//------------------------------// // An Unexpected Rescue // Story: Love on Land and Sea // by MiraculousDragonMaster //------------------------------// Love on Land and Sea Chapter 4 An Unexpected Rescue Skystar turned over to the girls as the storm began heading their way. "We gotta head back, now." She said frantically. But just as the seapony princess was about to head back underwater, she stopped when she saw that the other girls were frozen in place, their eyes widened in fear. "Girls?" She asked. The Mane 6 looked up at the rough storm ahead of them that was closing in. Memories that were once buried deep within their minds began to resurface after ten long years. Flashback The six fillies on deck looked around frantically, and sure enough, there was a mass of dark gray clouds heading their way coming from the left. White lightning blasted and danced around within the gigantic funnel. Wind was blasting and whipping into the sails as the fillies grabbed hold of the ship's safety bars and of each other, holding their hooves tight. "Hang on!" Rainbow Dash shouted over the loud wind. "Obviously!" Rarity yelled back, holding on for dear life. The fillies heard their parents calling their names, their siblings joining in the search, calling for them, and two foals crying loudly because of the booming thunder overhead. Rain was now pouring over the ship and pelting everypony wet to the bone. The deck and safety bars suddenly became super slippery, and the fillies lost their grip on the bars, but somewhat luckily for them, not on each other. The next minute was a whole blur for them. One second, they were sliding across the deck while a lightning bolt lit up the sky. The next second, they were falling through the air, screaming all the way. End of Flashback A large piece of wood flying towards them got the Mane 6 out of their trip down memory lane. They ducked it by heading underwater and then coming right back up. Skystar came over to them. "Come on, girls!" She said. "We gotta get back home! The storm is getting worse." The girls nodded and followed Skystar underwater. All except for Pinkie Pie. Fluttershy and Rarity swam back up to her. "Pinkie!" Fluttershy called out to her. "Let's go!" But the pink seapony was staring at something far off in the dark gray distance. She thought she had seen something when the lightning had struck across the sky. "Pinkie! Is something wrong?" Rarity asked. Then, a bright white flash of lightning lit up the sky momentarily again, and Pinkie saw it. She gasped in horror and then quickly dove down towards the other girls with Fluttershy and Rarity following behind her. "Girls!" She said, stopping them. "I saw something in the storm! It looked like a boat." The girls gasped in horror. "Do you think there is somepony in that boat?" Fluttershy asked. "If there is, then they might be in danger!" "We gotta go see!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed. "But if we do, Mom will find that I snuck you girls out!" Skystar said. "And she's not going to be happy." Applejack looked up at the dreary surface. "If there is somepony up there, we have to help 'em." She said. "I agree." Twilight added. She then turned to Skystar. "Just wait for us down here. Once the surface clears up, come and find us. We'll be near the shore." Skystar wanted to argue more with them, but it seemed that the Mane 6 had made their decision. "Okay." She complied. "But please be careful." The Mane 6 nodded and then swam back up towards the surface where the storm was pouring over. Wind was blasting all around, creating roaring waves. "See anything yet?" Twilight asked, shouting over the loud wind. "Not yet!" Rainbow shouted back. Pinkie was looking all around the wreckage frantically. There were pieces of debris floating everywhere. Rarity and Fluttershy were busy trying to pick up all of it so that the ocean doesn't get polluted. "I think now ain't the time to be eco-friendly!" Applejack shouted to them over the roar of the wind. The white and pale yellow seaponies begrudgingly released their collections of debris and continued on with the search. Just then, Pinkie saw something floating on top of the dark waves. At first, it looked like a piece of plywood that must've been part of the boat that got caught. But when lightning struck the sky again, she saw that it was much too bulky to be a piece of plywood. She gasped when she saw that it was a board, but that somepony was hanging onto it. "I think I found something!" Pinkie called back to her friends. All six seaponies swam under the storm a little closer to the wreckage. When they surfaced, they saw that the pony was gone. "Where he'd go?" Rainbow asked, looking around. Everypony else also searched around the wreckage, where more pieces of wood and very few luggage have survived so far. Pinkie whirled around behind her and saw a pony unconscious and barely hanging onto the piece of driftwood he was on. He then slipped off the driftwood and began to sink into the depths of the ocean. Pinkie quickly dove in after him, wrapped her hooves around him and pulled him back up to air. "I got him!" She called out to her friends. The other members of the Mane 6 turned to see her holding the unconscious stallion in her forelegs. "Come on, girls!" Twilight ordered. "Over to the sea cave!" The many sea caves near Mount Aris were the closest area the Mane 6 ever got to the surface in the past ten years. True, inside the caves were large air pockets with pools, but as tempted as they were to swim further upward through the cave system, they knew that Queen Novo would find out since there were a couple of guards positioned at the cave entrance, and they could check in at anytime. The other members of the Mane 6 nodded, and they began swimming towards safer water, with Pinkie holding the stallion close to her so that she doesn't lose her grip on him. Soon, they had arrived at a large cave that was inside Mount Aris and reached out towards the coast through an underwater tunnel. Pinkie dragged the stallion inside the cave and laid him gently on the cave floor that was out of the water. Now she could get a good look at the land stallion. He had a curly mane and tail similar to hers, but it was brown, almost like chocolate. His mustard yellow coat provided a strange yet perfect contrast, though the brighter yellow shirt he was wearing on his chest was sopping wet. Pinkie didn't know why, but her eyes began to trail down his body, her cheeks starting to turn hot and red as she did so. Finally, she caught a glimpse of the stallion's cutie mark before finally tearing her eyes away from him before she would get caught and before her cheeks would turn any redder. His cutie mark was a cheese sandwich being cut in half. "How's it looking out there?" Twilight asked Rainbow. The blue seapony dove down to get a good look, and then came back up. "Thankfully, it's ending." Dash said. "The wind's starting to recede, and the sea is definitely calmer now." Pinkie then noticed that there was a large cut on the stallion's forehead. It must've been how he was unconscious when they found him. If it wasn't bleeding already thanks to the constant spray of saltwater, it was starting to now. "Girls, he's hurt." She informed. The other members of the Mane 6 got a look at the cut. "That doesn't look good." Rainbow said. "Fluttershy, get some seaweed." Twilight said. "There should be some at the bottom of the pool." Fluttershy nodded, and then headed down to the pool floor. Just as Twilight had said, there were large kelp at the bottom. She tore out an exceptionally long piece of kelp and swam back up to the cave surface. The pale yellow seapony handed the seaweed to Pinkie, who began to gently wrap it around the cut on the stallion's forehead. Once she was done, she tied it off and carefully laid his head back on the sand. "Maybe now, we should head back to Seaquestria." Rarity said. "The ocean is much less dangerous now." "But what about him?" Fluttershy asked, pointing to the unconscious land stallion that was lying the sandy ground of the cave. Pinkie had pulled herself closer to him so that she herself was on dry land. "We can't leave here right now." Pinkie said. "What about to not being seen by land critters?" Applejack asked. "I don't wanna leave him either, but we gotta git back." "I hate to say it, but I agree." Twilight said. "Skystar is gonna get worried, and Novo is going to get suspicious and find out that we snuck up here." Suddenly, the Mane 6 heard a quiet groaning sound echoing throughout the cave. The sound made their blood run cold. They turned around and saw that the land stallion was starting to stir out of his unconsciousness. "He's waking up!" Rainbow whispered. "What do we do?" Fluttershy asked. "Hide!" Twilight quietly ordered. The Mane 6 dove down into the cave pool, Pinkie jumping in to get herself off of land and landing in the water with a splash. The stallion slowly sat up, rubbing his forehead. "Uh…." He groaned. "What just happened?" From underwater, the Mane 6 were watching him, especially Pinkie. The stallion then opened his eyes, revealing him to be a stunning green. Pinkie felt like she couldn't tear her eyes away from them, like she was entranced by them. The stallion then looked at his surroundings. He was confused as to why he was in a sea cave and not on board his boat. He then felt something wrapped around his forehead. He reached up with one hoof and gingerly felt the seaweed bandage. "Where am I?" He asked himself. "How did I get here?" "We brought you here." A chipper yet muffled voice piped up, making the stallion perk up in surprise. From underwater, Pinkie had her hooves over her mouth, regretting her sudden outburst. Rainbow even gave her a slap upside the head, glaring at her as if to say, "Nice going!" "Who said that?" The stallion asked. "Who are you?" Pinkie wanted to respond, but seeing as how she already made things worse, she didn't. Rarity gave her a nudge on the shoulder, silently gesturing that she should say something. Pinkie understood why. They were in hot water already as they were. It probably would figure that things couldn't get worse. "Don't be scared." She decided to say. "We won't hurt you." The stallion then saw that the voice was coming from the water. "Show yourself." He said. Slowly, from out of the seawater, a pony head came out. The stallion's eyes widened in amazement as the mare pulled herself further out of the water until half of her body was out of the pool. She was the most beautiful creature he had ever seen. The mare had crystal blue eyes that reflected the sky's blue shade, a rosy pink coat that looked like cotton candy, and her boyish poofy mane was a darker shade, like raspberries. The two shared eye contact for a few long seconds. The stallion felt like he has seen her somewhere before. But it couldn't be her, could it? Yet, this mare looked like a grown-up version of the filly of his dreams when he was a colt. The mare smiled at him. "Hi, there." She said shyly, but she had a bright white smile on her muzzle. "Hi." The stallion returned the greeting, just as entranced as she was. When he looked further down, his eyes widened again, but this time in shock. Instead of back legs with a cutie mark, the mare had a long scaly tail that matched the rosy pink tone of her coat, a large raspberry pink fin on the end, and an extra fin on her back had her cutie mark there, which was three balloons; two blue and one yellow. The stallion couldn't believe his eyes. He was looking at a real-life seapony.