Fluttershy's Nature Show

The display begins as nothing more than blue. "Is it working?" asks Fluttershy. "Are you sure it's not broken? You're staring at that display very intensely."

"I'm not sure," answers Twilight, "It's just giving me a blue screen."

"Let's look at the instructions again." Fluttershy slides into frame and starts glaring intensely at the camera. She's wearing a skin-tight rubberized blue shirt.

"Oh, no, it's working now. I guess it doesn't have that much range. Move out a bit, let's see what the effective range is before we go filming anything."

Fluttershy turns and bobs away from the camera. When her full form comes into frame, the lower half of her body is gone, replaced with a fish tail. She is a mermare.

"That's far enough," calls Twilight. "I don't think this thing can hear us underwater, as sound works a bit different down here. We might want to edit over this later."

"Okay," nods Fluttershy, swimming closer. "But, just to make sure we don't forget anything, I'm going to tell you about what's going on. It'll also be safer for you."

"Okay, just make sure it's loud enough that I can hear it."

Fluttershy nods. "Are we ready to begin, then?"

"Yep."

Fluttershy clears her throat. "Let's start by looking at the coral down here."

Fluttershy swims down, waving her arm over a secluded section of coral, decorated with a wide assortment of colourful growths and creatures , some of which were disguising themselves as plants, others of different species were hiding in little cavities that they'd made, or stolen from other creatures. There were even a few hiding in the sand. That, or the sand was winking at them.

"This is a really small reef," explains Fluttershy. "You can see how diverse the life is here, even with the diminished size. There are huge reefs all over the place, with even more diverse ranges of life. I actually picked this spot deliberately because the sharks around here are really small."

"Sharks?" Twilight sounds kind of nervous. "There are sharks around here?"

"Yes, I pointed one out on the way down here. You said it was pretty."

"I thought that was a fish."

"It was."

"I mean, I didn't know it was a shark. I thought it was a non-shark fish."

"Nope. Shark."

"Fine, just, next time, tell me if there's something that wants to eat me."

"I would have told you that, regardless," shrugs Fluttershy.

"You didn't tell me about the shark."

"I did, though. And he wasn't going to eat you; you're bigger than he is. He didn't even seem to be hungry. I didn't consider him to be a threat."

Twilight lets out a sigh. "Okay, can you tell me whether or not anything is hazardous, or even marginally hazardous?"

Fluttershy nods. "I'll do better than that. I'll point out other sharks. There's actually a dogfish that just swam behind that rock."

"Dogfish?"

"A variety of shark."

"Is it dangerous?"

"Only if you look like food. We don't, so we should be fine. Worst comes to worst, he'll come up and nibble, but it's not something that's going to do any lasting damage. Besides, we have a big first aid kit up on the boat. We'll be fine."

The camera moves across the stones that make up the foundation of the reef, examining the plant life and the multitudes of fish swimming among the mosses and weeds.

"Ah, now here's a danger of the deep," says Fluttershy, pointing to a small fish covered in spines. "This is spiked hermit. They have these large spines on their dorsal and pectoral fins, as well as scutes running down to their tail. Their barbs do not have a venom, per se, but they do release on contact microscopic spikes that will ruin you for awhile. If you were to bite down on one of these while it was still alive, you would have a horrible bruising in your mouth, your throat would itch for weeks, and you'd find it very unpleasant to eat anything. Do not touch it."

Twilight waves the camera around. "Are there more around?"

"I don't think so. They tend to be very solitary, until mating season rolls around, and this one's too young."

"How can you tell?"

"It's black and white. It's colour will come in when it's old enough to breed."

"Is it still poisonous when it's an adult?"

"It's not poisonous now. It just has super abrasive skin. They're not even venomous, they just leave a rash, followed by bruising, which may, in turn, lead to death if it's in a particularly necessary area."

"I've never really been a big fan of poison as a defense mechanism. All the biting and clawing..."

"That's venom. Though I'm not a big fan of poison, either. The defense of killing your opponent after you've already been digested is kind of late. That said, there are larger fish with tougher digestive tracts that are more than capable of eating a spiked hermit. Even some non-fish, like this nudibranch."

Fluttershy swims a little closer to the coral, prompting a panicked retreat from a group of polychaetes back into their tubes. They were about to retreat, anyway, as a large sea slug slides along the rocks a few seconds later.

"Some forms of aeolid nudibranchs are capable of sealing off the tiny spikes, to be used for their own protection from their own predators. As a general rule, I would recommend you don't touch them, either. This one probably doesn't have the spikes from a hermit, but it may have other venomous barbs from other venomous species around here. Just as a warning."

"Is there anything that is safe to touch?"

Fluttershy nods as a dark, striped fish approaches. She holds out her hand, pressing it against his nose as he approaches, swimming around in circles around her as he looks over her, trying to figure out what she is.

"Wow. You certainly made for a quick rapport with him."

"He's just curious, and mostly harmless. No poison, no venom, no sharp fins, and he looks happy and healthy."

"He's cute, too," smiles Twilight. "Do you know what he is?"

Fluttershy looks up and smiles. "He's that dogfish I told you about. The shark?"