Princess Celestia was actually never at the Seapony's realm for a vacation, she was kidnapped by somepony...or ponies. It's up to Rainbow Dash and her sisters to find her, however, the obstacles ahead are unknown and dangerous.
Princess Celestia's vacation was never to the Seapony's realm, it was really just a lie Luna made up to cover up the truth: that Celestia was kidnapped! If Rainbow Dash and her sisters don't find her soon, Equestria may find the truth, or worse, the ponies responsible for this may use Celestia's power to take over Equestria. They may also bring back bad memories for Luna...
Rainbow Dash slowed to a glide to land smoothly and flawlessly, making the transition from flying to sitting awesomely. Basically like she did anything. She found herself on a fair-sized (yet slightly drizzle-y) cloud and waited waited for her sisters, Rainstorm and Solar Flare, to show up.
The three were almost twins. Only, Solar Flare was a cream color, her mane being a spectrum of different shades of orange and yellow. It was styled almost the same way as Dash's, and Solar Flare's eyes were dark green. Rainstorm's coat was snow-white, with an also-similarly-styled blue spectrum of a mane with similarly sky-blue eyes.
They were meeting up for practice, to qualify for the next Wonderbolts tryout...which was probably far away. Dash groaned inwardly at the thought of the daunting year until the next tryout. She had broken her wing (and accidentally discovered the awesomest book series ever) just in time to miss the chance of her life.
This time Dash groaned for real, recalling the event. About the only good things about the experience were, of course, discovering the Daring Do series, and the fact that Solar and Rain had somehow refrained from going by themselves. The rest of the girls had told her that keeping them away had included a garden gnome, a turtle, and a book full of bedtime stories. Dash wasn't sure she wanted to know...
The sound of wingbeats sounded from behind Rainbow Dash.
"Hey, Rain. How've you been?" Rainbow called to her white-furred sister, by her nickname, as Rainstorm descended onto the cloud, falcon atop her shoulder regally.
"Just fine, Dash. Hey, where's Solar?" The sisters had come up with nicknames for each other when they were fillies, and it was the only thing anypony ever called them.
"Dunno. Thought you might've seen her."
Though Dash hated it she had to admit being late was something Solar did a lot, due to her countless pickpocket and let's-rob-the-nation-of-its-deepest-secrets escapades. That mare could sneak up on...whatever normally snuck up on ponies. She was well known for being an almost-sort-of-maybe-not stalker.
"Nope. Flare probably had to do something or other."
Both mares jumped as a voice, who sounded suspiciously pensive, came out of seemingly nowhere. "Yeah, just snuck— had a meeting with Luna, you won't believe what I found out!" interfered a cream-coated Pegasus as she landed surprisingly quietly for a pony that was panting so loudly.
"Wow, Flare, watcha doin', panting like that?" Rain said.
Flare looked uncomfortable for a long pause, rubbed a foreleg, then gave a sigh and said all at once, "Weeeell... I know I'm not supposed to sneak around anymore but I couldn't help myself and found out that Princess Celestia's not a the Seapony's realm, she disappeared and so Luna's gonna take some of the best 'guard'--" she rolled her eyes at this part, as they all agreed the guard did nothing "--with her to save Celestia."
She panted a bit more from talking so fast. However, seeing as everypony else was too stunned to answer (and she probably just felt like talking), Solar continued the conversation.
"Well, do we tell Luna th- wait, no, never mind, if she catches me sneaking again..." She trailed off with a gulp.
Dash got over her shock, though. Ish.
"Wait, we've got to tell Luna, I mean, she's practically our aunt, she won't hurt you. Ohmygosh, how are we gonna save Celestia?! We've gotta save her--!" She cut off and stared wide-eyed at the sun.
As much as Dash's outburst surprised her young sisters, they all broke into pure panic as they saw what was in the sun.
"Do you see it?!"
"Oh my what?!"
"What the heck?!
The three decided that, no matter the consequences, they would have to consult Luna about Celestia's 'disappearing act'. They didn't know if she knew about that certain...detail yet, but either way, they were taking a flight to Canterlot.
*~~~~~~~~~~*
"Well, Solar Flare, it seems that since you and your sisters have given me an idea of what's going on, I won't punish you for sneaking yet again." The bedraggled, puffy red eyed moon princess gave a sigh. "I just hope we can find them in time..."
Rain gave a confused, "Huh?"
"Wait, who? Who are 'they'?" Dash demanded.
"Some old enemies of Celestia's," Luna said tiredly.
"Enemies? Who?" Solar couldn't stand suspense.
"Meet me here in an hour. I'll explain everything."
Solar angrily snorted and opened her mouth to protest, but before she was able to speak, Princess Luna said, "Oh, and, this can count as your punishment, dearest Solar Flare, thinking about how you handle suspense." She smirked.
Dash arched an eyebrow teasingly.
"Remember that story Mom told us once? How you tore, like, half your mane out when she wouldn't tell you what happened next!"
Solar gave another angry snort and was about to mumble an equally angry retort through clenched teeth, but once again got cut off before she was able to say anything. A laugh came out unsuccessfully stifled out of Rain's mouth.
"Awww, not you, too, Rain. Here I was, thinking you were decent." Solar Flare flatted her brow.
But, a smile was reaching Solar's mouth, and soon everypony but Luna (she smiled broadly) was laughing historically at the mention of some other funny stories about the three sisters' childhood.
"Tell us already!" Solar Flare yelled, interrupting Rainbow Dash.
Rainbow just jumped to stand next to her sisters, who had barged into the room when Solar Flare had come yelling through the doorway.
Luna gave them each a smile and scanned the Rainstorm, Rainbow Dash and Solar Flare. Her eyes rested on Solar, penetrating the mare's emerald eyes with her own. Whatever she had to say to her must've been serious, right?
"Is it just me, or do you have a bald spot?" Luna said, fully serious looking...
Just as Rainstorm was about to comment, the moon princess collapsed on the floor, belly shaking with laughter.
"Rain, do I really have a bald spot?" asked Solar with a deadpan expression.
"Yes..." The wite mare chuckled before saying, "...No."
Rainbow Dash was the next to fall down with laughter. She loved laughing at her sisters, admittedly...
Rainbow waited slightly awkwardly for her twins to laugh along again, or at least smile.
However, Solarflare and Rainstorm's faces turned serious as they exchanged glances.
"Luna, I love your joke and all, but we came here to talk to you. You know that very well."
Getting up, Luna stopped laughing, sighed, and said, "Please follow me."
Solarflare suddenly grinned, then dashed into the room Luna was walking to, closely followed by Rainstorm and Rainbow Dash. Once inside, the three pegasi took it in. It looked pretty plain, compared to the other rooms in the immense castle.
It had very plush-looking sofas (which brought back the memory of when a certain group of sisters had jumped happily onto a not-so-happy mom's bed), a desk with a swivel chair behind it, two big windows providing much sunlight, and finally, a tiny waterfall in a corner, flowing gently into a pool of water, which cast faint rainbows across the room.
Each pony sat down at a sofa (they were very bouncy and this time, none of the three siblings could resist acting a bit silly), with the exception of Luna, who took a seat at the swivel chair.
"Well, I suppose you should know what's happening out there. You see, there's group of ponies dedicated to bringing ba- I mean, taking over Equesrtia and making all of it's citizens believe in their...er...religion, I guess would be the proper word. To do this, they have trapped Celestia, in the S-Sun." Luna's voice broke at the word 'Sun'.
"I'm afraid that's all you need to know, and all I can tell you." She went on briefly.
"Wow, wow, wow. What do you mean, 'all I can tell you'?! We came to get the truth!" Rainstorm asked, giving Luna a quizzical stare.
"It is, just a shorter version of it."
With a reproachful 'hmmm', the pegasi walked slowly to the door, glanced back, then closed it.
The dark blue Alicorn at the desk slumped in her chair, letting her face finally show how tired she REALLY was. Her wings drooped to the ground, and a regretful feeling creeped up slowly on Luna.
"If only they knew the whole story."
* ~~~~~~~~~~*
The cloud door to Rainbow Dash, Solarflare and Rainstorm's room opened, then closed as the three close-to-twins sprawled out on a pile of beanbags.
"What'd you girls think about Luna's explanation?" Solarflare, as always, started the conversation.
"I would say confusing, but kind of helpful if you think about it." Rainstorm said.
"In which way was that helpful?" Rainbow Dash groaned.
"Well, if you put aside the 'all I can tell you' part, it kind of gave us an explanation." Solarflare pointed out.
Rainstorm nodded her thanks to her orange sister, then said, "Uh-huh. that was probably most of what Luna knew, and she probably couldn't tell us the rest because it was something confidential. We sometimes forget, there's always something we don't know, like it or not."
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure you guys are right. Let's just go along with it."
"I agree."
"Me too."
"Then it's decided. We believe Luna's explanation for now."
A cloaked figure walked silently across a forest floor. It stopped in front of a huge tree. Then, it stepped in, simply swallowed by the tree in a flash of dark gray. Well, it was more like the absence of colors. Just like that, it was gone, leaving no trace of life, with the exception of the dense, sunlight-blocking plant life and occasional howling timberwolf.
*~~~~~~~~~*
Three bright colored pegasi pumped their wings as fast as they could for the last leg of the race. They looked like rainbow, orange and white blurs as they raced across the sky. Poomf!! The cloud they'd landed on burst into tiny bits, which floated off, then dissolved. They glanced down before completely letting go, and plummeting towards another cloud. They spread their wings and glided onto it, righting themselves in midair.
"I win!" Rainbow Dash called to her sisters across the cloud.
"No way, I do!" Both Solarflare and Rainstorm said back at the same time.
Then, they turned to each other and Solarflare said, "Nuh-uh, I win."
"Ha, in you guys' dreams! I won and you know it."
After about thirty minutes trying to decide who won, they sullenly called it a tie and went to their room in the Canterlot suites to shower, then go out for some well- deserved lunch.
Later that afternoon, Rainbow Dash, Solarflare and Rainstorm were heading out of Mary's Diner, when they spotted a shadow in an alleyway. With not much to do in Canterlot (Luna had insisted that, for some reason, they stayed there), they had spent much time exploring the massive city, almost memorizing the streets' many twists and turns.
"Hey, look over there! Who's that?" Rainstorm asked in a hoarse whisper.
"I dunno. Let's follow them!" Solarflare answered, happy to get an excuse to sneak.
Rainbow Dash had already spread her wings and was hovering silently over a figure cloaked in black. Soon enough, the ponies were following the mysterious pony through the alleyways, but there were some they didn't recognize. That was strange, though, because they'd seen all of them while flying and racing above the clouds.
It seemed like the pony was never going to stop, until the pony reached a dead end. Rainstorm looked up to see that her sisters had looked up too, and after exchanging glances, they discovered that the pony was gone! They would've detected any movements the pony had made to turn and run off, but after searching for a full hour, it was obvious that the pony wasn't in Canterlot anymore.
"Well, that was a waste of two hours." Solarflare said, her face slightly annoyed as the group touched down swiftly on their balcony.
"Yeah." Rainbow Dash agreed.
"Oh, Celestia, my wings ache!" Rainstorm complained.
"Mine too." Solarflare said.
"Now that you mention it, yeah, they do hurt." Rainbow dash agreed, once again, then said, "Well, we HAVE been flying around for the past two hours!"
When the group went inside to rest, they gathered on Rainbow Dash's bed to talk about the cloaked pony they'd seen in the allyway. They disputed on wether to tell Luna or not.
"No, but what if she thinks we're lying?" Rainstorm asked.
"Believe me, Luna will believe us since she knows (more or less) who's behind this!" Solarflare countered.
"Well, maybe, but-" Rainstorm was cut off by the sound of somepony snoring.
"Dash, what do you think?" Solarflare asked as she shook her sleeping sister.
"No.. Mom, one more minute..." Rainbow Dash mumbled.
Rolling their eyes, Rainstorm and Solarflare told Rainbow Dash, "Dash, it's Summer Vacation. We don't have school."
Still nothing.
"You know what, we'll just go to see Luna and get more information out of her without you."
Shooting out of bed, Rainbow Dash galloped to the door and said, "Well, what're you waiting for? Let's go!"
After exchanging glances, Solarflare and Rainstorm followed behind closely.
Luna straightened on her throne as three pegasi trotted briskly into the throne room, looking more serious than Luna'd ever seen them. When they reached the moon princess' throne, the three ponies she'd come to care for looked like they had zoomed full-speed on those turbo-fast wings they had, and each one of them was hyperventilating.
"Luna, we need to talk privately." Solarflare puffed, looking a bit gittery.
Her sisters (who wore equally nervous faces) nodded. Without a word, Luna got up and led them out of the regal throne room and into the smaller, simpler space of the room where Rainbow Dash, Rainstorm and Solarflare had last conversed with her.
"Why have you called me to meet with you, exactly? I demand an explanation."
The lack of sleep had been hard on Luna, even as the princess of the night. Her mood hadn't really improved because of that either.
"While we were coming out of some restaurant near the outskirts of Canterlot, we saw this strange-" Rainstorm cut off Rainbow Dash to add, "And suspicious!" "-pony in an alley, then we followed it, took our eyes of them for ONE SECOND, and they disappeared!"
Luna's eyes widened as she realized that who they were dealing with had grown -or still was growing- stronger. Yet they still had the same objective. A shake of her head cleared it of those thoughts temporarily to deal with the task at hoof. Luna had thought she could postpone this for at least for a little while, but this new information brought to light had changed her opinion.
"Okay, girls, thank you for telling me." Luna said, deciding to tell them the future's plan for all four ponies. "Now, I'm afraid you three need to stay here for about an hour so I can explain to you what we're going to do."
*~~~~~~~~~~~*
"...so then we save Celestia, hopefully?" Solarflare was going over the plan Luna had given them.
"Wait, but does Twilight take care of Equestria while we're gone?" Rainstorm said, clearing up a question she had.
"Yes, she and Princess Cadence will take my place in everything but the duty of raising and lowering the moon while we are away, and Shining Armor will take care of the Crystal Empire in Cadence's absence." Luna answered.
"Wow, this whole plan was a lot of information to process, can we sleep on it?" Rainbow Dash finally said, not having said too much earlier.
"No! I-I'm sorry, but my sister is missing and you're coming with me to find her since you care for her and she cared for you!" The princess surprised herself and the trio with a loud outburst, which let out some of her pent-up worry and anger at Celestia's disappearance.
Rainstorm and Solarflare filled in for their still-shocked sister with an, "Okay, calm down, we'll come. What Dash MEANT was that we need some time to think about the plan, not about coming."
"I'm so sorry, Rainbow Dash. I-I guess I needed to let out s-some anger..." Luna apologized. "I shouldn't of let it out on you, though."
She walked around the counter to give out a rare hug to Rainbow Dash, which became a group hug as the as two ponies joined in to help comfort the slightly overwhelmed Alicorn. All four pulled away and they decided, completely silently and ominously, that they wouldn't mention any of it.
"Awww, c'mon, now you got me acting all sappy!" It was Rainbow Dash's way of accepting apologies, and Solarflare, Rainstorm and Luna knew her well enough to know that.
The Sonic trio were soon being pretty much bored out of their minds as Luna went on and on about little details, such as the packing list, which wasn't too important to memorize since they'd be given a printed copy.
"...and then, we bring in the flying pig."
The Sonic trio abruptly stopped rolling pencils on the small tables in between the sofas and anxiously biting their hooves. They looked up at a smiling Luna and realized that she had been doing it to get their attention.
"Okay, now that I hopefully have your full attention, I will proceed to tell you that we will be having a companion aiding us along the trip." Luna gave an annoyed pause before waving her hooves in the air with sarcasm and saying with matching sarcasm, "The amazing... Discord."
Suddenly, a book appeared out of nowhere and the strangely familiar bookmark wedged between two pages popped out simultaneously. It then expanded, and proceeded to take the shape of an also-familiar draconiquis.
"What?!" Rainbow Dash pointed a shocked hoof at Discord. "HE'S coming with us?! But why?!"
Her eyes widened, and she went on. "He tried to take over Equestria, break up everypony's friendship, PLUS, he planted a bunch of creepy vine-like things to try to ...hmm... Let me see, again, TAKE OVER EQUESTRIA!" She yelled, obviously not taking the news very well. "We had to give up our Elements because the horrible state the Tree of Harmony was in!"
"Ooh, poo. Come on, did I really do THAT much damage?"
"Yes!" All four ponies replied.
"Well, you got me there, but I didn't have anything else planned this week, so why not join your little party to save my good old serious pal, Sun-butt?"
A long list sprung into his mismatched paws and, by some crazy magic, when he tapped part of it, a crossbreed of a flamingo and a bear popped out. It then started to act like a chicken, and Discord fed it tiny red...where those...soccer balls?
"See, I've done everything already! I even dove into an active volcano!" Suddenly, they were all plummeting into the mouth of a boiling volcano. "No more fun around these parts... If only I could snap my fingers and make it rain some more chocolate rain..."
Luna clenched her teeth to keep from throwing him to the other side of Equestria. She was fuming at the mention of the mention of her sister's old nickname from before Luna got banished to the moon. Also, the sudden change from palace to volcano was...disorienting.
Spreading their wings, everypony but Discord was hovering in midair. As he fell, Discord moved into the diving position, and with a bigger splash than he should've made, he was gone. Then, Discord came flying down out of nowhere on the flamingo/bear hybrid, startling the ponies, and with a click of his claws, they were back in the palace.
"See, no fun there, I've already done it all." Discord said with a groan and a frown. "Now, let's get to that portal!"
Once again, he snapped his talons and was gone.
"Follow me. We will get there by teleportation." Luna explained as her horn began to glow. "Then, I will provide a spell so that we may breathe underwater."
A flash lit up the room and the Sonic trio, who had a bit too bad of a feeling of dread to speak, along with Luna, were gone.
Everypony was sitting at the edge of an ever-expanding ocean, the cool, salty breeze blowing their way calming Rainbow Dash, Solarflare and Rainstorm's nerves about traveling with Discord. A light blue glow enveloped Luna's horn, and shortly after, the pegasus sisters were covered in it as well.
A small tingle went down their spines as the spell was cast, then a mysteriously excited Rainstorm dived into the water and began popping up to the surface every so often, a lot like a dolphin.
As they exchanged amused looks, Rainbow Dash muttered to Solarflare, "Well, she sure got her Cutie Mark for a good reason."
"Yeah. Too true."
Rainstorm, on the other hand, was in pure bliss. The sunlight shining through the water shone on her back in no particular order. As she looked down, she saw the sea creatures -ranging from microscopic to buildings wide- all swimming elegantly through the water, cutting easily through the sea, like a knife on butter.
Coral spanned the entire sea floor, but Rainstorm could barely see. Taking a deep breath for the first time underwater, she shot down to see the ground. The blue seemed to stretch infinitely, and Rainstorm was in her element. Unfortunately, what she saw was the opposite of the serenity on top.
"Discord, ENOUGH!" Luna shouted, using the Canterlot Voice that had been locked away for a while.
"Oh, come on Lulu, why I make it rain cheese? What's the harm done? I know that many people out there love cheese!"
"The harm DONE is-"
Luna was cut off by Rainstorm popping back up and saying, "Come on, are we going to stay here and argue or save Celestia? Why does everypony want to use with her for their evil deeds of evilness anyway?"
"First of all, Rainstorm, 'evil deeds of evilness' is not the correct way to phrase it, second of all, you're partially right; we must move now."
After some trouble from Discord about bringing his favorite chocolate rain cloud (which he probably just did to annoy the chaos-weary travelers), they descended slowly, much to the annoyance of Rainstorm, who wanted to have somepony to swim with.
Eventually, her sisters came through and the three started racing, although obviously Rainstorm won. Solarflare wished for some fire, but she knew that it wouldn't work underwater. Rainbow Dash wished for the open sky, and to be able to move the air currents again, but that wouldn't work there either.
"Why the long faces?" Discord asked leisurely as he swam past with swift strokes of his odd wings.
"Well, Flare's a bit...sad 'cause she can't have fire underwater, and Dash feels the same about the sky, or something." Rainstorm answered, concerned for her sisters.
"Wait, nopony told you?" Discord asked, clearly not joking.
"Told us what?" Rainbow Dash and Solarflare asked in sync.
"You both can work your powers underwater, anywhere, really. Quite chaotic since it even works in places without magic," He grinned. "Only Sun and Moon butt can do that."
Suddenly, a gust of...wind? Underwater? Real oxygen and air blew though the brightly colored coral. Sure enough, a flame appeared in Solarflare's upturned hoof, and soon expanded to give Discord a good-sized burn as punishment for that last comment.
The Sonic trio grinned, and they began racing again, this time using their powers to aid them, now that they knew that they could. They tied every time, pushing themselves to do better, yet it never changed the results.
Rainstorm suddenly had an idea. She swam up to a clump of darkly colored seaweed on the pearly white sand floor. A seahorse clung to the thin, leafy object, who was the rare color of a perfectly polished pearl.
Clearing her throat, Rainstorm began politely, "Excuse me, but I was wondering if you happened to know the way to the Seapony's realm?"
"Why, yes, as a matter of fact, I do, " The seahorse's voice rang like a hundred tiny bells out through the water in vibrations that only Rainstorm could comprehend.
"Why, what is this seahorse spouting incoherently?" Luna asked, the mare a bit glum about not having reached their destination yet.
"Hey, if it includes making sense, I don't want any of it. I like 'incoherent' things for that very reason." Discord said as he waved a paw nonchalantly and made a blowfish suck its thumb.
He was no match, however, for the huge school of tuna fleeing a pod of hungry dolphins. They overtook Discord, and after he recovered from his spinout with a time the Wonderbolts would've shaken their heads with pity at, a baby dolphin lagging behind hit him in the head. Hard.
Discord rubbed his head, where a bump would soon be forming. He clicked his talon and all of the Tuna fish were dressed as clowns, makeup and everything.
A stern look from Luna made him hand his head in annoyance and with a signature, "Oh, poo," he turned them back to normal.
Meanwhile, Rainstorm was talking to Silver Pearl, the seahorse.
"...and so then, we find the portal and save Celestia," Rainstorm paused, hyperventilating from talking so fast Pinkie would have thrown her a party.
"And how are you going to do that?" Silver Pearl had somehow made out the rushed summary if their plan.
"Uh... I'm sure Luna has that part figured out..."
"Why, yes, I do, and-"
"Let's go already! I'm bored!" Discord put his paws around his neck, which caused his head to pop off and float into the deeps. With a flash, it was in front of him, and he grappled around a little before finding and reattaching it.
"Yeah, he's right for once. Let's get a move on and find Celestia!" Riding on the magical breeze, Rainbow Dash pumped her wings and shot off towards the distant city that Silver Pearl had claimed to be Aquaris, the main city of the Seapony's realm. From there it just looked like a bundle of coral. Sitting in the middle of the ocean.
Rainbow Dash incorporated some fancy moves to which Discord mumbled, "Show off."
She was closely followed by Solarflare, who was using her wings as a fan that created a tiny fire vortex. Twisting to avoid obstacles, the orange pegasus stirred a feather and gave Discord another tiny burn, just to remind him the rule of no intense chaos during the trip.
Rainstorm followed, going so fast, she left a trail of bubbles behind. She realized this, and began making patterns with the bubble trail.
Coral columns spiraled their way up to meet balconies and hold up the huge white and blue building that was the Seapony's castle. They all stopped to state in awe, save for Discord, who put his lion's palm up, but refrained from using magic thanks to a smug glance from Luna. The tops of very pointed towers disappeared into the aqua blue water above.
A Seapony was chatting idly into a phone as she strolled by, navigating carefully through the busy street. She -her top half- was a pony with a mane the color of the sunset, and it ranged from orange to pink to purple. It was slightly wavy and was pinned down by a clip with a couple of pearls stuck together, with a small, very dark grey shell in the middle of the row. Her tail was light purple with even lighter blue or orange borders around the scales.
A pink, opaque, silky fabric covered her tail, and was attached to her front (and only) hooves by two gold bracelets with small diamond chips engraved. In those hooves the Seapony carried some bags from a shop of some sort. She wore only a little makeup too, which somehow didn't wash off, and sunglasses on her head.
The other Seaponies wore and looked similar, but with differing sizes -from tall to short- and colors. Their houses were similar to the ones in Canterlot, the city they were in being the most formal of them all since it was the capital. The only difference was that all of them were made of coral, shells, and the occasional medium-sized pearl adorning the front doors like wreaths.
"...Yeah!...I know right! So unfair," The Seapony, who was about the age of a teen, seemed to be complaining about something. "Bye, gotta go Sandy, mom wants me to more extra studying, ugh..."
After ending the call, the she leaned over slightly to put the shell-phone in her handbag. The Seapony seemed to loose balance of the paper shopping bags she was carrying in her hooves, and one filled with more of the opaque, silky fabric slipped off one of them and tumbled down.
It was caught by a light blue aura, and it's spilled contents magically moved back to the bag. Mesmerized, the Seapony stared at it. No Seapony could use magic, so they weren't used to seeing objects begin to float ominously. She looked even more surprised when she saw Luna and her companions, her blue eyes widening as big as dinner plates. The Seapony was immediately on the cement of the sidewalk in a bowing position.
"Get up, please. There's no need for that," Rainbow Dash answered casually. "We just wanna talk to your princess...queen, whatever."
"Q-Q-Queen P-Pearl's in the palace, she'll be in her throne. Can't miss it," The Seapony answered, getting over her nerves halfway through the first sentence, and her face beginning to show bewilderment.
"Thank you."
"Wait, I know what a pony is, and that isn't one!" She pointed to Discord.
"Well, how rude. I'll let you know that I'm Discord, God of Chaos," Discord huffed, crossing his arms defiantly.
Right then, a nearby clump of seaweed just happened to turn bright purple with blue polka dots.
"Oh. Sorry. I'm Sunset Burst, but you can call me Burst."
"Nice meeting ya, Burst, maybe we'll se you later," Rainbow Dash answered.
Sunset Burst stared a bit at the now departing travelers, then rushed home to tell her mom the news of the ponies in Aquarius.
-----------------
"Greetings, Queen Pearl," Luna said with a formal bow. "I am Princess Luna, Princess of the Night."
"Hmm, ponies in Aquarius, how nice they're finally paying a visit. I could finally get to know my strongest ally," Queen Pearl mumbled to herself, before addressing Luna. "Greetings to you as well, fellow ruler. And what, might I ask, may you be doing in our humble city?"
The queen was a Seapony with a ethereal mane, like Celestia and Luna. However, her mane seemed to be shorter, it didn't flow out quite as long. She was a light gray color with a shimmering silver mane. Queen Pearl was also a bit larger than other Seaponies, similar to the height difference between equine royalty and their subjects. However, the thing that stood out the most weren't her startlingly bright pink eyes, it was the fact that she had two silvery tails.
'Wow, what is that thing?! Our history and geography teachers never mentioned that...' Rainbow Dash thought to herself, frowning at the thought of school.
She then shook her head vigorously and thought to herself, 'No, no thinking about school during Summer Vacation.'
Dash exchanged looks with her sisters and saw that they thought the same.
"Well, we'd like access to the portal. You know, the one to the Solar Kingdom."
"Oh, of course! Our closest ally is always welcome to use the portals we guard. That thing is just catching dust anyway..."
'Ugh! Is this...Seapony thing...well, she probably isn't a thing...okay, Seapony, ever gonna stop droning on?' Dash thought, barely refraining from pulling her face down and groaning.
Apparently, Queen Pearl didn't. At least it seemed to be so. She kept them there talking for hours, though about a quarter through the whole thing she led them to a separate room, this one much more fancy than the other one back at Canterlot where Luna had last talked about their plans in detail. Most of the plan.
Suddenly, the boring half-conversation (Queen Pearl was the only one talking most of the time) was interrupted by another Seapony coming in, and not particularly quietly, either.
"Mother, the- wait, who're these...ponies? In Aquarius?"
The queen's eyes lit up and she motioned her daughter to sit in a medium-sized chair next to her. "Come, Rolling Wave, sit. We can finally show you to converse properly with the neighboring kingdoms!"
"Mother, I told you, I like the name Dad gave me!"
"First of all, I know he insists you call him 'Dad', but around me, please call him 'Father'," Queen Pearl paused to put her face in her hooves. "Second, 'Tsunami' is a reckless name. Your father and I talked about this!"
"But Mother, I-"
Tsunami looked identical to her mother, except for the double tail and pelt color. She had a simple brown mane tied into an intricate bun, which was tied by a dark blue thread. Her pony half itself was light blue, and her tail was slightly darker with silver lining her scales.
"No, we have guests right now. We shall discuss this later, Rolling Wave."
Tsunami slumped in defeat, but quickly regained her posture thanks to a glare from her mother.
"Come on, let's go!" the Sonic trio were encouraging Luna to go faster.
"Well, I'm trotting. That should be plenty fast, thank you very much," Luna said, though she failed to mask a smile.
'I wonder what the suite's gonna look like... I hope it's got enough room for us to...get accommodated,' Rainbow Dash thought to herself, though by 'getting accommodated', she meant wrecking the place, or as she and her sisters called it as an excuse to their parents that they'd learned from Rarity, organized chaos.
When they got there, they saw that they would definitely have enough room! It was huge, as big as their parents' backyard. As they remembered their third to last visit, they smiled mischievously but walked in.
"Yup, this wall will be filled with our Wonderbolt posters," Solarflare said, waving her forehooves as if envisioning it. "Wow, this place is sweet!"
"You said it, sis."
There was a bathroom in the far left corner of the room. A huge mirror took up half of the farthest wall from the door. Another wall housed...or walled, a walk-in closet. Three beds and some bedside tables, along with a shower/bath and counters over in the bathroom, were the only other objects adorning the room.
Suddenly, Rainstorm heard a certain silvery voice. "Well, now that I see you made it, I'll be going," Silver Pearl had been quietly conversing with Luna during the trip. "I have a job as Queen Pearl's messenger. When we met, I had been resting up for the journey back home."
"Oh, alright. So we'll see ya around, right?" Rainstorm said to her marine friend.
"Indeed, yes."
"Well, at least now I know why your names are so similar... Silver Pearl? Queen Pearl? Gah!"
----------
"Well, what does she say?"
"She says that this is the opera house. Wow, I didn't know fish could sing..."
The Sonic trio, and their tour guide, Copper Fin, an energetic clownfish, were in front of a massive building.
"Alright...hey, could we go get some grub now? I'm starving!" Solarflare groaned.
"Yeah, I could go for some seaweed, Dash?" it was Rainstorm, who hadn't eaten anything along the way except for some crackers.
"I dunno about the seaweed, but sure, I really don't care."
"Copper Fin, could you please take us to that restaurant back there? We could use some brunch."
"Okie dokie! Let's go! They have the best pasta there, even though pasta isn't a seafood. I guess us fish just like it, but one thing we hate is sushi! Why would we eat ourselves," she snickered at this. "it's not like we're cannibals! Well, some fish like vegetarian sushi-"
"What's she saying?" Dash inquired as they swam back down to the restaurant.
"That fish hate sushi and-"
It was Solarflare's turn to interrupt. "What?! Why?"
"Er, I dunno, maybe it's considered cannibalism!"
"Oh. Duh..."
------
"Mmm, I haven't had pasta that good since we last visited Mom and Dad!"
"I know, right?"
"C'mon, let's get home already! I can't wait to get settled, if ya catch my drift..."
The Sonic trio were heading back home for the day, having planned to join the royal family for dinner. They were going to get settled (a.k.a. totally trash the room in their belongings) and unpack, then relax until they found something else to do. The beds in their guest rooms were pretty much made of something close to cloud-ish material, so it wouldn't be too different from the beds they had at each of their cloud apartments.
They had never been the neatest of ponies, but they had picked up the habit because Twilight always got ticked off at their, 'Lack of respect for my organizing checklist and organization itself.'
"What do you feel like doing after we unpack? We already toured the city, had brunch, and met the queen," Rainstorm brought up a more interesting subject than their mother's pasta for what was left of the eventless swim back.
"I dunno. Maybe just lay around and do nothing? That's always an option," Dash answered lazily with a small stretch.
"I'll second that! Maybe we could call the gang back in Ponyville, though. I don't get why Twi had to stay," Solarflare offered.
"Remember, it's 'cause she has to take care of her princess duties. Also, that fancy tree-castle of hers. The rest of our friends stayed to help," Rain reminded her sister.
"But we're the Elements of Loyalty! Shouldn't we stay?" Flare told Dash and Rain. "Why did Luna even want us to come along?"
"Maybe 'cause we have the magic thingies?" Dash shrugged for emphasis as she spoke, referring to their magical, air, water and fire-bending objects.
"Guys, we're here. Let's just unpack."
------------
The Sonic trio inspected the room with three pairs of critical eyes. There was a pile of pillows and blankets, along with a random beanbag, in a corner. On the beds, Daring Do books rested instead of going in their rightful place: the bookshelves. Which were currently being used for clothes. It wasn't the messiest it could've been, but there was only so much they could do with the small amount of objects on the packing list. Still, organized chaos was organized chaos.
Suddenly, the door creaked open as Discord waltzed in, bringing with him the sound of classical music. He was dressed like a butler, and he held his chin up daintily like a Canterlot pony. His eyes eyes widened a bit at the sight of the messy room.
"Hmm, could be better, but Lulu didn't give you too much to pack in that packing list of hers...so I'l give it a...seven or eight, around there," on cue, a light flashed and three Discords stood, two bearing signs that had sevens, and one having an eight on his sign.
"Discord, what are you doing here?" Dash asked accusingly.
"You mean apart from thinking how much messier this room can be?" at that, Discord made some books go in the sink, and scattered the clothes on the ground. "About to deliver a message. Dinner will be ready shortly."
To fit the theme of the message, Discord pulled out a long scroll, which he tied around his neck like a bandana. I guess that doesn't fit the message's theme, but whatever, on with the story. The bandana turned red, and a motorcycle came down the hallway and into the room, though it was not being ridden by anypony.
Discord hoped on and said, "Catch ya later, dudes."
His out-of-the blue appearance was...well, out of the blue. Rainbow Dash shook her head in annoyance and glanced out of one of the biggest windows.
"How long has it been since we came back?"
"About three hours. We spent one other one with brunch, then maybe half an hour touring the rest of the city. Wow, Copper Fin is a fast tour guide," Rain answered, usually being the one with a watch.
Dash gave a mumble of comprehension. "M'kay. We're having dinner a little late. Is that a royal thing- Hey! Doesn't that pony look similar to the shady, cloaked one from before?"
"I dunno, but I for one am not staying here to 'think', I'm here for the action!" Dash answered Solarflare as she zipped out the door. After exchanging glances, Flare and Rain followed, confused servants staring after them as they followed their sister and caught up with a small burst of magic from their objects.
------
Oh no, they were coming! Too late to summon an ancestor with a crystal...that only worked when the descendants kept out in the open, waiting for a glance away from onlookers' eyes, not if she hid like this. The ancestors rejected them if they sensed fear. All she could do now was to hide and hope. 'Oh, why didn't they teach us this?' she thought desperately. 'They think that we're really immune to fear because of training? Nope.'
Hiding behind a pile of boxes, she decided it was safer to go inside of it. Now she really wished she had been born with wings, or better, a horn. As she slowed her breathing, she pulled her crystal from her pocket. It flickered with light, the souls begging to be released. If only she could've summoned a unicorn ancestor...but they obviously didn't answer to her short chant for help.
At least she could breathe underwater. There was certainly no time to swim to the surface, it had taken long enough to follow dear Princess Luna and the, uh, not-so-dear rest of the travelers. Maybe she should contact another cult member. No, bad idea, bad idea! Her boss would get really mad if he found out, and she'd have to go find another job . Her old friend from before joining, she'd mentioned a rock farm.
Shivering at the thought of pushing rocks around all day like her friend, she began to drift back to old memories of the argument- no, she was on a mission, no getting sidetracked.
----------
"Ugh, gone! The pony was right here!" Dash was yelling frustratedly. "I swear, if we see them one more time, I'm going straight at them, even if it's going straight at them through a window!"
"Uh, think think think! What would Twi do? She usually figures this part out, doesn't she?" Solarflare wracked her brain for any ideas that were any good. 'Good' as in ideas that excluded sneaking or violence, which Twilight (or anypony else but the Sonic trio) didn't usually approve of.
Rainstorm was doing the same thing, but lightly tapping her head to see if it did any good. It didn't. Then, she began twirling water around her hoof absentmindedly.
"Ooh, idea!" Flare got some weird looks at her high pitch. "Sorry, just thought I'd impersonate Rarity when she gets ideas while I'm at it."
"Okay, what's the idea? We really need some, in case ya haven't noticed..." said Rainstorm as she waved her hooves for emphasis.
"Well, it's kinda obvious, but we could just get some fish to help, I mean-"
"We do have the fish whisperer!" Dash caught on to the joke and finished her sister's sentence.
"Ha ha. We don't have any other ideas, so we probably should start doing something now! Let's gather up some fish and get this over with..."
"Rain, tell me again why we need to tell Luna," moaned Rainbow Dash, annoyed.
Rainstorm and Solarflare answered in sync, "Because Luna told us to tell her before we went and used our powers for some big plot!" all of them, including the prismatic one, laughed a little. Then, Rain continued, on her own this time. "How many times, Dash, how many?!"
She added an overdose of drama, yelling then flopping down on a bed of seaweed she had just moved with her magic item's telekinesis.
"Jeez, okay, Rarity!" Dash grumbled, then stuck her lower lip out in a mock pout.
Flare raised a hoof that hovered near the door handle, but then stopped. "Um, should we knock...? You know how she is about privacy sometimes. Last time, she thought we were Nightmare Moon," she turned to her sisters. "But then again, she was still a bit skittish from her first encounter with Nightmare Moon back then..."
"Nah, she got over that fear a while ago. Besides, we might finally find what she does in her free time!" Dash answered eagerly.
Suddenly, a mischievous smile crept onto Flare's face. "This sounds like permission to stalk..."
"Yes! You can-" Dash was cut off.
"This once," answered Rain.
Flare put her ear to the door, then touched the hinges for some reason. She sighed, and with a soft, "Darn it," she decided there was no reason to sneak if the doors really creaked that excessively..whatever, forget that.
Bursting in, she yelled, "Yo Luna watcha doin' why- whaaaaa...?"
"What the hay Flare, I thought you were gonna sneak!" Dash said, not quite seeing the spectacle in front of Flare.
"Hinges...too...creaky..."
"Is that why you tapped the-" Dash's jaw dropped.
And another one bit the dust. Rain was the next to display shock across her pony-featured face.
The reason was a shocking one: Luna was...playing Portal 2.
