//------------------------------// // 38 - To the Rescue // Story: Gazing to the Ocean of the Sky // by David Silver //------------------------------// Twilight poked at the side of the mirror gently. "Alright, before I turn this on, are you absolutely certain?" Cherry raised a brow at Twilight. "He's our friend. Of course we're sure." Berry nodded in agreement. "Stop delaying. We'll rescue our precious little Indie before he gets hurt." Twilight let out a little sigh. "Alright, so, remember. The goal is to get Indigo and return to the portal. Don't let anything get in your way. You'll arrive as humans, so be r--" "Humans?" Cherry tilted her head. "Bipedal simians, mostly furless, clothed." Berry looked down at herself. "Do we need clothes?" Twilight gestured at the mirror. "The translation will provide those while it makes you human. It's just how these mirrors work?" "There are other mirrors?" Cherry perked with curiosity. "Nnng, yes, but please, focus..." Twilight took a slow breath, making the motion that Cadance had taught her to calm down. "Most of the ponies you meet will be students at Canterlot High, a school." "Of fish?" Berry tilted her head. "I thought they were 'humans'?" Twilight put a hoof over her face. "A place of education. If anypony asks, you're exchange students just visiting. If you really need help, look for my friends on the other side, which includes me. They know there are ponies that can come through the portal." Cherry and Berry both nodded. They weren't going to be any further educated and Twilight threw the switch. "Good luck in there." With a bright sparkle of magic, the portal opened, taking up all the space inside the mirror. Cherry shoved a hoof in and felt around. "Weird..." Berry nudged past her and dove in. Cherry blinked and jumped in after her. Twilight let out a little sigh. Had she just doomed them all? "Think positive," she murmured to herself as she settled down to watch the portal and await their return. Indigo's mouth opened and closed. "Yes?" The strange thing looked at him with piercing eyes. "Can I help you?" She sounded like Celestia, but that thing was certainly not Celestia. "Um, I was... trying to get home?" Indigo tried for a smile. Did smiles mean the same thing to these creatures? He was fairly certain. "And where is that?" 'Celestia' sat up straight. "I'm afraid we haven't met. I'm Principle Celestia. You are?" "I-indigo. It's..." Where was it from there? He had no idea. "It's in Twilight's." "Twilight's what?" "Her home." 'Celestia' raised a brow. A strange new student that came from Twilight's? Maybe it was a foreign exchange program. Actually, that made a lot of sense. She smiled gently. "Were you told what school you'll be attending while you're here?" "Oh, uh, no?" School? He was going to join some fish? Maybe they needed him to talk to them or take care of them? He smiled at the idea. Things were looking up. "I'd like that." "Of course you would. Why don't you enjoy the hospitality of Canterlot High, since you're here? Twilight goes here as well. I'll have a schedule drafted up for you. For now, you should meet up with Twilight." Meeting up with Twilight? That sounded fantastic! "Yes, please. Where is she?" Celestia pressed a button on her desk. "Have Twilight report to the principal's office." She looked up as she took her claw away from that button. "She'll meet you just outside. Go with her and accompany her to her classes for today, and I'll have a schedule for you tomorrow." Twilight was already there? How? "Oh, okay." What was he attending? Head buzzing with questions and confusion, he wandered outside to await Twilight's arrival. "Get off me," grumbled Berry. She was sprawled across the ground with Cherry flopped over her. They scrambled to their... hooves? Looking at one another, they had the advantage of being able to take in the alien features they had inherited more easily. Cherry reached out and took hold of Berry's left arm. "Why do you have two sets of legs?" Berry reached out and poked Cherry in the chest. "Why are you so lumpy?" Cherry reached up and found her hat was still present and smiled happily, at least something hadn't changed. "We're humans, huh?" "Guess so." Berry glanced back at where the portal hung invisibly in the side of some statue then back at Cherry. "We should find Indie." Cherry bobbed her head. "Of course! But don't you want to see this?" She waved a weirdly shaped leg around, its floppy claw-things wobbling. "I mean, look at it all! It's a whole dry world! Imagine what secrets it might be hiding." Berry waved her floppy claw things at the big building they were in front of. "Like where Indie is? Fine, you go explore. I'll take Indie and we'll get married and--" "Okay, okay." Cherry snorted softly, nostrils flaring. "Let's find Indie. Maybe we can have a look afterwards..." Refocused, the two headed toward the building, using one another for support. As they ascended the stairs to the doors, they swung open, admitting a... human? A human that looked like them, but had rainbow-colored hair and a cocky smile. She seemed surprised to see them. "Oh, hey? Who are you two?" Berry thrust a floppy-claw thing into the air. "I am Sea Berry! But you can call me Berry." The human quirked a smile. "I like the way you said that. You transferring into Canterlot High?" Cherry pointed beyond the human. "We're looking for a friend named Indigo, or Indie. Have you seen him?" "Nope." The human shook her head. "Look, I'm Rainbow Dash. Who are you?" She looked to Cherry specifically. "Nice to meet you, Rainbow." Wasn't that one of Twilight's friends? "I'm Cerulean, but you can call me Cherry. Oh! Ohhh! You're Twilight's friend, right?" Rainbow cocked a brow. "Yeah? So?" Berry caught on quickly. "We're also friends of hers, from the mirror." Rainbow's eyes went wide. "Shoot! You're kidd--You're not kidding. Come with me." She waved around the side of the building and led the way away from the doors. "I didn't think that egg-head would ever be brave enough to send other ponies through besides herself, and that only in an emergency. Does this mean something happened to Twilight?" Cherry shook her head a little. "How do you stand being... this... human thing?" "Huh? It's kind of what I was born with." Rainbow raised a brow. "I think my body's pretty cool, if you ask me, which you did. Why, something wrong with yours?" She looked Cherry up and down. "You look fine." Berry ran an elbow into Cherry's side. "She just wishes she had mine." Rainbow snorted at that. "Don't get too full of yourself." She gestured at the back of the school. "We can wait here for the others to show up. So, uh, you were ponies?" Cherry shook her head. "Not exactly." "Not exactly." Rainbow squinted a moment. "What were you if not ponies?" Cherry ran her tongue over her lips as she tried to conjure the word back up. "Hippo...." "Sea pony," offered Berry. "We're sea ponies." Rainbow gave a sudden laugh. "That's too cool! Like sea horses, but ponies?" Cherry made an odd expression. "Nothing like seahorses." Berry reached out her strange human forelegs. "Pony up top, with a powerful tail with two flippers at the end, and two flippers at the side. I heard some ponies call it more like a dolphin." "Mer-ponies." Rainbow grinned. "That is too cool!" She looked over her new friends again. "You didn't get to keep any of the cool bits, though. I wonder if you're still any good at swimming..." Cherry blinked at the idea. "How do humans swim? You don't have fins at all. Can you breathe water?" Rainbow waved off the ideas put forward. "None of that. We hold our breath, and we may not have fins, but our hands work well enough." "Hands?" both asked. Rainbow extended her floppy claws and flexed them slowly. "Hand. I've swum around plenty. I never really did it competitively, but I bet you two could do it if you still take to the water." Cherry and Berry both looked to their 'hands' with newfound appreciation. Cherry held up her hand high and spread it wide. "It's a little like a flexible flipper..." Berry nodded. "You'd have to hold it close, but..." Rainbow flashed a big smile. "I have to see you two swimming!" Cherry waved it off, but it was far from a certain gesture. "We shouldn't. I have to find my friend, Indie, remember?" Rainbow stuck out her tongue a little. "We'll find him, promise. I bet when the others get here, we'll find your friend in ten seconds flat. No reason you can't have a little fun while you're waiting. By the way, what's with the metal pants?" Cherry and Berry looked down at their pants. They did have a bit of a metallic glint. Berry reached down and tapped at her pants, getting a soft metallic rapping with every tap. Despite being made of metal, they moved well with her. Rainbow raised a brow. "You weren't, uh, mechanical to begin with, were you?" Cherry darkened a bit. "Well, a little." "A little?" "We don't have the back legs and extra hooves of a dry pony." Cherry waved at her legs. "So I built some." "I built my own, thank you." Berry stuck out her tongue a little. "Super cool." Rainbow smiled. "And now they're metal pants? You better hold onto those. You don't want to be missing your legs when you get back to Equestria." As she spoke, she led the girls on towards the school's generous swimming pool. "But for now, I want to see you two in that water. You'll either take to it like two fish, or flounder." Cherry scratched the side of her head in confusion. "A flounder is a fish..." Rainbow rolled her eyes. "Just a saying. Come on, why not? You like water, right? You're mer-ponies, of course you like water!" Berry tapped at her pants. "Are you sure we should do that while wearing metal?" It was Cherry's turn to taunt. "What? You're afraid of being slow?" She moved to the edge of the pool and sank down beside it. "This is a lot of water to have on The Dry. You have races in the water?" The idea of such an obviously dry species racing in the water amazed her. Rainbow hiked a thumb at the locker-room nearby. "You two want to get changed into swimsuits first?" They both looked blank. "Eh, or just jump in, that works too. Go on!" Sink or swim, she wanted to see them try.