Little Fish, Big Pond

by Schorl Tourmaline

The Beach Episode

“Wooooooow,” that was the first thing Scylla said upon seeing the crystal clear body of water that was the ocean, followed up immediately by, “It’s so big!”

It had been a month or so since our last trip to the river, and as I promised, I had taken the young kelpie to the vacation destination she desired. Scylla looked so happy as she ran towards the sparkling water, her hooves dispersing the sand as she left my side.

“Remember to stay close!” I yelled, pleased to see my now fully adopted daughter in such high spirits, “And watch out that you don’t hit the other ponies here with your tail!”

The warning was near instantly neglected, as Scylla spun around to yell back to me, “I will!” only to hit one of the other beach goers who were resting in their chair right in the face. Her eyes went wide immediately as she felt the contact, and with a sheepish expression, Scylla turned to face the adult mare she had accidentally struck, holding her tail in hand as she gave a brief “I’m sorry” before running off to not suffer the consequences.

I followed the filly’s path, carrying all of the beach equipment i had purchased for the outing, and thus ended up walking right by the victim of Scylla’s random tail attack. “Yeah, really sorry about that. She sometimes loses track of where her tail is around others.”

The mare gave me a disgruntled look, and a ‘hmph’ in response, before going back to their sunbathing. Honestly, I was glad that was all I got, since her reaction could have been worse. Not just because she could have chewed me out more thoroughly, but because I didn’t know how others would have reacted to my fishy filly’s presence.

When we first arrived, I was already having second thoughts. I had picked a more public place, a beach on the coastline of South Luna Sea, a place near Las Pegasus. When we arrived I saw that there were far more ponies there than I expected, which was stupid of me seeing as it was near a resort destination, but seeing them reminded me that not everypony was as familiar with seeing a kelpie among them as the ponies in our hometown of Vanhoover.

This was back in a time when most ponies would go into hysterics if they saw a zebra come to town, so I was worried that an even rarer species of pony might cause some problems. If Scylla hadn’t ran out when she did, I might have developed second thoughts about spending the day here, but when no pony expressed concern for a furless, dolphin tailed filly running about, I calmed my doubts. Some would turn to give her a quick stare, which Scylla was too preoccupied to notice back, but each seemed to brush it off.

Counting my blessings, and thanking that Scylla was too cute for ponies to be worried about, I found one of the few remaining empty spots of beach where I could put our stuff, never taking more than one eye off of the miniature mare I have claimed responsibility over as I placed down our blanket and set up a sun umbrella.

Scylla had, as expected, ran right out to the shore, leaping into the shallow section of sea water to get her hooves wet. I had gotten her a new outfit for the occasion, consisting of a pure white sun dress, a straw sunhat to help her keep the sun out of her eyes. It was a simple combo that iconically brought out the cute features of girls her age, which for Scylla was on full display as she splashed around without a care in the world.

“Hey Scylla!” I called out to get her attention, “We’re setting up over here!”

Hearing my voice, Scylla left the waters and ran over to join back up with me, “Daddy, the water feels warm, and it’s different from the river and bath water. Like it’s grainy.”

“You’re probably feeling the salt in the water,” I said, making an educated guess on the situation, “Ocean water is a bit different from freshwater, and different types of fish live in both because of that.”

“Is that why you wanted me to practice holding my breath underwater?” Scylla asked, referring to a little exercise I had her do the weeks prior to our trip.

“You got it,” I answered. It was clear that Scylla’s reason for wanting to go to the beach was so she could swim in it, but I didn’t know if her gills could filter out the brine properly to let her breath underwater. I just wanted to be safe in the event that she found the salt and plankton too much for her. “But you might not have to actually use that if you can breath despite it. A little test couldn’t hurt, right?”

Scylla nodded, but at this time I really wished that I would have consulted with Grandpa Gruff first. Normally if I had any questions about kelpie, he would be the one I’d go talk to, but he had been busy with his own ward this month, prepping her for junior speedster’s school. I would have hated to postpone our beach outing longer and disappoint Scylla, so this once I decided to wing it, and bring plenty of fresh water with us in the event that something went wrong.

I grabbed a couple of bottles of the unsalted liquid, while Scylla removed her dress and hat to reveal the one piece bathing suit she had on underneath. The polyester fabric was light pink, a color I picked so it wouldn’t bleed through the white material as she wore the suit as an undergarment. Packing the dress away, the two of us made our way to the ocean, to see if there were going to be any problems with the kelpie’s excursion out into the water.

The two of us found a spot along the shore that had less traffic than most, and together waded in till the water got to Scylla’s stomach and up above my knees. With water bottles in hand, I got behind the young filly, bent down, and put my arms forearms into her armpits.

“Ok, I want you to lower yourself into the water, and breathe it in slowly.” I instructed, hoping that this wasn’t a mistake.

Scylla did as she was told, bending her knees and her stomach to submerge her face and neck into the sea. She left a small part of her gills about the water, allowing me to watch as she took her breathes, and from what I could tell nothing bad was happening. She didn’t sputter or choke as she took in the water, and showed no signs of needing to leave the water as she sucked it in and spat it back out as she would have done any other water.

This was a good sign, as we both knew what it was like when she inhaled something that disagreed with her, as there was more than one time that I had to make a dramatic rescue when she had taken a bath, and made a foolish decision to submerge herself under the water after having made it far too soapy. After about a minute of this, the kelpie lifted her head back up, and looked up to me.

“You don’t feel anything bad?” I asked.

“No, everything seems fine.” Scylla replied, without so much as a stutter in her words.

“Then I guess it’s ok. Just stay close to shore, and if you start to feel tired or queasy, swim back to land immediately.”

A bright smile grew on the aquatic filly’s face, and the next thing I knew she was diving into the water, swimming once around me in a display of her excitement, before zipping off to a slightly deeper section of water. I did my best to track her movements, still intent on keeping her locked in my sights, but it was a little harder now that she was in her natural environment. If it wasn’t for her occasional underwater spins and flips, I would have only seen a blur of gray, red, and pink.

While I did worry for Scylla’s safety, I was honestly happy to see her have such a good time. I had always figured that some time at a large body of water would have been fun for her, but rivers and lakes always made me wary to let her venture in, and the public pool had similar issues to the bathtub due to the chemicals used to keep it clean. Watching her have the time of her young life, finally able to utilize her aquatic abilities to the fullest, made me feel a lot better about going to the beach that day.

After a few passes back and forth in front of me, the young kelpie returned to where I stood, breaching the water surface with dripping wet look of enjoyment, “Dad, did you see how fast I went? I didn’t even know I could do that!”

“Yes, Scylla,” I said, patting her head, “You’re certainly a natural. That’s to be expected though.”

“Cause of this?” Scylla replied, manually lifting her tail out of the water with her arms.

“That and all your other fishy features,” I said, chuckling like it was some sort of private joke, “So why don’t you go back out there and show me some more tricks?”

Excited to show off, Scylla dipped back under the water, swimming out a bit further, but not too far that I had to worry about her vanishing on me. She was a good girl, understanding that I didn’t want her to venture too far into the open waters. My protectiveness didn’t stop her from having fun though, as she started doing small leaps out of the sea, just to see if she could.

I made my way back to the our beach blanket, ready to trust Scylla’s own ability to take care of herself, laid down under the umbrella, and opened one of the water bottles I had been holding onto so I could drink it myself, now that I knew that they wouldn’t be needed for an emergency. It was nice to relax, have a day away from the home, and not have to fuss over work or think that I was being a sub par parent for a filly not of my species. From my spot in the sands, I could watch as Scylla did her occasional leaps, which not just entertained her, but let me know that she was doing just fine. For the first time in maybe my whole life, everything felt just right.

I wasn’t the only one watching the antics of my adopted daughter though, as other ponies, adults and foals alike, started to take notice of her trying to perform tricks each time she surfaced. The younger ponies tried to get a closer view by going up to the shore, while the older ones seemed content with watching from a distance, or just going about their own beach activities.

At first I didn’t think anything of it, saying to myself, “I guess ponies around here don’t care if a kelpie shares the beach with them.” This line of thought kept me content for a few minutes, but this I started to see the strangeness in that. Ponies, meaning the three major tribes of pegasi, unicorns, and earth ponies, were not usually this calm around other species, and while I didn’t see this acceptance of Scylla as something to be alarmed over, it did make me curious.

Taking my eyes off Scylla for a second, I looked around for someone closeby, who had to have seen Scylla, but was showing little interest in her. My eyes landed on an earth pony stallion waxing up a surfboard, who was occasionally looking out into the waters.

Scooting over closer, I got within earshot of the stallion, and politely asked, “Hey, not to bother you, but no one’s worried about that aquatic mare in the water?” I avoided using the word ‘kelpie’ so not to cause panic, since anypony who would recognize the name would know how normal kelpie were hostile by nature.

The stallion looked up from his board for a moment to acknowledge me, and replied, “No, I don’t think anypony is. She’s not really bothering anypony out in the water. Just enjoying the beach like the rest of us, right?”

“Yeah,” I agreed, “She’s actually my adopted daughter, but I didn’t expect ponies outside of my town to be this understanding. Even there, I had to get them used to the idea.”

“Oh, don’t worry about that,” the surfer stallion replied, “Ponies who come to this beach frequently are pretty used to sea ponies.”

“Sea ponies?” I questioned, “But she’s not a… Wait, you said you’re used to sea-.”

Another splash could be heard from the coast, and assuming it was Scylla again, I turned my head to make sure she was still doing fine. What I saw was not the small, gray and white body of the kelpie, but instead a flash of sea foam green zipping across the blue sky. I thought I was seeing things, that maybe I had caught a glimpse of the water Scylla pulled up with her when she left the water, but then another large object burst from the surface, this time a bright yellow one, and with my eyes tracking the movement from the start this time, I was able to make out the image of the first true sea pony I had ever seen.

A few more sea ponies leapt from the water, doing a much better job at it than Scylla had done prior, going several feet into the air before the arced back into the water. Once again, the ponies had their attentions drawn to this activity, but few seemed to actually care about the presence of these rarely seen, oceanic equine. The only one who really seemed to be impressed about their arrival was the one who shared the most similarities with them, as Scylla made her way back to the shore, and ran herself right up to me, even as I was still speaking with the surfer pony.

“Dad!” she yelled, over and over, even as she got right to me, “Look! There are other water ponies like me!”

---

“They are so pretty!” Scylla yelled in excitement as I had her come sit on the blanket with me, “A pink one swam right next to me, and I was surprised cause I had been swimming around and didn’t see them till they got close, and she was a big adult, and I wonder if I’ll look like that when I get older!”

“I’m sure you’ll be beautiful when you get older,” I tell Scylla, handing her a fish sandwich and a juice box, “And yeah, this is all pretty exciting. I’ve never seen a sea pony in person either.”

“So these aren’t kelpie like me?” Scylla asked, not knowing there was a difference.

“Sea ponies are probably closely related,” I said, having no idea if that was true or not, “Unicorns, alicorns, and pegasi are supposed to be pretty close too, so I don’t see why sea ponies and kelpie wouldn’t be the same.”

Kelpie took a bite of her fish sandwich, her gaze trailing off back to the water as she watched a purple sea pony do a full back flip out of the water. “So one of them might be my aunt or uncle?”

“I’m not sure it’s that close,” I said, “More like your ancestors might have branched off from the same tribe. I really don’t know though.”

“Then why don’t we ask them?” Scylla said, her childish simplicity seeing that as the easiest way to get answers.

Normally, I would have had reservations when it came to approaching creatures he never encountered before, or large bodies of water in general, but I had been watching the other beach goers as they went about their day without any concern for the ponies sharing the beach with them. They were still going out to swim, some of which apparently had been waiting for the sea ponies’ arrival to make their way into the tides, that surfer stallion he had talked to before being one said pony.

“I guess it wouldn’t hurt if we can find one who’s willing to talk to us.” I said, “But eat your snack first. All that swimming had to take a lot of energy out of you.”

Scylla did as I asked, and gobbled down her sandwich, while taking a more leisurely time with her drink. I had a small snack of my own, with some daisy and hay sandwiches I prepared for myself, since Scylla and I had different dietary needs. Once done, I upheld my promise, and with her small hand in mine, we approached the waters to go talk to the sea ponies.

Like before, I waded in up to my knees, not really desiring to go any deeper than that, and looked around to see how close the sea ponies were to the coast. Most of them were further out than Scylla had been swimming prior, which made sense since the water was their natural environment, and they didn’t have an overly cautious adoptive father telling them to stay close to land.

“Pardon me!” I called out, trying to get one of the sea pony’s attention, not any in particular, just whoever would listen.

Unfortunately, my call was drawing more attention from the ponies on the sand than those in the water, who probably thought I was some annoying tourist trying to bother them, which was actually pretty on the nose. I gave a bit of a sigh when I realized I was probably being ignored, but I wasn’t about to let Scylla down.

“Ok,” I said, releasing her hand, “I want you to stay right here. Daddy is gonna go out and talk to them.” Flapping my wings, I fly myself a few feet above the water, and make my way over to where more sea ponies were gathered. “Excuse me! I was hoping I could borrow a moment of your time. Not all of you, but if one of you could let me ask you some questions, I have a little filly over here who is curious about you.”

The reaction to my more direct approach was less than ideal, as those closest to me dove under the water, flipping their tails at me once in what I assumed was a rude gesture, as they slipped beneath the surface. I tried again, zipping over to some others who were still above the surface, but they saw me coming and preemptively swam downwards. It was disheartening, to be sure, as it didn’t seem like I could get so much as the time of day from any of them, having to send Scylla a disappointed look over the situation. Just as I was about to give up though, a large splash erupted from the water.

I found it hard to evade what was coming at me, finding myself in a similar situation as when I first met Scylla, only this time Anya wasn’t around to save me from whatever was coming at me at torpedo speeds. It was even green like the previous time, though a bright green this time, which made it harder for me to see in the ocean waters. However, what was different this time was that the creature coming at me didn’t have a look of anger, but instead an expression of shock and bewilderment that matched my own.

I could only take this in for a fraction of a second before impact, as I was suddenly colliding with a tall, slender, oceanic mare. The impact sent me for backwards spin, with the sea pony at first going over top of me with my back to the ocean, then turning upside down with me, and then starting to plummet back to the waters below once I managed to go right side up again. While the re-entry for her probably would have caused no harm, my panic stricken mind made me instinctively grab ahold of the sea mare’s arms, and flap my wings as hard as they could to keep us both from falling in.

For about a half a minute, the both of us were panting heavily, trying to piece together what happened, as we both recovered mentally from the slightly terrifying encounter. As things started falling into place, and we both came to the conclusion that we were ok, I looked down at her and she looked up at me, as we examined the other parties in this accident.

I probably should have just apologized and lowered her safely into the water, but for some reason, probably because I was a bit too stunned to form new thoughts, my thoughts were locked on the reason I came out this far in the first place.

“Excuse me,” I said in the last moments of my exasperation, “But could I bother you with some questions?”

“Questions?” the mare replied, too stupified by everything that happened to do anything by repeating back the word.

“Not for me,” I said back, “It’s for my daughter. She’s really interested in sea ponies, and… well…”

I look back to where Scylla was standing, the young filly being a good girl and not moving from her spot, despite the unintended attack. She was looking relieved that nothing else happened, her fish tail in her hands, having grabbed it to comfort her as she witnessed the crash. The sea pony followed my eyes, and likewise saw the girl standing hip deep in water, her irises shrinking down a little smaller when she saw the girl who was clearly a water pony like herself, but likewise was not a sea pony.

However, the sea pony was only given a brief moment to reflect on what she was seeing, as while I had become accustomed to flying around a small child like Scylla, a full sized mare like the one I was holding onto was a little too much for my wings to handle. Having used a good deal of effort keeping us both afloat, my wings suddenly gave out, and we both plummeted back into the sea.

---

About a minute later, I found myself being brought to shore, coughing and sputtering out water as I took in deep breaths of air. Alongside me was the green sea mare, who swam me back to shore, who was breathing heavily as well, but only do to having to exert herself trying to get me back to land.

“Thanks,” I said as I lifted my body up out of the ebbing tides, not completely out of the water, knowing that the mare had saved me from drowning.

“It’s fine,” she replied, “It was, in a way, my fault. I should have looked where I was leaping better.”

As I continued to hack up a decent portion of the ocean from my lungs, a small gray mare ran over to my side. “Dad!” Scylla yelled, needing to see if I was ok, after watching me fall into the water and not rise up for long enough time to be worried. The young filly did understand that I wasn’t able to breath under water like her, and thus understood that my safety had been in danger.

Turning to the sea mare, Scylla got between us, spreading her arms wide to try and defend me from what she thought was an attacker. From the distance she had been, she didn’t hear anything we said to one another, and believed that the sea pony had purposefully attacked me to pull me into the water.

“Don’t you dare hurt my dad, or else I’ll… I’ll…” Scylla’s skin suddenly shifted from its usual gray color, to the sickly green hue of her kelpie form, her hair darkening and the whites of her eyes turning black as she revealed the monstrous side of herself. She gave a mean snarl to the sea mare, revealing a vicious set of fangs for a creature of her size.

The quick shift did cause the sea mare to recoil in shock, not expecting the cute filly to change to such a ghastly form, but she thankfully didn’t flee before I managed to work up the energy to correct Scylla’s misconceptions.

Turning around while still on my knees, I wrapped my arms around Scylla to both embrace and restrain her. “It’s alright.” I said calmly, knowing that raising my voice would only make things worse, “This sea pony saved me.”

“I saw her attack you!” Scylla yelled, describing to me how she perceived the events.

“It was an accident.” I corrected, “She was leaping out of the water like the others were, and I just happened to be there. I caught her in the collision, and then we both fell into the water. Then she brought me to shore.”

Hearing my version of what happened, Scylla settled down, and slowly shifted back to her more dolphin-like form, before turning herself around to hug me back. “I was so worried about you! I didn’t know what was going on or what I should do!”

With Scylla now facing my direction, I could see she was crying, and might have been crying from the moment she thought I was in danger. It hurt me to see her in such distress, but also warmed my heart to see she cared about me so much.

“It’s ok. It was just an accident. Everything’s fine now.” I did my best to comfort the foal with my words, speaking softly to let her know that everything was fine now, and she didn’t need to be afraid.

As we shared this affectionate moment between one another, the sea mare looked on at the two of us, interested in everything she had seen. “So this is the daughter you were talking about before. Isn’t she a special little filly.”

“She’s certainly my special little girl.” I said, stroking Scylla’s mane as she sniffled into my shoulder.

The sea mare moved closer to us, walking up onto the land on a pair of legs, debunking the rumor I had once herald that they only possessed a fish tail. Once out of the water, I could see that she was tall, standing a head taller than me if I had been standing as well, and when she got close to us, she crouched down to speak with us at a more even height.

“I’m so sorry I scared you like that, little one. I promise that your father and I gave each other a bit of a fright as well. How about we start over from the beginning. My name is Posey, what’s yours?”

The kelpie turned to look at the sea pony, now only slightly bigger than herself, “Scylla.” She said, wiping the last remnants of tears from her eyes.

“Well Sylla, you were such a brave filly, standing up for your dad like that.” Posey said, “And the way you shapeshifted, it was really scary.”

“Yeah…” I said nervously, “Scylla’s actually-”

“A kelpie?” Posey asked, though she already knew the answer, “I’ll be honest, sea ponies don’t usually see kelpie out near the ocean. We’re told they don’t take well to salt water.”

“I did just fine.” Scylla said, still coming off as a little worried about the aquatic mare, perhaps emulating my previous tone towards Posey, “I was swimming before you got here, and it was really fun.”

“I bet you were,” Posey said in praise, “You look like you’re a wonderful swimmer, with that tail fish, and your smooth skin. You know, fur creates resistance, and makes you swim slower.”

Hearing the sea mare say that, Scylla gave her a smile in return, “Is that why my dad is a bad swimmer?”

“No,” I said before Posey could reply, “I’m a bad swimmer because I have these big wings dragging me down. Tell you what though, if you don’t make fun of me when I swim, I won’t make fun of you when you fall like a rock.”

Before Scylla could realize what I was doing, I stood up, grabbed her under the arms, and tossed her lightly in the air. She made a playful squeal as she flew upwards, only to have gravity return her back to my hands as I caught her.

This amused Posey, who commented by saying, “You two are quite the pair.”

“We do compliment one another,” I said, agreeing with the sea mare, “Oh, I’m sorry. I haven’t properly introduced myself. I’m Pathfinder. As Scylla said before, I’m her father.”

Posey looked at me, clearly wondering how a pegasus became the father of a kelpie, but having more tact than to ask directly. Instead, she focused what she said next on why I was trying to get a sea pony’s attention in the first place.

“So you had some questions to ask me?” said the sea mare, now intrigued over what inquiries I could have for her.

“Well, I’m sure we both do.” I said, “About aquatic pony life. You see, Scylla’s never been around ponies like herself, and I only know as much as I’ve been told by this old gryphon I know, but if we could get some info from a pony that actually lives in the water, then it would help a lot.”

“If all you’re looking for are answers about underwater life, I suppose I don’t have a problem.” Posey said, “Just realize, I’m kinda new to this myself.”

“New?” I questioned, not understanding what the sea mare meant at that time, or grasping how an adult sea pony could be new to living underwater.

“Oh, don’t worry about that.” she replied, “Just go ahead and ask your questions, and I’ll try to answer them the best I can.”

“Ok, then I suppose the first question we have is this.” I said, setting Scylla back down on the ground, “What is the difference between Kelpie and Sea ponies? Are they related?”

“Not exactly,” Posey said, “Kelpie, from what I’ve been told, are water ponies, and they don’t live outside of lakes and rivers. I don’t even think they can usually go into the ocean. I do know they are shapeshifters, like your daughter displayed, but we, uh… us sea ponies, were told their disguises were more like ponies.”

“Disguises?” Scylla asked, confused by this description.

“She means your other form.” I said, having taught Scylla that both her appearances were her, and that neither made her more or less who she was. Of course, I never told Scylla what the purpose of her forms was in the context of kelpie culture, due to how kelpie used their less monstrous appearance to ambush creatures they saw as prey.

Again, Posey picked up on how I skirted around the topic, and colluded with my version of things. “Yes, that’s what I meant. Kelpie normally have furry bodies, and lack a fishtail like the one you have. It’s supposedly hard to tell one apart from a pony, except they like to stay near the water, so much that you can see them soaked if you approach one on land.”

“But I don’t look like that.” Scylla said, confusion entering her young mind as she tried to piece together how she could be a kelpie, but not look like one.

“Well you said you can swim in the ocean,” Posey said, already coming up with an idea of why Scylla was the way she was, “And while kelpie can’t stand salt water, sea ponies can swim in freshwater just fine. It might be that your mother was…” Posey looked to me, and quickly altered what she was about to say to make things less complicated for both me and Scylla. “Part sea pony. It would make the most sense.”

“So we are related?” Scylla asked, suddenly filled with child-like wonder with the idea that she might be a sea pony.

“Probably not blood related,” Posey corrected, “But you may certainly come from our tribe. Your mother might have come from Mount Aris and Seaquestria.”

“Mount Aris?” I asked, focusing on the location with the less fitting name.

“Seaquestria?!” Scylla said, drawn to the more thematically appropriate one.

Posey sighed, realizing the can of worms she had just opened. “It’s a long story. One that, judging by the looks on your faces, you have time to hear.” With a smile on her face, the sea mare took a seat in the tide, picking a spot that submerged a good portion of her lower body. “Let me tell you both about Queen Nova, and the Storm King.”

---

As Posey implied, the story she had to tell was a long one, explaining many things about sea ponies to me and Scylla. She started off by explaining that sea ponies, as we believed they existed, were not real. They were merely creatures of myth, who’s legends had reached far beyond the lands of Equestria. This didn’t make much sense to either me or my daughter, since there was clear proof of one existing in front of us, but then she explained that her current form was a magical transformation, one created off those old myths, and that all the sea ponies we had seen were actually a species called ‘hippogriffs’, which were believed to be a tribe that came from relations between early pegasi and gryphons, before Griffonstone as a kingdom collapsed.

From there she explained how hippogriffs used to live in a kingdom called Mount Aris, which was located on the top of a far away mountain, outside of Equestria, but then a tyrant called The Storm King came, and while the hippogriffs were not powerful enough to prevent him from ceasing their lands, they were able to escape him through the use of a magical item that turned them into sea ponies, and they recreated their civilization where the Storm King could never get to them, under the sea.

“It’s only been about five years since Seaquestria was established,” Posey said, “And construction on it is still not fully done. Thankfully, Queen Nova has some ties with Princess Celestia, and she has allowed any refugees to reside in Equestria’s sea until our new home is finished.”

“Is that why you’re here at the beach?” Scylla asked, “Is this your house right now?”

“We live quite a ways further away from shore,” Posey explained, “But we come to the beach to ‘get out of the house’, and stretch our legs, so to speak. You might have seen us leaping out of the water earlier. Well, that’s us doing what we can to simulate the sensation of flight. As much as we like our sea pony forms, many of us do miss being able to take to the air.”

“I’m sorry that the sea ponies, or err… hippogriffs have to go through all this. Equestria hasn’t had threats like this Storm King in nearly a thousand years.” I said, giving Posey my condolences.

“All times of peace eventually end,” Posey said, her words holding more wisdom than I knew at that time, “And while we regret having to leave Mount Aris, we are making the best of our situation in Seaquestria. We only wish that one day we will be able to return to our ancestral home.”

“I want to see Mount Aris someday,” Scylla said, “And Seaquestria. They both sound amazing.”

“Well they are both really far away from here,” Posey said, “But how about this. Would you like to swim with us for a little while?”

“Would I?!” Scylla squealed, her voice almost cracking from excitement.

“Ok, settle down.” Posey said, getting up from her seat. “Just wait here, and I’ll be right back.”

The sea mare went into the water, and while it took a little while, me and Scylla waited patiently until she returned with two young sea ponies, a filly and a colt.

“Scylla,” Posey said, “I’d like to introduce you to Coral Reef and Sea Current. They are both strong swimmers, and they have agreed to show you around the waters of the beach and introduce you to the other sea ponies. That is, so long as your dad is okay with that.”

“Can I go, dad?” Scylla asked, though I assume she already knew I was ok with it. Within the short time we knew Posey, I had come to trust she had good intentions for my little kelpie.

“Go on,” I said, “But don’t be gone too long. We have to get back home before sundown.”

Scylla, hearing there was a time limit, dashed like a lightning bolt to the deeper waters, diving in once she got close enough. The two water foals went in after her, where I assume they led her out to where the other sea ponies were gathering. As they left though, Posey stayed behind, and came to me.

“Not going with them?” I asked, as I had thought she was going to be Scylla’s chaperone.

That’s when I saw her face shift from the cheerful smile she had been wearing, to a more concerned look. “Pathfinder, could you please tell me exactly how you became Scylla’s father?”

“I guess it is time I started answering some questions,” I said, as I had partially expected this question to come.

I told the truth, about pretty much everything. How I had accidentally stolen her away from her rightful parents, and tried for years to join them back together, raising her along the way, only to recently give up the search. When I was done, I thought that I would receive some kind of scolding for my actions, but to my surprise the look of concern on Posey’s face turned to one of understanding.

“Pathfinder,” she said softly, “You probably did that filly a great service. Kelpie are typically monsters, at least as far as we hippogriffs are aware. However, when Seaquestia was first being created, some of our kind didn’t have faith in our new home, and left us altogether. As I said before, Scylla seems to be both sea pony and kelpie, and we can only assume that something bad happened in order for that to happen.”

I had an idea of what Posey was implying, but I didn’t want to think that it was true, and to this day I can’t confirm the validity of her belief.

“That you pulled her away from the monster that created her, and brought out her kinder hippogriff side, shows that you are a good stallion, and a good father.”

“But…” I said, anticipating a follow up to her kind words that I knew would tear my heart to pieces, “You think she should be with her own kind, don’t you?”

I was sure this was what Posey was leading too, and while I had just accepted Scylla as my daughter, I couldn’t really argue that she deserved to be with others like her, if that was what she and the sea ponies wanted.

“Then you understand why it took me so long to come back,” Posey said, explaining how a portion of her time away was spent, “I had to tell the others about her, and we had to debate on how to handle this situation. As far as I can tell, she is part sea pony, but she is also part kelpie. This caused a lot of conflicted ideas on the topic, but in the end we decided to do what we feel is best for her.”

“And that means taking her from me.” I said solemnly. It would have been the obvious decision, but then the sea mare said something that surprised me.

“Actually, we feel what is best for her would be to stay with you, as you have both proven that you love each other too much to part. Not only does she seem happy and healthy, but Scylla was willing to defend you when she thought you were in danger. You two are the very depiction of a father and daughter. Even if we tried to convince her to come with us, I doubt she’d agree.”

“So you’re saying… its okay that she stays with me?” I questioned, wanting to make sure I heard right.

“The only concern the others had was if I was telling the truth, so they wanted to speak with her first hand. We also wanted to make sure you hadn’t done something to a sea pony that could have been her mother or father, but I believe the story you told me about how you found her. I’ll go back to the others, and relay my opinion on the matter. After that, I’ll bring her back personally, I promise.”

The sea mare returned to the water, and while I had to wait some time, she was good to her word and brought back a thoroughly entertained fish filly. To Scylla, nothing was amiss. She knew nothing about Posey questioning me, and believed that she had gone on an underwater tour of the beach’s coast. Thrilled and elated by her adventure, she ran back to me, ending up in my arms as I hugged her upon return.

“Dad, you wouldn’t guess all the things I saw!” she said ecstatically.

“No, but I’m sure you’re gonna tell me all about it later.” I replied, overjoyed to have my daughter back. Taking a peek back to Posey, her expression was one of comfort, as she could see from our reaction in reuniting that she and her people were making the right choice. “So, are you ready to go home?”

“Almost,” Scylla said, as she pulled away from me, turning to face the sea mare again, “Thank you very much for letting me see the ocean, Miss Posey.”

Posey closed her eyes as her smile brightened even further, “And polite too. Your daddy has raised you well.”

“Of course he has,” Scylla said, matter of factly, “My dad always takes good care of me.”

---

The day ended with Posey returning to the sea, to go and rejoin with the other sea ponies as they retired to their temporary home in the South Luna Sea. Both she and Scylla waved each other goodbye with their fish tails, while I did a simple hand wave.

“Don’t you two be strangers now,” said Posey, just before leaving, “It’s gonna take a long time before Seaquestria will be ready, and I want to see you two again.”

With that said, the mare dove under the water, while I silently agreed to her proposal. “Ok, I think that’s about all the time we have to spend here today.” I said to Scylla, who looked satisfied with this outing.

The filly had done so much more than she was expecting to, as what we both thought would be a bit of swimming followed by some standard beach activities had turned into an interaction with another species that few had privy to. Scylla agreed that, for today at least, there was little more she wanted to do, so we went to pack up our things, and head back home.

Scylla put her white sundress back on over her swimsuit and placed her hat on her head, as I gathered up our things into the duffle bag they were brought in, and put on the flight harness I used to carry the little kelpie. Once everything had been securely stowed away, I strapped Scylla to my body, and we took off back to our house. At the time of our departure, we still had about an hour before Princess Celestia would lower the sun for the day, and I expected us to get back a little after it got dark.

“So, did you enjoy your first beach trip?” I asked the young kelpie latched to my chest, as we both flew through the sky.

“Yeah,” she replied, “It was really fun. I can’t wait till the next time we go.”

“Well I’m glad you had fun,” I said, legitimately happy that I could do something Scylla really enjoyed, even though a good portion of my day was being sidelined at the shore.

Her happiness was all I really needed, but I was also glad that this trip gave me a little vindication over my parenting of Scylla. I really didn’t know if I was being trusted to continue raising her only because Scylla was a kelpie, or part one as it had been revealed, and the sea ponies didn’t want to deal with that part of her, but whatever the reason it felt like a huge weight off my shoulders. Now I truly had no more doubts about me continuing to raise her as my child.

“Hey dad,” Scylla said, not content with simply enjoying the scenery as we made our way home, “Can I ask you something?”

“Anything,” I said, assuming she just wanted to talk to pass the time.

Scylla hesitated a little with her question, nervously pondering if she should even ask it, before deciding to just say what was on her mind. “Why isn’t my mom here?”

“We already discussed that,” I replied, “Anya had to go do some work, and couldn’t come with us this time.”

I had assumed Scylla meant the gryphon that she sometimes called mom, but I was soon corrected when she clarified, “No… I mean my real mom. My kelpie mom.”

Scylla, even at a young age, understood that pony families could consist of different species. There were, after all, many families that were comprised of any combination of earth ponies, pegasi, and unicorns, with their kids sometimes being a different species from the parents due to their race belonging to an ancestor in their bloodline. For this reason, Scylla never questioned that I was her real dad, though we looked so different. This was the first time though that she questioned why she didn’t have an actual mother.

“You know, I’ve been expecting this question for a long time,” I said to her, “But what brought it up now?”

“The sea ponies asked me some questions about it when I was swimming with them.” the filly answered, “They were really interested in me, and you… and my mom. Did something bad happen to her?”

“It’s hard to explain,” I said, not knowing if I should lie, tell the truth, or devise something in between. “I tried to figure out what happened to her myself, but after a long time of searching, I’ve only hit dead ends. If I knew she was ok, and where she was, nothing would stop me from getting you back to her. But…”

I really couldn’t say much more at that moment, my heart telling me to be honest, but my mind telling me to stay silent.

“It’s ok dad,” Scylla said, seeing that the question was not a pleasant one, “I’m sure that if my mom is out there, I’ll meet her someday. When I do, I’m sure she’ll have lots to tell me about what she’s been doing, and I’ll tell her how good a job you did taking care of me. Until then, we can just be happy together.”

“Thanks Scylla,” I said with a sigh, as the filly let me off the hook for now.

Maybe it was because she was used to Anya, her other mother figure in her life, constantly coming and going, but Scylla had come to accept that I was the one person who had no intention of leaving her. While she didn’t get the answer she really wanted, for now she was willing to accept the fact that I would always be there for her as a consultation.

“Oh! Let me tell you what else they did with me while I was swimming with them!” Scylla said, wanting to lighten the mood after that somber moment.

I listened intently, letting her tell me everything she wanted to say with little interruption, save for the occasional sound of amazement in her story. It was a father’s interest to show interest in what their child was interested in after all, and after that day, I felt more like Scylla’s father than I had ever prior. As we soared through the air, I believed that we were the very image of a loving father and daughter.