Rainbow Dash Around the World

by MagicS

The Trident of Ponyseidon

When they had walked further down this hall of pillars, statues and paintings started popping up between the pillars. Most of the statues were just merponies proudly standing on pedestals, the paintings showed all sorts of things, from landscapes, to seascapes, to some rather scandalous things that the group averted their eyes from. As they walked further the hallway changed slightly. The floor went down three little steps before leveling out for about thirty feet, then went down three steps again, then leveled out again, and so forth about five times. That explained why they hadn’t actually been able to see the end of the hallway. The statues also changed as they started going down, showing armored merponies holding tridents.

They all considered that a good sign.

With each step they took, Senax’s heart pounded just a little bit harder in her chest. The atmosphere had changed down here. It wasn’t a physical change but it was like she had started to go somewhere she shouldn’t. Her instincts were telling her these halls were not made for her to travel—she might have been a child entering their parents bedroom without permission. A cold sweat had broken out on her face and she felt herself going pale.

Each blink, the golden light she dwelled on gave her a vision of the Trident. She was trembling.

She had to see it with her own eyes, she couldn’t allow this vague feeling of unease to stop her. It didn’t matter if this was somehow Ponyseidon himself trying to tell her to turn back. She wouldn’t.

“Everything alright, Senax?” Gilbert asked her, noticing she had gotten a little “weird”.

“More than alright. Just… just excited, I promise,” Senax answered.

Forget the foreboding. Her friends were here with her and they’d help her through anything.

“Look, there’s the next place to go,” Rainbow said and pointed ahead.

What was now at the end of this hall of pillars and statues was another curving double staircase, but much smaller than the one that led up to the balcony at the great convocation chamber. It led up to a small landing with a pair of golden doors that looked to be made of solid metal on the far wall. Below the landing between the stairs was a large painting that showed off the sunny sky of all things with a flock of thousands of birds all painted into it. At the bottom of each staircase’s banister was another statue of a merpony standing atop it, like guardians that would look over anyone who walked up the steps.

Senax gulped. “I-I think this is it. I think through this doorway is...”

“Then what are we waiting for? Here-” Rainbow said and picked Senax up, the merpony giving a startled yelp, and flew her right up to the landing. “Let me speed things up for you.”

“A little warning first please...”

“Wait for us!” Gilbert said and also flew up while Daylight and Breakwater scrambled up the stairs.

“This is quite the unusual door,” Daylight said when she got to inspect it up close.

“None of the other doors in Merlantis have been metal. I don’t think it’s actually gold but it’s not just iron either,” Breakwater said.

“Is it locked? That’s the only important part right now,” Rainbow Dash said.

“Let’s see,” Senax said and walked up to it.

As soon as she approached it however the golden door slowly began to open up down the middle and slide into the walls. From the split between its two halves, a blinding light and rush of air and heat came, they had to shut their eyes to keep from being blinded. Once the wind had stopped the five of them were able to open their eyes again and look upon what was beyond the golden door. A steady and soft light was still coming from within, slowly shifting from golden, to white, to rainbow. The source of it was at the center of the large circular room. Standing atop a single granite stone poking out of the marble floor.

Senax gasped, sharply sucking in her breath.

Daylight’s eyes widened.

Gilbert was lost for words.

Breakwater gulped.

And Rainbow Dash stared.

With the center prong embedded into the stone, the Trident of Ponyseidon stood at an angle, proudly on display as any awesome treasure of great power should be. The needle-like end of the prong was only just barely scratching the granite—it shouldn’t be possible for it to stand like that—and yet it did, defying all logic and physics. As if challenging anyone to tell it that what it was doing should be impossible. The light was coming from it as well, though the more they looked and the more the room stayed open, the more it faded.

It looked just like the emblem. A perfect green, unmarred by any scratch or fade to its color. The otherworldlyness of it was palpable.

“W-What now?” Gilbert asked.

Breakwater shook his head. “Um… I dunno.”

The overwhelming power and strange aura radiating from the Trident was affecting all of them to a degree. They had been left dumbstruck by it. Even Rainbow Dash, far more used to these kinds of things than the others, had to admit that her hooves were trembling slightly.

“I-I think Senax just… just needs to go and get it,” Daylight said. “It’s hers after all. We’re finally here, she’s finally here. The Trident is right there for you to reclaim, Senax.”

“Just give me a moment,” Senax said, her legs shaking.

Rainbow Dash reached over to put a comforting hoof on her back. “You’ve got this. Take all the time you need.”

“I almost can’t believe it’s right there. It’s really right there,” Senax said. “All the visions… every single one I had about Merlantis, the feeling coming from the Trident that guided me here… it can’t compare. It can’t compare at all to really seeing it.”

“And I imagine it’ll be even more awesome when you’ve pulled it out of that stone and are holding it in your hooves,” Rainbow grinned.

“Yes. Yes it certainly will be!” Senax smiled and with a nod to her friends she took her first step towards the Trident.

Tick-tock, tick-tock, Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow’s ears turned up and she glanced to her right where she just barely caught sight of something vanishing into nothing. She clenched her jaw and frowned at the intrusion.

Daylight saw her and raised an eyebrow. “Rainbow Dash?”

“Uh, nothing. Just thought I saw something,” Rainbow said and shook her head. “Forget it.”

Senax kept walking straight to the Trident, utterly consumed by the thought of removing it from the rock it was embedded in. The tiles of the floor radiated out from the rock where the Trident was, all a simple white while the ceiling above was painted as a stormy sky. Past the Trident, on the far side of the room opposite from where they had come in, was a door leading to another room. Rainbow Dash wanted to guess that it must have been Ponyseidon’s old bedroom beyond there. Not like it mattered to them right now.

Senax stopped right in front of the Trident, looking at it as it stood tall over her. She caught her breath and tried to stop her heart from beating so hard. Looking over her shoulder she saw her friends smiling reassuringly at her.

“Alright,” Senax said and looked back at the Trident. “The last treasure of Ponyseidon—I will now reclaim it for my people and make sure no one can ever misuse it or abuse its power. This moment signals a new day in the history of my people and Merlantis.”

She reached to grab it and pull it from the stone-

The moment she touched it a bolt of electricity surged through the Trident and up her hoof, shocking Senax and blasting her backwards across the room.

“AAAAGHHH!” Senax screamed in pain as she was thrown to the floor and slid back over to her friends with a thin wisp of smoke coming from the hoof that had touched it.

“Senax!” Rainbow yelled and rushed over with the others.

“What happened?!” Breakwater screamed.

“I-It shocked me!” Senax said as she stood up, there was smoke coming from her hoof but she hadn’t actually been burned. She looked otherwise okay—just surprised and frightened from what had happened. “Why? Why would it do that?”

“Maybe there’s some kind of protective spell around it,” Daylight said, frowning at the Trident.

“Maybe it just didn’t like you,” Gilbert shrugged.

The others glared at him.

“I um… I-I meant that in a good way. Honest.”

“What do we do now then?” Breakwater asked.

“I don’t know...” Senax shook her head. “Why is this happening? Is it—could it be because of Ponyseidon? Does he not want me to have the Trident?”

“If it is then you can tell him to shove it,” Rainbow Dash said. “There has to be something up with it, we’ll figure it out.”

“Got an idea?” Daylight asked her.

Rainbow Dash bit her lip as she stared at the Trident. “Uhh… one of us can go up and try to remove it from the rock instead?” She blinked and looked over at her friends, who were all expectantly staring at her. Rainbow rolled her eyes. “Yeah, yeah, big surprise, just give me a second...”

The pegasus flapped her wings and gently flew over to the Trident and the rock it was still stuck in. She didn’t exactly want to do this but if anybody had to test it she figured that she should make sure none of her friends got hurt. Rainbow Dash dropped down in front of it and looked back at Senax—who gave her a simple nod. It was all the permission Rainbow Dash needed.

She took a deep breath and tentatively reached a hoof towards the Trident. Keeping it just an inch from touching at first to see if anything would happen—but no sparks or bolts of electricity came for her yet.

With a shrug, she reached forward and touched the green body of the Trident.

It was cool to the touch and didn’t feel like any metal that Rainbow Dash had ever felt before.

But more importantly she didn’t get electrocuted.

Rainbow Dash continued and grasped her hoof around the cylindrical shaft of the spear. Still no retribution. And with a frown and a sturdy yank she pulled it up and free from the granite stone it had been stuck in.

She heard the others behind her gasp in surprise and confusion at the lack of a response. And her own eyes widened in wonder as she now held the Trident of Ponyseidon—a treasure of great power that had been used for many, many, things—in her hooves. An odd feeling of familiarity rushed over her as she twirled the Trident around and held its prongs to the ceiling. She had held spears before, but they were just normal weapons, the Trident right now felt like it belonged in her hooves, like it was an extension of her very body. There was something mystical about it, there was no question.

It didn’t feel… wrong. Or evil. Or anything like that. It was just something powerful. Powerful and ancient.

Rainbow Dash turned around and plunked the pommel of the Trident onto the marble tile, the three prongs high above her head thanks to the Trident’s length. “I uh, I got the Trident.” She shrugged.

The others immediately swarmed to her, skidding to a halt just before her.

“H-How did you do that? It really didn’t shock you or anything?” Daylight asked.

“I just pulled it out. Were you hoping it would shock me?”

“No! But I don’t understand this at all!” Daylight groaned.

“So there really wasn’t anything to it being stuck there like that? I’m just as confused as Daylight is,” Gilbert said as he tugged on his mustache.

“Is there like… anything special about it? Do you feel like you can control the waters of the ocean now?” Breakwater asked.

“Uhh...” Rainbow Dash looked up at the tips of the Trident’s spears. “Not really? It’s definitely special, I can tell, but if there’s a way to using its powers or whatever I’m totally lost. It’s more like I just know this thing’s a big deal by holding it.” She then looked at Senax, who so far was just staring at her and the Trident. “So, Senax, do you want to try touching it again? You feeling alright?”

“I don’t exactly know how to feel right now to be honest,” the merpony said.

“Yeahhh… I don’t, uh, I don’t blame you for that.”

Daylight frowned. “Maybe just try to tap it a little bit at first...”

“Why don’t I try to see if I can touch it first?” Gilbert said and immediately patted the Trident with his talon before anyone could tell him to stop. Nothing happened though. He patted it a few more times before grabbing it too and then letting go. No electricity. “Seems safe.”

“Maybe it is only when Senax tries to touch it...” Breakwater said.

“But why though?” Daylight patted the Trident a few times too, and just like Rainbow Dash and Gilbert nothing happened to her.

“I’m going to try again,” Senax said and stepped forward. “Rainbow Dash, can you hold it out to me?”

“Sure thing,” Rainbow nodded and turned the Trident over, holding it out in her hooves as if she was presenting it to Senax.

Senax hesitated for a moment, but slowly reached a hoof towards the green Trident. She stopped less than an inch from touching it—a bead of sweat rolling down the side of her face. Looking for reassurance and support in the faces of her friends she swallowed her reservations and went to grab it once more.

Right before her scaly hoof reached it a sharp spark of electricity shot off the Trident and shocked Senax.

“Ow!” Senax yelped and jumped back, rubbing her hoof. It smoked a little bit again but she wasn’t really injured.

Breakwater and Gilbert still went to see if she was okay while Daylight just frowned and Rainbow Dash stood the Trident up.

“Why can’t she touch it?” Daylight clicked her tongue.

“Darn it!” Senax growled, anger seeping into her voice after the second failed attempt. “I don’t understand! I don’t understand any of this! The Necklace led me here, all of you can touch it just fine, so why me? It… it has to be because it doesn’t see me as worthy. There must be something wrong with me...”

“No, Senax, don’t think that way. It doesn’t make any sense why it would let the rest of us touch it then,” Daylight said.

“Yeah, seriously,” Rainbow Dash nodded. “There has to be something else going on. I don’t care if we have to find some magic expert on the Grand Ocean—or if I have to fly all the way to my friend Twilight to undo whatever magic is keeping you from touching it—but we’ll make this right.”

“Thanks...” Senax said, though she was noticeably still despondent.

“We’ve still found Merlantis,” Breakwater said to cheer her up.

“That’s right! And like this we’re still making sure the Trident doesn’t fall into the wrong hooves,” Gilbert added.

“Mm… I know,” Senax nodded. “Finding Merlantis was always the real goal. That’s what I wanted, to find our home so my people could return here.” She started walking back out of the room with the others following her, Rainbow Dash floating along low to the floor with the Trident grasped in her hooves. Together they walked past the doorway where the golden doors had receded. “Now I can do that. I will do that. But it just… hurts. I feel inferior, unworthy, now. I don’t even want to use the Trident for anything but it’s still a treasure of my people. For it to reject me like this… I don’t understand. If it’s been waiting down here at the bottom of the ocean for so many years, why would it do this?”

“It’s because it no longer belongs to you.”

The five of them were startled by the sudden voice and they ran to the balcony to look down at where it had come from.

Walking down from the direction of the grand convocation chamber was a familiar pony and several others walking with her.

Senax’s jaw dropped. “Coral Sea? But how… and—what are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about-” the High Priestess of the Sarraroccon Order said as she pointed at the Trident Rainbow Dash held. “The fact that that Trident will never be used by merpony hooves again.”

Rainbow Dash narrowed her eyes but was quiet for the moment.

Daylight frowned. “What do you mean?”

Coral Sea rolled her eyes with a huff of annoyance. “My ancestors made sure that no merpony could touch the Trident. They placed a curse upon it long ago. Near the end of the old days. Its power can never be wielded by a descendant of Ponyseidon again. It was also supposed to keep any merpony from removing it from here even if you did find Merlantis again. But we didn’t count on you having friends with you. We didn’t count on you being down here at all for that matter.”

“Because you were expecting Godfrey and Bosche to kill us, weren’t you?” Rainbow Dash said before anyone else could speak. “It was you who wrote that letter to him and had them both come to the Lost Isle, admit it!”

“Gladly,” Coral Sea shrugged. “The fact that you’re here means things didn’t go perfectly but I’d still consider this a fairly excellent outcome. As soon as the merpony received the Necklace, we were getting ready to come down here and get the Trident. I’m amazed that somehow you overcame everything to actually make it down to Merlantis faster than us.” She tapped her chin and looked at Senax. “Where is the Necklace anyways? Not that it’s of any use to us, but I’m rather curious.”

Rainbow’s grip angrily tightened on the Trident but it was Senax who spoke up next.

“You… you sent Godfrey and Bosche to the island?” She slowly said, blinking in disbelief, sorrow, and betrayal. “Why? Why would you do such a horrible thing?”

Coral Sea’s mouth twitched upwards into a smile, her whole body shook, and finally she let out a braying laugh. “Ahahahahaha! Why? Why? Why do you think! It was to give those disgusting lizards a taste of what my ancestors and the rest of the ocean had to go through under Ponyseidon while they were his loyal, ignorant, pets. Now I’m going to get the Trident—the Trident that belongs to the Sarraroccon Order—and use it to make sure none can stand against us ever again! We’ll use its power to make the Sarraroccon Order greater than your merpony empire and Ponyseidon ever were!”

“But… but you said you wanted us to be friends. You wanted us to fix our relationship. You wanted to heal the wounds of the past...” Senax said as tears started to drip from her eyes.

Coral Sea’s face instantly fell, a dark glare replacing the mocking smile. “Friends? Never. I’m going to get revenge for all of my ancestors that died by that Trident. I’ll use it to wipe you merponies from the face of this world. You won’t simply be scattered from the Grand Ocean this time. Every last one of you will die.”

“It doesn’t have to be like this!” Senax shouted. “What our ancestors did, we can move past and forget it all, we don’t need to-”

“I will never throw away what has been done! The thoughts and feelings of my ancestors, their desires, their pains! You and all descendants of Ponyseidon will suffer!” Coral Sea yelled. “Everything I’ve done since learning you were here on this ocean has been for this moment—all the deceit, all the false smiles, do you have any idea how humiliating it was to act like I wanted to become friends with you?! And you didn’t even know the truth about Ponyseidon until I told you! Easy for you to say to let the past go!”

Senax cried, lowering her head as sobs wracked her body. “I’m, I-”

“Forget it, Senax,” Rainbow Dash said as she laid one hoof on her back. “She’s not going to listen. She’s not going to forgive you. And you don’t need her forgiveness. Remember that.” Rainbow stepped forward with the Trident and glared at Coral Sea. “And you, you liar, I never trusted you in the first place.”

Coral Sea smirked, a brief chuckle coming from her. “But you needed me. Because you had nothing else. In fact you’d still be floundering around helplessly up there if not for me. I believe a “Thank you” is in order.”

Breakwater growled. “You can take that thank you and shove it up your-”

“Calm down, Breakwater,” Gilbert held him back. “Let’s not get crazy here.”

“Yes, no one here needs to do anything crazy,” Coral Sea said. “After all, not all of you need to die down here.”

“We’re not letting you kill any of us!” Daylight shouted.

“Quite right,” Gilbert nodded along with her.

Coral Sea chuckled some more. “We might be at a bit of an impasse then. Hm… very well then. How about I promise you safe passage out of here, so long as the pegasus hoofs over the Trident right now.” She reached up and pointed a hoof towards Rainbow Dash.

The others looked at her, Senax trying to rub the tears from her eyes.

Rainbow Dash took a deep breath and sighed before flapping her wings and gently floating down to the floor to be on the same level as Coral Sea and her warriors. She twirled the Trident around a couple of times before slamming the pommel into the floor, cracking the stone tile. “That isn’t happening. The only way you’re getting this Trident or killing Senax is if you go through me first.”

---

“So uh… any of you guys got any games you like to play? Any popular way to pass the time back at the Archipelago?” Ballast asked the Sarraroccon warriors watching over him and The Breakwater.

They didn’t answer.

“Boy, you guys really are as stoic as you’re reputed to be...”

The pool room had been just as quiet and boring since the High Priestess had taken her chosen warriors and left him behind. He was ashamed of how he had folded and told her about his friends—but she was scary. He hoped they would forgive him…

More than anything though he was thinking about how this was simply more proof that he really wasn’t cut out for adventuring.

That giant eel lounging its head on the side of the pool was also kind of scary too.

The moment he looked over at it though, the eel twitched and closed its mouth, head jolting up as it started looking around. Ballast didn’t know what it was doing, and from the surprised reactions of the warriors they didn’t either. The ponies watched as the eel suddenly dunked back below the water with a splash and disappeared—likely swimming back out into the ocean. As the warriors of the Order stared on at the rippling water, bubbles started to come up from the pool on the opposite side of where The Breakwater was floating.

A metal gray vessel of similar design to The Breakwater broke the surface and bobbed up and down in the pool. The warriors formed a line and stood at the pool’s edge, waiting to confront whoever was inside that thing.

Ballast though was just staring at it dumbly. Wondering how the hay something like that even existed.

A hatch on top of it was opened up and the thick and feathery arm of a griffon slammed its talon down on the metal surface of the vessel—before pulling out a very well-known pirate. The warriors stiffened and Ballast’s eyes went wide as Godfrey Goldenwing climbed out from inside the new ship and stood atop it. He cracked his neck, then his knuckles, took a look around the room with a smile stretching up his beak, and finally looked down at the ponies before him.

“Well—not like I expected to be the first one here, but some of you are unfamiliar faces. Interesting.”

Just as suddenly, a pony started clambering up through the hatch as well. He struggled a bit but finally pulled himself out.

Ballast blinked in surprise as he recognized Old Diver. The crazy old curmudgeon giddily looking around like a colt in a candy store.

“I knew it! I knew it was all real! Grandfather was right! I always knew it was here! I’ve found Merlantis and now my name will go down in history!” Old Diver yelled before jumping right off the ship and into the water, swimming over to the stairs leading up from the pool and walking up them. He knelt down to the cement floor and started kissing it in pure joy.

Another pony then came out and stood up there with Godfrey. “Wow, I’m just surprised this place is real at all.”

Ballast’s surprise quickly turned to anger. “Dredge?!”

Dredge looked over at him, surprisingly enough he didn’t seem angry. Just tired. “Oh, yeah I guess you’d be here.” He looked over at The Breakwater and awkwardly rubbed his head. “You know honestly I’d be furious right now about all this if it wasn’t for the fact I’m just happy I haven’t been stabbed yet.”

“Speaking of stabbing. That brings us to the next part of our mission,” Godfrey said and flew off the vessel to land on the floor. He stood before the warriors and pulled out his cutlass, leveling it at them. “I don’t know who you are and I couldn’t care less who you are. What I do want to know is who here wants to die first?”

Comments

[Mini-Joe]

Incredible, I wonder is rainbow will figure out how to use the Trident to defeat all these bozos. And heartless hopefully, but I have a feeling heartless will meet her end in Equestria.

[redmar]

Coral Sea must be pretty insane too hold a grudge about what happened so long ago. I doubt she will be able to leave Merlantis alive since I'm sure Godfrey would gladly kill her and I doubt Rainbow would be willing to do anything to stop him. When Heartless and Harlequin Grey get invovled as well everything will end up one giant mess.

[RoboRed]

Damnit, My first instinct was right. They really were ancient enemies bearing a grudge against Merlantis. And I actually thought Coral Sea was genuine about wanting to put the past behind, but they were baddies the entire time.

I figured it was some kind of curse on the trident directed towards merponies but I was thinking something more along the lines of something Ponyseidon did to keep lessers from wielding the Trident. Guess upon further thought that doesn't make a lot of sense...

And right on time it's Godfrey to change the playing field.