//------------------------------//
// Rainbow On The Bridge 
// Story: Odrsjot 
// by Imploding Colon 
//------------------------------//

	"So, now that you're back..." Kera murmured, her tiny hooves waddling across the bulkheads to keep up with Rainbow Dash.  "You're going to be hanging around with us, right?"

"I guess," Rainbow said, trotting past the cramped crew quarters as she made her way towards the stern through the ship's middle floor.

"That floating book thingy isn't going to make you dizzy anymore?"

"I guess..."

"You can totally kick the flank of any evil ponies that try to blow us out of the sky with their death cannons?"

"I guess—I mean... I hope I don't have to.  I mean..."  Rainbow winced and paused before the door to the next chamber.  "Look, kid.  I'd love to stay and chew the fat, but can it wait until dinner tonight?  I gotta find Roarke."

"What for?"

"Because I gotta make sure she's alright."

"What for?"

"Because she's as important to this journey as anypony else and I feel like it's my place to look after her."

"What for?"

"Kid—aren't you late for playing hide and go-seek with Belle or something?"

"Meh."  Kera shrugged.  "Belle's too easy to find in this ship.  I can tell she's hiding in a room when I walk in and the whole place is lit up as if with a golden light bulb."

"Maybe you should try it blind folded next time."

"Nah.  Besides, I hate to bug her."  Kera suddenly grinned wide.  "You should check out my new playmate!  Simon!  He's like a tiny little foal who can blow stuff up!"

As if hearing her voice from afar, a loud barking sound echoed against the bulkheads, followed by a spark of magically generated electricity billowing in the distance.

Rainbow Dash winced.  "Yeah, well.  You have fun with that.  Ahem."  She blinked.  "You gonna join us for dinner?"

"Yuck.  It's more daffodils, isn't it?"

"I'm afraid so."

Kera spun and trotted off.  "Have Sailboat call me when he's caught some fresh grasshoppers."

"Yeah, well.  Did you ever try lying on the ship's bow with your mouth open?"

"Huh?"

"Nothing!"  Rainbow Dash passed on into the next corridor.  Along the port side to her right was a tiny lavatory and to her left was an even tinier infirmary.  The door to the medical closet slid open, and Belle popped out.

"Rainbow!  There you are!  I thought I heard your voice!"

"Yeah.  Uh huh.  Look, I have to go chat with Roarke."

"Before you do, I scrounged something up while you were away that might be of some use!"

"Wuh oh..."  Rainbow smirked slightly.  "What are you pushin', Belle?"

"It's not like that!"  The mare frowned as she slid open a cabinet besides a tiny medical bed and produced a canister of pills.  "These are for headaches and nausea!  I bet if you swallowed one of these twice a day, it would take care of your dizzy spells!"

Rainbow Dash squinted.  "But... uhhh... I thought Props and the rest of you guys fixed the floating book platform thingy so that it wouldn't make me dizzy anymore."

Belle bit her lip and blushed slightly.  "It wouldn't hurt to take precautions..."

"Belle..."

"You always look so distressed when the dizzy spells hit.  I'd hate for you to go through that again."

Rainbow Dash pointed at the canister.  "Just how old is this stuff anyways?  Floydien doesn't strike me as pony who made a lot of supply stops before he met us."

Belle shrugged with a bashful smile.  "I'm sure the shelf life isn't all that bad!"  She suddenly grimaced as three tiny cockroaches scurried out of the canister of pills.  Biting her lip, she avoided Rainbow's gaze.

"Heh..." Rainbow slowly lowered her hoof.  "Have Pilate take a note.  We need to pick up more than just food on our next stop."

"Right.  I'll... uh... get on that."

"Sure thing—Gaah!"  Rainbow gasped.

Belle was leaning forward, nuzzling her dearly.  "It's so great to have you back, Rainbow Dash.  I hope you know that."

"Know it.  Feel it.  Smell it."  Rainbow patted her back.  "Good to know the shower's working."

"Actually... uh... it's not."

"Oh?"

"Yeah.  We have to take a basin up to the top deck and collect rain water."

"Yeesh."

"Until we fix it, that's the only way to keep clean around here.  I'll get the schedule from Pilate so that next time you'll know when it's the mare's turn for the top deck."

"Right.  And in the meanwhile the stallions can just... I dunno... twiddle their hooves or headbutt each other."

"Right..."  Belle rolled her eyes and smirked.  "Whatever it is stallions 'do.'"

"What about Simon?  Does he count?"

"I'm afraid to get him close to water."

"Agreed."  Rainbow Dash swung open the next metal door and marched into the middle floor's mess hall.  Trotting past a series of plush lounge chairs, she approached a long, long table where Josho could be seen, polishing a mana rifle.

"Welcome back, Candy Mane.  Have a nice trip?"

"You know, back where I come from, that was the name of a real pony?"

"What, 'Trip?'"

"Erm..."

"Might explain where you inherited your dizziness."

Rainbow frowned.  "My dizziness is not inherited."

"I figured it came from the same family tree as your cracking voice."

With a sigh, the pegasus trotted past him.  "I see you're still weighing the ship down as usual."

"Heh..."  Josho smirked as he cleaned the rifle's barrel out.  "Not for long.  Not with this threadbare flower crap Mr. Burgundy keeps shoving down my throat."

From up ahead, stern-side, a voice shouted through the kitchen doorway, "It's not my fault!  Take it up with Floydien the Red-Nosed Thunderskull!"

"You want thunder?!"  Josho hollered back.  "Fix us up something meaty for once!  I'll give you thunder!"

"Ungh... I don't know what you're lacking more, old stallion.  Grace or gratitude."

"You kidding?!"  Josho grinned wide.  "On the battlefield, that was the best way to thank the company cook!  Also it was a good way to prepare the privates for chemical warfare!"

"You know it's a long, long way down to the earth below us, right?"  Rainbow Dash muttered.  "A boulder your size would probably crunch through the machine layer."

"If they're serving steak there, I'm game."

"Ungh, Celestia..."  Rainbow rolled her eyes.  "I thought I was done with kingdoms where ponies ate meat."

"This world would have to run out of meat first."

"The hay are you doing, anyways?"

"Oh... this...?"  Josho lifted the greasy barrel up and shrugged.  "I asked the god-deer piloting this hunk-a-junk if we had any weapons to spare.  We kind of sort of have a bunch of pissed off armies on our ass, after all."

"Right..."

"So he talks about this crate full of rifles holed up in his hangar bay.  So I sneak in to grab it.  Of course, they're all rusted and out of shape, but I think I can make them squeaky clean once again.  Granted, it would have been a heck of a lot easier pulling them out of the Jury's butt without almost having my throat ripped out from under my chins."

"Huh?"  Rainbow squinted.  "I don't get it..."

"You're buddy... y'know... with the bucket for a head?"  Josho pointed towards some nebulous spot beyond the hull of the ship's stern.  "She's one high-strung melon fudge.  Girl, I'm telling ya..."

Rainbow sighed.  "What did you do to tick Roarke off, Josho?"

"You mean besides being born?" Josho grunted.  "With balls?!" he grunted again.  "The mare's got issues, and the first one of them is demanding space.  Look, I know I'm not exactly the tiniest stallion in the world.  A certain fruit basket's got that job taken."

"What's that supposed to mean?!"

"I wasn't talking about you, ya life raft!"  Josho grunted back towards the kitchen.  He turned and stared at Rainbow with thin eyes.  "Thing is, we gotta share the space on board the S.S. Eastfart evenly, y'know?  If we're gonna be making a stop for the cook and his ego here anytime soon, then we gotta clear out space in the hangar for stocking stuff.  That means Roarke can't afford to do her warrior backflips across the emptiness anymore."

"Well, funny you should say that.  I'm going to go talk with her this second."

"Make sure you bring a loaded weapon, just in case."  Josho fidgeted then shrugged at his pile of messy riffles.  "Not one of these, I'm afraid.  It's gonna take a while before one can fire.  I'm only tending to them to stave off boredom, not to mention the horrible vacuum that's consuming my belly."

"We're likely to implode with a stomach like that."

"Don't give me any ideas."  Josho muttered.  As Rainbow trotted off, he growled, "And don't be eating half of our remaining reserves of daffodil sandwiches, ya friggin' metabolic meteor!  I know it's crud, but it's crud that could be used to fill me!"

"Jee, what a tragedy that would be."  Rainbow next stepped into the kitchen where Ebon Mane was busy making an alfredo out of the leftover flowers.  "Hiya, slick!"  Rainbow smiled.  "How's it sailing?"

The cook's knife rang against the edge of a pot full of boiling water.  "Don't..."  His growling voice echoed off the shiny metal walls and shelves of the tight compartment.  "For all that is holy, don't you even let your tongue tread there."

"Eh heh heh..."  Rainbow Dash sweated nervously as she side-stepped around the pony.  "You hanging in there alright?"

"Would be a lot less stressful to 'hang in here' if I didn't have sharks nipping at my hooves the whole time."  Ebon sliced the flower stems.  "And by 'sharks' I mean ponies."  He sliced and sliced.  "And by 'ponies' I mean ravenously starved psychopaths without a patient bone in their bodies!"

"Yes, well, I'll let you get back to feeding the sharks... er... sharkponies."  Rainbow briefly went cross-eyed.  "Shonies?"

"It's not your fault, Rainbow Dash," Ebon grumbled.  "If anything, now that you're here, maybe you can convince Floydien to let us make a rest stop."

"I'll see what I can do."  Rainbow trotted backwards towards the stairwell.  "At least it's nice and quiet in here!  You can concentrate!"  She turned around—

"Rainy-Bow-Bow!"  Props exploded in her face.

"Gaaah—Jeez!"  Rainbow flew back into a rack, causing pots and pans to rattle to the floor.  Ebon sighed as the pegasus tried to compose herself.  "For the love of Celestia, Props!  Somepony should put a bell on you!"

"Why?!"  Props blinked her blue eyes.  "Is it foggy out?"

Rainbow stared at her, then leaned forward with a squint.  "What?"

"I'm so bubbly inside!"  Props pumped a hoof as her blonde tresses flounced over her goggles.  "You're back and you're not dead and you're not dizzy!  My Uncle Prowse used to tell me that dizziness is worse after you die!  That was after the bridge fell on him, of course."

"Err..."

"So, you're not feeling all swirly-twirly in the skully-whirly?"  Props leaned in and poked through Rainbow's frazzled mane.  "Boltnuts!  That must mean the cage is working!"

"The... c-cage...?"  Rainbow's eyes went crooked.

"That's what they ended up putting over that magical book," Ebon explained.  "I dunno how it works, exactly.  Something to do with arcanium."

"Arcanium, huh?"  Rainbow Dash scratched her neck in thought.  "Y'know, now that I think about it, the Princesses back at home used stuff by the same name to keep a lot of their spellbooks safe.  I remember Twilight talking about it a lot.  Heh, she thought I was bored asleep when she used to ramble to me."  Rainbow sighed, staring off into space. "She was wrong..."

"Uh oh!"  Props gasped wide.  "You're not getting dizzy-wizzy again, are ya?"

Rainbow glanced curiously at her.  "Uhhh... No.  Why?"

"Cuz your cheeks are all flushed and stuff!"

"Heh... Nah, Props..."  Rainbow waved a hoof.  "It's okay.  I was just..." She shuddered slightly.  "I was just remembering good times..."

"So, you're rosy because you're healthy?" Props asked, leaning in.

"Uhhh... yeah..."  Rainbow leaned back from her, nostrils full of the inquistive mare's scent.  "Thanks for asking... uhm..."

"Wow!  You're getting healthier!   Now your shoulders are red!  Heehee!  Fancy that—"

"Yeah, uh... Props?"  Rainbow Dash gulped dryly and fidgeted.  "Could you check on the ship's... auxiliary... energy... capacitor thingies?  I think I hear a rhythmic clanking sound."

"A rhythmic clanking sound?!"  Props inhaled like a vacuum and galloped towards the ship's bow.  "Those are the worst kind of sounds!"

As the mare left in a platinum blur, Rainbow cleared her throat and spoke hoarsely to Ebon.  "Say, we got a freezer inside this soup can?"

"Believe it or not, yeah..."  Ebon pointed towards a cabinet at the far end.  "How Floydien managed it, I dunno.  It needs a new pair of doors, though..."

"Good enough."  Rainbow flung the thing open, turned around, and shoved her feathers deep into it.  She took a great deal of time exhaling.

Ebon blinked.  "Uh... Rainbow?  Are... are your wings okay?"

"Hmmmf..."  She glared ahead of her as her face returned to its normal blue complexion.  "They are now.  Ahem."   Slamming the fridge shut, she coiled her feathers by her side and proceeded beyond the stairwell in a huff.