//------------------------------// // In Which There Are MORE Seaponies // Story: Bits, Pieces and other Scrapped Ideas // by FoolAmongTheStars //------------------------------// The light burns my back, the sand grates my skin as if it was trying to peel my scales away. I can barely breathe. I can’t move at all. I lie there as the sun beats down on me. How did I get here? Blurry faces and faraway voices flash in my mind’s eye, but I can’t chase them. I’m so weak...why am I here? “Papa!” A voice screams in horror. Papa? What’s a papa? “Flurry, go get your mother.” Another voice. Perhaps that’s Papa. “It’s alright. We’re going to help you. Poor thing. My stars, you’re sick.” Something cold touches my face. “We’re going to get to you out of here first. Spear Head! Get Big Mac and a few others to help me carry him!” “You got it, boss!” When I breathe it feels like rocks scraping down my throat, rattling my lungs as I cough. Something cold pours over me and relief is so sudden and welcome I start to cry, but I’m still too weak to lift my hooves to cover my face. “My name is Shining Armor,” Papa says. “My home is nearby, I have a good doctor on staff and she’ll be able to take care of you. You’re lucky we found you.” My eyes open and the sun blinds me, but I see a stallion with dark blue hair and a white coat, the horn on his head long and thin. He smiles reassuringly while pressing a damp cloth to my face. Something important brought me here, I can feel it, even if I don’t remember. I have to remember. Someone is waiting for me, someone is depending on me, I can’t remember their face but all I know is that they’re important to me...I have to go back to them...to… I hear voices, but not in my head, they are somewhere close to me. The sun is gone, the sand has been washed clean from my skin. Everything is dark and I’m wrapped in something soft and silky. I breathe in and something feels strange, off.  “For the time being, this will stop the spread of the infection. I’m working on getting the cure, but it’s old, and there aren’t too many books on seaponies or seapony health anymore.” “Do what you can, I’m sure he’ll understand when he comes to. But I wonder how far has the infection spread?” I recognized Papa’s voice. “I can’t say, but it must be bad if he washed up on shore, the poor thing is probably looking for help.” The other voice sounds female, it’s very gentle and filled with pity.  “One of the symptoms of this illness is memory loss, so it may take some time before he can tell us anything.” I push back the silky cover and it falls away easily, I look down and my body seizes with dread. My tail is gone, in its place, two strange sticks jut out of my torso. The wrongness turns into panic and I thrash in my resting place, looking for an exit, a way out of this dark place, I hit something and it falls with a crash, and I follow, landing painfully on my hoof and chin. Light pours in and two creatures rush to me, helping me stand. “It’s alright! You’re fine! Take some deep breaths,” Papa says soothingly. “It’s just a small spell.” Pushing them away does nothing, I’m still too weak, and they guide me back to that soft resting place. The other creature leaves my side once Papa has a good hold of me and fetches me a container filled with something. She presses it to my lips and I’m forced to swallow, despite the funny taste I knew that it was water and the liquid soothes me, making me realize just how dry my throat was.  Once I’m done I slump in my seat, suddenly too tired to care about anything. “What have you done to me?” I whisper. “You’re very sick, I ask Shining Armor to cast this spell in order to treat you. It’ll stop the disease from spreading and give me time to whip a cure for you.” The mare has kind green eyes, her brown mane tied up in intricate braids over her head. “I’m Meadowbrook, and I’m going to help you get better.” My body feels weak, but I’m able to lift my head a little higher. “I was sick?” Meadowbrook sits beside me. “It’s an old disease that nearly drove the seaponies to extinction. There’s a cure, but I’m having a hard time tracking down the accounts of it. This sickness is affecting your memory, but you must tell me everything you can remember, in case any more of your kind are affected as well.” “I don’t…” I struggle to even recall the smallest of ideas, but all I get are images. Blurry faces, places that make me feel at ease, small hooves reaching out to me, touching my face, making my heart swell with pride. I shake my head and clasp my chest, my heart beating dully. “I don’t know, I can’t remember anything.” “It’s alright,” Papa says. “Meadowbrook’s medicine should take effect in a few days and things will slowly come to you.” “By then Fluttershy will have found something for me,” Meadowbrook sighs. “You look strong and you’re young, I have no doubt that you’ll recover quickly with some good meals and rest.” “Thank you…” “Is there anything you need right now?” I look down at where my tail used to be, lifting my new legs to inspect them. I can see a few white scales hidden underneath the fur, the markings on my legs are in the same places as they were in my tail, but they feel and move in a way that I found disturbing. I glanced back at Papa, his hair is long and blue, but for a moment I could’ve sworn it was short and red. “Shining, the tea is ready if you want it,” Meadowbrook calls. Papa’s eyes light up. “Would you like some?” “I don’t know what it is.” “I’ll let you try mine, and if you like it I’ll get you your own cup, it’s good for you and tasty,” he leaves for a moment, returning with a steaming mug in his magic. “Be careful, it’s hot.” The strong aroma fills my nostrils as I look into the dark liquid. I take a cautious sip and the bitter flavor disgusts me until it settles on my tongue, leaving a pleasant aftertaste. “I’m not sure if I like it,” I murmur, “it tastes funny.” His smile brightens and a glow comes into his eyes. “It’s an acquired taste but once you get it you’ll grow to like it.” “Shining!” Meadowbrook scolds him as she walks into the room. “He doesn’t need tea! We don’t know how the herbs could affect him!” “But it’s just chamomile tea, it’s harmless.” “I said no!” He rolls his eyes but takes the mug from me and drinks the rest in just a few gulps. Once he finishes he turns to the door as if he heard something, a moment later a little filly pokes her head through the open door. “She wanted to make sure he was okay,” a new voice appears, female but much richer than Meadowbrook’s. “She’s been worried all day.” “Miss Cadance,” Meadowbrook says and smiles with relief. “I need to speak with you.” I couldn’t help but notice the way Papa’s face brightens when he sees the little filly. He doesn’t hesitate to scoop her in his hooves and hold her close, smiling gently when the little one giggles and laughs, more than glad to be held by him. “Hey there princess, our friend is awake but be gentle with him, he’s very sick.” The filly nods and the way her curls bounced over her chubby face make me pause—an image appears, like a flash, a glimpse of a small, round face and high-pitched giggling, a pink and gold tail swimming ahead of me in the deep blue water. “Is that your daughter?” Papa looks back at me. “Yes, my Flurry Heart. She’s the one who found you, so if you must thank anyone, thank her.” Wide blue eyes stare at me, she has messy, wavy pink hair with blue highlights that compliment her snow-white fur. She comes towards the edge of the bed and looks me over, she’s quiet for a long moment. There’s something about her that feels familiar, which prompts me to smile and speak gently to get her attention. “Your name is Flurry Heart?” She nods. “Nice to meet you, my name is…” I pause. “I can’t remember, but I like yours.” She smiles shyly. “Thank you.” The mare steps inside. “Meadowbrook said you have memory loss. I think I could help you.” She’s beautiful in every sense of the word. She’s tall and graceful, with long pink and yellow hair falling on the side of her face and she stares at me with kind purple eyes. Part of me feels ashamed to be so close to her, I look down at my pitiful appearance and nervously brush my messy mane in an effort to make it look presentable, but I knew it was a lost cause.  “I need all the help that I can get…” Papa picks up Flurry and sets her on his lap. That’s when I noticed that one of her wings is made of silver. “Cadance has a special gift, she can help you unearth your memories.” “Is it alright if I touch you?” I sit straighter. “I’m always happy when pretty mares touch me.” “Hey now, that’s my wife,” Papa says warningly. Cadance giggles and places a hoof on my cheek. It smooths up along my temple, and I close my eyes, trying to relax. There’s a pool of water in the back of my mind, the water surges the more I think of it, coming closer to me and it feels cool and familiar as I sink in. A voice is calling out to me. Sunburst! Sunburst! “Sunburst?” Cadance whispers. “Is that your name?” I looked up. Her hoof moves away and I see purple scales appear on her hoof before disappearing like mist.   “It is,” I say softly but I don’t feel any doubt. She turns to Meadowbrook. “It’s strange...I can see things but when I try to reach them there’s like some sort of barrier. I can hear them just fine, but I can’t feel the memories like I usually do.”         “Just like I expect it.” Meadowbrook sighs. “This disease is very tricky, I really hope Fluttershy gets back to me soon.”    “What did you do? It felt strange, but...nice.” “I’m an empath,” Cadance answers. “Meadowbrook thought I could help you with your memory loss, but it seems we will have to take the long way.” Over the next few days, I mostly slept, ate, and learned how to use my new legs. I’m not used to walking—let alone being out of the water—and I stumble and fall a lot, but at least I’m growing stronger every day.  Flurry Heart has also been a great comfort and motivator to keep trying. “When I got my new wing, it was hard learning how to fly with it,” she says, sitting on the bed and serving me a glass of water to have alongside my medication. “But I practiced a lot, and now I’m taking flight lessons with auntie Rainbow Dash!” I took the pills and the glass of water she offered me. “I should practice,” I conceded, looking down at the empty glass. “I have to challenge myself, but this place is so big, I feel like I could get lost.” “Then I’ll show you around!” Flurry says excitedly, jumping off the bed with a flap of her wings. “The carnival will be opening soon, so we’re rehearsing a lot and making sure everything is ready.” “Carnival? What is that?” “It’s what we do,” her eyes light up. “But a carnival is, like, a lot of different things! There’s music, food, dancing, games, you know? It’s fun and the whole family works in it!” “Family?” Flurry smiles at me. “Papa started it a long time ago, everyone who’s in the carnival is here because of him, just like you, so that makes you family too!”  A face comes to me, lovely and soft, with dark blue eyes that are deeper than the sea, highlighted by the vivid lavender of her scales that cover her face. The sun glows over her skin and her scales glimmer in the dim water. “We’re going to be a family!” Her voice echoes in my mind and my heart pounds. “Sunburst?” Flurry Heart reaches out and touches my nose. I blink and the image is gone, but my heart takes a while to settle. I smile at her. “Sorry about that, lately my memories are returning faster than I can process them.”  “That is good!” Flurry exclaims, clapping her hooves together. “What do you remember?” “Someone...important, I think.” Lately, I’ve been having visions of this mystery mare, sometimes she’s angry and dangerous, her mouth pulled back into a snarl as she swims away from me. Other times she’s delicate and sweet, leaning into my touch as I hold her close in the starlight.  I can’t remember her name but I knew she was important to me. My heartbeat jumps at the thought of her, of her smile and voice, and I always long to see her again.  Realizing that Flurry is watching me closely, I clear my throat before asking. “I’m hungry, where can we go to get something to eat?” “You want to walk there?” She asks and squeals when I nod. Flurry slips off the bed and offers her hoof to me. I use her for balance as I stand, and she leads me out of Meadowbrook’s doctor’s tent. The sun is scorching when we step outside, I can smell the ocean breeze, and when I glance to my right I see the sea on the horizon. We are surrounded by colorful tents and ponies coming and going, but none of them takes notice of us. “The cafeteria is over there.” She points to a white large tent in the distance. “Let’s see what they have for lunch today!” “What are you in the mood for?” I ask to indulge her. “Flurry, be careful now!” Meadowbrook comes after us, scolding at the little filly. “He’s very sick and shouldn’t be outside in his condition.” “I feel fine, honest!” I say, stepping slightly between them. “I’m the one who insisted on going outside, a little exercise might do me some good.” Meadowbrook raises an eyebrow, clearly seeing through my attempts to excuse Flurry’s behavior, but I stand firm. I hated seeing children scolded for just being children, and I wasn’t lying, I was tired of sitting on the bed and waiting for my memories to come to me. It made me anxious and exasperated the feeling that I was missing something crucial. So far all my memories of my previous life had been happy, why would I leave it if something horrible hadn’t happened? The kind doctor sighs, and I’m struck with the familiarity of the motion. “Sunburst, you’re still recovering, you shouldn’t push yourself right now.” I look back at her. “I can’t push myself, that’s not how it works.” “You know what I mean,” she says but relents in the end. “Alright, go get something to eat, but you come right back after you’re done, clear?” “I promise to bring him back!” Flurry Heart tugs at my hoof again. “Ready Sunburst?” “Ready!” I say excitedly. I stumble for a bit but with Flurry’s help, we make it to the cafeteria tent. Inside I’m taken aback by the noise and size of the crowd, ponies and creatures of different shapes and sizes fill the space, their laughter and voices filling the room. The smell of food makes my stomach rumble, even if I didn’t recognize the spices used, it just smelled really good. If it weren’t for Flurry acting as my guide I was sure I would’ve been lost in a matter of seconds. She takes me to the end of the tent where the ponies were standing in line holding metal plates and cups, we follow them, and Flurry squeals when she sees what’s being served. “Alright! It’s pizza today!” “Pizza?” I stare at the platters of food. “They look like flatten sea-urchins covered in sand, are you sure this is food?”   “It’s supposed to look like that, it’s bread covered in cheese and tomato sauce, but every pizza has different toppings, that’s what makes it so good!” I look down at her. “I have no idea what you just said.” “It’s really good, you’ve had bread before right?” “I think Meadowbrook gave me some,” I say, but the slice of bread she gave me looked nothing like the steaming circles of food in front of us.  “Well it’s like that, but much tastier,” she pouts at my incredulous look and sighs. “Here, just try it.” Flurry piles a bunch of ‘pizza’ on to our plates, but after some gentle insisting she picks other foods as well and we find a place to sit. “You pick it up like this!” Flurry picks a triangle of food with her hooves and bites into it, pulling slightly when the white-yellowish substance stretches from her mouth to the pizza. “Careful, it’s hot!” I imitate her with some reluctance and I take a much smaller bite with Flurry watching. My eyes widen at the explosion of flavors on my tongue. It’s nothing like I ever tasted before, but it’s so good! It’s salty but full of flavor, slightly crunchy but soft enough to chew without much trouble, and hot enough to burn my tongue, but it doesn’t stop me as I continue to eat the rest of the triangle.  Flurry grins. “I told you it was good!” I nod but I’m too busy eating the second triangle. She is right! The toppings make all the difference and this slice was even better than the last one! I’m so busy eating that I almost didn’t notice Cadance approaching us, but Flurry does and she smiles like she’s been caught doing something she shouldn’t. “Oh, hey mama…” “Flurry, what have we told you about junk food?” Cadance says sternly. “To not eat too much of it, but I wanted Sunburst to try it! He’s been eating a lot of boring food since he got here!” “He eats healthy food so we can get better,” Cadance corrects her, turning to see my almost empty plate. “Oh dear, let’s hope he’s not lactose intolerant.” “Lact-what?” “It means that the cheese will make you gassy!” Flurry answers. Cadance smiles at her, then back at me. A memory resurfaces and I see that mare again. Her long tail presses against my side and I can feel her lips on my cheek, she laughs. I shake my head and Cadance notices. “Is everything alright Sunburst?” “There’s some pony on my mind,” I press a hoof to my temple. “I don't know who she is, but I know she’s important.” I close my eyes, trying to bring her image forward. Cadance puts a hoof over mine, and the pool of water comes back, there in the back of my mind. I breathe softly as it starts to overflow. It grows and grows, turning from a pool to a lake to an ocean. “My wife,” I whisper. “You’re married?” Flurry looks up at me with wide eyes. “Our daughter, she’s sick...so I had to go to…” I place a hoof over my ear. “I had to leave...there wasn’t...something feels strange, I can’t…” “Something is coming out of your ear!” Cadance stands abruptly, pulling me by my free hoof. “We need to take you to Meadowbrook, I think your memory is returning.” We walk outside, and the sensation in my ear turns intolerable, I have to stop to clutch at my head. “I’m sorry, my head is killing me, there’s something in it.” “Come on Sunburst,” Cadance pushes me, looking around nervously. “There are ponies not from the carnival, we don’t want to bother them.” I rub my ear, making a face as it seems to be the only thing relieving my headache. “He’s leaking more.” “Just a swimmer's ear!” Cadance explains, laughing nervously at a pair of ponies looking our way. “Nothing to see here.” The more I rub my ear, the more water starts to pour out. All at once, it’s like a waterfall, cascading out with such force that it splatters on the dirt and scatters the small pebbles underneath the soil. It doesn’t go unnoticed by the crowd and they start to gather, gaping at the water rushing down my ear. “It’s such a cool magic trick!” Flurry says, standing and smiling cutely. “Right guys!” The stunned crowd relaxes with Flurry’s prompting, and soon they’re laughing and clapping along. We somehow manage to push through the crowd and make our way to Meadowbrooks tent, the water pouring from both my ears when we push back the flap. “Goodness,” the doctor says when she sees us, placing a bucket underneath me. “I didn’t expect this to happen so soon.”  “What’s happening to him?” Cadance asks, rubbing circles on my back as I clutch the bucket to my face. “It’s the medicine taking effect,” Meadowbrook replies. “The disease is like a fungus, it causes the natural filters in the seapony’s body to retain more water than necessary. The water build’s up in their systems and it causes them to bloat. The water stagnates and becomes toxic to them, which allows the fungus to grow and fester, causing a multitude of problems. Once the water is able to drain, that means the patient can heal.” I wanted to ask more questions but my stomach rebels and I throw up loudly.    Once I’m done, Meadowbrook trades buckets. “Fluttershy sent me the cure she found this morning, I didn’t expect it to work so quickly.” “Well, that’s good news right?”  “That means we will be able to save his family?” Flurry asks. “I REMEMBER!” I sit up fast, so fast that I accidentally splash Meadowbrook with the water pouring out of my ear. “I remember what happened! It was…” My legs give underneath me and I flop to the floor, passing out in a matter of seconds, the water in my ears muffling the sound of their panic cries.  The memories pour over me like a flood. I was happy. I was one of the elders of my colony, a position I worked hard for, and I was finally accepted amongst the elite circle. One of my first tasks as an elder was to deal with a small gang of outsiders that had been causing trouble for years. I agreed to meet with their leader face to face, which was a foolish mistake because she happened to be the most beautiful creature I’ve ever laid eyes on. Starlight Glimmer was small for a mare her age, but she carried herself with dignity and commanded respect from her followers. I fell in love with her at first sight and resolved to court her, it didn’t matter if the elders disapproved or that I wasn’t the only one looking for her attention, my heart had decided she was the one. It took time and effort to get her to notice me, but Starlight fell for me too and we started our life together soon after that.     Starlight was still wild at heart, often taking me to places that were considered dangerous, showing me lands that not even landlubbers knew about. “Once our little one is born, I want to show her the world, I want us to travel and see all kinds of places, nobody will stop us, I want this one to have everything.” Starlight said dreamily. Our daughter, Luster Dawn, was born prematurely. Tiny and weak, her tail growth was stunted, making her a weak swimmer and often required help to get around. But Starlight never gave up, she would practice every day with Luster, helping her to get stronger, learning how to use her small tail efficiently, and overall encouraging her to do her best. Luster’s tail was small but with her mother’s patient tutelage, she was soon swimming with the best of them, even giving me a hard time when we played our game of tag. “I have some news,” Starlight said one day. “Luster, you’re going to be a big sister.”  I was overjoyed, Luster was a little confused but she celebrated with us regardless, and for a moment we were the happiest seaponies in all the seven seas. Luster was one of the first to get sick. I first noticed it when she couldn’t remember where our nest was. She had always been tiny, but she grew weaker and frailer by the day, all that hard work going to waste. Soon our colony contracted the disease and the elders and I were working on a plan to stop it, none of our medicines were working, none of our healers knew what it was, our last hope was to seek help from the surface ponies and it was decided that I should be the one to go. Seeing Starlight so ill was its own kind of agony, she couldn’t remember her name, but she could say Luster’s with certainty and she knew who I was, but her memory got worse every day. One day I couldn’t bear it any longer and decided to seek the surface ponies for help, despite the protests of the elders to think of a more detailed plan. I wouldn’t let my daughter waste away, my wife had suffered enough as well, I would crawl the desert if I had to if it meant finding a cure.  But as I swam away with Starlight screaming after me, a strange, heavy dread fell upon me. Where was I going? What was I doing? I washed up on shore where Shining and Flurry found me. I must have been there for days. I wake up with Flurry beside me, holding my hoof. Shining is there too, reading a book and drinking his beloved tea. “I need help,” is the first thing I say. “I know, Meadowbrook has been working all day on making batches of the medicine for you,” Shining says with a smile. “Thank you,” I look at the ceiling. “My wife, my children…” I don’t even know if my second child has been born yet. I can’t remember how long I’ve been gone. “I’m desperate.” “Once Meadowbrook is ready and the spell wears off, we’ll help you find your family,” his smile is reassuring and confident. “We have a boat and it’s loaded with all the equipment we need, you just tell us where to go.” I look down at Flurry and stroke the top of her head while she sleeps. “Now I understand why she was such a comfort, she reminds me of my own daughter.” Shining smiles. “I’m glad she helped you. I just hope she’ll be able to say goodbye.”