Rainbow Dash Around the World

by MagicS

Closed Doors and Shut Windows

It was just like the other ponies from outside had suspected, Rainbow Dash left as soon as she woke up. Early morning from what her body was telling her. Her eyes only saw the same sort of darkness she had seen the whole time yesterday thanks to the dark clouds blanketing the sky of Hoofica.

However, she was well-fed, well-rested, and ready to take on Hoofica and whatever it could throw at her. She wasn’t entirely sure what she had gotten into when she had become trapped in here, but one thing was for sure: she had found another adventure. All the warnings, the foreboding atmosphere, it hadn’t dissuaded her one bit and now she was smack dab in the middle of it.

And happy for that.

Because another thing was obvious too. That there were a lot of ponies here who needed her help. There was something wrong with this whole entire kingdom and Rainbow Dash knew she didn’t have anywhere near the full picture yet. But that sky—she glanced up at it again—told her that this was no case of some simple tyrant. There was something else going on here. She hadn’t just stumbled onto some oppressed kingdom or anything like that, there was so much more under the surface. As a pony who had vast experience with that kind of trouble she knew. She could feel it. It was almost as if her close connection to harmony itself was giving her insight into the sheer wrongness that was infesting Hoofica.

Rainbow Dash flew high above the trees of the forest and then continued to fly higher into the sky until she was almost just about below the clouds. Up here with a commanding view of everything she could plan out her route through the kingdom. Below her and just slightly to the south she saw the small town of Far Rock down the same road she had seen yesterday, and a bit further south than it was another small town right beside a large river on the west and a wide open stretch of farmlands on the east. Then far, far to the southeast, past a range of large hills, was a city at the edge of the horizon. That was all she could see so far in that direction. Besides that, directly to the east and west were a smattering of other tiny towns, even tinier than Far Rock, along with lone windmills and family farms.

It really was a full country, not just a single city or a settled area like most of the other places she had visited on her journey. But it was all so dark and unnatural looking everywhere too thanks to the sky and barrier. There wasn’t rain but there was a regular striking of lightning bolts in every direction. She had no idea how big this place was either but at least she had a good idea of where to go for now.

Far Rock would be first, then she’d follow along to that other small town, and then finally she’d make it to that large city. From there she could plan her next move. And along the way she’d get some actual directions to the capitol and figure out how far she still needed to travel. Along with figuring out some other things about this place and the situation it was in.

Rainbow Dash nodded to herself with a grin and shot down towards Far Rock. She’d be there in a minute.

---

“Oof… this place has seen better days,” Rainbow Dash said as she looked around the small village.

She had come in from the sky and landed practically right in the middle of town. It didn’t make much of a commotion, but only because there were hardly any ponies out. The ones who did see her arrival quickly went away, down the other little streets of Far Rock or back into their homes before Rainbow Dash could even wave hello. When she walked past what looked like an old clothing store, the pony inside shut her door and Rainbow heard the distinct “click” of it being locked.

It wasn’t just stuff like that either. The few ponies who she did make eye contact with had glum looks on their faces, barely registering her at all, others walked by aimlessly, and she saw flowerbeds out in front of homes that had been torn up. This place radiated depression. Where were the kids out playing around? Where were the friends talking? Where were the ponies working?

It was just all quiet and empty. Doors were closed, windows were shut, and it seemed like happiness had taken a long vacation.

As she passed by another building, she paused. Something on the side of it caught her eye.

There was a poster plastered up on the wall. It had caught her attention because it was the only thing like it she had seen so far in town. There weren’t any other signs, or art, or decorations of any sort in Far Rock. Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow and walked towards it, there seemed to be a drawing of a mare on the top half with some writing below her. A murky white mare, with a pink mane, and red eyes. Once Rainbow Dash had gotten close enough to the poster to read it, her inquisitive look turned into a hard frown.

NO HAPPINESS

NO SMILES

BE QUIET

OBEY

WE’RE WATCHING

“Well, these must be the posters Cropduster mentioned...” Rainbow Dash said.

She glared up at the face of the mare on the poster—whoever she was—and stepped away. That at least gave her a bit of an inkling into how bad things were here. But it still didn’t make any sense to her. Why would the Queen want to just make everypony miserable and suffer like this? No smiles? No happiness? Why?

The more Rainbow Dash walked through Far Rock, the more posters she saw as well. She came to realize they were everywhere. Quickly she had seen more posters than ponies.

When Rainbow Dash went down a sidestreet she almost pumped into somepony who was staring at the ground as he walked. She figured he would be as good as anypony to talk to and get some answers on things.

“Yo!” Rainbow Dash said to get his attention.

The pony flinched at her loud greeting and looked up.

Rainbow Dash smiled at him and waved. “Hey, can I-”

His eyes widened in fear at her smile and happy demeanor, without hesitating he quickly turned around and walked away down another street.

Rainbow’s hoof slowly lowered back to the ground. “Okay. Don’t be so aggressive next time.”

Next strategy: go to some home off the main roads and knock on the front door to see if the pony inside would be willing to talk. Rainbow Dash figured they’d probably feel calmer and safer inside their own home. Of course as she explored more of Far Rock she saw more of those awful posters. She really wanted to tear them down but she got the feeling that the ponies here wouldn’t want her to cause a fuss like that. It was fine if she got herself into trouble, not if she got all of them in trouble too.

A mother and her child walking by saw Rainbow Dash and—realizing she was an outsider—the mother grabbed her child by the hoof and led her the opposite way.

“Geez, that’s a little excessive,” Rainbow mumbled.

Eventually she made her way close to the southern edge of town and found a few houses off the beaten path. She saw one that had a white picket fence around it and what used to be a garden. Since it seemed the most welcoming, or would have been at one point, she chose it. Rainbow Dash opened up the little gate on the fence and walked up to the house, going up the steps and onto the porch before gently knocking on the front door.

At first she heard nothing, which didn’t surprise her at all. Then a few very slow and wary hoofsteps came from inside the house. The door was opened up just a sliver, he chain still on it, and a mare peeked her eye out at Rainbow Dash.

“Who are you? What do you want?” The timid mare asked.

“My name is Rainbow Dash. I just came to Hoofica from the outside and I wanted to-”

The mare quickly shook her head. “I-I don’t want to talk to any outsiders! I’m just an old mare living alone in peace. You saw the posters didn’t you? That’s all you need to know about this place!”

She tried to shut the door but Rainbow Dash quickly put her hoof forward to stop it. “Wait! Just wait a second! Yeah, I’ve seen the posters and I’ve seen how miserable you all are. And I want to help. Can’t we just talk for a little bit? I’ll be on my way right after, I just want to know some things.”

“I can’t be seen talking to an outsider like you...” the mare whined.

“That’s why I want to do it indoors. Please?” Rainbow asked.

The mare looked out from the slit in the door and saw nothing but empty streets and other closed buildings by her house. Sighing, she nodded. Rainbow let her close the door and take off the chain, then she was allowed inside.

It was… not a nice looking house on the inside. Barren. Empty. Almost completely undecorated. There were only a few pieces of furniture sitting anywhere. Rainbow Dash could see circles of dust from where other stuff had used to sit, gone now.

“Uhh… did something happen here?” She asked the mare.

“The Inquisitors happened,” the mare answered. “Every house is the same.”

“Right, Cropduster told me something like that happened here,” Rainbow frowned.

“You met Cropduster?”

Rainbow nodded. “Yeah. He’s still out there welcoming new ponies in case you didn’t know. Met him and the other outsiders from the north yesterday.” She glanced over at the mare. “And, uh, sorry but I didn’t catch your name yet?”

“Snowy Moon,” the older unicorn mare responded. She was maybe forty or fifty years old, with wrinkles at her eyes, and her coat was a bright white while she had a frizzy light-yellow mane and tail.

“Nice to meet you. I know the feeling aint exactly mutual but thanks for letting me in...”

“I don’t want to talk for long,” Snowy Moon said as she went to peek out of her front window. The curtains were closed of course so she only just looked out for an instant. “Be quiet and obey. That’s what I should be doing, s-so just hurry up and ask what you want and then go. Please.”

Rainbow Dash sighed and scratched her head. “Okay, okay… just give me a second. I really don’t mean to be a bother or anything. I just want to know a little bit about Hoofica and what happened. Cropduster and the outsiders told me a little but I was wondering if you or anypony else here knew more. Also I was wondering where exactly the capitol is and how far I need to go.”

Snowy Moon nervously paced around to the one chair still in this room before sitting down. “Where to even begin?”

“Well first off… about those posters. Is that the Queen on them?” Rainbow Dash asked.

Somehow, Snowy Moon actually paled. “No. That’s the Head Inquisitor.”

“Head Inquisitor?” Rainbow raised an eyebrow.

“The Inquisitors were only formed recently, and she’s the boss of them. I only saw her once, back near the beginning of all of this, only shortly after the barrier went up and these horrible things appeared on all our necks,” Snowy Moon shuddered. “She came with a full force of Inquisitors, guards, and other lawponies conscripted along the way. They set up the posters around town and… did what you’ve seen here in my home. Not to mention burning and salting most of the farmlands.”

“Why did… how did they get away with that? Did nopony really try stopping them?” Rainbow asked.

“We were afraid. There were a lot of them and… they said it was the Queen’s orders after all,” Snowy Moon shook her head. “We asked what the King was doing, we asked what the Captain of the Royal Guard thought about this. The Head Inquisitor told us that it was irrelevant. It was only a few days later that we actually got news from the nearby city of what was really going on in Hoofica. We learned the entire country was like this, trapped, the skies dark, and that the King had gone silent while the Queen was rolling out new decrees and doing whatever she wanted. Red Wing, the Captain of the Royal Guard, had gone missing as well, along with a number of other ponies under his command. And at the same time the Inquisitors were formed to make sure nopony revolted and to make sure the new orders of the posters were followed. Not being allowed to have or do anything other than survive.”

She sighed and looked at her closed window. “This used to be such a bright and happy town...”

“I’m really sorry all this happened, I just don’t understand it at all,” Rainbow Dash shook her head.

“You and me both,” Snowy Moon stared up at her ceiling, staring past it, at the dark sky that existed beyond it while running a hood across the black band on her neck. “It’s not just all that but… the barrier around the entire kingdom. I don’t understand how something like that can exist. I’m a unicorn and while I’m no expert at magic something like this still shouldn’t be possible.”

“Well that’s another thing I’ll be finding out and putting a stop to,” Rainbow Dash smacked her hooves together.

Snowy Moon looked over at her in shock. “You what?”

“I didn’t just stay hiding out with the other outsiders for a reason,” Rainbow Dash told her. “I’m not taking what’s going on in this place lying down, I’m putting a stop to it all. I’m going to return Hoofica to the way it was, a place where you can all be happy again and this dark sky is gone.”

Unfortunately for Rainbow Dash, Snowy Moon didn’t react positively at all to her little speech.

“Y-You need to leave right now! I can’t talk to you anymore, if the Inquisitors ever found out I spoke to you-!” She quickly stood up from her chair and started pushing against Rainbow Dash, ushering her towards the front door. “You’re dangerous, you shouldn’t be in Far Rock at all! D-Don’t cause trouble for us, alright? Things are bad enough!”

“Wait, hold on!” Rainbow Dash tried appeasing the mare. “You don’t need to be so afraid of everything! I’ve heard the Inquisitors only even came here once, right?”

“That doesn’t matter, just go! I’m not taking chances,” Snowy Moon used her magic to open up the front door while pushing Rainbow towards it, practically trying to dump her out on the porch.

“Can you at least tell me what the best way to get to the capitol is? Is it directly south from here?” Rainbow asked while digging her hooves into the wooden floor.

“Just keeping heading on the road, it’ll take you southeast to Glamour Heights City, you can get better directions there!” Snowy Moon succeeded in pushing her out completely and grasped the door, preparing to slam it shut.

Rainbow Dash again put a hoof on it to stop her. “And what about the Inquisitors? How do I know if a pony in Hoofica is one of them?”

“They wear white suits!”

Slam!

Rainbow Dash stared at the shut door with an uncomfortable grimace. That had not gone as well as she wanted it to. At least she had gotten some information and was starting to sort this mess out. Evil Queen. Evil Inquisitors enforcing her orders. Giant magic barrier that shouldn’t exist. And now if she went to Glamour Heights City, which must have been the city she had seen in the distance, she’d probably get better directions to the capitol. And be one step closer to putting a stop to all of this. Since it was a city that was many times bigger than Far Rock there were likely more ponies willing to talk to her and help her out as well.

However, she wanted to visit that other town down the road first. It was already close to noon (she thought) and so getting some food in her before she made the longer trip to the city would probably be smart. If not outright staying there for a night instead of pushing herself ever forward.

Rainbow Dash nodded to herself and stepped away from the house of Snowy Moon, looking up at the dark sky before taking flight and ascending high above Far Rock. The next town of Hoofica was waiting for her.

Comments

[TheCommunistDog]

Huh
In today’s chapter: Rainbow arrives at Far Rock and gets a not so warm welcome.

[redmar]

Rainbow didn't get a lot of information.