//------------------------------//
// 53 - Welcome Back? 
// Story: Gazing to the Ocean of the Sky 
// by David Silver 
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As they approached the grand edifice that was Twilight's castle, Moon Dancer looked it up and down. "It looks far more impressive in person. Was it colored after her intentionally?"

Spike shrugged softly. "It just kinda... happened."

Berry waved her horn at Spike dangerously. "Kind of like this then?"

Spike danced away from the sharp tip. "Yeah, actually. Well... guess I better face the music."

As he was about to dash off, Moon's hoof came down on his shoulder, arresting him. "We'll go together."

Spike was quietly happy to not have to go alone, as shown by a nervous smile. Together, the entire group proceeded inside.

A small bell rang out, though no bell could be seen.

Starlight appeared with a pop. "He--Oh! Hey Spike, who's your..." She trailed off, looking past Moon Dancer to the aquatic ponies and seeing that one of them was... different. "What happened?"

"I," announced Berry, standing forward with her horn held high. "--am now a sea unicorn!"

"I... see?" Starlight frowned a little thoughtfully. "Is that real?"

"It is verifiable," agreed Moon Dancer. "I would like to conduct many more examinations and tests to confirm suspicions and expand our understanding, but that would require Twilight's assistance."

Starlight took a step away. "I'll... go get her."

"Wait!" Spike had a claw thrust into the air. "Before you go, now's a good time to meet Moon Dancer." He gestured at the new pony.

Starlight nodded and gave a friendly smile. "Nice to meet you. Twilight had mentioned you a few times."

"In a good way, I hope?" Moon rubbed behind her head, nervousness building. "Starlight Glimmer?"

"Ah, you've heard of me too?" Starlight gave a laugh that sounded as nervous as Moon. "Just who doesn't Twilight know? I guess that comes with the whole, you know, 'princess of friendship' thing."

Spike looked between the two awkward unicorns and smirked. "You two are gonna get along just fine."

Moon perked an ear at Spike. "What was that?"

"Oh, nothing." He made shooing motions. "Just that you two should catch up while I go get Twilight."

Moon looked to Starlight, who grinned at her sheepishly. "What... is there to catch up on with a new acquaintance?"

Starlight shrugged. "Search me, so... You... do anything silly that Twilight had to fix?"

Moon Dancer sighed dramatically. "Sort of. Stupid mare skipped town on my birthday party without even a letter." She let out a slow breath, using a motion that Twilight had passed to her. "I've gotten past that, even if I did spend an unfortunate number of years avoiding social contact... for..." She stopped herself from entirely spilling her motivations and aspirations and clammed up, looking sheepish.

"Oh, no, don't be embarrassed! Please, my exploits make yours look... practically tame." Starlight waved it off. "I... mighta kinda took over a town with brainwashing, bullying, and cultish obedience techniques." She let out a nervous little laugh. "I've... gotten better."

Indigo raised a hoof. "Is that why you cast that spell and left us floating in our tank all day?"

Starlight went a dark red. "You were hit too?! Dear Celestia... I'm so sorry!" She threw herself to her belly, prostrate before the three sea ponies. "You must be so angry with me!"

Berry might have been, but she might have also liked standing over Starlight, taking the dominant pose over the powerful spell-caster. "You can tell me how amazing I am and how sorry you are." She offered a hoof to the fallen Starlight. "Begin."

Starlight blinked with confusion. She was being forgiven, but in a very curious way. She wasn't entirely sure how she felt about it. Still, it was her mistake... She sat up and pulled the hoof closer, kissing it gently. "I am very sorry, honored guests. Please forgive me?"

Cherry stepped up and nudged her rival out of the way. She offered her own hoof, but to help Starlight back to her own standing, not for kissing. "It's alright, just don't do that again. I had a headache for days after that."

Indigo nodded. "I was so glad when Twilight freed us. It's alright, Starlight, just, you know, not again, alright?"

Moon Dancer seemed a little relaxed for the story. She was far from the worst unicorn Twilight had to deal with. "So... I hear you enjoy the study of magic?"

Starlight perked right up at that. "Now that's something I can stand behind. Are you also a scholar of the arts?"

Moon smiled. They were entering much safer territory. "Why, yes, yes I am. Perhaps you could even assist in this." She pointed at Berry's horn. "We'll need to determine exactly how thaumically active it is and how much control is being granted to its wearer. Oh! Trixie said to mention that these projects are her gift to you and she'd love to hear how you enjoy them."

Starlight smiled brightly. "Trixie? You ran into her?" The clear affection in her voice was easy to pick up on. "This is quite a gift. I imagine she wanted to do it."

Berry tapped at her new horn. "She already got to make it in the first place."

Starlight blinked. "Trixie did this?!"

"Trixie did what?!" Twilight was descending the stairs with Spike, eyes locked on Berry and her new addition. "What happened?"

Moon Dancer took the role of storyteller. She spoke in clean clinical descriptions of the events, including what she could observe of 'thaumic flows' and the like. "Further testing is absolutely required."

"I... would imagine so," spoke Twilight slowly as she joined the rest. "Berry, are you alright?"

Berry blinked. "Hmm?"

Twilight smiled. "As your friend, which rates more highly than any other bond we share, I want to make sure you're alright first. If you don't want us to proceed, or want us to focus on getting you back to normal, then we'll do that. That's more important than any... world-shaking discovery... we could find..." It was clear that Twilight wanted to proceed, rather badly, but she was employing her own lessons and trying to be a good friend.

Berry tilted her head. "Well, if I can do magic, that would be great! But we did have a project before we even left, and I'm not giving up on that." She puffed out her chest. "As the world's #1 sea pony train engineer, it's my resp--"

Cherry bristled. "Hey! What makes you #1?"

Berry flashed a cocky grin. "Now that is more like a rival." She nodded with clear satisfaction. "We want the train to work underwater, and that's more important."

Twilight and the others seemed shocked at the idea that Berry would rate the train project above herself.

Spike pointed at the horn. "You don't care that you have... that?"

Berry shrugged lightly. "Of course I do. Pfft, it's right there, taunting me, but it's not like it won't be there after this, and if it isn't, well, that means I wasn't going to get much use out of it anyway, right?"

Starlight took a step forward. "Very well then. Let's get this train working. Is it where it usually is?" All three sea ponies nodded. "Let's have a look at it and make a plan."

As they led the way, Indigo moved to walk beside Starlight. "It already works, you know, just not in the ocean. It runs on dry power, and if we get it too wet, it won't work. We need to keep the furnace and the dry fuel, um, dry, all dry."

"Coal," offered Cherry. "That's the dry fuel."

Twilight nodded. Though not asked, she had joined the group as they went. Her eyes kept wandering to Berry's mighty prong. "Right, dry fuel..."

Moon Dancer looked at the train as it came into view with some amazement. "This is yours?"

Indigo pointed at the distracted Twilight. "She and her friends helped us get it."

"It was a princess," offered Cherry as she charged up and hopped aboard the engine. "Come inside and see."

Moon hopped up next and began looking around curiously. "It looks quite old on the outside, but I can see clear evidence of heavy refurbishing. This must have taken considerable effort."

The sea ponies didn't seem to mind being praised on their skills as the three unicorns began poking and prodding at things.

Starlight tapped at the main furnace. "So you need this to be entirely water resistant, even at considerable pressures and depths?"

Moon nodded. "And they'll have to have access to feed coal even while it's in operation."

Twilight followed unseen lines over to the bin that held a good quantity of coal. "Why not connect the coal bin directly to the furnace?"

Starlight tapped her chin with a hoof. "What if the heat caused the coal in the bin to ignite?"

Moon grunted with thought. "That would be a disaster."

The three became absorbed in discussing ideas and entirely forgot about the sea ponies that had brought them there.

Indigo looked to his two mare friends. "Should we be doing something?"

Cherry shrugged. "Not much we can do right now, just give them room to do their unicorn magic."

Berry sat with a little frown. "I wish we could help. I don't like somepony else doing the work for me on my train!"

"Our train," corrected Cherry.

Berry huffed at that, but then nodded. "Right, our train, dear rival." She threw a leg over Cherry and pulled her tight a moment. "Well, maybe now that I'm a unicorn too, I should listen in."

She rose and moved to sit with the three excitable unicorns. There were barely any breaks in the conversations, and the words they were using went over Berry's head as often as it didn't.

She did get one thing. "If you need us to rig a pumping system for the dry fuel, we can manage that."

All three looked to her. She smiled nervously. "What? We can do that."

Moon tapped at the coal bin. "Well, if we can get a reliable pumping system that doesn't permit too much heat transfer..." It descended rapidly into babble that Berry didn't fully grasp, but what she needed to do was clear!

She waved Cherry over and began explaining it to her. Her rival understood her, of course, and soon they were gathering scraps of metal and making drawings and working out how it'd work. They couldn't let the dry power get to the dry fuel ahead of time, so they got to working on that and started making a list of what bits of metal they'd need shaped by the smith into what shapes.

They could do it.

Even as the three unicorns kept debating, the sea ponies trotted off together to place the order for the parts they'd need forged..