Rainbow Dash Around the World

by MagicS

Encounter

Five ponies approached a black tent in the middle of Two Hump Oasis. It was rather ominous, built in the grass, practically right at the water’s edge, with absolutely nothing else around it. Rainbow could see what would make others suspicious about it. Or maybe camels were just weird when it came to stuff like this. The tent had a veil over the front entrance leading into it and Daring Do shot a glance at Miss Valentine before they entered.

The scarlet mare just shrugged and walked on in. “Aint nothing to worry about, honey. Just some fortune-teller.”

Rainbow Dash and the others followed her in, moving through the veil that obscured the insides from them. Instantly they had to keep from coughing as smoke drifted from deeper in the tent, it smelled funny and Rainbow Dash’s nose curled.

“Incense,” Daring Do said as she saw Rainbow’s reaction.

“Huh?”

“It’s something you burn for meditation, relaxation, spiritual reasons, anything.” Daring Do answered.

“Oh,” Rainbow blinked.

“Ponies, is it?” A deep and gravelly voice said from deeper in the tent, in the shadows that the incense smoke wafted out from. The voice was female but ancient sounding. “What brings you to my tent?”

The group tensed up and went on guard at the sound of the disembodied voice, with Miss Valentine stepping forward and staring into the darkness.

“You’re the fortune-teller, why don’t you tell me?”

“You’re looking for someone.”

Valentine frowned. “Lucky guess.”

“Of course. I can tell by the way you carry yourselves you are not here for my typical services. It is mere information you seek. Disappointing.”

“Tch,” Miss Valentine clicked her tongue. “Look, let’s just cut to the chase already. There’s a camel who lives in Two Hump Oasis by the name of Harzeen. Where does he live?”

“A request for such information will take payment.”

Valentine rolled her eyes and reached into a vest pouch, pulling out a surprisingly large bag of clinking coins. “How much?”

“All.”

“Are you out of your mind?!” Valentine roared. “You think just telling us where some camel lives is worth all this?”

“It is to you. All. Or nothing. No other camel will aid you like I will.”

Valentine looked like she was about to blow a gasket but Daring Do came up and put a calming hoof on her shoulder. “It’s alright, money can be made up later, right now we need to find Harzeen as quickly as possible.”

“Violence could just as easily be the answer,” Birdseed said.

“No,” Daring Do and Rainbow Dash both said to him.

“Fine. Fine.” Valentine got out through gritted teeth and tossed the bag of coins towards the shadows. “Here, take it all, you greedy camel.”

The bag landed on the sand at the edge of the shadows and a low, amused, chuckle emerged from the unseen fortune-teller. “You won’t regret it, I assure you. The one you are seeking lives to the west of my tent, in a part of the oasis populated by camels. His home looks normal at a glance but it has a large hidden basement where he keeps his most important items. Walk now to the west, through the buildings, and the vulture will show you the way. Harzeen opens his door for no one, I would suggest breaking it down.” She laughed at the thought.

“Not the best directions,” Valentine grumbled.

“As long as you leave now you will find where you need to go.”

“Leave now? Sounds great to me,” Valentine said and turned around, ushering the rest out. Rainbow didn’t know what to make of this weird fortune-teller.

“However—if I could have a moment alone to speak with the rainbow one?”

Everyone else turned to look at the surprised and confused Rainbow Dash. Valentine frowned and looked back at the shadows. “About what?”

“Alone.”

Daring Do raised a questioning eyebrow at Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow shrugged. “I mean, alright. You guys go on ahead and I’ll meet back up with you real quick.”

“Whatever you say,” Daring Do said and nodded to Valentine to make sure she came alone. “Just… be careful.”

“Am I ever not?” Rainbow grinned, eliciting a smile and a shake of the head from Daring Do. Birdseed and Coin Flip exited the tent shortly after while Valentine grumbled and shot dirty looks at the shadows the whole time on her way out. Once they had passed the veil, Rainbow Dash frowned and looked back at the cloaked fortune-teller. “Okay, what’s up with you? What do you want to talk with me about?”

“You are peculiar. Interesting. I have never met a pony with such a blinding fate swirling around them.”

Rainbow rolled her eyes. “I already know I’m awesome. Tell me something I don’t know.”

“When you came in here, your fortune opened up to me. Your past. Your present. And your future. Danger is all around you.”

Rainbow kept staring into the darkness but she was taking it a little bit more seriously now. “Go on. I’m used to danger, you still haven’t said anything special.”

Slowly out of the shadows, a graying, decrepit leg with thin wisps of hair falling from it and twisted toes at the end, came to point at Rainbow Dash. “Your past. A cold monster chases after you. Your present. A devilish specter watches your every move. Your future. Darkness. Beware, pony, this day could very well be your last.”

Rainbow Dash bit her lip and fought back a gulp. The fortune-teller spoke with such… certainty. “Thanks for the advice.” Rainbow said and turned to leave the tent.

Shireva the fortune-teller watched as Rainbow Dash passed through the veil and exited her domain. “The journey you are on… does it end in darkness or will you break through it? Even I could not see.”

---

“So what was that about?” Daring Do asked as soon as Rainbow Dash flew back to join them.

“Nothing really, just a creepy fortune-teller being creepy,” Rainbow said.

“You sure? You actually look sort of pale.”

“She… may have mentioned a certain pony I’m trying to forget about. Someone I didn’t tell you all about when I was telling my stories.”

Daring Do looked on at her in concern. “Do you want to talk about it?”

Rainbow shook her head. “No. Let’s just focus on what we’re doing now. We’ve got a megalomaniac to stop.”

“Ugh,” Valentine suddenly let out a frustrated grunt from the front as the group entered a part of the oasis where camels mostly lived. Supposedly where Harzeen would be. “Knew it was dumb to trust another greedy camel. The vulture will lead the way? How are we supposed to find anything here?”

Rainbow Dash looked around and had to agree she had a point. This place was a sea of shanties and hovels that looked practically indistinguishable from one another. A lot of camels were out and looking at them weirdly. Suspicious, probably. Maybe even afraid if they recognized Miss Valentine. Rainbow had to imagine if their group was any smaller—especially if it was just the three mares—that they’d be finding a lot more trouble.

Valentine looked from building to building. “Vulture, vulture… alright I’m debating going back to that fortune-teller and getting a little rough.”

“Don’t give up so easily,” Daring Do said to her.

“Do you see any vultures out?” Valentine asked.

Right as she asked that, a vulture flew down from overhead and landed on the roof of a building, right above the door. The group blinked at it.

Coin Flip lifted up a hoof and pointed. “I see one now.”

“Yes, thank you,” Valentine growled at him.

“So if that’s Harzeen’s place what should we do? Take the fortune-teller’s advice again?” Birdseed asked.

“It could be a good way to take him by surprise,” Daring Do said. “Busting down a door could look a little strange, especially if we have the wrong one, but I doubt any camels here are going to come help him either.”

“Then let’s get on with it!” Rainbow said and swiftly flew forward before anybody else could say anything. Her hooves were outstretched in front of her and one last strong flap of her wings propelled her at high-speed right into the door with enough force to pulverize it. She landed on the floor and quickly looked around, already on alert and ready to take on anyone that might try and attack her after she just busted down their door.

All she saw inside the small hovel was a very surprised camel with a long grey beard sitting at a table cluttered with drawing implements.

“Harzeen?” Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow.

He coughed. “Um… no?”

Rainbow grinned. “You have a map we’re looking for.”

Right as she said that the others came in through the destroyed door and Harzeen paled.

“T-The Red Hornet...” He glanced between her and Rainbow Dash. “I-I don’t understand, what do you want with me? I’m just an old collector of trinkets and things...”

“If that was true you wouldn’t be living here,” Valentine said. “And we already know from Zargoz what you’ve really got here. And from Shireva the fortune-teller that this-” she glanced around at the cramped insides of the small home. “Isn’t all there is to your home.”

Harzeen’s face darkened and he grit his teeth in anger. “That scumbag and fortune-teller...”

“Unfortunately you’ve had bad luck with other camels. Now I’m going to cut to the chase here since I really, really, am out of patience today. Where is the original map that Zargoz was trying to copy?” Valentine pulled down her sunglasses and narrowed her deep blue eyes at the camel.

“I-I have no idea what you’re-”

In a flash, Valentine had leaped towards him and kicked him off his chair, the camel falling to the ground. Just as quickly she grabbed his beard and held a knife up to it she had pulled from somewhere and looked him dead in the eye. “I haven’t shaved a camel in a long time, so I might accidentally cut a little too close. Unless you tell me where that map is right now.”

Harzeen’s eyes—for the briefest of moments—glanced at the floor beneath his table. But it was all the time Valentine needed to see it. She grinned and let him go, sliding the knife back into her vest and then turned around to flip over the table. It clattered to the floor and everything on it went spilling around, making even more of a mess. Beneath the table was a small trapdoor built into the floor. The door to the basement.

“Just like the fortune-teller said,” Daring Do said.

“T-That map is one of my most prized possessions, I-I can’t let you-” Harzeen started before Valentine shut him up with a glare.

“Your most prized possession? But you were never willing to go look for more were you? Too afraid of the Brotherhood or Murkers catching you looking for the Crystal Sea?”

Harzeen’s eyes turned downcast. “The map doesn’t show you the full way anyways… the camel I got it from only said that there was something out in the sand that showed the rest of the way. I-I never...”

“Never had the courage. So you were just going to let it collect dust in here, honey,” Valentine mocked.

“What do you know about it?” Harzeen grew angry. “The Crystal Sea is our legacy! It’s-”

“Coin Flip, shut him up,” Valentine said.

A sickly green aura of magic appeared around Harzeen’s head—and then it was smashed face first into the ground with enough force to knock him out.

“Done!” Coin Flip laughed.

Daring Do and Rainbow Dash frowned, the archaeologist approaching Miss Valentine. “That was a little bit excessive, and you also could’ve waited until after he told us where the map is down there.”

Valentine bit her lip and glanced at the door. “Fair enough… let’s get down there then.”

“Great, looking around some dusty old basement full of a bunch of boring history stuff,” Rainbow Dash sighed.

“Boring to you, maybe,” Daring Do said as she looked at some of the stuff that had fallen off Harzeen’s table. The “drawing” tools and implements seemed to be mostly used by the camel for map-making and upkeep. “Maps seem to be Harzeen’s specialty, I wonder if maybe he has any information on the map to Cinnabaron’s lost temple? Not enough time to really look around for it or question him though...”

“He certainly won’t be waking up for a while,” Birdseed said. “That kind of thing is about all Coin Flip is good for.”

The unicorn snorted. “Shut it.”

Valentine pulled open the door to the basement and the five of them headed down the steps to see what they’d now be working with. It was dark but enough light came from the door above that they could see a gas lamp sitting on a table at the bottom of the stairs. Valentine switched it on and the rest of the basement was illuminated to them. And the fortune-teller wasn’t lying when she said it was a large basement. Bookcases and bookcases filled up the basement, with it clearly having a floor space easily double that of the home above. A few cluttered desks, tables, and chairs sat around as well. It was practically like someone’s combination of a personal library and storage closet.

Miss Valentine groaned in annoyance. “Ugh… let’s get started.”

“Guess we’ll just have to look everywhere,” Daring Do said as she checked the nearest bookcase.

“He said it was one of his most prized possessions, maybe he has it hidden someplace special?” Birdseed suggested.

“We can check for any hiding spots while we search,” Valentine said, for some reason still wearing her sunglasses.

“Booooring,” Rainbow Dash said as she flew around the bookcases, only half-heartedly looking around at them. Papers, books, rolled up maps, binders, and small boxes littered every shelf. She really had no idea where to start. It didn’t help that aside from being a map they had no idea what it looked like or how big it was. She found herself pulling out every errant piece of paper and checking them before dropping them on the floor.

Being an earth pony, Birdseed kept to the bottom shelves and some of the desks and tables while Coin Flip searched with even less effort than Rainbow Dash.

“Considering Zargoz almost copied the map maybe he has a safe or lockbox down here that he put it in...” Miss Valentine said.

“That would just bring us some new problems,” Daring Do sighed.

“If we can just find what system he uses to organize things, or where his newest or oldest stuff is put we could work from there,” Valentine said, mostly speaking to herself at this point cause at least two of the other ponies weren’t paying any attention.

Birdseed had continued his wanderings and made it to a desk at the back of the basement. Unlike most of the others down here, this one wasn’t as messy and it caught his eye because of that. A quick glance at the desktop showed him nothing of value, but there were several closed drawers to inspect. Most of them opened up without a problem, revealing either nothing or crumpled up pieces of paper, but there was one drawer at the top that had a lock on it. Obviously there was no key around but there was a paperclip on the desk. And this was something Birdseed had a lot of experience with.

He straightened the paperclip and fiddled around with the lock, listening carefully for the tell-tale click. His experienced hooves soon proved fortuitous as the lock clicked open and he could pull out the drawer. Inside was a single piece of folded paper that he carefully took out. Unfolding and examining it, his eyes widened.

“Well I’ll be...” He glanced over his shoulder to make sure the others were still just looking around before folding the paper back up and hiding it in his scarf.

No sooner had he finished than-

“Found it! I think I found it!” Daring Do said as she held an open map in her hooves over a table tucked away between two bookcases. “This looks exactly like Zargoz’s copy, the same route at the beginning, the same details, but it goes further!”

The other ponies crowded around her, looking upon a faded map that had a black line leading east across the desert before stopping in a spot kind of at the edge of the middle of the desert. Miss Valentine looked at it to see if she could figure out a location since no other settlements were marked on the map. She was just going by her memory of the desert and what was out there.

“Camelback,” Valentine said. “This spot marked at the end is in the desert just a little north of Camelback. We should go there and then travel up through the desert ourselves to this point. Hopefully we’ll find what we need to make it further. Only problem is, the deserts around Camelback are notorious for sandstorms and being difficult to travel through.”

“Maybe that’s why no one’s been able to find this place just snooping around yet?” Rainbow said.

“Maybe,” Valentine nodded. “Either way we need to get there and get there quickly. Of course we don’t have any money to buy any food or supplies, not to mention the chance at a ride on a sand ship. Ugh!” She kicked the table.

And a false bottom broke off it and hundreds of hidden coins clattered to the floor.

The five ponies stared at the small treasure.

“Uhhh… do you think the fortune-teller saw this?” Rainbow asked.

Valentine sighed. “Who cares? Let’s gather this up and get out of here.”

---

“We can use this money to get a ride on a sand ship. That’ll be the fastest way to get to Camelback from here,” Miss Valentine said as the group left Harzeen’s home. Nobody bothered to do anything about the door. Quickly they began walking to the east side of Two Hump Oasis and away from this camel-heavy area.

“Uh, what’s a sand ship?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Pretty much just what it sounds like, it’s like a boat that travels over the sand, propelled by unicorn magic and a team of rowers. There should be a few here right now. They used to be used by bandits who would swiftly attack and retreat from caravans, then the bandits realized it would be far more profitable, and safer, to go legitimate and become a transport service for creatures traveling through the desert. If you can’t fly yourself it’s the fastest way to travel, only two days from here to Camelback on one of those ships,” Valentine explained.

“Huh, that’s pretty cool,” Rainbow said.

“Of course though the ones in charge of the ships aren’t exactly the most savory, former bandits and all, so we’ll need to keep quiet as to why we’re going to Camelback and also not let them find out just how much money we have,” Valentine said.

“Then let’s just keep on our wingtips around them,” Daring Do said. “Either way I’m happy that now we’ve really got something to go on.”

Valentine smirked. “We’ll beat Shining Diamond to the Crystal Sea easily. And then take care of him too.”

“Yeah!” Rainbow Dash agreed with a smile.

“E-Excuse me?” A light and somewhat trembling voice interrupted the group. “Is your name Rainbow Dash?”

Rainbow Dash and the others looked to see a thin, yellow unicorn mare that had come up behind them. She looked disheveled with wide, bloodshot, eyes and her hooves were trembling in the sand.

“Yeah? I’m Rainbow Dash,” Rainbow answered while behind her Miss Valentine sharply sucked in a breath.

Relief poured over the mare’s face and she smiled while her body steadied. “Thank heavens.”

Her horn then sparked with magical power and an explosion erupted in Rainbow Dash’s face.

---

The forest just south outside the limits of Pinetree Warren was especially quiet today. Perfect for Honey Sight, it meant there were no distractions as he bird-watched. And he had the perfect specimen he was watching today: a blue jay. A beautiful bird, so vibrant, with such a recognizable head shape. While he was close enough to easily see it with his naked eyes, he still used binoculars to get as much of an up-close look as he could. The bird was resting on a tree branch at the moment while Honey Sight watched it from below.

Beautiful. He thought.

The blue jay suddenly stiffened before flying off the branch altogether and Honey Sight’s jaw dropped in surprise and disappointment. He put down his binoculars and sighed.

“Did something spook it?”

Snap

The sound of a twig being snapped underhoof made him turn to see another pony walking through the forest. Honey Sight had been so focused on the blue jay that he hadn’t even noticed her. He could tell immediately that she wasn’t from Pinetree Warren, he knew everyone from the village and she was definitely a stranger. He wondered why she wasn’t traveling down the road? She was certainly a vibrant pink too and her blue eyes were rather pretty, along with that kind and innocent little smile on her face.

“Miss?” Honey Sight said to her as she got closer to the trees he was standing by. “Where might you be from?”

She didn’t answer. She didn’t even look at him.

Honey Sight rubbed his head. “Um… Miss? What brings you into the forest today?”

She walked right past him without a glance or even any notice that she heard him.

He watched her go, walking further south through the forest. “Okay…?” He shrugged and shortly after returned to bird-watching. The unusual mare would be forgotten by the time he went to bed.

Comments

[TheCommunistDog]

Oh no no NO!

In today’s chapter: Creepy fortune teller... And Rainbow goes boom

[redmar]

I think that the Heartless has just passed Pinetree Warren and that Birseed found a map to the temple of Cinnabaron. The mare that attacked Rainbow Dash was the one sent by Harlequin Grey.

[RoboRed]

The winds of fortune suddenly blow darkly southward.