Rainbow Dash woke up with a start, as she got pushed in to the side of the boat. The boat was tilting. The blanket ripped off of her and cold harsh winds hit her from all sides as Applejack pushed in to her back with a force that knocked the breath out of her lungs.
“What the hay is going on?!” She yelled, as she tried to turn around. She heard Rarity screaming behind her and someone was trying to say something. But it was way too loud, the waves were too rough and the wind was very strong to really hear anything. She didn’t know what was going on and she couldn’t turn around or stand up as Applejack was pushing in to her back, as the boat was tipping in towards the water on her side.
As the boat got straight and Applejack moved away from her to stand up, she too started to stand up but a harsh wave turned the boat vertically, and she flew out as all the other five mares bumped the side of the boat roughly. Rainbow Dash quickly caught the edge of the boat as the wind was way too strong for her wings to get her somewhere.
The boat straightened up again but there was a lot of water in it now. “Oh my goodness, I don’t know what’s going on!” Screamed Twilight. While Applejack turned to look at rainbow and yelled, “Rainbow Dash!” As she realized that Rainbow wasn’t safe. She rushed to the side of the boat and grabbed Dash’s hooves with her own and pulled with all her might.
When Rainbow Dash was safely on the boat, Applejack hugged her close for a second. Rainbow Dash breathed a sigh of relief and snuggled closer to Applejack but before they could take in another breath they heard another scream from Rarity. The quickly parted and turned to look at what was going on, but the boat tilted towards the other side suddenly and all six friends fell to the other side. Pinkie only barely saving herself from falling in to the sea as she grabbed on to Twilight’s tail. And instead of the water flying out of the boat, more water got in.
As the boat straightened again and all the girls got up and towards the center of the boat, they realized that it had started to rain as well and it looked like it’d start to pour any second now.
“Rainbow Dash, you said you made sure there wasn’t going to be any rain near Ponyville for at least the next two days!” Yelled Twilight, at the Rainbow maned pegasus.
Rainbow just squinted her eyes and said, “Well don’t blame me, I did check with the weather team and they said no rain for the next 2 days in or around Ponyville. I don’t know where this storm came from.”
Twilight just sighed as she tried to keep her balance in the wobbling boat over the rough waves. “I know, I am sorry. It’s just I don’t know what to do. Our boat is drowning with water and it is pouring hard and I don’t know what to do.” She looked down at her hooves, quarter way soaked in the water.
While the two were having this long conversation in the middle of the storm, Applejack gathered the other three girls and told them to get any kind of container, a bucket, a jug, a shoe, a party hat, anything that could hold water, and help her try and empty the boat from all this freezing water that just kept growing without slowing down.
Rarity grabbed any cups or jugs, that they brought along for the cider and drinks, in her magical hold and tried to empty the boat as fast as she could. While Pinkie took the party hat suggestion for real and started filling her hats and balloons with as much water as she could and throwing them in the sea. And since it was Pinkie, no one questioned how she filled so much water in to a balloon. Applejack took her cider barrels that she brought along and emptied them in to the sea while sighing. All those good apples’ juice and all the hard work gone to waste. She was sad that she had to throw away so much cider but getting the boat empty from all the water and getting to land in one piece was much more important at the moment.
Fluttershy on the other hand was shivering from all the cold water and freezing wind. She tried to help as well, but she was shaking too much to really do anything. She was worried and scared. What was going to happen to them? How will they get home? Will they even get home? All these questions in her head and all those agonizing thoughts. Fluttershy was missing her home very much, she started to cry. Tears were running down her face but they were concealed in the rain water. She really wished she could be back home, on solid ground, safe and sound. She tried to help but her anxiety left her stuck to one spot.
The boat was almost halfway filled with water, even with everyone’s efforts to get the water out. The storm was just too harsh and the waves too rough and unrelenting. Even Twilight and Rainbow had started to help with getting the boat empty, but there’s only so much they could do. The boat kept filling up faster than all of them could keep up with.
Just as Fluttershy was about to move and help, or do something, anything, a bright flash lit up the sky and then right after there was a loud ear shattering noise and then after that a very loud very scared scream, maybe from Rarity or maybe from Pinkie Pie, or maybe it was Fluttershy herself.
Suddenly, no one even knew what happened or how, they were all in the water. Their boat broken to pieces, most looking burnt. Fluttershy looked around for a second scared. She tried to scream but all she got was a mouthful of salted water. She tried to kick her hooves, move her legs, try anything that would help her get above the water surface but nothing worked. She tried to look around but the salt water sting her eyes and she felt like crying. Only she couldn’t because she couldn’t even breath.
She was holding her breath for a while now and her chest started to hurt. She wished she could be anywhere but here. She would even prefer a huge, gigantic, terrifying, enormous, teeth-gnashing, shark-scale-having, horn-wearing, smoke-snoring, could-eat-a-pony-in-one-bite, totally all-grown-up dragon’s cave over this.
Finally, when it hurt too much to do anything, Fluttershy gave up. She couldn’t keep holding on any longer.
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As the lightening had hit the boat, everything had burnt and the six ponies were left to fend for themselves in the freezing water, and harsh storm. Everyone quickly swam up to the water surface and to a breath as they looked around to make sure that all their friends were there.
Twilight looked around, everyone was there. She breathed a sigh of relief but not a second later held her breath as she took another look around to see that she could only see four of her friends and not five. She squinted her eyes as the rain water kept getting in her eyes, she had to see to know which one of her friends was not there. Then she gasped, “Guys!” She yelled, over the raging storm and waves. “Guys, where is Fluttershy?! What happened to Fluttershy?”
Everyone’s ears pricked at that and they all got their breath stuck in their throat as they looked around to realize that Twilight’s words were correct and they couldn’t see their butter friend anywhere. They all had this sinking, tightening feeling in their chest as they looked around for Fluttershy.
“Fluttershy?” Yelled Rainbow, in hopes that her shy friend could maybe hear her. “Fluttershy! Where are you?” She got no response but she did feel her eyes start to sting and her breath begin to shorten.
Pinkie’s hair was looking more straight than ever. Whether it was because of the rain or due to the pain in her chest, no one knew for sure. It was probably both. Not many ponies got to see the pink pony in such a state, she was usually very bubbly and happy all the time. Pinkie was really sad and worried. She didn’t know if she would see her friend again or no so she felt angry at the sea, at the rain and this whole situation. All she wanted was a fun night with her friends with a sleepover and lots of cupcakes and this was anything but. Pinkie thought of yelling at the sea for a moment but didn’t as she got busy trying to look for her timid friend.
Rarity looked around for Fluttershy, her whole body shaking from the cold water and from the worry and distress of not seeing her friend anywhere. Rarity wasn’t much of a swimmer; she just knew the basics and how to hold herself over water for a while. She couldn’t do much other than look in her immediate area for her shy friend. “Oh Fluttershy, darling I hope you are okay. We are so worried. Where are you? Please come to us,” The ivory mare said under her breath, as her mascara ran down her cheeks and her blue eyes glistened with tears. Rarity felt so helpless that she couldn’t help her friend. She felt like she should have been more careful and looked after her friend more. She should have stayed close to Fluttershy and made sure that she was okay. But she didn’t, and now no one knew where the other mare was and if she was even okay.
Applejack swam around for a second and then got under water to look for her friend. Her eyes were really burning with the salt water but she didn’t care. She barely even felt any pain in her eyes as the pain in her chest for a missing friend was much more. She looked around but couldn’t see much if anything at all. One it was night, on top of that it was storming and the waves were very angry and the fact that she had to squint because of the salted water didn’t help either. She tried to swim around and further down but when she couldn’t see anyone and her need to take a breath grew intensely, she gave up and was about to swim to the surface when a flash of light, probably from some lightening outside, brightened the water for a second and Applejack saw a faint outline of a dull yellow and pink pony form a few feet away from her. She swam as fast as she could towards where she saw the pony and when she felt something in front of her, she quickly grabbed it and swam above water. She took in the biggest gulp of air that she has ever taken in her life and turned to the pony in her arms.
Fluttershy’s body was still warm in Applejack’s hooves, but she had her eyes closed. This worried Applejack beyond words so she yelled for her friends, “Girls! I found Fluttershy. But she’s unconscious. Please help me! Twi, please do something!”
The other four quickly turned at the sound of Applejack’s voice and let of sighs of relief to see their butter friend in her hooves. But the immediately held their breath again as they saw she was unconscious, and swam up to the two.
Twilight went up to the two and put her hoof in front of Fluttershy’s nose but couldn’t tell whether the pony was breathing or not as the frigid wind was were too strong to detect any other air movements. Then Twilight moved her hoof down to Fluttershy’s neck and pressed down a little, at first she didn’t feel anything and her breath got caught in her throat but as she moved her hoof slightly she felt a very faint thump thump thump of Fluttershy’s pulse.
Twilight let out the breath she was holding, “She is alive but she is very cold and weak. We need to get her to dry land soon.”
The others let of sighs of relief of their own. “Oh thank goodness! I am so glad she’s alright, I was so perturbed. Now let’s get her to save land, posthaste. I think I can’t feel my hooves anymore,” Said the fashionista, looking down at her frozen front hooves, with slight distress.
The storm had settled down quite a lot by now and it was just raining lightly and the sea seemed a lot calmer as well. The other four mares murmured their agreements to rarity’s statement.
“Yeah but guys, I don’t know which way to go,” Exclaimed the pink pony. Her hair was still straight but she had this slight puffiness to her mane, back. It was probably only because of the constant rain that her hair looked a little straight now.
The others turned to look around, slightly confused and worried as they weren’t sure where or how far they needed to go to get on safe land. Then Rainbow spoke up, “I think I saw some land over there when the lightening flashed earlier.” She said, pointing slightly to the left of the mares.
“Alright then, let’s get going girls.” Exclaimed Twilight as Applejack moved Fluttershy on to her back and they all started swimming in the direction where Rainbow dash had seen some land.