Swimming with a Princess
Boston was in ruins. Buildings had toppled over, their remains illuminated by bright yellow flashes of lightning emanating from Ghidorah's storm while the torrents of rain could do nothing to put out the flames left behind by the ongoing titanomachy. Madison watched as her mother stood in the center of the ruins of what used to be the Russell household, the ORCA in her hands, the rhythmic pinging of the device echoing throughout the city.
"Mom," Maddie quietly asked. "What are you doing?"
Emma didn't respond. Just then, there was the sound of heavy footsteps. Footsteps which shook the ground.
Titan footsteps.
However, when she looked up, her heart skipped a beat as Ghidorah lumbered towards her mother, his wings acting as rudimentary fore-legs. His six red eyes were locked in on Emma whilst flames shined off his gilded scales giving him a demonic reddish-gold color. His three jaws were dripping with saliva as he closed the distance to Emma. His twin, spiked tails waved behind him like a cat ready to pounce on its prey.
"Mom!" Maddie screamed. "Mom, run! Run! Please!"
Emma turned to look at Maddie with a dazed smile. It was as if the three-headed Titan didn't matter to her mother.
"It'll be okay, Maddie," Emma told her in a blissful voice. "Everything is fine."
Maddie looked up with tears in her eyes as Ghidorah was now directly above her mother. With a cruel smile on all three heads, the dragon lunged towards her mother, cackling roars emanating from his throats.
"MOM!" Madison screamed as she opened her eyes.
As she looked around, she noticed she was in her room. Strands of hair were stuck to her neck by sweat. She heard heavy footsteps before her father appeared in her doorway.
"Maddie," Mark asked, turning on the light. "I heard you scream, you okay?"
"Y-yeah," Madison lied. "I-I'm fine, Dad."
"Are you sure?" Mark asked. "Maddie, you can talk to me. What's wrong?"
"Nothing's wrong, Dad," the last female Russell replied, probably snappier than she had intended. "I just had a bad dream, okay? End of story."
Mark sat down on Madison's bed and sighed.
"Maddie, look," he started. "I know it's been a tough four years, but if there's anything on your mind, anything at all, you can talk to me."
"I don't have anything I want to talk to you about," Madison groaned as she tucked herself into bed. "Good night."
Mark was about to say something but decided to walk out of her room. He took one last look at his now teenage daughter before turning the light off. If he had stayed a little longer, he would've heard Madison sobbing into her pillow.
Castle Bravo, Outpost 54
"Have you tried getting her to talk to you?" Sam Coleman asked.
Mark sipped a bit of his coffee.
"Oh, believe me," he answered, "I've tried. She either keeps changing the subject or says she's fine. Maddie's..."
He sighed.
"Maddie's stubborn like that. I dunno, I guess it comes with being a teenager."
"Or, she got that stubbornness from her mom," Rick Stanton piped up as he filled his personal mug with coffee before taking a loud slurp. "I mean, we all know how stubborn Emma was, and that's not counting how she unleashed Space Satan on humanity without any knowledge of his true nature."
Mark just flashed the surly Monarch Sciences officer an unimpressed look. Rick just sighed.
"Look, Mark," he told him. "Take it from a guy who's gone through three divorces just 'cuz he was married to his work; the best thing to do is give Maddie some space. I know it's been four years, but trust me when I say it. Heck, I didn't get a word from Dennis when my second wife and I split until he married Kelly. You wanna know how long that took? NINETEEN. YEARS. It took me almost two decades for me to talk to my own son about how that divorce affected him. So, yeah, if it takes Maddie to open up longer than four years, I say don't try to force her into talking. At least, not until she's ready."
Mark simply nodded and took a sip of his now lukewarm coffee.
"Anyway, if you wanted any Titan news," Rick started, deciding to change the subject. "Rodan hasn't left Fiji, we've gotten new whereabouts of Anguirus somewhere in Siberia, Amhuluk has just left Rio De Janeiro, a buncha wannabe-daredevils in Munich tried to climb and ride Methuselah- keyword being 'tried'-, Sekhmet's sleeping in Baghdad getting some sun on her fur like the big cat that she is, Kong's being relocated into a containment facility on Skull Island to avoid that remnant of Ghidorah's storm, and Godzilla disappeared off radar twelve minutes ago after having stopped Na Kika from being stripped for Titan parts, possibly having entered a Hollow Earth tunnel. Y'know, same old same old when living in the Age of Titans."
"Thank you for that report, Rick," Sam told his salty colleague. "Don't know why you didn't bother telling Guillerman, Kyohei, or Emiko about that. Anything else you'd like to report?"
Rick took another gulp of his coffee, surprisingly not wincing from the hot liquid running down his throat.
"Well, Ling and Dr. Brooks have finished transporting Mothra Junior's egg to Infant Island," he replied.
Sam rolled his eyes at his colleague.
"Rick, we've told you," he scolded him. "We're not calling her 'Mothra Junior'."
"Well, you're gonna have to give her a proper name or somethin'," Rick shrugged. "Because until ya do, I'm still calling her that."
"Can we get back to the subject of how to deal with my daughter?" Mark asked, wanting to get back on track.
Rick let out a 'hmmm', tapping his fingers against the coffee mug.
"Well, I'm sure Doctor Chen's open tonight," he replied, shooting Mark a sly smirk. "Maybe you and her could... well... y'know... Hint? Hint?"
Mark shot his colleage a deadpan stare.
"Rick," he told him dryly. "For the last time, Ilene and I are strictly proffessional."
"Mark," Rick replied, equally as dryly. "C'mon. We've all seen how you've looked at her and we've seen the way she's looked at you. You two are clearly into each other. And you do want to give Maddie some space, right? Besides, it doesn't have to be anything too big. Just take her to, I dunno, a sushi place, an Indian restaurant, a BBQ place, or even just a nice café. Hell, take her to a burger joint, just do something, man."
Mark sighed knowing he couldn't exactly argue with that logic... even if it came from a man who spent most of his career guzzling down scotch and coffee (sometimes even stirring the scotch into the coffee).
"Alright," he said. "If it'll help Maddie.
Russell House, Pensacola
The dulcet tunes of the Pixies "Wave of Mutilation" blared into Madison's ears as she sat barefoot and clad in a plain white t-shirt and brown capri pants with a pale red sarong in the table chair in the kitchen with the windows overlooking the early dusk Pensacola horzion. Or at least the first lyrics blared into her ears, before she shut it off with a groan. She and her dad moved to Pensacola a year after Emma's death and his reinstatement as a member of Monarch due to having to lend Okami and his wolf-pack under the care of a new lupine/cervine Titan called Artemis in Greece. Originally, this song would help calm her down. Then 2019 happened. Since then, the song gave her a sour taste in the mouth. She didn't even feel like listening to this week's Titan Truth Podcast.
Just then she heard her phone buzz. The screen had a picture of a wolf's face indicating it to be her father.
"Hey, Dad, what's up?" she asked in a dull tone.
"Hey, Maddie," Mark told her. "Listen, I'm gonna be out with Ilene for dinner tonight. I probably won't be home until much later."
Hanging out with Doctor Chen. she thought. Figured it would be a matter of time before he started dating her.
"Okay, Dad," she replied. "Tell her I said hi."
"Are you sure?" Mark asked. "Because I can cancel and we can order some pizza and maybe watch some monster trucks on the TV. You do like monster trucks, right? I seem to recall you having a Grave Digger poster in your room."
"It's alright, Dad," Maddie answered. "I'll just whip something up here. You and Doctor Chen have fun and I'll see you tonight or tomorrow when I get up."
"Oh," he replied. "Alright. Love you."
"Love you too, Dad," Maddie replied.
With that she hung up and walked over to the couch before turning on the TV and began channel surfing. Each and every single channel had something to do with Titans.
"The guests on board a cruise ship in the South Pacific were given quite the surprise when the Titan known as Manda paid them an unexpected albeit awe-inspiring visit-"
*click*
"Titan damage to your house? Need insurance? THEN, CALL 786-113-1954-"
*click*
"Now how 'bout them Titans, Larry-?"
*click*
"TIIIIITAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!"
At this point, Madison just shut the TV off and stared at the ceiling, just now realizing how utterly bored she was. She looked at the clock and noticed it was now 5:04 pm. Her growling stomach demanded food at this particular moment. Hoisting herself up, she walked back into the kitchen to whip herself up a meal, which consisted of a glass of lemonade, some leftover Huli-Huli Chicken from last night's dinner, a skewered, worm-like beetle Ilene had sent her from Infant Island the natives served as a delicacy that surprisingly tasted like shrimp, and, for desert, a Twinkie she had ripped in half by squirting way too much whipped cream into. She then got a buzz on her phone and noticed it was Josh who sent her a pic of him and his family on vacation in Tokyo with the words "Thinking of you" underneath.
After her feast, Madison had decided to take a stroll on the beach. She looked out to the sunset-lit waves before sitting down on the dock, dipping her feet into the water as she did and resting her head on her hands. There was a light breeze which caught her shoulder-length hair as she gaze into the distance, remembering the last conversation she had with her mother. About how angry she was that she had sided with that mad-man Alan Jonah and let loose a monster in every single aspect of the word simply because she told her it was the right thing when in reality she was ending the lives of millions of people; men, women, and children alike. How she had been roped her mother's unintentional genocide of the human race. How she had called her a monster.
How much she still missed her own mother.
Mom, she thought as tears ran down her cheeks. I know you did so many things wrong. But I wish you were still here.
"Hey," came a rather perky, almost Valley Girl-esque voice. "Are you okay?"
Madison looked up... and noticed a young woman's head sticking out of the water at least one foot away from her. The girl looked to be about eighteen or nineteen and had long, wavy turquoise hair, equally blue eyes, and what looked like a sea anemone in her hair. She also appeared to have what looked like patches of yellow scales on her shoulders and neck whilst a necklace composed of sea shells and a pearl fragment dangled around it. The sight of the newcomer made the youngest Russell yelp and fall on her back.
"Did I scare you? I am so sorry," the girl asked. "I'm just asking, because you looked like you were crying and you were all alone out here, so, I got kinda, y'know, concerned."
"Wha- who," Madison stammered as she got to her feet. "HUH!?"
"Soooo," the girl asked. "Is everything okay? Oh, my apologies. My name's Skystar. Well, technically it's Princess Skystar on account of my mom being queen and all, but we can forgo any formalities. And you are?"
At last Maddie could finally talk.
"My name's Madison Russell. But, I just like to go by Maddie."
"Well, hiyah, Maddie, put 'er there" Skystar cheerfully chirped before sticking out her hand; her blue, webbed hand.
Maddie just stared in awestruck shock. Skystar noticed this and then let out a sheepish laugh.
"Oh, this. Yeah, Twilight said humans would have a culture shock upon seeing this."
"Who's Twilight," Madison asked before switching to her initial question. "More importantly, are you a mermaid?"
"Well, in this world, yeah," Skystar answered. "Though where I come from I can either be a hippocampus or a hippogriff. Oh, and this one time I turned myself into a dragon just to know what it felt like to breathe fire and-"
"Wait, wait, slow down," Maddie waved her hand at the mermaid. She took a deep breath, paced around, and pinched the bridge of her nose as she tried to soak this all in. "Are you saying you're from another world?"
"Yes," Skystar bluntly replied with a smile stretching from ear to ear. "What, doesn't your world have merfolk?"
"No," Madison replied. "Well, unless you count Margygr but, she's kinda... dead."
"I have no idea what a 'Margygr' is, so I'm just gonna take your word for it."
Madison then asked the next big question to the apparent mermaid princess.
"How did you get here?"
"Oh, pffft, that's easy," Skystar giggled. "Y'see, a friend of mine, Twilight Sparkle, has this magical mirror portal thingy which can transport ponies to other dimensions and transform them into whatever race rules that world. So I ask my mom, Queen Novo, if I can explore one of those dimensions. She tells me yes, so long as I'm back in time for dinner. I convince Twilight to transport me to a dimension, I go through it, I end up on this world, and that's when I met you. So, anyway, back to my question; why were you crying?"
Madison just turned her back to the mermaid.
"I... I don't want to talk about it."
"C'mon," Skystar said in a sing-song voice.
"I said I don't want to talk about it."
"C'mon~."
"No."
"C'mon, c'mon, c'mon, c'mon c-"
At this point, Madison was shaking and gritting her teeth at the mermaid's insistent pestering.
"MY MOM DIED FOUR YEARS AGO," Madison snapped, whipping her head around. "THERE! I SAID IT! HAPPY!?"
There was a stunned silence as Madison turned her back towards Skystar again.
"Your... your mom died?"
At this point, Skystar's tone had come from obnoxiously perky to oddly sympathetic.
"I'm- I'm sorry that happened," she spoke in a soft voice. "And you've been mourning her for four years?"
Madison just turned around slowly and nodded.
Skystar was beside herself. This human she had just met was grieving over the loss of her mother for four years. She couldn't imagine what would happen if her own mother died suddenly and how she could govern her people whilst grieving.
"If it's any consolation," she spoke, clutching left arm. "I lost my dad years ago. So, I know how it feels to lose a parent."
Just then an idea sprang up in her mind and she perked up again.
"You know, when I'm in the grieving mood, I like to go take a nice relaxing swim through the deep. Maybe that'll help cheer you up."
Madison looked at her as if she had gotten a second head... which, considering who and what she was talking to, would actually be less weird.
"I dunno," she replied. "I'm not exactly dressed for deep-sea swimming."
"Oh, don't worry," Skystar told her. "I'll take care of that. Just come on."
Madison bit her lip but slowly lowered herself to the water until she was up to her neck in seawater.
"Okay, now what?"
"Alright, first you need to take a deep breath and hold it until I say otherwise."
Madison made sure to take in three large gulps of air. The fourth she held in deeply before submerging her head.
"One..."
There was a slight tingling around her legs. Almost like they were... changing.
"Two..."
Soon, Maddie's lungs began to demand air. How long had she been underwater?
"Aaaaand... three!"
Maddie couldn't hold it in any longer. She immediately let loose an gasp... and noticed she was underwater. And she hadn't drowned. Not only that, but she could now see Skystar's full body which included a tail with webbing very similar to her hands. An excited smile sat on the mermaid's face.
"Okay," Madison stated, noting how odd her voice sounded exactly like it did when she was above water as opposed to being garbled. "How am I breathing underwater?"
"Look down," Skystar giggled.
Maddie did so... and noticed her legs had been replaced by a fish-like tail with a chocolate brown fin as well as brown webbing in between her fingers. Not only that, but her vision was much different; she could now see in much more vibrant and vivid colors, almost as if she were looking through specialized glasses. She let out a yelp upon seeing these new developments. Skystar, on the other hand, did not share that same panic.
"Alrighty," she announced, grabbing Madison by the hand. "Let's go."
Madison took the time to wrest her hand from the mermaid's grip.
"Hold it! Hold it! HOLD IT!"
"Okay."
Madison took a deep breath before continuing.
"I'm not gonna bother asking what you did to me," she stated. "But how did you do it to me?"
"Oh, that's easy," Skystar replied. "I used this."
Skystar then waved the pearl fragment necklace in front of her.
"It's a piece of our Pearl of Transformation back home," she explained. "It enables us the ability to transform from hippogriff to hippocampi at will as well as other forms if we so choose. Granted, it's not like the Changelings who can transform into anything with ease since we kinda sorta need these to help us change forms, but, hey, it gets things done. So, are we gonna swim or not?"
Madison then looked up to the surface and clutched her arm.
"I dunno," she replied. "I don't know what time my dad gets home since he's gonna be out late-"
"That's okay," Skystar interjected. "I'll just make sure you're back home safe and sound before he even knows you were gone."
Madison bit her lip before looking to the surface and back to a waiting Skystar.
"Promise we won't be gone too long?" Maddie asked.
"Cross my heart."
Madison sighed as she followed the mermaid deeper into the depths. Her eyesight allowed her to peer through the darkness as vividly, if not a little more than, as she would on a bright, sunny day. The cold waters didn't bother her as she played with the currents like they were the wind beneath her hands. As she was doing this, she noticed Skystar giving her a proud smile.
"Why are you looking at me like that?"
"Just amazed that you're getting the hang of this," Skystar replied. "It's almost like you're a natural."
"Well," Madison said sheepishly. "I wouldn't call myself a 'natural' but I did take swimming lessons when I was younger."
"Good enough for me."
With that, the two ventured deeper into the depths, catching the sights as they went along like a family of humpback whales singing their haunting cries, schools of fish dancing about like clouds made of quicksilver, pods upon pods of dolphins leaping into the surface tension before returning to their watery domain, and so much more.
"Hey, Skystar," Madison called to her mermaid associate.
"Yeah?"
"My tail's getting kinda tired, you mind if we take a break?"
Truth be told, Maddie and Skystar had been swimming for quite a while. Even her tail was starting to feel a bit strained. She looked around and noticed a strange terrain with what looked like roughly leaf-shaped outer-croppings.
"Let's catch our breaths over there."
The two mermaids 'sat' down on one of the rocky protrusions and stared at the surface. Even this far deep, they could still see far up.
"You know," Maddie spoke up first. "This is pretty beautiful."
Skystar sighed, "Yeah, I guess."
Maddie rose an eyebrow at the mermaid.
"You guess?"
"Well, let's just say," the mermaid clarified. "My people were stuck living in the sea for a long time to the point it became something of a novelty."
"How come?"
"It happened when I was younger," Skystar started. "Our home, Mount Aris, fell under siege by a cruel tyrant called the Storm King. He came to enslave my people and anyone who defied him met their end; my father, King Windrider, was one of those poor souls who defied him. I was only six years old when I, my mother, and our people descended into the depths and turned from noble hippogriffs to hippocampi. For a while, my mother's plan was to lie in hiding until word came by that the Storm King was defeated and we could once again come home and soar among the clouds. In hindsight, that was a pretty cowardly plan. I don't completely blame her for it though... even if I didn't have much in terms of friends."
"Hey, but what about us?" Skystar pantomimed holding up a red clam and blue clam, both with googly eyes attached to them.
"Yeah, what're we, chopped squid liver?"
Skystar rolled her eyes and giggled, "Besides you, Shelly and Sheldon."
Madison just stared at the mermaid with a slightly concerned look. Noticing this, Skystar cleared her throat and put her two clams away before giving her a sheepish smile.
"Sorry, force of habit," said Skystar.
"Do you at least remember your dad?"
Skystar sighed, "What don't I remember? He was pretty much Super-Dad. He was brave, he was funny, he was a ball of energy... and he loved me and my mother very much, even at the end of his life. But, you know what, enough about me, what was your mom like?"
Madison sighed. This was going to be a handful.
"My mom," she started. "Well, I guess if I had to describe my mom in one word it would be 'misguided'. I believe she thought she was doing the right thing, but how she carried it out was wrong. After my brother, Andrew, died eight years ago, my parents went their separate ways, I went with my mother. She told me about her plan to return Earth to an age where humans and Titans coexisted in harmony, about how we were doing this in Andrew's memory. However, she sided with a megalomaniac anarchist and the first Titan she set loose was actually an alien who tried to claim Earth for his own and nearly kickstarted the extinction of humankind. My last conversation was chewing her out and asking her if Andrew would really want the world she was striving for. A part of me wanted to hate her for what she did. And then, she gave her life to make sure this world saw another day."
She felt Skystar's hand over hers. Maddie turned to see Skystar giving her a sympathetic look.
"The way I see it," Skystar told her softly. "Our mothers thought they were doing the right thing, but they carried it out the wrong way."
Just then, there was a sudden lurch as the 'rocks' beneath their fins seemed to move. Both mermaids shot off it as it had turned out they were sitting on something very big, and very much alive. Skystar noticed how the creature before them stood taller than any living thing on Equestria. Even the Ursa Majors would be dwarfed by this leviathan. The monster before them had craggy, grayish-brown, armored skin. Its tail was long, somewhat segmented and ended in a blunt tip. The creature's head was somewhat blocky with fangs sticking out of his upper jaw as well as gills which flapped on either side of its neck. The behemoth's colossal form was held aloft by two tree trunk-like legs ending in stubby, elephantine feet. Both its feet and hands were tipped with four black claws. The creature was currently looking at both of the girls with red-orange eyes. The outercroppings, which Skystar thought were coral, were actually dorsal plates; three rows of jagged dorsal plates.
Godzilla, Madison realized. We were sitting on Godzilla.
Maddie and Skystar were floating meters away from the King of the Monsters as he stared at them, his eyes darting back and forth at the mermaids. He was either looking to see whether or not they were threats or if they fit into the natural order of which he maintained. While Godzilla wasn't a Titan who went out of his way to attack humans, he wasn't exactly what one would call benevolent, especially since all it would take was humanity taking one step out of balance and putting themselves in the Alpha Titan's line of fire.
"Skystar," Maddie whispered. "No sudden moves."
"Maddie, what is that?"
"We call him Godzilla, just whatever you do, don't set him off."
Skystar just gazed in awe at the Titan in front of her. She then slowly drifted towards the King of the Monsters despite Maddie's whispered warnings. Once she was inches away from Godzilla's boxy snout, she made eye contact with the gargantuan reptilian. The fact that a creature of this magnitude and power emanating from it could exist in this world sent chills down her spine. For a while she gazed into the fiery eyes of the leviathan, noting a sense of both power, nobility, and, surprisingly, loneliness. Without breaking eye contact, she waved Maddie over.
Madison was very hesitant. She hadn't exactly come face-to-face with Godzilla. She had seen him in person during the Battle of San Francisco in 2014 when she was very young and the subsequent Battle of Boston in 2019. This was the first time she ever saw him up close. She followed Skystar's gesture to join her as they made full eye contact with the Titan King. Maddie even extended her hand and touched his craggy skin.
It feels like a big alligator. She thought.
Godzilla let out a whale grunt before turning around and left, half-swimming and half walking his way until he was out of their view.
After their encounter with Godzilla, Skystar and Maddie decided it was time to part ways. They had been gone for at least two hours. Once they were close to the surface, Maddie turned and gave Skystar the biggest hug she could ever muster.
"Thanks for helping me feel better."
"Hey," Skystar replied. "It's the least I could do, Maddie. I just wish I could give you something in return."
Maddie pinched her lip before noticing something just from the corner of her eye. It was a discarded snail shell. She dove down and retrieved it.
"Well, there's this," she told the mermaid princess. "But I don't think that-"
"THAT'S PERFECT!"
Skystar immediately snatched the shell from Maddie's hands. Skystar cast Madison a smile before returning her hug. For a while, the two girls hung their, embracing, before breaking off.
"I guess this is goodbye, huh?" Maddie asked.
"I guess so," Skystar replied. "But, hopefully it's not forever."
"Let's hope."
"Oh," Skystar perked up. "I do know what to give you."
Skystar began rummaging around in the pack around her body before pulling out a purple clam with googly eyes similar to Shelly and Sheldon.
"You can have Shelanda."
Maddie took 'Shelanda' and gave her mermaid friend a smile.
"Well," Skystar sighed. "I better get home now, my mom's probably worried sick about me. But, first, are you sure you can swim back?"
"It's shallow enough. I'll manage."
With that, Skystar waved her hand over her pearl fragment, the pinkish energies swirling around Maddie as her tail returned to legs. Moments before her transformation, Madison took a deep breath. Once the transformation was complete, the young Russell swam back to the surface. Skystar watched her leave before reaching into her bag, pulling out a sliver of a mirror and tossed it out. The sliver dissolved and a swirling pink vortex appeared in front of her. Taking one last look at Madison's retreating form, Skystar entered the vortex and returned to Equestria.
Madison had put aside her damp clothes and swapped for a pair of crimson pajama pants and a night-shirt with a pepper on it. Just then she heard the door open.
"Maddie, I'm home!"
It was her father.
"Hey, Dad," she replied. "How was your date?"
Mark shrugged once he set his keys down.
"It was okay. We went to that new Asian Fusion restaurant," he replied. "Red Bamboo. And it was not a date, it was strictly platonic. Did you do anything fun?"
"Not really," Maddie replied, feeling Shelanda in her pocket. "Just sat around watching TV."
She bit her lip.
"Hey, ummm, Dad?"
"Yeah, sweetie?"
"Tomorrow, can we talk?"
"Umm, sure, Maddie."
Just then, Mark noticed something in the laundry hamper.
"Maddie, why are your clothes wet?"
Oh boy. Maddie thought.
Seaquestra, Mt. Aris
"Are ya really tellin' me, you explored another dimension and all you brought back was another sea shell?"
Skystar ignored her mother as she placed her Terran sea shell among her collection.
"Not just any sea shell, Mom," she replied. "A sea shell from Earth!"
Novo just rolled her eyes. She loved her daughter and all, but her obsession with sea shells was getting tiresome. It was just like her niece Silverstream's obsession with stairs.
"Did you at least make some new friends?" the Queen of the Hippogriffs asked.
"Uh-huh! Her name was Madison and-"
Novo interrupted her daughter with a wave of her webbed hoof.
"Why don't you tell me about her at Dinner. It should be just about ready."
Novo then swam towards Skystar's door, her daughter following her.
"Oooh, what are we having?"
"Seaweed and krill scampi for us, and seaweed for Princess Twilight and her friends."
Skystar groaned, "Again, Mom? That's, like, the third time this week!"
"You don't have to eat, sweetie. 'Course that also means ya don't tell me about this 'Madison'-"
"Okay, forget what I said!"
Novo chuckled. "You go ahead and get ready. I'll set the table. Oh, also, since Princess Twilight and her friends are coming by, you can also tell them about your time on Earth."
"'Kay, Mom!"
Skystar let her mother swim out the door, before turning her attention to the sea shell. Her mother poked her head into the room with a confused expression.
"Skystar," she asked. "You okay?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah, Mom," Skystar replied. "Totally. You can go on ahead. I'll be down in a few minutes. Y'know, gotta spruce up?"
"Just don't take too long, sweetheart," Novo told her.
Skystar nodded before turning to the sea shell and smiled.