Rainbow Dash Around the World

by MagicS

Curiosity Killed the Pegasus

Rainbow Dash flew through the air while whistling a happy and fast tune to herself. For the first time in a couple of days she was actually feeling good. That didn’t mean she was forgetting or ignoring anything, it was because she acknowledged what had happened and what she needed to do now. Rainbow knew being all depressed and lethargic wasn’t going to help anyone or anything. Maybe it had to do with her pretty “straight as an arrow” way of thinking, but there was no reason in her mind why she should be moping or crying when she could be doing something good and helpful. She had mourned. She had contemplated. And now she was back in action.

She would not forget her friend Barnaby. She wouldn’t forget the broken promise to Eleanor. She wouldn’t forget the disastrous state Oreville had been left in. She wouldn’t forget how much she needed to make up for. So it was time to be awesome again. Cause actions spoke a lot louder than words and Rainbow Dash was prepared to show the whole world what she could do.

“Awesome as I wanna be~” she sang to herself as she went up and down through the sky, doing loops and corkscrews just for fun. It was a beautiful and warm day out, the perfect kind of weather to just fly any way you wanted to.

And Rainbow Dash was embracing that right now to a ridiculous degree. A few low-hanging clouds were poofed right out of existence as she plowed through them and looked around for anymore that she could have fun with. Her rainbow form became a zigzagging hummingbird as she darted around with the only goal being to live a little. Any creature looking up at her would think she had lost her marbles with how chaotically she was flying.

But Rainbow Dash didn’t care, cause right now she was having fun. Something she sorely needed.

Ahead of her was something else that had put her in a pretty good mood, small mountains that broke the endless forest. Nothing compared to the mountain range Oreville was built under, or many other such ranges she had seen, but it beat the same boring green hills and flat forest she had seen the past couple of days. Maybe they promised something new around or right beyond them too? Like finally a glimpse of Pinetree Warren. She’d be pretty darn happy to get that.

Since now that she was flying normally again she knew she could make it to those mountains in an instant—so first she was going to finish clearing this sky of clouds. Then she could zoom over there.

The sky clearing took only another minute or two before the sun shone down on this part of the forest with nary an object to block it. Reminded her of when she first met Twilight. Rainbow Dash took a big stretch in the air and let herself feel the sun’s warmth before she smirked and looked to the south. The rest of the world was calling out to her now and she wasn’t going to deny it.

“Oh please give me something to work with,” Rainbow Dash said as she flapped her wings and went straight south.

At her altitude she was already a bit above where the mountains peaked so she could see over and beyond them easily once she got a little closer, but she still decided to stay pretty close to their level to check them out better. The mountains were a rocky gray granite that didn’t have many trees growing on them, or much vegetation of any sort, they seemed to cut a line right through the forest. She tried spying any buildings or anything notable on them but after a minute she shrugged and gave up. Just some lonely mountains. If there were at least some fruit trees or something she could eat on them… but no. When she passed beyond the mountains though she saw something far more inviting.

The ground steeply sloped down and down into a wide valley, the basin of which was at a far lower level than the redwood forest on the other side of the mountains. The trees on this side still made an impressive forest of their own, a forest of green pines, but it wasn’t quite as grand as the more northern forest. Rolling hills existed to the east and west while a few noticeable rivers and lakes dotted the valley and as Rainbow Dash dove down the cliffs to come to a rest right above the pines on the valley floor she saw what looked like might have been a settlement a little ways into the valley. There was enough open space in the forest for that at least and she was pretty sure she had seen some things that might have been buildings among the trees.

“Pinetree Warren?” Rainbow guessed. Either way she wasn’t going to waste more time getting there. She flew at a decent pace directly to the possible village.

There seemed to be kind of a green haze in the air between her and her destination though.

“No, wait...” Rainbow Dash narrowed her eyes as she got closer. There were green clouds in the air. They were thin, almost transparent, green clouds that looked sort of more like clouds of green dust. They hung low, only barely above the trees—so much lower than most ordinary clouds did unless they were ones moved by pegasi for weather or something. Rainbow Dash honestly had no idea what to make of them. She didn’t think she had ever seen green clouds before. Pink ones, thanks to Discord, but those weren’t even really clouds at all.

She scratched her head as she flew closer to them. “Maybe these are broccoli clouds then?”

They stretched in a wide circle that she could see, and now even closer she could see the green vapors or whatever that made them seemed to come up from the forest itself like a fog. It was definitely an odd sight. But—she was also able to glimpse through those green clouds the telltale signs of buildings in the distance. Perfect, she was almost there now.

And since they were right in front of her, and since she had just done some previous cloud busting, why not do some more? These green clouds were making her curious after all, she wanted to see what they were like.

“Green clouds, pink clouds, what’s the difference?” Rainbow Dash grinned and shot towards the nearest one. Either she’d break it apart or see if maybe it had enough form that she could shape it into something, time to test these green clouds out. The first green cloud was right in front of her with plenty more around it, her hooves were extended before her and she flew right through the cloud-

And immediately started to violently cough.

“Haaack!” Rainbow Dash’s body heaved and she reflexively brought her hooves to her throat.

The green cloud had burst around her and scattered green motes of dust and other particles in every direction. She didn’t know what this green stuff was but she definitely, definitely, shouldn’t have flown through it. Rainbow had stopped in midair, her wings still beating just to keep her afloat, while she coughed up her lungs and an intense burning sensation came over her eyes. It was like someone had shattered a bottle of hot sauce over her face and let the sauce and the shards of glass drip down into her sensitive eyes. They were red and irritated in seconds and Rainbow’s vision went blurry. Her nostrils and mouth soon felt the same, burning heat filled her nasal cavity and Rainbow’s coughing became even worse. The next thing that happened was her throat closed up and her breathing became choked with her unable to draw in any air.

Can’t breathe! Rainbow Dash realized in a frightened panic. H-Have to get out of this!

She tried to suck in another breath but it was pointless, her diaphragm and lungs were both painfully fighting inside her body and a fuzzy heat built up inside her chest as well. Rainbow flew forward but with how pained and disoriented she was she could barely manage it at all, she accidentally dipped low and hit a tree, stumbling through the air and trying to get on the path out of here. But a dull pain was coming up through her extremities now too and Rainbow Dash looked through her red eyes to see blotchy green spots on her hooves and wings. And by the second they grew larger and began to crawl up her limbs like some kind of green mold had taken over her flesh.

The village! The buildings! Rainbow knew it was her only hope, she had to fly through the rest of this poison and make it to Pinetree Warren or she was going to die here.

But her body was starting to feel wrong, and not just because she was turning green like old mold, there was a stiffness in her limbs and joints. She could feel them but she couldn’t move them right. Paralysis. She was going numb. Whether this was truly poison or some kind of disease it had affected her muscles very quickly. Rainbow’s heart had even slowed down and she felt a coldness at odds with the painful burning spreading inside her.

Still, she was Rainbow Dash, and she wasn’t about to quit. Every last bit of strength and determination she had in her was put into flying out of the green clouds and the rest of the haze. She wobbled like a drunk pigeon and her hooves scraped against the trees, but she made progress. All the while the lack of oxygen was threatening to make her eyes roll back and send her off into a permanent sleep. She couldn’t even see herself anymore thanks to what the green dust had done to her eyes but she felt like the moldy rash had grown over most of her body. No matter how many times she tried to breath her throat kept tightly clenched shut.

“Hhhhhhh...” Rainbow could only let out the smallest of wordless wheezes as she glided to what was hopefully salvation. Her wings no longer responded to her no matter what she did so it was all she could manage.

She ended up clipping another tree and falling to the ground, barely conscious. Rainbow Dash crawled on her hooves as everything grew cold and dark, pulling herself forward as far as she could by sheer willpower, until even that ran out.

---

“Whoa there, sugarcube!” Applejack said as Rainbow Dash tossed down a big hoofful of recently scavenged mushrooms and fruits. “Let’s dun look over what you found to make sure we can eat it all, alright?”

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. “If it isn’t Scootaloo it’s you...”

“Well I don’t think you wanna be making yourself sick or dead now do you?” Applejack smugly grinned at Rainbow Dash.

“Pff, no, guess not. So hurry up and tell me if I can eat any of this stuff or not,” Rainbow glared at her close friend. “And no lip either. We can’t all be outdoorsmares who know everything about camping and stuff.”

“Sure, sure,” Applejack said and looked down at the tree stump Rainbow Dash had poured all the stuff she had found on.

It was their usual camping trip, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Rarity out here with their little sisters (and friend in Rainbow Dash’s case) and Rainbow had just gotten back from looking for food. They all had their own separate little chores, with Rarity setting up the tents and Applejack getting firewood and getting the fire pit ready. Of course with how many times Rainbow had gathered poisonous berries or whatever she wasn’t sure why they hadn’t switched jobs around already.

“Oh boy, yep, got a problem.” Applejack said.

Rainbow Dash frowned. “What?”

“These berries?” Applejack pointed to a few dark red, almost maroon, berries. “These’ll make ya sick. You’ll be throwing up in under an hour.”

“Big whoop,” Rainbow snorted.

Applejack then frowned back at her and picked up a red and white mushroom. “Okay, well this mushroom you found will send you on a one-way ticket to the big hay bale in the sky.”

“Hay bale in the sky?”

“Don’t you be snarking about my expressions, missy.”

“Sorry,” Rainbow Dash said, though she didn’t really sound so sorry about it.

“Doing this for your own good, sugarcube. And the good of everypony else camping out here. Understand?” Applejack raised an eyebrow.

Rainbow Dash bit her lip and sheepishly nodded. “Yeah, okay. I’m really sorry. So just what can we eat from the stuff I brought back? And what should I try and remind myself to never pick again?”

Applejack smiled at her and patted her on the shoulder. “Well let’s have a lookie.” She started pawing through the various “foods” again with her hoof. “Alright, these white and kind of brownish wild mushrooms are okay, we can eat those. And uh, those blue berries you found? Those are just blueberries so we can eat those too. Might wanna go back to where you found a blueberry bush and gather up as much of those as ya can.”

“Guess I can at least do something right,” Rainbow Dash shrugged.

Applejack chuckled. “Just don’t go eating nothing you aren’t absolutely sure about, okay?”

“Don’t worry, mom, I won’t.”

“Yeah, yeah, why not bring Scootaloo along with you this time? She’ll keep you safe.”

The irony of that statement wasn’t lost on Rainbow Dash. “Heh, sure. Where is the little squirt anyways?”

“Around with Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle somewhere I imagine. Anyways by the time you’re back I’ll have a nice campfire up and running and we can eat. Rarity should be done with the rest of the campsite too unless she gets in a fuss about something.”

“Alright,” Rainbow Dash stretched and looked around, wherever the Crusaders were it wasn’t here. Rainbow Dash turned around and threw up a hoof to wave goodbye to Applejack. “See ya in a bit Applejack.”

“You just keep in mind that if something is brightly colored or a bit unusual looking, it’s a safer bet that it’s not safe to eat than it is,” the farmer’s words floated in from behind her.

---

“Pay attention, class. This is all very important for the trip we’ll be taking to the Everfree and for your general health and safety in the woods around Ponyville,” Fluttershy said to her class as she stood in front of her blackboard.

Rainbow Dash was sitting in the back of the classroom with a bored expression on her face as she tried to balance a pencil on her muzzle. She was between stuff right now and decided to drop in on her friend to see how she was doing. And now she was kind of regretting that decision. Maybe it was Twilight’s fault for not letting more of the classes here be awesome? Fluttershy probably wouldn’t like it if Rainbow Dash interrupted her or bothered her while she was teaching, so she sat back and let Fluttershy lecture for now. A lot of students she recognized were here too like Gallus, Smolder, and Sandbar.

“I’m going to go over poisonous creatures as well as the sorts of sicknesses and diseases you might catch or come in contact with. This is especially important for those of you not from Equestria, you might not have immunity to the same things that ponies do,” Fluttershy said. “It’s important that you maintain good hygiene as well.”

Rainbow Dash held back a snort. The world could end and she wouldn’t bother with showering regularly.

“There are a variety of diseases endemic to Equestria in general, this area of Equestria, and then to the Everfree itself. Now—some of what I’m going to go over may not apply to you at all. After all there are some illnesses that don’t even affect every tribe of pony, such as the feather flu which only affects pegasi, and others that also might not affect a dragon for instance. However there are some things not dangerous to ponies at all that are in fact dangerous to dragons. We all have to keep these things in mind.”

It was funny to Rainbow Dash how Fluttershy could say all this with that same little smile on her face. That was just Fluttershy.

“Now you may think that so long as nothing bites or stings you and you don’t touch anything weird you’ll be okay. And this is true for the most part. However, you must still be careful with what you breathe in and the air you walk through. Pollen can cause allergic reactions, itchiness, watery eyes, sneezing, fatigue, these are just some of the symptoms that can manifest from a pollen allergy. This is something the ponies of Ponyville always have to keep in mind, because it’s a town with a lot of naturally occurring flora around. Those who have allergies usually have minor problems in the spring,” Fluttershy said and looked out across the classroom. She spotted Rainbow Dash in the back and winked at her. “That’s not all you need to be conscious of.”

Fluttershy pointed to a drawing on her blackboard of something round and fuzzy. “This is a fungal spore. Obviously they’re much smaller than this—usually far too small to see with the naked eye. But they’re what fungi use to reproduce. And you wouldn’t want to be breathing them in either.”

“How would we even know we’re doing that?” Gallus asked, he looked almost as bored as Rainbow Dash.

“Well… for starters I would say just don’t walk or fly through any strange clouds of spores and other dusty particles,” Fluttershy answered.

Rainbow Dash blinked and tilted her head.

“And now I’m going to show you various slides and pictures of the animals and plants you should avoid—not just in the Everfree but anywhere in Ponyville in case you have allergies. We wouldn’t want someone with an allergy to bees to get on the wrong side of a friendly little honeybee.”

“Uh, Fluttershy?” Rainbow Dash asked from the back.

The entire class turned to face her along with Fluttershy.

“Yes, Rainbow Dash?” Fluttershy questioned with a smile.

“Can you go back to talking about fungus and spores and stuff like that? I dunno why but I’m getting some weird feeling like it’s important,” Rainbow Dash said.

“Well okay, but you’re supposed to be a teacher too Rainbow Dash, why don’t you come down here and help out with the lesson?” Fluttershy fluttered her eyelids up at Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow Dash sighed but still lazily lifted herself out of her seat with her wings and floated on down to stand beside Fluttershy. “Yeah fine...”

“So what do you know about fungus?” Fluttershy asked her.

“Umm…”

“What do you know about mold?”

“It gets on bread after like a couple of days of leaving it out.”

Fluttershy wryly grinned at Rainbow Dash. “Well I’m not sure how much of a help you’ll be as a teacher. But have you ever had a fungal infection that you can tell the class about? Some first hoof experience is always useful.”

“You know I haven’t had anything like that,” Rainbow Dash frowned at her. “I barely get sick at all. I’m more the type to accidentally break something.”

“Like your head?” Gallus said and got a few laughs from the other students.

“Oh laugh it up!” Rainbow Dash glared at them. When that only got more laughs, Rainbow rolled her eyes and looked at Fluttershy. “Sorry, Fluttershy. I don’t even know what I’m doing here. Don’t know how I can help with your lesson.”

Fluttershy put a calming hoof on her shoulder. “You’re here to learn too. You slept through almost the entire lesson the first time.”

“Yeah,” Rainbow Dash nodded. She then did a double-take. “Wait, what?”

“Well when I tried to teach about fungi, poisonous animals and plants, you drifted off to sleep very quickly. It’s why things are so fuzzy and strange right now,” Fluttershy tapped her chin.

Rainbow Dash grabbed her by the shoulders and looked her in the eyes. “Fluttershy. What are you talking about?”

Fluttershy smiled. “It’s really not a surprise you don’t remember this day very well.”

---

“We also can’t rule out the possibility of a virus or bacterial infection,” Twilight Sparkle said as she levitated a pointer up in front of her chalkboard.

The two of them were in the library of Twilight’s castle, with one desk set up for Rainbow Dash as Twilight gave her some dumb lesson on infectious diseases and other stuff. Rainbow was only half paying attention to any of it. Twilight’s pointer glowed in her magical aura and it pointed at two very intricate and well drawn diagrams on the chalkboard of microscopic creatures.

“First of all, Rainbow Dash. I’m going to teach you the difference between a virus and a bacterium,” Twilight smiled as she went into full-on lecture mode.

“More than one having a cool sounding name and the other one having a nerdy name?” Rainbow raised an eyebrow.

“Yes,” Twilight frowned. “Now pay attention, this is important. You see, bacteria are truly alive. They may be quite different than us, but they are living organisms made from cells the same way ponies are that can live inside or outside a body. A virus on the other hoof is not alive. They are merely a collection of molecules and DNA that need a host to survive. Do you understand?”

“Yeah I get it,” Rainbow Dash yawned. “Can’t both of them still make you sick just as bad as the other?”

“Indeed they can,” Twilight smiled. “While some may be afraid of germs, or give undue hate to viruses, there exists no true malice in any of them. The smallest bacteria and viruses are just surviving and propagating in the only ways they know how. A virus can not change what it is.”

“Uh huh, got it.” Rainbow said as she leaned back in her chair.

“It’s the same with diseases like cancer—a mere unfortunate and tragic occurrence. But cancer cells don’t choose to be cancer cells. Rainbow Dash, what’s the sickest you’ve ever been? Or have you ever had a friend or family member with a serious illness?”

Rainbow Dash though, but aside from a flu or fever occasionally, she didn’t really get “sick sick” that much at all. And the sickest she could remember a friend being was one time when Fluttershy was younger and she caught something from some fleas one of her animals had. Or maybe it was ticks? But she ended up being fine. “Not really? I don’t think so at least.”

“Well if you can name me any illnesses you or a friend has been through I can tell you if it was caused by a virus or bacteria.”

“Riiiight.”

“Rainbow Dash, please pay attention more,” Twilight chided her.

“Fine, but it’s like—why are you even telling me all this in the first place?” Rainbow Dash said as she leaned forward and propped her chin up on her hooves.

Twilight smiled and tilted her head at her. “Don’t you remember?”

Rainbow Dash blinked and looked around the library. She didn’t remember. “Uhh… no. I don’t. And… when did I even get here? Where was I? I don’t remember coming to your castle, Twilight. Where are Spike and Starlight? How come you’re not teaching anyone else this stuff?”

“You don’t remember because you never had this conversation. This didn’t happen. But you need to remember.”

Rainbow Dash looked at Twilight. “What do you mean?”

“Those other times were memories. Distorted, but real. Dreams from your subconscious.”

Rainbow Dash dumbly stared back at her, her brain and memories were all fuzzy right now.

“It’s okay, Rainbow Dash. All you need to do is remember.”

“Remember… what?” Rainbow Dash bit her lip, the chalkboard, the walls of bookshelves, everything around her was beginning to shimmer and waver as a white fog came from the borders of her vision. Everything except for Twilight Sparkle.

“Remember who you are,” Twilight said to her as she stepped forward, still smiling pleasantly.

“I’m… Rainbow Dash,” Rainbow said.

Twilight put a hoof on her shoulder. “Remember who you are.”

Rainbow Dash unconsciously reached up to rub at something invisible on her chest. She looked Twilight in the eyes. “We… I never had this conversation with Twilight. I remember the other two, but not this.”

“That’s right,” Twilight nodded as whiteness started consuming everything around them.

Rainbow Dash shook her head. “You’re not Twilight.”

“Remember.”

A sudden feeling of weightlessness overtook Rainbow Dash and she dropped away from “Twilight Sparkle” with the whole world becoming blank nothingness. Her thoughts fell away into the void as well, careening noises and words jumped back and forth in her mind, the only replacement. Spiraling down and down she went until she was finally lifted up and the surprising feeling of something soft beneath her captured her sensations. Movement. Words. All a blur.

Rainbow Dash’s mouth moved but nothing came out.

A hoof tenderly rubbed her shoulder.

Author's Note:

Comments

[TheCommunistDog]

Ehh ok

In today's chapter: Rainbow gets poisoned and meets something mysterious!

[redmar]

This was very weird and it seems that those green clouds were something very bad.

[Cosmic Potato]

Very smart Rainbow Dash. Just fly into the ominous green clouds with no protection