With a gentle breeze blowing through the heavens, it was the perfect time for Twilight to curl up with one of her favourite books. Granted, it would have been nicer if Sunset had been here with her, but hey, a good moment was a good moment. The mortal realm was at relative peace for the time being, so she contented herself with simply getting wrapped up with this good story, as well as being wrapped up with the clouds she was laying on. Unfortunately, her solitude and relaxation was rudely interrupted by the sudden sound of groaning from behind. Though irritated, her mood changed instantly to concern once she realised who and what was behind her. It was her brother, Shining, but not the impressive, powerful figure he usually was. Instead, he was crawling as best he could towards her, his body limp and clearly struggling to move properly. In fact, only one hand really had any motion to it, which he used to inch closer to her. Twilight, naturally, threw her book to the side to rush to his aid. "Shining! What in Celestia's name happened to you?!"
Though he had great difficulty in doing so, he eventually got out his words. "Mon...ster. Adagio...son. The...sea. Took...tendons."
Twilight blinked to that last one. "Um...pardon?"
"Ten...dons," Shining repeated.
Though still confused, one look-over of her brother revealed the truth. As he'd said, he was indeed missing his tendons, an act that had clearly rendered him virtually immobile, save for the aforementioned hand. Of course, Twilight was aghast by this turn of events. "Wait...Adagio's son? That great, big sea monster? Was he...was he attacking ships again?" A nod from her brother prompted her to question him further. "And you went to stop him..." Musing on that, she again looked him over. "Brother, do forgive me for saying this, but that one might have been a touch out of your league. He is of divine blood, being Adagio's son and all. Plus he's, you know, really big." All Shining could do was blink, leading to a pat on his head from Twilight. "Don't you worry. I've got this, big brother."
With a sudden burst of her power, she transported herself away from the divine realm, sending herself down to the earth in a bright flash. Shining, still up there, lay in silence before groaning again. "Uuuuuuuuuuuugh."
Once upon the shoreline, Twilight narrowed her eyes, looking around all across the horizon. Thankfully, her quarry was so large that it took no time whatsoever to see the huge, hulking mass that was her brother's foe. A sea monster indeed, an amalgam of all manner of other aquatic creatures, bursting forth from the depths to give an almost ear-shattering roar. But Twilight was unconcerned, and so shot forth, flying fast over the surface of the ocean to meet with the creature. "My brother's might did not avail him. Let's see if a little diplomacy can win the day." Before long, she was there, looking up at the vast form of the child of the Goddess of the Oceans. Beastly was the right word to describe him, and barely had Twilight arrived when the creature noticed her down at water-level, leading to a smile on her part. "Good day, young Master Dazzle. I realise you probably have a lot to do, but it seems you and my brother got into a bit of a tussle earlier. As such I'd like you to return the tendons you ripped from him."
In response, the monster simply bellowed. "RAAAAAAAAARGH!!!"
Twilight, after poking her pinkie finger into her ear for a moment after that outburst, cleared her throat and started again. "I realise you may be in a bit of a bad mood today, but I feel that it's important to let you know that my brother was simply doing his job. Mortal lives need protecting after all and him opposing you was, well, the heroic thing to do. You didn't have to go overboard in doing what you did." She couldn't help but snicker a little bit. "Heh, get it? Overboard? Because...because we're in the ocean?"
Even the monster failed to resist rolling his eyes to that one, and Twilight sighed with disappointment, realising that her efforts were falling on deaf ears. Fortunately for her, this awkwardness was to be interrupted by the unexpected sound of clapping. Turning, Twilight frowned to see that it was the beast's parent, Adagio, who was shaking her head while giving a sarcastic slow clap. "My, my, my. I've seen some fairly poor attempts at negotiation in the past, but that one really does take the cake."
Twilight glanced down, seeing that her fellow goddess was being suspended in the air by a tall water spout rising from the ocean that was enveloping her entire lower half. But regardless, she was here, and Twilight was certain to give her a piece of her mind. "Adagio, I seem to recall my sister-in-law telling you that these children of yours needed to be kept under control."
To that, Adagio swept some of her hair aside. "I vaguely recall that. But my little darlings get so hungry. And they do need their roughage after all."
Placing her hands upon her hips, Twilight's glare intensified. "Mortals and their boats are not roughage."
Adagio shrugged. "Even if I were to accept that, do you have any idea how many children I have to keep track of? Every creature of the seas is my progeny, Twilight. That's a lot of sons and daughters. And unlike Celestia, I'm not omniscient." Moments later, she smiled. "Oh, and speaking of my children, I just gave birth to the most adorable little great white shark. I'll show you the pictures if you like."
Rubbing the bridge of her nose, Twilight sighed. "Maybe later. Look, if you can't control this one, can you at least convince him to give me my brother's tendons back? He's kind of flopping about up there without them."
Adagio feigned a concerned gasp. "Oh my! He must look truly horrific!"
Thinking on that, Twilight tapped her chin. "Actually, aside from being a bit limp, he looks alright. No scarring or anything." Slowly, she looked up to the monster. "Seriously, you should consider going into surgery with that kind of effortless skill."
The beast shrugged, looking about as flattered with the remark as one could when they had a face that wasn't even vaguely human. But, getting back to business, Twilight resumed her earlier, more serious expression. "Look, I can't go back without being able to put my brother back in one piece." She smirked. "And I'm pretty sure you don't want Celestia having to take a direct hand with him, given she's made it clear how we're to be more gentle with humans nowadays."
Grinding her teeth briefly, Adagio eventually slumped her shoulders in defeat. "Alright, fine." Looking up, she snapped her fingers. "Sweetie? Cough it up."
It would appear that this particular command was quite literal, as a brief bout of hacking up later yielding a big gob of slobber that, unfortunately, fell right down into Twilight's waiting hands. Staring at the unwanted expulsion, the goddess could see that the tendons were in there, and so, out of courtesy if nothing else, gave a quick nod to Adagio. "Thank you...very much," she strained to say.
Adagio blew her a kiss. "No problem, honey."
Shaking her head, Twilight used her power to once more zip back up to heaven, wherein she was surprised to find that Pinkie was also there, poking her unmoving brother with a stick. "Do you think he's dead?" she asked.
"No, Pinkie," Twilight responded. "But he is in a bad way. So if you don't mind giving some space?"
Pinkie happily obliged, stepping back so Twilight could take the stolen body part, now thankfully clean due to her transport up here, and began to painstakingly re-string her sibling. "This may take a while."
But Shining, with what little strength he had available to him, actually smiled. "No...problem. Take...time."
Seeing this, Pinkie sat to the side, smiling widely as she usually did. "Well, another day, another problem resolved with a happy ending."
Twilight looked to her with an arched eyebrow. "Why did you say it like that?"
Pinkie shrugged. "Meh, just kinda felt like I needed to say there were no loose ends."
"...Hello? Anybody? I'm...I'm still in the jar here!"