The following morning saw Rainbow Dash on the roof of the communal living center as she stared at the inner walls of the spinning tornado. Staring in the direction she had come in from. The direction back home.
Once she had woken up she came up here without a fuss and had been sitting here for hours since. The strange dissatisfaction with her journey and her latest adventure here in Nogt were eating away at her. It was so weird because she kept telling herself she shouldn’t be feeling like this after everything she had done. After everything she had accomplished and all the ponies and creatures she’d saved and all the villains she had defeated. So why was it still not enough? She wasn’t satisfied with how she defeated Blizzard so she kept going north. She tasted a true victory against Karkona but still needed more. Resin left her with what felt like unfinished business but she had still helped everyone else so much. If she returned home just like this she’d have so many awesome stories to tell and all her friends would be more than happy with her for what she had done. But was that all Rainbow Dash wanted?
What did it mean if she herself knew she could be even more awesome? What did it mean if she didn’t hit her own standards and blast beyond them?
“Why’d I come up here in the first place?” Rainbow Dash sadly looked at the tornado.
“I had hoped to find you here. When I saw your placard switched I feared you had already left. I have been searching around for you all morning.”
Rainbow Dash turned her head to him with a blank expression on her face. “Hey, Ark’Nogt. Sorry about that but… yeah.”
“Well I’m probably just butting in and being an annoyance right now anyways so you don’t need to apologize,” he said as he came to stand beside her. “If you want to leave it’s certainly your prerogative and it doesn’t have anything to do with me as an Embracer.”
Rainbow Dash still just kind of blankly looked away back to the tornado, not really responding.
Ark’Nogt winced and took a seat. “I just think it would be a shame for us to part while you’re so upset.”
“I lost. I lost fair and square when it was supposed to be the grand finale to my whole adventure,” Rainbow Dash glumly rested her face on her hooves. “I hate losing, and now it’s like I have to go home like this? I would have been super proud to go back if I had won the tournament. Ending on a high note you know? But now the last leg of my big awesome adventure ends like this instead.”
“Why?”
Rainbow Dash turned to look at him and furrowed her brow. “What do you mean why?”
“I mean why does this have to be the end? It seems arbitrary to me, like you’re beating yourself up for no reason,” Ark’Nogt shrugged. “You told me all about your journey and how you started it by just traveling north on a whim looking for adventure. And just because you made it to the north pole that means it has to end? Why?”
“Uhh...”
“From everything I’ve seen of you, everything you’ve told me, you didn’t seem the type to take anything sitting down or get stuck down in the dumps. I admittedly haven’t known you for long but, and forgive me for this, you’re not being very awesome right now, Rainbow Dash.”
She frowned and faced away from him. “Yeah well so what? I’m mad! I’m mad and I want to… to...”
“Yes?”
“I want more. I want to do more. And I don’t want things to end like this!” Rainbow finished with a shout, her wings flaring. But just as quickly she deflated again. “But I’ve already gone so far and done so much… my life was crazy full of adventure even before I came up here, more than any other pony ever maybe! Is there really more? Are things going to be as awesome as I want them to be?”
“You have certainly gone far and traveled more than most other creatures in all of history but...” Ark’Nogt paused, thinking, at last he glanced over his shoulder. “Why not go further?”
“Further?” Rainbow Dash repeated and followed his gaze to the other side of the tornado.
Ark’Nogt stood up, walking around the pool to the other side of the roof and standing there. Rainbow Dash frowned and joined.
“What you need, Rainbow Dash—is a goal.” Ark’Nogt told her. “Instead of just flying and hoping to find something amazing out in the world, you need to be flying towards something, doing something you can put all your heart, soul, and body towards.”
“A goal...” Rainbow Dash whispered as she stared at the tornado barrier. The barrier that separated the world she knew from the world beyond.
“To be the first pony—nay, the first creature ever—to fly around the world! All the way around! I know in my heart that no other creature in history could have possibly done such a thing, you would be the very first for sure!” Ark’Nogt proudly proclaimed.
“Flying around the world from north to south, from Equestria to back...” a smile slowly tugged up Rainbow Dash’s face. “That’s… that’s… awesome!” Her wings flapped strongly and carried her into the air, hovering there above Ark’Nogt she thrust her hoof out at the tornado. “Alright! This here is the start of a brand new adventure! Rainbow Dash is going to fly south, she’s going to do a whole bunch of awesome things, meet all kinds of awesome ponies and creatures, and then she’s gonna make it back home and be the first pony ever to fly around the whole world! Yeah! It’ll be the greatest thing ever cause I’m Rainbow Dash!”
She allowed herself to float back down right beside Ark’Nogt and she flashed a grin at him. “Thanks dude, I needed that. And when I get back home I’ll totally tell Twilight you gave me the idea.”
Ark’Nogt shook his head. “I just didn’t want to see you unhappy. You’re too much of a treasure. Are you still going now?”
“Yeah, yeah I am, I want to get started as soon as possible. You know I hate sitting around doing nothing.”
“Allow me to at least please get you some tea before you go? I’ll go get some from downstairs right now and then I can give you a proper goodbye,” Ark’Nogt smiled. A more thoughtful look then came over his face. “Also I should tell you what we Reindeer know about the lands directly beyond the tornado on the other side of the world—mostly what I know from my wife. It is not exactly what one would call a hospitable place. But something tells me that just makes you more excited.”
“It seriously does. And that’d be awesome dude,” Rainbow Dash bumped hooves with him.
Ark’Nogt nodded and soon turned to head back down the stairs to the cafeteria, if he had the time he would’ve gotten the most high class tea he could from a shop but obviously Rainbow Dash wouldn’t want to wait. He still felt good though. Something about helping her just made him feel so much bigger than he usually did. Rainbow Dash meanwhile was ecstatically keeping her eyes on the revolving tornado winds, absolutely excited for the new adventure she would soon be going on. She felt revived, reborn, re-
“You’re not seriously doing this, are you?”
Rainbow Dash groaned and rolled her eyes, turning around to see a well-built navy blue earth pony with a slick black mane and tail standing there. “You again? I’m not in the mood right now. And—what—you’re an earth pony now?”
“I’ve always been an earth pony, those other times were optical illusions,” Harlequin Grey said, his magenta eyes flickering to deep purple and then back to magenta.
She snorted. “You’re full of it. And you can buzz off too cause I’ve got a new goal that I’m going to be flying towards.”
His brow furrowed and his jaw clenched in the closest thing to anger Rainbow Dash had seen from him. “You should just go home, are you really too stupid to see that?”
“Yep!” Rainbow Dash grinned and proudly thumped her chest just to annoy him.
“I was hoping you would be satisfied upon making it here or finally realize it was time to go back.”
“Well you were wrong, hay, even if I won the tournament I’m not sure I’d even be totally satisfied now after talking with Ark’Nogt. I might have still decided to keep going.”
Harlequin Grey regarded her silently with his annoyed eyes for a moment. It was getting on Rainbow Dash’s nerves.
She frowned and walked right up to his face. “What? You gonna do something about it?”
“I told you I hate fighting,” he coldly said and then narrowed his eyes at her. “But if you keep pushing me, you may find you’ve aggravated the wrong creature.”
“Do it. Just try me,” Rainbow Dash challenged, poking him in the chest.
“Just go home. You’ve already done enough you pest. You’ve had enough adventure for ten lifetimes,” Harlequin Grey answered.
Rainbow Dash smirked. “Heh, knew you wouldn’t do anything.” She turned away from him and walked over to the edge of the roof, looking back at the tornado and what lied beyond it. “Sorry but not sorry. I’m not stopping until I’ve had enough adventure for a hundred lifetimes and maybe not even then! I’m Rainbow Dash and I’m going to fly around the whole awesome world!”
She heard Harlequin Grey huff from behind her. “Feh—fine then. With any luck you’re about to die anyways.”
Rainbow Dash looked back at him with a raised eyebrow. “What are you-” but he was gone. “Hey, where’d you go?”
A shadow passed over her head and a smiling figure came to rest on the roof beside her.
“Hi there! Finally caught back up to you,” Heartless said.
Rainbow Dash blanched and backed away. “Crud...”
“Heehee, you may not be happy to see me again but just getting to be near you again to feel and see the warmth of your life up close is so wonderful. I told you I would never stop coming for you and I meant it. You’re my goal, Rainbow Dash. I want to feel your life. All of it.” Heartless took a step towards her. “And now there’s nothing to get between me and you.”
“You’re crazy,” Rainbow Dash glared at her.
“Don’t care,” Heartless shrugged. Another step forward
Rainbow Dash gulped and her eyes darted around, looking for something, anything. “Okay, if you want the truth, I was hoping I never would see you again. But fine, you weren’t lying about still coming after me. There’s just one problem though.”
“And what would that be?” Heartless tilted her head in amusement.
“It’s—what the hay is that?!” Rainbow Dash yelled and pointed behind Heartless.
“Hm?” Heartless looked over her shoulder.
And saw nothing.
When she looked back there was a cloud of dust on the roof from where Rainbow Dash had shot off at full speed, flying high into the sky. Heartless giggled as she looked up after the rainbow blur streaking above Nogt. “Heehee, oh Rainbow Dash, you’re so full of life and energy. I can’t wait to take all of it.”
Her pink hooves levitated off the ground and Heartless flew into the sky after her.
Crud, crud, crud, crud! Rainbow Dash thought in the meanwhile as she flew through the sky. What do I do now?! I can’t touch her, there’s nowhere to fly to, I don’t know if I can lock her up or trap her anywhere like what happened last time, do I just fly out of the tornado and try and get as much distance from her as I can?
“Rainbow Daaaash!~” A singsong voice came from behind her.
The blue pegasus in question paled and looked over her shoulder to see a pink earth pony somehow not only flying with her but also almost matching her speed. “Gah! How the?!”
“I won’t let you get away again! Now with you right here in front of me I feel more alive than I’ve ever felt. My heart is full of warmth! Please, just come back here and let me have your life!” Heartless shouted for her.
“Grr!” Rainbow Dash grit her teeth and beat her wings even harder to try and get more distance between her and Heartless. She flew up higher into the skies above Nogt, higher than the crystal sun, and tried to wrack her brain for a solution. Okay, okay, okay, I hate having to think and not just be able to punch her so this is really lame right now! Maybe I still can touch her if it’s really quick but… I dunno. She’s always used her hoof to drain the life of ponies from what I saw but then she absorbed all of Crush’s magic just right through her whole body too. Can I hit her before she has time to take my lifeforce or will it just happen automatically? Can I grab her tail? Argh! I don’t know! I don’t know and I’m not smart enough to figure this out!
“I’m not going to get tired, Rainbow Dash! You’ll get exhausted eventually but I never will!” Heartless said from behind her, slightly gaining on the pegasus.
“Just shut up already!” Rainbow Dash barked back at her. It’s like when I fought the Ice Sentinel isn’t it? I can’t beat Heartless normally so I have to come up with something else. Let’s see… she’s not very smart, she’s totally single-minded, and her reaction time is slow. She almost literally only sees me and she doesn’t pay attention to or care about anything else. But I can’t safely touch her for maybe more than a second and I really have to avoid her hooves. She doesn’t seem to feel pain and take injuries like a normal pony. And she can sense me wherever I am so even obscuring her vision probably won’t do anything.
Sweat started to drip down her brow but a sudden thought occurred to Rainbow Dash. An idea. The Ice Sentinel and Blizzard, I had to beat them by using the environment around me. So what’s something here that I can use to beat Heartless?
Her eyes dropped to the raging World Drain below Nogt.
“Bingo,” Rainbow Dash grinned.
“Stop wasting so much energy, Rainbow Dash! I don’t want you to be tired when I’m holding you in my hooves and taking everything from you! I want every last bit of wonderful, warm life you have all for me!” Heartless yelled, a delighted smile on her face.
“Sorry to disappoint you but if you want something as awesome as me you better be prepared to work as hard as you can for it!” Rainbow Dash yelled back and mockingly saluted Heartless before going into a wide curve and starting to loop back down towards Nogt.
“That energy and brazen spirit just makes me even more excited for when I inevitably take it all from you!” Heartless laughed and matched her. “Ohhh, I just can’t wait! All the lives I’ve taken until now are meaningless. Empty shells compared to you, Rainbow Dash! You call out to me so much I know that I’ll finally at last be satisfied forever with your life! You give me meaning!”
“Whatever, psycho!” Rainbow Dash snorted and dove at full speed to the ground of Nogt, barely pulling up in time to keep from crashing and flying like a missile over the grass and through the trees towards a very particular spot.
Down at the outdoor workout area, a very muscular Reindeer was on the bench, lifting a heavy barbell up and down. While in the middle of this daily routine of his a rainbow blur suddenly passed right by him and grabbed the barbell out of his hooves.
“Borrowing this!”
“What the?” The Reindeer said in confusion as a pink blur then shot right by him too.
“Hnnnng, this is heavy! I can’t fly as fast as normal while carrying this for long, gotta finish this quick!” Rainbow Dash said as she hefted the barbell in her hooves and now flew towards the roof of the communal living center.
“I’m getting closer, Rainbow Dash!” Heartless giggled from behind her.
Rainbow Dash ignored her and kept her eyes on the roof of the building, specifically the pool up there. She flew in close and reached a free hoof down to the surface of the water, grabbing one of the lane dividers and yanking it out of the pool. The speed she was flying at easily made the rope snap from its moors at both ends and now the divider with its plastic floaters was billowing out behind her. She held it in one hoof with the barbell held in the other.
“Borrowing this too!”
Wandering Claw, who had been swimming in that lane at the time, looked up in shock. “Wha—Rainbow Dash?”
She now had to work extra quickly, good thing that was her specialty. While her wings continued to do more than just carry their weight and keep her mercifully away from Heartless, her hooves and teeth worked to tie one end of the rope around the barbell. Despite the hectic urgency of the situation she was as good as ever under pressure and a neat bowtie was made around the middle of the barbell.
Awesome. She grinned at her handiwork and started flying out towards the edge of Nogt, following one of the rivers of liquid ice that flowed right off the edge.
Behind her, Heartless was getting closer.
Rainbow Dash flew closer to the edge of the plateau and suddenly dropped the barbell onto the ground by the river. With that weight gone, she turned around and faced Heartless with the other end of the rope in her hooves. Of course Heartless didn’t stop this time—she shot right towards Rainbow Dash with all the intent to grab her and drain the life out of her.
Which Rainbow Dash knew she was going to try and do. She was counting on it.
Despite Heartless’s surprising speed, Rainbow Dash was easily able to dodge to the side of her when she shot by. Heartless could go fast in a straight line but she didn’t have the same reflexes Rainbow Dash did. It’s like her mind moved slowly or so apathetically that she didn’t react to most things normally. So while she was still turning her head towards Rainbow Dash, the pegasus had already zoomed around her midsection a few times and tightly tied the divider rope to her, pulling the knot taut with her teeth. Carefully avoiding actually touching the pink monster just in case.
“What are you doing?” Heartless asked as she stopped in midair and fully turned to reach out a hoof towards Rainbow Dash.
“Getting rid of you!” And now Rainbow Dash took a big risk. She deftly flapped back away from the hoof, ever so slightly that the pink appendage just barely missed scratching her, and then belted Heartless across the face as hard as she could. She knew the punch wouldn’t really do anything and it was possible that just touching Heartless like that would drain some of the life from here even with the contact being really quick, but all she needed was that split-second flinch.
Heartless didn’t even make so much as a grunt of pain but for a moment she did flinch. Rainbow Dash flew behind her and grabbed her sparkly white tail in her teeth and threw Heartless to the ground. Immediately after, Rainbow Dash then dove down and landed right by the barbell, putting a hoof on it and getting ready to roll it into the river. She was panting, exhausted, and her heart was beating like crazy in her chest, but she was about to win.
Heartless stood up and dusted herself off as if nothing else had happened, then blinked a few times and tilted her head as she looked at Rainbow Dash and the barbell. Her eyes followed the divider to where it was tied around her and she finally seemed to realize the situation. “Oh.”
“Yep. Bye Heartless,” Rainbow Dash said and rolled the barbell into the river, where it was pulled along by the strong current towards the plunge that would take it off the plateau and into the World Drain.
She didn’t shrug or anything else. She still just looked back at Rainbow Dash and smiled. “This won’t stop me either.”
A second later she was yanked into the river and then over the edge, Rainbow Dash floated over to watch her fall into the whirlpool and saw Heartless just falling, not even fighting it. She waved to Rainbow Dash and then was gone in the rapids. Rainbow Dash kept hovering there for a few minutes longer before a smile slowly broke out across her face.
“Awwwww, yeah!” She cheered and pumped her hooves in victory. “I win!”
She shot high into the sky above Nogt again and faced the wall of the tornado that led to the other side of the world. “Sorry Ark’Nogt, but it’s no time for tea anymore. It’s time to be awesome.” With her body full of excitement and anticipation, Rainbow Dash flew into the tornado, heading south.
The End
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To be continued in: Rainbow Dash Around the World