The next morning, Blue Shell woke up at his usual time to get ready for his dive. Using his magic, he steered his boat to the spot he was, at last, anchored the boat, prepared himself and went for his dive. The water was peaceful and clear, but Blue still made it a point to watch out for sudden undercurrents or anything else that could drag him down. He swam out and searched as far as he had gone yesterday, but had no luck. ‘Maybe she was spooked off by me after all. There’s no chance of me finding her in the same place twice.’ He thought. He searched for the mysterious mer-pony until close to the end of the day and every day after that. He searched for almost a month had no luck. All the while, he continued to collect shells. ‘It’s no use, I’m sure I scared her away. I should just go back and tell the princesses that she’s no longer here.’ He thought and was about to head back to his boat.
As soon as he turned around, he was met with a sudden rush of bubbles and a flash of red and blue. At first, he thought it was his mane, but that was too short to rush in front of his face, let alone stir up as many bubbles as he saw. He looked around almost frantically, hearing and seeing bubbles rush around him like he was being stalked. It was only when he turned around for the fifth time that he was met by a pair of light red eyes very close to him. He was about to scream, but doing so would cause him to lose his air mask. He backed away and was able to see who the eyes belonged to. It was the mare that now made him more restless than a herd of cattle after getting spooked. Her eyes stared deeply into his and Blue was so entranced, he didn’t dare look away.
The mare circled him twice before floating in front of him again. He looked her over a little, admiring her features. The shimmer of her body was like clouds in the sky, her mane simply danced in the gentle waves and caressed her face, the necklace, and bracelet she wore lightly bobbed with the current, the gills on her neck gently opened and closed as she breathed, and her tail simply swayed lightly to keep her in place. ‘Ok, I found her…or rather she surprised me…now what do I do? I can’t very well talk to her underwater. Can she even go up to the surface? Oh geez, I really didn’t think this through!’ He thought.
“It’s ok, you can talk to me underwater. I can hear your thoughts. And as long as we’re together down here, you can hear mind” She said, stunning Blue with her angelic voice.
“So, is that why you turned to look at me the other day? Because you heard my thoughts?” He asked and she replied with a nod. “That’s amazing. I-I have so many questions…but I don’t know where to even start.” His thoughts became slightly jumbled and chaotic.
“Please calm down” She moved closer and gently placed her horn on his, making his heart skip a beat. The mare closed her eyes and focused a little, sorting through his chaotic thoughts. “You wish to know my name and how I’m still around though my species is thought to be extinct. You also wish for me to meet these Princesses you serve” She said and opened her eyes. “Well, to answer your two questions, my name is Sea Dancer. With my magic, there are plenty of things I can do, especially use water to watch the events going on everywhere.”
“Sea Dancer? That’s a lovely name. And my name is Blue Shell; it’s very nice to me- wait! You can watch what goes on everywhere? Through water?” Blue felt like he was thrown for a loop. Even the oldest history books never mentioned the Mer-ponies having magic. In fact, all the pictures from the history books simply had them as the fishy version of normal Earth ponies, and in this case Unicorns.
“Well, I can only use that ability as long as there is water around and only when the sea tells me of events that are causing an interference with the harmony here. Like simple tremors that alert me to danger above.” Through the deep blue of her muzzle, Blue saw her nostrils flare a little. “Furthermore, I think I’m the only pony left of my kind. I haven’t seen any pony else like me.”
“You must be quite lonely if you haven’t seen any other mer-ponies like you. I’m really sorry. We assumed there were no mer-ponies left at all since the Great War. History said seeing a mer-pony was a rare sight, but after the Great War, there were no sightings at all. We thought you participated and were wiped out or simply went into hiding” Blue explained.
“That makes sense since that’s what history said. Many of us didn’t have any kind of magic to defend ourselves. But we sensed the danger and from the war and fled. But the war still affected us and there was great unrest. Everyone started to fear the worst and began to turn on each other. I was just a very small sea-filly so I didn’t understand what was going on. When things got bad, I fell asleep one day and woke up to find myself all alone. That’s when I also noticed that I had grown up. So I guess I was asleep for a very long time. One day, the water tasted weird. I looked for the cause and saw a town called Ponyville where the water was all brown and yucky. I also saw the clouds were pink.” She explained.
“Pink clouds and brown water? Oh, that must’ve been around the time Princess Twilight Sparkle and her friends stopped the Draconequus spirit of Chaos, Discord. He caused all kinds of havoc. But now I guess he’s a good creature now because he hasn’t been causing much trouble.”
“Dra…Draco…Dracone-huh???” Sea Dancer tilted her head. “Wait, you mean the mysterious mish-mash creature I see occasionally? That’s what he’s called? Discord?”
“Yes, he’s quite a force of nature. But Princess Twilight’s friend, Fluttershy who’s the Element of Kindness, seems to have reformed him somehow. So I don’t think we can expect him to cause much havoc any time soon.” Blue Shell smiled and checked his oxygen gage, noticing he only had about ten minutes of air left. ‘Oh man, I only had two questions answered. I have so much more I want to talk about. I guess I’ll have to wait another time’ He thought sadly.
Sensing his sadness and slight urgency, Dancer smiled and touched his hoof with hers. “Blue, I’d be happy to meet the Princesses. In your world, from what I saw in your thoughts, your Princesses have horns and wings. They’re very beautiful. It seems to be very important to you that I meet them.” Blue’s face lit up a bit but then his smile faded as he thought about how he would get her to Canterlot Castle without hurting or possibly ending her life. To these thoughts, Sea Dancer nuzzled her nose against his, making Blue’s face turn a little red. “Leave it to me. I will be able to go. Now please go home before you have no air left.”
With curiosity and happiness, Blue Shell swam back to the surface and to his boat. He took off his mask and gasped a little. “Made it with three minutes to spare. That was a close call. But at least I got to see her again. Sea Dancer…such a beautiful mare.” He smiled and started his boat, heading home.
****
Upon returning home, Blue worked on the jewelry and accessories for the princesses, unable to contain his happiness of the day’s events. He could hardly wait to see Sea Dancer again. Blue worked into the late hours of the night and fell asleep at his work desk.