By the next afternoon, Rainbow Dash had traveled a great distance. Unlike the two days previous, she hadn't let any passing landscape or random sight interrupt her. She coasted with great speed, breaking the clouds and piercing her way eastward like she was a second sun on an unwavering path.
When the horizon grew dim enough, she slid the shades out from her goggles and squinted at the world below. With clear vision, she saw the mountains smoothing from jutting frames to rolling curves. Instead of barren rock, the mountainous terrain was covered with a dense ocean of green fur trees. The air was thick with oxygen and life. Several flocks of birds criss-crossed with Rainbow's path as she sped towards a dark spot on the horizon.
From a distance, Rainbow tried to discern just what the grand blemish was. She had flown over so many mountain ranges that she had practically memorized the shape of such geographical features. She wondered if perhaps she was spotting a rainstorm on the horizon, but as she sped further and further towards it, the dark spot failed to move.
Her lips pursed as her forehead scrunched in thought. She wondered if it could have been smoke from a forest fire, or a random mesa jutting up from the ground, or even some building of sorts. How long had it been since she had seen civilization? She had studied the map on several breaks during her trek, and though she found the entire process boring, she had become well acquainted with many countries lying on the far right edge of her illustrated guide.
In the middle of her pondering, she was interrupted by the horrible sensation of her eyes forcibly rolling back in her head. Rainbow Dash's entire world jolted as her wings briefly went numb, throwing her body limply through the air. She coughed, spat, and struggled to jerk her wings into action. Her vision had all but left her, and a nauseous dizziness was taking her over.
It was happening again.
She tried not to panic. She held her breath, relaxed her muscles, and stretched her twitching wings straight out. With remarkable grace, she glided her spasming body slowly downward, so that she approached the earth in a steady descent instead of a rock-hard plummet. All the while, the dizziness only intensified. The windy air filled with a low bass hum. By the time she regained control of her eyes, she saw the dim glow of her pendant fluctuating on its own, and then she saw a sea of green tree tops screaming at her.
Rainbow Dash held her breath. She covered her face with her forelimbs. Her body barreled into branch after branch of sharp leaves and needles. Grunting, she bore the multiple slaps to her torso and skimmed her way downward until her nostrils smelled the dank earth. At the last second, she spun around and absorbed the impact with the soil through her side.
A loud gasp escaped her lips. She toppled. She rolled. She finally came to a tumbling stop against a mound of wet dirt. There, she curled into a blue ball and clutched the glowing pendant about her neck. A practiced hiss came out of her lips as she weathered the waves of dizziness coming out of her.
She had been through this before. She had been in worst spots when it hit. She simply had to keep calm, keep breathing, and wait it out. The world spun around her. There was no up or down, only her mind in the center of a great spinning chaos. She tore her goggles off, plopped them on the ground, and covered her clenched eyelids with a pair of hooves. She was afraid to open her eyes, for she knew the entire world would look nothing but gray.
Finally, after several hyperventilating minutes, the dizziness faded away. Rainbow Dash didn't need to see to know that the pendant had stopped glowing. All she cared was that she had found the earth again, and it was warm and blessing to the touch. She cuddled the muddy ground like a foal would nuzzle up to her mother's side, and finally... finally her breaths returned to a normal pace.
All in all, it wasn't so bad.
She sat up and opened her bleary eyes. She reeled; she was still dizzy. But the nausea was gone, and she realized she could move if she wanted to. First, though, she had to pick up her goggles. When she grabbed them and lifted them to her face, she briefly saw her reflection and immediately wished she hadn't.
Her eyes were different: red specks against yellow marbles.
She blinked. Just like that, her ruby pupils and white cornea returned. Rainbow's nostrils flared. Everything was back to normal, or at least as normal as she could afford them to be.
She slid the goggles up but let them stay on her brow. After all, she knew that it'd be a good few hours before she felt healthy enough to fly again. She had done this dance far too many times to expect otherwise.
Sighing, she broke into a wobbly trot, shaking off the last threads of dizziness as she scaled up the mountainside on hoof. Her only regret was that the day's perfect flight had been interrupted. There was still the next day, Rainbow Dash reasoned. It was a palpable enough thought to make her smile, and her pace quickened.
That's a strange illness.
"Rainbow Dash didn't need to see to know that the pendant had stopped growing." Is it supposed to be growing, or glowing?
I assume the element necklace of loyalty is doing something to dash. Something bad. I also assume that Twilight and the rest are in some way inconvenienced, or they'd be helping.
Red specks on yellow marbles. The only character in MLP to have that eye colour scheme is Discord.
Oh man.
So is the Element of Loyalty causing these bouts of dizziness?
1043579
Confound it all! I was hoping to have a streak of 100+ comments, but you've gone and ruined it all! Curses!
Oh well...
IIIIIt's Dashie's evaluation time!
So, in this chapter, we learn that Rainbow has currently been experiencing bouts of nausea and dizziness. Whenever this happens, the element of loyalty necklace glows, so perhaps the necklace is causing this dizziness. Also, once she is cured of her dizziness, she gains yellow eyes with red pupils, and as ZettaLux pointed out, the only character in the show with that eye scheme is Discord. I am, however, still on the fence on whether or not Discord is involved with this story. It 's nice to see more plot, though. These are my thoughts so far.
-MASH
I wonder, is the Element going haywire? Is that the reason for this mission, hence the Royal Fabric. Is this a mission from Luna, possibly? Also, the countries on the far right of the map must be where she's going to, maybe because they have information on the cause of the haywire elements. Also, maybe the illness from the element that Rainbow Dash is experiencing might be why the other Elements couldn't follow. It might have been worse on them, or could have gotten farther along and worse. (Wow that was a long comment for me!)
-THEpandaman007
1177480 I'm thinking that something's up... Like a disease brought on by Discord, and the element is the only thing truly blocking it. But it won't do it for long.
1231433
Agreed.
Everyone seems to think the Element is the thing causing the problems, but what if it's actually keeping whatever is happening in check, or healing any damage done? Speculation of course, my mind is so very full of what right now it's not even funny.
At the top of the page, "fur trees" should be "fir trees". Fur is hair on an animal. Fir is the type of tree you wanted to put.
>She had been in worst spots when it hit
Do you mean "worse"?
Austraeohaiku
Sees distant object
Eyes wack, dizzy, forced to land
Not first time possessed
Okay, I gave an idea! Some strange sickness with symptoms Dash experiences has overtaken Equestria and her friends. They are close to dying and need some distance cure. Rainbow Dash is fighting the illness and is the healthiest, so Luna sent her to go retrieve a far-off cure. As for the supposed hatred if Celestia, maybe she told her it would to dangerous and she should let the others die. Rainbow disobeyed her orders and, with Luna's help, packed for the journey east. Then, Celestia found them and said if she wouldn't listen to reason, she had to take the green book, which is something horrible (to Dash, at least) but she had no choice.
And the element keeps the sickness in check.
Of course, I could be very wrong, but I'll be looking for any little hints that could mean this theory of mine is correct.
So, I finished another piece of my austraeho art collection, this one on eel. I think it turned out well, but maybe the outlines need a little more darkening. So here that is. If you want to see the rest, head over to my user page. Comments are always wanted, so do that or pm me. Still having trouble with Spring because I suck at drawing backgrounds, which sucks because of the story I'm drawing for.
http://alafreo.deviantart.com/art/Eel-426995959
sorry bout the link thing still. Help with that would be appreciated. I'm rambling, so thanks and goodbye
2236819
I would be inclined to think so, but there are too many stories that paint the elements as these perfect, omnipotent artifacts.
Discord has possessed rainbow dash and is slowly taking over her body...am I right...we'll I still have 190 ish chapters of this story and about 790 ish in the total series so...who knows :D
I'm kicking myself. Every time I reread these early chapters in an effort to pass the time for the next (yes, I know it's only a day. I'm impatient, okay?) I'm struck by how obvious IC made it. With all the hints it's an absolute miracle no one (including me) guessed. Then again, hindsight is 20/20 as they say.
Discord is being an asshole as usual, I'm guessing.
2236819
Well, things get even worse when somepony removes it (roughly ten or twenty chapters from here, I think).
5536342
I'm thinking that in this universe Discord is a lot more of a devil than a trickster. Instead of just wanting to have fun, I'm guessing he's actively malevolent and Rainbow's Element is keeping him in check somehow.
Hm. I didn't expect Discord.
So Discord is actively involved in a semi-passive way (is that even possible?) and something seems to be attempting to influence Rainbow through her element.
Discord's eyes? You know, you continue to raise more and more questions.... am I going to need to wait for the next book to start getting answers? Somehow, I think I can survive the wait. Another piece of the puzzle and still no keystone... Bleh! You are evil! Drawing me in like this, but giving no answers, only more questions.... I guess I must read on. :P
6084008 Dude, would you stop dropping spoilers? I know you from other stories doing this. Seriously, it's uncool.
5596513 Dude, spoilers! Come on, at least use the tag!
6300085 Sorry. I admit that was kind of a douche move. Edited.
She's... fighting... being Discorded? Perhaps she started out that way and eventually overcame it, but it still comes back sometimes...?
6250009 actually I haven't read the hole story yet and I just thought discord :chaos so duh!
Please don't tell me how rong I am.
I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that Discord put a fragment of his soul into Rainbow Dash.
Without reading any spoilers my guess is that this takes place some time during discords escape and when rainbow was discorded and flew away something happened during that time and they were able to get the elements but something happened that wasn't suppose to, like say discord infecting them with some chaos which had an effect on the elements when they were used possibly resulting in the corruption of the bearers which eventually led to rainbows flight east, to escape from what happened or was happening.
Amazing how readers were able to interpret the source of Rainbow's ills from just a few descriptions. I know when I first read it I was so confused.
02/14/2017 00:34 GMT
Uh oh.
Double uh oh.
Back to the nostril flaring I see
Discord, what did you do!
How odd, with her eyes reflecting Discord's for a moment. Something's totally up.
9034689
You have no idea my friend
Is Dash turning into a vampire? Or a Draconequis?
Whew, that's rough, to have happen and to deal with, but I confess I do like that you give her the red-on-yellow eyes.
In fact (spoiler for one of my own stories):
I paid tribute to that concept by including her eyes turning red-on-yellow in parts of my story too, albeit completely different and happier circumstances.
Here's a couple of pictures:
animecentral.net/gallery3/upload/2020/05/16/20200516085951-96275dc9.png
animecentral.net/gallery3/upload/2020/06/23/20200623141150-ef8a246f.png
I assumed you would not mind. This is the chapter where I credit you in the Author's Note at the bottom: https://www.fimfiction.net/story/457287/13/the-master-mev/chapter-13-discord-willing
I JUST made the connection.
I have two assumptions to make:
1) Everyone is safe and sound. Everything is OK, it just needs to be waited out.
OR
2) Rainbow is still discorded from that last fight, where others were lost.
Removing her pendant has very little negative effect apparently. It will become far, far worse.
Idk if anyone else gets this, but reading this story, or even just looking at the title page and description gives me a strange sense of foreboding and melancholy, especially knowing there's many more installments in this series. Not only is it daunting, but it draws me in with the lack of context around what's happening. It's like looking at the underside of an ice berg and just... feeling like you want to be drug down to its depths but also afraid of what you'll find down there.