//------------------------------// // The Crystal Sea // Story: Rainbow Dash Around the World // by MagicS //------------------------------// Three pegasus mares stood at the northern edge of Camelback and stared out at the desert. A sandstorm raged in the distance, obscuring anything further away than a few miles. That didn’t concern them though, what the sandstorm hid was too important to ignore or be cowed by. No storm or disaster of any sort could stop or dissuade them now. Nothing short of the world ending could curb their determination. “You know it hasn’t been so long since I met up with you,” Rainbow Dash said. “But it feels like we’ve forged ourselves a decent relationship,” Miss Valentine grinned. “Either way, I’m glad the two of you are getting along much better now. And all three of us are going to have a great memory and story to share after the day is done,” Daring Do said. Rainbow Dash cracked her neck and flapped her wings, levitating above the sand. “Let’s do this.” Daring Do joined her and Valentine tensed up, getting ready to run. “Yes, let’s,” the scarlet mare said and all three took off towards the sandstorm at a quick pace. It may have not been the smartest way to do things with their lack of water and the sun beating down on them, but they were too excited to take things slow. The desert didn’t wait. In only a few minutes they would reach that sandstorm and barrel into it. The next clue, the next step, was right there, and maybe the Crystal Sea too. “Last one there’s a rotten egg!” Rainbow said and sped up her flying. “That aint fair, honey!” Valentine yelled and ran after her. Daring Do only grinned and kept flying along. Less than an hour later, Astral Comet and Popcorn were standing on the roof of a building while a massive blimp hovered overhead, casting a huge shadow across the town of Camelback and making most of its citizens gaze up in surprise and wonder. The two ponies looked down at the narrow streets to see crowds of camels talking with each other about what was going on. Probably not the best thing for their group but it was obvious that Shining Diamond didn’t care. They definitely didn’t want to stay here for long though, lest some griffons or local pegasi got curious and tried to fly up to the blimp. At least camels couldn’t fly. “Not exactly the most inconspicuous right now, are we?” Popcorn said as she looked at the hovering blimp, the large propellers keeping it afloat. Astral Comet snorted in agreement. “How long until the Brotherhood and the Murkers hear about this? Well, not like anyone knows what’s going on at least.” A hatch opened up on the side of the large gondola and two flying figures came out of it, coming down to where Astral and Popcorn were. “There’s our ride,” Popcorn said. “Took them long enough to see us,” Astral nodded. In another couple of minutes, the entire group was assembled on the flight deck of the Ziz. Shining Diamond proudly stood by the wheel of his gigantic blimp, staring out ahead through the window at the sandstorms to the north. Whitesheet, Sand, Velvet, Astral, and Popcorn all stiffly stood at attention behind him. And meanwhile another pony who the two from Camelback didn’t know stood behind them, her hoof impatiently tapping on the metal floor. “Oh Astral and Popcorn,” Shining Diamond smiled as he spoke, his crisp and magnificent voice projecting through the whole room. “The news you’ve given me is even better than what I was expecting. Truly you’ve outdone yourselves. I believe fortune is smiling down on all of us right now.” “Thank you, sir,” Astral Comet said, his chest puffing out. “Our enemies are down to three, they have no idea we’re tracking them, and the Crystal Sea is right there in front of us. Ah, truly a day for celebration,” Shining Diamond beamed. “Can we finish with the theatrics already?” Supernova said with a growl in her voice. Astral Comet and the other lackeys turned to look at her and saw the smoldering anger bubbling just under her surface. “I need to get that pony, you know where she is, so let’s go already,” Supernova said. “There’s no reason to keep floating around above this town now that you’ve recovered your minions. You might have everything you need now, but I can’t stop until Rainbow Dash is dead.” “Umm... who is this?” Astral Comet asked. To his left, he saw a nervous Velvet Hooves repeatedly shake her head. “A new business partner, Astral. Don’t mind her impatience, she has something supposedly very important to do,” Shining Diamond shrugged, still not even bothering to turn around and look at the others. “And I suppose you do make a good point, Supernova. Best not to waste anymore time here.” “We don’t want the Brotherhood or Murkers coming after us after all,” Whitesheet said. Shining Diamond laughed in derision. “Hah! I’m not worried about them, I just don’t want anybody touching those crystals before me. What would the stupid camels do anyways? They can’t fly, they don’t even have any weapons or magic to try shooting us down with. Well, who cares, time to get a move on. To the Crystal Sea!” He pressed a lever forward and the great blimp thrummed and slowly started to leave the airspace of Camelback. Now on the move, a spark danced from the horn of Supernova while a deranged grin spread across her face. The minions of Shining Diamond gathered by the viewport to watch as they went directly towards the raging sandstorms, and overhead a dragon stuck in a cage groaned in pain and exhaustion. “We’re going to be rich beyond belief now,” Whitesheet said with a happy smile on her face. “I’m thinking as soon as we’ve ousted the camels from power we can start renaming some of the places around this desert too. From Camelback to Ponyback. Would be a fitting change,” Astral Comet said. “Cement it as a place of importance, where our victory was assured.” “I’m merely going to be happy living like a king with a bunch of beautiful mares attending to my every need,” Sand said. “I suppose that’s the only way you could get a beautiful mare to attend to you,” Velvet laughed. “But truly, that sounds good to me too, just switch the mares with stallions.” “And I’ll never have to eat subpar food or drink dirty water again. I don’t care if an entire village has to go hungry, it’ll be nothing but the best, most gourmet meals for me from now on!” Popcorn grinned. “We’re all going to get exactly what we want. As soon as this desert is mine,” Shining Diamond said. He looked at Whitesheet. “Whitesheet? Tell me, with all the cargo nets and carrying ropes we have, how much crystal can we harvest and take with us?” “Several hundred tons, sir,” Whitesheet answered. “Excellent, most excellent. It will surely take some time to collect it all, but it will be well worth it,” he laughed as the Ziz continued on towards the sandstorms. The sandstorm raged all around the three mares, wind and sand blowing against them and into their faces unceasingly. It was a miserable experience that reminded Rainbow Dash of some of her worst times in the True North. She didn’t think anything could compare to the pain and annoyance of some of the places she flew through up there, but this darn sandstorm was proving her wrong. “Ugh! At least the two of you have some clothes you’re wearing!” Rainbow Dash yelled to her two companions. Even at full volume they could barely hear her. “It aint any better, honey!” Valentine yelled back at her as she struggled to resist the wind. “Come on! We have to press on harder!” Daring Do said. “The map showed a spot further north from Camelback than where we are now, we’ve gotta keep going!” “How big are these sandstorms anyways? How long do they last?” Rainbow asked. “Out here? They last forever,” Valentine answered. “The storms north of Camelback never stop. That’s probably why the Crystal Sea was never found again after the camels lost its location generations ago. As for size, who knows? No one’s ever been dumb enough to try and go through one and map it out.” “Good to know I’m still being as dumb as usual then!” Rainbow yelled. “There has to be a dead zone at some point though, or like an eye of the storm, otherwise the camels wouldn’t be able to get in and out of where the Crystal Sea is in the first place,” Daring Do said. “I think we’ll find that, or at least get an idea of where to go, as soon as we get to the spot marked on the map,” Valentine said. “Well you’re the one who said she knew exactly where that spot was or whatever, so hurry up and take us to it!” Rainbow said. “That’s what I’m trying to do! But if you haven’t noticed, we can barely see more than a few feet in front of us. It’s not going to be easy!” Valentine yelled. Rainbow Dash frowned and looked out at the near impenetrable walls of flying sand all around them. “I’ve got the best eyes so I’ll try and keep a look out for anything unusual.” “Be my guest,” Valentine said. It was hardly any better even with all three of them working together. The sand was almost bad enough to start cutting into them and honestly was coming close to hurting them the more they tried to go through the storm. And if they looked or turned the wrong direction they got a face full of it right into their eyes, nose, and mouth. Even flying for Rainbow and Daring was tough as the winds wanted to take them away. Maybe the Crystal Sea didn’t want to be found again. From what little the three knew about it, it sounded like it had some sort of magical aspect to it. Maybe the sandstorm was the Sea protecting itself? None of them had the magical ability to tell. Rainbow did have weather experience but this sandstorm wasn’t the kind of thing she could really do anything about. The three stuck pretty close together after that, with Rainbow Dash hovering somewhat above the other two and using her sharp eyes to find anything. Anything at all. But so far it was just rocks and ground that the sand was blasting over. It just seemed like any other piece of desert. If there was a landmark or something special hidden here, they weren’t close to finding it. “Maybe Harzeen was messing with us when he said that something was supposed to be here?” Daring Do said. “It sounded genuine when he mentioned it...” Valentine muttered. “It could’ve easily been totally buried by the sand after all these years,” Daring Do said. “Well we don’t exactly have a metal detector on our hooves now, do we?” Valentine sighed. “If we still had a certain unicorn around I feel like he might have been able to help us out,” Daring Do clicked her tongue in annoyance. “No use thinking of those two morons,” Valentine shook her head. A grin then opened up her face. “Not until we have the opportunity to pay them back at least.” Daring Do smiled at Valentine still being able to think to the future. Since at the moment things weren’t going so great. They had to charge up a rocky hill together that had been weathered by years of unceasing winds and sands, going down the backside of it and simply being met by more sand and rocks. An unfortunate wasteland. Rainbow Dash frowned down at Valentine. “How close are we to the spot on the map?” “It should be practically right here!” Valentine said. “Just right around here somewhere!” “I’ll find it then... someway, somehow, whatever’s out here I’ll get my hooves on it,” Rainbow said and flew with all her strength down to the sands. All three of them spent the next hour combing through this part of the sandstorm in perfect unison. Thanks to Rainbow Dash directing them from overhead even while the winds and sands threatened to blow her miles away. It was because of Rainbow that they at least knew they weren’t missing any spots, no stone or grain of sand was going uncovered. And it was then that through squinted eyes, Daring Do saw something wedged between two small sand dunes. “Wait! I see something!” She shouted and pointed towards it. The others followed her gaze and Rainbow’s eyes were able to make out what looked like a black stone coming out of the sand. It was smoother than a stone stuck in this kind of maelstrom would be, and it’s color didn’t fit anything else either. Quickly she zoomed in its direction while the other two followed her. Rainbow Dash paused above the black stone and looked down at it, tilting her head. It looked like a mound or something sticking out of the sand. Her eyes widened. Not a mound, a hump. “It’s buried here, help me dig it out!” Rainbow said as Valentine and Daring Do arrived. She beat her wings hard to clear away some of the sand around it, then moved to try and block the wind and sand being blown at it by the storm. “What a pain...” Valentine bit her lip as she used her hooves to excavate the rest of the black stone. It wasn’t easy, the sand kept on falling back and the thing was fairly big in the first place. Once more a certain other couple of ponies would’ve been a big help here. But working together the three of them did slowly make progress. It was two steps forward and one step back the whole time but they were still slowly getting there. More and more of the black stone was being revealed to them and it became apparent this wasn’t some random stone but a carved statue. And they were all pretty sure what it was a statue of. Finally they had more than half of it uncovered and all three of them stopped to catch their breath. From the looks of it they wouldn’t need to do anymore digging anyways. A camel. A black statue of polished stone in the shape of a camel, it looked like its legs were probably on some sort of stand that was still under the sand. Except for one leg. One leg was raised and pointing just ever so slightly northwest. Miss Valentine turned her head to look in the direction the camel was pointing. “The Crystal Sea...”