Chapter 1: Mission Accepted
“Rainbow Dash!” The cry roused the sleepy sky-blue pegasus. Running a hoof through her prismatic mane she groaned. The weather schedule had called for some early morning adjustments today, so Dash had done her job, and retreated to one of her more secluded clouds to take a nap, to make up for the early morning. In fact there where only two ponies that even knew this was one of her napping spots, and one of them was named ‘Rainbow Dash’ so that didn’t leave a long list of suspects as to who had awoken her.
Pulling the cloud apart just enough to poke her head through, Dash asked, “What is it, squirt?”
“Twilight’s looking for you,” the orange pegasus filly, with the purple mane, below said in response.
With a slight roll of her rose red eyes Rainbow Dash pulled the cloud apart a little more, allowing herself to slip through the hole altogether. Just because Twilight was a friend didn’t automatically mean a summons from her was important enough to bother her at her ‘don’t bother me’ napping location. Opening her wings she came out of her free fall and flew above Scootaloo, once the filly turned her scooter around, the two pegasi headed back into town.
Rounding a corner the two came in line of sight of the giant tree that also happened to be a library. The first thing to catch their eyes was the pink earth pony sitting by the door. Alarmingly enough the mare’s usually fluffy mess of a mane was almost perfectly straight. However, the moment Pinkie Pie saw the two pegasi heading her way, she hopped to her hooves and her mane fluffed right back up. Even though Pinkie’s display of sadness had faded quickly, Rainbow Dash knew whatever was going on definitely had to be important enough to bother her over.
“Uh, Scoots, What’s wrong?” Dash asked of only pony in earshot, as they picked up their pace toward the library a bit.
“I-I don’t know,” Scootaloo’s voice trembled a little, proving that she too had seen the momentary lapse in Pinkie Pie’s perpetual happiness. “All I know is Applejack barged into the clubhouse and told us all to drop what we were doing to help look for you. And whoever found you first was to send you to Twilight at the library.”
Nodding to the filly, Rainbow Dash pumped her wings harder, surging ahead. As the pegasus neared the library Pinkie Pie whipped her tail over the door handle and yanked the door open, allowing Dash to speed in with all due haste, followed a few seconds latter by Scootaloo.
Inside Rainbow Dash flared her wings hard, and even had to do a loop-de-loop overhead to finish dispersing the rest of her momentum without crashing into anything. Coming to a hover, Dash took note of who was in the room, and found some individuals she hadn’t expected.
First there was the equally newly arrived Scootaloo sliding to a stop, after a sudden turn to avoid those that had been here all along. Next and as expected was the purple unicorn with a darker purple mane, Twilight Sparkle. One of the unexpected guests in the library was Zecora, a zebra who was laying in what seemed to be a hastily conjured bed, looking rather ill. The other unexpected pony in the room was none other then Princess Celestia.
First Rainbow Dash nodded respectfully to the ruler of Equestria, then a cough made her back away from the ailing zebra in the bed. “You need not flee, zebra’s doom can only afflict me,” Zecora said, punctuated by another cough.
“Zebra’s doom?” Dash couldn’t help but ask.
Launching into lecture mode Twilight answered, “It’s a disease that only affects zebras. It’s not very contagious, but it’s highly dangerous. If left untreated it’s always fatal after ten days.”
Landing solemnly on the floor between Twilight and Scootaloo, Rainbow Dash raised a confused eyebrow and asked, “Okay… So Zecora’s sick. But why come looking for me? I’m not a doctor. What can I do about it?”
“To put it simply, half of the ingredients for the cure can’t be found in Equestria. I wrote letters to everypony known to keep gardens with exotic plants and such. But… I’m not holding out hope that we’ll be able to make the cure here at all. So I… we need you to go to the one place where the cure is commonly made. The zebra lands,” Twilight answered.
Smiling boldly, Rainbow Dashed raised a hoof to her head in a salute and said, “Consider it done.” Then her smile turned a little sheepish as she added, “Just one question. Where are the zebra lands?”
A purple glow surrounded Twilight’s horn, and a scroll came floating off one of the library shelves enveloped in a similar glow. It unfurled revealing a world map. Pointing to the continent everyone in the room knew was Equestria, the unicorn explained, “As you see, if you cross the ocean heading east or east northeast you’ll run into the griffin kingdoms. However, this continent south of the griffin kingdoms is where the lands the zebras call home are.” Sliding her hoof across the map she continued, “You’ll need to fly east southeast. Also the north part of this continent is mostly desert and the towns and cities along the north and west edges are mostly colonies for the griffin kingdoms or Saddlearabia-”
Watching Twilight’s hoof slide across the map even further, effectively doubling the distance of the trip, Rainbow Dash’s ears fall limp as the knowledge in her head was mixing with the words she was hearing.
Her friend’s displeasure unnoticed, Twilight continued, “-So you’ll need keep flying past the desert to the savannas where the zebra lands are.”
Frowning, Dash spoke up, “Twilight. There’s just one kinda big problem with your plan. Last I checked the record for the fastest ocean crossing by a lone pegasus is five days. So even if I smash the record, and I’m sure I will, you’re still looking at eight, maybe seven days of flight time just going one way! I may not be a genius pony like you Twi, but I’m fairly sure that seven plus seven is more then ten. And that’s assuming I can find that cure thing instantly.”
“I know Rainbow. But while we were waiting for you to come, Celestia and I came up with a way that might just speed your trip there. Leave some space in your saddlebags, but gather whatever food and water you think you’ll need for the return trip and meet us at the mountaintop east of town in one hour,” Twilight replied.
“Mountaintop east of town got it… Isn’t east of town part of the Canterlot mountain range? Which peak am I meeting you on?” Dash asked.
“The one that will have two princesses and your friend on it,” Celestia answered with a soft smile, and a bit of a laugh.
* * * * * * *
Two regal alicorns and a unicorn standing on a snowcapped peak did in fact stand out well enough that finding the trio of ponies had been easy, although the white of Celestia’s coat and wings blended into the snowcap rather easily. On the other hoof Celestia’s mane and tail stood out rather well, and flowed as if blowing in an unfelt breeze like some kind of weird, faded rainbow. Being named after them Rainbow Dash had seen enough rainbows to know that, unlike Celestia’s mane, true rainbows never had pink in them.
Compared to her elder sister, the princess of the night stood out quite easily against the snow with her midnight blue coat and wings, and her mane and tail were like a vision of the stars of the night sky, flowing in the same unfelt breeze as her sister’s.
Bowing her head slightly as she landed before them, Rainbow Dash said, “I’m here, what now?”
Twilight Sparkle stepped forward and the glow of her horn brought forth two scrolls from her saddlebag. “Here’s the world map I showed you earlier, you know just in case.” Waving one of the scrolls she added, “And this one is the translations I had Zecora make, to help you communicate with any zebras that don’t speak our language.”
Showing Dash the contents of the scroll Twilight explained, “The first part is a greeting, announcing yourself as a traveler from Equestria. The second is a request for the medicine that we need for Zecora. The third and fourth parts are a more formal introduction and request that you should use when talking to a zebra tribal chief.”
Looking down on the scroll Rainbow Dash found the scroll had eight paragraphs. Alternating between equestrian text and gibberish she couldn’t understand, save for her own name and the word ‘Equestria’.
Stepping forward Celestia said, “Rainbow Dash, you should also know that Equestria has no formal diplomatic relations with the zebras.” A small ornate box floated into view, held by the golden glow of the princess of the sun’s magic. “I know diplomacy isn’t really your thing, but given your part in easing the tensions between the frontier ponies and the buffalo I’d like you to act as Equestria’s representative while you are on this mission. Give this gift to whatever zebra tribe gives you the medicine. And while Zecora tells me that you shouldn’t have any trouble getting the medicine, just in case she’s wrong, feel free to use the box and gems inside to barter for it if you need to. Just make sure that you only give the letter inside it to the zebra chief of the tribe that you get the medicine from.”
Dash frowned as she felt the weight of the box as it was added to her saddlebags, but said nothing to protest the wish of the princess. “Okay, I know what to do once I get there and all. But nopony has bothered to tell me how I’m getting there with enough time to even have a chance of getting back here in time.”
Once more Twilight Sparkle spoke, “Well, you see there is a simple speed amplification spell. Normally it wouldn’t last long enough to get you that far away. But with a little digging I realized it might be possible to create a feedback loop if it was combined with the magic that comes off your sonic rainboom. However, in order to properly magnify the effects of the spell’s arcane matrix-”
A sky-blue hoof cut off Twilight’s lecture. “Short version please,” Dash asked, in a semi-annoyed tone.
Luna, princess of the night chuckled, and then took a stab at answering for the flustered unicorn. “We shall cast the spell. It shall take the form a ring, and you shall need to perform the sonic rainboom just before passing through the ring of magic.”
“Yes, and Rainbow, it’s essential that the rainboom be as close to the spell we’re casting as possible, but also it needs to go off before you pass through the speed spell. And once the spell takes effect don’t slow down for anything until you reach the zebra lands… or at least get as close as you can before the spell burns out on its own. But if you slow down too much you’ll bake the feedback loop and the spell will brake earlier then it has to. And don’t worry about getting tired, as long as the spell is active, your body should be able to draw energy from the spell itself, so go all out flying on your way there,” Twilight added.
“I like the sound of that,” Dash said through a reserved smile. After double checking her saddlebags she nodded and announced, “I ready. Fire it up any time.”
The three ponies on the mountaintop donned protective ear ware and nodded, as Rainbow Dash flew up into the sky. Once she had enough room to do her part Dash turned around to face the peak below, and saw a ring a magic high above the three magic users, shimmering with three colors of magic. The golden glow of the solar princess’ magic, the blue light of the lunar princess’ magic, and the purple light of Twilight’s magic, all woven together into a seamless ring of light.
“Really Twilight? Even at sonic-rainboom speeds I could make it through a ring half that size blindfolded,” Rainbow grumbled to the wind, before going into a dive.
A thin veil of water vapor appeared, trailing off of Rainbow Dash’s front hooves as the air pressure on her body smashed the air together and held her back. The layer of water vapor took the form of a half sphere as lightning began crackling around the pegasus, the building air resistance refusing to let her accelerate further. Get out of my way! Dash thought, and with that mental command the magics protecting her from the rigors of high speed flight collapsed from a sphere into a cone. Speeding up she pulled out of her dive, aiming for the space in the middle of the ring of magic and feathering the line between subsonic and supersonic flight.
Gauging her speed and the closing distance between herself and the magic ring Rainbow Dash counted down in her mind. When she reached ‘one’ she pushed her wings for all they were worth, and the wall of resistance before her shattered. The air behind her exploded with a prismatic ring of light erupting from the center of a radiant white flare. She had executed the sonic rainboom only a few feet before the ring born of unicorn magic and shot through it like the super-sonic missile she’d become.
The moment Rainbow Dash had passed through the ring it began following her as it collapsed into her body. It took a second for the magics to make their way into her, but once they had she surged ahead with speed the likes of which even the daredevil pegasus had never dreamed.
The air around her exploded again. A shining flare of prismatic light that dwarfed the light of the first sonic rainboom, burned like a mini second sun. From that miniature prismatic star three rainbow shockwaves erupted, spreading out through the sky. Rainbow Dash shot out of the light heading east southeast, the rainbow light coming off of her forming a rainbow only long enough to tear itself apart into a prismatic aurora in her wake. Leaving the world’s first hypersonic rainboom far behind her, she shot off, over the horizon in the blink of an eye.
Author's Note
Up front let me say that this didn't turn out as well as I'd have liked, but having run out of ideas to revise it anymore here's the best I could come up with. That said I hope you enjoy the story anyway.
Chapter 2: Retrieving the Cure
With speed beyond her wildest dreams it had only taken a few minutes for Rainbow Dash to reach Equestria’s eastern cost. As the minutes dragged on and endless fields of ocean became the dominant landscape, Dash breathed a sigh of relief. She had been flapping her wings far too hard, for far too long, and yet she wasn’t tired at all. The only explanation was that Twilight had been right and she was drawing her energy from the spell around her instead of from her own body.
As the minutes dragged on, the sun seemed to race along overhead as Rainbow Dash shot across the sky. Despite being certain that she’d only been flying for an hour and change at most, the sun had somehow already gone from the being early morning to reaching the noon position by the time a coastline appeared on the horizon.
Approaching the land of the coastline also made the effects of blue-sky syndrome become apparent. When Rainbow had only endless fields of blue sky and blue water to look at she’d allowed herself to drift to a dangerously high altitude. If not for the fact that she was slamming into the air at hypersonic speeds the air would be too thin to breath and she would’ve passed out. Correcting the error she slipped down to a more normal altitude as the coastline passed below her. Only a thin band of temperate looking land separated the endless waters of the ocean from endless waves of sand.
Flying just high enough to stay above any dust storms she encountered Rainbow Dash shot across the desert, seeing little of interest among the shifting sands. Only the occasional oasis or old stone ruin half covered in sand broke up the endless fields of sand of the massive desert.
Finally the sand dunes diminished and scattered plants became grasslands, with small trees and bushes scattered about. Having only seen pictures of savannas in her foalhood during navigation class, Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but smile at the thought that she’d finally seen the elusive terrain type with her own eyes.
With so little to disturb the sparse scenery, spotting a bunch of huts clustered close enough together to be called a town proved easy enough for the speeding pegasus. A moment latter and Dash saw what she was truly looking for. The equine figures in the village before her all had a zebra’s stripes.
Finally allowing her wings to stop flapping, Rainbow Dash opened them to the wind in a hard flaring position and held them steady. The cone of water vapor and the lightning that had been her constant companion for the journey finally left Dash as she dropped below the speed of sound. Feeling a sudden and strange emptiness inside, Rainbow knew that the speed spell had broken, and she was on her own from here on out.
Yet another memory from her youthful past in Cloudsdale flashed in Rainbow Dash’s mind. Another lesson that (until now) had served no purpose in her life, it was of the time she’d been taught that it was considered rude to fly into a city’s airspace without first getting permission to enter, if the city had walls. Most cities in Equestra didn’t have walls around them and the only time she’d ever been in restricted airspace she’d been invited in long before she even got there. Needless to say she’d never had to ask permission to fly anywhere before. Adjusting her aim for the dirt road that seemed to serve as the town’s gate Dash continued her decent.
Screams of terror drew Rainbow Dash’s attention to two zebras running for the same gateway she was headed for. Behind the two fleeing zebras was a large feline-like figure chasing them, also catching her eye was the two zebras with spears, who had been by the gate to begin with, now charging forward to intercept the feline figure.
“Saving some lives couldn’t hurt for making a good first impression, and earning me a dose of medicine,” Rainbow Dash muttered to herself, as she re-aimed her dive again.
Feathering her wings, Dash regulated her speed for a hard landing. Already planing her next move, that being to tackle the sand-colored lion to the ground and bounce back into the air before it could retaliate, she readied the muscles in her legs.
Rainbow Dash came down hard on the feline’s back, but things didn’t go quite as planed. She had already bounced back into the air by the time she realized that the creature had exploded into a cloud of sand from the impact. The dust settled, and Dash shock the sands from her fur as she hovered backwards, away from the point of impact.
Giving a nervous laugh as she landed not far from the awestruck spear-wielding zebras, Rainbow Dash said, “Heh, guess that might have been a little overboard. Is everyone alright?”
Four dazzled zebras stood in silence for a moment. When the two with spears regained their composure one of them spoke. What they said had rhythm and rhyme to it, but the words meant nothing to the pegasus before them.
“Right, different language,” Dash muttered, as she pulled out the translation scroll from her saddlebag. Reading off the introduction and request for medicine she looked up and waited for an answer.
At first the zebra whom seemed to be the lead guard tried to answer with words, but when Rainbow Dash shook her head to the meaningless words and reread the request for medicine they understood she didn’t speak their language. With that established the two zebra guards answered in a way that needed no translation, they pointed, not to the town behind them, but down the road leading further to the southeast.
Rainbow returned the scroll to her saddlebags, thanked them and promptly took off flying, following the dirt road as she went.
It didn’t take long before she spotted a lone zebra male walking the road in the same direction she was flying. Couldn’t hurt to get a second opinion. Rainbow Dash thought to herself.
“Hey, can I ask you something?” Dash called out, as she descended to land beside the zebra. The zebra looked at her intently, so she pulled her scroll out and read off the introduction.
“From Equestria you say? What an unusual day,” he said in response.
“Wait! you speak my language?!” Rainbow asked, with a hopeful flutter of her wings.
“Many traders and travelers have I heard, from them I learned your word.”
“Perfect!” Dash cheered, and then read the request for medicine.
A grim frown accompanied the zebra’s answer as he said, “Zebra’s doom you say? What you seek is made three villages that way.” Gesturing to the southeast as he finished.
“Thank you. At least that saves me the time of stopping to ask around every step of the way,” she said, returning the scroll to her saddlebags, and once more taking flight.
* * * * * * *
By the time Rainbow Dash had passed two villages flying southeast, and was descending towards the third, she was certain that she hadn't even been awake long enough for it to be noon. However, the sun was already low on the horizon.
As she neared the village, Rainbow couldn’t help but notice three sundered huts on the north end of the zebra town.
Landing roughly, Dash took a moment to catch her breath before she went over to the first zebra she could find, pulled out the scroll and read the introduction and request for medicine once more. Said zebra pointed her to the largest hut in the middle of the village.
A zebra with a spear was standing guard by the doorway of the central hut, so Rainbow Dash repeated the only two lines of zebra she had yet to use. Motioning for her to stay put the guard ducked inside. A moment letter he poked his head back out from behind the curtain that seemed to pass for a door and motioned for the pegasus to enter.
Inside, the walls of the simple wood-framed thatch and mud hut were decorated with masks, made mostly of wood but were frequently arrayed with leaves. A shiver ran down Rainbow Dash’s spine, even knowing that zebras used such masks as signs to say things like ‘hello’ and ‘welcome’ didn’t diminish how creepy they looked to her.
At the only chair in the room sat a lone zebra, her necklace and headdress clearly marking her as the village chief. Dash gave a quick bow, retrieved her scroll and did her best to read the formal introduction while sounding out the new zebra words. When she had finished, the zebra spoke to her, and while the words meant nothing to Rainbow Dash the inquisitive tone of voice allowed her to hope it was a question like ‘what do you want?’ and so she read the formal request for medicine.
The zebra chief spoke again, this time Dash couldn’t even guess the meaning of the rhyming response. “Sorry I don’t speak zebra. This is all I’ve got,” Dash said, tapping the scroll she’d been reading from. “So was that a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’?” she added with a hopeful yet childish smile.
A zebra stepped out of the shadows, judging from his size and youthful look he wasn’t quite old enough to be called an adult. He stopped beside the zebra chief and spoke to her. The two zebras talked back and forth for a moment while Rainbow Dash sat, wondering if she was suppose to be responding to any of this.
What Rainbow could see was that the short conversation had left a frown on the younger zebra’s face when he turned and spoke to her, saying, “Your tale of zebra’s doom is most disturbing, I will make the cure but it will not be ready until morning.”
“Thank you,” Dash said, with a bow to the young zebra, and then repeating the thanks and bow to the zebra chief.
“Come and I will show you where you may stay, until the cure is ready,” the young zebra said, motioning for the pegasus to follow him out of the hut.
As they walked along, the zebra masks hanging by the doorways of each hut they passed continued to creep out Rainbow Dash. Looking more to distracter her mind then caring about the answer, she spoke to her guide saying, “You seem a bit young for the local translator.”
“Though I may be young, until my master returns I am the only one here that speaks your tongue,” he answered. Coming to a stop and motioning to the small hut before them, the zebra added, “Here is where you may stay, until morning of tomorrow’s day.”
Beyond the hut to the left Dash saw the ruins of the sundered huts she’d seen flying into town. “What happened over there?” she asked.
The young zebra pondered the question for a short while, before finally shaking his head and saying, “Monster.”
“What kind of monster?”
Shaking his head he answered almost immediately, “I know not your words to say.” As he finished a distasteful look flashed on his face.
Rainbow Dash giggled and said, “You know, when talking in my language you have to rhyme.”
“So I have been told, but I find it jarring to speak without following the flow of old.”
Looking back to the hut that had been appointed to her Dash said, “Thanks kid, and thank whoever is making the cure for me when you get the chance.”
That brought a smile back to the zebra’s face, with a small laugh he answered, “The words I spoke were quite true, it is I who will make the healing brew.”
A flash of concern darted across Rainbow’s face. “I hope you know what you’re doing then, my friend’s life depends on this working. And I’m not even sure there’s enough time for a take one, so there definitely won’t be enough time for a take two.”
“Making the cure to zebra’s doom is easy enough, as long as you have the right stuff. With my master away, there is no one else and it sounds like you can not delay,” he answered the pegasus with a smile.
“Well good luck then. Just do your best so I can get out of here as soon as possible. It’s going to be a long flight back.” Rainbow Dash said, before entering into the hut to turn in for the night.
As soon as the pegasus had turned away the zebra’s smile vanished and he walked away with downtrodden eyes.
* * * * * * *
Rainbow Dash had almost fallen asleep when the sound of a low growl made her ears perk up. Peeking out past the curtain that passed for the door of her hut, she saw a dark and distinctly feline figure glisten in the evening twilight. Another glance around and she found that hers weren’t the only set of eyes peeking out from their hut. However, unlike her own cautious yet annoyed eyes, the zebra eyes looking out at the creature held only fear.
Something felt wrong. Where was the screaming? The yelling? Why wasn’t anyone calling for the guards? It was as if they all knew that not even the zebra’s with the spears would dare to challenge this creature prowling around their town.
The creature took notice of a set of zebra eyes peering out from the hut across from Dash’s and began stalking towards them. The zebra’s eyes went from fear to horror. Somewhere in the back of Rainbow’s mind she understood why. With only a few sticks for a frame and walls made of thatch, Rainbow Dash wouldn’t have counted on huts like these protecting her from anything either.
As quickly as the zebra’s eyes had found horror they shifted again, this time to defeated acceptance. The eyes of someone that knew no one was coming to the rescue looked back at the creature prowling toward her, and seeing it made something inside Rainbow Dash catch fire.
“Hay! Back off buddy! These zebras are making medicine for my friend, and I’m not going to let you hurt them!” Dash shouted, as she stepped out of her hut into the cool night air.
Although the low light made it hard to see, being out in the open allowed Rainbow Dash a little better look at the creature. It’s body, tail, and paws were that of a lion. Its head was of a creature Dash didn’t know, a pony like Fluttershy might have been able to make a better guess, but the best Rainbow could come up with was that it seemed like a monkey’s or ape’s yet different. The unusual face aside the creature also had a headdress that framed its head much like a lion’s mane. There was something about the way the creature’s coat glistened in the moonlight that bothered Dash, but she couldn’t quite tell what.
The terrified eyes in the hut before it forgotten, the creature turned to face this strange stripeless zebra with a prismatic mane that had dared to challenge it. The predator charged at its prey, and given the distance between them it wasn’t that surprised when the equine dodged. What did surprise it was the direction she chose to dodge, for the stripeless zebra had jumped straight up, and somehow had failed to come back down.
“What’s the matter? Never seen a pony with wings before?” Rainbow Dash asked with a smirk on her face, as she hovered well overhead. The perplexed eyes of the feline figure answered her taunting question. Her smile vanished when the wings once hidden by the darkness unfurled from the predator’s side. “Pony Feathers! You’ve got wings too?!” Dash yipped, as she once more darted skyward, leaving the predator’s claws to slash the empty space she’d occupied only a second ago.
The two figures shot through the sky, and with each passing second Rainbow Dash’s fears diminished as the gap between the two grew. Although the creature chased her through the sky with admirable persistence, she was faster. Come to think of it why was that thing still chasing her? If her lead grew much more Rainbow would have enough room to flip around and perform a dive attack. A spark flashed in Dash’s eye as she came to understand that whatever this thing was it had never been challenged in the sky before.
“All right buddy! Last chance to be a good… whatever you are and leave peacefully!” Rainbow Dash yelled in a tone of voice that practically announced she’d already won the impending fight. For all the brave words she’d ever unuttered Dash knew that her courage was a facade, and that growing up the mask of infinite courage had gotten her out of more fights then it had gotten her in.
The tough pony act didn’t pay off as the creature only gave a murderous roar in response.
“See Fluttershy, this is why I don’t waste time talking to horrible monsters,” Rainbow sighed to the wind.
Flaring her wings hard, Dash looped around and dove at her pursuer. A flash of realization crossed the creature’s eyes as it came to understand that it was about to be attacked by its prey. Showing its claws it prepared its front paws for combat and pushed ahead.
In the next moment many things happened in rapid succession. First claws flashed in the night air. With a last second beat of her wings Rainbow Dash swung her body around, and slowed herself just enough that the creature’s claws slashed at empty air. Finally, Dash kicked with all the force her hind legs could muster, striking the creature square on the chest.
A resounding crash of hoof striking stone echoed through the sky. A breathless cry escaped Rainbow’s lips, as pain reverberated through her bones. In the moment she fell away from the creature and saw the crack her attack had left in its chest she understood that the glisten of the creature’s coat wasn’t from glossy healthy fur as she’d assumed, but was because the creature was made of living obsidian.
As the flow of time seemed to resume the dark creature took another swing at its pegasus opponent. On instinct Rainbow Dash gave a half-flap of her wings to pull herself downward and away from the attack, causing the creature’s claws to strike only her front left leg.
Resuming flapping her wings properly, Dash accelerated her head first dive toward the ground, buying a moment to scold herself. If she’d known that thing was as sturdy as a cragodile she’d have never attempted that attack. “So not cool,” she muttered, as she looked past her bloodied leg to the creature. Faced with understanding that the creature now diving at her was living stone, she wasn’t sure what a pegasus could do. After all there was only one thing from the sky she’d ever seen sunder stone, and even then only on rare occasions.
Below, the silver glow of a cloud in the moonlight caught Rainbow’s eye. Rolling over and with a slight bend of her wings, she adjusted her dive toward the cloud. A glance over her shoulder proved beyond doubt that the creature had never seen a pegasus before, as it was still diving after her.
Rainbow Dash hooked the cloud with her front legs as she flew past, swinging herself around and slamming her hind legs into the bottom of the cloud. Lightning bloomed skyward from the cloud, forking so many times it looked like a tree and leaving nowhere for the obsidian creature to dodge to. As several of the bolts converged into it, the creature exploded in the electromagnetic assault.
Lacking the time to get out of the way, Dash pulled her wings behind her back, brought her front legs together to guard her face and neck, and was showered in obsidian shrapnel. As soon as she felt the peppering of stone shards had finished she resumed flapping her wings, and headed back to the zebra town below.
Finding the entirety of the zebra village waiting in awed wonderment as she landed, Rainbow Dash didn’t need a translator to understand the sudden and rapturous applause that was giving for her. Nor did the zebras need a translator to understand their new champion’s need for medical attention, as they quickly saw all the cuts and obsidian shards covering her legs and belly, and promptly lead her to the shaman’s hut for treatment.
“So that was the monster you mentioned huh?” Rainbow asked, as the young shaman who was making the cure for her was now helping her pluck stone shards from her body. A nod answered her, as he moved on to cleaning the wounds. “Now that you don’t have to describe it to me, can you at least tell me what that thing was called?”
“They come from far to the north a place of sand, sphinx is what they are called by those native to that land,” he answered in a somber tone, as he returned with some bandages for the first pegasus he’d ever treated.
“You don’t seem quite as happy as the rest of your village that I took care that thing for you. Is something wrong?” Rainbow Dash observed.
He shook his head sorrowfully and said, “Do not let my troubles trouble you, to help your friend you should not get distracted from what you do.”
* * * * * * *
Thankfully, by morning most of the cuts had healed enough to no longer need bandages, and only Rainbow Dash’s front left leg sported a fresh one as she sat in the chef’s hut. The chef spoke in rhythm and rhyme and seemed to understand that she was speaking for the benefit of her fellow villagers. No one seemed to mind that Dash was more interested in eating the breakfast of grains and berries that had been laid out before her then listening to a speech she couldn’t understand.
Finally the speech ended and the young zebra shaman entered the room. Pulling a small, sturdy, wooden jar from his bag he set the container before Rainbow Dash. “I have brought the cure for you, please forgive us for speaking words that were not entirely true,” he said, unable to look the town hero in the eyes.
“What are you talking about?” Dash asked, raising an eyebrow in honest confusion.
Further lowering his head in shame he answered, “The cure to zebra’s doom is actually quick to make, but seeing your wings the chef hoped you would seal the sphinx’s fate.”
The frown that appeared on Rainbow’s face caused concern to appear on the chef’s, but all the other zebras in the room seemed blissfully unable to guess what the two speaking in the foreigner’s tongue were saying.
“I don’t blame you kid, you were just following orders. Just next time, try asking, you might be surprised how helpful some ponies will be if you’re honest with them up front,” Dash said. Opening her saddlebags and retrieving the small chest, she placed it before the young zebra while saying, “Princess Celestia asked me to give this to whatever zebra tribe gave me the cure. The letter inside is for your chef but I want you to keep whatever else you want in there.”
Looking up with eyes beginning to water the young zebra’s voice choked a little as he said, “To forgive this wrong of mine, you are far too kind.”
Having secured the cure in her saddlebags Dash answered, “You’re wrong. I’m not kind. I’m loyal. I’m just following orders. Besides I’m not going to leave my friends hanging longer then I have to by lugging that thing back home, you’ve wasted enough of my time already.”
Despite her harsh tone and choice of words Rainbow Dash gave the young zebra shaman a soft smile just before she opened her wings flew out the doorway of the hut. With the morning sun at her back she took to the sky, soaring toward the west, toward Equestria.
The second sunset Rainbow Dash had seen since leaving Equestria was displayed before her, and it reminded her why she hated multi-day marathon races. Lying down on the only cloud in sight, knowing that she couldn’t really push herself until the last day drew an annoyed sigh from the lone pegasus. Pacing herself all day just didn’t feel like she was giving her all, but the first multi-day marathon she’d ever flown had taught her the hard way that pushing herself into fatigue would slow her down more the next day then it gained today.
Pulling a layer of cloud over herself Dash disappeared from sight, hidden within the cloud itself she fell asleep.
Dawn of the third day was greeted by rain. Rainbow Dash drank her fill from the lone cloud she had set raining. Filling her canteen, that had been empty since she’d left Ponyville, she gazed out over the desert, knowing that the air out here was too dry and there would be no making her own clouds while she was over the vast, arid desert before her.
Glancing down at the muddy sands below, Dash gave the cloud a gentle pat and said, “Good luck. If you try really hard, who knows, maybe you can make an oasis spring up before you evaporate.”
With that Rainbow resumed her westward flight. Although somewhere deep inside she felt a little bad leaving the cloud that had faithfully drifted westward overnight for her with such an impossible task, but there was nothing more she could do, and Celsetia knew this place needed all the rain it could get.
The day’s flight was, for the lack of a better term, uneventful. Flying high had kept Rainbow Dash out of the desert heat and even high enough above a stray sandstorm that she didn’t need to alter her course. The afternoon had been slower then she would’ve liked as she’d spent it pushing the only other cloud she’d seen since morning with her. As tempting as the idea of just refilling her canteen and flying on without the cloud was, Dash had just spent a day with nothing better to do then watch how quickly the desert sands below shifted. She had seen enough to know that sleeping on the ground or even at one of the stone ruins would likely result in being buried alive.
The dawn of the fourth day began much like the third. Only this time, once breakfast was finished Rainbow Dash had only one meal left in her saddlebags. Although, if she was making as good time as she hoped she was, running out of food today wouldn’t be a problem. With her canteen refilled and the cloud left raining, she once more set out for another painfully boring day.
* * * * * * *
The sun had set and yet Dash was still flying, her eyes fixed on the lights dancing in the night before her. Her flight form grew ever more sloppy as her body requested sleep, but she pressed on, the lights of the coastal town she’d intended to reach today where too close to call it a night now. Rainbow’s stomach growled, reminding her yet again that she hadn’t had dinner, and she continued to ignore it.
Finally close enough to see the ground illuminated by the town’s torchlights, Rainbow Dash aimed herself toward what looked like the town’s main gate, or the wall just above it anyway. She could finally feel the mists blowing in off the ocean as she came to a hover just outside the city wall.
A griffin and an earth pony were standing on the wall’s parapet, over the gate. Both wore armor with the same insignia, and on seeing that a pegasus had appeared the pony called out, “Who goes there!? And why do you approach our town this late at night!?”
“I’m Rainbow Dash, and I’m flying medicine back to Equestria. I just need a safe place to stay the night and to buy some supplies before I head out in the morning.”
Balancing a clipboard on one hoof the pony guard took a pencil in his mouth and wrote while saying, “Medical courier, huh? Stay out of trouble while you’re here. Oh, the markets will be closed at this time of night, but if all you’re after is food you could probably get that from whatever inn you stay at.”
“Thanks. One question before I go. Do they take bits around here?” Rainbow Dash asked, as she hovered past the top of the wall.
The stallion chuckled before answering, “Lady, at the end of the day gold and silver are gold and silver. You’d be hard pressed to find someplace where the merchants won’t barter for gold and silver, even if they have no respect for the images engraved on the coins. Just don’t be surprised if the prices seem higher here then back home.”
“Thanks!” Dash said as she descended to the town’s streets, finally allowing her weary wings a rest from the day’s flying.
Walking along Rainbow found a camel and even a Saddlearabian horse, also sporting guard’s armor, further calling into question what nation actually owned this outpost town. Although, truthfully she didn’t care, civilized creatures had more or less the same rules, so ‘staying out of trouble’ shouldn’t be too hard.
Having passed more guards then fellow late night strollers, Rainbow Dash finally found an open door with light flowing out into the street. A glance at the sign revealed several sets of text, one of them she could read as saying ‘Land’s End Inn.’
Inside was a mix of ponies, griffins, camels, horses, and even a couple of zebra’s could be found sitting by the fireplace. The chatter of the place told that most seemed to be here for a late dinner and to share tales of the day over a drink, none paid the newly arrived pegasus more then a passing glance before resuming what they had been doing.
Crossing the room, heading for the blue earth pony mare behind the counter that seemed to run the place, Dash couldn’t help but notice the noisiest of the crowd was a trio (composed of a griffin, a camel, and a horse) playing cards off to one side.
“Welcome to Land’s End. What can I get you, traveler?” the blue mare with a sea-foam green mane asked.
“I need a room for the night and three days food for the road, what’s that cost in bits around here?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“Twenty bits.”
Rainbow frowned at the words. “I don’t have that much, would fifteen bits and a canteen be enough to talk you into it?” she asked with a pleading smile.
“Look I can-” the inn owner started before cutting herself off. Yelling from the trio playing cards was drawing the attention of everyone in the room. “One sec Miss, I need to take care of this,” she said instead. “What seems to be the trouble here?” the innkeeper asked, as she approached the card players’ table.
“This dirty griffin is cheating! That’s what!” the camel at the table yelled.
“Me?! It’s your deck of cards, so it has to be you that’s cheating!” the griffin yelled back.
The innkeeper frowned, as a quick glance at the table showed one more ace of spades then a deck of cards should have laying face up.
Equally unhappy Rainbow Dash stepped forward. “Look, it’s plan as day the griffin was cheating-” With the flick of her tail Dash whipped the griffin’s left wing, causing three cards to fall from their hiding place, and continued to speak without missing a beat, “-So the game is forfeit, all bets are off. Just take whatever you started with and go home.” Turning to face the innkeeper she added, “Can we get back to business now?”
With the cheater revealed and a reasonable solution proposed, the innkeeper was content to join Rainbow Dash in stepping back from the card table. Not so content was the griffin at the card table, who grabbed the money on the table and bolted from his chair. Needless to say the other two card players didn’t take kindly to being robbed and tackled the griffin, causing the trio to tumble into a nearby table. Where the drunken customers were more then happy to jump at the excuse to start swinging even though they didn’t know why. Within seconds Dash was defending not only herself, but also the innkeeper from a barroom brawl.
Two minutes, a black eye, and a bloody talon-slashed right shoulder latter and Rainbow Dash was helping hand over the card players to the town guards. She breathed a sigh of relief as she checked her saddlebags and found the medicine was still intact.
“Hey, thanks for helping me restore order back there uh… Say what was your name?” the earth pony innkeeper said, as she slumped into a sitting position beside Rainbow.
“Name’s Rainbow Dash, and no problem. Heh I’m just glade you didn’t blame me for the fight.”
“All you did was call the cheater out. Not your fault he didn’t have the decency to admit defeat and walk away like a civilized person. Oh my name is Ocean Mist by the way,” she said managing a smile, despite the fact that half her tables were now in serious need of repair. The two shared a sigh before Mist added, “I have just one question. How did you know the griffin was cheating?”
“I used to be friends with a griffin. She taught me that trick for hiding cards in your wing. Works better for griffins though. Bigger wings make it easier to slip the cards in and out unnoticed. The problem with that trick is that you can’t quite rest your wing all way against your side or the cards will fold flat into your feathers and you won’t be able to get them out again without fully opening your wing,” Rainbow explained.
A sly smile crossed the Ocean Mist’s face. “Ah, so you’re experienced at it?”
“What? No! Not like that, I only used it when she was teaching me, when we were just playing for fun. Besides I’m an athlete, if I want to win money I enter a race, I don’t play cards. It… It just helps to know how to tell if the other guy is cheating, right?” Rainbow Dash defended.
That drew a hearty laugh from Mist, to which she added, “You know, I think I like you. Not many ponies understand that devious knowledge can have honest uses. Tell you what. From a pegasus like you, I’d say your canteen is worth five bits.”
* * * * * * *
The morning light came sooner the Rainbow Dash would have liked. Ocean Mist had even thrown in a generously portioned dinner and fresh bandages along with the room and provisions. However, that didn’t change the fact that Rainbow had been late to bed, and with three days of hard flying behind her, her body wanted more rest before setting out again, paced flight or not. But the sun had risen and Dash couldn’t afford to linger any longer.
The fifth day of her journey had only been interrupted when Rainbow hid in a cloud for a few minutes to let a distant dragon pass by without noticing her.
Sitting on a lone cloud with only a map, two days food, and the zebra medicine, her saddlebags were noticeably lighter then when she’d first left Ponyville. Looking out into the night, a shiver ran down Rainbow Dash’s spine.
Growing up in Cloudsdale She’s seen many a night dark enough for the ground to vanish into the shadows of night. Back then there had always been a city of clouds around, and even snow-capped mountains glistening in the moonlight. But out here, over the ocean, there was only darkness beyond her little cloud. If not for the moon and stars the universe could have been a ten-foot sphere and she wouldn’t have been able to tell the difference.
There was a slight tremble in her voice as she whispered to the night, “I hate being alone.”
Digging her hooves in, Dash gave a mighty flap of her wings, speeding the cloud’s westward drift. With that she burrowed into cloud and went to sleep.
The first rays of the morning sun struck the cloud, making the water vapor light up, dragging the lone pegasus from her slumber. For some reason one of her wings wasn’t folded against her side, as it should have been. The vanishing echoes of a dream flashed in her mind as little more then colors and sounds, but it was enough.
A calm smile graced Rainbow Dash’s face and she whispered, “Thank you Scoots. You’re right, I’m never alone in spirit.”
Closing her eyes she envisioned not only the filly who had come to her in her dreams, but the friends she knew would be waiting back home, ready to give her a hero’s welcome when she returned. Filled with a newfound determination to earn that hero’s welcome, Dash departed for the sky, evaporating the cloud with the sheer force of her takeoff.
* * * * * * *
As the sixth day went on, Rainbow Dash passed a pegasus caravan and even an airship as she soared across the endless waters of the ocean. By the afternoon a wall of fast moving clouds had appeared on the horizon.
With the sun growing low and the distance between Dash and the storm clouds rapidly shrinking, the weather pony finally realized what was before her, a hurricane.
Of course, being captain of Ponyville’s weather team she had heard of these legendary storms before. However, seeing as Ponyville was too far inland and even separated from the ocean by a mountain range Rainbow Dash had never had to deal with one before. Truth be told, the stories of storms hundreds of miles across, with winds that could exceed two hundred miles an hour did little justice to the raging sea of rapidly churning clouds spanning on the western horizon before her.
Below the clouds, toward the heart of the storm, Dash could see a wall of water raised up above the rest of the water. Storm surge, a term that just joined hurricane on the list of words that, until today, had been nothing more then pictures in a classroom book she’d barely paid attention to. The clouds themselves thrashed about as violently as the seas below. Finally the part of the storm that truly sent a shiver down her spine was the silence, drawing closer to the storm the air had become eerily calm, as if the storm was literally consuming the violence of the turbulence normally present in the skies.
A longing glance to the north reminded Rainbow that any sane pegasus would go around the storm, but that would easily add a day to her trip, a trip that was already taking too long in her mind, a trip that needed shortcuts, not delays. As her eyes fell on the setting sun beyond the hurricane another thought passed through her mind. Perhaps a sane pegasus would simply whip up a cloud to spend the night on right here, and hope the storm got out of her way overnight.
Eyes fell once more on the clouds rushing along, and while she could certainly fly faster then those clouds if she’d tried, they were rushing along faster then her current paced flight speed. Flashes of lightning came from deeper in the storm, much closer to its center, but along the edge there seemed to be only wind and rain. Rainbow Dash looked at her hooves, the hooves of a pegasus, hooves that would walk on clouds. Bringing her front hooves together she prayed, “Please let this be a good idea.” With that she surged ahead, flying right for the storm.
As the approach continued the silence of the dead zone air finally gave way to the sound of roaring winds and pouring rain. The dead air finally gave way to a sideways breeze as Dash felt the slight winds coming off the storm buffet her side. Suddenly the winds became a gale, and the wind shear sent Rainbow Dash tumbling. It took the master weather pony only a moment to brake out of the tailspin as she fought the turbulent air. The more she fell in sync with the air currents around her the less trouble she had, until she was basically gliding along with the clouds of the storm.
Looking down, Dash gave a hard gulp as she beheld the clouds below her rolling and churning like ocean waves. Spoiling her wings she let her lift evaporate, lowering herself to the clouds. When her hooves touched down she folder her wings to her side, letting her weight shift to the clouds, and immediately a shock of surprise ran up her leg as she felt her legs sink into the cloud as if it were made of mud or quicksand.
Unlike mud or quicksand a panicked flap of her wings pulled her hooves free with extraordinary ease. “Well that’s new,” Rainbow voiced her surprise at the unexpected reaction to her attempt to stand on the clouds. “Come on Rainbow Dash, you’re the top weather pony of Ponyville and you are not going to let a little weather beat you!” she declared, once more only speaking to herself.
Lowering herself within reach of the clouds once again, Dash reached out a hoof and stroked the surface of the raging water vapor. “Come on, calm down. I just need a nice strong little cloud,” the pegasus said, despite knowing her words meant nothing to water vapor. The cloud around her hoof became a small flat patch of cloud.
Rainbow Dash folded her wings, and let herself land on the cloud. It felt unsteady but solid, but also like it was about to brake apart in the winds at any moment. Sitting down and closing her eyes Dash thought to herself, Calm yourself Rainbow, clouds copy the state of the weather pegasus guiding them. Feeling the cloud beneath her stabilize, she opened her eyes to check the results of her work.
There was a clear ring around Rainbow Dash, marking the line between her stable cloud and the still raging and rapidly churning storm clouds of the hurricane. Her own little patch of stable cloud was now riding the rolling storm clouds much like a raft in the raging seas.
Patting her patch of cloud gently Rainbow said, “Looks like it’s just you and me. I’m counting on you to hold together overnight, you can do that for me right?” Needless to say the cloud did nothing to respond, however, a sudden blast of distant lightning seemed to complain from the center of the hurricane. “Well nopony asked you!” Dash shouted back at the distant center of the storm.
Lying down Rainbow Dash did her best to fall asleep despite the raft-like swaying of her patch of cloud.
A tug on Dash’s tail dragged her from the realm of dreams. Startled awake she tried to raise her head, but found the resistance of cloud push back against her. On panicked reflex she tried to open her wings only to find the resistance of cloud against her sides too. In the confusion of her still half-asleep mind she couldn’t understand why she was entombed in a cloud.
The tug on Rainbow Dash’s tail became a mighty pull, yanking her free of her cloudy prison. Looking back she found a gray pegasus stallion with a dark blue mane standing behind her, and her prismatic tail still griped in his mouth.
With an upward nod he seemed to be asking her to take flight, the feeling coming from Dash’s body as she started sinking into the clouds agreed that that was a good idea. As soon as they were hovering just above the clouds the stallion released her tail and asked, “How many are with you?”
“What?” she responded stupidly, not that she didn’t hear the question but because she didn’t understand why he assumed anypony was with her. The stallion repeated his question word for word. “None, I’m flying alone,” Dash finally answered the question.
With a raised eyebrow leading into a disappointed shake of his head the stallion raise a hoof, pointing through the rolling clouds, and said, “Come on. We made camp over there.”
The rolling waves of clouds moved enough to spot two pegasus wagons parked on a patch of smooth cloud, along with three more pegasi gathered there. “You know, you’re lucky the moon’s been acting weird lately,” the stallion said as the two flew toward the pegasus camp.
“The moon?” Rainbow Dash said as she tossed a glance at the celestial object, and finding the full moon so low on the horizon as to mark the night as having barely begun.
“It was barely a half moon the other day. Princess Luna doesn’t usually pull the moon out of cycle, and yet she raised a full moon tonight. Whatever’s happening back in Equestria that made her do that, you’re lucky she did. I doubt I’d have seen your tail sinking into the clouds with only the light of a half moon, like tonight should’ve been.”
Mouthing the words ‘thank you’ before pulling her gaze away from the moon, Rainbow landed on the patch of firm clouds.
“I take it you’ve never dealt with a hurricane before?” the stallion asked.
“Was it that obvious?” Dash said, hanging her head slightly.
“Yeah, stable clouds don’t last more then thirty minutes without somepony keeping it together. Not exactly the brightest idea, trying to sleep on a hurricane solo when you know that the only way to make it through the night is to sleep in shifts while somepony keeps the camp stable. And certainly not a good idea to let these clouds spit you out bottom side where the lightning can hit ya easier,” he answered with a bit of a grin.
With a tired nod Dash volunteered, “I see. In that case I’ll take an early shift, I need to get going at dawn if I’m going to have any chance of making it back to Equestria in time.”
A weariness in the stallion’s eyes that could only came from having seen too much of the world flashed across his face. Shaking his head he responded, “Tight deadline huh? Don’t worry about it Missy, we weren’t planing on extra help when we set down here. No point messing up the rotation we had already planed, just get some sleep and we’ll wake you come morning.”
Looking to the stallion’s team, a second stallion and two mares, each nodded in agreement as Rainbow’s eyes fell on them. She thanked them and took them up on the offer, curling up beside one of the wagons.
Rainbow Dash awoke to the feeling of a hoof pressing on her shoulder, looking up she found the sun low in the sky, but dawn well past over. “It’s almost time for you to be going Missy. Hurricane’s almost lined up for a west departure.”
“Looks past time I get going actually,” Dash commented.
That got a laugh from the stallion. “Saw the fatigue in the way you held yourself last night, the way you hold yourself now. Seen your type before, you push yourself until you brake. We both know you’re no use to anypony broken, yet you can’t bring yourself to hold back while anypony’s counting on you.”
Rainbow wanted to protest but when she opened her mouth to do so, she couldn’t find anything untrue with the stallion’s words.
He continued, “Did what I knew would give you the chance to make better time. You got maybe five minutes to eat something before this sinning top is lined up for you to head straight out, and be pointed more or less west when you get out of the storm winds.”
Pulling something to eat out of her saddlebags, Dash had little choice but to see that today was the last day she’d have food crossing the ocean. “Hey, how far do you think we are from Equestria?” she asked, between mouthfuls.
“For you, I’d say three days. A healthy pony could probably make landfall in two and a half.”
Securing her saddlebags, Rainbow Dash gave a confident grin and said, “Two days out, got it.” With that she took off like a rocket, leaving a prismatic streak in he wake.
Once Dash had escaped the storm winds and put herself back on course for Equestria, she realized that the whole time she’d been with the caravan pegasi they’d never asked her name, nor had she asked theirs.
* * * * * * *
As the seventh day dragged on Rainbow Dash was becoming increasingly annoyed with her friends’ faith in her.
“Darn it Dash! Why do you have to be so awesome that your friends actually believe you when you talk yourself up! Darn it Twi! How can you get two princesses involved in all this and not think to get the wonderbolts to set up a relay for the last leg on this miserable flight!” Dash growled to the wind, glancing at the saddlebags that now only contained the medicine and a map.
“Darn it Twilight, I’m only one pony… Only one mortal pony, I need to sleep…” Rainbow moaned. A growl from her stomach made her add, “And eat…”
Slowing down for a moment, Rainbow Dash whipped up a cloud, and forcing it to rain, she drank from the puff of cloud. Having some water in her belly calmed the hunger pains for the moment, but she knew it wouldn’t last.
A smile graced her face when she finally spotted something she could use a mark of progress. With the sun set and no longer in her eyes, she had found an island on the horizon. The light of the full moon allowed her to not lose sight of the island even after the twilight faded into night.
After a few hours of night flying, the island was now below Rainbow Dash. It was a small island, perhaps fifty miles across at its widest point at best. A single mountain in the center seemed to be the only terrain of note, that and the ring of trees along the base of said mountain.
Gliding down toward the western side of the island, aiming for the tree line, Dash spotted something in the trees. Although the moonlight was enough to fly by, she would need to get closer to see just what was in the these trees that set them apart from the others. A smile graced her face as she finally drew close enough to see that they were some kind of fruit, just as she had hoped.
Landing in the tree Rainbow took a moment to look around and listen, and a chill passed over her as she searched. Something was wrong, but she couldn’t place it. Further up the mountain the land was lifeless, desolate, even the jagged edges of the rocks glimmered in the moonlight as if to announce that nothing lived up that way. Beyond the base of the mountain, there was little more then sparse grasses giving way to sandy beaches.
Then it hit her. The only sounds were the rustle of the wind in the leaves, no birds startled by the arrival of a pegasus, no skittering of insects, just wind through the leaves. The grass and the trees are the only living things on this island. Rainbow thought as she finally took one of the melons from the tree she was in.
Having nothing to cut the melon open like a civilized pony, Dash used one hoof to pin it against the trunk of the tree and another to smash half of the fruit to a pulp with a single punch. Inspecting the remaining half of the melon, she found its insides to be a green mush that reminded her of cantaloupe, maybe it even was a cantaloupe, did cantaloupe come in green? Or was it only orange and the green stuff in the fruit salad was called something else?
Shaking the pointless thoughts from her mind, Rainbow Dash first sniffed the green fruit like stuff, and with nothing in its smell warning her to pull back she licked it. The taste was bland but not unpleasing, so she preceded to appease her hunger.
Enjoying her midnight snack Dash took out her map and began looking for the island along Equestria’s coast. “That’s weird. I can’t be that far off the trade-route flight paths can I? Or did Twilight just give me a really outdated map?” Whatever the cause, all of the islands on the map were too big or just plain the wrong shape to be the one she was on now.
After returning the map to her saddlebags Rainbow took another melon from the tree and judged its weight. “Darn, too heavy to slow myself down hauling these. Guess you’ll be breakfast though,” she said placing the fruit in her bag, but refusing to pick any more for the flight. With that she shifted herself into a stable resting position in the tree and drifted off to sleep.
Much to Rainbow Dash’s dismay, a growing rumbling noise interrupted her sleep. “Five more minutes daddy,” she moaned still mostly asleep, instinctively tucking her tail in tight to make it harder for somepony to grab, and waving a dismissive hoof at the air beside her branch of a bed.
A thunderous boom nearly shook Dash from her perch, catching herself with her front legs she was left dangling from the branch. Eyes wide open she had little choice but to notice that the tree was no longer bathed in the silver light of the moon, but now was illuminated by red light. Looking over her shoulder she found a pillar of fire coming from the top of the mountain, fiery debris spreading out in the sky overhead, and a death cloud of burning ash was flowing down the side on the mountain like a fiery mudslide, right at her.
“Yeah that figures,” Rainbow Dash said, too tired to actually put any emotion in her words. A burning boulder crashed down nearby, igniting the trees around the impact site. “Yeah that’s it! I’m outa here!” Dash yipped as she took flight.
Dodging all of the fiery rocks falling from above was slowing Dash down enough that the cloud of burning ash was gaining on her as she shot for the island’s coast. A glance over she shoulder gave her a glimpse of the trees behind her bursting into flames even before the ash cloud swallowed them. She could feel the intense heat radiating form the menacing cloud chasing her, and even glimpsed her own tail bursting into flames only for the flames to be snuffed out by the winds of her flight.
Flapping her wings for all they were worth and abandoning dodging the smaller stones for a more direct flight path, Rainbow pulled slightly ahead of the ash cloud, doing her best to ignore the searing pain cased by the smaller volcanic debris bouncing off her back.
When Dash reached the ocean, the cloud of ash started mixing with the ocean mists and finally slowed, allowing the pegasus enough room to finally surrender some speed for altitude and get above the ash cloud altogether.
Her escape from the island had only taken seconds, and with a few more minutes of hard flying she was even out of range of the volcanic debris. Thankful for the full moon to fly by, Dash continued on until she’d put a good hour’s distance between herself and the burning island, and only then did she feel safe enough to whip up a cloud so she could stop again.
Wrapped in a blanket of cloud to sooth the burns on her back, and with a wary eye Rainbow Dash watched volcanic plum until she was certain that the high altitude winds were blowing it east, away from her. Double checking her saddlebag and finding the medicine still intact, she set her cloud drifting westward, and then she finally found some much-needed sleep.
* * * * * * *
With even less sleep then her already reduced sleep schedule called for and only a single melon for breakfast, Rainbow Dash dragged herself through the eighth day, trying to maintain a decent pace despite her weakened state. By midday she had long past accepted that there would be no help to rush the medicine ahead of her to Ponyville. By nightfall Rainbow’s body was begging her for sleep, but with the city lights of Baltimare glowing on the horizon there was no way she was going to stop until she’d made landfall.
With a few more hours of night flying, Dash was finally close enough to fix her wings and glide down to the coastal city, and the target of her decent was the train station. “What are you thinking Dash?” she mutter to herself. “You know you don’t have any money with you. And with nopony waiting to help you, what are the odds that anypony left a ticket order in my name? None that’s what.” Yet she continued on her course anyway.
The Inside of the train station was practically abandon, even sporting more staff then customers when Rainbow entered the building. The stallion manning the ticket counter was lazily reading a comic book until he heard the clop of weary hooves approaching. Looked up to great the pony he opened his mouth to speak, but his mouth failed to issue the greeting once his eyes fell on the new mare in the building.
“When’s the next train to Ponyville?” she asked with the weight of exhaustion in her voice.
The ticket counter pony looked to his sheets of paper and finally managed to find his voice, “Umm… let’s see, oh here it is. Eight o clock tomorrow morning.”
“How about Canterlot? Is there a night train to there?”
“Sorry Miss, but you just missed the night train to Canterlot. It left about ten minutes ago.”
“Any other trains leave recently?”
“Uh, no,” he answered, not entirely sure what to make of that question.
“Thanks. Oh, and if nopony else has mentioned it to your weather team, I passed a hurricane over the ocean, two days out,” the mare with the prismatic mane said, and then walked back out. As soon as the door closed behind her, Rainbow Dash took to the sky.
Five minutes latter and Dash was diving at the lone westward train, landing on the roof of the caboose. A growl from her belly reminded her that she hadn’t eaten since dawn. “Sorry, but you’re going to have to wait. I’ve got no ticket, and Zecora doesn’t have time for me to explain things if I get caught sneaking into the dinning car.” With that, she curled up behind the raised portion of the caboose’s roof to help shield herself from the wind.
* * * * * * *
When the morning light of the ninth day woke Rainbow, she poked her head out from behind the raised part of the caboose’s roof, and finding the air ahead clear she leapt into the sky. After a moment of orienting herself, she’d found that the coast was no longer in sight, and the Canterlot Mountains were on the western horizon, and unless she was mistaken that was Foal Mountain to the north.
“No more holding back. Wings, don’t fail me now,” Dash said to herself, before surging forward.
Although Rainbow Dash was in no shape to pull off a sonic rainboom, that didn’t stop her from flying fast enough to create a prismatic streak in the air behind her as she made her flight for Ponyville.
The mid-morning sun cast Dash’s shadow well ahead of her as Ponyville finally came into sight. Somepony must have been waiting for her, as a scattering of colorful dots showed the town’s pegasi were hoisting a huge banner into the air. Despite the banner being the size of several buildings, it’s letters were so large that Dash could read the single word written on it even though she was still several miles out, and the lone word on the banner was ‘hospital’. Tweaking her aim, she descended toward the indicated building.
As Rainbow Dash drew nearer to the hospital it was impossible not to notice the glow of illusion magic creating giant glowing arrows pointing to a single open window on the third floor. Flaring her wings she slowed just enough for a hard landing through said window.
Hitting the floor hard Rainbow slid across the room, causing a yellow pegasus, a tan earth pony, and a white unicorn to all jump out of her way. Dash hadn’t even finished sliding by the time she pulled open her saddlebag, presenting the medicine. Twilight Sparkle wasted no time using her magic to grab the wooden bottle and administer the medicine to Zecora.
“Did… I… make… it?” Dash gasped between exhausted breaths.
“I’m sure ya did Rainbow. But what happened to you?” Applejack, the tan earth pony, said.
Ignoring the sudden gasps that came from her friends as they beheld her bandaged, singed form, crowned by the fading remnants of a barely visible black eye, Dash said through her heavy breathing, “I’m no doctor… but I don’t think… heartbeat monitors… are suppose to… sound like that.”
“You’re right, but all we can do now is wait and see if the medicine works,” Twilight said, fixing her eyes on the mentioned heartbeat monitor.
“Rainbow, darling, forgive me if this seems the wrong time to be asking this. But when was the last time you bathed?” the white unicorn, Rarity, asked.
“I don’t know, three days ago I guess… I got cloud scrubbed pretty good… when I tried to sleep on a hurricane.”
“Oh get over it Rarity, it’s just the smell of hard work. I am a might curious about everything else though. Ya look like ya flew through a war zone Rainbow,” Applejack said with a bit of a smirk.
“Quite, listen,” Twilight said, before Dash could answer. Directing her friends’ attention to the heartbeat monitor she added, “See, Zecora is recovering from the abnormal heartbeat, and it’s getting stronger too.”
Those words were all the permission Rainbow Dash needed to stop fighting her exhaustion, and she collapsed to the floor.
“Rainbow!” her friends cried in unison.
“So tired… so hungry…” Dash managed to mumble before passing out.
* * * * * * *
The feeling of a small soapy hoof rubbing her lower back dragged Rainbow Dash from the her nap, followed by the feeling that her back half was submerged in water. Opening her eyes she found her front legs, head, and neck were laying on a folded towel that was being used as a cushion for the rim of a large wooden wash bucket.
Still too tired to move, Dash moved her mind’s attention back to the small hoof and realized that its slightly rough motions were that of somepony trying to wash her, all the while taking extraordinary care around her burns.
The grass at the base of the washtub told Rainbow that she was outside, but unable to figure anything else out without moving, curiosity drove her to finally lift her head and look around.
“Scootaloo? What are you doing here?” Dash asked of the filly scrubbing her down, then looking past her to the apple farm beyond Rainbow added, “Wait, what am I doing here?”
“Rainbow Dash! You’re awake!” Scootaloo exclaimed, taking a brake from washing her hero to hug the elder pegasus, even allowing herself to fall into the tub to do so. “When I saw you flying into town I rushed to the hospital, so I could hear all about your amazing adventure! But you had already passed out by the time I got there. Once the doctors said there was nothing wrong with you, Rarity promised to take the crusaders out to eat wherever we wanted if we gave you a bath. So here we are,” Scootaloo answered, releasing Rainbow from the hug and getting back to washing her.
“Okay, I get the tub and all, but why sweet apple acres? I’m pretty sure I’ve seen showers at the hospital,” Dash asked, lowering her front half into the water, leaving only her head resting on the towel-padded rim. Scootaloo took that as her queue to start scrubbing down Rainbow’s front half.
“Well sugar cube, Pinkie Pie was causing such a ruckus trying to get permission to throw a party at the hospital, so Zecora could attend, so Ah figured we should just get ya out of everypony’s way. Ah do have one question for ya, the doctors wanted to know if ya knew something about your leg and shoulder they didn’t?” Applejack answered and asked, drawing Rainbow Dash’s attention for the first time since she’d woken up.
“My leg and shoulder?” Rainbow repeated blankly.
“Ya had em wrapped in blood-stained bandages, but the doctors couldn’t figure out why.”
“Oh, yeah. I was just being lazy I guess. Those cuts would’ve healed days ago. I just never got around to ditching the bandages… Hey! What’s so funny?” Dash asked, taking notice of the goofy smile Applejack had on her face.
Applejack scrunched her nose trying to keep quite for a moment before confessing her thoughts, “Oh nothing, just thinking the way Scootaloo is washing you, it looks a bit like she’s giving you a massage at the spa. Come to think of it ya never do join us when Rarity invites us all to a spa day. Why I bet what Scootaloo is doing for ya is the closest you’ve ever come to having a massage.”
“And you would win that bet. You know the hot tub is the only thing I ever use at the spa,” Rainbow said, tilting her head back to help Scootaloo pour water on her and wash the top of her head.
Getting up and starting to walk away Applejack said, “Well now that you’re wake, Ah guess Ah don’t need to be supervising Scootaloo. Seeing as ya said ya were hungry before ya passed out, Ah guess Ah’ll go see what’s keeping Apple Bloom and Sweetie Bell with that pie they were suppose to be helping Granny make.”
Once the two pegasi were alone a stray thought made Rainbow Dash ask, “Hey Scoots?”
“Yeah?”
“I thought neither of your friends could cook to save their lives.”
“They can’t.”
Author's Note
I hope you enjoyed the story. As always any honest critique is welcome, and if you think said critique is too spoilery for the comments section of the story feel free to send them to me in a privet message.
