Friendship forms on the Sea Shore

The moon shone down on the soft forest, softly illuminating anything it touched, and slightly reflecting off of Birch’s dark crimson back scales. The mare was on the lookout for a few herbs, as a friend of hers was running low on supplies, and knew she’d have a better chance at finding the herb than her friend did, or at least she usually did. She had been out for almost an hour, and had gotten almost everything on her list, all except forget-me-nots. She had checked the whole forest, but found no trace of the illusive flower. After searching her forest a second time, she decided to finally give up. She held her head down in defeat and let her legs carry her home. She had failed at something she thought she excelled at. She had failed a friend. She-

Before she could dwell longer on her thoughts, a strong, salty scent hit her nose, and caused her to look up. When she expected to see her home, a cottage on the outskirts of a small town, she instead found herself at the ocean's edge. As she looked out at the beach, she felt a ping of embarrassment wash over her. She hadn’t meant to slink away to her comfort place, it was just a force of habit. She should have paid more attention to her hooves. She looked back out at the sea and breathed in the salty scent that comforted her so much. 

“Maybe I can stay for a little..” she muttered before allowing herself to step out onto the silky sand. She loved the way the water splashed her love lightly. She loved it all. She wished she could just melt into the ground and become a part of the earth below her. Slowly, however, she felt a foreboding feeling wash over her, like she was being washed. She tried to ignore it at first, but soon, she couldn’t even relax with how stressful the feeling was making her. Then she heard something, a small splash.

She turned around slowly towards the ocean, her mane of creme fur so puffed up, her head was almost unseeable behind the floof. She spotted a purple head, accompanied by pink eyes. She gasped and jumped to her hooves, startled that she was being watched.  The creature seemed to be just as surprised that it was noticed and disappeared under the water. Birch immediately felt guilty for scaring the creature.

“Sorry, Sorry, I-I didn’t mean to startle you” she stuttered. 

The creature slowly poked her head out, their gaze seeming distrustful. Birch felt bad about the look, but knew it was a reasonable reaction. She was wary around other ponies just the same. Birch slowly reached a hoof out towards the creature, to which they backed up a little. 

“It’s ok, I-I won’t hurt you.” Birch reassured, giving the creature the biggest smile she could muster. “ I'm Birch Blitz, what’s your name?” 

The purple creature slowly stuck their head more and more out the water till they were up to what Birch assumed was the base of their neck. Birch immediately knew what the creature was. The illusive creatures of the sea, dwellers of most of the ocean, a seapony.  The aquatic creature had indeed, rich purple scales, but it was now noticeably that they had elegant swirls of darker purple down their neck and face, along with red rune-like markings. 

“Uh, Hi, what’s your name?” Birch asked, putting her hoof away.

The purple seapony cautiously swam closer and muttered softly, “Um, I’m Misty Deep”

“MIsty Deep, well that’s a nice name” Birch replied, “Do you come here often?”

Misty nodded. 

“I come here whenever I’m stressed or scared since not many seaponies go this far upshore” she confessed.

Birch felt embarrassed and yet a comfort in the fact that she wasn’t alone.

“Well, I hope you don’t mind, but I also tend to come here when life gets..stressful” 

“I don’t mind!” MIsty said a bit too loudly. She then looked away embarrassed, “I-I mean, it gets rather lonely here, by myself. It be nice to have company every once in a while” 

Birch smiled at her, a warm smile she didn’t get to show a lot, she then looked up at the sky to see it was getting awfully dark.. “I’d love to come by and visit you, maybe tomorrow we and can meet and talk more”

Misty smiled softly back. “I’d like that” 

Birch then dipped her head and turned to leave before she heard Misty call out, “Wait!” 

Birch Blitz turned right back around just in time to see Misty deep dive underwater, revealing the patterns along her sides along with her long flowy tail that followed after her. Birch slowly approached the water, nervous as to where Misty had disappeared off to. She didn’t have to wait for long, as Misty soon popped back up. 

“I found this bottle a while ago, but since I can’t open it, I thought I’d give it to you. '' Misty pulled the bottle out from under the water, her fin-like arms curling around it like a leaf would rain. Birch gently cupped the bottle with her hoof and inspected it. The bottle was very cloudy, and it was hard to see if there really was anything inside.

 “Well, I’ll be sure to tell you if there was anything in here.” Birch said softly. “Thank you Misty” The maned kirin then quickly reached into her bag and placed in the seapony’s fin arms a few tea leaves. Misty seemed confused by why she was given leaves but Birch was quick to explain.

“Their tea leaves, so if you hold them in your mouth while underwater, you’ll taste tea”

Misty seemed confused yet amazed by the thought of tasting something other than seagrass or fish. 

“Thank you, Birch was it”

Birch smiled, “Yes, Birch Blitz, and thank you!” She then looked up at the sky once more and noticed some stars beginning to shine in the sky. “And I must really be on my way, see you tomorrow.”

Misty nodded, “see you tomorrow” she said softly.

Birch then turned, waving goodbye before disappearing into the forest, watching Misty dive into the water and happy she had made a friend.