Love on Land and Sea
Chapter 6
The Forbidden Spell
The Mane 6 had snuck back into Seaquestria, quietly swimming around the kingdom as it grew sleepier and sleepier. Twilight led them into the castle.
"What is the plan exactly?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"If we want to get our land hooves, then we go to what changed us first." Twilight said.
The girls all gasped. "Ya don't mean…." Applejack trailed off before she fearfully continued. "Steal the pearl?"
Twilight shook her head. "That's a bad plan, I know." She said. "I meant to say, find the magic."
"What do you mean?" Fluttershy asked. "Find some other spell?"
The lilac unicorn seapony nodded. "Exactly." She said. "And I know that the seaponies had brought down some books and put them in the library before they were forced underwater."
"Well, it's worth a shot." Rainbow Dash said.
They all quietly swam to the royal library, which was actually a little small for such a place. But then again, they couldn't bring all their books down at such a fast pace to avoid the danger that they had to hide from.
"Spread out." Twilight quietly ordered. "Check every book. There has to be something that can help us."
The Mane 6 started to scour the few piles of books, hoping to find anything. But after a few minutes, it was starting to seem like their efforts were fruitless.
"Anything?" Twilight whispered to the other girls.
Rarity shook her head. "Nothing, darling."
Applejack snapped hers shut and tossed it away over her shoulder. "Ain't nothing in that one, either."
Rainbow swam to put her book away. "Zilch."
"Sorry, Twilight." Fluttershy said as she put the book she had on the coral desk. "Nothing in this one, either."
Suddenly, Pinkie Pie came over, with a book in hoof. "I found something!" She exclaimed, and Twilight immediately slapped her hoof over Pinkie's mouth. All of them held their breaths, praying that no one heard that.
After a few seconds of nothing happening, Twilight removed her hoof. Rainbow zipped over and punched Pinkie's shoulder. "This is supposed to be a stealth mission." She hissed.
"Sorry." Pinkie whispered.
"Now, what did you find, Pinkie?" Twilight asked.
The pink seapony showed her friend the book she found. It had a black cover, with the title "Forbidden Spells" on it. Twilight gaped at her. "Really?" She asked her.
"You said to check everything." Pinkie said. "And I checked everything, even the queen's personal study desk."
Rarity gasped. "Pinkie Pie!" She quietly admonished. "You know that no one is allowed to search through the queen's personal items."
Twilight magically took the book. "Well, maybe Pinkie does have a point here." She said.
"Thank you." Pinkie said, and then pointed to the book. "Page 39."
Twilight magically flipped through the forbidden book to that page. There, on the paper, was a spell. "Here it is." She said. "A spell that can interfere with the pearl's transformation powers."
"Does that mean it can grant us our land hooves back?" Fluttershy asked.
"It sounds like it can." Twilight said. "But the kicker is that it must be done on land."
"Well then, what are we waiting for?" Rainbow asked, swimming in a loop. "Let's grab that spell and get out of here!"
Twilight took a deep breath. "I hate to have to do this." She whispered to herself. Then, with her magic, she tore the page with the spell out of the book and folded it.
Her friends were surprised that Twilight, the bookworm, actually tore a page out of a book. "Never thought I'd live to see you do that, Twi." Rainbow said.
The lilac seapony gulped. "Desperate times call for desperate measures." She said, lifting Applejack's hat and placed the spell under it. "Now, let's go."
But before they could swim out of the library, a pale blue light suddenly came on, making them freeze. They all turned to the entrance and saw that Queen Novo was there, holding the pearl in her fins, which was emitting that blue light, with a stern glare on her face.
"May I ask what you girls are doing here this late?" She asked.
Everyone gulped nervously. "Uh, we were, uh," Rarity stammered.
"Helping Twilight with some late-night studying!" Rainbow cut in.
The other girls quickly agreed to the lie. But the queen still didn't look satisfied.
"Then I'm pretty sure that none of you want to say where you've been sneaking off to for the past couple of weeks?" She asked.
The Mane 6 all froze again and bit their lips. They couldn't let Novo know about their plans to leave Seaquestria with Cheese Sandwich. When she saw that none of them were answering her, she waved to them with her fin. "Come."
Even though this was slightly better than they had thought, the Mane 6 still had the sneaking suspicion that this was not over.
In a matter of minutes, everyone was in the grotto where all of the stuff the girls had collected over the years from the surface were kept. Novo turned back to them.
"Now, where have you girls been for the past two weeks?" She asked. There was still no answer from any of them. The queen sighed. "Well then, I guess I'll have to request an audience with that land colt."
All of them gasped. "H-How did you know that?" Applejack asked her nervously.
Novo narrowed her eyes sternly at them. "You girls think that I don't have sentries around the borders of the city to keep an eye out for danger?" She asked them.
The girls were all silent. "You all had disobeyed me." Novo said. "You know that no one is allowed at the surface."
"Did you forget that we're originally from the surface?" Twilight asked.
"I didn't forget." Novo said to her. "But you still aren't allowed up here. It's dangerous."
"We just got caught in a storm trying to save that land colt's life. Nothing really bad happened when we're up there." Pinkie said.
"PINKIE!" The other five exclaimed, making the pink seapony clap her hooves over her mouth at what she had unintentionally confessed.
"Caught in a storm?" Novo asked, her eyes wide. "You don't know where that storm came from, and you all could've been killed!"
"It was just a plain storm." Rainbow said. "What's really so frightening about it?"
"I can think of a few reasons." Fluttershy mumbled, but then Applejack gave her a dry look.
"Not helping, sugarcube." She whispered. The pale yellow seapony held her hooves tight to her body in embarrassment.
"If there was something off about that storm or not, you still disobeyed me." Novo said. "Now, I think I have to talk drastic measures." She swam around the grotto, eyeing every piece there. She then turned back to the girls.
Queen Novo: This is where you belong.
"You don't understand." Rarity said, trying to reason with her. But Novo cut her off, making all of the girls flinch.
For once, just listen, will you?
Those savage brutes will kill you in the world above.
"But that land colt's not dangerous." Pinkie said, her thoughts drifting to Cheese. Novo's glare turned more cold.
Don't try that same old song.
I'll have you grounded 'til next year.
Am I clear?
Don't go near that world above!
"We're not fillies anymore!" Rainbow retorted to her. "And you're not really our mother, so you can't exactly ground us!"
"No?! Have you all lost your senses? He came from up there! You're seaponies, therefore, you must stay down here!" Novo shouted, her temper flaring up.
"You can't keep us from the world forever!" Twilight shouted back, violet eyes turned up into defiant flames. "We just want to go home!"
But Novo gave all six of them an icy cold glare as the pearl in her fins began glowing a sickly yellow.
I'm still the queen here!
My world is law!
This stuff you bring here
Is the final straw!
The Mane 6 had their eyes widened in horror when a sharp chill came down their spines. Thoughts of what Novo might do next terrified them.
When push, my girls, has come to shove,
I'll make you obey
'Til you do as I say.
I don't care, come what may,
But I'll keep you away
From that cruel, harsh, cold, vile world above!
Wicked, jagged streams of the sickly yellow light began emitting from the pearl brightly, blinding the girls, so they had to shield their eyes from it. There were sounds of objects breaking and ripping apart for many long agonizing seconds that made them all flinch and wince from the noises. Finally, the light had faded.
When the girls removed their hooves from their eyes, they were horrified. Everything that they had about the surface, their books, their accessories, their trinkets; everything was destroyed. Tears began welling up in their eyes. But Twilight was the only one who had enough gall at the moment to glare at the queen.
"How could you?" She asked. With that question lingering in the water they breathe, the girls immediately swam out of the grotto, tears streaming down their faces, mixing with the seawater around them.
Novo took a deep breath as a sorrowful and pained look came onto her face. She knew that this was extreme, but she must do everything she can to protect them. Even after all these years they spent in Seaquestria, they still don't know the reason why the hippogriffs had left their home on Mount Aris. And as long as they have those fins, the ocean will remain a part of them, no matter where they go. The ocean protects them, and so they must stay.
The Mane 6 were all lying on their clam beds, softly sobbing into their kelp pillows. All of their treasures from the surface were gone.
"How could she do this?" Fluttershy asked.
"I don't know, darling." Rarity answered tearfully.
"We just wanted to go see our home." Pinkie piped in sadly.
Applejack felt her hat floating off her head again, so she habitually pressed it down to keep it from drifting away. But then, she felt something else resting on her mane. She lifted her hat up slightly, and the page with the spell came floating down from its hiding spot underneath her hat and it softly landed on her bed. Emerald eyes widened in surprise, she picked it up and unfolded it, staring at the words and diagrams printed there in slightly fading ink.
"We still have a chance." She said, flipping onto her side, getting the others' attention as she held the spell up for everypony to see it.
"The spell." Twilight said quietly in realization, hope starting to rise in her again as she came over to AJ's bed. The feeling was most likely contagious as the other girls came to the same conclusion as they gathered around.
"As long as we have that spell, who's going to stop us from seeing Equestria?" Rainbow Dash asked rhetorically.
The other girls all looked at each other, confidence and determination once more beginning to swell inside of them.
"We have this opportunity upon us, girls." Rarity said. "We might not get this chance again."
They all nodded in agreement, knowing grins on their faces.
However, Fluttershy's grin quickly vanished from her muzzle. "But, if we do leave, we may never see Seaquestria again." She pointed out.
The Mane 6 all became quiet at the point that the shy seapony made. There was a high chance that they could never come back to Seaquestria.
But then, Applejack quietly spoke up. "If we leave now, there's no doubt that the queen will be mighty mad at us." She said. "But at the same time, we can give her some time to cool down and understand why we left in the first place."
The others pondered AJ's words. "I'm with AJ." Rainbow said. "What about you girls?" She then held out her hoof, with Applejack's on top of hers.
One by one, the other girls placed their hooves on top of theirs. "Then we know what we must do." Twilight said.
"Right." The others nodded their heads.
Everypony went to their own vanities and each got out a different colored kelp saddle bag and put them around their backs. Twilight's bag was a dark blue with her signature magenta star, Rainbow's was a slightly lighter blue with her rainbow-colored bolt, AJ's bag was a dark green with her three red apples, Fluttershy's was a light turquoise with her three pink butterflies, Pinkie's was a bright green with her three balloons, and Rarity's was a deep green with her three blue diamonds.
They all each quietly placed some of their own necessities from their vanities and a few of their personal objects in them. When they were done, Twilight then took the forbidden spell from Applejack, folded it again and placed it in her own bag. Once they were finished, they all swam to the opening that served as a window. Everypony took one last look towards the entrance of their room, and then one by one, left it by swimming out the window.
They all swam quietly through the sleeping underwater city of Seaquestria, feeling a big weight in their hearts. When they arrived at the secret entrance, the Mane 6 took one last glance at the place they had called their home for the past 10 years. The friendship they had with Skystar and many of the other seaponies there.
This was a hard choice to make, but they desperately wanted to see their families again. To see how much had changed. To remember what it was like to fly in the air and dance and trot and run with four hooves again. With that thought in their minds, they all squeezed through the entrance, one at a time, not looking back a third time.