//------------------------------//
// Chapter 7 
// Story: The seething sea ceaseth and thus Shimmering Sea hast savethed us 
// by kitten_girl86 
//------------------------------//

Swimming through a cave supported by the ribs of some large ancient creature gave Shimmering Sea the creeps. 

Pearl Wisdom continued to swim down the cave, clearly undisturbed by the bones. She was looking rather bored about the whole thing, Shimmering Sea thought to herself.
She tried to ignore her surroundings as she tried to think of a way to get rid of this segregation of the merponies. She had no immediate ideas but thought that Princess Twilight might have some so she’d bide her time.

As the tunnel ended, they found themselves in a circular cave open at the top to let daylight and fresh water in. All along the walls there were a series of caves set in, some covered with seaweed curtains and few with dark stained sails that were in bad need of repair. But what shocked Shimmering Sea the most was that the vast majority of adults that lacked a cutie mark. The few she did see mainly related to farming or hunting; few others had water-themed like waves or water drops; a hoofful had fish or shell-related like Shimmer but still the vast majority were blank flanks.
Pearl motioned for them to remain in the center of the circle as she went inside the first cave on the ground level. Moments passed and a few more curious & brave merponies came out of their caves to stare at the new-comers. Coral Blossom tried to hide her nervousness but Shimmering Sea could feel it on the water as if she felt the same thing. 

Pearl Wisdom came back out, followed by a peg-mer mare of a green coloration that reminded Twilight of Lyra Heartstrings. She bore a curved wave cutie mark and a scallop shell & pearl necklace.
“This is Tide Glider... she’s what this place has for a mayor,” Pearl said rather briskly. Shimmering Sea & Spike threw Pearl a dirty look but they went ignored. 
Tide Glider was far more Pearl’s opposite than any of them imagined. “Greetings sister! You can just call me TG; everypony here already does. Everypony will be so happy to have another uni-mer in our midst... especially one who already has her cutie mark! You’ll have to tell me how you earned it on land,” TG said breathlessly as she guided Shimmering Sea into her cave, leaving the others in shock outside.
Eventually, Tide’s fore hoof showed at the curtain and motioned them to join her inside. 

Twilight shrugged and they all swam to join.

The cave looked exactly the same on the inside as Coral's... only difference was that all of the subway seats were individuals magically melded back together and there was fewer windows to let in natural night; instead, about six luminescent fish the size of sardines swam around the roof, giving the room some kind of ambiance of light.  
Tide Glider seemed extremely excited to hear all about Shimmering Sea as she dashed to the kitchen half and made a pot of a thick sludge of kelp tea. Coral Blossom did most of the talking while the others hesitated at the tea before trying it. Shimmer found she liked it a lot and the other ponies were ok but Spike actually had to remove his bowl so he could spit it out into his claw. Embarrassingly, Twilight made the mess disappear before TG could notice. Shimmer finished the story with how she found the whole segregation thing totally wrong. "Back home in Manehattan, I have an earth pony grandmother, unicorn mother and pegasus father! The ponies on land do not stand for it and either should the merponies!" Shimmering Sea set the cup down on the table a little harder than she intended but the water resistance kept her from breaking it.
Twilight nodded agreement. "So long as the uni- and peg-mers have been given the proper training on each of their magics, everypony should be able to get along just fine together. I'm sure that if we asked Princess Celestia, she'd send some specialists to come help solve this problem." In anticipation of Twilight, Spike pulled out a scroll and pencil made from charcoal out of no-where and stood ready to write a letter.

Tide Glider shook her head and raised a hoof, acting all very serious all of a sudden. "I have a better idea... there is some-pony you should meet... however, it is forbidden for Coral Blossom to accompany us." Shimmering Sea wasn't sure she liked how this was going and she became suspicious; but Coral seemed to understand and insisted that Shimmering Sea go along with it for the time being.


~*~*~


Coral Blossom returned to her home while Shimmering Sea, Twilight, Fluttershy and Spike followed Tide Glider down another tunnel, hidden in the rock behind her cave. The path spiraled down and away from the Bone Caves before leveling out and continuing for a long distance, more of the glowing sardines lighting the way down; a few had even made friends with Fluttershy and, learning of her fear of dark spaces, swam along side of her to keep her calm. Shimmering Sea breathed a silent prayer to both Celestia and Luna for those little fish; she herself was becoming uncomfortable with the underwater darkness... it was starting to resemble her nightmares.

The path finally spiraled upwards before leveling out again to what looked like another hallway with large windows looking out into open waters. TG led them to the first room, meeting with a stallion uni-mer who was writing with a charcoal stick using levitation. The merpony immediately dropped the stick and stood at attention when he recognized TG. "These ponies wish to meet with your charge, sergeant." "Yes lieutenant, sir. At once," replied the stallion as he swam out of the room and into the room next door. He came back moments later and waved them in.

“Her highness will see you now,” said the merpony with a polite bow. Tide Glider, Shimmering Sea, Twilight, Fluttershy and Spike entered the room. The circular walls were covered with a sea-vine that had beautiful pink and white flowers; a large bed of soft coral dominated the back with a curved magically lit fireplace to the left and more of the glowing sardines darted around the room. Shimmering Sea noticed that there was no wardrobe or dressers; only a vanity table and it was bare for the most part.
Relaxing on the floor in front of the fireplace lay a large merpony of sea-green reading a scroll of some kind of parchment-like material. Her two-toned hair was in the same style as Princess Celestia and she wore a bow similar to Applebloom’s but a dark blue to match her eyes. She was about the size of Princess Luna but had butterfly-like wings as well as the a-typical alicorn horn. Her cutie mark, visible only for a moment when she shuffled her wings, was a small globe; the land was black but the ocean was the same blue as the streak in her hair. 
The group, minus Tide Glider, were shocked to see an alicorn merpony! Coral Blossom had said that they did not have any but then again... she was forbidden from coming,  thought Shimmering Sea. But why? Why can't Coral Blossom know?

The alicorn merpony (ali-mer) looked up from her scroll and her eyes brightened. “Oh! New friends for me! Welcome! Welcome! Oh please do come in and sit, won’t you?” she waves them over to a pile of cushions opposite her. They bow politely before settling on the pile, still slightly shocked - except for TG.
She used her magic to levitate a piece of charcoal from the fireplace, sign the scroll and make it vanish. She did the same for the next three scrolls before turning to the quintet. 
“Forgive me... paperwork is the bane of my existence. In fact, it’s the whole meaning of my existence.” She floated over another pile of scrolls from the door and subsequently tossed them up onto her vanity table. “I am thrilled to have a day when I get visitors rather than more scrolls,” she said with a chuckle that was more like Pinkie Pie’s than Celestia’s. “My name is Aqua Marina,” she added almost like an afterthought.