Don't forget to tell your friends!

-Vespi

North Star saw the sun as a clock almost; every second it went down was a second closer to the storm. It was one of the most scary and aggravating sun set experiences he had ever seen. Ziggy spread the word to the admiral and everypony on the chain of command on the ship; the entire ship was on full alert. All 4 signal teams were on duty (Although the other two teams went to the bunker on the opposite end of the ship) and anxiously awaiting the onslaught of grim gray clouds. North Star couldn’t stop pacing, every five minutes or so North Star would give in to curiosity and look outside to see how close the storm was, every time North Star would end up cursing his luck and notice the storm was 5 minutes closer. Everypony around him had the same awful look of fear in their eyes. No pony could stand still and everypony ended up pacing around in circles; all their faces masked in worry and fear.

North Star finally gave up and idly sat down on his chair and talked to Spade to calm himself; things didn’t go as planned. North Star just became even more scared when Spade told him “This is the first time the weather ponies don’t want to go outside” and other things. North Star tried every trick in the book to calm himself; he tried to find his happy place, he tried reading, he tried eating, and he tried taking a nap; only the last one had an effect; and not a pretty one.

North Star was finally dozing into light sleep thinking about Fleur De Lis when he felt the ship jump. The ship tilted a good 20 degrees; causing North Star to bang his head against the wall; waking him instantly. North Star now noticed the tranquil nighty sky was transformed into the wicked storm. The purplish black sky now was a melancholy grey; dozens of grey menacing clouds had popped up out of nowhere. The few sailors who had been on deck to observe the spectacle were now running for cover; most of them running towards their battle stations.

Time to get to work

The ship rocked again; this time slamming some of the signalers against the other wall and sending most of the wheelie chairs following. North Star grabbed his mic and narrowly saved his equipment from being smashed on the ground. He smashed the red button and aimed the marker gun at the closest cloud; hitting the cloud with remarkable marksmen ship.

“Spade sees the marker?” North Star asked; practically screaming. The wind was now howling and could be heard even from inside the bunker.

“Got it” Spade said; screaming himself. North Star waited a minute for the weather pony to come out. North Star wasn’t even sure now if weather ponies could fly in such brutal and hostile weather. The entire sky had vanished and was replaced with torrents of rain; dousing the entire ship. Every single black and grey cloud began to drop its payload of water. North Star observed one sailor running for cover who had slipped. While in full sprint he slipped on the deck and went head first into several crates near the deck, he instantly got up and hobbled off; holding his bleeding head.

A blue pegasus bolted from the sky and headed towards the red cloud; and began to jump up and down on it; utterly destroying the cloud. A split second later the sky practically exploded; North Star watched in horror as a gale of wind came by and blindsided the pegasus. The pony was smashed into the nearby mast and even through the glass a sickly cracking noise could be heard after the pegasus went neck first into the metal lined mast, from such a high altitude, the pony plunged to the ship and smashing into the deck; leaving a sickly bloody mess.

“Holy Celestia!” North Star screamed; no pony even bothered to acknowledge North Star’s frightened scream, all North Star could hear was his fellow signalers screaming into their headphones. Before long the sky was filled with colorful clouds and then the weather ponies. North Star was relieved to say no pony plummeted to their death like the first weather pony had; for the moment at leastly.

The storm didn’t stop, for 3 whole hours the storm continued and continued without end. As the third hour toiled by there were only 5 operational marker guns. Lyra’s marker gun was torn from its position from atop the bunker after a 2nd gale of wind sent it flying onto the desk. Fortunately no pony was under it, unfortunately there were also 2 more weather ponies that were in the area at the time. One was sent into the mast like his predecessor; the other was just launched into the sea and never seen again.

North Star realized most of the clouds looming right overhead were quickly being shot down by his fellow signalers, North Star grabbed his drone and set off to get clouds farther away; and if the opportunity presented itself explore. The second the drone came into position it flew against the mast and cracked in half! North Star stood there for a moment; not sure if he should be angry or afraid. How fast was the wind out there? How fast was a wind that could turn drones into cannonballs and ponies into carcasses?

North Star and the crew of the Solstice were fighting a losing battle. Every minute the ship was getting beaten and beaten worse. The metal was becoming mired and maimed by the brutal wind; the masts were beginning to creak intensely and loose debris caused havoc and mayhem; but during those first hours the most devastating blow to the crew’s moral was the radio antenna.

The radio antenna was positioned at the highest point of the ship; the bridge. The wind was howling so brutally it yanked the radio antenna from its position and tossed it like a stick into the ocean. For a split second every phone went down; but luckily a quick witted pony at the bridge got everything on an auxiliary line before havoc could ensue. It was a massive blow to moral considering that the wind was so devastating it could rip metal electronics from their placing; but also because that was their only line of communication to the mainland. Ponies couldn’t use magic in the heat of such a storm to get help; the antenna was their only hope; and the antenna was now drifting in the sea.

“Spade target now!” North Star screamed; a gale of wind flew by and cracked the glass.

“I’m on it!” Spade replied

A weather pony flew by; struggling to fight the powerful wind when another surge of wind power occurred. This was the strongest of them all and proved it’s brutality with a powerful display of strength. The wind smashed against the mast; causing a small creak; that was just the metal cracking and splitting (North Star hadn’t even known metal could do that during wind). The entire mast then was put through a Domino effect, little by little the wind continued to push against the

mighty mast until it began to topple; slamming into another mast before crashing on the deck.

“Dammit I guess we are going on coal power!” Ziggy shouted; his voice fighting to stay audible in the storm.

North Star was just about to open his mouth to reply when he heard the most horrific sound in his life. It was an eerie, strange noise coming from below. North Star quickly realized it was metal torqueing and bending. Water was coming inside the ship.

“Looks like some ponies are going to be bailing” Lyra joked

“Celestia dammit what do we do?” Fleece asked; stuttering the entire question. He was sweating all over and was pitch white.

“I got an idea…” Ziggy said; he grabbed the phone and dialed several quick digits into the phone.

“Gold Miner is that you? Is their water in the main furnace yet?” Ziggy asked; North Star heard a panicked response from an unknown pony; Ziggy gave a quick off smile.

“You got to blow the furnace” Ziggy said

The pony just began screaming and cursing at Ziggy; whatever this idea was it didn’t seem smart.

“Dammit Gold Miner if you blow the furnace we can go 10 times faster and get away from this shit storm!” Ziggy yelled; now getting aggressive himself “If you don’t do it I will”

There was a short terse response that North Star didn’t catch; then a silence.

Ziggy let out a long sigh

“What was that about sir?” Twilight Sparkle asked

“I need to go do something to save this ship” Ziggy said “But I can’t do it alone; I need some pony that Is strong and has balls”

Everypony looked at North Star with expecting eyes

“Wait what” North Star said plainly

“Are you with me North Star?” Ziggy asked; his tone as a strange combination of begging and ordering.

“Well what are we even doing?” North Star asked

“We just set the furnaces powering the thrusters up and we can get out of this storm like that” Ziggy said with a snap of the hoof.

“But... but… isn’t that at the bottom of the ship somewhere?” North Star asked, North Star was no coward but he didn’t want to die in some scheme invented on the fly by Ziggy; or had he thought about it when he first heard about the storm?

“No pony is forcing you to do this North Star” Ziggy said “But if you do you will be saving lives.”

North Star now had a choice; save lives or save his own life. Considering he was most likely die in this storm; or in Ziggy’s mysterious plan he chose the more noble choice.

“I’ll do it” North Star said

“Then follow me” Ziggy said waving him outside. Ziggy ran into the door and headed outside; North Star followed and gave one look back at his old siggy friends.

“Follow me follow me dammit!” Ziggy said “We’ll never last out here!” North Star could see that. It was hard to even keep your eyes open in the storm; let alone stand or run. North Star tried to follow Ziggy at a comfortable gallop before slipping and ramming into the railway. Ziggy came back and picked him up before continuing his pace. North Star could not even understand how he knew North Star had fallen into the guard rail. The noise was so deafening it was even hard for North Star to hear his own thoughts.

Through the rain, sleet, hail, and wind North Star managed to follow Ziggy through the deck; only slipping three times do to his carelessness and eagerness to keep pace with the warrant officer. The once calm weather of the sky now had turned into a living hell almost. The sky was almost pitch black and clouds were crowding the airspace at an alarming rate. North Star was relieved to see clouds turning the assorted colors of the markers and then the flying weather ponies that normally ensued.

The two finally found an alcove to have a moments rest; they were finally across the desk and saw the bunker from below. In the window were Twilight Sparkle, Lyra, and all of the other signalers eagerly watching the fate of their two comrades.

“Dammit come on North Star we don’t have a lot of time!” Ziggy said; grabbing him by his hair. North Star was up in a second as Ziggy pushed open the generic heavy metal door of the ship; practically falling down the stairs as the door slammed open. North Star hurried down and followed Ziggy who was running like a mad colt.

The two ran through a good portion of the ship before they realized they were under the sea level; and they found out the hard way. North Star and Ziggy were galloping down a hallway when, like a well-planned booby trap, pressure ousted the walls and water flowed in from all directions. North Star barely knew what had happened before a small portion of the wall came undone and a fist of water pushed into his chest. North Star had never felt water like that, the water had so much pressure and velocity it felt like he was getting hit with a baseball bat; not water.

North Star followed instinct and sprawled his hooves out and landed face first on the floor; which was now becoming flooded with ice cold water. His commanding officer however knew the right of way and grabbed him by the hair again and almost dragged him onto his hooves. The two took off down a flight of stairs before a water proof door appeared and proved to be their rescuer.

“That was close…” North Star said, he could feel the pressure of the water against the door. How long would that door last? How long would the ship last? How many were already dead?

“We are getting close come on!” Ziggy said with a distinct sense of urgency in his voice. North Star felt his adrenaline kick in, his mane stick up, his energy levels booming, of any moment in the day he felt like h could do this right now; and he would have to.

Ziggy and North Star left the door to its fate and continued down the hall; which had served as a barracks. But upon further inspection only half the bunks were empty, the rest of the bunks were filled with frantic scared ponies; running and packing like their lives depended on it.

North Star realized that most of the ponies were escaping to the upper areas of the ship and leaving what left of the lower portions to their fate. North Star and Ziggy continued their run down to wherever Ziggy had planned and encountered few pony made oppositions.

“Jesus the water is coming in!” A sailor screamed; running up a flight of stairs that North Star and Ziggy had just went down. The water was breaking through again and ponies were all running in the two signalers way to escape it.

“Wait till they realize their trapped” Ziggy said with a wry chuckle

“So we are trapped too?” North Star said, his adrenaline for a moment shut itself off and fear swept through his body.

“Not if we can blow the furnace; it will cause one hell of a thrust and the water will be sucked clean out” Ziggy said “Now come on we are getting really close.”

North Star followed Warrant Officer Ziggy through one more level in the ship before they hit the coal flinger facility as it was called. This was where all of the coal furnaces were that powered the ship.

“What the hay are you two doing in here?” A familiar voice asked; North Star turned around to see his friend Braeburn standing right beside him. His face still had the soft features as it had always had; said features this time were just smudged with coal.

“We got to blow the main furnace” Ziggy said “Is that room flooded yet”

“Not the main furnace room; but soon” Braeburn said “Y’all got to get out of here and quick”

“No! We need to blow the furnace! It is the only way we will get out of this storm alive” Ziggy said; trying to convince Braeburn.

“Well if it is that important to y’all it is the last furnace on this floor. But y’all be careful alright at any moment these walls could bu-“

That sound of metal twisting came again; and very, very, very loud.

“Shit we got to move NOW!” Ziggy said; running down the level. This level of the ship was basically as it seems all furnaces. There were no comely offices or desk here; it was just giant rooms with giant coal powered furnaces. Ziggy was almost at his destination when an explosion shook the ship; the explosion wasn’t on the bottom level but it was the level right above where water seeped in and was causing mayhem.  

Ziggy ran inside the room (Or what could be called a room; since it was just a giant area with a furnace in it) and his facial expression went from distressed to relieved. Inside was the largest furnace North Star had ever seen. It was the power source of all coal furnaces in the ship. It had to be 10 feet tall and sprawled through the entire room. Numerous levers and other controls were stationed on a table in the corner.

“So what do we do?” Braeburn asked

“This” Ziggy picked up a nearby crowbar and yanked the door open “We need something explosive”

There was a moment’s pause

“You know we just don’t keep dynamite down here all the time” Braeburn said with a hint of anger in his voice.

“You got a pack of matches?” Ziggy asked impatiently

“What for do y’all smoke?” Braeburn asked

“Yea I want a light, NO I AM GOING TO THROW IT IN THE FURNACE!” Ziggy screamed. Almost like on order more metal twisted and an explosion occurred on the furnace level. North Star turned around in horror to see a wave of blue and white water rushing towards them.

Braeburn handed Ziggy the matches and the officer tossed them in the furnace. For a split second nothing happened and North Star feared the worst and his impending doom; but then a spark occurred both literally and realistically. The matches exploded and a chain reaction occurred something had changed in the furnace causing several strange noises; nonetheless it meant some kind of hope.

“What do we do?” Braeburn asked

“RUN” Ziggy said; the furnace then exploded into a fireworks display and North Star was almost launched off his hooves. The fire now exploded right out of the furnace and embers came dangerously close to North Star’s hoof. Ziggy took off head first into the tidal wave; but something happened. A 2nd explosion occurred and North Star could feel himself about to fall and slam himself against the wall; whatever was happening had caused the ship to increase its speed rapidly. The law of inertia made sense; if North Star didn’t run (and fast) he’d be sucked into the wall and the tidal wave.  North Star tried his best to run but made little progress; he couldn’t let himself give up though. He put one hoof after the other time after time and began to make headway. The tidal wave had transformed into more of a line then a colossal wave. The wave knocked Ziggy off his hooves and sent him screaming and falling back into the wall.

“Well shoot…” Braeburn said; grasping onto a nearby crate that had been nailed to the floor.

North Star couldn’t give up; he wouldn’t give up. He began to run as fast as possible; the water was only up to his haunches but it was so icy cold it was making him numb. The only time he had ever felt himself getting numb like this was when he fell in the lake during winter several years back. The water was so cold it felt almost like it was burning; torturing his skin. He did everything in his power to survive; Braeburn finally gave in and was swept off his hooves by the brutal force of inertia.

North Star couldn’t move anymore and, grabbed the crate that Braeburn had held onto, finally just tried to hang on for dear life for what seemed like hours. Right when he felt like he was going to die he felt the ship stop and he lost his grip. He was now flying across the furnace level. The ship had almost stopped and it seemed like the water had slowed down to only a trickle; everything seemed in North Star’s favor; except he was about to slam against a metal wall while flying through the air.

Just like his friend Braeburn said

“Well shoot…”

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