Rainbow Dash Around the World

by MagicS

The Other Side of the World

Rainbow Dash flew through the cold air above the rolling hills of snow below. She shivered once or twice, things much colder out here than they were inside the magically temperate city of Nogt. After spending days in there she might need a little more time to readjust to the usual cold of the north. Thanks to the perpetually cloudy sky over her head she wasn’t exactly sure what time of day it was either.

“Geez, not so much to look at over here,” Rainbow Dash said as her eyes scanned around the northern landscape.

It was pretty impressive how much more desolate things appeared on this side compared to where she had come from. Almost like she was in another world entirely instead of just a different part of it. If this was par for the course for this side then it was no surprise the Reindeer didn’t really travel through or live here. She should’ve asked Ark’Nogt more about what he knew of this side of the True North. Wasn’t his wife a historian or something when it came to this stuff? Oh well, just another case of Rainbow acting without thinking, it would all work out in the end.

Besides, it was more exciting when she didn’t know what was coming.

Since there was nothing on the ground but snow, Rainbow Dash looked ahead at the upcoming mountains. They were quite large and jagged, with some peaks arching over others and the valleys between them not allowing for any sort of level ground even if they weren’t buried in more snow. It would’ve been a nightmare traveling through them without the gift of flight. For the millionth time on this journey she felt blessed to be able to fly.

The mountains weren’t exceptionally taller than most she had seen in her life but the sheer amount of them and how they were nearly completely covered in snow and ice made them a daunting sight. There was far less uncovered rock on their features than there was ice or snow covering it all up, almost making the mountains look more like white daggers or teeth than mountains of stone. And as far as she could tell they went east, west, and south as far as the eye could see. There was probably plenty of snow-covered land and unbroken ground beyond them but for now it was truly mountain territory.

“Maybe I’ll at least see a lake or river or something somewhere...” Rainbow Dash muttered to herself.

Looking down again at the snow it was quite obvious that she’d at least never be thirsty up in this part of the world. Ice, ice, everywhere and all the bites to eat. Not the best way to quench one’s thirst but she had done it a lot before on this journey. Chewing and eating the ice could be a decent substitute for actual food for a little while if she couldn’t find any as well. And to be honest her prospects in that area didn’t look too good. Rainbow Dash didn’t see any hints of color or vegetation anywhere, not a surprise and she figured she’d have to keep traveling south for a while before she did but it certainly didn’t make this place any more inviting. Food was probably going to be her number one concern while she was flying through here.

Rainbow Dash blinked and started looking directly ahead again right before her eyes narrowed and she peaked back down. “Wait a second.”

She had thought she had seen something in the snow, something out of place. Perhaps it was just a rock but there was definitely something that wasn’t part of the pure white canvas down there. Rainbow Dash peered harder towards the edge of the snow ocean before the mountains started to rise.

There. A series of brown triangles stabbed out of the surface of snow right in front of a valley between the two closest mountains to Rainbow Dash. They didn’t look like rocks from this distance—too uniform and not the right color—but she wasn’t sure just what they were yet. So obviously she knew what to do now.

“Already found something to check out. Awesome,” Rainbow Dash grinned and dove down towards the triangles.

Luckily for her, despite the poor light thanks to the clouds, there wasn’t much wind or a lot of falling snow around her right now, otherwise she probably wouldn’t have seen the objects in the snow to begin with. The closer she approached the easier it was to tell that she was clearly looking at something unnatural, and she was fairly certain she knew what the triangles were. Or at least what they were the remnants of.

Rainbow Dash’s hooves landed in the snow in the middle of them, sinking down a few inches until her fetlocks were totally buried and flinching at the sudden chill, and she looked around at the group of decaying brown tents. It was tough to tell how old these things were or how long they had been here, but very long was a good guess. Their canvasses were a thick brown fabric of some kind and the poles that Rainbow Dash could still see were made of wood. All of them were at least halfway buried in the snow or more, they had been sitting here unattended for ages while more and more snow dropped on them.

So Rainbow approached the one nearest to her and tried to open up the front flap. But when she tried it wouldn’t open up, like something was holding the two flaps together. Rainbow Dash frowned and dug away a few bits of snow at the front of the tent to reveal more of the flap, finally seeing a spot where two holes in the front flap were connected and tied together by a piece of rope. With a click of her tongue, Rainbow Dash untied it and pulled open the flap.

The foul smell of rotting and fermenting something burst from inside the newly opened tent and Rainbow Dash nearly retched. The snow and cold obviously hadn’t preserved everything perfectly. Rainbow Dash closed the tent flap immediately and backed away.

“Okay, let’s try a different one and hope it doesn’t smell so bad,” Rainbow said. She didn’t exactly want to think about what might have been inside that tent.

Looking around at some of the others she noticed a tent that had all but the top couple of feet completely submerged in snow and the front flap was open, allowing snow to pour into the insides. Digging through snow didn’t bother her at this point though so Rainbow Dash trotted over and fully opened up the tent before digging around inside to find anything. Her hoof soon hit something hard and her eyes widened, Rainbow Dash dug faster and faster to uncover whatever was in this tent. Throwing snow out behind her she uncovered something that looked almost like a gnarled set of tree branches. But Rainbow Dash was able to recognize what they really were immediately: Reindeer horns.

“Oh. That figures,” Rainbow Dash frowned and spent the next minute fully digging out the frozen and relatively well preserved Reindeer from inside the tent. She grimaced as she looked on at him in pity. “You must be from Nogt… part of some expedition, huh?” She stuck her head out and looked around at the other tents as she could only assume what else was in them. “Looks like exploring this side of the world didn’t go too well for you guys.”

It gave Rainbow Dash pause; the Reindeer of the True North were used to these kinds of places, weren’t they? Their bodies were better suited for the climate and they had thousands of years of history up on the other side. And Nogt wasn’t even that far from here, in fact if Rainbow looked back she could still barely make out the wall and tornado. Yet… they had all perished out here in the snow? Rainbow couldn’t help but be curious. Was this side of the True North really that much worse? She had thought that there were plenty of extremely cold and desolate places from where she had come from already, and she didn’t remember hearing any stories of Reindeer dying out there.

Rainbow Dash searched through the rest of the snowed-in tent, ignoring the freezing numbness that had conquered her hooves. A book, a scroll, some parchment, if these guys were explorers from Nogt they must have kept a journal of what had happened on their expedition.

It reminded her of when she had been searching through the crash site of a large airship on a mountainside, looking for answers…

Rainbow Dash shook her head. That had nothing to do with this.

At last she found something else under the snow, a wooden box of some sort that when she opened it up revealed a scattered assortment of ancient papers and one wood-bound book that looked like it was practically falling apart. Rainbow Dash very carefully opened the front cover of the book and to her dismay half the pages came with it, their edges flaking off as they partially disintegrated from her touch.

“Ugh, better than nothing still,” Rainbow Dash said as she looked at the faded words on the page she had randomly opened up to. “Time to read.”

-become apparent that we have not taken what we need from our home of Nogt despite our best preparations. We simply couldn’t have known how empty the other side beyond Nogt was. It’s unlike the lands we came from at all.

Three months of supplies was thought to be enough but we have been unable to find any extra kindling or even the slightest sign of food. Animal or plant. I dare say that there’s nothing alive at all out here. And now we won’t even have the wood to keep our fires going.

What’s more is that getting back to Nogt is impossible, the snow has-

The rest of the words on the page were too faded to read so Rainbow Dash turned to the next one she could.

-the sun still refuses to show and the winds block us from attempting to head any direction but south. However we know that there’s no refuge for us that way either. All the scouts and the other parties that left our main camp in the first week of the expedition have failed to return or check in in any way.

Why is it so cold? I thought I was used to the cold after my numerous expeditions south of Nogt on the other side. Only now I realize how wrong I was.

It’s obvious we’ve failed in our mission to map out and discover these lands and whatever other creatures or kingdoms might call them home. What I don’t think everyone else on the expedition has grasped though is that we likely will not be able to return to Nogt to speak of our failure.

This camp was supposed to be a hoofhold into this part of the world, somewhere relatively close to our home that could be resupplied and work as the starting point for future expeditions further south. It was supposed to be simple. The other ones journeying off into the mountains were the ones doing the dangerous work, I thought. I don’t think anyone else here at camp but me realizes that we’ve already been claimed by the snow.

Rainbow Dash frowned as she reached the end of that page, she carefully tried to reach towards the back of the book and read the last words written to see if she could glean any knowledge that would be more helpful. Right now all she had gotten was what she expected but just maybe there was something informative or revealing about this place that would help her when she started flying again.

We still have plenty of food but it doesn’t matter anymore. I don’t have the strength to eat. I barely have the strength left to write. It’s so cold, we’re all so cold. Nothing can live in this place. I haven’t seen a single arctic bird or heard the cry of a beast, nor have I seen any plants growing anywhere, and now I know why. This place is death. Cold death. The other parties we sent south were futile, I understand now. They will find nothing, no one will ever find anything here. No Reindeer could make a home here, nor any other warm, living creature. It’s all a wasteland of snow and ice, it has to be. This is not our home. This place is different from where we came from where even in the blinding snow one could still find warmth and life. Here there is only the merciless cold. And death.

Rainbow Dash closed the book with a sigh and let it rest beside the frozen Reindeer. She calmly walked out of the tent and looked towards the towering mountains south of her.

“Well guess what? I like a challenge,” Rainbow Dash spread her wings and shot off into the sky once more.

A cold wind came down from the mountains, making her shiver slightly before she blasted beyond them.

Author's Note:

Comments

[redmar]

Unnatural extreme cold won't be enough to stop Rainbow. Maybe she'll find a clue as to why it is different on the other side of Nogt. I'm already tracking story of course.

[TheCommunistDog]

That was cold