Kaelynn wasn't a person who could be idle. It didn't matter how much work she'd done before, or how justified her idleness would feel to anyone else. Kaelynn couldn't bear to sit still. She'd been caught before, and spent a few nights in lockup while waiting for the lawyers to do their work. But at least then she had a book to read, or some paper she could use to sketch things out. Anything was better than sitting around to wait.
This time there would be no bribing the police to let her go, there were no legal actions to file, no defense to be made. Kaelynn was trapped, as completely as she could be. She had searched her entire cell and failed to find a way out. Even worse, her captor threatened terrible things if she ever detected a shred of resistance.
For a few hours she had curled up in a corner of the strange prison, as though waiting would eventually wake her up. She'd be back in the Bright Hawk's tank, her friends just returned from their mission to Earth. Maybe the Worldgate would work, maybe it wouldn't. But either way, they would be together again. She wouldn't sleep alone, she wouldn't wake up in fear.
It was just a dream. Kaelynn woke sore and stiff from her position, body wedged awkwardly into an opening barely large enough for her. Nothing whatsoever had improved—not her present, or the outlook for her future. She was doomed.
Kaelynn did not go back to laying in the corner. Ultimately, it didn't matter how bleak things seemed. Morningtide could lie all she wanted about her friends leaving her behind. She could proclaim the cage a perfect prison, and the guards outside eager to kill her.
She can't take my songs away. I've used the transformation spell before, I can use it again. I can walk out of this prison.
Kaelynn searched her prison again, but this time her search was very different. Instead of looking for a flaw in the cell, she searched for resources. What had their jailer given them that they could use?
That proved the first piece of good news she'd seen. Morningtide had filled the cell with all kinds of "comforts" for her captive. It was hard to say what good a grand piano or rugs would do for their morale underwater, slowly corroding. But a piano was a source of cable, wire, and steel. A rug could be sliced and braided into rope. Fine furniture could be shattered into wood and scavenged for screws.
Most important, all this gigantic crap proved there was another way into the tank, a way so obvious she'd almost missed it the first day. There was a steel door on the top of the back section, made of two overlapping plates obviously fastened down together. They couldn't be so lucky as having the mechanism secured on their side, but that wasn't the end of the world.
Steel might be unyielding, but it was ultimately fastened to stone—stone that could be eroded and weakened over time. Stone she could defeat, with the tools and the time. She had an endless supply of the latter, so all that left was the former.
So Kaelynn began gathering up the scrap she'd discovered around the prison. Taking apart Tellin's beloved possessions one by one would probably not earn her much cooperation—but there were plenty of old things left abandoned in corners, gifts that he obviously hadn't cared for. Kaelynn started with those, taking an old basket with a strap covered in deposited saltwater, and gathering up bits of discarded metal and wood that didn't immediately crumble in her grip.
That was what it took for Tellin to finally swim over to her, emerging from hiding near the walls to trail just behind her. He spent a good few minutes in total silence, watching as she dug through sediment on the bottom of the tank, fishing out rusting toys, models of Equestrian buildings. Her most interesting find came after about an hour, when she shook off what she thought was a length of wood, only to expose as a book underneath. A book, with genuine paper pages, almost-leather cover, and everything.
"How..." She settled it down on a clean rock, flipping through it with one foreleg. Yes, it still felt like paper to the touch, and she could turn through its sections without making the entire thing crumble. A physical impossibility, but somehow a clear reality.
"Did Morningtide ask you to clean?" Tellin hummed, finally letting himself drift closer. "She usually lets me do whatever I want in the tank, as long as the display window is nice. Nopony looks back here, you probably don't need to do that."
"I'm not cleaning," she said, eyes skimming over the book. An Illustrated Account of Encounters with Ponies Dwelling Below the Water. The few pages she saw did have images of seaponies, often floating along beside ships. Real ships, not the airships that she'd seen dominate Equestria today. Interesting stuff, but for now she just put it aside with everything else. It wouldn't be useful for making tools, anyway. "I'm collecting materials. I want to make things, but I don't want to break anything you like."
She couldn't conceal her fear—that was the downside of all this singing. Maybe that was why she had got along so well with Ryan. He was going to read her emotions anyway, so it wasn’t like she could hide anything more.
Tellin circled her once, tail dragging slowly with his confusion. "Make things? Why would we need to make things?"
She had to choose her words carefully—any lie she told would come out as an insincere, out of tune mess. But she couldn't be silent and expect someone as emotionally developed as a child not to go repeating what she said to unsavory ears.
"Before I was kidnapped, I was an engineer. I make things even when I don't need to make them. Creation is rewarding all on its own."
He hung in the water there, apparently lost in thought as she continued away from him. She picked up a few more interesting scraps before he caught up with her again. "What are you gonna make?"
"Tools, to start. These will be... the worst possible conditions to begin. No drill, no press, no forge..." She winced. "Basically a desert island, without the coconuts and sunshine. After that, we'll see what I can figure out. I've thought about how seaponies might be able to build a civilization. You can't even swing a hammer properly underwater. Feels like we would be stuck primitive forever."
The hippogriffs had seemed about as advanced as ponies, but half their civilization was above water. Anything they needed to do on dry land they could just build there, then bring underwater. Ryan could probably give her a whole lecture about all the different ways science and technology would be stunted.
I don't have to discover anything, just make some basic tools. Or ask for them... How bold could she get in her requests from Morningtide before she realized she was trying to escape?
"I don't think the others were... stuck." He swam along beside her now, which unfortunately meant he blocked her view of the discarded bits and pieces that might be useful to her. "Morningtide tells me about them, sometime. She wants me to help save them, one day. It doesn't seem right to let the Storm King wipe us out."
She gave up her search, and instead turned her attention on a large desk up against the wall. It was in bad shape, and clearly Tellin didn't use it much. That made it perfect for her.
She would need a chisel and hammer first, something she could use to strike stone. That meant something heavy, cord, and metal strong enough to resist repeated impacts. She started sorting through what she had gathered, pushing aside anything that didn't seem promising.
"I don't think that would be right, either," she said absently. "It's not the worst purpose a pony could have. But I'm not what you think I am, or what Morningtide wants me to be. I'm from another world, kid."
"So?" He watched from the water above her, not actually interfering. That was good, she probably would've snapped at him otherwise. "Lots of us went to other worlds. We had a song that could open... gates? Fish could swim through whenever they wanted. There were songs for all kinds of things—songs to build buildings, songs to heal sick fish, songs to weave cloth—Morningtide knows, ask her!"
She really doesn't think you're an escape risk, if she told you all of that.
Kaelynn stopped, holding up a long shard of metal. It hadn't rusted like much of the other stuff she could find. All it had to do was hold up long enough to pry apart that piano.
"I might," she said, considering different handle materials. She didn't get very far before realizing the obvious—she didn't have hands, so she would need something she could hold in her mouth, while somehow still exerting enough force to use effectively.
A force-dampener system, or maybe a harness for someone's forelegs. She could already imagine a few different designs, using springs and various shapes of jointed metal. Some were simple enough that she could probably throw them together in an afternoon, with a workshop and a pair of hands. Unfortunately, that was her entire problem.
She slumped her head against the desk, and the music of her voice must have conveyed her defeat. "Do you know any of those songs?"
"No," he said. "I thought you did! That light one you used, without even trying! Do you think maybe our other songs work kinda like that one?"
"I'm sure they do," she agreed. "I had a whole songbook—actually, Morningtide has it just outside. She seems to like you better, you should ask her to give it to us. It had all kinds of songs in it."
Kaelynn had tried to sing all of them, before she understood the importance of matching the spell's required emotional tone. Too bad she didn't have the same memory for songs that she did for machines, or maybe she could just try one of those defensive spells from memory.
"Really?" Tellin circled around her once. "I wonder if she's out there now!" He zipped past her, back towards the tunnel.
That left Kaelynn alone with her work, at least for a little while. With her work, and a kid who had spent most of his life in this stupid tank. Tellin wasn't really on her side, yet. Whatever escape she tried would probably take winning him over first. Somehow.
She turned back to her work. She took a lump of wax, and used the desktop to sketch out what she would do. The marks were crude and would wipe away easily, but it was something. Kaelynn hummed quietly to herself as she worked, without even really realizing what she was humming. She needed something to distract her from the painful absence in her tank.
Metal sounded against metal as she finally went to work. She had only scraps of cloth to bind things together, and nothing close to an anvil or hammer. She wasn't going to make excuses for herself. If she started down that road, she might as well just give up and submit to Morningtide's whims.
"Kaelynn!" a voice called from behind her. She turned to look at Tellin, and realized she was both hungry and sore from labor. How long had she even been working? "Kaelynn, you're doing it!"
"Doing what?" Then she looked down, gasping at what she saw on the desk before her.
Somehow, impossibly, Kaelynn had made herself some tools. They were clearly made of the scrap metal she had to work with, speckled with patches of corrosion and rust. They had mouth grips of worn cloth or wood she had scavenged. Yet the quality of the workmanship was... impossible.
There was a wrench here, a hammer, a vice, a hand-drill. "Impossible," she stammered, nudging one of them with one of her hooves but if she expected the hammer to puff away into bubbles before her, she was disappointed. "I don't know any other songs."
"Looks like you do," Tellin hummed. "Show me how you did that!"
At the rate Kaelynn's going, by the time our ragtag Ocean's crew shows up, it will be to her standing over a badly beaten Morningtide. Possibly with Tellin trying
and failingto hold her back.Kaelynn is determined not to sit idly by and she seems to be able to easily impress Tellin. Morningtide apparently hasn't told him that the Storm King is dead because he betrayed his own commander. It's interesting that Morningtide seems to have other books with seapony songs and I hope that Kaelynn will be able to take them when she escapes.
A rescue worked at from both ends will surely go faster. The thing that could make this go more smoothly is if Kaelynn can contact Vesper in the dream world so everyone can coordinate with each other.
He'll be a obstacle. Don't know how long his naivete will keep Kaelynn safe.
A possible window to gain his cooperation.
Sea pony magic is certainly an interesting thing. Assuming that hum boosted Kaelynn's natural talents as an builder, there's no doubt sea ponies are a successful species in their own right. Perhaps more so than their land bound cousins.
Seems like her passion towards craftsmanship paid off big time, the emotion the song makes you feel seems to be more important than the lyrics,
Something as simple as humming with passion as strong as hers and she's made high quality tools without even a workbench.
It makes sense, how did the original Sea Ponies make their songs? Looks like Kaelynn stumbled across it.
You go fish friend! Wait for the bat pony friend.
I’m just imaging them somehow getting the night guard with pool noddles to beat the shit out of Moringtide.
I'm rather surprised that Kaelynn's ears didn't perk up at that. Even if Tellin personally doesn't know anything that could get them freed, the fact that seaponies might have been responsible for the Gates in the first place would be invaluable info!
Agatha has begun heterodyning.
We have the spark from girl genius showing up in pony world. It is only a matter of time before Mechanicsburg rises up from the water, and no airship will dare threaten them again.
11002187
Just before that, we need to have this exchange:
Well well well, looks like someone stumbled across her species' power...
So Morningtide knows that the other seaponies are stuck somewhere, not wiped out. Clearly her plans extend beyond repopulation via seapony sex. Good nugget that Tellin revealed but I'm guessing Kaelynn hasn't picked up on this distinction.
Ah, now this is more like it! The turnabout begins. Let's bring it home!
11002285
I'm guessing she thought a more literal 'gate' as the whole 'traveling between worlds' is kind of the important bit. The line also refers to fish being able to swim through rather than ponies.
Janet's knowledge might also be working against Kaelynn as well. By Janet's understanding, only Discord can open these gates on a whim and she likely explained at the very least "Only one guy can open them and he won't do it for me."
11002287
So, it'll be the sunken city of R'yleh rising, only not evil and apocalyptic? (Still really confusing to get around, though.)
11002253
It wasn't a specific tune either so I'm guessing you can adapt the magic to a wide variety of situations. It's not dream magic, but it gets close.
11002285
I though he meant normal run-of-the-mill gates though the concept of other worlds sounds interesting. Still, he's getting that info from Morningtide so we don't know how useful that information could be. Though a lot of worldgates use water so maybe there is something.
11002427
Janet's sort of right. Him and Clover the Clever are the only ones known if I remember. No one else seems willing to devote themselves to the research.
I'm still puzzled on why Celestia (or Luna or Twilight or even Fluttershy) didn't really pressure Discord into opening a new gate for Janet. Or at least make him point one out for her since he'd likely be the only one to know where the others are. Usually Discord cleans up his messes when asked to but he didn't do it here. They just gave her money and let her go on her way. The Alicorns might not be experts on World Gates but Celestia's tepid response to Janet's plight makes me question if there's something more going on in the background.
I think songs are like an art, you don't need an instruction manual to make them work, only the right way to do it and some experience doing it
11002287
Surely you mean Albion, not Mechanicsburg.
11002290
OH ..oh that ...oooo ...
11002397
The fact that the Storm King is involved makes me curious. The Storm King targeted the Seaponies for a reason. Why would he target them unless he felt that they could stop him? When he attacked Acampus, Novo said that there was some survivors who ran. She also mentioned that ponies had the most amount of success in using Seapony magic.
So Morning Tide most likely "found" Tellin lost from the group. As a Unicorn Noble, Morning Tide has access to quite a number of resources. She wouldn't waste them with out something to gain. That's the first thing all Nobles learn. This means that Morning Tide wants something from the Seaponies. Something other than just fame.
My theory is that she wants their magic, their spells. Tellin is young and naive. He doesn't know any Spell Songs, so maybe Morning Tide was hoping to get him to create some. But now comes along Kaelynn who can not only cast the Spell Songs, but also has a spell book full of them! And since Kaelynn is female, Morning Tide can claim that she's doing this to "save her species" while still trying to achieve her end goal of more power.
The logic behind this is simple. And Tellin even told us a few examples.
Not only can Seapony magic open Worldgates, which alone is impressive, but also create buildings, heal others, weave cloth. Who says that it can't do other things? It's already been hinted at that Seapony songs could influence minds and Kaelynn already has shown that seapony magic is versatile. Maybe more so than Unicorn magic. If Morning Tide could master such magic, she could climb the ranks of the Nobility swiftly. And in a way that wouldn't be instantly detectable since she used Seapony Spell Songs to influence the minds of those listening instead of using Unicorn Magic.
11002556
That sure sounds like Agatha when she had her breakthrough. It's not like Kaelynn would have made clanks (err ... what would you call the underwater version of those?) already, that will be her next big thing.
11002720
Luna said they numbered in the millions and are in relative comfort. It would take a great amount of effort and magic to hide that from the rest of the world even if they lived in the ocean. I wouldn't be surprised if they were the most powerful nation on the planet. To imagine a novice magic singer like Kaelynn achieve so much in so little time, it's not hard to imagine an entire nation whose livelihood depends on song achieve far greater heights. Unless Kaelynn is their version of Vesper. If Morningtide knew the full state of affairs of the Sea Pony nation, I can see why she would make a breeding program. She knew she was being risky in taking Kaelynn but she needs as many sea ponies as possible without getting detected. The seaponies are one enemy you wouldn't want to make.
There's a sort of blessing in Morningtide's ignorance of Kaelynn's true origins. If she knew of the Gates, she might have very well tried to kidnap humans from the other side to get as many seaponies as possible.
Hmmm, Kate doesn't know but does have some knowledge on what it takes, once she connects the dots a bit more ...
Wonder if pony Heartsong was a gift from the seaponies??
11002816
The fact that the species you end up as when you cross a Worldgate isn’t known until after you cross would make kidnapping humans into a not so well thought out strategy. The way what species you turn into when jumping Worlds to Equus is still a mystery.
Who or what decides which species you turn into? Can the decision be influenced or even changed outright? Could a human become an Alicorn or even something similar to discord? What are the limits of the Worldgates specie transformation ability?
Could a Pony enter the gate, become human and somehow return to Equus as an Alicorn?
11002975
It might not be efficient but capturing native seaponies might be a harder task for Morningtide.
They return as themselves. Equestrian creatures are only imbued with an illusion spell going Earthside. Nonmagical creatures either use a true transformation spell or also an illusion spell but are slowly transforming via Equestria's magical energies. It would be interesting to know what factors decide what form people take though.
11002783
OK, but that's a decently common spark story. Albion is the one that's underwater, though
11002975
11003094
Yes, ponies going to Earth would just return as they were when they come back home. It's the humans who become random species when they cross over.
OTOH, forcibly kidnapping people in the hopes some of them become seaponies for her "breeding program" wouldn't turn out good for Morningstar. Native seaponies may have more powerful magic and could be a big threat to her if they learn they're actively being hunted--but they're nothing like screwing with people. Humans tend to be vengeful! If Morningstar makes the mistake of wronging the wrong human (no pun, intended), that person might very well be the one who spends the rest of his/her life hunting her down and ending her, no matter what the cost will entail.
Of course, I think it's already too late for Morningstar--one or more of the team are clearly some of those "wrong humans" she shouldn't have messed with! That's why Discord is cooking up tons of popcorn--he's just getting ready to watch the entertainment!
11003094
11003419
So while it been agreed upon that a natural born pony may not be able to change their species using a Worldgate, is there any limits to what species a Human could turn into? Could a human turn into an Alicorn like Luna or Celestia? Or even a draconequus like Discord?
We know that gear tends to change over to better fit the new species, but we have as of yet to hear about any limiters to prevent humans going through Worldgates and becoming powerful individuals? Could that explain why Celestia and the rest of the Princesses refused to help Janet when she ended up in Equestria? Because they couldn't risk such an individual coming from Earth should word spread?
11003427
Hmm... Or another magic-eating centaur? That could indeed be a possibility.
That might very well explain how Tirek and Scorpan are supposedly "brothers", even though they're clearly NOT the same species. In the show, I had always assumed that they were simply "brothers in arms"--but what if they literally were siblings and had come through such a transformative world gate??
11003427
The handful of known humans that came through (with the possible exception of Caleb) took Equine forms if you include kirin, hippogriffs, and changelings. Though it might be possible to come out as a dragon or griffon. I don't know anything about taking a form of an alicorn or draconequus. Those two forms seem to be considered the closest things to "divinity" in Equestrian metaphysics though I suppose Flurry Heart was born into Alicornhood. And there's also the powerhouse that's Vesper. A pony that's honestly a princess in all but name.
At the end of Fine Print, she acknowledges that contact is inevitable and would try to create a relationship based on friendship and protect her kingdom from those that seek to do it harm. It just feels a little odd that the only help Celestia gave Janet was some cash. Janet's situation was a direct result of the game Celestia played with Discord. Even if Equestria knew nothing of gates, you'd think a nation of friendship would offer a little more than that. Maybe they did scold Discord but in the end, Janet was more or less left out in the cold. If I were Janet, I would question why Discord has apparent free reign over Gate affairs. The other sorts of chaos he causes would get bashed on very quickly but on Gates... this would make me think either Equestria gives it's blessing or is for some reason prohibited from interfering. Maybe it's neither, we'll have to wait and see.
And now a clip of Kaelynn's crafting song:
Or maybe it's more like this:
Either way, it looks like she has the tools to make the tools to make her escape... though there may be a few more crafting cycles I haven't accounted for. We'll have to see what else gets in her way, and how badly it gets shouted down.
11003419
Now I'm just imagining one of those Seapony!Humans singing a death metal song, which becomes an explosion
Nice to see Kaelynn put her broken spirit back together and start working on that escape plan again.
Interesting. The power of song is very powerful.
The songs and the magic are definitely the angle to work.
Neat.
Gleeful clacking. Yes! Yes yes yes!
I feel so bad for Tellin. Being thought of as a 'kid' by someone close to your age is devastating, as well meaning as it might be. Emotionally stunted as he is, it's not his fault, and I hope she views him differently later on.