Applejack and Rainbow Dash were in store room twenty on deck 30, the lowest storeroom of the Aurora. It had been five hours since they had been sent to work on making sure the supplies would remain stable and not be destroyed or damaged.
Normally, it wouldn't make sense to do this sort of thing, but Twilight had spotted dark clouds far on the horizon, in the way of the current bearing of the Aurora. All supplies had to be secured, as they couldn’t afford to lose any as a result of the storm.
This particular store room contained, for reasons the pair hadn’t worked out yet, animal feed.
“This sort of looks like Fluttershy’s home at feeding time.” Applejack stated, shifting more boxes together to be tied up.
“Now that isn’t fair,” Rainbow replied, “its missing the hoards of starving animals messing the place up.”
“What I still don’t get is how she can get a bear in her home, her doors are just big enough for Princess Celestia to walk through, with her wings folded. The bear can’t take off its arms, and even if it could, it’d be a bit of a squeeze.” Applejack muttered, tying the boxes together to a pole.
Rainbow chuckled, earning a glare from Applejack.
“What’s so darn funny?”
“Bear arms.” Rainbow laughed.
“That’s about as funny as being smacked about the face with a trout. Now come on, we have to hurry.”
Rainbow didn’t try to argue, wasting time meant the chance of less food to make the trip home comfortable.
---
In supply room three, up on deck four, Rarity was observing from a chair she had brought with her, while Pinkie Pie worked hard. Sweat was running off the pink pony, to say it was like a river was an understatement, even a waterfall didn’t come close.
The simple fact was, Pinkie Pie was sweating so fast and so much, she broke at least ten natural laws that stated she should be dead from dehydration and over exertion. And still she worked on, though the cheer she had begun the task with, and the song she had come up with to make it go faster, had long since died and been buried.
Pausing for a moment, Pinkie turned to face Rarity, who was drinking water with ice cubes and a yellow umbrella in the glass, while using a fan to keep herself cool.
“Not to sound snippy, but can’t you help me?” Pinkie pleaded, all the joy in her voice gone due to how tired she was.
“I’m sorry, but when I came on this ship, it was to live a life of luxury and Bluebutt’s expense. I am NOT going to do any work for him!” Rarity replied.
“But you won’t be! We need these supplies safe or we could starve to death before ever getting home! Please Rarity? I’m exhausted here!” Pinkie whined, collapsing to the floor.
“Oh well why didn’t you say so?” Rarity asked, levitating the fan to her friend and using it to try and cool her down.
“Gee thanks Rarity.” Pinkie said sarcastically.
---
At the helm, Twilight read a book. It was just one of the countless hundreds that currently covered the floor of the helm, and she knew at any minute, Spike and Fluttershy would return with the last relevant books on the ship.
She was a mare on a mission. Find information on how to sail a ship through a storm and get herself and her friends out the other side alive.
With a sigh, she closed the book, having found no information at all within it. Her only hope was to find something within the books that would arrive soon.
In two minutes, Spike and Fluttershy returned, the last six books with them. They placed them down, and stood back to watch as Twilight skimmed them all. Just beyond the book, and in her sight, was the storm, now much closer than when she had sent Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie and Rarity to secure supplies. She could now at least hear the thunder that was in the storm.
Twenty minutes later, she closed the last of the six books in time with a distant strike of thunder, and she looked rather pale.
“We have a major problem!” she shouted.
“What?” Fluttershy asked, dreading that what she was thinking was about to be said.
“Not one of these books tells you what to do to sail a ship through a storm! What are we going to do?” Twilight asked, her mane becoming frayed rather quickly.
“Well, I say take your pick. We could just wing it, sail through the storm and hope we come out the other side fine.” Spike suggested.
“What’s the other choice?” Twilight asked, her voice full of hope.
“Well,” Spike thought for a second, “did you ever see The Perfect Storm?”
Twilight wailed and collapsed to her belly, and within thirty seconds, she had curled into a ball, and begun rubbing her tail.
“We’re all going to die. We’re all going to die.”
Spike looked at Fluttershy, who was looking back at him, rather annoyed.
“I said something wrong didn’t I?” he asked. Fluttershy nodded.
“I’ll just go tell the others then. See you later, if we don’t die in the storm first!” he said cheerfully, earning another loud wail from Twilight and door in the face from Fluttershy.
Fluttershy walked to her friend and sat beside her, trying to ignore the chanting of ‘we’re all going to die’ coming from Twilight.
“We’ll be fine Twilight. I know we will.” Fluttershy said.
“How? I’m clearly having a nervous breakdown at how we’re all going to die, I can’t sail the ship, we’re doomed!” Twilight replied, never once looking up at Fluttershy.
“I know we’ll be fine, because I’ll sail the ship for you.” Fluttershy answered, smiling sweetly.
Some more hair on Twilight’s mane fell out of place. She closed her eyes and begun to shake violently.
---
Spike felt glad once he had left Twilight and Fluttershy behind. Twilight had begun getting so stressed out over the storm that it had begun to annoy him. Sure, he should probably help, but once the ship passed through the storm, she would laugh at how she got so worried over such a silly thing.
It also gave him an excuse to find and spend time with Rarity. Knowing the white unicorn, she wouldn’t have left her first designated store room that she was supposed to secure.
THWACK!
He came to a standstill. Two seconds later, he shrugged his shoulders, not knowing what had made the sound. As he walked, he made plans in his head for what he and Rarity could talk about and even what they would do after the storm had passed.
THWACK!
Once again, Spike stopped, this time the sound had been louder, and clearly came from the storage room he was heading towards. Jogging a little, he begun to think of what could be making the sound. Maybe it was just rope being thrown over the crates.
THWACK! THWACK! THWACK!
“Come back here so I can kill you Rarity!” Pinkie yelled.
“Oh this doesn’t sound good.” Spike muttered, now running.
When he reached the doorway, he stared at the sight before him. Rarity was currently running away from Pinkie Pie, who had someone found a padded foam bat, and every so often, she swung this at Rarity, the impact of the bat with the ground producing the ‘thwack’ sound he had heard on the way.
In honesty, Spike wasn’t sure if he should find the sight funny, or be horrified that Pinkie was trying to kill his crush.
“What’s going on in here?” Spike yelled, bringing both Rarity and Pinkie to a stop.
“I’m trying to kill Rarity for not helping me out!” Pinkie Pie stated.
“With a foam padded bat?” Spike questioned, tilting his head to the left.
“I want it to really hurt for a long time before she dies!” Pinkie shouted, taking a swing at Rarity.
The foam padded bat hit the white unicorn across the back of the head, forcing it towards the floor, which she hit before she could stop herself from falling. It knocked Rarity out cold, and Pinkie grinned maliciously. Spike sighed.
“I’ll go get the first aid kit.”
----
Rainbow Dash and Applejack had finished securing all of the storage rooms they had been sent to do, and having decided that Rarity would have been about as helpful as a cup on a leaking boat, had moved on to securing the ones she and Pinkie were supposed to do. They soon had finished those as well, ignoring the one that Rarity would have clearly remained in.
The pair now headed back to the helm with two bottles of wine and seven glasses. Applejack had figured they could all celebrate with the drink once Twilight had sailed the ship through the storm.
"So, do you think she found the information she needed in any book?" Rainbow asked.
Applejack took a moment to think of her answer, before smiling.
"Don't see why not. This is Twilight, she can find pretty much anything in books."
"She couldn't find anything about dragons that one time for Spike." Rainbow pointed out.
"Well that were different, its probably pretty hard to write a book about dragons when one is currently finding out how nice of a snack you are."
Both ponies paused at the door into the helm when they could hear a quiet sobbing on the other side. With a look of confusion, Applejack slowly pushed the door open, giving her and Rainbow a chance to see the sight of Twilight rolled into a sobbing ball on the floor, and a nervous looking Fluttershy at the wheel and staring toward the storm that was now less than three minutes away.
"Fluttershy? What the hay happened here?" Rainbow shouted in worry.
"She couldn't find anything on how to sail through a storm!" Fluttershy replied, never moving her gaze from the storm.
"But, what do we do now then?" Applejack asked.
"Just relax, I'll get us through this." Fluttershy answered, smiling.
"You. You, Fluttershy, will get us through the storm." Rainbow said flatly.
"Yes."
"Did you forget that, just before we left for the cruise, you were scared witless by a rustling leaf."
"It wasn't a leaf, it was a scary monster." Fluttershy tried to defend herself, while also attempting to hide her face.
"It was a leaf, I saw Scootaloo slam into the trunk of the tree it came from not thirty seconds earlier"
---
Meanwhile, in Ponyville, the mentioned orange filly sneezed. Which was rather unfortunate, as she was attempting to pull another trick on her scooter, the sneeze forced her to blink, and end up head first into a nearby trash can.
---
"Look, trust me, I can get us through this storm." Fluttershy asserted.
"Applejack," Rainbow turned to look at the orange earth pony, "let's share one final drink together, we won't get the chance once that storm destroys the ship."
Fluttershy ignored the pair, and the still slightly sobbing Twilight, as she focused on the storm. It was now right on top of the ship, and any wrong move on the wheel would cost her and her friends their lives.
She watched the waves, turning the wheel with the knowledge and expertise of a captain. It took ten minutes for her to sail the Aurora safely through the storm, much to the shock of Applejack and Rainbow Dash.
When the ship was safe and back on a constant bearing, she turned to face her friends, who looked at her with surprise.
"How did you know how to sail a ship?" Applejack asked.
"It was in one of the books." Fluttershy answered.
"But," Rainbow raised an eyebrow, "Twilight looked through every book on the ship, and couldn't find anything about how to sail through a storm."
"I know. She just didn't think of something in her panic."
Both of the other mares looked at the other quickly, before looking back at Fluttershy, who was smiling.
"She didn't think that she could just sail the ship as normal. She was so focused on finding how to sail through a storm, that she thought ships would work differently in a storm." Fluttershy stated, as she walked back them, taking a wine glass and the unopened bottle of wine.
Fluttershy paused at the door.
"It also helps my uncle owned a ship and I had to sail him back to shore one time when he found rum on board." she grinned.