Scintilla (Go the distance)

She could feel the wind blowing on her face, her feathers ruffling and guiding her wings though the strong speeds she was flying at. Oh, that exhilarating feeling of freedom that no one could take away from her was like no other, and at times, it was something she wished she could share with her loved ones.

Rainbow could see her shadow beneath her as she flew in a straight line following Rook’s directions, it seemed to joyfully dance in the dunes while it accompanied her across the desert as nightfall approached. There was something about flying at night that Rainbow found alluringly exciting, more often than not she would spend her after hours – usually (way) past the dead of night when everypony is asleep. Arguably, that might be the reason she took so many naps during the day – just flying without course, breathing in the midnight air and being with herself.

The pegasus glanced up at the sky, at the stars and at the slowly rising moon, and she thought of the previous evening.

Most ponies would bicker that a day is not enough time to change one's mind, but even if this mare was called the fastest flier in all of Equestria for her flying skills alone, she liked to apply that title to everything else she did – even if said habit would bring her to make not the best of choices, at least she could recover quickly –. Her encounter with Rook left her surprisingly with a peace of mind she hadn't felt in some time, and she realised this when her nostalgia and homesickness were nowhere to be found.

Rainbow began to think of the whereabouts of the old earth pony. He seemed an experienced traveller, obviously, but she wondered whether they would meet again or not. She hoped they would, he was a nice fellow.

Speaking of which, Rainbow thought again of the map Rook showed her. It was a pity there was no scenery to entertain her during her flight, just... sand – No matter, she could stand some sand now that she had something to set up a barrier between her and... it –. Her line of thought drifted back to the town Rook warned her about, Tayne, it did not sound as creepy as he made it seem.

If Rook was to be trusted, then she would find a... what was it called, now? A Cataloger? Caregiver? Cashier? Something beginning with 'C'. Regardless, she was supposed to find somepony to give her a map there. That was a good way to start looking for her friends, otherwise she might as well fly around blindfolded.

Circling back to Tayne. Rook said that, despite giving him 'the creeps', it was the place to be to know your way around, and Rainbow could only wonder what she might encounter there to begin with. Everything she knew was from Cloudsdale to Ponyville, and some specific parts of Canterlot she'd never been to alone (like the train station, or the way to and the Royal Castle, or Pony Joe's doughnut Shop). Maybe she could count the Everfree Forest, but then again, she'd only ever ventured into it twice and never alone. So all of this... This was an adventure, and it was dangerous, and new, and exciting! She felt like a hero in some sort of twisted novel!

No, not a hero, she was a mare on a mission, this voyage was just part of it.

"Focus, Dash!" She said out loud. "This isn't some adventure, this is serious! Be serious!".

As she flew through the night sky, Rainbow felt the weight of the element on her neck. She wished she could have a saddlebag or some means to carry it with her (besides herself), it was getting too heavy and bothersome for her liking. However did the snobbish nobles of Canterlot manage to wear heavy accessories and gowns all day long was beyond her. Even the princesses! They wore jewellery everyday and she hadn't heard a peep from them in any newspaper – or those gossiping sheets Rarity read sometimes –. Seriously, this was a pain! Give her a whole day of bucking clouds away anytime and she would still feel fresh as lettuce, but this necklace had to be the heaviest in the history of necklaces!

Rainbow started to laugh through her teeth. Look at her, she could barely stand wearing a necklace for a few days and her muscles were crying for a respite by now. She was an athlete. She is an athlete. "Get it together, Dash!". She thought.

Rainbow flew for a few more hours before she decided to call it a night. The pegasus landed in a patch of sand she deemed bearable and laid down, covering herself with the ruana as if it was a cocoon. She might have covered a sizable half of the journey to Tayne, but she needed her rest in order to reach the town during daylight, besides, it was a couple hours till dawn, so if anything, she did a great job getting this far.

"Well, well, well, seems like today’s up to a good start".

Rainbow awoke by a sudden voice she didn’t recognize. Surrounding her, a group of ponies stood menacingly watching her every move, they were covered from head to hoof with long pieces of cloth and scraps of metal attached to their limbs, it was nothing she’d ever seen before in Equestria – which reminded her, now more than ever, she was not in Equestria, but in a foreign land –. As far as her math skills went, she counted a total of fifteen ponies, some of which were unicorns, the rest earth ponies, but all of them were armed and ready to strike at a moment's notice. The pegasus also noticed a caravan strapped to a pair of them, and while she could not see what was inside it, she had little interest to find out, she was more concerned with the blade against her neck.

These must be the bandits Rook mentioned.

“We was just following our route and we was greeted by sleepin’ beauty, ain’t it nice?” One of them said – a unicorn –, standing by her side, his accent thick and prominent, one Rainbow never heard before back home. He had a smile on his face, but unlike Rook’s, this was a more ‘run for your life’ type of smile. His profile was sharp and threatening, and Rainbow realised she wasn’t in front of just anypony, this must be the leader of the bandits; the kind of leader whose sharp gaze and indolent attitude were like barbed wire. “I was about to wake ya up with a ‘true love’s kiss’ but, well, ya woke up ‘fore I even had a chance. Way to spoil it for me”.

Rainbow didn’t really know how to react because obviously she’d never been in a situation like this before, but she didn’t gasp, or cowered, or even struggled, because struggling will get her in trouble, she knew that much. That being said, Rainbow looked at him with utter disgust. “How long have you been staring at me sleep, you creep?” She asked.

“Now, is this how ya welcome yer new friends, sleepin’ beauty? C’mon, why don’t ya stand up for us like a good mare and hand over yer stuff?”.

Rainbow stood slowly, being careful not to cut herself with the blade pressed against her neck, and scoffed. “At least buy me a drink first”.

The unicorn laughed “Yeah, that would be the polite thing to do. Sadly, I ain’t a polite stallion” He said, ogling her up and down as if she were made of sweets. “But I can give ya a good time if ya like–” He turned to the rest of his guild “–Ain’t that right?!”.

The rest of the bandits cheered in agreement, some of them whistling and others adding a few comments of their own Rainbow didn’t pay attention to. She was already planning her escape. She just needed to get the bloody blade off her neckline in order to bolt out of here as fast as she could, maybe kick the prick in the muzzle while she was at it; gain some extra points if he bled.

“You’re a smooth talker, aren’t you?” Rainbow said, rolling her eyes. “No wonder you’re so blue balled”.

The unicorn began to walk around Rainbow in a circle, while using his magic to keep the blade in place. “You see, sleepin’ beauty, wherever ya go, no matter what, there are rules to obey. And ya don’t seem to understand them yet” He looked her in the eyes. She maintained a brave face, challenging him, and he grinned in return, Rainbow instantly knew she hated that grin. “The thing is – and it's a really simple thing to understand – ya give me yer shit, or I will kill ya. Maybe not just yet, maybe I will have my way with you before I kill ya, maybe my crew will too, who knows, it’s been a long time since we had a little fun”. The stallion kept on walking, and while he disappeared from her line of sight, Rainbow faced the rest of the bandits guild. Those two in front of her appeared young and scrawny, too feeble to fight back. A pair of wimps, if you will.

“Now I know this is a nasty, big pill to swallow” He said from behind her, too close. “But swallow it. Ya ain’t safe here, ya thought ya was, but ya ain’t” Rainbow turned to look at him with a defiant glance.

That’s when the reflection of gold catched her eye, and the eye of the unicorn.

It seemed like he also noticed her slight panic, for he stared at her necklace as well. At the element. “Seems like sleepin’ beauty is a princess after all!” He whooped, drawing the attention of the rest of his group in the process. “Look at that! That's a whole ass gold necklace! Where the fuck did ya get that?”.

“What do you care?”

“‘Cause I’ll sell it, that shit’s mine now, and tonight we’ll eat a whole ass feast ‘cause of that! You just bought me dinner, sugar”.

“It’ll get better”.

“Now why is that?”.

“‘Cause of this”. With that last statement, Rainbow whacked the unicorn in the face with the back of her head. The blade dropped to the ground and she saw her chance. It was now or never! She took it in between her teeth and dashed towards the pair of scrawny boys trembling in their hooves. They saw her coming, of course they did, yet they were too slow to react.

Rainbow thought of wielding the sword, she really did, but they looked so frightened. She couldn't bring herself to do it. Instead, she took advantage of their fear to duck in time between them and make her escape as swiftly as possible. It did not take long before the bandits followed in her pursuit, hurling stones and anything they had on hoof in her direction. Despite it all, it failed to deter her in the slightest, Rainbow turned the sword in every which way and deflected the debris.

She bobbed and weaved through the line of fire as best as her abilities allowed her. Although, due to her raw speed, the bandits had a much more difficult time trying to get to her, which provided Rainbow with a bunch of opportunities to dodge and avoid them.

“Get her!” Sompony screamed, Rainbow assumed it was the unicorn.

One of the ponies finally managed to catch her, they were unarmed, but what they lacked in weapons they compensated for in strength. The bandit held her by the neck with both of their front hooves as they tried to choke her into submission. Rainbow kicked, threw her head back and wrestled to get out of their grasps, but they wouldn’t yield.

“Out of surprises?” They taunted her in mockery, tightening their hold on Rainbow just because they could. She struggled to intake any air as the grip nearly closed her throat up, so she had to drop the sword. The pegasus kept on struggling as the bandit dragged her back to their leader, the rest of them weren’t too far behind.

Rainbow was starting to feel the lack of oxygen in the form of despair. She'd be damned if she let them take her so easily, so she began to wrestle again against her holder. This whole situation screamed necessity, in her opinion. It still took a bit of doing to get through the woollen cloth of the ruana but she managed to free her wings from underneath it.

“She has wings!” One of them screamed in surprise.

“She has wings?!” Another one repeated in astonishment.

“Heck yeah I have wings!” Rainbow Dash celebrated, granted, a bit out of air.

Rainbow flapped her wings around to try and establish some distance between her and the bandit choking her to death. And seeing that they did not expect this, they soon released their chokehold. Rainbow spun around and punched their throat with her hoof. She didn’t stick around to see if they were coming back for round two, the pegasus made a run for the sword back again.

As she turned, another two bandits were awaiting her. Deciding she had no time to deal with them, Rainbow took off to jump into the backs of the ponies and used them as springboards instead, knocking them out of balance and taking back the sword from the sand. “Bwagh” She spit, as sand got to her mouth.

Rainbow leaped back into the air, taking the bandits by surprise, and shot straight for the dawning skies, sword in her mouth, element on her neck, and both the ruana and canteen strapped to her body.

“Come back here!”.

“I’m afraid that’s not possible, not when I have places to be!” Rainbow responded. Taking the sword in between her hooves and raising it in the air for everypony to see. “But I’ll take this as a souvenir! Maybe if you buy me a drink I’ll give it back to you!”.

Rainbow heard the bandits arguing in the distance, and she smiled to herself, setting course back to Tayne.