Indigo trotted from the castle with a smile. His dry swimming legs were working quite well and he had grown used to how to move them. He swerved to the left then right, just to show that he could to no one in particular. That day was his, mostly.
He was away from the girls. Not that he minded being with them, not at all. He... still kind of hoped Cherry would notice him. Berry's attention was... interesting...
No matter! Today was a fine day to meet his dry half. He skirted around the town and headed for the small cabin that belonged to the yellow flippered pony known as Fluttershy. It seemed an odd name to him. She clearly wasn't shy, if she spoke to all creatures of all the oceans. That made her a super extrovert! Just like him.
But just because you can, doesn't mean one wants to... Indigo slowed in his approach as he consider it. What if she could speak to anything, but she didn't enjoy it? He hoped he wasn't putting her in an awkward spot. The idea that one could have that gift and not like it was alien to him, but he worried he was being a pain. Fish he understood, ponies... not as easily.
What if he came across as a total burr in her side? What if he pushed too hard? Maybe she didn't want to talk about herself at all!
"Hello?"
Indigo came out of his thoughts to find Fluttershy not far ahead of him, looking at him. "Oh, hello!" Too aggressive, calm down. "I mean, nice to see you."
She gave a little smile. "I..." Her voice failed and she looked down.
Oh no, he'd already failed! Was it what he said? Maybe he was dressed badly? He looked himself over, then her. He wasn't more or less dressed than she was, minus his dry swimming legs.
Silence between them built dangerously as both feared what the other might be thinking.
It was Fluttershy who broke that quiet. "Please, um, come closer." She turned towards the cottage and gestured at it. "This is my home."
"It's a very nice one." Not as big as Twilight's huge thing, but it was... nice, comfortable. "Cozy."
She smiled. "I wanted it... like that. You like it?"
He bobbed his head as he dry swam up alongside her. "So, um... I'm sorry... I have..."
"You don't need to apologize." She tilted her head. "You didn't do anything wrong."
"But I did! I have a thousand questions and I'm afraid I'll be annoying."
Fluttershy's hoof rested on his shoulder. "You can, um, ask, if you want?" She gave him a little smile.
He relaxed under her gentle gaze. They were both scared, he realized. Scared of nothing. "You have a lot of fish friends?" She tilted her head at his question. What was the other word? "The kind that live in The Dry?"
"Oh! Animals!" She bobbed her head. "I have a lot of animal friends. You helped some squirrels, so why don't we start with them?" She turned away from him and walked towards a tree. "Excuse me? Sorry to bother, but a friend of mine wants to meet you. I mean, I'm assuming we're friends. We just met and maybe I'm being too forward..."
A fuzzy head poked out, followed by several others. A small gang of squirrels came down to look at Indigo with obvious curiosity.
"Hello there." He waved at them gently. "It is a pleasure to swim in your corner of the sea."
They said that was a funny way to say hello, but they understood him. They chittered and even offered a nut towards him.
He wondered what the nut was like and reached out a hoof. They placed it in the upturned hoof and he bit down on the hard seed. Ooof! It was tougher than it looked.
Fluttershy shook her head. "If you're hungry, I can make us a snack."
"No No..." He couldn't be impolite to the squirrels by refusing them now. He'd already taken the big dry coral nut and he chewed on it diligently. It had a powerful taste, and he wasn't sure if he liked it, but he ate it. "Thank you for the gift."
The squirrels insisted he was welcome to join them, then scampered by up into the coral they had come from.
Fluttershy smiled at him. "I think they like you."
He giggled a little. "Good. Wait, what are those?" He turned towards her strange white fish with white scales. They looked like they had flippers, but they seemed to not get more than an inch's height with them. Perhaps they were sea flippers? But why would they be on The Dry then? He approached them curiously. "Why are they in a cage?"
Fluttershy kept up with him easily. "Those are chickens. I protect them. The, um, cage is to keep bad things out. Some other animals think that chickens are tasty."
He didn't doubt that. There weren't many things that couldn't be devoured as far as the omnivorous Indigo was concerned. He wouldn't consider eating Fluttershy's friends though. "Chickens... They get eaten. Grey, white, golden colors? They're like the tuna of The Dry!"
Fluttershy blinked softly. "I... never saw it from that angle before... May... I also ask some questions?"
"Of course!" He smiled brightly. "Please." Answering questions felt easier than sounding like a newborn foal.
"You're from the ocean, right? I went there recently... Oh, you know that, um, doesn't it... make you nervous to know you could be eaten by so many things all the time?"
Indigo tilted his head at Fluttershy. "There are many things in The Dry that would snap up a pony. How do you deal with it?"
Fluttershy put a hoof to her chin a moment. "I suppose it's... the same." She smiled at him. "Ocean or land, we're still ponies."
"There's a saying where I come from." Indigo nodded as he spoke, "We are all from the same ocean. We may look different..." He gestured between Fluttershy and himself. "But we're still ponies."
"W-what's the largest, um, fish you made friends with?"
Indigo spread his hooves apart. "Twilight met him! He can hold seven ponies at once and not be slowed down."
"Oh my..." Fluttershy blinked with a bit of fear in her eyes, imagining such a large beast. "How does he hold so many ponies at once? Oh wait, you're not being literal, sorry."
"Actually, I was." Indigo rolled a hoof. "He has tentacles."
"Oh!"
"Yeah! He can grab a pony in each and pick them up."
"He didn't, um, eat any did he?"
"I told him not to and he let them go."
Fluttershy let out a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness. Now I know what my friends mean."
"What do you mean?"
"Well.." Fluttershy ran a hoof through her mane. "They say they get scared when I talk to an animal they think is scary, but they aren't scary to me, not when I know what they want."
Indigo felt warmth within him. "I feel the same way... I ran into him when he needed a little set of eyes and hooves to get a rock to roll off of one of his tentacles, and we've been friends ever since."
Fluttershy nodded quickly. "My friends said I was, um, crazy for helping a manticore that had a big thorn stuck in its paw."
"Thorn?"
Fluttershy pointed to the Everfree, not far away. "Little parts of plants. They can be quite sharp."
"Oh." The idea of sharp plants wasn't foreign to him. "What's a manticore?"
It was Fluttershy's turn to spread her hooves wide. "A big animal. It can be a fierce predator, but this one was just hurt and needed help. I saw it was just, um, angry, so... I helped it."
Indigo bobbed his head at the idea. "That was good of you. Even predators deserve some help. I'm glad you're alright though." He looked around curiously. "They said you had a friend who was a big dry fish with brown fur?"
Fluttershy blinked softly before it came to her. "Oh! Harry! He's my largest friend I see frequently." She gestured to the forest. "He doesn't live that far away from here."
"Oh, he visits?"
"Mmhmm." Fluttershy nodded. "Except for his weekly massages, I can't be sure when he'll be over for certain. Did you want to meet him? I could introduce you... if you want?"
"I would like that." Indigo bobbed his head. "But I came to see you." He hadn't meant it the way he said it, but both heard it and turned red. "I mean..."
Fluttershy put a hoof on his mouth. "You're sweet, but you're a little young for me."
Indigo blinked. He really hadn't meant for it to sound that way... wait, how old was Fluttershy? He was about to ask when she shook her head at him. "It's not polite to ask a mare. Old enough to know you're barely a stallion."
Oh... "Um... sorry?"
"No offense taken." She smiled gently. "Have you ever seen a mouse?"
He hadn't. "What's a mouse?"
She held her hooves close together. "They're small and furry and ever so adorable. Follow me."
Indigo got a crash course in small dry animals. He met mice and ducks and chipmunks and even some snakes. "I've only met a few snakes near The Dry," he admitted. "Hello snake." The snake hissed a soft welcome.
Fluttershy tilted her head. "You really can talk to animals."
"Fish? Yes, but so can you." He smiled brightly.
"Do you ever, um, feel you have to?"
Indigo tilted his head. "I suppose, but I like talking to them, so I don't mind at all."
Fluttershy nodded softly. "Does it... take away from what you would... normally do?"
Indigo seemed baffled by that idea. "What would I normally do?"
"Nevermind."
He had missed something. He was sure of it, but prying after it would just scare his new friend away. "Your house, it's far away from the other ponies."
Fluttershy colored. "Y-yes..."
"Mine too..." He rubbed at his cheek a little. "Some of my friends scare the other ponies, and the ponies scare a lot of my friends, so..."
Fluttershy looked relieved. "You understand."
Indigo offered a hoof. "They don't scare me though. You said something about a snack?"
"Oh! Yes, please follow me." She led the way to the interior of her cozy home. "Have a seat and I'll have that ready in two shakes of a tail. She trotted off and Indigo settled to await her return.