Coral Shiver. The most powerful shiver in the North Atlantis after Riptide United disbanded. When Riptide United was around, there was no contest. Their power was enough to decimate Emperor Finnivus’s forces not once, but twice. They became the most influential shiver overnight, and defeated Grimkahn and Sixth Shiver.

Coral Shiver essentially founded Riptide United. Their current leader, Gray, was also the first leader of Riptide United. The megashiver was disbanded, and the shivers that made up the great shiver, mostly small, weak, shivers, returned back to their homes.

Their homewaters in the great Caribbi Sea were once destroyed by a group of bulls. They were restored somewhat recently, a little bit after the War of the Underwaters. We now follow Takiza, Dart, Silverstream, and Skystar into the heart of Coral Shiver.

The two seaponies chased each other through the greenie. They weren’t paying attention to where they were going, and bumped into a bright yellow sea dragon.

“Hi!” said the sea dragon, “I’m Yappy! Yappy the Sea Dragon! Are you new here? Cause I’ll introduce you to all of my friends!”

“Yay! New friend!” exclaimed Silverstream. The two hippogriffs followed the sea dragon. “Hey, have you ever wondered why they’re called seagulls? Because...”

Dart stared wide-eyed at what just happened. ‘Wha-what the heck just happened?”

“Do not worry, Yappy will out-talk them soon enough.” Takiza continued onward.

It wasn’t very long before they reached a reef, teeming with life. A red tang held a conversation with a crab. Two less colorful crabs were fighting over the head of a dead tuna. A spinner shark played with two nurse shark pups. Off to the side, what appeared to be an exceptionally large great white and a much smaller dogfish discussed something with a tattooed blacktip. Takiza swam up to the sharks.

“Hey, look, it’s Takiza!” Barkley said. The tiny dogfish swam up behind the betta. “You don’t look a day over dead three moons ago!”

“Hi, I’m here too,” Dart interrupted.

“Why are you here?” asked Gray. “Aren’t you a quickfin messenger or something?”

“Yeah, uh, I’m Queen Novo’s personal quackfin, and since normally she sends and receives messages through dragonfire, it means I’m basically useless.”

“Quackfin?” asked Barkley.

“It means I’m a duck,” Dart clarified. “Nevermind, jokes are wasted on you.”

“That was not even funny,” said Takiza. “If you are going to tell jokes, make sure they make more sense than a fat and slow seahorse eating a mighty great white.”

“Ahem,” said the blacktip. “We were discussing the recent “attack”, and who might want to destroy Coral Shiver. Other than Hokuu loyalists or remnants of Finnivus’s reign.”

“Dead sharks,” explained Dart. “When we were over in Seaquestria, we were attacked by three former Goblin Shiver sharks, ones presumed deceased.”

“Which ones?” asked Gray.

“Thrash, Kilo, and Streak,” Takiza said, “The worst of them. They had a few bulls with them too.”

“So the Sparkle Blue jailbreak is worse than we thought,” Barkley noted.

“Wait, what’s this about sharks and the Sparkle Blue?” asked Onyx, completely confused. “I thought once you got there, there was no coming out! I mean, maybe if you’re good at Shar-kata, you could, but ordinary sharks?”

“When I was training under Hokuu, he told me of a war he called “The Sparkle Blue Jailbreak”. The practitioners of Death-kata were capable of bringing sharks back from the dead. They declared war on the rest of the Big Blue, and with them was the third and worst Seazarein, Veria. Hokuu’s grandfather, a frill named Romeru, fought against them the best he could. He barely won. If the legends of Death-kata are true, and its practitioners survived, then maybe this is what caused the latest jailbreak.”

“You think Hokuu could have caused this?” asked Gray.

“He was nothing but a gatekeeper in the Sparkle Blue. I watched him let Goblin out. I only made it past him because I was restored to my full power when I died. Also because some of our deceased allies helped me.”

“Where do you guys think Goblin is?” asked Dart. “I don’t know him that well. Where would he go?”

“Most likely back to his own homewaters,” Gray said. “Riptide’s been destroyed though, I’d like to see his reaction.”

“WHAT!?” screamed Goblin. “HOW CAN AN ENTIRE SHIVER’S HOMEWATERS JUST VANISH!? WHERE IS MY BEAUTIFUL SHIVER?”

“Goblin, calm down, it’s just a shiver,” Spear reasoned.

“JUST A SHIVER!? THIS WAS THE PLACE I GREW UP! YOU DON’T KNOW HOW BEAUTIFUL IT WAS BEFORE!”

“Yeah, you really don’t,” added Thrash.

“What’s so special about this place?” asked Hollow. Spear, Goblin, Thrash, Kilo, and Streak all stared at him.

“It would be pretty funny, yeah,” said Barkely. “Can you imagine we thought he was the biggest of our worries once upon a time?”

“Yeah, it’s kinda funny now,” replied Gray.

“Okay, what are we gonna do about this?” asked Onyx.

“We investigate,” Takiza said. "I'm sure nothing bad will happen, right?"

Gray and Barkley led the other three in the same direction they left when they were banished. Well, Gray was banished. Barkley just tagged along. They had met the future members of Rogue Shiver out there. Striiker, Snork, Shell, and Mari.

Striiker and Snork had followed them back to the Coral Shiver homewaters, and were now training the mariners against this new threat. If it was truly possible for sharkkind to come back to life, then maybe...

Gray pushed the thought away. He needed to stay focused. Zombie sharks were the most of his worries, not bringing his dead friends back to life.

It took less time to reach the former homewaters of Riptide than it would have without the use of Shar-kata. Of course, using the full power of Shar-kata would have gotten them there last week, but they didn’t have time to wait a full week before Gobin arrived.

One of the only things that survived the destruction of Riptide Shiver homewaters was Speaker’s Rock. Goblin seemed to be screaming at a group of five sharks. At first, Gray thought it was Ripper, Thrash, Streak, Kilo, and Velenka, but soon realized the hammerhead and mako weren’t Goblin’s former minions.

Hollow backed up so far from the force of Goblin’s screams that he nearly got a few new scars on his head (not really, but now you know how loud Goblin was screaming).

“WHERE ARE THE SHARKS!?” Goblin screamed. Thrash and Streak seemed genuinely confused, Spear kept a straight face, and Hollow almost burst out laughing. Almost. Spear noticed his partner about to get himself killed by Goblin and shoved him.

Gray nodded at Barkley. The dogfish was to use his special Ghostfin training to sneak up on them.

“Goblin, calm down,” said Spear, “We don’t want the neighboring shivers to hear us.”

“There are no neighboring shivers!” Goblin shouted. “Razor Shiver was wiped out by Indi, and I destroyed all the other ones!”

“I remember destroying Coral Shiver,” said Kilo, drawing stares from everyone. “Not relevant. Sorry.”

Gray still held hatred for Kilo in his heart. Barkley hated the former Razor Shiver bull too. That one bull killed Yappy’s oldest sister, Paxton. Barkley managed to sneak very, very close, despite the lack of greenie and other things to hide himself with.

“You do realize that we just lost a fight at Coral Shiver, right?” said Spear. “Coral Shiver’s still around. We don’t want them coming for us, do we?”

“I destroyed Coral Shiver with just a few of my bulls,” Kilo boasted. “Only three of them died. Even I have to admit that the old bull and even older lemon fought hard.”

“Yeah, but they’re clearly much better,” Spear countered. “Their mariners just watched as a couple of pups humiliated us!”

“Sounds like a you issue, not a me issue,” Kilo said.

“I am better trained than you!” shouted Spear.

“Skill issue.”

“Can you two stop arguing so we can conquer the seven seas?” Streak said very loudly despite her small size.

“Boo!” Barkley revealed himself behind Streak.

“AAAAAUUUUUGHHHHH!” Streak shrieked. She swam away in terror.

Thrash, Kilo, and Spear blinked slowly. Hollow burst out laughing.

“You’re scared of a dogfish?” the hammerhead mocked. “He’s so tiny even I could defeat him!”

“Like the pups you lost a fight to?” Spear reminded.

“That was a fluke!”

“He caught me by surprise!” Streak said.

“Well, well, well,” Thrash began, “Looks like the little doggie’s back for more. You remember how much I humiliated you last time, don’t you?”

Thrash, Streak, and Ripper had ambushed the former members of Rogue Shiver and shoved them in a cage. Barkley remembered all too well.

“You’re so bad at hunting you couldn’t catch a single fish!”

“Tiger, tiger, not so bright. Tiger, tiger, full of spite.” Thrash and Barkley turned towards the voice. Barkley knew who it was. Thrash remembered the insult from the last time he heard it, which was after he tried to eat a turtle.

“You call yourself Takiza? You really do look just like a piece of greenie that got stuck in my teeth!”

“Thrash, remember the Tuna Run,” said Streak. “Thirty of us got destroyed by him. He’s one fish!”

“I’m here too!” exclaimed Barkley. “Don’t count me out!”

“You’re too tiny to be useful in a fight,” Thrash insulted, “I’ll eat you before you realize what happened!”

“How did I sneak up on you if I’m useless?” Barkley countered.

“It was a fluke!” Hollow repeated.

“You look like Ripper but you don’t have even half his abilities,” Barkley noted. “Those don’t even look like battle scars. It looks like you just bumped into coral.”

“Grrrraaaahhh!” Hollow charged. Barkely easily avoided Hollow’s attack, then rammed him from the side. Goblin, Kilo, Streak, Thrash, and Spear wisely stayed out of it, as did Takiza.

Hollow swung his hammer head from side to side, trying to strike Barkley. Barkley easily danced around Hollow, causing the hammerhead to try a different tactic, which also failed.

“You can’t touch this,” Barkley sang. Hollow grew even more enraged. Barkley avoided the next attack, which sent Hollow crashing into Speaker’s Rock.

Rumbling distracted everyone momentarily. A black crab the size of a whale was chasing after a group of sharks. In the lead was a tiger shark that was slightly smaller than Thrash. Behind the tiger were two makos. The makos appeared to be pushing the tiger forward. They got closer and closer.

“GET OUT OF THE WAY!” screamed the tiger. Barkley didn’t notice before, but there was a whitetip trailing behind the other three sharks. He recognized the shark as Churn, Goblin’s old fourth, before he was killed in a battle against Razor Shiver. Barkley had only heard about it from Gray.

Speaking of Gray, the megalodon had just arrived at the scene, with Onyx and Dart in tow. The gang stared at the giant crab.

“Is-is that Slaggernack?” asked Gray.

“I believe so,” replied Takiza. “I could destroy it, but that would not be as fun as having Goblin and his idiot allies fight it.”

“Charge!” Goblin ordered. His five shivermates (that’s sad) charged at the crab. Slaggernack swung his mighty claw, which missed all six sharks. Churn followed his former leader into battle.

Churn narrowly avoided an attack. Streak elegantly dodged the giant crab’s attacks. Hollow was struck on the head and crashed into the sand, somehow still alive. Spear tried to bite Slaggernack’s leg, but absolutely failed due to very weak bite strength.

Goblin rammed the crab from the top, then let himself float out of reach. Slaggernack swung at Goblin three times, each time Goblin dodged it. Slaggernack appeared to be exhausted after that, so Goblin rammed into the crab’s shell at top speed. Slaggernack recoiled.

Goblin retreated after hitting the crab once, and Streak took her position above the crab. She gracefully evaded the first two strikes, but got hit with the third one. Slaggernack swung again, which almost hit a still recovering Streak, if it weren’t for Kilo pushing her out of the way. The crab attacked two more times, which missed all three sharks above him. Kilo and Streak simultaneously rammed Slaggernack.

Churn, Spear, Hollow, and Thrash watched as their allies dealt blow after blow to Slaggernack. The tiger who had originally warned them and the two makos who accompanied him had disappeared.

Gray, Barkley, Onyx, Dart, and Takiza were also watching the fight. Gray stifled a laugh when Kilo was pinched, and slammed to the ground. Unfortunately for Gray but fortunately for Kilo, Slaggernack let go, leaving Kilo on the seabed.

Thrash was flung backwards by a blow from Slaggernack. Churn had taken his place above the crab, and attacked. Spear slid underneath Slaggernack, and used his position to crack the shell.

Hollow charged Slaggernack head on. The crab smacked him into a rock. Thrash recovered, and using his shivermates as a distraction, he attacked from above. The first crack on top finally showed.

Spear came out from underneath. Slaggernack seemed to collapse. The sharks of Goblin Shiver surrounded the defeated crab.

Slaggernack exploded outward, sending all of them flying. As the good sharkkind of Coral Shiver, the formerly dead fighting fish, and the random wahoo that got dragged along for the adventure prepared to attack, fifty bulls showed up over the horizon.

The bulls made quick work of Slaggernack. They smashed open his shell and began to eat.

“I found him first!” Goblin bellowed.

“Finders keepers, losers weepers,” said the bull who seemed to be in charge.

“Pico! Move away from my prey!” Kilo shouted.

“You wanna fight, krillface traitor?”

“You know full well I’m stronger than you!”

“Enough!” Takiza demanded. “All of you move out, or I destroy you!”

“Oh yeah? Says who?” Pico said.

“My name is Takiza Jaelynn Betta vam Delacrest Waveland ka Boom Boom. You would be wise just to move on.”

“You aren’t Takiza! Takiza doesn’t exist!”

“That’s really Takiza!” Gray shouted over the arguing. Pico ignored him, but Thrash decided to finally acknowledge the fact that he lost to a tiny betta.

“That really is Takiza, protector of the seven seas! If a fish as tiny as that can defeat a mighty tiger, then maybe you should worry about him!”

“Skill issue,” said Kilo.

“If a mighty tiger such as yourself lost to a tiny fish, then that’s a you problem.”

“You don’t understand!” Thrash seemed to be talking to a brick wall that talked back. “He will destroy you and your entire armada of... fifty sharks.”

“This is the best of us, Razor Shiver!” Pico and Thrash almost touched noses. Thrash moved forward ever so slightly, bumping Pico backwards.

“The big oaf is correct,” Takiza said. “Your entire shiver combined could not defeat me!”

“Hey!” Thrash objected.

“Shut up, wide load,” Gray said. It felt good to finally be on the other side of that insult.

Takiza formed a ball of glowing blue energy between his fins. Pico and co. stared at him in shock. Goblin Shiver sans Churn, Spear, and Hollow all had a look on their faces like “oh no here we go again”.

The ball of energy turned into a cylinder whirlpool. Sharks from both shivers were drawn in. The Razor Shiver bulls attempted to fight it, as did the three Goblin Shiver sharks that didn’t know better, as well as the three sharks who weren’t involved. Only those who had arrived from Coral Shiver seemed unaffected.

Goblin, Thrash, Kilo, and Streak just let themselves get pulled in. Most of the sharks couldn’t fight for long. Pico and Spear, however, fought just as hard as Goblin had the first time. Which was to say that even though their tails were drawn in, they were still attempting to fight it. Pico capitulated first.

“I’ll get you another day!” screamed Spear as he was finally drawn in. Takiza shifted the cylinder to Gray. Gray understood. Gray split the cylinder into two, Goblin and Razor. He sent them to two separate corners of the North Atlantis, both far away from the Caribbi Sea and the reef he loved so much. The two shivers shot out so fast that most of them didn’t notice what happened.

“So, is that it?” asked Dart.

“Let’s go over the sharkkind that probably are still around,” said Gray. “Finnivus, Commander Hooktail, Princess Joanna, Empress Silander, and last but not least, Hokuu and Grimkahn. Besides, Razor and Goblin shivers are still around, they just won’t be a problem for a while.”

“Okay, so from what I understand, Goblin and Razor both named their shivers after themselves?” Dart wondered. “So where was Razor during that?”

Everyone stared at each other. Then they looked over at the carcass of Slaggernack. There seemed to be a message etched into the shell. Dart rushed over to check.

He knew you would come for Goblin. He used Goblin as bait. You’re nothing but a group of fools for leaving your seapony friends unguarded.

“Silverstream and Skystar,” Dart muttered. “We have to get back there. Now.”

When they returned, they saw Princess Skystar and Yappy without Silverstream. Yappy had a look of pure horror on his face.

“Where is she?” asked Dart.

“The bulls, the bulls,” Yappy repeated to himself. “The bulls came. I couldn’t stop them. It was like Paxton all over again.”

“He-he said his name was Razor,” Skystar managed to say.

“Razor won. We couldn’t do anything.”

Takiza quickly rushed over to Razor Shiver homewaters. Nothing there. In a blur, he sent himself to where Gray sent the bulls. Nothing there either. Takiza used his Shar-kata connection to search every corner of the Atlantis Ocean, as well as the Indi, Sific, Arktik, and Southern. He searched the Mediterranean Sea of Europa.

The only place he didn’t―actually couldn’t―check were the many underwater caves. Of the two he did check, the old Coral Shiver hideout, the one closest to Razor Shiver’s old homewaters, had nothing there. The homewaters of Fifth Shiver also had nothing. Barge didn’t see anything. However, Takiza could still sense Silverstream’s life force somewhere. He just didn’t know where.

A couple of bulls dumped Silverstream in a cave. "I am definitely getting promoted," one of them said. "I captured this super rare creature."

"You might get promoted, but you might get demoted if Razor thinks it's not delicious," the other one replied.

"Depends on if Razor would want to eat that, which I wouldn't."

"Besides, the creature might not be that rare. It could just be from somewhere we've never been, like the Sific."

"So what if neither of those things are true? I'm a success! Screw you mom!"

"Your mom might have been right."

"That's what your mom said last night! OOH!"

"You're still a failure."

"Ouch."

"Hey, Razor wants you to bring another prisoner in here."

"What?" the first bull said, shocked. "That's three! Goblin's cage held six prisoners at one point and ours isn't even close to half as big!"

"Just do as he says," the third bull told him. The three bulls swam out to receive their latest prisoner.

Author's Note

Three paragraphs of exposition in the beginning. Nice.

This is now officially the longest chapter I've ever written, beating out Holy Ground from Words of Destiny by 163 words. Just wait until it gets beaten by the Sombra chapter in Equal and Opposite.

Anyway you may have noticed the dolphins were replaced by makos. That is intentional. The dolphins will return in the story.

Pico isn't an important enough character to give a character profile to

Helios's (that's the bull who said he was getting promoted, he gets named in the next chapter) mother thinks he's a total failure because memes. That last bit is for comedy and setting up the setting of the next chapter.