Hippocampus: The Rebirth

"My king! You’re back earlier than expected." Keira said in complete surprise, "I thought you wouldn't be returning for at least another two days..." She trailed off as a thought crossed her mind. "Does this mean were the last..."

"Oh heavens no! The ponies of Equestria still live all..." He paused "except the fire ponies, Discord wiped them all out."

"So did you find out how long we were sleeping for?"

"Yes, thirteen hundred years. We only needed to sleep for two hundred of them. Ironically it was Discord who finally woke us up, he created a group of us out of one of the cities of Equestria and that tripped one of the magical tripwires my brother, the former king, set up to wake us up."

"Discord lives!?!" Keira shouted her face twisting in horror, "Forgive me, but surly you are mistaken my king. Surly this is a cruel trick the ponies of Equestria are playing on you. Surly!!"

"There was no desertion I felt his magic, it was Discord. I would have struck him down, in fact I almost did, but killing him won't bring us peace, no, only through prospering in the ruin of our once great kingdom will we find peace."

"But he is responsible for the near distraction of our race!" She was dumbfounded.

"Both Princess Celestia and Luna vouch that he has been reformed and I believe them." Saris said calmly.

"You are blinded by Celestia's beauty."

"I am not, I just trust my old friends" saris protested

Keira mumbled "more than old friends in the case of Celestia I would argue."

"What was that?"

Keira hadn't realized she said that aloud "nothing! Nothing at all!" She said quickly.

"Well if it was nothing then you can repeat it"

"Sorry! But I can't" Keira said rubbing the back of her head with her hoof. "Restoration is going well" she said desperately trying to change the subject.

"Oh restoration is going good, I wish to see what they have gotten done in the day and a half I was gone.”

“I can assure you it is not much but Teneve’s organized work crews and they have begun internal restoration of the Coral Palace. They have also cleared out some of the nearby houses and have set up gathers to collect as much seaweed as possible. I think his plan is to fix up the palace then work outward from there. It should work pretty well I imagine.”

“Well I should go see Teneve then and get the report from him.”

“My king I do hope that all went well in Equestria, who is in control of it now?” Teneve asked as he was scraping growth off the walls of the throne room.

“My visit did go well, and Celestia and Luna are in charge, just as you predicted”

“Looks like you owe me ten doubloons. Oh, that reminds me I managed to clear a way to the treasury, now we can get our economy back on track, plus if all went well soon we will be able to tax the trade ships that come into our region.” Teneve said grinning.

“Yes our economy, now how do you suppose we go about doing that?” Saris said expecting at least a vague answer.

“Quite simply, for a while we will be able to tell the citizens, that they work for the purpose of their race, however we will need to eventually impose an economy to motivate them. Say a year from now we start paying those who work one doubloon for every hour of work they do. Then when they start becoming self-sufficient we start imposing taxes on the various trades. And once we have a crossing agreement enforced by the Kraken we will use that tax to keep our economy running, heck to prevent inflation we can use the money we get from that particular tax to hire builders from the surface to work on the restoration, of course we would need to fasten bubbles for them.”

“How much thought have you put into this?”

“Well when I have nothing to think about while you work, my mind wondered and I have been thinking about it all day.”

“Well with you having figured out how to start the economy, I guess I don’t need to do anything else today. Now where will I be sleeping tonight?”

“Should you not wake the Kraken first, so our borders are secure?” Keira interjected.

“I think we will last the night” Saris said assuredly.

“Saris I know you, what aren’t you telling us?” Teneve asked worryingly.

“I don’t necessarily know if waking the Kraken is the best idea.” Saris said looking away.

“It was your idea!” Keira said clearly frustrated with him.

“You flared up fast”

“Saris don’t change the subject.” Teneve said quickly.

“I don’t know if the Kraken will listen to me in my weakened state.”

“But you are its creator why wouldn’t it listen to you?” Keira asked.

“Because it was made to be independent of me, my vision of life was things to maintain this world, completely independent of me.”

“The gain outweighs the risk, we need the Kraken now more than ever, especially since we went and threw away one of our greatest advantages.” Keira said her military background coming forth in full.

“She’s right, at least one griffon must have seen you and news travels faster than the currents.” Teneve agreed.

“Fine, I will do it first thing in the morning, but now I am tired from staying up a day and a half. Now where will I be sleeping tonight?” Saris said allowing a hint of exhaustion creep into his voice.

“Well we cleared out the royal chambers if you want to sleep there, if the memories are too bad for now you can sleep with the rest of us on the floor of the palace.”

“The floor it is then.”

Saris was standing on the edge of an immense abyss, the void beneath him so dark that you it almost looked solid enough to stand on. He lifted Octotear up so that the three points were facing horizontally and over the abyss. Octotear’s tips were glowing white “Awake from your eternal slumber First for your creator commands it of you!” he shouted and it echoed in the abyss. He pointed Octotear strait down into the abyss, and Octotear shot out a white beam of light.

The ground started to shake and Saris could see a small pink thing rising from the abyss, as it raised it got larger and the shaking got worse. It was shaking until the large squid octopus hybrid was at the top. Its immense eye opened and it bellowed “" You dare wake me!?!" the eyelid narrowed “You look like my maker yet you do not feel like he.”

“I am he who you call Maker.”

“No, I feel more of my maker in the water then in you.”

“That is because I dispersed my power into the water to hide here.”

“Am I to believe you are my maker?  I would sooner believe that the library at the bottom of this abyss is made out of sea urchins.”

“Would you now?”

“Yes I would.”

“Well tell me then if I wasn’t your maker then how would I know how to wake you from your eternal slumber?”

“You clearly broke into the library and learned the spell in the magic section of the it.”

“That’s a fair assumption, however the spell to wake you isn’t in the library, it was purposely kept out of the library, as to keep you asleep forever.”

The Kraken’s eye widened into its natural shape “I would be surprised if my maker didn’t have a copy of that spell in the Library of the Abyss, the one place where everything is recorded perfectly.”

“That is true, but there are things that are not kept in the library for the reason of keeping the most dangerous creatures sleeping forever, such as the Arch-Dragon and you.”

"So even the Arch-Dragon has been imprisoned the same way as I, is there no end to this."

“Don’t change the subject; I need you for a task.” Saris said getting to the point of waking the Kraken in the first place.

"And that task would be?" the Kraken’s eye narrowed.

“I need you to protect Oceania’s borders from ships that would trespass in our waters.”

"What is a boat?"

Saris had forgotten that the Kraken wouldn’t have known this; he wished he had a portrait to show him. “A boat is a mass of wood and cloth that is able to float on the water, sort of bowl shaped and they will have a huge tree of cloth sticking out of the top”. Saris hoped that the Kraken understood.

"And you want me to destroy any of these that enter your territory?"

“Yes”

"What could possibly motivate me to do such a thing? What do you have to offer me in return?"

“Freedom to wonder the sea in which you call home.”

"You are foolish to think that that is a bargaining chip, in order to use it you had to wake me."

“True but I can make you fall asleep again, thus it is a good bargaining chip.”

"You are cunning to say the least. Fine but do not lie to me about freedom, I know I will have a chain around me if I was to except."

“Yes but it would be a loose chain and you will have more freedom then if you were to spend the rest of existence not experiencing a single thing.”

"There is truth in your words and you bring up good points, but tell me does not a loose chain hurt the most?"

“Rarely does a loose chain hurt Kraken. But I see your point; perhaps a long chain would be a better analogy”

"It is, but it is still a chain that will forever bind me."

“How about this you listen to me until the day I die, and then when I die I cast the spell that would free you permanently, on the condition that you leave the hippocampus alone.”

"You are immortal if you are my master, but even if you managed to die you would still keep a chain around me."

“It was worth a shot”

"Trickery was never my creators strong suit. It clearly isn’t yours."

“What can I do to make you believe I am you maker?” Saris asked.

"Do only something my master can do…" the Kraken blinked as he thought. "It would have to be something that is impossible for anyone else to do."

“What if I entered the library, you know that only the worthy can enter it.”

"Yes, but on the off chance you are worthy it wouldn't be the best test. I've got it, reveal your true form to me."

“I am bound in this form I cannot.”

"That doesn't matter if you simply create a magical construct of what you really look like, no mortal has ever looked at you and lived to tell of the tale."

“Fine.” Saris said as he lifted Octotaer, and his trident began to glow. In between Saris and his Kraken a small pale blue ball of light appeared. the Kraken’s eye went wide.

"If I wasn't the first I would be dead from witnessing your true form, but for some pony else to know it is impossible, you must be my creator."

"It's about time you believed me, but I need you to do your creator a favor and in thirteen days you need to sink any ships that are not painted red."

"May I ask, why thirteen days?"

"You may, and it's to let the ships that are out of port make it back."

"And why may I not destroy the color red?"

"So the griffons may make it to the summit to discuss new trade routes across my ocean."

"Then I shall explore the ocean I have been so long away from."