Rainbow Dash Around the World

by MagicS

South Pole II

Rainbow Dash woke up under a pile of snow. If it had been touching her directly she’d be colder than… well… snow. But with the tarp, with her winter clothes, it all just insulated her fairly well. The shelter hadn’t worked perfectly though, or there was more snowfall over the night than she had expected, because she didn’t want to be this buried when she woke up. The snow was pretty solid and packed on top of her and she had to fight her way up through it, tossing and kicking it off her before she was back on the ground and could look around. A bright morning greeted her when she popped her head out of the tarp and snow. The clouds previously over the south pole had vanished and the wind no longer blew to create a snowstorm around her. She could see the open blue sky overhead and the sun beating down on her—its rays probably providing enough warmth for her to be comfortable for the rest of the day.

“Wow, this is better than I ever expected it to be,” Rainbow said as she fully climbed out of the snow. She shook herself off and pulled the tarp out after her, wiping it down and getting it ready to put back in her bag.

Feeling something a little stiff though after shaking herself off, Rainbow looked down and noticed that her tail was frozen solid. A sheen of frost had coated over it, turning the many strands of hair into one flat board. Rainbow snorted and rolled her eyes in annoyance before grabbing her tail and breaking the thin layer of ice on it. Once it was free she whipped it back and forth a couple of times to get the last few snowflakes out of it.

Satisfied, she nodded and walked away from her shelter before taking a stretch. Soon she’d be back in the air. Hopefully she’d pass this huge glacier soon and have some more stuff to look at instead of just a bed of ice with another bed of snow on top of it.

Now that she had woken up all the way—Rainbow Dash extended her wings back out through the slits in her jacket and gave them a few practice flaps before ascending to the sky. The air was chillier than it was on top of the glacier but the cold was still manageable. As long as the sun stayed out for the rest of the day she wasn’t worried. Right now, with the clothes she had, it felt like a winter day in Ponyville. Nothing she couldn’t handle.

She reached a good altitude and without hesitation shot off south.

---

“Now this is more like it.”

While there was nothing even approaching vegetation or giving her much color to look at, the landscape beneath had changed once she made it off the large glacier. Actual stone was occasionally visible beneath the snow and ice, along with wide chasms, valleys, and a series of small mountains that she was now flying over. Rainbow Dash was more than high enough in the sky to easily glide over the tallest of their peaks and take everything in at her leisure. The day had continued to be just as nice as when she woke up in the morning, the weather calm, the sun as warm as it could possibly be down here, and nothing to bother her.

“This is like the exact opposite of the last time I was in the cold,” Rainbow Dash mused.

It really was. Her memories of travel through the True North were mostly ones of terrible weather and pushing herself through freezing death. There were a few times when things were nice, and she got used to the cold for the most part eventually, but it was hardly ever pleasurable. She considered it her luck being better. Or maybe the world was just that much of a happier place after everything she had done in the Grand Ocean and it was being reflected here.

Either way, Rainbow Dash swiftly flew on. No frozen wings this time. No falling helplessly into the cold snow and having to walk up and down mountains. All they were was scenery for her flight. Some birds to join her up here would’ve been nice too—and maybe they’d be here in the future. Rainbow was going to be optimistic enough to think that could happen.

She kept an easygoing smile on her face the more she flew over the mountains until it reached about noon and she decided to descend to a large icy cliff to have her snack for the day. Up here she could see a large valley expanding out on the southern side of the mountains, at the far end of it a high cliff of ice rose up to box it in. To the east and west it was just a white snowscape that went to the horizon with nothing else to see. Weather might have been nicer but it was still a reminder that this place was pretty desolate. Just not in an unnatural or unnerving sort of way like some places she had been.

After looking at her future path for a second she sat down in the snow and reached into one of her saddlebags. Feeling like something sweet this time she ended up taking a few dried strips of mango out to chew on. She sat there, chewing, savoring the flavor that still existed in the dried out fruit. To the far east was a column of clouds moving across the sky but not in any way that would hit her soon. Rainbow might as well take the time to relax and rest for a moment after having flown for hours. Part of her was saying that she should use the good weather to its fullest and keep flying—the other part was saying why not be a little lazy? And right now the other part was winning out.

Feeling a slight amount of soreness from how long they were in the same spot, Rainbow Dash reached up and moved her goggles to her forehead.

She blinked her eyes a few times and took in the view once more without any filter. Everything came off as so much brighter and whiter even than before. It was almost shocking how stark the world was.

Rainbow chewed the last bits of mango to pieces before swallowing it down, getting ready to leave the icy cliff. Her energy reserves were once again refilled and her wings were warm after getting to rest inside her jacket. She was planning on making short work of the rest of these mountains and the valley beyond them. If the weather stayed this good she was going to fly for even longer today than she had yesterday.

Just like earlier this morning she gave a few test flaps before she jumped off the cliff, diving down sharply and enjoying the feeling of the wind rushing through her mane. Only a few seconds from hitting a rocky landing did she swiftly pull up and made just as sharp of an ascent, climbing over the mountains and reaching the open sky. The moment she cleared the tallest peaks she slipped her goggles back over her eyes and aimed south.

She hummed a happy tune in her head before blasting forward at full speed. The valley was going to be left behind quickly if she had anything to say about it. Though she wasn’t expecting much else to actually pop up at this point she still wanted to see if there was anything new ahead that the south pole could show her.

The feeling of flying, of the wind going through her mane even faster, nothing could beat it and no cold could dampen her joy.

“Awesome as I wanna be...”

Comments

[redmar]

So far nothing has happened but it will probably not stay so calm.