The ground became a blur of greens and browns as Rainbow Dash sped through the open sky. She relished the wind on her face and the whipping of her prismatic mane. She was free, and it never felt better than on her day off. She was heading for the coast, to spend some time alone on a beach, enjoying the feeling of sand in her hair and the sun on her wings.
She briefly considered the possibility of the Elements being needed for something stupid in Ponyville, but came to the conclusion that if it needed the magical artefacts, it'd take more than one day to resolve, by which time she'd have returned from her beach funtime. She bore the element of loyalty, but that didn't mean she had to be in Ponyville with her friends every day. Taking a personal break wouldn't be disloyal of her. At least, this was how she rationalised it as she continued soaring away from every source of excitement and adventure she knew. Her thoughts drifted back to the warm sand and the clear skies she knew awaited her at the coast.
She flew for a couple of hours, letting her mind wander in any direction it pleased. She would later remember that she had, at one point, imagined herself getting a massage from Pinkie Pie, working in the spa for some reason. It would stay with her because she dropped suddenly when her wings stiffened. She still had no idea why they did that sometimes. She had quickly resumed her daydreaming, of course. The blur below her was irrelevant as she explored every path her mind conjured to her, going deeper and deeper into a mix of memory and fantasy that confused and excited her.
Coming to the end of a particularly fantastical trail, she slowed, then halted, turning her gaze up to the sky above her. Having kept lower to the ground than usual, she was below the clouds. Dash rolled onto her back, maintaining the lazy beat of her wings, to get a better view. They looked, she thought, like cotton candy, though white and silver instead of pink and darker pink. Pink or not, they really looked delicious, and Dash felt her stomach protest that she had ignored it long enough. It was time to stop beating around the bush; to end her procrastination; to get down to business. She was hungry and enough-so that she would now go out of her way to find nourishment instead of just hoping to stumble upon something filling in... wherever she was.
A solemn truth dawned on the mare as she looked back at the ground. Well, tried to. It was actually the sea, and as the mass of water undulated lightly below her, the swells sparkling in the afternoon light, Dash got a bit worried.
"Ummmmm."
She was no longer over land, and in failing to be over said land, she had missed the beach. She looked around, her head snapping left, right, and left again. She cursed herself for not only missing the beach by a significant distance, but then turning herself around so she couldn't get back. She began breathing just a bit more quickly and dropped closer to the cold depths of the sighing body. She desperately looked for clouds of any kind. Even the weak, wispy stuff, the clouds that nopony really likes because they're useless and generally terrible, would be less-bad than nothing. Maintaining her altitude, but nothing more, Rainbow curled up into a blue pegasus-ball around her ferocious stomach and its hunger-fuelled grumbles. Still she was lost, and she'd have no chance of changing that if she stayed hungry.
"I wouldn't be hungry if I hadn't gone so fast. Why did I have to go so fast? I wouldn't be hungry, I wouldn't be lost—No! I can get out of this! I went North-East from Ponyville, so I can just watch the sun. Or was it South-West? East? I can't remember!"
She let out an 'Auuughhhhh' in an exasperated manner and lowered herself to the water, letting her hooves dangle in angry defeat. The water rose and fell, calmingly placid, wetting her weary hooves. Dash shut her eyes and brought her wings forcefully to her sides. She rose, then fell back down, landing in the water.
Her eyes opened wide as she felt the chill assault the skin normally kept warm by her now-useless fur. For all her athletic ability, she hadn't really learned to do much more than float in water. She knew that by dropping herself into a large body of water, which rendered her main method of self-movement useless, she would have to rely on rescue coming before she starved or drowned. Her stomach was still telling her it was less than pleased and that she needed to do something about it—anything, really. She rolled onto her back, spread her wings out—just below the surface—and lay there, trying to keep her breaths long and deep. The waves below her rocked her and she felt the tiredness accumulated over the last few weeks come back to her, ready to take her to its realm. That combined with the physical exhaustion that came with the journey of the day and the mental stress of getting stranded was too much for the poor pegasus.
Her eyes were closing as the darkness crept into her vision. Just before she dropped off, she thought she felt something brush her hind-leg.
It was probably nothing, right?
"It's probably nothing."
The thing moved away, and though she didn't care much for it at the time, it cared for her. It wasn't sure why, but it liked this blue thing. It had sensed something else, though, something worthy of investigation. The blue thing could wait a while. It didn't seem to be awake, anyway.
