Rainbow Dash Around the World

by MagicS

The Plague's Truth

Rainbow Dash lied on top of Anathema’s bed as she stared absently at the ceiling of her small cabin. After the failure of yesterday, she had retired here to find Anathema and to try and cheer her up. The doctor wasn’t in much of a mood for it though. She sported a fresh bandage around her hoof that she explained was the result of “frustration”.

Now Anathema was poring over every medical book she had on hoof to try and learn anything helpful. Or perhaps just to keep her mind off the reality of the situation. After all, she had read through all of these books multiple times by now. Her eyes were bloodshot and heavy bags sat below them, she hadn’t slept in over a day.

Rainbow Dash turned over and looked at Anathema as she sat at her messy table, her face a hard frown as her eyes scanned through page after page. “You should go to sleep.”

“No, I can sleep later,” she swiftly replied.

“You can have the bed this time.”

“Be quiet, Rainbow Dash, I’m reading.”

Rainbow frowned and exhaled through her nose, rolling off the bed and walking over to the doctor. “When was the last time you ate anything either?”

Her eyes glanced up and glared at Rainbow Dash. “I can take care of myself, I’m your doctor, not the other way around.”

“True enough,” Rainbow nodded and jumped up to sit on top of the table. Anathema ignored her and kept on reading. “Know how much you mean well and everything, you’re doing this for the whole village. Who cares if you collapse or hurt yourself in the middle of reading some old book?”

Anathema huffed but didn’t respond otherwise.

Rainbow Dash sprawled out on the table and rolled over onto her back, staring upside down at Anathema. “You have any hobbies? Like before this all started what did you do for fun around Pinetree Warren?”

“Stop bothering me.”

“Cause you see, when I’m not out adventuring I like racing, stunt flying, reading awesome Daring Do books, and napping. Gotta remember to keep some time for yourself.”

“...”

“Like, I told you about most of my life and home before coming here, right? But there was this one time too where I was supposed to be doing something but I was taking a nap first—okay, that describes a lot of times actually, but I’m thinking about one in particular. I was supposed to clear the clouds around Ponyville but I knew I could do that in a flash so I really just wanted to relax and enjoy a good nap first. But someone came and egged me on to do my job, so I totally showed her what was up and did it. She was totally well-meaning, just being a busybody you know? I knew the importance of a good nap and not stressing out over what you need to do. Especially if you know you can do it easy,” Rainbow sighed and rolled over again to look at Anathema straight on. “And sometimes even when you don’t know if you can do something.”

Anathema finally looked back up at her and narrowed her eyes. “The point you’re trying to make is muddled and stupid, leave me alone.”

“Okaaay, I could leave you alone. Or I could take that book and throw it out the window. Or you could just go to bed right now. Even if you can’t feel it you’re hurting yourself and not helping anybody by doing this right now,” Rainbow said.

“The pony with nothing invested in any of this is going to give me advice on the matter, hm?” Anathema snorted.

Rainbow twitched and reached forward to grab Anathema by the shoulders. “Hey. Even if this isn’t my home, and I don’t know these ponies like you do, don’t you even think to say something like that.”

Anathema attempted to glare back at her… but shortly sighed and slumped down in defeat. “I-I’m sorry… I know I shouldn’t have said that.”

Rainbow Dash let her go and fluttered off the table, landing beside her. “I know. Now come on, go to bed, even if it’s just to nap for a couple hours.”

“Alright,” Anathema stood out of her chair and walked towards the bed, stumbling slightly after forgetting her hoof was injured so Rainbow had to come and steady her. She hopped into bed just fine and sprawled out on top of it. “Thank you.”

“Don’t mention it.”

“When I wake up… can you tell me some more things about your home? It’s always sounded like a nice place,” Anathema asked, her heavy eyelids already falling shut.

Rainbow Dash smiled at her. “Sure.”

---

“Maybe I’m wrong, but I’ve still been thinking that maybe there’s something else about you that keeps you healthy,” Anathema said to Rainbow Dash as she lied on the bed and Rainbow Dash hovered above her eating a bar of chocolate. “Some unknown medical condition, something you caught before back in Equestria, something that makes you special.”

“There’s a lot of stuff that makes me special,” Rainbow Dash shrugged.

Anathema rolled her eyes. “I’m aware, you’ve gone on about how amazing you are. But what in particular is it that’s special about you? Are there any other ponies like you back home?”

Rainbow Dash couldn’t help the smug grin that formed on her face. “Come on, there’s no other ponies like me. I’m one of a-”

Her eyes shot wide open as she paused in the middle of her sentence, causing Anathema to raise an eyebrow in confusion. Rainbow Dash hovered there and slowly frowned, lifting her hoof up towards her chest and rubbing at something that wasn’t there. “Or maybe six of a kind...” She quietly said.

“Rainbow Dash?” Anathema questioned.

“I...” Rainbow Dash bit her lip and scratched her head. “I just remembered something… and I think that maybe we’ve been looking at this thing the wrong way. Like you haven’t been taking something else about this plague into consideration.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well what if this isn’t just a normal disease?”

Anathema frowned. “We know it’s not some normal disease, it’s-”

Rainbow Dash shook her head. “No, that’s not what I meant! What if it’s not like just a disease at all? What if it’s magic?”

“Magic?” Anathema shot up, her brow furrowed. “You think it’s some sort of spell?”

“I-I dunno… maybe part of it. Like, what if it didn’t just naturally start up? What if there was something magical involved, like either a spell, or a curse, or some other kind of crazy thing? And so no matter what you do as far as medicine goes you can’t cure it because there’s still the magical part of the disease?” Rainbow said.

“Why do you even think it’s magic in the first place? This doesn’t make any sense to me.”

“Well for one, none of this has made any sense, has it? Like you’re a doctor but has anything about this plague followed logic or your medical knowledge?” Rainbow asked.

Anathema had to admit it did not. “Not… especially.”

“And it’s also cause about something to do with me. You wanted to know about other ponies like me? There are five of them. Me and my friends are something called Elements of Harmony and it’s all kind of a long story, but I embody the Element of Loyalty and together the six of us have defeated all sorts of villains with the magic of friendship,” Rainbow told her.

“And you think the magic of friendship has something to do with this plague?” Anathema didn’t look convinced.

“No, not the magic of friendship, the kind of magic that the Elements of Harmony is all about fixing and getting rid of. Chaos magic. I know a thing or two about chaos magic, this is definitely way different from what I’ve seen it used for before but it can do practically anything. I’ve got experience, trust me.” Rainbow told her. “It also explains why I’m like, immune, or at the least why my body can heal after getting out of the spores. I’m a natural anti-chaos pony. I know you might think this is crazy, but me being an Element of Harmony is the only thing I can think of for why I’m able to do what I do when it comes to the plague.”

“I… I have no idea how to verify or figure out any of this,” Anathema said. Right before a smirk appeared on her face. “But we both know someone who might be able to.”

---

The two ponies knocked heavily on Ardent Elm’s door in the hope that he would answer immediately. That hope proved correct as the older, bearded stallion soon pulled open his door to see what the ruckus was about. His eyes roamed over the two and he tilted his head in confusion over what the two could possibly want.

“Yes?” He asked.

“Sorry to bother you,” Anathema said. “But do you know anything or have any books on sensing magic or analyzing certain magical signatures?”

“I… have a few books in that area or relating to it, I believe. Why?” Ardent Elm asked again.

“Do you think you can sense chaos magic?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Chaos magic?” Ardent Elm leaned back slightly. “That’s not something you see every day. It is quite distinct though so yes, with the proper spell, focus, and if this suspected magic was close enough I think I could. But what could you possibly think involves chaos magic here in Pinetree Warren?”

Rainbow Dash and Anathema both shared a look.

Ardent Elm’s eyes widened. “You can’t mean...”

“It’s exactly that. Rainbow Dash believes that the spores aren’t some simple natural phenomenon. She thinks chaos magic is involved and that’s why nothing we do is able to heal anyone infected by them either,” Anathema said.

“Which is why we want you to come see if there’s anything magical with the big area full of spores and green fog in the forest,” Rainbow Dash said. “If you need to look a spell up or bring a book with you then fine, but we gotta figure this out as quickly as possible. So come help us sense if that place is full of chaos magic.”

Ardent Elm stalwartly nodded, his mouth settling into a serious frown. “Of course, let’s go immediately.”

That “immediately” still turned out to be about five or ten minutes as Ardent Elm had to search through his home for the right spellbooks and tomes of magical lore. He carried it out with him in a vibrant yellow aura of magic and the three ponies raced to the northern limits of Pinetree Warren to get as close to the epicenter of the problem as possible. Adrenaline was running through their veins, especially Anathema’s. She had allowed herself to become hopeful again. She couldn’t help it—the certainty of Rainbow Dash was intoxicating. It was right. It would work. She could feel it.

It didn’t take long for them to get to where they needed to be. Close to where Rainbow Dash and Anathema had stood before Rainbow reinfected herself. A safe distance, but still close enough for Ardent Elm to work his magic.

He had his books on the ground in front of him and was looking through them for what he needed. Mumbling to himself as he read through each page to make sure he was getting things right and not missing anything. Rainbow Dash and Anathema both looked towards the green haze, the smoke rising up, the clouds over the trees. Both of them were hopeful that this place would soon no longer hold any power or create so much fear in Pinetree Warren.

“Okay,” Ardent Elm finally said. “I know what to do.”

“Do you need anything from us?” Anathema asked.

He shook his head. “Just quiet.”

The old wizard then sat down and closed his eyes, pointing his horn towards the spores. A yellow glow lit it up, followed by a powerful pulse before a circular ray of magic shot out to the green. It flashed as soon as it hit the spores and Ardent Elm squeezed his eyes shut even tighter as sweat gathered along the base of his horn. The flash of magic then suddenly turned black and Ardent gasped before deactivating his spell and falling backwards.

“Ardent!” Anathema shouted and knelt by his side. “Are you alright?”

“What was that?” Rainbow Dash asked as she looked at the lingering black light in the green before it faded away completely.

“That was chaos magic,” Ardent Elm panted as he sat up with Anathema’s help. “You’re correct, Rainbow Dash. This is no ordinary plague.”

Comments

[StarzGecko]

Discord what did you do!

[redmar]

That's not good and figuring out how to solve the problem won't be easy even though they know that it's chaos magic.

[TheCommunistDog]

In today’s chapter: The Plague is Magic!!!

[RoboRed]

Chaos magic...A relic of Discord's leftover from ages past or perhaps some new, unknown source...?

I wonder how that thing would react if she were to encounter that cloud...

Now Anathema was pouring over every medical book

It's actually spelled "poring"

[MagicS]

11545400

It's actually spelled "poring"

Prepare to see that mistake a couple more times in this story then.