Potty Training Tales

by SuperPinkBrony12

Seapony Secrets (Terramar)

Author's Note:

Tags: [Comedy] [Slice of Life]
Characters: [Terramar] [Silverstream] [Ocean Flow]
Written By: SuperPinkBrony12
Note: The potty pool is inspired by “On Land & Sea” though this is at best indirectly tied to it.

“Ooh! Do you really think he’s ready, Mom?!” Silverstream excitedly inquired while swimming all about her home. Her mom, Ocean Flow, was busy with Terramar, Silverstream’s oh so adorable baby brother. One of the downsides to living underwater was that despite what one might think, it wasn’t acceptable to just “go” anywhere at anytime. There were certain customs and behavioral patterns that even young ones had to be taught. And until they learned what they were they were required to wear what little ones on the surface wore, diapers.

Now, regular old cloth diapers wouldn’t work underwater. The first seaponies to try it had learned the hard way that salt water and cloth diapers most definitely don’t mix. But the seaponies were nothing if not resourceful. Since they couldn’t depend on going up to the surface all the time to do their business (Queen Novo had strictly forbidden contact of any sort with the surface world), they quickly learned how to fashion their own diapers out of seaweed and leaves. Some even used shells or the occasional clam to give their diapers personal style.

Silverstream had been one of the lucky few who got to have those special diapers, the ones usually reserved for royalty. They’d been fin-me-downs from her cousin, Skystar. And when Silverstream had outgrown the need for them they’d been given to Terramar, whom Ocean Flow had taken to calling “My Little Pearl”. Having gotten used to seapony ways much faster than her husband, she took to raising him like she had her daughter.

And now, finally, Ocean Flow was considering the possibility that Terramar might be ready for potty training. Mind you, potty training for seaponies was vastly different from how land creatures did it. As lots of older seaponies could attest it was not the easiest thing in the world to “go” one way when you were used to doing it another.

But Terramar was getting to the point where most seaponies his age had long since outgrown the need for diapers. Ocean Flow had been hesitant to get him out of them though, largely because once he was free from them he wouldn’t need her as often and would be free to spend more time with his sister, his father, and even sometimes his cousin. Sky Beak had been quite insistent though. “The time has come. He can’t stay in those diapers forever.” He’d told his wife a few days ago, before he and some other seaponies had gone out on an expedition to bring back more fish oil and octopus ink.

So it was that Ocean Flow was changing Terramar’s diaper for what she believed would be the last time. Finally acknowledging her daughter’s question, she answered. “Well, your father seems to believe the time is right. Even your Aunt Novo’s been asking when I was going to get him out of diapers,” She sighed a bit. “It’s just, by the time you were out of them, Terramar needed them. But now that he’s not going to need them anymore, I’m starting to feel old.”

Silverstream floated towards her mother as she finished up the changing process. “Come on, Mom! You look great! Dad says you’re getting younger everyday,” Then she looked at Terramar. “It won’t be long now, baby brother. I can’t wait to teach you all the ins and outs of pottying the seapony way. You’re gonna love it!”

Terramar, however, was a little bit hesitant. From birth he had known a few things, one of them was the comfort and security that the diapers afforded him. “You think so, sis?” He questioned.

Silverstream nodded her head, watching as her brother was not put into a new diaper after the old one was tossed out. Instead, after being cleaned, he was helped up. He was now diaperless.

Ocean Flow explained. “Okay, Terramar. Silverstream is going to show you how big seaponies answer nature’s call.”

The pink coated seapony happily swam over to her brother, taking him by the fin. “Don’t you worry, lil’ Terri-Mary. Your big sis is gonna show you how much fun pottying can be! I’ll even teach you some tricks Cousin Skystar taught me,” She proceeded to swim out of her home with Terramar in tow. “Bye, Mom,” She called. “We’ll be back later.”

“Make sure you don’t get lost,” Ocean Flow warned. “And don’t give him any bad ideas. Please set a good example for him.”

Silverstream just waved a fin. “Relax, Mom. I’ll do just fine. I remember everything Cousin Skystar and Auntie Novo taught me.” And then she and Terramar swam away, although Terramar was hesitant to leave the comfort of his home.

---

It wasn’t long before the two seaponies had left the center of Seaquestria, swimming through the dimly lit ocean towards their kingdom’s outskirts. Terramar was a little bit nervous, even going so far as to salt himself a little bit. But he’d learned long ago that this was something seaponies did all the time, it was perfectly natural and the only time it was rude is if you did in front of another seapony (as opposed to excusing yourself to go off somewhere and do it).

Still, even as the ocean current tickled at him as it cleaned him up (carrying his salting bubble away), he couldn’t help but glance up toward his older sister and ask her. “Where we going? I not recognize this place.”

The elder seapony just smiled. “To the potty pool, Terramar. That’s where all seaponies go when they have to ‘go’.”

Terramar protested. “But I already salted.”

Silverstream shook her head. “Not that, the other thing. You know, the thing you used to wear diapers for.” She’d been taught it wasn’t polite to discuss outright what that something was.

Terramar seemed to process what his sister was telling him easily. But it didn’t ease his nerves. “I use potty pool for that?”

A nod confirmed Terramar suspicions as he and Silverstream approached the aforementioned “potty pool”. It was a small clearing near a coral reef with patches of seaweed and leaves lying around. There were lines on the seafloor that indicated where it began and ended. A couple of seaponies were there, but otherwise the pool was empty.

“Here we are!” Silverstream chittered! “This is where you have to come from now on whenever you need to…” She paused and snickered a bit. “Do your ‘duties’ as it were. Or you can just say number two, it’s funny either way.”

“What funny about it? It smelly and Mom have to change me when I do it.” Terramar blinked in confusion.

“Not anymore! Now you can do it all by yourself, and then you can clean up with either seaweed or leaves,” Silverstream explained to her brother as she gestured a fin to the aforementioned patches. “You can’t use anything else. Trust me, I once tried to use a coral reef, it was hard and it hurt like crazy. And the less said about sea anemone tentacles, the better.”

But Terramar still blinked. To be told that now he was to use this “pool” for the other thing he did was a strange and (understandably) foreign concept to him. “Is this what Mom and Dad use instead of diapers?” He thought to himself. “And how did we do it when we were hippogriffs?”

Silverstream could tell by the look on her brother’s face that he wasn’t exactly onboard with the idea of using the potty pool. Even though she was very energetic and easily distracted, she could pick up on things without others having to tell her. It was part of what you learned as a big sister.

And what kind of big sister would just leave their younger sibling in the dark? She could remember how it all seemed so confusing to her when she was the same age Terramar, until she’d seen it demonstrated to her by her cousin Skystar. And since Skystar wasn’t here, Silverstream could think of only one seapony who could demonstrate for Terramar.

“Don’t worry, lil’ Terri-Mary,” Silverstream cooed. “Just watch me. I’ll show you how to do it. Then you can try it. It’s easy!”

---

Terramar watched as his big sister swam out to an open spot near the edge of the pool, stopping just shy of the line on the seafloor. “The first thing you need to remember is to never go past this line,” Silverstream spoke up as she gestured a fin to said line. “Beyond it is the current that takes everything we do here away. If you go past the line you’ll get swept up by the current and carried away. They say no one’s ever been able to break free of it, and it’s a long swim back to Seaquestria. You should also know that the current can change sometimes, so you may have to change your ‘approach’ so that you aim in the right place. Auntie Novo wouldn’t be too happy if it all flowed back into Seaquestria.”

Terramar said nothing and just continued to keep his eyes on Silverstream. He wouldn’t have gone past the line anyway. He’d learned long ago that when grown-ups said not to do something they usually had a good reason for it. The only one he was still baffled by was his Aunt Novo’s degree that no seapony was to ever go up to the surface for any reason. But he knew better than to try it for fear of being found out and inevitably grounded.

“Okay, once you’ve found a good place and know where the current is flowing, the fun begins,” Silverstream explained. “You just let it all out and watch it flow away!” She proceeded to grunt and push, the morning breakfast of kelp fritters and seaweed cakes exiting her body in the process. If one were close enough an easily recognizable smell might have reached their nostrils, but Terramar was far enough away not to detect it.

Silverstream proceeded to use her tail, fanning her waste out past the line and towards the current. Then with a grin she added. “Don’t tell Mom I told you, but when you get really good at this you should try to aim your business at other targets. It’s kind of like a game, you get points depending on what you hit. Cousin Skystar and I do it all the time, and she always beats me. But then, she’s the one who taught me how to play it, so I guess she’s had more practice.”

Terramar giggled at the idea of doing something so naughty. It looked like there were plenty of targets to test him on too, he’d have to try and see what it was like. If his sister and his cousin both did it and the grown-ups didn’t mind, then it probably wasn’t something he wasn’t supposed to do. “Probably can’t do it in front of Mom.” He realized but didn’t say it out loud.

“Now, when you’re all done, you just wipe yourself up with either the seaweed or the leaves and then you’re done. The ocean cleans your fins off,” Silverstream explained as she grabbed some seaweed and used it to clean her tail and surrounding lower regions. “So, whaddya think, Terramar? Easy, right?”

Terramar fought back a gulp as he nodded. “I… guess so. I have to try it now?” He asked his sister.

“If you want to or feel you have to go. It’s okay if you don’t, you were just changed a little while ago. You just need to make sure to let someone know if you think you have to do what I did.” Silverstream explained.

But to the little seapony it seemed like such a waste to come all this way just to be told what he had to do from now on. There was no reason why he couldn’t at least make an attempt. His sister made it look so uncomplicated, and that game she’d told him about did sound fun. So it was that a very reluctant Terramar swam out a ways into the potty pool, though he stopped further back from the line than his sister as he was not quite as confident in his swimming abilities (and feared the possibility that he might drift too close to the current and be swept away).

It took a minute for his eyes to lock onto a visual sign of the flowing current, the direction in which the seaweed moved told him which way the current was currently flowing. Now came the tricky part. It was a good thing there didn’t seem to be any seaponies watching him (besides his sister of course but that was to be expected). Still, he found himself blushing as he shut his eyes and tried to do what he’d seen his sister do. He pushed and pushed and pushed, his face turning redder by the second as he did so! But it didn’t seem like anything was happening, nothing seemed to be coming out.

Silverstream watched with concern. “Terri-Marry, don’t try to force it! You might hurt yourself!” She swam towards him. “It’s okay if you don’t have to go. Sometimes even I think do, but really I just have to make a bubble and that’s it.”

Terramar reluctantly stopped pushing and opened his eyes. Just as he thought, nothing had come out.

Or so it seemed! Apparently, relaxing was what had been needed instead of force. The little seapony soon became aware of an all too familiar smell, and he looked down at himself to see that something was indeed coming out. He was doing just what his sister had done! He’d never felt so proud in his entire young life! “I did it, sis!” He cheered!

Silverstream (who had stopped a ways away upon seeing what was happening) clapped her fins in approval. “Well done, baby brother! I knew you could do it! Oh, Mom and Dad are gonna be so proud of you! Now remember what I taught you.”

Terramar didn’t need to be told twice, using his tail he carefully fanned his waste away from him. He missed the current, but he wasn’t aiming for it he’d been aiming for the coral reef. And he giggled in delight when he managed to hit his intended target. Then he bent down to grab some seaweed to wipe himself up. “That fun, sis!” He excitedly proclaimed.

Silverstream just smiled. “You bet it is, Terramar! Just wait until I tell Cousin Skystar about this! I think you might just be the seapony to give her a run for her money!”

Comments

[Yosh-E-O]

D'aww! This was very cute. I liked the Seaquestria take on how it all went. The concept of how they'd fashion diapers was very interesting and using the current to make the business go away was very cool.

Silver Stream can make anything fun. :)

[SuperPinkBrony12]

9944060 Well I can't take all the credit for it, part of it is headcanon from the Latecomer with whom the idea for this collab was born.

[Latecomer]

9944060
Between your Silverstream bit and our earlier one, training the new hippogriffs was all covered, so this was the only original idea left for this prompt.

[SuperPinkBrony12]

9952750 Not necessarily, there's still plenty of possibilities for original ideas not just for other creatures but also for ponies.

[Latecomer]

9952870
Oh in general, yes - I was referring to hippogriffs/seaponies only. Although I suppose there might still be room to show a hippogriff being retrained as a seapony...

[SuperPinkBrony12]

9953385 If Princess Skystar ever became a prompt, but that's a big if.