Rainbow Dash Around the World

by MagicS

The Wandering Island I

“Look, I’m going to tell you all the same thing I told her: I didn’t see the Trident and I didn’t hear no one mention Ponyseidon’s name at all either. I just heard two ponies talking about some kind of unique Trident a merchant on the Wandering Island owned and put two and two together on my own cause of the legends I knew of. I don’t know exactly where the Trident is there or what it looks like or if it’s really what you’re looking for at all,” Larry the sailor explained.

“That’s still pretty good for us,” Daylight Gleam said before glancing over at Senax. “Not like we actually know what the Trident looks like, do we?”

“Unfortunately no,” Senax shook her head.

The three sailors and the five of Rainbow Dash’s group were seated in a small outdoor cafe, talking about what Rainbow Dash had discovered. The sailors luckily had plenty of time to spare and were more than willing to talk with her friends, they had patiently waited here until she gathered them all. Only Larry had anything to tell the three of them, but the captain and other officer seemed curious to hear about this too.

“And wasn’t the Trident supposed to be stuck in Merlantis at the bottom of the ocean?” Gilbert asked.

“Yes,” Senax nodded. “But who knows if that’s actually the case… I don’t want to throw away a chance.”

“Uh, I’m still confused about this “Wandering Island”. What is it?” Rainbow Dash asked.

It was Breakwater that answered. “Well it’s called that because it’s not really an island at all. It’s a gigantic, inter-connected, raft that regularly sails from one side of the Grand Ocean to the other. Visiting and trading with every Kingdom as it does. They stay relatively close to the coastline to avoid the worst storms and pirates. And Bosche.”

“A giant raft?” Rainbow Dash was still confused.

“We just stopped there so let me fill you in,” the captain—a pony by the name of Alfonso—spoke up. “The Wandering Island is hundreds of different floating platforms all connected by ropes, bridges, chains, whatever. Some of the platforms are big enough to hold multiple large buildings on, and a lot are homes to the ponies that live on the Island. They mostly let themselves flow with the currents, trawling for fish and working as a sort of massive trading hub for the northern reaches of the Grand Ocean. Think of it as one gigantic marketplace. A lot of ponies go there looking for stuff you can’t really find at a normal store in one of the Hundred Kingdoms. It has more… variety to it. There’s no big business or industry there, but there’s a lot of stuff.”

“Sounds like our kind of place,” Daylight said.

“Yeah, I think we’ve finally got a new destination in mind,” Rainbow grinned.

“Only one question,” Breakwater raised his hoof. “You just came from the Wandering Island while it was parked off the coast of Evergarden. What direction was it going in?”

“East, to Meer,” Captain Alfonso answered.

“Okay then. It should only take a few extra days to catch up to it, the Wandering Island doesn’t travel very fast,” Breakwater said.

“Worst case scenario we get to visit Meer too,” Daylight shrugged.

“Sweet!” Rainbow Dash yelled, her wings flaring open as she stood up from her chair. “Then what are we still sitting around for? We know where we’ve got to go so let’s go!”

Senax and Gilbert both grinned and even Breakwater and Daylight had small smiles on their faces.

“Well said, Rainbow. I don’t think we need to stay around here any longer,” Senax said.

Breakwater nodded to Captain Alfonso and Larry. “You’ve really been a tremendous help to us. Thanks for taking the time to talk, sorry for bothering you for so long.”

“It’s really not an issue. We waited longer just to come in to Malkonrik anyways,” Captain Alfonso shrugged.

“Well I hope whatever it was you came here for goes well, I think the five of us are going to excuse ourselves now,” Breakwater said.

“Yep! Let’s get back to Ballast’s right now!” Rainbow Dash said.

“The Heart of Azure awaits!” Gilbert cheered.

The five of them all got up and left the small cafe together, saying their farewells to Alfonso and Larry, thankful for the help they had received. Everyone felt a little rush of excitement in their hearts as they now had a destination in mind and a rumor to go on. Finding what they were looking for might still be tough, but it beat sitting around and doing nothing. Senax and Rainbow Dash especially were eager to get the Heart of Azure back to open water. Rainbow was flapping her wings and hovering fast over the street, while Senax walked along at a brisk pace. It would take an hour or so to get everything in order once they got back to Ballast’s but it was no skin off their bones. Very soon they’d be off.

“Bye! Hope you find what you’re looking for,” Larry said as he waved after them.

Alfonso and the other officer waved to before the so-far quiet pony scratched his chin and raised an eyebrow at his Captain and fellow mate.

“Hey so, that pony with the webbed ears and the flipper tail? What was she anyways?”

“Beats me,” Captain Alfonso said.

---

Two hours later at the port of Malkonrik, a pony walked down the street after a careful observation of Ballast’s, the so-called “Greatest shipwright in the Hundred Kingdoms”, shop revealed that the ship that was supposed to be secretly docked within was now gone. He was supposed to find the crew of that ship. But they had now sailed off somewhere else before he could speak with them.

A lot of looks were sent his way as he walked down the street thanks to his unusual appearance. Heavy black robes that covered nearly his entire body aside from his brown muzzle poking out of the hood.

What did he do now?

He continued walking aimlessly until the faintest sound of a wind chime reached his ears. That pleasant, high-pitched, sound. He wasn’t imagining it—the chime was his notice.

The pony quickly walked over to the pier and stood right beside the railing that looked out over the ocean, out of the way of most of the tourists and the other traffic at port. He reached up and pulled down his hood, revealing amber eyes and a dark brown mane of long dreadlocks interlaced with seashells. Pulling something from inside his robe he took out a small conch shell and held it up to his ear.

“Hello, Priestess.”

To anyone else around, even if they were standing right next to him, they would’ve only heard the sounds of the ocean coming from the shell.

“No, Priestess. I’m sorry but I arrived here too late. They were already gone.”

Another moment’s pause.

“Yes, Priestess, I understand. I will wait for them. However long it takes.”

The pony put the shell back into his robe and calmly looked out into the Grand Ocean. The rest of the world around him might as well not have existed.

Comments

[redmar]

I'm curious as to the identity of that mysterious person but I guess that won't be revealed until the Heart of Azure returns to Malkonrik.

[RoboRed]

...Huh.
Guess this guy's got the next or next after lead. Or plot point.

Also, Wandering Island is totally gonna wind up with a bunch of holes in it after Godfrey inevitably shows up.