Deep in the abandoned factory, surrounded by corroding machinery freshly traumatised by the ill-advised production run and efforts of the magical waste creatures, sat an exhausted purple pegasus. A few paces away stood a golem: a hollow steel shell in the form of a giant humanoid, animated by magical energy but currently standing motionless. Its steel hands held a crate filled with 23 bottles and one empty space.
The missing bottle lay empty on the floor, next to its discarded cap, the clear bubbly fluid inside just drained by Cloud Cutter. As she licked her lips and appreciated the zesty tang of citrus and lime, she didn't notice her body becoming more and more translucent. Within a minute the undead pegasus had vanished completely from mortal sight.
A little way outside the factory gates, Melonwater and Summer Scribe sat together in the broken down cart, which had finally splintered and crashed to a halt. The green earth stallion was shaking and breathing heavily, not eager to move any time soon. Just above, Azure Feather fluttered on butterfly wings.
Summer huddled close to Melonwater; she was coming down from the stress and excitement, herself and welcomed the closeness. In any case, comforting Melonwater seems the right thing to do. "Huff... That was a lot more tense than I expected! Not every day your archaeological findings create magical accidents in real time!"
"My archaeological findings don't create magical disasters..." he muttered, before shaking his head, trying to regain his composure. He looked up at Azure, then back at the gates. "Uh... where's Cloud Cutter? Is... is she ok?!"
Azure just shook her head, finally able to concentrate, after the renewed headache from firing off magic had receded to a dull ache. "Yeah, I've definitely been through calmer missions than this..." she muttered, before addressing the stallion's question. "Cloud Cutter? No idea where she went, though that flash should've cleared out the enemies... I'll go and look." Casting spells was a painful prospect, but flying? She welcomed the opportunity, as she flapped off to start a quick search - though a couple of minutes later it turned out to be unnecessary.
"I'm fine thank you very much," Cloud Cutter's voice said, right beside Melonwater. "That was a total disaster," she groaned, "At least we came out of it with something though. That soda didn't taste half bad, even if I don't get hungry anymore. I'm sure it's fine. Is everypony alright? Those golems took care of the last of those wormy things. You're welcome, by the way!" The cart moved a bit as if lifted by an invisible hoof, then dropped back down as Cloud Cutter's voice hisses to herself, "Atch... didn't think I even could get hurt anymore."
Melonwater leapt to his hooves and looked around wildly. "What? Where... Cloud Cutter? Is that you?" he yelped. Then he smiled with relief as he looked at Summer: "Oh right it's some sort of communication spell isn't it? You can hear her right?"
"Who else would it be?" Cloud Cutter asked in confusion, "I don't see any other weird purple ponies around here."
Wah! "A ghost!" Summer Scribe exclaimed! "...A ghost that sounds like Cloud Cutter?" She steadied herself in confusion, blinking, turning towards Cloud Cutter's voice and approaching... and bumping into Cloud Cutter! "Ack! Sorry, I didn't expect you to be tangible there!"
At Summer's inadvertent shoulder-barge the ghostly translucent image of the purple pegasus appeared for a few seconds, before fading into invisibility again. The unicorn gawked: "How'd you turn invisible? New spooky power, Cloud Cutter?"
"Tangible?! What are you...?" Summer briefly felt the chilling touch of Cloud's hoof pressed against her shoulder, before the pegasus shrieked "Aaah! My hoof!" A rush of wind and flapping wings, then she declared from somewhat higher up in the air: "Aaah, my everything! Why am I invisible?!"
Summer Scribe nuzzled at her shoulder for a moment; it really did feel like a brush with the void. Spooky! "Brrr! Wow, um... I don't know! Why ARE you invisible!" she yelled up to Cloud Cutter!
"I don't know! I can't do this! Can I do this?!" the panicking pegasus declared, flapping around erratically over the pair, her voice coming seeming to come out of thin air.
"Hang on! Just calm down! Being invisible isn't the worst thing in the world." Summer Scribe waved a hoof! "Slow down and try and recall everything you did recently!"
"Are you, uh, okay?" Melonwater added, staring up into the sky in what he hoped was the right direction. "We can't see if you're hurt or not." He shudders again. "It was like five kind of crazy in there. But it's all shut down now though, right, no more worms?" he asks.
By this time Azure Feather had completed her quick sweep of the main building and surrounding yards. "Well, bad news, everypony... haven't found Cloud Cutter, but what I did find... was a lot of cola bottles." she said, flying down to rejoin her squad. "And I mean a lot... could have drinks for the entire crew of the Harmony and then some, but finding Cloud Cutter is priority one..." Somepony truly had no idea...
Summer shook her head. "It's fine! Cloud Cutter's right here." She gestured with a hoof at the open sky! "She's just invisible right now, and we're trying to figure out why. You said you found cola?" What a relief: she'd hate for the fruits of their labours to have been lost!
"Okay, I... w-woah!" not realising the implications, Cloud Cutter didn't think to get out of the way, before Azure collided with her right in mid air to the sound of two coconuts, the pair going down in a tangle of wings and unfortunately popping butterfly wings. Cloud Cutter was briefly visible as she landed prone on her back, or maybe that was just her form displacing the dust kicked up by their landing. Summer winced; too late.
Azure found herself dazed and grounded, blinked in confusion... she'd definitely heard the all-too familiar pop of her wings disappearing, and her magical burnout meant that there was no recasting that one any time soon. Lesson learned: don't cast the spell on crazy ponies you've never teamed up with before, she thought. She slowly climbed back to her hooves and stood quietly, trying to regain her senses and understand what had happened to the pegasus.
Melonwater jumped out of the remains of the cart and trotted over to Azure, checking her over with a concerned look. "Oh no, Azure, not you too! I'm sorry, I didn't see... I should've warned you. You're not bleeding... does anything feel broken?"
Azure looked startled by the attention, before shaking her head. "It'll take a lot more than just a mid-air collision by mistake to cause an actual injury..."
"Sorry, sorry!" Cloud Cutter repeated, backing up until her butt thumped invisibly against the wrecked cart the others were inexplicably gathered around.
"Relax." Azure told her. "Nopony would expect that. It happens." She did a quick trot around the cart to reassure everypony that she wasn't seriously hurt.
"I didn't do anything, other than... than that thing I do." Cloud Cutter mused. "Maybe I did it too hard? Maybe it happens when I'm injured? The golems saw me just fine though, when they gave me a free sample of their stupid soda. Maybe I'm only visible to golems!"
Summer Scribe's first thought was also to check Azure, making sure she took the fall ok and assessing if she needed medical attention. Reassured that the unicorn was intact, she perked an ear, and ruminates on Cloud Cutter's words. "HmMMmm... You said you took a free sample of their 'stupid soda'?"
"I... yes, but it was... just... soda..." Cloud Cutter's barest outline became visible as the purple pegasus smacked her forehead with her own hoof, before she became invisible again. "Celestia, I'm an idiot."
With that Summer Scribe was galloping off, re-entering the factory and searching for intact bottles of cola. Each of the three intact vats has a pair of hoppers near it, filled with a small pile of glass bottles. The six hoppers each contained a different colour of mysterious carbonated beverage. Unfortunately the three century old labels are too decayed to read, so the unicorn touched her horn to them, closing her eyes and sending out a gentle pulse of detection.
Sure enough, she was able to feel magical energy of some kind in each of the bottles, slightly different for each colour. By the time she'd checked all of them, Cloud Cutter had begun to fade back into visibility. The whole time the remaining golems watched impassively, while Melonwater trotted nervously behind, unhappy to be back inside but unwilling to be left on his own.
Cloud Cutter had remained outside, for reasons that became progressively more obvious as she slowly began to return into view, just a transparent image of her normally visible self. She was favouring one hoof, with the foreleg kind of stuck at an odd angle. Her purple fur had been eaten away in patches around her torso as if consumed by some sort of neon blue acid. Though she didn't have any visible contusions, it was pretty safe to say that if her heart still beat normally, she probably would. The pegasus seemed remarkably unfazed by her condition.
Summer Scribe trotted back out, looking impressed! "Yep: this isn't just tasty cola, it's magicalcola. Different spellwork for each flavour, too!" She drummed her hooves in anticipation. "That means we'll have to experiment and try them all. What if one of them gives you flight or lasers? Think about how much of an edge we'd have!" Her excitement diminished somewhat as she caught sight of Cloud Cutter, wincing at her companion's ragged appearance. "...Reef Skimmer's taking a look at you as soon as we meet up." she resolved.
Azure was also inspecting her companion's condition, now that the pegasus was visible. She sighed and shook her head: these injures would likely put Cloud Cutter in the sickbay for some time. "That doesn't look too good; we need to get you back to the ship. With one exhausted and another injured... no more ventures into unknown territory, not today. We ought to bring back a few of these bottles, though. I'm... curious as to the effects myself. " she admitted.
"I think my shoulder's dislocated," Cloud Cutter said neutrally, "It doesn't hurt like it, but I think that's just me. Has anypony here set a dislocated shoulder before? I'm not sure Reef wants to... try to fix me at all. If I even can heal anymore."
Summer Scribe rubbed the back of her head. Much as she would have liked to wave her horn and fix Cloud Cutter's problems, magic like that was beyond her. "Anyway..." she started in to space, thinking back... "We were going to meet back at the magic bubble after this, right?" She gave the factory once last look; it seemed they were done here. "Should we set off?"
Cloud Cutter shrugged, then winced at the pain of the gesture. "I can fly," she said, "The doctor's going to be over there anyway. I should have known; those worms were tearing those golems apart..."
"Uh, that should be safe... right?" Melonwater asked nervously. "Isn't that where the fish creatures hide from the drow? But you said... no more exploration... maybe we should just wait back at the ship..."
Azure looked from the earth pony to the pegasus before saying "It's your call, Cloud Cutter... but even if the bubble is safe, the route down there is unknown territory." She nodded in agreement with Melonwater: "Staying with the ship is less risky. Though I'll like to load up some of that soda before we leave..."
"It's fine, I can wait there," Cloud Cutter said evenly, looking at her arm, "Maybe there's somepony back at base who can do something about this. Sorry I can't be of much further help."
"Hmm, yeah... we'll come with you, we can unload the bottles at the ship as well." Summer added. "It's important stuff to analyse, I agree, and no sense lugging it up and down the cliffs."
"Do you need me to—" Cloud Cutter moved to help, but then stopped and looked at her foreleg again. "...right, I'll be at the ship," she said, flat eared, "I'd walk with you, Melonwater, but... yeah." Then the pegasus made use of her functional limbs, to flap up into the sky above, then glide silently through the air in the direction of the commandeered drow copter.
Summer Scribe, Melonwater and the currently flightless Azure Feather all loaded up their saddlebags with as many of the mysterious bottles as they could carry, before trotting back down the causeway to the Second Chance, still parked at the abandoned air dock. There they left the young earth pony to stow their carbonated loot and keep the injured pegasus company. The two unicorn mares made their way on hoof to the southern path, which snaked its way down the cliffs towards the lower half of the island.
Elsewhere in the island chain, a mismatched quartet of creatures were back in the air again. Reef Skimmer the hippogriff pulled a cart holding Nutmeg Inferno the kirin, Gearshift the earth pony and a substantial pile of tools, while the pegasus Set Sail flapped along beside them. Despite the aborted attempt to repair the turret, they'd had a productive morning; Nutmeg had fixed a generator, a steamship engine and (despite no one asking her to) adjusted the tavern owner's still to produce even stronger moonshine. Reef had confirmed his cure for fin rot and acquired a jar of mysterious green healing goo, while Set Sail had overcome her fear of bipeds sufficiently to ferret out a little more information about the surrounding region.
Of course Gearshift had helped too! Though Nutmeg was a lot more... enthusiastic in suggesting additional improvements to make. 'Lady, that's how you get scope creep!' he thought.
"I'm telling you it's fine, probably even less likely to explode than before," Nutmeg said to Gearshift a little too casually, "They'll probably thank me for it when they turn out their next batch. You ponies get waay too uptight about alcohol."
Gearshift mumbled under his breath at that. Alcohol was how you made mistakes! Lose your inhibitions! But, whatever. Nutmeg had heard that conversation a dozen times by now: it wasn't worth his breath any more. "Well, I'm glad you got the explosion chance differential to be negative." he smirked.
"Oh, on the subject of ponies and alcohol, we are in accord." Reef said, looking over his shoulder at Nutmeg. "Though I can't say I appreciated the aftertaste, prefer something a little smoother myself. In any case, things went swimmingly on the medical front, I do believe we have an effective treatment for their 'fin rot'. And this herbal paste of theirs... well, I must say even if it is unknown magic, it does look like marvellous stuff, one is optimistic that it will accelerate Grenelda's recovery. Now if only we had a way to make more hydrogen peroxide..."
"I don't know how they make that stuff, to be honest," Nutmeg said thoughtfully, flumping against the windward side of the cart, closest to the hippogriff. "It's got to be some kind of alkaline thingy. Well, it's probably not something you can make in your kitchen, so whatever equipment it takes is going to be way beyond our ability to build out here."
Reef sighed. "Maybe these 'dirt sharks' know how, if they truly have some level of industrial infrastructure. Though even if they do, it sounds like it wouldn't come cheap."
"This place does have airships" Gearshift noted, "so it's just a matter of time before we discover their industrial base."
"Now there's something to look forward to," Nutmeg agreed heartily.
"All we have is one young gillman's word that these sharks are bad at all," Set Sail insisted, forelegs folded crossly, "He probably just doesn't know how hard their job is."
"Let's hope so..." Nutmeg agreed, though her expression was not optimistic.
The flight continued across the airy void in the centre of the island group, descending towards the lower end of the third island. There lay the enormous, shimmering, magical bubble, a little way from the shore of a lake where the river pooled and collected, after cascading down the numerous rapids and waterfalls in the central part of the island.
Reef Skimmer flew low over the lake, always eager to get a look at whatever aquatic life might be lurking beneath the waters, before reaching a boat dock built on the shore. While still worn and scarred it was solid and showed signs of recent use, though no vessels were present just then. Beyond the dock a short causeway ran between the ruins of small stone buildings, ending at a huge archway set into the wall of the bubble itself.
On the other side of the barrier the shifting, distorted forms of more buildings and elevated, aqueduct-like constructions could be seen. Reef easily landed the cart on the wide, cobbled road and trotted to a halt, a little way from the gateway. Close up the archway appeared as two curved pillars of ornately carved stone, inlaid with silvery metal that glowed with a soft blue light. The space between was blocked by an enormous circular metal disc, the size of the main gates at Canterlot, coloured blue and adorned with a huge white symbol resembling a water drop.
"Well that's... definitely a water droplet," Set Sail said, landing before the others in front of the disc and looking up at the gigantic and ostentatious thing.
"Huh, so this is what one looks like intact..." Nutmeg said, intrigued by the details and perching on the cart to gaze at the gate while Reef brought the rest of them in for a landing.
The hippogriff stared at the symbol as if entranced. Ignoring everything else, including the cart he was still hitched to, he trots slowly forward, reaching out with a claw towards the gate, eager to touch it... As the griff approached, jets of water started spraying out of the pillars, falling to each side of the entrance. He paid them no heed.
"Hmm, that symbol looks familiar..." Gearshift blinked as the water began to blast out. "Oh, it probably just means 'Water' in Cloudbreak-Islandese." Insensitive!
"You sure you want to get close to that thing, Reef?" Nutmeg asked a little nervously, "Looks like it's doing something."
The hippogriff didn't seem to hear her. A soft chiming sound could be heard as his claw approached the gate, while his pearl amulet started to shine with blue light. As soon as his talons touched the metal, it began to glow brighter and brighter, briefly turning brilliant white before fading away into nothingness.
Gearshift nodded in agreement. "It's folly to interact with an unknown device until it's fully described and understood... Reef? Oh." The stallion blinked again; what just happened exactly? "Well then. What kind of a place is this...?"
The barrier was gone, revealing that the road continued on into the interior. Beyond the gate everything was pristine and spotless, smooth grey flagstones flanked by rows of plants in elaborate carved marble pots. A variety of low stone buildings can be seen, looking like food stalls or rest areas, all completely deserted.
Reef gave a little squawk, then shook his head. "Erm, what just happened..." He looked back at the others "Oh, I... err... do apologise. I believe I sort of... lost my composure a little there. It just seemed like... the right thing to do." he finished sheepishly.
"Aaaand that's what they look like unintact. Great," Nutmeg grumbled, looking at the support struts with vague pouting interest, wondering if aligning the pillars on the broken gate at Blissful Pastures would do anything.
Reef trotted through the gateway, cart still in tow, and proceeds down the avenue of richly decorative buildings. Past the entrance area, the space opens out to reveal a wide array of pools, fountains, showers and waterfalls, all fringed with decorative plants and rest areas. Here was a bubbling hot tub, there was a lazy river with empty inner tubes endlessly circling.
Rising above it all were the snaking, colourful aqueducts on their tall support columns, something Gearshift and Set Sail easily recognised as water slides, though Reef Skimmer and Nutmeg had never had the pleasure of visiting an Equestrian water park. All of it was pristine, functional and apparently deserted.
Gearshift leapt down from the cart and followed behind; he hesitated on the threshold, but nothing was immediately falling down or blowing up. (What was up with that gate, though?) He peered up at the slides, "Hmm, a water-park, here? Guess some things are universal after all." He chuckled with amusement. "Well, I don't know; should we be taking a break right now? I imagine that's all a place like this is good for."
Nutmeg waited until they were inside then sprang out, wandering off on her own and looking up and around in puzzlement and wonder. "What are all those half-pipes up there for?" she asked uncertainly, "Doesn't seem a very efficient way to pipe water around. Looks like the water's just pouring out of that one?"
Gearshift took the opportunity to explain: "No, no, it's not like an aqueduct: it produces amusement." He gestured with a hoof, "See, the water propels you along the ride, and you experience fun."
Realization dawning, Nutmeg said, "Ohh, they're waterslides! Of course! They made artificial waterslides!" She runs up to one of the support structures, half climbing up it to gaze overhead, "These are a ton of fun. We should totally try it. But uh... why's this place enclosed in an impenetrable force field?"
Gearshift shrugged at that then grinned, "Beats me... But any ride you go on, I'm going on too."
Reef Skimmer unhitched himself from the cart and parked it under some palm trees. "Water... slides? Really? Hmm... it's all rather wonderful isn't it?" he said warmly. "Just feels so... invigorating in here. One supposes it must be the magic, but... one can hardly argue with the results. Perhaps the ancestors of the gillmen made all this, a sort of paradise for them? I'm sure not a few griffs would love to spend some time here too." he said, looking around happily with his beak hanging open. "What do you think Sails, like it?"
"I think it's lovely!" Set Sails declared, immediately flying up to look into the chutes full of rushing water, "I always wanted to go to one of these as a filly. Do you think we can ride any of them? I mean, would that be alright?"
Reef flew up to Set Sail and gestured at himself with a claw. "As the senior, erm, water-aligned magical creature on the scene, I hereby authorise unlimited free usage of this facility..." he said stuffily "...just as soon as I have performed an official safety test on the attractions!" he finished playfully. With that he flapped away up to the top of one of the slides and dove in, slooshing down the chute to splash out into one of the pools a minute later.
Nutmeg spent the next hour or so trying to figure out how they work of course, and then tried to find a way to get to the top. She was the first after Reef to try one of the slides, even though both he and Set Sail have cheating wings, because when she got up there, shortly followed by Gearshift, she found Set Sail still standing at the chutes, fraught with indecision.
The wise, experienced (with waterslides) kirin assured the pegasus mare that it was totally safe, then jumped down one of the slides to demonstrate. Kersplash! The kirin reached the bottom with a whoop, doggy paddling to the shore, shortly followed by a shrieking Set Sails and a slightly less shrieking Gearshift. So the hour passed, as Summer and Azure made their way to the bubble, a few ponies less and lot more harried than the revellers within.
The two ponies and one kirin were laughing and splashing each other in the shallows of the largest pool, when a large, predatory shape began to approach, silently swimming beneath the water. Gearshift's mouth opened wide as the sleek, grey creature came up behind the two oblivious mares.
He began to cry out in alarm, but instead of chowing down on the tasty mortals the huge fish creature surged forward and shot out of the water, drenching the three equines. In a flash Reef had turned back into a hippogriff and was chuckling merrily. "Oh, the look on your face!" he said to Gearshift. "So, anyone want to try it? Being a seapony I mean. You nearly had it last time, Nutmeg."
Gearshift gave a gasp of exasperation... and then giggled himself silly once he realised he'd been pranked. "Oh, good one! You know, it does seem like the perfect opportunity to try it: we're already messing about, may as well seize the moment!"
"Heck yeah!" Nutmeg declared, clumsily paddling over from the side, "You guys gotta try it! It's totally radical!"
Set Sail tilted her head in confusion, staying with a hoof on the edge of the pool, saying, "Try what? We're not hippogriffs. You're the only one with that magical ...pendant thing, Reef, in case you didn't notice."
By way of explanation, Reef put a claw on each of Nutmeg and Gearshift's flanks and activated the transformation. Another brief display of swirling white ribbons of magic, and the three had become seaponies; Nutmeg once again with the elongated tail and vertically aligned tail fin. Gearshift perked and looks over himself, his mertail slapping and flipping around as he admires it. "Hey, not bad! Need to study the physiology and locomotion of this... err, ahem, I mean, go on some rides."
"Wah!" Nutmeg yelped in surprise, splashing backwards and vanishing underwater, before sort of wiggling her way back to the surface, the long slinky creature taking in a breath and saying through dripping fluffyish fronds, "Oh right! Get ready if you start breathing water! It's kind of crazy weird."
"Breathing water? Oh, yeah, of course..." Gearshift said, before diving underwater with a 'sploosh'. A few seconds later he breached the surface with cheeks full of water and a mirthful chuckle. "What a way to relax! Can't believe I never tried this before."
"B-breathing water? You can... I mean of course you could, I mean... could I... maybe just a little, Reef?" Set Sail asked with big hopeful, plaintive eyes.
Meanwhile Nutmeg was swimming literal circles around Gearshift: she was just long enough to encircle him entirely. Gearshift smirked at Nutmeg's enthusiasm! "I won't let you get the upper hand on me so easily!" he said, pumping his tail to try and keep pace.
Reef shifted back to hippogriff form and swam smoothly over to Set Sail, not making a splash this time. Looking her in the eyes, he said "I understand most ponies get the hang of it quite quickly... and have no fear, I'll keep a close eye and if you run into any difficulties, I'll have you out again and changed back in a jiffy? Isn't that right Nutmeg?" he said, giving the sea-kirin a playful grin, before extending a claw to take Set Sail's hoof.
Set Sail did so with very little hesitation, but with a blush in her cheeks, as she gazed into his eyes and asked, "Would you kindly?"
The golden-white magic returned, wrapping around the hippogriff and pegasus then dissipating to reveal a large grey seapony and a much smaller brown one, both with a pair of big dorsal fins. The smaller had an adipose fin on her tail bearing her cutie mark of three hot air balloons. "Enchanting!" Reef exclaimed. "I mean, erm, that is to say, Captain... perhaps... you'd care to visit Seaquestria, if and when we make it back to Equestria?"
"Oh, oh my," Set Sail said, herself looking over: she was eerily similar to Reef now. "These are... scales! Fur gets
waterlogged! Oh Reef, I never even realised— woah!" and then her moment of amazement was lost, as with a great stroke of her tail fin she lost her balance, flopping into the water entirely.
It was an exciting trek down the crumbling cliffside path, featuring several close calls that made Azure wonder if she'd really fall unconscious if she cast the butterfly wings spell again (and if that was preferable to regular falling). She stayed quiet, sorely missing the option to defy gravity. Though given the circumstances of the day, she thought, they were doing well to be alive and moving at all.
Finally, the two unicorn mares made it to the entrance to the bubble. There was no sign of their companions, but the way inside seemed open, with a clear gap in the force field between the huge ornate pillars, still spraying water out to each side. Azure eyed the huge water jets cautiously... they didn't seem to be lethal, but it was probably best to steer clear. What were they for? Why was the gate wide open? Were the fish-creatures inside?
Summer Scribe studied the entrance. "Through here? I presume this water spraying isn't some kind of security mechanism..." She levitated a rock through to make sure it didn't get vaporised... nope. Tried to detect magic... didn't seem to be any anti-organic countermeasures. Reassured, she headed straight in; Azure followed some way behind.
Summer trotted through the entrance area, taking note of the elaborate carvings, well-tended foliage, the numerous empty buildings that could've come from a high-end theme park, and the weirdly pristine quality of everything, as if the place was due to open tomorrow. Eventually they emerged into the main part of the park, a vista of swimming pools, tasteful marble decorations and spraying, rushing, plunging water of every kind. "What kind of a facility is this?" she wondered out loud. "It's almost like it's a...?"
Azure was more interested in possible inhabitants, staying alert for signs of danger... there, was that... no, it was just a statue. A huge, brass statue of two strange creatures: something like a cross between a troll and an octopus, with tentacles for arms and legs, facing off against an enormous ugly blob, like a giant slug with arms. The smaller creature bore a sword and a miniature cousin of Abernathy's shot-gun, while the larger creature threatened to consume it with its gaping maw.
"Oh wow!" Summer exclaimed. "I think that's... I'm sure I saw that one on the shrine, in the ruin this morning! Do you think he's a Skylander? Look at that big blob thing he's fighting. Sure hope we don't meet one of..." her voice trailed off as she caught sight of movement out in the main pool.
There was Gearshift, only his head visible, with something... else under the water next to him, something brown and long and bedecked with fins. As Azure was trying to make that out there was a whoop and a scream as a pair of seaponies shot out of one of the water slides, a big grey one that Summer recognised as Reef Skimmer's alternate form (from her brief glimpse on their last visit) and a smaller brown one, both splashing into the pool before laughing and swimming towards Gearshift.
Summed perked up as she saw the happy commotion! It looked like her a weird, fishy version of her friends, but they seemed to be... having fun? There was Reef Skimmer... oh, he must have used his magic pearl! Wait a sec! "This... really is a water park!" she gasped, giggling and racing over to greet the others!
A water park? Azure chuckled quietly to herself as she followed Summer again, shaking her head. This was something she didn't expect... a chance at relaxing right in the middle of a mission, of all things. But all this felt way too... welcoming, in a foreign land... and that statue of creatures locked in mortal combat had definitely put her on edge. She was too busy worrying if anything like that was still around to climb onto some water slides... not to mention that headache still filling her skull. How would she fight back if something actually did attack?
Summer Scribe cantered forward into the shallows of the pool, but before she could call out she felt something through her hooves: a deep rumbling vibration. Around her the numerous fountains grew taller and taller, reaching high into the sky before starting to splutter and die, their water supply suddenly choked off. Strangely the sound of rushing water only grew louder. The two unicorns shuddered with a sudden foreboding feeling, as if the other horseshoe was about to drop.
Then with a sudden pfft and spurt of water, a bright blue ropey shape spurted out of one of the fountains, arcing through the air before landing with a splat on the poolside. The wormlike creature, or should we say agglomeration of magical waste, was stunned for a few seconds before pulling itself together and beginning to slither towards the ponies. More of its fellows began to blast out of the other fountains.
"Are you kidding me?!" Summer Scribe yelled in exasperation. She had to warn her friends; they probably had no idea how dangerous these things were, though the look on Azure's face should help sell it! "We gotta run! These magical slime worms track us by noise and they want us for dinner!"
Deep in the pool, Reef Skimmer and Set Sail broke off their conversation to smile at the newcomers. "Summer! Azure! Glad you could make it!" Reef shouted back. "It's really quite delightful in... erm, sorry what? Magical slime?" Behind him a whole mass of the wriggling blue creatures shot out of the waterslide to spash in the pool, startling Set Sail; more of them kept flying out of the other slides as the horrified unicorns watched.
'These things again!' Azure thought... and this time there were no helpful golems, not to mention her lack of wings! "Listen to summer," she shouted, "We just fought a bunch of these and even with some assistance, we barely made it out!" The renewed stress wasn't doing her headache any favours either; getting out without injuries would be even harder this time...
"They're in the pool! Get out of the water now!" Summer Scribe shouted in exasperation, stomping her hooves into the shallows and kicking up splashes. "Ask questions once we're safe!"
"Whatever you do, don't touch them!" Azure added. "They wrecked the magical constructs, and they can wreck you too!"
Nutmeg had surfaced to look around in concern when the whole pool began to rumble, so at least she heard Summer's warning. "Wha—?!" she started to shout, before slapping her foreleg fins over her mouth, and looking wide-eyed over at the wiggly goo-worms. The things were huge!
Gearshift gawked at the creatures, then shouted "Nutmeg, we need to run!" He beat his fish tail in a panic, not making much progress.
Nutmeg frantically tried to shush him, but she couldn't stop him from flailing around and attracting a bunch of unwanted attention. Instead she beckoned him to follow and tried to silently slink her way to the edge of the pool; if she could heave herself out, Reef could always shift her back later. Unfortunately he either didn't pick up on it, or was too panicked to realize how much noise he was making; the worms already had a bead on him...
Set Sail had no idea what to do or how to get out of the water or anything. She just got this fish tail! All she could do was try and cling to Reef Skimmer, hyperventilating, her mind racing to try and figure out what to do.
One of the worms had nearly reached the struggling Set Sail; Reef thrashed his body and smacked it away with his tail. The thing sailing through the air in a high arc, until it splatted against a rock wall, stunned. The griff hooked one fin around Set Sail and tried to swim over to Nutmeg and Gearshift, intending to transform the four of them back to their normal forms in one shot. Unfortunately before he could reach the others, another of the worms wrapped itself around Set Sail's tail fin, yanking her out of his grip. Reef was forced to about face and go on the offensive, easily grabbing it in his serrated jaws... only to cry out as stinging pain filled his mouth.
With her magic depleted, Azure could only stare in horror as the worms closed in on Set Sail, then Gearshift. She'd seen the kind of damage the creatures could do... and now all she could do was stare, shake her head... and hope her crewmates could make it out in time.
Gearshift turned his head to see the mess of worm closing in... and Reef turning away, no doubt to protect the captain. He gritted his teeth and positioned himself between them and Nutmeg, hoping to protect the kirin from the onslaught. The unnatural worms piled on, completely hiding the transformed stallion under a mass of writhing blue bodies.
Nutmeg stiffened as her companion vanished below the surface, swearing under her breath, "Dammit, Gearshift, no...." Then she dove underwater, leaving her stronger expletives unheard as her red-finned, golden-backed form streaked away from the edge, directly towards her destruction. She couldn't just leave him to be consumed by these horrible things!
Reef Skimmer managed to swim away from the worms, watching helplessly as the things piled onto Gearshift and Set Sail. There was no way he could pull all the wriggling things off both of them before they consumed his friends, and no doubt Nutmeg would be next. They were going to die and it was clearly his fault; if only he hadn't been so cavalier about coming into this nexus of alien magic, if only he hadn't wanted to show off his own little party trick, then they'd still be ponies able to gallop clear of this nightmare, not morsels for Novo-knows-what the creatures were. Desperately he closed his eyes and tried to think of something, anything he could do to save them.
Nutmeg had made it to Gearshift and tried to free him from the knot of worms, screaming as her forelegs burned with pain, as if the things were covered in acid. Gritting her teeth she tried to pry it away from the stallion, despite the pain, but another grabbed her tail. She was gonna be damned if she let it end like this, but against these monstrosities, how would she have stood a chance even on four legs? Her body dragged the worm along with it, wrapping around Gearshift too, something in her utterly unwilling to let these bucking things win.
Then in a rush of sudden horrible wonderful sensation, inky black lightning exploded all around her, hitting the entire cluster of worms, and... Gearshift. Not knowing what happened in that terrible moment, not knowing what she did, but knowing what it felt like, Nutmeg took advantage of their freedom as the worms disintegrated, to drag his limp form through the water to the edge, heaving the slightly charred looking seapony Gearshift out, and climbing out after him, dragging her whole long, weird body and tail all the way out of the water, just in case. She sat there helplessly on the side of the pool holding Gearshift's head in her forelegs murmuring, "Oh no, no no no come on..."
At the other end of the pool, Set Sail was suffering pain like she'd never experienced before. Those lovely scales Reef gave her were being cruelly eaten away by the worms, which were worsening the damage by crushing her like a vice. She couldn't even scream anymore, tears in her eyes as she reached for Reef, trying not to pass out!
The hippogriff's eyes snapped open; they were glowing bright blue, along with his pearl amulet, shining so brightly as to light up the entire pool with sapphire radiance. Beyond rational thought now, acting on some foreign instinct that had implanted itself in his mind, Reef threw his fins out wide, releasing a shining sphere of energy from his body.
Steam hissed and boiled from the now white-hot fragment of pearl around his neck, as the insubstantial golden sphere rushed outward, quickly growing to a size that encompassed the entire pool and much of the water park. In its wake every remaining worm was blasted away from the ponies and held squirming in a magical grip, while fins and scales dissolved away, leaving the ponies (and kirin) in their natural form again.
For three seconds of unnatural silence everything hung like that, every object outlined in a golden aura and lit by the coruscating blue glow emanating from the unseen hippogriff, before the magical sphere began to contract, rushing inwards and collapsing as fast as it had appeared. The gooey worms were sucked in with it, each and every drop of slime shooting towards Reef, splashing into the water and disappearing into the blue glow.
Then the magic was gone and all the worms with them. As for the hippogriff... something was floating down there at the bottom of the pool, something large, squirming in panic and fear.
Summer Scribe gawked at the scene. It felt like she was frozen, unable to do anything to intervene: first Nutmeg unleashed a blast of electricity into all of the worms, and then Reef Skimmer just... obliterated them with that magical artifact of his. So far so good... but clearly something happened to the doctor after that. She tried to get a closer look and suss it out. "Everyone still with us...? Reef? Hello?" She squints at the bottom of the pool.
With immense relief, Set Sail breathed the air she was born to breathe, staring forward with a distant expression, too close to the phenomenon to have any idea what had happened. Her brown fur was quickly growing waterlogged, as she just paddled there, wings unconsciously spreading to help keep her afloat.
The incredible display of magic from Reef Skimmer had Azure quietly wondering in the end if every creature would be alright. The worms were destroyed. Everyone that had been caught was free. But as if echoing Summer's worries, she's at the edge of the pool as well, looking down... before looking to Summer. "Should we get down there to rescue him?"
Nutmeg wasn't even looking until this golden light just yanked her tail up short and ropey again and restored her frondlike fins to their proper glorious floof. Gearshift was still lying there though, now a pony with his head cupped in her hooves. "S-see?" she said quaveringly, "The doctor'll... fix you up good. I didn't know it would do that. C'mon Gearshift, wake up!"
The creature that managed to struggle up to the surface and flop down in the shallows had Reef Skimmer's head, even if it did have fins now in the place of ear tufts. It had the hippogriffs abdomen as well, and his hindquarters, even if the later were now partly scaly. Unfortunately those three pieces looked like they'd been sliced apart, and strung back together by four of the wriggling worm creatures. His lower legs, claws and tail were gone as well, replaced by bunches of blue tentacles that twitched and thrashed in an uncoordinated manner.
The pearl amulet he'd bourn proudly around his neck was gone, though the smaller pearls it had been strung with were still present, now attached to spines on his head. Reef's expression showed total confusion giving way to horror. "What happened? What am I? Oh Novo, it can't be, what in the cruel dark seas is all this?" he sobbed, staring around fearfully at his companions, knowing they couldn't help hating the monster he'd just become.
Staring at what emerges from the pool, Nutmeg hardly noticed Gearshift's head falling from her limp arms to clonk on the ground. "Or... maybe not," she said faintly.
Summer Scribe gawked in shock! "R...Reef! It looks like you merged with the slime worms!" She looked him over, grimacing at the pain and distress he was exhibiting. "Do you feel OK? Can you move around? See if you can take control of yourself!"
Azure wasn't immune to the shock, either. She'd seen a lot of things, but this was well beyond any magical mishap she'd experienced. It was hard not to feel his distress though: she searched for the correct words, something she could say that would help, but... she just slumped and shook her head, unable to think of anything useful that Summer hadn't already said.
Set Sail paddled up to walk in the shallows, where she cautiously approached the sobbing Reef, touching his... middle part with a hoof trying not to touch any of those blue tentacles that hurt so much when she last did. "You're a... you're a freak," she said frankly, "But you're okay aren't you? You uh... got all those worms under control." She stood up straighter next to Reef, looking around and declaring, "Now does somepony want to tell me what the hay those things were?"