Rainbow Dash Around the World

by MagicS

Bait the Hook

“Haaagh!” Rainbow yelled as she swung the Trident at Godfrey’s face.

He sucked in his breath and pulled his head back but as Rainbow reached the arc of her swing she let the shaft of the Trident slip slightly through her hooves until she was only holding the very end of it. Increasing its range like that the sharp spears on the end of it were now primed to slice right through his face. Godfrey’s eyes widened and he had to make an even more impressive dodge—ducking his head back enough to strain his neck—but the Trident in the end went harmlessly sailing by.

Godfrey stepped back and reached up to adjust his hat while recovering from the near hit. He grinned at Rainbow Dash but his beak twitched slightly. “You almost ruined my hat!”

Rainbow Dash snorted and twirled the Trident around a few times before hitting the pommel into the floor. “Just steal a new one.”

Idly she looked over to the stairs that eventually led up to the grand convocation chamber. It was funny to think that the way the fight with Godfrey was going she kept moving back closer to where she had gotten the Trident from in the first place. It’s not like it was part of any specific plan, but she figured it was still good to put more distance between herself and Godfrey and her friends. And Heartless. She also hated to admit that she was being kept on the back hoof for most of the fight and he kept pushing her further and further. That was just a testament to the power, energy, and aggression he had.

“Heh,” Godfrey laughed. “You know you’re a lot better at using that thing than I expected.”

“Call it instinct.”

“Call it magic. There’s something special about that Trident.”

Rainbow glanced up at the sharp spears and shrugged. “Maybe. Doesn’t really matter to you since you’re never getting your talons on it.”

“Now that remains to be seen,” Godfrey said and flew at her.

Rainbow leveled the Trident at him once more but along the way Godfrey picked up a piece of rubble from one of the destroyed statues. He threw it at her as hard as he could and she had to jump out of the way of it—the piece was too large for her to block or hit away with the Trident. Putting her off-balance she had to instantly raise the Trident over her body to block the slash from Godfrey, he pushed the Trident back with his superior strength and knocked her to the floor, pressing the blade down further and trying to cut into her shoulder.

Like this he’d probably win if she didn’t do anything, she just didn’t have the raw strength to actually get free. But this position made him vulnerable thanks to his large body standing over her, he had absolutely no way to stop her back legs from kicking him. While she couldn’t put a lot of force into the kicks thanks to the prone position and inability to swing them back and build up momentum, she still continued to strike hoof after hoof into his stomach and ribs. Though for a while Godfrey took it like it was nothing she saw him start to wince even as he kept trying to press down and either crush or cut her with his sword. After another strong kick he clicked his beak and jumped off her. Rainbow took the opportunity to swing the pommel of the Trident at him as he moved but he raised his left arm up and blocked it on the wrist.

If she had been able to put more power into the swing she bet she could’ve broken his wrist but from where she was she couldn’t do that.

He hopped away and she scrambled back to her hooves, the two of them circling around and glaring at each other.

Godfrey shook his left arm. “You know that thing is really tough.”

“Tell me about it. All the stuff I’ve been smashing and breaking lately and it doesn’t even have a mark.”

“I was never that fond of spears and other pole-arms you know? But I guess when I have that Trident I’ll have to get over it. Seems like it’ll make a better weapon than any sword.”

Godfrey then flew at her all over again and Rainbow took a deep breath to prepare. She didn’t want to just stay near the floor where her movement was restricted so she flew up and started to lead him up the stairs that led to the terrace on the higher level of the chamber. Here there wasn’t anything else around for him to throw at her either. He caught up with her halfway up the stairs and swung at her, Rainbow Dash parrying it with the Trident. He came at her again and again as they continued to cross weapons in the middle of their flight, flying by her at high speed and aiming to decapitate her, or slice off a wing. They never locked weapons or spent more than a second meeting each other in the air. Godfrey would swoop down at her and just as quickly retreat higher towards the ceiling before coming again.

Rainbow Dash scowled—despite the power of the Trident his reflexes, speed, and strength made him more difficult to fight than the four Sarraroccon warriors at once. She reached the terrace at the top of the stairs and turned around, this time flying at him while he was in the middle of coming at her. Rainbow Dash stabbed the Trident at his head but Godfrey batted it away with his cutlass before swinging it at her face. She dove under and around it, flying to his side and repeatedly jabbing the Trident at his wing in multiple short, quick, thrusts. Godfrey grit his teeth and flapped away just in time but Rainbow continued to press after him, the Trident becoming a lightning-fast blur in her hooves as she thrust and swung it at every part of his body. It didn’t matter if it was a fatal or debilitating hit, she just wanted to land something and wound him.

A thrust to his face.

A swing at his arm.

A swipe at his broad chest.

Another thrust to his throat.

Clang!

Every single time he brought his cutlass up and blocked or turned away the Trident, quite often making a return strike at Rainbow Dash that she had to block or dodge from. She clicked her tongue and thrust the Trident at his body, he grinned and flapped over it before bringing his cutlass down in a strong overhead strike at her. Rainbow brought up the Trident and caught the attack on the middle of it right between her hooves but was still launched backwards by the force of the blow. Her wings struggled to recover and stop her before Godfrey came flying around to her side.

He had his cutlass grasped in both talons and with the muscles of his arms practically bulging he made a great horizontal swing at her that probably would’ve bisected her completely if she didn’t block it.

Rainbow Dash moved the Trident in front of his sword and placed a hoof right behind the spot his sword would impact but the strength of his swing still pressed it into her body and knocked her completely from the air. It had been more like he had come swinging at her with a warhammer than a sword. Rainbow Dash collided hard with the floor and bounced off the tile, cracking it, and rolled into the door that led to the next area of the central dome. All that time though and she never let go of the Trident. She still kept it safely in her hooves.

She stood up and pressed her back to the door while Godfrey calmly dropped down to the terrace as well.

“Come on, all you’ve been talking, is that the best you can do?” He mocked.

“I’m still getting into my groove,” Rainbow said and glanced at the door behind her. “Also… I’ve got a better place we can fight.”

“Oh?” Godfrey grinned and casually rested his sword on his back. “If that’s the case then lead the way.”

Rainbow Dash pushed the big door open by placing the pommel of the Trident against it and pushing back. Keeping her eyes on Godfrey she walked back through it and into the final room where the stairs leading up to the convocation chamber were. He raised an eyebrow as he looked past her and walked in as well.

“This place is certainly fancy, they love their high ceilings,” Godfrey said.

“You haven’t seen nothing yet,” Rainbow said.

“Give me the tour then,” Godfrey said and suddenly lunged at her. He swung for her head and Rainbow Dash jumped away, before having to jump again as Godfrey immediately followed her.

Now in midair she blocked his third swing and grit her teeth, furiously glaring at him as both hovered in one spot, wings trying to fight dominance and weapons sliding against each other. Rainbow Dash turned his cutlass away and broke off—flying backwards after seeing the pointless situation. She turned around and went for the stairs. Behind her she heard Godfrey laugh and a blast of wind come from his wings as he shot after her.

---

Heartless walked into a new room, a lounge of sorts that stretched quite far, with many pillars holding up the ceiling, lots of alcoves with benches, and numerous fake potted plants to give the normally white interior some color. She was smiling. After that bright flash of light, the four friends of Rainbow Dash had vanished. But she had still followed them here. She knew they were here even though to anyone else it would look like she was alone in this room.

“You know it doesn’t matter if you’re invisible-” Heartless said as she walked by a few pillars, her eyes looking behind each one, she made a zig-zagging route around them. “I don’t need my eyes to see you.”

She giggled. “And it doesn’t matter if you don’t make a sound. I don’t need my ears to hear you.”

She took a longer gaze at one empty alcove in particular before turning away and continuing on. “What I feel is something far deeper than that. It’s not a sense. It’s your life itself—your warm, bright, lives. They all reach out to me, every last living creature. Right now your lives are just fuzzy little bright spots around me. I can’t feel everything, and if you went far enough away I’d lose sight of you. But when you’re this close I can tell exactly where you are.”

“Rainbow Dash is different you know?” Heartless said as she trotted around another pillar. “She’s always there. Her life is so bright and so warm it’s like staring into the sun. I could feel where she was even if I was on the other side of the world now. I can always see her light in my head—calling out to me.” She briefly glanced at another alcove before walking on. “You must know she’s special too, right? Even if you don’t understand her the same way I do. Even if you can’t feel her the same way her warmth has to reach you too if you’ve spent enough time around her.”

Heartless dragged her hood along the next pillar as she happily hummed. “I can’t wait to take every last bit of warmth and light from her. For now though, like I said, I’ll enjoy myself with you four first.”

She stopped and looked around another pillar—staring and smiling at an empty space of air. “Hi there.”

The air shimmered and wavered as the cloaking spell disappeared—revealing a frightened Gilbert and Senax holding each other.

“And the unicorn is behind me,” Heartless said and looked over her shoulder, where sure enough Daylight Gleam was standing with a lit horn and a frown. “And the earth pony is hiding behind the next pillar.” Heartless pointed over to it.

“Please, just… we don’t know why you’re doing this, but please just let us go,” Senax said.

“Nope!” Heartless happily shook her head and walked towards the merpony and griffon. She lifted her hoof towards them-

A tug came on it. Heartless looked down at her hoof and saw a ring of powder blue magic was holding it back. She looked back at Daylight Gleam, who was standing firm and delivering her most impressive glare through narrowed eyes at the pink pony.

“Get away from my friends.”

Heartless just smiled. “Don’t you know by now that doesn’t work?”

The magic around her hoof was sucked right into her body, absorbed, melting into it.

“It’s a good thing that my magic isn’t all we have to work with,” Daylight said.

“Hm?” Heartless tilted her head.

From around the next pillar, Breakwater came rushing with a frenzied battlecry. “AHHHHH!”

He had a spear in his hooves—the one Heartless had dropped after Godfrey impaled her with it. She had never bothered paying attention to it after that, they must have grabbed it after that initial bright light from the unicorn when they ran off. Breakwater charged at her and stabbed the spear into her side. He didn’t have the strength to skewer her completely but he was still able to slam her into the pillar next to her where she collapsed to the floor from the impact.

“Now run, run!” Daylight yelled.

Gilbert and Senax needed no other signal, the both of them got up from behind the pillar and started running towards the other end of the room.

Daylight then grabbed a potted plant with her magic, lifting the stone pot over her head and throwing it as hard as her magic allowed at Heartless. She caught the pink pony in the head right as she tried to rise and knocked her back to the floor again. There wasn’t a groan of pain. Or even a grunt. Not from either the pot or the spear. The strangeness of that might have made Daylight and Breakwater pause if they weren’t full of so much adrenaline and knew they had to run out of here too.

As soon as she had been struck by the pot, Breakwater yanked the spear out of Heartless—with barely a drop of blood coming with it—and started running away with Daylight. Gilbert and Senax were already in the next room and holding the door open for them so the two quickly ran out and let the doors close.

Right before they did, Daylight looked back and caught a glimpse of Heartless standing back up. Two things that would’ve been fatal for a normal pony hardly slowed her down at all.

Once the doors were shut, Breakwater jammed the spear into the handles and the group of four ran further away. They went down another hallway, into another room, and ran out of it before they found themselves in another square connecting chamber where every door was flanked by suits of armor. They decided to stop here for just the moment and catch their breath. Continuing to run right now would be pointless without a plan.

“That spear blocking the door isn’t going to stop her for long. And there might be other ways for her to find her way around and get to us,” Breakwater said.

“I know,” Daylight took a few deep breaths. “I’m thinking.”

“Do we just keep running until Rainbow Dash is done with my brother? I-If that goes well that is...” Gilbert said.

Daylight shook her head. “She left us to deal with this problem. She needs us to. We can’t rely on her right now.”

“But what do we do? How can we stop her? You saw what she just did...” Senax said.

“Rainbow Dash didn’t say to kill her. She said to trap her or trick her if we could,” Breakwater said.

“And how do we do that?” Gilbert asked.

“I have no idea,” Breakwater shook his head.

Daylight took a moment to calm down thought. Her brow furrowed as she racked her brain and tried to come up with an answer. What could they do? They couldn’t touch her, couldn’t kill her, magic didn’t work, and they didn’t have anything like chains or rope to tie her up with. How did they stop her? She looked over at the suits of armor by the closest door.

An idea formed in her head.

“I’ve got something. But we’re going to have to run around for a little while longer—and it’s pretty dangerous if it doesn’t work cause we might be trapped,” she said to her friends.

They shared a worried but accepting look with each other. It’s not like they had any other ideas.

“So what’s the plan?” Breakwater asked.

“Here’s what we’re going to do...”

Comments

[redmar]

The fight between Rainbow and Godfrey isn't going to be finished soon. Hopefully Daylight's plan will keep Heartless trapped there for a long time.

[RoboRed]

Ahhh, and this is where the garbage chute from earlier comes in.

Rainbow Dash scowled—despite the power of the Trident his reflexes, speed, and strength made him more difficult to fight than the four Sarraroccon warriors at once.

Speaking of whom, wonder if those four are coming-to anytime soon?