Rainbow Dash Around the World

by MagicS

Time for Battle

Rainbow Dash and Wish ran up the steps of the dark maw that led down to the dungeon—now this time leaving it for good. When they emerged from the maw, to the actual ground floor of the castle, Wish’s eyes opened up wide. Things were a lot different than how she left them.

The huge open floor of the castle was full of Inquisitors and a few Royal Guards locked in battle with another group of ponies. Everywhere Wish looked there were at least three or four ponies fighting each other. Is this what Rainbow Dash meant? Somehow crushing that crystal had led to this but Wish was still full of so many questions. The Inquisitors were outnumbered but Wish noticed that a lot of ponies engaged in the melee were actually prisoners they had just rescued, and they weren’t in a great condition to fight.

Neither was Rainbow Dash—despite her willing spirit, the moment they had reached the top of the stairs she had to stop and lean up against the wall for support. The loud battle going on at least had the other ponies distracted so nopony was coming over to fight her for the moment. Wish went up to Rainbow Dash and rested a hoof on her side to see how she was doing, lightly rubbing the pegasus to try and maybe ease the pain a bit.

Rainbow Dash coughed a couple of times and stood up away from the wall, ignoring Wish’s attempt to make her feel better. “K-Kid… we need to get to the main hall, right by the main entrance or whatever to this place. I need you to lead the way cause I honestly don’t even know where to go.”

Wish bit her lip but nodded. Everything going on was maddening right now. “Okay, just follow me.”

“Lead the way...” Rainbow Dash took a deep breath to steady herself and the two ponies left to go walk alongside the wall towards a hallway on the north side of the large room. They kept away from most of the fighting as they went, though Rainbow Dash normally probably would’ve been eager to join in she had her own mission to accomplish right now. What was happening in Hoofica right now was too important for her to selfishly sidetrack them.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Wish asked as she watched the shaking pegasus half lean against the wall for support as she walked.

“I’m fine,” Rainbow answered with a frown. “Just look out for yourself right now. A kid like you shouldn’t be doing something so dangerous, you should be hiding somewhere safe… but I kind of need you.”

The words actually made Wish feel a little happy. She was needed. She was helping. It was a long way from how she had been back before she met Rainbow Dash.

The fighting going on worried her but she trusted in her heart of hearts that it was to help Hoofica. They were fixing things today. Wish had read plenty of stories and by now wasn’t some sheltered kid, she knew not everything could be solved by talking. There was too much wrong with Hoofica ever since the barrier went up—and Vox was still somewhere too. But at least… at the very least she knew she could talk to her father about all of this. Soon, with Rainbow Dash. They just had to do Rainbow’s thing first.

Wish tried to not pay too much attention to the fighting going on at all, she didn’t like seeing ponies fight, but it was impossible to avoid or ignore all of it. A lot of it was getting pretty vicious too with ponies being beaten unconscious and a lot of bleeding figures already lying on the floor. She saw one Inquisitor have a tooth knocked out of his mouth while an armored guard broke the leg of another pony attacking him. Who were all these ponies fighting anyways? Everypony was so fanatic, neither side was letting up at all.

Close by, a pair of Inquisitors tackled a muscular earth pony and rained blows on his head until he stopped moving. And even quite a bit after that. Wish felt her face pale as she watched; until Rainbow Dash pushed her on with a wing.

“You don’t need to see any of this. These ponies are fighting for a reason—leave it at that. They’re helping us too, just know that,” Rainbow said. “They’re doing the same thing the two of us are: saving Hoofica. Right now the best way for us to help everypony and put a stop to this is to move on.”

Wish watched as a unicorn blasted away an Inquisitor with a burst of magic and saw his skull loudly smack into the stone floor. He twitched as a steady stream of blood flowed from where he landed.

“B-But-” Wish quivered.

“Trust me, Wish. None of these ponies want to be doing this. I know them, I know that even when it comes to the Inquisitors they don’t really want to hurt them. As crazy as that may sound with what you’re seeing right now. But they just know what they have to do and what’s riding on the day. I know it’s awful, so let’s end it together.”

The two of them moved as discreetly as possible along the wall to avoid the savage fighting before they finally reached the hallway that would take them closer to the main hall of the castle. Wish still didn’t exactly know what Rainbow Dash needed to do there, but it was plain after looking around that now wasn’t the time for questions. Unfortunately once they entered the hallway it was at exactly the wrong time. Three Inquisitors were running down it to join the battle in the other room and they came skidding to a halt when they saw Wish and Rainbow Dash.

“It’s that pegasus prisoner!” The one in the lead said. “How did you escape from the dungeon?”

The only mare of the trio looked down in shock at Wish. “The young lady?” Her eyes glanced up at Rainbow Dash. “Have you taken her hostage, you fiend? We won’t let this stand!”

“Head Inquisitor Vox and Master Dreamweaver will want your head for this,” the last one, a pegasus, said to Rainbow Dash and narrowed his eyes.

The trio was getting ready to move against Rainbow Dash, who clicked her tongue and pushed off the wall to stand on her own. She resolutely glared back at them and spread her wings to get ready to fight.

“If you want a fight then come and get it.”

Both sides were about to pounce at each other when Wish jumped between them.

“No! Stop!” Wish shouted.

Rainbow Dash gawked down at her and the Inquisitors backed up in surprise as well.

“Young lady?” The lead Inquisitor asked.

“What are you doing? That pegasus is a dangerous criminal, we need to stop her for your father and the Head Inquisitor!” The mare Inquisitor said.

Wish fervently shook her head and affixed the trio of Inquisitors with a powerful stare. “No! I’m ordering you to stop and let us through! You aren’t fighting Rainbow Dash!”

“Y-Young lady, we can’t just-” the mare said.

“I’m telling you right now not to fight!” Wish repeated. “I don’t care what Vox or my father might say, you’re gonna have to disobey somepony and no matter what you do you’re going to get on my father’s bad side! But I’m the one here right now, so just listen to me!”

The pegasus coughed into his hoof and looked past them to the fight raging on in the other room. “The young lady makes a good point… and I do recall the last time we fought with the special prisoner.”

The other stallion and the mare both blanched.

“Fair enough,” the lead stallion said.

Together the trio ran past Rainbow Dash and Wish, but not before the mare shot Wish a worrying glance.

“Your father will be notified of this, young lady,” she said.

Rainbow Dash scoffed as they went. “Decent job there, kid. Don’t think you need to worry about your dad being all angry either...”

Wish meanwhile was sweating, even she was surprised by what she did. “Y-Yeah.”

“Heh, come on, how close are we? I still need you to show me where we’re going,” Rainbow said.

“It’s not much further now, there’s only a few more rooms to go through. B-But if there’s fighting everywhere in the castle there might be more Inquisitors and guards coming down the different stairs,” Wish explained.

“Well if there are, and they can’t be talked down by you, then just leave them to me next time,” Rainbow grinned.

“I hope nothing like that happens...” Wish gulped.

The two of them went quicker through the dark halls and corridors of the castle, Rainbow Dash seeming to have a little more energy in her. Wish still wasn’t an expert in the castle’s layout but she remembered exactly where to go to get to the main entrance from the time she had tried escaping. As they went as fast as they could, Wish could hear fighting coming from other areas of the castle, past doors and down other hallways. The castle looked like a nightmare already and now the insides were truly becoming one. They passed through an intersection and Wish saw a group of Inquisitors clashing with another group of ponies.

Rainbow Dash frowned as she saw what was going on but urged Wish to continue on.

“If you’re still worried about betraying your dad, or that you’re doing something bad… I know it’s going to sound cliche—and probably the kind of thing a liar would say—but just remember that you’re doing the right thing, kid.” Rainbow said to her.

“I don’t like that all this fighting started because of me...”

“It didn’t. Trust me, there was a lot more going on here in this castle, in the whole kingdom, than you think.”

Wish wasn’t entirely reassured but in the end she continued to silently lead Rainbow Dash on and the two of them made it to the front area of the castle, close to where the grand entrance was. As they did so, they noticed far less fighting going on. The sounds were dying down and there were no random scuffles occurring. No sign of any Inquisitors either.

“Do you hear that?” Rainbow asked her.

Wish looked back up at the pegasus and saw a grin on her face. “No?”

“There’s no fighting going on, no shouting or screaming. But hoofsteps are coming this way. Familiar ones.”

“Huh?”

In a second, Wish indeed heard some hooves running across the floor from somewhere ahead of them. It sounded like another group of ponies but apparently according to Rainbow Dash they didn’t really need to worry?

Rainbow Dash and Wish came to the end of their hallway and met a large set of double doors that led into the next chamber of the castle. Without any hesitation, Rainbow Dash gripped the handles and pulled them open. Right on the other side, another trio of ponies came to a screeching halt. But this time it was certainly no trio of Inquisitors. An earth pony, a pegasus, and a unicorn stood together, and they gaped in shock at seeing Rainbow Dash.

Wish recognized the pegasus in the center of the group, she had seen him once or twice in the castle during the early days of her stay here.

“Hey, been a while,” Rainbow Dash smirked at the three of them.

A small grin emerged on the face of the pegasus. “I almost can’t believe it… it’s good to see you again.”

“You look awful...” the unicorn said.

Rainbow Dash snorted and rolled her eyes. “Yeah I’ve kind of been through a lot.” She glanced at the earth pony. “No happy greeting from you?”

“I’m just glad we’re finally here...” the earth pony mare grumbled.

“Heh,” Rainbow Dash said. “Well I’m glad to see you all again.”

“So you did find the location of the barrier crystal? We can go destroy it?” The pegasus asked.

Rainbow Dash nodded. “Yep.”

“Then there’s no time to waste so—who’s this?” The pegasus suddenly said, looking at Wish. A frown settled over his features as he gazed closer at her. “You look familiar to me...”

Wish wasn’t surprised to hear that. Red Wing—the former Captain of the Hoofica Royal Guard. She couldn’t remember the last time she had seen him but Vox eventually seemed to take over completely around the same time. It might have been a little before or a little after the barrier went up and everypony became banded. Her memory was still spotty on specific details. The other two with him might have been Royal Guards too, and the way he was looking at her now made her worried. Was he leading these ponies in fighting against the Inquisitors? If that was the case and he knew who her father was…

“She’s a servant kid who’s been working here in the castle,” Rainbow Dash quickly said and patted her on the back. “She’s the one who helped me escape from the dungeon and told me where we can find the barrier crystal. Pretty awesome kid to be honest.”

“I see,” Red Wing smiled. “Thank you very much then, child. So where is it? We must know exactly where the crystal is and then we can take both it and the Queen down once and for all.”

“U-Um, it’s...” Wish nervously looked up at Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow Dash smiled back at her. “It’s okay, they’re friends. We’re all here to help. That crystal you told me about that the Queen has? It’s what made Hoofica look how it does. The sky, the clouds, everything. The black bands around everypony’s neck too that kept them from escaping. If we can destroy it, Hoofica will almost be right back to normal. Just like that.”

Wish believed in Rainbow Dash. But she was worried for her father. There was so much she wanted to ask, wanted to know. Did Rainbow Dash need to lie about who she was? What would their reaction have been if they knew she was Dreamweaver’s daughter? She wished there was just one simple answer and choice to all of this.

However, she knew that the way things were in Hoofica right now was wrong. The dark sky, the bands, the depressed ponies, it needed to end.

“The royal chambers in the east wing of the castle. The Queen has her own private bedroom. I-I heard her talking once, the crystal is in there,” Wish told them.

“Excellent. I know exactly where to take us then,” Red Wing said.

“It’s likely that all the remaining Royal Guards in that part of the castle will be there. She knows she’s under attack now,” the earth pony said.

“So what?” Rainbow Dash shrugged. “I’m here. It’ll all be a piece of cake.”

“No offense—but you look like you’re about to fall over and die,” the earth pony said.

Rainbow Dash frowned. “Am not. I'm at least half-alive, not half-dead.”

“It’s true, Rainbow Dash. You obviously are in poor condition after your time in the dungeon. You’ve done enough for us, let us handle the rest,” Red Wing said.

“No way,” Rainbow Dash shook her head. “Red Wing, Brass Hoof, Star Petal, we’re all in this together. I can help. I’m coming with you,” She glanced at Wish. “You too, kid. I’m not letting you out of my sight, I promised to help you too and I’m going to make sure to put a real smile on your face. Until then, we’re together too.”

Wish gulped but nodded up at the implacable pegasus. “Alright.”

“If you really can’t be convinced otherwise then very well, we don’t have all the time in the world, and you clearly know your limits better than us,” Red Wing said. “We’ll gather up everypony we have nearby and head for the Queen immediately.”

Wish was still worried, but a comforting wing laid across her back at least calmed her down. Despite the pain she was in, despite the hunger, thirst, and exhaustion racking her body, Rainbow Dash was grinning in excitement. Seeing that strong pony, how could Wish not be reassured?

Comments

[TheCommunistDog]

Why do i have a feeling something really bad is going to happen to wish?

in today's chapter: Wish and Rainbow moves towards the queen's chamber.

[redmar]

Rainbow really wants to continue despite everypony telling her it's bad idea given her condition which isn't surprising.

[RoboRed]

Nothing can stop that indomitable spirit Rainbow Dash has, but man is she gonna crash hard for a while once all the madness stops.