Rainbow Dash's Unstoppable Ego

by MagicS

True Pegasus XVIII

Rainbow Dash was flying through the obstacle course floating above the base at a speed far reduced from her normal high velocity maneuvering. In fact she was going so slowly that it almost looked like she was moving in slow-motion. The reason for this was because she was showing the other members of her squad how she made it through the obstacle course step by step in an attempt to help them out with their own flying. Once she was done they would replicate what she had shown them one at a time. First taking it slowly like she was currently and then amping up the speed again and again until they could make it through the course at full speed without slowing down or making any mistakes.

“See guys? It’s just like that, it’s easy!” She called back to them as she landed on the clouds at the other end of the obstacle course.

“That’s easy for you to say!” Clear Skies cupped his hooves around his mouth and yelled.

“Hey, not my fault I’m awesome!” She yelled right back at him and grinned.

Clear Skies rolled his eyes and looked at the other five ponies standing beside him. “One of you want to go first or should I?”

“Be my guest,” Wild Wind gestured to the course with his hoof.

“Come on, I know you guys can do it!” Rainbow Dash continued to yell encouragement. “But just so you know, I’m gonna call you out whenever you screw up or hit the edges of a ring!”

“Well at least she’s helping,” Clear grumbled before taking off and making his first attempt to perfectly replicate the course she had taken without making any mistakes.

Needless to say the first few attempts didn’t go well for any of the soldiers. They didn’t have the control or skill that Rainbow Dash did so even following the same course she laid out was troublesome enough. Add to that that she wanted them to remember it perfectly after one try and eventually try to tackle it as fast as they possibly could… it just wasn’t going so well. But Rainbow Dash was patient when it came to stuff like this. She knew how to handle new recruits and Fluttershy most of all when it came to helping someone through flying. She was good at coaching and giving encouragement to any pony that thought something was too difficult to do.

If she could get Fluttershy out of her hole and believe in herself enough to help funnel Ponyville’s water reservoir up to Cloudsdale then something like this would be a cinch. These guys were soldiers! They were tough and confident, she knew that after all the time she had spent with them. Maybe not as tough and confident as her but they still weren’t the types to get discouraged easily. She could definitely afford to push them a little harder than Fluttershy or the average raw recruit back home if she had to.

She watched as Flashbolt went through the course at medium speed, barely clipping one of the rings with his wing. “Right there! You hit a ring, go back and start over! You have to be able to do it without messing up one, okay?”

Flashbolt gave her a silent nod and went back to restart the course from the beginning, meanwhile Skychaser made another attempt.

And on and on they went like that. She’d have these guys in Wonderbolt form eventually. Depending on how long she stayed in this place maybe she could even create an elite group of soldiers called the Wonderbolts? Or the Rainbowbolts, or Dashbolts, or something cool like that. They could even have some real streamlined uniforms instead of just this armor. All the mares in this city spent their time sewing didn’t they? Rainbow Dash bet she could get something akin to Wonderbolts uniforms made.

Her errant thoughts on the subject were interrupted by the shrill blowing of a whistle and yelling from multiple ponies below. Rainbow Dash looked down in puzzlement while her squadmates also stopped what they were doing to see what the ruckus was.

Soldiers were flying and scrambling all over the base, going from the training grounds or coming from the barracks or mess hall and getting into large groups as they gathered by the edge of the base by the open sky. Rainbow Dash remembered what was going on the last time something like this happened.

“Another battle?” She frowned. There were far more soldiers being brought to muster than last time by the looks of things, two or three hundred, the entire base’s worth of soldiers.

“It looks like the Frost Wolves are attacking again,” Wild Wind said as he flew up beside her.

“Already? It wasn’t even that many days ago since last time,” Rainbow Dash wasn’t exactly keen on this happening again with the way the last battle went and what she had learned about them.

“It is a bit unusual, something big must be happening, usually not every soldier is deployed too but it looks like everyone is being gathered for this battle.” Wild Wind also frowned as he looked down at the developing chaos in the base.

A soldier from below spotted them and began flying up to the obstacle course, when he got slightly closer Rainbow Dash recognized that it was their sergeant, Iron Star.

“What are you lazy worms doing up here?! Can’t you see that the entire darn base is moving?! Get down there and find your Lieutenant and prepare for battle! Move, move, move!” He yelled at them so hard his face was turning red and veins were popping out of his neck.

Rainbow Dash and her squad did as commanded and flew down to the “ground” of the base, joining up with the streams of other soldiers as they all went to the same place they had gone the last time when preparing to fly off to battle. Crescent Moon was flying in the air shepherding the groups of ponies into lines so nothing got bunched up, when he saw his squad he flew down to them and brought them into the center of the huge crowd of soldiers. It seemed Rainbow Dash and her friends were going to be making up the heart of the formation this time.

Not like it mattered, she cynically thought, with how they were just going to fly at the wolves and dive-bomb them like lunatics. Was there even any purpose in forming up like this?

She looked forward and saw East and West Wind flying right past the edge of the clouds. The two captains were getting ready to lead them all off again. Were they going to give another speech first to rally and pump up the troops?

While she waited for that she nudged up to Wild Wind and whispered to him out of the corner of her mouth. “How long have you guys been fighting these wolves anyways?”

“I don’t know,” he quietly responded. “Since the beginning I would assume.”

“Quiet, you two,” Crescent Moon snapped at them as he glared over his shoulder.

Rainbow Dash and the corporal clammed up and stood up straight while the twin captains waited for every last soldier to get into ranks. When they finally had the entire base assembled it was West Wind who began to speak.

“As you can all likely guess the Frost Wolves are antagonizing us once again. They have formed an encampment at the edge of our border and dared us to attack them,” he paused for a second as he stared out over the many lines of soldiers. “Obviously they have not learned their lesson that it is futile to try and defeat us. Today will be an even grander battle than before, one where we will truly make them regret entering our territory. Commander Blizzard wishes us to teach them a harsh lesson this time. Will you let him down?!” He finished with a loud shout.

“NO!” The army of assembled pegasi yelled.

Aside from Rainbow Dash. She doubted those twins could see or even pick her out in the crowd but she was glaring hard at them.

East Wind then spoke. “We shall fly down to the interlopers and show them what it means to be a true pegasus! We will show them our strength! The strength of the strongest ponies in the world!”

Cheers rose up throughout the crowd, her squad had been swept up in it too. Even though she guessed that a couple of her friends were just doing it because they didn’t want anyone to see that they weren’t doing it. Rainbow Dash had no such reservations about letting her true feelings show.

“Now, follow us!” Captain West Wind shouted and dove down past the clouds to the ground.

“Our numbers will block out the sky itself!” Captain East Wind shouted right after and followed his twin brother.

The soldiers closest to the edge jumped off after them. Line after line of pegasi went flying off into the sky until it was time for Rainbow Dash and her squad to follow. Just like before she flew with all of the others, matching their speed as they made a huge swarm of wings and feathers in the cold northern sky. The army of pegasi cast a huge moving shadow on the ground below like a solid mass steadily flying east. While the lines and groups were relatively steady they were so close together and there were so many of them it really would have made it next to impossible to see the sky above them if you were looking up from the ground.

Rainbow Dash had been on the way to way more serious situations than this but she had never been with such a huge army. Usually it was just her and her friends and maybe some others. Not hundreds of soldiers.

It would’ve made her more excited if she was fighting some actual monsters or evil super-villain. But the Frost Wolves weren’t like that at all, she didn’t think so at least. Not after finding out they could talk and were just as intelligent as ponies were. When she heard they were made of ice and snow like the Sentinels she just assumed that meant they were monsters. And considering she was fighting on Blizzard’s side she really didn’t even know if she was the good guy right now. The wolves had no problem with killing and fighting too though it seemed…

Rainbow Dash shook her head, she couldn’t let that stuff distract her right now. She’d fight the best she could to protect and help the ponies she could right now. They were friends and at least she could do that. Commander Blizzard may have been bad but his soldiers were just normal ponies for the most part. If she had the chance to do something else she could take it but for now it was time to fight.

Looking ahead she could see East and West Wind leading the huge flock of pegasi eastward. They had already angled their flight downwards before leveling off, now a mere twenty feet above ground, basically nothing.

The clouds constantly overhead dimmed the sunlight but there was still enough for Rainbow Dash to see all the way to the horizon. It was especially easy since there was naught but flat tundra the entire way with just a few small rivers running through the land. Her eyes were sharper than a hawk’s and she could make out that there was something else out there at the edge of the Empire’s border, something just sitting there, not moving to meet them like the silver Frost Wolves had done the last time.

With a narrowing of her eyes she saw that a real army was waiting to meet them too. While the wolves were still outnumbered they calmly stood in a huge pack numbering in the hundreds themselves. It wasn’t just silver wolves like last time but black, brown, and even some strangely green-furred wolves all standing together and waiting for the pegasi army to descend on them. It looked like they had dug a few holes in the ground and excavated a lot of dirt around them for some reason, piling it up in places. That must’ve been what she saw originally. Maybe they were using their new holes as trenches and the piles as barriers so the pegasi couldn’t just fly through and over them without adjusting their flight path.

Whatever this different strategy from the wolves was it didn’t seem to bother the ones leading the attack at all.

“Pegasi!” Captains East and West Wind shouted together as soon as their adversaries fully came into view. “Attack!”

They went lower until Rainbow Dash could practically dig her hooves into the dirt if she extended them down, the entire three hundred or so pegasi rocketing towards the wolf encampment. Howls and fierce barks erupted from the wolves as they egged their attackers on. Daring them to keep coming, asking them to hit them with everything they had, challenging them.

And the pegasi were more than happy to meet that challenge.

It was like a great horde of cavalry crashing right into a phalanx. Perhaps the Captains didn’t feel like dragging things out by making repeated fly-bys and instead just chose to slam the army of pegasi into their enemy at once. It would’ve made sense with their idea of “fighting fairly” that Skychaser had told Rainbow Dash about.

Being in the middle of the formation she didn’t hit the wolves directly at first. The front lines of ponies bunched up as the wolves jumped to meet them and Rainbow Dash had to fly and hop over a bunch of others so she didn’t barrel right into their backs as the whole army stalled and it turned into a rough and tumble melee on the ground immediately. Her fellow soldiers dropped to the ground and started running full force to make it to where their comrades were fighting while Dash stayed in the air and weaved in and out of pegasi descending all around her and wolves jumping from the front trying to tackle her and any number of the other soldiers to the ground.

“This is insane!” She yelled at the chaos of the battle raging around her. It was complete madness.

There were so much better ways to fight, safer ways that wouldn’t result in so many pegasi being torn to shreds by these wolves.

One wolf leaped up at her but she deftly dodged to the side and kicked it in its ribs, sending it careening back to the ground with a yelp. At least she was more than a match for any of these wolves. As she surveyed the battlefield she saw wolves of all colors fighting with the soldiers, her squadmates had joined the fighting by now too. Flashbolt and Skychaser fought back to back in a circle of other pegasi and wolves while Wild Wind and the other three charged deeper into the heart of the conflict. Rainbow Dash decided to join things for real too, but she wasn’t going to be an idiot about it. She kept in the air and flew above the fighting; looking for anyone who needed help and fighting off any wolves who made the poor decision to try and attack her.

She didn’t care if flying would be frowned upon as she zipped down and shoulder-checked two wolves that were threatening a few injured soldiers. The force of her high-speed rush smashed them away and Rainbow Dash followed it up with jumping on both of their stomachs to knock the wind out of them.

Right after, a brown wolf ran up to slash her face but she easily tilted her head to let his claws harmlessly slide off the metal of her helmet, the screeching sound as they scraped by was annoying but Rainbow Dash was easily able to follow up her parry by stepping forward and throwing a few lightning quick punches into the wolves face and jaw. The canine wobbled for a second before toppling over without even a groan, out cold.

While in the middle of the battle now, Rainbow Dash was a prime target, especially since she was basically fighting alone and not staying with a group. Any wolf who hadn’t been seeing how easily she dispatched their brothers was eager to attempt to take out the vibrant rainbow-maned pony. Another silver wolf broke out of the huge throng of ponies and wolves that had charged into each other and saw her. Drool practically dripping from its jaws it snarled at her and ran to eviscerate its prey. These wolves were quite good jumpers and once it was fifteen feet away it sprang forth off its back paws in a quick jump for Rainbow Dash, trying to catch her off guard.

But Dash’s reflexes were simply too good for any wolf. She beat her wings and jumped over the wolf, stomping her hooves onto its back the moment it flew under her and pancaking him into the ground. She then flew into the scrum and just started beating wolves left and right while the other soldiers formed up in groups so they couldn’t be individually picked off. Their armor gave them a lot of protection so as long as they stayed grouped together it was difficult for any of the wolves to do anything. Meanwhile Dash could fly around and take down any wolf that was trying to make a more dangerous attack. The battlefield had become so chaotic and loud with the sounds of screams and howls and ponies and wolves running over the ground that nothing else could be made out. If anyone was trying to get things in order or make the pegasi form up into ranks they were being drowned out.

Rainbow Dash saw one of the groups of soldiers attacked by a pack of wolves that crashed into and jumped on top of the armored ponies, sending them scurrying away and breaking their formation, making them easier to pick off one by one now. She scowled and flew over to help. One black wolf had its tail bit by her right as it lunged for a soldier, stopping it in midair and making it clumsily smack its face into the ground. She grinned with the tail still in her mouth and swung the wolf around, throwing it backwards and into another wolf, taking them both out of the fight.

“Ptooey!” She spat out the hairs stuck in her teeth.

It was just in time for her to see a soldier knocked onto the ground and a wolf jump on top of him, smacking his helmet off and leaving his head completely unprotected. Rainbow Dash flew into the wolf’s side and tackled it into the ground before its powerful jaws could snap down on the unfortunate pony. The pony and wolf tumbled and rolled around on the ground until they finally stopped, with the wolf on top preparing to latch its jaws right onto her neck. It had her pinned down with its paws on her shoulders to keep her from moving.

A pegasus whose nerves weren’t made of steel might have actually panicked and let him bite them. But just because Rainbow Dash couldn’t get out from under him didn’t mean she couldn’t do anything. With her right wing she scooped up some dirt on the ground and flung it at his face while at the same time she curled up her backlegs and kicked him hard in the stomach. The wolf was launched over her head and onto his back a short distance away. He wasn’t taken out by just one hit though like some of the others—while Rainbow Dash turned over to stand back up he rubbed the dirt from his face and growled at her.

“Well bring it on then, if you’re so tough,” she taunted him and made a beckoning motion with her hoof.

The wolf barked and ran at her lightning fast, she had to admit it was faster than she could run on the ground, but still nothing compared to what she could do in the air. She flapped her wings and hovered slightly above the ground, letting the wolf close the distance until it could start swiping with its razor sharp claws at her. But with her agility she just dodged and ducked away from every attack with her wings buzzing like a hummingbird’s. On one slash he overextended himself and Rainbow Dash uppercutted him before swiftly bringing her elbow back down on the top top of his skull. The wolf dropped like a sack of dirt.

Rainbow Dash looked around her after that and saw that the wolves looked to be on the back hoof of things. They were being pushed back and routed around the big piles of dirt while the pegasi soldiers chased them down.

“Go! Crush them!” She heard either East or West Wind yell from somewhere.

The soldiers advanced on the wolves’ position and Rainbow Dash was almost carried along with them. Still flying above their heads she noticed that the wolves hadn’t left the battlefield at all but were reforming into large groups around the dirt piles. She frowned, they weren’t retreating but were preparing for another round of fighting. Something about all of this was giving her a bad feeling...

By now the entire pegasus army was pressing into the wolves encampment and was within the perimeter of the dirt mounds.

Her eyes then spotted one familiar silver wolf in the center of the lupine army. The ragged War Chief jumped on top of a dirt pile and howled into the sky. A long, piercing howl that rained over the entire battlefield.

And then the ground began to shake.

The piles of dirt exploded as huge, half-buried, white wolves burst out of them, tearing the tundra around them to pieces. They had caught the pegasi completely off-guard and instantly attacked all of the soldiers around them. Rainbow Dash watched as huge paws swatted groups of soldiers away like they were rag dolls. Their armor didn’t do much against the blunt force and power that those wolves could hit them with.

“Tch,” Rainbow Dash clicked her tongue and flew towards a downed squad that one of the white wolves was preparing to crush underfoot.

She hit it full speed in the shin and staggered it, going under and punching it repeatedly in the stomach and then flying around and hitting it back and forth in the face until the soldiers could get away from it. Each hit of hers caused the wolf to flinch, meaning they at least didn’t have the kind of raw strength that Blizzard did, but she couldn’t exactly knock them down like the other wolves so easily. When it tried to bite her she swiftly avoided its jaws and flew behind its back, hitting it right at the base of the skull to make it fall forward before she went on to help some others.

Things were bad now, there weren’t too many of the white wolves but with the surprise attack a lot of soldiers were taken down and they were surrounded now by the huge wolves while all the others could just run roughshod over them. The pegasi still had the numbers advantage but that might change soon if nothing was done. Rainbow Dash knew she needed to deal with the white wolves and get her soldiers to form back up so the wolves couldn’t just run through them and do what they wanted.

“Form up on me, take that wolf down!” The familiar voice of Crescent Moon yelled from behind Rainbow Dash.

She looked to see the lieutenant leading a group of ten other soldiers to one of the white wolves. Rainbow Dash grimaced immediately—there was no way that was going to end well.

Crescent Moon and the others used their wings to propel themselves at the wolf, a few of them smacking into its side or hitting it on its more vulnerable legs. But they didn’t have the strength or weight behind their blows that Rainbow Dash did and the wolf was hardly affected by their attacks at all. With a low growl it brought a paw around and swung it with all its might at Crescent Moon and the other soldiers. The pegasi yelled as they were struck, some knocked senseless and falling unconscious while they hit the ground while others tumbled in every direction.

Crescent Moon had his helmet torn off as he rolled right in front of the white wolf, temporarily dazed and holding his head with one of his hooves as he tried to collect himself.

The wolf wasn’t going to give him the chance though. Seeing its prey right below it it opened up its jaws and leaned down to swallow Crescent Moon whole.

“Look out!” Rainbow Dash yelled as she flew towards him with dizzying speed. She carried him out of the way right as the wolves jaws snapped shut, the two of them coming to a halt on the dirt a short distance away.

“Wha—what just happened?” The confused lieutenant asked her, she noticed a cut on his head where blood was dripping from. His eyes finally focused on her. “Did you just… save me?”

A growl from behind her alerted her to the white wolf coming for them “Stay down!” She told the lieutenant and flew off him to take care of the huge wolf.

Rainbow Dash flew right at its face and when the wolf tried to crush her between its jaws she flew right past them and kicked him in the side of the head. The wolf could certainly feel the difference between her blows and the ones of the other soldiers. Rainbow Dash gave it absolutely no time to get used to her attacks, she swiftly flew around its body like a raging tornado, hitting it again and again all over. She landed maybe a hundred small blows before finishing up with a kick to the jaw, discombobulating the wolf. The large white beast could finally take no more and it stumbled to the side before collapsing to the ground.

She floated in the air above it to make sure it wasn’t getting back up before wiping some sweat from her brow and looking back over at Crescent Moon. “You okay?”

He nodded in appreciation. “Yes, I-”

His eyes widened and a sharp inhale told Rainbow Dash that he was about to shout something but before he could she felt something slam into her and knock her to the ground.

Rainbow Dash rolled with the blow and jumped back to her hooves, skidding along on the ground before stopping and looking to see what had hit her. Her eyes narrowed at the familiar face of that old silver wolf. The wolf in turn glared right back at her and slowly stalked toward her, keeping himself coiled up and low to the ground, ready to move or strike in an instant.

“I’ve been watching you, rainbow pony. You seem to keep getting my attention. Seeing what you’ve done I knew I’d have to deal with you myself,” he said to her in his guttural voice.

“Yeah? I’ve been too busy helping to care about anything like that,” she rolled her eyes at him.

They didn’t exchange anymore words but Rainbow Dash kept her wings ready and her limbs loose. She didn’t move from her spot, making the wolf have to be the one to close the gap while the rest of the battle raged around them. That didn’t bother the wolf; he took slow and deliberate steps while his unblinking eyes locked onto hers in a staring contest. And then right as he was lifting up one of his paws to take another step he instead shot towards her like a snake.

His claws were going right for her eyes but she ducked her head out of the way and jumped to the side, throwing a jab at his exposed ribs with her wing. But he pushed off the dirt with his hindlegs and dodged her wing as he jumped to her left. The wolf then got low and lunged forward to strike at Rainbow Dash’s legs but she flapped her wings and took to the air to avoid him completely.

Not to be deterred he jumped into the sky after her and tried to swipe her with both of his claws at once. However, Rainbow Dash was far faster in the sky than any other pegasus he had fought, his jump was easy for her to evade and before he could readjust or land she had flown above him and kicked him in the back of the head, sending him into the dirt like a meteor. Rainbow Dash knew he was tough and tenacious though and wasn’t finished with just that one kick. She flew to the ground while he was trying to push himself back onto all fours and roughly landed on his back, pressing down onto him with her four hooves and full body weight. A heavy wheeze left his body with a thwump as she crushed him into the cold tundra and jumped off of him.

She was still being careful though and she kept her eyes on him after getting off. “Are you still gonna try and fight me?”

“Yes… I must...” the wolf replied through pained breaths, his chest heaving.

Rainbow Dash gave him a sad look and was honestly about to lend him a helping hoof and see if maybe he’d be more willing to talk when he threw some dirt from the ground into her face.

“Agh!” Rainbow Dash gasped and jumped backwards out of reflex, using her hooves to try and wipe the dirt away.

She was just able to peak open an eye in time to see his jaws opening up and going for her neck. Rainbow Dash reacted as quickly as she ever had in her life. Her head lowered until her helmet was right where her neck had been, so when the wolf chomped down all he did was dent some metal and break some teeth. As he reared back in pain she brought a hoof forward and punched him as hard as she could in the jaw, a stream of blood from his injured mouth spilling out onto the ground.

“Stay down this time!” Rainbow Dash yelled at him.

“N-Never...” the wolf glared at her as he struggled again to rise. Another droplet of blood fell from his mouth onto his faded silver fur.

Wait… blood? Rainbow Dash’s eyes widened.

“Hold on,” she said to the wolf, confusion plain in her voice. “You’re bleeding?”

“Of course I’m bleeding!” He snarled.

“But… I thought you were like, wolves made of ice and snow and stuff?”

The War Chief looked at her incredulously, baffled by her words. “What insanity are they teaching you ponies? We are creatures of flesh and blood no different from yourselves.”

Rainbow Dash’s head was swimming in confusion. “But I don’t… then why? Why don’t we have the Ice Sentinels—and why are we fighting you at all?” She held her head trying to wrap her mind around this, her eyes eventually rising and locking back onto the wolf. “Have you ever tried to go south of here and fought those Ice Sentinels?”

“The flying ice monsters?” The wolf tilted his head. “Of course, those things have attacked Frost Wolves and other creatures without discrimination for generations. They’re a scourge on these lands as bad as you pegasi.”

He doesn’t know… Rainbow Dash realized. We’re not using the Ice Sentinels to defend against them for some reason either. And these wolves are… why are they fighting us? Why are we fighting them?

“Why?” She asked the wolf again. “Why do you guys keep coming here into the Empire’s territory to fight them?”

“The same reason it’s always been. This is a harsh place to live, we want the land and rivers to the west. We’re holed up in our caves to the east, unable to expand for generations, always fighting with each other, More water is what we need but whenever we’ve tried to settle or work our ways into these lands you flying rats have attacked us. It’s gone like that for years. Always,” he told her.

“But we’re not even using this land!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, holding her hooves out. “It’s just empty! All of the pegasi and the whole Empire just flies in the sky, we don’t do anything on the ground or with those rivers! Why don’t we just let you have it? There’s no reason for us to fight at all!”

He raised an eyebrow at her. “How should I know why you attack us for no reason? That’s just how it’s always been, you rats coming down on us with no explanation when all we wanted was water. Ask your leaders if you want an answer. But for today there’s still a battle going on.”

The wolf tensed up like he was going to attack Rainbow Dash again but she refused to get into a battle stance along with him.

“No! I’m not going to fight you anymore!”

He opened his bleeding jaw to yell at her some more when a shadow fell over him. Both pony and wolf looked up as a purple pegasus jumped onto the War Chief’s back, wrestling him to the ground and wrapping his hooves around the wolf’s neck.

Captain West Wind had a solid grip, one that the wolf couldn’t throw off even as they rolled over on top of each other. The Captain reached up a hoof and put it on the wolf’s head, gritting his teeth as he tried to swiftly snap his neck.

“Stop!” Rainbow Dash yelled.

“Ngh!” West Wind grunted.

Snap!

With that sickening sound the War Chief’s head limply hung from his shoulders until West Wind dropped the wolf, his body falling to the ground, completely unmoving. West Wind gave a single look to Rainbow Dash before flying into the sky. And Rainbow Dash just stood there, she had no idea what to say or do now. Everything had gotten so crazy. She vaguely heard Crescent Moon walking up beside her while the rest of the battle petered out, the wolves looked like they had lost all unity and were running in every direction, but Rainbow Dash had no idea why. Either way, the pegasi had won again.

“-you.” Crescent Moon said.

“Huh?” Rainbow Dash turned her head to him.

“Thank you. For saving me I mean,” he told her.

“Oh. No problem,” she frowned and turned to look back at the dead wolf in front of her.

She stood there blankly for a bit longer trying to make sense of, well, anything. She didn’t even notice when the fighting had stopped completely until the rest of her squad had joined up with her and Crescent Moon while Captains East and West Wind floated in the sky above the battlefield.

“Well done, soldiers!” East Wind yelled. “The cowardly wolves will think twice before challenging our might again!”

“You have done your Empire proud!” West Wind joined in.

Cheers came from the other soldiers but all Rainbow Dash did was look around at all the pegasi and wolves lying on the ground. Injured or worse. She reached up to take off her dented helmet, looking at the teeth marks and scratches it had taken before dropping it and letting it bounce around her hooves. Her squad looked at her oddly, and she in turn looked over them as well, seeing scuffed armor but otherwise unmarked pegasi.

“Help your injured if you’re squadmates and then we shall return home!” East Wind yelled.

Crescent Moon coughed. “Ahem, I suppose we should still help around for a bit but it looks like we were pretty lucky. No one is hurt are they?” He asked the other six ponies.

Wild Wind took up answering for the whole squad. “No, sir.”

“Good, good. It was certainly a bit of a… frenzy for a while but I’m glad we pulled through. It was a good victory,” Crescent Moon nodded.

Rainbow Dash’s ears perked up and she turned to look at him. “What?”

He furrowed his brow at her, confused. “What?”

“What did you just say?” She stalked over to him, glaring into Crescent Moon’s eyes.

“W-What do you mean?” The Lieutenant backed up. “All I said was it was a good victory!”

Rainbow Dash grabbed him by the collar of his armor and pulled his face in close to hers so they were eye to eye. Wild Wind stepped forward looking like he was about to say something but then thought better of it, Skychaser too almost took a step before a hoof and anxious look from Flashbolt restrained him. The rest of the squad warily looked on, paralyzed by Rainbow Dash’s anger.

“A good victory? For what?! Why are we even fighting these battles at all? Do you even know?! Why are we fighting the wolves, it doesn’t make any sense!” She shook him about. “Ponies died today! You almost died! So why are we fighting these wolves for no reason? Why?!”

“I-I-I-I-” Crescent Moon couldn’t respond, he didn’t know how to respond, he had no answer to give.

“It’s because they’re our enemy.”

Rainbow Dash and her squad looked up to see East and West Wind descending next to them, stern looks on both their faces.

The pegasus from Equestria let her lieutenant go and turned to them, a harsh glare on her face. “What do you mean?”

Before responding to her the twins looked at Crescent Moon and the rest of her squad. “Lieutenant.” East Wind said. “Take your squad back to base, we have something to discuss with the new recruit.”

“Y-Yes sir,” Crescent Moon hesitantly nodded before unfurling his wings and hovering slightly off the ground. “Corporal, everyone, let us return to the city.”

“No, sir.”

Crescent Moon and everyone else looked to Wild Wind after hearing the words he just spoke.

“What do you mean, no?” The Lieutenant frowned at his corporal. “We have our orders to return to base and-”

“Rainbow Dash is our squadmate,” Wild Wind resolutely said, looking around at the others to make sure they were on the same page. “If… if something concerns her it concerns all of us.”

Summer Rains nodded, followed by Clear Skies, Fierce Current, Flashbolt, and lastly a hesitant Skychaser. Crescent Moon looked from one face to the next and saw that they weren’t going to be changing their minds on this. And considering how Rainbow Dash just saved his life… and how he was supposed to be looking out for her as her superior officer, maybe he owed her just a little bit too.

The caramel soldier dropped back to the ground and gulped, facing the Captains. “Y-You heard it, as her superior officer I believe what affects one of my squad to affect us all. So we would all like to stay with her.” His voice cracked on the last sentence but he still stood tall.

East and West Wind shot each other a glance and stayed silent for a minute, as if conversing in some weird way only twins could, before returning their gazes to the others.

“Very well,” West Wind said. “But there may be consequences to what you’re going to hear.”

East Wind took a slow breath through his nose and spoke to Rainbow Dash. “There is no real reason for us to fight the Frost Wolves. We do it for the sake of having an enemy to fight. They give us an outside foe to unite behind and something that gives our soldiers meaning. Obviously as you now know we could easily have the Ice Sentinels guard our borders if we wanted to or simply ignore the wolves altogether since they can’t fly and we have no use for what they want. But pegasi need an enemy to fight and do battle with to keep us strong and sharp, even if there’s no other reason for it. Fighting for the sake of fighting. That’s all there is to it.”

“You don’t care about all the ponies and wolves that died in these pointless fights?!” Rainbow Dash yelled.

“Protecting our territory is all the reason we need. It’s the true pegasus way. We took these lands ages ago and we’ll fight off anyone who tries to encroach on them, even if it’s pointless and unnecessary,” West Wind told her.

“But you could just use the Ice Sentinels for that then!”

“If we relied on them for our total protection and didn’t have anything to fight ourselves we would only become slothful and weak over time,” East Wind shook his head. “Commander Blizzard knows that well. The Frost Wolves are good for our soldiers to fight. That’s why we never finish them off in any of the battles. Letting them retreat and build up their numbers again so they can fight more works better for us.”

“Now return to base, all of you. And I think this goes without saying but what you’ve heard from the two of us is to be kept between you and only you,” West Wind told them.

“This isn’t over with, not by a long shot,” Rainbow Dash growled to the two of them. “And next time I talk to Blizzard I might do a lot more than just talking.” She flapped her wings and flew off into the sky, hovering for a bit and waiting for her squad to join her.

The six of them were quite perturbed by what they had just learned but all of them knew this wasn’t the time nor place to talk about it. With a nod, Wild Wind took to the skies and the others followed with him, leaving Crescent Moon on the ground. The Lieutenant awkwardly looked between his subordinates and superiors, before finally gulping once more and joining Rainbow Dash in the sky. As East and West Wind looked on the seven soldiers departed back to the city.

Comments

[THERDSTORYWHISPERER]

Great chapter!

Did something happened in Blizzard’s life that made him act like this?

[MagicS]

10457833
I would say he's the most extreme example of being a product of his current society and culture. Lots of pegasi in the Empire don't like how things are and their history, but he's one who very, very, much does. Not any different from how people can be in real life.

[redmar]

Blizzard simply wants war for the sake of it. All the ponies that died during those fights are his fault and Rainbow won't be afraid to call him a murderer because of it.

[Maud of Sterner Stuff]

I was puzzled by the conflicting descriptions of the Frost Wolves, but that was cleared up quite well here. Though weren't those big white wolves battling the other wolves some time ago? I wonder if any of the pegasus soldiers ever stop to consider what they're actually fighting for. Anyway, great chapter!