//------------------------------// // Pursuit // Story: Rainbow Dash Around the World // by MagicS //------------------------------// Rainbow Dash and Gilbert landed on the deck of the Heart of Azure. Breakwater was once again behind the wheel, and Senax had put a bandage over Daylight’s cut. The bandage had already been soaked through with red, and blood still covered a lot of the unicorn’s face, but she at least looked stable. “It’s good you convinced him to leave, otherwise this distraction would never work,” Daylight said to Rainbow. “He’s a thrillseeker,” Rainbow Dash snorted in annoyance. “I just had to make it seem like nothing he could do would give him a fun fight anymore from me. I… I think he definitely knew he could’ve made things worse for us if he stayed around. He really had us in a bind if he just kept occupying me. Instead he practically let us go free.” “We’ll make him regret that decision when we slip away from him again,” Daylight scowled. “So how does your illusion or whatever work then? He said you tricked him once?” Rainbow raised an eyebrow at her. “Why’d you need me to come back down here?” “When it comes to magic, my specialty is manipulating light. I can create mirages or make us look invisible out here on the open ocean by bending light. It’s difficult to maintain such a big spell… but I’ve done it before.” “And you knocked yourself out for a day after,” Gilbert said to her. “And you didn’t have a head injury last time,” a panicked Senax said as she looked at Daylight’s wound. “I can do it. I just need to concentrate,” Daylight frowned. “We’re just lucky Godfrey isn’t here to interfere. I’d never be able to maintain the spell with him around… and with his eyes he’d probably be able to pick out any minor inconsistencies around it to see where we were anyways. Or just hear us.” She took a deep sigh. “That’s why we needed you back onboard, Rainbow Dash. We couldn’t have you lose sight of us—you have to be on the ship as well when I put my camouflage spell around it.” “But Godfrey said they can still follow the trail in the water that out boat leaves...” Rainbow said. “Doesn’t matter,” Breakwater said from the helm. “As long as we can get to the Three Spears before The Scourge is on top of us, we’ll be obscured from their direct view and the different waves and currents around the islands will wash away our trail. All he’ll know for sure is that we’ve decided to lay anchor somewhere at the Spears. We just need to get there quickly and find a spot to hide at.” Rainbow Dash nodded. “Alright, you guys are the experts at sailing. Guess I’m not scouting ahead anymore?” “No. We can’t have you going in and out of the camouflage spell—not while they’re in firing range,” Daylight said. “It’s not all so bad though—look!” Breakwater said and pointed ahead. Rainbow Dash did and on the horizon she and the others saw a trio of sharp mountains shooting right up out of the water in the distance. She could already see the rocky cliffs rising straight from the water, it didn’t look like there were any beaches or coves to dock at on this side, not that they would want to anyways with Godfrey right behind them. The water passages in between the three islands looked relatively narrow, but still easily wide enough for either their ship or his to pass through. White waves washed up along the cliffs and Rainbow could spot greenery like trees and other vegetation higher up on the Spears. “Can you think of any good place to hide there without me going to look?” Rainbow Dash asked Breakwater. “I know the southern sides of the islands have a lot of small coves and inlets carved into them by the ocean and winds over time. So I’ve got a general idea at least,” Breakwater said. “Good enough,” Rainbow Dash shrugged. “I’m going to activate my camouflage spell now, everybody stay still, I don’t need this boat rocking anymore than it already is,” Daylight Gleam said and steadied herself, Senax helping to support her while Gilbert stood by the mast and rubbed his forehead. Rainbow Dash watched to see exactly what she needed to do. Magic spells were no stranger to her, but her primary experience with them was from super experts like Twilight and Starlight—who she knew were a million times more powerful than regular unicorns. Daylight took a deep breath and her horn started to glow with a powder blue aura. Her face was already sweaty and pale even before she did anything, probably a result of blood loss, and Rainbow Dash bit her lip in concern. “Okay… here goes!” Daylight said and a blue beam of magic shot up from her horn. The moment it reached just higher than the mast it expanded outward like a canopy or tent coming down like a dome over the entire boat. Daylight had to grit her teeth and focus extra hard at this point as the dome covered everything on its way to touching down against the water. Shimmering in the air, it hit the water and then extended under it as well, before making a perfect sphere around the entire ship. Daylight was practically shaking as she finished, but she finally nodded her head. “T-There… the camouflage is up. They shouldn’t be able to see us from the outside...” Rainbow Dash looked at the dome around them, it was like looking out from inside of a bubble, light was bending in a weird way. “Huh...” “This is very troublesome right now...” Daylight grunted, standing stock still with her horn still glowing. “Keep it up! I think you’re doing a great job!” Rainbow grinned at her. “Er… at least I bet you are… since I can’t exactly see what it looks like on the outside.” Daylight rolled her eyes and ignored her. “It’s far easier to do this on a smaller scale and on stable ground. Water warps and reflects light as well, so Daylight’s spells have to be extra-refined,” Gilbert explained to Rainbow Dash as he walked over. “There’s no way to actually make the camouflage perfect in a situation like this—but she can come close.” “We’re still not out of the woods until we get to the Three Spears,” Breakwater said. “I wouldn’t put it past Godfrey to open fire on our location anyways...” Rainbow Dash frowned and gently flew up to the aft of the ship. Looking out, she could see The Scourge coming down hard at them, gaining distance every second. It was certain that there was absolutely no way Godfrey would be letting up. She couldn’t help but clench her hooves in anticipation of getting to meet him face to face again. Godfrey landed on the bow of his huge pirate ship and tucked his wings in, a grin still spread across his beak as his subordinates ran up to him. The main deck was busy with activity—ponies worked the sails and others had been bringing cannonballs up from the hold and stacking them by the top level cannons. One large earth pony cracked a whip at some of the lower-ranked pirates, trying to get them to move faster and work harder. At the bridge near the back of the ship, his helmsman kept the large ship steady as it crushed over the ocean waves. Ponies climbed up and down the masts, pulling ropes and adjusting the rigging to get as much out of the sails as they could. A unicorn halfway up the mainmast beat anyone working too slowly with a leather strap. “Ahhh,” Godfrey sighed in joy as he stood proudly on the bow. “Captain! Welcome back aboard!” His first mate—a red unicorn with a nasty scar on his face and a peg leg replacing his left back leg—said as he reached him. “Did you…?” “Heh, no I didn’t get anything from them, Shanty. They have a new crewmate who gave me a fun time instead. We’ll just chase em down and corner them the old fashioned way,” Godfrey said. “Yes, Captain. But I’ve been watching and… that unicorn of theirs has already made them disappear,” Sea Shanty pointed off the bow towards where the Heart of Azure had been. Godfrey looked over his shoulder briefly and raised an eyebrow at the now “empty” sea between them and the Three Spears. He shrugged and looked back at Sea Shanty. “Eh, we always knew they would do that. If you and Thunder Wing up in the crow’s nest were keeping watch then you should still know about where they are, right?” “Yes, we didn’t blink, Captain. Just like you said,” Sea Shanty nodded. “Good, otherwise I’d have to cut off another one of your legs. Get the long guns ready and send them a volley. I wouldn’t want things to be boring for them on their way to the Three Spears,” Godfrey said and stepped past his first mate. Idly his talons twitched and ran across his now empty scabbard hanging at his side. “I’ll be in my cabin until we reach the Spears… and I need to grab myself a new sword.” Sea Shanty nodded and sped off to the stairs leading below decks while Godfrey marched past the rest of his crew to the captain’s cabin at the back of The Scourge. An amused smirk danced on his beak the entire time. Down below, on the gun deck right below the main deck, ponies were now moving briskly according to Sea Shanty’s orders. While on the port and starboard sides of the vessel there were numerous cannons lined up, their barrels already protruding from their gun ports in the ship, those weren’t the ones that were going to be used now. After all, their quarry was directly ahead of them. Another fat earth pony who had half his teeth missing was whipping the lowly workers forwards to the bow of the ship. At the bow were the two largest cannons The Scourge had. Twin 12-pound long guns. The barrels were elongated compared to the others, giving them a far superior firing range. Ponies pulled away at a set of chains to remove the wooden boards that concealed them, and the two large cannons were wheeled forwards until their barrels ran parallel to the draconic bowsprit. Others brought forward the heavy cannonballs one by one until a pyramidal pile was sitting next to both of them. Now they were ready to open fire at the Heart of Azure. In reality, Sea Shanty knew that Godfrey probably didn’t expect them to actually hit the other ship. Not at this range and not with them being unable to actually see the vessel. He just wanted them harried. And far be it for him to disobey any order his captain gave. Sea Shanty shivered as a phantom pain wormed its way up his missing leg. “Get ready to fire!” The gunners opened up the back of the cannons and the loaders put the first of many cannonballs into the big guns. The cannons were then closed and locked while a pony came forward with the matches for their fuses. Something that needed to be handled very carefully considering all the explosives down here. A pair of ponies struck their matches and held them by the short fuses, before looking to Sea Shanty for the order. The first mate nodded. “Fire!” Rainbow Dash stood at the bow of the Heart of Azure with a hard frown set on her face. She was staring straight ahead at the Three Spears—the trio of mountain islands getting closer and closer. By the look of things, at this point they should arrive there in about half an hour. Then they could navigate to the southern faces of one of the islands and find a place to hide. Thankfully, they could use the islands themselves to block The Scourge from directly seeing them fairly soon, and then Daylight could relax her spell. A thunderclap erupted over the ocean and Rainbow Dash briefly looked east at the approaching storm. “Wait… that’s not the direction it came from.” The next thing she heard was a high-pitched whistling sound and then an explosion of water off the starboard side of the boat. Two huge jets of water shot up into the air and rained down on the rest of the ocean. “Cannonfire!” Breakwater yelled. “Well that’s not a surprise...” Gilbert grimaced. “What do we do? What if he hits us?” Rainbow Dash asked, her body shaking—not in fear but in the need to do something. “We just have to hope he doesn’t,” Senax said as she continued to support Daylight, wiping sweat and blood from the unicorn and giving her sips of water. Rainbow Dash looked at Daylight’s face. She was getting redder, almost like a fever was breaking out. “Just gotta keep our heads down low...” Breakwater grumbled from the helm. The thunderclap came again and was soon followed by two more explosions in the water, close enough that seawater splashed onto the deck of the Heart of Azure and drenched the five of them. “That’s really not what I need right now,” Daylight said through clenched teeth. More and more thunderclaps rang out followed closely by explosive spouts of water around them. Godfrey wasn’t letting up at all in his barrage of their boat. Thankfully they only had a general location to fire at, otherwise their boat probably would’ve been blown to smithereens at this point. Rainbow Dash paced back and forth, grinding her teeth in frustration, it bothered her so much to just be sitting here unable to do anything. Every now and then she glanced north, seeing the large black sails and the happily flying jolly-roger of The Scourge now maybe less than a mile back. Twin flashes from the bow signaled its canons firing once more and Rainbow Dash ducked just in case—but the cannonballs smashed into the ocean in the wake of their ship. “Is there seriously nothing else to do?” Rainbow asked Breakwater. “Do you see any cannons onboard my ship? Or any weapons for that matter?” He frowned at her. “Uhh...” “Exactly. I’m not some swashbuckler who engages in fancy duels and ship-to-ship combat. We’ve just got to run and hide.” “I’m just worried for you guys if something happens. I don’t need to fight Godfrey right now, I want to make sure you’re okay.” “Appreciate it, but you can be a lot more help once we actually reach the Three Spears.” Another thunderclap rang and Rainbow Dash this time looked up to see both of the cannonballs shoot directly over their ship. One went to the right of the sail and landed in the water off the bow… but before the other did the same, it tore a hole straight through their main and only sail. The circular hole ripped further thanks to the wind and strain on it and it created a long and thin tear almost going from top to bottom of the sail. Already Rainbow could feel the steering and momentum of the ship go a little off. “Uh oh...” Gilbert gulped. “Uh oh is right,” Breakwater swallowed and knitted his brow in frustration. “We can still make it to the Spears and coast around the islands on the currents, but we’ll need that fixed before we set off again.” “This is getting better and better...” Rainbow shook her head. “I have plenty of spare supplies for fixing that—but I think we’re going to need to stay at the Spears longer than we thought,” Breakwater said. “Just keep the ship as steady as possible. I can still keep up the camouflage...” Daylight said, though she was looking worse and worse. Rainbow Dash bit her lip and continued to pace about—behind them, another thunderclap rang.