Valley Of Rainbows: Seeking Solutions

by Sparx

The Power And Fury

Rainbow Dash was tossing and turning in her sleep. Dark dreams plagued her, showing vague images of lightning and rain.

Dash walked through the storm, following a voice that she could hear calling her name. It was faint and distant, but it was indeed calling her name. “Rainbow Dash…” The voice was familiar, but she couldn’t make it out. She began running, trying to hear the voice clearly, but the thunder and rain began to pick up in volume too. She couldn’t see anything but clouds and rain.

“Who are you?” she called out. The voice called her name once again and Dash picked up her pace. “Who is it? Where are you?”

Lightning flashed once again, and Dash could swear she saw an eye form from it, looking back at her with a furious glare. The electric blue stare drove fear into her heart, almost forcing it to stop. She kept running forward, towards it, unable to stop. The eye drew closer as her legs refused to stop.

Teeth formed in a horizontal line across the eye, splitting it open like a giant maw ready to accept Dash as a meal. She spread her wings, hoping they would succeed where her legs were failing.

It worked! Her legs were still running, but without any cloud to support her she wasn’t moving; only hovering in place. The nightmare didn’t stop though as the mouth began to suck in air, pulling her closer. Dash forced her hooves over her eyes in terror, afraid of what came next. She heard the clamping of jaws, certain that she was going to feel saliva drip onto her head and witness horrors worse than she could imagine. After a while though, she dared to open her eyes again, pulling her hooves down.

She was within a valley, beautiful green mountains on either side of her with a river flowing right down the center. It was a breathtaking sight. Above her, in the sky, she saw rainbows upon rainbows lined up, connecting one side of the vale to the other.

“Where in Equestria am I?” Rainbow floated above the water and under the color.

“Not in Equestria, Rainbow Dash. This place is safe, it is your center,” a voice answered from behind her.

Dash turned and saw a ghostly image of Celestia’s head floating before her.

“Princess!” Dash flew closer. “Where are you? Are you okay? What is all this?”

The image of the princess flickered, blurring even more. “I don’t have time, Rainbow Dash. We’re fine, but you’re all in danger.” Another flicker came and a wince of pain spread across Celestia’s face. “A storm is coming, but it’s only the start of something more.”

“You mean the war?” Rainbow questioned.

“First the storm, then the blood, and with the war comes pestilence from a long lost time.” She tried to continue speaking, but the image began fading fast along with her voice.

“Princess, what are you talking about?” Rainbow felt desperate for answers to make sense of what seemed to be an important warning.

“No more time… Dash… good luck…” She was fading fast. “We’re with you… look to your element…” She was gone.

Rainbow found herself alone in the valley, staring at the empty space in which Celestia’s image had been floating.

Dash opened her eyes, taking in the view of her cabin in the ship. She brushed her brow and felt herself covered in sweat. “What in Tartarus was that?”

Up on deck, Gilda was staring out over the seas. They had been aimlessly sailing about on the water for the past three days, waiting for Rainbow’s crew to heal up. Rainbow herself was feeling back to her normal self and Lyra had regained her energy, with Fido and Fluttershy pretty much back to normal. Rover insisted that he was feeling fine too, but in going from one fight to another so soon and so violently; the others insisted he keep himself rested up.

She turned around to see Lyra playing on her lyre, singing and entertaining the crew with Spot and Fido singing along.

Lyra would sing; strumming lightly before the dogs would take their turn at singing:

The whole crew would laugh along with the song, and Gilda couldn’t help but grin as well, as it was one of the first shanties she had heard when she had gone out to sea. “The more crude the better,” she said to herself, remembering some of the filthiest versions of the tune she had heard before.

Continuing to look around the ship, she caught a glance of Fluttershy noticeably avoiding the song with a frown on her face; this only made Gilda chuckle even more. She began thinking to herself though; perhaps it was time they switched over to something different.

“Hey, Lyra,” she called out, grabbing the unicorn’s attention as she kept playing. “You takin’ requests?”

“Sure am, Cap’n!” Lyra replied with a smile. “What suits yer fancy?”

“Ya know Can o’ Grog?” Gilda called out.

Lyra smiled. “First shanty I learned, Cap!” Lyra stopped her playing, to a few of the crew’s dismay, and shifted her tune, motioning for anyone who knew the words to sing along with her.

The song brought Gilda back to her first days of sailing, bringing her attention back to the salt in the air. Though it also brought her to the rumors she had been hearing back in Vanhoover about the new pirate who had moved in.

They referred to them as ‘Jack’. Can of Grog was one of their favored drinking songs from what she heard, a trait the two of them had in common. Once we’re finished with all of this, I’m gonna see if ol’ ‘Jack’ wants a drink, or maybe if they need a beating.

At the moment though, this was a problem for another time, and Gilda let the song bring her back to her nostalgia. She leaned back against the railing of the ship and closed her eyes as the song continued on.

With a satisfied sigh, Gilda threw her head back and opened her eyes. However, she furrowed her brow at the sight of a large and imposing black cloud coming their direction; blue sparks flying from all directions.

“Storm incoming!” she called out, grabbing everyone’s attention. At her side, pegasi arrived, ready for orders. “Get back to your jobs!” she snarled. “You’re no good here! The storm is magic! We’re dealing with something bigger than a small drizzle!” The pegasi backed away, intimidated by their captain. “Just keep us from sinking! All hands on deck!” She began shouting orders, guiding each of her crew members with just a number of quick and sharp shouts.

Gilda’s memory brought her back to her experience with magical storms. Revenge for an old friend? Let’s see how YOU stand up to Gilda! She grabbed ahold of her Morningstar, ready to test her mettle against a true kraken.

Rainbow was the first to emerge on deck, running up to Gilda’s side. “What’s up, G?”

“Storm coming right in our direction; it’s large but not large enough to be natural. It looks almost exactly like the one cast by the kraken I took out.” Gilda began thumping her weapon’s handle into her talon. “This one’s bigger though, we have one FUCK of a fight coming our way.”

Dash frowned as she gave a nod in response. “Can we not outrun it?”

“We could sure as hell try, but you see how fast that thing is moving, do the math. We have at least a day’s sail away to any source of land. We just have the sky and sea.” She let her beak break out into a grin. “Never liked the ground much anyway.”

Dash gave a chuckle to that line. “I can expect you at my side in the air then?”

“FUCK yeah, Dash!” Gilda burst.

The two of them turned to meet the rest of the crew’s gaze. Gilda held her weapon overhead. “Time for the true test, ya sorry bastards! If you’ve sailed with me before, this is only the next level of the junk we go through! To those who haven’t, we’re gonna see if you have what it takes! Keep my boat afloat or you’re all out of a job if the damned sea devil doesn’t take your life first!” A collective ‘YAR’ came from all of the crew as they thrust their hooves and paws into the air. Gilda then turned back towards the storm, motioning her Morningstar towards the tempest. “Let’s go!”

She and Dash flew up, ready to make the first strike against their incoming opponent, confidence on their faces. The storm drew closer and they suddenly began to feel an incredible heat washing over them. They were ready to slam against the first tentacle to pop out of the water and lash at them, but that isn’t what they were met with.

The clouds all dispersed in a sudden motion, giving way to rapidly approaching jaws, straight out of Rainbow’s nightmare. She felt her heart sink and her confidence become overpowered by fear, Gilda’s own grin dropping with a horrified gasp.

“DRAGON!” one of the crew burst out in a panicked voice.

Gilda shook her head hard, snapping out of her trance before turning to Dash. “C’mon, Rainbow Dash! We have to take it on!”

Dash stared at the creature flying for her, its eyes meeting hers, communicating a powerful hatred.

“DASH!”

Rainbow shook her head, Gilda’s cry aiding her out of her daze. She put on a scowl and flicked her blades out, ready for a fight. “How tough can he be?”

She and Gilda charged the dragon at full speed, pulling their arms back to strike; when they drew close they dipped slightly and came up from underneath, striking at the monster’s chin. They swung too hard however and realized that they hadn’t hit anything, the image of the dragon disappearing in front of them.

“What the fu—” Gilda was cut off as the dragon came down on top of them, slapping both of them downward with its massive claw.

Dash and Gilda fell fast, quickly approaching the water. They spread their wings at the last moment, parachuting and flying back upward with ferocity.

“Fucker uses illusions!” Gilda cried. She let her anger boil and her eyes narrow. She began swinging her mace early, forcing herself into a spin, moving faster and faster. When she drew close enough, she let go of her weapon, launching it at a rapid speed towards the giant lizard’s eye.

The dragon was unimpressed, speaking a word of his lost language and motioning upward with one of his nails. The ocean itself rose in a column, surrounding him as it spiraled upwards. The water slowed the Morningstar and pulled the weapon into its spin, flinging it back in Gilda’s direction.

Gilda felt the spiked ball impale her stomach, knocking her back as pain overwhelmed her. She smashed back into the deck of her ship, cracking open a hole in the boat and incapacitating the griffon.

Dash could feel her fear spiking up again, as she was now alone in the sky with a dragon, cloaked in a towering tornado of water. His eyes stared back at her from within his aquatic armor, narrowing and focusing in on her. She watched as his maw split open and a bright blue light began forming in the back of his throat.

Rainbow began flying as hard as she could; wanting to avoid whatever was coming next. A hole formed in the pillar of water, giving a clear path as a bolt of blue lightning flew forth from his mouth. Dash tried her best to keep ahead of the deadly breath. The line of lightning chased after her, the dragon spinning in his whirlpool to try and strike her. Dash made note of this and made it a point to avoid going in any direction that would damage the ship.

Eventually the lightning stopped, the hole in the pillar closing once again. The eyes still glared in Rainbow’s direction, making it obvious this creature had little interest in anything else.

Back on deck, Lyra was playing on her lyre at a high tempo, rousing anyone that could hear it. Spot and Fido stood ready, anxious to strike when the dragon drew near. A number of the crew surrounded Gilda, trying to wake their captain and pull her out of the hole she had made while the remaining pegasi took to the sky, flying to Dash’s side.

Lyra sang with such energy and vigor, those around her couldn’t help but feel powerful, fighting at their full potential. She held an almost sinister smile as she played and sang, finding that deep satisfaction in danger that she always seemed to have, but on a higher level.

Dash could feel courage begin rippling through her, ready to take this creature on. She gave a yell of “Attack!” and charged the dragon along with the other pegasi, each of them shouting a powerful war cry.

The dragon was not amused. They all heard a clicking sound as he tapped two of his nails together. Water from his pillar fired out at a nearly blinding speed, smashing half of the pegasi charging him in a salty blast. Dash lost her breath as she looked into the sudden funnel that was shot at them, reaching far behind the Gilded Rain. There were splashes of red and bone swept away in front of her, but no sign of a whole pony anywhere.

When the water dropped, it fell onto the boat. The deck became littered with bones, strips of flesh, and splashes of blood. Panic began to wash over most of the crew, Dash and the dogs looking to the mess of pony remains with stunned expressions.

Lyra, however, maintained her devilish glare towards the dragon, playing her lyre and amplifying the volume magically.

She let the adrenaline fuel her song that fueled those still fighting, channeling their fear into courage.

“Keep your guard up and stay moving!” Dash called out, ordering the remaining pegasi as she began charging once again. They all followed, deftly dodging as even more powerful geysers were fired out from the pillar. They all drew close, screaming battle cries before the water opened again, making way for one of the dragon’s claws to reach out, clamping down on two of the ponies who couldn’t dodge it, giving a sickening crunching noise.

They couldn’t bother to look; as it would risk them falling prey to the same fate, but Dash felt a shiver as she caught a glimpse of red dripping from the dragon’s claws.

A chance had been opened to them as they dove into the hole, aiming their strikes towards the dragon’s belly. With just a wave of his free claw though, Dash witnessed pure horror as all of the pegasi at her side shriveled in an instant and fell into the harsh water of the pillar, becoming nothing more than a small pool of blood in the ocean that was quickly washed away.

Rainbow felt sick, about to vomit. She had just witnessed half a dozen pegasi dry up like raisins and fall into an aquatic blender. She didn’t stop though, and in a rage, continued her charge into the dragon, slamming her blades into the dragon’s scaly skin.

Instead of being met by the painful roar she was expecting though, she heard what sounded like a deep and demented laughter. The water column around her and the lizard ceased swirling and fell back into the ocean, some of it landing heavily on the Gilded Rain and forcing it to bob.

She began to see flashes of her life pass by as she felt the dragon’s claw grab hold of her. She wasn’t crushed though as the beast drew her up to his massive blue eyes. The ones right out of her nightmare.

He spoke in a language Rainbow couldn’t understand. It seemed he could tell by her expression. He gave a disapproving frown. “I should have known I’d have to speak such a simple language.” His voice sent shivers down everyone’s spines, and even brought Lyra’s playing and song to a stop. Everyone stood silent as he held Rainbow Dash in his grasp.

His eyes explored the small pony before falling upon her necklace. “There we are.” He tapped at the gem with the point of a nail. “Give it to me, and I’ll end you quickly and painlessly.”

Dash looked down to her element. “The Element of Loyalty? What do you want with that?”

“I’ve only had to chase you across the globe for this treasure,” he explained. “After my servants failed to lift it from you themselves.” He looked down to the ship and dropped his gaze onto the Spot and Fido. “I remember hearing about those two as well.”

Dash’s mind was flooded with thoughts of fear and confusion. “What do you want with it though? It’s useless to you!”

“It is valuable. It is magical. It should be mine,” he hissed. “I am Owayix, the oldest of the blues. I deserve everything that comes within my domain.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about! I’ve never seen you, how could I have been in your domain?” Rainbow shot back, almost more irritated than frightened.

“Of course you didn’t see me; normally I wouldn’t bother to make myself known. But the rats failed me, and I was growing tired of them.”

Dash and the dogs all felt their breath stop as they remembered the night they were almost mugged in the desert.

Shit! Was all Dash could think, trying to struggle out of the creature’s grasp. “I can’t give it to you!” Dash insisted. “The ponies need it to stop a war!”

“How fascinating,” Owayix replied in a dry and bored tone. “I’m afraid though, that I don’t care much for the trivial issues of lesser creatures. I would have thought that to be rather apparent as I swatted your comrades aside without so much as blinking. Then again, I suppose I put more effort into the motion than needed, perhaps you confused that for caring?”

Though Dash felt angry as Owayix continued to speak, she couldn’t vocalize on it as she was still struggling to escape. “So what the hell do you want with me? Why bother telling me any of this?”

“Don’t question me!” Owayix roared causing waves to rise and shake the ship again. He gave a light cough and cleared his throat, running his free claw along his head up to the tip of his horns. “Sorry for the nasty impression right there, appearances should always be kept positive even in death threats.”

This guy’s fucking crazy! Dash thought. Maybe I can use that? “No no no, I should be apologizing. Obviously I didn’t know I was dealing with such a proper and powerful dragon. Obviously you must have your reasons for blessing me with your words.” She spoke quickly, attempting to choose her words carefully and mimic Lyra.

Owayix gave a grin with his large maw; a sight that everyone was sure would haunt them. “Perhaps you are wiser than you appear. For that wisdom, I will reward you with the knowledge you request. Why bother telling you?” His eyes narrowed. “Because you escaped, and you hold something I want. I offer you a quick death if you give it to me willingly; and perhaps some other form of reward if you tell me how to work it.”

Dash paused, unable to think. Owayix held his claw before her, waiting for her to release the element over to him. He didn’t look like he wanted more honeyed words, impatience building in his eyes, but she didn’t know how well lying would go over. Dash took a deep breath and collected herself. “You’re not going to get it willfully, so go right ahead and crush me if that’s what you’re gonna do!”

“Oh, my dear,” Owayix spoke in a sickly sweet voice. “Crushing you for such disrespect is too small a punishment… let’s take what you value first.”

Dash’s heart sped faster than she had ever managed to fly as she felt the nails grab ahold of one of her wings, feeling a painful tug before screaming at the top of her lungs as pain began to destroy her conscious thoughts.

The agony she felt was heard from everyone still on deck, forcing the dogs to grab at their ears. They all stared up at her, unable to help and hopeless. They couldn’t reach her, and even if they could, no attack they had given seemed to even irritate the reptile. Dash’s screaming grew louder as she felt almost certain her wing was going to be pulled off.

What nobody was expecting at that moment though, was for someone to begin screaming even louder, drowning Rainbow’s pained wails out with a shriek that even banshees were incapable of. Everyone’s attention, even that of Owayix, fell to the hole in the ship where Gilda had crashed through.

The griffon stood on her back legs, bloody mace in her right talon, a spilling pool of blood at her stomach, and her eyes blanked white with absolute fury as she yelled at the top of her lungs, launching from the boat with incredible speed and aiming herself right for the dragon. She grasped tight with her other talon and bashed the Morningstar into his chin.

The dragon was taken by surprise as he actually managed to feel a bit of pain strike his jaw, so much so that his grip loosened on Rainbow Dash. She didn’t waste a second of her opportunity as she flew from the monster’s clutch and back towards the boat.

“LYRA!” she called, hoping the unicorn had some answer. “Lyra, we have to go! We can’t do anything against this guy, we need some way out!”

Lyra nodded. “We have to keep him busy, if we can do that, I may be able to expend enough energy to get us somewhere safe with a teleportation. I’m gonna be completely out of it again though, so we need it to count.”

“Right, how long do you think Gilda can keep this up?” Dash looked back over her shoulder to see the griffon still bashing her mace against the scaly hide of the beast, barely managing to avoid his claw swipes and bites.

“I can’t give you an honest answer on that, Rainbow. She’s gone berserk, literally. She’s faster and stronger, but she isn’t in control of her own actions, she’ll keep going until that thing falls… or she does.” Lyra swallowed hard. “And I can tell you, if he manages… when he manages to catch her, she will be doing the falling.”

“Then we need something to divide his attention!” Dash shouted, trying to think quickly. “Fine, I’m going back up there!”

“This is a very bad idea!” Spot interrupted. “This would not divide his attention, but focus it. He wants us, primarily you. He will swat you like a fly and destroy the ship, leaving the rest of us to drown.”

“Well what the hell am I supposed to do?” Dash countered, frustrated. “Nobody else on this thing can fly except—”

Before Dash could finish her sentence, Fluttershy had made her way into the sky, donned in her cloak and crown.

“Fluttershy no! We need you too!” Dash urged.

Fluttershy ignored the call though and closed her eyes, raising her hooves as she came above the water. From out of the water arose limbs and fins, all belonging to creatures willing to help. From the sky came a variety of birds and avian creatures also ready to lend aide.

“Well I’m not going to stand here and let everyone else fight!” Dash roared, flaring her wings before feeling a sudden clunk to her skull, dropping her to the deck in an unconscious heap.

“Sorry, Sugarcube. We can’t risk ya.” Applejack withdrew her hoof from striking her friend, looking back to Lyra. “Ah know ya weren’t plannin’ on tellin’ her, but tell me. Ya don’t got enough energy for a whole ship, nor enough for the whole crew. Who all can ya bring along?” She held a grim look of understanding upon her face.

Lyra frowned. AJ spoke the truth, even with a whole day’s worth of magic Lyra could never manage the whole crew. With a sigh she said, “I can get our group out and one more. I was planning on it being Gilda.” Spot and Fido heard this, their faces falling low, but not objecting.

Applejack nodded. “If’n it’s the only way. Ah don’t wanna abandon ship with all these fine goat folk and ponies aboard, but we can’t abandon Equestria neither.” Looking back down to Rainbow, she nuzzled the sleeping pegasus’ neck. “Yer not gonna die here.”

She made her way to the front of the boat, whistling to the crew to follow her. At the edge of the boat, she saw a whale waiting below to catch them under Fluttershy’s orders. “Least ah’ll get my stomach to stop churnin’… one way or another.” She leapt down, followed by a group of earth ponies and goats, and atop the whale, they made a charge for Owayix.

Fido and Spot both stood by Lyra’s side, watching as she took a deep breath and let her horn begin to glow. Spot checked to make sure Dash was alright.

“How much time is this going to take?” Fido asked, clutching at the bugbear mandible around his neck for luck.

“With the size of the spell, the distance of the targets and the chaos around me, I estimate that it’ll take somewhere over five minutes... if we survive that long.” She kept her eyes closed and mind focused; breathing sounded like it was a chore for her as she took consistently strong inhales and exhales. “I hate to ask it of you guys, but you have to help Applejack and Fluttershy out, we need them to get through this or all of it is for naught.”

Rover and Spot exchanged nervous glances, nodding to one another. “Yes, Missus Lyra!” they replied in unison, rushing to the edge of the ship and throwing themselves overboard to join the fray.

Owayix felt fury building up in him as he tried to swat Gilda away, feeling the stings of her smashing weapon against his thick scales. She was like a mosquito that was always just out of his grasp. But as he tried harder to get at her, he felt a tug on his tail. He looked down to see a large octopus pulling at him. He began to motion somatic signs with his claw and muttered in his native language, but before he could fire his spell, he felt something fly into his eye and break his concentration. Birds of varying sizes had begun pecking and scratching at him, unable to grab his attention until now. He snapped his jaws at the creatures. Some managed to fly out of the way in time, while an unfortunate many were crushed under his fangs into a mixture of splintered bones and blood.

He felt his annoyance rising and let out a deafening roar. Anyone who could still hear anything found it horrifying as the noise warped from some animalistic bellow to a noise almost alien to them all. It was like a horse’s whinny, choked under a sickening, slurping gurgle. The sound wasn’t normal or natural, even for a dragon. He was manipulating his roar, mimicking something that had frightened even himself. It was horrific to all that could hear it, shaking them as nightmarish images of what creature could make such a noise flooded their minds.

Owayix whipped his tail upward in an attempt to release himself from the cephalopod’s grip, but it wasn’t that easy.

The few unicorns on deck fired one massive joint blast of magic that hit the dragon directly in his chest, causing a sting that burned significantly more than the small strikes Gilda had been placing on him.

Irritated, he opened his mouth again, blue light charging as it had the previous time he fired lightning.

“Get outta the way!” Applejack called back to the ship.

The crew moved out of the way, expecting a beam of electricity to obliterate them. They didn’t receive the attack, however, as the dragon let loose a large black cloud from his throat. The cloud pulsed underneath with blue light, making its way above the Gilded Rain.

“SHIT!” one of the crew screamed out as lightning began to fall from the cloud, tearing into the ship. One of the planks caught fire, bringing panic to those on board.

The unicorn who had shouted was struck as he tried to run, falling and impaling his neck onto a splintered board, left frozen with a cold gaze of fear. The bolts struck rapidly, one after another in a line, causing the bow to crack and fall forward and begin sinking with all of its passengers, dead or alive. The rest of the boat began to point forward, beginning to sink slowly.

Fluttershy was quick to notice and gave a sharp whistle, urging some of the sea creatures to keep the boat floating. At their obedience, she then made her way to the magical cloud, calling some of the birds to try and help her stop it.

Below deck, Rover had been awoken in the chaos, rolling out of his medical bed, only to realize that the ocean was in front of him. He looked up and caught a glance of everything going on; the dragon, Applejack and the crew atop sea animals, and the water below filling with a red hue. He grabbed at the bandages wrapped around his torso, checking how much pain he was in.

Confident in his condition, Rover grabbed up his weapons and began climbing up the broken bow. He emerged at the top and saw Lyra breathing deep in front of an unconscious Rainbow Dash as lightning fell, tearing the ship asunder as fire was consuming whatever the bolts missed. Ponies and goats were scattering and running all about the deck.

He ran up to Lyra and Dash, trying to figure out what was going on. “Missus Lyra, what is—”

“Not now, Rover!” Lyra insisted, trying to keep her focus, playing her instrument close to her ear.

Rover recognized that an important spell was being cast and shut up. He drew his blade and readied himself to guard her and their leader.

“You’re in no condition to fight!” Lyra shot at him.

“Not fighting,” Rover returned. He watched in anticipation as he saw a bolt fire out of the cloud in Lyra’s direction. He threw himself in front of the line, flinging his sword upward, deflecting the electricity back into the sky. “But I will do what I can.”

He kept himself grounded, surrendering himself to the blade’s magic and allowing it to guide his deflections. He countered the magical shots, launching them into empty airspace.

Back in the water, Applejack continued giving orders where she could. Ponies began tossing spears, hammers, and most other throwing weapons they had brought off the boat with them, but they seemed about as effective as stabbing a brick wall with a feather, bouncing harmlessly off the lizard’s powerful hide.

As AJ and the dogs drew close, they readied into attack position. “NOW!” The three of them leapt from their whale’s head, pulling their weapons back for a powerful strike.

Spot dug his daggers into a scale of the monster, sticking but not having done any harm. Fido seemed to get a small sting in, getting a slight grunt from Owayix. He then grabbed hold of one of his scales, hanging near his pack-mate, gripping his weighty axe with only one arm.

Applejack, however, hit the hardest, actually earning a growl of pain as she smashed her front hammers powerfully into the lizard’s stomach. She began to drop, but with a confident smile.

Sure enough, her trust was rewarded as Fluttershy gave out a call and AJ landed safely on the shell of a large turtle. “Much appreciated, Fluttershy!”

Fluttershy nodded and returned to her attempts to push the large cloud of lightning away.

Applejack then looked down to her aquatic mount. “Ya don’t mind mah weight, do ya? These boots’re pretty heavy.” Almost as if answering her question, the turtle looked back to her with what looked faintly like a smile. “Good ta know.” She looked back up and crouched down to make another strike.

On deck Rover kept deflecting bolt after bolt as it seemed they aimed for Lyra more frequently. “This is going nowhere…” Rover growled, trying to think of a way to get the cloud out of the way. Noticing that pushing wasn’t doing anything, he began thinking up various ways to destroy it. “But this might get us somewhere!” Anticipating the next bolt, rover sliced upward, letting out a vicious battle cry as the green flames of his blade flared wildly. Against all logic, the blade cut through the magical bolt, the split travelling back towards the cloud and splitting it in two as well. With a burst of electricity that Fluttershy and her birds were quick to avoid, the cloud vanished.

Rover let out a sigh of relief and looked to his sword. “I think I have a name for you,” he said to the weapon. “How do you like Stormbreaker?”

Turning his head to take a look at how the battle was going, Rover instantly regretted letting his guard down. A beam of electricity was flying directly from the dragon’s jaws towards him. He moved his arms as fast as he could, trying to bring Stormbreaker up to defend himself, allowing its magic to pulse to its full potential.

It was to no avail, however.

The bolt slid right along his blade, striking him directly in the center of his chest, burning away his wraps in an instant. Rover was unable to scream as his body began to spasm violently and he felt pain he could have never comprehended. He then lost all feeling and consciousness, falling to the deck of the ship with a thud, his chest holding a circle of burned black and crimson, his sword falling to his side as its flames went out.

Fluttershy looked to the dog, her mouth agape and the birds around her fluttering, desperately trying to recapture her attention. Her eyelids dropped as she began to slowly descend. When they opened once again, they had narrowed, her fur standing up on end as she turned to the dragon. Her teeth looked like fangs as she snarled like a wild beast and let out a bellowing howl loud enough for everyone engaged in the struggle to hear.

From the water, a giant shadow began to darken, rising. Applejack urged the dogs to leap onto her turtle. As they did, the turtle began to swim backwards, out of the shadow, the other sea creatures following suit.

Owayix looked down in curiosity, as if waiting to be impressed. The first thing anyone saw was teeth, then the closing of massive jaws around the blue dragon.

“She summons a sea serpent,” Spot said in awe, watching the monster, obscured by the ocean’s spray, sink back into the ocean with the monster they had all fought so hard to simply stall.

“It can’t be that easy,” Applejack said. “We only have so much time before ‘big blue’ makes his way back up here.”

‘So much time’ proved to be none at all as the fighters looked in fear when Owayix breached the water once again, his blue scales painted red and giving a violet sheen to his image. He laughed loudly as the black of shadow was replaced with a similar shade of scarlet.

Fluttershy’s let out a violent shriek of animalistic fury, flinging herself at full speed towards the dragon, but the birds grabbed hold of her in quantity, desperate to stop her from throwing her life away.

“Sunken treasure is just as valuable to me.” Owayix’s voice brought a ripple to the water and a rumble on the boat. Blue sparks began to flash out of his scales as he moved his claws rapidly, speaking his own tongue at a similar speed. The sparks began to get larger, more frequent and in greater numbers as he continued.

“LYRA!” Applejack called up to the boat. “HE’S GONNA WIPE IT ALL OUT! WE GOTTA GO!”

“NOT HELPING!” Lyra yelled back, picking up the pace on her playing.

Everyone was too terrified to get close to the dragon, the ponies and goats on their aquatic mounts were ferried away as quickly as the animals could manage. Even Gilda, in her blind rage, kept her distance, holding tight to her mace.

Owayix stopped his chanting and claw motions as electricity was consistently pouring out of him, storm clouds forming in a circle around him. Lightning struck towards the ocean around him as he held his claws out and took a large breath. Large, blue electric balls formed in his claws and jaws, bursting with magical lightning.

“LYRA NOW!” AJ screamed in desperation.

The blue dragon clapped his claws together as he bit down, smashing all of the blue orbs and releasing a colossal burst of electricity, destroying any trace of the Gilded Rain or the few who remained on or in it. There was no form of life fast enough to escape, even the whales and fish ferrying the ponies away were caught in the electric explosion.

Nothing but Owayix was left breathing.

Rainbow’s eyes flittered, the scent of sand and sea still in her nose. She saw somepony approaching her, blurred as she was still waking. She heard muffled cries to her right, a noise of panic. The image in front of her slowly started coming into focus.

She saw Spitfire, and gave a smile, thinking about the things she was wanting to say and do with her beloved. She brought herself to standing and opened her eyes again. Spitfire was no longer there. Instead, Applejack was looking to her, giving a sigh of relief.

“Thank goodness yer alright, Rainbow. Ah’m sorry Ah had to hit ya like that, but we need you.” Rainbow didn’t pay any attention to Applejack, instead looking around at the unfamiliar scene. They were on a beach, but which beach; she didn’t know.

She then remembered, and opened her eyes wide. “Where’s Owayix? Where’s the dragon?”

“He’s gone, Sugarcube,” Applejack answered. “We got away.”

Dash let out a sigh in return. She heard the panic again, and turned back to her right. Her stomach sank as she saw Fluttershy, Spot, and Fido working desperately over Rover’s body, Lyra passed out not too far away.

“What’s wrong with him?” Dash asked.

“Ol’ Rover was doin’ his best ta save Lyra when the big lizard blasted ‘im with his lightnin’ breath,” Applejack explained. “Ah don’t wanna worry you Rainbow… but Ah don’t think…” Rainbow Dash looked to Applejack, seeing her struggle to hold back tears. “Ah don’t think he’s gonna make it, Dash.” Rainbow felt her heart stop for a second.

She walked over to the dogs and Fluttershy. “Rover, Rover buddy, you okay?” He didn’t answer, but she could see his eyes closed and his face unmoving. Spot stood before her, letting her know that she shouldn’t disturb Fluttershy. “Rover!”

Fluttershy looked back at her with a glare. “I can’t help him if you crowd me, Rainbow. Spot and Fido are enough; I can’t handle the extra stress.”

“But I can help him! He’s my friend, he’s my partner!” Dash insisted.

“Then help him by letting me do what I can!” Fluttershy countered, irritated and upset. “Go! You need to breathe and hope for him right now, Rainbow, you’re hurt too!” She continued to her work, applying various herbs and saps that rested on her cloak, spread out like a blanket.

Dash didn’t want to leave, feeling responsible, but she nodded and made her way further up the shore where she saw Gilda stamping about.

“Hey… Where’s everybody else?” Dash asked.

Gilda chuckled dryly, bringing a talon over her eyes. “You know… that was the first question I asked when I woke up…”