Hightide swam up comfortably, beside the scaly green creature, a fish bone hanging out haphazardly between two of his teeth. He had pretty much terrified everything out of the reef, leaving not much else to chase besides whatever crawled and lurked on the floor, which lost his attention quickly. With a sigh, he inhaled the bone and crushed it between his teeth with ease..
 
“My name’s Hightide.” he said before letting out a satisfied belch. He had never realized fish tasted so good this fresh, and in a sudden surge of high spirits he twisted and turned around the other kelpie, laughing as he went. The other kelpie, slightly larger, didn’t seem to mind and continued making his way across the lonesome bay.
 
“Hiya, Hightide. I don’t think I’ve seen you around here before,” said the green kelpie. He spoke with a laid back drawl in an accent Hightide had never heard before. “My name is Argyle by the way, from the Hossback. So what part of the ocean did you swim out of?”
 
For a moment Hightide flinched, not knowing what to say but not wanting to tell the truth. Fortunately a lie was easy enough to fabricate, or at least he hoped.
 
“Caprona. I’m from the Caprona Cay.” Hightide hoped there was no noticeable waver in his voice.
 
Argyle’s jaw slacked as he slowly nodded. “Oh, A Caspak, ey? I’ve been around that place once or twice, warm waters, full of fish, only the occasional catastrophic storm,” he paused for a moment. “But you don’t sound like one.”
 
“I’m hardly ever there.” Hightide spoke quickly. “And I’ve got this habit of picking up local accents, you know?”
 
He looked away, trying to find something else to talk about. He remembered that this was his fourth day away from home. He wondered just for a moment, who might still be looking for him, while hoping Argyle wouldn’t ask specific questions.
 
“I know what ya mean ‘tide,” Argyle nodded slowly. “It’s alright if I just call ya ‘tide, right?”Hightide grinned. “Sure! No problem!” Internally he sighed, relieved. With that, Argyle was mostly silent besides a comment on the weather or a passing ship far off in the distance as the two swam in leisure together in and out of the shafts of sunlight that penetrated the depths. This world was still new, and different but for now at least he wasn’t lonely.
 

 
Thanks to Little-Tweenframes for trying to help me how to shade. I really don’t like my shading, so she’s showing me her techniques. I’ll figure it out eventually.
 
Kind of Important but not really notes:
 
I changed the name of Dumbbell’s home island from Kelpie Island to Caprona Island. Why? I just think Caprona sounds cooler, and also ‘The Land that Time Forgot’.
 
I was back and forth a lot about what to call these creatures. At first they were just sea ponies. Then I wanted to call them merponies, them being the product of a normal pony and a sea pony mating. But merpony felt arbitrary and easy to confuse with sea pony. So eventually I decided to call them kelpies.
 
Kelpies are the product of several generations of ponies and sea ponies sharing a symbiotic relationship. The magical genes are latent in Dumbbell but active in his son, as magic genes tend to do whatever the heck they want. But as a whole Caprona ponies are omnivorous though the only meat they tend to eat is sea food. You could call it magically persuaded micro evolution, if I’m using the correct term.
 
Hightide was 13, and the oldest foal in Ponyville to still lack a cutie mark. Frustrated he did the only thing he could think to do, run away and find what he was good at.
 
Kelpies have pretty diverse shapes. Hightide is representative of a shark. Argyle is a crocodile. Some are dolphins, others have the traditional seahorse look, and even a few jellyfish. They can shape-shift between pony form and kelpie form at will.