The water was different. Riptide could not say how or why the water was different, but it felt wrong somehow. It felt unpleasant on his skin, making him feel dirty. Waterlogged paper drifted through the current, settling down to the seafloor. Riptide, seeing the paper, felt depressed. Such a precious commodity, paper, and it was out here with other bits of floating debris.
The sunlight was strong here, the water above him was a bright shade of blue-green. The water here was not very deep. Feeling a great deal of excitement, Riptide saw his first ever boat overhead, cutting through the water effortlessly, doing whatever it was that boats did.
His trip, so far uneventful, was about to change. Riptide knew he was close to the city of Vanhoover. The sea floor was littered with stuff; ships, junk, things that Riptide did not recognise. The current here was heavy, harsh, almost violent. It wanted to push Riptide back out to sea, but Riptide’s glider fins made short work of the current. Any coral sea pony or sea shaper would have been swept away though, and Riptide understood why a glider sea pony had been selected for this task.
With a sweep of his gliding fins, Riptide pushed onwards.
Feeling very small and frightened, Riptide realised that he had reached the end of the world. The end of his world anyway. Beneath him was coarse gritty sand. Above him blue water… and something he could not make out. The water was shallow, too shallow, there was no cover, nowhere to hide, nowhere else to go.
Ahead of him, there was only dry land.
Darting through the shallows, Riptide came a little closer, moving into shallower water. He wondered if the change would hurt. Sea ponies had legs; they were still ponies, more or less, at least from what he understood about the stories.
He hoped that there were no seagulls.
Certain that his heart was going to explode within his barrel, Riptide pulled himself along the bottom with his front legs, and then his head broke through the surface for the very first time.
Blinded, Riptide could see nothing. He heard things though. He had heard them underwater, but up above, the noise was almost deafening. The air stunk, it was overpowering. Riptide’s nose, used to collecting faint scents held in the water, was not prepared for the olfactory onslaught he experienced.
The air stung his nostrils and his throat. It was dry, harsh, strange. For an odd moment, it felt as though Riptide could not breathe. He struggled to draw breath, wishing there was wet water to fill his lungs. The pain was indescribable, but Riptide compared it to being like having electric eels swim around inside of his lungs.
Bit by bit, Riptide’s vision came back to him. There was a city all around him, tall stone and metal buildings. Glass. Black air came from some of the buildings. Riptide tried to take all of this in, not knowing what anything was.
And then Riptide made the mistake of looking up.
Above him was an endless expanse of nothingness, an infinite stretch of blue and a big burning ball of fire that was the sun. Screaming, panicked, Riptide experienced the horrifying sensation that he would fall up, that he would go tumbling through the endless blue expanse, and perhaps be burned in the fires of the sun.
His lungs filled with the strange burning air and Riptide screamed once more, all of his terror manifesting into one keening wail. Looking up, he felt dizzy, vertigo overtook him, there was nothing up there to keep one from falling away from the world. No water to swim though.
For Riptide, there was no way to stop screaming. Overcome with vertigo, terrified, it was all too much for Riptide to handle. In an act of mercy, his mind shut down and Riptide fainted.
Something felt wrong with his body. Riptide, too afraid to open his eyes, remained still. He was laying on something soft. Something was covering him, he felt warm. It took several long moments before his groggy mind registered that he had two hind legs now. His mouth felt dry, almost as though it was full of sand and not water. His throat hurt.
“I think he’s coming around.”
Hearing the voice, Riptide panicked.
“We mean you no harm friend… you’re not the first sea pony I’ve met.”
Riptide opened his eyes. It was dark. Dim. It was hard to see.
“I’m betting that seeing that big open sky for the first time was scary. It’s okay though. You’re in, well, you're in jail but you’re not in trouble so please stay calm.”
Jail. Riptide knew what that was. Fathom had a jail. But he was not in trouble. What was he doing in a jail? Something tickled his sides. The tickle was almost too much to bear in his current state.
“Kinda funny, a pegasus pony afraid of the sky. Your kind has been under those waves for a long time. Feeling thirsty friend?”
Blinking, Riptide didn’t know what thirsty was. He heard quiet whispering and a thump.
“Ow, keep your wings to yourself! I forgot!”
There was a pause, a moment of silence, and Riptide focused on breathing dry air.
“Thirsty… I bet your throat feels dry. Up here, you have to drink stuff otherwise, you’ll dry up and get sick. We have some strawberry-cherry-carrot juice… it is real nice. Cold and refreshing.”
“Can’t see.” Riptide’s voice was an unfamiliar croak. He didn’t recognise himself.
“We have the lights down low so your eyes can have a rest. I think they got dazzled seeing the sun for the first time. You shouldn't stare at the sun, it will hurt you.”
The lights became a little brighter and there was a click. Riptide heard something clattering. The sound echoed in his ears.
“Everything is gonna sound funny, probably because there is no water. This is gonna sound strange, but I’ve met a lot of your kind. Sometimes, the fishers pull them up in nets by accident, it isn’t intentional, but they get hurt and we help them. I’m usually called in to deal with the situation. My name is Officer Combs… Curry Combs. And my companion here is Officer Murdlow. Just Murdlow. And no, his mother didn’t know what she was thinking naming her poor cub Murdlow.”
Riptide heard laughter, soft laughter. He heard something come closer. His eyes, having trouble focusing, saw two figures. He struggled to make them out. One was smaller, one was larger. The larger one looked funny. There was something off about the larger one.
The larger one had a beak. A beak. Like an octopus.
Riptide screamed in terror and rolled on whatever he was laying upon, trying to hide, to cover himself, his guts churning with fear.
“We’re not going to hurt you… we know this is a lot to take in all at once… hush friend, you’re safe.”
With his eyes squeezed shut, Riptide swallowed, trying to get the burning sensation in his throat to subside. “Are you a seagull?”
There was laughter.
“Shut up Combs, this ain’t funny, you know the sea ponies tell horror stories about seagulls and how they eat up ponies.”
“Sorry Murdy.”
“I’m no seagull. I’m a griffon. I don’t eat ponies.”
“Well I should hope not. I married you, you big lug. If you’ve been eating ponies then you have some explaining to do. Spill your secrets bub! Spill your secrets because I have ways of making you talk!”
Riptide felt very confused. He opened his eyes. Something was being held close to his face. He smelled something that made his dry mouth water. The big creature that called itself a griffon was holding it in his claws.
“There is a straw sticking out. Just wrap your lips around the straw and suck… you’ll figure it out. Go on, have a drink. You’ll feel better.”
Lifting his head, Riptide looked up at the big griffon and then at the pony by his side. She had no wings and there was no horn. She was like the coral sea ponies.
“Murdlow here is very gentle. I know he looks big and scary, his kind are called ‘hunter griffons’ but they don’t hunt ponies. Well, under most circumstances. Sometimes we get a tricky lawbreaker or big time trouble and Murdlow here has to go after them and deal with it. He’s the police officer other police officers call when there is trouble.”
Wrapping his lips around the straw, Riptide never took his eyes off of the pair. He did as suggested, sucking, and his mouth was flooded with liquid… and overwhelming taste. He had no idea what he was drinking, but it was without a doubt the greatest thing he had ever tasted. It was sweet, it was sour, it was cold.
“I married Murdlow because he was so gentle. He saved me. I found myself in a tight spot and Murdlow swooped in to help a fellow officer in trouble. He snatched me up and got me out of there. I bit off more than I could chew with some thugs and was outnumbered.”
Riptide continued to drink. The cold liquid felt good on his throat.
“So what made you beach yourself? Was it an accident? Did you go exploring and get lost? Were you being curious?” Officer Combs asked.
“You’ll have to forgive Officer Combs… she’s a chatterbox. But she’s also the nicest pony you will ever meet,” Murdlow said as he watched Riptide gulp down juice.
“I can’t help how I am. I turned out like Pinkie Pie—”
“Yes… one drop of Pie blood is enough to ruin a pony.” Murdlow turned and looked at the bright pink mare beside him.
“Ooooh… you… you just wait. You’ll get yours!” Her lower lip protruding, Curry Combs fumed as she glared at the big griffon beside her. One hind hoof began to tap on the floor and her ears pinned back against her head as her lip curled back into a sneer.
“Baby, I’ve been getting mine every single day since I snatched you up and flew away with you,” Murdlow replied. The griffon rolled his eyes and then looked at Riptide. “So why did you beach yourself?”
Pulling his lips away from the straw, Riptide took a deep breath. He felt a lot better. He licked his lips, he could still taste whatever it was that he had been drinking, and took another deep breath. It was easier to breathe now.
“I was sent on a mission. I’m supposed to travel to Canterlot and meet with Princess Celestia.” Riptide has trouble dealing with how strange his voice sounded. He wrapped his lips back around the straw and continued drinking.
“Oh my, that sounds important. Murdy, we should help him. Canterlot is a long ways away. He might be a pegasus, but I don’t think he’ll be flying any time soon. He’s gonna have trouble walking just like all the others.” Bouncing in place, Curry Combs looked at the Murdlow with a hopeful expression.
“Friend, do you have a name?” Murdlow asked.
Once more, Riptide pulled his lips from the straw. He swallowed, cleared his throat, and felt a peculiar sensation in his stomach. “My name is Riptide.”
“Riptide. Nice enough name. Glad to meet you Riptide—”
“I have a new friend, his name is Riptide! This is the best day ever!” Curry Combs began pronking around the cell, her tail swishing as she bounced.
A feathery crest on the top of the griffon’s head raised, and Riptide saw Murdlow blink. The big griffon shook his head. Riptide realised the glass was now empty.
“They warned me… I mean, everypony warned me… she’s a Pie, they said. It can’t be that bad I said… and here I am… and there she is.” Murdlow extended a wing and pointed at Curry Combs, who was still pronking around the cell. “It wasn’t that bad… it was worse.”
“I have a great idea! We should use the emergency funds and put Riptide on a train. He’ll be in Canterlot in no time, he can rest and be safe. We’ll send word ahead that he is coming and everything will turn out just fine!” Curry Combs, pleased with her own idea, stopped pronking around and came to a standstill. “I wonder if Riptide is hungry? We should feed him. Get with the program Murdy, we have to do our jobs! We don’t want to look like incompetents!”