//------------------------------//
// Day 5 
// Story: Twilight's Time-off 
// by Aethraspex 
//------------------------------//


Day 5



-OR-



The Perfect Storm

The insistent hum of the rain was transformed into a few distinct patterings by the forest’s canopy. Even so, their combined clamour drowned out almost every other sound. Only the waves of shushing from the leaves or the distant peals of thunder survived the sonic onslaught. Fluttershy lay awake in her bed, listening to these sounds.
        There were still a couple of hours before sunrise, so all she saw was darkness and the occasional flash of lightning. The air was cold and clingy, filled with moisture, while the scents of petrichor and bitter, battered leaves wafted about her nostrils. Electric light cut through the wide windows and briefly silhouetted the shadowy thing outside. While the others had slept, she had painstakingly endured the ever-strengthening deluge to craft the wavering creature and two more besides. Now that she was back in bed and dried of rain, it was time to enact her plan.
        She pushed her back hoof out the window to touch the dark cloud waiting there. With as much force as her frail body could muster, she kicked it, aiming, in a sense, for the energy stored within. It glowed white for a second with an inner light, then went dark. Fluttershy scrambled back into bed so as to not arouse suspicion and listened once more.
        There was a series of cracklings and rumbling that traced a path downward and out of her hearing. Briefly it re-emerged at some point below the cabin, but soon disappeared. Again it came back, this time growing louder and louder. The crescendo ended with an horrifying crack and a flash of light that seemed to turn the night into day. The creature outside with long pointed spines, sharp drooling teeth, and eyes that flashed white and menacing, came sharply into view. This first roar woke everypony up, then it flashed again and once more to burn its visage into their eyes.
        “Dragon!” Fluttershy screamed convincingly. Even aware of the ruse, she felt her heart begin to race. “Everypony run!!”
        Pinkie and AJ stumbled out of their beds and bolted for the door, with Fluttershy close behind. They barreled out into the rain and onto the slippery platform beyond. Suddenly, another creature lit up, lights welling up from it’s throat like fire. Instinctively they swerved away, galloping over a rope bridge that swung precariously in the wind. The next platform had a wide, straight staircase that they were forced to tumble down haphazardly. Somehow, they landed in the mud at the bottom unscathed and quickly shot off down the path to town.
        They had gotten to the ridge that separated them from the town when the dragon flashed into view for the third time. Applejack twisted her head to look behind her, aware that the rivulets streaming across the path might undo her footing at a moment’s notice.
        “Hold up!” She cried at Pinkie, who was a few paces ahead. “Where’s Fluttershy?”
        “Oh no! What if the dragon ate her?”
        At that moment they heard a desperate crying as Fluttershy ran headlong at them out of the rain. “What are you waiting for, girls? Run!” But when Fluttershy tried to dash past Applejack, she got stopped by a hoof.
        “Something’s not right about this...” She said, as Pinkie and Fluttershy stared at her like she had gone mad. Applejack stood still, looking back at down the path they had just run up. Icy torrents of rain washed over them all, rinsing the mud out of their coats and eyes.
        Another flash of lightning penetrated the trees, casting the forest into columns of black and white like piano keys. Applejack did see the silhouette of the creature supposedly after them, but it remained where it had been the last time it had flashed into the corners of her eyes. “They’re fake! These dragons are cloud phonies!” She declared at last.
        “W-what?” Fluttershy stammered.
        “Who would do such a thing!?” lamented Pinkie Pie.
        “Ah don’t know, mighta been Rainbow Dash... But ah know somepony’s tryin’ to scare us away, and it almost worked...”
        “Oh, that makes sense. Hey, while we’re up, wanna go ship Dashie with eveypony in Bridle Bay?”
        “You still onto that?”
        “Of course! It’ll be a blast! And besides, you promised.”
“Fine,”
        “Whee! Wanna come to Fluttershy?”
        “O-okay,” Fluttershy whimpered. Previously, she had stayed well out of the conversation.
        “Double whee! Ready everypony? Let’s go!”

As Rarity awoke she became aware of a noise. There was the wind and the rain and the sounds of the storm outside generally, but these only roused minor interest in her. The sound that drew her attention had the same kind of foamy texture as the sound of rain, but had a completely different tone. Was it... cheering?
        She went to the window, the apparent source of the noise, and looked out. What she saw didn’t encourage her; a thick veil of rain obscured most of the town such that she couldn’t see the ocean. Looking down, she saw the buildings that disappeared into this fog and the dark streets that wound between them. It was in these streets that she spotted the crowd, somehow braving the rain. Though they were far below, she could still discern some rainbow-coloured signs waving about. Listening closely, she imagined she heard them chanting ‘Rainbow Dash! Rainbow Dash!’
        Rainbow Dash yawned behind her, stretching out and rustling the white linen she lay on. “Good morning, darling, I think you should come see this.”
        “Huh? What’s going on?” Rainbow asked, pushing herself onto her hooves.
        “I have absolutely no idea...”
        Rainbow trotted over to the window and peered out. Suddenly the crowd erupted into a roar. “Woah,” She muttered as she backed away. “What do they want?”
        “From what I can gather on such short notice...” Rarity peered down at the crowd once again. “They want you.”
        “Why? I didn’t ask for this!” Rainbow began to cradle her head in her hooves.
        “I did tell you to keep a low profile...” Rarity muttered quietly.
        “We don’t have time for this! What if Twilight finds out and then we have to tell her about Spike? Argh! What can I do to make them go away!?” Rainbow seemed about as fragile as a house of cards. The last thing she needed now was a rabid crowd of followers with unknown intentions.
        “I suppose we shall just have to think of something.”

“Ya’ still sure ‘bout this?” Applejack asked as she watched Rainbow Dash sink back into the hotel room. The noise of the cheering was deafening, and Fluttershy was huddling against Applejack’s side in response.
        “This is going to be the best prank ever, Applejack! Just wait and see...” Pinkie said from Fluttershy’s other side. Applejack decided to do just that- wait and see.
        With so many warm bodies close together, the cold rain was fairly tolerable, but what stuck out was the smell. Not all, but enough of the creatures in the crowd had brought their letters. By some supernatural foresight, the concoction they had been soaked in also repelled water, leaving it almost unaffected by the rain. With so many of the papers close together, the odour seemed to amplify until it was suffocating. Even after another course of the bitter anti-potion, the smell seemed to head directly to her brain. The effects on the unprotected then, was a thing to behold.
        In a land where the gender ratio was so skewed, polyamory was not exactly unusual. Both homo- and heterosexual partnerings were of course fully accepted and whilst cross-species romances were rare and sometimes questionable, they were far from illegal. Nonetheless, seeing an entire island of ponies, zebra and griffons of every gender all clamoring madly for the love of one pegasus had Applejack floored. While Rainbow Dash was, admittedly, an attractive pony, and while her presence on the island had so far gathered a great deal of admiration thanks to Pinkie’s ministrations, it made her wonder just what was in that potion Pinkie had brewed.
        As the cheering of the died down again, Applejack began sensing some unease amongst the crowd. It was as if, appropriately for the weather, a cold wind had blown through their ranks. She heard murmurings that they had been tricked, that it was all some cruel joke on their hearts. Pinkie seemed to see this too, and Applejack saw her whispering messages to those gathered near her.
        “What are ya up to, Pinkie?” Applejack asked with narrowed eyes.
        “Oh, I’m just telling them that Dashie wants them all at once,” Pinkie almost fell over giggling at that.
        “Riiight, and what-” She was cut off by the crowd gasping. Applejack looked up just in time to see a rainbow trail disappear into the clouds overhead. There was almost a panic rising about the crowd when suddenly Pinkie stood on her hind hooves and made an announcement.
        “Everypony! Only united will Dashie ever accept you! We must follow her as one to prove our love!” She cried with much theatricality. There was a pause as the crowd seemed to process her words. Then, all of a sudden, Applejack was swept off her feet by the moving crowd.

Twilight stood atop a roof and looked out into the wind and rain. For some distance she saw the tiled tops of Bridle Bay’s various buildings and the gaps that indicated the paths between them, but the town seemed strangely empty of inhabitants.
        She teleported to the next roof top, panicking for a second as she tried to keep her balance on the wet surface. The force of her spell sent a small spray of droplets fanning away from her. Again, she looked about, but still saw nopony but a lone earth pony galloping through the rain. This was ridiculous. She teleported back onto the ground and huddled beneath the awning of a closed shop, one of many. 
        A single shop still had it’s lights on. It sold coconut products, and, intriguingly, stocked some products from Fluttershy’s brief modeling stint. Twilight ran inside, ringing the little bell suspended above the door. The shop was warm and, more importantly, dry. Behind the counter at the other end of the room was a bright yellow-eyed pegasus with a mane and coat similar to Fluttershy’s. It occured to Twilight that that might explain the Fluttershy merchandise displayed in the window, except that the base of the pegasus’s mane was black, as if the pink was actually dyed in.
        “Oh! Mornin’, welcome to Coco’s Coconut castle! You’d be tha’ first visitor I’ve had all day, miss.” Said the pony behind the counter, her head bouncing up from a magazine she was reading.
        “Ah, yeah, morning. I’m sorry, but I don’t suppose you’d know where everypony is today?”
        “Couldn’t be sayin’, miss. I’ve only just got back to tha’ bay recently myself. I’ve been travellin’, you know,”
        “Oh. Well then, would you mind if I stay in your shop for a while? It’s awfully wet outside,”
        “Make yourself at home.”
        Twilight nodded her thanks, closed her eyes and powered up a spell. The darkness seemed to rush past for a second like wind and suddenly she could see through another pair of eyes. She was in a carriage with another unicorn, soaring through the air thanks to a pegasus. Despite their disguises Twilight knew they were Rarity and Rainbow Dash. Bridle Bay climbed up the hill on the left and disappeared towards the sea on the right.
        Twilight, in the body of her doppelgänger, sat for a while in silence, looking out the windows and trying to figure out where they were. It took her a moment to realise that, through her reflection’s eyes, left and right were reversed. When she realised that, she figured they were over the centre of the town, heading east. Suddenly they swerved and Twilight felt her second body get thrown against the side of the carriage. As she gazed towards the place they were avoiding, she briefly saw a crowd of ponies. Soon, however, the view was swept away by a building’s wall.
        “Where are we going?” She finally decided to ask.
        “Twilight!” Rarity yelped, apparently surprised that Twilight actually said something coherent. Her mirror clone’s repertoire of phrases were not Twilight’s finest work. “We... are... going... to...”
        “Town Hall!” Rainbow butt in, already changing course for it.
        “Why yes! There’s this quaint little library that’s a must-see!”
        “Excuse me, miss, but you wouldn’t happen to be a- from Equestria, I mean.” Twilight was jolted back into her original body by the shopkeeper’s interruption. “Oh, much apologisin’, miss, just that you were all quiet and I thought if we were talkin’...”
        Twilight looked back at the pegasus, Coco, and shook her head to clear it. She had emerged from behind the counter and paused with one hoof raised in the air. This was the first time Twilight got to see her cutie mark, a coconut cracked open near the top. “No, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have taken you’re hospitality for granted like that.”
        “It’s nothin’, miss, honest.”
        “Yes, well, I am from Equestria. Ponyville, to be exact.”
        “...Ponyville? Really? Do you know Fluttershy?”
        “...Yes, she’s one of my best friends,”
        “She is? Could you, I mean if it’s possible, not that I’d expect it of you or anythin’, but maybe you could... sorta... introduce me?”
        “Yeah... I guess,” The moment those words left Twilight’s mouth, Coco’s face brightened like a light. The next moment, amidst a bout of frantic squealing, she fainted. Twilight would have gone to check on her, but something else caught her attention. Outside the shop, running as fast as his legs would carry him, was her assistant, Spike.
        Twilight watched him go, stunned by surprise, before snapping back to attention. There was a flash of purple light and suddenly Owlowicious was flapping in front of her, hooting in annoyance. She just pointed at Spike and watched him flap off after him. Only then did Twilight check on the fainted pegasus and, seeing she was fine, teleported away.
        She appeared on a roof in the centre of town, near where she thought she saw the crowd. Twilight found herself surrounded by it and its racket. She considered herself lucky she hadn’t appeared right in the centre or she might have been crushed. Even from this distance she could smell a smell she recognised. The results of her test had confirmed her suspicions that the smell was a kind of love potion. This particular potion grew exponentially stronger as the concentration increased, resulting in the bizarre crowd surrounding her. She counted herself lucky again that she knew a spell that could clear her mind of it’s effects.
        She spotted Pinkie Pie bouncing about the crowd, shouting words of encouragement to the love-struck throng. Nearby, she saw Applejack trying to push her way out of the crowd. Finally, she spotted Fluttershy, utterly out of place among so many strangers. With a subtle, magical tug on her mane, Twilight alerted Fluttershy to her roof-top lookout. Fluttershy glanced about the took to the air. The wind was so strong, even among the sheltered streets, that Fluttershy stuggled to make forward progress.
        “Twilight!” Fluttershy called when she finally made it. The two of them slunk towards the centre of the roof, out of sight.
        “Fluttershy! What in the world’s going on here?”
        “It’s Pinkie’s prank. She plans to ship all of Bridle Bay with Rainbow Dash, whatever that means,”
        “Oh dear,” Under normal circumstances, Twilight would have considered the notion ridiculous. At that moment she had to take into account the fact that it was working, though. “Alright, thanks Fluttershy,”
        
No sooner had she said that than had Twilight flashed away. Fluttershy shivered in the rain for a moment before she returned to the side of the the roof. As before, the crowd flowed through the streets like hot tar. Fluttershy, not seeing any way to push back in, nor having any particular inclination to, flew. She didn’t fight the wind this time, she let it take her far away. Briefly, vaguely, she was aware of Pinkie calling out to her.
        Fluttershy didn’t so much fly as spread her wings and instantly regret the decision. She tumbled through the air past Town Hall flapping her wings like an hummingbird. There were brief periods when she righted herself and felt the wind lifting her up by the wings; there were other periods when she dived towards the ground and saw little water droplets falling in slow motion about her. Finally she regained control and came to a soft landing while a cold gale blasted across her face. Her brief, tormented journey had landed her on the western edge of town, near the old docks.
        Fluttershy grasped the edge of the corrugated iron roof with her front hooves. Warehouses reverberating like drums in the rain lined up around her. Her wings were thoroughly pressed against her sides, quivering from both fear and cold. She had just been planning to maybe get to the head of the crowd where she could breathe. Now she remembered why she never took a job in weather. For a long time she simply clung to where she was, frozen.
        What interrupted her paralysis was the hooting of an owl. She leant out over the edge of the roof and saw the little brown creature hopping along next to a warehouse’s wall. It was Owlowicious, and she would have rushed down to scoop him up and out of the rain had she not spotted something even stranger. Further up the street, heading towards the forest that lay between the town and High Stakes’ lodge, was Spike. Again she would have rushed up to him, but just barely had she noticed him that she heard a violent clanging from the opposite direction. Instinctively she turned to look at it, seeing a barrel rolling about in the wind, before she turned back.
        Spike was gone. Owlowicious had disappeared too, somehow. Fluttershy hovered down the leeward side of the building and galloped out into the streets. Spike remained gone no matter how many rusted corners she poked her head about. Apparently, he had disappeared.
        As she huddled against a wall and listened to the wind whistling between iron sheets, a thought occurred to her. Spike was almost certainly dead, so she must have seen... a phantom. The weather matched the notion far too accurately, and Fluttershy’s mind vacillated between fleeing and hiding. She began to hyperventilate, not least because of why she thought he might have come back. She could almost hear his moaning voice in her head, accusing her... her and Rainbow Dash.
        Then that thought stuck with her and she had an idea. She clung to it, more desperate than ever to find a way off this island quickly. If she could scare Rainbow badly enough, then it seemed as if everypony else would follow...

Pinkie held a hoof over Spike’s mouth. ‘Pinkie! Just the pony I needed!’ He wanted to say, but instead it came out as "Mmph! Mmmphmmphmmmmmph!"
        “Shh!” Pinkie commanded, dragging Spike down the gap between two warehouses. “Fluttershy’s nearby. You don’t want her ruining your secret, right?” Unfortunately, Spike didn’t have a chance to answer that question before Pinkie pulled them both somewhere dark and cramped. It felt like another barrel.
        They stayed there, motionless and silent, while rain dripped down onto them through the wood. The steady thrum of the rain and the quiet whistling of their breathing was all the sounds they could hear. Again, Spike felt himself pressed against Pinkie’s fluffly tummy, which rose and fell steadily with her breath. His back was crushed against an uncomfortable piece of wood. Suddenly Pinkie twitched a little.
        “Oh! She gone now, you can come out Spike. See ya later, I’ve got some ponies to ship!”
        “Pinkie, wait!” But by some mysterious Pinkie magic, she was already gone.
        “Need somethin’, sugarcube?” Spike twisted about to see Applejack trotting up to him. “Ah followed Pinkie hereabouts, thought ah might be any useful.”
        “Applejack! This is horrible! we need to get as many ponies to high ground as we can, ASAP!” Spike cried, running up to her.
        “Come again?”
        “I’ll explain on the way, let’s go!” Spike hopped onto Applejack’s back and they galloped off into the centre of town.

The mist had gotten so thick it was almost dark. Rarity and Rainbow were trotting up an unlit street on the east side of town. Their plan was to lure the horde of lovers away from Twilight and then, if possible, lose them. As they trotted slowly between rows of unfamiliar houses it felt as if they were the ones who were lost. Then came the noises.
        “Raaainboow...” It moaned. Both ponies stopped. The voice that had rose up behind them sounded nothing like the crowd they were running from. “Raaainbooow...” It moaned again.
        “Who’s there? Show yourself!” Rainbow demanded, twisting about.
        “Whyyy....” The voice sounded distant and hollow, and seemed to be coming from different places every time they heard it. “Why didn’t you saaave meee....”
        “Save who? What are you talking about?”
        “Darling, I think we should get out of there,” Rarity whispered, huddling close to her companion. Together, they would have done just that if not for the shape they saw floating towards them out of the fog.
        “You killed me, Rainbow...” It said, and they both turned towards the little dragon shape approaching slowly. It was motionless, and its feet didn’t touch the ground. Suddenly there was lightning and it cried out in a screech “YOU KILLED ME!”
        “No, no! I-” Rainbow shot away, her departure marked by an immense rainboom that rattled windows and disintegrated the clouds around her. Normally, Rarity would have been angered at the thought of Rainbow deserting her, but her stunt had cleared off the fog and whatever had been haunting it.
        A second later, the rain resumed with a splash and slapped Rarity back to attention. She stared out around her, unsure of what to do or where to go, until she realised Rainbow had just given away her position to every creature within a significant radius. Whatever was happening, she had to find her. Recalling what she could, she set off west in pursuit of the pegasus.
        She had barely walked a block when she noticed something stashed behind a bush. It was the fragments of a globe, once striped in green and white. Inside was the gooey, steaming flesh of a vapour melon. It dawned on her that she had been fooled, that somepony had tried to trick Rainbow into fleeing for whatever insidious scheme. The fog made sense now, as did the apparition of Spike and its sudden disappearance. With renewed urgency, Rarity set off once more.
        Not long after, she was again disrupted in her pursuit, this time by the crowd of ponies she had previously been trying to avoid. But without Rainbow, such an endeavour was pointless. Concerns forgotten, she ran up to Pinkie Pie, whom she spotted bouncing along at the head of the crowd.
        “Pinkie Pie!” She called, pushing through the crowds edge until she reached the clearing at the front. Suspicion of the spicy smell surrounding them made her struggle past all the more.
        “Oh heya Rarity!” She responded cheerfully.
        “I have to talk to you!” She was shouting to be heard over the crowd’s constant roar.
        “What about?” Pinkie Pie wasn’t slowing down, and neither was the crowd behind her. It was a little difficult to maintain eye contact with her incessant bounce.
        “I think somepony’s after Rainbow! She just got scare off by some cloud-trick!”
        “Huh, something like that happened this morning, I wonder who could it be?”
        “I don’t know, but we have to find her before they strike again!”
        “Okie Dokie Lokie! C’mon everypony, let’s ride!” The crowd once again bloomed with approving cheers and picked up speed to match Pinkie’s. Moving from a trot to a canter herself, Rarity felt a nervous about chasing after Rainbow with such a large following. However, a legion of fans seemed like a far worse fate than whatever had just beset them in the streets. After all, if the saboteur had their way, it might be bad for both Rarity and Pinkie Pie.

When Spike and Applejack saw Rainbow Dash streaking over the sky above them, cutting a trail through the rain, they quickly agreed they could use her help. Changing direction, they headed back west, towards the jungle where they had seen Rainbow’s trail disappear. They made good time, and soon found themselves surrounded by trees. It was at times drier and muddier here. It lacked the usual chirping of insects, the creatures of the forest driven into hiding by the rain.
        The pair spread out, trekking through slippery and prickly terrains as they looked for signs of the pegasus.
        “Rainbow! Where are you?” Called Applejack. The sound seemed to disappear quickly between the trees, as if gobbled up by some omnipresent spirit.
        “Rainbow!” Spike called, not far off.
        Suddenly something streaked out from the trees like a dart and tackled Applejack to the ground. It was Rainbow Dash, and her face looked desperate, eyes darting about rapidly.
        “Applejack, it’s Spike! I think he’s haunting me!” In reply to this, Applejack just chuckled.
        “Now where the hay didya get that in yer noggin?”
        “There he is!” She cried, sticking a hoof out in the direction of Spike, who was scrambling to clear a log lying on the forest floor. She was about to jet off once more when Applejack adroitly grabbed her tail in her teeth. Rainbow stopped in mid-air and promptly fell into the mud with a splat.
        “Let go! It’s me he wants!” She cried, trying to pry her tail out of AJ’s jaws with a hoof.
        “What...?” Spike said, finally arriving at the group. “Oh, right, I’m not dead Rainbow.”
        “You’re not?” Rainbow said, twisting to look at the dragon. The fear and panic drained out of her face as she saw that Spike was telling the truth. “But then what was all that with the moaning and the floating?”
        “Uh... Look, I need you to attract as many as you can to the old watchtower on top of the hill. Think you can do that?” Spike said, wasting little time on explanations he could not give.
        “Yeah, why?”
        “There’s no time to explain, we just need to get everyone to higher ground.”
        “Got it!” And so Rainbow flew off again, quickly clearing the canopy. AJ and Spike then nodded to each other and split, Spike following Rainbow uphill, while Applejack began to slide down, back towards town.
        Not long after her departure, Applejack heard a thump, and a wave of fog engulfed her. She slowed to a squelching halt, wary of falling down obscured pits or tripping over unseen obstacles. She heard a squeak somewhere deeper in the fog and followed it, treading carefully through green bushes and trunks coloured dully by lichen. It wasn’t long before she heard the awkward stumbling of another presence in the forest.
        She briefly noted the split vapour melon on the ground as she came ever closer to whoever it was. She was expecting some passing local whom she could warn towards higher ground, but instead she found Fluttershy.
        “A ghost! I- I saw a ghost!” She began to mumble incoherently once Applejack came into sight. Not this again.
        “T’ain’t no ghost, sugarcube, Spike’s alive.” Applejack delivered the line with calm reassurance. The fog was thinning out again and Applejack noticed Fluttershy had a few more vapour melons bundled into her saddlebags.
        “He is?”
        “I was talkin’ to him just a second ago.”
        “Oh my goodness.” Something changed in Fluttershy’s expression at that moment, as if she had exchanged one kind of dread for another. Applejack didn’t have time to dissect the gesture, however.
        “Sugarcube, I’m gonna need your help rounding up the citizens of Bridle Bay.”
        “Huh?”
        “We need to get as many to the old watchtower atop of that there hill as soon as we can.”
        “Wha?”
        “I know it’a a lot to take in right now, but we don’t have much time, now let’s go.”
        “Bu-”

For the second time, a sonic rainboom spread it’s prismatic shockwave over Outpost island. Even through the thick clouds it shone its dancing light down on Bridle Bay. It came from a hill to the northwest, practically clinging to the mountain. At the sight of it, the crowd picked up speed, barely suppressing a full-on gallop.
        It was tiring for Rarity to keep up, and she was always on guard lest she slip on the cobblestone road. More than that, she was always peering down side streets for glimpses of whoever might be Rainbow’s assailant. They had come to the west side of town, where the buildings were taller and more densely packed, so it became difficult to catch sight of much as the streets flashed by. The rain, now harder than ever, was driving down in buckets and hardly made anything easier.
        They reached the edge of town, where the streets suddenly gave way to forest and muddy paths. The trees stood like soldiers staring down at the buildings they dwarfed. Despite this, it was the mud that made Rarity the most nervous- despite her already ruined mane- but she was soon forced past her concerns by the flood of eager Rainbow Dash admirers. Rarity was actually fortunate to be one of the first to walk this path, as every hoof or claw or paw placed on the path only made the dirt looser and stickier. Soon they were upon the old watchtower, with its vine-entwined stones and its dark, curving walls. Spike was waiting there for them, as was Rainbow Dash.
        “Oh hey Spikey!” Pinkie called, prompting Rarity to snap her head around to see who she was talking to.
        “Spikey Wikey! You’re alive!?” She said, virtually tackling him to the ground. “But, how?”
        “It’s a long story,” he said, trying not to blush. “But right now we need to get everyone we can into this tower.”
        “I’m on it!” Called Pinkie as she directed the crowd through an arched doorway set in the dark wall. Meanwhile Rainbow Dash was flying about, trying to do the same while also keeping her distance. Kept aloft by slow wing flaps, Rainbow looked exhausted by two consecutive rainbooms. She was looking out over the crowd, still marching up the hill without qualm or question. Something occurred to her, and she swooped down to Spike.
        “Spike! We hid Twilight down in the town, she’ll have no idea!”
        Alarm flashed across the dragon’s face. “Oh no! Go find her, I’ll stay here.”
        “On it!” She was about to go when she noticed all the faces in the crowd watching her, ready to follow blindly. “Everypony listen to the dragon, got it?” She shouted somewhat aggressively. Most of them nodded submissively and those that didn’t were trapped too deep in the crowd. Rainbow shot away.
        “Okay everyone, move along!” Spike said almost immediately, waving his claws in an orderly fashion. Meanwhile, Rarity and Pinkie Pie exchanged glances.
"Wait, where's Rainbow going?" Rarity asked as she and Pinkie watched her soar out of sight.
        “And what about that meanie pants who’s after her?” Pinkie said.
        “Oh my, you’re right. There’s no telling what they’ll try next.” Rarity switched her gaze between Spike and the direction Rainbow left in. “Though I’d hate to get my hooves muddy again, Spike does seem awfully in control of the situation.”
        “Then let’s go!” And suddenly Pinkie Pie was away. Rarity had little choice but to follow.
        Spike only noticed they were gone once Fluttershy and Applejack came running up to him. By then the crowd had fallen into a rhythm and had accepted their time apart from their idol. Pleased by the way they seemed to be lining themselves up throughout the musty ruin’s remaining rooms, Spike allowed himself to be distracted by his new company.
        “Alright, we’ve gathered up as many townsfolk as we can find. It wasn’t many but I think that’s all of them.” Applejack informed him. Both Applejack and Fluttershy were panting from running around so much. “Where’d Rainbow go?”
        “She went into town to go get Twilight... and I think Rarity and Pinkie went with her,” Spike said, looking about for the earth pony and the unicorn. “Actually, they’ve been gone quite a while,”
        “Think somethin’ mighta happened to them?”
        “I don’t know, we better go check.” Applejack nodded in approval and quickly asked some locals to handle the crowd for them. They set off back down the hill, unwilling to waste any more time.

For some reason, Twilight refused to let go of her book. Rainbow tried pleading, she tried arguing, she tried physically taking the book from her possession but Twilight’s magical grip was far too strong. Rainbow gave up. Twilight loved books, and if she was going to be weird about it, Rainbow was going to let her. But what really infuriated her was the unhurried trot she seemed unable to deviate from. Twilight seemed to obstinately deny any idea that there was a threat at large and she was too heavy for Rainbow to push or carry. After all, she had just performed two sonic rainbooms. Thus the walk away from the Town Hall library had been mind-numbingly slow.
        “Come on, Twilight!” Rainbow almost screamed.
        “After I finish this chapter,” the unicorn replied, polite and calm.
        “WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU!?” Rainbow had Twilight by the shoulders and was shaking her back and forth, but Twilight seemed not to notice.
        “Rainbow!” Suddenly Pinkie Pie and Rarity were running up the street towards her, coming from the direction of Town Hall. “We’ve been looking all over for you!”
        “Yeah! You’ve got a bunch of weirdo stalkers who are under the effect of- wait, no...”
        “The ghost from earlier was a trick! Somepony’s trying to get to you!”
        “Yeah, that’s the one!” Pinkie agreed.
        “Guys, help me get Twilight out of here, she’s being all weird.” Rainbow called back. The wind seemed to be picking up, sending the pages of Twilight’s book fluttering from chapter to chapter. Twilight was unfazed, apparently.
        “Rainbow!” This time the call came from the other side, and they saw Applejack and Fluttershy running towards them with Spike riding on Applejack’s back.
        “Applejack! Fluttershy! You guys gotta help me with Twilight!” All six of them gathered around Twilight as she continued her snails-pace journey.
        “What’s wrong with her?” Applejack inquired. Meanwhile, a nearby light came on in a shop.
        “I don’t know, it’s like she’s blank or something.”
        “Stop!” And out of the shop stepped Twilight Sparkle. Everypony turned to look at her, then back to the clone standing among them.
        “TWO Twilights?” Pinkie blurted out. Twilight ignored her, then with a quick flash from her horn dismissed the clone. It whisked away back to the mirror it came from with a trail of purple sparkles. “Oh, that’s better.”
        “Now, what have you six been playing at?” Twilight began to stalk towards her circle of friends. Framed by the wind and the rain, it made for a formidable sight. “For five days you’ve been avoiding me, playing out your crazy schemes.” No-one seemed to be able to look Twilight in the eye.
        “Uh, Twilight, this isn’t really the best time for this,” Spike spoke up.
        “And you! I received a letter from Prince Celestia herself telling me you’d disappeared somewhere. What was that, a forgery?”
        “No, Twilight, please, it’s hard to explain...” That was the moment when somepony else stepped out of the shop. It was the pegasus, Coco, and in the yellow light being thrown out her window, she stared at the foreigners hazily. She wobbled as if she had just woken up from something. From their half-open position, her eyes slowly widened into a look of awe. Fluttershy was looking back at her trembling, then suddenly screamed and bolted down the street. Everybody gave chase.
        They were headed back towards Town Hall. Rainbow, as usual was the first to catch up to her. “It’s her! It’s her!” Fluttershy wailed.
        “It’s who?” Rainbow asked, but she could get no coherency out of her. Applejack, then Pinkie Pie soon came up level with them, with Twilight and Rarity close behind. Coco was also giving chase, and catching up.
        They ran around the side of Town Hall, when Fluttershy abruptly turned right, heading towards the beach. The ploy did little to deter their pursuer, who chased them out onto the sands, rippled by thousands of tiny impact craters. Still Fluttershy ran, out into the empty space on the coast in a panic, and still Coco followed with determination. The sea was at low tide, so there was a long way to run before they hit the water. Further down the beach, some kind of shark seemed to have run itself aground near the town. Beyond it laying a sandy plain filled with flotsam and jetsam half-sunk into the sand. Even beyond that lay the sea, which seemed to be rushing further out every second...
        Twilight was the first to skid to a halt. Rarity, closest to her, was next. Spike called something to Applejack and Pinkie Pie and they too, stopped. Rainbow was last, slowing herself with a flurry of wing-beats. Fluttershy barreled onwards, apparently unaware of the dangers ahead while Coco barreled after her, unaware or uncaring. They were heading straight for the receding tide and the massive, rising shadow out on the distant ocean. It was so big, it’s head was turning amongst the clouds.

The Sea Serpent of the Neighchelles had returned.





“Is everypony OK?” Twilight asked, coughing up stubborn traces of salt. She faced the ground, allowing strings of water to drain from her mane while she tried to return to a steady breathing pattern. Seven replies came to her, though it sounded like more in the echoey chamber. All but one were begrudgingly affirmative, as if the answers weren’t as sure as they pretended to be.
        Twilight turned towards the origin of the single, neutral, ‘eh...’. Rarity was crawling up out of the water, bemoaning her tossed and tangled mane and the salt clinging to her coat. On the bright side, her hooves were no longer as muddy as they once were. A smirk crossed Twilight’s face. For Rarity, there really was no excuses not to look her best.
        At last everyone had landed themselves on the rocky ground and affirmed that they were all, for the most part, unharmed. Applejack was mourning the loss of her hat, though. Twilight let herself look around the cavern. It was made from lumpy, sometimes sharp, limestone, but most of the walls were not white. Instead they were a dark blueish colour, or vaguely green-brown or sometimes other, gaudier colours where scraps of living coral or seaweed attached themselves to the wall or roof. Directly beneath her hooves was a mat of barnacles, which poked somewhat painfully into the softer parts of her feet. These were intertidal creatures, she realised, suggesting that this cavern flooded periodically.
        Before them was a calm pool of water, apparently unaffected by the chaos outside. It was large, perhaps twice times the size of Ponyville’s swimming hole and took up most of the cavern. The cavern’s roof sloped down to meet it at the far edge, before rising high enough to accumulate some shadows and curving back down to form a wall behind them. Within the pool, constellations of small, bright lights lit the cavern with a bluish glow. Some were moving, circling somewhat aimlessly around the water, but most were static. Behind them, curving organically into the wall, was a tunnel.
        Twilight almost felt ready to collapse. Only adrenaline kept her legs from buckling underneath her. The memories she had of how they had arrived here were confused at best. This was unsurprising considering how confused the events themselves were. Step by step, she rewound her memories.
They had just risen up and crawled out of the end of a coral tunnel that started somewhere deep undersea. That much was easy, as the ascent had been relatively peaceful. Before that, the waters had been spinning and churning them with unpredictable power. Spike had been shouting 'deeper! deeper!' while Twilight struggled to weave a shield strong enough to withstand the mounting benthic pressure. Before that, Twilight had been standing in shock, staring into the distance as the wind blew rain and sea spray into her face. First it had been the serpent rising on the horizon, then the colossal wave that had blotted out sight of everything else.
        Twilight rubbed her horn. It ached so bad she thought it was going to fall off.
        As they gathered up, the attention fell upon the stranger in their group. Coco’s mane was a little darker now- apparently the seawater hadn’t been good for her hair dye. Twilight and her friends formed something of a wall around Fluttershy, while Coco stood somewhat apart, staring.
        “Who are you?” Applejack asked accusingly.
        “Oh my, I’m Coco... I-I’m her biggest fan.”
        “She’s crazy!” Fluttershy blurted out suddenly. “She caused the weather accident in Cloudsdale!”
        “Is this true?” Asked Twilight. The other five shared murmurs of incredulity amongst each other.
        “Well, yes, but... I was just wantin’ to talk to her so badly!”
        “She chased me all through Cloudsdale and broke the cloud machines!”
        “I wasn’t meanin’ to! I just thought you might be hidin’ in one...”
        Twilight lifted her face to her hoof with an audible smack. “Why in the world would you do that?”
        “Because with Fluttershy bein’ so beautiful and graceful and, oh my, and with me bein’ so... not so... I was just wantin’ to talk...”
        “Now listen here, yer-” Applejack was about to launch into a fierce tirade, but Twilight stopped her.
        “Easy Applejack, there are more important things right now.” Twilight turned to Spike, who was standing right behind her. “Spike, think you can send a letter to Princess Celestia in here?”
        “It won’t work here, but there’s a chamber up ahead where the smoke can escape.”
        Twilight nodded and looked towards the tunnel. The eerie light of the cavern seemed unable to pierce its depths. Butterflies flittered about her stomach; there was no telling what awaited them down there.
        “Alright then, let’s go. Coco, I want you to stay close to me at all times, got it?” Coco averted her eyes and kicked her hoof at the ground, but acquiesced. “Okay then girls, let’s go.”

The journey further into the caverns was relatively quiet. Spike and Twilight discussed things, but by some taciturn agreement neither raised their voices above a murmur. The other six were silent. A constant dripping noise permeated the tunnels along with other watery sounds that echoed from unknown places. The air was very still, humid and stiflingly hot. It smelled, unsurprisingly, of seawater. Against the hard ground, try as they might,the sounds of their hooves could not be muffled, making them somewhat uneasy. Combined with the strange shapes and shadows cast in the light of Twilight’s horn, the walk was very strange indeed.
        “So Celestia’s letter was true all along, huh?” Twilight asked Spike, who was sitting in his usual position on her back. Coco was trotting obediently to her left, alternating between looking admonished and stealing glances at Fluttershy behind them.
        “Uh-huh,” Spike casually pointed Twilight down another tunnel with a claw. It quickly opened up to a chamber with a large hole and a narrow path skirting its edge. The sound of splashing water could be heard deep down.
        “In that case I suppose I owe you an apology. I kinda lost my temper back there.”
        “Ah, no worries! I’m sorry I had to be so secretive about it.”
        “Yeah, what was up with that? What have you been doing this whole time?” Twilight turned down another tunnel, this one with a little stream running down its side. Tiny fish darted about in the stream, wriggling frantically just to keep still in the current. It bothered Twilight that they were going down much more often than they were going up, though their path did seem more or less straight otherwise.
        “I’ve been attending the Sea Serpent’s court,” Spike said with a bit of a smirk.
        “You’ve been attending the Congregation Ichthyic? How’d it go? Did you take notes on the fish? On anything?” Twilight’s voice was filled with incredulity and excitement. She struggled somewhat to keep herself from drowning him in questions.
        “Not well...” Spike’s voice was downcast.
        There was a moment of silence as they entered another chamber, this one riddled with passageways, but only one of them large enough to pass through. Water flowing out of the smaller holes splashed into the chamber loudly, gathered in a rippling pool and flowed out over the entire floor of the exit path. Once they crossed the passage, they tread down it slowly, avoiding the slippery trails of seaweed that hung like hair from cracks in the floor.
        “He’s crazy!” Spike started up again, “He wants to drown all the islands of the Neighchelles and he made me fake my own death!”
        “What!? Oh...” The gears of Twilight’s mind, as if a missing member had finally found its place, suddenly began to spin. “That makes a lot of sense.”
        “What sense? Why would anyone- horrible monster or otherwise- do such a thing?” Twilight had been thinking in terms of her friend’s behaviour throughout the last couple of days, but Rarity had obviously interpreted her statement otherwise. Twilight risked switching her focus from her footing to the unicorn, who was gingerly placing her hoof into the stream. She was furthest up the back, next to Rainbow who was using her wings to stabilise herself. Pinkie, Applejack and Fluttershy formed another cluster closer by.
        “He... really hates ponies,” Spike said. “That was why Princess Celestia sent me instead of somepony else. She wanted me to stall him from making any threats until she had sorted out the weather business and could come talk to him personally.” Weather was one of Equestria’s biggest exports. The crisis caused by the weather incident was no laughing matter.
        “But then why such secrecy? Why didn’t you tell anypony?” Rarity asked.
        “Celestia didn’t want anybody to panic. Most don’t know the truth about the Sea Serpent, so while it was an option she decided to keep it like that. I could’ve told Twilight, but I thought she might find out about you guys.”
        “Well, I- Wah!” Rarity never got to finish her sentence, for her hoof suddenly slid out from under her. It would have sent her crashing to the ground had Twilight’s magic not caught hold of her. Unfortunately, the shift in weight Twilight unconsciously made in catching her caused her hoof to also slip. She didn’t crash into the ground, but her attempt to balance herself ended in her sliding backwards down the slippery path on a mat of seaweed. Rarity did end up tumbling down the stream, and she brought everypony else down with her.
        The walls rushed past in a blur. Below her, Twilight’s hooves slid and jumped over the slimy floor. Her balance didn’t last long; soon she was on her back, trying to see where she was going. Her horn-light revealed little but a long black tunnel that grew steeper and steeper. It did reveal to her the white, frothy patches that marked bumpy rocks rather than smooth seaweed. As best she could, Twilight avoided these, but that didn’t stop her from accruing a host of scratches that stung viciously in the salt. She screamed through the whole of the death-defying descent, as did everypony but Pinkie, who seemed to be having the time of her life. Finally Twilight saw light and the tunnel spat them out over another glowing lake. They landed in the turbulent patch where the waterfall met the surface, except the pegasi, who managed to untangle themselves and hover in the air above.

For the second time that day, Twilight found herself dredging herself up from a lake in a strange cavern after a terrifyingly chaotic descent. She hoped it wouldn’t become a pattern.
        “Is everypony okay?” She asked again, somewhat less sure of herself this time. She was met with a number of groans of discomfort and one excited yelp. Fluttershy floated down in jolts, her feathers in complete disarray. Rainbow Dash and Coco were in similar, though better, conditions. Rainbow in particular seemed to be lamenting the loss of a few of her blue ones. The other ponies had equivalent injuries and their scratches, though shallow, seemed to be profuse with blood running down their wet backs. Spike, on the other claw, looked to be fine.
        “Are you sure this is the right way, Spike?” Twilight groaned.
        “It’s just up ahead,” He assured.
        The cavern they were in was much larger than that in which they had first emerged. It was so large that the roof disappeared into darkness and was only visible by the bioluminescent lights shining there, some undeterminable distance away. It seemed to open up considerably further on and was dotted with a chain of little islands arranged like stepping stones. They appeared as dark splotches against the glowing water. It was almost as if they had discovered a secret sea complete with a secret starry sky.
        The rock they stood on was smooth and flat, unlike the barnacle-encrusted tunnels they had gotten used to. It felt relieving to be able to lay one’s body against it and let one’s aches work themselves out. It was also nearly perfectly level with the water, so that whatever small rippled occurred on the lake would wash over the rock like tiny waves. This island, like the many others in the chamber, was perfectly round and it seemed impossible to have formed naturally.
        The air was even hotter here than anywhere else they’d been, to the extent of the chamber being visibly misty. The space and soaring darkness also made the place seem supernaturally quiet, despite the roaring waterfalls pouring into the lake behind them.
        “C’mon girls...” Twilight said, picking herself up and forcing herself to go on. This time they travelled without speaking at all, swimming or flying between the myriad of islands to get to the other end of the chamber. They travelled in three groups: Twilight, Coco and Spike at the front; Rainbow and Rarity in the middle; and Pinkie Pie, Applejack and Fluttershy trailing at the rear. It was a slow affair. The exhaustion they had all been holding back was catching up with them. At last the reached the final island, which slept not far from the point where the cavern opened up. They could see now the cave was much larger than they had originally imagined, with the array of islands that diffused out around them barely covering any real distance.
        “What do we do now?” Twilight asked. She could see no way to continue without swimming far further than they had been until then.
        “This is it, we can send a letter now,” Spike said. Twilight let out a little ‘oh’ and summoned a scroll and quill.
        “In that case...” She had barely gotten past the ‘Dear Princess Celestia,’ when the water in front of them started rising. It bulged upwards and darkened like some strange organic mutation. Alarmed, Twilight began writing faster and even finished the letter before a wave crashed into them and knocked the stationary out of her magical grasp. The paper began to sink and disintegrate while the quill floated away down the cavern. Twilight almost cursed at her misfortune, but when she saw what had made the wave she was speechless.
        Twilight managed to find her hooves on solid ground once more while water drained off every side of the platform. It splashed down a metre or so into the receding lake. Before them, with barnacles encrusted on his skin and seaweed tangled in his beard, was the face of the Sea Serpent.

“Ponies,” He rumbled. The sound of his voice was deep and deafening. Twilight could feel the vibrations in the stone beneath her. His eyes, each bigger than any of ponies they gazed upon, were like glistening stones. The air escaping his nostrils was warm and smelled of fish, and came and went in long, slow breaths that felt like gales nonetheless. He looked towards Spike, an action that inspired instinctual, paralysing fear in the dragon. “Dragon,” said he, “Why have you brought these pests into my castle?”
        “We were trying to find our way out!” Spike shouted as loud as he could. He had to, or else the Sea Serpent wouldn’t be able to hear them.
        “Hmmm... Let them find their own way out. I’m sure the sharks would love to assist them,” What followed could only be interpreted as the serpent’s version of a chuckle, and involved shaking throughout the cavern and waves rising out of the depths.
        “Excuse me, sir,” Twilight said, as politely as she could while retaining at the correct volume. The serpent fixed his paralysing gaze at her next, causing Twilight to stop mid-sentence.
        “These creatures annoy me. Let us go, little dragon, away from their presence,” A claw appeared from the water, sending another large wave over the top of the platform. There was some panicked yelling as the ponies’ hooves lifted off the stone and dangled in the water. Meanwhile, the claw arched overhead, blocking out the starry ceiling, and reached towards Spike.
        “No, wait!” Spike cried, paddling away from his impending fate. It was no use, as a finger had soon scooped him up delicately and begun lifting him into the air.
        “Drop him!” Rainbow demanded, taking to the air and rushing after them. Even she could not prevent the rest of the claw folding over the dragon, sealing him inside. She threw herself against the scaly appendage, striking and pushing with her hooves in an attempt to free Spike. A simple flick of the claw was all it took for the serpent to send Rainbow flying off into the distance. The Sea Serpent began to recede back into the water, causing the lake to swirl perilously around him as he disappeared.
        Twilight leapt after them, calling out Spike’s name. She dived into the water and let herself be swept under by the current. Everypony else looked on expectantly, as best they could without falling prey to the churning water themselves. The lake began to smooth, all that was left of the serpent being a column of bubbles eliminating itself against the surface of the lake. Suddenly there was a purple flash and Twilight appeared amongst them on the platform.
        “Sharks...” She muttered before they could ask. Her voice was heavy with shame.

After the comforting and assurances were made to Twilight, it became apparent that the group was trapped. Rainbow was sent to scout around nearby for an exit, but she returned finding nothing- not above water anyway. It might have been possible for the pegasi to fly out the way they came in, but they still would have needed Twilight’s magic to leave through the pool they had originally come out of. After the storm and the trials they had faced within these caverns, none of their wings were fit for carrying anypony, either. And teleporting back through the labyrinth was only inviting disaster. So, like bugs in a bottle, they sat on their little island and waited. It was a moot point, however, as nopony was leaving before they got back Spike.
        Twilight sat on the edge of the island, back legs dipped into the water, looking at the place where Spike had disappeared. She had her back to the other six, who were gathered at the island’s centre, more or less facing each other. Coco had been banished to sit nearest Twilight, while Rarity and Rainbow formed one and Applejack, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy formed another distinct clump. As before, Coco was trying to get a better look at Fluttershy while Fluttershy tried to hide behind Applejack.
        “So what do we do now?” Applejack asked no-one in particular.
        “Wanna play tic-tac-toe?” Pinkie asked. She tried scratching a grid onto the platform but had little success. It was probably for the best, since Pinkie was legendary at the game. “Hold on, almost got it...”
        “I say we should try tempt the serpent back here with... whatever it is that sea serpents desire,” Rarity said.
        “Are you kiddin’? Only way we’re ever gonna see big scaly again is if we go after him. What’re ya gonna use to tempt him anyway? Our tails like ya did with that fella in the everfree forest? If ya didn’t realise, he doesn’t seem to care much for personal grooming.”
        “Well, I was simply voicing an opinion, you needn’t be so rude about it. But for what it matters, I have no intent of ruining my mane once again chasing after a creature that would likely kill us without even noticing!” Rarity punctuated her statement with a snobbish flick of her snout.
        “Would y’all listen to yerself? Yer worryin’ about yer mane in a place like this?”
        “Actually, I’m kinda with Rarity on this one,” Rainbow Dash said, pushing her chest forward defensively. “We have no idea where that guy went and it looks like it’s pretty easy to get lost around here.”
        “You never know until you try!” Pinkie added before returning to her scratching.
        “I could probably get some of the fish to help,” said Fluttershy.
        “I’m, uh, goin’ with her on this one,” put in Coco, pointing towards her idol.
        “I still say it would be safer and more effective if we stay here and make him come to us.”
        “And ah say that wouldn’t stand a chance of working!”
        “Would you guys stop it!” Twilight had twisted about and was glaring at the ponies arrayed before her. Rainbow Dash and Applejack, who had gotten to their hooves, promptly sat down. Rarity leaned back a little from her previously aggressive stance. Pinkie and Fluttershy both snapped to attention like they’d been slapped. Coco just looked surprised. “You’ve been at each other’s throats for so long you’ve forgotten that you’re meant to be friends! The only way we’re going to get out of this mess is if we work together.”
        “...Mighty sorry, Twi. We’ve just been so high-strung lately...” Applejack mumbled. The others quickly followed suit, forming a little hum of apologies.
        “That’s okay, but listen: Rarity’s right, we’re much better off dealing with the serpent in here,” Rarity might have stuck her tongue out at Applejack when she heard that, but settled for looking smug. “...but Applejack’s also right, in that we’ve no chance of getting him here unless we follow him.” Applejack’s and Rarity’s expressions suddenly switched places. “So here’s what we’re going to do...”

Twilight and Rarity gripped the shark with their magic. Fluttershy gripped the unicorns with her hooves. There was something about its dark, beady eyes that rendered them surprised when even Fluttershy managed to solicit the shark’s help. It dragged them almost vertically downwards while the bioluminescent dots around them sped past alarmingly fast. Unlike before, Twilight had cast a water-breathing spell which afforded pressure resistance too.
        Twilight and Fluttershy both relished the chance to inspect the lights more closely. Their abundance was matched by their diversity. Jellyfish, angler fish and octopi lined with bluish dots all floated through the water in great numbers. Other, stranger things cast the lights too: colony of gelatinous things Twilight called pyrosomes and areas that just seemed to glow of their own power. There were even some alien creatures neither Twilight nor Fluttershy had the knowledge to identify. As they descended, however, the numbers of these light grew smaller and smaller, until at last they were traveling through inky darkness.
        After they had been descending through pitch black for some time, the shark began to turn. It began to move horizontal and, by the faint light cast by magic, they began to see the hints of a tunnel around them. There were hints of other things too, but those are best left unmentioned. Every now and then, Rarity left behind a blue-white beacon to guide their way back.
        At long last they began to turn upwards and the shark slowed down. By the light of their magic, the ponies could see the scaly side of the serpent. When it seemed they were near the surface, Twilight and Rarity both let go. The floated up to the air, but remained suffocated in shadow.
        “...and yet you still saved the creatures of the islands...?” They heard the serpent grumble.
        “I couldn’t let them drown!” came another voice. It was undoubtably Spike. The girls might have exchanged excited looks, but all they knew was that they felt each other twisting in the water.
        “Then I will simply try again.” the serpent stated flatly, sending agitated rippled through the water even so. Twilight lit her horn, bathing the cavern in a purple glow. They could still see nothing but darkness in the cavern, but it managed to create a pool of purple light around them and illuminated the serpent. The serpent held Spike in his claw before his eyes, as one might hold a fruit for inspection. Nevertheless, Spike seemed minuscule in comparison to his organic platform. The serpent seemed not to notice them.
        “Hey, ugly!” Twilight called out. “I think you’re stupid!”
        “And beards are so last season!” Added Rarity.
        “And I, um, think you’re a meanie?” Fluttershy whimpered feebly.
        Slowly, the Sea Serpent turned its head and regarded the creatures floating in a pool of purple light. Spike stumbled to the edge of the motionless claw, eager to see his friends but worried at how their plan was playing out. “And why should I care about the opinions of ponies?” The serpent asked. Contempt oozed out of every word.
        Twilight was at a loss; this was not the reaction she’d been expecting. Typically, sea serpent were dangerously proud creatures, so damaging their ego was a good way to goad them. She looked to her friends for support, but they seemed just as lost as she.
        “Because... We’re the elements of harmony?” Twilight shouted.
        “...you?” The serpent asked. Though his face showed little in the way of expression, his voice spoke of surprise and disbelief.
        “That’s correct! So you better take us seriously!” Twilight yelled back.
        “You defeated Nightmare Moon?”
        “You better believe it, buddy!”
        “Then I will DESTROY YOU!!” The Sea Serpent roared so loud it shook rocks loose from the ceiling. He rose from the water and Twilight had just enough time to see him close his fist around Spike before he bore down upon them. His jaw, lined with yellowed but extremely sharp teeth came crashing down just as they teleported away with a flash and an electric crackle.
        Again and again, Twilight and her friends vanished before the serpent could touch them. They popped in and out of space along the route they had set. Every swipe of claw and every gnash of teeth saw them disappear once more like an overly-nimble insect. The serpent swam faster and faster, tearing apart his own cavern to reach the evasive ponies before them. But Twilight simply teleported further and further away each time. It was taking its toll on her, though, and she almost missed the point when they had to begin teleporting towards the surface.
        Up upon the platform, where Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash and Coco waited anxiously, they could feel the world start to rumble. The water began writhing like it was in pain and it took them every effort just to stay on solid ground. Finally they saw the water bulge, slowly at first then explosively as the head of the serpent broke free into the air. Trails of mist and surging currents washed over his body as somewhere, high above him, a purple star twice flashed briefly into existence. It flashed again next to them, leaving a heaving Twilight, and two ponies clinging to her like nothing could make them let go, behind.
        The serpent settled back into the water and stared at the creatures before him. Unlike his steady expression from before, the rage, the uncontrollable fury burned unmistakably in his features.
        Twilight and her companions retreated back along the island chain but the four who had previously stayed scattered to the sides. The pegasi angled upwards while the earth ponies moved between the platforms, clearing the gaps between them in a single bound. All four of them shouted their own particular brand of insult or taunt. The serpent, caught between five different targets, raised his claws out of the water while filling the air with another ear-splitting roar.
        First, he swept his empty claw down towards Pinkie Pie. She swerved and dived into the water, barely escaping the strike that shattered a platform like it was made of glass. Pinkie emerged from the water some distance away, but the Sea Serpent seemed not to notice. He had already switched targets and was swinging his claw upwards, where Coco buzzed through the air.
        While Coco struggled to avoid the serpent’s attempts to swat her, Rainbow Dash actively sought out the other claw. It was curled into a tight ball, and was swinging in time with the serpent’s body. Within it, Rainbow could faintly hear the Spike’s frightened wails, but it was mostly lost among the roars and booms of the serpent and his motions. She struck it like a lightning bolt, stabbing with her hooves again and again against the scales until they were forced to yield. She couldn’t get the fist to open, but she did attract the serpent’s singular attention. The fist turned and tried to backslap her, but every time it did, Rainbow looped out of the way with ease.
        The serpent’s head flicked towards her, creating hurricanes within the cavern. He lunged forward, trying to snap his jaws around her. Rainbow accelerated towards the wall, then swooped away to the side. Propelled by his blind rage, the serpent smashed into the rock. Cracks raced along the wall with the sound of thunder. In certain places, water burst forth and boulders showered down. Rainbow twisted and twirled to avoid the perils of this storm, but her battered wings betrayed her. A jagged chunk of rock shot out from the miasma of dust and vapour, clipping her wings and sending her spiraling downwards. Below, Applejack galloped and leapt to try catch her.
        The Sea Serpent pulled away from the wall. His eyes narrowed onto the three ponies fleeing from the destruction further down the chamber. Sinking into the water with surprising calm, he launched himself forward like a striking viper. His body arched through the air before crashing into the narrow corridor and its path of islands. The platforms crumbled under his weight. He tore a gash into the water as he lurched forward, sending white screens of it flying up against the cavern walls on either side. Twilight, Rarity and Fluttershy all screamed and galloped forwards harder, knowing that they were inevitably trapped.
        Suddenly Coco appeared around the serpent's side, flying fast alongside the creature’s face. She ignored the thrashing rope-like body behind her and banked sideways, crying out Fluttershy’s name with fear. She dived directly into his eye, digging all four hooves into its gooey, glistening surface.
        The Sea Serpent reared backwards, crying out in pain and anger. His charge came to a halt and he brought his claw up to protect the delicate organ. Spike, a tiny purple dot compared to the writhing monster, sailed through the air as the claw finally released him. Dazed, but not defeated, Coco shot forth and scooped him up before he hit the water. She swooped down and deposited him next to Twilight, who had stopped to watch in awe while the sea erupted around her.
        “Spike! Spike, are you alright?” She asked, as soon as she noticed him. Spike moaned. He looked sick and barely conscious, but definitely alive. A letter appeared in the air beside Twilight, protected by a sphere of purple light. “Spike, I need you to send this letter, then we need to hide.”
        Spike’s eyes opened a wedge, as if fighting against something determined to keep them shut. Twilight levitated the scroll in front of his mouth. Spike drew a deep breath and shot a little ember of green flame at the paper. It caught, and soon the fire was eating its way up the curled-up missive. Smoke gathered within the magical protective sphere before Twilight dismissed the spell. The glittering smog shot up towards the sparkling darkness and was soon lost from view.
        “Thank Celestia,” Twilight whispered, pulling Spike into a hug.
        Meanwhile Coco had been distracting the Sea Serpent. The was a boom followed by a scream as the monster slapped a claw against a wall and Coco grappled with the air to try and control her flight. An orb shot directly upwards from Twilight’s horn, exploding in mid-air and painting the cavern purple. It escaped the attention of no-one, and all eyes briefly fixed upon Twilight. In that brief moment she and those around her vanished once again. Likewise, the pegasi and earth ponies still in the cavern fled as silently as they could. For a time it seemed like the Sea serpent was alone in his castle, surrounded only by the sounds of crashing water and the echoes of his battle.

Rainbow and Applejack hung on the edge of one of the last remaining islands. They barely let their heads breach the water, breathing steadily through their nostrils. One of Rainbow’s wings beat to keep her steady in the water while the other was folded gingerly against her back. Deeper in the cavern they could hear the serpent swishing through the water, searching for his vanished prey. They could feel it to, as every movement sent undulations that pushed them up and down the island’s flat side.
        Rainbow pointed to the frothing water nearby, where a newly-formed waterfall terminated. It was directly below the site where Rainbow had led the serpent against his own castle. Applejack nodded in understanding and the two began to swim towards it as quietly as they could. The waterfall could well hide them from both sight and hearing, and the rougher wall might prove a place to pull themselves from the water.
        stroke by stroke they swam, passing between islands, some chipped or completely shattered, that rose like a forest from the water. Between the columns, and when the waves allowed, they could see the sea serpent gliding through the water like a ship. The sight of him made them move neither faster nor slower, their fear of attracting attention and their fear of being in the open balancing each other perfectly. At last they reached the curtain of water, where the roaring splatter of the waterfall masked any noise they made. They found a shelf of rock and pulled themselves onto it, uncaring that the waves drenched it periodically.
        “How long d’ya think it’ll be?” Applejack dared to ask.
        “I don’t know, Canterlot is pretty far away,” Rainbow replied.
        They could see the serpent if they looked carefully. He was scanning the walls, his gaze crawling up and down the side of the cavern, peeking into holes and crevices. Luckily he started across the lake from them, nearer where Pinkie Pie had last been.
        “Hey guys! Were ya talking about me?” Pinkie asked, somehow suddenly joining them on the shelf.
        “Pinkie, keep it down!” Rainbow hissed angrily.
        “Oops, sorry,” Pinkie whispered.
        The three ponies looked on anxiously. When they dared, they discussed different hiding places, but usually ended up agreeing that they should stay where they were. The Serpent methodically made his way around the chamber, growing closer to finding them with every second. When he was about halfway across the chamber they slipped back into the water and started to swim. The waterfalls had restored the water level to equal with the height of the platforms, but it still rose and fell unpredictably.
        As they were crossing the gulf of destruction that lay in the centre of the cavern, a small fluorescent fish began to dart around them. Pinkie Pie watched it, entranced, as it wove in between their legs. Suddenly it shot out towards the Sea Serpent faster than the eye could see. Pinkie could trace the trail of rippling circles it left behind, as if an invisible stone had been skipping across the water. Pinkie had to suppress the urge to call out to it as she watched it go.
        Not long after, the Sea Serpent began to turn. It wasn’t hard for him to spot the hot pink, orange and rainbow-coloured mares against the cool bluish water. As they watched him swivel, the three ponies froze in the vain hope he might miss them, but then he started moving towards them, slowly and with purpose.
        “Run!” Rainbow yelped, though perhaps she should have cried ‘swim!’, because that was what they did. They turned away from the serpent and began flailing down the corridor, panic rising in their chests. A malicious grin spread across the serpent’s face, revealing his sharp, yellow teeth. He picked up speed, crossing the chamber and bearing down upon the three in what felt like seconds. The ponies flung their legs through the water, but they were ill-equipped for aquatic travel and they moved painfully slow. They could feel, though they dared not to look, the serpent right behind them when...
        “CEASE!” A voice echoed through the chamber. The serpent spun and looked behind him, froze for a second, then slowly sank into the water.
        “Princess...” He said. Rainbow, Pinkie and Applejack turned, but they were unable to see much more than the Sea Serpent’s tangled mane. “...You’ve returned...”
        “That we have, Magnet,” Said the princess, loudly but regally. The three in the water began to make their way around the side of the serpent, so they might be able to see what was happening. “We are aware some of our subjects are nearby?”
        “The elements of harmony...” The serpent said. Finally they caught a glimpse of the alicorn hovering above the water. It was not Celestia, as they had expected, but Luna with her dark blue coat and elegant starry mane. “...those who sealed you away a thousand years ago.”
        Luna’s eyes flicked to the trio in the water, then towards Twilight and the final two elements as they teleported into view. Above, Coco glided down from her hiding place and fluttered to a stop next to them. Applejack soon swam up and joined too, along with Pinkie and Rainbow.
        “These are not the ponies that sealed us away, Magnet, these are the ponies that freed us.” Her words reverberated with the Royal Canterlot Voice, making addressing the gigantic creature a simple matter.
        “This cannot be! The prophecy... Is this a trick? You seem different, princess, are you feeling yourself?” There was anger seeping into his voice, but also concern.
        “Peace. We feel more like ourself than we have in a thousand years,” Luna replied, wearing a stern expression. Conversely, Magnet’s face was contorting ever more into rage.
        “No! These elements have affected your mind! They must be destroyed!” He turned upon the eight, rising from the water and growling a low, foreboding growl. Ice ran through all their veins.
        “We said CEASE! WE COMMAND YOU!”
        “No, princess, I do this for you, you shall see...” Magnet drew back his head and slowly widened his maw.
        With blinding speed, Luna dived down past the serpent to meet the eight in the lake. Magnet lunged, but his teeth met with a sparkling blue shield. He roared and tried again, but succeeded only in making dull thunks.
        “Come hither quickly, my little ponies,” Luna said, wings spread and forelegs outstretched. One by one she held them in her magic, raising them from the water as the serpent’s attacks grew more and more furious. They each shook themselves off once they were fully in the air, glad to finally be dry and, presumably, safe. Suddenly the shield vanished and Magnet’s claw came slashing down, but all that happened was a mighty, resounding splash.
        Luna was already rocketing vertically through the air, cutting it like a needle. She held her subjects in a trail behind her that followed her every move exactly. Below they saw the serpent writhing like he never had before and rising impossibly towards them, defying all gravity. The dome of stars seemed to flatten out as they approached and then winked out existence as chunks of roof obstructed their view. Suddenly, they went altogether and Luna’s path acquired twists and unpredictable turns. They could see nothing, but they could feel the air tearing past blisteringly and they could hear the rumbling serpent below like an earthquake.
        Suddenly there was a pop and light returned to them, Still they rose, and below they could see the Black Atoll and the ocean filled with ships’ lights while the storm raged threateningly about them. Luna halted in the air, allowing the cold altitude to settle in compared to the relative sauna in Magnet’s castle. Luna and those she supported looked down onto the ocean below them. As they watched, the leviathan serpent broke from the water, sending waves outwards to pummel the ships. To their surprise, the ships began to turn towards the raging monster, and a few cannon blasts ringing out could be heard, even so far away.
        “What is this madness? Why do they not retreat?” Luna asked.
        “My bad,” Pinkie said sheepishly.
        “Then we must stop them!”

Luna plummeted back towards the sea, she swooped between the ships, dropping somepony off on each of them. On the seventh and last ship, she landed herself with Twilight and Spike.
        “Stop this madness! Turn this ship around!” Luna commanded, but her voice went unnoticed. All around them ponies, zebras and griffons dashed about, pulling on ropes and carrying things. Amidst the chaos and the noise could be seen a few rainbow banners and could be smelt a familiar, spicy smell. “Turn about! We command you! You stand not a chance against the serpent, We implore you, turn!” But her words went unheeded.
        One ship did stop in a sense: Rainbow’s ship. From it could be heard a cry of joy and all activity otherwise ceased. But the winds of the storm were powerful and the currents were dragging them towards the monster. Up ahead, Magnet slithered upwards, readying his claws to obliterate the oncoming boats. Every gargantuan flex of his muscles sent small tsunamis crashing over the attackers. Most of the ships already had some damage, from the storm or otherwise; broken masts, holes in the hull and even small fires counted among the fleet’s injuries.
        “I have no choice...” Twilight heard Luna utter beneath her breath. She closed her eyes and made her horn glow.
        The sea went calm. The storm lessened to a drizzle, then stopped. The air filled with a thick mist that faintly smelled of musty decay. Even the sea serpent Magnet paused in his rage. All seven boats sat still in the water, though none could see another through the fog.
        A bell rang, clear and strangely beautiful, like ripples over a still pond. Something could be heard parting the water. There were whispers, or perhaps there were not, of strange words that nopony recognised, or perhaps they did but didn’t want to. Leaning out from the ship’s railing, Twilight thought she saw something sliding past. The sight sent a shiver own her spine. Meanwhile, Luna stayed perfectly still and perfectly calm, eyes closed and face blank.
        “No...” They could hear Magnet say on the other side of the mist. “Princess, please no. I’m sorry I doubted you, please forgive-” and suddenly there was silence. The storm resumed. It was night, Twilight realised- it had been difficult to tell after so long underground- and like many a night it was dark and stormy.





“He was a friend of mine, once,” Luna explained once all the ships had been herded back to shore. Twilight and her friends were sitting in Town Hall, which was wet but surprisingly still standing. Much of the town had been dragged out to sea by the serpent’s gargantuan waves. Thanks to Spike, the townsfolk survived mostly unharmed, but were mourning the loss of their homes and businesses. “During the dark times. The sea is a very dark place, and the moon has always held more sway over it than the sun. He was smaller then, and not so full of anger. I suspect he has become too lost in the past. I will see him again, but I doubt you will.”
        “Wow, I mean thank you, princess,” Twilight said, looking up at the alicorn. She, like her friends, was bent over the conference room's wet table. It was the least they could do not to fall asleep. “Thank you for rescuing us,”
        “It was the least I could do, Twilight. I understand you came to this island to recuperate, correct?”
        Twilight chuckled. “Actually I wanted to study the Sea Itch, but things sort of got out of hoof.”
        “Either way, you must be tired. I will carry you back to your lodgings, I insist.”
        “I think we would all like that very much,”