Rainbow Dash Around the World

by MagicS

Chief Constable

Rainbow Dash wasn’t sure what time it was when she woke up or even if it was the same day. What she did know was that her whole body hurt. Her eyes briefly stirred around behind her closed eyelids before she managed to painfully open them up and try to look around.

“Oh yeah,” she weakly said as she realized where she was. The rough beating she had received flashed through her mind and Rainbow Dash tried to stand up.

Bad idea.

“Ngh!” Her legs gave out and she collapsed back onto the stone floor where she panted in pain. If she had a mirror in here she was almost certain her face would be a mess of purple bruises and welts, along with most of the rest of her body. Her vision was blurry and she had trouble keeping her eyes open from swelling around them, her jaw ached, her stomach ached, her limbs ached. They had made sure to do a real number on her.

And I’m the one who made a bad first impression, huh? Rainbow Dash idly thought. She wanted to give these ponies and Oreville the benefit of the doubt, since it really did look like a perfectly happy and functioning community out there in the city, but her experience at the hooves of these police ponies darkened her opinion a bit. Maybe they had only done it because that Lord guy had ordered them to, but still. Rainbow would’ve been fine taking a punch or two in retaliation for how she had assaulted those guards up there, but what had been meted out against her was overkill in her opinion.

Since she was still having trouble standing up, Rainbow Dash at least tried to turn her head to try and look around the cell as much as she could. Right now she was facing the back wall of it and could just barely see two other solid cement walls to her sides along with a bed to her right. And a bucket and hole in the ground to the left. Yuck.

Even though her head hurt she managed to lift it up and look over her shoulder. What she first noticed though wasn’t the iron bars of her cell or the hallway past them, but the tray sitting down on the floor just a few feet behind her. Rainbow Dash looked at it, a simple metal tray had been left in her cell with two bowls on it. One of water and another that looked like it was maybe oatmeal.

She blinked. Was I so out of it that I didn’t even wake up when somepony brought this in here and left it for me? Whatever, at least they’re still feeding me.

All she could do right now though was breathe and stare in its direction. It would take some time before she had the energy back in her body and could actually manage the pain enough to walk over to those bowls. If it wasn’t already, that oatmeal was going to become ice cold.

Rainbow Dash tried to roll over onto her side to see if that would feel any better. While she was successful it didn’t really change the amount of pain she was in. She looked across her body and saw all the purple bruises and hoof marks that peppered her coat. Her stomach in particular was especially bad looking thanks to the repeated kicks she had taken there. Since she wasn’t doing anything else and she currently hurt too much to fall asleep, Rainbow focused on trying to move one limb at a time. Even more than a twitch caused pain to lance up and down each one of her legs though. After trying for just a minute she figured she should probably just stay lying down.

There was a copper taste in her mouth thanks to the blood.

She chose not to think of the irony.

It had been her decision not to fight back since all that would do is cause more problems. Now she had to deal with the repercussions of that. Her memories were still a bit foggy but she did recall being led through a part of the city and into a tunnel leading out of the hollowed mountain before arriving here. Then as soon as she stepped into the facility, one of the guards who had brought her here whispered something to the staff—that was about when the beating had started. Everything after that was black.

Rainbow Dash breathed out her mouth. “Wish I could remember a little more about the city I saw on the way...”

She thought she might have been riding a tram or cart of some sort through the tunnel but she had taken too many hits to the head to remember correctly. Her curiosity at this point was bothering her almost as much as the physical pain she was in. She really wanted to go and learn about Oreville as much as she could. It seemed like an exciting place and it was obviously quite huge as well, Rainbow Dash knew there had to be something out there waiting for her. And with all those smiling faces she had seen most of the other ponies were probably pretty nice.

Just thinking about that Lord Copper guy made her mad. And was it really so hard for any of these ponies to believe she was from Equestria?

Rainbow Dash decided to shut out anymore obnoxious thoughts so she could just focus on recuperating. She shut her eyes and slowly breathed in and out, her bruised ribs making each necessary breath laborious. Time all sort of blurred together for her after that and she wasn’t sure if hours had been passing by or merely minutes. But her body now was really craving that food and water that had been left in the cell with her. Even if it hurt getting over to it, once she got it into her system it would do a lot of good and help her recover faster.

She didn’t stand up fully but she at least got to her knees and turned to face the tray. It was so close, it was so stupidly close but it was taking so much pain and effort to reach it. If she just managed to crawl a foot or two closer she could reach out and pull it over with a hoof.

“Urggg...” Rainbow Dash groaned as she tried to move her body, each time she scraped a bruise it sent pain through that part of her body. Rainbow Dash was tough, and she could take a lot of punishment and deal with a good deal of pain, but being beaten so thoroughly it was impossible to just fight through it. It felt like they had gone just shy of breaking some of her bones. Rainbow paused and took a deep breath that turned into a ragged cough before crawling just a few inches closer. After a few more agonizing minutes like that her sore and aching hoof reached out and grasped the edge of the tray.

Rainbow Dash pulled it along the floor of the cell towards her, ignoring the skin-crawling scraping sound it made as she did so. She took but one second to catch her breath before dipping her muzzle into the water bowl and taking a long drink from it. The cold water felt refreshing enough to die for, the cold feeling from it quickly filled her stomach and spread through her veins.

“That’s good,” Rainbow said before moving to the oatmeal and beginning to eat up as much of it as she could. Thankfully it was mushy enough where she didn’t have to chew or anything, it was already a little tough for her to swallow like this. Rainbow Dash lied there on the ground, eating and drinking up all she could.

---

She must have fallen asleep or fainted again at some point. A slight tapping noise was ringing in her ears and Rainbow Dash opened her eyes to see an empty, and messy, couple of bowls in front of her. She felt a little bit better, not too much but enough to move around without it feeling agonizing. A groan escaped her lips and she pushed the tray away from her while she sat up as best she could. Her body was still covered in black and purple welts and bruises, some looked like they had gotten better while others actually looked worse.

“What the hay is that stupid tapping?!” Rainbow Dash yelled and looked up. “Oh.”

A pony was standing right outside her cell, right in front of the locked door. In his hoof was a key ring and he was tapping one of the keys against the lock to get her attention.

“Good evening,” he said to her.

Rainbow Dash stared back at him for a second, wondering if she should bother responding at all. Eventually her sheer curiosity and boredom got the better of her. “...evening?”

“It’s about midnight at the moment. You were brought in earlier today.”

“Same day… alright,” Rainbow Dash nodded.

“I’m aware you’ve been in and out of consciousness but yes, it hasn’t been that long since you were placed in this cell. I would’ve come by even sooner if I had heard but unfortunately some of my subordinates didn’t seem like they wanted to tell me about you and what had happened,” he said.

Rainbow Dash attempted to raise an eyebrow at him but her bruised face made that impossible. “Who are you?”

The stallion stood up a bit straighter and confidently responded- “Chief Constable Barnaby of Oreville. A pleasure to meet you, Miss Rainbow Dash.”

“Believe me-” Rainbow Dash coughed. “Right now the pleasure is definitely all yours.” She grinned.

“I believe you,” he looked at her, frowning at the state of her body. The Chief Constable was a robust looking stallion, not as tall or muscular as some stallions Rainbow had met, but clearly in great shape. He had a sharply defined brow that sat below a thin cyan mane, his tail was cut fairly short and his coat was of a yellow-green mixture. Like the other security ponies Rainbow had seen he wore a red uniform but he also had a red helmet atop his head to go with it. “I more or less know what has occurred but I’d like to hear you tell me in your own words as well.”

“I think the story is going to be that I fell down the stairs a bunch of times—at least according to your guards and Lord Doofus,” Rainbow Dash dryly responded.

Barnaby’s frown deepened. “I meant from the beginning with you first coming into Oreville. But rest assured, you should never have been mistreated the way you were and those responsible under my authority have been strictly disciplined.”

Rainbow Dash was silent as she appraised him. He seemed sincere and her friends would definitely tell her to give him the benefit of the doubt. She had been burned by these security ponies so far… but at least a small portion of that was her fault in the first place and she wanted to believe the average pony of Oreville was a perfectly good pony.

“Okay, so what?” Rainbow Dash said to him. “I tell you what happened and you arrest Lord Copper instead or something?”

Barnaby sadly smirked and shook his head. “Afraid not. Arresting Lord Copper over anything would practically take a miracle. I just wanted to personally get your side of things to see what kind of pony you are before letting you out of here.”

“Letting me out?”

“You were already punished far worse than you deserved. However, you did assault two guards. I can’t just let you free without getting to know you a little better after such a thing. I am the Chief Constable of this city after all. So, Rainbow Dash, did you have a good reason for illegally trespassing into our city and attacking two of the tunnel guards?” Barnaby asked her.

Rainbow Dash grimaced. “N-Not especially...”

“Care to elaborate?” Barnaby pressed.

“Ugh,” Rainbow Dash sighed and closed her eyes, tilting her head back and taking a deep breath. Gathering her thoughts she looked back at him. “Look, I’m really sorry about what I did to those two guys up there. It was a mistake. I… I’ve been to a lot of places, not all of them friendly, when I saw two guards I think maybe I thought they were more “dangerous” to me than they really were. Or like, I was breaking into some kind of oppressed city and doing a good thing...”

“You have quite the imagination,” Barnaby looked rather confusedly at her.

“Well I’m kind of speaking from personal experience here too...” Rainbow Dash grinned awkwardly. “Also, and this isn’t really a great excuse, but I hadn’t been anywhere like this for a while now and I got really annoyed at your gate guard or whoever when he said I couldn’t come in.”

“Gate guard? You mean the operator of the registration booth? What did he say to you?” Barnaby asked.

“He said that only ponies with authorized business or something could come into Oreville—and he said that he wasn’t supposed to ask to get authorization. Jerk,” Rainbow snorted.

Barnaby frowned. “I see. Thank you for telling me that, that’s not supposed to be the way we do things here. It seems you’ve been mistreated by my fellow citizens in more ways than one.”

Rainbow winced. “Well… like I said I kind of deserved some of it. Really screwed this up...” She shook her head. “I’m supposed to be way more awesome than this, I’m making my home look bad. Fighting is fun but attacking innocent ponies just because I’m being a hot-headed idiot? My friends would kill me.”

“Speaking of that, do you have any friends or family back at the Weeping Mountain who know you’re here?” Barnaby asked.

Instantly Rainbow Dash frowned. “I’m. Not. From. The Weeping Mountain!” She yelled. “I don’t even know what that is!”

Barnaby silently looked at her for a moment before his eyes narrowed. “You’re really telling the truth, aren’t you? I heard from some of my subordinates that you said you were from somewhere called Equestria but I thought you were just pulling their tails. And so Rainbow Dash is actually your real name too and not just a… rather apt moniker?”

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes, painfully, and glared at him. “Yes. I’m from Equestria. And yes, my name really is Rainbow Dash.”

“My apologies for my disbelief then. It’s an unusual name for these parts. I don’t believe the pegasi of the Weeping Mountain have such fantastic names either,” Barnaby said while rubbing his chin.

“Can you please explain to me why everypony here thinks I’m from this Weeping Mountain place?” Rainbow Dash finally asked.

“Well that’s an easy one. It’s the only place where we know pegasi to live. Never heard of anywhere else pegasi call home. The Weeping Mountain is a pegasus enclave that lies far to the east of Oreville. In a lush highland, surrounded by fog, there is one great green mountain where dozens of waterfalls pour from. Hence the name “The Weeping Mountain”. It’s probably a much happier place than it sounds. I hear the pegasi living there make their homes on clouds and banks of fog surrounding the mountain,” Barnaby explained.

“Never been?”

Barnaby shook his head. “No. In fact I’ve never even seen a pegasus until you. I doubt any living pony in Oreville has, we simply don’t have that much contact with each other. Or practically anywhere else the past decade or two.”

“How come?” Rainbow asked, leaning forward a bit. “And if you don’t mind, could you tell me about what else is around here besides Oreville.”

“I’m afraid I won’t have that much to tell you on either question. We’ve simply become more introverted, only paying attention to ourselves. We used to trade and barter with outsiders but our economy and industry has advanced enough where we can pretty much purely rely on ourselves now. Even just ten years ago Oreville was much smaller than it is now,” Barnaby told her. “We still aren’t supposed to just turn away ponies like you but we rarely get any merchants or traders coming this way anymore.”

“I think I’m kind of a tourist at best anyways,” Rainbow Dash laughed at herself, even though the motion made her ribs ache.

“Nothing wrong with being a tourist either. Now like I said I—most of Oreville—doesn’t know a whole lot about the outside world that isn’t pretty much right next to us. All I can tell you for sure is that there are numerous small towns and villages in the mountains and valleys south of here. And beyond that is supposedly a desert of some sort, but nopony from Oreville has ever seen it in person, I can assure you. I also doubt anypony from that desert or further has been here. We’ve merely heard of it from traders from those villages to the south.”

“Desert huh? That’d be a big difference from where I’ve been lately,” Rainbow Dash mused.

“Oh?”

Rainbow grinned at him. “Yeah, not sure how much you guys know about what’s north of you but I just came down from there. Lots of snow and ice. Was really happy to see how different this place was, but I think now I’d probably melt in a desert after a day.”

“From the north...” Barnaby’s jaw opened and closed. “But there’s nothing there. We have old tales telling us of expeditions and other travelers who attempted to travel beyond the boundary walls but they all disappeared without a trace or came back as failures. How… how far have you traveled? Just how far away is your home of Equestria?”

Rainbow Dash whistled. “Wooh, buddy. You better find a chair cause this is gonna take a while.”

---

The next two hours was spent with Rainbow Dash regaling Barnaby of everything she had gone through and seen since she left Ponyville all that time ago. Barnaby for his part sat there and listened in flabbergasted shock. It was certainly a good way of getting Rainbow Dash to not think about her pain as well. By the time she finished her story she felt much better both mentally and physically.

“Stop me if you’ve heard this before-” Barnaby said. “But if even half of what you’ve told me is true I think you would have to be by far the most incredible pony I’ve met.”

“It’s all true. And duh, of course I am,” Rainbow smugly grinned.

Barbaby stared at her. “I like to consider myself as being a pony who is good at discerning the true nature of others. It has helped me well in my job here. Your name, where you’re from, what you’ve done to get here, I almost can’t believe it but it is true. Either that or you’re an amazing actress.” Barnaby sighed as he looked off into the distance. “I had no idea the world was so big.”

“Yeah it’s a pretty cool place,” Rainbow nodded.

Barnaby chuckled. “Indeed. And you seem to be a rather important pony from Equestria as well.”

“Well, yeah, but not like that. I’m just popular and I help save the day all the time but it’s not like I officially do anything you know?” Rainbow said.

“I’m just thinking that what was done to you here is even worse in retrospect. A pony from a new country—who represents her people—was treated so savagely. It reflects badly on Oreville and it makes me worry about our future,” Barnaby said. “Whether you consider yourself one or not, after hearing your story I would consider you as an ambassador of sorts for your home of Equestria. Despite your unbecoming behavior to our guards, which I’m willing to chalk up to a momentary lapse in judgment, you deserve better than this. Oreville deserves better than this.”

Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow. “So does that mean…?”

“It means I’ll be opening up this cell and letting you out now. You’re far too important and unique of a pony to keep locked up. Provided you don’t punch anymore guards in the future.”

Rainbow Dash briefly laughed. “I won’t, I promise.”

Barnaby grinned back at her. “Good to hear. You’re an interesting one, Rainbow Dash. And I hope by the time you leave here you’ll be able to speak well of Oreville to any other ponies you meet in your travels, least of all your friends and Princesses back home.”

Rainbow Dash frowned as she processed his words. “Are you… only doing this cause you’re worried about me saying something bad about Oreville?”

“Absolutely not,” Barnaby instantly responded with a cold frown of his own. “While the well-being of Oreville is first and foremost in my mind I’m not the type to trade favors like that. Letting you out is simply the right thing to do. There is not an ulterior motive to it, I assure you. I tackle things honestly and with sincerity. I just wish that perhaps this moment can be the foundation of a good relationship between you and Oreville. And who you represent.”

“Hey, sorry for questioning your motives,” Rainbow Dash held up her hooves. “You don’t got to worry about anything though. I don’t really go around badmouthing places even if I had a bad time in them—you probably know that already from the stories I just told you. And believe me that even if my friends and the Princesses back in Equestria heard about me getting beat up by some jerks here, they’re not going to attack you out of retribution or anything crazy like that. We usually talk problems out, and one of my friends would just plan a big party with lots of cake for everypony.”

“Forgive me but you personally seem more fond of fighting your problems.”

“Well—yeah—but that’s me. And I’ve been alone and could only rely on myself and my way of doing things since leaving on this adventure,” Rainbow shrugged. “Twilight would be the real ambassador for something like this. She wouldn’t have attacked anypony.”

“Regardless, here you are, and I must admit to having quite a good first impression of you… or perhaps second impression would be more accurate,” Barnaby grinned.

“I can say my second impression of Oreville is a lot better after meeting you too,” Rainbow Dash stood up, her legs aching but not enough to keep her down anymore. “That Lord Copper guy is a real jerk.”

“You don’t need to tell me that,” Barnaby snorted.

“Yeah I kind of gathered that you really didn’t like him.”

“That’s putting it very lightly,” Barnaby said and paused for a minute, looking over Rainbow Dash.

She tilted her head at him. “What’s up?”

“Just thinking that it’s also nice to have somepony around like you. An outsider. And one that also hates Lord Copper just like me. This isn’t the place to talk about that scumbag but since you have no ties to anypony or anything in Oreville you’d be the perfect confidante. It’s funny to think that because you’re an outsider that maybe I can trust you more than most ponies,” Barnaby sadly chuckled. “Please don’t misunderstand, I don’t plan on using you or anything like that, but since you’ve already gotten on his bad side and him on yours, maybe we’ve got a common goal.”

Rainbow Dash grinned. “That guy really rubbed me the wrong way. I could smell the dirt on him.”

“You are looking for adventures after all,” Barnaby smiled back.

“Sure am. And if there’s anything awesome here to do, or anything I can do to help this place, then I’m all over it.”

“Well first of all, I think it’s about time you leave this cell,” Barnaby said and reached up with the key he was holding to unlock her cell. With a simple turn and a clink, the door was unlocked and it swung open. Barnaby stepped inside to get a closer look at her and grimaced. “I think I know the first place you’re going after getting out of here. And you’re probably going to be happy to hear it.”

“Oh yeah? Where?”

He raised an obvious eyebrow at her. “The hospital. Also… I’d recommend not looking in any mirrors for a little while.”

Rainbow Dash chuckled and tried to stretch a little to feel out her body, it ended up with a dull throbbing pain shooting all over her. “That sounds good to me.”

Comments

[StarzGecko]

Yes, the true adventure… Hospital 🏥 were Dash finds the next best adventure book besides Daring Doo

[redmar]

Barnaby is at least a decent pony and acknowledges that Rainbow has been mistreated. I wonder what exactly is going on with lord Copper but it's clearly not anything good.

[TheCommunistDog]

I

In today’s chapter: rainbow wakes up, talks to somepony named Barnaby and get released from jail.