Rainbow Dash's Unstoppable Ego

by MagicS


The Invisible King

Rainbow Dash was flying through the empty sky with her eyes on the horizon. It was pretty much what she had been doing the past few days since she still hadn’t come across any sort of civilization since leaving the mountain range with Dust Bunny and the others. She sighed and sped up a little bit, she was still excited about what was coming up next but she just wished it would hurry up and get here already!

This day was even more boring than usual too since it was just an empty field of snow below her. After what happened last time, Rainbow Dash was making sure to keep close attention to the land she traveled over but so far hadn’t seen anything of note. It looked like another boring day for her. The exact kind of thing she was trying to avoid by coming to the True North.

Rainbow Dash lazily rolled over, watching the world turn upside down and then right side up. Maybe she could mess around and do some tricks and stuff to make the day of flying a little less boring. But that’d make her slower. Did she want to waste more time like that? Probably not.

“Come on, when’s my next adventure gonna be?” She said to the empty sky.

“Excuse me.”

“Gah!” Rainbow Dash jumped in midair, startled by the sudden voice coming from right next to her. “Where did you come from?!” She asked the pegasus stallion flying to her right.

“I was always here. But that isn’t important right now; my name is Harlequin Grey and I would like to speak with you,” he said to her.

Rainbow Dash raised a single eyebrow at the weird pony who had popped up out of nowhere. He was a powerfully built stallion of middle-age, with a navy blue coat and a lustrous midnight black mane and tail. His mane was slicked back on his head and despite the winds from their flying speed it didn’t budge or waver an inch like hers did. Strangely his flank was completely devoid of any sort of Cutie Mark, was it painted over? His eyes also looked silver to her at first but the next time she blinked they were magenta much like her own. She didn’t really know what to make of this guy.

“About what? Name’s Rainbow Dash by the way,” she told him.

“I already know. I just came to talk to you about this adventure you’re on,” he replied with a voice of pure stony impassiveness. The only sign that he had any emotion at all was the slightly furrowed eyebrows he had as he gazed at her.

She wasn’t sure how this guy knew her or anything. Was he one of the pegasi back at the Empire? Had he been chasing after her too? She didn’t recognize him, and he didn’t really act like one. “So what about it?”

“I would like to please ask you to stop and turn around and go back home to Equestria,” Harlequin Grey said.

“Pff!” Rainbow Dash couldn’t help it. “Hahahahaha! You’re joking right?”

She stopped flying to grab her belly, laughing at the stallion.

He stopped with her and fully turned to face her. “I don’t make jokes. I am completely serious. I would like you to go home.”

“Why?” She snorted, wiping away a tear.

“Because you’re causing problems and you’re going to keep causing even bigger ones the further you go,” he told her. “You’ve already brought so much chaos and harmony to places that should’ve been devoid of them, and you’ve caught the eye of something else even more problematic.”

“Dude, what are you even talking about?” The smile left her face and she frowned at the stallion, not liking what he was saying.

Harlequin Grey sighed in exasperation, as if bothered by the very fact he had to explain things to her. “The north should’ve been a calm and unchanging place outside the reaches of harmony and chaos and completely separate from the influence of Equestria. Your adventure up here has changed all of that. You bring both chaos and harmony with you everywhere you go and it’s very bothersome for me.”

“For you?” She narrowed her eyes. “And look, I’ve done nothing but try and help people out up here and find awesome stuff to do. So I don’t see what the problem is. And how do I bring chaos and harmony at the same time? That doesn’t even make any sense.”

“You bring a positive type of chaos equal to change that sets the foundation for harmony,” he told her, the words pretty much going over her head. “You’ve already upset a perfectly quiet and stagnant civilization that should’ve stayed that way.”

She knew what he was talking about there. “The Empire should not have stayed like that. I don’t care what you say, there’s no way what I did up here with them was a bad thing.”

“Just a matter of different opinions. I was hoping you wouldn’t be able to make it through that storm either and you’d get discouraged and turn back. But you’re rather resourceful.”

Rainbow Dash’s narrowed eyes widened back up as she realized something. “You’re the pony that giant guy was talking about that told him to set up his storm there aren’t you?”

He shrugged. “Possibly. It isn’t really important anymore, you’ve done a good job of destroying a lot of the hard work I’ve put in to keep the north as closed off and stagnant as possible. Even the Sentinels I helped Weathervane make are gone now because of you.”

Rainbow Dash lurched forward and grabbed him by the shoulders. “You made those things?! I oughta knock your teeth out.”

Harlequin Grey slipped out of her grasp like water and flew back a step. “Please, I would prefer not to fight. I dislike conflict and it would draw the attention of your obnoxious friend. Who I wish to avoid more than anyone.”

“Discord?” It was the most obvious choice to Rainbow Dash.

Harlequin Grey quickly looked over his shoulder and then back at her. “Please refrain from speaking his name in my presence.”

“Whatever,” Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and folded her hooves over her chest. “I’m still really mad right now you know? And there’s no way I’m stopping my adventure. I haven’t gotten to be awesome enough yet, I know there’s way more for me to do up here.”

“If you won’t listen to reason then perhaps you will listen to me when I say I’m here to warn you too you know.”

“What do you mean?” She tilted her head at him.

“Can’t you guess? You just read about that thing the other day.”

Rainbow Dash twitched slightly. “Oh. You’re talking about what happened with Gambien.”

“If you keep going north you’re going to regret it. Simple as that,” Harlequin Grey told her. His voice was as empty as ever but his eyes carried a harder look to them.

“Look, I’m not afraid of anything!” Rainbow Dash shouted at him. “And I’m not gonna stick my tail between my legs and fly home just because of whatever that was!”

“Whether or not that is the case or whether or not that has any point this is for your own good. It truly would be beneficial to the both of us if you simply went back home. Otherwise more and more problems will arise and you’ll only find yourself in more dangerous situations.”

“I like dangerous situations,” Rainbow Dash grinned. “That’s part of the whole point in coming up here!”

He rolled his eyes. “Yes, of course you do.”

She went back to frowning at him. “And another thing, I don’t know what your deal is but I don’t think I want to do anything that’s beneficial to you.” She flew right up to him and poked him in the chest. “I don’t trust you. Got that?”

“Very well,” Harlequin Grey clicked his tongue and he looked away from her. “If you want to be annoying like that then continue on your pointless adventure, the power of harmony that you carry causes nothing but problems for me...” His eyes wandered back to meet hers. “You truly aren’t satisfied with what you’ve already done?”

“No,” she glared at him. “And I’m not going home until I am totally satisfied. So you can just buzz off.”

Harlequin Grey sighed. “You ponies have always been good at agitating me. I’ll leave for now, but I still implore you to stop this nonsense. The north doesn’t need your Equestrian influence disrupting the pleasant stasis it’s been in for centuries.”

Before Rainbow Dash could reply to him he flew off high into the sky until he disappeared completely into the clouds. She kept her eyes on the last spot she saw him for another minute until she was totally sure he was gone, then she got ready to start flying back north.

“Yeah, get out of here you jerk,” Rainbow Dash muttered to herself and flew off to the horizon.