//------------------------------// // Just When You Least Expect It // Story: Yaerfaerda // by Imploding Colon //------------------------------// Crashing. Her blue ears fluttered. Roaring and crashing. She stirred, her bruised limbs shifting against the wooden planks of the raft. A rush of noise, undulating... then low and deep. Rainbow Dash's brow furrowed. It was a sound like a horn. A bass salvo of noise that crackled off into the distance like scattering cannonballs. And, at last, her eyes opened. At first, she saw nothing but darkness and chaos. Night had fallen, and the sea was churning heavier than ever. It had to have been another storm, but the water wasn't spraying on her at random. What's more, the waves... “Grmffnngh... mmff...” She stirred, wincing as she attempted to sit up—but failed. She slumped back down with a heavy exhale. Once her lungs emptied, she remembered why her ears tickled in the first place. “Where...” She squinted, tilting her weary head around like a drowsy feline. “Who...?” Water rolled and roared somewhere in the depths. Rainbow became aware of a bitter, chilling wind. It fluttered at her bangs, soothing her burns and scrapes. Wincing, she tilted her head up more—an act that took a great deal of feeble strength to accomplish. At last, her eyes started to adjust to the darkness. She saw a layer of blackness lingering over an even blacker plane of shifting shadows and shapes. The ocean was moving, billowing, and crashing—but to where? She blinked, sitting in numb confusion. The noise circled all around her, and she glanced left and right, trying to make sense of it. It was then that Rainbow made the most startling realization of all. “Yaerfaerda...!” The symbol was gone. The lavender symbol had vanished completely from the ocean, and there was no telling which horizon she was looking at. “But... b-but...” Another loud roar. Rainbow Dash looked up, and she gasped. Yaerfaerda was floating—up high—a few hundred feet above her head. It was moving... and yet it wasn't. The glowing sight stayed in place, but Rainbow sensed that there was some sort of movement going about. It was then that she realized that she was doing the moving. Panting, Rainbow sat up straight, wincing through the pain of her stiff legs. The source of the roaring and crashing became evident to her. Somewhere between her and the area below Yaerfaerda, the ocean water was coming to a climax—churning and colliding against... something. Alarmed, she reached a hoof up to her pendant in order to summon an emergency swath of light. At the last second, she faltered—for she realized she didn't need to. Her eyes made out several columns. Thick metal spires emerged from the ocean—no more than ten of them—and they all rose vertically into the air, like iron bastions standing resolute against the might of the Grand Choke. Waves upon waves of salt water were crashing up against these beams. What's more, the liquid surrounding the site was swirling in a counter-clockwise fashion, carrying the remnants of the raft—and Rainbow Dash—along with it. “A whirlpool...” Rainbow gritted her teeth, steadying herself for fear of falling into the maelstrom at any moment. Panting, she tilted her head up, attempting to see how high the metal beams rose, and where they ended. Just as she looked—something spectacular happened. Beams of energy shot out from an immense, circular circumference. Rainbow couldn't help but let loose a tiny shriek in her nervous condition. The bolts of lightning were ruby in color—a familiar shade of red—and they reflected off an immaculate shell of gold surfaces. In a blink, she saw dormant cogs and pendulums and gears clinging to the side of a massive tower. Just as the lightning cleared she heard an enormous salvo of bass noise, rumbling off into the distance like thunder. Then, just as swiftly as the phenomenon began, all was silent save for the crashing of waves. Rainbow Dash panted and panted, gazing in a dumb stupor. Sure enough, she didn't have to wait for long. The bolts of lightning erupted from the heart of the tower once more, shooting off into every direction while illuminating the lofty collage of ancient machinery. Rainbow saw every splashing waves of the spiraling whirlpool, and then all was as dark as it was before. Meanwhile, Yaerfaerda lingered above—hovering above the unexpected tower... or perhaps inside the tower. “...the Machine Layer.” Rainbow gulped a lump down her throat. “It's here. It's... it's...” Gravity shifted. Rainbow gasped, clinging to the raft as she felt her whole body leaning precariously forward. The derelict vessel skimmed the crest of the circling waves at increasing degrees. The pegasus swiftly put two and two together. The Scootaloo was caught in the vortex, and soon enough the whirlpool would be slamming the vessel—along with her—into those immovable beams of metal. In the next flash of unnatural lightning, Rainbow's face twisted into a retching grimace, and it was difficult to hear herself beneath the bass thunder. “Hoboy.”