Rainbow Dash's Unstoppable Ego

by MagicS

True Pegasus XXVIII

There wasn’t much to do in a prison cell. And even less to do when you were in constant pain and had a cast on most of your body. So for the past few weeks Rainbow Dash had been monumentally bored even as the pain slowly abated over time. She couldn’t and wasn’t supposed to move so all she could do was stare at the bars of her cell all day. At least when she hurt herself flying back in Ponyville she could use the time to reread a Daring Do book. But here she had nothing and if she squirmed or breathed in the wrong way it would still hurt her. She probably still had a good week before she could get out of these casts. Not like that would change much though, all she’d be able to do is walk and fly around in small circles inside her cell. She sighed, better than nothing at least.

She hadn’t even gotten any visitors or anything besides the occasional doctors and the guards bringing her food—and none of them talked to her. Probably ordered not to by Blizzard. And speaking of the Commander he hadn’t been in to see her yet either, even though she had really expected him to come by by now. Maybe he was giving her time to fully recover or he was doing something else, or he just didn’t see any reason to talk to her anymore. Maybe he had given up on getting her on his side? Naw, she couldn’t believe that. There was no way he’d give up so easily.

Rainbow Dash had had plenty of time to think about what he might be doing now, hopefully he didn’t take anything out on her squadmates and their families, but since she hadn’t seen any of them thrown into this prison with her she imagined they might be okay for now. But after that fight at the coliseum and the “trial” that had gone on beforehand she knew there had to be some kind of fallout in the city afterwards. Hopefully things were still okay and Blizzard had been reigned in from doing too much, although she couldn’t think of any other pony in the city who could try and stop him.

“I’m so booored,” she whined to herself. She had to keep still on her back with her head propped up on a pillow and her right wing kept straight out from her body in a cast. Her hindlegs were essentially the only part of her that were a hundred percent.

She wanted to know what was going on with Summer Rains and the others. That was the worst part of being cooped up in here. And having had to stew around in the knowledge that Blizzard had beaten her again. It still made her grin though knowing she had gotten the last laugh in, she saw the look on his face, she shook his confidence and even humiliated him in front of the onlookers by stopping and refusing him.

“Next time is going to be different,” Rainbow Dash frowned. “I’m not losing to him again, no way.”

In more ways than one she was willing to bet her life on that.

The sound of creaking metal told her the door to the cell-block was being opened. Strange, it wasn’t time for food and her doctors came on the same schedule too. Was someone else being thrown in here with her? Was she getting a visitor? Did Blizzard finally feel like dropping in?

At the sounds of the hooves walking down the hall to her cell she was immediately able to rule out Blizzard. He would've had louder, heavier steps, whoever this was was a pegasus of average size, maybe even a little lighter. Rainbow Dash knitted her eyebrows together, wondering who it was that she was going to see as their hooves got closer and closer.

Finally the visitor walked into view, standing in front of the bars of her cell was a pony that she recognized but hadn’t expected to see.

“What are you doing here?” Rainbow Dash asked Elder Tornado.

He smiled a warm but tired smile at her. “I came to speak with you.”

“About what?”

“All sorts of things.”

That didn’t exactly alleviate her confusion.

“Uh, okay. How’d you even get in here?” She raised an eyebrow at him.

“I have a relative who works as a guard here, it took some coaxing but he let me in to see you. However this will be the only time, he doesn’t want to take a risk like this again. And I can’t stay here talking forever,” he told her.

Rainbow Dash foolishly attempted a shrug and winced. “Ow, dumb reflexes. Well what did you want to talk about first? I thought Blizzard would come see me by now but I kind of forgot about you.”

“I suppose first of all you should know then that Blizzard has taken up direct rulership of the city. He’s clamped down on dissent and instilled a curfew, soldiers fly about the city to enforce things all day and night. He’s becoming a total tyrant,” Tornado said, frowning.

“He wasn’t one already?”

“He had enough respect for how things were supposed to be, thanks to his love of tradition and the old ways, that he never sought to do something like this in the past. He probably figured your influence was too dangerous to be allowed even the slightest chance of spreading. Or maybe he just got tired of the rest of the city not living up to his standards.”

Dash rolled her eyes. “Well whatever, it’s not like I was gonna just talk to him when I got out of here. So he’s being even worse? Fine by me, ponies are just going to dislike him even more.

“Quite,” Tornado nodded. “In fact that’s already happening quite a bit. I don’t think our Commander knows or cares about how much the regular ponies throughout the city are badmouthing him. We’re taught to believe in the rule of the strong and to be loyal to them, but Blizzard’s abuses aren’t very tolerable. And as you know we’ve been slowly changing since before you even got here.”

“Heh,” she grinned. “That jerk has it coming.”

Tornado grinned too. “He certainly does.” The Elder then had a slight coughing fit, wheezing a bit as he tried to get his breathing back under control.

“You okay?” Dash asked.

He held up a hoof to signify he was fine. “Y-Yes… just old. I’d like to ask another question… if that’s alright with you?”

“Shoot, dude.”

He coughed and pushed some of his voluminous mane out of his face. “Is Equestria as great as you make it seem?”

Rainbow Dash got a cocky look on her face. “Well, I’m pretty much the most awesome pony from Equestria, and maaaybe I haven’t had the most normal of lives like most ponies from Equestria so I dunno how good of an example I am, but yeah, Equestria is great. Super great compared to this place, dude.”

“I could’ve already told you that,” Tornado chuckled briefly before stopping. Slowly, a more solemn expression came over his face. “Rainbow Dash. Will you help me make my home more like yours?”

“What I’ve been trying to do from the beginning. Haven’t exactly had the best results yet though,” she sheepishly responded.

“On the contrary, you’ve had quite the impressive impact. Do you have any idea how many ponies you’ve affected? How many mares have been inspired to try and live their own lives? You’ve put something into motion here that can’t be stopped, even by Blizzard, all he can do is make it as difficult and painful as possible unless we do something about him first.”

“Yeah… I definitely hear you on that,” Rainbow Dash frowned. “So what then? Do you have a plan to stop him?”

Tornado rubbed his cheek and looked away. “Actually I was hoping you would have one.”

“Oh. Well uh, I’m more of a doer than a thinker. Like, if you want something punched then I’m your mare but otherwise? I usually leave the planning and stuff up to my friends, hehe,” Rainbow Dash blushed.

“I see. And unfortunately we can’t just punch the problem of Blizzard away, as you know well.”

“Yeah.”

“That leaves us with a bit of a problem...” Elder Tornado sighed.

Rainbow Dash bit her lip, if Twilight was here she would definitely be able to think of something. But Rainbow Dash wasn’t Twilight, she wasn’t dumb but she wasn’t some egghead genius either, so wracking her brain trying to think of what Twilight might do was pointless. She’d just have to do what Rainbow Dash would do. And she’d give it her all just like she gave everything else in her life her all. She’d been in tough spots before, she’d been in tough spots earlier on this adventure, and she never gave up then just like she’ll never give up now. She also really wanted to stick it to that jerk too.

Her face morphed into a confident smirk. “I’ll do what I can, and I’ll deal with Blizzard somehow, I promise. I don’t know how but I’ll do it. Just have some faith in me on that.”

Elder Tornado seemed worried but he nodded. “There’s not really anything else I can do. No other pony in the city has even the smallest chance of actually defeating him in battle.”

“No one but me has to fight him, there’s a lot more we can do. And a lot more ponies that are on our side who can help out in other ways,” she told him.

“Like who?” Tornado raised an eyebrow.

“My squad. Summer Rains, Wild Wind, Flashbolt, Skychaser, Clear Skies, Fierce Current, Crescent Moon, all of them will help us. I’m pretty good when it comes to picking friends, I guarantee they’ll fight to change this place too,” Rainbow Dash’s face was brimming with enough confidence that it did put the Elder a bit at ease. “You get them together and I know this’ll work, just tell them what I’m telling you!”

“Yes?” The Elder was intrigued by her claims.

“I may not have a real plan or anything but I’m good at making noise and I know that this city’s already about to explode. My squad can get other soldiers on their side and fight the soldiers loyal to Blizzard, the farmworkers and everyone else can go on strike, mares can throw down their sewing needles, everyone can ignore curfew and do whatever they want, just go nuts!”

“Blizzard will certainly not be happy to see that kind of chaos and dissent in his city...” Tornado smiled.

“Yep! But it won’t even matter cause he can’t stop everyone, and I’ve got a feeling his loyal soldiers are gonna be outnumbered too. But if ponies are afraid of his retribution that’s fine cause I’ll be there to fight him again,” Rainbow Dash got a steely look of determination in her eyes.

Elder Tornado. “I believe in you. And so what you’re saying is that we need to start a war in this city to oust the Commander and bring about a new age?”

Rainbow Dash nodded. “That’s right. As far as starting it and whatever I dunno how to really go about that but I bet Wild Wind or someone else on my squad can make a real plan.” She winced at a sudden shooting pain in her wing. “Only problem is… I’m not exactly ready for a fight right now.

“Yes, I could see that when I first walked in here,” the older pegasus winced.

Rainbow Dash took a breath and leaned her head back, looking up at the ceiling. How much time did she need to fully recover? Things couldn’t wait forever and she hated the idea of continuing to let Blizzard oppress the city. “Two weeks.” She said, blinking and returning her gaze to Tornado. “Give me two weeks and I’ll be back to normal.”

“Right,” Tornado nodded. “I do hope you’re not overestimating your recovery abilities though.”

“I’m not,” Dash grinned. “I’m tough, okay?”

“Well I can’t deny that,” Tornado chuckled.

“So yeah, you talk to all of them, make sure they can get everything ready, and then in two weeks I want to be busted out of here and we can take Blizzard and this crazy Empire down together!” Rainbow Dash shouted.

---

“And that’s what she said,” Elder Tornado said to the assembled soldiers of Rainbow Dash’s squad.

The eight ponies had gathered in the stuffy basement of one of the warehouses in the middle of the city late at night. Some of them had already been trying to meet up with each other, making Tornado’s job much easier. Now they sat at a table together with a flickering candle being their only source of light and dusty boxes piled up around them. Their conversation had been an interesting one so far as Tornado told them that Rainbow Dash was okay while the rest of the squad enlightened him to the truth about several things like the Frost Wolves and Ice Sentinels. It still ended up being a mostly positive meeting thanks to how happy the other soldiers were to hear Rainbow Dash was “okay” and still her same old self. And to know that they would all help each other to defeat Blizzard and put an end to the old Empire soon.

Skychaser was still not exactly the happiest though. “How has my life become this? How have I been roped into this?” The pegasus shook his head.

“You don’t need to complain so much even if you were a bit more of a straight-shooter than the rest of us. I know this isn’t exactly what any of us thought would happen but you’re still going to help us, aren’t you?” Flashbolt asked him.

“Ugh… I’m not crazy about this but I’m not about to fight against my own family either. I’ll help,” Skychaser acquiesced.

Flashbolt threw a wing over his cousin’s shoulders and smiled. The two may have not agreed on everything and frequently got on each other’s nerves but they had been through thick and thin together and that wasn’t about to change here.

“So two weeks?” Clear Skies rubbed his chin, thinking. “There’s going to be a huge storm starting up just about then but I don’t think that would put a hamper on anything we’re doing.”

“No, it may even be a good thing. Regardless of that though I think we should come up with a more solid plan than “go nuts”, as Rainbow Dash said.” Wild Wind said.

“How many others do you think we can trust and try and bring over to our side in the next two weeks? We’ll need to be careful but I think there are a lot of soldiers that will fight with us, especially if they know Rainbow Dash will be fighting with them. She really has quite the reputation in this city now,” Summer Rains said.

“You can leave that kind of legwork to me,” Crescent Moon interjected. “When it comes to finding soldiers and getting in touch with them I have the most tools at my disposal. I’ll only talk to the ones I really trust or think will be sympathetic to us. For the rest of you I think you would have a much easier and safer time spreading the word through your families. Get the word out through them that in two weeks we revolt. Even with the curfew and Blizzard’s crackdown on gatherings it hasn’t completely stopped, all your families have large social circles. Just make sure you only tell those you know you can trust completely.”

“Or perhaps just tell them to be prepared for something vague in two weeks,” Tornado suggested. “When they see Rainbow Dash and everything else going on they’ll probably pick up on what’s happening and join in.”

“Er, excuse me?” Fierce Current raised a hoof. “What you mentioned about talking to our families, is that required or-”

“Yes! Just talk to your dad already, you moron!” Clear Skies whacked him on the back of the head.

Wild Wind nodded. “I’m sorry Fierce but to put it bluntly your father is the most important of all our family members. He’s a well-respected pony at the farms and wields a lot of influence, we need you to talk to him, he’s our in there.”

“Fiiiine,” Fierce Current sighed and rested his chin on the table, looking as despondent as he possibly could.

“Are you sure you’ll be okay handling the soldiers all by yourself?” Flashbolt asked Crescent Moon.

“Of course,” the lieutenant confidently replied. “I didn’t earn my rank for nothing after all. I’m hardly useless, and as your commanding officer I should be the one who takes the most dangerous task.”

“I would offer to help as well but I’m not sure what I can do. I can’t even fly,” Tornado said.

“You do have direct access to the other Elders and other important pegasi don’t you? Would none of them side with us?” Summer Rains asked.

“Unfortunately I don’t believe they would. And I’m already worried that my movements might be catching Blizzard’s attention again,” the Elder told them. “Maybe I can do something when things actually begin… I can possibly make breaking Rainbow Dash out of that prison easier for us.”

“Right, certainly can’t forget to do that.” Crescent Moon chuckled dryly.

Summer Rains frowned. “It already annoys me enough that she’s still stuck in there. But since she’s injured I guess it doesn’t matter either way right now. That should be the very first thing we do when the day comes though, getting her free. Then she can lead us and all the others in the city will see her free and flying about too. She’ll be a rallying symbol.”

“It will also get Blizzard’s attention the fastest,” Skychaser put forth.

“Good,” Wild Wind shrugged. “It’ll probably be better to get his attention as quickly as possible, the sooner he knows what’s going on the sooner he’ll confront Rainbow Dash and we can just get this all over with. He might come flying right out immediately to deal with her himself while the rest of the city rises up. If everyone stands against him then it doesn’t even matter if none of us can physically stop him, he won’t have any power anymore and he may even get disheartened enough to give up.”

“I somehow doubt that but if we can at least defeat the soldiers most loyal to him, like the twin Captains, we can at least force him to stop by making him alone,” Flashbolt said.

“I’m in agreement on that,” Crescent Moon nodded. “To be honest I don’t think we can beat Blizzard in an actual fight. We’ll just have to win and take the city back through other means.”

“Rainbow Dash can do it,” Summer Rains confidently said. “I know that may sound like me blowing hot air, but I think I know her the best of anyone here, and I believe in her. She can beat Blizzard. Maybe she doesn’t even know how yet, but she can definitely do it.”

Instead of disagreeing with him the others felt a similar sense of confidence begin to rise up in them. They could do this. They would try their hardest and fight for their city, their families, and all of the other pegasi. Soon enough the most important moment of their lives would be upon them, they all knew it, and it excited them to be a part of something like this, knowing what a great thing they were doing.

“Put your hooves in,” Wild Wind said and put his hoof towards the center of the table.

The others followed suit, one by one until eight pegasus hooves were held together as they all looked into each other’s eyes.

Elder Tornado took a deep and steadying breath. “For pegasi everywhere.”

Comments

[THERDSTORYWHISPERER]

Great chapter!