Bikini Bottom had just been scooped out of the ocean by a claw from the same laboratory that Sandy had spent time with since she arrived, and Sandy and Volcano were leading a heroic rescue mission in order to rescue the town and all of their friends who got scooped up along with it.
Of course, the Mane 6 trusted Sandy and Volcano completely, but only Zipp seemed to be sure of what Sandy was planning.
Fortunately, they would find out soon enough.
XXXXXXXX
The Mane 6, Tropic and Volcano leapt from rock to rock in front of Sandy and SpongeBob, the latter doing the same while SpongeBob hit his head on nearly every rock and ledge they came to. “Whoa! Concussion! Head trauma,” he muttered as he grunted repeatedly with each individual impact. “ Oh, just a fender bender. Ooh, that's a bump.”
Finally, they made it to the bottom of the ditch, but Tropic looked over at her friend to discover he was VERY tangled up within his own arms. So, Tropic unwrapped SpongeBob’s arms, untangling himself from them when the two of them finally saw the large geyser that Sandy and Zipp saw earlier. “Whoa…!!”
“Hmm… we’ll need a test subject to make sure this works,” Zipp said before her gaze settled on a cowboy hat laying on the ground not too far away. “Izzy, toss this into the geyser, will ya?”
“Sure thing, Zipperdoodle!” Izzy said, grabbing the hat in her magic before tossing it toward the geyser. “Hi-ya!”
The hat immediately got caught in the flow of water and bubbles and rocketed up toward the surface, causing Sandy to smile. “Just the reaction we wanted!” she said as she wrote out a formula in the air with her pen. “If we can figure out some kinda way to ride those bubbles clear up to the jet liner, which should be passing through in... two minutes and 49 seconds…”
“Whoa…” SpongeBob said in awe before realizing he had no idea what Sandy was talking about. “What does that mean?”
“Well, in simpler terms,” said Volcano, putting a hoof around SpongeBob, “we might just make it to Texas!”
“All we have to do,” said Sunny, “is figure out how to ride the geyser up above the water.”
Pipp hummed and looked around, not seeing anything in particular that they could use before she saw some large clam shells imbedded in the cliff. “Hey… what if we used these giant shells as surfboards? Then we could totally make it up to the surface!”
“Pipp… that’s actually genius!” Zipp said as she quickly pried a shell loose, but it accidentally went in SpongeBob’s mouth. “And that’s some great unicycling, Pipperoni!” Izzy said with a smile. “Aww, thanks,” Pipp blushed. “Just comes naturally, I guess.”
“Do like I do!” Sandy said as she grabbed a shell and slid down the cliff with Volcano clinging to her back. “YEEE-HAW!!!”
The shell that Sandy and Volcano were riding on plugged up the geyser for a brief moment before it rocketed the duo back out and up into the air. “It's just like surfing...!!!” Sandy called down to the others. “Come on, guys!” Zipp shouted, grabbing her own shell. “We’ve got a mission to get underway!”
The Mane 6 cheered as they slid down the cliff as well, plugging up the geyser one by one before rocketing up into the air and after Sandy and Volcano. “Come on, you guys!” Hitch called to SpongeBob and Tropic as he was the last pony onto the geyser. “Time's wasting every second you're standing there!”
Tropic clung to SpongeBob as he puffed up his chest and put on a brave face. “I got this!”
SpongeBob was about to step off the side of the cliff when he slipped and fell, and since Tropic was holding onto SpongeBob, she was along for the ride, causing her to scream. SpongeBob’s shell plugged up the geyser before it blew the shell right out of it, causing both SpongeBob and Tropic to be shot up alongside the others as they all cheered.
“YEAH!!”
“Awesome!”
“Yahoooo!!!”
“We don't got this!!!!”
Sparky stood at the edge of the cliff and watched them rocket toward the surface, worriedly wondering if their plans were going to succeed.
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Tropic and SpongeBob clung to the shell and each other with all their might, screaming as they spiraled past their friends, causing Sunny to gasp. “Hang on, guys! We've got you!”
The Mane 6 and Volcano were able to use their tails to propel the shells further and further until they were close to SpongeBob and Tropic. Then, when she was just close enough, Sandy grabbed the shell and stabilized it, stabilizing SpongeBob and Tropic in the process.
Then, once that happened, Sandy gave them all a few instructions to better their experience. “Just bend your knees and hooves, stick out your tails and square butts and keep your center of gravity low!”
Tropic nodded and tried to do what Sandy said, finding that this sort of surfing was a lot easier than she expected it to be. “Hey, SpongeBob, look! I think we're actually getting this!”
SpongeBob giggled a bit at this. “Hey, guys! Watch this!”
Blathering, SpongeBob kicked out his legs a few times before jumping, sending his and Tropic's shell spinning for a few brief moments. “Whoaoaoaoaoaoaoaoaoaoaoa!!!!”
Finally, Zipp and Hitch were able to stabilize the shell, causing SpongeBob to laugh once he and Tropic got up from their wild ride. And all seemed peaceful… that is, until Misty gasped upon seeing a whole flock of clams heading in their direction. “Tropic! SpongeBob! Look out!”
“Huh?!” Tropic chorused and immediately turned around and saw the clams heading for them, causing her and SpongeBob to immediately scream. But while the others were able to shield themselves from most of the clams, SpongeBob ended up getting a large swarm of them in his mouth, to which he immediately spat out.
The group laughed at this before SpongeBob spit out one final clam, and once they were all sure that SpongeBob’s mouth was clam free, Sandy turned to the others as they got closer to the surface. “What are we doing?!”
“SAVING BIKINI BOTTOM!!” everyone chorused as Tropic and SpongeBob let out a unified cheer. Upon breathing the water’s surface, all of the ponies’ tails turned back into legs, turning Volcano into his earth pony form. Sandy pushed the flower on her helmet and her space suit retracted, leaving her in her normal purple attire.
It was a few moments later before they got above the clouds, where Sandy spotted a very large passenger plane heading in their direction. “Yeeeep. Right on time,” she said, checking her watch. “Here comes the 10:35 stagecoach to Houston.”
“But how are we gonna get on?” Hitch asked. “We don’t exactly have tickets!”
“That’s where me and Sandy come in!” Tropic said. “She’s been showing me a new trick with my plant powers that can help! Vine Lasso!”
From her horn, a vine emerged in the form of a lasso and began to twirl, and upon all of her friends grabbing each other, Tropic launched the vine lasso at the plane, grabbing onto the wing before they were all pulled toward the plane wing.
SpongeBob screamed as he face-planted right on the ground, while everyone else landed on their feet and hooves, and after a moment, he picked himself up off the ground. “Wow!” he said as he puffed himself back up from the impact. “I didn’t think anyone could do this!”
“That’s the thing! Nopony else CAN do this!” Izzy said with a giggle. “It’s crazy!”
“Uh… guys?” Sunny then pointed at SpongeBob. “I think we might have another problem!”
When the others looked at SpongeBob, they immediately cringed-- he was starting to get dried out really quickly, causing Sandy to immediately think of a solution. “Oh! I gotcha covered, buddy!” she said as she brought out a spray bottle. “Something I invented for a drought!”
Sandy sprayed the contents of the bottle all over SpongeBob, immediately refreshing him with water and making him puff up again. SpongeBob immediately sighed once he was puffed up again. “That went well.”
“Sandy Cheeks’ Super Hydration Lotion!” Volcano said proudly, causing SpongeBob to grab the bottle and inspect it further. “Nine out of ten sponges prefer Sandy Cheeks Super Hydration Libation,” he said before putting on his reading glasses. “Side may effects include mad fry cook skills, porousness, and chronic optimism. Not recommended for non-sponges.”
SpongeBob laughed and more water squirted out of him, causing him to return to regular size. “Well, now I guess we just sit here on the plane wing,” said Zipp, looking around, “and wait to land in Galveston.”
“But how long is that gonna be?” asked Misty, causing Zipp to do a few calculations in her head. “Hmm…” the white pegasus muttered. “I’d say… about 14 hours.”
“14 hours?!” Hitch cried. “Bikini Bottom could be in serious trouble by now!”
“We don’t have much of a choice, Hitch,” Sunny told him. “Everypony try and occupy yourselves… we’re gonna be here a while.”
However, Volcano was the only one lost in thought by that point. He walked away from the group and sat by himself, pulling a picture out from his mane and unfolding it.
It was a picture of a younger Volcano, his parents and his older sister Electra.
He kept this picture ever since he got taken into foster care… the only thing that reminded him of what he once had.
Tropic looked at SpongeBob and Sandy before gesturing to Volcano, causing Sandy to sigh. “Seems like he’s thinking about her a lot harder than usual.”
“Her?” Pipp looked confused. “Her who?”
“Volcano’s big sister, Electra Wave,” Tropic explained. “She had the rare power to manipulate electricity, but Volcano said despite that, she was the sweetest sea-pony you would ever meet.”
“...do you know what happened to her?” Sunny asked, causing Tropic to shake her head. “No… the only person he’s ever told since he got to Bikini Bottom…”
“...was me,” Sandy admitted with a sad sigh. “But I don’t wanna tell that story without Volcano’s consent.”
“...it’s okay, Sandy,” Volcano said as he turned to look at them before approaching. “We can tell it together. Maybe then… it might not be so hard.”
Sandy nodded, and the group sat down as Volcano began speaking. “I lived in a coral home with my father, Abysmal Frost, my mother, Oceana Bliss and my older sister, Electra Wave. We were a really happy family when I was a little colt. But then… my mom got sick and… she passed away. It was my father, sister and me for as long as I can remember after that.”
Volcano took a deep breath, handing SpongeBob and Tropic his picture before continuing. “Me and Electra loved to play in the kelp forest together, and she and I had this special game we only played, called Electro-Tag. We would play together for hours and hours… but… this one day…”
The second Volcano closed his eyes, the words he and his sister last shared echoed in his mind.
“SWIM, VOLCANO!!! DON’T LOOK BACK!!”
“No! I don’t wanna leave you, Electra!”
“You have to! You have to find Dad! Go! GOOOOOO!!!!”
Volcano trembled as he opened his eyes. “Some scuba divers attacked us. They took my sister, and I escaped to find Dad. When we went back… my sister was already gone. Dad blamed me and abused me from that day on, until Queen Skygrace found out and put me into foster care with Sandy.”
Tropic, SpongeBob and the Mane 6 looked at each other with wide eyes at this, not expecting Volcano to have such a heartbreaking backstory. Sandy, however, hugged the colt out of compassion, allowing him to sniffle against her fur.
Misty was first to speak, putting a hoof on his shoulder. “It wasn’t your fault that your sister got taken, Volcano. Believe me… I blamed myself for a lot of different things too, all of them out of my control,” she admitted. “I’m sure your sister would be really proud of the pony you’ve become. And… your dad doesn’t know what he was missing out on when he let you go.”
“Really?” Volcano sniffled. “You think so?”
“Misty is never one to lie to a pony,” Sunny said. “So if she says its true… it’s true.”
Volcano cleared his tears away with a sigh. “Thanks, guys, for… for listening to me.”
“Anytime,” Pipp said with a smile before getting an idea. “Now, why don’t we tell you about our latest Nightmare Nigh escapade?”
Sandy giggled, knowing that Volcano and Tropic would instantly agree to hearing the story. “We thought you would never ask.”
What a crazy ride!