//------------------------------// // Rainbow Dash Rises II // Story: Rainbow Dash's Unstoppable Ego // by MagicS //------------------------------// Commander Blizzard’s attitude since earlier in the morning had… changed considerably. He stood inside his office, staring out the window at the city like he was oft to do, but for some reason his left eye wouldn’t stop twitching and he kept clenching and unclenching his hooves. His two most loyal Captains were standing silently behind him, the both of them incredibly worried for themselves after having come back to rendezvous with the Commander when they had seen the mass chaos unfolding in the city and worst of all learned that a certain mare from Equestria had escaped from her prison. Blizzard had so far said nothing to them nor acknowledged their presence at all even as things continuously got worse right outside the window. At last he lifted up one of his front legs, his hoof actually shaking, and took the helmet he had been wearing off his head, gently putting it down on his desk. With a large intake of breath he kept his eyes focused on all the erratic flights of pegasi soldiers going across the city and the parties being held on rooftops in blatant defiance of him. There was clearly so much more going on out there too. “I assume-” Blizzard suddenly said. “That this is at least partially the work of Rainbow Dash.” Neither Captain wanted to take the risk of speaking up so they waited until he continued. “But it’s not just her. So many of my pegasi are out there, ignoring their Commander, soldiers too are disregarding their orders. Everyone’s forgotten or thrown away what it means to be a true pegasus, what this Empire stands for, haven’t they?” The muscles on the entire left side of his face were twitching now, not just his eyes. “This was supposed to be the day. I had already had to deal with so many setbacks thanks to her stubbornness… but this was supposed to be the day where I had her. And where I could finally affirm our Empire’s existence and superiority. Why do they have to ruin it all? Why can’t everyone be as strong as me? Why is this city so full of filth?” “S-Sir?” West Wind finally had the courage to speak, gulping. “Should we do something?” The Commander continued to stand still, just staring out the window for a full minute. He then looked over his shoulder at the twins, his eyes completely empty. “Something? I already know what to do.” “Oh, well, that’s um… good,” East Wind tried to sound as casual as possible. “I want the two of you to go out and gather up your most loyal soldiers, forget about stopping the protests or arresting anyone, just get as many of them as you can and then come meet me at the Ice Sentinel control station. You’re going to guard it with them. And once you’ve arrived I’ll go to deal with Rainbow Dash and the rest of the dirt personally,” Blizzard told them. “I… see… is that all?” West asked. Blizzard nodded. “Yes, that’s all you have to do. I’m heading over to the station right now, get there as soon as possible.” He lifted a wing as he turned his head back and struck the ice window, shattering it completely and letting the wind from outside blow through his mane while the twins watched on in shock and confusion. “This way’s fastest.” Blizzard said as if explaining himself to them and flew out of his office in the direction of the station. The Captains were left behind to grimace at his unnerving behavior and attitude. But they couldn’t just stand there for much longer, they had their orders and they would follow them, regardless of anything else or the roiling feelings of turmoil and fear inside them. For better or for worse they were loyal soldiers of the Empire and Blizzard was their Commander. Rainbow Dash stood on top of the jail and flexed her wings, enjoying the wind whipping around her and the fresh air even as the storm was increasing in strength around the city. It felt good to be outside again for the first time in weeks. Now she could fly around wherever she wanted and do anything again. After dealing with Blizzard. First thing she really needed to do was meet up with her squad and figure out just what was going on in this city, since she was a bit out of the loop. All she knew for certain was that when Blizzard learned of this and her escape he’d come for her personally. “Hey! Rainbow Dash!” The mare heard the familiar voice yelling for her and looked down to see Summer Rains and the rest of her squad flying up from lower in the city to reach her. A grin broke out on her face as she waved back to them. It had been too long since she’d seen them. “Guys!” She yelled back, jumping off the roof of the jail to meet them halfway, when she reached them she gave a hoofbump to Summer Rains and looked at the rest. “Miss me?” “Partially,” Crescent Moon smirked while the party of eight hovered in the air. She snorted and rolled her eyes at him. “Yeah, yeah, so what’s going on? It looks like you guys really pulled off going nuts in this city.” “Well Elder Tornado told us that you didn’t exactly have much of a plan besides doing that and making Blizzard angry so we filled in the blanks,” Wild Wind said. “We’ve got soldiers, mares, workers, everyone you can think of, doing this. The soldiers loyal to Blizzard are outnumbered and don’t have a ghost of a chance at policing all this and stopping the protests.” “I’m worried that they’re just gonna start picking fights with the soldiers who are on our side though,” Clear Skies said. “Then we’ll just help them,” Fierce Current shrugged. “We figured there’d be some fighting we had to go through today anyways.” “And you can just leave Blizzard to me when he gets here,” Rainbow Dash confidently stated. The others though didn’t seem as confident. Looking at each other with worried gazes, it was clear they shared each other’s hesitance. Summer Rains bit his lip and spoke up. “Are you sure you don’t want us to help you fight him?” Rainbow Dash frowned. She wasn’t mad at them, and it was nice that they were concerned about her, it showed they cared, but she was still Rainbow Dash and she didn’t need anybody looking out for her. This was part of her big adventure and she needed to beat that jerk in a fight or she’d never be satisfied. And unlike them she had been through this kind of stuff before, and no offense to any of them, but she’d be more worried if they were trying to help her than if they had just stayed out of it. So all Rainbow Dash could do with that suggestion was shake her head. “Sorry guys, thanks for the offer but it’d be better if you did other stuff around the city. I dunno… go help protest? Trash the place? Take over that admini-whatever building and declare Blizzard’s rule over?” She shrugged. “Hey, it’s your city, not mine. What do you think you need to do for it?” Flashbolt thought for a second. “If that’s the case we should find Elder Tornado. I don’t think anyone would object to him being installed as interim leader. Also he’d probably have the best idea in general for getting this place back on its hooves.” “Agreed,” Wild Wind nodded. “He’ll probably be at the administration building, we should go there now.” Skychaser tapped him on the shoulder and pointed at one of the streets below them. “Or he’ll be walking through the streets right towards us.” All of them looked to where Skychaser was pointing and were pleasantly surprised to see the elderly councilor hobbling through the raucous streets towards the jail. He practically had to fight his way through all the civilian pegasi of the Empire crowding the streets, taking part in the demonstrations and protests even though they hadn’t been part of the initial rabble-rousers. It was a sign that this one day revolution was really successful. “He can’t fly, let’s go down to meet him,” Wild Wind said and led the way. The eight soldiers flew down, gliding above the streets in plain view so anyone could see the very special member of their group if they looked up, and naturally quite a few did. “Hey, that’s her!” “That’s the mare from Equestria!” “Rainbow Dash!” Ponies from all walks of life shouted up as they saw the rainbow-maned pony from Equestria. And Dash being Dash she just smugly smiled and waved, basking in the attention and glory. It felt good to help ponies like this. She had barely even tried and she had changed them so much for the better. Maybe she was even more awesome than she thought? Things were about to get even better too once she defeated Blizzard. It took them just a second to reach Tornado, he had seen them coming and greeted them with a warm smile. “Did Dusty let you out or did there still have to be a break-in?” “Naw, he let me out,” Rainbow said to him. “Course then he said he was gonna hole-up in the jail and wait for all this to blow over.” She shrugged. The group of soldiers landed in the middle of the street with the crowds of civilians parting to give them all room to talk with each other. Ponies watching on and whispered as the amazing mare from Equestria met with one of their most well-known Elders. Tornado checked out the onlookers himself, quite pleased with what was going on, “Things are turning out far better than I ever expected them to,” he said. “True enough, but what do we do now?” Crescent Moon asked. “We were just talking about how we bring order—the right kind of order—back to this city. Where do we go from here? Obviously things are going to have to change quite a bit and I honestly don’t even know where to start.” “Aren’t we getting a little ahead of ourselves here? We still need to actually stop Blizzard whenever he decides to finally try and take care of things himself,” Fierce Current said. Elder Tornado chewed on his lip as he thought. “I think we do need to root out all his loyalists before any real change can be made. But Fierce is right, Blizzard has to be defeated first, and the city needs to see it for sure. Right now everyone is just rioting and partying in defiance of him and that’s not going to stop until Blizzard is clearly beaten and removed from power. Rainbow Dash will also probably need to be seen free by everyone, with her popularity and how all of this started thanks to her she’s the symbol we need to unify everyone and make something constructive out of this revolution.” “But again this is all a pipe dream until Blizzard is out,” Flashbolt said. “Yes, so let’s lure him over here as quickly as possible,” Tornado agreed. Rainbow Dash shrugged and floated up into the air. “Hey, that’s what I always had planned from the beginning. I’ll fly around over here and be as loud and visible as possible. I know he’s not gonna be able to resist coming to try and put me in my place again!” “And meanwhile the rest of us will deal with any other soldiers that come,” Wild Wind said. “Or anything really,” Summer Rains added. “Yeah,” Rainbow Dash nodded. “Let’s do this!” Gale was not totally oblivious to what was happening outside (since the large ice window allowed him a good view of a large portion of the city) but he was firmly telling himself “That’s not my problem” as he paced back and forth inside this little control center for his vaunted and expertly taken care of Ice Sentinel crystals. Although he couldn’t help but be a little distracted when he started seeing a streak of rainbow flying off in the distance every now and then. It was obvious what that was. He may have been sympathetic to her and her little cabal but he had his duties too that he took quite a bit of pride in. Besides, it’s not like he could really do anything. He was willing to sit this out and see who won the day. Blizzard wasn’t nice but he wasn’t that bad either and Gale didn’t exactly want to take a stand against him, he just didn’t want to get involved. However he was about to get very involved. Commander Blizzard himself suddenly threw open the doors to the crystal room, causing Gale to jump up in shock. “C-Commander?!” His voice cracked and a second later he cleared his throat in an attempt to sound normal. “What are you doing here, er, sir?” The Commander completely ignored his question and walked over to the Ice Sentinel crystals, looking over and inspecting all twenty-nine of them briefly. “A-Ah, of course, you needed something with the Ice Sentinels? I would be happy to help you,” he smiled and did his best to not sweat. It was quite the paranoid coincidence that Blizzard would barge in when he was thinking about that stuff. “Filth.” Gale’s smile cracked. “Pardon?” Blizzard again seemingly ignored him and went to the crystal for Ice Sentinel number one, looking down at some of the other stands his eyes briefly settled on the empty one where the crystal for the Sentinel Rainbow Dash destroyed formerly stood. Blizzard’s face twitched and he turned his attention back to the number one crystal, lifting up a hoof to gently touch it. “All the filth in this city… there’s nothing else that can be done. It’s broken. It can’t be fixed, only rebuilt.” “S-Sir?” Gale’s eyes shifted back and forth, something about the Commander making him very uncomfortable. This time the Commander did slowly turn his gaze to Gale. “All of the Sentinels are still in perfect condition? They’re working as intended?” “Um, yes, yes they are. Why? Do you wish to change where they are positioned?” He asked. “No. I will be calling them to the city,” Blizzard said as he looked down at the crystal and deftly rubbed his hoof in a circle on it. Gale watched as the crystal glowed with a bright light and then flashed several times, the flashes increasing in speed until the glowing stopped and the crystal seemingly returned to normal. Then Blizzard moved onto the next one. Despite the fear inside of him and how he was fairly certain he didn’t want to hear the answer, Gale swallowed and asked Blizzard. “But… why are you having the Sentinels leave their guardposts and bringing them here?” “It has to be done,” Blizzard said, his cold and empty eyes returning to nail Gale onto the spot. “There is no hope for the Empire anymore. You’ve turned your backs on the true way, you all will get what you deserve now.” His eyes suddenly filled with anger. “So fine. I’ve been driven to this, if this is the future of the Empire then you can all be buried in ice and I’ll start it over again. Somehow, someway. At the very least the filth will not be allowed to continue, I will not have this Empire and everything it stands for sullied. It shall not take on the vile ways of Equestria. And the weak pegasi that have brought it to this state will meet their end along with it.” He touched the second crystal and made it go through the same business before going to the third one. “The Sentinels will be the instrument of my retribution. Once they arrive here they will lay waste to the city and all the disgusting pegasi in it.” Gale’s jaw dropped. “You can’t possibly—I mean, that’s just crazy! You’re going to unleash our own Sentinels on the thousands of pegasi that live in this city?!” “Yes,” Blizzard instantly and unflinchingly responded. He paused before he activated the third crystal. “Unless you’re going to stop me?” The yellow pegasus stiffened up, eyes darting between Blizzard’s back and the window. He had to get out of here, had to warn someone. His fence-sitting was over with. Perhaps it was some sort of perverse irony considering what he had only minutes earlier been musing but Gale definitely had a side he was on now and something very important to do for them. With a lunge he flew towards the window and covered his face with his hooves, breaking through the ice with a yelp of pain and flying out across the city towards Rainbow Dash. He beat his wings as hard as he could, there was no time to waste. Commander Blizzard didn’t watch him go or pay Gale any mind, all he did was keep giving new orders to each Sentinel, telling them to come to the city. Out at the western border of the Empire, one of the Ice Sentinels suddenly lurched from its stationary position. Crackling and creaking it stretched its body out and spread its wings, an ominous and evil glow coming from its eye-sockets. The whip-like tail cracked behind it. The razor sharp feathers on its wings shifted. It opened and closed each of its talons and cracked its jaw to make sure everything still moved right. Finally it lifted its head and let out a bellowing roar. “KRRRAAAAOOOOOWWW!” The ice monster shot up from the ground and turned—flying east towards the city of pegasi.