Rainbow Dash crossed the ravine in the span of a minute. Her hooves touched down effortlessly, just like with any other piece of earth. She stood on the east edge, flexing her wings. With squinting eyes, she paced along the cliffface. Her hooves made tiny scraping sounds that echoed into the upper air of the chasm yawning below. Through her peripheral vision, she saw the wooden platforms of Cold Canter's and Desert Light's outpost lingering like dusty shelves on the far side. To the extreme north and south, she could make out tiny specks that marked where the neighboring Darkstinian guard posts resided.
Try as she might, Rainbow Dash could not see any remains of an earth pony. Undaunted, she pressed forward, covering every inch of the cliffside that the elder unicorn had pointed at. With each progressive minute that passed by, she began wondering if a heavy wind had done away with the remains of the equine. After ten years, it was foolish to expect anything to be waiting for her.
Rainbow Dash found a bush lying in her way. With a side-step, she walked around the vegetation, but suddenly paused. Curious, she turned and knelt down, squinting up close at the shrubbery. Something wasn't quite right about it.
Murmuring under he breath, she opened her saddlebag and pulled out her hatchet. Clenching the blade's handle tightly in her teeth, she hacked and sliced away at the thorny branches of the dry thicket. Slowly, like scraping paint off a picture, a dismal shape was starting to form. Halfway through the task, she hissed through her teeth, almost spitting the hatchet out.
A pony's jaw was yawning towards her, frozen in anguish and starvation. All flecks of skin had long eroded off the calcified remains of the equine. There was a leather scrab bundled tightly against the ribcage: the remains of a saddlebag, perhaps.
It appeared as though—over the past ten years—a cluster of bushes had grown through the discarded bones of the ill-fated figure. Rainbow Dash had no doubt what the soil received for its nutrients.
With a solemn breath, she slid the hatchet back into her bag and examined the partially uncovered skeleton closer. She reached a hoof in and pawed at the leather scrap. A few sparse belongings rattled out, disturbed for the first time in years. Rainbow Dash was careful to scoop the items closer to her, so that they wouldn't blow away with the wind into the deep chasm.
She saw a knife, several lengths of twine, scraps of paper—perhaps the remains of a journal—and a silver medallion. Curious, Rainbow Dash raised the medallion between two nimble wing tips. Her eyes narrowed on the sight.
One side of the coin display two giant palaces of ornate architecture resting atop a pair of tall mesas in the middle of the valley.
She flipped the coin over.
The other side held a symbol that she didn't recognize. It resembled a circle with two concave lines sandwiching the sphere on opposite sides. She couldn't understand the lettering house within. There was a gritty layer of soot filling the grooves of the medallion, as if the object had been exposed to hot flames and dense smoke.
Exhaling, Rainbow Dash slid the contents back into what remained of the leather pouch. Curious, she looked down the length of the pony body... and realized there was no remaining length. Her mouth opened in awe.
The bottom half of the pony was missing, just below the upper structures of the rear legs. From what Rainbow Dash could tell, the skeleton wasn't shattered or broken in anyway. The furthest tips of the legbones were oddly smooth, as if seared to rounded nubs.
She squinted quizzically, glancing once again at the leather strap within which the soot-stained medallion lingered. “Was...” She stammered. “Was he burned in half?”
Objective Completed: Investigate the mysterious remains
"It was all gone. They had burned everything."
1254875
That just leaves us with the question: who is "they"?
1254875
Including half of his body, apparently.
Achievement Unlocked: "A Bona Fide Mystery"
1254917 Either dragons, more chaos demons, pony/dragon hybrids, Griffons, or some sort of unknown creature.
1254973
My money's on some kind of solar beam.
*not reading lahlahlahlahlahlah*
You update this like, every day or so. This makes me want to use a meme.
Imploding Colon
wat r u doin
Imploding Colon
STAHP
Can't keep up with these
1254986 Evil Trolestia?
1254948
Don't you mean... "Bone-a?"
Bwahahaha I'm a horrible person.
Really epic updating speed. And everything is epic. EPIIIIIIIIC.
Title Obtained: "The Archaeologist" (See the full list HERE!)
-Minty
You're off the edge of the map, Dash. Here there be monsters!
1255207
Yep, that there was the joke.
Because Rainbow Dash has had such good luck with fire thus far...
The question is, why didn't the guard mention that the stallion was BURNINATED, I had just figured he starved or expired due to dehydration!
1255363
I know. I was making a joke about a joke.
Jokeception.
BWAAAAAAAAAH*
*This onamonapia may not be accurate, as it is just a gross approximation by a half-deaf person who never actually watched the movie.
1254973 That's......... a pretty broad array of options for an ' either'.............
And the plot thickens...
1254917 The Pyro.
Dragons.
Thats my guess.
If not that then some kind of flaming entity.
Like Ragnaros or someshit.
http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/nothing-to-do-here-jet-pack-guy This is my reaction. Dragons? That seems almost too obvious. Unless I'm supposed to think its obvious so that I think its really something else... its too late to be thinking like this Onward!
IIIIIt's Dashie's Thanksgiving Day Marathon Evaluation Time Special!
Hmm...so this has given me a fair bit to think about. Whoever "They" are, they burned everything. But there are no villages or towns for miles. So where did this stallion come from? He's probably come from a neighboring outpost that has now been burned to the ground by They. The medallion makes no sense to me whatsoever, though...it doesn't seem to relate at all to the Elements. Perhaps a family heirloom of the stallions that he salvaged from his burning home...These are my thoughts so far.
-MASH
P.S. Four down, y'all! I'll take a breakfast break at five.
P.S.S. Muahahahahaha! I've surpassed Regidar! Yeah, you almost got away from me that time! You came sooooooo close! Hehehehehe...
1256436 Better lay off the cake.
that's fucking creepy.
Wow. Yeah like the last poster said, things are getting weird.
1254948>>1255207 It's a bone-a fried mystery
The mystery deepens.
She crossed the uncrossable ravine. In a minute. NExt time, do it in 10 seconds flat. ... Now let's see why it was like this...
It get's curiouser and curiouser.
Oh, Goddesses...
Yikes burned in half , not a good way to go.
1256815 ...Do you believe in magic...
The pines were roaring on the height,
The winds were moaning in the night.
The fire was red, it flaming spread;
The trees like torches blazed with light.
6130058 About 91 weeks later, still unnerved by the description of the corpse.
03/22/2017 02:43 UTC
8037018
Did I seriously just read that like it was a jingle?
what is wrong with me
My caps are on civil unrest or civil war, a war between the two cities.
Best keep the medalion with you, Dash. It may just come in handy.
hm...the further I go, the more questions I seem to have
Well...There will be dragons...Thats my guess.
DRAGOOOONNNNNNNS
And if the night is burning
I will cover my eyes
For if the dark returns then my brothers will die
And as the sky is falling down
it crashed into this lonely town
and with that shadow upon the ground
I hear my people screaming out
and I SEE FIRE