Gazing to the Ocean of the Sky

by David Silver

5 - It's What My Cutie Mark Is Telling Me

With a combination of magic and helpful dragon claws, they carted Cherry off with her new pool. The crowd allowed them to pass before returning to the other things that drew them to the beach, even if the conversations drifted towards their curious visitor.

Cherry looked over the town as she 'swam' through the above-ocean with the benefit of the water-holding device she was riding in. There were so many ponies! Did being dry make ponies make more ponies faster? Her little town was nothing compared to the vast metropolis that seemed to stretch on forever. "How do you live in such big places?"

Twilight perked an ear. "This isn't one of our larger cities. You should see Manehatten or Canterlot."

They get larger?! Cherry blinked with wide eyes at the very notion of it. "The largest place I know of is rumored to be as large as this place, and it isn't even as large as two of your cities?" She sank a little into the water. "Where are we going?" The ocean was getting perilously far away as they moved. "What if something happens to this tiny ocean?"

Spike snorted from beneath, still supporting it. "Don't worry. We have it under control. If it really did break, we'd get another one."

"Another one?" Cherry tilted her capped head, blue locks bouncing a little. "These are easily available?" She prodded at the sides softly, amazed at its give and how it snapped back into place as soon as she stopped pushing. "What is it even made of? I can't place it."

Twilight reached up to give it a brief prod. "Rubber, by the feel of it." She tapped at her chin, walking along on her other three legs. "I gather your ponies don't have access to such things? Fascinating, but you did a remarkable job modifying the robot you found. How did you manage that?"

Cherry looked down at her belt. "I just did what felt right to do. I even got this mark for it." She displayed her flank over the side of the pool for Twilight to see. "Behold!" A thought struck her and she smiled. "Maybe you could tell me what they are? The pictures, I mean."

Twilight tilted her head at Cherry's displayed flank. "A wrench and a screwdriver. Very appropriate tools for working on this kind of machine. Were you using them?"

"Yep!"

"But you had no idea what they were?"

"Nope!" She shook her head quickly. "They made the things turn so I used them to turn the things until it felt right."

"Fascinating..." Twilight frowned a little, amazed and impressed. "Would you say you're comfortable with them?"

Cherry leaned over the edge of her water-holder towards Twilight. "I never felt more alive than when I was trying to make it work again! Do you know how to work with them?"

"A little." Twilight tilted her head as she put all four hooves to work trotting. "But I'll let you speak to some ponies who specialize in that sort of thing. I'd like to observe just how far your instinct takes you. I'd even suggest the pony who made the robot to begin with, but I think he won't be very approachable."

Cherry stuck out her tongue. "Did he really make it? Now I kind of want to talk to him, even if he was loud and angry. There are other ponies though? I want to learn more." She clopped her forehooves excitedly. "They won't mind me taking this with me, will they?"

Twilight pointed up at the tub. "You're going to have to come out of that sometimes. I'm certain you won't be harmed by it. You're in less water than you ever were before, how do you feel?"

Cherry stiffened as she was reminded of her perilous position, but... "You're... right. I'm not drying up and blowing away." She smiled a little. "It still feels funny, and I like having the water." She splashed some of the water with a flip of her powerful tail. "And I get all raspy if I don't keep gulping down some water. Nopony will want to talk to me if I sound like that."

Spike tilted his head from below. "The stories say mer-ponies are supposed to have nice voices, so nice they can lure ponies to jump off their boats and drown or drive their boats into rocks."

Cherry blinked at the very notion. "Why would we do that?"

Twilight waved it off. "They're just fantasy stories. You prove quite nicely that they aren't even the slightest bit true."

Cherry leaned out perilously. "But if you thought I could do that, why did you come rescue me? I wouldn't rescue a monster. I'd swim away!" She leaned a bit too far and suddenly the tub upended. She was dumped roughly onto the sidewalk and the water spilled everywhere.

Twilight gasped with alarm, releasing the tub which fell over Spike as she rushed to help Cherry get upright and look her over for injuries. "Are you alright?!"

Cherry sat up with Twilight's help, head swaying a little from dizziness. "Ow..." She noticed she wasn't in the comfort of water suddenly and went rigid. "Oh no! Oh no oh no oh no!" She wrapped suddenly around Twilight, grasping her with hooves and powerful tail. "Don't let me dry up." Her belt dug in a little painfully into the alicorn's side.

Spike pulled up the side of the tub and crawled out, soaking wet and frowning. "You should be careful about leaning on something like that." He glanced left and right before he started dragging the tub towards a nearby cafe. "I'll get this filled up."

Twilight gently petted the panicking hippocampus with the one hoof she could move. "It'll be alright. You just have to relax a moment. Spike is already getting more water. You'll be safe." With a combination of magic and slow prying, she got Cherry to sit on the ground, trembling as she was. "See? You'll be alright. If you feel any pain or discomfort, just tell me."

She took a raspy breath and squeaked.

"We both know that happens, but it's annoying, not actually harmful." Twilight tilted her head. "Maybe if you got used to it a little, you might not get so raspy so quickly."

"D-do you really think so?" Cherry ran a hoof through her mane before setting it down to help prop herself up. She frowned down at her belt. "You have four hooves. They're like dry-swimmers. They let you swim across The Dry so good." She reached out a hoof and tapped at one of Twilight's legs.

"Well," corrected Twilight. "Ah, here he comes." She pointed at Spike who was struggling to get the refilled tub back to them. "Maybe I should lend him a hoof. Will you be alright for a moment?"

Cherry swallowed loudly, but gave a brave little nod. "If it'll be real fast, I guess." She glanced around for any signs of predators, but The Dry seemed to have no predators, at least not inside their city. Still, even as Twilight trotted over to help Spike, she wanted to not be so helpless. She pushed up as tall as her forelegs would allow, but her tail was just a dead weight and she had nothing to lift it up. She couldn't swim The Dry.

Or could she? She pulled out her wrench and applied it to her belt, turning it carefully.

Author's Note:

I kept looking at this chapter and its wordcount. I wanted to go further, but it refused. This is the cliffhanger it desires. Tomorrow, we find out what mischief she manages with her sudden fit of engineering.

What could go wrong?!

Comments

[badninja]

So she is going to make herself some hind legs!

[Troublesome Beast]

I'm getting a Girl Genius spark vibe here. :)

[Heidao]

*Sees cover art*
A ponified Nitori... I'll give this a try

[Fracturedheart]

Have a fav!! I love this story!!!

[Booster Spice]

Shes going to end up like a cross between Bunni Rabbot and Vaporean at this rate.

[gamer4COD]

Cute and loveable, good story.

[David Silver]

7161806 It's fun to write! Glad folks are enjoying it.

[Istaran]

We appear to have arrived exactly at the cover art moment. :)

[OmegaRuby]

Yep tracking this

[No one is home]

Mer-ponies are better with robots. Because robots make everything better.

[Moon loving Changeling]

What is she planing mmm. *deep thoughts*

[Moon loving Changeling]

7161806 Me too.

[Cross Lament]

Arguably, putting a seapony in freshwater would be very bad for them... but hey, it's magic.

[StormyVenture]

7162264
I would expect it depends on other information. People can spend a fair amount of time in the ocean or their bathtub without necessarily negative effects. Being kept semi-permanently in a pool of freshwater might be a problem, but exposure to it, even modest periods wouldn't necessarily kill them.

[David Silver]

7162264
7162635
Magic nothing! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euryhaline

[Frosty the Batty]

*Becomes skeptically, emotionally invested* Interesting. I'd like to see more!

[Kyogen]

7161794 Glad I'm not the only one who thought that.

[Golem Stone]

Am I the only on the that thinks the legs will glitch out and carry her halfway across town before someone stops them?

[Cross Lament]

7162651 Well, the skin of mammals is generally impermeable to water, and we don't breathe the stuff (ideally ).

7162652 Oh sure, if you want to be a cheater-fish like that...

Some sharks like to hang out in undersea freshwater springs, the low saline concentration leaving them kind of blissed-out. I wonder if seaponies might be subject to that...

[KMCA]

I'm upvoting this now rather than when it finishes, it deserves to be on both feature boards.

[RMWarPony]

this is great stuff keep going

[TheDerpySoupCan]

MOOAR

[The almighty bread god]

i'm listening to the metal cover of the lavender town theme. maybe not the best fit...

[Reada Read A Lot]

This is the first story of a hippocampus I have found and I like it. Thank you for writing it and please update soon.

[Damaged]

7163940 Mr Silver has pledged to make this a daily updater

[Erised the ink-moth]

These last few chapters have been an interesting start. We don't get too many stories involving seaponies on this site, so it's always kind of a treat to see.

Also, Cherry is just adorable. She's a nice mix of driven curiosity, and cautious optimism. And dang can she handle herself in the water. Dodging shark bites and beating away tentacles like it's nothing! I'm looking forward to seeing more of how she handles herself on land, quite literally out of her element.

My only complaint so far (being the notorious nitpicker that I am), is that the dialogue seems just a little quick and clunky. That meaning, often one sentence will be focused on one idea and the next sentence on another, but with very little transitional buffer between them.
For example:

Twilight pointed up at the tub. "You're going to have to come out of that sometimes. I'm certain you won't be harmed by it. You're in less water than you ever were before, how do you feel?"

Here the dialogue from Twi seems a little short and snippy, especially for her character. But a couple well placed words can help smooth it out:
Twilight pointed up at the tub. "You're going to have to come out of that pool sometimes, but I'm certain you won't be harmed by it. In fact, you're in less water now than you ever were before. How do you feel?"

It's just a small thing, but it can make a lot of difference in how the story feels to read.

...
That bit of criticism aside, I like this story. Hope to see how Cherry puts those metal legs to work in the next chapter.

[David Silver]

7164380 I'll keep that in mind and try to be better about conversations. Making huge run-on sentences can annoy ponies too.

[Daremo]

up ended - upended
roughly to the - roughly onto the

*****

Sometimes a short chapter is all that is needed.

Cherry is a fish hippocampus out of water, but she's as adorable as any kind hearted pony and I'm sure she need not fear for lack of compassion from other ponies.

[albedoequals1]

She prodded at the sides softly, amazing at its give and how it snapped back into place as soon as she stopped pushing.

amazed

Twilight gently pet the panicking hippocampus with the one hoof she could move.

petted

She pulled out her wrench and applied it to her belt, turning carefully at it.

it carefully.

[Avid Reader]

Commence read.

That cliffhanger.

[Shachza]

Tomorrow, we find out what mischief she manages with her sudden fit of engineering.

What could go wrong?!

I find it disturbingly fitting that the ad just below your chapter was for Ghost in the Shell: First Assault. I'm fully expecting Cherry to manifest an integrated nano-weave stealth suit (for predator avoidance), wireless network access (even if Equestria has no networks yet), and that goop gun they used to immobilize the multi-ped tank from episode 2 of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (perfect for stopping overly-curious alicorns).

[skyway920]

7214759 you just infoked equestrias hellish past to bite

[tsaukpaetra]

And thus, the cover image's scene was written!

[raven618]

And its at this point that the adorableness of Cherry catches up.
nawwwwww

[Shadow Lance]

Did being dry make ponies make more ponies faster?

i don't know what you mean by this

[Lord erigon]

7226770 have more baby's

[Boulder]

7163070 And your comment brought on this!

[Jordan179]

Twilight waved it off. "They're just fantasy stories. You prove quite nicely that they aren't even the slightest bit true."

I'm guessing that this is before she met the Dazzlings. Of course, the Dazzlings were sort of the Sea Pony equivalent of powerful evil warlocks -- Starlight Glimmer power levels -- or even Nightmares, I think.

[ChakatFirepaw]

I kept looking at this chapter and its wordcount. I wanted to go further, but it refused.

Don't worry about it: In professional fiction this is a pretty standard chapter length. The 5-10,000 word chapters you commonly find here are actually very long, the norm is more in the 500-3000 range.

[Draco Dei]

7162651
I also hope the chlorine levels aren't a problem. Before adding water to a fish-tank you are supposed to leave it out in a separate container for a certain time so the chlorine leaves...

Maybe Ponies don't chlorinate?

[StarChaser01]

7579939 They probably just have some magic filter thing at the water distribution location that kills off the bacteria.

[Dustchu]

This is going rather... swimmingly.
...
*Buh dum tis*

Nice job!

[David Silver]

7602265 It burns, which is a feat underwater.

[Gizmo Gear]

7602265
7602291

Wooooowww!!!

[Sylica telca]

How did she know it was a cutie mark? Her mother didn't know that?

[David Silver]

8246133
She didn't know what the cutie mark's picture was.

[NightmintHLW]

Cherry looked down at her belt. "I just did what felt right to do. I even got my cutie mark for it." She displayed her flank over the side of the pool for Twilight to see. "Behold!" A thought struck her and she smiled. "Maybe you could tell me what they are? The pictures, I mean."

didnt she say she didnt know what the name of her cutie mark was?

[David Silver]

8398617
Isn't she asking that?

[David Silver]

8398617
Fixed.