Horseshoe Bay and the Smog
"Sunscreen?" "Check!" "Towels?" "Check!" "Floaties?" "Double check!" Spike the dragon crossed off yet another item on his purple friends check list. "Okay Spike, we are all packed for vacation!!" Twilight smiled brightly and clapped her Hooves together giddily. "Now, we wait for our friends." Spike sighed and sat down. "This is hard work Twilight....." He slouched on the hardwood floor. All of a sudden, -also disrupting Spikes nap- Rainbow Dash and Applejack came bursting through the door. "Howdy Twi. Hey Spike." The farmer pony smiled. "Yeah, hey guys!" The multi colored maned pegasus looped around the air of the new crystal castle of Twilights'. Each of the two ponies only wore a saddle bag and had a smaller bag full of tinier stuff that didn't need to go in the saddle bags. "Um...girls?" All of their heads turned to see Fluttershy standing in the doorway of the castle. "I just noticed that Rarity and Pinkie haven't shown up yet..." Fluttershy managed to squeak out. "Yeah. Where are th-" As Dash almost finished her sentence, Rarity and Pinkie trotted up to the door. "Sorry darlings, Pinkie was helping me haul my stuff." She pointed with he'd unicorn horn to a huge piling wagon full of junk that wouldn't be needed. All Pinkie had was a saddle bag like the rest of them. "Ugh. Rarity, you don't need all that, junk." Rainbow rolled her eyes and Rarity gaped. "Uh! How could you Rainbow Dash! I need all of this stuff!!" Rainbow picked through it all. She pulled out a fancy, lacey, handkerchief. "You need this? For what!?" Rarity snached it out of her hooves. "If I get dirty." "What about towels and napkins? You can use them." Applejack trotted outside. "They aren't sanitary my dear farmer. What would you know about sanitation!?" AJ narrowed her eyes. "Just because ah'm a farmer, doesn't mean that ah don't wash up, Rarity. Yer afraid to even get a speck a' dust on yer hooves." She snorted and Twilight walked up. "Please girls, don't fight. We are going on vacation to get away from stress." The other girls nodded. "And we get to have even BIGGER parties there guys!" Pinkie smiled. They all laughed.
In a few hours time, they all set off for Horseshoe Bay, near Manehatten. They all went on the Friendship Express to get there. "I can't imagine all the critters I'll meet up there in the ocean!" Fluttershy squealed. "And all the research to do on the kelpies too!" Twilight took out a scrapbook and opened it up. "These are kinda like breezies, except they live in the water Fluttershy!" Fluttershy looked over Twi's shoulder and gasped. "Kelpies!? Their so cute Twilight! You get to research these cute little things?" Twi nodded. "I do. They are endangered because of the pollution in Horseshoe Bay..." She looked down for a second then back up. Flutters smiled and put a wing on Twilights shoulder. "I'll help you Twi, its the least I can do." Twilight smiled. "Thanks Fluttershy."
As the train stopped, all of the girls exited the train. "Whooooo!!!! Vacation!!" Pinkie bounced up and down frantically. "Eeyup. No bad guys and problems." Applejack smiled and put her sunglasses over her eyes. As she did so, she gaped. The rest of the girls' mouths dropped. The sky was a dark gray, ponies in dark clothes walked the littered streets, and the bay was a dark green with muck. "Oh goodness me!" Rarity gasped. "No....no no no! This is bad for the birds, land animals and the kelpies!!" They all just stood there. "And it's not healthy for the ponies either," Twilight sighed. Rainbow coughed. "This sky is too dark and gloomy, even the air is like, toxic!" Twilight sighed again. "Welp, that's that for a problemless vacation." She hung her head as the other girls followed her to a small hotel. A pony behind the counter was an old looking stallion. He had an old scraggly beard, dark gray fur, and a cloud of thick, green, smog as his cutie mark. "How can I help ya fillies?" He asked, his voice just as old as he was. "Uhm. We have a room. Princess Twilight Sparkle?" He checked a list. "15. Room 15 Miss Sparkle." He smiled and his teeth showed an unpleasant grin with teeth in every direction. Rarity ran off up the stairs. "I need sanitation!!" She swung open the doors of room 15, seeing muck on the wall, the curtains a drab gray, three tiny beds with dark green sheets, a small sitting room able to fit three ponies, and the smallest window in Equestria. "This. Is. A. Crime!!" Rarity yelped, throwing herself down on the bed. "Its a travesty, a TRAVESTY!!"
Soon, the six girls found themselves in a sticky situation. "Girls, looks like we won't be relaxing....at all." Twilight walked the streets of Horseshoe Bay with the elements. "Ugghhh!" Dash complained, throwing her hooves up in the air. "Girls. We need to save Horseshoe Bay! You hear me!?" Fluttershy stamped a hoof on the littered gravel streets, stepping in a old apple core. She shook her hoof. "See? Ewww."
She pulled her hoof to her chest and continued walking while the other girls stayed behind. "Come on, what are you all waiting for? Twilight?" Fluttershy looked behind her. "Sorry Fluttershy.....this place is a lost cause." Twilight sighed sadly. Fluttershy pouted. "But you wanted to save the kelpies....right?" Twilight nodded. "Then help those poor little endangered species by stopping the pollution!" Fluttershy's wings fluttered and ruffled as she flew away to the docks. "Fluttershy has a point. C'mon girls." Twilight trotted after the yellow Pegasus. Rainbow nodded and flew after the two. "Wait! Ah'm 'a coming'!" Applejack ran after Dash. "I'M COMING TOO!!!!" Pinkie bounced off as well. "Ugh. Walking around here is absolutely REVOLTING! But, I'll do it." Rarity pranced on the tips of her hooves to catch up with them.
Fluttershy squinted into the green water, trying to see any kelpies. "Hello friends...please come out." She put her hoof in the water and something nuzzled her hoof softly. Fluttershy squealed with joy. She looked closer to see a small pony-like creature with fins and gills. It made a small whistling sound and sunk back down into the murky water. "No no! Come back!" She waved her hoof in the water. "Fluttershy, we are here to support you and the kelpies. For real." Fluttershy looked up to see Twilight and she smiled. "Okay. Let's get to work!!"
Fluttershy walked up to some ponies in the town, handing out flyers to something with Twilights face on it. On the other hoof, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie helped make decorations for some big event. A stage was put up and so was a big banner. The banner said, 'Twilight Sparkle's Key To Pollution' on it. All the girls looked back at their work, satisfied with it. Meanwhile, Twilight looked out from behind the curtain. She saw thousands of ponies, all different shades of gray, black, and green. Fluttershy gave a quick nod to her purple friend and smiled. Twilight trotted out on to the stage, everypony quieting down. "Hello everypony. Today, I'm going to teach you to help keep the kelpies out of danger and to help you breath better." She pointed to the sky with a hoof. "Your skies shouldn't be a blackish blue!" She pointed to the bay close to them. "The water in the bay isn't supposed to be THAT green!" She pointed to the streets. "This litter shouldn't be here!" She put her hoof on her heart. "You all need to find it inside of you to clean this filthy city!" The ponies of Horseshoe Bay looked around themselves, all making 'ewww' sounds. "This needs to change, PRONTO!" Dash yelled, floating above them all. Soon, everypony ran out into the streets to clean up. Some unicorns sucked the muck out of the water, and the pegasi kicked the clouds to get the clear water out and cleared the smog.
Twilight and her friends smiled, watching the magic happen. "Our work here is d-" "NOT YET!!!!!" Pinkie screeched. "We need to PAR-TAY!" She smiled and bounced up and down. "Naw sugarcube....we need to relax!" Applejack slunk down in the clean sand of the beach. All of the girls giggled, happy that the work was all done.
"Dear Journal,
Today we learned a very important thing. Never underestimate your environment around you. You may think it's overrated, but it's not. Its all the land, water, and air your gonna get! You need to work together, as a team, to help fix it."
Fluttershy closed the journal, holding a small tank filled with water. "Are you okay in there, Kayla?" She smiled at the pony-like creature in the tank, none other than a kelpie.
THE END!!!
