//------------------------------//
// And Yet Further North 
// Story: Rainbow Dash's Unstoppable Ego 
// by MagicS 
//------------------------------//

Rainbow Dash crashed into the snow far north of Ice Valley, creating a huge trench in the drift she “landed” on. Pulling her head out of the pillowy whiteness she took a deep breath of air and tried to calm her pounding heart. Her body was hot and the reaction to hitting the cold snow had sent her into a bit of shock. Not helped by the fact she was still confused and tired after her ordeal back at Ice Valley that she had just sped away from without thinking. It was on total reflex—she just had to get away from that pony as fast possible.  

Now at least she could try to rest and focus, she didn’t know how many miles she had flown in that burst but she couldn’t even see the mountains of Ice Valley behind her. It was all gobbled up by wind and clouds. Rainbow Dash pulled herself entirely out of the deep gash she had torn in the snow and took a few steps forward.  

Out in front of her just looked like more of the same when it came to the True North, except it somehow seemed more barren at the same time too. The ground not covered by snow was grey and rocky with only the sparse dead bush or tree around. No signs of life whatsoever. And despite the cold the snow was wetter than it should normally be, almost more like sleet. It gave things an unwelcoming and ugly look more akin to a swamp of snow than a desert.  

At least she could fly.

That pony—Heartless—had made her so tired when she touched Rainbow, but Rainbow Dash always knew she had energy to spare. It wasn’t just about being fit, it was about willpower and strength of spirit. And no one beat Rainbow Dash when it came to that. She didn’t know how Heartless did that or what it was but it would take way more than that to wear Rainbow out and keep her down. She burned with enough life in her to make up for a hundred other ponies.

And yet as much as she didn’t want to admit it, that had made her afraid. When Heartless touched her it forced such a reflexive and primal fear out of her. And the threat of doing it again forced Rainbow Dash to turn tail and run without even thinking about it.

She bit her lip and frowned. “I’m not some scaredy-cat. I’m never running away from something like that again… she did not scare me.” She looked back over her shoulder at the direction of Ice Valley and paused for a second. “Never seeing you again anyways.”





Harsh winds blew all around her as Rainbow Dash flew through this dead zone of the north. The possible adventures in Ice Valley all had to be aborted and forgotten, she could only keep going north now and look for something else. The flight was proving more problematic than the one from the mammoth city to Ice Valley had been, worse wind and a strange moisture in the atmosphere at the same time as the intense cold made it like she was flying through an ice shower.

The landscape that she could see was even worse on the eyes than what she was used to up here, with its dead look and windswept ground and the odd starlight glow that was caused by the light of the sun being blocked by clouds and refracted by all the moisture. It cast a whitish and blue glow over everything because of that. Add that with the foggy wind and Rainbow Dash felt like she was going through a haunted wasteland. It was unnerving after what she had just gone through earlier today. Almost like the world and the weather itself was against her, maybe knocking her down for her hubris and trying to either get her to fly back to Equestria or instill more fear in her that she was adamantly denying she ever felt.  

Of course there was something else going on with her that was about to take her mind off all that stuff.

Her stomach grumbled.

“Ugh, I’m so hungry! I didn’t get to eat anything.”

As robust as she was she still needed food. And preferably a lot of it. It had been a while since she had really had a bite to eat and if she didn’t get some grub in her soon it could be pretty bad. Finding any kind of food was now her biggest priority.  

Problem was she was in yet another part of the True North that was so desolate she doubted there would be anything in it for her to eat. She could eat snow but honestly the dirty and sleet-like snow that was all around her made her uncomfortable. She felt like she’d get sick if she tried eating it. So unless she randomly stumbled on something like another oasis or a hidden city… it wasn’t looking too good. Not that she would ever give up! No way! Rainbow had pulled through everything—and things way worse than this—so far on her adventure. It was not ending thanks to hunger.

“I’ll find something soon, there has to be more stuff out here,” she said to herself.

And while Rainbow Dash was no expert on the subject she knew that there was still a good deal of distance before she reached the north pole and couldn’t actually go north anymore. With how much other stuff she had stumbled upon up here it was pretty reasonable to assume she’d find some more stuff if she just kept flying. So with all the energy she had left in her hungry body that’s what she was going to do.

The strange weather and nature of this part of the True North wasn’t something she needed to fret about, because she was Rainbow Dash. If anything weird actually happened or tried to stop her she’d beat it just the same as she’d beaten everything else. So despite the loneliness, the awkward cold and muggy atmosphere, and the howling winds that screamed like banshees over the snowy landscape, Rainbow Dash flew on and on.

The time it would take to get somewhere else was irrelevant.  

Any prior worries she had about recent events were irrelevant.

She would keep on her flight north and reach the next adventure. And if that didn’t satisfy her then she’d keep on going to the next one. Rainbow Dash had no real goal on this journey except to entertain herself and that was fine by her. Maybe one day she’d think of something solid to really strive for but for now she was okay with the random adventures that had continuously popped up for her.

It’s just that she kept yearning for more and more, never truly satisfied. 

Rainbow Dash didn’t see anything wrong with that. If you’re as awesome as her you might as well keep finding awesome things to do. That was what she lived for, it’s what made life in Ponyville so exciting for so long.  

Another cold and wet breeze blew into her, momentarily knocking her out of her thoughts and making her shiver. She frowned as she looked around the dead landscape that had rudely forced its way back into her mind. Not letting something like that bother her for long she decided to start singing to herself to pass the time and keep her mind off anything annoying.

“I’m awesome, take caution...”

An image of that pony flashed through her mind and Rainbow Dash shook her head to get rid of it. Not acknowledging that, she flapped her wings harder and sped up through the sky.