//------------------------------// // Marine Biology // Story: Little Fish, Big Pond // by Schorl Tourmaline //------------------------------// “So she’s a sea pony, right?” I said, looking at the infant girl sitting atop my kitchen table. After fleeing from Hayseed Swamp, Anya and I made it back to my home without issue, save for now having in our possession a small aquatic pony child. “Sure looks like one,” the gryphoness remarked, looking at the long, porpoise-like tail, “Except…” “Except what?” I replied. “Well Path, I’ve never met one, but I thought that sea ponies didn’t have legs.” Anya was right about that. While sightings of sea ponies were scarce, the rumors of them having fish-like fins instead of legs was pretty universal. “So maybe she’s some kind of mutant?” Anya said, blurting out the first conclusion that came to her. “Anya!” I said, “Don’t call her a mutant!” “What,” Anya said with a chuckle, positioning her talon above the baby’s head, “It’s not like she can understand me. Kids her age don’t care what you say, so long as you say it positively. It’s that right, you little mutant?” Anya flicked her sharp fingers around a bit as she spoke to the fishy child with a ‘baby voice’, and in response, the infant laughed and clapped, probably just excited that she was getting lots of attention. I nudged Anya with my elbow, still not happy that she was making light of the situation, which made her stop toying with the child for a moment. “Ok, fine,” she said, now a bit put off, “But that doesn’t excuse our problem. We need to get this baby home to its parents, and to do that we need to figure out where it comes from, and…” “To do that we need to know what she is,” I finished, well aware of the problem. Even if we were certain the baby was a sea pony, there might have been a subspecies that had legs as opposed to the standard finned varieties, and knowing where to find those would be the first step to getting the child home, “Maybe it would help if we got a professional who knows about this.” “Do you know any ponies that specialize in aquatic pony life?” Anya asked, not knowing that many ponies to begin with, let alone a pony marine biologist. “No, not really,” I replied, “We could ask around, I’m sure we’ll find something.” Anya took a deep breath, not as optimistic about that as I was. Equestria didn’t have open relations with the sea pony kingdom, so odds were that finding somepony who knew anything about them, in general, would take a while. “I do have one idea,” Anya said, picking up the baby in her arms, being careful to mind her claws, “But it means we will have to fly to Griffonstone.” “A gryphon that knows about sea ponies?” “Probably,” Anya said, “He knows a little bit about everything. Better grab your coin purse.” I didn’t even have to question why she said that last part. It was a gryphon we were dealing with, and even when dealing with one another, the avian species were compelled by greed. Hours later, we arrived at the doorstep of one of the many ramshackle shacks of Griffonstone. It was run down, with holes in the roof and a door that looked like it was about to fall off its hinges, but this was nothing unusual. The formerly glorious gryphon nation was littered with such buildings, Anya having left the city to get away from it all, as many other gryphon do. I would have normally never given it a second thought, but in our current predicament, all I could think that this was no place to bring a child. Still, I gave no objection as Anya gave the dilapidated door a knock, followed by a few slams when her first attempt wasn’t answered immediately. The second attempt was much more effective, as shortly after I heard movement inside, followed by the sounds of objects and furniture being displaced, and ending with the loud noise of something fragile smashing on the floor before the door was flung open to reveal an old gryphon with the features of a withered vulture. “What is it?” the elderly avian said grumpily, “Can’t a guy get some shut-eye at this hour of the day?” “But it’s just a little past noon…” I said, noting that the day was barely halfway through. “So?!” the gryphon replied, his feathers becoming ruffled by my comment, “I sleep throughout the day. I’m old, it’s what we do.” “Don’t mind him, Grampa Gruff,” Anya said, “I just brought him along because we need your help.” The old gryphon took a moment to squint at the gryphoness before recollection hit and his eyes widened with surprise, “Anya?” he said, his grumpy demeanor vanishing for a brief moment, before coming right back, “So ya left without a word after all I did to raise you upright, and now that you need something you come crawling back?” I watched Anya rolled her eyes, a typical gryphon response when given any kind of attitude from someone else, “You know that’s not how it happened. I told you I was going to Equestria to seek my fortune, and you just wouldn’t hear it. I even tried to tell you goodbye, but you just waved your hand and told me ‘You’ll be back’.” “And I was right!” Gruff said, waving a finger at Anya. “Look, I wouldn’t be here right now if I didn’t think you were the only one who could help,” Anya said, taking the foal from my arms, “We stumbled across this thing here, and we need-” Gruff grabbed the door, and just before slamming it said sternly, “Not interested.” The impact of the door hitting its frame shook his whole house, leaving the three of us standing on the other side of his flimsy divider. “Oh for the love of-” Anya quickly handed the child back to me, and pounded on the door once more, “I don’t want you to take care of it, you old buzzard! We just need help figuring out what species it is!” A few more fists hit the door, Anya slowly going from annoyed to angry, and almost in a fit of rage she blurted out, “We were even gonna pay you!” Almost as soon as she said that, the door opened again, but this time not by Grampa Gruff’s hand, but by that of a young gryphon girl, perhaps four or five years old. “Did you say… ‘pay’?” The tiny gryphoness asked, the prospect of getting any amount of coin enticing her. “Gilda, get back inside!” Gruff called to the chick. “But they said they have money,” she replied. “Do what I say, or a give ya a knock on the noggin,” Gruff threatened, prompting the young gryphon away from the entrance, “And you two, are ya gonna stand on my front step all day? Get in here, and let’s see this problem of yours!” Anya and I looked to one another, and I watched as her beak turn to a smirk, “Told ya he’d help us.” Anya made her way inside after that remark, and I followed after, not really understanding what had just happened. I knew that gryphons could be inhospitable, but somehow that trait went so far in one direction that it went out the other side and convinced the old gryphon to invite us in. These were strange customs, the likes I would never encounter in Equestria. Entering the house, the place looked as much of a mess as the outside, the old gryphon’s furniture covered in clutter, and in a state of disrepair that it was a wonder how some of it still held together. I had to watch my step as I made my way around, as old bobbles and trinkets were scattered about in such density that I couldn’t put a hoof down without nudging one. “So you’re trying to figure out what ya got there,” said Gruff, standing by a table in what I assume was an area he used as his study. He placed an arm down on one edge of its surface and cleared it off by haphazardly knocking everything on top of it to the floor. “Well set it down so I can have a look at her.” It took me a little while to reach the table myself, but once there I did as I was told. Gruff then bent over the child, observing every part of it in great detail, “Hmmm… I see… very interesting…” he muttered to himself. “What’s interesting?” I asked, feeling that I deserved to know whatever it was he was discovering about the foal. His response was a silent raising of his hand, palm turned upwards, as he continued his observations without so much of a turn of his head in my direction. Fortunately, I had learned ‘gryphon sign language’ through Anya, and thus with a small sigh handed him a small pouch of Equestrian coins. The gryphon bounced the bag in his hands, and seemed pleased with the jingling he heard. “Lucky for you two, I think I know what this is.” “You do?” Anya asked, having placed herself on the other side of the table from the male gryphon. “I just need to conduct a few tests,” he said, reaching for a pencil he spotted on the floor. Using the eraser end of the object, he slowly brought it closer to the baby, who tried to grab at it, until Gruff sped up his movement and pressed it into the center of her forehead, taking it away just as quickly. The child blinked a few times, assumedly out of confusion, but then started laughing from the sensation. “What was that-?” I started to ask. “Shhhh,” Gruff interrupted, repeating his pencil jab again, getting another childish giggle in return. He did this several times, with each making me want to ask what he was doing even more, but the moment I would open my mouth, he would ‘shh’ me again. After about ten times, it started to become annoying, but not just for me. The child was starting to find it less and less funny as well, her reactions going from happy, to neutral, to a little upset. Tears were forming in her eyes as if even at her young age she could understand that the old gryphon was picking on her. At the sight of her starting to cry, something instinctual flared up inside me, almost like when I had protected her from the monster at the river. “Hey, quit it,” I said, ignoring the shh-ing that came when I spoke. “No, I mean it. Stop.” “Just a few more times, and we’ll see if I’m right,” Gruff said, going in for another jab. I wasn’t about to let that happen and took hold of his wrist before he could poke the child again, being firm, but gentle as I could be with the elderly avian. He, of course, didn’t take this lightly and grabbed my arm with his free hand. “You wanted me to figure out what this thing is, and that’s what I’m doing.” he protested. “By making her sad?” I rebutted, raising my voice a little. “No,” Gruf said, “By making her-” “Uh, you two might want to look-,” Anya said, clearly concerned about something. Whatever it was, it would have to wait. What I was doing was more important, at least that’s what I thought until...  “GRAAAH!” A small, but frightening sound hit my ear, and my head turned to the table, where it had come from. The only thing there was the baby, but she no longer resembled the sweet, cheerful child I had come to know. Her skin had changed from a grey and white complexion to that of a sickly green, her skin sagging in places while her body took on an emaciated appearance, the outlines of her bones becoming visible through her flesh. The bright red mane she bore changed to a dark, murky color of rust, and the whites of her eyes had changed to pure black, while her emerald green eyes went pale. In this terrifying state, the child attacked the pencil that had been prodding her, biting down on the wood part of it, acting like a vicious animal as she took out her frustrations on the object. “By making her mad.” Gruff said, completing his thought, relinquishing the pencil to the girl, “It’s just as I thought.” Worried about what had happened, I released Gruff’s wrist. “W-What? Anya, what happened?” “I don’t know?!” she replied, just as freaked out as I was, “I just was watching her, and one second she was normal, and the next she turned into that right before my eyes!” “Both of you, relax!” Gruff demanded, “The child’s ok, and everything is fine. She’s just doing what comes naturally is all.” “Natural?” I asked, not sure what was at all natural about this. “Gilda!” Gruff said, scanning the room for the gryphon girl, “Go find me my book on Equestrian Aquatic Species.” The young gryphoness had taken to laying herself across a tattered recliner, sitting on it sideways as she showed no interest in what the adults were doing. When she was called upon, her only reply was, “Why do I have to get it?” To which the reply was a shiny, golden bit being tossed onto her chest. That changed her tune quickly, and as she snatched up the coin, she took off through the house, saying “Right away, Gramps” as she flew off to a nearby bookshelf. She was in no way quick about her task but managed to come back with a fairly worn book before Gruff had to go after her himself. Flying right up to the old gryphon, she handed him the book, while catching her first glimpse of the gaunt baby atop the table. “Woah, what’s that?” she asked, watching as the younger child did her best to attack the pencil given to her, despite not having any teeth. “That…” he said opening the book, flipping a few pages till he found the one he sought, “Is this. Placing the book down, he allowed everypony else to take a look inside. My eyes locked onto the first word I saw, printed in large, bold letters. “Scylla?” “No, not that,” Gruff said, “Those are just myths. Look at the other page.” Doing as I was instructed, I saw an image of a creature that looked much like an adult version of what the infant looked like right now. A nearly horrific pony with aquatic features, that seemed more monster than equine. And above its image was the name of the creature: “Kelpie”. “What you have here is a baby kelpie,” Gruff said, just to make sure I got the right one, “They are mean and monstrous ponies that live in rivers and attack anyone who they come across that isn’t a kelpie. They're likely to drag you in and drown ya, so much as look at ya.” “But… how is this her?” I asked, confused, “She didn’t look like that until right now.” “Look right here,” Gruff said, pointing to a spot in the book as he explained the important details, “Kelpies have the ability to alter their appearance to look more like ponies, and less gruesome. They do this to lure ponies like yourself into an ambush and lead them to a watery grave. Mean-spirited lot.” Having said that, Gruff bent over and searched through his clutter, until finding a set of keys. He hovered the shiny metal items before the tiny kelpie’s face and jingled them about a few times. This caught her attention, and as the gryphon assumed, distracted her away from the pencil. The noise and movement both proved entertaining for the infant, and her mood improved vastly over the course of a few seconds. Soon, her shape plumped out again, and her completion brightened back up until she returned to her prior form. “She’s probably not even aware she’s doing it,” Gruff said, allowing the infant to take the keys and do as she pleased with them, to which she happily shook them around to make more noise, “It’s all instinct right now, coming as natural as flapping your wings when you were a foal.” “So… you’re saying that her parents are literal monsters?” I asked. “You ponies have a strange notion of what you consider monsters,” Gruff replied, “You look at this child, and until it showed you its true form, you didn’t think for a second that she was anything but a normal baby. Kelpies are just like you or me, and while they have a mean streak, that’s brought on out of necessity, not nature.” “You mean that other creatures shun them for their appearance,” Anya said, “And that’s why they stick to themselves.” “Exactly,” Gruff said, “Especially from you ponies, since you’re a judgemental lot. I wouldn’t give one the opportunity drag me in the drink, but I at least am aware that they only kill to protect their territory, and steal because it’s the best way they can provide for themselves.” As the two gryphons spoke on the matter of kelpie behavior, I was busy replaying my first encounter with the baby kelpie in my head, having just come to a sudden realization. While I didn’t get a good look at the creature that attacked us from the river, but looking back, I remembered a vaguely pony-like shape, and eyes that looked exactly like the ones I saw the child have in her natural form. “Oh no…” I said aloud, catching the attention of the two gryphons, “Anya… I think I made a mistake.” Anya, being the more clever of the two of us, seemed to have come to the same conclusion, and replied, “Yeah… I think you kidnapped a child.” With the understanding that the baby was a kelpie, it became all too apparent that I was attacked because her father or mother saw some strange pony holding their child. In the heat of the moment, I took the child away from what I thought was a threat to both of us, but was in actuality just a threat to me. “Hmmm…” Gruff said, having now learned how we came across the child, “If that’s what you did, I’d stay away from river banks from now on if I were you.” “I didn’t mean to,” I said in defense, “I didn’t see a baby and say ‘oh look, free baby’.” “Grampa Gruff,” Anya said calmly, “Pathfinder isn’t malicious, just a bit stupid. The reason we wanted to learn more about the baby in the first place is because we want to get her back to her parents.” “If that’s what you’re trying to do, you’re gonna have a hard time,” Gruff said, closing his book, “Kelpies are loners, never staying in large groups, and never staying in one river for too long. You could check where you found her, but odds are that her parents have moved on, mostly in search of their missing child.” “We still have to try though,” I said, not wanting to give up before we started. “Good luck on that,” Gruff said, going over to the mess of pots and pans that was his kitchen, “But before you go, I take it you haven’t fed it yet, have you?” “We tried to feed it some oats on the way here,” I answered, “But she didn’t like them.” “Of course not, she’s a carnivore,” Gruff said, getting into his fridge and pulling out a fish from it. Finding a knife and a chopping board, he sliced the fish into several slivers of meat, and then chopped those slivers into mince, before sliding it into a bowl and handing it to me, “Feed her this until you get her back to her parents. Grounded up worms will work too.” “Right…” I said, embarrassed. Being a pony, one just assumes that most other species are herbivores too, but leave it to a gryphon to understand which creatures need meat to survive. “Thank you for all your help, Grandpa Gruff,” Anya said, picking up the child. “Now don’t you go flying off as soon as you got what you wanted,” Gruff said, scolding my associate, “It’s my turn to get something from you.” Anya sighed, but smiled, “Okay, what do you need from me?” “Just some information.” said Gruff. “Information?” Anya asked. “Yeah, about Equestria,” said Gruff, shifting his eye slightly to the younger gryphoness in the room, “Seeing that you went to live there, and didn't come back till now, I thought maybe there was a good reason for that. I’ve been considering something for a while, and if I’m gonna do it, then I might need some advice from someone who knows Equestria better than I do.” “Of course, Grampa Gruff,” Anya said, “Anything for the gryphon who raised me.” “Come on, then,” he replied, “We’ll talk about this in another room. Away from prying ears.” “Sure,” said Anya, “Path, you mind giving me a few minutes?” I had already made my way back over to the table, and was feeding the kelpie bits of meat I had been given. “Yeah, I can hang out while you talk to your friend.” “Gilda,” Gruff commanded the gryphon girl, “Keep an eye on the pony and make sure he doesn’t take anything.” Gilda groaned, and I gave the old gryphon a look, not realizing his order was more for his privacy than skepticism towards me. I was later told by Anya that Gruff wanted to send Gilda to Equestria to get a better education than she would get in Griffonstone, and that he had always been one to look out for the unfortunate youths of the gryphon nation. Still, without that knowledge, I quickly let my annoyance at the old gryphon’s words go, and allowed the gryphon child to keep watch over me as I fed the kelpie. “So this is supposed to be a dangerous pony predator?” Gilda asked, not seeing anything particularly threatening about the baby. “Yeah, I suppose so,” I replied as I scooped up another bit of fish mush onto my finger, bringing it to the kelpie’s face where she promptly gummed off the food presented to her, “But I guess that won’t happen till she grows up.” “Pfff,” Gilda snubbed, blowing air through her beak, “I could take one of those things if it came after me.” Remembering how Anya easily fended off an adult kelpie, I had to agree with Gilda that when she grew up, she’d probably be able to do the same. Gryphons were predators, and both birds and cats very often had advantages compared to fish. That did make me wonder though, what was the life of a kelpie like? Gruff didn’t make it sound great, since he implied that theft and murder were natural parts of their culture. It was almost a shame that by returning the baby to her rightful parents, she would be returned to such a world. “So does it have a name?” Gilda asked as she lends her back against the table’s edge, trying to keep a display of disinterest, but finding it impossible not to submit to her childish curiosity. “Eh… not that I know of,” I answered, assuming that her parents would have named her. “Then why don’t you give her one?” the gryphon child suggested. Giving the child another finger full of fish bits, I didn’t really think it would be right to give her a title that might override her actual name in her impressionable, infant mind. Though, the mere mention of it did make me humor what I might call her in my thoughts. Something aquatic, of course, as pony naming conventions usually had names that connected directly to the pony themselves. At about the time the bowl of fish became empty, the door to the room Gruff and Anya went into opened up. “Ok, time to go,” said Anya, heading for the door. I got up, understanding that we both had no more reason to stick around, having gotten what we needed. “Thank you for all your help,” I said to our host, before making my way to the exit. “Don’t thank me,” Gruff replied, not caring for the  praise of a random Equestrian, “You still have a bunch of problems to deal with if ya intend to get that baby back to its parents. Even if ya find them, I suggest you don’t get too close to the water.” Anya and I headed Gruff’s last warning, and let his home, Anya giving one last “Goodbye” before we took flight and left Griffonstone behind to start our search. We returned to the river we first found the baby, starting at the location I discovered her, now a day later. Together, Anya and I traversed a good portion of it, until we reached parts that split off in different directions, calling out for any kelpies to direct their attention to us. As Gruff suggested though, it had appeared that the parents had already left, perhaps on a man hunt for their missing child, and for me. The fear of retribution never overcame my sense of duty though, as I was determined to get reunite the kelpie family, even at the cost of well deserved bodily harm for my accidental actions. It took Anya to stop me from searching, as she spotted the sun being lowered by Celestia. “Path, it’s gonna get dark soon,” she said, “And a swamp is no place for a child at night.” “You’re right,” I admitted instantly, despite wanting to continue the search, “I’ll just… have to try again tomorrow, and if that doesn’t work, the day after that.” Anya gave me a sympathetic look, knowing that I was feeling awful for what I had done. “Don’t worry. We’ll find her parents.” I wanted to believe her, but I couldn’t disregard what Gruff had said. If the kelpies had left this area, there might be no finding them at the point. Still, I had to try. This baby deserved to have parents, and one way or another I was going to provide her with them.