Sunset sat in Rainbow's kitchen alone, on the dining room table, holding a cup of water in her hand. She's been thinking on what Spoiled Rich said to her a few hours ago. It was her job to save Diamond Tiara, and she failed it. There has never been a shark attack on Canterlot beach, true, but she could've helped.
The fear must've gotten to her as she just stood there and watched Diamond Tiara get swallowed up. She didn't do anything to help prevent, nor help her. It was her fault, she could never forgive herself for it.
She felt like it was her duty to avenge Diamond Tiara's death and take the shark head on, but the shark was caught right? Dr. Whooves did say that the possibilities that they caught the same shark was exponential, but even a thin slice of cake is a meal. She's been thinking for hours and hours on what to do. The shark was caught, or so thought, and there was really nothing to do about it.
Rainbow and the rest of her friends all looked her with a sympathetic look. They looked at each other before Rainbow made the bold move and going up to talk to her. When she approached her, she felt an aura of unforgiving doubt.
Sunset kept staring at the glass of water in her hand, not caring at all what was happening around her. From the corner of her eye, she could see someone grabbing a chair and and sitting down. She looked up to see Rainbow Dash giving her a sympathetic look.
"Sunset, it's not your fault." said Rainbow.
Even though it was true, Sunset couldn't forgive herself.
"Yes it is Rainbow. I should've been on duty that day, but I chose to take a break." she said.
"You chose to spend time with your best friends. Who knew that a shark attack would happen? You said so yourself, there has never been a shark attack here in Canterlot before. How should you know that there was going to be one?"
Sunset avoided eye contact and kept staring at the glass of water.
"We should've been prepared for this. The team had a meeting the other day about shark training... people left the team once the word shark was brought up."
"Well those people aren't as brave and probably not as awesome as you Sunset. Besides if people do leave, and you decide to stay, you'll be the only one on the team, showing how much you care for everyone else.
"Not helping Rainbow."
"Sorry."
At that moment, the doorbell rang, alerting everyone, except Sunset, to the front door.
"Rarity, can you get that?" asked Rainbow.
With a nod, Rarity walked up to the front door. Upon opening the door she saw two faces, one familiar and one not so familiar. One of the faces was a teenager with spiky brown hair and a black hoodie jacket with a gray T-Shirt underneath.
"Oh Hunter darling. Who's this?" asked Rarity.
"This is some guy who asked me if I knew Sunset. I said yes and I told him that she was having a sleepover here. Apparently he's from the Oceanography Incorporated." replied Hunter.
"Oceanographic Institute." replied Dr. Whooves, standing next to him.
"Yeah whatever."
"Oh, well she's in there. She's sort of shaken up on what happened today, so it's best if-" replied Rarity.
"Oh no no, I saw the whole thing. I'm just here for some confirmation." replied Dr. Whooves.
"About what?"
"I uh, I don't think I should go in full detail. Where's Sunset?"
"Oh she's in the kitchen."
Rarity pointed to her right while Dr. Whooves peeked his head inside and saw Sunset and Rainbow sitting at a table.
"Mind if I come in?" asked Dr. Whooves.
"Oh sure um... sure." said Rarity not sure what to say.
Dr. Whooves walked and tapped on Rarity's shoulder. She looked at him and he brought her away from Hunter.
"Is that kid... alright?" asked Dr. Whooves.
"Hm, you mean Hunter. Oh he sure is. He's a gentlemen. Sure he can be a little... unpredictable, but that's why we love him, as a friend of course." replied Rarity.
"Oh, well on the way here he began rambling on and on about this Brute Force guy, much to my annoyance but, he did at one point ran a red light and flipped off a cop."
"Like I said darling, unpredictable. You wanted to see Sunset?"
"Oh yes, yes."
Dr. Whooves walked over to the kitchen while Rarity walked over to the front door with Hunter still standing there.
"So, you want to come in?" asked Rarity.
"Nah. I need to head home. My mom's probably worrying about me." replied Hunter.
"Oh well that's a shame. But maybe sometime we can have another sleepover again."
"I don't think so. The last time I had a sleepover with you girls, I... well you know what happened."
"I sure do darling."
"Well I better get going. Night Rarity." said Hunter as he walked away.
"Goodnight darling." replied Rarity as she closed the door.
Dr. Whooves made his way to the kitchen where he saw a crestfallen Sunset... Shimmer. Rainbow looked up at him with curiosity sparkling in her eyes. He turned to her friends who all gave curious looks. Rainbow got up and walked over to the trench coated man.
"Uh, who are you?" asked Rainbow.
"I'm Dr. Whooves, I'm from the Oceanographic Institute. I'm here to see Sunset and talk about the uh... the incident at the beach a couple days ago... alone." he said.
The girls go his message and nodded their heads while they went in the living room, along with Rarity, leaving only Sunset and Dr. Whooves to themselves. He walked to the table and sat across from her.
Out the corner of her eye, she saw Dr. Whooves sit in front her, grabbing her attention. They stared at each other for a few minutes before Sunset went back to staring at the glass of water.
There was complete and utter silence for at least 5 minutes, Sunset not wanting to say anything and Dr. Whooves being polite and let her take her time.
It was Sunset who broke the silence.
"What got you interested in sharks?" she asked.
Caught off guard by the question, Dr. Whooves stared at her as if she turned into demon and destroyed the front of a school [oops].
"Well I er um... it goes back to when I was a kid." he answered.
"I have time." she replied.
"Well... I guess it started when I was 12. I used to leave by the shore and every morning I would go into the water and play in it. Sometimes I would go farther than the buoy. One time I went a little too far and I got swept away from my dad by a tide. My dad swam after me as I swam back to him when a um... a shark... bit my leg. I yelled like a girl until my dad grabbed me and swam back to shore. The shark however was following us and not wanting to get eaten, my dad threw his slice of pizza at the shark. Who knew sharks loved pizza?"
"You're dad brought pizza in the water?" asked Sunset, realizing how foolish of him to do so.
"Well, he wasn't thinking at the time. He was at shore when I was swept away and I guess he didn't want sand on his pizza."
"But sea water is okay?"
Dr. Whooves chuckled at her response.
"Well, I guess it was, sort of silly of him. Ahem... when the shark at the pizza, I was fascinated on how it quickly bit my leg, to eating a slice of anchovy and pepperoni pizza. A few weeks afterwards, I got a boat, and I rowed it into the ocean to feed the shark. Now that I see it from now, I realize I wasn't as smart as I was as today. The shark at some of the pizza but quickly toppled the boat over. Luckily I got to shore unharm, the boat however... was a different story. That was the turning point in my career life. I saw the shark eat the boat right in front of my eyes and I remember asking myself, 'Do sharks eat anything?' Fast forward 25 years and I got my answer."
Sunset smiled at his story, finding it entertaining to listen to.
"What about you? What made you join the lifeguard?" asked Dr. Whooves. Sunset sighed a long sigh.
"I guess since I turned into a raging she-demon and tried to take over my school, I felt that I needed to redeem myself. And I have, helping defeat the sirens at the Battle of the Bands, and defeated Twilight at the Friendship Games, and even defeated Gloriosa at Camp Everfree. But I felt like it was my, well... element, to help people, redemption. So I took a job as a Canterlot Carrier."
"Ah, good old fashion redemption. I suppose that there's a little good in all of us."
"Ain't that the truth."
They sat in silence, not knowing what else to talk about. They stared at each other, wondering what subject to talk, until Dr. Whooves had the answer.
"You know, the fisherman caught a shark, not the shark. Not the shark that killed Daisy Tulip, and probably not the shark that killed that little girl, and I wanted to prove it by cutting the shark open, and I was hoping that maybe you can help classify this, in such that I am considered a liar trying to make a fast buck? Besides I do need an extra set of hands either way." asked Dr. Whooves.
Sunset looked at him for a moment before taking a sip of her water.
"What the hell, I'm in." she said.
Dr. Whooves inserted the knife in the underbelly of the Tiger Shark that the fisherman caught earlier that day. Upon impact, he started to hack his way all the way to the top, so he could get to the digestive system. Upon midway, digestive juices started to spill upon the floor, much to him and Sunset's disgust.
He held in his breath so he couldn't take in the wretched smell. Unfortunately, he couldn't hold it in much longer and gasped for air, getting whiff of the juice smell.
He then threw the knife away and inserted his gloved hands in the digestive track, trying to take what was left inside. After a moment of struggling, he pulled out a head of a fish, launching it towards Sunset, who backed up and looked at it in disgust
He struggled some more as he pulled out the other end of the fish, launching it between Sunset's legs.
He started grunting, having it to be difficult trying to pull out objects out of a dead shark's digestive system. Luckily he pulled out another object, a small gray stuffed horse with buttons for eyes, and blue underwear with white polka dots. On the side of it said, 'Smarty Pants', possibly it's name.
Dr. Whooves threw a can towards Sunset, a crunched up metal can, like actual metal and not the regular soda can.
"AGH!" Dr. Whooves explain after feeling the internal organs in disgust. "Just what I thought! It came up from the Gulf Stream!"
He then threw out a license plate that said, 'BD9 15O', towards Sunset. She picked it up out of porosity with her gloves, and to her confusion.
"It ate a car?" asked Sunset.
"Nah! Sharks will eat anything. Someone probably threw that in the river." replied Dr. Whooves. Finally, he backed up, having taken out every piece of object in the shark's belly. "Well... that's it."
Sunset finally dawned on it. This wasn't the shark, it wasn't the shark.
"Call the police, tell them to close the beaches." said Sunset.
"You have a bigger problem than that Sunset. You still have one hell of a shark. With a mouth about this big." said Dr. Whooves using his hands as an estimate of the shark's jaw, going beyond his head. "We're gonna have to go looking for it. If he is a rouge, and if there's any truth to territoriality at all, we've got a good chance of spotting him near the beach. We gotta find him right now, he's a night feeder."
"In the water?!" asked Sunset as she stood up after Dr. Whooves who was heading towards the door.
"Well we're not gonna find him on land." replied Dr. Whooves.
"Yeah but I'm not brave enough to go out in the water at night."
"Yes you are."
"No I'm not."
"Yes you are."
"I can't do that."
"Yes you can."
A lone boat sailed across the night water, with stars glistening over it. The said white boat consisted of two people on board, Sunset and Dr. Whooves.
The boat was fitted with sonar, in order to find the shark, and a high powered engine, in case the shark was too fast for them.
"So as I was telling Rarity, if you like the guy, ask him out. You are one of the most popular girls in the school, and practically every guy has fallen for you. So long story short, she ended up asking the guy out, only in the end did she realize the guy was a real jerk!" explained Sunset to Dr. Whooves.
"No kidding. Want a Popsicle?" asked Dr. Whooves with his mouth full.
Sunset was about to answer until she just now realized that they were in the middle of no where... in the dark.
"Uh no thanks. Um, where are we?"
"We're in the area where he's been feeding. We have a high chance of spotting him here."
Sunset looked all around and couldn't even find land, it was way to dark and the only light source was coming from the boat.
"Okay. 1. We could be anywhere in the ocean, how do you know we're in the right area. And 2. How do you know it's a guy?"
"Well to answer your first question... I have no idea. I'm using my sonar to track him. And I keep calling him a 'he' because... I'm a guy. Guys tend to call animals 'him'." answered Dr. Whooves.
At that moment, beeping what heard from the sonar. Sunset got up to the flying bridge to check it out.
"What's that?" asked Sunset.
"That's the sonar. It's picking up something. Probably just a school of bluefish." answered Dr. Whooves.
However, the sonar kept beeping, louder, as if something bigger was out there.
"Hold on... there's something else out there, something bigger."
I just said that.
"Let's go check it out."
I just said that!!!
Dr. Whooves started steering the boat towards the location. On their way there, they saw a piece of board floating across them, much to their confusion. Then, another piece of board swept by them. Sunset handled the searchlight and aimed it all around in front, until it laid on what appeared to be a boat.
"That's Fishing Trap's boat!" exclaimed Sunset.
"How do you know?" asked Dr. Whooves.
"It has his name right there."
Sunset aimed the light on the side of the boat which said, 'Property of Fishing Trap. If found, please get rid of this hunk of junk for my grandma's insurance.'
"I don't think insurance works like that." said Dr. Whooves.
"What happened to it?"
"Well considering the amount of wood we found in the water, and the amount of damage on this boat, and the fact that's there's a giant friggin' bite mark on the side of it, I'd say it was a shark attack."
"Was it the shark?"
"It's in the area of where it's been feeding, so it's got to be it."
"I thought you said you didn't know where he was feeding?"
"I'm gonna put on a suit and dive under, and see what I can find."
Dr. Whooves walked back to a case where he opened it, revealing a swim suit with goggles and an underwater flashlight.
"Right now!? In the night?! With that, thing swimming Celestia knows where?!"
"Celestia? Now I don't think I have ever heard that name before. Hm, you learn something new everyday." Dr. Whooves said as he got ready and put on the suit.
A few minutes later, Dr. Whooves dove down into the water with his freshly new suit he just put on. He swam to the bottom of the boat where a large hole was.
He approached the hole and pulled out his flashlight, lighting the hole area, where he saw a sharp tooth. He grabbed the tooth and pulled it out the haul of the boat and examined it. It was big and jagged.
Dr. Whooves has seen this kind of tooth before, and it's a sight you don't want to meet at night... which is something that Dr. Whooves is doing right now.
He pulled the flashlight and lit the area again to examine the area again. However, he was met face to face with a floating dead guy's face, with one eyeball out of it's socket.
"Great wickering stallions!" Dr. Whooves managed to say as he was face to face with...
Fishing Trap!
Or what's left of him. Dr. Whooves wasted no time on getting the hell out of there, dropping the tooth in process. He submerged from the water, breathing heavily, catching the attention of Sunset, who came running down to him. Dr. Whooves approached the later and climbed it, looking Sunset in the eyes, with his eyes filled with fear.
"This is a great white Mayor! A big one! And any shark expert in the world will tell you it's a killer, a man eater!" exclaimed Sunset as she, Dr. Whooves and the Mayor herself were walking on the beach shore.
"Look, Ms. Mayor, the situation is, that a Great White Shark has staked to claim off the waters of Canterlot Beach, and he's going to continue to feed here as long as there's food in the water." explained Dr. Whooves.
"And there's no limit to what he's going to do. I mean we already had 3 incidents. 2 people killed inside of a week, it happened again, it happened before! Tell him about the Jersey incident. 5 people chewed up on the surface!
"In one week!"
"Tell him about the swimmers!"
"A shark is attracted to the exact kind of splashing activity that occurs when every human beings go swimming. You cannot avoid it!"
"You open the beaches on the 4th of July, it's like ringing the dinner bell for Celestia's sakes!"
"Look Ms. Mayor. Ms. Mayor. I pulled the tooth, the size of a shot glass out of a wrecked haul of a boat out there, and it was the tooth of a Great White!"
"It was Fishing Trap's boat, it was all chewed up, I saw the police tow it in. You should've seen it!"
"Where- where is that tooth? Did you see it Sunset?" asked the Mayor.
"No I didn't see it, he dropped-"
"I had an accident!" exclaimed Dr. Whooves before Sunset could finish her statement.
"And what did you say the name of the shark is?" asked the Mayor.
"It's a carcharodon carcharias. It's a Great White!"
"But you don't have the tooth?" Dr. Whooves shook his head. "Look we depend on the summer people here for our very lives."
Sunset threw her arms up in the air and walked off, knowing full well that the Mayor only cares about herself and money and not her people.
"You are not going to have a summer, unless you deal with this problem!" yelled Dr. Whooves.
"Mayor we're not only gonna have to close the beaches, we're gonna have to hire someone to kill the shark! I mean we're gonna have to tell the Coast Guard!"
At this point, everyone was talking at once, creating a complete chaos around the area.
/raegfest/
"Ms. Mayor, you'll have to contact the Shark Research Panel." said Dr. Whooves amongst he chaos.
"We're gonna have to put extra deputies on because every nut in the world is gonna come here!" yelled Sunset over the chaos.
"I don't think either one of you familiar with our problems!" yelled the Mayor.
"Uh I think I am familiar with the fact that you're gonna ignore this particular problem, until it swims up, and BITES YOU IN THE ASS!" yelled Dr. Whooves. Sunset grabbed hold of him to calm down, but he refused. "Now wait a second. Wait a second. There are two ways to deal with this problem! You are either kill this animal, or cut off it's food supply!"
"Mayor we have to close the beaches." said Sunset.
The Mayor pointed to a billboard with graffiti on it, with a woman on a board that has big eyes and a big mouth, both were drawn, and a shark fin behind her, and a text bubble saying, 'HELP!!! SHARK!'
"Shimmer, sick vandalism! That is a deliberate, mutilation of a public service. Now I want you to contact the police, so they could have those paint happy bastards strung up by their buster browns!"
Dr. Whooves put his hands on Sunset's shoulders and stared at her, smiling.
"That's it! Goodbye! I'm not gonna waste my time arguing with a woman who's lining up to be a hot lunch. See ya." said Dr. Whooves as he started to walk away.
Sunset ran after him and grabbed him and pulled him back to the Mayor who was facing her back to them.
"Ms. Mayor." said Dr. Whooves catching the Mayor's attention. "What we are dealing with here, is a perfect engine, uh, an eating machine. It's really a miracle of evolution. All this machine does, is swim, and eat, and make little sharks and that's all. Now I want you to take a long, close look at this sign. Those proportions are correct."
"Love to prove that, wouldn't you. Get your name in the National Geographic." said the Mayor as she walked off, leaving a stupefied Dr. Whooves.
He turned to Sunset and started laughing at the fact that this was possibly the most stubborn and stupidest mayor in all of mayor history. Sunset turned to catch up with the Mayor, as Dr. Whooves kept laughing.
"Mayor, Mayor if we make an effort today, we might be able to save August." said Sunset as the Mayor opened her car door.
"August! For crying out loud, tomorrow's the Fourth of July! And we will be opened for business. It's gonna be one of the best summers we've ever had. Now if you fellers are concerned about the beaches, you do whatever you have to, to make them safe, but those beaches will be open for this weekend." said the Mayor as she got in her car and drove off.
Sunset turned and looked at Dr. Whooves, who was sitting on a rock, and both of them knew that opening the beaches on Fourth of July was going to be a terrible a mistake, perhaps a deadly one.