//------------------------------// // Rainbow's Flight // Story: Friendship is Forever // by fabrosi //------------------------------// Chapter 9: Rainbow's Flight After she'd been flying for some time, Rainbow Dash spotted a town in the distance. As she got closer, she confirmed her suspicions that it was Hogdenville—or, at least, a pony town that been built over Hogdenville. The borders and nearby landscape were roughly the same, but the pigs' rough cottages had been replaced with more orderly, colorful pony buildings—no sign of the old town remained. Deciding that she probably wouldn't stand out too much, she descended and landed in a clear part of the street. "So," she said, walking up alongside a pink pegasus pony, "they just built this town out here in the middle of nowhere?" "Yeah, I guess so." "Who's going to live here, anyway?" "Well, they appointed a mayor from Canterlot, and I know a few ponies who moved here from Manehattan, but mostly everypony here just seems to be visiting." Rainbow Dash spent a few more minutes looking around, inspecting the architecture, talking to passersby, and looking through shops' windows, but the new town (Saddleton, it was called) wasn't giving up any more secrets for the time being, so she returned to the skies. She made a mental map of the meandering roads, which seemed to follow the winding contours of the land to an absurd extent, zigzagging and crisscrossing in such a way that their ultimate direction was nearly indiscernible. Once she was reasonably sure she was back in Sustrian territory, she decided the best way to interrogate a pig without endangering herself was to catch one travelling alone, so she hid in a lone tree by the side of the road. After scanning the plains for about half an hour, she spotted a pig walking towards her and tensed herself, preparing to pounce. Just as he was about pass right under her, she leapt down, landing just a foot away from him. He squealed and spun around, attempting to run, but Rainbow Dash circled around to cut him off. Again, he tried to escape, but it was no use—she was so much faster than he was that he couldn't take five steps without running into her. "Please," he begged, cowering before her, "I have a family… and I have done nothing to your kind!" "Hey, relax," she said quickly. "I'm not going to hurt you. I just want to ask you a few questions about what happened to Hogdenville." "Are you from Equestria?" he asked. "Yeah…" "Well, then you probably know more than me," he said. "It was those Wonderbolts, right? Those pegasus soldiers that Equestria uses to cause natural disasters?" Rainbow Dash narrowed her eyes, and the pig flinched. "The Wonderbolts are not soldiers. They're athletes." "Sorry, sorry!" He flinched. "What would you expect me to know, anyway? Shouldn't you know what's going on?" She shuffled her wings. "Actually, our rulers are pretending Hogdenville was just founded by ponies. I was hoping you could tell me why Equestria's army is so being so aggressive in the first place." He cocked his head and said "It's always been that way. If our farmers ever wander too far north, they are slaughtered on sight, which I imagine was why the wall was built. If our ships ever sail into pony-controlled waters, they are sunk immediately. No one seems to know why." Rainbow Dash was feeling increasingly disturbed by these stories about Equestria's army—after all, before this adventure had begun, she hadn't even been aware there was an Equestrian army. Unsure what was left to ask, she told the pig to "travel safely" and took off, much to his relief. As she flew across the Sustrian countryside, dotted by irregular farms separated by hills and valleys, she racked her brain trying to figure out her next destination. She noticed a comfortable-looking cumulus drifting above her and landed atop it. She let it carry her lazily across the sky, idly wondering if it knew where she needed to go. Before she knew it, she had drifted into a light nap. The warm sunlight danced upon her back and the cool breeze whispered in her ear as her unconscious brain sifted aimlessly through random shapes and colors, refusing to strain itself by dreaming up recognizable images. She might have lain there for hours, hundreds of feet above the ground, if it weren't for an odd whooshing sound from somewhere far behind her. She snapped awake in an instant, her pegasus ears automatically identifying the sound as distinct from normal wind patterns. Whipping around, she saw another pegasus pony, flying high above the ground but gradually descending as he approached some destination. Careful to avoid making too much sound herself, Rainbow Dash hopped off her cloud and began following the other pegasus at a distance. He flew just above the ground, so close that Rainbow Dash found it difficult to imitate him. As he started to slow down, she hid in the grass, watching as he approached a pig that had been walking alongside the road. As she snuck towards him, she saw that he was darting around the pig, exactly as she had done. Taking large leaps and bounds at first, then smaller shuffles, she drew close enough to hear the pig calling for help. "It's the Wonderbolts!" he shouted at the top of his lungs. "They're here! They're here!" Her blood went cold. Squinting, she could see that the pony appeared to be a white-haired Wonderbolt whom she immediately identified as Blizzard. As the pig began to shout, the pony shouldered him to the ground. Rainbow Dash trembled as he kicked the disoriented, helpless creature around. She slowly rose from her hiding place, standing tall for a better view. The pig's screams were cut short as Blizzard gave his skull a vicious stomp, which Rainbow Dash felt as an electric jolt through her heart. While she was staring, jaw agape, the Wonderbolt looked around, suddenly becoming perfectly still. He was staring right at her. Less than a second later he rushed towards her, so she spun around and took off in one motion, flapping her wings as hard as she could. Her first instinct was to head back the way she'd come, towards Equestria, but she realized there might be more soldiers waiting for her on the way, so instead she veered towards what looked like a distant coastline. She knew better than to make herself less aerodynamic by looking over her shoulder, but she could tell by listening that the Wonderbolt was gradually gaining on her. He was faster, she realized, so she would have to outmaneuver him. She dove low, near the hills, and began zigzagging between them until she came to a sheer, rocky cliff by the sea, which she followed as closely as she could. Blizzard kept pace with her, however, so she rose up above the cliff and swerved inland, trying her hardest not to recall everything she knew about the Wonderbolts' record-breaking flying feats, and how pitifully she would surely measure up. She was met, to her frustration, by a vast plain, so instead of staying near the ground, she moved up into the clouds, diving from one to another in order to confuse Blizzard. A few seconds after she had reached the clear skies on the other side, however, she heard him behind her. She'd bought herself some time, but he was slowly getting closer, just as before, so she swooped down and started skirting the water, and when he followed suit, she tried shake him off by skimming the surface with the air around her, sending waves at him. He dodged these, however, as she reached the water's edge and shot past a sandbank. She noticed a small wooded area to her left, which she dipped into, flying just below the thickest part of the canopy at a speed that gave her barely enough time to avoid the trees, along with the occasional squawking bird. She reached the other side intact, and for a fleeting moment, she thought she had escaped him—but then she heard him once again, and her heart sank. As she was racking her brain for a new escape plan, she recalled something Spitfire had said back at the Grand Galloping Gala: "Honestly, the Sonic Rainboom may have been done before, but as far as I know, you're the only pony alive today that can do it." Well, that was that—the Sonic Rainboom was clearly going to be her best chance of survival. She spent as much time ascending as she dared, and then dove downwards, holding both her hooves out in front of her as straight as possible. The adrenaline rush was overpowering as the hard, unforgiving ground rushed towards her, and there were a few terrible yet mindless fractions of a second in which she was uncertain whether or not she could make it—but then, she experienced the same uniquely exhilarating feeling she had known twice before as she broke through the sound barrier, veering upwards less than a hundredth of a second later and missing the ground by a yard. This, she would have thought to herself if there had been time to think, was what it felt like to be alive. It took all of her strength just to keep her direction straight as the scenery blurred into invisibility below her, but she held on as for as long as she could, and even as she slowed out of the most intense Sonic Rainboom she had performed in her life, she kept up the fastest pace she could while fighting the exhaustion her body had hidden from her mind until now. She realized that the extremely long, shimmering rainbow trail behind her would almost certainly give away her location, so she swept over some heavily wooded hills towards a mountain range in the distance, staying low. When she had reached a sufficiently large mountain, she swooped in and hid herself amongst the crags, the vast panorama of scenery around her rapidly shrinking as she touched the rocky ground. The transition was jarring. Then, for the first time since she Blizzard had started chasing her, she turned around and looked behind her. There was no sign of him anywhere in the sky. She insinuated herself against the rocks as she gazed around, trying to make herself as small as possible. After several minutes, she saw a tiny speck in the distance emerge a massive stretch of clouds. It could only have been one thing, but to her great relief it did not move towards her. Even after he had disappeared into the horizon, Rainbow Dash remained perfectly still for some time before turning her attention to the mountain she was standing on. As she observed her surroundings, it didn't take her long to realize that she had no idea where she was. The jagged, tree-covered terrain necessitated flight, but wary that the Wonderbolt might return, she took care not to fly too high as she navigated the mountains—though she wasn't sure where she was going to begin with. She swept down into a fog-filled, passably level forest, and as she breached its highest branches she was immediately surrounded by towering, largely bare trunks accompanied by a terrifying drop to the floor below. After she'd made her way down, she felt the cool mist seep into her feathers as she landed amongst thick, dark leafy plants she'd never seen before. She hesitantly sniffed one before taking a modest bite, and found the taste to her liking. At least I won't starve, she thought, but I'm still completely lost. As the numbness left by her escape gradually wore off and the flow of time through her mind returned to normal, she wondered how the Wonderbolts could do such horrible things. Maybe it was just him, she thought, and maybe the rest don't know what he's doing—but she realized in the back of her mind that she was just making up excuses to find the team innocent, and that the pigs had been right about them all along. While she was dwelling on these thoughts, the rain announced its arrival. The trees yielded some protection, but she found herself getting wet anyway, so she lowered herself and scurried through the brush looking for cover. As it was getting dark and the precipitation was quickly becoming a veritable torrent, Rainbow Dash realized she would have little choice but to find some semblance of shelter and spend the night here, alone in the wilderness.