“Uhhh….” Twilight groaned, clutching her head. “Wh-What happened?”
“It’s alright, Twi. You’re safe now!” Rainbow Dash walked up to her, bringing a cup of hot tea. “This’ll warm you up.”
Twilight accepted the cup but did not drink. She looked around the room, taking in her surroundings. Judging from the hat on the bedpost and a wonderbolts poster on the wall, she was in Rainbow Dash and Applejack’s cabin.
“Oh, you’re better now! Yay!” Came a soft voice from behind Applejack, and the head of a pink-maned pegasus mare poked out. She walked up to Twilight with a smile on her face, and her wings nervously fluttered open and closed.
“Hi, Fluttershy. So what exactly happened after you rescued me?” Twilight asked calmly. She moved a lavender hoof in front of her face, just to make sure she was still there.
“Well, after Applejack tugged you in, we covered you in blankets and put you in this bed!” Pinkie said excitedly, bouncing up and down around the whole cabin. “Then we made some tea for you, but Gummy got into the teapot, so I didn’t tell anypony or else the tea would be wasted, but the good thing is that Gummy makes things taste like snozberries, so then we all had oatmeal, and then we all went up to the captain, and then the captain pony said that we have to stay down in the cabin, and we waited here for a few days, and I made food for everybody, AND----“ She paused to take a breath, when Applejack interuppted her.
“Pink-Pinkie, did you say that Gummy was in the tea?” Applejack asked with a disgusted look on her face.
“Ee-yup! Right-o, Apple-o!” Pinkie said, her cotton candy mane sprung up and down.
Twilight’s face concorted with worry. What did she say? “Pinkie, did you say that we were in here for a few DAYS?!” she said as calmly as she could manage, but her voice quivered.
“Uh-huh!” Pinkie exclaimed, using her fourth wall breaking skills to appear right in front of Twilight’s face. “How’d you know? You must be magic! Oh, wait! You’re a unicorn! Silly me, of course your magic!” Pinkie smiled and appeared next to Rainbow Dash, who jumped back in surprise. “Can you predict the future? Maybe you can help me with my pinkie sense thingy! Ooh, wait, you don’t have pinkie sense, because you’re not Pinkie! I am! Haha, I’m such a silly filly, and-“
“Alright! I get it!” Twilight said loudly over Pinkie’s voice. She couldn’t help but smile at the pink mare’s enthusiasm. “Okay, girls, huddle in!” She said akwardly, since she wasn’t very used to giving orders.
Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie obeyed immediately, but Fluttershy and Rarity had a little more trouble. Naturally, Fluttershy was a little squeamish about getting so close, but now that she thought of it, these were her friends. Nodding, she poked her head in through a gap in between Applejack and Rainbow Dash.
Rarity looked at them in disgust, noting the dirt on Applejack's mane and the wood chips still on Rainbow Dash, as well as the stink of seaweed on Twilight. Sighing, she too put her head in and started to listen.
"So we've been here for a few days, right?" Twilight asked, looking around to the faces of the different mares. They nodded their heads, signaling that what she said was correct. "So... wait, what's the date?"
Rainbow Dash moved her head out and pointed at the calendar that was hanging on the wall above the bed. "It's... November Twenty-ninth!" She said, wondering why Twilight had asked.
Twilight looked up in surprise. "T-the twenty n-ni-ninth?!" She stuttered loudly. "No, it... it can't be!"
Rainbow Dash stared. "Better believe it, Twi... why'd you ask, anyway?" She said curiously.
"Girls... W-we were supposed to be at Saddle Arabia TWO DAYS AGO!" Twilight whispered, but said the last three words quite loudly. A silence followed.
"What's the fuss?" Applejack piped up, breaking the silence. "We might be two days tardy, but... wouldn't the storm slow us down, anyway?"
"What's the fuss? WHAT'S THE FUSS?!" Twilight shouted, making her friends recoil. "We were supposed to get to the vacation area on the twenty seventh! And according to the horizon and those stars-" She pointed out the window, first to the sky and to the sea, "The storm didn't slow us down, but sped us along! We're probably WELL past the area now!"
"Uhm... Twilight... please... calm down... if you don't mind..." Fluttershy whispered. "We never... um... knew..."
Twilight's gaze softened, and she took a few deep breaths. The oxygen calmed her in a way. "Ah... alright... I'm sorry, girls."
The other five mares looked at her in a forgiving way. Twilight smiled, she was forgiven.
"Hey, how about you tell me about the past days?
"Well, we rescued you," Pinkie said, jumping down from the ceiling, and Twilight had to hold on to the bed to keep from falling down. "And then we went the the captain pony, but he was all weird and didn't look like himself at all, and then when the storm ended it was SOOOOO foggy, and then there was a WHOLE bunch of islands, and then to celebrate rescuing you I baked cookies, but Gummy got into the batter again, but then it tasted like snozberries, so after we ate the cookies we looked outside and it was still SOOOO foggy, but it felt REALLY funny and sorta strange and mystical and old and stuff, but then my knee got pinchy and you know what THAT means!"
Twilight glanced at Applejack. She was starting to look a pale shade of green. "So, Pinkie, your knee got pinchy? That means that something... uh... NICE is going to happen... right?" She was starting to get nervous. She knew that pinchy knees don't mean anything good.
"Nope! I thought you had a better memory, Twilight! It means something scary is going to hap- oh." Her face fell. "I hope it isn't THAT scary..."
But as she spoke, the entire ship lurched to the side, and everypony was knocked on to the bed. They heard a weird swishing sound outside. "Rainbow! Look outside! What do you see?"
"It's... a really big whirlpool? Wait a minute.... AHHH! A WHIRLPOOL!"
Rainbow fell back as the boat started to spin, and they could feel sharp rocks scratching at the ship. Her stomach did a somersault.
Then she had an idea.