//------------------------------// // Welcome to Mount Aris (Part 2) // Story: Too Many Pinkie Trips // by RCharge //------------------------------// The amber glow of the sun slowly washed over the city of Hippogriffia, rousing its residents from slumber. Sunburst and the second Pinkie were heading downstairs to the main area of the inn. As they walked, they passed some familiar faces they saw on the airship. A few of them waved and smiled at the duo. Rounding the corner, Pinkie glanced at Sunburst. “Well, today’s the big day, Sunny! Ready to head down and talk to the queen?” she asked as she pronked alongside him.  Sunburst looked at Pinkie and took a deep breath, then let it out slowly. “If I said no, would you believe me?” he replied. Pinkie simply giggled. “Of course, silly. Don’t worry though, Queen Novo is one of the nicest rulers I’ve ever met! Sure, she might be a little rough around the edges, but who isn’t around strangers?” she remarked as they approached a staircase and began descending to the ground floor. “Once we get down there, just be yourself and everything will turn out fine. Trust me.” We’ll see about that… “Um, okay, Pinkie. Sure thing,” Sunburst stated as they continued down the stairs.  A hippogryph was standing at the counter and talking with the gryph behind it. “Would you happen to know what room our guests are staying in? I was told to come fetch them.” A subtle gesture of a claw was all it took for the hippogryph to turn and notice the two. “Oh! Well then, that saves me some time and effort…” he mused as he approached the duo. “Hello there, you two! I have just received word that our queen is ready to accept visitors. If you two are prepared, you can follow me over to the well, and we can get you ready to go down below.” No time like the present, I guess… “Of course. Lead the way,” Sunburst calmly replied. As they followed the path through the plaza, a tall building slowly came into view, extending into the sky. Walls in the shape of wings curled around the tip of the structure, forming a figurative protective cover for the city. “What’s that?” Sunburst asked as they approached the structure. “This is the Well of Eternity. It serves as our link to Seaquestria. Before you ask, this is the fastest way to travel to the underwater city.” Sunburst shot an inquisitive glance at Pinkie, who only nodded in confirmation. “Now, if you’d follow me, the well is just ahead.” When no objections came, the hippogryph led them inside. After descending a short flight of stairs, Pinkie and Sunburst found themselves in a modest-sized room underneath the city itself. Marble pillars flanked a circular recess in the ground, and the walls were engraved with various underwater motifs, from schools of fish to coral reefs. Inside the chamber, a pair of hippogryphs awaited them. One of them was holding what appeared to be a bubble affixed to a collar of alabaster white coral. The other one was empty-hoofed. “Wait, only one? What about Pinkie?” Sunburst declared as he gestured to the pink mare. “Doesn’t she need one too?” “Nope! I don’t need one, Sunny. I already visited Seaquestria once before.” Sunburst glanced at her, one eyebrow raised. Pinkie tilted her head slightly in confusion. “Wait, I didn’t tell you all about my visit to the queen of the hippogryphs?” When Sunburst shook his head, Pinkie shrugged and continued on towards the opening of the well. “All you need to know is that the queen blasted me with some really colorful pearl, and now I don’t need to wear one!” she mentioned as they approached the rim of what could now be discerned as a pool of some sort. One of the gryphs slipped the bubble helmet over Sunburst’s head as Pinkie leapt into the air and curled her hooves to her chest. “Cannonball!” she declared before splashing into the pool and disappearing beneath its depths. Sunburst simply stared at the pool, eyes wide and brows furrowed. “A-are you sure it’s safe?” One of the gryphs rolled his eyes. On an unseen cue, he lifted Sunburst up and chucked him into the pool. Almost immediately, he felt himself sink. Water swirled around him in a vortex as it sucked him down into the depths. He heard a distant cry of elation from below him. Well, at least Pinkie’s having fun…  Suddenly, his stomach turned upside down as he felt himself impact something firm. Before he could figure out what was going on, he started sliding along a smooth surface. A bright flash of light suddenly illuminated the darkness ahead. Soon, he felt himself leave the ground to pass through an opening in the rock wall. When he regained his bearings, he noticed that he was no longer moving. Glancing around, he realized that he was now in an underwater cave. “Whee! Wasn’t that just super-de-duper?” a familiar voice said as he turned to his left to see a seapony that looked exactly like Pinkie.  Sunburst stared at her for a moment. "P-Pinkie?" he finally managed to sputter out as she nodded. "W-what happened to--Oh, the pearl thing. Right." Pinkie grabbed one of his forelegs and began swimming away from the well's exit. As the two swam with Pinkie leading the way and Sunburst allowing himself to be dragged along, the passageway opened into a sizable underwater cavern. As they passed a coral reef, several buildings slowly came into view. With long stems protruding from the rock walls and a rounded top, they reminded Sunburst of mushrooms. Upon closer inspection, they appeared to be grouped around a lone stalactite embedded in the ceiling. Light shone from inside of several homes, and a few seapony foals swam by, giggling amongst themselves. A couple of concerned seaponies sped past, trying to keep up with them.  Up ahead, a bright pink light pierced the darkness of the cavern. "There's the palace!" Pinkie chirped as she swam towards the light. At the very tip of the rock formation, a building in the shape of a clam shell that sat upright quickly came into view. Structural supports grew along the outside of the roof from what looked like pieces of brown seaweed. An opening at the bottom of the structure formed a spotlight that allowed the light inside to spill out into the cavern. Pinkie and Sunburst swam toward the opening. Before they could reach it, two seaponies dressed in makeshift armor consisting of seashells, along with a spear made of hardened coral, suddenly appeared and blocked their advance. “Halt. State your names and your reason for entry,” one declared as the other moved a bit closer to Sunburst. “Hm. You don’t look like a seapony…” he mused as he circled Sunburst once. “What are you doing here, outsider?” he bluntly inquired as he came to a stop in front of Sunburst, spear at the ready. “W-well, I’m here to do a…” Sunburst gulped as he forced the rest of his words out, “... a-an archeological study of Seaquestria.”  The guard stared at Sunburst for a moment before he slowly moved his spear away. A look of confusion flashed across his face before it was replaced with comprehension and understanding. “Hmph. Fine. I shall go and speak with the queen to see if she will allow an audience with you. Names?” he stated through clenched teeth. “I’m Pinkie Pie, but I’m sure you know all about me,” she mentioned before swimming over to Sunburst. “And this is Sunburst!” Pinkie chirped as she wrapped a foreleg around his withers. “He’s the one doing the studying, I’m just here as his assistant,” she quickly clarified as the first guard sighed. “Okay. You two wait here. I’ll go and inform the queen of your intentions. I’ll be right back.” He swam off and disappeared back into the building, leaving the second guard to watch the entrance. After a few moments, the first guard returned and cleared his throat. “Her Majesty has informed me that she will grant you an audience with her. Follow us.” They followed the guards up a short passageway, which led them to an opulent throne room. Marble pillars flanked the room at measured intervals as illuminated strands dangled from the ceiling above. Upon closer inspection, they noticed the light was coming from an unusually large mass of pink anemone that was transfixed on the ceiling directly above the throne. “Here is the outsider and his entourage, Your Majesty.” A light snort came from the seapony on the throne. Her tailfin and webbing reflected the colors of the rainbow, and her goldenrod yellow scales adopted a rosy hue from the light that shone from the anemone plastered to the ceiling. She swam forward, coming to a rest just before the two guards. “No need to be so formal, my little seaponies. Now, return to your posts so I may speak with our guests.” With a salute, the two guards disappeared down the passageway from whence they came. Unfortunately for Novo, Pinkie took advantage of the silence. "Hiya, Queenie! Did you miss me?" she chirped, prompting a soft sigh from her. "Yes, hello again, Pinkie," she replied neutrally as her gaze settled upon Sunburst. "And what is your name, outsider?" "S-Sunburst, Your Excellence," he choked out as Novo sighed. "Please, just call me Novo. I am the queen of the seaponies. However, I'm sure you already knew that," she mentioned idly as she swam back to the throne. "O-oh, of course, Queen Novo," he replied as Novo settled back onto the throne and rolled her right hoof, resting her cheek upon it. “Now, my guards have informed me that you’re looking to do a… what did you call it again?” she asked with an air of disinterest. “Um, archeological study?” he helpfully supplied, to which Novo lightly shrugged. “Archeological study. Right. So, how were you looking to accomplish this?” Novo asked as she lowered her foreleg and leaned forward slightly. “We were looking to go deep sea diving and maybe explore some ruins in the area. That is, if you’ll allow us to,” Sunburst explained as Novo snickered lightly. “I could, but there’s one problem with that," she quipped as her webbed foreleg gestured at him. “I think you’ll find the deeper parts around here to be rather… inhospitable for an outsider such as yourself. So, what we’ll do is—” “—blast you with that magic pearl thingie!” Pinkie interjected as she circled Sunburst once. A soft sigh escaped Novo’s lips. She rolled her eyes, swam up to the anemone coating the ceiling, and reached into a clump of illuminated fibers. When she pulled her arm back, a glowing pearl about the size of a baseball could be seen in her clutches. "Took the words right out of my mouth, Pinkie. This is our prized possession… the Sea Pearl. With its magic, we are capable of shifting our forms between land and sea. I can lend you its power to complete your little excursion. Due to a certain someone attempting to steal it...” Pinkie started nonchalantly whistling as she tried, but ultimately failed, to appear to be guilt-free, "I cannot allow you to touch it. However, you do not need to be near it for its effects to work.”  As she held the pearl towards Sunburst, wisps of brown magic wafted towards him. When they infused his body, he suddenly could no longer feel his rear legs. Looking beneath him, he noticed they had fused into a single tip, from which a tailfin colored orange with a few yellow streaks sprouted. The next thing he noticed was a significant loss of musculature in his forelegs, their shape becoming slimmer and less toned.  Webbing ran along the underside of his forelegs, which ended at the crook of his upper leg. Suddenly, he felt lethargic, and his breaths were coming in short, labored spurts. Seeing this, Pinkie quickly removed the helmet, causing Sunburst to cough for a moment before his breathing slowed, and his head started to clear. “Would’ve been nice to have a little warning about that...” he spat out between coughing fits. “Oh. I didn’t think that I needed to preface the fact that, since our kind lives in the sea, we breathe through our gills,” Novo dryly commented. “That would normally mean that breathing pure air would be much more difficult,” she added as she rolled her eyes. “Anyway, you are free to go explore the seafloor… or whatever it is you do for these types of studies,” she declared with a wave of her hoof. “Just don’t get lost. Now, if that’ll be all, I—” “Oh, uh, Queen Novo?” Sunburst interjected as he rubbed his forelegs together sheepishly. “Since these trips usually last more than a day, would it be possible for us to have a place to stay while we’re here? Also, would it be possible to have a, uh, guide to help us?” Novo suppressed the urge to sigh as she rested her forelegs on the armrests of her throne. “I don’t see why not. I shall have lodgings arranged for you by the time you return, and I shall send for someone to meet you outside. Now, if that’ll be all, I have more pressing matters to attend to.” Behind them, two other seaponies filed into the throne room led by the guards the two had seen earlier. When they were waved over, the guards led Pinkie and Sunburst back into the passageway. “See? That wasn’t so hard, now was it?” Pinkie asked as the two guards disappeared back into the palace. “Well, no, but I wasn’t sure what to expect when I first arrived,” Sunburst commented as Pinkie shrugged. “So, what’s the plan?” “She did say that someone was going to meet us here, right?” Pinkie tilted her head as one of her hooves tapped against her chin in thought.  Sunburst blinked slowly before letting out a soft sigh. “Well, guess we could wait here for a bit. After all, we don't know much about what's on the seafloor…” he added as he swam off to the side, with Pinkie following close behind. Meanwhile, back on the airship, the first clone was sitting in her room. She was staring out of the window at the wide expanse of sea before her when the intercom crackled to life. “Good morning, passengers, this is your captain speaking. If you look out of your windows for those of you on the starboard side of the ship, you’ll see the lovely Mount Aris in the distance as we make our way to our next stop, Maretonia. We’re scheduled to arrive, if all goes well, in a little under a day. I shall take this time to inform you of our many amenities on board, which include—” PInkie tuned out the announcement in favor of her own thoughts. One whole day? I didn’t think we’d have to travel that far to get there. Then again, I’ve never been to Maretonia, so maybe this is normal? She was about to continue this train of thought when the sound of the door being thrust open snapped her from her reverie. She jumped slightly, twirling around just in time to see Luna peek her head into the room. “Oh! We are sorry for scaring you, Ms. Pie. Thy lack of presence worried us, so we began searching for thee. If we knew thou were still in our room, we would have searched here first,” Luna explained as she rubbed her forelegs together. “However, now that we have thy attention, we would like for thee to join us on deck! We are sure thou would like to see this,” Luna stated as she turned and disappeared from the doorway. After taking a few calming breaths, Pinkie rose to her hooves and followed her out.  Once she arrived at the deck, Luna waved her over to the bow of the ship and pointed towards the Equestrian mainland. When she followed Luna’s hoof, she saw a bright rainbow in an arch between two cloud formations. A small group of passengers had assembled on the bow of the ship to stare at it, its bright colors visible even from where they stood. Eventually, the rainbow began to fade and activity returned to normal.  Pinkie turned to Luna and cleared her throat. “So, since we have another day at least before we get there…” she began, as Luna glanced at Pinkie, “Maybe we should go over things one more time? You know, just to ensure we’re prepared once we get there?” she added as Luna softly sighed. “Verily, one more glance couldn’t hurt. Afterwards, we are particularly interested in visiting the spa. We think that some time to relax before we arrive would be a good idea,” Luna decided as Pinkie led her back into the main building and towards their room.