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.