Rainbow Dash Around the World

by MagicS

Seacave Showdown

She didn’t have much light to see with but she could manage at the moment. There was only a little bit of light that managed to come in from the outside world and as soon as there was a turn in the cave that would disappear. Rainbow slowly walked further into it, taking a look at the floor and walls of the inside of the crevice to make sure there weren’t any nasty surprises. It was narrow enough where she wouldn’t have been able to stretch her wings if she could. Berten probably banged and scraped his body on the walls every time he came in here.

Her eyes narrowed as she also looked for signs like scrapes along the rocks or broken pebbles or anything that he might have caused as proof that this was his place. She didn’t really see much of anything though, probably due to his survivalist nature, it was likely he had hidden or obscured anything that she could see. There weren’t any tripwires or hidden spikes though either, no boulders waiting to fall down and crush her. That was a plus.

The floor was wet with water running up past her hooves, foamy seawater that was difficult to see into. She dragged her hooves a bit to make sure she wouldn’t step on anything sharp either. In a second she had gone through the mouth of the cave, still shallow enough where some light came in, and stepped into a larger circular chamber. A single tunnel heading deeper into the cave and island went off from it but it was too dark to see into.

That wasn’t important right now—what was was that she was standing somewhere that Tyluck and the others could join her. Cramped or not they’d be able to fit in here.

“Hey! You can come in here now! I found where we need to go!” Rainbow yelled to them.

A couple minutes later and the three big Trolls had squeezed their way into the same chamber where Rainbow Dash was. It was cold and clammy inside with a draft coming in from the ocean. The already low amount of light practically disappeared entirely thanks to the Trolls blocking off the exit to the crevice.

“He has to be hiding somewhere down that tunnel-” Rainbow Dash said as she pointed out the only other way to go. “Not sure how we’re going to see where we’re going though. We could get lost really easily if there’s more than one passage.”

“Not a problem, we came prepared,” Tyluck said and nodded to Tyval and Tornal.

The two other Trolls reached into their backpacks and pulled out wooden sticks that they then wrapped pieces of dry cloth and twine around. Tyval withdrew a small glass flask of some kind of liquid that he then used to dampen the cloth while Tornal lit a match and voila—they now had two torches to see with. They must’ve kept all that stuff in some kind of water-proof pouch before taking it out in here, or the Stormlands would’ve definitely wrecked it already.

“That’ll help,” Rainbow said.

She still walked in front but Tyluck took Tyval’s torch and started walking right behind her to illuminate everything. The tunnel they were now heading down was big enough for the Trolls to more or less walk comfortably. The ceiling was covered in stalactites and the floor was a muddy, puddle covered, mess. So far they hadn’t seen any alternate tunnels, traps, or a sign of Berten.

Considering the noise they were making and the torches they had it was almost certain he would know they were coming before they actually found him.

Just something they were going to have to deal with.

“Do you think he’s running from us or do you think he’s going to lie in wait somewhere and try and ambush us?” Rainbow wondered.

“Not sure. I can’t imagine him running without at least trying to harm us first. Unless he’s injured after what happened yesterday,” Tyluck said.

“We don’t know how deep this cave goes either... it’s possible we could miss him,” Tornal said.

Rainbow Dash silently nodded in agreement. She had to keep her eyes peeled even more than the rest of them. It actually kind of worried her though, the further they went, that she didn’t see any traps. Was this not the right cave? Did he just not want to take the risk of putting anything like that where he lived? In a dark, claustrophobic, cave like this he probably could’ve set up any number of deadly traps. And yet they hadn’t come across anything. He had to be preparing something. He had to have some kind of plan of his own.

They slowly walked through the cave for almost another hour without finding anything of note. No branching paths, no larger chambers, and no traps. They just squeezed their way through the damp cave while grumbling internally. The air wasn’t great to breathe either, the normally cold and stale air in the cave was becoming smoky thanks to the torches.

Rainbow Dash squinted ahead finally after their long trek, seeing what looked to be the end of the tunnel as it opened up into a larger chamber. “We’re coming to a big room in a second. Be on your guard.”

They kept attentive as the tunnel ended and they came into a big misshapen chamber with stalactites and stalagmites all around it, big colums of rock going from floor to ceiling, pools of water, and crevices and holes that went who only knows how deep. There was no easy way to get around it that they could see and their torches didn’t light up all of it. This could’ve been the end of the seacave or it could have any number of other tunnels leading out of it. The four of them walked out onto the uneven ground and looked around as best they could, Tyluck and Tornal holding up their torches for the maximum amount of light possible.

Rainbow followed the light as it revealed more and more of the chamber. The right side of it sloped up steeper and steeper until it became practically a separate level. She held up a hoof to try and feel what direction, if any, the breeze was going in.

She heard the sound of a pebble bouncing down the rocks to her right. Tyluck and the others heard it too. They all looked up to the source of the sound, torches held up towards it and illuminating the far right wall of the chamber.

Berten stood there above them with a boulder practically as big as he was lifted over his head. Straining at the weight he hefted it right at the four of them. “RAAAAARRGHHH!”

“Look out!” Rainbow yelled and jumped out of the way.

The three Trolls jumped away too and the boulder slammed down right where they had been standing—completely blocking off their exit. Rainbow frowned as she realized that may have been his intention in the first place. Even altogether the four of them might not have been able to move it from its new spot. There wasn’t really anytime to think about that though as she saw Berten run along the cave wall towards a tunnel leading out of this big chamber.

“He’s trying to lose us or trap us in here! We have to get him!” She shouted.

“On it!” Tyluck shouted as he got back to his feet, holding his torch out in front of him and running for the white-streaked Troll.

Rainbow ran with him while Tyval and Tornal followed. It was tough to cover the ground in the uneven chamber, especially with how frantically they were moving, but they needed to do it. Rainbow was sure that as soon as Berten was in the next chamber he was going to be pushing another boulder in front of his tunnel to block them off and trap them in here. They all saw his large body run into one of the many tunnels leading out and quickly followed after him. Rainbow didn’t think they had to worry about other traps right now, Berten was scrambling just as fast as they were. He’d be in danger of hitting anything himself if he had lain it earlier.

As soon as the pursuers got into his escape tunnel, Rainbow was able to see how open it was and how easy they’d be able to run down it. Far ahead she could just barely see the back of Berten. He was a fast runner for a creature of his size. Rainbow knew she was once again going to have to briefly leave the other Trolls behind if she wanted to catch up to him.

“I’m speeding up to make sure her can’t lose us or do anything else!” Rainbow said and already started running ahead.

“Okay!” Tyluck nodded, seeing no need to tell her to be careful this time.

Rainbow Dash sprinted on, running as fast as she could over the rocky floor of the tunnel with the flickering lights behind her casting shadows everywhere. She needed to go do the Running of the Leaves again this year, she didn’t feel as fast on her hooves as she wanted to. If it was her wings she’d have already jetted right in front of Berten in an instant.

She saw the big Troll stop ahead as he exited his tunnel and went into a new room. Squinting her eyes, she saw him indeed attempting to roll another big boulder in front of the chamber Rainbow and her friends were still in.

“No way!” Rainbow yelled and pushed herself even harder.

Before he had even rolled the boulder halfway over the exit, Rainbow Dash had reached him and jumped up to kick him in the face.

Berten’s eyebrows went up in surprise right before her hoof crashed into him and both pony and Troll went sprawling to the ground of the next room. Rainbow got back on her hooves quickly but Berten responded by immediately kicking her in the stomach and knocking her away from him. She collided with the wall with a pained groan and fell to the floor of the cave. When she lifted her head to look across the room at him she saw a few things of note.

There was already a single flickering torch set up here, obviously by Berten earlier, along with a number of other supplies he had to have stockpiled here for ages. Rope, sharpened stakes, bags, pilfered food, tools, everything he needed to survive and make his traps on the island.

Another thing she saw was that the only other way out of this room, besides the tunnel he just attempted to block off, was a narrow one going upwards through the ground. It was too perfect, it had to have been dug by him at least partially. It was a steep tunnel that Berten would’ve had to squat to go through and it went up and up probably a hundred if not two hundred feet. Rainbow could see that because there was the barest sliver of light coming from the end of it.

Her eyes widened. It was an escape tunnel, from where it looked to be going it must take him to some hidden spot back in the forest above. He might be able to slip right by Fizzlepop and the Storm Creatures depending on how far it took him.

Berten saw where she was looking and narrowed his eyes. “Well, it seems you know what I’m planning.”

“What you were planning. It’s already ruined,” Rainbow replied. She quickly looked up and down his body, noticing he didn’t look injured in the slightest. “I guess that tumble into the ocean wasn’t too bad for you.”

“I’ve had to do worse in my life,” Berten said.

“Yeah. I heard from Tyluck about you,” Rainbow Dash nodded, a sad frown on her face. “And I was wondering if you’d be interested in just talking things out. I know you’ve had a bum life and things have been unfair for you, I understand why you’re angry, and let me tell you that I know how much better it is to get over stuff like that. Doing what you’re doing? You’ll regret it. And it’s not going to get you anywhere.”

Berten merely glared at her. “What do you know, pony? And I would rather die than give those traitors the satisfaction of bringing me back to that... that travesty of a new kingdom. I will not stop. I don’t care how long it takes or what I have to do, but I’ll fix things. I’ll turn my kingdom back to the way it used to be! And no pony is going to tell me otherwise!”

He stood up tall to attack her but before he could they both heard the sound of Tyluck and the others close by.

“Tch. Interrupted again. But let me give you a warning, pony. This doesn’t concern you—and if you chase me down again you’ll be dead,” Berten quickly reached over to his torch before Rainbow could react and dashed it against the wall. The light went out and the next thing Rainbow knew she was hit in the face with a ball of mud.

“Agh!” She groaned, less in pain and more in annoyance as she went down and tried to swipe it off her face.

Meanwhile she heard him scrambling up his escape tunnel.

“Hey! Come back here already! We can talk about this! Just give me a chance, you deserve a chance, you deserve having someone who will listen to you and... and...” Rainbow grit her teeth as she heard him not slowing. “Alright... punching it is.”

Tyluck, Tyval and Tornal then emerged into the room, lighting things up again with their torches. They took a quick look around before spotting Rainbow Dash.

“Rainbow, where’s-”

“Up the tunnel,” she pointed it out. “He’s made some kind of escape route and I think he’s trying to slip past where Fizzlepop and her Storm Creatures will be.”

“Then let’s go!” Tyluck said and the four of them went straight for the steep tunnel too.

Rainbow Dash clicked her tongue in annoyance at how things had gone but still ran up with them, taking point. She wouldn’t give up on talking just yet, she’d give him another chance, but she’d be ready to do the real talking with her hooves. When it came down to how she handled things, there was no better way she could think of.

Comments

[RoboRed]

Soooo...one more chance, then the facepunch diplomacy?