Chapter 2: Warning: Approach with caution and FOOD

Under the star night sky, there where lights and taxis hauling ponies back and fourth. The buildings took to the skies and there was little to no reason for street lights, because the buildings illuminated the streets for blocks. There where tons of ponies trotting down the streets, some carrying bags and some admiring the sites. This was Manehattan. And with hundreds of scenery for the spectators foreign to this place.  Ranging from giant statues, particular buildings, islands and celebrity ponies in general. The Manehattan bridge is what connects it to equestria, with a nonstop express taking ponies back and fourth.

Just under the bridge there was a odd scene occurring. Well, not really a scene, more like an event. And a event of one at the moment as a two unicorn mares were on a boat of the coast of Manehattan. It was unnecessarily dark, considering they were directly under the bridge.

One of these mares was a light orange unicorn with a blue mane. She was in the middle of the boat concentrating her magic to keep the area they were in lit up. The other was a hazel unicorn with a rusty red mane. She wore glasses and was putting on what appeared to be scuba gear.

"Ugh. Why does this gear have to be so tight? Its so uncomfortable." She was struggling to get her fore hooves into the suit. When she finally succeeded she let out a sigh and went for the mask.

"Really, May?  Compared to the other stuff I've seen you put on I'd though this would be cake." The other mare started to giggle to herself and MaeMae shot daggers before putting the mask on.

"Would you shut up Tick! Those aren't the same. Those outfits are more comfortable and feel good to move around in."

"I bet they feel better when somepony takes them..."

"Shut up!!" May was starting to turn a bright red under her mask and Tick just laughed louder.

"I'm kidding, i'm kidding. No need to get all touchy on me. Anyways are you gonna get down there and collect some clams  or not? Its almost midnight and its getting really cold." Tick shivered to show just how cold it was, but MaeMae shrugged it off because she knew she was faking. There was a cage at the edge of the boat that was big enough to hold five ponies. May climbed in and closed the cage behind her with her magic. She turned her head and waved off to Tick, signaling that she was ready. Tick nodded her head and went to the controls for the cage. She put her hoof on the lever marked "descend"  and pulled it down. After a few loud gear noises, the cage began to sink into the water slowly. Before May was completely submerged, Tick put on special head phones hat allowed her to speak with May.

"Now remember: At the sign of anything that can be proved to be dangerous you pull the emergency lever in there, okay?"

"I got ya." May began to rise in the cage as the water came in. Seconds later she was completely submerged. It was pitch black other than her horn which provided little but useful light. Some small fish began to swim in and out of the cage, this was a sign that she was deep underwater. Suddenly the cage came to an abrupt stop. This wasn't a problem because it just meant that the rope attached to the cage has ended. May opend the cage doors and swam out, not closing it back. She was about forty meters below sea level when Tick's voice was heard in her mask.

"You doin' alright May?"

"Yeah I'm fine. I'ts dark as heck but i'm fine." May reached the sea floor. She was now sixty meters below sea level. Finding it a little hard to breath, she turned on the oxygen tanks attached to her suit. As she was swimming she began to  experience slight static. She was getting too far from Tick. It wasn't just the distance, the interference was coming from the giant stalks of seaweed she was swimming through. "Ugh, this sea grass or kelp...or...whatever is screwing with me!" May tried to adjust her mask to get a better signal but nothing worked. Then something out of the ordinary came from out in the distance. It sounded almost like crying. May pushed over the seaweed that was blocking her vision and increased the light her horn emitted.  What she saw in the meters ahead of her shocked her to the point of almost screaming. She didn't know what the things were. They looked like ponies but they weren't...well on top they were but on the bottom it looked like they were part fish. MaeMae tried to get up closer but one of the creatures heard her and took a defensive stance. May held her hooves up in defense but couldn't help but realize that the other creature was indeed crying and holding something small.

Above sea level, on the boat, Tick is becoming unbelievably frantic. She lost contact with May for was actually minuets, but seemed like a few hours. She paced back and fourth on the boat with her headphones on in hopes of getting contact back. Instead of a voice, she heard a sound. A familiar sound. A sound that restored hope into the mare that was just about to give up. It was the sound of the gears of the cage. The rope was rising and the cage soon appeared from out of the water. Once the cage opend, Tick rushed into the cage, not giving May time to get out and embraced her in a hug.

"Oh, sweet Celestia May! I thought you were dead!" Tick held the embrace for a good while until she realized May was holding something in her hoof. "Uh, May. What's that ya got there?"

"Umm....well..i'll explain to ya when we get back to the apartment, kay?"

~half an hour later in May and Ticks apartment~

"...."

"...."

"...a colt..."

"Uh..yeah.."

"A COLT!!" Tick exploded with shock and rage. May quickly put her hoof over her mouth for being to loud. In May's room on her bed rapped in seaweed was in fact a colt. Tick removed May's hooves from her face and her voice became a whisper. "Exactly where'd you find him. You were underwater for Celestias sake! And exactly what kind of colt is he? Look at him. No horn, no wings. Just scaly fur and really, really sharp teeth. Like a sharks!"

"Okay, okay now, just calm down and listen. This is what happened..."

~flashback~

May held her hooves up in fear. She didn't know what the creatures were, but she knew that she didn't want to alarm them in any way. But her focus was still on the one who was crying. It sounded like a mare's cry. But it couldn't be. That wasn't a mare. Was it?

"H-he is going to die," The one who was crying finally spoke up. It was defiantly a mares voice. The other, who was in front of May swam to her side, embracing her, eyes glancing down to what she was holding,tears starting to form in the creatures eyes. Given from its torso, compared to the one it was holding, it appeared to be a stallion holding a mare.

"No my sweet, please don't say that." The stallion-like creature kissed the mare-like creatures forehead. May wasn't sure to expect anymore. She started to put her hooves down and she just floated in the water watching the events take place.

"We have tried everything, and nothing worked. You know as well as I that no amount of magic can fix this." The mare-like creature began to cry even more, embracing whatever she was holding even tighter. "Curse my genetics! I have cursed our baby to death." Not wanting to hear anymore of what the she was saying, the stallion broke his embrace from her and put his hooves on her face and motioned it to his and stared directly into her eyes.

"Do not say that!" The two stared deeply into each others eyes for a good second before returning to an embrace. May still wasn't completely sure what was going on, but enough has happened to the point where she wanted to find out more. She started to swim closer to the two still keeping her distance. She didn't know why, but since she could understand what they were saying, maybe it would be vise versa.

"Um, excuse me. Do you two need help?

The stallion turned his head sharply to May. Eyes filled with rage and tears."Back away from us now!" May put her hooves up defensively again, but this time she wasn't terrified.

"It's alright. I mean you two no harm. I just want to know what is happening so I can help you." The stallion bared his teeth at May. But before he could do anything, the mare stopped him.

"Wait," she said before she turned to May. "You can understand us, can't you?" After that, May became wide eyed. The mare said it as though this didn't happen every day. Fear and shock slowly creeped into her expression under her scuba mask as she responded.

"W-well I-I guess so. In any case, can you two please tell me what is going on here. And while your at it, can you tell me just what in the heck you two are?"

"Oh, my dear apologies. We are merponies, we live in he sea. And for our current situation...well..." Before she could finish her sentence, the stallion swam in front of her."

"No! We do not converse wit air breathers. Have you forgotten? It is forbidden!"

"My love, she may be he only one who can help us. The only one who can..." She looked down to what she was holding. "...save him."

"We cannot. Poseidon had good reason to make it a strict rule that we-"

"I REFUSE TO WATCH MY BABY DIE IN MY HOOVES!" Both the stallion and May were speechless. She was holding a baby? May didn't no what to say or do, but her hooves acted on their own as she swam towards the two and the mare swam closer as well, ignoring the stallions objections.

"You are one of a kind. I sense no evil inside you. You have a kindred heart that speaks for itself. This.." she held up what she was holding to May. "...is our child. He is but one years of age and yet he shows no physical sign of his kin, but the striking appearance of his father." She turned to the stallion who was right behind her with a smile and he smiled back.

"I always wanted an aire to carry my blood. I was expecting a daughter but..I got a son." The stallion was beginning to tear up more as he spoke while at the same time trying to wipe away the tears. "I didn't care that he didn't inherit the physical appearance of  his kin. But I didn't realize the..problem...until..t-the doctors.." He quickly became to choked up to speak and the mare continued where he left off. "The doctors said that his lungs developed faster than his gills. It was unimaginably rare to happen, but me having earth pony blood within me increased the odds." The mare was soon becoming too choked up to speak as well. "T-they said that if his development doesn't increase on the exponential rate he will..die. We tried nearly every biological to health spell in the book, preformed by the most skilled, but the result always came up short. They said that his fate was...." The mare stopped when May held up her hoof to her.

"I think I got what your saying, okay? You don't need to say anything else." May held both her hooves out to the mermare and she took a second to understand what it meant. Hesitating slightly she handed her foal that was rapped head to hoof in some kind of special seaweed because she could feel him breathing as if he wasn't rapped up at all. "I will give it my best to make sure that he will be loved by everypony he meets, you can count on that." The mermare was so overjoyed that her foal actually had a chance at life that she pulled May into a tight embrace and May made sure the foal wasn't in the way.

" I can't even begin to think of a way to show my gratitude."

"Well, I think the oxygen robbing hug is enough," she managed to get out. The mermare released he and looked to the rapped up foal with tears in her eyes. She gently caressed him and kissed it, as did the father shortly after.

"Okay um..i'll make sure that he will see you two in time. Trust me, i'll make sure he grows up strong"

"We couldn't ask for anything else. Thank you." May was beginning to have tears roll down her eyes in her mask. She nodded off the merponies and waved to them goodbye and swam off to the cage and pulled the emergency lever.

~End of flashback~

"...and that's what happened. Well besides what happened after that, you know, taking a cab back to the apartment, but yeah, that's it."  Tick was utterly speechless. Her jaw hung open for a good second before she snapped herself out of her trance.

"Wait a minuet, hold up. Your telling me that you saw merponies, you understood them and swore to take care of their colt?

"That is the shortened version, but yes."

"That's freaking amazing! May that's something for the history books right there.A genetically split foal with the dna of an earth pony and a sea pony, with little to no odds of the combination even happening? Well that's just-" Tick was silenced again by May's hoof pressed up against her mouth.

"Would you be quiet for a dang minuet. Jeez. Look i'm not even sure if I actually want to raise him. And I already know what your gonna say, 'But you promised!' Yeah, I know I promised, but look at me. I'm 18 years old, I just moved out of my parents house a year ago and everything is going great. And I don't know if you've noticed, but i'm not exactly 'mother' material. I say we just give him to a nice home, obviously not one here and..."

"Mama?"

"....W-what?" May became speechless as she turned her head to the foal who was wide awake and looking at her.

"Ma..ma.." The colt rolled to his stomach and began to crawl towards May.

"Would you look at that! He thinks your his mother. You have to take care of him now. And on a side note, one years old and he can speak? That's impressive."

"Wha..no..I.. did you not hear me? Have you gone deaf the last five seconds? I CANT raise a foal. And of course he thinks i'm his mother, I...wait...why does he think i'm his mom? He's one, he should have seen his mother a few times."

"Well maybe you have a certain quality inside you that matches with his actual mom, and he's so young he can't even tell the difference yet." Tick put a reassuring hoof on May's shoulder. "Look, May, you have to take care of this colt. What more does he have to do to get your approval."

"No..well, it's just that..I...argh. Okay you know what fine! I'll be his mom."

"Yes! Good mare." Tick gave May a few short glances back and fourth between May and the colt. "Well?"

"Well what?"

"Well,what are you gonna call him? I'ts gonna be very hard growing up and he doesn't have a name"

"Oh, yeah. A name. Right...umm.." May gave the colt a glance before turning back to Tick. "Well he kind of reminds me of money soooo....how about Cash?" Tick just gave May a shrug.

"Who the heck am I to argue with the mother. I think Cash is a great name."

"Yeah.." May continued to stare at the foal unsure of herself. But that stare soon turned into a smile. "I think you and I are gonna be wonderful together." The smile was soon replaced with a look of worry when the foals stomach growled and uttered one word that sent a shiver down May's spine.

"Hungry."

"Oh, boy." Tick turned to May and put her hoof on her shoulder. "Good luck."