Rainbow Dash screamed.
He limbs flexed, and the monster's jaws were snapping wide open.
The creature shrieked and hissed in pain as a bright glow of crimson emanated from its maw.
Rainbow Dash's pendant was glowing, but it was no longer around her neck. She was holding it loosely in her hoof, and her eyes...
They were losing their normal color in a spiral. Flickering with beams of unnatural light, they turned into pinprics of red within yellow seas. Rainbow Dash snarled, and her gnashing teeth appeared to quadruple in number. She flung the mouth of the creature open with freakish strength, then bucked the roof of the lizard's mouth with her hooves.
The lizard sputtered, spat, and coughed Rainbow Dash up.
The pegasus flew back, breathless. Without wasting anytime, she flew down and snatched her saddlebag. She left the chamber of the thrashing creature in a bright blue blur. She soared towards one of the open holes of light above. She didn't bother fearing the blizzard anymore.
She emerged into the cold, wintry world like a rocket. Gravity won out, and soon she was stumbling, sliding through the snow. She dropped her saddlebag and collapsed in a bank of white frost, twitching and spasming. There were two red spots forming along her brow with the same severity of the yellow glow assaulting her eyes. The wounds began to bleed, as if something was trying to burrow up from the surface of her skin. She waves of dizziness overtake her, and she knew she barely had the strength to undo what had been done.
Flailing blindly into her madness, she miraculously succeeded in flinging the Element of Loyalty back around her neck. She exhaled with a shuddering breath, hugging herself in a fetal position as the dizziness slowly cleared. The two spots in her head disappeared, leaving only two thin rivers of blood.
Minutes passed. Rainbow Dash could barely sit up straight. She opened her eyes—their normal ruby color—and gaped at the sunset over the mountains.
The blizzard had ended. It was only a belated blessing.
Coughing, sputtering, and cringeing, Rainbow Dash slowly pulled herself up, donned the saddlebag, and slumped like a zombie in the only direction that mattered.
East.
Interesting. Things are beginning to click now.
I am so jealous that I don't have the ability to write a tale quite like this.
mind boggling.
So many questions, but honestly, the answers can wait, I love the pacing.
RD is acting as the living prison for sealing discord...
dang.
I think I kind of understand what's going on now? Maybe?
Sooo...by taking the Element of her neck, she let loose Discord ?
Ok, it looks like the pieces are fitting together!
Wait... what if Rainbow Dash... IS DISCORD!!!
Two spots=two horns=discord... The plot thickens...
-THEpandaman007
Oh dear. I've been seeing comments involving dDiscord, but this is the first time I'm beginning to believe them.
IIIIIt's Dashie's evaluation time!
So when I saw the title for this chapter, I have to admit that I freaked out a little bit. But now...wait...
It's...
It's...making...
...sense?
I understand...
I UNDERSTAND!!
After so much time and so many chapters, I finally get it! This is what happened, it HAS to be what happened:
First, Discord corrupted Rainbow Dash, causing her to have to fly to Cloudsdale.
With only five Elements in their possession, the remainder of the mane six perished.
Celestia refused to step in, explaining why Dash is working for Luna. She must hold a grudge.
Dash got back and saw all of Ponyville - including her friends - destroyed by Discord.
Through some kind of intense magical power, Dash managed to embody all six of the Elements.
She defeated Discord in this way, but didn't have enough strength to seal him away in a statue again.
So she did the only thing that would have worked given her time and options -
She trapped Discord inside of her.
Not physically, of course, but his spirit lives within her. (Harry Potter, anyone?)
The Element of Loyalty necklace has embodied all six Elements this whole time.
They keep Discord from taking over Dash's body.
If the Elements are removed for too long, Discord will escape and use Dash for his new body, transforming her into the next Discord.
In this chapter, we see that horns also grow out of Dash's head, enforcing the theory that she would transform given enough time.
This has to be what happened. Something along the lines of it, at least. I'm sure of it.
...
And after that interesting rant/moment of realization...
These are my thoughts so far.
-MASH
What is so important about traveling east, anyways? Since she's not planning to go back it seems that she will die at the end of this (unless she is circumnavigating the world, huh?) so I think there may be a way of killing Discord at the end of this journey, and maybe Rainbow Dash with him.
1501471 MY GOD...
1625114 Yeah, I did kind of rage. But it was a very intense moment!
Jinchurki! Or however you spell that.
1501471
I didn't want to believe it, but that really does make the most sense. But it also doesn't explain the description of the second sequel so I'm going to assume either the other girls aren't dead, or they are and get revived somehow. Damnit why does this story have to be so good?!
98 chapters to go!
1501471 HOLY FLAMING HYENAS
1781315 JINCHURIIKI
AH SHE'S possessed.
Oooooh. Iseeeeee.
Those holes... they're for the horns we saw in the dream, aren't they? Discord is inside Rainbow Dash! *le gasp*
I am thinking that Rainbow Dash no longer exists, and she is now simply the Element of Loyalty. What was once her is Discord.
Dash is losing it.
1501471 (again I may be a little late to the story) anyways I hope against hope that what you said isn't true! That would just be I dunno worser(im not sute if it a word ah well now it is ) than horrible!!!
Dash wouldn't happen to be turning into a draconequus would she?
1501471 That theory makes sense...cruel and bitter as it is..except for one thing i need to point out. i remember in some chapter it was mentoined the others were turned to stone? not destroyed? am i right or wrong in guessing this? im honestly not sure...
I've seen pictures of the multiple rows of teeth in a shark's mouth, but now I'm imagining the mouth of a ruminant with multiple rows of teeth.
It seems creepier than it should be.
Also, I feel bad for Dash having to do that to survive.
It seems like she recovers fairly quickly once the pendant comes back on but I can't help but wonder if these changes are having a cumulative effect.
1501471
HO SHIT WARGABLEBLEBLECUEFIWVHFEJKWLVNEDWJKLDSKWC
This answers so many questions, and asks so many more.
02/21/2017 22:03 UTC
no way...this answers so many freakin' questions but makes more!
1501471
Well, everything abut that is fine except for the Celestia not stepping in thing. She is, she's the reason the Chaos rift isn't getting bigger. She's in Ponyville concentrating on it.
The entire series in one word. Nothing more needs to be said.
1501471
Your evaluation makes sense but Luna did ask dash if she wanted to talk to Celestia
And here is the moment of understanding, all conveyed through a single word in the chapter's title.
I mean, not to brag, but I had about this much already figured out. The red eye thing and the dizzy spells and stuff has all been Discord. Rainbow is suppressing it... Somehow with the element of Loyalty.
Of course, one or two answers brings forth a handful of new questions. Ever Eastward, I suppose...
... Well, ... Discord is a SPIRIT. He is a spirit of CHAOS and DISHARMONY. He can't be stopped. He can't be KILLED. He'll still manifest. One way or another. Humm, Did Rainbow swallow him? Or was he sealed in her by someone else? Either way - this looks very bad.
That is actually horrifying