Where the Sea Meets the Storm
Where the Sea Meets the Storm
By Tundara
Hades never suspected that his world would end on a bright, warm June day. Sol blazed with a particular intensity creating a happy blanket of light that swept from the usually chilly glaciers of the far north all the way to recently re-re-arisen island of Marelantis and across the waving golden savannah of Zebrica and the mountain fortresses of the griffons in the east. All agreed it was one of the most wonderful days in recorded memory.
In a few days the Summer Sun Celebration would arrive, and everyone hoped that the sun’s good mood would last at least until the festivals were over, if not longer.
All over Equestria ponies flocked to the beaches eager to soak in the golden rays. With baskets stuffed full with treats and towels, they gathered until the shores of lakes and the oceans were dotted so as to appear like some giant had sprinkled bags of candies across the sand.
The royal herd of House Invictus was no different.
Plans had been made long in advance, and it was for her numerable daughters that Celestia ensured Sol cast just the perfect amount of light.
Theirs was a private beach far from the bustle of the towns or cities. The water, a clear aqua with the white sand bottom visible several fathoms down, was inviting and cool. A small school of brightly coloured fish darted around a coral reef, while a nurse shark rested in the shade the coral cast. Placid waves lapped along the shore as the slightest of breezes ran through the tops of overhanging palm trees.
Stretched over the edges of their pegasus drawn sky-carriages, a large group of fillies let out gasps and squeals of delight as the beach came into sight. It took a small fleet to transport the entire family at the best of times, and with so many distant and near relatives also in attendance, that day it was more akin to a full armada. In addition to the nine Muses, there were their cousins; Ambrosia, Shyara, Skyla, Soir, Talona, Tyr, and Zephyr.
As if the fillies were not enough, there were their parents, grandmother, and a slew of aunts and uncles. All told, over two dozen alicorns descended on the beach.
Before the carriages wheels had come to a stop, the fillies were pouring over the edges like a marshmallow waterfall. While the younger muses—Calliope, Polyhymnia, Arche, and Arengea—headed straight for the water, their older siblings—Aoide, Mneme, and Melete—began to search for the best places to lay their towels and set up the awnings. From their bassinets, the two newest addition the herd giggled and sputtered, Thalia and Clio reaching out for the waves with tiny hooves as they drifted along between their mothers.
“Be careful, Soir!” Hades called out as he descended the midnight blue carriage that carried him, Luna, and Twilight.
“I’m fine,” she called back even as she tripped over her own gangly hooves and performed a cartwheel that ended in a splash amid her cousins.
“Ha! As if there is need to worry for her,” Luna chided as she jumped down and sunk her hooves into the sand. “She’s survived far worse than anything this beach can conjure, and there is nothing foolish enough to threaten her.”
Hades merely arched one of his pale blue eyes and let his black face grow longer. A hoof came half-way up to tug his short snowy beard before stopping and slowly descending again.
“I, of all ponies, am well aware that she has suffered through far worse dangers. That does not preclude the Fates throwing only-they-know-what trials our way. I will not rest easy until she is old enough to alone smite anything so foolish as to attempt her harm. Until that day has come, I will, mph!” His little speech came to an end by way of Luna clamping his muzzle shut with her aura.
“Zeus is right; you need to learn to relax,” Luna huffed as she dragged the struggling and sputtering God of the Dead along the beach, much to Twilight’s amusement. “Don’t think you’re getting out of things easy, either.”
Twilight merely grinned and picked up the training swords Luna had brought before following.
Further along the beach Tyr, Shyara, Ambrosia, and Zephyr set up a game of hoofball along with Zeus, Iridia, and Faust. Calling Soir over to join them, they divided into groups of four separated by a net. Back and forth they darted and dashed to keep a white ball in the air. Naturally, this lead to those with wings flying higher and higher in their efforts to win, to the disappointed shouts of those few still land-bound.
The final members of the group, Cadence, Fluer, and Fluttershy, chose to rest with their mortal husbands underneath a line of umbrellas with Rarity and Celestia.
Truly, it was the greatest gathering of the alicorns on Ioka in years.
Half buried in sand, Hades wondered why they did not make time for such gatherings more often. How many troubles could have been avoided back on Gaea if they’d simply acted more like a family? A wry grin found its way onto his muzzle.
Then again, the ideals of family varied so vastly between the two worlds it was perhaps not such a surprise after-all.
Every pony on Ioka may have decided on different roles to take on the world—some like Celestia and Iridia chose to rule nations, while others like Fluttershy and Hades preferred quiet anonymity—but, they all made the time for each other. They didn’t just cloister themselves away from each other even at the worst of times. Come rain or shine—though, to be fair, Celestia made certain it was always shine—they’d gather three times a year. And if there was something important one member had to deal with, then it became a problem for the entire extended family.
Few were the beings in creation that would choose to anger such a pantheon.
Not that he was liable to stay much longer. He’d been gone from Tartarus far too long. Who knew what calamities his city had managed to conjure with his absence. For once in his existence, he looked forward to going home and taking up his throne as King of the Underworld, even if it meant leaving behind his friends for a time.
Enjoying his thoughts, he watched Luna and Twilight. The way their shapely flanks moved in the sunlight as they practiced, the sparkling of their manes with every twist, thrust, and parry. A wild, enthusiastic light glimmered in Luna’s eye, and she seemed ten times as beautiful even on a mock-battlefield. Twilight grunted and grimaced, frustrated at how easy Luna held her back, and determined that this would be the day she at last beat her cousin.
As was his experience, such pleasantness could not last, and so too the happiness that blanketed the beach began to wither. Hades was first to sense it, this keen intellect always more attune to the shifting currents towards misfortune. Or, perhaps he was just more prone to accepting when things were about to turn sour.
A presence, one he’d not felt in eons, tickled the back of his mind. For a second he wanted to dismiss it. Afterall, he was deep in reminiscence, it would not be unusual to imagine something out of nothing in such times.
Except, this presence was not alone.
“Something the matter, Hades?” Twilight glanced over from her sparring with Luna.
He began to shake his head, but stopped, and instead let out a long snort. At the same moment Luna and Twilight began to feel the approach of the newcomers, then the entire beach.
The Muses whispered and stared. The players paused their game. Those beneath the awnings shade sat up straighter.
They all stared at the same point in the water. Waiting. Watching. Anticipating.
Keen eyed Fluttershy was the first to spot him. She gasped and pointed to a slightly darker splotch of water just before a stallion came strutting out of the sea.
He was tall, with the lean strength of a pony who lived a very active life. His bronze coat shone with a lustre that would have been incomparable, if not for the plethora of alicorns already on the beach who shone just as brightly. The ocean waters dripped like jeweled beads from his legs and barrel as he made his way out of the waves. A casual flick of his broad wings and a shake of flowing golden mane sent the last droplets flying around him in a sparkling curtain.
“Well, we are all doomed,” Hades growled through his teeth, his posture going from one ready for battle to defeat.
“You know him?” Luna asked, indicating the new arrival with her practice sword.
“That’s my—”
“Brother!” Zeus bellowed, leaping across the sands in a single, great bound. “Poseidon, you old waterhorse, what are you doing here?”
There was a thundering clap as the two alicorns met and proceeded to slam their barrels together.
“Thought I’d check up on you and the ol’ sourpuss,” Poseidon waved to Hades, “and catch up on things. I see your search went well, bro.”
“Indeed! There was battle and war and adventure aplenty! We shook the very heavens with our travels. Demons were felled, nations shattered, and love was found! Grand tales were crafted by all! You should have come with us.”
“Nah, bro, all that battle stuff is your scene, not mine. Besides, I couldn’t leave my Amphy alone with the girls” The newcomer chuckled.
“Ah, yes, indeed.” Zeus nodded as if it were the most logical of things. “Is she with you?”
Poseidon let out a wheezing sort of laugh. “Of course I brought her and the little ones. Didn’t I just say I couldn’t leave them behind?”
Underneath his dark coat, Hades paled. “If Amphitrite is here as well, then so must…”
At the same moment Hades completed his thought, the waves burst upward and a veritable army of fillies and colts came bounding up onto the sands. Hundreds of little alicorns poured towards the beach party, their laughter and hooting forming an incredible din. Dozens broke off from the main body of the assault, making bee-lines towards Zeus, Hades, or just the nearest alicorn in general.
“Hades… what is this?” Luna took a couple steps back, wings thrusting out as the nearest division of foals approached, heads lowered as they hooted and laughed.
Sighing, Hades shook his head, with just enough time to say, “My brother is the God of the Sea and father of the Rivers, and this is his family,” before the horde was upon them and they were surrounded by poking hooves, curious giggles, and delighted shrieks.
To one side the Muses were corralled together, on another there was Celestia and Rarity, almost buried beneath foals, while in the center Zeus romped and laughed with a half dozen of his nieces and nephews astride his powerful back.
All seemed lost, and then Amphitrite herself appeared from the water, her pace both hurried and stately. Around her in swaddling hung her three youngest, the little foals squealing and waving their tiny hooves. Sea foam blue, with a mane white like the reflection of the sun on the top of a wave, she was a short, pudgy mare, with rolling flanks and happy, easy going yellow eyes.
“Children,” she said in that decided tone all children knew to respect, bringing order to the thronging chaos. “What were you told when we left?”
“If we don’t behave, father will wash us back to Gaea and there will be none of the iced cream that Scymandra told us about,” the foals intoned together in rote precision.
“Very good.” Amphitrite gave her three hundred and four children a smile. “Now, play nice while I speak with the Sun. And remember; Mother sees everything.”
“This is terrible.” Hades intoned in lifeless defeat, his eyes tracking the horde’s dispersion while Amphitrite strode up the beach towards the rather shocked group beneath the awnings. Only Rarity had maintained her wits, and she greeted Amphitrite as an old friend.
Stifling a laugh, Luna gave Hades a nudge. “They seems pleasant. A little… odd, perhaps, but not bad.”
“No, you don’t understand. Hera, Poseidon, Zeus and I, we are siblings by the bonds of our deeds, and the strength of our… commitment, I suppose. There was nothing the four of us could not do together. But… Zeus and Poseidon… What happens when a storm meets a warm sea?”
“You’re saying they fight?” Twilight frowned and fiddled with her practice sword, while also trying to keep it away from a trio of curious, bright pink colts.
“Oh, I would welcome them fighting!” Hades lamented. “This is so much worse. They,” his upper lip twisted in distaste, “encourage each other.”
Watching the pair further along the beach go rushing off into the waters, Twilight asked, “But, how much trouble can they cause? Zeus is still keeping his magic suppressed and—”
Twilight had not finished her thought when, on the crest of a mammoth wave, appeared Zeus and Poseidon, the pair riding boards on the surf, manes flying wild in the wind and sea spray as their booming laughter carried far across the land.
Then, came the sound of steel drums carrying over the din of laughter.
Followed by the Muses being propped up on a stage—from whence the thing had come was a mystery greater than the origins of reality itself, though Hades strongly suspected The Pink Menace’s involvement in the matter.
A dozen shields appeared at the same instant. The great wave broke on their multicoloured surfaces, sending Zeus and Poseidon pinwheeling through the air to land upside down in the boughs of the palm trees. Water sprayed high, and combined with the flickering motes of aether from the shields to create a firestorm of dancing lights to the delight of the onlookers.
“Ha-ha, I win again!” Zeus proclaimed. “I went farther than you!”
“No way, bro,” Poseidon countered, “I flew much higher!”
“Rematch?” They asked at the same time before flinging themselves back towards the calming seas.
Hades groaned and rubbed his temples to suppress the oncoming headache. Deciding that it was safer dancing on the edge of an angry volcano than staying on the beach, he made to return to Thornhaven. He’d gone no more than a few steps when Luna cleared her throat.
“Where do you think you’re going?” She demanded, affixing him to the spot with just a look.
“Well, I thought that…” Hades searched high and low for a plausible excuse, but none presented itself.
Then the worst happened.
Small hooves tugged on his tail to gain his attention, and when he turned to spy a trio of his nieces, they asked in perfect unison, “Uncle Hades, are these your wives?”
Luna put on a mischievous smirk, while Twilight sputtered and waved her hooves wildly.
“No! Oh, no, no no! Nope. Not ever. No!” Twilight shouted.
“I think she doth protest too much,” one filly said to the nods of her sisters and brothers.
Hades’ hoof certainly did not twitch in a reflexive face-hoof. No, it made the full journey without delay, running down his long face as Luna’s smirk grew rather malicious indeed.
All of his worst fears were coming to pass.
His brothers antics and games continued to grow wilder and wilder. One of them had summoned a kraken for them to take turns wrestling out in the bay. His nieces and nephews knew no bounds to the amounts of embarrassment they could heap on his withers. And now Luna joined in as well. To top matters off, they’d started to attract the attention of the others.
While Celestia gave them a curious look, Luna slid up to Hades’ side, a protective wing extending over his withers. A wolf standing over a wounded foal would have been only half as frightening as her in that moment.
“Twilight, I thought we weren’t going to keep this a secret any longer?” Luna said, her voice purposefully loud so as to reach the group beneath the awnings. “Isn’t that right, shnookums?”
“‘Shnookums?’” Hades and Twilight repeated together, drawing delighted gasps from the foals.
Jumping up from where she’d been conversing with Celestia, Amphitrite rushed over. “Is this true?”
True to her vicious nature, Luna went in for the coup-de-graces, and kissed him on the cheek. It was a chaste kiss, hardly worthy of note, except when beneath the delighted smiles of Celestia, Rarity, and Amphitrite. They were not alone, as almost everypony on the beach had gazes fixated on the scene.
The Muses clapped their hooves and broke into a soulful love ballad, accompanied by a guitar and saxophone, breaking into rousing choruses that swelled up to the the sun.
Something in Hades snapped in that moment, and everything he’d held as right and true came tumbling down. Perhaps this was a good thing, perhaps not. The God of the Dead had always been a grim, dour fellow, one on whom a smile was as foreign as a fish in the desert. Right then he laughed, fully and with a gusto that matched the tell-tale laughter he was so accustomed to hearing from his brothers.
He reached out with a wing, shocking Luna who’d expected him to pout and further deny the assumed relationship. Her amazement only grew as he stole a kiss from her, proper and full, savouring the taste of her lips while the fillies and colts alternately made disgusted noises or cooed further in delight.
“It sure has taken you long enough,” she whispered when he broke the contact.
“Well, I can be rather self-involved and thick headed,” he replied, then cringed at the frothing bay where the wrestling had started to grow dangerous. The younger foals had been corralled away from the waters, lest they get hurt by the smashing swarm of tentacles. “Excuse me a minute, but somepony has to knock some sense into my brothers…”
He flew across the beach, arriving just in time for Zeus to begin his turn with the beast. The Muses had abandoned their singing and taken refuge beneath their mothers’ wings, while the Rivers clustered up next to the tree line. A few of the older alicorns shouted at Zeus and Poseidon to get rid of the kraken, but most merely waited for the two to get tired of their game.
“Brothers, you need too—” One of the kraken’s many legs smashed down next to Hades, burying almost to the chin in a deluge of sand and slime.
Shaking out his mane and wings, Hades grumbled, “Fine, we’ll do this the your way.”
Jumping up, he landed atop the kraken’s large, bulbous head, right between its massive, rolling eyes.
“Hades, wait your turn!” Zeus called from where he darted and latched onto the flailing legs.
“If you two can’t contain yourselves, then I suppose I will make you understand.” Hades grabbed the snapping, beaked monstrosity by one of its flailing tentacles, spun it about, and hurled it far into the distance.
Over the Marlantians—not to be confused with Marlantis itself, which lay some many miles further away—the kraken flew, trailing a plaintive, whining cry and a cloud of ink. It hit one of the St. Posey islands, bounced across the next, and then—much to its own relief—sank back into the safety of Ioka’s oceanic depths.
Landing in front of a put-out Zeus and wildly grinning Poseidon, Hades jabbed a hoof at his brothers. “Play games all you want, but have some respect and consideration for everypony else. The foals can’t enjoy the beach with you two conjuring up tidal waves and sea-monsters to sate your own sense of fun.”
“Bro… I think Hades just won, for once.” Poseidon chuckled, and slapped a slime covered hoof to Zeus’ withers.
“Ha-ha! Too true!” Zeus’ habitual laughter rolled over the beach, and signalled a return of the festive atmosphere.
Stalking back up the beach, Hades returned to the spot he’d claimed hours earlier, turned to Luna, and said… nothing. He had few words, and enjoyed just being in her presence.
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I like this chapter and the idea of Hades with Twilight and Luna is nice too.
Well Hades shipping like you promised... Didn't expect that one... Hope you won't be pressured to use all these ships here in Anthologie in the Myths... or try to forcibly make them fit...
Obviously you broke that... What is next? Celestia and Zeus?!
Overall quite funny... 2 more new names I didn't recognise... Oh, Iridia on a spree... By this tempo Ioka will be drowning in Alicorns... That brings up this problem... This light hearted story aside... It is the population of Alicorns limited? Considering that natality is same with "mortal ponies" and life span unlimited (probably)... if the population won't be decreased by war, plague, ect... Ioka will be gradually over run by one species... I know it is irrelevant... But just wondering... Other story I read having Alicorn society had this problem solved by that just ~40% pairs couldn't conceive and those that could... where able to have only one foal (exception permitted)... So here... Maybe finite number of souls in the universe?
Surfer dude...
Kinda different mood from the traditional portrayal... it seems weird to have well known characters not doing the usual thing of trying to kill each other in revenge... I think that what Zeus did to Hades... The whole banishment thing... Hades just forgiving seems unlikely... Hope see relationship between the brothers in the book two... Isn't Poseidon supposed to have some adult offspring?... Foreshadowing! Like never mentioning "mortal husbands" by names... leaving some leeway?
The "light heart-ness" of this story is a quite surprising and pleasantly contrasting to the previous ones... Hope to see the update notification for Myths soon!
7312026
This is just a fun little thing, and not necessarily where things will end up going. More just an excuse to take the toys out of the box and play around a bit.
Alicorn numbers are finite. Though, the same holds true for mortals. The number of souls was set during the creation of time and space. It's in the astronomically high numbers, but there is a limit. This is why actions that destroy a soul are seen as so taboo; it can't be replaced. It is gone, and the universe is lesser for it. An alicorn can be destroyed, but a new one (or ones) will eventually take his or her place, formed from the energy of the previous one.
And who says Celestia ISN'T with Zeus!?
Little Muses don't just spring up out of nowhere. 
Hehe soo with who will you ship Twilight? xD
7313504
Hades! Iridia too! Because that would not be weird. Nope nope nope.
In all seriousness though, it's just a fun little thing in the back of my head. I'm not really shipping Hades with Luna. Or any pony, for that matter. My notes expressly forbid it.
I think it is bad enough that I have Zeus chase after Celestia, to her eternal annoyance. 
7313855
Awesome! Thank you for such an in depth response
How many damn children are there?! I need a chart!
7320252
What, it's not complicated!
Celestia and Rarity have Calliope, Polyhymnia, Arche, Arengea, Clio, and Thalia. They adopted Aiode, Mneme, and Melete, whois parents were Serene (mother) and Hermes (father), both who are destroyed.
Iridia is the mother of Twilight and Sior/Namyra.
Luna is Cadence's mother, and Cadence is Tyr's foster mother, and Skyla's biological mother (I regret not using a different name now...)
Shyara lives with Luna, while Myths Spoilers: Talona is Fleur's daughter.
Ambrosia is Applejack and Zeus and Soarin's daughter, while Zephyr is Rainbow Dash's daughter by Zeus and Polished Armour (Okay, it's a little complicated with them...) See, Zeus and Hemera had Demeter and Clouthea, but Demeter and Clouthea were nearly destroyed, and chose to be reborn, with AJ and RD as their moms, so they have original parents and new parents...
Poseidon and Ampitrite have Scamandra (a river goddess on Gaea), Lethe, Styx, Phlegethon, Acheron, Cocytus (the rivers of Tartarus), and so very many more (all the rivers)
See! It's easy!
Makes toooooootal sense!
PS: This story was written in part for the very reason that there are so many and it's such a complicated web of relationships. That's why every alicorn is named at least once (except Posiedon and Amphitrite's brood, as that'd just end up being several pages of names in a list)
7320365 Wait, Rainbow Dash slept with Polished Armor? When?
Also, I can't help but notice that, besides it being family day, ponies like AJ isn't there.
7320545
There was so much between RD and Polished that got cut as it just didn't fit. He and RD hooked up during the Gala of the Stars. I tried a few times to put in something to the effect of one sneaking out the next morning on the other, or some cause of their animosity, but nothing ever lasted even to editing. It didn't help that I chickened out a bit on having RD hook up with him, even if it was supposed to be just a drunk fling during a bit party that leads to unintended consequences.
As for why they aren't mentioned in this story; an oversight on my part. I was focused on naming all the alicorns, and things slipped through the cracks.
Have you considered addIng those cut scenes to this work?
7320365
Correct me if I'm wrong, but weren't the original three Muses killed too?
I support a Hadesxluna pairing! Let it be canon!
MORE
Disregarding comedy stories that turn everyone into alicorns, I think you might have the record for most alicorns in a single setting.
7347186
Maybe in the sci-fi story Days of wasp and spider, where race of alicorns are slaves of dimond dogs, is more alicorns in one setting.
Surfer Dudebro Poseidon getting into a dudebro contest with Zeus is the Best. Thing. Ever.
I'm really glad this is on here, filler that it is. Sometimes some nice marshmallowy filler is great to have.