The brilliant afternoon sunlight glistened on the clear blue waters of the bay beyond Mount Aris, beneath which lay the hidden realm of Seaquestria. And out of the water a seapony, bright pink with blue-and-white crest and fins, flung herself excitedly into the air, turned a somersault, and then plunged back in.
Silverstream was overjoyed. Not about anything in particular... just life in general. It was the way she approached everything. There was no downside, really. Well, sometimes there was a slightly gloomier side, which might have troubled her if she thought about it for a moment. But really, she couldn't be bothered to pay attention that long -- oh, was that a shell?
She arrowed quickly down to the seafloor. It was a shell, an elegantly-striped oval coquina. And over here was a small cache of translucent jingle shells. And an elegant, spiny conch -- perfect! She quickly added them to the collector's bag slung over her shoulder, to take back to Princess Skystar.
Silverstream wished Skystar could come shelling with her like they used to. But ever since the hippogriffs' liberation from the Storm King, the Princess had been grounded for the longest time. And then suddenly she was being sent off on diplomatic visits to various dominions of the nearby bays, and of the shadowy Deeps beyond. So there was precious little time for them to spend together, collecting shells.
Soooo... Silverstream simply gathered up more shells, and brought them along for the two of them to sort through together while they travelled to and from Skystar's diplomatic functions. Both of them enjoyed doing that immensely. It gave them plenty of time to chatter with each other about... well, everything. Which was the point, really.
Silverstream smiled. Everything had an upside. You just had to look for it --
Oooh, like that nice shell over there!
When her collector's bag was full, Silverstream turned and swam back through the shallows of the bay. Along her route she passed through one of the old underwater ruins that dotted the seabed near Seaquestria. It wasn't as grand as the sunken city inhabited by the sharks, but there were some interesting relics here and there. Like for instance, the tall broken-topped obelisk standing in what might have once been a town square. On its six sides, worn and seaweed-covered carvings depicted hippogriffs in land form, then in sea-form, and some kind of big catastrophe as well. Silverstream wasn't entirely sure. She really didn't pay it much attention, anyway. She just used it as a landmark to find the hidden entrance.
Let's see, we need to turn right... here, she thought. Down the street facing the carving with the strange flying ships in the sky.
Following the street until it petered out into sand and rocky outcroppings, she came to an unremarkable cave entrance concealed in one of the rockpiles. This led to a shadowy descending tunnel, down which she plunged with complete confidence. She followed the tunnel as it twisted and turned, passing through underwater chambers with heavy stone walls and ceilings. Finally, the tunnel came out in a massive underwater grotto, from the ceiling of which descended a huge, elegant chandelier of glowing purple glass and stone: the royal palace of Seaquestria.
Silverstream waved to passing seaponies as she swam up to the brightly lit entrance at the palace's base, and navigated her way up into the vast throne room.
And she all but collided with a golden-flanked, cyan-finned seapony going the other way.
"Skystar!" Silverstream hugged the Princess happily. "I was just coming to find you! I found some really nice shells that you can use for that ceremonial crown for Mama Orcina -- oh, but right, it's a secret! Don't worry, I'm totally zip-lipped about it! Trust me! I won't tell a soul!"
"That's... really great. Really." Skystar attempted a smile, which vanished immediately. "Thanks, Silver. I appreciate it."
Silverstream stared. "Is something wrong? You seem, well... I dunno... downer than usual!"
"Oh... it's just that Mother got this scroll from Princess Twilight. And the Princess herself is coming here for a visit."
"Princess Twilight! Yay! Wow! Oh... um..." Silverstream forced herself to calm down. "Are we not supposed to feel happy about that? Why not? I thought Twilight and her friends were so great!"
"She is... they are! Um... it's just..."
Wordlessly, Skystar grabbed Silverstream's arm and pulled. Silverstream was puzzled, but willingly allowed herself to be towed along, as they both approached the throne and its royal occupant.
"Mother..." Skystar said, sadly, "I think I know exactly who deserves to go to Princess Twilight's school..."
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
"Well now, time certainly flies, doesn't it, Princess?" said Queen Novo. The ivory-white seapony, lounging comfortably on the Purple Orchid Throne of Seaquestria, smiled down at Twilight, floating before her in seapony form. "You were only here, what, a couple moons ago? I mean, really! Trying to get Princess Celestia to come down here for an official visit takes forever. But the Princess of Friendship? Can't hardly turn around, but there you are again!"
Twilight shrugged. "What can I say? Mount Aris was next on our grand tour to open the School."
Sculling beside the throne was Princess Skystar. The gold seapony pouted sadly. "I wish I could go to your school, Twilight!" She sighed. "It sounds like it's going to be such fun!"
"Skystar, we talked about this," Novo gently warned her. "You have a meeting day after next with Bruce the Toothed, to plan an initial diplomatic visit to Seaquestria by the sharks. And I'm going to need your help finding an appropriate gift for Queen Orcina, for when we visit her castle next week."
"I know... I know!" Skystar rolled her eyes. "Diplomacy lessons!"
"Either that or being grounded again." Novo shrugged. "Take your pick!"
Twilight smiled in sympathy at Skystar's gloomy expression. Then she looked at Queen Novo. "Uhh... you do know Orcina's not really a queen, right?"
"She likes to style herself one." Novo tilted her head indulgently. "And like the sharks say, whatever Mama wants..."
"... Mama gets. I remember!" Twilight smiled.
Queen Novo nodded. Then she frowned, though not at Twilight. "Now where is that sister of mine?" she grumbled. "Girl never can manage to show up anywhere on time. Always busy with somethin' social!"
"I'm right here, Nonny!" sang lavender-maned Ocean Flow, swimming up through the floor entrance. "Sorry we're late, I had to stop off up top to have a word with Sky Beak, make sure he's in the picture. And Silverstream wanted to say goodbye to Terramar."
Silverstream was swimming right behind her, but when she saw who was there, the pink seapony put on a burst of speed, shot past her mother, and practically collided with Twilight to grab her in a tight hug.
"Twilight! It's just so great to see you again! I'm so excited! And also nervous. But, you know, excited-nervous, kind of. So that's a good thing? Right?" Noticing that Skystar was trying to put on a brave face, Silverstream darted over to hug her as well. "And thanks ever so much, Skystar, for recommending I go in your place," she said. "I'll be sure to write you about everything I'm learning. So it'll be just like you're going with me! And you write me back, in case I'm not making sense or something. I get like that when I'm excited. I don't know if anyone notices, but I do!" She grinned sheepishly.
Ocean Flow smiled at her, then at Twilight. "And I appreciate the invitation as well," she said. "I've heard so much about you, Princess, from both Silverstream and from Nonny."
Queen Novo gave her a look. "Flo, would you mind not callin' me Nonny in my own throne room? I'd rather it didn't catch on 'round here!"
"Sorry, Your Majesty!" Ocean Flow essayed a graceful curtsey. Then she looked back to Twilight, an uneasy look on her face. "Uh... no disrespect meant, Your Highness, but... I just need to know that Silverstream will be safe, while she's attending your School. Your letter did say that the School would be travelling around Equestria quite a lot."
"Only to Equestria's cities and towns, and to nations we've established peaceful relations with," Twilight assured her. "And the Friendship School will have an armed escort at all times. Speaking of which, allow me to introduce the head of my armed forces, Commander Tempest Shadow. She'll be providing security for both our School and its students."
Tempest, in her streamlined seapony form, swept forward and bowed her head respectfully.
Ocean Flow eyed her uncomfortably. It was clearly difficult for her to ignore the maroon pony's past. But then she glanced at Twilight, and managed a smile. "Of course... Skystar's told us a lot about you, Commander."
"Ohmygosh, yes!" Skystar broke in, brightening up at the memory, "Tempest is, like... amazing! She took on an entire school of sharks to protect us, and fought three full-grown orcas, all by herself! Oh, you should have seen it!"
Grubber, in his eel form, exchanged a glance with Tempest. "They always forget the assistants, huh?"
Spike, who was floating beside Twilight in his puffer-fish form, rolled his eyes. "Yeah, tell me about it!"
"And that magic army of hers," Queen Novo said with a wry smile, "they gave our forces a fight to remember. Without a single casualty on either side, I might add. Our guards are still running remedial drills over it."
"Plus, Tempest is my personal bodyguard," Twilight added. "So that tells you how much I trust her to keep us all safe."
"Well then! That... sounds all right. Um." Ocean Flow looked at Silverstream, then held out her arms. Silverstream swept over and hugged her. "Try not to pester them too much, Silverstream, the first day or two," Flow whispered. "Give them time to get to know you. Oh, who am I kidding? They'll get the picture pretty quick." She smiled proudly, stroking Silverstream's crest.
"Bye, Mom," Silverstream said, a little sadly. Then she gently spun around, nodding to everyone. "Bye, Skystar! Bye, Auntie Novo! Bye, Princess Twilight! Oh, wait... I'm going with you! Don't mind me... excited-nervous, remember?"
Saying their own goodbyes to Queen Novo and Skystar, Twilight and her friends took Silverstream in tow, and with an escort of seapony guards, they swam down through the throne room's lower exit and out of the palace, and then along the secret underwater entrance tunnel, and finally back up to the surface.
All the way, Silverstream was looking increasingly nervous. When Twilight gave her an inquiring look, she shrugged and smiled weakly. "This is all still kind of new to me. I mean, when you rescued me, that was only like the third or fourth time I'd even been up on the land."
"Well, don't worry," Twilight replied. "I think you'll enjoy it a lot. There are so many new and exciting things to see up here, believe me!"
Silverstream gasped. "More exciting than stairs?"
Twilight nodded. "Definitely more exciting than stairs. I don't think you'll have time to be nervous."
Once they'd all reached the surface, the seapony escort set about using their Pearl fragments to transform Twilight and the others back to their land forms. Stretching her back legs as she tread water, just to get used to having them again, Twilight looked over to Silverstream, who'd gone unusually quiet.
"Ready to start learning all about Friendship?" she asked.
But Silverstream was just staring, wide-eyed, at the immense lavender ship hanging in the sky over their heads, as it lowered its winch platform to collect them.
"That's the Friendship School?"
"It sure is!" Twilight said proudly.
"O...kay..." Silverstream said, in a small voice. "Now I'm nervous! I mean, nervous-nervous, you know?"
Then she beamed, and laughed. "And it's actually totally okay! Wow! Who knew?"