Written by: Nina Daniels (writer) and Selena Marchetti (storyboard artist)
Pinkie Pie, Twilight Sparkle, Sunset Shimmer, and Fluttershy take a selfie at the beach, and Twilight notices a black splotch in the photo's background. Sunset and Pinkie believe it to be a sea monster, but Twilight and Fluttershy are more skeptical. They each decide to do their own investigations into the matter.
Twilight views the ocean from the lifeguard stand, accompanied by Timber Spruce. Just as Sunset and Pinkie approach the ocean, Pinkie realizes she doesn't have her floatie. Suddenly, something rises out of the water and approaches the shore, and even Twilight and Timber begin to believe it is a sea monster. It turns out to be Fluttershy, and she reveals the true identity of the "sea monster": Pinkie's missing floatie.
Tropes:
- Arbitrary Skepticism: Twilight was convinced that there must be a more logical explination to the sightings than a "sea monster". This in spite of being a magical girl with a talking dog who became a demon after being exposed to magic, has foight several magical creatures with her friends, and whose said friends are a bunch of magical girls themselves, a girl she knows is a pony from a magical alternative dimension who also became a demon, and her own pony counterpart.
- Averted with Sunset, who is as convinced of the existence of a sea monster as the rest of her friends.
- Adults Are Useless: Timber Spruce is a little older than the CHS students and is the lifeguard for the beach, but when he and the girls think a sea monster is coming onshore he screams like a girl and uses Twilight as cover.
- Chekhov's Gun: When Sunset and Pinkie are about to swim out to look for the sea monster, Pinkie realizes she lost her floatie. It turns out the sea monster is actually Pinkie's deflated floatie.
- Cower Power: Timber shows a cowardly side to him when his first instinct to thinking there's a sea monster is to scream and hide behind Twilight.
- Disapproving Look: Twilight gives Timber an unamused look for using her as a shield.
- Human Shield: Timber hides behind Twilight when the "sea monster" begins to emerge. She is not amused by it.
- New Job as the Plot Demands: Timber Spruce now has a job as the lifeguard for the beach.
- Noodle Incident: When Fluttershy shows the sea monster was just Pinkie's floatie, Pinkie chuckles "foiled again" as if she has lost her floatie before.
- Not-So-Innocent Whistle: Timber does this when it is revealed there was no sea monster and he realizes he was using Twilight as a Human Shield. Twilight isn't amused.
- Running Gag: With Forgotten Friendship, that's twice that Fluttershy emerging from the sea is mistaken for a sea monster by Pinkie Pie.
- Screams Like a Little Girl: Timber lets out a girly shriek when the "sea monster" is coming onshore.
- Shout-Out: When the "sea monster" gets close to the beach and Twilight spots it, the music is straight out of Jaws.
