//------------------------------// // North Pole X // Story: Rainbow Dash's Unstoppable Ego // by MagicS //------------------------------// Back at the communal living center, Rainbow Dash had actually deigned to take a shower right after getting back from her run instead of doing anything else. Now after that she was back on the roof lazily backstroking while looking up at the sky. The crystal still shone brightly and the swirling vortex ascended up to the heavens, what a crazy place this was. She should fly up to the very top of the tornado at some point. Just to see what was up there if anything. Go above the top of the world and all that, it would be cool, right? The warm shower had done wonders for her muscles and now the cool water of the pool was doing a good job relaxing her too. Her swimming right now wasn’t meant to be a serious exercise, more like a cooldown so she didn’t overdo things. At the same time there were more Reindeer in here really doing some serious swimming of their own. Rainbow Dash assumed they were either preparing for the tournament too or were professional swimmers of some sort. That wolverine who she was sure was in the tournament was here swimming too. “Wonder what I should do next? I wanna have another fight...” Rainbow Dash said to herself as she floated on her back. “I guess I could find Ark’Nogt and have him arrange another one. Where has he been today anyways?” Rainbow Dash was surprised to realize she hadn’t seen her personal attendant today yet. Strange since he was normally so attached to her and usually always made sure to greet her in the morning and check up on her. He must’ve been busy doing something else… but that didn’t make sense since he said the reason he became her personal attendant in the first place was because there was nothing else around. He was probably doing something that revolved around her training and getting her more familiar with Nogt again. Not like she was gonna be mad if he ended up caught up somewhere anyways. Her eyes traveled back to the floating sun. How long until it turned off? Turned off. The sun. That was a weird thing to think about no matter how she put it. What would Princess Celestia think if one day Rainbow Dash flew back to Equestria and asked her to turn off the sun for an hour or two? Well whatever, as soon as their fake sun up there turned off she’d get out of the pool and head inside for something to eat. Getting bored of her slow paddling (even though this was supposed to basically be rest) Rainbow Dash flipped over and decided to speed up for the last few laps. With how much running she had done it wasn’t going to be day for much longer here. So this was her last spurt of exercise until the false nightfall. With a grin she started to match the swimming wolverine a few lanes over. He either didn’t care or didn’t notice her little faux-competition with him. Rainbow Dash powered up and surpassed his speed until she could practically swim two laps before he had even swam one. If the tournament was a swimming contest she was willing to bet she could take the gold medal in that too. Right as she hit the edge of the pool and was getting ready to shoot back out for another lap a voice caught her attention. “Ah! Rainbow Dash! I was looking for you!” She stopped mid-stroke and bobbed up and down in the water, looking at the side of the pool to see Ark’Nogt standing there. “Oh, hey dude. What’s up?” “I had been waiting for you to return to your room, I had figured you would before night time, but you didn’t so I searched around the center for you. It seems I was lucky that you were up here taking a swim and not exercising somewhere else,” Ark’Nogt smiled. Rainbow Dash paddled over to the edge of the pool and pulled herself up, shaking like a dog and spraying water everywhere, before walking over to Ark’Nogt. “I was kind of wondering where you were today too. So I guess you didn’t want to just say hello before I went to bed?” He shook his head. “No, I wanted to invite you to a special dinner.” “What makes it so special?” She tilted her head at him before shaking it. “Actually—I don’t care, food is food.” Ark’Nogt chuckled. “I figured that would be your response. Come; walk with me.” Rainbow Dash shrugged and came along, the two of them heading back inside the building. And not a moment too soon either—the sun turned off a second later and the electrical lights all switched on. Instead of going to their rooms though Ark’Nogt led them across the building to the other wing. Once they made it to that side they took the stairs down towards the basement. Was the basement on this side the same as the other where she had her exhibition match or was there something else here? “Are you still curious?” Ark’Nogt asked her as they stepped off at the basement. “I mean, I guess so. What’s the big deal about dinner?” “Normally I would agree but this is something special I thought up in the spur of the moment. I’ve been going around all day to put it together.” “Then let’s see what’s so cool about it,” Rainbow said as they walked down the hallway of the basement towards a door at the end. Already this was different than the big entertainment lounge on the other side. “You can consider it as something done in your honor,” Ark’Nogt smiled as they reached the door and he put a hoof on it. “But not just yours.” Ark’Nogt pushed the door open and revealed a large banquet hall built in the bottom of the communal living center. In the center of it all was a long rectangular table already filled up with food and plenty of seats taken by Reindeer. Rainbow Dash recognized a few that she had seen around the center over the past couple of days, Sia’Lorna was here too, and so were a couple of griffons. Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow at the scene. “So what is all this?” “It’s a dinner celebration for you and all the other guests at the center who are going to be fighting in the tournament!” Ark’Nogt beamed. “Please, take a seat and enjoy meeting with some of your fellow competitors.” “Works for me,” Rainbow Dash smiled and quickly took a seat by Sia’Lorna. “Sup?” “Hello, Rainbow Dash. I was surprised when Ark’Nogt told me about this but it’s turning out to be quite enjoyable. There are a lot of Reindeer from other cities here, and fighters I think you would like to meet as well,” Sia’Lorna greeted. “Are there?” Rainbow Dash grinned and rubbed a hoof under her chin. It was certainly true that all of the other creatures here had a fierce and tough look to them, there wasn’t a scrawny one of the lot. Over by the door Ark’Nogt still stood and waited for any stragglers to join them. Only one or two more Reindeer came in after Rinbow Dash but then so did that swimming wolverine from the roof as well. Dash kind of wanted to learn about him, so maybe he’d sit by her and she could ask. “How many wolverines have you fought?” She quietly asked Sia’Lorna. “A few. They’re rare even at the larger tournaments.” Rainbow Dash nodded and watched as the wolverine came over and sat across from them before immediately devouring all of the food directly in front of him like some sort of wild animal. His sharp and tearing teeth made her think that he probably wished there was meat at this banquet too. Alas Ark’Nogt had only acquired food that hadn’t been previously alive. Rainbow Dash doubted that you could even find meat to eat in Nogt. The only place she had really been to up in the True North that had creatures eating meat was the snow griffon domain she had just passed through. “Hey buddy, what’s your name? Been to a few tournaments up here before?” Rainbow Dash asked the wolverine. He looked up at her with a glare as if he was annoyed that she interrupted his eating. But then he grunted and in-between chews answered her. “You can call me Wandering Claw. And yes.” Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow at him. “I can call you that?” “Non-wolverines can’t correctly speak the wolverine language. That’s the name I go by to other creatures,” Wandering Claw said and took a giant bite out of a loaf of bread. “Oh, well I’m Rainbow Dash. It’s my first tournament up here. Mostly just seen a bunch of Reindeer but I’ve seen you swimming a few times so figured I’d say hi. That’s what this whole dinner is about anyways I think.” “Mrm,” Wandering Claw grunted. “Not super talkative, are you?” Rainbow Dash continued to prod him. “I don’t have anything to talk about. If we meet in the tournament we meet in the tournament and that’s all there is to it,” he looked up at her with a glare, not a mean one this time but a competitive one. “And I intend to win this tournament.” Rainbow Dash grinned. “We might have a problem there cause so do I.” “I believe everyone competing intends to win,” Sia’Lorna said from the side with a giggle. “Heh, probably.” Rainbow Dash laughed and looked back at Wandering Claw. “Well I hope I get to fight you personally, dude. Never fought a wolverine in my life.” “I’d make the experience one you’d regret,” Wandering Claw said and bit into a tomato, letting the juices run down his chin. “Fat chance,” she shot back. “I’ve fought plenty of ponies before, I know how you work.” Wandering Claw said. “You’ve fought plenty of ponies but you’ve never fought me.” That actually got a dark chuckle from Wandering Claw. “True, true enough, overly colorful pegasus. I think you’d be impressed by my ferocity though.” “And I think you’d be surprised by my speed.” “Speed, eh? Even without the use of your wings? I know how much you pegasi rely on those things.” “I guarantee you I’m speedier and more agile than like—basically any other pony on the ground. That’s just how awesome I am.” “I’ll believe it when I see it,” Wandering Claw shrugged and went back to eating. Rainbow Dash scoffed. “Pff, okay bud.” “It all comes down to the tournament. And I think this is going to prove to be a surprisingly interesting and exhilarating one,” Sia’Lorna said. “Thanks,” Rainbow Dash smugly grinned. Sia’Lorna and Wandering Claw both snorted together. After that Rainbow Dash got busy chowing down and stuffing her face too. It was a banquet in her (and others) honor after all. And the food proved to be pretty darn good, but that’s basically what she had come to expect for Nogt. She hadn’t had a bad meal yet. In fact she really, really wanted to go back to that ice cream shop at some point. That could wait until after she totally kicked butt at the tournament and won the whole thing. It’d be her grand prize for being the most awesome pony in the world. Rainbow Dash looked over to the door of the banquet hall and saw Ark’Nogt still politely standing there. Guess he was just acting as the host of this whole thing and letting the fighters talk and get along with each other on their own. She’d definitely have to thank him for all this later tonight. “Do you want to get to know some of the other Reindeer fighters here?” Sia’Lorna suddenly asked her, snapping Rainbow Dash out of her thoughts. “I personally know them all, I can introduce you.” “Sure, I wanna know who I’m gonna beat on in a couple days.” “Keep that confidence, some of these Reindeer have won multiple tournaments.” Rainbow Dash grinned. “Even better.” A thought then occurred to her and she raised an eyebrow at Sia’Lorna. “What about you? Have you won any?” Sia’Lorna returned her smile with a proud one of her own. “I’ve won eleven.” “Woah, nice. Even some of the bigger ones?” Rainbow Dash was admittedly impressed. She didn’t know what the record was but that Ral’Nogt guy hadn’t won any and he was a decent fighter. So Sia’Lorna must have been really impressive. “Of course. Big or small though I only want a good challenge too,” Sia’Lorna said. “Amen to that.” Rainbow Dash spent the rest of the banquet walking around with Sia’Lorna and saying hi to some of the other Reindeer here. Since this was the communal living center for visitors none of them were from Nogt. Just as she was excited for a good fight they were excited to fight someone from so far away. This small tournament was indeed turning into something a lot more special. Rainbow Dash stuffed her face full of food throughout the entire meet and greet before it got late enough where people started retiring to their rooms. Soon they’d see each other again anyways, in the arena.