//------------------------------// // New Hippogriffia // Story: Echoes of Harmony // by Scyphi //------------------------------// In the end, entering New Hippogriffia was easier than Twilight expected. Despite knowing the hippogriffs weren’t ignorant of the danger of intruders from the neighboring Changeling Kingdom, those in the first small country town she entered didn’t really question her sudden arrival and willingly gave her the benefit of the doubt. Of course, Twilight had by then shapeshifted into what would be herself if she were a hippogriff—resulting in a lavender-colored creature with a sapphire blue mane—and that probably helped. But while Twilight was certainly no beginner shapeshifter—all changelings learned at least the basics of shapeshifting—she still wasn’t a professional and had her limits, and fretted over whether or not this form was enough to avoid detection. But so long as she was nice to them, the hippogriffs responded in kind, so Twilight continued doing exactly that while heading to the town’s local station terminal. She supposed she shouldn’t be so surprised by the warm welcome, since the hippogriffs were famed for being neighborly with other creatures. But since changelings weren’t usually so quick to trust like that, it was still mildly perplexing to Twilight. Why weren’t they questioning anything and everything that seemed even slightly suspicious, like back home? But at least this meant food wasn’t in short supply for her—the hippogriffs gave off positive emotion so readily that she didn’t have to try very hard to get enough. And since it was all given freely, she didn’t even have to take it by force as per changeling habit. She found herself wishing all changelings could always feed like this as it’d solve a lot of problems, but for now she was content with having enough for herself. Which was good, because despite the hospitability of this little village, her journey was only just beginning—her best chance of finding what she needed was to head into the more densely populated part of the nation closer to the coast, hence her use of the aerial tramway, New Hippogriffia’s famed transport system of moving open gondolas by suspended cables. That part of her journey went smoothly enough, at least. But though Twilight thought the tramway’s engineering impressive and the views it afforded of the actually rather pretty country magnificent, she felt this mode of transport somewhat unpragmatic. Nevertheless, it got her where she needed to go, soon delivering her in the coastal city of Ouenetoi. It in of itself was a rather picturesque location, having been built around a prominent central river and featuring artificial canals branching off from the river and spiderwebbing throughout the city, ensuring that one never very far from water (likely so to accommodate the seapony side of the hippogriff population). It further featured cable cars scuttling back and forth that transported the inhabitants over the cobblestone roads running in-between or alongside the river and canals, which suited Twilight better as she, like many changelings, didn’t like swimming. It was all fascinating and interesting, and were she here under any other circumstance Twilight would’ve loved to explore the city in more depth…but she was on a mission. So she instead focused most of her stay at the place she felt most likely to help—the city’s Thalatte Public Library. It was one of the largest and most expansive libraries in this part of the world, so if Twilight was going to find any new information about Nightmare Moon, hopefully it would be here. She just needed to uncover it from wherever it was hidden inside the texts stored within. But after spending several days researching and cross-referencing the library’s many rows of books, even enlisting the very helpful library staff to assist in tracking down some relevant texts, all she found was everything she’d already learned. This at least helped reaffirm her earlier research and make her more resolute that Nightmare Moon was indeed returning soon. But this still didn’t reveal how to stop her or where to find the Elements of Harmony critical in doing so, let alone what they even were. It was possible that information was still hidden in some obscure corner of the large building—as impressive a library as it was, Twilight was dissatisfied by how the books were only organized by subject and title instead of by subject, title, author name, and date of publication as she would’ve ordered them—but finding it could take several more days, and she had another week at best to both find a solution and a plan of action before Nightmare Moon returned and began her attack. And that wasn’t counting the travel time needed to get to the probable spot of that return. So as impressive as it was, without the promise of finding a definite lead anytime soon, Twilight just couldn’t justify continuing to waste time searching here. “I’m going to just have to move on to look somewhere else,” she concluded halfway through her second day in Ouenetoi. What she’d probably need to do now, she thought to herself as she left the library for the last time, was to head further northeast, into the Griffon Order. Not only was that most likely around where Nightmare Moon would return, it was also where key parts of the Equestrian nation had existed before it collapsed—if the answers, information, or even these Elements of Harmony she sought were anywhere, it was a good chance they would be somewhere near there. In fact, the only reason she hadn’t gone straight there in the first place was because one: she was trying to make it easier for herself when inevitably facing judgement for her disobedience from Queen Chrysalis by at least avoiding breaking the queen’s desire to not alert their enemies of the oncoming threat, and two: the Griffon Order was much further away, too far to travel to on her own without some additional form of transport. With the latter thought in mind, Twilight abruptly shifted course to start towards the Ouenetoi docks, thinking she could secure passage on a sailing ship heading in the same direction as her. As she crossed through the busy streets, she was mentally double-checking she still had her hippogriff disguise in place (not that she’d hardly lowered it at all since entering New Hippogriffia) and planning out what she’d say to prospective shipmasters when one hippogriff within the crowded street unexpectedly caught her attention. Colored a butter-yellow with a flowing pink mane draping down past her shoulders, she was the only one in the sea of friendly hippogriff faces that wasn’t standing at full height. Instead, she was stooped low to the ground and, even more interestingly, walking backwards. Confused, Twilight moved around another hippogriff standing between them to get a better look at what she was doing. The reason swiftly became apparent—the hippogriff was carefully escorting a family of ducks through the street, trying to clear a path for them as she quietly murmured instructions to the line of waterfowl. “All right little ones, this way,” she was telling them sweetly. “Please stay close to me.” Following the hippogriff’s path showed she was likely taking them to a nearby canal. Bemused, Twilight watched the curious sight move past her for a moment, wondering why this creature cared so much to go to the trouble. For she definitely did—Twilight could sense the hippogriff’s friendly love and care for the ducks even from here—but the exact motives were lost on Twilight. Nevertheless, as the small parade of creatures slipped free of the thickest part of the crowds and stopped near the canal’s banks, apparently so to give each duck a final and heartfelt farewell before sending them on their way, it seemed that the hippogriff had the matter handled. So Twilight started to continue on her way. But then she saw the cable car heading down the street towards the hippogriff and her charges sitting in its path. Twilight hesitated for a second, thinking that surely they’d see the approaching cable car and get out of its way, but it was quickly apparent the hippogriff was so focused on the ducks and the ducks on her that both were ignorant of the approaching danger. The sounds of the cable car blending in with the noise of the busy street probably didn’t help. Worse still, Twilight could see the operator inside the cable car had been distracted tending to a passenger and hadn’t seen the obstruction on the tracks either. And by the time they did, the cable car was moving just fast enough it wouldn’t be able to stop in time to keep from hitting them. Any other changeling probably would’ve done nothing, as acting would’ve only brought unwanted attention to it at a time when it wanted to be unnoticed. It’s not my problem, Twilight even tried to tell herself, forcing herself to turn away. But she hadn’t even finished a complete about-face before instinct took over and she dove for the oblivious hippogriff. “Look out!” The hippogriff’s head whipped up in time to see the cable car nearly upon her, her pupils shrinking, before Twilight bodily slammed into her and shoved her out of the way, the two creatures hitting the pavement and rolling once before coming to a stop safely out of the way. The cable car, meanwhile, rolled right on past them without incident, a number of passengers hurrying to the side facing them to see if they were all right. Several other onlookers had stopped to ogle the scene as well. Twilight, seeing this and not wanting to draw a crowd, hurriedly motioned that everything was okay. “Don’t worry!” she called to everyone listening with a sheepish grin, “we’re all right!” The onlookers starting to disperse then, she turned to the hippogriff she’d just saved, trembling in a huddle on the ground beside her. “Right? We’re all right, right?” “D-ducks!” the hippogriff sputtered instead, visibly alarmed, her eyes first locking onto the retreating cable car before darting around the street. “Where did the ducks go? Oh no oh no oh no, they weren’t hurt, were they? Where did the ducks go?” “Uh…” Twilight hesitated, having not even stopped to think about the ducks and hadn’t seen where they went. There wasn’t any immediate evidence that they had been run over by the cable car, but… Fortunately, before she could finish that morbid thought, they both heard a loud quack and turned to see the family of ducks regrouping behind them, unharmed. The hippogriff made a relieved squeak and leapt to her feet, checking over each duck. “Oh thank Ziz, you’re all okay!” she breathed giving the ducks a quick hug before ushering them the rest of the way into the canal. “Now hurry along, all of you, into the canal where it’s safer for you to be,” she instructed as the birds all entered the water with small splashes. “We wouldn’t want any of you to nearly get run over by a cable car again.” She paused, as if suddenly realizing something. “Or for me to nearly get run over by a cable car…oh…oh my, I nearly got ran over by a…a…” Sensing her growing distress and seeing the hippogriff’s knees wobble, Twilight hurried to her side in time for her legs to give out and bodily collapse against the disguised changeling. “Oh, uh, easy, easy…ah…” she half-heartedly soothed, unsure what to do about the hippogriff slumped against her and hurriedly looked around for inspiration. “Let’s…let’s get you sitting down real quick so you can…take it easy.” She quickly escorted the lightheaded hippogriff over to an outdoor diner, setting her down in the chair of one of the tables. Visibly shaken, the hippogriff slumped over until her head thumped onto the table, weakly fanning herself in an attempt to calm herself. When a waiter saw what was happening and hurried over to investigate, Twilight handed him a couple of bits and asked him to bring the best calming drink they offered. He returned shortly with a cool glass of fresh vegetable juice and, thoughtfully, a straw. The hippogriff took a moment to sip the drink and recollect herself, fortunately recovering fairly quickly. “Oh dear,” she finally mumbled, the volume of her voice softening to a quiet and sheepish murmur, “I’m so sorry about that…I didn’t mean to put you in such an awkward situation.” “It’s okay,” Twilight quickly assured her, who’d hung around long enough to make sure she would be alright. But now that she had, she looked for a way to politely excuse herself. “Just…trying to help, you know?” “Well thank you,” the hippogriff nonetheless pressed. “You…you didn’t have to…do all this.” “Yeah, I know.” In fact, Twilight wondered why she had done it at all, when logically, given she was lying low, not getting involved would’ve been better for her. She supposed she just wasn’t that heartless. In any case, Twilight waved the matter aside. “Don’t mention in it, at any rate. I was just in the right place at the right time.” “Well, thank you anyway,” the hippogriff insisted, pushing her now empty cup aside. She was looking much better, though somewhat shy and, like Twilight, unsure how to react to this other creature she’d crossed paths with. “I’m Fluttershy, by the way. If…you know…that interests you.” “I’m Twilight. Glad to see you’re going to be okay, Fluttershy.” Thinking that as good a time to part ways, Twilight started to turn, ready to give a final goodbye, but curiosity made her stay a moment longer. “If I can ask…why were you concerning herself with the ducks so much anyway?” “Oh, well,” Fluttershy said, straightening in her seat, “they had gotten turned around looking for food and needed help getting back, so…I told them I would escort them there, and they…well…agreed.” “They agreed?” Twilight repeated, momentarily confused, before realization lit up her face. “Oh! Are you an oratimalis?” Fluttershy frowned. “A what?” Twilight hesitated. She thought that was the proper technical term for it…but then again, etymologically speaking, it did seem likely it was of entirely changeling origin. “You know, you can talk to animals?” “Oh,” Fluttershy made a small shrug as if to downplay the significance of the, honestly rather rare, magical skill. “I…suppose I can…at least a little.” Not convinced, Twilight pointed at a squirrel on the restaurant’s awning that was chattering away. “What’s that animal saying, then?” Fluttershy looked up at it. “Oh, he’s just commenting aloud how that lady’s fries smell good and how he’d really like to have one.” The female hippogriff in question, sitting at a nearby table and munching on some cheese-covered Prench fries, looked up in surprise upon overhearing this before glancing a wary eye the squirrel too. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure you’re an oratimalis,” Twilight concluded with a smug nod, glad to settle that. “Oh…well, all right then,” Fluttershy relented before shaking her head and turning her attention back to her rescuer. “Anyway, thank you again for…well…saving me. Is…there any way I could maybe repay you? If you don’t mind, I mean.” “Oh, you’re very kind, but no, you don’t need to do that,” Twilight quickly assured, more interested in just getting back to her mission. “Seriously, it’s okay. I don’t need any kind of reward or something.” “Oh,” Fluttershy curled in on herself a little. “Okay. It’s just…you did kind of save my life.” Twilight considered the idle speed the cable car had been traveling at earlier. “Well…I at least saved you from some expensive medical bills,” she reasoned. “But seriously, you don’t need to do anything to repay me.” She snickered to herself. “Not unless you’ve got a boat you can sail me up north with.” Fluttershy, however, looked thoughtful. “Well, actually…as it happens…” It wasn’t an especially big sailing ship. More of a private yacht, really, and it was clear it’d seen some years of continuous use. But as far as Twilight could tell, it seemed seaworthy. She didn’t really have much reason to suspect otherwise, as she sort of doubted Fluttershy would’ve brought her all the way down to these docks if she didn’t actually have a ship to meet the conditions she’d specified. “And this can sail as far as Horseshoe Bay?” Twilight asked again, still feeling a little hesitant. “Oh, certainly,” Fluttershy assured with a nod, standing next to Twilight on the pier running beside the moored little boat, “I’ve often sailed all over the Celestial Sea so to help care for my seafaring animal friends, so sailing up to Horseshoe Bay won’t be a problem.” She glanced curiously at Twilight. “Why Horseshoe Bay though, if I can ask?” “I need to head to the Griffon Order for business,” Twilight covered, which wasn’t a lie, she was just omitting many of the details. “As there isn’t a direct train line from here to there, going by boat would be faster than trying to fly there myself, and Horseshoe Bay will be close enough.” “Oh,” Fluttershy said with a nod, though she still seemed unclear about it. She fingered the magic pearl shard looped around her neck with her claws. “I suppose that would be easier than just…you know…swimming there yourself.” Twilight merely grunted and didn’t comment. As Fluttershy thought she was a fellow hippogriff, she didn’t know Twilight couldn’t just switch to a seapony form and swim. Well, as a changeling, she could, but not in the same manner as Fluttershy. Besides, Twilight disliked swimming, and typically made it a point to avoid putting herself in a situation where she’d need to. And as she wasn’t certain she was practiced enough a shapeshifter to hold a form and swim in water at the same time… But she’d be staying dry in a boat for, hopefully, the whole duration of this voyage, assuming the ship really was as sound as claimed, but the more Twilight looked it over, the more she believed Fluttershy’s claims that it was. It was rather small though, enough that neither of them would get too much privacy, a potential problem as Twilight wasn’t sure she could really maintain her disguise non-stop long enough to sail all the way to her intended destination…but careful planning and timing could probably be enough to work around that problem and she was good at that much. “How long would it take to sail there anyway?” Twilight asked next, running through the logistics of what she was considering. “To Horseshoe Bay? About a day, maybe two if the seas are rough,” Fluttershy answered. “But it should be fairly calm between here and there for the rest of the week until the next major storm is expected to blow through.” She watched Twilight thinking this through for a moment. “Are…you thinking about accepting my offer then? Because you don’t have to if you don’t want to, you know. I would understand.” “No, no, you’re fine,” Twilight quickly assured, giving the hippogriff a soft smile. She’d noticed Fluttershy seemed to have a bit of a self-esteem issue and continually talking down about herself, but at least it wasn’t to a crippling level. “I actually am considering it, because as I explained, I need passage up that way, so if you can actually give me that…” Twilight hesitated for another moment before deciding to just go for it. “…yeah, yeah let’s do this.” She turned to Fluttershy. “How soon can we leave?” “Oh, well, right away if you want,” Fluttershy replied, hopping from the pier and onto the deck of her boat so to begin prep. “As it happened, I already had plans to head out myself to check up on a fish migration that’s taking place. That’s why I was working with the, um, ducks earlier. I was making sure all of my animal friends here would be okay while I’m away.” She looked to Twilight. “I, uh, would just need to make a few final preparations and then we can…go. So…if you really want to go with me…” “Yes, I think I should,” Twilight assured with a nod. If Fluttershy was already prepared to go now, then she was very lucky to have crossed paths with her when she did so to be able to tagalong. She didn’t think she would’ve gotten such a good deal from any of the other shipmasters she had planned to approach instead, so this made the coincidence all the more happy. With a more tentative leap, Twilight stepped aboard too. “This seems like it’ll be a perfect arrangement for the both of us…if you’ll really have me, of course.” “Oh no, I’m happy to help,” Fluttershy readily assured, and for once, this seemed like something she was perfectly confident of. “So…um…welcome aboard, Twilight.” Fluttershy hadn’t been exaggerating about how ready to sail she was, for she already had her boat fully supplied. All she really needed to do was make sure everything was in place, and then they were underway before the next hour was even out. At first Twilight enjoyed the sailing, for the air was fresh and it gave her a wonderful view of the New Hippogriffia coast as they moved away from it. But then they transitioned out into more open waters where things were a bit choppier and Twilight quickly discovered seasickness was a thing. Fortunately, she was able to get her head over the side of the ship in time for the nausea to hit full force, and Fluttershy happened to have an herbal tea aboard that helped soothe her tummy. “Don’t worry about it,” the hippogriff had assured her gently as Twilight tried to get it back under control again, “Seasickness gets the best of every creature, even hippogriffs.” Twilight, of course, wasn’t actually a hippogriff, but she kept that detail to herself, more thankful that Fluttershy didn’t suspect anything. She wasn’t sure if her shipmate would really still be this kind if she found out how much she was deceiving her, but hopefully it wouldn’t come to that. Still, to play it safe, Twilight opted to remain below decks in the boat’s single all-in-one cabin until her changeling stomachs decided to settle down. She’d stayed there for most of the rest of the afternoon, but as dusk neared, she’d felt recovered enough to return above deck in time to see them sail past Mount Aris, the original hippogriff homeland before they’d started expanding sometime after Equestria had collapsed and freed up the mainland. Twilight had once seen an illustration of the iconic mountain island in a book back in the Changeling Kingdom, but she found no illustration could compare to seeing the majestic sight in person. Even Fluttershy, who wasn’t originally native to Mount Aris but had seen it plenty of times, had to marvel a little at the sight. After that, the trip continued rather routinely. As promised, the seas were fairly calm, making for easy sailing and helping Twilight to keep her meals down. The fact Fluttershy was producing enough emotive energy for her to discreetly make up for what she’d lost earlier also helped. Fluttershy spent most of it keeping the boat on the needed course, but it eventually grew late enough that, since Twilight didn’t know enough about sailing to take over for her, she docked them at a floating platform anchored to the seafloor where ships could temporarily dock when needed. In their case, it was so they could safely call it a night and get some sleep without fear of the ship veering way off course in the meantime. They slept in separate cots, where Twilight found curling up entirely under the covers gave her the privacy she needed to drop her disguise for a bit and relax in her natural form with minimal fear of Fluttershy seeing, allowing her a peaceful night’s sleep. The following sunrise they were off again, with their trip progressing same as before. Twilight initially spent her morning with another bout of seasickness, but knowing what to do this time she got it under control again better. Having some hours still before they even neared Horseshoe Bay and with Fluttershy consistently staying busy above deck, Twilight decided to spend most of her morning pulling out the research she’d collected thus far and keep studying it, in hopes of puzzling out new details she hadn’t already, or at least get a clearer picture of what awaited her still on this mission. She probably would’ve kept at it all the way until they arrived at their destination, but she was instead drawn out of her work far earlier than that upon hearing Fluttershy declare “Oh dear!” in alarm up above and, hiding her work in her bag again, Twilight went back above deck to investigate. She found Fluttershy at the ship’s wheel as usual, but instead of looking ahead of the ship, she’d instead turned to look up in the sky behind them. “Something wrong?” Twilight asked as she joined the hippogriff’s side. “Oh, well, I don’t want to alarm you,” Fluttershy said with a small wince before pointing a claw up at the sky. “But it appears some dragons have taken an interest in us.” “Dragons?” Twilight repeated in alarm, turning her gaze where Fluttershy pointed and seeing a trio of, not quite fully mature, dragons flying high in the sky. They were still trailing behind them but rapidly starting to close the distance between them, and it was clear they were deliberately closing in on their ship. “What are they doing out here?” “Well, we are traveling not far from the Dragon Coasts,” Fluttershy reminded, motioning to their portside where the mainland was faintly visible. Though it was more than a mile or two away from them, the thick jungles covering the colony the dragons had long ago claimed were still easy to see. “They are probably just making sure we aren’t threatening their territory. The dragons will do that sometimes, but if we leave them be, they should leave us be, generally speaking.” Twilight, however, was feeling rather tense about this unexpected development. The changelings and the dragons weren’t really on the best of terms traditionally, due to past attempts by the Changeling Kingdom to invade and the dragons responding in kind. If these dragons found out she was a changeling hiding aboard this ship, she feared they might try and attack just out of spite. And when the trio of dragons swooped down towards them in a divebomb, Twilight feared exactly that was about to happen. But when the three dragons pulled out of their dive at the last second, shooting virtually right over their heads, Twilight sensed something unexpected about all three of them and realized this was much, much, worse than that. “Those aren’t dragons,” she blurted aloud as they watched the trio come about for another pass. “What?” Fluttershy asked, confused. “They look like dragons to me…” “Trust me, they aren’t,” Twilight said, her brain whirling as fast as it’d go while desperately seeking a plan in the matter of minutes to seconds she had. “Fluttershy, I’m sorry, but I’m going to need to you trust me and follow my lead on this, no matter what happens.” “…okay?” Fluttershy said, uncertain. “Twilight, what’s going on?” Twilight watched the dragons start to come in for a landing this time, aiming for the ship’s aft where there was the most room to perch. “Do you have any way to make this ship go faster?” she breathed quickly, knowing it was a longshot but probably still their best chance. “…Well, I do have a pump-jet that a griffon friend of mine had convinced me to install…but I don’t really like using it because it’s hard to control, particularly with the sails still up, and it only works in quick bursts anyway, so…” she was cut short when the three dragons landed on the ship’s deck with successive thumps, drawing her attention back to them. Nervously, she and Twilight both gulped before Fluttershy timidly stepped forward. “Um…hello there! Is…is there something we can help you with…?” “We have no quarrel with you, hippogriff,” the lead dragon interrupted to tell Fluttershy firmly. “So I’d advise you to stay out of this.” Fluttershy responded by whimpering and obediently backing away. Twilight however, knowing she wouldn’t be given the same advice, took a deep breath and stepped forward. “Please leave her out of this,” she told the trio firmly, taking control of the conversation. “I don’t know how you tracked me down, but you and I both know it’s just me you’re after anyway.” “Quite,” the lead dragon said, folding his arms and focusing on her before getting right to the point. “We have orders to take you back where you belong, preferably peaceably.” Twilight took a deep breath. “And if I refuse?” “We were told to then use force if necessary.” He sneered at Twilight. “I’d highly advise you to not make us do so.” Twilight made a half-hearted snort, trying to act tough as she cautiously moved closer to the three. “What makes you so certain I can’t still handle three centuriones?” she made a show of challenging. “I mean, you may be some of the queen’s best of the best, but…” “…but you are a mere praefectus, Twilight, and one a long way from home,” the lead “dragon” stressed, confident of his chances. “You could not even begin to know what you’re getting yourself into by choosing to fight.” Twilight breathed a sigh, steadying herself. She had an idea, but it wasn’t a great one. “Pharynx, isn’t it?” she prompted, deducting his identity from pheromones and sound of his voice. Pharynx didn’t respond so she continued. “Look, you have to understand, I didn’t leave without good reason. What I’m doing out here is important, done out of protection for our kind, its kingdom, and our combined interests.” “The queen strongly disagrees,” Pharynx responded. “She sees what you are trying to do as a great danger, and thereby you must be stopped.” He narrowed his eyes at her. “Now…will you do the smart thing and surrender peacefully, or is this going to have to get ugly?” Twilight hesitated, glancing back at Fluttershy, who had slowly been inching away from the confrontation. She hated that she’d gotten the innocent hippogriff into this situation, and knew giving herself up would probably spare her any more trouble or even harm. As well as quite likely spare herself from having to explain the truth to her. But with Nightmare Moon about to return, it would potentially only be for the short term. If she had any chance still of potentially preventing that, she still needed to take it…right? In any case, Twilight made her choice, bracing herself. “Well, you’re right that I’m not a trained fighter like you all are,” she relented to the three come to capture her. “But I’m still well-read enough to know a few good tricks.” She then abruptly revealed her changeling horn out from under her disguise, lit it, and cast a spell at her would-be attackers before they could react, slamming into them like an invisible shockwave and sending them hurtling off the ship to splash into the sea. She then whipped around to face her companion urgently. “Fluttershy, go!” Fluttershy, having discreetly moved back to the ship’s controls while this was all going on, immediately whipped around and fumbled with a control placed next to the ship’s wheel. Something underneath the deck rumbled before, with a spray of foamy bubbles, the pump-jet engine Fluttershy had mentioned earlier sprung to life and pushed the ship forward at high speed, enough to make Twilight stumble under the acceleration. The “dragons,” dropping their own disguises and revealing themselves as changelings, attempted to paddle after them but were much too slow—though it was clear the ship had never been built with this pump-jet in mind due to how much it rattled and shook under Twilight’s feet, it still got it moving too fast for a swimmer to catch up with. Nevertheless, they still tried to stop them by firing their own spells after the fleeing ship. Twilight watched one rip a hole in the sails before, knowing Fluttershy had already seen her reveal her own horn, deciding to go for broke and fire back with some suppressing fire of her own. Ultimately, it was range that ended the firefight. As the two parties started to put enough distance between them, it became too difficult to reliably aim at each other, making it no longer worth the effort. Relieved her crazy idea appeared to have paid off, Twilight turned to Fluttershy, struggling to keep the boat going in a straight line. “Okay, that should get us out of immediate harm’s way for the moment,” she started to tell the hippogriff, “but we’re not out of the woods yet, because they’ll…” She was cut short when she heard a distant pop and spun around in time to see the attacking changelings had pooled together their collected magical power into one large bolt of energy and flung it in their direction, sailing up into the sky and back down towards them like a large green meteor of raw magical energy. She whipped back to Fluttershy, who’d turned to look as well. “…Evade! Evade!” But it was too late, the blast plowed into the ship’s side with a boom, knocking it hard to port and throwing them both to the deck. The pump-jet was heard sputtering before going silent, the ship drifting to a halt again. The ship’s list however didn’t correct itself, and Twilight knew the damage must be bad enough that the ship taking on water below decks was almost guaranteed. “Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear!” Fluttershy bemoaned as she picked herself up and started to hurry about, trying to save her boat. “I’m not sure I can repair this, and…look out!” Another blast of energy fell out of the sky and crashed down upon them, dealing more damage to the boat. Twilight knew for sure it wasn’t going to recover from this. Worst still, she could see in the distance the three changeling attackers starting to catch up with them again since they were now sitting ducks. So it was then, spying the magic pearl shard about her cohort’s neck that Twilight made another choice. “You’ve done all you can, Fluttershy, get out of here while you still have the chance!” Fluttershy’s eyes bulged, hesitating. “But…” “It’s me they’re after and not you, so go, get to safety!” Twilight urged, pushing her to the side of the boat. “I’ll manage on my own!” It was clear Fluttershy didn’t believe that, but she didn’t argue as she begrudgingly jumped overboard and vanished beneath the ocean waves already lapping alarmingly high up the side of the sinking ship. Once she was gone, Twilight turned back to face the oncoming changelings, not sure what she was going to do now, but knowing she had to at least try. She lit her horn as Pharynx arrived, hauling himself sopping yet out of the sea to stand on the edge of the ship’s aft—the best he could do with his insect wings too wet to fly. He nonetheless stared Twilight down, knowing he still had the advantage. “Getting ugly it is, then,” he concluded sternly. Twilight chose to stand her ground—it was the best she could do. “If it helps, I’m sorry it came to this,” she told him. “But I do genuinely believe I’m doing the right thing here, for the good of us all.” “I suppose I’m sorry too,” Pharynx simply tsked. “But I guess you made your choice nonetheless.” He fired a final spell into the deck beside Twilight before she could react. The resulting explosion tossed her into the deck railing, winding her. She had enough time to look back at Pharynx to see him jump back into the water before realizing the entire deck of the ship was tilting rapidly even further to port. She managed to gulp down a breath of air before it capsized and flipped over, dumping her into the cold and salty ocean underneath. The liquid immediately seeped into the magic of her disguise and, already weakened as it was, it flickered a few times before giving out completely, reverting Twilight back into her natural changeling form. The sudden shift in forms caused her to flounder uselessly in the water for a moment, not helped by the fact that she wasn’t a very strong swimmer due to her dislike for it. But even when she managed to get coordinated enough to try kicking towards the surface, she found the capsized ship in the way, keeping her trapped under the surface. Growing alarmed as the air started going stale in her lungs, she tried to blast her way through the sinking ship, but the water weakened her blind shots and didn’t make any meaningful difference. She realized her best hope now was to try and find her way out from under the ship again before she drowned, but she couldn’t tell what way to go and doubted she had enough time to figure it out. She was actually just starting to think that at least she’d given all this the best shot she could when something big and warm suddenly grabbed her and pulled her away from the wreck, heading deeper into the water. Twilight’s first instinct was that it was Pharynx and the other two changelings, but realized this creature was too big to be any one changeling. With a jolt of fear, she thought some aquatic predator had caught her so to drag down into the dark depths and devour. But then the creature nosed upwards and before she knew it, Twilight’s head burst out of the water again where she gasped in a much desired breath of fresh air. “It’s okay, I’ve got you!” a familiar voice said in her ear as she kept them both afloat. “F-Fluttershy?!” Twilight gasped out, coughing up water as she thankfully wrapped her holed hooves around the hippogriff-turned-seapony. “What are you doing here?” “I couldn’t just leave you behind!” Fluttershy argued gently as she started swimming in the direction of shore off on the horizon. “Why not? I got you into this! I lied to you about who I am, what I was doing!” “Well…yes, but…” Fluttershy averted her gaze. “…you also did save my life before. Twice, even, if we count what just happened, so…you can’t be all that bad.” Twilight decided she was too thankful to argue right now. She turned her attention back to where the hulk of their ship was still sinking, overturned so all that could be seen was its exposed belly. She couldn’t see any sign of their pursuers, but she knew they still had to be nearby, still wanting to capture her. “Wait, wait, there’s one last thing I should do,” she told Fluttershy, getting the seapony to stop swimming long enough to line up one last shot at the boat, exploding part of it and setting the rest ablaze. “There, hopefully that’ll cause enough of a distraction to keep the others off our tails.” As they resumed swimming though, Twilight stared back at the burning wreck with regret. “Sorry about your boat.” “Oh…well…better it than us, I think,” Fluttershy admitted, more focused on getting them back to shore. “I’m going to dive again, so please take a deep breath.” Twilight obliged and experienced the unpleasant sensation of getting dragged underwater again. But Twilight knew why Fluttershy was doing it—she was also trying to shake the others off their trail by taking routes where they’d be harder to see. She also managed to cover some good distance doing so, because by the time they surfaced again, what remained of the boat was now several hundreds of yards away from them. And there was still no sign of Pharynx and his cohorts. As they also had the disadvantage of having to swim for it, the ocean just not being a changeling’s natural environment, Twilight felt confident they had given them the slip for now, allowing Twilight to turn her focus to other things. “I hate swimming,” she muttered as they went, above water now. “Not a good swimmer, huh?” Fluttershy asked. “Changelings aren’t meant to swim, we’re too vulnerable in the water,” Twilight explained. She then winced to herself. “…does it really show that obviously?” “Well, I had been wondering why you didn’t have your own pearl shard ever since we first met,” Fluttershy admitted simply. “And why you didn’t seem quite as familiar with hippogriff or seapony culture as someone posing as one probably ought to.” She said it all so innocently, but it still made Twilight feel guilty. “I…probably owe you an explanation, don’t I?” “Yes,” Fluttershy agreed immediately, “You do.”