Rainbow Dash's Unstoppable Ego

by MagicS

True Pegasus VII

“I think it’s absolutely amazing that you’re from Equestria! Wow! And to think you even somehow destroyed Sentinel 13—this is really quite special!”

The toga wearing pegasus eagerly shook Rainbow Dash’s hooves with a wide smile on his face. He was far happier to see her than any other pegasus she had met so far in the Empire. It was honestly a little weird.

“Uhh, thanks?” Rainbow Dash stopped his shaking and pulled her hooves away.

“Oh I’m so sorry! Where are my manners? My name is Gale, and you’re Rainbow Dash,” he pointed at her chest. “East Wind informed me about everything!”

Rainbow Dash glanced to the side, where the captain in question happened to be standing. She had been cornered by him earlier this morning right after breakfast and told that Elder Tornado had wanted to speak with her and show her exactly what her crime was that she had committed against the Empire. So now here she was, with Wild Wind also tagging along, the corporal had said that as her direct superior now it was only natural that he should watch over her as well and East Wind had allowed it. Judging by Tornado’s grumpy face though and the way he stood away from East Wind he probably wasn’t too happy that the military pony had decided to stay after bringing Rainbow Dash to him. He definitely had wanted to talk to Rainbow Dash alone but Blizzard had probably realized that and made sure East Wind would keep an eye on things. With Rainbow Dash officially in the military there would’ve been no way for the Elder to speak or meet with her without him first contacting the Commander about it. And the Commander sniffed out his true intentions.

Although Rainbow Dash could figure that from Tornado’s body language and how they had all acted around each other back when she was first dragged before the council she still didn’t really know just why the Elder would’ve wanted to talk to her.

The five pegasi were all in a large building high up on the southwestern side of the city. It overlooked quite a number of other buildings and the wide window that made up one side of this room made for a good viewing experience. According to what East Wind had told her on the flight over this was the control and monitoring center for the Ice Sentinels.

This yellow, glasses-wearing, pegasus was the one in charge here. He didn’t seem to care in the slightest that she was responsible for destroying one of the Sentinels aside from admitting to being “quite shocked” when he saw it happen. Apparently he was just too interested and intrigued by a pony from the south who had the capability to do such a thing in the first place. To him it was a fair trade off.

“So like, what are those things anyways?” Rainbow Dash asked Gale as she walked past him to the multiple stands and floating crystals that took up most of the room.

“The crystals or the Sentinels themselves?” Gale inquired as he walked up alongside her.

“The thing that tried to kill me,” the blue pegasus shot an unamused glance at Gale.

“Hehe, right...” despite his frivolous attitude he had the sense to look a little bit apologetic as he smiled. “Well the Ice Sentinels have a bit of history to them. At their core they are constructs of ice created by pegasus weather magic based on old records of windigos. That’s where the idea came from.”

“Windigos? That’s not exactly a good thing… and I’ve never seen pegasus magic do something like that,” Rainbow Dash interrupted as she looked at one of the floating crystals. She went to poke it with her hoof but saw East Wind silently shaking his head at her out of the corner of her eye.

“Right? Neither has anyone else here,” Gale shrugged.

Rainbow Dash quickly turned her head to him with a puzzled frown on her face. “Huh?”

“The Ice Sentinels were created seven hundred years ago by the greatest mind to ever come out of the Empire. Weathervane. A pegasus scientist responsible for a good deal of other things we use here. The Ice Sentinels are solely his creation and none have been able to replicate them since,” Gale stepped up beside her and looked at the crystal. “It’s truly a shame, they are amazing things after all as I’m sure you can attest to.”

“In a way...”

Gale continued on. “The thirty Sentinels that were left to us, well, twenty-nine now, are scattered along the southern and western borders of our territory and by all accounts they have done a fantastic job of keeping anything from coming through. In the distant past there were all sorts of creatures and monsters that kept invading us, simply too many enemies to deal with. Weathervane has allowed us to protect half of our borders without having to do pretty much anything. I only wish we could figure out something to deal with the Frost Wolves now, then no one would have to get hurt fighting them anymore.”

East Wind grunted in annoyance but Rainbow Dash paid him no mind, she was more interested in what Gale had been saying.

“Frost Wolves? I think someone’s mentioned them to me before. If you guys are getting attacked by them why not put some of those Sentinels in the direction they’re coming from? Can you not move them?” She asked the crystal monitor.

Gale shook his head. “Oh no, no, it’s nothing like that. The Sentinels could be moved or shuffled about easily. It’s just that there’s no point.” His eyes looked past her at both East Wind and Tornado before flickering back to her. “I suppose no one has told you yet but the reason the Sentinels are only put on the western and southern borders of our Empire is because nothing ever comes down from the north and the only thing to the east is the Frost Wolves. The wolves may look like normal creatures at a glance but they’re actually more like ice and snow given form. In a lot of ways they’re quite similar to the Ice Sentinels, although we believe they’re natural and not artificially created.”

“Like Timberwolves,” Rainbow Dash muttered.

“Pardon?”

Rainbow Dash shook her head. “Nothing, just talking to myself. They just reminded me of something from back home.”

Gale’s eyes lit up and his smile threatened to split his face in two. “Right! Back home in Equestria! Would you be willing to tell me all about it? I would love to know and-”

“Ahem.” A grunt from East Wind interrupted the monitor and the two of them looked back to see the captain slowly shaking his head with his eyes narrowed at the yellow pegasus.

“Er—never mind,” Gale nervously scratched the back of his head. “So anyways, back on topic, the Sentinels simply cant do anything to the wolves. Any other creature… well I’m sure you know what happens. The wolves though are only vulnerable to something warm-blooded.”

“I guess fighting them yourselves can’t really be avoided if they keep invading your territory,” Rainbow Dash said as she walked between the various pedestals.

Elder Tornado snorted, earning himself a glare from East Wind.

Rainbow Dash didn’t know what that was about so she continued her conversation with Gale. “So you can tell the Sentinel things to do whatever from here? That’s your job?”

“No, not at all.” Gale vehemently shook his head. “I only monitor the crystals to make sure the Sentinels are operating as they should. The only one who can control them and give them orders is Commander Blizzard. You see it was something that Weathervane did back when he created them, the crystals are attuned to the magical signature of the current Commander and only he can change that. When he chooses the next Commander he’ll pass on ‘ownership’ of the crystals to him. So at the moment the only one who can actually move and give orders to the Sentinels is Commander Blizzard, just like the Commander before him and the Commander before him.”

“Wow, that Commander of yours sure is something,” Rainbow Dash said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

“He is quite amazing,” Gale nodded, not getting it at all.

Rainbow Dash looked back over at Elder Tornado. “You must be super happy to have Commander Blizzard around, right? Bet there aren’t any problems at all.”

The white-maned Elder’s face didn’t change but his emotionless tone suggested he wasn’t entirely serious when he spoke. “Oh yes, we’re all very blessed to have the Commander.” His eyes narrowed slightly at Rainbow Dash, the two of them having a silent agreement with the other. Elder Tornado was quite livid on the inside that he was practically being spied on by East Wind and couldn’t speak to Rainbow Dash like how he wanted to.

As if on cue, Captain East Wind grunted and motioned for the two of them to stow it. So Rainbow Dash continued her “tour” of the Ice Sentinel station with Gale.

Wild Wind meanwhile was thoroughly confused at this point. You could practically see the question mark above his head.

Rainbow Dash and Gale next walked by the now vacant pedestal where the crystals that monitored and controlled Sentinel 13 once stood.

“I’ll say, I was worried I was going to be in trouble when the crystal for Sentinel 13 broke,” Gale joked with her.

“My bad. Nothing I could really do about that though.”

Although that may not have technically been true. She probably could’ve just flown away. But if she admitted that destroying the Sentinel was actually something avoidable it probably wouldn’t end too well for her. And she didn’t know if these things had a set area they couldn’t leave or not without being ordered to. The Sentinel was extremely persistent in chasing her down, she couldn’t imagine it just stopping even if she flew well out of its sight for days.

“How exactly was it that you were able to destroy the Sentinel? As you can see that’s the first one that has failed in all seven hundred years of their service,” Gale inquired.

“Commander Blizzard would like to know that as well,” East Wind interrupted before giving a pointed look to Gale. “However, he would like to learn that in private. For obvious reasons.”

Gale gulped under the stare. “Yes, yes, security reasons and all that. Do forgive my curiosity. It wouldn’t make do to have just anyone knowing such secrets about our valued Sentinels.”

“Certainly not the one in charge of watching over them,” Tornado sniped with a roll of his eyes, earning himself yet another glare from East Wind.

“Yeah...” Rainbow Dash looked at the crystals on one of the pedestals nearest her. She tried to wrap her mind around how this would even work. It looked like something unicorns would do, not pegasi. She was far more used to pegasi magic just being responsible for clearing the skies and managing the weather, nothing like this. That Weathervane guy must’ve had some kind of crazy weather-manipulating powers. Twilight would’ve gone nuts seeing this. A weird and cool new function of pegasus magic that was impossibly rare even up here? She could already picture how disappointed her Alicorn friend would be that she didn’t get to see it herself.

Rainbow Dash looked over at East Wind. “So what then? Am I due for a meeting with the Commander later today now too?”

The Captain shrugged. “Today, tomorrow, sometime soon to be sure.”

“Commander Blizzard is not held to the whims of lesser ponies. He works on his own schedule,” Tornado added.

Rainbow Dash had to bite back a laugh at how this old guy was constantly insulting their Commander right in the face of one of his underlings. Gotta respect a pony like that. He clearly wasn’t taking any of the nonsense he disagreed with the Commander over. She hoped they could talk one day too, it would probably be a pretty interesting conversation when they both had a lot of grievances they could share about Commander Blizzard.

Before the Captain could get angry again, Rainbow Dash began to talk some more with Gale.

“So what kinds of stuff came in from the west and south that you guys had to deal with? Did Weathervane make these things just to guard your borders?”

“Actually I’m not sure. His original intentions for the Sentinels could’ve been different but we just find this use for them to be the most practical and necessary. From the west there came giant birds back in the past that preyed on our patrols, and the south according to records used to be full of all kinds of creatures. But in the immediate years after creating and positioning the Sentinels there was a sharp decline in anything but Frost Wolves coming past our borders. Whether it be a band of traveling marauders or just some simple dangerous animal, the Sentinels dealt with every little problem.”

“Well from what I saw I don’t think you guys have to worry about anything coming up south from the hole I left. There was nothing there anymore and I seriously mean nothing,” Rainbow Dash told him.

East Wind cleared his throat. “The details of your adventure are also something that the Commander would like to first hear personally himself.”

“Yeah whatever...” Rainbow Dash waved her hoof dismissively. She looked back to Gale. “Thanks for showing me all this stuff though, my friend Twilight would be way more interested in it and all that history stuff but I think it’s kind of cool too. Maybe just cause of how dangerous it was.”

Before Gale could accept her thanks, Elder Tornado stepped up to them. What was with everyone interrupting everyone else in this room?

“Perhaps now you understand the importance of what you’ve done? Whether defending yourself or not the fact of the matter is you’ve destroyed something that can not be replaced. Something very important to us that has helped guard our borders for seven hundred years. I feel you should know that there were more than one ponies on the council who wished you to be punished quite a bit more harshly and imprisoned,” he told her. “I was not one of them but the point still stands. You didn’t exactly start your time here in the Empire in the best way. The Elder Council will definitely call you in for our own inquiry at a later date. I think it may also be good for you to officially meet the Elders and other councilors.”

Rainbow Dash shrugged. “I don’t have a problem with that. Right now I’m just doing whatever these military guys want me to, I’m already missing one day of training doing this so I doubt they’d care if I missed another sometime.”

“You could always just start doing official work,” Gale piped in. “In fact I think it would be a great way for you to learn more about and get a greater appreciation for the Sentinels! You should go on border patrol for a day! Since you’ve already been south why not fly out to the western border? You’ll probably get to see some different things and look at a couple of the Sentinels as they watch over things.”

“Why do you have border patrol if you have the Sentinels?” She asked him with a puzzled expression.

“It’s not like that,” East Wind said. “The border patrol is only an occasional few groups of soldiers sent to fly up and down the western and southern borders of our territory right by the Sentinels. It’s done to make sure they’re still there and nothing has happened, since we don’t want to entirely rely on the crystals that we don’t even know how to recreate. It is still a legitimate job though so I would possibly be alright with you taking part in it.”

The Captain looked over at Wild Wind, who had been smartly standing by quietly this whole time.

“How has Rainbow Dash integrated into your squad so far?” The purple pegasus asked him.

Wild Wind glanced between him and Rainbow Dash for a second, nervous at all eyes now being placed on him. “I believe things are going well, sir. We’ve had no problems with Rainbow Dash and she’s been giving the training and drills her all.”

“I see...” the Captain’s eyes flickered to Rainbow Dash. “It sounds like you certainly wouldn’t abandon them if given the chance, would you?”

“Them”, not “Us”. Rainbow Dash heard that well and what he meant by it.

Her eyes narrowed at the Captain. “No, I wouldn’t. I don’t quit and I’m not just going to fly away from here. I’ve already made up my mind on that.”

“Well Commander Blizzard will be happy to hear that,” East Wind said in a tone that said he clearly didn’t believe her or suspected there was something more to it. And he would’ve been right about that. Still, he didn’t press things and returned his gaze to Wild Wind. “Can I trust you to get Rainbow Dash signed up for the next patrol?”

Wild Wind nodded and saluted. “Yes sir. I’ll talk to Lieutenant Moon about it as soon as we get back.”

“Good. I suppose that’s all we have to talk about here. It would be best for you to get back to base and make up for the training exercises you missed,” East Wind went to walk out the door of the monitoring station before pausing and looking over his shoulder at Elder Tornado. “And I trust everyone else will get back to their own assuredly busy schedule as well.”

Tornado clenched his hooves, anger clearly bristling right under the surface. “Of course. I wouldn’t want the Commander to think of me as lazy.”

Wild Wind walked up to Rainbow Dash to lead her away as well. She’d have to say goodbye to the floating ice crystals and Gale for now.

“See ya dude,” she said as she waved goodbye to Gale.

“Goodbye for now! It was a pleasure speaking with you,” he gave a friendly wave after her.

Rainbow Dash knew how badly he wanted to talk to her too and maybe some day she’d be able to indulge him. Hay, she’d love to indulge all of the pegasi up here, they’d probably be super amazed by her stories. She could totally brag to them about all the adventures she’d been on. If she wasn’t flying or sleeping bragging was maybe the first or second thing she’d rather be doing. These guys who have been secluded up here for at least a thousand years would be the best kind of audience. Not to mention whatever stuff Tornado wanted to talk about. Rainbow Dash was looking forward to the opportunities, hoping Blizzard wouldn’t quash them.

Comments

[THERDSTORYWHISPERER]

Great chapter!

Is Blizzard going to use the sentinels to attack Equestria if his plan to control Rainbow Dash fails?

Is the reason why the sentinels haven’t been used to attack Equestria is because of Princess Celestia and the Empire doesn’t know anything about more Princesses appearing or returning?

[MagicS]

10440978
They're very cutoff and their knowledge about Equestria is basically nil. There are other answers that will be revealed in time.

[MagicS]

10448060
Thank you! I'm glad you're enjoying the story so much.

[Dashie04]

I’m glad they aren’t all like Blizzard is. Tornado’s a perfectly reasonable stallion.

[redmar]

It's clear that Blizzard is controversial among the soldiers and outside the military absolutely nobody likes him at all.