It began so suddenly that nobody saw it coming.

The ship seemingly appeared from nowhere, bearing down upon the city like a tidal wave. Its horn blaring at full volume like the shrieks of lost souls, forever doomed to sail the seas forever. As it approached, the city bridges were down. Nothing could have fitted underneath them with a ship of that size.

The ship had no intention of stopping, however, and simply crashed through them. Its decks were manned with ghostly figures, and they had no intent of showing mercy to the living. The weapons of the ship continued to fire upon anything that moved. Civilians were fired upon. Buildings were shelled. Explosions rocked the sides of the city, and damaged structures severely and shipping alike.

The rampage continued, unabated, for over an hour, until the military could rally its forces and sink it in the seas. The mysterious ship plummeted to the bottom, seemingly gone for good along with its mysterious crew.

But the story didn't end there. Legend has it that the ship is still there, waiting at the bottom of the sea. Waiting for somebody to lift her from the depths of the oceans. And then, she will have her revenge...

"And that's the story of the USS Nightmare!" Izzy finished, as she and her friends sat on the beach.

Sunny blinked. "Another ghost story? Just how many ghost stories do you know?"

Izzy shrugged. "I may have embellished some of the details, but the gist of the story is as presented. Besides, stories like this have elements of truth to them." She threw some sand into the air. "Besides, could you imagine seeing an actual ghost ship? It may happen, touch wood."

Sunny shook her head. "We don't have any wood here. And given that a ghost train stalked my mom and tried to kill me, I'm in no mood to meet ghost machines any time soon. Dad did do some research on myths and legends, though."

"I know!" Izzy said. "I saw them in his study. Though he does keep them apart from the scientific books for some reason..."

"He uses the Dewey Decimal System to organise his bookshelf."

"But who wouldn't want to sail the sea and see exotic new places?" Izzy asked, as she showed Sunny something new. "The seven seas and four oceans call to some like a lover with open arms! Salty would know."

"Hey Sunny!" Hitch called. "Why are you down on the beach?"

"Izzy's showing me something!" Sunny replied, before turning back to Izzy. "Salty's never left the UK. I know he talks like a pirate, but he's never been to a foreign country. Mainly because he's scared of meeting actual pirates."

For those of you wondering precisely what is going on, the Falmouth crew had been invited to Swanage for Thanksgiving, as a way of saying thank you for the previous year's invitation to Falmouth for Swanage residents. The sun was quite shiny, but overall the weather was fairly pleasant for November.

And they were on the beach because of something Izzy had found.

Izzy showed this something to Sunny. "I found this whilst walking along the beach," she grinned. "I tripped over it and noticed the odd shape, so began to read it. Until I realised it was written in a really funny way." She opened the book to the first page.

Sunny squinted at the text. "Die Vliegende Hollander? I have no idea what that means."

Just then, Zipp arrived and leaned in at the text. "I'm not sure what language that is either," she sighed. "It certainly isn't any that I speak." She tried to read some of it. "Dit is het verhaal van de Vliegende Hollander, een figuur wiens naam door de zeeën spookt. Als je hem ziet, bereid je dan voor op gevaar."

"You'd be really good at reading audiobooks, Zipp!" Izzy said.

Sunny put her hand to her chin. "I don't know what language this is either," she said. "It certainly isn't Cornish. But mom may be able to help here."

"How so, Sunny?" Misty asked, who had suddenly arrived herself.

"She speaks German, and some of the sounds in that passage Zipp just read sound like some of the sounds I've heard mom using when speaking on the phone for business purposes."

"Seems an odd thing to have overheard," Hitch noted.

"Her office is right next to the stairs. It's kinda hard not to."

Suddenly, there was a loud scream. "CAN SOMEBODY HELP ME? THESE SEAGULLS ARE TRYING TO STEAL MY CHIPS!"

"On my way!" Hitch shouted, and dashed over to Pipp.

Sunny picked up the book. "If you don't mind, can I show this to mom?"

"Sure you can, Sunny!" Izzy smiled. "Just make sure to give it back, OK?"

Sunny nodded.

Hitch glanced over to Zipp. "I just went looking in the area where Izzy found that book, and found this." He picked up a bottle and showed it to her.

"Message in a bottle?" Zipp said. "Somebody was sending out an SOS to the world."

"I'm not sure our American readers will get that joke," Hitch said. He removed the piece of paper from the bottle and rolled it out. "It's not a message. It's a map. Showing a very big lake."

"And with no indication of where the lake is," Zipp said, her face scrunching up in confusion. "A key would be really handy. And what's this? Where's Big City Port?"

Pipp and Izzy strolled along the waterfront, back towards the substancial pile that was Purbeck House. "And that, my friend," Izzy finished, "is why you should read them!"

Pipp shrugged. "I've read plenty of ghost stories, Izzy. I have a tradition of doing dramatic readings of spooky stories around Halloween and Christmas. Besides, I get enough of that from mom. She thinks I don't read enough."

"Do you?" Izzy asked.

"I do read... on my phone. I find I can read better on screens!" Pipp pouted. "Don't get me wrong, I appreciate all she's done for me, but things have changed a lot since she was my age. Phones used to look like bricks, for one!" She showed her phone to Izzy. "Not like this slender piece of engineering excellence."

"She probably just worries about you, like any good mom would," Izzy replied, placing a hand on her shoulder.

Pipp sighed. "Thanks, Izz. And I know she'll be there to support me. You comin' to the launch of my new song?"

"What's it about?" Izzy asked.

"It's called Across the Sea, and is about the importance of knowing that, no matter where you are in the world, you aren't alone. I had considered releasing Set your Sail first, but ballads are performing better with my target audience right now. I'll be going live in about an hour, so see you then!"

"Sea ya!" Izzy smiled. "The ocean is a limitless reserve for puns."

Pipp arrived back at home and prepared to enter the door when she suddenly smelled a funny smell. "Can you smell a smell?" she asked Thunder, who was on door duty.

"No, ma'am," he replied. "I can't smell a smell."

Pipp nodded and stepped inside. She walked through to the kitchen- only to find her mother in her boilersuit and currently preparing some sandwiches.

Lady Haven looked over and smiled. "Hello, Pipp! How are you? Is the launch going well?"

Pipp nodded. "Going live in about fifty minutes. But may I ask why you're dressed in... well... your boilersuit?"

Lady Haven sighed. "Myself and Ray have been invited to the Bluebell Railway for their Thanksgiving Steam Spectacular. The original guest engine had to drop out, so we've been asked to help."

Pipp blinked. "That starts on Thursday! That's rather short notice!"

Lady Haven nodded. "I know. But one good turn deserves another. After all, they helped with Ray's overhaul, so I think it's only fair I help them in their hour of need."

Pipp's face fell.

Lady Haven noticed this, and placed her hand on Pipp's shoulder. "I know I said I would be there for the launch, but I'll be there in spirit. I'll have my phone set to the stream, so I'll be watching whilst I'm preparing Ray for running."

Pipp nodded. "Thanks mom. Good luck."

Pipp sat down in the garden and felt somewhat deflated. She knew it was unreasonable to expect her mother to drop everything just because of something she was doing. But she was close to her, and she had said she would be there for the launch.

She looked down. "Maybe I should postpone the launch until after Thanksgiving."

"Hey Pipparoni!" said a familiar voice. Pipp looked up to see Izzy approaching.

"What's the news? The tea?" Pipp asked.

"It's not finished brewing," Izzy said. "But look what I found!" She showed Pipp a small blue stone. "Isn't it pretty?"

As both girls looked at it, the stone suddenly started to glow. There was a bright flash of light, and when it cleared neither Pipp nor Izzy were there.

Their newest adventure had only just begun.

Author's Note

What is up, everypony? Welcome to the newest adventure, which is written to mark two years since I started this setting. As last year, this is another adaptation of the G5 comics, this time focusing on the Set your Sail miniseries released earlier this year.

The story that Izzy tells at the start of the chapter is inspired by a real incident that occurred in 1993, when a dredger broke from its moorings and drifted down the Ohio River, wreaking havoc as it went. The vessel was eventually recovered and turned into a haunted house attraction. I, however, have added the elements about the ship attacking random people; this did not happen in the original incident.

'Touch wood' is a colloquial expression derived from an old superstition that touching a wooden object after making a bold claim will cause that claim to come true. Note that there is no actual requirement to touch wood; merely stating that you intend to do so is enough.

Seagulls stealing chips and crisps (french fries and chips in US parlance) is a problem that has plagued the English seaside for decades. Whilst a recent study shows that seagulls would prefer fish, chips are often easier for them to source (and steal from unsuspecting tourists). One case that made headlines in the UK was that of Steven Seagull, who stole more than thirty packets of crisps in six years.

The sequence with Lady Haven is heavily reworked from the original comic, where Queen Haven essentially voluntells Pipp into visiting the seaponies (despite the fact that Pipp has existing commitments and the letter that Queen Haven receives is riddled with spelling errors that an official communique should not have). The comics have consistently struggled with depicting Queen Haven accurately to her show persona, and she frequently comes across as a bit of an idiotic jerk, missing obvious red flags and dumping responsibilities on her daughters at incredibly short notice, seemingly not caring that they have their own lives. This is especially notable considering a big part of her arc in Make your Mark was accepting Pipp and Zipp have their own lives now. The scene here was part of an effort to fix that and have the character behave more consistently with how I have historically portrayed her.

And now Pipp and Izzy are off on another adventure! Where will they end up?