Beneath The Sea

Utter bewilderment. That was all the any of them could pretend to have; their memories of their day to day lives did nothing to inform them of how any of this was possible, not even some hint, in fact racking their brains did exactly the opposite and only reinforced the notion that this was not possible, that surely they must have snapped and gone crazy.

And yet clearly it was still happening. The low rumble of the engine, the cold feel of the metal, the clear view from the huge viewport, they could all see it. This group of strangers, who had not even the slightest knowledge of who each other were, had woken up together.

For now they were all that was familiar, as the viewport showed them the impossible city resting on the ocean floor, as the bathysphere slowly carried them towards it in an almost foreboding manner. A gargantuan squid passed by their viewport lazily as they were carried toward the city resting on the ocean floor, allowing them to see details like the glass tubes linking the buildings so that whatever insane ponies lived here could traverse from one building to another.

There was no sign of any pilot, nor indeed any method to actually steer the bathysphere; they had been propped up on a padded bench that ran around the circular room and that was all they could see of the interior.

"Uugh..." The inky blackness in Vision's face confused him. He'd been by the stage a little while ago, doing special effects as usual, and then suddenly... nothing. He didn't recall anything beyond that point. Certainly nothing as significant as falling asleep. No memories of ever moving from his place on the familiar wood floor of the Opera House came to mind either; so why did this surface he was lying on feel so different?

Slowly, he blinked his eyes open, and focused at his surroundings through bleary pupils, looking for anything out of the ordinary. There wasn't anything of particular note. Only a group of new ponies he didn't recognise, a bathysphere, the wide open ocean outside the viewport with a city-

Wait. Vision hesitated. Oh no, don't tell me I was sleep-casting again. I thought I grew out of that years ago. Reaching up to his horn, he tapped it gently in an attempt to stop the flow of magic from his horn into the illusion that had formed around him while he wasn't conscious.

A few moments of poking later, it began to dawn on him that everything around him was, in fact, as real as could be, bizarre circumstances or not. In a panic, he reached towards himself and gave his body a quick patdown. Everything was still as he remembered it: His ruby hung as it always did around his neck in a chain, and his plain white cloak was on his torso as usual. Those were the only points of familiarity in what was quickly shaping up to be something at the level of a disaster.

Vision panicked briefly, but he forced himself to calm down after a few seconds of panic. Alright, calm down. So you're not in a dream, or an illusion... something must have happened. He shuddered. It's okay, it's fine. You've written stories like this before. I just hope this story has a happy ending.

He didn't feel particularly like socialising - not like he did normally anyway - so he pressed himself further into his corner and wrapped himself in a small illusory aura of comforting warmth. That made him feel a little better as he waited for what was to come.

Coal Scorcher shifted uncomfortably in his seat. The fact that they were so deep underwater made him question the bathysphere's ability to withstand the pressure, not to mention that he had no idea where they were going in said bathysphere. His companions were also an unknown. He hoped they would keep their hands off of him - he was just as much of a victim as the rest of them.
"I suggest sitting still, laddie. Whoever brought us here wants to show us somethin' and I don't think it's gunna be nice."

He had just finished his modifications on his flintlock pistol - the weapon now had rotating barrels that allowed for triple the firepower before requiring a reload. Once he was done with that, he had simply called it a day for his crew, went upstairs, had a comforting shot of whiskey and went to sleep, ready to charge up his energy in preparation for the next day when his client would come to bring an item to be customized by the master smith.
Yet here he was, sitting in a metal ball that was more like death in a can at the moment. He'd woken up an hour earlier than Vision and had simply made himself comfortable after deducing that he had no way out of the bathysphere aside from busting the glass open. Even that would have failed, the glass seemed bulletproof anyway. To top it all off - and to add insult to injury - his weapons had disappeared! Aside from his hands, he had no way to defend himself.
"My whole gun gallery for some spare parts!" He thought dejectedly.

A tan pegasus stallion yawned. He wore a white t-shirt and blue jeans and had a black desperado hat on. He was also wearing aviator goggles and a red bandanna. He had a rust colored mane and tail. His eyes opened and looked around the bathysphere. So...he was in this....thing with strangers all around him. He glanced out the viewport and saw they were underwater. And that there was a city...right there... "Alright. Dat's the last time ah sleep in the middle of mah shop." He muttered, a southern accent very much present in his voice.

He had been having a nice dream of being on an airship again. Oh how he loved the wind in his mane. The feeling of freedom. But sadly that dream was abruptly ended when he had heard someone shifting and another someone talking. Guess he now knows who those someones were. Complete strangers. Why was he so surprisingly calm? Could it be the fact he was underwater in this...metal thing? Nah. He though to himself, sitting back and pulling his hat over his face.

"So, where'd ya think we're headin'?" He said suddenly, pulling his hat back on top of his head. "Well...Other than that city over there." He turned to the veiwport and tapped a finger against his muzzle. He wondered how anyone in that city could breath. They'd have to have quite a large supply of air to satisfy a city and...They live at the ocean floor. And glass tubes? That...doesn't really look safe. "Hmm..." The pegasus tried to think of how safe...a city at the bottom of the ocean would be....Then again he doesn't really care much for the ocean or the sea.

Groggily, Sonata started to twitch awake. A process dictated by first some twitching and shifting as the thestral tried to regain enough comfort to continue sleeping. Unable however to really settle back into the blissful darkness, Sonata finally stirred with enough purpose to move. First, her arms went vertical as she stretched fully, eliciting a few cracks from her spine. Content with the noises, she then went to stretch out her wings, one of which however met the unexpected presence of Coal while the other hit another passenger of the bathysphere.

At the contact, Sonata's face contorted with a grimace as realization dawned upon her. I know I've had wild night but two at once? Just how much did I drink after that concert? Sonata thought to herself as she yawned widely and rather ungracefully in contradiction to the rather formal and shapely black dress she was wearing. "Oh hell, you're not supposed to still be hear by the damned morning," she said without opening her eyes. Then the other pegasi's words reached her ears and she hesitantly opened her eyes, only to slam them shut again at the illumination of the sphere. "Gah, I'm blind!" she cried as her hands went and rubbed the offended eyes.

While she tried to soothe her aching appendage, the other words spoken reached her and daring to brave the brightness once again, Sonata forced her aching eyes open to see the collection of ponies in the small space. She was about halfway finished with the thought of what might have occurred with so many others when her eyes settled on the viewport and she withheld the sight beyond. The city under the sea, the aquatic life that swam about just outside their small craft. In a shocked stupor, Sonata tried to stand and approach the glass window, but she fell to her knee's almost as soon as her wobbly and unsteady legs tried to support the hungover mare. "Wah- what happened last night?" she asked no one in particular.

Falcone awoke with a small stretch. He had previously been napping before finding himself bathysphere. When it occurred to him that he wasn't at his house, he snapped to attention, and looked around at the inside of the bathysphere, and it's other occupants. He then looked outside through the viewport, and his jaw went agape at the sight of the underwater city.

He quickly checked himself to see if he was alright, or missing anything. He sighed in relief at seeing his was still in one piece, and still had his attire, but then grumbled, "well, that's perfect", to himself when he realized his brass knuckles were gone.

He then looked around at the others in the bathysphere again, this time more distrustingly, as he thought that any one of them could be the one that brought him here, and took his weapon. He took special notice of the stallion Pegasus, thinking that his calmness was strange, despite his sounding like he was as clueless as Falcone was. He opted to remain silent for the time being, opting to wait until some clue came along that explained why he was here. If none came along, then he planned on interrogating the others to see if they knew more than him.

The engines in the bathysphere seemed to produce much noise for the passengers who were unwillingly placed inside. The engines were quiet. Very quiet. In fact, they were quiet enough to be drowned out by the actual source of the noise. Currently, said source's scales blended with the bathysphere's interior features so well, she was nearly invisible as she slept awkwardly with her bottom half on the bench and her top half and tail hanging off and lying on the floor, like a reptilian rag doll.

She hadn't woken up yet and was a heavy sleeper. Although, her tail did occasionally twitch and bump against the pony closest to her.

The bathysphere took them on a slow, almost dreamlike tour of the city. It was built like a metropolis but while it had clearly once been a veritable paradise, the outsides were uncared for and covered with both algae and, worryingly, a fair amount of rust in places were metal was openly exposed to the sea water. At one point those looking out the viewport caught a glimpse of what, disturbingly, seemed to be a large, yellow glowing light coming from one of the windows as if watching their progress, but it vanished too quickly for them to get a proper look.

Finally, they began to pull into a port, the front of the bathysphere clicking into place. The glass viewport now looked out into what, bizarrely, looked like an old fashioned ballroom, complete with tables laid out with fancy white table clothes.

The scene was rather mired by the fact it looked like everything had been left to rot for at least ten years.

"Hey! You lot in the bathysphere, what the hell are you doing here?!" The voice sounded scratchy and metallic, almost as if the stallion was literally yelling at them from inside the bathysphere's speakers.

No sooner had he spoken than a horrible, wailing cry like metal shards against glass filled their ears.

"...oh bollocks."

The stallion's voice from the speakers just managed to stir Opal from her sleep. With a snort and a jolt, the dragon slowly opened her eyes to see a sight that, after losing the post-slumber fuzz, was completely unfamiliar to her, and did not correlate at all with what and where she remembered last. And yet, even as she'd just woken up, her keen senses told her this definitely wasn't one of her blurry, numb dreams; it was very mu-

Just as the stallion had finished his dialogue, that admittedly Opal's brain had not processed, an ear-splitting shriek sent a massive electric jolt through the dragon that made her left wing throw her into the air, her right wing slam into the roof of the bathysphere, her tail smack the two ponies closest to her, hard, and her scales instantly turn light blue with lavender polka-dots.

And just as quickly as Opal had launched herself into the air, gravity slammed her back down on the hard metal floor, her knees and breasts taking the brunt of the damage. That was probably the first time those ponies had ever heard a dragon whimper. "Ow..." she squeaked, pushing herself to her knees with one clawed hand and coddling her likely bruised breasts with the other. By now, her scales had returned to their natural pearl-white color, with their light rainbow-ish glint, and her underbelly had returned to its silver color.

Because of that shrieking sound that had just emanated from outside the small sphere, Opal had no desire to stand up completely, being perfectly content on her knees for now. That didn't stop her from peeking out the one window, though, to see what had made such a noise. She was fully aware that there were ponies behind her, and that they were probably scared to death of the "sudden" presence of one of the most aggressive reptiles in Equestria, but until they directly addressed her, they were not her top priority. She was quite used to the "Oh my Celestia, a dragon! It's gonna eat me!" reaction, whether spoken (screamed) or read through the body.

The pegasus's eyes fell on the yellow light and he tried to focus on it, but it suddenly vanished. He let out a little sigh. Ah don't have a good feeling about whatever that was. He thought before he looked at the port they had been pulled into. An eyebrow went straight up at the sight of the ballroom. "Dah hell?" He just became even more confused when the stallion's voice called out. Soo...They were brought here and...the stallion who's voice they are heard doesn't know why they are here? Eyup. Never sleeping in the middling of the shop again.

Seconds later, he heard the horrid sound and didn't care much. It did, however, cause him to flatten his ears against his head to muffle some of it. He opened his mouth to say something only to get hit in the face by a dragon's wing, hard. He yelped in pain and held is face in his hands. Oh he was so glad the area around his eyes were fine. Thank ya kindly goggles. He thought before shaking his head and looking at the....dragon.

During his travels on the airship with his dad, it was a bit of a common site to see dragons. So seeing a dragon was nothing new to him. Though...this one had just appeared out of nowhere...How that was possible, he'd have to ask to find out. "Dayum...Ya smack hard. Next time, keep ya wings to yer side." He said to the dragon, somewhat calmly. He reached up to his hat and took it off. Then felt around the inside of the hat for a moment before he cursed. He groaned and put his hat back on his head. He kept his eyes on the viewport and waited for something to happen...maybe.

Falcone noticed the yellow light, but payed it no heed, as he was too busy taking in the underwater city as the bathysphere 'toured' it. When it arrived at the port, he gave the room outside the viewport a quizical look; wondering why it looked like a ballroom, and subsequently why it looked like it'd been abandoned.

When he heard the scratchy voice from the speakers, he was silently relived, as he hoped the stallion would explain why he was here. His relive quickly turned to annoyance, however, as it sounded like the stallion didn't know anything. But he forgot about all of that when he heard the cry. He furrowed his brow, and stood up; not wanting to be caught sitting down by whatever made that sound. He had noticed the dragon, and while it was inside the bathysphere with him, he wasn't concerned for it; in fact, the dragon being there calmed his slightly, as he thought the dragon would be on his side if the thing that made that noise showed up. He still prepared to defend himself, however; tensing up and waiting for something to come out.

Vision sat bolt upright as a tail started poking him in the side occasionally. He began looking around, his eyes settling momentarily on a (thankfully sleeping) dragon before something else demanded his attention a lot more urgently. A voice emanating from the bathysphere's speakers, coupled with the unexpected presence of a dragon, sent his paranoia and caution into overdrive. His horn began to glow with a brighter light than it had been previously, as he prepared to confront something that would no doubt be trying to kill them in just a few-

smack

A screech to his side that sent him half-deaf and a sudden whip across his face sent Vision reeling. He took just a second to realise that it was the dragon's doing - well, at least the tail was - before powering up his horn to full capacity, raising his rapidly bruising face towards the offending creature and directing his horn towards it.

It took only a brief second; a powerful wall of steel, patterned and decorated with little tendrils of magic, seemingly shot out of the ground and positioned itself between Vision and the dragon. His horn dimmed slightly as he let the illusion settle into place, simply opting for maintaining it instead of creating any new ones. Touch-sensitive as it was, the wall would at least prevent the dragon from reaching him, if not shooting fire at him.

Then he heard the dragon whimper. He wasn't immediately aware why, having been distracted by the scene outside the window earlier, but he decided not to lower his shield anyway. Turning to the others with a blackened eye, he lost all traces of awkwardness as he demanded, in a loud voice made even louder and deeper by his audio illusions, "Would anyone mind telling me what's going on?!"

From her prone position, Sonata watched with wide rapt eyes as the bathysphere continued it's seemingly preset course through the city. When the craft docked, one of Sonata's ears turned towards the speaker while her mind tried to piece together the fragments of the prior night and what may or may not, have happened. Her dress was still on, so nothing too excessive must have occurred, and her hangover wasn't exceedingly bad so she couldn't have drank THAT much... That however was as far as her thoughts managed to go before the screeching started.

Thanks to being on the ground, Sonata was spared the initial upstart of the suddenly appearing dragon. That didn't however spare her from when said dragon fell onto the thestral who'd rolled over onto her back and was about to try and stand. The impact of the dragon's belly against her chest sent Sonata's head back against the floor where it'd likely earned a nice bruise and a fresh new pang of pain coupled with the already head splitting screeching noise. To say the least, this was easily turning into one of her worst mornings in a very long time, despite the presence of a naked dragon on top of her. Okay, maybe things did get a little wild last night?

Then Sonata heard Visions calls and she once more pressed her ears flat against her head to block out as much of the horrible, torturing sounds as she could. "I don't know, and I really don't care, JUST MAKE THE DAMNED NOISE STOP!" Sonata practically screamed from where she was. With everything going on, she hadn't even noticed the illusionary wall that had sprung up, dividing the group. "And can you get off of me?" She called out a little bit later to the dragon with the same annoyed tone, but a little bit quieter since her own outburst had caused a fresh cringe of pain from the suffering thestral.

Coal tried his best to ignore the dragon - given his current situation, he was in a whole lot more trouble than just a scaled one in the same room as him, no more reason to make more enemies than what there are already.
The voice from the speakers merely confirmed his suspicions. "Yup. Might just have to stay on this fiery fella's good side for now..." He thought.

When the magic wall came up, that's when things began to get slightly violent. And in this state, they had no way of surviving if they turned on one another.
To that end, Coal rose from his seat and grasped Vision's horn rougly - making his illusionary wall disappear - and made the unicorn sit down with an even rougher motion.
"Hey! Listen lad! None of us know what is going on save for the one who just hailed us through those speakers! Now you will either keep your magic under control until we need it or I will personally rip it off put it back the wrong way round!" He closed in until his nose almost touched Vision's.
"Do I make myself clear?" He asked, every little movement of his lips signalling that a response of any sort would mean that his threat could very well become a reality.

"Look, if you lot are gonna start tearing each other apart you're just a boatload of Splicers I can eject to the ocean floor as far as I'm concerned." The voice warned them; the radio was so scratchy and poor quality that they hadn't been able to hear the Trottingham accent until he pronounced the word splicers. "Look, right now I need you not to panic; I'm going to blackout your bathysphere. Should be pitch black; get behind the goddamn seats and keep your heads down."

The metallic screeching sounded again, but this time much quieter; the first had sounded like a roar of rage, this one sounded like curiosity.

"Big Sister's coming for you. If you don't wanna be impaled on something very sharp by ten feet of pure mean streak I suggest getting down." The stallion reiterated before the bathysphere was plunged into pitch blackness, the lights in the ballroom also going out.

That did it. Between the adrenaline pumping through his system and the manic high he'd quite abruptly acquired after all the events of the previous half minute, Vision snapped. He took a single step away from Coal just a moment before his horn glowed even brighter than before, replacing the dissipated steel shield with a fully formed yellow translucent dome. It expanded outwards from his horn and directly towards Coal, forcing him away from Vision and popping as soon as he had been pushed far back enough. Vision's eyes began to burn with dark red illusory flames, as his hands and feet did.

He opened his mouth, preparing to say something very scathing, but just at that moment the voice spoke up. His attention turned towards the speakers, though not before he formed another dome around himself, wary of Coal. As soon as the warning was over, he growled; logic was returning with his senses, and he knew he couldn't afford to offend whoever it was that was controlling this thing.

His anger, however, was determined to have one last laugh. From inside the shield, he jabbed a finger towards Coal and snarled, "You? You die first." And with that, he stalked off back to the darkest corner he could find that was also behind a seat and got down, the fire in his eyes and on his limbs slowly dissipating with the dome as the high wore off. The bathysphere was plunged into darkness soon after, and he simply sat and waited.

That was a terrible thing to say! The reasonable side of him argued.

I was just staying in character. He retorted, only partially aware that holding a conversation with himself wasn't generally considered normal.

The fire guy isn't you.

Well, I was him, if only for a while. Along with the return of his senses and reason also came along second thoughts. He curled himself up into a little ball and squeezed his eyes shut.

Look at what you've done now. The reasonable but stubborn side of him continued. You've gone and forced yourself into a corner all by yourself. The others probably hate you now.

"I don't care." Vision muttered sullenly back at himself, sighing heavily. "I like it better here, in the corner. Alone. I'm happy." He took a deep breath. Happy as can be...

Falcone sneered at the voice; he wasn't fond of being told what to do, especially under fear of death, and he also wasn't fond of being told he couldn't handle something. However, the rational side of him said he didn't want to fight whatever was making that noise without a weapon. So, when the lights went off, he sat down in a corner and remained still.

He was aware of the little outburst that unicorn had-with the fire and the dome and the threat of murdering the other earth pony-but he decided to ignore him for the time being, for two principle reasons:one, he saw the unicorn as all talk, and show, so he thought he could've taken him if he decided to do something stupid, even if he had some weird magical powers; and two, the outburst wasn't directed at him, as he wasn't the one that was threatened. He did decide to keep an eye on him, however; deciding that if the unicorn had another outburst, he'd personally take him down-or out.

"Uh?" Opal's head swung down underneath her to see that she'd accidentally knee'd somepony in the back. "Ohmygosh, I'm sorry!" she shouted. She slammed her claws over her mouth, instinctively supporting her weight by her wings, and pushed herself to her feet to release the pony underneath her.

She only noticed the imaginary wall when it suddenly shimmered out of existence because of the stallion's outburst. The few events after shocked Opal deeply. She'd never seen ponies get so aggressive before. Then again, she'd never seen them in such a potentially aggressive situation. Speaking of which, there was the stallion speaking to them and threatening to drop them onto the ocean floor if they didn't calm down. So, that's what Opal did, despite all the thoughts and questions running around in her head.

As soon as he addressed the screeching thing, the Big Sister, apparently, and warned of her approach, Opal immediately backed up to the back of the bathysphere, almost crabwalking in a way over there so she wouldn't frighten anypony by standing up completely, doing her best not to step on or bump into anypony. When her back had hit the back of the bathysphere, she willed her scales to change color and pattern to match the colors and textures, and to be slightly "inaccurate" in tone where shadows would hit her, so said shadows wouldn't be noticed where they shouldn't be. The point: thanks to her chameleon-like abilities, she was very nearly invisible in the dark metal ball. Only those who looked at her from the side (IE: the ponies next or close to next to her) would be more likely to notice her. But she wasn't hiding from the passengers, now was she?

Sonata was barely able to grumble out an 'it's fine' response before the lights went out and their instructions were given. Thankfully the screeching was quieter now and not as horrendously grating on her poor ears, so Sonata wasn't left a quivering ball of thestral from the offensive sounds. Not wanting to try standing again, Sonata opted to simply shift off to the side while still lying on the ground until she was almost under the bench. Hardly the most dignified course of action, but she figured she'd already ruined just about any chances of acting the level of sophistication her dress may have announced.

From her side line position, the dark colored mare was spared a chance to finally look at who all was trapped in the bathysphere with her, aside from the dragon who had already made it's presence fairly well known. One earth pony seemed like he was trying to be menacingly silent while the other just seemed straight up violent. The unicorn seemed a wreck, especially with his quiet mumbling to himself, and that just left the pegasi who hadn't said all that much. ... I'm doomed, Sonata thought sourly to herself while she waited on the ground for the screeching to go away, the lights to come back on, other instructions to go by, or all three. After her little observation, Sonata turned her gaze back to the view port. Given enough time, her eyes might have been able to distinguish a few extra details but even those would likely be hindered by the small window.

Dark Wing groaned, shacking his head slightly. He listened to what the voice had to say, trying to not pay attention to the unicorn and earth pony. Big....Sister? He did a look around the bathysphere. Dragon, thestral, two earth ponies, and a unicorn. At least he wasn't the only one with wings. He stood up and was about to do what the stallion's voice had said when Vision decided to make a death threat. That he could not ignore...But he also had to not lash out at the unicorn and kill him, himself.

Okay...No he felt like he had to keep an eye on that unicorn if he did actually decided to kill the earth pony. For now he walked over to Coal and patted his shoulder, putting a finger over his mouth. "Best get to what the stallion said. Ah really don't want ya t' die." He said quietly before crawling under the benches himself.

The lights went out a moment later and he stay there wondering who this...Big Sister was. He was genuinely curious...and genuinely scared. The one thing anypony should be scared about is death, and he really didn't need to see another pony die. He glared at the general direction of Vision. We ain't gonna last long if'n we can't work together. He though sighing deeply. He'd have to slap that unicorn when and if it was clear to stand back up.

The stallion's command from the speakers sounded like mad ramblings to Coal at first. But before he could turn his thoughts to that, he had only one thing to say.
"Say what you will lad. Keep that magic in a leash and all of us might live to see the light of day again."
"Big Sister? What's that supposed to mean? And what are these 'splicers' he mentioned?" He thought before the lights went out.

With nothing to do but heed the speaker pony's warning, Coal quickly but quietly went under the bench, but once he was there he glared in the general direction of Vision.
"This lad's going to be lots of trouble... Better keep him within reach lest that horn do me somethin fierce." He filed the thought away, because a gut feeling told him they were being watched.

In the pitch blackness they didn't have much to go on, the ballroom type area just barely visible through the deep curtain of darkness.

"Down brothers let's go down, down to the river to pray~" The voice sounded drunk and, though they couldn't make out anything about him, a stallion wandered into the ballroom, swaying drunkenly with a pipe wrench clutched in one hand. Or at least what looked like a pipe wrench anyway.

He was singing the little tune with a drunken slur that made it, soon, entirely incomprehensible.

He was so inebriated he didn't notice as something dropped down behind him with a loud, metallic, clang. The figure straightened up, standing just over eight feet.

"Keep. Your. Heads. Down." The voice over the radio even seemed to be trying to stay quiet as the figure approached the slumped over stallion. The window in what looked like a diving helmet lit up with a ferocious red glow, giving them all a clear view.





The stallion only had a moment to scream before the creature impaled him through the stomach on the large, intimidating needle with seemed grafted to it's right hand. The needle seemed to suck something out of the stallion, a strange orange glowing liquid being stored in the tank on the metallic monstrosity's back.

It stayed put for a few more moments, scanning the area, before it took off at a blurring runspeed out of the room again.

... and all I did was make a shield. To defend myself. And what does he do? He goes and ambushes me and attacks me! What do you suppose that means, huh?

The dragon apologised, in case you didn't hear. And all he did was grab your horn.

Of course I heard it. I'm you. But I didn't know it at the time, did I? Plus, grabbing my horn is like... like... kicking him in the crotch. If the crotch was the area you used to pretty much do everything magical.

Heh heh...

Get your mind out of the gutter. The first thing anyone would try to do when trying to kill a unicorn is to disable his magic defence somehow. Besides, how would he feel if he was trying to defend himself in a fistfight and I bound his hands behind his back?

You're missing the point. The point is that there was no excuse to threaten him, if you were defending yourself.

Don't be an idiot, he threatened me first! Intimidation is the first step to defeating an opponent.

Two wrongs don't make a right. Now go over there and apologise.

Uh, hello? Have you forgotten where we are? Not to mention that I have no reason to apologise to him!

Look, there are so many reasons why- The sound of a drunk stallion wafted over from the ballroom. Hold on. What's that?

Vision glanced over into the ballroom, keeping his head as low down as he could. From his angle, he couldn't make out any features about the stallion, and he doubted the others could either. He did, however, see what happened immediately after with crystal clarity: The stallion being impaled violently by a menacing creature with an enormous needle on its right hand, the strange orange liquid seemingly being extracted from the stallion's body, and the creature's final analysis of the area and subsequent flight from the scene of the crime.

Told you we had a lot more to worry about than apologising. Vision's horn began to glow softly, preparing some illusion spells in case the worst came to pass. Argh, why can't I wake up from this nightmare?

Maybe apologising will do the trick.

Shut. Up.

Dark has to tilt his head slightly to the side in confusion when he heard the drunk stallion singing, be he did keep his head down. He looked out the viewport to see the drunk stallion with the pipe wrench....Then saw a figure with a...diving helmet...impale the stallion with a needle. His ears flopped down and he looked on in horror. His mind didn't even process the strange orange liquid, just the stallion jetting impaled and the...creature that had impaled him.

He gave his head a little shake and watched the creature scan the area before speeding off. Dayum...This is one hell o' a city... He though, sighing and shaking his head a little more. But ah wonder what that orange liquid was...And what that thing was...Big Sister perhaps? His mind raced through thoughts about what just happened, lifting his goggles away from his eyes and putting his other hand over his face. He then dragged his hand down his face before sighing again. We are screwed. He thought to himself, putting his goggles back over his eyes.

Sonata watched the scene with horror stricken eyes, the drunken stallion stumbling about, the appearance of the assailant, the impalement, and then the 'big sister' running off with it's task completed. Beneath the bench, Sonata felt bile rise in her throat which she forced back down when she remembered she was on the floor of the small craft. Oh she needed a drink, and bad now. Firstly to get rid of the remainder of her hangover, and then again to chase away the horrid taste in her mouth.

A few moments after the monster left, Sonata squirmed out a little from under her seat. Risking a brief look around, she cast glances towards everyone in the bathysphere, noting their range of expressions relating to the murder before speaking. "Think it's gone?" Sonata started barely over a whisper so those close enough may hear but not anything past the bathysphere's walls. "I can only see so much from this angle."