Go With the Flow

~~~ 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.”