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// Sail Out to the Deep 
// Story: Stranded 
// by OConnerGT-R 
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Chapter 3: Sail Out to the Deep 


I opened my eyes to sight of large leafs built into a canopy above my head as crashing waves drew my attention to the ocean. It took me a moment to take in the surroundings before finding myself inside of the hammock. “If it wasn’t for being stuck here, I’d swear we were on vacation,” I said. Somehow, despite the knowledge of being stuck here, as I lay back against my hammock, a smile stretched along my face.

Brave gently swung next to me, using her hoof to lightly push against the tree to keep her moving. “Do you have a worst memory of me?” she questioned out of the blue.

“No…well.” We had shot ponies in cold blood, stolen from ponies that didn’t deserve it, and many other things so finding a bad memory was a bit more difficult than I thought. “Yeah, that time you nearly ran me over with your first car.” It was an accident. Somehow that made me chuckle. “Why, do you have a bad memory of me?”

Dead silence fell between us, then she said softly, “Just one. You remember that time I pissed off that mare, the leader of that group distributing Poison Blue?”

I nodded. I could vaguely recall getting a phone call from a pissy little bitch high off of illegal narcotics, then…nothing more than death. She was a tough pissy bitch. Was.

Brave nudged me gaining my attention. “That time she struck me in the back of the head and tied me up in that rundown apartment building. You busted down the front door, climbing each floor until you reached mine, slaughtering every one of her gang members.”

That night came flooding back. I turned away, my dead gaze staring out towards the wreckage. The cold logic pushed to the forefront. “I had to be sure they didn’t come after us again,” I said flatly.

“Starry, I saw you ram one pony’s throat into a shard of glass then throw them out the window with a chain wrapped around their neck.” I tried to speak up, but Brave cut me off. “She was already dead. Not to mention you set fire to the entire apartment complex after they died.” 

I turned back to Brave who never once took her gaze away from me. I remember fighting for not just my life, but hers as well. I would use any means necessary to make sure my sister remained in one piece.

Brave had a slight smile for some reason. “You looked like some sort of secret agent, wearing that vest with all those weapons around you. You looked cool, but you didn’t even look like my sister. I was scared…for you.”

I closed my eyes. Taking a deep breath, I snorted it out. It was time to end this sour conversation. Opening my eyes I focused on the wreckage. I got up from my hammock. “I should dive down for more supplies.”

Brave pointed out towards the plane while she opened a bottle of water with her mouth. “I saw a few dorsal fins while you were sleeping, pretty sure some sharks are stalking us,” she joked.  I slowly began putting the extra “scuba gear” on, quadruple noting the sharks that were making this dive problematic as she asked, “Float you out there?”

I nodded as I finished strapping everything on. Turning to Brave, I could see she was looking worried. “Float me out then down some. I’ll take it from there.” She attempted to argue, but I cut her off. “Don’t forget, everything in there is right for the taking.” That managed to put a smile on Brave’s face.

Conjuring a bubble around me, my sister carefully floated me out to where the plane had crashed. I kept my eyes glued to the crash site, which wasn’t too hard as the water was moderately clear. My hoof motioned for Brave to start lowering me. As the bubble descended down, I kept watch for sharks. I spotted several of them swimming around as I got deep enough to take control of the bubble.

“Oh shit!” I shouted as a fin bumped the side of the bubble making it ripple. A bull shark roughly my size swam away sending a shiver down my spine. The beating in my chest became noticeable to the point I had to take a deep breath to calm down as the rippling got worse. Slowly, I began twisting the knob on the oxygen tank just before the air bubble popped. I was now on the clock.

By the time I got to the entrance my heart began pounding again. Once I was sure the coast was clear, I moved inside, triple checking as I went making sure nothing was abnormal. The chest was still sitting on the floor. “It’s the predator you can’t see that gets you, Starry,” I said to myself. Every few seconds I looked around checking for any signs of a shark mistaking me for food. 

Feeling the front of it carefully, I noticed a lock and mentally groaned. Letting the lock fall back into place, I started looking around for the key, which could have been anywhere. That was if it was still on the plane. My oxygen tank sat at a seventy percent full and was lowering.

In my search I stumbled across a jagged hunting knife that looked sharp enough to punch a hole through my tank. Using a small rope close by, I tied the knife to my hind leg. “Maybe I could use something heavy against the knife to pry the lock off,” I thought to myself. I decided against it as that only ever worked in cheap movies.

My gaze moved up to the ceiling where I could see a packaged raft. “Wait, if I had one more of those, I might be able to float the chest to the surface,” I told myself, recalling from my previous venture that my telekinesis wasn’t nearly strong enough to bring it up.

Suddenly, my body violently hit the wall as my head slammed against the storage cabinets making my head spin around a few times. I shook it off in time to turn away from a bull sharks butcher knife like teeth. Bubbles jetted out from the back of my oxygen tank, which had thankfully taken the blunt force of the attack. Pushing against the wall, I managed to float up my knife in time to drag it across the shark’s dorsal fin.

I telekinetically threw open a few of the cabinets, letting whatever was inside float out in front of the shark to obscure its path if even for a moment. My tank emptied out forcing me to hold my breath as I ditched the facemask just before reaching the cockpit.

Using every bit of force that I could, my magic engulfed the entire door, slowly pulling it shut as the shark rammed the side of it. A large bulge from the attack was left behind. “Shit,” I managed to say between breaths. Looking around a bit, I managed to find an emergency kit strapped to the wall with another raft package. All I had to do was set up the last raft, pull the strings, and let the rafts carry the chest up.

A surge of pain ran through my leg. I looked down to find blood seeping into the water. “Shit, shit, shit!” In my panic I hit the back of my head against the wall. Taking in a few deep breaths to calm myself, I reminded myself to thank the Alicorns that this air pocket was still here, even if it was smaller than last time. “My blood’s going to attract every shark in no time.”  

I turned my attention to the wall. Focusing on one specific area, I cast a spell against the surface allowing me to see through it. Thankfully, working on cars had an advantage when it came to using transparency spells to see what was wrong with an engine. I could make out a large gaping hole in the cabin where the turbine had been attached. “It must have fallen off last night,” I spoke to nopony. The spell faded away.

I took a look at my empty tank. It would be a struggle to get out of here, but I had confidence in myself that I could do this. Going back down into the water, I conjured up an air bubble around my head while keeping my empty tank positioned in front of my body. Using what other magic I could muster up, I telekinetically threw the door open as the bull shark came bolting towards me.

With a quick nug of my telekinesis, I moved just enough out of the way as I shoved the empty tank right into its butcher knife teeth.

Without wasting time, I pushed past the shark as it thrashed about with the tank in its mouth. Luckily, the beast swam into the cockpit leaving me about my business. Everything around me shook. My air bubble rippled all around making my heart race. A violent shake made me tear my gaze from the chest to the window. Everything outside blurred together before the structure lurched to a stop over the deep blue, sending my heart sinking into the furthest pits of my chest. 

Pressed for time, I frantically began swimming to the chest. I wrapped the strings on the rafts around the handles before giving one good pull. The first raft exploded out, leading the chest out the hole. I turned in time to see the shark swimming out from the cockpit.

Swimming to the packaged raft, I wrapped my hoof around the handle as the shark closed in. I floated my knife up before violently shoving it into the shark’s eye, forcing it to turn into the rows of seats. The plane shook again. Pulling the cord with all my strength, I held on tightly as the raft popped open, lifting me out from the plane. I kept my eyes glued to it as the hunk of metal fell into a gaping trench below.

I arrived back up to the surface, having already scrambled into the safety of a raft within a few seconds. My heart pounded faster than that time I narrowly beat that souped-up performance car, going one-eighty in my old school Stingray. That very memory brought a smile to my face.

Taking a peek over the edge, I could see the chest still tied to the rafts. “I can’t believe that actually worked,” I wheezed. My hoof brushed up against my injured leg making me cringe in pain. That tooth had cut deeper than I had originally thought.

I felt around for my knife, but found that it was no longer with me. “Must have left it in that shark,” I thought to myself.

It didn’t take long for Brave to bring me back to shore. Once I had my four hooves firmly planted on the sand, I got to work trying to find something to bandage my leg.

“You look jacked up,” Brave stated as she ripped a long strip from our leftover parachutes. She wrapped it around my leg a few times before tying it firmly in place.

“You should see the shark,” I said chuckling.

“Sounds like I missed the party…” Brave said trailing off as our gazes fell on the ocean. Something about the crashing waves left us both speechless for a few minutes. “I remember our fillyhood dream was to own two nice houses on the beach.” A smile spread across my face hearing that. As I opened up my mouth to speak, Brave cut me off. “Reminds me of that time you told me you wanted to be a magician. What was your stage name again?”

I rolled my eyes, refusing to answer. Brave kept staring at me with a smug grin on her face. Letting out a defeated sigh, I said to her, “Starry the Magnificent.” My sister burst into a laughing fit making me look away.

“I remember your best trick was creating an illusion of yourself. It distracted the audience while we pickpocketed all their bits,” Brave sat down while I recalled my fillyhood swindles. I was a thief then, but stopped all of that when I took that first Stingray for a joyride, which coincidently was the one I kept. “Stupid name, but you were kinda good.”

I got up, walking over to the water with Brave. Then, my hoof splashed water along Brave’s face. “My name was great and you know it!” I said as Brave shook her wet mane around then threw water back into my laughing face. “You wanna go!”

“Bring it on, sis!” Brave shouted at me with a smile while she tackled me into the water as we both laughed through every tumble. It wasn’t until we saw a dorsal fin pop up that we scrambled back to the sand, being reminded there were still sharks in the area.