Chapter 7: Ursine Umbrage
Being a Viking is great, and even with some of the … uhh … less than great moments, it is still a great thing to be. That is exactly the same as being a Dragon Rider. There are always those moments of splendor that highlight your day and make you want to re-tell them to everyone back in the village. Then there are the moments when you just hope that not a single soul saw your embarrassing or incriminating moment and wouldn’t bring it up in front of the entire village. The latter happened far less often than the former, and generally most moments were just your typical everyday things.
Flying around, scouting, seeing the scenery, and bonding with your dragon. That would be a typical day for a Dragon Rider. Nothing special unless something came up, and even then it was rare.
Right now, as Toothless flew and I just laid back in my seat, it was a rather dull moment that also happened during a typical day. Don’t get me wrong, flying was great and I love doing it, but sometimes, I wish that I could actually be doing more than just straddling Toothless’ back while we fly.
Toothless, of course, was having fun, but when he wasn’t he usually tried to do something to distract himself from remembering a lot of those moments. He and Rainbow Dash had been flying at tremendous speeds for the best part of what seemed like hours. During that time, I just hung on and let him take over the flying. He knew better than to interfere with the racers and I made sure he knew. Though that was a while ago, for we hadn’t seen any competition in a while.
Rainbow explained that each racer set off based on when each racer finished the day before. If a racer finished first then they got a little head start over the rest, while each other one had to play catch up. The positions weren’t hugely unfair or anything, what with first place getting the largest lead, which was only a few minutes. After that they seemed to just appear one after another. Rainbow was … third, I think she said, so she had a small lead over the rest but still had to catch up to a couple of them.
Speaking of talking to Rainbow … I sat up with a thought that hadn’t crossed my mind during the past few hours.
“How are we talking?” I asked in a normal voice. You would think that, with the wind whipping past me, we would have to yell but that was not the case. Instead, during this entire flight, we had been able to have conversations at a normal pitch.
“What do you mean?” She asked, looking over at me with a confused look splayed across her face.
“Well, why don’t we have to yell when flying? I mean, normally the wind would cause some problems with talking.”
“Oh, you mean that,” she said with an exaggerated expression of ‘that’s what I forgot to say.’ I knew the look … I had used it more than enough. “Well, you know that flag tied to Toothless? Well that has a spell or something like that added to it for just this thing. Helps with the trainer and racer when in mid-flight, ya know?”
I nodded a few times, but that didn’t mean I exactly understood. She said spell, right? Yeah, I definitely heard her say spell. What did she mean by that? I could only imagine the possibilities in this world. I mean, I would like to think that whatever she was saying was nonsense, but I couldn’t explain how we were talking and we were in a world full of talking animals… so…
“Still with me there, big guy?”
I shook my head for a second, before looking back at Rainbow who had flown close enough to poke me, which she did. I took a second to gather my thoughts once more, before answering. “Yeah, yeah … just thinking about something.”
“Home?”
“No … not home,” I said, a little distant as I shifted my gaze back to the open sea below us. It was midnight, yet the sea shone with the bright light that the moon gave off. Just looking at that alone told me I was not in the same land as back home. Here, it was so much more prominent, more amazing, and eye catching. I wouldn’t be able to describe it to everyone back home; they wouldn’t understand unless I could actually show them.
“Huh,” Rainbow Dash said briefly before veering out a little, and then gliding back close to Toothless and I. She was staying just a little above and ahead of Toothless’s wing flaps. My guess was that she knew what a single flap could do, and she wanted to ensure that she wouldn’t be hit again. “Don’t worry, Hiccup. Twilight’ll be able to get you home, or my middle name isn’t ‘Danger’!”
I looked at her with a raised eyebrow for a few seconds, her boasting taking more time than I thought it would. Eventually she saw my look and got a little sheepish.
“What? It is! Rainbow ‘Danger’ Dash,” she exclaimed, trying to remain serious despite her stance floundering like Toothless when trying to swim. In shallow water nonetheless.
As if somehow reading my mind, Toothless pulled an impromptu roll, causing me to instantly grip the saddle harder. I don’t know how he knew I was thinking about him, but through whatever means, he had decided to pay me back.
“Hey, that was uncalled for!” I tried to tell him off sternly, but he just rolled his eyes and gave a little ‘whuff’. “You know I’d never make fun of you, bud.”
He simply chortled, all the while looking straight ahead.
Rainbow Dash, during this little episode, had been trying to stifle a laugh and maintain her speed at the same time, which was proving quite hard for her to do. Since I was her trainer, I wasn’t going to let her slack on her racing. Especially if that meant showing her that she wasn’t as fast as she thought she was.
I simply patted Toothless, all the while giving him a smirk. Rainbow was still laughing when Toothless poised his wings for a massive wing beat, for one meant to jolt the pegasus and give us a little more ground. She wouldn’t know what hit her until we had put enough distance on her.
“Now,” I whispered, causing Toothless to wear a rather evil grin.
Toothless’ wings flung the air down and backward, propelling us forward with a speed that we only used when racing. The wind whipped past us so loud, I thought my ears would pop but thankfully the riding helmet has a little bit of protection there. Toothless knew what he was doing, and I simply put myself in a more aerodynamic position, so he wouldn’t be slowed down.
“Hey, get back here!” I heard a distant shout from behind us. It seemed that she had been more than a little peeved from our little stunt.
I didn’t reply, instead smirking as I peered behind us, watching the pegasus streak closer and closer. She had been flying at a slow pace for awhile, and if she wanted to win, she needed to speed up a little more or else she would never pass us.
It would be at least another little bit before she caught up to us, if she ever caught up to us. She was pretty far away after all, and although she might be extremely fast, Toothless isn’t just any dragon. I bet we were actually quicker than her; she probably just has a better way of slowing down and turning. Now that I think of it, that was probably how she beat us to the cloud.
“I say we go a bi-” I didn’t even finish my sentence before a large boom exploded behind us.
I hardly a moment to blink before what looked like a rainbow sped past us. Not a rainbow as in the pegasus that we were beating, but as in an actual rainbow. Toothless, all but ground to a halt, was gaping at the sight as much as I was. It took us a few seconds to realise that there was a chance that the rainbow was indeed Rainbow Dash. Toothless figured it out momentarily before me, though.
He must have seen it as a challenge, because he picked up the pace once more. At first I thought we were gaining on her, than she started showboating once more.
She pulled up at an almost ninety degree angle, before turning it into a loop that caused her to come down right beside us. I swear, as she sped past us, I could see that grin on her face.
Toothless, no matter how hard he tried, couldn’t gain any more ground on her than she wanted him to.
On the bright side, we just passed a rather stunned looking pair of male pegasi. From the quick look I got, they were probably the second place competitor and his trainer. If that was true, than we hadn’t been that far behind the next place competitor. I’d like to think that was all because Toothless and I gave her a nice challenge.
Of course, it was probably because she decided to all of a sudden do something that shouldn’t actually exist.
I refocused ahead of me to find that the rainbow trail, that had previously been flourishing behind her, was slowly beginning to disappear, and fade into the sky. It seems that whatever she did, she can’t keep it up forever. Though for all I knew, she could be moments from plunging down into the ocean beneath us. So without hesitation, I patted Toothless on his side before pointing at Rainbow.
He got the message before beginning to speed up to his fastest pace … which honestly wasn’t that much of an improvement, but I could tell that he had been holding something back.
As we approached Dash, I noticed that wide grin on her muzzle once more. She had probably been watching us the entire time since her rainbow thing disappeared. Whatever she had done … well it had put us in our place. There was without a doubt that she was most likely the fastest thing alive, much to Toothless’ chagrin. Of course this then brought up the question of how hadn’t she already won the race, especially if she could have done that all along.
“What took you so long?” She said cockily, her massive grin never wavering.
“What was that?” I asked, completely skipping her banter.
“Oh, that? That was my Sonic Rainboom, just something only I can do,” she said, casually brushing a hoof against her chest, never missing a beat with her flaps. Though I noticed that they seemed to move much more sluggishly than before her little stunt.
“A ‘Sonic Rainboom’?”
“Yeah! That’s where I break through the sound barrier and create this massive explosion or rainbows … you know? Like I just did?” She looked at me as though I was more than a little slow. Kind of the face I would give to Ruff and Tuff when trying to explain something. Like trying to get them to understand common sense and why Vikings should exercise it.
“Yeah, I saw … but that doesn’t explain how or what exactly you did …” I all but muttered, though she could probably still hear me with this magic talking thing.
“You should get Twilight to explain it,” she said, sounding a little out of breath, and looking even more tired than a moment ago. “I … would … explain … but …”
Oh no, she was beyond tired from her Rainboom. She might not have seen it right away, but I should have. I reached behind me to dig into the sack, all in hope of finding something that would help. No matter how much I dug, I couldn’t find anything that I had been given that would help jolt her awake.
Wait.
Okay, this was going to be a risky move but hopefully it would wake her up more than it would hurt. “Toothless, I need you to put me above her … you know what I mean.”
With a quick response, Toothless rose up so that he was above Rainbow’s height before angling himself right above her. She hardly noticed, probably too focused on not passing out from exhaustion. I fished the single item out of the sack before sealing it shut, and turning back to Toothless.
“Half roll!”
He didn’t even need to respond, instead tucking his wings briefly as he rolled to place me upside down, before letting his wings flare out once more. From there he slowly lowered me until I was within arm’s reach of Rainbow. I prayed to Odin than this would work, and not harm her.
“Brace yourself, Rainbow Dash!” I shouted, attempting to get her attention.
“Wha-” was all she managed to get out before I prodded her right flank with the stun stick. I pressed the button down for almost no time at all, releasing it as fast as I pushed it down just enough to cause indentations in the flesh of her flank.
I then pressed the button for as short a time as I could and watched as the shock ran through Rainbow, causing her to briefly spasm, before plummeting downward, but before I could even panic, her wings snapped open and she shot back up. Her entire body’s fur was standing a little on end, but from what it looked like, I had given her just enough of a zap to recharge her.
“What in the name of Luna’s round moon was that for?!” she yelled at me, giving me one mean glare.
“I was waking you up! You almost passed out,” I said as Toothless rolled back over and moved down back beside Rainbow Dash.
She opened her mouth of few times, looking to make a snappy comeback of sorts. Eventually she chose to keep herself quiet, eyes moving from glaring at me to instead glaring at the sky in front of her. We flew that way for a few minutes, her not so much as glancing my way, while I had to look at her … it was part of my job after all.
“Thank you … ,” she eventually said, hardly registering above a whisper. I almost didn’t notice it at first but I had been more or less waiting for her to speak.
“You hired me as a trainer … I did what I could,” I said, shrugging my shoulders. “Though maybe no ‘Sonic Rainboom’ next time, especially if you wear out that quickly.”
“Yeah. usually I end up landing before the exhaustion sets in,” she said, still not looking at me.
“So it happens a lot?” That’s not good to hear, I mean, I don’t know much about how ponies work, but to be that exhausted like that after something is never a good sign.
“Well only recently really. When I won the Best Young Flyer’s competition with it, I hardly felt tired afterwards. The same for the first time I pulled it off when I was a filly,” she said a little dreamily, obviously reminiscing a little over those good moments. “Come to think of it, this started a few years ago, but it was never this bad!”
“I don’t know what to really say, Rainbow Dash. I might be your trainer but I’ve only known about ponies for a few days now, perhaps your friend will know more … until then I suggest we focus on getting to Ursaland. I don’t see any land in sight so we still have some travelling to do,” I said.
Following this world wide racing course, I will say that I think that it makes it so much easier as they were nice enough to position clouds with those orange-yellow beacons to mark where the aerial racing track lay.
I don’t know what they were using for their beacon material, which they were using to outline the track sections, but seeing how long lasting and bright they were, I’d wondered if they’d use magic to explain their beacons’ brightness and how long they glow. I estimated that were located about every hundred miles or so, but couldn’t be entirely sure as distances as seen in the air appear much different than distances seen from the ground. The lights certainly made it fairly easy to know where the racing track was laid.
“Uh Rainbow Dash? Please tell me that I’m not seeing what I think I’m seeing down in the waters to our ótta.”
Rainbow tilted her head at me, before grinning and shaking her right forehoof in a threatening manner, her foreleg up as though she’d use her foreleg to block a blow in a brawl. “Why I ótta! But seriously, what’s an ótta? You sound like my eggheaded friend Twilight.”
“Vikings divide their day into eight different segments of about three hours to each segment, which we then assign names. The halfway point in our night is miðnætti. At three in the morning is ótta, at six is miður morgunn, nine is dagmál, high noon is hádegi, three in the afternoon is undorn, six in the evening is miðaftann, and nine in the evening is náttmál. So basically I’m instructing you to look to your right.
Rainbow looked in the direction that I had pointed and despite the seriousness of what may have been taking place, I smiled as Rainbow Dash dropped a couple of feet, before flying back beside me. “What’s with the spiny dragon shadow on their sail? Looks pretty fierce and awesome!”
The familiar shadow of the Skrill dragon on the single sail of a Viking ship greeted my vision, despite my fervent desires that I was just seeing things.. I yanked on the reigns, getting Toothless’ attention and pointing downward towards the mast which glowed in a soft bluish-white glow as the moon beamed down upon the sturdy canvases we Viking use for the sails on our ships.
Rainbow Dash had flown on the track until she was a speck on the horizon, before she realized that Toothless and I was no longer flying with her. Once she she realized that we weren’t next to her, she flew back, retracing her steps with her eyes narrowed at me and her lips pulled tight. She even huffed, as though just to make sure I knew she was upset with Toothless and I.
“What the hay, Hiccup!? Why in Tartarus did you stop? Are you going to take your job as my trainer seriously or not? We have to keep moving!”
“I wouldn’t have done that, if I didn’t think this was more important. That ship belongs to a group of sea-roving humans who are nearly always up to no good. Before I came here, I was scouting this huge cloudbank, the same one that led me here, and I saw several Berserker ships going into it. I have no idea how many ships there might be in this world, but even having just one is one too many.
“Toothless, take us up and then go into ‘Watch and Guard’.”
“What are you going to do?” Rainbow Dash asked, as she flew over to a free-floating cloud and laid on it as she awaited my response.
“I’m going to go down and see if I can find out what they’re doing,” I explained to Rainbow Dash. “Toothless, go all out if you see me give the signal,” I instructed my best friend.
I dropped from Toothless, using the pommel of my sword to knock out the Berserker looking around from the top of the mast. I used a short coil of rope to ensure that he didn’t fall off the mast and into the boat and alert the other Berserkers.
I could see really small ponies, foals if I had to guess given their smaller frame. Listening carefully, I could hear one of the Berserker lackeys ask, “Why are we gathering these really small ponies? Wouldn’t the bigger ones be better?”
“And that kind of thinking is why I’m the leader and you’re just a grunt. The smaller ones can either be sold or ransomed for money, used to entertain our men in gladiator fights, or be used as grunts and slave labor,” The man whom I judged to be the leader on this ship patted the other Berserker’s shoulder, before delivering a strong punch with his gauntlet.
“And if you question your orders again, I’ll cut you myself and throw you overboard. At least you’d be good for a dinner and a show!” The ship’s leader cawed raucously.
I looked skyward and shook my head and crossed my arms in an x, so that Toothless wouldn’t blast the Berserker ship with wild abandon, however much I might’ve wanted for it to happen. The lives of the little ponies came first and Berserkers were wild cards. There were about five other Berserkers on the ship and they had about 10 foals altogether, five little ponies chained on either side of the ship.
I used the flat of my Inferno blade to knock one of the Berserkers into the sea, while one of the Berserkers mysteriously vanished into the darkness of the night. I couldn’t help splashing as I struggled with the flailing body of the panicked Berserker I had knocked into the water with me. One of my eyes felt sore and hot, but since I could still see out of it, despite the swelling and reduced field of vision, I probably had a fairly good shiner.
I’m usually loathe to take a life, but there were more of them than there were of me. But as I looked up, I watched as Toothless took the rest of them by surprise and using tail, wings and for one hapless Berserker, a plasma blast the ship was now free of Berserkers, as I could hear gasps and splashings in the dark and murky water.
After I had climbed back into the boat, I hoisted the anchor they had been using, as Rainbow Dash landed on the bow of the ship, her wings raised and one leg lifted just slightly off the deck, in a rather heroic looking pose.
“Never fear, Rainbow Dash is here!” Rainbow Dash proclaimed to the foals chained to the ship.
“Rainbow Dash? I don’t exactly have the tools to free these little ones from their chains,” I informed her.
“I’m too awesome to let mere steel stop me!” she declared as she glared at the chains.
“Well, it won’t change that we do need to reach Ursland, or that we’ll need to drop these kids off in order to be returned to their parents,” I reasoned. “You and Toothless can use your wings to create wind, and then with me at the rudder, we can make all haste towards a port city on the coastal regions of Ursland.”
Without objection, Toothless landed on the stern of the ship, with Rainbow Dash before him, as both flapped their wings to create a gust of wind.
I made sure to secure the sail before taking charge of the rudder. The wump-wumping sound of Toothless’ large leathery wings accompanied by Rainbow Dash’s smaller feathered wings was helping to fill our sail. I also trailed my finger in the water as I tested for ocean currents. But given that I didn’t know the major stars and constellations, or had any mappings of the ocean currents, it was virtually impossible for me to tell where we were.
“Rainbow Dash!” I shouted over the sound of the water splashing against the sides of the boat, and of Toothless’ beating wings.
“Yeah?” she called back to me, before leaving her position in front of Toothless and flying next to me.
“I want you to go to the nearest city and notify the city’s authorities that we have recovered a ship full of foals from some slavers and I also want an experienced sea … pony brought back to the ship. A navigator, one who knows the stars and ocean. Because I honestly have no Idea where we are or what direction we want to take the ship,” I instructed.
“I don’t know. I just don’t feel right leaving you or the foals,” she responded.
“Trust me, I don’t like it any better than you do, but it’s either that or wait for a ship of slavers or pirates, or even another ship of Berserkers to claim the foals as booty for their own needs and uses. … Unless you know how to read the stars or ocean currents,” I responded.
“That’s more Twilight’s thing. Now if you need me to do anything with the weather, then I’m your mare. Finding my way in the dark-night waters of the ocean? Not so much,” Rainbow Dash replied as she used her right forehoof to draw circular shapes over the boards of the deck. Her face scrunched up in a look of concentration, her snout wrinkling and baring her teeth, before she stamped her forehoof onto the deck. “Nngh! I don’t like it, but I see your point. I’ll be back as soon as I can with help.” And with that said, she leaped into the night sky until it wasn’t long before I lost sight of her in the vast darkness of the starry skies.
I threw the anchor overboard and watched as Toothless settled on the prow of the Drekkar. He didn’t care much for the Skrill figurehead, since he immediately went about blasting it into smithereens. Then using his leathery wings to splash water to put out the smoldering stump remaining behind, Toothless reared up and placed his forelegs on either side of the place where the prow head had been and swiveled both his head and ear fins as his catlike eyes scanned into the dark murky waters and the slightly overcast skies of whatever ocean or sea we happened to currently occupy.
Satisfied that I could trust Toothless to let me know if he spotted unnatural movement, I began to test the chains, as I did feel really bad for the foals trapped by the chain threading through the loop on their shackles. But looking at the shackles I got to thinking. Why would Berserkers have shackles in the right size for foals?
Prior to their sailing into the portal which led into this world, they would have only had gear for horses and adult ponies, and that was even questionable at best. So either they had at least one blacksmith with the ships which crossed over prior to the portal’s relocation, or there is either a rich creature supplying them with the gear they need, or there’s a group of natives who are willing to supply the Berserkers with such specialized gear.
I decided to focus on things which I could do in the here and now, and leave any questions regarding the Berserker’s for when, or if I should ever encounter another group of them.
“Toothless, can you get a good aim so as to not blast the ship, or me, but hit this chain?” I asked my best friend.
Toothless looked at the ship, then at me, before he moved his head between my chest and the chain, gripped the chain between his teeth and twisted until he was facing starboard and after I spread my hands as far apart as I could get them, I watched as Toothless blasted the metal chain.
The chain link didn’t do anything spectacular like explode into white hot droplets of molten steel, but he had managed to heat it up enough for me to use Inferno to break the heated link in two, which I quickly chucked into the sea. I didn’t worry too much about the ship catching fire, but I also didn’t want to tempt the gods either. After I helped Toothless with the chain on the other side of the ship, I started to thread the chain link out of the shackles. I smiled as a brave little unicorn filly with a light violet coat, light golden mane and tail and light golden eyes came up and hugged him.
“Thank you, Mister. Thank you too, Mister Dragon!” she called and waved to Toothless, who, true to his name, gave her a toothless grin and a soft growl, nodding his head to her.
There are some things which doesn’t usually get told in stories, such as me having to help hold onto each filly and colt as they had to go poo or pee, or both. Though I did chuckle as the colts would describe their turds in detail, much to the disgust of the fillies. It was amusing that some things remained the same, even in an entirely different world. I put the colts to taking turns shoveling the crap on the ship’s deck overboard, while I had another colt swabbing the deck after it had been shoveled. The Berserker’s had split their benches into two, so that poop could fall between the split in the benches.
Fortunately the physical activity distracted us for awhile as I made sure that the ship was as clean as we could get it, given we only had seawater and a mop and bucket for cleaning supplies. I started humming a Viking lullabye that I’d heard the mothers hum or sing to their children to lull them to sleep and watched as both colt and filly huddled into groups of five, though I did have to ask some to move around to help balance the boat out, so that we wouldn’t be leaning because of uneven weight distribution.
It wasn’t until near dawn before Rainbow Dash returned with a swarthy looking pegasus mare. She had a pale pastel aquamarine coat with her mane in two long braids, both in a crown bun. Her mane looked like a dark bluish-green, but her eyes were a jade color green. While she didn’t have the muscles of the extreme bodybuilders, the thickness of her legs and the contractions of her muscles under the coarse, scruffy looking coat indicated that this mare knew hard work and wasn’t afraid of it.
“Al’ight ye landlubber. Pay mind ta what I say, ‘cause I wan’ ‘his ta be da only time I’m called away from me comfy bed in da middle o’ da night,” The swarty looking mare declared as she gave Rainbow Dash and I the stink eye. “Yo’ ‘ee dat star way up dere? Dat star be da Pole star. T’ough many are callin’ it Celestia Lucius, or dey callin’ it Guiding Light.”
She faced the star she called Guiding Light, and then turned around in the opposite direction. “Now yo’ can’t ‘ee it in dis ‘emisphere, but dere’s a constellation dat looks like a cross. Dey call dat un Luna Lucius, or dey also call it Wayfinder. ‘Cause yo’ can exten’ da length o’ da cross fou’ ta five and make a vertical line down ta figure out where true south is. Once yo’ kno’ yer directions den yo’ can set sail tae wherever yo’ be wantin’ ta go.”
“Er, that’s great and all, but would you have happened to bring the sea maps for these waters?” I inquired of the obviously seasoned seamare.
“Oh aye, landlubber. ‘ere’s da maps fer dese waters. Don’t be losin’ dem, ‘cause I be wantin’ dem back when yer done, ya ‘ear?” The mare informed, while looking me steadily into my eyes.
“Yes ma’am!” I unscrolled the sea map, really desiring some kind of table or something to spread it upon. I then located the Pole star, Guiding Light, and oriented the map to match the northward direction I was facing. Studying the map closely, I then turned to my right, and then divided the eastward direction and the southward direction in half, I then faced the midway point between facing East and East-Southeast. I made note of any particularly bright stars in that direction, especially towards the horizon.
“I think that we want to be heading in that direction.” I finally said to the seamare next to me. I showed her the island I wanted us to aim for and then the direction I thought we would want to head in.
“Name’s Flying Jib, landlubber.” she informed me, before a crooked grin appeared on her face. “‘ell, don’t let me stop yo’. Da direction yo’ chose will certainly get yo’ dere. So ‘oist anchor and correct yo’ course.”
Flying Jib laid down next to the mast, but was facing my way. I could only speculate that it may be a seapony thing, since the foals hadn’t lain down like she did. I won’t bore you with the boring details of the trip. Really it was Flying Jib, Toothless and I who looked after the foals, while one of us slept. Toothless was our lookout on the prow and he’d also swoop over the sea whenever one of the foals fell overboard and he’d lift them out of the water and back onto the boat.
Thankfully, they seemed to get the idea that playing near the sides of the boat wasn’t safe. That didn’t stop some colts though. I finally punished them with some rowing at the oars.
* * *
“Who’re you, tellin’ us what to do, ya bald ape?” one of the colts balked.
“Well, since you seem so bent on impressing the fillies, you can impress them by rowing them to land so that they get home faster. Because the next time one of you colts falls in, no one’s going to save you.”
“I don’t believe you!” one of the other colts yelled.
“Fine, jump overboard then. Then you’ll know for sure if I’m telling the truth or not.” I waited for a few minutes, letting the colts chatter amongst themselves. “Any takers? Anyone?”
After a few more minutes of silence, I gave them what I hoped was a stern look. “The way I see it, is you can row the oars, or you can continue playing and find out for yourselves if what I’m saying is true or not, the next time one of you falls into the ocean.”
I got sullen glares from the colts, who sat down on the rowing benches and proceeded to row, though I did have to turn away and smile in amusement as they started arguing who could row the fastest, or dig their oar in the water the deepest. Fortunately the fillies were better behaved, gathered in a small group and looking towards the rowing colts and giggling could be heard.
* * *
I clutched a hand over my beating heart and murmured a prayer to Freyja that Astrid and my child was safe. I stared at the star spangled sky. “I miss you terribly my beloved Astrid. I really hope that I can get home before our child is born,” I whisper into the night.
The rest of the trip was rather uneventful, and I heaved a sigh upon seeing the portside portion of Bearmingham, one of the largest cities in Ursland.
“Rainbow Dash?’ I called out to her.
I watched as she zipped and landed in front of me. “Yeah?”
“One of us needs to contact the city’s peacekeeping force regarding these foals so that efforts can begin to be made in returning them to their families. I’d prefer that you do it, since you’re more familiar with this world. But I’ll do it, if you really don’t want to. But that’s how things stand right now. We can decide our next course of action after accomplishing that,” I informed Rainbow Dash.
“You’re right, I should go. But will you be okay looking after these foals?” Rainbow asked with her brow furrowed and her large eyes focused upon me.
“I’ll be fine. I mean, how hard can it be to look after a few foals?” I answered, as I gave her a crooked smirk of confidence.
I watched as Rainbow gave me an amused smile, before she soared through the sky to look for whatever passed as the peacekeeping force around here.
{C} * {T} * {D} * * * {C} * {T} * {D}
“H-hey! Y-you can’t climb up that! No, don’t get into that barrel! You get off the edge of that boat right this instant, missy!” I cried to the misbehaving foals as I ran this way and that as I was constantly having to rescue one foal after another from their own recklessness. My muscles ached and burned from all the physical activity I was doing. I’d remember seeing exhausted Viking parents, who would otherwise be the most energetic and fiercest of us Vikings on Berk and my respect and heart went out to any parents who ever has a child. The more children they had, the more I gained an appreciation for what their own parenting experience must’ve been like.
I heard the raucous laughter of Flying Jib somewhere up above me, and looked up to see the weathered seamare hugging the mast as she watched me chasing after the foals.
“Help me!” I yelled through gritted teeth. I watched as she shook her head and pointed a hoof at me with a huge grin, clearly taking a perverse pleasure in my frustration as I tried to look after the foals and keep them from getting themselves seriously hurt.
I looked over to Toothless, who was sunning himself near the prow of the ship. The colts would often make a game of trying to pounce the sunbathing dragon, only to be knocked head over hooves by his tailfin. It was almost as if they were trying to challenge each other to see who could get knocked the farthest! I chuckled and shook my head as I watched a particularly tomboyish filly attempt to climb the ropes of the sails, a filly who was soon writhing like a freshly caught fish once I rescued her from the ropes. I wondered to myself if Rainbow Dash would find the proper authorities soon so that we could turn these colts and fillies over to them to get returned back to their parents.
* * * {Rainbow Dash} * * *
I arrived in ten seconds flat at Bearmingham’s City Hall building and I trotted in through the doors like I owned the place. Being as awesome as I am, I naturally had to keep up appearances for my adoring fans. And behaving like Fluttershy was no attitude to have for an awesome pegasus like me!
I followed the signs pointing the direction to the Mayor’s office. I pushed open the door and entered the lobby where the mayor’s secretary’s desk and the waiting room was. I did pause and look, because I was rather surprised by the Mayor’s choice in secretaries.
She was probably a good head taller than Spike and her body was lithe and slender. Her scales were a whiteish-blue, kind of like snow on a sunny day. Her spines were a red color, like the dark red roses that Roseluck sells with the other flower sisters. Her eyes were a brilliant sapphire hue and I admit that I was strongly tempted to bring her back to Ponyville and show her off to Spike to see what kind of reaction he might have. Since I have no idea what dragons consider pretty.
I strolled up to the secretary’s desk, who had a nameplate of … White Beauty? I wonder how well she and Rarity would get along? If it weren’t for the red spines, you might think that she’s what Rarity might look like if Rarity had a dragon’s body. … Well an young adult dragon’s body.
I rapped upon the wood of the desk with one of my forehooves to get the secretary’s attention. “Yeah, hi! Name’s Rainbow Dash, most awesome flyer in Equestria. Anyways, I have some important stuff to speak to the mayor about.”
“Do you have an appointment?”
“Uh, no?”
“Then you need to make an appointment. I’ll see when he’s available. Hmmm … . Would next Fourthday at 3 o’clock be fine?”
“No, this is too important to put off! Buck this, I’ll get him myself.”
“No, wait!”
What I saw the mayor doing … . I definitely know is illegal in Equestria, and if the public didn’t manage to kill him, any cellmate he might have definitely would. I froze for just a moment, before I could feel my teeth grinding against each other and if it weren’t for the rep I’d get for killing this scum of society, I wouldn’t have hesitated to do it. I flew out of the room, but I left with a crying soiled filly between my hooves. I slammed the mayor’s office door closed so hard, the entire door frame shook, the resulting bang sounding like a starter’s pistol gunshot. I barreled down the hall as ponies, gryphons and dragons scattered, some shouting curses, as papers flew everywhere. I got out of the building and flew as fast as I could towards the ship with the foals and Hiccup and Toothless.
“Is your mom or dad around?” I tried to sound as caring as I could, but I was still bucking pissed off at what I had seen taking place in the Mayor’s office. Once we got back to Equestria, I was going to make certain that Celestia knew what was going on here. My voice sounded harsh and angry even to me. What I wouldn’t give to have Rarity or Fluttershy with me right now. They’d be way better at consoling the distraught filly between my hooves.
“N-no. Mummy and Daddy … . M-m-mummy and D-d-daddy … .” she managed to get out before dissolving into an inconsolable sobbing fit. I didn’t need to be Twilight to venture a guess that she was probably an orphan now.
“Any aunts or uncles that would be worried about you?”
“I … I don’t know,” the filly choked out, still sobbing fairly hard.
“Well, we can figure that stuff out later. We’re getting out of here and I’m not leaving you in this city.”
I spotted the ship and landed heavily onto the boat. “We gotta get outta here. I’m not letting any foals off in this city.”
{C} * {T} * {D} * * * {C} * {T} * {D}
I hurried over to the anchor and hoisted it up. Given that I knew very little about this world and with Rainbow Dash not giving me any reason not to trust her and even went and befriended two obviously otherworldly visitors, then I was willing to act now and ask questions later. A new filly had been placed upon the deck of the ship and I knew that there was likely a good reason why Rainbow Dash was adding this foal to the numbers we already had on board.
Rainbow Dash flew up behind the sails and started beating her wings furiously and she was shortly joined by Flying Jib and Toothless, both of them picking up on her frenetic urgency. I steered the ship aiming for the open seas, as I heard the angry shouts of ponies as they stopped at the end of the pier. Whenever a pegasus, gryphon or dragon would try to follow, Rainbow would try to hit their wings with hooves, though Toothless’ fire blasts helped to discourage all but the dragons. Though even they gave up under the combined assaults of Rainbow Dash, Toothless, and Flying Jib.
They all landed on the deck, while Flying Jib consulted her sea maps and star charts, while Toothless returned to the prow of the ship and Rainbow Dash grabbed a piece of cloud and then pressed it against the sea water. I watched in fascination as the cloud swelled and became a dark charcoal color. Rainbow then brought it up over the filly she had brought onto the ship and bounced upon it several times, before a deluge of water washed over the filly.
Flying Jib came up to me pointing at the sea charts for the area around Ursland. “You’re going to want to sail around Ursland until you get to an inlet that has a small peninsula pointing towards you. Once you get there, you want to head due east and sail through a river channel. It’ll open into a larger bay with two islands, one of them being due east of you once you exit the river and into the bay. Between these islands is the port metropolis of Manehattan.”
“Thanks Jib. Feel free to rest with the foals, if you want,” I replied before rotating my wrist and hand to indicate to Rainbow Dash that I wanted her.
Once she drew near, still holding the filly between her forehooves and running a hoof through the filly’s mane. “Okay, Rainbow Dash, I think that I’d like to know why we had to leave the port as fast as we did and why there was all those ponies, gryphons and dragons coming after you and looking angry.”
“That city is no place to leave a filly, Hiccup. Not while that … that … spawn of Sombra is mayor of it,” She spat as though just mentioning the mayor left a bad taste in her mouth. I also watched as her body trembled and she looked at me with a teary eyed glare. “That bear shames its species. It’s a beast and a monster and needs to be put down. N-no filly should have to go through that!”
“Still not following,” I replied, raising my eyebrow in an unspoken gesture for her to elaborate. “I’m not from around here, just in case my strange body hasn’t made that clear for you. What does bringing a strange filly on board and an angry army of citizens have anything to do with the mayor that you were going to see?”
“Hiccup, your species have foals right? Foals which are neither considered an infant nor a developing young adult right?”
“Yeah,” I said, still not following.
“If an adult was caught mating with one, are there any laws regarding such?” Rainbow Dash asked me.
“It’d be an execution sentence. Wait, surely you can’t mean … .”
“Yeah, that’s exactly what I mean.”
It was a good thing I was sitting down, as I was reminded that even in this world that appeared to be sunshine and rainbows, even they had their villains and troubles. I looked up to Rainbow Dash, now completely serious. “Will she be okay?”
“No, probably not. I mean, can you even heal from something like that? Can you even recover from the damage it does to your head and self-esteem?”
“I don’t know Rainbow Dash. I truly don’t, but even so, I wish her all the best. No one should have to go through that.” I returned my gaze to the prow, seething silently at what had happened to this poor filly. Needless to say, I stayed awake all that night until we reached the docks of Manehattan shortly before the rising of the sun.