//------------------------------// // Frozen // Story: Rainbow Dash Around the World // by MagicS //------------------------------// It was down here, level with the wide valley of snow in front of her, that Rainbow Dash was able to see something poking out like a sore hoof not far ahead of her. Another Reindeer tent that must’ve been left behind by one of the parties she read about in the journal. Rainbow Dash wondered if the other groups who had left that main camp had only made it this far or if there were others yet further south. Regardless, it was a welcome sight. Like the other tents this one looked mostly buried in the snow so she’d probably have to dig it out but maybe there’d be something inside it that could help her. First she still had to walk across the deep snow to get to it—something that was getting to be more difficult with every step. That tent was a couple hundred feet away and her wings refused to budge at her sides. Rainbow couldn’t even open them anymore without forcing them with her hooves. At least the ground was level and straight, she didn’t have to navigate any hills or go past any boulders. Barring a hidden crevice under the snow she should be okay. Not flying, the wind didn’t affect her too badly either, the harshest and strongest winds seemed to stay up at higher altitudes. Walking across the snow like this was more difficult for her but at least she could see where she was going. There was a worry in the back of her mind about all this snow and cold actually seriously hurting her hooves if enough time went by with her walking through it. What was that called? Freezebite? “Come on, Dash, you should know what that kind of thing is called… you were a weather pony for how long? And high-altitude flying is already chilly...” she frowned in annoyance at her inability to recall the right word. “Ugh, whatever.” The tent still steadily approached, the brown material making it up still poked out noticeably a few feet above the snow. By the time Rainbow Dash got to it she was hoping there would still be a part of her that wasn’t covered in snow or ice either. Her mane even felt heavier and colder on her head because of all the frost in it and the icicles sticking off the tips of her bangs. Snow and ice either caked or clung to the rest of her body in much the same way. If she could get inside that tent and clear it out a little she could take the time to shake off and free herself (momentarily at least) of this cold plague all over her. Stopping for long didn’t seem like a good idea to her but if she was at least inside that tent she didn’t think it would be too bad. She just couldn’t let herself “rest” for real or fall asleep. “I s-swear if I get to this tent and there’s n-nothing in it, I’m g-going to lose it,” Rainbow Dash reflexively ground her teeth back and forth. She started getting close to the tent, the trail of hoofsteps behind her already filling up slightly with the light snowfall coming down from the sky. With a single glance, Rainbow was able to tell she was facing the back of the tent and she ended up having to circle around to the front. Like some of the others back at the main camp she had first stumbled upon, this one had the front flaps tied up to keep most of the snow out. Or at least it had at one point. The rope binding them together was torn loose and snow had partially buried much of the tent’s insides. Rainbow Dash scowled in annoyance and went on her way of digging it all out. At least the frantic actions helped her keep up her movement. She dug like a dog this time, throwing the snow out between her back legs to join the rest of the snow in the wide field. So far she hadn’t found any hidden Reindeer bodies or anything either, but they could be buried all around the tent for all she knew. Not a pleasant thought. “Dumb… stupid… snow,” Rainbow Dash muttered as she continued digging out the tent. Clack! Her hoof struck something hard. Rainbow paused and raised her eyebrow, digging around that spot to uncover a rocky surface beneath the snow. She kept digging and digging at it and found that the entire tent looked like it was first set up on top of a rock instead of the snow. The bottom of the tent had either rotted or been torn away, leaving it entirely open to the ground below it. But at least now she didn’t have to dig out as much snow. Rainbow Dash instead only had to shift around some of it and push it to the sides of the tent to uncover most of the tent’s bottom. Like she had figured, no bodies inside it. But there were a few things scattered on the ground that grabbed her attention. For one was a circle of old burned up wood and a pile of ashes with some weird rocks scattered about it. It looked like someone had lit a fire inside this tent to either keep warm or cook something at this point. Dash was surprised it didn’t end in the whole tent being burned up. There were a few bags around her but as Dash checked them, every last one was empty. It looked like this tent had been mostly cleaned out before it was abandoned. Made sense to her, the Reindeer had probably figured they couldn’t just stay here and needed to keep on moving if they had any chance at surviving. So they took what they could and left their ruined tent behind. Rainbow Dash reached down and grabbed two of the rocks that had caught her attention. They definitely weren’t just pebbles or something, they were gray and looked like they had been carved and chiseled a specific way. Thanks to her camping trips with Applejack she actually knew what they were too: Flint. Stones of flint made for help with starting fires if you didn’t feel like matches. Seems the ancient Reindeer must’ve used them. “Okay… these could be useful,” Rainbow Dash nodded her head, making sure that she would bring them with her when she left. “Anything else?” No food no matter where she checked, that was unfortunate but not the worst thing right now. No clothes she could put on or any sort of tools either though. She clicked her tongue in annoyance. The tent hadn’t been a waste but it hadn’t given her as much as she wanted either. She’d take one of the empty bags with her at least, she could carry the rocks and anything else she found on her journey through the snow inside it. Rainbow Dash took the time to scrape the snow and ice off her body and then flung the bag over her back, the strap and other material thankfully holding up after all these years. Tossing the flint stones inside she grinned and turned to head back out the tent and into the unforgiving snow. But when she tried to step out she felt yanked back as if something had grabbed her tail. Dash almost stumbled and fell to the ground before looking back and seeing the last few inches of her rainbow tail had frozen stuck to the rock that made up the bed of this tent. “Seriously?!” Rainbow frowned. She tried tugging it loose but it wouldn’t budge at all. Something she was willing to blame on the lack of strength she had in her body right now. Either way, that thin coat of ice that had covered up the end of her tail kept her stuck like glue to the rock. Rainbow Dash growled and sat down before reaching back and trying to shatter her tail free with her hoof. All it did though was mash her poor tail harder against the rock. “Come on, I can’t afford to stay here!” She wouldn’t mind cutting the last few inches of her tail hairs off but she didn’t have anything to cut with. Short of yanking them out she didn’t know how she was going to get herself free. And she didn’t even have the strength in her limbs and body to do that right now anyways. Her eyes then spied the pile of old burnt wood and ash. And then a rather dumb idea popped into her head. A grin stretched across her face as Rainbow Dash pulled the two flint stones out of her bag and held them in her hooves. “Well if I can’t cut or pull my way loose then I guess I’ll just have to take care of that ice another way.” Problem was she couldn’t exactly burn her new bag. So that left the tent around her being the only thing to set fire to. Which could end very badly. Of course, Rainbow was used to stupid decisions, she needed some fire in here to raise the temperature and melt the ice. She brought up the two stones and started banging them together to try and create some sparks that would light up the tent. Only as much as she hit them together, nothing happened. “How does Applejack do this?” Rainbow Dash frowned in annoyance. “It’s just hitting two rocks together, isn’t it?” Remembering that when it came to starting fire with sticks you were supposed to rub them together at high speed, Rainbow Dash started to slide one of the flint stones against the other. She held one steady in her hoof and flicked the other against its jagged surface, trying to make sparks that would land on the tent walls. She felt the right kind of resistance as she scraped them back and forth but all the while she did this it was getting colder around her and snow was starting to fall back into the tent. She either needed to get that fire started right now or get moving in some other way. Perhaps her desperation was all she needed—the next strike of flint against flint produced a shower of weak sparks that sprayed onto the worn material of the tent. The faintest bit possible of a glowing red ember appeared on the brown material with a small trail of smoke coming up from it. Rainbow Dash giggled in glee as she kept on hitting the flint together just like that to make more sparks and get a real fire started. “Yes, yes, yes!” Rainbow said as an actual fire started burning up and down the tent. Burning much faster than she had anticipated. The smile quickly left her face as the fire spread to the top of the tent and threatened to envelop the two front flaps as well. “No, no, no!” Rainbow Dash looked down at her tail and tried to tug it loose, she threw the flint stones back into her bag. The temperature was heating up in the tent but it still hadn’t melted away the ice that imprisoned her tail. But what it was doing was making the rest of her feel a whole lot better. For the first time since traveling through here she felt some actual warmth. The frost covering her body was evaporating and her wings were starting to loosen up. Strength was actually returning to her thanks to the heat. With the tent now going up in flames around her, melted ice and sweat both poured down her body in rivulets. Rainbow Dash grabbed her tail between her hooves and with all her might yanked it free of the ice holding it in place. The ice cracked apart around her tail and Rainbow Dash pumped a hoof in victory. “Yeah!” It wasn’t a moment too soon as the fire had caused the tent to start to collapse, Rainbow Dash gulped and without even worrying about it, turned and jumped through the burning flaps and dove out into the snow. She felt the licks of flame along her sides and back—instantly replaced by biting cold and the hiss of steam as she formed a pony shaped hole in the snow. Rainbow Dash stuck her head out and looked back at the tent, seeing it collapsing into a simple bonfire, burning strong as a lot of the snow around it melted. It wouldn’t last for much longer but for the moment it provided Rainbow Dash with an incredibly welcome source of heat. The smug grin came right back onto her face as she sat down in front of the fire and warmed herself up. “This turned out way better than expected.”