The sun stood at its peak over the calm waters of the Celestial Sea. Its invigorating rays of light heating the sea’s surface into a pleasant warmth, perfect to enjoy a nice summer day.

Deep underneath the waves, a family of Hippocampi swam leisurely near the ocean’s floor. The father, a marine blue Hippocampus with light blue fins and a long and strong tail carried a kelp net basket with a few snacks and a blanket while the mother, a beige Hippocampus with long, brown dorsal fins and a short, black mane played with her filly.

The filly had dark brown scales and light blue fins. She had a long, black flowy mane with a golden strip that matched the golden lateral line that ran from her chest, all the way down to her strong tail. Her big, round purple eyes were filled with glee as she giggled while her mother assaulted her with tickles.

The filly’s pearl pendant swayed back and forth around her neck, poking uncomfortably on her gills as she struggled against her mom’s advances, trying to free herself from her grasp.

“M-mom! L-let me go!” She pleaded between giggles.

“Never!” Joked her mom, spinning her around and blowing bubbles on her belly.

The filly went into a mad laughing fit, her mother’s tickles proving too much to bear. “Daddy, h-help me!” She cried for assistance.

With a mischievous grin, her father threw his kelp net up giving him enough time to swoop behind his wife and grab her by the barrel, tickling her and kissing her neck as it slowly sunk to the sand.

With her mother’s grasp weakened, the filly gave a mighty beat of her tail, escaping her captor’s prison. She did an acrobatic loop of victory and dove to her mom’s belly, blowing bubbles of her own to exact her revenge.

“Hahahaha, t-t-that’s not f-fair!” She protested, squirming around her husband’s tight embrace.

The duo eventually had mercy on her and let her go. Laughing at their exchanges, they took a moment to catch their breaths and continued swimming down the reef’s path. As they continued their journey to one of their preferred picnic spots, the reef became more and more filled with life and color, until they finally reached a spot near the end of the reef’s formation and into the open sea.

The spot was a small valley surrounded by coral, a plethora of sea anemone filled the area with their vibrant and beautiful colors like flowers would the fields. Dozens and dozens of exotic fish and crustaceans swam and scurried around the smooth rock at the base of the valley.

The couple set the blanket right at the center of the valley, using some small rocks to keep the currents from carrying it away and they all laid down and enjoyed their meal, seaweed salad with raw fish. However, it didn’t take long for the energetic filly to finish her food and want to go out and play.

“Mom, can I leave?” she asked restlessly, her tail muscles itching to be set free.

“Sure my little Pearl, just be careful and stay nearby, we’re on open waters.” her mom warned her.

The filly smiled and was about to dash away, but she was caught by her dad’s tail before she could leave.

“Ah ah, what do you say first?”

“Oh, sorry. Excuse me.” the filly apologized sheepishly.

“That’s right. Go on now.” Her dad lowered his tail, allowing her passage.

As the filly swam away excitedly, her father gave her one last warning before the couple returned to their meal. “Remember to stay away from the sea anemone, they burn!”

“Okay!” The filly shouted back, disappearing behind a giant disc coral.

“I heard that another pony ship sunk not too far from here.” The stallion commented to his wife, taking a bite from his fish.

“Another one? Oh dear… this is what, the third or fourth in the last month right?” the mare asked in concern.

“Yeah, something like that. Queen Novo asked for all Sea Ponies to keep a lookout for possible castaways, or worse, drowned…”

“I hope they’re okay…”

“Yeah, so do I. Apparently, nobody knows what is happening to their ships yet. Maybe it's pirates? Or maybe even Gryphons!” He exclaimed accusingly.

“There you go again with the Gryphons, why you dislike them so much anyway?” the mare asked, annoyed by her husband’s antics.

“I don’t trust them… and they’re all grumpy!” He defended himself, raising his hooves.

“You only met one Gryphon in your entire life!” She countered.

“... but she was mean…” He replied quietly, accepting his defeat.

The mare showed her tongue to him in mockery, mindlessly playing with her golden locket with her hooves. The stallion noticed it and commented, “Have you updated the portrait yet? You’ve been carrying the same old portrait since Pearl was baby.”

“Not yet, I was thinking about asking an Abyssian Sea Pony to take make us a new portrait after this picnic, what do you think?” The mare replied, opening the golden locket to reveal a portrait of her and her husband holding an infant Pearl in their hooves carved into the gold jewelry.

Meanwhile, Pearl was searching the coral reef for shells to add to her collection, she only managed to find broken or ugly shells so far, but that didn’t turn her down, scaring the fish every time she peeked into any nooks or crannies was enough to keep her happy.

Eventually, she found a beautiful spiraled shell laying near the edge of the precipice that led to the open sea. The shell was about half the size of her hoof and was covered with beautiful, sparkling particles that made sunlight reflect a whole rainbow of colors upon it.

She got her shell in her hooves to inspect it, her eyes wide in wonder and amazement over such a beautiful item. A million thoughts running through her mind as she tried to figure out the best place to put that shell in her collection.

Suddenly, a pair of pincers pops out of the shell, spooking her. A tiny hermit crab crawled out of its shell, and it was very angry at her. It pulled its shell out of her hooves put it back on and hopped out, scurrying down the cliff.

“Wait, come back! Let’s trade!” Pearl tried to persuade the crab, following him down the cliff.

As she tried to convince it to trade its shell with her they descended more and more into the open waters, reaching a point where only the dimmest light managed to reach its depths. Nearing the base of the cliff, they reached a dark and creepy looking cave. The little crab made his way inside the cave, escaping Pearl’s pursuit, but it came out running not long after.

Such a scene confused Pearl. What has made the crab want to leave so desperately? Whatever it was, she wasn’t sure she wanted to find out. She began to retreat but was surprised as her parents swam down the cliff after her, calling her name.

“Pearl! What did your mom tell you? You’re not supposed to go on open waters…” Her father began to scold her but was interrupted by a deep growl that reverberated from within the cave. Pearl’s mom gasped in fear as four giant, blue glowing eyes stared at them. Her father quickly put himself between them and the menacing creature. “Quick, get out of here, swim!” He shouted.

“Hold me, Pearl!” Her mom cried, bringing her to her neck and swimming away. But they didn’t get far as a huge tentacle grabbed her tail. The father charged the beast, but he was knocked out as the beast hit him with the tentacle holding his family.

Pearl lost her grasp and went spinning uncontrollably far deeper on the ocean floor, she hit her head against a rock formation at the very bottom of the sea, her consciousness slowly fading as a loud roar could be heard from the distance.

Author's Note

Hello everybody!

A brand new story! I was thinking about writing it for quite a while and now I'm finally doing it!

I have a really cool surprise waiting for you down the story that I really hope you enjoy! I've spent a couple of months gathering the necessary things to put this story together, hopefully, it'll pay off

I've spent the last, what? 4 months, writing The Nameless Queen and I was really itching for a tragic story

Well, I hope you stick around until the story's completion!

See ya!

-A.M.

Chapter edited by: KaBar42