“Nnkkktt-gkkk...”
Rainbow Dash was seated on her haunches, gnashing her teeth beneath a clenched pair of eyes. She twitched and convulsed as a mist of white powder and ash settled in a loose cloud before her. The atmosphere above was still tempestuous, swirling like a cyclone over the ruptured Town Square.
A figure was a few meters away. Hugging his knees to his chest, Spike rocked back and forth, his green eye-slits brimming with tears. He heaved and shuddered, bordering on the crest of hyperventilation. A golden pendant with a ruby lightning bolt rattled around his neck as he turned to look at Rainbow Dash.
She was quivering, shaking, spasming all over. Finally, when the pressure reached a breaking point, she tilted her muzzle to the sky and wailed.
“Haaaaaaaaaughhhh!”
She fell to the earth, pounding it with her hoof, repeating her scream in howling bursts as she tore bits of grass and soil asunder. She finished, finally, panting and sobbing into the skin of the sundered world.
The wind finally settled, and the landscape transformed behind them. It was as if rivulets of invisible magic curtains were undulating away from the center. Floating islands and sporadic clumps of geographic phenomena rejoined the smooth surface of the earth. Soon, Canterlot and Cloudsdale came into focus in the grand distance.
Breathless now, Rainbow Dash looked up. Her face was drenched in moisture. She threw one forelimb before the other and pulled herself forward, crawling in an anguished slump. She slithered past Spike, momentarily apathetic to his own sobs. She drew herself past jagged clumps of rock and stone. Finally, she came upon a pile of ash. Beside it, flecks of orange, green and red filaments were dissolving like raindrops.
She sat before the white mound of dust. She stared into it. Her face contorted. Her eyes rolled back in her head. In a quiet whimper, she fell into the mess, grabbing at the windblown lengths of it, clasping nothing but her own tears. The world drew silent around her, echoing with the sound of her muted sobs.
A sudden breeze lifted, followed by the sound hoofprints. Sniffling, she looked up. Her jaw dropped.
A figure was marching towards her with wings brilliantly outstretched and a horn shimmering with the gentle kiss of starlight. The first and only thing to come into focus was a pair of eyes—piercing aqua blue—and they hovered above Rainbow Dash like twin moons, framing a sweet and loving smile.
“Oh, blessed child. You search and you search, but will you ever find peace?” She leaned down and nuzzled the sobbing pegasus and lulled her with a warm breath. “You are not here anymore, Rainbow Dash.”
The pegasus blinked at her. Then she winced. Her eyes twitched, flickered red on yellow, then caught fire. Rainbow Dash fell back and clutcher her skull. Her screams weren't enough to stop her forehead from bursting open in a flash of darkness.
121 chapters of an amazing fic and we still have no real idea what's happening. When things start to get revealed shit is gonna get real.
Queen Whitemane, evil dream lord extraordinaire.
I be gettin' bad juju from dis, mon. She's frickin' invading Rainbow's flashbacks now.
Was this... backstory? Or a nightmare of what could be?
This must be the past, this is very reminiscent of Galadriel, in my mind.
I read 120-something chapters over the course of a week trying to find out why Dash was on this journey. No real answer yet but the read was totally worth what I've gotten out of it and more! The chapters are beautifully written and are pretty much the reason why I won't be able to function properly tomorrow. Or I guess I should say today.
......WHAT???
Oh...oh shit. I think I know what happened.
Discord took out the other five ponies when Spike was the "New Rainbow Dash." Luna arrived after the defeat, enchanted Dash's element to reverse her Discorded nature somehow and now Celestia is back in Equestria maintaining a seal to hold him at bay while Dash is on a mission to this Midnight Armory place in order to get a weapon or something else that they can use to kill, seal, or otherwise defeat him. Dunno what her horn thingies mean.
How close am I?
IIIIIt's Dashie's evaluation time!
So...I'm not really sure what to make of Dash's dream here. I suppose that the multicolored pile of ash represents her friends, although orange is the only color that is of the Elements, and Spike wearing the Element of Loyalty necklace probably shows that Dash was gone when the showdown with Discord went down. Aside from that, we get a hint that Dash bears some sort of grudge to Princess Celestia. I'm...not really sure what to make of that, as it is late and I am tired. These are my thoughts so far.
-MASH
This story creeps me out for some reason...
Getting bad vibes here man.
11 comments
chapter 11^2
IT'S A CONSPIRACY!
3689540
Oh damn, and hear I thought I was going to see what happens with the queen. That pile of ash was Applejack, I think.
So, it seems I was right about the other main six dying. Welp...
No! The Mane 6 really are dead!
...
Dammit Spike!
so the aftermath of Discord... were all of the other mane 6 vaporized? (ashed?) At first I thought that Spike was holding the element until Dash was done...'sealing' Discord away in herself. The bits of green, orange, and red don't make sense. The orange could fit with Applejack only out of the mane 6 because both her coat and her element are orange, but Rainbow is the only one with green or red on her.
The figure at the end is Whitemane I bet
5793693
Applejack has red in her cutie mark, and green eyes. Given the oft-predicted AppleDash shipping, Dash might've focused on this pile of ash above all others.
Yikes, now there's a pile of ash with an unhappy origin story.
More clues about the past, and a new face. Wonder who it is
Oh dear
1345575 pretty damn close. you should keep reading this,!
is this what it's like to be on acid?
No, but peace may very well find her.
07/16/2019
21:34 UTC
Strange...I know those colors should mean something, or someone. But I just can't place my finger on it.
oh shit...
oh jeez it was BAD BAD
9898913
I think an important clue is that the flecks of color are beside the mound of ash. I think the ash is Applejack and the flecks of color are her Element necklace.