//------------------------------// // Escape Route // Story: Rainbow Dash Around the World // by MagicS //------------------------------// “It’s back to just the two of us,” Rainbow Dash said to Lord Copper. “S-Seems so,” Lord Copper gulped. “Given any thought to letting me take you in or am I just going to have to beat you senseless?” “I-If you beat me senseless you won’t know where to go, you’ll be lost down here.” Rainbow narrowed her eyes at him. “Alright. Then I’ll almost beat you senseless. It’s time for you to wake up and face reality. You’re not beating me in a fight, you’re not getting away from me, you’re not getting out of here clean, understand?” “Y-You know it’s only going to be your word against mine again, t-there’s absolutely no proof to what you’re going to accuse me of.” Lord Copper said. His eyes darted about as he spoke, refusing to look directly at Rainbow Dash. Truly he just wanted to keep talking and try and stall for time until he came up with a new plan. “There are ponies who heard and saw our confrontation up there earlier. And Lord Silver will believe me when I tell him what Barnaby was doing and believed in too,” Rainbow calmly said. “You really think that?” Lord Copper scoffed. “That after he shut you down earlier that now he’s going to side with you? And you’re some nobody outsider, I am the Lord of Copper Section.” “Then try and defend yourself,” Rainbow Dash replied. Lord Copper raised an eyebrow at her. “Seriously. Try and defend yourself when I accuse you. When I tell everypony what a sniveling, selfish, idiot you are. What are you going to say in your defense? What are you going to do? How angry are you going to get? Everypony is going to see exactly what you are. They’ll see a liar, a moron, and a jerk, clearly guilty with snot dripping out of his nose. And they’ll see me, cold and awesome as I tell them about every miserable and horrible thing you did,” Rainbow’s expression grew darker. “I’m not going to just tell Lord Silver what happened behind closed doors. I’m going to drag you out wherever the ponies are, in the middle of a huge crowd, and put you on display. If Lord Silver is a pushover and Lord Gold is senile, let the ponies of Oreville themselves who you’ve wronged judge you.” Lord Copper paled the more she spoke until he was shivering. “B-But I… but you… I can still...” “You’re. Not. Winning,” Rainbow said. Lord Copper stared at her in disbelief as they exited their tunnel and came out into another cavern. It was still only their track around but there were another few tunnels to the right side of the tracks in an area of the mine that looked like it had once been the center of a decent amount of activity. To the left was a small underground pool of water that had probably been undisturbed for the past century or more. The tracks curved around side it sharply, and at the speed they were going they’d probably have to brake or shoot right off the rails and into the water. Rainbow Dash and Lord Copper both noticed this and Rainbow reached towards the lever to slow them down a bit so they could take the turn. As soon as her hoof brushed the lever though, Lord Copper reached up and grabbed her, trying to keep her from using the brakes. “No!” He shouted. “Hey! Let go you idiot!” Rainbow said and tried pushing him away, she flapped her wings to try and just get out of the cart altogether but he pulled her down. “No! I refuse to give up on my victory! You’re not getting the better of me!” He said as he kept pulling her hoof and keeping her from using the brakes. “We’re both going to crash, do you seriously think you have a better chance of getting out of that than me?!” Rainbow yelled. “I’m not just going to sit back and let you do what you want!” His eyes were alight with fury. Rainbow Dash realized just how desperate he was then. She had maybe pushed him too hard and he had lost it, his fear and sense of danger had gone flying out the window. Now making sure she lost was just as big a goal for him. Revenge. Anger. They were overriding his self-preservation at the moment. He probably still wanted to get out of here safely but if he could at least take her down with him it wouldn’t be a bad consolation prize. The minecart hit the turn and the weight and momentum started to do the rest, slightly lifting the wheels on the right side of the cart. Rainbow grit her teeth and tried to put her weight down, also pushing back against Copper and trying to force them to the other side of the minecart to balance it better. Copper unfortunately realized he could just do the exact opposite. The angry Lord pushed back against Rainbow Dash and used his superior weight to overpower her. Both ponies smacked into the left side of the minecart as it reached the apex of the turn. The wheels left the track completely then and the minecart started to tip over, preparing to dump both Rainbow Dash and Lord Copper into the water. It almost seemed like things were going in slow motion as the cart fell over completely and the two ponies fell right out of it. The minecart bounced once against the ground before rolling into the pool of water and kicking up a great fuss while Rainbow Dash and Lord Copper were thrown deeper and splashed into the pool. By sheer chance, Rainbow’s head hit a rock submerged just barely below the water line and she was temporarily stunned. Lord Copper was much more fortunate, getting a dunk but able to come right back up at once. He realized Rainbow Dash wasn’t immediately on him for whatever reason so he quickly paddled towards dry ground and pulled himself up beside the tracks. Without sparing a glance in her direction or bothering to shake any water off, he started running down the tracks at full speed. A dizzy and waterlogged Rainbow Dash shot up out of the pool a moment later, coughing up water and gasping for air. She was dizzy and her head hurt, but her instincts and reflexes had at least kept her from drowning. She flapped her wings to get out of the pool and took herself over to the tracks. Rainbow Dash rubbed her head and caught her breath before trying to move again. “Stupid rocks,” she scowled and looked down the tunnel the tracks led into. “Did he keep going down there?” She closed her eyes again and tried to listen in—sure enough, she heard the sound of a pony running with their hooves echoing off the ground coming from inside that tunnel. Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. “You can’t seriously think you’re going to outrun me...” She flapped her wings to get off the ground and zoomed into the tunnel. Lord Copper panted as he sprinted down the tunnel, if he could just get to a point where his escape route changed, he might be able to lose her. She didn’t know the route like he did. If his memory was holding up, there was a side tunnel behind an old door coming up in here that he needed to take. All he had to do was stealthily slide into it and run, she’d be none the wiser and would keep heading down the wrong tunnel. “Yes, yes, that can work,” Lord Copper said to himself. He was panicked but not exactly panicking or throwing a fit anymore. He would get out of here. The deeper he went into the tunnel the more strained he got until his muscles and lungs were both burning. That stupid door had to be here soon! Just as he was thinking that, he skidded to a stop in front of an old wooden door built into the right side of the tunnel. It must have been some sort of access in the past or took ponies into a part of the mines where tracks and minecarts were unfeasible. Whatever it was, right now it was the door that would take him one step closer to the exit. The thing was old, dusty, and covered in cobwebs but it was also unlocked. He threw it open and ran inside the next tunnel—but also still remembered to close it as he went. Where he was now was a far more narrow cave system, with tunnels and pathways designed for a single pony to walk through at once. There had clearly been a lot less work done here than in most of the rest of this mine and it showed in roughly carved steps and lots of hanging stalactites and other rocks just sitting around. Lord Copper brought up the map in his head and started running through the tunnels and caves. There wasn’t much longer until he’d get to the true exit of this abandoned mine. And as long as Rainbow Dash wasn’t on his tail it was a win. It was a win, it was a win, it was a win. He’d get back to Oreville first and make himself come off smelling like roses. Rainbow Dash flew down the tunnel as a frown deepened on her face. She didn’t hear his running anymore and he shouldn’t be far enough ahead where she couldn’t see him. Where was he? She shot right past something different in the tunnel that she only barely registered with her eyes, but she still noticed it. Rainbow Dash came to a screeching halt in midair and floated back to the thing that had caught her attention: a door. She narrowed her eyes at it, there was no other way Lord Copper could’ve gone. On the ground in front of the door, some dirt was displaced due to a few skid marks. Rainbow Dash snorted. “Amateur...” She opened up the door and flew inside but had to stop as she was faced with a narrow passage that had a bunch of different ways to go. Rainbow Dash growled and exasperatedly rubbed at her eyebrows. This was really getting on her nerves. And she couldn’t hear his hoofsteps anymore—he was either going slower or quieter somehow. To fix that, Rainbow Dash took a deep breath of air and puffed out her chest as much as she could. “COPPER!” She screamed at the top of her lungs. The yell echoed throughout the entire cave system and Rainbow Dash closed her eyes and brought a hoof up to her ear to listen to anything in response. A stumbling sound and then the rushed scrambling of hooves came back to her. Rainbow Dash opened her eyes and grinned. “Gotcha.” “COPPER!” The loud yell startled him and practically shook the small tunnel he was in. Lord Copper accidentally tripped over his own hooves and squawked in surprise when he hit the ground, pulling himself back up and running towards the next part of the tunnels. At the end of this passage he was in there was a ladder he had to climb up to get out of here, and after that there was a bridge to cross and then he was practically home free. “So why’s she still have to be coming after me?” He grimaced as he reached the ladder and started climbing up it. “Why does the world have to be so unfair?” He was exhausted by the time he made it up the ladder but he knew he couldn’t stop to catch his breath. The chamber he was in now was quite a bit different from anything else in the mine before it. He was at a steep ledge that seemed to fall into a chasm that reached down hundreds of feet into darkness. One slip and that would be it. The chasm was both wide and long, cleanly dividing this part of the mine from the rest. But his saving grace was still here, an old rope and plank bridge stretched across it. Didn’t exactly look like the safest thing but there was no other option. Lord Copper threw out safety and caution altogether and ran across the bridge. He just didn’t have the time to do anything else. A wild smile was on his face as he made the journey, his hooves clicking and clacking against the wooden planks. He was almost there. He was almost safe. The moment he reached the other side he practically kissed the ground. But first—he turned around and started untying the ropes that kept the bridge in place, removing them from the stakes driven into the stone here. “Hah!” He laughed as the ropes came loose from his side of the chasm and the entire bridge fell away, swinging to the wall on the other side and smashing itself to pieces when it hit. “Now she can’t… oh wait.” Right as he finished that thought, a blue pegasus flew up from the same tunnel he had come from earlier after not bothering with the ladder. She spotted him from the other side of the chasm and frowned, looking at the destroyed bridge and raising an unamused eyebrow at him. Obviously she had heard the bridge shatter while coming up and had put two and two together. “Really?” She flatly asked him. Lord Copper gulped and turned to run off again. Rainbow Dash flapped her wings and flew after him.