“It’s a great day to be on the water!” Lucky exclaimed, stretching as far out over the railing as he could to feel the salt-air in his mane. “Eh, Clev?”
“Delightful,” the taller, thinner pony groaned, his face turning a deep shade of green. He pulled his cap down low over his eyes.
“We’ve a fine, strong wind, and an agreeable river,” Salty called in his booming voice from his place at the ship’s wheel. “King WaveRacer must be in a friendly-type mood!”
“King WaveRacer?” Lucky asked skeptically, turning from his view of the water ahead. Beside him, Brandy whined and cocked her head to one side.
“Aye, Lad,” Salty replied with a grin. “Ruler of the MerPonies! I thought every young sailor knew about him.”
“MerPonies?” Clev managed to choke out. “Nonsense. No such thing. Everyone knows that the only pony inhabitants of the river are the Sea Ponies. Lucky, don’t pay any attention to this silly sailor-talk.”
“But it’s true,” Salty insisted, handing the wheel to his first mate and approaching the spot where Clev stood. “I’m telling ya, down in the depths of the river they swim! They live out in the ocean, but they come into the river from time to time. There could be one down there right now!” Excitedly, he pointed one hoof down toward the churning waters below, accidentally knocking Clev’s hat and sunglasses off. Down they fell, hitting the river’s surface with a splash. The glasses disappeared instantly; the cap took a moment to sink below the waves.
“Oh, man!” cried Clev, glowering at Salty. “This is the last time I ever go with Lucky on one of his stupid adventures.”
AquaMarine Palace was packed. The entire MerPony population, along with a variety of Sea Ponies, fish, and other ocean life, had turned out for King WaveRacer’s annual concert. The place was decorated with colorful seaweed streamers, and phosphorescent fish swam about, filling the Grand Concert Hall with glowing light. Whispers of anticipation rose from the crowd; then all were silenced as a dolphin-drawn chariot, driven by the King himself, bolted in. King WaveRacer took his place in the Royal Viewing Box, and the crowd erupted in applause. His shimmery, violet-blue skin and scales, and his pure-white mane, along with the crown symbol he wore proudly on his chest and the royal trident he always carried, gave him an outstandingly regal appearance. He was especially happy and proud tonight, because this was the night his youngest daughter, Pearly, would be making her first appearance in the concert, singing with her older sisters, Sea Princess and Sea Shimmer.
Sebastian, WaveRacer’s official Court Composer, paused by the Royal Viewing Box on his way to the orchestra shell. WaveRacer chuckled when he saw the tiny red crab trying his best to restrain the two guppies that pulled his own little chariot. “I’m really looking forward to this performance, Sebastian!”
Sebastian grinned assuringly. “Oh, yes, sir! Your daughters, they will be spectacular!”
“Especially my little Pearly!” added WaveRacer, a stream of pride entering his voice.
The grin faded from Sebastian’s face and was replaced with a pensive concern that he unsuccessfully tried to hide. “Yes, Pearly. She has the most beautiful voice.” Quickly, he hurried the guppies along. Once he was out of the king’s earshot, he mumbled, “if only she’d show up for rehearsal once in awhile.”
An anticipatory hush blanketed the audience when Sebastian took his place at the conductor’s podium. He raised his wand, paused for a moment for dramatic effect, then brought it down with a whoosh and the orchestra began to play a spirited melody. Spotlights illuminated three huge, glittering oyster shells on the stage. Two of the shells popped open and a small MerPony swam out of each one. They began to sing...
Two small forms swam through the deepest waters of the river, one getting farther and farther ahead of the other. Finally, the slower one, a yellow baby Sea Pony with a bright blue mane, panted, “Pearly, wait up! You know I can’t swim that fast!”
The second form, a pink baby MerPony with a whale symbol on her chest, turned and giggled. “Well, here we are! The Dream Valley River!”
The yellow Sea Pony frowned. “I don’t think we should go any farther,” he insisted. “It looks like the river gets colder down there, and... And it looks really damp! I think I’m coming down with something, some horrible disease, and I don’t know if it would be good for my lungs to go there.” To illustrate his “illness”, he uttered three very fake coughs.
Pearly only laughed and shook her head. “Oh, Flounder! You’re a Sea Pony; you don’t even have lungs! Well, I’m going to continue on all the way to the waterfall, just like I always do. If you don’t want to come, then you can just stay here and, um, watch for diving ponies!”
Flounder nodded. “Okay, yeah. Stay here and watch for diving -- diving ponies!?” Sudden panic came into his voice. “You mean the Little Ponies can swim?”
“Some of them can... I think.” Pearly swam off down the river, her glimmering fins propelling her much faster than Flounder’s thin tail could ever move him. Not wanting to be left behind for any “diving ponies” to discover, he followed her as fast as he could. “Pearly!”
After a moment, Pearly stopped to wait for her friend. “Hey, Flounder, how come you’re so scared of ponies, anyway? I thought Sea Ponies and Little Ponies were friends.”
“Some Sea Ponies are friends with the Little Ponies, but not me! I’ve lived my whole life out in the ocean, and I don’t like coming back into the river like this. Besides, your father told you never to come here!”
“What my father doesn’t know won’t hurt him,” Pearly muttered. “I just want to see some ponies. Maybe we’ll find something for my collection!” She began swimming again, slowly enough for Flounder to keep up.
They traveled quite far down the length of the river without speaking. Then, suddenly, Pearly gasped and stopped short. “Oh my gosh!” she whispered.
“What?” Flounder asked, not knowing what she was looking at.
“Oh my gosh!” Pearly repeated, her voice growing louder. “Have you ever seen anything so wonderful in your entire life?” She grinned as she swam over to Clever Clover’s pink baseball cap, which had settled onto the sand on the river bottom. Laughing with joy, she snatched it up.
“Well, what is it?” Flounder questioned, his voice confused.
“I don’t know... But I bet Duck Soup will!” Pearly looked around. “Oh!” Nearby she had spied Clev’s purple sunglasses. She scooped them up as well. “I wonder what this one is...”
“Look, Pearly, can we just get out of here?” Flounder pressed.
“Flounder, will you relax? Nothing is going to happen. Now, let’s hurry on to the waterfall and find Duck Soup.”
Baby Pearly and Flounder swam carefully under the waterfall, so that none of the ponies bathing near the shore would notice them. Duck Soup was resting on a small stone behind the falls, singing to himself. He jumped when he heard Pearly’s voice calling his name. “Hey, if it isn’t my favorite MerPony! Pearly, how are you doing, kid?”
Her voice brimming with excitement, Pearly said, “Duck Soup, look what we found!” She dumped the hat and glasses onto his rock.
“Pony stuff, huh?” Duck Soup said happily. “Wow, what a load! You’ve had some luck today, kiddo!” Whenever Pearly found something that had once belonged to a pony, she brought it to Duck Soup so that he could tell her what it was for. Duck Soup, however, had a horrible memory. He could never remember what the items actually were. But of course he didn’t want to disappoint Pearly (or look silly) so whenever he didn’t know an answer, he just made one up. He picked up the baseball cap and studied it carefully. “Now this...” he began slowly, stalling for time so that he could think of something to say, “This is very special!”
“What?” Pearly demanded eagerly. “What is it?”
“It’s... a... Goopimacallit!” Duck Soup announced.
“A Goopimacallit!” Pearly repeated in a hushed, awed voice.
“Yup, that’s just what it is!” Duck Soup insisted. “Now, the Goopimacallit is used by the ponies to, um, hold their food while they’re eating.” He spotted a small clump of slimy green seaweed floating by and snatched it up. “Imagine this seaweed was some pony’s delicious dinner,” he explained. “All that pony’d have to do is put it all right in this Goopimacallit, like so, and presto, his dinner’s all neat and clean and portable!” Even as he held up the filled “Goopimacallit” proudly, slime from the seaweed began to ooze through the cap’s thin fabric and drip onto his rock. He quickly dumped the seaweed back into the water. “Of course, since this Goopimaccallit’s been in the water for probably millions of years, you can’t expect it to still be working perfectly!”
“Well, what about that one?” Flounder asked impatiently, pointing his fin toward the pink sunglasses.
“Ah, yes, this one! Now this is... This is amazing! I haven’t seen one of these in years! It’s a Shiny Royal Reacharounder!”
“Oh...” murmured both Pearly and Flounder, equally impressed by the object’s long name.
“Now, the Reacharounder goes back to the days of the Prehysterical Ponies, when the Little Ponies used to wish for the very top apples on the apple trees. Ponies couldn’t jump so well back then, ya see. So they invented this Reacharounder that they could hold up and hook apples with! Notice the curves at each end? However, your Reacharounder seems to have gotten all bent up somewhere along the way. Maybe I can bend it back...” He started tugging the arms of the sunglasses apart, trying to pull them parallel to the lenses. “This is a bit difficult... Maybe if I really concentrate...”
“Concentrate...” Pearly repeated to herself. The word had an oddly familiar ring to it. “Concen... Concert...” Her mouth dropped open in shock and dismay. “Oh, the concert! Oh my gosh, my father’s gonna kill me!”
“The concert was today?” Flounder yelped.
Duck Soup was still trying in vain to straighten out the “Reacharounder.” Pearly snatched it from him, along with the “Goopimacallit,” and said, “I’m sorry, I’ve gotta go! Thanks, Duck Soup!”
She and Flounder were already gone before Duck Soup realized what was going on. He shrugged and called out “Anytime, kiddo, anytime.”
Two gray-blue Sea Ponies were secretly watching Pearly and Flounder as they hurried back to the palace, and through their eyes, someone else was watching as well, on a crystal ball suspended over a cauldron. That same someone was softly cackling. “Yes, Princess, hurry home,” came a voice that was smooth and raspy at the same time. “We wouldn’t want to miss old Daddy’s celebration, now, would we?” The voice turned bitter. “Hah! Celebration, indeed! What sort of celebration will it be without Ursula? We had fantastical feasts when I lived in the palace! And now, look at me... Wasted away to practically nothing; banished and exiled and practically starving!” Ursula’s massive form, half purple pony and half black octopus, slithered around the cauldron. She let its top snap shut and waited for the two gray-blue Sea Ponies to return. When they swam into the cave, Ursula immediately addressed them. “Flotsam! Jetsam! I want you to keep an extra-close watch on that pretty little princess! She may be the key to WaveRacer’s undoing...” Ursula’s voice died away and was replaced with an evil, calculating grin.
Flounder accompanied Pearly as far as the entrance to WaveRacer’s throne room; then his courage gave out and he stayed hovering nervously in the doorway while Pearly approached her father alone. She had wisely hidden her new Reacharounder and Goopimacallit in the hallway so that he would have no reason to believe she had been in the river. Even without this knowledge, he was quite angry.
“Pearly!” he exclaimed as soon as he saw her. “Do you realize that you missed your first public performance today?” His voice rose and he gave her no time to answer before he went on. “How could you not be present for something as important as this?”
Pearly smiled apologetically. “Daddy, I’m sorry,” she said, shrugging. “I just forgot, I-”
WaveRacer was obviously in no mood for excuses. “Because of you, the entire celebration was-”
“Well, it was ruined, that’s all, completely destroyed!” Sebastian spoke up from his perch on the throne’s hoof-rest. Pearly hadn’t noticed him there before, but now that she looked at him, she realized he was even more irritated than her father. Sebastian left his seat and swam up directly in front of her face. “This concert, it was to be the pinnacle of my performing career!” he cried, throwing one claw over his eyes for extra dramatic effect. “But now, thanks to you, I am the laughing stock of the entire kingdom!”
Pearly hung her head; she hadn’t thought that she’d caused so much damage just by missing some silly performance. But at least her father and Sebastian didn’t know where she’d been. If they found that out, they’d both be livid.
In the doorway, Flounder had listened to the scolding of his friend for long enough. Mustering all of his bravery, he swam up between her and Sebastian and announced, “But it wasn’t her fault!” Both Sebastian and WaveRacer looked at him, eyebrows raised, waiting for his explanation. “Well, uh, ya see...” Flounder floundered, “There was, um, this shark, and it chased us! And we were like ‘Whoa!’ and the shark was like ‘Grrr!’ and then we went ‘Whoosh!’ and phew, then we were safe.” He documented his story with exaggerated fin gestures. “And then we got caught in a rip tide and we didn’t get free for miles and miles, and wow, was that ever scary!” He glanced up at his audience and was surprised to discover they seemed to be buying his little tale. His courage got a bit stronger and he decided to stretch it even more. “And when we were free, we found ourselves at a strange waterfall...”
Behind him, Pearly flinched. She tried to nudge him to shut him up, but it was too late.
“And then behind it there was this duck, and he was like ‘Oh, this is this, and that is that!’” Flounder thought his impression of the scatterbrained Duck Soup was quite good. “And-”
“Duck?” WaveRacer shouted, leaping up from his throne.
Flounder threw his fins over his mouth and cowered behind Pearly, who gave him a sarcastic “good job” look before turning back to face her father’s wrath.
“Oh, you’ve been up the river again, haven’t you?” the king accused her. “Haven’t you!”
Pearly tried one more apologetic grin and shrug. “Nothing happened...”
WaveRacer groaned. “How many times do I have to explain this to you, young lady? You can’t go into the river! Why, you might have been seen by one of those barbarians... By one of those PONIES!”
“Daddy, they’re not barbarians!” Pearly protested.
“Do you think I want to see my youngest daughter caught in some fisherpony’s net, or perhaps even captured and brought to live in the pool of that horrendous Paradise Estate?”
“I’m old enough to take care of myself!”
“Well, as long as you live under my ocean, you’ll abide by my rules!” the king ordered. “No more swimming up the river. You’re to stay in the ocean from now on. I don’t ever want to hear of you endangering yourself in the river AGAIN!”
Pearly began to argue, but before she could form her words, she felt tears rush into her eyes. She sobbed and raced out of the throne room, followed by Flounder.
Settling back on his throne, WaveRacer sighed. “Was I too hard on her, Sebastian?”
“Definitely not!” insisted the opinionated crab. “Why, if Pearly were my daughter, I’d show her who’s boss. None of this flitting down the river. I’d keep her under tight control.”
“You’re absolutely right, Sebastian,” WaveRacer agreed, his eyes lighting up with an idea. “Pearly needs constant supervision, and you are just the crab to do it! Watch over her, and let me know if she continues to misbehave.”
“But...” Sebastian began. However, it was clear that the king’s mind was already made up. The crab grimaced and paddled off to follow Pearly. “How do I get myself into these things?” he muttered. “I should be writing symphonies, not tagging along after a juvenile delinquent MerPony-” His mouth clamped shut when he saw Pearly retrieving her new pony treasures in the hall. She scooped up the hat and glasses, looked around surreptitiously, and left the palace with Flounder. Sebastian followed, intrigued.
Pearly kept swimming until she got to what appeared to be a sheer rock wall with a small boulder in front. She and Flounder pushed the boulder out of the way to reveal a narrow opening, which they both squeezed through. Sebastian managed to follow them in before the rock fell back into place. For a moment, he couldn’t see much in the darkened grotto; the only light came from a small hole in the ceiling where refracted sunlight from the ocean’s surface peeked through. But then, as his eyes adjusted to the dim light, he realized in shock that the grotto was full of pony things. Little Pony objects, trinkets and artifacts were piled in every corner, displayed in every available space, hung on every inch of the cave’s rock walls. Sebastian gasped and covered his mouth with both claws. How would he ever explain this monstrosity to King WaveRacer?
Baby Pearly had sunk down onto a large, flat stone, with Flounder floating beside her. “Pearly, are you okay?” he asked worriedly.
She barely even seemed to hear him; she was sadly contemplating the pink baseball cap. “If only I could make him understand,” she murmured, placing the cap beside her on the rock. “I just don’t see things the way he does. I don’t see how a place that makes such wonderful things could be bad.”
Look at this cave,
Filled to the brim
With things I’ve collected
In spite of him
And his rules - Doesn’t he see
The Ponies are grand?
I’ve got so many wonderful treasures
Hidden down here in the deep,
What else could I possibly wish for...
So why do I still want to weep?
I want to be
Where the Ponies are...
I want to see,
Want to see them playing!
Walking around on those...
What do you call them?
Oh, hooves!
Flipping your fins,
You can’t get too far.
Legs are required
For trotting, playing,
Dancing under the
Bright light of the moon!
Up where they trot,
Up where they run,
Up where they
Gallop under the sun!
Cantering free,
Wish I could be
Part of that world!
What would I give,
If I could live
Out of these waters?
What would I pay
To spend a day
In Dream Valley?
Betcha Pony dads
Better understand
That they don’t reprimand
Their daughters...
My heart’s brimming,
I’m sick of swimming
And ready to stand!
And ready to live
Where the Ponies are,
And get some answers!
Like who’s the Moochik,
And what is the Rainbow of Light?
Wouldn’t I like,
Wouldn’t I love,
Love to explore that shore up above?
Out of the sea...
Wish I could be...
Part of that world.
Sitting on a shelf, hidden behind a flower-shaped brush, Sebastian had listened to the entire song. His disbelief had grown with each word. How could the princess have been deceiving her father this way? He was so mad that he forgot his precarious hiding-place and stepped out to have a word with her. On his way he fell and knocked over the brush, which in turn got tangled in the reins of a bridle which had been hung carefully on the grotto wall. Brush, bridle and crab fell to the stone floor in one big, knotted heap. Alerted by the clunk!, Pearly and Flounder both turned around in surprise.
“Sebastian!” Pearly cried in dismay. She had never wanted her secret grotto to be discovered, especially not by someone so close to the king and so prone to tattling.
“Pearly!” Sebastian exclaimed right back, trying his best to free himself from the snarls of the bridle. “What are you-” he got one claw free. “What have you been-” and the other claw was free. Then, as he finally swam out of the mess, he hollered, “What is all this?”
“Um,” Pearly began, averting her eyes, “it’s, um, it’s just my collection.”
“Oh,” Sebastian said pleasantly. “Oh, I see, your collection.” Then his voice exploded with rage. “Why, if your father finds out about this he’s gonna-”
Flounder popped up in front of his face and interrupted him. “You’re not gonna tell him, are you?” he whined.
Pearly joined in the plea. “Please, Sebastian, he would never understand!”
Sebastian could see that there would be no reasoning with either of them. Perhaps it would be better just to get them out of the grotto for now, and to worry about what to tell the king later. “Pearly, you’ve been under a lot of stress lately,” he said reassuringly, grabbing one of her front hooves in his claws and trying to drag her toward the entrance to the cave. “Come with me, we’ll go back to the palace and you can rest...” His voice trailed off as he glanced up and noticed that the single tiny opening at the top of the grotto, where plain sunlight usually glittered through, had somehow become painted with a collection of moving, swirling colors. Looking back at Pearly, he realized she had seen it too, and he grimaced.
“What do you suppose...” she murmured, pulling her hoof free and swimming upward toward, and then right through, the opening. Flounder followed, with Sebastian holding onto his mane to keep up.
Pearly reached the surface first. She shook her head from side to side to get her mane out of her eyes, and then she looked up at the sky and gasped. Deep twilight had fallen and the sky was glowing with bright, sparkling starbursts of color that were accompanied by brief, but loud and startling, bangs. She had never before seen a display of fireworks.
Flounder and Sebastian surfaced a moment later. “Pearly, what are you...” Sebastian began, and then he, too, gasped as a rocket exploded into a huge purple flower. “What’s going on?” he cried.
The fireworks were being launched from the direction of the river. Without another thought, Pearly giggled and took off toward the river’s mouth. Within seconds, she was too far away for Flounder to follow. Sebastian stared after her in alarm. “Pearly!” he yelled. His voice was lost over the lapping waves.
It didn’t take very long for an expert swimmer like Baby Pearly to travel the length of the river. Following the colors of the fireworks, she soon found herself near the waterfall again. However, it looked quite different from when she had been there that morning. The area along the bank had been decorated with colored lights, streamers, presents, and balloons. In one small, roped-off section, she could see two ponies, one a glittery blue with a rocket symbol and the other a unicorn with purple fireworks as her symbol, getting ready to launch the next pyrotechnic amazement. All the adjoining fields were filled with ponies talking, playing, laughing, and having fun. The sight was fascinating to Pearly; she climbed up on a rock, safely out of view of the party-goers, and rested her chin in her front hooves while she watched.
Then the ponies all became suddenly quiet for a moment before bursting into simultaneous song. Pearly realized that this was a birthday party, but for who? She strained her neck trying to see.
The crowd parted to let the guest of honor through to the gifts that lined the shore. Just as they sang “Happy Birthday, Dear Lucky,” Pearly caught her first glimpse of the birthday boy. Her jaw dropped. The all-blue pony with the purple horseshoe symbol and the natty bowtie was the most handsome pony she’d ever seen. Running next to him was a little tan dog wearing a party hat, but Pearly barely noticed this. She was too busy staring, wide-eyed, at Lucky.
She came to her senses just after Lucky was served the first piece of birthday cake, when she heard a loud quack behind her. “Hey, Pearly!”
She turned and shushed Duck Soup, who had climbed up on her rock. “Duck Soup, be quiet, they’ll hear you!” she implored.
“Oh, I get it,” Duck Soup whispered dramatically. “We’re being secretive. Doing a little spying.” His voice rose to its usual eager shout again. “We’re out to discover-”
Pearly reached up and clamped his beak shut with her hooves before he could give away her hiding place. When she was sure he understood, she let him go and turned back to the party. “I’ve never seen a boy pony this close before,” she sighed, staring at Lucky again. “Oh, he’s very handsome, isn’t he?”
“Well, I don’t know,” Duck Soup argued, looking in the general direction Pearly had been gaping. He studied the tan puppy for a moment and shook his head. “He looks kinda furry and slobbery to me.”
Pearly giggled. “Not that one!” she corrected him, reaching over and turning his head so that he could focus on the real object of her affection. “The one eating that spongy-looking stuff off of the Goopamacallit.”
On shore, Clever Clover stepped free from the crowd and approached Lucky. “And now, I want to present a birthday gift to my best friend,” he said, proudly placing a flat box wrapped in bright blue and purple paper at Lucky’s feet.
“Hey, thanks, Clev!” Lucky exclaimed, tearing away the paper and tossing the lid of the box to the side. “You didn’t have to do that...” he rummaged through mountains of tissue paper until he came to the present. It was a framed photograph of himself and Clever Clover, taken several months before when they had both gone to the Harvest Festival. Clev stood grinning in the foreground of the shot while Lucky was squashed into the background and was turned looking away from the camera. Lucky remembered that picture; he hadn’t realized it was being taken and he hated it. It made him look like an idiot. Clev, however, had adored it because it was a nice shot of him. “You really, really didn’t have to,” Lucky repeated, reluctantly holding up the frame. Brandy saw it and whined.
“Do you like it?” Clev asked eagerly.
“It’s, uh, it’s.... It’s really something!” Lucky replied, seeing that his friend actually thought he would love it.
Clev smiled. “I framed it myself. I know how much you like that picture.”
I think you have me mixed up with you, Lucky thought, but he smiled back. His friend was a little wimpy and egocentric, but he meant well.
“Of course, I had hoped that frame would hold a portrait of you and your date for the Spring Celebration Dance this weekend...” Clev continued.
Lucky cringed. Meant well, indeed. “Look, Clev, don’t start that again! Are you still mad I didn’t like that bossy little Baby Gusty you tried to fix me up with? She was the snottiest pony I’ve ever had the displeasure to speak to, and those eyes of hers freaked me out.”
“Oh, Lucky, it isn’t me alone!” Clev insisted. “All of the younger ponies want to see you happily involved with some nice girl. You’re quite the eligible bachelor, you know.”
“And when I meet the right girl, I’ll ask her out. But I haven’t found her yet.”
“Yes, well, maybe you should look a little harder. I feel so badly when I go to a dance with SeaBreeze, and you’re at home by yourself.”
“Clev, that doesn’t matter to me! Don’t worry about it. When I meet the girl for me, I’ll know. It’ll hit me, BAM, just like lightning.”
Just then, a gray-white flash lit up the dark sky, and thunder rumbled softly in the distance. “Whoops,” Clev said, “sounds like rain. Perhaps we’d better move the party to Paradise Estate.” In agreement, the herd of partygoers galloped off in the direction of the Estate. Lucky and Clev moved to follow; then Lucky remembered his dog. “Come on, Brandy! Let’s go.” He turned to where he thought the puppy was, but the spot was bare. “Brandy?”
Then he heard a frightened yip from the direction of the waterfall. Brandy had panicked at the sound of the thunder, and she had run toward the river and leapfrogged over the rocks around the falls. She was now perched precariously on a small, slippery stone. “Brandy!” Lucky yelled. “Stay there! Don’t move!”
Pearly saw Lucky galloping in Brandy’s (and her) direction and dived safely back into the river, pulling Duck Soup along with her. She could still watch the situation by peeking over the rock, without the danger of being spotted. The rest of the ponies had gone on to the Estate without noticing Lucky’s and Clev’s absence, and now the shore was deserted except for the two friends.
“Lucky, stop!” Clev ordered. “You can’t go out there! There are dangerous currents in that part of the river; ponies aren’t allowed to swim out that far!”
“I’ve gotta go,” Lucky argued. “That’s my dog out there!” He jumped nimbly from the bank onto the nearest stone.
Clev sighed, shrugged, and followed. He wasn’t usually a brave pony, but he couldn’t let his friend go into danger alone. He didn’t notice, as he carefully stepped out onto the stone, that one of his rear hooves brushed against the box that held his gift to Lucky. The box flipped over, spilling the framed photograph into the river.
Within minutes Lucky was just one stone away from Brandy. The water was especially rough here; the waves lapped over the rocky surface and he could see the currents swirling around him. If he or Brandy fell in here, they’d simply be swept away and drowned. “Come on, girl,” he called, trying not to show his terror. “Come on, Brandy, jump! You can do it, girl!” Brandy whimpered and looked from side to side before she found her courage and made the leap to Lucky’s stone. “Good girl!” Lucky sighed, laughing as she licked his face. Then, suddenly, one of his hooves slipped, and he fell into the river with a splash.
“Lucky!” Clev cried. He had made it to the rock nearest Lucky’s when he saw the little blue pony plummet into the water. Panicked, he stared at the snaking currents, but he saw no sign of his friend. There was nothing he could do; if he jumped in to gallantly chase after Lucky, he’d drown for sure. Lucky was a much better swimmer than he was; if anyone could save themselves from the currents, Lucky could. He blinked away tears of worry and called to Brandy, and the two of them made their way back to shore. The best plan, he decided, was to search the riverbanks until his friend reappeared, hopefully still alive.
Pearly had watched the drama with growing concern. When Lucky took his unintended plunge, she gasped and dove under the waves, in the direction the currents would have taken him. She felt herself getting caught up in them, but she also quickly found Lucky. Grabbing his mane in her teeth, she swam as hard as she could toward the waterfall. Finally she managed to pull free of the current, and she and Lucky broke the surface in the small alcove behind the falls, the same area where she and Duck Soup had conversed earlier that day. Using all of her strength, she managed to drag Lucky up onto the small stretch of sand that had accumulated against the wall of rock from which the falls, well, fell. Panting for breath, she lay beside him and looked forlornly at his still countenance. Duck Soup had emerged on shore a short distance away, and she looked to him for guidance about this mysterious Little Pony. “Is Lucky... Is he dead?”
“It’s hard to say,” Duck Soup gravely informed her. He opened one of Lucky’s eyes, pretending to know what to look for. Then he waddled down and lifted one of the pony’s rear hooves to his ear. “Oh... I can’t make out a heartbeat,” he whispered.
Pearly’s gaze had returned to Lucky, and her eyes lit up when she saw his nostrils slowly flaring. “No, look! He’s breathing!” she exclaimed quietly. With one hoof, she turned his face toward hers and pushed his damp mane from his closed eyes. “He’s... He’s so beautiful.”
Lucky was beginning to awaken. He blinked his eyes and gazed up at Pearly, confused. Then Pearly was distracted from her song by the yapping of an eager puppy. She gasped and hurried back into the water and hid behind a rock. Moments later, Brandy bounded behind the falls and over to Lucky, followed by a much relieved Clever Clover. “Lucky!” he was hollering. “You scared me so much! I thought I was going to have a heart attack!” He helped his friend to his hooves.
Lucky groaned and shook his head from side to side, sending water from his mane flying everywhere. “There was... There was this girl. She rescued me,” he murmured. “She had... the most beautiful voice...” His own voice trailed off and he nearly collapsed.
“Whoops!” Clev laughed, catching him and setting him back on his hooves. “Sounds like you swallowed a bit too much river water. Come on, let’s get back to Paradise Estate.” He led Lucky away down the shore, but Brandy stood where Lucky had lain and stared out at a particular rock. She barked twice at it before Clev called her and she ran to follow them.
When they were gone, Pearly pulled herself up on the rock and stared after them. Flounder and Sebastian had by now caught up to her, just in time to see her with Lucky on the shore, and they floated to the left of the rock. Sebastian had a terribly worried look on his face. “The king, he doesn’t ever have to know about any of this!” he said quickly. “You won’t tell him-” he pointed at Flounder, who shook his head, “-And I won’t tell him. I will stay in one piece.” He looked pleadingly up at Pearly, hoping to hear her agree to the plan of secrecy.
She wasn’t listening. Her eyes sparkled as she stared at the spot where Lucky had disappeared around the falls.