//------------------------------//
// A Ravaging River 
// Story: Nightmares and Harmony 
// by Starpony999 
//------------------------------//

The laughter was brought to an abrupt halt when the group came to a large, violent river. The waves were colossal and sailed into the air and onto the shore. Anypony within twenty hooves was going to get soaked. Fleur, who was at the front of the group at this time, was within that distance and was the beginning cause of the ceasing laughter.

"Why I never." The butterscotch mare muttered.  Why was it always the fashionable mares that got their appearances ruined?  She was no student of the princess, but she had magical reflexes to boot, so when the next wave came, she was out of the way before it hit.

Dawn paid no heed to Fleur, as she had to control her urge to jump in one of the puddles. She was very jealous when she saw Twilight do it, but they were on a mission to save Equestria, and that came first. Still, a little step in the water couldn't hurt, right? As the pink pony carefully placed a hoof in a shallow puddle, she posed the question they were all wondering: "What's causing this?"

The question was directed at nopony in particular, but someponyone did answer. "It's my stomach I'm afraid." A mighty and magnificent beast rose out of the ravaging river. His amethyst scales gleamed as the water and moonlight combined their effects. His topaz coiffure did a majestic hair-flip as he brushed his hair out of his face. Dawn identified it as a sea-serpent, the kind of sea-monster that enjoyed parties the most. "I was just minding my own business when suddenly, out of the blue, this awful blue smoke came charging at me.  It entered my mouth and exited my tail, as though I was nothing! My stomach started rumbling, and hasn't stopped aching since!"

'Make that an over-dramatic sea-serpent.' Dawn thought as said creature did a dramatic faint into the waves of the sea. This cause the next set of waves to go an extra ten hooves (five feet) and soaked the rest of the group. 

"Not again." Fleur moaned, twisting her hair to get the water out.

Dawn surveyed the surrounding greenery. Since they were by a water source, the flora flourished. The pink unicorn noted some blueberry bushes and banana trees. She also caught sight of the flying fish, commonly referred to as pegafish, jumping through the water. Whether this water-beast was a herbivore, carnivore, or an omnivore, there was plenty food for him to eat. Dawn scoffed. "There's plenty of foo-"

She was cut off by a certain rainbow-maned earth pony who hadn't had her time to shine yet. "Oh, come on Pinkie, this fine co- serpent knows where it's at."  Rainbow stumbled over her words, remembering she wasn't dealing with an ordinary customer.  This was a dragon. How awesome was that? Unlatching her spare saddle bag, she accidentally dropped it on the ground where everypony could see. It was filled with several shiny red apples. The cyan mare seemed to be a little embarrassed over dropping them, but quickly changed her expression.  She pushed them back into the saddle bag and offered it to the serpent.



"Rainbow, your Red Deliciouses..." AppleJet trailed off. The orange pegasus knew how hard her sister worked to get the cream of the crop from every harvest. This year's harvest had even been the best they had ever had.

"Hey, I can always get more back home. They're just apples, right?" Rainbow brushed it off like it was nothing, but her sister knew better.

"So could he." Dawn muttered, though no one heard her, or at least bothered to acknowledge her.

"Here you go, good sir, pleasure doing business with you." Rainbow dumped the contents of her saddle bag into the serpent's paw. What once seemed like a bushel of apples, now were like crumbs in the dragon's hand. They were eaten in one bite and swallowed.

"Is zere any way zat could have worked?" Fleur asked, confuzzled when the waves stopped, and the river was normal again.

Dawn was elated, however when she found they could cross the river. Without all the waves, the estuary was shallow enough to walk through. It was like one giant puddle that Dawn got to splash through! Halfway across already, Dawn was surprised when the serpent rose beneath her and gave her a little jumping bridge to help her cross. She was a little disappointed, but at least Fleur wasn't going to be fussing over everypony's muddy hooves again.

The other five were lifted on to the makeshift bridge and they began to hop their way across.  The ground on the others side was soft, dry, and grassy.  It was as if it hadn't even been affected by the storm of a mess the sea dragon's stomach had apparently caused.

"I guess the grass is greener on the other side."  Dawn commented.

Thus their trek continued.

It wasn't long before the castle was in sight.  Giddy with excitement, Dawn started galloping towards it.  What she didn't notice, however, was that around the castle was something that once had been a paragon in all castles: a wide, deep moat.

And Dawn was heading straight for it.