Last time on “Not A Lot Of Shit Happened” Quest:
>Got fully geared up with supplied supplied from the Canterlot guard.
>Rainbow Dash ran off ahead when the party wanted to take a few hours to rest.
>You and the others decided to skip resting and go after her to Foggy Bottom Bog.
>After giving Twilight a little pep talk, the bunch of you left Canterlot and hit the road.
>Had Fluttershy fly overhead as you walked to keep an eye out for Rainbow Dash or Rarity.
>After a while of travel and making it to the bog, it was discovered that no one bothered to pack any water, only food.
>Not sure what else to do, you all head for a stream you saw from the mountains.
You are Rusty Shackleford, a human who has found himself lost in Equestria with no memory.
Currently, you, Twilight Sparkle, Applejack and Pinkie Pie are wading through swampy muck as Fluttershy flies high above. The heat is punishing and the water in the bog is driving the humidity way up. You are hot and tired, but you can see it's worse for your pony friends, especially Twilight and Applejack. They're struggling in their heavy armor, their hooves occasionally getting stuck in the mud. There's no sign of the stream so far, but luckily there doesn't seem to be any sign of trouble.
The four of you soldier on, with the fifth flying high above. The going is tough. There's no road or path at this point, only muddy water with irregular patches of soft sod to navigate around. More then a few times you all have to cross the warm water, you helping the weighted ponies when the water gets particularly deep. The only signs of life are the greedy mosquitoes making a meal of your exposed sun cooked torso and the occasion ribbit of an unseen frog.
You and the others nearly jump out of your respective skins as Fluttershy crashes into the ground, her armor making a loud clatter and making her sink into the soft earth some.
You and the others quickly rush over to Fluttershy and pull her from the muck. She doesn’t seem injured, but she's clearly delirious; waving her legs around at all of you and rolling her head.
"What is it Fluttershy?!" Twilight asks her friend worriedly, helping you hold her up out of the mud. "Did something attack you?"
"Waaha..." Fluttershy mumbles, shaking her head wildly. "Awa... wawata!"
"She must want water," You say, grabbing hold of the yellow pony. "This heat is killing us. Come on, Fluttershy, I'll help you."
You try to pick up Fluttershy, something you’re pretty used to doing now. But as you do she struggles violently, doing her darnedest to wiggle out of your grip. Between the armor that's both heavy and hot to the touch, you have trouble grabbing her. When you finally are able to lift her in your arms, she socks you one in the jaw, dropping both you and her.
"Fluttershy!" Applejack yells, trying to calm her down. "Why are you acting so ornery?"
"Wataa!" Fluttershy cries, then clears her throat. "Water! Water!"
"You OK Rusty?" Pinkie says, nudging you up out of the mud.
"Ow." You hold your throbbing jaw. One of your most painful recent injuries, but nothing seems to be broken as you work it around. "Yeah, I'm fine."
Ignoring your jaw, you pick yourself up and jump at Fluttershy. She's not thinking clearly. The armor is just cooking her and the others. Fluttershy shrieks and struggles more as the two of you duke it out in the muck. You're able to wrench the helmet of her head but she doesn't seem to notice, just keeps kicking and babbling about water.
"No! Water!" She cries, stomping her hooves and trying to push you off. "Rusty, please! The water!"
"I'm trying to help you!" You shout back at her. You don't want to hurt her, but she's not making things easy for you. The other three ponies are watching near by, looking between you and Fluttershy, seemingly unsure what to do.
You let up off of Fluttershy and she angrily shrugs you off. Her armor and a good amount of her mane are slathered in wet dark earth. "What is it?" you ask hot, muddy and tired from fighting and walking. "What about the water?" "Is there something the swamp?!" Twilight asks, backing up on to a light mound of grassy sod. The others do the same, backing into each other with a light clank. Fluttershy lets out a frustrated scream and jumps at you again. She roughly pushes you cheek, making you turn your head. You see down the flat landscape of the bog, your sight impeded only by some clusters of trees. The furthest gathering of trees you can see through the hazy hot air, about a mile or so, is suddenly burst aside by a torrent of water. The trees are pushed apart like sticks and you see the wall of clear water rushing down the swamp to you and your friends. "Oh. That water."
"Quick, everyone take off you armor!" You shout at the others as the situation becomes evident on the others. Immediately they all start tearing of plates and undoing straps as fast as they can. You see Fluttershy struggling and help her.
"Twilight, do you know any spells for something like this?!" You shout, prying off the heavy breastplate of the yellow pony.
"I... I think so!" She shouts back, the sound of rushing water steadily getting louder. You see her make quick work of her armor with her magic.
"Do it! Fluttershy, fly!" You help toss an already exhausted Fluttershy into the air and she takes flight. "Everyone, run! Run run run!"
Applejack and Twilight look like they're OK with what ever magic Twilight is brewing up, so you rush over to Pinkie. Running TOWARDS a towering, raging, foamy wall of blue water, Pinkie's colorful mane superimposed with great clarity in comparison. She see's the water too and is trying to run, but the armor is still clearly bogging her down. There's a bright purple flash from behind you, but you're too busy putting everything you have into reaching her, fighting seemingly for every inch in the glue like mud.
It's not enough.
Pinkie is kicked up in the surf was it crashes over her, drowning out whatever noise she makes as it happens. You quickly loose sight of her in the churning water. Still partially stuck in the mud yourself, it quickly dawns on you you're about to be hit by a tsunami.
Unsure and unable to do much of anything in this situation, you hold your breath and brace for the coming wave. When it does finally break on top of you, it hits you like a wrecking ball. Not at all like liquid as you were expecting.
Your world becomes a vortex of ice cold blue and little bubbles and you tumble end of end in the surge. By pure instinct and will, you muscle your way to the surface, fighting the current and your own growing fatigue. Lungs burning, you break the surface, only to have more water splash down and force you under again.
You continue to push and kick against the water, desperate to get a breath. Your now waterlogged back certainly isn’t helping any. Eventually, you're bale to break the waves again and get a much needed gulp of fresh air. You look around wildly, unsure which way is which, only seeing rushing trees and sky and debris.
"P-Pinkie!" You shout between breaths. There's no reply.
You try for the trees, anything to help you in these rapids. Another desperate struggle ensues as you kick and paddle, both to stay above the water and to get a handhold on some anchor. The waves push you under into the freezing water again and again. You can feel your extremities growing numb.
Trashing out desperately, you're able to grab something solid and unmoving that stops your spinning in the water. You use it to pull yourself out from under the waves and up into the air. All around you the swamp is a rushing ice cold river. There's a few up rooted tree's rushing down stream, crashing into each other with loud bangs.
You can't see any of the ponies.
You keep searching from your little perch, desperate panic setting in. Everywhere you look its just water. More and more water, rushing between trees, churning up black sediment, crashing large waves. The only place above water are the tree tops as far as you can see. That and whatever it is you've grabbed hold if; its just below the water, but high enough for you to keep yourself up.
"Pinkie!" You call out over the sound of the raging surf. "Fluttershy! Twilight! Applejack! Anyone!"
"Rusty!" Fluttershy calls back and appears out of the sky, hovering just above the water. "Are you OK?!"
"Have you seen the others?"
"No!" She shakes her head hysterically. "Twilight and Applejack got swept downstream and I don't know where Pinkie is and I don't know what to do!"
The thing you are gripping to for dear life gives a shudder and you sink a little lower in the water, like it's coming loose.
You try to force yourself a little higher out of the water, but whatever it is under the water seems to have come loose from its anchor point on the ground and is slowly being taken in the current.
"Fluttershy, help me! Please!" You call to the little flying pony, holding out your hand. "I'm slipping! Help me reach one of those trees!"
"Uh! Uh!" Fluttershy still seems panicked, looking between you and everywhere else up and down the rushing waters. She shakes her head, focuses on you again and lets you grab a helping hoof.
Fluttershy isn't the strongest looking pony you've ever seen, but you're surprised how much she's able to do to keep you above water. Panting and trying to grip you with both hoofs, the little yellow pegasi helps you off your unstable perch and across the water.
...Until a rip current under the waves takes your kicking feet out from under you. You and Fluttershy are pulled down into the drink together.
You latch on to Fluttershy, trying to just keep her with you, hopefully to push her back to the surface or something. But the current is too strong and you can't feel any of your extremities. You loose hold of Fluttershy almost right away, lost somewhere in the chaotic swirling of water.
You breach the surface, again being swept helplessly down with the rest of the debris. Looking everywhere, you don't see Fluttershy anywhere.
"Fluttershy!" Nothing.
"ANYONE!" More nothing.
Again, you try for the tree, the only semi solid thing standing up against this torrent. Luckily, things were easier this time as you collided into one full on. Shrugging off the impact, thanks in part to your acquired numbness, and the probable splinters, you straddle the trunk and inch worm your way up out of the water. You flop across a solid heavy branch mostly out of the water, panting.
"Anyone!" You call out again and are met only with the sound of water.
The flood is as strong as ever. But at least from here, you guess you can try and wait it out
You sit on the branch, your back against the trunk and you wait. And wait.
The flood shows no sign of stopping. In fact, from your watching you think it may even have picked up at some point. The cold of the water, your life and death struggle, the fate of your friends unknown, its all tapped your strength. Depleted, you watch the water with your head resting against the tree. Listening to the white noise surging of the water. You wait. You rest your eyes, listening to the water.
"They're all dead you know."
You snap awake, sitting high and dry in the tree. The water has stopped flooding and has gone down some, though there's still a lot of standing water everywhere. The sun has gone down close to the horizon. You could have sworn you just closed your eyes for a minute.
You don't see any of your friends.
"Fluttershy!" You call out. Your voice echos out in the open air some and a flock of birds take flight from a tree not far away. You climb down the tree.
"Pinkie! Applejack! Twilight!" Nothing. You splash down into the swamp. The water is about knee deep and still chills you to the bone. There's no sign of your friends anywhere. Just the devastation of the flood; the huge gouts in the soil, whole trees knocked over, you think you even see some fish.
You're alone, freezing , water is everywhere and night isn’t far off.
Not sure what else to do, you trek down stream. Where ever your friends washed up, they'd be that way. The water doesn’t help things any, but its not much worse then when you were getting stuck in the muck... well, that’s not true. At least then you had company.
You're not sure how long you marched down Foggy Bottom Bog, but it was dark by the time you found something you weren't expecting. A giant hole in the ground, roughly as wide as a house.
It goes down at a rough 45 degree angle, bending down into the earth where you can't see. The soil immediately around it is considerable more rocky and solid then the mushy marsh, which probably what's keeping its shape. The sides look wet to you and you can hear the echo of water on water coming from below.
Carefully, you take a tentative step over the lip of the natural drain. But every surface is oily slick with water and you don't even know what. When you shift your weight, your feet comes out from under you and your grip slips. You flail around, trying to grab hold of anything, but are sent shooting down into the darkness. Despite the slickness of the stone, its rough and you can feel its scrapping your skin and pants that comes in contact. The waning light of the evening is soon lost and you can't see anything, only the panicked, sickening sense of fast motion into the unknown. Its like a waterside out of a nightmare.