Rainbow Dash Around the World

by MagicS

Rainbow Dash and Heartless II

Her wings clipped through leaves and knocked many of them off their branches where they scattered about and ended up blown away by the wind she kicked up. A second later and Rainbow Dash was zooming past and around trees in the jungle, swiftly moving like a snake to not smack into any of them. But she couldn’t slow down at all either. And all at once she was also scanning every tree and every single thing she saw to see if she could use anything against Heartless.

Speaking of…

“Why’d you come down here? You know you can’t hide from me!” Heartless shouted from behind her, a few trees back.

Rainbow Dash ignored her for now and flew on. It at least gave her more time to think and act than just flying in the open sky. She saw branches, heavy vines, big wavy leaves from some of the plants down here. All things that could help. Nothing that could stop her for good but maybe she could at least disable or tie down Heartless in some way until she could somehow come up with a more permanent solution.

Whatever that was.

With at least an idea of her next move in her head, Rainbow looked out the corner of her eye and saw the bright pink color of Heartless peeking out through the trees behind her. Both she and Rainbow Dash stuck out like sore hooves in the jungle. Even if Heartless couldn’t sense her life as well, Rainbow doubted she’d ever be able to hide effectively anyways. Not that she would hide.

“Think fast!” Rainbow said right as she passed by a heavy tree branch. She grabbed the end of it with her hooves and pulled it back with her, stretching and bending it to its limits before finally letting it go right as Heartless came behind her.

The tree branch whipped right back into its normal position—which was currently occupied by Heartless—and smashed into her face. Heartless was knocked back like a pinball, bouncing off three other trees before falling to the ground. She got up and looked to see Rainbow Dash still continuing further into the jungle. A frustrated pout came to her face for a second before she shrugged and smiled once more and returned to flying after her target. She was far too excited to ever really get upset right now. This felt different than the last few times they had met—they were truly alone. This would be it, Heartless would finally get her. Rainbow Dash couldn’t lie, or trick her, or get saved by anybody else. She wasn’t even trying to and Heartless would make sure that nothing Rainbow Dash said would stop or stall her like on some of the previous occasions. It was just them.

Rainbow Dash for her part was at least thankful that she had come down here. She could fight and protect herself much better than before. The tree branch proved that, and just maybe she could wear Heartless out. There was no way she could actually just survive and keep going through anything, right? There was no way she didn’t actually not have to sleep, eat, drink, or breathe… right? There was no way she could just keep coming no matter what and outlast her. Outlast Rainbow Dash.

Right?

Rainbow gulped, not liking the fact that she couldn’t even convince herself right now. She who always believed in herself and her greatness. Who always optimistically (and egotistically) told herself she could do anything.

Why couldn’t she find herself doing the same right now?

Why did being around Heartless just make all of that feel impossible?

But that didn’t mean she was giving up either.

The next big tree branch she passed she broke off and then went flying towards a tree that had a bunch of hanging vines on it. Not as strong as actual rope or chains, but maybe she could still tie Heartless up with them. She didn’t know how Heartless had freed herself back at the north pole, but she did a similar thing back there when she tied that big weight to her. She knew stuff like that could work temporarily. And she knew she was fast enough to tie her up without touching or getting touched.

Before she could reach the next tree though, Heartless had already caught back up to her.

She hadn’t been flying through the trees on the same exact path as Rainbow Dash. She went up and came back down almost right on top of her. The benefit of being able to sense exactly where she was.

Rainbow Dash grit her teeth as Heartless almost landed on her but turned around just in time to whack her in the side with the tree branch and knock her away. “Someone actually got a little smarter...” She looked at the tree branch in her hooves. “Good thing I brought this with me.”

Heartless crashed into a tree but still quickly jumped off it to keep coming at Rainbow Dash with a big smile on her face. “Found you, found you, found you!”

“Keep coming then!” Rainbow yelled. “If you want to get beaten by me again!”

She flew to the tree where many heavy vines were coming down from its branches and intentionally flew between them as closely and complexly as possible. Ever so slightly she pushed and nudged some of the vines aside so they’d swing a little bit. That way when Heartless followed her, the vines were in her way as she passed through. She quickly got some wrapped around her body, neck, legs, and became tangled up in them as she tried to fly after Rainbow Dash. There was once again the briefest flicker of annoyance on her face that she had been held up and inconvenienced, but she still just as quickly attempted to break free and catch up to Rainbow Dash. They were just vines after all and though she was a little tangled its not like they were tied around her or really holding her down.

Heartless blinked and looked ahead. Oh wait, Rainbow Dash was coming right back towards her.

Rainbow Dash was flying fast at her with the tree branch pulled behind her head. She swung it out and hit Heartless in the face as hard as she could. There was a devastating crack as the branch broke and Heartless was knocked out of the air with all the vines wrapped around her snapping and their remnants carried with her. She crashed to the ground and tumbled around and around in a heap before coming to a stop in the roots of another tree. She sat up with the broken vines hanging off her just in time to hear the whistling noise of Rainbow Dash swiftly flying around her.

Grabbing each bit of vine, Rainbow Dash worked incredibly fast. She had to before Heartless could react and either try and move or touch her. Her form was a complete blur as she pulled the vines around Heartless’s entire body, over her head, behind her back, through her legs, and tied them all together.

In the space of a blink, Heartless looked up to see Rainbow Dash pulling a vine taut in her mouth and she fell back onto her side. The knots were tied extremely tight and she couldn’t do anything more than struggle with the vines around her entire body. Her front and back legs were tied together with loops going around her back to keep her from even being able to straighten up.

Rainbow Dash spat the vine out and grinned at her. “Caught.”

Heartless merely blinked once more and smiled. “Its just vines, Rainbow Dash. Its not the same as life from you or another pony—but the jungle has a warmth that calls out to me too.”

Immediately, the vines tied around her started to decay and die. They went from green, to brown, and started to flake and disintegrate. Even the grass she was lying on, all the bushes around her, the tree, they all started to die as well. Anything her body was directly touching just withered and went from a luscious, lively, green to a cold putrid brown and then even worse. The leaves from all the branches of the tree fell and disintegrated as well before they could even touch the ground.

“Oh,” Rainbow Dash blanched as she watched. “I guess that kind of makes sense when I think about it.”

The dying brown vines around Heartless turned an ashen grey and began to break apart into dust. She easily started to break them to free her legs and the sight of that finally snapped Rainbow Dash back into action.

She swiftly turned around and flew away through the jungle to make as much distance as possible between her and Heartless.

“Don’t go too far!~” Heartless called out to her from behind.

And all around the pink pony, the jungle continued to die.

---

Minutes later, Rainbow Dash finished wrapping a heavy banana leaf around her front right hoof, tying it into place with a thin vine, and looked over her hoofiwork. Her four hooves. Her midsection. Her back. Her neck. All covered now with the only thing she head available—leaves. It wouldn’t work that well, especially after what she had just seen, but it was the only armor she could manage. At least this way she could sort of fight Heartless.

“Okay,” Rainbow Dash nodded and turned in the direction she knew Heartless was coming. Steeling herself and narrowing her eyes, she prepared to fight.

Comments

[RoboRed]

Rainbow Dash spat the vine out and grinned at her. “Caught.”

Heartless merely blinked once more and smiled. “Its just vines, Rainbow Dash. Its not the same as life from you or another pony—but the jungle has a warmth that calls out to me too.”

Immediately, the vines tied around her started to decay and die.

...Well, that uncomfortably explains one or two things.

[redmar]

Rainbow will probably keep punching Heartless until she comes up with a plan.