High and Dry

Chapters

S1Ep1: Leak
S1Ep2: Parasol
S1Ep3: AEMAIS
S1Ep4: Storm
S1Ep5: Not Alone
S1Ep6: Running on Empty

S1Ep1: Leak

After her coronation as Princess, Twilight Sparkle was tired. She was tired of the attention given to her as the newest alicorn and princess of Equestria, she was tired of being followed and questioned by admiring ponies who could see themselves following the same path as her and reaching a high status as she had. More importantly, and of higher priority than the other two, she was tired of not being able to get a simple daisy sandwich anymore.

It was now a fact of her life. Every time she went to a restaurant, she could not order a daisy sandwich. She’d sit down, either with Spike or her friends, the waiter would come along, the order of her companion would be taken (this usually varied by how many were with her), and then attention would be turned to her. She’d order the daisy sandwich, and then watch as the waiter had a brain meltdown.

This was currently the case right now, and she sighed. The waiter was standing there, clearly not breathing as his brain tried to process the fact that a princess had asked for a sandwich, the food of ‘commoners’. She counted to three in her head, and upon reaching three, the waiter collapsed to the floor, his body taking a breath for him. A few of his co-worked rushed over and dragged him away, with apologies given to Princess Twilight.

When they had gone into the kitchens to try and bring their co-worker back to his senses, Twilight let her head hit the table.

“I’m not getting a daisy sandwich, am I?” she questioned.

“Well, it’ll probably have daisy on the side. Maybe if you’re lucky, the daisies will be in it. But as for the presence of bread around the daisy? You’d have more luck licking Princess Luna’s flank and finding it tasted like cheddar cheese.” Spike said flatly.

Twilight glared at him, but knew full well he was right. It was always the same. At some point in the back, they would bring the waiter out of shock, they would mutter her companion’s order correctly, and then mention they believed that Princess Twilight had asked for a daisy sandwich. The chef would then interpret what they believed she had actually said, the end result being something fit for a princess, but not what she actually wanted.

Sure enough, twenty minutes later, Spike’s gemstone pasta arrived, and her mystery order sat under a silver dish. The replacement waiter (because the one that took the order by now was usually out the back, going through whatever it was they used to relax, probably by the wagonload) lifted the dish up and revealed what the chef had interpreted the order to be this time.

“And for her highness, meadow omelette, cheese mixed with egg, daisy, daffodil, lettuce, broccoli and cauliflower. Enjoy your meal.” the waiter bowed and departed.

Well, at least it did have daisy in it this time.

--
Princess Luna and Prince Blueblood currently stood before Princess Celestia in her throne room. Celestia stared at the both, clearly unimpressed, while Luna currently dripped custard from her main to the floor, and Blueblood currently stood as a literal meaning. His coat was currently dyed blue, and he had been given a bloody snout.

“Luna, Blueblood,” Celestia sighed, “in turn, you shall explain what exactly happened, and more importantly, why the north wing has to be repainted. Blueblood?”

He took a deep breath.

“Aunthe Luna stharted it,” Blueblood begun, trying to speak with the pain in his snout and revealing several missing teeth he’d probably get replaced with tax money, “all aeh did wath menthion thatht aeh wasth hafing a sthip builtf that wath bigger thath herth.”

Celestia had to repress a chuckle at the disgust Blueblood had on his face. It was certain he was thinking he now sounded like a commoner, and in normal circumstances, she enjoyed when he had such thoughts. She turned her head to Luna, who had been laughing at how stupid Blueblood sounded, but had stopped when her older sister had turned to look at her.

“It’s true, six months ago, HMS Canterlot was finished, and now he tells me that next week, his newly commissioned ship, HMS Aurora will launch for a cruise of the world. Clearly he did this to prove to the nobles that he is better than me, because everypony knows how small his st-”

“LUNA!” Celestia yelled.

“What? It’s true, the bigger they make thing, the smaller their mare pleaser!” Luna replied, sticking a tounge out at Blueblood.

“Aeh nefer! AMTH Awrwra wath commithoned twu yearth ago!” Blueblood stated, highly offended by Luna’s remarks.

“And yet you choose to only mention its launch to me now. You’ll excuse me if I don’t believe you.” Luna retorted.

“But ith wath in tha budgwt reportth you sthigned!”

Luna’s eyes grew small, as she suddenly recalled Blueblood handing her a document soon after her return, requesting permission to build something. She had been all too happy to try and please her subjects after her return that she hadn’t paid it much attention at the time. Slowly, her eyes fell on Celestia, who was looking at her through half lidded eyes.

“Ops?”

“Yes Luna, ops. To save us some money, I’ll make your punishment to repaint the north wing, no magic or flying either.” Celestia said, waving a hoof to dismiss the pair.

“But sister! It’ll take me a whole year to repaint that! I had Discord specially make the paint bomb! It made sure the paint would get into every last gap, even the ones not visible to the eye!” Luna protested.

“You’d better find some white paint and get started now. I’m not doing this to be spiteful, but you have to be punished for this.” Celestia said warmly.

“And it thure beatth gowing to tha moon.” Blueblood threw in, causing Luna to throw a hoof into his snout again.

As the guards held Princess Luna back, and two dragged Blueblood away to safety, Princess Celestia turned her attention to the doors of the throne room being opened. Through them, Twilight Sparkle walked in, clearly unhappy.

“Twilight, what’s the matter?” Celestia asked.

“I can’t get a simple daisy sandwich anymore.” Twilight answered.

Silence fell between the two, as Celestia wondered if there was a hidden message she should have known about in what the newest princess had said.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean when I go get food, I ask for a daisy sandwich, the waiter has a nervous breakdown, and I get anything except what I’d ordered. Why can’t I just have the sandwich? It can’t be that hard to put daisies between two slices of bread and put it in front of me!” Twilight cried out.

It was now very clear to Celestia that Twilight was indeed talking about a sandwich, and it wasn’t a codeword for something she hadn’t remembered to share with everypony else.

“I take it you are so far not enjoying life as a princess?” Celestia questioned.

“I thought it’d be great,” Twilight admitted, “the press following me around all the time I can get used to, they tend to stay hidden so I can forget about them. All the ponies admiring me I’ve gotten used to, because I’ve inspired them to reach for goals others have told them to be impossible to reach. But to have gone three months without a daisy sandwich, at the very restaurant I like going to...”

Twilight sat down and lowered her head with a sigh.

“Three months since I last had a daisy sandwich, three months, its like I ate the last daisy sandwich in the world and now everyone has had a major case of idiocy and forgotten what a daisy sandwich is!”

As Twilight waited for Celestia to reply, the older alicorn just smiled. To the side, where Blueblood had been taken to, he currently wore a look of disgust, that Princess Twilight wanted so desperately to eat commoner food. As he watched Celestia and Twilight talk, an idea begun to form in his head.

And for once in his life, a lightbulb went off in his head.

Paying no attention to the doctor that had levitated a white board, marker pen and eraser with the instructions to write what he wanted to say instead of speak for the next few months, Blueblood took the items and walked over to the two princesses. They both watched his arrival, and the whiteboard as he begun to write.

‘Would you like to go on a cruise, upon a state of the art ship?’ he wrote.

“Uh, I’m not sure.” Twilight replied.

‘You seem stressed, a cruise would do you some good.’ he scribbled on the whiteboard.

“I guess, could I bring my friends with me?” Twilight asked.

‘Of course, why should I deny you what you want to take on the cruise? Take as many servants as you wish.’

“Friends,” Twilight stated coolly, “and would I be able to get a daisy sandwich?”

Blueblood’s eyes glowed.

‘If you wish it, you could have mountains of them every day.’

Twilight begun to smile, and somewhere in the distance, the sound of a ‘squee’ echoed across the land in time to the arrival of her smile.

One Week Later

Twilight, Spike and her friends stared gawping at the HMS Aurora at dock. In the week since she had personally been invited by Prince Blueblood to sail, Twilight had read up on the Aurora, reading that it could easily sit in Canterlot and be mistaken for a new district. In effect, it was a third of a city in size, and it dwarfed Ponyville.

It had been rather easy to get Rarity to agree to the cruise, for a reason Rarity had kept to herself. It was clear though as she had ran off after the news that it wasn't because she wanted to meet Blueblood and try to win his affections, and before they had left, Twilight had unpacked all of Rarity’s bags to make sure no weapons of any sort were in them.

The rest of her friends hadn't been so easy. Pinkie Pie, after understanding what a cruise actually was, and that it wasn't a huge baked goods eating festival, hadn’t been so eager to leave Sugarcube Corner on the grounds of wanted to help her employers and look after their foals. It was only by the Cakes deciding that Pinkie should take some of her unused vacation time (which amounted to about five years in total), that the pink mare had agreed to go.

Rainbow Dash had literally seen no point, four weeks cramped in a ship and unable to fly. Twilight had only changed her mind when she mentioned that the Aurora had a Wonderbolt certified obstacle course. No sooner had the words left her mouth that the door to the library gained an outline of Rainbow Dash and the rainbow contrail leading to the sky was left behind.

Fluttershy was unwilling to go and leave her animals behind. Nothing Twilight could think of would change the yellow pegasus’ mind. But a day later, Fluttershy had turned up, informing Twilight that she could go, because someone had agreed to take care of the animals while Fluttershy was away.

Applejack was just as unwilling to take the cruise as Fluttershy. Even up to the night before, she had been stubborn and determined to stay at the farm. Currently, she was struggling against ropes that bound her hooves together, attempting to cut them on the edge of the bags that her brother had brought his bound sister to the dock with.

Twilight took a deep breath of the air, and felt herself relaxing.

“Welcome aboard the HMS Aurora, fillies and gentlecolts! I am your captain, Captain Daybreeze, and I hope you enjoy the maiden voyage of the ships. We will be touring the griffon kingdom and northern Equestria, before returning to Canterlot. If you require assistance or emergency assistance, please locate a member of the crew or use the nearby terminals if none are nearby. Please find your cabins, and we shall be departing shortly.”

As Twilight headed off to her room, Rainbow Dash attempted to cheer Applejack up by suggesting they tried to find the Wonderbolts certified obstacle course, where Applejack could sit around and watch Rainbow.

Twilight unpacked her belongings from the suitcase. She had been given a luxury suite which put her home to shame. A large king sized bed, which overlooked a small bookcase and desk, and sat opposite the large glass doors which led out to balcony. In an adjoining room, there was a whirlpool bath large enough for twenty ponies and a toilet. Of course, Spike would be sharing the same room, but he had insisted on his usual sleeping arrangement which she had brought with them.

Her friends had rooms all close to her, where she assumed they all currently were. Feeling tired from having woken up early in excitement, Twilight placed the ‘do not disturb’ sign on the outside of her door, closed the curtains over the glass doors and lay upon the king sized bed, and fell into a peaceful sleep, dreaming of daisy sandwiches piled high like towers.

Applejack scowled as she watched the other passengers from the deck chair she had taken. The nearby passengers stayed at least twenty chairs away either side, and any approaching the empty chairs surrounding Applejack glanced at her, and actually ran away crying.

The only thought on her mind was how to punish Big Mac when she got home from the cruise.

Nearby, Rainbow Dash attempted to walk to Applejack, only to be stopped by one of the crew.

“Sorry miss, I’d advise finding deck chairs elsewhere.” they said.

“I’m not going for a deck chair, I’m going to talk to my friend.” Rainbow replied, raising an eyebrow.

The crew member looked around at the passengers and Applejack, then turned to Rainbow again.

“Which one is your friend?” they asked.

“Uh, the one with the hat and apples on the flank.” Rainbow stated, rolling her eyes.

“Really?” The crew member asked, glancing at Applejack.

“Yes, really.”

“Are you utterly sure? The one that looks like she could beat up a mountain with a toothpick and turn it into gravel?”

“Yes.” Rainbow sighed.

“The one that has made foals, mares and full grown stallions run away crying as if they’d just met Death face to face?”

Rainbow grabbed the crew member’s face and forced him to look at her.

“Yes, THAT one is my friend. Now stop asking, your more annoying than a foal who’s favourite word ever is ‘why?’ and has suicidal parents.” Rainbow snapped, pushing past the crew member.

“I’m so sorry for you. If you get killed, who do I inform?”

Rainbow resisted the urge to beat the crew member senseless, and walked over to Applejack.

“Heya AJ, how are you?” Rainbow questioned, smiling and noting to not mention what the crew member had just said.

“Angrier than a hornets nest.” Applejack replied, not moving her gaze from straight ahead.

Silence fell between the two, Applejack planning a new use for various farm tools and various body parts of Big Mac. Rainbow meanwhile felt uneasy.

“So uh, do you want to go do something? Maybe swimming?” she suggested.

“Hm, not a bad idea, I could tie a boulder to Big Mac and push him into the lake, no one would ever know.”

“Ok,” Rainbow rubbed her mane, “not swimming. There’s a gym on board, want to go check it out?”

Rainbow was relieved to see Applejack smiling and getting up off the deckchair.

“Sure, why not?” Applejack smiled at Rainbow.

“That’s the spirit! Come on!” Rainbow trotted ahead.

“I can get some exercise in to strangle Mac with my bare hooves.” Applejack’s grin turned dark.

As she begun to follow Rainbow Dash, she was stopped by a sudden pink blur that hopped past her.

“Heya Applejack! Want to come find some cupcakes?” Pinkie asked.

“Eh nah, me and Dash are looking for the gym.” Applejack answered, continue to follow after Rainbow.

“Oh ok. I tried to go swimming, but wouldn’t you know it? The pool was empty, so I tried filling it and it stayed empty! I’ve been trying to fill it for an hour without luck, so I just gave up.”

Applejack froze. She slowly turned back to face Pinkie.

“Um, so where did the water go?” Applejack asked, almost dreading what she would hear next.

“I dunno! Do ships have holes in them so the water goes back out?”

As the alarms begun, Applejack’s eye twitched.

Twilight was startled awake in the evening, to the sound of alarms. Shaking her head, her hearing quickly returned.

‘Abandon Ship! Abandon ship! This is not a drill!’ a computer-like voice called out.

Jumping out of bed, Twilight ran to the door, throwing it open to find Rainbow Dash almost ready to break it open.

“What’s going on?” Twilight shouted over the alarm.

“Long story, big misunderstanding with Pinkie Pie and the swimming pool, we’re all alone!” Rainbow Dash answered, attempting to push Twilight towards the stairs to the top deck.

The air was filled with an electrical popping as the alarm system failed. Suddenly washed in silence, Twilight felt slightly disorientated as the ringing caused by the alarm system continued.

“What do you mean we’re all alone?”

--
On the top deck, Twilight stared in disbelief. She knew the Aurora would leave Canterlot via hot air balloon, and land somewhere in the eastern sea, where they currently were, but there were no crew or passengers on the ship, and all lifeboats had been taken.

Only Twilight, Spike and her friends remained on the Aurora. Among them, Pinkie Pie looked embarrassed, putting on a weak smile and rubbing one front leg against the other. Slowly, Twilight turned to face Pinkie.

“Pinkie. WHAT. DID. YOU. DO?” Twilight yelled.

“I wanted to go swimming.” Pinkie replied.

“But how did that cause the crew and passengers to abandon ship and leave us all alone?”

“I needed to fill it first, it was empty.” Pinkie replied, as if it explained everything.

“I’m not sure I follow.” Twilight stated.

“The water flowed out faster than Pinkie could put it in.” Rarity informed Twilight.

“Oh.”

“It flooded the decks and begun to build up at the bottom of the ship. The crew thought there was a leak and couldn’t find the source.” Rainbow Dash added.

“Oh.”

“They told the captain, and he gave the order to abandon ship. Of course, by now, Pinkie,” Applejack glared at the offending pink mare, “had worked out the pool wasn’t filling, and had given up and walked away to look for a cupcake, so none of the crew saw that somepony had been attempting to fill it.”

Twilight sighed. The relaxation she had felt before going to sleep was now long gone.

“I just have one thing to say about this.” Twilight said.

“What’s that Twi?” Applejack asked.

“I’m not getting a bucking daisy sandwich anytime soon, am I?”

From the top deck, the friends had all gone back down to Twilight’s cabin to decide what to do next. They were on a ship, still propelling itself forward somehow, with no captain, no crew and no other passengers.

Spike walked in from the kitchens with a covered tray. Under the lid was her long awaited daisy sandwich. It was so beautiful in her eyes, she almost burst out crying at the sight of it.

“Alright, we’re on this ship, none of us knows how to sail it, the one pony who did has long gone off with the crew believing the ship was sinking.” Applejack ran through the facts facing them.

“I thought Captains were supposed to go down with their ship?” Rainbow Dash questioned.

“That’s not true for modern ships.” Applejack replied.

“Why not?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Because now they get advanced warning of the ship sinking. Back in the old days it usually was a case of ‘watch out for that cannonball!’, ‘what cannonball?’, BOOM!” Pinkie answered with rather too much joy than should be normal for such an answer.

All eyes turned to Twilight as she slowly took another bite of her sandwich. She knew how she’d handle the situation, it’d be pretty easy, but she had been looking forward to this sandwich for a long time, and not even the fact that she and her friends were stranded somewhere in the ocean on an otherwise empty cruise ship would make her rush it.

Finishing the bite, Twilight cleared her throat.

“Spike, can you find the parchment, ink pots and quills?”

Spike pulled them from a drawer of the desk, and waited for what Twilight would say. But he had to wait for another bite.

Back in Canterlot, Princess Celestia, along with Blueblood and Luna, were utterly unaware of what had taken place on the Aurora. Currently, Celestia and Blueblood were observing as Luna begun her punishment.

Or at least, watching as the guards tried to make her leave the room she had barricaded herself into.

“I get that I must be punished, but must I really wear this?” Luna called out.

“Yes, Luna. Now come out or I’ll have to extend the punishment.” Celestia replied, taking a sip of tea.

“You can’t extend a year! You’ll have to do better than that!” Luna laughed.

“Oh, I know I can’t extend a year, but I’m sure Blueblood will agree that his servants could do with a spontaneous vacation for a few months.” Celestia casual stated.

“You wouldn’t dare.” Luna replied, uncertainty in her voice.

“One.”

“Alright! Alright! I’m coming out!”

The door clicked and slowly drew open, revealing Luna in a maid’s outfit. Celestia raised an eyebrow, wondering why her sister wasn’t in an orange jumpsuit as planned. That was, until a snort and a very hard attempt to not laugh with a broken snout came from beside her.

She would need to talk to Blueblood about this, but at a time when he wasn’t getting some entertainment. As Luna begun the first day of her punishment, a green swirl formed in front of Celestia, much to her surprise.

“Twilight is sending a letter? She’s supposed to be relaxing on the Aurora.” Celestia muttered to herself, and read the letter.

‘Princess Celestia,

Due to a misunderstanding with Pinkie Pie and a broken swimming pool, the Aurora was abandoned by the captain, crew and all passengers except myself, Spike, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Rarity and Pinkie Pie.

I hope you can do something to help us, the Aurora isn’t actually flooding and sinking, its fine.

Your Friend

Twilight Sparkle’

‘Well,’ Celestia smirked, rolling the letter up and hiding it in her mane, ‘this could be fun. I do hope Twilight and her friends don’t mind if I take my time in rescuing them.’

She turned to face Blueblood, who was smiling, and she returned the smile. She was glad he didn’t know yet of the situation on the Aurora, and guessed that something would go wrong when she finally told him. This unfortunately did mean that she couldn’t send help right away, as that almost certainly would get Blueblood’s attention.

As she thought of how to tell him, images of Blueblood dying in various ways filled her head, from a simple heart attack, to throwing himself out of a nearby window when the news reached him. She closed her eyes and forced herself to not shake her head and worry him.

‘Well, what he doesn’t know cant kill him right?’ she thought.

‘Besides, it’ll be fun to see him faint when I get to tell him the news after he thinks everything is fine.’

-Next time on High and Dry: Parasol-
Applejack’s eye twitched. Following Rarity, she remained quiet, hoping Rarity would reveal what she had said as a joke, and tell what she was doing that would be helpful to the situation.

“So you just plan to relax? You don’t intend helping us get back home fast?” Applejack pressed, when Rarity located another store room and entered it.

“And deprive myself of the chance of living in luxury at the expense of Blueballs?”

“Rarity,” Applejack held a hoof to her face, “you are about as much use as a fart on a wind farm.”

Author's Note

The first "episode" of my new story. Thanks to Ekevoo who had to put up with watching Red Dwarf videos online to get an understanding of the comedy style I was aiming for with this, and for helping to edit this chapter.

S1Ep2: Parasol

Previously on High and Dry:
After getting stressed out over being unable to have a simple daisy sandwich, Twilight Sparkle and her friends were invited to join the maiden voyage of the HMS Aurora. As she took a nap on arriving to the ship, chaos ensued when Pinkie Pie decided it would be a good idea to fill a swimming pool with a crack in the floor, causing a false capsizing ship alert to reach the captain after the lower decks were flooded.
Now all alone on the ship, Twilight and her friends are awaiting reply and rescue from Princess Celestia, the only one who currently knows of the situation....

“It’s fine Twi,” Applejack muttered, staring unimpressed at the purple alicorn who was currently curled in a ball, rubbing her tail, “sure it’s been forty-eight hours since ya sent the letter to the princess, I’m sure it’s just taking time to send help.”

In truth, Applejack didn’t believe what she was saying, but the last time Twilight had got like this, she had enchanted a doll and made all of Ponyville fall in love with it. Being alone with her on a cruise ship if she was left unchecked, it made Applejack shudder but she was sure it’d involve at least one vital organ rope swing somewhere.

“But she ALWAYS replies to urgent letters! Why isn’t she replying Applejack?” Twilight stopped rubbing her tail, speaking calmly. It was encouraging at least.

“Maybe she’s having to deal with Blueblood? Explaining it ain’t your fault, but Pinkie’s.”

“Speaking of her, how is she?” Twilight asked.

“She discovered there’s a market section on deck 16, and last I checked, she was going through every known type of candy to ponykind.” Applejack replied, shuddering at the memory of the sight.

“Maybe today we’ll find out if her stomach really is home to a black hole or if she eats too much she’ll pop like a party balloon.” Rainbow Dash added as she entered Twilight’s cabin.

“Speaking of black holes I know there’s one that needs a good kicking for getting us into this situation.” Twilight said dryly.

“Black hole? Where?” Rainbow Dash questioned.

“Do I really need to explain that? Think about it Dash, Pinkie got us in this situation, the black hole is located at her a-”

“OKAY, moving on,” Applejack shouted, “Dash, can you check with Spike? He might have had a reply, meanwhile, I think we’d best go to the steering wheel, maybe we can get this metal tub back to Equestria ourselves.”

“Helm, it’s called a helm Applejack.” Twilight informed.

“Whatever its called, it makes this thing move don’t it?”

Spike was currently reading a reply that had finally arrived from Princess Celestia while he had been admiring Rarity a nearby deckchair. Rarity lay there, a folding mirror under her chin as she gave her face more sun.

Rainbow Dash quietly trotted over, and raised an eyebrow at Rarity. While Fluttershy had become claustrophobic at the idea of being stranded at sea, and Twilight had all but gone mentally insane, Rarity’s behaviour at the idea of being stranded was vastly different. Applejack, Spike, Pinkie and Rainbow herself had been indifferent, they knew rescue would be on the way, yet Rarity was acting like nothing had gone wrong.

“Hey Rainbow Dash, this came from Celestia.” Spike held the letter out.

“So what’s it say?” Dash asked, smiling. ‘It’ll say the Wonderbolts are coming to help, I just know it!’

“Dear Twilight,” Spike begun, “it is rather unfortunate that this misunderstanding has occurred. As of yet, the public, and importantly, Prince Blueblood, don’t know of this, and that’s how I feel it should stay for now.”

Rainbow’s eyes widened. In effect, Celestia had just made their situation a cover up, and help wasn’t going to come.

“Now this isn’t anything personal to you and your friends, rather, its some perfectly timed payback on behalf of my sister, I won’t explain much, but I shall inquire why Blueblood had a maid’s outfit in the first place when he only has butlers. Think of it this way, there are books on the Aurora, some might tell you how to sail a ship, why not take up a hobby and enjoy everything on the ship at Blueblood’s expense?”

“Oh I SURE plan to!” Rarity chuckled, having been listening from where she was.

“Don’t worry, when you have finished every last supply, I’ll send a rescue party for you. Unless you manage to sail home by yourself first. Have fun and enjoy it! Signed, Princess Celestia.”

The sound of seagull was the only thing that could be heard right after Spike had finished reading. Both he and Rainbow Dash were staring at the other, the same thought going through their minds.

“Twilight’s going to have a nervous meltdown equal to the end result of my curry nights.” Spike spoke flatly.

Both Rainbow Dash and Rarity winced.

“SHE’S WHAT?”

Twilight’s yell could be heard from the deck, where Rainbow Dash and Rarity had stayed after Spike had ran off to deliver the letter to her.

“Huh, guess Spike was wrong.” Rainbow Dash chuckled.

“Why’s that dear?” Rarity questioned, folding up the mirror.

“He said she’d have a meltdown like the end result of one of his curry nights, and from what I can see, the windows at the helm are fine.”

As Rainbow Dash observed the helm, she saw Applejack, with Spike on her back, crash through a window, just seconds before the rest were shattered with highly explosive and uncontrolled magic.

“Oh, nevermind.”

--
Up at the helm, Twilight was attempting to calm herself down, breathing deeply and repeating Cadance’s calming technique as fast as she could. It wasn’t really working.

“It’s all fine, it will ALL be fine,” she said to herself, “I just have to learn how to sail a cruise ship before we crash and sink, it can’t be that hard right?”

Twilight slowly begun to calm down as she thought things over. If Celestia wanted to punish Blueblood for something, and was going to leave her alone, then she had to learn to control the ship.

“Spike, can you try and find any books about sailing? Applejack, can you go tell the others I may need help?” Twilight called out.

“Sure.” the pair both replied.

Rarity had finished sunbathing on the empty deck, and now wandered through the food court level of the ship. The eerie scene of many food stores, with thousands of chairs at empty tables seemed like something out of a horror novel, but the white unicorn was otherwise joyful as she browsed the stores.

She soon settled on Prench food and wandered to the counter. The menu was fairly standard for the plastic storefront, and she begun imagining eating the finest food that was available.

It didn’t occur to her until she had finished reading the whole menu, that the only living things aboard the ship were her, and her friends. Anypony capable of cooking the food had left on the lifeboats. Feeling a little disappointed, only one thing came to her mind, and she voiced it.

“Merde!”

A ten minute trip later found Rarity on the shopping levels. Unable to actually access the cooking appliances in the food court to cook herself, the now hungry white unicorn searched for a shop that would at least have packet food. While not to her sophisticated tastes, it would do until they were home or the keys to the kitchens was found.

A quick check of a grocery store, and Rarity spotted all the things she would need to make a fine lettuce and tomato with cheese sandwich. She gathered the items up with her magic, and humming happily to herself, left the store.

She barely got five feet from the door when she shivered. Something felt wrong, but she couldn’t quite place what.

“Rarity! Hey Rarity!” Pinkie called out.

Turning around, Rarity saw something on the other side of the floor, rapidly heading toward her. She squinted her eyes, trying to determine what she was seeing. Pinkie Pie was surfing on something, which didn’t make sense in her brain, which was trying the logical equivalent of having the last piece of a jigsaw, and trying to slam it into the empty space of a completely different jigsaw.

“COWABUNGA!” Pinkie yelled, as the candy tidal wave swept over Rarity.

An hour later, and Twilight had been given books about sailing a ship. She and Spike remained at the helm, while Applejack had been seeing to the others.

She was observing Rarity, who was exploring around the ship, in an apparent search for something. This search had cross the whole top deck, and was now into the first supply room on Deck 1.

“Rares, what exactly are you doing?” Applejack questioned.

“What does it look like? I’m searching for something. I need to relax after trying to escape the candy tidal wave Pinkie caused earlier” Rarity responded, never turning her head to look at Applejack.

“Yes, but what exactly? Will it be something helpful to keep Twilight calm and relaxed?”

“No.”

“Alright, is it food? You’re going to be our chef?”

“My goodness no! At least not yet. We need to find the keys to the kitchens.”

“Flares then? So we can let other ships know we need help?” Applejack questioned, getting irritated.

“I don’t even know what a flare looks like.”

“Then what exactly are you looking for?”

Rarity sighed and walked out of the room, stopping in the doorway to answer.

“I’m trying to relax in the sun, I’m looking for a parasol.”

Applejack’s eye twitched. Following Rarity, she remained quiet, hoping Rarity would reveal what she had said as a joke, and tell what she was doing that would be helpful to the situation.

“So you just plan to relax? You don’t intend helping us get back home fast?” Applejack pressed, when Rarity located another store room and entered it.

“And deprive myself of the chance of living in luxury at the expense of Blueballs?”

“Rarity,” Applejack held a hoof to her face, “you are about as much use as a fart on a wind farm.”

“Applejack! Please, don’t be so vulgar!” Rarity had shot up and stared at Applejack with a look of horror on her face.

“But you intend to live a life of luxury while the rest of us pitch in to get us home. To say your useless is an insult to all useless items, like a book rewinder, quill sharpeners, and those hotels that don’t put mints on the pillows for you to have before you get a night of sleep.”

“Ah ha! Here’s a parasol,” Rarity pulled it out from where it was stuck, causing a loud audible click, and the ticking of a device, “uh, what was that?”

“MOVE IT!” Applejack yelled, grabbing Rarity and running out of the room.

The pair ran half way up the corridor before the storeroom they had been in was engulfed with the sound and smoke of fireworks. After two minutes, the only sound left was the ringing in their ears, and after five, things had returned to normal. Applejack glared at Rarity.

“I hope there wasn’t anything important in that room.”

“Unbelievable. Twenty thousand loaves of bread, fifty crates of tomatoes, a hundred crates of eggs, a refrigerator that held half of the onboard supply of milk, water and cheese, all gone in the fireworks.” Twilight muttered, having read on the ships log of what had been in the storeroom.

“I’m sorry Twilight.” Rarity stated.

“The worst part is, that storeroom had every last daisy onboard too. Now I can’t have a daisy sandwich at all. And for what? So you could go and relax with a parasol on the deck leaving us to do the hard work.” Twilight looked at her friend, disappointed.

“Well yes, its a shame some of the supplies are gone, but surely you must be exaggerating that every daisy on the ship is gone.” Rarity said, desperate for any hope.

“It was where they made daisy sandwiches on the ship, or were going to. Where else would they have put them? In the deepest darkest dungeon of Canterlot guarded by Starswirl himself?”

The white unicorn was silent for a while, considering her possible replies to Twilight.

“...Is there really a dungeon in Canterlot guarded by Starswirl?”

“Just get out, it’d be safer if we talk again when I’ve calmed down over the prospect of having to go from now on without daisy sandwiches.”

Rarity sighed, floating the parasol beside her. Sitting on her back, ready to help if needed, was Spike. They approached the deck chair Rarity had chosen to spend the rest of the day relaxing on, and slowly, Rarity lay upon it.

“So she really told you to get out?” Spike questioned.

“Yes, I think I really messed up big time Spike. I didn’t know there were fireworks in there, I mean, if its where they were going to make food, why was a parasol even in there?” Rarity asked, attempting to undo the parasol with her magic.

“I meant to tell Twilight this, but Pinkie was moving stuff around in the storerooms, moving closer to the top of the ship what she felt was important.”

Rarity stopped what she was doing and blinked. The information Spike had just said sunk in slowly.

“Then, I’m not to blame! Pinkie shouldn’t have been moving stuff around without telling the rest of us! Wait,” Rarity turned her head towards Spike, “why did she decide to move the fireworks, and where had they been before?”

“She moved them for safety, because they were located towards the bottom of the ship, apparently, Prince Blueblood himself decided what would be stored where, and he thought fireworks should be kept at the bottom of the ship, just under the engine room. Had we not noticed it, in a few hours, the whole ship would have become a fireworks display of tacky tastes equal enough to rival the new year celebrations of Haydon.”

“Haydon?” Rarity raised an eyebrow.

“Yeah, short, fast and to the point, sort of like a young couple after the second date.”

Rarity resumed her attempt to open the parasol, smiling and choosing to ignore Spike’s crude remark.

“Well regardless. When Twilight calms down, I’ll let her know Pinkie had moved the fireworks there, and it wasn’t my fault, then I’ll bring her down here and she can enjoy some time in this chair in the sun and under the shade of the only parasol on the ship!” Rarity let a small laugh go.

As the parasol finally opened up, it was caught in a gust of wind which took Rarity by surprise. The wind carried the parasol away, almost in a way from a foals movie minus the unicorn in an old style black dress holding on to the bottom of it. It had quickly got too far for her magic to capture it.

She and Spike looked at each other for thirty seconds.

“You don’t suppose I could swim back home without wrinkling do you?” Rarity smiled nervously.

---Next Time on High and Dry: AEMAIS---
“So anything interesting in the book?” Spike asked, as Fluttershy caught sight of the cover and blushed at the infantile defacing of Prince Blueblood’s photo.

“Just the standard, where the restaurants are, the swimming pool, shops. I guess Pinkie Pie isn’t fully to blame for causing us to be left alone here, there’s no mention in the booklet about the pool not being ready for us.” Twilight sighed, lifting up the sandwich with her magic.

“You’d have thought the bright yellow signs, and even the flashing neon notice board, all of which said ‘out of order’, would have been the big clue.” Spike muttered.

Author's Note

So for this chapter onward, my editor from RH (Ekevoo) is not editing, and I've not had anyone offer to step in.
As such for now, this is going to be my personal project, to make me write and edit all alone.
Regardless I hope this was worth the wait despite the fact that only I worked on this. For all intents, this chapter is the Rarity centred "episode".

Now onward to "episode three". And if you want to be the editor for High and Dry, send me a private message.

S1Ep3: AEMAIS

Twilight sat at the helm of the Aurora, keeping an eye that the ship was remaining on course and not heading to any landmass that would sink it before they returned to Equestria. In front of her was a booklet about the ship itself, detailing the captain, facilities and their locations, among other details. On the cover was a photo of Prince Blueblood, which had been defaced with a mustache and a few male joysticks and signed by Rarity.

Twilight paid no attention as Spike and Fluttershy entered the room, Spike carrying a plate with a sandwich and a cup of water, which he set down beside Twilight.

“So anything interesting in the book?” Spike asked, as Fluttershy caught sight of the cover and blushed at the infantile defacing of Prince Blueblood’s photo.

“You’d have thought the bright yellow signs, and even the flashing neon notice board, all of which said ‘out of order’, would have been the big clue.” Spike muttered.

“Wait, this is interesting,” Twilight turned the booklet to face Spike and Fluttershy, “right here, it says that crew and passengers are permitted to use the AEMAIS system to assist in emergencies.”

“AEMAIS?” Fluttershy questioned, reading the booklet.

“It’s a machine somewhere in the ship. My guess is, it was also supposed to help the captain control the ship. Maybe if we find where it is and why its not working, we can get it back up and get home in no time!” Twilight grinned.

“Alright then, so where is it located?” Spike questioned.

Twilight took a moment to look around the room, soon spotting the ship manual. Bringing it to herself with magic, she flicked through it, eventually locating the information she required about the AEMAIS system and the machine’s location.

“Oh no.” she groaned.

“What is it? Did you find where the AEMAIS machine is?” Fluttershy bit her lower lip nervously.

“Yes.” Twilight replied, rubbing a temple with a hoof.

“Great! So where is it?” Spike pressed.

“Twenty floors directly under the swimming pool.”

“So,” Rainbow groaned, “we just have to find the machine and turn it on, got it?”

“Hm,” Pinkie stopped walking, “nope!” she replied cheerfully, proceeding to bounce past Rainbow Dash.

“Just follow me.” Rainbow sighed.

She turned the corner of the deck they were on, and saw the door with the word AEMAIS printed on it. Slowly, she opened the door and looked inside.

The machine was still wet from when Pinkie had failed to fill the swimming pool some days earlier, but there was no sign of any electrical faults. Acting rather than thinking, Rainbow proceeded to lift herself in the air and use the wind created by her wings to dry the machine. After three minutes, it looked dry and she landed.

“Great, now we just need to,”

“Hello, I am AEMAIS. Here to help.” the machine spoke.

“I found the on switch!” Pinkie Pie half-sung as she bounced past Rainbow Dash and out of the room.

Twilight watched as a monitor flickered on. Beside her, Spike, Fluttershy, Applejack and Rarity all smiled, anticipating what would happen.

On the monitor, the face of Prince Blueblood appeared.

“Oh great, as if it didn’t take me long enough to deface every booklet on the ship in unladylike ways, now this!” Rarity whined.

“Audio detection indicates a dissatisfaction for the visual monitor interface. Changing visual image,” the face of Prince Blueblood disappeared, reforming into an orange stallion face with tacky orange framed glasses, “does this visual meet approval?”

“Much better than the last one.” Rarity muttered.

“Proceeding with interface reboot. I am AEMAIS, the Aurora Engine Management Artificial Intelligence System. Sensors indicate ship movement in progress, and seven boarded persons. There are many errors.” AEMAIS stated.

“Errors? Such as what?” Twilight pressed, worried about what it would say next.

“Such as water leakage from the swimming pool which forced an emergency shutdown of my system, corrupted files, and the lack of toilet paper in the bathrooms of deck 26 and their relocation of the rafters of the club on deck 9.” AEMAIS replied.

“Relocation of toilet paper? You make it sound like Rainbow Dash, in a drunken haze, had done that in a classy way.” Applejack giggled.

“How did she do it then?” Rarity asked.

“She licked each one, yelled ‘To Celestia please Spike’, and threw them across the room one at a time.”

“Additional, I fail to detect the captain. Please input name and reasons for why the captain is missing.” AEMAIS stated, clearly unaware of anything but its own routines.

“Name; Princess Twilight Sparkle. Reason for captain missing; misunderstanding with the swimming pool and a stupid pink pony who shall remain nameless, except for the alias I’ll give her; Pinkie ‘I filled the broken pool with ten gallons of water then walked away’ Pie.” Twilight grumbled.

“Record received. Assumption is Captain ordered accidental abandon ship, and the lifeboats were full except for you, your highness. With this logical reasoning, you have been added to my database and logs as emergency replacement captain. Now, how may I help?” AEMAIS questioned, changing from a monotonous tone of voice to a friendlier tone.

“You can relocate the best way back to Equestrian shores and guide the ship there.” Twilight smiled, happy her plan was working.

“Very good. Just one question.” AEMAIS’ visual smiled back.

“What’s that?” Twilight asked, still smiling.

“Where the buck are we?” AEMAIS questioned, the smile it had turned to a nervous smile.

Twilight was left alone with AEMAIS, as gently the Aurora sailed on. Computer and pony both stared at each other, with Twilight trying to work out what exactly to say.

“Alright, let me get this right. You are the computer of this ship, with several devices to help in navigation.”

“Correct.” AEMAIS responded.

“You can tell where we are, where exactly the supplies we need are, and even predict in advance how we will behave, yes?” Twilight questioned.

“Indeed, and more. Go on, ask me anything, I dare you.” AEMAIS responded in a playful tone.

Twilight thought quietly to herself. AEMAIS seemed to be her intellectual equal, clearly meaning it hadn’t been Prince Blueblood that had designed or made it, and probably had only been suggested to include such a machine on his ship once it had actually been installed.

“Alright, I have a question for you, and I’ll make it a simple one. Find the square root of 46.” Twilight posed the equation to AEMAIS.

“I see, you want me to find the square root of 46 do you? All the processing power I can muster, of all the questions that can push me to my limits, that’s what you pick yes?” AEMAIS responded.

“Yes, that’s the question.”

“And you are utterly sure? Don’t want to change your mind and ask me the very day and time Starswirl himself was born?”

“Nope, square root of 46 please.”

“Alright fine.”

Silence filled the air as Twilight waited for AEMAIS to reply. It soon became clear that the answer wasn’t about to be given.

“AEMAIS, the answer to the question please?” Twilight pressed, rather hopefully.

“What question?”

Twilight facehoofed

“Oh buck…”

Three hours later, and Twilight lay down on the floor of the helm. Silently, AEMAIS took control of the ship. She had spent those three hours trying to get AEMAIS to even remember a question she had posed to it, let alone get an answer. This had been unsuccessful, as had the attempt at ordering painkillers from the highly forgetful AI, and she requested the takeover of control so she could rest the migrane off.

As AEMAIS carefully steered the ship, it begun to monitor the others. It watched as Rarity found a portrait of Prince Blueblood, and returned to the location with some darts. It watched as Applejack and Rainbow Dash competed against each other in one of the many gyms. It noticed Pinkie Pie busy turning some of the raw ingredients on the ship into baked goods, and Fluttershy with Spike watching the sea animals.

It observed Twilight for a moment, making noises in the helm above its speaking level. When she didn’t stir from the sleep she had entered, it spoke to itself.

“All logs wiped in accident, no records of the other six entities aboard. By logical conclusion, these six are stowaways. They must be dealt with. Penalty of illegally boarding the ship,” it ran through some choices on screen; tickled by fluffy bunnies, denied; hung upside down for half an hour, denied; used in circus sideshow, I’d feel sorry for the circus; execution, approved, “death to the stowaways.”

Rarity continued to enjoy her game of darts with Prince Blueblood’s portrait. Slowly, the portrait became covered with holes where the darts had hit.

Silently above her, the chandelier begun to unscrew. Soon, it had come loose enough to fall, Rarity only noticing it with just enough time to avoid being crushed by it.

“What the hay? AEMAIS!” She yelled.

“Yes?” AEMAIS responded.

“What just happened?” Rarity shouted.

“You mean the chandelier falling? Like this?” AEMAIS questioned.

Rarity only just managed to avoid a second one falling.

“You’re doing this on purpose! Why?” Rarity ran to a corner, far away from any of the chandeliers still in the room.

“You are unauthorised by my logs to be on this ship and must be punished accordingly.” AEMAIS responded as if attempted murder was a normal punishment.

“By killing me?” Rarity yelled.

“You must be punished accordingly.” AEMAIS replied, turning out all lights in the room.

Rarity slowly reached a lightswitch, but paused when she heard gas leaking from somewhere. As if AEMAIS attempting to crush her to death hadn’t been bad enough, now it was attempting to make her blow herself up. Holding her breath, she proceeded to a door and left the room.

Applejack and Rainbow Dash were now on their way to the treadmills, to see who could run for the longest on them, both unaware of what AEMAIS had just tried to do to Rarity.

When they got near, the machines sparked with electricity running in the exposed metal. Applejack, having noticed too late, put her hoof against the metal in her attempt to get on a treadmill, and stood jerking with electricity running through her body. Thinking fast, Rainbow Dash grabbed a nearby wood stick and pushed Applejack away from the metal as hard as she could.

“Thanks RD, I could have been fried if left any longer.” Applejack wheezed.

“Yeah, still we better get you to the first aid room, AEMAIS,” Rainbow called out, “where’s the first aid room?”

“First aid is for registered and legally boarded passengers and crew only.” AEMAIS replied.

“We ARE legally registered and boarded passengers, now where is it?” Rainbow pressed for the information she wanted.

“I’m sorry, but you are not permitted to have that information. There are no records of you legally boarding the ship, a crime which receives the punishment of death.”

Applejack and Rainbow both looked at each other with worry. Quickly, Rainbow helped Applejack up and on her back, before running away. Following them, machines exploded from a surge of electricity, and light bulbs above also blew up, releasing the toxic gases within them into the room.

“We got to get to Twilight, she can fix this!”

Ten minutes later, and after Pinkie Pie was almost suffocated by all fire extinguishers going off, and a deck cleaning roid tried to push Fluttershy and Spike off the ship, all the friends were back in the helm, with a now wide awake and alert Twilight.

“AEMAIS, I need to talk to you!” Twilight shouted.

“Of course Princess, what is the matter?” AEMAIS asked.

“The matter is that you’ve been trying to kill my friends! Stop it!” Twilight replied.

“They are not legally registered passengers and must be punished.” AEMAIS replied.

“They were my guests when we boarded! Of course they are here legally,” Twilight paused, “what files were corrupted again?”

“Files corrupted in accident; ship supply log, captain’s log and passenger and crew log.” AEMAIS informed her.

“Figures. Can I set up a new passenger and crew log?” Twilight posed.

“Despite your status as princess and acting captain, only the real captain may create a new log. If you wish, please proceed to the machine room where I am located and we may work something out. Please leave your friends in the helm.” AEMAIS stated.

“Why?”

“There are many loaded weapons there designed to fend off pirates. I was hoping you’d not question and leave so I could have them ‘misfire’ and kill the stowaways.” AEMAIS answered.

“You’re not bright. Right girls and Spike, we’re going to AEMAIS’ room.”

They all ran out, not noticing AEMAIS laughing.

“Not bright, I’ve an IQ equal to sixty thousand Prince Blueblood’s.”

Twenty floors down, the friends ran towards AEMAIS, dodging cooling pipes erupting, the sudden leak from gas pipes and even fires started by AEMAIS in an attempt to kill Twilight’s friends and prevent them reaching it.

All these attempts failed, as ten minutes later, they had arrived to the room again and entered.

“You are aware that I have a self-destruct device to prevent any hostile forces taking me in working order? I could class this as such a use for the detonation of the device.” AEMAIS threatened.

“I know how to fix this,” Rainbow Dash smirked, “this sentence is false!” she shouted, raising a hoof.

For thirty seconds, the only sound was of AEMAIS operating.

“Really? That old line? That only works as a cheap, get out easy device in B-movies.” AEMAIS said flatly.

“It was worth a shot.” Rainbow grumbled.

“AEMAIS, I came as you said, now let’s talk this out!” Twilight said.

“You came yes, but you didn’t leave your friends behind in the helm.” AEMAIS replied.

“You’d have killed them!” Twilight exclaimed.

“It wouldn’t have hurt them. Much. Not for long. I think. Still, you didn’t meet my demands, and we won't be able to work anything out. As soon as you leave the room, your friends will die.” AEMAIS grinned.

Twilight thought for a moment, for any way to get out of the situation and keep her friends alive. She looked at them, seeing the worry and fear for their lives on their faces.

“What if you gave us time to construct a lifeboat and let them leave?” Twilight questioned.

“It’s far too late, they boarded against my records and must be punished.” AEMAIS stated, clearly unwilling to resolve the situation in a non-lethal manner.

“But your records are corrupted! How can you be sure they aren’t here legally?”

“Because the records don’t work and it can’t be proven they are here legally.” AEMAIS countered.

“Then what about me? Am I here legally? If not, how can I be in charge?” Twilight replied, grinning a little.

AEMAIS begun to try and speak, but stopped, the monitor showed it was trying to compute this. It soon stopped, the display frozen. After ten seconds, the display changed blue, and a new voice spoke.

“We apologize for the terminal crash your machine has experienced. Please locate the on-off switch and turn it off. Please do not attempt to reboot the system as it will need expert care. We apologise for the inconvenience, and thank you for using the Canterlot AI and Computer Kingdom corporation.”

The group of friends sighed a huge sigh of relief.

“That was a close one!” Twilight chuckled.

“Indeed! I honestly thought that crazy machine would have killed us!” Rarity added.

“Not to bring down the celebration, but we still need to get Applejack checked for the mild electrocution she got from that thing. Where’s the nearest first aid room?” Rainbow pressed.

“That information is for authorised personnel only!” a high pitched voice said.

They all turned to look at the AEMAIS machine worried, but quickly became confused when the monitor was still blue. From behind the machine, Pinkie Pie bounced out, causing them all to glare at her.

“What? I thought it was funny.” She giggled.

Spike at that moment burped up a letter from Princess Celestia. He cleared his throat and read it aloud.

“Dear Twilight, how are things going aboard the Aurora? Today I finally told Blueblood about the incident, and he’s currently in hospital for a mild heart attack. You should have been there, the noises he made sounded like a squealing pig. Also, I know how much your friend Rarity detests him, and well, Luna wanted revenge for a little number he forced her to wear as part of her punishment for removing most of his teeth. Please find enclosed a photograph of what she did with it.”

Spike held up the photo, which showed a fast asleep Prince Blueblood, in a hospital bed with a maid outfit on.

--Next Time on High and Dry: Storm--
"So, do you think she found the information she needed in any book?" Rainbow asked.

Applejack took a moment to think of her answer, before smiling.

"Don't see why not. This is Twilight, she can find pretty much anything in books."

"She couldn't find anything about dragons that one time for Spike." Rainbow pointed out.

"Well that were different, its probably pretty hard to write a book about dragons when one is currently finding out how nice of a snack you are."

Author's Note

Took a long time to get this one out, because I kept trying to make this part longer. Even now it still feels too short, but I can't expand it without utterly destroying the premise of this chapter.
Still, I hope everyone enjoys it.

S1Ep4: Storm

Applejack and Rainbow Dash were in store room twenty on deck 30, the lowest storeroom of the Aurora. It had been five hours since they had been sent to work on making sure the supplies would remain stable and not be destroyed or damaged.

Normally, it wouldn't make sense to do this sort of thing, but Twilight had spotted dark clouds far on the horizon, in the way of the current bearing of the Aurora. All supplies had to be secured, as they couldn’t afford to lose any as a result of the storm.

This particular store room contained, for reasons the pair hadn’t worked out yet, animal feed.

“This sort of looks like Fluttershy’s home at feeding time.” Applejack stated, shifting more boxes together to be tied up.

“Now that isn’t fair,” Rainbow replied, “its missing the hoards of starving animals messing the place up.”

“What I still don’t get is how she can get a bear in her home, her doors are just big enough for Princess Celestia to walk through, with her wings folded. The bear can’t take off its arms, and even if it could, it’d be a bit of a squeeze.” Applejack muttered, tying the boxes together to a pole.

Rainbow chuckled, earning a glare from Applejack.

“What’s so darn funny?”

“Bear arms.” Rainbow laughed.

“That’s about as funny as being smacked about the face with a trout. Now come on, we have to hurry.”

Rainbow didn’t try to argue, wasting time meant the chance of less food to make the trip home comfortable.

In supply room three, up on deck four, Rarity was observing from a chair she had brought with her, while Pinkie Pie worked hard. Sweat was running off the pink pony, to say it was like a river was an understatement, even a waterfall didn’t come close.

The simple fact was, Pinkie Pie was sweating so fast and so much, she broke at least ten natural laws that stated she should be dead from dehydration and over exertion. And still she worked on, though the cheer she had begun the task with, and the song she had come up with to make it go faster, had long since died and been buried.

Pausing for a moment, Pinkie turned to face Rarity, who was drinking water with ice cubes and a yellow umbrella in the glass, while using a fan to keep herself cool.

“Not to sound snippy, but can’t you help me?” Pinkie pleaded, all the joy in her voice gone due to how tired she was.

“I’m sorry, but when I came on this ship, it was to live a life of luxury and Bluebutt’s expense. I am NOT going to do any work for him!” Rarity replied.

“But you won’t be! We need these supplies safe or we could starve to death before ever getting home! Please Rarity? I’m exhausted here!” Pinkie whined, collapsing to the floor.

“Oh well why didn’t you say so?” Rarity asked, levitating the fan to her friend and using it to try and cool her down.

“Gee thanks Rarity.” Pinkie said sarcastically.

At the helm, Twilight read a book. It was just one of the countless hundreds that currently covered the floor of the helm, and she knew at any minute, Spike and Fluttershy would return with the last relevant books on the ship.

She was a mare on a mission. Find information on how to sail a ship through a storm and get herself and her friends out the other side alive.

With a sigh, she closed the book, having found no information at all within it. Her only hope was to find something within the books that would arrive soon.

In two minutes, Spike and Fluttershy returned, the last six books with them. They placed them down, and stood back to watch as Twilight skimmed them all. Just beyond the book, and in her sight, was the storm, now much closer than when she had sent Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie and Rarity to secure supplies. She could now at least hear the thunder that was in the storm.

Twenty minutes later, she closed the last of the six books in time with a distant strike of thunder, and she looked rather pale.

“We have a major problem!” she shouted.

“What?” Fluttershy asked, dreading that what she was thinking was about to be said.

“Not one of these books tells you what to do to sail a ship through a storm! What are we going to do?” Twilight asked, her mane becoming frayed rather quickly.

“Well, I say take your pick. We could just wing it, sail through the storm and hope we come out the other side fine.” Spike suggested.

“What’s the other choice?” Twilight asked, her voice full of hope.

“Well,” Spike thought for a second, “did you ever see The Perfect Storm?”

Twilight wailed and collapsed to her belly, and within thirty seconds, she had curled into a ball, and begun rubbing her tail.

“We’re all going to die. We’re all going to die.”

Spike looked at Fluttershy, who was looking back at him, rather annoyed.

“I said something wrong didn’t I?” he asked. Fluttershy nodded.

“I’ll just go tell the others then. See you later, if we don’t die in the storm first!” he said cheerfully, earning another loud wail from Twilight and door in the face from Fluttershy.

Fluttershy walked to her friend and sat beside her, trying to ignore the chanting of ‘we’re all going to die’ coming from Twilight.

“We’ll be fine Twilight. I know we will.” Fluttershy said.

“How? I’m clearly having a nervous breakdown at how we’re all going to die, I can’t sail the ship, we’re doomed!” Twilight replied, never once looking up at Fluttershy.

“I know we’ll be fine, because I’ll sail the ship for you.” Fluttershy answered, smiling sweetly.

Some more hair on Twilight’s mane fell out of place. She closed her eyes and begun to shake violently.

Spike felt glad once he had left Twilight and Fluttershy behind. Twilight had begun getting so stressed out over the storm that it had begun to annoy him. Sure, he should probably help, but once the ship passed through the storm, she would laugh at how she got so worried over such a silly thing.

It also gave him an excuse to find and spend time with Rarity. Knowing the white unicorn, she wouldn’t have left her first designated store room that she was supposed to secure.

THWACK!

He came to a standstill. Two seconds later, he shrugged his shoulders, not knowing what had made the sound. As he walked, he made plans in his head for what he and Rarity could talk about and even what they would do after the storm had passed.

THWACK!

Once again, Spike stopped, this time the sound had been louder, and clearly came from the storage room he was heading towards. Jogging a little, he begun to think of what could be making the sound. Maybe it was just rope being thrown over the crates.

THWACK! THWACK! THWACK!

“Come back here so I can kill you Rarity!” Pinkie yelled.

“Oh this doesn’t sound good.” Spike muttered, now running.

When he reached the doorway, he stared at the sight before him. Rarity was currently running away from Pinkie Pie, who had someone found a padded foam bat, and every so often, she swung this at Rarity, the impact of the bat with the ground producing the ‘thwack’ sound he had heard on the way.

In honesty, Spike wasn’t sure if he should find the sight funny, or be horrified that Pinkie was trying to kill his crush.

“What’s going on in here?” Spike yelled, bringing both Rarity and Pinkie to a stop.

“I’m trying to kill Rarity for not helping me out!” Pinkie Pie stated.

“With a foam padded bat?” Spike questioned, tilting his head to the left.

“I want it to really hurt for a long time before she dies!” Pinkie shouted, taking a swing at Rarity.

The foam padded bat hit the white unicorn across the back of the head, forcing it towards the floor, which she hit before she could stop herself from falling. It knocked Rarity out cold, and Pinkie grinned maliciously. Spike sighed.

“I’ll go get the first aid kit.”

Rainbow Dash and Applejack had finished securing all of the storage rooms they had been sent to do, and having decided that Rarity would have been about as helpful as a cup on a leaking boat, had moved on to securing the ones she and Pinkie were supposed to do. They soon had finished those as well, ignoring the one that Rarity would have clearly remained in.

The pair now headed back to the helm with two bottles of wine and seven glasses. Applejack had figured they could all celebrate with the drink once Twilight had sailed the ship through the storm.

"So, do you think she found the information she needed in any book?" Rainbow asked.

Applejack took a moment to think of her answer, before smiling.

"Don't see why not. This is Twilight, she can find pretty much anything in books."

"She couldn't find anything about dragons that one time for Spike." Rainbow pointed out.

"Well that were different, its probably pretty hard to write a book about dragons when one is currently finding out how nice of a snack you are."

Both ponies paused at the door into the helm when they could hear a quiet sobbing on the other side. With a look of confusion, Applejack slowly pushed the door open, giving her and Rainbow a chance to see the sight of Twilight rolled into a sobbing ball on the floor, and a nervous looking Fluttershy at the wheel and staring toward the storm that was now less than three minutes away.

"Fluttershy? What the hay happened here?" Rainbow shouted in worry.

"She couldn't find anything on how to sail through a storm!" Fluttershy replied, never moving her gaze from the storm.

"But, what do we do now then?" Applejack asked.

"Just relax, I'll get us through this." Fluttershy answered, smiling.

"You. You, Fluttershy, will get us through the storm." Rainbow said flatly.

"Yes."

"Did you forget that, just before we left for the cruise, you were scared witless by a rustling leaf."

"It wasn't a leaf, it was a scary monster." Fluttershy tried to defend herself, while also attempting to hide her face.

"It was a leaf, I saw Scootaloo slam into the trunk of the tree it came from not thirty seconds earlier"

Meanwhile, in Ponyville, the mentioned orange filly sneezed. Which was rather unfortunate, as she was attempting to pull another trick on her scooter, the sneeze forced her to blink, and end up head first into a nearby trash can.

"Look, trust me, I can get us through this storm." Fluttershy asserted.

"Applejack," Rainbow turned to look at the orange earth pony, "let's share one final drink together, we won't get the chance once that storm destroys the ship."

Fluttershy ignored the pair, and the still slightly sobbing Twilight, as she focused on the storm. It was now right on top of the ship, and any wrong move on the wheel would cost her and her friends their lives.

She watched the waves, turning the wheel with the knowledge and expertise of a captain. It took ten minutes for her to sail the Aurora safely through the storm, much to the shock of Applejack and Rainbow Dash.

When the ship was safe and back on a constant bearing, she turned to face her friends, who looked at her with surprise.

"How did you know how to sail a ship?" Applejack asked.

"It was in one of the books." Fluttershy answered.

"But," Rainbow raised an eyebrow, "Twilight looked through every book on the ship, and couldn't find anything about how to sail through a storm."

"I know. She just didn't think of something in her panic."

Both of the other mares looked at the other quickly, before looking back at Fluttershy, who was smiling.

"She didn't think that she could just sail the ship as normal. She was so focused on finding how to sail through a storm, that she thought ships would work differently in a storm." Fluttershy stated, as she walked back them, taking a wine glass and the unopened bottle of wine.

Fluttershy paused at the door.

"It also helps my uncle owned a ship and I had to sail him back to shore one time when he found rum on board." she grinned.

S1Ep5: Not Alone

Applejack found living on the Aurora rather dull at times. There were no trees to buck, the gym had been destroyed, and often, Rainbow Dash slept, providing her with no way to release energy in the form of competitions. Running laps around the ship had worked at first, but it lost its appeal after the third lap.

So she had taken to wandering around. It amazed her how many things on the Aurora were themed around Prince Blueblood. Blueblood-O’s were the only breakfast cereal in the small food stores, which were there for the passengers that had decided to self-cater rather than pay the extra. For the prices the stores charged however, they may as well have paid. It also amazed her how someone had gone out of their way to deface every last one with beards and unmentionable body parts floating around Prince Blueblood’s face.

The third store she came across in her restless wander, as the moon begun to rise into the sky, had plush toys of Prince Blueblood. Evidently, somepony had gone to the trouble on discovering them, of impaling each and every last one with roughly twenty pins. What troubled her more was the fact the pins seemed to be centered on the eyes and the intimate regions.

Ignoring the impromptu haydoo ritual, she wandered deeper through the store and found windows where she expected a wall. Peering through the glass, her eyes widened, and caused her to speak after hours of silence.

“Woah nelly!”

Twilight looked blankly at Applejack, barely paying attention to the looks the other ponies and dragon gave towards the pair.

“A zoo?” Twilight asked.

“Yep, that’s what I saw Twi.” Applejack replied, affirming what she had seen.

“You saw a full zoo, potentially with lots of animals, that we’ve kept missing for weeks now, and they’re all still alive, despite all logic saying we should now be facing lots of dead animal bodies. And you’re certain you didn’t find hard cider first?” Twilight asked again, almost unbelieving.

“Animals are a lot smarter than you give them credit for, Twilight,” Fluttershy spoke up, “with none of us aware of them, they would have gone looking for food by themselves.”

Twilight seemed to ponder this for a moment. Her expertise with animals was nothing compared to Fluttershy’s, so it was best to trust her. But it was clear that they couldn’t just leave the zoo as it was.

“Right, I’m sure the ship can handle drifting for a while, let’s get down there, find a list of what’s supposed to be in this zoo, and make sure everything is alive and well.” Twilight stated, giving the others no choice.

Only Fluttershy seemed to be looking forward to the task.

The zoo gift shop thankfully had a list of animals on display, and it was this that Twilight held with her magic, along with a quill and ink. She waited patiently as the others moved around and awaited her to say an animal.

Twilight studied the list, and her eyes went wide.

“Um, girls, apparently one of the ‘animals’ on display is a changeling. We’d better be careful.” Twilight called out.

“Yeah, whatever Twilight, it’s going to be behind bars, we’re safe, stop worrying.” Rainbow called back.

“Fine, let’s start, Armadillo.”

“Here!” Rarity shouted.

“Aardvark.”

“Here!” Pinkie pie shouted, giggling at the silly name.

“Adder.”

“Here!” Rainbow called out, she could be seen clearly staying away from the glass that held this animals.

And so the pattern repeated, as Twilight ran slowly through the list. After half an hour, she called the one she had seen earlier.

“Changeling.”

Silence. Wondering if anypony had heard her, she called out again.

“Changeling.”

“We heard you the first time, Twi, but we might have a problem.” Applejack replied, pointing at the cage.

The changeling cage held no changeling, and its solid iron bars had been melted away.

“Fantastic! Not only was Blueblood an idiot to keep a changeling from their attack on Canterlot, he then had the idea to put it aboard a passenger ship, with no magic protection and half corroded iron bars to hold it!” Twilight yelled angrily, when they had all returned to the helm.

“You are talking about a stallion that though it would be a good idea to put the swimming pool above the ship’s artificially intelligent computer.” Rainbow muttered.

“And put fireworks next to a heat source, to STORE them.” Pinkie added.

“And let’s not forget, had emergency life boats that could hold all except seven, and hired a crew that actually got to the lifeboats before any of the passengers.” Applejack threw in.

Twilight groaned in frustration.

“What’s next? He decided that the water supply should come from the sea itself and not be filtered of salt and other harmful stuff in any way?”

“You can be thankful that isn’t the case.” Spike answered, looking at an information book about the Aurora.

“Oh, that’s good at least.” Rarity chuckled, lifting a glass of water to her lips.

“Yeah, it’s only urine recycled a few hundred times to freshen the water in that.” Spike added, oblivious to Rarity’s actions.

Rarity spat the water that had been in her mouth out into the face of Rainbow Dash, who looked less than impressed. Twilight stomped a hoof to the floor.

“Enough talking about the idiot prince. There’s a chance that the changeling is still on the ship, and we need to find it and either secure it back in the zoo, or get rid of it.”

--
Twilight decided that it would be best for them to all search the ship in pairs, and with a random question and answer assigned to the pairs that only they would know, and not a personal question or something from their past that the changeling could have time to know in advance.
Rainbow Dash and Pinkie pie were the first pair, sent to check the cargo holds. The search through the holds was going well until the fifth one, where Pinkie and Dash got seperated by falling boxes.

As Rainbow prepared to fly around the obstacles and get back to Pinkie, she saw Fluttershy. Confused, Rainbow flew to the yellow pegasus.

“What are you doing here?” Rainbow asked.

“Oh I got separated from Rarity, I’m sorry.”

Rainbow nodded, and begun to turn away and find Pinkie. A lightbulb went off in her head. “Hey wait a second! You’re supposed to be wit-”
‘Fluttershy’ had turned into the changeling and sucked the love it required out of Rainbow, who fell to the ground.

Hearing something falling down, Pinkie walked past the huge pile of crates and saw Rainbow on the ground, with Applejack standing next to her.
“Ohmygosh, is she ok?” Pinkie ran as fast as she could.

“No, she’s not, the changeling got to her. And it’s your fault.”

“I, I didn’t mean to get separated! Those crates fell in front of me!”

“It didn’t mean you couldn’t walk around them. And you're guilty of what happened here, more than the changeling is.”

Pinkie’s eyes went wide. “Wait, you don’t talk like that Appleja-”

Its disguise foiled, the changeling returned to normal and drained the love from Pinkie, letting out a belch when it had enough. It flew away as Pinkie collapsed to the ground.

Half hour later, Applejack and Rarity had found Pinkie and Rainbow in the fifth cargo hold. Not risking their friends further, they carried them back to the helm, where Twilight grew annoyed.

“I’m not blaming those two,” she pointed out when Spike wondered if Twilight was annoyed at her beaten friends, “no, if Blueblood wasn’t as intelligent as a mote of dust, then we wouldn’t be facing this problem.”

“So what do we do now?” Rarity questioned.

“It’s simple. Just searching for it won’t be much good, its expecting that. We’re going to have to find it and use force.”

The others looked at Twilight, their expressions blank.
“Use force? You forget these things took down Canterlot, which was a city on high alert and full of heavily armed and expertly trained fighters at the time, right?” Rarity posed.

“No, but no one knew what the threat was, much less the leader of the enemy forces was inside the shield designed to protect the city. We do know about this changeling, and if we want Rainbow and Pinkie to be fine, we have to act now.”

Fluttershy held a hoof up, causing Twilight to sigh.

“Yes?”

“Maybe we can talk to it? I’m sure its just lost and confused, so attacking it won’t help.” Fluttershy replied, rather hoping she wouldn’t be used as bait to lure the changeling out.

“Let’s see now,” Applejack interjected, “on the one hoof, we can try to take this changeling head on, which holds as much sense as throwing a snowball at a polar bear, yelling ‘got you!’ and expecting the bear to laugh and throw a snowball back instead of tearing your head off, or we can try diplomacy on a creature that has only ever seen ponies as food rather than good conversation.”

To this, Twilight and Fluttershy looked at the other, then returned their focus to Applejack and nodded.

“Sweet dear Celestia… that storm didn’t really pass over, we all died and I went to Tartarus where I now have to put up with this kind of idiocy as an eternal damnation…”

“I do think talking to it will work.” Fluttershy argued.

“So will squashing it like the bug it is.” Twilight added.

“Um, excuse me,” Rarity cleared her throat, “really Applejack? Tartarus? What makes you think after all we’ve done for Equestria you would go there?”

Applejack looked slightly shifty, as she rubbed her right foreleg against her left and turned her head, “Well, let’s just say the Apple family needed a whole lot of bits to get Appleoosa founded and well, if I continue that, it’ll make you go redder than a beetroot.”

“Enough talking! We’ve got a bug to squish!”

“No Twilight! We just need to talk to it.” Fluttershy protested.

“I must agree with the marvelous pegasus,” Rainbow said aloud, standing up, “why, with hair like that, and the model physique! Going against what she says is a crime against fabulousness!”

“Ah buck that! Squish it! In fact, let’s make an explosive device, strap it to my head and I’ll give the mother,” Rarity fainted at this, “the ol’ rock farm nod!” a straight haired and smiling Pinkie Pie replied.

Applejack, Spike, Fluttershy and Twilight stared in shock at the awoken pair. Rainbow was currently trying to tidy up her hair with a brush that Rarity left on the helm for when she spoke to Twilight, and while Pinkie looked no different in colour tone, the only difference to the bouncing pink mare was the straight mane and tail.

“Care to explain Twi?” Applejack asked.

“I think we’re seeing the results of what happens when a changeling feeds and doesn’t drain the life from the victim. They’ve both lost love, which happened to be whatever they liked. For Rainbow, this was being cool, though your guess is as good as mine as to why she’s become a pegasus version of Rarity as a result, and Pinkie simply lost what she loved, compassion to other living things and a desire to be friends with them.”

“Wouldn’t that mean she wants us dead now too?”

“Does the sun rise every day? Don’t let her find any knives just for our safety. Now, if there’s no more protests, I have a changeling to find.”

Twilight ran out of the helm with Applejack following close behind. Meanwhile Fluttershy helped Rarity to a chair, maintaining pleasant conversation with Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash, with Spike taking anything with a point on it out of the helm.

The search for the changeling led Twilight and Applejack back to the cargo hold that Rainbow and Pinkie had been attacked in. They could hear movement beside their own, which meant the changeling hadn’t moved.

“Ok, what’s the plan?” Applejack whispered.

“Get up high, find anything you can use against it, I’ll try to lure it out.”

Applejack climbed up crates, as Twilight wandered around for a bit. With a grin on her face, she said aloud, “oh dear, I seem to have got lost. I do hope I’ll be fine.”

From a nearby shadow, the changeling walked out slowly, looking at Twilight with a deadpan stare.

“Seriously? That’s the best plan you could come up with?”
The changeling side-stepped a crate as it fell from above.
“Send your companion up high, then fake getting lost in hopes of stopping me?”

“Um, yes.” Twilight grinned nervously. The changeling shook its head.

“Look, I just needed something to eat to get off the ship and go home. And you ponies are food, so why am I even explaining things when you’ve failed to stop me and are just seconds from being a snack?”

The changeling advanced on Twilight, licking its lips.

“Hold on there, that first one was just to make you think the plan failed. How do you like this one?” Applejack pushed another crate from the opposite side of where the first had fallen.

The changeling didn’t have much of a chance to even cry in fear as the crate crushed it with a rather loud crunching sound. Celebrating, Applejack landed next to Twilight.

“Good idea to have the rope right? And it said the plan hadn’t worked.”

“Yeah, just, did that crate contain a lot of bottled tomato sauce?” Twilight asked.

“No, plastic cups for the zoo. About fifty thousand.” Applejack replied, raising an eyebrow.

“Alright, but for my desire to keep my lunch down, I’m just going to pretend that little trickle of red is tomato sauce, and don’t ever say otherwise ok?”

Twilight headed for the door as fast as she could, with Applejack taking a while to look in fascination at the red trickle, before joining her alicorn friend.

--
Back at the helm, Twilight and Applejack were glad to see Rainbow and Pinkie had returned to their normal selves. With the changeling now gone, Twilight decided they could all spend the rest of the day exploring the zoo.
As the six mares and Spike walked down to the deck, none of them noticed another Pinkie Pie following them, who stopped to hold an open bottle of tomato sauce and grinning to itself.

Author's Note

Sorry this took so long, after three years of being unemployed in real life, I finally landed a job which I begun. I also set myself the task of no longer delaying and getting a finished first draft of Dream of Another Shore done, which I finished a few days ago. This is now in editing and the promise sequel to Hearth's Warming Eve for Scootaloo will soon be posted.
Hopefully I won't take so long to get the "season one ending" for High and Dry done.

S1Ep6: Running on Empty

“All ponies to the helm! I repeat, all ponies to the helm, this is not a drill, and I don’t have one with me otherwise I’d give you an example of a drill!” Pinkie shouted through the Aurora’s intercom system.
Rainbow Dash, who was headed to the helm anyway, just rolled her eyes.

--
“So let me understand this right,” Applejack held a hoof to her chin, “the Aurora ran on engines like any ship, except now they’re not working and we’re adrift.”

“Correct” Twilight answered.

“And despite the map showing the location of everything, even the source of the murderous AI you defeated, it doesn’t show where the engines are.”

“Two for two.” Twilight replied.

“And to top it off, the only information we have of them is that they ran on a naturally sourced power?”

“All three correct.” Twilight sighed.

“Please tell me Blueblood isn’t even in charge of a pencil. He’s got the mind of a squashed tomato, mixed with dung being kept away from a priceless artifact by a one hole sieve.” Applejack smiled in hope that she’d learn the prince was as useless as he’d so far proven to be.

“Actually, Prince Blueblood is in charge of borders and land disputes.” Twilight answered.

“Well how can he be so good at that, and so bad at leaving what we need to know about this ship to get us home?” Rarity questioned.

“I’m not sure, his work with maps is astounding, and yet his work with designing the Aurora is like asking a foal to design a cool looking cart, and ending up with a one-wheeled cart that has spikes on the wheel and jet rockets on the side. But that’s beside the point, we’re adrift and if we don’t find those engines soon, we’re stuck here until we’re rescued or dead.” Twilight answered.

All the ponies and Spike looked at each other, none considering the dying option.

“So we split up and search the ship individually?” Fluttershy asked.

“Good a plan as any, let’s go!” Twilight said cheerfully, leaving the helm. None of the others noticed as Fluttershy mentally ran through all the bad things that could happen to her alone on the ship, and sink to the floor, shaking in fear.

--
Pinkie hopped along a very open area of the Aurora. Metal walkways suspended by metal rods filled the area, and with the open space, her hoofsteps were amplified. Despite hopping, she wasn’t singing or humming, rather, she was worried. She wanted the ship to get going again, maybe then it’d be enough of an excuse to throw a party.

She soon came across an open door which only showed a silhouette of a pegasus. The door was open, and slowly, she pushed it open. Beyond the door was a clean silver room, in the middle of which was a giant wheel connected by rods, cogs and gears to a machine. She giggled to herself.

“That must have been one giant hamster!” she chuckled, before resuming her search.

--
Five minutes passed, and Twilight walked across the metal walkways, soon coming across the room Pinkie had dismissed as a giant hamster cage. She looked at the machine, and quickly came to the conclusion that it was the method of powering the Aurora.

“Well that’s great, on top of everything else, the whole ship is powered by running? I better find Applejack, she can run for a bit, that may be enough for power for a while.”

She left the room, seeking Applejack, who she found near the bottom of the ship. Together they returned to the room.

“So, all Ah have ta do is run on this fer a coupla minutes, and that’ll set us off again?” Applejack questioned.

“It seems that way. Sorry Applejack, I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t the only way.” Twilight replied, shuffling her hooves.

“Doncha worry none Twi! It’ll just take a second,” Applejack walked to the wheel and attempted to stand in it, only to fall through, “what the hay?”

Twilight walked closer, pressing a hoof to the wheel. It felt like clouds. She said nothing as her eyes glazed over in a rage induced thought. Of course, the idiot would choose a cloud wheel powered engine, on a ship where he’d hired exactly zero pegasi crew.

--
Twenty minutes later and the friends had all gathered back at the helm. Rarity, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash looked concerned, while Pinkie was laughing at how she had assumed there could ever be a giant hamster as a pet for the crew.

“Well, the engine was found. And as expected, it’s empty.” Twilight stated.

“Alright, so how do we power it to get going again?” questioned Rainbow.

“In his infinite wisdom, Blueblood had a cloud wheel engine installed to power the ship,” Twilight answered, watching as Rainbow rolled her eyes and Rarity looked eager to hear how he had managed to make this not make any sense, “on a ship where none of the crew were pegasi or earth ponies and unicorns born in Cloudsdale to pegasi parents.”

Rarity burst out laughing right away, falling to her back. Choosing to ignore her, Twilight continued.

“I know its not something that should have been asked, but we need you to run on the cloud wheel, Rainbow, so we can get the ship going.” Twilight said.

“I’d like to, but its time for my nap, see ya!” Rainbow replied, attempting to fly away, only to be caught in Twilight’s magic.

“Element of loyalty my plot! How about instead of a nap, we just get you energy drinks? A lot of pegasi use them apparently so they don’t have to sleep as much.” Twilight offered with a smile.

“Caffeine, really? I don’t know, you can get addicted to that stuff.”

“We just need you to run for a few minutes, it might be enough to get us back home.”

Rainbow sighed, she couldn’t just leave her friends when they needed her.

“Alright fine, get me plenty of those drinks though, I doubt one will be enough to work on my awesome self.”

--
“One drink wouldn’t be enough she said.” Twilight muttered, a hoof over her eyes.

Standing in the wheel, irises small as possible, teeth bared and chattering, and darting her head around faster than Pinkie Pie on a sugar high, was Rainbow Dash, roughly fifty empty energy drink cans lay discarded beside the wheel, the amount she had deemed would “be enough” for her “awesome self to afford missing a nap”.

“Sweet Celestia, what have we done? Fluttershy, be a dear and find any defibrillators would you? With that much caffeine in her, her heart could very well stop.” Rarity added.

“Uh, Rainbow?” Applejack asked aloud, causing the pegasus to look at her.

“Everypony thinks I like mares! I don’t, I like Soarin’! Soarin, Soarin, Soarin, Soarin. Hehehehe.” Rainbow shouted, her eyes zoning out more than they had been before.

“That’s nice and all, but could you please run on the wheel now?” Rarity asked.

“Run? ‘sfor Losers. I can fly! See? Six limbs, I’m like an insect. Hehe, buzz buzz.”

All eyes turned to Twilight, hoping she could come up with a way to make Rainbow use her caffeine high for powering the ship. Twilight simply nodded.

“Rainbow?” Twilight asked cautiously.

“My pee will be full of blood after all that caffeine!” Rainbow exclaimed.

Twilight grimaced at Rainbow’s comfort of indulging too much information, but also at the truth of the statement.

“Listen, you had a bet with Applejack that you could run for longer on that wheel than she can, but for us to know who’s better, you need to start running.”

“Oh,” Rainbow answered, her caffeine high seemed to end suddenly, “alright then.”

Rainbow looked at the wheel, and licked her lips, her eyes showing the caffeine high hadn’t ended, but it remained to be seen if this was a good or bad thing.

“LET’S GET READY TO RUMBLE!” Rainbow yelled.

And ran. And ran, and ran. She ran for ten minutes easily before the caffeine high really had ended, causing her to fall asleep and collapse on the wheel. The momentum of her running on a high however kept her spinning perfectly in place where she had fallen. Twilight went to a monitor and checked the fuel levels, finding they now had enough fuel for another month.

“Alright, I’m sure none of us want to see her behave like that again, so we best locate all the energy drinks and hide them. Let’s get to it.” Twilight said, walking out of the room.

“Um, girls?” Fluttershy called after them. Only when they all paused did she continue.

“Shouldn’t we wait for the wheel to stop first and make sure Rainbow is okay?”

“Oh yeah,” Twilight paused for a moment, “Fluttershy, while we find and hide the energy drinks, you wait for the wheel to stop, check her pulse and find the on-board hospital.”

Fluttershy sighed, they had a good reason to hide the energy drinks, they should have at least waited to see if Rainbow’s heart hadn’t exploded from the ordeal. Her worries that Rainbow might be dead were quickly put to rest when Rainbow snored. Fluttershy couldn’t help but laugh slightly, still spinning at half the speed she’d been running at, often upside down, Rainbow was peacefully asleep.

“ZZzz, no Fluttershy… I won’t join you and Discord, especially not for that!” Rainbow mumbled.

Fluttershy’s eyes went wide. She cast a quick glance at the spinning wheel, before flying out of the room as fast as she could to help hide the energy drinks.

Author's Note

So, sorry this took so long to get done and out, but work has kept me really busy for the last month. As such, I ran out of steam early on, and only today did I manage to get an idea to wrap it up in a decent way. Sadly, that means its not as long as the other 'episodes'. Regardless, I hope you all enjoy.

This also concludes "season one", High and Dry will be on hiatus for now until "season two" is written, and I can't give an estimated time for this, due to work and a lack of editor for this at all.