Rainbow Dash Around the World

by MagicS

A Treasure Map of Course

In a small, grungy, town built around an oasis, there was a very popular bar called “The Watering Hole” that was frequented by all sorts. Ruffians, thugs, riff-raff, and even the occasional honest traveler came to this bar to get a drink. Right now was no different as it was filled with quite a few camels, ponies, antelopes, and griffons. When it came to a place like this, there was no “camels only” or “no camels” sort of place. Criminals were criminals.

Even then, there were some individuals who made the rest of the creatures at Two Hump Oasis uncomfortable.

One of which was currently seated at the bar of The Watering Hole, a mug of beer tightly gripped in her hooves as she stared at the bar in front of her and mumbled to herself. Everyone else in the bar gave her a wide berth, no one else was even sitting at the bar, only at the tables also in the building. It was difficult to see what was so scary about her to the other patrons. She looked like a fairly normal unicorn, aside from a horn that was a fair bit longer than average and a Cutie Mark that was a big explosion. Her reed thin yellow body even made her look kind of weak.

And still the usually loud and rowdy bar was quiet and no one else dared to talk.

The mare’s long, curly, fiery orange and red mane and tail were limp and unkempt, as if she hadn’t bathed or combed in weeks. Her teeth ground back and forth as she continued to mutter while the bartender was far too afraid to get near the taps to refill anyone’s drink.

“It’s been a while… is she coming… was he wrong… what if she doesn’t come here? I-Is that my fault? H-He can’t blame me if she never shows up… can he?” Supernova nervously babbled to herself. “C-Can’t fail, can’t screw up… please, please just let her show up soon so this can be over...”

Her hooves were shaking and her eyes were red as she lifted up the mug and took a deep drink.

---

Rainbow Dash woke up in the cramped tent after an uncomfortable night of trying to sleep in a tent really only made for two ponies to share at most. The first day of traveling with her new group of one friend and three other ponies had been fairly uneventful. After all, they really were just going through an almost entirely empty desert. There was nothing around for most of it but sand. One Hump Oasis had disappeared behind them entirely before they decided to make camp at night.

For the first time, Rainbow Dash had felt cold again in the desert. In a spot like this the temperature dropped drastically. Even inside their “cozy” tent she still felt cold. It was nothing like some of the snowy places she had been to but it annoyed her that things only switched from one extreme to the other.

The place they had decided to stop last night in the first place was one of the “secret” spots that Miss Valentine knew about. A small well, that drew up water from the ground, hidden in a shelf of rocks in the middle of the dunes. One of the few places Rainbow had seen in the desert that wasn’t just sand. Rocks weren’t much different but it was still something else to see so oh well. Apparently this was a place lone travelers, smugglers, and others who wanted to avoid major stops used.

When Rainbow Dash woke up she noticed it was still early in the day—before dawn even. The lack of light coming through the thin material of the tent told her so. Her body nudged up against the pony next to her and Rainbow Dash looked over to see a still sleeping Daring Do. The Red Hornet though was totally absent, her blanket empty. Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow but shrugged, not tired enough to go back to sleep she got up and exited the tent without waking Daring Do.

With how dry it was out here she was pretty thirsty so she decided to head over to the well and fish out some water.

Rainbow Dash yawned as she closed the tent flap and looked over at the stallion’s tent. She couldn’t tell if they were awake or asleep and frankly she didn’t really care. She didn’t see The Hornet anywhere around so maybe she was getting some water too? That would be an uncomfortable early morning meeting. Rainbow hoped she wasn’t.

She walked through the rocks that obscured their tents from any travelers going by on her way to the well. Her eyes were still pretty heavy, and a yawn came out of her mouth every few steps. A little water sprayed in her face would probably help her too.

Passing another rock she came into the sandy clearing that the well sat in the middle of.

A scarlet mare was there by the well, using the bucket to pour water on her head and wash up. The Red Hornet wasn’t wearing her usual black clothes or sunglasses, they were in a pile by the well, and Rainbow could now see the tornado Cutie Mark on her flank as well as-

Rainbow Dash gasped, unintentionally notifying the other mare of her presence. Shocked blue eyes looked over at her as The Red Hornet froze and her wings shot open.

Her wings. Tiny, deformed, scarlet red stubs sitting on the sides of her body. Normally covered by the black vest she wore, no one would’ve been able to tell she was actually a pegasus and not an earth pony while wearing it, the wings weren’t noticeable at all under the vest. They had feathers, the same general shape and structure of a normal pegasi’s wings, but they would be useless for flight.

“Uhh...” Rainbow Dash was lost for words. She had thought The Hornet was an earth pony. And she certainly didn’t expect her to have wings like that. They were just like...

An angry, hateful, look twisted up The Red Hornet’s visage. She swiftly put on her clothes and walked over to Rainbow Dash.

“Look, I-” Rainbow tried to say right up until a hoof struck her in the face. She was knocked to the ground and winced, looking up at the other mare and holding her hooves up to try and get her to calm down. “Hold on, I don’t-”

“Shut up!” The Red Hornet said as she punched Rainbow in the face again. “You didn’t see anything!”

“It’s not a big deal, I didn’t say anything! It’s alright if your wings are-”

“Shut up!” She punched Rainbow again.

Rainbow grabbed her hoof before The Red Hornet could hit her again and stared up at the other mare. “There’s nothing... nothing to be ashamed of.”

The Red Hornet furiously glared at her but pulled her hooves away and stopped tying to punch Rainbow. “I’m not ashamed of them...”

Rainbow stood up and took a moment to catch her breath. “That was definitely a surprise. And sorry, it was an accident.”

“I don’t let others know usually,” The Red Hornet said, a frown still on her face as she walked past Rainbow. “Your reaction was different than most ponies. But I’d still prefer if you just ignored all of this.”

“But—look, there’s no reason for that. I wanted to tell you that it’s okay. Seriously. I know another pony with wings like yours, she lives back where I come from. She’s like a little sister to me, and yeah, not gonna lie that her wings being like that have gotten her down before, but she doesn’t let that stop her from being awesome,” Rainbow smiled and walked after her.

“Hah!” The Red Hornet snorted and shook her head. “So there’s another freak out there? Whatever.”

Rainbow Dash paused in mid-step. “What did you just say?”

The Red Hornet scowled and looked over her shoulder, ready to talk back to Rainbow Dash.

She never got the chance as a blue hoof collided with her face. The Red Hornet was thrown to the sandy ground and before she could get up, Rainbow Dash jumped on top of her and pushed her shoulders down to pin her to the ground. The blue pegasus had a furious look in her eyes that actually gave The Hornet pause.

“Don’t you ever, ever, say something like that in front of me again!” Rainbow yelled at her. “I don’t care if you make fun of yourself, I don’t care if you feel bad, or angry, or proud, or special. But don’t you ever say that again about my friend! Do you hear me? If you call Scootaloo a freak or anything like that one more time I’ll beat you so bad your ancestors will feel it!”

The Red Hornet tried pushing Rainbow off her but was only slammed back down.

“I said; do you hear me?!” Rainbow repeated.

“I... I hear you,” The Red Hornet finally answered.

“Alright,” Rainbow said and got off of her, helping the other pony back up to her hooves. “Now that we’ve had a friendly chat and gotten to know each other a little better, let’s try and get along.” Rainbow’s face was still cool and stony despite her words. “Sound good?”

Miss Valentine adjusted her sunglasses and stiffly nodded. “Sounds good.”

---

“And what happened to the two of you?” Daring Do asked as they returned to the small camp a short while later. Bruises were readily visible on both their faces.

“Nothing, we just had a talk. Right, honey?” Miss Valentine said.

“That’s right,” Rainbow said through gritted teeth.

Daring Do rolled her eyes. “Whatever. Let’s just get a move on early, we’ve got a lot of ground to cover today. And tomorrow. And probably the next day too.”

“Agreed, I’d like to get through this desert as fast as possible too,” Valentine said.

“Same here. We’re the ones carrying most of the stuff after all,” Birdseed grumbled.

Valentine smugly grinned at him. “You’re stallions aren’t you? Act like it.”

“Well that aint really too fair...” Coin Flip also complained but in the end the two of them still carried most of the supplies on their backs and the party went on the move again.

By the time they started traveling to Two Hump Oasis again, the sun was out and it was already quite a hot morning. Rainbow Dash took a big drink of water and ate a bit of dried seeds for energy. She was gonna need it today for all the walking and flying over the hot sands they’d be doing. Ahead of her, Miss Valentine was radiating an aura of “Don’t talk to me”, and behind her the two stallions were just ponies Rainbow really didn’t want to talk to. So that really only left her with one pony to converse with, and it was someone she had a question to ask anyways.

“Hey, Daring Do?” Rainbow Dash asked as she flew down to walk side by side with the other pegasus. “I’ve got something to ask.”

“What is it?” Daring Do raised an eyebrow.

“Well I was wondering why you were here in the desert in the first place? You only met up with Valentine later on, right? So what brought you here?” Rainbow asked.

"I came looking for something that Shining Diamond is also looking for. Though it isn’t as big of a priority for him as the Crystal Sea, it’s still something dangerous that we need to keep out of his hooves,” Daring Do said.

Now Rainbow Dash was pretty curious. “So what’s the thing?”

Daring Do gathered her thoughts for a moment and rubbed her chin. “Do you remember back when we were talking with Cart about the Crystal Sea? How he said the camels lost its location ages ago?”

“Yeah, I remember,” Rainbow nodded.

“Well that didn’t just happen for any random reason. At the time the camels lost the location of the Crystal Sea, they were at war with a horrible despot called Cinnabaron,” Daring Do said.

“Cinnabun?”

“Cinnabaron,” Daring Do corrected. “She was a pony who challenged the camels in this desert a long time ago. The war she waged against them lasted for years, it was a chaotic mess and it was during that that the camels lost the Crystal Sea. However, they still won the war against her and drove her out of the desert. Legend goes that she traveled elsewhere and created a new temple and kingdom for herself. What I’m searching for to keep out of Shining Diamond’s hooves is a map leading to her lost temple.”

“What’s the big deal if it’s just a map going to her temple?” Rainbow tilted her head.

“Because Cinnabaron had a certain treasure that she took with her to that temple. Something very dangerous,” Daring Do narrowed her eyes. “Cinnabaron was a deranged monster, and she created a magical amulet that caused anyone around her to grow sick and eventually die if she wore it. Something like that needs to be kept out of the wrong hooves. Actually I plan to give the amulet to Twilight Sparkle when I get back to Equestria, she’s one of the few ponies I know who could keep something like that safe.”

“True enough,” Rainbow nodded.

“But stopping Shining Diamond from finding the Crystal Sea is far more pressing at the moment. I’m not sure who in this desert might have the map but I hope I can still find it while we’re on our journey,” Daring Do said.

“The war against Cinnabaron caused a lot of lasting problems for this desert too,” Miss Valentine suddenly said from ahead of them, after apparently listening to their conversation the whole time.

“Like what?” Rainbow asked.

“Well for one it’s partially why camels are such jerks to every other group of creatures here. Not to say they weren’t always, but it got worse after they defeated Cinnabaron. Because of that they got this sort of attitude in them about how everyone else should be so grateful to them for getting rid of a monster that they should put up with everything camel’s do. Hay, they should be happy and accepting of camels putting themselves above everyone else. Apparently the camels didn’t get it through their thick skulls that just because Cinnabaron was worse than them, it doesn’t make them good.” Valentine shook her head. “Stupid camels.”

“They used their victory as an excuse to do bad things themselves,” Daring Do said.

Rainbow Dash shook her head. “This desert is all messed up...”

“Unfortunately, fixing it is out of my capabilities. There are way too mane deep-seeded issues. Too much history,” Daring Do said.

“Not to mention the fact that we really need to deal with Shining Diamond first before we’d even think of being a pair of goody two shoes and fixing the rest of this desert just like that,” Valentine said.

“Things could be a lot worse here at least. Nowhere’s perfect,” Daring Do shrugged.

Rainbow Dash knew the truth of that statement. Despite the problems here in this desert it was hardly as bad as a few other places she had been on her journey so far. She wouldn’t know where to begin when it came to dealing with this sort of problem so stopping Shining Diamond sounded like a way better adventure. And if something else happened after or along the way, then that was just a bonus.

“Well isn’t that what we’re doing now?” Miss Valentine grinned over her shoulder at the two other mares. “Stopping things from getting worse?”

Rainbow Dash had to smile in agreement. “Yep, that’s right.”

Comments

[redmar]

I'm guessing that Cinnabaron's amulet ended up being given to Amethyst Star who eventually gave it to Twilight as the responsible thing to do.

[TheCommunistDog]

In today’s chapter: Hornet seems to have a little wing problem...

[MagicS]

11248775
And you would be correct. Kind of a long time for things to be connected, but I had it in mind for a while.