Rainbow Dash Around the World

by MagicS


Merlantis

There was no need for Daylight to keep her light going so she had let it fizzle out some time ago. Instead the group quietly watched the ocean floor slowly unfurl before them purely with the power of The Breakwater’s lights and the help from its sonar. Not like there was anything new to see yet. They had figured that out after about five minutes worth of traveling through these deepest reaches of the ocean. Merlantis was dead ahead but still out of sight and there was no other indication for its existence so far. Just water. The group was starting to get antsy that maybe Senax’s visions weren’t entirely accurate.

“I guess I forgot how big the ocean really was,” Rainbow Dash said as she tilted back and forth on her left and right legs. She had been standing still for too long and really wished there was enough room to spread her wings in here.

“Me too to be honest,” Gilbert said, in much the same position as she was.

“Well remember that the only reason you ended up joining with us was because you learned you couldn’t fly across the whole ocean recklessly with your own two wings? It shouldn’t be that surprising,” Daylight said.

“Still have a lot of flying to do after I’m done here...” Rainbow Dash said, wistfully looking up at the ceiling and imaging the sky high above.

“Considering how much further you’ve traveled so far I would think the flying you have left to do would be a breeze,” Gilbert said.

Rainbow Dash shrugged. “Never know what you might found out there. Who knows how long it’ll really take me.”

“I’m sure whatever comes up you’ll get through it without much trouble,” Daylight grinned. “Wouldn’t you like there to be some trouble anyways?”

“I’d like there to be fun. Trouble? Not necessarily,” Rainbow huffed.

Senax listened to their conversation even as she still watched the ocean. The truth was that it made her think some more about how this was hardly the end of her own journey. Just one part of it. Finding Merlantis, making sure it was safe and really ready to be used for her people’s home, finding the Trident and deciding what to do with it, going all the way back to East Glade and somehow getting everyone and everything together to come back here... adjusting to their new life, making friendships with everyone on the ocean, fixing the relationship with the Sarraroccons and the Lizard People. It was almost too much to think about. Her entire life would probably be spent working to fix things and properly settle their people.

She had already chosen to be the one who would do everything she could for her people as their leader. She didn’t want to use the word sacrifice because it sounded to serious and... fatal... to her. But that’s essentially what she chose to do for the good of everyone else. It was worth it. This was her dream too after all, something she had wanted to do ever since she was a child.

The conversation in the submersible continued while she stared at the water. If anyone had asked her a question she hadn’t answered or followed along. Instead she closed her eyes and focused on her visions of Merlantis. It was close, she knew they were so close. She wanted to see it for real so badly it almost hurt. Would it be everything she dreamed? Would it be a disappointment? Would it look like her visions or would it be a dilapidated and decaying mess after the thousands of years since it was lost? She sighed internally, trying to think as positive as possible. Rainbow had certainly tried to force into her the power of positive thinking. It seemed like it did wonders for her.

“Has sonar picked up anything new yet?” Breakwater asked Ballast from right beside her.

“Nope, nothing different yet,” Ballast answered with a shake of his head.

Senax decided to open her eyes and look at the screen. It was the same as always to her, the steady beeping and the green lines. She didn’t know if that or the lights from The Breakwater would be what unveiled Merlantis to them. Either way she was beginning to lose some of her patience, especially with her anxious thoughts.

“Um, let me try to think of a way to pass the time...” Rainbow Dash said. “I’m thinking of a number between 1 and-”

“Wait a second. Hold on there,” Ballast said as he furrowed his brow and looked across his instruments. “I think there might be a cliff ahead of us.” He glanced up and looked out the viewport before double-checking his controls. “Yeah... there’s a drop-off coming up.”

“What does that mean?” Daylight asked.

“It means there’s a change in elevation coming, we’re moving from a higher part of the ocean floor to a lower valley,” Ballast answered. “Gotta remember that the ocean floor is really no different than the landscape up above. It just happens to be underwater.”

“Uh, and what’s that?” Rainbow said as she pointed out the viewport.

Everyone else looked to see what had grabbed her attention—and through the darkness they saw the smallest twinkling light. It was far past where the lights from The Breakwater could reach, almost like a star in the night sky. The six of them were enraptured by the sight as slowly more and more little lights became visible. Past the drop-off in the distance it was like the lights from a city were starting to rise up and illuminate the darkness of the ocean.

Ballast reached forward and turned off the lights of The Breakwater so they could see the natural lights only. Immediately the water around them darkened but the lights in the distance became more pronounced. Instead of just the twinkling it was almost like something huge and glowing was resting just past the cliff and in the valley below. It grew stronger and stronger the closer they came to the cliff, Ballast slowing down to almost a crawl.

Senax gulped expectantly and Breakwater put a reassuring hoof over her shoulders.

“I think we’re about to find what we’ve been looking for,” Daylight said.

“Going by those lights we should have a pretty good view of it from up here too,” Rainbow said.

From there they were silent, all of them expectantly leaning in and waiting for what was in the valley past and below the cliff to reveal itself. Finally with the light growing stronger they reached the edge of the cliff and were able to see what existed beyond. At first, pearl white towers and the tops of large domes of the same impeccably clean color appeared. Senax felt herself freeze up when saw it and the others were barely able to move or blink either. More and more quickly became visible, smaller domes and towers, large circular buildings connected by pearly white stone hallways, safely enclosed to keep water out. Gigantic glass windows, some stained and some reinforced by golden metal rings peppered the buildings and domes. It all sprawled out on a totally flat valley, wide and expansive, with no sand on the ground but instead a smooth marble floor that must’ve covered at least a hundred square miles. The light that illuminated it all seemed to be coming from inside the buildings themselves, through the glass windows, but also almost like the pearl stone that made the buildings softly glowed as well. Everything was interconnected by the same long enclosed paths, there was almost no outward architecture, carvings, or statues of note on the domes or the marble grounds of the great underwater city. In the center of the city was the largest dome of all, with towers also branching out from its base at every hour position and a large glass window at its apex. There was no decay. Nothing was broken. It was as pristine and perfect as Canterlot. It was even grander than Senax’s own visions had shown her.

“Home...” she whispered.

“Well uh, what do we do now?” Ballast asked.

“Senax?” Daylight glanced over at her. “Can you tell where the Trident is?”

“Yes,” Senax nodded as she stared upon the city. Mesmerized.

“Um... where is it?” Daylight asked.

Senax reached up and pointed at the largest dome.

“Ohhh, big surprise,” Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. “The incredible treasure of incredible power is inside the biggest building right in the center of the giant underwater city. Wow. Totally didn’t see that coming.”

“Well yes, I certainly can’t say that’s surprising either,” Daylight frowned.

“But how do we actually get there?” Breakwater said. “I’m looking and I don’t see any way inside the domes. Or any of the other buildings for that matter.”

“There has to be someway to get inside...” Gilbert said.

The six of them all crowded the viewport as The Breakwater was now slowly making its way down the cliff and into the valley that contained Merlantis. A few hundred feet and they’d be at the marble ground, level with the smaller domes and buildings on the “outskirts” of the city. They were looking for any sort of berth or open tunnel that looked like ships could enter or merponies could swim into. There had to be something. Rainbow Dash and Gilbert had the sharpest eyes and the two of them were scanning the nearest domes, their eyes narrowed and squinting.

A sharp whistle came from Rainbow Dash and she pointed at a dome at the far edge of this side of the city, pretty much in the middle of the marble floor and facing directly west. Along the bottom edge of it on the same western side was an overhanging archway, under which looked to be several circular openings in the pearly white stone.

“That looks like a way in to me,” Rainbow said.

“Better than anything else we’ve seen,” Daylight shrugged.

“Take us over to those holes, Ballast,” Breakwater said.

“We’re on the way,” Ballast nodded and sped up the travel of their submersible. They were essentially in the city already and it didn’t take long to zoom over the marble grounds to this first dome.

The whole while Senax watched silently, taking it all in. There was nothing for her to say yet anyways. She had no words. But inside her she felt something tugging, pulling her towards the middle of Merlantis. It had to be the connection between the magic of the Necklace still imprinted on her and the Trident of Ponyseidon itself. It was almost like she could see that line of golden light that still led right to the Trident.

The Breakwater made it to the bottom of the dome where the marble floor met the large building, now facing the holes directly under the overhang. Thankfully they were all more than big enough for The Breakwater to fit inside and light seemed to be pouring out from inside them. There was definitely a room further in and not just a dead end, but whether it would be a place with air or dry land wasn’t certain. None of them liked the idea of having to navigate The Breakwater through these buildings—there was no way they were designed to allow something like that. But if they were all filled with water for only merponies to get around in... that could really put a hamper on their ability to get anywhere.

Instead though as soon as they actually entered the dome they were faced with a wall in front of them and a light from above. Ballast checked his instruments and told them that it seemed like there was a pocket of air directly overhead. He let his vessel float up and up about thirty feet until it broke the surface. Bubbles and water cascaded over the viewport as the top half of the submersible bobbed out of the water, floating in the receiving pool inside the dome. Through the viewport they could now see that the pool ended just right in front of the submersible, a stone floor taking up the second half of the room. There were ramps and steps leading down directly into the water from the edge of the floor while above them the ceiling was painted white while a glowing crystal orb sat in the center—responsible for the light in here. At the back wall of the room was an arched entry leading into a hallway.

“It’s like a beaver’s lodge,” Daylight said. “Sort of at least. Technically I believe the water should still be flowing in since the entire thing is below water. There must be some sort of magic to it.”

“Is um... is there actual air to breath in here? Are we safe going out there?” Breakwater asked.

“There’s probably only one way to find out,” Rainbow Dash said as she looked up at their vessel’s hatch. She then glanced over to Senax. “Do you want to do the honors? Seems like it’s only right that you’re the first one to set hoof on the ground in here.”

“Y-Yes,” Senax nodded.

Rainbow Dash and Gilbert moved so that Senax could get out of her seat and be the one to climb out of the submersible first. They were all hoping that the air was breathable inside Merlantis. Senax put her hoof on the handle, before twisting it to open the hatch she looked down at everyone else and shrugged.

“Moment of truth.”

With a hiss of air and the clunk of shifting metal, she popped the hatch and pushed it open. Immediately the warmth from the pool room rushed into them along with a very brief feeling of pressure before their ears popped. Whatever pressure difference there was, or if it was some kind of stabilizing magic field, it already safely washed over them. After a second they all took a deep breath or two and didn’t have any problems.

Rainbow Dash grinned. “Alright, things are going good, better than good!”

Senax managed to smile as she pulled herself out of The Breakwater and stood on top of it while the others then came out with her after Ballast made sure it wouldn’t sink or drift away. Together the six of them stood there, looking around at the room, though there wasn’t much to see inside what was clearly just a simple entrance to the city. No writing, map, art, sculptures, or anything else. Perhaps that kind of stuff was kept for other areas, like where merponies lived and worked or used for leisure. There had to be some kind of museum or “park”, Rainbow assumed. Some sort of great hall where one could look at the glory of Merlantis. Having a city like this in the first place, with magical treasures, it screamed a civilization that would create all sorts of art and monuments to itself.

“I guess then... I guess I should take my first step,” Senax said and walked off The Breakwater, letting herself gently down into the water before paddling her tail over to the edge of the pool. She pulled herself up onto the stone as the water cascaded off her scales and stood there. Stood inside Merlantis. It didn’t feel real. It was so simple, done so quickly and with such little fanfare, but here she was.

Rainbow Dash then grabbed Daylight and Gilbert picked up Breakwater and Ballast, the both of them flying over to drop down beside Senax. All of them stood there with her, silent. The entire party all together inside Merlantis.

Rainbow Dash smiled as she strode out in front of Senax and gestured to the open hallway that led further into the dome. “Welcome to Merlantis, population: Us.”