Adagio liked to swim as much as the next Siren, but at this point in time, in the middle of the night, on a journey she wasn't really all that interested in, it was the furthest thing on her mind. And yet, as Sonata kept on urging them to keep up with her, she couldn't help but smile. Her young sister's boundless energy and optimism about the whole thing was almost contagious, spurring her on. Even Aria had a hard time resisting the urge to crack a smile at Sonata's behaviour every once in a while. So, the three Siren Princesses swam together, onwards towards a place that, frankly, none of them had ever even seen before. Their lives in the sea had always provided everything they needed, so venturing further was just not something that had ever crossed their minds, and had it not been for their Mother's story, it would have most likely remained that way.

Eventually though, they began to see something far ahead through the gloom of the night-time waters. It was solid earth, a veritable wall of it stretching from the seabed to high above them. Turning to each other, they all gave a short nod before swimming upwards in formation. A few minutes passed them by before they eventually reached the surface. None of them had ever broken the skin of the water before, so needless to say, this was quite an experience for them. As their heads bobbed up and down above the surface, they felt the strangest sensation upon their scales. This absence of water around them there was most disturbing to them, as evidenced by the unsure looks Adagio and Aria were giving each other. Sonata, on the other hoof, couldn’t have been happier, as she giddily splashed the water's surface further with a single swipe of her hoof.

Ignoring her sibling's antics for the moment, Adagio looked upwards and saw, for the first time, the sky. Her eyes widened as she looked upon it, with it's dazzling stars and bright full moon. It was beautiful, and something she'd never witnessed before in her life. Aria and Sonata joined in soon afterwards, with the latter letting out all of the "oooh's" and "ahhh's" expected of such a sight. The three stayed together, admiring the view above for some time, before eventually Adagio's eyes drifted downwards and gazed upon the stone wall that had greeted them here. It rose high beyond the water before ending in a peak several dozen feet high. Not only that, but it stretched in an almost endless stretch in both directions, rising and falling to various heights. So, Adagio thought to herself, this was land. Even in the comparatively weak light of the moon, she saw it well. How it looked so dry, yet still covered with plants and small creatures. She didn't recognise half of them, though nevertheless stood amazed as some of them actually started to take flight.

The sisters couldn't believe all the things they were seeing here, and they hadn't even approached it very much. Looking down at her blue sister, Adagio let out a dry chuckle.

"Alright, I admit it...this is something special."

Sonata, happy at her sister's words, gave her yet another tight hug, though this time Adagio was far less annoyed by it. As the two parted, Sonata turned towards the land yet again, gesturing to her sisters to follow her. Before they could stop her, Adagio and Aria watched as Sonata made a break for the coastline, specifically at a point where there was a long stretch of sand to greet the water instead of stone. Aria shrugged her shoulders at her elder sibling before following Sonata, with Adagio not far behind her. It only took a minute or two for the three to get closer, at which point they stopped in their tracks as they detected movement upon the land. They ducked more into the water, so that it was now only the tops of their heads that rose above. Looking on, they saw that it was a creature that, thus far, they had only known of from their people's stories. A pony, the race that dominated the land. A dark brown in colour, it lacked the wings or horn of others of it's kind, leading to the three realising that it was an earth pony. And a stallion too, judging from it's size and shape.

Seeing such a being was strange to them. To their eyes, this male was just like a Siren, except with extra hooves behind him instead of a tail. This first encounter was summed up by Aria.

"That's...freaky."

Not the most eloquent of utterances, but Adagio nodded in agreement all the same. Unfortunately, both she and Aria noticed too late that Sonata was making her way closer to the stallion. Their eyes shot open with shock as they began to swim faster to catch her. It took only a few moments, but they finally wrapped their hooves around her and kept her from moving any closer, much to Sonata's annoyance. However, in the struggle, Aria accidentally splashed her tails in the water, making enough sound so that the stallion, who had not noticed them at this point, finally began to turn his head and look towards the ocean. The three Sirens began to duck further into the water, but the stallion kept on watching, certain that he heard something out there. The sisters glanced at each other, knowing instinctively that this guy wasn't going to be going anywhere anytime soon. Eventually, Adagio's fears came to life as she saw the stallion look right at her, his eyes widening as he caught sight of not only her, but her sisters as well. A deep sense of dread filled her stomach, and she was ready to just swim as fast as she could back into the deep waters.

However, what the stallion did next was not what she had been expecting.

"Hello there! Nice night for a swim I take it?"

Adagio raised an eyebrow in confusion over that, as did Aria. However, after a few moments of pondering, it soon dawned on her. This stallion couldn't see their tails under the water, and thus had made the mistake of thinking they were normal pony mares. Resisting the urge to smirk at this, Adagio merely cleared her throat before speaking back to the guy.

"Um...yes! It was such a lovely night I thought...why not?"

The stallion chuckled at that before nodding to them.

"Aye, I'll say. Well, don't let me keep you. Have a nice swim."

The Sirens all watched with forced smiles and waved as the stallion began making his way further up the coast, paying them no mind after that encounter. Once they were certain that he was out of earshot, they breathed a collective sigh of relief. Unfortunately for Sonata, this calm was short-lived, as both of her sisters soon turned on her with angry looks on their faces. Adagio was the first to speak.

"Sonata! What were you thinking?"

The youngest Siren merely shrugged her shoulders at that.

"I don't know! I guess I just wanted to say hello."

Adagio frowned at her sister after hearing those words.

"You just...? Ugh! Sonata! You have to be more careful in future! Who knows what that guy could have done if he saw us?"

Sonata pouted a little, a look that had often melted Adagio's sternness on more than one occasion. The elder sister merely slapped her forehead in frustration over that, knowing there was little chance of her staying mad at her sister when she was like this. Instead, she let out a deep sigh, her earlier anger having subsided quickly. They had, after all, managed to avoid any real problems out here despite Sonatas lack of caution. So, she gently placed a hoof upon Sonata's shoulder and gave a small smile, letting her know that she wasn't angry with her. Sonata smiled at that while Aria merely rolled her eyes. However, all three of them suddenly froze as they began to feel something. It was a sensation, almost like an instinct, that they all felt but didn't understand. All they knew was that they now felt a great sense of foreboding. They looked at each other, their faces making it clear that none of them knew this feeling. And then, Sonata spoke up, her voice hushed to almost a whisper.

"Why...why has it gone all quiet?"

Adagio shook her head, not knowing any answer to give her sister. Instead, she began to look around, trying to figure out what it was that was making the three of them feel so wrong. She kept watch over every little detail around her, telling herself that everything seemed to be normal, at least nothing around that would be a threat to the three of them. However, when she looked outwards, towards the open ocean, something caught her attention. She narrowed her eyes, squinting to try and get a better look at it through the dim light of night. Something was happening to the watery horizon out there. It appeared to be, for lack of a better word, growing taller. The line where the ocean met the sky was rising higher and higher with every passing moment, as if the water's surface itself was growing. And that was when it finally dawned on her what was happening. Her eyes widened greatly as shock and terror crossed her face. Her lip quivered with fear as she began to slowly back away from what she was seeing. Her sisters watched her with clear concern, before she finally spoke out.

"TSUNAMI!!!"

Both Aria and Sonata's heads snapped in the direction of where Adagio was looking, their expression now the same as hers. They all looked at each other, not knowing what to do. They'd heard the stories of such cataclysms, but had never been told how best to avoid them or ensure their safety. Adagio's head darted about, trying to think of some way to protect her sisters. They couldn't go on land, and if they went into the sea there was no guarantee if the force of the water rushing towards them would reach them down there. Instead, her eye caught something else. There was a small cave opening on the side of the high cliff-face, just where it met the water. She glanced over to the approaching monstrous wave before grabbing hold of her sisters' hooves and swimming as forcefully as she could towards the cliff. It was not long before Sonata and Aria figured out what she was doing, and they too began to swim of their own accord.

As they approached, the three could hear the unmistakeable sound of loud breaking waves behind them, letting them know that the tsunami was getting closer and closer to them. Fearfully, they swam faster than they'd ever done, eventually reaching the cave. Adagio swam aside, letting both of them swim in head of her. After she was sure they were alright in there, she followed. Some relief came to her heart as she saw that the cave was pretty much a long tunnel, twisting and turning within the great cliff face. With any luck, this should help dissipate for the force of the wave, Adagio though to herself. So she swam forwards, her sisters following her, going as far inwards as the tunnel would take them. Eventually, they reached the unmistakeable dead end at the back of the cave. This was it, they thought. If the wave's force was not lessened by the twists and turns here, they were dead, they knew that. So Adagio stretched her hooves outwards, wrapping them around her sisters' shoulders and holding them close. Sonata began to cry in fear while Aria, despite her strong will, actually began to whimper somewhat. Adagio just kept watch, waiting for the waters to reach the cave.

And soon enough, they did. They all heard the titanic crash as the wave collided with the outside of the cliff-face, which was soon followed by the clear sound of rushing water. They braced themselves, holding their siblings close as they awaited the water. Then, without warning, it came, forcing all of them backwards with great strength. They were thrown onto the rocks behind them, but nevertheless keeping hold of one another. On and on the water forced them back, even though there was nowhere else to go. The water was relentless, and far more violent than even the strongest of waves that they had experienced in their lives. But still, they held on. However, after what felt like an eternity of this, the water began to lessen in it's assault. The force began to weaken and the sisters began to be able to move freely once more. Soon enough after that, the water levels of the cave returned to normal. Adagio's plan had worked, and they were still alive.

Even so, they still felt sore from the ordeal. Looking to each other, they could see that being smacked against those rocks had scraped them on their backs a great deal. It stung, to be sure, but they all knew that it would have been far worse if they'd met the full force of that wave in the open waters. Carefully, the three began to make their way outside. And when they did, they looked upon the surrounding land with horror. The many plants and animals they'd seen there were now strewn about the place, unmoving and unmistakeably dead. Sonata whimpered at the sight and turned away from it, while Adagio wondered just how much damage had truly been done further inland. She didn't want to think about it, and instead decided that now was a good time to leave this place and head on back. Before she began to swim however, Aria spoke up.

"I've...I've never been through anything like that."

Adagio nodded at that.

"Me neither. Tsunamis are the great terror of the oceans, sister. From what I've heard about them, they're usually caused by some great shift beneath the water."

Looking around her, Adagio looked at the horizon with an analytical eye.

"And given where this one came from, I'd say that whatever disaster that caused it probably came from..."

But the Princess didn't finish her words right away. For understanding soon dawned on her as she looked out towards the ocean, knowing the terrible truth of where this great wave had started.

"...home."