Twilight rose to her full height and raised her nose. "Excuse me, sir, but your device was already lost at sea."
The pony raised a brow. "Ya don't say? And here's a part of it." He thrust a hoof at Cherry and her curious belt. "How do you explain that?"
Spike rolled his eyes and grumbled softly, words lost.
Cherry tilted her head at the angry stallion. "Was that thing yours? It was buried in sand when I found it." She pointed at Twilight. "It was missing a hoof."
"Yes! It is mine!" He came closer, hooves stomping through the sand towards the water. "I demand you return it this moment, and who's going to pay for the machine?"
Twilight raised a brow. "Your machine broke before it even reached the bottom of the bay, to say nothing of how far out to sea it ultimately ended up. The way I see it, you owe me the price of the rental."
He stopped his approach of Cherry and turned to Twilight. "What?!"
"You didn't deliver the agreed upon services." She raised a brow. "This is a fairly simple request. Now, according to salvaging rights, it is hers, but since the original owner is present, she is obligated to offer it to you, for the proper price. She rescued a piece of your equipment."
"It's worthless! Look at it! It's in pieces."
"Oh, well then." Twilight smiled. "Then you don't have to pay her anything, and our business is concluded. Good day."
The stallion blinked owlishly a few times before he opened his mouth to speak, only to suddenly receive a spray of briny water across the face. He fell back sputtering as Cherry gave an innocent grin even as a few dribbles of seawater dropped from her snout. "Did she just..."
Twilight glanced at her new friend and the irate stallion. "Oh, that's... just a sign of admiration by her people."
The stallion recoiled with confusion. "W-what? I... uh..." Dazed and confused, he began to backpedal. "Who's going to pay?"
Twilight lifted her shoulders. "If you think you can develop a model that doesn't break so easily, you may find patronage from one of the royals."
It clicked, as if he realized Twilight was one of those. "O-oh, yes, I mean... Yes... I'll work past this and make something worthy of the Equestrian Seal!"
Cherry watched him retreat and turned her eyes to Twilight. "That's not how we say we like ponies."
Twilight shook her head quickly. "Oh, I was pretty sure it wasn't. Please forgive me, I was just trying to defuse the situati--" Her words were sharply cut off as she received her own spray of salty water across the face. She coughed and sputtered as Spike burst into laughter at the sight of it.
Cherry grinned at Twilight. "Now we're even. You dry ponies sure do react funny to water."
Spike hopped off of his perch to his feet. "Nah, just when it's sprayed at them like that. How do you do that anyway?"
Cherry shrugged a little. "I'm full of water. I'm a wet pony, just like she's a dry pony." She dipped her head under the water and came back up with a soft gasp. "So what's it like having four hooves?"
Twilight shook her fur and feathers dry. "You seem to be well on the way to having four yourself." She thrust a hoof at the sand. "Can you come out of the water?"
Cherry stiffened at the idea. "Do I have to?" She eyed the dry ground. Dry and hot... It seemed perfectly designed to cook her.
Spike beckoned with a smile. "C'mon. We'll be here for you if anything goes wrong. You want to see what's up here, right?"
Cherry frowned a little. She did. She really did. "Sorta..." She reached out a hoof and put it in more-shallow water, tantalizingly close to where the surf allowed the sand to touch air at times. Her eyes darted over the beach and she spotted a pony sprawled out under an umbrella. "Can you get one of those things?" She pointed at it. "Then it won't be so hot."
Twilight suddenly smiled. "I have an idea. Rarity would be so proud." She turned and trotted off with an energetic bounce only to return moments later with a cap held in her magic. "Here. It's like one of those that you can carry with you to keep the sun off." She floated it over to Cherry and put it gently on her head. "See?"
Cherry tried to look up and could see the green rim of the cap. The sun couldn't glare into her eyes unless she looked directly at it. It was a little thing, but she already felt just a little better. A smile spread across her snout. "That's really nice. Thank you." With the gift emboldening her, she reached again and pulled herself along the sand towards the shore. The abrasive sand caught her new belt and pulled it down, letting her fins free to wave and wriggle.
They caught Twilight's eye. "Are those fins? Do you use them to swim?"
She looked back at her fins. "Huh? Oh! They help me steer." She splashed at the water with her powerful tail. "This is what gets me moving. No wonder you swam so slowly, your tail is tiny." She squinted at Spike and Twilight's relatively tiny tails. "Is that why you use your hooves?" A thought seemed to tickle at her. "Oh! Could you show me how to do that? I'd like to see how a dry pony swims."
Twilight smiled gently. "Alright, we'll do that. We'll spend some time in the water, but in return, you have to spend some time out of the water." She took a step back from the edge of the sea. "We'll protect you, just like you protected us from that big squid."
"Octopus," corrected Cherry before she swallowed and took another slow slide forward. Her hoof finally touched warm and dry sand. It was... strange. Her wet hoof made it wet and clumpy, but feeling around drew the moisture away and then she could feel the soft siltiness of the sand and it wasn't quite like sand at the bottom of the ocean. It was new, strange, and a little exciting. With one more slide, she emerged from the waters, only the end of her tail still within.
Other ponies began noticing the pony Twilight was speaking to wasn't exactly a normal pony. Staring and gawking were had in equal measures as curious murmurs spread through the forming crowd.
Spike gave an emphatic thumbs up. "See, all good!"
Twilight clopped her hooves together. "Even better than good. You're doing great!" She began to look around quickly. "Now how to get you home..."
Spike raised a brow. "You're not seriously considering taking her that far, are you?"
Twilight turned to him. "How else am I doing to examine her."
"Examine?" Cherry shrank back towards the water.
Twilight spun back to Cherry. "No no no no! I don't mean anything untoward, promise! I just want to learn everything I can about hippocampi and my equipment is at home to do proper observation."
Spike shook his head. "I think something here might work better."
Twilight raised a hoof. "Let's not be hasty in either event. Cherry, for now, let's just enjoy ourselves and get to know each other."
That sounded far better than examinations, and Cherry bobbed her head. "Alright. So..." Her eyes wandered over the crowd. "I think I might be surprising all the other ponies." Not that she was much less surprised. So many kinds of ponies. Unlike Twilight, some only had horns and some only had sky flippers, and some had neither, but none of the others had both. None of them had a proper tail like her either.
Spike gave a dismissive little wave. "Don't worry about them. They're just being curious. You're the newest pony in town!"
Twilight nodded in agreement. She turned to the crowd. "Attention fillies and gentlecolts! This is Cherry, a hippocampus come to see our fair kingdom." The crowd erupted in curious ooos and ahhs. "She comes in peace, we should endeavor to welcome her."
A colt suddenly darted out of the crowd, his little horn shining brightly as he levitated a small inflatable pool with him. "She can borrow this!"
Cherry smiled brightly. What a great thing that held water even in dry places. She dipped a hoof into it, feeling the captive water before she slipped in. "Thank you, this is very nice of you." Maybe her visit to The Dry wouldn't be nearly so bad if all the ponies in it were as nice as these.
Sky flippers cool!!!
I cannot wait till she gets her first Pinkie Party! Hopefully Twilight helps her through her trials in the dry!
All the ponies? ~0%.
Each pony? ~ 95%.
Wait...they are in Ponyville, right? If they are...where's Pinkie Pie's welcome?!
7158748 They are not. Ponyville's not by the ocean, or has a large telescope to use.
7158753 Oh...well, they better get to Ponyville quick! Pinkie Pie needs to see the new character!
Here's a joke.
- Hey Cherry, if you need to use the restroom it's over there.
Cherry: What's a restroom?
: Wait a sec... You don't have restrooms? But we're do you go, when you need to go?
Cherry: Well I live in the ocean... So...
http://www.fimfiction.net/group/199104/sea-pony-lagoon
http://www.fimfiction.net/group/1163/sea-ponies-are-awesome-and-should-be-canon-in-g4
http://www.fimfiction.net/group/199105/forgotten-races
These are groups that focus on sea ponies, hippocampus, and other forgotten races of the mlp universe before generation 4.
Wings = Sky Flippers; Fins/Flippers = Water Wings
am I doing to - am I going to
*****
Actually, this being Equestria, her chances are much better than average, but not 100%.
Still enjoying this big fish, ok hippocampus, tale. We saw another side of Princess Twilight Sparkle than the one we usually see, and I remain eager to learn more about Cherry and see where her adventures lead.
Most happy people tend to be nice when in the presence of a member of the ruling class with immense magical powers who can make you have a really bad day if they have an accident or you screw up.
I feel obligated to point out that silt and sand have distinct definitions and beach sand has a very low silt content.
the equipment I need to do proper observation is at home.
Spitting water in somepony's face is an odd thing to do. Obviously, a seapony would find it very easy to do, but it would be equivalent to us blowing in someone's face. We could do it, but why?
Regardless, Cherry is still cute, and Twilight is doing a good job of balancing her curiosity with consideration for her guest. She also managed to placate the robot guy with being mean to him either. Well done.
7158860
That's one of those details folks are probably happier allowing it to go un-discussed.
As the song goes - Repeat to yourself 'it's just a tale, I should really just relax'.
7157652
Heh, thank goodness someone else remembers those.
Great story. ~hug
7159596 Hmm, changeling hugs. Suspicious...
7159754 squee.
This is great so far. Please continue.
If realistic enough I'd say they'd try to either cook her or put her in captivity
Um, saltwater vs. freshwater...
7162635 Salmon
Watch out for Flim and Flam! Those ponies would love an attraction to make money off!
Actually, ponies are 70% water anyway...
Seaponies are made of sea foam and turn into it when they fail to win their voice back from the Sea Witch... or something tragic along those lines.
Commence read.
Inflatable pool to the rescue!
At the author's note. With Sliver as the author? The odds are awful, especially considering the drama tag. But since it is still rated E and has no other tag than adventure they shall most likely be road bumps.
I really like how you are portraying her confusion regarding the dry landers.
Good work.
10000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 to .000000000000000000000000000000000001.
or, more practically, none
How much you want to bet she will meet that .000000000000001%.
The odds of everypony cherry meets being as friendly as Twilight, Spike, the colt, and the crowd are
approximately 3,720 to 1. And that's if she were in Ponyville.
7221924
Next thing ya know, a pony by the name of doctor evil will capture her and put a ficken laser beam on her fricken head!
I was going to follow this, but I'm over my head. I don't know if I can keep current with this, or if it is too deep to fathom. So far, I'm going with the flow.
I like the premise, and Cherry is a ray of sunlight. Not gonna skate by this story. Eel see wet happens next! At least Cherry met salmon nice, right?
7158860 Guy asks drunk at the bar "Do you ever just drink water?", drunk looks at him slyly and reply's "Hell no, fish make love in water!"
7256958
And now I can never look at oceans the same way. Still can drink tap water though, its filtered.
7263797 There's a good reason why the sea is so salty...
And why they're called sperm whales...
Hehehehe, this is a delightful tale of a new experience and outlook, I love it!
Nice job.
Zero.
First, she needs to head home and let her family know where she is.
Naughty girl.
7603718 negative one
7351043 you dirty little...
Well it seems Twi has a natural knack for speeding things along it seems.
I just had a vision of a great port city. It would be made of stone and would have waterways along every major and semi-major street. there would be homes above and below the water, and every shop would have access pools with tunnels leading to the waterways. they would have doors of course, but everything would be within close distance to the water and all public building would have direct access to the waterways.
7897899 so it would be hospitable to hippocampi and ponies? Maybe there would be underwater residential areas like a big building with a pool in the middle so hippocampi can access it and the apartments are in the walls of the pool…?
Also the aquarium would be rather fun.
8058445
Yeah, and if there is a city with both living in it then perhaps ponies may become more concerned about pollution and keeping all their water clean.
I highly doubt all of them are gonna be as nice as the little colt.
Hmm, let me think. Oh, is that a drama tag I spy. Hmm... HMMM... What are the odds!?
8254702
It's been dramatic from near the start. Come, let us see how much more her world will change in sudden ways.
This is so cool!!
Squeal!!!