Rainbow Dash Around the World

by MagicS

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A fiery explosion tore apart the tram and spread through every inch of the station before the fireballs spread into the surrounding tunnel, showing absolutely no signs of stopping. The tunnels were the perfect enclosed place for the fires to grow and keep burning as they sucked up all the air and ignited the dust in the mines. This was no mere blast like the first bomb. This was a violent, deadly inferno that was tearing through the mines and only growing stronger until it exhausted all the available oxygen. The rock walls of the tunnels were cracked and weakened, all the wooden and metal supports were either burned or blown away, and the explosion and resulting fireball caused permanent, unfixable devastation to the mines under Copper Section.

And it was only one of many identical explosions that all happened at the same time.

Everywhere in the mines, the trams exploded and tore apart the mine around them while fiery death spread through the tunnels. Miners and constables both were consumed—some of them not even getting the chance to scream. Caches of TNT that were being held for blasting only created more explosions and destruction when the initial fireballs reached them. The Copper Section mines were being utterly destroyed.

Crom felt it before he heard anything. A rumble and a shaking that went through the entire tunnel around him before a crack opened up in the ceiling and a pebble dropped onto his nose. A wave of hot air came gushing in from behind him and he turned around to watch as a bright light was pouring from the tunnel he had just traveled down.

Right before the fireball came bursting around the corner as well.

He had just enough time to close his eyes before he was burned away. The other miners that had been with him and at the nearby tunnels didn’t fare any better.

There was so much damage to the mines that the explosions and fierce fireballs were causing cave-ins and entire tunnels to collapse. That had one side-effect of at least snuffing out some of the fires but the sheer force of the collapses, the weight of all the rock crashing down, the lack of support now in so much of the mines, caused an even worse problem. The entire system of tunnels started to collapse in on itself. And that spelled a very, very, big problem for the city above. The foundation of bedrock above the mines was now with less support while still trying to carry the buildings and mountain above it. Fissures and cracks ran through the ground, threatening to make the entire city of Copper Section fall apart and sink. Streets wavered, pavement shattered as huge cracks and faults opened up, buildings wobbled, some shot up or depressed into the ground. A skyscraper had all of its windows shatter in an instant as the building shifted just an inch.

And meanwhile cracks climbed up and up the walls of the massive mountain cavern. Stalactites hanging in the ceiling shook while dust and small rocks fell from them. The lighting system flickered on and off and some lights as well fell loose and shattered on the streets below. The rumbling terror was spreading throughout all of the Copper Section and even into other parts of Oreville.

At last down below, one of the fireballs reached the mine’s staging area and spread its haunting flames all throughout. Burning and immolating every little building that had been set up by the miners of Oreville until it reached the huge stockpile of TNT that was kept there.

Once it did, an explosion that made all the others so far look like mere whimpers erupted in the mines. The entire staging area was obliterated, the roof of the cavern expanded upwards and created a bulge like a volcano trying to erupt in the ground above. But the flames had another way to go too… they shot through the tunnels towards the elevators and fired up the shafts before pouring out into the building and open air of the Copper Section’s street level, and devoured dozens of Silver Section guards, miners, and other ponies around the large office building and freight elevators that led down into the mines.

Now not contained in the narrow confines of a tunnel, the explosion flowered again as the flames blew apart the mine building as if a huge bomb had been placed inside it the whole time as well. Burning debris flew for hundreds of feet in every direction, damaging more buildings and putting dozens, hundreds, of other ponies in danger. The huge bonfire continued to burn in that spot that it emerged from the mines, visible to ponies across the entire city. Everything around it was just gone.

Rainbow Dash blinked in disbelief and horror at what she was witnessing even as a crack snaked through the pavement right by her hooves. Her radio was dead silent. Lord Copper gripped his mane in his hooves so tightly it looked like he was about to yank it all out. His eyes were wet with fresh tears.

And the other ponies screamed.

The groaning sound of a huge skyscraper twisting as a crack shot right through its midsection made Rainbow Dash look up at it and finally brought her back to reality.

Her sharp eyes turned to Lord Copper but before she could say anything she was interrupted. The emergency siren began to blare again and a voice once more spoke over the surprisingly still working system. But it wasn’t the same voice as before.

“Emergency. Emergency. This is a recorded message. Dangerous seismic activity detected. Please calmly evacuate the city to the surface. Go to designated exits across the city and take your elevators to your safe zones. Please remain calm. Please remain calm. Evacuate the city.”

After ten seconds the message started to repeat again. The crowd of ponies around her started to run, dispersing across the streets and city in a panic. There was nothing “calm” about any of this. Eleanor and Abernathy were both washed away by the crowd too.

“This wasn’t supposed to happen...” Lord Copper cried again.

Rainbow Dash clenched her jaw as she reached down and tore off her radio, and her ID card along with it, throwing them to the ground. “Why? Why would you do any of this? Barnaby is… Crom… everypony else down there… and now...”

“I-It’s not my fault… the bombs were never supposed to go off!” Copper said.

“Not. Your. Fault?!” Rainbow roared and jumped on him, pushing him to the ground and slamming her front hooves beside his head. “Why did you even plant those bombs in the first place?! And look around you! The entire city is collapsing! How many ponies are… have already...” She quivered as tears started to fall from her eyes. “Dang it… just why?”

“I didn’t want anypony to get hurt… I didn’t want Oreville to get hurt! Everything I’ve done has been to make Oreville better,” Lord Copper whimpered. “This was supposed to bring everypony together. And to change things here...”

“By blowing things up?!”

Lord Copper swiftly shook his head. “I told you they weren’t supposed to go off. I-I was going to the mines to stop them and deactivate the bombs myself… that’s why I just wanted to get away from you and get down there.”

Rainbow Dash’s eyes opened wide in realization. “You were going to play the hero. You were going to act like you had just discovered and prevented a huge disaster.” She backed up off of him and sat down, lifting a tired hoof to her forehead. “I don’t understand… you’re already Lord Copper. Oreville was already such a nice place and it was just growing even bigger. To make Oreville better?” She narrowed her eyes at him. “How?”

“T-This system is broken!” Lord Copper said as he stood back up, most of his guards were regaining consciousness as well and throngs of ponies were still running down the streets around the two of them. “A-All my life I’ll have nothing but being Lord Copper because of the way things work. But why? Lord Gold is senile and Gold Section doesn’t even contribute to anything anymore, neither does Silver Section or Lord Silver really. I’m the only pony who actually does anything important here! I’m the only one who ran and managed the section that gave life to Oreville! But I’d never be able to do anything more or improve things elsewhere because of this stupid three Lord system! If it was just me… if it was only me, I could rule over Oreville and bring out the best in it, expand us even more, make this city the shining example of pony greatness in the entire world!” He sniffed and looked past Rainbow Dash at the large smoking fire. “I-I needed something that would skyrocket my popularity, make me a true hero, something that everypony in Oreville—not just in Copper Section—would love and respect me for. Then I could lobby that popularity into convincing my ponies that one ruler would be better than three. One ruler who knew what he was doing and had their best interests in mind.”

“Their best interests,” Rainbow Dash sarcastically spat.

Lord Copper defensively cringed away. “I never wanted this. N-Nopony was ever supposed to be hurt… but the bombs needed to be real. The threat had to be real, ponies needed to know how much danger and destruction I had saved them from!”

Rainbow glared hard at him. “So you didn’t want to hurt anypony? Not even Dolph? Or his family? Or me and B-Barnaby when you tried to blow us up?”

“N-No—well, not really. I-I just needed Dolph and some of the ponies working under me to think I was ruthless and would hurt them. And the Chief Constable… y-you and him were dangerous. You suspected me. I-It was the only thing I could think of,” Lord Copper replied. “This is all so wrong… everything is over.”

“I was right about you,” Rainbow Dash snorted and shook her head. “You’re a stooge, not a real villain. An idiot with delusions of grandeur who tried to do something that was way too much for him. You’re not even really evil. You’re just a stupid, selfish, greedy, pony.” She blinked, feeling more defeated and depressed than anything. “Well look around you, Lord Copper, look where you’ve gotten yourself because of that selfishness and greed and pride. If you really cared about Oreville and the ponies here, you would’ve told me immediately where the bombs were when I confronted you. But you didn’t. You should’ve known it was over right then and there, with me here and Barnaby in the mines. But you just couldn’t face it.”

She looked around at the chaos in the Copper Section, one stalactite the size of a house broke off the cavern’s ceiling and crashed down to the street, obliterating a large part of it. Buildings continued to shift and the ground wobbled as the collapsing of the mines went on beneath them. More huge cracks crawled along the walls of the city, breaking huge chunks of rock free that crushed everything beneath them. And thousands and thousands of ponies still ran for safety. Rainbow knew she should be going out and trying to help them, in whatever meager way she could right now, but she couldn’t just leave Lord Copper either.

“Did you even really think about what you were doing and how dumb it was? I bet it didn’t even cross your mind,” Rainbow Dash said. “Barnaby and I were already suspicious of you, If you had oh so coincidentally found the bombs right before they went off we would’ve known it was you who planted them. Was your idea to just do a surprise inspection of the mines and act like what you were doing was normal?” Rainbow shook her head. “This is the kind of stupid plan I would come up with if I was a villain.”

“I-I wasn’t-”

“Some of your ponies who stole the TNT were even recognized. They didn’t even wear masks. How much of this did you actually think through? This was so short-sighted, and you said you wanted to be the rule of all of Oreville. That you’d be the best for the job,” Rainbow coldly scoffed and walked up to him, poking him in the chest with a blue hoof. “You’re scum.”

“I am not!” Copper yelled.

“You are!” Rainbow Dash shouted him down and made him shrink back. “You are, you are, you are!”

“I wanted things peaceful and better in Oreville for everypony!”

“Yeah, but you most of all,” Rainbow rolled her eyes.

“That’s not-”

“Shut up,” Rainbow cut him off. “I’m done talking with you. Now I’m going to talk to you.” She glared at him until she was sure he wasn’t going to interrupt her. “I don’t know if this whole place is going to collapse or not, but there are a lot of ponies in danger right now. I’m going to do what I can to help them and you’re coming with me. Even if it’s just a little bit, I’m going to have you make up for what you’ve done. Once this whole place is evacuated and the danger has passed we’re then going to go visit some important ponies.”

Lord Copper gulped as Rainbow continued. “That’s right, Lords Silver and Gold are going to be thrilled to see you again and hear about what you’ve done. You’re going to come clean about absolutely everything. Every. Last. Thing. You did this for Oreville? You want to make it a better place? Well congratulations, cause you’re going to get to do that for the rest of your miserable life.”

A skyscraper cracked near its foundation, almost threatening to fall over just a few streets away from them. Rainbow Dash grimaced and grabbed Lord Copper by the collar once more. His guards now didn’t seem to know what to do either but Rainbow doubted they’d attempt to stop her. After all they were in just as much danger as anypony else right now.

Rainbow Dash sighed and looked at the streams of ponies running past her to wherever the emergency exits were. “Alright, we’re gonna-”

“Hi, Rainbow Dash!”

Rainbow Dash froze as the light, chipper voice reached her ears. That happy and dreadfully familiar voice that shouldn’t be here. Suddenly the collapsing city and all the scared ponies around her didn’t seem so pressing. Suddenly she found herself accidentally letting go of Lord Copper in shock. Suddenly her blood turned cold and her face went as white as a ghost. Lord Copper and his guards were looking at her, and behind her at the source of the voice, in confusion. They didn’t know. They didn’t understand.

“No way,” Rainbow Dash said as she glacially turned around and looked at the pink pony that was standing in the middle of a mob rushing past her. She seemed totally apathetic to everything going on around her. “There’s just no way.”

Heartless smiled brightly at Rainbow Dash and clasped her hooves in front of her chest. “I’m so happy to see you again!”

Comments

[redmar]

That's not good. Copper really didn't think about the consequences of his plans and now the question is if he will survive the encounter with Heartless. I wonder what Rainbow will have to do this time to lose her and I hope that by the end of this story she'll find a permanent solution for Heartless.

[TheCommunistDog]

Oh
4

Well

In today’s chapter: Copper sector is totally lost and a lot of ponies are dead...and heartless it here!

[RoboRed]

...Dear god...

Things haven't just gone wrong. Things have gone catastrophically wrong. And the big ugly pink cherry on top is that menace showing up once again at the worst possible time.

Yep. Things are going to be a lot worse for a bit before they get any better.