This Will Earn You Sea Legs
“Mmmf... guh!”
Rainbow Dash squeaked, nearly falling completely forward. She stopped sitting on the raft, for now she was clinging to it, like a tree frog might stick to the bark of a tree. The vessel glided faster and faster, descending down the whirling vortex of water. The winds of the Grand Choke blew straight through her, rattling her bones against her fatigued muscles as she approached the bottom of the whirlpool.
Lightning flickered overhead. During the ensuing boom of thunder, Rainbow found herself attempting to climb up the careening body of her raft. Every now and then she'd nearly slip, and her hoof would go flailing into the watery currents hurling around her. The touch of ocean-to-flesh felt like sandpaper due to the pure friction, and she winced with whatever spare senses she had to feel pain with.
“Grnngh... Celestia...!” With wide eyes, she looked down at her imminent demise.
The crashing waves were white with continuous froth, filling the bottom of the whirlpool with a ghastly foam that clung to the multiple beams of shiny gold metal. The lower Rainbow rode the raft, the harder it was to contemplate just how swiftly the currents were raging at the bottom. Velocity like that would render her vessel to powdery dust, much less splinters.
Something slapped against the back of Rainbow's neck. She winced in pain, then glanced behind her. In the next flash of lightning, she saw the rope and twine that bound the raft splitting apart, unraveling as the logs began to separate. The twine slapped her as they split and ripped asunder.
The next salvo of thunder was deafening, not as if Rainbow could tell above the noise of hundreds of millions of gallons of water being hurled against the metal spokes holding the inexplicable tower in place. She tried using her limbs to pull the split logs together, but was rewarded with knifing splashes of water against her legs and flank.
“Guhh! Augh!” Rainbow seethed. With her raft splitting apart and very little to rest her body against, she had no recourse but to lean back—body rigid and straight—with her weight pressed tightly against a single wooden beam. She panted and panted, her heart thudding through her chest.
As lightning flashed again, she tilted her head up, meekly staring at the sky.
Swirling mists swam in a clockwise ballet over the site. In the eye of the tempest, Yaerfaerda loomed, the brightest Rainbow had ever seen it. With each shuddering breath, Rainbow could swear that it was just a sneeze away.
“... … ...”
The mare frowned, her muscles tightening sternly. Even as her threadbare raft was falling apart at the seams, she leaned forward and slapped a hoof over her pendant. After giving it a firm rub, she followed the beams of ruby light issuing outward from her Element.
For the first time, she could see the metal beams of the tower in full detail. They were octagonal solids, with wide faces that were notched continuously from top to bottom. Each notch was thin, but deep, perfect enough for one thing.
And just as the last two logs began to sink, Rainbow Dash scurried up, perched herself on the very end of one, and lunged forward.
“Hnngh...!”
Motionlessness... … …
Slap! Her hoof clamped tightly within a single notch. Gasping, she winced as her body swung, stretched the tendons of her weary muscles, but eventually dangled to a stand-still. Then, with gnashing teeth, she reached another limb up and found a solid hoof-hold.
“Grnnngh... mmff... unf!”
At last, Rainbow clung to the metal beam. She stretched her wings forward, using the tips to grip the edge for whatever leverage they could give her. Panting for breath, she braved a look down into the churning mess of ocean water.
More ruby lightning flashed high above, and in the scarlet penumbra she saw wooden planks dissolving into brittle detritus, then disappearing beneath the foam below.
“Bon Voyage Scamps...”
The mare was utterly alone now.
Alone with the summit of Yaerfaerda.
Rainbow reached a hoof to her sides and tightened the straps of Luna's saddle bag. She inhaled, exhaled, and repeated. With slow, precise movements of her battered body, she climbed the notched pillar, inching her way nervously towards the bulbous summit of the machine tower.
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. . . was this update because of our comments?
Bai bai Scoots. . .
. . . fine then. I know you read these.
I have to go to uni in six hours.
I have to sleep.
y u do dis, IC?
We need sleep bro find some chill
I'm calling it now, reigniting the flame here will get rid of the Chokes anti-magic properties.
5779568
Maybe, but I'm not sure the machine world has a lot to do with the choke. It has never changed the top world that physically before, it simply help Rainbow change the inhabitants for the better, to make them more harmonious. Possible, sure, but I think the choke is the result of when the ring world broke up in the first place, or else can be "fixed" when the whole machine is restarted, not just a section of it.
5779562 If so, what have we done?
~Real quote by Imploding Colon trust me he said this
Okay, fine, this makes up for it.
I'm still keeping my avatar though.
5779568
Let's get juiced, baby.
Ah excellent, so the columns are like a ladder for RD to climb. Hopefully she'll be able to get close enough Yaerfaerda to get onto it.
Alright, I think we are definitely at the "fuckin' loopy" part I was asking for.
5779582
. . .
gimmeproof
So, does this count as a triple update?
Thankies.
Seriously though, don't scare us like that, IC.
5779579
we caused the world to end.
. . .
and for Zaid ValRoa to not get any sleep.
. . .
itsthesamething
We keepin this going all night? Im ready.
new2.fjcdn.com/thumbnails/comments/Anonymous+rolled+image+_6e5ef8bcb0f41a69a0189d50701294a2.jpg
We've lost so many ships this installment.
Yes, that kind too.
5779577
If the choke is on the edge of the ring from the light and dark sides where two segments broke that could mean that the group of towers that makes up Yaerfaerda is a connector of some sort that kept two ring segments together. Harmonious energy could probably reconnect the two segments and/or purge the chaotic energy of the Choke. However I bet the ring segments have been drifting apart for so long that trying to connect them would be impossible.
Makes me glad I'm in upside down land, it's only 4 pm, I can keep going as long as I need to.
ruby lightning... not sure if i missed that in the last chapter but that seems kind of... ominous.
-Treachery and deceit, kingdom of conceit Yaerfaerda.
5779606 It's technically just a double-update. The one-word update was posted on Tuesday 11:59 PM EST, so the most recent two are Wednesday's chapters.
Which means that, while we did get the correct number of chapters between yesterday and today (plus one word, but that doesn't effing count), we still have to go all of tomorrow without another Yaer
5779644 Yup. Appledashery had a double update too—without a bogus one word chapter.
Given the destruction of Stratopolis resulted in teh destruction of the Flurries, and so the opening up of that section of ocean to the Tarkington and other lesser trading craft, its hoping that Dashs interaction with the Machine World at this point, leads to her recovering some time, (Checkpoint Achieved. Time Extended), but mainly, resets the anti sail, anti movement fields imposed on teh waters, possibly reintroducing the flight ability, and even, given the winds and canyons, an immense hurricane to head over the vast low pressure region of the land side of the Choke, dumping megatons of water into the dust, flusing it out into the sea, causing the start of the bloom of fish and other oceanic life?
Wonder if the watershed would allow enough surface water to form, and end up running into Val Roa itself? Im pretty sure that would be a pointer to them that something major had occured.
Fare thee well Scoots. You carried out your part of the journey with honour.
Here's a theory: The voice that said RD was nowhere near her.
5779634 I was thinking of Bioshock : Infinite. You know, with the tower/lighthouse in the middle of an ocean and all...
How do you get the video in the centre of that comment box thingy?
5779742 Apologies, I was just trying to be polite.
That was probably the funniest Destiny was,was that cutscene.
The second one was moving too fast imo.
The third one is far superior I think, the pacing is nice and the flow is believable and seems fairly natural, to me at least.
5779792
I seem to be reading what I wish Rainbow has.
Point acknowledged.
Though she does have a red harmony laser.
5779745
and Apple will make a itroll too.
5779763
I do find it hard to believe that he would put up a one word chapter like that and have it mean nothing at all. However who knows it could mean something or it could mean absolutely nothing and he did it just as a kind of early April Fools joke perhaps.
5779654
You do realize what this means, right? Yaerfaerda is at chapter 195, while Appledashery is at 495. In other words, at this rate, Appledashery might hit chapter 500 at the same time Yaerfaerda ends. Furthermore, assuming Appledashery will be 1000 chapters long, that would mean both stories hit their halfway points simultaneously.
5779562: No, most likely not. He probably had all three of them queued up.
5779622: derpicdn.net/img/view/2012/11/27/165439.jpg
5779712: Trade secret.
5779914: I sincerely doubt it's meaningless.
5779949
That is probably more likely, seeing that I never submitted a story before and have no idea how it works.
but stillllllllllllll
. . .
I've been reading for six books. I should be used to this kind of thing.
How do hooves work again?
If this is the disturbance, then rd should be able to fly to the islands.
Provided there isn't a challenge waiting for her at the top, like a fried Pegasus skeleton with burn marks.
5780468 Pegasus Flambé, a delicacy!
5779675 It was Luna, talking via the enchantment of the pendant...
So, nopony around RD. Was it Luna, as 5780540 suggested, or maybe Whitemane, or was it somepony else entirely?
5779947 This can only mean one thing... Skirts has planned this series out, but not as an April Fools Joke. Austraeoh takes place in the same universe as Appledashery, but after the events of the series. Therefore, RD will make it to the Mid night armory and succeed. Shipping forecast: look out for Gold Petals, a certain metal mare, and a flock of sex-crazed pegasi coming up in later chapters of Appledashery.
mylittlefacewhen.com/media/f/img/mlfw8237-2bd.gif
[DESTINY INTENSIFIES]
-Spirit
Maybe I'm just going crazy, but it seems like Rainbow's been swearing 'Celestia' a lot more than she used to.
Wait, if she was caught in the whirlpool wouldn't she be going the same speed as the water, and therefore the waterms wouldn't hurt, right?
I barely passed physics though so I could be wrong.
5779562
I haven't been paying attention. What comments?
Finally, Yaerfaerda.
Getting a slight Bioshock feel from this tower. Wouldn't be surprised if there was the machine layer equivalent of a bathysphere in it, even though it's highly unlikely.
....Soooooo...
I was thinking about that out-of-character story due to some of the imagery from the last few chapters. In my head, fake-scootaloo the ship and scootaloo the fake-pony were related.
This sort of draws a few uncomfortable parallels,
what with the heart eating and the "I just wanted to be useful" and the starvation.
5780879
Physics in the choke is broken anyway. If the story says that the water undergoing centrifugal force as the bottom of the ruby light tower is destructive, it is.
So I'm going to assume that when she restarts the flame in the Yaerfaerda tower, her magic will return to her, allowing her to continue to fly east now that the raft is gone.
5780980
Good point. Works for me!
5780879 Water would be moving faster toward the vertex than at the edges. Which means water would be moving at different speeds at different ends of the raft. Which means the raft would be spinning as well.
To determine the relative velocity and acceleration at any point on the raft (forgive the lack of vector notation in comments. Knighty will no longer return my messages on this subject. Sign my petition. Anyway, variables in bold are vectors.), we can treat the raft as a translating and rotating reference frame, placing us firmly in the realm of "general motion," rather than than the muchly-simplified "general plane motion."
So we have our absolute, stationary, Newtonian reference frame about the origin OXYZ, and the raft itself is the moving reference frame AX'Y'Z'. Rainbow herself is at point B on the rotating frame. The velocity of Rainbow is then:
vB = vA + ω X rB/A
where ω (the greek lower case omega) is the angular velocity of the raft A itself, and the X is the vector cross product operator. Of course, rB/A is the location vector of Rainbow with respect to the raft itself.
But the acceleration of Rainbow on the raft is more interesting. We end up with:
aB = aA +α X rB/A + ω X (ω X rB/A)
where α is the angular acceleration of the raft.
Now, all you have to do is pick some reasonable velocities for the water itself, combine the conservation of mechanical energy with the conservation of angular momentum and... No, actually, if you use Bernoulli's Law for the water, you can simplify that considerably, as the pressure increase with depth would be taken into account, as the pressure is a volumetric form of energy which provides the necessary centripetal acceleration to prevent water from falling through the vortex sidewall. So, you combine that with the conservation of angular momentum to get the velocity of the water as a function of depth into the vortex. Plug in those velocities into the equations I gave you above, and you can determine how fast the water was actually moving when it hit Rainbow's hooves.
However, I am beginning to doubt that the Choke's ocean is water at all. Not that it matters with these equations, but you'd have to use a different density if it was, say carbon tetrachloride or a lightweight, low-volatile mineral oil. That would explain the lack of precipitation in the storms, the lack of ocean life, the inhibited movement and rapid wave dissipation, as well as Rainbow's difficulty swimming.
5780219
Transition Jamming
5781093 Machine oil makes sense, considering this is a machine. It has been previously suggested that this could be a connection point for another part of the ring, so lubricating liquid could be a requirement.
5781093
Well that's an interesting theory.
Thanks for going into all that! I've always been more of a history / mechanics buff.
5779644 which means hopefully he's planning something big for the next chapter.
5781093 NEEEEERRRD!
Nah, you're one cool cat, Hap.
I'm wondering if the Yaerfaerda tower is a way to get to the Dark Side. I'm imagining a piledriver-like construct: when activated, it will plunge into the deep, exposing the other end to the air of the Dark Side.
5780944 "There's always a lighthouse..."