Griffon eyes—sharp and piercing—scanned the ocean and the shadows swimming just below its surface. A griffon’s eyes were generally sharper than a pony’s, even a pegasus’s, and they could pick out movement better. Gilbert was using his gifted eyes to pick out which unfortunate fish was going to be his dinner. His wings were not flapping so as not to create a disturbance on the surface of the water. Instead he glided along, letting the wind carry him, directly above a school of tuna he could see below.
It was by far the quietest and stillest Rainbow Dash had ever seen the griffon as she watched him from aboard the Heart of Azure.
His talons slowly, slowly, descended towards the surface of the water until they were almost touching it. Right below him was a tuna they were following. He was keeping up with it, not going against it or blocking its way, instead waiting for the perfect moment he could put his talons into the water and already have them around the fish. It wouldn’t feel or sense any disturbance in the water until it was too late.
With a calm but deep breath, Gilbert’s talons shot into the clear water and came out with a flailing tuna grasped in them.
“Haha! Lunch!” He shouted in victory as he raised the tuna over his head.
“Nice job!” Senax clapped and cheered for him as she stood beside Rainbow Dash.
Gilbert flew with the tuna in his grip over to the boat and landed right next to the two of them. “Ah, something freshly caught will taste much better than the meat stored down below. Or any of that cheese for that matter.”
Rainbow grimaced and stepped away from him. The still alive tuna attempting to wriggle out from his talons. “You’re going to just eat that fish raw, like right now?”
“I don’t see how else I’d eat it,” Gilbert shrugged.
“Eugh, call me back down when you’re finished,” Rainbow said and flew up to the crow’s nest.
“Can do! Won’t take me long,” Gilbert smiled.
“It’s going to smell like fish the rest of the day...” Rainbow grumbled.
To avoid the sounds and smells of Gilbert eating his freshly caught tuna as best she could, Rainbow Dash plopped herself down inside the crow’s nest. She rubbed her stomach, noting that the bruising and pain from where Godfrey had punched her was pretty much completely gone. She then laid on her back, put her hooves behind her head, and stared up at the sky. There just still wasn’t a ton to do right now as they continued to sail on to the Sea Lion Reefs and Rainbow Dash had never been good at dealing with boredom and quiet moments.
What they really needed to do next time they stopped in port, or at some other island, was buy a deck of cards or some board games. From what she had heard about the Sea Lion Reefs she wasn’t expecting any of that kind of stuff there unless it had been traded by other ships previously. But if Rainbow just had a deck of cards that would at least be something she could do with the others as they sailed to keep her from being bored out of her mind.
Until they stopped playing with her because she always won.
The screeching of a bird reached her ears and Rainbow Dash focused her gaze harder on the sky. She saw a bird up there, a seagull—no, not a seagull—an albatross, flying high above the Heart of Azure. She was able to tell them apart now, she was happy to say. Her eyes followed it until it disappeared past the rim of the crow’s nest and she had to stand up to keep looking at it. What was it doing? Did it think their ship was interesting and wanted to check them out? She placed her hooves on the rim of the nest and stared at it the entire time it was flying. After a short minute it started to sway back and forth, and then circled above a particular section of the water.
Rainbow Dash tilted her head, wondering what was up with its movements.
Suddenly it folded its wings in to its sides and shot down, falling faster than a rock and sharper than a spear. It dove right into the water, not merely skimming it, at least several feet deep. As Rainbow Dash watched it came up a second later with a fish grasped tightly in its beak and its wings flapping hard to shed any water. Just as quickly as it went down it flew back into the sky and went off back its own way.
Rainbow Dash blinked and looked over the side of the crow’s nest. Down below she saw Gilbert had already skeletonized the tuna he had caught and was now picking the bones clean.
“Hey, Gilbert!” She shouted to him.
He paused from his dining and looked up at her, cocking his head. “Yes?”
“Let’s go fishing.”
“Excuse me?”
Rainbow Dash grinned and jumped down from the crow’s nest, gliding to a stop right in front of him. “Fishing. Let’s do it. I just saw how it could be way more fun than I thought.”
He blinked at her a few times, clearly confused. “I… obviously have no problem with doing some more fishing, but I can’t imagine that you would now like to.” His eyes roamed over to the tuna skeleton he was holding.
“I’m not going to eat whatever I catch, it’ll be totally catch and release, just for fun,” Rainbow Dash snorted and rolled her eyes.
“Even then I’m surprised you would partake in fishing.”
“Look—I’ve got my best friend who takes care of bears and snakes and all kinds of other stuff and she’s the sweetest, most gentlest pony ever. She knows about the food chain, I know about the food chain, we both deal with it. It’s no big deal. It’s why even though I don’t want to be around when you’re eating I’m not flipping out at you when you’re gorging yourself on tuna.”
Gilbert coughed. “Eheh, thank you for that.” He tossed the skeleton of the tuna fish off the side of the boat.
“So come on—it’s time to dive bomb.”
“You can still spot the schools of fish from this high up, right?”
“Oh yes, the water’s definitely clear enough to.”
“Good. I’d never want to give up eyes so good. Pegasus eyes are amazing, and—heh—I bet mine are way more amazing than average, but griffon eyes are super sharp too aren’t they?”
“Unlike ponies we are predators after all.”
“Yeah, yeah, sorry but the word predator just doesn’t really fit you.”
“That is a fair jab...”
The two were circling the water off the starboard side of the Heart of Azure, with enough distance from the boat that they weren’t on a spot disturbed by its wake. The clear water below was the biggest blessing they had—it was much clearer than the rest of the ocean they had traveled over had been, if not for that they couldn’t fish like this. And the way Gilbert had originally done it didn’t seem fun enough to Rainbow Dash. Not only was this a test of her flight skills and reflexes but it was a great way she had thought of to kill her boredom.
And it had been long enough since she had a swim.
“Do you think we can dive in and grab one before they all scatter?” Gilbert asked her.
“Don’t know, that’s part of the fun,” Rainbow Dash shrugged.
“Well I must say I’m quite excited to try!” Gilbert smiled.
Rainbow grinned right back. “You and me both.”
“I could even show you what hunting is like in Griffonstone-”
“Heh, no need, I’ve already gotten those lessons. Had plenty of griffon friends, remember?”
“Ah yes, but of course,” Gilbert nodded.
“So tell me though—before we dive down there—since you’ve been to a lot of different places too, have you ever met any groups or creatures that are really against eating meat? How’d you deal with them?”
“The Yaks of course don’t eat meat but I wasn’t there with them for too long. I’m not even sure if I mentioned how much I’d like some meat around them. But yes, occasionally when out traveling the Grand Ocean we’ve come across ponies who have… er, shall we say, taken offense at my dietary habits and preferences. Including one such small island that had a particular culture revolving around the worship of eels. When I told them how tasty freshwater eels were and wondered if saltwater ones were the same… they reacted poorly.”
“Ouch.”
“Yes. Very much so. Daylight told me I wasn’t allowed to speak without her permission whenever we meet new cultures after that.”
“Yeah… kind of can’t say I blame her.”
“I really don’t see what the big deal about eating meat is though. But I suppose what’s savory to some is sacred to others,” Gilbert shrugged. “Or sacrilege. Would that have been better?”
“Ask Twilight,” Rainbow snorted. “Now come on, let’s just do this.”
After saying that, Rainbow started to form a tighter circle as she dove down at the same time towards the school of fish she and Gilbert could see. He followed along with her, the both of them gaining speed and preparing to rocket into the water. They’d hit the water completely vertically and go down as fast and deep as possible. Rainbow Dash saw the perfect way to dive into water from that albatross earlier, it was just like diving into a pool, only from much higher up and going much faster.
She kept her eyes on a couple shadowy forms of fish in particular—aiming for a few instead of just randomly going down into the pool of them. This way she was sure she was going to at least come down right on top of some. At the same time, she and Gilbert took a deep breath and folded their wings in, now fully diving down to the water. She did her very best to not close her eyes on reflex the moment she hit the surface.
The water and the fish in her vision rushed up immediately.
Her hooves were pointed in a V in front of her body to break the surface of the water and shoot below it as quickly and easily as possible. Cold wetness and a splashing sound erupted all around her the moment she hit the deep blue. Bubbles covered her vision for a split second—but the fish she was aiming for were practically right there within her grasp. It was all happening so fast, Rainbow Dash’s mind and senses working extra quick, processing everything at light speed. She got like this sometimes when she was flying especially fast.
There was a fish right in front of her. Right in reach of her hooves. It had clearly sensed her sudden arrival in the water and she could see it getting ready to speed far away. Her hooves reached out towards it, her momentum still carrying herself into the water.
But as her hooves grasped at the fish, she realized an important difference between herself and both Gilbert and the albatross. She didn’t have claws or a sharp beak to grab the fish with. The fish’s slimy scales slid right out of her hooves even as she attempted to squeeze and grab it. It went darting down far and away and Rainbow Dash missed her opportunity. The other fish had also all scattered and now she had also reached the bottom of her dive, coming to a slow stop in the water. She was able to initially ignore the coldness thanks to her adrenaline, but now it was all rushing into her, and the current of the ocean was pulling at her as well.
Bubbles leaked from the sides of her mouth and Rainbow Dash spread her wings and turned to look back up at the surface. With a single thrust from her wings and legs she was quickly ascending to get her head above the water and take a breath of fresh air.
She broke the surf not half a second later and took a deep lungful of ocean air, her heart beating faster than she had expected and her lungs grateful for the sudden influx of oxygen. Her soaking wet mane fell across her face and the back of her head as she tread water beside the Heart of Azure.
“Haha, that was quite excellent!” The loud voice of Gilbert came from behind.
Rainbow Dash turned to look and saw him proudly holding another large fish over his head, his dive clearly much more fortuitous than her own had been. “G-Good job...”
“Cold?” He asked her.
“I don’t know why I thought the ocean would be warmer here than it is… maybe because it’s so c-clear,” Rainbow Dash nodded.
“Hm,” Gilbert had a thoughtful look on his face before he tossed the fish he caught into the water. “Who knows?”
Rainbow Dash watched as the fish swiftly swam away and raised an eyebrow at him. “Not saving it for dinner?”
“If you were just going to catch and release I figured I could do the same,” Gilbert smiled.
“Heh. L-Let’s get back on board then before I get sick from staying in the water for too long.”
“Can do! I don’t think we deal with being wet as well as Senax.”
The two flew right up out of the water, Rainbow Dash immediately feeling better as soon as she was out of it, and plopped back onboard their ship. Together they both grinned at each other and shook their entire bodies like a pair of wet dogs. Water went everywhere, soaking the deck around them. Even after that though they weren’t even halfway dry. Cold water kept her mane and tail from regaining their normal style and her feathers dripped with heavy droplets to create an endless pitter-patter on the wooden deck.
Rainbow Dash looked towards Senax, up by the helm. “I’m seriously jealous of how water just slides off of you like nothing right now.”
“I’m seriously jealous of how you can fly!” She called back.
“Yeah well—well… I can’t blame you for that,” Rainbow grinned, fluttering her wings to get some excess water off them.
“Perhaps another time we can go fishing again if you’re ever bored?” Gilbert suggested. “Perhaps when we actually do get to warmer waters? As a matter of fact, the waters around the Sea Lion Reefs are much shallower, more tropical, and should be warmer as well.”
“Then maybe I’ll at least do some diving—along with surfing—but fishing is probably gonna still be a rare thing for me to do,” Rainbow Dash shrugged.
“Is that because you’re upset that you were unable to catch a fish but I was?”
Rainbow Dash frowned. “Okay let’s get back out there.”