//------------------------------// // Are You Now Rainbow Dash, Austraeoh? // Story: Yaerfaerda // by Imploding Colon //------------------------------// Minutes wore on... And minutes into hours... ... Rainbow Dash only wished she could have kept her eyes shut the entire time. However, in the darkness—with her lids tightly clenched—was where tears were born the swiftest. So, with a prolonged sigh, she forced her eyes open, staring lethargically at the tent around her. The mare rolled onto her back more than once, curling her hooves to her chest and staring up at the flapping material of the tent. There was no silence whatsoever; the dust storm outside was a veritable cavalcade of every kind of banshee shriek known to comprehension. A long time ago—at the start of her journey, perhaps—she might have been frightened by those indistinguishable noises. But Rainbow Dash had since encountered so many perils that mere phantoms had long lost their eerie charm. Sorrow was one thing. Boredom was another. Rainbow Dash squirmed and shuffled about. There was no room to walk in the tent, but that didn't stop her from twirling little canine circles, seeing how fast she could spin, hoping beyond hope that the sheer exhaustion would finally put her to sleep. It didn't. With a moan, she tried burying herself beneath all of her blankets at once. All it did was make her hot and uncomfortable, so she kicked the fabric off and squatted like an alert cat, ears twitching to the continuous cacophony of rolling winds. She pulled everything out of her two backpacks, then put them in, then pulled them out again. She inspected and reinspected Arcanista's Heaven Slices—but did not nibble on any of the pieces. She wasn't hungry, or at least that's what she told herself. A lingering thirst tugged at her tongue, and she was sorely tempted to take a sip from her canteen. Rainbow reminded herself rather quickly—though—that the water was better saved for emergency, first aid, or hygiene. If she was thirsty, there was always the Nebulum, but that was only required in a necessity. Ultimately, the mare resorted to lying on her chest, etching little lines in the stone with her hatchet. She knew that there was no point in the gesture; it was not like another living soul would venture by that lone tiny patch of rock in centuries. Also, there was the very real possibility of dulling the blade. Regardless, Rainbow continued, her eyes thin and lethargic as she sketched her name and—over the stretch of several hours—eleven more. When she was putting the finishing touches on the last name, the sunlight had finally completely died out. She had to rub her pendant in order to produce the light necessary to see what she was doing. However, when she had run out of names, she illuminated nothing but pure emptiness, and this added to the coalescing sighs. At last, as the night brought with it a bitter chill, permeating the sandstorm and the canvas that was protecting Rainbow Dash, she lay on her back, gazing straight up at everything and nothing. Every now and then she would raise her hoof, rub the pendant, and produce a crimson halo of light against the rippling fabric. She repeated this process, minute by minute, hour by hour, until her thoughts became one with the motion, and she literally thought of nothing else. And once that emptiness had slithered its way into her skull, then—and only then—did drowsiness finally settle in. Rainbow Dash closed her eyes to the storm, the shadows... and the tears being birthed thereupon. Rainbow Dash was falling... cascading down a sleeted sheet of ice. She woke up with a shriek, her eyes rolling back. Her limbs reached out—numbly thrashing—and grazed tent fabric and burlap. Wheezing, she rolled over, and her entire world spun a million miles per hour like a hellish centrifuge. The mare instantly clutched her skull, gnashing her teeth. The dizzy spell had ripped her out of sleep with merciless speed. Rainbow knew that—somewhere—a bed of hard stone was holding her in place, but she couldn't feel it. She couldn't feel anything. A freezing abyss consumed her, faster and faster by the millisecond. She plunged into the maddening black chasm, whimpering and struggling for an even breath. She barely found the strength to open her eyes. The fuzzy dim visage of at tent spun pirouettes before her. Red and yellow... yellow and red. Her hooves flung to her pendant, and for the life of her she couldn't figure out if she was trying to keep it on or pull it off. Her heart slammed against her chest, and at any moment she was certain it would stop completely. Squeaking murmurs lit the air, punctuation to a hyperventilating horror. Rainbow Dash saw blue limbs clambering—clawing. Her body slinked forward, carried on panic and fuzz. She tugged and yanked at the tent fabric without realizing it. Sand and sediment rolled inside in sheeted brown vomits. She wanted to stop herself, to stop everything, but it wouldn't happen. Hooves gripped the nearest tent peg, tugging, twisting. It popped loose, and an entrance formed in the side of the tent. Blinding light and dust. Rainbow sobbed as she crawled into it, through it, drowning and sputtering... And then she could breathe. In a blinded world of blazing brightness, she rolled over, sobbing and spitting and gasping. Every inch of her coat tingled under the warm rays of a morning sun. Her eyes flickered back to their ruby brilliance, just in time to squint at a grayish sky. The storm had passed over, clearing, leaving dunes of dusty residue all around her lone tent in the middle of nothingness. Rainbow panted and panted, stretched out beneath the baking sun. The dizziness still plagued her, so that it was hard to get her mind centered—to ascertain whether her body had just attempted to save her or end her. The confusion was too much, compounded with her ache and exhaustion. She rolled two hooves over her face, bathing her fetlocks in tears. The names etched into the stone formed bloody scars against her eyelids, and she rolled over, sobbing into the dust and grit, curling and uncurling until her body became a limp blue noodle. And—just as the dizziness began to clear—so did her resolve, and unconsciousness blissfully consumed her yet again.