Author's Note
This story was NOT originally created by me.
The original version was written by PonyCleverBlue at Deviant-Art, as a background story for a character he drew.
Problem is, HIS version was basicallly just a wall-of-text.
NO structure, no formation, no nothing.
So I offered to completely overhaul the whole thing, re-writing it from scratch and editing anything that needed editing.
So to recap - I did NOT write THE ORIGINAL, but I DID write THIS VERSION of the story, WITH the original authors permission, blessing and supervision.
Chapter 1
It all began on a sunny day, as Fluttershy was trotting along the seashore and singling quietly and softly to herself. After meeting up with a friendly family of seals, she had decided to take a relaxing trot along the shore to feel the warmth of the sun combined with the gentle breeze from the ocean. It was still early in the morning, so nopony else was around except herself and the seals she had already left. After an hour or so, she was considering turning back and return to Ponyville, when she suddenly heard a quiet voice.
"Um... Excuse me..." the voice said.
Fluttershy looked around to see who had spoken, but could not see anypony.
She heard the voice again.
"Down here. Do you.. have any.. water? Please?"
Fluttershy looked down and saw a small seapony mare lying on the sand.
But it looked different from the seaponies Fluttershy knew about.
This one was smaller, blue, and a bit transparent. She could see the sand beneath trhough its body as it lay there. Her head was covered in thick strands of pink mane that almost looked a bit like earthworms. With much effort, the small creature lifted her fin and once again asked,
"...Water?"
Fluttershy reacted quickly and pulled out her waterbottle from her saddlebag.
"Oh my, yes of course! Here you go. You poor creature, what happened to you? Are you hurt?!" she said and asked, as she poured some of the water over the creature slowly.
The small pony-like creature immediately moisturized when she got the water poured on her,
and a few seconds later she had literally absorbed the water into her body.
"ahh! THANK YOU!" she said as she stood up on her tailfin and started stretching her body and fins, as if she'd been napping. "I'm okay by the way, but a few more minutes and it might not have ended so happily!"
She looked up at Fluttershy and extended her right fin, "Name's Cnideria! It's nice to meet a pony to save my life."
Fluttershy blushed and gave a shy smile as she extended her own hoof toward Cniderias fin,
and gently shook it. "I'm Fluttershy. It's nice to meet you as well, Cnideria."
Cnideria grinned widely, and Fluttershys smile went from shy to a more warm and friendly one, and then shifted again to a curious expression. "Uhm.. If you don't mind me asking..
What kind of pony, or pony-like creature are you? I don't think I've ever seen anypony like you before, and I know most creatures.. If that's not too personal of course, you don't have to answer unless you want to.."
Cnideria giggled a little in response, and started turning around, showing Fluttershy her entire body. "I'm a Jellyfish Pony. I can swim, I'm see-trhough, and... thing like that. Oh, and we're quite rare in these waters, we Jellies come from far down south, we're here visiting!"
Fluttershy smiled at the little ponys enthusiasm. "But if you're basically a jellyfish, shouldn't you avoid direct sunlight? What happened? Why were you lying here on the beach several hooflenghts from the water?" She asked, sounding both curious and a bit worried.
Cnideria smiled carelessly.
"Funny story, actually! I saw a couple of ponies sun tanning and thought it looked like fun,
so I crawled up and wanted to try it myself too!"
Fluttershy was surprised by the sheer stupidity of it all, but being the Element of Kindness and all, she just smiled awkwardly. "Well, next time you better remember Sun Screen. And always have some water with you, and stay closer to the waterline so you can crawl back."
Cnideria giggled, "Yeah" Why didn't I think of that before...? Thank you!"
She crawled closer to Fluttershy. "I wish we could talk a bit longer.. I'd invite you to my place, but.. it's too far away, and you can't breathe underwater.."
Fluttershy gave a gentle smile, and let Cnideria climb up on her hoof so she could lift her up and look her closer in the eyes. "You know.. I could bring you back home to my place..
if you're okay with that of course.. I've invited some friends over, and I'm sure they would all like to meet you."
Cnideria bounced with excitement on Fluttershys hoof, reminding her a bit of Pinkie Pie.
"That's an amazing idea! I love meeting new ponies! Of course I'll go!" She smiled brightly
and rolled her eyes daydreaming. "I can't wait to meet them! We'll have so much fun and they're all gonna love me and I'm gonna love all of them and we're all gonna be friends!"
// End of chapter 1
Back at the beach Cnideria stood on the still warm sand, as her new friends gathered around her. Fluttershy smiled and took a step forward. "It was really nice to meet you. I surely hope we'll meet again some day... won't we?"
Cnideria nodded with notable enthusiasm and waved her fins. "Sure thing! I'll do my best to visit here again, Even if I have to walk to Ponyville myself!"
Twilight frowned slightly. "Are you really sure that's a good idea? I mean, walking all the way. It takes us full-sized ponies almost an hour, and for you it would take at least a whole day on your own. And even if you could handle that, what about the sun, or dangerous animals?"
Cnideria waved her fin giggling. "Nah, don't be silly. I'll do it during winter! The sun won't be so harsh."
Twilight wanted to object, but Rarity poked her and gave her a look that seemed to say "Forget it, It's no use reasoning with her".
Applejack leaned toward the small pony and pointed her hoof at her. "Well, ya better look out for yerself, Sugar cube. It was a pleasure to meet ya."
Cnideria jumped up and hugged Applejacks hoof. "Oh, I'm so glad you like me. I always try to make ponies like me, but for some reason..." Cnideria was unable to finish the sentence
as Applejack suddenly let out a loud scream in pain, as one of Cniderias mane locks touched her hoof. Cnideria quickly jumped off Applejacks hoof, blushing. Applejack waved her hoof around in the air. "It stings, it STINGS! What in tarnation!?"
Cnideria looked nervously at Applejack and then down at the sand, stroking her own mane.
"I-I'm sorry Applejack! It's my mane, I can't always control it. It's a defence thing, the mane can get 'electric'. You're.. not mad, are you? I'm sorry!"
The other five ponies were all looking at Applejack, who was running around looking desperatly for a way to cool down the hoof to numb the still stinging feeling.
Fluttershy smiled awkwardly at Cnideria. "Oh, I'm sure she's not angry, just a bit shocked.
It wasn't your fault. I'm sure she'd say it's fine, if she wasn't running around in circles right now." Cnideria smiled when she heard this, and slowly started moving toward the water.
"Ooh, That's great! I was afraid she might be angry or something. Anyway, I need to go now.
It was a pleasure meeting you all, my less-transparent friends. And, please tell Applejack the stinging should gradually go away over a two, maybe three-day period. Bye!"
She waved her fin one last time as she moved into the water and let the waves wash her away
out into the open sea. The remaining ponies waved their goodbyes until the could no longer see Cnideria, and then Rainbow Dash turned toward Fluttershy. "Ok, I have to say, that was the most awkward situation ever!"
Rarity nodded and, as the all walked back toward Ponyville. "I have to agree with Rainbow Dash. Even meeting Pinkies sister was less awkward than this."
Pinkie rubbed her head in confusion. "Wait, what do you mean? Was meeting Maud really THAT...."
Twilight stepped between them and stopped Pinkie from finishing, smiling awkwardly.
"No, no, it was amazing, you know that. We're great friends now. Rarity just meant,
meeting Cnideria was... different. It's hard to believe somepony could be that.. uh.."
Now Rainbow Dashed interrupted, "...that what? Empty-headed? No-brained? Next to her, even I look like a huge egghead! I swear to Celestia, she's the stupidest pony I've ever..."
Suddenly, something pony-sized and grey came flying fast, crashing straight into Rainbow Dash, hitting her hard enough to send her crashing into a small ditch next to the road.
She shouted loudly, "OH FOR CELESTIAS SAKE, DERPY!!!"
"Muffin...?" The grey pony said.
//The End
