Pirates of The Equestrian

by Stratocaster

The Little Merpony

Chapter 5: The Little Merpony

Before Twilight knew it, she, Fluttershy and Pinkie were being held under spear-point on an underwater carriage hollowed out of a nautilus shell; she thought she would never see the day. She sat in the back of the carriage with the merpony guards staring her down, while Shelly and the stingy stallion named Scallop sat up front in a more comfortable seat. Twilight called up to her, ignoring the guards' glare.

"Um, Shelly," she said. "At what point were you going to tell us you were a princess?"

"You'll speak when spoken to, land walker!" spat Scallop.

"Scallop, please," said Shelly who turned to Twilight. "I didn't want to tell you guys at first, but my father is...the ruler of the merpony kingdom, Trotlantis."

"Trotlantis?" repeated Twilight. "The ancient island city that sank into the ocean? I thought that was just a myth!"

"No, it's as real as I am." Shelly replied. "And my father is the king of the whole city. I didn't want to tell you guys because I thought you would focus more on helping me get home than defeating Blackmane."

"That's ridiculous." Twilight retorted. "Why wouldn't you want to go home?"

"Because I wanted to help you. Plus, my father's kind of...mad at me."

"Why is that?"

"Holy hotcakes!" blurted Pinkie, looking out the window. "Look at that city!"

The three land walkers then peered out over the sea floor below and stared in awe. Ahead was a sprawling, glimmering metropolis sitting just over a sandy cliff with a sign reading TROTLANTIS; POPULATION: A LOT. The carriage, pulled by two bottle nosed dolphins, entered the city limits, revealing hundreds of merponies swimming through the sandy streets and over the skyline. The buildings seemed to be made out of mounds of coral and the streets were lined with bright opulent lanterns lit by magic. Every which direction had merponies going about daily activities just like any land pony would; bartering at markets, building new structures, chatting it up at restaurants and the young ones playing happily with one another. Pinkie beamed at the magical sight.

"Wow! It's like a giant fish tank full of ponies!"

"It's absolutely beautiful!" marveled Fluttershy.

"Yeah, it's like something out of a storybook!" added Twilight.

"Hey, you don't see us gawking at one of your cities!" grumbled one of the guards.

"Have you ever ever seen a land pony city?" Twilight contradicted.

"...Shut up, land walker."

"Yup," gulped Shelly, nervously. "Home sweet home."

After passing over the Trotlantis skyline, or rather sealine, the dolphins pulled the carriage to the balcony of a towering skyscraper, or rather seascraper, in the center of the city. Shelly explained, as they were led inside through a grand hall, that this was the palace of Trotlantis and home to herself and her father. The land ponies stared in wonderment at the slick hollowed out coral halls, lined with paintings of past merpony rulers and mounted antiques such as prized shells or weapons like tridents. After a suspenseful tour through the hall, they finally entered a large chamber much like Princess Celestia's throne room. Sure enough, there was a decorative throne at the end of the room with two lines of guards and squires floating in front. And seated at the throne was an elderly yet muscular male merpony who resembled Shelly. His face featured a long white beard and mane and a gilded crown on his head; he held a gold trident in one hoof. The regal merpony stared at his visitors firmly as Scallop bowed before him, weasily.

"Oh your most high and mighty majesty, King Conch, I am pleased to inform you that I have returned your fair daughter safe and sound."

"King Conch? What kind of ridiculous name is that?" snickered Pinkie, before being smacked upside the head by Twilight.

"You see, Princess Shelly?" continued Scallop. "Your father has been worried sick! I hope you learn your-"

"That's enough, Scallop," bellowed the king. "Be gone with you."

"Yes of course, Your Majesty. Forgive me, Your Majesty. A thousand pardons, Your Majesty. Sorry." Scalloped backed out of the chamber bowing pathetically.

Then, King Conch gave a disappointed stare at Shelly who then swam forward with nervous eyes. "Hi Daddy." She said meekly.

"Shelly, I am not amused." King Conch went on. "You have been missing for more than a week without leaving any notice. And now we find you with the likes of the land ponies? Have you lost your mind, child?!"

"Well, Daddy, I, um, well-"

"You should not even allow these land walkers to breathe our sacred water with your magic." Then, King Conch used his own magic to cancel the water breathing spell on Twilight, Pinkie and Fluttershy. The three mares immediately began to suffocate and flail their hooves for air.

"Daddy, please!" yelled Shelly before activating the spell again, leaving them coughing from the close call. "You can't just leave them to drown! They have done nothing to us!"

"I thought I have taught you better, Shelly." King Conch shook his head. "Their kind has been the bane of our existence for centuries! Soiling our oceans with their ships, fishing, and diving. We do not welcome them here!"

"Daddy, if you'll just listen-"

"I've heard enough, Shelly. You are not to leave this palace without my permission, as your father and king!"

"Um, King Conch? Your Majesty, sir?" spoke Twilight cautiously. "I think I can explain."

"You dare speak to His Majesty out of turn?!" threatened a guard.

"Settle down, captain." Conch ordered. "What have you to say, land walker?"

"Your Majesty, this is a big misunderstanding." Twilight said. "Your daughter was actually captured by a ruthless pirate. We found her and rescued her, and in return she gave us this breathing spell and promised to help us get to safety."

"And why should I believe you?" grumbled Conch.

"It's true, Daddy," added Shelly. "I am in debt to them after they rescued me from the capture of Blackmane."

Then, the king became dumbstruck after hearing his daughter speak that name. "Blackmane? You mean, he's back?"

"Yes, Your Majesty," explained Twilight. "Somehow, Blackmane has come back from the dead and now he's going to terrorize the ocean. It wasn't Shelly's fault for going missing."

Conch suddenly became sullen. "Shelly, forgive me, my daughter. If I had know you were in such danger I would have personally set out to find you. I am so glad you are unharmed."

"So, you believe that Blackmane has returned, Your Majesty?" spoke Fluttershy.

"Yes, the memory of that monster has been stained in our history." Conch told them. "When he roamed the sea, he plundered and sank numerous ships, littering the homes of merponies everywhere with wrecks and grog. Eventually, many smaller merpony kingdoms were polluted by Blackmane's destruction, and the city of Trotlantis was overcrowded with refugees. When he was finally executed, many of us gathered in secrecy to watch his death with celebration. But there was not much cheering as Blackmane cursed, in his final words, that he would be brought back if his treasure were to be sent to the sea floor. At first, nopony believed him; but his terror lived on when we witnessed his lifeless corpse swimming around the ship three times before finally disappearing into the depths."

"Oh my goodness!" squeaked Fluttershy with fright, as she imagined the grizzly scene.

"Since then, we have prayed that Blackmane's curse would not come to fruition." Shelly said. "But now that he really is back, his reign of destruction will continue, and our people will suffer from the from the repercussions. That is partly why I wanted to help you guys stop him."

"My gosh," pondered Twilight. "I've read that Blackmane's destruction was immense, but I never would've thought it could affect an entire civilization."

"Land walkers," continued Conch. "If my daughter says that your intentions are true, that I shall put my trust in you. There has been no time in merpony history more disastrous than Blackmane's rule. I apologize for any hostilities."

"Oh don't worry about it, Kingy!" said Pinkie. "It was kind of fun! Now I know what it's like to be in a fish tank!" Then Twilight shoved a hoof in her mouth to keep her from saying anything else stupid.

"And I cannot thank you three enough for rescuing my daughter from the grasp of Blackmane. You are welcome here in my city, and you may spend, what you call on land, the night here."

"Thank you so much, Your Majesty." Twilight bowed. "I promise we'll keep your people safe from Blackmane's destruction."

"Hey, hey Twilight," tittered Pinkie. "Guess what what we're doing tonight?"

"Pinkie, don't say it." Twilight glowered.

"We're..."

"Don't!"

"We're..."

"Pinkie!"

"We're..."

"I swear to Celestia!"

"We're sleepin' with the fishes!" Pinkie then burst out and rolled on the floor laughing as everypony else in the room slapped their faces.

...

That night, Shelly lay in her royal bedchamber reading a novel after being readied for bed by her hoofmaidens. It had been a long time since she was able to snuggle in her own bed since she was captured several torturous days ago. But before she could fall into a much needed sleep, Twilight opened the door and poked her head in.

"Um, Shelly? Can I come in?"

"Of course, Twilight." Shelly replied. "What is it?"

Twilight approached the bedside. "Well for one thing, I just want to thank you for sticking with me and my friends after what you've been through. We've faced problems like this when it comes to saving Equestria, and it hasn't been easy."

"Oh don't worry about it." Shelly shrugged. "It's not like I'm some scaredy catfish."

"Clearly you don't know Rarity. Also, there's something I meant to ask you. What were you doing when Blackmane captured you anyway?"

That's when Shelly frowned and looked as if something was amiss. "Uh, nothing really. It's no big deal." She shied away.

"Come on," Twilight sat on the bed. "You're the princess of a whole kingdom. There must have been some reason for you to have been out in the open water. And if you weren't alone, you would've been saved from capture. So what were you doing if there was no-"

"I was running away, alright?!"

Twilight gave a surprised look at the merpony's outburst.

Shelly sighed with guilt. "I'm sorry; I lied. It was my fault that I got captured. I ran away from Trotlantis and found myself near the coast of western Equestria. That's when I was netted by Blackmane."

"Why would you run away? Surely your father was worried sick."

"He was the reason." She said spitefully. "He says that I should devote my life to ruling the city like he does. What I really want to do is explore the ocean and meet the ponies of the land. But my father would never let me make contact with your kind. So eventually I just wanted to escape and leave everything behind. I didn't want to mention this before."

"You didn't want to mention a lot of things before." Twilight contradicted.

"Sue me."

"Shelly, there's no reason to leave your home and family behind just for that. You should just learn to talk to your father and he'll understand."

"You don't know what it's like with him. He's an even bossier father than he is a king. All he wants is for me to be ruler, but so far he thinks I won't live up to anything. I don't want to be a tyrant like him. I just want to be me."

Twilight smiled and put a hoof on her shoulder. "Well, I'm sure he'll see that now that you're helping us defeat Blackmane. You'll be a hero! And I'm sure your father will forgive you for everything once he sees just how competent you really are."

Shelly closed her eyes in deep thought, then looked up at Twilight with a small smile. "Thanks, Twilight. I needed to hear that."

"Anything for a friend." She then got up to exit. "Well, I'll let you get your sleep. You deserve it the most."

"Goodnight. Oh and Twilight?"

"Yeah?" Twilight looked back.

"Could you tell Pinkie something?"

"Sure, what is it?"

"If she makes another fish joke, I'll turn her into a sea cucumber."

Comments

[Stratocaster]

3277308 You're right, it is kind of cliche. But then again it's still more about defeating Blackmane than Shelly's problems. She's really just a side story kind of.