The Lighthouse
It wasn't fair.
Plain and simple, it wasn't fair.
They were all off at the beach, lazing around in the surf, soaking up the sun, playing volleyball, building sand cakes (Pinkie's words), or reading Daring Do and SHE was stuck working.
Seriously? Summer at the beach and she gets called in by direct request to fill in for Sea Splash, some no-face nopony while on her three day vacation? Not cool. And when she got back to Ponyville, she was sooooo going to let them know what they could do the next time she put in for vacation time.
Rainbow Dash folded her forelegs across her chest as she, once more, tried to find a comfortable way to sit in the weird chair. She'd never liked chairs. Never. Well, maybe once in a while, but never often. They felt weird. They were uncomfortable. They were hard. They were uncomfortable. They were ugly. Oh... and they were uncomfortable. Shifting again, Rainbow Dash tried unsuccessfully to lean back without pinching the muscles of her wings.
She sighed. This was why she liked to nap on clouds. They were always so soft and squishy. If something didn't feel right, she could just grab a lump and mold it to whatever shape or consistency she liked. Always just right and never uncomfortable. Not like chairs.
Groaning, she rocked forward until she was once more on her hooves. If the chair wasn't enough, the fact that the room was only a few yards wide meant that she didn't really have room to fly either AND the sign screwed into the stairwell made it VERY clear that she couldn't just drag a bit of cloud up here to nap on. The cloud, as well as a the nap, were both expressly forbidden.
Idly, she hopped into the air and hovered for a moment before dropping back to the floor. Yep, nothing really different. The ceiling was too low to really let her hover and the room was too small to let her do laps. Stupid work.
She sat back down on the floor, glaring at the chair before she knocked it over out of spite. Yep, bored.
Bored bored bored.
"Grrrr.... How does Twilight do this stuff?" she growled in exasperation. Hopping back up again, she trotted around the room, careful to avoid the stairwell and the toppled chair. At least she was high enough that the view wasn't too bad.
It wasn't really great, but at least she wasn't stuck at ground level doing nothing. She was stuck at around 120 feet, looking out at the ocean doing nothing.
Once more, she plopped down to glare daggers at the chair. "This is ALL your fault, you know." The chair, predictably, didn't favor her with a response.
Why did they even need a pegasus to run the lighthouse? Wouldn't a unicorn or earth pony make more sense?
Seriously, Applejack could probably do this in her sleep. Just sit here and prop her legs up, watching out the windows as the cone of light slowly spun across the water. She'd be tossing her lasso across the room to pluck apples out of a basket or something, just.... doing whatever Applejack did when she wasn't bucking apples or cooking, or um... whatever it was that she did normally.
And Twilight... Twilight would be having a field day running around and measuring everything from the windows to how much light the lens above was putting out. Heck, Twilight would probably be improving it somehow... like adding a bookcase or some other egghead thing.
She groaned again, her face being pulled as she drug her hooves down under her eyes. SOOOOOOO Boring.
Now, if she were siting here in a thunderstorm, THAT would be cool. Rain pounding down the windows, tempest winds screaming over the roar of the sea, waterspouts and lightning and.... yheah.... that would be cool. Cool enough that she could actually see herself voluntarily being cooped up in a little box room, sitting on a spindle of metal and wood overlooking the ocean... with a beam of light arcing overhead every few moments. Yheah, she could be like a super lighthouse mare! Valiantly keeping watch and ready to spring into action to save somepony tossed overboard at sea.
Her expression fell as her imagination was cut short by the presence of a sea gull which flew by the window, drawing her attention to the placid water and the decidedly not-tempest weather.
So boring.
Rainbow Dash, fastest flier in Ponyville, if not all of Equestria, frowned at the coastline from her perch several stories above anything that even remotely resembled the haziest fever dream of anything cool.
Heck, this whole thing could be done by Twilight in a few minutes, she would bet. Yheah, Twilight would probably have looked up some spell somewhere to let her know if bad weather was coming in and warn any ships that were dumb enough to sail without a few pegasi. Seriously, who even does that anymore? Weather pegasi were in every major city and in every major field of work, with a focus on anything that involved the weather, rescue, or transportation.
Anypony could do this job. Heck, Fluttershy was probably a better fit than she was. At least Fluttershy could have a few of her little critters running around to keep her company and, knowing her, they'd be trained and willing to race off with an emergency message if needed.
She sighed and snagged her saddlebags from the rail near the stairwell. Nothing to do but sit it out though. It wasn't like she could just run out on it... somepony could get hurt. Granted, that pony would have to literally be one of the dumbest ponies in existence to go sailing without a pegasi, to get in trouble on a calm ocean, and to somehow steer a ship through the entirety of the bay avoiding every patch of open water, only to come crashing into the shore, but seeing as how she was stuck in a tiny room overlooking said ocean, SOMEpony apparently thought it was likely enough to warrant her skills.
Rainbow Dash was so overqualified, it was overwhelming.
With little more than a glance, she knocked the chair back into an upright position while she nabbed a sandwich from her saddlebags. Simple fare true, but for the weight and size, there were really very few things that beat a sandwich for snacking. Carrots and a few wildflowers thrown in with some peppers. Nice and simple. Carrots were awesome, of course, and the blossoms added a bit of variety. The peppers though, THOSE were there for the excitement. Spicy and flavorful.
While she mused over her snack, Rainbow Dash carefully sat down on the seat again, careful not to lean back, and considered her predicament.
As far as she could tell, this was the most boring lighthouse on the most boring coastline of the most boring vacation with the most boring weather ever. There were no ships out there and the only real movement came from the small collection of ponies playing on the scattered beaches away from the breakwater.... which put them outside of her immediate vicinity. Sure, she was close enough to see some of them, but she couldn't really chat or DO anything so they were little more than reminders of how bored she was. The local critters weren't all too interesting either. The sea gulls were sitting on rocks or dipping into the water to fish... nothing special there. The crabs were sitting on the rocks or being picked up by the sea gulls.... nothing special there. The fish were.... well, swimming she guessed, or being eaten by the sea gulls or crabs.... also, nothing special there. Kind of gross, but nothing special.
"GAH!" She shouted, "Gotta move!"
With an overabundance of nervous energy, Rainbow Dash started to trot around the tiny room. There wasn't enough space (and there certainly wasn't enough height) to make her comfortable, but she simply HAD to move. She could almost imagine a track in her head, the starting line over there, a little rise near the rail thing, and a few hay bales or puffs of cloud over near that big blue blob. Yheah.... just like a little practice run.
After the sixteenth lap, Rainbow Dash was just about ready to cry from boredom. Muttering to herself, she kicked the offending chair over once more and flopped down to glare daggers at her sandwich. Unfortunately not even the peppers within were exciting enough to brighten her mood as she laid her head down on her front hooves to stare aimlessly at her saddlebags where she had left them before running her laps.
If Daring Do were in her position, she'd be planning some great discovery or figuring out some ancient secret. She'd be flipping through the last page of an undiscovered civilization's hidden treasure book or decoding an intercepted message from some shifty-eyed creep with a funny accent. She'd be just about to make the final puzzle piece fall into place when something big would happen and the adventure would really begin.
Just then, Rainbow Dash heard a low tone, barely audible over the soft creaking of the lighthouse floors.
Blinking in surprise, she raised her head and let her ears swivel around searching for the sound again. All was quiet save for the soft creaking and the muffled crash of waves far below. She glanced around, noticing that a cloud had slid across the sun sometime while she had been thinking about Daring Do, and stretched as she got to her hooves once more.
Nothing had really changed too much while she had been daydreaming... maybe there were only a few ponies left on the beaches a couple miles down the coast, and maybe the tide had come in a bit, but otherwise it looked pretty much the same. Sand, water, rocks, crabs, sea gulls, fish, cloud covering the sun, sudden drop in temperature, fog bank rolling in, ship with tattered sails drifting near that outcropping of rock, cone of light from the ....
Rainbow Dash stared openly at the ship half engulfed in the fog bank that hadn't been there only a minute before. Its design looked nothing like the small fishing boats or the larger freight-liners that came in occasionally, and it certainly didn't resemble the rare airship that docked at Canterlot or Cloudsdale. No, this ship was old, at least seventy feet tall at its mast, and large enough to have Twilight's library dropped into its hold five or even six times side by side. It was a big ship. An old ship. And it was drifting in on a fog bank that hid the base of the ship from view while seeming to leach the color from the day around it.
She trotted up to the windowed wall of the lighthouse deck and glanced along the coastline again. Far off she could see the last of the ponies that had been playing all day packing up and heading back towards the hotels or beach houses. Closer, she could see the sea gulls taking wing in the sudden chill. The crabs were gone, likely doing whatever it was that crabs did when it got chilly.
Rainbow Dash suddenly realized that this was exactly why there was a lighthouse on the beach. Just in case something went wrong and a ship's crew didn't notice the rocks or breakwater and got too close to shore. It was her duty to help them....to save them from disaster.
With a sudden burst of energy and a grin worthy of Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash hopped out the window and shouted to the world "Never Fear! Rainbow Dash is here!"
A split second to crouch down was all she needed before launching herself over the edge in a long arc before starting to plummet. She felt the growing chill of ocean air as she accelerated towards the ground, heard the whistling of the wind as she fell, the sensations were electric. Watching the ground come ever closer, she waited until she could pick out individual blades of the sparse grass that crept in through the sand before snapping her wings out in a bone-wracking adjustment that sent her screaming just a meter over the surf leaving twin white contrails from her wingtips. She couldn't waste time with a normal climb to make speed, she was Rainbow Dash, she knew she could pull up from a dive to get a fast start.
As she streaked on, she continued to watch the ship as she winged ever closer. It was still quite a ways out, though it wouldn't really matter if she didn't get the message to them quick enough. As she understood it, a ship needed time to turn and no amount of flight skill could make the rocks move before there would be a wreck, she had to get them to turn around before it was too late. She pressed on, even as she noticed the wind that was starting to pick up and the growing field of clouds that threatened to blot out the sun entirely. A flicker of movement caught her eye causing her to instinctively strafe left just in time to avoid the marlin that leapt up from the suddenly choppy water below her.
Wait, a marlin? She only knew that fish because of the little refreshment stand down by where the girls were staying...it was a real fish? Momentarily blinking back her surprise, Rainbow Dash almost didn't react fast enough when one of the small wave crests nearly overtook her. Though she responded with reflexes honed after years of practice, the wave still managed to soak her rear right hoof, sending an unfamiliar chill up her spine.
A quick glance towards the dark waters beneath her and she suddenly didn't feel quite as confident. Yheah, she was Rainbow Dash and yheah, she was awesome but.... the water here wasn't just deep, it was cold and choppy. She couldn't see the bottom and if that little splash was anything to go by, she might as well be taking a dip in a glacial pool if she went down. With new found respect for earth pony sailors of old, she quickly put a few more yards between herself and the watery abyss.
Winging her way towards the ship, she began to notice the telltale feeling of a drop in pressure. Her ears popped and her joints felt just a tiny bit stiff as the already cool air took a turn for the chilly. Even so, the ship continued to drift closer, still a minute or so out, but as she continued to fly more and more details began to take shape.
Her prow was the dark bleached brown of water soaked driftwood and her masts were banded with splints and bolts. The sails fluttered and snapped as their tattered edges clawed at the sky, looking like nothing so much as spidery arms grasping in a failing attempt at escape. The small windows along her hull were little more than gaping holes, long since vacant of glass, offering glimpses into the black heart of the vessel. There was a wheel on the upper level, overlooking the main deck and though the deck itself looked sturdy enough, the stairs between levels looked to have taken a serious beating. Though she saw no sailors, the ship flew a ratty yellow flag with a greenish smear near its center. Rigging hung or swung in the gusts as she approached, reminding her of the hanging snakes from Daring Do and the Trial of the Forgotten Crypt.
She was just about to land when a shrieking gull nearly flew straight into her chest. The bird, fighting the winds or fleeing the cold, looked to be nearly dead with exhaustion. Even as Dash spun nimbly out of its way, she could see its uneven coat and dull gray eyes. The thing was flying nearly blind. Dash watched for just a moment more as the gull careened off into the spray before she lost sight of it in the fog bank. With one final glance back towards shore to orient herself, Dash touched down upon the sodden deck, slipping for a moment on the slick planks.
There was nopony there. Ropes and rigging swung from tie offs overhead or lay in uneven coils upon the deck. Though she saw no sailors, a number of small hurricane lanterns guttered fitfully from gimbals nailed into brackets or swinging from a central chain. For a brief moment, the deck, masts, rigging and sails shone a golden amber light before shedding such glory for their previous bleakness. Rainbow spun around catching the distant glimmer of the lighthouse before it faded into the fog. A tense few seconds crept past before the beacon once more revealed itself through the veil, illuminating the ship with it's glow.
"Hey! Anypony there?" She called out. "You gotta turn this thing around! You're gunna hit the rocks, and this tub of junk is going down if you do."
Rainbow Dash looked around, the only sounds that reached her were those of the wind and waves with the occasional creak or groan from the ship.
"Seriously! You're gonna wreck! Hello?"
Again, there was no reply.
The deck lit up once more as the lighthouse beam passed over it just as Dash took a tentative step towards the upper deck. Stepping over a few pieces of fallen rigging, she noted that while the ropes were old and failing, the anchors themselves looked pitted but otherwise in good condition. Odd given that, as a weather pegasus, she knew metal tended to fail almost as quickly as thick cordage in the elements if it wasn't protected. Once more taking wing, she darted up to the wheel and glanced around again.
The upper deck glowed golden for a moment right as she touched down, highlighting the damp pools and the odd polished tie-off for rigging. The wheel itself looked as if it had been drug up from the ocean floor as pitted and broken as it was. The arc was easily her body length wide whereas the pegs to aid in navigation were almost as long as her hoof. Some green sludge seemed to be clinging to a number of the pegs, and when she reached out to touch it curiously, the peg itself broke free and landed with a hushed sound near her other hoof, failing to bounce in the least. The wheel itself hadn't moved in the slightest.
The scent of rotting wood fresh in the air mingled with the salty spray and the stale odor of fish lead her to wrinkle her nose in disgust.
"So" she thought, "nopony's on-board and steering this thing's out of the question." She considered her dwindling options quickly.
While it was clear that she didn't need to save anypony from the soon-to-be-wreck, it didn't seem like a good idea to simply let the ship crash into the beach. Not only would it litter the coast with debris but it would likely attract kids or other ponies foolish enough to get themselves hurt. Likewise, she couldn't see the ship miraculously turning around to avoid the rocks or breakwater, which would lead it to likely crashing in the bay somewhere if it didn't just maul the coastline. While a little bit better than the coastline itself, the bay posed its own problems... including fishers, other boats, divers, and attracting larger predators to the area once ponies found out about the wreck. She shook her head with a frown... nope, sharks and ponies do NOT mix. Of course, even if the ship somehow missed the bay, then it would still be caught up in the rising tide and likely wreck somewhere nearby, potentially becoming a hazard for other ponies or ships in the area. And, she sighed, even if that didn't happen, even if it somehow dodged the shore, missed the rocks, skipped the bay, and didn't wreck somewhere along the coast, there would still be an unguided ship floating around the ocean just waiting to cause trouble later.
Muttering to herself, Dash frowned as the deck glowed golden again. She turned to see if there might be enough rigging to make a decent rope so she could help to tow it or anchor it somewhere when, out of the corner of her eye, she caught the brief glint of something near the wheel stalk. Glancing over, everything faded back into darkness as the beam passed, forcing her to study the planks until she found it.
Caught deep in the gap between two portions of a plank about halfway up the wheel stalk, Dash could just make out an odd lump of metal with a hole slightly smaller than a bit. Tilting her head and leaning in to look more carefully, she lowered herself and saw that the piece of metal was the end of a larger flat object buried deep into the stalk, perhaps into the old mechanism itself. She was just reaching out to touch it when she caught a tiny, faint glimmer far in front of the ship before she was blinded in a furious golden light.
Yelping in surprise, she stumbled back, slipping on the damp planks and tumbling to land on her rump. Cold, slick muck splattered itself over her hindquarters as she fumbled blindly before the glare faded almost as quickly as it had come. Panting and shaking, she struggled to her hooves again, blinking her aching eyes and trying to squint past the glowing after image.
"Right..." she growled, her heart quietly requesting re-admittance to her chest, ".... don't look at the lighthouse when it's dark out." She shook her head again, trying to dismiss the after image as well as shake the creepy feeling that was threatening to spook her. It was just an abandoned ship drifting towards the coast, nothing more. Noticing a faint glimmer before the ship again, she quickly shielded her eyes with a hoof, as she waited for the beam to pass. A moment later, she stepped back towards the wheel and inspected the piece of metal embedded in the stalk again.
With a few moments of examination, she realized that whatever it was, it was likely the reason the wheel wasn't shifting as the ship rocked upon the waves. The ship couldn't be steered with that thing stuck in the controls. Glancing around, she spotted one of the rigging tie-offs, a thin metal hook with some nails holding it to a piece of rotted railing, and with a swift kick, she had broken it free. A few more moments as she crushed the remains of the rotten wood free and she was trotting back towards the wheel just as the deck turned amber-gold again. Carefully, she fit the hook through the hole in the metal piece and took hold of the rigging still trailing from the hook, smiling at her ingenuity.
Twilight would have been proud. Planting her hooves firmly, scuffing the deck for grip, she braced herself and gave the rigging a sharp yank just as the lighthouse lit the deck in its golden light once more.
A shuddering groan seemed to echo through the ship as the piece of metal was pulled free. Rainbow Dash stumbled back, barely keeping her footing as the rigging gave slack, the piece of metal flipping in the air towards her. Quickly ducking her head, it sailed above, thumping dully against the railing behind her as the glow faded. The ship gave another groan as the wheel began to turn ever so slowly with the rocking of the waves.
Grinning to herself, Rainbow Dash turned around to figure out what the metal had been only to freeze as she noticed the foreleg length blade embedded hoof-deep in the railing behind her, a metal hook pressed through a hole in what should have been a handle, trailing a bit of rigging that ended in her mouth.
Spitting out the cord and stepping backwards, Rainbow Dash swallowed nervously. That had been close.... too close even for her. What should have been an easy story to brag about later suddenly became a harrowing near-death experience as she considered just how nearly she had taken that sword-thing to the face. The sea spray suddenly seemed all the colder and the fog around the ship seemed all the more oppressive.
Driving the uncomfortable thoughts from herself in a self-assuring cough, she turned back to the task at hoof: trying to figure out how to stop the ship from wrecking. The wheel was now free, so steering it was an option, though she had never done so before. It was really just a wheel though.... it could only go two ways. She trotted back up to the now slowly turning wheel and tentatively gave it a push.
The wheel was surprisingly difficult to turn though, when she pulled firmly, it began to submit with a groan. Moments later, and a few more pegs aside, and she felt the ship begin to shudder into a new course. Grinning with her triumph, Dash stood on her hind legs and imagined herself captaining the old ship, sailing through a storm wall while her crew cried and leapt to her demands. She could almost see the squall, sheets of rain pounding upon the deck as the sails howled in protest, swollen like Pinkie's belly after the all-you-can-eat sundae Sunday at the ice-cream shop. She could almost feel the gales yanking her captains hat from her head and sending her mane whipping in the wind, a thing alive with a manic thrill. She felt her wings spreading to catch those screaming winds, could almost hear her crew's panic-stricken shouts, when she suddenly found herself covering her face.
Rainbow Dash blinked in confusion. Why had she felt the impulse to cover her face? Sure, there was a storm, but those were nothing new on the sea. Carefully, she lowered her foreleg, checking her overcoat for damage. Despite the squall, the material was holding up well. The dark brown coat was draped heavily over her shoulders and the stitching had been sealed in resin to keep her dry underneath. The long pockets were still intact, holding her coin as well as the sextant and small telescope she carried to find port. The heavy bottle of apple brandy hung snugly across her chest, secured at both top and bottom to the rim-cord and her belt.
Shaking the strange feeling from her head, she let loose a shout, rallying her men who hollered back with fervor. If the captain said to sail, they would sail.
Captain Rainborn Lash smiled out from under her fiery mane and hollered out in a voice that spoke of the tempests she had been born to, "STAND FIRM! WE'LL BE TAKIN' 'IM TO THE DEPTHS AFORE A SHOWER BE MY END!"
The crew sent up a howl of approval before laying hard into their duties. Rainborn Lash grinned her vicious smile, the slash across her face pulling at the fresh stitches that held her lip together. That cursed mutineer was still riding in the 'guest quarters' under the hull. She laughed into the storm as lightning flashed. She might cut him loose from the keel-hauling when they next made port.
Again, she found herself blinking in confusion, staring at her foreleg in bewilderment.
Why had she felt the need to cover her face again? Shaking her head and yanking her leg down angrily, the Captain spun around as the sound of metal being drawn brought her attention to Navigator Pathways behind her. The earth stallion was focused somewhere over her shoulder, but had drawn his cutlass. Reacting quickly, she drew her own, the crude weapon glinting golden in the flash of lightning.
Before she could react, Navigator fell face forward into the deck, his sword clattering to the planks and skidding until it slipped over the ledge to the deck below, neatly avoiding the railing. The Captain looked up from her fallen crewman and saw the Rum Master grinning with inequine malice as he pulled his own wicked blade from the dead earth pony. A flickering blue glow enveloping the blade as he grinned, exposing his strangely pointed teeth.
Captain Rainborn Lash was no stranger to the unusual, having traveled far and wide in her time as the bravest and most daring of captains, but her discovery of Barley Brood, their Rum Master, in a strange land in the south seas had been the most unusual. For all appearances, Barley Brood was an earth pony, however heavily built, with a dark brown coat and a sea-foam mane. His hooves were tufted with a lighter brown and tipped with a white enamel made from crushed sea shells. Why he adorned his hooves was anyponys guess, but the captain had seen the value in the stallion and had offered him a home amongst the crew. Other than his stature, which dwarfed everypony else, Barley Brood had one other unusual feature... a strange deformity which twisted from his forehead in a long, pointed, spire some sixteen inches long.
It was at this 'horn' that the Captain now stared. Barley Brood's 'horn' was glowing.
From below deck, the Captain suddenly recognized the screams of the slaves held chained in the hold. The cries of her crew alerting her to a breach, but she couldn't attend to those things now... Barley Brood was grinning with feral intensity at her as the stallion's wicked straight blade fluttered in the air, untouched by mouth or hoof.
"Wh-What cursed foul being are you?!?" she growled, feeling the stitches pulling again.
The stallion, eyes reflecting the flash of lighting in the tempest around them, grinned. A moment later and there was a burning spray as the Captain howled in furious agony, pinned to the wheel stalk, the glowing blade buried deep in her chest. Barley Brood snarled as he drew closer, his monstrous deformity wreathed in a baleful glow as he leaned down to whisper: "I am one-horned. I am fear. I am pain."
The blade dug deeper, a sound like a shovel being pushed through gravel reaching the Captain's ears.
"I am suffering. I am torment. I am loss."
Another push and the handle was all that remained outside of the Captain's glorious coat.
"I am rage. I am spite. I am hate."
A flash of lightning cracked across the sky behind the monster, his wild mane writhing in the maelstrom as the Captain fought to draw a breath through the searing foam that was building in her chest. She could feel the stitches tearing as she strained to resist, to free herself from the weapon buried in her body.
"I am death my captain. I am death."
The monster reared back up, his massive hooves poised to strike the death blow when Captain Rainborn Lash summoned her last reserves and struck. The blade whipped with what seemed like a terrible slowness, her foreleg screaming as torn muscle and the agony of drowning in her own blood robbed it of its strength. She saw the blade entering her field of vision, her own limb betraying her as she felt it go numb as the blade failed to connect, but even as she lost her grip, she saw the blade change angle as her limb fell, its tip standing to attention as she felt her breath leaving her.
The Captain never saw the crashing hooves which sundered her body and tore the handle from Barley Brood's weapon.
But Rainbow Dash did. And she saw the monstrous unicorn impaled by a dead captain's cutlass, puncturing his rib cage and erupting from his spine as the monster crashed down upon the earth pony captain, tearing her limbs clean from her impaled torso.
She screamed as the deck lit into a golden flash as she leapt into the air and launched herself into a headlong rush towards the shore.
There were howls behind her. The fog bank's coiling form suddenly alive with malevolent intent as forms began to spill from its frothing mass. Horrible ponies, two, maybe three times the size of Big Macintosh, erupted from the seething wrath of the fog, racing across the waves as they laid chase. Earth ponies, eyes of lightning and teeth of nightmare charged after her as the waves leapt to claim the skies.
Rainbow Dash dove and cut across a crest that emerged before her, her wings screaming in protest as she felt a number of feathers torn free by the sheer force of her course change. Another wall of boiling ocean lept from an outcropping of rocks to ensnare her as she flashed by, barely avoiding the watery grasp.
She angled in towards the breakwater, a quick outside barrel spin letting her dodge a screaming spear of pitted metal from behind before she bounded off the stony mass and fired herself high into the air. Risking a glance behind herself, she saw the phantom crew railing against her flight and was about to congratulate herself on evading them when she saw a huge patch of ocean directly beneath her become suddenly still. Despite the tempest winds and the crashing surf all around, a roughly circular swath of ocean nearly the size of her own cloud home had become glassily-smooth. And in that smooth darkness, she saw movement.
Rainbow Dash's eyes widened as a form of a massive unicorn churned beneath the ocean. There was no way that thing could be real, but even as she thought this, she saw its head turn to glare up at her through the depths of that horrid sea. Before she could blink, the ocean was boiling in the unicorn's passage as it launched itself bodily at her.
Rainbow Dash turned to flee. Her wings straining with effort as she felt the gale force winds resisting her will. She could see the monstrous form of Barley Brood hurtling closer by the moment, the wicked flare of his malformed horn a scalding lance in the darkness. She could taste the ozone as her wings descended, forcing air below her in a monumental effort as the wailing scream of the needle-toothed beast below came closer by the second. There was a horrifying moment of agony as she felt burning pain raking down her back and underbelly as dozens of razor edged points attempted to close on her before the world exploded in a brilliant ring of color.
Rainbow Dash couldn't see, her eyes were welded shut as she flew blindly into the sky. Her body was on fire, and her throat and chest burned with the effort of her screaming. Somewhere far below, a black ship drifted into an unnatural fog and vanished without a trace. The echoing howls of the crew weeping for their fallen captain and the horrors that they would forever face.
Rainbow Dash couldn't breathe, her sides were on fire and she couldn't breathe.
"Rainbow Dash!" a voice pierced the horrible screaming.
"Rainbow Dash! Oh Sweet Celestia, I'm coming!"
Another flash of light, red through her eyelids, and she felt an immediate touch of cool air on her burning sides.
"Rainbo... Oh Nonononononononononono. Just.... stay calm Rainbow... I can help!"
There was a strange sound followed by an icy chill that seemed to spread even as the burning continued in her throat and lungs.
"Oh Celestia! Rainbow Dash! Open your eyes!" Twilight's voice shouted from somewhere.
Twilight had wings. Twilight was an Alicorn. Twilight was a princess!
The horrible screaming stopped, but the burning in her throat and lungs remained. "T-Twilight" she scratched out hoarsely, "It's coming. Get away!"
"What's coming Rainbow? Dear Celestia, you're barely even breathing! What did this to you!?"
Rainbow Dash cracked an eye open, the act rewarding her with a living agony that played over her face to match the searing in her throat and lungs. "That.... unicorn.... Barley Brood."
She could barely make out the dark silhouette of her friend with the sun at her back as Twilight seemed to loom over her.
"Rainbow... that doesn't...."
"Get away Twilight, he's coming!"
Twilight blinked before setting her mouth in a frown. There was a bright magenta flash and then the lighthouse was empty.
"So, yer saying that Rainbow was up there all day and just fell asleep?" Applejack asked softly from where she waited with her friends.
"Pretty much." Twilight replied with a sour expression. "Though she was pretty bad when I found her, the doctors said she should be alright in a few days, once they wake her up."
Applejack frowned and shook her head. "Gol'darnit Twi, I told that mare I could do the job. Rainbow's not cut out for that kind of thing.... not enough .... you know... wiggle room. I shoulda checked on her or somethin'."
Twilight frowned with concern before offering Applejack a tiny smile. "It's not your fault. You know they only let pegasus ponies man the lighthouse. You wouldn't be able to get a message to a passing ship or offer assistance if they needed help. Heck, the average unicorn couldn't do much more than put up a light show to get help from a passing pegasus. It's not your fault."
Fluttershy's diminished form drew Twilight's attention next. "And it wasn't your fault either Fluttershy. Those ponies should have made sure that other pegasus had shown up for her shift to relieve Rainbow. You didn't do anything wrong."
Rarity and Pinkie Pie both nodded as they tried to bolster Fluttershy's waning courage given their position in the local waiting room.
After Twilight had discovered Rainbow Dash screaming in the observation room of the lighthouse, she had teleported them both directly to the nearest hospital. She was no doctor, but she had read enough medical texts to see how badly sunburned her pegasus friend was and to notice the lack of any form of drink in the room. According to the doctors, Rainbow would be fine in a few days and the blisters and blood were from her skin burning under her feathers. The effect, apparently, looked worse than it actually was. Not to say that it was little, but there should be no lasting damage once she had healed up a bit. To that end, Twilight had given permission to keep her unconscious until her body had recovered. Being a princess, the hospital hadn't argued.
That had been nearly a week ago and the girls were now waiting for Dash to be released.
A soft sound, not unlike a frightened filly hiding behind her mother on the first day of school brought everyponies attention to the set of double doors through which Rainbow Dash carefully stepped. The mare was pale and her mane was disheveled, though only Rarity really took note of that fact. She stood there for a moment before opening her mouth and croaking with a flinch, a hoof going to her throat.
One by one, her friends gathered around her and tenderly hugged the pegasus as she wept. Finally, she stepped back before croaking again and swallowing hard. Her third attempt finally brought words to her lips.
"Hey guys. Sorry to get you all worried there." She scratched out, her face making it clear the pain she was feeling with the effort. "I guess I drifted off there and got a pretty bad sun burn. Thanks for baling me out Twilight." She flinched again, rubbing her throat.
"We're just happy you're alright." Pinkie chimed in, "Besides, now you get to have a full WEEK off since Twilight talked to your boss about how the crew down here forced you to work." She giggled before elbowing Twilight in the side. "And she talked to your boss very very diplomantically."
Rainbow chuckled with a slight flinch before smiling at her friends.
"But Rainbow, I did want to ask you something though, if that's alright?" The look on Twilight's face left most of her friends a bit confused. "I know you were suffering from dehydration and sunstroke brought on by the sunburn, but you mentioned Barley Brood.... what did you mean?"
Rainbow swallowed as she saw her friends all flinch back a moment. She must have reacted, she supposed. "Y-yheah.... I guess I was having a nightmare or something Twi. N-nothing important." She managed a weak smile before coughing with a wince.
Twilight raised a hoof in concern before carefully placing it back on the tiled floor.
Rainbow Dash swallowed again, her throat still feeling raw and sounding rough even after all the time the docs had said she had been recovering. "Why?"
Twilight's face flicked through a few minor expressions before settling on simple concern. "Well, Barley Brood was a rather obscure figure in early nautical history. I was wondering where you had heard of him and if you knew of anything about him. He's kind of a hero to a lot of older unicorns."
Rainbow raised an eyebrow....hero? That maniac? "Uh.... why?"
"Well, " Twilight looked up and raised a hoof to gesture, "he was one of the first unicorns encountered across the seas by earth ponies. He was one of the first to oppose slavery of the other races. He sailed with a crew of stalwart Reegons, the militant merchants of the time. He supposedly defended the crew of one of his captain's ships against cannibals. And, " Twilight beamed, " he was supposedly one of the first unicorns to focus his magic into a refined, forceful, sustained, telekinetic grip."
Rainbow Dash felt her blood go cold. "Y-yheah. He sure knew how to use a forceful telekinetic spell...but, um, I'm pretty sure he wasn't a hero." She could see the confusion and doubt on Twilight's face mirrored by the lack of recognition on her other friends. "Big brown stallion.... bigger'n Big Mac? Gray/blue mane? Tufts near his hooves? That guy?"
Twilight nodded, "Other than the tufts, which I haven't heard of before, that sounds like him. Oh and he had a ..."
"Long messed up horn?" Rainbow finished, much to Twilight's surprise.
"Yes... but how did you know that? It's not common knowledge. In fact, I don't think I've seen more than three references to it in the Canterlot archives."
Rainbow Dash frowned. "Twilight.... Let's.... let's just go home. I don't want to be here anymore, and I really need to get back to practicing."
Rainbow Dash had expected a bit of reluctance, but after a moment, she looked back up and just saw her circle of friends watching her with concern.
"Rainbow.... if there's somethi-" Rarity started but Twilight's gentle hoof to her shoulder brought her to a stop. "Well, yes. I do suppose a break from all this ocean air is probably a good idea. It IS playing havoc with my mane."
Before she knew it, she was once more in a large warm embrace, the familiar feel of her friends holding her and their care filling her with confidence once more.
"Besides, " she scratched out, "I figured out a new trick to let me do a sonic rainboom from a vertical leap." A grin forming on her face.
As the tide rolled out, a number of crabs scuttled along the breakwater waving their claws in the surf. Occasionally, a sea gull would swoop down and carry one off but, as often as not, the bird would misjudge and collide with the rocks. That was why the crabs thrived despite the danger. Day in and day out, even when their numbers fell, the crabs could find abundant food amongst the rocks and crevices of the breakwater. Things never changed.
But today was different. Today there was something new. Wedged deep into the ocean-side of the breakwater was a long metal spear. It's body was rusted and riddled with weather scarred pits, a testament to its long life of service, and its head was a cruel thing of barbs and spines deeply embedded in the rock of the breakwater. Atop its shaft perched a battered old gull whose gray eyes scanned the horizon with unflinching dedication.
As a crab approached the bird, it suddenly lit with a golden brilliance which caused the crab to tuck it's eye-stalks back for a moment before tapping the metal rod again. In the blink of an eye.... or the beam of the lighthouse... the gull had disappeared.
Nothing ever changed.