Flying to Ripple Field turned out to be quite a bit faster than walking to Big Forest had been. Twilight supposed that that did check out–flying was leagues faster than walking, after all–but the actual distance seemed shorter as well.
Not that that mattered, of course, but it was an intriguing thought nonetheless.
As they touched down on the nearest sandbar to them, the alicorn took the time to note their surroundings. Ripple Field, just as she had seen from further back, was less a single island and more a collection of small, sandy beaches barely above sea level. The largest of the islands couldn’t have been more than a few hundred meters across, barely enough for some grasses and a few palm trees to have sprung up on it. Twilight could even see a few Popstarian animals on it as well, a Bugzzy and two Bonkers.
They didn’t look like they cared much about the growing storm.
Looking around more, she noted that their surroundings were so flat she could see all the way to the next island: Iceberg. She wasn’t the only one looking that way, though.
“So, why don’t we just fly all the way to Dark Castle?” Dedede asked. “We could probably get there faster than Spike.”
For a moment, Twilight did think about that, before she shook her head. “I’m not great at flying as it is,” she explained, “so I want to keep it to a minimum. Plus-” She was cut off by a strong gust of wind, which whipped her mane around and almost blew off Dedede’s cap. She spat out the parts of her mane that’d blown into her mouth and made a mental note to get a manecut soon. “There’s that.”
Bandee’s bandana flapped in the wind, but was secure enough on his head that he didn’t need to actively keep it on. “Fair enough,” he acknowledged.
“So, we just island hop our way on over ‘till we get closer to Iceberg?” Rick surmised.
“Pretty much,” Twilight agreed. She winced as a particularly large wave hit the sandbar, the water nearly reaching all the way to them. “We might want to move quickly, though. I don’t know how much longer this’ll be above water.”
Coo gave out an indignant squawk as another gust almost blew him out of the air. “With this blasted wind I’m not sure how long I’ll be above water!” Flapping a bit to stabilize himself, he perched atop Rick’s head. “I do hope you don’t mind this too terribly, Rick.”
“Nah, it’s all good, mate,” Rick smiled.
Twilight nodded at the two of them and resumed leading their journey forward, a small smile gracing her face as it began drizzling. Even with the weight of the world on their shoulders, even with the direness of the situation, and even with it probably not mattering in the end, they were able to stay confident and happy.
She blinked. That had been a strangely nihilistic thought. She’d taken the destruction of another Bridge better than she’d thought she would.
Bandana Dee, though, had not taken it nearly as well. He sat down as soon as the wave of apathy hit them, planting his spear in the ground and sighing deeply. “What’s the point?” he asked. “Who knows how powerful this thing’s gotten! What chance do we have?”
Dedede tossed his hammer from hand to hand. “Chin up, Bandee! We’ve got more of a chance than you’d think!”
Bandana Dee blinked at his king. “Easy for you to say,” he countered, gesturing to his hammer. “You’ve fought Kirby nearly to a standstill, and he punched a wing off of the Halberd! And I’ve seen Twilight do some insane stuff with her magic, but I’m just a Waddle Dee with a spear. What am I even worth to you all in a fight like this?”
Before he could come up with anything else self-depreciating, though, Kirby tackled him in a hug. “You’re a friend!” he asserted.
“And friends are always worth it,” Twilight agreed.
Gooey didn’t say anything, but it bounced over and nuzzled Bandee regardless.
The General sniffled a bit, but when he looked up, even with him not having a mouth, Twilight could tell that he was smiling. “Thanks, guys.”
All-in-all, Twilight thought it was quite a sweet moment.
A sweet moment that was rather undercut by Rick’s cry of “Oh shit!”
A massive wave, far taller than what had been crashing ashore so far, washed entirely over both Rick and Coo. When it receded, the pair had vanished.
Immediately, Kirby dove into the water after them, Gooey not far behind. The three left on shore, suddenly extremely tense, stood back-to-back, their weapons raised (or horn lit, in Twilight’s case). It didn’t help.
Another large wave, this one from the opposite side of the sandbar and defying everything Twilight thought she knew about fluid dynamics, rose up. A giant blue sunfish, with fins of yellow and eyes black as coal, leapt from the water and slapped Dedede in the face. The king, caught off-guard, stumbled forward into the wave and was washed away with the attacking fish.
“Your Majesty!” Bandee cried out, but was helpless to do anything.
Twilight felt something wet and cold wrap around her leg, and she faintly realized that the storm had raised the water level around them. Enough so that an Elieel could wrap its powerful tail around her leg and pull.
Bandee, in an attempt to at least save her, grabbed onto one of her other legs. All that resulted in was the both of them getting pulled under and vanishing into the surf. The only sign that a scuffle had even taken place, the disturbance in the sand, was washed away by the waves only moments later.
The creatures on the large island hadn’t even looked up at the sounds.
As soon as the water closed over Twilight’s head, her mind melted into a state of panic. The Elieel had pulled her far enough out that she was caught in a riptide and sent spiraling, losing her sense of direction. She couldn’t tell which way was up, and her instinctive kicking was only sending her into more of an underwater tailspin.
Honestly, it was a miracle that she’d remembered to keep her mouth closed.
Not that it would matter, in the end. She’d expended so much energy in her senseless flailing that her lungs were burning in protest, demanding their supply of life-giving air. She was sure that she’d pass out soon if she continued to not breathe, and even though alicorns could survive for a limited time in an oxygen-free environment, that only really applied to standard conditions. Despite her enhanced physiology, she very much could still drown; mana metabolism or no, the mechanical factors of water flooding her lungs would kill her outright.
It was that point that her panicked mind finally remembered that it had magic to work with, but by then it was already too late. Darkness had begun closing in at the edges of her vision, and for a brief moment she consigned herself to her fate. It was pathetic, really, she thought. A Princess of Equestria, drowned on an alien world by, of all things, an eel.
An eel that…wasn’t holding on, anymore?
Bandee had fought it off?
Underwater?
With a spear?
The absurdity of it stalled her panic just enough for the rational part of her mind to reassert itself, and she immediately took a deep breath. The water promptly failed to flow into her mouth, but her lungs still seemed to fill with air. As the beginnings of hypoxia began to fade, she fully recalled what Sunset had mentioned about her time on Aquarius.
“Oh yeah, water’s breathable here, by the way.”
“WHAT?”
“Yeah, I just jumped in, took a breath, and didn’t die, so y’know…”
She still thought it absurd, but then again, with how wacky this universe was she wasn’t exactly surprised. Compared to the instantly healing food, the planet-sized behemoth machines, and the spirit of darkness that had possessed her brother, what was inexplicably breathable water?
“You okay over there?” Bandee asked as the Elieel retreated and Twilight’s breathing calmed. There wasn’t any hint of distortion from the water in his voice.
Oh how Twilight yearned to study that. The physics of this universe was so similar and yet so tantalizingly different to what she knew. If only she’d the time to do so, but the list of things she wanted to study in this world was growing far faster than her capability to exhaust it–or even to narrow it down to what studies would be useful for getting back to Equestria. And as of current, saving the world took priority anyway.
Both because she wouldn’t even be able to get back home in the first place if the world ended, and because she wouldn’t be able to live with herself otherwise, knowing she could have made a difference and just didn’t.
Her mental tangent, somewhat ironically, had wound up slightly distracting her from the moment at hoof. Bandee swam over and tapped her on the shoulder, repeating his question. “You good, Twilight?”
Twilight blinked in surprise. “Oh, sorry. Yeah, I’m…alright. Just a bit panicked.”
“First time underwater on Popstar?” Bandee asked.
Twilight nodded. “It just takes some getting used to. If I tried this back home I’d be very dead, so it’s easy for the panic to set in.”
Bandana Dee nodded in understanding. “So, what’s the plan?” he asked, looking around. “Find the others, get back to the surface, and take off for Iceberg?”
Twilight looked up at the surface–taking the time to calm down and reorient herself had gotten her her sense of direction back. It was pretty dark, what with the storm blocking a lot of sunlight, but she could still make out the distortions caused by the roiling surface. “Regrouping with the others and getting back to the surface, yeah,” she agreed, “but I’m not so sure about being able to fly to Iceberg.”
“Why not?” Bandee asked. “I mean, I get if it’s the wind, but you didn’t seem particularly bothered by it before.”
Twilight flared out a wing, inadvertently launching herself half a meter backwards. She hadn’t gone swimming since her ascension, so doing so with two extra limbs was going to take some work, it seemed. “My wings aren’t waterproof,” she explained. “I’m not going to be able to fly until they dry out.”
The feeling of her wings being totally waterlogged was honestly rather disconcerting. Even underwater, she felt somehow more sluggish, and they were going to be a pain to dry out later. Sure, she could flash dry them with magic, but doing it that way would leave her feathers an absolute mess and she’d have to take the time to preen them. Doing so with her magic was faster than how a pegasus would preen their wings, but it still took significant effort and was, quite frankly, annoying.
Bandee looked around in the murky water. “So, for now I guess we’ll just look for the others?” He gestured broadly with his spear. “That’s a lot of water to search through.”
Twilight shrugged. “I might be able to do something with my magic to help, but to save energy it might be a better idea to just wing it.”
Bandee suppressed a snicker, and Twilight sighed. “I swear that was unintentional.”
“Don’t worry, Princess,” Bandee said, and somehow Twilight could tell that he was smirking. “I’m sure time will just fly by while we search.”
Twilight facehoofed, which was a surprisingly difficult motion while underwater. “You know, I wonder how the others are doing?” she asked, very deliberately changing the subject.
By the time Kirby and Gooey had dove into the water, Rick and Coo had already vanished from view. That was unfortunate, but Kirby had been in underwater situations lots before! He was sure that he could find them lickety-split! Especially with Gooey along to help!
Sure, Gooey was mostly just smiling broadly and following along, but that just meant it was invested!
The water here was a lot deeper than Kirby had expected, though. The ground they had come from, sandy only at the top, was the tip of a massive underwater cliff. Below water, the cliff face was stony, but worn smooth from the water. All except for one portion of it a bit of the way down.
It was a tunnel! Kirby loved underwater tunnels–they were so much fun to explore!
Excitedly, he swam into it. The further he went, though, the more he realized that this was no natural underwater cave. There were all sorts of pipes in the walls, forcing the current of the tunnel every which way! Kirby and Gooey even nearly hit the wall a couple times as they were forced around!
They didn’t face much trouble in the tunnel itself, though. Only a few Blippers and a Squishy or two were in the water itself, and a couple of Elieels liked to duck in and out of the pipes. It was nothing that the two of them couldn’t handle!
Eventually, they reached the end of the tunnel. The current had forced them all the way here, into what looked like a control room. Near one of the panels, there was another creature floating in the water with a tentacle reached out. As they watched, a bolt of electricity struck out from the panel, absorbing itself into the yellow creature.
Then it turned to look at them, and sent a jolt of electrified water at Kirby.
He dodged out of the way easily enough, but his current copy ability wasn’t helping him very much. When he did eventually make his way down to the floor, the claws just couldn’t cut through the steel plating!
Thankfully, Kirby wound up not needing to do anything in this fight! Gooey had rushed forward at the Squishy-like creature while it was distracted firing at Kirby, bodily slamming into it. It tried to retaliate with another electric jolt, but Gooey fired its laser and pushed the creature into the wall, stunning it. Then, reaching out with its long tongue, Gooey grabbed a tentacle and slammed the creature into a control panel, knocking it out.
Curiously, though, Gooey’s look had changed when it did! It turned yellowish, and when it flicked its tongue a spark jolted off of it! Kirby gasped in realization and quickly swam up to Gooey, wrapping it up in a hug. His new friend was like him!
Gooey didn’t realize why it was being hugged, of course, but it appreciated it nonetheless. As soon as Kirby broke the embrace, it fired off a bolt of electricity, impacting another control panel and frying it.
With a shudder, the entire facility shut down. The current outside of the control room slowed, allowing Kirby and Gooey safe passage out of the tunnel.
No one in the Rainbow Islands felt it, the entire area having been submerged in the emotional pits of apathy, but the rest of the planet suddenly found itself a bit lighter-hearted and the world not feeling so hopeless anymore. It wasn’t much, but it was noticeable.
The facility in Ripple Field shutting down had allowed the Fountain of Dreams to reallocate some of its power away from the destroyed machinery that its creators had left running in their haste. That had been a constant drain on its Dreamwater output for millenia, but with it gone, it could pick up just a bit more slack from the destroyed Rainbow Bridges.
Of course, none of Popstar’s residents actually knew why they felt better, just that the crushing feeling of existential dread had lifted a bit. Enough for a Broom Hatter to pick himself up off the ground, dust himself off, and resume his trek towards Orange Ocean. He couldn’t let himself forget the importance of his mission! King Dedede had ordered it!
“Now what did you go and do that for?” Coo angrily asked.
Rick, upon getting hit with the wave, had instinctively turned himself to stone with Coo still perched upon him. And the owl had instinctively tightened his grip, latching onto Rick’s stony fur. Unfortunately, with the wave washing them over an underwater cliff, the two had sunk like, well, a rock.
They hit the bottom not long after getting washed away, a cloud of sand kicking up when they landed. Their descent had been slowed a bit by Coo not exactly being hydrodynamic, but they’d fallen the full fifty or so meters in under half a minute. And with the storm overhead blocking sunlight, it was dark down there–the two could barely even see each other.
“Don’t worry, mate!” Rick said. “We can just swim back up–it’ll be a piece of piss!”
“I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but I am a ruddy owl,” Coo shot back. “I’ve got no bloody way to easily swim!”
To emphasize, he flapped his wings, which did just about nothing to help him ascend.
Rick frowned. “We might be here for a bit, then. Guess we’re waitin’ for the others!”
Coo settled down, perching on Rick’s head again. “Well, at least you plummeting us down kept us from moving far horizontally. Perhaps they’ll be able to help us up soon.”
“Stars, I hope so!” Rick said. “If we don’t fix the whole apathy problem soon, Pick might actually kill me when I get back to Grass Land!”
“Partner?” Coo asked.
Rick nodded, which translated to Coo getting swung around a bit from his perch. “Pick’s my girlfriend,” he explained. “I’d like to say that I’m on this adventure for her, but,” he chuckled, “to be honest, the whole darkness possessing people thing is right terrifying on its own.”
“True enough, mate,” Coo agreed.
“So what about ya?” Rick asked. “Ya got anyone waitin’ for ya back home?”
“Nah, mate,” Coo answered. “The single life’s for me.”
Rick shrugged. “Suit yourself.”
The two sat in silence for a few moments before Rick came up with an idea. “Hey, ya know what?” he said. “Ya made those cutter blades outta air up in Big Forest, right?”
“It’s a bit tough, but yes, I can do that,” Coo replied.
“So couldya make it outta water?”
Coo considered that for a moment before deciding to just go for it. He lifted himself off of Rick’s head, pointed a talon at the rocky cliff, and tried to fire off a cutter blade.
Somewhat surprisingly, it did actually form–at least, sort of. The end result could only generously be called a cutter blade and was more just a slight pressure wave, but, importantly, it pushed Coo backwards.
Significantly.
Rick grinned. “I think we’ve got our ticket outta here!”
There was a sort of growling sound near them, and a light suddenly appeared in the murky depths. An anglerfish of sorts was staring them down, and very suddenly the pair were quite thankful that Coo had figured out how to swim quickly.
“Coo,” Rick said, “I think we might wanna get outta here. Now.”
The anglerfish waved its lure and electrified a column of water near them, sending Rick’s fur standing on end.
“Much obliged, old chap,” Coo agreed, and the two took off as quickly as they could.
“Watch it, ya stinking fish!” Dedede shouted, pushing the blue sunfish off of him. It had been a bit of a struggle immediately after he wound up in the water, but only for a few seconds. He was a penguin after all–he was just as much at home underwater as he was on land!
Of course, this fish was arguably far more at home underwater, given that it was a fish. It was swimming right back at him with a vengeance, its black eyes narrowed with focus. Dedede reacted quickly, summoning his hammer and slamming it into the fish’s side as it approached.
It tumbled fin over fin, but reorientated itself in mere moments, glaring at Dedede.
The king raised his arm in a “come at me” gesture.
Not having many other ways to attack, the fish rocketed forward again, but when Dedede swung, it suddenly encased itself in a block of ice. His hammer broke through, but it gave the fish enough time to twist itself around and deliver a tail slap right to Dedede’s face.
Now Dedede was sent spiraling, and the fish pressed its advantage. It swam forward again, but the king’s wild flailing managed to slam a hammer strike directly into its bottom. The two tumbled away from each other, but Dedede got his bearings back first. He swam down, getting underneath the fish before it managed to stop spinning.
Dedede raised his hammer, but it seemed that the fish had seen it coming. It froze itself in a block of ice again, but when this one shattered, Dedede suddenly felt an absolute chill. Looking down, he saw that his left arm was becoming coated in a thickening layer of frost, and he broke off the engagement before it could get any worse.
The fish pursued him, freezing the water around it into sharpened spear-like structures that it batted at Dedede with its dorsal fin. He batted away the first two with his hammer, but the fish launched the next four ice spikes simultaneously. They were spread out enough that there was no way for him to dodge them fast enough, and hitting all four with his hammer was out of the question!
Thankfully, he didn’t have to. One of the spikes he managed to bat away, sure, but another was impacted mid-launch by a spear, and the other two were demolished by a beam of purple light!
“Your Majesty!” Bandana Dee shouted, and Dedede grinned. “You looked like you could use some help.”
“I had it handled!” Dedede shouted back, launching forward and slamming his hammer into the fish as Bandee swam to retrieve his thrown spear. Twilight added one of her own spells, forcing the fish closer to her as she hydrokinetically moved the water around it. Her tiara began glowing brightly, and the fish squirmed as it tried to escape the pull of the current.
Its efforts were in vain, and the darkness in its eyes receded from black to a mere dark blue. Just like with Coo, a small sphere of darkness was forced out of it, which the Element of Magic promptly destroyed with prejudice.
The fish blinked a few times before swimming in a circle, slowly inspecting itself. “Well, looks like everythin’s accounted for!” He turned to the group. “So, youse are the ones who saved me from dat parasite? I’ve gotta thank youse for dat, it had me flounderin’.”
Dedede laughed. “We’re getting that a lot, today.”
Twilight nodded in agreement. “I’m sorry we had to hit you a few times, but so far I’ve only had the Element of Magic expel that darkness thing if the target’s stationary.”
The fish waved a fin dismissively. “Eh, fuhgeddaboudit,” he said. “Da name’s Kine, and if I had a hand to shake, I would!”
Bandee, having collected his spear, waved. “I’m Bandana Waddle Dee!” He pointed at Dedede. “This is King Dedede, and,” he pointed at Twilight, “Princess Twilight Sparkle!”
“We’re sorry if this whole thing is inconvenient,” Twilight diplomatically mentioned. “Something’s been destroying the Rainbow Bridges, so the whole world has been losing its emotion.”
Kine frowned, a strange look on a fish. “Well, if everyone’s emotions’re gettin’ stunted, goin’ back ta see da Boss ain’t gonna help things.”
“The boss?” Bandee asked.
“My wife, Mine,” Kine answered. “Whatever dat parasite was, when it hit me Mine just couldn’t bring herself ta care, it felt.”
Twilight nodded. “That does seem to be the default way people react to the waves of apathy. Either anger or losing emotion altogether.” She shuddered. “It’s…creepy is putting it lightly.”
“So, have you lot found the others yet?” Dedede asked.
Bandee shook his head. “You were the first we found.”
“Got some people missin’?” Kine asked.
“There are four more of us,” Twilight explained. “We all got separated on the surface, and they went in the opposite direction on the sandbar.”
“Well, if youse need ta get ‘round da cliff ta see youse’s groupers, I’m your fish!” Kine declared. He offered his tail for the others to grab onto. “We’ll be goin’ fast enough ta make a swordfish jealous!”
“Does anypony else find it slightly…concerning that Fluttershy’s mood flips on a dime, watching this?” Rarity asked.
The mare in question was currently enraptured with the view on screen, immersed in trying to figure out how a fish could talk. Mere moments before, though, she had been cowering behind Discord. “He doesn’t even have gills!” she realized, seemingly not even hearing Rarity.
“Water is breathable there,” Cadance pointed out. “Maybe the fish there don’t need them.”
Fluttershy gasped. “So if they have lungs, maybe they can breathe on land, too!”
“Yeah, Ah see what ya mean,” Applejack said.
“I can hear you all,” Fluttershy suddenly said, only slightly louder than a whisper, and Applejack and Rarity blushed in embarrassment. “I just don’t like watching the fights. The cute little animals all get hurt during them!”
“Cute?” Rainbow asked.
Fluttershy nodded. “You might not find them all cute, but the natural world has such beauty to it! Like those pig creatures from Big Forest! You can tell so much about them just from looking! They both definitely foraged for food by digging, but the larger one’s tusks looked like they could be used for competition for mates, too!”
Rarity cleared her through. “I do think you’ve made your point, darling.”
Fluttershy clammed up a bit. “Oh, um, right. Sorry.”
“Oh, there’s no need to apologize for what you’re passionate about!” Rarity retorted. “I should be apologizing for being so presumptuous!”
Applejack looked between them before she gestured to Rarity. “What she said.”
Kirby and Gooey, at least, were easy to locate. They were visible almost as soon as the group rounded the corner of the sandbar, exiting a tunnel of some sort. This side of the sandbar was significantly deeper than the side they’d just come from, so Twilight figured that the two of them had been underneath them while the fight with Kine was going on.
Gooey did look a bit strange, though. It definitely hadn’t used to be yellow.
Kirby excitedly waved at them, and Kine brought them down. “Gooey copied!” he jovially reported.
Dedede paled and Bandee seemed shaken. “Gooey…what?”
Instead of answering, Gooey flicked its tongue. An electrical spark flew off of it, discharging into the water.
“There’s two of them?” Dedede shouted, almost in despair.
That got him a weird look from Twilight and a weirder look from Bandee, given that he and Kirby were currently allies.
Kirby, of course, didn’t care and was focused on Kine. “Hi new friend!” he greeted. “I’m Kirby!”
“Nice ta meetcha!” Kine said back. “Da name’s Kine, but my friends…also call me Kine.”
Screams from below them distracted from further introductions, though. Everyone looked down, eyes widening in surprise as Coo and Rick shot past with a shout of “SWIM FOR YOUR LIVES!”
“By the stars, it’s da Sweet Stuff!” Kine shouted. He created some icicle spears out of the water and launched them. “Everyone move!”
The ice barely slowed down the anglerfish after them as it tore through. It launched a bolt of electricity at them, which sent Twilight’s fur standing on end and she just barely managed to redirect around them with a conductive shield. She sent a magical beam down as well, which did manage to significantly delay it.
Which was good for her, because she was by far the slowest swimmer of the group.
“Grab on!” Kine called at her as he slowed down to help.
“Thanks!” Twilight called back, grabbing ahold of his tail and keeping an eye on the fish below them. “Left!” she shouted.
Kine didn’t ask why, he just veered left. The lightning bolt soared past them, and Twilight cringed as it hit Gooey, who had been directly in front of them. Thankfully, it didn’t seem to affect it much, and it turned around to fire a dark laser of its own before their flight continued.
“What’s the plan, here?” Bandee shouted from his position of clinging to Dedede’s back.
Kirby, who had been struggling to keep up with their swimming as well, suddenly found himself halfway in Kine’s mouth as the fish helped him speed up.
“Get to the surface!” Twilight shouted back. “I can’t fly like this, but I can levitate us all above the surface a bit. Hopefully it’ll leave!”
“Crikey, it’s gainin’ on us!” Rick shouted.
“We’re almost there!” Dedede called. “Just a bit longer and we’ve got this!”
Twilight cast another conductive shield as the anglerfish sent out another bolt of lightning, this time aiming to send the electricity right back into the fish. It didn’t quite work–the anglerfish just moved out of the way a bit–but it still delayed it long enough for them to reach the surface.
Dedede was the first to breach, having been moving fast enough to get a solid meter out of the water. Coo was next, though he just surfaced normally. Rick, Gooey, and Kine (with Twilight and Kirby in tow) surfaced just afterward, Kine spitting Kirby out and into the air. Twilight’s horn flared with power as she focused on levitating everyone that couldn’t fly on their own, and she grunted with the effort.
She really should have focused more on autolevitation as a unicorn.
It took far more effort than usual–mostly because she had to focus on everyone as an individual object, rather than clumping them all up into a big ball like she had done for the Meta-Knights–but it was doable. Everyone was hovering around two meters above the surface, rain lashing at them and the waves sometimes getting nearly high enough to reach them. But the anglerfish was stuck, and after thirty exhausting seconds, a single fired lighting bolt, and Coo hitting it with no less than five cutter blades formed from the air, it retreated back to the depths.
Twilight kept them in the air for another fifteen before letting them all crash back down into the surf. “I don’t know how Rarity does it,” she eventually said as they all caught their breath. “I can put a lot of power into my telekinesis, but I still need to work on fine control, clearly.”
“Seemed good enough,” Dedede said.
“Yeah, but…” Twilight gestured up at the rain. “Even if I could dry my wings out easily, the rain is strong enough now that I can’t fly.”
“I’m in the same boat,” Coo admitted, raising a wing up above the surf. “These ol’ things just don’t do well after a bath, I’m afraid.”
“Well, where do youse need to go?” Kine asked. “I’m more dan willin’ ta help youse get wherever.”
“Iceberg,” Bandee answered immediately.
“We can swim,” Dedede pointed out. “Why don’t we just skip the wait, again?”
There was the rumble of thunder in the distance.
“That,” Twilight answered, “is why. We don’t want to be in the water when lightning strikes.”
“Fair enough,” Dedede conceded.
“Let’s get moving now, then, mates!” Rick pointed out.
Kine readied himself with a nod. “Grab on, everyone! Next stop: Iceberg.”