On a flat tundra well below where Rainbow Dash was flying two armies were doing battle. Well, army might be stretching it a bit. The pegasus could see what looked like huge white wolves on one side and on the other there appeared to be smaller but far more numerous wolves of a more silvery complexion. The two sides faced off against one another for ages before finally a howl rang out across both sides and they charged. It was a vicious battle. Wolves were tossed into the air and thrown to the ground, piles of silver wolves jumped atop the white ones to bring them down and pummel them into submission. The white wolves grabbed the silver ones in their jaws and shook them like they were toys. For whatever reason these two different groups of wolves had to do battle with each other it was a brutal affair.
Rainbow Dash really wished she could’ve flown down there to get a closer look or even join the fray.
But she couldn’t. Because at the moment she was currently going through the worst cold of her life.
It was obviously the result of drenching herself back atop the mountain. The water and cold did a number on her even though she knew she had one of the strongest constitutions of any pony. Despite her being able to handle the cold pretty well even she had limits it seemed. She couldn’t even remember the last time she had gotten sick, much less as badly as this. She had made sure to dry herself off as fast as possible after the fight and remove all the ice but it was too late.
“Achoo!” She sneezed, a trail of snot dribbling from her red nose that she then tried to wipe away with the back of her hoof. Good thing Rarity wasn’t here to see this, she’d faint. Fluttershy too would probably overreact.
Besides her now runny nose Rainbow Dash’s head was pounding and her body was cold and shivering despite the warm sun being out and unobstructed by any clouds. She felt weak, exhausted, thirsty, could barely see straight, her throat was dry, and another sneeze was coming on any second.
“Achoo!”
There it was.
The ground below was now nothing more than a complete melee, lines and formations had disappeared and every silver and white wolf fought like a rabid animal. It was impossible to see which side was winning or if either side could even be said to be winning. Howls and yelps rang up from the tundra with enough frequency to drown out a thunderstorm. It reminded Rainbow Dash of when they had fought the Changelings back in Canterlot, and what an indiscriminate brawl that was. It didn’t seem like any of the wolves were retreating or running away, merely continuing to throw themselves at each other and fight until they had nothing left.
“This is so lame,” Rainbow Dash wheezed. Her voice was nasally and cracked thanks to the cold, she hated the sound of it, it lost all of its vitality and bluster.
She briefly glanced down even though it hurt her head to move it at all and looked through her heavy and red eyes to the battlefield. How she wished she could be involved in a battle like that or a fight of her own. The ice monster didn’t count since she couldn’t even really fight it the way she wanted to. It wasn’t a cool fight. She needed to really get up close and personal with a monster or some other pony and have a real hot-blooded bash. It was such a huge waste being too sick to do anything like that… what she wouldn’t give to fly down there and kick butt and start taking names.
A glob of snot dripped from her nose and fell into the raging horde of wolves below.
Rainbow Dash grimaced and wiped her nose again. “Gross.”
The pegasus flapped her wings lethargically as she flew over the battlefield, in no hurry at the moment. She just didn’t have the energy to go faster anyways and this was the coolest thing she had seen up in the True North so far. Would’ve been cooler if she knew why they were fighting and all that but at least it was something more entertaining than flying over the umpteenth mountain or another featureless plain of snow. This was something different again, something she hadn’t seen yet in the True North and something that would’ve been pretty darn rare down in Equestria and the lands around it. Big fights just didn’t happen in peaceful places.
Er, mostly.
A hazy feeling started filling up her head thanks to the cold and the physical activity she was forcing herself through. Not like she could actually stop now though. Setting down in the middle of that fight or anywhere remotely close to those wolves was probably a really bad idea. Maybe she should’ve just stayed put until the cold had passed and not tried flying at all today? But that would’ve been even lamer. She couldn’t even begin to think about letting this cold, no matter how bad it was, ground her for a whole day. No sickness short of the feather flu would do that to her.
She was probably just making things worse for herself like this but she didn’t care. A doctor would’ve said she needed plenty of bed rest but she would’ve just ignored him too. Rainbow Dash knew what she could handle. And she knew there was still so much more to see and no time to wait, she’d take going slow like this over going nowhere.
“Achoo!” She let out another, much more powerful, sneeze that wracked her entire body. “Ughhh, when’s this dumb cold gonna go away?” She shivered, her brow starting to drip with sweat and her head just being a mess. “Why’s it have to feel like I’m flying through mush?”
Her brain was beginning to turn off thanks to the cold and Rainbow Dash couldn’t tell thanks to her semi-conscious state but she was beginning to drop lower and lower in the sky.
Low enough for any wolves that happened to look up could see her.
The last of the huge white wolves was surrounded, injured, its breath came in heaves. A dozen silver wolves set upon it without hesitation and although the white wolf fought valiantly it was soon overtaken and brought down to the ground. Pummeled and bit into submission, the last silver wolves still standing climbed atop it and howled into the sky. They were victorious. For a given measure of the word what with how much it had cost and how few of them were left standing. The battle had taken a heavy toll on both sides.
Not that Rainbow Dash was even aware enough to tell that the battle was over. Her flight was erratic and her vision shot as the cold left her a complete mess with a head unable to think straight and a body unable to fly straight. It was almost more like a fever in some ways as it left her struggling to maintain a grip on reality and the waking world. Only she was cold instead of hot.
The silver wolves ended up seeing her well before Rainbow Dash realized she had flown within sight of them. Their sharp eyes narrowed and their howls turned into low growls as they watched the blue pegasus float above them, still far too high to jump up and reach. That didn’t stop them from becoming filled with rage at the sight of her. The few silver wolves left barked and ran after the sideways flying pegasus, mouths practically foaming as they wished they could reach her or that she would keep dipping down and land at some point.
“Ohhhh… my head...” Rainbow Dash groaned as the wolves barked at her, not cognizant enough to know just what that ruckus even was at the moment.
Through luck or muscle-memory, Rainbow Dash never fell completely to the ground. She continued to float on at a reasonable level in the sky as her cold worsened thanks to the activity she was forcing herself through while the wolves on the ground below barked and chased after her until she fully left the area of the battlefield.
“Achoo!” She sneezed one last time, not even bothering with wiping away the snot anymore. The rainbow pegasus’ eyes were watery and running even worse than her nose but she still didn’t close them enough to fall asleep.
Four silver wolves stood in the tundra and watched the oddly flying pegasus go away. It was a strange sight to them.
“Did something about that pegasus look a little off to you?” One of the wolves suddenly asked the one standing next to him.
“I think I heard her sneeze. Maybe she was sick?” He answered.
“She did sneeze,” another wolf said. His voice was gravelly and his fur had lost quite a bit of its luster compared to the other three he was standing with, signifying his advanced age. The wolf’s lips settled into a frown before he blew a puff of air out his nose. “She must’ve been out on reconnaissance when she caught a cold. It doesn’t matter. We always knew the pegasi were watching our battles to gauge our strength. Let them do what they will, our clans will face them as fearlessly as always.”
“Of course, War Chief!” The three other wolves said in unison… and then glanced at each other in surprise as if they didn’t expect that to happen.
The War Chief merely rolled his eyes at them and turned away from the shrinking dot of Rainbow Dash. “Come, we need to clean up and tend to our wounded.”