Chapter Six
Doesn’t Look Like a Skiff
The submarine took a nosedive deeper into the ocean.
“Or down. Crap!” shouted Scootaloo as gravity took its toll, pulling her hind hooves onto the craft’s thick front window. She scrambled over the control panel, looking for something else to break.
The basket began to slide downward, as did Apple Bloom under the bunkbed. She stuck a yellow hoof out and grabbed the basket’s handle, using the bolted bunkbed’s base to stop herself and the foals from dropping any further.
Sweetie Belle and the Haissanic pegasi were not so lucky. Sweetie screamed as her garbage can tipped over, spilling its only content into the narrow hallway. The Haissanic stallions, shouting in their own language, tried to grab her, but fell too quickly toward Scootaloo.
“Aaaahh!” Scootaloo screamed, slamming her hoof into a bright green lever on the console.
The submarine leveled out, but also began to spin. The roar of the engine behind the craft grew louder, and Scootaloo lost her balance, sprawling out beneath the controls.
“Darn it, Scootaloo, make it stop!” Apple Bloom yelled at the top of her lungs, sliding out from under the bed and holding the whole basket close to her body.
The cabinet doors opened and Dinky tumbled forward as the craft twirled in the water. She landed next to Apple Bloom, gasped, and pointed at the basket. “Are these the foals?”
“Uhhh… I think so!” Apple Bloom dared to open the lid of the basket for less than a second. Pound and Pumpkin Cake wailed in her face. She slammed the basket shut and gulped. “Yup! These are them!”
“What do we do? What do we do?” Sweetie Belle cried, rolling over herself from wall to ceiling as the submarine continued to spin. “Heh-heh-heeelp!”
“Give me just a second, jeez!” Scootaloo raked her hooves over the controls. “Urrghh ― there!”
The craft stopped spinning and stabilized… upside down. Somehow, they sped up even more, careening blindly into the massive ocean.
“Submarines are the worst!” Scootaloo moaned, staring at the console suspended over her head. She jumped several times, flapping her little wings in an attempt to reach the buttons. “Come on! Come onnn!”
A long hoof grabbed her from behind and tossed her back through the hallway. Screaming, Scootaloo landed directly on Dinky’s face.
“Ow!”
“Sorry! And also, ow!”
The stallion with all four of his legs reached up to adjust the controls. The submarine began to turn upright, while the blue pegasus limped toward the fillies using one wing as a crutch.
“What do we dooo?” Scootaloo shrieked, her wings buzzing erratically.
“That’s what I want to know!” Sweetie Belle shouted, sliding toward the wall.
“We’re in for it now, girls!” Apple Bloom cried.
“Aaaahhh-chooooo!”
Dinky sneezed on account of her nose being tickled by Scootaloo’s twitching feathers.
The entire craft lurched, tilted, and ― according to the small view allowed by the front window ― shot upward out of the water. They were going so fast that the submarine practically flew, rocketing toward the clouds. Every individual pony on board found themselves screaming.
“This is not good! This is not what I wanted to happen!” Scootaloo shrieked, her voice an octave above its normal pitch.
“So much for sabotage!” Apple Bloom moaned.
Sweetie paused her screaming to say, “Actually, if we’re talking strictly sabotage, this worked out pretty well!” And then immediately resumed her blood-curdling screech of fear.
Thinking fast, the blue Haissanic pegasus crawled forward, grabbed the hatch’s wheel with the end of one wing, and tore the little door open. With a shout to his cohort, both pegasi spread their large wings and scooped the fillies toward the circular hatch.
“No!” Apple Bloom yelled, holding the basket of foals tight to her chest. “You can’t do this! Stop it!”
“Raaurgh!” Scootaloo punched and bit at the large wings around her, but to no avail.
“Aaaaahhhhhh!” Sweetie and Dinky fell through the hole first, plummeting a hundred feet into the cold ocean below.
Scootaloo struggled and squirmed at the exit, but one swift kick from behind launched her into open air; spinning and screaming, she fell out of sight.
“No!” Apple Bloom leapt for the exit with the basket in her hooves, but one of the foalnappers caught her tail in his teeth. She yelped and thrashed wildly as the submarine’s momentum finally came to a peak, tilting forward like an arching arrow and speeding back toward the ocean.
Desperate, the stallions latched onto the basket and swatted Apple Bloom repeatedly with their wings. She grunted and tried to hold onto its handle, but the strength of two pegasi was simply too much and her hooves slipped at the last moment. She called out to no one, tumbling through the hatch, and watched in slow-motion as the submarine’s hatch sealed shut with the foals still trapped inside. The long craft pierced the water and shot off with a spray of purple magic before Apple Bloom’s back smashed into the ocean.
{-DD-}
“Dinky!” Sweetie Belle yelled over and over again. “Dinky Doo! Where are you?”
“Jee, thanks for making sure we’re all accounted for there, Sweetie Belle,” Scootaloo grumbled, tossing her newly soaked mane out of her face.
“She can’t swim!” Sweetie’s voice was shrill, panicked. “Dinky can’t swim! We have to find her!”
“Shoot…” Scootaloo scanned the sloshing water all around them. “Where’s Apple Bloom?”
“Dinkyyyy!” Sweetie took a deep breath and dunked her head under the water.
“Whoa.” Scootaloo watched the horizon. A purple glow of energy propelled the distant submarine farther away and deeper into the water until she could see no trace of it. “If it moves that fast… that must mean…” She nervously looked in the opposite direction. Manehattan’s famous skyline was nothing more than a few pencil-thick lines on the horizon. “Garbage cakes.”
Sweetie’s face popped up for a breath. “I can’t see her, Scootaloo!” she wailed, eyes red from tears and saltwater. “Where is Dinky?”
“Uhhh… I’ll find her!” Scootaloo dove, using her wings along with her limbs to push herself deeper into the ocean.
The water below stretched on in every direction as far as could be imagined. Scootaloo nearly choked on a sudden pang of fear, but shook her head clear and scanned the emptiness for any sign of Dinky. She swam deeper and looked toward the surface: she saw Sweetie’s body right above her, Apple Bloom’s yellow sheen some ways off… but no Dinky.
She emerged with a splash and a noisy breath. “I don’t see her anywhere, Sweetie Belle!” Scootaloo panted. “She’s, like… gone!”
“Noooo!” Sweetie slapped the water with her hooves. “No, no, no! Dinky! Dinkyyyy!”
“Whoa, calm down, Sweetie!” Scootaloo waded closer to her. “You’ve gotta conserve your energy. Who knows how long we’ll be out here?”
Sweetie Belle smacked Scootaloo in the face.
“Oof!” Scootaloo blinked heavily and rubbed her cheek. “Holy horseapples! What was that for?”
“You killed Dinky!” Sweetie Belle shrieked, lunging for Scootaloo’s neck.
“Eep!” Scootaloo swam backward out of Sweetie’s manic grasp. “What is wrong with you? Calm down!”
“All your stupid ideas and your stupid selfish ― blyeh!”
“My blyeh?”
“I can’t believe you!” Sweetie sobbed into the ocean, floating lethargically with her muzzle nearly in the water. “You killed Dinky, Scootaloo… it’s all your fault…”
“Okay, hold up! It is not all my fault!” Scootaloo held her hooves out to her sides. “What did you want me to do? I was trying to save the foals! And besides, Dinky probably isn’t dead. Jeez! What do you think this is, grimdark? We’re on a freakin’ adventure!”
“Heeey!” Apple Bloom’s voice carried over the swelling ocean as she swam toward her friends. “They got the foals! I-I couldn’t stop ‘em!”
“It’s okay, Apple Bloom!” Scootaloo yelled back. “Let’s just focus on finding Dinky and staying alive out here!”
“Findin’ Dinky? What happened to her?”
“Uhhh…”
“Scootaloo killed heeeeerr!” Sweetie Belle wailed.
Scootaloo slapped her own forehead. “Oh, jeez…”
{-DD-}
Dinky was sinking. Fast.
She held her breath, squirming in the water. Her eyes had never been wider, nor burned more painfully. She watched the light of the surface dwindle in her vision, and she couldn’t tell if she was losing consciousness or if the ocean was just that deep.
She couldn’t help it. She screamed. The bubbles of her final breath rushed for the surface, as if they wanted nothing to do with her. She choked, trying to stop her lungs from taking in any water. Her hooves began to shake. She threw her eyes around, searching for something ― anything ― that could save her.
A sense of calm washed over her as soon as she saw the flute. It had slipped loose from behind her ear and was gently floating away, sinking faster than even she. Without a conscious thought, Dinky reached out for it.
Suddenly, and only for a moment, the world turned upside down. The surface of the water was right in front of her. A mare with golden eyes bent down to catch Dinky’s outstretched hoof. As soon as their hooves made contact…
The flute was in Dinky’s grasp. Automatically, she gasped at the strangeness of the moment. Panic settled in and she reached for her throat… only to find that there was no water in her mouth.
Dinky took a deep breath of fresh, dry air. She tried to touch her mouth, but her hooves stopped at a bubble around her head. Her mouth hung open in the darkness. She continued to sink.
There was no light now. No sense of up or down. Only the flute in her hoof, the magical air around her head, and a slowly growing feeling that everything would be all right…
And then there was a figure. He was far away. A pair of great wings at his sides kept him steady in the depths. He was looking right at Dinky, though she couldn’t see his eyes. He held something in front of him, something as balanced as he was in the water. Dinky blinked away the last of the ocean from her eyes and watched the figure move without a sound.
He waved. Dinky swallowed hard, but waved back. He pointed to whatever he was holding. On a whim, she pointed to her flute.
The figure’s horn began to glow, and Dinky gasped again. The object in front of him was a harp, huge and golden, with strings made of tiny bubbles. She thought of her mother.
Four long, beautiful notes resonated through the liquid around them as the figure strummed his magical instrument. The simple music filled Dinky with warmth, as real as hot chocolate on a winter’s afternoon. She smiled there, suspended in the ocean, momentarily delighted by the strangeness of it all.
There was a long silence, and then the figure played his notes again. Something clicked in Dinky’s head. Fumbling, she brought the flute up to her mouth ― the bubble of air around her head morphed to keep the flute dry, too ― and she echoed the notes in a single breath.
The figure looped backward in an underwater flip. His wings beat slowly in the distilled light of the ocean. A glow engulfed his horn and instrument, and a new series of notes trembled through the water.
Dinky copied the music again, noticing at some point that the harpist had joined in with a harmony. She giggled, more from nerves than anything, and the sharp breaths interrupted her music. She flinched, nervous that the figure might be angry.
Instead, with a few swift beats of his wings, the Alicorn swam close enough for Dinky to see his smile. His coat was green, like fresh seaweed, and his long mane shone like copper. His eyes were narrow, but kind, and he drew so near that Dinky could see their violet color.
He played the song again, this time with a very specific melody of several notes. Before Dinky could repeat it, the ocean beneath them came alive with billions of swarming bubbles. The capsuled air rushed around them, blinding Dinky from anything happening further than an inch from her face. Her heart hammered and she was about to scream, when something solid touched upon the bottoms of her hooves and carried her body gently toward the surface.
{-DD-}
Scootaloo spat out a mouthful of water. “Well if you hadn’t trusted her so much, maybe she wouldn’t have come with us in the first place!”
“If you’d just stuck to the plan, Dinky wouldn’t be deeeead!” Sweetie Belle still sobbed.
“Aren’t you the one tellin’ us to stop fightin’ all the time?” Apple Bloom asked.
“This is different!” Sweetie shrieked.
“Whoa, what the heck is that?” Scootaloo suddenly yelled, pointing as best she could at a large circle of bubbles behind Sweetie Belle.
“It’s gettin’ bigger!” Apple Bloom tried to swim backward.
“Help me!” Sweetie Belle’s voice was giving out, and yet she tried to scream. “Help! It’s a shark! It’s gonna eat me!”
“Sharks don’t blow bubbles…” Scootaloo said, wide-eyed.
“What does?”
The bubbles came closer and closer until they surrounded the Cutie Mark Crusaders. It was as if they were sitting in a large jacuzzi embedded in the middle of the ocean. All three of them drew closer together, screaming or crying or saying goodbye, and they closed their eyes in unison before some strange creature swallowed them whole.
Instead, between the fillies and Manehattan in the distance, a large, curved wall broke through the water first. It was smooth and pearly, like the inside of a clam ― because, as the fillies soon realized, it was the inside of a giant clam.
“Do clams eat ponies!?” asked Sweetie Belle.
A scratchy voice let out a fluttering laugh, the likes of which none of the ponies had heard before. Yet there was something truly jovial about it, so much so that the Crusaders felt instantly at ease.
“Who’s there?” asked Scootaloo.
“Oh, do forgive me! Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! That really tickled me for some reason. Do clams eat ponies... ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!”
As there was suddenly something solid beneath the Crusaders’ hooves, they turned around as a group and stared up at a green equine grinning at them over the back of a pearly throne. The impressive chair stood where a pearl would be in a normal clam, though the ground was not fleshy or squishy at all. The noise of the bubbles ceased, and the Cutie Mark Crusaders found themselves standing in a giant, open clam floating in the middle of the ocean.
“Uhhh… what just happened?” asked Scootaloo.
“Wait! First, allow me to reintroduce a friend of yours.” The stallion dropped out of sight for a moment, only to swivel the throne a hundred and eighty degrees to face the ponies. Instead of a large green stallion, a familiar periwinkle unicorn sat ― surprised ― in the regal chair.
“Dinky!” Sweetie nearly shouted her lungs out, throwing herself around the filly and hugging her tightly.
“I freaking told you!” said Scootaloo.
“How sweet!” said the green stallion, lowering his head between Apple Bloom and Scootaloo. He dabbed at his eye with a hoof. “Aren’t reunions lovely?”
“Gah!” Apple Bloom jumped away. “How’d you get back there?”
The stallion stood and smiled widely. “This is my skiff and I can do whatever I want! Welcome aboard!”
“Your skiff?” Scootaloo peaked over the edge of the clam skeptically. “Doesn’t look like a skiff to me.”
“Few things do.” The stallion laughed at himself. “Do forgive me, little ponies, I haven’t introduced myself. I am Calupan!” He spread his magnificent wings with a spray of glittering droplets. “Alicorn of the Sea!”
“A-A-Alicorn?” Sweetie Belle asked, gawking at Calupan’s smooth wings and undulating horn. “You’re an Alicorn like the Princesses?”
“Indeed! You may call me Prince Calupan, in fact, if you’d like.” He tittered and held a proud hoof to his chest. “Though I would never require it. In fact, out here, I prefer a different name.” In a flash, he sped to the front of the clam and stared intently at the eastern horizon. “Captain Calupan, at your service.”
“Captain Calupan?”
“Yes?” The Alicorn turned his head with an excited smile.
Apple Bloom blinked. “Uhhh… hi. Where in Equestria did you come from?”
“The Wabe, originally,” Calupan said. “Ah, but that was a long time ago.”
“The Wabe?” Scootaloo tapped her chin. “Haven’t I heard that somewhere before?”
“We were just in the Wabe!” Sweetie Belle exclaimed, still cuddling Dinky under her chin.
“Were you, now?” Calupan lifted a hoof to his mouth. “Well, that is a surprise.”
“That’s what the talking cat called it, remember?” Sweetie said to Scootaloo and Apple Bloom. “‘To escape the Wabe and find your heroes, you must remove the Red King’.”
“Ha-ha-ha-ha! That sounds like the old hairball, all right!” Calupan slapped one hoof against the clam in delight. “Good to know he’s still alive and vanishing.”
“You really are from the Wabe?” asked Apple Bloom, reeling. “What’re the odds o’ that?”
The Alicorn took on a deep, western accent to say, “Much greater than you think, little missy.” He scooped one hoof over the edge of the clam, conjuring a Stetson hat out of water. He dropped it on his own head and made a squinting leer. “The Wabe’s nothin’ if not self-attracted. Tends to work like a lasso, within, without, and beside itself.”
Apple Bloom’s eyebrows scrunched up. “Huh?”
Calupan lifted his hat and set it on Apple Bloom’s head, where it remained for a few seconds before dissolving back into water, drenching the poor filly’s already soaking mane. Scootaloo snorted a laugh.
“Shall we play another song?” Calupan asked. He plopped to his belly and regarded the four fillies with happy, shining eyes before turning fully to Dinky. “It’s been a good long time since I heard anyone play the flute!”
“Okay, slow down,” Scootaloo stepped forward, stifling a grin. “Where the heck did you come from, guy? Are we just supposed to trust an Alicorn that bubbles up out of the water and saves our necks?”
“Did I save your necks?” Calupan let out a little gasp. “Well, good for me! And even better for you, I imagine. Now, see if you can play along to this.”
Scootaloo’s smile was gone. She put a hoof up. “But―!”
Calupan’s harp materialized out of thin air. Strings of water dribbled from the curving top of the harp to its base, making beautiful music before the thing was even completely there.
“Wooow!” Sweetie Belle’s smile stretched across her face.
“This one has words,” teased Calupan with a wink, “if anypony wants to sing along.”
“Ooo! Oooh, I do! I do!” Sweetie Belle lifted a hoof over her head.
Scootaloo turned to Apple Bloom. “Is this really happening?”
“I’ve got no idea,” she answered flatly with red mane in her eyes. “I actually reckon we might be dead.”
Calupan began to play his harp. Bubbling instruments formed in the water around the floating clam, adding layers of bouncy accompaniment to his sudden song.
"Shoop-bee-doo!
Shoop-shoop-bee-doo!Calupan the sea pony,
What a happy guy!
Clever as can be pony,
No one knows the reason why!If you find you’re past the drift and haven’t got an oar
Count upon the sea pony, he’ll see you to shore!Shoop-bee-doo!
Shoop-shoop-bee-doo!
That’s the bit where I could really use some help,” he whispered in an aside to Sweetie Belle. “It’ll come around again.”
Sweetie beamed and nodded quickly.
“Call upon the sea pony,
When you’re in distress.
Helpful as can be pony.
Simply signal S-O-S!If your rudder mixes with the bowsprit yet again
Calupan can help, your favorite, funny, floating friend!”
“Shoop-bee-doo! Shoop-shoop-bee doo!” Calupan and Sweetie Belle sang together.
“Take it away, kids!”
Grinning, Dinky brought her flute up to her lips and began to play along with the melody, improvising fun little trills when she felt most confident. Meanwhile, Sweetie belted words at the top of her lungs, whether they were right or not.
“Calupan the sea pony,
Big green Alicorn!
Thought he was a big phony
Til he conjured water horns!”
Calupan laughed heartily while the trumpets rising from the ocean gave a tight blast of approval.
“If some ponies from Haissan just took your bakers’ twins,
Count upon the sea pony, he can help you win!”
“Shoop-bee-doo, shoop-shoop-bee―what?” Calupan’s smile dropped and his eyes turned ghostly serious. The liquid band around them dropped into the water with an ineffectual splash. His harp clattered to the bottom of the clam.
Calupan fixed on Sweetie’s surprised expression. “What did you say?” he asked.
“Uhhh… I was just improvising.” She blushed. “Sorry if it was bad.”
Calupan shook his head and stepped closer to the throne. “No no, not bad at all. Actually your rhythm was impeccable. I only meant, what do you mean some ponies from Haissan took your baker’s twins?”
“That’s why we’re out here,” Apple Bloom spoke up, slicking her mane back. “We’re from a little village near Canterlot. A couple o’ pegasi from Haissan came and foalnapped baby twins. Now we’re tryin’ to help get ‘em back.”
Calupan lifted his muzzle. “Ah. I see.” There was still plenty of light in his eyes, but it was accompanied by something weaker. “Well, then, children, it was a pleasure meeting you, but I do believe it’s time to get you home.”
“What?”
“No!”
“Wait, Mister Alicorn!”
An ethereal glow built around Calupan’s horn. “Do forgive me, little ones. I wish you many safe years to come.”
“We can’t go home!” Dinky suddenly exclaimed.
Calupan’s magic paused. One corner of his mouth lifted. “So that’s what you sound like. Lovely.”
Dinky gulped. “We can’t go home yet. Not until we’ve found the foals.” She lowered her head. “We were so close to getting them back, but we messed up. We have to find them, a-and go home all together… or not at all.”
Scootaloo smiled. “Yeah! What she said!”
Calupan lifted one brow over his purple eyes. “And what benefit have you to glean from this, young adventuress?”
Scootaloo licked her lips. “When we find the foals, we’ll be saving Rainbow Dash and Dinky’s mom a ton of trouble. Then she ― er ― they’ll be proud of us, and finally think we’re awesome!”
“Hmmm…” Calupan smiled gently. “My little pony, the right sort of attention is gained only through clear communication. Wasting effort is always more painful than swallowing pride.”
The words turned over several times in Scootaloo’s mind before she snorted. “Pff. Whatever. You don’t know Rainbow Dash.”
“Hmmm.” His eyes narrowed even more than their resting squint. “Might she bear the Element of Loyalty, perchance?”
The fillies all gaped at him.
“You know about the Elements of Harmony?” asked Sweetie Belle.
“My dear little singer, of course I do!” Calupan threw back his bright brown mane and smiled widely. “After all, where I live, I sea everything!” He dipped his hand over the side of the clam and splashed a bit of water at Sweetie Belle. “Get it? Sea?”
Sweetie Belle cracked up. Dinky couldn’t help but giggle along.
Scootaloo and Apple Bloom were considerably less amused.
{-DD-}
The first thing Sweetie Belle saw when she woke was the brilliant full Moon, several hours above the horizon. Eyes fluttering, she next saw her friends, Scootaloo and Apple Bloom, cuddled together against the upright half of Calupan’s open clam.
Sitting up, she looked around the strange platform. Dinky was fast asleep as well, curled up on the seat of the pearly throne. Calupan sat on his haunches near her, watching the tiny filly sleep.
“You were all exhausted,” Calupan said quietly. He didn’t look at Sweetie Belle, though she knew he was talking to her. “I’ve never seen anypony drift away so quickly.”
Sweetie rubbed her eyes and yawned. “When… when did I fall asleep?”
“Around Sunset,” he said, offering her a small smile. “We’ve been sailing since then.”
“Sailing?” Sweetie Belle’s ears picked up the steady slosh of water as their craft moved swiftly forward. “Sailing where?”
“To Stirrope,” Calupan answered. “I can take you to the shores of Caballos. The journey to Haissan isn’t short, by any means, but at least dry land is… traversable.”
Sweetie smiled. “So… you’re not taking us home?”
“No.” His soft eyes fell again on Dinky. “No, I don’t think that’s my place. There is something… very special going on here, little pony. I don’t know if you can feel it.”
“Hmm… I think I can. Kinda.” Sweetie yawned again. “How are we sailing? I thought there was no wind on the way to Stirrope.”
Calupan looked surprised. “And how did you know that?”
“My sister Rarity complains about it all the time.”
To refrain from laughing out loud, Calupan shoved both hooves over his mouth. His eyes bulged briefly, drawing a long giggle from Sweetie Belle.
Dinky stirred, and Sweetie shut herself up instantly. The little filly shifted a bit, but continued to sleep unperturbed.
“You care for her, don’t you?” Calupan remarked.
Sweetie nodded. “She’s just so cute. She’s really smart, but knows when to be quiet. I don’t know, I think Dinky’s perfect.” Her eyes took on a slight sadness. “I’d love to have a little sister like her.”
“Hmmm… in a way, you already do.” Calupan closed his eyes and smiled. “Continue to care for her, as you have so naturally. She needs a sister like you.”
A line of tears filled Sweetie’s eyes. “R-really? Wow… that was the sweetest thing to say.”
“I’ve said sweeter.” Calupan smirked.
Dinky stirred again. This time her golden eyes fluttered open, locking on the Moon like Sweetie’s had.
“Hi, Dinky,” Sweetie whispered, waving minutely. “Are you awake?”
Dinky smiled. “A little bit.”
“If you’ll let me,” Calupan said, “I’d like to tell you about one of the trials you’ll surely face on your way to the foals.”
Dinky sat up with bleary eyes, focusing slowly on Calupan’s face.
“Around the palace of the Sultan, there stands the Wailing Gate,” he began.
“The palace of the Sultan?” Sweetie Belle asked. “Did the Sultan of Haissan take the Cake twins?”
“I… believe so.” Calupan cleared his throat. “If not, I wish you the best of luck in finding the foals wherever they may be. But if, as I suspect, the foals lie beyond the Wailing Gate, you should be warned of its danger.”
Dinky simply nodded.
“The Wailing Gate holds a powerful magic, embedded by the Sultan himself,” said Calupan. “Those who dare approach the wall without invitation are subject to howling winds that strive to push intruders back. There is more than one way into the palace, each more perilous than the last, and each protected by the Wailing Gate’s impenetrable winds.”
“Is there any way past it?”
“There are rumors of powerful keys,” said Calupan, “though I’m not inclined to believe they exist. The Sultan of Haissan is… careful.”
“Do you know him?” asked Dinky. “Why would he take the foals?”
Calupan took a deep breath through his nostrils. “I knew him once. Now? I have no idea why he might do such a thing.” His eyes darted rhythmically between Dinky’s. “No idea at all.”
{-DD-}
The others woke up before the Sun rose, and the journey soon resumed a light-hearted tone. Sweetie sang along to Calupan’s song while Scootaloo watched the Moonlit Stirropean shore grow closer. Dinky enjoyed the music, and Apple Bloom found herself humming along, too.
“Wow! We made it so fast!” Scootaloo exclaimed as more and more land filled up the eastern horizon. “Do you think we beat the submarine?”
“Not likely,” admitted Calupan. “Transoceanic submarines are powered by strong magic. My beloved skiff would shatter if I tried to push it along so quickly. These ponies you’re chasing probably traveled all through the night, and it’s possible they took the rivers all the way back to Haissan.”
“There are rivers that go to Haissan?” asked Scootaloo. “Why didn’t you say so? Can you take us all the way?”
“I’m afraid not, little pony,” Calupan said.
Scootaloo guffawed. “Why not!?”
“Scootaloo, please,” Sweetie Belle said. “Show a little gratitude.”
“I can’t use the rivers for the same reason those foalnappers used a submarine.” Calupan smiled despite his disappointing words. “I can’t allow myself to be seen! We don’t want the Stiroppeans, bless their hearts, to go scouring the oceans for an underwater Alicorn, now, do we?”
“Why not?” asked Apple Bloom.
Calupan sighed. “It is the nature of… most of us to stay out of the limelight,” he explained. “At least since… recent events.”
Apple Bloom narrowed her eyes.
“Well, I’ll tell everypony about you if you don’t take us to Haissan!”
“Scootaloo!” Sweetie Belle stared incredulously at her friend. “Are you really trying to threaten him?”
Calupan only smiled wider. “It would be in all of your interests, I think, not to talk much about what you’ve seen. The Wabe, my skiff ― it’s all for you. Other ponies wouldn’t understand, and may even become hostile.” He leaned closer to Scootaloo. “But do remember, please, that if you’re ever in distress, you can ask for my help.”
“Pssh. Yeah. Like I’m supposed to believe that now that you’re abandoning us.” Scootaloo crossed her forelegs and stared at the approaching shore.
In an instant, like it had never been there, the giant clam disappeared. Five bodies fell into the dark water, and four broke the surface for breath.
“As if on freaking cue!” shouted Scootaloo.
“Why does this stuff keep happenin’?” Apple Bloom asked.
“Dinky!” Sweetie Belle said, swimming to her side. “It’s okay, Dinky. I’ve got you. I’ll make sure you―”
“Ohhhh poopsicles!” Scootaloo screamed as the Moon was blocked behind them. They turned around just in time to see an enormous wave above to crash over their heads.
They screamed as one and scrambled for the shore, but the wave overtook them before they had paddled for three whole seconds. Gravity was gone, as well as air, and their colorful bodies tumbled over one another in the mass of cold water. After a few long seconds, however, the fillies could all breathe, and they found themselves safe in a bit of shallow water on the largest, most beautiful beach they’d ever seen.
Scootaloo was the first to her hooves. “Thanks a lot, Captain!” she shouted at the ocean.
“Yeah!” said Sweetie in a much different tone. “Thank you!”
“Golly, it’s gorgeous out here,” Apple Bloom said under her breath. “Look how smooth the sand is.”
“The Moon is casting my shadow!” said Sweetie Belle. “Wow, look at that! It’s so pretty!”
A familiar melody of seven short notes echoed over the surface of the water. Sweetie Belle beamed and waved a hoof overhead. “Bye, Calupan! I’ll remember! Don’t worry!”
A faint trill of laughter faded deeper into the sea, and then there was silence as the first rays of Sunlight kissed the Stirropean landscape.
“Well, girls,” said Apple Bloom, looking toward a tiny village further up the beach, “bee-en-vuh-nee-doh to Caballos.”