Meeting the locals (Patreon)

Okay a couple things before I continue with this Equestria dreamscape postings:

     1. No Sweetie Belles were injured in the making of this posting. They were just traumatized a little bit.

     2. Yes goldfish are not salt water fish, but this is the Sea of Dreams and it was my dream.

    After a while Princess Luna was confident that her little school of merponies were ready for more adventures in the Sea of Dreams. Link So she led them out of the little cove and back into the ocean proper. Still she stuck fairly close to the shoreline of the numerous islands that made up the archipelago they were swimming amongst.

     Besides it was amongst the many reefs that lined these islands that the foals got to see countless varieties fish and marine life in a rainbow of colors, shapes, and sizes. It was during their exploration of one reef that the school of merponies noticed a glint of gold and red color in the distance that slowly grew in its intensity and size. Soon a gigantic goldfish swam up to get a better look at them.

     Now I'd like to step away from this dream narrative for moment to say something. About 20 years ago my wife and I kept a range of fancy goldfish. It was lots of fun, but it taught me a couple of things about goldfish:

    1. Goldfish are dumb as a box of rocks. Their tiny spore-like minds have a very small lookup tables and they often didn't learn from life experiences. This sometimes had fatal consequences for them, and it meant I literally had to play lifeguard for a bunch of fish at times.

     2. For goldfish the world was divided into two categories. Things they could eat, and thing they could not. The learned about the world by trying to stuff it into their mouths. Sometimes this was the right thing to do. Other times it was suboptimal decision on their part.

     So getting back to the dream. It was at this moment that both Sweetie Belle the goldfish and Princess Luna learned a few things themselves.

    Sweetie learned to not approach wildlife unless you know what you're doing, and especially if it is much larger than you. Even if it looks like something your aunt has in a tank back in the Waking World. At least it was the Dream Realm and she was in no physical danger.

     Another thing that Sweetie also discovered was that she has more magical potential in the Dream Realm since produced a magical outburst far larger than she's done in Waking World.

     The Goldfish learned.....maybe to avoid trying to eat merponies in the future. Beyond that I don't know what it took away from the encounter.

     For Princess Luna she discovered the joy that parents throughout the ages have known. children/foals have an infinite capacity for chaos and mayhem.

     So after calming the filly down the school continued their explorations.

To be continued.