//------------------------------// // Duel Phenomenon // Story: My Little Friends: Wish Your Happy Ending // by SyforceWinterLight //------------------------------// In the skies of Ponyville, dark clouds hung in the sky as heavy rain poured on the town. Rain was definitely scheduled on the pegasus team’s weather calendar, but for some reason, it was far heavier than anyone was expecting. What started off light rain, it quickly and unexpectedly shifted to amounts of water equivalent to that of a waterfall. Anyone outside immediately ducked into the nearest home and shelter, trying their best to get out of the rain. One such mare, however, was not so lucky. In the dark reaches of Everfree Forest, a lavender coated unicorn dashed through the wild plants of the forest. On her back was an equally hapless baby dragon, who tried to make himself as small as possible to avoid being pelted by the rain. Such an unlucky duo was none other than Twilight Sparkle and her assistant Spike. They were just leaving Zecora’s hut when they were suddenly drenched by the pouring rain. Now they were just trying to get to the nearest piece of cover as possible from the rain. “Twilight!” Spike shouted as he clung to the back of the unicorn, “Are you sure you know where you’re going?!” “I think so!” she replied as she galloped through the rain, “I’m pretty sure it’s this way.” Actually, she had no idea where she was going. She had been too busy trying to sprint through the forest that she actually lost track of the road that led back to town. Not helping was the fact that it was night, which meant no light to guide them through. Now, she was just trying her best to find somewhere they can hole up in. “Twilight, to your right!” Spike called out again, “I think I see a cave we can hide in!” Twilight turned her head in the direction. Indeed, there was a small hole amongst a wall of rock that held a cave entrance. She didn’t need an invitation for shelter from the down pouring water. She immediately changed her direction, and ran for the cave. She managed to duck inside, getting away from the horrendous downpour from outside. She tried to shake off some of the water on her, while Spike hopped off and did the same. “Well, this place looks to be dry enough to stay in for a while,” Twilight said as she looked around the cave, “Could use some light though.” Twilight immediately lit her horn, as a scarlet red aura followed by a white light lit up. The darkness that hid cave went away, revealing the rocky walls that made up the cave. She then noticed something at the back of the cave. “Hey Spike,” Twilight ask curiously, “Have we ever been this cave before?” “How would I know? Do I look like I go cave diving?” his immediate response. “You go gem hunting with Rarity, so you would know,” Twilight deadpanned. “Well, not here then, never have here before,” Spike responded, then a thought crossed his mind, “Maybe I should show Rarity this cave…” A scene was running through his mind as ideas went through his head. Oh Spike, we hit the mother lode of gems! Rarity exclaimed as she and Spike found themselves literally swimming in gems. What can I say, I’m a walking good luck charm, he replies with a very suave voice. Oh c’mere you, Rarity hugged Spike affectionately and moved closer to his cheek as she was preparing to kiss his cheek… *BOOM* A loud clap of thunder and flash of lighting roared and flashed through the entrance of the cave. Spike yelped and jumped as he immediately grabbed onto the nearest thing, which just happened to be Twilight. Twilight gave a flat, annoyed look as the baby dragon clung onto het fur, which was slightly painful but was something she was used to. Spike shook for a bit, then saw Twilight’s face. He sheepishly smiled and immediately unhooked his claws and immediately got off of her. Twilight went back to looking at the back of the cave, where she saw what could be an opening. When she got closer to the hole, she found that it was bigger than she anticipated. When she shined her light into it, she found what could be a staircase. “Hey Spike,” Twilight called over to him, “check this out!” Spike started walking to her side, “What’d you find? A long lost cave of ruins…” he immediately gawked at Twilight’s find, “Ooookay, never mind. Wait, are we going down there?” “Why not?” Twilight asked, her eyes lit with curiosity, “we could be looking at something big. If there something down there, we could be looking at something big!” Before Spike could stop her, Twilight started walking down the stairs. Spike simply stood back, as he watched the student of the Princess of the Sun walk down to the unknown depths of the cave. “Well, I guess I’ll stay here… alone…” Spike simply called out. Another clap of thunder and flash of lightning was the only response he got. He yelped and immediately ran towards Twilight as she reached the bottom. What they found made them stop in their tracks. They found themselves in a large room, which was probably large enough to rival the library back in Ponyville. On the walls of the caves at their sides, there crystal stones embedded in the walls. There were up to six different colors of gems, each color in its own set in different, separate places. There were white gems in the ceiling that glowed brightly, lighting the whole cave. In the back was a moderately large pool of water, which had an aqua blue tint to it. The rock formations behind it was rather intriguing, as it looked like it was built like a shrine. Spike whistled in fascination to this, “I guess we found something. You ever read about this Twilight?” “No, I don’t think so,” Twilight replied, still in awe of the place. As she walked around, she observed the whole, but her eyes kept going back to the pool. It laid with absolutely no ripples on the surface, as if it had never been disturbed for centuries. It drew Twilight in like a fish to a lure, her curiosity now more prominent than ever… Faith had been on boats before. They have rocked a bit, and she got sick only one before. But she always felt she could handle any boat ride she boarded. Not today. Before Faith and Hunter could question a few raindrops, they were suddenly drenched by a down pour of heavy rain. Right after that, the boat suddenly started swaying left and right, rocking precariously in different directions. The duo, who had been at the front, clung onto the railing as they hung on for dear life. “Faith, don’t let go!” Hunter called to her. “Not planning on it!” she responded loudly against the now roaring rain. As Faith clung on, a lot of spontaneous thoughts ran through her mind. She knew for fact that today wasn’t supposed to rain. She and Indigo had personally checked the weather five times before the party. As she never heard of wind that capable of making waves in a lake. One thought crossed her mind; this was not normal weather at all. Faith clung onto the railing, still holding on as crashing waves knocked around the boat, when heard a faint voice. “Faith! Hunter!”a shout that sounded like Indigo’s came. “Indigo!?” she tried to shout back, “are you guys alright!?” “We’re fine! Willow and Maple were able to get inside as well! Faith, Hunter! Get inside the cabins! Use the railing to get yourselves over here!” Faith turned to Hunter, who nodded to the unspoken thought they both had. “Alright! We’re coming!” He shouted back. As instructed, Faith and Hunter used the railing like a climbing rope as they tried to battle against the rain to safety. Faith tried her best to not lose her grip against the whole ordeal. She wasn’t as strong as Hunter who easily kept his grip on the railing. There were times that they had to stop when the rocking was too much to move against. “Faith, hang tight,” Hunter supported her, “We’re nearly at the door!” “I know!” she yelled back. Before long, for what seemed like a grueling eternity, Faith and Hunter were close to the door. As the entrance was Indigo and Willow, both of them with ropes on their waists to keep themselves from getting thrown around. “Guys, grab my hands!” Indigo yelled as he held out his out reached arm. Faith turned to Hunter, who was in front of her and completely drenched in rain water, “Hunter, you go first!” “Huh!? No, you should go!” Hunter replied instantly, “You can barely hold on!” “This is no time for arguing!” she yelled back, “Your closer! I’m not! Just get inside!” Looked back to Indigo, then to Faith, uncertainty coloring his eyes, “Alright! But be quick!” Hunter immediately reached out grab Indigo, which was actually proving to be a bit more of a chore than expected. Even at full wide arm’s length, the distance between the cabin door and the nearest railing was surprising quite distant. Eventually, with a bit more reaching on Hunter’s part, he grabbed Indigo’s hand and was dragged immediately into the safety of the interior by Willow. “Alright, we got Hunter,” Indigo called out, “Faith! Get closer so I can reach you!” Faith nodded, and started to creep carefully. Through all the rain and boat rocking, all Faith could do was keep moving and focusing on her objective. At last, when she was as close as she could get to the entrance, she started to reach for Indigo’s out stretched hand. Unfortunately, she had more difficulty, as she didn’t have the same arm’s length as Hunter did. She kept trying to get closer, as she continued to let go of the railing with her other hand. Her hand was beginning to touch his fingertips, “Almost there, Faith…” A hand immediately reached out and grabbed her wrist. Hunter, who apparently abandoned the safety of the interior and was now holding Indigo’s shoulder, grabbed Faith’s arm with a strong grip. A smile of hope immediately shown from his face. “Gotcha,” he immediately exclaimed. Unfortunately, neither of them noticed the unnaturally large wave, one that was taller than the boat itself. Before anyone could react, they immediately hit hard by a torrent of water. Faith felt herself hit by it the most, she was swept off her feet and flung backwards. What happened next occurred all too quickly for anyone. Faith felt herself flying through the air, finding herself not stopping. She then realized that Hunter was no long holding her. She also saw that the boat’s deck was looking farther away. Before she knew it, she fell backwards straight into the water. Faith immediately opened her eyes and felt the slight of water on her eyes. She saw herself underwater in the dark depths of the water. She immediately struggled to get her body in the right direction. Faith was, according to some, an above-average swimmer, so she was definitely good enough to fight against tides. However, as she started to try swimming to the surface, something caught her foot. Faith tried to look down to see what it was, but could find nothing. She resumed to trying desperately swim to the surface, as it felt farther than before. The more she seemed to struggle, the more she felt she was being dragged down to the bottom. Dammit, Faith thought to herself, can’t… keep going… running… out of air… Getting flung so suddenly into the water, Faith didn’t exactly have the time to react properly and get a lot of air in. While she was capable of holding her breath for a while, this was the usually when she was prepared for such a trial. She wasn’t in this case, and resorted to covering her mouth as she tried to keep whatever air she had left. No… I can’t… keep it… She ended up opening her mouth very briefly, letting a small group of bubbles out. She shut her eyes hard as she struggled to keep her air in, starting to become faint. The bubbles, on the other hand, floated nonchalantly to the surface… Without warning, as Twilight approached the pool, a group of bubbles surfaced to the top and popped. “Huh?!” Twilight acted in slight confusion. She stood back a bit, as she watched the pool for anything else. When there were bubbles, there was usually something living in the water. She wasn’t exactly prepared for what was coming next. The pool, which was completely still and tranquil, started rippling. It was subtle at first, but started to become more apparent as if some wind was swaying the water left and right. Spike clung onto Twilight as they watched this phenomenon, “Twilight, what’s happening??” he voice had tinged with fear. Twilight was too busy watching in fearful amazement as the pool continued its act. When it seemed like it was calmer, Twilight tried to get a closer look at it, walking slowly and cautiously… Faith felt herself losing strength, as she struggled vainly to keep her breath in. It was completely dark all around her, with nothing but water surrounding her. She weakly looked up as she tried to see the surface. Much to her surprise, light seemed to be coming from the surface. She knew it was now or never. With the last of her strength, she pushed out her arms as she maneuvered through the water. With each push, she felt it was harder to keep her breath and stay conscious. Everything in her body already felt extremely numb, and the lack of feeling in certain limbs certainly didn’t help. Nonetheless, she kept going, fighting to live as she got close to the surface. When it looked like she was extremely close to surface, she gave it the last of her strength to get to the surface, opening her mouth and letting out the last of her air… A heavy torrent of bubbles came the lake’s surface this time, causing Twilight to jump a bit. This is followed by something jumping out of the lake, which definitely caught her off guard. It started to splash around wildly “Twilight, I think that’s a pony!” Spike shouted. When Twilight looked closer, and it was indeed a pony. One that was floundering in the water as she tried to desperately to stay on the surface and gasping for air. She’s drowning! was the first thought that came to Twilight’s head, leaving here no time to waste. She immediately dove in and started swimming to the still struggling pony, who was starting to go under again. Getting taught swimming lessons was probably would have been a good idea, but she was pretty solid swimmer anyway. When she got close to the drowning individual, the latter had gone under again. Twilight quickly held her breath and dove under water. When she caught sight of the pony, now identifiable as a mare, she immediately got under her and put her foreleg around her shoulders. As she was doing so, she looked down, and, for a second, was puzzled by what she saw. She immediately turned her attention to the surface, and started to swim to the surface. As she emerged from the water, she let a gasp of air. She looked around to see herself on the surface again, this time with a mare on her back. She looked to the pony, who apparently looked unconscious. She started swimming to the edge of the lake again with her cargo on her back as Spike ran to the edge as well, a worried look on his face. “Twilight, you okay!?” he asked, “You were down there for a long time! Are you alright?!” “I’m fine,” she responded as she got out of the lake, “help me with this pony. I think she inhaled some water.” Spike helped her get the pony off her back. They laid the mare on her back, and Twilight quickly performed chest compressions to get her breathing. The mare, her head turn to the side, spat out some water. Twilight stopped to check her pulse, which she found to be normal. She wiped her head a bit. Reading those tomes of basic medical practice apparently paid off. She looked over the pony, who still had her eyes shut. “Hey, are you awake?” All she got in response was labored breathing. “I guess that’s a no.” “What should we do, Twilight?” Spike asked, growing more worried. “Go outside and see if you can find somepony. Preferably Fluttershy or Zecora, since they might be closer,” she responded. Spike nodded and ran up the stairs that led outside. Twilight looked to the mare, and then looked to the pool of water. Oddly enough, the large pool of water went back to extremely tranquil state. The thought that previously struck Twilight came back again, and she immediately walked to the edge of the pool. She held her breath, and stuck her head straight into the water again. She looked down to confirm what she saw. When one finds themselves drowning in a lake, it’s usually due the fact that they underestimate the deepness of a lake. Twilight expected a deep lake. Instead, the pool was actually quite shallow, just deep enough to put a whole body under but shallow enough to be able to reach the surface without problems. Twilight took her head out, then looked to the mare she rescued. How was she drowning in a shallow pool? Twilight thought, along with several other questions that ran through her head. “Twilight!” Twilight’s train of thought halted as he heard Spike, “I found Fluttershy! Her place is close by!” “Alright, I’m coming!” she called back. She put the mare back on her back, started to climb back up the stairs in the cave. Whatever questions she had now, helping their victim should come first.