Everything went suddenly dark. Filthy Rich tried to scream, but no noise came out, and a very very strange feeling came over him. He felt the wind knocked out of him, like he collided with something violently, but there was no actual physical pain accompanying it. There was, however, a faint tingle at the tip of his snout, and it crept down from his snout to his tail.
As suddenly as there was no light, there was light. He was laying on his back, staring up at a dull blue sky. He was also vaguely sore. Grunting on the ground, he shifted about, feeling sand beneath him. The air smelled faintly of salty water.
He brought his hooves up to rub his eyes, but something was… wrong. He bent his wrist, and a bit of his leg about twice as long as he expected bent. His stomach churned as he moved his foreleg, taking in the new bumps, the new coarseness. It was like Tacit.
Wrenching himself up, he took in the new landscape around him. He was on a rocky beach, the sky was cloudy and dim. The kind of weather the weather team around Ponyville usually avoided, since it wasn’t actual rain, nor was it clear and beautiful. It was just sorta dank and dismal.
Also, laying beside him, was a familiar pink pony. But, like himself, she was different. Looking like this made clear the sheer difference in proportions from their current forms. Their barrels were slimmer, their snouts more pronounced, and their legs were lankier.
She was holding her hooves out in front of her, staring at them, breathing heavily.
“Sweetheart…” Filthy Rich started, pleased to hear at least his voice hadn’t changed at all.
“A romantic secluded getaway, was that it, Fil?” Spoiled said, closing her eyes and laying her hooves down.
“Well… that’s what Tacit—that creature—said…”
“And what exactly were you doing there with that creature?” she spat, turning to look at Filthy Rich, her eyes boring into him.
“... He appeared when I was waiting for Fillygree, and then he… attacked the falls.”
Spoiled rolled her eyes. “I gathered, but he obviously wasn’t attacking you. He was having tea with you.”
Filthy Rich narrowed his eyes. “... What are you trying to say, Spoiled?”
She got up, not struggling at all with her slightly new form, and stomped up to Filthy Rich. “I’m saying that something like that does not just choose somepony to have tea with ‘at random’. You—" she poked him in his chest “—must have done something to attract his attention!”
“He was some kind of super-powerful Discord monster!” Filthy Rich hissed. “If you’re looking for reasons he would single me out, you will find them sorely lacking!”
“Oh, and I’m sure he just accidentally decided to take me out of my lunch and bring me to you, hm?”
“W-well... yes. Yes!” Filthy Rich pulled himself to his hooves. “He guessed I was having an issue with my wife, and pulled you out from wherever you were.”
“I can’t believe you’d be so forthcoming about something like that!” Spoiled shouted. “That is our private business, and you have no right to go sharing that with any old mysterious strangers.”
“Wh- What?! That’s not what I said. I said that he guessed and on that guess summoned you.”
“Oh come off it!” Spoiled stomped closer to Filthy Rich. “What possible reason could he have to guess something like that, unless you were moping around about it!”
Filthy Rich contorted his own face into a scowl. “And I already told you that looking for an explanation with a godlike chaos monster is folly! He probably would have thrown out any old excuse if it was going to intrude on somepony's life!”
“Oh, of course!” Spoiled Rich shouted, getting up in her husband’s face. “The completely and totally random happenstance of us getting into an argument one night, then a chaos beast getting it into his head that sending us ‘somewhere else’ to work out our issues is a good idea! Definitely just a total coincidence isn’t it, Filthy?!” she finished, screaming at that point.
Rearing back to launch into his own diatribe, there was a loud snapping sound from the south, and both of the Riches twisted their heads to the sound, glaring at the intrusion. There was a line of foliage that faded into a forest, and there was another crunch and snapping sound, and a large aquamarine pony stepped out.
Not just a large pony, she was huge! She was as large as the princesses! She was also wearing very intricate pale pink-orange armor that appeared to be made out of huge seashells shaped into fins, connected with shining blue strings that formed a lattice, holding the armor in place. And her head… instead of a pair of ears, she had a set of fins that wrapped around her entire forehead. They could even make out gills on her neck. Clearly this was a pony of the sea.
The Riches both looked quickly the opposite direction from the oncoming huge pony. Sure enough, on the other side was the sea, with some kind of very simple sledlike boat, constructed of similar style as the large ponies armor, pushed up on the beach that the two Riches.
Looking back and quickly giving each other a fearful look, they glanced back at the pony, only to hear more clinking and shuffling, as she was being followed by an entourage of normal sized ponies, all of them some shade of blue or green, each wearing (significantly less well made and ornate) armor, mostly in dull greens instead of the brilliant coral of the large pony's armor. And many of them had obvious spears and tridents strapped to the side of their armor.
The Riches glanced back forth between each other and the large pony and, with nods, a truce was immediately struck. The two of them straightened themselves out quickly. Filthy Rich stood up and took point, marching to meet the aquatic party.
“Hello,” he called out from a safe distance. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”
The large pony barked something unintelligible to the other ponies. Several darted forward and menacingly pointed their tridents in Filthy Rich’s direction. The rest kept filling out a circle between around the Riches.
“Now,” Filthy Rich said trying to stay composed. “There’s no reason to be hasty. We’re just some… passing travelers who don’t know where they are.”
The large pony just recited more words.
“This is impossible,” Spoiled Rich said. “They don’t even speak our language.”
From behind the line, Filthy Rich heard a bark of laughter. “You probably should have run while you had the chance, strangers.”
The huge pony shouted something back behind her, stepping out of the way to reveal yet another seapony, except this one wasn’t armored. This seafoam green pony was clothed in a mixture of slick red form fitting garments and latticework, but she was also shackled around her ankles, and had a choker with a rope leading to one of the other smaller guards.
She gave the Riches a wry grin, before the guard tugged on her rope, yanking her head down. “Ow! Jeez, you don’t have to yank like—” the guard tugged again, causing the prisoner to yelp.
The large seapony said something else in a commanding tone, and the guard led the prisoner aside her. She recited a speech in an unfamiliar language, clearly announcing something.
There was a pause, and the prisoner said, “Yeah, she says that you’re coming with her.”
The large seapony gave a glare to her prisoner, and the guard attending her poked her in the side with his spear.
“Ow! Alright, alright.” She cleared her throat, arched her back, stood straight up, and announced in a clear tone, “The two of you are officially being reclaimed by The Deep Queen.”
Spoiled Rich, whose scowl had been deepening, loudly burst out with. “Reclaimed?! We have never seen this pony in our lives.”
At her outburst, several guards shifted closer, menacing them with their spears and tridents. Filthy stepped closer to his wife, gritting his teeth. Better to look fierce than frightented.
“Yeah, the quee—” The prisoner started, but almost immediately received a nasty look from The Deep Queen, and cleared her throat. “Her Majesty has come to reclaim the land. As you are on the land, she is officially reclaiming, well… you two.”
The Riches both opened their mouths to protest, but the circle of armed ponies all set themselves in more menacing stances, and the two of them shrank back down.
“Yeah, like I said, you really should have run when you had the chance,” the prisoner said, offering a sympathetic smile look to the couple.
The Deep Queen gave her prisoner another angry look, causing the prisoner to shrink away slightly and grin sheepishly. The Deep Queen snorted, but directed her entourage to start linking the same kind of cuffs on the Riches that were on her prisoner.
Once they were both securely cuffed up, the Deep Queen barked some more orders to her entourage, and the Riches were led onto the sea-sled, along with the prisoner pony, who was sat across from them. The sea ponies then all filed into the sea, a couple of them being hitched to the sled, and they started to swim out to sea.