If only other universes had cell coverage, Kaelynn could've told the others what was really going on. Though then again, she'd never held a dive radio that didn't rely on some on-site infrastructure. So even on Earth, she'd probably be stuck just telling the others after it was over.

No sooner were the others walked away than the naval officer doing her interview was replaced with someone else. This creature seemed older, more seasoned somehow. More important?

"Word is already spreading of a seapony who defeated a ship of pirates and freed the captives with her songs. I've received a message ordering me to escort you to meet with the queen and her court."

The bird, a stern, older-looking creature who somehow reminded Kaelynn of her dad, waved a single sheet of paper vaguely in her direction. But she couldn't read the text that was typewritten there.

"I'm afraid I'll be disappointing them," she said. "I already told you, I don't come from wherever you people wish I had. I'm not proof of any survivors, and I definitely didn't sing the ship to safety. My friends fought, and they won. Shouldn't they be coming with us?"

Rivulet shook his head once. "The audience was granted for you. If there's anything you think your companions would wish to share, you should consider it carefully before we arrive, and do it in their stead. But visiting Seaquestria is not a privilege granted to any pony or other creature who sets foot on Mount Aris. But you are a seapony, and should feel at home there."

He led her through a central hallway, then to a stairwell leading down. Given the building's placement on the docks, she couldn't imagine anything waiting down on that level—in a way, there wasn't. There was a large closet for uniforms, and numerous shelves with papers and cameras and other personal effects vulnerable to liquid.

Her escort stripped of everything but his necklace—which probably would've bothered her a little more if their uniforms actually covered things to begin with. As they approached the steps, faces appeared from doors and branches in the hallway, as birds peeked in to watch her. Like she was a specimen on display.

"In your interview you mentioned that you don't know any songs," Rivulet said. "That means you need my help, right? Making the transition?"

She nodded. "I know no songs. If they're so great, maybe you could teach me? My phone can store a few million, so I'd take the FLACs if you have those. Or hell, I'd take an MP3."

"I'm afraid we have neither of those," Rivulet said. He kept his tone neutral, but his voice betrayed his bewilderment. "You may want to ask the court when we arrive. The queen is old, with knowledge stretching back into our past and all that we accomplished. If there are any records of seapony songs, she will know where to find them."

He walked down the steps, until the gently lapping water covered most of his back. It was cold on Kaelynn's skin, cold enough for a wetsuit. But maybe that would change.

Just like Torrent on the docks, Rivulet held his necklace towards her. She watched him for the entire process this time, hoping to learn anything she could about how to reproduce the effect. Being able to summon legs when she needed them was exactly what this trip to another universe required.

A flash of white light spread from their contact, climbing up her limbs and body like a living force all its own. It passed in an eyeblink, and as it did her hindlegs ripped out from under her. She fell, splashing into the water. But not a little tank this time, or a spring she could circle in moments. They were all the way out along the docks, with the coastal water swirling around them.

Kaelynn took a few breaths, and felt her body burning. Water slipped out her lungs and along her back, feeling almost as awful as air. Worse—it was sticking her head into a barrel of rubbing alcohol. It seared her flesh, burning so acutely that her agony smeared her cries into wordless, animal pain.

She felt nothing for a few moments, just pain. But as quickly as it came, it started to fade. Kaelynn blinked, and saw half a dozen fish around her. Rivulet's familiar sea green feathers had turned into a still-recognizable scaly coat. But there were several other naval officers watching, some who had clearly jumped in after her while still in their uniforms.

"Is she okay?" asked one, panicked. "If the seapony dies while we're caring for her..."

"Should we lift her out?"

"No, those are gills. She'll suffocate."

"She's fine, give it a moment," Rivulet called, his voice louder than them all. “See her scales—the spots are fading. She was brought here in fresh water. Her body must adapt to the ocean. There are notes about this in the manual on joint military exercises—just give her space."

"I'm... fine," she squeaked. She still didn't sound it, or feel it. Her neck and throat felt like she'd had strep for a week. But it was getting better. "You could've... warned me. Like knives in my lungs..."

"Warn her about herself?" someone whispered near the back. Unfortunate for them that sound carried so well in water, then. "Is she serious?"

"True what they say. They do sing everything."

She ignored the voices, and so did Rivulet. He waved the others off with his fins, clearing the space around her. With the way so many people had called her a hippogriff herself, she expected the resemblance to be closer, but no—up close, it was obvious they were different species. He had fins on his hooves, while she did not. There was a ridge of finlike, transparent flesh around his neck, the same color his mane had been, and she didn't have that either.

She felt dwarfed by so many other creatures. Every one of them was longer than she was, or at least looked like they should tower over her. It was hard to tell so long as they kept their distance.

"Apologies, Seapony Kaelynn," Rivulet said. "I forget that you aren't what you appear. These others don't know what they're talking about and should be ignored."

She nodded weakly. "Will I have to endure pain like that every time I enter the water and leave again?"

Rivulet shook his head. "Not unless you swim in freshwater again before returning. I am not the bird to be telling you this, though. The queen may be able to answer more of your questions."

He gestured into the blue around them—there were no walls here, of course. Nothing but the support beams of the dock, driven more securely than even Earth construction usually did. But there was motion in the gloom, and a glow emanating from the seabed off to her left, rather than from the sky overhead.

Kaelynn momentarily looked away from Rivulet. The crowd of other fish dispersed around her, several returning to the stairs above them, a few swimming off to whatever tasks that had occupied them before. But she didn't care.

Kaelynn swam. She circled around one of the pillars, moving her tail in a satisfying complete arc behind her. Her fins adjusted without thinking, trimming the motion, and keeping her upright. She drove straight down, all the way to the concrete friction-pile surrounded by volcanic sand, reaching down to touch it with a hoof.

The pain faded from her lungs—or her gills, anyway. None of the familiar irritants came in to take its place. Not just the lack of acidic water on her mouth, but also the rigid silicone mask in her lips. There was no rush of air behind her, no need to adjust her BC after she dove all the way down. She wasn't wearing one. Her life support equipment was for the air.

"I've been missing this," she said. It didn't matter that the visibility was piss and that there were only muscles to see growing on the wooden supports. She couldn't just swim—Kaelynn could live here. "You people come down whenever you want?"

Rivulet had followed her down, though thankfully for her sanity none of the other fish. She wasn't being closely guarded, so apparently she really was just a guest of the queen. A guest of a queen who sensibly kept her court underwater.

"Most birds do," Rivulet said. Somehow his words felt flat, in a way she couldn't quite explain. The whispering had seemed like that too, like it was missing a necessary component. But she could still understand him fine. "I serve on the surface, along with most of the navy these days. But I'm old enough that I prefer it that way. I was born before the Pearl of Transformation created Seaquestria. Many younger birds have known no other life. They didn't want to return to the surface even when the Storm King was defeated.

Kaelynn looked up, where the surface was the familiar inverted mirror speckled with afternoon light. Maybe if she were lucky she'd still be down here after nightfall, when she could see the urchins and other nocturnal residents of the sea emerge from their crags to feed.

"I know why they might," she said. "Where I come from, I could never spend more than a few days underwater—some of them in huge suits, some of it in cramped decompression tubes. But we can't get the bends, can we? We don't breathe air, so there's no nitrogen..."

"Airsickness afflicts only surface-dwellers who travel to the city and are not transformed," Rivulet agreed. "It is one of the reasons we avoid permitting ponies to cross." He adjusted the necklace, somehow emphasizing his words. "The magic works on all creatures of Harmony, but most don't enjoy it. They're not like us, Kaelynn. Even if you are from somewhere else—" He looked away awkwardly. They were underwater, so it was impossible to know for sure. But were those tears? "I did not think I would live to hear those songs again in Seaquestria. You may have come from some far country, but you brought seapony with you all the same."

"Songs?" Even he was saying it—but Kaelynn couldn't hear it. Or maybe she could. The thing missing from Rivulet's words was tonality. Though they were still speaking the same language, for him there was almost no emotion, even while he was plainly on the edge of tears at some painful memory. "I'm not trying to sing."

But just saying those words, the difference was obvious. She turned it into a tune—there was meter, and the beginning of a melody. She just needed a few more voices, and they could make anything entertaining. But she was alone. "I hope the queen doesn't mind."

"She won't," Rivulet said. "The first test was simply whether you could be changed by the Pearl—you can, so you are a creature of Harmony."

He gestured, and they set off into the blue. Despite his claims of preferring the land, he was far more practiced at this. She was soon exerting herself to keep up, and found the rhythm of her movement unsteady and clumsy by comparison. But that was nothing more than a challenge to her, something waiting to be overcome.

The sea transformed before them, from a relatively bare sandy beach to a thriving reef. It was as vivid as anything she'd seen in Australia or Hawaii, without the occasional stretch of bone-white to remind her of her species' failings. It was all alive, with soft yellow and red sponge corals mixing with anemones and many other familiar species. She recognized the fish too, and they seemed to recognize her. Even the smaller reef-dwellers poked out from their coral grazing to investigate her.

Maybe the others could come down here. They're creatures of Harmony too, right? Or at least Ryan. If she didn't share this with anyone, she would die.

But there was something else Kaelynn could do. She could sing.

Next Chapter: Chapter 23: Kaelynn Estimated time remaining: 9 Hours, 34 Minutes