Thirty-ish Minute Pony Stories

by Abecedarian

Washed Up on the Rocks (Prompt #119)

TMP Prompt #119 - “What the Mists Conceal.”

Prompt: Ponies explore a mysterious land filled with fantastic beings.

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Washed Up on the Rocks

Dear Princess Glowing Wake, Star of the Seas, Guiding Light of the Oceans, etc, etc.,

First day didn’t go too badly, I guess.

Our hosts so far are trying their hardest to accommodate us. That’s about the best I can say of them at this point.

The Elements of Harmony seem to correspond roughly to our Jewels of Virtue, but Sea Shimmer ought to be able to tell you more, of course.

One member of the Sun Princess’ entourage spent the better part of the welcome banquet asking extremely invasive questions about our physiology and culture, which doesn’t exactly strike me as mannerly. I can see why you dubbed Shimmer as the leader of this excursion, as I would probably have told her exactly what do to with her curiosity.

The old stories never mentioned how strange the surface-dwellers’ voices sound, and I often catch them straining to hear us when we speak or trying to puzzle out our accents.

I, frankly, could do without speaking to them from the rest of my life, after one of them began laughing (laughing!) when I was formally introduced, as if my name were hilarious somehow. The orange one managed to shut her up by cramming one of their bizarre confections down her throat.

I could get to like that one. Not that I can see myself ever going for a surface girl, not matter how closely they resemble us in certain respects. That’s just freaky.

At any rate, once introductions were finished and the inquisitive one realized she was offending us and clammed up, we got to the business of re-establishing trade and alliances and all the boring stuff I never signed up for when I became a Virtue.

Princess, I hate this! I’d rather be back home tending my flowers than dealing with all this diplomatic business. as you well know.

Everything’s too bright here, their food looks nauseating, and the air smells weird. I think our eyes work differently as well, since a lot of the colors and shapes they appear to find pleasant are making mine hurt.

The others are putting up with this better than I am, but I can tell they hate it here, too. Except perhaps Foamy, but she’s happy all the time as a matter of course.

If you somehow get it into your head to make our visit a permanent attachment, you may well find yourself short at least one Virtue.

Okay, got off topic there, but you wanted to be sent daily reports of my opinions, so you knew what you were getting into.

Nothing else to report today. More tomorrow, hopefully.

Yours,

Sea Lily, son of Splasher, Virtue of Forthrightness.

Author's Note:

2022 Me: I also had a plan to expand on this someday, but when my computer died in March 2015 it took everything, including my notes on pony fiction.

I had a massive cosmology worked out, too. Would've explained everything we didn't know back then. C'est la vie.
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At least I can do this from what I remember:

Seaponies do not have separate races, rather they all have varying amounts of magical capability depending on the individual and more powerful when dealing with their special talents (on average the seaponies would be considered about 30% lower as a whole in magical power than unicorns as a whole, with individual exceptions either way) race with exceptions in either direction and of course a superpowered Princess) , can all survive out of water as long as they don't dry out, and are are all in excellent physical condition due to swimming all the time, but don't have legs (out of the sea they can use their magic to float briefly)

The Jewels of Virtue are the aquatic counterparts of the Elements of Harmony. Both were creations of the mysterious Sire, the progenitor of the Three First Princesses, who forged them with no forge from the very fabric of the universe, melding them to starstuff so that mortals might touch them.

When the Hundred (or Thousand, I can't recall) Year War between the Celestia and Luna raged around the world, the Bearers of the Jewels used their power to fortify the Seapony Kingdom from collateral damage and provided an undersea escape for thousands of refugees from the land. Many of their descendants still live in special cities undersea.

Once the War was over and Luna was banished, the stars went insane and a full quarter of the refugees (specifically the Startouched) became violently mad due to their connection to the empyrean and ultimately had to be pacified on a permanent basis.

After dealing with these back-to-back nightmares, the First Virtues began the tradition of passing the Jewels to apprentices.

(See what I mean about a big cosmology)

The current holders are:
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Sea Lily (M, 26): Forthrightness -- He'll tell you what you need to hear, yes, he'll give you an earful. The oldest of the Virtues in age, yet ironically the newest to receive his jewel. A former soldier who didn't expect to become a Virtue. Has a nice garden.

Skyfoam (F, 19): Hope -- Gifted with the ability to look up to the silver lining and inability to look down to Earth. Likes to give encouraging speeches that occasionally drift off-topic.

Brinicle (M, 22): Resolution -- Forever Faithful, Constantly Capable, Impressively Implacable, Unfailingly Unsmiling. Kind of a quiet worrywart, but always prepared. (Appearance-wise Brinicle was going to be Noteworthy's Seapony equivalent) (I had plans for Noteworthy, too).

Frost Flower (F, 23): Hospitality -- "Please, let me do that for you. No, no, no, I won't hear of it. Really! Just sit right there and I'll take care of everything. No, just sit, sweetie. It's fine! Well, it's just, there's just a way these things need to be done and I--well, now, hon, I wouldn't've mentioned it if you hadn't brought it up--I just know how to do it...uh, properly? I'm sorry! You brought it up!"

Delphine (F, 8): Benevolence -- Ponies keep telling her she's too young to understand. How hard is it to be nice to people? It's the easiest thing in the world!

Princess Sea Shimmer (F, 18): Wisdom -- Serene on the surface, still the little girl who sought secrets wherever people hid them. She doesn't forget. Niece to Princess Glowing Wake, by the mortal side.

Comments

[Abecedarian]

Missed the cut-off date for submitting this one. It's pretty "meh", anyway.

[PresentPerfect]

I expect this fellow is the Honesty equivalent then? :)