Fins

by daOtterGuy

Cast

Flash looked over the port city of Vanhoover; a tiered city of long terraces filled with tall stone buildings carved out of the very cliffs it was built upon. Stone and cloud formed house extensions extruded from various dwellings giving the town a block look. All of this sheltered by the Dome; a massive canopy of clouds that swirled above the town and dissipated the dangerous sea storms that ravaged the coasts of Equestria.

Orange sunbeams that shone through the cloud gaps bathed the streets in a warm glow, contrasted by the stark shadows that hid various dangers from view.

Thankfully, he was concerned only with the lower half of the city. A large interconnected suburb of wood and stone walkways held up by stilts known collectively as the Docks.

It had been an arms race of ingenuity between the unicorn and pegasi communities that had brought forth the Docks. A solution to resolve the growing issue of space that Vanhoover had been facing over a century ago. Magic from both races had led to create the mess of boats and stilt houses that made up the suburb, fully protected from any oceanic disaster. Now, a unique feature of the coastal town.

An important aspect of living on the Docks was fishing. Vanhoover residents were no strangers to eating fish and many had set up private areas in their homes to catch their potential dinner for the evening.

Nearly every dwelling had a fishing hole on the lowest floor.

A secret way in to avoid the monsters that patrolled the town.

Flash fanned out his wings further to keep himself afloat in the undulating waters. He refocused his attention on the main source of his current worry.

A unicorn.

A turned unicorn.

It had started when the unicorns had been acting strangely. They kept to themselves, never used their magic, and stared at other ponies in fear, seemingly thinking that we would do something to them.

Then, a little over a week after the first emergency broadcast, the first unicorn turned and killed a family of pegasi. Then another turned and blew up a bakery. Then another, and another, and another until the entire town was overrun by them.

A frown of annoyance crossed Flash’s face as he watched the creature. It was freakishly elongated, standing taller than any pony he had met with rows of razor-sharp teeth that dripped black saliva wherever it walked. Its light blue mane was long and shaggy, its sea-blue eyes dilated into slits.

For several minutes, it had meandered around the area of the docks he was looking to raid for supplies.

The bloody thing was pacing circles around some abstract art piece, and it was wearing at Flash’s patience as he only had so much time before he needed to return to the safe zone.

Though agitation had replaced much of his initial fear since the first day of the unicorn attacks, he still knew not to rile up any of the unicorns.

Greed had made certain that the survivors would never forget that since wings could get any pegasus to safety, but the open sky was no match for the range of a unicorn’s magic.

Crash.

In tandem, both Flash and the beast jerked their heads towards the sound as it rang along the docks. Turning back, Flash was just in time to watch the unicorn slowly trot towards the source.

With the monster gone, Flash could finally do what he had set out to do.

He did another check of his equipment to ensure everything was up to spec. His diving mask that covered the entirety of his face was free of any damage. The thunder-powered battery strapped to his neck was fully charged and ready to ionize water into oxygen for him to breathe under the waves. Wires connected where they were supposed and none showed any kind of tampering.

His preparations complete, Flash dived into the water.

And thus the Vanhoover sky opened up to him.

A vast expanse of blue that every Vanhoover-born pegasus was familiar with. They were ridiculed by other pegasi for preferring the ocean over the sky above, but that was only because they couldn’t see it.

The fish that swam in flocks. The seaweed clumped together into clouds. The tides that rolled through created turbulence.

When underwater, what was the ocean but another sky?

Flash paddled forward, kicking his legs in a circular motion while using his wings as rudders to guide himself around towers of seaweed.

It was one of his happy places. A safe haven away from the stresses of the world and now a literal sanctuary from the horrors on land. Unicorns weren’t fond of water, it muddled their magic and the monstrosities were no different. They were only willing to go up to the shoulder before they returned to land.

He spied the open hatch underneath the home of his target, Doctor Pharma, an old family friend that had been a community pillar of the docks for years.

And thankfully not the unicorn that had been patrolling outside earlier.

Aligning himself with the porthole, Flash flapped his wings down, and propelled himself through the hole and roughly onto the wooden floor of Doctor’s private fishing room.

As he winced from the impact, Flash took in the wood paneling and lounge chairs arranged around the area.

Once he surveyed the room, he shook himself like a dog to dislodge the water from his fur. After which, he gave a test flap of his wings and frowned. Unfortunately, he wouldn’t be able to do much more than glide with the shape they were in.

Wouldn’t hopefully matter much as he planned to leave the way he entered.

He looked over the minibar and weighed over the benefits and cons of grabbing a few bottles, eventually settling on forgoing an acquisition since he had more important items to procure.

As he carefully trotted up a nearby set of wooden stairs, wood paneling transitioned into floral wallpaper as the distinct scent of sweets assailed Flash bringing him back to his foalhood. Even after several decades, the room he found himself in was still the same. Comfy striped furniture with a bowl of candy in the center.

Trotting to the bowl in question, Flash popped one of the gummies into his mouth and hummed in satisfaction at the fruity flavour. He used one of his wings to wipe the tears off his face that he would never admit had been there and continued his trek into the adjoining kitchen.

Artificial flowers cluttered the nooks and crannies of the ample storage present. A quick look in the cold storage caused Flash to gag and quickly close it.

Nothing to gain from there.

Rifling through cabinets, he managed to snag several boxes of granola bars and sweets to throw into his waterproof saddlebags — the hazelnut bar he didn’t scarf down did not taste amazing and he definitely didn’t eat a second.

Moving on from the kitchen, he trotted up the stairs to the second floor, carefully avoiding the creaky steps he knew from his memories.

There were three rooms off the corridor he found himself in. Foggy memories of Doctor bringing him into one of the rooms for an ice pack after he’d rammed his head into a post brought him to the first door on the right.

Inside was a small bathroom, and, in the cabinets under the sink, was a trove of valuables that caused him to grin.

A full first aid kit, several rolls of bandages, cold packs, and bottles of pain killers were tossed into his bags while Flash hummed a merry tune to himself.

Once his bags were full, he left the room, closing the door quietly behind him.

Before he could begin moving back to the fishing hole, he found his gaze drawn to the door at the far end of the hall. That one was Doctor Pharma’s bedroom and he felt a nagging need to enter.

He heaved a weary sigh as he told himself that he should respect his friend’s privacy even if he had become a monster. Even though the sweet scent in the air caused him to remember long days of laughter and play.

It would be wrong.

Flash trotted back towards the stairs.

But he missed him.

Turning back around, Flash opened the door and stepped hesitantly into the flowery bedroom of Doctor. Every surface was cluttered with potted flowers and drenched in the orange glow shining through the bay window opposite the door.

As he edged into the room, a glittery object on the nightstand caught Flash’s attention.

Maneuvering around the bed, Flash felt a warm smile spread across his face. Memories of agonizing over a proper birthday gift to Doctor flooded Flash’s mind, coalescing into the jeweled flower brooch on the table; an amethyst carved into the likeliness of a lavender flower and inset onto a silver lapel.

Picking up the jewelry reverently with a wing, he pinned it to his saddlebag as tears welled in the corners of his eyes.

After wiping them away roughly, he turned to leave only to notice too late that his tail brushed against one of the pots in the bay window.

The open bay window.

Flash froze in wild-eyed fear as the pot circled in place. It completed one rotation on its bottom rim before freezing mid-roll, precariously leaning outside.

Panic finally spurred Flash into action to grab the pot, but he was too late as it fell to the ground below.

Crash.

Stopping in place, the beating of his heart pounding in his ears, he waited. Hoping that the sound had been lost to the wind, or sea, or anything else that might hide his presence there.

A guttural roar echoed through the docks.

No such luck.

He raced out of the room, and quickly down the stairs, uncaring of the noise he made along the way.

As he galloped through the kitchen and into the living room, he heaved a sigh of relief at seeing the way clear to the fishing hole. This was soon interrupted by the front door being blasted open by a burst of arcane magic.

The unicorn from before trotted slowly into the room, its teeth gritted, its eyes narrowed in on Flash. Black tar dripped from gaps between its teeth, staining the floor underneath.

Running a quick calculation, Flash made the decision to forgo the basement and instead exit through the back door in the kitchen with the hopes of losing the unicorn on the docks.

Crashing and the sound of splintering wood followed behind him as Flash slammed his way through the back door.

He skidded to a stop.

Three unicorns surrounded him, each walking slowly towards him, gnashing their teeth.

Knowing it was only a matter of time before three became four, Flash tightened the straps on his saddlebags with his mouth and readied for the first unicorn to attack.

A unicorn lunged at him.

Flash deftly avoided him by rolling underneath the creature’s barrel, coming back into a standing position, and turning towards the next unicorn that charged at him.

Flapping his wings, he launched himself backward to evade the second’s bite.

The back door burst open as the unicorn inside of the house came outside. As Flash was momentarily distracted by the sudden entrance, the third took a chance to lunge at him.

Refocusing his attention, he braced his hooves then flapped his wings powerfully down allowing him to hop over the charging unicorn.

Opening his wings, he glided over to an open spot on the docks.

Once alighting upon the ground, he spun on his hooves and galloped down a narrow side street.

Adrenaline surging through him, Flash spared a glance over his withers and felt dread grip his heart as he saw all four unicorns treating down the corridor towards him.

Turning back, Flash desperately wracked his brain to figure out the shortest distance between him and the sea.

A shrill whistle on his left caused his ears to perk and a wide grin to spread across his face. When the alley opened up on his left, he careened down the passage towards the source of the sound.

Blasts of arcane fire exploded against the walls of the alley, showering bits of wood and stone over him.

He ignored the panic and steeled his nerves as per his guard training and continued to race forward, waiting for a signal from the pony who had whistled earlier.

Another whistle caused Flash to look up at the top of the building to his right. A sea-green pegasus with a mop of tightly braided green mane grinned down at him next to a stack of barrels stopped by a series of ropes.

Flash renewed his focus and pushed himself further to gallop faster than before.

Passing the line of barrels, Flash heard several snaps before several crashes and the frustrated roars of the unicorns.

He laughed at his good fortune as he galloped out of the alley and into a large area that opened out into the sea.

The sea-green pegasus from earlier galloped up next to him, a grin splitting his face in two. They leaped off the edge of the dock, perfectly in sync, diving into the water.

Flash was startled when the other stallion nuzzled his cheek.

He returned the gesture and then jerked his head in the direction of the Vanhoover Safe Zone.

The smaller pegasus nodded before swimming away in lazy loops, flashing a playful grin back at Flash.

Matching his colt friend’s expression, Flash swam after him.

Comments

[a creature]

oh frick

[Paracompact]

Fun story. Although I'm confused why it matters that the Doctor isn't the monster outside, if he's still a monster. It had me thinking for a while that Flash was robbing an unturned innocent.

[Shaslan]

Ooh this is great! Hope you've got some more chapters in the works

[daOtterGuy]

11269583
He doesn't want to have to see, fight or deal with a family friend who has turned into a horrific monster that will try to kill him on sight

[AgentKorpsman]

Can someone explain why the unicorns turned and how it happen?

Also should have use guns also why don’t they have any weapons?

[daOtterGuy]

11280363
This is a side story to the fic And Hell Followed. Spoiler warning: TLDR: Twilight released a spell to turn the unicorns into monsters to kill the other races by accident.

This verse does not have firearms as far as I know, and nothing in the main verse points to any form of weapons outside of natural magic hence the main cast also does not have any in this story.