One of the greatest joys in Rainbow Dash's life was taking a spontaneous trip somewhere in the crisp early hours of a bright and sunny morning.
This was not one of those occasions.
With panting breaths, she beat her wings harder and harder, struggling over the course of an hour to find the perfect rhythm with which to keep both herself and the cart full of pies behind her aloft. At last, after increasing her altitude to a shivering position above the cloud cover, she found the perfect speed and pace to continue her trek. On several occasions, she would look over her shoulder to see how the chariot was fairing. The pies rattled in place, keeping even and level with her trajectory. About two hours in, she finally afforded herself a breath of relief, and continued throttling her way northeast.
At least she thought that she had to go northeast. Whipping out a localized Map of Equestria that she had bought randomly at the Ponyville drugstore, she spread it open with her hooves and struggled to keep the flimsy paper steady. Her eyes narrowed on various geographical locations—both recognizable an alien: Froggy Bottom Bog, Whitetail Woods, the Undermarshes, and the wide expanse of Dream Valley beyond. Her ruby eyes scanned north of the western edge of a body of water called the Sea of Songs, and it was there that she spotted a jagged cleft of mountains. One particular peak grew higher above the rest, and next to its squiggly lines a series of characters read: "Granite Mountain."
Rainbow judged that—even at her speed—the trip would take the better part of a day. Then she didn't judge anything, for the map slipped from her hooves and flew straight into her muzzle.
"Mmfmmff-mmfmffnng-drrrnn-itttttttt!" She heard the chariot rattling as her wings gave slack and she descended a little. With much fuss, she defeated the evil map, crumpling back into a fascimile of being "folded." She evened out, panting, and glanced over her shoulder again. None of the pies had fallen loose from the ordeal. She sighed heavily, flexed her back muscles, and angled her flight a little bit towards the north, heading towards the grayer haze of the morphing horizon.
It never ceased to amaze Rainbow Dash just how luscious Equestria was, especially its eastern provinces beyond the shadow of Canterlot. Rolling hill after rolling hill undulated beneath her, springing forth patches of emerald forest and crystal clear lakes. The townships here were tiny, quaint, and each a sizable doppelganger of the Ponyville she and her friends called home. Rainbow Dash pondered in the midst of her flight if each village might have an alternate group of friends, a mirroring gaggle of acquaintances—all learning precious lessons about harmony, friendship, and loyalty.
There would ever only be one Applejack. Rainbow Dash flew harder.
A dark gray patch of urbanscape loomed toward the south. Without looking at the map, Rainbow Dash judged that it must have been Baltimare. She saw trainlines running in and out of the metropolitan city limits, and the puttering sights of zeppelins and airships hovering around the tallest buildings in the distance.
Then, a little later and towards the north, Rainbow Dash spotted a blurry structure hanging high in the troposphere, situated above a forked talon of multiple conjoining rivers. She judged that it must have been Avianxandria, the floating city built by both pegasi and griffons. For a brief moment, Rainbow Dash thought of Gilda, and a dull weight formed in her belly.
An hour later, as the sun hovered high in the sky, Rainbow Dash found a grassy plateau and parked there with the chariot. She sat on the northeast precipice, eating a daffodil sandwich that she had hastily slapped together before setting out for her journey. She had left her ketchup packets at home, and she cursed the living air she was breathing because of it.
When she tried to get up, her legs had turned to jelly. She groaned inwardly, staring at the lengths of landscape left for her to cross. With a defeated sigh, she reached into her saddlebag, pulled out the container, and popped a pill. It had been at least eight hours since her last consumption, and she felt a twinge of pride. However, the container was rattling less and less, and the thought of it made her blood run cold.
As a solution, she took off immediately, pulling the heavy chariot after her as she rocketed upwards and against the winds. She could instantly feel the effect that the medicine was having; her speed had increased three-fold. She burned her way northeast, ripping through wind gusts, pulling the chariot as if it was a basket of flowers.
The valleys of Equestria positively swam beneath her now, and soon there were no valleys whatsoever. The landscape sloped upwards, growing more and more uneven as mountains poked up out of the earth. She saw a few townships along the slopes, the last traces of pony civilization, and then all was exposed rock and steep cliffs. She had to ascend with each passing minute, careful not to fly smack-dab into a mountain face on account of random patches of fog.
At last, she spotted a jagged peak in the distance that mimicked the illustration that had been on her map. Granite Mountain rose like a majestic eagle above all the other stone forms, and halfway up the thing's southern face—highlighted by the setting sun in the west—was a tall patch of solid blue surface.
"Is that... a friggin' door?" Rainbow Dash's eyes narrowed as she descended carefully with the chariot full of apple pies at her tail. "Hmmm... here's hoping the buffalo believe in late afternoon house calls."