//------------------------------// // Chapter 26 - Surf Mastery // Story: The Master Mev // by kazamacat //------------------------------// After a quick survey of the mountain with some guidance from Skystar, Rainbow Dash found the CMC standing and talking to Terramar. Twilight was with them. Rainbow and Skystar descended from their flight to address the group. "Master Rainbow Dash!" Sweetie said with a smile. "You've got to check this out." She went on to demonstrate the Harmonizing Heights where the mountain made beautiful music amidst its beautiful landscape. She continued to emphasize its beauty. Skystar giggled. "That's great," Rainbow told the young white unicorn. "I want you to meet someone." Sweetie finally calmed down and trotted over. Rainbow gestured to the hippogriff next to her. "Crusaders, this is Princess Skystar. Princess, this the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Here's my little sister Scootaloo, Rarity's little sister, Sweetie Belle, and Applejack's little sister, Apple Bloom. They help ponies and other creatures find their purpose in the world and are a fine young group of friends too, if I do so say myself." The fillies looked away or down and blushed. "Nice to meet all of you," Skystar said with a welcoming smile. "Master Rainbow Dash has made some arrangements with my mom, including an aerial performance real soon. Do you want to watch?" "Really?" Scootaloo asked in a mix of surprise and hope. Rainbow nodded. "I'm showing off my Sonic Rainboom at the end." "The thing is, we're kind of in the middle of our mission," Apple Bloom explained in a hesitant tone. "It'll be a short performance," Rainbow assured her. "It is just one phase of my own mission as well." Skystar nodded as even more assurance. "We were about to go see my mom in Seaquestria," Terramar explained, "but I guess so long as we go right after, that would be alright." "That actually works out great because we're headed that way afterwards too," Skystar told them. "The next phase of your mission?" Scootaloo asked her big sister. "Yup," Rainbow confirmed. "Let's get a move on, since we're all busy." With that, the group made their way back to the festival gathering where with Sky Beak's help, Rainbow was allowed to perform her aerial feats of flips and spins slowly weaving her way upward before descending and then ascending yet again to finish with her finale, booming its bright vibrant colors for the hippogriff audience. The hippogriffs were indeed entertained as they cheered and applauded in response to the show. "That was amazing!" Skystar said, clasping her cheeks in her claws with a broad smile. "Heh, thanks," Rainbow said. "You performed well as always, Rainbow," Twilight said. "We better go to Seaquestria now." "I've been wondering," Apple Bloom said, "just how are we going to go underwater?" Soon, the quintet that had grown into a sextet with Skystar at Rainbow's side found themselves treading water at the surface. Terramar clasped a claw with Scootaloo's hoof, who held onto Apple Bloom's who held onto Sweetie Belle's. He looked expectantly at Twilight and Rainbow. "Come on Rainbow Dash," Skystar offered her claw out. "Um, it might not work, so could we try it and then if it doesn't, you'll just hold Twilight's hoof? That should fix it," Rainbow said. The two hippogriffs who were ready to be sea ponies blinked. "Can we ask why?" Terramar asked. Rainbow swallowed thoughtfully and looked at Skystar, the princess hippogriff already willing to give up her magic without even knowing this part. "I'm immune to certain magic unless it's channeled through someone like Twilight. She and I have a special bond to help that exact situation." "Oh wow, I didn't know, sorry," Terramar said. "We'll wait then, to see how it goes." "Wow indeed," Skystar agreed. She did as Rainbow suggested and upon the failed attempt, she quickly took Twilight's hoof, and Twilight took Rainbow's. On the next attempt, the transformation worked as intended. Together, they all descended into the water as sea ponies. "Whew," Rainbow let out a relieved breath. A giddy, giggling enthusiastic Scootaloo swam past her. "This must be just like flying!" she declared joyfully. Then she swam to Rainbow. "It is, isn't it? I've seen you when you fly and you look like you're swimming in the air. Even just now at your performance with the way you whip through the air so fast!" She swam away before Rainbow could give her an answer. "Come on," Skystar told Rainbow. "I'll show you around. You probably want to see the Magic Pearl again, right?" "Right," Rainbow nodded, and they swam off to leave the Crusaders to their mission and Twilight to find Terramar's mom. The visit to see the Magic Pearl went plenty smooth. Skystar took it with ease from its guarded place where it was tucked away in something resembling a large jellyfish. The magical orb looked as it did before yet Rainbow could feel its magic more strongly. The smaller golden orbs within and spiky white center ended up looking even more beautiful to her. Skystar explained that Queen Novo had a piece already set aside so they were just looking, not taking. "You can touch, just don't activate," Skystar suggested. Intrigued, Rainbow did exactly that and smiled while she lightly rubbed it. Afterward, Skystar showed Rainbow around at a few other things before they found Twilight again. At her master's request, the alicorn princess accompanied them to find a large open space where Rainbow Dash could summon Blitz. "So, how does it work if you call her underwater?" Skystar asked. "It's worked in the air, so hopefully it's pretty much the same. I want to surface as a pegasus first though," Rainbow explained. With the help of her two friends, Twilight and Skystar, Rainbow was able to do just that and tread water. She directed them to surface as well as a good several feet away from her, so that she could peer down and give Blitz space. She found a good spot, and the circle did indeed form on her commanded desire. Blitz came out from it as ghostly and translucent as ever. "Come here you," Rainbow told her. "I've got a gift, something awesome. We might not be able to do this again for awhile." Blitz obeyed. "Grow to your full size," Rainbow commanded. "Stay translucent and visible, but I want to see how big you really are." Again Blitz obeyed. She grew in length and girth. Twilight and Skystar gazed upward with dropped jaws. The leviathan dread was large enough that several ponies could be swallowed into her body if she were solid and to Rainbow's anticipated hope, the top of her head was definitely large and flat enough for something she wanted to try on this venture. "Lower your head over here to look at me," Rainbow told Blitz, lifting herself out of the water with flapping feathered wings. Blitz lowered as told. She saw Rainbow turn her chaos form on. The leviathan dread smiled. "Alright, girl, here's what we're going to do. You've got hmm, five minutes. You will be solid, like we practice at home. You're not scaring anyone or hurting for that matter. Now that you'll be solid, we actually have to think about that. We're here to have a good time and experience some awesome magic on this mission. I want you to enjoy the water and the air and just being you." Blitz nodded. "Yes, Master," she even brought herself to speak, thanks to the active chaos form and practice at home. Rainbow plopped her hooves upon the top of the serpent's head and as she did so, the solidity rippled through the entire large beast. "Hahahaha!" she laughed with delight, even deciding to release her fangs since the two watching her knew what she was. "Up a little!" she told Blitz, who complied to the sound of more uproarious laughter. "Is she okay?" Skystar asked Twilight worriedly. "Oh, she's fine," Twilight offered in comfort. "She's just excited, I promise. Think of it as a special kind of flair she has. She's a showy master mev." "Right. Okay." Skystar nodded. "This is actually my first time seeing Blitz though other friends have told me what she's like. I will have quite the story for them when we get back," Twilight said. "No one's seen her full size until today." "Oh my gosh!" the two heard a young voice. Sweetie Belle had surfaced in her eagerness to leave Seaquestria and return to the Harmonizing Heights, but now she couldn't possibly leave yet. "Master Rainbow Dash! Is that you and Blitz? You made her real!" Just then, Scootaloo, Apple Bloom, and Terramar surfaced. "Oh my word," said Apple Bloom. Scootaloo shivered and hid behind Terramar. "What is that?" he asked in Skystar and Twilight's direction. "Solid, Sweetie. I made her solid," Rainbow shouted from where she was. "She's been real since the day I first summoned her." "Don't worry Terramar," Sweetie said. "That's Blitz. She's Rainbow's pet um...well, she's called a 'leviathan dread', but that might sound kinda bad. Normally, she's like a much smaller ghost snake." The sky blue mev was laughing it up, riding along, allowing Blitz to move about. Blitz herself was careful even if she wasn't used to having to worry about running into other creatures. She lowered and raised her head to give Rainbow some fun and slithered around in a contained enough manner. "A dread?" Terramar asked. "And she doesn't scare you?" "Oh no, she does," Sweetie admitted, "but...well, she's actually kinda nice because of how she's connected to Rainbow Dash." The unicorn filly turned in Rainbow's direction. "Master Rainbow Dash, can I join you?" she called out. "Sweetie Belle, you just now wanted to go back to take care of our mission," Apple Bloom pointed out. "You've got one minute," Rainbow ordered. "See?" Sweetie told her earth pony friend. "That's hardly anything." She hurried off using Terramar's help to turn into a unicorn pony again. "Blitz, make yourself kind of like a serpent ramp for our sweet unicorn friend," Rainbow commanded. "Sweetie, she's still icy, okay?" Blitz obeyed, and Sweetie galloped up the scales. "Okay," she hurried along. "Wait, Master Rainbow Dash, what about us?" Apple Bloom asked. "Fine, a minute for you too, but get up here now," Rainbow told them. Scootaloo gulped. "No thanks, I'm good." "I don't have time to convince you," Apple Bloom hurried off as well. Scootaloo sighed. "Fine," and she followed the excitement, still scared but not wanting to miss out. "Icy, icy, icy," she muttered. The Crusaders arrived at the top each gazing out into the ocean. "Give us a quick ride," Rainbow said. "Twenty second thrust forward." Blitz did as told. The four riders smiled and laughed in delight, feeling the wind through their manes and tails. "Woo-hoo!" Rainbow shouted. Once the time was up, she called out to Twilight. "Rexa! They're already ponies again. Get them safely to land." "Yes, Master!" Twilight complied. Indeed, the chaos-mev magic wore off right about then, and the three fillies found themselves scooped into a telekinetic field guiding them back. The solidity phased away, and Rainbow flapped her wings to hover. "Okay, back to standard snare size," she told her pet. Blitz shrank. "And back to the void. I'll call you later. Master's got work to do. You had fun though, right?" Blitz nodded fervently before disappearing. Rainbow descended to where Skystar had watched everything, and for several moments, the sea pony princess was too shocked in awe to say anything. Finally, she blinked a few times and looked at Rainbow Dash. "It's like you told us everything, and I saw everything in that throne room, but I feel like I didn't believe any of it until now. How in all the world did you even do that?" "Oh, I had a lot of help from a lot of friends, but the main source of that magic is a reality-manipulating draconequis named Discord. He's a friend and a teacher and just like you're doing today, he was actually agreeable to me biting him to even learn this stuff. That type of magic you saw is called chaos-mev magic," Rainbow answered. "It's his mixed with mine. I wanted to learn some things about Blitz and what I can do with it out here in the ocean. Thanks to your mom, I was able to do that." "I hope you know, Master, that hippogriff magic can't possibly compare to this chaos magic," Skystar told her. "Hmm, I don't expect anything quite does, but I'll be the judge of that with more certainty soon enough," Rainbow said with a sly smile. "Oh, right. We should head back," Skystar decided, so the two made their way back to the throne room of Queen Novo at Mount Aris.