On the beach, next to the remaining deck of the SS Raindrop, Fluttershy was running back and forth across the sand, hoping and waiting for her friends to arrive. With the infernal glow of the destruction of the land growing larger and closer to the mare, fear and dread overwhelmed the timid pony. Fluttershy’s breathing escalated to rapid speeds as glimpses of the rabid lava flows appeared in between the quickly decimating trees.
“Can anypony hear me?!” Fluttershy yells out as she backed towards the wooden raft.
No response.
“Hello?! Anypony?!”
“We can!” A filly’s voice called out from the brush.
Soon, Applebloom and Scootaloo emerged from the bushes ahead, running right towards Fluttershy.
“Don’t take off without us!” Scootaloo yelled out.
“Hurry! Is anypony else following behind you?” Fluttershy asked.
Applejack’s voice replied in the distance, “We are!”
Immediately, barreling down the beach at rapid speeds, Applejack and Spike burst from the forest. They charged across the beach behind the two other foals.
“Thank goodness!” Fluttershy exclaimed. “But what about Rainbow Dash and Pinkie? Have you seen them?”
Fluttershy’s question is immediately answered with a loud howl coming from deep in the jungle.
“…Was that-”
Suddenly, a giant slab of solid obsidian flew out over the falling palm trees and soared over the ponies’ heads before landing into the shallow waters behind them. The four running ponies and baby dragon joined Fluttershy on the raft. They all then looked to the rock slab, now wedged in the shallows. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie revealed themselves from around the side of the cooled lava, looking quite dazed and exhausted as they paddled in the waters to the raft.
Pinkie Pie nauseously moaned, “Here… and accounted for.”
Rainbow Dash dizzily asked as she hopped onto the wooden raft, “Can we do it again?”
As the final two ponies eventually tumbled onto the wooden raft, a loud explosion sounded off behind the mares. Fluttershy turned around and was immediately blasted in the face with a warm and sandy shockwave. She blinked for a second to shield from the blast, only to open them and see that a massive chunk of the jungle had been disintegrated into a smoldering crater, all in the blink of an eye. The crater was then quickly filled with the swift lava.
“What was that?” Applejack yelled out. “Get us the blue blazes out of here!”
“Oh, right!” Fluttershy stammered as she hops off of the raft.
Using what’s left of the beach, she attempted to push the raft forward.
“Garr, it’s too heavy.” She groaned.
“Step aside!” Applejack commanded.
Applejack hopped off as well. She gave a mighty buck to the beached deck piece, only for it to merely move a centimetre forward into the water. Applejack kicked it again, causing it to inch a tiny bit again. With the sea of lava rapidly approaching, the mares saw that they were stuck. No matter how any kicks or aid from the others, the raft wouldn’t escape in time.
“Oh shoot.” Applejack groaned.
“What now?!” Fluttershy asked.
“Hey! Look over there!” Pinkie piped up, pointing her hoof along the burning coastline.
Rainbow Dash exhaustedly groaned, “We get it Pinkie, lava is cool.”
“Not to mention we’re about to be burnt to a crisp by it!” Applejack said.
“No!” Pinkie said. “Another ship!”
“What?!”
Fluttershy, Rainbow, Applejack, Spike, Applebloom, and Scootaloo followed the energetic soggy mare’s shaking leg along the beach and saw a mysterious, sleek sailing boat race around the island towards them. As it rapidly drew closer, the glow of burning rock revealed the driver of the ship.
Twilight.
Her movements were a bit spastic, panicking as she’s veering the wheel left and right, but she seemed in some control.
“It’s Twilight!” They all exclaimed.
The long racing ship slowed to a stop alongside the raft. The purple alicorn on board the thing peered over the edge to see her companions down below.
“Need a lift?” Twilight pridefully asked.
She lifted over a long plank of wood and set it between her new ship and the tiny raft, creating a ramp.
“We sure do!” Pinkie cheered before bouncing up the ramp and onto the main deck next to her friend.
Spike soon followed, just as energetic.
“Great to see you again,” Twilight said.
“Where did you even find this?” Applejack asks as she followed and climbed aboard, soon being followed by her younger sister.
“I found it in the basement of some researcher’s home in the jungle.” Twilight said.
“…Huh?”
“Wait, somepony else is on the island?” Fluttershy asked as she flew to the main deck. “Shouldn’t we find him?! What if he needs our help?!”
“I’m not sure if he’s still around.” Twilight said.
“The entire island’s already gone,” Dash impatiently said as she and Scootaloo galloped up the ramp. “It’s only us and we need to go!”
Another large chuck of the island exploded on the beach, causing the Lightning Rod to shake in the immediate shockwave.
“Now!” Dash roared.
“Right then!” Twilight said.
“Let’s get a breeze going!” Rainbow Dash declared.
“No need to.”
“What?”
“You girls stay down, things are about to get hairy.”
Twilight quickly ran back to the wheel. A blue, glowing glyph appeared on the wooden floor upon being touched. The onlookers were absolutely mystified.
“Hey, what’s that?” Spike nervously asked.
“Some sort of magic steering spell embedded into the-” Before Twilight could continue, a series of three explosions want off on the island, sending molten stones and debris flying everywhere around the ship.
“How about we save the tour and get us out of here?!” Applejack exclaimed.
“Right!” Twilight replied.
With a snap of her head, Twilight aimed her horn, still with the anti-magic strap on it, down to the back of the magical glyph. Instantly, the bottom section of the marking faded away and the top portion shone even brighter. As that happened, the ship immediately launched itself forward, accelerating to rapid speeds in a few seconds. Everypony on board clutched onto the woodwork, screaming as they flew forward across the water. The black waves below turned into white mist and sprayed the onboard crew. Twilight returned to the wheel and turned it, sending the speeding cruiser right alongside the island.
“Okay, so what I figured out, is that this is usually a magic operated control scheme, with the magnitude of magic on the glyph determining the velocity and acceleration of Lightning Rod, this boat. With this anti-magic device on my horn, I realized that I have to use it to push the magic already embedded into the wood to where I want it to go, like a magnet with similar poles aimed at each other.” Twilight explained.
“Watch out!” Spike exclaimed.
Twilight broke her attention from Spike and saw that she was dashing right into a cliffside. Quickly, she aimed her horn down to the left part of the blue glyph. The ship immediately veered right, just scraping against the melting rocky wall. Along the cliff, another set of explosions go off, each barely scorching the speeding ship with their spheres of fire and melting stones. One section of the wall blasts right next to the side of the hull. The ship tilted over from the blast and a large chunk of its wood is torn off, flying off into the burning mass.
“Pull right!” Applejack yelled.
“Quit backseat driving!” Twilight retorted.
“I’m passenger seat driving, let me drive.”
“I know what I’m doing!”
Twilight turned the vessel away from the island, sending it hurdling across the sea. Several more, larger explosions set off on the sinking island, launching large boulders and clusters of lava at the fleeing ship. As Applejack and Twilight continued to fight, the boat swerves left and right to avoid the incoming projectiles, hurling everything and everypony on board side to side in a chaotic fashion.
“You clearly don’t.” Applejack criticized Twilight.
“Well it’s not easy when you have to drive this thing with your head and hooves because you have no magic!”
“See? Even you know it!”
“Know what?”
“Unicorns and alicorns got a leg up!”
“Back to this again?!”
“It’s true isn’t it?”
“No!”
“Isn’t it?! Think about what you just said.”
“And let us crash?!”
“Quit avoiding it!”
“I’m not avoiding it!”
Spike then screamed out, “Look out!”
The two bickering mares looked behind them to see a colossal portion of the isle bursting away from the mainland and flying right towards them. As it travels over the speeding boat, a large hole was blasted right in the center of the rock mass. A barrage of giant boulders soon followed in a massive cluster, too many for even the sleek watercraft to dodge. Applejack quickly grabbed the wheel and steered the speeder directly towards the hole as the huge landmass flew. It dove into the sea a hundred metres ahead, its melting hole slowly descending to the water surface.
“What are you doing?!” Twilight exclaimed.
“Saving our hides-!” Applejack answered, only for her focus to be cut off by Twilight’s wing being shoved in her face.
“Are you trying to kill us?”
“Are you?”
“What is that supposed to mean? You’re siding with the villain!”
“I want to protect my family, but apparently I can’t because somepony wants to villainize anything somepony with different ideals says despite them being obviously true. Even I can see that!”
“I’ve had enough of this. Get off of the wheel!” Twilight demanded.
“You get off!” Applejack demanded back.
“I said get off, you double-crosser!”
“I know what I’m doing, you ignorant pain!”
“You traitor!”
“You moron!”
“Villain!”
“Wench!”
The two mares immediately gasped upon hearing each other’s’ final insults. A wave of both anger and shave crashed into their minds, spreading its nasty vibes throughout their thoughts. For a moment, all of time seemed to come to a stop as the two ponies, once best of friends, have now unwillingly turned into the fiercest of enemies.
The two silently stared at each other. They both were unsure what they were doing. Were they figuring out what was going on in their heads, or their own?
“Applejack! Twilight!” Spike yells out at the two mares.
He was unable to hear what they were saying over the environmental chaos surrounding them, but able to understand they were angrily fighting over the wheel. Noticing their hooves have backed from the wheel, Spike darted in between Applejack and Twilight and grabbed the wheel, holding it steady as the falling land mass splashed into the sea. The vessel barely squeezed through the blasted hole and popped out of the other side. The cluster of boulders then smashed into the island chunk, obliterating it.
Now in open water, the ponies and Spike were safe whilst the sinking chunk of land took the attack of molten boulders. On the main deck, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie, Fluttershy, and an exhausted Applebloom and Scootaloo cheered out in joy. Pinkie immediately, though, dropped to the deck, looking as if she was about to hurl.
The pink Earth pony nauseously grumbled, “Hey, did all of you take a swim in the Mirror Pool? I’m starting to see two of everypony…”
“Pinkie, are you alright?” Dash asked.
“What's that, Papa? No, I don't wanna wear the big lobster costume… Why do you make me wear that anyways?”
In an instant, Pinkie collapsed onto the deck, snores immediately heard from her still body.
“She’ll be fine.” Dash remarked upon examining the sleeping ponies.
As the peaceful night returned to the heroes, so did their natural clocks. Tiredness swept over the crew of the Lightning Rod.
“Actually, it’s pretty late. Maybe I should hit the hay as well.” Rainbow Dash remarked, looking up to see the glittery night sky.
“Me to,” Fluttershy replied.
“Me three,” Applebloom said.
“Same here,” Scootaloo yawned at the back of the group.
Slowly, all four of the sleepy ponies shuffled inside the cabin of the ship.
“Now where are the beds?” One of the mares asked.
“I think this thing may only have one bed.” Another replied.
With most of the group now below deck and Pinkie fast asleep, Spike looked back to see the remaining two ponies awake still staring at each other in shock and disbelief at one another.
“Applejack? Twilight?” Spike timidly called out to his frozen friends.
Cautiously, Spike tapped Twilight on the shoulder to break her from her freeze, causing her to immediately gasp in surprise. Applejack soon follows suit and snapped from her glance.
“Sorry!” Spike exclaimed.
“Oh,” Twilight slowly responded, returning to her senses. “It’s you. It’s fine.”
“Are you and AJ okay? What were you two fighting about?” Spike asked.
“…We’re…having some difficulties on certain viewpoints. It’s nothing really.”
“Yeah, what she said.” Applejack stiffly replied. “I better, check on the fillies.”
“S-sure, you do that.” Twilight said.
“Y-yeah, yeah.” Applejack awkwardly confirmed her statement.
Slowly, the lone Earth pony walked down the stairs to the main deck and turned to the slanted trapdoor leading down into the quarterdeck. She gave one final glance to Twilight before going under.
Spike sensed something was off. Call it his dragon intuition or simply what makes a good friend, Spike knew something was wrong.
Spike asked once more, “Are you sure you two are alrigh-”
Twilight immediately snapped, “We’re fine-!”
She then immediately recollected herself and talked calmly, “We’re fine.”
“…So, what now?” Spike asked, a bit hesitant.
“…We’re going to save Rarity. I know where Korsan’s going to be going.”
“You do?!”
“I do, we’re heading to the Breach, in the Old World.”
“Wait, you mean,”
“Yes, the Old World.”
“But how? We’re probably thousands of kilometres away from wherever it is, not to mention the legends told about it. And what about when we actually confront Korsan with his giant airship?”
“We’ll make it, and we will find a way to stop Korsan once and for all. It’s our old motto.” Twilight proudly declared.
The princess returned to her central position on the glowing glyph and aims her horn at the bottom portion of the blue marking. As the upper potion illuminates even more, the already quick vessel accelerated to lightning-fast speeds, rocketing along the night sea, northwest to the Breach.