Ch. 10: Seaquestria

Then out of nowhere, Sonic found his breath again, as did all the others. They looked and saw their heads were encased in bubbles.

"Way to leave it…" panted Pinkie. "To the last minute, Twilight!"

"I didn't make these bubbles!" said Twilight.

"What?" asked Sonic.

"Then who did?" panted Fluttershy. Then something swam past, causing everyone to gasp in fear and huddle closer. Sonic flipped a switch on one of his katana and drew it, a thin bubble sort-of thing surrounding the blade.

"Who's there?" he asked.

"Hello?" asked Twilight. "We're looking for the hippogriffs." Then the same yellow light from earlier floated up.

"How do I know I can trust you?" she said in an almost accusing voice.

"If you don't trust them, then trust me," said Sonic, swimming in front of them and sheathing his sword.

"And exactly what are you?" asked the voice.

"Name's Sonic, but that's not important right now," he said. "What is important is that the Storm King has invaded their realm, and we need their help to liberate it."

"The Storm King?!" asked the voice. Then the light transformed into a bright yellow animal with light arctic blue hair and brilliant cyan eyes. She also had wings colored a sort of shade of scarlet, but what confused Sonic the most was that her top half looked like a pony, but she had the large finned tail of a fish. "I am so glad I saved you guys! I'm totally taking you to my mom!"

"Wait a sec, what are you, some sort of sea-pony?" asked Sonic.

"Yep. My name's Skystar, now come on!" she said, swimming ahead.

Twilight gasped. "Does your mother know where they are?" she asked.

"Oho!" said Skystar before switching to a singsong voice. "She might have an idea!" Then she giggled.

"Hoo-hoo!" whooped Twilight as the team swam after Skystar. She seemed to be leading them further down in the water through large caverns until she swam a little further ahead.

"We're almost there!" she said and swam through a large cave. The others followed her and saw a huge orb-shaped city hanging from the cave ceiling.

"Whoa!" said the team.

"This must be your world's equivalent of Atlantis," said Sonic in awe. He saw a group of sea-ponies below and waved to them, but they just swam away. "Guess they're just as trusting of surface-dwellers too." Then they swam up to the large structure hanging from the ceiling to see it was some sort of throne room. And on the throne was another sea-pony wearing a small festive crown. Her coat was light fuchiaish gray with a bright fuchsia mane and larger, thinner purple wings.

"Mother!" said Skystar swimming up to her. "Look what I found!"

"Is it another shell?" asked her mother.

"Mm-mm," said Skystar.

"Because I am telling you," she said opening her purple eyes. "If it is another shell, I am-" The second she saw the team she let out a huge gasp. "Princess Skystar, what have you done?! You know surface-dwellers are forbidden here! Guards!" The guards moved on the team, making them gasp, but Sonic quickly drew two katana and aimed them at the guards.

"Try anything, and I'll cut you to ribbons!" he said.

"No no n-no! M-M-Mom, please! It is so not like that!" said Skystar. "The Storm King is trying to destroy their home too!"

"We came here to find the hippogriffs," said Sonic. "Skystar here said you knew what happened to them. Is it true?"

"Well, of course I know, I'm the queen," she said. "I know everything."

"Oh, oh it's such a good story!" said Skystar.

"Don't you dare tell them!" said her mother as Skystar swam up to a wall and waved her forehoof over it, making glowing markings appear.

"Once upon a time, like, a while ago, the Hippogriffs did live on Mount Aris," she said. The team oohed at the markings and the story.

"Did I not say don't tell them?" asked the queen, sitting back down. "But hey, I'm just the queen. Don't mind me."

"Fine! I can't tell you!" said Skystar. "But if I could tell you, I'd say that that horned beast did show up to steal their magic!"

"Seriously?" asked the queen, knowing she was still telling them.

"But, to keep it out of his clutches, their brave and majestic leader, Queen Novo, hid them deep underwater where he could never go! We are… Well, we were the hippogriffs! Ta-da!" Then she laughed and moved to whisper to the others. "But I totally did not tell you that!"

"Wait a second, so then does that mean…?" asked Sonic, pointing at the queen.

"Well, I guess the pearl is out the oyster now," she said. "I am Queen Novo."

"Cool," said Sonic in awe.

"Hold on now!" said Applejack, swimming over. "Lemme get this straight. When the Storm King came, you just abandoned your entire city and fled?"

"We didn't flee, we swam!" said Skystar. "Y'know, in order to flee."

"But you just said- Ah, forget it," said Sonic.

"But… how?" asked Twilight.

"Oh! Can we show them? Huh?" asked Skystar. "These are the first guests we've had in like, foreveeerrr!" Then she began tapping on her mother's chest. "Can we, can we, can we, can we, can we, can we, can we, can we, can we?"

"Well, I suppose I should make sure it still works," said Novo.

"Make sure what still works?" asked Sonic. Then Novo swam around a large jellyfish near the ceiling and a strange collection of tentacles wrapped around something floated down, opening revealing a large glowing pearl.

"This," she said and chuckled. Skystar giggled and clapped her hoof-fins together giddily. "Careful now." Once it touched her fins, the pearl started giving off some sort of magic energy which flowed to the others, surrounding them. The bubbles around their heads popped, their wings thinned, and their hind legs and tails merged into large fish-like tails. Twilight's and those of her other friends were like Skystar and Novo's but Sonic's turned into that of a swordfish.

"Whoa!" they all said and laughed.

"These fins are divine!" yelled Rarity.

"Hey Applejack, Sonic! I'll race ya to that coral!" said Rainbow, pointing in a direction.

"Ye're on!" said Applejack, slapping her hat down on her head.

"You will lose!" said Sonic and shot ahead, laughing. Pinkie was having the time of her life, swimming around in circles.

"Whoo-hoo!" she giggled. "Ooh! Try it, Fluttershy!" Fluttershy gave a weak giggle and "yay", twitching her tail a bit. Then the others grouped around Spike who had turned into some sort of fish.

"Guys? Guys? What is…" he said before he puffed up, revealing himself to be a pufferfish. "…happening?!"

"Okay, I guess that's fair," said Sonic.

"Aw, so cute!" said Fluttershy.

"This is amazing!" said Twilight, reaching for the pearl. "With this, we could transform everypony at home into something powerful enough to face the Storm King's army!"

"Or it could end up in his greedy claws!" said Novo, holding it back and swimming upright.

"But…" said Twilight.

"Honey, I'm sorry about your home," said Novo, putting her hoof on Twilight's shoulder. "I truly am. But my responsibility is to protect my subjects. The pearl…" Then she gave it back to the jellyfish. "is not going anywhere." Then she sat back down.

"But…" said Twilight.

"Cmon, your majesty," said Sonic. "We came all this way for your help. And you can't just hide down here, trapped under the ocean forever! There's so much up on the surface you're missing!"

"We are one hundred percent okay with that!" said Novo. Then a tiny little octopus swam up and chittered to her. "Yes, Jamal?" Jamal chittered again, and Novo's expression perked back up. "Ooh! Time for my seaweed wrap." Then she swam off.

"But-!" yelled Sonic. Jamal just chittered to her again.

"Yes, a massage too, Mama needs her deep tissue," said Novo. Then the others swam up.

"So that's it? We left home for nothin'?" asked Applejack.

"So it would seem," said Sonic.

"Oh… my gosh," said Skystar. "Best… idea! You can stay with us! Forever!" Then she laughed. "There are so many things we can do! We can make friendship bracelets out of shells and... picture frames outta shells and... decorative wastebaskets out of shells... Oh, I have so many projects that involve shells, haha! Now I have someone new to share them with!" Then she pulled up two shells with googly eyes attached to them. "I mean, aside from my friends, Shelly and Sheldon. Right? 'Shelly'? And 'Sheldon'?" She chuckled. "Get it?" She just kept chuckling and snorting as she shoved the shells in front of them.

"There really isn't a lot to do down here, is there?" asked Sonic.

"No," said Skystar.

"Yeah, thought not," said Sonic.

"That sounds lovely, darling, but you must realize, we can't stay," said Rarity.

"We've gotta get back to our families," said Applejack.

"Oh. No. Of course, of course," said Skystar sadly. "Of course you have your own friends back home. It's fine, it's fine. Heh." She whispered the next part. "Shelly and Sheldon get jealous anyways." She chuckled. "It's probably for the best. Yeah, I'll just, um… I'll get Mom to, uh, turn you back so you can go home." Then she swam off. Pinkie was upset for her and swam after her for a bit before she went back to the others.

"I know we have to go, but you guys saw how disappointed Princess Skystar was," she said. "Couldn't we stay for just a little longer?"

"Pinkie, we just don't have for-" Applejack began.

"Oh, no. No, no. Pinkie's right." said Twilight in a weird tone of voice.

"Say what now?" asked Rainbow.

"Howzat?" asked Sonic.

"Well, we still need to come up with a plan to get back. A few minutes won't make a huge difference," said Twilight. "'And if there's anypony who can cram a lifetime of fun into a blink of an eye, it's Pinkie Pie!" Pinkie smiled hugely and gave a happy "Squee" noise. "So go ahead and show Skystar the best time ever!"

"I won't let you down!" said Pinkie saluting as she and the others swam away.

"I'm counting on it," said Twilight. Sonic seemed apprehensive about this, but he wasn't going to mess with it as he followed the others, leaving Twilight alone in the throne room staring at the jellyfish… and the pearl.