Rainbow Dash Around the World

by MagicS

Marcene's Turtle Farm

The thick trees and dense forest of the swamp had faded away by next morning and there started to be actual land below her again instead of just water covered in lilypads with reeds shooting out of it. She had gone from swamp to marsh, similar to what the northern outskirts looked like. Claude’s guess was certainly right, but she wasn’t sure just how far this new environment would go until she came across something else. Right now she was still considering this to be part of the giant swamp anyways, it looked and smelled similar enough.

And there was still a lot of very loud croaking.

She hadn’t come across any other ponies or homes since leaving Claude and the hunting party either. Not yet, since she stayed above the trees and water of the swamp and couldn’t see into the darkness like that. But now with things more open below her she’d surely be able to see anything of note if it existed.

It was still a little foggy out here but not too bad, the sun still shined bright overhead. Rainbow Dash yawned once and then felt her stomach rumble. She actually hadn’t had anything to eat since last night. If she could find some vegetables or fruit that didn’t look poisonous down in the marsh that would be pretty nice.

She decided to drop down lower, it wouldn’t give her as wide a view but she’d be able to pick out anything like that easier.

Another yawn escaped her as she flew along right through and over the light fog for a few more minutes. She wasn’t sure what was coming up next on her journey but she felt like there might be some time before she got anywhere special. If the swamp denizens didn’t know anything about what was south there was probably some space between them and the next big country or whatever. If there even were any countries left. For all Rainbow Dash knew it was a big wasteland between here and the south pole.

Rainbow Dash shrugged. “Eh, whatever. I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

As time went on the croaking started to die down too. So Rainbow Dash was seeing that as a very big plus. There wasn’t a sign of edible food right now but she had gone way longer without any before. This was nothing. Lazily she still flew along without much of a sense of urgency, she did that until the fog broke ahead and a building poked out farther away at the edges of the marsh.

“Okay, what’ve we got?” Rainbow Dash asked herself as she flew in closer.

It was a typical wooden home, built on stilts like some of the buildings in the swamp had been, but with no dock or any boats moored up down below. There was some solid—though muddy—ground around it but it was mostly a bunch of ponds and wet grass. Also she saw a few fenced up areas around the home. Not a single large fence going around it, but what looked more like a few circular pens.

She dropped down to the soggy ground when she noticed there was actually a muddy trail that led between all the pens and up to the house. Her curiosity getting the better of her, she immediately walked over to the nearest pen and poked her head over the fence. What she saw inside were dozens of small turtles crawling around in the mud and grass of the pen. They even had a few little water bowls and boxes for sleeping inside.

“No way. Turtles?” Rainbow Dash said as she looked down at all of them. None of them quite as awesome as Tank, since he was a tortoise after all, but it was cool to see them. She was still embarrassed to admit to her friends how much she liked turtles and tortoises now…

She left the first pen and walked over to the next closest one, finding more turtles, and more, and more. Every single pen here was for turtles.

“Cool,” she said and looked over to the house. There were steps leading up from the ground to the porch and she quickly hopped up them. There wasn’t a sign or anything on the door or above it, she wondered if this was a business of some sort or if whoever lived here just really liked turtles. Either way, she brought her hoof up and knocked a few times. “Hello? Anybody home?”

The sound of hooves walking over creaking wood reached her ears and shortly after the door was pulled open, revealing a mare and three stallions standing on the other side.

The mare was an earth pony with a yellow coat, a wavy orange mane, and blue eyes. She immediately smiled upon seeing Rainbow Dash. “Well hello there, who are you?”

“My name’s Rainbow Dash, I’m flying south right now and I just got out of the big swamp, saw your place and was wondering if maybe you had some food? If it’s not a problem…” She told them, putting a friendly smile on her face.

“Not a problem at all! I’m Marcene, and these are my husbands,” Marcene said.

Rainbow Dash’s smile became slightly strained.

“Hello there.”

“How do you do.”

“Nice to meet you.”

“H-Hey…” Rainbow Dash awkwardly waved to them all. “So I guess you all consider yourselves as swamp ponies too then…”

Marcene nodded. “Sure, but we struck out on our own ages ago. Wanted to live somewhere close to home but a bit quieter. How are things in the swamp? If you just came down from there.”

Rainbow Dash briefly thought. “Pretty good now I would say. Uh, got another question for you though. I’m still traveling south so… what’s south of here?”

“Mud mostly for a long while. Miles. After that… don’t really know. Never been out that far,” Marcene shrugged.

“Still a mystery then, huh? Oh well,” Rainbow Dash shrugged. “Thanks.”

“So you want a quick meal then? Come right inside and I’ll fix you up something,” Marcene said.

“Yeah, just something quick and then I’ll be right out,” Rainbow Dash paused before she took a step, looking back out over the turtle pens. “Er… you don’t eat turtles, do you?”

Marcene laughed. “Course not! They’re pets. Guess I can’t blame you for thinking that if you’ve just been through the swamp, I heard Vissidians don’t eat any sort of meat. Don’t worry about that, we’ve got plenty of rice and veggies for you.”

“Thank Celestia…” Rainbow Dash sighed in relief and grinned at the little turtles down below.

“So might I ask then-“ Marcene started as she welcomed Rainbow Dash inside her home. “Just what are you flying south for anyways?”

Rainbow Dash snorted. “I’ll give you the short version.”

Comments

[redmar]

It's good tat they don't eat turtles.