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// 22 - Welcome to the Dry 
// Story: Gazing to the Ocean of the Sky 
// by David Silver 
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As they approached The Dry and the ground pulled up closer and closer to the surface, Indigo's motions slowed with hesitation. Cherry moved closer to him with a little smile. "It's alright if you don't want to finish this. I know it--:

"No!" He popped his head out of the water and began slowly advancing into the sand. "I'm going to do this and you can't tell me not to." The water drew away from him with the lapping of the waves and he was suddenly drier than ever he was before, paling with worry. Despite the fearful trembling, he pulled himself forward several inches.

Cherry popped out, rising on her mechanical hooves and ambling along with her natural and artificial legs working in unison. "You don't have legs. You need at least four legs to dry swim."

He pointed to Spike, who had reached land and was walking along calmly. "Look at him! He's doing it with two." Trying to imitate the bipedal dragon, he threw himself up onto the only two hooves he had and flipped over backwards, landing heavily on his back in the sand with a soft thump of displaced sand.

Spike came jogging over to the fallen sea pony. "Hey, you alright?"

Cherry stopped on his other side. "You can't walk like a dragon unless you're a dragon. We're sea ponies."

He rolled over, bumping Spike as he pushed upright, his front elevated and his tail twitching impotently. "So make me hooves like the ones you have if you have to."

Cherry glanced away a moment. "I... don't know how." Her veneer of confidence became a more genuine fear. "I found these, remember? I didn't make them... I'm afraid I'd mess up if I tried to make another set."

Spike rubbed at his chin. "Well, either way, we have to get you to safety. So, you sent us a letter. Does that mean we can send your parents a letter, so they know you're alright?"

A stallion approached with curious eyes. "Is that another sea pony?"

Indigo shrank from the new face, but Cherry moved quickly to put herself between them. "This is my friend, Indigo."

"Nice to meet you, Indigo," greeted the stallion as if nothing was wrong. "How can we help today?"

Indigo tilted his head a little. "You want to help?"

"Of course." The stallion smiled. "Isn't that what neighbors do? You're a sea pony, right, like miss Cherry here?"

Spike hiked a thumb at Indigo. "Can you help get him up onto a chair where he'll be more comfortable until Twilight gets back?"

"Sure thing." The stallion moved to pluck Indigo by the scruff of the neck and casually tossed the confused colt onto his back before he trotted up onto the warmer, drier, part of the beach and set the visitor from the sea on a public beach chair. "Here you go. Enjoy your stay." He nodded at Indie before trotting off into the sand without a worry.

As the others caught up to Indigo, the younger sea pony shook his head. "The dry ponies are very nice. I feel bad for being scared of him. Were you scared too, Cherry?"

She felt an urge to fib about her first time, but honesty won the day. "I thought they were coming to eat me up, but they helped me get out of the net I was caught in, and they've been helping me ever since. Spike here, and his friend, Twilight." She looked to Spike. "Any idea where Twilight is?"

Spike did a quick scan of the horizon before pointing. "There she is, and she has a pool."

Twilight did have a pool full of seawater and was coming up from the ocean where she had filled up. She spotted them as Spike waved energetically for her and became trotting towards the group. "Hello! Are you Indigo? I'm Twilight Sparkle."

"Hello Miss Sparkle." Indigo peered at the tub she was floating along. "How are you doing that?"

Twilight set her burden down beside Indigo. "I'm a unicorn, and we can do magic, like making things float."

Indie shook his head with wide eyes. "Can all dry ponies do that?"

"Nah." Cherry smiled. "Only the horny ones. The ones with sky flippers can swim through the air, and the ones without either don't do anything special at all." She pointed up to where a few pegasi flew overhead.

Spike peeked at the pool full of seawater. "Skipping the fresh water this time? I guess that makes sense. Did you already send a letter?"

Twilight shook her head quickly. "Not yet." She looked at Indie. "I actually figured if you two found him, he'd probably tell us what we needed to know about sending a message to his home."

Indigo gave a sheepish look as he flopped out of the chair and began dragging himself towards that pool. "It's really hot... Cherry,aren't you hot?"

She was, but she wasn't going to admit as much. "The Dry lives up to its name. I had to get used to being, um, dry a lot of the time. It's not too--"

"Stop that!" Indie frowned at her. "Are you that upset I'm here? I thought we were friends."

Cherry started in surprise at the outburst, then raised a hoof to rub behind her head. "I didn't mean it like that... Look, I'm super glad to see a friendly face." She stepped up beside Indigo and threw a leg around him, hugging him. "Why do you want to come to this dangerous place so badly?"

Indigo went quiet for a moment before he took a slow breath. "Because I like you? I always liked you, then you just vanished one day like a wave, poof, gone. I was so worried at first, but your mom's friend came and said you were alright, more than alright... She said you were a guest of a dry princess and were being treated like a princess yourself."

Cherry blinked at that. "Were you... jealous?"

"Maybe a little..." Indie flopped into the pool, relishing in the cool relief of it and swallowing a mouthful of briny water to wet his whistle before he popped his head out again with a more comfortable expression. "But I didn't follow you for dry princesses, I followed you for you. Where is this dry princess anyway?"

Twilight gave a soft cough before nodding. "We've already met. My proper name is Princess Twilight Sparkle, but just Twilight is fine, really. I trust the pool is to your satisfaction?" When he nodded, she lifted the whole thing up carefully. "Now, I respect the reason you came, but I must repeat that it is likely to be uncomfortable and troublesome for you to get used to land, but Spike and I will do our best to help you along."

Spike gave a sharp salute before moving to help hold up the pool without being asked. "We already helped Cherry, what's one more sea pony? You're safe with us! So, hey, you herd fish I remember, right?"

Indigo peeked over the side of the pool so he could see Spike. "I like fish of most kinds. They understand me, and I understand them. So, um, thanks, both of you, you're really making me feel welcome." He stuck out his tongue at Cherry. "Unlike some ponies."

"Hey!" Cherry easily kept up with the others as they began to move. "I'm not trying to be mean, Indie. I'm just worried, about you, and, uh, myself. Look, I'll try to make another one of these, really. You have to promise to do what we tell you to do though. We're The Dry experts."

Indie sank a little into the water with a devious expression. "I'm not sure you're a master compared to Twilight and Spike here."

Twilight tilted her head faintly. "By merit of hours spent in our respective environments, Spike and I can't help but have more experience navigating on land, but I confess, Cherry has shown considerable talent with mechanical devices, their operation and alteration."

Spike gave a little blink. "Twi, you want to try that again in a way anypony can understand?"

"Huh? Oh! I mean we've lived here all our lives, so we know a lot about the land." Twilight smiled sheepishly, her cheeks a little red. "And that Cherry is good at machines."

Indie nodded quickly. "That's what I meant, um, what's a machine?"

Cherry curled on herself and knocked on one of her metal hooves. "These, but also clocks and trains and oh! You're going to see a train right now! You've never seen one of those, but they're amazing big huge machines that carry dozens and dozens of ponies all at once across The Dry super fast to wherever they wanna go!"

Indigo smiled as a new sort of relief flowed through him. Hearing Cherry excited for something instead of being a downer was a joy and he splashed over to her side of the pool, watching her perform her dry swimming. "Will you show me the 'train'?"

"Show you?" Cherry grinned. "I'll do one better, since I'm pretty sure we'll get to ride it again." She reared back and clopped her forehooves together before resuming her walk. "I'd love to get myself a train... But they're kind of huge."

The sudden cry of an alarmed pony rang out from the beach as others scattered from a single point in the water, retreating onto dry land with worried faces. Their words were lost in a sea of exclamations as all four of them looked towards it. What was going on in the water that was causing such an uproar?