It was summertime in Ponyville, and the blazing sun was beating down its scorching rays upon the few ponies who dared to venture outside in the searing heat. Despite their best attempts the weather patrols all across Equestria couldn’t fight off this record breaking heat wave. Some ponies reported trees spontaneously bursting into flames in villages further to the south.
Everypony was hoping for rain. It hadn’t rained in over 3 months. The plants were all dried up. Sweet Apple Acres was greatly suffering from the drought. Very few apples were growing, and no pony was buying the few that were.
Twilight Sparkle and friends sat at the schoolyard, hoping to enjoy a nice, cool picnic, but the sun had alternate plans. The sweltering heat had made quick work of their food, turning it into mush before they could even remove it from the baskets.
“Aw man,” Rainbow Dash proclaimed with an irritated moan, “The day’s so hot that I can’t even take flight! I can’t even stay on a cloud, the heat scatters it too fast!”
“Dang nab it, this has gotta be the worst apple harvest in Apple family history!”
“The humidity is making my beautiful mane all frizzy. My new sundress is going to get all sweaty. It’s so hot!” Rarity whined.
“Cheer up everypony! It’s summer time!” Pinkie yelled in excitement. “Turn those frowns upside down.”
“Ah can’t wait until it starts gettin cooler again in the fall. “ Applejack said fanning herself with her hat.
“ I may be cold blooded, but the heat is getting to me too.” Spike complained.
“According to my thermometer, it is exactly one hundred and fourteen degrees outside.” Twilight said squinting at her thermometer.
“The animals are so hot that they’re starting to fry. Please Rainbow Dash, you have to do something,” Fluttershy begged quietly.
Rainbow Dash looked down upon her and whispered, “No, I can’t just change the weather. It’s not my job to decide the weather. I can’t do anything. Besides, I can’t even fly, it not cold enough.”
Everypony groaned. The sweltering sun was beating down on everypony’s heads.
“This park isn’t much fun when the weather is like this. The hot metal slide burns my butt.” Spike said rubbing his tail.
“I wish there was some way to cool ourselves down,” Twilight said.
“I have an idea! Let’s go to Carousel Boutique!” Pinkie Pie yelled. She bounced up and down like a kangaroo.
“Well, I have sunhats. It helps provide some shade,” Rarity said.
“Ah can agree with you there sugarcube, but under this sun, shade might not be enough.” Applejack said as she wiped dots of sweat from her brow.
“Well, it does help,” remarked Twilight”Let’s go.”
“Let’s go!” hollered Rainbow wasting no time getting a head start.
As soon as they arrived to Carousel Boutique, Rarity retrieved the promised sunhats.Though they all began to realize how pointless the hats were now that they were inside.
“Mah hat works better than these.” Applejack replied putting her cowgirl hat back on.
“I wish that the animals had their own personal hats. It would help,” Fluttershy muttered.
Just as they were beginning to enjoy the cool shade of the great indoors, a sudden jump in temperature that generated much discomfort. All eyes quickly shifted towards Spike who was covering his mouth with both claws. Twilight having witnessed this many times already knew that Spike was about to spit up a letter from the princess accompanied by some loose flames. She realized that the dragon was fighting as best he could from increasing the temperature any further, by holding his flames in. But all was for naught, as he couldn’t win a battle against his draconic nature.
*BURP* From amidst the ensuing tongues of fire that escape spikes mouth a letter begins to form out of the ashes.
“Spike! Say excuse me.” Rarity nagged.
“I can’t help it!” Spike said letting out an extra flame. “Is it hot in here, or is it just me?”
“Let’s just hope that the princess has an arctic mission for the Elements of Harmony this time.” commented the orange mare as she began to fan herself rapid with her hat.
Levitating the letter before her, Twilight unfurled the scroll and read it aloud to her friends.
My Dearest Student Twilight,
I heard about the weather there in Ponyville. I guess that you and your friend are burning. This is why I am giving you and your friends tickets to the Aphotic Water Park that just opened outside of Manehattan. I want you to spend a day with your friends there. I also added three more tickets to you can invite three more friends or family members. This is for being my best student. I hope you have a wonderful time at the Aphotic Water Park.
-Princess Celestia
“OH MY GOSH! WE ARE GOING TO A WATER PARK! THIS IS THE BEST DAY OF MY LIFE!” Pinkie yelled, overjoyed in excitement.
“That sounds exciting,” Fluttershy muttered.
“Twilight is it okay if ah invite my sister and her friends to come with us? Ah can’t imagine leavin’ them behind in Ponyville while we go have fun.” Asked AJ.
“We have three extra tickets. Why not?” Twilight answered.
“Thank ya’ mighty kindly, Twilight. Ah’m off to tell ‘em the good news.” Applejack said gratefully. She went off to find Apple Bloom and her friends.
“Yes! I can probably use this time to relax by the pool!” Rainbow said imagining the possibilities.
“I hope I don’t get my mane all wet.” Rarity said.
“Well, don’t worry, Rarity. Your mane looks beautiful even if it’s wet,” Spike said dreamily. Twilight smirked at Spike.
“The first thing I’m going to do is dive in the pool!” Spike added.
“Maybe I’ll dip my hooves in the water.” Rarity said.
“Well ponies, let’s meet at the train station in two hours.,” Twilight announced. With that everypony went off to get what they needed.
The rows of windows that lined both walls of the train turned the cabin into an oven, as the harsh sunlight flooded in. Only once the train had begun it’s departure from the station did the breeze from the open windows offer relief. But with all the windows down the confined space quickly turned into a windtunnel when the train hit top speed. Fighting against the wind they managed to close enough windows to stop the maelstrom inside the cabin. With the wind gone the temperature began to rise again along with their impatiences.
“Are we there yet?” Pinkie Pie complained.
“Patience is a virtue, Pinkie,” Twilight said.
“Let’s do something to pass the time.” Applebloom said.
“Let’s sing a song. 99 BUCKETS OF OATS ON THE WALL! 99 BUCKETS OF OATS! TAKE ONE DOWN, PASS IT AROUND! 98 BUCKETS OF OATS ON THE WAAAAALLL!!!” Sweetie Belle sang.
“SHUT UP!” screamed a rude unicorn in the back of the train car they were in.
“Hey! You don’t speak that way to my friends!” Rainbow Dash shouted.
“JUST SHUT YOUR YAP!,” the same mare snapped.
Due to this interruption, the rest of the train ride was spent in an angry silence.
They soon arrived in Manehattan.
“Wow! So this is Manehatten,” Twilight said amazed by the sight.
“Maybe we’ll go see Bab Seed on the way home,” Applejack said.
“Do ya really think so, sis?” Apple Bloom spoke.
“Actually, ah think we’ll be seein’ her sooner than we thought,” chuckled AJ
Before Apple Bloom could give a response a familiar voice came from behind her. “Why don’t you look behind yourself once in awhile, cos. I’ve been standing behind you for two minutes now.”
“BABS!” Apple Bloom yelled as they ran next to each other. “Still crusading for your cutie mark?”
“You know it cos, I‘ve even found some potential members for our Manehatten branch.”
“Oh, do you need me to make you some more crusading capes Babs?” Chimed in Sweetie Belle as she and Scootaloo ran over to their fellow fillies.
While the fillies were busy catching up on their attempts to find their destiny the mare busied themselves hailing a taxi cart to take them to the park. It didn’t take long for the six young mares to catch the attention of a nearby taxi pony or two. They were soon on their way to the park, though the downtown rush hour hindered them greatly.
Rainbow began to tap her hoof before loudly proclaiming, “Hurry up! I want to get to the water park! I’m dying here!”
Turning right at the next stop the taxi pony pulled up to the water parks ticket both. Rainbow gave a sheepish grin. She hadn’t realized they were seconds away from their destination. Everypony chipped in a few bits to pay the cab driver before filing out of the taxi.
They turned toward the park. Even from the outside, it look massive, and nopony in the group could help but gape at the enormity of it all. There was a gigantic sign in three different shades of dark purple that read in big, bold letters APHOTIC WATER PARK. Behind the sign was a large black gate, which served as the entrance. Beyond the gate, they could see a humongous pool, the shallowest part of which seeming to be nothing more than a wading pool, and the deepest part of which looking like a dark, bottomless pit. From what they could see, there were about 5 different diving boards of all different heights, 3 separate water slides, each seeming to have a design more insane and terrifying than the last, two jacuzzis, and at least 25 lifeguards on duty.
The astonished silence was finally broken by none other than Pinkie Pie, who shouted, “Well what are we waiting for?! LET’S GO IN LICKETY SPLIT!”
Twilight shook her head to get over her amazement before nudging the rest of her friends and leading them up to the ticket booth just outside the gates.
The ticket booth was being run by an Earth pony, a young mare with a faded orange coat, candy red mane, emerald green eyes, and a golden ticket for a Cutie Mark. She was wearing a blue vest that was presumably her uniform.
“Welcome to the coolest place on earth, Aphotic Water Park!” the clerk at the ticket stand said with a smile, “What can I do for you?”
“Oh, we received tickets to this park from Princess Celestia,” Twilight said flashing the tickets. The clerk examined them for a bit to check their authenticity before deciding the tickets were real and returning them to Twilight.
“Enjoy the wonders!” said the clerk as she opened the gates. The fillies trotted into the park. Just inside the gates, there was a cloaked mare, whose dark gray muzzle was all that was visible, who was staring straight at Twilight.
The mare smiled creepily. “Enjoy your time, my beloveds.”
Twilight made an uneasy glance at the pony before trotting off. That was a rather odd encounter, but she wasn’t too worried. She just wanted to cool off from the heat.
The Cutie Mark Crusaders quickly ditched their sweaty sun hats and jumped into the pool.
“Ah wanna go on the water slides!” Apple Bloom exclaimed.
“Let’s cool off a bit first. The lines to the water slides are so long.” Spike said leaping into the refreshing pool.
“I wonder if there are any sea creatures in the pool,” Fluttershy wondered aloud as she dipped a hoof into the water to test it before stepping in.
“That’s ridiculous, dahling. There are no sea creatures in a pony made swimming pool.” Rarity chuckled as she dipped her hooves in the pool. Pinkie Pie splashed Rarity playfully with a cannon ball.
“Not to mention the chlorine in the water make it impossible for creatures to live in it.” added Twilight as she walked by.
“Oh,” Fluttershy mumbled with a hint of disappointment in her voice, looking slightly downtrodden.
Twilight trotted up to one of several poolside lounge chairs and took a seat. She retrieved a book from her bag, Starswirl the Bearded’s Encyclopedia of Experimental Spells, and began to read. Rainbow Dash snuck in front of her and splashed her.
“Rainbow! You got my book all wet!” Twilight cried. Rainbow started laughing.
“Twilight we’re at a water park! Only an egghead would bring a book here.” chided the pegasus
“Well, I happen to enjoy reading when I relax,” Twilight defended.
“But this is your chance to hang out with your friends. Don’t just sit here all day and be an egghead.” Rainbow tried to convince her to come into the water and forget about her book.
“Well, if you insist. I mean, it does sound fun,” Twilight tried to slowly lower herself into the water, but recoiled when the water felt too cold.
“Here, let me help you!” Rainbow flew out of the water and came up behind Twilight before pushing her in.
“Hahaha, very funny,” Twilight said as she recovered from being pushed in, “How about a little rain on your parade?” She splashed Rainbow, igniting a small splash war between the two mares.
“Allow me show y’all how its done in the Apple family,” Applejack interjected.
Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash look in the direction of the voice just in time to see a big wave of water heading towards them. They were completely soaked by the surprise attack by Applejack. Rainbow started to flap her wings as hard as she could, effectively splashing both Applejack and Twilight. Neither Applejack nor Rainbow noticed Twilight’s horn glowing until it was too late. They both looked up at the large ball of water Twilight was levitating above them. They took a quick breath before Twilight released water, drenching them both.
“Okay, okay! You win, Twi!” Rainbow proclaimed, sending all three mares into giggle fits.
Elsewhere, the Cutie Mark Crusaders were enjoying their time on the slides. Babs Seed and Apple Bloom were the first to go down the slides. They dropped into the pool as fast as bullets. Screams of terror erupted upon the arrival of Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo from another slide. Once they reach the end and went into the water, they laughed.
“NEXT TIME, SWEETIE BELLE IS GOING WITH ONE OF YOU TWO! I LIKE BEING ABLE TO HEAR!” the young orange pegasus unintentionally yelled, having been rendered incapable of hearing the volume of her own voice.
It was a fun filled day for all, but as all good things do it had to come to an end. The princesses were about to perform their twin duties of bring about the close of another day. Despite this the CMC demanded that they stay until the very last minute to try and find their water park cutie marks, but with a long trip home ahead Applejack tried her best to convince them otherwise.
With the agreement of ice cream once they got back the CMC began to collect up their things. Twilight was busy jotting down some notes on hydrodynamics compared to aerodynamics in pegasi, based on her close observation of Rainbow’s movements through the water.
“Hey sis, since it’s such a long ride home can we take one more quick dip? PLEASE!” pleaded Apple Bloom, desperate for a little more time to play with the other Crusaders.
“Ah don’t see why not, but make it quick Apple Bloom.”
“Why don’t we all go in one last time, eh?” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, “I know I’d certainly like to.”
“Last one in is a chimichanga!” shouted Pinkie Pie, already halfway into one final cannon ball.
Rarity climbed up the ladder of the tallest diving board. She jumped off, maneuvering her body into a graceful dive, garnering applause from Pinkie, who pulled a scorecard with a 10 on it out of nowhere. While they were all enjoying their last few minutes in the cool waters the sky suddenly grew dark. Looking skyward, the ponies witnessed a very rare occurance in Equestria. A solar eclipse.
“That’s funny,” Twilight thought to herself, “The princesses didn’t mention anything about planning an eclipse today...”
“Oh lookie, the waters changing colors!” Pinkie Pie proclaimed, sounding proud of her observation.
“I must say some of these shades are simply marvelous,” Rarity announced, “I MUST make a dress with this color when I get back to my boutique!”
A sudden tug of what felt like a rip tide made them forget the melting pot of colors around them. Fluttershy screamed as she went under without warning, almost as if something had purposely dragged her into the depths. Rainbow immediately took initiative and dived down after her friend in an attempt to save her, but was ultimately dragged down with her. The pull of the water began to spiral, creating a full blown whirlpool, that began to suck the other ponies toward it. Rarity and Pinkie screamed loudly, clinging tightly to each other as they were pulled in. The Crusaders splashed about futilely, only managing slightly disrupt their inevitable engulfment. Twilight attempted to use her magic to pull everypony out of the pool, but she couldn’t focus in the clamor. Applejack tried to use her unbridled strength to break away, but the suction was too powerful, not even she could resist it.
Suddenly, everything went completely black for the ten ponies.
Applejack was the first to awaken, being the strongest and toughest mare out of the entire group. She rubbed a hoof to her temple to attempt to soothe her throbbing headache. As she attempted to get up, she found she couldn’t get a hold of anything solid to help her, not even the ground. She opened her eyes, already adjusted to the darkness, but she still had a bit of trouble seeing. She found that she was actually floating several inches above the ground!
“WHAT IN TARNATION?!” she screamed as she flailed uselessly in midair. She paused her flailing momentarily when she noticed something else. Her forelegs seemed to be translucent and her hind legs seemed to have been replaced by an ethereal, flowing tail.
This panicked cry stirred the others out of their water filled dreams. Seconds after awakening, Pinkie Pie was already cheery.
“Let’s do that again!” she shouted delightfully. She quickly looked around, and noticed her tail was on fire! Quicker than a bolt of lightning she had her tail in the water, but quickly withdrew it as jolts of pain ran up her spine. She panicked, and screamed, but noticed that whatever she did, she was emitting wave after wave of flames! She forced herself to calm down. That fire could hurt her friends! She couldn’t possibly let that happen!
A sudden jump in temperature around her woke the groggy Sweetie Belle up from her slumber. Like the others before her she panicked, not because she was on fire or in the air, but because she was still under water! Fear of drowning sent her into a frenzy to reach the surface. With speed outstripping her expectations she launched herself out of the pool she was in. She was quickly overcome by a new fear the fear of falling, but all she could do was close her eyes and hope she landed on something soft.
“Omph!” came a voice from beneath Sweetie Belle. Looking beneath her she saw a mix of yellow and red fur.
“Would ya hurry up and get off a me, Ah can’t breathe!”
“Apple Bloom is that you?”
“Why of course it’s me silly who did you.... think...”
It was a brief moment of silence amongst all the chaos as the two fillies stared at each other in complete shock. The silence didn’t live long as startled screams ripped out of their throats at each others appearance. This woke up the last two members of the crusaders who were surprisingly close by, upon seeing the others appearances even Scootaloo and Babs joined in the screaming.
“Apple Bloom, you, you look like some sort of werepony from a scary story!” shouted Scootaloo who was checking her own changes out. “Am I some sort of lizard?”
“Sorry Scoots I don’t think you’re a lizard... more like a dragon,” commented Babs, “So Apple Blooms a Wolfpony and Scootaloo’s a dragon pony, so what type of cool looking pony am I?”
“How about a plant pony cous’.”
“Oh you have got to be kidding. Even Sweetie Belle gets to be a shark pony, why didn’t I turn into something awesome like that?”
“Wait, I’m a shark pony?”
“Why don’t we just go take a look at our reflections to see what we’ve become instead of telling each other.”
Scootaloo’s suggestion was quickly accepted as the four fillies trotted over to the smooth waters of the pool to take a look at their new selves. What Scootaloo had said about her was true she had somehow turned into a wolf pony. Apple Bloom’s normally short coat was now rather long and fluffy like Winona’s fur. On top of that her front teeth seemed longer and more jagged than before, but nothing compared to the teeth that Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo had.
Out of all of them Sweetie Belle had the most intimidating teeth by far. Rows upon rows of razor sharp teeth lined her mouth. Her coat and mane had an unusually wet looking gloss to it and her normally curly tail had transformed into a pink colored shark tail. She also had some strange lines along her neck that seemed to move every time she breathed. Earlier she found breathing difficult, but when she neared the water she discovered that she could breath better in the moist air.
Unlike the others Scootaloo was quite enjoying her new looks. What was not to like about being an awesome dragon, with this she was almost as cool as Rainbow Dash, she thought...almost. The ability to expel a purple flame only made it cooler.
“Hey watch where you’re aiming Dragonloo, some of us are flammable now!” Babs yelled as she jumped back from the fire breathing dragon pony.
Out of all the fillies Babs was the only one that truly hated her new form, she was now indeed a living plant. With reddish leaves and grasses making up her mane and a smooth silk like bark that was now her coat. Babs felt way too much more girly in this form than she would’ve liked.
Twilight awakened with a surprise. She couldn’t think. Why couldn’t she think? It was confusing her greatly. All she actually knew was that her arm was laying right next to her, covered in blood.
Rarity felt shivers. She felt wet. She opened her eyes to find that she was covered in slime. “EEEEEWWWWW!” She screamed as if her life was dependent on it. She paused for a second. What was that taste in her mouth? Going against her usual lady-like manners, she spat whatever was in her mouth into the ground. It was more slime. “EEEEEWWWWW!” She stamped in place a few times in disgust before slipping. She had slipped in some slime that had fallen off her in her small tantrum. She opened her eyes to see a large jagged rock sticking through her. She started to understand. She wasn’t covered in slime, she was made of slime. “... EEEEEWWWWW!!”
Fluttershy opened her eyes, blinking a few times. She knew it was dark, but somehow, she found it all too bright. She glanced at her friends. She suddenly found herself overcome by a strange thirst for blood. She frantically began looking around. She was ravenous, and she really wanted that blood. Her eyes finally landed on Twilight’s disembodied arm and her blood spilled all over the ground. Fluttershy flew over quicker than anypony thought was possible and started drinking Twilight’s spilled blood.
“Could you all tone it down?” Rainbow groaned. She tried to lift herself up, but found it exceedingly difficult. She opened her eyes, not without a bit of difficulty, and glanced slightly left. Wait, was her foreleg made of stone? She strained herself to get up, and looked into the water at her reflection. She was- she was a rock golem?! She would’ve screamed like all the others, but she couldn’t find her voice in this new, extremely heavy body of hers.
“Everypony calm down!” Twilight yelled. “If we are going to get out of this then we have have to remain calm.” Everypony looked at Twilight and became silent.
“Twilight?” Applejack stated as if she was asking a question, “Ya know you’re a zombie, right?”
“I- I’m a zombie?” Twilight stammered. She felt like she knew what that was supposed to mean, but she couldn’t quite remember. “Th- that doesn’t matter right now. We need to stay calm about this, though.”
“OOOOHHH! WHAT AM I, WHAT AM I!?” Pinkie excitedly shouted, forgetting that getting fired up could possibly hurt her friends. Everypony ducked at the sudden surge of flames emanating from the pink pony.
“Pinkie Pie, calm down!” Rainbow yelled, using her stone body to safeguard their friends.
“I’m going to guess, a living bonfire,” Scootaloo said.
“Wait, I think I’ve read about something like her in a Daring Do book,” Rainbow said, “Something called a Fire Elemental, I think.”
“Well, whatever we are, ah think we ought to find a way out of this place,” Applejack said, an air of rationality about her, “Where even are we?”
The ponies looked around at their surroundings. They looked like they were still in Aphotic Water Park, but looking up or a glance outside the entrance gate told them otherwise. The world outside was nearly pitch black, and they could see even darker figures moving in the darkness.
“This place seems scary,” Fluttershy worried. She realized that, as a vampire, the dark was good for her, but she still retained her fearful personality.
“What’s scary is my appearance! My mane is completely ruined by this gooey makeover!” Rarity exclaimed in utter disgust.
“No, what’s scary is Pinkie Pie,” Babs said in fear, acknowledging that Pinkie’s fire would consume her plant pony body in seconds.
“Don’t worry everypony, we will find a way out of this mess. We just need to figure out why we are here,” Twilight said calmly, “Um... Can anypony figure out why we’re here? I’m having trouble thinking...”
“Maybe because your brain is over there, Twilight,” chimed Sweetie Belle as she flung her hoof in the direction of a rotting gray object floating in the pool.
“Ooh! I’ll get it!” Pinkie Pie shouted, jumping into the pool. She immediately jumped out, screaming in agony at the water’s touch. She had to force herself to calm down again after realizing she was once again bursting with flames.
Sweetie Belle stepped up to the water, smoothly stating “Don’t worry. I got this.” She hopped in, her shark body quickly taking to the water. She swam towards Twilight’s brain with frightening speed, and flicked it out of the water with her tail, with it landing directly into Twilight’s open head.
“Nice shot!” Scootaloo exclaimed, “Hey, maybe you can get your Cutie Mark in being a shark pony!”
“By Celestia’s beard, please don’t let my special talent involve being a plant pony,”groaned Babs at the very idea of that happening.
“W- wait a second! I’ve heard about this!” Pinkie Pie shouted, jumping to her feet and everypony, besides Applejack and Rainbow Dash, jumping into the pool to avoid the wall of flames.
“Wh- what do you mean, Pinkie? Do you mean to say you know something about this strange world we’ve appeared in?” Twilight inquired. Pinkie Pie just nodded slowly.
“We’ll just be chilling in here while you tell us Pinkie, no offense or anything,” said Babs, slightly growing in the water. Pinkie nodded a second time in acknowledgement.
“W- well, when I was a little filly, I heard a story that frightened the pink out of me! I heard that our world had a mirror world... A hidden world of darkness and monsters...” Pinkie’s voice nearly died down to a whisper and she shivered in fear and her flames turned blue. “Th- they say that when you go to this world of monsters, you’ll be turned into a monster yourself... Not only that, you’ll be turned into a monster that is your exact opposite, as a challenge for your mental stability... I- I also heard that there’s only one way to escape... You have to defeat the seven overlords of this world, for they all guard a piece of the key to escape...”
