Operation Westhorse

by PropMaster

Yellowstone - Lamplighter

Rainbow Dash was flying west. Beneath her, an alpine sea of lodgepole pines stretched as far as she could see, blanketing the nearby mountains. Large swathes of snow still lingered this time of year, dotting the predominantly green landscape below with drifts of white; hidden in the shadows of hills and mountains. Flying at 10,000 feet, the air was equal parts crisp and chill, whipping past her wings at a steady pace as she worked her way across the great rocky mountains.

Holding a wildly flapping map in front of her eyes, Rainbow looked it over once more, muttering to herself. She looked down, poking her fuzzy blue muzzle below the paper, scanning the ground for a landmark… Any landmark!

“Stupid mountains go on forever!” the pegasus complained out loud. “You’d think the whole country was just-” She stopped mid sentence, eyes darting back to her map. She squinted, then looked forward again at a glint of blue between white peaks. Folding the map and stuffing it into her bag, Rainbow redoubled her effort, rocketing toward the large body of water in the distance.

Cresting one last line of forested hills, Rainbow Dash entered a great bowl shaped valley that stretched on for miles. Directly beneath her, in the south-western part of the valley, was a rather expansive alpine lake.

“This has gotta be it!” Rainbow exclaimed “There’s no other lakes this big anywhere near here.”

With that, she descended swiftly down to the surface of the water, only to find a solid layer of ice where lapping waves ought be. Pulling up short of becoming a blue pegasus-shaped pancake, Rainbow Dash hovered just above the hardened surface.

“Huh. Frozen solid, this time of year?” she said, landing lightly on the cold expanse, “Well, it is way up in the mountains after all,” she laughed, jumping in place a few times.

With a sound that sent shivers down her spine, Rainbow Dash watched a crack shoot off as far as she could see. “Umm…”

Slowly, so very slowly, she moved her hoof away from the single large brake in the otherwise pristine surface of the lake. With a low groan and a sharp popping sound, a second crack made its way, lighting fast in another direction. “Nope,” she noped, unfolding her wings and kicking off the doomed ice with what some might call an unseemly haste.

Floating now at what she perceived to be a far healthier distance from the breaking ice, Rainbow Dash watched in no small fascination as hundreds of cracks began spider-webbing their way out for miles in every direction. Then, without any fuss or an ounce of aplomb, the whole of the ice topping the lake sunk beneath the surface in one go, leaving not a single ripple behind.

It all happened much faster than one would have thought, especially considering the size of the body of water in question. Rainbow Dash blinked, then—cold sweat running down her neck—she looked about for any witnesses. Seeing nobody around, she booked it out of dodge, double fast.

Flying over the west thumb of the lake, she looked back with a grimace and a muttered. “Um, it was like that when I got here. Yeah.” With an assertive nod she turned back west, gaining altitude.

“Now then,” She pulled her map back out of her bag, “where was I again?” Her eyes darted across the map until she once more found the lake she had so recently watched sink.

She blinked, thinking of how odd that sounded, then moved on. After fifteen minutes or so of flying in a generally westerly direction, her attention was again seized. Below, the wooden sea of ever present evergreens was broken once more, this time by the first sign of civilization she had seen all day.

Several large wooden buildings were spaced out below, surrounded by proportionately over sized parking lots on all sides. All of which seemed to be focused on -or rather, radiating out from- a large patch of lifeless bone white earth, no more than a thousand feet across. Picking the largest of the structures, Rainbow Dash made a beeline for the front doors; intending to get directions. Not that she needed them or anything.

Getting closer, Rainbow noticed that the building she was flying to was made completely out of logs. In fact, it had to be the biggest log cabin she had ever seen. The thing was a hundred feet tall, if not more! The entrance way was lined with what looked to have been the cross sections of whole trees, that five Ponies could have wrapped themselves around tip-to-tail.

As she approached the the line of front doors, a large group of people were just leaving. Darting to one side, Rainbow Dash waited for the last of them to pass through the large hinged, glass and brass portals. The last one through was a young girl, no more than eight years old. Rainbow darted between the little girl and the closing door, giving a wink to the gawking child as she slipped inside.

Rainbow Dash was still smirking as she turned her head to survey the inside of the lodge she had just entered. Pulling up short, she looked out at the hall around her. “Woah.”
This part of the building was one great room, the centerpiece of which was a colossal rough stone fireplace. 500-tons, and 85 feet tall, it went all the way up and out one side of the slanting roof; a roof that was supported by a framework of logs that brought to mind a mixture of living trees, and some kind of great over sized tree house. Juxtaposed against these was a floor of pine that was polished to a shining gleam. Rugs dotted the room, as well as many pieces of beautifully crafted log furniture. All the railings were the same brass as the front doors had been made from. The room had few windows, instead being lit up be a hundred electric lights, all made to resemble candles. The overall effect was stunning. The whole of it had been made with one thought in mind: rustic opulence.

About to find someone to help her with those directions, Rainbow Dash was instead distracted by the smell of something. A something that reminded her that her last meal had been longer ago than she cared to think. After a short search, she homed in on the source of that smell. “Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.” She muttered, trotting her way to one of the doorways leading off the great hall.

A wooden host stand—trimmed in polished brass—sat at the entrance to the dining room beyond, the source of her tummies' rumblings. Manning the post this time of day were two hosts in matching uniforms. They both saw her approach with looks of disbelief on their faces.

The first to snap out of her shock was a middle aged woman with her hair in a bun and sporting a pair of glasses. Her years of experience bringing a smile to her face. “Wel-” She cleared her throat. “Ahem. Welcome to the Old Faithful dining room, are we going to be a party of one for lunch?” She asked in a pleasant tone, with only a small waver to her voice.

Rainbow Dash smiled back. “One awesome blue pegasus pony for lunch please,” she replied with a smirk.

“Of course, if you would be so kind as to follow Tim, he’ll take you to your table.” She gestured to her fellow host standing next to her.

Looking over at him, a slight grimace appeared on her face. She unobtrusively kicked the young man in the ankle. He yelped, breaking his open-mouthed stare at the little Pony looking up at him expectantly. “Right this way please!” He said, a little too loudly.

He turned and started walking away when he was stopped by the older woman. He looked at her questioningly. She simply looked back at him, holding out a menu in her hand. With a blush, he grabbed the proffered menu and continued to the table. A very amused Rainbow Dash suppressed a snigger as she followed in his wake. This never got old.

When she got to her table, the host told her that her server would be right with her, and retreated back to the host stand. Rainbow Dash hopped up onto her seat and unfolded her menu. By the time the server had arrived, Rainbow had decided on lunch. “Summer squash soup, Three cheese fettuccine and…” She looked over the drink list. “A stinger hard apple cider.” She finished.

The server -A young woman this time- blinked. Deciding against asking for ID, for her own sanity if for nothing else. She left to put in the order.

---

After the meal had met its doom, Rainbow Dash left a small pile of Bits on the check. “Keep the change!” she said, turning towards the door. The servers smile went a little crooked, her eye twitched ever so slightly. Picking up the check, She sighed. “Have a lovely day.”

Just outside the front doors of the lodge, Rainbow Dash saw that there were far more people out then there were when she had arrived. A crowd of hundreds, if not thousands were gathered on the boardwalks surrounding the large patch of lifeless ground she had noticed before. Never one to be left out, she flapped her wings and made her way over to see what all the hullabaloo was about.

Floating over the heads of all the spectators below, she had a great view of what lay at the center of the area. About five hundred feet away was a small, spurting geyser of water. Every time it so much as made a hiccup of steam, the people murmured and pointed. The thing never got more than four feet up before sputtering out.

“That’s it?” She asked no one in particular. “Wow, these people have gotta be starved for entertainment if they all come out to flank-fudge nowhere to see this thing.”

She was about to flap away, when the little geyser of water dropped out of sight completely. The crowd fell silent in anticipation. Rainbow Dash turned back to look. Suddenly, the water came back with a vengeance. Pouring out of the ground in astonishing volume, the burning hot water went up up up into the air. Reaching a peak of 180 feet, the geyser was twice as tall as the wooden building Rainbow Dash had just had lunch in. The full eruption went on for almost four minutes.

“Well… That was snazzy!” She said with a smile. Giving her wings a great flap, she launched back into the high air. A grin still on her face, she made her way west. Only later did she realize she had forgotten to ask for directions.

Oh well, she’d get there eventually.

Comments

[Lamplighter]

I'm glad that the first thing I wrote as far as fiction goes, was this chapter. Knowing that something I did was a part of this tribute makes me feel like I'm part of something bigger then myself. Reading Austraeoh, and Pony fiction in general has made me feel like this. I'm lucky to be here, with all of you now.

[Imploding Colon]

Yellowstone - Lamplight

And here I thought this was somehow turning into a Minecraft crossover.

Exclamation point!

Dialogue!

Is this our first writer who's based in Switzerland? Naaaaaaah...

Curious that Rainbow hasn't bothered to garb herself in warm clothes for all of these high-elevated places she's visiting.

Don't take this as an insult, but the diction in this chapter kinda reminds me of my own.

J00rists sure do like their log cabins.

Dat fireplace. Robert Ripley was here.

It's like a Saudi Prince decided to go camping. "Rainbow Dash flew over the overpriced chandelier."

Just Rainbow's luck--she'd stumble upon a McDonald's while super hungry.

People named Tim are genetically incapable of reacting rationally to petite blue pegasi.

Excuse me. Rainbow Dash suppressed a "snigger?" Wellokaythen.

"Flank-fudge-nowhere." I ought to steal that.

Too bad there aren't more geysers named "Ol Loyalty." Perhaps that would have kept her glued there.

Zoop!