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Gazing to the Ocean of the Sky

by David Silver

Chapter 23: 23 - Angered Sea

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Amid a froth of agitated water, a huge beast rose, looming over terrified ponies that scrambled away towards hopeful safety. It gave a terrible screech as it reached with grasping tentacles far too long for normal ponies to comprehend and snatched a mare just before she reached a door and pulled her into the air with a fresh roar of defiance.

Indigo's ears fell. "Oh no..."

Cherry gaped at the huge monster. "Please tell me it's one of your friends."

"Friends?!" Twilight looked between the two seaponies. "How?! Nevermind, just tell it to let that pony go if it is."

Indigo waved his hooves in the air. "Bring me closer to him. He's probably scared for me and looking for me, so if you show him I'm safe, he'll calm down. He gets like this when he's nervous."

As the great creature snatched up another pony from the emptying beach, Spike shook his head. "I hate to see it when it's really angry..." He began sprinting in the direction of the beast, but Twilight wasn't moving and he slipped and fell with the tub held in her magic.

She shook her head. "We have to be careful. That huge thing's easily capable of hurting all of us if it wanted to. Cherry, can you talk with it at all?"

Cherry shook her head quickly. "All I can 'say' to fishes is 'I'm going to eat you' and 'don't eat me.' She frowned faintly a moment then pointed a hoof up at Indigo. "I think he's right. We have to get him over to talk to his friend."

"That's what I said." He crossed his forelegs, looking agitated enough to consider flopping over to his friend. "Get this thing over to him right now before anyone gets hurt, including him."

She suddenly jumped up and bumped into the pool in her moment of freedom from the still-largely-alien force known as gravity. Colliding with the pool, it tipped off to the side just a little, but it was enough to send Indie sliding, which made it tilt all the more. Cherry came to the ground with a flop, missing her landing as her friend flopped down beside her with an annoyed and mildly pained squawk.

Twilight blinked at the both of them. "Have you gone mad?"

Cherry wasn't listening. She got back upright with the whirr of her mechanical legs getting themselves in order and ran for Indigo. Her head lowered, she slipped underneath him and got him onto her back. Fortunately, he grabbed at her with his hooves and clung as she took off running towards the angered sea beast with him.

The roaring and thrashing monster had managed to get four ponies before the rest fled out of its range and was shaking them around like musical instruments. Instead of the sound of beads rattled, they wailed and shouted with terror as the music of the day. When Cherry charged into range, the beast turned one of its large eyes towards her and her passenger.

It quieted a moment, then burst with anger in a blubbering wail of fury.

Indigo waved a single hoof wildly. "I'm alright! I'm alright! This is Cherry, she's a friend."

The monster slowed a moment, its mighty tentacles pausing mid-air with the ponies held within looking hopeful but terrified.

"I promise, I'm alright, look." Indigo let go of Cherry and flopped to the hot sand. "See? Look. I came here to explore, not because I'm hurt, I swear, now you're a good boy, and thank you for coming for me. Please put those nice dry ponies down."

A querying toot like a horn came from the beast.

"No, don't eat them, even the fatter one. Rule of the waves, they aren't a part of the sea, and they aren't part of your sea especially. Besides, you're a good hunter, I know you'll find better, less screamy, lunch."

The beast made a sad toot and began setting the ponies down one by one, patting each on the head just after releasing them. It made a querying whistle and clacked its great beak, eyes settled fully on Indigo.

"I'm not coming back, not right now. Go on, go back home. I'll see you when I come back. I want to explore this place." Indigo balanced perilously on one hoof while waving wildly with the other around the city of The Dry. "I want to--"

The beast gave a final piercing toot and retreated into the water, sinking swiftly beneath the waves and out of sight as if it had never been there.

Spike arrived at a light jog. "What did it say?"

Cherry nodded at that. "That's what I want to know. You have such a powerful talent, Indie."

Twilight arrived shortly after Spike. "You'd probably love a friend of mine. She has a talent very similar to yours, but she usually deals with animals that live on the land."

Indigo frowned at Cherry. "As if you don't? You're a master of those, um, meckianiacal things." He flopped down onto his aquatic body, poorly suited to navigate on the sands. "I'd love to meet her, but first I hope you brought the water with you."

Twilight glanced aside to her thoroughly emptied pool. "One moment and I'll have this addressed." She trotted down towards where the waves lapped at the shore.

Spike stayed with the seaponies. "Were you sure that thing was going to calm down when you came over here?"

"Mostly." Indie smiled. "I can't promise anything one-hundred percent with him, but he likes me, and I like him. I never saw him that angry before. He really thought I was hurt or foalnapped or something."

Spike shook his head. "Remind me not to upset random sea monsters."

"Oh, he's no sea monster." Indie shook his head as he rolled over, trying to find a more comfortable position. "He usually stays out of seas and in oceans. He needs deep deep waters to be happy."

Twilight returned with the pool refilled and set it just beside Indigo. "Sorry, Indigo, Cherry. I should have listened to you both instead of trying to figure out your own life better than you, especially in such an emergency situation. I'll try to listen better to you both."

Indigo slipped gratefully into the cool water and shook himself thoroughly in its embrace, working free the gritty sand that had collected on him during his stay. "It's like The Dry is trying to cook me!"

Cherry suddenly smiled. "I've cooked with The Dry before, it's amazing! I'll show you after we get back to Ponyville. Pinkie and her friends, the Cakes, are masters of dry cooking, using the power of The Dry to make super tasty things."

Twilight carefully hefted the pool up and began moving towards the train with Spike taking up his position of helping the pool without prompting. "It is a particularly warm day, but you should be safe in there. Cherry, how are you doing? I know you say you're 'used' to it, but it's much warmer here than Ponyville typically becomes and you've been very active."

Cherry began to follow after them even as she considered herself and that. She was well and whole in large part, but her fins did ache a little and felt chapped inside their sleeves. Chapped was actually a great description of a lot of patches of her body and she hurried to catch up with them. "I think I'm looking forward to getting back to my room too," she said, demuring her desire to claim everything was perfectly alright.

Twilight gestured with her horn up at the pool. "Do you want to ride with Indigo and get out of the sun a little while?"

Cherry licked her lips thoughtfully. "Maybe after we get on the train. I know how heavy it is with all the water and one of us. You don't need to carry both of us."

Decided, they made their way through the town towards the train station. Indigo peered curiously at everything around himself. "A lot more dry ponies wear clothing, and they all have four hooves." He looked down from his perch at Cherry and her extra hooves. "I hope you can get me some extra hooves so I can try dry swimming like all of these ponies."

She smiled nervously. "I'll try my best, promise, but really... I never did this before." Her head lowered a little. "Please don't be angry if I can't do it."

"But you can do it." Indie leaned a little closer to the edge, the pool wobbling. "I saw you working on those, and I bet you didn't stop just 'cause you reached The Dry. You have to trust yourself and I bet you'll make it happen."

Twilight gave a gentle smile. "I'll make sure you have metal to work with." She might have been thinking of witnessing how far Cherry's understanding of mechanics had come. "There's a smith in town and she can make sure your pieces are shaped right if you tell her what you need."

"This town?" Cherry glanced left and right.

"No no, Ponyville." Twilight blushed a little at her imprecision. "Spike, hold this a moment while I get us tickets." She trotted off.

Spike wobbled dangerously and quickly let the pool come down as gracefully as he could manage, only spilling some of the water to his credit as he got it to the ground in a sort of controlled fall under his insufficient muscle mass. "You alright?"

Indie nodded at him quickly. "I feel much better now that this... what is this?"

Cherry tapped the side of the pool. "This is a pool. The dry ponies use it to hold a lot of water at once. They also have glasses for little bits of water and buckets for a medium-sized bits of water."

Indigo blinked with wonder. "Why do dry ponies care about water at all to have so many things to hold it?"

Spike shrugged softly. "We don't live in it, but we do need some water to live, and we like it on hot days."

Indigo let out a low, impressed, whistle. "Even dry ponies... We are all truly connected by the water, no matter how far away we are."

Cherry tilted her head. "That was the most religious thing I think I ever heard you say."

"What? It's true! We're all part of the same sea, even these dry ponies. It's kind of humbling to think about..."

Twilight returned with the tickets held in her magic. "Alright, we can get going to Ponyville. I'm certain they'll be happy to meet you, but before we do that, is everypony related to you aware of this trip? We don't want... complications."

Indigo bobbed his head. "Promise! Unlike some ponies, I didn't go running off in the middle of the night."

"Hey!"

Author's Notes:

Disaster averted without any ponies being munched upon.

I vendored for 8 hours yesterday, then did demos for 4. I barely got any typing done yesterday, but woke up today and this happened. Typos may have resulted. Day 3 of the con begins!

Next Chapter: 24 - End Story Estimated time remaining: 3 Hours, 51 Minutes
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