Chapter One: Into the Depths
Featherwisp had memorized every word of every single one of Princess Twilight Sparkle’s letters to her mentor and friend Princess Celestia, and yet in none of those letters was it specified what to do if you accidentally killed all of your friends.
She had spent the past week waiting by the shore of the lake, hoping and praying to the long gone princesses that some sign of her friends would ripple the waters. It had been three days since she had slept, and even then it had been very little. Her dreams were filled with nightmares.
The sun was setting, framed by the large trees and rolling hills. The reflection of the warm light was painted along the water’s surface. At any other point in time, it would have been a beautiful sight. But this was the place where she had watched her friends die.
Featherwisp curled up in a miserable heap. Her mane was clumped and matted, filled with twigs and branches. Her coat was streaked with dirt. She hadn’t had a decent meal in weeks. She felt, and looked, quite horrid. But she didn’t know what else to do. She couldn’t bear to leave this spot, in case there was any hope of her friends being alive.
When she closed her eyes, she saw their faces. So she kept her eyes open. Waiting. Watching. Hoping.
“Still here, Featherwisp?” a calm, quiet voice broke the silence.
Feather sat up and looked around. “Who’s there?”
“A friend.” The bushes rustled and a tall, old mare stepped into the forest clearing. Her coat was a faded purple, her gray mane streaked with pale lavender. She wore a plain dress made of thin, yellow material. “You’ve been waiting here a long time.”
Featherwisp didn’t know who this mare was, but she couldn’t bear to send her away. It had been a while since she had somepony to talk to. “I can’t leave.”
“And why’s that?” the old mare wondered, sitting down beside her.
“Because they might be alive.”
“If you saw them die, how could they be alive?”
Feather closed her eyes and tilted her face upward. “I feel it. I feel them. I believe they’re alive in my heart.”
“If you believe it in your heart, then it must be true. Why have you not gone to them?”
She opened her eyes and looked up at the taller mare. “They were taken by kelpies! I can’t breathe underwater, and even if I could, they would capture me before I had the chance to find out what’s going on.”
The old mare smiled warmly at her. “But you know a clever spell, don’t you? You know exactly how you can go after them.”
“I don’t know if it will work,” she admitted.
“What’s the harm in trying?”
Before Featherwisp’s eyes, the kind old mare vanished, dissolving into particles of white light that floated throughout the forest. She blinked in shock. Her sleep deprived mind was having a hard time processing what had just happened.
The spell the mare had reminded her of was simple, but required concentration and a lot of skill. There was no way she could perform it in the shape she was in. There was nothing to do but curl up and try to get some rest. If her friends were still alive, surely they could wait a little longer.
Feather curled up once again and closed her eyes. Sleep overtook her almost immediately, pulling her back into her memories.
She was on the shore of the lake. The sun was shining down on her and she turned her face up to its warmth.
“Feather, focus,” a cheerful voice gently reprimanded her. “We’re here for a reason, silly, not to sunbathe.”
Featherwisp opened her eyes and smiled, looking at the blue-gray earth pony before her. “Right. Of course. Stopping a pending war, how could I forget?”
Sugar Spice smiled warmly. “Are you sure this is Kelpie Cove?”
“There’s no mistaking it,” another voice said as a brown unicorn with a blue and white mane stepped closer to the water. Thunder Strike poked one hoof into the lake. “I’ve studied the map carefully, and this is definitely the place.”
“But how do we get the kelpies to come out and talk with us?” Cobblestone wondered. His rusty red coat clashed terribly with the lush green trees surrounding the lake.
“Stay back from the water,” Lemon-Lime’s logical voice warned them. “If there are kelpies in that lake, I don’t think they’ll like it if we prance around too close to their home.”
Featherwisp nodded in agreement. “I don’t know what we’re getting ourselves into, but I’m grateful you all decided to come with me.”
Dynamite nudged her shoulder gently with his muzzle. “You’re our friend, Feather. We’ll never let you down. This is the way to get your freedom, right?”
She smiled gratefully at all of her friends, then looked back at the water. “Now, let’s figure out how to get the merponies to come out.”
Just as the words came out of her mouth, the surface of the water rippled and the head of a pony broke the surface. Instead of a mane, she had a long fin trailing from the top of her head down her neck. Water streamed down her scaly coat and dripped off of her. “No need,” she said in a smooth, exotic voice.
All of Feather’s friends jumped backward in fright, but she trotted forward to greet the strange creature. “Hello, my name is Featherwi-”
“I don’t rather care who you are,” the kelpie interrupted. “When my scouts told me that six pony folk were fraternizing along my shore, I didn’t quite believe them. What ponies would be foolish enough to stray this far from their beloved Equestria?”
Featherwisp swallowed. “W-well, you see…we came to speak with one of your princesses. About a matter concerning some sunken ships?”
The kelpie laughed. “We have no princesses here, little pony. There is only me. I am Queen Serpentine, leader of the kelpies.”
“Then stop sinking our ships!” Dynamite shouted.
Feather gasped and shot him a warning look over her shoulder. “Please, Your Majesty, why are you sinking our supply ships?”
“The sea belongs to the kelpies!” Serpentine hissed, swimming closer so that the ponies could smell the fish on her breath. “You ponies are the ones taking what doesn’t belong to you!”
“But Princess Canary is talking about declaring war!” Cobblestone exclaimed.
“War?!” the kelpie snarled. “You think that you foolish ponies could ever defeat my kelpies in battle? We live underwater! There’s nothing stopping us from destroying your pathetic water vessels!”
“Please, Your Highness, I come from Princess Canary myself,” Featherwisp stepped forward another step. “She’s very upset with the loss of these ships. We have powerful magic. I fear that if you don’t stop sinking ships, my mother might do something dreadful!”
“Ah, so you’re the offspring of that foolish Princess,” Serpentine hissed. “I should have known. You’re just as bold and annoying as she was.”
Feather was getting the feeling that ‘foolish’ was this kelpie’s favorite word.
“You tell your pathetic mother that if she ever makes another threat against my kelpies, we will double our attacks on your trade ships.” She smiled suddenly, as if a wonderful idea had occurred to her. “Or perhaps, you’ll never get the chance!”
“FEATHER, WATCH OUT!” Dynamite shouted, biting her tail and yanking her backward.
Several large kelpies burst out of the water and charged up the shore towards the group of ponies. Feather’s friends screamed and scattered, but they never stood a chance of escaping the massive merponies, even on land the creatures were swift.
Featherwisp rolled onto her hooves. “Stop! Please, stop!” she called desperately.
One of the kelpies barreled towards her, but a streak of indigo connected with its side and sent it sprawling in the sand. Dynamite let out a cry of victory and pounced on the fallen kelpie, only to be trapped underneath as it rolled over. He struggled and bit at its scaly skin.
Cobblestone was squashed under two. Lemon-Lime was caught by the ponytail in another’s mouth. They had seized her friends, all of them.
Featherwisp stood alone.
“Leave that one,” Serpentine instructed coldly, glaring at her. “I want Queen Canary to know just how dangerous we are.” She disappeared underneath the water, and the rest of the kelpies went to follow her.
“Wait!” she shrieked as her friends were dragged towards the lake. “They can’t breathe underwater! Please! They can’t breathe!”
But her cries went unheard as her struggling friends were pulled beneath the surface of the water and down into the depths of the lake.
Featherwisp galloped across the shore, staring down into the lake. Just beneath the water, she saw the faces of her friends as they reached up to her desperately. And then they were no more, disappeared into the deep water.
Feather awoke in a cold sweat, but well-rested nonetheless. It wasn’t the first time she had relived the memory of her friends being taken away, but she prayed it would be the last. Because now, she was going to save them. Or, at least try.
She stood up and stretched. The forest floor was not the most comfortable place to sleep for a filly that had grown up in a palace, but she couldn’t complain about it. She had to rescue her friends.
Feather slowly trotted towards the lake, dipping her front hooves in the water. Not far from the edge of the water, the sand disappeared and became a cliff leading down into the kelpie kingdom. She had never swam before, but she hoped this spell would work well enough that she didn’t have to worry about that.
Backing away from the water, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. It wasn’t all that complicated of a spell, but it required all of her concentration. Her horn tickled a little as she felt her magic pour out from it and wrap around her body. Never once had she felt her own magic wrap around herself. Unlike her mother’s, it was a calm and warm presence. Her hooves were lifted off the sand as a layer of overglow burst out from her horn, wrapping her in a second layer of pale blue magic.
She grunted in concentration, focusing on the scaly bodies of the kelpies. The way their ‘manes’ trailed down their necks like fins, and the way their back legs became one long tail.
Feather shot backward with a startled squeal, her back colliding with a tree. She groaned and sat up, rubbing her head. Her coat felt strange, almost hard somehow. She gasped, standing up on her two front legs, as the hind legs has melded together into one appendage. When she breathed, she felt her gills flap open against her neck. She didn’t need them when she wasn’t underwater, but it was strange to feel them trying to work.
Featherwisp’s attention turned towards the lake when she was finished admiring herself, and she began dragging her back half towards the water. How had the kelpies that had taken her friends been so quick? She was barely pulling herself across the sand at a snail’s pace.
It didn’t matter, she forced herself to think. Now was the time she saved her friends, if they were even still alive. They have to be alive.
With one last glance over her shoulder at the forest, she waded into the water and dove off the underwater cliff.