//------------------------------// // True Pegasus II // Story: Rainbow Dash's Unstoppable Ego // by MagicS //------------------------------// A total of nine pegasi floated among the clouds in the sky. All but one a stallion and wearing armor that was far out of date in certain other parts of the world. It would’ve been the kind of sight Twilight Sparkle would’ve been eager to study and dissect. The clouds had been gently dispersing ever since the arrival of the Commander and were now at a state where a large hole existed in them that let the sun shine all the way to the ground below, casting the shadows of nine ponies on the tundra. Most of the pegasi were in a state of worry or confusion or were busy trying to ignore the injuries they had just sustained in an effort not to look weak in front of their Commander. Only the Captain and the Commander seemed to have themselves together and on the inside the Captain was just as worried and full of questions as the others. Rainbow Dash currently was being held in one hoof by the nape of her neck as her body stayed limp and unconscious after the strike to her head from the Commander’s powerful wing. He regarded her with a blank expressions as he held her, quiet so far and with seemingly no intention to break that quiet while his subordinates squirmed about. His eyes looked over her face, her mane and tail, her hooves, and lingered on her Cutie Mark, inspecting every bit of her. The others had no idea what had him so interested with a simple pegasus mare, regardless of what she had just done or not. Finally Captain East Wind decided to break the silence. “Commander, sir? What do you wish to do with that pony?” “She’s from the south,” he said, not answering his captain’s question. “I knew it the moment I saw her.” East Wind’s eyes widened in surprise and he looked between the large Commander and Rainbow Dash. “The south? As in… that south? I see, that’s why you called her traitorous...” The other pegasi were now clamoring on the inside for more answers themselves, not having the rank or station to interrupt or speak up. Questions roiled about in all of them. “Equestria,” the Commander said and narrowed his eyes at the limp Rainbow Dash. He then tossed her into the hooves of Captain East Wind and turned back the way he came, flapping his great wings for some altitude. “Sir?” East Wind questioned. “I’m returning to the city ahead of you. Bring her,” he answered without looking back. His great wings totally unfurled as his body flexed and got ready, angling his head low for maximum aerodynamicness. A second later there was a thunderclap as he sped away with a powerful burst from his wings, instantly nothing more than a dot on the horizon to the seven other soldiers. The others watched in awe as it was a power and speed they could only dream of. Captain East Wind looked down at the mare now in his arms and grimaced. He motioned for two of his soldiers to come over and take her. “Hold onto her and make sure she can’t get away when she wakes up. Things have gotten far more serious than we thought.” She could feel the wind brushing against her. Ruffling her mane and tail. It was still a light breeze, nothing like if she were flying through the sky, more like what she would feel on a lightly windy day if she was sitting around and napping outside somewhere. Why was everything dark though? Where was she? She remembered flying and then being stopped by some guys and- Rainbow Dash’s eyes snapped open to see clouds and the ground passing by below her as her head hung facing the ground. She tried to move only to find herself being held by two of those soldier pegasi she had just beaten up. Struggling for a second got her nowhere, her wings were stuck against her sides and they both had their hooves wrapped around her forelegs. Transporting her like she was some kind of bound up criminal. “Oh, what? I got caught? Lame!” Rainbow Dash angrily exclaimed. She tried elbowing the two pegasi, one of which was the one she kicked in the chin, but they didn’t give her the pleasure. Her head was pounding something fierce too. Not like the dull throbbing all around like her headache; a sharp pain right in the middle of her forehead. Rainbow Dash ground her teeth as she pictured that big wing coming right at her face. It was the last thing she remembered before waking up just now. “Welcome back to the waking world.” Rainbow Dash looked ahead to see Captain East Wind glancing over his shoulder at her. She glared at him. “Yeah, thanks. What the hay is wrong with you guys and why are you doing this? Let me go!” “For multiple reasons that’s not an option,” he looked away from her and went back to facing his head forward. “For your peace of mind however the simplest explanation I can give you for your detainment is that you’ve destroyed something very important and irreplaceable to us. That alone requires punishment.” “That thing attacked me first! What do you expect me to do?” Rainbow Dash reasoned. “Not invade our territory,” the Captain replied. “Huh?” The second time in a short span that she had simply been reduced to saying that. “Speak to the Captain with more respect, you cur!” Rainbow Dash glanced up to see the whispering pony flying above her. The second in command? She snorted. “Make me!” That made him pretty angry and it looked like he was about to strike her when the Captain called out from in front of them. “Stop quarreling! Just keep on your flights, we’ll likely have quite a bit to do when we get back to the city.” The angry whisperer grumbled a bit to himself but flew away from Rainbow Dash all the same. That left her to think about everything that had been said recently. Territory? Empire? And these guys had military ranks and everything. It looked like she had accidentally stumbled across something really big. There was also what the big guy said; calling her an inferior pegasus and a traitor. That still burned her but it left her more confused now than anything. And he wasn’t even here anymore for her to chew him out. “Hey, who was that big guy?” She asked the Captain. Not speaking with anymore respect than she had been. It looked like he might’ve been ignoring her again but then he glanced back at her with one eye and answered. “That was Commander Blizzard. Leader of all military forces in our Empire.” “So I met the head honcho just like that? Cool. You should tell him he’s a jerk though.” “How dare you!” The whisperer flew right in front of her face and stuck a caramel hoof out at her. “You think you can speak about our Commander in that way?!” “Yep,” Rainbow Dash blew one of her bangs out of her eye. “Who are you, pal?” “I am Lieutenant Crescent Moon. And you should be addressing and treating me and the rest of us with far more respect than you’re showing!” “Well I’m Rainbow Dash and I say you should be treating me with way more respect. I’m not the one who started this you know?” “Technically you are,” East Wind said from the front. “But enough of this for now. Like I said, Lieutenant, stop the quarreling.” He affixed a stern gaze to his underling until he flew away from Rainbow Dash with an upset frown. “And you-” He said to Rainbow Dash with a little more force than usual. “Should take Commander Blizzard coming to deal with you personally as a sign that things are rather serious. Not just what you’ve done but what you are...” The Captain trailed off to leave Rainbow Dash just as confused as before. They clearly had something else against her but she didn’t know what. Her mind was still processing the fact that there was an entire society of pegasi up here in the True North. What did they call it? The Eternal Pegasus Empire? She may not have known much but what she did know for sure was that nobody down in Equestria knew about this. How long have they been up here? If their armor was any indication they might’ve been founded all the way back in Flash Magnus’s and Commander Hurricane’s day. “So where are you guys taking me?” She asked. She probably could’ve gone off about being the friend of a Princess of Equestria and an Element of Harmony but she didn’t know how they’d react or if they’d even know or care about any of that. And she didn’t really like using her friends or any titles to get her way. If she wanted someone’s respect she’d get it by being awesome on her own. “Pegasopolis, our city.” East Wind replied. If she could’ve shrugged she would’ve. “Alright. Lead the way I guess.” And so they did. For near another hour the squad flew through the clouds, no longer interrupted by any conversation or silly spats. These pegasi flew far too slowly for Rainbow Dash’s taste. Even the slowest Wonderbolt could’ve flown circles around them. Hay, even the average pegasus she knew from Equestria could probably outfly them. Maybe the armor slowed them down but thinking back to how easily she trounced them even that couldn’t explain it all. Blizzard had dodged her punch though… he must’ve been really different from the rank and file soldiers. The average pegasus from Equestria certainly couldn’t do that. Not when she was going all out. There wasn’t much else to think about as they flew but soon the clouds began to break and the Captain looked back at her. “We’re here.” Rainbow Dash looked as they came out of the clouds into a large and open realm in the sky. Still hundreds of feet above the ground, what dominated her view now was a large snow-capped mountain at the northwest corner of this space with its back pressed against a column of clouds that seemed to stretch into the stratosphere. It was weird that she hadn’t seen the bottom of this mountain at all when she was flying earlier. As she blinked and really took in the mountain’s appearance she soon realized why that was the case though. Rainbow Dash’s eyes widened and her jaw dropped in shock. The mountain was flying. Or to be more precise it was floating. Floating on top of a huge bed of clouds that stretched across the entire bottom of the mountain, keeping it elevated hundreds of feet up and disguised from the bottom. Inside a huge ocean of clouds like it was you’d never be able to see it from the outside. It was some pretty crazy pegasus magic that was responsible for this, Rainbow Dash could tell. All over the side of the mountain facing her was a pegasus city built entirely from clouds much like Cloudsdale. Although besides that the two of them couldn’t even be compared. The size of this city completely dwarfed Cloudsdale or any other pegasus city in Equestria and the majesty of its buildings and architecture further put it to shame. It was all of a classical design from what Rainbow Dash could see. Arches and pillars were the predominant feature and most buildings didn’t go above five or six stories at the highest but most had the clouds done in a way to replicate the appearance of stone walls and tiled roofs. It really was a huge sprawling city that spread out well past the mountain and into open air, held up by more beds of cloud. Rainbow Dash would’ve thought something like this was pretty awesome back in Equestria. Getting a whole mountain to float and building a city on it? She should bring that idea back to Celestia when she got home. “Woah. So this is where you guys live?” “Yes. Behold the grand city of Pegasopolis, apex of the Eternal Pegasus Empire,” Captain East Wind said, a small measure of pride emerging from his subdued voice. As they got in closer Rainbow Dash kept looking around to try and take it all in. She saw numerous pegasi flying about with most of them wearing the same armor as these soldiers. But her eyes were also able to make out some wearing what looked like togas and plenty not wearing anything at all. It almost looked like a normal pegasus city in some ways. Her captors took her in at a low angle towards the bottom of the mountain where a wide and mostly empty plateau of clouds sat connecting to the rest of the city. A staging grounds of some sort or some kind of arrival and departure zone. There were roads leading down to it from the city and some small buildings built along its interior edge that looked like storehouses. “So like… when we land where are you guys taking me?” She asked. But none of them answered, they all just followed their Captain as he took them to their landing zone. The seven stallions (and one captive mare) slowed down as they got closer and Rainbow Dash could see another group of armored ponies waiting for them right where they were going to land. The hooves of all the pegasi softly touched down on the clouds as if it was dirt and grass for regular ponies. The two pegasi holding Rainbow Dash still kept a tight grip on her, making sure she didn’t escape. One of the pegasi from the group waiting for them walked forward and Rainbow Dash had to do a double-take when she saw him. He was like an exact replica of Captain East Wind. A twin brother? Another pegasus walked up with him carrying some hoof-cuffs and a chain with a lock. “So this is her?” The twin of East Wind asked his brother while looking over at Rainbow Dash. “Commander Blizzard came back and told us to wait for your return.” East Wind nodded. “Yes, it’s her. You can restrain her now. Did he leave us with any other orders?” “Restrain me?” Rainbow Dash narrowed her eyes and tried to muscle her way out of the hold of the soldiers. “Ngh! Let go!” The Captain and his twin ignored her as they continued their conversation. “He did,” the twin said and then added with a minor amount of hesitation. “He said he wanted us to bring her to the council chambers immediately.” East Wind’s eyebrows shot up into his helmet. “I… see. Well there’s no time to waste then. Chain her and we’ll head there immediately.” “No one is chaining me!” Rainbow Dash fought harder against the soldiers as the other one carrying the cuffs came around to her. She elbowed, bit at, kicked, and tried to open up her wings and either fly off or smack them with them. Unfortunately the numbers were against her. It took three more of them to help but they did eventually fit the cuffs onto her forehooves and wrapped the chain tightly around her barrel, making it impossible for her to spread her wings. With a click the lock was put in place and Rainbow Dash was truly their prisoner.