While Daylight Gleam locked eyes with Godfrey, more rustling came from the bushes behind her and out came Breakwater, Gilbert, and Senax. When they all saw Rainbow Dash the relief and joy in the air was almost palpable. Despite it not even being a whole day since they had seen each other, it felt like years. That was the sort of thing panic and a lack of knowledge really did to you.
Smiles spread on the others’ faces and Senax happily called out to her. “Rainbow Dash!”
“Guys!” Rainbow grinned and ran forward—before accidentally yanking herself to a halt as Godfrey didn’t budge. “Oof!”
“Oops,” Godfrey snickered.
The others then paused as it seemed much like Daylight they finally realized just who else was here. Gilbert gulped as he saw the chain connecting the two of them.
“Oh dear… that’s not very good,” he said.
“What happened?” Breakwater asked.
Senax meanwhile shivered and went to stand behind the two of them. “Why is he here?”
Rainbow Dash sat up and sighed, rubbing her head in exasperation. “It’s a bit of a long story… either way it’s great to see you guys again.”
Daylight kept her eyes narrowed on Godfrey and her horn ready. “Are we safe right now, Rainbow Dash.”
“I-” Rainbow glanced over at Godfrey, who silently returned her look. “For the moment. We don’t have to worry about Godfrey right now.”
The large griffon grinned. “How nice of you to say that.”
“But we’ve got other problems incoming that are his fault,” Rainbow glared.
“We’ve kind of got a problem of our own we need to take care of too,” Daylight said, biting her lip.
Rainbow raised an eyebrow at her. “What?”
“Well uh… at least we know the Necklace is here,” Rainbow Dash said as the others filled her in on what they had just been through.
Godfrey thoughtfully stroked his chin. “Huh, so I was half right about this place.”
Rainbow frowned at him. “I really wish you weren’t around to hear all this right now.”
“Me too,” Senax said, still hiding behind Breakwater and Gilbert.
“Oh relax, we’re on the same side right now. Heh. Sort of,” Godfrey shrugged.
“And what does that mean?” Daylight asked.
“It means that right now there’s a huge Bosche slaving fleet coming to the island,” Rainbow explained.
“Bosche?!” Breakwater yelled. “How in the hay do they know how to get here?”
“That would be my doing,” Godfrey proudly said, hooking a thumb at himself.
“Yeah,” Rainbow Dash frowned. “Godfrey here felt like playing a couple of different sides. He sided with Bosche at first to have something to use against us in case the situation called for it. And it does. He knows Bosche isn’t exactly going to thank him for his help, so right now we have to work together to stop them first. Then we’ll have to do something about Godfrey.”
“It’s far too big a fleet for you to fight on your own,” Godfrey nodded. “You need me.”
“You-!” The sharp and angry voice coming from Senax surprised the others as she stepped out from behind Breakwater and Gilbert and stalked over to Godfrey. Standing directly in front of him and glaring up into his eyes. “How dare you! How dare you do something like this! Don’t you even care? Do you have any idea what Bosche will do to the poor people living here? Even for you—even for a monster like you this is too much! These lizards have lived here for centuries alone, and now, and now you’re going to bring a fleet of slavers right to their shores! How dare you, how dare you, how dare you!”
Godfrey’s talon shot up before Senax or anyone else could react and grabbed her around the throat.
Rainbow and Daylight were already in motion when Godfrey just as suddenly let her go. They paused as Senax stumbled backwards, coughing.
“Cry me a river,” Godfrey said to her, before his beak turned up into an amused smile. “That was quite the fire from you though. I’m impressed.”
Rainbow Dash grabbed his wrist and squeezed. “Don’t do that again. Or we aren’t working together anymore.”
“I get it,” Godfrey laughed and put his arm down.
“How long will it be until the fleet arrives?” Gilbert asked.
“He said it’ll be less than a day from when he first contacted them,” Rainbow said. “So we don’t have a ton of time.”
“It’s not just that,” Daylight said. “As soon as we get the Necklace… the whirlpools and fog that protects this island will disappear, and Bosche will have a straight shot at it.”
“Daylight,” Breakwater whispered at her through gritted teeth.
“I don’t think it matters at this point what Godfrey knows or doesn’t know. We’re not in a good situation,” Daylight said.
“She’s right,” Godfrey yawned. “I’m not about to betray you for Bosche at this point. To be honest it’s not even an option, they’ll just kill me at some point if I go back to their fleet. You guys at least wouldn’t just murder me. And besides, I don’t have a way of getting out of these chains on my own, or have a ship to leave on. We’re allies right now, though not exactly friendly ones.”
“Couldn’t we just, perhaps, wait?” Gilbert shrugged, casting an uncertain eye at Godfrey before looking at the others. “As long as the whirlpools and fog surrounds the island the Boschese ships won’t be able to dock here, right? In fact quite a few might be lost trying. We don’t need to retrieve the Necklace immediately, even if we solve the problem with those other lizards right now. Couldn’t we just wait out Bosche here?”
“That’s not exactly a bad idea…” Daylight said.
“It aint going to be that simple,” Godfrey shook his head. “They’ve put a lot of eggs into this basket. It’s a bigger expedition than practically any Bosche has made, and it’s being led by the fat cat Admiral Bin’Tavy himself. They aren’t turning away, they aren’t going to be waited out. The more time spent on this island the more blockaded it will get. He’ll send as many scouts as he needs to into the fog to find a safe route—and forget how many die trying to do that. He’ll ask for reinforcements from the homeland and the rest of the ocean if need be too. Putting things off and hoping they turn out well isn’t going to cut it. You’ll have to be decisive.” He grinned and winked at Rainbow Dash. “At least one of you can appreciate doing things like that, right?”
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes.
“Perhaps when we get back to the castle we should keep this to ourselves…” Gilbert frowned.
“No,” Senax said, her first word since Godfrey had grabbed her. The others turned to her and she continued. “We’re not going to lie to them or keep this a secret. They’ll have a right to know they’re in danger.”
“But keeping them safe from danger like this is exactly why they sent us on this mission,” Breakwater said.
“I know. We’re going to have to make the Keeper believe in us,” Senax said.
“So what even is the plan for dealing with Bosche then?” Daylight asked, throwing up her hooves in frustration.
“Fight them,” Rainbow calmly said. “We fight them and do the best we can. That’s it.”
Godfrey grinned. “Exactly.”
Rainbow sighed and tried to reassure her friends better. “It’s not going to be great, but when your back’s against the wall you’d be surprised with what you can do. There’s absolutely no way I’m going to let Bosche do what they want here. And I bet all of you feel the same. We can do this. We. Can. Do. This. We just have to believe in ourselves and each other.”
Daylight had a small grin on her face as she turned to Senax. “Does that sound good to you?”
“Yes,” Senax smiled. “Yes it does.”
“Anyways then-” Rainbow Dash said as she held up her shackled hoof. “Daylight? You think maybe you can get me out of these chains? Cause that’d be super.”
Daylight Gleam looked down at the metal around her hoof and the chain connecting her to Godfrey, then to the similar ones wrapped around her body. She frowned but nodded. “Cutting through or breaking apart metal isn’t my specialty, but I think I can manage that.”
“Sweet! Get to it!” Rainbow cheered and held out her shackled hoof.
“Alright, alright, just hold on one moment and don’t move,” Daylight said as her horn glowed and she lowered it to Rainbow’s chains.
“You mean we’re separating so soon? How sad,” Godfrey released a big, exaggerated, sigh.
“Yeah I bet you’re really torn up about it,” Rainbow rolled her eyes while Daylight got to work.
The focused magic grasped the manacle around Rainbow Dash’s hoof in a powder blue aura. Daylight furrowed her brow and concentrated as she put all the power she could into her horn. Rainbow saw as the manacle shook and Daylight’s magic seemed to be attempting to pry it apart, it very slightly started to warp in places but otherwise there was no actual break or crack in it. Daylight bit her lip and grew more frustrated with it as time went by and a sheen of sweat appeared on her forehead.
“Stupid brute force… telekinesis...” she grumbled.
She gave up and turned her magic off. “Ugh! Okay, instead of breaking it like that I’m going to attempt to cut through it. Uh… you might want to stay really, really, still.”
Rainbow Dash gulped and held out her hoof again.
Daylight took a deep breath and focused her magic into a very precise heat scalpel. Her magic was light-based after all, light could mean heat too right? That’s at least what she was counting on as she tried to laser through the metal shackle around Rainbow Dash’s hoof.
“That looks dangerous,” Gilbert whispered to Breakwater.
“Shh, don’t let Rainbow Dash hear you say that,” Breakwater said.
After a few seconds and a bit of smoke there was a slight clink! as the shackle broke off from Rainbow Dash’s hoof and fell to the ground.
“Alright!” Rainbow Dash cheered as she held up her free hoof, now no longer chained to Godfrey.
“Whew… glad that worked,” Daylight said.
“Hehe… well-” Rainbow Dash chuckled nervously and turned her side to Daylight where her wings were still chained down. “Now comes the hard part.”
“Ugh...” Daylight sighed.
“I’ll find something to wipe your sweat with,” Senax said.
It did take a little while and both unicorn and pegasus were pretty tired afterward, but Rainbow was finally free of all the chains. She stretched her wings out and flapped them proudly, hovering over the group and doing a few circles to get her blood pumping back through them. It always felt great to be able to fly again. Landing back down she took another big stretch before smiling at her friends.
“Okay, let’s do this!”
Godfrey coughed to get their attention, holding up his still shackled wrist he smiled at them. “Actually, could I get in on some of that action too?”
“No way-”
“I’m not asking for them all off, I know you wouldn’t do that,” Godfrey said. “I just want this one around my wrist off—it’s a little uncomfortable. And dragging a loose chain around the jungle wont be fun either.”
Rainbow looked down at the chain and at the ones still wrapped around his body. It’s true it wouldn’t really change anything at this point, as long as he couldn’t fly away on his own. She saw Daylight giving her a questioning look out of the corner of her eye, so Rainbow gave a small nod back to her. She could handle Godfrey like this. With her wings free and his chained down, she could definitely handle him.
“If you’re sure,” Daylight shrugged and hesitantly went to break the last shackle on Godfrey’s wrist.
Senax came up beside Rainbow Dash and whispered in her ear. “Are you sure?”
“Yeah, trust me,” Rainbow nodded. “And besides, as much of a pain as he is we need him right now.”
“I hope you’re right about that.”
Rainbow grimaced. Me too.
After a few more minutes, Godfrey’s shackle was broken off and he started rubbing his wrist with a satisfied smile on his face. “Ahh, that’s much better.” He looked over at Rainbow Dash. “So we’re going right back to where we came from?”
“Yeah. All of us,” Rainbow said. “You can walk out in front with me.”
“Why am I not surprised you would want that?”