//------------------------------//
// The Engineer's Current Project 
// Story: Rainbow Dash Around the World 
// by MagicS 
//------------------------------//

Rainbow Dash hung high in the sky, hundreds and hundreds of feet above the ocean. For the past couple of days she had almost been perpetually flying and only came back to the Heart of Azure for a quick bite to eat. She hadn’t even been sleeping in the crow’s nest, instead making a bed of clouds. It just felt so dang good to work her wings again.

When she looked down, the Heart of Azure was just a speck on a massive expanse of blue. But even the blue of the Grand Ocean was tiny compared to the blue of the sky. Her domain. It didn’t matter if she was traveling over the ocean, or a desert, or a forest, or over snowy mountains, the sky would always be her place to be.

“Nothing beats this, I can’t believe I went over two weeks without flying at all,” Rainbow Dash said to herself as she zoomed about.

She was higher than any seagulls or other birds dared to fly, above most clouds for that matter. It really was a joy and experience unlike any other. She was already promising to herself to never go so long without flying again. It wouldn’t be that much longer at this point before they returned to Malkonrik and she wanted to spend most of it in the air. How many times had she raced Gilbert already? And how many more times had he refused to race her again? How many times had she gone scouting far, far ahead of the ship because she couldn’t stand the slower pace it went?

It’s like all patience whatsoever had left her. While she had been able to manage her feelings and the explosive energy inside her well enough on the Grand Ocean, after being bottled up for so long it had all exploded out. She couldn’t stand the thought of just lying in that crow’s nest right now. Or even doing something like swimming with Senax or playing cards. The stoicism of the warriors at Black Sand Island had slipped off her like water off a duck’s back. Rainbow Dash was back to being Rainbow Dash—even if that meant shooting all around the ocean like a mad mare. There was just nothing to hold her back right now from going at her own pace, something she was used to doing for pretty much the entire rest of her journey. Eventually she’d have to slow down and just get back to the Heart of Azure. She knew that. It’s not like she could do anything else without them, even if she got to Malkonrik first she’d just end up waiting around.

So for now she kept flying through the sky and doing a bunch of loops and corkscrews high up in the air just to amuse herself. In maybe an hour or two she’d return to the Heart of Azure for lunch and then she could swiftly shoot off again.  

“Maybe...” Rainbow Dash thought. “Maybe I can actually go ahead to Ballast’s though anyways? Maybe get all the errands and stuff done so the ship doesn’t need to be docked for half as long when we get back? That’d super cut down on our dead time! I’ll run that by Breakwater later!”

With those plans in mind, Rainbow Dash figured she had had enough of flying this high up in the sky and decided to go lower. But also still going far ahead east at the same time to make the Heart of Azure disappear completely behind her. It would still be some time before she flew back to say hi and tell Breakwater what she wanted to do. She’d waste a little time now peering down into the waters of the ocean, seeing if she saw any fish, maybe flying alongside some seagulls, perhaps join in on any dolphins that were jumping around. There was still so much that she could do while flying around.

Rainbow Dash smiled to herself. “Nothing beats it...”

Of course though it turned out that there wasn’t much for her to see when she actually got close down to the ocean’s surface. Just some birds. And she saw those everywhere. She kept her eyes peeled for other ships but hadn’t seen any of those so far either, which could be either a blessing or a curse. Rainbow wanted to keep optimistic about stuff like that but she knew they had come across more enemies out on the wide ocean than friends. Ones they had randomly run into at least.

She looked ahead to see what the weather would be like and was happy to see that things appeared good for a long while. Nothing bad was going to show up today. The waves weren’t even choppy, probably would be clear sailing all the way back to Malkonrik.

However that did not help her impatience one bit. Not one bit at all.

The Heart of Azure would just be sailing ever slightly too slowly for her tastes right now when she had boundless energy she needed to do something with.

After a few more minutes of flying above the ocean like this, Rainbow Dash nodded to herself and made a tight hook around. Despite it not even being visible from here, it would still only take her a second to get back to the ship. She was Rainbow Dash after all.





“Oh, well sorry that the Heart can’t go any faster,” Breakwater rolled his eyes as he listened to Rainbow Dash.

“Come on, dude, you know I’m not knocking your ship or anything,” Rainbow frowned.

“I know, just messing with you,” Breakwater grinned. “When were you going to leave, now?”

“Pretty much. Might as well get to Malkonrik and get as big a headstart as I can,” Rainbow Dash nodded. Right now she was floating over the helm, still not setting down on her hooves. The others were gathered there as well to listen to what her future plans were.

“You really can’t sit still that badly?” Daylight asked.

“Nope,” Rainbow shook her head.

“It’s not like you’re going to be able to do that much in Malkonrik. You’re still going to end up waiting there for us,” Gilbert said.

Rainbow shrugged. “Yeah I know, but still. I really just need to move fast right now, it’s seriously driving me crazy.”

“Alright, suit yourself,” Daylight shrugged with her. “With us so close to the coast I don’t think we’re in danger so I doubt we’ll need you.”

“Surely it’s nice to have Rainbow Dash around anyways? We don’t just need her for the occasional fight...” Senax said.

“I didn’t mean it like that,” Daylight sighed. “Of course Rainbow Dash is always a joy to have around. Obviously though she’d rather be flying out on her own right now if she isn’t really needed here.”

“A joy, huh?” Rainbow grinned at the unicorn.

“Oh shut up, just get out of here already,” Daylight shook her head and walked off, walking down from the helm to the main deck.

“I’ll miss you!” Rainbow mockingly called out to her.

“Well we might get a little bored without you around now,” Gilbert said.

“A little? It’s going to be so quiet compared to normal,” Senax said.

“Just say hi to Ballast and tell him what’s going on when you get there. He’ll probably have a few things for you to do to keep you busy until we get there. Then it’s right off to the Lost Isle of the Lizard People,” Breakwater said.

Rainbow nodded. “Yep, that’s what I figured.” She shot up above the mast and waved to them as she went. “I’ll see you guys as soon as you get in to Malkonrik! This time things are gonna go great! Bye Breakwater, bye Senax, bye Gilbert, bye mom!”

The rude gesture she got from Daylight just made her laugh.





Rainbow Dash no longer flew far out at sea while on her trip back to Malkonrik, instead she was doing something a little different and flying over the coast. Right now she was right above Winderbadon and would already be back to Malkonrik and Ballast’s shop soon. She was still flying high, getting a good view of the land and all the ships arriving at port below, occasionally going down to get a closer look at things or wave to some lucky ponies. All in all it was a nice way to travel, more stuff to look at too. Her wings hadn’t rested once since leaving the Heart of Azure. They didn’t need to either.

It almost felt like her wings had infinite energy. They simply weren’t getting tired. Since she was normally such an airborne pony, such an accomplished speed flier and long-distance flier, maybe all that time spent grounded had given her an extra boost.

Winderbadon though was really similar looking to Malkonrik anyways, so there really wasn’t much of anything new to look at. It let her mostly focus on her flying and her thoughts of what she was going to do when she got to Ballast’s. Actually, despite her forward-thinking she figured she might as well get a bite to eat first. She had the time after all.

“Check in with Ballast and then chow down. Sounds good,” Rainbow nodded.

An added bonus to hugging the coast while flying like this was that she didn’t have to deal with any over-zealous soldiers giving her trouble. If Malkonrik and Winderbadon were more similar in just appearances then she had to assume that going any further north into it would cause problems. That said, she had no intention nor any reason to fly further north. If anything, she would go back south out along the same route the Heart of Azure would be going so she could check on any potential pirates they might run into. Not that any of them thought that was actually going to happen.

But considering Daylight and the others’ absolutely horrible luck... Rainbow was thinking that maybe she should’ve really just scouted ahead.

“Nah, no way, no way could things turn out that bad. That’s just silly. I’m staying positive. It’s only optimistic thoughts right here,” Rainbow said as she kept flying.

With Godfrey being gone for a while, and knowing that most the rest of the pirates of the ocean were also indisposed, Rainbow doubted there was actually that much danger out on the seas right now. Bosche was pathetic enough to not even count in her view.

In yet only another hour Rainbow Dash was crossing the border from Winderbadon into the dense, continuous, port of Malkonrik. Now she saw the very familiar sight of an unceasing row of buildings and docks with ships of all sizes coming in. Fully recovered from the momentary downtime brought about by those idiots in Ullsorth. It was actually nice how lively and jovial a place like this was, while Malkonrik wasn’t perfect (especially further north) it reminded her of some of the cities and bigger towns in Equestria down here. With just a little bit more of a cavalier and swashbuckling attitude to it.

With all the crud they had been trough too it was always kind of nice coming back here. It was almost like coming home from a long trip.

Before long her familiarity grew and grew until she saw the great lighthouse she had first flown to when she arrived at the port and the Grand Ocean. A smile lit up her face as Rainbow Dash put an extra burst of power into her wings—deciding to finish up the last leg of the trip even faster. The docks zoomed by and the two similar warehouses, one belonging to Ballast and the other belonging to his former protege, came into view. Since Ballast didn’t know when they were coming back the large backdoors of the shop were closed so she couldn’t just fly right in. She’d have to drop down on the pier and use the front door.

Rainbow Dash shrugged. “Whatever. Still doesn’t mean I have to walk.”

She dove down past a group of tourists walking down the pier and came to a stop, hovering slightly above the wooden ground. Generally this was how she usually got around when she had to keep pace with her friends back home anyways.

“Probably locked...” Rainbow said as she floated up to the door and gave it a few heavy knocks. “Yo, Ballast! It’s Rainbow Dash! Open on up!”

She (not so patiently) waited a few seconds until she heard a pony actually moving about behind the door. Once the shipwright slid the lock to the side he opened it up and stared out at the unexpected guest with a surprised look on his face.

“Rainbow Dash? Where’s everyone else—is something wrong?” He asked.

“No, no, no,” she grinned and shook her head. “I just came back quicker because, well, because I could. Figured I could get a head start on things and speed things up so we can leave faster. The Heart of Azure is on its way here but we’re going to be leaving real, real quick again. Just saying.”

“Oh,” Ballast scratched his head. “Well that’s not really a surprise, here, come on in. I’m just about finished up on working on something else so this’ll be perfect timing.”

“Cool,” Rainbow floated on right past him and Ballast closed the door. “What were you working on cause—oh.”  

Her words completely died in her throat. Something in Ballast’s workshop had changed considerably since the last time she was here.

The shipwright walked up beside her with a proud smile on his face. “Well? What do you think?”

“I... what is it? Is it done? It was just like, a frame the last time,” Rainbow Dash said, blinking.

“My life’s work. And I wasn’t lying when I said this would revolutionize ocean travel,” Ballast said as his chest puffed out with even more pride. “Rainbow Dash, what you’re looking at right now is the first ever submersible. A vessel capable of traveling underwater, to the darkest depths of the ocean, all under its own power without any trouble at all.”

It was an impressively sturdy looking metal tube, the top half painted red and the bottom half left a shiny stainless steel, a propeller came out the back while a large viewport sat at the front and a small tower came out the middle of the top. Not as long as even the Heart of Azure, but there was a bulkiness to it that let Rainbow Dash think there was a lot going on inside the thing. It was totally unlike any other ship she had seen before, and she almost couldn’t believe what Ballast said it could do. If it could though it meant he really wasn’t boasting, this thing looked tough, it could ignore currents and go under waves, and didn’t have to rely on the wind. Despite not being the most passionate pony when it came to these things, she still found herself gawking respectfully at it.

“Dude, nice work.”