//------------------------------//
// Unsolved Selfie Mystery 
// Story: Flash Sentry's EQG Chronicles 
// by Banshee531 
//------------------------------//

Still enjoying their time at the beach and having recently helped some baby sea turtles make it to the ocean, Flash and his friends were messing around. "Sand ball fight!" Flash yelled as he threw a hunk of sand at someone that had recently joined him and the girls.

"Hey!" Iron cried, as he, First and Heather turned to Flash as the teen smirked. "Oh..." he growled as he made his own sand ball, "You're in for it now!" He threw the sand at Flash, but the teen easily dodged it.

"Ha!" He laughed, "You'll have to do better than-HEY!" Flash yelped as a pair of sand balls hit him in the side. He turned to Heather and First, both smiling as they held up another ball of sand. "Oh, it's double on!"

Springer, who was happily panting beside him, barked enthusiastically as Flash and the others continued their game for several minutes. As they did this, they ran along to an area where Twilight, Sunset, Pinkie and Fluttershy were. "Say cheese sandwich!" The pink party lover yelled as the four huddled close together to get into the frame. She snapped the photo seconds before a sand ball flew past their faces.

"HEY!" Sunset yelled before turning to the Royal Knights, glaring at them. "Careful! If you accidently hit someone in the face and get sand in their eyes, you'll be in big trouble!"

"Oh, don't be such a worry wart," Iron grumbled as he made another sand ball.

"She might be right," First added, "Maybe we should try and find an activity that is not so...chaotic." Iron rolled his eyes as Pinkie checked her phone and saw the picture came out great despite the sand ball.

"Okay," she told the girls, "Once more with Gruyère!" But as she was about to swipe off the picture, Twilight squinted her eyes at the photo.

"Wait." She pointed to a section of the picture above Sunset's head that showed the open ocean. "What's that splotchy thing in the background?" The others followed her finger, the Royal Knights also looking and seeing a strange black shape. They couldn't quite make out the image, but it looked like the neck and head of something that was swimming under the water.

They spun around to the ocean, only to not see see anything that looked like the image, but they were all thinking the same thing. "It's a sea monster!" Sunset gasped, "We just caught it on camera!"

"Hold on," Twilight placed a hand on her shoulder. "I'm sure there's a logical explanation."

"Twilight..." Flash spoke up, "We live in a world parallel to a magical one full of talking ponies with our faces and have gone up against monsters from that world that were somehow sent here. Hate to break it to you, but it being a sea monster's a pretty valid suggestion."

The others nodded and Twilight growled at him, Flash knowing she hated him using logic. That is, till Pinkie exclaimed, "A sea monster?! I gotta see it to believe it!" She turned to Sunset, "But I already believe it!"

The two girls squeed as Fluttershy activated her geode and listened toward the ocean. "But I don't hear anything."

"Maybe that thing doesn't have a sea monster setting," Heather joked.

"Or maybe it isn't making any noise right now," First added, "If it has stayed undetected this long, it must be a rather quiet individual."

"Something's out there," Sunset announced with a look of excitement on her face. "And I'm gonna find out what it is! Who's with me?!"

"Ooh!" Pinkie held up a hand, "Over here!"

"I'll go." Fluttershy grabbed a pair of goggles and a snorkel, "Maybe I can hear it better underwater."

"I'll come too." Iron stated before slightly glancing over to Fluttershy, "You know...just in case this thing isn't friendly. If it tries anything, I'll clobber it." Fluttershy giggled and nodded before Iron went off to get his own goggles and snorkel, the others chuckling at his attempts to sound macho.

Flash then turned to Twilight, "So what about you? Gonna try and build some weird contraption that you think will locate the creature underwater?"

"Don't be silly," Twilight replied, "All my inventing tools are back at home." She turned to walk away, "I'll do some investigating of my own around the beach."

Heather turned to Flash and asked, "You gonna go with her?"

"Nah," he responded, "She'll be fine on her own." He turned to her and First, "Wanna try and find it ourselves?" They nodded and the three decided to head up to the pier along with Springer while Sunset and Pinkie wanted to look around the beach for any sign of the creature. "So..." Flash said once they were at the edge of the pier. "If I was a sea monster, where would I hide?"

"Out at sea," First suggested, "Honestly, I see no reason why a sea creature would be in such shallow waters."

"Maybe it's a baby," Heather commented as she watched Iron and Fluttershy swimming out to the horse head-shaped rock. "There won't be many predators around to hurt it in such a small amount of water."

"Maybe," Flash continued as he stared out over the pier, only to see nothing, "Hmmm....where are you?" He decided to take a small glance toward the beach and spotted Twilight up on the lifeguard's control base. She had Fluttershy's bird watching binoculars and was looking out at the sea like they were, though she could probably see more. Flash then noticed someone walking up to her, his eyes going wide, "Is that...Timber?"

First and Heather turned to where he was looking, now seeing the Camp Everfree counsellor moseying along the beach and up to the control base. "Oh yeah," Heather chimed in, "I ran into him earlier. Apparently, he's working at the beach this year."

"You know what," Flash tried to casually say as he started to walk off the pier, "I think I'll go make sure Twilight doesn't get into trouble. You now how she is...and how things can go wrong with stuff like this."

"Right..." Heather giggled as Flash turned back to glare at her, only to glance down at Springer.

"Let's go bud." He cut into a sprint, Springer following suit as the pair quickly reached the beach and jumped down. As he did this, Timber reached the control base and walked up to the gangplank, staring at Twilight as she didn't notice him, the girl still staring at the ocean.

"Whatcha lookin' for?" He spoke up, Twilight still looking through the binoculars.

"Answers!" She barked, making Timber slightly flinch as Flash and Springer reached them.

"Hey Twilight," he leapt up the steps. "See anything yet? We weren't able to find squat where we were looking." He turned to Timber with a low stare, "Oh...hey Timber."

"Hey Flash," Timber replied with a slight grumble, a frown trying to appear on his face, "So...you two still going strong?"

"Yup," Twilight smiled while turning to Flash, "And no. I can't see anything out there that might be a sea monster." Timber went wide-eyed at this as Flash walked up and saw Sunset and Pinkie were getting ready to go in the water themselves.

"Hurry!" Flash heard Sunset say, the teen using his geode to heighten his sense of hearing. "We have to move quickly so it doesn't get too far away!"

"I'm ready!" Pinkie cheered as she put on her goggles, Sunset about to rush in, only for Pinkie to stop her. "I'M NOT READY!" She looked around, "Where's my floatie?"

"There's no time!" But as Sunset said that, Pinkie let out a gasp.

Twilight stared where Pinkie was looking, only to also gasp as she saw a dark shape covered in seaweed that was slowly making its way toward Pinkie and Sunset. "Oh no! Our friends!" She shoved the binoculars into Timber's hands as she, Flash and Springer leapt down the gangplank. "Sunset Shimmer! Pinkie Pie! Watch out!" They quickly ran, Flash grabbing some plastic shovels out of the sand as they did so. Timber soon followed them as Sunset and Pinkie ran back up the beach.

"We saw it!" The pony turned human cried, "We saw the monster again!"

"I know!" Twilight nodded. "I saw it, too!" As she said that, First and Heather arrived, having noticed the creature from the pier.

"See?" Sunset told them all, "I told you! It was real!"

"It's not only real!" Pinkie yelped before pointing at the creature, "it's right there!" The being went into the shallows, Timber letting out a scream as he hid behind Twilight.

"Get behind me!" Flash yelled as he raised the shovels in his hands, First and Heather stepping up with him before Flash threw First the second shovel. "CHARGE!" They charged, Springer barking as they did so.

But as they got closer, they quickly saw it wasn't one creature, but two. Both that were covered in seaweed, one seeing the charging quartet and pushing the other one behind them. "Wait!" Flash stated before they stopped, "That's not a sea monster!" The creature pushed the seaweed off its head to reveal Iron Core, "It's just a regular monster that went for a dip."

"Funny," Iron grumbled as he pulled the last of the seaweed off of him. As he did this, Fluttershy stepped up and removed the seaweed covered item currently on her head.

"I think I caught our monster," she giggled as she showed them all a pink rubber blow-up toy in the shape of a flamingo. Pinkie gasped as Fluttershy removed the seaweed.

"My floatie!" She let out a laugh, "Foiled again." The others shared a glance, wondering if this was the first time the floatie had gotten away from the pink girl. Timber, who was still hiding behind Twilight, let out a nervous chuckle as he let go of her and whistled. "Oh!" Pinkie hugged the toy, "I knew you would come back to me!" She then ran off back into the water, the monster hunters all wondering what they should do now.

"I think I'll go back out," Fluttershy put her goggles back on before turning to Iron. "Do you want to come with?"

Iron just shrugged. "Sure." he lowered his goggles, "Beats doing nothing." They headed back into the water while the others headed up the beach.

"Well...that was certainly an adventure."

"Yes," Twilight nodded as she grabbed Flash's hand and pulled him close to put her head on his shoulder. "Thanks for protecting me." Flash chuckled and couldn't help but glance over at Timber, who was back on the lifeguard tower with a pout on his face. Yup, today was certain a fun day.