Thunder, lightning, rain, fire, shouting, that was all Flash Sentry could remember from the night before. He didn’t remember getting tossed from the ship’s burning remains into the icy waves below. He didn’t remember coming up and gasping for air before shouting for his younger brother First Base. He didn’t remember finding First Base, hauling the two of them up a broken piece of wood that was miraculously big enough to hold them both, or huddling together with him for warmth while they both held on for dear life. He definitely didn’t remember passing out at some point during the night.
Shining Armor was a young man who lived in the town of Griepsburg and worked as the town’s fisherman. Fishing wasn’t his first choice for a trade, but he had a family to provide for, especially if they wanted to save up enough money to leave that cold, miserable place. That morning, he did what he had done every day for the last five years and took himself, his nets, and his boat out to sea. He had just cut off the engine and was about to cast his nets when he saw something floating in the water a short distance away from his boat.
At first, he thought it was just a chunk of driftwood, but upon closer inspection, he was able to see something on it, actually two somethings, no, someones. Lying on the driftwood, seemingly dead, were two boys, one in his late teens and the other in his early teens, both with similarly colored yellow-orange skin and blue hair. Working fast, Shining Armor snagged the piece of wood with his grappling hook and pulled it closer to his boat. Then, with great difficulty, he hauled the impromptu raft’s passengers onboard. A cursory examination told him that boys were alive but just barely.
Shining Armor knew that he needed to get the boys to civilization as quickly as possibly if they are to survive. However, the closest town to his location, unfortunately, was Griepsburg, where the only people who could be bothered to give these kids even the most basic of care were going to be him and his family. Good gosh, what to do, what to do? As much as he hated the idea of taking two half-dead strangers home with him, Shining hated the idea of leaving two kids who were either his sister’s age or younger to a slow, frozen death even more.
Shining turned the engine back on and sped as quickly as he could back to the Griepsburg harbor. The only boat there was the seldom-used ferry to the mainland where the ferryman Cranky Doodle sat with his feet up as he napped.
As soon as Shining Armor anchored his boat, he called out to the ferryman, “Hey, Cranky, get up! I need your help with something!”
Cranky snorted, waking up with a start at Shining’s call.
“Finally caught something that will help get you and yours out of here, eh?” the salty, old man dryly retorted.
“Well, not exactly,” Shining Armor replied, hoisting the older boy onto his back.
“Good gracious, just what did you catch?!” Cranky exclaimed, finally taking note of the two unconscious boys on Shining’s boat.
“Just pick up the other kid and help me get them home!”
Warmth, that was the first sensation Flash became aware of as he slowly regained consciousness. The next was the feeling of something soft yet scratchy under him and the feeling of something soft and thick over him from his neck down. He stirred and slowly creaked his eyes open only to shut them again when the light suddenly hurt his eyes. Then, his eyes snapped open, and he bolted upright throwing off what turned out to be a quilt as memories from last night returned to him.
“Base!” he called, searching his surroundings frantically for his brother. Much to his relief, Flash quickly found First Base lying next to him seemingly sleeping soundly. After confirming that his brother was, in fact, still alive, Flash calmed down enough to study his surroundings.
The two of them were on top of a bed that was just big enough to fit them both in a small, sparsely furnished room. Light was coming in through a single, small grease paper window opposite from the room’s only door. The door began to open, causing Flash to flinch. He positioned himself between First Base and the door, not knowing what to expect but fearing that danger was entering the room.
Unless danger looked like a bespectacled girl with lavender skin and indigo hair about Flash’s age, Flash’s expectations could not have been more wrong. The girl ended up making eye contact with Flash, and Flash, in his surprise, ended up staring into her lovely, purple eyes. The girl seemed equally surprised to see him and seemed to stare back at him for a second or two before turning away from him to call to someone behind her.
“Shining Armor,” she called, “one of the boys is awake!”
The girl stepped further inside the room, and five other people walked in, three men and two women. One man was younger, taller, and more muscular than the other two; he had white skin, royal blue hair, and bright blue eyes and wore a gray mariner’s cap. One of the older men had skin and hair in two different shades of blue and bright, yellow-amber eyes while the other had tan skin and wore a floppy, dark brown hat that would have covered his hair if he had any. Regarding the two women, the younger one had kind, violet eyes, pink skin, and long, tricolored hair that curled at the ends, and the older one had straight, lavender-and-white-striped hair and light gray skin.
“Uh, hello,” Flash managed to say.
“How are you feeling, kid?” the younger man asked him.
“Fine, I guess,” Flash replied. “Who are you, and what are my brother and I doing here?”
“My name is Shining Armor,” said the man before introducing everyone else in the room, “and this is my father Night Light, my mother Twilight Velvet, my wife Cadance, my sister Twilight Sparkle, and the local ferryman Mr. Cranky Doodle.”
Mr. Cranky Doodle supplemented his introduction with an ill-tempered grunt as if he was showing off how well his name fit his personality.
“I’m Flash Sentry,” Flash introduced, “and this is my brother First Base.”
As if on cue, First Base groaned in his sleep, stirring as his consciousness returned. He fluttered his eyes open and dizzily sat up, pressing his hand to his forehead to try to alleviate the throbbing headache he felt.
“Ugh, my head!” the younger boy cried. He suddenly lifted his head up and turned when he felt someone touch his shoulder. “Flash!” In a mixture of joy and relief, First Base threw his arms around his older brother before taking notice of the other people in the room and pulling away. “Who are they?”
“Hey, it’s okay,” Flash replied reassuringly. “They seem friendly.”
“Where even are we, and how did we get here?”
“To answer your first question,” the girl named Twilight answered bitterly, “you’re in Griepsburg.”
“Wait, Griepsburg?” Base repeated, sharing a worried look with his older brother before continuing, “You mean, ‘avoid docking here at all costs’ Griepsburg? That Griepsburg?”
“Oh, gee. I see you’ve heard of it.”
“As for how you got here,” Cadance interrupted in a much gentler and kinder tone, “my husband found the two of you passed out on a piece of driftwood. Maybe the two of you can tell us how you got there.”
The brothers looked at each other, their faces becoming downcast as they remembered what had happened the night before.
Finally, Flash turned to the rest of the people in the room and explained, “The two of us worked on merchant ship. There was a storm last night, and the ship got struck by lightning. The ship started going down, and, well, that’s all I can remember. Everything that happened after that was a blur.”
“I reckon you boys are going to want to go back to the mainland and find out what happened to your shipmates, eh?” Cranky asked. The suggestion caused the boys to brighten a bit.
“That would be great. Thank you.”
“That’ll be five silver pieces each.”
The brothers shared another look with each other, this time, an utterly shocked and bewildered one.
“We just survived a shipwreck,” First Base pointed out. “What makes you think we have money on us?”
“No money, no passage,” Cranky retorted coldly.
“Wait. So, you’re just essentially stranding the two of them here in this cold, awful, backwater piece of Tartarus with us?” Twilight exclaimed. The expressions on her and her family’s faces showed that they were just as incredulous as the boys.
“Listen, missy, I run a ferry to a town that no one wants to go to and that hardly anyone ever leaves,” Cranky huffed. “I need to make a living somehow.”
“Is there a way for us to earn the money for the ferry and maybe a little extra just in case?” Flash asked.
“Say, maybe there is,” Cranky replied in a darkly mischievous tone. “Why don’t I take you boys into town, and you can look for one?”
Shining Armor and his family rolled their eyes, sharing knowing looks with each other.
“Twily, dear, maybe you should go with them,” Night Light said to his daughter.
“Me?! Why me?!” Twilight protested.
“Well, someone has to make sure these two don’t fall for Cranky’s tricks, and you’re the only one who doesn’t really have anything to do, sweetheart,” Velvet replied.
“They can’t go out dressed like that and with no shoes though,” Cadance noted, calling attention to the boys’ tattered state. “I’ll go see if we have any old clothes that will fit.”
Cadance left the room, and Velvet followed her, leaving only the men and Twilight with their guests.
“Uh, so,” Flash began, addressing the deeply scowling Twilight, “Base and I haven’t really heard much about Griepsburg other than that it’s a horrible place to be. What exactly makes it so horrible?”
“Oh, we could tell you,” Cranky interrupted before chuckling ominously under his breath, “but why ruin the surprise?’