//------------------------------// // Lagoon // Story: My Little Songfish // by BlackWater //------------------------------// Beach Time! The bright yellow sun. The warm crunchy sand. The wash of the ocean upon the shore. The song of the sea-faring birds. “Oh oh oh oh!” Sonata thrashed about in excitement, her large tail fin swishing back and forth wildly. “Oh oh oh my,” Fluttershy exclaimed along with her fishy friend. She wobbled back and forth on her feet as she tried to remain upright. Walking while holding a squirming siren was not an easy task. “Oh, please be still, Sonata,” she pleaded. The girl almost fell over as she attempted to transport the small siren to the protected beachside lagoon. “We’re almost there.” Sonata simply could not contain herself. “I’m just so happy to be able to spend more time with my sisters at the beach! In the ocean! Well, a lagoon. But still. Dagi and Ari didn’t used to be the best sisters to be around, but they’ve become much more positive and fun. It’s been so long!” No doubt starting with their loss of their siren song and the “transformative circumstances” thereafter, Fluttershy thought. She was lucky, however, to wind up with Sonata since she was the most kind and least difficult to handle. Well, besides the excited thrashing. Even Aria may have come around under Rarity’s care, but that took a very long time and incredible patience on part of the fashionista. When they got close to the rocky area enveloping the lagoon from the adjacent ocean, she could spot Rainbow Dash already present and playing a game with her songfish. It appeared to be some version of fetch using sinking water toys. They took turns and it was particularly amusing to see Adagio jump out of the water and throw the diving stick midair with her mouth to get maximum distance. Rainbow thrust herself underwater in hot pursuit. “Hey there!” Sunset Shimmer called from the edge of the water. Further up from the wet zone was their collection of towels, sun umbrellas, cooler, and such. The bikini-wearing redhead turned from watching Adagio and walked over to meet Fluttershy. She helped hold up the flailing siren as they stepped together into the water. “Thanks,” Fluttershy gave her appreciation. “Ready, Sonata?” “Let’s go!” the blue songfish squirmed in excitement. Sunset helped her friend hold the siren out between them once they were almost hip deep in water. “One,” she began. “Two,” Fluttershy counted. “Three!” The pair of girls swung the siren out so that she was tossed far forward into the deep water. Sonata dove in headfirst and struck the water as naturally as any leaping fish. SPLASH! Fluttershy giggled as they shielded themselves from the spray of the fallout. Turning to Sunset, she struck up a conversation and stepped back out of the water. “Who was able to make it?” Sunset moved to help once they had stepped out of the water onto the dry sand. The pink-haired girl was struggling with a thin half-cover that wrapped around her waist and provided some concealment to the underlying bikini piece. It was a rather risque outfit for Fluttershy even with the practically see-through wrap on her hips and the cropped open blouse of equal thickness. The only rational behind it was what Sunset already knew – Rarity had fussed her into choosing it on account of it being “perfect” on her “delicate” frame. The knot on the lower wrap finally came undone in Sunset’s hands and she spread to out so it would dry while hanging from the angled stem of her beach umbrella. Fluttershy took off the blouse as well since it hardly went well without the wrap. She wanted to swim anyways. “Just me, Rainbow, and Rarity,” Sunset sighed. “Pinkie will show up in a bit. She said she’d be late because of some work with the Cakes. AJ had harvest duty.” “That’s unfortunate,” Fluttershy remarked but not too sadly. She was happy at least most of her friends could make it for the outing. “Where’s Rarity and Aria?” “Off around the boulders over there,” Sunset pointed further down the lagoon’s water line. “Something about getting ready for Tag.” “Tag?” Fluttershy giggled and then stretched a bit. Sunset responded in equally good humor. “Adagio had the idea to play a game of underwater tag. We get to play too, but not against the sirens since they have such an advantage over us in the water.” “Sounds fun,” the kind girl pipped cheerfully. Having recently applied sunscreen, she had no need for the additional work. “I suppose we can at least get in the water while we wait for Aria and Rarity. Do you know if she’s been put in at least a little bit of water over there?” The redhead nodded and led her friend back to the water’s edge. “I checked on them just before you got here. There’s actually a small pool over there.” “Oh good,” Fluttershy let out the rest of her concern with a final breath before stepping back into the admittedly warm summertime water. She scanned the relatively small lagoon for present occupants. Rainbow was visible further down and away from the ocean side, but both sirens must have been underwater. “Want to help me find the girls?” she asked Sunset. The other girl gave a thumbs up and thrust herself forward into the water once they were above their hips. It was a forward-moving rather than downwards dive, so Sunset moved into deeper water while adjusting her eyes beneath the surface. Once she did so, she could see Fluttershy nearby – also underwater and even waving at her while holding her breath. Fluttershy looked around this deeper part of the lagoon, which was closer now to Dashie and so she suspected the sirens were not far. She had more familiarity with the small water creatures than Sunset, so she knew where to look. Either way, the view underwater was beautiful. The water was not quite crystal clear but it was very easy to see through none the less. Visibility was perfect for the first twenty-five feet or so. She saw a terrain of arching rocks on the floor and collections of tropical fish finding cover when disturbed. There was even a small crab picking at some algae on one of the large rough rocks. Deep green plants also covered the floor and some of the longer ones seemed to aspire to be kelp, though came up short. There were even plants of orange and red, some stretching around like leafless underwater shrubs. Beams of sunlight penetrated the surface and angled down against them, helping to illuminate the seascape that was not too dark to begin with. Aha, Fluttershy thought to herself as she saw a form dart beneath the arch of a rock formation. It was yellow with magnificent golden fins – the top one almost like a sail. Two small hooves were held against its chest as it swam with a magnificent and natural wag of the fins and tail. Sunset went after the small siren after checking the target of Fluttershy’s gaze. The animal-loving girl also had some breath left so she decided to drift around to the rock archway, since she knew Sonata would not be too far away. In fact, she quickly found the little blue songfish on the other side of the rocks. Sonata stared down a tiny guppy, but it didn’t look hostile. It was a deep and serious gaze, like something was being communicated without words. The fish opened and closed its mouth as it breathed, bubbles moving upwards from it. Sonata’s eyes widened and then returned along with the rest of her face to an overjoyed expression. She reached out with her forehoof and lightly bumped the fish’s forward right fin. The fish swam along after that, leaving Fluttershy wondering what it was about. She could normally communicate with animals but she hadn’t been close enough to get a proper read on what happened. She swam to the top to get some air and by the time she took a fresh breath in the bright light above the surface, Sonata was popping up next to her. “We’re gonna have so much fun!” the little blue siren flapped her tiny hooves on the water’s surface. Fluttershy giggled, rubbing the songfish’s head. “We already are. Look, isn’t that Aria over there?” Sonata snapped her head to look back in the direction her caretaker was pointing and indeed could make out in the distance the image of two individuals. One was Rarity walking up the edge of the water in a rather provocative bikini in the same shade of purple as her still styled hair. The other was a purple songfish in her arms, adorned by an assortment of bracelets on her hooves and a more delicate-looking silver necklace that held a brilliant amethyst in the center. These things might only have been noticeable at such a distance because the sun reflected off them, casting outwards beautiful pastel-like shades of color. “Oh! Ari~!” Sonata shouted out and sped away like a miniature motorboat towards her sister. Fluttershy smiled and followed her, though at a much more relaxed pace. Today was simply for relaxation. No plans. It had been a while since she and at least some of the girls had done that. As much as Fluttershy loved the animal shelter, the fresh air of this place was rejuvenating to her spirit. Sonata reached the shallow water just as Adagio did. They used their hooves to crawl up the thinly submerged sand. Rarity stepped only partly into this, putting Aria down gently before her where she could crawl back into deeper water with her sisters. “Hey, Nata,” Aria greeted with hardly a hint of grump. She tossed her head back the way Rarity often did and gave a proud grin that Adagio rolled her eyes at. “What do you think? Snazzy, huh?” “Ooooooh, pretty,” Sonata’s eyes sparkled as she peered close at her sister’s jewel necklace. “You’re going to get choked by that in the water,” Adagio crossed her forehooves. “Pfft,” the purple siren blew it off and started crawling farther into the water to refresh herself. “Jealous.” Adagio’s cheeks puffed up and her face burned at that. “Oh I see,” Sonata remarked as she followed her sibling. “It’s got an extra attachment on the back so it stays in place with your fin.” “Clever,” Adagio grumbled and followed behind them. “It’s too bad we’ll be on the same team in tag.” “Actually,” Aria began and just then got deep enough to dive underwater. “Ahhhh,” she breathed out naturally in the warm relaxing liquid. Her sisters followed so that they were all beneath the surface. “I’m teaming up with Nata today,” she put a forehoof around her blue sister. “What?” Adagio crossed her forehooves. “We played together last time and I want to team up with Taco Tuesday instead. We haven’t spent as much time together.” “Awww,” Sonata cooed and squeezed her sister in a tight hug. “You’re so nice, Ari~!” Adagio gagged. “When did you get so sappy?” “When I realized we’re all we’ve got.” The blunt honesty and seriousness of the line surprised not only Adagio but also Sonata. The golden siren came out of her surprise with a heavy thought while the blue one merely had eyes sparkling. Sonata would have appeared overjoyed now but she had seemed as much before and thus it was difficult to discern the difference. They had drifted over to a collection of sea sponges and starfish. Some were of brilliant yellows and oranges while a couple had speckles of blue or red against green exteriors. Though none were dangerous to them, they didn’t think to bother the creatures. They had a game in mind and the teams had been drawn. “I guess it was inevitable,” Adagio splayed out her forelegs. “After all, I can win any contest as a solo act and everybody knows it.” “I wonder who you got that from,” Aria said sarcastically and with a provocative smirk. “Where’s your human anyways?” The answer came as a certain rainbow-haired human lazily paddled by them with a self-assured grin. She appeared less at home in the underwater world than the songfish, but by no means out of her league. Captain of the swimming club indeed. “We’ll start with Aria,” Adagio proclaimed without contest. They swam to the nearest spire of coral and Aria put her two small hooves against it, causing a few tiny fish to dart back into their protective crevices. Sonata gave Aria a wink before swimming off fast. Before Adagio did the same, she reminded her purple sister. “Twenty seconds. No less.” Aria just smirked in reply. Once Adagio was out of sight, she closed her eyes and counted. It didn’t take long to find Adagio. Sonata may have been required to go in the opposite direction but what Dagi didn’t realize was that they had a secret helper. Comrade Guppy! The miniature but brightly colored tropical fish was darting from coral cover to coral cover, keeping a tail on Adagio. Once he saw her find a lush group of golden seaweed to lose herself in, he rocketed back in Sonata’s direction. A few flashes of his neon and multi-colored tail told the blue siren all she needed. After all, Sonata was exceptionally fluent in the guppy language. She waved her own much larger tail and zipped back along the ridge of coral to the downturn where the golden-hued plants rested. Aria’s countdown was over by a solid ten seconds, so her find was legitimate…if one didn’t count the guppy spying. “Gotcha!” Sonata giggled as she collided with her golden sister hiding in the plants. “Darnit, Sonata!” Adagio cried out and battled her sister’s hugging and cheek nuzzling. “How in Tartarus did you find me so fast?!” “I’m that good!” Sonata stuck her tongue out. Adagio responded with a deadpan expression. A silent moment. “You cheated didn’t you?” Adagio’s deadpan continued. “N-noooo...” Sonata replied unconvincingly, her eyes wandering about. Before Adagio could act on the traitorous little songfish, she was roughly tapped on the back. She turned around just in time to see the purple blur zip away. “Thanks for digging her out, Sonata!” Aria chuckled as she swam away. “Oh and tag you’re it, Adagio!” “Hey-!” Adagio began to protest but Sonata took the moment to flee as well. “Catch us if you can!” the blue siren giggled. “Oh you two are going to get it!” Adagio seethed before launching herself into hot pursuit. Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash and Sunset Shimmer tried to convince a water-averse Rarity to join the tag match. It took Fluttershy’s assistance to drag the girl into the perfectly inviting warm water. Rarity’s wet hair, flattened by the soaking, caused her to be the most vengeful competitor in the match by far.