Rainbow Dash Around the World

by MagicS

Flying Into Trouble

Rainbow Dash kept herself fairly low to the ground, relatively for her at least, because she wanted to get a closer look at Hoofica. And because the low light from the sky caused everything to kind of blend together at times if she was too high up.

She hadn’t even gotten the name of the town she was flying to now though. It looked no different from Far Rock from a distance, just another tiny settlement on the outskirts of Hoofica. There were a ton of towns, even smaller than Ponyville, like that in Equestria too. Hoofica by and large didn’t seem to have the same kind of variety in climate and everything compared to Equestria though. She didn’t see any big mountain ranges or really anything that stuck out as different. It was all green forests, green hills, green fields, and blue rivers and lakes.

Or at least that’s what she could tell it would normally look like. If it wasn’t for those black clouds.

It was breezy out right now in the afternoon air of Hoofica. Thanks to the stormy nature of the countryside there was also a perpetual mistiness and moisture to the air as well. The grassy fields on the side of the road also had a fine sheen of water on them as if it had rained just previously. Outside the border it had been so dry, maybe it wasn’t normally supposed to be like that either? It was possible the barrier was keeping in some much needed water for the lands directly around Hoofica.

Rainbow Dash looked to her right and saw a single windmill off in the distance, between the road and a forest even further away. It looked abandoned but she had no idea if it had been for a while or if it had been forcefully decommissioned by the Inquisitors. The breeze was still making the large blades revolve slightly.

Ahead, a bolt of lightning suddenly flashed in the sky and got Rainbow Dash’s attention. It was close enough that it lit up the landscape in front of her. Right after it a rumble of thunder came from the sky as well.

At least this sort of weather was a lot easier to get used to than the frozen wastes of the north or the scorching heat of the desert.

“Still would be nice if I could do something about any of this...” Rainbow Dash grumbled as she looked up at the black sky.

Before long she had made it to the edge of the next town, and this time instead of dropping into the middle of it from the sky she decided to stop on the road outside and walk in. Like a normal visitor. As she walked down the main road into it she saw a sign posted up along the side of it: “Welcome to Yellow Daisy Hamlet!”. It was probably going to be the happiest and most exuberant thing about the town. Already Rainbow Dash saw that there were hardly any ponies out and it had the same kind of appearance as Far Rock. More closed doors. More shut windows.

She sighed and walked on in.

---

Head Inquisitor Vox was having a wonderful day.

It started last week when she had been given the opportunity by Dreamweaver to take a trip out to the countryside. Things were slow in the castle and he wanted to see if she could perhaps go on an impromptu Inquisition to find some high quality despair to jump start his little project. Whatever it was. She still didn’t know the details on just what he wanted and what that thing up in his lab was. Not that she cared though. Not as long as she got to keep having her fun.

And boy oh boy was it looking like she was going to have a lot of fun today.

She and her squad of Inquisitors had finally arrived in the far off town of Yellow Daisy Hamlet after getting reports that some silly pony had torn down a couple of Vox’s posters. Oh what a terrible mistake that was.

“Don’t you think these ponies look a little too happy?” Vox asked her Inquisitors as they strode down the street. She almost failed to keep her laughter in. “Have they not gotten the message?”

It was another sick joke of course. The village and all the ponies in it looked miserable—and now terrified that she was here. But her Inquisitors of course couldn’t say anything. They too feared Vox. Five of them were with her right now, walking through the streets of Yellow Daisy Hamlet, while an assortment of other guards and servants had been left back with their carriages and wagons outside of town.

“That merchant from Glamour Heights sure was kind to tell us about this infraction. I’m sure he wasn’t lying and just trying to save his own skin after he saw me walk in the door,” Vox happily hummed as she walked, snickering each time she saw a pony run or freeze up in fear when they saw her.

“What if he was lying?” Another Inquisitor asked her.

Vox’s grin grew wider. “Well either way somepony is getting an Inquisition. Whether or not they deserve it? Eh, whatever.”

The other Inquisitors behind her all flashed each other a grimace.

“I suppose we could go straight to the mayor and ask him about all this… but it might be more fun if most ponies don’t even know we’re here. Going around and asking about the mischievous deplorable who committed vandalism. I wonder how many here would be willing to sell out their own friends and family? Meanwhile whispers would spread about the Inquisitors going around looking for the criminal~. Soon enough I bet the town would be in a panic and they’ll be ready to lynch the culprit all by themselves, just so they don’t have our eyes turn to them.”

She stopped and clasped her hooves in front of herself before turning to her Inquisitors. “Doesn’t that sound fun?”

“Yes, Head Inquisitor!” They all saluted in unison.

“Hah,” Vox snorted and rolled her eyes. “I bet.” She then looked over at one Inquisitor in particular. A pegasus mare with her salt and pepper mane done in two pigtails. “Dotted? How about you come with me and we can search around for any posters that were taken down or torn up. The rest of you can also go through town and ask around about the vandalism.”

“Y-Yes, Head Inquisitor,” Dotted Easel stiffly nodded and walked forward while the other Inquisitors sighed in relief and went off on their own.

“You’ve always been so diligent as an Inquisitor, I really wanted you by my side for this. Don’t you remember the last time we did an Inquisition together? Vox giggled as she walked along with Dotted Easel.

Dotted Easel however looked queasy. “Yes...”

“Oh I sure hope we get to do it again today. Hasn’t it just been so boring in the castle? Not as boring as when you were working for the King I’m sure, but boring just the same. It was fun for a while when all this started but then it all settled down far too much. I’ve gotten bored of the dungeon already,” Vox sighed. “Really needed a fun trip like this.” She patted Dotted Easel on the back and laughed when the other mare flinched.

“You’re too funny, Dotted. Don’t forget you’re just as far into this as I am with everything you’ve taken part in. Choice or not.” Vox continued to laugh as her eyes scanned around town. “Now then, time to find some fun.”

---

“This place is worse than Far Rock was. I wonder if it’ll be like that the further in I get in Hoofica?” Rainbow Dash said to herself as she walked down the street.

There were even less ponies outside and none of them, absolutely none, would meet her gaze as she walked. Meanwhile there were more of those creepy posters everywhere. Rainbow Dash was getting real sick of looking at them. A few houses too actually had their windows completely boarded up, Rainbow hated to see a place like this. It probably wasn’t going to be a good place to stay but then was anywhere? Even if she couldn’t find a place to stay for the night she could probably just sleep behind a building somewhere and that would be better than using some ditch outside of town.

She didn’t have money to buy food or board and something told her ponies right now wouldn’t be willing to help her out out of the kindness of their hearts. Would these ones even be willing to talk about anything or should she just cut her losses until she got to the city?

“I wasn’t wrong, that sign was the happiest thing about this place,” Rainbow muttered.

She walked down another street and ended up going past a small library. Or at least it had once been a library. It was all boarded up too with “CLOSED” written on the front door in red paint.

Rainbow Dash shook her head and walked on.

Towns like this were always built in sort of a haphazard way without much planning. They sprawled from the main road and homes and other buildings were just put up wherever. It made getting around on the ground a pain and she had no idea where anything was or might be, aside from any farmhouses that would obviously be on the outskirts. Everything else was up for grabs. She started whistling to herself, taking in the dull sights around her and hoping she’d come across at least one pony that didn’t look totally dead inside.

Up above, the black clouds continued to roll. It was getting slightly darker.

She looked up at them for a while as she walked. Unchanging. A perpetually dark blanket blocking out the sun, moon, and stars. Even if it wasn’t for everything else going on, that sky alone would be reason enough for ponies here to get depressed. She couldn’t imagine Fluttershy or Pinkie Pie being forced to live in a place that looked like this all day every day.

The sound of some quickly moving hooves then got her attention and Rainbow Dash looked back down to see a couple ponies ahead scampering down the street. They looked in a rush to get somewhere, it was the fastest she had seen any ponies move in this town. Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow at them and picked up her pace, following them to see where they were going. As she did so, more ponies came out from around town and started walking the same way. She didn’t know where they were going, despite some doing that she saw a lot also going back into their homes and loudly shutting the doors.

“What’s going on?” Rainbow asked herself as she started to hear a commotion ahead.

She turned a corner and saw a crowd of ponies standing in front of a couple houses. Beyond them she heard a few loud voices, louder than she expected anypony to be in this town. Some of them sounded, stressed, afraid, while one was laughing loudly.

Rainbow Dash frowned and pushed herself past the other ponies to see what the hay was going on.

In front of her was a house with three ponies standing in front of it. Father, mother, and son. They were all quivering in fear, the parents holding their child protectively. Facing them was a white-suited unicorn mare with a happy grin on her face. Behind her were several other white-suited ponies, and Rainbow Dash immediately realized who she had stumbled upon.

Inquisitors. She frowned and took another look at the grinning unicorn, suddenly recognizing her from all the posters she had seen. The Head Inquisitor...

“Well, well, well,” The Head Inquisitor said, loudly projecting her voice across the street. “You wouldn’t believe the thing I heard your son did.”

“Please, he’s just a young boy, he didn’t-” the father started before a swift hoof from the Head Inquisitor cut him off.

“If he didn’t know not to do it then it’s the fault of the parents. You can all read can’t you? The posters say “Obey”. You didn’t obey the rules.” She started snickering. “I guess I can give you a choice then, if you really don’t think your son is at fault for tearing down those posters. I can punish you instead of him. Well? Did you raise your son properly? Or are you bad parents? Please tell me, I find this all very amusing.”

“Head Inquisitor, can’t we just-” a pegasus Inquisitor said to her before the Head Inquisitor sharply glanced at her.

“Shut. Up. I’m performing an Inquisition, Dotted.”

The pegasus shrank away in fear towards the other Inquisitors, staring at her hooves.

“I’ll take the blame. It’s my fault that my son tore down the posters,” the father said, stepping forward and leaving his wife and son behind him. There was a noticeable tremble in his step.

The Head Inquisitor smiled. “Really? Well isn’t that lovely. A punishment for you...” Her eyes drifted down to the young colt behind him. “An Inquisition for your son after.”

The father’s eyes widened in horror. “Wha-”

But he was cut off as a red ring of magic appeared around his neck and started to squeeze.

“Hrk!” The stallion choked, reaching up to his throat to try and pry away the red magic while he fell to the ground, writhing as he fought for air.

The Head Inquisitor stared down at him, her horn brightly lit up red, and started laughing at his wild movements. “Hahaha!” Behind her, the other Inquisitors looked away in shame, all except for the pegasus mare who stared vacantly at the writhing father.

“Stop it! Stop, you’re hurting him!” His wife yelled at the Head Inquisitor while his son screamed and ran forward to also try prying the red magic away.

“Well yeah, that’s what makes it a punishment!” Vox laughed. “You want me to stop? Say please.”

“Please, stop!” The wife pleaded.

“I can’t hear you~”

“Please!”

“Louder!” The Head Inquisitor shouted.

“PLEASE!”

Something inside Rainbow Dash snapped. She saw nothing but red, a blinding hot rage. It didn’t matter that she should probably lay low. It didn’t matter that she was outnumbered. Absolutely nothing else mattered at all. Rainbow Dash shot forward at blinding speed, so fast and so powerful she knocked away a lot of the ponies standing around her. She flew directly at the Head Inquisitor, her hoof outstretched and aimed at her head to knock her into next week. She was a blue blur, the other Inquisitors barely even able to comprehend what was shooting across the street towards their leader.

An inch before striking the white unicorn, her red eyes turned ever so slightly towards the blurring blue hoof.

In the next instant there was a pop of red energy and the Head Inquisitor disappeared.

What the?! Rainbow Dash’s eyebrows shot up and she tried to stop herself. But she was going far too fast, she slid into the ground and bounced along on top of it before smashing into a couple of barrels put up next to the house, completely obliterating them and sending debris everywhere.

“Ughhh...” Rainbow Dash groaned as she lied in a pile of scrap, rubbing her head and trying to push everything off of her. “What just happened?”

“Who are you?”

Rainbow Dash looked up and saw the Head Inquisitor walking towards her, the family of ponies behind her were shaking in terror, but at least the father wasn’t being strangled anymore. Every other pony was looking right at Rainbow Dash and the Head Inquisitor as well. She had certainly done another good job of making a scene. Clicking her tongue, Rainbow Dash stood up and dusted herself off, glaring at the unicorn.

“I’m Rainbow Dash.”

The Head Inquisitor grinned sharply and stared right back into her eyes. “You’re an outsider aren’t you? And a new arrival at that I’d bet. No pony who’s been here for too long has eyes like yours.” She laughed. “Do you even know who I am or what you’ve just done?”

“You’re the psychotic freak who’s on all the posters here. The Head Inquisitor. And yeah, I know what I just did,” Rainbow Dash snarled at her, spreading her hooves and wings and getting ready to charge again.

“Head Inquisitor Vox to be exact,” Vox said, chuckling the whole time. “And is that so? Well I suppose this day is turning out even better than expected. I get to punish two stupid ponies.” She lifted her left front leg and held it out to her side while her horn glowed red. Slowly, a long black chain came slithering from the sleeve of her suit and floated over her head.

The other Inquisitors also came around and stood together behind Vox.

“If you’re trying to intimidate me it’s not going to work. Let me tell you, you’re the ones who don’t know who you’re dealing with,” Rainbow Dash said and shot towards Vox again.

With her magic, Vox manipulated the chain and sent one of the ends directly at the oncoming Rainbow Dash’s face. But she was hardly as fast as the blue pegasus, Rainbow Dash easily pivoted out of the way and the metal weapon shot right by the side of her head. She then brought her hoof up and aimed to punch Vox right between the eyes.

When she disappeared in a static puff of red energy.

Knew it… Rainbow Dash narrowed her eyes and lifted up, flying over the heads of the other Inquisitors and coming to a stop in the air, above the middle of the street.

Vox was standing two feet away from where she had just been, and already grinning up at Rainbow Dash.

“So you can teleport, huh? Is that supposed to impress me?” Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow. “I’ve seen unicorns do that before.”

“Heh. Well why don’t you try and do something about it?” Vox taunted.

Before Rainbow Dash could respond, Vox disappeared again. Instincts and her sharp ears told her that the unicorn had rematerialized above her. Rainbow Dash quickly looked up to see the grinning madmare descending at her, the chain in a loop aiming right for Rainbow Dash’s head. Rainbow Dash swiftly ducked under it and flew up to try and uppercut the Head Inquisitor in the stomach but she vanished in red static once again—reappearing down on the ground, safe and sound.

“Tch,” Rainbow Dash clicked her tongue.

A whoosh came from behind her and she turned her head to see the pegasus Inquisitor coming at her. It was a decent attempt, but Rainbow could see how sloppy she was. This mare wasn’t a fighter like her leader. She tried to tackle Rainbow Dash out of the sky but Rainbow twirled around her and whapped her in the back of the head with her wing. The mare yelped and went crashing down to the street.

Vox just laughed as her comrade slid to a stop in the dirt. “Hahahaha… get in line, Dotted.”

“Ohh...” Dotted Easel groaned and got up, rubbing the back of her head.

“The rest of you can just sit back too. I’m having fun,” Vox said to her comrades and licked her lips.

“Let’s see how long you can say that,” Rainbow Dash narrowed her eyes and dove down to attack.

This time instead of directly going right for her face she sharply turned when she was about ten feet away from Vox and circled around to attack her from behind. Her movements were almost blindingly fast, she knew this unicorn couldn’t possibly keep up with her going at full speed. She didn’t entirely need to though. Knowing that an attack could come at a different angle, Vox levitated the chain around her body like a ring and constantly shook it with her magic, making it bounce and waver and act like an obstruction to Rainbow Dash. She still didn’t know or see exactly where Rainbow was coming from to attack but now could potentially block or counter it. Despite Rainbow’s speed and maneuverability there just wasn’t a lot of room to dodge past the chain and attack Vox.

But the Head Inquisitor was still underestimating Rainbow Dash. At the last second, Rainbow Dash went up and flew over the chain and got directly above Vox’s body before dropping herself on her. Vox’s head was just turning to look when Rainbow Dash tackled her to the ground—slamming her hooves into the small of the unicorn’s back.

“Ngh!” Vox grunted as she collided with the ground and was driven forward by Rainbow Dash’s momentum a few feet.

When they stopped, Rainbow Dash held her down with one hoof and brought the other back to punch the Head Inquisitor. It was suddenly stopped though and Rainbow Dash looked to see a glowing chain wrapped around it. The rest of the chain then swiftly came wrapping around the rest of Rainbow Dash’s body and tightly wound her hoof to her chest, making Rainbow Dash grunt and awkwardly fall off of Vox to the side.

“Heh, one caught rat,” Vox said as she stood up and dusted herself off.

Rainbow Dash’s wings were still free but the telekinetic grasp Vox had on the chain was also keeping her pinned down to where she was. She struggled and glared up at the Head Inquisitor, gritting her teeth.

“Now then… you’ve got a very feisty look to you. I wonder how long that’s going to last when you’re back in my dungeon,” Vox grinned.

Rainbow had no intention of letting that happen so it was time to get scrappy. She used her right wing to scrape some dirt up from the ground and flung it directly into the Head Inquisitor’s face. Vox snarled as the dirt and dust hit her, getting in her eyes and making her lose her concentration. Rainbow felt the chain grow slack around her and jumped up at Vox. She headbutted the Inquisitor in the chin and quickly punched her once in the ribs. Vox coughed in pain before her horn lit up again and she hastily teleported away before Rainbow Dash could land another blow.

Right behind Rainbow Dash.

This time Vox jumped on her before Rainbow could react, tackling her to the ground and grabbing her chain at the same time. Rainbow tried beating her wings to get the power to force Vox off of her but found the unicorn was using her magic this time to pin Rainbow’s wings down. With her hooves she grabbed the chain and attempted to loop it around Rainbow Dash’s neck. Just in time, Rainbow’s blue hoof shot up to get between the chain and her neck so Vox couldn’t strangle her. But she was still in a bad spot.

“You know what?” Vox asked as she leaned down and grinned at Rainbow Dash. “I think I’ve decided that I’m just going to kill you right here and now. So be a good pony and let me choke the life out of you already.”

“No thanks,” Rainbow grunted and arched her head and neck up—and bit down hard on Vox’s horn.

“Ack!” Vox yelped in surprise. She backed off of Rainbow Dash but her magic grip on Rainbow’s wings didn’t lessen, she managed to fight through the pain and keep up her concentration.

That didn’t matter to Rainbow Dash though, she lunged forward and strongly punched Vox right across the chin. The unicorn grunted and with wild anger in her eyes her horn flared and Rainbow felt a sharp lance of pain in her wings as they were abruptly twisted. But if Vox was expecting that to take her out of commission then she had underestimated Rainbow Dash once more.

Rainbow Dash put her front hooves on the ground and crisply pivoted on them like a fulcrum, swinging the rest of her body around while scrunching her back legs up. Once she had turned 180 degrees she kicked out with her back legs and bucked Vox in the head with all the strength and force of her body behind the blow.

Vox’s head shot back like a spring, her brain rattling inside her skull. She was lifted off her hooves and collapsed backwards onto the ground—unconscious.

“Woo… that was fun,” Rainbow Dash said as she looked over her shoulder at the fallen Head Inquisitor. Her eyes then turned to glare at the other Inquisitors. “Well? Are any of you going to try fighting me too? Or maybe I should be nice and let you take your boss away to safety. And then you can stop terrorizing these ponies.”

The five Inquisitors looked uncertain, they had her outnumbered but they had also just seen what she could do. And their boss was out cold and lying in the street and possibly needed medical attention.

“W-We’ll head back to our wagons for now!” A male Inquisitor said. “Rejoin with the others and tell them what happened, then we can deal with this criminal! G-Grab the Head Inquisitor and bring her back carefully!” He commanded to two of the others.

The pegasus mare that had tried attacking Rainbow Dash and one other picked up Vox, and altogether the squad of Inquisitors left, running down the street.

“Yeah, that’s right,” Rainbow Dash glared after them. She then took a look around at the ponies of the village, who had all been watching these events unfold. The three ponies who had been tormented by Vox were all doing okay, they were huddling together out in front of their house, their eyes now glued on her just like the others. But all they looked was afraid. Rainbow Dash frowned and took a closer look around. Everypony looked afraid and horrified. Not a single one of them was happy or cheering for her.

“What have you done?” One of the ponies in the crowd finally said.

“Uhh… saved the day?” Rainbow Dash hesitantly chuckled.

“You’ve doomed us… you’ve doomed our whole town. The Inquisitors won’t stand for this, they’ll blame us too for what just happened...”

“You should’ve just let the Head Inquisitor do her duty and then we’d be done with it!”

“I don’t recognize you, you’re not even from this village!”

“She said she was an outsider, not even from Hoofica! She just came in here and ruined us!”

Rainbow Dash held up her hooves defensively. “Wait, hold on, I didn’t mean for any of you to get in trouble and I’m not going to let you get hurt. I just couldn’t let her-”

“Get lost!” Another pony yelled and a rock came sailing at Rainbow Dash, who barely moved her head out of the way.

“If you’re still here when they come back they’ll burn the whole town down!”

“They’ll think we’re helping you!”

“L-Look, please, just give me a chance to fix this. I can help!” Rainbow Dash said to them.

“We don’t want your help!”

“Go away! Get out of here!”

The entire crowd started to converge on her, more rocks were thrown, including a lucky one that hit her in the cheek. Rainbow Dash winced, her words completely falling on deaf ears. She just wanted to help. Didn’t they see that she had to act? She couldn’t just stand by while that was going on. But the unruly mob was taking none of it and it would just be moments before they had set upon her. Rainbow Dash did the only thing she could—flapped her wings and shot into the sky, flying towards the nearest forest.

Comments

[THERDSTORYWHISPERER]

Great chapters!

Are we going to find out about Vox’s backstory and why everypony is so frightened of her? Is it more than what we’ve seen of her so far in this story arc?

[MagicS]

11318855
We'll get a little more about her. For the most part everyone is frightened of her because they know how she is and she has the full authority of the Queen and Dreamweaver behind her, so everyone knows she can do as she pleases, and they know what she finds "fun" so nobody wants to go against her or make her angry. At this point Hoofica has already been like this for months, there are rumors about the dungeons and what's happened to other ponies, her fellow Inquisitors have all seen what she does and what the Device does to ponies. And as evidenced by her magical ability this chapter she's just plain dangerous.

[TheCommunistDog]

Well i guess we know a little bit more about why Vox hate Dash so much.

In today’s chapter: Dash arrives in the littletown of Yellow Daisy Hamlet where she meets and defeats Vox for the first time.

[redmar]

I doubt that when Rainbow fight Vox after she escapes from the dungeon will end as nicely for Vox. It would be best if Vox is simply killed in the end.

[RoboRed]

Well, at least we know Rainbow already gave Vox a good what-for earlier. Shame that didn't keep happening.