Rainbow Dash Around the World

by MagicS

The Future

The Breakwater cruised beneath the waves once more as it made its way to Palm Floats, the short break was over with and now everyone was back to being cramped and packed inside the submersible. They would’ve liked to have been up on the surface but the ship wasn’t built to move in that position. Good news was they could still see clearly out the viewport and had a nice view of the ocean and all the fish swimming in it. The trip was going to be less boring than the one on the way to Merlantis.

“So more seriously-” Daylight said while they traveled. “What are we going to be doing when we get back to Palm Floats?”

The small smile Rainbow Dash had on her face turned into a sad frown.

“What do you mean?” Gilbert asked.

Daylight shrugged. “Well… we’re done, aren’t we? The adventure’s over, there’s nothing for us to do out here, no reason for us to keep traveling together. And I’m pretty sure we all have different things we wanted to do once we found Merlantis. Senax needs to go back to East Glade to contact and gather her people, Gilbert and Rainbow Dash are both going back to traveling again, Breakwater and Ballast have to go back to Malkonrik at least, and I don’t even know what I’m going to do.”

“Huh. When you put it like that...” Breakwater mumbled.

“This is kind of it. Isn’t it?” Senax whispered.

Rainbow Dash sighed and rubbed the back of her neck. “I’ve kind of been putting off bringing it up, but yeah. Now that things are done here I’ve gotta get back out there on my own journey. Gotta get back to flying all the way around the world, you know? I didn’t really want to have to say goodbye but… yeah.”

“Well it’s not going to be immediate or anything,” Daylight awkwardly looked around, a little uncomfortable with the emotional atmosphere that was starting to build up. “You’re going to want to wait a couple days for your wounds to heal. We can all stick together on Palm Floats and relax for a little until you’re okay to travel again.”

Rainbow grinned. “Yeah. Yeah that sounds pretty good.”

“But hold on, if we’re all going our own way from here, how are the rest of you going to travel anyways?” Ballast asked. “Breakwater has to use the Heart of Azure to tow The Breakwater back to Malkonrik. What are you guys going to do?”

“We’ll have to get transport of our own I suppose,” Daylight said.

“How?” Ballast asked.

“What do you mean how?” Rainbow raised an eyebrow at him. “We have a treasure chest more than halfway full of coins still. That oughta be more than enough for us all to pay for travel elsewhere, right?”

“Call it a parting gift from Coral Sea,” Senax smiled.

“Huh, kind of forgot about that,” Breakwater said. “But yeah—there’s definitely enough Malkonrik coin left in there for all of you to travel anywhere you want on the Grand Ocean.”

Gilbert coughed to get their attention. “Ehem. Actually, I believe I’ll be going back north with you and Ballast, so you won’t need to do anything for me.”

“You’re coming back to Malkonrik with us? What for?” Breakwater asked.

“Well...” he looked over at Rainbow Dash. “I kind of want to see more of the world. I admit I’ve gotten curious from all of Rainbow Dash’s stories, I was always planning on doing this but… I want to see what she saw.” He shrugged. “I plan on going north on the path she made, only backwards, visiting the places she’s been, going to the True North, and coming back out where we met long ago past the Yaket Range. I’ve always been an adventurer—though not a very good one—and I don’t want things to stop yet.”

“That’s a daunting task, Gilbert...” Daylight said.

“And dangerous if Rainbow’s stories are true,” Senax said.

“They are,” Rainbow nodded. “I… don’t want to rain on your parade, but if you do that you better be prepared. I’ll tell you everything you need to know.” She grinned. “But you know what? I believe in you.”

“So that means I’m going to have to keep sailing with Gilbert for a while longer? Great,” Breakwater rolled his eyes, but there was amusement in them.

“I will do my best to not be annoying on our return trip,” Gilbert smirked and bowed for him.

“Sure,” Breakwater snorted.

“I’ll use some of the leftover money to get passage back west. It shouldn’t be hard to do the reverse of what we did to get to the Grand Ocean in the first place,” Senax said. “It would be easier if I could just get directly to East Glade but the cliffs and the monsters that live in those mountains makes that impossible. I think I’ll have to travel all the way to Griffonstone first and head overland.” She smiled sadly at the floor. “It’ll be… lonely without the rest of you.”

Rainbow Dash reached over her shoulders and pulled her in close. “Just look forward to the day we see each other again.”

“That’s going to happen?” Senax looked up at her hopefully.

“Sure is!” Rainbow nodded. “I don’t care how long it takes—you bet I’m going to come by to say hi again!”

“Considering how loud you are I bet we’ll all hear you coming well before you get here,” Breakwater said.

“Pff, whatever! As if you all aren’t looking forward to it,” Rainbow grinned.

“Before that can even happen though—how are you going to make your way south from here? I mean the whole reason you even stumbled across us back in Malkonrik was because you couldn’t fly yourself the whole way across the ocean. We’re only in the middle of the Grand Ocean right now, how are you going to make it all the way to the south pole from here? And how are you going to survive flying across the south pole to the other side of the world? It’s nothing but ice and snow,” Daylight asked her.

“Uhh…” Rainbow Dash looked up and tapped her chin. “You know, those are some pretty good questions.”

“Ugh!” Daylight groaned and dragged her hoof down her face.

“Since we’re going to have a few extra days I’ll make you an itinerary,” Breakwater said to Rainbow Dash. “You’ll need to get to the island of South Light, it’s the southernmost inhabited island on the Grand Ocean. A day or two flying away from it and I bet you’ll start to see icebergs. We can use some of the money to find a vessel at Palm Floats willing to take you there or at least part of the way. I’ll personally handle it.”

“Thanks,” Rainbow Dash grinned to him.

“That still doesn’t solve everything though. You’re not going to find any food at the south pole,” Daylight said. “And it’s going to be freezing—even though you traveled through the True North do you want to fly through something like that again without winter clothes?”

Rainbow Dash shuddered. “No—and I’m probably not used to the cold anymore.”

“I doubt you’ll be able to find appropriate stuff at Palm Floats but as you get further south there should be places selling warmer clothing. And definitely places selling food that’ll last a long time that you can take with you. Maybe we can just buy a bag for you at Palm Floats to keep your money in and you can stock up on the rest of what you need after heading off?” Breakwater said.

Rainbow shrugged. “Sounds good to me. Huh, I usually don’t plan my trips out at all, usually just fly and let stuff happen. Kind of weird to actually put thought into it.”

“Kind of weird to actually be smart you mean?” Daylight raised an eyebrow at her.

“Yeah,” Rainbow nodded. She then turned her own questioning gaze to Daylight. “Well what about you? What’s your plan for after Palm Floats?”

Daylight thought for a second and then shrugged. “Guess I don’t have anything that’s really set in stone. One day I’m going to go back to Griffonstone too, and I’d like to come back here and visit Senax and her people once Merlantis is inhabited again, but that might not be for a long while. I think for now… I’m not quite done with exploring the world either. But I’ll take the long way around instead, actually I’ve had the idea to go east. Keep going east until it becomes the west again.”

“East, huh?” Rainbow asked her.

Daylight blushed a little bit. “Just an idea that’s been floating around in my head lately.”

“So we’re really all going to be going somewhere completely different,” Senax murmured.

“Palm Floats might be the last time we’re all actually together...” Gilbert said.

The inside of The Breakwater was quiet for a bit after that. It was definitely a somber thought after they had been together for so long. After everything they had been through. Rainbow realized it was even worse for the others who had known and been traveling with each other since well before she got here. Especially Daylight and Senax. The two of them in particular had known each other for months before they even left East Glade.

Now in just a few days they would part.

Rainbow Dash blinked as she realized this was by far the longest she had ever spent in “one” place with one group of friends. She had been at the Eternal Pegasus Empire for a decent amount of time, and the Mammoth City, and Hoofica, but two of those places she was “indisposed” for a while as well. It was crazy now. It was crazy that she was going to have to say goodbye too.

The Heart of Azure was almost like a second home at this point.

It would be weird. It would be so, so, weird when she was gone again. When she was flying off on her own and didn’t have Gilbert to mess around with, or Daylight to bother, or anyone to play cards with. When she wasn’t trying to help Senax find Merlantis. When she wasn’t learning about sailing or the ocean from Breakwater.

Weird. Just weird.

“Hey, we’re going to be back at Palm Floats pretty soon,” Ballast said while looking down at his instruments. “Still the middle of the day—guess a lot of vacationers are going to be surprised when The Breakwater pops up out of the water.”

“Can’t really avoid that this time,” Breakwater shrugged.

“Eh, not a big deal anyways. At this point I don’t really care if it’s kept a secret or nothing. Almost dying in ten different ways kind of puts a lot of your life into perspective,” Ballast said. “I’ll be happy just to be able to make more of these with my plans in the future.”

“Speaking of this ship and surviving through a bunch of stuff… what about the others? Dredge and Old Diver’s butlers? We never saw what happened to their submersible,” Daylight said.

“They left before we did so I’m sure they at least got out of Merlantis before the water crashed together,” Ballast said.

“I bet they were going as fast as they could back to the surface and well away from here,” Breakwater said.

“So long as they’re okay too. Not like I have anything against any of them,” Rainbow said.

“Heh—me neither actually,” Ballast smiled.

Gilbert decided to bring up a different subject. “So then, what’s the first thing we do when we get back to Palm Floats and The Breakwater is nice and secure?”

“Well—Rainbow Dash should probably go see an actual doctor,” Senax said.

“Eh,” Rainbow shrugged and looked her bandaged stuff over. “I’ll be fine, trust me.”

“Then I’m assuming the first thing we can all agree on doing is getting a nice bite to eat,” Daylight said. “Snacks are okay—a meal is perfect.”

“Oh yeah,” this time Rainbow grinned.

Senax found herself smiling too. “I think so.”

“Yes,” Gilbert nodded.

“The busy stuff can come after that,” Breakwater said.

“Well then I won’t keep you waiting,” Ballast said. “Full speed ahead to Palm Floats!”

The Breakwater sped on through the waters of the ocean, looking to return to Palm Floats shortly. Though they’d be saying goodbye there, they knew they could still enjoy the time they had left with each other. Nothing could change that. And nothing could stop them from making a few last happy memories.

Comments

[RoboRed]

DAYLIGHT GLEAM GOES EAST LOL

Definitely a daunting task that Gilbert has ahead of him if he's planning on taking Rainbow's journey in reverse. On the other hand, she's left a much more hospitable world in her wake, so maybe he'll have a pretty good time.

Kinda funny to see Rainbow actually planning ahead a bit for the rest of the trip south.

This was quite the long journey they all had together taking them all over the place in the ocean...and yet Rainbow still never got to visit Alth-Verika! Oh well...

[redmar]

At least they can have some time to relax at Palm Floats before they set off in different directions.

[Mini-Joe]

I was right about daylight, haha! I love this story.