//------------------------------// // Day 3- Part 2 // Story: The Bold, The Brash, and The Beautiful // by Razalon The Lizardman //------------------------------// The first thing that crossed Rarity's mind as she woke up in her hotel bedroom was how much she missed being queen, as well as all the perks she got with the title. She missed very dearly the large double bed with cloud-soft sheets she had slept in the previous night, as sleeping in it had felt simply divine. And, though she felt embarrassed about it, she even missed cuddling in the (surprisingly) soothing embrace of King H.D. It reeked of irony, to be honest, that a mere robotic construct could be a more proper gentlecolt than a living flesh stallion. Then again, Rarity knew that Blueblood was the exception, not the rule. With a wistful sigh, Rarity removed her sleeping mask and proceeded to undergo her usual morning routine. She got up and entered the room's bathroom wherein she showered, dried off, did her makeup, and adorned her high-class attire. Once her morning routine was completed, Rarity exited her hotel room and began the trip to the palace's dining hall where breakfast would be served very shortly. On the way there, Rarity remembered that King H.D. chose a new queen every couple of days, meaning he'd choose another one today. With a new spring in her step, Rarity happily thought about how wonderful it'd be to be queen again for her last full day at the DELOS resort. This fantasy continued on even as she entered the palace and made her way to the dining hall where breakfast was being served and nearly all of Magicworld's guests were in attendance. As Rarity began approaching the breakfast buffet, however, a terrifying realization dawned on her. I forgot to style my mane! Panicking, Rarity struggled to remember where the nearest lavatory was; all the while making a futile attempt to cover her mane with her right front hoof. Once she remembered where the fillies' room was she broke out into an awkward three-legged gallop towards it, too anxious about fixing her mane to be concerned with what all the nobles in attendance thought of her. As soon as she entered the fillies' lavatory she rushed to the mirror and cringed at the sight that greeted her. Her mane was, quite simply, horrid. It looked as if she'd been sucked into a tornado and regurgitated like foal's mush. With a depressed sigh, Rarity pulled out an emergency comb she had in her saddlebag and began the assuredly arduous task of styling her mane. While Rarity occupied the mare's lavatory, the noble guests outside in the dining hall chatted away incessantly with each other and daintily ate their self-served breakfasts like they always did. They stopped, however, when a faint cry of agony sounded at the palace's front entrance, followed by the unmistakable blast sound of a spell being fired. All the nobles glanced towards the dining hall's entrance just in time to see a certain masked robotic unicorn enter. While the nobles recognized Sin from a couple of days ago, they thought little of it and resumed their prior activities. They didn't have long to indulge in them, however, as Sin fired off a super-charged Mind Crush spell that enveloped every single noble present. The sounds of a couple hundred near simultaneous thuds echoed throughout the large dining hall as every noble fell unconscious to the floor, any items they had held following in their wake. It was then that, in a rare case of remarkable timing, Rarity exited the lavatory. She made her way to the dining hall, her mane now curled accordingly, and glanced in only to be startled by the sight that greeted her. As Rarity attempted to wrap her head around what was going on, she heard hoofsteps approaching from her right. Turning, she noticed Sin making way towards her, its horn charging with transparent energy and aimed directly at her. All at once Rarity understood what was happening, and managed to dodge the subsequent spell fired at her before breaking out into a hard gallop towards the palace entrance. Intent on following through with its' objective, Sin turned and galloped right after her. Rarity galloped aimlessly around Magicworld, making sure to swerve to one side whenever she heard Sin firing off another spell. Even though she knew it was to blame for everypony's comatose states, Rarity was still confused on just what was going on with the cybercorn. What concerned her more, however, was the absence of any staff members coming to claim the robot for repairs. While she didn't put it past the staff to be tardy on these matters every once in a while, she found it impossible to believe that a rogue robot would slip by their notice and make it all the way back to the resort proper unless something bad had happened to them. It suddenly dawned on Rarity that she was alone in Magicworld with an out of control robot hunting her down. Her panic rising, she turned a corner and spotted the front entrance to Magicworld. Without a second thought, Rarity made a beeline for the gate with Sin still hot on her tail. Once through the gate, Rarity hopped swiftly down the accompanying steps into the tunnel that connected the trail leading back to the airship docks. She hadn't the intention of going there, however; with the resort's staff nowhere to be seen or found, Rarity was too concerned about her friends to even consider escaping without them. To that end, she turned off the trail upon exiting the tunnel and continued to gallop in what she hoped was the direction of Dodgeworld proper. After traveling a few meters she spared a glance over her shoulder to check if Sin was still following her, only to trip over a rock that sent her flying into a rocky ravine she had failed to notice prior. Rarity could do nothing but scream as she fell towards certain doom. The time was around late morning when Applejack and Prickly Pear arrived back at Dodgeworld proper. The two had spent the entire night roughing it in the cave after Jack O' Bones' failed assault. AJ was still grasping at straws for why and how she'd been thrown in the jailhouse, but Prickly had managed to convince her to let it go and take comfort in the fact that Jacky got what he deserved. The two of them had slept soundly all throughout the night before waking up at the crack of dawn next morning. After stretching a bit they exited the cave and headed back to town, AJ intent on making the most of her last full day at the resort. That all got thrown into doubt, however, when she and Prickly found the town street completely devoid of life. They instantly knew something was wrong, since by this time the street was normally bustling with at least some activity. The fact that not a single pony could be seen anywhere unnerved both AJ and Prickly, intensified by the complete silence permeating the town as a result. "Where is everypony?" Prickly asked with worry clear in his voice. "Ah don't rightly know, Prickly," AJ responded as she glanced down an alleyway between two buildings. "It's 'till too early fer Kazum ta have arrived. Even then, Ah highly doubt everypony would be fixin' ta leave today." The two cowponies approached the hotel and entered with caution. The inside was dark despite the rising morning sun, letting the pair see only the faint outlines of each door along both sides of the hallway. As AJ walked down the hall, counting the doors until she reached hers, she started feeling antsy for no apparent reason. Maybe it was the stress of being confused about what was going on, or concern for everypony who should've been up and about but weren't. One thing she knew it wasn't, however, was fear. Applejack had learned over time that being afraid was more a hindrance than a quality. While it helped to be cautious, turning one's rear on something out of reluctance to face it head on was inexcusable by her standards, and Celestia rue the day she herself succumbed to fear of anything other than fear itself. As Applejack neared what she believed was her room's door, her right fore hoof bumped into something . . . warm . . . soft . . . and alive. She froze. Looking down at her hooves, AJ saw the unmistakable outline of a pony, a mare by the looks of it, laying halfway through the door next to hers with an amber lamp loosely clenched between her teeth. Her eyes were shut and her breathing was slow and steady, so she was alright at least. "Hey, Prickly, check this out." AJ heard Prickly approach behind her. "Who is that?" he asked. "No idea," AJ replied, "but let's see if she'll wake up an' tell us, along with what in tarnation's goin' on around here." Applejack gently nudged the mare with her snout. When this failed to wake her she tried again a little harder, only to receive equal success. Prickly tried next, attempting to wake the sleeping mare from her slumber with a few loud hoof stomps on the ground next to her left ear. When that failed, Prickly leaned down and placed his right ear against her chest. After a few moments, he leaned back up and turned to AJ. "She ain't exactly asleep," he said. "Well, then what in tarnation is she?" AJ asked. "She 'pears ta be 'n some sorta coma. Thing is, comatose ponies shouldn' be able ta breathe normally without a breathin' apparatus." "How'd ya figure that out . . . and whaddya think it means?" Prickly shrugged. "Ah've learned a few tricks in my time, and Ah'm not sure what it means." As the two contemplated what to do with the unconscious mare they heard what sounded like faint hoofsteps outside. Without a clue as to what was going on the two cowponies opted to stay in place, listening as the hoofsteps gradually neared their position. Eventually, the hoof fall pattern distinguished itself as that of a hard gallop and appeared to resonate from the east. With a worried glance to each other, AJ and Prickly cautiously made their way back to the hotel door and peeked around the corner in the hoofsteps' direction. Rainbow Dash was very pleased with her "subjects". Under her lead, they had managed to halt Aviworld's path of drift and were now working on pushing it in the opposite direction. Rainbow could only guesstimate that the wind currents had stayed somewhat the same throughout the night. She hoped they had, otherwise they could very well have been pushing Aviworld farther out to sea instead of toward probable land. Most of Aviworld's guests were occupied with the actual pushing of said behemoth cloud, leaving only a couple hoof-picked by Dash for personal help. One was a teal maned, dark green coated stallion with gray eyes and a portable telescope Cutie Mark, named Shubie. The other one, also a stallion, was gold maned and black coated with magenta eyes and a gold bar Cutie Mark, named Gold Leaf. Rainbow had picked them for their proclaimed expertise in navigation and direction, respectively. The three of them hovered over the slowly moving cloud fortress, discussing the best course of action to get back to DELOS island, as well as what could've happened to cause Aviworld to drift in the first place. "Wouldn't it be more efficient to keep Aviworld stationed and send enough pegasi to check out each dot on the horizon?" Gold Leaf asked. "Here's the problem with that," Dash answered. "We wouldn't have enough muscle left to keep it stationed." She looked down at all the pegasi moving the giant cloud fortress. "Everypony is struggling right now as it is, any less and the free-flowing winds out here will continue pushing Aviworld around." "There's also the inherent danger of them getting lost trying to find their way back here," Shubie added. "True, but it's quite an ambitious risk attempting to guide a cloud of this size, is it not?" Gold Leaf asked. "Everypony will eventually exhaust themselves and need to rest, at which point the winds will continue pushing Aviworld around regardless." Rainbow glared at Gold. "Then I'll lend them my strength," she stated. Gold frowned. "Even if you are the Rainbow Dash, one extra pony isn't going to matter." Rainbow was but a hoof's length from Gold's face in a second, causing him to flinch in surprise. "I'm all it'll take to get us out of this mess." Before Gold could respond, Rainbow sped off down towards the moving cloud fortress. She inserted herself between two pegasi near its south side and proceeded to push Aviworld along with her subjects. For all her efforts the cloud fortress' movements did indeed pick up significant speed. Gold and Shubie watched as they kept over the cloud fortress and, while impressed, knew it wouldn't be enough to get them to the nearest landmass before the winds proved to be too strong to overcome. Just then, Gold spotted something in his eye's corner off in the distance. Looking up, he saw a dot in the sky about a few miles from their position. Despite being so far away, he could tell it was too big to be a bird or something similar. In fact, something about it seemed familiar. "Hey, Shubie," he said, pointing towards the object, "look at that." Shubie followed Gold's gaze towards the object and he too found it to be familiar. "Hey, Dash!" he called to her. "Come here for a sec!" Dash was up with them in little more than a second. "What is it, guys?" They both pointed towards the object and Dash looked. "Yeah, what about it?" she asked. "Doesn't it look familiar?" Shubie asked. Rainbow looked back at the object and pondered if it did. Before long, she realized what Shubie and Gold were hinting at and zoomed back down to Aviworld. She commanded all the pegasi to change direction towards the object, to which they had no qualms, and resumed with helping them herself to speed up the process. If Shubie and Gold were correct in their assumptions, reaching the object was of utmost importance. Airship Kazum Pilot Skiel stood at the helm of said airship totally focused on his task at hoof. Transporting guests to and from the DELOS resort was a simple, but ever so nerve wracking job that required a clear mind to pull off without a hitch. While airships were designed with safety first in mind, if something did happen and the ship crashed into the sea it would undoubtedly be disastrous. Pegasi passengers could fly for help, sure, but they'd be hard pressed to find their way back to the downed ship amidst the vast ocean between the mainland and DELOS island. That was the one thing Skiel didn't take too kindly to about his job; it screamed trouble to build a resort so far away from the nearest help. As Skiel was about to steer the ship slightly right to re-align with DELOS island's docks, he caught sight of something out the starboard window of the cockpit. Squinting his eyes, he gasped upon realizing what he was looking at; DELOS island's Aviworld being pushed by a whole bunch of pegasi towards the Kazum. The sight of Aviworld away from the rest of the resort was troubling to Skiel; it was a definite sign that something wasn't right. When Aviworld was no more than one hundred meters from the airship, a lone pegasus mare emerged from behind the enormous cloud and flew up to the cockpit's window. She had a prismatic mane, a cyan blue coat, magenta eyes and a Cutie Mark consisting of a cloud with a rainbow lightning bolt striking down from it. Skiel watched as the pegasus inaudibly spoke while gesturing towards the misplaced cloud. Skiel put a hoof to his ear to indicate he couldn't hear her, to which she groaned and flew around towards the side of the airship where the door was. Skiel heard the door open, followed by a brief commotion in the passenger's lounge, then a few shouts from the flight attendants before the cockpit's door opened and the rainbow maned pegasus entered, panting. "Who are you?" Skiel asked her. The pegasus took a deep breath and answered. "My name is Rainbow Dash." She then looked out the window at Aviworld. "And we have a huge problem on our hooves."