The Rainbow Crusade

by TheRainbowDashShow

Chapter 6

Rainbow Dash grumbled as she slowly drifted back into consciousness, a dull ache pulsating with pain in the back of her skull. Trying to rub the sore spot on her head she found herself unable to move her limbs. Opening her eyes she tried to identify as to what was restraining her but her eyes were still readjusting through the fog caused by the blow to her head.

Taking in a deep breath she identified that the air was both cold and thin. However her blurred eyes were unable to detect a glare cast from the moon, nor sun. To her relief the air did not feel stale, nor did it smell musty so at least she wasn't trapped in another basement. With the feeling of the hardwood floor beneath her she guessed she probably wasn't in a pony's cloud home though.

Attempting to roll over, hoping to get a better feel of her surroundings she heard the noise of an iron chain rattling against the floor she was laying on. Hardly able to move and her eyes still not working properly, "Hello?" she called out but received no answer. "Is any pony there?" she yelled out even louder than before.

A few minutes of silence passed and her eyes finally began to clear themselves. She was surrounded by four walls made of stacked wooden logs. A fireplace was crackling only a few yards away from her, the clasp that held her chain attached to a hook behind the flames. Reaching down with her mouth she bit down on the rope that bound her four hooves. Looking towards her tail she noticed a metal vice that clamped her wings down preventing her from extending them.

Standing up Rainbow Dash found the chain was long enough to stretch across the entire room. With a small hope she hurried over to the single door inside the room and attempted to open it but unsurprisingly it wouldn't budge. Trotting around the room she began to search for anything she could use to pry off her chains or open the door.

The floors had been thoroughly cleared of any objects and any jagged edges of wood had been smoothed over. The cupboards had not only been emptied, but stripped of their drawers, hinges and any other metallic objects. "Why does this always happen to me?" Rainbow Dash grumbled to herself as she trotted around the square room.

The sound of hoof steps approached the door; Rainbow Dash quickly positioned herself behind the door and readied her chains to use as a weapon. A few moments passed and the sound of a door opened but not the one she had readied herself. Looking towards the noise she found the pony had taken a trap door that had recently been installed on its roof.

"Morning." The familiar voice of the Pegasus said politely.

Rainbow Dash stared at the Pegasus she knew from somewhere but couldn't quite put her hoof on where she had seen her before. Carefully examining the silver Pegasus she noticed a small crook in the pony's wing. The memory came rushing back to her now, "Quicksilver?"

Quicksilver nodded, "You hungry?" she said pulling out a bagged sandwich from her saddlebag.

"No I'm not hungry!"

Quicksilver glanced at her, "Well you sure are a grumpy pony." She said.

"You clobbered me upside the head and chained me to a wall!"

"Alright, calm down." Quicksilver said, "Let's not dwell on what's already happened. No point in getting angry that I've kidnapped you, it's already happened."

"You're joking, right?"

"It makes both our lives easier if you just cool your jets." Quicksilver said taking a bite of a sandwich. "If it makes you feel any better this is nothing personal, just another job." She laughed, "You know you make a lot of ponies angry, you should probably consider changing your general attitude."

Rainbow Dash blinked, she could barely believe the pony who kidnapped her was saying that she needed to change, "I didn't do anything to any pony!"

"None of my business." Quicksilver responded finishing up the rest of her food and shaking off the crumbs from her hooves, "So how've things been with you and that orange pony?" she asked.

"Bad." Rainbow Dash said dully.

"Oh, why is that?" Quicksilver asked sounding as if she genuinely cared.

"Well it's bad because," Rainbow Dash took a deep breath, "BECAUSE I'M CHAINED TO THIS STUPID WALL AND NO PONY KNOWS WHERE I AM!" she screamed as loudly as she could.

"Yeah, I guess that does damper your relationship a bit." Quicksilver said trotting over to Rainbow Dash and stepping down on the chain, "Please don't scream again, I'd hate have to restrain you, as I'm sure this is already hard enough for you as it is." She said patting the pony's head.

Rainbow Dash sighed, her stomach starting to growl fiercely. She groaned to herself as if it weren't bad enough she was going to humiliate herself by stooping this low, "Can I still have that sandwich?" she mumbled.

"I don't know, are you sorry for screaming?" Quicksilver asked smugly.

"Oh come on!" Rainbow Dash cried, "What would you be doing if you were in my situation?"

"I'd be eating a sandwich." Quicksilver said with a grin, "Because I wouldn't be freaking out like a chicken without a head."

Rainbow Dash stunned, stared at the pony, "For hays sake, can I have the thing or not?" she asked after a few moments of silence.

Quicksilver trotted over to Rainbow Dash, pulled out the sandwich and held it out on her hoof, "There you go."

Rainbow Dash saw a small window of opportunity; the pony had forgotten to restrain the chain. With a quick jerk she flung the chain up in the air catching it with her hooves. Quickly she stepped to Quicksilver's side and pulled the chain against her throat, "Get me out of here, now!" Rainbow Dash commanded into the Pegasus's ear.

"I can't." Quicksilver replied.

Rainbow Dash tugged on the chains tightening them against her neck, "I said get me out of here!" she repeated.

"And I said I can't!" Quicksilver reached her hoof the side tipping out her saddlebag, "I'm not stupid enough to bring the key with me." She said. "You can kill me but no pony knows you're here and you'll starve to death."

"Fine," Rainbow Dash loosened the chains slightly, "I think you still remember the drill, who hired you this time?"

Quicksilver laughed, "In my line of business we don't use names, I thought you would have figured that out by now."

Rainbow Dash paused and thought about this. She had one question that could drastically narrow down her suspects, "How much are you getting paid?"

"I was paid 10,000 bits upfront and another 40,000 tomorrow when I bring my customer here." Quicksilver answered. "With this job I'm pretty much going to be set for life."

Rainbow Dash removed the chain and shoved the pony off of her, "Some pony is paying you 50,000 bits to kidnap me?" She couldn't help but feel a little flattered at the thought.

Quicksilver stood up and gathered her things back into her saddlebag with the exception of a collection of various bagged foods she had brought for her prisoner, "There is plenty of food to last you through the rest of the day." She flew up to the ceiling and picked up a bucket from off of one of the beams that stretched across. "There's water in this if you get thirsty." She said placing it down on the ground besides Rainbow Dash.

"You're leaving then?" Rainbow Dash asked. With a nod Quicksilver launched herself back up to the ceiling and towards the trapdoor. "Wait!" Rainbow Dash cried out.

"What is it?"

Rainbow Dash scraped her hoof against the wooden floor, "If, you know, this ends badly for me which it probably will." She breathed in deeply and pushed back a few tears, "Will you promise to tell Applejack and Raven Flame for me?" she choked.

Quicksilver frowned, "You really want them to know?" she asked.

Rainbow Dash nodded, "I know what it's like to both have lost some pony and have another go missing." Her words sounded heavy as they escaped her mouth, "When some pony goes missing, you cling desperately onto that small spark of hope that one day they'll just show up out of the blue, but they never do. At least when you know some pony is dead you know where they are and how they are. But when they go missing we can't help but cling onto that blinding hope until at the end of each day it just feels like you've lost them all over again. No pony ever deserves that, especially not my Applejack or Raven Flame."

Quicksilver blinked, "Where do they live?"

"Sweet Apple Acres, you don't have to tell them face to face. Just give them a note or something." Rainbow Dash said wiping her foreleg against her eyes to dry them, "Promise me you'll tell them."

With a heavy and reluctant sigh, "I promise." Quicksilver mumbled and flew through the trapdoor, shutting it behind her.

Rainbow Dash waited a few minutes just to be sure the pony was gone. Once sure she took the bucket and poured the water onto the still burning fire. "Quicksilver, for having taken so many precautions you sure are dense." She mumbled to herself as she scooted herself into the smoky fireplace. Turning herself she placed her back and her hind hooves on opposite walls of the chimney.

Taking a deep breath she grabbed the end of the chain and tugged on it as hard as she could. Her hooves began to ache as she pulled and soon had to stop. Taking small breaks she repeated the process for several hours. "Come on!" Rainbow Dash screamed at the chain as she yanked once again, her front hooves starting to feel as if they were cracking beneath the strain.

The hook still didn't budge and her front hooves were far too sore and her body refused to be forced any more strain on them. Tears of both fright and pain began to stream down her cheeks as she desperately kicked at the latch with her hind hooves. "Please…" Rainbow Dash begged delivering yet another powerful kick. There was the faint sound of stone breaking apart and the hook wiggled slightly.

The small movement of the chain was just enough to inspire her to keep at it. Kicking as hard as she could for another several minutes and the chain finally broke free from the back wall of the fireplace. Rainbow Dash giggled hysterically at her accomplishment. Running over towards the door she tried opening it once again but it still wouldn't budge.

Looking around she saw the wooden beam stretched out across the ceiling, just close enough that she would be able to reach the trap door if she could get herself up there. Her first instinct was to just fly up but her wings refused to move due to the metal clamps that pressed them down. Looking at the long chain she tossed it over the beam.

Taking the opposite end of Rainbow Dash tied the chain around the door knob on the immovable door. Looking at the trap door she suddenly realized that she couldn't tie down the chain or she would be back at square one. Removing the chain from the handle she stared and thought. "Think Rainbow Dash, think." She muttered to herself.

Finally with a shrug she decided to try something she thought was both absurd and highly improbable. Grabbing the chain end of the chain she pulled down on it and she lifted off the ground. She let go to move her hoof upward and she dropped back to the ground as she did. She tried again, still dropping to the floor before she could raise herself any higher.

Rainbow Dash tried for the third time, this time clamping down tightly on the chain with her teeth barely able to hold herself in place. Quickly she moved her hooves up and gave her jaws a rest and repeated the steps until finally the metal clamps that held her wings bonked against the wooden beam. Rainbow Dash took a deep breath and said a silent prayer.

Letting go of the chain she rolled herself to her back and reached her hooves for the top of the beam. Three of her hooves scraped against the wood and dropped with the rest of her body. Her fourth hoof however managed to grip itself onto the wood. Quickly she flung her other hooves upward and pulled herself up top.

Pushing open the trap door Rainbow Dash jumped and pulled herself onto the roof of the log cabin and looked around to find where she was. She laughed dejectedly, "Just perfect." She mumbled to herself as she recognized where she was. Small snowflakes dropped down onto her nose as she stared down from the top of the jagged cliffs of the mountains that loomed south of Ponyville.

Peering down the snowy mountain and chuckled nervously to herself, "It's only a few hundred feet Rainbow Dash, not a big deal." She mumbled to herself. "Yeah… not a big deal alright. You don't need your wings or anything." She whined. Trotting near the cliff's edge she scouted for the safest possible point for her to start climbing from.

The part of the mountainside that she was stranded on was almost completely flat. After making her third trip around and she finally gave up. There was absolutely no difference from one face of the cliff to the next. Trotting back towards the wooden cabin and noticed its contents had been thrown into a pile blocking off the front door.

Rainbow Dash stared at the snow covered pile. Everything seemed like absolute junk. From what she could see it was nothing more than a mess of couch cushions, broken cupboard doors, fireplace skewers. Picking up the skewers she looked at them, then back towards the clamps that bound her wings. Digging a small hole into the dirt beneath the wall of the cabin and stuck the metal pole in the hole, angled it and then reburied it.

Sliding the skewer through the small gap between the stomach clasp that connected to the wing clamps she pressed downward. After a few minutes a loud snapping echoed through the mountains. Rainbow Dash turned to find the rod had snapped in half. "Guess that was too hope for…" she mumbled. She began to repeatedly thunk her head into the logs of the cabin in hopes to spark an idea into her mind and one did.

Picking up the two halves of the broken pole she searched through the pile of assorted objects laying waste in the snow until she found some loose bits of cloth. Placing one half of the pole onto her foreleg she tied it down tightly with the cloth and did the same with her other. "What in the hay am I doing?" She asked herself aloud when she reached the edge of the cliff for a second time.

Taking one last look at the cliff side she took some relief that it seemed to mostly be made of ice. Backing up slowly she lowered her self down, held all of her weight up with one hoof and stabbed the skewer deep into the wall of ice. "Quicksilver, I swear if I live through this…" she mumbled to herself and finally removed her hoof from the surface and dug the other edge into the ice as well.

With a second glance down towards the base of the mountain she instantly regretted her decision to even attempt this. Now that she actually was dangling from two rusty pieces of metal stabbed into crumbling ice her idea seemed far more stupid than it had when her hooves were safely on the ground. Taking a deep breath she moved out her hoof and stabbed slightly lower and repeated with the opposite.

"Three inches down…" Rainbow Dash looked down towards the ground, "Only a million more to go…" she cried to herself. Lowering herself down a few more feet she couldn't help but wonder what kind of crazy earth pony would ever think this were enjoyable. Another ten feet down and her legs began to ache and the cold wind was stinging at her like needles.

As she stabbed the rod back into the ice the metal bounced back chipping off a thin layer of the frost that covered nothing but stone. Rainbow Dash whimpered fearfully as she searched for another spot to secure herself with. As she searched for a spot the sound of tearing cloth from her left hoof's wrapping. Stabbing blindly into the wall she found a spot just as the binding completely shredded.

Her left hoof fell away from the rod for a few seconds and she blindly grabbed for it and evenly distributed her weight on the two poles. Reluctantly she looked downward to see she had made scarcely any progress scaling the cliff side whatsoever. "Come on Rainbow…" she coaxed herself trying to remove the paralysis that froze her body, "Things won't get any better if you don't move…"

Blinking back the frightful tears she gingerly withdrew the rod and pushed it back in as quickly as possible just a few inches beneath where it had been originally. With a sigh of relief, "That's it, nice and slow…" she whispered to herself. Pulling out the unwrapped pole she jabbed back into the ice yet again.

As she pushed in this time she revealed once more only a thin layer of ice. The shock of her blow into the mountain caused the force to bounce backwards and propel out of her hoof. The sound of now her second binding starting to tear she quickly threw her other hoof and grabbed hold onto her only remaining lifeline.

"Well…" Rainbow Dash said no longer holding back her tears, "This really sucks…" She stared down at the base of the mountain. She couldn't believe it but now all she could do was wish she were still held captive. At least then she'd still be inside the log cabin away from the frigid air and snow and her hooves would be safely planted on the ground.

The rusted metal rod began to creak and bend from her weight, "Please no…" she cried to herself. The ice began to crumble away from beneath the pole. She would have never expected this was how it would end, with her trying to make a futile attempt to climb down an icy mountain with nothing but a pair of rusty fireplace skewers.

Watching as the rod began to bend further and further, she silently said her goodbyes. Her heart beat fiercely as the creaking stopped, her eyes watching every single detail of the brittle pale blue wall of ice began to crack and crumble beneath the weight. Finally the pole cracked in half with the sound of a thunderclap that echoed through the air.