Rainbow Dash Around the World

by MagicS

Party of Heroes and a Villain

“This is going to be pretty tough though...” Rainbow Dash said as she looked back west through the jungle, in the direction of the lizard city on the other side.

“Just like with the Boschese we’re drastically outnumbered,” Godfrey said. “Although with what your friends told us about those other lizards, I’d say there’s a better chance for you to be able to talk things out with them.”

“You and Princess Fairscale’s lizards keep calling them savages though. You really think things will turn out well?” Rainbow asked.

“I don’t particularly care which way it goes at all,” Godfrey shrugged.

“At least we can actually talk to the lizards,” Rainbow rolled her eyes, then frowned and looked over at the others. “Or at least you guys can thanks to that crazy magic.”

Senax nodded, though she looked still a bit wary. “Being able to understand their language and speak to them is one thing… being able to get them to come to an understanding is another. I’m very concerned by what you and the Princess have told me about them. They imprisoned you without knowing anything, they violently attack their own former family and home all the time, they sent a hunting party after you for no real reason, their culture and society has completely fallen apart over the centuries… I’m worried.”

“Peace would be nice, but...” Daylight trailed off.

“If it comes to violence it could be a problem,” Gilbert said.

“That’s not it,” Senax said, her voice sharp. “If it comes to violence, we’d win. I know that for certain. But I don’t want it to come to that at all. I refuse to let that happen—I refuse to be like my ancestors.”

“Senax...” Breakwater said.

Godfrey raised an eyebrow at Senax and the others. “Seems like you’ve all got a lot more going on than I thought. Ancestors? You learn a few things about Merlantis and Ponyseidon since I’ve been gone?”

“Yes, but I’m not telling you anything else,” Senax glared at him.

“Anger instead of fear? I really like this change in you,” Godfrey laughed.

“Stop talking to her, brother,” Gilbert said, walking up between them. “You’ve tormented her and the rest of us more than enough. You’re just lucky right now that it would be too costly and time-consuming to do anything about you. I’ve had more than my fill of you, it makes me sick to my stomach to be around you like this, knowing you’re my brother. I sincerely wish you weren’t part of our family.”

“Oh no. How sad,” Godfrey rolled his eyes.

Gilbert clenched his talons, getting a little red in the face. “You truly are nothing more than a vile beast. I for so long wished we could be on good terms again, or at least that you would stop being so horrible! But you have no regrets at all do you? No guilt, no shame, nothing! It would be far better if I told my sister and everyone else back at Griffonstone that we never found you out here at all.”

Gilbert slowly exhaled and calmed himself. “I don’t have a brother anymore.”

“Dramatic, you’re all so dramatic,” Godfrey said as he shook his head.

Rainbow Dash glanced up at the big griffon, wondering if Gilbert’s words really didn’t affect him at all. If they didn’t… that would probably make Rainbow Dash sadder than angrier. Either way Godfrey wasn’t showing anything on his face, whether he truly didn’t care or if it was just a mask, Rainbow didn’t know.

Why do I even care? Senax is right, he is just a monster. Rainbow thought. And yet she couldn’t shake that depressing feeling inside her that he could be so much more. But why? Why after all the time she spent thinking about beating him, protecting her friends from him, dwelling on all the horrible things he had done, why couldn’t she just give up on him? She never had this problem with Blizzard, or Karkona, or Lord Copper, and certainly not with Vox and Dreamweaver. And unlike some of the others, Godfrey was completely unrepentant. He didn’t even have a sad backstory! There was nothing for even Twilight or Fluttershy to latch onto here.

Why’d this feel so much more personal?

“At the moment, I’m chiefly concerned with if we’re going to be attacked by those lizards on the way to the city,” Daylight said, pulling Rainbow Dash back into reality. “Do you think that hunting party is still around?”

“Uhh, it’s kind of hard to say,” Rainbow rubbed the back of her neck. “They’re really good at hiding in this jungle. If they’re still watching us or planning another attack I’m not sure we could tell.”

“Well I guess we should keep our eyes peeled, my horn is still a bit overtaxed right now,” Daylight said.

“Sorry about that, hehe...”

“Better having you out of the chains than still stuck in them,” Daylight shrugged.

“Should we be, uh, quieter right now then?” Breakwater asked. “If we don’t want to get found and attacked while going through here?”

Rainbow shook her head. “Naw, that really wouldn’t help. Those lizards are good at what they do, they’d find us easily anyways.”

“We should’ve asked if we could bring one of those magical totems with us,” Gilbert muttered.

The trip back through the thick jungle continued with both Rainbow and Godfrey leading the way, trying to go back over their own path as much as possible so they didn’t get lost or stuck somewhere. It was just as much of a boring struggle as before but at least for Rainbow Dash things were far more comfortable without any chains on her. She didn’t have to worry about Godfrey moving with her, or the chain getting stuck on something, and she could flap or exercise her wings whenever she wanted. That alone made it not so bad.

And she was back with her friends, that meant even having to deal with Godfrey wasn’t so horrible.

Sort of.

“I would like to ask though, what actually is the plan now when we get to that city?” Daylight asked.

“Uhh...” Rainbow Dash started.

“We hope for the best,” Senax said.

The others looked at her so she nodded and continued.

“We hope for the best. Maybe, just maybe, they’ll recognize me. Some part of their old selves might still be there, and if there is then hopefully they’ll have a reaction besides trying to kill or capture us. The two of you may not have seen this, but every lizard back on up at the mountains acted like I was some kind of divine figure when they first saw me. If we could at least get some kind of reaction or recognition from these lizards, maybe we’ll be able to sit down and talk with them.”

“You know I was thinking, but they might also be so shocked to see such a weird group coming back into their city that they might be curious enough to hold back at first,” Rainbow said. “Not like Godfrey or I killed anyone to make them really mad at us either.” She glared over at him. “Think I might be right about that now?”

He shrugged. “Hindsight is twenty-twenty.”

“From what we’ve heard it’s a real city and everything too, isn’t it?” Breakwater said. “They’ve got women and children, would they really want to start a big fight in the middle of their city? I wouldn’t.”

“Yeah but you’re thinking from a civilized pony’s perspective,” Daylight pointed out. “You can’t expect these lizards to think the same way.”

“Good point,” Breakwater nodded.

“I’m a little… uncomfortable with how dismissive of their former family the mountain lizards were though,” Gilbert said. “Are the ones in the city really so bad?”

“Yes,” Rainbow and Godfrey answered at once, and then glanced in surprise at each other.

Rainbow coughed. “Okay—look. They aren’t evil, they’re not like Bosche for sure, but any people that would just casually do what they did? They definitely can’t be called friendly either. I don’t think they’re going to be very open to us talking about peace. Once they hear why we came back it might not go so well.”

“We’re just going to have to appeal to them as best we can,” a grimacing Senax said.

“Yeah,” Rainbow nodded after a second. “We’ll do our best.”

A spear came sailing through the air straight towards Senax’s head—before it was swatted out of the sky by Rainbow Dash. The whole group looked at it for a moment, hearing scurrying and angry hissing in the distance.

“Well that answers a couple of questions,” Gilbert said.

Rainbow Dash groaned and dragged a hoof down her face. “This is going to be so annoying...”

“Senax, I think you should stay in the middle of the group,” Breakwater said.

“I’m okay with that,” the merpony swiftly nodded.

They started to make quicker progress through the jungle after that, not wanting to be at the mercy of the hit and run tactics from the hunting party anymore. It had the benefit of taking them out of danger and getting them to their goal much faster—they didn’t have time to mess around. When Rainbow, Senax, and everyone thought about all they still needed to do here, and the lack of time they had to do it, it made them a bit worried. If only this dumb island wasn’t so long and the jungle wasn’t so thick. Where was a real road when you needed one?

Rainbow glanced over to Godfrey. If it wasn’t for him being here, she and Gilbert could just fly the others over the jungle and into the city. Neither of them could carry him though, and she certainly wasn’t letting him out of his chains either. They’d just have to go the slow way for now. Leaving him on his own was probably just as bad an idea as anything else. He’d definitely find some way to cause trouble.

She wondered if he realized that too. Was he aware of how much him being here was slowing them down? Was it on purpose somehow? Maybe he was happy that he was delaying them, knowing that Bosche was on the way.

She discreetly clicked her tongue. He was definitely smart enough to know all this too, but she doubted any of it could have actually been planned by him.

“You know I’m rather surprised-” the voice of Gilbert came whispering into Rainbow Dash’s ear.

Rainbow Dash’s head snapped up, once again shaken out of her inner thoughts. She leaned over to Gilbert as he walked alongside her to whisper quietly back to him. “Huh? About what?”

“That the two of you weren’t constantly at each other’s throats,” Gilbert said, frowning in the direction of his brother.

“Oh,” Rainbow dumbly blinked. “Well, I was ready to fight a couple times but more important stuff came up. And I don’t want to fight someone to the death for no reason. Godfrey just didn’t see the point in us fighting when we’re not both at a hundred percent. Honestly, that’s kind of a sentiment I can understand too. Ever since breaking out of that prison we’ve had plenty of other things to focus our aggression on anyways...”

She held her hoof up in front of Gilbert’s chest to stop him as a spear went flying right past him.

“Like that.”

“Couldn’t they at least come out and fight us for real?” Godfrey grumbled.

“I’d rather they come out and try to talk to us...” Senax sighed dejectedly. “None of this is right.”

“Sorry, Senax, but these hunters probably aren’t the types who would bother talking to anybody. I don’t think they know who—what—you are at all,” Daylight said.

Rainbow Dash suddenly remembered something back from the prison. The lizard with the red spots on his face, and the other one with an old book. “No… these guys don’t, but I’m thinking it’s maybe not so hopeless that someone in that city will know you.” She grinned. “We’ll just have to reintroduce ourselves.”

“First we need to get there,” Breakwater said, ducking under another spear. “You know I wouldn’t mind one of you watching out for me as well. Just saying.”

“It isn’t going to be that much further,” Rainbow said.

The further along they went however, the more restless the lizards hounding them got. It started with loud hissing and yells to try frightening them, then escalated to more of them swinging and jumping through the trees above so they never had a moment of peace, and got even worse with more and more attacks launched at them. They did not want them leaving the jungle and reaching a place where they couldn’t be stealthily attacked anymore. But they also clearly knew that they couldn’t actually stop them directly. Their experience in attempting to deal with Rainbow Dash and Godfrey had taught them that. Unfortunately for the lizards they couldn’t actually do much more than be a big annoyance right now.

Rainbow Dash wondered if they had sent word back, a runner or two maybe, to the city to tell them what was happening. If that was the case they might find themselves getting not so warmly welcomed once they left the jungle, but it should still take time for the lizards to muster something like that. And just maybe, the lizards in charge might have a different sort of reaction than just violence. Though Rainbow didn’t believe they’d be so lucky. Not until they were face to face with the leader of that lizard city and could talk to him—and show him Senax.

It was still very possible that force was the only thing they’d respond to. Rainbow glanced behind her at the worried looking Senax, neither of them wanted it to come to that.

“Won’t be long now, we’ll be in the field outside the jungle and those big buildings should be in view,” Godfrey said. Snatching a spear thrown at his face right as he finished. “Get creative already.”

“That city was a mess, I wonder if it’ll be in a state of panic after everyone heard about our breakout.” Rainbow said.

“That’ll just make it more difficult to talk with them if that’s the case...” Senax said.

Rainbow winced. “Uh… just forget I said that.”

“We already know the place is falling apart just because they can’t maintain the buildings, farm properly, or do much of anything else,” Daylight said. “I’m hoping that we’re such a shocking event that it will force them to act a little differently.”

“We’ll just have to see...” Rainbow said, narrowing her eyes at the trees ahead. “After all, looks like we’re finally out.”

They practically stumbled through the trees together as they left the jungle, hearing the sounds of frustrated hissing and squawking all around them. They looked to their right and left to see a number of the lizards swiftly running through the fields in the distance, trying to make it back to their city or regroup together. It at least seemed like they’d have a little time before anything major happened. In the distance the tops of the big ziggurats, pyramids, and… whatever else the names for those buildings were were visible.

“Since there’s nothing else stopping us, let’s not waste any time,” Rainbow said and started walking towards the city.

“Yes,” Senax nodded and followed her.

The party of six now swiftly made their way to their next destination.

Comments

[redmar]

It;s probably going to be difficult to get those lizards to listen but they need to convince them anyway.