Rainbow Dash's Unstoppable Ego

by MagicS


Off the Map

It was like a desert of snow beneath her and as cold in the air as that implied. Cloud coverage was low and thick enough that she couldn’t fly any higher or she’d completely lose vision of the ground and what lied ahead. If she wanted she could’ve gone lower and skimmed right above the rolling dunes of snow but she wanted to stay up at least a little ways to give herself a greater point of view where she could see out a fair distance. The one benefit right now was that it wasn’t too windy, that would’ve chilled the air even more and made flying difficult. Although maybe she should’ve wanted that. It would probably be good to get acclimated to that as quickly as possible, especially since it was likely going to get colder and colder the further she went north unless there was something weird about the weather. Which she wouldn’t completely rule out.

The mountains dead ahead of her were still visible. Relatively small compared to the Crystal Mountains but they still broke up the horizon neatly. It wasn’t a huge range and she could’ve easily flown around it without losing too much time but why bother with that? The only things around them was more snow and ice to the west and a nearly frozen over tundra to the east that had the only specks of green she could see around. Meanwhile there could still be something inside those mountains or obscured by them that she couldn’t see yet. So instead of slightly changing direction and going someplace where she knew there wasn’t anything she might as well keep flying straight north where there could be something.

Something… like animals?

Rainbow Dash frowned as she realized she hadn’t seen any signs of life, wild or otherwise, in the True North yet aside from Leopold. And he didn’t count.

There weren’t any birds flying with her and she didn’t see anything on the ground below either. She knew there were plenty of animals that lived in places like this (thanks Fluttershy) so it was kind of eerie that for now the True North seemed devoid of them. Perhaps the lack of vegetation where she was flying above had something to do with it. Although even then she figured she’d be able to see some long-distance flying birds out in the sky even if there was nothing else. But as it was she was alone out here.

“Creepy,” Rainbow Dash said to herself as she flied over the wintry world. It really was odd and unusual to a pony that normally lived in such a vibrant place, bustling with life, other ponies and creatures all the time, and now she was here. This nearly colorless and empty northern world. The starkest of contrasts to her life down in Equestria.

But that was good. This was new, this was different, this was adventure.

This harsh and unforgiving landscape held the promises of difficult challenges and all sorts of dangers. She knew it did and she was looking forward to it. Some other ponies might’ve been scared or worried as they traveled across the True North. But not her. She was relishing this.

...aside from the fact that she did wish there was something here to do or see. She was really hoping the fun and danger would start as soon as she got up here. Now she was still just flying like she had been before. Where were the monsters? She had been told about how dangerous the north was but so far nothing had happened yet. Maybe you just can’t rush an adventure but Rainbow Dash was getting tired of just flying over snow, she wanted the battles and escapades she had been envisioning from the start. What did the world of the True North have to offer? Rainbow Dash wanted it to give her everything it had and she wanted it as soon as possible.

The pegasus couldn’t help but yawn, something which annoyed her since it meant she was at such a quiet moment that she could afford to yawn.

Those mountains were getting closer at least. But then at the same time it was getting late, she probably couldn’t travel through them by nightfall so it might be better to camp out right in front of them or something for the night and then fly through them tomorrow morning. It still wasn’t that late in the day though, she could figure that out later.

For now she decided to look to the east and the west, she had no intention of traveling there or making a more roundabout trip across the north but it didn’t hurt to sightsee from up high in the sky.

Rainbow Dash took a sidelong glance to the far western horizon. For a long ways it was just more snow and ice before the sky turned into stormy weather and dark clouds covered the land completely. A stray lightning bolt too far for her to even hear the thunderclap of appeared for a second, followed by another and another. Not an inviting place to go. Turning to the east it looked like more of the same except there was more tundra and land that didn’t look like it was permanently covered in snow and ice along with some valleys and currently frozen rivers and lakes. But still if she looked far enough there were intense storms and black clouds that completely blotted out the rest of the landscape. It might be impossible for her to go anywhere except directly north at the moment anyways, not until those storms ceased to eclipse the eastern and western borders of the True North.

So Rainbow Dash ignored all that for now. If she needed to go east or west sometime in the future then so be it, for now she kept her focus on the north.

And besides the lack of animals or anything there was also a complete lack of anything that could be called civilization so far. Once again, Leopold’s tiny shack was the only thing she had seen up here that was creature built and not a part of the natural world. There wasn’t any sign of roads or other trails built into the snow and ground below, there wasn’t any smoke billowing up into the sky from chimneys in the distance, her eyes couldn’t pick out any homes or buildings or castles built up on those mountains she was traveling towards.

Well, there were plenty of places like that in Equestria too, it was a big place and not everywhere was settled or connected to the rest. There were probably a lot of remote places like this in the north. Places where nobody lived or did anything because they were too far away and didn’t have what you needed to eke out a living. She was sure there were cities and countries that she would encounter in the future up here. After all she knew there were mammoths, right? And they had an empire or something. And she was pretty sure William had mentioned some other things too.

Civilization was up here. Somewhere. Probably hiding in the same place as adventure.

She couldn’t tell entirely thanks to the clouds but she was pretty sure the sun had just gone down with how dark it suddenly became. Rainbow Dash frowned, thinking she had had more time than that. The pegasus descended in the sky, looking for some place along the ground that she could stop at for now. Flying at night in this cold where she wasn’t sure if a storm or something would suddenly appear didn’t appeal to her. For now she’d rest and spend her first night in the True North.