//------------------------------//
// See the World, She Said 
// Story: Urohringr 
// by Imploding Colon 
//------------------------------//

	The Noble Jury shot ahead like a fiery red cannon.  It took every ounce of Rainbow's strength to so much as keep the vessel within her line of sight.  She found herself naturally ascending, as if in expectation of the skystone ship somehow burning its way past the natural vanishing point.

A pocket of violently displaced air rippled ahead of her, toying with her feathers and throwing her flight off balance.  Nevertheless, she glided east as speedily as her wings could afford her.

The Noble Jury weaved left and right.  Rainbow judged that Floydien was attempting to create wind drag and slow the vessel's eastbound approach.  Still, it grew more and more distant, and Rainbow as at a loss to catch up.

She was only just starting to panic when something truly drastic set in.  Without warning, the world around her spun.  Rainbow's startled mind attempted to explain what was going on:  a wind gust?  A tidal wave?  A stray comet hitting the ocean?

Then, by the fourth blink, Rainbow Dash understood completely.  Her body jolted in mid-air, quivering uncontrollably.  Wave after wave of dizziness rippled through her being, the first time in several days.  Wincing, she slowed her flight into a casual drift, flapping her wings for the sole purpose of keeping aloft.  She winced, and her tearing eyes flickered yellow on red before flashing back to their normal ruby luster.

"Never good t-timing... never g-good..."  She wheezed, voice cracking as she struggled to fly upright.  "Come on, keep it together.  K-keep it..."

Her eyes rolled back.  With a wheezing exhale, her body went numb—as did her wings.  She plummeted towards the Frozen Sea below.





"Spit!"  Floydien grunted, gripping the ship's controls with a pair of tight, cloven hooves.  "Spit spit spit spit spit!"

"Care to put your brain where your muzzle is?!" Josho shouted, leaning against the edge of the cockpit for support.  "How do we stop this dayum thing?!"

"Floydien has a good mind to throw fat boomer into the engine and blow a gasket!"

"Cute."  Josho threw himself—grunting—against the floor and virtually stuck his head down the crawlspace.  "Hey!  [h]Heeeey!  Shut it off!  We're leaving Miss Paint Bucket in the dust!"

Indecipherable shouts dripped down the rattling bulkheads.

"I said!"  Josho frowned.  "Get that goggled brainazoid to cut the engines!  We'll end up in flames if we continue this interstellar loogey impersonation!"

"Gnnngh!"  Eagle Eye stumbled into view two decks down.  His lavender face looked up.  "Old stallion!  Tell Rainbow Dash that we need another three minutes of flight before we can recalibrate the engines for the next test!"

"Gonna be a little hard to do that, seeing as she checked out, sugar flanks!" Josho snarled back.

Eagle Eye blinked.  His face paled.  "Oh cat nuggets!"  With a whimpering squeak, he scampered back the way he came, dove through the navigation room, and flung the heavy door back open to the engine compartment.  "Cut it off!  Cut it off!"

"But... I-I gotta fix this thing!" Props stammered into the lavender pulse of the caged tome.

Eagle Eye shouted, "Rainbow Dash is outside, remember?!  She'll be a pinprick on the horizon by now!"

"Whoopsicles!"  Props grimaced, turning to face the array of sparkling cables fastened to an instrument panel.  "Uhhhhh... uhhhhh..."

Ebon spoke up from the far side of the engine room.  "Whatever you do, Props, be delicate!"

"I'll do a tea party later!  Dashie needs us!"  She pouted.  "Ohhhhhhhh—"  Lunging forward, the goggled mare bit onto one wire and yanked it loose.  There was a flash of mana, and the entire ship surged backwards, decelerating within an instant.  Props' body flew hard into Ebon Mane.  "Ooof!"

"Daaah!"





A pair of blue eyelids fluttered shut.

A mane of prismatic hair billowed out from a leather coat's hood.

The world toppled and spun while a glittering ocean of ice loomed ever closer.

"Austraeoh..."

"Mmmmmm..."  Rainbow's mouth stirred.  Her wings twitched, quivered.  Water enveloped the toppling world.

"Austraeoh... when did you stop flying east?"

With a gasp, Rainbow's eyes flew open.  Red and yellow colors flickered, then reflected frosty waves of water.

Gritting her teeth, Rainbow fought against the dizziness, spread her wings wide, and caught air just seconds before she could plow into the currents of the Frozen Sea.  Her body pulled itself upright with a jolt, the tips of her hooves skimming the cold, cold waters.  She hissed through her teeth from the numbing sensation.  As her dizziness dissolved, she swore she saw a dark mass surging underwater along with her.  A pulse of light emanated from below, crimson and bright.  Before she could make out the texture of scales and massive fins, she had pulled up to a comfortable distance, flapping her wings until she was a stone's toss from the glittering waters.

Panting, she hovered in place, her upper body slick with sweat beneath the tight contours of the leather coat.  She gulped and looked all around.

The skies were clear.  She was the only winged thing within visual distance.

Rotating about with a perpetual shiver, she finally saw the one speck that she was looking for.  The Noble Jury floated in a limp hover along the eastern horizon.

Rainbow's body ached.  Nevertheless, with the faint traces of her chaotic illness lingering in her veins, she lurched her way through the arctic breeze and approached the stalled ship.





Ebon, Eagle Eye, and Props galloped out of the stairwell.  Breathless, they spun about, scanning every horizon they could.  The cockpit door slid open, allowing Josho to stumble out and join them.

"What in the McBuck Burger happened?!" Josho growled.

"The engine worked!"  Props gulped.  "A little too well."

"Dang it, lady, are you ever going to get that thing working properly?"

"Don't be so hard on her, old stallion," Eagle Eye said, still worriedly squinting across the waves.  "She's kept us from plunging into the ocean time and time again."

"I'd gladly take that at this rate—rather than drifting here forever and becoming sea serpent food!"

"Yeah, well, if we need to appease the hungry monsters here, we know who to toss first!" Ebon grunted.

"Ebon," Eagle sighed.  "Must you—"

"I'm getting really sick of him spitting out mule muffins everytime he opens his fat muzzle!  Is it so easy to forget that we're making a team effort here?!"

"The only reason I'm at the end of my rope is because I'm eating watered down vomit each evening for breakfast with nothing to shoot at!"

"Would it at least kill you to turn your frustrations to something else?!"

"Well, if I tried headbutting you, Sir Soups A Lot, I'd cause us all to starve, cuz you'd be sobbing it off like a pansy for a week!"

"Josho—"

"You really wanna push my buttons, don't you?!"

"How about it, burgundy?!  Frying pans at thirty paces!"

"Everypony, cut it out!"  Props stood between the stallions.  She hoisted her goggles up to her blonde bangs and panted.  "Look, I'm super, super sorries about the engine going all kersplodey.  Next time we test it, we should just keep everypony on board, that way I can calibrate for the resistance manifold and make sure that we can decelerate in the future because—"  She froze in mid-speech, blinking suddenly towards the western horizon.  "Oh lookie!  Dashie!"

Thud!  Rainbow Dash's limp body plowed into Props.  Both mares went toppling across the deck.

"Whoah!" Eagle Eye jumped in place.  "There she is!"

"Propsy!" Ebon gasped.

"Hold on..."  Josho trotted over and disentangled the two ponies with telekinesis.  "There.  Catch your breaths.  Breathe."

"Nnnngh..."  Rainbow Dash curled up, coughing and sputtering as her muzzle twisted in dizzied pain.

"Phweeeee..."  Props sat up, shaking the cobwebs out of her skull.  "Thank goodness I'm so plush or one of us would have broken something!"  She leaned over and shook Rainbow's shoulder.  "Hey Dash-Dash?  You okay?  Usually you bounce back up after plowing full force into another pony."

"Guhhh... mmmff... I'm f-fine..."  Rainbow stood up on wobbling legs.

"Eagle..."  Ebon leaned over, murmuring.  "It's acting up again..."

"Yeah, I get it."  Eagle nodded, then trotted to Rainbow's side.  "Rainbow?  How bad is it this time?"

"I said I'm fine," Rainbow grumbled.

"Because there's room in the infirmary for another pony, I'm sure."  Eagle smiled and placed a hoof on the pegasus' shoulder.  "Lemme just walk you down there and—"

"Don't you guys get a clue?!" Rainbow snapped, batting Eagle's hoof away and frowning.  "I said I'm fine so I'm fine!"  She hobbled forward.  "Besides, the ship's more important than me."

Eagle Eye winced, biting his lip.  "Rainbow..."

"Well?  How about it?"  Rainbow glared at Props as she trotted by.  "We learn anything?"

"Uhhhhhhhhhh..." Props shifted uncomfortably.

"You know what?  Forget it.  I'm sure you've got control of it."  Rainbow limped on towards the cockpit and shimmied her way down the crawlspace.  "I'm gonna go crash for a bit.  Knock on the doorframe to the observation room when you all are ready to give it another go."

That said, the ponies were left alone on the top deck, fidgeting in the cold winds.

Dead silent.