If there was any word Sunny would use to describe the scene that was playing out before her right now, it would be 'terrifying'. This day started out just prefect; with Earth ponies, unicorns, and Pegasi living together in peace and harmony, just as they did thousands of years ago. But apparently, fate has a tendency to balance out the good with something equally-bad as Sunny, her friends, and all the other ponies that stood by the coast watched in shock and horror as hundreds of Rodans headed their way, spewing red dust from their bodies that created a large crimson cloud behind them as they traveled.
"Oh, that can't be good." Hitch gulped.
"We should probably run. NOW!" Zipp shouted.
Not needing to be told twice (or at all, for that matter), her friends and all the other ponies that were standing by the cliffed coast quickly scattered and began running for safety whilst screaming in terror. Vendors abandoned their ice-cream stands, barbers closed their shops, and some ponies even went as far as jumping in the sewers to hide. It was a similar scenario to how the Earth ponies were sent in a panicked frenzy when Izzy Moonbow arrived in Maretime Bay, only this time they had a far more legitimate reason to be alarmed as the entire town became covered in the endless shadows of the countless Rodans that were now soaring over it. One of the Rodans landed on the street amid the panicked pony crowd, and let out a loud roar. In no time, the other Rodans began swooping down and attacking whatever caught their attention, which was mostly inanimate objects that were producing electromagnetic waves, such as the streetcar that was serviced by a short line, and mobile phones that most of the ponies were carrying.
"We have to help them!" Sunny cried out to her friends, while watching the disarray before them unfold.
"But how? There's so many of them!" Zipp exclaimed.
Just then, a Rodan landed right in front of the them, Queen Haven, and Alphabittle, letting out its iconic roar. Alphabittle frowned and prepared to engage the beast, only for Hitch to step in-between him and the pterosaur. "Wait, hold on!" He exclaimed.
"Hitch, what are you doing? Get out of there!" Pipp cried out in panic.
"It's okay, Pipp. I have a way with animals." Hitch said with a confident smile as he turned to face the Rodan, which was growling and staring at him ferally. "It's okay, big guy. Nopony's gonna hurt you."He said soothingly, and the pterosaur appears to calm down, seemingly making a connection with the Earth pony. Maintaining his confident smile, Hitch reached out with his hoof to pet the reptile. But then, when his hoof was no more than 15 inches from the tip of the pterosaur's beak, Rodan suddenly lunged forwarded, its beak agape. Instinct taking over his mind, the stallion instantly retracted his hoof and narrowly avoided having his leg bitten off. "On second thought, maybe I'm not the animal expert I thought I was." He muttered to himself before quickly ducking down when the Rodan lunged for his head, once again narrowly missing him. "Run!"
With that, the party turned and began running away from the petrosaur, and through the chaos.
.
Located on a tall hill behind the town center was a company known as Canterlogic, owned by Phyllis Cloverleaf. Originally selling products to keep Earth ponies safe and stylish for many years due to the misguided belief that Pegasi and unicorns are dangerous and evil, thanks to Sunny and her friends revealing the truth that they are harmless, and subsequently restoring magic to Equestria by uniting the three pony tribes, the company has since changed to sell products that benefit Pegasi and unicorns, as well as Earth ponies.
"Okay, so what have you come up with today?" Phyllis asked, approaching her two employees: Toots, a light-teal stallion with amber-colored tail and mane, and Sweets, a taffy pink mare with a raspberry-pink mane and tail.
"Check it out!" Sweets excitedly said as she and Toots stepped aside to reveal a propeller pack with four rotors.
"It's a propeller pack that would allow Pegasi fly." Toots stated. "If there's ever a case where a Pegasi is born with abnormally small wings that renders them unable to fly properly, or gets their wing injured in a crash, they can use this pack to allow them to fly!"
"That's ingenious! This will definitely help to our Pegasi friends." Phyllis smiled happily.
"That's not all, ma'am." Sweets said before steeping aside and showing a cone-shaped metal device in the shape of a unicorn horn. "If a unicorn ever gets their horn broken, whether by accident or an animal attack, wearing this device will help stabilize their magic."
"Oh, these are prefect!" Phyllis exclaimed with excitement.
Just then, the entrance doors could be hard quickly opening and then shutting loudly, prompting everypony in the factory to turn around and see a terrified, brown-colored Earth pony stallion pressed against the entrance doors to keep them from opening. He was breathing heavily and with a look on his face that could only be interpreted as near-death experience.
"What's going on outside?" A curious Phyllis asked as she and her employees approached the terrified stallion.
"Maretime Bay is under attack!" He cried out at the top of his lungs while still keeping the doors shut.
"By what?!" Phyllis asked, her voice now filled with concern and dread, which was also present the faces of Toots and Sweets. For a brief moment, the thought of the unicorns or Pegasi suddenly betraying them came to mind, but they quickly dismissed it.
Before the stallion could explain anything else, a sharp, stork-like beak suddenly pierced through the door on the right. With a terrified yelp, the stallion instantly backed away from the doors, which were soon broken apart to make room for a Rodan to enter the factory, letting out a loud screech as it did so.
"What in the world...?!" The owner of Canterlogic cried out in shock as she started backing away from the roaring pterosaur, as did Toots and Sweets. "Wait, didn't Maretime Bay get attacked by some flying creature 5 hours ago?" She asked, recalling the incident that happened with the previous Rodan. She was not in the city at that time of the attack to see the creature for herself, but thanks to multiple mobile phones recording the incident, she knew of the creature's existence and what it looked like.
"Those are the things that are attacking Maretime Bay!" The stallion cried out.
"Wait, 'things'?" Phyllis asked in surprise and horror.
Sure enough, more loud screeches prompted the owner of Canterlogic to shift her attention back at the entrance, and witness five more Rodans enter the factory to join the first. Naturally, presence of the pterosaurs sent everypony in the factory screaming and galloping in fear, Phyllis included. Letting out a screech, a Rodan spread its wings and began flying inside the factory, attacking anything and everything due to the electromagnetic waves that were being produced almost everywhere, with the others Rodans starting to do the same. Meanwhile, Phyllis lead her terrified employees and workers to the archive room before quickly closing the door behind them.
"Okay, is everypony here? Did I forgot anypony?" Phyllis asked, looking around the relatively small room and seeing that all her employees and workers were safe and sound with her in the room. She allowed herself to sigh in relief — only for said relief to immediately disappear and be replaced by panic when she realized that one pony wasn't in the group. "Wait, where's Sprout?!"
Opening a door that lead to another room, Sprout entered main room of the factory. "Mommy, I've been thinking about having one of those... what do you call them again? Oh, it doesn't matter. I just think that—" The words caught in his throat as Sprout froze in place the moment his eyes landed on the terrifying scene of seeing his mother's factory being ravaged and destroyed by the flying reptiles. For a moment, the red Earth pony stood on the spot, fear and disbelief freezing up his body and rendering him unable to move. Said fear intensified greatly as a Rodan flew down and landed right in front of him, easily towering over Sprout by about a foot or two. It was only when the pterosaur let out its loud roar right at his face did the Earth pony finally regain the will to move his body — and the first movement he did was to let out a loud, almost girly scream.
"AHHHHHHHH!"
.
Outside, Sunny and her friends were doing their best to help the ponies amidst the chaos, but with little-to-no progress or success. Since becoming friends with the other pony tribes, the unicorn traps and splat-a-pults that were once common (but hidden) all over the town were all but removed from Maretime Bay. And even then, it was questionable if whether those devices would have helped against the flying reptiles. Fortunately, the Rodans were more interested in attacking the devices the ponies were carrying rather than the equines themselves, thus forcing ponies to drop their mobile phones and abandon electricity-powered transportation vehicles, such as the cable car which was now being swarmed by seven or eight Rodans, whilst other Rodans were busy tearing apart the line of the streetcar.
"Out of all the animals in the world, why is it that these things wanna eat me instead of adore me like all the other critters?!" Hitch cried out at the irony before ducking down to avoid a Rodan swooping down and narrowly missing him.
"Well, not every animal has to like you, ya'know." Zipp comments, quickly spinning her body around to kick an attacking Rodan in the face with her hind hooves. "There're exceptions everywhere."
At that moment, Hitch realized something he hadn't noticed since the Rodan attack began. "Wait, where are the critters that keep following me around?" He asked, looking around for the two seagulls and crab that have become associated with him and followed him almost anywhere he goes. To his horror, about ten meters from where he was standing, he spotted his three animal friends cornered against a wall by a Rodan, who was looking down at them with hungry eyes, while the seagulls and crab were looking up at the pterosaur with terrified looks. "No! Leave them alone!" He cried out and was about go charge the reptile until Izzy stepped in front of him.
"Don't worry, Hitch! I've got this!" Izzy said with confident smile. The lilac unicorn closed her eyes in concentration and her horn ignited with a purple-colored aura before an energy beam of the same color shot from her horn and straight at the Rodan, who was about to snatch and eat the small animals. The magic beam smashed into the side of the pterosaur's body, sending it flying across the ground like a football. "Ha! I was hoping for an opportunity to try that out! I've been practicing my magic!" Izzy happily stated.
"Wow! Izzy, that was amazing!" Sunny complimented in awe. It wasn't exactly like false rumors of unicorns zapping pony brains with a single horn blast, but it was nonetheless an incredible feat to see her friend use magic to blast a feral beast in defense of Hitch's animal friends.
"I know, right? And that's not the only new trick I learned to do." Izzy said, giving her friend a cheerful smile.
"Oh, thank goodness you're okay!" Hitch sighed in relief and bent down to greet his small animal friends as they ran towards him for safety.
"Sunny, if these things are going after technology, then what's the most technologically-advanced place in Maretime Bay?" Zipp asked, hovering next to Sunny.
"Well, that would be..." The last few words didn't emerge from Sunny's mouth as her eyes winded upon realizing which place in Maretime Bay had the most advanced technology.
As if on cue, amidst the panicked screams of the citizens of Maretime Bay and the loud roars of the Rodans, a loud, almost girlish scream was heard coming from the Canterlogic building farther away, followed by the sound of glass shattering. Turning around to look behind them, atop the tall hill in the far distance, Sunny and her friends saw a Rodan flying out of the Canterlogic factory building via smashing through a window, with a visible Sprout — who could be heard crying "Mommy!" — being carried in its beak.
"That one's got Sprout!" Hitch cried out.
Without saying a word, Zipp suddenly rocketed upwards towards the Rodan with incredible speed. Despite the enormous distance between them, she instantly caught up to the flying reptile. Like a shark ambushing a seal from below, upon reaching her target, the elder princess of Zypher Heights smashed her front hooves into the abdomen of the Rodan, causing it to screech in pain and drop the red Earth pony. Sprout screamed even louder when he found himself plummeting to the ground. With her blow having disorientated the pterosaur enough that it won't come after her, Zipp turned and began flying downwards even faster to reach the plummeting red stallion before he hits the ground. In just two seconds or less, Zipp easily caught up to Sprout and wrapped her forelimbs around him. She then began flapping upwards as hard as she could to slow their descent before coming to a full stop. Zipp then gently descended to the ground and set Sprout down.
"You... You saved me..." The red stallion slowly said as he looked at the white Pegasi in a mixture of awe and surprise.
"It's what I do." Zipp said, giving him a friendly smirk.
"Even after everything I did?" He asked, recalling how he was willing to endanger the lives of her friends just to stop them from returning magic to the Pegasi and unicorns.
"If there's anything my time with my friends thought me, it's to forgive but never forget." Zipp said, giving the Earth pony a serious but forgiving look.
Sprout felt guilt swelling up inside him. After the stunt he pulled with his war machine that cost Sunny her home, Zipp had the right to at least speak to him with scorn and disdain. Yet, she didn't even do that. How could anypony forgive him for that? He certainly wouldn't have forgiven himself if he was somepony else. Looking at Zipp again, Sprout allowed himself to smile as silent way of saying 'Thank you'.
Seeing that Sprout was safe and sound, Sunny and Hitch allowed themselves to sigh in relief and exchange smiles. But this moment of relief would not last for very long because unbeknownst to them, high in the air behind them, a Rodan has set it sights on Sunny, and begins flying downwards towards her like a hungry bird of prey. Out of the corner of her eye, Izzy saw the incoming pterosaur, and, in a moment of desperation and quick thinking, shoved her friend out of the way, causing the Rodan to instead snatch her with its long beak as it swooped down like an albatross catching a fish from the water's surface before flying back up into the sky with Izzy.
"Izzy!" Sunny cried out in horror, prompting the others to look up and see the lilac unicorn being carried away by the pterosaur, who turned and began flying towards the sea with its prey.
"We gotta go saver her!" Pipp exclaimed before taking to the air and flying after the Rodan.
Queen Haven was about to do the same, only for two Rodans to appear and block her flight path. As Alphabittle stepped in to fight off the pterosaurs by Haven's side, Hitch, Sunny, and Zipp (who saw this happening) quickly took off galloping/flying after their friend. From Izzy's point of view, Maretime Bay was growing smaller and smaller by the second on the ground below, courtesy of the Rodan that was carrying her flying higher into the sky. She saw Pipp and Zipp flying after her, with the latter speeding past the former, while Sunny and Hitch could be seen stopping at the edge of the cliffed coast, watching in horror. Zipp flapped her wings furiously, determined to save their unicorn friend as quickly as possible. But just as it seemed like the elder princess was about to catch up to the pterosaur carrying her friend and save her like she did Sprout, the Rodan, having spotted Zipp and determining that its prey is weighing it down, opts to drop Izzy, sending the lilac unicorn plummeting to the crimson water below.
"Izzy!" Zipp cried out before immediately changing course and speeding downwards.
Sunny and Hitch gasped in horror when they saw the flying reptile drop Izzy, and held their breaths as Zipp started racing downwards to save their friend. Unfortunately, so distracted they were by what was happening before them, they didn't notice that another Rodan was coming at them from behind. Before Sunny knew what hit her, the pterosaur snatched her with its long beak much like how the previous one snatched Izzy, before turning to fly upwards.
"Sunny!" With a loud cry, Hitch leaped forward and over the rail before the beast could fly any higher or further, and managed to grab onto the Rodan's hind legs with his hooves. Upon doing so, the Rodan roared in surprise and jolted backwards, causing it to drop Sunny, and Hitch promptly released the creature to fall with his childhood friend.
"Hitch! Sunny!" Pipp cried out, causing her sister — who overheard her cry — to look and see their other friends were also falling into the scarlet sea. The combination of shock and distress made her unintentionally slow down her downward flight, which gave gravity enough time to pull Izzy into the red water, where she promptly splashed.
"Oh, no! Izzy!" Zipp screamed out in horror as she completely halted her descent and hovered several feet over the water surface. Fortunately, after a couple of seconds, the lilac unicorn surfaced, spitting out water from her mouth.
"I'm okay!" Izzy happily declared, waving a hoof at her friend, which made Zipp smile with relief. Then, two distinct splashes prompted them to turn their heads, and see that Sunny and Hitch have also splashed into the transformed seawater, no worse for wear.
"And they're okay, too." Zipp added before turning to the lilac unicorn with a serious look. "But we gotta get you out of there!"
Pipp flew down to meet Sunny and Hitch floating in the water, stopping and hovering just above the scarlet surface. "You guys alright?" She asked worriedly.
"Don't worry, Pipp. We're fine." Sunny assured her with a smile.
"All things considered, we've had worse." Hitch muttered before stopping to think for a moment. "On second thought, no, we have not had worse than being grabbed and thrown into the sea by a bunch of flying monstrosities!"
"Don't worry, guys. I think I can—" The princess' sentence was cut short when Sunny suddenly spotted something behind the hovering pegasus, and immediately cried out:
"Pipp, look out behind you!"
The pegasus princess had but a second to turn her head and see a Rodan flying towards her. Instead of attacking her with its beak, the pterosaur instead struck her in the head with its left wing as it flew by, sending Pipp falling into the red water, splashing near Sunny and Hitch. The two Earth ponies immediately dived under, and, after a few seconds, resurfaced with the dazed, but still conscious, Pegasi.
"Pipp? Can you hear me? Are you alright?" Hitch asked worriedly, helping to keep Pipp's head above the surface.
"Yeah. I'm fine. Just a little dazed." Pipp assured him, putting a hoof on her forehead.
"Pipp, are you okay?" Zipp asked as she came over to them.
"I'm okay, Zipp. But my wings are wet, which means I can't fly." Her sister stated, lifting one of her wings to show.
"Hold on. I'm gonna go get a rope or a chain to help you get out of there." Zipp said. But before she could do just that, the elder princess of Zephyr Heights noticed the reflections of four Rodans on the surface of the scarlet water. Sure enough, upon looking up, she saw the four reptiles flying downwards towards her, all of them solely targeting her. "You've gotta be kidding me." She muttered under her breath. With a powerful beat of her wings, Zipp shot upwards into the sky, where she immediately made a beeline for the fast approaching pterosaurs, intending to fly past the four Rodans and evade them in a daredevil maneuver.
As soon as Zipp was roughly 18 meters above the surface, and the Rodans were 22 meters — with the distance between them and the pony closing fast — the water beneath Zipp suddenly erupted as a giant sea serpent, a Manda, columned upward from the water like a rocket! Hearing the sudden loud splashing noise, Zipp looked over her shoulder, and her eyes promptly widened in horror as she saw the inside of Manda's open mouth closing in on her. On instinct, she abandoned whatever daredevil maneuver she had planned and began flying up even faster, quickly speeding past the four Rodans, who immediately did the same upon seeing the fast approaching jaws of the leviathan. With its incredibly long, snake-like body continuing to rise upwards from the crimson water like a column with no end in sight, Manda's head eventually caught up to its fleeing, airborne prey, and snatching one unfortunate Rodan that couldn't keep up in its shark-like jaws. And how fortunate for Zipp, because she was not too far from the particular pterosaur that has just met a grisly end.
Despite attacking her friends and her sister, as well as herself, Zipp couldn't help but cringe when the Rodan cried out in pain the moment Manda's powerful jaws and sharp teeth snapped shut on its body. But the white pegasus was completely unprepared when the sea serpent suddenly bent its extremely long body in the opposite direction. The sudden, sharp turn of its head caused Zipp (who was dangerously close to the Manda's head) to get struck by one of the beast's long whiskers, sending her flying straight into the crimson sea. Disorientated and in a lot of pain, Zipp was unable to prevent herself from crashing into the water at breakneck speed, producing a massive splash in the process.
"Zipp!" Sunny, Hitch, Izzy, and Pipp all cried out in unison.
Zipp's splash was only surpassed by Manda's as the gigantic sea serpent fell on its side, its extremely long body (which was well over 200 meters long) sending tons of gallons of red seawater flying when it splashed.
Despite having just witnessed a giant aquatic kaiju emerge from the sea to snatch and eat one of the pterosaurs, Sunny, Hitch, Pipp, and Izzy began swimming in the direction where Zipp splashed as quickly as they could. After a bit of effort, they finally arrived and saw the white pegasus floating unconsciously on the water surface; thankfully, she was laying on her back, with her face well above the surface, thus allowing her to breathe.
"Zipp! Zipp! Can you hear me!?" A distressed Pipp asked profusely, holding her sister's head above the water as she gently shook her in an effort to wake her up, with her friends watching in worried anticipation. For a moment, the four friends feared the worst, but a few coughs followed by the expelling of water from Zipp's mouth reaffirmed their hope, and made them sigh in relief.
"Ow!" Zipp hissed in pain, placing a hoof on her head. "Darn, that hurt!"
"You can say that again." Her sister smiled. Having been hit by a Rodan herself, she guessed how Zipp must have felt.
"I don't wanna downplay that we're all safe and sound, but we should really focus on getting back on land." Hitch reminded the girls as he pointed up at Maretime Bay.
"But how are we gonna get back? Zipp's wings and mine are now wet, which means we can't fly." Pipp pointed out, flapping her wings in futility to emphasize her point.
"There's gotta be something we can do!" Sunny cried out, refusing give up hope. Then, an idea clicked in her mind "Izzy, do you think you can levitate us with your magic?"
"I can try." The lilac unicorn said before closing her eyes and concentrating to do just that. However, Hitch placed a hoof on Izzy's shoulder to stop her.
"But even if you can levitate us up there, those flying monsters are gonna try to attack us the moment we're in the air." The stallion stated, pointing up at the countless Rodans that still patrolled the sky. "We'd be sitting ducks like that!"
"Darn it! I didn't think about that." Sunny cursed.
"But one of those sea monsters might show up and gobble us up sooner or later. We're already sitting ducks!" Zipp exclaimed, reminding her friends of the Manda they had all just witnessed.
As the five friends were pondering on how they will get out of this situation, a large whirlpool suddenly began forming not too far from them. Izzy, who was closest to the rotating mass of red water, was the first to be pulled in. "Izzy!" Having noticed this, Sunny cried out and immediately grabbed hold of her friend's front hoof with her own hooves, before trying to pull her to safety. The others quickly followed suit, with Hitch grabbing Sunny by her hind hooves, Zipp grabbing Hitch by his tail, and Pipp wrapping her front hooves around her sister's torso. Despite their best effort and their combined strength to resist the pull, the whirlpool was proving to be too strong for them, and soon, all five ponies were sucked into the spinning vortex. Spun around rapidly, they screamed and cried out as they sunk deeper into the whirlpool. Eventually, Sunny, Hitch, Izzy, Zipp, and Pipp all completely vanished into the swirling mass of seawater, which it itself soon closed up and disappeared.
Queen Haven raced to the edge of the cliffed coast as fast as she could, but arrived just in time witness her daughters vanish into the maelstrom. Dropping to her knees, and with a voice filled with motherly grief and pain, she screamed at the top of her lungs: "Pipp! Zipp!" The only response she got was the sound of the waves splashing against the rocky coast. Tears streamed from her clenched eyes as she began to sob softly. She soon felt a hoof being placed on her shoulder, prompting her to look up and see Alphabittle looking down at her with a sympathetic look.
"I'm sorry." It was all the large stallion could say to the grieving mother.
Without saying a word, Haven got up and wrapped her front legs around the tall unicorn before burying her face in his shoulder, where she continued to cry. Alphabittle gently wrapped his front legs around her in a soft, comforting embrace, understanding what she was feeling. There was nothing more heart-breaking and tragic than a parent losing their children.
While he didn't like do admit it, Izzy Moonbow was almost like a daughter to him. Before she and her friends restored magic to Bridlewood, she was the only unicorn in the village to see the brightness in everything, despite everpony else having given up hope. He didn't know how or why, but that mare somehow saw the best in all ponies, even him. And now, she was gone.
"Izzy..." Alphabittle softly whispered her name as a tear slid from the corner of his eye.
Sunny and her friends held their breaths as they descended deep beneath the surface of the crimson sea, descending deeper and deeper into the crimson darkness below as the few remaining rays of light from the above slowly faded away. Throughout this terrifying ordeal, the five friends continued holding onto each other as if their lives dependent on it, which, ironically, they did. The muffled roars of the Rodans all but disappeared, allowing silence and darkness to be the only companions to the five ponies. Sunny, Hitch, Zipp, Izzy, and Pipp stared at their surroundings; they were floating in a dark-crimson void that was likely the pelagic zone, but with no signs of life anywhere. It wasn't long before the Mane 5 realized that their oxygen was running low, and if a Manda doesn't arrive to devour them, then they will surely drown. After uniting the three pony tribes together and bringing magic back to Equestria, this is how they will perish? Drowning in the depths of the sea?
Pipp was on the verge of crying, prompting Zipp to try and comfort her. Izzy looked at Sunny and Hitch, and gave them a soft smile through her clenched lips. Despite their predicament and the fact there is a good chance they may not survive, she still enjoyed the time she spent with her friends.
Suddenly, as all hope seemed lost, a visible ray of light shined from above, prompting the five ponies to look up and see the unmistakable ball of light that was the sun shining through the crimson water like a beacon of hope. Without wasting a second, the five friends immediately began swimming up as fast as they possibly could while their oxygen supply continued to plummet further. It was race against time as the ponies desperately swam to reach the surface before their air runs out. Swimming like they've never swam before, and with the willpower to keep pushing forward no matter the odds, the five ponies finally breached the surface.
As soon as their heads were out of the water, they took a deep breaths to refill their lungs with fresh oxygen.
"Oh, I've never been more happy to breathe in my whole life." Hitch said, panting in exhaustion.
"I'll never take oxygen for granted again." Pipp muttered, being equally-exhausted like the rest of her friends.
"We're alive, and that's all that matters." Sunny said, trying to stay optimistic.
"But we're no closer to getting back to Maretime Bay." Zipp reminded her friend.
"Um... maybe we don't have to...?" Izzy innocently suggested, gazing at something that her friends didn't notice for they were too tired to even look straight.
"What are you talking abo—" Hitch's sentence was cut short once his eyes fully opened, and he saw were they were.
Instead of floating in the sea not too far from Maretime Bay, with thousands of pterosaurs occupying the sky like seagulls, the five ponies found themselves floating in the middle of a medium-sized lake, surrounded by thousands of acres of woodland forest. What's more, there was not a single Rodan present in the sky above, and the only sound the group could hear were the chirps of songbirds. The one thing that remained the same was water; just like the seawater around Maretime Bay, the water that composed this entire lake was blood red in color.
"What... just happened?" Pipp could barely form words due to the sheer bafflement of were they were. "We... We were in the sea a minute ago. Not far from Maretime Bay. How are we in a lake, and in the middle of a forest, no less?"
"I think it's safe to say that all of us are wondering that right now." Hitch spoke out everypony's thoughts.
"Oh. My. Gosh! We're dead! We drowned in the sea, and now we're in the afterlife!" Pipp cried out in horror.
While it was an interesting, if frightening, possibility, Sunny wasn't convinced. Turning to her unicorn friend, she asked, "Izzy, could you please hit me?" After a little hesitation, Izzy lightly punched Sunny in the shoulder with her hoof, just enough for her friend to feel some pain. "Ouch! Yup. We're definitely still alive." Sunny declared.
"Whew. That's a relief." Hitch sighed with smiled.
"If we're not dead, then where are we?" Zipp asked curiously, glancing at their new surroundings.
"From what I can tell, I think we might have somehow teleported somewhere far away." Sunny stated. "Look at the water. It's red, just like the sea around Maretime Bay. It's possible that whatever this substance is that's turning the water red, is also somehow capable of making things that fall into it teleport a great distance."
"Well, it's the best explanation we have so far." Hitch nodded in agreement.
"But how are we gonna get back? We could be miles away from home!" Pipp exclaimed with anxiety. "Or even on the other side of the world!"
"Well, looks like we're gonna have to do this the old-fashion way!" Izzy happily exclaimed and began swimming toward the shore.
"Izzy's right." Zipp declared. "We have no other choice but to walk back home. No matter how far it is."
Seeing that there are no other options available, the rest of the ponies reluctantly nodded in agreement and began following the lilac unicorn to shore.
"Ugh. Sometimes, I hate epic adventures." Pipp muttered under her breath as she followed her friends.