• Published 12th Mar 2022
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Rainbow Dash Around the World - MagicS



Rainbow Dash continues her flight around the world.

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Familiar Faces

Rainbow Dash whistled to herself as she flew down the row of buildings along the pier. She was doing her best to keep optimistic despite the repeated failures and dead ends she had reached today. There was still plenty of hours in the day left anyways and right now she was scouring between the seedier part of the port and the busier, more touristy, sections. Like yesterday there were a lot of ponies out on the street and the sidewalk, and more walking around the harbor and out on the docks themselves. She had sort of lost track of the days but maybe now it was a weekend and there were more ponies here having fun?

There was also something else she was seeing now that she had missed yesterday because she stayed mostly on hoof. A second street existed back behind the first row of buildings, built between them and the hilly forest that led into Malkonrik’s interior. It looked like an entire marketplace squeezed into that narrow strip. Rainbow Dash could see an alley from the main street and sidewalk that led down into it between the walls of two large buildings. And it was busy, really busy and crowded with ponies. As Rainbow Dash circled from above she saw it was mostly families too—there were less hard-faced sailors milling about and the atmosphere seemed pretty jovial.

Since she hadn’t been there before, she figured it was a better place to check out than elsewhere along the port city.

Rainbow Dash dropped down and landed in the middle of the busy street, taking a look around at the ponies and sort of businesses that were here. Definitely a jovial place. Almost every shop she saw was an eatery or candy store of some sort, from caramel apples, to ice cream, to taffy, they had a lot of different stuff available and the families down here were enjoying themselves. Aside from food there were some gift shops and even toy stores as well. She had found a really happy spot in this port city, dominated by families just having a good time.

Unfortunately that meant it probably wasn’t the kind of place she needed to be right now. But even then… Rainbow Dash still kind of wanted to just look around. She could use a fun place like this with a lot of happy ponies around to pick up her mood. Not like she had never gone off on a side-adventure before. If only she had a little money for a snack too. Maybe she could even find a family on vacation that had traveled by boat from a far away island and she could come onboard with them when they left…

She stood outside the window of an ice cream shop and looked inside to see a lot of ponies just casually sitting there and eating without a care in the world. A grin came to her face despite everything.

Her mind flashed to Sugarcube Corner—seeing herself eating inside there with her friends while she regaled them about everything she had done on this long journey.

“Yeah, that’ll be a good day,” Rainbow Dash said and walked away from the ice cream shop.

There was an outdoor cafe in the eastern corner of this little strip, the last building pressed up against the forests had its entire back patio open and the whole place was covered in tables with large umbrellas over them for shade. Potentially another place she could get work if the restaurant she was planning to go back to refused her. Because of that she decided to go over and check it out, it didn’t look as busy as some of the other places here that were mostly in the sweets or snack trade. Not every table was occupied.

Maybe if she was lucky she could even get some lunch or a snack if the proprietor is willing to let her pay later. Her eyes scanned over the crowd in the back patio, seeing a couple of families, but also a fair number of ponies on their own sitting and eating there. She was going to go straight to the front door of the establishment and talk to the waiters inside, but her eyes caught a flash of green and feathers. Rainbow Dash did a double-take, seeing a griffon sitting at the farthest table at the back corner of the café. Her eyes lit up and she smiled, thinking it was Godfrey, and she took a step towards him.

Wait. No. That wasn’t Godfrey sitting there, he was way smaller than the large griffon she had met yesterday. There were two other ponies sitting with him as well… or at least one pony and another creature that looked similar to a pony. They seemed to be in a fairly intense conversation with each other.

Rainbow Dash’s head tilted to the right as she stared at them through the tables. “Hold on a second…”


“Gilbert, please tell me you didn’t actually lose all our money in such a stupid way. Please tell me I’m daydreaming, and I’m actually someone else, and not the pony stuck in such an idiotic situation,” Daylight Gleam said to Gilbert the griffon as her exasperation poured through her eyes. She was drilling him with an intense gaze while a vein practically throbbed in her forehead.

“Daylight, maybe-” the other creature at the table started to say in an attempt to calm things down.

“No, Senax-” Daylight interrupted her and held up a hoof. “I want to hear from Gilbert’s own beak why he thought it was a good idea to bet all our money on a game of Three-Card Monte!”

“Well how was I supposed to know it was rigged?” Gilbert shrugged in defense.

“It’s Three-Card Monte! It’s always rigged!” Daylight yelled at him and yanked at her mane before slamming her face into the table.

“The ponies running the game seemed like nice folk when I met them…” Gilbert said.

Daylight poked one eye up to glare at him with.

Gilbert gulped and shrank down in his seat. “I’ll be shutting up now.”

“In his defense I don’t know why you entrusted Gilbert with the money in the first place,” Senax said to Daylight.

“I don’t know either!” Daylight shouted up before slamming her head back into the table.

“Breakwater is not going to be happy that we lost his money… again…” Senax sighed.

“Well if we’re in dire enough straits we could finally sell your magical Horn of Listening,” Daylight shrugged.

“We are not selling the sacred artifact of my people,” Senax frowned.

“Just joking…” Daylight shook her head and propped her elbows up on the table, rubbing her temples with her hooves to try and ward off the impending headache.

“I’m sure we can scrounge up some more money some way. Either that or just dip into Breakwater’s emergency supplies for our next trip,” Senax said.

“He’s not going to be fond of any of these suggestions,” Daylight grumbled.

“Uhh…” a raspy voice cut into their conversation.

The three at the table looked over to see that a pegasus mare with a very vibrant and distinct rainbow mane had walked up to them.

“Did I meet you guys once at an old Yak outpost north of Equestria? Cause you were a pretty memorable trio,” she said to them.

Gilbert’s eyes almost immediately flashed in recognition and he smiled. “Well if it isn’t Rainbow Dash!” He stood up while his wings shot open in excitement—one of them smacking Daylight Gleam in the face across the table and knocking her out of her chair. Gilbert nervously brought a talon up to his chin and grimaced. “Oops.”

“Rainbow Dash?” Senax said as she politely stood out of her chair and smiled. “Yes—I remember you, it’s nice to see you again. It’s far warmer than the last time we met.”

Daylight Gleam stood up and glared at Gilbert briefly before looking over at Rainbow and raising an eyebrow. “Hello, that was a while back now but I remember what happened up there. I’ll say I’m surprised to see you here. I didn’t think our paths would cross again after we went in completely different directions. Didn’t you go straight north?”

Rainbow Dash smiled at them all and rubbed the back of her head. “I did, yeah, and it’s a long story to tell. Believe me. Normally I’d be all for telling it and catching up but… I kind of sort of overheard your conversation just now. You guys in trouble?”

“Yes,” Daylight Gleam frowned and glanced over at Gilbert. “I’d like to catch up too but we don’t exactly have the time for something like that right now. Forgive me if I’m not exactly in the best mood for talk.”

“I hope you’ve had a lot of fun in the time since we’ve seen each other,” Gilbert said to Dash, not seeming to be as concerned with things as Daylight.

“Heh, I have,” Rainbow grinned.

“What brings you all the way to the Grand Ocean then?” Senax asked.

Daylight Gleam dragged a hoof down her face. “You guys—we have a bit of a situation here. We can catch up with Rainbow Dash later.”

“Sorry…” Senax blushed in embarrassment and smiled at Rainbow. “Another time, as you heard.”

“Yes, we are in a bit of a pickle at the moment,” Gilbert nodded.

“Thanks to you,” Daylight snorted.

“Yeah I know what money problems are like,” Rainbow Dash said to them and sighed. “Kind of dealing with that myself right now. This port isn’t exactly a good place to be stuck without any coins.” She idly flicked the empty pouch hanging around her neck. A thought came to her head and she raised an eyebrow at the trio. “You know though… maybe I can help you guys out? If you’re in trouble I’d like to do something about it.”

She blinked. “N-Not even for any money! I’m not thinking about, I just want to help, seriously.”

A brief smirk came to Daylight’s face before it disappeared. “Well I believe you’re being honest enough about that, but I’m not really sure how you could help us.”

“You said you got scammed out of your money?” Rainbow asked.

Gilbert coughed. “T-That’s right. It was a group of ponies running what appeared to be a perfectly honest and legitimate card game-”

“In the bad part of town,” Daylight frowned.

“-but in actuality was anything but. I was unfortunately deceived and cheated out of the money I had been entrusted with.”

“Why were you even in that part of the port in the first place?” Senax asked him.

“I was bored,” he shrugged.

“One of these days, Gilbert. One of these days…” Daylight growled.

“Card game, huh?” Rainbow Dash rubbed her chin in thought.

“It’s a game in name only. It’s nothing more than a scam, there’s no way to win it, it’s just made to prey on stupid people who don’t know any better. They make you think it’s a simple guessing game but the whole thing is rigged,” Daylight said.

“I see… but they’re still ponies putting on card games, and acting like they’re just gamblers? If all they care about is money then maybe we can convince them to do something out of greed,” Rainbow Dash said.

“Like what?” Daylight asked.

“Like get them to play a real card game—double or nothing. Come up to them and offer to play them for real to try and get back the money Gilbert lost. If they’re greedy enough to run a cheap scam like that I bet they’ll be greedy enough to let themselves get roped in by us,” Rainbow explained.

“They might be smart enough to not agree to something like that,” Senax said.

Rainbow shrugged. “Yeah, maybe, but is there a better option? I’m assuming you don’t want to just go beat on them and take the money back by force?”

“Considering we technically lost it fair and square and have no evidence of them cheating then no. The port authority wouldn’t take kindly to that and it would also trouble our friends,” Daylight said. “Unless we actually caught them cheating in the act then physical force isn’t an option. They’re unfortunately still citizens of Malkonrik and not the serious kind of criminal one can just use violence against.”

“If we just get them involved in a typical game of chance though there’s no guarantee that we’ll win either...” Gilbert said.

Rainbow Dash grinned. “Now you leave that part to me. I’ll do everything when it comes to playing cards. I’ve already got a nice and simple idea for straightening this out.”

“There’s another problem though,” Daylight Gleam said with a frown. “We don’t have the money to wager and convince them to play against us again.”

“Yeah,” Rainbow Dash cracked her hooves and flashed her an even cockier grin than normal. “But they don’t know that.”


“I’m sorry, but I don’t think I heard you right.”

“My money against the money you took from Gilbert here. One simple game, winner take all,” Rainbow Dash said to the pony.

They were now all in a dark back alley behind a merchant’s general store in the seedy part of Malkonrik’s port. The merchant himself was known to trade in goods that may not have been entirely acquired through legal means, and he allowed this “game” to go on as long as he got some of the profit. The whole alley was grungy and there was a lookout posted around the corner of the building to alert everyone if unwanted guests were coming. Right now the scammers and Rainbow Dash’s group were standing on opposite sides of a scratched up coffee table. Seven to four.

Daylight Gleam frowned as she looked around. “Gilbert, you actually came to a place like this to gamble? It didn’t give you any warning signs?”

“They were all very friendly… I thought they were decent fellows,” Gilbert shrugged.

Beside him, Senax sighed and shook her head.

“So another game of Three-Card Monte then?” The lead stallion, a unicorn with green eyes and a rough and short yellow mane said as he grinned at Rainbow Dash from across the table.

“No,” Rainbow Dash glared. “A real game. No tricks, no scams, nothing like that. We bet for real.”

The stallion scoffed. “And why should I agree to that? No reason to maybe lose the money we rightfully got already.”

“Two reasons,” Rainbow Dash said and pulled off the pouch from around her neck. She dropped it on the table where it landed with a loud thud thanks to the heavy contents. The greedy eyes of the scammers all fell towards it. “The first is that you’ll have the chance to get all of that. Which from what my friends have told me is more than what they lost in the first place. And the second reason is that the game is going to be balanced way in your favor.”

“How so?” The leader asked her.

“It’s going to be a very simple game. You’re going to get a deck of cards, and both you and me are going to draw five cards, one at a time. If I draw five higher cards than you in a row, we get the money back. If even one time you draw a higher card, you get all the money and we leave,” Rainbow Dash explained.

“Wait. What?” Daylight blinked. “That’s what you’re doing? That’s absurd—why would you make the game so unfair to yourself? And with their own deck? Relying on that sort of luck is crazy!”

“Relax, Daylight. I’ve got this,” Rainbow said to her and then raised an eyebrow at the scammers. “Well? Are you going to ignore that good of a deal? The deck’s stacked in your favor.”

“Perhaps too stacked,” Senax gulped.

The lead scammer rubbed his chin as he stared at the heavy bag Rainbow Dash had plopped on the table. “So I just need to draw a higher card than you once?”

“Yep,” Rainbow nodded. “We’ll even draw from your deck so you know I’m not cheating you.”

“This is a bad idea...” Daylight groaned.

“Really? I think it sounds like a rather fun gamble,” Gilbert smiled.

“That means it’s an even worse idea,” Daylight glared at him.

“You’re pretty confident for a pony who’s putting herself in such an unfair position,” the scammer said to Rainbow. “How do I know you don’t have something up your sleeve?”

Rainbow Dash shrugged. “I just believe in myself—and we’re desperate for that money. You can tell just by looking that there’s no way for any of us to cheat at this either.”

“Heh, true enough. Alright then, a simple game of chance, let’s do this,” the scammer grinned and motioned to one of his underlings to bring out a deck of cards. It was put in the center of table, and both he and Rainbow Dash reached their hooves out towards it to draw their first card.


“Well that was a lot easier than I expected,” Senax said as the group walked down the nearby pier after getting their money back.

Money that was now being held in a bag by Daylight, since they certainly weren’t letting Gilbert hold onto it anymore.

“I told you,” Rainbow Dash shrugged as her own heavy pouch was once more safely around her neck.

“How did you do that anyways? What was the trick?” Daylight asked Rainbow.

Rainbow Dash looked at her as if she had said the sky is red. “No trick, I just knew I’d win.”

“Remarkable,” Gilbert twirled his mustache and nodded in respect.

Daylight was far less impressed. “Wait… so there actually wasn’t a plan at all? You just left everything up to dumb luck?”

“I mean—I know it might be hard for you to believe but I never lose at games of chance. Don’t worry, I didn’t really risk anything. I wouldn’t have done that to you guys,” Rainbow Dash smiled, genuinely, to Daylight. “Even if it hadn’t worked out I wouldn’t have left you high and dry either.”

She walked over to the railing at the edge of the pier and pulled off her pouch before opening it up. “Guess I can get rid of these now too.” She said as she turned the pouch over and dumped the contents into the harbor water—dozens of pebbles she had gathered and put inside it earlier. “Good thing I’m not the Element of Honesty.”

“An excellent ploy overall, I must say,” Gilbert grinned.

“I guess I should be glad it all turned out well…” Daylight shook her head.

“And Breakwater doesn’t need to know about any of this,” Senax said. “We can head back to the shop anytime.”

“Right,” Daylight nodded. She looked over at Rainbow Dash and smiled. “Thank you for helping us, and it was nice seeing you again, but we’ve got to get back to our other associates now. Goodbye, Rainbow Dash.”

“Whoa, hold on!” Rainbow Dash reached out a hoof and grabbed her shoulder.

“What?” Daylight raised an eyebrow at her.

“I mean…” Rainbow grinned at the three of them and puffed out her chest. “I was wondering if maybe that offer you made me a while back to come adventuring with you is still on the table?”

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