Kaelynn was making progress.
Every morning she told herself that—or at least, she assumed they were mornings. Her prison had no windows, nothing more than the magical glow of crystals they could brighten or dim on command. But she could keep track of the days in other ways. The demands of Morningtide made that easy enough.
Most of the time, she just wanted to show her off. Groups of well-dressed ponies visited their tank. They weren't what she imagined when she pictured a group of people willing to look at a kidnapped person locked in a tank, either. Not bulbus and sweaty, covered in gold chains. These were dignified ponies, wearing fine gowns and sharp suits.
Most of them didn't even know she was being held against her will, not after that first group. Morningtide had made it quite clear what she wasn't allowed to talk about on the very next day.
"You will neither state nor insinuate that you are not being well-treated here," Morningtide had said. "The instant you do, my patience will expire." She lifted something into the air—a bottle, with faintly luminous contents. "Know the position you're in, Kaelynn. This potion, added to your tank, will ensure that repopulation efforts begin promptly." She settled it back down, tucking it away behind a stack of books. "I have no desire to escalate to such barbaric measures. Do not force my hoof."
Kaelynn nodded once. She could've raged against her, bashing up against the tank, screamed wild profanities—or she could keep her mouth closed, and wait for an opening. The latter was an easy choice. My friends are coming for me. When they do, you better hope I'm feeling forgiving. "Is there anything else I shouldn't tell them?"
The unicorn waved a dismissive hoof. "This talk into... other worlds that so fascinates you. That theory is known to most ponies who study your species. All reputable scholars have dismissed it. It really would be better if you kept that to yourself."
Kaelynn circled the little fishbowl once in agitation, stirring the water beneath her. As she did, she caught a scent from the tunnel entrance. A pair of eyes watched there, just out of sight. But what else was there for Tellin to do? "You're asking a lot, Morningtide. Do your visitors want the truth, or entertainment?"
"Entertainment." She didn't even hesitate. "You already met with the genuine naturalists. They know as I know that you don't come from an existing colony of seaponies, and so their curiosity waned. Consider this position... elevation. By saving this species, your life will have greater purpose than it ever could have. One day, your descendants will be released into one of Equestria's sheltered lakes to rebuild. Seaponies through all history will have you to thank for their survival."
She curled her tail upward, covering herself subconsciously. Funny how she could come so far in overcoming human taboos since arriving here—but nothing could bring them back faster than being treated like an animal.
Morningtide seemed to sense her hesitation, because she held something up in the air ahead of her. "Don't think I can't be reasoned with, Kaelynn. Cooperation brings great rewards. Look." She held up a single flat page, then dropped it into the metal chute atop the tank. Kaelynn caught it by reflex, balancing it in one hoof.
"For the Nurturing of Useful Plants"
It was a sheet from the hippogriff songbook, drawn on that same waterproof material. It had been sliced away from the binding, but still looked like the original to her. No reason to lie, just give me a song I can't use.
"We would like to see your songs in action," Morningtide went on. "Various magical experts will be in the next group. You should rehearse that before they arrive."
Kaelynn skimmed it, then looked back. "I think I'll need something to grow. And probably Tellin's help. We've had more luck singing together than apart."
"Not unexpected. Speak to him, I'm sure he'll cooperate. I will reward you with more of your collection. Once I've determined the songs are safe, that is."
Maybe this was what Kaelynn was waiting for. Not even the hippogriffs had known what those songs did. Most titles could be interpreted in many different ways—maybe the correct one wouldn't warn Morningtide of the weapon it would be. Or maybe I don't need the songbook at all. There was no song for making tools, not exactly. She'd just wanted to do it, then she had.
Unfortunately for Kaelynn, she hadn't yet been able to reproduce that particular experiment.
That wasn't to say she was wasting her time. Morningtide only visited for a few minutes each day. When she wasn't around, Kaelynn worked. She tried to start with the piano, but had met unexpected resistance from Tellin.
"We can't take an instrument apart!" he had argued, shoving her away from the case with more force than he'd yet touched her. "Morningtide had a pony play it for me—it's beautiful!"
"Out there it is," she said, swimming along to the keys. She pushed a few of them down at random with a hoof. Only one actually played a note, not even resembling the C she'd intended. Not to mention it was so muted it was barely even audible. "Does that sound like beautiful music?"
"Break something else," he argued, determined.
No matter how much she wanted to keep fighting with him, Kaelynn knew it was a battle that couldn't be won. Not because Tellin had ever done anything untoward, or that he'd use his greater size against her. But all he had to do was say one word about what she was doing to Morningtide, and all her preparations would be for nothing.
"Okay. I'll clean up something else." She swam off, and had to make herself content with other ruins. There was plenty to keep her hooves busy—half of what filled the bottom of the tank looked like musical instruments of one sort or another. Most had fared even worse, and barely even suggested their original purpose.
Kaelynn used her tools to make more. She made prybars, wedges, a pair of heavy snips. She made a spear, though Neptune only knew if she would need it. One thing was certain; she wasn't going to attempt her escape unarmed.
Respecting Tellin's precious relics didn't mean she was entirely free of his attention. Most of the time it was simple curiosity. But not always.
"Kaelynn," he hummed, late into the evening another day later. At least, she thought it was night. She couldn't know for sure. "Has Morningtide talked to you about... why she does all this? Why she made us this shelter?"
Kaelynn shook her head. "Any reason she gives is self-serving, Tellin. We're increasing her reputation, her... family's prestige. Every day she brings in another group is another day that ponies get to ogle and clap at how generous she is."
His melody transformed, the beats becoming harsh staccato notes. "Morningtide wants Seaponies to survive," he went on. "We're the last of our kind in the whole world. Morningtide gave us a place to hide, where we could make more creatures like us. Don't you care if we die out? Do you wanna be the last seaponies to ever swim?"
Kaelynn tensed. It would be so easy to come up with a lie. But the music didn't work that way—any emotion she wasn't feeling would sound like a parade of wrong notes. "I care, Tellin." She set down her spear, and its half-finished point. "Maybe that's really what we'll have to do, one day." She rested one hoof on his shoulder. "But not while I'm a prisoner. If we did what she wanted here, we'd bring people into a world of... walls, and cages. The Storm King is dead, Tellin. The ocean is safe. If we were out of here, we could live anywhere we wanted."
He retreated from her, backing away through the water. "You keep saying things about Morningtide, Kaelynn... Are you even paying attention? She protected me from the Storm King, she gives us everything we ask for... why would you even want to leave? Even if the ocean was safe, you wouldn't want to live there! Ponies have a city. What's free even mean, if we have to hunt our own fish and live under a rock?"
He would probably be crying, if they weren't underwater. Oh god. This is so much worse than I thought. You think Morningtide is your mom. Did Kaelynn even have enough time to win him over? "I don't want to upset you, Tellin," she said lamely. "I'm glad Morningtide has taken such good care of you over the years. But can you see that she hasn't taken good care of me? I was happy outside, and she forced me here. She's holding me here against my will."
Tellin didn't even stick around in the water after that. He swam quickly away, vanishing into the gloom in the back of the tank without another word.
Sorry kid. Kaelynn went back to work on her spear, filing away at the blade. She had better hurry if she expected to get out of this tank. It was no wonder that Morningtide was so confident trapping her—she'd turned her fellow prisoner into another jailer.
They slept on separate sides of the tank, so it was nothing strange that Kaelynn didn't see him again until the next morning. He delivered a pine box to the table in front of her, with four little plants packed in gravel inside. Underwater ones by the look of it, with leaves browning on the edges from too long out on the surface.
"Morningtide brought these," he said flatly. "I think we're supposed to practice? Ponies coming over later want to see our songs." He didn't meet her eyes as he settled something down onto the table beside them: the songbook page Morningtide had given her the other day.
She looked from the page to Tellin, then back again. Just as she couldn't lie with her song, his emotionless neutrality sounded hollow to her ears. There was pain under there, poorly concealed.
Kaelynn set down her tools. "I can handle it alone, if you don't want to sing with me," she said. "I can perform for Morningtide and her guests."
"No," he said, a little too quickly. "I mean... I'd still sing with you. I think you're wrong about a lot, Kaelynn. But we're stuck together, so... I'll just have to hope you change your mind."
She smiled weakly back at him. "Alright. Let's try and grow some plants together."
Easier said than done. Their argument the night before meant the two of them were discordant now. Singing a magical song together required a level of cooperation from both parties, one that Kaelynn could hardly feel at first. Until she could, the plants didn't change.
Not only that, but this song specified a "Confident Knowledge of Hunger" required in order to perform the song properly, and the two of them were just too well-fed. At least until they'd been practicing for a few hours, and the time between meals began to stretch. That was the first hint of harmony between the two of them.
They sang of gardens and growing things, of what it was like to swim through a forest of seaweed and beneath bright green lily pads. It was a song only Kaelynn could lead with any authenticity, since she had actually been to places like that. Her diving experience formed the foundation of a song.
She hardly noticed the change, until creeping roots tumbled over the side of the table, and the great central stalk of a length of seaweed began to cover up the sheet music.
"I... think that's enough," she finally said, trailing off abruptly. As it turned out, only two of the plants had grown. Two remained in their pots, unchanged.
"I can't wait until we have the whole songbook," Tellin said. He tore off a large flat leaf of seaweed, then bit into it. He hummed happily at the taste, grinning. "It's so fresh!"
Yes
The hardest concept there is. How to you free someone, with has no concept of slavery or freedom? How do you convince someone given free stuff and an easy life, to give it all up, and forced to do harsh laboring self sustaining labor?
But more than that, how cruel do you have to be, to enslave someone willingly, so completely, so dependant on you, that you've effectively killed them, for they can't survive on their own anymore, and now will forever require being a slave to someone else, just to survive.
This is beyond evil. This is cruelity no pony in MLP History has ever done, not the Storm King, Not G1 Tirek, not even King Sombra, as he took over the minds, making them sleep mentally and not remember the enslavement when freed. This is Cruelity, even more forms of Total World Domination Nightmare Moon would never allow to happen, because it wastes too much resources taking care of people who just take and can't give at all.
When they end, the pony who did this, needs to be Executed.
Tellin really is extremely naive and Mornigtide made him into nothing more than a pet which is just as revolting as what she plans to do with Kaelynn. I fully expect Ryan to go completely berserk at some point when he finds out about all this.
11018624
I mean, that kind of sounds how Celestia set up Equestria. Protecting them from foreign threats, providing a place where harsh life-or-death labour was unneeded. When she got knocked out of the picture in the first episode of Season 1, or again in the second episode of Season 2, almost everyone had an existential crisis and lost the ability to handle things constructively. (Barring of course, her chosen scion and destined companions)
Your "beyond evil" situation has been the state of the show from the beginning.
11018730
Not true. That's a different concept and problem. What Celestia Did, was take away Self Defense. But ponies are still free. They can leave, go anywhere they want, do whatever they want as long as it isn't a crime. But what is going on with the Sea Ponies in Captivity, is a problem that happens even here in the real world.
Every single 'Extinct' Species that exist, have all died in Captivity, and every single Species we trap inside captivity become too dependant on humans giving them food and die when they get released. How do you think Wolves turned into Dogs? Smaller, Weaker, more controlled species domesticated. The same happened with Cows, Chickens, and Pigs.
You go outside, go walk in the woods, and you aren't going to find Cows. You aren't going to find Chickens. Nor Pigs. Cause they are all in captivity, and can't exist as a species in a wild.
Think about that. If something happened, that killed most if not all farmers and food production people, Species, Cows, and Pigs would just go instinct within a few months from lack of food as they can't survive and don't know what is or isn't food thanks to humans giving them food all their lives which weren't things found in the wild.
11018739
You're making absolutes out of things that aren't absolute. Dogs and pigs, for example, are perfectly capable of living in the wild if they escape captivity. Species have been saved from extinction with captive breeding and later released back into the wild.
*In general* what you're saying is right though.
11018739
Uh, you might want to backtrack on that. Pigs and chickens do extremely well on their own in the wild.
Look up feral hogs.
11018756
Cows too, can be quite happy wandering in the wild, especially if they have no natural predators in the region.
I live in New Zealand, and some of the really Rural Towns in my area have wild cows that just wander through the bush.
Trust me when I saw you wouldn't want to stumble upon one of those by accident. They can be quite aggressive when Feral.
11018756
Or just feral dogs, they form their own packs and have attacked people
11018739
Umm, no. That’s not merely wrong, it’s ludicrously so.
What is true, though, is that this little Aquatic Menagerie of Morningtide’s is a horror. Even if you completely ignore what she’s doing to Kaylin, and what she’s threatening to do to coerce her into cooperating, what she’s done to Tellin is nothing short of foal abuse. He’s grown up isolated, a prisoner, with no coping skills at all and no chance to learn how to interact with others. People who do that to children in real life are rightly considered monsters. So is Morningtide.
The days and nights must be a blur at this point though the cavalry is coming that's for sure.
Fertility potions... great. It'll probably cut into Kaelynn's remaining time as a human too. It's not even a choice this time.
She might revisit that theory after the escape but if she's quick to scoff at it then the better it'll be for the gang.
They'll live in servitude, nonetheless but you write the narrative don't you, Morningtide?
No doubt it's intended for Tellin. Maybe for Kaelynn herself if things get that bad.
If the seaponies were in actual dire straights, that sort of burden would be a hard ask of any human even if done in absolute freedom.
Quite terrible for Tellin. He'll be asked to rape and he has absolutely no idea why it's wrong. If the escape goes sideways, he won't even understand why an enraged Ryan is beating him to a bloody pulp. If the escape goes well, can Tellin really return to his kind without some serious therapy? Kid is broken in more ways than one. That pony doesn't look like he'll have a happy ending.
No doubt he sees her as a potential life partner. So futile though.
11018692
That rage might spill over to Tellin if Ryan see him just a little closer to Kaelynn. No doubt the naive jailer would be found just as guilty as Morningtide.
11018739
Absolutely not true. Feral animals such as hogs and even horses have overpopulated North America. They do not become dependent on humans. Natural Selection makes them adapt to the wilds. And unless you count "captivity" as being trapped on the planet, it's our
technological influence (controlled and uncontrolled) over it and consequently the ecosystems in it that drives species to extinction. Captivity and a breeding program (ironically) may save or at least lengthen the survival time of vulnerable species. It's all a matter of what one's ethics are on the treatment of nonsapient species though I suppose most will have less revulsion on this kind of thing.
11018624
I hate to point out that slavery, as an institution, exists because the alternate is genocide (and once practiced, becomes the target of it) ...
I'm wincing at poor Tellin's perspective. Most people would probably choose the cage if given the clear choice and taught all their lives that the alternative is to "hunt our own fish and live under a rock". He can't imagine more.
Rewarding her captives by returning tiny scraps of what she stole. Could there be a more perfect representation of Morningtide’s hypocrisy?
And yeah, poor Tellin has no concept of the wider ocean. Even if the seaponis were extinct—and I can only imagine how he’ll process that revelation; probably refusing to believe it—Seaquestria is an option. But the only mare who’s ever cared for him (asfar as he knows) has assured him that she is the only option. Oh, this will be tricky…
At least the heist is imminent. This should go wrong in the most delightful ways.
The more I read the more I want to talk to Morning tide with a knife and some healing potions we would have a great "chat" about what happens to rapists
I hope Kaelyn will stab tellin through the dick.
11019984
This is random, but I wanted to say that you're like a landmark on this website. I hadn't seen you're name in awhile so when I came across it again just now I felt some nostalgia.
That is all :)
That one looks potentially quite useful, plants can do a lot if you are creative.