Beings everywhere were still reveling in the defeat of the Storm King, despite it happening over a year prior. The shores of the fallen King's old kingdom are alive with the sounds of laughter and splashing. Yeti's passing each other drinks, teaching their cubs how to swim, just enjoying a bright day. Even now, Yeti who were once servants of the Fallen King, were often found passed out and asleep on the beaches, enjoying their hangovers as if it was their last.

"Momma, Can I go back out in the water?" One cub asked.

"Well... it's been an hour since lunch. Very well. But let me join you." The mother said playfully, putting down her book and chasing after the cub into the seas. The two laughed in pure joy as the sire of the cub watched from the beach, a gentle smile on his face. Sure, he served under the Fallen King, but it was that or loose his family. He wasn't proud of what he did, and that strange yellow pegasus back in Canterlot did help him let go of a nasty burden... He still wondered what her name was; and what he should send her as a thank you gift.

With a smile, he sat back down on the towel next to his mate's, and watched as his ever growing family played in the surf. Slowly, a murmur began around him. Yeti everywhere were standing and pointing. The joy of the summer day was quickly ebbing away.

Off in the distance, he saw what they were pointing at. Not far off shore, stood a small volcanic island. But it wasn't just the island they were pointing at. It was the column of smoke rising from the island's mountain.

"Daddy! Daddy! Did you see me swimming?" They young cub asked as he ran up to the older yeti. "What are you looking at?"

The volcano going off was a regular occurrence, but... green lightning emitting from the rising black column?

"Is the Storm King coming back, daddy?"

"I don't think so son... That's something else."

Saddle Arabia was experiencing it's hottest summer yet. Ponies all over were making their way to the beaches, sipping smoothies, eating ice cream, the usual beach experience. Off in the distance, Trade ships of every size traveling to and from port made their way through The StarMare Strait, to the Great Inland Sea.

A young light orange colored mare sipped her drink casually as she watched the beach goers, fidgeting with her purple braided mane, patiently waiting for-

"There you are!" Shouted another mare. This unicorn mare roughly her same age, colored light pink with a blue, curly mane. "I thought you'd be down on the beach, not up here."

"I was waiting for you. Took your sweet time, didn't you?" She responded playfully. The other mare laughed.

"Sorry, but I just couldn't help but eye a really cute stallion at the rental shack down the ways on the beach." She said, flipping her tail to show which shack she meant. "Wanna try windsurfing or wake boarding the trade ships?"

"Sure! Sounds fun."

The two mares then promptly went to one of the many sports rental shacks, and, after a quick lesson, from a cute young stallion, they galloped out to the water, and began to play in the surf. Once they had a feel for the boards, they made their way out to the wakes of the passing trade ships.

"You got this, Starscout!" Screamed the unicorn, as she wiggled the lines leading to her kite.

"Never would have thought I'd be surfing the wake of a trade ship! Whoop! Wiggle those flanks Moonbow!" The earth mare screamed. The two genuinely felt like they were having the time of their lives. Before a new scream changed the mood.

"Sunny! I gotta hang on to your board! My kite got tangled in the ship. Those ponies are super mad!" The unicorn called. Looking up, she saw a mexicolt stallion shouting at them.

"¡Eh! ¿¡Qué estabas pensando, estúpido maldito turista!? ¿Sabes cuánto tiempo llevará desenredar eso?"

"I don't think I want to know what he just said!"

"¡¡REMOLINO!!" Another crew pony shouted.

"Whirlpool!!" Shouted another.

"We gotta get out of here!" The earth mare said, trying to angle her board back to the beach. But without a wake, her board was nothing but a floatation device. And not a very effective one.

Deciding it was better to just swim for it, they abandoned their boards and made the three hundred yard swim back to shore. A feat made all the harder and the current suddenly changed directions, and began to pull them back out to the middle of the strait. But they did not stop.

Looking back, the two mares watched and listened as two trade ships collided near the forming whirlpool, and began to be pulled under. The current got stronger and stronger. It was no longer a matter of getting back to shore. It was holding off the inevitable.

"Sunny! I can't swim like this much longer!" Izzy called.

"Don't stop, Keep swimming!"

The two mares continued to swim with all their might, finding themselves only going backwards. Away from the shoreline. Another ship began to creak and groan as it began to fall into the whirlpool, aft first. The roar of the rushing water became deafening as they began to orbit the edge of the whirlpool. They both screamed as they latched onto a loose rope from the current sinking ship.

Even holding on to the ship, they watched as the ship went nearly vertical, and began to plummet down the funnel. The mares watched in horror, finally grasping that this was the end of the line. As the two hugged each other, and watched as sunlight was now only visible through the tunnel of water, They both felt the ship make a sudden lurch forward. Looking down, they both saw the water rush up towards them. They both sucked in their breath as the water rushed past them and nearly ripped them off the ship. Once the rushing water stopped, and the roaring in their ears finally ceased, the began to hear what sounded like a chorus.

Both mares opened their eyes, and saw a flash of green fish like shapes dragging what seemed to be ponies, up towards the surface. It was difficult so see because of water refraction, so they weren't too sure what they were seeing. They both released their holds on the now vertically standing ship, and began to swim up. That was until they both felt what seemed to be a clawed flipper grab them both by a foreleg and were pulled to the surface. Their lungs were screaming for air by the time they hit the surface.

Once their heads breached the surface, they filled their lungs with fresh air, and... was it just them, or did the shoreline seem closer than before? Not questioning their good fortune, they immediately made their way to shore. Once they climbed ashore, among nearly two hundred other crew ponies from the various ships that now seemed stranded in the strait.

"What just happened?" asked Izzy once she regained her breath.

"I have no idea..." Looking out, they both saw that the water level has dropped drastically. The ships that weren't sucked down, grounded and were now stuck. Those that had gone into the hole where the whirlpool were lost. Only a ship standing completely vertically marked where the whirlpool once was. "One thing is for sure. The world will never be the same after this."

The Maresissippi seemed calm as glass this morning as Ponies began to start their days. River barge ponies were especially up and about, ready to haul goods this late winter morning. Their river boat was already set to tow several barges worth of good to the various ports along the river that connected North Equestria to the South.

"Cast off bow line!" The captain shouted.

"Cast off bow line, aye!" a crewmember barked back.

"Cast off Aft line!" shouted the captain again.

"Aye sir! Cast off Aft line!" Shouted another crew-pony.

"Release the barges!" Shouted the captain to the ponies on the barges.

"Aye Cap'n!" They shouted. Within minutes, the barge named the Pheonyx Fyre, began it's south bound departure.

With each port of call, the Pheonyx would lock a barge to the dock and continue along it's way. After the fourth port, on the second day, the barge rocked, as if she ran aground. The crew galloped about, trying to figure out what went wrong.

"I didn't think we were close enough to hit a sandbar." A grey unicorn said, leaning over the side, trying to see through the murky water.

"We aren't." The captain said as she strode up. "I know this river like the back of my hooves. There is no sandbar here."

"Then what..." The crewpony began, before a haunting sound came from the water. It sounded like a mourning song... The ship was suddenly rocked again, but this time, it felt as if it was being lifted. Looking down, the captain and crewponies saw a large green shape rising up from the murky brown water.

"Hold fast!" The captain shouted. Every pony braced and held on to whatever was bolted to the deck. The Fyre then lurched to the side, towards the shore; Where a loud crunch was heard. The barge seemed to stabilize as whatever was beneath them had gotten free. Looking out into the river, and the waves this thing had made, It was massive. Pony sized boulders, several pony lengths ashore were suddenly rocked loose just by the force of the water's impact.

"Contact!" a crewpony yelled, pointing to a wake in the river. Looking out, the ponies all saw what appeared to be a set of green dorsal spines, like the spinal fin of a bass. But instead of moving side to side, this moved up and down. The last thing anypony saw, was a large, green, trident shaped tail rising above the water, and slipping beneath the waves. Whatever this was, it was large enough to cause a small tsunami, and powerful enough to swim upstream, in Equestria's largest, most powerful river.

"What in Celestia, and Luna's names was THAT?" The first mate shouted. The captain could only shrug.

"Damage report?" The Captain shouted.

"Port side paddle wheel is snapped in twine!" A blue earth pony barked.

"We got a large boulder poking through the hull ma'am." Said a mechanic, poking her head out of the door leading below deck. She continued. "The leak is slow, but we cannot risk removing the Pheonyx. If we do... We'll be sunk in minutes. I've already snuffed the boilers. It'll be a few hours before the water reaches them."

"We're bucked..." Said the first mate.

An aged stallion awoke to start his day working the lighthouse as his apprentice ended her shift. The young thestral yawned loudly as she clip-clopped down the stairs, too tired to fly.

"All was clear last night sir." She said, groggily.

"Excelent." The elder smiled. "There's some hot cocoa ready for you. You've earned it."

"Thank you, sir." She said as she grabbed her mug, and filled it with liquid awesome.

The young mare slowly trudged to her bedroom, as the elder stallion grabbed his coffee mug, and began to start his shift. He smiled at the young mare who took on his tutelage. Not many ponies liked the idea of living alone on a tiny island, kilometers off shore. The ocean storms typically scared the lights out of them. It took a special kind of pony to do this job.

The older earth pony stallion made his way up the stairs towards the top of the light house. It seemed to be an incredibly foggy day, as all he could see was grey, far as the eye could see. Protocol dictated that the light was to be on on such days, so he didn't bother to turn it off and the magical gem powered light continued it's slow rotation.

Over the hours though, as the fog began to lift, he noticed that the sea seemed... a little bit rougher than it usually was for such a calm day. Odd... the winds weren't being wiley. The weather by the seas is, next to the Everfree forest, one of the hardest places for the pegasi to control. But as he looked out to the seas, he watched as a pod of whales swam by.

Pulling up his spyglass from the wall hanger where they rested, he observed. It appeared to be a pod of Grey whales heading south to the warmer waters. He smiled. It always warmed his heart to see such magnificent creatures. Continuing his watch, he saw as a ship, an old fashioned whaler of all things, with a compass rose on the sail, trying to keep pace with the whales. The green stallion watched in awe as the whales would dive away.

One whale however seemed to be lagging behind. Trying to focus the spyglass on the crewponies, He saw one, a burly unicorn hoist up a nasty looking harpoon, and balance on the ships railing for a clear shot. He magically raised the harpoon, and- he was suddenly knocked overboard as the whole ship lurched! Did it just run aground? Impossible, it was chasing whales!

The crew of the distant ship began to scramble to find out what went wrong. The earth pony stallion watching the whole ordeal began to load the flare launcher to indicate a ship in distress. He stopped as a new sound reached his ears. A melodic sound... as if the whales were singing... but this wasn't the soothing, yet discordant sounds a whale would give off. This sounding as if it was singing. There was an actual melody here. Going back to his spyglass, he refocused on the ship. To her aft, a large whales fluke, shaped like a trident, and green in color splashed behind her. Damn, that was huge. Further forward, it appeared as if a webbed dragons claw was grasping her just above the waterline!

The crewponies he saw, then began to throw their harpoons and spears at the creature holding their ship in place. Every now and then, they would land a good shot and the harpoon would impale itself in the creature's hide. Dropping the binoculars, he pulled the string that would launch the flare; Firing off with a loud "Thump... BOOM!"

Looking back out, he watched as the sea suddenly erupted with lightning... Green lightning! all around the whaling vessel, sparks, and arcs of electricity were everywhere. The ship then seemed to implode, as her center line caved in. He back broken, the fore and aft of the ship now beginning to stand in the air. The lightning subsided, and the giant creature disappeared beneath the waves, leaving the ship to founder and sink. The entire crew had to see the lighthouse standing alone on the small, rocky island, so he observed as they began to swim towards it.

Rushing back down the stairs, he woke his Thestral apprentice.

"Time to wake up, Gale! We're about to have company." He said, urgently.

"I-" The thestral, Gale Winds began before being cut off with a yawn. "Is that why I heard the flare go off?"

"Yes. A ship foundered a bit aways from us. It looked like it was attacked."

A loud knocking was heard on the front door.

"Equestrian Coastal weather patrol! Please, Open up!" Shouted a voice.

It was approximately two hours before all the ponies were rescued, and a formal report had to be written. Normally a ship going down was noted as just another annual statistic, but an attack was practically unheard of. So that meant this report had to be specially marked, and it was going straight up the flagpole, directly to Princess Twilight.

Author's Note

Hey look! I posted a thing! My sincerest apologies for the delay; But I am genuinely considering giving parts of this fic a rewrite. I just got back from my first vacation in nearly a decade, from the ocean of all places(was out visiting family on the coast), and remembered why I started writing this.

I had forgotten the sensations of the sea. Her alluring call. Now if only she hadn't stolen my gopro... anyway, yes. Some kayaking with seals, wandering kelp forests, and pulling up crab from the sea bed, and I began to think more about this!

And yes, I threw in Sunny and Izzy. I'm not a fan of the new version of MLP, and I genuinely thought about killing them off in that scene. Just have them fall into the whirlpool, and they don't make it back up. But I figured just this would do.

I also wanted to call this chapter 'Thalassophobia' but after re-reading it... it didn't feel right. As always, constructive criticism is welcome.