In a world where the sky was a bluish grey..
Where mountains rose out of the earth in angular shapes…
Where brown marshlands dotted the land…
A singular island deep in the ocean was about to have an unexpected visitor. In the sky, a bright light appeared, streaking towards the ground. A tail of blue energy could be seen inside the speeding fireball, and if one looked closely they could see a triangular shape inside the flames…
The deserted island was witness to a ship falling straight down into the ocean, raising a column of steam into the air that could be seen for miles - if there had been anyone to see it.
The ship itself floated back to the surface of the ocean, slowly drifting towards the island. As it did so, a hatch popped open, releasing massive amounts of smoke.
Applejack poked her head out, hacking and coughing like a disturbed cat. She took a few deep breaths as her three friends joined her in getting out of the smoke-infused inside. “Okay…” Applejack said. “Let’s never do that again.”
“Are you kidding?” Rainbow Dash yelled, flying into the air, her hair whipping in the wind. “THAT WAS AWESOME!”
Twilight came out next. “I’d… Rather not, frankly…”
Rarity leapt out of the ship and into the water. She quickly started removing the soot from her hair. “I can’t believe I did that!” She yelled. “What is wrong with me?”
“A lot of things.” Rainbow Dash grunted.
Rarity turned to look at her sister with a hurt look. Rainbow Dash said nothing.
The four ponies made their way to the island, dragging the very broken ship the rest of the way before it sank into the depths.
It was upon landing that Rainbow Dash noticed it. Her hair was whipping past her face…
“WIND.” She said, grinning. “YOU FEEL IT? WIND!”
Rarity gasped. “You can see the waves! Feel the life of the ocean!” Then she yelped in pain, removing a crab from her hair. “Okay I didn’t mean it like that.”
Applejack put her hoof in the ground. “It feels… different here, but… it’s solid. Definitely there.”
Twilight frowned. “And Exdeath wants to destroy this world. Well, we can’t have that. With the wind and the sea alive, we can build a boat. Get to a mainland of some kind.” Then she smirked. “We’ve got a plan!”
Hoofbumps were had all around. Then they set to work - the island had several dozen trees on it. It was time to harvest.
—
Than night, the four mares slept soundly for the most part. Twilight snored the loudest, Applejack the quietest. Rainbow Dash slept - but kept tossing and turning under the makeshift blanket. Leaves were not all that comfortable.
Rarity kept waking up and looking over at where Rainbow Dash stood.
“What did I do to make you hate me so much?” She asked aloud. “How can I make it better?”
The sleeping form of Rainbow Dash offered no response, simply a few grunts and a toss.
Rarity sighed - she had her sister back. But she didn’t want to be her sister…
She went back to bed, crying.
—
The next morning dawned with a beautiful sunrise playing off the water. As was to be expected, early-morning Applejack was the one up first. And she had gone to the beach to check on the ship wreckage.
“HOT SOLAMANE WAFFLES!” Applejack yelled. “There’s somepony on the shore! Help me here!” She rushed to the beachfront, while back at camp Twilight blinked herself awake.
“…did Applejack make waffles?”
“I dunno.” Rainbow Dash said, rubbing her eyes. “I don’t know how she could either…”
Twilight looked down to where Applejack was running. “HEY APPLEJACK WHAT ARE YOU-“ Then she saw the prone form that looked like it had just washed up. “Oh no.” She teleported there just as Applejack arrived.
A unicorn mare had washed up on shore - pinkish-purple coat, straight purple mane with a blue streak, and a purple star releasing greenish energy for a cutie mark. Her chest was rising and falling, but she looked very weak.
Twilight teleported them all back to camp. “Rarity! Healing! Stat!”
Rarity woke up with a start, a crab on her face. “Wha-ha-ha!? Huh? Who is this?”
“No idea!” Twilight said. “She just washed in!”
Rarity lit her horn, the healing magics surrounding the mare and filling her body with vitality. “Very few marks, though she’s really tired… exhausted… poor thing could have been swimming for who knows how long!”
The mare began to stir, her eyes slowly opening. She grunted. “Ow… My butt feels like a shark attacked it…”
“No shark bit marks dear.” Rarity said. “Can you stand?”
“Yep.” The unicorn responded, lifting herself up onto her four hooves. “Well, thanks. Feel a lot better now.” She slapped herself in the head a few times, getting the water out.
“Who are you?” Applejack asked.
“Starlight Glimmer.” She said, looking out to sea. She frowned.
“What happened to you?” Twilight asked.
“Some bombastically bodacious nimrod who called himself ‘Exdeath’ thought it would be amusing to blow up the ship I was on.” She frowned. “I have no idea when that was… I’ve been in the water so long…”
Twilight put a hoof on Starlight’s shoulder. “Not a problem. Though your situation hasn’t improved all that much… we’re just four mares stuck on an island trying to build a boat.”
Starlight looked down at the beach. “…Is that big metal thing your attempt at a ‘boat?” Wow you guys suck.”
“Uh… no.” Rarity said. “That’s… Uh… Dears what exactly is it?”
“It goes through the air.” Rainbow Dash said. “Flying machine. Not a boat.”
“Ah.” Starlight said. “Still looks outrageously tacky.”
Rarity gasped, hugging Starlight close. “At long last someone who understands!”
“Uh… thanks?”
“You get your rest.” Twilight said. “We’ll complete the raft. I’m Twilight by the way, this is Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash.”
After a bunch of hellos and greetings, Starlight blinked. “You girls are quite the… unique troupe aren’t you?”
“Welcome to the insanity.” Rarity deadpanned. “You don’t get to leave. There is no escape.”
“Charming.” Starlight giggled.
—
“So, you really don’t think it’s odd that she just happens to get shipwrecked on the same island as us? A DAY after we arrive?” Rainbow Dash muttered.
Applejack rolled her eyes. “Look, her ship was destroyed by Exdeath. She said so. And Ah’m sure she ain’t lyin’. The timing makes sense Exdeath gets here - blows up some random apple stuff, and ponies get tossed around like nothing else. Frankly I’m surprised we don’t see giant explosions on the horizon.”
“Meh.” Rainbow Dash said. “Still don’t trust her.”
“You don’t have to. We haven’t told her who we are or anything like that.” Applejack waved a hoof. “Far as she knows our ‘flying machine’ just had some bad luck. We’re lucky we survived and she’s lucky we were here.”
They saw Starlight next to a tree, standing on her hind hooves and holding two magical-construct swords, one in either front hoof. Her horn was glowing bright and she attacked tree after tree, cutting them down with grace and elegance, forming the swords into one in the middle and swinging in a wide arc, felling most of the plants. “And that’s how you do deforestation!” Starlight chirped. Then she saw them. “Oh hi! Just harvesting wood for everypony!”
“That’s some pretty impressive magic.” Applejack said.
“Well, yeah, it is, if I do say so myself. And that means a lot coming from someone like you.”
“Come again?”
Starlight raised an eyebrow. “I can literally feel the magic wafting off of you two in waves. You’ve got some skills I bet.”
Rainbow Dash laughed. “You bet we do!”
Starlight Grinned. “Show me.”
Rainbow Dash grinned. “Gladly.” She lit her wings on fire and rocketed forward. Starlight created a giant pair of magic tweezers and stopped her in place.
“Sorry, too reckless.” She said. “Try something a little more clever.”
Rainbow Dash grunted from in-between the tweezers. “Okay, you asked for it!”
She leapt into the air faster than should have been possible, and came down on Starlight with impressive speed.
“Woah.” Applejack said. Rainbow hadn’t gotten to use her new skills yet, so Applejack supposed that was where the speed upgrade had come from.
Starlight deflected it with her own hoof. “That’s better! A real fight!” She created her magic swords. “Let’s go at it pegasus! A nice friendly spar!”
“You got it Glimmer!” Rainbow Dash shouted, encasing her wings in electricity and charging, twirling in the air to create an electric vortex, and blasting Starlight from above. Starlight tried to laser-blast the pegasus, but failed.
“Oh no, how ever will I deal with a flying opponent?” She smirked, encasing herself in a magical aura and floating into the air.
Rainbow Dash’s jaw dropped. “Self-levitation? Not even Twilight knows that!”
“Glad to know I’m impressive.” Starlight said. “Now face the crystal!” She charged, then realized she wasn’t holding anything. “Wait… what?”
“Looking for these?” Rainbow Dash said, holding Starlight’s two magical swords.
“Clever. But not clever enough.” Starlight charged, hitting Rainbow Dash with a flurry of lasers. The pegasus found she couldn’t dodge them and went sailing into the ground. Then Starlight landed right next to the downed pegasus, extending out a hoof.
“Round two?”
“You betcha!” Rainbow Dash said. “You know, the group needed someone like you.”
“Good to hear that. En-garde, color horse!”
“Right back atcha, Glimglam!”
“And thus the fight enters level two, banter!” Starlight laughed.
The two clashed.
—
That night Rainbow Dash and Starlight were talking loudly, keeping the others from sleeping.
“They’ve really hit it off…” Applejack muttered, covering her ears. “Unfortunately for us.”
Twilight shook her head. “Applejack, Rainbow Dash has been through a lot of hard times- let her have this.”
Rarity simply stared in the direction they were in, a longing look on her face. She sighed.
Then the three mares heard a sound. “What was that?”
A green round thing was rolled into their camp. The three mares instantly stared intensely at it. “What do you suppose it is?”
At this it sprayed out an intense stream of green gas, causing all of them to pass out instantly.
Elsewhere, Rainbow Dash and Starlight were still talking - talking about grand adventures, Rainbow Dash her memories of being a pirate, Starlight her memories of being a leader of a frontier town in the middle of the wilderness. They were having great fun.
That is, until a creature came out of nowhere and snatched Starlight. “AUGH!” She yelled. Rainbow Dash barely got a look at the creature that took her - and she didn’t try to see it better. She simply acted - flying into the air, ready to save her new friend.
Another one of the creatures attacked, and Rainbow got a better look. it was bipedal, rocky, and brown. It swiped at her with claws and floated above her with its wings.
“A… gargoyle!” Rainbow Dash identified. Then she attacked it, crashing into it with an impressive fiery explosion that killed the beast instantly. She crashed the body into the ground, preparing to take off into the air to save Starlight.
Unfortunately she had broken the sleep bombs the thing was carrying. She stood up for all of a second before falling to the ground, out cold…
They had been captured.