//------------------------------//
// 1. Reach 
// Story: Radiance 
// by flamevulture17 
//------------------------------//


[Reach]












A bright blue light shined above all others. Even the sun was no match for its instantaneous luminosity. One moment, the calm atmosphere of the cloudless sky teamed with a constant breeze. The next moment, a trio of figures shot out of the brilliant orb that dissipated in a matter of seconds.

Twilight began to fall.

A strong wind rushed upwards onto her entire body at tremendous speeds. The intimate attack of moist air brought her mind back to reality after her mind went blank seconds earlier. She turned to face the ground, but saw that there was none. All she could make out were twinkling dots of light bouncing off a blanket of blue. Her arms and legs flailed in a frantic attempt to slow her plunge, but  her efforts rendered useless. She could not determine her altitude relative to the water below, for the sea stared up at her, waiting to swallow her whole. With the constant rush of air that slapped her in the face, it made screaming a difficult task to preform. She instead closed her eyes and hoped that the gravity pulling her down would go easy on her. There's nothing she could do.

*whoosh*

Almost immediately, the blast of air in her ears stopped wailing and her plunge came to a halt. She kept her eyes tightly shut and shook violently.

“I gotcha, Twilight!” said a voice above her head.

She felt another pair of hooves wrap around her chest. She carefully tore her eyes open and found rough dunes of water rising and falling with glitters of sunlight reflecting off the surface. She looked up at her savior and saw that her friend Rainbow Dash had caught her just in time.

“Are you alright?” the pegasus asked.

The relentless power of the wind continued to blow onto the purple unicorn's face, though it was significantly less extreme than her sudden free fall. Her dark-purple hair flailed wildly and the cold temperature made the hairs on her coat stand on end and a chill creep all over her body. Rainbow used more wing power to keep their collective masses hovering up and down in the air.

“I-I'm... okay.” Twilight replied with evident shaking in her voice. “Wh-where is Cadence?”

“I'm here,” said the voice of the pink alicorn as she dropped from high above down to her two friends. She hovered beside them. “Need some help?” she asked Rainbow Dash.

“You can take over. She's too heavy.”

“Alright.”

Rainbow used her might to pull Twilight higher above the ocean in lighter air. The light-blue pegasus was almost ready to drop her purple friend from her sore forearms when Cadence relieved her of Twilight's weight, lowering the mare on the unicorn-pegasus' back. Cadence had no trouble carrying Twilight on her back for it wasn't the first time she had her as a rider.

“Cozy?” she cooed.

Twilight refrained from shifting into a different position as her initial shock of falling hadn't worn off. She remained scared stiff from the subsequent drop from such a wildly high altitude. The fall itself was vividly burned into her mind.

“Uh hu,” Twilight finally muttered.

For the next several seconds, Rainbow Dash and Cadence hovered beside each other. They took a moment to observe their surroundings. The wind was unusually strong, but nothing they couldn't handle. Along with a shaken-up Twilight, they examined the total area around them.

There was nothing but ocean as far as the eye can see. Gentle waves sloshed up and down below them as updrafts of air displaced the water in all directions. The sound the waves produced was faint and uniform, yet soothing, in a way. Across the horizon, the ocean kissed the sky with opposing shades of blue. No other distinct sound sang along with the whistling of the wind that carried an incoherent tune. Because the strong breeze swirled in circles, constantly recycling air particles, there were no detectable smells that were familiar to them. In fact, there was no odor of any kind. It was as stale and flat as ever. What was most unusual about the atmosphere were the clouds, or a complete lack thereof. Nothing but a pale blue sky and a vast blue ocean plagued the landscape. In short, the view was boring, in a serene soft of way. An endless tarp, draped over the curvature of the planet.

There was just one tiny problem.

“Where are we?” Rainbow asked.

For a moment, all three of them knew quite obviously that they were above a sea or an ocean. That much they've determined. Just exactly where in the world they were relative to Equestria remained unclear. They were not sure what happened before appearing in such a secluded place. It was difficult for any of them to recall what exactly they were doing minutes before teleporting away from their previous location. Everything was fuzzy in the front of their minds. Neither pony could remember anything more than twelve hours prior. The last thing Twilight remembered doing was some rudimentary task for Princess Celestia. Hopefully the details would come back to them.

“I don't know,” was all Twilight could say. It was one question she did not have the answer to. However, it was a question that deserved an answer and finding answer was Twilight's specialty. Her first thought was develop a plan that would lead them straight to the truth.

“What do you suppose happened?” Cadence asked.

“I-I can't say for certain,” Twilight stuttered. “I suggest we find land first.”

Twilight was anxious to set hoof on solid ground before making any sort of investigative path to determine the nature of their apparently random teleportation. The only thing that scared Twilight more than slamming to the water below was being unorganized, and her thoughts were among the first to be neatly arranged when dealing with a problem. She had to start somewhere and since their current location was unknown and completely foreign, it bothered her more than ever.

“So where do we go from here?” Cadence turned to the blue pegasus hovering next to her.

Rainbow spun in a circle to get one last look at the landscape, or in this case, waterscape. This was one instance when she had to use her 'expert' sense of direction to choose a spot that would lead them to land, and therefore, safety. However, she had difficulty figuring out anything from the dynamic wind currents that shifted every few seconds, assaulting Rainbow like invisible slaps in the face. There were obviously no stars in the sky, since it was broad daylight, and reference points were almost non-existent.

“That way.” Rainbow pointed off into the distance she was initially facing. In her mind, it was a total guess.

“Is that... West?” Cadence raised an eyebrow.

“I don't know. I can't tell.”

“How can you not know?” Twilight looked at Rainbow. “Did you consider using the sun?”

“We've only been here for like, five minutes? I wasn't paying attention to the sun. Plus, this stupid weather is really weird. I don't know where anything is.”

Twilight glared at the pegasus before Cadence spoke up.

“Well, there's no use staying here. We've got to get moving. I can't carry you all day.”

“Fine.” Twilight grumbled, still unsure if she trusted Rainbow Dash. “Let's go.”

Just like that, Princess Cadence swiftly flew in a random direction with Rainbow in tow. Although Rainbow Dash was the faster flier, she was merely following the leader. All she did was choose a heading. East, West, North, South. None of it was clear. She just had a feeling they were going West. She didn't know for sure, but it didn't matter. She was overly confident that she was right.

Everything seemed to be going fine. Cadence's pace fluctuated in order to compensate for the force of the wind. Twilight had her doubts, but because she did nothing but ride on Cadence's back, she had an obligation to be the eyes of the group. Rainbow wanted to complain how thin and mushy the air was compared to that of what she was used to back home, but she restrained a verbal rant. It would only slow her down.

Further into the flight, things got more complicated when the bland scenery remained constant, but the weather did not. A gray overcast suddenly began to form and the wind strengthened. Twilight almost fell of Cadence's back a couple times due to gusts of cold air blowing in different directions than their heading. There was nothing to grab onto except for Cadence's neck. The lavender unicorn held on for dear life. It wasn't so much the flying part, but of how high off the ground they really were. The uncomfortable feeling of hitting a wall of wind made it hard to breath.

Along their linear path, uncontrolled swirls of the strange wind knocked the trio off balance more than once. During each instance, Twilight fought to maintain her grasp on Cadence's neck and chest, which only decreased their pace further.

Only once did a blast of downward surge of wind – stronger than any other – cause the purple unicorn lose her grip mid-flight and sent her to face another free fall. Fortunately, Twilight was able to tug on Cadence's tail with her mouth just in time, pulling both ponies down in an uncontrolled dive. Rainbow Dash was quick to react and rushed over from behind to help push Twilight up onto the alicorn's back once more. Shortly after that little diversion, they continued flying as if nothing happened. Their prime focus was on a destination. Any destination. That sliver of hope was worth forgetting the numerous delay that tried to strike them down.

For what felt like an hour, it didn't seem like they were making much progress. Throughout the three hours Twilight timed while traveling through the choppy weather, Cadence's velocity slowed to almost half her initial speed. For all her strengths, there were weaknesses, and long distance flying was not one of them. Her wings were preparing to fall off her body from intense usage. Despite having flown over fifty miles (according to Twilight's guesstimate), the increasing strain that attacked the muscles in her wings – with extra weight from Twilight on her back and gold slippers – she pushed herself to her limits. Darn those gold slippers! She couldn't remember why she ever put them on to begin with. She refused to think about the weight of her royal necklace and crown.

“How are you doing?” Twilight said close to her ear, concerned for her health.

“J-just fine.”

Twilight knew that wasn't true. The only thing she could do was give Cadence quick massage on the joints and ligaments that connected the bones in her wings as she spread them wide for a aerodynamic glide through the air. Her two and a half meter wingspan was large enough to provide support for Twilight's weight for only a limited amount of time. Sooner or later it wouldn't do much good if they haven't found a solid surface to rest on by the time the tension and aching became unbearable.

Twilight was unable to calculate how much longer Cadence could take. Her physical body just wasn't built to carry passengers over long periods of time. The unicorn glanced over to her pegasus companion following close behind. Even Rainbow Dash appeared tired by the long flight and noticed she too had to submit to genuine state of heavy breathing. Although, as soon as Rainbow noticed Twilight look her way, she immediately shrugged off the drunk look on her face and acted as if the last three hours were nothing but a simple warm-up.

She used any skills and knowledge of navigation over the years of reading every book she could get her hooves on. She read one about that gave intricate details on using the stars, wind currents, and reference points as guidance. Considering their situation, absolutely none of that was useful. She couldn't even recall the title of that book. Stupid book. She'd make sure to demote that book as her least favorite. A different book on geography vaguely mentioned the use of the sun's rotation around the planet. It took her a while to finish evaluating their direction. Oh Celestia! Why must your sun move so slowly!?

She grunted at her conclusion. They were actually going south.

“Stop,” cried Twilight.

As instructed, Cadence dragged to a halt and hovered in place. She was too tired to give a verbal response right away. Rainbow flew up beside them.

“W-what's wrong?” Rainbow asked, catching up on her regular breathing.

“We're going south.”

“What? H-how do you know?”

“Well, I've been monitoring the sun's movement across the sky. It's been moving to our left.” Twilight gave Rainbow an annoyed look.

“Hey, I thought we were going the right way.”

“That's the thing, there is no right way. We're lost.”

“C-can we please c-continue on,” Cadence finally said. She was getting weaker by the minute. From that moment on, the pink alicorn refrained from talking since is took so much out of her.

“Go west,” Twilight pointed to her right.

Without further argument, Cadence did just that. Her strength was diminishing faster and faster, but held on for as long as she could. Rainbow followed suit, having her own set of interruptions with her fluid flying style, squeezing energy out of her system and plaguing her with recurring wing cramps. The wind often contributed to the difficulty of flying in straight line.

Hardly a half hour after their change in direction, Cadence began losing consciousness in small blips. Blood from her head quickly flowed out of her eyes to accommodate her wings to keep them flapping. She occasionally saw flashes of white, and it definitely wasn't the sun. The sun was behind them the whole time and flaring reflections from the water below were too weak to produce a bright enough glint. Her brain throbbed just enough to cause significant pain, as if her heart was placed inside her head and amplified the impulses within her ears. It caused extreme discomfort for both her physical body and mental state.

Throughout Cadence's growing deformation on her limits, Twilight did her part by keeping a sharp eye fixed on the horizon. Either they were getting closer to the safety of land, or there was nothing but ocean for hundreds of miles. She could not keep herself from thinking whether or not they were not going to make it at all. There was still a chance, but from very sight of it, that chance dropped with every passing minute. She had no useful spells that could heal the growing pain in Cadence's wing joints, and even if she did, she needed more time than a gliding maneuver would allow.

Their altitude decreased significantly, from about a thousand feet high to roughly three hundred in just a few minutes. Cadence swerved irregularly from left to right as her energy began to drop and their magical reserves were almost depleted. Rainbow Dash shared a similar loss in altitude and wing power, not that she tried hide it anymore. Twilight could only watch as the ocean got closer and closer and their chance of survival approached zero.

Cadence wouldn't give up, despite all that growing pain. She had come too far to lose herself and endanger Twilight's life if she failed. She needed to fly just a little bit further.

Rainbow Dash could hardly think of anything at all because the significant blood loss from her mind was taking her further from reality. As a result, she began to hallucinate. She could have sworn the ocean bellow was made of ice cream topped with white sprinkles. Rainbow had never flown longer than three hours in wild weather, let alone above an entire ocean. It was another first for the fastest flier in all of Equestria. Though, all she could think about – other than swearing to have seen Spitfire fly right next to her – was one more flap of her wings.

“Look!” Twilight shouted.

Cadence and Rainbow Dash used what little energy they had left to peel their eyes open and lift their heads enough to see a dark green speck peaking over the horizon. They couldn't tell if it was real or another delusion. The dark spot was just enough to give the Princess and Rainbow a small boost of motivation both physically and mentally to rise a little higher and fly a little faster to reach their goal.

“Come on! We're almost there!” Twilight said. She had neglected to mention that an achromatic mist began to thicken that hid most features of the land in front of them.

It was at this point that Twilight could see the mountains on the horizon start to shift and grow with more gray silhouettes of land. The regions were now layered with a hazy silver fog that was either an illusion of the atmosphere between them and mountains, or tangible fog that would pose a problem that could throw them off course. The coast stretched far enough to either that side of the natural skyline for which Twilight determined it to be significantly large landmass rather than an island. Maybe it was Equestria. Maybe it was the Gryphon Kingdom. Maybe it was the Dragon Lands. Twilight was unsure. She couldn't recognize a single mountain, landmark, or village that would give her a relative location to home. In fact, there were no settlements or towns to speak of.

Cadence and Rainbow Dash were at their peak of their might with almost no energy left, leaving them to descend rapidly. They spread their wings and used all their remaining strength to glide through the air. Both of them were unaware of their disheveled manes producing an excess amount of drag that slowed them down significantly. They weren't quite close enough to the land to pat themselves on the backs just yet. All they had to do was pace themselves... well, it was much easier to think of the idea than to actually put it to use.

After about twenty minutes from the first sight of land, Twilight figured they were no more ten miles from the coast. However, the pony carrying her and the pegasus flying beside them, the proximity to safety was not enough to cool down the sizzling exhaustion and pain that brought them ever closer to the ocean.

Approaching the coast, Twilight had full view of the continent that sharpened with vivid detail, even with the overlaying pillows of mist obstructing certain parts of the sky. Scanning the landmass, she could almost make out fields of green grass in flat plains on the landscape bordering a forest filed with incredibly tall trees. For Cadence and Rainbow Dash, however, they saw nothing but a blur of blues, greens, and occasionally, blacks. Everything was out of focus except for the entity of the land itself and the ocean below their hooves. All that had to do was to keep flying forward.

Less than a thousand feet from the coast,  They could barely hear the sound of waves sloshing into the rocky beaches and short cliff sides of the seemingly untouched territory. Twilight was able to detect a distinct seaweed smell that churned up below the surface of the water which mixed with air around them.

At the corner of Twilight's eye, she saw what looked to be a small brown hollow structure right on the edge of the coast, and another, much larger house further inland. The smaller building appeared to be incomplete that were missing two walls across from each other that faced the very edge of the land that bordered the coast. It may house ponies that could guide them home. Luck at last!

“Head for that house over there!” Twilight exclaimed. “Don't give up! We can make it!”

It was too late. As soon as they corrected their course, Cadence finally blacked out mid-flight and fell into the shallow depths of the ocean. Hew wings silently screamed out in agony. Rainbow Dash followed after her just five seconds later. Twilight let out a gasp before they made contact with the calm water and too a deep breath.

*SPLASH*

Fortunately, the ponies were just several meters from land where the waves were highest, softening their impact. Cadence sank like a rock and hit the bottom of the ocean in seconds. Rainbow Dash landed further in front of her two friends and began to tread water in a panic from her inability to swim. She was conscious enough to keep the blood from leaving her head completely, and as she slammed into the water, the blood vessels in her face quickly came rushing back to warm her facial muscles.

Plunging deeper underwater, Twilight used all her conserved strength to pull Cadence to the surface of the water as she was dragged down by the alicorn's body. Twilight didn't want to let go. She needed to save her.

The sea water was freezing. As cold as the northern waters east of the Crystal Empire. It was as if Twilight had dunked her head in a bucket of ice water to keep herself from falling asleep and it was one heck of a kick. Though, this water felt far colder than ice water. However, the dramatic shift in temperature didn't quite work for the other two ponies. Their status remained unchanged. Cadence was unresponsive and Rainbow paddled in the water like a foal learning to swim.

Roughly a minute underwater, Twilight finally managed to pull Cadence to the surface to take a huge breath. Cadence was unconscious and floating in the arms of the purple mare. Rainbow Dash ceased her frantic flailing to keep her head above the surface when her hooves finally touched something solid less that a meter down. She didn't want to admit how foolish it was to panic as much as she did when she found that she was standing in shallow water the entire time. Rainbow quickly limped her way onto dry land and collapsed in the sand, breathing heavily.

Twilight had trouble reeling Cadence to safety on the rocky bed of soft sand of the coastline. She saw a trail of mist shoot up like tiny geysers in plumes of white smoke as it sprayed water into the air. It was followed by another small wave crashing onto shore. She rapidly thought to use the natural current to her advantage. Timing it perfectly, she let the next wave do the work for her as it toppled tons of sea water onto the beach, taking Twilight and Cadence for a mildly fierce ride to shore. After what was soon to be the longest journey of their lives, they coasted to a rough stop, precisely where the ocean rested on the sand. Twilight was ready to join her friends by collapsing in exhaustion, despite the fact that she hardly did anything physical arduous for the past three hours. All she could do was pant to justify her efforts to save Cadence and lay on her back.

For several more seconds, the withering shiver from the frigid water, obstructed sunlight from the fog, and irritating sand was – for the lack of a better word – uncomfortable. However, because she was no longer fighting for her life and the life of Princess Cadence, her body heat began to wash away the shivers. Her own fur coat was like a thin blanket to protect her against any external agents. She was barely able to regain enough energy to pull her upper body off the ground. She looked down at her hooves and then at Cadence's expressionless face of unconsciousness.

“Cadence?” she loudly whispered.

…

No answer.

“Cadence?” Twilight raised her voice slightly.

Still no answer. Twilight knew it was useless. She didn't possess the necessary strength to conjure up a spell to aid the pink princess and refused to use physical contact, for she was afraid that beating down on her chest would only make it worse. She hung her head low and leaned in to place an ear to the Princess' chest. Subtle movements of the pony's chest indicated that her state wasn't grave. The weak breaths that escaped Cadence's mouth every few seconds and the slow, but stable, heartbeat relieved Twilight of her darkest fears.

A sudden chill ran up the length of her hind legs as a gentle wave of water brushed up against her lower body, then receded back into the ocean. It didn't help that she began to have doubts that they would survive if she succumbed to the exhaustion. Twilight started to get sleepy, which was the last thing she wanted to do. The life of her friends were in such dire shape that she wouldn't think to take a nap. She cared too greatly for their safety.

Using every last fiber of her being, Twilight took one final look at her surroundings, searching for a particular blue mare. She found Rainbow Dash tossing and turning in the bed of sand, groaning in pain and displeasure. It was probably the first time Twilight had seen the pegasus so distraught. Nevertheless, that sight was enough to convince her that both her friends were fine.

She wouldn't hold onto that thought for too long.

No more than a minute went by until Twilight became weary beyond measure. She laid her head on her forearms, closed her eyes, and let her mind drift off into space. One by one, her senses ceased to function. Sounds of the howling wind became muffled, the wet coastal smell became stale, and the salty taste in her mouth dissolved completely. She wouldn't let herself sleep until her most painful worries subsided.

Fatigue finally came no matter how hard she tried to overcome it, giving her much needed rest.