Rainbow Dash Around the World

by MagicS

Request

“From what Vox told me it sounds like you had a wonderful time in New Pasture,” Dreamweaver said as he patted Wish on the head.

“I really, really, did. It was great dad, thank you! Thanks so much for letting me go on that trip,” Wish said to him.

The day that Wish and the rest of the procession had arrived back at Hoofica Castle, her father had been there to greet her and join her for dinner. Not only did he want to hear how the vacation went it also seemed he was making good on his promise to spend more time with her. Right now they were back inside her chambers, eating at the large table while Dotty stood off to the side. Wish had to admit she also really liked seeing her maid again. She had missed her.

Vox meanwhile had disappeared off to somewhere else in the castle the moment they good back.

Wish did not miss her.

“Excellent, that’s truly excellent to hear. I’m glad to see you so happy,” her father said.

Wish blushed and swirled around the spaghetti on her plate so it rolled around her fork. “Yeah, but I’m just as glad to get back here and see you again. I didn’t know we were going to be having dinner together as soon as I got back...”

“I wanted to surprise you,” he chuckled and smiled. “I knew you’d enjoy it.”

“And I do. I really do,” Wish smiled at him.

He looked across the table at the much smaller amount of food that was normally given to Wish. “I trust you’re also enjoying not having a grand feast placed in front of you?”

“Heh, yeah.” Wish nodded. Her eyes zeroed in on the chocolate cake in the center of the table. “But I’m still really happy to see that too.”

She very briefly looked over at Dotty and around the rest of the large room. No other maids or butlers were around and she knew from when she had come back here that there weren’t guards standing right outside the doors either. Privacy. She wasn’t being watched or surrounded by a bunch of ponies whose names she didn’t even know. Things really were going to be different here. Her father was going to allow her that freedom that she really wanted. Forget about everything Vox had been saying, forget about Vox in general. Life was going to be better.

“I was thinking after dinner you can paint with Dotty some more if you want,” her father said. “I’d love a painting representing your time in New Pasture. I can hang it up in my lab.

Wish’s whole face lit up. “Okay!”

Her father laughed. “Don’t try to sound too excited now.”

Wish giggled and started slurping up some more spaghetti. Dotty also seemed to be holding back some laughter. After she finished her main course it was time for the cake, and there was some really tasty almond milk to go along with it. Wish cut herself off a slice that was frankly a little bit too big, but after several days of not having any she really craved some. Not like she hadn’t been fed well while out on vacation, but it didn’t compare to the deliciousness of castle-baked chocolate cake. She savored every last bite of it and even her father joined in and had a small slice for himself.

When she was finished, a discreet motion from Dotty reminded her to wipe her mouth off and that just about signaled the end of dinnertime.

“It was wonderful to eat with you tonight, my darling,” her father said as he stood up from his chair and lightly dabbed at his mouth with a napkin as well. “But now I really must be getting back to my work. However—I will of course be available to you much more often from here on out. Just come along with Dotty in case you ever feel like you really need to see me.”

He reached over and patted her on the head, filling her up with even more warmth.

“I will, thank you,” she said.

“That’s my little darling,” Dreamweaver said and turned to leave. As he got to the door he looked over his shoulder at her and waved. “Good night, and sleep well.”

He closed the door and Wish pretty much immediately swung her head in Dotty’s direction. “There’s no way I’m going to sleep just yet, let’s paint!”

Dotty giggled and rolled her eyes. “I was pretty sure you were going to say that.”

The two of them went to the sitting area of the large chamber and set their easels up, it seemed Dotty already had most of their painting supplies ready, probably in anticipation of this happening as soon as Wish got back. This time Wish started painting she did it with gusto and grabbed all sorts of bright colors to use. She wasn’t just painting the town or the forest, but all the friends she had made in New Pasture. And you know what? Maybe she was even going to put a bright sun and a blue sky at the top just for fun. Wish was going to paint a great, big, happy painting that her father could proudly hang up on the walls of his laboratory.

“What are you painting, Dotty?” Wish asked her.

“I’m painting the rocky plains north of Hoofica. There are some majestic and amazingly large rock formations and mountains out there,” Dotty replied.

“I’ve never actually been north enough to see the borders of the country… and certainly never been out of the country, in any direction,” Wish absently said as she continued her painting.

Dotty was silent for a moment, her brush going still. “Maybe… maybe some day you can see it.”

It was a nice thought, but Wish didn’t dwell on it right now. All she needed was to dwell on her father’s love and appreciation. That made all of this easier. Even genuinely happy. Her painting started to become more realized and she drew herself right in the center of it, smiling with her friends. And there were the parents and other adults in the background, and the white buildings, and the forest and farms beyond them. It ended up being an excellent representation of New Pasture.

“I think I’m just about finished,” Wish said.

“I’ll be done soon too. Are you happy with your work?” Dotty asked.

Wish looked over her painting one more time and nodded. “Mhm, I think it’s good. I think I did a better job drawing buildings and the background too.”

“Ah, that’s wonderful to hear!” Dotty smiled as she finished up her painting with a few more brush strokes.

“I think that’s kind of thanks to you...” Wish said.

“Now, now, don’t give me the credit. It’s your natural talent for painting that lets you grasp things so quickly,” Dotty said.

Wish glanced at her blank flank. Not that much natural talent...

“Okay, I’m finished with mine!” Dotty said and took her painting right off the easel, bringing it over to Wish and showing it to her. “What do you think?”

As Wish looked at the beautiful landscape she had to think pretty much the same thing as always when she saw one of Dotty’s paintings: that she was really being wasted as a maid. That could’ve gone up on the walls of the royal chambers somewhere.

“It’s really good. What about mine?” Wish sat back so Dotty could look at her painting.

Dotty smiled. “Everypony you painted looks so happy. Especially you. Your father will think it’s super sweet!”

“Heh,” Wish blushed.

“Now that it’s getting late though I think we need to put a stop to things for today. You need to take a bath and get ready for bed,” Dotty nodded.

“Okay...” Wish rolled her eyes.

Dotty grinned. “None of that now, just come along, young lady.”

Wish had to admit it did actually feel really nice to take a bath in the huge, extravagant, tub again. She still would’ve preferred painting a little more but Dotty had a point. Either way the warm waters and all the soaps and everything added to the bath relaxed her, she practically could’ve fallen asleep right inside the tub. It was a long lasting bubble bath too as Dotty made sure to scrub her body and wring her mane completely clean. Afterwards, Wish really was ready to hop right into bed.

She now snuggled up into the bed sheets while Dotty fluffed her pillows and then drew the curtain on her four-poster bed closed.

“Good night, Wish,” Dotty said and gave her a smile before stepping out of the bed chambers.

“Good night, Dotty,” Wish said and listened as Dotty walked all the way out of her chambers and closed the main doors. No “click”. She wasn’t being locked inside like she used to be. Wish smiled in the darkness of her bedroom and rested her head on her pillow, cuddling up in the sheets and soon drifting off to sleep.

---

The blue comet with its rainbow trail flew overhead once more. Wish, somehow, flew along behind it. Below it. She was following it out of the castle but she didn’t know why. Why was any of this happening? The dark skies overhead made it easy to see, the comet even seemed to open up the sky it traveled under and let in bright light to pour to the ground of Hoofica far below, lighting up the dark lands.

Wish tried calling out to it, asking it to stop, or come down to her, but the comet only flew on. Where was it going? Wish looked behind her at the castle slowly disappearing into the distance, she and the comet were flying over the lands of Hoofica at high speed. Forests and roads passed them both by.

Wish didn’t want to let it go, she tried flying up and screaming for it again, and tried to put all her strength into reaching it so she could grasp the comet or at least the rainbow tail that flew behind it. It was so warm, so calming, so reassuring. There was something about the comet that told her that everything would be alright.

But why? Why would everything need to be alright? To Wish everything should already be okay.

She grasped her head in her hooves as pain shot through her skull, droplets of blood dripped down her nose and fell to the ground, forming red rivers and lakes throughout the landscape of Hoofica. In the ripples she thought she saw the face of a pony take shape for a moment before it disappeared. To look back at the castle, it was only a speck now but—something or someone was watching her from inside it. Somehow she knew.

They didn’t want her going with the comet. They were watching the comet as well. Screaming. Screaming to not go.

Wish’s head hurt, part of her wanted to go back to the castle just to make the pain stop. But she couldn’t, she had to see the comet, had to reach it. What was it flying for?

In the distance, the darkness of Hoofica gave way to new color. It was not brought by the blue and rainbow light of the comet, nor from the beautiful sun beyond the black clouds. There were spurts of yellow, orange, and red on the horizon. Snakes dancing in the sky.

Fire. Flames. Burning. The horizon was an inferno that the blue comet was speeding towards. The forests and farms in the distance were all being consumed by the blaze.

Wish screamed. In fear? In anger? Her body still flew towards the fire on the trail of the comet. No matter how much of the black sky was torn asunder by the blue comet and light flowed through, it didn’t stop the darkness. Finally the comet reached above the flames and held there, like a shining beacon drawing Wish towards it. Rainbow light rained down it towards the flames but the fire didn’t abate in the slightest. It kept burning fiercely, on and on.

She was flying towards it and the closer she got the more she could make out. The more she could see of what the fire was consuming. Houses, farms, ponies.

Had she been here before? It was familiar to her but Wish didn’t understand why. The blue comet held steady overhead, but it could do nothing else other than light the way for Wish. Illuminate the world for her to see. Meanwhile the fires spread out from the town it was already burning to cinders, threatening to crawl further across the lands of Hoofica. A terror that sought to spread and engulf others.

Wish was falling through the sky, closer to the flames and the town. She could see phantom ponies running around and screaming. Why was this happening? Could anything be done to help?

She saw the ponies. She wanted to reach out to them.

But a white tendril wrapped around her body first and threw her away. Wish went screaming into the darkness, when she could look back again she saw the white monster flying through the flames, helping to spread them, grabbing ponies from the ground and tossing them into the bonfire.

Laughing.

The blue comet above shined as brightly as it could, its rainbow light attempting to drown out and blind the white monster. But as the red eyes of the monster looked up into the sky, more white phantoms appeared around the blue comet. Dozens surrounded it and slowly the light from the comet began to fade away. Outnumbered. Helpless.

Wish tried to fly towards it but she couldn’t move, looking back, chains tethered her to the ground. Chains that stretched for miles and miles all the way back to the castle. She tried to break them, tried to slip out of them, but they were completely unyielding. She screamed in silence and stretched her hooves up towards the comet even as the white phantoms closed in on it.

The larger white monster appeared all around Wish, holding her, using its tendrils to yank her eyelids open and keep her from blinking or looking away. The rainbow light and the light from the sky was cut off. Only the color of the flames spread across Hoofica now. Finally the blue comet itself, holding so strongly up in the sky, so resolutely, was covered and smothered by the white phantoms.

Wish screamed and fought to try and help it. Screams from below from burning ponies begged for help. Begged for her to do something.

The monster laughed. The comet was gone.

Wish was pulled, the chains around her legs were pulling her back to the castle, pulling her through flames, through lakes of blood, through dark forests and dark skies. Laughter and cries of fear and despair tore through her ears. She had to block it out. She clapped her hooves over her ears but still it didn’t stop. The chains were relentless, she looked back at the castle she was being taken towards and saw-

She woke up huddled in the middle of her bed, shaking and shivering in fright while a cold sweat covered her pale body. Tears ran down her cheeks before she realized that it had been another nightmare and she was safe back in bed. Wish sat up, hugging herself and squeezed her eyes shut. “Why… why don’t they stop?”

---

Although she didn’t need to do it everyday anymore, Wish still decided to go to class, just because she needed something to try and take her mind off of things. However she didn’t really spend the time in there paying attention. Her pencil drew circles and spirals on her paper in boredom while her teacher talked in the background. Wish just didn’t have it in her to care right now.

That nightmare last night was different, there were similar things about it, and it still scared her. But she didn’t know what it all meant or why she was still having nightmares in the first place. Things were better now. She knew the truth, she wasn’t being treated like a prisoner anymore, she could see her father more. So why? Why were her nights still being plagued by these horrible terrors?

Her classmates seemed to notice the malaise infecting her, their smiles were weaker than normal.

Wish sighed and sat back in her seat, looking at the jumbled scribblings on the chalkboard and trying to find her place.

---

Class was a complete bust and she didn’t feel like painting with Dotty right now. She didn’t feel like anything. The good news was she could go where she wanted in the castle to think.

Wish frowned. She didn’t want to have to think. She didn’t want to keep having this stupid problem. She wanted to put it all behind her and put things back to normal.

Right now she was standing on a balcony overlooking the castle’s central courtyard. She had wanted to get some fresh air and look at something nice besides just black castle walls and torches. The trees and flowers down below were soothing, somewhat, and it felt nice to just stand there while the breeze went by, listening to the world around her. But she was afraid even now. Afraid to go back up to her chambers and go to bed tonight. She didn’t want to go through another nightmare, waking up terrified and confused. But she didn’t know what to do either. Tell Dotty? She wouldn’t know what to do. Tell her father? She was worried he’d be disappointed or upset that she was still having nightmares after the vacation she had just gone on.

It was like it was her fault. If her father was angry at her… or blamed her for the nightmares, Wish wasn’t sure she could handle that. He had worked so hard to make her happy, she didn’t want to upset him or make it seem like he had failed.

“I… I don’t think I can keep keeping this a secret though...” Wish said to herself, trembling as she looked down at the courtyard. The nightmares were eating her up.

Images of the blue comet with its rainbow trail passed through her mind. She knew what that really was.

And deep down inside, she was pretty sure she knew why these nightmares were still happening too. It didn’t have to do with her father, or her being happy in the moment, or her having more freedom in the castle. There was still something wrong. There was something strange going on in the castle and something horribly wrong with the kingdom of Hoofica. Wish knew that. And she knew that that rainbow-maned pegasus down in the dungeons was connected to things. Or part of the answer, or part of something at least.

The nightmares started when she came.

They wouldn’t go away until Wish knew more.

Until Wish knew the truth of that pony stuck in the dungeon below Hoofica Castle.

---

Wish walked down the stairs to the ground floor of Hoofica Castle. She had traveled down these stairs a few times in recent memories, to see the opera, and then late at night to sneak into the dungeon. Now she was walking down them again just because she needed to get a look. She hopped off the last step and looked around the corner, towards the dark mouth that led down to the large storage area and dungeon.

There were still guards there. Most of the guards Wish was used to seeing weren’t around anymore, and her father told her not to mind the ones she did see. But somehow she got the feeling that didn’t apply to these ones.

They saw her too of course but both kept looking dead ahead as if she wasn’t there.

She needed to go down to that dungeon though. She had to see the rainbow pegasus. Unfortunately… would her father grant that request? If he didn’t and she had to sneak out again… would Vox catch her? The Head Inquisitor probably spent most of her time in that dungeon. And Wish really, really, didn’t want to run into her like that. If she begged her father would he say yes? Or would he instead outright refuse her?

If… if she didn’t mention it to him at all and still tried to get into the dungeon, then technically she wouldn’t be disobeying him. Right?

But no, that didn’t solve the problem of Vox. And the last time Vox found Wish trying to get into the dungeon, an entire day vanished into thin air. Wish turned around and sat down on the stair steps. She sighed and plopped her face down onto her hooves. Nothing sounded good to her. There wasn’t a single solitary option that she could look at and be happy about.

Wish stood up and frowned. She knew what she had to do now, as unfortunate as it was. And she should probably be getting back to her chambers soon anyways or Dotty would start to get worried.

So Wish made the long journey back, traveling the multitude of steps needed to get back to the third tower. She was tired by the time she got back, but aside from maybe getting a glass of water she didn’t want dinner. There were other things to do.

Dotty was naturally standing right outside the door to her chambers and she smiled widely when she saw Wish coming up the stairs. “Hello, Wish. Did you have a good day?”

“It was alright,” Wish said, an even look on her face. She glanced at the doors Dotty was in front of and then looked towards the stairs leading up to the fourth tower. “Um… can I ask you to help me with something, Dotty?”

Dotty cocked her head to the side, still smiling warmly. “Of course you can! What is it?”

“Can you come up with me to my father’s lab?”

The smile wavered just slightly—just for an instant—but Wish caught it. “I-I see. What for? Do you just want to see your father?”

“Yeah, I just want to talk to him. Just need to ask him about something,” Wish rubbed her leg.

“Well okay then,” Dotty said as she looked towards the stairs. She seemed a little hesitant but she still smiled for Wish and left her place in front of the doors. “Let’s go.”

The two quietly began the trek from the third tower to the fifth. Dotty apparently knew that this wasn’t a time for banal conversation with Wish, and Wish’s face was blank and empty. On the inside, Wish didn’t know what to think or how this conversation with her father was going to go. Hopefully good. She had already asked for so much lately though, did she deserve to ask for something more? But he was always saying his work and everything he did was for her happiness. And with the nightmares, Wish would never be truly happy. Neither would she be with Vox around but that was another issue entirely.

It didn’t take too long to get all the way up to the fifth tower, it wasn’t exactly a long trip from the third. Just as before it ended in a small room with the door to her father’s lab closed in front of them. Dotty looked down at Wish and raised an eyebrow at the filly.

Wish nodded.

The maid then took a deep breath and stepped forward, knocking her hoof on the door.

There was a moment of silence that stretched on too long for the occupant of the lab to merely be taking their time to respond.

“Who is it?” Her father’s voice finally came from beyond the door.

“It’s Dotted Easel, sir. Your daughter is here, she wants to see you,” Dotty replied.

The door swiftly opened up, pulled open by golden magic, and Wish saw her father standing a few feet away inside his lab, a curious look on his face. “Wish? Something you needed to see me for?” A smile graced his features. “Silly darling, we only just saw each other yesterday. Did you miss me that much?”

Wish got a tiny bit flustered and she started chewing on her lip before walking into the lab. Dotty meanwhile stood at the door, not sure if she should go in or not until Wish looked up at her and motioned her in too.

“Um… well...” Wish said, looking down at the floor as she walked up to her father. Behind her the lab door closed shut and Dotty stood patiently in front of it. “I had to talk to you… or ask you about something.”

“Yes? You know you can ask me anything, my sweet daughter,” Dreamweaver chuckled and lifted up her chin as soon as she got close.

“I...” Wish looked up at him.

His warm and loving eyes looked back at her.

Wish swallowed and steeled herself to finally say what needed to be said. “I want to see the rainbow pegasus in the dungeon.”

Comments

[silverMEGAlicorn]

There’s no turning back now. They’d better comply. Resistance is futile

[redmar]

If Dreamweaver were to refuse then Wish knows she can't trust her father which makes this problematic for Dreamweaver since he obviously doesn't want Wish to meet Rainbow Dash.

[TheCommunistDog]

No turning back huh

In today's chapter: Wish finally request access to see the prisoner/Rainbow dash!

[RoboRed]

I think I see now.
The line blurs between these being nightmares and memories. I think what might have happened is Rainbow arrived as the Inquisition, likely Vox included (red-eyed white phantom), was setting the fields and farmhouses on fire as punishment. Rainbow attempted to intervene and fight them off but was overwhelmed and captured. Wish, for some reason, was there to witness it.