Rainbow Dash Around the World

by MagicS

Surface

The last bit of bandages from The Breakwater’s first-aid kit was being wrapped around Rainbow Dash’s front left hoof. She had so many small cuts and bruises there almost hadn’t been enough to cover everything. Luckily Senax had made it work. The merpony looked over her work and smiled at the nearly mummified Rainbow Dash.

“Feeling better now?” Senax asked her.

“Everything hurts really bad. But yeah,” Rainbow Dash answered.

“And you’re not bleeding all over the place anymore, so I’m feeling better too,” Daylight said.

The Breakwater slowly drifted up and up from the depths of the ocean with Ballast at the controls, peering out the viewport at the dark water. They had only barely managed to make it out of Merlantis before the vessel had gotten too damaged. Rainbow had woken back up only a minute ago while Senax was in the middle of fixing her up. Now things were calm and cold inside the vessel. A lot had happened… a lot needed to be talked about for the first time.

Rainbow Dash leaned up against the bulkhead of the vessel, she felt every last wound she had received in her fight with Godfrey. Now that she was “resting” and had come to a stop it was unavoidable. She’d been in worse condition before though.

“So...” Rainbow Dash breathed out and looked at the others. “Heartless is taken care of?”

Daylight and Breakwater shared an uncertain look and the unicorn shrugged.

“For a given meaning of the word. We tossed her into one of the trash chutes—who knows where she is now.”

Rainbow nodded. “Good enough. You guys won’t have to worry about her anymore at least.”

“What was she?” Breakwater asked.

“Just… just another problem. I think it’s for the best if you guys try and forget about her.”

“Rainbow Dash?” Gilbert looked at her with a downcast expression. “My… my brother then?”

Rainbow took a few deep breaths. And nodded.

“I see...” Gilbert’s eyes turned down to the floor. “I… I see...”

It was all he could say at the moment.

Daylight exhaled and fidgeted in place, if there was enough room to pace around in here she probably would. “Everything that happened… and Merlantis now...” She looked over at Senax. “Are you alright, Senax?”

Rainbow had to admit she was curious about that too.

Senax replied with a soft smile on her face. “I’m shocked at what’s happened, it’s true. But in the end… we’re alive. My people are still alive back at East Glade too. And no matter what happened, we still found it. I’ll be able to lead my people back there one day—and we’ll fix it. We’ll rebuild what we have to, no matter how long it takes, or how much water we have to somehow pump out. Nothing changes the fact that our home is still there. It’s just a little wet right now.” She winked at Rainbow Dash.

“I really wish we could’ve avoided that...” Rainbow sheepishly rubbed the back of her head.

“But so… what about the Trident?” Breakwater asked.

Rainbow Dash shook her head. “Gone. It must be drifting down there in the water somewhere. Maybe somewhere still in Merlantis, I don’t know.”

“Well Senax will always be able to find it again,” Daylight said, pointing at the Necklace Senax still wore.

“You’re right,” Senax nodded and reached up to take hold of the Necklace—and ripped it in half, letting the chain fall to the floor and then stomping on the crystals with her hooves until they were pulverized. She smiled. “Much better.”

Daylight and the others gawked at her.

“W-W-W-Wha-what did you just do?!” Daylight screeched.

“Ponyseidon left a lot of things behind. Not all of them were good. The Trident doesn’t need to be found again—and I’m not sure I want it to be. Treasures, trinkets, we don’t need those things from him anymore. I want us to cast aside the terrible legacy he left us with. To do that, these treasures he used for such ill purposes must go, even the Horn of Listening. And one day Merlantis will be a city of peace where others can come and visit as well, and merponies will be friends with everyone else in the Grand Ocean.”

“Priceless magical artifact… one of a kind ancient heirloom...” Daylight sounded like she was about to faint.

“Oh get over it,” Rainbow grinned and playfully punched her in the shoulder. Her grin then turned into a morose frown as she looked down. “The… the Sarraroccons though… Coral Sea and the others...”

Senax sadly looked down as well. “All the ones that came down here perished...”

“I didn’t… I didn’t want that to happen!” Rainbow Dash slammed a hoof down, despite the pain it caused her.

“Me neither, Rainbow Dash,” Senax shook her head, tears coming to her eyes. “I just wanted us to be friends. After what she told us, after learning the truth about Ponyseidon, I wanted us to heal. I wanted things to get better.”

Rainbow Dash sighed, thinking back to her final moments with the High Priestess. “Senax… Coral Sea never really understood what you came here for. Or what you saw in Merlantis. She wasn’t able to let go of her hatred. Even if she was here right now I don’t think she’d believe or care about what you were saying. But yeah… I wish I could’ve tried convincing her too. I wish things didn’t end that way.”

“We’ve all got much to think about it seems,” Gilbert said.

“Things definitely didn’t go perfectly,” Breakwater nodded.

“No, no they didn’t,” Senax agreed. “But—it’s a new day, and we’re all alive. And… it’s over. We found Merlantis, we found the Trident and we know no one else can misuse it now, Godfrey is gone too. Our journey here on the Grand Ocean is finally over. After so long… it feels so strange thinking about it, but we can finally rest.”

Breakwater smiled. “And even better, Bosche is gone so the rest of the ocean is going to be a much better place.”

“And without Coral Sea the Sarraroccons likely can’t cause any problems anytime soon for your people either,” Daylight said to Senax.

Senax nodded. “Yes. It’s not perfect, not nearly, and there’s a lot I’m still going to have to do, but I think we’ve got a pretty bright future ahead of us.”

“Speaking of bright—it’s daytime. Once we get back to the surface we should have a bright and sunny day to enjoy,” Ballast said.

“Now that, is perfect,” Rainbow smiled.

Breakwater chuckled a bit. “It’s strange to think we’re finally done. It really is. Spent so much time looking for Merlantis and now we’re already heading back up.”

“We did what needed to be done,” Senax said. “I won’t say I don’t have any regrets but right now at least I’m happy.”

Rainbow Dash’s stomach growled.

Everyone turned to look at her as the pegasus grew slightly red in the face.

“Well come on… I doubt I’m the only one here who’s hungry?”

“She has a point,” Gilbert grinned.

“There’s still food stocked up in here,” Ballast said. “You might as well have something to eat since it’s going to be a few hours before we get back to the surface anyways. Shouldn’t be anything else we have to do along the way.”

“Could be playing cards right now if we brought a deck,” Rainbow said.

“Oh deal with it,” Daylight snorted.

Gilbert raised an eyebrow at her. “Deal with it? Was that another pun?”

“No!” Daylight shouted in denial. “I don’t make puns!”

Ballast rolled his eyes as he listened to them. “Already back to normal, huh?”

Senax’s ears perked up as she heard that. The smile on her face widened and she started to giggle, then giggled louder, before finally erupting into full on laughter as she held her stomach. The others looked at her in confusion, wondering what was up that she found so funny. Senax didn’t care, even if they thought she was crazy, she couldn’t stop laughing even as she started crying.

“Uh, Senax? What’s going on?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“It’s—It’s-” Senax tried to speak between bouts of laughter. “It’s normal! Nothing—nothing’s changed! Everything we’ve went through, every crazy thing that happened, but we’re still the same! We’re still friends, we can still laugh and joke just like always!” She finally managed to stop laughing, her body still being wracked by little giggles. “Everything really is alright… everything’s going to be alright...”

Breakwater put a friendly hoof on her shoulder. “You bet it is.”

Rainbow Dash grinned and nodded. “Definitely!”

“No question about it!” Gilbert gave a thumb’s up.

Daylight sighed. “And I suppose it wouldn’t be right to be the cynical one.” She smiled. “Yeah, I think things are going to be okay too.”

The five of them grouped up to hug each other—just on pure instinct.

“As soon as we get to the surface, I’m taking a big breath of fresh air!” Rainbow Dash announced.

“And I’ll be right behind you,” Senax smiled.

---

Much later, after they had eaten, after Rainbow Dash had complained some more about being bored, The Breakwater rose from the depths and made it to shallower water. A hundred feet from breaking the surface, the sunlight from above illuminated the ocean around them. Schools of fish happily swam by, a single big jellyfish floated in front of the viewport, and a group of sea turtles stopped to see just what they were before swimming away.

The view became bubbly and white the closer The Breakwater got to the surface before it finally broke from the water and jumped on out, bobbing in place for a second before coming to a calm float. Water cascaded down the viewport as Ballast let go of the wheel, checking the instruments to see if everything was okay, and then turned with a smile to the others.

Rainbow Dash pumped a hoof in joy—and winced from the pain—before grinning anyways and flying up to the hatch.

She popped it open and flew on out, hovering above the submersible and basking in the warm sunlight. She shut her eyes and let the breeze go through her mane, her wings, her tail, and took a deep breath.

“Ahhhh… that’s the stuff.”

Senax came right out after her—and jumped into the ocean. She splashed and swam around the ship, laughing and enjoying herself.

One by one the others came, even Ballast, and stood on top of The Breakwater. Everyone together to savor being back on the surface.

Rainbow Dash plopped down next to them while Senax continued to swim without a care in the world. She looked up at the blue sky, the white clouds, and the sun higher than them all. A few seagulls went by and Rainbow pictured herself up there with them. It’d be great. As soon as she had all these bandages off at least.

“So what now? Do we go back to Palm Floats immediately or-” Breakwater said.

“Let’s take a little break,” Senax said as she swam up to the ship. “Let’s just—let’s just enjoy ourselves here for a moment. If no one else has a problem with that?”

“Not really,” Breakwater shrugged.

Ballast grinned and took a seat. “It’s always been your trip. I could use a stretch anyways after all the time spent crammed in there.”

“I just have one thing to say first then,” Gilbert said.

“What?” Senax asked.

The griffon smirked. “Hehe—CANNONBALL!”

He jumped off the side of The Breakwater and into the cool ocean water, creating a large splash and dousing Daylight from horn to hoof.

“Aghh! Gilbert!” She shouted at him.

“Oh relax,” Rainbow said and pushed her overboard.

“W-W-Wagh!” Daylight teetered for a second on the edge before falling in. Rainbow Dash and everyone else laughing heartily at her predicament. Her head came back out of the water in just a second with an angry glare on her face. “You are very lucky you’re injured right now or I’d drag you in here too.” She frowned at Breakwater. “So I’ll settle for someone else who finds this amusing.”

“Wait, wha-” Breakwater said before Daylight telekinetically grabbed him and yanked him into the water too. He sputtered and paddled in the water, fighting his way back to the side of the ship named for him. “Ugh! I didn’t deserve that!”

Rainbow Dash giggled, and much like Senax earlier found herself laughing harder and harder. It was more than worth the pain that came from it.

Comments

[redmar]

It's almost time for Rainbow to start on the next part of her journey.

[THERDSTORYWHISPERER]

Great chapters!

[RoboRed]

I wouldn't exactly say the Trident is gone yet, but it's definitely going to be a lot harder to find right now. Hope Senax still has that leftover magic so she can relocate and return to Merlantis later with the rest of the merponies.

For right now, though, everything is just fine.