Cherry emerged from the water of her room, bobbing to the surface with a soft breath of the humid air that filled her room. Her room was the most comfortable part of Ponyville, or at least Twilight's Castle. If she could get Aloe or Lotus to move in, well...

She shook her head quickly, banishing the thought of daily spa treatments in favor of lowering her gaze to her modified belt. It looked much the same but for two things. It had her cutie mark painted on the side crudely with her own mouth for one.

For another, the metal hooves were covered in big flippers. Moving her own flippers and undulating her tail at the same time let her swim even faster than normal as the mechanical legs and her thick tail worked in harmony to propel her around the flooded room. She went down about halfway before circling sharply and coming for the surface, bursting free of the surface of the water and flopping out into the hallway just outside of her room.

Twilight would probably be a little annoyed at the splashing that came from whenever she jumped from the water instead of climbing out, but that was so much more fun, and Twilight could clean it with a spell. She didn't even understand why Twilight was bothered by it. To be polite, she pushed some of the water back into her room to minimize the mess and nodded. She began flop-clopping down the stairs, her hooves striking the firm surface with a clop, but the fins over then slapping with a loud flop with every step.

"Hello there, Cherry." It was Starlight, smiling at her. "You look like you're having fun."

"Oh, I am! Look look." Cherry quickly worked off her new flippers. "Look!" She was eager to show off, and had to be sure she was being looked at. She began at a normal walk. "See, normal, but now..." She began moving her flippers just so and changed the gait of her living fore-hooves, getting herself into a lively trot around the room, her tail bobbing in counterpoint. "See? I can dry-swim better than ever before."

Starlight clopped her hooves with congratulations. "You've really taken to your legs like you were born with them. That's called a trot, by the way."

"Trot," murmured Cherry softly to herself. "And this dry-swimming gait is a 'walk' right?" She slowed to a normal walk and Starlight nodded her head. "See, I am learning. What are you up to?"

Starlight glanced outside. "I was actually going to go say hi to a friend of mine."

Cherry perked her ears. "Ooo? Can I meet them? Are they nice like you?"

Starlight colored just faintly. Having a pony nakedly praise her social skills was flattering. "She's a very nice pony, but she takes some getting used to. Her name is Trixie." She glanced left and right. "She's a lot like me. We're not... used to having real friends."

Cherry blinked owlishly. "What? No way. You've been a great friend to me."

"She has a teacher." Twilight approached from the direction of the kitchen. "Going off to say hello to Trixie? Good, keeping in contact with your friends is a vital part of keeping friendships."

"She learned that the hard way." Spike followed after Twilight, rolling his eyes.

"Spike!"

Cherry leaned closer to Starlight. "May I meet your friend?" She flashed her best smile, wanting to meet the new pony.

Unfortunately, Starlight shook her head. "Today's a private day, but soon, promise. I'll let her know you want to stop by. Like I said, she's still new to the ins and outs of friendship, and so am I." She looked to Twilight. "I'll probably be out most of the night. See you later." She waved as she headed for the door on her other three hoves.

Twilight returned the wave. "Go enjoy yourself, and do tell Trixie about Cherry. I think the two of them would be good for each other."

Starlight was gone, and Spike was looking at the flippers on the floor. "What are these? They don't look like the right size for you, Twilight. Were you gonna go swimming with Cherry?"

Cherry raised a hoof quickly. "Oh no! Those are mine." She moved to claim them, but they were wrapped in magic and hovered over to float in front of Twilight.

"Fascinating... They go on your mechanical apparatus, I presume? Are they effective?" Twilight raised a brow curiously as she spun the flippers in the air.

"They work great." Cherry reached upwards for them and Twilight let her have them back. "I couldn't say exactly how much faster I am, but I can tell there's a difference. You should wear flippers when you go swimming so you aren't so slow."

Twilight frowned faintly. "I'm not that slow, am I?"

Spike shrugged softly. "You're a little slow, but hey, you're a wizard and can fly. You can't have everything."

Twilight suddenly perked. "Ah yes! This came for you, Cherry." A letter appeared beside her and floated towards Cherry. "Here you are."

Cherry accepted the letter with some surprise. The paper's texture told her it was from the sea. It wouldn't dissolve in water, and should have kept whatever letter was inside safe... But who? "Oh!" She began smiling brightly. "Maybe mom sent it." Twilight made a whirling motion with a hoof and Cherry blinked before turning the letter over to find a name written on it besides her own. It read 'Indigo' and she gasped on seeing it.

"Indie!" She tore the envelope open and wrenched free the letter within, her eyes dancing across the paper.

Heya Cherry-Belly,

I've missed you, but your mom says you're alright and even showed me how to write you a letter, so here it is! If you're reading this, it worked! Unless you're not Cherry, in which case you should stop and put this letter back in the envelope, you big creep!

Okay, now I know we're safe. How've you been?! Are you really in The Dry? That has to be so amazing! I want to see The Dry too, but my mom says that's not 'for' me. Whatever... She can't stop me. You'd show me around, right? I bet you're having loads of fun!

See you soon,
Indigo

Cherry blinked softly. "He's going to get hurt..."

Spike approached curiously. "Who? I guess you know them?"

"He's only like my best friend in the waves!" She threw the letter to the ground. "And he's stupid! Stupid stupid stupid! He doesn't know how to survive in The Dry! He'll get lost, and hurt, and hurt and lost at the same time!"

Twilight tilted her head a little. "You didn't know how to navigate on land either, Cherry."

Cherry went as red as her namesake. "That's different!"

Spike snorted softly. "Yeah, now somepony else's doing it."

"Exactly!" Cherry beamed, seeming to believe Spike was in agreement with her. "We have to save him before he does something stupid."

Twilight shook her head. "Let's not get over dramatic. First, how likely is your friend to actually come ashore."

"Only like a millionty percent." Cherry sank a little. "He knows I did it, and he knows I'm here, so now he's going to follow right after me."

"Then there's only one solution." Twilight pointed towards the train. "We should meet your friend at the beach and welcome them."

Spike raised a brow. "Is that just before we tell them to go home?"

"Spike." Twilight frowned at him. "We will do no such thing."

"Twi, we're talking about a colt. We'll have another panicked mother, and who knows what she'll do? Maybe something a lot worse than that siren." Spike rolled a claw. "The responsible thing to do would be to send him home."

Cherry glanced between her friends, head full of thoughts. "If we shoo him off back into the water, he'll come back, just without our permission, then he'll really get hurt... He doesn't have dry-swimmers! Er, four of them anyway, he only has two."

Twilight's horn glowed as she picked up the discarded envelope. "There's something I need to know, that may make this a lot easier. How did your friend get a letter sent from the ocean to Ponyville?" She flipped the envelope about, before she tapped it with a hoof. "Here we are, a postmark. It looks like the post office in the same town we found you in accepted it, so they would know how it arrived. If we go to them, we should be able to send a letter back and make sure his family knows what he's up to and how to contact him."

Spike nodded in satisfaction. "That sounds like a plan. We should meet him one way or the other while we're there so he doesn't hurt himself."

"Yes please!" Cherry began walking for the door. "He's a nice pony, promise. He's really good at herding fish." She winced suddenly. "He's not going to have a lot of fish to herd here... Stupid Indie.."

Twilight and Spike followed as Twilight tucked the envelope away. "I can't go flooding another room. Is it alright if he stays with you while we figure out what's the best thing to do?"

Cherry blinked with obvious confusion. "Of course it's alright. It's not the first sleepover we've ever had." She stuck out her tongue a little as she pushed the door open. "I told you, he's a nice pony. Besides, I'll have to show him around, and I understand where he's coming from better than any dry pony, so it makes sense I'd do it."

Spike suddenly stopped and pulled out another piece of paper, scrawling on it busily a moment before puffing on it, turning it into smoke that drifted away quickly. Before it was even out of sight, he got to work on a second paper.

Twilight watched the furious writing curiously. "What did you just send to Celestia, and what's on the second one?"

"Letting her know where you'll be." Spike put a few final dots on the page and slapped it down on a table near the door. "And letting Starlight know so she and the girls won't worry."

Twilight threw a leg over Spike, hugging him. "That's my number one assistant! Good thinking. Let's get moving. Who knows how long it took for that letter to get here, or how long her friend will wait if he gets there before we do."

Together, the group walked briskly to the train and secured passage. Growing more used to The Dry, Cherry didn't require a tub, but carried an empty one with her, the original. "We should return this while we're in town. That was really nice of that little pony to let us borrow it."

Author's Notes:

This can only end well... Just look at all those typos in that letter!