Simply Signal SOS

by englishwitch

Chapter 2

Simply Signal SOS
Fanfic by Englishwitch

Chapter 2

Applejack lay on her bed. Her attention was being diverted between staring out of the window and staring at a bundle of papers and a blue ribbon in front of her.

Somepony knocked at the door. Over the last hour several ponies had knocked at the door. She had ignored them all in the hope they would get the message and leave her alone.
“Applejack,” Twilight’s muffled voice came through the other side. “Can we talk?”

AJ sighed to herself. If she didn’t let someone in they would just keep bothering her. “Come on in Twi.”

The door eased open and Twilight slipped inside, closing the door behind her. She looked at her friend carefully, her eyes filled with concern. “Are you okay? Why’d you run away like that?”

Applejack avoided her gaze. She fixed her expression on the pages in front of her. “I’m sorry for runnin’ off. I bet it confused Apple Bloom. I just....” She fell silent again. Twilight took a few steps closer to sit on the floor at the foot of the bed.

“You acted weird when you saw the necklace, was it something to do with that?”

Applejack looked uneasy. “Well...kinda....” She sighed heavily. “Can you keep a secret Twi?”

Twilight could only smile sheepishly. “I can try.” She remembered how well she had managed to keep secrets between Rarity and Fluttershy the time Fluttershy had become a fashion model. That was a unique situation though, both had information the other should have known. She was certain she could keep a secret no pony needed to know.

Applejack shook her head gently, a smile rising on her lips. “That’ll hafta do I guess.” She prodded at the paper in front of her. “This here’s a little somethin’ from my filly days, back when I was younger than Apple Bloom. It’s a piece of creative writin’ my teacher wanted. I remember how I was strugglin’ so hard to come up with a good idea when all I really wanted to do was go play in the orchard.

“Y’all prob’ly noticed how upset I got when I saw Apple Bloom had fallen in the river. That’s ‘cause when I was a filly, ‘bout the same time I was supposed to be doin’ this for homework, I was gettin’ fresh air wallkin’ through the orchard and I ended up fallin’ in the river. I weren’t a strong swimmer then and the river was mighty strong. It was real scary. It’s why I insisted on Apple Bloom havin’ swimmin’ lessons.

“I was okay, I made it back ta’ shore and ran straight home. But while I was in the river, I maybe banged my head or somthin’ ‘cause I thought, really thought, that a sea-pony saved me.”

Twilight’s eyebrows raised. “A sea-pony?”

Applejack nodded. “Eeyup. Swimin’ in the river she grabbed me and got me back on solid ground. That’s what I told my parents what happened. Later on I wrote it down and showed the story to my teacher. I ended up winnin’ this,” she held up the blue ribbon with a large number 1 painted on it in gold, “he said mine was the best story he’d ever read. He had no idea I had such a good imagination. I told him I didn’t make it up, it really happened. I really believed it did. The other colts and fillies in class picked on me over it, I was too old to be believin’ in sea-ponies and such.” she sighed. “Y’all know how stubborn I can get. No matter what them other ponies said or did I still believed that my story was real. After a while talk about it faded away, the ponies in school moved on ta’ others, but I was still a laughin’ stock. A blank flank – last one in my class without a cutie mark, and belivin’ in childish stuff like sea-ponies. I s’pose it’s part of the reason I moved in with my Aunt and Uncle Orange in Manehatten. I wanted to make somepony of myself so all the fillies and colts at home would stop laughin’. Y’all know what happened there.

“As time went on I started to believe all them bullies were right,. It had to be a dream, somthin’ I made up. I stopped belivin’ in sea-ponies and started convincin’ myself it had been a dream brought on by some fright or trauma or whatever. But when I saw that necklace Apple Bloom had found...” She stopped and scanned the pages in front of her, searching for one specific line. When she found it she slid the sheet to Twilight and pointed to the section. Twilight read; it was a part of the story where Apple Jack was describing the sea pony who’d saved her character. The last part of the description read:
Around her neck was a pendant, a large white scallop shell tied onto a thick black cord.

Twilight glanced up at Applejack. “Well, it certainly sounds a little like-”

“It don’t just sound like it Twi, it looked just the necklace Apple Bloom found. The second I saw it I knew I’d seen it before, around the neck of the sea-pony who saved me. I remember now Twilight, it really happened.”

Twilight looked sceptical. “But AJ, that’s impossible. Sea-ponies are just myth and fairy tail. There’s never been any evidence, ever, to suggest they really exist.” she shrugged her haunches, “There is a theory among some scholars that the myth of sea-ponies might have risen from the tale of the island of Alatus; another myth nopony can prove exists,” Applejack recognised, too late, that Twilight had entered full lecture mode. “Supposedly the ponies of the island of Alatus were great sailors and fisher-ponies. Some say they learned to swim before they learned to walk. The greens of the sea were their staple diet; they would dive and swim to the sea bed and harvest kelp and other growing plants. They farmed the sea just like you farm the land.

“The legend of Alatus says the island eventually sank into the sea, probably due to tectonic activity. The ponies of the island were well prepared however and they sailed away from their doomed home, coming to live on and in the ocean. They became nomads, drifting the currents of the sea in their fleet of boats, never setting hoof on land ever again.” Twilight paused just long enough to lick her lips. All the talking had made her throat quite dry, usually somepony interrupted her speeches long before now. “If —and that’s a big IF— the ponies of Alatus were real and they were seen by ponies who live on the land, well, imagine what the ancient pony tribes might have thought;
they saw ponies who lived in the ocean, never setting hoof on land, who could dive, swim and stay under the water for a long time, who could gain food from the ocean and knew its secrets. It’s logical to assume the myths of the sea-ponies evolved from such sights.”

Applejack slowly nodded her head. Twilight’s logic was pretty solid. At any other time AJ would have agreed with her completely but she couldn’t this time. Twilight talked sense, talked about real things, facts that were undeniable and could be proven. Whereas she was talking about fairy tales, things of faith, imagination and, more often than not, were proven to be fake.
“You’re probably right Twilight. It was probably just a dream. The necklace Apple Bloom found was probably a coincidence. Some pony made it out of a fancy seashell they found at the beach and lost it a long time ago.” She smiled sheepishly. “Y’all must think me real foolish.”

Twilight laughed lightly and shook her head. “No AJ, I don’t. You’re the most down to earth pony I know. I’ll admit it was a surprise to hear you believed in sea-ponies; I thought they’d be too fairy-tale for you. But I don’t think any less of you for it, if anything I think it’s nice. Even if there isn’t any empirical evidence to support its existence it’s nice, even normal, to believe in more than we see and know around us.” She smiled. “It’s keeps us asking, keeps us wondering. It drives ponies on, to make discoveries, to learn and grow.” her gaze finally turned back to her cowpony friend. Twilight smiled sheepishly. “Well....all I’m saying is that a little fantasy is good for anypony.”

Author's Note:

I chose the name Alatus for the island from the name: Hippocampus Alatus, which is a species of seahorse – chosen because it sounds much like Atlantis.

This chapter is short but it's a step to the big adventure ahead. I'm already working on the next chapter and it won't be long before it's up.

Coming Next: The Journey Begins!

Comments

[rumbloo_is_best]

MORE!!! PWEASE!! IT WAS REALLY GOOD!