//------------------------------// // Flying Fish // Story: Surviving Sand Island // by The 24th Pegasus //------------------------------// Feasting upon fish flesh and making a meal out of formerly living animals was not something Rarity had ever imagined herself doing. But, with the emptiness in her stomach gnawing at her, desperate siren times called for desperate siren measures. Soon enough, Rarity had finally taken the edge off of her hunger, and she tried not to think about what she’d just done. The less she thought about it, the less sick she felt imagining the pounds of meat sitting in her gut. Though to be honest, she didn’t know if sirens had stomachs like ponies did, or gizzards like reptiles and some fish. Hopefully, it wouldn’t really matter… assuming she could eventually be changed back into a pony. Melody wiped some fatty juices off of the sharp edges of her beak and smiled at Rarity. “Feel better?” “I wouldn’t precisely say better,” Rarity said. “But I’m not hungry anymore. Apart from a gnawing emptiness in my chest.” Grimacing, she rubbed at the heartstone embedded in the white scales below the base of her neck. “I’m going to make the logical assumption that it’s tied to this thing sitting in my scales.” “Sirens need more than just food to sustain us,” Melody said. Her hooves gently pushed off of the rocky lip of the pool, and she drifted back into the open water. “We need magic, too. We’ll starve if we don’t get enough of either.” “Then I suppose I’ll need to collect some soon,” Rarity said. She too left the bones of the fish on the rocks and joined Melody over the open hole in the ground, her fins idly paddling back and forth to keep her in place. “Though hopefully it won’t come to that. When we get back to the island, you’ll be able to change me back, right?” Melody winced and dropped a few feet into the water. “I… will certainly give it my best effort.” Clearing her throat, the siren sheepishly smiled and flicked a slender ear toward the water. “Speaking of which, we should probably get going. It will take us some time to swim to your friends.” Rarity nodded, and Melody flipped around to dive straight down into the water. Grinding the two halves of her beak together in the best impersonation of pursing them she could do without proper lips, Rarity soon followed suit, pausing just beneath the water’s surface to flush the air from her lungs and open up her gills. Though this was only her second time changing between air and water, Rarity felt a lot more comfortable with it, and she simply let her body’s ingrained muscle memory do most of the work for her. Still, the sensation of drawing water through slits in her neck was… unsettling, even after doing it for a couple of hours earlier. Once Melody was sure that Rarity had adjusted properly, the siren set off once more down the series of hallways and tunnels under the water that made up the bulk of the sunken island. This time, however, she immediately pitched up when she came to a collapsed ceiling in one of the rooms, and Rarity hastily followed her through the winding corridors and narrow passages of the rock. It was a tight fit for a siren, even for a smaller one like Rarity, but soon she could see light at the end of the passageway. Melody slipped out first, and it wasn’t very long before Rarity was wincing at the bright sunlight striking her in the face. Once she exited the tunnel, she swam straight upwards until her head broke through the surface of the water. At that point, her diaphragm harshly compressed to force any water out of her airways, resulting in two jets of vapor bursting out of her nose. Her gills sealed up, and by the time Rarity drew her first wet breath into her lungs, Melody was already smirking at her, her side resting on the white sands of the atoll. Rarity blinked a few more times to let her slitted eyes adjust to the light, and she hazarded a glance through her translucent fins at the fiery ball of light in the sky above. After spending so much time beneath the earth and in the water, it felt simply remarkable to have the sunlight on her scales and the wind catching her tall dorsal fin like a rigid sail. Even Rarity could tell that deep beneath the sea was no place for a siren. Living near the surface of the water, where she could enjoy the elements and the beautiful sunny days in the tropics, was where she belonged. Melody’s smirk turned into a wince as Rarity moved her body about. “Your scales are so bright,” Melody said, holding a fin over her eyes to try and shield them. “I’m going to go blind just looking at you.” Rarity looked down at her body and noted that, indeed, her glistening scales caused her body to glow like a beacon. They reflected the sunlight in a dazzling display of pearlescent light, and even Rarity had to admit she was difficult to look at. Maybe it was because her scales and form were so new, but she certainly hoped that eventually, she wouldn’t be as reflective in the future. “It wouldn’t be proper if I wasn’t dazzling, I would think.” At least her fins themselves were royal purple like her mane and tail had once been, so she wasn’t completely blinding from head to hoof… or antennae to fins, as it were. “Maybe once my scales weather some and lose their glossy sheen. They are still young and fresh, after all.” Melody nodded her agreement. “Yeah, they should dull over a few days. Swimming through seawater is a good way to wear the polish off of anything.” Then, taking a deep breath, the green siren lifted herself up on her hooves and propelled herself into the sky with a slap of her tail. Though Rarity was at first amazed that Melody could even force her enormous body airborne that easily, she was more amazed when the siren didn’t immediately come crashing back down to the ground. Instead, she hovered in the air, her tail wriggling like it was the only thing keeping her defiant against the force of gravity, and she looked down at Rarity’s surprised face. “What? Did you forget we can fly, too?” “I… it certainly wasn’t at the front of my mind with everything else I’m still trying to wrap my brain around.” Rarity blinked and looked back at her own tail. “I don’t know if I can do that. I don’t know how.” “It’s all a matter of willpower,” Melody said, swooping down until she was hovering just above Rarity’s head. “All you have to do is get a good jump or breach out of the water and just… keep swimming. Treat the air like it’s water and you’ll be fine. The motions aren’t even any different between the two.” “I’m sure it’s a lot more complicated than you’re making it out to be, you’re just so used to it,” Rarity grumbled. Nevertheless, with a dramatic sigh, Rarity flipped about in the water, swimming back down to the bottom of the lagoon to give herself enough of a run up to allow herself to more easily breach the water and catch some air. “Here goes nothing…” Striking out with her powerful tail, Rarity rapidly whipped it from side to side to build up speed. She tucked her legs against her body, turning herself into a slender and scaly torpedo, minimizing the drag on her figure as she reached the surface. Her beak broke the water first, followed quickly by her antennae and her fin, and she gave her tail one last powerful flick before it too left the water. A cloud of droplets followed her, and soon Rarity was soaring through the air, sailing higher and higher… …and higher… As Rarity continued to paddle her tail, she realized she wasn’t coming down. She instead continued to climb, gaining altitude at a surprisingly efficient pace. While it was nowhere near as fast as a pegasus could climb, it was certainly a lot faster than she would have imagined she could fly with her heavy siren body. And it was practically effortless, too, part of some innate magic in her being. Whether it drew from the magic in her heartstone or not, all Rarity knew was that it didn’t take much effort to fly. “I-I’m doing it!” she proudly shouted, laughing to herself in shock and surprise as she continued to climb. “I’m doing it! This is… this is amazing!” Below her, Melody began to lunge up to her, her whole body moving in a graceful, reptilian manner. “Don’t go so high!” Melody warned her. “Just because we can fly doesn’t mean we’re that good at it! We were just meant to use it in short bursts to hop over small islands and trees as we needed!” “What? Then how do I get down?” Rarity asked, but in her mounting confusion and worry, she stopped paddling her tail. Gravity swiftly reestablished its dramatic hold over her, and soon she felt herself falling back to the earth. She wailed and flailed her limbs as she fell, the sensation of the air whipping her antennae about confusing her and making her nauseous, before she suddenly slammed back into the water with a massive splash and spray of water. A few seconds later, Rarity reemerged on the surface, groaning and rubbing her neck. Melody’s concerned expression changed to one of relief when she saw Rarity was alright, and she dropped down into the water with her. “While I hope you enjoyed that brief bit of flying, try not to overdo it next time,” she said. “I think I’ve learned my lesson,” Rarity agreed. “But it was fun.” She looked around and noted that, thankfully, she was on the correct side of the atoll, so she wouldn’t have to repeat the process all over again. Rolling her scaly shoulders, she quickly looked around until she could see a blur of green fronds on the distant horizon, somewhere off to the north. “Right. Now that we’re back out here and I’m finally reoriented, it’s time to go home,” she said. Whipping her tail out, Rarity began to glide across the surface of the water, her slitted eyes set on the home island out in front of her. “This way, Melody! It’s time to introduce you to the family!”