Chapter 29: Beneath the Waves
Some part of Theo wondered if she should be worried about their unexpected invitation to visit the queen. Certainly it would’ve frightened her if she stepped off a plane during her first visit to the United States and had a few police officers show up to escort her to the president. But one sidelong glance at Sharp didn’t suggest any distress on his face. If it was weird to receive treatment like this, he didn’t show it.
They didn’t threaten us. They let us do whatever we wanted, let us stay together. They’re not hostile.
The other townspeople didn’t make it easy to assess whether this was normal or not. Everypony stared as they walked through town, though none of them seemed terribly hostile about it. More than a few hippogriffs waved in their direction, or exchanged greetings with the guards. They waved back, and continued on their way.
Eventually they reached the castle—not nearly as grand as the one in Equestria, it was far too practical for that. Instead it had thick walls, arrow-slit windows, and evidence of battle damage splattered across its face. These creatures haven’t lived in safety their whole lives. But who were they fighting?
“Welcome to Aris Peak Castle,” said Cloudhunter, as they passed inside. There were a handful of other guards scattered around, though they seemed to be mingling with the others passing through as much as watching them. Mostly the creatures in here looked like diplomats, merchants, and citizens. Nothing to worry about.
“So much water,” Emerald said, pointing with a wing at a massive glass display along the wall. It was an aquarium of incredible size, with living coral and tropical fish swimming on terraced layers of glass. It would’ve been impressive to see in an Earth building, but seeing it made by a species without acrylic and silicone glue… “Is it here because you’re magic?”
Cloudhunter didn’t seem annoyed with the question. “It’s because of our long attachment to the sea. Hippogriffs have been moving between worlds since long before the Storm King attacked. It’s a part of who we are, and we try to remember it even while we’re spending time on land.”
“Oh.”
“Is there… anything I should know before we talk to the queen?” Summer asked, her voice as low as she thought they could hear. No matter how quiet she tried to be they got looks. At least they didn’t seem angry and suspicious like in Sleighsburg. “I’ve never met a queen before.”
“Not much,” said one of the other soldiers. “Don’t lie, don’t try to steal. Queen Novo is a compassionate ruler. We’ve been expecting to meet strange hippogriffs from the north for a long time now. Equestria’s closer ties with Griffonstone meant it was only a matter of time.”
Summer turned that over in her head, sharing a brief glance with Sharp. But she didn’t correct the soldier’s misconception. She wasn’t here to talk to them, she was here to talk to the queen.
As they passed through an expansive hallway filled with barnacle-encrusted old sculptures, she ran through everything in her head one last time. I need whatever magic powers the doorway. I need the thing missing from this necklace. If they hate humans, I can make sure they know how I’m leaving and not coming back.
They stopped outside a set of massive stone doors, carved to vaguely resemble two halves of a clam spread wide. Here at least there were guards standing alert, watching them sternly as they approached. They stopped at the door, and Cloudhunter turned. “We’ll wait to be invited. It shouldn’t take long.”
“Will we, uh…” Sharp hesitated. “I’ve heard that your illustrious Queen Novo takes her audiences below the waves. Is that still the case?”
“Depends on the circumstances. But given this meeting is about Summer, keeping her dry just wouldn’t be…” He gestured with a claw. “It wouldn’t be right. Like keeping your daughter from the sky, or keeping you from, uh… ground things.” He shifted uncomfortably. “Apologies, I don’t fully understand the significance of pony tribes. I don’t mean to be insulting.”
Sharp shook his head. “No offense taken. I was just curious. Will my apprentice and I be allowed to accompany her?”
“Yes.” He nodded. “The Pearl’s magic works equally well on all creatures, you’ll see. Though the young pony is perfectly welcome to wait here if she desires. There have been a number of young creatures who never wanted to leave after experiencing the ocean. It may be kinder not to go.”
“I’m not leaving Summer,” Emerald said, wrapping her foreleg around Theo’s. “We came all the way from the top of the world to the bottom together. I wanna see the magic too!”
The door creaked, swinging open on a complex metal bracket. The royal audience chamber was built around a massive pool, easily larger than anything in the Olympics. A stone island perched in the center, a throne adorned with pearls and gold. A single creature rested nervously on the edge in an entirely unregal way, alone in the huge room.
She bounded forward through the air, landing on the ground on the edge of the pool with a flash that momentarily stung Summer’s eyes. It was like she couldn’t focus on her, and… no, she didn’t have a tail at all.
She was just a hippogriff like Summer, though she was taller and there was something strange about her mane. She bounded over to them, bits of jewelry on her forelegs and around her neck bouncing a little with each step. “Hi! You’re here to see the Queen, right? You’re our… first hippogriff from Equestria! And the noble ponies who took her to find her homeland. Am I getting that right?”
“Mostly,” Sharp said. “Summer’s story is more complicated than you think. But it would take a long time to tell, maybe we should tell you and the Queen at the same time. If it pleases you, uh… Princess…”
“Skystar,” she said, looking pleased at the title even if Sharp had been incredibly awkward about it. “Yeah, that makes sense! I’m not a fan of talking much up here, anyway. All this air really dries out my throat.”
She took a few steps towards Summer, and at once all of Theo’s misgivings vanished. This creature seemed to be about the same age, and didn’t even seem capable of not being friendly. She stopped only inches away, reaching one claw up and around the necklace. “This is… real old. How long have you had this?”
“Since Sharp gave it to me,” she answered. “Its magic is the only way I can understand you. My real language is… completely unpronounceable, isn’t that how you described it Sharp?”
He nodded. “I could explain where I discovered that in detail, of course. But perhaps that story should wait?”
Princess Skystar spun around suddenly. “Don’t think I can’t see through you. You’re just eager to see the court for yourself. Don’t worry, I’m not mad. I don’t blame you. In fact, you can go first.” She shoved suddenly on Sharp, taking him so by surprise that he went tumbling over the water. His outline blurred and twisted out of shape for a moment, but she didn’t get a good look. There was a splash from the water far below, then nothing.”
“And the little pony,” Skystar gestured. “Come on. It doesn’t hurt. Just don’t try to hold your breath. That can hurt, because there’s still some air in your lungs, and if you go down too deep it feels like it’s crushing you… yeah I’m just gonna drop you down too.”
Emerald squealed, then vanished down into the water. Summer heard a few sounds of struggling, then the splashes went still. And just like that, she was completely alone with the princess. “You’re the complicated one,” she said, circling around Summer. “That necklace, it didn’t have a pearl in it before? Like this…” She held up one bit of jewelry around her neck, focusing on the tiny white sphere. “Did you misplace this?”
“No,” she said. “I’ve never seen anything like that before. It’s just a language necklace, I’m positive.”
“Well… it’s a good thing for you that there are some hippogriffs who live on land. We didn’t have a custom for taking someone to the pearl for the first time until then. But now we’ve got birds hatching up here on land, and they need to get all the way down to the court to get their own little piece.”
She froze right in front of her, holding out her necklace so Summer could get a good look.
She tried to, anyway. The pearl itself seemed like it almost… wasn’t there. She wanted to see it, she knew there was something white and round right there, but she could see nothing more. She looked away, clutching at her stomach. Was the strange magic actually making her sick?
“You have to be you when you touch it,” she went on. “If I transform you, then it won’t see you. My mother hasn’t said so, but I know she’ll want you to have a piece like anyone else, even if you don’t stay with us. And if she doesn’t… I’ll convince her.” She pushed at Summer’s shoulder, making her slide along the stone floor towards the opening. “How good are you at holding your breath? Think you could do like… twenty minutes?”
Summer whimpered, shaking her head vigorously. “How about thirty seconds?”
Skystar giggled. “Just kidding. I’ll just bring you some air, come on!” She shoved again, pushing Theo all the way to the edge of the water. One of her hooves slid out over open air.
“Wait!” she squeaked, ducking sideways and struggling with her saddlebags. “The things I put in here only work on land, they’ll be broken if I bring them. Can I leave this… here?” She glanced towards the entrance, where Cloudhunter was still standing, watching sympathetically.
There was no time to second-guess. “Cloudhunter? Can you keep an eye on this for me?”
He nodded. “If it pleases the princess.”
Skystar nodded. “It pleases me to get her down there, I wanna see her face!” Even so, she waited until Theo had shaken herself free of the saddlebags. Only then did she tackle her over the edge, taking her down into the water.
Light flashed, and Theo was momentarily blinded. Then she struck the water, and immediately held her breath. She’d done this plenty since arriving here, she could swim for hours. Except that her face didn’t feel wet. Finally she opened her eyes, only to see that Skystar hadn’t been facetious—she really had brought her some air. A bubble clung around her with no visible support, its surface nearly clear. The water itself chilled her far more than any lake could. This was the icy breath of near-arctic cold, like she’d experienced whenever she braved the lakes and streams of home.
But that wasn’t anywhere close to the strangest part. If any part of her had doubted that Equestria was packed tight with real magic, now she saw the results firsthand.
The pool wasn’t as deep as she’d initially guessed, narrowing downward at the bottom like the neck of a funnel. That meant there was nowhere for the other creatures in the water with her to go, and she got a good firsthand look at them.
Sharp and Emerald were fish. The fur was gone, replaced with scales, and each had lost half their legs, replaced with fluked tails. Both looked about as awkward in the water as Theo had felt when she first arrived in Equestria, flopping about without much control over where they were going.
Skystar made them both look like children. She’d changed into a bigger fish, with a much slimmer and more elegant body. She also knew how to use that body, gliding through the water more gracefully than Emerald had ever managed in the sky.
“She’s still…” Sharp said. His voice was strange, with bass muted and the treble tones stretched. She could still make out his words so long as she concentrated. “Leggy. That doesn’t seem fair. We should all be awkward together.”
“I don’t think she’ll be awkward,” the princess said, circling Theo once before reaching briefly up over their heads. Something mechanical ground and shifted, and all at once the water started to move. Down. “She’s built for it, even if she’s never been in the water before. You’ll see.”
“I don’t think I… want to!” she squeaked. The water level was dropping all right, because they were plummeting down a drain. This wasn’t just a pool, it was also apparently the world’s largest water slide. Large enough for three weird fish and one weird bird to take it at the same time. “Can’t we talk to the queen in the air? I don’t really want to go down!”
“Too late!” Skystar said, her voice a cheerful giggle. She sounded as muted as Sharp had, though the effect was a little easier to hear from a female voice. “But I don’t think my mom would’ve wanted to come up here. She likes being dry even less than I do, that’s why we have consorts to rule over the… yeah.”
The Emerald-fish swam right up to Theo, circling around her curiously. She poked at her with one foreleg, which yielded strangely under the pressure. Does she not have bones anymore? That didn’t make sense—fish had bones!
When I get home, I will never be able to say a word about any of this.
“Besides, if she came up here, we wouldn’t be able to do this!” She reached up with her forelegs, as though they were about to go down over a roller coaster.
The drop wasn’t that sudden, but they were accelerating. The walls blurred past, taking them deeper and deeper. Theo had never been one to get claustrophobic, but even she was starting to feel uncomfortable. Was there an entire mountain over her head at this point?
Eventually the shaft spat them out. She kicked and squirmed, doing her best to slow her wild arcs through the water. But she wasn’t a fish, and she didn’t have a tail. Even her experience swimming could do only so much.
She smacked into something hard after traveling a little way, grunting under the pressure.
She sat up, kicking her way free of the ground. Every breath came slowly, as though the magic of it might run out—or worse, maybe the bubble would break away from her face. “Hello? Is anyone there? It’s so dark, I can’t see any of…”
Something glowed to life in front of her, a single point of light not far away. It came from Skystar’s mane, or what was almost a mane, exactly the same as a unicorn’s glow. “You’re heavy,” she said, apparently thoroughly amused by it. “You went further than your pony friends. Come on.” She gripped firmly onto Theo’s foreleg, dragging her back up, through what had been a nearly imperceptible opening in a cavernous rock.
“How much further is it to this… pearl thing?” she asked. “It feels like I don’t belong here.”
“Long enough for the air to last, I hope,” Skystar said. She had to drag Summer along, obviously unsatisfied with the swimming speed she could manage. “Only kidding! I used the same spell on the ponies when they came here begging for help, and there was minutes left by the time they got to the bottom.”
Summer gulped. “I don’t think that joke is very funny.”
It might not have been so bad if it wasn’t for the passage they were swimming through. A cave, or maybe a building so old that the ocean itself had risen up around it. At least Sharp and Emerald were waiting just up ahead, doing their best to swim.
“She’s not going to be like this the whole time, is she?” Sharp asked. “It doesn’t seem fair. Us, just being visitors, and her, belonging here and all…”
“No,” Skystar said. “She’s… you’ll see. It’s kind of a big deal, and she can’t be transformed when she does it.”
“Right,” Sharp said. Even as a fish, she recognized that familiar expression that said, ‘not like we can get away.’
At least Skystar was staying close. If the air spell did break somehow, she could always make another one. Right?
“How many hippogriffs can do, uh… magic? Like you did just now,” she asked. “Is it okay for me to ask?”
The princess giggled again. “If it wasn’t okay, it would be a little too late to take back your question.” She zoomed around Summer once, leaving a faint trail of shimmering bubbles in the water behind her. It seemed to light up when they moved, and not just her. Every stroke of a fin or her awkward kicks left a brief train in the near-absolute darkness. “It’s only in the royal family,” she said. “I don’t really know why, or how it works, but… my mother doesn’t like talking about it much.” She lowered her voice conspiratorially. “We probably shouldn’t.”
Whatever Summer might’ve asked was completely silenced by what waited for them through another opening in the ceiling.
Even after the total darkness of the tunnel, it didn’t overwhelm her. The light was gentle, soft blues and purples that made her feel instantly at ease.
It was like swimming up out of a cave and into nature allowed to run wild—every delicate and beautiful type of coral grew in spectacular array, many so vibrant that they had their own light. Yet the cavern had a ceiling, there was no access to the sky to let it all grow. Instead, life seemed most concentrated towards the throne.
“Queen Novo,” called a voice from the side of the room. As muted as the others, though he was obviously trying to be heard. “Shepard of the seven seas, keeper of the four winds, and ruler of all Seaquestria!”
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Oh, you cheeky bastard. Gonna keep is waiting, I see?
I abhor cliffhangers.
So, no back up plan in case Novo just prefers sending Theo to the dungeons?
thumbs.gfycat.com/FlatBlackandwhiteAmurminnow-size_restricted.gif
Uh, guys, I see a potentially fatal flaw in this plan.
At least one more week until we learn if they finally manage to establish contact with a benevolent authority figure. Or maybe more than one week if next week's chapter is Theo's adventures in drowning after the pearl doesn't work and the air runs out.
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Also, it wouldn't be the first time the benevolent Queen transforms someone while still under water.
Moment of truth. Time to get some answers.
The tease is real with this chapter...
Skystar’s still like we remember her, if with a little blacker sense of humor. I suppose that’s a good sign....
Hmm...
"It helps that you're not a purple alicorn."
Ah. So that method still works in this world.
I am a little nervous about leaving Theo's stuff behind, but if it's by royal command, they'll probably keep it secure. Hopefully.
That's actually a brilliant, reasonable, and wonderfully Watsonian reason to keep Novo out of the series. Kudos.
And now it's time for the moment of truth. Two of them, actually. How legitimate were Kate's warnings, and how will the Pearl react to a transformed human?
9835672
I mean, they're going to meet the queen regardless. It's more of a good excuse to look at the pearl.
9835672
Imma go with it’ll give him magic. It would explain why the current Hyppogryphs don’t want more humans coming through, Novo’s family/ Novo herself depending how long they’d been alive might have been human. If the pearl grants humans who are Hyppogryphs magic then they probably don’t want many coming through as they’d be a potential threat to their power.
Skystar is very enthusiastic about everything, including drowning people.
Hah!
Since everyone at Mt. Aris was focused on the name of the Horizon in the last chapter, I am wondering if Kate may have somehow sent word ahead to poison the well for their reception--by spreading rumors that they're all there to assassinate Queen Novo.
9836319
It's also possible that, if the pearl not only allows for seapony transformations, it would also transform Theo back into his original human form(and then for survival reasons transform him into a seapony)
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It could switch Theo's species back to human, but to completely restore her original form? Nah. This is a gender bender fic. Those things never go that way.
9841455
I wouldn't generalize about all gender-bender fics... though this one certainly seems to be going in a "Nah." direction.
I can't remember if I've seen any fics that go for "he eventually gets his original body back, but it took so long that he'd started to grow attached to his new form and now has to figure out what his/her identity actually is now", but it's certainly a plot with a lot of potential. (I might write a story like that some day.)