The seething sea ceaseth and thus Shimmering Sea hast savethed us

by kitten_girl86

Chapter 8

Shimmering Sea, Twilight, Fluttershy and Spike were all still too shocked to say much of anything in the presence of another alicorn. Tide Glider came to their rescue. "Princess Aqua Marina, may I introduce Spike the Dragon, Number One Assistant to Twilight Sparkle, the Princess of Friendship. The pegasus is Lady Fluttershy and the merpony is Shimmering Sea, a returning uni-mer from Manehattan on the surface.”

When Aqua heard Twilight's name, she levitated a scroll from a top shelf and re-read the contents. But when she heard that Shimmering Sea was a returning merpony, she actually lost her magic and the scroll fell to the floor. Shimmer saw that it was an official looking document and even contained a sun/crescent moon seal on the bottom. Aqua hastily recovered the scroll and composed herself.

"So I finally get to meet my cousin's infamous faithful student, Twilight Sparkle!" Aqua said joyfully before showing them the contents of the scroll. Sure enough, Shimmer saw that it was a copy of the royal declaration of Twilight's coronation celebration. "Cousin?!?" said the three ponies and one dragon. Aqua tilted her head slightly as she thought about it. "Not actual cousins... we're not blood-related like the two land sisters. We just call each other cousins as we are all alicorns," Aqua Marina pointed a hoof at Twilight. "In that perspective, that makes you my cousin too!"

Suddenly, a chime of some kind rang out gently from no where and everywhere at the same time. "Oh my oceans! Is it that time again already?" Aqua flicked her horn towards the door, opening it with ease and everypony (and dragon) seeing nothing but darkness beyond the brightly lit corridor. "My how time flies, your highness," said Tide Glider as she stood at attention next to the door and the stallion merpony stood outside. "Come, my new friends! Join me in the Ocean Rejuvenation Spell!" Aqua cried gleefully as she swam out of the room like a shot.

Twilight, Fluttershy and Shimmering Sea exchanged a glance before swimming out to follow; Spike merely grabbed Twilight's tail as she passed by.

The group followed Princess Aqua Marina outside; Fluttershy's glowing sardines followed along providing some light as they went. Soon, Aqua had brought them to a kind of walled courtyard with an intricate stone pattern in the sand: large and small ocean-rounded stones were laid out in a pattern that looked both simple and intricate at the same time. Even the shades of the stones were used to great effect!

Shimmering Sea noticed that there was a wide line of bright yellow stones on the outside perimeter. At first, she thought that it was very pretty but when Tide Glider stopped them from passing it, she realized it was a safety boundary.

As Princess Aqua's horn continued to glow, the yellow stones shot up a circle of light around the space, effectively cutting off Shimmer's group from the princess. When Spike curiously touched the wall of yellow light, he found it solid and cool to the touch despite the translucent appearance; like a wall of glass.

Aqua's horn lit up in a royal blue aura before she let that sphere of magic expand, bypass the yellow wall and travel out into the ocean around them. As the wave of magic passed over them, Shimmering Sea and all of the others felt a burst of freshness overcome them; like sticking a head out of a window from a dusty room. It felt oddly similar to what Pearl Wisdom and the other two elders had done back in the Town Hall but this was about a thousand times more powerful. The effort of her magic made her weak, dropping the yellow wall and she floated to the stone floor; but TG and the other merpony hurried to her side and helped her back to her chamber.

Shimmering Sea, Twilight, Fluttershy and Spike followed the princess; Tide Glider and the merpony helped to set Aqua on her fainting couch. Then the merpony bowed respectfully before retreating into the hallway again. Aqua vaguely waved him off as she turned to her visitors again. "Please forgive my weakness, friends. That spell takes a lot out of me each time I perform it and I feel like I need to do that much more frequently than when I first started."

Twilight tilted her head, slightly confused. "What do you mean by that, Princess?"

Aqua lightly shook her head, her hair billowing back and forth with the movement before settling back down. "Please... call me Aqua," she said as Tide Glider gave her a cup of some kind of sludge drink with a utensil stuck inside. Aqua finished the contents in mere moments before hoofing it back. "In my early years as the Ocean's Princess, I found myself only performing that spell once or twice per month. Gave me lots of time to recover... but as the centuries go on, I find myself needing to perform it more frequently. I'm now down to casting it once every other day! I worry that if this continues, it will only get worse." She looks really worried thought Shimmer.

Tide Glider gave Aqua a bowl of sea grasses, sea weed and kelp, all mixed like a salad with little cuts of other fruits that the visitors did not recognize. TG then also passed out smaller bowls of the same mix to Shimmering Sea, Twilight, Fluttershy and Spike. Being the cleaver dragon he is, Spike pulled out the long pronged fork from lunch out from no-where and started feeding himself under the bowl. Twilight eyed him angrily for taking Coral's fork but said nothing in front of the princess.

They all enjoyed the meal; about half way through, Shimmering Sea remembered that her mom had promised dinner for them back at her place. Twilight wrote a quick note on some underwater parchment provided by Aqua and teleported it to Coral.

Dear Coral Blossom,

Shimmering Sea and the rest of us were invited to dinner at the last minute with Tide Glider and another guest. Terribly sorry if we left you in quandary over the meal.

Yours, Twilight Sparkle

"Short, sweet and to the point," Twilight said as she returned to her bowl. "I still feel awful for forgetting Coral Blossom like that," whimpered Fluttershy as she looked down into her empty bowl. "Yeah... she said she was going to get us fish to try," Spike added as he forked a gem from his snack bag. Fluttershy let out a wordless whimper of sadness.

"Honestly... If she knew who we were having dinner with, I'm sure she'd understand," Shimmering Sea said sharply as she looked to TG. Tide Glider was refilling Aqua's bowl and she blushed with embarrassment when she saw the look Shimmer was giving her.

"It is forbidden to tell the earth-mers of Princess Aqua's existence. They are already afraid of the uni- and peg-mers.... I can't imagine how terrified they'd be if they learned of an alicorn-mer," she said remorsefully but with an air of determination. Aqua nodded her head as she levitated the bowl.

The silence that followed was disheartening to Shimmering Sea. Everything today had happened so fast for her... the transformation into her merpony form; the meeting of her mother and the story of her father; learning of the Bone Caves; and now meeting the ocean's equivalent to the Princess Sisters. She felt the urge to poke her fore hoof with the other to make sure she was not dreaming!

Meanwhile, Twilight was still concerned about something. "Aqua... you said that you've had to increase the use of that spell we witnessed... but what WAS that spell exactly?" The others looked up at her question, curiosity on their faces. Aqua's own dark features brightened a little at the question. "Oh! But of course, silly me. I forgot to tell you! The Ocean Rejuvenation Spell travels through the water, turning carbon dioxide into breathable water oxygen. Believe it or not... I created the spell when I was a uni-mer filly, got accidentally trapped in a rock cave and started hyperventilating. Even as a filly, I was well read with the Bone Cave's limited library and knew all about oxygen and such. I knew that if I didn't escape the cave, I'd suffocate from the carbon dioxide in the water. I wasn't strong enough to teleport out or move the rocks on my own; my horn and magic took over from there... the smallest of blue magic bubble appeared, allowing me to breathe again. When the rocks were cleared, not only had my cutie mark appeared, but so had my alicorn transformation. I was brought here for my safety and so I could continue to perform that spell as needed." She took a moment to rest; Shimmer could see that even though she appeared & acted quite young, the bags under her eyes told of the strain she was under. "The ocean tells me when it needs the spell... I can feel it in the currents. It feels like... there's not enough plants in the ocean to make all the oxygen that all the aquatic creatures need to survive.... And it has nothing to do with our farming either," she said with a chuckle as she noticed the others eyeing their now empty salad bowls.

"It's like... something else is preventing the plants from growing...." Aqua said thoughtfully.