//------------------------------// // December 25th, 2015 // Story: Perils of a Merpony: A Ponies after People Tale // by kitten_girl86 //------------------------------// Christmas morning dawned bright and clear, and strangely warm considering Kathryn had never experienced a Christmas that was +20oC before! Her RV had been generously draped in colorful lights by Jazz at the start of the month and by the 12th, Li had managed to gather enough evergreen boroughs from local trees (without killing them) to make custom wreaths for everyone's door. (Griz's was wrapped in gold ribbon; Kathryn's was decorated in sea shells; Jazz had pinwheels; her own was elegantly braided with Chinese lanterns she had asked Kathryn to grow for her; Dr Jamie's was simply plain with a white bow; Iris's wreath had some red silk iris flowers woven in.) The main lobby was equally decorated with more strands of lights and a large potted Norfolk Island pine tree (1) was standing in the corner, draped in really long strands of string popcorn (Sarah/Li project one night while watching old movies) and the few decorations Kathryn had salvaged from the warehouses back in September. Kathryn smiled to herself as she got ready for the day. A quick shower later (for herself AND Raea!) and stuffing her face with one of her chocolate chip banana muffins from a plate on the counter, Kathryn carefully transferred the pile of best-to-her-ability-wrapped boxes to her back and the two made their way inside U1. The lobby room was only slightly changed from Halloween. Recently, Dr Jamie had overheard Annie worry that Santa Claus would not be able to find her underwater. She had already decided Santa had been turned into a pony (likely a land unicorn) as well and one of the first to come back so ponies could still celebrate that first year but he yet needed the chimneys to get inside pony homes. She also knew he would not be able to go underwater and the Ship's electric fire place was not real. The little merpony had already begun to call the large earth pony "Uncle Jamie" and he really wanted to be that awesome uncle he had as a kid himself, so he knew how to make her Christmas. So the day after Jamie overheard little Annie's worries, he took one of the spare pickups, Max and a crossbow set and they drove off to find an easy-to-relocate wood burning stove for the lobby room. Jamie had gone to one of the nearby gated communities, knowing exactly where he had to go: his former home. He had purchased the stove three years ago when Florida experienced a colder-then-usual winter. (2) Still took some work to disconnect the pipes (more than enough to go from the west wall to the north of U1); he used a pair of 2x4's for leverage and a flatbed wagon to transport and some rope to rig a simple harness to take the stove to the pickup's bed and a pair of ATV tracks (that had been left behind by the homeowner's before him) made the job so much easier, Jamie added those also to the truck's bed when he finished securing the wagon. Going back into the house with a sided garden wagon, he loaded up all the precut lumber (that had been left behind when he had gone for that eventful night shift) and then covered it with the tarp he used to protect the flooring underneath the pile; then he went to the bedrooms (his & guest) and stripped the beds of blankets, sheets and bathrooms of all towels. He grabbed his old Victorian doctor's bag (3) and started filling it with the contents of a medicine cabinet, bedside table drawer and a few framed pictures from his wall; he'd go back to the hospital later to get his diplomas. A suitcase from his closet got filled with a select few medical books from his office/study and a few novels from his private bedroom bookshelf. The partial case of water bottles was thrown into the back of the pickup as Jamie & Max hopped back in. He didn't care so much about the house itself.... he mostly bought it because of the pool in the backyard (long gone by now) and smaller size compared to others in the gated community. He had no real sentimental value attached to it and would not care if someone took it over. He had left the front door unlocked and a sign that read: "Open House" for that exact reason. Getting back to Campus City, Jamie hid the loaded pickup truck in a currently unused building until Christmas eve night, when he was sure Sarah had put Annie to bed. With help from Li's magic and more of Kathryn's Earth pony strength, Jamie was able to carefully unload the stove from the truck, bring it inside, use an industrial drill (4) to make the hole in the wall for the pipe installation and get it all hooked up in a few hours. They had already cut out the section of carpet and replaced it with brand new ceramic tiles from a local hardware store a couple days before to let the grout to cure. Thankfully, Annie was too excited with her visit Christmas eve to take any notice of the change. Sarah had added a little protection spell on the tiles and the carpet to prevent from any fire spreading before leaving. (Yes, her cutie mark had glowed when she did it; thankfully, Annie was too busy writing her letter to leave for "Santa Hooves", as she now called him. Annie had asked Kathryn to leave him a note about the Event like they did for others; Kathryn said she was sure he had already overheard the big ponies talk about it by now. Instead of cookies, Annie asked they leave carrots, milk and a bowl of seaweed salad to choose from; a little bit of everything had been consumed.) Kathryn walked carefully into the lobby/common room and knelt down to slide the boxes onto the floor next to the tree. Li Lang came in next, her delicately ornate boxes hanging in her magic field. "Oh Li! You didn't have to! You already made us the beautiful wreaths," Kathryn said as Li elegantly placed the small card-sized boxes within the tree. "Oh, I know but I could not resist!" Li giggled in reply. It was not long before Jazz and Dr Jamie came out of their rooms and added their boxes and/or bags to the growing pile under the tree. Li carefully placed two new logs and a tiny spark from her horn relight the fire. Kathryn got started on Christmas breakfast; she had gone down to the basement room they used as a multi-freezer and pulled out all ten boxes of Leggo's she had been saving down there without any other pony knowing. She met up with Midnight Iris as the night pony came out of the basement washroom. "Good morning, Iris! Merry Christmas!" Kathryn said cheerfully. Iris nodded to the earth pony and stepped a side as she felt the freezing cold emanating from the food cooler on Kathryn's back. Kathryn paused at Iris's door so the night pony could duck inside and grab a bunch of paper bags on the tips of her wings; Iris gave Kathryn the right-a-way going up the stairs. Kathryn diverted to the kitchenette while Iris placed the bags off to one side of the tree's pile. Li & Jazz had been setting the table; Dr Jamie had been looking out the back windows into the back field, contemplating Annie's reaction. As Midnight Iris approached, she and Dr Jamie quietly talked about her patrol the previous night and how she'd handle being awake during the morning. "I'll be ok until noon," she replied. Meanwhile.... Christmas morning in the ocean dawned a little later than on the surface, but the sound of a squealing young filly was heard for leagues all around Bermareda Circle. Hanging from a hook on the wall was an Angel-hair-thin seaweed knitted stocking stuffed with candy canes, pink scarf, hat and custom knitted hoof socks. Clearly, Sarah's unicorn magic had gotten more intricate than the ponies originally thought as these pony socks were very well made. "The rest of your stuff is up top at Campus City," Sarah said with a knowing smile. "Hello?" A weak voice breaks into the moment of silence immediately after Sarah spoke. Hurrying outside their individual ship homes, the merponies find a visitor just outside the safety perimeter: an orca-themed merpony! Clearly an earth pony style merpony and a stallion, he was in distress; his eyes were sagging and he was panting, leaning against one of the cement trucks. Patrick was the first to snap out of being surprised and bolted over to help the merpony, Sarah hot on his fins. The moment Sarah & Patrick grabbed hold of the orca pony, they knew he was really hot. Tiny beads of sweat could still be seen on his face despite being underwater and even with his grey pony half, they could see he was flushed. They knew he'd need Dr Jamie's help and pronto. "My name is Alejandro," he said weakly but Sarah cut him off. "Save your introductions, friend. We need to get you to our friends on land. They have a doctor who can help you." "Annie, grab a dolphin and swim ahead to Campus City to warn Kathryn. Have them prepare a bath tub of cold water," Patrick said quickly. Sarah looked worried at Annie going ahead but a big strong dolphin came at Patrick's whistle and Annie was gone before she could object. "Please, I'm just passing through to colder waters as this warm is making me weak," said the orca pony. Patrick whistled again; another three dolphins came forward and Sarah began to wrap Alejandro to the strongest looking one. "Don't worry friend. We have ponies on land who can help you get stronger first," Patrick said as he climbed up on the dolphin opposite Alejandro to pin the sick pony to the dolphin's dorsal fin. With a slap of his tail, Patrick, Alejandro and their dolphin blasted towards the bay, Sarah hanging onto her own dolphin in hot pursuit. Arriving at the bay's beach near U1, Annie stood on her wheels with Li controlling a stretcher with her magic and Dr Jamie ready to help lift the orca pony. Li switched her magic to help lift while Annie passed over Sarah & Patrick's wheels. Sarah added her own magic to finish the lift of Alejandro to the stretcher and they all galloped towards the aquatic center of U1. Inside, Jazz and Kathryn had filled the old small hot tub half with ocean water, then dumped in all the ice chunks they could extract from the freezers and added two of the water cooler bottles they kept in the industrial refrigerator. Using a beach towel, Kathryn, Dr Jamie, Sarah and Li carefully lowered Alejandro into the tub. The sick pony practically steamed at the touch of the icy water and he breathed a huge sigh of relief as his body sunk into the bottom. They left the towel draped over his body and Li took a second one, wet it and wrapped it around his back and head. Dr Jamie fetched his doctor bag, takes out a thermometer and discovered Alejandro was running a fever! Sarah carried over the fresh case of water from the kitchenette fridge and Jazz showed Alejandro how to bite open the bottle lids to get at the water. He guzzled two waters straight down in succession before relaxing a little. After a few minutes of being in the icy cold, Alejandro's grey pony half began to lighten and the flushed of his face disappeared. He had gained enough strength and was able to tell of his story. "I am an American-born Mexican working as translator at the American embassy of Mexico when I went to bed around 2 am on 23rd of May. I woke up a week ago looking like this," he said with a slight Mexican accent. Midnight Iris mentally delayed her going to bed until she was satisfied Alejandro is out of danger and she stays with him as Dr Jamie and the others go back to the kitchenette to get some breakfast. It's not long before Li returns carrying two plates: one piled with three Leggo's but the other is a seaweed salad, cooled in the fridge, Patrick had gone back to BC to fetch for Alejandro. "The ponies who brought you said that seaweed will help you regain your strength," Li explained as she placed the plate next to his head. She also carried a single cup of apple juice for Iris as Alejandro was still going through the cold case of water. They ended up spending the first three hours of Christmas morning working together to help save this poor merpony but nopony seemed to care..... that is until a filly's squeal of delight turned the pony's attention to the common room where Annie had finally discovered the fireplace and her Santa Hooves "treats" had been eaten. She practically bounced on her wheels in delight that "Santa was smart enough to bring his own fireplace and left it as a present!" Li quickly asked Annie to accompany her to do the morning animal checks & feedings when Li saw the worried look on Sarah's face. Guessing what Sarah had forgotten to do, Li contrived quickly to take Annie out of the common room at the least. Annie, too excited by the discovery to notice Sarah's discomfort, agreed to help by carrying the egg basket within her wheels and pranced out the door. Sarah watched the filly and unicorn as they walked down the sidewalks and disappear around a corner to the animal's barn house. The moment they were gone from her line of sight, Sarah bolted for Griz's room and used her magic to pull out four pink-wrapped and six brown-wrapped boxes from deep inside Griz's closet. (Sarah had gotten Griz's permission to hide all of Annie's Christmas presents there long before the griffon left for Alexandria.) When Patrick realized what Sarah was doing, he hurried over to take the brown boxes as Sarah hurried to hide the pink ones underneath the boxes and bags already under the tree. Patrick was slowly adding the brown ones as Annie came back inside with another dozen eggs. Li and Sarah exchanged a private nod of the heads to confirm everything was ready. Around 11 am, Alejandro's temperature was retaken and Dr Jamie declared the orca-merpony was out of danger. Kathryn then convinced Iris to go to bed now and promised to wake Iris in time for dinner; it was already decided that with so much excitement already, presents were going to be delayed until afterwards so all ponies can enjoy. Iris, fully exhausted from her Christmas eve patrol and the morning "rescue", finally relented. Around noon, (as Kathryn & Li put the tofu turkey in the oven on slow-roast) the sound of large feathered wings gusted the air just outside the open door of U1 and Griz walked in the door, back from her research! The rest of the day was spent exchanging stories, introducing Griz to Li Lang, speaking about Midnight Iris and the rescued pony currently sleeping in the "ice tub" they had dubbed it. "You'll likely see them both at dinner tonight," Kathryn confirmed as she turned to Li and nod. The unicorn lit her horn and very carefully unhooked the necklace from Kathryn's neck, floating it in the air to gently fall back into place around Griz's neck, slightly surprising the griffon. When Griz saw her mother's pendant back around her neck, it felt like a coming home. "Just like I promised," Kathryn said, feeling a faint & yet oddly familiar pull of laughter at her heart. << Somewhere far away, Pinkie Pie felt the familiar Pinkie Sense tell her that someone had kept their Pinkie Promise despite not knowing what it was. This made the earth pony grin broadly for no apparent reason. >> The rest of the afternoon was taken up by Griz sharing all of her research the group had asked her to find. They were all really excited to learn their lessons but it was decided that Christmas day was still technically a holiday and so no lessons. "But we all learned how to save an orca-merpony today," Annie pointed out. The adults all rang out with laughter and Dr Jamie grabbed Annie in a lift onto his back. "Why yes we did, little one..... but sometimes life gives us lessons even on holidays." Griz pulled out a small binder from her backpack and flicked through the pages. "Speaking of lessons, how about this? Equestria also has a holiday around this time of year, called Hearth's Warming Eve. How about I read you the story about this holiday and then we learn the song to go with it?" Every pony got all excited and settled down to listen to Griz read: "Once upon a time, long before the peaceful rule of Celestia (that's their leader), and before ponies discovered our beautiful land of Equestria, ponies did not know harmony." [Half hour later.] "... the three leaders agreed to share the land and live in harmony forever afterwards. And together they named their new land: EQUESTRIA!" Griz took a moment to catch her breath and see the reactions on her friend's faces at learning more about the land that turned them all into ponies. Some were surprised; others grateful at a new story. The griffon cleared her throat and began to sing the song she had been taught before leaving Alexandria: "As dawn shines on us every morn The fire of friendship is reborn And all the friendships we have made We cherish in every way Loyalty binds us and makes us strong Honesty shows that we belong And kindness shared will unite us through each day The fire of friendship lives in our hearts As long as it burns, we cannot drift apart Though quarrels arise, their numbers are few Laughter and singing will see us... ...through Will see us through We are a circle of pony friends A circle of friends we'll be to the very end Though the winter brings all its cold and storm The glow in our hearts keeps us warm The friends we know called our family Will always see us through Loyalty binds us and makes us strong Honesty shows that we belong And kindness shared will unite us through each day The fire of friendship lives in our hearts As long as it burns, we cannot drift apart Though quarrels arise, their numbers are few Laughter and singing will see us... ...through Will see us through We are a circle of pony friends A circle of friends we'll be to the very end" (5) It wasn't until Griz finished signing that the griffon noticed the night pony Iris standing in the doorway to the aquatic center, an orca-themed merpony leaning against the mare and using a wheeled office chair to hold up his tail. Iris began stomping her front hooves in appreciation and the others soon followed her lead. Then she carefully walked Alejandro over to the floor farthest from the fireplace; Sarah quickly used her magic to pull out one of the folding pet baths they had been using for merponies indoors. (6) Kathryn quickly got up and used a generator-powered portable pump to transfer some of the water from the ice tub to the bath while Li pulled out another of the refrigerated water coolers. Annie made quick work of the cap while both Li & Sarah lifted and Dr Jamie kept it steady. Working in harmony, not a single drop spilled outside of the bath and Alejandro was soon back soaking in cold water. Not wanting to wait much longer, Annie turned to Sarah. "Can we open presents now?" she pleaded. All the adults looked at the filly in surprise; almost as if they had forgotten what day it still was. Then Alejandro laughed. "The little lady still has her priorities right on this day of all days," he said pointing a hoof at the pink filly. The adults all laughed in agreement as Dr Jamie pulled out a Santa hat from behind the tree and he began to hoof out the presents. Li and Kathryn excused themselves momentarily to check on the dinner and prepare the next few items like baked potatoes, cooked & raw cauliflower, Kathryn's grandmother's recipe for sweet carrots, the vegetarian-turkey gravy, kernel corn, cranberry sauce and two pies of pumpkin and apple to choose from. Presents' exchange took nearly two hours and everyone was surprised. They did, however, feel bad for not giving Alejandro anything but he simply waved his hoof. "You all helped save me when I was sick. For that, I consider to be my Christmas miracle," he said humbly. "Nevertheless, we will make sure to build you your own set of merpony wheels and help you locate a car with great air conditioning for your drive up north," Patrick affirmed. It had already long since decided it would be safer for Alejandro to drive up to Boston's Harbor City in a car with the AC full blast and from there, go back into the ocean. That time of year it was practically guaranteed to be frigid! The adults promised to fill his car with the necessities for the drive and it was Annie who suggested a barrel of seaweed in case he got any cravings. Christmas dinner (pony style) was soon served and they even made room for Alejandro on the merponies side. He offered up a prayer in Spanish, then repeating it in English and everyone dug in. Even Griz and Iris did not complain at the all vegetarian offering; they were secretly planning to share some BBQ fish later that night during Iris's patrol. Kathryn was also well pleased that her grandmother's sweet carrots were highly praised by all who tried them; especially little Annie. "Gosh, if all vegetables had tasted this great when I was human, I'd have eaten a whole lot more!" she laughed taking second helpings. "That was kinda the point of these! Grandma knew these were the only carrots I could never get enough of so they became a Christmas tradition.... every year I took home half the bowl all to myself!" (7) Kathryn laughed with gusto as she motioned for Annie to pass the carrot bowl back around to her. (What Annie didn't know was that Kathryn had only just learned the recipe from her grandmother mere weeks before the Event occurred. Any later and Kathryn wasn't sure she would have gotten it in time. The thought made her sad for a moment, recalling her missing family.) Kathryn stood from her seat and took the cup she was using. "I'd like to propose a toast.... To our family who can't be here to celebrate with us but will someday come back and we'll make up for lost time." "Cheers!" came the chorus of sad voices in return. A moment of silence reigned as each being thought about their missing family. "Hey now! Let's not be a sallow lot.... thar still be pie!" Patrick's pirate voice broke into the sadness and everyone laughed. Dinner, desert and talk went well into the night. Griz and Dr Jamie helped Alejandro back to the ice pool and refreshed some of the ocean water now that it was after dark. Sarah carefully lifted Annie onto Patrick's back as they said their good nights to all them on land; especially Griz, happy the griffon was finally back home. The merponies presents would be delivered to Bermareda Circle Ship in the morning by someone to be determined. Li helped Kathryn pack up the leftovers and Jazz finally caved in & used the dishwasher that night. Some point, around 11 pm, Iris had flown off into the night sky and returned with two respectfully sized salmon already prepared & ready for grilling. The ponies inside made sure to close all windows and block any cracks in the doors before going to bed; something they were used to by now and would not hinder Griz from coming back inside when she was done. Kathryn had left the BBQ sauce and some cranberry jelly out on the grill's shelf when she saw Iris leave, knowing full well what the night pony was up to. Li closed the draft on the stove and all ponies went to bed, completely content that the first Post-Event Christmas was a complete success.