//------------------------------// // True Pegasus V // Story: Rainbow Dash's Unstoppable Ego // by MagicS //------------------------------// Things were dark and noisy in Rainbow Dash’s mind. Her consciousness slipped back and forth between slightly registering the world around her and being completely asleep. In any regard it was nothing but a cavalcade of shapes and sounds blooming inside her head, some familiar and some not, most of it just random and chaotic. How long had she been like this? She thought she might’ve been moving at times but her body felt so disconnected from her mind it was like if she was occasionally being pulled by puppet strings through a pool of mud. Everything was off, and slow, and muffled. She didn’t know why, she couldn’t remember why, and her mind was so fractured and confused she wasn’t even aware what was going on most of the time or that this wasn’t normal. It was a dreamlike state without a real dream going on. Just a mess in her head and impossible for her to realize she was dreaming or stuck in this world of ambiguity. “Waaa heee uuuu.” The muffled noises from outside her world stirred the pegasus slightly. There was something going on. Something that didn’t have to do with the chaos in her unconscious mind. Her sleep and dreaminess was being interrupted, forcefully broken. Movement then. She felt herself being cajoled in her sleep, the puppet strings were pulling her all over. It felt like her mind and body were speeding up and she could feel her hooves and wings wildly shooting out all over the place as they attempted to find something familiar and make her feel right. “Wake her up!” Things were getting rougher and more coherent now. Rainbow Dash felt a hard shove against her body and her head suddenly fell back as if something that had been supporting it was suddenly taken away. She slowly opened her eyes as her body rose from being knocked out cold by Commander Blizzard. Everything was still a blur in front of her, she could only barely make out some fuzzy shapes as she blinked a few more times to get her eyes to focus. She realized she was lying on a bed and several ponies were standing around her. Along with a familiar caramel face looking down at her with a smile. “Welcome to your new home,” Lt. Crescent Moon said to her. Rainbow Dash frowned and propped herself up on her elbows. She was still tired and confused and her head was throbbing. She blinked a couple of times and rubbed the spot where she had been hit with her wing. “Ughhh, do you mind filling me in on some things?” She heard the Lieutenant snort but he answered anyways. “It’s the morning after your match with Commander Blizzard. You’ve been asleep since then.” “I got knocked out again? That’s so lame...” Rainbow Dash lamented. She was really annoyed about losing that fight but she had some more pressing issues to attend to. Like where she was and what exactly was going on now. The blue pony looked over her body and noticed that much to her joy she at least wasn’t chained up or cuffed. A welcome change from how she spent so much of yesterday. Her eyes then traveled over Crescent Moon as she really looked at him for the first time. The lieutenant wasn’t wearing his armor and it allowed his curly brown mane to fall down around his face and left his Cutie Mark visible to the world. A half moon, not a crescent like Rainbow Dash would’ve expected. Her eyes didn’t linger on it for long as they were then drawn to all of the other ponies that were standing right behind Crescent Moon and watching her. Other soldiers. They regarded her with a mixture of curiosity and nervousness, as if unsure whether or not they should even be looking at her. Like Crescent Moon, none of them had their armor on at the moment. He said it was the morning so maybe they were all getting ready? That brought Rainbow Dash back to wondering where she was and why though. As she looked around at the building she was in she saw that it was a fairly narrow but long building with a row of bunk beds on each side of the wall. Except for where she was. Rainbow Dash was sitting on a single bed placed against the back wall of the building, making her the odd one out. “Okay, I’ll bite. Where am I?” She asked Crescent Moon again. “This is one of our barracks. Commander Blizzard has assigned you to my squad. It’s where you’ll be living for the foreseeable future,” he smirked at her. Rainbow Dash scowled at him. “Good to know.” Crescent Moon shrugged and began to walk away from her bed, the soldiers quickly shuffling about and creating two lines alongside the rows of beds. “Perhaps one day you’ll have a home of your own like all the other soldiers, but for now the Commander wants you to be a resident of the military barracks. Until he’s satisfied that you’ve embraced our way and will be loyal to him and our Empire.” “Dude, I’m just gonna tell you right now that that isn’t happening,” Dash lifted an unconvinced eyebrow at him. “I’m sure you’ll come around eventually,” Crescent Moon wasn’t shaken by her resolute words. “You’ll see that this is the perfect pegasus society. That our way of doing things is the right way and far superior to how the pegasi in Equestria live.” “That’d mean a lot more if you guys actually knew anything about Equestria. But you clearly don’t.” He spun around, slightly annoyed now. “It doesn’t matter. I know in my heart that this is the society for true pegasi! And nothing can beat that! We’ve lived this way, maintaining the culture of our ancestors for generations, the pegasi in Equestria who have turned their backs on that can’t possibly be right. When you finally realize that it’ll be all the proof I or anyone else needs. A pegasus mare from Equestria who fully embraces the Empire and throws away her old beliefs after living in both worlds? It will be the affirmation of everything the Eternal Pegasus Empire stands for.” Rainbow Dash shook her head after listening to his ranting. She could hardly stand this kind of stuff from anyone, she was a pony who preferred actions to words after all. “Look, whatever, you can believe all that stuff and I’ll just keep doing my thing and being awesome. Then we’re both happy.” “Fine. It’s not like there’s anything you can do here but listen to us anyways,” Crescent Moon huffed. She ignored the potential to get into another argument with him (with great difficulty) and moved her eyes to the soldiers now standing at attention and attempting to act like they weren’t listening to this entire conversation. “So then who are these guys and why were they looking at me like… er, like I was a pony from Equestria… never mind.” “These soldiers make up my squad. And since you are now in my squad they are your direct comrades. And it’s not just because you’re from Equestria. Mares aren’t normally allowed in the military, the Commander has made an exception for you for obvious reasons,” Crescent Moon answered. “No mares?!” Rainbow Dash hopped off her bed in disbelief, luckily the night of rest had taken care of most of the latent pain from her fight. “That’s dumb! I’d have gone totally crazy back in Equestria if they didn’t let mares in the Wonderbolts!” “I’m assuming these Wonderbolts are some sort of elite military group? Either way I care little and less about that. This is the way we do things up here,” Crescent stuck up his nose at her. “Missing out. I bet there are a ton of mares here that could kick butt just as well as these guys. I mean, if they all fight as well as you and those others who came out to catch me that’s not a very high bar, but still,” Dash shrugged. “That’s not the point,” the Lieutenant scowled. “Mares and stallions have their own roles. That’s how it’s always been and that’s how it shall always be.” “Lame!” Rainbow Dash shook her head. These guys were more old-fashioned than the most smarmy and snobbish families in Canterlot. She really wanted to argue more about this and so many other things but this guy was so thickheaded. They’d all probably just be sticking their heads in the clouds. Now that Crescent told her that though, Rainbow Dash thought back to the coliseum and the administrative building and realized that she wasn’t sure if she had seen a single mare there. They really did keep things separate if that was the case. “It is not lame. Either way you should consider yourself blessed for this opportunity. Now morning training will begin shortly, put on your armor and get yourself acquainted with the rest of the squad and then file out to the training clouds,” her new commanding officer began walking away again until Rainbow Dash called out to him. “Hey! What armor?” She threw her arms wide open as she hovered above the floor with her wings buzzing. Crescent Moon stopped once more to roll his eyes and made a half-turn, pointing his wing at something under Rainbow Dash’s bed before going back to walking his way out of the barracks. Rainbow Dash frowned but looked under her bed to see a large trunk sitting there. “Oh.” She said and pulled it out, wheezing with some effort as she managed to put the heavy trunk on top of her bed and open it up. With a click the trunk unlatched and opened to reveal her own set of armor and helmet exactly like the ones the other soldiers wore. All silvery and pleated at the end. Rainbow Dash had had enough practice with wearing this kind of stuff and seeing how it works that she knew how to put it on without any help. It was pretty cool she had to admit, she always thought Flash Magnus was an awesome hero and now she got to wear armor basically identical to his? She was gonna love talking to him about all this stuff when she got back to Equestria. As she finished strapping her armor on and checking to make sure it was all in good condition (it fit surprisingly well) she closed her trunk back up and put it under her bed. With a crack of her neck she grinned to herself and looked back over to the other soldiers of her “squad” to see how they were doing. All of them were standing around staring at her. “Okay, you guys really need to stop doing that. Is this seriously so weird for you?” Rainbow Dash asked with a flat expression on her face. Now that she counted there were six of them total, not near enough to fill up this barracks that looked like several dozen could sleep in it every night. Obviously multiple squads must use it. Which means she was probably going to get this treatment again and again. “Don’t you need to get ready too?” That seemed to snap them out of their fugue. The other soldiers that made up her new squad quickly scrambled to pull out their trunks and get their armor equipped, although none of them looked particularly keen on saying hi to her yet. So Rainbow Dash decided she might as well try to start up some conversation. “It’s cool that you guys already had armor for me. It fits really well.” “It wasn’t for you—not specifically at least,” one of the pegasi soldiers said. His voice came out quick and his eyes only once nervously darted to her before looking back at his own armor, but he continued. “It’s our smallest size armor. For stallions of a scrawnier build.” Rainbow Dash grinned. “Thanks for letting me know. And so you guys can talk to me, huh?” The six stallions shuffled about awkwardly at having been put on the spot like this. The one that had previously spoken was nudged by the solider standing next to him and sighed, resigned to the fact that he was now being made their temporary voice after having talked to her already. “We’re just not exactly used to this. In many ways. You’re also very different from how mares here are.” “Well there’s no one quite like me back in Equestria either. There’s just not enough awesome in the world for that. But hey, if we’re supposed to be friends or squadmates or whatever from now on we have to get along don’t we? This is weird for me too you know?” Rainbow Dash walked up to the six and pressed a wing to her now armored chest. “Name’s Rainbow Dash by the way in case nobody told you.” “The Lieutenant told us. And we were there to watch your fight with the Commander,” the solider said. “We had never seen anyone fight the Commander like that. We didn’t think anyone else could do something like that, especially not a mare from Equestria.” “Oh. Thanks,” Dash frowned at him. The soldier winced in embarrassment and shifted his eyes around. “My apologies, I didn’t mean anything by that. We’re just brought up to see mares and Equestrians in a different light.” Rainbow Dash was about to speak up further on that when another one of the soldier’s coughed to get their attention. Her “friend” perked up and looked at her. “I’m sorry, we need to get to morning training. Come outside with us and we can talk on the way. My name is Summer Rains, the rest of the introductions can come later.” Rainbow Dash shrugged. “Alright, lead the way.” Summer Rains gave her a nod of acknowledgment and he led the other soldiers of the squad to the door at the end of the building. Was he maybe the second-in-command? Rainbow Dash wasn’t sure. She wasn’t even sure what rank these soldiers were. Privates probably. So wait. Was she officially a private now? She hadn’t been thinking about it but it was pretty cool to hold an actual military rank. Even if it was for a place like this and in a military she technically didn’t belong to at all. Whatever, she could talk to Crescent Moon about it next time she saw him. Another thing occurred to her as they went to make their way to the training area outside. She looked at her sides and flexed her wings, they were in perfect condition. She wasn’t chained or cuffed anymore and she knew the skies around the city were open. I could just fly away… She thought. It was the easy and simple solution. There wasn’t a single pony here who could catch her if she was serious. Except for maybe Blizzard. But would he be willing to leave for who knows how long just to chase her down? The thing is she knew exactly why he was allowing her this freedom and making it so easy for her to just fly off and leave the Empire. Because he knew she wouldn’t. Rainbow Dash narrowed her eyes as she walked behind the soldiers. Blizzard had gotten a good read on her personality, she was way to stubborn to just fly off after getting beaten and humiliated like that. Furthermore she’d be turning her back on an adventure. This was basically what she wanted up here, wasn’t it? Where would be the fun in just leaving? There was also the fact that this place was just… wrong. She wanted to change things in the Empire. And Twilight would probably be a little bit cross with her if she left a society of ponies like this without helping at all or opening them up to the magic of friendship. Yeah, there was no way she was just flying away. This was her adventure. In a large room on the highest floor of the administration building that held the Elder council chambers, Commander Blizzard stood looking out the window made of ice at the city below. His city the way he saw it. Rule by the strong was their rule and he was the strongest around, he merely had no penchant or patience for the day to day affairs of running the city and what that entailed. So the Commander allowed the Elders to do their thing and he did his thing. But things had been getting strained lately. More and more often the Elders, especially Tornado, were showing their disdain for him and their weariness of his increased aggression towards the Frost Wolves, increased hardcore training and longer shifts for the common soldiers, increased patrols and greater presence of the military across the city. They didn’t see the point of it all. They didn’t like what he was doing. To Commander Blizzard it showed him they were weak and didn’t truly believe in the pegasus way. “Fortune has finally smiled on me,” he said as he stared past the columns at the front of the building down the side of the mountain in the direction of the base he had sent Rainbow Dash to. “Sir?” East and West Wind both said at once, the twins standing behind him at attention. “Nothing,” Commander Blizzard waved his most loyal subordinates off. “Just saying that that mare’s arrival here is a blessing. She’s exactly what I need to wake all of these fools and cowards up.” East and West shared an uncertain glance with each other—they knew how bad it would be if other soldiers were privy to Commander Blizzard’s innermost thoughts and feelings. Everything he said about affirming their culture was true and honest, but it masked the deeper resentment and contempt he felt for any pegasus who didn’t match up to his impossibly high ideals. “Demilitarization. What an absolute joke. What a betrayal of everything our ancestors stood and struggled for,” Blizzard said, his eyes narrowing and his jaw clenching with every word. The Captains wisely said nothing as their commander’s anger grew. “They’ve tried flying that idea by me for ages now. They want things to change. Well no more. Rainbow Dash will be my tool that will quiet those voices and dissent forever. No one will have a wing to fly on after seeing a filthy pegasus from Equestria fully embrace our ways. Then we can do something so much more than just play at war with the Wolves and other lowly creatures up here.” West Wind was now too curious to remain totally silent, regardless of the potential outcome he opened his mouth. “Sir? So you do intend to find our brothers and sisters to the south and turn them onto the true pegasus way?” “Of course,” Blizzard said as he looked over his shoulder at the disruptive twin. “And damn the cost.” “That will likely mean all out war with Equestria...” West Wind gulped. Commander Blizzard did not share his worries. “I can only hope.”