//------------------------------// // Rainbow Dash Flies West // Story: Odrsjot // by Imploding Colon //------------------------------// Rainbow Dash squinted… then squinted some more. She groaned inwardly as she attempted--however uncomfortably--to fly towards the setting sun. She looked over her shoulder. Roarke was a few dozen feet behind, gliding at a slower pace, firing the thrusters of her suit every now and then in order to keep the distance from getting any greater between the two mares. Grumbling inwardly, Rainbow Dash turned back towards the western horizon. She closed her eyes tightly shut, her bangs blowing in the cold breeze of the high mountain air. Through her closed lids, slightly to the left, she saw the faint touch of a lavender shape strobing like a lone firefly in the dead of night. Reopening her eyes, she tilted her wings and pivoted slightly to the south. The air thundered from the sound of Roarke compensating with her thrusters. As the metal mare closed the distance some more, both ponies banked to the left and glided over several jutting mountain peaks. Rainbow Dash fumbled through foliage, rustling past leaves and pine needles. At last, she reached forward through the outer layer of a dense forest and pulled down a thin branch. She gazed through the thin space she had made. West, beyond the crest of a steep hill, a township lay. Several unicorn and earth pony shapes could be seen milling about from building to building, bartering and trading materials from all across the continent. Towards the north end of the village, a tall wooden tower loomed, and a small dirigible was hovering up to dock in place. Rainbow took a deep breath. She turned and looked over her shoulder. Roarke trotted up, her face and eye-lenses exposed. She glanced at Rainbow Dash inquisitively. In response, Rainbow turned and stared intently at the township. She blinked several times, then pivoted her head towards the southwest. The lavender light loomed beyond the hilly valley. Rainbow Dash shook her head and pointed towards the southwest. Roarke nodded, clapped her helmet off, and took off with a burst of rockets. Rainbow flashed the village a worried glance, but none of the ponies were looking up at the source of the noise. Sighing heavily, Rainbow let go of the branch, flapped her wings, and flew up, threading her way through the pine trees before ascending into the murky clouds along with her bounty hunter companion. Stars twinkled above as Rainbow Dash and Roarke made their way west. A foggy overcast lingered beneath them, shifting and bubbling with every gust of high wind. The moon was starting to wane, but it was still bright. Two lunar shadows rolled along the cloudtops beneath them, like a second pair of flying ponies. Rainbow Dash stared at them, and the dark grayness of it all began to blur. Shadows grew in her peripheral vision, and the constant roar of Roarke’s thrusters was becoming downright hypnotic. Her ruby eyes grew thin, and her head bobbed on several occasions. At last, she drifted downward, and her eyes closed. Her lips pursed and her wings started growing limp-- Roarke flew over suddenly and smacked Rainbow Dash upside the head. The pegasus jerked in the air with a start, her ruby eyes wide. A pulse of light came from her pendant, and she hyperventilated in mid flight. Blinking, she eventually cast a glare to her left. Roarke waved back, pointing down through the clouds. Rainbow Dash shook her head furiously. Roarke simply stared at her… With a sigh, Rainbow Dash flapped her wings hard and flew faster. Roarke watched her. A metallic groan rang through her helmet, and soon she was burning her fuel more swiftly to catch up. Together, the pair pierced the clouds and skimmed several winding tributaries below. The flickering reflection of moonlight constantly stabbed at Rainbow’s eyes, annoying her, keeping her more alert. In the glow of a pale sunrise, Roarke sat atop a stack of boulders. She had stripped off half her armor, and was busy ejecting the fuel manifold from the suit’s backplates. Reaching into the satchel Props had prepared for her, she grabbed a fresh canister and loaded it into the fuel intake. With a deep breath, she looked down towards the crook of two trees lying in the shadow of the boulders. Rainbow Dash was curled in a tight blue ball, hugging herself as terrible shivers wracked through her system. The mare’s teeth clattered, but not from cold. Her eyes squinted open, and they flickered red on yellow then returned to their normal ruby glaze. The pendant rattled around her neck, until the shivers eventually went away. Exhaling heavily, she tried sitting up, but was too dizzy. With a frustrated grunt, she fell back onto the soft grass, looking like a slain sapphiric caterpillar. She hadn’t been sulking for long when a set of hooves trotted by, then dropped a bag of celery right in front of her muzzle. Fighting nausea, Rainbow glanced up at her companion. Without saying a word--or so much as looking at her--Roarke took of, testing the new fuel cells as she scouted out the western edge of the valley. Rainbow blinked, then sighed. With a dull expression, she stuck her tongue out, hooked a stalk of celery into her mouth, and began lethargically munching on it. The two bent south again, gliding over fields and riverscapes. The setting sun lingered to their right, casting shadows that threaded east past their majestic bodies. As stream after stream flew beneath Rainbow’s eyes, she blinked a few times, then furrowed her brow. She glanced to her side, only to see Roarke glancing back. Over a line of hilly ridges, a wide field stretched before them, broken by three rivers threading through it. However, the entire landscape was filled to the brim with giant wooden skeletons: the battered, weathered framework of dozens upon dozens of fallen zeppelins. Rainbow Dash instantly recognized the Ledomaritan constructions. Even without any surviving banners, the make of their cannons and steam turbines brought instant jolts to her beating heart. No matter how hard she narrowed her vision, she couldn’t make out a single living body amongst the massive field of scrap. As she and Roarke rounded another line hills, Rainbow finally understood the true age of the spectacle. Hundreds upon hundreds of skeletons were scattered abroad, their bones battered and strewn with the overgrowth of weeds and grass. Between the bodies lay rifles, poleaxes, and numerous other weapons rusted with time and neglect. Several equine skulls had fallen loose from their hosts, rolling downhill until they came to an eerie stop along riverbanks, where they resembled beached buoys bleached by the sun. Their horns stretched silently towards the sky like forsaken pikes. The two mares flew further southwest, and the air filled with a rusted smell. In place of the dense wood, Rainbow saw fallen hulls of metal, like giant iron sarcophagi. The surfaces of these shells had become dull with age, but Rainbow got the distinct feeling that they all had once been painted a deep blue, like that color of a tropical ocean. Across the peeling surfaces, Rainbow spotted the hint of white bands, depicting what she could only determine was a giant serpent. This motif repeated itself across most of the derelict vessels lying beneath her, though she didn’t have many to go one. The number of crashed Ledomaritan zeppelins outmatched these by about four to one. What was more, there were no bodies to be found strewn about the southern wreckage. With a pensive expression, Rainbow Dash gladly glided past the mess, threading her way past the edge of a ravine, then following the canyon as it carried the river streams along a westward bend. Roarke’s engines echoed across the steep earthen walls, drowning even the most sullen of the pegasus’ deep thoughts.