//------------------------------// // Unavoidable // Story: Rainbow Dash Around the World // by MagicS //------------------------------// The Queen paced back and forth in her room, the glowing green crystal on a pedestal behind her bed. Outside her door were her two last personal guards but she was sure she wouldn’t need them, right? The other Royal Guards had to have succeeded. This was just some tiny insurrection, wasn’t it? Apparently Red Wing was back and coming after her again, but the Royal Guards and the Inquisitors would save her. She knew they would. “I know it, I know it, oh my dear Dreamweaver, I won’t ever let you down...” the Queen nervously prattled to herself. She knew from the last time that Red Wing was coming after her again, she couldn’t let him bring it all down. “Who does he think he is? How can they do this to my Hoofica? He won’t get away with this… he probably wants to save my husband too. Absolutely not, there is absolutely no way I’ll let any of that happen!” The two guards standing outside could more or less hear her frantic mumblings. But as much as that worried them, it was nothing compared to how they could hear a lot more noise coming from the direction of the throne room. That wasn’t right. “Uhh… do you think?...” One of the guards asked the other. He nodded his head, a distressed look on his face. “Yeah...” Red Wing and the rest of the resistance encountered no more… resistance… through the royal wing of Hoofica Castle after getting past the throne room. At best they saw one or two elderly maids and butlers, ones thankfully spared from having to fight earlier. Naturally the whole group was laser-focused on simply reaching the Queen so they could end the horror that had befallen their country. It was only one among them who had noticed something. “Rainbow Dash still hasn’t joined back up with us!” Star Petal said as she ran along with Red Wing and Brass Hoof. “She probably passed out after the adrenaline wore off back there,” Brass Hoof said. “You saw how she was.” “But shouldn’t we-” Star Petal started. “She’ll be fine,” Red Wing said. “She’s far tougher than I could’ve imagined. Let her have her rest, and we’ll come back with some water and food for her once this is over with.” Star Petal seemed a little concerned still, looking over her shoulder to see if maybe the rainbow pegasus was finally coming on her way, but saw nothing. Hesitantly she nodded. “Alright.” All it took after that was one more door, one more staircase, and they were right outside of the Queen’s personal chambers. Finally. They were finally here. After Hoofica being trapped in this nightmare for almost a year, what they wanted was just right past that door. The two guards standing in front of it were shaking in their armor, with a single glance at each other they shook their heads and stepped aside. “Y-You may enter,” the one on the left said. “Smart move,” Red Wing snorted. The ornate doors were shortly thrown open and the leaders of the resistance stepped inside while the others waited outside for them. Inside, they saw a room of incomparable beauty and lavish decoration. Famous paintings and sculptures from the greatest artists across Hoofica’s long history stood along the walls and in the corners. Perfectly grown and groomed flowers sat in planters or hung from the ceiling, and a chandelier of gold with diamond jewels encrusted in it sat in the center. Even the wardrobes and cabinets were fashioned out of the rarest wood and hoof carved with enough detail on them that it had taken master craftsponies weeks to do. The marble tile that made up the floor was also perfectly polished and reflected the ponies stepping over it, while at the back of the room the largest and softest bed one could ever hope to sleep on rested. Truly a room for royalty. Truly a room for one indulging in excess while the rest of the kingdom of Hoofica suffered. The Queen was there, standing in the middle of it, an onyx pedestal coming up from the floor behind her. And a softly glowing green crystal in a slim hexagonal form floated right above it. “You!” The Queen glared at them in a fluctuating mixture of fright and anger while the doors fell back shut with a creak. “How dare you come in here! Just what do you think you’re doing?!” “I think you know the answer to that question, your highness,” Red Wing calmly said back to her. Her eyes darted back to the crystal for a split second. “You can’t! You can’t, Red Wing! You were a Royal Guard once, you must obey the royal family! The King also sides with me!” “Only because of your brainwashing spells,” Star Petal narrowed her eyes at the Queen. “Did Dreamweaver teach you how to do that?” The Queen grit her teeth, the look in her eyes becoming more frenzied with every passing second. “Traitors! Traitors, all of you! You should’ve just listened to orders, should’ve just accepted the new way! I had to throw away everything I ever wanted when my family and his made me become the Queen! I deserve this! I deserve my Hoofica! My Dreamweaver!” Red Wing shook his head and sighed. “As selfish as ever. I would’ve felt sympathy for you at one point, but not after everything you’ve done. I don’t think you even know half of what’s happened because of your choices. Now stand aside, Queen. I have no intention of harming you, but you will be taken captive until we’ve freed the King from your spells and a trial governed by him can take place. But before any of that—the crystal imprisoning Hoofica must be destroyed. Move.” “Noooo!” The Queen roared and stepped back, hugging her body around the pedestal. “Dreamweaver entrusted this to me! He needs it! He needs me!” “Brass Hoof, take her off it and hold her down. Star Petal, destroy it,” Red Wing ordered. “With pleasure~” Brass Hoof grinned and stalked forward towards the Queen, wringing her hooves in anticipation. “Nooo! Stay away you foul scum!” The Queen roared and tried to bat the Vice-Captain away. It was pretty pointless considering the difference in their strength and abilities. Brass Hoof easily peeled her off the onyx pedestal, despite the Queen kicking and screaming the entire time, and wrapped her strong limbs around the Queen’s body to pin her limbs down. The Queen frothed in rage, swinging her head from side to side and trying to break free to no avail. Brass Hoof found the whole performance quite amusing. “Unhoof me! Unhoof me right now!” The Queen demanded. “Quit your yapping! You’re the Queen, right? So have some dignity!” Brass Hoof laughed. Red Wing rolled his eyes as he and Star Petal stepped up to the glowing green crystal. The unicorn stared at it in deep concentration, biting her lip. “You can destroy it, can’t you?” Red Wing asked her. Star Petal didn’t respond at first, her horn merely lit up and a different aura of magic appeared around the crystal. In seconds both her face and horn were dripping with sweet as she concentrated. “This crystal… it’s incredibly powerful and complex magic. I don’t even know where anypony would find something like this. But… I believe I can send a magical surge through it that will cause it to shatter and the spell to be dispelled.” “Don’t!” The Queen yelled again. Red Wing ignored her. “Then do it, Star Petal. Return our sky to us. Make everypony across the entire country see that the nightmare is over.” A smile graced the unicorn’s face. “Yes. Yes, sir.” Rainbow Dash was flying at a speed that actively hurt her with her body in the condition that it was. She wasn’t about to stop though. Wish had disappeared. She had only taken her eyes off the filly for less than a minute but then she was gone. Rainbow Dash didn’t know how she had suddenly up and vanished, but she did know that if she wasn’t with her there was only one other place that kid would be going. Her father’s lab… Rainbow Dash narrowed her eyes. His lab in the highest tower of the castle. If only she knew the layout of this castle a little better she could zoom through it and shoot up there in just a second. Instead she was stuck trying to find some stairs and what the best way to go was. She had never actually been in that part of the castle before. “Why, Wish?” Rainbow said to herself but in truth she still knew the answer. Doubt. Fear. Love. She knew the filly was still internally in turmoil but she had hoped that she wouldn’t do anything like this. Her trust in Rainbow Dash obviously wasn’t unshakable just yet, and she probably believed there was still a good reason for what her father had done. Or still didn’t fully believe everything Rainbow Dash had said. She hated that she had to put the kid through this. That she had to tell her about her father. Even though Rainbow was pretty sure she herself had realized it a while back, but just didn’t want to admit it. Rainbow Dash bit her lip. It’s not like she knew everything either. Nopony knew why exactly Dreamweaver was doing all of this. But she certainly knew that there couldn’t be a good reason for doing something so horrible. There just couldn’t be. Whatever was going to happen in that tower, whatever Dreamweaver was doing, whatever Wish was looking for, it was already filling Rainbow Dash with a sense of foreboding. Rainbow rounded a corner and saw an Inquisitor stumbling about. His white suit was ripped and bloody and he was having trouble standing up. She immediately flew over to him and grabbed him by his collar, shoving her face into his. “Where do you go to get to the castle’s towers?!” “Y-You’re the-” he said in a daze. Rainbow Dash shook him, not having time for any of that. “I asked you—how do I get up to the tallest tower?!” Vox pulled Wish along by the hoof as the two of them quickly ascended the spiraling stairs up the towers. They were almost to Dreamweaver at the top. Wish was tired but Vox didn’t relent at all in hurrying them along, finally wanting to finish with her duty and see just what was going to happen. She also probably needed to start thinking of getting out of here, what with everything else that was going on in the castle. “Come on, silly filly, you know we don’t have unlimited time,” Vox said. “I know,” Wish glared at her. “I can’t walk as fast as you.” “We’re almost there, I’m sure you can keep up for a little longer.” “I’m trying… I hope I don’t have to do anything with you again after today.” “Oh believe me, I hope for the same thing,” Vox chuckled. They walked up further until they were just about to reach the fourth tower. Suddenly Vox’s ears snapped up at attention and she paused, Wish stumbling to a stop next to her. Vox looked back down the steps and a grin came to her face as she stared at the dark curve leading back down. “Well, well, well… isn’t that amusing?” “Huh?” Wish said. “Nothing. But I need to stay here, you can make it to your father’s lab on your own, can’t you?” Vox asked her. Wish stared up at the last few stairs leading to the fourth tower. “Well, yeah. It’s not far...” “Then be a good little filly and go. He’s waiting for you,” Vox reached down and patted Wish on the head before snickering. Wish stopped to look at her, and down back at the stairs for a moment, before picking herself up and running up the steps. Vox listened to her until she couldn’t hear the light steps of the filly anymore and then focused her complete attention at the stairs below her. A whistling sound, cutting through the air, was coming up through the enclosed corridor. Vox licked her lips in anticipation. In a second, Rainbow Dash appeared flying around the corner, her eyes widened as she saw Vox standing above her and she came to a stop, dropping down to the steps. Her face took on a decidedly unfriendly form. “Well I guess I shouldn’t be surprised but I was kind of hoping I wouldn’t have to see you again,” Rainbow Dash said to the Head Inquisitor. “Odd. I was hoping for the exact opposite. You’ve really been up to a lot today. You and Wish,” Vox hummed as she looked down at her “favorite” prisoner. “Just get out of the way. I don’t have time for you. And to be totally honest? I really couldn’t possibly think any less of you either.” Vox grinned. “I’m afraid such honeyed words will get you nowhere, Rainbow Dash. Do you have any idea how long I’ve wanted to kill you? How badly I’ve been looking forward to this opportunity? You’re not getting away from me—and you’re most certainly not getting to that pathetic little filly without a fight.” Rainbow’s eye twitched but she managed to retain her cool for now. “I’ve beaten you before, Vox. You really want a repeat of that?” “You know that’s true but I do believe that the deck is stacked in my favor today,” Vox looked up and down Rainbow’s haggard body. “My do you look positively dreadful~” “I’d still rather wake up looking like this every day then wake up looking like you,” Rainbow shrugged. This time Vox’s grin became strained. “It occurs to me that I never did get rid of that sense of humor of yours. Your spirit truly is unbreakable.” She took a step down towards Rainbow Dash and the grin on her face morphed into a dark and malevolent smile. “I suppose I’ll have to settle for breaking your body instead.” Star Petal’s magic wrapped itself around the barrier crystal and hugged it with intense power. The unicorn strained as every muscle in her body screamed out and a powerful headache started spiking down from her horn. Red Wing, Brass Hoof, and the fanatical Queen all watched as the magic started to cause cracks in the crystals surface, cracks that then spread deeper through its body. “NO! Nooooo! Stoooop!” The Queen roared but Brass Hoof held her back easily. “Do it, Star Petal!” Brass Hoof cheered. “I know you can!” “Concentrate...” Red Wing said, much more restrained, a bead of sweat rolling down the side of his head. “I can feel it… I can feel it breaking...” Star Petal said, the strain of her magic causing her nose to bleed, droplets of it marring the impossibly perfect marble floor. An ear-splitting whine then erupted from the crystal as the cracks became more widespread and all of the ponies winced in pain. But even through that, Star Petal kept up her spell. “Hnnnnngggghhhhh...” Star Petal groaned and the cracks had almost spread across and through the entire crystal. Her horn was steaming and the tip had started to turn black. Right as her eyes rolled back and she lost consciousness, the crystal shattered. Millions of pieces too small to even be considered dust exploded outwards and disappeared almost like vapor. The force of the explosion knocked every pony backwards to the walls of the room. Star Petal practically collapsed into Red Wing’s hold while Brass Hoof and the Queen fell apart from each other. While Star Petal was totally out of it, the others were merely dazed and they slowly started to rise again. The Queen gasped in horror at the empty pedestal and tried running over to it before being tripped up and tackled once more by Brass Hoof. “Stay still,” the earth pony grunted in annoyance. “No… no… no...” the Queen merely began to despondently cry. “I’ve lost everything… it’s all gone now...” “Baby,” Brass Hoof snorted. Red Wing carefully got up and laid Star Petal down, checking her pulse and breathing first to make sure she was okay—when he noticed something that made him gasp in shock. He quickly looked over at Brass Hoof and saw the same thing. His shock turned into joy as a smile, a true, genuine smile, came over his face. “Vice-Captain. We’ve done it,” he said to Brass Hoof. “Huh?” Brass Hoof looked over at him. And saw him pointing a hoof to his neck. Just his neck. Her eyes opened wide as well and she glanced down at Star Petal, the unicorn’s neck also devoid of any black band wrapping around it. “It’s a brand new day,” Red Wing said. He sighed deeply and sat down, closing his eyes in contentment, finally feeling like he could take a break. Outside of the castle, across the entire kingdom of Hoofica, the dark sky was clearing and for the first time in many months, rays of unobstructed sunlight began shining down to the ground. At the borders of the kingdom, the shifting wall of colors faded away and the world outside became visible and reachable once more. To any ponies outside, the kingdom of Hoofica had suddenly reappeared after its long absence. In the forest close to the border, the ponies from outside who had been trapped cheered and celebrated together when they noticed their bands were gone and the sky had returned to normal. Across every small town, village, and even big city, ponies left their boarded up homes and went outside to stare up at the blue sky. In the town of New Pasture, fillies and colts were crying and hugging each other in the streets. In the capitol, the riotous fighting that had been going on came to a stop and the thousands of other ponies that lived there were also now finally coming out of their homes and the other buildings. One by one, the formerly bustling capitol had its streets filled once more. A blue sky was overhead, a bright sun was shining down, thunder and lightning was heard no more. The darkness was gone. And while all of that was happening, nopony noticed the single pink pony walking into Hoofica Castle.