//-------------------------------------------------------// The Legend of the Fourth Pony Tribe -by That_G3_Obsessive- //-------------------------------------------------------// //-------------------------------------------------------// Prologue: The Beginning //-------------------------------------------------------// Prologue: The Beginning A great earth pony tribe that resided on a remote island off the coast of what would become the magical land of Equestria. There were earth ponies populating the main land, too, but they did not have the magical qualities of the island-dwellers. The island-dwellers were not afraid of water. Most ponies today do not go swimming too deep because of their hooves. They usually retreat when it gets above their belly fur. But these ponies, they could swim fearlessly in the ocean, ten times deeper then where they could touch. When the draquonicus invasion started the war, the monsters ignored the small island. When Princess Celestia and Princess Luna were defeated by Discord, they begged the islanders for help. But the ponies refused. The war raged on, and while the islanders lounged in their homes, the main land ponies were fighting for their lives. Eventually, Discord and his kind were defeated, and Celestia was very angry at the islanders. She was so mad, that she took her anger out on the island, know as Saddlantis. She sunk the island with her magic and turned all of the ponies' hind legs into fish tails. She then created a powerful force-field dividing Equestria from the oceans. She then cast a powerful memory spell on all the ponies, including her sister, Princess Luna, so they would forget Saddlantis ever existed. Celestia assumed that the great city was gone, dead, lost. But she was wrong. We are still here, forgotten, but surviving in the oceans, trying desperately to get somepony to recognize us, and to prove that the great Princess Celestia was not so great after all." I finished writing as Father called. I was trying to write a book on the history of Saddlantis and the hippocampi, but Father didn't want me to. His name is Triton, and he is King of the Oceans. That means I get to be princess, since I am his only daughter. Yipee. The problem is, I never wanted to be princess. I just wanted to be a regular old hippocampus, with a regular old life. You may ask, "How can a pony write underwater?" We use seaweed to write on. I know, gross, but that's part of the curse. You see, hippocampi have lived undetected under the sea since Discord ruled. Yes, we do need air, but we can hold our breath for over an hour. "Ocean Breeze! Come here!" Father called again. Rider's my nickname. My real name is Ocean Breeze, but everypony just calls me Wave Rider because... well, we'll get into that later. In fact, this isn't even my story. This is the story of a certain princess who discover's her "perfect teacher" isn't so perfect after all. More on that later. As I was swimming through the halls of the castle, a hammerhead shark drifted through the window lazily. That actually isn't that uncommon a sight. We use open-air windows(if you can call them "open-air" underwater) so all the fish and dolphins and such can drift through. I stroked the sharks dorsal fin with my hoof/flipper as I swam. That's right, I said flipper. During the transformation, our front hooves kind of mutated into flipper-things. It helps us steer so we don't crash into wall, so I can't complain. "Daughter!" Father greeted me. "I haven't seen you in ages. Have you been locked up in your room again?" "Father!" I said. "You saw me an hour ago! That is NOT ages!" I rolled my eyes, though I am really glad to see that he cared about me. "Hey, Rider! Want to go surfing?" asked my BPFF(Best Pony Friend Forever), Coral. "Oh, good morning, King Triton. May Breeze and I go surfing?" "Yes," said Triton, rolling his eyes. "But stay close to the city. Don't want those land ponies to see you." "C'mon, let's go!" I swim out as fast as my tail would take me, but I was about to go farther from the city than ever before. Inland. //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 1: I get sucked into a black hole. //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 1: I get sucked into a black hole. Worst day EVER. And yet, I made a brand new friend that day. So it might be better than Coral makes it out to be. It might. Anyway, Coral and I were going surfing. Coral is a red hippocampus with royal blue streaks in her mane. Her tail shone like a red coral in the sun, which is why she's called Coral. I'm aqua with a royal blue and deep purple mane. Surfing is not for the weak hippocampi. It takes extreme balance and speed, and I'm the best in Saddlantis. That's why I'm called Wave Rider. Nopony can beat me. We saw a monster wave coming up ahead. Coral and I swam up to where the end would be when it got there, and waited. The wave roared like a sea serpent(and yes, those exist). I braced myself as it got ever closer... "NOW!!!" Coral shouted, and I dived into the wave. When you're surfing, you have about a half-second to get moving otherwise you wipe out. You have to have killer reactions to do it. I swam along the inside of the wave, waiting for the right moment to... "JUMP!" Coral yells, since she's ahead of me. I leap sideways and come out of the wave. I turn my body vertical and balance with my fins skimming the water. I hold out my flippers for balance as I shoot through the tunnel of water. It was beautiful. I started sinking, and dived into the water, but it was too early. I got battered against the rocks with no mercy from the thundering wave, until I saw a cave that would protect me until the wave died down. I swam with all my might and finally ducked inside. Mistake. There were powerful currents pulling from the cave, and I got sucked in. There was no escape. It was an underwater black hole. It battered and bruised me until I banged my head really hard on a big rock, and everything blacked out. //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 2: I discover the hard way how to get on land. //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 2: I discover the hard way how to get on land. When I woke up, I was in soft grass. Wait. Hippocampi can't go on grass. When I looked around, I saw I was at least 4 feet from some inland saltwater spring. The wave must have pushed me onto the land and the grass when I was out. Suddenly I heard voices. Land ponies, I thought. What would Father say if he caught me now? Suddenly I felt terribly guilty. He had already lost Mother, he didn't need to lose me, too! I tried to flip myself around so I could get back to the water. It took a while, and the voices were getting steadily closer. I tried to pull myself over to the water with my flippers, but that's the thing about flippers. They're excellent in water, but on land, not so much. "Come on, Pinkie, we're almost there!" said a casual voice. It seemed to be coming from above the ground, but I didn't see how that was possible. Earth ponies can't fly. "Rainbow, if you were carrying the stuff, you'd be slowed down, too!" scolded a stern voice. "Easy for you to say, Twilight! You're using your magic!" said a squeaky, high pitched voice. "I'm using my back!" "Pinkie, you're carrying, like, three things," said the floating voice, Rainbow. "And how many are YOU carrying, Dashie? NO-THING!" said Pinkie. "Not even your own body! You're just using your fancy wings!" A pegasus? On land? I thought. Of course, I was on land, too. But what were a unicorn, earth pony, and pegasus doing together? I was only one foot away from the water now, but I was in plain sight. I had to get to the water! I scooted even faster. "C'mon, guys! The swimming hole is right there!" said the unicorn, Twilight. "Oooh! I call the rope swing first!" "I'm just gonna catch some rays," said the pegasus with a yawn that seemed a little fake to me. Come on, come on! Just my fins were out of the water now. With one final scoot, I slid into the water and out of sight just as the land ponies came into view. I went to the deepest part of the spring, where nopony would dare go, and just my eyes, ears, and nose were above the water. A sky-blue pegasus came to rest on a chair on the beach with a tanning mirror. I assumed that was Rainbow because of her chromatic mane and tail. A bright pink earth pony came bouncing in next, with crazy poofy hair. I just knew that was Pinkie. And last came in a pretty lavender unicorn with magenta stripes in her mane and tail. She was Twilight, until I found out that the unicorn wasn't a unicorn. She had large feathered wings by her sides, though she was carrying a picnic basket with unicorn magic. A real, live alicorn. Wow. Coral would be swimming off the walls when I told her this. Coral loved land ponies, secretly. She was fascinated by everything about them, but Saddlantis forbade anypony saying anything about land ponies. I dived down and tried to get through the shallow cave, but the current that forced me in the spring was also keeping me here. Even if I could get close, the monster wave must have knocked some of the boulders down, because I could barely get my flipper through. I was trapped, with three land ponies watching the water. I saw some seaweed on the bottom of the spring, and a writing rock. Dear Coral,