Canterlot is many things. A center of learning, a place of everything pony culture, a place of civility, and, most of all, the home of the royal princesses. As such, the castle reflected the their presence. The halls were composed of white alabaster marble floors, large towering columns, and immense stain glass windows that seemed to depict moments in the nation’s history. Even the view seemed pretty royal, each window showed off a glorious vista of the city. Tide managed to steal a few glances out a couple of the colored windows to see the city in a variety of colors. While it was pleasant and enjoyable, she wasn’t here for pleasantries. She needed to talk to these princesses. She needed to get assistance for her home. This was her mantra as she, Daring, and Prince Blueblood proceeded down a secluded hallway toward the throne room. Prince Blueblood had suggested it to avoid gaining undue attention. This was his immediate suggestion after regaining his verbal skills. Despite the initial shock, Blueblood would occasionally glance in Tide’s direction. Why, Tide was unsure, but assumed it was because of how different her physiology was compared to the other ponies. A part of her mind worried that this “prince” might be in cahoots with the group from before; however, she was too committed at this point. If this was a trap... well, she didn’t want to think about it. Worse comes to worse, she’d figure something out.

“Please excuse my curiosity, but she has been very quiet. Is there a reason?” Blueblood eventually inquired. Tide barely hesitated and let out a series of moans and chitters that caused Blueblood to halt immediately and stare at Tide.

Blueblood’s expression matched a look somewhere between disgusted and confused. “What... was that?”

“She doesn’t speak Equestrian. She understands it fine, but don’t expect her to say anything we’d understand,” Daring responded with a subdued smirk and a partially suppressed giggle.

“Oh... I see,” Blueblood said with some a bit of disgust still lingering in his voice. “What a... delightful language.”

Tide giggled to herself. While she let out the moans and chitters to explain the situation faster. She was pleased to find that if she need to insult the stallion to his face, she could easily do it.

In time, the trio arrived at large double door. From behind the door a set of voices were conversing, but were too muffled to be delineated. Tide attempted to listen in to the conversation but still found the voices too muffled. All she could determine was there were two voices, one voice sounded male and the other female. Other than that she couldn’t discern much else.

“Okay, wait here a moment. Auntie Celestia is still in a conference with somepony else. I’ll let her know you’re both here,” Blueblood instructed as he slowly opened the door and slipped in as quietly as he could. This left Daring and Tide alone once again. Daring for her part had removed her pancho completely and was making sure she was presentable. Tide kept looking around the hallway with curiosity lingering in her mind. She found several of the stain glass windows quite interesting. The events depicted on each were very intricate, however, the briefness of the moments depicted almost begged for visitors to question what had happened. Tide found herself in this scenario. She made a note to learn more about some of the pictures later, if only to sate her own curiosity. As she continued looking at all the windows, she noted one particular window depicting a pegasus, a unicorn, and an earth pony in what appeared to be a cave, laughing. Around them layers of snow and ice seemed to be receding away from the trio. “Is it some kind of symbolism?” Tide thought to herself. “Did they do something to make the ice recede? If you’re going to put this stuff up at least have the decency to line up the stories in an order to tell the actual story!”

Tide was broken out of her thought by the sound of a door closing behind her. She turned to see Blueblood standing in front of the double doors. “Auntie said she’ll see you both once she finishes with the gentlecolt in there right now,” Blueblood announced in a partially hushed tone.

Daring nodded before adding an additional question.“How long before they finish?”

“I’d give them a few more minutes, at least. Not much longer.”

Tide heard this little detail and decided it might be time to... be professional. She’d never really been in front of royalty before and she needed this princess to help her and her home. She did her best to look as presentable as she could... which wasn’t much. Some of her scales were still missing or discolored. She had nothing formal to wear... or anything for that matter. All she had was her magic and everything she’d ever learned. She was in foreign lands and she was virtually alone. The closest thing she had to a friend was the pegasus across from her. The direness of the situation was beginning to sink in and Tide began to visibly shake. Her fins were twitching and her tail fin was almost needle thin. “Stop... just stop. I need to do this. I need to convince them! Stop shaking!” Tide did her best to keep herself under control, to rein herself in. “You’re almost there! Help is behind the damn door! Get it together!” But her nerves were beginning to win out. “Just breath... just breath. Just-”

“Hey, you okay?” Daring’s voice rang out causing Tide to gasp. She turned to see Daring standing next to her looking concerned. Tide looked to the one friend she had in this city and attempted to pantomime her current state of nervousness; however, all she managed to do was make a bunch of sporadic hoof gestures. Daring was clearly confused, “Uh... what?”

The fish-pony was clearly displeased and opted for a more direct approach. She grabbed Daring’s hoof and put in on her barrell. The rapid beating of her heart combined with Tide pointing at the double doors seemed make her previous message more clear. “Oh, you’re nervous?” Daring asked to confirm her suspicions.

Tide nodded before pointing to the doors again and shrugging.

Daring was sure she understood that one, “Okay, let’s start by just breathing. Long, deep breaths.”

Tide obliged. “Good. Now, just relax. Princess Celestia is very understanding.”

Tide continued her breathing as Daring continued, but felt she had to point out one more drastic issue. She pointed to her throat and gave a slightly desperate shrug. Daring caught on fairly quick,“Oh... yeah, that is a problem. Well, again, just relax. I’m sure the princess knows a spell that might be able to help with that and if not, she’ll figure out a way to help you speak with us. Just keep calm and trust me when I say we are here to help. Whatever those assholes are up to, we’ll help stop them. Okay?”

Tide let out a low moan and her fins all went flush against her body. She wasn’t entirely content with that response, but she had to trust Daring on this. She had little other options right now and she doubted she’d be able to find any more help with how she looked. “I hope this works out.”

After waiting a bit more, a guard appeared at the double doors and announced that Princess Celestia would see Tide and Daring. The trio made their way in, Tide getting a few incredulous looks from the guards in the room. As they entered, Tide got her first good look at the princess. She was sitting on a fairly large golden throne flanked by two guards in armor. She seemed to have very kind eyes but the rest of her? To Tide, the princess was a bit odd to look at. For one, she was much taller than any pony in the room. Secondly, she had features of all three of the pony tribes: wings, a horn, and if her size was anything to go on, earth pony physic. Then there was her mane and tail, it was... flowing, constantly. “Is she so powered by magic that her mane just exudes excess magic? Is that possible? Or is it just some kind of trick to make her look more powerful?” Regardless of her personal questions, she put her focus on the task she had come here to accomplish.

Daring and Tide made their way to the center of the long throne room while Blueblood placed himself in front of the two mares. The prince gave a small bow as did Daring, Tide was too focused on the princess and didn’t notice the formal greeting. Celestia was keen to notice

he waited until he was addressed. “Prince Blueblood, you have some interesting company with you this evening,” Celestia stated with piqued interest and a small smile. “What seems to be the issue?”

“Well, Auntie. Ms. Do, contacted me about one of her recent escapades and mentioned that she was in a bit of trouble with a rather distasteful group of unicorns. She also mentioned a victim of this particular group,” Blueblood stopped to motioned to Tide. “Ms... Tide, who is... well... I’m not sure what she is exactly,” Blueblood explained. Tide gave the prince an annoyed look but it’s effects were negated by the fact the stallion didn’t notice it.

“She is quite different,” Celestia stated as she rose from her throne and began to approach the group. She stopped in front of Blueblood first, “Thank you for bringing this to my attention, Blueblood.” She then approached Tide, who looked at the alicorn with a bit of trepidation in her eyes. “Oh crap... Should I bow? Did Daring bow? Crap, she’s right in front of me! Bow for safety, dumb ass!” Tide prostrated herself before the alicorn in the hopes she hadn’t offended. However, she was barely on the ground for a second before a hoof touched her side. “There is no need for that, Tide,” the princess stated in an almost motherly voice. “Please stand.”

Tide looked up to see Celestia sitting in front of her. She then got back to a standing position and did her best to look as professional as she could. This amounted to her standing as still as possible and allowing her fins to open up slightly. She wasn’t sure what to do. She knew that talking was out of the question. “What do I do now?”

“So, Ms. Tide, it would seem you are in a bit of trouble. Could you explain what has happened?” Celestia asked with sympathy in her eyes. Tide flinched at this and immediately turned to Daring for help. Daring gave a simple smile explained her fishy friend’s plight. “Tide can’t speak common Equestrian, your highness. We were hoping you might have a solution to that, but I can explain everything to this point.”

Celestia looked from Daring to the odd pony before her. Tide let out a low and sorrowful moan followed by a chirp. This caused Blueblood to twitch slightly and caused Celestia to blink in surprise. “Oh my. That is a problem,” Celestia took a moment to consider what to do next, but offered Daring the opportunity to explain the situation thus far. “I was after Ahui, again, and I tracked him to the Gateway and that’s where I encountered the unicorn group making a deal with Ahuizotl.” She then reached into her saddle bag to produce the collar she’d “acquired” and handed it off to Princess Celestia. “The deal was a ring of Tallecron for that collar. I suspect it’s a Sombrian subservience collar. I think they were going to use it on Tide to help them get into her homeland.”

Celestia took the collar and went over it carefully. With a long sigh, she affirmed Daring’s suspicions, “You’re correct, Daring. I’ll have to warn Princess Cadence that there may be looters in the Crystal Empire. In the meantime, this does not need to exist.” Celestia turned her gaze to the collar and applied her magic to hold it in the air. Her horn flared with bright yellow magic and soon the collar began to burn molten red until it became nothing more than a floating pile of slag. A little more application of magic and the slag evaporated into nothingness. With the collar gone she returned her focus to Blueblood. “Blueblood, do you have any more reports on this group?”

Blueblood gave a quick nod, “There are some reports of assaults and burglaries committed by group members from around Equestria. Most of them show that they posted bail shortly after their arrest and any stolen good were never recovered. Some sources suggest this is an initiation ritual for those without high income, but we cannot yet confirm that. Other reports confirm that known members have been purchasing rare magical artifacts, but up until now we were unsure for what reasons.”

“I see,” Celestia stated with a nod. “See if you can get a few guards to tail one of them. I’d like to know where they are taking these artifacts. If they are hoarding devices like that collar, I’d rather them be destroyed.”

Blueblood gave an affirmative nod, “Understood, Auntie.”

Celestia then turned her attention to Tide. She knelt down so she’d be eye level with with her and gave a small bow. “I’d like to firstly apologize for what my little ponies have been doing. I’d never condone such actions and it is my hopes that we can bring them to justice before further harm comes to anypony or any of your people.”

Tide listened as Celestia spoke, she felt a true sincerity in her words and she looked just as regretful as she said it. The fish-pony did her best to try and acknowledge that she accepted the apology, but ended up flailing in her attempts to pantomime her response. In the end, she let out an aggravated groan.

Celestia watched the mare with a slightly amused look, “Don’t worry, we’ll work on a way to help you communicate.” She paused as her tone shifted slightly. “Until then, I’d like to try a spell to help us understand what is happening. The spell with broadcast your memories so that we may see them. However, I will not perform the spell without your permission. Will you allow me to cast this spell?”

Tide looked at Celestia. She was surprised by how motherly she was, but also how willing she was to help. It was... amazingly refreshing. It also helped to ease any trepidation she had had going in. While she was unsure about this spell, but she felt... safe. At least, they weren’t kicking her while she was in a sack. Tide nodded, giving her consent.

“Very well. I want you to think back to when the problems first started and do your best to focus on them. We need to know as much as possible if we are going to help. Okay?” Celestia explained as her horn began to glow.

Tide nodded and readied herself for what was to come. She watched as Celestia’s horn came down and touched her head. Then everything around her vanished.

Tide’s body was eerily still as Celestia finished the spell. Daring and Blueblood looked on with overt curiosity. Both were wondering what they were about to witness and soon were surprised by a light shining out of Tide’s eyes. Her fins flared and soon a sphere appeared between her and Celestia. Within the orb shapes and images began to form, colors melted in and adhered themselves to the shapes. Within moments the distinct image of an underwater city became crystal clear. There was singular sprawling tower and ancient looking pathways that connected the tower to ornately designed buildings and domes. Looking closer, many of the buildings were covered in various purple, brown, and green algaes along with a variety of corals and sponges. Schools of colorful fish darted and dashed around and through the buildings. The sight was almost otherworldly, and hypnotizing at the same time.

“Beautiful!” Celestia exclaimed.

“That's an understatement,” Daring replied in amazement.

“They need to clean that disgusting filth off the side of their buildings,” Blueblood responded in disgust. This earned him two annoyed glares from both Celestia and Daring. Upon receiving the unpleasant stares the stallion decided to keep the other comments he had to himself.

Returning to the sphere the image shifted as the view seemed to change. It was moving. “I hope this is worth my damn time,” a voice rang out from the image. It was clearly feminine, but it had an odd accent. “I got better things to do than chase shadows.”

“Is that Tide?” Daring asked Celestia in hushed tones.

Celestia nodded, “Yes, it should be her inner thoughts. What we are seeing is what Tide saw.”

The image continued to travel through the underwater city, as it did, various other fish-ponies passed by. Some were vibrant and colorful, while others were more muted or were a solid silver. A few seemed to travel in large groups while others seemed more solitary. It was an odd dynamic to witness and Celestia was now actively taking notes about what she saw, using some parchment and she kept by her throne to document what she saw and some hypotheses she had. Daring just watched in wonder, but also abject curiosity. The architecture was amazingly well maintained but it was clear that it had been underwater for an extensive period of time. What was more interesting was that the buildings looked similar to some of Canterlot’s buildings, but how could they build something like that underwater? It shouldn’t be possible. How did they do that?

The image continued to change as Tide entered a rather ornate building. As Tide touched down on the building’s platform, the observers noticed something strange. It appeared that there was a large air bubble encased within the building. As the group contemplated what was inside the building, the image moved forward and passed through the bubble and the water around Tide seemed to disappear.

“Is that a confined air pocket?” Blueblood inquired with a bit of confusion.

“It would seem so. They must be applying quite an impressive spell to maintain it. Fascinating,” Celestia stated as she continued to scribble more notes on her parchment.

The image progressed showing several fish-ponies wandering around while others sat various rock tables with scrolls or books strung across them. Tide seemed to notice the presence of the other ponies, but seemed to be scanning the area. It appeared she was searching for something. Her vision stopped on an orange fish-pony with three large white bands accented with black outlines. Based on the pony’s physique, it looked to be a stallion. He was sitting at a table looking through a tome. Tide approached until she was able to take a seat at the table. “This had better not be another report about interferences in the barrier again. I have better things to do than looking for magical errors when there are none,” Tide stated in an annoyed tone.

The orange fish pony looked up from his tome and shook his head. He let out a slightly hushed moan along with a few chittering clicks.“I wouldn’t have called for you if it wasn’t important, Ms. Tide Caller.”

“Wait, did anypony else hear that in Equestrian?” Daring asked in confusion.

“Yes, I’m translating it for you,” Tide’s voice interjected. “Would appreciate it if you’d stop talking, it’s messing with my concentration.”

The group apologized and returned to watching the events within the sphere continued to unfold. Tide let out an annoyed moan with clicks and squeals. “Last time I was called here, I was asked to look at some stupid interference in the barrier. Tell me this is something different, Gulf.”

Gulf rolled his eyes as his fins flared and began to glow an orangy yellow. A complex array of runes appeared on a magically projected circle. Gulf then pointed to a rune at the north most point of the circle and let out a few chitters and clicks. “Something nearly broke this barrier rune. I need you to check to see if there is evidence of what did it.”

The image suddenly seemed to close slightly. A confused moan accented the slightly odd look that Tide was giving Gulf. “Is that outside the barrier?”

Gulf nodded.

“Nearly broke an exterior barrier rune? Who has the power to break something that strong?” Tide thought to herself. She let out a questioning moan. “Any suspects?”

Gulf shook his head at this before dissipating the runes and using his magic to pass a small scroll over to Tide. Tide took it in her own magic and began reading. “Reports of glassed sand, abnormal water temperature, and multiple sets of hoof marks in a central vicinity and anset leading away from the main set. What?” Tide moaned, clicked, and chittered her confusion. “Somepony was trying to burn through the barrier? And they just walked away?”

“It’s unusual for certain. We’d like you to investigate,” Gulf responded in a short chitter.

Tide looked away from the scroll. “Why would anypony want to break the barrier? Everypony knows that it keeps the city safe and the surface dwellers away... unless... no, they can’t get down this deep. They don’t even know we exist.”

Blueblood cocked an eyebrow at the mention of “surface dwellers”. He shot a glance to his aunt and scooted closer to ask her a whispered question, “She knew we existed. Do you think they all do?”

Celestia looked partially uncertain as she responded, “It is possible. We will need to ask Tide about it when she’s finished.”

Blueblood nodded and returned his focus back to the scene.

Tide looked back to the orange fish pony and gave him a long confident moan and quick squeal. “Okay, I’ll look into it. Are there any other locations that have had similar problems?”

Gulf nodded and produced what looked like a blank piece of parchment. He then proceeded to draw a map with three X's marked at the northern, northwestern, and eastern sections of the map. Gulf groaned lightly as he passed the parchment over. “These are the most recent disturbances. This one was hit the hardest than the other two,” the splotched pony remarked pointing to the northernmost mark on the map. “ If you go to investigate this, I’d recommend bringing protection, just in case. This isn’t the normal antics of hoodlums. Something isn’t right.”

Tide nodded as she took the parchment. She moaned and chattered as she stored the parchment in a small tube she had attached to her body. “I’ll see about getting an escort to come along. I’ll report back with what I find.”

Gulf squealed as Tide left. “Be safe.”

She turned and gave her own squeal with a variance in how it was announced. “Don’t be a pain.” With that said, Tide took her leave into the water and the image began to blur and fade. When the image returned Tide was no longer alone. She was flanked by two rather imposing fish-ponies. The one on her left was a red and white striped with very long spindly fins. Each one extended long past his fore and back legs and each fin seemed to be much bonier than Tide’s and seemed to almost be quills of some kind.

On her right was a pony of a solid tone grey on her upper portion while her underside was pure white and the tips of her fins were dipped in pitch black. However, her physique was different than the other two ponies. Her fins were stiffer and meatier and they didn’t flow in the water. In fact, the pony’s entire body seemed to slither with every tail movement.

“She’s part shark,” Celestia pointed out with a clear interest. “Fascinating!”

Blueblood did not seem to share his aunt’s enthusiasm. “So... does that mean she eats meat?” he inquired with a bit of disgust lingering in his words.

“If she has teeth like Tide’s, I’d say yes,” Daring interjected.

The prince was not pleased by this response and began to eye Tide with a look of unease. Daring took note of the look and quickly did her best to correct it. “Oh, don’t give her that look,” she chided. “If her other teeth are anything to go by she can eat fruits and vegetables too... or whatever they have underwater.”

“But they’re ponies. How can they eat meat?!”

“We evolved to eat it... dumbass,” Tide interjected. “And not all of us eat meat. So relax.”

Celestia hide a small smile. She had planned to chide Blueblood herself, but she was pleased to see Tide was willing to scold him for being rude. She wasn’t entirely fond of her choice of words, but she could excuse it for now. Tide’s comment did lead her to wonder what she meant. They “evolved” to consume meat? That would almost imply that they didn’t at some point. But why did some eat meat but others didn’t? She began to get excited at the idea of learning more about this odd species, but first she’d need to learn why Tide sought them out to begin with.

Returning to the image, it was clear that the group were no longer in the city from before. They were swimming above kind of coral reef. All around them were various outcroppings of vibrant corals and new varieties of fish. The reef seemed to expand for a considerable distance; however, there was a point where the reef seemed to come to a clear and unnatural stop. Like a line drawn in the sand where the reef just stopped. No drop off or tapering, it just stopped. While the group began to question why there was such an odd anomaly, Tide began to sink towards the ocean floor. She approached the line in the reef and gestured for her escorts to stay close. She set herself down on the ocean floor and let her magic flare. Soon a small circular rune appeared in the sand. She looked over the rune before looking toward the line. She let out a small moan followed by a series of clicks and chitters. “We need to check the outside of the barrier. Be on guard.”

The two guards nodded. The guard to Tide’s left expanded his fins and took a few cautious paddles towards the line in the reef. As he did something seemed to warp around him, as if it was consuming him, until his back fin disappeared. Tide just watched along with the shark-pony. Both shot each other a cautious glance until they heard a squeal come from the other side. “Looks clear.”

Both Tide and the shark-pony nodded and went through the strange barrier. Like the pony before them, it warped around their forms until they crossed over. The quill-like pony was perched on a nearby rock cropping scanning the surrounding area. Tide looked to the pony standing watch then to the pony on her right. She gave the shark-pony a nod and went to check the barrier. Flaring her magic, another rune appeared, but this one was partially warped and it wasn’t shining as brightly as the one before. As the reports had stated, part of the sand have been glassed and thus caused the rune’s appearance to be altered. “Explains why it almost broke,” Tide thought to herself. “They must have been using a massive amount of magic or a strong fire spell.”

Tide took a cautious glance around the area before she got to work. Using her magic, she lifted the glassed sand off the ground and let the surrounding sand fill in the void. She patted it to a flat surface before she began repairing the rune. Her magic flared yet again and the remains of the rune began to shine weakly. Continuing to use her magic she worked to replace the missing section of the rune. She was nearing completion when an odd sound distracted her. It sounded like... a rush of air. A large rush of air coming from nearby. She turned to see a pillar of air rushing towards the surface. Tide looked to where the pillar had originated. It looked to be originating from behind a set of rocks. The two guards seemed to notice as well and immediately gave it their focus.

“What the hell could possibly release that much air? Unless... no. They couldn’t be here,” Tide thought to herself. However, she must have been erring on the side of caution as she let out a low baritone moan. “Check it out. Just in case.”

Both guards nodded and moved to investigate. Tide returned to finish what she started. A few more dashes and-

*Zort*

Tide zipped around to see one of her guards, the one with the quills, had a large burn mark now running across his right side. The water near him was now redder and there was a look of shock on the shark-pony. Tide looked down towards the rocks again and this time she saw a group of unicorns wearing odd black suits emerging from behind the rocks. Each unicorn had a bubble around their muzzles and a set of goggles looked to protect their eyes. “Oh no...”

Tide watched as her shark-pony guard immediately began to charge the group. She quickly grabbed one of the guards by the legs and began to thrash him around violently. Blood quickly filled the zone where the visceral attack occurred and a muffled yell gurgled in the water.

The rest of the unicorn group didn’t take kindly to this assault and began to shoot at her. Tide took the opportunity to rescue the other injured guard while the other pulled focus. She quickly got underneath him and swam him over to the barrier. She let out a high pitched moan that seemed to have a warning tone to it. “Stay safe, we need to get back to the city and warn the others!”

The injured guard nodded, albeit weakly. Tide turned back to the other guard. She was currently dealing with a barrage of magical blasts while returning a few of her own. Thankfully the attackers were finding it difficult to zero in on the agile shark-pony and the fact she was retorting with her own was causing the group to reposition and adjust their assault.

Tide narrowed her gaze on one particular unicorn that seemed to be getting in a better position and propelled herself forward them at an impressive speed. The targeted unicorn barely had time to react as Tide slammed into them and knocked their breath out of them. Tide was quick to follow up with a magical blast that looked to put the unicorn out of commission. Once she dealt with her target she looked back to where the group was, there were more of them before and they were getting better as their shots. The shark-pony was struggling to avoid their attacks now. “If we keep this up were dead!” Tide thought. “We need to leave! Get behind the barrier and warn the council.”

Tide let out a series of bellows and moans. “Fall back! We can’t win. Take Current and get out of here!”

The shark-pony dodged another series of bolts before dashing behind a large rock outcropping. From behind the outcropping a series of bellows came back. “I can’t they have me locked down!”

Tide quickly rebuttled, “I’ll drawn their attention. Just get Current back to the city, I’ll be right behind you!” Without another a moment's hesitation Tide began to charge up her magic. The lines on her body began to glow brightly and the water in front of her began to swirl and twist before becoming a small ball. With a grunt of effort she flung the ball straight into the group causing the majority of them to be caught in the swirling mass and carried away.

Tide let out a harsh and strained squeal and squawk before heading back to the injured guard, Current. “Go, now!”

The shark-pony obeyed and shot out from her hiding spot and towards Tide and Current. The two quickly helped Current pass through the barrier, but rather than going through as well, Tide waited on the outside. The remaining guard was quick to voice her concerns in a series of squeals and moans. “What are you doing? I thought you said we were leaving?!”

Tide quickly rebuttled with a harsh squawk followed by several more moans and squeals. “We are! I need to hard lock the barrier so they’ll have a harder time breaking it down! Just go, Kelp! I won’t be long.”

The guard, Kelp, didn’t seem to like this idea at all, but she offered no rebuttal aside from a quick and low moan. “You better.”

With that she took off through the barrier leaving Tide behind. “Okay, time to work.” Tide flared her magic and caused the rune from before to activate. She slammed her hoof into the center of the rune and and began to turn it. The rune turned with her hoof and additional lines began to form. They shot around the barrier and out of sight. Tide repeated the process with the other direction causing the same results. “Done! Time to get out of here!” Tide prepared to cross the barrier, but before she had a chance to do so something fell upon her. It was a net, a metal net. “NO!” Tide screamed as she attempted to force her way across the barrier. She pushed forward against the net, attempting to get across the barrier before it closed. However, her efforts were quickly made in vain as an electrical current quickly shut her down. Tide watched as she was slowly dragged away and Kelp and Current could only watch and fruitlessly bash against the barrier, unable to help. Shortly after, the image went black and nothing returned to take it’s place.

“After that... they tried to get me to tell them how to remove the hard lock. They shocked me and pummeled me for a while.When I refused to so much as utter a word they kept me in isolation until the moment Daring saved me,” Tide explained before the spell wore off.

When Tide finished and she returned to a more normal state; however, she felt exhausted. She wasn’t certain if it was the spell, or her body finally succumbing to the events and some untreated injuries. Celestia must have noticed as she called for the guards to fetch some medical ponies. She then made her way towards Tide, who was shaking slightly. “Are you okay?” she inquired.

Tide nodded weakly before working to right herself.

“Are you tired?” Celestia asked again.

Tide wanted to protest, but the growing demand for sleep and rest kept her from denying it. She nodded again despite her pride.

Celestia smiled, “Okay, when the medical crew arrives I’m going to have them check you for any possible hidden injuries. Afterward, you may rest as much as you like. Okay?”

Tide again nodded. She was actually thankful to have a little rest after all that had happened, and it didn’t seem like they were going to throw her in a sack... at least she was secretly hoping they wouldn’t. She trusted them, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t still on edge. They were friendly so far and their ruler was... very motherly, but that wasn’t necessarily bad. Kind of weird, but not bad. She had to trust them... and a little rest sounded really nice, especially on a nice comfy bed.

Celestia smiled and turned as the sound of hooves emanated from the hall. “Good. Rest for the time being. We can discuss what we can do to help your home,” Celestia finished a doctor and two nurses arrived. They prepared to ask who needed medical attention, but upon seeing the odd fish-pony being supported by their princess. After a quick explanation of the events and what happened to Tide, the doctor and the nurses helped move Tide to the medical wing.

Author's Notes:

For those curious, Tide's escorts were based off of a Pterois volitans or the red lion fish

And the black tipped reef shark.

Tide is based on a Neon Velvet Damsel Fish

I'm guessing y'all can figure out what Gulf is based on.