As I turned my gaze to the distant horizon, I spotted it. A prize unlike any other, a golden perfection just waiting to be claimed by any who dared the journey to reach it. I turned to my brother, his eyes fixed in the my own had been but a moment ago. Eventually he looked to me, and we needed not speak to know what the other was thinking.

“It’s awfully far. Must be at least a gazillion miles,” I state hesitantly, knowing full well that this would end with my chasing him on his crazy quest.

“We can make it. It couldn’t be more than eleventy,” he countered.

“It could be dangerous. Who knows what’s out there?”

“It’s worth it.” With that he dived beneath the waves, and after a long sigh, I followed.

I followed in my brother’s wake, letting his larger and more numerous fins and greater strength break the water for me, thus allowing myself to keep up with the greater speed he possessed as a ‘flying’ seapony. Not that I would trade my own magical abilities for the speed or other physical prowess being a flying seapony has to offer, like being able to make great jumps out of the ocean, almost swimming in the air. I wonder if he wishes he were a seacorn like I, seeing how we were so much alike, putting aside our respective subspecies and sexes. Even our coloration was similar, with my yellow coat and orange fins being a more saturated version of his yellowish off-white coat and brown fins. Although such similarities are not unexpected, with us being not only being siblings but also twins.



The ocean beginning to bubble around me knocked me out of my musings. My brother now floated close to me, hugging me as a safety precaution, for the sudden froth could only mean one thing: danger. Popping above the surface, we found that a storm was upon us. Unfortunately, seaponies were very much like dolphins in that, despite living in the water, we breathed air, and as such must come close to the surface regularly. While we could dive down to the depths temporarily after surfacing, we had to fight our way back up through the rough surf to grab even one raindrop-filled breath. Such a shame that this was a serious struggle for life and death, because all the larger bubbles generated in the onslaught we such fun to pop!

As I popped the bubbles churned up by the storm, I realized that as I popped, the winds and thunder present at my trips to the surface waned, in proportion to the number popped.

“Pop the bubbles!” I cried out to my brother.

“What?!”

“Just trust me!”

“Ookay…”
Together we popped all the large and even medium sized bubbles, but the fizz left over, too small for us to pop without making as much for our movements. Unfortunately I had lost my brother in the chaos of the waves, distracted by the fun of popping bubbles. All that was left was to wait until the fizz, and with it the last of the storm, was gone.

After what may have been weeks, months, or maybe even a day, the storm finally subsided. I cried out my brother’s name, slowly circling out from my original position in hopes of finding him.

“Sister!” I hear in the distance after a short period of searching. I waste no time in swimming full throttle towards the call, and quickly my brother comes into view, doing the same. My brother and I had great fortune in that we were not too far separated in the storm.

“I was so worried!” he exclaimed.

“I’m the one with magic.” I counter. “And if you were so worried, why were you so willing to risk this journey anyway?”

“When did I say I was worried?”

“Just now.”

“I don’t remember it.”

“You did.”

“Did not.”

“Did too.”

“Did not”.

“Did too.”

This continued until eventually my brother quickly yelled “Did not!” and dived under the water before I could respond, and promptly began swimming away. After scanning the horizon I spotted our goal, as far as it ever had been, thanks to the storm’s currents dragging us away, and more importantly, in nearly the opposite direction that my brother was now swimming. Sighing, I grasp his tail with my magic and pull him back towards me. As he resurfaces, I simply point towards the prize, and he chuckles sheepishly, and once again begins swimming, albeit in the proper direction this time. I should have known he’d continue the quest in the face of such a prize, especially since he would never give up. Once again dive into the sea after my brother, for neither of us was a quitter.



“AAAAHHH!” screamed my brother as he dashed backwards into me.

“Owww! Just what are you doing?” I scold my brother.

“Are you blind?!” he yelled back.

A huge gaping maw loomed in front of us. Rather than teeth, there were simply deep, gaping holes in the gums of the monster, making the beast not merely frightening, but also sickening. Even more disorientating were the gigantic purple eyes of the beast, staring emptily to what was in front of the sea monster in two different directions, one on me, and one on my brother. We froze, ready to dart from any attack, yet the beast simply sat there.

“I-is it... is it going to eat us?” my brother stammered. The beast continued staring, although I was no longer sure if it was at or through us.

“I’m not sure. I think it might have just wanted to scare us.”

“Why would it do that?”

“I dunno. Guess it must just be a meanie-pants.”

Fortunately, long ago our foalsitter had taught us how to deal with bullies. We silently swum around the beast, and continued to our goal, ignoring the creature. To our surprise, it actually worked- we were blessed enough to never have to deal with a bully before.



As I followed my brother, suddenly a pink tentacle lined with white suction cups reached out of the deep and wrapped around his leg. As it began dragging my brother away, it was clear that this bully we couldn’t ignore. I quickly swam to him and chomped on the tentacle. It released, but two more shot up and grabbed at us. I summoned my magic and created a wall of ice, ensnaring the tentacles and preventing more from reaching us. We struggled free of the tentacles holding us, and quickly swam away.

If only that was the last we saw of the monster. It was scarcely a few minutes later where i felt a tentacle reach around my tail. I quickly used my magic to zap it off and my brother and I began swimming in quick, elaborate patterns, hoping to tie up the tentacles in a knot. It seemed to be successful until, at the very last moment before they would’ve been entangled, the tentacles stopped and freed themselves, pulling out of the twist we had created. It was almost as if this monster was being guided by an intelligent hoof.

The struggle continued, with us darting about evasively, biting and zapping tentacles that succeeded in their mission, until at last my brother was too tired to continue fighting. The tentacles captured him, wrapping around him.

“Help, sis!” he cried out. As always, he needed my help. Unfortunately, charging up my magic to attempt to free him was ultimately a distraction that sentenced myself to the same fate.

The the tentacles wrapped around us completely, the suckers brushing against every bit of our bodies. Then, as suddenly as the first tentacle shot up to grab my brother, we were released, none the worse for wear save the the drain from our efforts. Without needing to exchange words, we quickly high-tailed it out of the area.

Staying to the surface to avoid another attack from the deeps ultimately proved a mistake, for the next strike against us came from the sky. A huge, swift flock of gulls descended upon us.

“AAAAHHH” we screamed in unison, as I prepared my magic to fight of the gulls. But Before unleashing my spell, I realised the birds were only brushing against my fins, much in the same way, although a bit rougher, as the tentacles against my body. I relaxed, although my brother continued to yell throughout the whole ordeal.



As the sun began to set, we finally neared our goal. However, once we were almost in range of it, a mysterious striped seapony swam up in front of us.

“I am the guardian of the treasure,” creaked the unknown seacorn.

“Soooo can we have it?” pleaded my brother.

“If my treasure you wish you wish to have, you must pay my fee: the answers to my riddles three,” rhymed the old seapony.

“I’m no good with riddles,” whined my brother. “Sis, you handle it.” He promptly started staring at the treasure, drooling and clearly tuning out everything else. Looks like I was on my own on this one. Good thing I was amazing at riddles.

“The more I eat, the more I grow. But if ever I drink, no more I know. What am I?” riddled the guardian.

And I was already stumped.

“AAAHH!” Oh what trouble could he have gotten into this time? “The sun went next to the prize… and I looked at it! My eyes, they’re on FIRE!” I couldn’t take my eyes off him for one second, could I?

“Yes, I am fire,” responded the seacorn.

“How were we supposed to know that? We live in water!” That old witch was cheating!

“So you didn’t know that one, eh sis?” teased my brother, tears still streaming down his cheeks.

“Oh shut up.”

The guardian ignored us, and continued with her riddles. “What walks on four legs in the morning, two legs in the afternoon, and three legs in the evening?”

I simply stared at her, stumped yet again. My brother watched my reaction, and sighed. Guess he figured out we weren’t getting any treasure if she kept throwing these cheating riddles. “Oh, man,” he whined.

“Indeed, I am man,” responded the seacorn.

I simply stared at her dumbfounded. I had no idea what that word man meant, but apparently it was the answer. Whatever a man was, it was weird.

“And now the final riddle, and indeed it is the hardest riddle of all. Who am I?” At this I lost my temper.

“You’re some crazy old seapony who makes riddles about things we couldn’t possibly know about, and probably aren’t even the actual guardian of the treasure or whatever!” I scream at her.

“You are wise, young ones. My riddles three I have asked, and you have answered. You may claim your treasure.”

I had no words. But after all that, this treasure was MINE. I quickly grab it in my magic, and pull it towards me, causing my brother to just miss pouncing upon it. I quickly start to swim away.

“Hey!” And with that, the chase was on. I giggled as I set a course for home, my brother trying to grab hold of my tail, only to be repeated foiled by me pushing him away with my magic.

---

“Thanks for giving the twins a bath, Pinkie,” said Mr. Cake.

“Oh it was no problem,” replied Pinkie. “Except for when I tried to wash them, they really put up a fight. Maybe the washcloths were too rough. Also, I may have put a put a little too much bubble bath in,” she chuckled. “So yeah, remind me to pick up more bubblebath tomorrow.”

“But we just got a new bottle of bubble bath today!” exclaimed Mrs. Cake.

“A new EMPTY bottle,” corrected Pinkie energetically. “Oops.” Pinkie covered her mouth and whispered, “don’t want to wake the twins.”

The Cakes and Pinkie peered into the twin’s room, and cooed as Pumpkin and Carrot lay sleeping peacefully in their cribs. In Pumpkin’s arms was a small bright yellow rubber ducky.