//------------------------------// // Frosty River // Story: Rainbow Dash's Unstoppable Ego // by MagicS //------------------------------// When she finally came down out of those mountains of the Yaketian Valley it was a rewarding sight that awaited her. The large river she had been told of stretched from east to west as far as she could see and it separated these mountains from the flat tundra and supposed wasteland that existed right on the other side. It didn’t look very scary and she didn’t see any tornadoes or violent hailstorms going on over there but it was definitely empty. William had been really forceful about it being an uncrossable wasteland and she didn’t want to just ignore him and the goodwill he had shown her. So going to the checkpoint and finding the secret path would still be her goal. As much as she wanted to spit in the face of this wasteland she wasn’t going to do anything pointlessly reckless yet. Maybe later. She glided down the slope of the last mountain, on track directly to the river. The ground here wasn’t quite as snowy as she suspected and the riverbank was mostly a strip of gray rocks ranging from pebbles to boulders bigger than she was. Rainbow Dash deftly landed on one of these boulders, folding her wings in and giving them a temporary rest as she checked out the river. It was wide, that was for sure, and definitely got wider the further you went east until it became one with the ocean. Ice floes drifted down it as well at an easy speed, the current of the river not being particularly strong. Boy was that some dark blue and very cold looking water though. How deep was it? The sound from it was a deep whispering as the river flowed with small waves rolling down it and tumbling into each other. The water sloshing and breaking against the ice floes and the rocky shores. She looked downriver to the east and thought she could nearly see where it fully opened up into the ocean, the good weather and clear skies today favoring her, but she couldn’t be sure. Either way that wasn’t so important since she was going to be heading west upstream. Rainbow Dash just wanted to get a look at things. The north was so far just so quiet and empty compared to even the more remote places in Equestria. But she knew the True North she was looking towards now wasn’t totally empty. And it was that adventure that was still calling to her. Rainbow Dash unfurled her wings and flapped them a few times until she was over the midpoint of this deep and wide river, peering down from here the water looked almost black thanks to the depths and shadows. And it was still wide enough here where you could knock over Twilight’s castle and it wouldn’t reach halfway across. The pegasus snickered, that was a funny thought. Getting enough of that, she started on her way to the checkpoint. If what William said was true it would be impossible to miss so long as she followed the river. She flew down a little closer to the water’s surface to see if there were any fish or anything else swimming through it but she couldn’t see much of anything. At one point she dipped her hooves briefly into the water and had to near instantly pull them back out, shivering. Just how it looked, that water was cold. The more she traveled up the river though the less there was to see and do. To her left was merely the backsides of the mountains she had just crossed and to her right was near total emptiness. She was getting kind of bored. Rainbow Dash decided to instead turn it into a game. She landed on the nearest ice floe she could see and then jumped off it to the next, and the next one and the next one after that, only barely using her wings for lift or a single flutter if she had to. The pegasus hopped from ice floe to ice floe, sometimes they shook in the water and almost tipped over from her weight and the force of her landing and she had to be careful with balancing. A couple of other times she almost just slid right off their slick surfaces. But it passed the time well for her. The ice floes actually got more and more numerous the further she traveled up the river, there must’ve been a shelf or glacier upstream where they were constantly breaking off. And the river got slightly narrower too to make things more crowded. Which incidentally had the effect of making her jumps far easier and thus not as fun for the challenge seeking pegasus. She still did it anyways to beat the boredom and do something a little different than just fly. Since she knew she’d mostly be flying all day every day from here on out. A few times she landed on an ice floe and caused it to drift and bump into another, creating a domino effect where dozens of them were now jumbling around in the river and a few of the more fragile ones even broke apart. The movement made a few ripples in the river that she managed to ride like the smallest of waves. Which did give her a slightly fun idea. Rainbow Dash spread her wings and began flapping them back like a fan, propelling the ice floe she was currently on like a boat against the current of the river. She grinned, pretty proud of herself for coming up with something like this. She got to do something different and her wings weren’t being taxed nearly as much as if she was flying full force. Could’ve been worse. A loud strike of lightning from the north suddenly grabbed her attention and she turned her head to see a sudden storm breaking out in the wasteland. Bolts of lightning breaking down from the dark clouds and pummeling the ground below again and again while rolling thunder now rumbled across her eardrums. “Cool,” she said as she watched from her floating ice floe. That storm had appeared fast. And it was so localized too over one small area that it was just impossible for it to be totally natural, there must’ve been something magical about that wasteland. Well, that was the kind of thing she would have to leave to Twilight whenever she got back to Ponyville and told her about it. The storm broke nearly as quickly as it had appeared, the dark clouds stayed in place and she was pretty sure they were raining but there was no more thunder and lightning from them. And even they disappeared soon after to leave the wasteland just as empty again. If that kind of stuff did happen randomly as often as William said then it would be pretty dangerous to try flying through it. Not that she was totally averse to doing that if she had to but there was also the problem of apparently there not being any food or water in there for her. That was something that could be an issue if she wasn’t careful. While she was still looking out there a new sound from the south caused her ears to perk up and Rainbow Dash to turn her head to the opposite shore. Sea lions. Hundreds of barking sea lions all laying around in a huge pride along the southern rocks of the river. They were some very loud sea mammals, it was a wonder Rainbow Dash didn’t hear, or smell, them until just now. The thunder and lightning from the storm must’ve drowned them out or enraptured her too much. They saw her too going on by, some of them at least, but they were either too lazy or too content lying down on their beach to do anything about her. Boy did they sure make a lot of noise though. The constant squeaking barks and the throaty growls that emerged from them was a cacophony that no orchestra could drown out. Fluttershy probably would’ve loved it but she sure as hay didn’t and she couldn’t imagine any of her friends caring much for it either. Rarity in particular would just scrunch her nose up at the smell and think they were “icky”. “Heh,” Rainbow Dash laughed and sped her buzzing wings up to get her ice floe moving faster.