(Ominous music)

Two seapony guards patrolled the edges of Seaquestria. Ever since Takiza the legendary fighting fish had arrived, Queen Novo had ordered security be doubled. Not because she felt Seaquestria was unsafe with him here, it was just that with a dead fish now in their midst, anything could happen.

As they rounded the corner around a relatively small reef, A red haze drifted through the water. The two seapony guards turned to the direction of the blood. Before either could react, a bull shark with a scar shaped like a clamshell had killed both.

“Ooh, hi! What are your names?” Silverstream swam up from behind Takiza and Dart, somehow being sneakier than Barkley.

“Gah!” Dart exclaimed. “We’re in the middle of something here!” Suddenly, panicked seaponies swam past the trio. “What’s happening?”

“It seems we are under attack,” Takiza replied. “Come. We must go.” The current suddenly shifted so that Dart, Takiza, and Silverstream were sent through the water towards the palace at such a fast rate that Dart and Silverstream crashed into the wall. As they were recovering, three bull sharks surrounded them. Takiza was nowhere to be found.

The three bulls attacked. Dart maneuvered beneath one and bit its fin, causing it to swim away. Silverstream swam above another, constantly jabbing it and moving out of the way when it came to attack. The third bull rammed Dart into the wall.

“Not again,” Dart muttered. Silverstream glanced at Dart, quickly immobilized the bull she was fighting, and rushed to save the messenger. The pink hippogriff collided with the bull with enough force to kill, but spread out enough to only knock him out.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.” As Dart finished the sentence, the first bull returned at a very fast speed. Dart and Silverstream moved out of the way, and the bull impaled itself on the spear of a seapony guard that just exited the palace.

The two other bulls regained their senses, but Dart and the seapony guard quickly dispatched both. Takiza emerged from the palace, and faced Silverstream.

“You show talent,” Takiza told her. “I could take you on as my new apprentice.” Dart stared at both Takiza and Silverstream for a second. Then Takiza continued, “But your movements were far too clumsy, even for a deformed seahorse.” Silverstream opened her mouth to object to the insult, but Dart shook his head.

As everyone swam inside, a guard spoke, “They aren’t done yet, are they?” Takiza nodded.

“This is much like the attack on Coral Shiver by Kilo,” Takiza explained. “Bull sharks come in for a quick attack, if they’re pushed back, they come back with greater force, enough to wipe anything off the map.”

The guard stared wide-eyed at Takiza for a few moments, then swam off, shouting, “Reinforce the defenses! Make sure no amount of sharkkind can break through the wall!”

A few hours later...

Dart and Takiza surveyed the area. Hippogriffs were called down from Mount Aris to protect Seaquestria. The only gaps in the formation weren’t large enough for a shark to fit through, only a relatively small fish.

Immediately, a tiger and a bull broke through the formation through nothing but sheer power of will. The bull alone sent four guards to the Sparkle Blue. The tiger headed straight for Takiza, ignoring everything else.

“You won’t get lucky this time!” Thrash screamed as he sped up. "I'll show you who's not so bright!"

“I did not get lucky. You merely got unlucky. And as for your other comment, it seems you are still full of spite.” Thrash attempted to ram Takiza, but caught his snout on a large rock situated directly behind Takiza for plot convenience. "And it looks as your eyesight has not improved, even with your dead body."

Meanwhile, Kilo finished off another seapony, and turned to face Takiza. As Kilo charged to meet Takiza, the betta gracefully moved out of the way, and Kilo crashed into a coral spire. The coral snapped; Kilo now had a bloody snout. Kilo and Thrash regrouped.

“You swim with the grace of a pregnant sea cow and with the speed of a dead landshark pup!”

“Ooh, burn,” Dart whispered. As Kilo, Thrash, and Takiza prepared for round two, a blue shark snuck up on Dart. Streak opened her jaws to swallow Dart whole. Dart turned around just in time to give Streak a nip in the gills. The super-speedy wahoo then sped off far away. Streak snarled angrily, and gave chase.

Takiza hovered directly in between Thrash’s eyes. Thrash screamed in anger. “Kilo! Where is he!?”

“Right there, above your head,” Kilo replied.

“This again?” Thrash complained. He turned upside down, then shook his head several times. No matter what he did, Takiza remained in between his eyes. “Kill him already!”

Kilo nodded, and moved forwards to swallow Takiza. Takiza ducked, causing Kilo to crash into Thrash.

“Have you not inherited any of Longfluke’s abilities?” Takiza insulted the bull, “You cannot even get yourself out of a clam!” Kilo was beyond enraged from this comment.

“You leave my scar out of this!” Kilo screamed.

Meanwhile, Streak was barely keeping up with Dart. Dart’s agility was unparalleled, and while Streak was a fast shark―one of the fastest, in fact―her maneuverability was detrimented by her size. It wasn’t much, just enough to fall behind the smaller fish.

As Dart reached the outer edges of Seaquestria, two bull sharks rushed in from the side. They were going too slow to actually hurt Dart, as they were actually planning on falling behind Streak in sea snake formation, with the blue shark swimming fang point. The Ghostfins once realized that there was this area behind another shark where swimming was easier. They builded upon that idea, and invented the sea snake. The shark in the front, named the fang point by Peen the hammerhead, pulled all the sharks behind them at their top speed, and if they got tired, they would fall to the end of the line where the swimming was easiest. The second shark would take over.

With the sea snake formation, stamina meant nothing. Streak pulled the bulls along as fast as she could. Dart was running out of energy fast. This called for drastic measures. If he was a flying fish, he could switch into vortex mode like the legendary quickfin Speedmeister and be done with it. He risked a glance backwards. Streak was now in the back. The bulls were significantly slower, but if he kept going at this rate, it wouldn’t matter. Dart made the risky decision of diving underneath the bulls and swimming his way back to Seaquestria.

Back in Seaquestria, Thrash and Kilo were yelling at each other. Takiza let out a chuckle. He had tricked them into hitting each other several times. The bulls that had arrived later weren’t much of an issue, since they had no plot armor, unlike basically everyone that has appeared in this story and was given a name.

Dart suddenly zoomed by, followed by Streak and two bulls. Kilo pulled off of Thrash to follow them. Which meant Thrash was now alone with his anger.

Thrash finally calmed down enough to do an enraged scream at Takiza. Was he perpetually angry? Takiza thought. Thrash turned around and swam a few tail strokes, then turned back around. He charged forward with Topside Slide. Takiza laughed mentally. Topside Slide and its follow up move, Topside Rip were useless against non-sharkkind. Though perhaps he was going for Lochlan’s favorite move, Orca Bears Down. Takiza’s predictions turned out to be correct. A bolt of lightning coursed through the water, striking Thrash in the side.

“That was a weak one. Pray that you do not make yourself on the receiving end of a strong one.”

“That was a weak one?” Thrash screamed, still enraged. “What the hell is happening right now?”

“You have obtained a taste of the mystical art Shar-kata.” Takiza circled around Thrash, gaining speed. An underwater tornado formed around Thrash. "Unlike previously, when you simply were hit by my fins."

“Not again!” he attempted to scream, but it came out like “noblubbl agnublblblll”.

Streak and Kilo were hot on Dart’s tail. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a pink blur crashed into Kilo. Dart silently thanked Tyro and continued on. He made a sharp turn into a colorful greenie field. His small size would allow him to weave through easier, while the larger sharks would basically suck. He remembered the one day of Ghostfin training he got. ‘To hide in the greenie, you must become the greenie’. Dart slowed his movements and followed with the current. He heard the shouts of Streak trying to find him.

Kilo was now being pushed by Silverstream. The much smaller seapony somehow had more strength than a fully grown bull. Silverstream slapped Kilo around for a bit before becoming bored and smashing his head with clamshells. She quickly wove a diaper out of kelp and stuffed Kilo’s head into it.

Dart turned around and crashed into Streak head first. The blue shark quickly recovered, and hit Dart with a tail slap. Dart was sent backwards. Dart shook off the attack and charged. He aimed for Streak’s gills. Streak swam away, knowing she was defeated.

With the absence of Gray, Barkley, and Striiker, Velenka was now in charge of the First Assembly of Fathomir. Her dream of conquering the Big Blue had finally come true. Kind of. Judijoan remained as an advisor, and the leaders of the other shivers still held some authority. But she was now at the top.

A large great white shoved himself past the Fin'jaa guards. "Well, well, well," said Goblin. "You're finally here, at the top of the chain. My grand ideas, stolen by you. Or, your ideas, given to me, before you killed me!" Goblin rushed at Velenka, aiming for a kill.

Author's Note

Since I didn't have the place to it in the actual text, Velenka is a black mako.