//------------------------------// // “...For ours? Not so much.” // Story: Under the Sea // by Inactive Pone //------------------------------// I pace around my room, looking at the time. “Aaaaaaaany moment now...” I chant slowly but endlessly. Wooosh “There you are!” I cheer as I hug Skystar, who just came through the portal in my room. “*giggles* Hey! You doing good?” “Of course. Oh! Hey, you two! You girls ready?” Twilight and Silverstream look at each other and both nodded. “Yep!” Twilight gave a wink. “Where exactly are we going?” “One moment. Checking where the nearest place to dive safely is...” I say, scrolling on my phone to find the location. “Got it. There’s a beach but the closest one is still quite far. Twilight, you can do this, right?” “Sure I can. I’m an Alicorn, remember?” We all burst into laughter as she tracks down the precise coordinates of the location through magic. Before her horn flickers to initiate the teleport, I suddenly remember something. “Waitwaitwaitwaitwait!” She cancels the spell, feeling confused. “What?” I look at all three of them, one by one. I wink and pointed at them, even. They still feel confused. Silverstream was the first to realize what was going on. “Ohhhhhh!” She exclaims. “*giggles* Twilight, we’re not humans!” The princess gasps and laughs at her stupidity for forgetting to enable invisibility. “Whoops! Sorry! That could’ve been an absolute disaster, storming into public like this. That means we’re gonna have to do the transformation discretely- We can’t make that process invisible to the naked eye no matter what we try.” “Nope!” Skystar shakes her head. “That’s not happening!” After a while, we finally turn into our seapony form (Thank god magic still works on the human world), and we finally make ourselves visible again once we’ve swum far away enough from the shore. We were pretty focused on trying to get out of sight from the others so that we won’t get absolutely bombarded with attention. I’ve been practicing just a little bit on swimming like a seapony. Now I can actually catch up to the other three. When we turn visible again, Skystar was already looking around for possible sea creatures in excitement. Unfortunately, the water was very cloudy. It was hard for us to see well. “That’s odd,” She says, scratching her head. “Why does the water feel so... Warm? And it’s so cloudy! We seaponies swim in crystal clear waters to the point we can see everything!” I sigh. “This is exactly why I didn’t want to get your hopes up. Come on, I know a good spot.” We continue to swim around as I continue to chat with the two seaponies, as Twilight keep us on watch. “You don’t have this in your world since your technology isn't as advanced. There is this thing in our world called Global Warming. I won’t go into detail to bore you girls but basically, it makes the oceans warmer by trapping more heat in our world.” Silverstream gasps. “But... Some types of creatures aren’t used to it! Our waters are much better for their standards. Matter of fact, I’m not a fan of swimming in warm seawater.” “Me neither!” Skystar sighs. “It kinda gets worse from here, not to scare you. You see, we humans treat the ocean... A little harshly.” “WHAT!?” They both yell at my face, even startling Twilight. I legitimately froze- I’ve never seen this side of them before. It is at this moment, I realize something about Seapony Culture. They treat the ocean as their home, just like any other marine life would. It gives me such a good insight into how much they actually care about their beautiful ocean and habitat. They even look out for each other, no matter the species. It seems like they really care about each other and they care about their home. It’s pretty heartwarming. “S-Sorry,” I say after a few minutes. “Just wanted to give the gist.” Twilight swims over to join the chat. “It’s alright, Nate. Do tell us more about your world’s oceans.” I shrug as we continue swimming westward. “There are a few problems. For starters, there’s a lot of pollution. A lot of trash and harmful things are leaked out into the sea every year. Since you guys could fly, maybe I could show you the worst part about it.” Skystar was obviously disgusted. “There’s trash floating around the ocean!?” She exclaims, “Who would do that!? We could accidentally eat them up when we’re swimming around, you know!” “True!” Silverstream squeaks. “Why would you guys dump trash into the ocean so you can find a way to get rid of it? *sigh* How disrespectful, our queen would be so- Ow! What in the world!?” She banged her head onto a large object. It seems to be moving, and it’s made of metal. “It’s a cargo ship,” I tell them. “They’re much more common than in your world.” Twilight nods then start sniffing and moaning in confusion. “What is that... Weird smell?” She tried to fan the smell away. “I have no idea what in Equestria that is!” “Oh, that’s just oil burning in the engines of the ship. That produces a bit of pollution too. Best we keep moving. Should be there soon, since there are cargo ships already.” About 5 minutes later, we get to this very open area of ocean. I poke my head up and saw an iconic bridge in my area. I immediately knew we are in the right place. I look around, hoping to find what I’m looking for. “Let’s hope we’re lucky,” I tell them. “What’s up?” Silverstream asks, feeling excited. “Looking for something? What is it?” I continued the search, trying to not make too much sounds as I swim with them behind me. Suddenly, a figure catches my attention. It is a pinkish, yet somewhat grayish dolphin. I gasp and turn to my friends. “Got one!” I start to swim at full speed, hoping to catch up with the creature. The others looked at each other and just followed. “What’s going on? What did you find?” Twilight questions. “Ohhhhh boy, this is a rare find!” I exclaim. “You see that creature over there? That’s what I’m After. I’ve never been able to see one this close up before!” “Oooooo! A rare sea creature!” Skystar cheers, “I wonder if it can understand us?” “You never know before you try.” She screams out a “HEEEEEEEY” crazy loudly, it almost blasted my eardrums underwater. The Dolphin was startled. “Skystar!” I punch her playfully on her side. “Oops! Sorry!” But, to our complete surprise, the dolphin comes swimming over, with a curious look. “You talk?” I am legitimately stunned by the question- This dolphin can talk to us! “Hey,” I whisper to Silverstream. “Is this because we’re seaponies?” She nods. “Since you’re a seapony, you have the ability to communicate with other sea creatures.” She turns to the dolphin. “Excuse me, hi, we’re just swimming around this area. Nothing too special. As for your question, well... Promise not to tell any Creature?” It nods back, but with a hint of curiosity. “Wh-What are you creatures?” It asks. Then it turns to me. “And why do you have those... Things!?” I look at myself. What’s the problem with me having hands? I mean, yeah, mermaids are not a thing, but still. Way to go on disrespecting me. Skystar jumps in to answer before I could. “O-Oh! Don’t mind him, he’s our friend. Wow... I’ve never seen a creature like you before!” She chuckles and she swims around. “I’ve seen a few dolphins but none like you!” The dolphin sighs but still tries to remain a smile on her face. “I’m a Chinese White Dolphin. I guess you’ve never seen one before because... Well, we’re an endangered species.” The seapony princess turns to me. “It’s a term saying that a species is going nearly extinct.” She gasps. “Extinction! Are you serious?” “Oh, yes,” It replies with a frown. “Recently, these stupid humans have decided to build a massive bridge over our waters. It doesn’t slow our navigation as much but it’s still a big nuisance. *sigh* My friends are getting lost by the minute. I’m trying to find them at the moment.” “Oh,” I say. “Well, let’s not bother for long. Come on girls, let’s go.” We wave goodbye and continue to swim around the area. “You didn’t tell me there were species of creatures going extinct in the ocean!” Silverstream cried. “That’s a horrible thing! Why?” “Oh, the usual. Trash dumped into the sea, water pollution, damaging coral reefs, all sorts of things,” I say, sighing. “You girls have a point, your oceans are much more comfortable to swim in. I hate warm water.” We have a good chuckle. At least we’re getting some fun out of this trip. But the next part wasn’t fun at all. A minute later, I saw Skystar lagging behind. She seems to be caught by something in front of her. Twilight goes over to investigate, and swims behind her. It was then I faintly see a pattern with this something. Its colour is much like the water, and resembled tiny squares. Uh oh. “Twilight! Skystar! Careful!” Before they have time to even react, the net pulls them up to the surface of the water. I heard them screaming in fear, too. I gasp and ask Silverstream to help me transform and lift me up. The net was in the process of carrying the two up to a pretty decent sized fishermen’s boat. Silverstream flies up with me holding on, as she uses her other two claws to try and snap the rope. But no matter how she tried, she couldn’t get it to break. The net finally gets carried onto the boat, and no one wouldn't be excited to see us four like this. “What the-“ One of the men says. “GUYS! YOU HAVE TO LOOK AT THIS!!” When that happens, Silverstream finally cuts the two loose, and before the crew could come and see what the fuss was about, I grab Twilight’s hoof and seapony body and threw it back into the ocean, and Silverstream does the same with her cousin. Then we both drop back into the sea, for a perfect escape. ******** *Panting* We barely escaped. That could’ve been a disaster. But, the bubbly Skystar was too busy to be thinking about that, as she tightly hugs Silverstream for saving her. Twilight also comes over to give me the same reward. I just gave her a nuzzle and let go. I laugh as I watch Silverstream try to escape her cousin’s tight grasp and nuzzling. “Skystar...” Silverstream chokes out, softly chuckling. “Hey... You’re killing me...” The princess chuckles as she lets go. “Sorry! Geez! What was that!?” “Fisherman boats,” I reply. “The predators of all aquatic animals. They were trying to hunt you!” “What!? Why!?” Skystar presses her muzzle on my nose, looking pretty stern. “They probably have mistaken you for a large fish,” I explain. “Thank god it was just one person. What if a group saw it and took photos? We’d be toast!” “Right,” Twilight joins in. “They wouldn’t possibly believe one person, as far as I know.” Then, we all hear a loud voice boom above the waters. “STOP TELLING ME NONSENSE, YOU DINGUS!” All of us could not help but start completely losing our minds. That must’ve been the captain thinking that what just happened was a joke. The two sea ponies laughed so hard, they did about 10 free-falling backflips in the water. Oh, the sweet feeling of witnessing someone getting yelled because no one believes in what they say. “Ha! That guy’s going to get absolutely rekt!” I proclaim. “Guess that sometimes, the prey gets the last laugh.” “Agreed!” Silverstream giggles. “But... I don’t feel safe here. Let’s go somewhere else, is that fine?” “Oh, right. Don’t want to be running into more of these situations before Novo kicks me in the butt,” I chuckle, then whispering to Twilight. When I finish, she gasps. “You want me to teleport all the way to another freaking continent!?” “Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaah, never mind.” I look down in disappointment. “No no no! I can, but it will take me a lot of energy.” I immediately put on my joyful face again and went to hug Skystar in excitement. “You’re going to love this! I promise the place Twilight’s taking you to will be awesome. Much better than what you just saw.” Skystar nods. “Really! Well, I’m obviously sooooo excited! What are we waiting for then!?” ********** “Woooooooooow...” “See? Told you I didn’t lie.” After a while of trying to get the spell to work, we finally make it to the place I desperately wanted to take these two happy seaponies to for quite some time- The Great Barrier Reef, a natural wonder near New Zealand. Took us a while to get there, and I’m happy because Twilight was exhausted, yet still felt glad to contribute to the fun. The water was very clear, and there are much more species of sea creatures in the deep ocean this time. The cool water really does remind me of Seaquestria, too. Since they are super ecstatic already, I let the two wander off and explore, as long they’re on our watch and they stay together. The coral reef is also a great sight for our friends. As they are having fun talking with other sea creatures, Twilight brings up a topic. “Nathan, this is amazing! Of course, not as amazing as Seaquestria in my opinion, but...” I chuckle. “Haha, you can say that. Though, it really is a shame there aren’t a lot of places in the ocean like this. It would be cool for seaponies to explore the sea here. But it’s too dangerous for all of you. I don’t want you all getting captured by humans and all that.” “I know,” Twilight sighs. “It really is a shame.” “You know what? Remember when I was talking about global warming? I wonder- At some point, the entire Earth might just be one big ball of water. At the most northern and southern part of our planet, there are these regions called the Arctic and Antarctic. There are endless fields of ice caps. Recently, ice has been slowly melting and sea level is rising. What if in the future, when Earth is completely flooded, and when we seize to exist, would the seaponies dominate the ocean?” “Hmmm, it seems a bit far into the future,” Twilight comments. “But, I think it would be pretty interesting.” Our seapony friends return. “Hey guys!” Silverstream says. “We just had a look around! It’s beautiful around here!” “I couldn’t agree more! Oh, how I wish all the oceans in your world are like this, we would love to migrate over to here and establish our underwater colony!” “Haha, we were just talking about that, Skystar. And I think, judging by the situation, I think Seaquestria is enough for you. That is where your true home lies. I don’t want you all to get captured and all that. Maybe in the future generation, when the Earth becomes a giant water orb, there may be an opportunity for your conquest here when humanity goes extinct. Probably won’t witness that happening, but still.” We all have a laugh. “Today was fun, right Everypony?” Twilight asks with a wink. “Oh, of course we did!” Skystar giggles, giving me a hug. “Thanks, Nathan! You’ve been such a good friend. We should hang out together more often! You know, come over to Seaquestria for a swim! Ooooooh! And I can make you friendship bracelets from stuff underwater!” I smile from ear to ear as I roll my eyes. “Oh, I’d love to, Skystar. Maybe you could also come over, too? With a little help of some magic?” Twilight titters as she nods. “Nathan, I want you to tell your fellow humans something,” Silverstream says. “I know I’m playful but I’m serious at times. The ocean is a wondrous place. Don’t let it go to waste, there are so many lives living in this great habitat. I really hope the ocean will get better and just as great as ours is.” I nod to her as a promise. “Will do. Posting on the channel, you have my word. Now, let’s go home and you girls can tell Queen Novo everything you saw, Kay?”