The Little Seapony

Unbeknownst to Pinkie in her state of wretchedness, she had drifted into the territory of the wicked seawitch, Chrysalis. “Well, well, well,” said a voice in the darkness. “What have we here? A dear little party pony with no place to throw a party. How dreadful!” Pinkie sat up with a start and looked about her, but could only see the blackness of night.

“Who’s there?” she asked bravely.

The voice came closer. “A friend. Someone who wants nothing more than to help you. Don’t you want help?”

“Help with what?” Pinkie squinted at the darkness, but could still see nothing.

“Why help getting to the surface world of course! Isn’t that what you want?”

“Why would I want to go to the surface world?”

“Just think of it my dear little seapony. If you lived on the surface, your father would have no control over you. You would be free from this dull, gray prison and be able to throw parties wherever and whenever you like. You may even, dare I even say it, make other ponies laugh. I happen to know that you would do almost anything to hear a pony laugh. Isn’t that right?”

Pinkie’s skin broke out in goosebumps at the voice’s words. “H-how do you know all this? I’ve never told anypony that before.”

“Oh I have my ways,” the voice said dismissively. “The question here is if you want help getting to the surface world or not. The choice is yours my dear.”

Despite her fear, Pinkie thought seriously about what the voice had said. She, for Pinkie was fairly certain the voice was female, was right. Pinkie was tired of being unhappy and sad all the time and of seeing everypony else unhappy too. She wanted to bring joy and laughter into ponies’ lives, and if she couldn’t do it under the sea, then she would go to the surface and do it. “Alright,” she said after a moment. “I want help.”

A bright, eerie green light suddenly lit up the strange clearing she had found herself in. It was filled with the bones of shipwrecked landponies and strange polypes, creatures that were half animal, half plant that reached out and grabbed hungrily at everything that passed by them. Pinkie shivered at the sight. She had no idea she had wandered into such a ghastly place. “Wonderful!” Said the voice and a dark gray seapony with slitted eyes, cobweb like hair, and a long horn swam in front of her. The seapony smiled kindly, showing two rows of sharp fangs.

“Are you,” Pinkie swallowed nervously. “Are you Chrysalis? The seawitch?”

“The one and only,” the witch said. “But don’t worry about all those scary stories you’ve heard about me from your dear old father. None of them are true. He also told you that landponies and parties were bad too, remember? And you know that’s not true! I’m being honest when I say that I only want to help. You want to go to the surface do you not?”

“I do,” Pinkie said hesitantly.

“Then let me help!” insisted Chrysalis. “There is only one way to become a landpony, and that is to convince a landpony to fall in love with you. If you do that, then the power of your love will imbue your body with magic and allow you to stay a landpony for all your days.”

Pinkie’s brows furrowed. “Well how am I supposed to that? All communication between Aquastria and Equestria is forbidden! I would be imprisoned or worse if my father ever caught me speaking to a landpony!”

“Yes, that is true, however I have a spell that will allow you to be a landpony for three days.” Chrysalis’s expression turned serious. “I must warn you, though, that this spell does have certain unpleasant side effects.”

“Side effects?”

“Yes. The spell will split your tail in two and give you two hind legs that you will use to walk on dry land. This process will be very painful for you. It will feel as if a sword has sliced your tail in two. This pain will fade with time, of course, but for the first day especially, it will be almost unbearable. Also, the spell is only one way. It will turn you into a landpony, but you will never be able to be a seapony again. This world and everything in it, will be lost to you forever. At sunset on the third day, if no pony has fallen in love with you, you will die. Are you willing to accept these terms?”

Pinkie blanched. Her tail would be painfully sliced in two? If she didn’t get somepony to fall in love with her in three days she would die? “Those are pretty harsh terms,” she said.

“Sadly these are the only terms I can give to you,” Chrysalis said.

“Then,” Pinkie said after thinking for a moment, “I suppose I agree to them. It’s not like I can stay here. Not after what happened today.”

“Oh good! One more thing,” Chrysalis smiled. “This is a very difficult spell and I am going to need payment for it.”

“Payment? But I thought you wanted to help me?” Pinkie asked.

“Oh I do, my sweet, I do, but all magic comes with a price,” Chrysalis explained. “This is mine. Don’t worry, it’s nothing too big. All I need from you is your voice. Nothing big at all!”

“My voice!” Pinkie screeched. “How is that not a big thing? How am I going to make ponies laugh let alone fall in love with me if I can’t even talk?”

“Oh! Talking is overrated!” Chrysalis said. “People talk down here talk all the time and you never see them smiling and laughing. As for love, well, you’ll have your bright blue eyes and beautiful pink fur. Somepony will fall for you! I wouldn’t worry about it. So do we have a deal?”

“I-I guess so,” she said uncertainly.

“Perfect,” she seawitch purred. Her horn lit with a sickly black-green aura that quickly surrounded Pinkie. A sharp pain, the like of which Pinkie had never felt before pierced her scaly pink fin as her tail split into furry pink hind legs. She tried to scream, but found she couldn’t as Chrysalis had already taken her voice away. Realizing she only had a few moments to reach the surface before her new landpony body would need to breathe, she ignored the pain, and swam with all her might towards the faint glow of the moon above.