Rainbow Dash Around the World

by MagicS

Except For This

“Okay, so what do we have to work with here? What’s the plan?” Rainbow Dash asked the assembled group of her friends and lizards.

“There are one hundred able-bodied lizards willing and ready to fight to rescue the Princess,” Smooth Tongue said.

“Good.”

“We have magical abilities that allow us to create fog and manipulate currents, but not on the level of our matriarch I’m afraid,” one elder said.

“That’s still cool.”

“From what we heard before we found you, the lizards here have cannons, powder kegs, boats of their own, and special potions that give them great endurance for days,” Gilbert said.

“Sweet.”

“And totems that tell them where other members of their species are, so we’ll be able to tell which Bosche ships have captive lizards on them and which don’t,” Breakwater said.

“Got it,” Rainbow Dash nodded. “So with all that—what can we do?”

“Well by now the Boschese have definitely landed and started gathering up the other lizards. But that’s an entire city’s worth of Lizard People. I bet it’s taking time for them to finish up and get back out to sea so if we work fast we’ll probably be able to catch up with them,” Daylight Gleam said.

“Even with the time we lost by sulking?” Senax sighed.

Rainbow Dash reached a hoof over to rub her shoulder. “Even with that. We’ve got this. Just think about it, we’ve got way more tools and allies to work with than we ever thought.”

“Just need to figure out how best to use it all,” Breakwater furrowed his brow and thought.

“Like I was saying-” Daylight spoke up. “With everything on this island and from the Princess’s lizards at our disposal, I’ve got some ideas. Everyone—and I mean everyone—is going to have to put in their all and work together for it to work."

“We are willing to do that,” Smooth Tongue said.

Daylight nodded. “Right. Then the first thing we all need to keep in mind is that despite how bad things look for us we have actually have several advantages over our enemies. Number one being that despite their power and numbers, Bosche is dumb. They’re dumb, stupid, arrogant, self-centered, fatheads.”

“This is true,” Breakwater nodded.

“And also-” Daylight continued. “Bosche and Godfrey know very little about what we can muster against them. Bosche would’ve known nothing about the lizards living in these mountains to begin with, and Godfrey only got a cursory glance at things and I somehow doubt he’s really filled the Boschese in on most of the details. They don’t know the numbers, the amount of boats, the specifics of the magic or weapons, that we can bear against them. Third, we have the advantage that the Boschese aren’t here to simply kill or take over an island. They want slaves. If we can take over some of their ships, commandeer them, or at least free the prisoners trapped on them and start an uprising, they’re far less likely to fire upon and sink their own ships because they don’t want to lose their prize. In general they won’t want to kill any Lizard People, just subdue them, if their leadership orders something like that it’ll hamstring the effectiveness of their soldiers.”

“Not Godfrey though,” Gilbert pointed out.

“No, not him, and this is still partially wishful thinking on my part. It’s just something I believe that Bosche might do,” Daylight said.

“So what exactly do we do with all this? These lizards still don’t know how to fight for real, we’re putting them in a ton of danger by putting them up against Boschese soldiers. And we’re still really outnumbered and need to be able to rescue the Princess before Godfrey can kill her,” Rainbow Dash said.

Senax sighed and looked down in dismay. “If there was any way we could do this without putting more of you in danger...”

“But there isn’t,” Daylight said. “I’m sorry, Senax, but we need the lizard’s help right now. And I was getting to the main plan, Rainbow Dash. Essentially what we’re going to do is pull off one giant sneak attack.”

Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow. “That so?”

“Yes, that’s so. We’re going to have every boat that the lizards have here go out and intercept the Bosche fleet as they leave the island,” Daylight said.

“But how’s that going to work?” Breakwater asked. “Bosche will see them coming without the fog barrier. We can’t sneak up on them like that and your camouflage magic can’t cover such a wide area.”

“The Lizard People still have magic of their own, it’s just not as strong as their matriarch. We’ll need them to create a rolling fog bank that covers their ships and lets them sneak up on the Bosche fleet. Again, Bosche doesn’t know they can do something like that, they may find it suspicious or strange but they won’t really be able to do anything about it either,” Daylight said.

“B-But I’m not sure if we have the power to do something like that,” Smooth Tongue began to sweat. “Our magic is much weaker than the matriarch’s, making something like that to cover all our ships will be impossible...”

As he said that, the elders nodded along in agreement. None of them seemed to believe they could do it.

“But you’re going to have to,” Daylight said. “You’re going to have to work harder and fight harder than ever before. If it’s for your Princess, and for Senax, don’t you think you can do anything? I believe in you, and I know that Senax, Rainbow Dash, Gilbert, and Breakwater all believe in you too. Surely with all of you working together you can create a single rolling fog bank? A hundred of you, with the Princess in your hearts, and those endurance potions in your bodies, I’m sure you can do it.” She looked at her friends. “Don’t you think so?”

Rainbow Dash grinned. “Definitely.”

“Yep,” Breakwater nodded.

“Certainly,” Gilbert agreed.

And lastly Senax nodded as well. “Yes, I know they can do it.”

Smooth Tongue and the elders looked at each other. Obviously they were still uncertain, a single pep talk couldn’t fix that, but Daylight was right that they had to do their best.

“I will make sure everyone coming with us on this mission shares this sentiment,” Smooth Tongue said.

Daylight smiled. “That’s what we needed to hear. So let me tell you exactly what we’re going to be doing. First thing will be that all of us and every lizard joining us is going to down one of those potions so we can be in the best shape possible. Then every boat will be outfitted with a cannon and we’ll take plenty of cannonballs and powder kegs with us under cover of the fog. The Bosche Junks might be bigger than your boats, but a single well-aimed blast from a cannon can disable or sink one. We’ll use the totems to figure out which ships have abducted lizards on them and which don’t so we know which ones are safe to fire on. And if you can use your magic to manipulate the currents as well, you can cause some ships to crash into each other or go off course. We’re going to cause a whole bunch of chaos in that fleet.”

“However, to make sure the Princess is safe and Godfrey doesn’t kill her as soon as the attack starts, we need to find her first. And that’s where I come in. Rainbow Dash can carry me, and Gilbert can carry Smooth Tongue, we’ll fly out over the Bosche ships while I place a camouflage bubble around us to stay invisible. We’ll look for the ship that Godfrey is on because I bet that’s where the Princess will be. And Smooth Tongue will carry a totem with him to make sure there’s at least one lizard aboard. When we do find her and we’re sure we can keep her safe from Godfrey if not outright rescue her, we’ll make some kind of signal for everyone else to begin the attack. Rainbow Dash can fight off Godfrey while the three of us then stealthily rescue Princess Fairscale from the Junk.”

“Umm...” Gilbert raised a talon.

Daylight looked at him. “Yes?”

“Well... powder kegs explode, right? Why not drop one on another ship right around the one the Princess is on? So long as there aren’t any other lizards aboard,” he shrugged.

Daylight blinked. “Huh. That would certainly be a good signal. And it would create a lot of panic among the soldiers on the ship we’re trying to board. That’s actually a good suggestion Gilbert, as long as we give it a fuse we can just light and drop it. We’ll tell the other lizards that as soon as they see that first explosion they can start their attack.”

“And I’m assuming Senax and I will be with those other lizards?” Breakwater questioned.

“That’s the plan so far,” Daylight nodded.

“Well then we can lead them to board the vessels and free as many lizards as possible. With them freed I bet we can commandeer a number of Junks, and if not, another advantage we have is that the soldiers all wear leather armor and chainmail. They can’t swim. If worst comes to worst we can just jump into the water and start swimming back on our own—especially if the lizards are using their magic to mess with the currents,” Breakwater said.

“Good thinking. This is actually turning out pretty well,” Daylight smiled.

“I have something to say first,” Rainbow Dash said, grabbing everyone else’s attention.

When all eyes were on her, Rainbow Dash continued.

“Your plan, Daylight. Firing cannons at them, dropping powder kegs, blowing up ships... I know the situation is serious. I know that Bosche is wrong, and their leaders you could even call evil, but most of them are still just going to be ponies who don’t know anything else besides what they were raised in,” she took a deep breath and sighed, sadly looking at the ground. “We can’t just go around killing them as if they’re soulless monsters. They’re still ponies too. I know we still have to fight, we still have to get the Princess and the Necklace back, and that’s... going to lead to death. But please, for all of us, don’t just blindly go out there killing them. Avoid it if you can. I don’t want us to have to kill anyone. That’s why, even though it was probably dumb cause I know they weren’t going to change so easily, I didn’t kill those other captains, admirals, whatever, we met before. I-I don’t have it in me to outright kill someone like that without even really talking to them first. I never want to have to resort to that unless I really, truly, have to.”

“Even my brother?” Gilbert asked.

Rainbow Dash bristled and clenched her hooves. A frown came to her face as she continued staring at the ground. “He’s different.” She then looked at Smooth Tongue and the elders. “But tell the other lizards, when boarding the Bosche ships, don’t do anything unnecessary. Just rescue the others.”

“I-I shall,” Smooth Tongue nodded.

“By the end of this the fleet should be in total disarray. If you can then give us one final push of magic to blow them off course and away from the island, we should be safe. And you’ll be able to begin preparations for defending your island in the future if you need to,” Daylight said.

“Well I don’t have any complaints. It sounds like the best we can do right now,” Breakwater said.

Senax looked at the unhappy Rainbow Dash before nodding. “There will never be a perfect plan, but we’ll do what we can to make this go as well as possible for everyone involved.”

“Then we’ve got a lot of work to do and we have to do it fast,” Daylight said. “Every second wasted is a second they get farther away.”

“I shall get everyone working overtime immediately!” Smooth Tongue said.

“And I’ll help with any lifting and grunt work that needs to be done,” Rainbow said. She looked over to Daylight and gave her a nod of acknowledgment and a small grin. “Don’t let me get you down, I’m still looking to teach these guys a lesson.”

While they all prepared to leave, Gilbert also smiled at Daylight. “I think you’ve rallied us all together just as well as Rainbow Dash ever has.”

The unicorn blushed. “Shut up... I just... had to help, you know? I didn’t do anything special.”

“Well, that’s one big difference between the two of you, Rainbow Dash would absolutely brag about anything she did to help,” Gilbert snickered.

“Yes I would!” Rainbow proudly stated.

Breakwater shook his head. “Wish the Heart of Azure was seaworthy right now. Oh well.”

And with no time to spare, they got to work.

Comments

[redmar]

Nice to see this updated after an unexpected break. When this succeds the Bosche might become almost as obsessed with getting revenge on Rainbow Dash as Gofrey is with the Trident or Harlequin Grey's obsession with Rainbow.

[MagicS]

11524215
Yes, I was away from my usual computer and didn't have an easy way to upload new chapters.

[RoboRed]

Optimistically, Godfrey is fine with whatever happens as long as he feels he is allowed to escape unharmed and unbothered by himself with a ship and the Necklace. Sadly, the mission for rescuing the lizards and dealing with the Bosche will make it a bit tricky for him to go along with this...

We’ll need them to create a rolling fog bank that covers their ships and let’s them sneak up on the Bosche fleet.

Typo: "lets"