Yaerfaerda

by Imploding Colon


Where Do We Go From Here

When Rainbow Dash's strength returned, she resumed her winged thrust of the raft, propelling the vessel over waves and ocean swells. This venture lasted barely two hours, and Rainbow had to rest again. It was more than being thirsty and famished; the pegasus simply wasn't used to propelling that much weight with her wings. If she was just moving herself, she was certain she could carry her body eastward for days—or at least that's what she told herself.

The truth was, the craft had too much weight to bear. On top of that, it almost felt as though the ocean itself was resisting her. Rainbow Dash expected the vessel to glide easily along the watery crests, but instead it was if the elements were creating an unbearable friction that made it thrice as hard to push the raft along.

Even bleaker things happened as the day unfolded. The wind that had no effect on the sail had gradually vanished, giving the air an unnatural stillness that shook Rainbow to the core. Whenever her hooves dipped into the waves, the water somehow felt... less wet. Rainbow had no way to explain it. As the sun set, she splashed her upper body with the liquid in an attempt to cool herself, but she sensed nothing but a thin veil of beaded moisture—and then nothing. She couldn't fathom that the water had instantly evaporated. Instead, it was as though the liquid was reacting to her body and her raft as if it was all slathered with a fine layer of oil.

Sleep was impossible that night. Even as exhausted as she was, Rainbow Dash could only lie on her side and stare blankly into the distance. Yaerfaerda taunted her relentlessly, marking a point on the horizon that refused to move. By the halfway point of the evening, the lavender beacon was icy still, and it occurred to Rainbow that the ocean had reached a point where all the waves had virtually disappeared.

When morning came, the light of the day confirmed this. The ocean had turned into a virtually flat plane. Even when Rainbow Dash slapped her hoof into the sea around her, the ripples barely lasted twenty seconds before disappearing completely.

The only thing more potent than Rainbow's exhaustion was the panic that set in. She slapped her flank against the stern of the raft and began beating her wings again. For the next hour, she pushed the vessel along—though she couldn't tell if she was making progress or not. The Scootaloo left virtually no wake behind it, and the cloudless sky remained as bright and blue as ever.

Rainbow shuddered and wheezed under the heat of it all. In desperation, she reached into her pack and took a hearty inhale of Nebulum. The container made a dull, hollow sound as she snapped the nozzle back into place. Shivering, Rainbow realized that she may have consumed the enchanted nutrient for the last time. Rather dwell on that reality, she stuck the thing back into the bag and flung herself back to her post.

The rest of the day was spent in agonizing phases of wing-flapping and not-wing-flapping. With each hour-long session of propelling the craft, Rainbow felt the task growing more and more impossible. Her wingtips had grown threadbare; her muscles torn and weeping. By the afternoon, she had collapsed across the surface of the raft, wheezing and whimpering for breath.

Rainbow looked up, squinting at the desolate sky. The blueness that once enticed the daredevil flier was not a constant source of torment, with a burning sun that roasted her by the hour. Seething, Rainbow slouched towards her lean-ton for some shade and relaxation, though she only expected to get only one of those.

It was around the time she made it to the lip of the wooden partition that she heard a disgusting crack from the center of the raft. Freezing in place, Rainbow spun around. She looked all over the vessel, eyes swimming across the metal pegs, the rope, and the satchel Arcanista had given her.

Right then, Rainbow heard yet another crack. Anxiously, her ruby eyes traveled up... and widened. The sail had collapsed slightly. The reason for this was that the mast was leaning at a thirty-five degree angle. And the reason for that was a hideous fracture that had formed down the length of the wooden pole, gradually splitting the decrepit Val Roan wood in two.

Rainbow literally squeaked in panic. She spun around in circles, then—holding her breath—she dashed over towards where the rope rigging the sail was strung around a metal pole. But loosening this had no effect. The mast continued cracking, leaning, with a huge fissure splitting down its center.

So, in desperation, Rainbow rushed up to the fractured pole, standing her body up and pressing her back against it, hoping that she could overpower the careening weight.

“Rnnngh... come on... don't do this to me now... I need you...!”

There was no wind, and even if there was, it didn't work the way wind should. The mast was useless. The sail even more so.

“I need you... I need you... I need you...” Rainbow hissed. Gnashing her teeth, she threw her weight through her shoulder. “Nnnnghh-ghhhh!”

Gradually, the mast leaned back into a straight position, perpendicular to the surface of the raft. Rainbow Dash flung her head back, looking up at the gap between the split edges filling back up.

“Okay... okayokayokay.” Rainbow gulped. “I just... j-just gotta find out a way to keep you tied together until I can figure out a better—”

A lavender streak.

The world spun around Rainbow.

The pegasus jolted in confusion. She wasn't certain what had caused the universe to undulate beneath her, but she swiftly fell down—losing grasp of all her strength.

“Unf!” The mare sprawled out across the deck, wincing. Her body tingled as dizziness came over her. She tried pressing a hoof against the planks, only for her forelimb to dip into pure water. Rainbow stared wearily into the sea's surface, and as the ripples quickly dissipated, she saw a reflection of red-on-yellow eyes. “... … ...oh no.”

Crkkkk! The mast crackled above her, casting a shadow over her limp figure.

“Mrmmmff...” Rainbow's head spun. She squirmed through nauseating dizziness in time to see the mast's slender shadow stretching over her, closer and closer. “No... no no no...” She wheezed. “Please, Celestia, no!”

Crkk-kkkk! The mast ripped savagely down the middle. The sail rippled and spun as the heavy pole fell down over Rainbow.

“Grnngh—!” She dove savagely to the side.

SMASH! The mast struck the raft, hard.

Rainbow felt the world spinning—for real this time. Yaerfaerda spun loops around her amidst nightmarish sprays of water. Her shivering body dipped in and out of the waves as a saltine estuary bubbled across the fractured deck. The logs of the Scootaloo were spreading apart, the twine fastening them growing loose by the twirling second.

“Mrmmmf... gotta... gotta stop...” Rainbow whimpered. Her eyes flickered again, and all she could do in the dizzy spell was grab the nearest solid object and cling for dear life. “...stop... friggin' stop spinning... just...”

The lavender beacon formed a halo, occupying every horizon. Rainbow felt ensnared by it, and it choked the breath out of her lungs. With red-on-yellow eyes rolling back, her exhausted body gave in, surrendering to unconsciousness.


The light of the morning was dim and sickly when Rainbow Dash finally awoke.

She shivered—but not because of a dizzy spell. Rainbow realized she was freezing, and the reason for this was that her lower body had been dangling underwater all night.

So—wincing—she pulled herself forward. Her body rolled onto a dry surface, which was how Rainbow knew that her raft wasn't completely obliterated. She lay on her back, panting and panting, afraid to assess the damage around her.

Nevertheless, once the final wave of dizziness had completely dissipated, the pegasus sat up, clutching the pendant around her neck as she turned and peered around. A ruby glow pierced the gray haze of morning, revealing shredded bits of wood poking in discordant directions.

Rainbow Dash visibly blanched. She wasn't shocked by the fact that the mast was gone. She wasn't horrified at the fact that only half of her raft was still remaining. It didn't even faze her that she had been adrift for hours on end, and quite possibly she may have drifted as much west as east.

What Rainbow realized was that—with the mast having collapsed—Arcanista's satchel had been washed away, vanished completely over night.

The Heaven Slices and Nebulum were gone.