[i]In another world...[/i]

Adagio Dazzle cursed the cold autumn rain as she talked into her cellphone.

“Sonata!”

“What do you want?!”

Adagio was running towards the river, ignoring her wet clothes and hair and the anger in the voice on the other end.

“Twilight's here at the river, and she's fallen in.”

A pause.

“What?!”

Adagio reached the bank and started scanning the scene.

“Twilight and I had a fight, over the new medallions.”

Aria's voice came on.

“Oh, come on! Look, you're done telling us what to do, got it! You got us stuck in this world, this [i]time[/i], remember?”

Adagio restrained her own anger while looking around for a dark uniform, in dark water, with lead skies turning evening blue...

“You don't like me anymore. Great, wonderful! But you still owe Twilight for that thing with Rutherford!”

Another pause, some giggling in the background, and then Aria.

“All right, we're coming. Stupid LARP...stupid lucky arrow shot...”

Adagio hung up, dialed 911, said what was going on and shoved the phone back in her pocket.

[i]Did I just use the word 'please' for Twilight?[/i]

Lightning arced across the sky, followed by a peal of thunder.

Adagio ran along the bank, straining her vision against the water and trees.

Another flash.

There!

Twilight clung to a rock, the water flowing all around her, trying to tear her away and send her downstream.

[i]It's over. You're done, you've failed. Just like you've failed to protect her from those bullies and that school's principal...[/i]

Adagio closed her eyes and banished the voice.

“No, I haven't.”

She looked to Twilight, now hanging on for dear life.

“Twilight, I'm coming!”

Twilight looked in Adagio's general direction.

“What?!”

In a moment, Adagio was in the water.

She wasn't mer-pony anymore. She didn't have scales as armor or fins for the cold and wet, only skin that bled warmth away and clothes to drag her.

Adagio couldn't care. She had to try and save Twilight.

The water tried to dominate Adagio, push her, pull her, drag her down, carry her off.

[i]No, I'm not letting this happen![i/]

She adjusted her body, her limbs, let the practice she'd done since she'd arrived from Equestria take over.

Adagio surged forward, let the current carry her a little, righted herself, held her breath as the water took her under, let it loose as she came to the surface.

There was her target, not too far away.

“Twilight! Keep holding on!”

The girl was flailing, trying to keep her head above the current.

“I'm trying! Where are you?!”

Adagio kicked herself; the girl's bad eyesight.

“I'm coming!”

[i]Remember the riptides back home...[/i]

She tried to feel the flow of the water, thought of the way water like this moved. She moved her arms, her legs, as best she could and started closing the gap.

It was an obstacle course: let the current carry her a couple of feet, duck under, swim left to thread between two more currents, right to avoid a tree branch, back up above the surface...

She grabbed onto something that wasn't wood or water. It slipped out of her hands for a moment, but she pushed again and threw her arms forward around a person.

“Adagio! What-!”

Water flowed over them, then left them back in air and rain.

“Just stay with me! Calm down and help me!”

Twilight looked blankly into the air. 

“What are we going to do?!”

Adagio saw another peal of lightning and thunder.

“We're going to make it. I called for someone.”

She steeled herself against the cold, against the rain. Tried to think of a way to get to the bank if she needed to as the current tugged at the two of them again.

Adagio wasn't going to let go this time, like she did when Sonata first suggested they follow after this world's Twilight to Crystal Prep.

She'd hold on, and help Twilight hold on for as long as it-

“Adagio, you idiot, what are you doing?!”

Adagio looked, saw Aria climbing down the bank with a rope. Further up was Sonata, furiously wrapping the other end around the trunk of a tree.

“Don't worry Twilight, we'll save you!”

They both had determined looks on their faces. Adagio glanced and, though scared, Twilight now had a similar look.

This was going to work.

All four of them were going to be okay.

Then Adagio was going to beat Aria into the ground for calling her an idiot...