Rainbow Dash Around the World

by MagicS

Enemies

“Something is wrong. I can feel it in the air,” Fizzlepop Berrytwist said. She glanced up at the dark sky, the world around her only barely visible thanks to some sparks from her broken horn that had generated some fires for her and the Storm Creatures to keep warm with out here.

One of the Storm Creatures grunted and tilted his head quizzically at her.

Fizzlepop sighed. “Call it a sixth sense, alright? I can’t really explain it but I think our friends are in danger.” She bit her lip, thinking about the hazards of the storm they were now in and the caves down below. She had her duty to guard this area but at the same time her gut instinct was telling her to do more.

“Maybe we should spread out...” she mused. “Knowing Rainbow Dash, if things were going smoothly she’d already be finished by now.”

---

Tyval stood on Tornal’s shoulders who stood on Tyluck’s shoulders as the three Trolls attempted to find a way out of the hole they had been trapped in. It was no good though, not only was it becoming exceedingly difficult for Tyluck to hold up all that extra weight, but Tyval was still a couple feet short of being able to climb out. They were stuck until help arrived.

“How did he even find the time to make this...” Tornal groaned.

“We shouldn’t be surprised by what he can do,” Tyluck panted. “H-Hurry up and get down you two, I feel like I’m about to break.”

The Trolls gave up on their tower and the three of them sat together at the bottom of the pit. It was quite muddy and uncomfortable but at least Berten hadn’t put any spikes down here. If he had it would’ve been a very unfortunate ending for them all. Tyluck sighed and looked up through the top of the hole, he couldn’t see the sky, the big tree that covered the clearing blocked everything off.

“Do we just wait until Rainbow Dash comes back or Fizzlepop finds us?” Tyval asked.

“Will Rainbow Dash be okay on her own? How can she fight him?” Tornal said.

“Normally I’d agree with you,” Tyluck said. “But… there’s something special about her. Let’s believe in her.”

---

“Actually, hold on, I wanted to talk to you again first to see if you-” Rainbow Dash was cut off as Berten ran forward and threw a punch at her head. She ducked out of the way of it and watched as his fist obliterated the trunk of a tree next to her, cracking it in half and sending it falling to the forest floor. That would’ve been painful.

Rainbow frowned. “I’m serious right now. I want to do this peacefully, we don’t have to fight.”

Berten however didn’t seem interested in talking. He threw several more punches at her with his long arms making up the distance he needed when fighting someone so much shorter than him. Rainbow Dash had to repeatedly hop and skip away from him while making sure she didn’t accidentally bump into a tree or get snagged on a root. It was a bit of a hazardous place to fight, there were so many obstacles and the larger Troll wouldn’t have much space to move freely. Like always though it didn’t seem a huge problem for him, he muscled through the thin trees and pushed aside anything that got in his way. When he threw another punch at her, Rainbow Dash decided to block it on purpose to see how strong of a punch he had.

With her hooves crossed in front of her body the anvil of his fist crashed into her and launched her backwards into a hard oak tree. Rainbow Dash coughed in pain and bounced off it towards the ground. Even with blocking that hurt more than she expected. Might have been a bad decision to test him out. She stood up and took a deep breath while lightning flashed overhead once more.

“Okay. I may have wanted to do this through talking, but I’m not going to lie and say I don’t enjoy a good fight too,” Rainbow Dash said and squared off against the big Troll.

Berten again said nothing as he charged at her but this time Rainbow Dash jumped over his punch, kicked off one of the nearby trees, and kicked the Troll right in the head. He grunted and was knocked back slightly but not off his feet. Rainbow Dash came back to the ground and raised an eyebrow at him, seeing the Troll rubbing where she had kicked. He didn’t look hurt.

And she hadn’t been holding back.

Is that all I can do without my wings backing me up? Rainbow frowned.

“You’ll have to do better than that, pony,” Berten said now—actually acknowledging her. “That was a better kick than I’ve taken from one of your kind before. But I’ve faced off against and defeated far worse creatures in my life.”

Rainbow Dash snorted. “Big talk coming from the guy who gave me a handicap before we even met. I don’t think you’d be able to talk any trash if I could use my wings right now.”

“Cry me a river, a fight is never supposed to be fair,” Berten said. “I’m a hunter. I take down my prey through any means necessary.”

“Heh. Then it’s going to be even more awesome when I beat you anyways just with my bare hooves,” Rainbow taunted and ran at him.

Berten scowled but ducked down and put his fists up, keeping his eyes trained on her as Rainbow Dash darted through the dark brush in a zig-zag fashion. He was almost like a big sphere of muscle leaving no openings to attack. She wasn’t coming at him straight this time though but trying to get him to lose sight of her and constantly shift on his bent legs to face her. Like that she could possibly wear him down. A top-heavy guy like that just couldn’t stay squatting like that forever, his legs would fail him.

As she ran between two trees, Berten quickly realized what her strategy was. A huff of annoyance came from him as he stayed where he was and let her get behind him—intentionally losing vision of her.

Rainbow wanted him to put strain on his legs by having to constantly pivot to her, but if he was going to let her just attack him from behind she wasn’t going to throw that opportunity away. She ran at him and jumped up to kick him in the back. He didn’t budge. It really was like kicking a boulder. Rainbow Dash kicked him a few more times but couldn’t do any damage. Changing strategy she went low to sweep his legs out from under him. Those relatively thin legs had to be a weak point.

Berten heard her, he could tell exactly what she was trying to do. When she went low at his legs he jumped forward and did a front-flip. At the apex of his flip, head parallel to the ground, he shot his arms out at her and smashed them into her side. Rainbow Dash cried out in pain as she was knocked to the ground while Berten came out of his flip perfectly. Smirking, he turned around and looked at her to see the pegasus pushing herself back up from the muddy ground. Truthfully he was surprised she was still able to move.

And on her end, Rainbow Dash just glared at him. “What the hay kind of move was that? Are you kidding me...”

“Is that all you can do?” Berten looked down at her. “I’m impressed you aren’t unconscious, but you’ll need to do more if you want me to stop talking trash.”

“I just didn’t expect you to move like a circus performer,” Rainbow Dash rubbed her sore side. “But I’m not letting you hit me again.”

Rainbow Dash ran at him as fast as she could, generating as much speed and force on her hooves as she could. It bothered her that as strong as she had gotten on this journey she couldn’t really hurt him for real without her wings backing her up. Maybe if she got a few solid blows on his face or legs, but anywhere else and he didn’t care. To see if she could do anything, Rainbow jumped up at a tree next to her—kicked off it to another tree, kicked off that one, and dove at Berten’s head.

He held up his arms as her hooves crashed into him and she felt a little give in his position before he pushed her off.

Rainbow Dash skidded back across the ground and clicked her tongue. He’s too solid!

She ran back at him but chiefly at his legs this time—they were the only weak spot she could even attempt to attack with how he protected his head. Berten could plainly see what she was going for though and he pulled his right leg back before kicking into the mud and shooting up a huge spray of mud, dirt, and pebbles at her. Rainbow could easily jump over it but it still kept her from attacking the only target she could. And as soon as she was airborne the huge closed fist of Berten came right for her body.

Rainbow grinned.

She slapped her hooves down on his fist as it flew at her and vaulted over his arm—spinning around to kick him as hard as she could in the jaw before he could react to her slick moves. It was very welcoming to see his eyebrows shoot up briefly right before her hoof landed. Her hard kick knocked his head to the side but Berten didn’t go off his feet, he only stumbled a bit before bumping into one of the trees. Lifting up a hand he rubbed his jaw but that was it. No blood, no knockout.

“Troublesome ant,” Berten growled and ripped a branch from the tree.

“I’m the one who should be annoyed right now...” Rainbow Dash muttered. Again her hits just didn’t do enough.

Berten launched the branch at her like a spear with his absurd strength, throwing so powerfully that it could’ve split her in two if it hit.

Instead, Rainbow deftly leaned out of the way so the branch just barely didn’t brush against her side. She didn’t bother looking behind her but she could imagine it impaled itself fully into the ground when it hit. Berten though wasn’t done either. He pulled off another branch and kicked a rock up into his free hand, throwing both of them in quick succession at her. Rainbow jumped to the left and then to the right to avoid both his projectiles and tried to run at him again. She didn’t really know what she was going to do but she couldn’t let him keep her at bay like this. Eventually he might actually hit her again—the speed at which he threw those things was enough that they blurred in her vision. Not only could they kill her if they hit, but it’d mean her boast about her not letting him hit her again would be ruined.

She couldn’t have that.

So he continuously threw anything in reach at her while she barely managed to avoid them and steadily made her way towards him. He would throw something at her and then immediately at where she was moving to dodge it, but her reflexes were enough that he couldn’t actually land something on her straight on. It was probably frustrating him considerably too.

The both of them were annoyed that they were stuck like this even though Berten had the clear advantage. When Rainbow Dash stepped forward once more, Berten growled and jumped back, smashing his fist into a small boulder behind him and pulverizing it.

Rainbow Dash’s eyebrows shot up as he grabbed a handful of pebbles and grinned at her.

Throwing his arm out in a wide arc he let them all go at her. The storm of rubble came at her lightning quick and all Rainbow Dash could do was dive behind a nearby tree as the small rocks shot through all the open space between them. She heard and felt some of the rocks slam and burrow into the tree while others screeched past her and embedded into other trees and rocks. The deadly arrows would’ve torn her to pieces if she hadn’t gotten behind cover. There was no way she could dodge something like that without her wings to simply fly above the storm.

“You going to come out from hiding or what?!” Berten shouted at her.

“You going to keep throwing rocks?” Rainbow shouted right back.

“No. I promise,” Berten said.

Rainbow Dash frowned. “I know I shouldn’t believe that but…” She sighed and ran out from behind the tree, going at him once more. It’s not like she had any better options.

He was being truthful though. He was just getting ready to throw another tree branch at her instead.

Rainbow jumped over the spear as it came at her and pushed as much extra energy as she could into her limbs to close the last bit of space between her and Berten. Getting close he hunkered down into a defensive stance right as Rainbow dashed up to him and punched him as hard as she could right into his protecting arms.

He bounced back a little but held his ground.

“You should know by now that you can’t beat me. Why don’t you give up this foolish mission, pony?” Berten sneered at her.

Rainbow Dash fell back as lightning flashed again and briefly lit up the dark forest. They were close to each other, but neither was moving to attack during this lull in the fight.

Finally, Rainbow Dash audibly breathed out through her nose and nodded up at him. “Yeah. I can’t beat you.”

Berten grinned. “Then leave me to my-“

“Like this. I can’t beat you like this,” Rainbow finished and reached back to tear her bandages off.

Berten’s eyes widened as Rainbow Dash spread her wings. The pegasus winced slightly when her left wing failed to fully extend but she quickly shot an angry glare back at the appendage.

“Deal with it,” she said to her wing and forced it open all the way. She then took a breath and smirked at Berten. “Okay—now we can start.”

Comments

[RoboRed]

Guess the figurative gloves are off, then.

[redmar]

I doubt her wing has fully healed but it would give her the necessary speed.