Rainbow Dash Around the World

by MagicS

South Pole III

The snowy world below her was an everlasting mass of rolling hills that looked more gray than white at the moment thanks to the cloudy sky over her head. Sunlight was not a comrade right now. It wasn’t horribly windy at least, but snow was falling regularly from the clouds overhead and the formerly white winter wonderland was now a murky twilight. Rainbow wanted to fly until she saw something new—a landmark or something—and then she’d stop for the night.

So far though it was hills of snow on the ground and she couldn’t see particularly far in any direction thanks to the cloudy sky and falling snow.

The temperature had dropped quite a bit as well. Whether it was just because of the lack of sunlight or because it got colder the further into the south pole she got, Rainbow Dash didn’t know. What she did know was how miserably cold it was. How it was cold enough to make her constantly shiver. Her happy thoughts and her optimistic outlook on the south pole were both starting to take a few hits.

While she was flying fast enough that the falling snow couldn’t really come to a rest on her, frost had still started to cake her back, her wings, and her tail. She attempted to flap her wings harder and move in a way that broke it off her but it would just come back after not too long. Since it seemed the falling snow and turning of the weather wasn’t going to change anytime soon she was beginning to think she should just go down and make her shelter now.

That would kind of be like giving up though and she really wasn’t a fan of that.

It’s a good thing the goggles she had bought on her way down here were a more expensive pair than the others she had seen. She had to worry about them frosting over all the same but they were easy to clean up and without them she knew she’d be able to see even less around her. She couldn’t see the horizon anymore, it was a wall of gray and white, and she couldn’t go higher into the sky or she’d be stuck going through all those clouds. So for now she decided to go a bit lower to the ground, where she could still easily see all the hills and drifts of snow. Like this she wouldn’t miss anything and it was better since she couldn’t see far-off distances anyways.

If she came across another mountain or the weather opened up and she could see ahead, she’d make a stop. But not until then.

Perhaps a little recklessly she still flew as fast as possible through all of this, even though a wall could very quickly pop up through the snow. She was confident enough to avoid any sudden obstacles. And really she didn’t want to slow down and let the cold start to get to her. The shivering, the way it seeped in already, was bad enough. She didn’t want it to get down into her bones.

She was going to guesstimate that she had flown about ten miles through increasingly poor visibility while remaining close to the ground. Her earlier fears when it came to flying in weather like this started to emerge and soon Rainbow could barely see ahead at all. Snow and wind ruined everything—it was just a dark haze. Frost and snowflakes were collecting on her hood and she had to shake it and pull it down a few times to keep it from getting into her mane.

“Stupid snow… stupid cold weather…” Rainbow Dash grumbled. “Seriously might have to move snow back to my number one most hated place to be.”

Of course the fact that deserts made it to number one after her spending way less time in them than the snow was saying a lot.

The wind picked up and a harsh rain of snow was blasted in her face while she continued to power through it all. It was becoming a real pain now with the wind actively working against her instead of just coming from her right or left. She didn’t want to call it a serious storm, but with heavy snow being blown into her too it made it tougher to fight. This was the exact kind of thing though that she absolutely refused to lose to. It was just some lame weather!

Rainbow Dash growled under her breath and pushed even harder against the wind and snow.

Perhaps the world listened to her grumbling for only a few miles later did the snow start to let up and the world stopped being so dark and gray. The clouds overhead must eventually part and let some sunlight back down, she could see a slight brightness ahead. The wind was still bothering her but even that wasn’t as terrible as it had been. Whatever bad weather she had hit she must almost be out of it for this to happen. Rainbow Dash felt a little bit of extra energy in her now that she could see the metaphorical light at the end of the tunnel and pushed harder to finally fly out of this snow and wind.

She decided to fly a little higher too to make sure she’d clear any possible hills, cliffs, or mountains that might be in her way once she got out of here. Though things were brighter ahead it was still a vague blur and she couldn’t actually see too far.

Several more miles of her fast flying and that finally changed completely. The shroud fell around her, the wind dying down until it was a slight breeze while no more snow fell from the sky thanks to most of the clouds parting and disappearing. Rainbow was now gliding high in the sky over another flat open range of the south pole. She could see pretty far in the distance and saw mountains to the south.

Rainbow Dash stopped for a second and grinned. “Alright, I’ll get to those and stop for the night.”

As soon as she started back up again she looked down at the snowy ground below her and her eyes almost bugged out at the befuddling, bewildering, thing she saw.

Instead of the white plains of snow she was expecting, most of the ground was covered in a solid black mass. She almost came to a halt at the surprising sight, instead tilting her head in confusion and slowly gliding over it. The black mass was shuffling very slowly to the west, moving, and when Rainbow Dash blinked at that odd realization, she figured out what it really was she was looking at.

“Oh, you’re penguins,” she said with a happy smile on her face as she looked down at the gigantic flock of penguins shambling across the snow. Because of where she was, they all just looked like one huge black spot, all of them waddling so close together they were almost indistinguishable from one another. And there were so many of them. Thousands, maybe ten-thousand, it was an insanely huge crowd of penguins. But she was very happy to see them. It showed her that life existed down here too, she finally found some animals.

“Guess this place isn’t as empty and whatever as I thought,” Rainbow Dash said, waving down at the penguins as she flew by even though they probably couldn’t see her. “Hey! Have fun doing your penguin stuff down there!”

She giggled a bit to herself before speeding on towards those mountains. Looks like the day was going to end pretty well at least.

---

Down on the snow, the horde of thousands and thousands of gigantic, seven-foot tall penguins shuffled along together. They were massive birds of black and white with orange beaks, fat and muscle both bulged from their bodies.

The flock looked up when the blue pegasus flew overhead. They saw the strange creature flying by and all the adult male penguins stopped and watched her intently. Their black eyes became red and they opened up their large beaks, revealing large, razor sharp teeth on the inside.

A loud screeching came from the penguins and they raised their flippers. They flapped them up and down, fast enough to look like the wings of a hummingbird.

Despite their oversized bodies, despite them having flippers and not wings, despite them being penguins, they lifted off the ground and flew after the pegasus.

Comments

[Cosmic Potato]

Alright, now that's a bit crazy. 7 ft razor toothed flying penguin horde? Really?

[RoboRed]

...What in the southern, frost-bitten, flying fuck!?

No one expects the penguins.

[Johnny B Mediocre]

Grey's getting really fuckin' desperate now, isn't he

[redmar]

Those must be very strange penguins. Rainbow is probably too fast for them but this could still cause a problem.