Crystal blinked her eyes open, wincing and groaning at the harsh rays assaulting her vision. Turning around to be on her stomach, she blew some sand out of the way before finally standing up. Hissing as she held her side, she glared at the distant shore and huffed.

“It’s official. We’re swimming back.” Crystal muttered. ‘Where are the other two?’ She thought, scanning the beach for her companions. Seeing a pink leg poking out of a bush, she sighed and began to slowly walk to it. “Come on, Pinkie. Get up.” She said, and gave the leg a small kick once she reached it.

Pinkie gave a yelp and stood up, leaves in her mane and tail. “You got sand in your hair.” Pinkie pointed out, stepping out of the bush. Crystal quickly brushed it out and shook her head to see if that would get rid of the rest of it.

“Thanks. You got leaves in your mane and tail. Have you seen Gray?” Crystal asked, looking from side to side.

“No, silly. I only just got up from that crash landing.” Pinkie replied, smiling and bobbing her head from side to side. "Oh, right." Pinkie ran her hands through her poofy mane to get the leaves out and did the same for her tail.

“Right. A crash landing is still a landing.” Crystal said, shading her eyes from the sun. “He’s not on the beach, and he doesn’t appear to be anywhere near you so that would mean he got flung further into the forest,” she surmised, frowning. “Come on, let’s see if we can go find him if he hasn’t woken up already.”

“Gray? You here?” Pinkie called out, looking under rocks and in trees.

“I don’t think he’s under a rock.” Crystal called out, a bit aways from her and checking various bushes.

“You never know. Rocks are very good at hiding secrets.” Pinkie replied, looking at Crystal while hanging upside down from a tree branch, not bothering to fix up her skirt.

“Whatever you say. I think Gray has woken up and walked off without us.” Crystal said, looking up at Pinkie and sporting a blush as she desperately tried to keep her eyes trained on her face but was unsuccessful as they kept wandering up her body.

“You sure? I think I see someone moving thattaway.” Pinkie pointed, arching her back and flipping down to land on her feet with her arms outstretched to either side in order to keep her balance. Pivoting around, she grabbed Crystal’s hand and began to lead her.

“What did they look like?” Crystal asked, blush fading away and pulling her hand out of Pinkie’s grip to brush aside branches as they walked passed them.

“No idea. It was very hairy and was coloured turquoise. That’s strange, even for me.” Pinkie answered, keeping her eyes peeled for whatever she saw. “I think it was also wearing a white lace headband and had big rat-like ears.” She added as an afterthought. Crystal blanched at the description, hoping that it wasn’t what she thought it was.

“Please don’t tell me it also wore frilly clothes.” Crystal groaned, holding a hand against her head.

“I think it … did …” Pinkie trailed off, jaw dropping at the sheer size of the animal lumbering about with icy spikes in it’s side.

“Gray’s been through here.” Crystal whispered, pointing to the ice around the area.

“Do you think this rat ate him?” Pinkie asked in a very loud whisper, getting the rat’s attention.

“No … but maybe we should run. I don’t think we can fight Angelica on our own.” Crystal said, leaping to the side and running past it, dragging Pinkie after her.

Ten minutes earlier, Gray groaned and sat up, rubbing his face to see if that would wake him up. His vision blurred slightly from looking at the sudden brightness of the sun, a stark contrast from the dark of the night before. “Pinkie? Crystal? You around here?” He asked out loud, standing up and looking around for any signs of them. Finding none, he began to walk forward, hands in his pockets while on the lookout for anything suspicious.

He winced as he tried to roll his shoulder, feeling slight pain flare through it. ‘Must have been caused by the crash.’ He thought with a glum look on his face, wondering about the fate of his friends. Hearing rustling in some nearby shrubbery, he stopped and automatically gathered magic in his hands for a spell while looking in that direction.

“Who’s there?” Gray asked the shrub. What burst out of the bush was a giant rat with turquoise fur. It wore a pink bow below its neck, a black corset-like top with pink frilly edges and was wearing a white lace headband on its head. “That’s something you don’t see everyday.” He said in shock. When the rat screeched at him, he directed his magic towards the forest floor. “Ice-Make: Floor!” Gray shouted, covering the ground between him and the rat in ice.

When the rat began to run, it got a surprised look on its face and skidded on the ice instead, heading straight for the ice mage. Gray quickly leapt to the side to get out of the way but the rat’s tail managed to trip him up, making him bang his head against the forest floor.

Grunting in pain, he rolled over and held his head, shouting in shock as he leaped backwards to avoid a swipe from the giant rat. Gathering magic for another spell, he ran back to get a bit of distance and prepared it. “Ice-Make: Arrows!” He shouted and an ice bow formed around his hands. Pointing it horizontally at the rat, a bunch of ice arrows were shot at high speed towards the creature. Not bothering to see if the attack worked or not, he took the opportunity to run away from the giant rat, creature, thing and further into the forest.

After they heard a screech, Pinkie and Crystal double-timed it. Letting her go on ahead, Crystal slowed and turned, lighting one of her hands on fire and covering the other in crystal, she wondered why she didn’t do this before. When Angelica came close, she combined the two, creating a crystal fireball. Tossing it up and down in her hands a couple of times, Crystal chucked the ball at the rat and felt her magic drain quite a bit when the ball made contact, exploding against the fur.

Angelica gave an infuriated howl, feeling the crystal break apart and embed itself into her skin while the flames spread out, burning a fairly large patch of fur. Giving in to instinct, she gave a pained howl and took off in a random direction after shaking the flames out.

“That was a little too easy.” Crystal panted, watching the rat run away.

“It’s a giant rat. Anything would run away after being burned like that.” Pinkie said, having walked back to Crystal after noticing she wasn’t with her.

“Burned fur ...horrible stench. I’ll be back.” Crystal groaned, covering her nose and mouth as she bolted behind a nearby tree to throw up. Pinkie shook her head and followed her, leaning against the trunk on the opposite side.

“You did not think that through.” Pinkie giggled, nose wrinkling at the stench the rat had left behind. “It is a terrible smell though.” she continued, her voice coming out nasally as she pinched her nose between a couple of fingers.

“You’re telling me. I didn’t think I’d find so far behind me.” Gray commented, stretching his arms by crossing them over his body as he walked towards Pinkie. “Where’s Crystal?”

“Behind this tree. She should be done in a couple of minutes.” Pinkie said nasally, jabbing with a free thumb behind her.

“I need to get away from this stench …” Crystal mumbled, walking slowly out from behind the tree and clutching her stomach. She barely even noticed Gray and Pinkie were there.

“I think we all do. You tell me what’s going on with you once we get clear.” Gray ordered, supporting Crystal.

“I can do that.” Crystal mumbled, feeling a headache coming on from the massive drain in her magic as well as the sudden bout of morning sickness.

“Great! Let’s see if we can figure out why we’re even here in the first place.” Pinkie said, placing her hands behind her head. She walked beside the two of them, sending Crystal concerned glances every once in awhile.

“It says,” Crystal paused to get the mission paper out of her cube, “That we need to lift a curse off the island. Gray said he wanted to come here because he heard that Lyon was around. Isn’t that right?” She asked, turning her head to him.

“That’s right. I heard rumors that Lyon was on an island and I didn’t see any island-related jobs on the regular board so while everyone went home for the night, I grappled up with my ice hook. Then it was just a matter of taking the job and then leaving.” Gray said simply, as if it was an everyday thing for him.

“I think we can stop now. I can barely smell the burnt fur now.” Crystal said, taking Gray’s arm off of her shoulders and sitting down with a thump. She crossed her legs and stretched, taking in slow deep breaths. She heard the others sit near her. They were probably grateful for the stop.

“I think you have something to say, now that we’ve stopped.” Gray said, waiting patiently for Crystal to speak.

“Okay, fine. I’m pregnant. There.” Crystal said, rubbing her eyes and not looking him in the face. After about ten minutes of nothing but silence and the various sounds of the forest, she looked up to see Gray have a blank look on his face. “Gray … you okay there?” She asked, waving a hand in front of his face.

“If you’re pregnant, then why did you let me take you here?” Gray asked after having thought through what she said for a bit.

“You think I didn’t try to stop you? What did you think all that yelling was before you iced me?” Crystal retorted.

“Now it makes sense.” Gray got a bit of emotion back on his face, smiling at them.

“You are taking this news extremely well.” Crystal said, narrowing her eyes at him.

“How else am I meant to take it? You’re pregnant. So what? As long you protect yourself properly you should be fine.” Gray shrugged, finally coming back to his senses. “Of course, we’ll both protect you as much as we can." Gray added.

“That’s right. We’ll both protect you so long as we know you can protect.yourself. Seeing what happened with that rat before, you most certainly can.” Pinkie answered with a vigorous nod of agreement.
****************************************************************************************************************

As the first rays of dawn hit their eyes, the three occupants in room 104 instantly sat up, rubbed their eyes and bolted out the door. Twilight remembered to leave the right amount of bits on the counter before rushing off after the others.

When the three arrived at the docks, they ran to their boat and hopped on just as it was beginning to take off, thankful that they weren’t there one minute later.

“Cutting it close, aren’t we?” The captain asked, chuckling to himself at the dishevelled trio.

“We didn’t think of setting an alarm.” Twilight answered sheepishly, sitting down on the deck of the boat to catch her breath.

“We made it just in time though.” Levy sighed in relief, sitting next to Twilight.

“We got four hours ahead of us so I suggest you get comfortable.” The captain ordered, tipping his hat at the three women before turning to the helm and keeping them on course.

“Four hours should give us plenty of time to talk about how to get Gray back home. He’s obviously at the island by now.” Twilight said, covering her mouth as she yawned.

“So, any ideas?” Cana asked, picking out six cards from her deck and sitting opposite the both of them.

“I could probably write our ideas down but I don’t have any paper.” Levy said, looking at the cards Cana had picked out. “What are you doing with them?”

“I’m making calling cards. Two for you, two for Twilight, and two for me. If we separate once we get to the island, this will help us talk to each other or, if we desperately need help, direct us to the person in need.” Cana explained, placing both her index and middle finger on one of the cards and concentrated a bit of magic into it. Once she was done, a cartoonish version of Twilight’s face popped up. The word ‘CALL’ was above the face in yellow letters while below it, the word ‘DISTRESS’ appeared in bright red letters. She repeated it for the other two cards, the only difference being the faces on each. Once done with all three, she handed them out to each recipient.

“This will definitely help. Thanks, Cana.” Twilight said, flashing her a smile.

“No problem.” Cana shrugged and took out her flask from her bag.

“You’re drinking? At this hour?” Twilight asked in disbelief.

“No, I’m drinking water. Helps to stay hydrated.” Cana gave Twilight a pointed look and took a long draught from it. A bit of the liquid fell past her mouth, letting both Levy and Twilight know that it was indeed water and not alcohol like Twilight originally thought.

“Water drinking aside, what ideas do we have?” Levy asked, steering the topic back on point.

“We could always grab his neck and drag him home.” Cana offered casually.

“No, that’s too rough. Remember, Crystal and Pinkie will be with him as well.” Twilight reminded them, placing an elbow on one of her eyes and habitually start biting her nails.

“Oh right. Our main priority should be Gray though.” Levy pointed out.

“Makarov did say that we should bring Gray back.” Twilight sighed, bowing her head and looking down at herself. “We need to think up of something before we get there.”

“How about, we trap him in one of my cards and take him home that way?” Cana asked, picking one of her cards out and flipping it around to show them a blank face.

“It’s blank.” Twilight said, raising an eyebrow. “Why are you showing us a blank card?”

“Let me give you a demonstration.” Cana said and smiled, moving her hand and slapping the card against Twilight’s cheek. She poured her magic into the slap, forcing Twilight to be sucked inside the card. It dropped onto the deck, with Twilight banging against the inside of the card in protest. After giving her a few minutes to think about it, Cana waved her hand over the card, releasing the spell on it, feeling a considerable drain in her magic.

“That was not nice.” Twilight shivered, looking at the blank card beside her. “I don’t want to go back in there but I can see how it can be effective.” Twilight said, picking the card up and handing it back to Cana.

“Your welcome. Only drawback is it drains my magic by a considerable amount. So maybe it can be used as a last resort.” She said, grinning.

“That’s one idea. Any others?” Levy asked, twirling a lock of hair around her finger. “We could always help them.” She suggested.

“Help them complete the S-Class Quest?” Twilight asked in surprise. “We’re tasked with bringing Gray home and that’s it. Nothing else.”

“Think about it. If we help them with the quest, then it would go by a lot quicker. Getting the mission done quicker means getting Gray back to the guild a lot quicker.” Levy tried to persuade the both of them.

“It would be quicker if we just persuaded him to come home.” Twilight retorted, resting her head in one of her hands.

“While that is true, we’ve got to think of other ways to get him home if diplomacy fails.” Cana said.

“Halfway there, pretty ladies.” The captain announced cheerfully.

“Only halfway? Feels like it’s been a lot longer than that.” Cana said drily.

“If we can’t think of anything else, then we’ll just go with one of two options. Join them and help, or convince Gray to come back to the guild.” Levy repeated their ideas back to them.

“I really like the first one. I haven’t seen any action in awhile.” Cana said with a grin.

Twilight shook her head at that. “I still think we can talk him out of it.” She said with conviction.

“Whatever the case, we’ve got to do something about getting Gray home.” Levy shrugged and looked at the card Cana had given her. “This is meant to help us chat with each other if we get separated?”

“Yeah, it is. Just touch the ‘CALL’ option and think about who you want to chat with. The ‘DISTRESS’ option is there if you need both of us to come to your aid.” Cana repeated her instructions to them, hoping it will stick this time.

“Call and Distress. Simple enough.” Twilight murmured, looking over her own card.

“Here we are.” The captain announced, shaking his three guests awake. All three of them opened their eyes and sat up, yawning for various lengths of time. Twilight got up after stretching and observed the beach they were docked at.

“Thank you.” Twilight said, and walked down the gangplank that had been set up. The other two thanked him as well and followed. The captain tipped his hat and removed the gangplank once he was sure they were off. Immediately looking at the beach for clues, Twilight and the others walked slowly around, trying to find any tracks.

“Can’t seem to find any tracks.” Cana muttered, turning towards the others.

“I can’t find any either.” Levy frowned, placing her hands on her hips.

“I found something here!” Twilight shouted from the other side of the beach. Looking at the two sets of footprints, she followed them with her gaze until they disappeared into the treeline. “I think I found two sets of footprints here.” She said once the others were near her.

“Two? Rainbow said that Gray was with Crystal and Pinkie, right?” Cana asked, looking at the same direction Twilight.

“They disappear beyond here.” Levy commented, waving Twilight and Cana over.

“They do. It could be ages before we can find them then.” Twilight groaned. “Yes, Crystal and Pinkie are with Gray.” She answered Cana, placing a hand on her forehead, just underneath her horn.

“No choice but to move forward then, right? No use finding them if we stand here.” Cana shrugged and lead the way into the forest.

Author's Notes:

I think I did better with the perspective change this time. If you like this way better than how I did it last chapter, let me know below.

More info on the spells:
Ice-Make: Floor - http://fairytail.wikia.com/wiki/Ice-Make:_Floor
Ice-Make: Arrows - http://fairytail.wikia.com/wiki/Ice-Make:_Arrows
Call Card - http://fairytail.wikia.com/wiki/Call_Card
Card Dimension - http://fairytail.wikia.com/wiki/Card_Dimension