The ocean was a churning maelstrom of black, thrashing waters. Noise and chaos circled the Scootaloo, and the only thing to pierce the vortex was the occasional flicker of forked lightning. In such hellish flashes, Rainbow saw surging waves coming in to engulf the raft—or at least she thought she had seen them. She was far too busy being tossed left and right across the dilapidated vessel.
“Mmmmf! Grnnngh!” Rainbow gnashed her teeth as her body slammed once more against a swath of shifting logs. In anticipation of the violent storm, she had strapped Luna's satchel to her flanks, and had even gone as far as to tie a length of rope around her hoof, attaching herself to the heart of the wooden raft. The latter action turned out to be a life-saver, for on more than a dozen occasions the undulating ocean had threatened to toss her clear into the drink. “Grkkk... oommf!”
Lightning flashed again, this time in hot blue horizontal branches that illuminated the bulbous black clouds dipping overhead. It was not a rain storm. The weather of the Grand Choke had decided to skip straight on to the cyclones and electrical surges. Nevertheless, the wind spat out wave after wave of shredded ocean water, thoroughly dousing Rainbow Dash's weary, sunburnt body. Beads of moisture ran down her face and collected in her mouth, bringing with it a sour taste that was hardly of any relief to her dehydrated condition.
And just when Rainbow Dash felt certain that the storm had tossed the worst at her, another crest would hit, and the raft reeled so hard that it nearly toppled over completely... only to come crashing back down with an inarticulate splash of salt water and wooden splinters.
Rainbow grunted, grimacing at the sound of splitting logs. With each consecutive wave, she felt the wooden beams pulling more and more loosely apart, and she scrambled all over the surviving craft, using her hooves and wingtips to fasten the rope and twine back in place. This turned out to be a near impossible task, not just because of the extreme turbulence but mostly due to the water that further saturated her scant materials to work with.
“Come on... come onnn!” Rainbow attempted to yell, but her weakened lungs produced as squeak at best. “Celestia!” she sputtered, reeling as more and more sprays of ocean water pelted her in mid-task. “Gimme something to work with, dang you!”
Another streak of lightning. This one streaked past the bobbing image of Yaerfaerda, nearly blinding Rainbow altogether. In the ensuing thunder, she felt the craft rising higher and higher—much more sharply than in any crest previous.
Panicked, Rainbow paused in what she was doing. She twirled East, ran a hoof over her pendant, and tilted her pendant up.
She saw the wave and immediately wished she hadn't. In the brief ruby haze afforded her, it looked almost as if she was sliding up a forty-five degree hillside of pure water. As the raft tilted back more and more, her mind and body knew that there was no chance in Tartarus of clearing the thing. Already she could hear the groan of shifting wooden beams, and so she did that which was simultaneously the smartest and dumbest thing. She dove clear off the raft's side, satchel and all.
Within a second of splashing into the water, she felt the weight of the raft turning over and collapsing behind her. The rope fastened to her forelimb yanked her back violently, and she screamed air bubbles at the excruciating tug on her shoulder's socket. Rainbow somersaulted underwater more times than she wished to count. Her body felt a plummeting sensation, then yanked to another painful stop. Weight and gravity shifted, and she realized she was in a brief bout of calm.
Her twitching eyes looked up through the drink. She spotted tiny, muddled flashes of blue light, along with the looming glow of Yaerfaerda. A half-square shadow hovered between here and the lightning, and she kicked her limbs, swimming straight for it.
“Gkkk-srpkkkkt!” Seconds later, she burst through the ocean's surface. Her anchored limb was numb with pain, so she flung her other foreleg out—catching three loose beams of wood that were spreading disastrously apart. Hyperventilating, she threw herself atop the scant remains of the raft and viciously pulled the planks together. She was halfway through fastening the beams when another wave hit, knocking her over completely. “Ooof!”
Rainbow fell on her back, sprawled out with wings spread and twitching. All of her strength had been sapped in the last murderous impact, and she simply laid there, her spine practically glued to the Scootaloo as she gazed thinly up at the bubbling stormclouds overhead.
Rainbow heaved and shivered. More waves kept coming—each of them far more treacherous and deadlier than the last. She could have been bracing herself. She could have been holding her breath, preparing for another dive as the raft threatened to topple over again and disintegrate, plank by plank. But, instead, she remained still, limp, and immobile.
And then lightning flashed again, bringing with it a flicker of red scales.
Rainbow Dash blinked. Her eyes narrowed.
Another flash: Rainbow saw clouds, clouds, and more clouds. But they were clearing, opening up above her in a wing-shaped hole. As the thunder coalesced, she briefly heard the sound of beating air, and then the clouds closed up behind the mysterious mass, sealing her once again in the hellish seascape.
No amount of lightning could blot out the iron frown forming across the mare's muzzle.
“Well?!”
She hollered against the thunder.
“Well?!?!”
The thunder split in two as she stood up and cracked her voice against the heavens.
“What are you waiting for?!?!”
Waves slammed into the raft. Rainbow fell on her side. She felt a pained gash forming in her side, spilling blood. She growled past it, sputtering past the spray of stinging water.
“Is this what you wanted?!?!” She braced herself against the collapsing raft, only to stomach the next hollering words. “Is this what everyone wanted?!?!” Her angry scowl sliced the storm in every darting direction. “Commander Hurricane couldn't even make it this far, and she didn't even have you to crush her to a pulp!! What in Luna's poop are you hiding from now?!?!”
Lightning illuminated the naked heavens. It was only Rainbow Dash and the storm. It always was.
“Grnnngh!” Rainbow shouldered another churning wave of water splashing all over her. Like a chunk of granite bluffs, she took it, and hollered into the maelstrom. “Come and finish what you started!! Or are you too much of a coward, Axan?!?!” She stood up, leaning her battered body on a broken spoke of waterlogged wood. “Come on!! I'm right here!! Come and get me, ya stinkin' fire lizard!! Nothing's stopping you!!”
Lightning and the storm. There was nothing to yell at but the chaos beyond the darkness.
“What are you waiting for?!?!” Rainbow screamed until there was no breath left. “Bring it—!!”
When the next wave hit, it knocked the wind completely out of Rainbow's lungs. She fell to her side, but there was no energy left to whimper. She simply clung to the wood, riding the tossed raft as it swam sporadic circles across the churning waters. And yet—for minutes on end—as her consciousness dangled by a thread, she continued glaring at the empty heavens, a daredevilish snarl plastered to her face.
And soon enough, all went blacker than the night itself.