Rainbow Dash winced slightly from a fresh bruise or two as she scuffled her way down a street connected to the alleyway where she had plummeted. After ten minutes of trotting, she had regained her hoofing, and she marched in even steps, her posture tall and proud. When she entered the open streets of Verdestone, she was graced with the glinting kiss of a gradually setting son. Suddenly, shadows were darting past her. She winced slightly, before calming herself and observing as numerous ponies galloped excitedly towards the southwest edge of the platform.
“Is it true?!” A mare slid up to a stop in front of Rainbow Dash, wide-eyed.
“Huh?” Rainbow Dash blinked awkwardly. “Is... what true?”
“There's a winged pony in town?!” The mare grinned widely. “A relative of the Queen?”
“Oh... Uh... Totally!” Rainbow Dash turned and pointed with a long-sleeved forelimb towards where she had snuck away from. “Look for the fat mare with the ratty mane and the polk-a-dotted coat! You can't miss her!”
“Ohhhhh-How exotic!” The mare darted off along with other breathless ponies. “I've waited all my life to meet royalty...”
“Yeah, cool. Have fun with that.” Rainbow Dash trotted back.
The mare's voice called from a distance. “Thank you, sir!”
Rainbow Dash blinked. Her ears drooped as she slumped forward in her straight-laced suit. “Well, mostly cool...”
Rainbow Dash took her time in navigating the streets of Verdestone. She wasn't a stranger to grabbing attention, but being an outstanding pegasus was easy to do in a small town of ponies or while flying orbit around a tiny caravan of equines. In the middle of a gigantic metropolis in the dead center of a country she was only residually familiar with: it was a great deal more taxing to become the object of every pony's idolization. A part of her almost longed for the past, a simpler time, when she could be the whole world for one pony and one pony alone.
Without thinking, she gave her saddlebag a tiny shake. She felt the weight of her goggles shifting around inside, and a tiny smile graced her lips.
The stroll to the Chamber of Representatives was long, arduous, and a torturous test of Rainbow's patience. It was one thing to force herself to trot slowly so as not to attract attention. But to do so while tucked away in a well-trimmed suit as tight as a tourniquet was utter agony. She resisted the temptation to spread her wings, rip the silk and velvet apart, and go busting the oaken doors to the Chamber in a blink.
Thankfully, she didn't have to wait that much longer upon contemplating that last part. The barracks that the two clothiers had referred to came within sight. Rainbow Dash walked past the gates, peering to her right to see several guards in silver plates of armor practicing fighting moves on wooden equine figures. She squinted through the grated bars, studying their moves, quietly intrigued by the sudden fury and muscle of these otherwise cheerful Emeraldine natives.
“Hold it right there.”
Rainbow Dash skidded to a stop. She looked ahead of her and saw nothing but black canvas. Her head tilted up... and up and up and up. Finally, she saw the head of a stallion towering above her, and a glaring pair of eyes that was three times as intimidating. The rigidly framed pony was given even greater girth by the flaring coat he wore over his limbs. The shadow from a wide-brimmed hat—coupled with midnight black coat—made it look like his eyes were a pair of aquamarine stars stabbing her from a deep abyss.
“Okay,” Rainbow Dash gulped. “I'm holding it.”
“What business do you have in the Chamber of Representatives?” he grunted as two guard ponies marched up to his side.
“Uhhhh...” Rainbow Dash peered nervously past him, at the grand entrance of the building with its thick columns, steep stone steps, and weathered statues of ancient Emeraldine figures. “How did you know I needed to go into the Chamber?”
The stallion's eyes narrowed icily as he murmured through iron-wrought lips. “The only ponies dressed like you in this part of the platform are either here to shop or do politics.”
“Heh. Yeah, okay.” She swallowed and smiled devilishly. “Lemme guess, a pony dressed like you only wants to plant daisies?”
His iron brow furrowed.
“Yeahhhh...” Her voice cracked. “I didn't think so. Guess I'll be going—” She turned around.
“Not so fast,” he said, pointing with a hoof.
She looked over her shoulder with an innocent expression. “Fast? What makes you think I'm trying to do stuff fast?”
He leaned forward. His nostrils flared. “Hmmm...” He leaned back and grunted sideways to his guards. “Leave us.”
The guards bowed and marched off.
Rainbow Dash glanced at them. “Uhhh...”
“Come with me.”
“To where, exactly?”
“The Chamber.” The stallion adjusted the brim of his wide hat and spun around with billowing coattails. “I'm the constable of this platform, and it's my job to escort diplomatic guests in and out with safety.”
“Huh... Well...” Rainbow Dash shrugged and trotted after him. “That works for me.”
“Though you really should have presented yourself at the Base Facility.”
“Base Facility?” She made a face as she followed the tall, lanky stallion up the stone steps. “What, you mean at the bottom of the Verdestone spire? Heh, sorry. But I'm not much one for waiting.”
“I imagine not,” he said in a low voice as they entered the front foyer. He saluted a pair of guards and led Rainbow Dash into the center chamber. Several voices of debating equines filled the air as he turned to look back at her. “Why else would you have flown here this quickly.”
“Hmmm... Yeah...” Rainbow Dash said, gazing at the paintings of old ponies on the walls they passed. She suddenly went bug-eyed and gawked at him. “Wait! Huh? Flew?”
“Please...” He sighed in exasperation as he stood on the edge of a wooden railing overlooking a large circular chamber full of Emeraldine dignitaries in open discussion. “You have the smell of Ridgeside on you.”
“Uh... I do?”
“Nopony without extraordinary means of travel could have made it from Evergreen's town to here and still have retained such a scent, especially one so fresh.”
“Heh. Who would have guessed you were all nose?” She said with a smirk. She leaned against the railing and squinted at the dozens upon dozens of ponies. “Ugh. Jeez. Look at this? How am I gonna find Steelteeth in all this mess?”
“You're looking for a senator, then?”
“At least I think he's a senator,” she grumbled. “With the name like that, you'd think he'd be some sort of wielder of badflankery—” She stopped in mid-sentence. She gazed up at the Constable. “Hey. Uh... Say cheese.”
He stared down at her. With a grunt of indifference, he uttered, “Cheese.” As he did so, a full ring of metal teeth glinted in the Chamber's candlelight.
“Huh...” Rainbow Dash smiled as her wings twitched under her suit. “Guess you're not all nose after all...”
Objective Completed: Talk to Steelteeth
Title obtained: "The Dashing"
Oh Dashie... open mouth insert hoof.
Metal teeth? Not sure if want...
So either Steelteeth is a nickname, or his parents were, like, prophets or something.
Also, I think you just made the feature box again :D
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Every pair of pony parents are presumably prophets. I mean, when you consider how close a pony's name comes to describing who they turn out to be, it's really quite uncanny. Like Fluttershy, for instance--did her mother just look at her on the day she was born and go "this one's going to be hiding in a corner all the time, I can just tell"?
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I can, oddly enough, imagine Fluttershy's first word being *squee*
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Or "um...."
IIIIIt's Dashie's Fourth...Marathon.....Evaluation..........Time....................
...
...Sh...
...Sh...Ship...
...Ship...ping...
...Shipping...
Shipping.
SHIPPING.
SHIPPING?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!
Noooo! I thought this was over! Did you really ship Dash? DID YOU SHIP HER WITH APPLEJACK?! YOU BETTER NOT HAVE!!
That does it. I'm only evaluating one more chapter before going to bed. These are my freaking thoughts so far.
-MASH
P.S. I HATE SHIPPING.
1531206 Wait, so what is your view on shipping?
1636872 Hmm...this may take some explaining.
In general, I guess I'll just say that I flat out don't like shipping. I think that my reason for this can be likened to the Twilight Saga. Shipping, like Twilight, can be pretty well written. Shipping, like Twilight, can also have deep, three-dimensional characters. But what shipping and Twilight share is a complete and utter lack of exposition. In all shipping stories I've ever read, (actually, Then You Saw Her may be the one exception to this) the two characters being shipped are just together. Just like that. No rhyme, no reason, no nothing. They just fall head over heels for one another for seemingly no reason. Just like Twilight, the characters begin a romantic relationship and instantaneously decide that they must be soulmates despite there being little to no buildup to the romance. I suppose my point is that there's just no buildup in general. I suppose that I must give Imploding credit in Austraeoh, though - during the Windthrow Arc, we got a slow buildup between Gold Petals and Dash that showed a slowly progressing and realistic relationship. My problem with Austraeoh, you could say, is almost the polar opposite of the rest of the shipping I have read. We see characters realistically falling in love...but then never seeing each other again. Everything was for naught. Which is extremely depressing. Here, and I suppose I can forgive and forget, as this is Austraeoh we're talking about, it seems as though Dash is being shipped with Applejack with no reason whatsoever. Seriously. I'm sorry if I sound whiny, but this chapter just kind of showed up out of absolutely nowhere.
So...yeah. For me, shipping has always ended up being kind of my least favorite fanfiction category. It can be done well, (and when it is, you better hold on to your feels,) but it's generally not.
-MASH
NOOOOooo! Don't be sad
Psst. Read Steelteeth in the voice of the Bastion Narrator. Trust me, it's brilliamt.
Aha! S.L. == ScootaLoo, confirmed. Thought it might've been Spitfire Lsomething.
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Her crying was the softest sound ever to grace the maternity ward.
yep still think the goggles are from her little sis scootaloo
Well, he's smart, isn't he?
Dat AppleDash tho
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There is no Appledash, or any shipping in this chapter. I'm quite sure the "one pony alone" is meant to be Scoots. Funny how many people are complaining about shipping in the comments :)
Looks like Appledash is real EDIT: Wait, never mind! Gasp! 3965624 I guess it's Scootaloo.
Also, looks like she found Steelteeth. Now to see what he has to say...
Wow. If anyone is just now realizing the initials on the goggles are Scootaloo's, then just wow.
It was the only choice that made sense.
trying to picture dash in a suit -especially covering her wings- is priceless
4902257 I imagined the butler from S1 ep3 with Rainbow's coloration
Definitely called it: SL = Scoots
She misses Scootaloo. That is adorable.
02/26/2017 01:19 UTC
"... CRIMINAL SCUM!"
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How do you two figure that?
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How do you two figure that?
This is probably the most awesome identity reveal I've seen in a long time.
Strange to see people complaining about shipping in this chapter again, despite the fact that there really wasn't any. The "one pony" mentioned was probably Scootaloo, hence why the goggles were mentioned. (They been implied to be a gift from her, right?)