S.O.S
Chapter III : S.O.S
Fluttershy lay alone on the comfortable bed in her cabin, sobbing quietly into its finely quilted sheets. Applejack had yet to return after their disastrous dinner, so she had the whole room to herself.
Oh, why did they have to get so worked up? she thought, reliving the dreadful meal in her mind. Why didn’t they just listen to me?
The whole idea for a reunion had greatly excited Fluttershy from the moment she knew of it. Unlike some of the others, she had no doubts that the old friends would hit it off and everything would be like it was before they all moved away. Things had started out well enough, but she just didn’t understand where all the hostility had come from. How could friends who’d been through so much get so mad at each other?
She thought about the adventures of their youth. Together with Twilight Sparkle, they had defeated Nightmare Moon, brokered a peace treaty between Appleoosa and the Buffalo tribe, stopped and reformed Discord, the god of chaos, and saved all of Equestria from a Changeling invasion. They were able to accomplish so much when they worked together...
So why can’t we put the past behind us and get along?
The yellow pegasus rolled onto her back and wiped her teary eyes. We can... and we will! She sat up on the bed and spread her wings.
“Yes! If we just put in the effort and work together, there’s nothing we can’t overcome!” Fluttershy said out loud to the empty cabin with new-found optimism. She decided to go find the others and begin patching things up right away. They only had a few days to make things right!
Without warning, the ship lurched.
Sliding over to the side of the bed, she was suddenly flung off of it, landing hard on the carpeted floor with a whimper. The whole ship shook violently and several ponies in the hallway screamed.
Wh-What was that?! Fluttershy quivered with fear, her flare of confidence evaporating in an instant. The ship continued to heave. The screams outside turned into a clamor of voices and quick hoofsteps, all of which frightened Fluttershy further.
“O-On second thought, maybe I’ll just keep waiting for Applejack...” she squeaked, crawling to the door and locking it with a trembling hoof.
“That weren’t no iceberg, you moron!” one of Endless Horizon's crew members shouted. “We’re too far south and, it’s the middle of summer!”
“Well it weren’t no rocks, neither!” Another shouted back. “Ocean’s too deep here.”
Applejack and Pinkie Pie listened to the two crew members bickering pointlessly. They found them on deck soon after the ship had almost thrown them overboard to find out what was going on. The two had been arguing about it ever since.
“Then what did we hit?” the first sailor huffed angrily.
“I don’t know, maybe it was your mother?”
Applejack sighed. “Alright fellas, let’s get back on track here...” It was no use, they continued their verbal fistfight, reinforcing the age old stereotypes of foul-mouthed sailors.
A murmuring crowd was gathering on deck now; other ponies were leaving their cabins and trying to find out what was happening. “C’mon Pinkie, we ain’t gettin’ any answers from these two...” Applejack was ready to move on, when a third sailor ran up from the interior of the ship.
“Sir! I have a report from the lower deck!” he breathlessly informed the pony in charge.
“A report? Well go on then!” the first pony said, cutting his insult on the other’s lineage short.
AJ and Pinkie waited, leaning in closer.
“Sir, the underside of the hull has been breached on the port side!” he said in a panicked whisper. “Something tore the three layers of sheet metal down there to shreds, we're taking on water at an alarming rate and half the watertight doors are still open! Sir... we couldn't stop it in time! What do we do?”
The first pony’s boyish anger vanished, and the sneer on his face was replaced with stoic determination when he spoke. “Holy Mother of- We need to get these passengers off the ship! Order a deck by deck evacuation and prepare the lifeboats. On the double, sailor.”
That was all Applejack needed to hear. She grabbed Pinkie and moved away from the crew members as they continued their hasty planning. “Ah thought ya said this ship was 100% safe!”
“It is! Well, at least that’s what the Brulée's said...” she replied as they pushed through the increasing number of worried ponies. "But they're dessert chefs, not sailors."
“Riiiight. Well, if the situation is really as bad as that report made it sound, Ah think it's fair to say things are about ta go south mighty fast here. See if ya can’t get us one of them lifeboats. Ah’ll go round up the others, got it?”
“Got it!” Pinkie said with a salute.
“And try ta be discreet, the last thing we want is fer everypony ta start panicking. I’ll be back as soon as Ah can.” AJ galloped straight for the spiraling staircase that would take her down to their rooms, when a voice cried out above the building commotion.
“Attention all passengers!” It was the sailor pony from before.
Oh no, please don’t...
“Everyone, please remain calm. Everything is alright, but if you could please put on a life vest and calmly make your way to the nearest lifeboat-”
“DEAR CELESTIA WE’RE SINKING!” somepony shouted, "EVERYPONY FOR THEMSELVES!" The crowd up on deck immediately transformed into a boiling mass of terrified ponies scrambling over each other like insects.
“Please remain calm! There are enough lifeboats for everypony, just- hey! Watch it!” The announcer was knocked over by the rabble of passengers, greedily snatching up vests and rushing into the white rowboats hanging over the sides of the ship.
So much for remaining calm... Applejack pushed through it, entering the listing ship.
“Uuugh, wh-what happened?” Rainbow Dash sputtered, blinking her eyes and rubbing a fresh bump on her head. Why am I so sore? Also, where the hay am I?
Rainbow brought her hoof in front of her face and saw it was dripping wet. So was her multi-hued mane and blue coat. As her blurry vision cleared, she noticed she was lying in a big puddle on the floor of some hallway.
“Huh? Where’s all this water coming from...?”
The memory of the dinner fiasco came back to her, and she recalled going off to wander the ship alone. Anything to put off heading back to her room... and Pinkie...
Rainbow remembered hearing a loud explosion and the ship jerking violently. She had been so lost in her thoughts when it happened, she figured she must have fallen over and hit her head. She checked the wall to her left and, sure enough, found a head-sized dent in the fancy paneling.
Dash rubbed her head again. Well, that's one mystery solved, but what about the water...?
Down the hall, a door flung open and a family with two small fillies rushed out. The father was shouting frantically, “There’s no time! Just leave it, we need to go. NOW.”
“Hey buddy! What’s going on here?” Rainbow yelled down the hall, getting up and moving towards the rushing family.
“The ship’s been hit! W-We’re going down!” The mother cried. In her forelegs, she clutched two scared foals so tight they appeared to be having trouble breathing.
“Wait, what?!” The family left their room without closing the door and splashed away down the hallway. “I... I don’t believe it!”
“Believe it or not lady, don’t make a lick o’difference,” the stallion yelled back as he disappeared around a corner with his loved ones, leaving Dash alone in the wet corridor.
She sat in the cold water, trying to stay calm and figure out what to do. I gotta... I gotta get outta here! I should find the others... but where are they? Hay, where am I? She looked around, trying to keep her cool and remember how she had gotten here.
Stairs! I gotta go up the stairs to the top deck! With that simple goal in mind, she took off down the hall after the family.
Turning the corner, Rainbow found a closed metal door with a big crank and a golden plaque with the word ‘stairs’ etched on it. “Great. Did they really have to shut this thing? They knew I was here and everything...” Dash stood on her hind legs and grabbed hold of the stiff crank.
As she fought to get the metal ring to turn, a low rumbling reached her ears... coming back from the way she came. “Huh? What now?” Leaving the stubborn crank, Rainbow poked her head around the corner in time to see a huge wave of angry seawater surging down the hall... directly at her.
“Eep!”
Rainbow zipped back to the door and grabbed hold once again. She pulled with all her might, but it was stuck fast, and the sounds of crashing water were getting closer every second.
“Comeoncomeoncomeon!” she said through clenched teeth. The wheel slowly began to turn, inch by painstaking inch. The frigid wave cascaded into the small offshoot of hallway. Rainbow kept turning, ignoring the cold water climbing steadily up her legs. After the initial stiffness, the crank spun with ease, and she whipped it around as fast as it would go.
“Got it!” Flinging the door inward, Rainbow rushed into the double staircase, before wheeling around to shut the hatch. She pushed hard against the oncoming ocean as it tried to force it’s way through and with a final shove, the door closed. Dash turned the crank again, locking the sea water behind water tight seals.
“Whew- that was a close one,” she heaved, leaning against the secured door. Taking a moment to catch her breath, she noticed the stairs higher up were full of ponies, all moving upwards with as much as they could carry. Rainbow staggered up to the decorative railing and looked down, confirming her fears. The decks below her were already flooded, and the water levels were still rising.
This is actually happening! We’re really SINKING! She thought, looking up to see the huge chandelier was no longer hanging straight down. The ship was slanting so badly, the big crystal fixture was now resting against one of the stair cases. The family from before was ducking under it; the father still shouting, the mother still crying.
“Rainbow Dash! Up here!” somepony yelled, snapping Dash out of her near panic. She shook her head and looked in the direction it came from, spotting Applejack leaning over the banister one deck up.
“Applejack! We’re... we’re sinking Applejack!” she stammered.
“Ya don’t say?” replied the cowpony. “C'mon, Pinkie’s got us a boat up top. Git up there an’ find her, Ah’ll take care of the others on deck E, okay?”
“Gotcha!” Rainbow said, opening her wings and shooting up the staircase.
Applejack watched her fly off with a partial sense of relief. Alright, one down, two ta go...
A deep groan came from below, and suddenly the door Rainbow sealed blew off its hinges. Water spilled forth, adding to the pool at the bottom of the stairs and causing it to rise even faster.
Better pick up the pace. AJ thought, opening the door to deck E.
“Is there anypony in there?” a voice called again, banging on the cabin door. “The ship is being evacuated! Hello? Is somepony there!”
Fluttershy ran into the cabin’s small lavatory, closing the door and locking it behind her. “Oh, it’s okay, I’m waiting for my friend, just go away please...” she said in a whisper that didn't make it past the first door. She just wanted it all to go away. She wanted to be helping her friends.
The floor was slanting terribly, which scared Fluttershy out of her wits. She flapped her wings and hovered in the middle of the bathroom, forelegs wrapped around her waist and eyes clamped firmly shut. Clear of the floor, she stayed like this long after the pony outside gave up and left. She could hear the ship creaking and the occasional scream under the flapping of her wings. Fluttershy thought she could hear water dripping too, but was too scared to open her eyes to check.
Applejack’s coming... she wouldn’t leave me, she was the only one who didn’t...
Floating in the bathroom, Fluttershy sobbed again. Before long, her wings started getting tired. She was never a strong flyer, and she could feel herself slowly losing altitude. Her rear hooves touched down... into several inches of water.
Her eyes shot open, and she saw it leaking in under the door.
Fluttershy screamed, flinging out her arms and flailing wildly. She slipped on the wet floor and fell, hitting the ground hard.
Everything went dark.
“Buzz off lady! This boat’s full.” A gruff-looking stallion barked, barring Rarity from boarding the vessel.
“How rude!” Rarity huffed back as he lowered the boat into the water below. “Have you not heard the ‘Mares and Foals first’ rule?”
“Can’t say that I have,” he replied. The boat full of ponies disappeared over the edge of the ship, taking with them Rarity's ticket off the doomed ship.
It was the same story all over; lifeboats were filling up fast, and launching even faster. Pretty soon there would be none left.
Oh, you just had to go back for your designs... Rarity thought, staring disdainfully at the three bags slung over her shoulders, all full to bursting. She meant to grab only her notes and sketches, but her hats and dresses were just too beautiful. It would have been a crime to let them sink to the bottom of the ocean!
She paced back and forth in small strides, Oh dear, I’ve wasted too much time and now there’s no boats left and I-
“Rarity!” Pinkie’s cheery voice rang out over the frantic din. She was waving from the far end of the ship, and standing next to an unlaunched lifeboat!
Thank Celestia, I'm saved! Rarity galloped over at full speed. “Pinkie! You managed to get a boat for us!”
“Sure did!” Pinkie beamed, amazingly at ease considering the catastrophe unfolding around her. “Help me get this tarp-thingy off the boat-thingy, Applejack should be back any minute with everypony else!”
Applejack... While Rarity wasn’t looking forward to sharing a small boat with the pony she'd been arguing with minutes ago, it sure beat drowning. “Alright then.” She said, tossing off her heavy baggage and yanking on a rope with her teeth.
“Did you... go back to the rooms for your stuff?” Pinkie asked, eying the bulging bags. “Did you see Fluttershy or Rainbow?”
Rarity averted her gaze and bowed her head in shame, but made no reply. In truth, she hadn’t even considered checking the two rooms next to hers as she cobbled together everything she thought was important and made a mad-dash for the stairwell.
The mare’s silence was answer enough for Pinkie. She frowned and faced away from Rarity, grabbing a rope on the tarp and tugging angrily. They continued to work on the boat without speaking.
“Hey, this thing full yet?” A red pony butted into the awkward silence. There were four others behind her, all wearing the same fearful expression.
“Oh, n-no, there are only five of us.” Rarity said. Pinkie didn’t even look up. “We need to wait for the other three before we leave.”
“Wait?! We’re sinkin’ here, there ain’t time for waiting!” The stranger snapped, grabbing hold of the loosened tarp and ripping it off the boat.
“Now, wait just a minute!” Rarity began to say.
“Pinkie! Rarity! There you guys are!” Rainbow Dash flew over and landed on the deck, panting hard. “Uhh, who’re they?” She asked, pointing at the ponies loading themselves into Pinkie’s lifeboat while she was distracted.
“Hey! Just what do you think you’re doing!” Rarity shouted at the red mare.
“Abandoning ship! You can either come with us or stay behind.” She replied, passing a young colt to another mare already on board.
“HEY! I WAS HERE FIRST, AND I SAY WE’RE NOT LEAVING YET!” Pinkie roared. She marched up to the mare and forced their noses together. “So you can just sit down and ZIP IT!”
The stranger buckled under the glare, not daring to utter another word. Everypony else gaped at Pinkie in the wake of her sudden outburst. “That’s better.” She spat, turning her back on the stranger. “Now, we are gonna wait for the other two and then we can... we’re gonna just... huh.” She stopped mid-sentence, standing in place and swaying slightly.
“Uhhh, Pinkie? You still in there?” Rainbow asked cautiously. Pinkie didn’t answer, she just stood there in a daze. “C’mon, snap out of it!” Rainbow flew in front of her and gasped in shock.
“What? What’s the matter?” Rarity asked, moving next to Rainbow and gasping in turn at what she saw.
Pinkie’s eyes were wide open, but stock white. Her pupils were just visible, peeking out from under her top eyelids. Her mouth hung open and twitched at it's corners.
“Twi... light?” She mumbled.
“Fluttershy! Open up, it’s Applejack!” AJ pounded on the door to cabin E34. The hallway was slanting hard with the sinking ship, and there was water up to her knees. No answer came from inside.
Dangit Fluttershy! Rarity’s room was open, but it’s occupant was nowhere to be seen. With luck, the unicorn was up top with Pinkie already. This ship ain’t gonna last much longer...
She spun around and bucked the locked door repeatedly with her hind legs, kicking up a spray of water each time. The door cracked down the middle, and with a final buck, it exploded into splinters. “FLUTTERSHY!” Applejack called as the water from the hall poured into the empty room. “WHERE ARE YA?!”
Over the rushing water, she heard a tiny whimper.
The bathroom! AJ waded over to the door, finding it was also locked. “Hey, you in there Fluttershy? Open this door, we gotta get outta here!” The tilted room was flooding fast now, submerging Applejack from the chest down. “OPEN UP FLUTTERSHY!”
There was another soft whimper from inside, followed by a fit of coughing. Then the click of the door unlocking. Applejack ripped it open, fighting the water that filled both rooms. Inside she found a soaked yellow pegasus with a nasty gash on her head floating in the half flooded bathroom.
“You... came back for me...” Fluttershy squeaked before coughing again.
“Course I did, sugarcube. Now let’s get the hay outta Dodge.” She threw Fluttershy on her back and swam out of the cabin and towards the deserted stairwell.
“STOP SAYING THAT!” Rainbow shouted, shaking Pinkie Pie forcefully.
“Twilight! Twilight!” Pinkie continued, unaffected by the vicious jolting. It had been several minutes since she’d blinked.
“It's like she's in some sort of trance,” Rarity said. They were the only ones on the deck now; their lifeboat had left without them when Pinkie’s mind stopped working. Not a single one was left that they could see.
Despite this, Rarity and Rainbow’s concerns lay with their friend and her mysterious affliction. “Twilight...” she moaned again.
“Please! Please snap out of it, Pinkie...” Rainbow said. She stopped shaking her and wrapped her in a hug.
Pinkie's moaning stopped abruptly. “Hey, what happened to our boat?” she asked calmly.
“Pinkie!” Rainbow let go and found herself face to face with a very confused-looking pony. “You’re... alright?”
“Why wouldn’t I be? Besides the fact that our boat is gone!” She pushed past a stunned Rainbow and went to the ship’s railing, squinting into the darkness.
“You... don’t know what happened just now?” Rarity asked cautiously, exchanging a confused look with Rainbow. Pinkie Pie was anything but a normal pony, but this was strange even for her.
"I know you grabbed your stuff and abandoned Fluttershy!” Pinkie said, thrusting an accusatory hoof at Rarity. “And YOU were gonna take off to Fillydelphia!” She swung her gaze to Rainbow, getting louder and angrier. “And now our Celestia-damned lifeboat is gone and the whole week is RUINED!”
The two ponies watched Pinkie’s mane as it appeared to inflate, then pop and go completely flat. They could only stand there, made mute by their guilt and Pinkie’s vicious scowl.
“What in tarnation is goin’ on here?” Applejack said, emerging behind the tense group with Fluttershy passed out on her back. “Pinkie, I told you to get us a boat!”
“Don’t YOU start with me,” a straight-maned Pinkie growled, turning away from her ashamed friends. “These two nitwits somehow managed to lose it!”
“They... what? Pinkie what’s wrong with you-”
“I said DON’T. START!” she barked, glowering out over the black water.
“There... were other ponies. They took the boat while- while we waited for you.” Rarity said quietly. “I don’t think there are any left.”
Applejack’s mind reeled at the news. None left? That's not good...
She scanned her disgruntled friends. It looked like things hadn’t gotten better since dinner. Even Pinkie appeared to be angry now, and she was so sure things would be okay.
It seemed like Applejack had been right about her friends; though the realization brought her no joy.
We... we got more important things to worry about right now, she thought. If there was still any chance of patching up their friendship, it would have to wait till they were safely off the ship. And just how do we do that?
Time was quickly running out. The ship’s bow was beginning to slip into the sea, and water was making it’s way up the far end off the deck, and towards them. The port side of the ship was also dipping heavily, lifting their side high above the ocean’s surface. The deck itself was a mess of discarded baggage, personal effects, and bright orange life vests were scattered about everywhere.
“Somepony get me a rope, ah think ah got an idea.”
The tail end of the massive ship’s stern vanished beneath the waves with a slurp and a gurgle. Only the sounds of the tumultuous ocean remained, and soon those too faded into a still, eerie calm. None would guess that only moments before, a huge, metal epitome of pony engineering had floated proudly in that exact spot.
Bobbing on the water’s surface, fives mares clung to a makeshift raft built entirely of loosely tied life vests. A sliver of moon was the only source of light, and it was barely enough to make their faces visible, let alone the black ocean water around them. For several minutes they tried calling out to other lifeboats, hoping to move to more sturdy crafts, but they got no replies. Cold, salty water leaked through the many gaps in the hastily tied craft as it drifted aimlessly in the dark.
“This water is positively fr-freezing!” Rarity complained. “And I had warm coats in my bags, too...”
“Ah told ya, those bags were too heavy," AJ said flatly. She was way too tired to put up with Rarity’s uppity-ness right now, especially concerning her precious luggage. “You’ll just have ta deal with it like all the rest of us.”
The brooding unicorn offered no rebuttal, coping with the loss of her dress designs with silent devastation. I suppose I'll have to restart from scratch... At least we all made it.
“I could fly up and look for the lights of Manehattan!” Rainbow Dash offered, “I bet you could see ‘em from miles away!”
“You sure you wouldn’t be too tempted to fly off to Fillydelphia?” Pinkie's silhouette scowled back. In the wane light, the others could tell her mane was still flat, but she thankfully hadn’t relapsed into a weird trance-state.
“Can everypony just be quiet for one stinkin’ minute!?” Applejack snapped, effectively ending the inane squabbling.
Rainbow crossed her forelegs and settled back on the raft with a wet squish. I was just trying to help...
The five cast-aways relented, and for a moment, the former friends sat in strained silence.
Applejack sighed inwardly, but remained focused on her primary goal: Getting them to safety. But how? We got no paddles, and we don’t even know which way ta go! She was frustrated and exhausted, not a good combination when trying to think.
“S-s-s-so... what do we do?” Fluttershy squeaked, having regained consciousness after being splashed by the icy water a few times. Her question went unanswered.
Failing to come up with anything herself, Applejack was about to admit she had no ideas, when a bright light lit up her terrified friend’s wide, teal eyes. The group simultaneously snapped their attention towards the source. Not too far off, a blinding spotlight shone in their direction, rising high out of the water.
“It's a rescue boat! Were saved!” Rarity cried, standing with a jolt and rocking the whole raft.
“Too bad it’s not a mall,” Pinkie jeered.
“It looks too high up to be a boat...” Applejack noted, giving no attention to the scornful jab, but not disagreeing with the sentiment. "Air ship?"
“I could go over and-” Rainbow began, but caught a hard glare from Pinkie, clearly visible in the bright beam of light. “I mean- I could pull us over there?” she corrected with a sheepish smile.
“Well, it’s the best we plan got, Ah suppose,” AJ said, untying one of the ropes holding the craft together and looping it around Rainbow’s neck.
A few knots later, the cold, wet ponies were being hauled towards the mysterious light source. Progress was painfully slow, and the mares couldn’t help but think back on their ill-fated reunion. In the ensuing quiet, it became harder and harder for them to ignore the increasingly obvious fact that their argument had eluded to:
Their friendship was beyond restoration.
It occurred to them the Endless Horizon was to suffer a similar fate. She would find a place on the ocean floor and sit there alone as salt water and age turned the beautiful liner into a slumping pile of rusty metal and rotting wood. She’d become a phantom, a mere shadow of her glorious, former self. Nothing more than a wretched parody of what she once was.
The thought swam through the minds of the five castaways as they paddled and pulled their way across the empty ocean. Concentrating on the task was the only thing that kept the bleak realization at bay, and with resolute focus, they crept closer and closer to the strange light. It rose higher and higher above the water as they did, and it soon became undeniably clear that it was not a boat at all.
It’s a... lighthouse? Applejack concluded, But, aren't those supposed to be by the shore?
As if on cue, the light flicked out of existence, and the former friends were cast into complete darkness once again.
“What gives?” Rainbow cried from somewhere above. “Who turned out the lights?”
Applejack rubbed her eyes, trying to readjust to the dark. “Just, keep goin’ forward, we’re almost there!”
“Forward?! I can’t see my hoof in front of my face! Can’t you do a light spell or something Rarity?”
“A light spell? Do I look like Twi-” She gave Pinkie a wary look, then started over, “I’ll... see what I can muster.”
As a fashion designer, Rarity hadn’t much use for light spells, and so had not actually used one in quite some time. While casting any spell causes a unicorn’s horn to glow, the trick to light spells is casting one that doesn't actually manipulate anything physically, yet still produces a concentrated glow.
If it will get me off this leaky barge, then I suppose I may as well try. Rarity stood on the unsteady layer of vests and attempted the spell, but casting without casting proved a little advanced for the out of practice unicorn. Try as she might, the magic refused to stay at the tip of her horn and the spell failed to manifest.
“What’s the holdup!” Pinkie broke in.
“It’s so dark...” Fluttershy whimpered.
Rarity lost her focus and scoffed, “I'm trying, and you're not helping!” She decided the spell was too difficult for her, so instead she focused on the wet rope tied to Rainbow Dash. It lit up with a pale blue light and floated up out of the water. Levitation spells was something Rarity used on a daily basis, and she was able to create just enough light to illuminate the small raft and Rainbow’s backside. The base of the lighthouse also became partially visible, now much closer to the drifting ponies.
“I can see stairs!” Rainbow noticed. The others squinted through the black veil and saw them as well.
“Well, what are you waiting for? An invitation?!” Pinkie chimed in cynically.
Rainbow closed the gap with a few more wing beats and yanked the craft onto the base of the stairs. She touched down on the stone platform as the others piled off the raft, leaving it moored at the bottom.
Rarity was next to venture onto the steps, the glowing rope floating in the air above her providing meager illumination. “Oh, dry, solid ground!” she said, wringing out her drenched mane. “Thank goodness this tower is here... whatever it is.”
“Ah’ll say,” AJ agreed. “Ah don’t know how much more of that I could... Ah could’ve- Whoa nelly.” Without warning, she raced back down the stairs and heave-hoed into the black tide.
“Gross," Pinkie croaked. She shook all over like a wet dog, splattering Rarity with a fresh coat of water.
“Applejack! Are you alright?” Fluttershy rushed over and held back the other mare’s blonde ponytail.
“Ah’ll be fine... It’s just all that rockin’ and bobbin’ and-” She turned back to vomit up what was left of her brief dinner.
“Hey! There’s a door up here!” Rainbow cut in. She had gone ahead to see if there was a way inside and sure enough, huge brass double-doors stood at the top of the short stairway. One of them was already ajar.
“Seems a bit fancy for such a dump," Pinkie said, reaching Rainbow at the top and inspecting the detailed engravings with only mild interest.
Rarity came up behind her, meeting Rainbow’s gaze and looking away quickly. Whatever happened to Pinkie during Endless Horizon’s final moments really put a damper on her mood.
“Ah’m okay 'Shy, let’s get inside ‘fore we catch hypothermia.” Applejack wiped her muzzle and with Fluttershy’s aid, they made their way up the slippery steps, joining the others at the top.
When none of them made a move, Applejack took her foreleg from around Fluttershy and approached, rolling her eyes. She pushed open the heavy door and crossed the threshold into the darkness inside, motioning for the others to follow. “Rarity, where’s that light?”
“Oh! Right.” The unicorn lifted the soaking rope with her magic, following Applejack inside with the dim light.
“Anypony home?!” Pinkie shouted, pushing past the others.
“I don't like this place...” Fluttershy whined, bringing up the rear. “Maybe I can just wait by the door-” She spun around to leave, and almost ran right into it as it slammed shut in her face. She gasped in horror and the light suddenly went out.
The rope hit tiled floor with a wet splat.
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More Please!!!
And... Que Lights!
2442049
Spoilers!
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I've played the game 5 times over. I know everything by heart
Angels are coming
Hmm, while this game does take place in rapture,w ill we be seeing any Bioshock: Infinite references? Or perhaps a certain pair of twins? they could certainly help with guiding the five to twilight. Anyway, great chapter, keep goin and stay golden^^
There seem to be a few Bioshock crossovers floating around. This one seems to be shaping up reasonably well. The only thing I dislike is that some of the characters seem just a bit off. I get that that they are supposed to have grown apart and that their personalities have changed but some small points just don't quite ring true. For example, most of them showed no inclination to pull together during the crisis of the sinking ship. And despite being older Rainbow Dash acts even less mature than she does in the show.
These are small things though and I massively enjoyed reading what you have written. Please keep it up.
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Wow, thanks for the in depth critique!
I do agree with your note about characterization, I think the problem is that I'm writing them as they would be normally. I'll try to be more aware of this in future chapters.
Thanks for reading and commenting!
Okay, so I was wondering if there were going to be any reference to Infinite, than I started wondering "geez, what would that be like?". Mlp happy shiny is pretty honest, and any setup attempt to do something with that would just be a genetic evil Celestia fic. "Evil Celestia, alternate universe". Bioshock Infinite: Lunaverse. Any of yous can use that idea. Its on the house.
Any way, good story so far.
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Thanks man! I came up with this idea before Infinite came out, so I wasn't originally planning on it, but I'm sure I will be slotting in a reference or two where I can.
A gentle reminder: "it's" = "it is", and "its" is the possessive form. Pardon my pickiness. Looking forward to the upcoming chapters. I'm terrified at the mere idea of Pinkamena armed with, say, a fire plasmid!
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I tell him that all the time!
I'm really loving these stories.
The only complaint (which is really a compliment) I have is that after every chapter, I cry a little.
The way you handle the girls' crumbling friendship really hits me. I await for more!
Ahh, and now we get to the completely random as hell, convenient light house. Hehe, good stuff. I almost feel that more could have been done with the ship, and even wondered if there'd be some more Titanic references; but honestly, this is better as four chapters in. Excellent work!
*Stares with the disappointment of one thousand mothers*