Go With the Flow

~~~

Flowing didn’t have a lot of time to waste, but thankfully the first step of her wild plan was the easiest one for her to pull off.

She grabbed Star Point in both of her fins and held him tightly, letting her fins weave into his mane and bring his snout close to hers. Then, she locked her lips around his own and delivered a messy, sloppy kiss that she did not break.

His eyes went wide with surprise, for but a moment, before he seemed to clue in to her intentions. The poor stallion’s heart was racing still... She could feel it as she held him close to her, their bodies against eachother, and she began to churn the water vigorously with her tailfin. She kept the kiss going and her eyes locked on him, doing her best to ebb and flow the passage of oxygen from her internal reservoirs into his own lungs.

The whole while, she was working diligently, though a little bit limited as she had to work with a stallion in her grip. She spun them around in a dizzing piroutte, her tail swishing the water round and around and around, forcing it together as though she were molding it like clay. Round and around she spun, letting the current travel with her whilst using her tail and fins to push the currents together in the vague shape of an orb. The water eventually took a visible, tangible form--a spinning orb of water which she quickly began to strengthen, enhance, give volume to...

Then, it was a bubble. A magical, current-produced bubble, but a bubble all the same. Quickly, she floated it around Star Point’s head and released it, praying to the Three Sirens it held form....

She broke their kiss, tentatively. She didn’t dare break her gaze into Star Point’s eyes. He was shocked, for a brief moment, before his mind caught up to him and he realized he could breathe.

“Aha! It worked!” Flowing hollered out triumphantly, after Star took a few testing breaths from the air bubble and gazed back at Flowing, bewildered. “Seapony magic, baby!”

“W-what? How...”

“Magic. I’ll explain later. You okay? You hurt?”

“Hurt? Flowing, you saved my gods damned life!”

“Yeah, well, you lying for me saved mine.” Flowing shot back. “I’d kiss you but I don’t wanna break the bubble.

Besides... They had bigger concerns. Above them, the sunlight suddenly got dimmer, and a quick look up confirmed why.

“Shoot. We gotta go,” Flowing grabbed Star’s hoof without further explanation and quickly began swimming away as swiftly as she could from the hull of the fishing boat quickly sinking above them.

She swam as fast as she could, but even so she was just able to dodge the mast of the trawler, flinging Star Point forwards first so that he was out of harm’s way in front of her. She was in her element, after all; she could afford to be more risky with her movements.

Quickly, she swept them away from the sinking trawler, a guilty pain in her chest as she glanced back to watch it vanishing down. She swam quickly without a direction in mind. Away, that was all that mattered. She had to get away from the airship circling around the wreckage of the ship, waiting for the two of them to surface. All she could do was hope they hadn’t been accounting for her little smooching solution--which, she would be quite surprised if they had been.

She swam as fast and as far as she could, but eventually she could see that the integrity of her Flow Magic bubble was beginning to waver. Not wanting her coltfriend to have to even spend a moment in danger, she gripped him tight and started towards the surface. She hesitated near the top, squinting as she tried to spot the airship through the uneven rippling of the waves.

As stealthily as she could manage, she poked her head up from the waves. She scanned the horizon quickly, and was delighted to see that they’d managed to put a good several hundred meters between them and the airship. She knew she was a fast swimmer, but wow!

She motioned with a fin for Star Point to surface, too, and the timing couldn’t have been better--his bubble burst the moment he did, only to take a shaky, panicked breath from the open air for the first time in what had surely felt like an eternity for the poor stallion.

“Alright, c’mon up, but stay down...” Flowing whispered out.

“We’re fine... We’re fine...” he was panting out. “That was... That was pretty clever, Flowing.”

“Like I needed a reason to smooch ya,” she returned. “I’m... Buck me, I’m sorry about your boat, Star...”

“We’ll worry about it later,” he said, and waved a fin--only to nearly drop down into the water as he did so. She was by him in a moment, using her left fore-fin to keep him up while she churned the water with her tail.

“We should put some distance, still. They’ll be doing perimeter sweeps as soon as I don’t come back up. They’d have assumed I drowned already.”

Flowing nodded. “Right. Climb aboard, Starry. Deep breaths when I surface, cause I’m gonna try and stay underwater as much as I can so we don’t get spotted. Just give my angler light a tug if you need a breath, okay?”

“Alright, Flow. Let’s go.”

Flowing let him grip his hooves around her neck, and then she set out as quickly as her fins would take her. She didn’t know these parts of the ocean particularly well, but she did know the ocean in general. She looked for clouds, and birds, and when she spotted both to the east, she started to swim her way there. She swam in a rhythmic pattern--under the waves, jetting forwards with her tail churning the water violently. Then, surfacing, letting Star Point catch his breath for a few seconds. Then, down again. It didn’t take long for the two of them to familiarize each other with their rhythms, and despite Flowing’s offer, Star Point never actually did end up tugging on her angler light.

She owed at least some extent of it to her own paranoia. The more she swam, the more her situation began to crystallize. They couldn’t exactly talk, which meant her mind had nowhere to go to besides the repeated visual of her coltfriend’s fishing trawler, his pride and joy, sadly descending down into the depths of the ocean. She could tell herself it wasn’t her fault till the sea-cows came home, but it wouldn’t get the visual out of her head. And... She could say she was sorry all the wanted, and Star Point would inevitably tell her it was fine, it was okay...

But was it?

Eventually, they were out of the tangible eye-line of the airship. When they were, Flowing surfaced proper, much to Star Point’s apparent relief.

“H-how you doing, hon?” Flowing waited a few moments before she spoke up.

“I’m... Goodness gracious...” Star let out a lengthy exhale. “Phew. I’m okay, Flowing. Nice swimming there.”

“I think we lost their tail, for now,” Flowing said. “And I think there’s an island ahead. Land, anyways. Dunno what. But we can maybe rest there...”

“Righto. Sounds like a plan.”

“Star, I’m so sorry about your ship. I didn’t mean to cause--”

“You weren’t the one who sunk it, Flowing. This whole escape adventure is gonna go a lot better if you stop blaming yourself for things you have no control over.”

“But that ship was your life! It was everything! It was where we first met!”

“And... Yeah, I ain’t gonna lie and say it doesn’t suck...” Star admitted, idly swatting at the water with a hoof. “But it’s not what’s important right now. Island, you said?”

She sighed, but nodded. “Think so. See all the clouds that way? Usually they gather around land, right? For some reason?” She didn't actually know why, just that it happened.

“Usually, and it’s because the sun heats up the land and the rocks which causes water to ascend as vapour easier.”

Flowing hummed thoughtfully. “Smarty pants.”

Star chuckled. “Like you say, it’s usually how it goes. All my maps are at the bottom of the damn ocean, so I couldn’t really tell you for sure that there’s an island, but... Best we’ve got to go off right now, right?”

“Guess I’m the one savin’ you, now...” Flowing said, forcing out a chuckle. The moment it left her lips she regretted it, for the additional pain of guilt it gave her. Seaponies were supposed to help. How had she helped Star Point? Putting him in danger, losing his ship, getting the gods damned Storm King on their tail?

Star Point laughed, though. If he was offended, or if he saw Flowing for the annoyance she felt like, he didn’t say so. “Onwards, trusty steed.”

~~~

Tempest Shadow watched from the deck of the Thespis until the last of the fishing trawler had been reclaimed by the ocean. She also watched the pitifully flailing form of the earth pony stallion, as his hooves desperately beat at the waves.

It wasn’t a pretty sight. It didn’t particularly fill Tempest with pride or joy watching it, but such was the cost of doing business when one’s business rested in the realms of lawlessness.

When he finally dropped under the waves, after less time than she would have assumed of him, she rolled her eyes and signalled to her crew with a hoof.

“Bring ‘er around, scoop up the stallion before he drowns. Guess his fish really did leave him for the sharks.”

The pitch of the idling airship’s propellers responded to her order. Her guards were waiting off the side of the skiff with nets ready to be thrown, but as they got closer and closer to where the ship had sunk Tempest came to an alarming realization.

He hadn’t just gone under, like she’d have expected a drowning pony to. He had dove down.

But doing such would surely be suicide. There was nothing down there... There would be no hope of rescue below the waves, even if his fish had come to provide it...

...Right?

She cursed, beneath her breath. Beside her, balanced off the railing and peering into the same deep waters as her, Grubber stated the obvious. “I’m not seein’ him, Tempy...”

“He has to be down there. He’ll resurface any moment...”

She continued staring. But no, he did not resurface, even after several minutes. Either the stallion was really good at holding his breath, or...

She cursed again. She gripped her spyglass in a hoof and quickly brought it to her left eye. Grubber was already scanning the waters, so she turned it to the horizon, instead...

Nothing, nothing, nothing...

“Damn it...” This was bad. But, it was manageable. Just because she didn’t see the seapony now didn’t mean she couldn’t reasonably assume where she was going. Heaving a sigh, she started back towards the flight deck, already raising her voice to bark more orders as she did. “Alright crew, new plan! Flight positions, everyone! Our catch hasn’t gotten away yet.”

She trotted to the flight-deck, to where the maps of the Celestial Sea still lay sprawled across the table bolted down in the middle of the room. There were islands scattered all about the Celestial Sea’s coastlines, but not many as far out as they now currently lay. The only landmasses of note were small atolls and archipelagos, most of which likely wouldn’t even be depicted on her maps to begin with. At best, she had a vague direction--with the earth pony in tow, the seapony wasn’t going to simply dump him off stranded at some atoll and swim to safety. No, she’d be burdened with bringing him to safety, now, which would mean bringing him to either the coast of Equestria or the coast of Griffonstone.

And that’s where she’d catch them. Both of them. She’d let them assume they’d lost their lead. She’d allow them to get confident putting themselves along a path of efficient escape. And when they did...

Well. Even at her fastest, Tempest very much doubted the seapony could out-swim the Thespis.

~~~

It wasn’t that Star Point distrusted Flowing, but gods it was nice to get his hooves onto solid ground again.

Flowing had been right--there was land where she had been expecting it, though it wasn’t really much to write home about. A small little rocky archipelago, in the middle of Celestia knew where, with the Storm King’s airship only a few hours of swimming away, wasn’t exactly a major leap towards salvation.

Still, it was something. And, given the way Flowing herself flopped right down beside him, it was something sorely needed right now.

“Phew!” she exclaimed dramatically, collapsing into the sand with such intensity that her tail fin was already half buried in it. “Adagio’s dazzle, I don’t think I’ve ever swam that far that fast in my life.”

Star Point gave her a sympathetic pat on her withers. “You did amazing, dear. Rest up while you can.”

She mumbled out some incoherent agreement, nestling her snout into the sand, her chest rising and falling rapidly. “Everything hurts. Shoo be do me in, Star Point. I’m finished.”

Star Point let out a snorting laugh. “Kay. Now you’re just being dramatic.”

He let her lie there while he himself rose to his hooves after only a few moments laying down. He was in quite the opposite boat as her. Much as he loved riding his marefriend, he could think of better contexts through which to do so.

The archipelago seemed to be mostly rock and sand, with a steady incline on the particular island that they’d shored upon. A jagged, craggy cliff-face about eighty feet up lay at the centre of the miniature island. It seemed the best vantage point they had, and the best place to be while Flowing recovered from her lengthy swim.

“I’m gonna take a look around and see if I can find anypony here, okay? You rest up, and holler if you see anything.”

“Okay...” Flowing said, nodding. “Where are we going to go, Star?”

“If there’s ponies here, you can leave me and just go. Bee-line for the shore and stay underwater. I can find my own way back, and we can... I dunno, meet up when this all blows over?”

“Star...” Flowing started, and then let out a lengthy sigh. “W-what if it doesn’t blow over?”

“It will.”

“But what if--”

He knelt down, gripped her fin in his hoof, tightly and firmly. “It will. And if it doesn’t, I’ll go to Tartarus with you if it’s the only place we can be together.”

“I’ve cost you your boat. I’ve put you in danger. I’ve put Seaquestria in danger, and Herring Harbor, and... Buck, you might as well add Equestria to the list really, if you think about it, because if the Storm King gets a hold of the Pearl then...”

“Flowing.” The firmness of Star’s voice silenced her in a moment. “It’s going to be okay. You didn’t do anything wrong. The ponies chasing you are to blame.”

“I should’ve stayed away. I should’ve just... Stayed in Seaquestria, minded my own business. I never should have left.”

“Well, you did. We met. We fell in love. Do you regret it? I know I don’t. I’d trade my trawler a thousand times over before I gave you up. Do you regret our meeting?”

“Not for a moment, but...”

“But nothing. That’s it. That’s the end of the story. We’re together. We’re partners. And your problems are my problems.” He released her fin only when her trembling ceased and she finally worked up the courage to look him in the eyes. The fear was still there, but it had faded enough that Star could see some of the old energy in her eyes somewhere, buried somewhere beneath her wariness and guilt. “I’m gonna go look for signs of life. If I see any, we can see if they can help me back to shore. ”

“And if there’s nopony? Can’t leave you stranded here.”

“No, I guess not. But one thing at a time.” He gave her a gentle kiss on her lips. “Mwah. You rest up, dear I’ll go look around.”

“Okay...” Flowing said again. Her gaze fell once more.

It tugged at Star’s heart, the way she said it. The way she’d been talking, ever since this whole ugly business had begun. Like she wasn’t a victim in this. Like she’d chosen to be pursued across the seas simply for pursuing her desires. Like it was all her fault for being the target of some tyrannical dictator...

He’d done the best he could and said what he could say. He hoped it would be enough. They just had to get free, get to Equestria or to Griffonstone--whichever was closest. He wasn’t picky, now.

A chill wind bit at his sea-soaked form. The rocks were slick and slippery, soaked wet and smoothed down by the constant passing of the waves. He had to take care not to slip as he made his way towards where the tiny little island widened out and rose upwards. A single glance back at Flowing showed the seapony laying down on the rocks, still breathing heavily, but giving him a weary little wave of her fin before turning her attention back to anxiously scanning the distant horizons they’d come from.

He managed to climb up the rock face whilst only slipping once or twice, and when he made it to the top he gasped in awe at the sight before him.

For a moment, the direness of his situation vanished. The sorrow of losing his trawler... And the pain at seeing the guilt in his lovers eyes, it all became a little bit more distant when he stood at the top of that rocky ridge, with the entirety of the lonely blue ocean sprawled around him on all sides. Somehow, looking over it all, he knew that it was going to be okay. It all was.... How couldn’t it be? It was him and Flowing against the enormous expanse of the sea, sure... But hadn’t that been how it had always been, as of late?

Perhaps not. A few months ago, it’d just been him against it all. Now, though... His mind flashed back to the confrontation he’d had with Tempest Shadow, on the deck of his ship. How unflinching he’d been, in his refusal to give up Flowing. He’d never thought himself brave, or confident. He’d been the pony that sat in the corner of the bar during those noisy drunken nights in Herring Harbour, nursing his drink and watching the affairs of others with a passive smile. Never unhappy, but never at the forefront. To him, this represented a certain degree of socially acceptable cowardice. And the way he lived a life out at sea, because he’d rather the company of gulls and gills than ponies? Further proof. He was a coward.

So, he had surprised himself, when he’d looked into the face of a tyrant and told her off. It was an exhilarating surprise, too, because if there was one thing he felt safe being brave for, it was the love in his heart.

Sighing and chuckling to himself, he shook his head and looked back at the archipelago. Here he was. Getting all sentimental, when there was work to be done.

He didn’t have to look far to see signs of life, either. On the far corner of the archipelago rose an old, battered, and apparently abandoned lighthouse. Erected no doubt to steer ships away from the little isle of rocks that dotted this random portion of ocean otherwise surrounded entirely by nothingness.

“Flowing!” Star called back down to her. “Lighthouse! Far side of the archipelago!”

“What? Seriously?” she called back. “How’d I miss that?”

‘Same way you missed the fishing trawler above you when you swam into my net,’ Star almost said, but decided against bullying his marefriend when she was already under so much stress. “It looks abandoned, but... Wanna go check it out?”

“Yeah, of course. See anything else up there?” Flowing asked, shuffling off her back and propping herself up on the rocks so she could holler better.

Star Point looked around. Rocks. Sea. Lighthouse.

“Nope. Just the lighthouse. But...” he squinted his eyes, looking not at the island but instead at the horizon, where he could see that, in the time they’d been swimming, the clouds had begun to thicken and darken and spread. A glimpse at the sun now on it’s descent in the sky told him that a storm was rolling in from the east, threatening to blot out the late-afternoon sky.

“Think a storm’s rolling in.” He cursed under his breath, starting to make his way back down the rocks towards Flowing. “That ain’t good.”

“Storm might make swimming with you hard...” Flowing agreed. “But... Can airships fly in storms?”

“Not very well. You good to swim again?” He nodded in the direction of the lighthouse. “I can swim beside you if it helps. Just not super fast...”

Flowing chuckled. “It’s fine, Starry. Climb on. I’m feeling a bit better.”

“If you’re sure...”

Flowing flopped her way over to the edge of the rock and slid back into the waves. Star climbed in after her, wincing a bit as the near-frozen water touched upon his skin. Flowing seemed to have noticed, because she flashed him an apologetic look and didn’t say anything.

He mounted her, and she started to swim around the side of the archipelago. She was swimming a little slower than what he was used to from her, and a little glimpse at her form in motion showed him why. The poor seapony was very clearly exhausted from her gauntlet, despite her assurances otherwise.

As the lighthouse came into view from around the rock-face, the wind carried a distant thunder’s rumble with it.

“Hey Flowing...” Star leaned in close to her ear while she swam. “Maybe we oughta rest up in the lighthouse. If it’s abandoned, that is. Wait out the storm.”

She gave a nod. “Okay. I... Am a bit worried I’d lose you if you got swept off my back. The storms can get pretty nasty around this time of year.”

“I know.”

Gods, did he know. He wished it’d been rare, how many times his trawler had nearly bought the farm at the wrath of some of the violent waves her bow had charged through.

“It’ll give you a chance to rest, too,” he added. “Must not be easy swimming that fast with my fat ass in tow.”

She laughed. “Maybe we both oughta lay off the fish ‘n chips for awhile?”

Star grinned. “Well, not until after I get you the biggest french fry feast when we make it out of this.”

When. When. Not if.

The laugh that came from Flowing was music to his ears. He’d chip away at that frightened mood of hers, little by little.

They came upon the lighthouse, which Star could quickly tell had fallen out of regular use. Likely it was seasonal, occupied when there was more tourist traffic in the Celestial Sea. It could have been enchanted, too... He’d heard tell of such technology in southern Equestria, and could scarcely believe it when it’d been told to him. Lighthouses enchanted to glow at the first trace of moonlight, without the need for somepony to manually operate them.

Regardless, there didn’t seem to be anypony home. A rickety metal stairwell had been fixed onto the rock face ascending up to the lighthouse. Flowing swam them in close and let Star climb up, and then he leaned down to help her onto his back.

They made their way up the stairs, and to the lighthouse proper, which loomed above them. A few more rumbles of thunder sounded out, and Star could hear a faint shifting in the breeze as the wind picked up.

“Anypony home?” Star called out as they trotted up.

“Hello?” Flowing added. “Any creepy lighthouse keepers, bouta come attack us with a sledgehammer?”

Star snort-laughed. “Flow, that’s not very nice.”

There was a small little house--for the lighthouse keeper, no doubt--connected to the actual lighthouse itself. It couldn’t have been any bigger than four or five rooms, which, with the beauty of the sea all around them, made it seem immediately homey to Star Point.

Leaning against the old wood of the house and tied down so it would not blow away, Star also spotted a small but sturdy looking sailboat. He pointed it out to Flowing with a nod of his snout.

He tried the door, and found that it was unlocked. They usually were... It was fairly standard for mariners to leave sites of shelter available to use in case of emergency. The sea was a dangerous enough place as is.

Star called out again as they headed inside, Flowing hopping off his back once they were inside. She hopped her way inside, in the hobbling way she moved about when she was on land. More efficient than Star Point would have assumed, though it looked a bit tiring with how much she had to fling herself up and down using her tail.

Star closed the door behind them, just as another roll of thunder much louder than the rest sounded out. The storm would be on them in less than a quarter of an hour... Their timing couldn’t have been better.

“Phew. Alright... Well, we can hide out here until the storm blows over. Maybe until morning?” Star shrugged. “Gonna go look for some supplies. A map, to find out where we are. A compass. Stuff like that.”

“Sounds good. I’m gonna go look for something to eat,” Flowing said. “Not, like. That I wanna steal from sonepony, but...”

"But.. we haven’t had anything since that muffin this morning,” Star nodded. It’d been easy to forget, with how hectic their day had been. “Good idea. There’s probably some canned stuff in one of the kitchen cupboards.”

For the next few minutes, the two ransacked the lighthouse as delicately as they could. Star headed up to the very very top of the tower, where rain had started to patter down onto the glass dome roof and the sky immediately above them had shifted to a near constant dark grey.

He’d be surprised if Tempest wasn’t looking for somewhere to dock and wait out the storm on her end.

He hoped she didn’t find it.

He wasn’t one to wish ill on anypony, and that somehow still included the mare chasing him, but, well, the ocean’s weather did not discriminate. And the idea of any force of nature laying waste to the airship pursuing them was as comforting of one as he could think.

He started back down the stairs again, to go collect Flowing. The view of the storm rolling in from all around them was magnificent at the top of the lighthouse, with a full 360 degree elevated perspective before them.

It seemed the best place, to lay together and rekindle the fire that burned so brilliantly in his fishy marefriend’s spirit.

Amongst other things.