“I can’t believe we’re drenched in this stuff!” Fuchsia Blush complained, wiping the corner of her mouth as she fought the urge to hurl again.

“Don’t worry, we’ll almost be home.” Zappy Ozone kept a hand over his nose. “We’ll have a nice shower, then we’ll change into something new, okay? Or we don’t even need to put on clothes, think you know what I mean.”

Like most of the other students, he too, had a problem with Sunset Shimmer. After what she had done, why was she even still allowed to be in school with them? Principal Celestia should’ve just expelled her right then and there. Hay, she should’ve even been in prison or something after her whole takeover debacle. Zappy had been glad to play his part in ridiculing the girl, but after getting the water balloon dumped on themselves, he now had second thoughts about the whole thing.

Zappy had only been dating Fuchsia Blush for a year now, but he’d already grown very fond of having the pink haired girl around. Sure, he didn’t mind hanging out with her friends too, if it meant he could spend more time with her, but this water balloon thing really pushed his limits.

“Really?” Fuchsia glared at him. “That’s what you’re thinking about now?”

“I mean, what can I say, a man needs his needs.”

“I don’t feel like it right now.”

Zappy grabbed her around the waist. “I’m sure you’ll change your mind once we get in that shower.”

“I said not now!” Fuchsia pushed him away and began storming away.

“Man, what did I do?” Zappy called out, but she didn’t respond. “All I wanted was some hot time with my girlfriend!”

She didn’t answer him and disappeared around the next street.

Zappy blamed Trixie for this one. He had told her the balloon was a little much, but she said that Sunset deserved every bit of it. Unfortunately, it backfired and they were covered in all of it. It was mostly his excretion, but still, it was extremely awful. Fuchsia was probably mad that he inadvertently took a dump on her, because of that.

Throwing his arms up, the boy went on away, waltzing over to the railing by the Canterlot River. He looked over at the water to see his reflection. His face was coated in brown and slightly green, and by now, it had hardened, forming a thin layer of disgusting crust over his skin. And the smell was still just as bad.

“Maybe I should just take a swim in there,” Zappy joked to himself. “That would clean me right up.”

As he gazed into the clear depths of the water, something gleamy caught his eye by the side, wedged between two rocks. It looked to be a badge of some sort.

“Oh, what’s that.” He leaned closer off the railing to get a better look.

Zappy recognized that badge. It belonged to one of his classmates, Candle Wax. She said it was a family heirloom and she would never be apart from it, always wearing it on her jacket. But why was it here now?

“Finders keepers.” Zappy flipped himself over the railing and carefully inched his way towards the water. “Sorry, Candle Wax.”

Stopping just by the water’s edge on the steep, Zappy Ozone reached in and picked up the badge. It was a fine piece of gold, shaped into a shield with the insignia of a candle on it. Sure, it belonged to her family and it was passed down generation after generation, but she lost it, so technically, it was her fault that he was going to sell this for loads of money.

As he lifted the badge higher, he found that it was getting harder and harder to pull as it got closer to himself; it felt like there was a force coming from behind it.

“What?”

Turning it around, Zappy recoiled slightly. There was a long strand of… something red sticking to the back of the badge like slime and its colour began spreading across the water, turning it the colour of blood.

“Gross!” Zappy almost wanted to throw up again.

He was about to let go of the badge and let it remain in the river, but before he could release his fingers, something on the other end of the strand seemed to pull hard and the boy found himself slipping off his perch and falling face first into the river.

Zappy surfaced and gasped, but almost as soon as he had gotten his breath of air, the water seemed to grab and pull him, trying to pull his head under again. He found himself sliding down the river, almost like millions of hands were dragging him along, like some kind of sick crowd surf, his head going under the surface many times.

“Stop! Help…!” Zappy tried to call out, but his head was submerged again. The river was dragging him down towards the reservoir at the end at an alarming speed, and by now, the water was stained a dark red and he could barely see under it.

Every time he managed to get his head above water, he tried to look past the railing, hopeful to see someone who could help him, but all the way down to the reservoir, it was as though there was a virus out and about and he saw no one.

Fortunately, the dragging stopped when he arrived at the reservoir and Zappy was able to break the surface again. He gasped deeply for air and then stayed floating there, panting from exertion. It was like the entire river was red now, and when he looked at his hands, it looked like he was covered in blood and it smelled almost as bad as the gunk he had been covered in earlier.

“Just what… is going on?”

Zappy would’ve been content to just lie there for a few hours after everything that happened today, but before he could even feel the sense of calmness, he felt something brush against his toes. He immediately snapped to attention and looked down, but the water was still stained a dark red and he could not see anything past his chest.

Probably just a fish… he reasoned with himself. After all, it was a reservoir. There were fish here. He was scaring himself for nothing.

Something brushed his foot again, but this time he let it go. And then there it was again and again and again. Something was checking him out.

“I’m not food. Go away,” Zappy said. He knew the fish probably couldn’t understand him, but it was better than nothing.

When he finally resolved to get to shore to get out of all this, he felt something shift under him, and this time, the pull was strong and he felt himself being dragged along a current. Something under him was moving, but it was big. To prove his suspicions, a gigantic sailfin appeared just to his left, coming out of the water silently, swimming along as he was pulled alongside it.

“No, no no no no no!” Zappy flipped himself around and paddled frantically, trying to get away. Whatever was underwater with him was massive and he wasn’t about to find out what it was.

The boy eventually got through the creature’s pull and began frantically making his way back to the side where he could get out of the water. Behind him, the fish noticed his departure and turned itself around, the giant sailfin now making its way towards him.

Zappy swam harder than he had ever swam before, throwing each hand forward like he was reaching for a dodgeball at the start of a match. The density of the water was slowly exhausting him and Zappy could feel his breath sliding further and further away from his lungs, but he kept pushing himself. It was either that or being a meal for that thing in the water.

He was about five meters away from the shore when he felt something warm wrap around his flailing leg. His advanced was immediately halted and he felt a sting, almost like that of a needle piercing through his skin. No, thousands of needles piercing his skin. And then his entire left leg went numb and he felt himself moving forward again. Not thinking twice, Zappy continued to propel himself forward, though without the feeling of one leg, it was getting harder to stay afloat.

He heard the water part behind him and immediately, a shadow passed over him, extending further and further ahead of him until it reached the shore. The boy stopped moving in that instant and he hadn’t known dread could creep so far past his spine. He waited for something, for anything to happen, but it was as though the creature was allowing him one last look upon its form before consuming him.

Zappy slowly paddled his body around, anticipating the end any second, but still it eluded him. The creature had a long serpentine neck, like that of a plesiosaur, but because of the dark red water, Zappy couldn’t see what its body looked like underneath. It’s snout was long and filled with thousands of tiny needle-like teeth, one of which hung a shred of denim, stained red.

The boy remained there, frozen, unable to fathom the creature looming above him, nor did he have the strength left to swim to safety.

The monster leaned its neck down slowly, staring into his soul with its beady yellow eye. Zappy began to sob. He didn’t know what more to do and he felt so helpless and so afraid.

Suddenly, the yellow eye was no longer there. Instead, a strange figure stood where the creature’s eye was. It was a clown in a silvery suit and he held out a red ball to Zappy.

“Come with me, Zappy. I can make all your troubles go away.” He had a raspy voice. “Take the ball. Take it and like me, you’ll bounce too.”

Still in shock, he didn’t do anything, but there was something about the clown that was warm and comforting. In contrast with what he just had to face, it was almost like a reprieve.

“Reach out,” the clown said again. “Old Nickelfool is a clown of my word. If you take this ball, I promise, you won’t feel a thing.”

It was as though he were in a trance. Zappy reached a hand out, not so sure why, but something about the clown made him feel comfortable. Perhaps it was that smile, or maybe it was the ball. Whatever it was, it made him clasp his hand around the clown’s red shiny ball.

“Gotcha.” Nickelfool’s smile widened way beyond the reaches of his cheeks and razor sharp teeth emerged from his gums.

Zappy Ozone only had a second to widen his eyes and think about his girlfriend when the clown brought its jaws down around his head, followed by the sea creature shutting its jaws entirely over them.

The clown was right. He didn’t feel a thing.

Author's Note

Not much, but I hope you're still following the story! And I hope I haven't lost any interest!

Cheers, y'all!