Fluttershy and Big Macintosh are swept into an adventure under the sea to help a mysterious race fight back.
Fluttershy and Big Macintosh are falling for each other. When they go for a date at the beach, they are swept under the water and meet a race of sea ponies. They discover ugly secrets about Equestria and its rulers and have to decide between home or the sea.
Dark shadows swept across the sky and the ground. Fluttershy was squeaking at every whoosh and whisper. It was cold and dreary, and Fluttershy was more scared than usual. Then she saw all her animals coming towards her. Angel bunny was at the front of the group of reptiles, birds, mammals, and amphibians. She held out her front legs to embrace Angel bunny. They were mere inches away from each other's embrace when the shadows swept down and swallowed angel bunny and the other animals. Then the shadows crept slowly towards her. Fluttershy was shaking and squeaking madly. Just as the shadows came upon her, Fluttershy woke up in a cold sweat. She realized she had been dreaming, but still was scared. A shadow of a tree outside swayed and she let out one of her signature quiet screams. She lay their shaking for several more hours before the sun started its morning rountine, guided by the magic of Princess Celestia. Fluttershy felt scared when she thought of her princess and realized the shadows in her nightmare had been in the shape of the regal alicorn princess. She shook the thoughts from her mind and walked down the stairs of her quaint cottage, calling to the animals. Every type of woodland creature, from mouse to bear, raced up to her, begging for food, Soon they all were fed and Fluttershy walked towards town, needing to get some more rodent and bird feed, as well as a new birdhouse for Mr. Bluejay, whose house had been wrecked during a storm last week. After a few minutes of slow walking she arrived in town. She was walking to Carrot Top's vegtable stand when she decided to stop at AJ's apple stand to visit her and to buy a few apples for the pigs. When she arrived there, however, Big Mac was working the stall, not AJ. She blushed a little as she walked up a quickly bought some apples. She had always had a small crush on Big mac after one time when they were young. Fluttershy was walking to Ponyville soon after gaining her cutie mark to find a way back to Cloudsdale. She was walking past a big apple farm when she fell down a large pit covered with leaves and twigs with a stuffed pony in it. She started to cry and hugged the stuffed pony. Meanwhile, young Macintosh was walking to his timberwolf trap to see if he had caught anything. He immediatlly took a liking to the beautiful little filly at the bottom of his pit who had slender legs and beautifully long hair. He apoligiezed and helped her out of the pit. She had also taken a liking to someone, but in this case it was Macintosh with his ruffled orange hair and lean body with his lopsided smile. They both blushed profusely and then went back to their work, Macintosh apple bucking and Fluttershy searching for a way home. Fluttershy looked up after giving him several shiny bits and saw he was blushing too. Big Mac looked at the beautiful pony in front of him. He had been meaning to ask her out for years, but every time he saw her, he froze up and could barely even say eeyup. He had ruined his last relationship with Carrot Top when he had been staring at Fluttershy and she had noticed. He didn't realize it was coming out of his mouth, but Big Mac said: "Y-ya know Fluttershy, I was wonderin' if ya wanted to g-go on a date to the b-beach later today. I've k-kinda had a crush on y-ya since we were little f-foals." "R-really!?" Fluttershy said. "I've had a c-crush on you t-to!" "Ya-ya have?!" Fluttershy nodded. "So, ummmm... see you t-tonight, then?" "Eeyup.' "O-okay, see you later." "Uh-huh." After buying the other things on her list from Carrot Top, she went to the library were all her friends were meeting for lunch. "U-umm girls?" Fluttershy said as she entered the library. Twilight and Rainbow dash were arguing about whether Canterlot or Cloudsdale was better and the other three friends were following along intently. "Girls" Fluttershy tried again. "GIRLS!" she screamed in her "loud" voice. They all looked at Fluttershy, surprised she was using her loud voice. "I-i'm going on a date with Big Mac to the beach. AJ's jaw dropped and Rairty squealed,'Your first date!!" After several minutes of chatting in which Fluttershy got very embarrassed, they ate a lunch of hay fries, rose cakes, and wheat burgers and went their seperate ways. When Fluttershy got home she put on a headband with butterflies on it and took deep breaths trying to dispel her nervousness. Rarity was right. It was her first date. After several more calming breaths she stepped out of the house and walked to Sweet Apple Acres. She met Big Mac and they silently walked through Ponyville to the train station, both of them so nervous that any conversation would be short lived. They arrived at the train station and took the train to the coast. They talked of the farm and Fluttershy's critters on the train ride. An hour later, the pair disembarked the train and went to the beach. They had daisy sandwiches and fruit salads at a resturant by the sea, talking of how they met and laughing at the memory. Soon afterward they went to the real beach and settled down, watching the sun set. Fluttershy snuggled up against Big Mac as it became colder. Just before the sun fully disappeared under the horizion, they both saw strange, fish like shapes swimming in the tumbling waves. They were the only ponies left on the beach. They both walked up to where the water was knee deep and splashed each other. Soon they were soaked and laughing when they saw the shapes again, but closer. They both froze. Then suddenly, a green, slimy net was thrown at them, ensnaring them. A large, golden spear with a hoof wrapped around it came and hit Big Mac on the head hard, rendering him unconscious. She saw fish tails and hooves and manes around her. Fluttershy screamed quietly for help and then was pulled under, the beach now lonely, quiet, and deserted.
Fluttershy opened her eyes under water. Shapes swirled around her and Big Mac. Her lungs were starting to burn when an orange glow emitted from a row of sharp, spine like objects. Bubbles of air surrounded the farmer and the animal lover. Fluttershy gasped in clean, crisp air, her chest heaving. Big Mac was still out cold, but was breathing steadily. She couldn't see their captors because the ocean was dark and the only light she had seen so far was from the spines.
After several more hours of being hauled through the murky waters, it started to become lighter and Big Mac awoke. The looked at each other. Then Big mac started struggling. The net was so slimy, though, that he couldn't get a good grip with his hooves so he couldn't break it. Then Fluttershy saw the first of their captors as the waters grew lighter. It had the head and front legs of a pony, but where its back legs should be there was a large fish tail. The one she was looking at had a navy and gold mane and a pink body. Gills ran on either sides of its head and large spines rolled down its back. It had to large fins where pegasi would have wings. Then it quickly darted away. She saw two more on either sides of her, one that was green with a gold mane and another that had a red body and an orange mane. The red one held the spear that had hit Big Mac on the head.
She saw them talking about random things.She let out a quiet scream. She guessed that she could hear them through the bubble, but they couldn't hear her. Big Mac reached out and squeezed her hoof. Fluttershy squeezed back. She looked ahead. She wondered how the bubbles had gotten on her head. Her captors, whatever they were, didn't have unicorn horns. So how could they do magic? Fluttershy puzzled over this while they were dragged along. Soon she saw a large shape in the distance. It was dark brown and crumbling. As they got closer, she realized it was an old sailing ship that must have held hundreds of ponies one time long ago, but now was sunken and lying on the ocean floor. A faded banner of a sun and moon hung rotting from a leaning pole.
The three mysterious "sea ponies" as Fluttershy was now thinking of them as pulled the net into a hole in the side of the old, leaning, wooden boat. After being pulled through narrow tunnels in which they bumped around a lot, the three sea ponies and their captives entered a large room filled with sketchy sea ponies. More than half the room had sea ponies with scars or missing body parts that stood in a crowd. In the other half of the room stood a stage with all sorts of creatures chained to the ground with air bubbles around them. There was a cockatrice, several dolphins, a manta ray, a shark, two teenage sea ponies, and a little filly unicorn who was crying. These sea ponies must be slave traders! Fluttershy curled up in a ball. Big Mac was chained right next to the filly. He held her close and her crying started to wane. Fluttershy was chained down next to him, and she started to ball. Big Mac pulled her close. No one could hear her, but Fluttershy wailed and cried. Her tears collected at the bottom of her bubble and started filling it with water. The red sea pony saw this and his spines glowed orange, and the water disappeared and her bubble became a little bigger. Fluttershy opened her eyes wide. So that was how they did magic! She looked at all the sea ponies in the room. They all had magic spines running down their backs. Did that mean that all sea ponies were like unicorns? Were there earth pony-like sea ponies and pegasi-like sea ponies, too? Flutterhy shook the thought from her mind when her captors took the stage beside her. A gray sea pony with a pale white mane and an eye patch and a fuschia sea pony with a red mane seemed to be the captors of the rest of the ponies or creatures. They started rattling off the names and ages of their catches and the cockatrice was the first to leave the stage, being bought for a hundred SEASHELLS? Was that their money! A dolphin went for 250 seashells and the filly went for 500 seashells. As they unchained her, she started to fight back, holding on tight to Big Mac' foreleg. They finally pulled her off and she wailed as she was dragged over to a large white sea pony with a silver mane that was missing his right foreleg. The manta ray and the dolphin went as a package deal for 400 seashells. The dolphins and rays weren't civilized and couldn't speak, but rode them like, well, ponies. One of the teenage sea ponys went for 550 seashells and was taken to a lime green filly sea pony with a red mane. Fluttershy realized that they had cutie marks on their tails, right below where the tail joined the body, where a pony's flank would be. Their red sea pony captor had a golden spear like the one he held. The lime sea pony had a starfish as a cutie mark. Why would she be buying slaves? As the others were captives were sold, she went to the back of the room and told the teen sea pony something and tied a message to his right foreleg and pushed him out a broken window. The teen swam for his life and disappeared from sight in seconds. Fluttershy returned her attention to the stage. The last dolphin had been sold for 250 seashells and it was our turn. The green one spoke and Fluttershy saw a big green net as his cutie mark. The last of their captors had a whip as his. Then they started bidding for Big Mac. It went on for minutes, the final price being 1150 seashells. He was lead to the one legged sea pony who also had bought the unicorn filly. They started bidding for her. Fluttershy quaked in fear. Her final price was 700 seashells. Just before the red sea pony said "Sold!" the whole side of the ship collapsed and over a hundred gold armored sea ponies wielding spears, maces, tridents, swords, and bows swarmed the slavers. It was chaos. And at the front was the biggest sea pony she had seen yet. He was gold with a silver mane with a single teal stripe through it. A crown of every color of coral adorned his head. He wielded a large golden bow that shot nets. One net encased the green sea pony. The red sea pony zipped away, disappearing from the scene. The pink one watched as two soldiers grabbed her forelegs and chained them. Then she watched as the giant sea pony came towards her, shooting nets and pinning down sea ponies. One of them was the little unicorn filly and big Mac's buyer. Two sea ponies freed them of their restraints and brought them to the big one. He led them towards her. All the other buyers had escaped. The sea pony with the starfish cutie mark clopped hooves with the teen. He must have brought them here!! The teen then bowed to the big sea pony and swam away. The lime sea pony came up and bowed to the big sea pony, who must be king. He then said" Good work, Secret Agent Limina. " She thanked him and swam away. Then the big sea pony turned to me."Fluttershy, we all need you."
It had been a day since Fluttershy had been saved by King Oceania and his soldiers. They had unchained her and led her, Big Macintosh, and the unicorn filly, whose name was Dinky Doo, to a large chariot pulled by two golden armored blue whales.
The trio was brought to the sea ponies' capital city , Aquantis. All Fluttershy had been told was the slavers were outlaws, sea ponies no longer citizens of Aquantis, and that there formal name was was hippocampi, thank you very much when she had called them sea ponies.
The hippocampi hadn't told them anything else, only lead them to lavish rooms where they fell asleep. The three had been promised an explanation in the morning.
They all met outside in the hall and were lead briskly to a small library with a golden throne in the middle and three smaller chairs in front, facing towards the throne. On the throne sat King Oceania.Fluttershy and the other two bowed deeply. "Your highness," Fluttershy squeaked.
"There is much to speak of, but not much time. First of all, I am sorry we couldn't rescue you earlier than we did, but we were actually searching for you all." the king told the ponies. Their jaws dropped.
"You see, we need you to complete the Sea's Pearl, Fluttershy, the hippocampi's equivalent of the Equestrian Elements of Harmony. You are needed to fill the spot of Kindness. Big Mac, you will be useful in battle as a soldier. And Dinky Doo, your magic will become amplified in water. Try to levitate me."
Dinky Doo usually could only lift a quill, but in that moment a surge of magic went through her horn and all three of the others and hundreds of books lifted into the air and swirled around and were set gently into the right spots.
"You are no Element of Magic, but you show very strong capabilities."
Just at that moment, a flash appeared on Dinky Doo's flank. A blonde star the color of her hair was surrounded by six bubbles, each holding a star for every color of the rainbow.
"MY CUTIE MARK!!! OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH MYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY GOSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!" As you can tell, Dinky was very excited.
"But wait," said Fluttershy "Wouldn't I have to be a sea po-, I mean, a hippocampi, to be a weilder?"
"But what if I told you that you are, at least, part hippocampi," the king remarked.
Fluttershy's jaw dropped again. The only noise was Dinky singing" I got my cutie mark, it looks awesome!!!!" over and over again.
"Fluttershy, your grandfather was a soldier in my grandfather's army. Big Mac, Granny Smith's husband was a hippocampus, a messenger to be exact. And Dinky, your great- great grandfather was a hippocampus also, actually a baron. I can take this part of you and shape you into a hippocampus, and you can help us fight back against Equestria."
"Why would we want to do that??" asked Fluttershy shyly.
"Long ago, there was no land. Only the sky and sea. In the cloud realm, all were alicorns, with horns for magic, wings for flying, and strength for other things. The ocean realm was filled with alicorns, too. But these alicorns had spikes instead of horns, fins instead of wings, and strength in our hearts to love. They were called hippocampi. Every sea pony is a hippocampi today and then. Every alicorn in both realms had equal power so none could over come the others. They were not immortal. Then one day one alicorn in the sky was born with the smallest amount more power than the others. The princesses named Luna and Celestia became jealous. They stole all her powers, leaving her a unicorn, the first unicorn. She fell from the clouds and drowned. They then tried it on their parents. Both the King and Queen became earth ponies and fell to the sea, drowning. Then they stole the powers of their brother. He turned into a pegasi and flew away, but eventually became to tired to fly and fell to the ocean, drowning. Meanwhile, the hippocampi watched helplessly as ponies fell from above and drowned. Soon the two sisters had killed half of the sky ponies. They didn't want to kill off everyone so they had no subjects and servants, but the powerless alicorns could not stand on the clouds and would die. Then Celestia had an idea. What if they raised the sea floor so the powerless ones could stand? Then they could also suck powers from hippocampi. They worked together and raised most of the sea floor, beaching and killing billions of sea ponies. They drained the powers of all the beached sea ponies and all the other alicorns, who became unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies, the first citizens of Equestria. They were stronger than the hippocampi and every day they would use the gift given to them, the Elements of Harmony, to take away more ocean. But we fought back with the Sea's Pearl. When others threatened their reign such as Discord, they defeated him easily. Then one day Luna took more power than Celestia and became Nightmare Moon. Angry at her sister, she banished her to the moon. This was her fatal mistake. This enabled us to fight back because there was only one sister to fight. We regained ocean. But then Luna returned. They quickly overtook miles of ocean. We are crumbling. Help us fight these murders of billions. We will die out if you do not join us."
They all sat in silence as they processed the information.
"But if the Sea's pearl didn't totally destroy them every other time, why will it now?" asked Fluttershy.
"Because tommorrow is the million year anniversary of the creation of hippocampi. It is also the anniversary of the alicorns creation. We will be our strongest. They will to. That is why they killed our kindess bearer, Sea Pup. Now they will overwhelm us if we don't have a complete Sea Pearl. So what do you say, Fluttershy. Will you join us?"
Fluttershy couldn't believe she had said that. But soon after Big Mac agreed to be in the army and Dinky agreed to stay at the castle to help the mages keep the sea floor from rising up and killing sea ponies. Then the king said something.
"I need to change you all into hippocampi so you can complete your duties."
We all nodded in acceptance and the king's spines began to glow a beautiful silver. Silver light surrounded us. The spines n the king's back began to get brighter and a second layer of magic covered the first. Fluttershy felt herself begin to change. She looked at big mac and watched as his back legs began to melt together. From the end of the newly joined legs sprouted fins. The same was happening to her and dinky. While no spines or big fins appeared on Big Mac, Dinky's horn began to separate into smaller pieces and go along her neck, forming spines. Fluttershy's wings began to morph and turned into the big fins on the backs of hippocampi. She didn't gain any spines.
King Oceania set down the newly formed sea ponies.They admired their new bodies. Then King Oceania quickly sent them off to their new duties, Dinky to the mage tower and Big Mac to the training yard. Fluttershy was to stay in the library with the king where she would meet the other element bearers.
Dinky went to the mage tower, guided by a servant. Big Mac was escorted away by two guards to the training yard. Before he left, Fluttershy gave him a quick hug and he was gone. Fluttershy waited patiently on her chair while a servant brought in two more chairs. Then the others arrived.
The element of honesty was a female sea pony named Sea Monkey. She was teal and had a silver mane and red eyes. Her cutie mark was some sort of sea creature called a sea monkey, hence her name. The element of loyalty was a male sea pony named Tidal Wave. He was white with a black mane and yellow eyes. His cutie mark was two giant waves. The element of generosity was a beautiful female sea pony named Coral Cress. She had orange scales and a luscious red mane and light green eyes. Her cutie mark was a branch of pink coral. The element of laughter was a male sea pony named Confetti Cake. His mane and coat were yellow and his eyes were purple. His cutie mark was a piece of cake with confetti around it. And the element of magic was a male sea pony named Manta Bay. He had a white coat and a green mane and orange eyes. His cutie mark was a manta ray with 12 blue stars surrounding it. The five became fast friends with Fluttershy. After two hours of getting to know each other, they all felt like very good friends.
As the sea ponies kept talking, King Oceania interrupted them
"I'm very sorry to break up your conversation, but we have two evil alicorns to go defeat." Fluttershy had been telling them what it was like to fly and breath air and walk on land. But the sea ponies stood ready as the king placed the elements on their necks. The chunk of pearl for loyalty was blue with no shape, for generosity it was silver, and also had no shape. The color for honesty was green. The color for laughter was sea green. The color for magic was light purple. And the color for kindess was a dark blue. None of them had any apparent shape; they were just pieces of pearl.
"The colors of these elements are the colors of a sea rainbow, the kind of rainbow that happens underwater when rain hits the ocean's surface. Only hippocampi can see it." They all nodded. The king continued. "These pieces, if put together, form a giant pearl, the Sea's Pearl to be exact. Now, it is time for battle!!"
The six pearl bearers were escorted to a giant underwater submarine. While they all had the same amount of magic, they were smarter than ponies and had invented machines made of metal like submarines. They would have used tanks and planes, but they had to stay underwater. It was said that the princesses had not thought up anything like this, but had the power to make such things if they wanted to.
The six boarded the submarine. Fluttershy looked up at the tallest tower of the castle and could barely make out Dinky Doo waving. She watched as Big Mac was lead onto their sub, becoming one of the royal guards of the pearl bearers.
They all watched as ten other subs were filled to the brim with soldiers. Finally, King Oceania boarded Fluttershy's sub. Smaller, faster subs surrounded each of the eleven subs as defense.
Then they started to move. They soon were gliding quickly across the ocean floor. All the windows were open so they wouldn't run out of fresh water to breathe in through their gills.
Fluttershy stuck her head out the window. A pod of fifteen blue whales pulled the sub from the front. The same was true for the other subs.
The time passed slowly as the hippocampi stood cramped in the submarine, pushed up against each other. If they were not underwater, they would all be sweating.
After an hour that seemed to take an eternity, the nervous sea ponies arrived at the shore of Equestria, home of the princesses. On land a giant army of Equestrians was waiting for them. Fluttershy could see Twilight's brother at the head of one of the groups of soldiers, giving orders.
Fluttershy closed the window in front of her as other sea ponies around her did the same. Quickly after, weapons and beams of magic hit the subs, who were half beached. The blue whales had been freed and had swam away. Wheels popped out of the subs and they began to roll onto the beach while the Equestrians.
Fluttershy could faintly see two large figures flying around a chariot that had the element bearers in it. Fluttershy counted six ponies in the chariot. Fluttershy opened her eyes wide and pointed it out to the other pearl bearers. Had they replaced her that quickly?
Meanwhile, some soldiers swam onto small spots on the floor. The spots rose up, encasing them and some water so the hippocampus inside could breathe. Then they were raised through the roof of the sub where they could fire freely with their magic at the Equestrians. Fluttershy started to shake as she watched Equestrian soldiers fall to the ground while all their attacks bounced harmlessly of the subs. Meanwhile the chariot and the figures around it got closer.
After a minute, the two ponies got in magical range of the subs and began firing. With their enhanced magic, the princesses broke some of the small pods on top of the subs, the pods exploding in a blast of bright light. Their pods began firing at the princesses. who easily evaded the attacks by putting up a strong magic shield around themselves and the chariot.
Meanwhile King Oceania swam over to the six pearl bearers while a giant pod burst from the wall engulfing him and the six.
He said to them" It is time," and the pod detached itself from the sub, propellers sprouting from the top of the machine. Then the pod whirred away towards the chariot, all the sea ponies inside except Fluttershy, who didn't have spines, building a shield in front of the pod.
As the pod rushed toward the Goddesses and Fluttershy's friends, Fluttershy began to wonder, why was she doing this? Why was she betraying her friends? Then all the sudden the king stopped supporting the shield and turned towards Fluttershy, his horns lighting up.
"My dear." he said in a scarier, meaner voice than she had heard him use before. "You must defeat Luna and Celestia. You must."
Fluttershy realized he was casting a spell to hypnotize her. She shook the feeling from her head as they zoomed towards the chariot. Finally he won out and she fell into a daze.
"Why did you do that?" she asked as she recovered from the spell.
"I was just making sure you were on board for sure. I didn't want you backing out ."
Fluttershy nodded. The look in his eyes told her that he was telling the truth. "Then why use the scary voice?"
"All part of the spell. I am sorry, I just didn't want this to go south. After all, my whole race depends on this."
Fluttershy nodded again. They were now in firing distance and the magic sea pony, Manta Bay, shot beams of light at the chariot that bounced harmlessly against the shield, hitting their shield and bouncing back in forth until losing strength and fading away into the air.
The goddesses fired back, their stronger blows making the pod rock in the air. "It is time to use your pearl shards." said the king.
The sea ponies, except for the king, all burst out of the pod, a sphere of water around them. It was being held up by the king. Meanwhile the six ponies floated up into the air. The kindness one, Fluttershy's replacement, was a lime green pegasus mare with a dark green mane, a sunflower her cutie mark.
Both groups floated into the air, their eyes shining as the beams shot from the elements and pearl shards. The rainbows smashed against each other, pushing and pulling, trying to gain purchase against the other. This went on for minutes as the battle stopped, everypony(or sea pony) watching the spectacle. They watched as the king regained himself and struck Celestia with a giant green laser. She crumpled and fell to the ground.
"Princess Celestia!" screamed Twilight as her mentor fell to the hard ground. Twilight burst into tears.
With this distraction, the sea rainbow pushed back the other rainbow as it fell apart, the sea rainbow striking the mane six(excluding Fluttershy) and the sunflower pony, as well as Princess Luna. Luna fell to the ground smoldering while the Mane five plus one were pushed back into the chariot.
The group of sea ponies re-entered the pod while high flippering and bouncing around, screaming in joy. They soon touched down on the ground. Fluttershy saw Big Mac in a nearby pod with wheels. She quickly made the king change both of them back. Fluttershy watched as the now ponified Big Mac cantered over to her. Suddenly they both watched as Princess Luna rolled over as her last lifeblood left her. She pointed her hoof shakily at Fluttershy before becoming limp and still.
Suddenly ponies everywhere (and only ponies, not sea ponies) started to grow things. Unicorns grew wings and their horns enlarged, and pegasi felt their wings enlarge and their heads becoming adorned with long horns. Earth ponies grew horns and wings.
As Fluttershy felt a horn sprout from her head, she saw Big Mac grow wings and a horn.
"Fluttershy, I know I haven't been payin' much attention to yuh, since were dating an such, but I was just worried-."
"Shhh." Fluutershy shushed him as she leaned in close and pressed her lips to his. The two started to flap up into the air as they continued the long kiss. They broke apart as they watched the sun reach the horizon, but not dipping below it, and newly minted alicorns fluttered around in the air. They held each other close as a question popped into Fluttershy's mind.
"Wait, whose going to make the sun and moon rise and set now?"
