Rainbow Dash's Unstoppable Ego

by MagicS

True Pegasus XXV

Things had changed in the Empire in the day after the fight between Commander Blizzard and Rainbow Dash.

Maybe Blizzard had realized things could never go the way he wanted them to. Maybe he was just angry after Rainbow Dash’s continuous defiance. Whatever the reason was he had decided to stop being “nice”. No longer would he tolerate anything that he saw as against the Empire or the true pegasus way and no longer would he let the illusion of power held by the Elder Council last either. The first thing he did the next morning was officially disband the council and announce his complete control and rulership of the Eternal Pegasus Empire.

Curfew was put into effect and patrols were increased. All soldiers were forced into even stricter regimens and schedules as the normal training was shut down and replaced by endless patrolling and guarding of the city and its skies. No longer were ponies allowed out whenever and wherever they wanted, permission had to be gained from a loyal soldier first and things like playgrounds were off-limits while meaningless parties and get-togethers were no longer allowed either.

Blizzard had fully impressed his vision of an ideal pegasus society on the city.

Rainbow Dash meanwhile was imprisoned in a jail that sat on a level of the city directly below the floating coliseum, currently recovering from her injuries. No one but her doctors and guards were allowed in to see her. Her squadmates were so far unpunished despite their partaking in the Buckball game, merely forced to go along with their new duties.

It was colder in the city.

---

Elder Tornado was at a loss as to what to do for most of the day. He couldn’t fly, he was only allowed out at certain times and to certain places, and he didn’t even have a job anymore, as pathetic as he considered that old job. So now all he was was stuck inside his room with only his thoughts to dwell on.

“I should’ve picked up some sort of hobby in my life,” he sighed as he sat in front of a window that peeked out towards the city. As he spied the floating coliseum his thoughts drifted to Rainbow Dash. “At least now I could speak to you if I wanted… but you’re in no condition for that.”

One of Tornado’s few contacts in the army worked as a guard for the jail. A young relative of his through a nephew. Tornado could call in a favor and see Rainbow Dash at any time despite the supposed ban on visits. It was risky and would certainly draw attention to him and his nephew even if it went off without a hitch. The plus side though was that Blizzard had entirely stopped caring about the Elder. No longer were soldiers watching him or making sure he didn’t do anything to subvert Blizzard’s orders and desires.

Blizzard was of the mind that with the council formally eradicated, Tornado and the other Elders not as loyal as the sycophantic Black Lightning were irrelevant anyways. No one would listen to or help them anymore with Blizzard directly and publicly in charge.

But with the injuries Rainbow Dash sustained in her fight who knows when she’d be alright again.

“Maybe in the meantime I should find a way to contact that lieutenant and the rest of her squad...” Tornado mused.

He knew his name and he knew that the other members of the squad were close friends with her. Tornado wasn’t sure about what he would even do after talking with them, or Rainbow Dash herself for that matter, but he just had a feeling he should do it. Because Tornado didn’t want to just take everything Blizzard was doing lying down. He had seen things start to change, seen things start to get better around here thanks to Rainbow Dash. Blizzard was trying to stop all of that by force.

Perhaps before Rainbow Dash arrived he wouldn’t have had the will to change things himself, he would’ve just quietly accepted the miserable state of affairs. But seeing a strong pony like her come and all the ripples she made in their stagnant Empire lit a fire in him. And he definitely did not want Blizzard to make everything even worse. Somehow he’d help Rainbow Dash change things for good here.

“The citizens were enraptured by her, and still are even if it’s been spread that she was trying to cause dissent in the city. Blizzard has just made everyone like him even less with what he’s doing but no one has the courage to face him. Even though I’m sure there are more soldiers that would side against him at this point there isn’t a catalyst for that to happen, or most would see it as pointless with how strong he is.” Tornado frowned. “Rainbow Dash… maybe some ponies were wary of you because they’ve been taught negative things about Equestria as children but after meeting you and hearing about you no one feels that way anymore. No one even really hates Equestria that much besides Blizzard himself but they’re not willing to stand up to him.”

Elder Tornado sighed and walked away from his window. “Rainbow Dash, we need you. You need to become our symbol to rally behind. I just hope you weren’t hurt too badly… I hope he didn’t break you.”

---

Commander Blizzard no longer used his old office when it came to business. Instead the new complete ruler of the Empire had decided to repurpose the council chambers for his needs, disallowing any onlookers and suspending ponies’ rights to come in and air their complaints or grievances. There were no more trials or old business of settling disputes and deciding on new policy just yet. Right now it was Blizzard’s place to hear everything he needed from his soldiers and other loyal ponies reporting to him from across the city. How were things going? Any unrest? What needed to be done?

That last one was put on hold right now since Blizzard was not exactly familiar with the finer points of running a city. But no one wished to suggest he delegate some duties or perhaps allow the Elders to continue working, just out of sight.

“Curfew is being obeyed?” He asked East Wind from his position on the raised platform where Elder Tornado would normally sit.

“Yes, sir.” East Wind nodded.

“There hasn’t been any noise from Rainbow Dash’s squad either?”

East Wind shook his head. “No, sir.”

“Good, I was worried they might get a stupid idea in their heads. But it seems even easily corruptible ponies like them are smart enough to know there’s no standing against me. We’ll still need to root out the decay she brought with her into the army at some point though,” Blizzard gazed ahead, wondering just how many soldiers would need to be replaced in the end. At the moment he wanted as many working to enforce his new rules as possible though.

His eyes then glanced down at East Wind. “And what of Rainbow Dash? Has she woken up yet?”

Another shake of the head. “No, sir. The doctors say she’s in stable condition and there’s no permanent damage, but she’s still asleep. At the moment she’s in a wing and body cast and they told me that it will be several weeks before she fully recovers.”

“Very well,” Blizzard shrugged. “I knew she would be in a condition like that after the fight, I’ll just have to be a little patient with her.” He huffed. “Broken yet or not I’ll find a way to make her useful. In the meantime perhaps I should begin to make true plans for our eventual war with Equestria? It has become clear to me after fighting Rainbow Dash for real that we must face our other half. We are diametrically opposed to them, they must fall to us so the greatness of our society can be proved.”

East Wind wisely kept his mouth shut through all of this. The Commander was clearly becoming more unhinged with each passing day, he and his brother were in total agreement on that. Hopefully he didn’t try to make any grand pronouncement anytime soon…

“I feel alive in a way I haven’t felt before,” the Commander continued. “Staying calm and collected has its benefits, but unleashing yourself makes everything so much more enjoyable. It feels good to not restrain my thoughts and feelings. To finally rip away the shawl that’s covered this Empire.” He smirked. “Guess I should thank Rainbow Dash when she wakes up.”

The Commander then leaped down onto the floor and began to stride past East Wind, his long legs carrying him swiftly. “Make sure the patrols run through the night, I won’t tolerate anyone being out past curfew on the first day of its instatement.”

“Yes, sir.” East Wind nervously swallowed and followed along. He and his brother had their work cut out for them.

---

Misty was a young mare who lived a slow life in the city. She had no husband or children of her own to take care of and most of the necessary housework in her family’s home was taken care of by her mother and older sisters. It led to her days being boring and listless as she occupied herself with needlepoint and sewed patterns of clouds and raindrops into her family’s togas. Something that technically was frowned upon but she didn’t care. She didn’t even like her needlepoint hobby that much but if someone tried to take it away from her she was going to go insane!

So she enjoyed anything that broke the normal rhythm of her life. Anything entertaining for her.

Such as her soldier brother telling her about this amazing mare called “Rainbow Dash”. A mare supposedly from Equestria who just fought their Commander in a heated battle at the coliseum. He said she lost but that she never gave up and tried her hardest the whole time, he had never seen anything like it.

Neither had Misty.

It was crazy to think of a mare in this city doing something like that. She couldn’t even conceive of it before just now. Her brother had told her that Rainbow Dash was hurt pretty badly in the fight, but one day Misty hoped she could see her. Hopefully on a day utterly unlike this one, where her brother was out forced onto some late night patrolling, where only earlier in the day had it been announced that they couldn’t leave their homes after dark unless supervised.

That really burned her up! As if she wasn’t caged up enough with nothing to do!

She was so vexed that she needed some fresh air to clear her head, simultaneously awed by what she had heard about Rainbow Dash and irritated by what that Commander of theirs had recently done to their city. Since she couldn’t go anywhere she instead went up to the roof of her family’s home, a door leading up on top of it. She often came up here whenever she was in a foul mood or just wanted to lazily stare up at the rolling sky.

The breeze from the air blew through her wavy sea-blue mane and felt cold on her pink coat. She shook her feathers and shivered, a small smile on her lips, it was cold to be sure but she kind of liked it.

Up high the moon was only the slightest of crescents and clouds blocked off most of the stars, making it a darker night than normal. That was fine for her—it was more peaceful in a way like this too. She could almost close here eyes and curl up on the roof and drift off to sleep just like that. That might cause her to catch a cold though, better not.

Instead she walked around, stretching her legs and just letting the breeze wash over her.

“This is pretty nice,” her light voice broke the silence of the night.

“Hey!” A sharp voice came from above in reply.

Misty looked up to see a pair of soldiers descending towards her, the two landed on her roof with displeased frowns on their faces, frowns Misty was more than ready to match.

“What is it?” The mare asked, backing up slightly.

“You know there’s a curfew starting tonight, why aren’t you indoors?” The same soldier who had spoken before asked her.

Misty clicked her tongue in disbelief. “This is my roof! You’re saying I can’t even stay up on my own roof?”

“That’s exactly what we’re saying!” The soldier had the audacity to poke her in the chest, and a little harder than he needed to, making her stumble back. “Hurry up, mare, get back inside and just go to bed.”

Misty was quite angry now and she was about to do something stupid when the other soldier stepped up, his face still frowning but with an undercurrent of sadness and understanding to it.

“Miss, please, just go inside. Try to have a good night’s sleep,” he told her.

She looked between the two of them with her face still scrunched up in anger. Practically infuriated there was no way she could actually have a decent night of sleep now… but it was pointless starting a fight and getting in trouble. With a heavy sigh she relaxed her body and hung her head low.

“Fine,” she sullenly said and started to turn around.

And stopped.

“Miss?” The friendlier soldier asked when he saw her stop, he and his partner sharing confused looks.

What would that mare from Equestria do? Misty thought to herself.

The answer was obvious.

Misty sucked in a deep breath and raised her head, defiantly glaring at the two soldiers. “No.”

Comments

[THERDSTORYWHISPERER]

Great chapter!

[silvadel]

Oh my -- Misty is about to get a lesson about what it is to be made an example of.