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Gazing to the Ocean of the Sky

by David Silver

Chapter 15: 15 - Meeting in Isolation

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Rainbow strode further and further out of town. She needed to take the siren somewhere where she could Rainbow Dash all over that monster, free Ponyville, and save the day for everypony. She could already hear the wild cheering and the mad stomping of an ecstatic crowd.

Rainbow Dash! Rainbow Dash! Rainbow Dash!

"Why do you have that expression?" The siren was hovering beside her with a raised brow. "Are you well?"

"Huh? Oh! Sorry, let's get to that siren."

The siren suddenly swam through the air in front of Rainbow, cutting off her progress. "My control must be coming loose. That's alright, just listen."

Rainbow thrust a hoof up. "Oh that won't be necessary." She gave a broad fake grin as she began to sweat. "I'm ready to go find that siren!"

The siren's voice became more melodic with each word before she began to sing a soft song and things began to fade for Rainbow despite her best effort to hold herself together. "There, now go on, and no delays. We'll stop that nasty siren."

Fluttershy, hovering above behind her cloud, gave a quiet gasp of surprise as Angel drove a hind leg into the back of her head, waking her from her stupor. She looked around dizzily a moment before she looked down at Rainbow placidly leading the siren away. "Oh no..."

She peeked over her shoulder. "Wait, it didn't bother you, Angel?"

The rabbit shook his head quickly back and forth.

Fluttershy frowned with new thought. "It must not work on animals, or only on ponies. Let's get some help." She fluttered away, propelling her cloud away from the siren for the moment. "I hope I catch them before they do something awful." They were headed towards the Everfree. Even if the place had been a step less dangerous since the Tree of Harmony had been restored, it was still a scary place.


Applejack leaned towards Twilight. "So, how are we gonna find that watery friend ah yers?"

"Hmm? Oh, that's simple." Twilight's horn began to glow, magic coming easily with that pesky blocker removed, as she turned until she thrust a hoof out. "She's with Spike. Spike I can find." She shook her head a little. "I hope they're all alright."

Muffins tilted her head a little. "Spike's a nice dragon, but why is he with the siren?" She looked in the direction Twilight had pointed. "Of course! Duh! They're hiding in the Everfree..." She rolled her eyes, a dizzying act for the others as it seemed for just a moment that the two eyes moved independently. "We shoulda started there. Hold on, we're gonna need a--"

Applejack pounced Muffins to the ground. "Woah woah woah, calm yer horses."

Muffins blinked at Applejack. "Um?"

Twilight nodded at the two of them. "Applejack is right. If we get more help, that's more ponies in danger. I thought you wanted to do this the heroic way, Muffins? We can handle this, the three of us." She gestured between Applejack, Muffins, and herself.

Muffins squirmed her way to her hooves and bobbed her head at Twilight. "You're the princess, Princess." She brought her wing up in a sharp salute, even if her tongue was poking free a little.

Applejack noticed a curiosity. "Muffins, is Twilight in charge?"

"Huh? Of course she is. She's a princess." She shrugged softly. "Who else would we listen to? Mayor Mare isn't here."

Twilight blinked at that. "What about that other pony that was giving commands?"

"Who? Oh! The flying fish lady? She's not a mayor or a princess, so nope."

Twilight let out a soft breath of relief. Muffins was free of control, and they had a vital clue as to what they were dealing with. "After all that, it's a siren making ponies hunt for a so called 'siren' that isn't a siren at all!"

Applejack frowned. "Care to spin that again?"

Twilight pointed back towards the town. "A siren's why everyone was acting so oddly. I've seen them work before, in the human world, but Cherry's no siren. She's a hippoca--" She aborted the word halfway in and cleared her throat. "Sea horse." Both of the others nodded with understanding. "As far as I'm aware, Cherry's completely harmless. Let's get to Spike and the others and we can work out a plan of action."

Together, they advanced towards the Everfree to find Spike, who was hopefully with Cherry and Starlight. All three well and intact, preferably.


"I thought you said the castle was safe!" Cherry ducked to the side just as great slavering pincers came down where she had been a moment before. A spider the size of an actual horse chittered at her angrily as he approached on spindly legs.

Starlight scowled at the beast. "I thought it was. I was clearly mistaken. No problem..." She lowered her horn at the hungry arachnid and let loose a bolt of magic. The star on the beast's back glowed gently and seemed to just slurp up the magic with no harm to the spider. "Or maybe a little problem... Spike?"

Spike glanced at her. "What do you want me to do about it?"

"You're a dragon, Spike, breathe some fire at it? Fwoosh fwoosh?"

Cherry shrieked as she darted and danced out of the way of each frightening lunge the spider made for her. With her legs wired properly into her fins, she had become quite a deal better at dodging. With a sudden lash, she brought her tail around and slapped the creature across the face. "Stop trying to eat me!"

This only served to further infuriate the spider. It raised several legs into the air and propelled itself on the others for Cherry just as Spike lit up its rump with a sudden burst of hot flames. It screeched in surprise and spun around to face the brave and young dragon. "Uh, okay, now it's looking at me." Spike took a slow step away. "Do we have another plan?"

As Spike fled wildly, arms extended in front of himself, Starlight tapped her chin thoughtfully as she looked around. Spying a hanging chandelier, she pointed. "Get it to stand there, Spike, and I think I can handle it."

"You'd better!" He pivoted mid-dash and headed for the spot Starlight had indicated, just to hear a sudden zap of unicorn magic. "Again? That didn--" He suddenly felt the presence of an oncoming chandelier and threw himself out of the way with wide eyes just as the spider dove for him. With a loud crunch, the Spider was pinned to the ground and Spike was safe, if scared. "Next time tell me when you're about to do that..."

Cherry clopped her forehooves softly. "Good job, Starlight. You'd be a great hunter." She approached the spider slowly. "Do you think we can eat it?"

Starlight stuck out her tongue with distaste. "Who would want to?"

"Anything that wants to eat me can also be eaten, code of the sea." Cherry nodded to herself. "We fought it fair and square, right as the waves."

Spike raised a brow. "Is that really a rule?"

Cherry flashed her sharp teeth. "At least in the water it is. Sharks can take a nasty bite out of us, and we can take a nasty bite out of them. Fair is fair. We don't normally hunt sharks or anything. Squids taste better."

Starlight gestured at the unconscious and pinned spider. "Well let's not find out what it tastes like the hard way. It could be poisonous and then wouldn't you feel silly? You survived all that just to get sick now? I prefer some nice greens anyway."

"Gems please." Spike rubbed his claws together, tummy rumbling with memories of exquisite gem dishes provided by his friend and mother-figure, Twilight. "Actually..." He started sliding towards the fallen chandelier, or more pointedly it's fallen and scattered bits of jewelry.

Just as he had popped one into his maw, all three turned towards the sound of the front door opening.

They were getting guests.

Author's Notes:

Don't you love it when a plan comes together?

It's like the opposite of typos.

Next Chapter: 16 - Fateful Encounters Estimated time remaining: 4 Hours, 53 Minutes
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