"No messages left this time," Sunset concluded.

The hiding spot was nothing more than an elaborate home office, with its "regular" entrance being a hidden passageway in one of the eels' tunnels. A few books here and there, some blank ones, others about magic. At least, from what Twilight could understand. Old ponish had been very well transcribed for common terminology, things that could be found in every trace of the past like the weather, household items and so on, but not for formal scientific language. Before this discovery, most archaeologists in Equestria weren't even sure such a discipline had existed back then.

So, in this dark place, the only understandable thing that remained was that map. Set in a stone, with numerous runes written all around it – grotesque runes at that, according to Twilight. "As if it was a first practice to a new kind of spell," she had even said. The map was, as Maëva had been told, pretty close to what Equestria looked like now, although the streams and mountains were all in the wrong place.

Yet, as the middle head was staring right at it, that small pulsating red glow felt ominous. It was on the west side of the map, on an island. An island that didn't exist, according to Twilight, yet it was there.

The young princess was also looking at it, flying right next to Maëva's head. The hydra had just touched the map, with no results this time.

"Didn't you say the guy that made this talked about a place named Story Bay?" Flurry asked." With an island to its west?"

"He did," Twydra and Maëva confirmed at once.

"Because that island is awfully close to Tall Tale. And there's a bay there instead on that map."

"It could be a sunken island," Twilight admitted as if she had already thought about it, coming back to the map. "This civilization seems to have had a lot of troubles with water. I can tell, judging by the little streams of water in the street and the puddles we met on our way in, that this city was doomed by some kind of flood. Or it was the nail in the coffin."

"A sunken island..." Maëva thought to herself in a whisper, reminiscing bad memories.

"Does it ring a bell?" Twydra asked.

"The island where my little brother was sank... A few months ago..."

For once, Maëva was showing genuine grief. Her eyes were distant, her voice less detached, and it only worried her companions even more.

"I'm sorry..." Twilight said.

"It's fine," Maëva replied, shaking her head a bit to go back to the present time. "It was bound to happen at some point. He always wanted to visit the world, to travel and see what was left of its beauty. He said he had fun imagining what it could have looked like before the Collapse."

Flurry looked at the middle head with a sad concern, thinking about something, briefly glancing at her aunt who had seemingly come to the same conclusion. So, Flurry gently said to Maëva:

"I don't think I've asked you but... was he your only family?"

It sounded silly. So absurd, yet so obvious. She had been in a world where anyone could die any day, where earthquakes were as prevalent as rain, where your friends could get eaten up in front of you. A world where islands would sink. Of course, at some point, her parents and relatives would probably be...

Sunset knew the answer already, for Maëva had already talked about that before.

"He was..." Maëva said, before clearing her throat, realizing she had a really pitiful tone. "That's why I followed my friend to the portal. I had nothing left, aside from her."

From one awkward topic to another, the ambiance didn't really brighten. And Maëva noted the embarrassed faces around her.

"I'm fine," she reassured. "I am used to it. Honestly, I should thank you all, you've actually given me something to hope for. Maybe not for my world, but for yours, Sunset and Twydra. I really wish we find something in those ruins that can help you make the Collapse stop."

"Thanks," Sunset kindly said with utmost sincerity. "But I truly wish we can do something for your world too. It sounds so different from ours, I hope we can visit it someday."

"As a hydra, we would get nuked instantly," Maëva laughed.

The others didn't know what "nuked" meant, but laughed nonetheless. At least, Maëva was laughing. Though, it didn't last.

"There doesn't seem to be any portals around here," Twilight noted with a slight sigh after this small interlude. "But I'm sure I'll learn more with those books, once I can decipher them."

"Hey, I have an idea," Flurry suddenly said. "You go back to Canterlot with them, you work on it with the specialists of old ponish. Meanwhile, we go to that sunken island."

Twilight raised a doubting eyebrow.

"And leave you in charge of everyone's safety?"

"Whaaaat?" Flurry asked, way too shocked and hurt for it to be sincere.

"I'd rather have Sunset take things in her hooves," Twilight followed, not buying it.

"Don't count on the hooves part too much," Sunset replied with a little smile. "But other than that, you can trust me, Twilight."

Flurry folded her legs, pouting.

"But I'm a princess, and she's not."

"And sometimes, a princess must realize she's not the best leader available for a specific task," Twilight pointed out.

"Urh..." Flurry sigh with exasperation.

Twilight flew right in front of her, feeling her niece might need things to be a little more explicit.

"You'll listen to Sunset, do I have your word for it?" Twilight firmly asked.

"Yes..." the young alicorn mumbled, looking away.

Twilight's face only got closer to Flurry's, with an accusatory stare. They both knew what the aunt expected and, for a second, Flurry looked truly embarrassed, until she finally said:

"Cross my hooves and all my plumes, if I lie, my mother looms."

The three hydra heads looked at each other with a shared confusion, but Twilight seemed happy with it, as she moved away from her niece a bit with a bright smile.

"Great! Then I'll be seeing you!"

The princess immediately flew away with her loot of books levitating by her side, adding from a distance:

"I'll tell the train driver to turn around! And be careful with the eels on the way out!"

Sunset and Flurry pushed a sigh at the same time, the former simply saying:

"Twilight when she finds a book..."

"Yep..." the young alicorn added.

Twydra gave them a side eye, frowning a bit, which Sunset caught and immediately replied:

"No offense, of course. It's just funny to see a princess acting that way."

"Yeah, sure," Twydra replied with a slightly offended tone.

Maëva cleared her throat, gathering their attention as she asked:

"Shall we get going then? We have a missing island to find."

Eating while strapped onto a train had probably been the worst part of this whole journey, and the hydra had to endure it once again, this time for another sixteen hours, until they arrived to the west city of Tall Tale. A place that the map actually showed as a bay.

They weren't in the city per say. Letting a hydra roam free in the streets would have been the best way to cause an unnecessary panic. Which was a shame from Maëva's point of view, since she could see the tall buildings from a distance and thought those were much more like the ones from the big cities in her world.

Not that many were left standing in them, as far as she knew, but still.

Instead, the little group was standing by the tracks, in the middle of a small forest. This time, in the afternoon.

"So, we're on a land that didn't exist back then, looking for a land that doesn't exist anymore," Sunset summed up. "Anyone have any idea as to where we could start?"

The three heads instinctively looked at Flurry Heart, who took a step back.

"Don't stare at me like that, I don't know what happened! I'm sure if auntie was there, she would have a ton of theories about that, but-"

"Well, first, there's a river nearby," Twydra pointed out. "And that one was also on the map, so maybe it's sediment deposits which are responsible for the shore advancing in the sea and closing the bay."

"Say what now...?" Maëva asked, squinting.

Flurry was also thinking with a facial expression that was close to "Wait, I think I actually remember something like that." while Sunset nodded:

"Make sense, I guess. Thousands of years have probably passed, so the terrain had time to change naturally."

"But what about the-" Maëva started, before being interrupted by Flurry suddenly raising a hoof, straightening her head like a deer who hears a twig crack in the forest.

"What?" Sunset asked.

"I just heard something..." the princess distantly said, cautiously looking around. "Like..."

The silence of their surroundings was suddenly cut by the sound of something tumbling through the branches of the trees. Or rather, someone, judging by the little "ouch!" and "ow!" it made. Before they knew it, a salmon-pink pegasus fell right in front of the little group, crashing on the ground.

"I'm not made for long-distance flights..." she mumbled against the soil.

"Cozy?" Flurry said, surprised, walking to her. "Are you okay?"

"Yes, I just flew for too long..."

The young alicorn helped her friend to get up, while Maëva silently admired the fact that Flurry had some kind of Cozy-radar that allowed her to sense her arrival in advance. But Sunset wasn't that enthusiastic about it.

"What is she doing here?"

"Well, obviously she was looking for us," Flurry said, looking at Cozy. "I'm surprised by how fast you came, though."

"I was told you were headed for the Ghastly Gorge two days ago," the pegasus explained, brushing off some leaves stuck in her feathers. "I figured that by then you'd be around here. But I didn't expect you to be that fast."

All in the group, aside from Flurry, looked even more suspicious of Cozy. Even Maëva understood that something was off.

"How did you know that we would be here?" Twydra asked.

"Because I knew you wouldn't find the Shadowy Hills, so the island was the only place you could go next."

"That doesn't fully answer the question," Sunset replied. "You knew the Story Bay was around here?"

"Gee, you're not the only one with a map, you know?" Cozy said, rolling her eyes out of exasperation.

"You know we have a map!?" Twydra exclaimed with wide eyes.

"Yes, yes," the pegasus sighed. "And a whole bunch of other things, but I can't tell you right now. I'm not certain about anything, and I don't want to influence your own conclusions. But I think I've actually found the Shadowy Hills by accident."

All three heads looked baffled, while Flurry only giggled before following:

"You'll tell us about that when you think it is time then. We're currently looking for a sunken island."

"I'm glad we have your magic to help us, then," Cozy said, turning to her friend with a smile. "I don't think any of us can breathe underwater."

"We should get going," Maëva suggested. "Before someone finds us and runs away screaming for their life."

Sunset was about to protest, but she looked at Twydra to make sure that she wasn't the only one with a problem here, only to see the third head reluctantly bobbing side to side and sighing, as if to say "whatever, let's just go". So, despite being the official leader here and having trust issues with Cozy, Sunset stayed silent. The two ponies opened the way, and Maëva followed.

The most logical thing was to get to the shore, since they were looking for an island. Though, beyond that, they didn't really know what it might look like.

After a bit of walking along the coast, avoiding the port of Tall Tale nearby and the city altogether, Twydra suggested that, if the island had sunk, it should still be somewhat higher than its surrounding, and so a map of the local seabed could be useful.

"But I don't see why I should be the one going to town for it," Flurry objected to her friend after a small discussion.

"Because you are a princess," Cozy exposed. "If I go, they're going to ask me who I am, or worse, recognize me. Either way, they will say something along the line of why should I give a map to a stranger? But you, they'll be all too happy to help a princess."

Flurry looked away, grumbling, forced to internally admit she was right, saying:

"Fine. Wait here then."

"Take your time," Cozy invited, to the three heads' dismay.

"I'm sick of waiting," Sunset sighed, as the princess was taking off to the city. "The train ride was already boring enough."

"I don't know, I kinda like it when nothing happens," Maëva thought out loud.

"Yeah, that's a change for sure," Twydra added with a bitterer tone directed at Sunset.

"Sorry," the left head apologized. "I don't know what you two have been through."

"Alright," Cozy said, turning to them, suddenly looking serious. "Now that she's gone, we can talk. What did you hear in those ruins?"

Of all the times Sunset would have crossed her arms if she had some, this would have been the one time she would have done it the hardest.

"Oh so now you're showing your true intentions," she said, raising an eyebrow at the least.

"Flurry just hates rehashes, that's why I waited," Cozy boringly explained. "Do I have to repeat the question?"

"He gave us the number eight," Maêva tried to remember. "Said that anything above five was pretty bad news, that we didn't have much time. And then the names of the places."

"He also said that one world was probably already gone," Twydra added, staring at the pegasus.

That last part made Cozy frown and she suddenly looked thoughtful.

"Any idea about which one they're talking about?" Sunset asked. "Is Maëva's world soon to be over?"

"No, I think he was talking about another one," Cozy distractedly said. "From what I've gathered, there are at least three worlds outside of Equestria that were, at some point, linked by portals."

"Three?" Sunset said as she raised her head with surprise. "To think that we only knew about Canterlot High."

"The third one I couldn't find much about," Cozy explained. "But it appears to be the first world that was reached by portals."

"But by gone, he means..." Maëva started.

"Gone," Cozy said with an emphatic sigh. "Ceased to exist. With everything it ever had in it. And I fear the next one might be yours, Maëva. Then, it'll be Canterlot High."

Sunset was outraged at this revelation. She shouted:

"Why didn't you say it sooner!?"

"Because I said I'm not sure about anything," Cozy muttered through gritted teeth. "Those things take time to research, that's why I'm with you now. Now if you'll excuse me."

The young pegasus headed for a nearby tree, lying against it as she continued:

"I had a long flight and I need some rest. Warn me when Flurry is back."

Sunset arched an eyebrow.

"Really? You're going to sleep now?"

"Hey, let me enjoy a rest during a sunny afternoon. We don't get many of those in the Crystal Empire. Especially ones with the sea in the background. "

Cozy closed her eyes, getting comfy against the tree, facing the shore. The three heads looked at each other with a bit of confusion, lost by how the conversation had suddenly ended.

"Sooo, what do we do?" Maëva asked Sunset, since she was in charge.

"For now, we wait," she replied, before biting her cheek. "Can't believe a whole universe disappeared... Without us ever knowing about it."

Twydra's eyes went to Sunset, as a terrible thought had come to her mind.

"... How do you think it looked for its inhabitants? Painful...?"

"A relief, I'd say," Maëva sighed. "If their world has gone, so have their problems."

"That's a bit harsh," Sunset pointed out, raising an eyebrow, finding that extremely out of place from Maëva.

But the middle head looked at her with a strange bored resignation, answering:

"If their world vanished, it probably collapsed before mine. Which means some people in there spent even more time amongst catastrophes, plagues, wars and monsters. Some even their whole lives, with no solutions, no hope in sight, as everything was getting worse. I can't even fathom how worse things could go in my world, but I'm sure glad I'm not there to find out."

"Monsters?" Twydra repeated. "You didn't talk about monsters."

"No one wants to talk about them," Maëva sighed, sitting on the ground as much as her cumbersome body allowed her to. "They appeared... I'd say five years after the Collapse. Randomly coming into existence and disappearing a moment later, without a warning, snatching people along their way."

Twydra's and Sunset's eyes filled with worries. Would that happen to Canterlot High too? Why? Were those monsters the culprits?

"What do they look like?" Twydra risked.

"Weird things, coming out of bad horror stories," Maëva said, her eyes growing distant. "We had big ones first, as in skyscraper-tall. Well, actually we've never seen one of that size in full, only an arm or a gaping mouth would appear, sometimes, crashing down a building or two, before vanishing, never to return again. And nothing made sense on them, long articulations, growths everywhere as if they were some kinds of twisted trees, skin that one could swear was gray yet looked black. Eyes circled with teeth, mouths with irises, just... just a whole lot of scary things, really. Nightmare fuel."

Behind her somewhat usual indifference, Maëva's voice was tainted with a bit of fear, actual fear. Those were unsettling memories for her, not just stories. And the two – or rather three – others listening to her could only empathize. She continued:

"They were coming and going so fast, we couldn't really fight back. No weapons were ready in time. And it stopped, out of nowhere. Then the smaller ones came. They stayed a bit longer, but really it was the same. Just, with house-sized creatures, jumping on people with their strange spring legs, long arms and such. I saw one of them eat a neighbor's cat. And another one ate the neighbor about two weeks later..."

Slightly leaning forward to look at her, Twydra and Sunset exchanged a concerned glance. No wonder Maëva was so weird about dangers and alike. Would those kinds of things come to Canterlot High too?

"... How do you adapt to that...?" Sunset asked, shocked and horrified.

"We don't," Maëva plainly answered. "Thankfully they are not that common. In my town, we had one probably once every month, on average."

"That... still sounds like a lot," Twydra pointed out.

Maëva didn't really have anything to reply this time, instead she just raised her head a little while taking a slow breath in between her non-existent teeth, resisting the urge to say "it is what it is". She still put things into perspective:

"Your world has begun to fall quite recently, so I don't think it will affect you before we sort all of this."

"I hope so..." Twydra muttered. "We've had enough already."

"That'll be fun, if we go to your world to fix the issue," Cozy suddenly said, eyes closed.

"I hope you can bring your magic with you if that's the case," Maëva replied. "If things have gotten worse..."

"We'll see."

It took about two hours for Flurry to come back. A time during which Cozy Glow truly fell asleep, and so did Twydra, while Sunset and Maëva were busy talking about their respective lives. They both realized that, being from very different worlds with drastically opposite circumstances, their future prospects growing up had not quite been... the same. Which made the discussion a bit awkward, for Sunset especially. Thankfully, Flurry came to their rescue.

"Found a map!" the young alicorn proudly said, flying in downwards to the little group, carrying a piece of paper by magic. "And I think our goal is very obvious!"

Maëva stood up and looked at the map displayed by the alicorn. Both her and Sunset had to come really close and squint to see anything, since it was pony-sized, not hydra-sized.

Maëva had never read an ocean map, but this one was pretty explicit. The shore was east, with shallow waters, and the contour lines clearly showed the seafloor going down as it went deeper into the ocean. Aside from one very specific location. The lines drew a series of concentric ellipsoids, showing a raised spot in the sea.

"I can't read the scale, is it big?" Sunset wondered.

"Less than a kilometer in diameter," Flurry answered. "That explains why there's no story about it sinking, it wasn't that big."

"How are we going to get there?" Maëva asked. "Can hydras breathe underwater?"

"No, we'll use magic," Flurry explained.

"I should have guessed that..." the middle head said with a bored face. "Is magic your answer to everything?"

"Yes," Sunset and Flurry replied at the same time.

"Well, at least magic in all its different forms," Sunset nuanced, bobbing her head. "Friendship, love, chaos, and so on."

"Ah, right, you told me about that," Maëva remembered.

"We'll just have to wake up the two sleepy ones and-"

Flurry suddenly stopped mid-sentence, looking at the rightmost head with surprise, whispering:

"How is she doing that?"

Maëva and Sunset followed her gaze, only to see Twydra's head, perfectly standing straight as if she was awake, yet she was still sleeping. A big snore confirmed that.

"Because hydra heads are supposed to take turns sleeping," Cozy suddenly said, one eye open for a few seconds already. "The body can move and the heads will follow."

"You knew?" Maëva asked, surprised.

"I had a hunch," the pegasus shrugged, before stretching against the tree.

"How many things does she know but won't tell exactly?" Sunset mumbled with a contained resent.

"I think we still have to wake her up," Flurry pointed out, flying up to the sleeping head. "Ayo, Twydra?"

"I'll fix it!" she suddenly jumped, awakening, before looking around, confused. "I... Where...? Oh, right. Hydra, third head."

"Welcome back," Sunset said with an empathetic smile. "We have our map, we know where to search."

"Oh, that's..." she yawned. "That's great. Sorry, can't cover my mouth."

Cozy suddenly took off, flying to the shore, saying:

"Let's go now. Good luck with the spell, Flurry !"

"On it!" the young alicorn replied, right behind her.

"Follow them," Sunset told Maëva. "I'm sure those two will forget about us if we're too slow."

Maëva began to walk, up to the shore. But the two flying ponies went beyond and, once above the sea, Flurry cast a spell. A big, yellowy translucent boat appeared in mid-air, heavily falling on the waves, splashing the hydra on the shore. Sunset and Twydra winced, closing their eyes because of the salty water in it, but Maëva was looking at the magical boat with shock. It looked like an old galleon, but that thing was big. Flurry landed on the deck, shouting at them:

"Get on board now!"

"Alicorn magic, I swear..." Sunset mumbled.

A large plank deployed itself from the deck and drove itself into the sand at the hydra's feet.

Author's Note

Busy with a lot of things currently, including participations to the Cozy Glow contest.
It's... funny how casual I am about this fic, tbh. I should probably go back to the start and reword bit by bit with a more serious attitude, especially towards emotion descriptions as I feel I'm really lacking that in this one. Idk.
That' doesn't mean I'm not taking this one seriously though.