The carriage shook back and forth lightly. Rainbow Dash sat close to the window, the sounds of the ocean and the oncoming storm rang in her ear. Out in the ocean it is free ground for anything to happen, pegasi don’t need to take care of clouds that are away from the coasts. The carriage she was in was white with golden complements. Two pegasi soldiers pulled the carriage in the air oversea. Across from Dash was an elite pegasus guard , whose face looked aged and had gray fur with a golden mane and tail. A couple of feet away from Dash was the door to exit the carriage, it had a small window on it that shed some light in. Behind Dash’s head was another window to see out of the back, where the last glances of Vanhoover could've been seen.
“So, what’s this island even like?” Dash asked the guard.
“Didn’t your friend tell you? She never sent you a postcard about it?” The guard jested.
Rainbow Dash sighed
“We haven’t really talked since she left. I only got a few letters on what she has done so far but, other than that, nothing.” The guard thinks carefully of what his next words will be so he does not alarm Dash.
“Things...have changed from what you’ve read in those letters.” Dash cocks her head slightly at the guard.
“How?”
“Well...” The guard replied “The people are a bit more hostile and power hungry.” Rainbow Dash looked more puzzled than before.
“But why? Twilight was a good leader. How would that ever happen?” The guard looked at the floor for a moment before looking back at Dash.
“So much power can make one act different...All you need to worry about is getting in there and trying to convince her to leave the island and get back to Canterlot. ”
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes “I know, you told me this the first time.”
There was an awkward silence between the two for a long time. Rainbow Dash went back to looking out the window at the horizon, beyond the ocean, watching the lightning strike down sending the sounds of thunder across the sea. She could distinctly hear the two soldiers who pulled the chariot over the ocean nickering and panting. Through the back window she saw many other soldiers following. Dash looked back to the guard.
“So uhh...What’s your name?” she asked.
“I’m not allowed to tell you.” He responded almost immediately, looking up from the floor at her.
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes again but this time added a sigh.
“...On that island...” The guard starts “It’s all messed up...”
Rainbow dash turns back to the guard.
“It’s what your friend found on that island that started the whole mess...That da-” The guard was cut off by the shouting soldiers. They both looked at each other puzzled.
“What’s going on?” Rainbow Dash questioned with a look of confusion.
Large explosions were heard from ocean underneath them. Dash’s eyes widen slightly and gripped the seat as the carriage started to rock violently. The guard leaped out of his seat and staggered his way toward the door, trying to keep his balance as the ride took abrupt turns. The carriage jerked sideways and the guard was flung out of the carriage, crashing the door off of its hinges. In the opening, Rainbow Dash looked to see the chaos unfolding outside the carriage. Hundreds of cannonballs being fired from below were bombarding the soldiers. The surviving fighters tried to fly around the round-shots only for many of them to be struck down instantaneously before they could even react. In a quick reflex the guard's wings expanded out trying to maintain a glide through the snarl, only to be struck on the wing. He fell down thrashing then disappeared from Rainbow Dash’s sight. She felt the carriage blast upward in the front. The ride started to go downward and Dash felt her heart drop as the sudden realization kicked in.
She looked towards the door in a panicked state, trying to figure out which scenario would be more survivable, riding out the crash or going into the storm of solid shots. Before she could even act, a cannonball blasted through the floor beneath her, barely missing her. She jolted backwards into her seat. Dash stood up and hastened to the opening where the door used to be. The carriage was shook sideways from another hit and Dash was sent flying backwards to the opposite side of the door. She slammed into the wall with a great thud and slumped down to the floor. The last thing she heard before the carriage smashed into the ocean was the silence. No cries of pain or orders from the head soldier. No cannon fire. Just complete and utter silence.
Rainbow Dash’s eyes opened slowly, she saw that she was on a wooden dock, but what was strange is that it was a dock that lead to nowhere, just stranded in the middle of the ocean. She grunted as she tried to push herself up off of the wooden boards to stand up straight. Her forearm and shoulder muscles struggled and twitched from fatigue. She squinted her eyes as her vision blurred. She stood up, sagging to one side, looking down at the ground.
She sighed and slightly coughed before looking up to the other end of the dock. A shiny object caught Rainbow Dash’s eye in the distance. She tried to expand her wings out, thinking that she could maybe fly over to the object. A sharp pain traveled through her right wing. The shock of pain extended from the tip of the wing to her spine. She cried out in pain loudly and slowly put her wing back into place.
“G-Guess I’m not gonna be flying for now...” Rainbow Dash murmured to herself out loud.
She slowly lumbered toward the shining object in the distance. As she walked she saw white lettering on the planks as she goes.
“GLORY TO HER”
“ SHE IS THE FOUNDATION FOR OUR UTOPIA”
At the last few planks it read “WITH HER WE WILL LIVE FOREVER”
Rainbow Dash finally reached the shining object on the right of the dock. It appeared to be a golden box with a small handle. It stood upon a very well made, hand crafted, marble pedestal. Dash lifted her hoof up and pulled on the little handle. The door on the golden box opened to reveal inside a silver lever. Rainbow Dash stared at the silver lever for a moment. She looked back behind her at the other end of the dock then looked back at the lever. She lifted her hoof up and brought it over to the lever. Her hoof went onto of the tip of the lever and she pushed down. An audible clicking-grinding sound could be heard from the box. Dash removed her hoof from the lever and places it back onto the wood surface of the dock. A green light glowed out of the box from behind the lever. She felt the wooden surface start to vibrate from underneath her. Rainbow Dash saw something starting to surface out of the water. The golden box next to Rainbow Dash started to speak.
“FIREFLY ARRIVAL IN 5...4...”
The object underwater proceeded to get closer and closer to the dock. Dash started to step back away.
“...3...2...”
The object was nearly at the surface and almost touching the top of the sea.
“1”
At the top of the ocean the item bursted out of the ocean and the dock was sprayed with water. Dash, who was a safe distance away, saw that the water form to steam as it hit the wooden surface. The object that was before dash was something that resembled the looks of a thick torpedo. Only this one being bronze and with a small window and door on the front.
“ YOUR FIREFLY TO EQUUS HAS ARRIVED. PLEASE BOARD WITH CAUTION. THANK YOU.”
Rainbow Dash had the look of confusion on her face. She slowly limped to the FireFly. She saw no other option than to step inside and see where it would take her. As Dash advanced toward the torpedo object the small door on the front opened for her automatically. She paused for a moment before entering. Inside the cramp pod the interior was a gray hue and there was a chair sideways to the entrance. Next to the chair was something implanted into the wall that looked like a furnace. By it was a pulley system that was putting coal into the mini furnace, Dash noticed that the coal was being pulled out from underneath the seat. In front of the chair, mounted onto the wall, was a small television screen. Dash climbed into the chair and sat down. The door of the Firefly closed shut and a safety harness that was hidden behind the chair lowered down on top of Rainbow Dash. She grunted slightly as the harness made her body push down onto her wings. The television in front of her extended outward, toward her. Static was the only thing that came on screen. Dash felt the Firefly move and start to descend downward into the ocean. An image pop up on the screen of a cartoonish looking stallion with a bowler hat on pointing at the text next to him in a tongue-in-cheek way. The text read
“Please Stand By”