Dr. Whooves and the Reality War

Ako's guard raised as soon as the seapony entered, instantly mistrusting of this so called 'Captain'. It wasn't so much his looks -Yuck... that smell... - but more of his attitude and air of forced superiority. Even these scaled hind-leg-walking seemed to want to question his orders and from how venomous he spoke, Ako was sure that she did not want to be a prisoner to this featherbrai-.... kelp.. brain...

She shifted her position, the gryphon moved slightly behind Scribble, leaning her head over to his ear. It both let her whisper into his ear and hide her clawed hands drifting towards her blades.

"I do believe negotiations have broken down..." Ako hissed quietly. "I doubt these ones will be as peaceful as those. If you think you can at least disable those crossbows, I bet we can get some answers here."

As she started pulling her swords out, still mostly hidden behind the earthpony, the gryphon added:

"And I won't kill any of them, if that's what you're worried about."
 

"That's not what I'm worried about." Scribble turned his head and hissed back at her, keeping his voice soft and quiet to avoid the sea ponies detecting them. He didn't like this new pony, walking in and acting all high and mighty. He knew the military type a mile away, he lived in Canterlot after all.

"What I'm worried about is that even if we choose to fight, we'll still be trapped in a base who knows where, probably armed to the fangs with soldiers." His gaze slipped to Azure and the other lizard-ponies. "Plus, we'll probably lose our only possible allies in this mess."

Looking back to the Gryphon, Scribble met her gaze. He could tell she wasn't happy with the option he was going for. "If you think the moment negotiations go a little rough is the time to declare war, then you've probably never heard about hearth's warming eve. So I say we don't do anything for now, strike later, when we've learned something." He shifted slightly, tensing himself in preparation for whatever comes next. "But, if you think the most reasonable action is to start fighting right this second, I'll follow you."
 

The gryphon released the hilts of her weapons, sitting back on her haunches as she crossed her forelegs across her breast. Her eyes were fixed on Scribble's, not exactly disapprovingly, but with an intense look.

"Fine." Ako grumbled, glancing at the advancing guards. "I won't do anything until they try to capture us, or if they touch my swords..."

Her look wavered, uncertainty creeping into her eyes as her head turned back to look at the earthpony.

"I hope you're right..." she finished softly, nodding for Scribble to go attempt negotiations.

Ako settled into a meditative pose, which for her really was a fancy way of saying she closed her eyes and prepared herself for the worst.
 

     Silverfin opened his mouth to utter some cascade of withering comments, and caught himself. Instead he chuckled, shaking his head, "Such a tongue you dirt ponies have! Please forgive me for not immediately recognizing your coarse sense of humor. Perhaps you are a poet of humor amongst your folk, but were you to practice such insults upon a less genteel member of Her Majesty's elites, you would soon find yourself only chum with sharks." For some reason this struck the seapony as a humorous statement.

     Several of the guard eyed each other uncomfortably, but made a half hearted clomp in applause. Azure winced. Inexplicably, the Doctor seemed to find this line almost as amusing as the silver-scaled 'Captain'. However, Scribble noticed that the time pony seemed to be almost looking through

     After a moment the seapony's mirth died down. "As for the latter part of your plea, I assume this is also meant to be humorous, for otherwise you are a blubbering simpleton. You will be incarcerated until such time as it is convenient for you to be taken to the court of the Empress of the Sea, her Majesty Queen Samudra, long may she wave."

     The Doctor giggled for a few moments, then finally noticed that everypo everyone was staring in disbelief. "What? I thought he was making another sea joke. Wave? Like waves? Otherwise it's rather stupid... she's not exactly a flag, now is she? More like a na–

     "How dare you speak such. And without even having been in her divine presence." Silverfin seethed.

     "Oh, but I will have been." The Doctor said, smiling madly.

     Azure forgot to remain silent, "Your tenses do not make sense, how can you speak of future events as past occurrences?"

     "You know very well who I am to be saying such things. And you also know why our finny friend here will keep his flippers off of us, at least for now: we're not trespassers."

     "This is preposterous! I can see you here, plain as the currents. You have snuck into–

     "Ah, no. That is where you are mistaken. I crossed no lines to come here. This device works, my friends and I were pulled across the gulf of space to arrive here. Which means we are the product of their experiment, not foreign agents. I rather guess that your 'arrangement' involves the Silurans having certain primary rights to the product of their experiments?" He spoke casually, searching a clear cellophane bag for another raspberry jelly.

     "That is utterly preposterous! Aoi, tell him he's out of his mind."

     "That remains to be seen, but in this case he is correct, our device brought these three here."

     "And yet they are land-dwellers. They can't leave here knowing about–

     "About. What?" The Siluran asked, head moving in a darting back and forth manner.

     The silver scaled speaker paused. "I... very well, our bargain has been fruitful so far." He absently dismissed his guard. "I trust you will inform me before you... before these three leave, by whatever means?"

     "Oh but of course, noble Captain. We Silurans live to serve the correct course of evolution." She beckoned for the travelers to follow her out of the room, turning away before they had a chance to respond.

Meanwhile, in the black of the benthal region

"HA! I TOLD you we were being followed!" the Inspector yelled triumphantly as Riptide confirmed his theory. Upon hearing the kelpie's comment about him being fish bait, however, his grin of victory became a snarl of indignation. "Oh ha-ha, very funny," he said spitefully.

Suddenly, a horrifying thought dawned upon him. "What if it's using the children to lure us in?" he asked seriously. "After all, this thing obviously has mental powers. Would it be so difficult to take over the minds of some children and use them to lure in their targets? Perhaps we should have a back-up plan..."

     The youngling seemed torn, but in the end chose inquiry over flight, "What's the pony with the funny scales talking about?"

     Riptide rolled her eyes, "He thinks something is following us and influencing his mind. I personally think he's just mad."

     "Oh no, you've been treated too? Is this another test – did I fail by talking to you!?" the fry's tail twitched in agitation as she made to swim away.

     "Shh, shh..." Riptide whispered, catching the child in a couple of tendrils. "I'm pretty sure none of us have been 'treated', there's nothing down here with those kinds of psychic powers."

     The kel–

     "By the way, what is your name... it's kind of awkward to talk to you with all this anonymity."

     "Oh, sorry, I'm Flotsam."

     ...Flotsam frowned, "Um, I don't know anything about what that is. The terrible lizards use, uh, 'khemicales' or something like that. Some of us aren't as affected by it... or we get less, I don't really understand, but we're supposed to watch the others, or our whole group gets culled."

     "Yeah, exactly what she said." Spoke a recently post-change kelpie. "But what she's ignoring is that we could also get in trouble for letting you go. So, are you gonna come with us peacefully?"

     The Doctor looked back and forth between the two your kelpies, noting similarities in coloration and spines. "Hmm, let me guess, you're called 'Jetsam', aren't you?"

     The non-fry kelpie rolled his eyes, "Amazing deduction, must be the 'amazing' psychic powers you have."

     "Oh no, I never use those, it feels too much like cheating. I've just read enough nautical terms to know that both flotsam and jetsam are kinds of oceanic wreckage, although I can never keep straight what the difference is."

     "I was being sarcastic." Jetsam (?) deadpanned. He shook his head, turning back to the eldest kelpie present "Enough of this, will you come with us, or are you willing to sentence all of these children to death?"
 

"Death?" Riptide said archly, her wings flaring in anger. "Who threatens children with death?! I'd like to meet these "lizards" you called them, yes?"

Flotsam and Jetsom nodded, unsure of the larger kelpie's intentions.

"Excellent, I want you to lead me to these "lizards", then to aid my friends here while I "talk" to these creatures. Can you do that?"
 

     The pair looked at each other before nodding to their elder. Err... 'current age' elder, maybe – even though technically both had been born before Riptide – but when she returned to her own time they would be older than her, um, if they were still alive... ugh, time-travel is hard to keep track of.

     Without another word they swam back to the front of the school that had been milling about without leadership. Together they school and the travelers made the rest of the ten minute trip in near silence, the Inspector begrudgingly holding off his own investigation until they were closer because the children were quite obviously too agitated to provide useful information while delaying their task. But there would be questions – and soon – Celestia as his witness, there would be.

     The school followed the terrain, while Riptide and Isop followed them, which meant that they didn't actually see the structure until they were practically on top of it. It was a city, constructed of marble and coral that had long since bleached of color in these inhospitable depths. The structure partook equally of what a citizen of earth would have called Grecco-Roman Architecture and Pre-Classical Unicornian Design, albeit with none of the color both styles had originally been intended to sport. Precise details were hard to make out, however, as the stark white light hit the matte surfaces and only seemed to illuminate flat planes, making it difficult to differentiate spatial depth... unless one had a natural sense of sonar.

     Curiously, the sunken ruins also sported several box-like plastic structures attached to the original buildings like some cubist's interpretation of barnacles... if one ignored the partially transparent tubes connecting some of these structures.

     There were only moments to take in the sight of the city, which was at least as large as Canterlot – the largest city any of the Equestrian Natives had seen – and even Cain was impressed by the scope of the structure. The school was heading directly for one of the larger cubes on the near side of the circular layout of the city.

     Flotsam swam back to the travelers, Jetsom leading the rest to some entrance on the underside of the structure. The kelpie fry eyed the group nervously, "I'm not sure this is a good idea... you could probably still escape right now. Are... are you sure you want to go through with this?"
 

"I'm afraid we must, Flotsam." Riptide replied,  laying a steadying hoof on the younling's shoulder. "These lizards sound just like the beings the Doctor here wants to see."

The younger kelpie's hesitation was understandable, but Riptide was too incensed to hear it, though she tried to hide it beneath a matronly tone. Nopony touched her fellow kelpies, much less their children and got away with it. And though not related by blood, she felt a need to help and protect these younglings.

I wonder if this is how Ako felt about Atoc and Hualpa She wondered, the thought cooling her anger somewhat. The griffon's overprotective tendencies to protect the llama children had caused her a few headaches, but now Riptide couldn't help but feel the same way. Something in this bleak forgotten city had threatened children and from the sound of it, had gone so far as to "cull" entire foal shoals.

The Doctor may want to talk his way through, Primeval might want to hear the facts first, the Inspector she wasn't sure how he'd react, but Riptide's course was clear: She was going find out who was doing this to her kelpies and kill every single one of them and feed them to the very children that they oppressed. Except the ringleaders. They would get the honor of being consumed alive.

The Inspector's instinct was piqued upon hearing the words 'lizards'. Swimming up cautiously to the young kelpies, he glanced over them warily. "So if my understanding is correct, some form of sentient sea-reptiles is dumping chemicals into the water, and these are supposed to alter you kelpies in some way? Do you feel sudden bursts of euphoria? That is to say, unexplained happiness?" he added upon seeing the confusion in the two kelpies' eyes.

    Jetsom scrunched up his muzzle, shaking his head side to side, slowly. "Um... no?"

The Inspector's ears wilted in disappointment. "Then that isn't it," he sighed, looking rather like a colt who had gotten a pair of socks for Hearth's Warming. However, he stiffened up again, regaining his serious demeanor. "Well, at least we're mildly sure of one thing: Whatever's following us isn't after the kids. Unfortunately, that means that it's only after us, so we can't use them as bait. I was only joking!" he added quickly after seeing the look on Riptide's face.

Deciding it would be more effective to hide behind the Doctor, he continued. "I think the best thing to do is to figure out if the lizard people are responsible for the thing that's stalking us. If not, than we stay close to them and hope that the thing that is trying to kill me leaves us alone until we get out of this forsaken place of darkness. Any questions?"

The Inspector, of course, had no way of knowing that at this point, his right eye had developed a nervous tic.