Rainbow Dash Around the World

by MagicS

Say Hi to Twilight for Me

Rainbow Dash grumbled as a fresh new bandage was wrapped around her left wing to keep her from opening it again. Not that she could really complain with how painfully it throbbed. She had been running on pure adrenaline and forcing herself to ignore the pain from it, but the wing simply hadn’t fully healed yet when she tore the old bandage off. Now she was dealing with the consequences of her action—at least a few extra days would have to be spent here on the island before she could fly again.

At least things with Berten were taken care of. Tyluck, Tyval and Tornal were all okay too after being found by Fizzlepop and rescued from their hole.

Berten came back willingly to the Storm King’s old castle. Though surprised, everyone was willing to take Rainbow Dash’s words that he didn’t need to be chained up. However, he was now in a private cell by his lonesome. Rainbow knew it would go this way but she still felt pretty bad, she was going to have to drop in and say goodbye to him before she left. Or he left with the others. Whichever came first.

Tyluck trusted her but sense still dictated that Berten needed to be imprisoned until they were ready to leave. She couldn’t blame him. The history they had… the history Berten had with the kingdom. It was too much to really just ignore. Berten for his part didn’t complain or have a problem with it, both he and Rainbow Dash knew it was coming and knew more was coming once he was returned to his homeland. She’d have to talk with Tyluck more to make sure whoever was in charge of the Troll Kingdom knew what she had talked about with Berten. There was no way she was letting him get thrown into a dungeon there forever.

He’d do his time as punishment for some of the bad things he had done in the past (and on this island) but at the end of it he’d have a new life. A clean record.

As soon as he was out she wanted to be notified. It would be fun for her to go grab some apple cider and introduce a new creature to the School of Friendship anyways. Keeping her promise about being a good friend was also a nice bonus.

That would be a pretty long time in the future though by the sound of it.

Rainbow Dash sighed, wondering what she would do now for the rest of the time she was stuck here in the Stormlands.

The Storm Creature that had been wrapping her wing finally finished up before giving her an affectionate pat on the head and a thumbs up.

“Thanks dude,” Rainbow Dash smiled at him. “I promise I won’t take them off before my wing’s fully healed this time… probably.”

He grunted and turned to leave the room—a makeshift infirmary. Rainbow Dash let herself fall back on the bed she had been sitting on and looked up at the ceiling. In a minute she should probably head out and let Fizzlepop and the Trolls know she was okay. Right now though she kind of just wanted to ponder how her journey had gone lately and how close she was to finally making it back home. She was basically done. Less than a day after leaving here she’d be able to make it to the southern coast of the continent and then she’d practically be flying over Equestrian skies a few days after that too.

There was barely anything between here and home. Mt. Aris a bit out of the way to the east, but Rainbow had already been there and didn’t plan on visiting now. Then there was, ugh, Klugetown, directly ahead. She’d probably end up hitting that. And then it was really just the Badlands or some other stuff and after that she’d be in southern Equestria.

“Wow. It’s so weird...” Rainbow Dash mumbled.

Who am I going to see first? Who am I going to visit with? Will I get everyone together once I get back to Ponyville so I can tell everybody what I’ve been up to all at once? Maybe I’ll just want to take a nap right when I get home first. Honestly—that sounds pretty dang good.

“Heh,” Rainbow Dash chuckled and rolled off the bed. “It really has been a long time. Hope they didn’t get too worried about me or anything.”

She took a big stretch, seeing how the rest of her body was feeling after the fight and some rest. Nothing was really hurt bad like her wing was so at least she didn’t really have to worry about straining anything. She was a bit stiff and sore in places but all in all she’d call herself decent. After sleeping tonight she’d be in top condition aside from her wing. Her stomach was a bit empty at the moment though so she kind of wanted to get something to eat and drink first before she turned in for the night. Though she didn’t really know where to go to get any of that stuff herself, she was going to have to rely on Fizzlepop or Grubber for help with that.

Hoping they were in the old throne room she decided to leave this little infirmary and go look for them there. If they weren’t she’d just have to wait until they found her. Which was kind of unfortunate. This dark old castle wasn’t really a good place for spending time in, what was there to do for fun in here? Nothing, that’s what. Of course it wouldn’t have been any better outside. Everything about the Stormlands was pretty miserable.

She realized she had been pessimistically thinking about what the rest of her stay here was going to be like.

Maybe she had been a little too kind to Berten after what he did to her wing…

“Ugghhhh… everything cool I needed to do here is already taken care of and now I’m going to be stuck on this dumb island for a week?!” Rainbow Dash groaned. “I’m gonna be so bored!”

She did her best to push those negative thoughts away as she made her way to the throne room. One of the only places she actually knew how to reach in here. Thankfully, thankfully, one of the negative things she was worrying about didn’t come to pass. Fizzlepop Berrtytwist and Grubber both were in the throne room along with a number of Storm Beasts. The room was fairly active compared to the last time she was here, a lot of tables had stuff on them and the Storm Beasts were conversing with one another.

Fizzlepop saw her enter and gave her a smile. “Hey, guess you’re doing alright?”

“Sort of,” Rainbow Dash shrugged and walked over. “Wish I could fly right now, but everything else is good. How about you?”

“Well I kind of wish I could’ve helped out more with apprehending the fugitive but I’m happy things have turned out for the better. You must’ve really gotten through to that Troll. He’s different,” Fizzlepop said.

“Just took a page you should recognize from Twilight’s book is all,” Rainbow Dash grinned.

Fizzlepop rolled her eyes. “Certainly do. Anyways though it looks like things are going to calm down here, the Storm Creatures can now focus on building their new home.”

“Hope it becomes a great place to live,” Rainbow said.

“I’ll still be helping out for a while to make sure of that,” Fizzlepop nodded.

Rainbow Dash nodded along for a second too before she remembered why she had originally sought the other pony out. “Uhh… by the way, I haven’t eaten anything in a while. There any food in here?”

Grubber belched. “I just ate a salmon but there might be some left over if you want that.”

Rainbow went green in the face. “N-No, something else. Something for ponies to eat.”

“Here,” Fizzlepop said and levitated an apple off one of the tables. She tossed it over to Rainbow Dash. “Have as much as you want.”

“Thanks,” Rainbow grabbed it out of the air and looked it over. A shiny red apple, though a little darker than the ones that could usually be found at Sweet Apple Acres. “I just wanted something before I went to sleep, so this is enough.”

She took a big bite out of it and found it to be disappointingly bland. It might have been an alright apple on average, she didn’t know, but compared to the apples she was used to eating there wasn’t really a comparison at all. Of course she ate the whole thing anyways, getting as far down to the core as she could. She’d had way worse things than a bland apple on this journey around the world and she wasn’t going to spit it out or anything. It filled her stomach up all the same and that was really all she needed. Getting some nutrients in her would make her feel better overnight and even speed up the healing of her wing.

“Going to get some rest now? I kind of recommend it,” Fizzlepop said.

“Mhm,” Rainbow Dash nodded while chewing up the last bits of her apple. She swallowed it down and wiped away the little juice left on her lips. “Gonna be nice getting a real bed to sleep in again. I can still use that same room I woke up in here?”

“Of course, it’s just the way you left it, you can use it the rest of the time you’re here,” Fizzlepop said.

Rainbow Dash sighed. “Well no offense but I kind of hope that isn’t that long. I’d like to get back out there and finally make my way back home.”

“I get it. But while you’re here we’ll still give you the best hospitality we can,” Fizzlepop smiled.

“Thanks,” Rainbow said before yawning. “Guess I’m more beat than I thought…”

“I was thinking of getting some sleep soon too. We’ve both been up for a while.”

“Seriously…”

“You two have fun then, I’m gonna get some more food to eat,” Grubber said, snapping his fingers and pointing at them before waddling over to another table.

Fizzlepop sighed and shook her head while Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes.

---

As it turned out, the Trolls wanted to leave the Stormlands and return to their home as soon as possible. So early in the morning the very next day everyone had gathered at a small, broken down, dock on the west side of the island where a boat was waiting to leave with them. Tyluck, Tyval, and Tornal would be sailing it back themselves with Berten captive onboard.

And as was the luck of everyone out here right now—the rain that had been threatening to fall for days had finally made its entrance. It was a monsoon. Pouring down incredibly hard and unrelentingly on all of them. The Storm Beasts had brought some big umbrellas and were holding them up for everyone, but it didn’t protect them against it all, especially when the wind came in.

Rainbow Dash stood in front of Tyluck, smiling at him. “You guys have a safe trip back, alright? You’re not worried about the weather?”

He shrugged. “We’ve dealt with worse before.”

“If you say so,” Rainbow said and looked past Tyluck at the other three Trolls.

Berten was standing between Tyval and Tornal. Shackles on his wrists.

“Are those really necessary?” Rainbow frowned up at Tyluck.

“I asked for them,” Berten said. “After spending so much of my life putting others in chains, I felt it was a fitting punishment. I will willingly wear these while I am imprisoned. It is only fair.”

Rainbow sighed. “I mean… if that’s what you want. I think it’s kind of excessive...”

Berten smiled to her. “It’s alright, you needn’t worry about it. This is only my penance.” He glanced to Tyluck. “And because of you I believe I will not even be imprisoned for that long anyways.”

“We owe much to the ponies of Equestria. Your words and recommendations hold much weight,” Tyluck said.

“You think your King or whoever makes the decision about Berten will listen to what I’ve said?” Rainbow raised an eyebrow.

“Most certainly—King Terluff is a great, and kind, ruler,” Tyluck nodded.

“It will be an awkward reunion,” Berten wistfully sighed. “But I now have much to look forward to when I am released. I will enjoy traveling to your home and seeing you again, Rainbow Dash.”

“I’ll be looking forward to it too. And there’s always going to be a spot open for you at Princess Twilight’s School of Friendship,” Rainbow Dash smiled.

“Thank you,” Berten said. He looked up at the rainy sky. “We should depart now, no sense standing in the rain anymore than we have to.”

“Agreed,” Tyluck nodded. “Goodbye everyone, thank you for your help.”

“Goodbye, take care. Tell the Troll King he’s welcome to visit anytime,” Fizzlepop said and waved to them.

“Same for Equestria,” Rainbow Dash said.

As they started to walk back onto their boat, Berten briefly looked over his shoulder and smiled at her. “Goodbye, Rainbow Dash—my first friend.”

“Goodbye, Berten. I’ll see you soon,” Rainbow waved to him and also to the others. “You too, Tyluck, Tyval, and Tornal. It was cool hanging out together. Maybe next time I’m in the area we can go kick the butt of some monsters messing up your island.”

Tyluck laughed. “Hahahaha, I would not refuse that offer, it sounds like a fun time. Until we meet again, Rainbow Dash.”

He and the others stepped onto their boat and quickly raised the sail before Tyval and Tornal dipped large paddles into the water and started pushing away from the dock and into open waters. She hoped they really were going to be safe in that thing, it didn’t look like much. But if they had gotten here in it in the first place it meant they probably had already dealt with a lot of bad weather beforehand. From the brief time she had known them she knew the Trolls to be quite resourceful, she wouldn’t doubt them any longer. If they could safely navigate away from the treacherous, rocky, waters around the Storm King’s island then everything else after that should be considered smooth sailing. So she stood there on the dock, waving for quite a long while. She could make out all four of them on the boat and wondered if they were talking about anything. Were they trying to get along with Berten? Did they feel awkward? Did he just want to stay quiet until he got back home?

She put her hoof down and just watched when the boat became nothing more than a dot on the ocean.

When it disappeared entirely she sighed and turned around, getting ready to walk all the way back to the castle.

“I know it’s just because you’re bored, and not because you’re disappointed, but you’d think you’d be in a better mood right now,” Fizzlepop said from beside her.

“I’m happy for them,” Rainbow Dash shrugged. “But yeah—time to be bored until my wing heals all the way. I’ve never liked sitting in one spot, doing nothing, when I could be going somewhere else. This place doesn’t need me anymore. And I’ve always left as soon as I was no longer needed, I would learn fun stuff, stop any bad guys that needed stopping, and then moved on. Now I’m stuck without anything to do or look forward to until I leave again.”

“Eat and sleep all day,” Fizzlepop suggested.

“Normally I’d be fine with that, just not when I want to keep moving and finally get back to Equestria. You don’t know this but I love taking a nap and chillaxing. It’s just impossible to do that when there’s something else I want to do way more.”

“Good luck on surviving the next week then.”

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. “Yeah. Thanks.”

The long walk back to the castle was one where they were constantly accompanied by the rain. If anything it seemed to get worse and huge streams of water were dripping off the large umbrellas carried by the Storm Creatures. Rainbow was pretty sure that it could easily rain everyday for the next week by the look of the sky. Typical Stormlands apparently. There weren’t any trees or dirt on the path to and from the castle either, just rocks and slippery steps carved into the cliffs. Water practically cascaded down the steps thanks to how heavy the rain was so they had to be cautious even just walking up it like this. What Rainbow Dash wouldn’t give for both her wings to be okay right now. The Storm Creatures were still doing their best to keep the two ponies from getting soaked but at this point Rainbow wouldn’t mind if they gave up completely.

It took them well over an hour before they did finally make it back to the castle and Rainbow Dash simply wasn’t really in the mood to do anything else. The sound of the pounding rain couldn’t be kept out even by the thick stone walls. If anything it seemed to make everything louder, and now there was rolling thunder and even stronger wind to go along with it. She couldn’t even go outside and run around like this with hurricane winds, super heavy rain, and lightning coming down.

She walked back to her room and plopped down on the bed. “Ugh!”

Maybe it would be best to just sleep the rest of the day. Even though she was feeling so anxious actually falling asleep would be tough. But the more rest she got the sooner her wing would heal. Sleeping an entire afternoon away would probably help quicken that up. And if it didn’t? Well what was she missing here anyways?

Closing her eyes to try and force sleep to come on—she ended up drifting off far easier than she expected.

---

Day one: it rained and she did nothing besides wander around the castle and found a bunch of spiderwebs.

Day two: it rained some more and she counted how many different lightning strikes she saw through the windows.

Day three: it somehow rained even harder than it already had been and the castle nearly flooded.

Day four: she, Fizzlepop, and Grubber played tic-tac-toe since there wasn’t a single deck of cards in all the Stormlands.

Day five: she slept in.

Day six: she went outside despite how horrible the weather still was just because she needed something else to do. Drenched and disheveled, she quickly came back inside.

Day seven: it was still raining. But now at least her wing was finally being looked over by one of the Storm Creatures.

“Well?” Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow at the Storm Creature as he prodded and examined her wing, now free of its bandages. “It feels fine so is it fine? Is it back to normal?”

The Storm Creature looked at the wing for a moment longer before grunting.

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes.

“He says it’s healthy. You can start flying again,” Fizzlepop helpfully explained.

“Alright!” Rainbow Dash shouted in joy and immediately jumped into the air, buzzing around the ceiling of the room on her wings. Any use of her wings felt great right now. To be in the air, to feel her blood rushing through them and a little air current ruffling her feathers. Celestia did she miss that. Another week of no flying and bad weather and she might have gone totally insane.

She came down from the ceiling but still hovered in the air a foot above the floor, getting the most out of her freshly healed wings.

“Having fun?” Fizzlepop grinned.

“You bet!” Rainbow grinned right back. “Feels so good to be able to use my wings again.”

“So you’ll be leaving right now? You’ve kind of been saying you would...” Fizzlepop said.

Rainbow Dash nodded. “Oh yeah—I’m out of here! Uh, no offense or anything.”

“None taken,” Fizzlepop snorted in amusement and the Storm Creature just grunted. “But are you sure you want to go exactly right now? The storm is still going on and it’s raining like crazy.”

“If a little rain was enough to keep me from flying then I’d never have gotten anywhere in the first place. Going through a storm is nothing—the only problem was not being able to fly in the first place,” Rainbow confidently stated, puffing out her chest.

“Well it’s not like I don’t believe you. You’re a pretty incredible pony, I just want you to be as safe as you wished the Trolls to be when they left in the middle of this,” Fizzlepop said.

“Fair enough,” Rainbow agreed.

“Going to miss having you around though. I know the past week was boring to you but it was a little more fun with another pony here,” Fizzlepop shrugged.

“Yeah, sorry that you’ll only have Grubber around again...”

Fizzlepop threw her head back and laughed. “Hah! Don’t worry about that, I’m used to him too.”

“Well since I’m going back to Equestria do you have anything you want me to tell Twilight? Anything you want to say to her?” Rainbow asked.

“Hmm...” Fizzlepop thought for a second before she simply shook her head and smiled. “Just tell her that I say hi. If I want to talk about anything more important I’ll come back to Equestria myself some day.”

Rainbow Dash saluted with a smile. “Can do.”

“Want some food before you leave though? Might be a little while before you can eat anything else,” Fizzlepop suggested.

“Good idea. Let’s get something tasty.”

Instead of going to the throne room like they normally did to eat, Fizzlepop and Rainbow Dash walked up to one of the higher levels of the castle where Rainbow could quickly leave from once she was done. There were a few towers reaching up from the roof of the castle with open balconies and Rainbow could fly up and off any one of them. For now though they stopped in a high up room that already had tables in chairs in it, while the pair of Storm Creatures that had come with them dropped off some food.

They actually had real sandwiches to eat this time. Just water to drink though so it’s not like it was too fancy, but better than just eating a freshly pulled carrot.

Despite wanting to get out of here, Rainbow didn’t rush through the meal. She was still friends with Fizzlepop and didn’t want to be rude. If she swallowed her sandwich in one bite and flew off without saying anything her friends would never forgive her. And Fizzlepop clearly could still use and deserved the company. The past week had only been bearable thanks to the fact she was around. If the unicorn wasn’t here, Rainbow probably would’ve lied down in the rain outside until she was washed away. Still, despite the fact that they were about to say goodbye, they mostly kept quiet as they ate their sandwiches. They didn’t have much to talk about and Fizzlepop was naturally fairly reticent.

Both of them were fine just eating in peace. Enjoying their food until Rainbow Dash finally got up and left.

Outside they could both hear the intense storm still raging. Rainbow saw the hard flying she would need to get through it as a fun challenge after being grounded for so long.

“I hope you get home safe from here, I know your friends are going to be happy to see you after so long,” Fizzlepop suddenly said.

Rainbow Dash smiled. “Oh yeah, they’re gonna go just as crazy as I am.” She then tilted her head and thought for a second. “And… honestly I think this is it for me? Technically I’d say my journey is over already. I mean, I’m back to where I’ve already been. I’m basically home—and I know for sure that I’m not going to suddenly run into an ancient civilization that needs my help, or find myself in the middle of a war, or find a dictator that needs to be stopped, or an evil pirate, or get involved in some search for a powerful magical artifact up in Equestria. All the stuff that I left Equestria in search for… I won’t find anymore of it. And I’m fine with that, cause I’ve done all I needed to, and helped the world and so many creatures in it. Now the only thing to do is make it all the way back so I can say I’m the first pony to fly all the way around the world—just for my own ego. Heh, not a bad way to end things.”

“Then have a fun final leg. Enjoy the nice flight as soon as you’re out of the Stormlands,” Fizzlepop smiled.

“Oh I will.”

Rainbow Dash finished the sandwich she had been eating and took a deep breath. Contemplatively she looked down at the table before spreading her wings and hovering into the air. “Well, I think I’m ready to go. It was great seeing you again—even if your old name was way cooler.”

Fizzlepop snorted. “Thank you, it was nice seeing you again too.”

Rainbow flashed her a grin. “I’ll see you later.”

Comments

[Cosmic Potato]

Uh, isn't she forgetting something? Namely the invincible life stealing flying abomination that has shown itself to be completely unstoppable? I feel like its come back from worse things so I would think she would expect to see it again.

[RoboRed]

This was a nice uplifting arc. I'm happy with how this one ended.

[THERDSTORYWHISPERER]

Great chapters!

Great story arc!

[redmar]

The only thing left for Rainbow is to get rid of Heartless permanently.