A.K.A. The Mermaid Theory
After the hectic outing that Rainbow Dash and Applejack had taken them on; an outing which was still rather fresh in their minds and would undoubtedly remain so for quite a while to come; the Young Six were looking forward to the fieldtrip that Fluttershy was taking them on.
The group arrived at their location by the sea; not quite near Seaquestria, but nevertheless a very pristine setting. Upon their arrival, Fluttershy took the time to address her students.
"Okay, everycreature," the kindhearted Pegasus said, "This Coastal Habitat is filled with so much life! However, these animals are very different from the kinds of animals you see inland. Many of them look strange, and perhaps even a bit frightening, but they still all deserve love, respect, and kindness. So, while you go about recording your observations on them in your notebooks as we discussed earlier, make sure that you all treat these animals kindly in spite of how different they are, and respect them no matter what they look like."
Fluttershy stood tall and confident after saying her piece, her love of animals granting her an eloquence she rarely had. However, it only lasted for a few seconds before she shifted her hooves bashfully and added gently," Umm. That is. . . I hope that's the lesson you all take away from this field trip. That's what I was going for . . . yes."
Smolder scoffed a bit, but smiled as she remarked, "Well, there's no way anything out here could possibly frighten me."
Silverstream leaned in close to Smolder, almost rubbing cheeks with her as she said gleefully, "I know, right? Sea creatures are all so adorable and lovable and cute and-."
"Yona will wait until Yona sees actual seashore animal," said the yak, still not entirely comfortable around water.
Sandbar had been excited the moment he had first heard about the fieldtrip, and his excitement was still making him fidget with anticipation. "Can we get started now, Professor? I want all my friends to see what incredible places beaches are!"
Gallus nudged the Earth Pony in the side and remarked, "I guess they don't call you Sandbar for nothing."
Ocellus fluttered her wings a bit and said with a small smile, "I'll admit it, your excitement has gotten even me excited about this, Sandbar."
Seeing that all of the students were ready to go, Fluttershy said, "Okay then, how about you all head out onto the beach and split up into three groups of two. Then you can decide which group will go where. Don't worry, there's plenty to explore on the coast. Tide pools, mudflats, the intertidal zone; all you have to do is keep your eyes peeled. I'll be keeping an eye on all of you, so I'll be there a quick as a wink if you need me."
"Alright!" Sandbar said as he took off towards the shoreline.
"Oh no! Me first!" Gallus said as he took off after Sandbar.
"Nope! Me first!" Silverstream said cheekily, and she zipped past both of them while Ocellus, Yona, and Smolder followed in their own pace.
Once Silverstream was over the water, she flipped in midair as the Pearl Shard she wore around her neck flashed with magical power. In a small burst of magic, Silverstream transformed into her Seapony form, her back half becoming fish-like tail, her ears getting longer with fins on them, and her wings and forehooves turning into fins. Silverstream swan dived straight down into the water, in full view of everyone still on or flying over the beach. She popped her head up out of the water, and smiled and waved at her friends.
Yona, Ocellus, and Smolder merely mentally acknowledged Silverstream's nice move. However, the perceptions of Gallus and Sandbar were more than a little different than that of the girls.
To the guys, Silverstream's dive was absolutely flawless, as was the brilliant splash of water that sent sparkling water droplets in all directions. When Silverstream surfaced, she had briefly shaken the water out of her mane, and this sent what looked like hundreds of tiny prisms out around her head, framing her face in a halo of multicolored crystal stars. Then, Silverstream laid back and floated on the water's surface, lifting her tail up slightly. The way the sun's light struck her tailfins, combined with how they were currently wet, made them shine as if they were made of thin blue crystal. The rest of her wet, light-magenta tail was also looking rather smooth and shiny to the males' eyes.
As a result, the griffon and the pony had rather priceless expressions on their faces. Gallus's beak was hanging open as he gaped at the Seapony, while Sandbar was frozen solid with his breath completely taken away by the sight. It was odd, as they had technically seen Silverstream as a Seapony twice before. First was when she had wanted to illustrate why stairs were so interesting to her, and second was when Yona had nearly drowned during the infamous field trip with Applejack and Rainbow Dash. Perhaps it was the way Silverstream was calmly floating in the water with the sun shining down on her, combined with the fact that the group currently had no pressing worries on their minds.
Whatever the reason, Gallus and Sandbar were utterly spellbound.
Silverstream finally broke said spell by speaking. "Ooh, it never gets old, even after spending most of my life underwater!"
Gallus closed his beak, and then flew down close to Silverstream with an almost mad-looking grin on his face. "Alright, now, let's go ahead and make those teams like Fluttershy said," he said slyly as he gave Silverstream a cocky look.
Sandbar suddenly ran forward, splashing through the tide as he called out hurriedly, "Right! You go with Smolder! Let's go, Silver!"
"Huh?" Ocellus said in distress as she watched Sandbar run away from her right before she had a chance to ask him to be her partner.
"Not so fast! Who made you the boss?" Gallus said as he flew over to Sandbar.
Sandbar shrugged and said, "Okay. You can go with Yona, if you want."
"I'm going with Silverstream!" Gallus argued back.
"I called it! I said her name first!" Sandbar argued back.
"Who cares! I'd be a better partner! I can fly over the water with her!"
"I can swim with her! Besides, you'd probably get tired flapping those wings the whole time."
"You calling me weak?"
"All I'm saying is that I don't have three sea turtles for a Cutie Mark for nothing!"
"Alright! What's wrong with you guys?" Smolder asked impatiently.
Gallus flew over to Smolder and smirked, saying, "Tell him, Smolder! Tell Sandbar I should be Silver's partner!"
"No way!" Sandbar argued.
Smolder rolled her eyes, looking very annoyed by the whole situation, and she said, "Yeah, um, how about we ask Silver who she wants as a partner, seeing as, ya know, she has a mind of her own."
Everyone looked right at the Seapony, who looked very confused by the events that were happening regarding her. She blinked her eyes and said, "Umm. . . well. . . I actually wanted Ocellus to be my partner-."
"Good!" Smolder said loudly and quickly, "I'm with Yona, and you two guys can work out whatever it is you've got going on. And do it someplace, maybe, far away from us."
Sandbar glared up at Gallus and said with heavy sarcasm, "Nice job."
Gallus gave Sandbar a dirty look and said, "Whatever. Let's check out the tide pools, I guess."
Gallus flew off towards the tide pools, but then turned in mid-air and called out to Sandbar, "Come on! Out of the water! I've got my eye on you!"
Sanbar humphed and followed behind Gallus, but stopped to take a quick look at Silverstream in the water behind him.
"Eyes up front, Sandy!" Gallus ordered bitterly.
"Don't call me Sandy!" Sandbar shouted as he took off after the griffon.
The girls watched the pair run off towards the tide pools. Smolder had a thoughtful expression on her face, while Ocellus, Yona, and Silverstream looked utterly confused by the actions of their two friends.
"Boys acting weird today," Yona remarked.
Ocellus looked rather crestfallen, and her whole body seemed to sag as she put her head down. "I don't understand. Why didn't Sandbar want to be my partner?" she asked sadly.
Silverstream gasped and covered her move with a flipper for a moment, after which she said, "Ohmigosh! You wanted to partner with Sandbar! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to-."
"You didn't do anything wrong," Ocellus said quickly, "Sandbar just didn't want me."
Yona could see how sad Ocellus looked. So the yak turned to Smolder and frowned at her and asked, "Why did Smolder tell Sandbar to go with Gallus?"
This brought Smolder out of her thinking position, and she turned to Ocellus and said, "Trust me, Ocellus. You wouldn't have enjoyed being around Sandbar in a situation like this."
Mystified by Smolder's words, Ocellus asked, "What situation? I don't understand. We're all out on a field trip. We're supposed to all be having fun, right?"
"We might have been," Smolder said as she folded her arms, shifting her weight as if to suggest she was privy to some knowledge unknown to everyone else around her, "But there's one little thing that changes things up here, and that's the water."
"The water?" Silverstream asked as she floated in the surf, "How could water cause Gallus and Sandbar to act weird? Water's great! It's fun! It's not as interesting as stairs, but it's not bad. It gives life! It-."
"It's also a key factor in a little theory that I've heard of a couple times in the past," Smolder said with a smirk.
"What is theory?" Yona asked, tilting her head in confusion.
Smolder held her smirk and said, "Ever heard of the Mermaid Effect?"
The three other girls all shook their heads.
"Well, it's just one of the many weaknesses boys have to deal with," Smolder said cockily. She could see that she had the other girls' attention, so she continued, "The theory goes something like this; although there's probably a different version of it in different parts of creation; anyway, it says that if a boy, or boys in this case, knows a girl pretty well and is satisfied with being just friends with her, and if that girl gets wet in a calm, relaxing, hot environment; bonus points if the girl is floating in the water; then the boy will start to want to make things. . . romantic."
The three other girls just stared blankly at Smolder.
"Yona thinks dragon hit head," the yak remarked.
"Smolder, how does what you said even work?" Ocellus asked in disbelief.
Smolder shrugged and answered, "In lots of little ways. The water causes fur or feathers to be matted down into a smooth surface. If the girl has scales, then the water makes them look extra shiny; the same applies to bare skin. Tails and hair; both are able to flow and float and stuff, and long hair always looks good when wet. Seriously, boys just go for this kind of stuff."
"They. . . do?" Silverstream squeaked out, her face turning bright red in embarrassment.
"Yup," Smolder replied nonchalantly.
Ocellus shook her head in denial and said, "No, no, no; that can't be right. If that were true, how come I didn't sense any-."
"Love?" Smolder finished, and she scoffed and said, "Please! The Mermaid Effect can't make real love. Just. . . er. . .what's the word for when someone likes how someone else looks but isn't really into who they are inside. . .?"
"Infatuation," Ocellus said as she nodded slowly.
"Sounds right," Smolder said with a nod, "Yeah. Gallus and Sandbar are infatuated with Silverstream."
"They are?!" Silverstream squeaked out, blushing harder than she ever had in her entire life, "But- but- but-! No! I would never want that! Especially if it would make them fight!"
"Yona knew water nothing but trouble," Yona remarked sourly, "Will boys go back to normal after friends leave water?"
Smolder shrugged and spoke as if it were no great concern to her, "I don't know. Hard to say, really."
Silverstream put her flippers on the sides of her head and said in a panicky voice, "But what if they don't! What if they never stop fighting over me! What if they stop being friends! What if Sandbar and Ocellus never get together!"
"Eep!" Ocellus squeaked out as her own cheeks turned red with embarrassment at what Silverstream had said.
"What if the boys hurt each other!" Silverstream went on, "What if-!"
"Auugh! Stop panicking, already!" Smolder shouted impatiently, "Relax. I know how we can fix this right away."
"How?" asked the three other girls in unison.
Smolder shrugged as if it were obvious, and she said, "We just have to make Silverstream unattractive."
Yona's eyes widened, and she asked fearfully, "What is Smolder going to do to Silver!?"
Smolder face palmed and said, "Ugh. We're not gonna disfigure her or anything." Smolder put her claws on her hips and said, "I guess what I meant to say was, 'We just have to make Silverstream as a seapony unattractive'."
"But how?" Ocellus asked, "Silverstream is really pretty- oh, it was probably weird of me to say that, right?"
Silverstream shook her head and smiled, "Not at all. Thank you, Ocellus!"
"Anyway," Smolder said loudly, "I think I have an idea, but we'll need Professor Fluttershy's help too. And unlike two other pony professors who shall remain nameless at this time, I think we can all trust her to understand the problem here and gladly help us out without asking too many questions. Come on girls, follow me."
"Gosh, am I hungry," Gallus said to himself as he stared down into a tidepool containing a pair of lobsters.
"Hungry for some Silver?" Sandbar asked accusingly.
Gallus growled at the Earth Pony and said, "You'd be a terrible match for her! A griffon and a hippogriff look right together. You don't even have wings!"
"Opposites attract, Gallus," Sandbar said defiantly, "Plus, I'm an interesting guy. Silver would probably get bored with you."
"Are you calling me boring!?" Gallus shot back indignantly.
"You said it, not me!" Sandbar said jovially with a smug grin.
Gallus' wings flared out and he said threateningly, "Here lies the goody four-shoes, which were all firmly planted on the ground his whole short life!"
Sandbar glared back at the griffon and countered with, "Here lies the blue buffoon with the big beak he refused to keep shut."
Gallus looked like he was about literally explode as his eyes blazed with rage.
"Oh boys!" came the sweet, angelic voice of Fluttershy.
The two males immediately stared at each other with fright, fearful of their conflict being discovered by their teacher, and they both turned away from each other and focused their attention on the tide pools.
Fluttershy walked over with Yona close behind, and she said, "I've decided that it would be a good idea for the teams to rotate every so often. Yona's going to go with you, Gallus. Sandbar, you can go partner up with Silverstream."
Gallus stood stock-still with his left eye twitching as Sandbar put on a big smile and said, "Okay, Professor Fluttershy. That's cool."
Unable to say or do anything about it, Gallus could only watch as Fluttershy and Sandbar walked back to where they had left Silver and the rest of the girls. Sandbar turned around briefly and winked victoriously at the griffon.
Suddenly, Yona slowly leaned in towards Gallus' right ear and said with a trollish smile, "Gallus mad?"
"-so I've just gotta check out the Crystal Empire to see all of those stairs that King Sombra put in that secret passage Professor Twilight found! I mean, it's like each staircase tells a story-."
Sandbar had a dreamy smile on his face as he floated in the water close to Silverstream. His eyes were now fixated on the gorgeous blue color of her tail fins as it lifted in and out of the water as Silverstream floated on her back.
"-Castle of the Two Sisters tells a story of passion, betrayal, revenge, and regret; while the two staircases in secret passage are about darkness and light- you're staring at my tail."
"Huh!?" Sandbar said as he snapped back to reality. The sudden change in the tone and volume of Silverstream's voice was what brought him back. At first, he was worried she might be mad or offended, but to his relief, Silverstream's had a sweet smile on her face. "Oh. . . um. . ." Sandbar said slowly.
"Do you want to touch it?" Silverstream asked playfully as she lifted her tail out of the water.
Sandbar blinked a few times, and stared nervously at Silverstream. She simply nodded and gave him an encouraging smile. Sandbar looked down at the gorgeous tail right in front of him. He gulped audibly, but smiled all the same as he carefully reached out with his right forehoof and gave the tail a gentle stroke.
"OH!" Sandbar shouted as he quickly pulled his hoof away. He stared at his now glistening, slightly discolored forehoof with wide eyes as he stammered out, "It. . . it's. . ."
"Slimy?" Silverstream said with a smile.
Sandbar nodded dumbly.
"Thank you!" Silverstream cooed with delight, fluttering her eyelashes at him.
"Uhhhh," Sandbar said nervously as his eyes shifted from left to right frantically.
"That's the mark of a healthy seapony! A tail that makes lots and lots of slime so it can move swiftly through the water with no drag at all!" Silverstream declared proudly. She then floated closer to Sandbar and said in a smoother tone, "Plus, nothing gets better than a nice, slimy embrace between a seapony and somecreature she likes. She wraps that slimy tail right around his body, as tight as she can. Ya know, so he can really feel that slime."
Even though he was neck deep in water, Sandbar was sweating profusely.
Luckily, unknown to Sandbar, Ocellus had been secretly spying on from above in the form of a dragonfly. Once she was satisfied that Sandbar was cured, Ocellus followed along with Smolder's plan and quickly ran off to get Fluttershy. The Pegasus arrived just in time with Ocellus to prevent things from getting too awkward and uncomfortable for Sandbar.
"It's time to change partners again, Sandbar," Fluttershy called out to the Earth Pony, "You can team up with Ocellus now."
"Yes, Professor!" Sandbar called out quickly, and he quickly waded, and then ran out of the water towards the Changeling.
The new team walked along the side of the beach, with Sandbar frowning as he stared down into the sand as he walked.
"Something bothering you, Sandbar?" Ocellus asked gently.
Sandbar looked up at Ocellus, and found himself slightly captivated by her deep, blue eyes. Sandbar shook it off, and he said nervously, "Well, uh, I guess. . ." Sandbar let out a sigh and said, ". . . I'm sorry for not asking you to be my partner from the start. . ."
Gallus had never felt so victorious in his entire life. He was certain he'd show Silverstream a much better time than Sandbar ever could. After Fluttershy had brought Smolder to partner up with Yona, Gallus had flown straight over to where Silverstream was and landed epically on a nearby rock sticking out of the water.
Silverstream clapped her fins in applause and said, "Wow! Cool entrance, Gallus!"
Gallus smirked proudly as he struck a pose for the seapony. "Heh! Well, sure! Clearly Professor Rainbow Dash had better watch out if she doesn't want to be outshined by one of her own students."
"Sure thing!" Silverstream said cheerfully, then she put on a slightly sneakier look and asked, "Hey, Gallus."
"Yeah?" Gallus answered in his smoothest, coolest sounding voice.
"I really like those feathers on your head," Silverstream said shyly.
Gallus grinned eagerly and said, "Really?"
"Yeah. I like how they're mostly blue, but then golden at the tips," she replied, then she fluttered her eyelashes at him and asked, "Can I get a closer look at them?"
Gallus smiled and laid down on his stomach, resting his chin in his cupped talons. Silverstream took this as an invitation to get closure and gently stroke the feathers on Gallus' head with her right fin.
Gallus closed his eyes and let out a contented sigh. "Score," he thought to himself.
Then Silverstream breathed out in his face.
Gallus gasped for breath as he crawled backwards as fast as he could. Coughing and gagging, he ended up falling off the rock and right into the water. He quickly pulled himself back up on the rock with his talons, and he continued to cough and gag for a few seconds before he finally regained his breath.
Silverstream giggled a bit, then she asked, "Glad to see my fish-breath is still good and strong!"
"Wh-wha-what!?" Gallus gasped out.
Silverstream beamed with pride as she said, "When it comes to seapony breath, the fishier the better! We and the sea are one, after all! It's the mark of good health! We also sweat sea-salt and cry seafoam, just to let ya know!"
Gallus just gaped at Silverstream in utter disbelief. "Imagine trying to kiss something like that!" he thought to himself in abject horror.
This time, Smolder had been watching the pair from above and at a distance. The moment she saw Gallus recoil from Silverstream's breath, she flew back to get Fluttershy. Then the two of them came back just in time to rescue the griffon from his unpleasant situation.
"Okay, I think now you and Smolder should team up, Gallus," Fluttershy said, "Silverstream, why don't you help Yona see how fun the water can be."
Before Fluttershy had even finished speaking, Gallus had already flown off with Smolder towards the shore.
Fluttershy stared after the dragon and griffon, then she smiled and turned towards Silverstream. "Well, I take it Gallus and Sandbar have gotten over their little obsession," Fluttershy said.
Silverstream nodded enthusiastically and said, "Thanks to Smolder's plan. Oh, and your help!"
The rest of the day was more or less uneventful. The teams remained as they were for the rest of the outing, and all of the students eventually moved on from the initial oddness and started having fun. Yona even ended up getting slightly attached to a horseshoe crab she and Silverstream found. In the end, everycreature learned a lot.
That night, the four girls were all laughing together in the girls' dormitory, reviewing the day's events over several glasses of iced tea and lemonade.
"Yona wishes she could have seen the faces of Gallus and Sandbar!" said the yak after having a good laugh over Silverstream's description of the events.
Silverstream, back in her hippogriff form of course, chuckled a bit more before saying, "Oh yeah! It was sooo hard to keep myself from laughing at the looks on their faces. Woo-hoo! Smolder, you're a genius!"
Smolder folded her arms behind her head and leaned back on a pillow in the smuggest of ways. She smirked and said, "Oh, I know. I know. But, of course, we couldn't have pulled it off without Fluttershy being so understanding, or Ocellus' generous donation of Changeling slime!"
Ocellus blushed a bit, but smiled and said, "Oh, it was nothing, really. I'm just glad none of you were disgusted by it. Especially when we had to smear it on Silver's tail."
Silverstream waved it off and said, "Aw, don't worry about it. I actually thought it was pretty cool that you can make that stuff whenever you want. It sounds really useful."
"Well, don't forget the dragon who roasted all that fresh fish for you to eat," Smolder said quickly.
"Sure do!" Silverstream replied.
"I'm just glad you were able to keep up the act," Ocellus said.
"Uh-huh! I really had those boys going there! I even told them that seaponies sweat sea salt and cry seafoam!"
"No!"
"Yes!"
The girls all laughed at their own cleverness, glad that they had knocked some sense into their two male friends. However, unbeknownst to them, those same two males were currently standing right outside the door to the girls' dormitory with their ears pressed against it. They had initially come there to apologize for their behavior in front of them earlier that day, but upon hearing the laughter coming from within, they decided to listen in.
Gallus and Sandbar looked at each other silently, and then they carefully crept off away from the door.
Once they were far enough away, Gallus remarked, "Well, how about that, pal."
Sandbar shook his head and said, "I can barely believe it. And poor, innocent Ocellus, getting roped into it all."
Gallus' beak dropped at that statement, and a strong desire to counter it rose up inside of him, but in the next second he decided to let it go, and instead continued with, "I don't know. . . I mean, we were getting a little bit crazy with how Silverstream looked as a seapony."
Sandbar nodded and smiled a bit, "Yeah. I guess they only did it to snap us out of it, I guess."
Gallus also had a smile on his face as he said, "And you know, I gotta hand it to them for being so clever. Especially Silver. And just between you and me, I kinda think she's a total knock out as a hippogriff."
Sandbar shrugged and said, "If you say so. I think Ocellus is prettier, though."
"Heh. So you like the girl that turn into literally anyone? Smart pony."
"Wha-? No, I-. Aw, say whatever you want. Sly griffon."
THE END
Author's Note
For the sake of giving credit where it is due, the "Mermaid Theory" as it appeares in this fanfic is technically not the REAL Mermaid Theory.
The actual Mermaid Theory comes from an episode of the show How I Met Your Mother. In that context, the theory is that a woman, no matter how ugly she may seem at first, will eventually look beautiful to you if you see her every day all day. It's based off the theory that sailors that used to spend months at sea started to slowly see manatees turn into mermaids.
I adapted and changed that theory into something that would better work for this story.
