Rainbow Dash Around the World

by MagicS

Not the Literal Underground

“Who are you?” Rainbow Dash asked the cloaked figures, still tensed up and ready to pounce at a moment’s notice.

“Your rescuers I think,” one of the figures off to the side said.

“So that was your door trick, huh?” Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow. “If you really helped me out then that makes me wonder who you are even more.”

“After seeing the new posters we figured you were a pony in need. And anypony who’s on the bad side of the Inquisitors is a friend of ours,” the central figure holding the torch said with a gravelly voice. “So I’d like to formally say hello to you, Rainbow Dash.”

Rainbow Dash stared at his shadowed face for a moment. “Alright, hello then. Am I also getting an introduction from you?”

He hoofed the torch off to another standing next to him before reaching up to pull back his hood, revealing an ashen gray face with a shock of red hair and coal-black eyes. His mouth was set in a hard frown and he had what one could generously call an unfriendly appearance. “I am Red Wing. Former Captain of the Hoofica Royal Guard.”

Rainbow Dash raised a surprised eyebrow at him. “Huh, I’ve heard of you. Heard you went missing too.”

“I went into hiding with some of my closest friends and allies when we realized what was happening in the kingdom,” he told her. “Welcome to the resistance.”

“Well...” Rainbow Dash started to smirk. “I think my day just got a lot better.”

---

“So she did end up in Gentle Creek? That’s rather favorable for us,” Head Inquisitor Vox said as she spoke with the messenger who had come to meet them. They were halfway down the road between the cities of Glamour Heights and Gentle Creek, Vox with a full group of wagons. “Even if her pursuers were incompetent enough to lose track of her.”

The messenger pegasus gulped and shook her head. “S-She disappeared into thin air, it wasn’t our faults!”

“Uh huh,” Vox smirked and rolled her eyes. “Well as long as she didn’t fly away it means she’s still somewhere in the city. Hiding. We just need to make sure she doesn’t leave.”

“Um… Head Inquisitor?” Dotted Easel hesitantly spoke up behind her.

Vox blinked, surprised to be suddenly spoken to, and looked behind her. “Yes, Dotted Easel?”

“S-Should we really be doing any of this though? Didn’t we come out here for a specific reason according to Master Dreamweaver? Would he want us to-” she was cut off as a red ring of magic appeared around her neck.

“Oh I’m sorry. Did I interrupt you?” Vox said as she strangled Dotted Easel. “Did I interrupt that stupid decision you made to think? I’m the Head Inquisitor. And when we’re out here we listen to my orders. If I want to chase down that pegasus then that’s what we’re doing. I don’t care if it takes days to do it, I don’t care if Dreamweaver will be angry that we’re late getting back. I’m performing an Inquisition.”

She released Dotted and the pegasus fell to the ground with a gasp, choking and struggling to get back as much air as possible.

Vox laughed and turned back to the other pegasus. “Return to Gentle Creek as fast as you can and tell them to keep a tight watch on the whole city. I’ll be there shortly to find Rainbow Dash.” She licked her lips. “It’ll be fun to visit the prison too.”

---

“When I say “Welcome to the Resistance”, I don’t mean that you’ve been welcomed into our ranks. I was just introducing us. After all, you’re still only an outsider who we know little about,” Red Wing said to Rainbow Dash.

“I mean I kind of figured that. Where am I anyways?” Rainbow Dash asked as she looked around at the other cloaked figures. They were inside some dark room with the wall behind her going back out to the alley.

“You’re in part of our secret base. We have numerous tunnels and locations like this in the city of Gentle Creek,” Red Wing answered.

“You made secret rooms and passages and stuff inside of other buildings here?”

“We’ve had a lot of time to do it. Months now. In a city like this there are a lot of empty and extra spaces between buildings, lots of sewers that aren’t fully mapped. Things like that. We’ve just expanded on what already existed. This is just a small room that leads to a larger underground section,” Red Wing told her. “We saw you arrive at Gentle Creek and were keeping a tab on you during the brief time you’ve been here. I’ll admit you had my curiosity piqued, the Inquisitors never bothered making wanted posters for anypony else that crossed them. And when we saw you were in trouble—well, we couldn’t just stand by.”

“Huh, well thanks for that, I guess. You guys got me out of a pickle,” Rainbow Dash rubbed the back of her neck. “Uhh… what now? You guys are fighting against the Inquisitors and the Queen, aren’t you? I know you might think it’s dumb to just totally trust a stranger, but I want to help this place too.”

“Can we really trust her? What if this is all an elaborate ploy by the Inquisitors?” A cloaked mare standing right next to Red Wing said, she reached up and pulled her hood back to reveal a teal face with her orange mane cut in a crew-cut.

“We both know Vox, Vice-Captain, she’s not patient or smart enough to make such a plan. And Dreamweaver doesn’t care enough to bother with us,” Red Wing said.

“What he said,” Rainbow pointed at Red Wing. “I got on their bad side but even before that I was always planning on helping out Hoofica and fixing things here. As soon as I saw the sky and heard about what had happened here, I was on a mission. That’s the kind of pony I am.” She then raised an inquisitive eyebrow. “Who’s Dreamweaver? The Queen?”

Red Wing sighed and shook his head. “Not quite. There’s a lot you obviously still don’t know about Hoofica and what’s happened here. Outsider or not I’ll admit you have a certain… trustworthiness about you. I can’t say I’ll let you in on everything, but we can talk. Sending you away right now certainly isn’t an option either with the Inquisitors undoubtedly still looking for you. Follow me and we can move to somewhere more comfortable.”

“Sounds like a sweet deal,” Rainbow grinned.

The whole group started to walk down a narrow stone staircase—leaving this hidden room behind and traveling underground. Red Wing and his Vice-Captain took the front while Rainbow Dash was in the middle, still being carefully watched by some of the other cloaked ponies. She didn’t blame them for their caution around her. Obviously this was a pretty sensitive thing going on here.

“I was meaning to ask you-” Red Wing suddenly spoke up from ahead. “But is there any reason you didn’t just fly away?”

Rainbow Dash snorted. “Actually yeah. Your Head Inquisitor injured my wings a few days ago, I can’t really use them right now.”

“We can have somepony look at you,” Red Wing said.

“Thanks. I really just need to rest for a couple more days, but thanks. Also I wanted to ask you something too. How’d you know I was an outsider and not from Hoofica? She asked him.

“Because there aren’t any free ponies left in Hoofica like you,” he answered. “I already assumed you were an outsider just after hearing about some pony that had gotten the ire of the Inquisitors. And after seeing your eyes I know it for certain.”

“Gotten some comments about my eyes before...”

“If you hadn’t noticed, most ponies here look like walking corpses nowadays,” the Vice-Captain said.

Rainbow Dash frowned. “Yeah. I had actually. What’s your name by the way? I haven’t gotten introductions from most of you.” She looked around at the other ponies walking with her.

“Brass Hoof,” the Vice-Captain replied. It didn’t seem her unfriendly attitude would be changing anytime soon.

“We can continue with the introductions later, we’re here,” Red Wing said.

The whole group slowly stepped out of the stairs and Rainbow Dash found herself in what was essentially an oversized basement. The walls were a mix of stone and wooden beams holding the whole place up, with torches placed evenly for light and a few doors leading to other rooms along with an open passage directly ahead that looked like it led out of the basement. It wasn’t exactly the most inspiring of secret bases. Once they were all down here though, the rest of the ponies threw their cloaks off and deposited them on top of a few crates off to the side of the stairs. Rainbow Dash gave them a quick glance, seeing stallions and mares representing all three tribes of ponies. Were they all former Royal Guards like Red Wing and Brass Hoof?

She could probably ask in a moment.

“You can come here with me and the Vice-Captain, Rainbow Dash,” Red Wing said as he walked over to a door. He then sharply looked at the other ponies. “I want the rest of you on lookout and spy duty. Collect as much information as you can across the city.”

The others only silently nodded before going to perform their duties and soon Rainbow Dash found herself in a small—practically claustrophobic—room with Red Wing and Brass Hoof. The two former Royal Guards put their cloaks up on a pair of hooks by the door and Rainbow Dash got a better look at them. Red Wing was a pegasus (big surprise) with red fetlocks that clashed with the rest of his ashen gray look. Brass Hoof meanwhile was an earth pony mare with a heavily-muscled body, her musculature was more defined than perhaps any mare Rainbow Dash had seen. Red Wing sat down behind a small desk while Brass Hoof stood beside the wall and stared at Rainbow Dash. Above them a small lantern hung from the ceiling. For a moment, Rainbow Dash and Red Wing entered a short staring contest, the two of them appraising each other and locking deeply with their eyes.

“I suppose the first thing I wanted to ask you is what do you think of our country?” Red Wing said.

“I think you’ve got a real crazy Queen,” Rainbow replied.

“Well, like I said, there’s a lot you still don’t know,” Red Wing leaned forward in his chair and clasped his hooves on the desk, resting his chin on them. “How invested are you in helping Hoofica? Truly?”

“I’m wiling to do anything to help. I was already planning on flying right to the capitol to find your Queen and stop her—to tear down this barrier and do whatever else I needed to to return this country to normal. It wasn’t just after hearing about what had gone on either. I saw what this place was like. I saw what the Inquisitors do with my own eyes,” Rainbow stated.

“You must realize that you’re putting your life on the line trying to help Hoofica. Do you know what’s at stake?” Red Wing asked her.

“I know. And don’t worry about me putting my life on the line. I do that all the time,” Rainbow grinned.

“You’re saying you’d be willing to die for strangers? For a country you don’t even belong to?” Brass Hoof asked with a raised eyebrow. “I find that pretty hard to believe.”

It’s not your city, Rainbow Dash.

The faces of Barnaby and Anathema flashed through Rainbow Dash’s head. She bit her lip and frowned at Brass Hoof. “Would dying be my first choice? No way. But you just don’t know who I am. If there’s some evil tyrant, or monster, or whatever, oppressing ponies and doing evil things, then yes, I’ll give my all to stop them. Cause it’s the right thing to do.”

Brass Hoof was about to respond when Red Wing cut her off. “Words are easy. Actions speak louder. Obviously you’ve proven your authenticity somewhat with your clashes with the Inquisitors, and I do more or less trust you. You seem like a strong pony.”

“Sir...” Brass Hoof frowned.

“We need capable ponies, Vice-Captain. We need all the help we can get at this point,” Red Wing said. “The plan is...”

“Plan?” Rainbow Dash tilted her head.

“That’s still private. But perhaps if you prove yourself a little more we can all work together to truly fix things in Hoofica. First of all though I’ll tell you why we’re here in Gentle Creek in the first place. And if you think you’re up for it, you can help us out with something we’ve been meaning to do here. That will give you a good opportunity to prove your worth and sincerity and then I’ll be happy to fill you in on everything else.” Red Wing said.

Rainbow Dash had to admit she was a bit intrigued. And actually doing something proactive sounded good. “That sounds good to me. So what’s special about this city? What do you want me to do?”

“Originally, Gentle Creek had a courthouse that doubled as a small temporary jail. After the barrier went up and the Inquisitors took over, the jail was converted into an all-out prison where dissidents, other trouble-makers, and anypony who does anything to run afoul of the Inquisitors in this part of the kingdom is taken. Some have been ferried from here to Hoofica Castle in the capitol for reasons I can only speculate on while the rest have been left to rot in their cells here. That includes a large contingent of city guards and police officers from surrounding towns and cities that didn’t bow down to the Inquisitors and the Queen’s decrees,” a heavy frown was on Red Wing’s face as he spoke, his expression getting worse with each passing word. “When we learned about this, we always planned to free these prisoners. Doing so however would mean we’d have to leave Gentle Creek behind soon after and we weren’t prepared for that until only recently. The other reason we came here and set up was because we simply needed a base somewhere decently removed from the capitol where there would be enough space and supplies for us.”

“So then…?” Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow, pretty sure she was understanding where he was going.

A hint of a smile—the closest to one she had seen so far from him—appeared on Red Wing’s face. “We’d like you to help us free some prisoners. The prison will be heavily guarded, and I’m willing to bet the Head Inquisitor will be in town at any moment, but the payoff is too great and those ponies in there need our help. Give your wings a day or two of rest and medicine and then we can act.”

“Heh,” Rainbow Dash grinned and cracked her neck. “They could have a whole army guarding that prison and it wouldn’t change anything. Let’s do this.”

Comments

[redmar]

A prison break is exactly the kind of thing Rainbow would want to help with. At this point it doesn't matter if there are real criminals in ther since Vox is obviously the biggest criminal in the kingdom.

[TheCommunistDog]

In today’s chapter: Rainbow meets the resistance and agrees to help with a prison break.