Rainbow Dash Around the World

by MagicS

A Big Swath of Nothing

She went from a place that was pretty green and lively to now being back over a fairly dry looking and rather uninviting stretch of land. It sure wasn’t as bad as the desert but it was mostly just dirt and rocks on the ground all over with the sun being unfortunately strong here. She was following another winding dirt road from above that went over the most level parts of the land. Further south it led into some much larger rock formations and beyond that she’d have to see when she got there. Clouds of dust almost like a fog obscured whatever was beyond them.

“Can’t say I’m surprised that nobody lives out here,” Rainbow Dash said. The only sort of vegetation she saw down there was tumbleweed and sagebrush. The sun probably baked everything else into oblivion. A dry wind also blew from west to east, parching her lips and blowing dust into her.

Even if it wasn’t for the rumors about Hoofica, Rainbow wouldn’t be surprised if most travelers didn’t like taking this road to get south. There were east and west passages after all, they must be pretty well maintained and have plenty of stops along the way to “Vissidia” or however far south they went. If Hoofica was such a big country though she was surprised there weren’t more roads or it wasn’t easier to get to. Maybe they just kept to themselves or they were bordered by mountains that were hard to get by? Not everywhere could be like Equestria either she supposed.

She unconsciously licked her already drying lips. That drink of water from Lucas was actually a big help, she’d be thirsty otherwise flying through this place. Now she could tolerate it.

The dry air didn’t quite shimmer on the horizon like it did in the desert but she wouldn’t have been able to see that far anyways as she approached the dust bowl. The ground below her became more jagged around the road, rockier, with even less brush down there, as it led to the larger rock formations. You couldn’t call them mountains or anything like that. More like piles of boulders. Ugh, Rainbow Dash wished she knew a little more about geography. Geology. Whatever.

Well, she didn’t really care that much. More like she wished Twilight or Applejack could momentarily shed some light on how to properly address all this stuff.

The dirt road however still found a way through it all, the pioneers or whoever else it was that made it in the first place must’ve had a tough time, but they still completed the task. Probably earth ponies. She could probably just ditch it entirely soon, after she got through the dust cloud, but she really didn’t want to miss that last little settlement Lucas had mentioned. If there was nothing else between it and Hoofica she probably should get some water and food from it.

If the locals were generous that is.

Rainbow Dash had found in her journeys though that most places like that were pretty kind. It was the bigger places that she almost always ended up having to watch out for. And if these guys had started warning others about what happened in Hoofica in the first place, that was a good sign.

When she reached the cloud of dust that covered the southern horizon, she sighed and lifted up her hooves to try and block it from getting in her eyes as much as she could. It didn’t help a whole lot but it was better than nothing. The act of flying through it was easy too since there was only a slight breeze in the first place. She’d be through it in no time and then she could fly up a little more to get a real look at what this part of the world had in store for her.

That thought made her heart start pounding again. There was an excitement in her that kept growing the further south she went. She knew something was coming, she could feel it deeper than her bones, inside her soul.

A smile came to her face despite the dust blowing into it. She remembered this feeling, it was the same one she had when she left Ponyville, and again when she first made it into the True North and then beyond the north pole to this side of the world. With luck, she’d feel it many more times on her journey.

Rainbow Dash started flying up higher even before she fully left the dust cloud. When she popped out of it she was high in the sky, over a thousand feet up, with a commanding view of everything before her.

A sprawling landscape of dry red clay, buttes, mesas, and canyons greeted her. A worn out and wide open space with only a few clouds in the blue sky above it. The sagebrush that scored the ground was joined by cacti, proving that as uncivilized as the place was it certainly wasn’t a wasteland. Just a big, empty place, a monument to nature.

And no sign of any kingdom. She wasn’t sure how big Hoofica was or what its outer borders looked like. But she didn’t see anything that made it look remotely like the kingdom was close by. It was either different than she was expecting… or it really had vanished.

Rainbow Dash took a deep breath and looked down at the ground right below her. It was further away now but she could still see the dirt road wandering south, towards a canyon not far from the cloud of dust. It looked like the canyon eventually opened up further south, where the ground level dropped. Rainbow Dash smiled and curtly nodded to herself before taking off towards the canyon. She didn’t know a ton about geography, but she did know that canyons and stuff were carved by water. And any pioneers would definitely make their home around water.

The wind whipped around her as she picked up speed. “Okay pioneers, okay Hoofica. Today’s the day. I hope you’re ready for Rainbow Dash!”

Comments

[redmar]

Rainbow is close to the next adventure.

[TheCommunistDog]

Welp let’s see where this goes!

In today’s chapter: Rainbow does the flying and dust!