The Legend of the Fourth Pony Tribe

When I woke up, I was in soft grass. Wait. Hippocampi can't go on grass. When I looked around, I saw I was at least 4 feet from some inland saltwater spring. The wave must have pushed me onto the land and the grass when I was out.

Suddenly I heard voices. Land ponies, I thought. What would Father say if he caught me now? Suddenly I felt terribly guilty. He had already lost Mother, he didn't need to lose me, too! I tried to flip myself around so I could get back to the water. It took a while, and the voices were getting steadily closer. I tried to pull myself over to the water with my flippers, but that's the thing about flippers. They're excellent in water, but on land, not so much.

"Come on, Pinkie, we're almost there!" said a casual voice. It seemed to be coming from above the ground, but I didn't see how that was possible. Earth ponies can't fly.

"Rainbow, if you were carrying the stuff, you'd be slowed down, too!" scolded a stern voice.

"Easy for you to say, Twilight! You're using your magic!" said a squeaky, high pitched voice. "I'm using my back!"

"Pinkie, you're carrying, like, three things," said the floating voice, Rainbow.

"And how many are YOU carrying, Dashie? NO-THING!" said Pinkie. "Not even your own body! You're just using your fancy wings!"

A pegasus? On land? I thought. Of course, I was on land, too. But what were a unicorn, earth pony, and pegasus doing together? I was only one foot away from the water now, but I was in plain sight. I had to get to the water! I scooted even faster.

"C'mon, guys! The swimming hole is right there!" said the unicorn, Twilight.

"Oooh! I call the rope swing first!"

"I'm just gonna catch some rays," said the pegasus with a yawn that seemed a little fake to me.

Come on, come on! Just my fins were out of the water now. With one final scoot, I slid into the water and out of sight just as the land ponies came into view. I went to the deepest part of the spring, where nopony would dare go, and just my eyes, ears, and nose were above the water.

A sky-blue pegasus came to rest on a chair on the beach with a tanning mirror. I assumed that was Rainbow because of her chromatic mane and tail. A bright pink earth pony came bouncing in next, with crazy poofy hair. I just knew that was Pinkie. And last came in a pretty lavender unicorn with magenta stripes in her mane and tail. She was Twilight, until I found out that the unicorn wasn't a unicorn. She had large feathered wings by her sides, though she was carrying a picnic basket with unicorn magic. A real, live alicorn. Wow. Coral would be swimming off the walls when I told her this. Coral loved land ponies, secretly. She was fascinated by everything about them, but Saddlantis forbade anypony saying anything about land ponies. I dived down and tried to get through the shallow cave, but the current that forced me in the spring was also keeping me here. Even if I could get close, the monster wave must have knocked some of the boulders down, because I could barely get my flipper through. I was trapped, with three land ponies watching the water. I saw some seaweed on the bottom of the spring, and a writing rock.

Dear Coral,