Rainbow Dash Around the World

by MagicS

I Remember You!

There weren’t exactly beaches on the Storm King’s old island. Just rocks and cliffs. The ocean was never calm either, you could hear it violently crash against the dark rocks all day and all night. If the barnacles and urchins that peppered the lower rocks cared at all they probably would’ve left by now. The southeast side of the large island was mostly higher cliffs but there were a few areas where you could come down almost to the water line. Though most would never want to, you were a freak wave or sudden bad wind from being carried into the water and never heard from again.

That was just life to the few who still called this place their home though, and they weren’t afraid of the deadly possibilities. After all they had made this trip how many times in their lives by now?

Heavy footfalls down the rocky edge of the island towards the ocean could be heard despite the bad weather and constant barrage of ocean waves—signifying how big the emitters of the footsteps were. A pair of Storm Creatures, both as large or perhaps larger than any minotaur, with bulky bodies and absurdly over-developed forearms. The two of them each carried a hooked fishing spear and net, perhaps here for a far more benign purpose than Storm Creatures were used for when under control of the Storm King.

Despite their size they rather deftly navigated the jagged and slippery rocks with practiced ease as they looked through pools of water caught between the rocks to see if any fish had been unfortunate enough to get caught too. If not they’d have to go down further and perhaps spear some right from the ocean itself.

Moving through the rocks and inspecting the usual pools they found an assortment of starfish and sea anemones stuck in place. Not many fish, though there were a few eels squirming around, that was better than nothing. It seemed they weren’t going to have a great catch today but that was also fairly typical—nowadays the Stormlands relied on imports from generous friends for most of their food. Instead of stealing it or collecting “tribute” in the past. These fishing Storm Creatures kept this up as part of tradition and habit. And it was simply nice having something to do.

A writhing eel at the end of a spear was put into the net, along with a few others, and the Storm Creatures slowly continued their sweep of the rocks.

While one went down to a lower set of rocks where the water was almost crashing up into them, he felt his comrade tap him on the shoulder a couple of times. With a grunt he looked back at his partner and saw him pointing down the rocks at something in the water, half bobbing in the ocean and half clinging to the dark rocks but not moving on its own. It was colorful, whatever it was. Far more colorful than anything else the two could remember seeing on the island.

Naturally curious, they both went over to see what it was. The two Storm Creatures navigated down the sharp and slippery rocks to the colorful object, their fishing and spearing temporarily forgotten about.

When they reached the rocks and shallow waters where the floating object was, the lead Storm Creature handed his spear to the other and reached down to pick up the soaking wet thing that had washed ashore on the island. It was a ragged mess of colors from blue, to red, to yellow, and green, with feathers and matted hair everywhere. Lifting it up to eye-level the Storm Creature tilted his head, finally realizing that what he was holding was in fact a very colorful and very unconscious pony.

You didn’t see many ponies here, but the both of them recognized what she was. And more than that they recognized what bad condition she was in.

The two Storm Creatures grunted back and forth with each other before they started climbing back up the rocks. A long and slow trip to back where they came from, and it came at the cost of aborting their usual business, but they had stumbled across something more important than any fish.

---

She had been dreaming.

On a boat, far from home, sailing over clear blue waters with the sun shining down on her and her friends. Applejack was at the helm, Pinkie Pie was swinging around on the rigging and mast, Fluttershy had a lifejacket on and was refusing to budge from the middle of the deck, Rarity was going on about how beautiful the ocean was, and Twilight was standing by the bow and looking ahead. Rainbow Dash herself was smiling, enjoying nothing more than getting to kick back with her friends. With the greatest friends a pony could ask for.

A drop of water hit her head. Followed by another and another.

In seconds a storm was upon them. Fierce and powerful, everyone chipped in to do their best to save the boat. It was hopeless though. One mighty wave was all it took and their boat was capsized, Rainbow Dash and all her friends thrown off the side and into the water.

It wasn’t so pretty anymore.

Rainbow Dash fought her way to the surface, reaching it and taking a deep breath of air while looking around for her friends. She didn’t see them anywhere. They had all vanished along with the boat. She shouted and shouted for them but no noise would come out. Her wings were heavy, as heavy as lead, she couldn’t flap them or fly out of the water no matter how hard she tried. Her wings had never failed her before but now all they were was dead weight. And she felt herself start to sink.

Her wings were weighted down, dragging her into the water. Rainbow Dash took a deep breath right before her head sank in and tried to fight her way back up with her hooves uselessly pulling at the water. Bubbles squeezed from her mouth each passing second. Her wings couldn’t even move, they were so heavy, and the more she struggled the more she began to run out of breath.

This wasn’t right. She knew this wasn’t right. But more than anything she just wanted to be able to find her friends and make sure they were okay. Even underwater she looked around to try and see if any of them were sinking with her. But the water was too dark now to see, it had been so clear and perfect earlier but the storm had ruined everything. Now she was sinking into a dark abyss, alone, and frightened for her friends. She had to do something. She had to somehow get her wings to work again and get out of here. It was all just impossible though, no matter how much she struggled her wings were just lead.

Rainbow Dash’s breathing grew more and more panicked as she accidentally opened her mouth underwater and let the air escape. The water was cold and the darkness started to come in all around her. But as water filled her lungs and she started thrashing back in forth, a warm feeling started to spread through her body…

---

Rainbow Dash groaned and blinked a few times while lifting her head up.

“Where am I?”

She felt something on her body and looked down to see that she had had a blanket lying over her that was now half off, and she was sitting up in what was a fairly soft bed. A quick glance behind her showed a big, fluffy, pillow for her head along with the metal backboard of the bed. Her wings felt strange though, oddly restricted and stiff. Tossing the blanket off she found that both wings were wrapped in a tight bandage.

Rainbow Dash frowned and tried to flex them only to be overcome by a sharp pain from her left wing.

“Ow!” She yelled in pain and curled up her body.

Rainbow’s brow furrowed as she thought back on how she had ended up here, her foggy memory clearing up as she remembered the unfortunate fall into the ocean. No wonder her left wing hurt so much and the both of them were wrapped up like this. She hoped it wasn’t broken. Sighing, she briefly laid her head back on the pillow and tried to remember anything else.

It was a rock that hit it. She was sure of that. But how something like that hit her where she was she had no idea. And it had to have come from the island… speaking of—this was the Storm King’s old island she was on now, wasn’t it? That had to be where she had been brought.

But by who?

Rainbow Dash this time leaped out of bed much more energetically—eyes darting about the room she was in while her face was stuck in a suspicious frown. Was it whoever had hit her and caused her to crash into the ocean the one who had brought her here? A quick test of her legs also told her that aside from her wing she didn’t seem to be injured. Looks like she didn’t hit any rocks on the way down or when washing up on the shore of the island.

The room she was in was small, nothing much besides the bed. The floor and all the walls were made in stone and there was only a torch on the wall for light. There was also a door facing the foot of her bed, a pretty big door, more than big enough for even the largest of ponies to get through.

She could try and see if it was locked. If it was she knew exactly what kind of situation she was in.

Rainbow Dash grumbled, grinding her teeth back and forth. “If you locked me in here you’re going to regret it real soon.”

A peak back at the comfortable bed though and she thought that maybe it was a little unlikely that whoever had brought her here was responsible for her crash. Why would they bandage up her wing either? Still, Rainbow was awake and she wanted to see if she could leave this room or not.

Before she could do anything though, Rainbow Dash heard heavy plodding steps coming from past the door. She tensed up and walked into the middle of her small room—prepared for anything that might come inside. What did she really know and remember about the Storm King’s forces and who lived in the Stormlands? Not much to be honest, she knew Twilight had given her a lecture or two on the subject that she had mostly tuned out.

The door was soon opened and two lumbering, rather large, creatures stepped in that Rainbow Dash vaguely recognized from the Storm King’s invasion. Instantly her mind went to negative possibilities.

“So you’re the ones who brought me here, huh? Still following the Storm King’s will? Well you’re not going to keep me imprisoned!” She shouted at the pair.

They just stood there in the doorway—puzzled.

Rainbow Dash frowned and stood up straight, letting the tension in her body go. Now taking a closer look at them she realized how non-threatening their posture and aura was.. “Uhh… maybe that’s not what you’re doing?”

The Storm Creature in front stepped aside and the other one walked up, carrying a silver tray with a big salad heaped on it that he held out for her.

“Really?” Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow.

They nodded to her.

“Uh, well thanks...” Rainbow said and took the tray before putting it on her bed and looking back to them. “So I’m guessing you guys aren’t responsible for why I crashed into the ocean… but did you put this bandage on and bring me back here? And… where is here?”

They grunted.

Rainbow Dash sighed and dragged a hoof down her face. “Okay… might have a little bit of an issue here. Thanks for bringing me the food though, but is there anyone else here I can speak to?”

The two Storm Creatures looked at each other and nodded before leaving the room without “saying” anything else. Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes but she was at least convinced of their benevolence, it didn’t seem like she had anything to worry about right now. Hungry, and more than a bit tired, she got back into the comfortable bed and started eating the salad they had brought her. If they were bringing someone else to her that she could talk to then she could wait here.

With her wing injured it’s not like she was planning on really going anywhere far anytime soon either.

Rainbow Dash grumbled as she tried moving the wing a little bit and poking at it but only ended up making herself wince in pain. Not the worst she had been injured out here but it was never fun to be grounded. Ignoring that for now until she heard from whoever had wrapped it up in the first place, she let herself enjoy the salad. Fresh vegetables—she hadn’t had any in ages. She’d have to thank those Storm Creatures or whoever else was in charge for bringing her this the next time she saw them. The salad even had tomatoes and some kind of vinegar dressing on it to boot!

While chewing on a particularly crunchy leaf of lettuce, Rainbow Dash heard some much lighter footsteps—hoofsteps—now coming to her room.

The door opened up a second later and in strode a very memorable looking pony. She was tall, her pinkish-red mane somewhat spiky, her body a reddish-purple color that stood out against her black clothes, while she also had fairly uniquely colored eyes close to turquoise. What was most notable about her however was the scar over her right eye and the broken horn atop her head.

Rainbow Dash’s jaw dropped in surprise before a huge smile came to her face.

“Tempest!” She shouted and jumped off the bed, running up to the unicorn and pulling her into a big hug. “I haven’t seen you in ages!”

Tempest Shadow smiled awkwardly, surprised by the sudden hug and display of affection, only returning it slightly. “Heh, yeah I haven’t seen you in a while either, Rainbow Dash.”

“Nice to see you remember me, know we didn’t talk too much or anything but Twilight told me plenty too,” Rainbow let her go and grinned. “So what’s Tempest Shadow doing all the way out here?”

“I could ask you the same thing, you know? And you can call me Fizzlepop by the way. Going by that now,” Fizzlepop Berrytwist said.

Rainbow’s face fell. “But Tempest Shadow is so much cooler.”

Fizzlepop chuckled. “Heh… honestly yeah, I know, but that was the old me. Been going back to my roots and all.”

“Suit yourself,” Rainbow Dash sighed. “Such a cool name...” She then looked up at the taller pony and raised an eyebrow. “So wait, was it you who found me and brought me here? And where’s here?”

Fizzlepop shook her head. “Actually no, the Storm Creatures found you and recognized who you were—they were the ones that brought you here and told me about you later after they made sure you were okay. I just let them know we should probably get you some food.” She pointed to the half-eaten tray of salad.

“So I’ve got you and them to thank,” Rainbow said.

“You don’t need to thank me or anything, just did what any pony would do,” Fizzlepop smiled.

“Guess Twilight really rubbed off on you then. She does that a lot,” Rainbow Dash winked and playfully elbowed Fizzlepop in the side.

“Haha, very funny...” Fizzlepop rolled her eyes. “Anyways—like you were asking—this is the Storm King’s old castle. Kind of needs a new name but no one’s really cared enough to give it one. If you’re feeling up to it you can walk with me to the throne room and we can talk there?”

“Figured that’s where I was. And sure, lead the way, I had plenty of that salad already,” Rainbow said. “Uh, what time is it though? Can’t really tell from in here.”

“It’s the morning after you were found. You were only out for a night,” Fizzlepop said.

“Guess that’s not so bad...” Rainbow Dash frowned and looked down at her bandaged wing. “My wing though—do you know how bad it is?”

“Yeah,” Fizzlepop nodded. “Don’t worry, it’s not broken but it was dislocated and pretty badly bruised. I’d say keep away from using it for a week and you’ll be good.”

“Then I guess that could be a lot worse too. A week though? Ugh,” Rainbow Dash sighed.

The two of them headed out of the small room Rainbow Dash had been staying in and made their way down the hallway towards the old throne room. Rainbow knew there wasn’t a Storm King anymore and she hadn’t heard of any new ruler of the Stormlands, so she doubted it was really used for anything other than meeting in or whatever. The walls (and probably the entire castle) were made of a black stone that didn’t reflect the light too well. Even if there were windows here she doubted there would be that much light in the castle. Also because of how it was constantly stormy outside. What they had instead were torches lining the walls, enough to give them a generous amount of light and show off the red carpet they were walking on.

Rainbow Dash turned to Temp—Fizzlepop—as they walked. “So you didn’t answer me earlier, what are you back here for? I would’ve figured you’d never want to come back to this place at all.”

“Well after that whole invasion of Equestria thing and the debacle with the Storm King, I really needed to find myself,” Fizzlepop explained. “I traveled around Equestria and most of the nearby kingdoms to tell them about the Storm King’s defeat, before eventually I decided to come back here. I wanted to help out and make sure everyone that used to be under his rule was doing okay.” She grinned down at Rainbow Dash. “I think you can probably tell for yourself already but the Storm Creatures are actually pretty nice. They’re harmless without some jerk to boss them around.”

“Yeah, they kind of seemed that way,” Rainbow agreed. “How long have you been here now?”

Fizzlepop shrugged. “Months? Some stuff has come up and… well, before I get to that, what are you doing here? Why are you so far away from Equestria? If you were coming down to the Stormlands I would’ve thought Twilight might try and get in touch with me first.”

“Twilight doesn’t know I’m here either, and it’s not like I was really planning on coming here, it just turned out to be on the way.”

“What are you talking about?”

Rainbow Dash flashed her a grin. “I’ve been flying all the way around the world, and this is pretty much my last stop before getting back to Equestria.”

“Flying around the world? You did seem a little more adventurous than the rest of your friends from when I met you before,” Fizzlepop said. “And if you’re almost done… what was your route?”

“Heh, I went north from Equestria and crossed the north pole before flying south down the whole other side of the world. Just a little bit ago I finished crossing the south pole too. I got a lot of stories I could tell you about my trip,” Rainbow smiled.

“Going by your tone it feels like you really want to tell those stories too.”

“Not gonna lie, kind of enjoy getting to tell other ponies about how awesome I am,” Rainbow Dash shrugged.

“Well you can save it for a second, we’re almost at the throne room. I wouldn’t mind catching up and hearing what you’ve been through though,” Fizzlepop said.

Fizzlepop led her further down the hallway and it wasn’t long before they came to a large wooden door that she opened up for them. Inside was a large room, not quite as big as the throne room of Canterlot Castle but still big enough to throw a party in. Larger torches on the walls and metal rings hanging from the ceiling lit it all up, it was a pretty simple affair with a few windows to the outside on the western and eastern walls and a throne at the back, northern, end of the room. To her left, Rainbow Dash spotted a series of long wooden tables and benches to go with them that looked like they had been dragged in here from elsewhere. There were sets of silverware and place settings up and down them, making Rainbow wonder if everyone in the castle ate here together or if there was something else they were being used for.

Sitting on the throne was also the only other creature in the room at the moment. As soon as he saw them walk in he hopped off it and started walking over. Small guy, he was barely Spike’s size. Rainbow Dash vaguely recognized him but his name and whatever he was eluded her.

“Fizzle!” He shouted out casually to Fizzlepop, although Rainbow saw the unicorn rolling her eyes. “So your friend woke up?”

“Sure did,” Fizzlepop sighed but smiled at Rainbow Dash.

“Hey,” Rainbow Dash waved. “You… you worked for the Storm King too, didn’t you? No offense but I don’t remember your name.”

“Eh, no offense taken, I don’t remember your name either,” he said.

“Fair enough,” Rainbow shrugged.

“This is Grubber,” Fizzlepop said to introduce him. “He’s a hedgehog, and an idiot, but besides that he’s alright.” She then patted Rainbow Dash on the back. “And she’s Rainbow Dash.”

“Right, right,” Grubber nodded. “Now I remember, you were one of Princess Twilight Sparkle’s friends.”

“One of her best friends,” Rainbow corrected.

“Well what are you doing here?” Grubber asked. “You’re pretty far from home.”

Rainbow Dash chuckled and grinned down at him. “Buddy, you don’t know the half of it.”

For the next couple of hours, Rainbow Dash regaled them about her adventures across the world. It had been a long time since she had gotten to tell the whole story and she was happy to share it with a familiar face—and Grubber. While the hedgehog complained about being hungry and wanting to get something to eat halfway through, Fizzlepop was a perfect listener. There was a lot to tell her and Rainbow Dash had almost forgotten how much she enjoyed talking to other ponies about her journey. The theatrics she could get into when storytelling were just as fun as anything.

Naturally there were some details she left out, and some of the lamer stuff, like always. But by the end of it she had painted a pretty awesome picture of her trip around the world. Fizzlepop was suitably impressed and Grubber clapped for her.

“Thank you, thank you, I know it was pretty awesome,” Rainbow Dash smugly grinned. “Well, right up until I got hit by a rock and fell down here that is...”

“Sorry about that… we uh, know who’s responsible but it’s kind of complicated,” Fizzlepop grimaced and rubbed the back of her head.

“Yeah, pretty certain of it at least,” Grubber nodded.

Rainbow Dash was puzzled, she tilted her head to the side and looked between the both of them. “Wait—hold on. You know who threw that rock at me and did this to my wing? Was it a Storm Creature?”

“It wasn’t a Storm Creature but like I said it’s complicated right now,” Fizzlepop shook her head. “You saw the tables when you came in, in a little bit we’re going to have lunch with some other creatures who have business with the one that did that to you. Figure I can fill you in at the same time and you can ask them anything I don’t know. But you’re not the only outsider who’s arrived at the Stormlands lately—we’ve got a fugitive on the loose.”

Comments

[Johnny B Mediocre]

COMMON TEMPEST W

[redmar]

It's nice to see Fizzlepop since I wasn't expecting her at all. I wonder what the deal is with the fugitive and story behind that.

[Mini-Joe]

Oh yeah, its troll time.