Twilight used her magic to levitate Shimmering Sea just enough so that Coral Blossom could place the mare on her back and swim her away. She motioned for Twilight, Fluttershy and Spike to follow.
So many questions rolled around in Twilight’s head but she said nothing. Fluttershy was too busy admiring and making friends with the curious fish that swam around them. Spike was still too shocked to say much of anything.
Almost as if she was picking up on their thoughts, Coral Blossom spoke. “I can only guess what my daughter is doing with a baby dragon, alicorn princess and a pegasus mare in the water on a day like today.”
“I suppose Shimmering Sea came looking for the truth,” Twilight said carefully. Coral Blossom frowned slightly and nodded. “And I shall tell her all of the truth when she wakes. The first transformation is always the worst for those who return to us.”
Coral Blossom brought them to a large cave which was carved out to form a type of house. Small rough cut windows on the sides, barely big enough for Spike to fit, were decorated with seaweed curtains and a front door was draped with what looked like a torn sailboat sail. Inside the home, an old subway car seat was propped against one wall and formed a kind of couch while a pair of them formed a bed in another room. Coral Blossom gently laid Shimmering Sea on what made up the mattress of the bed (more torn sails and seaweed) before leaving her to rest.
Coral Blossom found the others curiously poking around the combined living room/kitchen. Twilight, the student she was, started asking questions about merponies in general. Spike tried to take notes but ink would not work underwater (Twilight had already enchanted the parchment). Coral Blossom chuckled and offered a black stick to Spike. “This is charcoal. It comes from the remains of fires and works as an underwater quill.” Spike was surprised and fascinated that it did work for him.
Coral Blossom answered any questions they had... except for those that directly related to Shimmering Sea. “I’d rather wait until she’s awake to answer those,” she’d say.
~*~
Shimmering Sea found herself swimming underwater again. Princess Luna was right there beside her but not needing to breathe under water like Shimmering Sea was doing with her gills. “Thou art a fascinating mare, Shimmering Sea. We never would have seen what happened to happen. No matter what you learn down there, always know that thee art welcome back any time.” Princess Luna lit her horn and flew on her wings back up to the surface. Shimmering Sea heard the female voice from before coming from the white light in the distance. “Your friends are waiting on you, Shimmering Sea. Time to wake up...”
Shimmering Sea did indeed awake but totally disoriented. “I'm not in my bed... or my house... and I'm underwater!” she started hyperventilating until she realized she was breathing underwater. She felt the gills under her ears and then remembered everything... the magic... the feelings... the tail. “Oh sweet Celestia!” Shimmering Sea cried as she looked down and saw the same tail again. It had not been a dream... it was real!
Spike suddenly poked his domed head into the room. “Oh hey, you’re awake. Thank Celestia... now we can get some answers. Come on,” he said as he swam over to grab her hoof and drag her back to the living room. Shimmering Sea found herself floundering as she tried to swim with the tail but then remembered how the dolphins at the aquarium swam and she got the hang of it.
Shimmering Sea rubbed her eyes as she entered into the living room, surprised to see another merpony sitting on a chair that looked like a broken piece of subway seat. The merpony was very pretty, especially when she smiled brightly as Shimmering Sea’s entrance. “Come, please join us Shimmering Sea,” the mare said in the female voice of Shimmering Sea’s dream.
Shimmering Sea sat on the closer edge of the couch while Spike sat in the middle and Fluttershy on the end; Twilight sat on another broken single chair next to Fluttershy.
The merpony mare sat on the single chair next to Shimmering Sea and motioned with her hoof towards Shimmering Sea’s necklace. “I'm glad to see that the land orphanages still let the foals left in their care to keep anything that is found with them. I've worried for many years that you had lost your pearl; hence my delight and relief when I saw you wearing it in that dream.”
Shimmering Sea could not contain herself any longer. “Who are you?”
The merpony looked sad as she replied. “My name is Coral Blossom and I'm your birth mother.”
That single statement sent Shimmering Sea’s mind in a tail spin. “How is that even possible? Who is my father? Why did you abandon me? Why... HOW am I even a merpony now?” she spat out angrily.
“Shimmering Sea, please,” begged Fluttershy as she leaned across Spike to lay a hoof on Shimmering Sea’s foreleg. Shimmering Sea took a few deep breaths as Spike bolted from the couch and settled on a gathered pile of seaweed on the stone floor and Fluttershy shifted over to take Spike’s place.
Shimmering Sea stared down Coral Blossom but she only shook her head. “Let me start at the beginning. Merponies were once grouped as the fourth of the original pony tribes: earth, unicorn, pegasi, and water ponies. We cared for our realm of the oceans, rivers, lakes and even the tiniest streams. We cared for the animals; everything from the biggest whale to the tiniest of sardines. We tended the plants and even farmed them for ourselves. We controlled our own tides and water currents. We were the rulers of our own domain. But we were so self-sufficient that we soon were seldom seen above the surface and we soon fell into legend... especially during the time of the Deep Surface Freeze (Windigoes attack of Hearth’s Warming Eve). And we are very much real! We probably out-number the unicorns by now, and I say that with the greatest respect.” Coral Blossom took a moment to bow towards Princess Twilight, knowing of her unicorn birth.
“Shimmering Sea, you did have a father. He was a unicorn from the land. He had been a passenger on a yacht that had hit a bad storm that even the pegasi could not control. He had gone over-board and might have drowned had I not gone in and saved him. I managed to drag him to the underside of a dock and laid him on the sand. The next morning he was gone; but later that day, while in my land-form sunbathing, he found me again. Said I saved his life and he wanted to repay me somehow. I was young and foalish; but I do not regret my choice: I asked him to lie with me that night. He said something about how I was lucky that I was beautiful... all the things a young mare wants to hear. I won’t bore or scare you with the details but yes; we had sex on the beach. At the time, I thought he had only left me with his name and a lovely evening. By the time I figured out what I had done and that I was pregnant, he was gone. Gone where, I had no idea. But I do still have his name: ~Prince Blueblood~.”
The room had gone eerily silent. No pony moved for what felt like an eternity. Not surprisingly, it was Spike who broke the silence by snickering. “OH Thank Celestia that the map did not send Rarity!” Fluttershy’s face had gone a paler yellow and Twilight’s had flushed an angry red. “Oh we know that pony and I assure you... he’s very much alive.” Twilight started pacing the hallway, grumbling under her breath. Shimmering Sea looked puzzled at Fluttershy, who simply shook her head. “You’re simply better off not knowing. Except that he is Princess Celestia’s nephew. Which I suppose makes you a princess, Shimmering Sea!” Fluttershy exclaimed in her quiet manner.
“If your reactions are any indication, I’d rather not,” Shimmering Sea said worriedly.
“Princess Twilight? If you’d come back, I could continue my story,” said Coral Blossom gently. Twilight fumed her way back to her seat but at least her face had lost the red coloring.
“Now where was I? .... Oh yes. Well, you-know-who had just left not knowing he had made a child and I was on my own. When the foal was born, not only was she born with back legs but also a unicorn horn. The legs were not an issue since hybrids like that had occurred before and it was common knowledge that with some merpony magic imbued in a pearl would bring forth the tail. But it was the unicorn in her that posed a problem. Uni-mers and Peg-mers are shunned in our society. The earth-mers found them too powerful and thus, treated them with disdain and loathing. Most times when one was born, they were taken to the surface without the imbued pearl and simply left there to be raised as normal land ponies. When Shimmering Sea was born, my parents forced me to do the same, but before I did, I left her the necklace so that she could return to us... prove to the others that uni-mers and peg-mers are not to be feared. That we can all live peacefully like the land tribes do.” Coral Blossom seemed deeply passionate about her cause but Shimmering Sea was not sure she liked the idea of being used.
“That could explain why we were sent here,” Twilight said. “Fluttershy here represents these peg-mers and your own daughter represents the uni-mares... and I guess I represent the combination of all three!”
“We don’t have any alicorn-mers here, Princess. But perhaps you are more of a representative of Princess Celestia. I'm sure that’s how the others will see you as. But I must make it clear about how all three of you will be treated while you’re here. Merponies will stare at you, point at you, whisper about you behind your back; some might even throw rotten vegetables at you, depending on how intolerant they are.” Coral Blossom appeared worried but determined. “Well, except for the vegetables, that’s how Twilight gets treated everywhere we go!” laughed Spike. The others joined in on the joke while Twilight poked her tongue out at Spike.