They found the engineer up on the docks, where he was apparently controlling his metal pony at a distance. He kept eyeing Berry suspiciously, but that faded as they began going over details. He was pleasantly surprised at the mechanical aptitude of both the sea mechanics. "The modifications you made are quite ingenious, even if they were made without my permission."
Cherry had the dignity to blush at that, even as Berry rolled her eyes.
Soon he knew how to make a proper seapony 'dry swimming' belt. "That's walking aid," corrected the technician, not that any of the three minded him much when it came to terminology. "Are you still staying with Princess Twilight?"
Indie nodded firmly. "Oh, yes, though she's out there right now." He pointed out into the water. "I hope she's alright..."
As if conjured from the depths, Twilight and Fluttershy appeared in the waters with a soft splash from below. They paddled for the dry beach, clearly returned to being quadrupedal and chatting with one another animatedly and with big smiles. Had it gone well?
Berry leaned over the side of the dock a little. "Who's that?"
Cherry giggled a little. "That's Princess Twilight, you know, the one who's house you're staying in."
"Oh. I suppose we should go say hello." Berry began walking down along the dock to meet the two dry ponies coming ashore.
All three met her as she came up on land. Both the dry ponies shook water from their fur. The yellow one, Fluttershy, let out a sigh of relief. "That was quite a journey..."
Twilight nodded. "But we did it!" Her eyes scanned over the beach, easily spotting the new sea pony stallion, not to mention Berry. "You've been... busy as well?"
Cherry waved to Berry. "Say hello to Sea Berry, but she goes by Berry."
Twilight offered a hoof. "A pleasure to meet you. I'm Twilight."
Berry met the hoof with a clop. "Nice to meet you. You are?" She looked at Fluttershy.
Fluttershy suddenly froze until Twilight nudged her. "Oh, yes. I'm Fluttershy..."
Indie suddenly flopped forward. "Fluttershy! I've been waiting to meet you!"
Twilight blinked. "Why is that stallion over there using your wheels instead of you? Did he take them?"
Indie shook his head. "We gave them. The girls are going to make me some real dry swimmers. Fluttershy, how did your trip go?"
Fluttershy seemed surprised that somepony would focus on her so intently. "Um, it went... well? Nice to meet you, Indie."
Indie propped himself up on his forelegs. "Did you talk with the fish?"
"... Yes?" She tilted her head a little.
Indie squeed with joy. "We can both speak with creatures from all oceans! I'm a fish speaker as well, but I've been talking to dry fish, um, what were they called?"
"Squirrels," provided Cherry.
"Those!"
Fluttershy brightened a little. "Aw, squirrels are so cute!"
"They are!" Indie tried to clop and ended up flopped in the sand. "We should talk." He pushed himself up again. "Later, when I have my dry swimmers."
Cherry's attention was more on Twilight. "How did your trip go? Did you fi--"
"We sure did!" Twilight smiled so wide it squeaked. "She agreed to come meet with Princess Celestia and was quite reasonable, once we found her."
Cherry tilted her head. "Oh, they're a her?"
Berry blinked at the two. "Really? You don't know?"
Cherry looked over to Berry. "What?"
Berry put a hoof to her face. "Your mom is the Master of the Waves, that's why I didn't want to say that stupid promise. Swearing on your rival's mom feels weird."
Cherry and Indigo's jaw dropped together. Twilight joined in placing her hoof to her face. "That would have saved quite a bit of ordeal, and explains her oddly-specific request." She pointed at Cherry. "She said that you're to be kept safe and happy."
She rolled her eyes at that. "Mom... How was she?!"
Twilight gave a gentle smile. "She was alright. She loved hearing about some of the things you've been up to. Come on, let's get back to Ponyville."
Berry pointed up to the dock with the dry and horny pony engineer. "When she comes, she should talk to him about getting a dry swimmer. He'll be making them for all the sea ponies that want to visit."
Twilight blinked up at him before shaking her head. "You've all been busy. That's fantastic! This is exactly the sort of thing I think Celestia was hoping to see." She stepped away from the ocean. "But, if you don't mind, I'm exhausted." Her horn began to glow as she hefted Indigo into the air. "Is he making Indigo's new legs?"
Cherry looked to Berry, then they both dashed out into the water a moment, returning with sand-encrusted metal forelegs. "Ta da!"
Twilight shook her head. "Well..." She glanced between Cherry and Berry, taking in their mechanical marks. "Are you two friends?"
"Rivals," corrected Berry. "But for sweet little Indie, we'll be working together."
Cherry rolled her eyes. "She's also helping with my train."
They began moving for the station as Twilight tilted her head faintly. "You got a toy train?"
Cherry reared up and threw her forelegs wide. "Think bigger!"
Twilight swallowed nervously. "I... I'm sure it's lovely..."
Fluttershy walked along the floating Indigo. "So... you talked with squirrels?"
"Oh yes! They're very excitable, but they had a lot to say. They lost their house."
"Oh no!" Fluttershy brought up a hoof in dismay. "What'd they do?"
"We found them a new tree." Indigo nodded. "Now they're all happy."
Fluttershy smiled at that. "It wasn't too close to other squirrel families, I hope?"
"Oh no no! They were very insistent about that." Indie made a few vague gestures. "We had to swim far and long, but we found a tree with plenty of food and not many squirrels around. They should be happy now."
"What a relief." Fluttershy let out a sigh of relief. "Have you met many other animals?"
"I heard you have a dry fish called a 'bear' for a friend? May I meet them?" Indigo smiled brightly.
Berry suddenly went red as she realized another mare was getting attention from Indigo. Her battle had just gotten more complicated...
Literally just caught up when all of a sudden... *poof* New chapter.
I am enjoying your story thus far... although I do wish they were a bit longer.
So far all good, so keep up that awesome creativity and drive!
7260370 Uh, the story is finished, You know?
Woah, wait. Hold your horses! *snicker* The story is set as complete?
Should have called them Momster of the Waves
7260384
Read author's notes in previous chapters, the story was commissioned this far, to get more story someone will have to pay for it to be continued.
#Yandere
No it shouldn't end like this! Keep on going or I we'll start a riot of Pinkie Pies!!!
7260384 So it remains, unless/until someone else adopts it. The commissioner of this one wants me on another project, so I'll get on that. More horse words, just not these horse words.
Slightly abrupt, but you can say that with the advent of the production of sea pony mechanical aid, also for those drylanders injured etc, this is This story. Dealing with the diplomats, the new tourists, and the refurbished transport, first one, then another, eventually leading to a huge ocean going metal box driven by hundreds of legs..
[Discord]
This gets the Walrus of Chaos. Choo Choo Ka Coo.
7260478 Wait... Are you saying you want someone else to take over the story?
7260537 If someone wanted to write inspired by this, I wouldn't stop them, but I more meant financially.
We have to pay for more? -_-
Awwww, I was hoping this episode would be as long as previous ones.
7260566 ok. How much is it for a chapter?
7260711 My going price is $10 per 1000 words.
I think I know what the prophecy means. It means Equestria is going to get a whole ton of new tourists
7260721 ...W0T.
I barely have enough to focus on my own things, considering I'm only in eighth grade. I don't have money to commission...
How about a service trade instead?
....called it
7260721
Fanfictions aren't meant to make money. This is exactly the type of thing that ruins it for everyone, because Hasbro could get upset at you for demanding money for your "horse words".
Also, $10 for 1000 words is a ridiculous price. A dollar every one hundred words? I've written half a dollar's worth just in this comment so far!
No offense, but what idiot paid you $670 for this story up to this point? Your prices are scummy.
7260930 Significantly lower than industry standard, but thanks.
People like to think artistry should be cheaper too.
7260945 Industry standard my ass; this is FANFICTION.
$10 for 1000 words is a stupid price and if the "industry" pays that much then why aren't you rich by now? I stand by that that price is ridiculous.
Oh, and people don't make shit for art, trust me on that one. They aren't called "starving artists" for nothing.
7260957 I pay my artists well. For my own art, I request I also be paid fairly.
If you enjoy 'fan' art, congrats, you almost assuredly enjoyed some commissioned pieces, which are no less or more legally clear than this fanfiction.
As for being rich? Well, I don't have to go to 'work' at a 9-5 job, which is good enough for me. I am the boss of me, which makes me happy. I write RPG books, run two online games, and write these stories. I make my ends meet.
Why are you so angry that someone wants to be paid for their work? How long do you think it takes to make an actual chapter of 2k words? How much per hour do you think is 'fair'?
She didn't know the ruler of the seas was her own mother? I'm sorry Cherry, you just fell from oblivious to idiotic.
7260969 Except you're not charging by the hour, you're charging by the word. If you charged by estimated time of completion and said as much then I probably wouldn't have said anything. $10 for 1000 words that have occasional grammatical errors isn't a good price simply because it isn't much content for the price and isn't of the quality that *should* have such a price.
I'm sure I have read commissioned stories before, that wasn't my point. Writing a story because someone commissioned you to do so is one thing (which you've done up to this point and I don't actually mind), but leaving the story marked as "incomplete" and demanding money for it to be finished is wrong. You shouldn't be panhandling for completion.
7260999 Oh. Heh, it's marked as incomplete because someone else grabbed it up. It was complete when it was... complete.
It is now incomplete, and will be updated tomorrow.
Sorry for the confusion.
If a writer wants to be paid a penny a word, and is willing to post his or her work to the public where an unwillingly-retired guy like myself can read it for nothing, I certainly have no complaints. My thanks to you and your patron, David Silver!
7261853 We have a new patron, so this story will be going on!
7260957
Remember real authors not only have to publish their work but also get royalty fees from the book. He's not rich because he's decided not to publish his book which depending on contracts and how popular it us he could end up with could range from an income of 30,000-40,000 ish a year which sounds good but is little when you compare lots of things. Honestly I'm happy that he can make ends meet while doing this and just goes to prove how great a person he is
7261869 Yay!! I love this story and look forward to the next chapter
7260945 meh i would pay that for GOOD writing like yours thats bargain actually iv seen $25+ USD for trash writing so dont think about the issues behind it
Silly Berry, at war with all the other girls...
Keep going! ;)
STORY NO END! ME GET MAD IF STORY END!
It's only as complicated as much as she think it is.
Eh, guess that explains why a Siren mercenary warrior appeared after her...
7263385 Kitten smash? X)))
7263385 Kitten smash? X)))
Yet another innuendo to add to the list due to my VERY dirty mind
We missed the whole adventure?
Twilight was still there when the junk train idea was suggested.
7261869 The way you keep referring to 'horny' unicorns, i wonder if you're distracted with a new marefriend?
Ring-a-ding-ding! Nailed it!
7278957
You can be there for something and go do something else for awhile and forget what happened. It's not that rare.
Flutters is talking to Indie. Things just got more complicated.
Ceruleans mom is actually their ruler. Thinsg just got way more complicated.
Berry bitch is an unnominated villain. Omg, that's complicated.
Typos, those are also complicated.
What isn't complicated?
Indishy is now the otp.
Bruh...
Berry they are not trying to steal your friend ❤️