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// The Ice Sentinel I 
// Story: Rainbow Dash's Unstoppable Ego 
// by MagicS 
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Rainbow Dash woke up cold and covered in snow.

“Oof, not one of my better ideas,” she said as she stuck her head out of the igloo that was little more than a big pile of snow on the ground now.

The pegasus fluttered her wings to knock most of it away and shook like a dog to get the rest off her head and back. Still cold, but better. She looked up into the sky to see that it was already late morning, she slept longer than she wanted. The good news was that the sky was clear and blue and the sun was shining down on her. The weather for the rest of the day would probably be fine and even quite a bit warmer than she had expected. Still nothing that would approach a hot day or even average for Ponyville standards but something easily manageable and perfectly relaxing for a tough pony like her.  

There was no snow falling anymore either, everything that buried her must’ve come during the night, so she could easily see the mountains in front of her and fly up through them without issue. Now that it was bright out though and she was so close she had a much better view of them than before. The one she was right at the foot of gently sloped up enough she could walk up it and the lower part was covered in pine trees that had the bottoms of their trunks covered up in freshly fallen snow.  

Feeling like she had flown enough the previous day, Rainbow Dash decided that she’d try walking up this mountain at first. After all, she’d only walked down a mountain before this. This thing wasn’t nearly as big as Mt. Everhoof either, should be easy. The stone that made up the mountain was dark though. Much darker than typical gray granite, almost black like obsidian although with the sturdiness and density of granite or quartz. Ice and snow covered the peak and the peaks of the other mountains in the range but there were plenty of rocky spots uncovered as well as plenty of trees that Dash could see from down here.

With one last shake of her back hooves to get the final bits of snow off she started her climb up the mountain. Perhaps there was a town or entire civilization nestled in the various valleys that lied between each peak, or hidden inside caves chiseled out of the mountains. If there was anything like that she’d find it.

She took a deep breath of the cool mountain air as she plowed on through the snow, the pine scent overpowering everything else around. Countless amounts of pine needles rested atop the snow, adding a second bit of crunch whenever she stepped her hooves down. It was an easy walk up so far with the trees dense enough that they obscured her vision of what lay higher up on the mountain. There was probably a pass or way to walk around or up it completely, depending on what she chose, and if not then she could always fly. At the moment it was a straight climb through the snow and forest of pine trees.  

The pegasus came to a spot that looked like the start of a trail winding up the mountain but it was currently blocked by a boulder. Whether it was placed there on purpose or had fallen from higher up she didn’t know. Regardless, it was no problem to her, and she flapped her wings once to hop over it and go higher up the mountain.

Here the path she was on was still snowy and lined with trees but it led to the valley directly behind this mountain and in-between the ones bordering it instead of just going straight up or spiraling around this first peak Rainbow Dash had stepped onto. Now with her slightly up the mountain she had a bit of a vantage point and could see what was coming next.

She stopped at a small ledge with a single large pine tree half growing out the side of the rocks, its twisted roots dangling in the open and the pine needles up above her head slightly frosted over. The pegasus looked out over the valley that sat between the various mountains in this area, seeing a wide forest partially covered in snow with a glacier in-between the two mountains directly north of her and a frozen river running from east to west through the middle of the mountain range. There were several small hills and frosted over rock formations inside the valley as well, contrasting with the perilous peaks of the mountains that rose up much higher in the sky.  

Rainbow Dash yawned and instead of walking down to the valley and wasting some time she opened up her wings and glided through the air towards it.  

She settled down in a clearing between the trees and started walking through the forest, the mountains casting long shadows on the valley thanks to the morning sun but also blocking out most of the wind. The only places that would be really windy right now were the air corridors higher up between the mountain peaks, down low like this there was currently no wind to speak of.  

And as a small scurrying sound reached her ears, Rainbow Dash looked over to see the first sign of life she had seen so far in the True North: a squirrel.

The small brown animal was running across the snow away from her, it must’ve been startled by her arrival. But the sight of it was still refreshing to Rainbow Dash. There were probably tons more animals in this hidden valley, along with all the food they would need to survive.  

Her hooves carried her deeper into the forest, it was never so dense that she couldn’t see the sky or feel the sun shining down on her but it was also never so thin that you could put a house down and settle anywhere without first chopping some of the trees down. She saw some movement to her right as she walked and was barely able to pick out a white fox running through the snow and into some bushes. The color of its fur would’ve made it difficult to spot were it not for her sharp eyes. Rainbow Dash grinned, her eyes were even better than a griffon’s she was willing to bet.  

Speaking of bushes though there were a number ahead of her as well with some red berries on them. Rainbow Dash trotted towards the bush and sniffed at the berries, they were practically completely frozen over but that didn’t diminish their sheen at all nor the tantalizingly sweet smell that came from them. Still, she frowned.

“Okay, what are the chances of these actually being poisonous?” Rainbow Dash grabbed a few off the bush and popped them into her mouth, smiling at the sweet taste. “Mmm, tasty!” She gulped their remnants down and grabbed a few more to eat as she walked through the forest. Thanks to her wings it was easy to carry stuff like that even without any bags.

Rainbow Dash was feeling very refreshed thanks to the surprisingly pleasant morning and now those berries—what was supposed to be so dangerous about this place again? She could even easily scoop up some snow whenever she got thirsty. Her hooves eventually brought her to the frozen river that spanned the valley and to her entertainment she saw that only the very top of the river was actually frozen and the water was still flowing beneath it.

“Cool,” she tapped the ice, creating a series of cracks in its thin membrane. It was good that she didn’t try to walk over it without stopping to look first or she would’ve broken right through and gotten soaked.  

But if it was only frozen this much in the first place then it was obviously not the coldest it could get here. Maybe this counted as fall or something when it was still only getting kind of cold for the True North. She looked across the river to the other side, a distance of less than twenty feet, and shrugged. Unfurling her wings to take her up and over the partially frozen river, Rainbow Dash decided to keep rising higher and go above the treetops on the other side as well. There could hardly be more to look at in this valley. She had already learned that there was indeed animal and plant life up here so that was one thing off the list that had been bothering her. The only thing left was to find some kind of civilization, which certainly would need her to travel a bit further for. Unless there really was some secret cave city or something in these mountains.

She wouldn’t find that either just by wandering around the valley though. Rainbow Dash continued flying higher and faster, going up towards a glacier that rested between two more peaks north of the valley. The forest of pine trees beneath her was left behind as she grinned, already thinking about her next destination. Whether it was something in these mountains or not she didn’t care so long as it was fun.

“There’s gotta be more stuff coming right up and I’m gonna find it!” She shouted out into the air. “Come on mountains, you’ve got more than some valley and foxes, right? If there were animals in here but nowhere else before it then something has to be up with this place!”

The howling wind around the higher portions of the mountains didn’t see fit to answer her and she kept flying towards the glacier without pause.





On a high mountain peak overlooking the valley from the east, a large outcropping jutted from the summit. The narrow rock ledge hung perilously over the air, piercing the low-flying clouds at the same time, and looked precarious enough that walking on it might crack the entire thing and send it all falling down in a landslide a thousand feet to the valley below. It would have been something experienced mountaineers would’ve avoided with caution when climbing the mountain.

And yet there was something standing on it.  

Perched right at the very tip where the ledge tapered off into a point no thicker than an ironing board, a great beast of ice stood and stared down at the valley. It was vaguely avian in appearance, with huge eagle like wings currently folded on its back and talons emerging from the ends of its skeletal limbs with a large and sharp beak of ice for a mouth. But it also had a long spine-like tail reaching behind its body that ended in a sharp spearpoint and a mohawk of ice spikes emerging from its head and cresting all the way to the base of its skull. Far longer but very thin spikes continued to emerge from its spine down its back, almost all the way to the thing’s tail.  

To anyone who saw it up close they would’ve assumed it to be an unmoving gargoyle made of ice. Its body no more than a skeleton of carved ice with ribcage exposed and no organs beating underneath.  

That would’ve been an incorrect assumption to make, however.

The movement of Rainbow Dash down below was all the trigger the ice gargoyle needed. From its empty eyesockets came a glowing blue light and the monstrous thing awakened.

Like the sound of cracking ice its wings shot open, revealing a wingspan greater than even the largest of griffons and feathers like razor blades of ice. The tail jolted behind it same as a snapping whip and with every other movement of the gargoyle more sounds of breaking and sliding ice screeched out into the sky around the mountain, a horrifying and eerie noise. Each individual talon opened and closed as if the thing was testing whether it could still move right and finally its head swiveled to the speck that was Rainbow Dash flying in the sky, her rainbow mane and tail easy to pick out even at a distance.

Whatever this “creature” was and for whatever reason it was here its glowing eyes were fixated on the flying pony.  

It stood up to fully reveal its skeletal frame made entirely of sharp and jagged ice in a facsimile of a living creature’s and then slouched over, putting all four of its talons at the tip of the ledge like a winged cat about to pounce. With another sound of shattering ice the gargoyle leaped from its perch into the sky, the force of its jump sending tremors through the stone and breaking the ledge apart, letting it all uncaringly fall down the mountain.

The wings of the gargoyle stayed spread wide, only fluttering slightly once or twice to keep its high altitude, as it glided over the valley towards Rainbow Dash.