A Princess's Trials
by Present Perfect
Part 3: The Abyss
"There you two are!"
Tempest jerked awake at the sound of the cheerful, upbeat voice, forgot she had two fewer hooves than normal, and rolled herself into a ball somehow trying to meet her challenger head-on. Also, she woke Twilight up.
Swimming towards them, looking exceedingly happy despite the earliness of morning, was Princess Skystar, in her seapony form. "I have been looking everywhere! And now I found you both wrapped up on this ledge, and oh my gosh I had no idea you two were like that!"
The smugness of her grin could have rivaled that of her mother's. Tempest now had two hippogriff faces she wanted to destroy.
"It wasn't like that," she hissed, looking to Twilight, who was coming to much more slowly. "You saw nothing, do you hear me?"
"Oh, I hear you," Skystar said, giggling as she flicked Tempest under the chin. "I saw loooots of 'nothing'." She made little flapping motions with her fins.
"Skystar?" Twilight said groggily. "What're you doing here?"
"I'm here to rescue you two, of course!" Skystar exclaimed, flipping end over end. "Well, y'know, lead you out of this place, anyway. I've heard lots of horrible things about the abyss, and it sounds like Mom wanted you two here for a loooong time, but anygriff knows the only way to not get out of here is trying to get back into Seaquestria."
Tempest was momentarily pleased with herself for having figured that out already.
"I thought you wouldn't enjoy staying here," Skystar continued, "so I wanted to come help you get home to Equestria! You do want to go to Equestria, right? Nowhere else first?" She pouted ever so slightly, clasping her fins together.
Twilight frowned. "Does your mother know you're here? Won't she be angry if she finds out we left?"
"Oh, pfft, please!" Skystar waved a fin. "I'm already grounded, what's she gonna do? Super-ground me?"
Tempest found herself relaxing for the first time since she'd woken up. Skystar might have been... flighty, to put it one way, but she certainly meant well, and there was no sense discounting someone willing to risk her own comfort to help out others. That was, after all, what friendship was all about. Wasn't it?
"Anyway," said Skystar, grasping their hooves with her weird, clammy fins, "follow me, I'll have you back in Equestria lickety split!"
Tempest gave Twilight a look. Twilight, for the first time in a day, smiled. Then her stomach rumbled and her face turned bright red.
"Oooookay!" Skystar swam out in front of them. "First, I show you how to get food underwater. Then we go to Equestria."
Getting food underwater was nothing like either of the ponies expected. Things were likely different in Seaquestria proper, but out here in the wide ocean, it was simply a matter of "Find whatever kelp you can, don't eat the blue stuff, also fish are friends." Tempest had no idea why she'd added that last bit.
Kelp, as it turned out, was filling but hardly tasty, being far too salty for any palate but the hippogriffs'. Breakfast was thus a quick and practical affair, all too soon leaving them once again facing their primary concern.
"Do you know how to get back to Equestria?" asked Princess Twilight.
"Um."
Princess Skystar put a fin to her chin, stuck her tongue out and squinted at the water all around them. She spun in place, very slowly, tapping her chin the entire time. When she was done, she moved to Twilight's side and stage-whispered, "I don't want you to freak out, but I actually have no idea where we are."
Unimpressed, Tempest raised an eyebrow. "Could we perhaps get a bearing from the ocean's surface?"
"Oh! Good idea!" Skystar jabbed a fin at her. "Wait here, I'll be right back!"
She ascended like a rocket, leaving Tempest and Twilight staring at one another through the bubbles left in her wake.
After a moment, Twilight said, "Kinda wish I had that much enthusiasm right now. Part of me is just dying to do some up-close studying of sea life."
"We may have more pressing concerns, Your--"
"Back!"
Skystar appeared between them in an explosion of bubbles.
"Did you find the shore?" Twilight asked with a thin, hopeful smile.
"Nnnnnno," Skystar replied, looking chastened. "In fact, I spun all around and didn't see any shore at all! We're way out in the ocean, I guess!"
It took every ounce of Tempest's willpower not to roll her eyes. "Did you notice the position of the sun, perhaps? Equestria lies to the west. That should be all we need."
Skystar regarded her, eyes slowly growing wide. "Oh wow! I never thought of that! Hang on!"
Once again, she shot up to the surface. This time, Twilight gave Tempest a rueful grin and pointed up. They followed the wake of bubbles, but much more slowly, meeting Skystar almost halfway as she came back down.
"Whoa! A lot closer to the top than I thought!" She giggled madly. "Okay, so I have good news and bad news."
"What's the good news?" asked Twilight.
"Checking the position of the sun was a really good idea!"
Tempest sighed a stream of bubbles. "And the bad?"
Skystar poked her fins together. "I forgot to say the first time that it's foggy up there, and that's why I couldn't see anything. Including the sun."
Tempest groaned and wished she could kick something.
"All right," said Twilight, placing a hoof on Skystar's fin. "Look, if we just go back the way we came, we'll run into Seaquestria and Mount Aris eventually, right? And then we can just..." Her ears folded back. "Not go there. But it'll be a good marker for direction, right?"
Tempest nodded. "Do you remember which way we came from, Princess Skystar?"
"Yes!" said Skystar quickly. "Probably. I think so." She nibbled on her fin. "Oooooh, I hope so!"
She flitted back and forth as Tempest fixed her with a level gaze. After hemming, hawing, chewing her fins and gnashing her teeth for a solid minute, Skystar took a deep breath, squared herself up, and saluted them.
"Okay, I've got it! This way!"
And she took off.
Tempest had been content to let the two Princesses take the lead, but after a half hour or so of somewhat aimless swimming, Skystar dropped back to level with her.
"Soooo, Tempest," she said, an enormous grin on her face.
"Your Highness."
She rolled her eyes. "Okay, first, call me Skystar. Second..." She bunched her fins up under her face. "I saw you and Twilight way snuggled up together this morning! Are you two in looooove?"
Tempest's mood soured automatically.
"No," she said flatly. "She is my Princess, and I am her guard. My duty is to protect her from all threats, which apparently include emotional distress and loneliness. We are... friends. Nothing more."
"Are you suuuuure?" Skystar flipped upside-down, regarding Tempest from below. "I don't meet a lot of 'friends' who get that close."
"Just. Friends."
Skystar gave a small pout and stuck her tongue out, returning to swimming alongside her.
Tempest hesitated for a few moments. But this Princess was really getting on her nerves; why not turn the tables a little?
"You're very odd for a princess," she said calmly.
"What?" Skystar's eyes bugged out. "Odd? Who said I was odd? Was it my talking shell-puppets? Because I don't use those anymore, I have real friends now!"
Holding back the urge to sigh and roll her eyes, Tempest said, "Why bother coming with us?"
Skystar tsked. "Uh, duh! Twilight and her friends go on cool adventures all the time. No way am I missing out!"
"Surely you're needed back in your kingdom? You must have some royal duties, some ruling that's more important to perform than going on some frivolous journey?"
For the first time since Tempest had met her, Skystar went quiet.
"Nah," she said at last, voice soft. "My mom does all that kind of stuff. I'm too young, and I keep getting in trouble all the time anyway. She never listens to me."
"I see." Taking a deep breath and making certain her voice was as gentle as possible, Tempest said, "Perhaps your mother is waiting for you to show you're mature enough to lead before she takes your decisions into account."
Skystar lapsed into contemplative silence and remained that way until Princess Twilight dropped back to join them.
"What are you two getting up to back here?" she asked, a hint of a smile on her face.
"Just talk, Your Highness," Tempest said evenly. "You are welcome to join it."
"Good to hear it. I actually do have something I wanted to ask about, Skystar."
Skystar perked up. "What's that, Twilight?"
Twilight licked her lips. "When we were... swimming through Seaquestria, we noticed the fish looked really... sad?" She sent a look Tempest's way.
"Oh." Skystar's ears and fins fell. "Yeah. They've all been kind of mopey since we started moving back to the surface."
Twilight gave Tempest another look, then put her hoof on Skystar's side.
"Queen Novo said you'd abandoned your seapony forms. And it looks like you're taking the underwater palace apart, too."
"Yeah." Skystar rubbed her fins together. "We were kind of stuck down there for a hundred years. Mom says we need to be able to stretch our wings again."
"It seems a shame," Twilight said at length. "Your people have this amazing ability to move between worlds. Why stick to just one when you can have both?"
Skystar gave a noncommittal shrug. "It's what my Mom decreed."
"Jamal was there. He seemed pretty upset. I was sorry we couldn't talk to him."
Skystar sniffled. Twilight put one of her delicate wing-fins over the other princess's back.
"I know you're all ready to make new friends on the surface," Twilight said softly. "But don't abandon the ones you've already made down here."
Slyly, Tempest added, "You know, a plan to unite two worlds is the kind of thing that would mark a Princess as a mature decision maker..."
Skystar perked up at that. She swam out in front of them, a determined look on her face.
"You know what?" she cried. "I'm gonna do just that! When we get back to Mount Aris, I'll stay, and I'll tell mom about all our unhappy fish friends, and... And I'll try and talk something out with her!"
Tempest became suddenly aware of movement behind the princess. "Skystar..."
Skystar pounded one fin against the other. "Yeah! We'll look for another place to get building materials from, and rebuild the coral palace, and the above-ground palace, and everyone's homes..."
A number of silhouetted forms weaved back and forth among one another. They were growing steadily larger.
"Princess..."
"...national edict to sing songs and play games..."
Twilight swam up to Skystar, grabbed her head, and turned it. "What is that?"
The silhouettes roared.
Skystar went pale.
"Tiger sharks!" she shouted, grabbing Twilight. "Swim for iiiiiiiit!"
Tempest turned to face the threat as Skystar and Twilight shot past her in the other direction. They had been swimming so long already; she wasn't about to give ground, or water, to some overstuffed fish. There were three of them, each twice again as big as herself. Their stripes and gaping, fanged maws grew more visible by the second. Charging her horn, she lowered her head and--
Pain lanced through her body.
Tempest was overwhelmed by confusion. What had happened? Why was she just floating in nothingness? Why could she hear her name, being called from somewhere far away?
Something tugged on her hoof, and nothing she did could keep it from lugging her away. As sensation slowly crept back into her head, Tempest saw a yellow blur whizzing back and forth in front of those looming walls of teeth.
"--pest, snap out of it! Come on, please!"
Tempest shook her head. "Princess? What happened?"
"I don't know!" Twilight looked her over, panic written across her face. "I think you might have tried using your firework spell and it backfired somehow! We've got to get out of here. Skystar! Come on, we have to leave!"
With a shout halfway between a warcry and a sob, Skystar lashed out at the nearest shark, dove under its strike, and scurried past them, screaming, "Actually swim for it this time!"
Tempest and Twilight followed without argument.
The tiger sharks proved to be relentless hunters.
They chased the trio clear across the ocean. Sometimes, they would lose sight of them and slow down, only to find themselves nearly surrounded a minute later.
Tempest could do nothing to fend them off, complaining that fighting underwater was like trying to embroider while on a trampoline. Twilight had tried using her magic, but it reacted like trying to push her hoof through jam. She could not conjure, teleport, evoke or telekinesse in time to save them from anything.
And so they swam on.
The sharks never gave up until the shore was in sight, and the sandy ocean floor rose up to meet them. Without enough water to support them, they could only churn angrily off the coastline.
Twilight, Tempest and Skystar crawled out of the water, up onto the sandy beach, the moon shining brightly above in the clear sky. This is exactly why I went for the pearl, Twilight thought. Life outside Equestria is too hard.
They fell into exhausted unconsciousness.