Something pushes nature forward, making it desperate for a powerful ally, and there comes forth, a shark unlike any have seen... what will become of this creature and the world it now inhabits...?
There have been many prophecies of powerful monsters, tyrants, and cursed artifacts, and as time marches one, there are fewer left unfulfilled... and one worries the Princesses the longer it continues to not be fulfilled:
"A predator, forcefully removed from the fading light of life, will grow powerful, going on to live as guardian, saving any and all within their flooded domain, or a monster, killing for revenge."
... then, one day, they find the prophecy has begun to be fulfilled...
... mommy...?
This is a Displaced story, and if you don't like it don't read.
Stirring awake, a young, bedridden girl slowly wakes up, finding herself still in the same white room that has been her home for as long as she can remember, the beeping of the equipment, the sound of air being pumped...
Looking around, she finds the room empty, save for herself and the medical devices around her, much to her dismay, she hates being lonely... there's nothing else to do though, she's too weak to help herself stay alive, let alone actually moving...
As her lungs are filled with air in a poor attempt at mimicking breathing, every day is torture for this young girl, yet... it's the only way she can survive for now. But, she doesn't have long, even now, she can feel herself slowly slipping towards eternal sleep...
... However, she's not afraid, in fact, many days, she has silently begged for this, pleading in her mind to anything that's willing to listen to put an end to this slow death... in whatever way that is possible...
She only wishes that she could see her parents... or her brother... They cared for her so much, and even just listening to them made this living hell somewhat more bearable... even one of the somewhat scary doctors and weird nurses would be more welcome than this still silence...
She closes her eyes as she descends once more into a dreamless sleep..
The girl is jolted awake by the sound of a door closing loudly, and the sound of hard shoes- 'Or are they boots? It's hard to tell when you can't look down...' - clicking with every step on the tiled floor.
Eventually, she sees the source of the noise, an oddly average looking woman, in white business clothing, peers down at her.
The girl does not recognize the woman, yet, feels oddly neutral about seeing her, almost as if she were expecting this lady to arrive... and she notices her simple, small, yet piercing smile...
"You wish for your... pain to stop, yes?" the lady asks, a slight somber tone fills the question.
'Yes... please... it hurts...' the girl wanted to say, but couldn't through the tube in her mouth.
"Oh, you poor dear..." she says, cupping the girl's cheek, still smiling, yet her eyes betray the sadness hidden within. "Perhaps... I could offer you something better than simply a... quick end."
'Please... anything to... stop this...'
The lady in white closes her eyes, seeming to exude... a bit of joy, oddly.
"Wonderful, simply wonderful," she quietly exclaims. "Now, it'll go dark, and before long, you'll be enjoying your new life... with a new family."
'New... family...?'
"New family..." the lady says, then leans in and whispers, "... and no more pain..."
If the girl didn't know any better, she could swear she was feeling herself smile.
"Sleep well, little one," the lady says as she crouches beside the medical devices, "you'll be in your new home before you know it."
Suddenly, the devices cease all sound and movement, the girl now stuck with a lungful of air, giving her complete silence for a few moments, before some alarms begin to suddenly go off.
Slowly the world begins to become blurry and muffled, all sights and sounds slowly blurring into one another as she suddenly feels more tired than ever... and slowly she begins to close her eyes...
Once her eyes close, everything becomes black and slowly fades into silence.
It's been a calm day in the land of Equestria, even the nobles have been rather quiet, surprising Celestia, making her wonder how long it'll last... but is enjoying it while it does so.
It's the little moments like this that she appreciates, no one truly understands how much pressure being able to control the sun and ruling a country puts onto one pony, even alicorns have their limits, especially with the stress of actual threats or the blackmailing from those who would rather see her knocked down from her throne...
... then she feels it, and her pupils dilate for barely a second, before putting on a calm facade, she, her sister, and one other are intimately familiar with this feeling, it is a subtle feeling, but after having felt it many times before, she is certain...
... Another prophecy is beginning...
She then calls off Day Court, her excuse being that she just remembered a matter of grave importance that she needs to attend to, and then heads into the castle.
After some time, Celestia arrives at her chambers, and closes the door, and, upon ensuring nopony, nothing, was getting in, she uses her magic and a hidden door fades into existence, then she heads inside, closing it behind her as it seems to fade away, as if it was never there.
She continues down a dark corridor, lit by her own magic, before coming into a decently size room with a small bookshelf, and a table with a couple of chairs for her...
... and her sister, Luna, whom enters the room from the corridor opposite of the one Celestia had just come through.
"So, you felt it too, sister?" Luna asks, a serious expression upon her muzzle, as she disperses her magic and begins to light the torches around the room.
"Yes," Celestia answers, her expression equally serious now, "I'm now wondering where-"
"Right here, Sunbutt," a third voice interrupts her, a voice both are all too familiar with, and they watch a creature seemingly made of the parts of many creatures, all together hover down from the darkness of the ceiling.
"Discord," Luna says with bit of a sneer, "you know this-"
"This is no time for games, yeah, yeah, yeah, I understand how important this is, Moonie," Discord says, slithering his body over before booping her. "Besides, I'm more curious what this 'prophecy' could be referring to," he states in an unimpressed tone.
"Very well," Celestia states, "let us consult the archives and see which prophecy it is, thankfully, it shouldn't take long."
They nod as the sisters float a book each to themselves as Discord grabs a few, snaps his fingers, and the books begin to check themselves for him.
One hour later...
After checking and double-checking every book, all but Celestia look puzzled.
"I don't understand, sister," Luna says, looking to Celestia, "you said you've been keeping track of every prophecy as it comes up."
Celestia nods, her mane currently hiding her expression.
"Well, perhaps a new one was made recently?" Discord suggests. "It is one of the reasons why I love prophesies, they are as sporadic in appearing as they chaotically worded."
"No," Celestia states simply, but coldly, looking to them showing her worried expression, "it's far more simpler, and worrying than that."
"Sister...?" Luna says, looking both worried and confused.
Celestia gets up and goes over to one of the lit torches, and the pulls it down some, sounded by clicking and the sound of stone scraping, the wall beside her opening, a simple glass display with a small parchment inside, held up to be read.
The parchment looks so old, that a breeze could turn it into dust... yet, there is something odd about it, something that all three recognize.
Some of the words written on it are glowing.
"That's the prophecy," Celestia says breathlessly, her expression showing fear, "the one I hoped would never come to pass..."
"Celly...?" Discord asks, more in confusion than worry. "What is this prophecy about...?"
"A powerful, supposedly sapient, predator," Celestia starts, "one that may lose something dear to them... and could either learn to forgive and become a great ally, or become fueled by rage..."
"... and become a great danger to all in it's way," Luna finishes, looking shocked, then serious. "How much of the prophecy has been fulfilled?"
"So little, that I believe the creature has yet to be born," Celestia answers, then looks to Luna. "We cannot search for something that has yet to be born, we must wait for it to be shown to us..."
"R-... right, Celestia," Luna says with a sigh, "I just... you know how I worry for our people..."
"I know Lulu," Celestia says softly, bringing Luna into a hug with her wings.
"Oh, gag," Discord says, rolling his eyes. "So, we have to play the long game with a potential threat to the country? We should just send those six-"
"No," Celestia says sternly, looking to Discord with a hardened expression, "this is too dangerous, even for them, as this creature is not only a threat to us... but to all of our allies beyond."
"Then I could just... snap it away?" Discord suggests, having his right paw ready to snap, as if to emphasize.
"Only as a last resort, after all," Luna begins, looking at the prophecy once more, "there's the possibility it can become our ally."
~~~Location: █▄▌?!¿§¡▐▀█~~~ ~~~Time: ?¿:!¡~~~ ~~~POV: Young Girl, 3rd Person~~~
...
'... It's so dark...'
...
'... but so warm... so... comfy...'
... she feels something move against her...
'Don't move me so much... I just got comfortable...'
... suddenly, there's a lot of movement, and she feels as gravity seems to change direction rapidly...
'W-what's going on, why is everything...?' she thinks to herself as she herself begins to move around... no, thrash around...
After a while of wild movement flooding her senses, everything eventually goes still once more... before a muffled wet noise is heard... Then a light cuts into the darkness, nearly blinding her as something clawed reaches through... grabbing them one-by-one and pulling them into the line of light that seems to open every time it reaches through.
Eventually, it reaches for her, and it feels like time slows down for her, watching as what she is sure is her doom reaching for her.
Baiton is reading a newspaper about the princesses putting a warning out to all of the denizens of Equestria, saying to inform them about any unusual creatures that hunt naturally in the wild, and he scoffs before tossing it into the nearby trash can.
"Unusual creatures?" Baiton asks no one in particular. "Good luck trying to find normal ones... let's see..."
He looks around the docks until he finds another pony, a male unicorn, talking with another male earth pony who seems to be a captain of a small vessel, before walking away from the pony, he approaches the unicorn.
"I'm kind of busy," the unicorn says to him with a gruff voice, a list and pen floating up in his magic, "unless you're here for business."
"Kind of, I'm looking for a... erm..." he says, pulling out a piece of paper and unfolding it, "Captain 'Glider'? Do you know where his ship is docked...?"
"Ah, that one," he says, looking through the list, squinting a bit. "Let's see, ah, dock 28..." He turns around and points off in the distance.
"Section 6, towards the middle of the section," he states simply before moving along.
"Thanks," Baiton says, before beginning to fly over the area.
Eventually, he finds himself landing before and staring in awe at a well-maintained, modern day fishing boat, one that he could only hope to afford by himself one day.
"Are ya done gawkin', colt?" A gruff voice asks, startling him from his thought, making him look around until he sees the griffon captain himself.
The griffon, Grey Glider, better known amongst his fellow fishermen as "Storm Glider" due to his risky, but rewarding catches that he's landed, therefore becoming the 'eye of the storms' that would normally get others severely injured or worse...
"Oh, sorry sir, I'm-" Baiton starts to say, but is cut off by Grey.
"Baiton Hook, you're my new 'right-hoof pony', is that right?" He asks, looking the pegasus over, looking somewhat unimpressed. "Hopefully your work is as good as I've heard and not what I'm expectin', otherwise, I'm gonna make your name be more literal than ya have ever thought possible..."
He walks onto the boat as Baiton swallows nervously, before following the griffon into the ship, named "Siren's Call", then looks over the equipment before him, a lot of things to take some bigger fish, or a lot of small fish.
"So, erm," Baiton starts, then looks back to Grey, "what exactly is the job we're gonna be doing, while I'm working with you, Captain?"
"Glad you asked," Grey says, moving some of the equipment off to the side, "we're gonna need a bigger boat for a good while, since some of the local shark populations have gotten outta hand, and have been reducin' the number of fish we can catch, so it's ta help us, and our rivals, unfortunately."
"Sharks... huh," Baiton says with a thoughtful expression, "never thought I'd be out fishing for one of the deadliest critters of the sea..."
"And I neva thought I'd enjoy it as much as I do, yet here we are," Grey states, gesturing to the area around them, "though, I hope you've got a strong stomach, pony, since we're gonna be doin' some chummin'."
Baiton looks at him, confused, before asking, "What's 'chumming'?"
Grey smiles and drops a couple of buckets beside Baiton, who, upon looking inside, looks a little green now, after seeing it's contents, being animal-remains.
"You've gotta lot to learn, little colt," Grey says with a bit of a smirk, "and I'm gonna to teach you all of it, and then some."
It has been a surprisingly calm year... and that's what has Celestia worried.
Ever since the prophecy began, there has been no mention of anything unusual or abnormal going on, and the prophecy hasn't even progressed, making her worry further and further about how much longer until the creature spoken of continues it...
She sighs as she does her daily duty of raising the sun... then, during it, she feels it, right when she's let her guard down... the prophecy has finally continued...
She keeps her magic steady, finishes her duty and quickly rushes through the secret door as she quickly scribbles a note and places it on her bed to be found by whomever may come to see her.
She quickly reaches the room, meeting Luna and Discord in the same room ahead of her, both looking at the same prophecy, blocking her view of it.
"So, it has continued," Celestia says, approaching them.
"Indeed, sister," Luna says, looking back to her with a furrowed brow, "but... the wording of this part has had me worried, especially now..."
As she says that, she moves out of the way allowing Celestia the ability to fully see the prophecy, the previous words now glowing gold, rather than the bright white light that they before, now the newly lit words now glowing as such:
A predator,forcefully removed from the fading light of life, will grow powerful, going on to live as guardian, saving any and all within their flooded domain, or a monster, killing for revenge.
Celestia does gain a worried expression as she carefully re-reads this section...
"I hope..." Luna pauses for a moment, before trying again, "I hope that doesn't mean what I think it means..."
"You and I both, Luna..." Celestia states, putting a hand on Luna's shoulder.
"Personally, I just hope it was quick and painless for them," Discord says, looking like he bit something bitter, "at least that way, the suffering wasn't long..."
"... that's the most serious I've seen you in a long while, Discord," Celestia states looking at him with surprise, then worry as she approaches him. "Would you-?"
"Not today, no," he answers sternly, looking away, seeming more depressed suddenly. "... perhaps I'll pay Fluttershy another visit,she enjoys my surprise visits..."
With that, he snaps his fingers and vanishes, simple as that...
"I'll..." Luna starts, seeming unable to find the right words after that interaction, "... I'll set the guard on alert for anything outside of the norm, has Twilight and her friends found anything?"
Celestia shakes her head, "No, unfortunately, not even her or her equipment have found anything of importance..."
"More waiting..." Luna mutters under her breath before sighing, "Well, nothing we can do now..."
"Unfortunately, you're right," Celestia says in reluctant agreement, "let us return to our duties and see if anything pops up today..."
It's hard for Baiton to think he's been out here in these waters for almost a year now, working alongside the one and only Grey Glider, and that time, they have pulled in both the most amount of, and the biggest, catches compared to almost every other fishers around.
... ping... ping...
"Ah, she's chirping," Grey announced, holding up a loaded harpoon gun, "seems this batch of chum finally got us one, get the speargun Shark Bait."
"Right," Baiton says as he goes and picks up the speargun.
He has earned the nickname 'Shark Bait' after finally getting over the fact he's had to interact with animal remains, and seems to be a natural at making the stuff attract their intended targets.
"Let's see now..." Grey trails off, looking at the sonar, "... seems she's a bit out from the portside of the bow... keep an eye out for any signs of her."
Baiton nods, looking around outside with the speargun in hand, and Grey joins him... watching quietly as the chum slowly disperses in the water...
. . .
"... this one seems a bit cautious, Captain," Baiton states, his brow furrowing, "perhaps a little extra?"
"Give her a bit," Grey states confidently, peaking at the sonar every so often, "if she starts to leave, we'll let her be..."
Baiton nods, and does another once over, right as a fin emerges, and then he aims his speargun towards it, nodding in that direction, allowing Grey to take aim as well.
"Just need to be a little patient," he states confidently, yet quietly, aiming just ahead of the fin before pulling the trigger.
Both the small spear and the harpoon land their mark, the shark suddenly thrashing trying to get away, nearly pulling both overboard.
"Grover's Idol, this one's a biggun!" Grey exclaims, digging his paws into the deck as he and Baiton pull back some and tie the ropes to the side of the boat, before getting some rifles out, watching the line as the shark goes under.
"Easy does it..." Baiton mutters, taking aim at the water before Grey does, then popping off a shot, loading in the next round as the ropes suddenly go a bit slack and a bit of blood comes to the surface from where his bullet landed.
"... fantastic shot, I think you downed her," he compliments Baiton, sounding impressed, he then claps the pegasus on the back with his talon, putting down the rifle he was holding, "you've gotten better with that thing since I started teaching you, soon, you'll be able to start going without me, and be starting your own crew."
"Let's not get too excited just yet," Baiton says with a smile, "We've still gotta bring her up."
They eventually get her on board the boat, with the help of a pulley and winch, however, she's rather big, so big that when hanging from the pulley after being tied up properly, her snout is merely centimeters from the deck.
"She is a monster of a shark, she might even set a new record," Grey says, looking her up and down, then looks with a discerning gaze at a bulge between the shark's pelvic fin. "Say... can you pass me my gutting knife real quick?"
"Uh... sure...?" Baiton says, sounding confused, handing him a knife from the supplies.
Grey cuts it open and reaches in, Baiton looking a bit disturbed, but says nothing, then watches as he pulls out a small shark.
"Ah, that's why she was so cautious, she's near term with little ones," Grey states, the little shark thrashing a bit in his hand, "oi, cut that out, I'm not here for you, you bastard."
He then tosses the little shark out into the water, then proceeds to remove another four more little sharks from the shark's womb, then reaches in one last time, then gains a surprised and confused expression.
"That don't feel quite right..." he says, and before Baiton could ask, he pulls out another, what looks like a shark at first, then when it passes what should be it's torso, that's when differences appear that are not normal for a shark.
"What in Celestia's name...?" Baiton proclaims breathlessly as he stares at their find.
It looks like, what some would call a 'seapony', but... it's more shark-like than one would imagine, in fact, it looks like even the non-shark features still have some features of a shark, and the thrashing makes it a bit difficult to tell, but it even looks like a little girl...
While they are distracted looking her over, she bites onto his other talon, the one holding the knife, making Grey squawk, before trying to remove his hand from her jaw, dropping the knife in the process.
"GAH! You little...!" Grey shouts and begins cursing the likes of which even Baiton hasn't ever heard from him before, "Stop standing there and help me...!"
Baiton shakes out of his stupor and tries to help pry the shark off of Grey's talon, to no avail.
"Buck it," He states before grabbing the knife, and looking to Baiton, "Grab the first-aid kit, quickly."
Baiton nods and runs into the boat, and then Grey proceeds to cut his right talon off, tossing both it and the freak of nature shark overboard with it...
When Baiton returns, he gawks at Grey, now with one less talon before running over, getting the medical supplies open and begins to cover and treat Grey's new stump, him wincing from the pain of the missing limb and treatment.
"Y-y'know, I've..." Grey grunts through the pain, "I've a-always w-wanted a hook, like o-one of those pirate g-griffons from b-back then..." He laughs a bit through the pain as Baiton treats him, who lets out a bit of a snort at the incredulity of his statement.
"Well, you kinda have reason for it now," Baiton jokes back, finishing up the treatment, "let's go back, we got a big catch and you've got a story to tell..."
Grey nods, as Baiton stands at the controls and drives them back to port...
Chapter 3: Learning the Lay of the Land... and the Appetite...
Upon landing in the water, she regains her senses looking around confused.
'Did... did I blackout...?' she wonders to herself... then sees a red, mist-like tint float before her. 'What is...?'
She suddenly notices... a bird's... talon? Something seems odd about it, not including the fact that it's not attached to a bird currently...
She goes over and grabs it... that's when she notices how weird her arms look, and then begins to examine herself.
'I... have fins... and a tail...?' she thinks to herself, clearly confused, then a thought occurs to her. 'Wait... am I underwater...? I thought I was breathing... which means... I'm a mermaid!'
She does a weird happy dance-swim... thing, smiling widely, then stops as she finds her mouth feeling weird, then feels her teeth, only to wince a bit as she pulls back her finger, bleeding a little now.
'Ow...!' she goes to put her finger in her mouth in an attempt to stop the bleeding, only to stop as she realizes how bad of an idea that would be. 'Well, guess I'll just have to just deal with it...' she groans a bit... then finds herself suddenly very hungry...
'Oooh...' she groans from the hunger pangs, 'What can I eat, can I even leave the-?'
She suddenly finds herself looking at the talon again, her eyes suddenly dilating, unbeknownst to her... and then she stuffs it into her mouth, chewing it up before swallowing, then is still for a few moments, before her hands cover her mouth, her face expressing confusion and shock, her eyes now back to normal.
'W-why did I just... eat that...?' she thinks to herself removing her hands from her mouth and looking at her hands, another thought comes in, '... a-and... why did I like it...?'
She swims around blindly, and slowly begins to adjust to her new body, her new life, and she begins to remember what happened a few moments ago, having been pulled out of another shark... which she has the sinking feeling that the shark was supposed to be her new 'mom'...
And the one who had pulled her out of the shark was... weird, she remembers moving around too much to get a good look, but... he was very bird-like... and had some other characteristics that she can't place at the moment, but there was another person... someone with a horse-like head... and wings...?
'... my head hurts...' she puts a hand to her head, before... swimming on.
She looks around as she uses her new ability to... 'see' the area around her, as well as other fish, though a few were almost as big as her, finding herself quite tempted to try to eat them, but their sheer size made her worry that they'd eat her first... so she continued forward.
Eventually, she ends up encountering another shark, about her size-ish... she looks over herself and them, and finds that they are a lot alike... even have a weird mark on their tail like her, it doesn't look like a scar... but...
She follows alongside the shark, finding herself oddly safer with them... him, she's sure this shark is a he... he is her brother.
'I will protect you.' she thinks to herself, petting his side, and he slows down a bit, letting her keep pace with him... even seeming a bit more calm, all while she tries to understand that she's a... weird shark mermaid...
After a while of swimming, they find themselves going into a more narrow part of the water.
'This must be a river...' she thinks to herself, still following alongside... her brother.
She finds it oddly easier to... breathe, in the river, though, she can't say why, but it feels like that...
Her brother suddenly takes off forward, and she understands why, there's a fish about half of their size, and she finds herself moving just as quickly towards it, her hunger guiding her, probably doing the same with him.
Once they catch up, they begin to double-team the fish, trying it's best to flee, but as time goes one, one bite at a time, one chunk of flesh at time, each spurt of blood at a time... it eventually goes still, and the both feast on it's remains...
As she finishes her final bite, she shivers a bite, swallowing... this time, there was no excuse, she did that willingly, yet... it felt right...
She continues to follow her brother... upstream? Thinking about it, in a way, this is her first experience of the world outside of that hellhole she's known all her life... it's quite... exhilarating...
She finds it surprising how she isn't full yet, from having eaten one and a-half decent sized fish... but maybe she's overthinking it, it might not be as much as it looked...
They both continue the hunt, looking for more fish to eat as they go up the river.
After satiating her brother's appetite, and eventually hers, they both come across a little hidden hole further up the river, and entering it, it didn't look by much, but they both could tell that it was safe.
'... perhaps I can find something to decorate it with,' she thought to herself, before she went peacefully into unconsciousness...
There are many bubbles with many ponies, griffons, dragons, and other such creatures of Equis in their dreams, then an alicorn's silhouette appears, before being colored in just as suddenly, revealing it to be Princess Luna who looks around upon entering.
"Let's see what dreams need to be handled tonight," Luna states to herself, looking around, as she moves through the realm, looking between each dream and it's contents.
As she goes on, she eventually stops as she looks at... a particularly weird looking bubble, as it seems to be... unstable, showing images for a split second only to suddenly become static, and occasionally a jumbled mess of colors.
"... what in the depths of Tartarus...?" she breathlessly exclaims, getting closer to get a better look, but is no less confused.
"... perhaps this warrants further investigation..." she states as she then goes into the dream.
Once fully in, the world of the dream was... a weird mess, to put it mildly, oddly reminding her of Discord's place the one time she went over.
"... is this a dream of his...?" she ponders, then hears a voice... voices?
Looking around, she eventually finds... a figure of, what appears to be a young girl, but she's changing between a relatively normal looking form, into an elongated... fish-eske form, rather similar to that of the seapony race, but notably different.
"Hello?" Luna calls out, approaching the young filly, and as she gets closer, the voices slowly become clearer, sounding almost like whispers, managing to understand some here and there.
"Where are you?" "What are you?" "Who was that you saw?" "What was that you saw?"
The longer Luna listens, the more she becomes perturbed... could this filly have lost her memories?
Right as she got within an arm's length of her the voices suddenly went quiet, making Luna freeze in place, as suddenly, something didn't feel right... then she noticed one of the child's eyes is open, looking at her, almost glowing an eerie red color.
Then she began to feel a presence behind her... something that made her shiver, and part of her instinct began telling her to run, but she ignores it before looking behind her.
... and finds herself face-to-face what almost looks like the largest, most battle-scarred shark she has ever seen, with one of its eyes also glowing the same eerie red... then heard both the child behind her and this monstrous shark speak at the same time, making an almost echoing, fear inflicting voice.
"Leave," they said simply
... and Luna never left a dream, let alone a nightmare, so fast in her life, having left purely on instinct as... whatever that was, made her feel primal fear.
"S-stars above..." Luna stutters out, slightly shaking still from the encounter... then her eyes widen with realization, "N-no... could that be...?"
She looks back, but finds the dream is no longer there...
