~~~

When the first spatters of rain had begun to streak down the glass window of the airship bridge, Tempest hadn’t been overly concerned.

Yet, when the conditions only worsened and worsened, and they began having to actively course correct against the battering winds of a sudden and violent oceanic tempest, it was clear that they had flown into a bit of a problem.

They were still far over the Celestial Sea, and even though they’d put some distance from where they’d engaged the trawler, they were nowhere close to any discernible landmass. She did not necessarily wish to order the ship above the storm, but when the first rumbles of thunder began to echo across the lonely sea, her options ran thin. It wasn’t like they had any help out here, and to sustain significant damage in the midst of the ocean could be disastrous.

And so, to a symphony of rumbles and a brilliant display of lightning flooding through the airship control room, they began their ascent.

“Dang...” Grubber was musing beside her, as a particularly large strike of lightning hit down at some point off their starboard bow, some hundred meters away. The resounding thunder roll was noisy enough to still be loud even over the whine of airship engines all around them. “Did you see that one, Tempy?”

She ignored him, which seemed to disappoint him enough that he shook his head and hopped off, out of the bridge, probably to go scour the mess for some junk to stuff his little face in.

The nose of the airship was tilting up, towards the sky that one might be tricked into thinking was night. Tempest found herself amazed at the swiftness with which the storm had descended upon them. A calling card of maritime uncertainty, she supposed. It was why she preferred inland flying.

The entire airship was battered about by the winds beating against the balloon and the gondola. It was enough to make a few of the guards about her lose their footing and have to grip onto something for support. The speed of their ascent certainly didn’t help matters, but with how close the lightning strikes were coming down around them, they didn’t really have another option.

As if on cue, a bolt of lightning struck down close enough that it seemed right before them. The flash was blinding, and it lingered for several seconds, with the ensuing thunder clap instantaneous. The running lights of the ship flickered from the electrical interference.

Behind them, the sound of the airship’s engines was beginning to strain as it fought against the winds swirling in every direction around them. Tempest had taken the steering yoke of the skiff herself, and she had to actively fight with it to keep their direction true.

Quickly, she was beginning to realize that their ‘problem’ might have been becoming more and not less urgent.

She’d been greedy. She’d assumed that they could simply truck through the worse of the storm and maintain their destination, closing the distance between them and their potential catch while they still could. To rise above the clouds and wait out the storm was... Counterproductive. The ascent alone would take time, and the descent as much time, otherwise they would risk overheating the engines with the rapid changes in air pressure associated with sharp rises and falls.

It was all to say... Tempest was quickly worrying she’d flown them too close to the proverbial sun. Another violent bolt of lightning struck down close enough that she glanced out the side at the balloon, as the ship shuddered and groaned when the thunder roll shook through them.

“Did it hit?!” she barked out, bracing for bad news.

A shake of the guard’s head... a wordless denial. For now.

The heat indicator for the engines was violently high, but Tempest ramped them up all the same. The dials shifted into the red, warning of an overload at the rate she was pushing them. It didn’t matter, they just needed to get up, while they still could, before it was too late and they were—

The lights of the airship died again as a stray bolt of lightning struck the balloon above them. Tempest didn’t need visual confirmation to know that it had hit. The violent shivering of the entire skiff told her that, as well as the ensuing drop in altitude that accompanied a violent discharge of their lift gas being expelled and wrenched away by the swirling winds.

“Damn it!” she growled out. The lights flickered back on after a few moments, and she fought with the yoke some more to try and restore their rise. The altometer began to ease up again, indicating progress, thank goodness.

It was shortlived, though. Another bolt hit the balloon, as though the gods themselves had seen fit to punish her vain pursuit for her seapony catch.

And then, they were falling. One of the guards had already thrown the master alarm, it’s piercing sound flooding through the entire ship. Everyone held onto something, as the view of the stormclouds above them quickly changed to that of the ocean below.

They, thankfully, were not divebombing. She was able to stabilize them back to a steady altitude, but it was falling. And... Their lift gas reserves were falling, too. Without something to repair the no-doubt smouldering hole in their balloon the lightning bolt had caused, they wouldn’t be able to rise.

They had to ditch. The skiff was no stranger to landing upon the waves—indeed, the skiff itself had been designed to function without the balloon at all, which could be independently detached from the gondola portion in case of emergency.

In case of now.

Tempest and her flight crew brought the ship down into the waves as delicately as they could manage, but the waves were hardly a calm surface that allowed for comfortable landing.

They were riding the wave’s roller-coaster, now. The only option they had was to hold on to something and hope the merciless sea would calm sooner than later.

~~~

The storm raged on until the early hours of the morning. Flowing and Star rarely disconnected from each-other. Instead, they stayed cuddling beneath the itchy-yet-warm blanket they’d borrowed from the lighthouse. Flowing hoped the lighthouse keeper didn’t mind the distinct smell of wet seapony.

When the rain began to taper away from pouring to drizzling, Star had gently stirred her from her slumber by stroking his hoof against her frilled headcrest.

“It’s clearin’ up, love,” he said, nodding his head out the window. “We should probably get moving soon.”

She nodded slowly, stretching her swimming fins with a mighty yawn. “Mmhm...”

“Alrighty, sleepy fish...” Star chuckled, leaning down to help her onto his back. “Gonna be good to swim for a bit?”

“Yeah, I’ll be fine,” she said. The rest, brief as it had been, had done wonders in helping her swimming muscles recover from yesterday’s journey. “Where we gonna go, Starry?”

“Well. After you dozed off, I looked at the map a bit. I think we’re closer to the Griffon Empire than Equestria.”

“Does the map show the ocean currents?”

Star tilted his head. He opened the map he’d stowed by their blanket up again. “The what?”

“The ocean currents. Where the water flows faster. We seaponies ride ‘em all the time. Lemme...” Flowing leaned over his head to look herself. “Yeah, it doesn’t. But that’s okay, I know where they are. And if we're where I think we are, it'd be easier to ride 'em to the Griffons than go against 'em.”

"So, Griffon Empire?"

"Griffon Empire! Let's go make some bird friends!"

Flowing and Star helped themselves to some canned fruit for breakfast, and then they both ventured outside, where the rain was a soft drizzle and the sun had yet to really rise over the horizon, although the sky had begun to lighten ever so slightly, with its incoming promise.

“How about the boat?” Flowing asked, pointing a fin at the sailboat leaning against the lighthouse. “Y’think we can, uh. Borrow it?”

Star bit his lip, setting her down on the steps of the lighthouse while he went to examine the sailboat a bit more closely. Gently, he untied the rope and letting it down onto the rocks. The boat really wasn’t that big at all. More a dinghy than a boat. It was likely only ever intended for one pony, two at the most. The hull seemed...in quite good condition, as did the sails, which had been folded up and stowed in a locker beneath one of the sailboat’s seat, while the mast was lying nearby, half-tucked under the porch of the lighthouse.

Along with a sail, there were a few other amenities in the locker that might come in handy. A kit for sewing the sails in an emergency, as well as a flare gun, which looked ancient and might not even work.

“Yeah...yeah, this might do...” Star nodded, pursing his lips thoughtfully. He licked a hoof, and then held it up. “Wind’s in our favour, too, if we’re going east. I feel a little bad stealing a boat, though...”

“We’re just borrowing it,” Flowing pointed out. “We’ll make sure it makes it back. Er, somehow.”

Star chuckled. He ran her down to the water first, and then went back to lug the boat down the rocky, natural stairway towards where the waves were still hitting against the island somewhat roughly. He grunted as he lifted the sailboat onto his back, the last night’s rainfall sloshing off the sides and onto the rocks. He made his way down to the shore slow and steady, thought still nearly tripping on the slick rocks twice. Eventually he made it, and eased the boat into the water with half of its bow still propped up on one of the rocks.

“Got much experience sailing, fisherpony?” Flowing asked, her head poking up out of the waves.

“Not even a moment,” he replied. “But, er. What better time to learn, right?”

He did a quick little inventory of what he had to work with...a sail--two, really, though he’d always considered the mainsail and the jibsail two sides of one coin, with the mast as the connecting point between the two. Wasn’t much sense differentiating the two when they needed each other to function anyways.

“I think the bar has gotta go in the hold-y thing,” Flowing offered, pointing a fin at the mast.

“Yeah, I know. I’m just...” He lifted the mast into place, and got to work raising the sails up it. As they unfurled, he saw with glee that they were free from any signs of holes or tears, and already seemed eager to catch the wind and take them onwards. “Alright! Now we’re talkin’!”

“Woohoo!” Flowing hollered, flapping her fins together excitedly. “Come on in! The ocean is waiting!”

“Alright, alright, hold your horses.” He smirked. One last check of the sails...a turning of the rudder to make sure it worked, and then he was pushing the boat out off the rock with his front hooves, leaping over the stern just as it cleared the rocks and splashed noisily into the waves.

The wind caught the unfurled sails. He could feel their weight on the till, as he gripped it with a hoof, the sailboat lurching forwards to the east with surprising agility.

Flowing, meanwhile, had dropped under the waves to watch him from below, breaching the water in front of him and then swimming alongside the sailboat as it sped forwards, leaving the archipelago behind.

“Wow! Look at you go!” she chattered excitedly, eyes wide as she looked up at the outstretched sails. For all the speed of the sailboat, it didn’t seem like it was causing her much trouble keeping up. “Give ‘er a steer! How’s she turn?”

He gave the till a testing push, banking starboard ever so slightly. He pushed it in the other direction. It was surprisingly responsive, for having been waiting on the side of an old lighthouse for so long.

Star Point couldn’t help himself. He let out an enthusiastic, thrilled laugh and yell, which was gripped and stolen by the same wind thrusting him forwards. Flowing’s smile at his excitement could have warmed the coldest arctic waters. She dipped below the waves, and he could see her swimming form below him, keeping pace, her body swerving and gyrating and flowing as she raced beneath him.

He could have forgotten about Tempest Shadow and the Storm King in that moment. He was having the time of his life, out here on the open waves, on an adventure with Flowing.

She surfaced again beside him, keeping pace with the sailboat. He chuckled at her.

“Why don’tcha hop in?” he offered, patting the gunwhale of the sailboat. “Enough room for both of us.”

“Mm...” Flowing pursed her lips thoughtfully. “Okay...”

The little sailboat shook a little too violently for Star’s liking as Flowing matched her velocity with the boat and quite literally hopped inside. The entire boat rocked and a bit of water splashed inside, and Star abandoned the till for a moment to help grab Flowing as she leapt inside.

She let out a delighted gasp as she felt the cool air blowing into her scales from outside the water. Her tail curled around Star Point while she leaned over the bow, looking ahead of them like she were a mermare figurehead on an old pirate ship. The wind pushed her headcrest and her angler light back, while the refreshing chill in her soaked scales was simply blissful.

“Know any sea shanties, Starry?” she asked, glancing back at him.

He chuckled. “Not... Not really, honestly.”

She rose an eyebrow. “Seriously? But you’re a sailor!”

“I’m a fisherpony. This is the first sail-boat I’ve been in!”

“Yeah but... You’ve gotta hang out in those taverns and stuff, right? The fisherponies I’ve spoken with before do!”

Star tilted his head at that, smirking. He kept one hoof rested on the till, while the other gently stroked Flowing’s tail. “Fisherponies? And here I thought I was the first to catch the elusive seaponius equestrianus.”

“Oh you were! It’s only since I started visiting Herring Harbour that I started talking to...”

Flowing went quiet.

“Oh.”

“What?”

“Oh, I’m such an idiot, Star Point.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s only since I started visiting Herring Harbour that I started talking to other sailors. Helping them out when they were in a bind. Talkin’ to 'em about their fishing luck. Being a... A presence. Like I’m not supposed to be. No wonder the Storm King found me. One of ‘em must’ve given me up.”

“I find that hard to believe, Flowing.” Star kept on petting her tail. “Trust me, sailors are a talkative bunch when they get together in the tavern. Y’know how easy it’d be for one of the Storm King’s mooks to have just overheard ‘em? I betcha this entire thing is a big ol’ accident.” He jerked his head towards the horizon. “Anyways. We’re takin’ care of it.”

“Yeah. I guess.”

They were silent for a moment. Star could tell Flowing was returning to the same state as before, where she sunk into self-deprecation and worry and became an anxious ghost of herself plagued by guilt she had no right to carry...

“I might not know any shanties... But I’d like to hear you sing something, though, Flowing,” he said.

“Me? I already told you I can’t sing.”

“Nonsense. It's beautiful, and there's nopony out here 'sides me to hear ya anyways. Come on. Sing me a seapony song.”

Flowing chuckled. She was quiet for a few more moments, but then she seemed to settle on something, because she glanced back at Star with a sly smile on her beautiful face. “Alright. But it’s supposed to be a duet. I’m gonna sing it, and then you join me on the second go around. Got it?”

Star was grinning ear to ear now, and he nodded his head quickly. “Got it.”

“Alright...” Flowing took a deep breath. And then... Opening her mouth, she sung to the the waves rushing ahead of them and beneath their boat skirting over the ocean towards the brilliant bright sky ahead.

“Come take a sail, where would we go?

Anywhere you want to go,

Anywhere, now, anywhere, now,

We can sail around the world...”

A warmness flooded through Star Point as he listened to his marefriend sing. Her voice, for all her claims of mediocrity, did not have to be anything more than her own for him to find it gorgeous. She sang the second verse with the same beauty as the first, her voice captivating enough that Star almost missed the actual words she was singing for the sound of the mare singing them.

As she finished, she gave Star a sheepish look. “Got that?”

He smirked. “That was gorgeous, dear.”

“It’s a duet. It’ll be more gorgeous together.”

She took a deep breath, but she didn’t waste much time before diving into the melody once more. And this time, Star’s voice joined hers. He left the till where it was, and leaned forward to give Flowing a tight hug, as their sailboat skidded over the silvery, sparkling waves.

“Come take a sail, where would we go?

Anywhere you want to go,

Anywhere, now, anywhere, now,

We can sail around the world.

“Darling, I can’t say I know,

Anywhere the wind does blow.

Anywhere now, anywhere now,

You and I won’t be alone.“

~~~

Tempest was not in a particularly chipper mood for the duration of the storm. It seemed to last for an eternity, and every second spent riding the wrathful fury of the ocean was one too long.

The mighty waves crashed over the sides of the airship-turned-dreadnaught, flooding the deck and rolling off the opposite side. The control room was a disaster of overturned chart-tables and scattered equipment, with an inch or so of water at her hooves constantly. They weren’t sinking, but the bow was tipping precariously even after the worse of the storm had passed, as Tempest’s soldiers furiously tried to bail out of the worse of the flooding in the lower decks of the ship. She’d had the crew rig up the sea anchor at the stern of the ship as quickly a possible. Not something she’d had to use before, but the idea seemed valid enough that, in the pinch she was in, having something to catch whatever wind they had and keep their bow angled at the waves was better than nothing at all.

And then, it had been a long and arduous night of waiting for the storm to die. Every wave that struck the bow was an impact. Even with the sea-anchor, she had to fight with the rudder to keep the Thespis’s bow angled at the waves. Even a slight drift would have the waves starting to strike against their starboard side. If this was allowed to continue, they would capsize for certain.

Tempest wasn’t about to drown chasing a seapony. She figured she probably wouldn’t be the first pony to do so, but she was the hunter here, not the other way around.

The one solace she figured she had--and the one she kept alight in her mind throughout the long and sleepless stormy night--was that Flowing Sands and Star Point were likely having just as much of a time as she was. If they hadn’t found an island or ship to shelter in, then the fish would probably have tired herself out silly trying to keep her coltfriend above water. And if they did find somewhere to stop, some puny little desolate island... well. A night in the blistering wind, pelting rain, and furious thunder and lightning was probably not one spent peacefully and restfully.

The storm had delayed their capture. It hadn’t prevented it.

It was, admittedly, quite troublesome that her ship had been grounded. The balloon was cut up enough that it would be sometime before they’d be able to fly again, and they couldn’t exactly use the blow-torches and welding equipment to patch up the worse of the damage anyways. Indeed, they were a sea-bound craft for the foreseeable future. That was okay, though... Even limited to travel by sea, the sturdy propellors of the airship would serve them well, and they would have little trouble outpacing the swimming speed of even the fastest seapony.

Fortunately, dawn did come eventually. It came slowly, and the rain tapered to a soft drizzle instead of stopping completely, but anything was better than another hour of raging storm. Tempest looked to a new day with zero hours of rest, feeling grouchier and more miserable than normal but at least alive. Nopony had said that life on the Celestia Sea wasn’t without its share of trouble.

Once they were bailed out enough to set out, Tempest had to decide which direction to set out in the first place.

“Alright!” she barked out, once the bridge crew were assembled and some semblance had been restored to the ship a few hours into the morning. “Listen up, fillies! Our catch might’ve gotten away from us, but we’re not giving up on them yet. They’re gonna be heading to land if they haven’t reached it already. We might be crippled as an airship, but we’re still the fastest vessel on the Celestial Sea. I want full power. We’re setting a course for the Griffon Empire.”

A guess, of course. They could be going anywhere technically, but Tempest figured she had a better chance of catching them in one direction versus the other. Her stunt in Herring Harbour would surely have kicked a bit of a hornet’s nest, but the Griffons would be largely uncaring to her efforts to locate her seapony friend.

And, from the seapony and earth pony’s perspective? Well. They’d already been given up at home. They wouldn’t be stupid enough to go swimming back there so quickly. They didn’t have a choice but to swim to the landmass closest to them.

All Tempest had to do was dock somewhere along the Griffon Empire coast, and wait for her catch to swim right into the Thespis.

Author's Note

Flowing's song was adopted from the lyrics of Seawinkle, by SGAP