//------------------------------//
// Boat Propeller 
// Story: JAWS & FINS 
// by Octavia_Melody 
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Twilight gave marching orders to the other officers as Octavia followed Lyra home. Twilight thought about what she was going to tell Spike, if anything. Nopony would be sleeping well that night.

The following day, Chief Sparkle was sitting at her desk in the police office, using her horn to telekinetically type up the coroner’s report on her typewriter. The coroner’s form had a space marked “Probable Cause of Death”. The glowing letters typed: “S-H-A-R-K A-T-T”. Before Twilight could type the next “A”, her door opened an in stepped the coroner, an elderly grey colt with a balding black mane and glasses.

“Chief Sparkle…” the coroner said in an aged voice, “Mayor Mare…is here to see you.”

A tan mare with a gray mane who also wore glasses, trotted in beside the coroner. Twilight stood up from her desk and held her hoof out to the mayor.
“Mayor Mare.” she said.

“Chief Sparkle.” the mayor replied, shaking Twilight’s hoof.

“Dr. Mort tells me that you were on the scene of a shark attack last night.” Mayor Mare said, “Is that correct?”

“Lyra and I saw the aftermath…” Twilight lamented, “It wasn’t pretty…what happened to that poor mare…”

“But none of you actually saw the shark.” the mayor argued.

“No, but what else could it be?” Twilight questioned.

“A boat propeller…” the coroner suggested.

“That’s not what you told me last night.” Twilight recalled.

“I was wrong.” the coroner said.

“Listen, a young mare has one too many drinks, goes out swimming a little too far; a passing motorboat doesn’t see her…” Mayor Mare pondered.

“A boat propeller?” Twilight scoffed, “And you’ll stand by that?”

“I’ll stand by it.” the coroner said.


“Sunset Shores is a summer town.” Mayor Mare explained, “We need summer dollars. If tourists can’t vacation here, then they’ll be just as happy to spend money in Canterlot or Las Pegasus. You start yelling ‘boating accident’ everybody goes ‘huh, what?’ If you yell ‘shark’, then we have a panic on our hands in the middle of summer festival.”
“So you’re not going to close the beaches?” Twilight inquired.

“We can’t afford to.” Mayor Mare said, “Those beaches are staying open.”

The coroner and the mayor trotted and shut the door behind them. Twilight’s horn glowed red as she angrily levitated the coroner’s report from the typewriter, crumpled the paper, and floated it into the waste bin beside her desk.

After a day’s work of calling the town’s parents and warning them not to let their little fillies and foals karate chop their neighbor’s fences, Twilight went home to her own house by the shore, where her husband Spike and their two dracorn children awaited her. 
Spike was a purple baby dragon with green scales, but old enough to marry in comparison with a pony’s lifespan. Spike and Twilight had somehow found a way to reproduce, and thus had two little dracorn children, lavender unicorns with green scales instead of manes, who could also breath fire. Their names were Rose and Thorn, sister and brother, who would probably outlive their mother, but not their father.

Spike was busy cooking gem stew on the stove, while also trying to keep his children from burning down the house. Rose and Thorn were fighting over Twilight’s old rag doll Smartypants.

“It’s mine!” Rose shouted.

“No, it’s mine!” Thorn argued.

The two dracorns tugged and pulled on it until Twilight stepped between them.

“It’s mine.” Twilight corrected, levitating it away from them and into her arms.

“You’re letting them play with Smartypants?!” Twilight fumed at Spike, “How could you?! She’s a keepsake?! She belonged to my grandmother!!”
“Twilight, calm down!” Spike said, “I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking.”

Before Twilight could say any more, Thorn punched Rose with his hoof, and Rose breathed a little breath of green flame on him in return.

“Ow! She singed me!” Thorn cried, bursting into tears.

“You hit me first!” Rose argued.

“Go to your room right now before I tan both your flanks!!” Twilight shouted, “NOW!!”

Both dracorns gave their mother a frightened look and scurried off to their room down the hallway.

“Is there something you want to talk about?” Spike asked, “You seemed awful upset last night, but you wouldn’t tell me anything.”
“I need a drink, Spike.” Twilight said, “It’s been a long day.”

Spike turned the stove off and retrieved two wine glasses from the cabinet, as well as a green bottle full of Dragon’s Scale. Spike put the glasses on the dining table as Twilight uncorked the bottle with her horn and made the bottle pour itself two glasses of the purple mixture.

Twilight quickly downed her glass as Spike sipped on his. He looked at his wife with concern.

“There was a shark attack last night, not too far away from here.” Twilight explained, “Lyra and I went to check it out. The victim was…a young unicorn…she was…torn to pieces. There was…barely anything left of her.”
Twilight tried to hold back her tears as she poured another glass.

“I’ve seen dead bodies before…murders back in Manehattan.” she continued, “But nothing like this. Nopony deserves that. And that Celestia-damned mayor of ours has the nerve to tell me it was a boat propeller! I don’t care what that half-flanked coroner says, even I have enough sense to know it was a shark attack!”

Twilight’s horn glowed an angry red again and her glass shattered, spilling wine all over the tablecloth.

Spike started to get up to look for the dustpan when Twilight put a hoof on his shoulder.

“I’ll clean it up, Spike.” Twilight said, “It’s my fault.”

“I was hoping you’d say that.” Spike answered, trying to lighten the mood.

The dustpan floated out of the closet and began sweeping the shattered glass. Twilight floated the dustpan to the garbage can and dumped the broken glass. She then walked up to Spike and kissed him as passionately as anypony had ever kissed a dragon.
“You wanna fool around tonight?” Twilight suggested.

“Of course, but what about the kids?” Spike asked, “Are they still going to the beach tomorrow?”

“The beach!” Twilight recalled, “I forgot! I don’t know…I really don’t want them in the water after what happened…but I don’t wanna have to explain it to them…I guess we can still check it out…”

“Don’t ever change, Twilight.” Spike said, giving her a hug.

Twilight returned Spike’s embrace and they both made off to their bedroom to make more dracorns, but hopefully not really.