Rainbow Dash Around the World

by MagicS

Get Moving

Ballast ran faster and harder than he ever had in his entire life. Here he was, on his own again, leaving his friends in what was certainly a lot of danger. But hopefully what he was doing now was still going to be a huge help. He had no idea what that pink pony was, but she terrified him even more than Godfrey. The sword held to his throat didn’t scare him as much as what she had done. Running back all the way through Merlantis to The Breakwater wasn’t going to be fun but it was important. Forget everything else, hopefully they’d all get back to the entrance safely with Rainbow Dash and then they could leave together.

That was enough to spur him on. Even though he wasn’t a very athletic pony. He knew at some point he was going to have to stop and rest, already his lungs were burning and his legs straining, but he wanted to go as far as he could before his body gave out on him. Both his mission and his fear of the pink pony were behind that.

Why’s this place have to be so darn big? Ballast wondered as he charged through hallways, down stairs, and tried to not get lost.

So many white hallways, everything looked the same, Godfrey might as well have blindfolded him on the way here. He liked to think he had a sharp mind though and knew the proper way to get back. It would be pretty embarrassing to die down here because he turned the wrong corner and got lost. All the work he had to do, all the planning and calculations that went into making The Breakwater, there was no way he was dumb enough to turn the wrong corner.

The next corner he turned though he ended up coming to a skidding halt anyways. There he found the others who had already left before him—resting and catching their breath in an alcove of the hallway. The Bosche soldiers had ditched the rest of their spears somewhere else while they had been running. It was funny that despite how stalwart they had been, how scary they had looked with their scarred faces, how much they wanted revenge on Rainbow Dash, they had seemingly all had the rather smart epiphany that it really wasn’t worth it after seeing Heartless. The two butlers were equally scared and finished with all of this (though there might have been a slight amount of relief they were feeling as well) and wanted to get out of here so they didn’t face the same fate as their former master.

Dredge looked a little different. He just seemed done. Just flat out tired of everything he had been through in the last day. Or to Ballast’s lack of knowledge, what he had been through ever since Godfrey had rounded him up for the trip to Merlantis. He didn’t have an expression of fear on his face—more like resignation or apathy.

The usual immediate anger Ballast felt whenever he saw his old apprentice had to wait a few seconds as Ballast caught his breath. As soon as he did though he yelled: “Dredge!”

The ponies all turned to face Ballast, and the one shipwright among them blinked.

“Huh—oh. Hey, Ballast,” Dredge said, sounding just as tired as he looked.

“Don’t just “Hey” me! This is all your fault you lying thief!” Ballast accused, stepping forward and roughly poking Dredge in the chest.

Dredge surprisingly just took it, only raising an eyebrow as Ballast poked him. “You know I really don’t have the energy to fight right now or argue over who stole who’s idea. I’m really happy to just be alive and I’d like to hurry up and leave this place behind and never ever come back to it. So can you quit it with that and let me get back to my own ship? I figure there’s way bigger things to worry about right now.”

Ballast frowned but he had to admit that Dredge had a point. Scratch that, he had to admit that Dredge was right. This wasn’t the time or place for their petty feud.

“Okay fine, we might as well go back there together. And in fact—if you just want to leave immediately then go right ahead, my ship can still take all my friends.”

“Hm…” Dredge scratched his head. “I would like to do that, but I’m also kind of afraid that if I did, Godfrey would somehow track me down and kill me. We’ll see. I just… for now I’ll be happy to just safely sit there in my ship where that… where whatever that pony was can’t get to me.” He glanced at the butlers and soldiers. “You all okay with that?”

“Very much so,” one of the butlers responded between breaths. The other nodded vigorously.

One of the Bosche soldiers scowled at the others. “I told you we should’ve just gone and become farmers somewhere.”

Dredge shrugged at Ballast. “Guess that’s that. Let’s please get out of here already.”

“Sure, I think I’ve caught my breath enough anyways. My hooves are going to be killing me by the time we get back to our ships though…” Ballast said.

“You and me both,” Dredge nodded.

The eight of them didn’t waste anymore time and quickly started running again, making their way through the halls of Merlantis. They wanted to get out of the large central dome since once they did it was practically a straight walk back to the ships. Straight run. Much like Ballast they were all not pacing themselves at all. Primal terror forced them to run as fast as they could even though the soldiers at the very least had to know there was a better way. It didn’t matter. Running like this got them as far from that pink mare as fast as possible. That was more important in all their minds right now. A scared pony didn’t act logically.

Either way, despite the occasional stops they had to make to catch their breaths, heaving while their lungs and legs ached and burned, they were making good progress. Things were going much faster than they had been when they were looking for Rainbow Dash’s group. It would’ve been even worse if Godfrey didn’t have that Necklace that gave him a direct path to the Trident. Now that was in the past and Ballast had to also agree with Dredge that he was really happy to not have gotten stabbed or anything by the griffon pirate.

No longer were they gawking at the art or architecture. No longer were they curious about absolutely anything. No longer were they moving to the orders of a vicious monster.

They were too busy running from a different sort of monster.

Getting to the gigantic tunnel leading out of the central dome brought a sigh of relief to them all. The biggest problem was dealt with. They allowed themselves to stop again for a brief moment. Only a few more buildings, only a few more hallways, and they were “safe”. As safe as they could call it.

“Honestly I think I might just retire when we get back to Malkonrik. Move to the interior or Alth-Verika or something,” Dredge said.

“I don’t know about that, but you won’t be seeing me on an adventure ever again,” Ballast said.

“Yeah. Let the ones who want to have fun use the submersibles,” Dredge agreed.

Ballast was getting a little annoyed at how casually they were able to converse down here after years of hatred between them. But there was nothing like a world-changing adventure and horrible monster chasing you to put things into perspective. He took a deep breath and got ready to run some more. Though retiring wasn’t something that interested him, he might take a vacation for a few weeks. And take up jogging afterwards.

Comments

[redmar]

This really isn't the time and place for arguments like Drede said.