//------------------------------// // Short on Cash and Nothing to Do // Story: Rainbow Dash Around the World // by MagicS //------------------------------// Their trip back to Malkonrik was mostly uneventful. There was a bit of explaining they had to do to the soldiers on the other side of the border wall when Rainbow Dash and Gilbert carried the rest of their friends over, but that was resolved quickly. Most seemed to realize they clearly weren’t invading pirates. After that it was another walk back to Ballast’s shop and that was it. The group only about half as happy as they wanted to be, since they were still broke and couldn’t get any money back. “All that money i had saved up...” Breakwater shook his head despondently. “Pirates,” Daylight patted him on the back. “It leaves us in a real predicament though. We don’t have the money for more extensive repairs, or to buy new food and supplies for whenever we leave next,” Gilbert said. “Who knows when that will even be. We’ve still got nothing to go on,” Senax glumly stated. Gilbert grimaced. “Well... yes.” “I’m sure we’ll figure something out,” Rainbow Dash shrugged as she floated alongside everyone. “I usually come up with something dumb every now and then.” “Ballast at least should have some coin on hoof, or some stuff to sell or trade so we can get some food for the next day or two,” Breakwater shrugged. Rainbow Dash flew up a little higher and flipped over onto her back, putting her hooves behind her head and lazily flying upside-down. “Hmm... we could always sell Senax’s Horn of Listening. That’s gotta be worth a lot of money, right?” Senax glared right up at her. “You are absolutely not-” “I’m just kidding,” Rainbow Dash playfully grinned as she dropped back down next to the merpony. “Don’t worry about it, we wouldn’t sell that.” “Hmpf,” Senax indignantly huffed, getting a few chuckles from Rainbow Dash. As they walked down the road, Rainbow took a few glances at the harbor every now and then. Naturally it was still pretty empty, things wouldn’t just go back to normal over night, but she was hoping that within a few days there’d be more and more traffic coming back. Of course she also hoped they wouldn’t actually be here to see that. It was just something that gave her peace of mind to think about. She had seen the look in “Commodore” Redbeard’s eyes and knew he was too genuinely afraid of her to go back on his word. Things would be changing back for the better around these countries pretty soon. That was pretty much the only thing she was genuinely happy about right now. If only that little jaunt into Ullsorth had resulted in them getting their money back too they could consider the whole thing behind them and get back onto the ocean, regardless of any rumors or leads to follow. As things were though they were still stuck no matter what. So things hadn’t quite ended here in the Hundred Kingdoms just yet. And Rainbow Dash was now working her brain to think of something that could get this expedition back on its hooves. “There’s our temporary home,” Breakwater suddenly said. Rainbow Dash looked forward and saw Ballast’s shop dead ahead. They’d be there soon. Not that they had anything to do there right now aside from give Ballast back his important plans. Rainbow was hoping the joy on the shipwright’s face would be enough to make this all worth it. She exhaled quietly, not having much else to say right now after teasing Senax, and not really in the mood to do much of anything else either. “Well even without any money, I’m going to be looking forward to a comfortable night’s sleep,” Daylight said. “That’s one thing that nobody can take away from us right now.” “I’ll admit some time hanging in a hammock sounds delightful,” Gilbert agreed. “Just so long as you don’t poke me awake with one of your sharp talons,” Daylight frowned at him. “I stopped doing that after Rainbow Dash told me...” “It’s all okay,” Senax said. “Even I think we could really use just a simple night of relaxing after everything we’ve been through recently. We don’t need to immediately get back out there or go crazy looking for a sign of the Necklace.” She glanced back at her tail. “I’ve learned my lesson on not carelessly rushing forward and trying to force things.” “You know that is true. After the time out at sea and just now in Ullsorth... taking a break for a few days doesn’t sound so bad,” Daylight said. “Are we really in much of a hurry?” Breakwater shrugged. “I mean, I’m kind of always in a hurry, just saying,” Rainbow raised a hoof. “No, you’re just impatient,” Daylight frowned at her. “I just don’t like to be sitting around doing nothing when there’s adventuring to do,” Rainbow frowned right back. “And the thing is—there isn’t adventuring to do,” Daylight countered. Rainbow Dash opened her mouth to retort but couldn’t think of something. She looked down at the ground and rubbed her chin. “Well... I enjoy naps too so I’ll focus on that instead.” Senax smiled. “I guess things are settled for now then.” “Unless something else comes up,” Breakwater said. Another few minutes of walking brought them back to Ballast’s personal little shipyard. The usual knock on the locked door was all they needed for him to come open it up. He definitely kept his promise of making sure his place was locked up tight after the previous robbery. When he saw the five of them standing there his eyebrows rose up and he expectantly leaned towards Breakwater. “D-Did you-?” Breakwater held up the folder they had taken back from Redbeard. “It’s all here, friend.” A huge smile stretched across Ballast’s face as he laughed and grabbed the folder, hugging it close to his chest. “Thank you, thank you so much, Breakwater. I don’t think any of you really know just how much this means to me. These plans... what I’m building... I’m not even joking when I say it will revolutionize ocean travel!” He brought a hoof up to wipe away a tear that was forming at his eye. “Did you get your money back too?” “No,” Breakwater frowned. “Oh... well,” Ballast coughed sheepishly. “It’s fine, we’ve gotten through way worse situations than simply not having any money,” Breakwater shook his head and sighed. “For now it’s getting late and we just wanted to come back to get some rest for the night. Tomorrow we’ll start trying to figure things out.” “You still have some money lying around here don’t you?” Daylight asked. “Of course,” Ballast nodded. “Just some loose coins, and I’ve got some stuff I could sell I suppose.” “That’s all we really need to last then I’m sure,” Daylight shrugged. “Well considering you all just returned my life’s work to me I’ll scrounge up everything I can while you’re still here. It’s really the least I can do. I owe you again.” Breakwater smiled and patted him on the back. “Thanks. We might be here a few extra days now.” “It was going to take some time to get a new sail and make all the repairs anyways...” Ballast sighed. “We’ll work it out,” Rainbow said as she flitted on in through the door. “How about some grub and a nice hammock for now?” The following morning the group—minus Ballast who remained at his shop to work on the Heart of Azure—made their way to a more casual spot on Malkonrik’s port in search of a breakfast diner that Breakwater told them about. Apparently it was his favorite place to eat at the entire harbor. Rainbow Dash wondered if a place like that would even be open right now, but Breakwater assured them all that it would be. And he was right. Not only that—but the owners were supremely grateful to have customers with how slow things had been lately. Now the five of them were seated at a large table with a variety of drinks and side plates around them as they poured over the menu to decide on what they would get. It reminded Rainbow Dash of the last time she was here where she had spent Godfrey’s gift of a single coin at a similar restaurant. This place was now obviously less crowded than that place had been, and Breakwater had started up an easy conversation with one of the owners. “I’m really not sure about whether I should get the waffles or pancakes right now...” Gilbert said as he looked over his menu. “What kind of pancakes? They have so many,” Daylight said as she looked at her own menu. “Hazelnut, pumpkin, chocolate, caramel, blueberry, and that’s just to start. I don’t know if I’ve ever been to a restaurant with so many different kinds of pancakes.” “That’s what’s making the choice even more difficult,” Gilbert said. “I think a crepe sounds very nice. A tasty, sweet, strawberries and cream crepe,” Senax licked her lips. Gilbert frowned, now looking at the part of the menu that had the crepes. “Well—I’m stumped. What about you, Rainbow Dash? What will you be eating?” “Dunno. Omelet maybe? Waffles?” She shrugged, just as unsure as him. “Cinnamon sugar oatmeal...” Daylight muttered. “Do you all want coffee?” Breakwater suddenly asked, taking a break from his conversation. “Yes,” all replied at once. Breakwater grinned. “Five coffees. And I’ll have the poached egg over toast.” “Well at least some of us know what we want,” Rainbow Dash scoffed. She frowned and scratched her head. “Ugh, just get me a big huge plate of waffles and plenty of syrup.” “And I will take the caramel pancakes,” Gilbert said. “A strawberries and cream crepe please… with extra whipped cream,” Senax blushed. Daylight huffed before finally closing the menu. “The cinnamon sugar oatmeal, please. And an apple on the side.” “We’ll get that all to you as quick as can be,” the owner said with a smile and waved goodbye to Breakwater as he headed back to the kitchens. “I sure hope,” Rainbow muttered out of earshot. “The bread and fruit they brought out is good but I need more than that.” “Agreed,” Gilbert said as he popped a mini blueberry muffin into his mouth. “I’m just happy we can afford this...” Daylight said. “You let me and Ballast worry about that sort of thing,” Breakwater said. Senax meanwhile reclined in her chair and closed her eyes for a moment. “Well I’m just happy we can all be together like this. I know there’s not nothing to worry about, but we’re not exactly in a bad place right now either.” “I certainly treasure moments like this,” Gilbert smiled. “Mmm… I treasure the food part,” Rainbow grinned. “I mean… if we did sell the Horn of Listening we could eat like this every day.” “Very funny,” Senax frowned at her. “Well thanks to the slower situation at port and me knowing the owners I was at least able to get us a discount this one time. But after this we’re going to need to be really careful with any money we spend until we can find a way to make some more,” Breakwater said. “We’ll make that money back somehow,” Gilbert optimistically stated. Daylight and Breakwater rolled their eyes together. “If you say so,” the unicorn said. “I’m being serious. We’ve charged through similar things in the past and still came out fine. We just need to put our heads together and think of a good way for making money,” Gilbert said. “And a quick way,” Rainbow added. “And a quick way,” Gilbert nodded. “Cause that’s always been easy,” Daylight snorted. “You know what a quick and easy way to make money sounds like around here? Illegal. Criminal. That’s what it sounds like. And I highly doubt any of us want to get involved in something like that.” “Leave it to Daylight to do her best to bring down the mood,” Rainbow snickered as she playfully elbowed Gilbert in the side. A vein throbbed on the unicorn’s forehead. “My apologies for attempting to be sensible.” It thankfully didn’t take much longer for their actual meals to come out and the group was practically salivating at the sight of the delicious dishes. Who knew when they were going to get to eat like this again? It was also generally the first time in a while they had a meal like this, a real professionally cooked and prepared meal. Even the normally much “daintier” eaters like Daylight and Senax wanted to just dig in and forgo any sort of decency. So of course while they ate conversation pretty much died down entirely. Not just because of the hunger and ravenous mouths of the customers, but because Rainbow Dash in particular was thinking hard about what would come next. Daylight was right about it not being easy to make quick money like that. So what could they do to scrounge up some coins and buy what they needed to for their next long voyage? And secondly—where would they even go? Rainbow Dash didn’t know where the rumor mill was around here and with even less ships docked at port than normal the flow of information was certainly stifled. It could be some time before they even heard about something that could remotely be tied to the Necklace of Ponyseidon. Rainbow Dash mentally shook her head and shoveled in another bite of waffles, licking her lips clean of the syrup on them. No use ever thinking negatively like that. It never helped. It was the same across the rest of her adventure, as long as she kept her chin up and knew things would turn out okay then they inevitably did. So now she knew that eventually they’d find what they were looking for too. It all worked out in the end. “How are you enjoying the waffles, Rainbow Dash?” Gilbert asked from beside her. “They’re good… need to put some more butter on them too,” she answered. “My pancakes are delicious!” Gilbert smiled between mouthfuls. “The caramel is so sweet and tasty!” Breakwater looked over at the two of them and down at their slowly vanishing plates. “Maybe I should’ve gotten something like that too, this egg and toast is the same thing I always get when I come here.” “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the usual,” Daylight shrugged as she levitated a spoon of her oatmeal to her mouth. Senax meanwhile was eating her crepe, and completely oblivious to the cream that had gotten all over her mouth. “Mmmm!” “How do you think Ballast is doing back there? Did he really not want to come?” Daylight asked Breakwater. “He’s fine. And besides, he eats here more often than we do anyways. If he says he just wants to work and do what he can, then we should let him. He’s the type of pony who wants to have something like that to do,” Breakwater said. “I guess I shouldn’t exactly feel bad since we’ve all been helping each other recently...” “I was wondering too but if he wants to work instead of eat breakfast with us then so be it,” Gilbert shrugged. “We’ll still have plenty of time to enjoy each other’s company… probably.” “Unfortunately,” Daylight muttered. “Less whining, more eating the good food,” Rainbow frowned up at them. “Well I’m fine with that,” Breakwater said as he took another bite of his toast. Senax also washed away most of her cream beard and mustache when she went to take a drink of coffee. It was a good way to get their minds off things. This breakfast had certainly been a good idea from Breakwater. Rainbow Dash almost wished they would have the opportunity to come back and eat here again. But the other things that would have to happen for that opportunity to present itself made it a bit unwanted. She wasn’t going to feel too bad if they came back here though, there were other menu items she wanted to try out. It wasn’t that much longer that everyone was finished with their main dish and leaning back contentedly in their chairs. Now it was time to relax, reflect, and digest. Only the sipping of coffee was going on at the table, otherwise things were quiet. Rainbow Dash turned her head and looked out the window of the restaurant to the street outside and the ocean beyond it. The port was still a shadow of its former self. Only a few ships were visible out at the docks and not even half as many ponies as usual were out walking around. Which meant probably even less opportunities for finding a way to make some money. “Thinking about something?” Daylight asked her. “Sort of,” Rainbow answered. “Not really.” “I’m thinking that I shouldn’t have eaten all of that...” a very stuffed Senax said. “We can stay here for a while longer, nobody is going to force us out of our seats,” Breakwater said. “Though I personally plan on going back to Ballast’s soon and checking on the Heart of Azure anyways.” “And then back to finding an answer for our troubles,” Gilbert sighed. “Yeah like… I was wondering what ponies and businesses are even going to be available here now,” Rainbow said. “Probably most businesses, just maybe operating a bit slower. Some ponies though might have taken their business elsewhere already,” Breakwater said. “The ones who wouldn’t have left are the ones who can still do their normal thing even without all the ships going in and out. Or who didn’t have a normal way of making money in the first place,” Rainbow thought. “Ponies like… hm.” What Daylight had said earlier was flashing in her head. Criminal, illegal activity. It was reminding her of something. “Rainbow Dash?” Daylight raised an eyebrow at her when she saw the contemplative look on the pegasus’s face. Rainbow rubbed her chin and turned back to face the table. “I just thought of something we can do that might get us that money we need. Although… I’m not exactly sure if you guys are going to like it.”