//------------------------------// // Tigersharks // Story: The Many Destinies of Sunset Shimmer // by ratedoni //------------------------------// Sea breeze shouldn’t be as calming as it should be right now for Sunset. She had been raised on a mountain city for Sun’s sake, she didn’t even see the sea or an ocean until she had been living on Earth and that was some time ago; now, here she was, looking and enjoying the enormous sea in a wild planet as if it were the most normal thing in her life. Considering that most of that life she had spent fighting creatures and other technological and magical wonder, maybe the whole idea of normal stuff probably wasn’t that relevant. It was impossible to think what was normal and what was strange when you had girls that could use magic to fly, talk with animals or raise a one ton rock over their heads, but there had been one final frontier for them. Here she was now, after years of researching and pushing into the frontier that could lead to a new way of living for mankind and ponies in general. It had begun when Princess Twilight had written back to Sunset about her latest adventure. The Storm King had attacked and had been the most hair rising tale to know how close she had been to losing one of her best friends. She had spent at least five minutes admonishing the Princess of Friendship about diplomatic botches and how stupid her plan had been. Apparently the human Twilight had jumped across the mirror with her and had recorded the whole thing. Beyond the nightmarish thought of losing Twilight and the rest of her pony friends, the idea of a pearl that could change a mammal into an aquatic species tickled Sunset’s scientific mind. It had taken many tries, but finally Sunset and Twilight had new equipment that could not only make underwater exploration easier, but new discoveries about better submarine technology. Ten years later and here they were, on a sea that no human or pony had ever been before, something that was going to go into every single book and record in both universes. The long submarine that could slice through space as well as the deepest ocean was the pinnacle of magic research and human engineering, serving as the home for the myriad of humans that had become part of the project, albeit a little secret. Only until a couple of days before they left Earth and the Solar System really, she allowed the news about their ship be released to the press, creating such a response that no reporter or news company could believe what two young women had created. It was still a bizarre set of events that made Sunset and the rest of her merry band the unofficial ambassadors of Earth in the enormity of space. It was very clear that several governments wanted the ship for themselves, or at least remove Sunset and the others as crew and put people of their own agencies. In the end, it had come to the power of Rainbow, Applejack and others that they were able to keep the ship; in fact, things had turned physical several times. The world population watched and supported Sunset and the rest until politicians, having been beaten into submission, left them to their own devices and there they went, exploring the enormity of the universe. And here they were, floating on a sea far from Earth, in another planet and already advancing science by centuries with new discoveries, exotic plant life and even fish that had evolved on their own. Sadly, so far as they have seen, they haven’t been able to find any intelligent life, but their search still went on. A sound took her from her relaxation, indicating that someone was calling her; putting her hand on top of a small ear phone on her right ear, Sunset heard the excited tone of voice of her co researcher. “Sunset, I think everything is ready.” “Are you finally going to show me your great invention Twilight?” “I think I finally made a breakthrough after our talk yesterday, thank you for your help with the formula.” “Come on Twi, we’ve been doing this for so long that we have lost count how many times we helped each other; I’ll go downstairs into your lab, I’ll be there in five,” and like, the communication was over and Sunset was ready to once more ready to continue their research. The ship they currently inhabited was indeed massive and Sunset wasn’t sure how it had been possible for them to hide such monstrosity from the public eye for so long, but the years of research and construction in secret had not been in vain, with a vessel as sleek as it was functional. In the end Sunset had listened to Rainbow and Fluttershy about making the ship look like an animal and while Rainbow wanted it to be some kind of bird or maybe a dragon, Fluttershy had convinced them in her own excited way about making the ship look like a shark. The pale chiffon haired girl had the idea due to the purpose of the ship in general. Not only would it fly through space, but have the capacity to travel across oceans and since those kinds of planet were their targets, why not use one of the best natural designs in the shark? After many ideas they all reached the conclusion of making a tiger shark design and here they were, with a ship that looked ‘so cool’ that not even Rainbow had something to say against it. In five minutes, just like Sunset had said, she had traveled across the ship into the well-lighted and ample research lab that both used, but with Sunset taking a more active role in commanding the ship, she had finally relented and accepted the big bedroom that also worked as the main room for her own research, leaving Twilight with enough space for her own personal experiments. In this case, what Sunset found was that a big pool filled with water and connected to some kind of machine that had been installed in the lab. “So… is all this safe?” “Completely, I even used it myself.” “I don’t have enough time to tell you how foolish that was Twilight,” but before she could go on a full Sunset Rant (trademark patented), Twilight raised a hand and stopped it before it began. “Yes, I know, but I took a lot of precautions, including extra kill switches, not to mention Spike was always helping me with every part of my research,” she pointed at the 16 years old Spike who still looked and behaved more like a puppy; apparently the rush of magic had changed the age span of Spike much to the relief and happiness of all the Wondercolts, well, they haven’t been Wondercolts for a long time. “Yeah, there was no way I would have let Twilight go on without keeping an eye on her,” the dog answered as he kept a watch on the controls of the pool and its mysterious powers. “So what exactly is all this and why is there a pool inside the ship?” “Sunset, I found it, I found it!” “Twilight, you are starting to ramble and I don’t want to play 20 questions with you, so what exactly did you find?” “I found the way to replicate the power of the hippogriff’s pearl!” the purple haired scientist said with clear excitement in her voice. Even Sunset was shocked at what the young woman was saying. All this time, they had been chasing the idea of having something similar to that pearl and here was Twilight saying that she did it. “Wait, you mean that formula-” “Yes, it was the last thing I needed, thanks to you the whole process was stabilized, so it was mostly teamwork considering how many times I was ready to hit my head against the ship until you helped me clear all the problems that I had,” it was nice to get that kind of praise from Twilight, but she accepted it without making a big fuss. It was obvious that the years of close friendship and work had done wonders for both women and with similar grins on their faces they both ran in the direction of the pool. “So, how does this thing work then?” “Is pretty simple once you have all the electronics in place; you need to get into the pool and then I will activate the treated prism that we found two months ago. By using a combination of different beams of light in the same frequency as our geodes and using a very specific water -believe me, it took me forever to find the correct amount of salt for it to work- it will create the same reaction as Queen Nova’s pearl!” As Twilight explained the process, Sunset took off her outer clothes, revealing the skin tight wetsuit underneath them. It had become normal for them to wear such kind of clothes considering their whole mission. “So is safe to get inside now?” “Sure, let me get things ready,” as she kept pressing buttons as Spike kept a close look on the readings, Sunset took a dip into the clear pool; its raised walls made her look directly to Twilight while she plunged right into the bottom of the pool “also, and I know you are going to ask that, the pool has a communication system that allows both sides to keep a conversation and no, we don’t turn into seaponies or mermaids, you’ll see what I mean” and then, Twilight pulled the last lever and the pool was radiated by energy, making the water turn a deep amber color, then a light appeared from the bottom and Sunset’s body was enveloped by light, mutating her body and turning her into something new. Sunset’s ears elongated while on her feet and hands the skin was stretched between the toes, making them more like fins. Her hair also transformed and while it still resembled her hair, now long fins filled with poisonous needles appeared. A couple of seconds later, Sunset found out that she had fins and that she could see clearer under the water. “So, how do I look?” even the act of talking was easier somehow. “I should have known you would turn into a scorpion fish; it was that or a jellyfish due to that hair of yours,” Twilight laughed at the discovery of Sunset’s transformation. “Oh yeah? Then what about you miss genius? What do you turn into? A star fish?” Sunset answered back, ready to strike Twilight right in her intellectual pride, obviously making a reference to the other girl’s most hated cartoon of all. “Okay, no more miss nice girl!” Twilights face showed a pout and a fierce glare, but after years of knowing each other, Sunset knew that it was just a play to hide Twilight’s playful side. Taking off her lab coat and showing her own wetsuit underneath it, Twilight jumped into the pool, being radiated by the technology wonder, quickly changing the color of her skin into a darker color and her face was slightly elongated, but instead of becoming weird, it was more cute than anything else, finally, Twilight’s bun remained in place, but her face’s skin changed, showing the top half the same dark color while the lower half was completely white. “So, an orca then?” “Have a problem with it?” “Nope, I mean, those are some of the most intelligent animals in the sea back home, I guess it fits then; besides, you look quite cute,” and like that, both friends began to play with their new abilities, knowing that the pool’s powers and their new technology will truly change the way they lived.