Rainbow Dash Around the World

by MagicS

Godfrey's Rage

“Hi, Rainbow Dash! Wow! You’ve got so many more friends with you this time!” Heartless said as she looked around the room. Her gaze stopped on Godfrey and she positively beamed as she pointed at him. “That griffon has such a strong and warm light of life too! So much more than any ordinary creature’s!” She looked back over at Rainbow Dash and smiled. “Still not like yours though.”

“Who’s this nutjob?” Godfrey scowled at the pink pony.

Rainbow Dash was breathing harder, she couldn’t stop the cold sweat from starting to drip down her face. Her friends were all looking between her and the new arrival in confusion. The rest of the ponies in here were just as puzzled.

“Everyone… run,” Rainbow Dash said. “Please, I know it’s going to sound crazy, I know you won’t want to listen to me. But just run. We have to get out of here now. Just run as fast as you can back to The Breakwater and whatever way you guys got here.” She said as she glanced at Godfrey’s group. “That pony is dangerous, believe me. Forget about everything else, we’ve just gotta run and get away from her.”

“Rainbow Dash, I’m not letting you get away again after taking so long to find you,” Heartless smiled. “We’re all going to be down here together for the rest of your lives.”

“Shut up, Heartless! I’m not letting that happen!” Rainbow growled at her, she pointed the Trident at the pink pony despite knowing it wouldn’t worry her at all.

"Rainbow Dash can you please tell us what’s going on?” Daylight asked.

“I’d like to know too cause I’m thoroughly lost,” Dredge said. He looked over at Ballast and had the decency to look worried for his fellow shipwright’s predicament.

“Look—just listen to me and stay away from her, okay? Don’t let her touch you!” Rainbow shouted. She turned to face Godfrey. “Godfrey, I’m serious—we can fight later but we have to get out of here first.”

He scowled at her, the cutlass still at Ballast’s throat. “What are you so afraid of her for? I’ve never seen you act this way before. I’m the one who should make you shake in fear. You’re telling me this bubblegum pony scares you but you can talk all confidently to me? Like you’re not worried at all?! You think I’m going to let that stand?”

“There’s a big difference between a tough rival and what she is, Godfrey!” Rainbow yelled back at him. “I’ve never looked down on or underestimated you—but we’ve got bigger problems right now!”

“Talking, talking, talking,” Heartless said as she took a single step away from the doorway. Her head tilted to the left and right with each word. “Every single time now, Rainbow Dash. The last two times we met you just talked and talked trying to trick me. I’m tired of talking. It’s been so long since that first day we met. I want to feel what I felt back there again. I even swam aaaaallll the way to the bottom of the ocean for it.”

Rainbow grimaced and took a step back while Godfrey just glared at Heartless. It seemed the griffon pirate had some words he’d like to say for her—if he hadn’t gotten interrupted by someone else first.

“No! No, no, no, no, no!” Old Diver said as he ditched his two butlers and practically ran up to Heartless. “Swam? You swam down here? It was bad enough that others were here trying to take my credit for finding Merlantis but I absolutely won’t stomach anymore of you!”

“Old guy, stop! Get away from her right now!” Rainbow yelled.

Her pleas fell on deaf ears as Old Diver continued to bark at Heartless as he reached her. “You’re another liar! Another delinquent trying to steal things away from me!”

She was completely ignoring him. Her eyes still focused right on Rainbow Dash.

Until he stepped in the way of her view. Old Diver had gotten in front of her face so half her view of Rainbow Dash was blocked. He was still sputtering and going on about nonsense the entire time. But it was only right then that she acknowledged his existence at all.

Rainbow Dash watched as her smile fell away instantly and a colder expression than any she had ever seen on Heartless took its place. A face void of feeling. Eyes that were black holes. Those eyes slightly turned to look at Old Diver, and then her head followed them. It was so wrong. A pony that was all smiles, or at worst childish pouts, suddenly seeing that mask of nothingness on her face was even more disturbing than Heartless already was.

She knew she should have acted. Flown to attack Heartless or flown to pull Old Diver away. But she couldn’t move. Her hooves were glued to the floor.

Instead she could only watch as Heartless lifted her hoof and tapped Old Diver on the forehead.

“Don’t get between me and Rainbow Dash.”

He fell to the floor. Dead before he even hit it.

Heartless vacantly looked down at his body. “It’s been too long, I won’t let anything get between me and Rainbow Dash again.” She then immediately looked back up at Rainbow Dash and smiled—back to normal. “Okay, your turn.”

“What did she just do?” Godfrey said, his brow furrowed as he looked at the limp body of Old Diver.

The Bosche soldiers were flummoxed but they could identify something dangerous when they saw it. The four of them shifted so they were no longer looking at Rainbow Dash, instead lowering their spears at Heartless.

“Sir…?” His butlers also said as he lied there, unmoving. It was clear the two wanted to go over and see what had happened to their master, but they were too afraid. They were just as stuck as Rainbow Dash had been.

Rainbow Dash of course grit her teeth and struggled to keep her eyes free of tears. She didn’t even like that crazy old guy, but he didn’t deserve to die like that. And Heartless just killed him like it was nothing. Like every other time she had done it. It had been so long since she had seen Heartless, she never truly forgot about the monster, but she had been so far back in her mind. Now, faced with her again, the primal terror was inside her heart again. She hated how paralyzed she felt. She should have acted but she couldn’t! Now another pony was already dead and everyone else was in danger. “Everyone… please just listen to me again, please run. Godfrey, let go of Ballast and let’s get out of here. Please.”

“D-Did she really just kill Old Diver?” Daylight said, horrified. Her eyes were glued on the corpse of the old stallion. “Rainbow Dash, who is she?”

Gilbert and Breakwater were equally horrified. They could feel the fear rolling off Rainbow Dash and it was making everything inside this room worse. Senax though, as afraid as she was, was also looking at the strange pink pony with a perplexed expression on her face. She was vaguely familiar for some reason, as if she had seen her once somewhere a long time ago.

Dredge gulped and backed up until he was pressed against the wall—looking to maybe slink away if he thought he could get away with it. And Ballast was still doing his best to avoid accidentally cutting himself on the blade held to his throat. Godfrey seemed to be the only one in the room not afraid, just angry instead. Even he then still could tell that that pink pony was certainly dangerous. “Heartless” was what Rainbow Dash had called her. Her name though only told part of the story and not really who she was.

The rage was still building in him too. The rage born from Rainbow Dash instantly changing her tune and seeing this pink pony as a bigger threat. Her confident swagger that she had shown to him had disappeared. It was infuriating. He never let anybody treat him like that.

Rainbow Dash’s attention should be on him right now. She should be afraid of him. She should be preparing to fight and end things with him. Call it petty, or fragile, he was just self-centered.

Everything that had been started since the first time they fought had been building and building and was now boiling over. Godfrey truly had never had such a fun, but infuriating, time as chasing down and fighting Rainbow Dash. He honestly felt they were being inexorably pushed together until they could finish things for good. And now here she was acting like she didn’t care at all. Like she had something else that was more important going on.

“For the love of—just drop it for now! Trust me enough that we need to get out of here!” Rainbow Dash yelled at Daylight and the rest of her friends. She didn’t usually blow a gasket like that but right now she really couldn’t help it. She looked over at Godfrey with a frown. “Godfrey? You saw what she did so if you want to live through this-”

“Are you kidding me right now?!” Godfrey exploded. Interrupting Rainbow Dash and also getting Heartless’s attention as she glanced over at him. He took his cutlass away from Ballast’s neck, turned it over, and slammed it into the floor where the blade embedded itself into the stone. Letting go of Ballast, he tossed the shipwright away and reached over to one of the Bosche soldiers beside him. Godfrey grabbed his spear out of his hooves and pulled his powerful arm back, aiming it right at the pink pony. With all the strength in his body he threw the spear straight at Heartless.

Before Heartless could even blink the spear struck her through the throat and with the sheer force of the throw it carried her into the door behind her and impaled her right to it. She hung off it limply, for all intents and purposes looking dead.

“There! She’s dead!” Godfrey roared and picked up his cutlass. “Now fight me, Rainbow Dash!”

He immediately lunged for her, pushing himself with his powerful wings, and made a great sweeping swing with his cutlass at her body. Though Rainbow Dash was a bit caught off-guard by what he had done, she still lifted the Trident in time to block the sword from cutting her in half. Thanks to Godfrey’s great strength though the blade of his sword still pushed the Trident against her and lifted Rainbow off her hooves, sending her flying past her friends and bouncing off the wall behind them.

Godfrey flew over her friends and came down at her with his cutlass but Rainbow rolled out of the way right as the blade slashed where she had been. She swung her Trident at him but Godfrey blocked it and the two locked weapons for a short time.

“There we go, Rainbow Dash. This is how it should be,” Godfrey said to her.

“You have a real knack for messing things up, you know?” Rainbow Dash glared at him.

“I know. And I love it,” Godfrey grinned and pushed her away.

Rainbow took to the air, hovering around the room and flitting away from him as he chased after her. She clicked her tongue and looked to her friends. “Guys! I’ll take care of Godfrey, you need to deal with Heartless somehow, but be careful!” Godfrey’s cutlass came at her head and she blocked it with the Trident, turning his blade to the side she almost whacked him in the head with the Trident but he ducked under it. Rainbow flew down and kicked open the door that led to the crescent room they had come from, letting Godfrey come in after her.

Daylight, Senax, and Breakwater looked in after her as she and the griffon fought all over the hallway, weapons clashing again and again.

When their weapons locked again and Rainbow was holding out against Godfrey’s strength, she met the eyes of her friends.

“I’m sorry—but listen to me! You can’t get near her, and whatever you do don’t let her touch you! Magic won’t work on her either but you’re still going to have to find someway to stop her! She’s dumb, trick or trap her somehow!”

Godfrey pushed her away from him and stabbed towards her eye. Rainbow zipped away from it and the sword left a gouge in the wall behind her. She now went to the far door of the hallway and prepared to lead Godfrey further away from the rest of them.

She grit her teeth as she angrily stared at the big griffon. “Alright, Godfrey. You want to fight me? Let’s do this.”

“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” Godfrey chuckled.

Rainbow Dash then opened up the door and disappeared through it with Godfrey flying in right after her. For the next few seconds before the door closed, everyone else could hear the sounds of metal striking metal.

Her friends stepped back from the hallway and let their door close. Breakwater brought up a puzzled hoof to his head and started scratching atop it.

“Uh, is anyone else confused by what she was saying? Godfrey just killed that other pony, didn’t he?”

“Perhaps not,” Gilbert said.

The others looked to him. He had stayed watching Heartless the whole time while they were paying attention to Rainbow Dash and Godfrey. Right now the expression on his face was one of terrified confusion and revulsion as he pointed with one of his talons at the impaled pink pony. Ballast, Dredge, Old Diver’s butlers, and the Bosche soldiers were all also completely transfixed on her. When Daylight, Senax, and Breakwater looked as well, they understood why.

Heartless had reached her hooves up around the shaft of the spear, right in front of where it pierced through her throat. And yanked on it. The first pull freed it from the door and she fell halfway to the floor before catching herself. The second yank tore the blade of the spear back through and out of the wound in her throat and she then dropped the weapon without a second thought.

It clattered to the floor. Loudly. Especially since everyone else in the room was completely silent.

There was far less blood than there should’ve been, and what blood there was was vanishing into nothingness.

While everyone watched, the wound in her throat that was big enough for them all to see through closed up on its own. It didn’t leave the barest hint of a scar.

Heartless turned her head in the direction Rainbow Dash had gone with a pleasant little smile on her face. “Gone again? Oh well, I’ll get to you soon.” She then looked over at Daylight, Senax, Breakwater and Gilbert. And her smile widened a little bit more. “The four of you are her friends, aren’t you? I guess I’ll have your lives first.”

Comments

[Mini-Joe]

Oh no

[redmar]

This really is bad and I hope they will find a way to escape Heartless. I seriously doubt that Heartless will be completely stopped here though.

[RoboRed]

RIP Old Diver.

For a second there I was worried Godfrey was going to let his own ego do him in right then and there and it would be the end of it. He's just delayed things, though.

Heartless getting momentarily pinned to the wall was rather satisfying though.

Senax though, as afraid as she was, was also looking at the strange pink pony with a perplexed expression on her face. She was vaguely familiar for some reason, as if she had seen her once somewhere a long time ago.

I'm sorry what
I'm hoping this is some faint indication that there's some whiz-bang magic inside of the Trident that will keep Heartless down for good. Haven't even tried yet.

Speaking of try, I wonder if that curse preventing merponies from touching it was lifted after Coral Sea died?

[MagicS]

11565150

Senax though, as afraid as she was, was also looking at the strange pink pony with a perplexed expression on her face. She was vaguely familiar for some reason, as if she had seen her once somewhere a long time ago.

I'm sorry what
I'm hoping this is some faint indication that there's some whiz-bang magic inside of the Trident that will keep Heartless down for good. Haven't even tried yet.

Might as well ignore that, it's a nod to another one of my earlier stories so wouldn't make sense unless you read that first.

[RoboRed]

11565160
Ah. Well, I'm starting from the chronological top after this so hopefully I'll find out more soon.