Beyond the Rainbow
Twilight Sparkle trotted through the streets of Ponyville with a skip in her step. It was another beautiful morning in her home and seeing all the happy faces of her friends and neighbors brought a smile to her face. It was a day off at her school so she was planning on just spending the day in her castle with Spike and Starlight after finishing up her walk. There was supposed to be a shipment of books coming in soon and she couldn’t wait for it to arrive so she could organize them all! Spike and Starlight would probably be excited about it too!
“Nothing beats a day of hanging out with my friends and organizing new books!” Twilight giggled as she trotted along. “Speaking of my friends, I should try and make time for all of them today. I’ll probably have plenty but I’ll need to go over my schedule...”
Twilight paused in her step, a blank expression settling over her face. “Well, there’s one friend I still won’t be able to see no matter what.” She sighed and looked up at the clear blue sky. “You’ve been gone for a long time now, Rainbow Dash. I bet you’re having a lot of fun but we all wish we could see you again too.” After a second she smiled. “Hehe, I know you’re thinking about us too though. It’ll be great when you’re back.”
She picked up the pace and started walking again, heading back to her castle.
Meanwhile, at a small outdoor cafe right by where Twilight had been walking, two mares sat together drinking their morning coffee. One watched Twilight Sparkle go with a frown on her face and turned to her friend.
“You hear that? Rainbow Dash is still out on some kind of adventure. Dinky told me that’s why she wasn’t teaching at the School of Friendship lately,” Amethyst Star said to Berry Punch.
“And so what?” Berry Punch raised an eyebrow at her friend. “What’s the big deal? Rainbow Dash and them are always going on adventures and stuff.”
“It’s unfair! I’m always just sitting around here in Ponyville, I bet I could go on an awesome adventure too!” Amethyst Star pounded a hoof down on the table.
“Not this again...” Berry Punch sighed and shook her head.
“I’m serious! One day I’m really gonna go on an adventure too and I’m gonna prove that I can be just as special and amazing as Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, and all of them!”
“Just drink your coffee, Amethyst.”
“I’m back!” Twilight said as she walked into her castle’s library. “Have the books arrived?”
“Not yet, Twilight, sorry. And welcome home,” Spike said to her as he and Starlight were sitting together at one of her tables, currently engaged in an intense game of Connect Four.
“Welcome back,” Starlight also said to her with a smile as she dropped in one of her pieces to make a diagonal series that Spike hadn’t seen coming.
Spike frowned at the game and slid the bottom out to make all the pieces fall. “Okay, best four out of seven.”
“If you say so,” Starlight rolled her eyes and chuckled.
Twilight also giggled in amusement at the two of them. “Well I knew they might not be here yet so that’s okay.” She sighed as she walked over to them. “You know while I was out on the town I thought about Rainbow Dash and what she might be up to right now.”
“Knowing her I’d say probably getting into some kind of trouble,” Starlight grinned.
“Heh, yeah,” Spike said. Upon noticing Twilight’s frown he quickly added- “Uh, but I’m sure she’s doing great too. She’s Rainbow Dash after all.”
Starlight stood up and patted Twilight on the shoulder. “Spike’s right, I don’t think you need to worry about anything. Rainbow Dash wanted to go have a big adventure and now she’s having one.” Starlight shrugged. “I bet she’ll be back here soon someday bragging about the whole thing.”
Twilight smiled. “I guess you two are right about that at least.”
“If you want, how about we get everyone else together and just have a party or something tonight?” Starlight suggested. “Just for fun.”
“That sounds great actually, thanks Starlight,” Twilight said.
Spike also grinned and shrugged. “And hey, any excuse to see Rarity is a win in my-”
He was cut off as a sudden belch of green flame came out of his mouth and a neatly wrapped scroll appeared in his claws. “Oof, message from the Princess for you, Twilight.”
“Thank you, Spike.” Twilight smiled and levitated the scroll out of his grasp. Breaking the seal she rolled it open and began scanning down its contents. As Starlight and Spike watched her, Twilight’s eyes positively lit up with joy and she started hopping up and down on her hooves in excitement. “Spike! Starlight! Can you believe it? It’s a message about Rainbow Dash!”
“For real?” Spike’s eyes widened.
“What’s it say?” Starlight asked as she sidled up to Twilight to try and also read the scroll.
“Apparently just earlier this morning, two pegasi arrived at Canterlot Castle to meet with Princess Celestia. They said they came from an ancient kingdom far to the north that Rainbow Dash visited! They said she saved all their lives and freed them from a horrible tyrant before leaving north looking for more adventure!”
“Definitely sounds like Rainbow Dash,” Starlight said.
“The message also says that they want to meet with me later today because Rainbow Dash told them all about me too. This is so wonderful!”
“Well at least now we know something about what she’s been doing out there,” Spike shrugged.
“Right? Talk about amazing coincidences!” Twilight happily squeed.
“Wouldn’t Rainbow Dash say “awesome” coincidences?” Starlight smirked.
Twilight laughed. “You’re right—but really, this is just what I needed.”
Suddenly a green and pink flash erupted in the middle of the library, the force from the magical burst of energy knocked the two ponies and dragon backwards. Books and papers were scattered about while a wagon materialized from out nowhere and landed on the floor. A very familiar looking wagon that was embedded with glowing crystals all over its frame.
“Huzzah!” A cheerful voice yelled as the wagon’s door was thrown open. “The Great and Powerful Trixie has arrived!”
“Trixie—what?” Twilight said as she got up, rubbing her head and frowning at the stage magician.
“Yes! I have returned from an amazing journey where I have discovered new and wondrous magical abilities!” Trixie boasted as she stepped down from her wagon and walked up to Twilight with an incredibly smug grin on her face. “Jealous?”
Twilight rolled her eyes. “Actually, if you’ve really discovered new magic I’d love to just study it. But why did you have to teleport your wagon into my library?!”
“Because I had to make an entrance? Duh,” Trixie nonchalantly answered and fluffed her mane.
“Grrrrr!” Twilight could feel the vein in her forehead about to pop.
“Don’t do this again, Trixie.” Starlight said with a frown as she came up to her best friend.
Trixie blushed in embarrassment and tried to give a placating smile to her bestie. “Oh, sorry Starlight, didn’t know you were here too.” The magician then coughed into her hoof and recomposed herself. “But anyways, there’s another reason I came here. I was supposed to deliver a message.”
“A message?” Twilight raised an eyebrow.
“Not to you, but to Rainbow Dash. However, since Trixie has no idea where that crazy pegasus lives she decided to come here,” Trixie said.
“If it’s a message for Rainbow Dash you’re a little late,” Spike said. “Heh, try a lot late actually.”
“Oh,” Trixie frowned.
A pit was starting to form in Twilight’s stomach, something about this was worrying her. Starlight noticed this too and decided to question Trixie.
“What was the message, Trixie?” Starlight asked.
“I didn’t really get it but I was told to tell Rainbow Dash to not fly north cause apparently there’s something really dangerous up there,” Trixie shrugged.
“Ugh!” Twilight groaned and facehooved, exasperatedly rubbing her head to try and fight off the coming headache.
Starlight also sighed and shook her head at her friend. “Could’ve used that message a long time ago, Trixie.”
The magician at least had the decency to look a little ashamed as she nervously sweated. “Perhaps I shouldn’t have taken so many detours on my way back...”
In another part of the world...
A tan earth pony in a gray and blue uniform looked out the window of his spacious office in boredom. Outside he saw hundreds of ponies busily shuffling through the streets, moving carts of ore and precious metals and digging equipment. The sounds of heavy machinery were a near constant, so much they were practically white background noise to him now. Overhead hung hundreds of gigantic stalactites forming the cavernous ceiling of the underground city, with electric lights and lamps strung up all over them.
“Same old, same old, can’t anything fun happen here? Am I just going to be stuck in this position for my whole life now?” The earth pony sighed.
A knock came on his door and three other earth ponies entered, wearing red uniforms.
“Lord Copper?” The central figure said, an imposing pony that also wore a red helmet unlike the two others. “Lords Silver and Gold are waiting for you at the meeting. They wanted me to make sure you would not be late. Again.”
The eponymous Lord Copper rolled his eyes, out of sight of the red uniformed ponies, and turned around. “Very well, I suppose our weekly meetings are far too important for me to just ignore entirely.” His voice dripped with sarcasm.
The helmet wearing pony frowned but said nothing else, and Lord Copper exited his office peacefully.
Some decidedly unpeaceful thoughts were running through his head though. If I can’t count on anything happening here, then maybe I should make something happen here myself?
In a small village nestled in an evergreen forest...
Two doctors wearing fully protective gear, full body white suits, gas-masks, and thick rubber gloves, walked up and down rows of patients in the town’s auditorium that had been temporarily converted into an infirmary to deal with the many sick. Earth ponies, pegasi, and unicorns, stallions and mares, young and old alike, were lying ill from a disease that had spread through the town the past few weeks.
Green blotches like fungus were on all of the infecteds’ coats, along with high fevers, dehydration, and debilitating joint pain.
The cause of the illness was known: A strange airborne spore from the forest surrounding the village had appeared suddenly. It was luckily only located in one area but unfortunately before the villagers knew how dangerous it was, many were infected. The doctors were now working tirelessly on trying to find a cure for it but so far they had had no such luck.
“Do we quarantine ourselves? Or evacuate those who are healthy?” One doctor, an older stallion, asked the other.
“We can’t take the risk of evacuation, there could be others infected and spreading the disease, we still don’t fully know how it works,” the other doctor, a young mare, said.
“You’re still going on about that? The only ones who have gotten sick are those who directly came in contact with the spores. There is no evidence that the disease is contagious or transmissible.”
“It could take longer for it to grow and symptoms to show themselves. If you don’t think there’s a danger of transmission then why are we wearing all of this?”
“It’s typical safety—you’re the one putting others in danger by not letting them leave. We know the spores are the cause and it’s possible they could spread further from the forest and directly into the village. What then, Anathema?”
She wheeled on him, fury in her eyes. “I am not letting a potential plague leave this town! I am not!”
Before the other doctor could respond the doors to the auditorium were thrown open and a nurse (also bedecked in protective gear) ran inside. She was panicked and out of breath when she reached the doctors, trying to find her voice. “It’s… it’s!”
“Calm yourself!” Anathema said. “You’re making the patients nervous!”
“I’m sorry, doctor, but it’s Gauze Strip. He didn’t show up for work and when someone went to check up on him… he had the disease. And not just him but his entire family too, they all started showing symptoms overnight,” the nurse told them.
Anathema and the other doctor stiffened in fear. Gauze Strip was a nurse who had been working with them. He had never been to the forest, nor had anyone in his family.
Anathema gulped and looked at her coworker. “I’d say that’s evidence for the disease being transmissible without direct contact with the spores.”
In a vast desert...
Daring Do stood atop a sand dune overlooking a small oasis in the distance that had a settlement built up around it for travelers. She was standing with three other ponies; a scarlet red mare with a deeper red mane and tail wearing sunglasses and a black vest with a black beret. It was a wonder she didn’t overheat from her outfit. Next to her was an orange earth pony stallion with a straw colored mane and tail and a black scarf around his neck, lastly was an ugly unicorn stallion with a gray-white complexion and a greasy black mane and tail.
“So, Valentine, you think we’re still ahead of Shining Diamond?” Daring Do asked the scarlet mare.
“I’d hope so, we can’t let him get to the treasure before us or he’ll take control of the entire desert with an iron hoof,” she said—and then playfully grinned at Daring Do. “And it’s Miss Valentine.”
“Considering this place isn’t on fire I don’t think he’s quite found the trail for the treasure yet,” the orange earth pony said. “Coin Flip and I can go in and check though.”
“Oh no,” Daring Do said, putting a wing in front of the two stallions. “You two aren’t going anywhere without supervision. Especially not you, Birdseed.”
Birdseed rolled his eyes. “I’m not going to do anything. We’re all in this together, stopping Shining Diamond from finding the Crystal Sea and the map to Cinnabaron’s temple takes precedence.”
“Yeah, why don’t you trust us?” Coin Flip said, grinning with his ugly yellowing teeth.
“Because she’s got a brain and I’ve worked with you two lunkheads before and I know your type,” Miss Valentine said. “Enough of this though, let’s just go, we have to keep a step ahead of Shining Diamond and his thugs.”
“Right,” Daring Do nodded and the four of them together began walking down the dune towards the oasis.
In another part of the desert…
A drunken mare stumbled into the inn she was currently staying in, it wasn’t much but it beat sleeping out on the sand. This tiny village didn’t offer much for her other than the drink but that was fine by her for the moment. She was a reed thin yellow unicorn with a fiery orange and red mane and tail and a horn that was double the size of most unicorns while she had the Cutie Mark of a violent explosion. The others inside the inn were wary of her and everyone gave her a wide berth as she clumsily stepped up the stairs to her room.
When she made it to her room she grumbled as she fumbled about with her key a few times before finally getting it in the hole and opening up her door. Walking in she shut the door behind her and a single spark from her horn lit a candle beside her bed. The mare sighed in comfort and prepared to lie down on her bed-
“It’s been a while, Supernova.”
“Gah!” The mare shot up in fright and turned around, her horn lit up and sparkled with powerful magical energy. But the face she saw filled her with even greater fear and she canceled the magic, backing up and almost tripping over her bed. “Y-You… what are you doing here?”
Harlequin Grey regarded her with a bored expression. “As imbecilic as ever even with your incredible power.”
Supernova’s brow furrowed and she tried to put on a strong face. “I-I don’t need to take that from you!”
“Yes. You do.”
“Umm… okay,” Supernova gulped.
“I have something I need you to do for me,” Harlequin Grey said as he stepped towards her.
“I-I don’t want to do anything for you. I don’t want to have anything to do with you at all! Y-You said that all I needed to do was take your power and that was it! That I could just go and do whatever I wanted!” Supernova said, shaking her head.
“I gave you that power specifically because one day you might be useful to me. And now you are. You owe me, Supernova.” His face darkened as he narrowed his eyes. “Unless of course you’d like to go back to the way things were before you had that Cutie Mark?”
“No! No, anything but that!” Supernova got down on her knees and pleaded before him. “I’m sorry, I promise I won’t say anything again, I’ll do whatever you want just don’t take my power away from me, it’s all I have!”
He rolled his eyes. “You’re absolutely pathetic, power without anything else. A worthless existence. At least now I might finally make you useful.”
“I’m sorry… w-what do I have to do?” Supernova squeezed her eyes shut, tears building up at the corners.
“Look at me.”
She raised her head and fearfully looked him in the eyes as he glared down at her.
“Some time from now, a pegasus by the name of Rainbow Dash may come through here.”
“And what do you want me to do about her?”
“Kill her.”
In an unknown place…
The filly stared through a crack in the door and watched what was happening in the room beyond. A pony stood in there, her father, in front of a huge series of electrodes, strange equipment, and a gigantic glass sphere more than halfway filled up with a strange black liquid. Arcs of electricity shot from the electrodes and ran up across the ceiling of the laboratory while the black liquid churned about in its glass prison almost like a living creature. It suddenly seemed like there was somehow more liquid in there than there was a second ago, like it had grown.
“Yes, yes, it’s almost ready!” Her father yelled as he looked over his work. Outside dark clouds roiled about perpetually in the sky while thunder and lightning screamed. “Soon it will finally be full and at last my dream will come true!”
The filly didn’t understand what he was saying, she didn’t know what she was seeing, but she knew it terrified her. Without a sound she turned away from the door and began to run away.
Only to instantly collide with the legs of another pony who had been standing right behind her the whole time.
The filly looked up to see a white mare smiling down at her, but not pure white, her coat was more a murky white until it was almost cream colored. She had a pink mane that was shaved away completely on the left side of her head while it hung long and straight down the right side of her face. Her eyes were red and her horn was glowing as she currently held something behind her head in her magic grip.
“Well now, silly filly,” the mare said as she levitated a syringe from behind her head and held it beside her face, her smile and eyes growing wider. “Just where do you think you’re going?”
In a land of lush and fertile fields…
It was the monthly harvest festival and everyone was out celebrating as baskets of fruit and vegetables were carried into the center of town. Fillies and colts played about in the streets while the sun was shining down and neighbors engaged in dance and song. Wreaths of flowers were set up everywhere, seeds were being thrown about from bags with no care as to where they fell and took root. Every little cottage was decorated with ribbons and straw.
A bright earth pony mare with a lime-green coat and a crown of flowers in her earthy brown mane danced with her two friends, hoof in hoof they swung about in a circle, laughing without a care in the world.
In a vast and dangerous swamp…
Several ponies on small rafts made of reeds hid in the trees of a large swamp, totally camouflaged and imperceptible to their quarry. At least they hoped. Mud caked their features to hide their scent and bright coats, hats of grass and moss covered their manes, and robes of reeds and sticks covered their backs and tails. Dressing and preparing like this was the only way to move safely through the swamp at this time of day. Less you run the risk of being feasted upon by the monstrous beast the ponies were finally trying to overcome.
They watched from their hidden position, deathly still, as a large catfish that they had hunted down earlier hung from a tree. A hook was pierced through its tail as it gently swung there as bait. The ponies now gripped spears tipped with flint as they waited and waited until the predator they sought appeared to devour the catfish.
“Will it come?” One of the ponies quietly whispered to the leader of their hunting party.
“Quiet,” he glared back. “It will come.”
They must’ve been waiting there for over an hour in total silence. No one wanted to risk ruining everything. At last there was a ripple in the waters further away in the swamp. Lily pads shifted away, all the birds and crickets grew quiet, flowers and reeds floated on by as the disturbance underwater spread. The ponies did their best to conceal their fright even as beneath the mud their hooves were white from how tightly they gripped their spears.
The beast was here.
On an ocean…
Daylight Gleam peered through the spyglass at the large ship following behind theirs. A frown filled up her face as she took in its fearsome features. A large galleon with three masts of black sails, multiple decks, and rows of cannons along both sides, the jolly roger that flew about above the crow’s nest showed a unique and recognizable design: a griffon skull flanked by two golden wings.
The pirate ship completely dwarfed their own sloop and it was enough to worry Daylight Gleam immensely. She quickly climbed down from the crow’s nest of their ship and walked to the stern. The captain of the ship, a seasoned seafarer by the name of Breakwater, had his jaw clenched as he held onto the ship’s wheel with his hooves. He knew well that they couldn’t outrun the larger vessel coming for them, not with its superior amount and size of sails.
Daylight walked past him to the two other creatures onboard, a merpony and a griffon both standing by the stern.
“Well?” She asked the merpony as she came to a stop standing in-between them.
Senax lowered the magical Horn of Listening from her ear, using the golden treasure of Ponyseidon to eavesdrop on the pirates coming for them. “They’re intent on chasing us down. And you were right, Daylight. It’s him.”
Both unicorn and merpony glanced over to their other friend.
Gilbert twiddled with his mustache as he stared at the pirate ship sailing over the deep blue waters of the ocean as it gained on them. Frowning with his beak he repeatedly tapped a single talon on the back of the ship.
“Ready for a family reunion, Gilbert?” Daylight asked him.
“Perhaps if I had a sword,” Gilbert answered.
“I really wish I had one of those right now too...” Breakwater grumbled.
Daylight winced and looked back at him. “Sorry, Breakwater. For dragging you into this and everything.”
He snorted in annoyance and dismissively waved her off without looking. “So long as you have a plan to actually deal with that.”
“Do we?” Senax asked her friends.
“If we’re planning on appealing to my brother’s kindness and mercy I might as well tell you right now that that isn’t going to end well,” Gilbert said.
Daylight Gleam shook her head, a serious and determined look on her face, she adjusted the black bow she wore until it was steady behind her horn, “No, I’ve got a real plan. We’ll be alright, and then we can get back to searching for Merlantis.”
In the Stormlands…
Fizzlepop Berrytwist hadn’t been in the Stormlands in a while, not since she saw herself as Tempest Shadow. A part of her didn’t really ever want to come back, but when Princess Twilight said she wanted to open up better relations with the creatures still living here and see if maybe some of them even wanted to come to her school… well, there was really no one better to be an ambassador. And she figured saying hi to Grubber wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world, annoying runt that he was. So she ended up not just in the Stormlands but in the Storm King’s old castle getting to feast and enjoy herself for the past few days while meeting with her old “friend”.
But she wasn’t the only outsider who happened to come here around this time.
As announced one evening by a Storm Creature, a boat had arrived on their shores carrying with it a group of envoys from a small island kingdom to the west.
Fizzlepop was curious, she had never seen these creatures before. Apparently they were called “Trolls”. They were big and strong bipedal creatures just like the Storm Creatures and Minotaurs were, with long and strong arms, hunched backs, sunken beady eyes, and shaggy brown fur covering them all over. Surprisingly though they had on some really elaborate and colorful outfits. Fizzlepop definitely wouldn’t have expected that.
“Thank you for your hospitality, former denizens of the Storm King,” the troll in the center of the group said, taking a knee with the others before Fizzplepop and Grubber. He was wearing an orange robe patterned with yellow suns that ended in a green trim symbolizing the ground at the robe’s bottom.
“Oh yeah, no urp no problem,” Grubber said as he continued to eat a huge sandwich while talking. “So, uh, what’s up? You guys never really came around here before.”
“We come on behalf of the new King of the Troll Kingdom, King Terluff. I am Tyluck and I have been tasked with tracking down a dangerous criminal who escaped from us. We believe he has traveled here and is hiding somewhere in the Stormlands,” Tyluck said.
“Dangerous criminal?” Fizzlepop raised an eyebrow.
“Indeed,” Tyluck nodded and reached into his dapper outfit to pull out a piece of paper. “Allow me to show you this painting of him.”
Tyluck held the paper wide open for Grubber and Fizzlepop to see. The creature there was definitely a troll but he looked a little different from the others. He was drawn as wearing naught but dull gray pants and unlike the trolls standing here before Fizzlepop his fur was painted as streaked and speckled with white.
“His name is Berten,” Tyluck said. “And we would like you to help us find him.”
Back to the True North...
A pink pony pulled herself out of a raging whirlpool and stood in the winds of the tornado that blew unceasingly around the north pole. Heartless’s mane and tail billowed about around her as she stood there with her eyes closed and a smile on her face. She could still feel the warmth, slowly going south now. Opening up her eyes she began to walk again to Rainbow Dash.
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I like how this epilogue connects to Amethyst's story and I expect that many of the things that were shwon are foreshadowing. I'm not surprised that Harlequin Grey wants to kill Rainbow Dash he's a real monster after all. If Trixie had told Rainbow Dash about the danger Rainbow would still have gone north because she would enjoy having to face danger. I'm also wondering what it will take sto stop Heartless and it's clear that Rainbow hasn't gotten rid of her yet.
Great story!
Interesting little epilogue.
I'm honestly a bit surprised with the ending, felt like Rainbow would've found what she was looking for and returned home promising to return next year.
Thought it could've wrapped up well that way, but then again that would ruin sequel potential :P so I can see why I don't work in show biz.
Enjoyed the story, thanks for writing this.
10766622
My god!
Is there one chapter where you haven't commented?
11207292
Some of the earlier chapters.
its quite interresting how its ranked for everyone even with a lot of violence and death...
meh idc
11207374
I don't think it was graphic enough to justify a T, even though it was getting there compared to my other stories. There are a lot of children's books and shows etc. with similar things so it's still an E in my view. The sequel is a little more serious though and will eventually really need the T rating I gave it. But anyways, thank you for your feedback, I've enjoyed seeing your comments.
i.pinimg.com/564x/be/2f/fc/be2ffc41de894e61b515dba8f8335dd9--forrest-gump-quotes-movie-lines.jpg
I read this over the course of one lazy day and I'm awed at how great it was.
It's going to keep me hooked as I read the future books
Well, that's certainly a lot going on elsewhere in the world.
Oh god.
11539530
I'm glad you enjoyed the story and I hope you enjoy the sequel too.
Wow! The quite astonishing goal of Dashie here! Kinda reminds me of Amelia Earhart.