Rainbow Dash Around the World

by MagicS

Searching on Hoof Unfortunately

The thick forest of the Storm King’s island was a mess to walk through with its lack of trails and the windy weather constantly pounding away at it. Rainbow Dash and the group of Trolls she had joined had gone to the east side of the island and were now making their way across it, leaving no stone unturned in their search for the fugitive Berten. The Trolls had changed out of their frankly gaudy clothes and were now wearing much more practical black pants while the two besides Tyluck carried large backpacks full of supplies. If those backpacks were any indication they planned to be out here searching for a while before they returned to the castle. Unless of course they found the fugitive first.

Thanks to the size of the island and the unfortunately slow rate of travel it was hours since they had eaten earlier. The sky wasn’t exactly darker (since it was still a bunch of black clouds for the most part) but it was already probably closer to evening than noon. Searching for this white-streaked Troll was apparently slow going.

Ugh.

She hated that.

She knew Tempest—Fizzlepop—was probably in the same situation over on the west side of the island. They had a lot of ground to cover and there was nothing they could really do about it. If she was in more familiar company she already would have been complaining. To these Trolls she had only just met though, she didn’t want to be so whiny or rude.

They would just have to slowly and slowly move from east to west on the southern side of the island, checking through the forest and also the rocky cliffs later on. Rainbow Dash noticed fairly quickly that this forest—and probably the entire island—was pretty quiet as far as animals went. She saw a few birds, a few piercing eyes coming from the depths of the forest, but that was it. The Stormlands probably weren’t the first choice for most animals to live in. She thought at first they might have been afraid of the large Trolls but they had to already be used to seeing the Storm Creatures here.

Rainbow Dash hopped over a moss covered tree log and her muddy hooves nearly slid out from beneath her on the slick ground. She frowned and looked up at the sky. “Sorry I can’t give you guys any air cover.”

“It is fine, another set of eyes is already a great help,” Tyluck said.

The four of them right now were fanned out through the forest, not walking in a straight line together or taking the same path, but still close enough where they could see or speak to one another. Rainbow thought what they were doing was kind of silly—how was this supposed to help them find the Troll? But when she realized they were also searching for any sort of traps, footprints, or other signs he may have been through here, it kind of clicked. They didn’t expect to just stumble upon him sleeping under a tree, they just needed to put clues together first or disable any traps they came across to make things easier.

Rainbow looked up again at the trees, some of them thirty feet high and the cloudy sky difficult to see past the canopy. There could be all sorts of stuff hidden in this forest. She kept her eyes peeled for anything that looked unnatural, any twigs broken in a strange way, any plants that looked like they had been pushed aside by a large body walking through them, anything tied down by vines. And she kept her eyes peeled on the off-chance that she actually saw the big Troll himself.

Good news was with his white coloring he’d be easier to spot than if he looked like Tyluck and the others.

That thought did tickle Rainbow Dash’s curiosity. She still didn’t know much about this “Berten” they were searching for. The next time their group came to a stop somewhere she should ask Tyluck what else he knew. She hadn’t even really gotten much of a crash course on the Trolls in general.

For now though she decided to keep her mind and eyes focused on searching the forest. She didn’t want to suddenly step into a bear trap or a snare or get picked up and stuck in a net. From the sound of it, this Berten guy was good with traps and she needed to be careful. Rainbow Dash’s wings pulsed impatiently at her sides, still bandaged down to keep them from moving. It was starting to get a little itchy but there wasn’t much she could do about that. Her eyes kept searching from tree to tree and from rock to rock, looking up and down the entire forest in front of her. While they hadn’t found anything yet she was at least sure that she hadn’t missed anything either.

That was progress in its own way.

She wasn’t expecting to find much in this forest, as considering where she had been shot down over the ocean she figured he was more likely to be on the rocky southern coast of the island. But they couldn’t skip any ground in case he was hiding elsewhere or trying to trick them. Skipping and not being thorough was just inviting problems.

Even if it also bored her out of her mind. Why couldn’t this guy just come and fight her right now?

Maybe if she was alone she could trick him into thinking she was an easy target.

That kind of thing probably wouldn’t fly with the others though. And with her wings bound she was an easy target. At least easier than normal. Would she have the speed to dodge a supersonic rock if it was thrown by this guy at her again? She was taken by surprise before but she still wasn’t sure.

Rainbow Dash came into a small clearing and checked the muddy ground for anything, but this kind of soft ground wouldn’t be good for laying traps in and there were no leaves to hide anything. The wind and rain common to the Stormlands would wipe everything away that wasn’t tied down every other day. It was probably really only the trees or areas of the forest floor that could stay covered in bushes and protected from the weather that she needed to be attentive of.

A sharp whistle came from Tyluck that grabbed her and the other Trolls’ attention. They all quickly converged on his position to see what he had called them over for.

Tyluck was pointing at the ground and a half rubbed out footprint on it that would’ve just about fit the Trolls if Rainbow Dash’s eyes were right. There was only one footprint though but the rest of the ground around it was disturbed and broken up.

“It looks like he went through here and tried to cover his tracks but missed one,” Tyluck said. “Whether this leads to where he’s hiding or if he was making traps in the area… not sure yet.”

“Guess we still need to look around here some more?” Rainbow questioned.

“Yes,” Tyluck nodded. “We should fan out from here.”

And moved out in a circle from that spot they did, looking for other tracks or other signs the fugitive may have left. It was still slow and boring going but Rainbow was happy they had something to go on now. Some proof that he had been here at one point and may still be nearby. The four of them moved like an ever-expanding spiral so they couldn’t miss anything and could even double-check each other just in case. Rainbow sorely wished she could get a bird’s eye view of it all but she was forced to deal with her muddy hooves.

A cold wind blew through the forest while they were working. Strong enough to make Rainbow have to pause and hold a hoof up to protect her face while her mane billowed about.

“Dumb Stormlands...” she audibly complained. As long as the rain didn’t come with it for now she supposed it could be worse. But they didn’t need strong winds like this to make finding stuff even more difficult.

“Has anyone seen anything yet?” Tyluck called out after about twenty minutes of fanning.

“No!” The three others shouted in unison.

Tyluck looked up past the trees. “Mmm… might not find anything again before nightfall. Another failed day by the look of things.”

“Keep your chins up and stay optimistic! We’ll find something!” Rainbow Dash called to the rest of them. She was used to being the one to reassure others all the time on her journey.

“Right,” Tyluck allowed a small grin on his face. “Right indeed, you ponies are always good at raising the mood. I suppose we shouldn’t give up until it’s too dark to see.”

“That’s right, we know he was here and if he was bad enough to leave one track for us to see I’m willing to bet there’s more we can find too,” Rainbow grinned back.

“Still need to be careful for any traps he might’ve set. For all we know the track itself was part of a trap or trick...” Tyluck said.

Rainbow Dash nodded. It was possible, but still. “Can’t second guess everything. Let’s keep looking.”

There were still a few hours before it would become too dark and too dangerous to search and Rainbow Dash wanted to make the most of them. Unfortunately the wind kept getting worse and worse, with the trees now bending in the wind and the howling from it loud enough that they had to shout to hear one another. Rainbow could hear a steady rumble of thunder above her but no rain or lightning had come down yet. It seemed it probably wouldn’t today. She wondered what a full on storm over the Stormlands was really like. Could it be as bad as the Strip of Storms or the massive hurricane she went through in the True North? It had to be pretty impressive, probably much worse than anything seen in Equestria.

Rainbow Dash saw something out of the corner of her eye and looked up to see birds flying through the trees, in the direction the wind was blowing. Seems like they wanted to get somewhere a little safer until this weather died down.

One bird though was having trouble with the wind and ended up being thrown out of the air, coming to an unpleasant crash on the ground not far from where Rainbow Dash was. Just a small sparrow, no wonder it was having trouble. Despite herself, Rainbow Dash walked over to it to make sure it was okay. Before she even got there though it had picked itself up and started hopping across the dirt.

Rainbow smiled—happy to see that it was okay.

Right up until it made one more hop and was suddenly caught in a net that came springing up from the forest floor. Rainbow Dash blinked in surprise as the tightly woven net came up carrying mostly leaves and a scared sparrow inside of it that was chirping loudly with abandon. The net had been hidden perfectly under a thin layer of dirt and obscured by leaves so well it looked completely natural. And it shot up on a hair trigger considering how light the sparrow had to be.

“Probably wouldn’t have seen it until I stepped on it...” Rainbow Dash mumbled.

She walked up to the net, both to inspect it and free the sparrow inside. It was woven so tightly though and the holes in it weren’t even half the size of her hoof. She’d have to break the whole thing apart or pull it down completely. The fugitive had clearly spent a ton of time on it—but it confused her as to why.

A net like this wouldn’t work on a Troll or Storm Creature—they were way too big and heavy. The only ponies it could’ve caught were her and Fizzlepop. But making this thing would’ve taken longer than Rainbow had been on the island for, unless this guy was really that much of a net making expert. And Fizzlepop could’ve just blown the thing up with her magic.

She took another look at the tiny holes and she got it. This net wasn’t a trap for any of them, he was using it to catch food.

And the chirping of the bird was loud and high-pitched enough to carry over the wind.

Rainbow Dash’s ears perked up and she looked downwind. Staring into the dark forest. Staring at a set of trees a hundred feet away. A large shadow hiding behind them and a pair of glowing eyes stared back at her.

Comments

[RoboRed]

This guy is...a lot more crafty than I had previously thought.

[redmar]

Those traps are also an alarm system of sorts. I wonder what will happen next.