Go With the Flow

Chapters

1 - Fish, Meet Land
2 - Storm, Meet Sea
3 - Lovers, Meet Trouble
Interlude - Fish Mares Talking About Penises
4 - Tempest, Meet Ship
Interlude - A Burning Heat Atop a Lonely Lighthouse
5 - Wind, Meet Sail
Interlude - A Current Situation
6 - Drifters, Meet Shore
7 - Heroically, Do Something Stupid
9 - A Fish, A Bird, A Net
10 - Baiting the Shark
11 - Quite Like a White Whale
12 - Lovers, Make Peace
13 - And the Sea Waved Back
8 - Loner, Meet the Bewildering Concept of Friendship

1 - Fish, Meet Land

The best part of Flowing’s day usually came at around noon.

Incidentally, this was the same amount of time it took her to swim from her home in Seaquestria, to the Equestrian port town of Herring Harbour. Assuming of course that conditions held fair , and her nosy roomie did not interfere, and she headed out early into the morning light.

The town of Herring Harbour was nestled in a little bay where the waters were always a little bit cool, but still warmer than Flowing was used to. Seaquestria lay past the Celestial Sea’s twilight zone, where the warm ocean waters became dark and cold, and inviting to none besides those who already called the Celestial Sea home.

Herring Harbour was a far more welcoming place. A town of mostly earth ponies, though the ratio was only slightly in their favour compared to the other tribes. There were even some griffons, which Flowing figured owed to the town's status as a fishing community, and their willingness to accomodate the diets of their more predatory friends.

Herring Harbour’s total population: not a lot, but still enough folks for Flowing to terrorize comfortably and not risk following the Three Sirens.

She knew it wasn’t exactly ‘nice’ of her, but it was only ever in good fun. Sometimes, when she was swimming into the bay and she saw the submerged hull of a fishing boat, she’d swim beneath it, thudding her tail onto the bottom to trick the hapless sailors into thinking they’d struck a rock or lonely piece of driftwood. Sometimes, she’d leap out of the water, arching over the deck of their ships and colliding back into the sea on the other side, for no other reason than to scare the tails off the poor ponies.

Of course, terrorizing the locals was good fun for a seapony bored of the monotony of Seaquestrian life, but it wasn’t the real reason she made the lengthy swim practically every week.

She breached to gauge her placement relative to the town she was approaching. She was still a little ways off, her destination off to her port side. She was headed for the docks; the ones intended for the larger, heavier fishing boats. Most had already shoved out for the day, but Flowing found that there would always be a dock-hoof or old sailor or fisher pony on the dock regardless.

This time around was no exception. She startled the poor colt--he surely couldn’t have been older than ten, and Flowing had to admit she found the miniature fishing rod he held in his wing quite adorable.

“Boo!” she breached right in front of him, causing the poor colt to nearly tumble backwards off the bucket he’d been using as a seat. “You stealin’ my lunch again, kiddo?”

The colt stared, gawking, for but a moment, before his surprise vanished and he descended into a series of tittering giggles. “G’morning, Missus Seapony!”

“Good morning, Mister Fisherpony!” she waved a fin back, smirking. “Can you go fetch my stallion for me?”

The young colt’s excited response was instantaneous. She got a quick little salute, and he started to trot off immediately.

“Tell him to meet me at the boardwalk!” she called as he left. “Thanks, Lucky Catch!”

She swam in the direction of the boardwalk in question, giving a wave to the dock-workers or fisher ponies or older retiree’s out on their walks. Herring Harbour wasn’t really a tourist town, but it always seemed nice and busy to Flowing all the same. She took her time swimming, and stopped to chat with one of the griffons that ran the town’s fishmongering stand in a quiet spot by one of the boathouses.

A few ponies even called out as she swam past. That got a warm smile and wave back.

“Seapony!”

“Heya, Flowing!”

“Fish Mare!”

She smirked, and hollered her own greetings back. She knew it was wrong... And a heavy weight of guilt hung over her knowing that these ponies all recognized her. But at the same time, she liked it. The town seemed to like her, too.

But none more than the earth pony stallion that was waiting for her at the docks.

“Star Point!" she called out, as the boardwalk came into view around a boathouse and she spotted her stallion waiting for her, half submerged with water up to his barrel. She swam directly into his outstretched hoof, and he pulled her in close, squeezing her tightly.

“Flowing...” he cooed out softly, giving her a quick little kiss. “How was the swim in?”

“Uneventful!” she reported. Gently, they detached, Flowing letting the waves bring her in towards the ‘beach’ by the boardwalk, which, despite it’s designation as such was really mostly rocks and molluscs.

“Sounds like my mornin’, too. One last lazy one, ‘fore I shove off for the week.”

“Swam by your boat on the way in! You get a new net-crane?”

“Yeah. We were, uh. Well, I wanted to get one with more suspension for when we, well...”

She snickered. “For when we get busy with it?”

“Flowing!” he splashed a bit of water in her direction. “We’re in public!"

She blew him a raspberry. She noticed that his hooves seemed to be struggling for purchase on the rocky beach, so she nodded her head towards the boardwalk. He followed her gaze and made the wordless connection, kneeling down and presenting his back to her. She gingerly swam aboard, wrapping her fore hooves around his neck, while her tail trailed behind. She was a good few feet longer than her earth pony coltfriend, but almost all of that length owed to that serpentine tail of hers. Fortunately for Star Point, she wasn’t as heavy as she was long, and he was a rather well-built stallion regardless. Not muscular--he didn’t lift weights or anything like that, but one could not run an entire fishing boat by themselves without a decent build and degree of strength.

Combining such with his natural earth pony bulkiness and strength, he clambered up the beach and onto the boardwalk without so much as a wavering in his pace, even with his piggy-backing seapony passenger.

Ponies stared--they always did, but most were familiar with the sight of Star Point showing his fishy marefriend around town. Flowing knew that Star Point himself loved it. He practically waltzed her about like a showboat, like he’d just brought in the greatest catch of all and she herself was just as pleased about it.

“Fish ‘n chips?” he asked, giving her a knowing nuzzle, as best as he could with her atop him.

“Mmm. As if you have to ask,” she replied.

Star Point chuckled, and Flowing could have sworn there was a skip in his step as his hooves crossed onto the boardwalk. They passed fish vendors, tackle stands, a gryphon selling hats (that one was an oddity to Flowing, and she really, really wished she’d had the bits to buy Star Point one). She fiddled with the fish-hook in her left ear, which she had fashioned into an earring ages ago, back when remnants from the above world were a bit rarer than they’d been when she’d met Star Point. Besides the earring, she didn’t really have much of anything to her name, and she’d been disappointed to learn how little value a fish hook actually had.

Star Point’s response had comforted her, at least, in equal parts because of its wisdom and it’s dorkiness. ‘A fish hook has as much value as every single fish you can catch with it,’ or some nonsense along those lines.

“Which place do you wanna hit up?” Star Point asked her. For such a small fishing town, Flowing had been surprised to learn there were, like, half-a-dozen fish and chips joints to choose from, and she hadn’t yet been disappointed by any of them.

Flowing pointed a fin above his head, in the direction of one of the stands at the far end of the boardwalk, just before it turned back into docks for a few more yards before the cliff-face steepened and the town effectively ended.

The mare at the stand regarded the two of them with amusement as they approached. “Star Point! And his lovely catch of the day, lookin’ as pretty as ever!”

Flowing smirked. She would have thought the designation would’ve gotten old long ago, but it still endeared her every time. “Hiya!”

“What can I getcha two lovebirds?” The mare was all smiles and cheeriness. Then again, most ponies in Herring Harbour seemed to be. “The usual?”

“Yes please!” Flowing said, nodding excitedly. “With the chips! Lots of chips!”

By the Sirens, did she ever love the chips.

A quick exchange of bits and a few moments later, and Star Point was passing Flowing the two boxes of fish and chips up for her to hold. She supposed he normally just put things on his back to carry them, but she was the ‘thing’ in question this time, so she would have to carry her own weight a bit, too. He carried them back down to the docks, where he gently knelt down to let her off.

“Thanks for the ride, trusty steed!” she snickered out, giving him a little pat on the rump with her tailfin before putting down the fish and chips and hopping off of him, returning to the waves with a mighty splash. A few dock-workers turned to stare, first at the splash and then at the mighty tail-fin that churned the water before Flowing resurfaced.

“Show off,” Star teased, smirking while he fiddled open the two styrofoam boxes of fish and chips. “Wow. She uh. He took your request for more chips seriously.”

Flowing let out a gleeful little ‘eeee!’ They were practically overflowing out of the box. She swam in close, putting both fins up on the dock to keep herself relatively eye-level with Star Point as he sat down at the edge of the dock with his hooves dangling half-into the ocean.

“Good! He knows it’s the best export any of these little coast towns’ve got!”

“Yeah,” Star deadpanned. “Not the, y’know. Fish.”

She waved a fin. “Please. We’re everywhere. There’s plenty of us in the sea, right? That’s how the old saying goes.”

He shook his head, and then eased his hoof into her left fin. “Well, with so many... How lucky that I caught the only one as beautiful as you.”

That got a little blush out of her, her smug smirk turning sheepish. “D-dork.”

“You love it.” Star chuckled, cracking open his soda and tossing her the other, which she used her teeth to open.

She did.

By the Three Sirens, did she ever love it.

They’d been dating for a few months, and they’d quickly become the best months of her life. At first, it had just been lazy afternoons together, at the fishing spot where they had just met. She’d hop up on the deck of his schooner, or nestle herself comfortably into that big old net he’d spread out trying to catch something.

And catch something he would! She knew he liked the uncertainty, the eager anticipation he surely must have felt as he pulled up that net, only to see his fishy marefriend break the waves and give him a quick peck right on the cheek! Those days were always fun, but they were... Infrequent. Star Point was still a fisherpony by trade, and fishing in the same spot every single day was dreadfully inefficient.

She had... Less obligations. It was complicated.

Regardless, Star Point still had a living to make. And so, she would visit him every week he wasn’t fishing out her way. It was dangerous, she knew. She was putting all of her trust in the ponies of the little fishing hamlet of Herring Harbour. But if she was by herself, how much danger were the rest of her kind really in?

It was foolish, she knew. She was a fool for love, she supposed. She didn’t know how she was suppose to stay away from something that felt so important to her. When she lay with Star Point on some warm rock with the waves at their fins and hooves--or when they swam together in the crystalline waves deep at sea... It was as though her entire world made sense, and was complete.

Besides, there were worse ponies to trust than the folks at Herring Harbour. They made her feel welcome, and at home, and presented a clear contradiction to the undersea, Hippogriffian claim that trust was dangerous and the above-waves were suicide.

And they made a damn good helping of fish and chips. She’d never had fish cooked before, and the fried potato snack that had come with it had gone from a welcome surprise to an utmost necessity practically every time she visited. She didn’t have Equestrian bits to spend, but she knew Star Point would have refused to have let her pay even if she did.

He must have noticed she’d gone silent, nursing her soda in her fins. “Whatcha thinkin’ bout, Flow?”

“Us,” she replied. There was no secret to keep.

“Good thoughts, I hope.”

“Of course. But, well. Worrisome ones are there, too.” She took a little sip of her soda. “Hey, does Rising Loaf still call me a ‘kelpie?’”

Star Point stifled a laugh. “He, uh. He’s still a little mad you stole that pie he left out, yes.”

“He put it on a windowsill! On a boardwalk, overlooking the ocean! It was gonna taste like sea-salt in a few hours anyways!”

“Apparently, that’s his bakery’s gimmick.” Star Point snorted. Then, he fluffed out his chest and did his best impression of the bitter old crone. ‘“Star Point! You’d best keep that damned kelpie you hang out with away from THIS one! Or you’ll be paying for it!”’

Flowing snickered. “Hey, I did say I was sorry.”

“You splashed him!”

“I said sorry for that, too!” Flowing protested. “Neptune. I am a bit of a kelpie, aren’t I?”

“And I love you for it. Most of Herring Harbour does, too.”

“Aw, they like me?”

“You’re probably the most interesting thing to happen to ‘em in a long, long time.” Star Point nodded. “Y’know... I know it hasn’t been more than a few months, but... I’ve been meaning to ask you...”

Flowing braced. She already knew where this was going. It’d only been a few months. He’d been meaning to ask her...

“Why don’t I stay here.” Flowing leapt upon Star’s nervousness, saying the thought before he could.

“Y-yeah. That. You, well. You don’t talk about home much, so it’s hard to get a read on... Well. What it’s like for you. But if what you told me when we first met is true, I think maybe ‘home’ for you isn’t really a set place.”

Flowing gave a single nod. She munched on her fries, letting out a sigh. “Star Point, do you know about the hippogriffs?”

Star Point tilted his head thoughtfully, and didn’t immediately answer--Flowing could tell he was wracking his brain for the memory, and so she saved him the trouble.

“They’re... Well, originally they lived above the waves, with the rest of the world. But they were... Attacked. An evil creature tried to enslave them, so our--so their Queen used her magic to hide them under the waves. Like... Well, like seaponies.”

“Like?” Star Point frowned. He seemed to read the uncertainty on Flowing’s face. “Their Queen?”

“It’s complicated. There were seaponies in Equestria’s oceans before the hippogriffs ever came. But when they did, they kinda... What’s the word? Annexed? They annexed us?” Flowing explained, her mouth half full of french fries while she did.

Star Point blinked. “O...oh.”

“Sorry, that makes it sound bad! It’s not bad!” Flowing quickly assured. “See, a lot of seaponies are... Nomadic. We travel with the ocean currents, wherever they may take us. It’s a peaceful existence. But, when Queen Novo and the Hippogriffs showed up, that kinda... Stopped. See, us seaponies are a pretty helpful sort. When we see some creature in distress, we help. Sooooo, when we saw a whole new group of strangers flopping around their sea-fins, we did our best to help. Kinda hard to be nomadic while doing that, and their Queen wanted a new kingdom to replace the one she lost. So, we... I guess we shared ours?” Flowing gave a little shrug. “It all happened a long time ago. Long before I was born.”

“I see.” Star Point sipped his soda. “That still doesn’t explain why I haven’t heard much about your home.”

“Well, y’see. Remember what I said about that big bad tyrant forcing the hippogriffs to hide? Well. He’s still lookin’ for them. So, our Queen doesn’t really like us swimmin’ around, y’know. Makin’ friends with the land folks...”

Star Point stared. His eyes widened. “You weren’t supposed to be out there, were you?”

Flowing blushed. “I... Might not have been. Even me being here is... Well. What if I do settle in, and he finds out somehow? I don’t think you understand... The Storm King--that’s what the tyrant fella’s name is, by the way--he’s hunting seaponies. We’re the best way he can get to that Queen, y’know?”

Star Point was speechless. Flowing took the opportunity to steal a few of his fries.

“So, that’s why I can’t... Even being here is... Risky.”

“The ponies here wouldn’t ever give you up to any sort of tyrant, Flowing,” Star Point promised. “Not even Rising Loaf.”

Flowing chuckled. “And that’s why I love it here! And it’s why I love you! And it’s why I can’t wait for somepony to do something about that big mean tyrant, because lemme tell ya. I hate having to hide away from everyone. We seaponies never used to have to do that before the hippogriffs came.”

Star Point nodded. “Can you... I mean, sending them... Back, would be a little rude, but...”

“Not just rude,” Flowing said, rather quickly. “Taboo. Seaponies help. If there’s a call, we drop what we’re doing to see to it. Sinking fast, stuck on the rocks. We’re there.”

Star Point nodded. “Yeah. Guess you really are stuck between a rock and a hard place.”

Flowing sighed, munching a haddock fillet sadly. “Yeah...”

“I’m sorry, Flowing.” He saw that she was still peering greedily at his fries, so he took to feeding her a couple as they talked. “Really. I didn’t... I mean, I kinda assumed, but I didn’t know that it was quite so bad.”

Flowing hummed out as she munched on the fries. Star could have sworn she’d given his hoof a loving nibble as she did so. “It’s okay, Starry. But I’m... Well. I know I’m in love with you. I’m certain about that.” She gripped his left forehoof in one of her own. The fact that it was coated in french fry grease hopefully didn’t diminish from her intentions. “But I can’t help but worry that we’re from two different worlds. And we only ever exist together by chance.”

Star Point shook his head. “It’s not chance. And even if it is, that doesn’t mean it’s not real. I’m not ready to let any distance get in the way of our love.”

She kissed him, at that. Beating the water with her tailfin to propel herself up a bit, wrapping her front flippers around him...

The dock workers, had they glanced over, might have seen a flash of colour, or heard a surprised little cry... Followed by a mighty splash.

Star Point was surprised, but only for a moment. The water was nice and warm this time of year, and though he wasn’t the best swimmer, Flowing had already reoriented herself so that he was comfortably atop her back. It was another tradition of theirs, at the end of their dates in Herring Harbour. A bit of repayment for Star Point lugging her scaly flank around town on his back. At his best, he could tread water helplessly for a few minutes, before going under. He wasn’t particularly confident in his swimming abilities, but he seemed confident in hers. She’d show him the waves, the sea birds, the sun sparkling off the water as it sunk beneath the horizon. She liked to think she was a good enough swimmer for the two of them.

After, Flowing would lie on her belly, and let the tide carry them both in gently, to come to rest upon the sands of one of the dozens of small little wharfs that lined the coastline. And there in the wet sand, the two of them would make passionate love, intertwined around each other, with nobody but the sea-birds (Flowing hoped) as their witness.

This time, though, they were content to simply lay together and cuddle. Flowing lay on her back, letting Star Point lay atop her, so that he was safely above the water. Her fins ran through his mane lovingly. When she wasn’t staring into those bright eyes of his, she was locking her lips around his own, eyes closed in comfort and bliss.

Her life felt perfect, in this moment.

“I love you, Star Point,” she breathed out as they detached.

He kissed her back. “I love you, too.”

As perfect as the feeling was, it was fleeting. The sun was falling, and it would be a long swim home by the glow of the angler-fish-like light on her forehead. She felt the tide beginning to rise up past her belly... Feel it against her chin as the two of them kissed, and she knew it was almost time to go.

“Hey... Wanna see something cool?” Flowing whispered out, as the salt-water threatened to submerge her land-bound lover.

Star Point gave a few quick nods.

“Okay... Breathe normal, through your mouth. And trust me.”

She took a deep breath to fill her lungs.

Then, before Star Point had much time to process the implications of her statement, Flowing leaned forward and locked her lips around his. At the same time, she gripped him in both of her forehooves, holding him tightly as she kicked at the sand with her tailfin, launching her back out to sea. She maintained the kiss, but began exhaling gently as she swam, slooooooowly emptying out her lungs still bloated with oxygen her submerged form no longer needed.

She was surprised at how efficient of a seal the locked lips of two lovers apparently was. Star Point’s eyes had lit up in surprise, for but a moment. But he seemed to catch on quite quickly, as he took in a wary breath and realized that there was still a semi-steady flow of oxygen escaping Flowing directly through their kiss and into the earth pony.

She’d taken a deep breath, which meant she was able to keep them swimming underwater for nearly two minutes. She had to swim a little slower, with her stallionfriend in tow, but it was still enough time to take him on a gentle, leisurely tour of the humble little reef beds that lined the shoals outside of Herring Harbour.

The sun had set, but her glowing angler light kept their journey ahead lit in a subtle, orange glow. Minnows swam close to check out the strange sight, only to immediately turn and flee when they saw the enormous fish they were attached to. Flowing would’ve smirked if she hadn’t been breathing for her stallionfriend.

They resurfaced after a few minutes. Star took a few shaky breaths, eyes open wide as the moon beginning to peak over the ocean.

“F-Flow! T-t-that was...”

She smirked. “Sorry, should’ve warned you.”

“You devious kelpie!” he snickered, splashing her with his forehoof, while his other three doggy-paddled somewhat helplessly.

“You gotta admit. It was kinda cool.”

“It was incredibly cool! B-but you scared the blazes outta me! Got me wonderin’ if I went and said somethin’ to offend you!”

She laughed. “Oh, you did not think that. I’m not THAT bad.”

“Okay, I didn’t,” he chuckled. “How do... I mean. I know you can breathe air, but... You can store it?”

“It’s a ballast thing!” Flowing excitedly explained. “We can hold in some oxygen, which increases our mass. Helps us dive deeper, and adapt to changing water pressures. We release it as we don’t need it. We call it a swim bladder!”

“That, uh. I don’t like to hear that I was just breathing outta your ‘swim bladder’, Flowing.”

“Oh, don’t be gross,” Flowing scoffed. “It’s a different bladder. Dork.”

“Kelpie,” he returned, blowing a raspberry at her.

“I can still drown you, y’know.”

“Try it, sea demon,” he returned, and then quickly clambered onto her back. His forehooves wrapped around her neck, and his head rested above her own.

“Onwards, trusty steed,” he cooed out teasingly. His hot breath directly in her ear. She responded by kicking the waves with her tail, sending a torrent of water splashing up at his direction.

She started towards his fishing boat. The sun was beneath the waves, now, and the lights from Herring Harbour were dancing across the tides beginning to rise with the coming dark.

“Headin’ out tomorrow, then?” Flowing asked, as she swam onwards in the direction of Star’s docked ship.

“At first light,” he nodded. “Gotta get my boat prepped tonight, while I still have time.”

“Where are ya goin’ this time?”

“I dunno. Your recommendation?”

“Well, stay away from Sunny Shoals, for one. I’ve seen nothin’ but baitfish there all week.”

“Duly noted. Y’know... You can come, if you want. I can set up someplace for you to sleep in the live-well of my boat.”

“I do want,” she said, letting out a long sigh. Gods, did she ever want. And to deny it felt so, so unsatisfying, for both of them. “But I should get back soon. If Queen Novo finds out what I’m doing... And besides. I can’t help but worry about home, too. It’s hard not to, when I know that someone, somewhere, is hunting them.”

Star nodded. She felt his hooves hug her tighter. They were coming up on Star Point’s fishing boat, moored at one of the docks on the north-end of Herring Harbour. She swam right up to the dock, and let him climb off of her.

“Well. Why don’t we hit up the ol’ fishin’ spot together tomorrow? First thing in the morning?” he offered. “Then, you can head for home from there. That way, you’re only gone for the evening, and you don’t have to swim all the way home tonight.”

Flowing pursed her lips. It was tempting. Very tempting. Much more tempting than the thought of swimming for hours under a cover of darkness. Nothing on her mind besides the mournful reality that, for as wonderful as her day had been, she’d be spending yet another night alone...

“I can pack us lots of tuna sandwiches. Fresh bread and everything...”

She smirked. “You know just how to bait me, fisherpony.”

They kissed again, Star Point kneeling down to do so, uncaring of the eyes of any of the other dock-hooves who might have seen the strange couple.

Flowing swam into his outstretched hoof. He grunted a little as he lifted her onto his back, and then began to carry her towards the gangplank joining his ship with the dock. She nuzzled her snout into his mane, a long, content inhale flooding her with the scent of Star’s shampoo intermingled with sea-salt. Her eyes closed, contentedly.

It was temporary. She knew that. They would have to part ways before too long, same as all the times before.

Maybe soon, maybe not. Yet, Flowing knew a time would one day come when no tyrants nor distance could keep them apart.

Author's Note

Here we go.

I've been working on this story for some time, and it has developed into something more passionate and conceptual than I originally intended. I do hope you enjoy.

The story is fully written and will update regularly.

2 - Storm, Meet Sea

~~~

“...And anyways, ey! Shaddup! Shaddup, pipe down, ye drunken bloated bucket'a'brine! Aye wasn't done tellin' me tale!”

Tempest Shadow rolled her eyes. She hooked a hoof around her tankard, taking a hefty swig of the mead within, her ears instinctively tilting towards the uproarious voice cutting above the others fighting for dominance in the tavern. Could it even be considered eavesdropping on her part, when the drunken sailor was doing his damnedest to make sure the entire tavern heard his tale?

“Right, right, so! 'ere I was, all by meself out there, 'avin just braved the worse of them nasty November gales--”

"It's August, ya drunk bastard!"

The interjection was met with uproarious laughter, as though it was the most entertaining thing the tavern patrons had ever heard. "Damn ye! Ignorant colt! August gales then! Ah'd managed to survive the worse of the gales, only for me ship to wind up huggin' one of them reefs up on them shoals over by Harmony Bay. The luck… survivin' a storm like that, only to go and get run aground anyways!"

"Aye, or the imagination of a certain cap'n with one hoof on the wheel and the other on the bottle!"

"Damn ye!" The stallion barked back, but Tempest heard him laugh. "Ah was sober as a schoolfilly! But plenty up the creek without a paddle! Sinkin' fast, and in the midst of a reef bed to boot! Ah dunno if any of you wee minnows've been out by Harmony Bay, but them reefs beds are a good haul from shore. Ye don't swim back from 'em if'n ye get run aground on 'em."

Across from her, above the bar, was a mirrored glass wall through which Tempest was watching the exchange in earnest now. It wasn't as though she'd anything better to do whilst nursing her mead.

The sailor continued. "And then, just when ah start my prayin' to the sisters for all them good sails before, this little light comes shinin' up outta the waves off my port side. Only light for miles, it was. And it gets brigh'er, and brigh'er, and then ah swear ah damn near keeled back when a head comes pokin' outta the waves!"

Tempest blinked. She turned, and suddenly her interest in her mead was discarded.

"Out pops this… well, ah guess you'd call 'er a mare, but she got one of them glowy lights ye see on them anglers, dangling up past her head. And a big, long tail, and no hindlegs. And she starts givin' me an earful 'bout hurtin' the reefs, but in a jokin' sense. Like she weren't serious 'bout it, but lemme tell ye, the mouth on this mermare!"

"Seapony." Tempest spoke up. She hopped off the barstool and strode up to the sailors. "You're saying you saw a seapony."

"Ah swear it, shorthorn!" The sailor confirmed. "She tells me she's swimmin' to shore. Offers me a ride, but asks me to not tell nopony where I took her. 'course I oblige, considerin' she saved me life 'n all. Lemme tell ya. I ain't never seen a mermare 'fore, but if they're all as pretty 'as this'n…"

Tempest could scarcely believe her ears.

Seaponies were... Well, to say that encounters with them were never documented was an exaggeration. Secretive and reclusive as they were, they’d nonetheless occasionally prop up to greet some far out sailors--some manner of equine contact to divide their otherwise dull and plodding and isolated existences.

But one this close to shore? And swimming there intentionally, to boot? Now that was a rarity if ever she had heard of one. They at the very least knew well enough to stay away from the shore...

All except for this one.

“Did this seapony tell you what she was doing, swimming to shore?”

The sailor pursed his lips thoughtfully. “Well. She tells me... she says she’s visitin’ some fisher colt she met, she does. A strange encounter if ever ah heard ‘a one, but I ‘spose there ain’t no denying matters of the heart ‘n all.”

Oh.

Oh this was too good.

A stupid seapony was one thing. A stupid seapony with collateral to interrogate? It was Tempest’s lucky day. She could have the Pearl in her hooves in a week if she played her cards right.

That required tact, though. Ponies were a generally pliable lot, but even they would be reluctant to spill secrets to just about anypony. And though she’d ditched her armour back in the airship, Tempest Shadow still wasn’t exactly the striking figure of a sea-battered sailor that the majority of the tavern cast.

She waved a waitress over, and nodded towards an empty seat at the sailor’s table. In his inebriation, he seemed happy to indulge her, so she sat down just as the waitress arrived.

“Few more rounds for the table,” Tempest said. “So... About that seapony...”

~~~

Star Point knew that Flowing was amphibious, but only for a short while. She’d explained it to him the first day they’d spent together, cuddling on the deck of Star Point’s fishing boat beneath the hot sun. As she’d... So terrifyingly demonstrated earlier that evening, she was fully capable of breathing oxygen through her mouth as well as water from her gills, for what usually amounted to a few hours. Some sort of evolutionary fluke, she claimed, from when her kind had first taken to the waves. She claimed it always felt a little stranger to her, and the way she described it to Star Point made it sound not dissimilar to how a pony feels using a snorkel. Breath wasn’t really limited, but it was at least a little more tiring and a little more unpleasant.

However, oxygen wasn’t the only problem.

He got the impression that Flowing didn’t want to mention it, but he could tell that the more time she spent out of water, the more uncomfortable and exhausted she became. Straight out of water, his fishy marefriend wasn’t exactly slimy, at least compared to some of the fish Star Point had handled. Yet her scaly skin was still slick to the touch, and the longer she spent out of water, the drier it would become. Her scales would become rough, coarse, and he could tell that it was a strange sensation for Flowing.

And... There was another issue, too, with her spending the night in bed with Star Point.

“I, uh...” Flowing bit her lip. The two of them were laying on the deck of Star’s ship, while the waves gently rocked them to and fro. Flowing was laying within one of the 600L plastic bins Star usually used for storing fish, sprayed squeaky clean. He was laying next to her on a deck-chair. The temptation had been there, to crawl in with her, but...

Well, Flowing herself explained it before too long anyways.

“I dunno how best to say this, but... You probably don’t wanna take me into bed with you tonight.”

“Yeah?”

Star sat up, but just to grab another pair of ciders from the four-pack he’d brought out from his ship’s kitchen fridge. Technically a felon to crack them open on a vessel of it’s size, but they were docked in port.

He passed the second cider to Flowing. “Why’s that?”

“Cause of the smell, silly.” She cracked open her own cider, taking a generous swig. “I know you work with fishies all day, but you wouldn’t exactly take ‘em into bed with you, would you?”

He chuckled. “That’s what laundry soap’s for.”

“It sticks. Trust me. You’ll wake up smelling like you used anchovy paste for cologne.”

Star Point was smirking like a school colt. “Yeah? Would that excite you, if I did?”

Flowing rolled her eyes. “Mm. You’re already such a snack. I dunno if I could handle it.”

“Given that stunt you pulled earlier, I dunno whether to be flattered or frightened. Y’know, it’s funny. You know how your Queen always tells you stories about how dangerous the ‘above’ folks are?”

“Mmhm...”

“Well. We have about six filly’s tales that are all about stupid, lusty sailors goin’ and followin’ a Siren’s song out to their demise.”

“Yeah?” Flowing puffed her chest out, seeming proud by that. “Well. Next time you’re out sailing, and you hear a beautiful voice over the waves, singing Shoooo be dooooooo... I sure hope you don’t go following it.”

“Sorry, can’t hear you. Already jumpin’ overboard.” Star returned, sipping his own cider with a laugh. “Shoo be do?”

“It’s an old folk song we like to sing. Want me to sing it for you?”

“Gods would I ever.”

“I’m no Siren. Don’t expect a stunning vocal performance,” Flowing warned. She took another swig of her cider to prep her vocal muscles, and then;

“Shoo be doo! Shoo shoo be doo! Call upon the sea ponies, when you're in distress! Helpful as can be ponies, simply signal S-O-S! If you find you're cast adrift and haven't got an oar! Count upon the seaponies - they'll see you to shore! Shoo be doo! Shoo shoo be doo!”

Panting, apparently not realizing how into her vocal performance Flowing had gotten, she started to blush instantly.

Star Point stared. He blinked.

Then, he began to break out into a series of laughs, to Flowing's great chagrin.

“Hey! I told you I wasn’t great!”

“I’m not laughing at you,” Star Point promised immediately. She wouldn’t be mistaken for a Siren anytime soon, but her voice was hardly horrible either. “Just... What does ‘shoo be doo’ even mean?”

“It’s seapony for ‘eat the earth pony’s legs last, they taste the best,” Flowing replied. “No, seriously. I don’t know. But you gotta admit, it’s catchy.”

“I think it’s already stuck in my head.”

Flowing smirked, and the two were silent for a few moments, in which they each sipped their respective ciders and looked up at the canopy of stars above. It wasn’t quite as wide and bright as it would have been out on open water, but it was stunning all the same.

“It kinda describes how a lot of us try and act, though,” Flowing said eventually. “I know I’m, uh. A bit of a hellion...”

“A bit,” Star repeated with a nod. “But only a bit. A harmless hellion.”

“I try,” Flowing laughed. “It’s the seapony way; lending a helping fin. The ocean is a big, scary, dangerous place. I think it might even be more dangerous than the above-waters, despite what Queen Novo tells us.”

“It seems like it. You ever see any... Sea monsters?”

“Oh yeah. Ever hear of a ‘grabber shark?”’ Flowing made a face, scrunching up her snout. “Nasty buggers. And sometimes it’s the small little creatures you’ve gotta worry about. Some of ‘em, like a louse, are so small you don’t even see ‘em, and they try to burrow in through your gills, and...”

She shuddered. “It ain’t pretty. I don’t have to worry about that around Herring Harbour because most of the dangerous stuff gets scared off by all the boats. But out on open water? It’s any-creature’s game.”

“Mostly just have other ponies to worry about, here,” Star Point said. “And even then, it’s minor annoyances and arguments, nothing life threatening. There’s mean creatures, but they’re more inland. Over by the Everfree. Maybe sometime we can go visit those parts of Equestria. I’d bet you’d love to try all the freshwater fish in those lakes.”

“Lake?” Flowing tilted her head thoughtfully. “What’s a lake?”

Star Point blinked. He had to read her expression for a moment to ensure she wasn’t screwing with him. Nope, she really just was that sheltered.

“Well... Uh... ” Star bit his lip. It was something so obvious, so ingrained in his mind, that it was actually a little difficult to explain. “Imagine a really, really narrow passage of water. Like, usually they’re about as wide as a city street, maybe a little wider. That’s a ‘river’. And the rivers flow through the land, and sometimes when a few of them reach the same place, they empty out into one basin. We call that a ‘lake.’”

“Wait... So... There’s water on land? That doesn’t make any sense...”

“It’s... Hard to describe,” Star Point facehoofed--not at Flowing’s ignorance, but at his own ineptness at describing something so basic. “Y’know how the ocean surrounds all of the land?”

Flowing nodded. Her eyes were wide, and her focus on Star Point entirely.

“Lakes are that in reverse. A big pool of water, surrounded on all sides by land, oftentimes with a river--that’s the ‘water road’ thing, that flows all the way to the ocean.”

“Flows? I thought only the ocean could have currents?”

“Oh, they have currents. But it’s more caused by... Elevation. Water flowing down a hill, so it picks up speed... Sometimes, really really fast. You’d love it, it’s like a roller coaster. Ponies ride down them on rafts for fun.”

Flowing hummed happily to herself. “It sounds awesome. Have you been?”

“Rafting? Nah. I haven’t really left the coast much.”

“Well. I’d love to go exploring Equestria with you sometime, Star Point.”

He nuzzled her lovingly. Even with the idea of exploring the whole of Equestria, it only felt meaningful knowing he’d be doing it with Flowing by his side.

They finished their ciders in relative silence, a warm, tender contentedness in Star Point’s chest. Maybe it was the cider, but it felt so, so nice, being in love. He loved the sound of her voice, but somehow the moments spent with Flowing saying nothing, and simply being, with her, were just as heavenly.

~~~

Tempest Shadow exited the tavern and started into the streets of the grimy little fishing town.

She stopped by an old fountain, using the dirty, cold water within to wash off of her armoured hoof-shoe.

She’d forgotten the name of the town she was in. One of those puny little settlements, technically outside of the Royal Sister’s jurisdiction. Lawless places, but still largely populated by ponies, who were themselves predisposed to their own laws and comforts with or without the consequences of the Royal Guard.

Still, situations in the hinterlands of Equestria got messier than they’d ever been within the borders. Tempest had spent more time in such lawlessness than she’d ever spent outside of it. It was her life. It was what she knew. It wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t ‘nice’, there wasn’t going to be a ‘friendship lesson’ about it anytime soon, but there was a strange comfort in a life of lawlessness.

The Thespis, Tempest’s airship, dominated the docks. It was the most notable thing about them, and it certainly looked strange nestled in with all the fishing boats and little schooners on both sides of it. A foreigner, because that’s what it was. It was what Tempest was, too, even if she’d been born more Equestrian than some of these fisherponies probably were.

“Grubber!” Tempest called out as she trotted up to the gangplank. “Fire up the engines!”

The little... Tempest wasn’t quite sure what Grubber was, exactly, and she’d never really cared to ask. All she knew for certain was that he’d been assigned to her as an assistant, she suspected nepotism was to blame, and she really wished she could have punted him off the Thespis ages ago....

Ahem. The little thing came scrambling into view on the deck of the Thespis. “Aw, come on, Tempy! We’re not even staying the night?”

“Do not call me ‘Tempy,’” she growled. “And yes. We are leaving tonight. Sound the bell, and if the troops aren’t aboard in five minutes, we leave.”

She strode up the gangplank, the sound of her heavy armoured hoofbeats resonating through the peer. There was... What, four of them? Five? Not including Tempest and Grubber. Four other troops that were, for the most part, only around as extra muscle. Not that Tempest really needed it, but sometimes the distraction was nice.

“Where we goin’, anyway?” Grubber asked, and just before Tempest could begin to reply he struck the ship’s gong as loudly as possible, no doubt awaking half of the fishing town in the process. Tempest rolled her eyes.

“A fishing town called Herring Harbour.”

“A what?” Grubber gawked. “Another fishing town? Why? This one not slimy and smelly enough?”

“A seapony,” Tempest replied. She nodded towards the airship gondola, wordlessly commanding Grubber to follow her as she strode inside.

The Thespis’ navigation room was small, but as large as it truly needed to be. The ship itself had been built for speed and efficiency. It’d been built to be quick, silent, and efficient. The navigation room was covered on every surface with maps and charts, with the largest being relegated to a table in the middle bolted to the gondola. Auxiliary controls within the navigation room allowed for one to steer the ship from within, in the event of sub-optimal weather conditions.

“And why are we chasing some rando seapony, Tempy?” Grubber was hobbling behind her, rushing to keep up while filling his little paws with an assortment of maps and charts from the various containers surrounding the navigation room. As well as a slice of ancient, stale cake that he’d apparently been holding in the pockets of the oversized overcoat he was wearing.

“Because, idiot,” Tempest growled out. “A ‘rando seapony’ has a home. A seapony goes to that home. And do you know where that home is?”

“Uh... Equestria?”

“Ugh... I swear to...” Tempest face-hoofed, her horn sparking out irritably as she grumbled. “Seaquestria. She goes to Seaquestria.”

“Is... Isn’t that what I said?”

Tempest ignored him. She trotted to the map. Herring Harbour wasn’t close... If they were to leave soon, it would still be late morning by time they arrived. But then again, it wasn’t as though the little fishing town had any idea they would be arriving.

There was one hair in the soup, though. It was minor, given her plans, but... The town lay in Equestrian waters.

“Tempy... Hello? Tempy...?”

“What?” she whipped around, baring her teeth. “What the devil do you want?”

Grubber took a single step back. “Er... Well, first of all, grouchy pants. Second of all. Seapony. Us. Chasing. Why?”

“Seaquestria,” Tempest replied. “If we can catch a seapony, we can interrogate her for the location of Seaquestria. Which, since I know you are too much of a twerp to know yourself, is where the hippogriffs have been hiding.”

Grubber stared. He took a bite of his cake as he thought. “Sooooo, we can take em out, and steal their magic, before we move on to Equestria...”

“First intelligent thing you’ve said all night,” Tempest snorted out. “Yes. Without the hippogriffs, who would Equestria have to turn to for aid? Griffonstone?”

“But... How are you planning on catching this... This seapony?”

“That’s the best part. She’ll be swimming right into our hooves.” Tempest chuckled. “That fishing town we’re going to? She visits there, I’ve been told. Every second week. The sailors can’t shut up about her.”

A slow grin of realization slowly spread across Grubber’s cake-smeared face. “Ooooooh...”

“Mmhm. And this time, well. She’ll have a rather warm welcome when she visits.”

3 - Lovers, Meet Trouble

~~~

Flowing woke to a different sunrise.

Well, really, it was the same one. She’d just never awoken to it above the waves before.

It was... Brighter, than it was under the waves. It swept over the deck of the ship, and illuminated the plastic bin she was laying within, so that her silhouette was visible to the onlookers on the neighbouring ships.

She yawned, a torrent of bubbles floating to the surface as she poked her head outside and looked around as Herring Harbor woke up. The sound of shouting dockworkers percolated to her ears immediately when they penetrated the water. A few of them turned to look at the sudden splashing noise, and were met with a greeting wave from Flowing.

Star Point was nowhere to be found, but she could see one of the lights inside of the ship was illuminated, and the earth pony’s silhouette vaguely visible as he shuffled about within the ship’s superstructure. Beside her, the blankets and cot he’d dragged in from inside were still atop the deck, from where he’d slept next to her. Faces pressed against the plastic bin, one of them submerged, one of them not. Together for the most part, but apart for eachother’s comfort.

It was the best sleep Flowing could recall. She didn’t care that she felt exposed. She didn’t care about the relatively cramped space she was contained within. It felt so nice dozing off and knowing how close she was to the pony she was confident she wanted to spend her life with.

She was getting kind of sick of being cramped in the bin, though. She wanted to stretch her fins. And so, curling her tail inwards, she brought it against the bottom of the bin in a flexible arch, before pushing up and springing herself out, over the side, and flopping unceremoniously onto the deck of the ship.

“Ahh...” she let out a relieved sigh, flopping over to the side of the boat and looking over the edge at the waves gently lapping against the dock. The entire harbour was captive in a thinning white haze, as the rising sun gradually percolated away the morning fog. She watched the ponies go about their morning routines, the docks surprisingly busy for such an early hour, ships being loaded, or ones that had arrived in the night unloaded.

“Good morning, dear,” A familiar voice called behind her. Muffled slightly, and when she turned, and saw Star Point trotting towards her with a platter in his maw. A steaming tote and a pair of metallic mugs, and a pastry who’s name Flowing didn’t know. He set the platter down on the ship deck beside her, and knelt down to give her a good morning kiss.

“Sleep well?”

She nodded. “Yeah, I did. Not used to the sun waking me up so early, though. You? Wasn’t too chilly?”

Star Point waved a hoof. “It was fine. It was better than fine. That was nice.”

Flowing smiled. “Whatcha got here?”

“Coffee! I don’t... Think you’ve tried it before?”

“Cough Eee...” Flowing repeated. She watched with intrigue as he twisted off the lid to the tote and poured an inky black liquid into one of the mugs and passed it over to her.

“Beans, percolated in steaming water.”

“Oh! We kinda have that!” Flowing gave a quick nod. “We don’t use beans, though. We use a variety of different seagrasses, and then we generate a really, really rapid current that heats the water surrounding the seagrasses. It blends their taste with the water, and we drink it!”

Star Point gave an intrigued nod. “We call that 'tea.’ Coffee is similar, I guess. Give ‘er a try.”

Flowing took the mug in one of her fins, and gingerly she brought it to her mouth.

“Ack! Buck me, that’s bitter!” she gasped.

Star Point laughed. “More bitter than sea grass?”

Flowing gave a single nod. She took another curious sip. “It... Doesn’t taste great.” She confessed. “But...” Another testing sip. “But it feels great.”

“Yeah, I think that’s coffee summed up. It’s... Well, a wake-up drug.”

“Ahhhh...” Flowing gave a knowing look. “That explains why you drink it.”Another sip. Maybe it wasn’t that bad. “Those baked goods look delicious, though...”

“Muffins! Blueberry! I grabbed ‘em from the deli while you were still asleep.”

She munched on one, and let out a pleasured sigh. “Gods, you ponies make the best tasting shit, y’know that?”

Star Point snickered, and settled down beside Flowing. The idle chat of the docks filled the silence, until Flowing noticed Star’s eyebrow raise and a curious frown forming.

“...Huh...”

“What?” Flowing tilted her head.

“Nothing, just...” he nodded his head, at some point behind her. She turned, but it was hard to see what he was referring to amidst the bright white haze. “Weird seein’ an airship here. Looks like it’s comin’ in for a landing, too...”

Flowing stopped mid-bite, a bit of muffin falling out of her open mouth. “...what?”

Star pointed with a hoof. Flowing still couldn’t exactly see what he was motioninig towards, but then again, her eyesight also wasn’t really as adapted to sights above the waves. Plus, she was still half-asleep.

“Airship. It’s... Well, like a boat, but...”

“No, I know what an airship is.” Suddenly, her mind was reeling. Her eyes were wide, her heart was pounding. Gods, what had she done? How could they have found her here?

“Please tell me you have a spyglass...?” she gasped out.

“Everything okay, Flow? You look scared.”

“Star, please... Does the ship have a symbol on it? Can you see?”

Evidently, her grave tone was enough to override his desires for information, because he abandoned his questioning immediately and cantered across the deck to the other side of the ship. There were a few emergency kits stowed in the gunwhale cabinets around the ship, and it was from one of them that Star Point promptly withdrew a pair of binoculars and brought them to his eyes.

“Uh... Can’t... Really see. It’s spewing up a lot of smoke, though. I don’t usually see Equestrian airships do that. Okay, hold on...” Flowing saw him purse his lips as he looked closer, a hoof twisting a dial on the top of the binoculars. “Yeah, okay. There is... Two blue thunderbolts... Does that mean anyth--”

“I need to go, Star. I need to go right now.”

“What? Flowing, please tell me what’s going on!” Star Point was already heading back to her, and now his expression seemed just as terrified as Flowing’s.

“It’s the Storm King. The tyrant fella I told you about. It’s him. They’re coming for me.”

“WHAT?!” Star Point whipped back around, to look at the airship. “You’re sure?”

“Yes. It’s gotta be,” Flowing shuffled to the edge of the ship. “Seriously, it’s been nice and all, Star. But I can’t stay here.”

“You can’t go out there alone!” he shook his head. “Buck, Flowing! How... How did they...”

“It doesn’t matter.” Flowing was surprised at how firm her voice sounded, given how horrified she truly felt. “And I can’t involve you in this. If they’re hunting me, then you’ll be in danger too. I can’t do that to you.”

“Flowing, if you go alone, and you get into trouble, I can’t help you. If they know about you, maybe they know about me already anyways. One way or another, we’re both in this together. Please don’t run off without me.”

Flowing bit her lip. One fin on the deck, one on the gunwhale of the ship, ready to leap off. “...How fast can we shove off?”

“Already ahead of you. We should get you below deck, first. C’mere.” Star Point knelt down immediately, and she clambered aboard. The strong stallion quickly trotting his way into the ship’s superstructure. Down a set of stairs, the inside of Star’s fishing vessel wasn’t particularly large--a kitchen, a little storage area, and a bunk room that was a claustrophobe’s nightmare. Flowing presumed that the rest of the ship’s hull was devoted to the fish-holds themselves.

He deposited her onto the bunk. Their previous conversation last night about the downside of her sleeping with him on the bunk seemed laughably unimportant, now.

“Stay safe, Flowing. I’ll come get you when we’ve shoved off and the coast is clear.”

“W-what if I...” she bit her lip. “What if they search the ship?”

“They won’t. If I see they’re approaching, I’ll come get you first.”

“...Okay...” Flowing gave a shaky nod. “D-don’t be long, Starry.”

She curled her fins together, feeling utterly vulnerable and helpless out of water and atop a bed in a strange environment, with no way of knowing what was immediately outside of her. Like she were a wee fry once again, exploring an old ship wreck with her friends as a dare.

“We’ll figure this out.” He gave her a kiss. “It’s gonna be okay, Flow. I promise.”

She kissed him back, and her ears fell flat on her head as she heard his hoofsteps trot up the metal stairs, leaving her alone.

The ship rumbled, sputtered, and the whole thing began to shudder as Star Point fired up the engines. She could tell without visual reference that he was pulling them out of harbour, and that he’d cracked the engines. The waves beat the ship relentlessly as he took them on an unsafely accelerated escape, Star Point’s few affairs falling off the walls or shelves as the ship rocked dramatically.

It’s gonna be okay, Flow...

Gods, did she hope so.

~~~

Star peeled out of port and out of Herring Bay faster than ever before. He’d yanked the throttle to full and the waves churned and battered against the side of the ship. He’d probably get a stern talking to from the harbourmaster when he returned, as the wake from his hasty departure would no doubt causae a bit of problems for those still docked in waiting.

He had bigger concerns. The airship remained on the horizon, for now, sweeping into the town of Herring Harbor and apparently not pursuing the boat that had swiftly left it.

Good. He waited until he was positive they were out of view from even the best spyglasses before trotting below deck to go fetch Flowing. He kept his ship running at full throttle and used a rope-tie to keep the steering wheel in place, shooting forwards in no direction in particular, besides ‘away’. He’d sailed these waters a hundred times, he knew them as well as any map. He didn’t have much to worry about in terms of running aground, at least for a little bit.

Flowing perked up as soon as he started down the stairs and turned the corner into the bunk room. The way her eyes lit up with a combination of terror, shame, and relief the moment she saw him nearly tore his heart in two. “A-are they following?”

“I don’t think so.” He gave her a gentle nuzzle. “Wanna come up?”

She gave a quick nod. “Kinda... Er. I don’t like... The walls, and stuff.”

Star thought of the net, after she’d accidentally gotten caught up in it. The way she’d thrashed and fought to get out of it, and nearly torn through the thick polyester ropes designed to hold hundreds of pounds of fish.

“Bit claustrophobic, eh?” he asked, softly. Kneeling down to let her climb aboard, which she did swiftly.

“I guess so.” Flowing gripped his neck tightly. “Never been... ‘indoors’, like this. I mean, I’ve been inside shipwrecks, and that’s pretty scary, too, but... At least I can still move around properly.”

“Well, let’s getcha above deck.” He nuzzled her as he trotted back up the stairs, carrying her over to the front of the boat and gently lowering her down. She let out a lengthy exhale of relief the moment she was back up in the sun.

“I’m sorry, Star Point.”

“Why?”

“I didn’t... This. I couldn’t leave well enough alone.” She sunk her head into her fins. Her chest was rising and falling rapidly. “I couldn’t stop myself. I just wanted us to be together and now...”

She trailed off as he knelt down next to her. Taking her trembling fin in both of his hooves. “I asked you to stay, Flow. Remember? You wanted to go home.”

Shakily, she nodded, remaining silent.

“It’s gonna be okay, Flow...” he kept holding onto her fin. Gently, her tensed, shuddering form stilled. “If we’re safe, I want to be by your side. If we’re in danger, I would feel better knowing we’re keeping each other safe.”

“...Okay.” She managed a smile. “Love you, Starry.”

He nuzzled her back. “Love you, Flowing.”

He lay down beside her. The boat was still moving forwards swiftly, and the waves striking against the bow rose high enough that they were both coated in a near constant torrent of sea spray. It seemed to lighten Flowing’s mood significantly, because after several minutes she was no longer looking at the deck of the ship in fear but instead at the distant horizons they were hastily speeding towards.

“What are we going to do, Starry?”

“Well. For now, we’re going to get some distance between us and that airship,” Star Point said. “Then, we need to get you somewhere that the Storm King wouldn’t dare search. I think he’s only got the guts to look for you here since we’re so far along the outskirts of Equestria.”

“So, what? We’re going deeper into Equestria?”

“Well, right now, we’re not. We’re going out towards deep sea.” Star frowned. “Do... Should we be taking you to Seaquestria, maybe?”

Flowing clicked her tongue. “Well. They might be tracking us, yeah?”

“Yeah... That’s true.” He frowned.

“I don’t want to go back to Seaquestria if it means I might be leading a Storm King airship right to them, y’know?”

“Yeah.”

“I think seeking refuge in Equestria might be a better idea...”

“Alright. Well, we’re going to have to either double back... Or leave the ship somewhere in Griffonstone and take the train. Griffonstone would be further, but a more or less straight shot. And doubling back... Well... We don’t know where that airship is, right?”

“Yeah...” Flowing exhaled deeply. “Star, I’m so sor--”

Her apology was cut off as Star suddenly leaned forward to kiss her on the lips, tenderly and warmly for all of the abruptness of the gesture.

“We’re gonna be fine,” he promised. “I’m gonna go slow the engines, so we don’t go burnin’ all our fuel. Ship ain’t built to run this fast for this long, and I don’t wanna overheat it and cause a fire. Then, we’ll figure out where we’re headed.”

When Star Point returned, he had an old but detailed map of the Celestial Sea and its surrounding coastlines. He spread it out an old barrel for him and Flowing to pore over while they plotted their destination, with the ship itself idly putting forwards towards some point to the north-west.

“So, Seaquestria, by the way...” Flowing said. “Is right here.” She didn’t want to soak the map with her fin so she used her nose to point it out on the map. “See this big ol’ mountain? That’s Mount Aris. When the hippogriffs fled, they tried to make a colony nearby, but the water there is so cold that far south that it’s... Not exactly easy.”

“I see...” Star Point frowned. “Is that when the native seaponies came in?”

“Got it in one.” Flowing nodded. “As the old tales go, we used to just trade with them, until Queen Novo decided it’d be better if the hippogriffs became full-time residents of our community.”

“...y’know, Flowing, it’s kinda increasingly sounding like this Queen Novo kinda screwed over your people.”

Flowing tilted her head. “...Really?”

“You don’t think so?”

“I guess I never thought of it like that.”

“Well, let’s recap real quick. They fled their home, and started living adjacent to yours. You seaponies lent a fin because...” He trailed off, looking to Flowing for an actual reason.

“’Cause it’s our thing. Shoo be do, remember?”

“Right. You shoo be did your best to help them, and they shoo be stole your waters in response.”

“I wouldn’t say stole... Queen Novo just... Well, moved in with us. And it’s not like we had our own Queen to say no. We’re usually nomadic, remember? We have our homes we come back to when the fish spawning season starts, but we kinda traditionally just... Go with the flow. That’s why not everypony even knows we exist.”

“It sounds like you got given a bad deal to me. You’d be fine right now if Queen Novo didn’t call herself and her people ‘seaponies’ and take over your waters.”

“Yeah, well. The hippogriffs wouldn’t be fine right now if we refused them, Star Point.” Flowing returned. “I told you. It’s what we do. I know it just sounds like a... A goofy little character tick to you. Like some silly thing us fish folk do. But I really mean it. We don’t turn down calls for help. The ocean is such a scary, terrifying place. There’s about a thousand things out there that want you dead. And I think it’s our duty as it’s residents to try and make it a safe and nice place to be.”

Star Point was quiet for several seconds, a small smile forming on his face as she spoke. “Well... Okay. If you’re not bothered by it...”

“It really wasn’t a problem until the Storm King started hunting down the hippogriffs,” Flowing said. “At first, it was great. Suddenly we had a whole bunch of new friends! And they had all these cool new customs and traditions, and yeah it was a little annoying that Queen Novo expected us to all pamper her like a queen, but... Well. It was nice. Even in hiding, it’s nice.”

“But not nice enough for you. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have met.”

“I guess not.” Flowing gave a helpless shrug, her wing-fins splaying out as she did. “So... Seaquestria is due south. When I swim--which, by the way, is pretty fast, it takes me a good... Seven? Hours? To get to Herring Harbour. Now... Assuming those bad ponies are still following us... I kinda don’t want to lead them in the direction of Seaquestria.”

“Right. So, we should keep north?”

“You said Griffonstone. Is there water there?”

“Er... Some? I think it’s kind of mostly rock and cliff...”

“Damn it. Er...”

“I can carry you, if we need to...”

“Right, but if they follow us there somehow. If we need to make a quick escape... It’s gonna be kinda hard with you lugging my fat ass around.”

Star Point laughed. “Okay, one. I know you like your fish and chips a bit more than most folks, but you are not fat. Second of all, good point. But I’d only be carrying you as far as the train station. And look, right here...”

Star Point used a hoof to point out a yawning mouth of a waterway on the map, which Flowing would’ve just assumed was a road if it hadn’t been labelled the Gusto River. It looked like it snaked it’s way deep into the hinterlands of north-eastern Equestria.

“If it comes to it, we can use this to get away. It’d take us deep into uncharted territory, but, well. Away from the Storm King.”

“Right. Okay. And if they’re not following us, we get on a train and take it...”

“I hear the Crystal Empire is nice this time of year. That’d be the first place the train would take us. And if I explain the situation I’m sure the train conductor would be willing to accommodate a seapony passenger that far.”

“Gods, I’m such a damn burden.” Flowing face-fined.

“Flow...”

“No, seriously. All this crap. All my fault, because I couldn’t leave well enough alone like everypony warned me I should’ve...”

“I’m glad you didn’t. And... Look, don’t take this the wrong way... But I’d rather be on an adventure with you than for our little meet-up to have been a one-night stand. Besides, how exactly is it your fault that you’re being hunted, right now?”

“Well I--” Flowing opened her mouth, and closed it when no answer came. “I don’t know.” She admitted. “I don’t even know how they found me.”

“Well, even if you let something slip, what did you say? You were seeing somepony from the coast? How would you have known they’d go blabbing to some Storm King official about that?”

“I guess I just assumed this sort of thing never happened in Equestria. That I’d be safe coming here.”

“And up till now, you have been. But... Well, Herring Harbour is kinda... On the edge. Technically we’re part of Equestria, but borders get real fuzzy when they’re not on maps. Go further south, and a lot of those fishing towns along the Badlands’ coasts are hairier.”

“I guess I should’ve known better.”

“Yeah, well. Let’s get you into Equestria proper. You’ll be safe there.”

“But...” Flowing sighed. “No, you’re right. Let’s just go.”

Star Point gave her one last kiss, and then turned to go alter their course back at the control deck of the fishing trawler.

And that was when he saw the hanging speck of the airship on the horizon.

“Oh Celestia above...”

Flowing turned too. Instantly, that fear was back in her eyes. “It’s them?”

“Yeah... Yeah, it’s them. Flow, you need to go now.”

She bit her lip. They didn’t really have time to hesitate, but she suddenly found herself frozen in place all the same. It was like an inverse to their previous talk on the subject, now given new context with the skiff now bearing down upon them on the horizon.“B-but what about you?”

“It’s fine. I’ll tell them I haven’t seen anything if they ask. But if they search the ship, they’ll find you.”

“I can’t leave you to them, Starry!”

“Ain’t askin’ you to. You can watch from below the waves. When they leave, we’ll reconvene. Now go.”

She breathed in a steely breath. “Okay. I’ll see you soon, Starry.”

“Sure thing. Be safe, Flowing.”

There was a splash, and then Flowing was gone.

As the airship approached, Star realized just how large it truly was.

It had been one thing, when it had been a mere speck on the horizon, no different from the gulls overhead. But as it closed the distance between them, its true scale became all the more daunting.

Star Point bit his lip, watching with barely concealed terror as the mighty airship came descending down upon him. It dwarfed his fishing vessel by nearly thrice it’s size. The way it hung above him, amidst the drone of slowing propellors, it was as though he was being confronted by a might dragon like the ones he’d heard tell of. It swept above Star’s boat, blotting out the sun and casting him and the rest of the vessel in shadow.

This ‘dragon’, however, had the recognizable sight of ponies already milling about on the deck watching the distance between them shrink. Or... No, it was pony, singular. A tall, imposing, muscular earth pony. Star Point could have sworn his entire fishing vessel shook as they jumped down from the airship and onto the deck of his vessel.

A mare. Muscular, tall, built like a tank, but a mare all the same. And...

Star Point shuddered. Not an earth pony. Yikes.

He cleared his throat. “Hello there.”

The maimed unicorn didn’t immediately speak. She strode closer and closer to him, while her airship continued to hover immediately above her. Star Point didn’t shirk away despite her imposing form, though it was difficult not to when she was face to face with him, glaring down upon him. She was wearing a tight, armoured body-suit, and her hooves sounded out on the deck of Star Point’s ship as she approached. They glimmered in the light, as though they’d been sharpened and polished.

“Looking for a seapony,” she said, simply. She said nothing further, glaring down at Star Point as though reading his expression.

“You’ve, uh. Come to the right place for that...” Star attempted a chuckle. “Lots of, er. Water. To look through.”

Her glare narrowed. “Flowing Sands. Seapony.”

Star Point’s heart was racing, but he kept his gaze level. “Yeah? Friend of yours?”

“Friend of yours,” she returned. “You’re Star Point, yes?”

Oh dear Celestia, she knew.

He didn’t immediately answer. He was tempted to throw up another lie, play dumb some more... For all the good it would do him. This mare knew about Flowing. She knew about him. He supposed it shouldn’t have come as a shock—his and Flowing’s relationship had been the talk of Herring Harbor for several months, now, and all it would’ve taken was one of the regular drunks slipping up for that to get out.

“I hope whoever you wrangled that name out of is okay,” Star Point said eventually.

“They’ll survive,” the mare replied. “You will, too, if you tell me what I want to know.”

“What do you want from Flowing?”

“I’m asking the questions, earth pony. Tell me where she is.”

Star stared right back at her. He thought for certain he was about to pass out, with how quickly his heart was racing. “No. I don’t think so.”

“Mmhm. Not surprising.” She turned, trotting away from Star Point for a moment as a... Bewildering series of creatures began descending from a gangplank slowly lowering down onto Star’s vessel. They were larger than a pony by several heads, all muscle, fur, and, to Star’s eyes, lacking in the intelligence department.

“Search the ship,” the mare ordered. “Not many places he can be hiding her, if she’s on board.”

“You’re not going to catch her,” Star Point said. “Storm King, I presume. Y’know, I assumed the Storm King was a stallion.”

“General Tempest Shadow,” she replied, waving a hoof. As though the answer was beyond her, but she felt humoured enough to provide it anyways. “The Storm King’s head command. Hardly intimidated by the senseless words of some common fisherpony.”

“Uh huh,” Star Point sneered. A few of Tempest’s soldiers angled their spears in his direction. He amazed himself by hardly wincing. “She’s probably half-way across the Celestial Sea by now. She’s got a head start on you by three days.”

Tempest turned. “Liar. You left port today. The moment I had my airship swing back around and into sight. I baited you and, like a fool, you went ahead and took it. Why else would you be out here?”

“Why else?” Star Point rose an eyebrow. “It’s a fishing vessel, idiot. I’m fishing.”

“We’ll see,” Tempest returned, seemingly unfazed by Star’s jibe. Star could hear cluttered noises from deep inside his ship... Things being thrown about, overturned. Doors being opened and slammed...

Momentarily, the creatures returned. They shared a whispered word with Tempest, who then let out an annoyed huff and whipped back around to face Star Point. “Which direction, fisherpony? You have five seconds, and then I sink your ship.”

His heart sunk, though he’d been expecting such since the moment the airship had come into view. His options were running dramatically thin... He could lie to this mare, sure. And potentially buy some time for Flowing, even if it put him in the line of fire when his ruse was up...

“And, that’s five.” Tempest grumbled out. “Grubber! Cannons, armed!”

“Aye aye, Tempy!” A chipper voice replied, from the airship’s deck. Grubber, apparently. Star craned his neck, and spotted a creature similar in shape to the large brutish creatures occupying his fishing vessel, but much smaller and apparently capable of higher speech besides the grunts and grumbles he’d heard from the large ones.

“Wait!” Star cried out. Tempest was already trotting away, back towards the lowered gangplank of her vessel.

“For you to lie to me again?” Tempest turned, raising an eyebrow. “Send us on a wild goose chase to buy your fish friend some time? I’m good, fisherpony.”

“You sink my ship, and you won’t ever find her!”

She laughed. “I sink your ship, and you drown. You start drowning, and your darling lover is going to be sweeping in in a jiffy to save you. I just have to wait.”

“She’s halfway across the Celestia Sea!”

“Sureshe is.” Tempest was already walking away. Her troops were following behind her, and the little creature hopped down from the airship to come to a landing upon her back. “Everyone off. Have a nice swim, earth pony.”

“Woah... that’s... cold, Tempy” Grubber chittered out, sounding amused. “What if the earthy’s tellin’ the truth?”

“We’ll find out soon enough,” Tempest said. They were on the gangplank, now, the ship already beginning to rise up again once they were.

The conversation continued out of ear-shot. Star Point watched the ship rise with blooming dread... It rose higher and higher and then, just as it seemed as though it might’ve been leaving Star Point’s fishing boat behind...

The blast that came from the airship was one of the loudest things Star Point had ever heard. He screamed out, as suddenly his entire ship shuddered and rocked as harpoon-like grappling hook impacted his ship, digging into the old wood with ease. The airship continued to fly away, and it actually succeeded in dragging Star’s ship behind it, it’s propellers whining out noisily with the added weight.

He could feel his entire vessel starting to yaw quickly. The impact had been enough to shatter the hull, which meant...

He cantered towards the stairwell. His heart skipped a beat when he immediately saw water filling up the lower-most chambers of the ship’s hull. “No, no, no...”

He was sent careening off his hooves as the ship began to pivot wildly, the more water flowed into the hull. There was another loud, cracking sound, as the grappling hook detached and was drawn back towards the airship, a sizable chunk of Star’s boat still gripped greedily in its metal talons. He collided against the deck of his ship and when he scrambled to his hooves, he swiftly realized that the banister he’d used to right himself was slowly becoming more and more parallel with the ocean’s waves...

He was sinking fast. Too fast. He could’ve scrambled for his flare gun, but it would’ve been a moot point by now, and he was quite certain there’d be nopony close enough to spot it regardless. He’d left Herring Harbor in a jiffy, after all.

Minutes later, and water was at this hooves. The airship above was hovering some distance away, where he knew the villainous unicorn mare was no doubt already watching the waves eagerly for signs of Flowing.

He hoped the damn fish was still swimming away. He didn’t know what the blazes he’d do to save himself, but that somehow felt less important to him in the moment than the thought of Flowing ending up captured by these horrid creatures.

Water was lapping against the ship’s super-structure, now. It’d been a clean puncture to it’s hull, so that no wreckage was left behind floating, and instead his ship simply continued sinking like a stone. He was standing, then he was wading... And eventually, sooner than he would have liked, his hooves left the surface of his ship’s deck for the final time as it continued on it’s pilgrimage to the ocean’s depths without him.

It’d been in his family for generations. It’d been the most valuable possession Star Point had. It had been his livelihood, his home...

And now, it was vanishing down into the darkness of the ocean, while his terrified hooves churned the water desperately. The superstructure drifted behind him, also descending into the ocean now. Then, the ship’s mast, with the new crane he’d just installed.

The whole while, the airship was there, waiting. Waiting for some sign of the seapony who would no doubt be coming in to rescue her stallion...

Star glanced down at this sinking ship, still visible but fading fast. Teand for a moment he could have sworn he’d seen a blinking light in the depths of the ocean...

A trick of the eyes. The sun bouncing off the waves in a funny fashion, perhaps...

No. There was something down there, in the darkness. The light grew brighter and brighter, and as it did, Star Point realized it was attached to something.

Flowing waved to him under the waves. She motioned him down, towards her. A few bubbles floated up to the surface around him, as she mouthed something to him. “Trust me?”

He did. He always did. He glanced at the hovering airship one last time...

Then, he took a deep breath, and dove down into the waves.

Interlude - Fish Mares Talking About Penises

~~~ One Week Earlier ~~~

“And where are you going, Flow?”

Flowing stopped mid-swim, glancing back at the source of the voice--Seasmoke, her friend and roommate.

Seasmoke was lit by one of the bioluminiscent jelly-lamps they kept outside the hollowed out sand-dune where the two sea-mares lived. Seasmoke didn’t have an angler light like Flowing did, which meant that she was for the most part the only visible thing lit by the jelly’s light. The jelly itself a cool blueish glow, that triggered when the currents of their swimming sbrushed upon their fine little microfibers.

It was early in the morning, but it didn’t really matter much this far down regardless. Even when the sun did peak over the ocean, only a slim percentage of it’s rays would actually reach their little residence below the waves. The ocean was always still and cool, but more so in the earliest hours of the morning, before all of the boisterous sea-life had a chance to awaken from their temporary torpor.

“Uh... Just a little... Swim.”

“A little swim.” Seasmoke repeated, raising an eyebrow. “It’s four in the morning.”

“Yeah... Couldn’t sleep.”

“Uh huh.” Seasmoke swam a little closer. “You’ve been leaving early the past few weeks, haven’t you?”

Flowing was blushing almost instantly. She was never a good liar, and even if she was, she’d been friends with Seasmoke for long enough that she could’ve seen right through her attempts even if she had been.

“Thought I was being sneaky...”

Seasmoke laughed. “Not sneaky enough. C’mon, where you headed, Flow?”

Flowing was silent for a moment, staring back at Seasmoke, biting her lip as she thought over her situation.Truthfully, she really didn’t want to keep her lie up any longer. It’d been simple when she’d said she was going off to ‘do some soul-searching’. It was vague enough that nobody would’ve doubted it of the mischievous but introspective seapony they knew Flowing to be. Yet her frequent visits to Herring Harbour required more discretion, considering their frequency and pattern.

Still, it wasn’t fun keeping a secret from her best-friend.

“...Promise you won’t tell anyone?”

“If you killed someone and you’re going to hide their body I might have to tell someone, Flowing.”

“Pfft. Tattle-tail.” Flowing chuckled. “No, nothing like that. It’s, er. A stallion.”

“Oooooh!” Seasmoke cooed out excitedly. She was grinning ear to ear in a moment, which only caused Flowing’s blush to deepen. “I knew it! Flowing, that’s great news! Why are you being secretive about that?”

“...Well, because...” Flowing started, and then went quiet for a moment. She looked around. It was too early yet for anyfish to be swimming around much--most of the lights of Seaquestria herself were still extinguished, but she checked anyways. The last thing she needed was Queen Novo putting a stop to her little earthbound expeditions because of some nosy neighbour. She swam a little closer to Seasmoke, nodding her head towards the inside of their sand-dune home. “Come on. Let’s talk inside.”

Flowing and Seasmoke’s sand-dune home wasn’t really huge, but it was home. It was comfy. Seashell artwork and seaweed paintings lined much of the walls of the small four-room structure. Most of the furniture was Seasmoke’s, too, since Flowing had never really had much of an affinity for home décor.

“Okay, miss secretive. What’s going on?” Seasmoke tilted her head thoughtfully.

“The stallion I’m seeing... He’s, er. An earth pony.”

“A... He’s a what.”

“An earth pony. From Equestria. Remember when I said I was going for a few days to do some ‘soul-searching?’ Well... Yeah. I found something alright.”

“Flowing, how the siren-song did you swing that?” Seasmoke didn’t seem upset, thankfully. Simply bewildered and intrigued. Flowing nearly sighed out in relief.

“It’s... A long story. He, uh. He kinda...” Flowing’s blush returned with a vengeance, and she nearly hid behind a fin. “...Caught me.”

“You’re joking. You are joking right now, right?” Seasmoke was gawking. Then, when she saw Flowing shake her head slowly, she burst out into laughter. “Flowing, you dork! I swear you never look up. Ever.”

Flowing chuckled, too. “’member when that shark was chasing us over by Adagio Reef?”

‘“What shark? What shark, girls? Girls?!”’ Seasmoke trilled out in a cruel and humorous imitation of Flowing’s voice. “Almost got yourself eaten cause you couldn’t be bothered to look up.”

Flowing rolled her eyes. “I also remember distracting the fella so your slow ass could get away, but go off.”

“Okay, okay. Touche.” Seasmoke said, smirking. “So. You got yourself caught? Like, with a fishing rod?”

“In a net. I’m chasin’ this big school of tasty mackerel, right? And then all of a sudden, bam! Hit in the flank by a net. I’m ready to throw fins at the first fella I see as soon as he pulls me up, and then the first thing I see ends up being... Well, Sea... He’s a total knockout. I’m serious. Like, even by pony standards, he’s somethin’.”

Seasmoke’s smirk grew wider, as she settled back to listen, not interrupting Flowing.

“He’s all apologies and ‘gee missus’, and I tell him not to worry about it. And then he gets me outta the net—cause, well. I thrashed it up pretty bad tryin’ to get out. And he brings me some lemonade and a sandwich, we get to talking, and he’s such a dreamboat, Seasmoke, gahhh...”

Seasmoke snickered. “Well. Flowing, I’m... A little surprised to hear this, considering... Well, y’know why.”

“Yeah, yeah, the ‘land-dweller taboo’, I know.” Flowing let out a dramatic sigh.

“Hey, I ain’t sayin’ I agree with it. And I’m not too surprised, just a little. If anyfish was gonna break the rules, it’d be you.”

“Me?” Flowing put a fin to her chest. “Whatever do you mean?”

“Y’know darn well what I mean,” she replied, swatting at Flowing with her tail. “So... That’s where you’re going? To meet this mysterious earth pony?”

“He’s really not all that mysterious. But he’s so nice, and he seems like he’s this meek, shy fella, but those earth ponies are built like tanks.”

“...And...” Seasmoke waggled an eyebrow teasingly. An unspoken question laying there, and while Flowing knew exactly what it was, she needed to hear it out of her friend’s mouth all the same.

“And?”

“And is true what they say about earth ponies? Y’know, about their... Well...” Another waggle of Seasmoke’s eyebrows.

“Dicks?” Flowing got tired of their little vocabulary-dance quickly.

Seasmoke was taken by surprise, sputtering out a few stuttered exclamations. “Fishsticks, Flowing! Yes, dicks!”

“Like a leviathan between his legs. It felt... Well, heavenly is an understatement.”

“Really? That big?”

“It’s not even just the size--that’s honestly pretty close to what our guys’ve got. Maybe a bit bigger. But it’s more the shape. They ain’t sleek like our fellas. They’re... Well, there’s a big kinda... Bulb lookin’ thing at the end. It’s a bit of a trial getting' it in, but once it’s there it feels like the whole damn thing is fillin’ ya up. And then there’s another kinda... Ring, at the far end. And when you feel that, y’know he’s getting' real excited, cause he’s practically all the way inside of you by then.”

“Wow.” Seasmoke seemed a little at a loss for words, but not out of disinterest. Flowing had to chuckle--of all the things to pique her friend’s interest, the sexual tendencies of earth-dwellers hadn’t been one she’d been expecting. “And... Stamina? I hear those earth ponies are pretty hard to satisfy.”

“I usually get Starry goin’ with a bit of foreplay. Y’know, tease him, get him all excited...” Flowing admitted, a little guility. “And then, when it comes time to, well. Get to it...”

“I see now why you were skipping out so early.” Seasmoke was visibly fighting back laughter. “You’re one twisted fish, y’know that, Flowing?”

Flowing snort-laughed. “Hey, rude! Besides, you asked!”

Seasmoke shared the laugh. “Guess I did.”

“But yes, the sex is great. He can be such a tender lover, too. Some nights we just cuddle in the sands, or sunbathe on the deck of his ship... He shows me all the stars, and the shapes they make, and we share stories about our adventures at sea. He makes me feel really happy, Seasmoke.”

Seasmoke smiled warmly. “Well. I’d like to meet him one day. I’m happy for you, Flowing. But... Well...”

“But the taboo. Queen Novo’s orders. I know...” Flowing sighed. “Y’know, it’s funny. I was kinda hoping you’d catch me, in the back of my head. So that I could tell somepony. It’s not fun having to chose my love and the safety of my people...”

“Yeah, that’s... Kind of a big thing.”

Flowing’s gaze sunk. Her forefins intertwined, while her tail fin and pectoral fins stopped idly churning the water to keep her afloat, her belly resting down against the sand-stone floor.

“I’m not saying not to go see him, by the way. If you were just skipping to go get yourself rutted by some fisherpony, okay, yeah. I might be a bit inclined to stop ya. But you say it’s not about that?”

“It’s a nice bonus. It’s nice. I like it. But I like... Him, more. And spending time with him. And I wanna keep doing that. I wouldn’t want to have sex with him if I didn’t want to share my life with him as is.”

“Okay. Then it’s not really my place to keep you from doing that.”

“But I’m putting everyone in danger. What if... What if they find out? Queen Novo? Or the Storm King? Or...”

“Yeah. But Flowing, remember... We never asked for any of this, right? We didn’t do anything wrong. We aren’t hippogriffs. We’re not their prisoners. The taboo is there, yeah. But it’s a taboo. It’s not law.”

“I guess...”

Seasmoke swam a bit closer. Flowing’s gaze was still angled towards the sandstone floor, but she glanced up at the sound and feel of her friend churning the water to come closer. Her smile was warm and supportive, and soon enough Flowing found herself mirroring it.

“Just be careful, gal. I’m happy you found your fella. So, remember... We can’t help anyone if we’re not ready to help ourselves, yeah?”

Flowing gave a little nod, looking back to her friend with a growing contentment. It was funny to think of all those tense nights she’d tried to swim out of their house and away from Seaquestria as silently and discretely as possible, only for it all to culminate in such a calm and encouraging conversation.

“Thank you.”

“I gotcha, Flow.”

4 - Tempest, Meet Ship

~~~

Flowing didn’t have a lot of time to waste, but thankfully the first step of her wild plan was the easiest one for her to pull off.

She grabbed Star Point in both of her fins and held him tightly, letting her fins weave into his mane and bring his snout close to hers. Then, she locked her lips around his own and delivered a messy, sloppy kiss that she did not break.

His eyes went wide with surprise, for but a moment, before he seemed to clue in to her intentions. The poor stallion’s heart was racing still... She could feel it as she held him close to her, their bodies against eachother, and she began to churn the water vigorously with her tailfin. She kept the kiss going and her eyes locked on him, doing her best to ebb and flow the passage of oxygen from her internal reservoirs into his own lungs.

The whole while, she was working diligently, though a little bit limited as she had to work with a stallion in her grip. She spun them around in a dizzing piroutte, her tail swishing the water round and around and around, forcing it together as though she were molding it like clay. Round and around she spun, letting the current travel with her whilst using her tail and fins to push the currents together in the vague shape of an orb. The water eventually took a visible, tangible form--a spinning orb of water which she quickly began to strengthen, enhance, give volume to...

Then, it was a bubble. A magical, current-produced bubble, but a bubble all the same. Quickly, she floated it around Star Point’s head and released it, praying to the Three Sirens it held form....

She broke their kiss, tentatively. She didn’t dare break her gaze into Star Point’s eyes. He was shocked, for a brief moment, before his mind caught up to him and he realized he could breathe.

“Aha! It worked!” Flowing hollered out triumphantly, after Star took a few testing breaths from the air bubble and gazed back at Flowing, bewildered. “Seapony magic, baby!”

“W-what? How...”

“Magic. I’ll explain later. You okay? You hurt?”

“Hurt? Flowing, you saved my gods damned life!”

“Yeah, well, you lying for me saved mine.” Flowing shot back. “I’d kiss you but I don’t wanna break the bubble.

Besides... They had bigger concerns. Above them, the sunlight suddenly got dimmer, and a quick look up confirmed why.

“Shoot. We gotta go,” Flowing grabbed Star’s hoof without further explanation and quickly began swimming away as swiftly as she could from the hull of the fishing boat quickly sinking above them.

She swam as fast as she could, but even so she was just able to dodge the mast of the trawler, flinging Star Point forwards first so that he was out of harm’s way in front of her. She was in her element, after all; she could afford to be more risky with her movements.

Quickly, she swept them away from the sinking trawler, a guilty pain in her chest as she glanced back to watch it vanishing down. She swam quickly without a direction in mind. Away, that was all that mattered. She had to get away from the airship circling around the wreckage of the ship, waiting for the two of them to surface. All she could do was hope they hadn’t been accounting for her little smooching solution--which, she would be quite surprised if they had been.

She swam as fast and as far as she could, but eventually she could see that the integrity of her Flow Magic bubble was beginning to waver. Not wanting her coltfriend to have to even spend a moment in danger, she gripped him tight and started towards the surface. She hesitated near the top, squinting as she tried to spot the airship through the uneven rippling of the waves.

As stealthily as she could manage, she poked her head up from the waves. She scanned the horizon quickly, and was delighted to see that they’d managed to put a good several hundred meters between them and the airship. She knew she was a fast swimmer, but wow!

She motioned with a fin for Star Point to surface, too, and the timing couldn’t have been better--his bubble burst the moment he did, only to take a shaky, panicked breath from the open air for the first time in what had surely felt like an eternity for the poor stallion.

“Alright, c’mon up, but stay down...” Flowing whispered out.

“We’re fine... We’re fine...” he was panting out. “That was... That was pretty clever, Flowing.”

“Like I needed a reason to smooch ya,” she returned. “I’m... Buck me, I’m sorry about your boat, Star...”

“We’ll worry about it later,” he said, and waved a fin--only to nearly drop down into the water as he did so. She was by him in a moment, using her left fore-fin to keep him up while she churned the water with her tail.

“We should put some distance, still. They’ll be doing perimeter sweeps as soon as I don’t come back up. They’d have assumed I drowned already.”

Flowing nodded. “Right. Climb aboard, Starry. Deep breaths when I surface, cause I’m gonna try and stay underwater as much as I can so we don’t get spotted. Just give my angler light a tug if you need a breath, okay?”

“Alright, Flow. Let’s go.”

Flowing let him grip his hooves around her neck, and then she set out as quickly as her fins would take her. She didn’t know these parts of the ocean particularly well, but she did know the ocean in general. She looked for clouds, and birds, and when she spotted both to the east, she started to swim her way there. She swam in a rhythmic pattern--under the waves, jetting forwards with her tail churning the water violently. Then, surfacing, letting Star Point catch his breath for a few seconds. Then, down again. It didn’t take long for the two of them to familiarize each other with their rhythms, and despite Flowing’s offer, Star Point never actually did end up tugging on her angler light.

She owed at least some extent of it to her own paranoia. The more she swam, the more her situation began to crystallize. They couldn’t exactly talk, which meant her mind had nowhere to go to besides the repeated visual of her coltfriend’s fishing trawler, his pride and joy, sadly descending down into the depths of the ocean. She could tell herself it wasn’t her fault till the sea-cows came home, but it wouldn’t get the visual out of her head. And... She could say she was sorry all the wanted, and Star Point would inevitably tell her it was fine, it was okay...

But was it?

Eventually, they were out of the tangible eye-line of the airship. When they were, Flowing surfaced proper, much to Star Point’s apparent relief.

“H-how you doing, hon?” Flowing waited a few moments before she spoke up.

“I’m... Goodness gracious...” Star let out a lengthy exhale. “Phew. I’m okay, Flowing. Nice swimming there.”

“I think we lost their tail, for now,” Flowing said. “And I think there’s an island ahead. Land, anyways. Dunno what. But we can maybe rest there...”

“Righto. Sounds like a plan.”

“Star, I’m so sorry about your ship. I didn’t mean to cause--”

“You weren’t the one who sunk it, Flowing. This whole escape adventure is gonna go a lot better if you stop blaming yourself for things you have no control over.”

“But that ship was your life! It was everything! It was where we first met!”

“And... Yeah, I ain’t gonna lie and say it doesn’t suck...” Star admitted, idly swatting at the water with a hoof. “But it’s not what’s important right now. Island, you said?”

She sighed, but nodded. “Think so. See all the clouds that way? Usually they gather around land, right? For some reason?” She didn't actually know why, just that it happened.

“Usually, and it’s because the sun heats up the land and the rocks which causes water to ascend as vapour easier.”

Flowing hummed thoughtfully. “Smarty pants.”

Star chuckled. “Like you say, it’s usually how it goes. All my maps are at the bottom of the damn ocean, so I couldn’t really tell you for sure that there’s an island, but... Best we’ve got to go off right now, right?”

“Guess I’m the one savin’ you, now...” Flowing said, forcing out a chuckle. The moment it left her lips she regretted it, for the additional pain of guilt it gave her. Seaponies were supposed to help. How had she helped Star Point? Putting him in danger, losing his ship, getting the gods damned Storm King on their tail?

Star Point laughed, though. If he was offended, or if he saw Flowing for the annoyance she felt like, he didn’t say so. “Onwards, trusty steed.”

~~~

Tempest Shadow watched from the deck of the Thespis until the last of the fishing trawler had been reclaimed by the ocean. She also watched the pitifully flailing form of the earth pony stallion, as his hooves desperately beat at the waves.

It wasn’t a pretty sight. It didn’t particularly fill Tempest with pride or joy watching it, but such was the cost of doing business when one’s business rested in the realms of lawlessness.

When he finally dropped under the waves, after less time than she would have assumed of him, she rolled her eyes and signalled to her crew with a hoof.

“Bring ‘er around, scoop up the stallion before he drowns. Guess his fish really did leave him for the sharks.”

The pitch of the idling airship’s propellers responded to her order. Her guards were waiting off the side of the skiff with nets ready to be thrown, but as they got closer and closer to where the ship had sunk Tempest came to an alarming realization.

He hadn’t just gone under, like she’d have expected a drowning pony to. He had dove down.

But doing such would surely be suicide. There was nothing down there... There would be no hope of rescue below the waves, even if his fish had come to provide it...

...Right?

She cursed, beneath her breath. Beside her, balanced off the railing and peering into the same deep waters as her, Grubber stated the obvious. “I’m not seein’ him, Tempy...”

“He has to be down there. He’ll resurface any moment...”

She continued staring. But no, he did not resurface, even after several minutes. Either the stallion was really good at holding his breath, or...

She cursed again. She gripped her spyglass in a hoof and quickly brought it to her left eye. Grubber was already scanning the waters, so she turned it to the horizon, instead...

Nothing, nothing, nothing...

“Damn it...” This was bad. But, it was manageable. Just because she didn’t see the seapony now didn’t mean she couldn’t reasonably assume where she was going. Heaving a sigh, she started back towards the flight deck, already raising her voice to bark more orders as she did. “Alright crew, new plan! Flight positions, everyone! Our catch hasn’t gotten away yet.”

She trotted to the flight-deck, to where the maps of the Celestial Sea still lay sprawled across the table bolted down in the middle of the room. There were islands scattered all about the Celestial Sea’s coastlines, but not many as far out as they now currently lay. The only landmasses of note were small atolls and archipelagos, most of which likely wouldn’t even be depicted on her maps to begin with. At best, she had a vague direction--with the earth pony in tow, the seapony wasn’t going to simply dump him off stranded at some atoll and swim to safety. No, she’d be burdened with bringing him to safety, now, which would mean bringing him to either the coast of Equestria or the coast of Griffonstone.

And that’s where she’d catch them. Both of them. She’d let them assume they’d lost their lead. She’d allow them to get confident putting themselves along a path of efficient escape. And when they did...

Well. Even at her fastest, Tempest very much doubted the seapony could out-swim the Thespis.

~~~

It wasn’t that Star Point distrusted Flowing, but gods it was nice to get his hooves onto solid ground again.

Flowing had been right--there was land where she had been expecting it, though it wasn’t really much to write home about. A small little rocky archipelago, in the middle of Celestia knew where, with the Storm King’s airship only a few hours of swimming away, wasn’t exactly a major leap towards salvation.

Still, it was something. And, given the way Flowing herself flopped right down beside him, it was something sorely needed right now.

“Phew!” she exclaimed dramatically, collapsing into the sand with such intensity that her tail fin was already half buried in it. “Adagio’s dazzle, I don’t think I’ve ever swam that far that fast in my life.”

Star Point gave her a sympathetic pat on her withers. “You did amazing, dear. Rest up while you can.”

She mumbled out some incoherent agreement, nestling her snout into the sand, her chest rising and falling rapidly. “Everything hurts. Shoo be do me in, Star Point. I’m finished.”

Star Point let out a snorting laugh. “Kay. Now you’re just being dramatic.”

He let her lie there while he himself rose to his hooves after only a few moments laying down. He was in quite the opposite boat as her. Much as he loved riding his marefriend, he could think of better contexts through which to do so.

The archipelago seemed to be mostly rock and sand, with a steady incline on the particular island that they’d shored upon. A jagged, craggy cliff-face about eighty feet up lay at the centre of the miniature island. It seemed the best vantage point they had, and the best place to be while Flowing recovered from her lengthy swim.

“I’m gonna take a look around and see if I can find anypony here, okay? You rest up, and holler if you see anything.”

“Okay...” Flowing said, nodding. “Where are we going to go, Star?”

“If there’s ponies here, you can leave me and just go. Bee-line for the shore and stay underwater. I can find my own way back, and we can... I dunno, meet up when this all blows over?”

“Star...” Flowing started, and then let out a lengthy sigh. “W-what if it doesn’t blow over?”

“It will.”

“But what if--”

He knelt down, gripped her fin in his hoof, tightly and firmly. “It will. And if it doesn’t, I’ll go to Tartarus with you if it’s the only place we can be together.”

“I’ve cost you your boat. I’ve put you in danger. I’ve put Seaquestria in danger, and Herring Harbor, and... Buck, you might as well add Equestria to the list really, if you think about it, because if the Storm King gets a hold of the Pearl then...”

“Flowing.” The firmness of Star’s voice silenced her in a moment. “It’s going to be okay. You didn’t do anything wrong. The ponies chasing you are to blame.”

“I should’ve stayed away. I should’ve just... Stayed in Seaquestria, minded my own business. I never should have left.”

“Well, you did. We met. We fell in love. Do you regret it? I know I don’t. I’d trade my trawler a thousand times over before I gave you up. Do you regret our meeting?”

“Not for a moment, but...”

“But nothing. That’s it. That’s the end of the story. We’re together. We’re partners. And your problems are my problems.” He released her fin only when her trembling ceased and she finally worked up the courage to look him in the eyes. The fear was still there, but it had faded enough that Star could see some of the old energy in her eyes somewhere, buried somewhere beneath her wariness and guilt. “I’m gonna go look for signs of life. If I see any, we can see if they can help me back to shore. ”

“And if there’s nopony? Can’t leave you stranded here.”

“No, I guess not. But one thing at a time.” He gave her a gentle kiss on her lips. “Mwah. You rest up, dear I’ll go look around.”

“Okay...” Flowing said again. Her gaze fell once more.

It tugged at Star’s heart, the way she said it. The way she’d been talking, ever since this whole ugly business had begun. Like she wasn’t a victim in this. Like she’d chosen to be pursued across the seas simply for pursuing her desires. Like it was all her fault for being the target of some tyrannical dictator...

He’d done the best he could and said what he could say. He hoped it would be enough. They just had to get free, get to Equestria or to Griffonstone--whichever was closest. He wasn’t picky, now.

A chill wind bit at his sea-soaked form. The rocks were slick and slippery, soaked wet and smoothed down by the constant passing of the waves. He had to take care not to slip as he made his way towards where the tiny little island widened out and rose upwards. A single glance back at Flowing showed the seapony laying down on the rocks, still breathing heavily, but giving him a weary little wave of her fin before turning her attention back to anxiously scanning the distant horizons they’d come from.

He managed to climb up the rock face whilst only slipping once or twice, and when he made it to the top he gasped in awe at the sight before him.

For a moment, the direness of his situation vanished. The sorrow of losing his trawler... And the pain at seeing the guilt in his lovers eyes, it all became a little bit more distant when he stood at the top of that rocky ridge, with the entirety of the lonely blue ocean sprawled around him on all sides. Somehow, looking over it all, he knew that it was going to be okay. It all was.... How couldn’t it be? It was him and Flowing against the enormous expanse of the sea, sure... But hadn’t that been how it had always been, as of late?

Perhaps not. A few months ago, it’d just been him against it all. Now, though... His mind flashed back to the confrontation he’d had with Tempest Shadow, on the deck of his ship. How unflinching he’d been, in his refusal to give up Flowing. He’d never thought himself brave, or confident. He’d been the pony that sat in the corner of the bar during those noisy drunken nights in Herring Harbour, nursing his drink and watching the affairs of others with a passive smile. Never unhappy, but never at the forefront. To him, this represented a certain degree of socially acceptable cowardice. And the way he lived a life out at sea, because he’d rather the company of gulls and gills than ponies? Further proof. He was a coward.

So, he had surprised himself, when he’d looked into the face of a tyrant and told her off. It was an exhilarating surprise, too, because if there was one thing he felt safe being brave for, it was the love in his heart.

Sighing and chuckling to himself, he shook his head and looked back at the archipelago. Here he was. Getting all sentimental, when there was work to be done.

He didn’t have to look far to see signs of life, either. On the far corner of the archipelago rose an old, battered, and apparently abandoned lighthouse. Erected no doubt to steer ships away from the little isle of rocks that dotted this random portion of ocean otherwise surrounded entirely by nothingness.

“Flowing!” Star called back down to her. “Lighthouse! Far side of the archipelago!”

“What? Seriously?” she called back. “How’d I miss that?”

‘Same way you missed the fishing trawler above you when you swam into my net,’ Star almost said, but decided against bullying his marefriend when she was already under so much stress. “It looks abandoned, but... Wanna go check it out?”

“Yeah, of course. See anything else up there?” Flowing asked, shuffling off her back and propping herself up on the rocks so she could holler better.

Star Point looked around. Rocks. Sea. Lighthouse.

“Nope. Just the lighthouse. But...” he squinted his eyes, looking not at the island but instead at the horizon, where he could see that, in the time they’d been swimming, the clouds had begun to thicken and darken and spread. A glimpse at the sun now on it’s descent in the sky told him that a storm was rolling in from the east, threatening to blot out the late-afternoon sky.

“Think a storm’s rolling in.” He cursed under his breath, starting to make his way back down the rocks towards Flowing. “That ain’t good.”

“Storm might make swimming with you hard...” Flowing agreed. “But... Can airships fly in storms?”

“Not very well. You good to swim again?” He nodded in the direction of the lighthouse. “I can swim beside you if it helps. Just not super fast...”

Flowing chuckled. “It’s fine, Starry. Climb on. I’m feeling a bit better.”

“If you’re sure...”

Flowing flopped her way over to the edge of the rock and slid back into the waves. Star climbed in after her, wincing a bit as the near-frozen water touched upon his skin. Flowing seemed to have noticed, because she flashed him an apologetic look and didn’t say anything.

He mounted her, and she started to swim around the side of the archipelago. She was swimming a little slower than what he was used to from her, and a little glimpse at her form in motion showed him why. The poor seapony was very clearly exhausted from her gauntlet, despite her assurances otherwise.

As the lighthouse came into view from around the rock-face, the wind carried a distant thunder’s rumble with it.

“Hey Flowing...” Star leaned in close to her ear while she swam. “Maybe we oughta rest up in the lighthouse. If it’s abandoned, that is. Wait out the storm.”

She gave a nod. “Okay. I... Am a bit worried I’d lose you if you got swept off my back. The storms can get pretty nasty around this time of year.”

“I know.”

Gods, did he know. He wished it’d been rare, how many times his trawler had nearly bought the farm at the wrath of some of the violent waves her bow had charged through.

“It’ll give you a chance to rest, too,” he added. “Must not be easy swimming that fast with my fat ass in tow.”

She laughed. “Maybe we both oughta lay off the fish ‘n chips for awhile?”

Star grinned. “Well, not until after I get you the biggest french fry feast when we make it out of this.”

When. When. Not if.

The laugh that came from Flowing was music to his ears. He’d chip away at that frightened mood of hers, little by little.

They came upon the lighthouse, which Star could quickly tell had fallen out of regular use. Likely it was seasonal, occupied when there was more tourist traffic in the Celestial Sea. It could have been enchanted, too... He’d heard tell of such technology in southern Equestria, and could scarcely believe it when it’d been told to him. Lighthouses enchanted to glow at the first trace of moonlight, without the need for somepony to manually operate them.

Regardless, there didn’t seem to be anypony home. A rickety metal stairwell had been fixed onto the rock face ascending up to the lighthouse. Flowing swam them in close and let Star climb up, and then he leaned down to help her onto his back.

They made their way up the stairs, and to the lighthouse proper, which loomed above them. A few more rumbles of thunder sounded out, and Star could hear a faint shifting in the breeze as the wind picked up.

“Anypony home?” Star called out as they trotted up.

“Hello?” Flowing added. “Any creepy lighthouse keepers, bouta come attack us with a sledgehammer?”

Star snort-laughed. “Flow, that’s not very nice.”

There was a small little house--for the lighthouse keeper, no doubt--connected to the actual lighthouse itself. It couldn’t have been any bigger than four or five rooms, which, with the beauty of the sea all around them, made it seem immediately homey to Star Point.

Leaning against the old wood of the house and tied down so it would not blow away, Star also spotted a small but sturdy looking sailboat. He pointed it out to Flowing with a nod of his snout.

He tried the door, and found that it was unlocked. They usually were... It was fairly standard for mariners to leave sites of shelter available to use in case of emergency. The sea was a dangerous enough place as is.

Star called out again as they headed inside, Flowing hopping off his back once they were inside. She hopped her way inside, in the hobbling way she moved about when she was on land. More efficient than Star Point would have assumed, though it looked a bit tiring with how much she had to fling herself up and down using her tail.

Star closed the door behind them, just as another roll of thunder much louder than the rest sounded out. The storm would be on them in less than a quarter of an hour... Their timing couldn’t have been better.

“Phew. Alright... Well, we can hide out here until the storm blows over. Maybe until morning?” Star shrugged. “Gonna go look for some supplies. A map, to find out where we are. A compass. Stuff like that.”

“Sounds good. I’m gonna go look for something to eat,” Flowing said. “Not, like. That I wanna steal from sonepony, but...”

"But.. we haven’t had anything since that muffin this morning,” Star nodded. It’d been easy to forget, with how hectic their day had been. “Good idea. There’s probably some canned stuff in one of the kitchen cupboards.”

For the next few minutes, the two ransacked the lighthouse as delicately as they could. Star headed up to the very very top of the tower, where rain had started to patter down onto the glass dome roof and the sky immediately above them had shifted to a near constant dark grey.

He’d be surprised if Tempest wasn’t looking for somewhere to dock and wait out the storm on her end.

He hoped she didn’t find it.

He wasn’t one to wish ill on anypony, and that somehow still included the mare chasing him, but, well, the ocean’s weather did not discriminate. And the idea of any force of nature laying waste to the airship pursuing them was as comforting of one as he could think.

He started back down the stairs again, to go collect Flowing. The view of the storm rolling in from all around them was magnificent at the top of the lighthouse, with a full 360 degree elevated perspective before them.

It seemed the best place, to lay together and rekindle the fire that burned so brilliantly in his fishy marefriend’s spirit.

Amongst other things.

Interlude - A Burning Heat Atop a Lonely Lighthouse

Flowing had been through many a maritime storm, but she’d never seen one the way she did with Star, atop that lighthouse in the middle of nowhere.

As it turned out, the lighthouse had been a little more stocked than either of them had anticipated. A working propane stove and some freeze-dried tea-leaves combined to provide the two of them with a cup of steaming tea each, which they had taken to the top of the tower as the rain began to come down in violent torrents, dragging itself down the glass walls surrounding them.

The ocean suddenly became harder to see through the vicious shower. Her angler light replaced the role of the silent lighthouse, casting just enough light to keep the tired lines of Star Point’s handsome face visible to her. She leaned her head against his, and the two sat under an itchy old woolen blanket they’d pilfered from the lighthouse keeper’s bed cot.

“Y’know...” Star Point had mused out, one hoof on her back, and the other hooked around the handle of his mug. “Would you tease me if I said I... Kinda always wondered if I’d wind up on an adventure like this?”

Flowing chuckled. “Heh. The temptation is there, Starry, but I’d be a hypocrite. It’s certainly been... A thrilling few hours. That’s for certain.”

“I kinda like it.”

Flowing blinked, peering over at him. “You what?”

“Sorry, sorry! Not... Shoot, that sounds...” he drew his hoof from her back to face hoof. “Stupid, considering we’re in danger...”

“Honestly?” Flowing smirked. “I didn’t wanna be the first to say it. But yeah... It’s... Making me feel kinda like I’m in some cool story or something.”

“Heh, well. I fear I might not be the spitting image of a swashbuckling hero, fair maiden of the seas.”

“Yes, yes. And I, spitting image of the regality and majesty of the open waves.” Flowing did a faux-swoon.

“The pie-stealing, french-fry gobbling daughter of Neptune herself,” Star said it with utmost earnestness and, to his credit, almost, (almost!) managed not to crack a smile at the end. “You did amazing, by the way. Did I say that already?”

“You did.”

“Well, I’m saying it again. Saved my bloody life. Saved us both. Swam like a gods damned motorboat.Managed to look sweet and sexy while doing it all. I knew my marefriend was impressive, but gods...”

“Mmm...” she smiled warmly. She curled her tail around his body, pulling him tighter. “I knew my coltfriend was brave, but standing up to the Storm King’s army for little ol’ me?” She smiled a devious smile, enough that her incisors were visible. She rested a fin on his belly, and pulled herself so that she was ontop of him. “You rode me pretty well back there, too.”

“Not the best circumstance I’d want to do so.”

She laughed. “Maybe not. Maybe not...” Her fin fell a little lower. “But how about now?”

She saw Star Point gulp. His eyes were looking back up at her, all widened and flustered in that adorable way of his. He must have seen something beautiful there, against the backdrops of streaking rain and rumbling thunder, because he wrapped both of his hooves around her head and kissed her on the lips.

Their saliva kept them connected even as he drew his head back. “Now, Flowing?” He didn’t look offended, more... Confused.

She nodded. “Gonna be blunt with you, Starry. Y’know that sappy nonsense you told me on the beach? ‘bout protecting me, no matter what? The way you looked that evil mare right in the eye when you told her off?”

Star Point blushed, and nodded.

“It really turned me on to you. I’ve known all along that we were special. I can’t believe you’re still finding fresh ways to show me that.”

She laid herself down on top of him, nestled in close with the blanket over her scaly back. From her position laying above him, she could feel his sheath against her upper-tail, his member prodding out ever so slightly as it felt her own slit stroking against his lower body.

They couldn’t have asked for a better backdrop. The storm was still technically raging, of course. Somehow, that only made it better. It made it… tense. Thrilling. It reinforced the entire idea in Flowing’s head that it was the two of them against the ocean, the world at large. Atop the lighthouse, surrounded on all sides by the vast inky expanse of nothing, she felt utterly exposed but entirely protected.

She took a moment to simply lay there, with her tail-fin prodding out of the blanket and resting upon the cool glass of the lighthouse. Star Point let out an adorably gentle gasp, as the motion of Flowing’s muscles relaxing brought her sex closer to his own. A little twitch, and she could feel his hardening length against her scales. She closed her eyes peacefully and nudged her neck against his.

“Love you, Starry.”

She spoke it softly and lovingly into his ear, and the moment he felt her breath against the sensitive hairs within, his cock eased further out of his sheath, the tip gliding smoothly into her slit already in expectant position. They’d laid this way what seemed like a hundred times, on the beaches of Herring Harbour, yet this time it felt far more… thrilling, and exotic. Flowing figured it was the backdrop, the pattering of the rain, the strange surroundings enveloping them, the excitement and fear and adventure of the previous day…

If Flowing had had lower limbs besides her tail, she figured it probably might have been easier for her to have bounced herself upon Star’s cock. Yet she had her own ways, and she knew that once Star was at his full length, she wouldn’t have to do much showmanship to get his hard dick into her tight slit.

She rested her fins on either side of his upper shoulders, essentially pinning him to the lighthouse. The gesture alone eased his dick to nearly full-mast, but Flowing checked just to make sure he was on the same page mentally as he was physically.

Eyes half-closed. A loving, blissful smile, that grew when her eyes looked down upon him. A look of complete trust and belonging that they fuelled in each other…

She eased herself down onto him, letting out a ragged gasp, as his cock slid into her. He responded in kind with a pleasured sigh, letting his head rest on the floor of the lighthouse, while Flowing worked her magic. She curled both of her front fins around his neck, gently but firmly, and used them as leverage while she lifted herself up and then eased her tail back downwards again, driving his cock deeper and deeper into her with each thrust. It was a little awkward at first, but eventually she found a rhythm that worked for her and, judging by Star Point’s gasping breathing and occasional moans, she figured it was working for him, too.

Up and down, she took him a little deeper with each push. It always amazed her how, despite their interspecies differences, they seemed so made for each other, sexually speaking. Starry had told her (and she had seen herself, though she hadn’t been peaking!) where mares on land kept their genitals. It made sense, it seemed convenient, and if she had rear limbs she probably would’ve put her slit around the same area. She didn’t though…her own sex was located right on her tail’s underside, a thin, barely visible slit that, unless she was horny and it was winking like no tomorrow, most stallions probably wouldn’t have even paid much attention to.

She liked winking it for Star Point, though, sometimes. When he was watching her swim from the deck of his ship, she’d lay on her back just to taunt him. Or, when he was talking to his fisherpony allies on the dock, and she was juuuuust out of view of them but not him…

The point was, as she slide Star’s length into her, she felt like they’d been made for eachother. It’d be hard going back to fucking a seapony like her, unless they were really well endowed. Star Point claimed he wasn’t, but Flowing figured he was just being modest.

“Ahh, Flow…” Star sighed blissfully. A hoof touched her face, weaved against her headcrest, and then between her ears. His cock throbbed excitedly, she could feel it growing within her, and then she was drawing herself up, and then gliding back down again, making it as far as the medial ring around Star’s cock, which stopped her from gliding any further without a bit more effort.

She didn’t want to, quite yet. She was just easing him into things, and loosening herself up. Take it slow, both get excited, and above all else, enjoy the moment. Their hot, excited breathing had begun to fog up the panes of glass streaked wet with pouring rain. They admired each other’s beauty through the flaring flashes of distant lightning, the rumbling thunder never loud enough to drown out each other’s moans.

She gave his ear a little nip. Mischievous, devilish. Like a wild, untamed sea monster. It was a role Flowing fond herself… fond of playing. Moreso, when she realized the reaction Star would have to it.

Oh, sure. The sweethearted earth pony had been confused at first. It had taken some prodding from Flowing to get him to take on the more dominant role she wanted him to...

But when he did, it made for some of the most exhilarating sex of her life.

For an evening, she ceased being Flowing Sands, the bubbly, friendly, adventurous seapony. In their little scenario Star cultivated with lewd words whispered in her ear, she became a wild, devious Siren. A fiend of the seas, in need of control, of punishment, of a firm and strong stallion to tame her and put her in her place.

And gods, did she love it when Star took on that role. It was fulfilling enough to see her normally shy and meek partner ease seamlessly into that of a dominant one. She could tell Star found some comfort and relief in the extra bit of trust Flowing had given to him. Sure, he stopped every couple of minutes to sheepishly ask if some growled remark was ‘too far’ or if Flowing was 'still into it.’ And most of the time, she’d nibble on his ear, or pull him closer, and exclaim that ‘yes, silly, she was having the time of her life.’

Star smirked at the little ear nibble. His hooves wrapped around her tail, and pulled inwards, pulling Flowing up into his sex, spreading her slit open widely and suddenly. She gasped out, her breath fogging up the rain-soaked glass of the lighthouse. But Star did not let up. He kept gripping her tail, pulling her sex down onto his member.

Then, with both hooves still wrapped around her tail, he turned her over. With that earth pony strength of his, he did not even miss a beat. He twisted her body around, laying her flat on the floor of the lighthouse with his length still deep inside of her.

“Ready, love?” he cooed out, stroking her headcrest again. Playfully prodding at her angler light, which seemed to be growing brighter as her excitement grew.

“Sirens yes. Take me, Starry.”

He smirked, and then began to buck his hips. Starting slowly, a pushing his length deep into her, but pulling out after a few inches. And again... A few inches in, and then drawing out, a little deeper but still taking his sweet time spreading her sex open. On and on this continued, Flowing filling the silence with her excited gasps, both as he thrust into her, and while she waited with bated breath. He was taking his time, savouring the sounds of her uneasy breathing, bracing and waiting and desiring the warm feeling of his throbbing shaft inside of her.

Finally, she felt the prodding of his menial ring on her sex. It lingered there, pushing against it without entering... and then slowly, Star eased it back out. She felt the head of his cock leave her slit, a gasping breath leaving her as she felt his warmth vanish.

Seconds passed. She waited, biting a lip, staring up at her stallion, while he looked back down at her, gently stroking her headcrest. Staring into her eyes. He leaned down, and locked his lips around her, and as he did, he pushed his length back inside of her, deeper and deeper, pushing it up to the menial ring and sliding it smoothly into her slit in one complete thrust, the whole while continuing to share his air supply with Flowing.

She moaned into his kiss. Her slit clenched around his length, hugging it tightly, keeping it inside of her. He continued kissing her for several more seconds, and then steadily began to rut her once more.

The abandoned lighthouse was occupied by the sounds of the two lover’s moans and gasps and loving uttering’s of eachother’s names.

Star bucked his hips in a steady rhythm, driving his shaft deep into Flowing’s slit. As tight a fit as it was, it felt heavenly to Star, the way her excited pussy gripped around his length. She was wet, too...he could feel her dampness, and hear the wet squelching sounds as he bucked her, planting both of his hooves down on either side of her arms to keep her pinned down on the lighthouse floor as he did.

Flowing had a blissful smile on her face. Her eyes were glazed over in ecstacy, never leaving Star’s own, taking in every line of his handsome face even as he panted and gasped and drove himself closer and closer to climax with each powerful buck.

He leaned in to kiss her again.

“I’m close, dear...” he whispered into her ear, biting against that fishhook earring of hers and tugging it ever so slightly.

He pulled out of her. She looked back at him down the line of her own chest, biting her lip, a desperate little gasp leaving her as she looked at Star's dripping sex.

“I think my sweet little catch deserves a treat," he cooed out. She nodded her head a few times, causing him to smirk as he rose and sauntered closer to her half-open maw.

Outside of them, the storm raged and thundered and the rain fell in vicious torrents, unnoticed through the burning heat within the lighthouse itself.

5 - Wind, Meet Sail

~~~

When the first spatters of rain had begun to streak down the glass window of the airship bridge, Tempest hadn’t been overly concerned.

Yet, when the conditions only worsened and worsened, and they began having to actively course correct against the battering winds of a sudden and violent oceanic tempest, it was clear that they had flown into a bit of a problem.

They were still far over the Celestial Sea, and even though they’d put some distance from where they’d engaged the trawler, they were nowhere close to any discernible landmass. She did not necessarily wish to order the ship above the storm, but when the first rumbles of thunder began to echo across the lonely sea, her options ran thin. It wasn’t like they had any help out here, and to sustain significant damage in the midst of the ocean could be disastrous.

And so, to a symphony of rumbles and a brilliant display of lightning flooding through the airship control room, they began their ascent.

“Dang...” Grubber was musing beside her, as a particularly large strike of lightning hit down at some point off their starboard bow, some hundred meters away. The resounding thunder roll was noisy enough to still be loud even over the whine of airship engines all around them. “Did you see that one, Tempy?”

She ignored him, which seemed to disappoint him enough that he shook his head and hopped off, out of the bridge, probably to go scour the mess for some junk to stuff his little face in.

The nose of the airship was tilting up, towards the sky that one might be tricked into thinking was night. Tempest found herself amazed at the swiftness with which the storm had descended upon them. A calling card of maritime uncertainty, she supposed. It was why she preferred inland flying.

The entire airship was battered about by the winds beating against the balloon and the gondola. It was enough to make a few of the guards about her lose their footing and have to grip onto something for support. The speed of their ascent certainly didn’t help matters, but with how close the lightning strikes were coming down around them, they didn’t really have another option.

As if on cue, a bolt of lightning struck down close enough that it seemed right before them. The flash was blinding, and it lingered for several seconds, with the ensuing thunder clap instantaneous. The running lights of the ship flickered from the electrical interference.

Behind them, the sound of the airship’s engines was beginning to strain as it fought against the winds swirling in every direction around them. Tempest had taken the steering yoke of the skiff herself, and she had to actively fight with it to keep their direction true.

Quickly, she was beginning to realize that their ‘problem’ might have been becoming more and not less urgent.

She’d been greedy. She’d assumed that they could simply truck through the worse of the storm and maintain their destination, closing the distance between them and their potential catch while they still could. To rise above the clouds and wait out the storm was... Counterproductive. The ascent alone would take time, and the descent as much time, otherwise they would risk overheating the engines with the rapid changes in air pressure associated with sharp rises and falls.

It was all to say... Tempest was quickly worrying she’d flown them too close to the proverbial sun. Another violent bolt of lightning struck down close enough that she glanced out the side at the balloon, as the ship shuddered and groaned when the thunder roll shook through them.

“Did it hit?!” she barked out, bracing for bad news.

A shake of the guard’s head... a wordless denial. For now.

The heat indicator for the engines was violently high, but Tempest ramped them up all the same. The dials shifted into the red, warning of an overload at the rate she was pushing them. It didn’t matter, they just needed to get up, while they still could, before it was too late and they were—

The lights of the airship died again as a stray bolt of lightning struck the balloon above them. Tempest didn’t need visual confirmation to know that it had hit. The violent shivering of the entire skiff told her that, as well as the ensuing drop in altitude that accompanied a violent discharge of their lift gas being expelled and wrenched away by the swirling winds.

“Damn it!” she growled out. The lights flickered back on after a few moments, and she fought with the yoke some more to try and restore their rise. The altometer began to ease up again, indicating progress, thank goodness.

It was shortlived, though. Another bolt hit the balloon, as though the gods themselves had seen fit to punish her vain pursuit for her seapony catch.

And then, they were falling. One of the guards had already thrown the master alarm, it’s piercing sound flooding through the entire ship. Everyone held onto something, as the view of the stormclouds above them quickly changed to that of the ocean below.

They, thankfully, were not divebombing. She was able to stabilize them back to a steady altitude, but it was falling. And... Their lift gas reserves were falling, too. Without something to repair the no-doubt smouldering hole in their balloon the lightning bolt had caused, they wouldn’t be able to rise.

They had to ditch. The skiff was no stranger to landing upon the waves—indeed, the skiff itself had been designed to function without the balloon at all, which could be independently detached from the gondola portion in case of emergency.

In case of now.

Tempest and her flight crew brought the ship down into the waves as delicately as they could manage, but the waves were hardly a calm surface that allowed for comfortable landing.

They were riding the wave’s roller-coaster, now. The only option they had was to hold on to something and hope the merciless sea would calm sooner than later.

~~~

The storm raged on until the early hours of the morning. Flowing and Star rarely disconnected from each-other. Instead, they stayed cuddling beneath the itchy-yet-warm blanket they’d borrowed from the lighthouse. Flowing hoped the lighthouse keeper didn’t mind the distinct smell of wet seapony.

When the rain began to taper away from pouring to drizzling, Star had gently stirred her from her slumber by stroking his hoof against her frilled headcrest.

“It’s clearin’ up, love,” he said, nodding his head out the window. “We should probably get moving soon.”

She nodded slowly, stretching her swimming fins with a mighty yawn. “Mmhm...”

“Alrighty, sleepy fish...” Star chuckled, leaning down to help her onto his back. “Gonna be good to swim for a bit?”

“Yeah, I’ll be fine,” she said. The rest, brief as it had been, had done wonders in helping her swimming muscles recover from yesterday’s journey. “Where we gonna go, Starry?”

“Well. After you dozed off, I looked at the map a bit. I think we’re closer to the Griffon Empire than Equestria.”

“Does the map show the ocean currents?”

Star tilted his head. He opened the map he’d stowed by their blanket up again. “The what?”

“The ocean currents. Where the water flows faster. We seaponies ride ‘em all the time. Lemme...” Flowing leaned over his head to look herself. “Yeah, it doesn’t. But that’s okay, I know where they are. And if we're where I think we are, it'd be easier to ride 'em to the Griffons than go against 'em.”

"So, Griffon Empire?"

"Griffon Empire! Let's go make some bird friends!"

Flowing and Star helped themselves to some canned fruit for breakfast, and then they both ventured outside, where the rain was a soft drizzle and the sun had yet to really rise over the horizon, although the sky had begun to lighten ever so slightly, with its incoming promise.

“How about the boat?” Flowing asked, pointing a fin at the sailboat leaning against the lighthouse. “Y’think we can, uh. Borrow it?”

Star bit his lip, setting her down on the steps of the lighthouse while he went to examine the sailboat a bit more closely. Gently, he untied the rope and letting it down onto the rocks. The boat really wasn’t that big at all. More a dinghy than a boat. It was likely only ever intended for one pony, two at the most. The hull seemed...in quite good condition, as did the sails, which had been folded up and stowed in a locker beneath one of the sailboat’s seat, while the mast was lying nearby, half-tucked under the porch of the lighthouse.

Along with a sail, there were a few other amenities in the locker that might come in handy. A kit for sewing the sails in an emergency, as well as a flare gun, which looked ancient and might not even work.

“Yeah...yeah, this might do...” Star nodded, pursing his lips thoughtfully. He licked a hoof, and then held it up. “Wind’s in our favour, too, if we’re going east. I feel a little bad stealing a boat, though...”

“We’re just borrowing it,” Flowing pointed out. “We’ll make sure it makes it back. Er, somehow.”

Star chuckled. He ran her down to the water first, and then went back to lug the boat down the rocky, natural stairway towards where the waves were still hitting against the island somewhat roughly. He grunted as he lifted the sailboat onto his back, the last night’s rainfall sloshing off the sides and onto the rocks. He made his way down to the shore slow and steady, thought still nearly tripping on the slick rocks twice. Eventually he made it, and eased the boat into the water with half of its bow still propped up on one of the rocks.

“Got much experience sailing, fisherpony?” Flowing asked, her head poking up out of the waves.

“Not even a moment,” he replied. “But, er. What better time to learn, right?”

He did a quick little inventory of what he had to work with...a sail--two, really, though he’d always considered the mainsail and the jibsail two sides of one coin, with the mast as the connecting point between the two. Wasn’t much sense differentiating the two when they needed each other to function anyways.

“I think the bar has gotta go in the hold-y thing,” Flowing offered, pointing a fin at the mast.

“Yeah, I know. I’m just...” He lifted the mast into place, and got to work raising the sails up it. As they unfurled, he saw with glee that they were free from any signs of holes or tears, and already seemed eager to catch the wind and take them onwards. “Alright! Now we’re talkin’!”

“Woohoo!” Flowing hollered, flapping her fins together excitedly. “Come on in! The ocean is waiting!”

“Alright, alright, hold your horses.” He smirked. One last check of the sails...a turning of the rudder to make sure it worked, and then he was pushing the boat out off the rock with his front hooves, leaping over the stern just as it cleared the rocks and splashed noisily into the waves.

The wind caught the unfurled sails. He could feel their weight on the till, as he gripped it with a hoof, the sailboat lurching forwards to the east with surprising agility.

Flowing, meanwhile, had dropped under the waves to watch him from below, breaching the water in front of him and then swimming alongside the sailboat as it sped forwards, leaving the archipelago behind.

“Wow! Look at you go!” she chattered excitedly, eyes wide as she looked up at the outstretched sails. For all the speed of the sailboat, it didn’t seem like it was causing her much trouble keeping up. “Give ‘er a steer! How’s she turn?”

He gave the till a testing push, banking starboard ever so slightly. He pushed it in the other direction. It was surprisingly responsive, for having been waiting on the side of an old lighthouse for so long.

Star Point couldn’t help himself. He let out an enthusiastic, thrilled laugh and yell, which was gripped and stolen by the same wind thrusting him forwards. Flowing’s smile at his excitement could have warmed the coldest arctic waters. She dipped below the waves, and he could see her swimming form below him, keeping pace, her body swerving and gyrating and flowing as she raced beneath him.

He could have forgotten about Tempest Shadow and the Storm King in that moment. He was having the time of his life, out here on the open waves, on an adventure with Flowing.

She surfaced again beside him, keeping pace with the sailboat. He chuckled at her.

“Why don’tcha hop in?” he offered, patting the gunwhale of the sailboat. “Enough room for both of us.”

“Mm...” Flowing pursed her lips thoughtfully. “Okay...”

The little sailboat shook a little too violently for Star’s liking as Flowing matched her velocity with the boat and quite literally hopped inside. The entire boat rocked and a bit of water splashed inside, and Star abandoned the till for a moment to help grab Flowing as she leapt inside.

She let out a delighted gasp as she felt the cool air blowing into her scales from outside the water. Her tail curled around Star Point while she leaned over the bow, looking ahead of them like she were a mermare figurehead on an old pirate ship. The wind pushed her headcrest and her angler light back, while the refreshing chill in her soaked scales was simply blissful.

“Know any sea shanties, Starry?” she asked, glancing back at him.

He chuckled. “Not... Not really, honestly.”

She rose an eyebrow. “Seriously? But you’re a sailor!”

“I’m a fisherpony. This is the first sail-boat I’ve been in!”

“Yeah but... You’ve gotta hang out in those taverns and stuff, right? The fisherponies I’ve spoken with before do!”

Star tilted his head at that, smirking. He kept one hoof rested on the till, while the other gently stroked Flowing’s tail. “Fisherponies? And here I thought I was the first to catch the elusive seaponius equestrianus.”

“Oh you were! It’s only since I started visiting Herring Harbour that I started talking to...”

Flowing went quiet.

“Oh.”

“What?”

“Oh, I’m such an idiot, Star Point.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s only since I started visiting Herring Harbour that I started talking to other sailors. Helping them out when they were in a bind. Talkin’ to 'em about their fishing luck. Being a... A presence. Like I’m not supposed to be. No wonder the Storm King found me. One of ‘em must’ve given me up.”

“I find that hard to believe, Flowing.” Star kept on petting her tail. “Trust me, sailors are a talkative bunch when they get together in the tavern. Y’know how easy it’d be for one of the Storm King’s mooks to have just overheard ‘em? I betcha this entire thing is a big ol’ accident.” He jerked his head towards the horizon. “Anyways. We’re takin’ care of it.”

“Yeah. I guess.”

They were silent for a moment. Star could tell Flowing was returning to the same state as before, where she sunk into self-deprecation and worry and became an anxious ghost of herself plagued by guilt she had no right to carry...

“I might not know any shanties... But I’d like to hear you sing something, though, Flowing,” he said.

“Me? I already told you I can’t sing.”

“Nonsense. It's beautiful, and there's nopony out here 'sides me to hear ya anyways. Come on. Sing me a seapony song.”

Flowing chuckled. She was quiet for a few more moments, but then she seemed to settle on something, because she glanced back at Star with a sly smile on her beautiful face. “Alright. But it’s supposed to be a duet. I’m gonna sing it, and then you join me on the second go around. Got it?”

Star was grinning ear to ear now, and he nodded his head quickly. “Got it.”

“Alright...” Flowing took a deep breath. And then... Opening her mouth, she sung to the the waves rushing ahead of them and beneath their boat skirting over the ocean towards the brilliant bright sky ahead.

“Come take a sail, where would we go?

Anywhere you want to go,

Anywhere, now, anywhere, now,

We can sail around the world...”

A warmness flooded through Star Point as he listened to his marefriend sing. Her voice, for all her claims of mediocrity, did not have to be anything more than her own for him to find it gorgeous. She sang the second verse with the same beauty as the first, her voice captivating enough that Star almost missed the actual words she was singing for the sound of the mare singing them.

As she finished, she gave Star a sheepish look. “Got that?”

He smirked. “That was gorgeous, dear.”

“It’s a duet. It’ll be more gorgeous together.”

She took a deep breath, but she didn’t waste much time before diving into the melody once more. And this time, Star’s voice joined hers. He left the till where it was, and leaned forward to give Flowing a tight hug, as their sailboat skidded over the silvery, sparkling waves.

“Come take a sail, where would we go?

Anywhere you want to go,

Anywhere, now, anywhere, now,

We can sail around the world.

“Darling, I can’t say I know,

Anywhere the wind does blow.

Anywhere now, anywhere now,

You and I won’t be alone.“

~~~

Tempest was not in a particularly chipper mood for the duration of the storm. It seemed to last for an eternity, and every second spent riding the wrathful fury of the ocean was one too long.

The mighty waves crashed over the sides of the airship-turned-dreadnaught, flooding the deck and rolling off the opposite side. The control room was a disaster of overturned chart-tables and scattered equipment, with an inch or so of water at her hooves constantly. They weren’t sinking, but the bow was tipping precariously even after the worse of the storm had passed, as Tempest’s soldiers furiously tried to bail out of the worse of the flooding in the lower decks of the ship. She’d had the crew rig up the sea anchor at the stern of the ship as quickly a possible. Not something she’d had to use before, but the idea seemed valid enough that, in the pinch she was in, having something to catch whatever wind they had and keep their bow angled at the waves was better than nothing at all.

And then, it had been a long and arduous night of waiting for the storm to die. Every wave that struck the bow was an impact. Even with the sea-anchor, she had to fight with the rudder to keep the Thespis’s bow angled at the waves. Even a slight drift would have the waves starting to strike against their starboard side. If this was allowed to continue, they would capsize for certain.

Tempest wasn’t about to drown chasing a seapony. She figured she probably wouldn’t be the first pony to do so, but she was the hunter here, not the other way around.

The one solace she figured she had--and the one she kept alight in her mind throughout the long and sleepless stormy night--was that Flowing Sands and Star Point were likely having just as much of a time as she was. If they hadn’t found an island or ship to shelter in, then the fish would probably have tired herself out silly trying to keep her coltfriend above water. And if they did find somewhere to stop, some puny little desolate island... well. A night in the blistering wind, pelting rain, and furious thunder and lightning was probably not one spent peacefully and restfully.

The storm had delayed their capture. It hadn’t prevented it.

It was, admittedly, quite troublesome that her ship had been grounded. The balloon was cut up enough that it would be sometime before they’d be able to fly again, and they couldn’t exactly use the blow-torches and welding equipment to patch up the worse of the damage anyways. Indeed, they were a sea-bound craft for the foreseeable future. That was okay, though... Even limited to travel by sea, the sturdy propellors of the airship would serve them well, and they would have little trouble outpacing the swimming speed of even the fastest seapony.

Fortunately, dawn did come eventually. It came slowly, and the rain tapered to a soft drizzle instead of stopping completely, but anything was better than another hour of raging storm. Tempest looked to a new day with zero hours of rest, feeling grouchier and more miserable than normal but at least alive. Nopony had said that life on the Celestia Sea wasn’t without its share of trouble.

Once they were bailed out enough to set out, Tempest had to decide which direction to set out in the first place.

“Alright!” she barked out, once the bridge crew were assembled and some semblance had been restored to the ship a few hours into the morning. “Listen up, fillies! Our catch might’ve gotten away from us, but we’re not giving up on them yet. They’re gonna be heading to land if they haven’t reached it already. We might be crippled as an airship, but we’re still the fastest vessel on the Celestial Sea. I want full power. We’re setting a course for the Griffon Empire.”

A guess, of course. They could be going anywhere technically, but Tempest figured she had a better chance of catching them in one direction versus the other. Her stunt in Herring Harbour would surely have kicked a bit of a hornet’s nest, but the Griffons would be largely uncaring to her efforts to locate her seapony friend.

And, from the seapony and earth pony’s perspective? Well. They’d already been given up at home. They wouldn’t be stupid enough to go swimming back there so quickly. They didn’t have a choice but to swim to the landmass closest to them.

All Tempest had to do was dock somewhere along the Griffon Empire coast, and wait for her catch to swim right into the Thespis.

Author's Note

Flowing's song was adopted from the lyrics of Seawinkle, by SGAP

Interlude - A Current Situation

‘A few days’.

It was the vague time period Flowing had given Seasmoke, before she’d swam off to parts unknown, to meet with her coltfriend.

It was also, infuriatingly, a time period that had come and was now going without Seasmoke having heard scale-nor-tail of her friend.

Seasmoke tried not to be a worrywort. Sirens knew that there were enough of those in Seaquestria, without her adding her own anxieties to the perpetually panicked nation she called home. Yet it was difficult to ignore them when they concerned Flowing.

Ever since they were guppies, it had been a similar narrative with Flowing. Always unable to keep her tail out of trouble. Always finding it hard to stick with the rest of the school when they were swimming outside of Seaquestria, it seemed like every single field trip or expedition ended up in Flowing’s siren tongue goading a few other fish—more often than not Seasmoke included—into conducting a bit of ‘extra-curricular exploration.’

Her taste for adventure hadn’t vanished when she’d grown older, either. Seasmoke had always known that Flowing hadn’t really felt comfortable sticking around Seaquestria, filling her time with seaweed wraps and mud-baths like their Queen so often endorsed.

It hadn’t come as a surprise to Seasmoke, then, when Flowing’s ‘soul-searching’ expeditions had started. Nor did it really shock her too much to learn that she’d acquired herself a stallion in her endeavours. And…as happy as Seasmoke was for it, it was another thing to cause worry.

Such worries were still firmly rooted in her mind when she’d decided that perhaps a bit of a surprise might be in order for the good ponies of Herring Harbour. She’d yet to meet Flowing’s coltfriend after all, and if it meant she could also ensure the trouble-prone fish was safe as well, then what reason had she to stick around Seaquestria waiting for the worse?

Seasmoke swam out of their sandy, cavern-home, and into the deep sea light of Seaquestria’s outskirts. It was morning, though Seaquestria herself was far enough under the sea to remain held in a sort of twilight. Keeping their homes and ‘streets’ lit by bioluminiscent coral was a necessity, and keeping their coral-reef homes properly cultivated and healthy was a job they all shared.

The result was a home that Seasmoke was particularly proud of. The perpetual darkness might have seemed disheartening to some, but it felt beautiful to her. She loved the way the corals and jellies suspended the entire city in a cool, colourful glow that was just bright enough to illuminate the swimming schools of fish and seaponies alike. She loved how clean and untouched the deep sea water felt in her gills, compared to higher above in the slipstreams of passing ships.

The main part of Seaquestria—where Novo and the majority of her hippogriffs resided—was built alongside and beneath an enormous sub-oceanic cavern. From above, there was virtually no way inside, though the cave itself opened significantly at the bottom of the ocean, where access to the city was reserved exclusively to ocean-dwelling beings that would have been able to make the swim down in the first place. Outside of the cavern, the city continued, with various neighbourhoods of sand-dune houses doting the ocean floor.

Seasmoke was leaving the city behind, and swimming surface-bound. As she swam, the warm glow of sunlight slowly began to ebb into the surrounding waters above her, growing brighter and brighter until eventually she could make out the vastness of the sky above, distorted by the rippling waves.

After a bit of prying, Seasmoke had been able to wrench a location for Herring Harbour out of Flowing. She’d also learned that Flowing herself had found a periodical oceanic current that she’d hop onto to hasten her swim. It took Seasmoke swimming a good distance to the north-west before she eventually found it herself, but when she did she was rather relieved at the opportunity to finally rest her fins a bit.

The current itself was visible only by the way the rest of the ocean reacted to it’s presence. An unobservant eye might have missed it entirely, but Seasmoke could see the way that various particles of sea-snow were being drawn in one direction… and how further on it seemed to be accelerating quicker. She could feel the current’s pull herself as she got closer, bracing herself and keeping her fins close to her sides before with an enthused lurch of her tail, she entered the racing oceanic current.

It might’ve been easy for Flowing… Seasmoke, however, felt like her heart was about to race away without her.

Eventually, though, she was able to straighten her swim and re-straighten her fins. Once she did, she could not help but grin as she rode the current, swimming faster and faster than she ever could with her tail and fins alone.

…Next stop, Herring Harbour.

6 - Drifters, Meet Shore

~~~

Flowing and Star Point sailed on through the morning in relative peace.

The sun rose over the ocean and the sea calmed as it did. The wind was blowing from the south, which meant they didn’t have it entirely at their backs, but they were still making good time nonetheless.

There was enough splash from the sea spray shooting off the gunwhale to keep Flowing nice and wet as she lounged with Star Point inside the sailboat, laying her head against his lap while he steered them onwards through the warming dawn.

“Y’know... I could be fooled into thinking this was a date,” Star Point said with a little chuckle, idly running a hoof across her headcrest.

“Mm. We oughta get a sailing boat for you. You’re good at it,” Flowing replied, nuzzling her snout against his chest.

“Yeah. I dunno if I’d really trust sailing so far at sea without you for back-up, though.”

Flowing laughed. “Cause of the sea monsters?”

Star nodded. “Yeah. I mean. They do exist, right?”

“Oh yes. Tons of them. Sharks the size of fishing trawlers. Or bigger. Giant kraken that could drag a ship down with ease. Sea dragons that would eat a little guppy like me up as an appetizer. You name it.”

Star Point wilted, his hoof wavering on the till. “Not exactly aspiring confidence, dear.”

“Sorry, sorry... Just being honest.” She smirked. “Besides, they don’t actually really attack all that often. They keep to themselves and hunt bigger prey. Most of the time.”

“Have you ever been in danger from a sea monster before, Flow?”

“Me? Oh yes. There’s not many by Seaquestria because they don’t really like the cool water as much, but if you wander too far, there’s some nasty stuff. Once, me and my marefriends got chased by a whole group of, er. Do you know what a lusca is? Sometimes called ‘grabber shark?’”

“Is it related to a ‘sharktopus?’”

Flowing snorted. “Is that what you ponies call ‘em? Creative.”

“Hey, it’s not any worse than ‘grabber shark!’”

“It’s a shark, that grabs. It seems pretty fitting to me!” Flowing stuck out her tongue. “Well, imagine, like, four of those guys. All chasing innocent ol’ me and a few friends through an old shipwreck. Now that was a terrifying day.”

“What’d you even do to piss ‘em off?”

Flowing shrugged a little. “I 'unno. Probably nothin.’ They’re a moody bunch.”

“So, you were always a bit of a troublemaker then, huh?” Star Point shot her a devilish look. “Not just with us land lubbers?”

“Me? A saint of the seven seas.”

“Mmhm.” Star chuckled. “Anyways... I do like the sailboat, though. Maybe you’re onto something there.”

Flowing smiled, but she felt as though she had to force it on her lips. Thinking of Star at the till of one boat only reminded her of the other, that was now occupying the bottom of the ocean. A nice little microcosm for all the ruination she might have brought to this poor stallion’s life.

She was caught within a strange limbo, between exaltation at being on an adventure with her lover, and an unshakable guilt at the reasons why.

“When, er... Star, I’ve been doing some thinking...” Flowing started a little shakily. “I think... That I should come clean to Queen Novo, about... What I did. They deserve to know what I’ve been up to.”

“The Queen who’s forcing your people to stay in hiding because she commandeered leadership over them out of necessity deserves to know what you’ve been up to?”

Flowing’s ears fell. “She’s really not that bad, Starry...”

“I know, I know. I’m probably biased against her...” Star sighed. “But do you seriously wanna tell her you’re banging some earth pony in a podunk fishing town?”

“Star. I’m not ‘banging you’, I’m in love with you.”

“I’m just saying, that’s probably not how your Queen is gonna see it. And as much as I’d like to be there to vouch for you, I can’t.”

Flowing sighed. “Maybe you should.”

“I can’t just up and transform into a seapony just like that. Otherwise, I’d be down there with you every single day.”

“B-but. Even if we could do something with the Pearl... I can’t ask you for that. You have a life and friends above the waves, too.” Flowing’s ears stayed pinned to her head, and her gaze sunk, the seapony staring sadly at the water rushing past them over the side of the sailboat. “I don’t wanna make you choose.”

“Well...” Star brought a hoof to her chin, easing it up gently to meet her eyes. “I already have made my choice. If there’s a way for me to spend my life with you below the waves while we wait for someone to take care of the Storm King once and for all... I’d like that.”

Flowing managed a smile, small but honest. She wrapped her fins around him and hugged him tightly. “Starry... I don’t know what to say. Thank you.”

“Trust me. I’ll wear a scuba suit, and I’ll go beg your Queen if I have to.”

“I wish I knew what that Tempest mare’s deal was. Didn’t even get a good look at her.”

“One mean lookin’ mare.” Star confirmed. “Taller than me. Dressed in... Er, dominatrix armour?”

“Starry!”

“What? It’s true!” Star Point was blushing instantly, much to Flowing’s chuckling amusement. “Seriously, it was like. A skin-tight battlesuit. To confront a fisher. Bit much, mare?”

Flowing snort-laughed. “Well. I guess she’s working for the Storm King. We don’t really know much about what kind of agents he has working for him, just that he likes airships and has been trying to kidnap seaponies.”

“Yeah. She seemed pretty determined to catch you.”

“Enough that we can’t convince her not to?”

This time, it was Star Point’s turn to snort-laugh. “Yeah, no. If she’s still chasing us after that storm, she’s in it for the gold.” He gave her a boop. “You’re the gold, by the way.”

“Aw, that’s sweet.” Flowing smiled. “You’re sweet.”

Star Point nuzzled her by way of reply. Their boat continued to skim over the waves as the morning haze continued to turn to the warm glow of noon. The lovers fell silent, Flowing resting her head against Star’s withers while he steered them onwards to the east.

Flowing knew that Star didn’t really have a set destination, besides ‘east.’ It was a luxury they didn’t really have. Without a map, or a compass, or really any way to tell their direction besides the placement of the sun in the sky, they had to rely on vague compass directions and thin prayers that they’d bring them where they needed to go. The coast of the Griffon Empire was a large area to hit and one they were unlikely to miss, and even if they overshot it and reached the Dragonlands or East Kirinia, instead, they could at least follow the coast North until it took them where they needed to go.

A few hours after they’d first set out, Flowing spotted signs of life on the distant horizon.

Not land, but a small pinprick of smoke rising into the clear blue sky.

“Uh oh...” Flowing pointed a fin in the direction.

“...Huh...” Star squinted as he looked, too. “Ship. Gotta be.”

“Storm King?”

“I... I don’t think so,” Star replied. “Just going off the amount of smoke I’m seein’ comin’ outta it. Tempest’s ship made a mess, remember?”

“Mmm... That’s true.” Flowing frowned. “Want me to swim over and take a look?”

“I don’t really want to bug anypony or slow down if we can help it...” Star admitted. “But at the same time. They might be able to point us in the right direction, so we don’t have to continue sailing blindly.”

“Yeah...” Flowing nodded in agreement.

“I’ll get you close... You swim up, and if the coast is clear, I’ll follow? Sound good?”

Flowing nodded again. “Sounds good.”

As they got closer, Flowing slunk out of the sailboat, slipping into the warm waves with only the smallest of splashes. Her tailfin swished the water as she swam towards the underbelly of the ship growing closer and closer... And this time, she was paying a bit more attention for any nets, or fishing lures, or any other risks that she really should have been better at paying attention for.

From its underside, Flowing could tell that the ship was large--larger than Tempest’s dreadnaught--though it wasn’t really large in the looming, intimidating way. A cargo ship, most likely hauling freight across the Celestial Sea to Equestria from Griffonstone.

Tentatively, Flowing poked her head above the waves. A cargo ship indeed, with several sailing masts and what sounded like a medium-sized engine to Flowing, from what she could hear underwater.

Not really a Storm King battleship that she had to be afraid of. She supposed it wasn’t technically a very good decision to trust anyone in her current situation, but somehow she still felt more comfortable leaving the cold, mean, cynical attitudes to ponies like Tempest. Starry was right--Tempest, the Storm King... They were what she had to be afraid of. Not the goodness of ponies and the pureness of her love for them.

Still, she stayed under the water while swimming back to Starry, poking her head up and accidentally giving him a bit of a start when she did.

“Oop! Sorry!” she said sheepishly. “For sure a cargo ship. I think we’re safe to go ask ‘em for directions...” She gripped the tow-line at the front of the sailboat in her teeth, and began to swim her way towards the cargo ship proper.

As they got closer once again, a few faces came to the sides to watch the spectacle. Flowing saw ponies and griffins in at least equal measure, some peering at the approaching seapony and sailboat through binoculars. One of the griffins took off with a few flaps of their wings, flying over them without landing, swirling back around, watching them from above as they came closer and closer to the cargo ship.

Flowing heard Starry let out a nervous chuckle from behind her. She kept swimming, but gave him a backwards look and a small smile to assure him everything was going to be alright. They were just curious about their guests, so far out in the middle of the sea. Who wouldn’t be?

There were half a dozen sets of eyes on them, peering over the gunwhale, as they approached. Flowing gave a nervous little wave of her fore-fin.

“Er, hiya, boys!” she said, letting the tow-line fall out of her maw as she spoke up. “Nice ship!”

The ponies and griffins all shared a glance together. Flowing got the impression she was looking at more or less the entire crew of the ship, given its modest size. Her greeting hung without response for several seconds, their eyes travelling from Flowing to Star Point.

Eventually, Star himself broke the silence.

“We’re together,” he waved a hoof between himself and Flowing. “We, uh. Were wondering if we could come aboard for some directions?”

More silence, though this time it was for the crew of the ship to glance amongst themselves, until a short little earth pony wearing a captain’s hat trotted forwards.

“Yer a seapony, ma’am!”

“I am?” Flowing looked back at Star Point, and then back at the Captain with a smirk. “Goodness, I hadn’t noticed.”

There were a few chuckles from the ship’s crew, the captain included. “I say it, lass, because you’re the first one I’ve seen in just ‘bout twelve years of sailing.”

Flowing smirked. “That just means you’ve had good luck! Otherwise, you would’a seen us when we bailed you out!”

“So the tales go.” The captain was all smiles and chuckles. “Together, huh?” He nodded at Star Point.

“She’s my marefriend,” Star explained. “We’re, er. Sailing to the Griffon Empire.”

There was some surprised, hushed conversation between the crew, and the Captain said; “Griffon Empire! From Equestria? Hell of a sail, kiddo!”

“Yeah, but he has a one of a kind life-raft if anything goes wrong,” Flowing chirped, splashing Star with her tail, to his blushing chagrin and the collective chuckling of the ship crew.

“We just... Wanted to maybe board for some directions. Lost our map in the storm, you see.”

“Aye. That tracks. Or, arr... Doesn’t, in this case.” The Captain gave a few short nods. “Shoot, why not? Tie off anywhere... Your fishy friend want up, too?”

“Please and thank you!” Flowing nodded.

She pulled Star’s sailboat in, flush against the cargo ship, where they tied it off and Starry folded up the sail and tucked it under the rear-most bench on the sailboat.

Then, a ladder was extended for Star to climb up. For Flowing, a net was lowered instead. A bit patronizing, and the sight wasn’t without a few stifled snickers from the crew of the cargo ship, but it at least got the job done. She was helped out once they were on the dock, and Star let her climb onto his back like was typical for the two of them by now.

Flowing could tell that the mood of the ship was one of excitement, as the crew and captain both watched her and Star’s routine. A seapony surely must have been a rare sight, as rare as a long sailboat in the great sea. For them to have been together, an established couple? Flowing liked to think they’d made their day a bit more exciting.

The sun had hidden behind the clouds when they finished boarding the cargo ship. A refreshing coolness swept over them, while Star extended a hoof to shake hooves with the captain proper.

“Name’s Star Point, sir.”

He shook Star’s hoof with a smile. “Captain Misty Foam. And the lovely lass on your back?”

Flowing smiled warmly, extending a fin of her own. “Flowing Sands, Captain!”

He shook her fin, sharing her smile himself. “Long way from home, are ya, Miss Sands?”

Flowing pursed her lips. It wasn’t that she distrusted this fella, but... Well. The less ponies that knew, the better.

“Home’s where my sweetie is,” she said, nuzzling the top of Star’s mane with her chin.

Misty Foam nodded cheerily at that. “Touche, I spose. Where are you from, Mister Star Point? Equestrian?”

“Yeah. Little fishing town on the coast, outside Baltimare.”

“Long way from home for you, too, then.”

“Yeah we’re...” Star glanced back at Flowing, and she could tell he was contemplating being a bit more earnest about their situation. For her own part... Flowing didn’t really want to involve any more ponies in her journey. The less these folks knew of them, the better. Star seemed to read the skepticism off her face.

“...Guess you can say we’re on a bit of an adventure,” he continued, without really missing a beat. Flowing supposed the best ‘lies’ were the ones that were entirely true. “We’ve always wanted to go on one together. She spends enough time on land, 'bout time we spend some at sea.”

“Ha! I’d bet! Griffon Empire ya said, eh?”

“That’s right.”

“Shoot. You’re lucky you ran into us than. You woulda wound yourselves up in Dragon territory, ya kept on the course you were goin’.”

Flowing saw a heavy exhale leave Star Point, followed by a little chuckle. “Really.”

“Really! C’mon, ya foalish lovebirds. I’ll get ya pointed straight and true,” Captain Misty Foam said, and began trudging his way towards the superstructure of the cargo ship.

Sharing one more glance with each other, Star fell into step behind him, following him on towards the interior of the cargo ship.

~~~

Tempest breathed a lengthy sigh of relief by time her hooves were back on the solid ground that were the docks of Broken Beak Cove.

The poor Thespis wasn’t the proudest she had ever looked, but she had still made good time on her urgent bee-line to the coasts of the Griffon Empire. If the seapony and the earth pony were travelling their fastest, it would still take them at least a day to reach the coast themselves. Where exactly they ended up was a matter of uncertainty, but in some manner it didn’t truly make a difference. There was only one railway out of the Griffon Empire and across the Northern Tundras back into Equestria, and it would have to cross through Broken Beak Cove.

As such, Tempest had stationed one of her guards at the station, to inspect the train when it arrived, on the off-chance that her two targets had (somehow) beaten her to the coast.

As she trotted onto the solid, rocky ground of the puny little griffon harbour town she’d arrived in, she heard a flapping of wings from directly above her. She braced immediately, but part of her already knew who was approaching her before they spoke.

“Cirrus Bolt.”

“Hi, Tempest.” A dark blue hippogriff landed in front of her, giving a curt nod that was somewhere between a bow and a casual greeting. “Rough sailing, huh?” He nodded his head towards the Thespis.

“Could say that.”

“Storm?”

“Yes.”

“Bummer. Real bummer.”

“Yes,” Tempest said again, already growing impatient with the hippogriff in the time she’d been talking to him. “You have been keeping out of trouble?”

He gave a little chuckle. “Sure, sure. You in port for long? Or just stopping for repairs?”

“A day, several days maximum.”

“Good! Enough time for a drink, then.”

Tempest narrowed her eyes. “If you think you have even a chance of--”

“Please.” Cirrus Bolt snorted, shaking his head and raising a wing. “Just a drink, I’m not trying to get you outta your armour. Pretty sure you'd kill me if I tried.”

Tempest’s narrowed glare turned volatile. Gods, what she wouldn’t give for the chance to buck the impudent ‘griff into the drink. But... Cirrus Bolt was a helpful annoyance. He was one of the few hippogriffs Tempest even knew in the first place, and considering the subject of her own hunt... She supposed there was no harm in grabbing a drink with him.

“Fine.”

Cirrus cracked a wide smile, and began to flap on towards one of the skeevy taverns that looked like they were one bad tectonic event away from sliding into the drink. Tempest watched him as she trotted behind, the hippogriff flapping low to the ground and slow enough that she could trot along behind him.

She’d met Cirrus Bolt... Gods, had it been five years already? She wasn’t a general of the Storm King’s army back then, though she had at least still been employed by them in some capacity. A bounty hunter and a head-hunter in equal measure, unleashed upon the hinterlands of civilized Equine society to slowly and surely prepare the rest of the world for the Storm King’s inevitable conquest.

The dark-coated hippogriff had been an... interesting sight, in those days. Tempest’s original plan had been to interrogate him for information towards his people’s current location. He’d been the target of a bounty, like a dozen before and after him, and like the seapony on her mind now.

She supposed it was fitting that an ex-bounty had turned out to be one of the best bounty hunter allies she knew.

He had been exiled from Seaquestria over a decade ago. A troublesome teen, with a penchant for trying to encourage dissent and ideas of warfare among his peers. Mind wiped clean of any geographical knowledge of Seaquestria on the order of his Queen, and shunted out to the old ruins of Mount Aris, to fend for himself. Tempest imagined it was hard for him to be sympathetic to the plight of the rest of his species, nor their seapony cousins. In some capacity, his abandonment was one she understood.

She wouldn’t call them friends, but they had at least become reliable allies.

“You’re looking tyrannical as ever, Tempy,” Cirrus chirped out, landing and pushing the swinging door to the tavern open.

“And you, ever an irritating thorn in the side.” Tempest chose a booth off to the corner, where she could survey the rest of the tavern and whoever entered, but still tucked enough out of the way that they wouldn’t be unduly bothered or looked upon.

Cirrus chuckled. The bar was one of those quiet sorts, run by one barkeep who was nowhere to be seen, probably tending to some chores elsewhere in the building. Cirrus helped himself to two mugs of mead from the tap behind the counter and slapped the necessary bits down, carrying one in each wing and setting them down on opposite ends of the table before taking a seat across from Tempest.

“You in town for work?” Tempest guessed, taking a sip of her mead.

“Mm. Just kinda... Kicking around a few leads.” Cirrus admitted. “Nothing really biting.”

“Posters.” Tempest tapped a hoof on the table. “Bring ‘em out, birdbrain. Let’s compare notes.”

Cirrus smirked, and nudged his beak into his pack, drawing out a small little collection of bounty posters and placing them down on the half-cleaned tavern table between them. Tempest took them, shuffling through each quickly.

Debt collection bounty between griffons--typical sort. A few posters for small-time thieves--two of them thestrals, one of them a griffon.

“Any familiar faces?” Cirrus ventured.

Tempest frowned, shaking her head slowly. “Think I might’ve seen the bat stallion outside Wrangly Roost. Others... Nope.”

“Shame, but figures. Small potato bounties, anyways.”

“Mmhm. Work ain’t what I used to be.”

“Blame the Elements of Harmony bringing ‘fwiendship’ to Griffonstone. This place is changin' for the better, and it's makin' folks like us obsolete.” Cirrus rolled his eyes. “What about you?”

“One bounty. A seapony.”

Cirrus rose an eyebrow. “No kidding? Seaquestrian?”

“Not sure. Not a particularly loyal one, if so. Caught her shacking up with an earth pony in Equestria.”

“Wild. What’d she do?” Cirrus chugged back his mead, tucking his posters away with a wing. “Or is this a commission job for He Who Shall Not Be Named?”

“Everything’s a commission job for the Storm King now. I’m on his payroll.”

“Mm, you did it for the sexy armour, didn’t you?” Cirrus waggled an eyebrow.

“I can still turn you in, you know.”

“Aw, but you wouldn’t.” Cirrus stuck out his tongue. “You love me. So, this seapony got a name?”

“Flowing Sands. And her stallion is Star Point, not that I really need him besides to tie up some loose ends between the two.”

Cirrus nodded. “Was gonna say. Plucking an Equestrian’s marefriend as a bounty is a risky gig.”

“Outskirts Equestrian. You know as well as I do the Princesses can’t be bothered to check every nook and cranny of their kingdom,” Tempest said. “Still risky, but a measured risk.”

“Hey, I ain’t trying to talk you out of it. How hot are you on the tail of this seapony, then?” Cirrus asked, tilting his head curiously. “Ocean’s a big place.”

“It is. But she’s got that colt of hers in tow, and knows that I’m lookin’ for him, too. So they’re kinda stuck together until she gets him to safety,” Tempest replied. Gods, that was some vile tasting mead. She hadn’t really been focusing on it until now, noticing as she came upon the half-empty point of her mug. “Seaponies are a funny sort. Don’t wanna leave folks to danger, even if it puts ‘em into it.”

“Uh huh. I’m gonna have to agree to disagree with that one, Tempy.”

“That’s hippogriffs,” Tempest replied shortly, actually managing a little smirk as she teased the fellow bounty hunter. “You lot are a buncha back-stabbers.”

“Uh huh. If I’m a hippogriff, you’re a hypocrite.” Cirrus replied. “Besides, it’s useful for you then, in this case,” Cirrus levelled. He finished off his mead, wiping his beak clean with a wing. “I’m in. Give me... Twenty-five percent of the cut? And I can be with your crew in an hour.”

“There is no cut. Commission job. He wants the seapony herself, she is the bounty.” Tempest pursed her lips. She wished there was a cut... A fellow set of bounty hunting eyes--especially attached to a hippogriff--would be quite indispensable in her hunt. Not wanting to lose the opportunity, she continued; “But that doesn’t mean I can’t cut you in. Five hundred, up front, when we bring her in.”

“Sold!” Cirrus chirped, his beaked maw twisting into a smirk. “Alright. Well, first order of business... That ship of yours.”

“What of it?”

“I think you oughta pull it outta port. Hide it inland a bit. If that seapony sees it swimming into town, she’s gonna drop her coltfriend off and get the Tartarus out of Dodge.”

“And abandon him to the outskirts of the Griffon Empire?” Tempest shook her head. “It doesn’t seem like her.”

“Still a risk. Alternatively... They come into town, and there’s no sign of ya? They’re gonna assume they shook you off their tail. They’ll get confident. And that’s when I come in.”

“You.”

“Me! I’m a hippogriff! I can guarantee you that that seapony hasn’t seen one out in the wild before--not with that Type A of a Queen sitting on Seaquestria’s throne--but she’s sure as spit gonna know what we are. She won’t be able to turn me away.”

Tempest’s frown grew. Putting so much faith in a companion she’d just technically hired minutes ago wasn’t exactly a tempting prospect. But... She’d worked with Cirrus before. He was generally a ‘griff of his word, and Tempest herself was not entirely flush with other options at her beck and call.

“I think you’re flattering yourself a little unduly, Cirrus Bolt,” she said.

“I don’t. Besides, what’s your plan, Tempy? I’m all ears.”

“Not shooting your plan down. Just expressing my disdain for your ego.”

“Aw. You love it.”

“I assuredly do not. But fine. You’re at least right about the Thespis.”

“I know. You lay low, stay out of sight. Second either of them see your grouchy mug, they’ll be swimming off into the sunset. But if you leave it to me to reel in the fish? They won’t know what hit ‘em.”

Tempest was silent for a moment. She didn’t know how exactly the seapony would react to meeting one of her own--or, close enough, anyways--but the assertion that her reaction would predominantly be curiosity wasn’t a wholly unfounded one. Cirrus was capable of some degree of charm when he needed it, and his status as a hippogriff in Flowing’s situation would be in itself a boon. After all... If Flowing couldn’t trust her own people, who could she trust?

“Fine. You’ve got a deal, hippogriff.”

~~~

Captain Misty Foam brought them into the superstructure of the cargo ship, which was larger than Star Point’s by a large degree but still a little claustraphobic for Flowing's liking. She found it fascinating, how a structure of bolts and brass and metal managed to stay afloat so well upon the waves.

They travelled up a flight of stairs and onto a deck that seemed to be some manner of lounge on one side, with the other side of the room covered in charts and maps and a navigation table. Star Point set her down on a sofa and sat beside her, letting her lay her tail across his sitting form.

If Flowing peered out the porthole window behind her, she could faintly see the sail of the cargo ship flapping waywardly in the breeze.

“So... Curious soul’s gotta ask about...” Misty Foam waved a hoof between Flowing and Star.

“How we met?” Star guessed.

“It’s, er. A bit of an embarrassing story. He caught me.”

Misty Foam stared, and then chuckled. “Caught ya. Y’know, I’d make a joke on the subject, but I reckon ya’ve heard just about every one in the book.”

“Ha! And then some!” Flowing replied, smirking.

“Still. Seapony’s a might rare sight. Weren’t even sure y’folks existed in the first place.”

“We, uh...” Flowing fumbled with her fins. “We keep to ourselves, these days. Makes things easier.”

“I see. Yer the exception, then?”

Flowing felt a pang of guilt in her chest. “I guess so.”

“Well. It’s a pleasure to meet ya, and I hope more follow in your stead. The waters kin get pretty lonely on some nights, and I reckon they’d be less so with more pony life in ‘em.”

“Yeah. I hope one day,” Flowing agreed, forcing a smile. “You from Equestria, Captain Misty?”

“Actually, I ain’t! One of them fishin’ towns in Kirinia!”

“Oh wow!” Star exclaimed. “You’re a long ways from home, then!”

“Aye! But... Like yer lass says. Somedays I feel right at home here, with the ocean, and my boat, and my crew. Home ain't a set place so much as a group of ponies and a job I like. Guess that seems silly to most folks.”

“Doesn’t seem silly to me,” Star replied quickly. “That’s how I was, too. Minus the crew.”

“Y’got a boat, Mister Star Point? Y’know, a boat boat, no offense to your current ride.”

Flowing could feel Starry shuffling a little awkwardly on the sofa, before he replied. “I... Er. I did. Fishing trawler.”

“Did, eh?” Misty gave him a sympathetic look. “How’d ya lose it?”

“Er. Capsized. In a storm,” Starry replied. “Was lucky she was close by.”

“Mm. No kiddin’. So why’re you head to the Griffon Lands?”

“That’s, uh. Unrelated. She wants to see the world, and I do too, so. We decided to go on an adventure together.”

Misty smirked. “I see. Well. Y’got a destination in particular?”

“Somewhere populated would be nice,” Flowing said. “I wanna try fish ‘n chips in another nation!”

“Populated, but quiet. But really anywhere would be nice. We’re planning on selling the sailboat, and taking the train back to Equestria.”

“Gotcha! Then... Hrm. I’ll point ya in the direction of Broken Beak Cove. Little bit south of Griffonstone, which you’ll take the train through on the way back home.” Misty trotted over to the maps in the corner and plucked one off the wall, heading back to Starry and hoofing it over to him. “So... We’re about here, see? And where you’re goin’... This direction. Y’two have a compass?”

“We, uh. Lost it.” Starry replied.

“Yeah. In the storm,” Flowing added.

“...Reckless adventurers, are we?” Misty Foam said with a raised eyebrow. “It’s alright. I’ll give y’two one. And y’can keep that.” He tapped the map with a hoof, and then flashed them a sly smirk. “Trust me, I know where I’m goin’ without it. Been doin’ this route awhile.”

Star and Flowing shared a look of shock, which mutually turned to gratitude in Misty’s direction.

“Thank you!” Flowing said immediately.

“Yeah, that’s... Wow. That’s really kind of you!”

Misty waved a hoof. “It’s nothin’. Y’two are cute. Wanna make sure ya get where yer goin’.”

“Well, we really appreciate it,” Star said, rising to his hooves and handing Flowing the map and compass to hold onto while she clambered back on top of him.“We... Er. We’ve taken up a lot of your time as is, though. And put your journey off schedule...”

Misty waved a hoof. “Ain’t nothin’, son. Why, I figure we were already makin’ good enough time ‘fore--”

The rest of Misty Foam’s sentence vanished when the cargo ship suddenly lurched violently, enough that Star and Misty lost their balance, and might have fallen completely if the two weren’t as used to the wayward whims of the sea as they were.

“What the...!” Misty Foam cried out. The lurch had been sudden, and there was no immediate follow-up, like one would have expected if it had been a particularly violent wave that had hit them.

“Did we hit something?” Star frowned.

“Anchored? And this far out?” Misty Foam shook his head. “Ain’t likely...”

Just as he had said it, there was another strike. Flowing could feel it, reverberating through Star, and through all of the hulls beneath his feet. A dull, heavy thud, which she could tell from the way the ship shuddered was against the bottom.

Flowing’s heart began to beat heavily in her chest. If it was the Storm King, it was something new. Some manner of submersible vessel, because she was certain it had been beneath them, and not a harpoon bolt to their side like she had seen before.

Still, the feeling was unmistakable.

“...I think something just hit us...” Flowing replied.

7 - Heroically, Do Something Stupid

~~~

Flowing, Star, and Captain Misty all exited out into the bright sun as quickly as they could.

Flowing hopped off Starry’s back when they were close to the guard-rail looking down over the ocean, quickly scanning the waters for any signs of movement. There was a swirling motion in the water around them, waves cast up that did not seem to match any natural ebb and flow, and instead indicated... Something else, stirring them up.

Captain Misty was surrounded by a few members of his crew, griffons and ponies alike, all speaking over each other in a panicked slurry of voices. From their tones, it was clear that none of them really knew what was going on, but they weren’t getting anywhere with the current trajectory of conversation.

Flowing looked to the skies, dreading the sight of an airship looming close, but thankfully there was nothing but sky and thin, wispy clouds above them.

Beneath, the ship shuddered again, harder than any of the previous occurences. Ponies were swept off their hooves, some even had to use the guardrail to not go falling into the drink below. The griffons and the few pegasi who could fly had already done so, taking to the air and hovering above the deck of the cargo ship. Something felt as though it was being dragged slowly against the hull, like a mighty claw scratching against the metal beneath.

“There’s something alive down there,” Flowing said. She didn’t say it very loudly, but it seemed the intense words, spoken by the strange creature, was enough to cast them into silence all the same.

They looked among eachother and at Flowing. None of them spoke up until Star Point himself did.

“How do you know it’s not a rock or a reef?”

“Too unsteady,” Flowing replied. “If it was a fixed surface, we’d be striking it in a rhythm, with the waves. And look...” she pointed a fin into the waters, swirling and uneasy. “Don’t look like any normal waves to me.”

The crew of the ship shared another look, and several of them had joined Flowing, peering over the side of the ship into the depths below.

“Gonna go take a look.” She put both of her fins onto the guardrail, propping herself up with her tail and preparing to dive in, but Star stopped her by wrapping both of his hooves around her torso.

“Oh no ya don’t.”

“Lemme go, Starry. I need to see what’s down there.”

“Like Tartarus you do.” Star Point shook his head firmly. “C’mon, let’s--”

If there was more to Star’s statement, it was lost as the ship suddenly keeled upwards, like something had lifted it from beneath. The bow of the ship seemed to raise upwards into the sky, for but a moment, and the unspeaking silence on the deck was broken by the sound of various affairs clattering about from the commotion with the nearby superstructure.

In the cacophony, Star’s grip on her lessened, and Flowing took the opportunity to kick her tail against the deck of the ship, and send herself flying over the guardrail. She sailed for a few moments through open air, bracing herself just as she struck the water and submerged, tail fin already churning the water urgently. She could faintly hear Star crying out her name and demanding her ‘come back to the gods damned ship!’, and while it pained her to hear his voice with such indignation and urgency in it, Starry’s cries were quickly hidden the further into the blue water she sunk.

Stupid, she knew. She was being stupid, and reckless, and he’d be furious with her when she resurfaced no doubt. But she couldn’t just sit around and wait for whatever was done there to keep on harassing the poor cargo ship!

The water this far out was darker than it had been when they’d stopped at the lighthouse. It made it a little harder for Flowing to see, and she imagined the others watching the little pinprick of light from her angler lamp vanishing into the depths as she swam on. The entire water surrounding them seemed murkier than normal, as if something enormous had been stirring up sand far below them. In fact, she figured that was exactly what was happening.

And then, she saw it. It had eased into view from the veil of sandy waters, visible at first only as a mass of movement swishing through the murkiness. Then, a pointed head--like that of a large great white shark, but with an elongated snout and a squid-like spade shape at the tip. A tall, jutting dorsal fin rose above it, the same general shape as a shark’s, complimented by similarly shark-like pectoral fins.

In place of a shark’s tail, however, was a great mass of tendrils trailing behind it, idly swishing away at the water. They all appeared to be strong and prehensile, but at the moment they were simply flowing behind, as it instead used them to swim. There could have been a dozen tentacles for all she knew, it was hard to really say with the creature in lumbering, terrifying motion. The entire creature was the size of Star Point’s fishing trawler, and while it was technically a good deal smaller than the cargo ship above, Flowing had little doubt in her mind that it would be able to drag it into the depths without much effort.

Flowing could see her angler light reflected in it’s single enormous squid’s eye, glaring back at her with intelligence and greed in equal measure.

“Ah,” she breathed out, bubbles floating to the surface. “That tracks.”

The eye narrowed as it focused in on the single little pinprick of light looking back at it. Easy prey, a tempting little appetizer, no doubt. Flowing didn’t really stick around to ask if it preferred its fish with or without soy sauce, she was already furiously beating the water with her tail by time she could feel the tell-tale sign of rapid changes in water pressure as it began to swim furiously towards her.

She did not want to breach and have it collide with the cargo ship in it’s pursuit of her, though. Instead, just as she came close to the ship, she banked off, swimming downwards into the depths for a few feet. Then, she banked again, and breached, knowing that the sudden change in momentum would at the very least prevent the beast from striking the cargo ship too hard.

Flowing was flooded back into the bright sun as she broke out of the waves, and when she did there were already a few griffons waiting for her. She was grateful, since she wasn’t sure her little manoeuvre would have given her enough speed to actually make it back onto the ship as it was.

She was dumped into Star Point’s hooves on the deck of the cargo ship, and before he had any time to berate her the creature hit the underside of the ship, sending it keeling over violently. Any harder, and it might have been enough to capsize them... Already, Flowing was glad she’d taken the extra step to try and eliminate some of the force of its impact.

“It’s a lusca,” Flowing panted out, as so soon as Star had recovered from the keeling of the ship and resumed gripping her possessively, clearly worried she’d jump over the side of the ship once again. “Territorial buggers... And rare, too. Unlucky, seeing one here.”

“The... Things we were talking about earlier,” Star Point said. Behind him, Flowing could see the other ponies and griffons looking on intently. “Grabber sharks."

“Yeah. Dunno why it’s taken issue with your ship, but, uh...” she looked sympathetically at Captain Misty. “But we’re gonna need to chase it off, I think.”

“...Chase it off.”

“Yeah. Like I said... territorial bunch, luscas. What it’s doing... It’s trying to warn you to leave,” Flowing explained. “Those were warning hits.”

Captain Misty nodded rapidly. “Well, I’ve pulled anchor. I’m already getting us out of here full throttle...”

“But it’s a cargo ship,” Star said. “We won’t really be movin’ away very quickly.”

“Not quickly enough. Luscas... Angry ones, anyways... Ain’t as patient as they are mean,” Flowing said. “Assumin' ya don’t have a lot of things to fight it off on board, eh?”

Captain Misty shook his head sadly. “Few harpoons, maybe? Nothin’ suited to fighting a sea monster.”

Flowing gave a single nod. “Then I’ll go back in. I’ll chase it away.”

“Oh no you won’t!” Star replied, and Flowing felt his grip around her tighten. “Just about gave me a heart attack!”

“Ma’am, if there’s a beast in there... You’re safer in here than...” Captain Misty jerked his head towards the depths. The entire time he did, Flowing was half expecting that enormous sharktopus head to come breaching through the waves behind him any moment, or a tentacle to grip him and pull him over the deck. Safe here her fishy behind.

“No I’m not,” Flowing said. “Listen, Starry. Not tryna be rude, but we’re safer if you let me do my thing.”

He kept holding onto her, eyes locked on her own and expression dire and intense. “Flowing, how do you know it won’t just leave us alone after it notices we’re leavin--”

Another strike, as violent as any of the other times. Starry stumbled over and Flowing fell on top of him, smushing him against the deck of the ship. Beneath them, the ship let out a mighty groan, as the material the hulls were made from were audibly singing out their displeasure from the constant abuse. They did not have long.

She gave him a little peck on the cheek. “Starry, I love ya, but you’re bein’ a wee bit naïve towards the patience of angry sea monsters.”

She flopped off of him and over to the deck of the ship. Ready to dive in once more, but this time she didn’t want to do it without a proper little mutual ‘good luck.’ She didn’t like leaving him worried about her, but she found it impossible to simply hunker down in the ship and ‘hope for the best.’ Seaponies helped. And if she didn’t do that, then what was her purpose on the waves?

He was beside her in an instant, moving faster than she could with her haphazard flopping, but when she felt his hooves on her shoulders it wasn’t to hold her back this time. He gave her back a gentle pat.

“Y’know I don’t want you to do this, right? Y’know I think it’s stupid as Tartarus.”

“Yeah, but it’s not my first time outswimming a lusca, Starry,” Flowing promised, taking his hoof in her fins. “I can do this.”

“If you’re sure, I can’t stop ya. What can I do to help, Flowing? From up here?”

“Distractions. Lusca’s have great eyesight but shit hearing, they really rely on feeling vibrations in the water,” Flowing explained, not bothering to get into the specifics of the science. She could have educated the ship on the usage of the statocysts of squids and luscas, but she figured time was of the essence. “Sudden sharp changes in the water is gonna throw it off and overwhelm it, which might discourage it from continuing the chase.”

It was a guess, of course, such was never really a luxury Flowing had during her previous encounters with the underwater beast. Yet even so, the tactic for escaping them had been the same--split up, make lots of movement, and generally be a pestersome nuisance. Something Flowing was good at. The harder a catch you were, the less the lusca would want to continue the chase.

She just had to be a tempting enough catch for the lusca to abandon the ship for her, and a quick enough swimmer to not wind up a catch in the first place.

No pressure, right?

“Good luck, Starry.” Flowing gave him a kiss on the lips. She let go of his hooves and put both fins on the railing.

“Be safe, Flowing. If it gets too much...”

“Come back in. I gotcha.”

“My griffs and pegas are gonna be flyin’ right above ya, Miss Flowing,” Captain Misty piped up. “If it’s getting too much for you, we can swoop you outta there in a pinch.”

Flowing smiled. “Then I shall count on your tactical swooping when the necessity arises.”

She could already see the lusca approaching, ready for another ram at the ship. She wasn’t going to wait and see if it would be able to sustain another, though. Without any further hesitation, Flowing flung herself over the rail once more, hitting the water swimming.

The lusca was right in front of her as she did, and she banked to the side the moment it noticed her. It, too, abandoned its path towards the ship to instead give chase to her, its shark maw opening to let out an indignant roar. Flowing didn’t dare look back, she simply swam as fast as her tail and fins could take her. She swam straight down, back into the murky depths. She was swimming at a steep diagonal, aiming to put some diagonal distance from herself and the ship as well as vertical.

At least for now. She did not want to stay alone in the deep waters for too long, with a lusca on her tail. The closer she was to the surface, the closer the others were to saving her. If the lusca grabbed her with one of its tentacles this far into the depths, she was done for.

In the moment, though, it was simply about getting some distance to work with. She finally afforded herself a backwards glance, and she was instantly grateful that she did. One of the lusca’s tentacles had abandoned it’s role in swimming, and instead had outstretched forwards, intend on swiping at Flowing’s caudal fin. She brought her tail in close and shoved all of her weight to the side, swimming off in a quick barrel roll directly beneath the lusca.

The motion brought her uncomfortably close to the beast, which was like an electric jolt of adrenaline through her system, made even stronger by the furious roar it let out at being so close to it’s catch, only for it to suddenly slip away. Flowing swam in between flailing tendrils, which swiped and swept at her. One actually brushed against her tail fin, which caused her to quickly wrench it in closer to the rest of her body.

Then, she was away, swimming furiously like her--well, she supposed her life did depend on it.

She looked up for a brief moment, and high above, against the light from the sun above reflecting through the shimmering waters, she could see the outline of the cargo ship, some hundred or so meters above her. She hoped the griffons were getting ready for action with the time she was currently buying them. Either way, she was grateful the lusca had taken the seapony-shaped bait so easily.

Now, she just had to keep up the lead.

After successfully weaving through the forest of urgently flailing tentacles, she was on the ascent once more, racing towards the ocean’s surface with the lusca still in hot pursuit behind her. She’d apparently aggravated it enough that it wasn’t keen on letting her get away easily. That was fine.

The constant swims to Herring Harbour from home, practically every other day, were something she was grateful for now. Her swimming muscles felt toned, strong, capable. She was frightened, yes, but gods it was nice to let loose and swim for all she was worth.

It was a good thing she’d been resting aboard the sailboat for most of her day, though, instead of swimming alongside it. It was a strange thought to have in the midst of danger, but she’d have to offer Starry a thanks later for his accidental wisdom.

She breached the water, and before she even hit the water again, the lusca did, too. It must have been quite a sight, to anypony looking from the cargo ship. In the few seconds she was above the waves she could see a few griffons and one pegasi had been skimming over the waves, and when they saw the sudden breach they instantly banked and beat the air with their wings.

Then, she hit the water once again.

The lusca impacted the water behind her with enough force that it actually interrupted Flowing’s swimming pattern, swaying her off course and gumming up the rhythm she’d been cultivating. It might not have seemed like much to the non-aquatically inclined, but keeping a steady rhythm and flow was essential to one’s successful swimming. While the body and fins moved independent from eachother, it was all in service of one fluid, flowing motion.

And the interruption of it was enough to temporarily slow Flowing’s escape.

She yelped out as she felt one of the lusca’s tentacles wrap around her tail. Once again, she made a furious attempt to wrench it in close and swing her body out of the way, but this time the lusca seemed to have predicted the movement. It’s tentacles were splayed out in every direction, making every single possible route of escape a dangerous one. Flowing flailed urgently, and as she did the tentacle gripped around her tail tighter. Her heart started to pound furiously in her chest, and with a terrified cry, she once again yanked her tail away from the lusca’s grip, finally achieving some purchase and slipping out of it’s grasp. It roared, and another tentacle moved to join the effort of restraining her, and she wasn’t about to wait to see how successful it might’ve been. Already she was swimming away, straight into the path of the other tentacles practically caging her in close proximity with the lusca.

Her head was a flurry of the same desperate and obvious observation. 'This is bad this is bad this is bad--'

...Her terrified thoughts were interrupted suddenly when a heavy weight hit the water from above, a mighty splash splitting through the waves. A barrel, thrown into the ocean from the skies above, fell down and struck the lusca directly in the head. Not enough to really injure it, Flowing could tell, but certainly enough to distract it. The barrel had impacted the water with enough force that Flowing could feel it’s vibrations, and how they affected the water around them, causing the tentacles to sway. She ducked under one and swam away at the fastest speed she could and had already put some distance from it when she reached the surface of the ocean again.

Two of the griffons were waiting for her there, ready to grab her out of the water, but she waved a fin mid-swim. “I’m fine! Just got me off guard! Nice goin’, fellas!”

They glanced at each other, shrugged, and flapped above her. The lusca had recovered from the temporarily shock, and this time it had devoted some of its tendrils to trying to swat at the griffons hovering above the waves. They flapped up quickly, gaining some altitude, and Flowing decided to take advantage of the lusca’s temporary shift in hunting priority.

A sideways bank, and she was swimming headlong towards the lusca. It roared, she roared back, and then cut her approach at the last second, swatting the lusca across it’s sharky snout with her tail as hard as she could.

“Leave us alone!” she hollered. She didn’t know if it could understand her, but if the squid part of it’s brain had more presence than the shark one, it wasn’t out of the question. Clever buggers. “Go feed someplace else!”

She got another roar for her trouble and another flail of tentacles, but she wasn’t making the same mistake again. She swam past it, lengthwise along it’s body, and it had no choice but to sacrifice it’s attempts to grab her in favour of mobility, twisting itself around in a full 180 degrees to keep on her. Now that she’d gone and smacked it right in the snout, she’d proven she wasn’t just prey, she was prey that was going to fight back.

“Ya like that, pal?” Flowing hollered out, swimming off. It responded to her taunt with a flail of its tendrils, trying to grab her as she sped off through the waters, breaching to give the griffons a wave. She rode the waves while they kept up beneath her, looking down with concern and intrigue and disbelief on whether or not she’d really just gone and smacked a sea monster in the face with her tail.

“You doin’ alright, miss fishy?” One of the griffons called out as they both raced over the waves, above and below.

“Peachy!” Flowing returned. Behind her, she heard a mighty splash as the lusca surfaced, too. “Hey, I’ve got an idea... Y’think you two can pick me up for a sec?”

No sooner than she’d said it, were the two griffons clipping their wings and coming down towards her. Her forelimbs weren’t really doing anything at the moment besides staying flush against her side, and so she spread them out as the griffons approached and let them grip onto her, one griffon using his left talon and the other using his right. She was surprised they had such a tender grip for how sharp the talons looked. Her only experience with griffons prior had been fighting with them over fishing rights, so it was a bit of a leap of trust allowing herself to be pulled out of the dangerous path of an angry lusca by the avian predators, and she was instantly relieved her trust was rewarded.

They flapped their powerful wings several times and soon enough her tail was dangling over open air while the lusca’s tentacles swatted upwards at her. One of the tendrils grazed her tail, wrapped around the tip, and started to tug her back down. The griffons, noticing this, quickly beat their wings harder and faster and pulled her out of harms way and into the sky a dozen or so meters above the ocean’s floor.

“Now what, ma’am?” One asked.

“Hopin’ you’ve got a plan!” The other added. “Dunno if throwin’ ya back in there with that thing is a good idea.”

“Well... Er. I do have a plan,” Flowing said, and it was true. She did. A silly, ludicrous, and dangerous plan, sure. But a plan all the same, and weren’t those the best sorts? The ones craziest enough to work? “Y’think you can... Dive bomb down to the water? And let go of me just as you do?”

She had a visual in her mind, of her flying into the water like a torpedo just so she could slap that lusca across the face with her tail even harder. A nice visual in her head. She was praying to the Sirens it would be as nice in practice.

The griffons shared a glance. One of them shrugged. The other managed a little chuckle. “Think you’re a wee bit crazy, ma’am. No offence.”

“Your lad might kill us both if we letcha get hurt.” The other added.

Flowing laughed. “Then be ready on the swooping. But that jerk’s been hitting your ship somethin’ fierce, why don’t we give him a taste of his own medicine?”

The griffons both grinned at that. A shared nod, and they turned and swooped in a graceful arc made a little less graceful by the heavy seapony still in tow. And then, they were racing downwards closer and closer towards the water, towards the lusca, the distance closing quickly...

Flowing hit the water at a mighty speed and twisted herself around as she did. Her trajectory was directly at the lusca, and her sudden movement meant that her tail smacked it right in the neck. She was aiming for the siphons--the ‘altitude’ control of the beast, where it took in and released water to keep itself centered and in control of itself. Her aim was true, her tail hitting the small but sensitive area with a mighty force. The creature screamed out in surprise and indignation and pain, and it did so again when it saw that Flowing was already out of it’s grasp before it could react further.

When it gave chase for what felt like the dozenth time, Flowing could tell it was slowing down, and losing the drive to continue the chase. She didn’t slow herself, swishing her tail gracefully and swimming down, down, as far down as she could. She could tell from how cool the water felt that there were near fathomless depths for her to descend into, and she did so with as much speed as she could. Soon, she was past where the light of the sun could penetrate. She didn’t turn to look for the lusca, for she could still feel it’s mighty tentacles swishing through the water as it chased her. Her angler lamp was her only guiding light, and the only point of reference the lusca had on where she was, even with its excellent squidy eyesight.

Flowing descended deeper and deeper until even she could feel the weight of the ocean around her. She had no idea how much deeper she might have to go to reach the bottom—nor did she know with utmost certainty that there wasn’t more horror waiting for her on the bottom of the ocean.

Instead of finding out, she decided to take one last gamble. Taking in a shaky breath to calm herself as best she could, she extinguished her angler lamp and swam off to the side.

Her fins went flat against her sides. Her tail stopped swishing the waters. She dare not even breathe, out of fear that the sound of the water rushing in and out of her gills might be heard by the lusca. She could feel it’s lumbering weight as it continued to swim, continued to assault the salt water with its tendrils, continued to roar and rumble as it searched for its seapony prey…

And, as Flowing lay motionlessly suspended in the deep sea waters, she could feel the pressure of its swimming fading…

It felt like its current swept past her. And then, instead of stopping to engage the idling seapony, it continued downwards, and she felt it getting further from her.

She dare not take in any more water through her gills until the last traces of its movement had vanished. But… once it had… She quickly caught her breath and let herself start to float upwards. Her tail swished at the water as silently as she could at first, but once she’d gained a hundred or so meters of aquatic altitude, she swam faster, while deep below the lusca no doubt continued to hunt the depths for its seapony target that it no longer even felt particularly motivated to chase.

She surfaced. The two griffons nearly started as she did, but she flashed them a smirk and rose both of her forefins. “Ride back, boys? Think I gave him the slip.”

~~~

“Hey, Tempy?”

“I have warned you multiple times not to call me that, Cirrus Bolt.”

“And I continue to ignore your warnings, dastardly bird that I am,” Cirrus smirked. They were both making their way off of the deck of the Thespis, after Tempest had ordered it to be taken up river and out of sight from anypony approaching from the ocean. Harder to repair it in an isolated spot, but she didn’t doubt her crew’s capabilities to do so regardless.

Moving the ship had meant they’d had to trek back into Broken Beak Cove, a walk of fifteen or so minutes which Cirrus had insisted on accompanying Tempest on. He’d been with her practically constantly, since they’d left the tavern, stopping just to grab his travel pack and drop off his room key. The prospect that the hippogriff would be bunking in the Thespis wasn’t one that filled Tempest with much joy.

“...well, so...” Cirrus was continuing. “You’re not expecting your seapony for a little bit, eh?”

Tempest glanced back at him as she walked. Besides him, they were alone, which Tempest was at least grateful for. “Yes. They will be swimming, and she will have to take breaks where they are available. I imagine this evening, or sometime tomorrow morning.”

“So, time. Time to maybe...” Tempest heard a rustling of paper behind her, and when she turned, she was Cirrus fishing out one of the posters he’d tucked into his bag earlier. “Whaddaya say? Quick bounty in town? Debt collection gig, nothin’ complex?”

“I do not think that splitting our focus between a primary bounty and a ‘time killer’ bounty is a good idea, Cirrus.”

“Right, but. What’re your plans then? Scope out the docks, all day and all night?” Cirrus kicked off the ground, flapping ahead of her and holding out the poster with both claws. “Come onnnn, a quick little job. Pay’s good, too, look at that! Three hundred bits, that’s one fifty between us! Just to go rough up some griffon noble? That’s like, easy money.”

Tempest didn’t reply. She kept walking.

“Come on, Tempy. Can’t tell me you don’t need the bits, too.”

“The Storm King keeps me well compensated.”

“The Storm King keeps your allowance on a tighter leash than my fishy folks did,” Cirrus replied. “And think, when we’ve got your seapony in captivity, we can go actually celebrate!”

“This isn’t a game, Cirrus. This is a turning point. I know you don’t care about anything, but I can’t afford to not take this seriously.”

“You take everything seriously, Tempest.” Cirrus let the poster fall a bit, but didn’t stow it away yet. “It’s really... Kinda dull, to be honest. I know you’re not that much of a grouch deep down.”

Tempest narrowed her eyes. “Cirrus, we are not friends. Don’t delude yourself of that notion any longer.”

“Ain’t asking for your ‘fwiendship’, Tempy. I’m asking for your help on one job. I dropped everything to help you, and I promise we can have it done before the sun goes down. Two hours, tops.”

Tempest was silent again, save for the sound of her armoured hooves crunching against the road weaving into town. These little fishing communities lining the coasts of the Griffon Empire were similar to the ones across the pond to Equestria, and different in many ways, too. Both resolved themselves into craggy, rocky cliff-faces, but around the Griffon Empire they were far taller, sharper, and practically obscured anything past the coast itself. This meant that maritime traffic was usually funnelled into the winding rivers that made their way into the landscape, with the rest of it impassable to beings incapable of flight. The Thespis would be well-hidden.

And, even if Flowing and her stallion managed to slip past her at the docks, there was nowhere for them to go inland, besides following the river directly into the nets of the Thespis.

“One job, fine.” Tempest sighed. Loathe as she was to admit... A bounty hunting job seemed a good change of pace after so long on the waves and wayward sea breezes.

Together they made their way back into town in relative silence, the scent of salt water and freshly caught fish wafting to Tempest’s nostrils just as the flimsy, brightly coloured little shanty village came into view over the craggy hills that formed the harsh Griffonian landscape. Tempest idly caught herself wondering if the dreary grey rock that formed the majority of the landscape was the reason why griffons and ponies both desired to paint their buildings bright reds and blues and yellows. A vain effort to return some colour to the coastline.

Broken Beak wasn’t an enormous settlement, but it was still one of the most populated this side of the ocean, simply by virtue of its location at both the oceanic coastline, and one of the larger streams of fresh water that made their way inland. Tempest imagined a couple hundred griffons lived there—and perhaps a few dozen ponies, too. Strange, more griffon-like ponies compared to across the ocean; with crueller senses of humour, stronger livers, and more interesting stories, but ponies all the same.

The sorts of pony Tempest reckoned she was.

Soon enough, they were in town proper, Tempest’s hooves leaving the dirt path and venturing onto the old, cracked cobblstone streets instead. Beside her, Cirrus flapped down to land next to her.

“So. Debt collection,” Tempest said. “Who are we looking for and where are we looking for him.”

They passed the front gate into town. Beside them, a few lonely farm houses on the outskirts of town passed. One of them looked abandoned to Tempest. Whatever in Tartarus they were trying to ‘farm’ out of craggy rock, it seemed it hadn’t been fruitful enough.

“Name is… er.” Cirrus fished out the flier. “Gabriel the Griffon. Seriously, the Griffon? Do they all go by that? What if there’s two griffons with the same name?”

“I presume he has a surname and us knowing it is irrelevant. Where is Gabriel the Griffon?” Tempest almost cringed as she said it.

“Gabriel the Griffon can typically be found drinking at the Crooked Claw Cavern.”

“A typo of Tavern?”

Cirrus snort-laughed. “Or somegriff really wanted the alliteration to work.”

Tempest almost laughed, but she caught herself and rolled her eyes instead. “Have you been there before?”

“Once, cause there was a nice, juicy, ‘technically kinda sorta illegal’ high stakes poker game that I wanted to put a few chips into.” Cirrus winked. “Skeevy place. If you can enjoy a drink without a bar fight breaking out, you’re a lucky patron.”

“And this is where our ‘griffon noble’ is.”

“You ask a lot of questions about a job you were trying to pretend you weren’t interested in ten minutes ago,” Cirrus said, shooting Tempest a sideways grin. “But yes. If we’re lucky.”

Eventually, the two cut into a back alley, away from the main ‘drag’ of Broken Beak. It was only the middle of the afternoon, but it felt much later, owing to the way the cloud cover above them had thickened and blotted out the burning maritime sun. Dark, grey, and low in the sky… they would no doubt have rain before the end of the day, Tempest figured. If she was lucky, it would delay her seapony catch further, and ensure she still had plenty of time to get into position for her capture.

Along the way, Tempest stayed behind Cirrus and let him lead the pack. She was staring straight ahead, while the hippogriff was a bit more alert. Ears flicking about, and shooting the occasional glance behind himself as they travelled.

For somepony so accustomed to aerial combat on the deck of an airship, Tempest nearly slapped herself across the face for missing it.

“Don’t look,” Cirrus said, looking straight ahead now and trotting forwards without slowing. The alleyway was surprisingly lengthy, forming an alternate route through much of the town’s marketplace. “But the same griffon has been tailing me since I came back into town.”

Tempest frowned, and continued following Cirrus as he led the way forward. “You sure?”

“Well. I thought I saw him tailing me earlier. Him and a few others. And then I met you in the tavern, and we left town for a bit…” Cirrus clicked his tongue. “And now he’s back.”

“Shoot.” Tempest’s first instinct was to berate Cirrus for—something. She wasn’t quite sure what. Being followed? Raising trouble? She didn’t have the full picture, which made it a little hard to pass any dire judgment.

Then again, Cirrus’s status as a hippogriff perhaps didn’t mean she had to. Wasn’t she chasing a seapony for the same reason? Sure, she’d arbitrarily made the decision that Cirrus was off-limits, but why the blazes would some other random griffon bounty hunter have thought otherwise?

She’d left her armour back in the Thespis, too. It was the only symbol that really identified her as a servant of the Storm King. Without it… well, she was just another rival bounty hunter to anyone else watching.

“Why?” Tempest ventured. Maybe Cirrus had an answer, after all.

He didn’t. “I don’t know. Wouldn’t be the first time a someone put out a bounty on, er…”

On another bounty hunter. It was true, of course. It was a cut-throat world, out here on the fringes of the legal and illegal.

They continued on towards the tavern. They passed the sign for the Crooked Claw—an indeed quite skeevy looking place that was accessible via a dirty and darkened stairwell into a dank underground… perhaps cavern really was a fitting moniker. Cirrus didn’t stop, though, and Tempest didn’t blame him. If the place was as sketchy as he suggested, perhaps getting cornered within wasn’t the best option.

She became more aware of the sound of wing beats above them in the alleyway. They were a near constant sound in the town proper, but the alleys had a way of muffling the sounds of the surrounding town. The sound, background noise to her once, took on a new meaning when she knew they were being followed—and judging by the amount of wingbeats, not just by one griffon, after all.

Soon enough, they crossed from the alleyway back into the main marketplace. It was busier within, so Tempest trotted closer to Cirrus so she wouldn’t lose track of him.

“They, uh. They’re still following me,” Cirrus grumbled out.

Tempest finally afforded herself an upwards, backwards glance. The sky was busy with griffons flapping to and fro, but it was pretty easy to distinguish which ones were on normal-marketplace business, and which ones had… other designs. They were amateurish, Tempest thought, in how obvious it was that they were bounty hunters on a trail. Tempest spotted a blunderbuss hanging from a strap over one of the griffon’s necks—relatively expensive weaponry within the Griffon Empire. Bulky, loud, unsubtle, and not as reliable as their power would imply… Tempest had greatly found herself preferring her own hooves herself, but she had at least enough experience to know that seeing the thing around the neck of a griffon tailing her wasn’t really an encouraging prospect.

“Think we can take them, Cirrus?” Tempest asked, keeping her voice low and hoping the sounds of the marketplace would drown out any potential eavesdroppers. The hustle and bustle wasn't as dramatic as either had seen it, and Tempest wasn't entirely confident the two of them wouldn't still stick out amidst it. “Ones got a blunderbuss. Could just be for show. Don’t wanna find out.”

“Maybe. Don’t gotta do that, though, Tempy,” Cirrus replied. “Don’t wanna get you into more trouble.”

She narrowed her eyes. “I can handle myself fine. In fact, I can handle myself so fine that I suppose I’ll have to handle you as well.” She jerked her head behind her. Not caring now if their pursuers knew they were found out. “Come on. Let’s find out what they want.”

Cirrus gave her a single nod, looking both surprised and grateful. He whistled for her to follow, and then he was venturing off into another side alley. Tempest was right on his talons, the idle chatter of the marketplace once again going quiet. There wasn’t much to this particular alleyway, it continued around a corner and ended there, a few trash bins against the tall concrete wall of some sort of factory or bakery.

Tempest turned to face where they’d come from, putting her own back to Cirrus’s, internally bracing for some sort of exciting escalation to the current tenseness.

The two griffons landed into the alleyway, too. The one griffon had already wrapped a wing around the handle of his blunderbuss as soon as he landed. Not pointing it at them…yet, but letting them know it was there all the same.

“Help you guys?” Cirrus ventured.

“Sure hope so.” The first griffon, the one with the blunderbuss, said. A male, judging by his voice. “You Cirrus Bolt?”

Cirrus looked back at Tempest. She shrugged. With a lengthy exhale, Cirrus gave a single nod. “Uh huh. To who do I owe the pleasure?”

“To a couple of 'griff’s who know a hippogriff when they see one. A dangerous, bounty hunter of one, but one all the same.” The second griffon piped up. While her plumage made it a bit hard to tell, Tempest knew this one was female. “And, y’know. I told my partner… ain’t there a price on information 'bout the hippogriffs floatin’ around?”

“Not this one,” Tempest said, stepping forward. “Off limits.”

“Yeah? Authority of who?”

“Tempest Shadow. Lieutenant of the Storm King’s First Insurgency Battalion.”

The two griffons shared a look, followed by a laugh. A laugh that may as well have been the griffon telling her they believed her as much as they believed Cirrus was Princess Celestia.

Tempest rolled her eyes at their laughter, cutting it off before they could get some stereotypical quip in. “Look, either bug off and leave us be, or let’s stop wasting time and get this over with. I have things to do.”

Behind her, she could feel Cirrus tense. Evidently, he wasn’t entirely on board with her own impulsive, callousness, but she didn’t really feel even a little bit intimidated by these two bounty hunters. They simply radiated arrogance, and incompetence, and she couldn’t deny the urge to put the two fools in their place.

And then no sooner had the thought crossed Tempest’s head, did two other griffons flap into view, swirling around to land behind Cirrus and surround the two of them.

9 - A Fish, A Bird, A Net

~~~

It had felt like forever since Star Point’s hooves had touched on solid land.

It was funny, relatively speaking it hadn’t really been any longer than usual--he’d spent days and sometimes even a week out at sea with nobody but the gulls as company, and somehow hadn’t travelled as far and seen as much as he had from the little sailboat that had taken him across much of the Celestial Sea.

They had first spotted signs of land in the late morning after an uneventful night of sailing. Star was struggling to stay awake as the sun reached the apex of the sky, and it was with a mighty relief that he took in the expansive shoreline slowly fading into view from the hazy fog of the horizon.

There were other ships along the way, too, all leaving Griffonstone ports or returning to them from other destinations across the great Celestial Sea. A few cargo freighters, which Starry and Flowing had waved to as they passed (when they were close enough), and a few fishing trawlers that Star looked at with a sort of melancholy.

He was going to miss his trawler, that was for certain. He knew it would be sometime before he was able to afford another, which meant that even after things returned to normal, his days as a fisherpony were temporarily on hold. The knowledge that he’d have to leave the sea behind for some time... It ate into him, just a little bit. He’d considered himself fortunate that his career as a fisherpony had meant he’d have plenty of opportunities to see Flowing, and he couldn’t help but wonder how that might change, now.

Buildings began to fade into view in blurry shapes as they got closer to land. They were sailing towards a small little hamlet who’s name Star could only guess at. Still, it was somewhere, and with a bit of luck, it would be somewhere with a train station. It was only now occuring to him that he was about to step onto Griffon soil for the first time in his life... He’d heard both good things and bad things about the lands on the far side of the sea, and he was as eager as he was wary about what awaited them.

Their arrival to land was slowed for a moment as Flowing crept out of the sailboat and into the water. Not knowing exactly what they might find in the town ahead of them, they’d decided it best if she stayed below the waves while Star docked the sailboat alone.

As they approached, Star Point spotted a light-house that had been emblazoned with faded, block stencilled lettering proclaiming the hamlet to be Broken Beak Cove. The harbour itself was occupied by a few fishing trawlers and nothing much bigger, though Star still felt a little strange steering a tiny little sailboat towards them and tying it off on a dock post. A few griffons were looking down at him with a bit of amusement from the surrounding docks, though none of them seemed to be regarding him with much ill-will.

After tying off the sailboat, he knelt down at the end of the dock. Flowing surfaced momentarily, her angler light poking out from the murky water. He hoped the nearby griffons wouldn’t think him crazy for talking to what was, from their perspective anyways, the water.

“Blech. Water tastes gross here. All gumming up my gills,” she grumbled out.

Starry gave her a sympathetic nod. “Yeah... Well. Hopefully you won’t be in there long.”

“Whatcha thinkin’, Starry?”

“I’m gonna... Go look around. I don’t see any sign of Tempest and her goons, but... Better to be safe than sorry before we go parading ya through town, y’know?”

Flowing nodded. “Right. Oke. Want me to stay here then?”

Starry bit his lip. He really didn’t, but he didn’t really see another option for them, either. “Yeah. But stay low ‘till I get back, alright?”

“Aye aye, Starry.”

It took some effort on Star Point’s part to leave his marefriend behind. The last time he’d done so had been to let her go swim waywardly between the greedy tendrils of an aquatic beast. Besides that, he’d felt like they’d been together every second of their journey, and to part ways for even a moment...

He would be swift. Get into town. Look around. Find the station, and get them both the Tartarus out of here once and for all.

It was a little surprising how much the griffon fishing town reminded him of home. There were more butchers, more fishmongers, and fewer ponies (obviously), but nonetheless he instantly felt at home as he wandered the town rife with the smell of freshly caught fish and the salt of the sea being carried in on the breeze.

Star Point knew he was... An oddity, to most of these folks. He could feel their eyes on him. He wasn’t the only pony around, but he was certainly in the minority, and it seemed something about him immediately identified him as not having come from the Griffonlands in the first place.

With a shrug, he decided he might as well own up to it. If he looked that much like a foreigner, then surely it wouldn’t hurt to ask like one, too. He hailed down a griffon at random, and after a brief exchange, he was proceeding deeper into the town along a set of vague directions that would (hopefully) bring him to the tiny little train station located on the outskirts of the town.

It was built away from the rest of the fishing town, at the end of a short dirt road that looked like it was rarely used. Star hoped that such wasn’t a sign that he was heading towards the abandoned ruins of a train station. Depending on how often the train passed by, he knew he’d have to figure out a place for him and Flowing to lie low while they waited for it. He also was silently praying that they wouldn’t find him too insane when he told them that one of the tickets he was buying was for a creature who’d prefer to make the trip in a bath-tub if the train had one.

Such thoughts were floating about in Star’s head as he left behind the fishing town and his hooves took him outside of the grasps of civilization and into the silent separation towards the station.

“Hold up there, earth pony.”

Star Point froze as the familiar voice cut through the silence.

Every muscle in him wanted to flee. It was... Cowardly of him, sure. But it was also his best option, all things considered. She’d waited until he was far enough from town to confront him, which meant they were all alone on the path connecting the train station into town.

Shakily, he turned to confront her. “Tempest.”

“You know I can’t just let you leave.”

He narrowed his eyes at her. “Why are you doing this? Me and Flowing... We didn’t do anything to you, y’know.”

“Mm. I assure you that it brings me no joy,” Tempest Shadow replied, waving a hoof dismissively. “But I have a job. Catching fish brings you no joy, right? How’s it any different?”

“You can’t be serious,” Star growled out. He took a single step to the side, aiming to try and weave his way around Tempest, slowly and gradually over the course of their conversation. Give himself a free sprint back into town. He just had to make it to Flowing, and they could get the blazes out of here. “What do you want from her, anyways? What’s in it for you?”

“I could ask you that question,” Tempest returned. “If that seapony simply tells me where I must go to find her Queen, then I have no reason to continue hunting either of you. She’s already rejected her Queen’s will before, why would it matter if she did it once more?”

“Maybe we don’t like your attitude,” Star said. “Maybe she worries what you’d do to her kind.”

“I just need the Pearl.”

“Why?”

Tempest laughed. “Now that is information I have no reason to share with you, earth pony.”

“Is it the horn?”’

Tempest narrowed her eyes. “No.”

“Listen... If it is, then... Maybe we can help you. Maybe the seaponies would be willing to help with your horn if you didn’t try and capture them. Did you ever even think of that?”

Tempest stared for several seconds. Her frown deepened, and her left hoof dug into the dirt.

Then, she hung her head back and laughed. A raucous, mocking sort of sound. “Oh that is priceless. You’re actually serious. Is this one of those ‘friendship’ offers I’ve been hearing so much of as of late?”

“Yes,” Star didn’t miss a beat. “I’m serious, Tempest. Flowing was the one who suggested it. She has every reason to hate you, and she doesn’t. She wants to help. But... But not like this.”

“Mmm. And that’s... Quite sweet of her.” Tempest’s laugh had tapered into a condescending smirk. “For what it’s worth... I have no plans of hurting her. If she co-operates, I might even let her go. When I’m finished.”

Star blinked. “W-what?”

Tempest had no further reply. She shrugged her shoulders, and turned away from Star Point without another word in his direction.

“That... Should be enough time,” she said to herself, as she started to walk away from him. Moving slowly, carelessly, and away from town. She had turned her back to Star Point... If she had any intentions of capturing him, it seemed she had abruptly abandoned them in favour of... Something else.

Star felt a tugging in his chest. A sudden blooming terror, and a irrepressible desire to be with Flowing again.

He didn’t bother saying anything else to Tempest. He didn’t care where she was going... All he cared about was sprinting as fast as he could back towards the docks where he’d left his marefriend...

~~~

The docks of the fishing town were quieter than the ones in Herring Harbour, and the water felt... Dirtier, to Flowing. Like, whatever the griffons were using for fuel for their boats wasn’t as clean as what ponies relied on instead. Or perhaps there were more natural pollutants in the water itself.

Regardless, Flowing didn’t venture far from the sailboat after Star had headed into town. She swam underneath the dock, hoping it would keep her somewhat hidden, and she lay back on the rocks of the harbour shore with the waves lapping at her and the dock spiders skittering around above her. Traces of burning torch light cut through the gaps in the old, half-rotten wooden dock above her, but there did not seem to be a lot of activity in the harbour that evening.

As such, it was a bit of a surprise when she saw taloned feet crossing the dock above her.

She squinted, and sat up a little as they travelled further down the dock. Her angler light accidentally prodded one of the dock spiders, which skittered away in annoyance, while Flowing herself took to floating across the water and keeping pace with the taloned feet travelling further down the dock.

At first, she’d assumed they belonged to a gryphon. It only made sense, considering her local. But a gryphons talons were wider, broader, as close to a paw as they were a talon, which she supposed was owing to their strange cat-bird chimericism. This creature by comparison had were thin, narrow, and seemed more attuned to precision. They reminded Flowing of what she’d seen of...

...but that was impossible. If there were hippogriffs roaming around here so brazenly, then what was Tempest doing so adamantly chasing her?

With such questions swirling in her head, it nearly shocked her out of her scales when the talons stopped and a masculine sounding voice rung out.

“Y’know. It’s a little bit creepy to stare at a creature’s claws. No offence.”

Flowing gasped. “S-sorry! You didn’t see me!”

A chuckle. “Hey, it’s fine. I’m kidding. Whatcha hidin’ down there for?”

Coyly, Flowing swam out from under the dock. There was no sense staying hidden when she’d been spotted, and she’d probably rouse more suspicion by raising a fuss.

As she did, another gasp left her when she saw that the creature was a hippogriff! A dark-coated, blue-feathered hippogriff with a face that was dot-marked in cuts and scars. Some fresh, some looking as though he’d had them for the greater part of his life.

He was wearing what looked like a harpoon gun slung over his shoulder, although instead of a harpoon at the tip it had a three pronged device. Whatever it’s use, Flowing could only extrapolate... She’d never really been quite acquainted with the various tools that dock-workers and ship repairers used, even when she’d made herself known in Herring Harbour.

“Are you a hippogriff?” Flowing breathed out, incredulous. “Or, uh. A changeling? I’ve heard about those, too...”

The hippogriff laughed again. “No, I assure you I’m not a changeling. Though, I could ask the same of you... I thought seaponies were supposed to be banished or something. Not every day you see ‘em poking around.”

“Yeah...” Flowing found a protruding rock to sit upon while she talked to the hippogriff.

“How’s the ol’ Queen doin’, anyways? Still swimmin’ around with a stick up her fish hole?”

Flowing couldn’t hold back a snicker. “You’re from Seaquestria, I guess?”

He nodded. “Name’s Cirrus Bolt. You are?”

“Flowing Sands.”

“Pleasure, Flowing.” Cirrus leaned the harpoon-gun-looking-thing on a dock post.

“I haven’t seen ya around Seaquestria,” Flowing said. “Did you... Forgive me if it’s a sore subject, but did you leave?”

He smirked. “In a manner of sorts. Let’s just say Queen Novo isn’t really open to hippogriffs who aren’t interested in staying cooped up at the bottom of the sea. Sure you catch my drift.”

Flowing shook her head. “I actually don’t. I’m not actually a hippogriff, I’m a pure blooded seapony. I guess I kinda see ya as more... A cousin.”

He laughed. “Hey, that’s alright! Well then, shoot, Novo’s paranoia is even less your problem, eh? Is that why you headed out? Maybe ya do catch my drift, after all!”

Flowing bit her lip. It was swiftly catching up to her that she’d let her excitement at seeing a hippogriff run ahead of her caution, and she’d instinctively assumed because they were (kind of) the same endangered species that he’d automatically be a hippogriff she could trust.

And nothing about his demeanour told her otherwise, he seemed quite friendly. But she wasn’t exactly travelling around with the intent of making friends. A rather disheartening thing to consider, but simply the truth.

Cirrus seemed to note the tentativeness in her silence. "Hey, if you don't want to share, I won't pry. Dangerous world out here, y'know?"

Flowing nodded. "That's what folk tell me."

"'What folks tell ya,'" he repeated, raising an eyebrow and smirking. "You make it sound like you've got other ideas."

"No, no. Not exactly. I just, er. Don't consider myself that cynical," Flowing replied. "Dangerous world, sure. But even in the past few days, I've met a good few folks who've been, er. Inspiring. So maybe it's both."

"Hey, no arguments there," Cirrus said. "Can't imagine how dull it must be, stayin' cooped up in Seaquestria. Not really meetin' folks except in passin'."

"You have no idea," Flowing said with an exhale.

He laughed. "Hey, if I didn't, I never would've left, would I?"

That gave Flowing pause for a few moments, and she chuckled, too. "Touché! I mean, I wanna go back eventually, of course."

"But you wanted to see the world a bit. Beyond what Queen No-fun says you can see."

"Yeah. She means well, but... ocean was made for swimming."

“Gotcha,” Cirrus’s beak twisted in a smile. “Hey, you ever been to the West? Over in the Southern Lunar Sea?”

Flowing blinked at that. A rather silly question, all things considered. A hippogriff of all folks should have known that. “No. That’s where the Storm King’s armies patrol. I’d be a bit of a fool to go there.”

“Mm. Perhaps.” Cirrus’s grin didn’t vanish. He rose again as he next spoke. “Still. I might be able to offer you a lift there. All inclusive. No charge.”

The hippogriffs talons were on the harpoon-gun just as Flowing’s eyes went wide with realization. She didn’t stick around much to hear out the rest of his ‘offer’, though. She was turning tail and swimming away as swiftly as she could, making her previous encounter with the lusca look like a brisk little drift by comparison.

A glance back, and she saw the hippogriff lazily taking flight with the gun held in his talons.

Flowing had just enough time to scream before a load pressurized bang! split through the harbour. From the gun, a fluorescent orange net was shot, weighed down on all sides by the protruding bars that she’d spotted at the end of the barrel.

She turned, and she dove down as swiftly as she could...

And she wasn’t fast enough. Flowing screamed again as she felt the net collide with her, the bars glowing with magical energy for a brief moment, and then they all combined with each other. The open end of the net was swiftly closed as they did, the bars locking into place and sealing Flowing within the net.

She thrashed about violently, feeling betrayed and terrified and hating herself for allowing herself to be tricked by one of her own. Some sort of enchantment in the net bars seemed to be drawing her back to the surface, as though they were buoyant. The net itself was far too small for her to comfortably swim in, and try as she might she was unable to stop herself from rising up to the surface again, towards the waiting talons of her hippogriff captor.

With a gasp, she breached the water, the hippogriff hooking his hind-talons around the bars and starting to flap into the air.

“Sorry about this, Flowing!” he chirped out. “But a bounty’s a bounty! Tempest says hi, by the way!”

Flowing felt her heart sink in her chest, as the waves below her grew further away. So close, and so impossibly far away--they looked like she could simply dive down into them, but her every attempt to free herself only further tangled her helplessly against the netting encasing her.

The ocean grew wider as she grew further away, and the hippogriff hauled her off deeper in-land.

10 - Baiting the Shark

~~~

Star Point cantered like a mad-colt through the griffon town, in a rapid dash towards the docks. He offered a dozen gasping apologies along the way as he forced his way through griffons and ponies alike, racing along with his mind a furious tempest of panicked thoughts.

He skidded to a stop at the docks where the sailboat was still docked. He felt his heart sinking into his chest when he realized Flowing was nowhere to be seen.

“No no no…” he breathed out. “Flowing…”

The single word wouldn’t bring her to him. He called it out louder, screaming it out towards the waves at the end of the dock. “Flow! It’s Star! Please, come back if you can hear me!”

His heart was pounding so hard he thought it was going to race out of his chest. He trotted up and down the dock, staring down into the waters, resisting the urge to dive in like a fool and start searching for her under the waves themselves…

He couldn’t have lost her. It didn’t even seem possible. After all they’d been through, after how closely he’d felt the two of them were… only for her to be gone in one stupid little lapse of judement on his part…

No. She… she must have fled. She was out in the bay somewhere, waiting for the coast to be clear before she met up with him…

He hadn’t even realized he’d been pacing back and forth down the dock, until a voice jerked him out of his panicked, fearful reverie.

“Ahem… uh, s’cuse me? Earth pony?”

Star had been staring into the waves waiting for the glow of Flowing’s angler light, but he whipped around the second he heard a voice, any voice. “Yes?”

“I, arr… I’m thinkin’ ‘Flow’ is a seapony, eh?”

Star bit his lip. He didn’t want to answer that question coming from a stranger, and the grimy, eye-patch wearing griffon who had asked it wasn’t exactly the glowing figure of trustworthyness. But he wasn’t rife with option.

“Yeah…my marefriend. She’s… I told her to wait, while I…”

“Listen, kid. I don’t like to get caught up in any messy business, but…” The griffon scratched at the scruffy, oil-flecked feathers at the top of his head with a claw. “Last I saw her she was getting' swooped away by a hippogriff and flown inland.”

Star blinked. “You saw her?”

He nodded. “Aye. Ain’t exactly a common sight. Might not be the most lawful town, and a lotta unsavoury folks hide out here only to get scooped up by bounty hunters or the law, but… I don’t reckon your marefriend fits the criteria.”

Star breathed out a ragged exhale. Any news of Flowing was better than none at all, but what he was hearing was…

“Which way?” Star quickly asked.

“Storm King vessel. Dusted off in a hurry... Might still be able to see ‘er on the horizon…” he nodded at the sailboat. "That yours?“

“Yeah.”

“Ain’t gonna be able to catch up with that, kiddo.”

Star felt a sudden spike of indignation, which he knew was him being utterly ridiculous. It was the truth, after all, and just because it was unsavoury didn’t mean he had the right to get mad at the griffon for pointing it out. Still, it had felt like a distinct twist of a dagger already driven into his heart; ‘Hey, I saw your marefriend being foalnapped, but don’t worry, you can’t possibly catch up to ‘em. Tough break, kiddo.’

Star was already turning and cantering over to the sailboat, already untangling the line from where he’d tied off. “Still… gotta try.”

“Hey, hey…” the griffon sauntered after him. “Listen. You ain’t catchin’ up. Not with the winds how they are… but look. Ain’t exactly a good look for us to let the Storm King’s flyin’ monkeys in our town causin’ trouble.”

Star finally turned back to face him. “What are you talking about?”

He flashed Star a beaky grin. “Talkin’ about a motor, kid. You want one?”

He rolled his eyes, and went back to untying his sailboat once again. “I don’t have any bits.”

“No bits. Just wanna help."

Star blinked. He glanced back once more, analyzing the scruffy looking griffon for any signs of deceit. While he’d never been to the Griffonlands before, the stories he’d been told by those who had usually depicted the same thing. Charity wasn’t really a thing for them. Something about lesser natural resources, or about a more subdivided population… regardless of the specific source of their aloofness, it was a narrative he’d been told time and time before by seasoned sailors.

As such, he wasn’t quite sure how to take this blatant show of charity, now.

“Well? Gonna sit there gawking, sailor-pony? Or do you wanna go save your marefriend?” The griffon clicked his… beak?…and motioned with a claw for Star to follow, which he did after a moment’s pause.

“Why are you helping me?”

The question was still there at the tip of his tongue, ever since the griffon had first started speaking to him, but Star hadn’t wanted to ruin his chances, slim as they were.

“Mm?” The griffon turned back to look at him with his good eye. “Whatcha on about, pony?”

“Er. Well. I just... Showed up. You don’t know me. Why?”

He laughed, and gave a little shrug. “Dunno. Y’been to Griffonstone lately, pony?”

Star Point stared for a moment at the strange aside, but shook his head. “Never.”

“Mm. Place changed quick. All of a sudden, talk of friendship, and helping, and silly notions like that. Not somethin’ any of us woulda expected outta Griffonstone.”

Star nodded and said nothing.

“Point bein’. Storm King, that... Bounty hunter mare. They’ll have ya believe that ugliness and backstabbin’s the way these little isolated communities should be. And I guess I don’t like the idea that your memory of our town is watchin’ yer gal get stolen from ya.”

Despite the overwhelming despair of his situation, Star managed to crack a smile. “Well… I can’t… I can’t tell you how grateful I am. I’ll remember this for as long as I live.”

“Shucks, I know that, pony,” The griffon laughed. They’d left the docks, and the griffon was now leading Star towards an aging boathouse a few yards away. “What’s your name, kid?”

“Star Point. And my marefriend is…”

“Flowing. As I heard ya shoutin’. I shoulda… when I saw here talkin’ to that hippogriff…” The griffon shook his head. “Sorry, kid.”

“Hippogriff?” Star tilted his head. “What do you mean?”

“Mm? Oh, just this…troublemaker, that likes to hang out ‘round these parts. Friend of Tempest Shadow, that Storm King mook. I shoulda known he’d had somethin’ hidden up his plumage when I saw him chattin’ up that fish.”

“Well. I shouldn’t have left her be.” Star returned. “They’ve… well, that Tempest mare at least… she’s been chasing the both of us across the whole damn ocean.”

The griffon blinked. “No kiddin’?”

“No kidding. I guess she really wants Flowing for… something or other. Some evil plan. I don’t know. I just want her to be safe.”

“Aye. Well…” The griffon stopped before a rusty old crank-operated door, hooking the pull-chain around a talon and starting to heave it open. “Let’s both of us get you on the way to doin’ just that, huh? Fishcake, by the way.”

Star Point tilted his head. “Huh?”

The griffon turned back and flashed him a grin, winking with his only good eye. “S’my name. Fishcake.”

With a mighty heave, Fishcake yanked on the chain mechanism, sending the boathouse door sailing open, and leading the way in with Star Point following closely behind.

~~~

For Flowing, the next little while passed in a dizzying, disorienting blur. She was carried for what felt like forever, struggling to see where the blazes she was even going. She found that if she rolled herself over, she was afforded an inverted look at the looming belly of the same Storm King airship that had been tormenting the two of them across the Celestial Sea.

Eventually, as they approached the deck, Cirrus let go of his grip on the net, causing her to hit the airship with a thud that nearly took the wind out of her.

"Sorry! You're one heavy fish, ma'am!" she heard him chuckle above her. The net opened on impact. She was thrashing about immediately, though her efforts were swiftly halted when several of the armoured Storm Guards descended upon her. She felt a thick nylon rope wrap around her tail, and then another around her forelimbs. Just as she turned to confront Cirrus himself as she heard him land, a hood was roughly shoved over her, flooding her vision in blackness.

They worked with terrifying, practiced efficiency. Flowing reminded herself that, of course they did. This was what they did, after all.

The hood muffled more than just the sights of the outside world... she could hear talking, but it seemed faint and far away and impossible to make out with any sort of legibility. She thought she recognized Cirrus's voice a few times. Tempest had always been too far away for her to actually know what she sounded like, but there was definitely someone else speaking that could have been her.

Regardless, after too long thrashing helplessly on the deck, she heard movement once more. Then, she was lifted, the ropes binding her undone, and she was thrown unceremoniously over a distance of several feet, landing with a splash into a small tank of water just barely large enough to swim a full circle around. The blindfold came off her eyes from the force of the impact with the water, though her surroundings were still mostly dark.

Her heart was beating in a moment as she quickly swam around to confront the pony, or griffon, or whatever had just deposited her into the aquatic prison. To her chagrin, there was no-one to be seen. A glance up at a closing panel on the ceiling showed her that she had been deposited from above, falling into what was apparently some sort of live-well intended for bigger fish than just mackerel or herring.

Fish like her.

The reinforced glass of the tank rose until it hit the ceiling, without so much as a crack between the two. There was a valve for pumping in or draining the water near the bottom, but besides that the tank was featureless. She swam around urgently, striking one of the glass walls of the tank and being rewarded with a sting of pain on her head for her efforts. She swam as far back as she could, attempted again...

Bang. Nothing. She wasn’t breaking her way out of the tank any time soon.

Her angler light was the only thing illuminating her surroundings, and even it’s light only cast so far. There was more to the room than the tank she had been dumped in, but as far as she could see was pure darkness.

Her heart began to beat faster. It was a thousand times worse than any of the claustraphobic time spent in the hold of Star Point’s trawler, despite technically being a wider breadth of room for her to properly swim around. The darkness, the mystery, the dull thud of the glass every time she thrust her body against it, trying to free herself... And even then, what? Where would she go? Would breaking out of the tank even help her, truly?

Defeated, she swam to the bottom of the tank and lay flat upon it. Nothing to do for now, but wait, she supposed. As she lay on the floor, she could feel a faint rumbling, as though something large was rhythmically whirring noisily some distance away.

The airship's engines, steadily churning them forwards towards the Storm King's hideout. Had to be.

She grew tired of laying idly before too long. She took to swimming in restless circles around her prison--an aquatic equivalent to panicked pacing. Her mind alight with thoughts of Starry. Was he alright? Did they have him, too? That seemed unlikely, unless they had gone back to capture him...for some reason.

She wanted to weep, but that seemed stupid and useless. It wouldn’t change her situation. It wouldn’t get her free.

“Hello?” she called out into the darkness. No reply came, and the darkness remained lit by little else but the light of her angler lamp.

It was nearly an hour before anything of note happened in the dark prison, but when it did it jerked Flowing to attention immediately. There was a sudden flood of light in one corner of the room, but it was a dark orange, near-torchlight, just enough to illuminate the silhouette of the tall unicorn entering the room from beyond the door that had just slid open.

Tempest Shadow marched closer to the tank, flanked on both sides by those guards of hers. The hippogriff that had tricked her was nowhere to be seen. Flowing swam to the edge of the glass, glaring daggers at the unicorn as she approached, until they were practically snout to snout. Flowing scowling and Tempest with a smug smirk on her face as she looked back into the tank at her prisoner.

“Flowing Sands. A hard fish to catch.”

Flowing bared her incisors at the deformed unicorn through the glass by way of response. Her voice sounded muffled through the glass of the tank containing Flowing, but not enough that she couldn’t make her out clearly.

“I’m not telling you a damn thing.”

“I don’t expect you to,” Tempest replied, waving a hoof. “You don’t really have any reason to, right?”

“Let me go.” Flowing swam an impatient little circle, before returning to her position looking back at Tempest. “You have to know that this isn’t right.”

“I’m going to make you an offer, Flowing Sands.” Tempest Shadow ignored her. “But before I do... A run down. You’re in a heap of trouble. You don’t really have a lot of leverage over me, or anybody. Nopony is coming for you. Your own Queen doesn’t know nor care about your plight. Right now, you’re enroute to the authority of a being with no mercy, or sympathy, or patience. But I can help you.”

Flowing laughed. “Yeah? How?”

“Simple. You tell me what I need to know. You give me a location for Seaquestria, and for Queen Novo. And I let you go free. No strings attached. I don’t need you. I need the Pearl. You put me on the right route to find it, and I let you go. You can swim right back to that earth pony of yours, and pretend this never happened.”

Flowing sneered, baring her fangs at the unicorn. “Y’think everypony’s willing to betray their kind as easily as you are, huh? Kiss my fishy flank, short-horn. I’m not tellin’ you squat.”

“Yeah? That’s really the route you wanna go, seapony?” Tempest laughed. “I’m serious. You’re not gonna like what happens when we get you home. We’re going to get that information from you one way or another, and then you’re gonna spend the rest of your life in a fish-tank as a decoration. You won’t see freedom or your dear little earth pony again, unless I bring him to you in shackles just to gloat. Is that the future you want?”

“What’s in it for you?” Flowing tilted her head. A diversion, a tangent. But it beat playing whatever game Tempest was trying to make her play. “Why are you helping the Storm King, anyways? What’s he offering you?”

Tempest blinked. For a moment, she seemed genuinely taken aback. “...I don’t have to answer that, seapony.”

“No? You really don’t wanna monologue to me about your sob story?” Flowing let out a tittering laugh, bubbles floating to the surface of her prison. “I betcha it’s the horn, right? He says he’s gonna give you a new one? I betcha that’s iiiiiiiit!”

“Shut it!” Tempest snarled. Flowing felt the water within the tank shift and shudder as the unicorn’s hoof struck the ground, whilst a few sparking discharges escaped her maimed horn. “Y’know, you’re right. It’s silly of me to think that the seapony stupid enough to put her entire people in danger would be willing to see reason...”

Flowing’s smug demeanour tapered. Tempest Shadow had reached a hoof into her armour, and then slowly she withdrew it again. In her hoof, she held a single black orb, about the size of a softball. In the middle of it emanated a faint greenish-blue glow, which crawled around the black orb in splintery patterns.

“They say it’s best to flash-freeze fish when you transport it...” Tempest mused thoughtfully. Flowing watched her stroke the orb, and suddenly the glowing runes upon it began to illuminate more brightly. She clicked her tongue, and one of the two guards standing at the entrance of the chamber came closer.

When it happened, the guard hardly had time to react. Flowing’s eyes widened with horror as Tempest suddenly reared back and tossed the glowing orb directly at the guard. There was a split second, where his eyes lit up in shock.

Then, his petrified body thudded down on to the ground in front of Flowing, letting out a dull clanking as it struck the metal grated floor of the airshp’s brig.

The other guard looked just as terrified as Flowing did, but by some intense force of will he did not flee back down the hallway. Tempest, meanwhile, was already fishing out a second orb from her armour.

“What do you say, seapony? Last chance to consider my offer...”

“Is he..!”

“He’s fine. Consider this me being theatrical. I’ll release him when I finish up with you. Now. Seaquestria. Where are we going? Or do you want to wait until I unpetrify you in front of the Storm King himself to tell me?”

Flowing exhaled. Clearly, she wasn’t going to get out of this without providing an answer...

She wasn’t about to give up Seaquestria, though. She only hoped Tempest’s knowledge of the sea and the threats within it was as incomplete as she was making it sound.

“There’s a network of underwater caves a few miles off of the Griffon Isles. To the South. Queen Novo has been hiding out there.”

“There we go. Not so hard, was it?” Tempest chuckled. Then, she turned to the second guard. “Okay, get her out. Let’s do this.”

The second petrification orb stayed out. Tempest stayed where she was, standing at the ready... And suddenly, Flowing realized that she hadn’t lied her way to safety at all.

“W-what happens next?” she said warily, as the guard shuffled over to the release mechanism for the tank.

“It’s nothing personal, seapony,” Tempest replied. “I just need to make sure that you’re telling the truth, is all. I’m taking you above, and we’re gonna see if you’re lying to me about where we’re headed… cause if you are…” The unicorn gave the petrification orb a taunting stroke. “Well. You know what I’ll have to do. Same goes for if you try any funny business when I let you out. Got it?”

Flowing gave a shaky nod. “Fine.”

“Good fish.”

A mechanism was thrown, and the water levels of the tank rapidly began to fall. Flowing’s tail eventually fell flat on the bottom of the tank, and once it was completely drained of water, one of the guards entered via a latch in the reinforced glass.

Flowing was bound again, a heavy metal shackle affixing her tail to another heavy collar around her neck, connecting the two with a solid metal bar. It left her forefins free, but ensured she would not make it very far if she attempted to swim away. Then, one of the guards lifted her by the metal bar. A rather humiliating position… Flowing wondered just what would happen if she sunk her teeth directly into the yeti’s arm as he was carrying her…

…A brief stint in the throes of petrification, most likely. She knew better, as tempted as she was.

“Where’s the hippogriff?” she asked instead. “Cirrus… if that actually is his name. Didn’t wanna show his face after he lied to me?”

Tempest shot her a sideways look, and held it as they made their way towards the upper-decks of the ship. “Not your concern, but if you must know, he’s not really the gloating type. You seem to be under the delusion that some personal slight has been made against you, seapony.”

“Got betrayed by the only hippogriff I’d ever seen. ‘Sposed to be cousins. ‘Sposed to have our backs. I’d say I did.”

“Mm. I’m sure Cirrus is very sorry. But look at it this way, seapony.” Tempest looked back towards the path ahead. They were ascending a set of metal stairs, and Flowing could see what looked like a heavy gangplank door above them, emblazoned with the glowing Storm King emblem. “If you continue co-operating like this, maybe we can let you go when we’re all done here.”

“Yeah, right. After your Storm King enslaves the rest of my friends and family, right?” Flowing growled out. It was hard being intimidating when she was being carried along like a yeti’s fishy luggage, though she tried her best. “No wonder you and that hippogriff work so well together. You’re both traitors to your own.”

“That’s enough out of you. I’m plenty willing to let you try and spew your taunts from a prison of stone, seapony.” Tempest shoved the gangplank open, and they were instantly struck by the chill wind of a ship sailing through the night. “…If that’s the route you wish to go.”

“Truth’s hard to stomach,” Flowing returned. “So fine, I’ll spare you from it.”

“You’ve got quite the tongue. You do know that this is all your own fault, right?” Tempest halted in the middle of exiting onto the ship’s deck.

“How ya figure that?”

“Went out, started makin’ friends. Stared thinking the world would protect you when something big and bad came knocking.” The unicorn’s face twisted into a smirk. “Shoulda listened to your Queen, seapony. Shoulda stayed home. Unless you really think your lover made it worth it.”

Flowing could see the taunt for what it was… some attempt to rile her up, get under her scales. She supposed Tempest would have loved that, now that she had her exactly where she wanted. She could scarcely believe she’d been actually thinking about helping this monster. Offering to take her to the Queen on an offer of friendship… offering to help with her horn… what had she been thinking?

“Didn’t think so,” Tempest said with a sneer when Flowing didn’t take the bait. “Just don’t cast me as the villain because I had to be the one to teach you the way of the world, seapony.”

They continued onto the deck of the ship, which was flying about fifty feet above the dark, white-capped waves below. A blustery breeze had sprung up, and Flowing felt the whipping of rain against her scales as she was hauled onto the airship’s deck.

Ahead, she could already see where her destination surely was. An oversized fishbowl, mounted near the stern of the ship where the steering column was located. It’d been filled up with water in anticipation of it’s seapony prisoner, and without much hesitation she was hauled over the top, a sturdy metallic lid sliding into place atop her promptly sealing her in. They did not bother removing the bindings keeping her tail arched upwards.

Humiliating, like everything these Storm King mooks had been doing to her.

Still, as she watched Tempest take the wheel in her hooves, and begin to turn their airship towards the Northern seas, and as she listened to the airship’s engines raised in pitch as they sped forwards into the pelting rain, Flowing felt a slight tinge of hope.

She wasn’t the only one capable of being baited, it seemed.

~~~

On Fishcake’s suggestion, Star Point sailed over to the boathouse from the docks, where the griffon promptly hauled the boat up on a winch.

Star was…a little out of his league, admittedly, as he stood back and watched the griffon at work. Talons made for more precise tinkering, it seemed, because the way Fishcake worked was nothing short of breathtaking.

The boathouse itself was populated by a vast supply of broken, poorly repaired, or otherwise downtrodden boat motors of various persuasions. Star recognized some as simple trolling motors, like one would affix on the bow of a small little speedboat. Others were clearly intended for large propeller ships more akin to Star’s late great trawler.

The winner was somewhere in the middle. It wasn’t much to look at—it had been taped together in a few placed, it seemed, and it spat out a messy regurgitation of black smoke when Fishcake first cranked it, but after its initial protests it seemed to be running decently enough. Furthermore, it was small enough that they were able to winch it onto the back of the sailboat with only a slight amount of jerry-rigging. While the sailboat itself ran a little deeper in the stern-end now, it at least wouldn’t sink even with the additional weight of an improvised motor.

The old rudder had been gutted out to accommodate the new motor. The jib-mast was out of the way enough that it could stay, and indeed, would benefit for a bit of extra speed to help along the motor itself.

Star and Fishcake had talked as they worked, and it was then that Star learned that his…issues with Tempest were hardly isolated to just himself. While the rest of the Griffonlands seemed to be making a conscientious push towards a kinder, more generous reformation, many of the isolated communities continued to be prime grounds for the exploitation of the Storm King menace always lurking on the edges of the map.

Star couldn’t help but shake the sensation that something big was coming to Equestria, with how Fishcake spoke of them, and of Tempest, and of the ambitions of tyrants lurking outside of the purview of the princesses and the Elements of Harmony.

He just hoped him and Flowing wouldn’t serve as a catalyst.

“Your gal…” Fishcake had asked, while they were winching the motor into place. “Y’think she’s headed for Seaquestria, now? That’s where Tempest wants her to lead ‘em, right?”

Star nodded. “Yeah, but… I don’t know if Flow would give in too easily. She’s too… headstrong.”

Fishcake grinned. “Yeah? Y’think she’s leading them somewhere else, maybe?”

Star tilted his head thoughtfully. He hadn’t thought that far ahead, but it didn’t seem impossible to him that Flowing just might try to send Tempest after a red herring. “Maybe… I guess I just worry Tempest is gonna take her straight to the Storm King.”

“Mm. Place’s a fortress, or so I’ve heard from sailors dumb enough to go explorin’ the Southern Isles. You’d… have a tough time getting her outta there.”

“Yeah. So I guess I’m hoping… I don’t know.” Star shrugged as he tightened the last bolt on his side, wiping his brow with a hoof. “That I get there before they do?”

“Aye, well. If your gal is as ‘headstrong’ as ya claim, it ain’t impossible she might just wriggle her own way free, hrm?” Fishcake gave the motor a tap of his talon, his own end of the job complete. “That should finish ‘er. Y’ready to sail, kiddo?”

Star nodded. “Gosh yes. I really can’t even begin to…”

“Then don’t. Would be a waste of time ya don’t have,” Fishcake flashed him a supporting smile. “Hop in, and I’ll lower ya down. Go save your fish.”

Star Point left the griffon harbour town with the motor cranked to full throttle. He rested a hoof on the tiller and kept it there as the boat skidded along the waves with a constant whine.

The airship had already left, but he at least knew where it was going thanks to the filthy refuse it had dumped into the sky as it had traveled. South, which he would have suspected anyways, considering it was where Flowing had mentioned the Storm King’s hideout being.

It occurred to him as he sped along that he... Did not have anything even closely resembling a plan. Unless ‘catching up with Tempest’ counted as a plan in its own right, though Star wasn’t really certain it did. What was he going to do even if he did catch up? Sneak in when they landed? Go rescue Flowing like he was some sort of elite S.M.I.L.E agent?

Yeah, no.

Then again, he had to wonder how Flowing herself was taking her capture. He sincerely doubted she’d be making it easy on them. His marefriend was a bit too... stubborn, to capitulate to the concept of defeat quite so easily.

And if she managed to escape on her own, he couldn’t say he’d be entirely shocked.

Until then, he couldn’t really give up his chase. Even if it took him right into the Storm King’s hideout. Even if it wound up getting him captured too, then at least Flowing wouldn’t be alone.

Foolishness, he knew. He’d been told in his past that love would do that to somepony. He was starting to think maybe all those drunken sailors had been onto something after all.

11 - Quite Like a White Whale

~~~

“You’re surprisingly quiet, seapony.”

Flowing’s ear perked in the direction of Tempest Shadow’s voice, though she did not bother fully turning her head to look at her. She didn’t have to…she could see the maimed unicorn in the reflection of the fishbowl she was encased within well enough, resting with one hoof draped over the airship’s steering column. Her mane and tail both waved dramatically in the wind behind her, as though she were some picteresque depiction of a sailor hanging in a dive bar back in Herring Harbour.

“Why the blazes would I want to speak with you?” Flowing returned, looking directly ahead at the pretty patterns of rain streaking down her glass prison.

Tempest shrugged. “Boredom? Intrigue? Fear?”

“Yeah, no. Not happening. Bite me, you jerk.”

“Mhm. I suppose I’m just used to more… talkative bounties. Begging for mercy, threats, snide remarks…”

“I can bring back the snide remarks if that’s what you’re looking for.”

Tempest smirked. “Y’know, that hippogriff that captured you… he was in the same position as you once.”

“The backstabbing, lying traitor?” Flowing scoffed. “Good. Hopefully it wasn’t his last time.”

“He does have a habit of getting into trouble,” Tempest admitted. “Originally, he was a bounty just like you. But… when he started to co-operate, and made it clear that he’d be a useful ally, well. Things turned out quite well for him.”

Flowing rolled her eyes. Already she could see where this was going, but for one reason or another she decided to humour it. Perhaps Tempest was right about the boredom thing, after all. “Uh huh. I’d bet.”

“My point, seapony… Flowing, is that maybe there’s a reason why you wanted to go against your Queen. And why you wanted to be discovered. And why you’re here, right now.”

“My Queen…” Flowing scoffed. “That’s the first bit of soggy seaweed in your story. Novo’s the Queen of the Hippogriffs. I’m a seapony. And my family have been long before your boss drove the hippogriffs into the ocean.”

“That right?” Tempest rose an eyebrow. “Then you really don’t have any loyalty for her. This should be easy for you.”

“Even if it was, a seapony with eye flukes would be able to see you’re downright evil, and helping you would be—”

“Evil,” Tempest Shadow repeated, interrupting Flowing to bluntly state the single word. “What an interesting description for somepony simply doing her job.”

“You’re helping a tyrant, Tempest. Don’t give me that, ‘it’s just my job’ crap. Everyone’s got a choice and you’re making a rotten one and you know it.”

With an irritated snort, Tempest looked away from Flowing and instead turned her focus over the guardrail, at the black waves passing below. Flowing’s own view was obscured, but judging by the growing intensity of the wind and rain, she imagined them to be growing choppier and choppier.

She wondered if Starry would be trying to pursue her, in this. She hoped not… there was no reason for both of them to be in danger just because she had gotten captured, after all.

Momentarily, one of the storm creatures—a short, adolescent-seeming one—came hopping over to Tempest… though not before oogling Flowing through the glass for several moments.

“Ooh, shoot. Now that’s embarassing…” the little creature said with a snicker, tapping the glass with a cake-coated finger. “I’d hate to be you right now, fishy!”

“Grubber…” Tempest growled out.

“…I mean, really. The bowl and everything? You didn’t have to go that hard on her, y’know, Tempy.”

“I swear to the sirens, I’ll bust out of this bowl and kill you,” Flowing said, narrowing her eyes.

“Feisty, too! Hey, Tempy, after she shows us to the—”

“Grubber! Stop bothering the prisoner!” Tempest stomped a hoof on the deck of the ship. “What do you want?!”

“Phew. Grouchy, even after winning. But we’re here. Well. Almost. Almost here.”

Tempest rose an eyebrow, and looked down at Flowing. “Is that right? Are we almost there?”

“Hard to tell, with all this rain…” Flowing said. “The caves are surrounded by a horseshoe shaped rocky archipelago. You’ll have to bring it down a little, anyways. Won’t have any luck spotting any signs of the archipelago from way up here…”

“Fine. I’ll bring us down,” Tempest grumbled out.

“You’re gonna have to land on the water. Do you even have diving equipment?”

“Yes. Do you take me for a fool, seapony?”

“It’s probably best for both of us if I don’t answer that,” Flowing sneered.

Beneath them, she could see their destination slowly coming into view through the rain. She hadn’t been here since she was an adolescent fry, but it was mostly unchanged from the last time she had been. The coast-line of some uninhabited part of the eastern continent was barely visible through the fog and rain, but the horseshoe rock formation was directly beneath them. One could have fit the entirety of Herring Harbour inside of the rock formation, and probably still had room for another little fishing community.

They descended in a gradual corkscrew, and Flowing was surprised when it actually touched down onto the water instead of simply hovering above it. It seemed the airship had some sort of amphibious arrangement. It was no wonder it had caught up with Star’s trawler so effortlessly.

The water within Flowing’s bowl swung with the momentum of the airship’s sudden stop, which meant Flowing was roughly pushed against the far side of the glass. With her tail still bound, she couldn’t even really do much to prevent it.

“Ow…” She grunted. “Is this really necessary? Y’know I’m not going anywhere.”

“I like the assurance,” Tempest replied. “Given how slippery of a catch you’ve been for me thus far.”

She trotted off at that, joined after a few moments by the bumbling little companion of hers, which left Flowing alone for the first time since she’d been initially captured.

Their stop would buy her some time, and she’d seemed convincing enough that they hadn’t bothered analyzing her directions any further or asking for elaboration… Tempest no doubt recognizing how fruitless an endeavour it would be getting information from a seapony who so clearly hated her guts.

Flowing figured she had… an hour? Maybe two? Before she got an answer to whether or not her little scheme would hold fruition. It was brash, daring, foolish, but one had to be a bit of all three if they wished to survive some of the stranger days on the sea.

In the meantime, she turned her focus to the bindings on her tail. It was… part of her scheme she hadn’t been anticipating, after all, and it would surely prove to be a bit problematic when it came to making any sort of an escape. Fortunately, the metal binding was clearly not intended for a seapony’s tail. It surely must have been something jerry-rigged from a hoof-cuff or shackle, and while it still kept her from swimming, it was hardly snug against her scales. They hadn’t bound her forelimbs, either, apparently not finding much intimidation from her fishy forefins. If she could just… find some way to dislodge the locking mechanism keeping the cuff to her tail, then she would no doubt be at a greater advantage.

An idea struck her. Her fin travelled to her ear, and carefully curled around the fishing-hook earring. She’d have to be quick and she couldn’t possibly do it when Tempest and company were around, but for now...

She got to work fiddling with the lock on the collar they had affixed around her neck, first. She just had to get one part of it free, after all, and the position of her tail meant it would be a little more awkward for her to use her improvised lockpick. The whole while, she worked in between quick glances around her, ready to stow the hook out of view in her fin the moment they came back. Until then, she fiddled blindly, not quite certain if she was making any sort of progress, but at least comforted to be doing something.

Thud.

Flowing nearly lost her grip on the fishing hook, as the impact rocked the entire airship-turned-boat, the mighty vibration shaking the water within Flowing’s bubble.

Then, silence. The rain was growing stronger, and Flowing heard a few distant thunder rolls. Somewhere else in the airship, she could hear Tempest shouting something Flowing could not properly hear. She braced herself… waiting and waiting and…

Thud. There it was again. Instantly, she felt like she was back in the cargo ship with Star, although this time, her encounter with the horrors of the deep was far less unintended.

“Get it up! Get us into the air!” She heard Tempest shouting above the rest, as the metal and wood of the airship groaned and complained. The ground began to vibrate dramatically as the engines started to come back to life, churning the ocean below furiously.

While it would surely help Tempest’s ship escape, whatever was beneath them did not seem to quite appreciate having its waters disturbed.

The airship’s engines were a blaring whine, and the airship itself lurched uneasily as the crew were no doubt taking as many actions as possible to hasten their ascent. Tempest was cantering back to the steering column, her gaze a steely venom that she affixed on Flowing for all but a split-second, before her hoof was gripping the steering column firmly and she was giving it a mighty twirl.

“You’re fish-paste now, seapony…” Tempest said. “Where in Tartarus did you lead us?”

“Not fun being on the receiving end of a piece of bait, is it?” Flowing returned. “You’re not the only thing hunting these waters.”

Tempest snarled furiously, though whatever she had been planning on retorting with vanished as… something struck the airship from beneath. The entire thing rocked like a nursery cradle, a cacophony of various affairs within the ship itself being strewn about. Flowing struck the side of the fish bowl, and when she recovered and glanced downwards she saw that it was already starting to come off the moorings affixing it to the deck.

And then, in Flowing’s peripheral, she saw it.

A mighty tendril of the kraken who’s lair they’d foolishly disturbed, rising out of the ocean like an enormous serpent the size of a town street. Even Tempest lost her focus on steering the ship away for a moment to simply gawk in horror, as the tendril rose higher and higher above the still-ascending airship, backlit by a vivid display of violent lightning. Along the tendril, the suckers themselves looked as though they were the size of a sailboat, and they were quickly growing larger as the tendril curled downwards to strike at the interloping airship.

The impact shook the entire airship with enough force that Flowing felt the fishbowl dislodge from its moorings, and begin to roll down the deck of the airship that was now tilted at a dramatic vertical. She gasped as she rolled around, battering against the glass again and again, the metal shackle clanging loudly against it. She winced as it bit into her scales, although after each impact with the glass she could feel the mechanism getting a little looser…

Before she even knew she was approaching the gunwhale, the bowl rolled over the edge of the ship, and she was in freefall. She tumbled like a cannon-ball towards the water below, her vision reduced to a spinning, frantic frenzy as she spun and fell. Even in the chaos, she could see a few other tendrils joining the first one, batting Tempest’s airship aside like it were a cheap toy in a filly’s bathtub…

And then, with a mighty splash, Flowing’s prison struck the ocean.

It shattered the moment it impacted the choppy waves, and Flowing instantly felt cool seawater against her scales once again. Her tail was still bound, though, which would surely prove to be a bit of an issue if she wasn’t prompt with freeing herself.

All around her, there was movement. She was sinking towards the blackness at the bottom of the ocean, and in her peripheral she could see the dozens of tendrils of the kraken stretching out of the void. The kraken made the lusca look like a little guppy, though fortunately this meant that Flowing herself was apparently too small for it to immediately notice as it was more focused on Tempest’s airship.

Still, she was sinking fast and she had no way of swimming to freedom, yet. She’d somehow managed to hold onto the fishing hook in her fin throughout everything, and now no longer afraid of being discrete, she quickly resumed her earlier efforts with far more vigour.

Downwards she fell. The kraken still hadn’t noticed her, though she was falling into darkness and her angler light was burning against her own desires, meaning she’d be rather easy to spot. Biting her lip, she fiddled desperately with the locking mechanism on her collar, twisting the fishing hook every which way.

Above her, the entire ocean shook, a rippled vibration travelling downwards and outwards as the airship finally struck the waves. Or... Part of it did, anyways. Flowing abandoned her work for a moment to watch, biting her lip as bits of the ship’s balloon and affairs from within it struck the ocean and began to sink down towards her. The hull of the ship itself followed, hitting the ocean and then bobbing back to the surface, the sound of it’s furious engines instantly reaching Flowing’s ears the moment it was under water.

Click. Her earring-fishhook-lockpick finally found purchase. She felt the metal glide cleanly off of her neck, her tail instantly extending to its full length, trailing behind the chain by the binding still attached to it. Still, it wouldn’t prevent her from swimming, and she did so as fast as she could, tearing towards the surface once again.

~~~

The Thespis was having a bad week.

The thought struck Tempest as a shockingly juvenile and obvious one, as she was flung off her hooves and sent sprawling away from the steering column. She hit the deck of the airship with a thud, just barely managing to roll her way into a graceful landing. The deck was angled at a sharp 45 degrees as she climbed her way back to the steering yoke, the ship sent in a careening spiral as... Something had struck them from beneath.

A heavy spattering of seawater splashed against the deck, soaking Tempest’s mane and skinsuit, just as she grasped the steering yoke once more, leaning onto it as the ship continued to steepen its sideways lean. The fishbowl was gone, torn clean off its moorings by its own weight, and the seapony herself was nowhere to be seen

All around them...

It was unlike anything she’d ever seen.

The beast that was lurking in the ocean... It was something out of the fairy-tale books Tempest could barely remember from her fillyhood. Even the Thespis itself was completely dwarfed by the tentacles flailing out of the sea. She counted four of them, and they each rose out of the ocean in a different position, about fifty or so feet from each-other. If the creature had a head or body, it was still fully submerged. Tempest had enough to worry about with the tentacles flailing at her ship, anyways.

Their engines whined incessantly as she rapidly steered them away from the beast. It still was not nearly fast enough. She wrapped a hoof around the steering yoke and braced herself as she saw one of the tendrils swinging directly at the balloon, striking it and once again sending them into a dramatic spin. Any success she’d had in altering their course and getting them out of there was negated. They were right back where they’d been, and Tempest knew they were unlikely to get away without somepony stepping in.

She corrected their corkscrew, but this time it was too late. They struck the ocean at an angle, and skipped off like a stone, sailing back into the air and directly into the path of another tentacle. Tempest swung the controls around, narrowly missing the kraken’s tentacle as barrels and crates were strewn off the deck of the Thespis and splashed down onto the water below.

“Grubber! Get over here and take the wheel!” she barked out. The little rat was, at the very least, responsive in a crisis, and he was at her side within moments and with minimal protest.

“Where are you goin’, Tempy?” he asked, tilting his head.

Tempest didn’t reply. She barely even heard him. Her actions were motivated by something different now...initially, her hunt for the seapony, her journey across the ocean...it hadn’t been personal. She’d just been doing a job. An ugly, unpleasant one, but a job all the same.

Now, though?Now that the ship she’d been sailing in for five years was being torn apart and the creature responsible was the one she was supposed to have captured?

Now it was personal.

Tempest trotted across the half-leaning deck of the airship, to where the yetis had been preparing the dive equipment...prior to their abrupt interruption. Portable oxygen oxygen tanks, a regulator...Tempest did not concern herself with the flippers that accompanied the set but she hastily strapped the oxygen tank around her barrel and tested the regulator. Finding everything to be functional, Tempest grabbed a harpoon gun from a nearby yeti who was watching her, perplexed, and then she put one hoof over the edge of the airship.

“Keep flyin’ us outta here!” she barked out. “I’ll see you runts after I take care of our kraken problem!”

Tucking the harpoon gun into her armour, Tempest kicked off the edge of the airship and angled her broken horn directly at the waves. Free fall, for what felt like a moment, and then she collided with the waves and sunk beneath them with a mighty splash. The water chilled her to the bone even with her combat suit still on, but she was fuelled by enough fury and adrenaline that she hardly noticed.

Beneath her, the kraken’s tentacles were like a shifting redwood forest, rising out of the darkness. It was nothing short of terrifying, but Tempest was a speck compared to the focus of the kraken’s attention at the moment.

She just hoped the Thespis could get clear.

She should have known the seapony would have tried something stupid to free herself. Tempest scanned the waters below for her, taking calm, patient breaths of the canned oxygen as she let the weight of her combat suit drag her downwards. As she sunk, she cradled the harpoon gun in her hooves, feeling the sharpened tip of the harpoon itself, as she continued to sink deeper and deeper down.

Then, she saw it.

Glowing like an ember in a cavern, the seapony’s angler light rose out of the darkness as she swam up, towards the surface. She was too far away for Tempest to possibly have a shot with the harpoon gun, and she was swimming further away still, at a rate that Tempest could not hope to match. No matter how quickly she swam, she simply could not match the fish’s own natural biology.

...Which meant she would get away. No matter what Tempest did... Had done... All the seapony had to do now was swim, and she would have no way of catching her.

Above her, Tempest heard a mighty splashing impact, and when she jerked her head up she saw that a sizable chunk of the Thespis had come off and struck the water. A bit of the largest rearmost propeller column, still spinning desperately even as it sunk down, and down...

And sliced directly into one of the tendrils of the kraken.

Tempest braced, for she knew exactly what was about to happen before it did. There was a sudden storm of blood as the prop cut into the kraken’s flesh, and down below, a mighty roar of pain and fury sounded out from the bottom of the sea. The tendrils suddenly began to flail with renewed fury, excepting the one that was now filling the ocean with a sickly red.

The seapony had stopped and swam out of the way of the propeller when it had struck the ocean, and to Tempest she seemed to be temporarily stunned by the turn of events. It could have struck her as well, after all. More bits of wreckage collided into the sea afterwards, the seapony nimbly weaving through them... And stopping only to follow one of the pieces of wreckage down. Tempest stared, dumbfounded, squinting to see what the blazes she was doing through the shifting, wavering waves.

Then, as the seapony started to struggle and pull at the wreckage with a hoof, Tempest realized what was happening. After a moment or two of struggling, the seapony was pulling one of Tempest’s own free, after they had apparently gotten swept overboard. Whether they were unconscious or not, Tempest couldn’t see. She simply saw the seapony herself grab the yeti in both of her fins, and begin to swim him back up to the surface...

Tempest simply watched. Her hind legs idly kicking beneath her to keep her suspended at her present height, while the seapony continued to vanish out of view above the waves, only to soon dive back into the depths, her angler light often the only sign of her as she seemed to be scanning for any one else who might need help.

Then, when there seemed to be nopony else to save, the seapony began to swim off. Tempest knew that if she did so, that was it. She was gone, for good.

She’d lost.

As if she had somehow heard Tempest’s own thoughts, the seapony turned. Tempest saw her scanning back the way she came, as if doing one last dummy check to ensure there was nopony else in need of saving. And that was when she seemed to notice Tempest for the first time.

She waved, and Tempest could have sworn she’d made out a smug, fish-eating grin on the mare’s face. Then, she turned tail and began to swim off again, just as another torrent of wreckage rained down into the drink.

Tempest's grip on the harpoon gun strengthened. She threw the strap over her barrel and began to furiously swim after her, not giving a damn if she was slower or not. If the seapony wasn’t going to flee when the opportunity had presented itself, and was going to gloat and taunt instead, then Tempest wasn’t going to ignore her either.

~~~

The moment her tail was unbound, Flowing was darting up towards the surface of the waves, not picking a direction in particular besides the general ‘up.’

When she surfaced, it was like she’d popped out into a war-zone right out of the tales of the hippogriffs back home. Bits of the airship littered the kraken’s breeding ground, as the storm creatures scrambled their way as high as they could onto the wreckage, or splashed helplessly on the waves themselves.

Flowing should have fled then and there. She knew she was well within her right… that hornless mare, all these creatures… they would have enslaved her, and her kind, and hurt many in their quest to do so. To say nothing of how Tempest would react to Flowing’s deception, and Flowing wasn’t exactly ready to go hoof-to-fin with a trained bounty-hunter-slash-Storm King-lieutenant. After all, Tempest would surely be in the wreckage somewhere, waiting to exact her revenge on Flowing the first opportunity she got…

And yet, Flowing felt a tug in her chest at the prospect of turning tail and fleeing. She felt it grow stronger when she saw the feeble splashing of the storm creatures. And before she knew what she was doing, she was dropping back under the waves once again, swimming towards the first set of submerged flailing limbs she saw.

The creature yelped when she grabbed him in her fins—she heard it half muffled from beneath the waves. She winked at him(?) as he quickly glanced down at whatever had gripped him, and seeing that he was being grasped by the very seapony he was tasked with imprisoning earned a rather dumbfounded look from the creature.

Flowing swam quickly, the chain behind her whipping back and forth as she did. She carried the storm creature to a sizable chunk of floating wreckage, and let go of him to let him scamper his way up. He did not say anything, which… Flowing was not surprised by, considering she had yet to hear them mutter a single word. Perhaps these creatures could not talk at all?

Regardless, he at least seemed grateful that he was no longer drowning. Flowing didn’t wait to say goodbye, she instead dunked her head back beneath the waves and went searching for the next creature in need of assistance.

Bit by bit, she assembled a little makeshift life-raft of formerly-drowning storm creatures, taking them all to the same piece of floating wreckage, that fortunately seemed to be largely ignored by the kraken more focused on trying to swat down the part of the airship that was still floating. Flowing couldn’t see any signs of life on it, though if she squinted she could see a few motorized lifeboats hastily speeding away. Good for them, she supposed, though she wondered if they knew they’d left so many behind.

One of the creatures had actually gotten his paw wedged in between a bit of wreckage when it had hit the waves. Flowing almost did not notice him at first, until she heard the staccato pounding of his clawed paw under the waves as she swam with her head under. Quickly, she pirouetted around and swam towards him, dodging a sudden intrusion of spare airship parts striking the waves from some impact above her.

She quickly gripped onto the wreckage as it sunk deeper and deeper, pulling it apart with her fins and furiously swaying her tail to try and slow its descent towards the depths. She fought hard to dislodge the storm creature from his position, knowing that it could only hold its breath for so long.

Fortunately, she got him free with a particularly enthused tug on the gnarled airship ruins, and hooked her forefin around him. The chain almost snagged on the sinking wreckage as she went to swim off, but a quick flick of her tail dislodged it.

Eventually, Flowing had dumped half-a-dozen storm creatures onto the floating ‘raft’, which she then started to push towards the rocky horseshoe shaped rock formation that surrounded them. She didn’t get any thanks from them, in fact, their looks instead seemed to be pure bewilderment. They at least made no move to stop her when she started to swim away.

She thought it odd that she hadn’t seen Tempest yet.

The thought struck her as she started to swim away from the activity once and for all, now. She thought of the fleeing lifeboat, and found herself scowling in disgust as her mind put two and two together. She thought of the way Tempest had used one of her own guards as a fear-demonstration, albeit temporarily.

Expendable, surely. That was all these poor creatures were to that mare. Expendable.

It was a disgusting thought, but it wasn’t a surprising one. Flowing stopped as she was getting ready to leave the archipelago, glancing back one last time to make sure that there really was nocreature left to save.

That was when, finally, she noticed Tempest.

She surely must have been floating a little lower, and a little further from the debris field, for Flowing to have not noticed her. She had donned scuba gear, and it did not take a smart fish to know why. It seemed she was really desperate to catch her seapony.

Flowing gave her a smile and a wave. “Goodbye and good riddance, creep!” she hollered.

Then, she turned tail and swam off, as the rest of the airship continued to sink all around.

12 - Lovers, Make Peace

~~~

Star Point arrived to a rather dramatic scene, just as the motor was beginning to sing out its protests as it drank up the last bit of the tank.

He’d been tailing Tempest’s airship for Celestia knew how long. The sun had been covered by clouds, a light rain had turned to a storm, and soon he was riding along waves of increasingly terrifying size, but he did not stop or even slow his pursuit.

It became harder to track the airship as the sky darkened with storm. At some point, several hours south of the griffon fishing town, it seemed to have veered away from its original destination and taken on a new course. Why, Star could only guess. Regardless, it meant they were no longer heading towards the Storm Legion’s hideout, which Star was relieved by.

Well. Partially relieved. For if they were not taking Flowing to the Storm King, that meant Tempest no longer had reason to. He did not for the life of him think Flowing would have possibly given up the location of Seaquestria no matter what Tempest had threatened her with, though, which to Star Point meant that she had something else up her proverbial sleeve.

The rain had turned to storm when finally, Star saw... something on the horizon.

The first thing he saw was the tail-fin of an airship, lying against an outcropping of rock half submerged by the sea. Then, as he got closer, he saw the flailing tendrils of…

“Oh Celestia…” he breathed out. He’d been on the ocean for as long as he could remember, but he never would have thought he’d have been able to add ‘kraken’ to the list of sea creatures he’d encountered. The lusca had been one thing… certainly a rarity, of course, but he’d heard tell of them from sailors less experienced than himself, and had always known they’d been lurking beneath the ocean. A kraken, however…

The scattered remnants of the airship slowly came into view as he approached, killing the motor as he did and letting the boat simply drift in on its own momentum. Any confusion as to what he was stumbling in on vanished when he saw the Storm King insignia, plastered on the side of a balloon, sinking beneath the waves.

It wasn’t a comforting sight, since he still hadn’t seen any sign of Flowing, but it was something to work with all the same. Letting the boat continue to drift its way in, praying the kraken did not pay any mind to what was, from its perspective, simply another tiny piece of wreckage, Star scanned the waves for any signs of Flowing. Or Tempest.

And that was when he heard a splash behind him.

“Look who’s late to the party.”

There were tears in his eyes as he whipped around instinctively, and they started to streak openly down his face as his hooves blindly locked around Flowing, looking up at him with a smirk on her face and a profound weariness in her expression.

“Flowing!” he nearly fell out of the boat as he leaned over the edge to grab the seapony with both fins and squeeze her tight enough that he could hear her let out a strangled little 'urk!’ sound. “Flowing, I’m so sorry... I’m so so so sorry, gods I thought I lost you, I thought you were gone, I thought...”

“Woah, woah...” Flowing gave him a nuzzle, reaching a fin to her stallion’s sea-salt-soaked mane and running it through it, softly. “Easy, Starry. Easy. I’m here...”

“You’re okay... Flowing, I couldn’t... I didn’t... I don’t know what I’d do...” he knew he probably sounded like a complete fool, sputtering fragments of meaningless, obvious sentences, but he truthfully couldn’t keep his mind on any one thought within the sheer ecstasy and relief of seeing his lover alright. She was, gratefully, patient... Or, as patient as one could be whilst surrounded by destruction and carnage and a furious kraken presently in the process of rending apart the ruins of an airship.

Around her tail was a length of chain about a meter or so, which ended in what looked like an opened shackle.

“W-what did you, uh...” Star began, and then shook his head. “Forget it. Get in. We’re getting outta here.”

“Alright. I think I got everypony out of the wreckage anyways,” Flowing replied. She let go of Star’s head and moved her fins onto the side of the boat instead, starting to climb inside...

And then, Star’s heart leapt in his chest as a sharp splash of water shot up from behind her, and Flowing let out a sudden shriek. Then, she was yanked away, back into the drink before she even had a chance to scream for help.

Star cried out instead, and before he knew it he was diving out of his boat and down after her without even knowing what had pulled her away. He saw it quite quickly though, as soon as he was submerged in the frigid water; a harpoon was lodged in the collagen of her tail-fin. As Star traced down the wire connecting the harpoon to the device that had fired it, he saw the exact mare he’d been expecting to see.

Tempest was furiously pulling the harpooned seapony closer to her, while Flowing screamed and protested and fought against the puncture in her tail. Her struggling only further complicated her position, intertwining the line of the harpoon with the chain that had already been dangling behind her, and weighing her down. Both of them were falling down into the depths below, further away from Star Point, even as he swam like a mad-stallion trying to catch up with Flowing. Her own forefins were flailing out in his direction, trying to reach out for him.

If the commotion itself did not attract the kraken, Star did not know what would. Sure enough, he could see one of the tendrils leaving behind its continued assault on the sinking airship, and instead veering its way toward the three of them. Star was swimming directly in the path of billowing red blood that was floating up from where Flowing was being dragged down.

Apparently, Flowing noticed it, too.

“Starry!” Flowing pleaded. “Leave me! Be safe!”

He kept swimming. He ignored her pleas, and continued his chase. He had to catch up, he was so close, he was swimming like his life depended on it, holding his breath as long as he could, and…

“Swim up, Starry!” she cried. “Keep your boat safe, it’s our only way outta here!”

Our way out. He knew she was right… and he was beginning to feel his consciousness fade as he ran out of breath. If he couldn’t catch up to them as the sunk, then he’d best at least make sure that Flowing had something to surface to. She wasn’t going to swim very far with her tailfin the way it was now... which meant his improvised motorboat was all they had left. He didn't want to think what might have happened if he hadn't shown up when he did.

He surfaced next to the sailboat with a mighty gasp, his vision still swimming as oxygen rushed back into his lungs, and he gripped onto the gunwhale of the boat itself for support. Then, still gasping, he clambered over the edge and fired up the engine. Hopefully, the sound would distract the kraken, and give it something else to chase.

He supposed he’d swapped roles from Flowing herself, the last time they’d been in this situation. If she’d impressed him with her agile swimming, he supposed he’d have to do the same.

~~~

The moment she saw that Starry had safely surfaced, Flowing pivoted around, and started to swish her fins to bring her closer to Tempest. She tried to swing her tail, too, once she had gained a bit of slack, but her tail was in the most pain she could remember it being in for some time. She didn’t even want to turn and look at it, because she knew it wouldn’t really be a motivating sight. It hurt to swim, but she had to do it anyways, and adrenaline was overpowering the need to stop and recover.

“You don’t know when to quit, do you?” Flowing cried out, as she charged towards Tempest. She saw the unicorn fishing out a dagger from her armour, which Flowing got ready to swat at with a forefin.

It was desperation. There was no other explanation for Tempest’s actions. Just, pure, unhinged desperation and fury and a refusal to admit defeat. Still, with the harpoon wedged in her tail fin, she was bound to this unicorn for a little longer, which meant taking care of the problem once and for all, and in a decidedly unseapony-like way.

Tempest swung at Flowing with the dagger as she swam into range. Flowing ducked her head and collided into Tempest, not as quickly as she would have liked to, but as quickly as she could manage with her injured tail. She heard Tempest grunt out in pain as she was head-butted, and then make another attempt to drive the dagger into her. Snarling, Flowing responded with the only weapon she had at her disposal. A bit less civilized of one, but no less effective, as she sunk her teeth into Tempest’s left ear as hard as she could. Tempest cried out in pain, and instinctively pulled on the harpoon gun.

Another spike of pain in her tail, as the still-lodged harpoon pulled against the wound it had already made. Flowing was already beginning to feel dizzy and light-headed.

She didn't have time to linger on the feeling, though. Tempest was swinging at her with the dagger once more, and she nimbly ducked out of the way. Injured or not, Flowing was in her environment here, and Tempest's movements were surely more sluggish than she'd been used to. In the ensuing window of opportunity after she had dodged the dagger swipe, Flowing responded by biting down hard against the hoof that was still gripping the sharpened steel.

Tempest howled out in pain, and the dagger slipped out of her grasp. Down it fell, past the both of them, to join the rest of the tyrant's discarded affairs. Tempest did not take kindly to this turn of events, and with a mighty tug, she yanked the harpoon gun and pulled Flowing with it. The bite of pain was enough to daze her, and in her temporary stunned state, Tempest twisted her body around and delivered a hard buck directly at Flowing's back.

She was sent flying away by a few feet, and Tempest was already swimming after her. With the harpoon gun still connected to the chain, Tempest quickly used it to wrap around Flowing's torso, pinning her forelimbs against her side while yanking her pained tail forwards. Flowing howled in pain, and thrashed around violently, fighting against the rusted chains, but it was a pursuit in vain as long as Tempest's grip was still keeping them tight.

"Got you now, seapony..." Tempest growled out. She swam a little closer, a diabolical grin on the unicorn mare's face.

The pain in her tail came and went in throbbing doses. She couldn't reliably move it to save her life. Her forelimbs were too entangled in the grip of the chain to be of much use to her. Her eyes scanned her surroundings desperately, looking for something... anything to use. Yet they were all alone, and most of the wreckage had already sunken past them, now.

Tempest wrapped a hoof around the chain-cord combination, tucking the gun itself into a holster on her combat suit. Flowing saw her look around, and then, glancing upwards, she began to kick her limbs to pull them both to the surface.

She never got the chance.

The moment she got within range, Flowing leaned forwards herself. She might not have been able to strike at Tempest herself, but perhaps she did not have to.

Her fangs found purchase on the piping of Tempest’s oxygen tank, and pressed down. She felt the reinforced rubber fighting her, but her sharp teeth were used to far more resistance than a bit of pony piping. She bit and bit, not giving Tempest enough time to react before there was an abrupt, deafening hiss as she bit through the oxygen line. Instantly, Tempest was lost in a torrent of bubbles, her eyes going wide in surprise and fear. Panic overtook her as oxygen left, her hooves letting go of the chain, the tight grip loosening as she instinctively began to struggle with the oxygen line instead.

Flowing extended her tail to it's full length, as quickly as she could manage. The whipping motion disconnected the embedded harpoon from her tail, which stayed attached to the chain for several more seconds before it, too, slid off from the motion of her swimming.

She was ascending as rapidly as she could possibly manage. Starry was up there, waiting for her, and apparently keeping the kraken occupied. It was time to go, and she was never going to get a better chance. Her tail ached as she swam, getting worse the more she used it, but it would hopefully at least hold out to get her to Starry’s boat.

Flowing turned. Tempest was still struggling with her oxygen line, and trying to swim to the surface, though the combat suit weighing her down seemed to be complicating the endeavour. It might have been water-tight at some point, but all the thrashing about with Flowing, combined with the gash Flowing had made with her teeth when she had bitten into her, had largely compromised its integrity. Now, filling up swiftly with water…she would continue to sink despite her best efforts, if Flowing had a proper read on things.

“Sirens damn it…” she grumbled out. One look up, at the twinkling moonlight of the surface. Escape. It was right there. After all of this, she could finally be free. No longer would she have to worry about some Storm King punk ever getting in the way of her freedom again. And truthfully, wouldn’t the sea be a much better place, if the likes of Tempest weren’t sailing it, causing trouble?

The thought existed in Flowing’s head for only a few seconds. They were a few seconds too long, and the hollow, empty feeling of shame that rooted itself in her heart was nearly unbearable.

Seaponies helped. If there was a call for distress, a sinking ship or a lost sailor or a hurt sea creature… they helped.

They shouldn’t get to pick and choose who ‘deserved’ it. And besides, hadn’t it been what she had wanted from the beginning? To help Tempest? Perhaps it was the folks who rejected help the hardest that needed it the most.

She could have pontificated on the morality of her people’s ways until the seacows came home, but it would not have mattered. Momentarily, she was swimming back down, grabbing Tempest’s forehoof in her fin and swimming towards the surface with the unicorn tyrant in tow. Tempest felt… limp, and unresponsive in her grip, as though she’d already passed out. Flowing had to move fast, which was easier said than done with the big gash in her tail, and the lengthy chain and shackle still weighing her down. When she finally surfaced, she felt as woozy as Tempest probably did, but when she squeezed the unicorn closer to her she could at least still feel the beat of her heart.

So she did have one. Flowing wasn’t certain.

Star was, thankfully, nearby. Flowing could hear the whining of the boat motor, and soon enough he was peeling into view, mane all dishevelled, drenched in sweat and rain and motor oil, and somehow the most handsome thing Flowing had ever seen in her life.

“Think… Kraken kinda just… left. I guess it decided I wasn’t a threat and the actual threat was gone…” Star started to say, and then stopped himself when he for the first time seemed to notice the purple unicorn Flowing had hauled out of the depths.

“H-here…” Flowing gasped out, roughly pushing Tempest into the sailboat. “Gotta…”

Words were failing her. Exhaustion was catching up, combined with the throbbing in her tail that was swiftly getting worse. She nudged her head in the direction of the rock outcropping.

“Gotta get her somewhere safe…” Flowing tried again. It was her turn to climb into the boat, which clearly wasn’t built for the weight of two ponies and a seapony. Water splashed over the sides for the short journey it took to get Tempest over to the rocks, but they managed it all the same. Star hopped out as soon as the sailboat thudded against the rocks, planting his hooves firmly on the rocks, and gripping the bow in one. With a grunt, he dragged it up to rest on the rocks, and then reached in to carry out Tempest.

Flowing was worried he would have trouble carrying the bulky, muscular unicorn mare, but he barely even hesitated. Maybe all the time spent carrying her around had paid off. Maybe he was just that strong, and she’d somehow let herself forget. Regardless, with little else besides a gentle grunt, he lifted Tempest out of the boat, and rested her down on the rocks as gently as he could manage.

Then, he was heading back to the boat, and Flowing watched as he headed into the tiny storage locker where he’d stowed the sail. Initially, she’d assumed he’d been gathering the sail itself, and she was surprised when he instead withdrew something else from within.

A flare gun. The ancient one, that she’d doubted would even work. He rested it near the back of the boat, and then reached over to gently take Flowing’s tail in his hooves.

“Dear…” he breathed. “I’m… I’m sorry…”

“T-this?” Flowing forced a laugh, which came out a little more pained than she’d intended. “It’s fine, really. It’ll grow back. ”

“Doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt,” he said. “Come on. Let’s get you home.”

With a tired sigh he turned, leaning down to pick up the flare gun in his teeth.

Just as he turned to set it down on Tempest’s unconscious lap, the unicorn coughed and stirred. Flowing felt a spike of terror shoot through her, and she saw Star Point flinch, the flare gun nearly dropping out of his mouth and into the drink as he whipped around to face her.

“You…” Tempest coughed again, her eyes fluttering open only to narrow as she looked at Flowing and Star.

They both froze up. Flowing looked at Star, who was still standing with the flare gun in his mouth and a goofy, dumbfounded look on his face. Tempest still seemed to be a little too weary from her almost-drowning, to be ready to fling herself headlong into trying to kill or capture them once again, but that didn't make her any less terrifying…

“…Saved me…” Tempest finished, bluntly and matter-of-factually, her narrowed gaze focusing on Flowing. “Why?”

Flowing stared for a moment. Why? Why had she? Wasn’t that obvious? Did she really have to spell it out for this pony? How could she successfully track a single seapony across the entire ocean and then fail to answer the simplest question imaginable?

She didn’t have to. Climbing out of the boat, his horseshoes clacking out as he landed onto the rocks, Star stood over Tempest Shadow, looking down at her with an expression that almost looked to Flowing like pity.

He spat out the flare gun, which clattered noisily onto the rocks next to Tempest.

“If she has to answer that for you, then you wouldn’t really understand anyways,” he said. “I hope one day you will, Tempest. I really do.” He nodded at the flare gun. “Fire that when we’re gone. And with luck, we won’t see each-other again.”

Star turned at that, one strong hoof touching the bow of the boat. Then, he pushed them out and jumped inside, the boat shuddering. They drifted backwards, away from a Tempest who was simply staring at them, confused and lonely.

Flowing’s fin found Star Point’s hoof, while the other started up the motor and took the till. She kept her fin there, holding his hoof tightly as they skimmed the waves and started back on the long journey back to Herring Harbour.

~~~

Tempest watched the motor boat vanish into the rain and haze, her hoof cradling the flare gun held in her lap. She coughed a few more times, unable to really get the taste of seawater out of her throat. She supposed it was better than if she’d been unable to cough at all.

When the speck that was the sailboat had finally vanished from view, she took the flare gun in both of her hooves and, pointing it into the marble-coloured sky, she fired. The sharp burning of ascending red sliced through the featureless oceanic grime, and she hoped it would be enough to grasp the attention of the Thespis’s lifeboats, when they came back around.

She spotted a few of her guards, further down the archipelago, and over the course of twenty-minutes or so, she stumbled her way across the slick, slippery rocks until she had reconvened with them. She didn’t say much. There wasn’t much to be said.

She knew the question was inevitably going to come up, when they were all together once again, and the temporary thrill of the hour had diminished away. What next, for them?

She knew what, of course. But she also knew it wouldn’t exactly be easy to say. The same way it wasn’t easy for her to say why Cirrus Bolt existed outside of her logistical desires. The same way she spared him, and hid him, and fought for his safety, and deep down somewhere in the back of her mind knew that in another life she could have even called him a—

Well. She knew it wasn’t easy to say.

When it came time, she’d tell the Storm King the truth, as much of it as she could include whilst omitting Cirrus from it. The seapony had tricked her. The seapony had used the chaos to escape. She didn’t have to include the fact that the seapony and her lover had saved her life… after all, it wasn’t as though anypony besides the three of them had seen it.

Whatever the Storm King’s next move was, he would have to accept that it was one they would have to make without the Pearl, and without the Hippogriffs. At least for now…

On the horizon, she could see the lifeboat, doubling back around right on cue. Realizing she was still holding onto the flare gun… the only evidence she had left that Flowing and Star had ever been within her grasp, she tossed it into the drink along with the rest of the wreckage of the Thespis slowly falling to the bottom of the ocean.

~~~

Flowing fell asleep against Star point as his tired hoof kept them angled towards home.

The engine had sputtered and died not long after they had left Tempest Shadow behind. The wind wasn't exactly in their favour, which meant it would be a long ways home. Fortunately, all he had to worry about was hitting the Equestrian Coast. Once they were there, they could hitch a ride back towards Herring Harbour without concern of Tempest's airship interrupting their journey.

His heart burnt for Flowing. He'd torn off a piece of the jib sail and used it as a makeshift bandage, but all it really succeeded in doing was obscuring her injury from him, whilst he knew it was still there.

He'd get her home. He'd take her back to his place... the comfy little shack he rented out close to the docks, and he'd keep her there while she recovered. It was the only thing he could think to do.

Flowing had slept for most of the journey, though at one point she'd risen and, after a brief lesson from Star Point, taken over at the till for him while he caught a few hours of sleep himself. He hadn't realized he'd been operating on the same several hours of sleep he'd gotten in the lighthouse. It all felt like just yesterday.

The one thing Star Point had not been expecting to see when he returned to Herring Harbour, was another seapony.

She surfaced when the familiar lighthouse of home came into view through the morning haze. Star had initially assumed it had been a dolphin or whale that had somehow gotten far off course, but as she approached them it became clear that, no, this was absolutely one of Flowing's own.

"Seapony..." he breathed out. Gently, he reached a hoof over to rouse Flowing awake. "Flow, look... seapony! Friend of yours?"

She yawned, and squinted her eyes against the bright morning light. She looked for a few moments, and then he saw the surprise and recognition flash into her eyes. "Oh wow..."

It took Star a few moments to realize that it wasn't fearful recognition, at least. But she looked utterly perplexed by the arrival of the seapony who was bearing down on them quickly.

"Flowing Sands..." The new fish said when she was in earshot, slowing her swimming and affixing the other seapony with a narrowed glare. With Flowing's tail tucked away behind her in the sailboat, it wasn't until she was right on top of them that she recognized something was wrong. "...Sirens, Flow, what happened to your tail...?"

"Nothing, really. It's nothing. What are you doin' here, Seasmoke?"

"Tailin' your stubborn flank!" Seasmoke replied shortly. "I swear, you just about gave me a heart condition out of pure worry. You realize that you vanished without a trace, yeah?"

Flowing managed a short chuckle. "Starry, meet my friend, roomy, and resident worrywort, Seasmoke. Sea, this is Star Point. The colt I told ya about."

Seasmoke's gaze finally left Flowing to look over at Star Point instead. The sailboat shifted a bit as Seasmoke used a forefin to prop herself up over the side. "The fisherpony. Hi there. I'm Flowing's caretaker, when she gets too close to swimming into an anglerfish's jaws because she saw something shiny."

"Or kraken's," Star replied, shooting Flowing a sideways glance. "Hiya there. I'm gonna, uh... If you're here, I'm gonna assume you..." He nodded towards the distant plumes of smoke on the horizon--a hundred waking ponies back in Herring Harbour fighting the cool morning air.

"Oh yeah, yeah, they filled me in." Seasmoke waved a forefin. "I've been staying here for a few days now. Hospitable folk. Really, uh... Worried sick about you two. I can't possibly relate."

"We've been..." Star looked to Flowing.

"We've been on a bit of an adventure."

"As I can see by your tail." Seasmoke's smirk turned to a frown. "You okay, gal? What happened?"

The sailboat was still drifting towards Herring Harbour, and Seasmoke had turned her body a bit, so that one hoof was still draped over the side of the boat while her tail began to churn the waters, helping tug them closer towards the distant town. In scattered, frenzied doses, Flowing and Star took turns recounting the past few dream-like days they'd spent together, on and above and below the high seas, while Seasmoke continued to work as a biological tugboat.

"...Anyways. Harpoon guns hurt. Tempest mare's a jerk...." Flowing rolled her eyes, her angler light idly bobbing out of restlessness. "But it'll heal over in... a few weeks, a month. I'll be fine."

"Mhm. But are you okay to go home?" Seasmoke asked, glancing back and tilting her head. "Or... or are you not doing that?"

Flowing did not reply initially. Star had been... wondering how to ask it himself. After their last encounter with Tempest, he'd been wondering if he'd be returning to any sort of safety and security back home. Part of him had a hunch that he would be. That he wouldn't have to worry about running into Tempest again, and that she wouldn't be pursuing them even if she could. He liked to think maybe they'd gotten through to her somehow. But truthfully, he had no idea.

"I... I guess I probably should." Flowing bit her lip. "But it's a long swim..."

"I can take you," Star said. "I'll... drop you off. We'll take the sailboat. And then..."

"And then we won't see each other until I recover..."

"If that. Novo's gonna be pissed when she learns what you did, Flow..." Seasmoke said. "Not to scare you or anything. You'd better fabricate a good story to explain your tail, cause... yeah."

"...You think she'd try to stop her from seeing me if she found out?" Star Point bit his lip, feeling a wayward tug in his chest.

"I dunno. Maybe? Maybe not? She's not a bad pony, but she's got her own to look after, yeah?" Seasmoke shrugged. "Not tryin' to be a downer. Just being real."

"That Tempest mare isn't coming back, is she?" Star felt Flowing's fin scrambling about, blindly looking for and eventually finding his own hoof. "Like. Being honest. She's probably done hunting us after that, right?"

"I... I think so. I don't think we'll be seeing here again."

"Then I want to stay here. At least while I recover. You, uh. You gonna be okay with that, Sea?"

Seasmoke was silent for a moment. Star saw her gaze shifting between the two lovers, always cold and scrutinizing. It was nearly half a minute before the silence was broken at all, and anything resembling a smirk formed on the other seapony's face.

"Hey. I can't break this up. Tell you what. I'll tell Novo I haven't heard from you if she asks. I'll come by every week or two to check in. Now that I know where to go. And that the land-dwellers are cool."

This time, it was Flowing's turn to smirk. "You liked it, didn't you?"

"...I didn't say that."

"The swim in. The adventure. Spending time with the landfolk, and havin' them be amazed by you. C'mon. Ya liked it."

"Maybe a little..." Seasmoke was blushing ever so slightly, and quickly, she shook her head, jerking her attention towards Flowing's tail. Gently, she detached from the sailboat, sliding fully back under the water as the sailboat was starting to drift into the harbour proper. "Anyways! I'd bet you probably want to get home and rest."

"It's been... a long few days." Star nodded. "Thank you, Seasmoke."

She clicked her tongue. "A friend of Flow's is a friend of mine. Good luck, you two."

With that, Seasmoke dipped under the waves, swishing her tail and vanishing beneath the waves. Leaving the two of them alone again, with Herring Harbour waiting for them both on the horizon.

"It's, uh. Look. I'm gonna be honest, Flowing. It ain't a place I'm expecting you to call home. Ain't even as impressive as my trawler."

"Starry. It could be just this sailboat and as long as you're in it with me, it'll be fine."

He smiled. "Love you, dear."

"And I love you. Take me home, Starry."

~~~

“So that’s it, huh?”

Tempest didn’t look up from the bubbles in her mead, even when Cirrus broke the silence. “That’s it. You’ll still get what I promised you, Cirrus, but…”

“But you had a change of heart.”

Tempest finally looked up at that, affixing Cirrus with a cold glare. “That is not what happened. They got away. I cannot continue expending so much time and resources pursuing a single seapony, Cirrus.”

“So she bested you, then.”

“I did not say that, either.”

“Well, it’s one thing or it’s the other, Tempest. Either you had a change of heart and don’t wanna chase her… or you’re throwing in the towel.” Cirrus’s expression was surprisingly not as smug and degrading as his word would have implied. Tempest still found it hard to look at, though, and her mead far easier to stare into.

“Cirrus, you are flying upon a dangerous wind.”

“Tempy, it’s okay to tell me the truth. I’m your friend.”

“I’m not your friend.”

“Well, I’m yours! C’mon.... just tell me a little bit...”

Tempest exhaled heavily, and knocked back a heavy swig of her drink. “The seapony proved to be craftier than I had anticipated. I was… caught off guard, and in a compromising position. And, when she could have prevailed over me and put aside any chance of me ever pursuing her again…” Tempest shrugged helplessly. “Well. I’m here, still. So. She didn’t.”

Cirrus’s eyes went wide. “She saved you?!”

Tempest let out an irritated snort. “I… believe that I… ‘owe her one.’ As the saying goes. I would be dead if she hadn’t… well. Saved me. As you say.”

“…Huh. So you do have a heart.”

“Cirrus…”

“Betcha the Storm King didn’t take kindly to your, uh. Change of plans.”

Tempest laughed. “As if he knows. He was mad enough about the Thespis going down. I did not think to include the detail of how, in a fit of rage, I dove in after the seapony and nearly drowned doing so.”

“You, uh. You really wanted to catch her, didn’t you?” Cirrus took a little sip of his own mead. “I’m sorry, Tempy.”

“You did well, Cirrus. You have no reason to be sorry.”

“Yeah, well. Felt like crap, ‘doing well.’ I’m… look, don’t take this the wrong way, but I’m glad she’s okay. And I’m glad you’re okay. And… I don't get it either, so don't ask. I just hope this doesn’t mean anything for your horn.”

Tempest looked up at that. “…Thank you, Cirrus.”

“You’re far from finished anyways, right?” he managed a little smile. “Plenty of bad left in my favourite bad gal?”

“My plans remain unchanged. I simply don’t have the Pearl to assist them.”

“Lemme know how I can help.”

Tempest took her mug in a hoof. She stared into what remained of the liquid within, bubbling and swirling about. She thought of the sinking Thespis, the fury of the kraken. She thought of the fear that had been in her heart, when she realized that she was going to drown, frightened and alone and entirely at her own hooves. The result of her own greed, her own lust for power and for a sick perversion of ‘justice.’

Then, she thought of Cirrus, down there with her. She thought of him, with the rest of them. Thrashing against the waves, against the current…

Perhaps there was a reason she worked alone. And perhaps it wasn’t so far from friendship, after all.

“I’ll keep you posted,” She lied.

13 - And the Sea Waved Back

Star Point had earnestly hoped that he had seen the last of the Storm King’s insignia.

He had earnestly hoped that the last time he’d ever have had to see it was when it had been sinking beneath the waves, vanishing into the murky darkness along with any hope of the ruined airship posing a thread to him ever again.

He would have been content with such being the legacy held in his mind from the journey he’d gone on along with his marefriend.

Six months later, though, he saw the insignia again.

Of course, it seemed as though everypony in Equestria had, in some capacity or another. The simple lightning-bolt design had carved its way into the collective consciousness of an entire nation in one rather exhilarating week. Those who hadn’t been in Canterlot when the airships had stained their beautiful blue skies black with smoggy refuse, instead saw the symbol plastered across every newspaper that was still running.

After all, ‘Canterlot Falls to Storm King Insurgency’ was the sort of headline one would be a fool not to pursue.

Suddenly, it had seemed like all of Equestria was reunited under the same terror that, previously, it had felt like only Flowing and Star Point had shared. An entire nation, looking with fear at the insignia that, before, Star had only seen relative to his own terrified marefriend's quests for freedom and safety.

Flowing had been in Herring Harbour when it had happened. She'd stayed there while she healed... the town itself seemed inclined to protect her should Tempest return, and some part of Star Point knew the tyrant mare would've been a fool to, anyways. She'd had the element of surprise to thank for her initial success. Without it, she'd be fighting a far more difficult battle.

News had travelled fast through Equestria when Canterlot had first been attacked, and before the afternoon had properly matured, ponies in Herring Harbour were already boarding up their windows and locking their doors and moving themselves down into their basements.

Star didn’t have a trawler anymore, so he took Flowing home instead. He filled a bath-tub for her, and vowed to never leave her side no matter what came to Herring Harbour. Gone was the desire to run away from danger. To turn his tail and flee, to allow tyrants to simply have their way…

Something had changed in him, after they had saved Tempest. A fear that had once taken a hold of him was gone now. He realized now that there was little else in this life that could dampen the drive he felt protecting Flowing.

Not that she needed it. She'd already proven herself plenty capable of saving herself when push came to shove.

The Storm King never came to Herring Harbour, anyways. In fact, as far as Star Point could tell, the Storm King’s forces hadn’t even really succeeded in most affairs outside of Canterlot. They’d taken the capital by surprise, and seemed content to simply hold it while they waited for their General to capture the last remaining Princess. And, of course, everypony had waited with fear and unease for the terrible news, while Star himself thought of how damned close the mare had been to capturing his own princess six months earlier.

And then, several days later, it was all over. The news that the Storm King had been defeated spread faster than the news that he’d ever existed in the first place. Most ponies felt a sense of relief, a happiness that things had gone ‘back to normal….’

Flowing and Star had cried wet, ugly, messy tears of joy the like they never had before. He’d taken her out into the streets where the entire town seemed to be celebrating. But none more than the proud earth pony with the seapony perched on his back, laughing and crying and singing and feeling the most joy she had felt in any of her days below or above the waves.

For them, they would never have to go back to ‘normal’ again.

After the incident six months ago, Flowing’s current situation had become common knowledge. The unspoken but universally agreed upon pact among Herring Harbour was to protect the damn fish no matter who came looking for her. The closest river to Herring Harbour was a decent ways away, but the ponies of Herring Harbour had already come up with their own arrangements to get her there as swiftly as possible if the need would arise.

Star had always been proud of Equestria, and of where he came. He’d never felt like crying because of that pride until then, though.

With Flowing’s secrecy ironically common knowledge, the celebration of the Storm King’s defeat became a little more directed, when ponies saw Flowing and Star. Everypony was putting two and two together, and everypony wanted to be the ones to express their happiness for the two proud lovers from two different worlds that were swiftly coming together once again.

It was nice, but it was a little overwhelming, too.

Like so many nights before, they had decided to go on a swim to celebrate Flowing’s first day as a true, free seapony. Flowing took Star down the coastline for several miles, where a big red and white lighthouse sat, slicing the darkness with its mighty yellow blade of light. For all of the celebration that had been in Herring Harbour, it was a rather serene night just a little ways away from it. They could hear the calling of seagulls, blissfully unaware of the ecstasy that was rushing through the usually quiet community.

There was a period of time where both were simply content to listen to the lapping of the waves. The entire ocean, moving as one. Calm, patient, predictable. At least for now.

“I’m free…” Flowing had said when they were both lying down in the sandy beach nearby. “I’m a free fish…”

Star was laying on top of her, his belly flush with her own. Muzzles practically interlocking, with her angler light brushing against his mane. He kissed her, long and passionate and deep. “You’re free, Flowing.”

“They really got ‘im. The tyrant fella,” she breathed the words out like she was describing a miraculous dream she had. It still felt like it, to Star… heavens only knew how many nights he’d spent alone, wondering if he’d ever see the day when they’d be able to say such with certainty.

“No one’s gonna come to hurt you again.” Star stroked her cheek. He looked down into the endless hazel abyss of her beautiful eyes, and he kissed her again. “We can be together forever…”

Flowing’s eyes were watering again. Her smile could have lit the lighthouse towering above them. In that moment, Star felt as though the joy and relief in each other’s hearts could have been felt across the entire ocean.

“It doesn’t even feel real…” she said, chuckling. “Feels like… like the best dream I ever had.”

They lay that way for hours. Talking little, cuddling and kissing often. There was nowhere to be tomorrow. Nothing to do. No commitments to uphold, no secrets to keep, nothing to hide. The seaponies were free. Friendship and harmony had won, as it had a habit to… and Star could be with the love of his life forever, now.

No tyrants or distance could hold them back again.

Behind him, Star could feel the warmth of the sea lapping against his tail and his back hooves. The tide was coming in, the way it had a habit to around now. The ocean ebbed and flowed, he felt it pushing against him with a bit more force each time…

“Tide’s comin’ in…” Flowing mused. “Should we get’cha back?”

The water felt warm against the frogs of his hooves. He put his hooves down in the wet sand on either side of Flowing’s head, peering down into her warm smile.

Then, he lay flat. His underbelly once more found her scaled stomach and tail. He felt a twitching between his legs as their slick, wet bodies found each other. “Let’s stay here for a bit. Go with the flow, and all that.”

She chuckled, and nodded. “Alright.”

Ebb. Flow. The waves drew him back—he let them, draw him off towards the open ocean ever so slightly, before the tide returned and then pushed against him. His body was eased down into Flowing’s again. He felt his sex rub against her own. Flowing’s forefins wrapped around his back, and he stroked her headcrest and tugged on her earring ever so slightly. The seapony gasped, delighted and surprised.

Ebb. Flow. The waves pushed him deeper into her as the tide grew stronger. His length grew in twitching anticipation every time the waves pulled him away from his lover… because he knew that when the waves inevitably returned, they would drive them both even closer together. He was quickly at his full length, the mere act of contact between himself and Flowing enough. He had to orient himself slightly to get it in proper… but once he had, he simply lay down, letting his weight push both of them into the wet sand.

The waves came back in. Flowing gasped out, as his sex drove deeper into her. The feeling was heavenly to Star… something about relinquishing the control of his own thrusts, and relying on the steady and soothing rhythm of the waves…

The beach was populated by their gentle gasps and moans. Every time Star could hear the incoming waves he tensed in anticipation, and every time the slow and deliberate insertion into Flowing was worth the troughs in the waves.

Who knew the ocean itself could have been so romantically inclined?

Without having to worry about anything besides enjoying himself, and going with the flow, Star was free to nuzzle his snout into Flowing’s neck. She nibbled his ear in response. When the waves were high enough that they started to reach Star’s head, she would lock her lips with his own, sharing her air supply so that they might continue lying together as long as they could.

When he was finally fully submerged by the incoming tide, Flowing wrapped both of her forefins around his head. She kissed him warmly, and eagerly, and messily, moaning out his name as she did so… and it had been too much for him to withhold. With Flowing’s mouth locked around his, he wasn’t able to cry out as passionately as he wished, though with how his entire body tensed and shook, Flowing seemed to get the memo all the same.

Her fins wrapped around his stomach, and she gently lifted herself off of the beach-floor and floated him up towards where the water-line had migrated. She breathed out a shaky, pleasured exhale as his sex was pulled out of her own, and used her tail to tread water as she kept both of their heads above the tide.

“That… was some of the best sex of my life.” Star breathed out. “And I barely did anything.”

“The ocean provides!” Flowing said with a laugh. She gave his cheek a loving peck. “You make such cute sounds when you’re inside of me, Starry.”

He kissed her back, chest rising and falling as the last bits of his electrifying orgasm ran their course. “You’re the most beautiful thing in my life, Flowing. I think I’m the luckiest fisherpony in the world.”

Flowing smiled, and, seeming to notice Star’s breathlessness, offered her back for him to climb aboard. He hoped she didn’t mind his still-half-erect length jabbing into her as he clambered aboard.

“Y’know…” Star mused as they swam back, lit by the orange glow of the sun striking the horizon and casting the twilight sky in a gorgeous crimson kaleidoscope. “I’ve missed the open ocean, these six months. We should get back, soon.”

Flowing nodded thoughtfully, her own head turning towards the same gorgeous sunset. “We can go see Seaquestria now, y’know. There’s nothing stopping us—we’re not in exile anymore. Novo can yell at me, but that's about it. I hear there were even seaponies in Canterlot.”

“I’d like that. And to take you to the rivers of Equestria. And to go say hi to our friends in the Griffon Isles, and…”

He could have gone on forever, but he didn’t have to. He knew the sentiment was shared between himself and his lover. The ocean was a dangerous place, of course. But it was wide open and beckoning them, always. Its beauty surrounded them, and teased them with the prospect of adventure. The desire hadn’t left either of them, since they’d escaped Tempest’s chase… The desire had driven them from their homes in the first place. It had brought both of them onto the open sea. It had led to their meeting, and their falling in love. It had given Star Point's life more meaning than he'd ever dreamt possible, simply by virtue of being able to share it with the one he knew he loved.

And now… doing it together? A free stallion, and a free fish?

In that moment, Star’s life felt as complete as he’d ever dreamt it would be.

~~~

For somepony who had braved horrors of nature, the dramatic violence of ponies and creatures alike, and the vast emptiness of the open skies and open ocean, Fizzlepop Berrytwist was surprised that returning to Herring Harbour was one of the most frightening things she had ever done.

More so, because part of her knew it wasn’t really necessary that she went back at all. She’d grappled with just about every opposing force one could think of, but for the first time she was growing more and more comfortable grappling with herself. That was why she was returning to Herring Harbour, after all. It wasn’t a pursuit of anything tactile, and there was nothing to be technically gained from her doing so…

And somehow, that further convinced her that it was something she had to do.

She left her armour behind in Canterlot. She hoped it would be destroyed when the Royal Guard got their hooves on it. She didn’t have any usage for it anymore. She’d been given a second chance… but really, wasn’t it her third chance? Wasn’t it the offer she should have taken, six months ago?

“If she has to answer that for you, then you wouldn’t really understand anyways. I hope one day you will, Tempest.”

She hoped so, too.

The train schedule had been dramatically interrupted—Fizzlepop couldn’t imagine why… and she wasn’t able to make her way into Herring Harbour until a week had passed. One whole week, after the Siege of Canterlot. The entire time felt surreal to her. She kept having to remind herself that there was no more Storm King to report to. That she didn’t have to be a terrifying figure to anypony again.

In a way, she felt even more directionless. She had built her entire life around the image that she had felt she’d had to be. She’d convinced herself she’d never be accepted. So, now that she had been…

Well. She’d wasted enough of her life as it was. She wasn’t about to waste anymore of it worrying about the might’ve and could’ve beens.

The train ride into Herring Harbour was a lengthy but gorgeous one, taking nearly a day and a half to cross the entire Equestrian landscape with all the stops in between. When she’d finally gotten off the train and strode onto the platform, she felt a sudden tinge of unease in her chest. A single word in her head ringing out, as she started in towards town.

Interloper.

Herring Harbour was a peaceful town. The last time she’d been here, she’d shattered that peace. She’d terrified these ponies. They probably hated her, in as much as an Equestrian town could harbour such a thing. What right did she have to come back here, after asserting to them so clearly the sort of pony she was?

The answer, of course, was something she’d carried from Twilight Sparkle. The pony she was had been Tempest Shadow. She didn’t have to be that pony forever.

The walk from the train station and into the town proper felt, in some respects, even longer than the expedition she’d undertaken to get this far in the first place. It was a walk rife with glances in Fizzlepop’s direction, that swiftly turned away the moment they saw her. She heard hushed, whispered voices, sounding urgent and fearful as ponies scurried away to give her as much space as she could…

There were two ponies that didn’t move, though. One of them was sitting on the side of a fountain in the middle of a square in the marketplace of Herring Harbour. And the other… was within the fountain itself, laying lengthwise with her fishy tail half protruding over the side. They were talking among themselves, Star Point with his back to Fizzlepop. Flowing’s eyes widened, and Fizzle saw her point with a fin in her direction. Star promptly turned, surprise in his face, which crystallized into a steely, narrowed glare as he watched Tempest Shadow approach.

She almost stopped right then and there. Turned back around, and headed back where she came, because what the blazes was she doing, interrupting the peace of ponies who only knew her for the time she’d spent terrorizing them? But she continued on, keeping her head held high, while Flowing put both of her forefins over the side of the stone fountain and stood up straight. Star Point took a step in front of her, protectively and possesively putting some bodily barrier between his marefriend and the ex-tyrant approaching him.

“Wasn’t expecting to see you again…” he said, affixing Fizzlepop with an unbreaking glare. “Tempest Shadow.”

She gave him a single nod. “Yes… I… earnestly thought our business with each other was concluded, myself.”

“Then why are you here?” Flowing piped up, tilting her head thoughtfully. She at least seemed a bit more legitimately curious, versus Star Point’s active aloofness.

“I… Am here on the suggestion of a friend of mine,” Fizzlepop confessed. “After… what happened. I told her of a certain… darkness, I felt. A desperation to no longer be defined by the worse of my life. And she suggested that I seek out those I feel I’ve wronged the most, and attempt reconciliation.”

Star Point blinked. He and Flowing shared a glance, and then he said; “And how’s that goin’ for ya?”

It took some effort for Fizzlepop to keep her expression neutral at that. She felt like snapping at the earth pony’s mocking, but likewise felt overwhelmed by the validity of his tone. All it did was remind her of the insurmountable task she hadn’t had the guts to tell Twilight was beyond her capabilities.

“It is… an overwhelming one to consider,” Fizzlepop confessed. “You two are the first.”

“Oooh, really?!” Flowing’s tail swished a little at that. She tugged Star’s tail with a forefin. “Seee, I told ya we’d see her again…”

“Yeah. I’m not buying it.” Star Point shook his head. “You were trying to take over Canterlot, what? A week ago?”

Fizzlepop nodded shamefully.

“And now, what? You sweep in and say ‘sorry’ and that’s it? Mission accomplished?”

“No. Not just sorry…” Fizzlepop took a single step forwards, and the act of doing so caused Star to tense up all over again. “I’d like to say ‘thank you’, as well.”

“Thank you for what?” Star’s frown turned curious.

“Twilight Sparkle… my… well, my only friend right now. She spoke of me accepting her friendship like it was a turning point for me. But I think she’s…somewhat incorrect.” Fizzlepop rubbed one forehoof against the fetlock of her other. “The truth is… I always doubted what I was doing. I always wondered if I was in the right. I always wondered if the Storm King had my interests in mind. And I always wondered what might become of me if I dared to let friendship into my heart…”

Star’s expression was gradually beginning to resemble that of his marefriend, now. Less cynical and defensive. More… genuinely curious and thoughtful. Fizzlepop hoped that meant she was doing something right.

“…I don’t think I… ‘turned’ towards friendship as abruptly as Twilight Sparkle thinks I did. I think I was turned towards it before, by others, and I let the idea live in my mind while I drove it away. I think that you two… were some of the creatures that helped me keep that idea alive. And I think if you hadn’t… I would not be here having this conversation with you.”

Fizzlepop hung her head as her speech drew to a close. It didn’t feel like it was enough, but it at least felt honest. More honest than any of her cynical broodings of the darkness of the world and the selfishness of the wild felt, now.

“That’s why I wanted to say ‘thank you’. You offered me friendship, and I turned it away. I don’t want to make that mist—”

Fizzlepop’s sentence was interrupted abruptly, as she felt a sudden frigid dampness on her hung neck. Two fishy forelimbs, wrapping around her neck, and pulling her in closer towards the fountain where the adventurous seapony was still perched.

“I knew it…” Flowing said, her voice half muffled as she spoke into Fizzy’s nape. She sounded on the verge of tearing up to Fizzlepop. A bit of a softy, it seemed, even despite her mischievous demeanour and snarky personality.

She released Fizzlepop after a few seconds, grinning sheepishly. Beside her, Star gave a single nod, and offered a hoof, which she shook.

“If you’re trying to reconcile… and you need friends to do that…” he sighed, and then managed a small little smile. “Well. We try our best to help out. It’s Flowing’s thing, I’m just here for the ride.”

“Shoo be do,” Flowing said, nodding sagely. Fizzlepop didn’t want to ask. “For what it’s worth, Tempest… what you did to us…”

Fizzlepop braced herself.

“It was scary, and mean, and unfair… But during that entire thing, I don’t think Star and me ever grew even a little bit apart. What you did to me… it only strengthened something between us. Crystallized it, and made me certain that it would take more than sea monsters and storms and even tyrants take away. And, well. Feels odd to say ‘thank you’ for that, but I figured you should know it anyways.”

Fizzlepop relaxed. The harsh, accusatory judgment she’d been expecting from the seapony (for some reason) had been anything but. She continued to think the worse out of every creature she encountered, and she continued to be proven wrong by them. She hoped it was a habit she could unlearn.

“Right… well.” Fizzlepop’s tail swished awkwardly. “I…ahem. I do want to repay you in more than just words. And I…”

“You owe me a boat,” Star Point said quickly, before she could finish.

“I…. Yeah.” Fizzlepop forced a smile. “That. I… yeah. But the Storm King had a lot of wealth from his, er. Merchandise. Wealth that technically was supposed to be distributed to his second in command following his passing. And I think maybe…maybe, something might have been said to a certain princess.” Gingerly, Fizzlepop reached into her saddlebag. She withdrew the package she’d stowed in there, a gentle jangling sound rattling out as she lifted it out in her maw and deposited it in Star Point’s hooves.

He took it, glanced back at Flowing, and then carefully opened the box to glance at the keys within.

“Baltimare Shipyards. Dock 12. She doesn’t have a name yet—figured I’d leave that to you. But it’s bad luck to sail without a name, so…” she flashed both of them a smile. “Probably best if her maiden voyage is under your command. S’long as you don’t mind the swim down.”

Star Point and Flowing shared another glance. Both seemed to be doing their best to keep their expressions neutral, but Flowing couldn’t really hold it for long before a wide smile cracked across the seapony’s face, and she practically leapt out of the fountain to land on Star’s back and hug his neck tightly. Star let out a breathless ‘urk!’ as he was suddenly near-strangled by his seapony marefriend, and Fizzlepop couldn’t hold back a little chuckle.

“Thank you, Tempest…” Star said eventually. He gave her another nod, and a smile that felt truer and warmer than any of his attempts before.

“It’s…” she rubbed a hoof against the back of her mane. “I’m going by Fizzlepop, now. Fizzlepop Berrytwist.”

Star’s eyebrow rose. Flowing stifled back a tittering giggle with a fin.

“Well, Fizzlepop…” Star asked after a moment, now grinning himself. “What’s next for you?”

“I… have some ponies to apologize to back in Canterlot, but I wanted you two to be my firsts,” she said. “Then… I want to go try and find an old... friend, back in the Griffon Empire. I see him going down the same path as me, and… well. Now that I know it’s not too late to come back from it. I want to make sure he’s got a friend, too.”

Flowing perked up at that. She mouthed the word ‘Cirrus’ to Fizzy, and she nodded in response. Flowing bit her lip, seemed to drive down some other conflicting emotion. As though her initial instinct had been anger, and the seapony herself was making an effort to reroute it to something more akin to relief. Fizzlepop could hardly blame her... before too long, it seemed to Fizzlepop like the poor seapony was on the verge of tears.

Thankfully, Star interrupted the silence.

“Well. If you need a ride across the pond when the time comes…” he nodded towards the open ocean behind him, all wide and blue in its vastness and majesty. “I like to think I know a pretty decent sailor.”

“Thank you. Both of you… thank you.” It was a strange feeling that Fizzy felt, blooming inside of her once again. A growing, soothing warmth. She’d felt it, when she’d accepted Twilight’s friendship back in Canterlot. And again, she felt it now.

Perhaps the adventure ahead of her, the impossible task that was reconciliation… Perhaps that wasn’t so impossible after all. After all, if she’d been offered friendship by as unlikely a pair as Flowing Sands and Star Point, how hopeless could her prospects truly be?

Author's Note

Here we are at the end.

I realize how hopelessly autistic it is to turn a oneshot clopfic into a multi-chapter longfic with character development and a plot, while still trying to maintain the same tone as the original fic. I don't know if I succeeded fully or not. What I do know is that it was a lot of fun to return to these characters in a different context and expand their story.

I hope you enjoyed!

8 - Loner, Meet the Bewildering Concept of Friendship

~~~

When Flowing and the two griffons came back into view, Star Point let out a sigh as though he’d been holding in his breath for as long as Flowing herself had been gone.

It was only a slight exaggeration, at that. The sense of relief that swept through him when he saw the three approaching—Flowing dangling with her tail fin catching the wind, looking like she was having the time of her life—was just about indescribable.

And… the mighty ursa’s hug he gave her when she was deposited gently down before him by the two sheepish griffons put her in about as much danger as the lusca itself did.

“Dear, you’re okay…” he blubbered into her shoulder. “You are a foal! You know that, right?!”

Flowing laughed. “Of course I do! And, foal or not… that’s your lusca problem taken care of, I hope.”

Another relieved sigh left Star. He found himself unable to stop petting her head crest, or releasing her from the tight hug she was captured in. “Good. Gods, Flowing… I was worried sick…”

“I was fineeee,” Flowing said it like she was a young mare being scolded for staying out too late. “T-think you’re holding me tighter than the actual grabber shark.”

“Sorry, sorry…” he released her—slightly, anyways. Behind him, he could hear Captain Misty’s hooves on the deck as he came closer. He’d been hovering just in Star’s peripheral, but had seemed content letting them have their moment before stepping in.

When Star let Flowing go and she looked over at him, he cleared his throat. He’d removed his captain’s cap, and was holding it to his side as he gave Flowing a little bow of his head. “Y’really saved our skin with your swimmin’, missy. I really owe ya one.”

Flowing waved a fin. “Owe, schmoe. Happy to help. Want me to take a swim around your hull and see how damaged she is?”

“We ain’t leaking, thank the stars,” Misty replied. “And I reckon you’ve already done more’n enough as is.”

Flowing’s smile could have powered a city block, with how bright it seemed to Star. “Anytime, really. It was fun!”

Star just about squeezed her tightly again, a million scolding words almost leaving him at her blatant recklessness. Sometimes, despite everything, he felt as though his fishy marefriend was as wild as the sharks or the seals or the schools of a thousand fishes that roamed the untamed oceans. Not in a million years did he truly think he could ever take that wildness from her, nor did he ever want to.

But… with thoughts of her joyous, untamed freedom on his mind, he gripped her fin, gave it a gentle squeeze, and turned to Captain Misty himself. “We really should be heading on and getting back on the waves now, though. Don’t you think, dear?”

Flowing nodded. “Yeah, we should. It’s been a pleasure, cap’n, but we’ve really been in your mane for long enough as is.”

Captain Misty chuckled. “And what a pleasant surprise it’s been. Know where you’re headed?”

Star tapped the compass that Misty have given him. “I do now.”

“Righto. Well. Drop in if ever you two lovebirds are sailin’ across this route again and ya happen to see my ship. Not everyday ya make friends on the open sea.”

They said their farewells, and soon enough, Star was piling back into the small little sailboat that, by some miracle, was still tied faithfully to the cargo ship. A bit full of water that required some bailing, but afloat all the same. He loaded the map and the compass into the small little under-seat locker, and re-jigged the sail. Flowing clambered in, and in what felt like no time at all they were turning into the cargo ship’s wake, the wind grasping their sails, the till stiffening in Star’s hoof as the boat gained momentum.

The cargo ship vanished into the distance over the next hour. They sailed on, as the sun began to creep lower into the sky. Star thought he could spot thunderclouds off to the east, where they were headed, but they seemed distant and drifting along the same course as they were.

“That was exciting,” Flowing said eventually, breaking the silence that had been between them for their initial shove out.

Exciting. He felt his grip tense on the till, feeling somewhere between aggravated and amused. “I’ll say. Flowing... You don’t know what it does to me when you do crap like that, do you?”

Flowing glanced back at him with a wary, surprised expression. “Starry... I am sorry that I scared you. I did tell you I could handle myself, though...”

“I know. I know,” he sighed and nodded. “I ain’t sayin’ you can’t, dear. Just sayin’ it scares the blazes outta me knowing you’re in danger.”

“Well. Now you know why I couldn’t swim off and leave ya be when that airship first showed up in Herring Harbour,” she replied after awhile. “Sometimes we’ve gotta do stupid things to make sure the ones we love are safe. And sometimes, we gotta trust ‘em to be safe even when they’re doing something stupid.”

Star couldn’t hold back a light chuckle. “That’s some twisted life advice, Flow.”

She laughed, too. “Yeah. Well. At least I got to show off my swimming skills.”

“As if I didn’t already know.” Star patted her tail fin with a smirk. “Hey, Flowing? Y’know that Pearl that Tempest is obsessed with finding? The one Queen Novo’s got?”

Flowing nodded.

“It transforms stuff, right? That’s what it does? That’s why she wants it so badly?”

Flowing nodded again. “Yup. Queen Novo used it when the hippogriffs first fled. Used it to transform into seaponies like us.” She pursed her lips thoughtfully. “I wonder why that Tempest pony wants it so badly.”

“I was kinda thinking about that,” Star admitted. “It’s probably her horn. Or, uh. Lack of a horn. She’s missing it. I thought she was an earth pony at first, but no, she’s a unicorn. She’s just got a stub for a horn, like it got cut off or somethin’.”

Flowing blinked, glancing back at Starry with a horrified look. “O-oh.”

“Yeah...”

“Poor mare...” Flowing bit her lip, looking away for a moment and instead watching the water racing beneath them. “I mean. I know she’s chasing me and wants to capture and interrogate me, but... Still. Poor mare.”

“Yeah,” Star Point said again. “So... Naturally, I got to thinking about the Pearl, and... Well. What if we can help that Tempest pony ourselves? I mean, with that Pearl... Couldn’t we maybe fix her horn ourselves?”

“You’re thinkin’ like a seapony now, Star Point.” Flowing laughed. “That’s not entirely a compliment. See, I respect where you’re coming from, but, uh. Yeah, we ain’t getting' anywhere near that Pearl, sorry.”

Star frowned, and nodded sadly. “Queen that protective, huh?”

“Oh, you have no idea. She’s got the thing rigged up to a whole jellyfish security system. It’s nuts. If anyfish so much as swims into the palace without a scheduled appointment, the jellies go haywire and they get the boot.”

“The palace that, just so I’m making sure I’ve still got things right, she forcibly ‘inherited’ when your people extended their generosity to her while she was fleeing.”

Flowing blinked. “You really don’t like Queen Novo, do you, Star?” A small smirk grew on her lips. “I think you might have some trouble charming her into giving you the Pearl to use on your bestie Tempest.”

“I know it’s a pipedream,” Star said, shrugging. “Just, uh. Something I was thinking about, is all.”

“I really love ya, y’know that, Starry?” Flowing let herself fall back gently, her head resting onto his lap. “Mare sinks your boat and threatens you and is hunting us both down and you’re still thinking about whether or not maybe we can help her.”

He ran a hoof across her fins and smiled. He hadn’t even really considered it like that...perhaps he was just being foalish, after all. Naïve, stupidly optimistic. Truth be told, the past few days had passed in such a blur that the events during them still felt dreamlike, as though he were remembering scenes from an exciting novel he’d read, and not something he’d actually lived himself.

“I guess maybe you bring out the best in me.”

~~~

Tempest didn’t usually carry a weapon.

They were extra weight. They were a distraction. They required maintenance, and care, and if you weren’t carefully keeping track of them they could wind up in the hooves of your enemy anyways, and used against you. The way she saw it, there was no point in relying on some auxiliary tool, when one’s hooves did the trick just fine.

Still, it was hard not to feel a little bit overwhelmed when she had the barrel of a blunderbuss pointed at her snout, and the shining light of two rapiers in her peripherals. The griffon male that was holding the blunderbuss was looking at her expectantly, as if expecting the gun itself to do all the required talking to motivate her to surrender. Perhaps for most bounties, it did. His partner, the female, had drawn out her blade from a sheath that was mounted on her wing—as jet-black as the rest of her raven-like form.

Oh well, she thought. It would just prove to make the ensuring conflict a bit more interesting.

She shared a sideways look at Cirrus. The hippogriff’s beak clamped shut of the usual smarmy remark. His normally jovial, joking eyes narrowed in focus, locking with those of the two griffons closest to him. He had a rapier wielding griffon and a wing-blade doning griffon to contend with. Tempest had the blunderbuss and the rapier on her side.

So, altogether a fairly fair fight, Tempest thought. Her expression twisted into a grin. And then, she lunged forwards, towards the griffon with the blunderbuss. He rose it to meet her quickly approaching form, but she was too fast for him. Tempest signalled the start of the conflict by colliding into the griffon male at a mighty speed, driving him forwards and shoving him towards the brick alley wall behind him. They impacted with a heavy thud, the force enough that his grip on the blunderbuss faltered.

“Told ya to back off,” Tempest sneered, her expression a grin of sadistic glee. This was the part of her job that she loved. She kicked the blunderbuss away with a hoof. “Now you’re gonna find out why you should have.”

She had enough time to savour the fury in his gaze, before the battle cry of the raven-coated griffon sang out behind her. What was with these punks and telegraphing their attacks for her? She ducked just in time to narrowly miss being skewered by the rapier, which clanged loudly against the wall, sparks shooting off. Whipping around and turning her back towards the still-stunned male griffon, Tempest lunged at the raven-coated one. She rose the rapier to meet Tempest’s charge, but Tempest dodged beneath it, lying nearly flat on the alley floor, and kicking off the ground to collide with the griffon’s legs. They both hit the alley in a heap with Tempest on top, the rapier clanging noisily on the ground next to the female griffon.

For a brief moment she saw Cirrus’s own little combat. He seemed to be holding his own well enough, she saw with delight. Despite his devil-may-care attitude, the hippogriff could at least put his money where his beak was when the sparks began to fly.

Beneath her, the female griffon was squirming her way out of Tempest’s grasp, a wing muscle grazing the hilt of her blade. Tempest began to charge energy into her severed horn, but the griffon’s talons were grazing the handle before her spell had the chance to ignite.

The griffonness suddenly pushed up with her hind legs, roughly shoving Tempest off of her. Tempest tumbled back, skidding across the cobblestone for several feet, while ahead of her the griffon grabbed her rapier with a wing and started towards her. To her left, the other griffon was scrambling to retrieve his blunderbuss. With a dramatic cry, the griffonness swung towards Tempest, forcing her to quickly step back to dodge it. It struck the stone ground in a torrent of sparks which scattered across Tempest’s face as the blade impacted with the ground inches away from her. And then, again, and again, on either side, as the griffoness swung down at an ever-moving, dodging Tempest.

“You’re awfully sloppy with that thing…” Tempest sneered. She rolled to the side one last time, and then rolled backwards, nimbly returning to her hooves in one showy, dramatic motion. The griffoness snarled and charged, and Tempest ducked beneath her blade’s swing and then, anchoring both of her forehooves firmly on the ground, bucked directly at the gleaming metal of the blade as it arched downwards.

Hitting the rapier from the side spared her the worse of its sharpened edge. It sailed out of the grifonness’s grasp once again, but this time actually struck one of the concrete walls of the alley and stuck there.

Then, a resounding, deafening boom rang through the alley, and a heavy chunk of the cobblestone ground beneath Tempest’s hooves scattered violently through the alley. It might have missed her… but it scared the buck out of her, too. She had just enough time to turn to face the blunderbuss wielding griffon, just as he collided with her and shoved her to the ground. His talons gripped her sides firmly, the sharp claws digging into her flesh and drawing blood. Tempest wasn’t even sure if he was intending to do so, or simply too caught up in the throes of combat to notice. Regardless, she couldn’t deny that it hurt like a bastard.

“Get your sword!” he barked to his griffoness companion, but she was already way ahead of him. Tempest knew he wouldn’t be able to fire off another shot in the throes of combat, which meant he had to rely on his companion to actually put an end to the conflict.

Tempest wasn’t having that, though. The griffon, in his amateruish impulsiveness, had resorted to pinning her with her back against the ground. This meant her forelimbs were still largely free. Baring her teeth, she curled her arm around the griffon, and pulled him in closer to her. At the same time, she was charging magic into her horn, her frustrated expression gradually morphing to a devious grin as bitter realization finally struck the griffon.

He released her and moved to put some distance, but it was already too late. He had just enough time to let her go and disconnect himself, before Tempest let loose with an enormous blast of ugly, unfocused magical energy, doing her best to localize it on the griffon who had been pining her. He cried out as it struck, not enough to put him down but certainly enough to sway his focus.

She turned. Looked back, and saw that Cirrus was still holding his own well enough, against the one griffon still fighting him. Good hippogriff.

The griffon was attempting to pack more gunpowder into his blunderbuss when Tempest turned to him. She smirked, and this time did not bother charging. At the rate he was doing so, she did not have to worry. Her horn was alight once again, and this time there was nothing to interrupt her. The ensuing magical discharge was indiscriminate. She hadn’t been charging any spell specifically—that ability had left her long, long ago. Instead, she was simply feeding magic into it for the sole purpose of a violent discharge. Like firing up a faulty engine just to watch it smoke and burn.

The magical burst cascaded out of her horn. With the narrow alleyway on both sides of them, the sparks once again bounced off the walls and ground and struck all three of them without discrimination. Tempest winced as the electricity shocked through her, but she had been expecting it at least. She’d been prepared, and that preparation was enough to keep her on her hooves while the other two stopped dead in their tracks in literal shock. The electricity bounced off the stone walls, coaleced against the pinned blade and turned it into a sparking lightning rod already casting betraying bolts towards the griffoness who had been wielding it…

As quickly as it had begun, the blast dissipated. Her muscles still singing electric pain, Tempest cantered to the discarded blunderbuss and stomped a hoof down onto the firing mechanism. A messy, ugly crunch, and the firearm was no more. The male griffon had struggled back to his feet just in time to see it, and to see Tempest standing in the middle of the alleyway glaring back at him.

Her horn began to glow again.

An evil, taunting smirk split across her face.

In a clang of metal, the freshly retrieved rapier once more hit the alley floor, this time willingly. The raven-griffon had taken flight. Her partner was right behind her, the two fleeing instantly as they no doubt realized that whatever bounty they thought would be rife for the taking was certainly not worth clashing with Tempest over.

She chuckled, and started back towards Cirrus. As she started to move, she could more properly feel the damage that the magical discharge and griffon talons had had on her body. She walked with a barely visible limp, wincing and internally cursing herself for not wearing her armour into town.

Deeper into the alley, she could hear the clanging of metal on metal, and when she rounded the corner she saw one unconscious griffon, and Cirrus gripping the hilt of the other rapier in a wing, using it to deflect the slices that the griffon was attempting with her wing-blades. He was too focused on his duel to notice Tempest at first.

“You’re out numbered now, griffon,” Tempest spoke up. Amazingly, she ceased, and glanced back in Tempest’s direction with an incredulous look.

“No feather-flipping way…”

Cirrus chuckled. “Not the best fighters, are ya lot?”

The griffon grimaced. She looked from Cirrus, to Tempest, and then to her unconscious companion and the discarded weaponry of the others.

“Not worth it. Workin’ with a buncha cowards,” she grumbled out. She spat in Tempest’s direction, spread her wings, and took off into the sky.

Cirrus let out a heavy exhale, dropping the rapier and shaking his head, forcing out a chuckle. “That scary, are ya, Tempy?”

“Mm. So it seems. You’re uninjured?”

Cirrus wiped a streak of blood off his face, where a wing-blade had grazed without really penetrating anything. “I’m fine. We should, uh…” He nodded at the still-unconscious fourth griffon. “Before folks investigate those blasts…”

Tempest did not need to be told twice. She led the way out of the alleyway, and as smoothly as they could, they blended back in with the busy marketplace. Cirrus was still bleeding, ever so slightly, and so Tempest led them towards a tavern after a few paces and headed inside, motioning for Cirrus to follow. They got a seat at once of the booths, and Tempest tossed the napkin at her spot towards Cirrus.

“Put pressure, stop the bleeding. I’m getting us a round, and I doubt you’re complaining.”

He chuckled. “That I ain’t. I’m… uh, look, I’m sorry about that, Tempest.”

“Bounty hunters, right?” she managed a smirk. “When they’re not us, they’re a real hastle.”

“Easy for you to say, miss fearsome Storm King lieutenant.” He dabbed his cut with the napkin. “Thanks, Tempy. Seriously. I would, uh. Be in a bit of a pickle, if it hadn’t been for you.”

Tempest shrugged. “Whatever. That cut isn’t getting you off the hook from helping me, y’know.”

Cirrus nodded. “Kinda funny, isn’t it?”

“What’s that?”

“This whole situation, I mean. It’s just… funny.”

“You’re going to have to be a smidge more specific, Cirrus.”

Cirrus rolled his eyes. The napkin moved from the grip of one wing to the other as he unclasped his pack and threw it down on the booth chair beside him. “Just the, uh. Double standard. Of you protecting me, I mean. From bounty hunters. While we’re hunting a seapony for basically the same reason.”

“No.” Tempest narrowed her eyes. “Not the same reason. Do you really think I’m hunting that seapony for money? Like those fools? Do you think it’s a payday for me, and that’s it?”

“Right, the horn. I know. But you have to admit you think it’s a bit ironic, don’t you?”

“Cirrus, you would do well to not put so much stock in my protecting you. I value your worth as an asset to my cause. There does not have to be more to it than that.”

Cirrus was quiet for several seconds, looking away from Tempest, and around at the bar as her words reverberated in his head for a few moments. When he next met her eyes, she could tell he wasn’t entirely convinced by what she’d said. “But isn’t there?”

For a moment, Tempest wasn’t sure what to say. Of course there was more to it. Of course she did not actually want to see Cirrus hurt for some stupid bounty claimed by a gaggle of incompetent fools. Of course she knew how hypocritical she was being, to so sorely judge that earth pony, for being so willing to go to such lengths in order to protect his seapony mate.

Of course she knew what she was doing was wrong.

But knowing that didn’t make doing it any less necessary.

“There is not.”

Cirrus sighed, shaking his head sadly and then getting up to go fetch them a couple of drinks from the bar, leaving Tempest alone to her thoughts once more. Not somewhere she liked to be when she could help it.

Outside, the late afternoon sky was starting to darken with both cloud and night. She would have to get out there soon enough, find somewhere outside to stand vigil for her seapony target.

With some luck, she’d be the last one Tempest would have to chase.

~~~

The sun had begun to fall and darkness was beginning to spread out across the ocean.

They’d been back on the waves for almost five hours now after the incident with the lusca, and it was enough time for the sky to grow more clouded and dark, though thankfully the closest they got to a storm was a light drizzle that resolved after half an hour or so.

Flowing had, on occasion, crawled out of the sailboat and taken to swimming next to it. It wasn’t that she wasn’t comfortable laying in Star’s hooves. But even so, she still needed to stretch her swimming muscles every once in awhile, and she could think of no better way to do so than challenging herself to keep up with the sailboat that Starry was now getting quite the hang of. He kept it headed along at a decent 15 or so knots... Slower than Flowing could swim even on an off day, but still impressive for the force of the winds alone.

They saw no more ships since leaving the cargo freighter behind. Flowing considered it a blessing. Any more distractions wouldn’t be ideal, and any ship carried the (albeit small) risk of having crew that were sympathetic more to the cause of the Storm King than herself.

With some luck, at the rate they were travelling, they might reach the shores of the Griffon Empires before noon of the following day.

Skipping along the waves, Flowing twisted her path back towards the sailboat and gave Starry a wave. “I’m gonna go dive for some supper. Y’want anything while I’m down there?”

Star Point gave her a blank stare. “I, uh. I don’t really eat raw fish like you do, Flow. And I don’t know about starting a fire inside of a wooden sailboat to cook it.”

Flowing laughed. “There’s other things to eat in the ocean, silly! Ever ny had sea-weed salad before?”

“Can’t say that I have.”

“Well. Y’gotta make do when ya live in the ocean,” Flowing replied.

“It’s fine. I grabbed some canned veggies from the lighthouse,” Star said. “Come on in when you’ve caught your fish. We’ll eat dinner together.”

Flowing was able to scrounge together a fin-full of smelts, which, while they provided a bit of a chase, she was able to scoop up with a decent amount of slight of fin. Starry started a little when she surfaced immediately next to the sailboat and tossed a few of them directly at him, swiftly informing him to ‘think fast’. They flopped around helplessly on the deck of the sailboat, before Flowing herself crawled aboard too and scooped them back into her fins again.

“Graceful as always, dear,” Starry commented, as she began to messily bite into one of the smelts’ heads with the ease one might bite into a raw carrot. If he was grossed out any by her raw-fish diet, though, he didn’t express it any. Truthfully, he’d grown accustomed to the sight, and while it had been a little striking at first, there was some sort of primal, predatory feeling her got watching her that somehow made her look even more...

Well. Beautiful was perhaps the wrong word.

They ate in each other’s embrace while the sailboat drifted on its own. The sun set and darkness fell over them slowly, and as it did Flowing crept out of the sailboat for one last swim before retiring for the evening aboard the sailboat with Starry.

Diving beneath the waves, she let out a sigh as the cool water flowed through her scales. As she swam, it once again struck her, in all it’s foreign strangeness, that she was enjoying this, still. Being on the open seas with Starry... And being together for so long, without interruption, without having to flee back to Seaquestria by the end of it...

With such thoughts in her head, Flowing nearly missed the faintest pinpricks of shimmering light deep beneath her, in the void of darkness that was only growing darker as the light above the waves ebbed into night-time.

Pursing her lips thoughtfully, Flowing guided herself downwards, slowly and cautiously, her ears flicking to and fro as she felt for any changes in water pressure that might be stirred by some large creature she should be worried about. The last thing she wanted was to swim right into the nest of a coecalanth or sea-dragon.

No. That wasn’t what was causing the lights belong. As she swam closer, she felt the distinct pull of a downwards current, one of those strange ones that occurred when a great number of creatures were all flowing along one path, riding their own mutual momentum. Her eyes widened as she swam deeper, and the disconnected lights beneath her revealed themselves more.

It wasn’t just one. It wasn’t even just ten. Gasping in amazement as she realized what was beneath her, Flowing realized quickly that she’d be hitting herself in the skull for the rest of her life if she didn’t show Starry what surely might’ve been a once in a life-time sight.

When she surfaced by the sailboat and quickly requested he get out immediately and join her in the waves, he had been confused but complacent.

“Alright, alright, I’m holding on. I just don’t see what the--”

“You will! Trust me, ya will! Just... Hold on...” Flowing swam out a little ways from the sailboat, not wanting it to get caught up in what she was about to do. “Okay, get off, and tread water. I need to make ya another flow bubble.”

Warily, Star climbed off her back and began to beat the water with his hooves. She saw him at it as she dropped under water, giggling to herself at the cute way his little hooves doggy-paddled at the waves. In the water, there was something so adorably helpless about the way ponies instantly lost the majority of their mobility.

She worked fast, though. She could see the shimmering lights in the distance, swimming downwards, and she didn’t want to lose the opportunity. Quickly, she began to swim in a quick pirouetting spiral, spinning a current stronger and stronger. Her angler light glowing brighter as she worked, until after about a minute of intense swimming and even more intense focus, she had carved a decent sized air pocket out of the ocean water. It seemed just large enough that it would cover most of Star Point’s handsome visage, which was all it had to be for now.

Swishing her tail to create an upwards current, she sent the bubble drifting slowly upwards. Then, she swam up to Starry, wrapping her fore-fins around his unexpected barrel and submerging her snout along the underside of his. As she gripped him, the air pocket reached him, brushing against his cheek and floating on the waves next time.

“Gotcha,” she purred. “Ready, dear? ”

He jumped a little from instinct as she grabbed him, but snickered and nodded. “Ready.”

“Alrighty. Just...” She cradled the air pocket in her hooves and eased it around his snout. He took a gentle inhale, and, apparently finding himself able to comfortably breath, gave her a smooch from his side of the bubble. Their lips technically didn’t connect, but it still felt just as intimate to Flowing.

She let him climb aboard her again. “That bubble should last ya a few minutes. Enough for a quick look.”

“You got it, dear.”

With Starry riding on her back, Flowing descended beneath the waves. She didn’t swim far at first, glancing back to make sure he was breathing comfortably through the bubble. He looked... Wide eyed, amazed, thrilled... But not at all short of breath. She laughed aloud and let out a gleeful cry.

“Seapony magic!” she shouted. “Gods, I never got a chance to try it before!”

“Workin’ like a charm, dear!” he replied, hooves gripping her tightly. “Where ya takin’ me?”

“Shh, shh!” came her quick reply. “You’ll spoil the surprise, silly!”

With another laugh, Star seemed to resign himself to the roll of passenger, resting his head on top of hers and looking eagerly at the waters racing past them.

For Star Point, it was like he was riding one of those roller-coasters they’d sometimes have when the midway came to Herring Harbour. He couldn’t hold back a few little whoops of delight, as Flowing’s lithe form swam him further into the depths. Her angler light pierced the darkness, which seemed to be growing thicker and thicker...

Until, with widened eyes, he realized that it wasn’t.

Below them, slowly fading into view from the veils of submarine darkness, what looked like a city of light was slowly fading into view. As Flowing guided them deeper, Star Point realized that he wasn’t looking at a city at all, but rather, thousands upon thousands of subtle shifting, moving lights. What they belonged to, he couldn’t see quite yet. But there were countless, of various colours ranging from blue to green to white, some flickering brilliantly and others a sustained solid.

Flowing glanced back to gauge his reaction, and his wide-eyed amazement seemed to delight her and fuel her swimming muscles. She swatted at the water excitedly, and they shot forwards into the shimmering forest of light.

They were squid, Star realized. They did not seem to be actively swimming, but instead riding along some submerged current, forming a road of a million lights that spiralled downwards into the darkness. They were far enough down now that when Star looked up, the blades of moonlight were having difficulty meeting them, which meant there was no other source of light to blot out the vivid display of bioluminescent beauty beneath them.

Flowing kept them a safe distance away from the display, skirting along the blinking, brilliant dance on every side, riding the same current that it was following but also pirouetting around them in a steady corkscrew.

And then, as Star was watching them all floating along on their lonesome, together, he started to notice a few of them were floating close. He watched as one of them would begin to rub it’s tendrils against another, the contact resulting in a shared little flicker of light from both, like somepony fiddling with a light-switch.

Then, after a moment’s hesitation, their tendrils began to intertwine, wrapping around each other. One of them glowed brighter, blue light piercing out and nearly blotting out it’s partner. Meanwhile, the other had gone dim, it’s green light fading away to nothing...

Only for the bright blue from it’s conjoined partner to fade into the dimmed squid. It looked like it had transferred the light through it’s tendrils, and Star would have thought as much if Flowing wouldn’t have piped up then and there.

“They’re findin’ their rhythm,” she cooed out, swimming closer when she noticed Star’s staring. Flowing scrunched up her cheeks with her fins, squeeing in delight as she watched. “Come on, little guys! You can do it!”

The blue light faded from one squid to the other, and then back again. And then, the rhythm began to hasten. And then, after a minute or so, they were sharing one rhythmic pulse between each other, again and again, swirling down with the currents while blinking and fading in togetherness.

Across the entire swarm of squid, the same motion was being repeated by all of them. Rhythm forming from chaos, bonds forming from solo flickers, and little by little, Flowing and Star watched as the multi-coloured tapestry of lights took on a shared hue. Flickering in unison, fading out and in, changing colours and growing brighter, all together, in pairs, and all at once.

It was one of the most beautiful things Star had ever seen.

Flowing let him go, floating there with him, her sleek and scaly form backlit by the light show behind her.

Though Star felt the bubble around him losing integrity, he wished he could have stayed down there longer. It was incredible how much freer one could feel under the waves.

“Nice little mating rhythm, huh?” Flowing said. “They’re monogamous, y’know. They’ll stay together until one of them passes. That little display ya just saw?” She pursed her lips into a bittersweet smile. “Only one they’ll do, now that they found each other. They’re in it together, now.”

“Mm. Didn’t think I’d have something so in common with a buncha prawns.”

“Squid.” Flowing’s smile grew. She hooked a fin around Star’s barrel, and then began to beat her tail, guiding them both upwards towards the surface again. “Well, actually ammonites, but. Details. C’mon. Let’s getcha up before ya get the bends.”

He wrapped his hooves around her waist, glancing back down at the display of light continuing to swirl down into the oceanic depths, growing smaller as Flowing swam them both upwards.

When they finally surfaced, the bubble she had formed out of flow magic had mostly dissipated, and it vanished with a resolute ‘pop!’ as soon as they surfaced and his head poked out into the open night air.

“That was incredible, dear...” he gasped out, kissing her again, now that he no longer had a magical bubble impeding his efforts.

“It was, wasn’t it? Nature is so great!” she chittered out happily.

Their sailboat had drifted off some ways, during their excursion, but not far enough that Flowing wasn’t able to catch up to it with ease, and quickly clamber back aboard. Flowing followed him inside once he was settled in, curling in close and holding him tight in her fins.

“With some luck, we’ll reach the Griffonlands by tomorrow morning...” Star said, stroking her head. “And then... We can see about putting this running behind us.”

“Almost out of it, eh?” Flowing cooed out softly.

“Almost out.”

“Gonna miss it, a bit. It’s been nice, seeing the world with you.”

“No reason we have to stop. But... Maybe we can see the world from the safety of Equestria for a little bit, eh?”

Flowing chuckled, closing her eyes and resting her head against him. “Right.”

Star took the tiller in his hooves again, and consulted the compass quickly as he took them back towards their proper course heading. Slowly, the sailboat began to gain speed, skipping over the waves as the starwheel gently spun above the two lovers.

~~~

“Yikes… Tempy, these are…”

Tempest rolled her eyes as Cirrus finished removing her cloak, setting it down as gently as he could manage against the seat of a harsh metal desk that had been bolted down onto the floor of Tempest’s quarters in the Thespis.

“I have had worse.”

“How’d you manage to get burnt in the first place? That from the blunderbuss or somethin?’”

Tempest couldn’t hold back a smirk. “Guess you missed the light-show. Too focused on keeping all of your feathers in line as you fought. Not enough to win, have to look ‘dashing’ while doing so.”

“Aw. She thinks I’m dashing,” Cirrus chuckled. “So, not the blunderbuss. What happened?”

“Magic discharge.”

Cirrus looked confused, for all but a moment, before bitter realization coloured his face. “Ah. Shoot, Tempy, I’m sorry…”

“Yes yes. Were you here to treat the wound, or gawk at it, hippogriff?”

“In my defence, it’s situated in quiiite the gawk-able place.” He replied, his smirk returning with a vengeance. “Alright. Sit your flank down, then. That griffon’s talons did a number on you, too, so I’m gonna treat that first. Not much I can do for the burn marks besides bandage ‘em up.”

“Do what you must,” Tempest waved a hoof. “And… thank you.”

For once, Cirrus did not have a reply. He had opened the first-aid kit atop Tempest’s cot, and was in the process of organizing its contents. A few strips of bandages, a few cotton swab pads, a bottle of disinfectant…

She felt his talons touch her back, close to the wound, and then a gentle dabbing as he brought the cotton swab to the harsh and jagged claw marks. It stung, but only a little. Nothing she couldn’t handle, and she did not so much as flinch.

“Tough gal…” Cirrus said, moving on to the other side and giving it the same treatment. “They’re probably gonna be havin’ nightmares ‘bout you tonight, Tempy.”

She chuckled. “I think you might be overestimating my influence just a little.”

“Mm, maybe. Maybe not.” She heard him shuffle, and felt him sit down behind her. His presence something she could simply feel, even without turning back to look at him. The entire situation felt…

Well. To say her mind wasn’t a bit restless would be a lie. She could not recall the last time she’d let anypony treat her wounds like this… usually it was something she did herself, by the vision granted by the mirror in her chambers, shaking and shuddering with the vibrations of airship flight. She wasn’t somepony that others could see as injured or vulnerable. And… she did not have anypony she quite trusted to fulfill such a roll anyways. If he wanted, Cirrus could probably have grabbed a scalpel and driven it right into her throat.

As that thought struck her, her earlier ponderings returned in full force. A fresh blooming of confusion and conflicting emotions. She trusted Cirrus. She liked spending time with Cirrus. She wanted Cirrus to be safe.

She’d protect Cirrus, even if it meant putting herself in danger.

What the buck was he? If she didn’t believe in friendship—and she knew for certain that she did not—then what the buck was Cirrus supposed to be?

The questions swirled in her head, as she felt Cirrus’s talons rubbing up and down her back, the hippogriff working slowly and calmly to clean out the bits of flecked, dried blood that had drizzled from her wound and down her exposed back.

“Bet you love this…” she grumbled out, glancing back at him only to see him pursing his beak in sheer focus, a vial of aloe ointment held in one wing and the cotton swab in the other.

“Loathe it. Woe is me, I have no choice but to put my talons all over the badass, sexy-voiced unicorn with the hot mane.”

She narrowed her eyes, but she couldn’t keep the amusement out of her voice. “Keep it up, and you’ll need to use this kit on yourself.”

“For complimenting you? Nonsense.” Cirrus laughed. “Okay… well. Wounds look as clean as they’re gonna be, and they ain’t infected,” Cirrus said, giving her haunches a little tap with a talon. “Lemme get you bandaged up, and when you put your armour back on, no one will be the wiser.”

Tempest nodded. Cirrus began the somewhat slow and tedious process of wrapping her barrel in sterilized strips of bandage, doing his damndest to find the perfect middle ground between ‘tight enough that it wouldn’t bunch under her armour’ and ‘not enough to be a bloody corset.’

“Y’know, we’ve been workin’ together for, like. Six years now,” Cirrus said idly as he worked. “And you still haven’t told me about the horn yet.”

Tempest did not immediately reply. Cirrus did not immediately press it either, which gave her time to contemplate the question. She would not ever claim to be ashamed of her maimed horn… and her days of starting tavern brawls with anypony who made fun of it were long beyond her, yet it still was not a topic she felt comfortable willingly bringing into casual conversation.

“It is… something I find difficult discussing with ponies desperate to exploit weakness.”

“Y’think I’m desperate to exploit any weaknesses of yours, Tempy?”

She was silent. The bandages grew a little tighter around her sides, sealing off her wounds from the outside world. When the armour was on, nopony would even be able to tell that she’d ever been hurting.

“No, Cirrus. If you wish, I can tell you how I lost it.”

“Nah. If you wanted to talk about it, you would’ve already,” he replied. “I just thought it was funny. That neither of us really talked about, well. It.”

“It’s not like it’s something ‘talking’ can fix.”

“No, I guess it’s not. Still, you’re on your way to doing that, right?” Cirrus finished up bandaging the one wound, and moved on to the next. He was working a little slower now, his focus half divided between the conversation they’d initiated. The sort of conversation Tempest suddenly realized she hadn’t had with anypony besides Cirrus in years, and now was having it for the second time of the day with him.

“What’re your plans? When you get your horn back? Bet you’ve got a lot of them, right?” he asked. She couldn’t recall his voice sounding so thoughtful and curious before. Like he actually cared, and he wasn’t just asking to try and get her to smile.

“Cirrus, what is your game here?” Tempest asked. “Or, ever? Why is it so important to you that I find you charming?”

He stopped. His talons left her back. “Um…”

“You’re not content simply working together. You want me to like you. Don’t you?”

“Tempy, what kind of flightless hatchling doesn’t want folks to like them?” he replied. “I’ve seen a lot of griffs stab each-other in the back for an easy pay day. I’ve seen ponies do it, too. I know you have as well. I keep expecting the other horseshoe to drop, and you to do it to me, but you haven’t yet. You’re protecting me, and…” He exhaled. “…And I still don’t believe you when you say it’s ‘nothing.’ Maybe I just want you to admit that.”

She did not answer, though her mind felt alight with the temptation to. “…Finish up treating my wounds, Cirrus.”

“Already done,” he replied, tucking the bandages back into the first-aid kit, and clamping it shut. He was already rising to his talons, shuffling his way towards the port-hole exit back into the inner workings of the Thespis. “I’m sorry if I pried, Tempy.”

“Cirrus, look at me.”

He stopped, and turned.

“When I have my horn back. I’ll have time to worry about things like this.” She attempted a smile, and almost succeeded. “The sooner I get it… the sooner you’ll get my answer. Do you understand?”

He nodded.

“Good. Let’s go catch us our seapony.”