My Little Pirate: Buccaneering is Magic

The Perfect Storm

Fluttershy was the first to awake in the morning. The swaying of the ship with the waves was uncomfortable for Fluttershy. She rarely flew, and much rather preferred to be on a steady surface. She sat up straight from her hammock. Her light pink mane had misplaced hairs and dark lines highlighted her teal eyes.

“Are you awake, Gavin?” she asked her little seagull friend.

The small sea bird did nothing but turn his head and preen his feathers. Fluttershy let out a breath, and got onto all fours, almost stumbling on the rocking ship.

“Come on, Gavin!” she gestured going up the stairs.The little bird flew and rested quietly on Fluttershy’s shoulder. The small Pegasus then opened the door at the end of the stairs slowly, trying hard not to wake her friends.

“I’m not used to all this… I wish I were back home with all my animals… Angel Bunny must be so sad without me…” She lightly nuzzled the sea bird and imagined it was one of her pets from back home. “I especially don’t enjoy the rocking of this ship!”

As she started to think about it, the rocking seemed to be getting a bit rougher. She’d also noticed the winds were picking up, but simply blew it off, in assumption it was all regular at-sea weather.

“Fluttershy!” The butter-colored pony was startled from the voice behind her and jumped a little before turning around.

“Oh, hey, Rainbow Dash…” she greeted in a shy manner.

“I can’t sleep!” she announced. “This place is awesome when I’m up, but I can’t rest with the swaying and everything!”

Fluttershy nodded. “I know, Dash! I don’t like being out here… I just want to go home!”

Rainbow put one hoof around her homesick friend. “I know, Flutts, but we gotta do this for Celestia! It’ll be okay!” She offered a warm smile, but then turned her attention to the clouds.

“Something wrong, Dash?” the pegasus asked Rainbow in a small voice.

For a good minute, she ignored her friend, only giving her focus to the clouds above them.

“Wait here for a minute!” The rainbow-maned pony warned her friend. “I have to check something out!”

Before Fluttershy could answer, Rainbow sped off into the clouds. Fluttershy wasn’t a weather pony, so she had no clue what was going on, but she knew there was something wrong if Rainbow was examining the clouds. She and the little seagull waited patiently below, hoping everything was okay.

“R-Rainbow Dash!” she called up, wondering where she went. “Is everything okay?” The cyan pegasus poked her head out of the cloud and looked down on Fluttershy.

“Hey, Fluttershy! Come check this out!”

  Fluttershy took a couple steps back. She’d always been afraid of heights, and Rainbow Dash was aware of that. “I-I can’t… I have to stay here and make sure Gavin’s okay!”

Rainbow let out an annoyed grunt and smacked her hoof against her face. “Come on, Fluttershy! Just a minute, please?” The shy pony sighed, and flew up into the clouds with Rainbow. What she saw above the cloudy layer shocked her. All around them was thick, gray masses of fog. Within the layers, she could see a spark of light travelling through the dense fog.

“Wh-what’s going on?”

Rainbow shook her head. “I-I don’t know… I haven’t seen anything like this in Ponyville before… Even when it’s supposed to storm, it doesn't get this way and there’s never heavy layers like this.”

“We-we have to tell the others!” Fluttershy said worriedly. Rainbow gave her shy friend a quick nod, and dove beneath the clouds again.

Twilight woke up not after long. She came out with a messy mane and bags under her eyes. She, just like Fluttershy and Rainbow must’ve not slept well, but as soon as the two saw her awake, they immediately and urgently approached her.

  “Twilight!” the two pegasi chanted simultaneously.

The purple mare’s eyes widened a bit from the sudden appearance of the two. “Oh, hey girls…”

“Twilight! A storm’s coming!” Rainbow warned.

“A storm?” She was suddenly alert and awake. “How do you know?”

The rainbow-maned pony pointed her hoof upward. “That.” she said in an almost teasing tone to her smart and knowledgeable friend.

“A-and the winds are getting stronger….that always means a storm's coming.” Her shy friend added.

Twilight looked at the two. “We have to tell the others! This is something I wasn't prepared for!" The young princess ran back down the stairs, urgently awaking the others and warning them of the bad news.

Only a few hours had passed since Twilight had been warned of the event unwinding before her. The winds had dramatically picked up, the skies had darkened even more, rain started falling heavily,  and the waves were thrusting the sides of the boat more powerfully than ever.  The whole crew struggled to simply stay on their hooves. They mostly tumbled and fell, except for Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, who seemed to stay airborne. Twilight remained on hoof, knowing the strong winds could easily blow her away.

“Come on girls!” Twilight yelled after finally giving up on attempting to stay on deck and make sure the ship was okay. “We’ve got to take cover!” Quickly, the six ponies and Gavin fled into the safety of the room below. They huddled together, trying to stay safe from the raging storm.

“Okay…” Twilight began. “We should be safe from the storm if we stay down here…”

“But what’re we gonna do if the anchor can’t hold and we get off a track? It’s gonna take even longer to get there!” Applejack pointed out.

“A-and what if we get lost and don’t even know where we end up?” Fluttershy added.

“Then we’ll never return to Ponyville and the princess will never be healed, and then somepony else will have to raise the sun and take over Equestria!” Pinkie thought pessimistically.

“It’ll be okay!” Twilight assured in a quiet manner. “Stop worrying until something bad actually happens!”

“So this isn’t bad?” Rainbow asked in a rude tone.

Twilight let out a long sigh. “Sure, we left Ponyville unbeknownst of these events, and we never actually came up with a plan in case something like this did happen, but still, we have to look at the bright side of things! We’re still healthy! Just be grateful and stop worrying about the things that could possibly happen!”

The rest of the ponies grew silent and tried hard to think of the good, but were constantly reminded of the storm by the loud crashes of thunder and the harsh rocking of the boat. Getting to sleep was probably the worst part of the whole situation. They’d all had trouble the previous night, but this was even harder. The moment they’d finally become relaxed, another loud boom of thunder would send a shiver up their spine.

***

“Umm… Twilight?” Fluttershy gently shook the mare, trying to wake her up. “Twilight…. I think the storms over. The small, yellow pegasus gently shook her friend, but she did not wake or even make the slightest of movements.

“Oh, that’s okay.. I’ll just tell you when you wake up…”

The sudden sound of wings flapping startled her. Gavin flew erratically around in circles before landing on her shoulder, a look of urgency in his small beady eyes.

“What is it Gavin?” she asked, sitting down on the hard wooden floor, not understanding what he was so worked up about.  “The storm is over, we’re going to…” she stopped midway through her sentence as she felt something cool against her flank. “Oh my!” she yelled quietly as she jumped up, water dripping off of her wet fur. She looked down and realized that the room was quickly filling with water. “Everypony wake up!” she yelled at the top of her lungs. Her friends jumped up, startled by the raised voice that they almost never heard.

“What the…”Rainbow muttered, shaking the sea water from her fur. “Oh no! Not good!” she yelled, realizing the situation at hoof. “Not good at all!”

Twilight trotted in place, impatiently attempting to figure out what they should do. Giving up she quickly rushed up the stairs and the others followed close behind.  Opening the door, she was greeted by bright morning sun and warm air. Squinting her eyes, she realized that the boats bow was slightly raised. She galloped to the railing, placing her front hooves on it to look over. The almost clear blue water of the sea rushed into a rather large hole near the stern of the ship.  She glanced further ahead and realized what had created it. She could see the lighter color of a large coral reef in the distance. The anchor must have slipped and The Hippocamp had been crashed into the reef during the storm, leaving the hole and then drifted away once the sea became calm again, letting the water come in. “We have to get that hole plugged up now!” Twilight yelled, pushing herself from the rail and turning to face the others.

“I got this!” Applejack responded, peering over the edge to see where exactly the hole was. She paced back and forth, planning the next move.

“Everypony else, we need to start getting that water out of here. If not, we won’t be having a boat for much longer.” Twilight said frantically, feeling the ship underneath her hooves slowly rising higher into the air.

Applejack galloped ahead, stopping the empty box that had contained the clothes they now wore, with her hooves as it slid down across the deck. She pushed hard, smashing the crate with the weight of her body and then picked up as much of the wood as she could in her mouth, disappearing down into the watery chambers below. Rainbow Dash, pulling Fluttershy along with her, flew down behind the orange mare.  “We need buckets Fluttershy!” Rainbow yelled, as she glanced back and forth across the dark chambers, hovering above the water.

“Here.” Fluttershy said, picking a bucket up as it floated by.

“Good, I know there’s more than that. You need one too.” Rainbow said, taking the bucket and plunging it into the water. Taking in air, Fluttershy dove into the water, quickly reappearing with a bucket in her hooves.

“Here.” Twilight said, using her magic to lift Rainbow’s full bucket of water up the steps. Then once it was up top, Rarity used her magic to continue it over to Pinkie who then dumped it over the edge. As she passed it back to Rarity, another full bucket was coming her way, effectively creating a chain.

Applejack trudged through the water, until her hooves could no longer reach the floor beneath. She then began to paddle forward until she looked down and saw the blue ocean beneath and her head nearly touched the ceiling. She dropped the wood, letting it float beside her and grabbed a hammer in her mouth from a belt she had discovered the day before and put around her waist. Pushing a board into place across the hole, she struggled to take a nail from a small pocket in her belt. Finally after losing many nails into the water around her, she gripped one in her mouth along with the hammer. She dove under, her tricorne floating above her. She once again struggled, attempting to put the nail in place and pound it into the board. The hammer slipped from her teeth and floated gently down to the floor beneath as she tried to grab it in her hooves. She came up gasping for air, hitting her head against the ceiling above. She knew she didn’t have much more time and filling her lungs with air, dove under once more. Putting the nail in place she slammed her hoof against it pushing it into the wood. She did it again and again until its head was embedded into the plank. She then moved to the opposite side repeating the process. She grabbed another board from her pile which now pushed against the ceiling. She placed it across the first board and pounded a nail into each side. Even though she knew she would have to swim father ahead into the ship, closer to the entrance to get air, she continued filling the gaps of the hole. She knew that if she did not at least block enough of the hole to just let a small leak come in, the ship would be lost and most likely her friends too. She couldn’t let that happen. The urge to breathe became stronger and stronger but she knew she could not open her mouth or she would be gone. Finally pounding the final nail into a board which covered the last of the hole, she opened her mouth. She began to choke, bubbles floating up from her mouth. Slowly, her eyes closed as she floated upwards.

“The water isn’t coming up anymore.” Dash pointed out as Twilight took a bucket from her mouth.

“Applejack must have plugged the hole.” Twilight responded. “I knew she could do it!”

“Um…where is she though.” Fluttershy pointed out.

“No!” Rainbow yelled, her pink eyes growing wide. “Something’s wrong.” She said, as she dove into the water.

Nervously, Fluttershy followed. The two Pegasi used their wings to push themselves through the dark blue water, bubbles floating up from behind them as they went. Fluttershy stuck close behind Rainbow Dash, not fully sure where their location was in the ship. After what seemed like ages, peering over top of Rainbow, Fluttershy finally saw the limp lifeless body of her friend floating in the water ahead. She struggled to keep her mouth shut from the shock as she pushed forward, now directly beside Rainbow Dash. The rainbow maned Pegasus grabbed Applejack’s front hooves and motioned for Fluttershy to go to the other end. Fluttershy quickly grabbed the pony’s back hooves and they began to swim back the opposite way.

Fluttershy’s view slowly began to fill in with darkness and her lungs began to sting but she pushed herself forward, knowing that she could not leave her friend down in the water. The weight she pulled suddenly got heavier, she turned and realized that Rainbow Dash had let go, her wings and body no longer moving. Fluttershy quickly used one of her hooves to grab onto Rainbow’s and kept the other tight around Applejack’s hind leg. She now faced backwards, pushing her wings in the opposite direction to propel all of them forward. She couldn’t look back to see where she was going but hoped it was a straight path to the stairs leading up to the deck.

Nearly losing consciousness along with the others, her back hoof finally hit a step and she pulled the two upwards. Finally, her snout burst out from the water and with a gasp she yelled “Help!” Rarity, Pinkie, and Twilight, standing halfway down the steps quickly rushed to her side. They pulled the limp ponies up the steps as Fluttershy crawled after them, coughing water from her mouth.

Lying in a puddle of water, Rainbow Dash slowly came back into consciousness, seeing the blurry faces of her friends, including Applejack looking down at her. She turned her head sideways and coughed water out onto the deck as her vision returned.

“Oh, I’m so glad you’re okay!” Fluttershy yelled, jumping on top of her soaking friend. Rainbow wrapped her hooves around her friend, weakly smiling as she stared into her caring eyes.

“You saved me didn’t you? You saved both of us?” she asked.

“I…I guess I did.” Fluttershy muttered, beginning to blush.

“You’re one brave pony.” Dash said hugging the shy Pegasus even tighter.

“Yeah you are!” the others said simultaneously, as they piled on top of the two Pegasi.

“Alright everypony, this ain’t over yet.” Applejack said as she stood up from the pile. “We still gotta get all the water out a here and I gotta fill in the rest a the leaks.”

After diving down and finding more buckets, the ponies once again created a chain but this time a much more efficient one. They worked well into the afternoon, finally hauling the last of the water out and over the edge. Applejack used a caulk like paste to cover the leaks of the hastily boarded up hull while the others picked up the food, barrels, crates, and other items that had been scattered below deck and put them back in their place. Opening a trap door to a small compartment beside her hammock, Twilight saw the box containing the Elements of Harmony and opened it with a sigh of relief, seeing that they all were still there. She then closed the door and used her magic to slide a rug back over top of it, concealing the location.

“That’ll do until we got a better chance to fix it.” Applejack said, brushing her hooves together as she finished up on the hole. “Whew! It’s been a long day” she sighed.

“It has, I think we’ll just stay here for the night and hope this doesn’t happen again.” Twilight said. “I looked at the map and we haven’t gotten too off course. The location of the reef we struck is a little off to the west of where we should be but it shouldn't add any more than an extra day to our trip. We’ll rest tonight and get sailing again tomorrow.” The starving crew too busy to eat anything all day finally had a large and well deserved dinner, soon after heading to their hammocks, eager to rest.

Day after day the seas remained calm and the ponies slowly became accustomed to the never ending motion of the ship, the ever warmer and more humid air, the flat blue horizon which blended into the sky above, stretching infinitely into the distance, and the daily tasks and routines of living out on the sea.