Rainbow Dash Around the World

by MagicS

Don't Worry, We Aren't That Dumb

“East, huh?” Rainbow Dash said to herself as she stood in the Heart of Azure’s crow’s nest and looked to the horizon.

It was the first time she had traveled east since coming to the Hundred Kingdoms and Grand Ocean. Until now it had been south and then shooting across west to the Sea Lion Reefs. Now she was on her way to seeing the east side of the Grand Ocean for the first time. They had left the aforementioned Sea Lion Reefs behind days ago and were now more or less in the middle of the Grand Ocean. Middle, but still close to the northern part of that.

She turned around and stared behind the ship to the west, blinking and remembering what had gone on over there. She hoped all those slaves they rescued were on their way home, back to whatever friends and families they had. If Bosche hadn’t taken them too.

She scowled. Just thinking of that country made her angry now. She understood why everyone else had such a nasty reaction to them.

And of course the other thing going through her mind was how absolutely bored she had been the last few days. And this was just the beginning! They still had so much water to cover until they reached the Smoking Island. It was just like before, all over again. That was partially why she spent so much time in the crow’s nest, so she could be the first one to spot anything interesting. Not that she expected anything after days of nothing and being outright told there was nothing in this part of the ocean. What a chore. This was the average, the norm, for ocean travel? She could never get used to it. Not with how she usually liked to fly under her own power.

Of course though, in just a few moments something would come up that might alleviate that boredom a little bit.

Rainbow Dash was lazily draped over the side of the crow’s nest by her own volition, only half paying attention to the ocean now. That changed when she noticed something coming up from the southeast. Practically springing into action, she jumped up and grabbed the spyglass, opening it and looking through it to view the ship in the distance. She was sure that’s what it had to be. And hoping that it wasn’t a vessel she recognized… there were only two ships that she would and she didn’t want to see either of them right now.

Thankfully it wasn’t a ship she recognized, and in fact looked far more normal. White sails just like the Heart of Azure, and she didn’t see any cannons or ballistas on it. What she did see that was kind of interesting were what looked like oars coming out the middle deck of the ship and going into the water. That must’ve been how it was traveling in a different direction from the Heart of Azure despite the wind and current. It was larger than the Heart of Azure too, but not so large as some of the bigger vessels she had seen back at the port of Malkonrik.

She whistled down to Breakwater. “Yo! We’ve got a ship coming up!”

He frowned. “It’s not The Scourge is it?”

“Naw, this one looks normal, let me show you! Coming right from southeast,” Rainbow said and flew down with the spyglass. Breakwater met her on the starboard side of the ship and they looked out together across the water while he left Senax at the wheel. Rainbow hoofed him the spyglass and he looked through it while she kept her eyes open on the dot approaching from the distance.

“Hm...” Breakwater mumbled as he gazed at the vessel through the spyglass.

“Is it anything serious?” Daylight asked as she walked up to them, Gilbert listening from the bow.

“Nope. It’s just a normal merchant vessel,” Breakwater said as he put down the spyglass. “Doesn’t look like it’s part of any big companies, no insignia on the side or any flags, must be private. Still, nothing to worry about. In fact… maybe we can get something from them. We’re going to be crossing paths and they’ve probably spotted us too by now.”

“Get what?” Rainbow asked.

Breakwater shrugged. “Food, rum, supplies, we’ll have to see what they have.”

Rainbow Dash’s curiosity was certainly piqued. “Sounds good to me...”

For the next thirty minutes the two ships got closer to each other, steadily slowing down. When they got near enough, the merchant vessel pulled up its oars and Breakwater had Rainbow Dash furl the sail so they could just drift next to each other. It was clear the larger vessel had determined they weren’t a threat. Now, side by side, Rainbow and the others looked up at the larger vessel. It had at least two more decks than the Heart of Azure, making the main deck much higher over the water. In a second a few ponies looked out over the railing of the other ship and waved down at them.

“Hello there! How goes it?” One of the ponies shouted.

“Goes well! This be Captain Breakwater of the Heart of Azure, who do I have the pleasure of speaking to?” Breakwater responded.

“This be Captain Mizz of Meer’s Bounty! Well met, Captain Breakwater!” Captain Mizz nodded.

“Well met,” Breakwater nodded back.

“Anything we can do for you? It doesn’t seem like your vessel travels the ocean to trade,” Captain Mizz said.

“Not first and foremost, no, but we have things to trade if perhaps you have anything we might be interested in.”

“Oh? Meer’s Bounty has a full cargo, I trust your look enough to tell you that. What kinds of things might you be looking for?”

“I would say food firstly. We have plenty of fruit that we might be willing to trade for you if you can offer us a more varied diet.”

“Aye, that’d be possible. We’ve got salted meat if that’s to your liking, or if’n you be the vegetarian types why we’ve still got a farm’s worth of eggplant and cabbage too.”

Breakwater grinned. “The eggplant and cabbage will do.”

Rainbow Dash suddenly raised her hoof to grab the other Captain’s attention. “Hey! Besides food I’ve gotta ask if there’s anything else you’re carrying onboard?”

“Course’,” Mizz nodded, and grinned lasciviously at the colorful pegasus, though he said nothing untoward to her. “There anything in particular you mean by that?”

“Well… what do you have to kill time with out here?”

---

And for the next couple of hours after that initial meeting the two vessels continued to drift together with neither being in a huge hurry to lead and both respective crews taking things from one ship and moving them to the other. Including the several recreational items Rainbow Dash had been given at no extra cost, purely as a courtesy. Captain Mizz came down to the Heart of Azure to chat with Breakwater about their recent travels and where each of them were going. Rainbow Dash caught the end of that conversation as she was lifting a barrel of dried seaweed into the hold.

“I see… then I’m assuming you’re taking the southern passage?” Captain Mizz was saying.

“Yep, from where we are now it’s much closer than going north,” Breakwater said.

“Aye, true indeed. A shame that it’s such a hassle having to go around it all the time, but you’d have to be insane to try and go through just to cut back on time,” Captain Mizz said.

Breakwater laughed. “Hah! You’ve got that right. And you definitely don’t have to worry about us, we wouldn’t do something so stupid. A few extra days is nothing compared to having your boat capsized and smashed to pieces by the waves.”

“Too true. Most every sailor has learned not to do something so reckless by now,” Captain Mizz nodded.

“Hope you have an easy time making it back to Meer by the way. With all the cargo you’re hauling I think you’ll be able to make quite a bit of coin if you can get it all there in one piece. Especially with those rare spices.”

“Meer isn’t used to such flavors, I’m hoping they’ll turn quite the profit,” Captain Mizz smiled.

The two of them chit-chatted for just a little longer until all the loading and unloading was done. When that was taken care of the two Captains said goodbye to each other and Mizz went back up to Meer’s Bounty. It took some time before they were all ready to leave, but Breakwater kept the Heart of Azure bobbing in the waters there until the much larger vessel had its oars extended again and was pushing its way north. Up by the port side of Meer’s Bounty, Captin Mizz and some of the other sailors waved down at the Heart of Azure and its crew. Rainbow Dash and the others waved back at him—she especially happy with the gifts she had received.

Once the merchant ship was out of their way, it was time for them to unfurl the sail and get back on their own way. Once the sail was back down, Rainbow Dash flew over to Breakwater.

“Hey, what were you and that dude talking about back there anyways?” She asked him.

“Huh? What do you mean?” Breakwater raised an eyebrow at her.

“I heard you talking about taking a southern passage and avoiding something? Aren’t we just going east to the Smoking Island?”

“Heh,” Breakwater grinned and shook his head. “Already forgot? Directly east from here is the Strip of Storms. We’re taking the south way around it and then heading up north to get to the Smoking Island. Can’t go through it—the Strip would make that storm we went through a few days ago look like a bright and sunny day. Just about the dumbest thing anyone could do out here is try and sail through the Strip. And we aren’t that dumb.” He looked out across the bow. “It’s annoying how much more time it adds to our trip but there’s nothing else we can do about it. You gotta either go north or south around it.”

“Right...” Rainbow Dash rubbed the back of her neck. “So the storms in there are really that crazy?”

“Oh yeah. It’s completely different from a normal storm. You thought those waves and winds were bad last time? You haven’t seen nothing.”

“So their ship was coming from the southeast, did they go around the Strip of Storms too?”

“They’re making a wide trip around it after coming from an island much further to the south. A few other stops are on their route before they finish up back at Meer.”

“I figured that from the name.”

Breakwater grinned. “Glad you at least remember the names of some of the Kingdoms.”

Rainbow Dash looked to the east for a brief moment, noticing how calm and clear everything still looked in the distance. “So it really gets that bad if we keep going straight?”

“Oh yes. In a day or two you’d see things start to change right before your eyes,” Breakwater nodded.

Rainbow shrugged. “Oh well, I mean, we’ve already been out here for days. What’s the big deal about adding another one?”

“That’s the spirit. You’re finally getting used to traveling the ocean.”

“Yeah… somehow that doesn’t fill me with joy the same way it does you.”

“Hehe, still a good thing. Maybe you’ll be able to deal with your boredom better.”

This time Rainbow Dash grinned. “I already got a way to deal with that thanks to those guys.”

“Right, almost forgot. You’re lucky they had that stuff just lying around their ship and they were willing to part with it.”

“Well when it comes to that kind of thing I’m usually lucky.”

“You got it all sitting in my cabin now?”

“Yeah. Felt more appropriate than putting it down in the hold or something.”

Breakwater shrugged. “Do whatever you want with it. I’m sure Gilbert at least will enjoy having that stuff here too. You know though, with you being a pegasus who can fly around and do pretty much whatever you want, I’m surprised you can’t really conquer your boredom on your own.”

“Ehh… no offense but it’s kind of an issue when I have to keep to the same slow pace as the ship. I can’t go too far away from it or anything. Also, usually never took me more than a couple days for me to get someplace interesting when I was journeying up north,” Rainbow said.

“Fair enough. Well at least we’re back on our way now. What do you say we have some food to eat soon? And then I’ll take over at the helm and the rest of you can have some fun.”

“You know there’s nothing keeping you from joining in too, right?” Rainbow raised an eyebrow at him.

He simply waved her off. “Somebody has to mind the wheel. As Captain it’s best to let you four enjoy yourselves more.”

“Suit yourself. Now the only thing I wish those guys had with them was some rum.”

“Or beer? Or wine?” Breakwater smiled.

“Yeah those would’ve been really good too…”

A minute later and Breakwater was up at the helm, steering their ship east to get them to the Smoking Island as fast as possible, while everyone else was in the cabin below him enjoying some of their newly acquired foods. For the first time in a few days they were having a varied meal—and it was a pretty high-quality meal too. Senax had made some mixed vegetable salads for them topped with goat cheese, and Gilbert was able to enjoy some salted meat. A “delicacy” they were also lucky to pick up from the Meer’s Bounty was several bars of dark chocolate. Very dark. It wasn’t Rainbow’s preferred type of chocolate but she missed eating stuff like that so pretty much anything was good.

Like always, both she and Gilbert were absolutely destroying their own food while Senax and Daylight ate much daintier. It gave Rainbow Dash plenty of time to sit around and think afterwards. Despite the boredom, these moments with them all just together on the open ocean were still nice. It felt like there was nothing else in the world going on. Just four friends eating at a table and a fifth friend helping them out up above.

Rainbow Dash bit into her bar of dark chocolate and broke it in half, chewing the bits to pieces as they melted in her mouth. “Some sweet cider to go with this right now would be perfect. Even some milk too.”

“You’ll have to make do with lukewarm water for now,” Daylight shrugged.

“And there’s another thing I’ve gotten used to…”

“It may be a while, but when we return to Malkonrik I’m sure we can get you some ice water.” Gilbert said.

Rainbow grinned over at Senax. “I guess even if we find your treasures at the Smoking Island there’s still a few things left to do.”

“Yes,” Senax nodded. “We’ll have to return to Ballast’s shop at Malkonrik regardless to stock up on more supplies. And then we’ll still need to get to Merlantis itself…”

“We’ll get there,” Rainbow Dash told her. “But first-” She looked over at a pile of her newly acquired things stacked up in the cabin. “Since we’re all just about finished eating, what do you say we have some fun? Well?”

“I don’t-” Daylight began.

“You don’t want me and Rainbow to continue on about how you hate fun, right?” Gilbert grinned at her.

Daylight frowned. “Fine. That sounds fun.”

“I’ll join in,” Senax said.

“Great!” Rainbow Dash cheered and rubbed her hooves together. “Let’s get this started!”

Comments

[redmar]

It's good that Rainbow has enough sense to not suggest going through te Strip of Storms but she's smart enough to trust the captain. If she were on her own she might try to fly through it thoguh given her character.