Far away at Mount Aris, Princess Skystar’s wings flare out, landing next to King Aponis on one of the many jagged rocks that ring the helm-shaped mountain like a spiky crown. Her sire stares out over crashing waves, impervious to the spray splashing against him. He’s obviously contemplating something, and probably something important.

It could be the natural beauty of the place: open ocean as far as the eye can see, even from the top of the mountain, a light teal close to home that gradually recedes to a deep blue. Everything feels more vivid, more alive, than any time she came up to the surface before, what with the lack of storm clouds not only putting a damper on things but serving as a reminder of why she had to sneak from ruin to ruin in the first place.

Her voice rings out clear and loud, heedless of his pensive state.

“What’cha thinkin’ about?”

King Aponis’ beak remains still, but there is a deep longing in his eyes that isn’t quenched by mere staring.

Skystar bluntly asks, “Is it about mom?” She cocks her head as she tries to find what is so interesting about the choppy water. “I mean, it can’t be the ocean. I spent my whole life there, and I’m in no hurry to go back!”

Silence.

In the past, she had always been careful not to take to the sky. More than just pirates roamed those forbidden reaches, and they couldn’t count on fishing trawlers keeping their beaks shut, for the Storm King was generous with his stolen gold. Tales of the ruins being haunted - she, perhaps, had a claw in that - kept the mountain from becoming a base for smugglers, and that made it easier to roam about. But now they can fly all the time!

Except, her dad had the opposite problem, stuck in his hippogriff form much like she was stuck as a seapony. Was he prohibited from transforming, or did he never swap to keep their secret safe?

“Unless,” Skystar tries, this time with a smidgen of sensitivity, “you’re missing the ocean like I miss the sky.” It feels really awkward, trying to bond with the hero she’s heard so many stories about, who went claw to hoof with the Storm King for their sake! And, at the same time, is supposed to be the dad she never knew. “I would sneak out all the time just to get a glimpse. And now we can see the sky all the time!”

King Aponis sighs at her forced cheer. “There are times,” he says, low and forlorn, “when I would stare up at the sky all night long and just watch the twinkling stars. Yet even their grandeur faded, no matter how magnificently the Mistress of the Sun made them dance.”

“Oh.” Skystar’s eagerness fades, if only momentarily. He sounds all full of sage advice, and deep wisdom, but don’t stones get rounded off over time instead of jaded? She tries again with a wide grin. “Well, now it’s Princess Luna’s turn! And we’ll get to watch them together, right?”

A wry smile creases King Aponis’ eyes. “Indeed,” he intones deeply. “Far better to spend your time with those you love than on pleasures as fleeting as ocean spray.”

“Yeah!” Skystar exclaims. But even though she agrees, she feels a yearning, a hole in her heart that won’t be filled by her father, no matter what fun activities they do together. Yet she won’t let her buoyant demeanor get pulled down, even as King Aponis continues staring! She tries guessing the answer to her original question. “Are you thinking about what Princess Cadance said?” She giggles. “I tried to pick a thing I think about. But I think about so many things, how can I choose just one?”

King Aponis’ beak clicks as his muscles pull tight against each other. He does not care for the unfamiliar feeling, of being unsure, and the counsel of the Princess of Love has thrown his world into disarray in a manner leaving the Storm King’s employ could never match.

“I, too, muse about many things,” he concedes. “About how I have been separated from you, and missed so much of your life. About the struggles we will face rebuilding the ruins. But most of all? The others pale in comparison, cracks to the deep fissure of your mother’s absence.”

Elation fills Skystar’s chest: he misses her mom, too! She isn’t the only one! “Then you’re going back to her, right?” she demands, for all it is in the form of a question. She skitters to the edge of the rock, overtly disappointed when he doesn’t immediately match her fervor. “Come on! We can tell her it was your idea!”

At first, he hesitates. After how they parted, he worries his wife would harbor a fierce grudge, and trawl for any excuse to salt old wounds. Yet Princess Cadance called them to think differently; something about Laughter, and optimism? That while his wife may not be as fleeting as the wind, and he would never call her as capricious as the sea, she can change her mind, and hopefully for the better.

“We can start small!” Skystar pretends to be tentative about putting a claw forward. “Just one small thing!” She turns and winks, moments before tumbling off the edge.

King Aponis chuckles; for all his old bones might wish to match his daughter’s zeal, they creak and groan as he takes wing. With a flick of their claws they transform, two golden seaponies streaking nearly straight down into the clear depths.

Their second return to Seaquestria draws nowhere near as much attention as his first, though the seaponies greet them with curious glances and friendly waves, thrilled once again. In fact, many seem relieved; the guard at the entrance certainly gives them no trouble, disabling the alarm and directing them to the Queen’s most likely whereabouts.

And yet, as they approach, a sinking feeling presses on Skystar’s chest, far worse than the depths ever did. Perhaps a giant conga line and musical number would lift her spirits, but with a dearth of mellifluous merponies? All their premier singers left for the Harmonizing Heights. Her voice wavers, thinking about how many times her mother threatened her with banishment for sneaking out. Something about giving her what she wanted. And now, if this second reunion doesn’t go right, things could get so, so much worse.

“Are you sure about this?”

“When you are swimming with the correct current,” King Aponis counsels, puffing his chest out as much as possible, “even unknown waters become navigable.”

“Oh.” Skystar looks down at her shaking fin. She gulps. “Then why am I afraid?”

The elder seapony rests his fin on her shoulder, and offers his daughter a warm smile. “Because eddies will still shunt us into whirlpools, and riptides drag us away from where we wish to go. Especially when we swim counter to their course. But we must not let distractions delay us from our destination.”

“A-and you’re sure about going with the ponies?” Skystar’s gaze raises to the ceiling, as if she might look past the carved stone to the clear waters, shining with the sun’s light. “Mother…”

“You ask one of life’s great questions,” Aponis answers. “Sometimes, we do not know. We can only judge by the wake left behind. But the course we were sailing before?” He shakes his head firmly. “That, I cannot abide.”

Skystar nods. She, too, hates to be separated from her mother, or any of her friends in Seaquestria, even if it means she gets to be a hippogriff whenever she wants.

“You know,” she muses, this time fixing her father with a wide grin. “Before I knew I had a dad? I mean, I always knew I had a dad. But I thought you were dead.” Her grin falters, but an encouraging nod from Aponis gets her to keep going. “I thought you were a hero. Now? I’m not so sure. Err. Sorry to be so…. What did Cadance call it?” She flicks her fin a few times in the water, creating a snapping sound.

“Honesty,” King Aponis admits in a low voice. “And I feel the same way. For I only did what seemed necessary at the time, which is all you can ever do. But that does not mean you should not do what you think is right, for you may be proved wrong later. But if you do not act, then you can never be right.”

“Got it!” Skystar rests a fin on The Seaweed Wrap’s set of ornate coral doors, pausing a split second. Indistinct voices come from within. She tugs it open. “Let’s do this!”

The inside of the spacious room is no less spectacular than the ornate door, the grandest of the relaxation center’s rooms. Murals depicting every creature under the sea line the walls, with Hippogriffs most prominent as they catch, ride, and cavort. The rest of the room separates naturally into tiers; the center table the lowest while several others spread in a rough ring. Four seaponies are in the center: two masseurs with Queen Novo while Ocean Spray floats next to one of the side tables.

“Next,” Ocean Flow reads from a thick clipboard, her pronged spear at her side; she briefly glances at the two entering. “We have the Topside Apartments.”

“Let me guess,” Queen Novo mutters. The golden seapony splays out on a massage table, the pair of seaweed-clad masseurs working over her fins. “They all left?”

Ocean Flow flips through the next two pages. “Yes, your majesty.”

Queen Novo sighs. “Add it to the auction.”

“I’m afraid,” King Aponis states formally, slipping forward, “that won’t be necessary.”

Queen Novo looks up, bewildered at their unannounced entrance. The two masseurs hesitantly back away, checking the guard to make sure nothing is amiss. Seeing nothing immediately wrong, Queen Novo quickly gets over her confusion to scoff and demand, “What are you doing here?”

While King Aponis might have entered the room in a stately manner, his chest puffed out, he sinks down to just above the prone queen’s level with a contrite dip of his head. “I have come,” he replies, meeting her calculating eyes with a hopeful smile, “to beg your forgiveness.”

“Really.” Queen Novo steeples her fins under her chin, not yet getting up from her position. She signals for her massage to continue. “And why should I listen to you?”

“Do you remember why we named our daughter Skystar?” King Aponis looks up at the decorated ceiling, not quite ignoring the cross look his wife turns his way but proceeding regardless. Skystar cocks her head, having never heard the story. “I do not believe it was merely because she was conceived under the night sky. I have spent many days, and long and lonely nights, hoping to retain what we shared. To not lose it to the Storm King, who had taken so much from us.”

Queen Novo grunts, not yet persuaded, an anchor resisting any effort to move her.

Yet King Aponis is as inexorable as the tide. He swims down, reaching his fins forward. But, unlike before, there is no sense that he would be lifting her up, nor that he might drag her if necessary. Instead, she relents, if briefly, allowing her own fins to raise. They clasp, and he seems content to stay in place, as long as he is with her.

The words come out only with great difficulty, King Aponis having much trouble admitting the faults. “For I was not honest with myself earlier, nor with you. I thought of myself, and how much I wanted to return, to rule again as king, and not how I might best serve you and our people with love and kindness. For all that you have felt abandoned, and rightly so, unsure about what our future might entail.”

“Jeez, dad,” Skystar adds in with a sly grin, “I don’t think you have to mention every one of those Harmony thingies.” The masseurs exchange curious glances, hopeful that they might elaborate.

King Aponis gives his daughter a wry shrug. “For we envisioned a future where we stretched from the deepest trenches to the highest peaks. But we did not name our daughter as some did.” He gives Ocean Flow a pleasant wink. “That thought that the ocean and the mountain should be as one, united.”

“Terramar,” Ocean Flow utters to herself in a low breath, a reminder of her hope for her son.

“But instead?” King Aponis tenderly draws a fin along Skystar’s chin, staring into her eyes with love and encouragement. “We thought we would have two. One to command the seas, and one to govern the skies.”

“You are serious?” Queen Novo asks, strongly considering his proposal.

He shakes his head with an abject sigh. “Alas, it was not meant to be.”

Queen Novo goes from a pensive look, as if she is staring at far-off islands, to a certain lasciviousness. “Oh, I wouldn’t go that far,” she counters with a predatory grin.

“You wouldn’t?” Skystar asks with a confused glance between them.

“I shall remove the suitors from tonight’s agenda,” Ocean Flow adds, drawing a bemused snort from King Aponis.

“What-” Skystar continues before understanding dawns. “Oh. Oh! Eww!” She sticks her tongue out and shakes her head from side to side. “Gross!

“You always told me you wanted a baby brother,” Queen Novo admonishes, if playfully. She slips up, grasping her husband’s fin with her own and leans into him. “We, and they, may govern from separate seats. But we will always be together.”

They share a kiss, long and intimate, while two far-off cutie marks buzz with passion.

Next Chapter: Ch. 87 - Coated Shrapnel, Part Three Estimated time remaining: 18 Hours, 12 Minutes