“Forty-four… forty-five… forty-six...” Rainbow Dash counted as she lied down on her back and pressed up a heavy crate over and over with her four hooves.
“Er, Rainbow Dash? What are you doing down here?” Daylight Gleam asked her.
“Forty-seven… forty-eight… forty-nine...” Sweat coalesced on her brow, her hooves and legs were aching painfully as they lowered—but still she managed to push the crate up one last time. “Fifty!”
Sighing in relief, Rainbow Dash rolled over and let the crate fall back to the floor of the hold. She took a few deep breaths, panting heavily while her lungs ached almost as much as her legs. She was an endurance and high-speed flier whose wings were her strongest body part, strength workouts like this took more out of her than she liked to admit. The muscles in her other limbs were certainly well taken care of but it’s not like she’d challenge Applejack to an apple-bucking contest anytime soon either.
She stayed lying down for a little bit longer to compose herself before standing up and looking over at Daylight. “I need to be better.”
“And lifting crates will make you better?” Daylight raised an eyebrow.
Rainbow rolled her eyes. “Stronger at least. I can’t let things go the same way with Godfrey again. I’ve gotta be faster, stronger, better, to beat him. So that’s what I’m going to be. I’ve coasted through every other place I’ve been to, now I’m really going to work hard to make sure I can beat him the next time we meet. I can’t just rely on speed, craftiness, and willpower. Not against him.”
“With any luck we won’t-”
“We will,” Rainbow Dash narrowed her eyes at the unicorn. “I don’t mean to be rude or pessimistic. But we will.”
Daylight chewed her lip and cast her eyes to the side. “Yeah… honestly I know that too.”
“And besides-,” Rainbow shrugged. “There’s no reason not to get in even better shape.”
“Heh, that’s true.”
“What I really need is a sparring partner to get better at fighting with,” Rainbow Dash said and shot another questioning glance at the unicorn.
“You’re looking at the wrong pony for that,” Daylight shook her head. “And I don’t think anyone else onboard will be able to help you there either.”
Rainbow sighed. “Yeah I know...”
“If you’re done exercising now do you want to come back up? We’re less than an hour away from Malkonrik’s port now, I wanted to come down and tell you that.”
“We not eating lunch until we get there?”
“Don’t think so. Breakwater wants us to just get docked back at Ballast’s and get all that in order before we take a lunch break.”
“Fair enough. Alright, I’m done down here for now anyways, could use a little fresh air.”
The two walked back out on deck and Rainbow Dash took her first look at the sky in hours. It was a bright and sunny day, with a warm breeze in the air even. Ironic really, a perfect day for travel and all they were doing was going back to port and would have the ship locked up for the rest of the day. Go figure after the storms and other trouble they had sailed through. Still, she wasn’t exactly going to complain about getting to enjoy a nice day like this. She stretched and felt all the soreness in her muscles, wincing and rubbing her legs right after.
Gilbert was by the bow of the ship while a quick glance behind Rainbow Dash showed her that Senax and Breakwater were at the helm. Senax’s tail was still bandaged and would be until they got an actual doctor at Malkonrik to look at it but otherwise she seemed back to being okay. Aside from being miffed at none of them letting her go for a swim.
Since she had given the rest of her body a workout just now, she decided to take the weight off her legs and flapped her wings, casually hovering above deck. Not going off for any big flight or doing anything crazy, just getting some simultaneous rest and exercise in at once. Felt good to be a pegasus. She didn’t even go up higher than the mast or crow’s nest, just doing the barest amount that could be called flight. A yawn came up and out of her mouth—maybe she was still more tired than she thought. How much sleep had she actually gotten last night? She remembered a little bit of trouble and tossing and turning before getting to bed. There had been a lot on her mind.
Looking north she saw that she could just barely make out the coastline of Malkonrik now. In just a few minutes the docks and ships should be visible too. She closed her eyes as she hovered in place, just getting a bit more rest…
And a couple of minutes later-
“I say! I say, everyone!” Gilbert suddenly said from below.
Rainbow Dash opened her eyes and looked down to see her griffon friend pointing ahead.
“What is it, Gilbert?” Daylight asked as she walked up to him. Back at the helm, Breakwater and Senax were curiously listening in as well.
“I’ve been watching and waiting for the port to come up and now that it has… something looks a little off, don’t you think?” Gilbert said.
Rainbow frowned and looked up to check out the port as well to see if she could see what had gotten Gilbert’s attention. They were now close enough where she could actually see the buildings, the wooden docks, and the ships—wait. Rainbow Dash squinted her eyes, immediately noticing what Gilbert meant by things looking off.
There were barely any ships docked. In fact, the docks were practically empty. She could see Ballast’s shop dead ahead and that looked normal, but there were no huge merchant vessels in the same area. Looking to the east and west it was more of the same. The port was almost barren, with just a few ships actually docked there at all and not a single one of them being one of the large company-owned merchant ships full of cargo. She peered even harder—seeing ponies still walking around the streets and piers—so it’s not like the port was totally abandoned or anything.
But how come there were so few ships?
By now, Breakwater, Senax, and Daylight were able to see well enough too and Rainbow Dash flew down to the helm.
“Uh, is this normal? Isn’t this supposed to be a huge port that always has a lot of traffic going in and out?” Rainbow asked Breakwater.
“This definitely is not normal,” Breakwater frowned as he kept his eyes on the port. “I’ve never seen so few ships docked at Malkonrik’s port, this doesn’t make any sense. But… the town looks fine. There’s no damage anywhere I see. What’s going on?”
“There are still ponies walking on the street like normal too,” Rainbow said.
Breakwater scratched his head. “Well at least it doesn’t seem like we’re in danger or anything...”
“What are we doing then? Just going to dock like normal?” Senax asked.
“I don’t see why not,” Breakwater shrugged. He then shouted to Gilbert- “Hey, Gilbert! You mind flying off to Ballast’s place to tell him we’re coming in? We need that door opened.”
“Roger!” Gilbert saluted and quickly flew off the ship towards the large building ahead of them.
Rainbow Dash watched him go with a slight frown on her face. Her gut wasn’t telling her that something bad was going to happen, but the strange situation at port still had her a little worried. Daylight too stayed right by the bow and continued to look around, trying to spot anything else that seemed suspicious or out of place. As they continued to sail into the waters of the harbor though they didn’t encounter any problems. It seemed the place really was just mostly empty for some so far unknown reason.
When they were closer, the great metal doors of Ballast’s shop opened up for them. So at least he was there and Gilbert hadn’t had a problem. Breakwater shrugged to Senax and together they led the Heart of Azure on the path to safely dock inside there. In a minute they’d be back to right where Rainbow Dash first came on to the ship. As they got close enough where she could now pick out the individual ponies also walking along the streets and piers up there, Rainbow Dash noticed something else unusual.
There weren’t just sailors, tourists, and dockworkers up there like she had seen last time.
“There are Malkonrik soldiers at the port,” Rainbow Dash said.
“What? Really?” Breakwater asked and tried to search them out as well.
“Yeah,” Rainbow nodded. “I see them patrolling the streets. I only met them… twice? When coming through Malkonrik but I recognize the armor.”
“Something must have happened. The Kingdoms never send their soldiers down to the coast. They always stay up in the interiors warring and messing around with each other,” Breakwater said.
“We’ll figure out what’s going on soon I guess,” Rainbow shrugged.
The Heart of Azure in a minute was ready to enter Ballast’s shop and they finally passed the threshold. Rainbow Dash took a brief look around again, seeing that the other big thing hanging above the water, the strange tubular looking ship, seemed to have been built further since the last time she had seen it. It wasn’t just a metal skeleton anymore. The rest of the big repair/construction shop seemed to mostly be the same. Except for the fact that now as they fully nestled into the pool right before the metal dock, she heard a lot of shouting coming from further back.
“What the?” Breakwater said, hearing it too.
Rainbow Dash hopped down from the helm and started walking towards the bow to see what was up. Daylight already being there, the unicorn let out a loud groan of frustration and looked back at Breakwater and Senax.
“Hey, we’ve got a little annoyance to take care of again. Old Diver is back,” Daylight said to them.
Both Breakwater and Senax groaned as well.
“Is that who’s shouting?” Rainbow asked. “That name sounds familiar...”
“That’s part of it at least,” Daylight said and pointed straight to the front of the shop.
Rainbow Dash looked and saw four ponies and a griffon standing together. Well, more like three ponies facing off against the last pony and griffon. Ballast and Gilbert on one side while an old pony and his butlers that Rainbow Dash now recognized harassed them. Although it seemed only Old Diver and Ballast were the ones shouting while both Gilbert and the butlers looked incredibly uncomfortable. Despite the Heart of Azure needing to be tied up to the cleats at the dock, and then have the doors closed, nobody was remotely paying attention to their arrival.
“Uhh… should we do something about this?” Rainbow looked over her shoulder at Breakwater at Senax.
“Yeah, we need to tie up the ship at least,” Breakwater nodded.
“I really don’t want Old Diver to see me...” Senax frowned.
“You can stay here at the wheel to keep us steady, we’ll take care of the rest while they argue,” Breakwater said. “Rainbow Dash? Daylight? Can you help me out?”
“Easy enough,” Rainbow Dash said and flew down to the metal dock. Both Daylight and Breakwater threw the anchor over the side and then hopped onto the dock right after, together the three of them went for the ropes needed to tie the ship safely in place and then once that was done they closed up the doors to close them off from the rest of the harbor. Once those metal slabs were shut once more the shouting got even louder as it echoed throughout the entire huge building.
The two yelling ponies hadn’t let up at all.
Breakwater sighed. “Okay, now at the very least let’s calm Ballast down.”
“Old Diver is going to be angry when he sees us...” Daylight said.
“He probably got angry enough as soon as he saw Gilbert,” Breakwater said.
“You two mind filling me in on your history with this guy? I met him here briefly back before I ran into you, he seemed like a nut,” Rainbow said.
“Oh you’re about to find out,” Daylight said.
She was right, as soon as the three of them approached the loud argument, both Ballast and Old Diver noticed them and turned to face them. On Ballast’s face, there was a noticeable amount of relief and happiness and he stopped shouting for the moment. On Old Diver’s face, well the wrinkles scrunched up even more as he glared at the three of them and his hoof shook as he angrily pointed at them.
“Well, well, well, here comes the rest of them! Is that thieving, lying, fake here with you too?!” Old Diver shouted.
“Don’t say that about our friend, Old Diver. We’ve had enough of you,” Breakwater glared at him.
Old Diver frowned and looked behind him, squinting his eyes at the ship and seeing Senax trying to hide at the helm. “Aha! There she is! There’s the lying “merpony”! There’s the one trying to steal the greatest treasure and discovery of the Grand Ocean from me and my family!”
Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow at him, pure confusion on her face. “What are you even talking about?”
Old Diver’s head turned to face her but it didn’t seem like he recognized her at all. Spittle flew out of his mouth as he spoke to her. “That thing is a deceiver! There aren’t any merponies left, she has to be a fake! I knew it when I first started hearing rumors about some new group looking for Merlantis—and then when I met you I was sure! You just want to steal the credit away from me and my family, you’re all a bunch of liars! Acting like just because you’re a merpony you have the right to the greatest discovery on the Grand Ocean… never. Never will I give up what I deserve! What’s mine and my grandfather’s and my entire family’s by right! We found it first, all I need to do is get back there!” His head swiveled towards Ballast again. “That’s why you should be helping me, not these liars. I had heard that you had been helping them out, but they’re just scamming you! Help me get back to Merlantis! Help me find it, not them. I know what you’re working on—let me have it so I can reach Merlantis just like my grandfather!”
“Absolutely not,” Ballast glared at him. “You’re nothing but a crazy old badger whose made himself a nuisance across the Hundred Kingdoms. Begging for money and insulting everyone you come across for not listening to you, you don’t even have proof that your grandfather actually found Merlantis all those years ago.”
“How dare you-?!” Old Diver snarled and attempted to jump at Ballast before he was held back by his butlers.
“Please, sir, calm down!”
“We can’t let you get violent, let’s just go!”
“Bah!” Old Diver threw his butlers off him but stayed back. “Fine, fine then! You’re all a bunch of liars and cheats, I’ll be the one to find Merlantis once more, not any of you! The credit, the glory, it’s all going to be mine!”
He turned around and stalked out the front door of Ballast’s shop with his butlers, slamming the door shut behind him.
Only after he was gone did Senax jump onto the dock and join them as well.
“I really don’t like talking with him...” the merpony said.
“Sorry about all that… he showed up just a few minutes before Gilbert arrived and, well, you know the rest,” Ballast said. The shipwright sat down and shook his head, he looked far more tired than just someone who had been in a shouting match should have been.
Gilbert scratched his beak. “You know, just saying, but what if Old Diver actually does know where Merlantis is located and he just doesn’t have the capability to reach it?”
“He doesn’t,” Rainbow snorted. “Believe me, when I first met him that became real obvious, real quickly. If he did then someone else would’ve definitely found it out from him by now too. He’s full of hot air.”
“Definitely,” Senax nodded.
“I shouldn’t have let him in at all but… my mind has been on other things recently...” Ballast glumly looked down at the floor. Something was clearly up with him.
Breakwater seemed to notice as well. “Something wrong, Ballast?”
“Yeah, does it have anything to do with why the port’s so… empty? And why there are soldiers around?” Rainbow asked.
“Unfortunately yes,” Ballast said. “While you’ve been gone, some important stuff has happened here and… well, I’ve got some bad news to share.”