now,” the Captain responded.

Water began to fill up the cylindrical room, starting at their hooves and slowly rising to the ceiling. The metallic exterior of their suits ensured they felt nothing as the water rose unless they tried to move, at which point they detected the added resistance of water. It wasn’t even difficult to see—the glass on their helmets gave them roughly equal visuals on the room both above and below the surface.

Once the room was full, Sparkler swam over to the other pressure door and opened it. Usually, when somepony left this way, there was another submarine on the other side. Today, though, it was just open ocean in front of the Chain. Algol’s Shadow was close enough to the surface of the ocean that the water was blue here, not black.

Strictly speaking, at this depth they could have made do with simple scuba apparatus, but the Admiral wanted the armor in case Rook decided to try something.

The Admiral pulled herself up over the edge of the Algol’s docking port. Soon she stood on top of the cylindrical protrusion and taking a look around. Here, she could easily see everywhere except behind the Algol itself, a state of affairs much preferable to being stuck on the bridge. Below, she could see four mini-subs detaching the net with the shipwreck in it from the Algol’s lower spines. The two other subs were at the Algol’s side, carefully removing a massive gray box with several pressure doors all along the outside. One of the cargo holds, ready to be dragged up to Sanctaphrax. They had three full holds this time, so loading would be a bit slower than usual. They still had plenty of time according to Sparkler’s earlier deepfish status check.

Rook swam over to them the moment she noticed two ponies walking on the outside the Algol. At first the seapony was excited, but she froze when Sparkler hefted up a harpoon gun.

“Sparkler, we do want her to go with us,” the Admiral reminded her. “Alive.”

“Fine…” Sparkler muttered, lowering the weapon.

Rook looked Admiral and Sparkler over with uncertainty. Despite this, she moved closer, waving tentatively.

It was outlandish to see a seapony moving toward her like a nervous colt trying to muster the courage needed to ask a mare out. Uncanny.

“Splashdown incoming,” the Captain called. “Hold onto something, we’re going to need to move.”

With a smirk, the Admiral grabbed hold of a rung on the Algol with a hoof, using another to point up. Rook followed her hoof with her gaze.

The splash was so large it pushed Rook about a half-meter away. Above them a massive donut-shaped basket descended into the ocean, the Chain going through the hole in its center while six smaller chains affixed to the railing kept the basket adhered to something far above the surface. There was enough space on it to hold six of the Algol’s cargo holds all in a ring. The basket itself was made out of a thick wire mesh that allowed water to pass through the holes but prevented all solid material larger than a golf ball from following the torrent.

To her delight, the Admiral saw everything she had asked for added to the basket. There were six anchor-like hooks placed in a circle on one edge of the basket, exactly what they needed to tie down Orange’s net. And, of course, there was the large tank, four times as large as Rook. As usual a massive tankard of fresh oxygen sat in the basket. The Algol didn’t need it since they had restocked at Leviathan Wakes, but it was standard procedure to drop one down every time and the Admiral wasn’t about to refuse it.

The Admiral let her subs get to work loading all the cargo and tying the net—they knew how to do it quickly. They had to, since every time the basket hit the surface it summoned every deepfish for leagues. The song and dance was always the same: unload everything quickly and then run away. Let the deepfish gnaw on the Chain for a while, they never got far into it. They’d grow bored after an hour or two and another drop could be made.

Activating her air jets, the Admiral jumped from the Algol to the basket. She trotted up to the tank as the two mini-subs dropped the first cargo crate onto the metal mesh. The tank itself had four wheels on the bottom though they were useless at the moment since each one was tied to the basket to keep it from rolling in the turbulent loading procedure. Glass lined four sides, with a metal floor and an industrial strength lid with a pressure valve on it. Luckily, the tank was already open, so the Admiral didn’t have to mess with the annoyingly rusty hinges these things tended to have.

“Say hello to your new home!” Sparkler chirped, gesturing at the tank with both of her hooves.

Rook looked at her with an unimpressed glare.

Sparkler pointed at the tank, pointed up, and then proceeded to grab her throat to mimic choking.

Rook nodded, a hoof to her chin. Slowly, she began to circle the tank, examining it. Eventually, she stopped at the hinges of the lid. Glaring at it, she bared her teeth.

Sparkler and the Admiral reached for their weapons when Rook lunged but she didn’t go for either of them. Instead, with two quick bites she broke the hinges on the lid, removing the potential to seal her within the tank. Upon completing her mission she spat out a few shards of metal and climbed into the tank with an innocent smile.

“...I guess she wants to go up on her own terms,” the Admiral noted.

“She does realize she’s still stuck in that tank while we’re up there, right?”

“Probably. Maybe she just doesn’t like the idea of being literally sealed in a box.”

Sparkler shrugged. “Weird.”

The Admiral found herself wishing an exasperated glare could be given through the suits.

The second cargo hold was deposited onto the basket and the netted wreck had finally finished being tied. As they waited for the last hold, the Admiral looked up to where the Chain vanished. The surface of the ocean. She hadn’t been above water since Leviathan Wakes, and before that the Algol had been in the depths for over a week. It would be nice to finally see some sunshine. She’d remove this stupid helmet and absorb the rays with her face.

In the midst of her daydreams, the third cargo hold was deposited on the basket. Immediately, the Algol’s engines activated and turned away, ready to play chicken with some deepfish. A few seconds later, the cage lurched and began to rise. The Admiral and Sparkler stood firm to the sides of the tank while Rook looked up with awe.

With an almost deafening cascade, the basket lifted out of the ocean dripping waterfalls onto the waves below. The sun shone down upon the endless sea, reflecting in Rook’s eyes.

She wore one of the biggest smiles the Admiral had ever seen on anypony.

I’m starting to think of her as a pony…

Slowly shaking her head, the Admiral reached her hooves to her helmet and twisted it to the side. Without the pressure of water on it, the seal around her neck popped with ease. She gently exposed her head to the air outside and breathed in. Unlike the stormy smog of Leviathan Wakes, the calm air out here smelled fresh. A good, long breath filled her lungs with cool, clean air and her nose with the smell of a calm sea.

It was a normal day with nothing to look at aside from the chains leading up into a cloud far above, but that didn’t matter. It wasn’t under the water and it was calm. That was all that mattered.

As soon as the basket was completely free of the water, it started rising faster, no longer pacing itself to escape the clutches of the ocean. What had once been a painfully slow motion gathered speed. Even with three boxes and a shipwreck tied to the basket it still wasn’t at full capacity, so the acceleration continued for quite some time.

Still, their destination was an absurd distance above them. They would not arrive for several minutes.

Rook tapped on the glass to get their attention. With a sigh, the Admiral ended her enjoyment of the open air and turned to the tank, more than a little surprised to see her head out of the water. “...I thought she couldn’t breathe?”

Rook shook her head, pointing at the gills on her neck below the water.

Sparkler gawked. “You… you can understand us!?”

She nodded in confirmation, winking at them.

“Can you talk?”

Rook frowned and shook her head. Opening her mouth she made a scratchy gurgling noise and shrugged.

“So… do you have a name?” the Admiral asked.

Rook nodded.

“Is it Rook?”

With a roll of her eyes, she shook her head.

“Have any way to tell us what it actually is?”

The seapony seemed stumped by this.

“Then you’re Rook until you think of something.”

The newly re-christened Rook folded her hooves in indignation and stuck out her forked tongue, reminding the Admiral that she was still talking to a monster. ...A monster that stuck out its tongue like some child.

This raised so many questions she wasn't sure she wanted the answer to.

Rook tapped on the glass again.

“What?”

She pointed up and cocked her head, asking a question.

“Sanctaphrax is up there. Smart ponies. They’ll know more than me.”

Rook rotated her hoof, quirking an eyebrow.

“And then we’ll go wherever you were leading us, yes, that’s the plan.”

“Oh, what’re you leading us to?” Sparkler asked.

After a particularly splashy facehoof, Rook pointed at her mouth.

“Right, so we’re going to have to play something like twenty questions. Is it treasure?”

Rook thought about this for a moment before nodding slowly.

“Yes!”

“There’s more than just treasure,” the Admiral commented. “Right?”

Rook confirmed this.

The Admiral narrowed her eyes. “Danger?”

Rook nodded slowly, biting her lip nervously. For a moment, a twisted expression of rage crossed her face. The Admiral was concerned for a moment, but all Rook did was angrily point at herself and flick her tail aggressively at apparently nothing. The rage faded shortly afterward, replaced with an aura of exasperation.

“You have arguments with yourself too, huh?” Sparkler asked. “Real annoying when you know what your best points are, isn’t it?”

Rook stared at the unicorn like she was the strangest thing the seapony had ever encountered.

“Not even the monsters of the deep appreciate me…” Sparkler put a hoof to her head and faked a swoon.

At this point the cage entered the cloud, surrounding all of them in fog. This visit through the puffy white area of the sky was brief, for the basket was moving along at a brisk pace now. Surfacing out of the cloud was a lot less dramatic than rising from the water, but it gave way to far more interesting sights for those riding.

Floating above them was a massive rock, the chain anchored to its narrow bottom. Since they were directly under the island, it was impossible to see what structures were built atop aside from the two massive airship docks that jutted out from opposite sides like comically undersized wings. This was not to say they couldn’t see anything on the rock. Where the chain affixed, there was a massive ball of chrome with a donut-shaped hole for the basket itself to slide into. Next to this was a complex series of pipes that snaked all the way up the island, used to pump air to the higher elevations where it was needed.

This was Sanctaphrax, island of the academics.

With a whoosh of air, the basket lifted into Sanctaphrax. Gone was the sun, sky, and sea—now replaced with a harsh metal rod in the center and rocky earth on the outer edge. The basket started to slow as it neared its final destination, decelerating smoothly until it came to a gentle rest somewhere deep within the rock.

Six massive reels billowed nebulous clouds of steam, releasing all the pressure they had used in the process of winding up the lengthy chains. They hadn’t seemed like too much while the basket was lifting, but spooled up they took up more than twice the space of the basket itself. Between these spools were metal walkways, each of which led into a different cave system within the island. Ponies stood at all six of these points, waiting for the stability of the basket to be confirmed. The moment it was, six planks flopped onto the basket and the ponies flooded onto it, beginning the long and slow process of unloading everything.

“It seems you’ve brought something unique back with you.”

Recognizing the voice, the Admiral was more than a little surprised to be receiving attention from so high up so quickly. Turning, she bowed her head slightly. “High Academe Iota, what brings you to the basket?”

Iota was a middle-aged mare of an unnaturally green color that screamed life and energy; traits that were completely absent from her blank, spectacled expression and wrinkled face. She had no mane or tail to speak of. The Admiral had no idea why this was. She never asked.

“An opening in the schedule, nothing more,” Iota said, turning her attention to Rook. “What’s unusual about this one besides the color?”

Rook waved and winked.

“Communication and higher intelligence. Unheard of. Good catch. Taking her to Vespid?”

“As soon as possible,” the Admiral said. “She knows the location of something.”

“What?”

“She can’t talk, we don’t know. Part of it could be understood as treasure. Barring unusual circumstances, I’ll be taking the Algol to investigate on my next outing.”

Iota nodded slowly. “Granted. Tell Vespid she cannot perform invasive experiments, no matter how much she thinks she may gain from it. I task you with uncovering the mysteries of this seapony myself.” Iota fixed the Admiral with a stern glare. “That is what you wish to extort from me, yes?”

The Admiral had to force a smile. “You see right through me, as always.”

Iota nodded slowly. “You are fortunate that your desires seem reasonable. My previous statements still stand. Before you take her, however, I wish to see what you’ve brought besides raw materials.”

“Sparkler?” the Admiral asked.

“On it!” Sparkler bounced away to the cargo hold labelled three and popped open one of the smaller doors. She took two long black cases out of the compartment with her mane and trotted back to Iota and the Admiral. “Here you are!”

The Admiral opened the latches on the first case, revealing it to be filled with nothing but unicorn horns, most of which were in excellent condition. “Found a town filled with them,” the Admiral explained. “There’s more than just this case, though these are of the best quality.”

Rook stared at the disembodied horns. Not in fear, but in thoughtful fascination.

“Excellent,” Iota said, her voice remaining emotionless. “The other?”

Sparkler popped the latches on this one, pulling it open with her mane. It wasn’t full like the last case, but what was inside more than made up for the lost space: three bright rubies that glittered with unnatural fires inside.

“We have no idea what these are,” the Admiral admitted. “But they’re magic, and strong at that.”

“Leyline will be most appreciative. Did you fail to procure any of the items we requested?”

“Only the eye of the golden deepfish that Bonzai asked for.”

Sparkler coughed. “Let’s be real, we were never getting that.”

Iota nodded. “Good work. Your payment will be with you tomorrow morning when you are ready to return to your ship. Enjoy your stay in the meantime.”

“Thank you, High Academe,” the Admiral said. “Vespid awaits.”

Iota dismissed them with a noninterested wave of her hoof.

Sparkler carefully removed the latches keeping Rook’s tank rooted to the basket. Using her hair to get a grip on every square inch of one of the sides, she carefully rolled the tank up a ramp and into Sanctaphrax proper. Some of the water sloshed out, but nowhere near enough to cause Rook any concern.

“Time to ride another basket!” Sparkler giggled, pointing at the elevator shaft. “Isn’t that exciting, Rook?”

Rook let out a bubbly sigh as her tank was carted into a small basket large enough for maybe six ponies. The doors closed and they began to rise toward the surface of Sanctaphrax.

V - As the Schools Research

If there was anything Sparkler loved about Sanctaphrax, it was how ridiculous it looked.

From afar, it could have been mistaken for a palace. For whatever reason, the original architects had decided “towers are awesome” and built every major structure as tall stone pillars that rose into the sky, coming to bright pointed tips or domes depending on the mood at the time of construction. These tips were almost always wider than the towers supporting them, giving them a feeling not unlike heads on a pin. This image of Sanctaphrax proper was eccentric, to be sure, but not ridiculous.

The ridiculousness came upon taking a closer look.

Because Sanctaphrax was at an exceedingly high elevation, air had to be pumped from below to ensure ponies had enough oxygen to go about their daily lives. It was safe to go outside for a short time, sure, but extended periods would result in suffocation, not to mention sunburn. However, the oh-so-wise academics of Sanctaphrax had decided the short amount of time it took to walk from tower to tower in thin air was unacceptable.

The solution?

Create glass tubes with color-coded stripes for ponies to walk in. Who needed to go outside? Just waltz through the glass tunnels, get some sun through the UV-blocking walls, and arrive at your destination without getting cold, running out of breath, or dealing with windy weather. Snow wasn’t a problem either, since the tubes were heated just like everywhere else and the white fluff could never build up.

The tubes were once confined to the ground where they didn’t interfere with the skyline; or so Sparkler had been told. When she first set hoof on Sanctaphrax all those years ago the tubes were already snaking through the sky in erratic patterns, sometimes coming together in small glass hub rooms, other times twisting around each other in a ridiculous attempt not to interfere with any other walkways. What resulted was a maze of endless glass with stripes of color that might once have looked ingenious but now appeared more like a foal had thrown color into a drawing randomly by smacking a crayon around in the blank spaces.

When the elevator rose to the surface, arriving in one of the ground-level tube nexuses, Sparkler turned to Rook with a grin. “So. Honest opinion, how does it look?”

Rook’s expression of wonder quickly turned to one of confusion and bafflement. The question “why?” was evident on her features.

Sparkler chuckled. “I’m telling you, it’s ridiculous.”

“It’s the way of the future,” the Admiral asserted, as she always did. “You won’t find this anywhere else.”

“Yeah, because it’s ridiculous!”

Rook pointed at Sparkler.

“Me? Ridiculous? Psh.”

Rook turned away from Sparkler dismissively. With a shrug, Sparkler pressed her copious mane onto the tank and started pushing. She followed the Admiral carefully through the tubes. Not that she needed any help figuring out where to go; at this point she knew Sanctaphrax’s lower tunnels like the back of her hoof. However, the Admiral was the boss, and she always lead. Sparkler didn’t mind—it was just how their dynamic worked.

They went right for the School of Medicine, a set of four massive towers tinged with the green of their school. Only one of the towers was topped with the proper vibrant green—the others were in different states of fading. This high up, the sun did a number on the paint and it had to be reapplied every so often. At one point, all the towers were painted at the same time, but as the years dragged on drift occured and now a tower was only painted when it was blanche white, creating a gradient effect.

The three of them entered the tallest tower, the Main Medicine Offices.

A crowd of medical students were expected to go into a bit of a frenzy over seeing a normal seapony dragged into their School. A seapony that waved back only heightened their reactions from fascinated to ecstatic.

“What is that thing?”

“Admiral’s really outdone herself this time!”

“How does it maintain mental cohesion down there?”

“The eyes aren’t blank, but the clots are evident…”

“Where did you find this beauty?”

“I see she’s brought another monster in for company.”

Sparkler winced at the jab to the Admiral’s race. She knew the Admiral sucked the attention—good or bad—up like one of the vampires of legend, but it still grated against Sparkler like a piece of splintery wood tangled in her hair. Out of respect for the Admiral, she didn’t shout out a biting remark. She did shoot the heckler a death glare, though, and that got him to shut up.

Parting the crowd with a hoof, the Admiral guided them to the lift. It was considerably nicer in appearance than the rickety wireframe thing that had brought them to Sanctaphrax’s surface, being made of smooth metal etched with elegant ponies. Sparkler rolled her eyes at the frivolity. She swore School of Arts only existed to make the others look good.

The Admiral pressed the second-to-highest button and waited. Through the ceiling, they could hear a muffled hiss of steam as the mechanisms pressurized.

Sparkler giggled and winked at Rook. “Hang on.”

Rook cocked her head just in time to get smashed into the floor of her tank as the lift rocketed to the highest part of the tower. Sparkler and the Admiral both winced as the pressure on their legs increased threefold, but they maintained composure.

The lift was merciful; it came to a stop slowly, letting out a soft ding as Rook rubbed her head in annoyance.

“I love this elevator,” Sparkler giggled. “The day they fix it there will be less beauty in the world…”

The Admiral gestured at the frivolous designs on the lift.

“That’s just mass produced decorum for ponies in fancy hats!” Sparkler huffed. “Real beauty doesn’t come from a factory… Real beauty comes when the factory messes up!”

“So progress isn’t beautiful then?”

“Uuuuugh, why do you have to be so literal-minded all the time? Look. There’s… spirit in this little lift.” She wheeled Rook out as she ranted. “But these little pony designs… there’s no beauty here. Maybe the first one had spirit, but they’re in all the lifts! That’s not progress, that’s stagnation, or… something.” She twirled some of her hair in the air. “But I don’t really know what I’m talking about. It’s not like I took any classes or anything.”

“But the idea of works of art having spirit is a curious one,” a new voice said. Standing before them was a middle-aged pegasus mare with a dull yellow coat and dark green mane streaked with pink. “And I would love to discuss the implications of such at a later time. Or, well, I would discuss it now, except you seem to have brought me the most beautiful creature I’ve ever seen!”

Rook waved nervously.

“Oh, and it communicates! Fascinating!”

“Her name’s Rook,” Sparkler offered.

“Hell-o Rook!” she said with a pitch that wavered so much it might as well have come from two different ponies. “I am Dean Vespid Pin of the School of Medicine, and I can’t wait to learn more about you!”

Rook glanced nervously at the Admiral. Coughing, the Admiral tapped Vespid on the shoulder. “Iota’s ordered you to not cut her into slices of bread. We need her alive to lead us to a location at the bottom of the ocean.”

Vespid’s left eye twitched ever so slightly. “Well… yes, I suppose Iota would have doubts about my ability to maintain this specimen’s health. It’s not like it’s my job or anything.” She flared her wings, no doubt wishing to impress upon her visitors that her surgeon’s feathers were up to any sort of complex task. While they were no doubt impressive and meticulously cared for, Sparkler had grown tired of Vespid’s pride in her profession ages ago.

“But nonetheless I shall listen to our High Academe’s wishes. A standard pony checkup will do - and yes, that will involve drawing blood and you all can shut up. If Rook here’s squeamish that is not my fault.”

Rook looked scared for a moment, but her face quickly became overcome with a twisted anger.

Vespid rolled her eyes. “I see numerous lacerations on your person, tears in your fins, and scars from bites. Suck it up and get pricked by a needle that won’t cause any lasting damage.”

Rook glared at her. She bared her sharp fangs, rising out of the water aggressively.

“Not so safe after a—”

Rook bit down on her own hoof, drawing viscous, red-black blood on her own terms. She shoved the hoof in Vespid’s direction, dousing the dean’s face in the substance.

Using a hoof—because Princesses forbid she get her precious wings sullied—she wiped her eyes clear. “Not completely mentally stable. However, I appreciate the spirit! This sample will do nicely.” She smirked. “Thank you.”

Even Sparkler could hear the venom in that voice. She made a note not to leave Rook alone in the same room as Vespid. Rook got the same idea, given the glance she shot Sparkler.

“I’ve gotcha, don’t worry,” Sparkler said.

“Vespid, checkup?” the Admiral asked.

“Right, right. To my terrarium!” She trotted down the nondescript hall until she arrived at a large door at the far end. Pushing it open, she led them into a large, semicircular room with a wall made entirely of glass and trees growing within. Only about half the trees were green; others were purple, orange, or slowly shifted colors. There were plants in here Sparkler had never seen anywhere else. A truly royal garden.

Contrasting this peaceful image were numerous cages and tanks filled with angry - and sometimes dead - creatures. There were at least four normal seaponies. Their flesh was all torn, their eyes blank white, and their muscles so ragged they looked like they might fall off. Monsters, pure and simple.

Rook shared some features with them: the blood under the eyes, the fins, the tail, and the sharp teeth. While she may have been scarred, she didn’t look ready to fall apart in a decaying mess like her fellow sea-creatures.

Vespid reached into a wall and pulled out a vial, holding it out to collect some of Rook’s blood drip. “So, she’s got somewhere to lead you, does she?”

“Yep!” Sparkler confirmed, taking a moment to tap the glass in front of the seaponies. The one that responded broke a tooth trying to bite through the reinforced wall.

“Somewhere further south,” the Admiral explained. “Treasure and something else. She can’t talk, so we aren’t sure what else is there.”

Vespid stood up on her hind legs so she could get her front hooves in Rook’s tank. “But she can communicate clearly, which is unheard of for wyrded beings…” Vespid pressed her hoof to Rook’s leg, feeling an active pulse. “Actually, it might be possible for her to prove my theories! Tell me, Rook, were you always a seapony?”

Rook shook her head.

“Were you a pony before?”

Rook nodded.

Vespid clapped her hooves. “Great! Great. Oh, but you’re not a normal seapony, it may not apply to them…” Thinking for a moment, the doctor pointed at one of the caged seaponies. “Did they used to be ponies?”

For a moment, Rook pondered this. Then, with a shrug, she nodded.

“Absolute confirmation of the existence of the corrupting wyrd influence. Yes!” She pulled a notebook off of a nearby wall and started scribbling in it furiously with one of her oh-so-agile wings. “They’ll have to give the theory some credence now, and real, proper research can begin…”

“What are you gonna do? Cure them?” Sparkler jived.

“Hah! Stars above, no, even if it were possible to remove the corruption the psychological damage is irreversible, and there’d be the annoying addition of having to treat the subject as a pony afterward, which severely limits progress.”

Sparkler shrugged.

“The point is, it’s knowledge. If we can isolate the pathogen that causes it…”

“It’s probably magic,” the Admiral pointed out.

“Then I’ll bring Leyline in on it, once I confirm that,” Vespid huffed. “Really… open your mouth, please.”

With a roll of her eyes Rook opened her mouth and allowed Vespid to put the popsicle stick on her tongue.

“So, what do you make of her?” the Admiral asked.

“Well, she’s either resistant to wyrdness or developed the equivalent of a mutated strain.” Vespid flashed a light into Rook’s eyes, blinding her temporarily. “Either way, she didn’t develop to the final stage. Or… I suppose she could be a recent patient.”

Rook shook her head.

“Live in Old Equestria, did you?”

With a smug, toothy smirk, Rook leaned in and nodded in confirmation.

“Fascinating… I’ll need to corroborate that somehow with the School of History at a later date. The chances of two sets of Old Equestrian minds surfacing at nearly the same time… Have you heard of the relics unearthed in Canterlot recently? Apparently there’s a unicorn who c-”

“We have Rook,” the Admiral interrupted. “There is literally no reason to go track any others down.”

Sparkler looked to the Admiral, a frown on her face. Are you really going to sideline Rook just because she’s from the past?

“Still, rumors are interesting,” Vespid said as she checked Rook’s ears. “She’s definitely got partial wyrdness, and I suspect she has some psychological disorder, but without further study there’s no way I could determine if that’s from the wyrdness or just being alone at the bottom of the ocean for a thousand years.”

Rook shrugged.

“If she were a normal pony I’d say the only concerning thing about her physical health is the blood under her eyes.”

“And the fins,” Sparkler pointed out.

“There were natural seaponies before the world flooded. We’ve found skeletons.”

Sparkler facehooved.

“Regardless, I’d like to keep her for observation overnight,” Vespid said, returning to her wall cabinet.

“I’m staying with her,” Sparkler said.

For a moment, Vespid’s smile was replaced with a scowl barely visible in the reflection of Rook’s tank. “Ah, well, unnecessary, but I doubt I can talk you out of it.” Vespid put a surgical glove over her wing and trotted over to a tank with a dead seapony in it. She plunged her wings expertly into the seapony’s exposed chest cavity and removed a small, blue crystal from it. “Silver, the reports on seapony decomposition are put on hold for now. We’re going to be watching this ‘Rook’ now.” She tossed the crystal ball to Rook. “There you go, have a toy.”

Rook poked it with a raised eyebrow.

“It just looks at you. Nothing else. Silver calls them ‘eyes’ anyway, so you might as well think of it like one.”

The Admiral turned to Sparkler. “You’ll be fine here?”

Sparkler smiled. “I mean, don’t abandon me forever, send one of Brusk’s kids to relieve me so I can sleep. Otherwise, I’m good.”

“Then have fun and keep the two of them out of trouble.”

Vespid snorted. “I’ll be keeping miss mane-iac under control if I know her…”

“Ooooh, such a creative nickname,” Sparkler snorted. “Did you get it off the school playground?”

“How could I? You never attended.”

Rook made a sound with her mouth that sounded vaguely like sizzling.

“Et tu, Rook?” Sparkler whined, faking a swoon.

Rook shrugged while Vespid let out a terse sigh. The Admiral, rolling her eyes, left the three of them to whatever annoying antics they might get up to.

Who was Sparkler kidding? Would get up to.

The Admiral’s last stop of the day arguably didn’t even take place during the day. This was intentional, on her part. For as much as she had rebelled from her nocturnal instincts, her favorite part of the world was hidden from sight by the glory of the sun. Only when the fiery master of the heavens dipped beneath the waves far below did the stars peek out from the blue shroud of sky. Only when darkness descended could the real beauty of the universe be seen.

Even though Sanctaphrax was well-developed and heavily industrialized, there wasn’t much in the way of artificial light to distract from the stars. The stars needed to be studied by many of the professors, after all, and light pollution wouldn’t do the School of Navigation any favors.

Speaking of which, that was where the Admiral was headed; walking through one of the highest tubes in Sanctaphrax to the Tower of Navigation. The School only had the one black-tipped tower, but it was taller than most of the others and outfitted with numerous windows. No doubt dozens of them had ponies looking out at the stars, charting maps, and taking careful notes on what the sky told them.

This was her destination, but it was not what drew the Admiral’s gaze. In this darkness, the glass around her might as well have been invisible. She was floating in the air with the stars above and the ground far, far below. If she spread her wings she could almost feel the wind whipping in her mane…

The time will come, she told herself. Patience.

Eventually, the black tip of the School of Navigation eclipsed the sky, bringing her focus back into the present moment. Entering through the highest door, she found herself in the main observatory. Extremely smooth glass lined the edges of the walls, each segment designed so that it could fold out to accommodate the excessive size of the massive telescope.

Speaking of, the device took up the majority of the room. Currently, only its tip was sticking out one of the windows, examining something only a short way above the horizon. The bulky lens took up the majority of the telescope’s front face, narrowing slightly as the encasing dark metal tube reached the telescope’s base. This base was anchored to the floor on a rotating track that allowed it to point in any direction. There was a mechanism beneath even that which could push the telescope all but out of the observatory entirely, allowing it to angle nearly straight upward, though the Admiral had only seen that done once.

In the center of the telescope was a seat, one occupied by a black, elderly earth pony stallion with unkempt white hair and an impressive, wiry mustache. He wore a thick white coat, which was to be expected given the altitude, and a small oxygen mask rested on his muzzle to counteract the thin air. The Admiral glanced at a pile of masks near the entrance but decided she wasn’t going to stay long enough to need one.

Littered around the edges of the observatory were various star charts, diagrams, and even a clockwork model of the world with the sun and moon around it not unlike the one in Algol’s Shadow. The Admiral passed a fresh diagram showing the orbits of the sun and moon that commented on day shift.

The black stallion noticed her before she spoke. Immediately, he popped the mask off his face and grinned widely. “Admiral!” he greeted with a voice full of energy, though it also scratched with age. “Welcome back!”

The Admiral shot him a genuine smile. “Been a while, Meteor.”

“Oh, it has, it has! Please, please, you simply must look at Ensa, it’s absolutely brilliant tonight.” He pushed her into the chair, all but smashing her eye into the tiny lens at the tip of the telescope.

Focusing, the Admiral was able to make out a soft-blue crescent shape in the center of the view with a small blue ring around it. “We must be at the perfect angle.”

“We are! In a few minutes the sun will move behind Equis and we’ll lose it. You really did come at the best time!”

“Learn anything knew about it?”

“Distance calculations are proving difficult without cooperation from the Baltimare Observatory, but I think I can use the rate of solar dissipation and relate it to the diameter of Equis to get a rough idea. It would help if we had a better estimate for Equis’ diameter…”

“You should get back to observing, then,” the Admiral said, jumping out of the chair and shoving Meteor back in much the same way she had been. “Who knows, you might miss something incredible!”

“Yes, yes…” Meteor chuckled, returning to his examinations. “Tell me, Admiral, how goes the quest?”

“For you? Found a store of ancient oil already packaged. The Chemists should be cooking it into kerosene for you as we speak.”

“Absolutely excellent! That should be the last of that we need. I trust it wasn't too difficult to get?”

“Granite blew up the foundry.”

Meteor let out a sigh. “Wasted materials… the secrets to large scale manufacturing could have been there.”

“We can rediscover that on our own,” the Admiral said with a smile. “After all, we’re doing something they never did.”

The Admiral strolled to one of the windows, looking down at the edge of Sanctaphrax. Near the western dock, on a patch of rock without any complex towers, there was a flat octagon of shaped metal. Littered around the edges were several small, metallic spikes with fins at the bottom. One of these silver objects stood in the center of the pad, pointing at the sky.

“How long until you test that one?” the Admiral asked.

“As soon as the sunlight fades from these rings,” Meteor said, squinting his eyes. “Which… it’s doing right now. Excuse me for a second, I have to get the timing down…”

He was silent for a moment as he scrawled a note with a pen. During this, the Admiral looked up slightly and blinked in confusion. There was what appeared to be a flat barge made of haphazardly slapped together materials floating out a short distance from Sanctaphrax, held aloft by propellers of all things. That had to be impractical. Then again, the Algol’s Shadow wasn’t exactly practical, either, so she supposed she couldn’t complain too much.

“I see you found Bonzai’s latest project,” Meteor said, having finished his notes. “The emergency platform, he calls it.”

“Why?”

“Paranoia, I suppose. An island fell into the sea recently, as I’m sure you’re aware, and the brightest minds are thinking of what to do if Sanctaphrax starts to drift down. That platform is Bonzai’s idea. The only other one that’s getting any traction is the expansion of the Cloud Loft. Hired a gifted pegasus to do nothing but fuse stone into clouds all day long. I’m surprised the fellow’s putting up with it.”

The Admiral grinned. “Before too long he’ll be making insulting cloud statues of the High Academe. She won’t be able to do anything to them.”

“Oh, if you get clever enough, anything can be destroyed,” Meteor chuckled.

“...Is our project safe?”

“Nopony has any reason to interfere. The worst that happens is we explode and destroy the launchpad. We have most of the materials; all that remains is some processing and last minute work before the big day.”

“Assuming it works. I remember last time.”

Meteor smirked. “Well… allow me to demonstrate.” He jumped over to a small radio in the floor and pressed a button. “Experiment R-17, begin.”

The spike in the center of the platform began to tremble. Had they been at the launchpad itself, they would have been witness to a countdown, but up here they got no such thing. They watched with anticipation as the experiment trembled, spurted some smoke… and then finally unleashed an immense burst of fire that pushed it into the air. Gaining speed alarmingly quickly, the pointed device itself was soon lost in the sparkling fire as it rose higher and higher into the sky - until it looked like the reverse of a shooting star, the noxious smoke trail all but vanishing in the dark night.

The Admiral narrowed her eyes. She had seen the devices last this long before, but, invariably, around this point they would explode and shower the sea below in fiery shrapnel. Time and time again Meteor’s precious work would be reduced to nothing.

This time, however, it was different. No explosion came. Instead, The Admiral was able to watch as the streak of fire became a curve that, minutes later, ran out of fuel and fizzled out—but it hadn’t exploded.

“A success!” The Admiral said, bouncing onto the tips of her hooves.

“Third one, actually. Got a few off while you weren't here. I’ll need to test a few more, naturally, just to be certain - but I think I’ve got the final design now! The Engineers are already machining the parts, I’ve got all the control mechanisms…”

The Admiral noticed he was trailing off. “What are you missing?”

Meteor sighed. “Silver’s not convinced he should give up one of his eyes for this. After all, if we succeed… it’s going to be stuck forever. He doesn’t think it’s worth it…”

“I’ll convince him,” the Admiral said. “I’ve got some time tomorrow morning before I head off. He’ll give up his eye one way or another.”

“Don’t be too rough with him, now.”

“This is the future of ponykind here, I’ll be as rough as I want. If we pull this off we’ll prove that we can take what the ancients couldn’t—the stars themselves. We’ll finish this rocket and we can finally turn all this nonsense around. A stingy stallion’s magic isn’t going to get in the way of that. If I need to I’ll call in…” she licked her lips. “Favors.”

Meteor nodded. “Only if you absolutely need to, you understand.”

“Naturally.”

“...Admiral, I do want to thank you for all you’ve done. Before you arrived, astronomy was a joke.”

The Admiral gave him a smug smile. “Just get us up there and that’s all the thanks I’ll ever need.”

“Oh, I will!” Meteor chuckled. “If it kills me, I’ll get this done…”

“The world will turn to the stars instead of the sea.” The Admiral tapped her hoof excitedly as the prospect danced in her mind.

Meteor tore his gaze from the window, turning to some paper with orbital sketches. “Speaking of the sea, anything of interest this time around?”

“A seapony that apparently wants to be our friend or something.”

Meteor stared at her.

“I’m serious. I’m still not sure what to make of her.”

“Well… I’d like to meet this seapony before you leave. Sounds like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

“I’m sure Rook would appreciate you.”

“She has a name!?”

VI - As Silver Stares

When the Admiral returned to Vespid’s office she was surprised to find Sparkler still there, chatting with a very bored looking Rook.

“...and she never removes that hat! Can you believe it?”

Rook glanced at the Admiral and smirked.

“See? You get it. You understand me, Rook. You have got to go diving with us sometime. I’ll have to think of some excuse to get out with Granite’s boys…”

“All you have to do is ask,” the Admiral said, tapping Sparkler on the back with a wingtip. Her massive mane stood on end and she jumped back, hiding behind Rook’s tank.

“S—you scared me!” Sparkler put a hoof to her chest, breathing slowly.

“Also, the hat is amazing.”

Sparkler groaned. “Sometimes I forget that you do know how to sneak…”

“There’s moments where it helps.” She took a moment to adjust her cap. “So, I thought I had one of the students relieve you?”

“You did, I just got back early because. Well. Rook!” Sparkler gestured at the seapony’s tank. “She gets me, y’see? I talk a lot, she doesn’t talk at all. Match made in the stars!”

The Admiral looked at the disgruntled seapony. “It would be even harder to get her up there with all the water…”

“Not like we have to worry about that or anything. Your little experiments aren’t getting ponies up there anytime soon.”

“You don’t have to worry,” the Admiral smirked. “Rook and I, though…”

Sparkler rolled her eyes. “Speaking of the stars… I hear I missed a rocket launch that didn’t explode?”

“You would have been bored. They’re more interesting when they blow up.”

“But… rocket!”

Rook tapped on the glass, making sure the two of them knew she was confused.

The Admiral cleared her throat, entering the well-known ‘lecture mode.’ “A rocket is a machine that uses explosive materials to fly through the air, leaving the world behind and entering the realm of the stars.”

Rook’s eyes widened, sparkling slightly at the edges.

“I think she’d like to hear the speech,” Sparkler said, nudging the Admiral carefully.

Tilting her hat up, the Admiral’s eyes lit up with childlike wonder. “In our current world, we are fixated on the past. We spend all our resources trying to reclaim what Old Equestria once had, diving beneath the waves to pick up remnants of a failed civilization. I understand it’s needed, but it has also brought a curse into the minds of our current generation. Ponykind, as a race, thinks only in terms of what is and what was. We don’t give the slightest pittance to what will be.”

She trotted to one of the windows of Vespid’s lab, pointing at the rising sun. In the sky around it were a few sparkling airships. “Even here, in the learned isle of Sanctaphrax, we don’t realize what we’ve done. Old Equestria didn’t have advanced airships, steam engines, or any complex manufactured industry! Yet we fixate on Medicine, Navigation, and History to bring society ‘back’. Bah. We already have society. We don’t need them anymore. We need to do something that’s truly us, to break beyond everything the past ever conceived of doing.”

Jumping on top of a crate of leaf samples, she pointed to the sky with her wing. “And to that end, we are going to launch something so high into the sky that there is no air. With so much force that it won’t fall back down. A new era that turns away from the ocean and toward the stars.” She grinned, pressing her face into Rook’s tank. “You in?”

Rook nodded quickly, jaw hanging open in awe.

“Great, you just indoctrinated a seapony into your wild daydreams,” Vespid muttered, walking into her lab. “She’d be much more useful as a subject of study than stuck with that sub of yours.”

The Admiral frowned, deciding it was best to just get to business. “Have you learned anything new?”

“Lots, mostly stuff you wouldn’t care about. I’ve been gathering information to substantiate Rook’s claims and have distilled several interesting chemicals in her blood. She is from Old Equestria, knows the names of all the major cities we know about. Even knew what Griffonstone was, bizarrely enough. How she knows that and yet was never taught to write is beyond me…” Vespid shook her head. “She’s an intriguing little mystery and I can’t wait to see what she brings back. I call dibs on any others like her.”

“Dibs? Really?” Sparkler groaned.

“Consider it my mission to you. If you see a sensible Wyrd, you’re bringing it back. The sooner, the better, so shoo.”

“We’re stopping by Silver’s first,” the Admiral said.

“Fine, fine, just get on with it, hmm?” Already she was bored of them and driving needles into a seapony carcass for some presumably scientific purpose. They left without another word.

Silver’s abode wasn’t far from the School of Medicine. One elevator ride later they were at Sanctaphrax’s surface. This time there were fewer ponies in the lobby interested to see Rook, but the moment they left the School they were mobbed by students of every school.

“Ugh, he must have blabbed,” Sparkler muttered. “Maybe I should have stayed there all night…”

“I need you awake.”

“For what? We’re just taking care of this and going back to the Algol! I could have slept it off in my cot.”

“We both know you don’t use the cot.”

“‘Scuuuse me if a’ don’ say ‘hair-hammock’ in public!”

The clamoring crowd stopped talking to stare at her in concern.

“Oi! Back off!” She shaped her hair into a fist. “Any o’ you wanna piece o’ me? Ay’ll show ya some real hair-hammocks if yer so curious!”

The students collectively took a step back.

At this point Sparkler realized her accent had slipped and was blushing furiously. Clearing her throat, she lowered her hair-first. “We need passage to Silver’s. Clear the way?”

The herd decided it was a good idea to listen to her request, parting to allow them passage through one of the main tubes. This did not stop them from getting as close as possible to stare at Rook, but they weren’t impeding their progress anymore.

Rook bared her fangs at them, but this did not have the desired fearmongering effect. If anything it made them more curious to get a look at her insides.

However, the crowd was gone by the time they arrived at Silver’s. It was no secret that the stallion hated noise and nopony wanted to upset him. His home was one of the few buildings in Sanctaphrax that wasn’t a tower; little more than a circular stone house with no windows and only one iron door. Somewhat unexpectedly, the door was ajar. Somepony was already visiting Silver.

The Admiral didn’t bother waiting for whoever it was to be done. She waltzed right in, gesturing for Sparkler to bring Rook in as well. Despite having no windows, the interior was well lit with an eerie, unnatural blue aura. It was a mess with massive rolls of paper everywhere—the walls, the shelves, the floor, even coiled up into rolls and wads in random places. Virtually every inch of the paper had some sort of intricate, lifelike illustration on it. A few images of Rook could be picked out alongside the inside organic structure of a dead seapony, several leaves, some careful gear-mesh designs, and endless charts and graphs the Admiral couldn’t hope to discern.

There were two ponies in the room.

One was an extremely elderly stallion whose every last hair had turned white, wrinkles invading every inch of his body. Despite this, he gave off an aura of power with his crimson hat and robe literally sparkling with magic and studded with ornate gemstones of a half-dozen colors. One would think he was the last true wizard in the world, and for the most part that assumption was correct.

He was not Silver. His name was Leyline and he ran the nearly defunct sub-School of magic.

Grumbling in annoyance, he left, barely registering the Admiral’s presence. “If we don’t find a new adaptable magic talent, Silver, the practice of spellcraft ends here! Maybe think about expanding your sights!” He stormed out, not waiting for a response.

“I hope he kicks the bucket soon…” Silver breathed. “Almost as much as I hope to get peace and quiet so I may WORK!”

He slammed his brown hooves on his desk as he stood up, facing them. His mane was a soft black, but nopony would notice that first. The fact that he had no eyes was so jarring most ponies became dumbfounded in his presence. Instead of normal ocular organs, two smooth glass spheres took up his sockets, giving a clear window to the inside of his head. Their purpose, to keep two marbles of blue light rolling around in his skull.

The crystal ‘eyes’ jostled around as Silver’s face poked in the Admiral’s direction. “You. The star coot sent you. Ugh, why must I be constantly assaulted by all the pointless—”

The Admiral slammed her hoof on the desk, making Silver jump. “Let me put this simply. We need one of your eyes.”

“You and everypony on the island, mutant sky rat.” To emphasize his point, he produced a small jar filled with a half-dozen of the magic marbles. “You know how this works. I own the spell, you own the fancy experiments that need to be watched all the time.” He pointed at Rook without batting an eye, and then at his own cutie mark. It was hard to see in the blue light, but his mark was three small, blue dots arranged in a triangle. “And then you give my eye back when you’re done.”

“Oooooh, I see the problem,” Sparkler said.

With a shake of his head, the marbles in his skull clattered around. “Of course you do you daft c-”

“What would I have to give you to launch the eye into orbit?” the Admiral interrupted.

“No amount of money. Iota couldn't get me to give it up.” Seemingly thinking the conversation was over, he returned to his pages. With a levitating pen, he began to fill in more details of a fish one of his far-off eyes were presumably watching.

“Do you see this seapony? Of course you do, Vespid used one of your eyes to observe her all night. You know exactly what she is and what she’s doing. I’ll bring you something back from where she’s taking us. Something unique, something that you can have and none of the scientists here.”

“I’ll make the decision when you get back,” Silver huffed, not looking up from his drawings. “It’s going to have to be something really impressive to launch part of me into a star. I can’t make more. I can only see what I see. Being that high up is bound to get boring after a while. So whatever this mysterious ‘super-treasure’ is, it better be legendary.”

“It will,” the Admiral said, glancing back to Rook, who nodded in confirmation. “And then you’ll give us that eye.”

“Let me guess, or else?”

“I’d rather it not come to that.”

“Oh, it won’t. Now get out.”

Before leaving, the Admiral leaned closer to Silver’s ear. “You’d make more history here than anything else you’ve ever done… think about that.” She backpedaled and followed Sparkler out.

“...That guy’s a piece of trash,” Sparkler muttered after the Admiral closed the door behind them.

“Absolutely. But he has the eye spell, and we need a way to get data back from the stars. It’s the only thing that’ll work.”

“He’s got this entire island eating out of his hooves.” Sparkler huffed. “Let’s just get back to the ocean already. I can feel him watching. Yes, I know none of his eyes are here, shut up.”

With a curt nod, the Admiral led them back to the Sanctaphrax cavern, soon to return to the Algol.