Moondancer had never been one to enjoy crowds. She tried to have a party of her own, and it didn't work out. She tried connecting to the only pony she cared about on an intimate level—Twilight Sparkle, now a princess—and it took an excruciatingly long time for their friendship to enter a stage of what some might consider contentedness. There were some shed tears, and there were some phrases uttered that ought to have been smothered in shadow. So Moondancer didn't think of herself as all that sociable, which was true.
And as nestlings can't hide under the comforting wings of their mother forever, Moondancer could no longer keep a clear conscience whilst barricading herself and her work in the fantasy land of Canterlot. Such a city of high class and philosophy indeed, but at some point she figured she had to go out and taste a slice of the so-called real world. After consulting what friends she had in the city of the divine princesses, mainly Minuette and Twinkleshine (bless their kindness), Moondancer decided to venture to the eastern end of the country where there were a few options which catered enough to her nature. These were humble locations, towns with low populations and long histories of seafaring. Moondancer had never gone to the beach before.
Of the port towns, Seasaddle struck Moondancer the most when she was surfing through brochures. "Ponykind's first step on land," as its somewhat famous motto read at the top of the pamphlet. Moondancer, eternally a bookish mare, found the anachronism to be endearing.
Here she was now, though, at may as well have been the edge of the world with a senile stallion looking at her funny.
"So ya've read about all the details of the job, lass?" the stallion said, a grey-maned barfly by the name of Rickety Boon. Ponies around town just called him Rick.
"From the way the application talked about it, I would say it sounded more like two jobs, Mr. Boon—"
"Quit callin' me that, will ya? Name's Rick. And don't blame th' application on me, the Mayor is in charge of that silly business." The stallion stroked his beard and looked out at the ocean. They were at the top of the lighthouse, on the outskirts of town. The view was mesmerizing from here, so long as vertigo didn't kick in, and being the owner of the lighthouse came with some other perks as well; Moondancer ignored about half of them.
"Well, uh, Rick, I understand that I'm supposed to help the boats come in at night but," she stopped for a second, "what do the seaponies have to do with me?" Moondancer rested her front hooves on the guard rail and peered down beyond the cliff-side. There were rocks below. A dirt path went along the cliff-side and straight into the ocean, as if it were made for amphibious purposes. A common bit of folklore among Seasaddle residents was that the seaponies were a mutated race of pony-dolphin hybrids, mammalian no doubt but with fish-like tails that often had them be mistaken for sirens, which were drastically different beasts. Fishercolts had been known to be occasionally seduced and captivated by both, with mixed results.
"Ah, the seaponies..." Rick walked past his successor and began his descent down the spiraling staircase. "Their lives may well lie in yer hooves!"
Moondancer followed Rick along the staircase, its worn wooden steps indicating a past well-trodden, yet not dilapidated enough to beg for refurbishment. Not yet, anyway. The mare, with her turtleneck sweater and concerned expression, adjusted her glasses.
"Yes, but what does that mean? I've never had to take care of anypony but myself up until now."
"Lass, I can tell yer a bright one in the noggin, so I assume ya know that seaponies are a lot like us in some ways. Don't ever think of 'em as critters or pets or livestock, cuz they be smarter than some o' me good friends at the pub lemme tell you!" Turning his head back slightly, his aged grass-green eye focusing on her, Rick sounded like he was defending somepony's honor. "A few o' the fresher sailors think I'm makin' rubbish up when I say the seaponies speak with such a simplistic beauty, that they speak. These jokers never seen one up close before. But being here long enough, you'll figure what I'm talkin' about."
By the time they reached the bottom of the stairwell, Moondancer had theorized that Rick was either a little screwy in the brain, or that he was stating facts and merely talking through an alcoholic filter. Spraying words? Spouting them? She couldn't decide.
"So if they can take care of themselves, why am I responsible for them?"
"That be a good question. Follow me, lass," said Rick. The two left the lighthouse, Moondancer glancing up at its skyscraper-like figure briefly, its red-and-white tone that made it look like a painting from decades prior. This particular lighthouse was probably the subject of some of those paintings, some in fine strokes and others in watercolor.
The cliff was rather expansive, and the buildings that made up the whole of the keeper's property formed a triangle that—with its two much longer sides—resembled a horn if somepony took a quill to it. There was the lighthouse itself, and not far away was the keeper's living quarters; a nice little abode with a bedroom, a bathroom, a kitchen, a laundry room, a compact living space, and a shiny red roof that matched the lighthouse's. The essentials were all here. The keeper was not expected to have foals.
The third building, though, was what Rick pointed toward with a slightly wrinkled hoof. "That, Moondancer, is the indoor pool. Complete with all the tools you'll need to keep it prettied up."
Clearly she had missed this little point in the brochure.
"Wait a minute... a pool? I mean, I don't go swimming usually, but this is a neat surprise." Moondancer was one of the only ponies she knew who used the word "neat" without a hint of irony in this day and age. In fact it was one of few words she didn't use sarcastically.
"Yeah," Rick quipped, "but it's for the seaponies, if you need to take one of 'em in." He then went up to the facility and pushed the door open, darkness ahead of him. Flipping a switch beside the doorway, the inside came alive with glowing light that reflected beautifully off the clear and salted water of the pool. About sixty feet long and thirty feet across, the pool was definitely designed with more than one occupant in mind. Not big enough for a sorority party, though.
"Oh my..." Moondancer trailed off.
"The wonders of technology, eh? Lemme tell ya, when I was a fresher lad thirty years ago, we'd to use candles to keep this place a-lit!" The stallion strolled along the side of the pool and looked down at the crystal-clear water, his grizzled face looking back at him. "Now, all the tools you'll need to take care o' seaponies are here. If ya need to carry one of 'em up here—" pointing to the stretcher next to the facility's only locker— "use that. Served me well in many a-crisis."
"Even though I have magic? Not that I would abuse it, but—"
"Oh believe me, I know," Rick interrupted her. "Me wife was a unicorn herself. One of the few of 'er kind in Seasaddle." He stopped for a moment. "We spent a lot o' time in here. During ghastly nights and cool mornings. For so long I had to get up at dawn by me lonesome.."
Moondancer cocked her head at the stallion in morbid curiosity, the glanced down and dipped her hoof in the water, causing a slight ripple. Nopony had swum in these waters for weeks, as far as she could tell.
Rick opened up the dull-metallic locker and took out the leaf net, turning it in his hooves. "Makes me eyes want to water, havin' to leave it now." The normally chatty stallion stayed quiet, transfixed for a figurative year, then put everything back in its place and left the facility like a whisper of wind. It was as if he had forgotten Moondancer was even there.
She stood still for a while, staring out at nothing, her own violet eyes taken over by a veil of restrained tears. I guess I have a lot to live up to. I don't wanna let him down... or myself...
Rick came back the next day, to clear up some last-note details with his successor. After that, though, the property was officially in Moondancer's possession, and it relieved her knowing that she would also work where she lived. Seasaddle proper wasn't too far inland—about half a mile from the cliff—so at least the new keeper never felt too isolated. For a while, both Moondancer and the ocean were calm.
Yet it didn't take awfully long for one those so-called ghastly nights to rear its ugly head. Waves crashed and almost clung to the cliff-side before rolling back, only to smash back in with the force of a hundred pegasi. Gusts of wind blew fiercely across the coast like angered ghosts, making distant beaches uninhabitable. Like the most schizophrenic of whirlwinds, the rain only lasted a few hours in objective time, but to Moondancer it came down with a self-righteous fury for far too long.
Not even a month in as the keeper and Moondancer was facing a storm that she sincerely feared would tear the roof right off. The sea was raging just outside her window; she sure hoped all the ships were docked safe and sound in the harbor. The good news was that by then she had already pegged herself into a daily routine, and it went a little something like this:
1. Wake up, brush teeth, take shower, hate self
2. Head to town for breakfast, get harassed by sailors
3. Rent book from skimpy library (Fri), do not return
4. Buy groceries (Sun), too much fish
5. Thank townsponies for all the fish
6. Eat lunch/dinner, read, ponder self worth
7. Head to lighthouse, nearly die of boredom
8. Stay up late, read some more, pass out
9. Repeat steps 1 through 8
On a night like this, though, Moondancer got the uncomfortable impression that her routine was being violently interrupted since she couldn't get to the "pass out" part in adequate time. Indeed, she might have only gotten three hours of sleep as opposed to the normal five, so when the poor mare woke up early the next morning, her mane all disheveled and with bags under her eyes, she felt as though this job was meant for somepony else entirely.
"Aw jeez..." she murmured to herself, pulling her only pillow—not the softest ever—over her face. She dared not look at the clock on her nightstand, which would have only served as a reminder of her lack of sleep. It's like freshmare year all over again. Eventually, and with much reluctance, Moondancer peeked over the top of her pillow, still clutching it, and stared at the robotic arms of the clock.
Six. Six in the morning.
Words failed her. Moondancer screamed into her pillow, muffling it only a little bit. Living like a hermit did come with some advantages, apparently. Tired and defeated, Moondancer didn't get out of bed so much rolled out, tumbling until her legs just so happened to prevent her from slamming her face on the hard-wood floor. She rubbed some stardust out of her eyes and made her way to the bathroom, almost shuffling like a zombie.
Without her glasses, and with her mane in its current state, Moondancer resembled her good friend Twilight to an unsettling degree. Everypony in Canterlot knew the two were practically identical to each other, and as fillies they were sometimes assumed to be twin sisters. Moondancer wanted Twilight to be her twin, her long-lost double, but marehood maturity made her reconsider the innocence of this desire. Ultimately she still thought of Twilight as the second sister she had always wanted; the one who could teach her what others couldn't.
Brushing her teeth in a mechanical fashion, gazing blankly at the mirror, Moondancer's mind went to Twilight, that far-off mare who now had more power than little Moondancer could ever hope to garner. The tired mare halted her brushing to take a breather. Every time I look at myself, I see *you.*** It was just another day, really. She spat, gargled, spat again, and went to turn on the shower.
Water ran down Moondancer's mane, through her coat, down her shapely thighs. She had always preferred a hot one, the water almost burning her skin as it coated her body with wetness; the shower, like the rest of the house, was nearly half a century old, so Moondancer couldn't get the knob to heat the water as much as she'd like. At times like these, when she was most worn out from work or sleep deprivation (most likely both), she liked to rub the soft base of her hoof between her hind legs and masturbate for a good twenty minutes whilst cleaning her form. The experience wasn't so much about the orgasm, which Moondancer didn't always reach, but the calming sensation of massaging her light-pink pussy lips.
Moondancer didn't know what to think about, so nothing came to her mind. Sometimes an idea came to her head and she ran with it, hiding behind a corner with it and ramming the thought into her depths until they dampened. Now she was working on pure feeling, pressing her other hoof against the tile of the shower wall to keep her balanced as she tenderly spread apart her folds, the hot water cascading down and through her and making her nethers feel all tingly. There was an emptiness inside Moondancer that could be filled by the thick member of a stallion, or maybe the moist and nimble tongue of another mare...
The water started to lose its heat after a while, so Moondancer knew she didn't have much time for peace left. She sighed, exhaling serenity, and quickened the pace with her strokes a little bit; her clitoris made itself more known—she could feel that between her legs—and she then grunted out of exasperation. A step to her routine would have to be added for later.
Not that anypony ever asked her about it, but Moondancer was a bit of a turtleneck connoisseur; she wore a deep-blue one today, her mane tied up as usual, and she took in the faint scent of ocean spray. The sun was still rising, although it was hard to tell with all the clouds overhead. Still, the storm had ended hours ago, and sitting at the edge of the cliff Moondancer could see some of the first fishing boats leave the hardor and head out to sea for the day's catch. Seasaddle was a mostly male town, in contrast to mmuch of Equestria, so it was safe to assume all the sailors were stallions.
"At least I'm not the only one to be up this early."
Moondancer ran to the house and came back to the edge with a compact telescope—a relic passed down from keeper to keeper, or so Rick said—and levitated her glasses up a tad with her magic to look through the scope. A couple young stallions on one of the boats out at sea seemed to notice Moondancer as she spied on them, and she could see them waving at her. The stallion on the bow was smiling at her, so she awkwardly smiled back and waved her hoof, as if these ponies could make out her movements. Something changed in the stallion's expression, though, and his face grew a look of astonishment; he pointed his right hoof, not at Moondancer directly, but beneath where she was sitting.
"Huh?" Moondancer crept towards the end of cliff and looked down at the rocks below, and—
A body was lying still down there...
She couldn't make out everything, but the mare's heart nearly burst from beating so fast as she saw the orange coat of somepony at the bottom of the cliff, not far from the path. Oh no... no no no no NO NO NO NO! Moondancer dropped the telescope in a flash and sped down the snake-like path while trying not to slip at any point. Her hooves kicked up dirt and sand, not slowing down until she came to a sudden stop a few inches from the water. Moondancer climbed up and over the rocks, their jagged edges making the journey hurt slightly.
What lay before her was a few things: it was a seapony, it was female, and it was roughed up in a very bad way. Moondancer had never seen one up close before. The seapony—maybe she had a name?—was a more impressive animal than it would've sounded like on paper, with its coat gradually thinning as it went down the torso until its oily-smooth skin was left exposed. The creature had the tail of a fish, the dorsal makeup of a dolphin, and the upper body of a pony; her front legs had cuts along them in several spots. Moondancer took a couple steps closer to the seapony, not even sure if the thing was alive, and noticed a red blotch on the side of the seapony's head that had hit the rocks. If only one thing was clear, it was that the seapony didn't wake up after her injury.
Moondancer took a deep breath, trying to keep her stomach together, and started heading up to the pool. "Okay, okay, I can do this. I can totally do this." She went inside and used her magic to lift the stretcher and take it down the path with her. "I might not be a doctor, but I've read a book or two on the subject!" Gently, with almost too much care, Moondancer moved the seapony on to the stretcher and slowly made her way up the cliff-side. A flock of seagulls were calling to each other above her, indifferent to what was happening below them.
Resting the stretcher beside the pool, the seapony breathing weakly, Moondancer already felt like she'd had too much "fun" for one day. And it was only eight in the morning. Thinking proactively, the bookish mare stripped out of her turtleneck—it was probably gonna get soaked at some point. The seapony continued to lie on her side, but Moondancer could see her ribs expand and contract with her breathing, so the good news was that the poor thing wasn't dead at least. Another bright side was that ocean water made for a natural disinfectant, although Moondancer still went to open the locker and retrieve the first-aid kit. It was a clunky little plastic box with only basic materials inside, but it would have to be enough.
"Alright, bandage, washcloth, gauze, more gauze..." One of the many so-called life hacks that Moondancer discovered in her studies was that tape fixed every problem imaginable, so long as you applied enough of it. She cleaned the seapony's front legs and torso before applying gauze to her cuts, making sure to not make the poor creature look like an escaped mummy.
The hard part came when Moondancer had to take care of the nasty head wound her patient had gotten; the trauma must've been enough to knock her out cold. Wrapping gauze around the bandage was thankfully easy, given that the seapony's mane resembled that of movie star Audrey Hayburn. The cut on the side of her head was rather severe, though, and Moondancer was left feeling unsure how long it would take for the seapony to regain consciousness; she wouldn't be all sunshine and rainbows when she woke, that was for sure.
"Much better now, huh?" Not that Moondancer expected a response from her patient. The mare's eyelids struggled to keep open, and she soon figured that she couldn't stay awake for much longer. But she also didn't want to leave the seapony by herself, so Moondancer decided to lie on her belly, the floor of the facility not being too cold, and rested her chin on her front legs. If the seapony's eyes were open, they'd be aimed right back at Moondancer's. "I'm gonna stay here, in case you wake up. If you could please do that..."
So more time passed, until—
"Prepping for the test tomorrow?"
"There's a test tomorrow? For Mrs. Brimstone's class?"
"Yeah, don't you remember? You're supposed to be the smart one."
"No, that's *you*, Twilight. I just do a lot of reading."
"So do I, but..."
"I don't study as much, okay?"
"How do you study less than me? We both spend the same hours together, like all the time. Every day, that's what we do."
"Even on weekends, yeah... Twilight?"
"Yes, Moondancer?"
"How come we never hang out with Minuette and the others?"
"We *do*, it's just—I dunno. It's like we're two groups of friends pretending to be one."
"I don't wanna pretend, though..."
"Maybe you should talk to them more often?"
"But you always talk over me, every time I try to."
"No I don't."
"Yes you do!"
"Maybe if you spoke up more I wouldn't be cancelling you out so much. You have to be—well, um... more talkative, I guess."
"You're never the life of the party either."
"I know... maybe I should play with the others more often too."
"We can do that together, can't we?"
"Of course we can, Moondancer... you and me."
"Always?"
"Always."
Something wet tapped the tip of Moondancer's muzzle, and she awoke with a start. The seapony's face was only inches from hers, her hoof probing Moondancer nose with curiosity. The creature's eyes were a-glow with turquoise, and her mouth hung open in an expression that made her look kinda dopey. "Hel... -lo?"
"AH!" Moondancer immediately scrambled backwards away from the seapony, accidentally banging the back of her head on the tile. "Ow..." She rubbed the sore spot and squinted at the seapony, her glasses having fallen a little down her muzzle.
"Shee... -la," the seapony struggled out. "Sea-la. She-la?"
Adjusting her glasses, Moondancer examined her patient and found much to her surprise that she was incredibly beautiful. Even so, the head injury seemed to have caused the poor thing to speak gibberish. The seapony's tail was waving up and down in a hypnotic manner, which had to mean something or other. To put it one way, Moondancer didn't know what to say next.
"Sheila? I-is that supposed to be your name?" Moondancer sat upright and saw the seapony mimic her movement, keeping herself erect with her bandaged front legs. Both mares stood still for a while, Moondancer cocking her head first and the seapony following suit with unnerving accuracy. They played this game, whether they knew it or not.
"Name is Sheila..." She blinked. For a split-second her eyes turned black before transforming back to turquoise, and Moondancer could've sworn she saw a fishing boat in the sea of those orbs. Sheila's lips curled upward to such a degree that indicated happiness without a dose of mischief, and she held up her left hoof, the gauze having already loosened to a small extent.
What does she want from me? Reluctantly, Moondancer raised her own right hoof and kindly pressed it against Sheila's. "You really can talk too, huh?" She'd read about it in books, but she never thought she'd hear it straight from the horse's mouth.
"Sheila can talk a lot," the seapony uttered, "if you... you..."
"Moondancer. It's one word, j-just so you know." The mare cleared her throat. "In case you need to call me."
The seapony's eyes darted above their heads, as if distracted by something invisible. "Moon and sun are equals."
"Oh, I agree with that. The princesses are opposites but equals in my book. Heh..." Where did that even come from? Sheila looked back at Moondancer—kind of. More like over her shoulder, but that was close enough. Hard to tell if this was natural behavior or as a result of the head injury (bet's on the latter).
"Seaponies never sleep, but then they're never fully awake." Her eyes fumbled for a bit before focusing on the mare at last.
Moondancer raised an eyebrow, but stood her ground. "Well, uh, like I said, if you ever need to call me—"
"Sheila would like to call Moondancer," she said, calmly turning to see the body of water that would become her temporary home. "Never been to this place before. Older pod members told Sheila stories about it, this place." Her tail almost smacked Moondancer across the muzzle as she ducked her head into the pool, soaking her bandaged face.
"You need to get in the water? I figured you were fine; it's pretty humid in here," Moondancer said, letting out a faux-chuckle. "This is all so new to me, I'm sorry." Before she knew it, the seapony had dived right into the pool, creating an impressive splash that sprinkled water all over Moondancer's glasses. I guess I should take these off. Ugh... So she did.
Seaponies weren't known to be too cumbersome if they had to travel on land, but when underwater they were simply majestic by comparison. Sheila snapped her front legs to her sides and made her fins do all the work now, her otherwise short mane flowing in the deep like it had magically grown a few inches. Moondancer felt a surging in her heart that told her this was a wonderful sight, at least until she realized Sheila was swimming crookedly; the mare couldn't keep a straight line, and she nearly smashed her face into the cement wall at the deep end of the pool.
When she went up for air, Sheila shot Moondancer a dazed look, her eyes appearing mysteriously vacant. "Head hurts..." She made her way to the shallow end and panted visibly. Moondancer approached her patient and slowly reached out to where she had bandaged the wound, lightly rubbing above Sheila's ear. The seapony frowned and her body stiffened, a state of quiet pain. "Hurts..."
"It should feel better soon," Moondancer said reassuringly, unsure of her own statement, "or at least it should. Not by tonight or tomorrow, but maybe during this week. You're not going to be in perfect shape for a little while."
"Sheila understands. She likes the water here." The seapony leaned her head into Moondancer's hoof, trying to feel the base of it against her skull. "Why does it hurt so much?" Moondancer couldn't keep up her smile; her chest felt like it was being crushed. Her hoof ran through Sheila's luscious mane, softening the part where her hair ended and the gauze began.
"B-because it was thundering and raining a lot, and you had an accident," Moondancer let out. "It'll get better. Trust me."
"Sheila doesn't like thunder." The seapony, more meekly than Moondancer had expected, crawled up to the mare and nuzzled the side of her neck. She didn't know what else to do for her patient at the moment, but she had to do something, so Moondancer kept her hoof on Sheila's head and reached to rub her back with her other hoof. It was almost like a hug, but more like a mother lulling her foal to sleep.
"Neither do I, Sheila. I understand..."
While her job as the keeper never went on hold—she still made her rounds in the lighthouse that night—Moondancer could no longer sleep in her living quarters knowing Sheila was off by herself. Loneliness was a normal feeling for Moondancer, one that she had embraced many moons earlier, but she couldn't imagine what it must be like for a seapony to wander without her pod for hours on end. Sheila became her normally chipper self once she learned to adapt to the pain, but all the same she couldn't be left all alone at the end of the world. Moondancer cared for her patient in the best ways she could, and luckily for her situation the folks at Seasaddle were always more than happy to give her discounts on fish whenever she went shopping.
Strips of tuna and striped bass would've been rare—if ever seen—in Canterlot circles, but Seasaddle (and other port towns like it) practically thrived on freshly caught seafood. Speaking of fresh, Sheila only accepted strips that were purchased raw; Moondancer didn't like the taste personally, but it wasn't exactly unheard of for townsponies to go for sushi, and she predicted that a seapony would prefer fresh over cooked anyway.
So a few days passed by without much in the way of events. On a cool Thursday morning, Moondancer removed the gauze from Sheila's legs and discovered to her delight that the cuts had healed, leaving only faded marks where they once were. The gauze wrapped around the seapony's head shouldn't be taken off yet, not permanently anyway, or at least that's what Moondancer had assessed, and Sheila was in no rush to get rid of the darn thing after each redressing. Ultimately, Moondancer found that she made a decent nurse.
When was the last time I wore a turtleneck? The mare's mind was a bit scattered as she sat by the poolside, flipping through the pages of a tome on aquatic mammalia without lingering on the words. The interior of the facility was a little less spacious than before, with Moondancer having to move her cot and the chair from her desk at home so she could almost always keep an eye on Sheila. The seapony in question had been performing well as of late, doing laps and barrel rolls with next to no trouble.
Moondancer had her nose in the book when she heard Sheila say, "Does Moondancer like to swim?"
"Oh, um," the mare blurted out. It was true; she hadn't gotten her so-called sea legs yet. "I don't do much swimming. I was never the athletic sort." Her cheeks reddened slightly and she rubbed the back of her neck.
"Sheila wants swimming mate." Oh... I should've seen this coming. Moondancer put the book away with her magic.
"What do you mean by that, sweetie?"
The seapony lifted her front end up on to the poolside, her damp mane covering her eyes somewhat. "Sheila has felt lonely in the water lately... wonders if Moondancer would like to keep her company." She brushed her mane out of the way and beamed at Moondancer a pretty adorable grin. Of course, Moondancer had always found her to be cute, but this was pushing it.
"But I've already been with you most of the time, Sheila. I rarely ever left."
"Trust Sheila in water?" The seapony cocked her head and leaned forward slightly. The sea in her eyes was thrashing about.
"I suppose I would. I-I mean... I don't know if I should; I'd have to take another shower." Especially since the idea of swimming with somepony without wearing anything made Monndancer's mind go to a dirty place. Her body did the same, apparently, now that she felt the lips of her pussy quiver. Moondancer tightened the gap between her hind legs and noticed with embarrassment that her cheeks flushed far more hotly than before. "Okay, hang on, let me just—u-um..."
"Trust Sheila," the seapony said before submerging herself once again.
The flustered mare got out of her chair and took off her glasses, levitating them over to her cot where they wouldn't get damaged. Moondancer took another step towards the pool before saying, "Oh wait, I always forget about this—" taking off the band that always kept her mane tied back— "that should do it." Even when unkempt, as it was now, Moondancer's mane bared to an eerie resemblance to Twilight's. She gazed into the glistening water of the pool and took a breath. "Okay—here I come!"
A second later and Moondancer forced her eyes open under the water's surface, floating as though she were experiencing zero gravity. The hairs of her mane spread like a jellyfish's tentacles, all aiming for different directions, and she felt the anxiety in her chest deflate as she made her first kick. Ponies, and especially pegasi, didn't evolve to become graceful swimmers, but Moondancer knew of a few tricks from her studies to make the activity less awkward. Instead of paddling like a dog, she used all four of her legs at once like boosters to break through the water in controlled bursts. The salt here was low in concentration, enough to satisfy a seapony but not so as to leave a terrible taste in anypony's mouth. A microcosm of almost-tropical waves.
Moondancer looked around her, trying to spot Sheila, but first felt the mare's coat brush against her own. The two formed a DNA strand for a moment before breaking off to appreciate the sight of each other while underwater. Words were useless down here; Moondancer could hear noise, but more like a series of rumbling vibrations that substituted for actual sound. The most she wanted to do in that snapshot in time was gaze into Sheila's eyes, the seapony nearly motionless as a statue with only her tail making slight motions.
The sight was so tranquil that Moondancer forgot that she had to breathe at some point. Splashing at the surface, she gasped for air; despite this, she felt no need to panic, her heart not speeding up too rapidly. "Hey..." she said to herself. "This isn't half bad, actually!" before dunking her head once more below the pool's surface.
She couldn't move seamlessly like a fish, or like Sheila for that matter, but it didn't take long for Moondancer to treat the water like a second bedroom. Tumbling, rolling, swerving in spirals. The seapony must've been ecstatic at seeing her mate take so naturally to the deep, because she swam close to Moondancer and wrapped her legs around the mare's body so that their chests touched. Moondancer wasn't quite sure of what Sheila wanted at first, but she got the impression that she should take Sheila for a ride. She wrapped her hind legs around Sheila's torso, just above her pseudo-pectoral fins, and kept her cheek pressed against the seapony's neck, their shadows intermingling on the floor of the pool. It felt like a long time before they both had to come up for air again.
And when they did, Moondancer struggled to release Sheila from her full-body hug. Is this what intimacy with somepony feels like? The seapony refused to loosen her grip on Moondancer's back as well, preferring to nuzzle under and behind her mate's ear. "How does Moondancer like swimming?" Her tail splashed like a playful foal once they got to the shallow end. "Enough to trust Sheila?"
With butterflies in her chest, Moondancer giggled—a rare feat for her—and ran her hoof through her mate's mane. "I do! I like the water a lot, Sheila. I should've tried it before; I don't know why I didn't." The two lay on their sides in the water, only a couple inches deep, enjoying the pressure of their warm bodies against one another.
"Does she trust Sheila?" Then, so calmly that Moondancer didn't notice it at first, Sheila balanced herself on her legs and moved over her mate, fitting her streamlined body into the space between Moondancer's legs. The mare, eyes widened, looked up at the angelic seapony above her, her mane glistening in the light.
"Yeah, I do." With that, Sheila closed her eyes and lowered her head and planted a kiss on Moondancer's lips. It was soft, nearly to the point of shyness, but it lingered and stayed there, the softness of their lips joining... until they parted with a silent pop. Nothing happened, then. Nopony said anything for what could've been an eternity. Moondancer's mind had gone blank. She never thought she'd ever kiss a seapony until now, and in fact she'd kissed only a few ponies in her life, but the feeling of this was something she couldn't describe properly. Her chest filled up, filled to the brim with those flowers that cause you to fall into a peaceful night's sleep after so much anguish.
And then Sheila's lips moved once more. "Does she trust Sheila?" Only one response could ever be appropriate.
"She does..." Moondancer slid her hooves up to her mate's shoulders and not-too-forcefully pulled her into another warm kiss, this one a little deeper, a little more wet, a little more relaxing like the water. As much as it felt respectful to tradition to close their eyes as their lips locked, neither of them did. Not quite. Not exactly. Moondancer clung to Sheila with all four of her legs as she gently pushed her tongue into the seapony's mouth, past her teeth to meet her tongue three quarters of the way. The angel, whose mane smelt of jasmine, didn't resist by any means, and instead chose to caress the smooth underside of Moondancer's tongue with the top of hers.
The sensation was simply too much. A normally reserved mare, Moondancer emitted a joyful squeak during their kisses, with Sheila not strictly sticking to her lips and moving down slightly to kiss and nip at the spot where her neck and shoulder met. Immersed in enough water to know she could never drown but also enough to get perhaps a little too close to her eyes, Moondancer sensed a faint increase in her heart's beating, and she began to feel more excited. Hushed moans left her lips as Sheila continued her glacier-like descent down the mare's chest and belly. Is she going where I t-think she's going? The seapony must've detected Moondancer's question somehow, because she stopped her kisses to look up at her mate's face.
"Does she want to feel good in the water?" At this point, something struck Moondancer as profoundly odd: she was getting horny at the prospect of a marine mammal eating her out. Not a mundane situation indeed! Still, the natural beauty of her mate swept second thoughts under the rug, so to speak (or more accurately obliterated them with a surface-to-air missile). Upon observing Sheila's face too, her youthful expression of curiosity-without-judgment aside, Moondancer realized she still had the gauze wrapped around her head. This seapony—this angel—could well have died if not for Moondancer's efforts in treating her wounds and keeping her company over the course of this past week. Yet here she was, eager to please her mate in a way she most likely assumed nopony else had before.
Not that she would've been wrong in that assumption. Moondancer let out a flighty breath and beamed down at Sheila. "Yes," she said. "I would like to feel good in the water. I would love it..." Even as she trailed off, Sheila made her way down the mare's soaked belly and nipples, planting light kisses along the way, before stopping with her head half-submerged between Moondancer's hind legs. Wagging her tail from side to side in an absentminded fashion, the seapony moved her muzzle closer to her mate's slit and slid the tip of her short—but admittedly cute!—tongue up and down the folds. As if to get a taste.
Moondancer cooed with approval and felt her pussy spasm at the newfound attention; her hind legs spread apart a little farther, giving Sheila more room to work with. Aw jeez, this is actually happening! I can't believe she's really *doing** this for me!* The seapony giggled underwater, causing tiny bubbles to surface, before she went back in to give Moondancer's sweet folds another good lick. It was hard to tell if she hadn't done this before, or if she was teasing her mate to an insane degree.
"If... ahhhh... hehe," was all Moondancer could let out for moment, "i-if maybe you could go in further? If you want to." Sheila paused her meticulous licking to give the mare a funny look.
"Sheila knows what's best," she replied with a hint of authoritative knowing. Whether this whole affair turned out fine or not, Moondancer would have to read up on bisexual mating rituals in seapony pods. To torture her mate even more, Sheila came up with the brilliant idea of nibbling on Moondancer's sensitive folds, lapping at them with the brunt of her tongue before delicately pinching them with her teeth. These minor love bites shot pure and unadulterated pleasure up Moondancer's spine, her horn getting filled with prickly static as a result. Sighs and moans were good before, but Sheila's mate could no longer restrain her vocals to such a low-key level.
"What the fu—ahhhhhhh...!" Moondancer gasped as Sheila stimulated her pussy in all ways but pushing her tongue directly inside, and she had a funny feeling in her gut the seapony would do that soon as well. And she did. Her lovely eyes gazing into Moondancer's own, Sheila wiggled her tongue into the mare's moistened pussy and drove it in as deeply as she could. She didn't get too far in, not that she needed to, but with as much vigor as all the teasing prior she swirled her tongue around the tight inside of Moondancer's depths.
The surge in her loins told Moondancer she was going to hit her climax in no time, what with the work her mate was doing, but out of the blue an idea popped into her head, and in an instant she quite liked it. "Hey, s-sweetie, if uh, if you could...!" Another gasp burst out of her, ending on such a high note that it could only be called a squeal. "I'm almost t-there, but I need you to do one last t-thing for me." Sheila retracted her tongue from her mate's nethers, although her muzzle was still close enough that her exhalations made Moondancer's clit and folds tingle with pleasure. Speaking of which...
"One more thing for Moondancer?"
"I need you to push my b-button. You know the one. It's right there..." Moondancer lowered her hoof down her belly and rubbed over her tender nipples, pointing at her engorged clit. "T-that's all I ask for right now." The seapony's eyelids fluttered a couple times, but she clearly understood what was being requested of her, and the widening smile upon her lips said she was ready to answer the call.
"Out of love, Sheila will do," was all she uttered before she drew her muzzle back between Moondancer's legs. But she wasn't going to make it that easy. Extending her tongue out again, she started at the hyper-sensitive patch of skin between Moondancer's folds and her anus and gave it a firm prodding. In spite of her sounding frustrating, Moondancer knew she was enjoying this all too much; her vagina leaked more clear fluid and one of her hind legs twitched at the touch of Sheila's tongue on her spot. But to prove she wasn't totally evil, Sheila slid the tip of her tongue up along her mate's slit and finally pressed against her button. From that point on, Sheila became relentless in her massaging and pushing of Moondancer's clit, flicking her tongue between the little button and the pussy lips that were by now so thoroughly dampened. There would be no survivors from this battle.
Moondancer, keeping her head back, staring up at the ceiling in wonderment, shivered as her orgasm came to fruition and made her vagina darn-near erupt from all the sensations Sheila was inflicting on her. There were mares who liked to come more than once in short succession, but Moondancer preferred the thrill of being at the peak of the mountain once before sliding down in ecstasy.
And slide down she did. "I've... aw jeez... aw jeez." Her body ached, but it was the victorious kind of aching, the kind she'd want to hang up on the fridge out of pride—not literally, but still. The feeling grew all the stronger—albeit with a touch of bitterness—because somewhere in her heart, Moondancer wondered if she would ever experience this sort of thing again. She couldn't keep Sheila here for much longer, and she didn't know how their relationship would work in the aftermath, what with seaponies being polyamorous by default. Would they even see each other again if Moondancer let her go? The mare didn't know with any degree of certainty, but she bravely fought off such questions for the moment and just lay there, in the water, with her mate.
Resting beside Moondancer, her chin kept above the surface with the help of her front legs, Sheila seemed to have gained a dreamy look in her eyes as she said, "Did Sheila do good?" Her tail made pebble-sized splashes in the water.
"Yes... you did very good, sweetie," Moondancer replied with a kindness most sincere. "I love what you did. I hope I can somehow return the favor tonight, if you want me to."
"Sheila would like that a lot," she said in a low tone. Tired, the seapony licked her lips to taste whatever juices were left.
"Sounds like a good plan to me." No words were spoken for a long while, until...
"Does Moondancer love Sheila?" The question was out of left field, sure, but for some reason Moondancer didn't freak out at it. Her reaction was practically the opposite, if there was any physical indication; she brushed some of Sheila's mane out of her face and stopped to caress her ear. The aquatic angel's lips curled into a serene smile, but she didn't say anything more.
"Does she? Well," Moondancer let out a giggle, "I think she does. I know I do."
