Rainbow Dash's Unstoppable Ego

by MagicS

An Ordinary Day in an Ordinary Place

The room she was given was a small single with a bed that didn’t compare in the slightest to how comfortable looking Larkon’s guest bed was. But Rainbow Dash couldn’t really complain considering the situation. Bouquet had told her to set her alarm for early tomorrow morning, where she’d then wake up and have to go help out in the kitchens with breakfast and then do some cleaning around the hotel. Not exactly adventure level stuff but you gotta do what you gotta do.

That was all the near future for now though. With a friendly hoofshake, Bouquet went back to her office and Rainbow Dash went looking through the halls of the hotel for the dining room. The receptionist had said it was still a few hours until then but Dash could at least find out where she’d be eating. After that she planned to head out and explore the city some more. There looked to be all kinds of stuff to check out here, the place was so huge and different it was probably crawling with hidden adventure and excitement.

“I’ll explore this whole place if I have to,” Dash said to herself. “You’re the next leg of my awesome adventure, Ice Valley.”

She had the time and she had the drive, however long it might take her to find something here she wouldn’t leave until she did.

---

As it turned out though this place was a pretty ordinary city. After leaving the hotel, Rainbow Dash went right over to the edge of the cliff and looked out at the other side. She was standing on an observation deck with a railing and glass bottom that also allowed one to look straight down into the canyon below. Pretty cool if you asked her. She saw a lot of other platforms and ledges at all levels of the canyon from here now too, lots of places to stand and look out or walk to other areas of the wall.

Right now she had her front hooves up on top of the railing and was looking north to the other side of the canyon. There were a few thing she could see over on the surface on the north side that were absent here on the south side, a number of factory looking buildings with smokestacks and a lack of smaller buildings. She had to squint to be sure but she was also pretty sure there were barely any creatures walking out on the streets compared to over here. So if she had to make a guess she’d say that side was more for industry and big businesses than this side was.

There were also a lot of birds she saw flying across the canyon, back and forth between the two sides. She hadn’t noticed that earlier when she first came in but they were all carrying either packages or individual letters. That what counted for the mail and communications around here? Too bad not everyone could have dragonfire on hoof like Twilight did. Now that she thought about it that was probably something she never really gave enough credit to Spike for…

She took her hooves off the railing and stepped back to look straight down through the glass at the bottom of the canyon. There were a few buildings that looked kind of like factories or workshops too right on the ice and rock down there. She had no idea what they might be for but if she had to guess she would say mining. There were a lot of interlaced walkways down there too so whoever was working could get to pretty much anywhere without having to brave the ice.

“Hm...” Dash hummed to herself in thought. “What should I even do right now?”

She didn’t have any money so she couldn’t really do anything more than look around, and if she went into a store or a pub and the proprietor learned she was broke they probably wouldn’t put up with her presence for long. Flying around until she saw something cool might have actually been her best choice. Or until she found an actual map of this city or a place like a palace or something where whoever the leaders of Ice Valley were, then she could probably learn all she needed to about the city.

Although just judging by how everything else was up here she doubted anyone would really care about her or where she was from. It just didn’t seem like as big a deal to a place like Ice Valley as it was for places like the Empire or the mammoth city. So she probably wasn’t getting any special treatment and wouldn’t be treated with much fanfare.

But that was okay.

It was good having something a little different going on and just acting from the position of a regular pony for a while. She could still find adventure by snooping about and having fun on her own, she was sure of it. Instead of being the center of attention and the big new thing in the world at Ice Valley she’d just be like any other creature.

It was… okay.

“Ugh,” Dash’s head hung low. “But I like being the center of attention.”

She walked off the viewing platform and back onto the street that ran parallel to the edge of the cliff. For now she could at least travel up and down it and probably see all kinds of stuff here in Ice Valley. At the moment there were a number of other creatures sharing the road or just “sightseeing” like Dash had been. Including a young griffon couple that was using the viewing platform as a romantic date spot. Rarity probably would’ve thought it had quite the view for that sort of thing too but romance was so far out of Dash’s mind right now she couldn’t even begin to care.

Rainbow Dash shrugged and trotted on down the street, westward. “Whatever, I’ll keep going until I can’t anymore. There’s probably some more stuff to see out here. Knowing my luck I’ll find someone or something crazy and that’ll be it.”

She grinned to herself, she had been right so far on her journey when it came to awesome adventures and civilizations being right around the corner. She was probably right about this too. Rainbow Dash was the type of pony where even if she didn’t go out of the way to find something (which she certainly planned to) it would end up finding her instead. Cause that’s just what it was like to be special. So special you save the world again and again.

“Not just the surface I can check but I should fly down and see if it really is just homes built into the walls or anything else,” Dash absently said as she walked.

A glance at the buildings besides the street showed her a veterinarian, a glassware shop, a furniture store, and a salon all in short order.

A salon… Rainbow Dash thought and flipped the braid her mane was still kept in thanks to Shibu. Despite really, really, wanting to go back to her old casual style of not having a style she figured she could at least keep her mane in the braid until something messed it up or she took a visit to a spa. Shibu would be happy if Rainbow Dash kept it for as long as possible.

Speaking of spas she kept her eyes open for any of those too. A hooficure would be pretty nice…

One of the bigger buildings alongside the street here was a big restaurant with tall windows that faced the canyon and looked totally filled up with customers on the inside. Rainbow Dash slowed down as she walked by it to peek in and was rewarded with the sight of extravagant dishes of all sorts being carried out by waiters and waitresses and happily gobbled up by all the ponies, reindeer, griffons, and more inside. The picture of a pleasant and ordinary city. More such buildings and places of business stretched on the top of the canyon right up until the ground became uneven and the mountains started up again. But Rainbow Dash knew there were still more canyons and crevices all over in the mountains that made up Ice Valley, she doubted the city stopped entirely after this part ended.

Did she fly off to a completely different section and canyon once she made it to the end of this street? Or could she save that for tomorrow and just more thoroughly explore and wander about this area today? She had plenty of time after all.

“I’ve got lunch to get back to in a couple hours… I’ll just stick around here,” Rainbow decided.

There was a reindeer walking unhurried down the street coming from the opposite direction as Rainbow Dash, he had a smile on his face and was looking out across the canyon. This may have been her first opportunity to really talk to a reindeer and he seemed friendly so Dash decided to ask him some questions. He was a bit taller than the average pony stallion with some extra fluff around his neck and pointy antlers with a lot of different little branches.

“Hey, can I talk to you for a second?” Dash asked as she walked right up to him, holding up a wing to get his attention and stop him.

His head swung over to look at her, a momentary look of surprise on his face before he smiled. “Of course, do you need something?”

“Kind of, I’m not from around here and I was wondering if there was anything special to really do or see in Ice Valley,” Rainbow Dash rubbed the back of her neck while she talked. “You a local?”

The reindeer nodded. “I am indeed, my name is Tol’Vai. And you are?” He held out a hoof.

“Rainbow Dash, nice to meet you,” she shook his hoof.

“Nice to meet you as well, fair Rainbow Dash,” he said and actually bowed to her.

She had no idea if that was a reindeer thing or if he was just really chivalrous or something. Either way she raised an eyebrow and scratched her head. “Uhh, thanks.”

He stood up from his bow and cleared his throat. “Ehem, and to answer your other questions I do know a few things about Ice Valley that a tourist may be interested in. As far as sightseeing and landmarks go we have the Three Pillars in the center of the city, which would be east a bit from here, they are three huge stone pillars that shoot up straight from the ice at the bottom of the canyon. Our archaeologists say they’re not a natural formation and there are carvings in them dated thousands of years old, it’s a popular attraction. And then on the far west side of the city there’s our frozen waterfall that comes down from the mountains, it’s quite beautiful.”

Dash nodded along but there was other kinds of stuff she hoped he knew about too. “That’s cool and all but do you know about anything a little more exciting out here? Like what’s Ice Valley got for entertainment?”

“Ah, I see your tastes for what is fun lie in the more “active” realm of things,” Tol’Vai rubbed a hoof under his chin. “Well there is plenty of that for you here in Ice Valley too. We have ice hockey games, skating rinks, concerts—in fact a large concert hall in one of the eastern canyons is putting on a performance in just a few days. There will even be fireworks after that.” Tol’Vai shrugged. “There’s always something going on whether it’s a show or a sports game.”

“Thanks!” Dash told him. Now she at least knew there was stuff to check out.

But it really was so ordinary. Maybe there was some adventure lurking somewhere here but for the most part it seemed like her stay here would be a bit of a break compared to what she had gone through before. Fun but not big adventure fun, so she’d likely leave within a week.

“You’re welcome, fair Rainbow Dash.” Tol’Vai said and walked by her with a curt nod.

Rainbow Dash stood on the street thinking for a second and then shrugged. “Eh, whatever, I’ll just check out around here some more and then go look for the cool stuff he talked about after lunch.” She cracked her neck and kept walking west, checking out the buildings and canyon as she walked.

---

Someone was walking to where she was.

Comments

[THERDSTORYWHISPERER]

Great chapter!

[StarzGecko]

Someone was walking to where she was.

Imposter