Rainbow Dash Around the World

by MagicS

A Betrayal That Isn't A Big Deal

It actually was only an hour until an antelope maid who cleans and takes care of the rooms came upon the tied up Daring Do. One scream and a very beleaguered explanation later and the archaeologist was free. Although it didn’t really change her situation that much. What could she do? Birdseed and Coin Flip had a good head start, she had no idea where they might be going, and she couldn’t leave Camelback while Miss Valentine and Rainbow Dash were expecting her to be here and they still had Shining Diamond to take care of. It left her in a miserable mood. And her head hurt. The pain and exhaustion more than anything else led to her still being able to fall asleep that night.

When she woke up the following morning, there was really only one thing she could do now: wait for Rainbow Dash and Valentine. They couldn’t afford to miss each other so Daring Do left the inn and walked to the western edge of Camelback where she had originally entered from the sand ship. The good news was, the sandstorm from last night had subsided, so she could stand outside without much trouble. A glance to the north still showed storms raging in the desert out there, huge clouds of sand and dust obscured everything. It made sense that if the last clue and the Crystal Sea itself were out there that was why they hadn’t been found yet.

Daring Do sat at the outskirts of town, by the shops and tents operated by camels selling things, and watched the skies to the west. As long as Rainbow and Valentine were coming here, she wouldn’t miss them. Unsurprisingly she was getting a lot of suspicious and dirty looks from the camels around her but she paid them no mind. So long as nobody tried messing with her, she’d just sit here and watch for her friends.

“I hope the two of you get here soon...” Daring Do sighed.

---

“Could you stop moving around so much back there?” Rainbow complained to her passenger.

“You’re too thin, I keep slipping around,” Valentine frowned.

“Well you’re the one who wanted to ride on my back. Sorry I’m not a first-class flight,” Rainbow snorted.

“You need to eat more, honey.”

“Well I’ll tell you what, next ice cream shop I find I’ll clean out the whole place, and then the next time you ride on my back it’ll be better for you.”

Valentine rolled her eyes. “Oh, you’re funny.”

“Whatever, we’re not that far from Camelback now, are we?” Rainbow Dash asked her.

“No,” Valentine shook her head. “Honestly we should be seeing it on the horizon any minute now.”

“Good. No offense but I kind of want you off my back. And I’d really like to get back to taking care of this Crystal Sea and Shining Diamond business. Not like we haven’t been sidetracked enough.”

“Due to a certain crazy mare who’s obsessed with you for some reason.”

“Hey, that aint my fault. Really. I have no idea why she’s after me,” Rainbow said.

“Well obviously someone in this desert has it out for you. Someone who can even scare her. She was positively mad trying to get you,” Valentine said.

Rainbow Dash scowled and bit her lip. “I don’t need you to remind me.”

They flew on over the desert for a while after that, it was still very early in the morning and it hadn’t gotten as horrifically hot yet as it probably would in a few hours. As long as they got to Camelback soon it wouldn’t really be an issue. Of course then the both of them were going to have to search for where Daring Do, Birdseed and Coin Flip were. At least Valentine knew where some of the closest inns (that weren’t run by camels) were in town.

Rainbow Dash yawned after a few more minutes and squinted ahead to see if there was anything besides more sand dunes coming up. To her joy, there was. At first she saw the orange sandstone rock formations rising from the sand, and then the buildings all built around and on them. Camelback came more and more into focus, the dense town sticking out from the sands like an orange hoof.

“Please tell me that’s it?” Rainbow asked Valentine.

“That’s it,” Valentine nodded and then pointed to the north. “And that’s where we need to go next.”

Rainbow Dash glanced north to see an intense raging sandstorm in the distance. “Great.”

“We’ll deal with that when the time comes,” Valentine said.

“Hey, I’m not complaining, I’ve been through worse things than a little sandstorm,” Rainbow shrugged—inadvertently almost knocking Valentine off her.

“Watch it!” Valentine yelped and grabbed on tighter.

“Sorry! Geez!” Rainbow grumbled.

Rainbow Dash started descending closer to the sand as they got closer to Camelback, since Valentine would probably appreciate getting to walk again. And since she definitely wanted the scarlet mare off her back already. It was a crowded looking place but once there they could begin looking for Daring Do and the others together.

Or so Rainbow Dash thought.

As soon as they had gotten a little closer, a dot rose up from the sand around all the little tents and stalls set up on the western edge of Camelback. Both Rainbow Dash and Valentine noticed it and saw that it was coming in their direction. The two of them tensed up and got ready for trouble—when Rainbow Dash got a clear look at who it was and a smile broke out across her face.

“Well I guess we don’t have to waste our time looking around,” she said.

Valentine raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

Rainbow pointed. “Just look who it is.”

Valentine squinted through her sunglasses and took a better look, a grin soon after appearing on her face as well. “Well that at least makes this day a whole lot better.”

The two of them flew towards Daring Do as she came up from Camelback to meet them. Rainbow Dash waved right to her, while Valentine would have if she still didn’t have her hooves in what was practically a death grip around Rainbow Dash. However, as they got closer, the smiles on their faces slowly disappeared as they took note of the expression on Daring Do’s face. She looked very upset.

Rainbow came to a pause in the sky in front of her good friend. “Yo! Glad you got here okay.”

Daring’s expression lightened up a little bit. “And I’m glad to see that you two are okay. I was worried for a bit.”

“Pff! You never need to worry about me,” Rainbow said.

“We handled it decently enough,” Valentine said before getting more serious. “Is something the matter, honey? You look like you have some bad news to deliver.”

Daring Do sighed and nodded her head a few times. “Unfortunately, yeah, I do.”

Valentine looked down to the ground and then back up at Daring, narrowing her eyes. “Where are Birdseed and Coin Flip?”

---

“Are you kidding me?!” Rainbow Dash yelled as she slammed her hooves down on the cafe table she was sitting at. “They really did that?!”

After Daring Do had met them in the skies outside of Camelback, she had told them that they should relax and get a meal first. The trio made their way down into Camelback and Miss Valentine directed them to a pony cafe she knew about. All the coins that Daring had left were used to get bread and water for the three of them. Not much, but it would have to do. The cafe itself was pretty quiet, aside from Rainbow Dash, and since it was a pony cafe there weren’t any camels around. That was the most important part.

“Yep,” Daring Do said. “Ran off last night.”

Valentine meanwhile was glaring down at the table. “Should’ve never trusted them... I thought they would’ve at least had the sense not to cross me. It’s the same mistake I made with Zargoz.”

“They took all of our money too so we’re in an even worse spot,” Daring sighed.

“Well then let’s go find them and-” Rainbow started.

“We can’t,” Valentine interrupted. “We don’t have the time or any clues right now as to where they’ve gone and finding out will take too long. The Crystal Sea comes first and they know it.” Valentine took a deep breath and leaned back in her chair. “At least I still know where we need to go for that.”

“I’m just a little worried now that there’s only three of us and we still have no idea what Shining Diamond might be able to throw at us,” Daring Do said.

Rainbow Dash’s hooves quaked and she exploded, her wings shooting out. “Oh whatever! Who cares about him and who cares about them?” She pointed at herself. “I’m awesome.” She pointed at Daring Do. “You’re awesome.” She pointed at Miss Valentine. “You’re a jerk but you’re awesome too. And together the three of us can still handle anything! Alright?”

Valentine looked up at her and much to her own surprise a smile wormed itself onto her face. “Yeah, alright. It’s not like we can back down now. Those two pack animals weren’t worth all that much anyways.”

“I was never going to say we should give up either,” Daring Do grinned. “I know what we’re all capable of here. You’re right, Rainbow Dash, we can still do this.”

"That’s right!” Rainbow Dash smugly crossed her hooves and sat down.

“We should leave Camelback as soon as possible then,” Daring Do said.

“Since we don’t have any money to buy more food and water though, we should finish up with what we have here before we travel into the desert again,” Valentine said.

“Right. And hope we can find where we need to go by the end of the day,” Daring said.

“The map showed us exactly where we need to go out in the desert north of Camelback. And according to Harzeen there should be something to find out there. I think we’ve got this in the bag, well before Shining Diamond is going to figure out what’s happening,” Valentine said.

“Sounds good to me, now I’m hungry so let’s eat,” Rainbow said and took a big bite out of her bread. She chewed like an animal. “S’Better eat up quick...”

Valentine rolled her eyes. “Good thing we’re not eating anywhere fancy. You always eat like that when you’re hungry, honey?”

Rainbow Dash swallowed down the bread she was eating. “When I’ve got a place to go, yeah.”

“Try not to choke,” Valentine said and started eating much more manageable pieces.

The mood at the table had picked up considerably thanks to Rainbow’s positive attitude and reassurances. The three mares sitting and eating together at the very least could say they were friends and that they believed in each other. Nothing else really mattered after that. It wasn’t even midday so they had plenty of time to get out into the desert. Rainbow grabbed her glass of water and held it up towards the others, Valentine and Daring Do both grinned and grabbed theirs as well.

A quick clink of their glasses together and the three downed their water all in one gulp.

“Ahhh...” A refreshed Rainbow Dash sighed in relief after the toast. “I wish I had a huge cake or something to eat right now but whatever, that water still hit the spot. Let’s get out of here.”

Daring Do tossed her last piece of bread in her mouth and started munching. “So long to Camelback, one day was too long to be here.”

“It’s never a bad time to leave a camel town,” Valentine chuckled. Her smile then grew slightly more vicious. “And once we’re done with Shining Diamond, the two of us can come back here and get on the trail of our good friends.”

“And I’ll be off to... who knows where at this point honestly,” Rainbow shrugged. “But good luck to the both of you, especially you Daring, I hope you find that temple.”

“Me too, thanks Rainbow,” Daring Do smiled. “But we’re getting pretty ahead of ourselves, let’s get out to that sandstorm.”

“Yes,” Valentine said and stood up from the table.

“Right on!” Rainbow said and hopped out of her chair, already walking towards the entryway with a big grin on her face.

The moment she did, another pony passing by accidentally bumped into her.

“Sorry,” he said, tilting his head in apology and walking past her to another table.

“No problem,” Rainbow grinned and waved at him while Miss Valentine and Daring Do came up beside her. Together the three of them left the cafe and walked out into the bright streets of Camelback. A quick walk through those winding streets would take them to the desert to the north and then--the Crystal Sea.

---

“You did it?” Popcorn asked Astral Comet as he came back to sit down at their table.

“I did it,” he grinned from ear to ear. “The tracking spell on that blue pegasus will last for three whole days and since none of them are unicorns they’ll never detect it.”

Popcorn clapped her hooves together excitedly. “Hooray! Things are working out even better than expected, Shining Diamond’s going to be so happy to hear!”

“He should be here to pick us up in... a couple of hours at most too I’d say. We’re definitely getting rewarded for this,” Astral said.

“We’re all going to be rich!” Popcorn cheered.

“Rich and powerful. It’s like a dream,” Astral smiled.

"Now how about we go someplace a bit nicer than this to celebrate while we wait?” Popcorn raised an eyebrow.

“Took the words right out of my mouth,” Astral winked.

Comments

[TheCommunistDog]

Well shit...
Im kinda worried how much darker this is gonna get...

In today’s chapter: Rainbow and Valentine arrive in Camelback and finds out about the two idiots betrayal.

[MagicS]

11257011
Well we still haven't really gotten to the part that was the real reason I needed to make this story T-rated instead of E.

[redmar]

I'm not surprised that the pony who bumped into Rainbow did that on purpose. At least they're all together again and are on there way to the next clue.