Rainbow Dash was flying. She had to be.
She heard the rustle of wind. She felt bands of sunlight gliding warmly over her face. The air was crisp and sweet. She smelled fruit.
Fruit...
Rainbow's eyes flew open.
Branches were shifting jaggedly above her. A bright morning Sun was rising slowly over a forest's treeline.
She shot up with a gasp, then heard a higher pitched voice mimicking her. She glanced towards her side and saw a trembling foal letting got of her. He gulped and stammered.
“You w-were out for s-so long. I tried moving you. I heard voices. I was afraid we might be seen.”
Rainbow Dash blinked at him. She looked at her surroundings. They were at the edge of a forest of short, shrubbery trees. A rise in craggy landscape was just to the east, beyond which was a column of smoke. She judged that he must have dragged her at least twenty feet by the time she woke up.
“Ughh...” She rubbed her forehead with an aching hoof. “I swear, this has gotta be some stupid record.”
“Record...?”
“If I wanted to fall unconscious this many times, I should have flown west instead,” she grumbled. “So what if it was all Zebra desert?”
“What's... a zebra?”
“Never mind.” Rainbow got up. “I just gotta—Owwww.” She clutched her ribs, seething.
“Are... Are you okay, miss—”
“Usually I'm awesome,” Rainbow Dash muttered. She winced and groaned. “Today, though, I'm just awesome and in pieces.” With a shuddering breath, she gazed all around them once more. “The creature? Where did...?”
“Just beyond that hill,” the colt pointed, trembling. “It took off right after you t-tackled it hours ago.” He gulped and hugged himself. “Thanks... f-for saving me...”
“Don't mention it, kid,” Rainbow Dash said with a sigh. “I saw that nasty thing sweep you up to goddess-knows-where and I thought it wasn't cool.” She got up, reeling with a brief dizziness as she adjusted the pendant and saddlebag on her being. “Hmmrph.... Who knew those little brown stains with wings could fly so frickin' fast. Must be packing engine thrusters inside those little rubbery bodies of theirs.”
The foal said nothing. He shifted about in the grass.
Rainbow Dash looked at him. “Heh, bet you're hungry, huh?” Her eyes twitched as she felt a gigantic pain coursing through her. “Heck. I'm hungry!” She realized just then and there that she hadn't eaten in over a day. “Let's see if we can solve both, huh?” She fiddle with her saddlebag, reaching past her hatchet, her map, the green book. “Awwww crud.” The canvas container that had held her reserves of bread had been reduced to crumbs. With a sad sigh, she reached even further for the polished apple.
She stopped, however, upon remembering the scent of fruit she woke up to. She flashed a look straight up. There were several green and yellow objects hanging off the branches directly above.
“Pears!” She grinned wide. “Wicked!” She flew up and snatched several off the limbs of the tree. Settling down with a flap of her wings, she could see the colt squirming with an intense appetite. “Whoah there, kid. Lemme be your taste tester first, okay?” She sniffed the fruit, cleaned it off her forelimb, and took a tiny bite. She shifted the morsel around in her mouth, tonguing it. It didn't taste bitter or alarming in any fashion. “Hmmph...” She gulped her bite and handed the rest of the fruit to the young foal. “Seems okay to me. Eat your heart out... or just this pear, heh.”
“What...” He bit his lip and gazed worriedly at the fruit. “What if it still is poisoned?”
“Then it'll save us a long trip home.” Rainbow Dash took a deep bite out of her own fruit and relished in the edible mush sliding down her throat. “Mmmmph... Ahhhhh yeah. That does the trick.” She took a few more bites, gulped, and said, “So what's your name, kid?”
“Uhm... Rockspot,” he said bashfully. “But all my friends call me 'Spotty'.”
“Well, Spotty,” she smiled in between bites. “I'm Rainbow Dash. And I totally won't hold it against you if you wanna name one or two of your kids after me, not like I'm making it an obligation after totally risking life and limb to save your scrawny hide or nothing.”
“Uhhhh...”
“Eat all the pears you like. Then we should be heading back before your family decides to sell your bed to charity or something.”
“It's strange...”
“What? Me saving foals? I used to do it in my sleep. It made ponies where I used to live feel weird.”
“No. We're just... we're really lucky,” Rockspot said. “After all of the bad stuff that happened last night, we both ended up by a bunch of fruit trees.”
“Yeah, funny how the land decides to randomly provide for you—” Rainbow Dash stopped in mid sentence, blinking curiously.
Rockspot nearly dropped the fruit in fright. He cowered by her side. “Wh-What is it?”
Rainbow Dash was staring at the treeline. Along the edge of the forest, several trees had been chopped at the base. Several stumps lay amidst a seat of wood chips and the dried scraps of devoured pears. Leading up to the bouldery hill to the northeast was a series of heavy hoofsteps, along with the tell-tale sign of dragged equipment.
Rainbow found herself staring at the plume of smoke rising over the crest of earth. “Didn't you just say, Spotty, that the monster flew thattaway?”
Rockspot gulped and nodded. “Yeah. Just over there. Why?”
Rainbow Dash juggled the one pear in her hoof, all the while squinting. “I think we're not alone here...”
The plot thickens!
No seriously, if Rainbow eats that I predict a big butt in her future.
?
They're not alone? Uh-oh... dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/misc_unsuresweetie_flip.png
Oh dear, I've got a bad feeling about this.
Dun dun dun!!!
788846 You stole my line! LOL, JK! But seriously, I'm getting more confused instead of less confused! The plot thickens...
-THEpandaman007
Lewl, Dashie is as funny as ever
Wow, k i think everyone missed a very important plot related hint. RD said she could have picked the western zebra deserts. That means she had a choice to go either west or east. That means that the she is not perusing a specific destination (unless there are two equally important destinations both to the east or the west). Instead, my guess is that she needs to reach a certain distance before discord manages to posses her body. This could be because of two possible reasons. A: discord can only posses an element bearer at a limited range. Or B: once possesed, discord will only be able to posses a certain radius, a radius which dash is trying to keep from covering equestria.
Or, maybe im just over-reacting and this is just another witty, non-sensical statement from RD
Please someone confirm or deny my claim!
IIIIIt's Dashie's evaluation time!
So apparently the colt Dash rescued in the last chapter was named Spotty. Also, we hear something that could be big - Dash says, when she wakes up, "'If I wanted to fall unconscious this many times, I should have flown west instead,' she grumbled. 'So what if it was all Zebra desert?'" I can only assume that when Dash went out to journey, Luna gave her the choice between traveling east or west, to two equally important destinations. So the place she is traveling to now is only half of the journey. I find this interesting, but it gave me an idea. - First off, I'm pretty sure that the stories have a 200 chapter limit in them. Also, the description for Austraeoh reads " Rainbow Dash flies east." Perhaps Austraeoh is only half of the story and we will get another story when it ends and with a description of "Rainbow Dash flies west." Just a thought, but I could be right. Oh, and there is something by Dash's forest that cut down some trees. I'll attempt to explain that in the next chapter. These are my thoughts so far.
-MASH
P.S. 1285827 Thanks so much for enlightening me on that detail! You were a really big help in this evaluation time! Have a mustache.
1305679 Only six days behind, eh? I'm catching up!
1344216
Time for another Marathon Evaluation Time!
Because I'm evil like that.
1183871 Okay, why the hell do people like you sign their name after their comment?
Don't let me eat pears!
I hate pears!
I'm trekking a path many have forgotten , but I'll reach the end one of these days.
1608805
Hi. You too?
After this, I got 900+ chapters to read.
I venture forth on an ancient fic to travel the path of the elder fimfiction readers.
These creatures must have brains, if they're chopping down trees for wood and fruit. Well, if it is them, it could be someone else we haven't met yet. And I think Dash freaked the kid out talking to him
1359764
Because.
Time to go hunting.
I say, that's an awfully long distance for these creatures to randomly raid a mountain village, especially if there are populated places on the way.
Maybe someone sent them in order to take over their mines?
Oh boy what's it going to be this time?