There was only enough sunlight left in the day for Rainbow Dash to tell that the sandstorm was occupying the entire eastern horizon and coming up fast. A brown, hazy cloud of dirt approached her, sweeping over the flat landscape like a solid curtain. Her solution was to fly higher, but still the wall of sediment threatened to drown her. So, she climbed and climbed altitude. Finally, as she reached a thin layer of chilled atmosphere, she scaled beyond the summit of the storm. Her ears rang from the tumultuous wind that whipped at the pocket of air below.
Soon, she found herself flying directly over the ceiling of the desert phenomenon. Even in the starlight, she could gaze down and see the churning miasma of grit and ash. It occurred to her that she had hoped to take a break sooner than later so that she might rest her hooves. However, the possibility of that happening anytime soon was now zero. Composing herself with a deep breath, she evened her wing beats and glided ahead.
Rainbow Dash flew east, sandwiched between the shroud of night and the billowing storm below. It was difficult to make out the shape and volume of the mess in the darkness, but the sheer sound of it left no doubt in her mind that it was a continental affair. She wondered how often sand blew over the landscape like this, weathering the dry earth away until it was the barren rocky bones of the world and nothing else.
It was a daunting task to keep her focus. On top of not having relaxed her wings, Rainbow Dash hadn't relaxed her mind in a while. She was running on lack of sleep, and it didn't help that all parts of the ground was now being pelted with sand and dust particles. She could only hope that, as she scaled the lengths of the world below, she would come upon the end of the entire ordeal.
This did not seem to happen. A dim beacon lit up ahead of her. For a brief moment, she thought it was a building or a bonfire or an air vehicle with a lantern. As the light crested over the storm cloud in all its brilliance, she realized it was the sun. Golden rays pierced the outer layers of the dust storm, only to be swallowed ravenously within the dense heart of the arid tempest.
It was then that Rainbow Dash saw—below and all around her—that the dust storm was quite literally encompassing that entire portion of the world. It was like she was gliding over a sea of ash, churning and rolling with brown tidal waves. There was no end of it in sight from any angle, and Rainbow Dash knew that there was no point in trying to retrace her flight and land on the ground before the event horizon of the storm.
It didn't help that Rainbow's wings were starting to ache. The pegasus knew that she was always better at speed than at endurance. Although her latest travels had helped her exercise her long-term abilities of flight, she had always enjoyed the possibility of having a landscape beneath her to land on and rest at any given moment. And, of course, there was always the hope of a cloud to sleep on.
Here, there was nothing. The bright yellow sky lacked any clouds whatsoever. In truth, Rainbow Dash hadn't seen any during her initial flight through the desert. It wasn't an issue until that very moment, as her wings started to throb in pain and exhaustion. Now, when she needed a cloud the most, she didn't have any to choose from.
Rainbow Dash grumbled. She looked at every horizon as she glided ahead. Her eyes pleaded for a white wispy shred of vapor. Still, she found nothing. Chewing on her lip, she gazed down at the duststorm. Slowly, experimentally, she descended until her hooves were dangling just above the gritty tempest. Then, with meager grace, she dipped her limbs into the mess.
Her pegasus hooves did not—as she hoped—make firm contact with the material. Instead, her hooves sank through the material. The sensation was hot, searing. With a hiss, she flapped her heavy wings and pulled up sharply. She looked at her hoof and gawked at a rash that had immediately formed. A shot of pain ran up her spine, along with a knot in her stomach. There was no purching on the dust storm; it simply was not pegasus friendly.
The agonizing day had consumed itself, and a dimness cast over the miasma as the sun lowered towards the horizon to her flank. It was around this point that Rainbow Dash realized what a bind she was in. It felt with each flap of her wings that her appendages would fly clean off. On top of that, her body was exhausted, and she was starting to lose the cohesiveness of her vision. If she couldn't rest her body soon, she'd collapse like an airborne boulder. Rainbow Dash knew from the age of a little filly what happened to pegasi who fell asleep in mid-flight.
She didn't have the aid of sunlight to help in her distress. She thought of Cold Canter, but knew that talking to him would be useless. Besides, she had to save her breaths for as long as she could. Still, she could barely think. Her lungs were starting to heave with the effort of keeping her quivering body aloft for hour after hour.
Rainbow Dash tried to stay calm. She turned herself upside down, facing the stars, and pulled a few things out of her backpack, balancing them on her chest. She ate a few leaves of lettuce and took several swigs from her flask. As her wings started to heave and buckle in the darkness, she thought quick to prepare for what was coming next. With a hoof, she summoned a ruby glow from her pendant. Using her limbs and teeth, she pulled her blanket out, removed her hatchet, and sliced the end of its length off. She soaked the improvised rag with water and wrapped it tightly around her mouth like a rag. Breathing slowly, she tightened her goggles and tied what was left of the blanket over her like a cloak. She formed a hood over her mane, covering as many parts of her body as she could.
Her wings were going numb. The stars bowed as she felt herself descending. The noise of swirling winds filled her ears. She was going down.
She spun about, angled herself with the horizon, and dove swiftly. If she was to pierce the storm, she might as well slice her way to the earth as swiftly as possible. In the night, a great onyx wall of madness churned directly ahead. She took several breaths, stuck her wings out straight, and summoned a mental command from deep within. In a bright, platinum flash, Queen Whitemane's shield kicked in.
Rainbow Dash hit the sandstorm. Even with the shield on, it felt like slamming into a brick wall. She grunted but soared forward all the more quickly, bulleting through the dust and sediment like a hot knife through butter. The world howled and hissed at her from every angle imaginable. Her vision rocked and buckled in the nightmarish turbulence. She could barely see beyond a foot ahead of her, maybe two. Then, as the whistling and whipping winds intensified, she reached the surface of the world.
She landed awkwardly, her hooves scraping against the rock. Wincing, she anchored herself as firmly as she could and leaned against the wind. The heart of the storm was deafening. She could no longer feel her wings. With madness and cyclonic dust spinning all around her, she forced herself to concentrate. Queen Whitemane's shield would be depleted in a matter of seconds. She pulled her saddlebag completely off, whipped out her hatchet again, and began hacking away at the ground. She managed to make two equidistant notches in the ground. Within these holes, she stuck a pair of sticks that she had gathered from Cold Canter's and Desert Light's outpost. To these, she tied her saddlebag, praying to the goddesses that the lunar silk would live up to its famed versatility. Once this was erected, and the magic shield was starting to buckle, she scrunched up to the side of the saddlebag opposite to where the sand was blowing from and crouched as low as she could, covering every inch of her with the blanket as she breathed through the moist rag.
Right then, as she was just scrunching up against the saddlebag, the shield failed. The cold of the desert instantly stabbed at her, and she felt the blanket would tear. She clutched its length tightly to herself and stuck her face against the shape of the saddlebag, breathing as much clean air she could manage as a fine powder bled through the material of the blanket, threatening to suffocate her. Her goggles were already covered in a fine layer of brown grime. She wiped them clean, only to see how terribly her hooves were trembling.
Stifling a whimper, Rainbow Dash hid her masked face in the crook of her limbs and gave shallow breaths, praying that the blanket wouldn't rip apart, thinking about warmer, gentler days. She teetered upon a blackout, her entire body going numb. Reaching deep into the darkness, she tried to imagine something soothing, something hopeful. All she could envision was green eyes, and that was when her body went limp.
The storm collapsed thunderously upon her.
Nooooooo! I was so close to first!
1286582
Why did you have to waste the oppurtunity?!!
SECOND
Oh. I see why you did that.
Objective Added: Survive the sandstorm
Twilight Sparkle level of preparedness and planning approved.
Achievement Earned: Chilled in the eye of Danger
Trophy Get: The Sandmare- Encounter a sandstorm.
It's official: Austraeoh is the Homestuck of Fimfiction
There's a group for Austraeoh now!?
Excellent!
Title Obtained: "Wastelander"
-Minty
Ah, the Coriolis Storm. Sand that will strip the flesh from the bone. You just hunker down there, Dashie. Hunker down and wait...
Will our heroine be able to brave the rampaging sandstorm? Or will she fail, and her remnants be naught but bleached bones for none to discover for the rest of time?
Tune in next time, on the next exciting chapter of:
AUSTRAEOH!
Is it weird that I get super excited every time the story contains a link?
Sand Sucks
1289204
Extremely long, weird plot shit, weird puzzle shit, various lands have various themes. Some of these lands actually resemble the stuff you see on Homestuck, strange speech quirks...
...to name a few.
1290007
Heard of him/her yes, but from him/her? I'm probably just be being a bit in not knowing who this person is, but I was just noting the fact that the author remains rather mysteriously absent in the comment section, and that kinda meshes with the mysteriousness of the story.
1286610
...
1287181
I know, right?!
1288696
Eeynope
1289081
Eeyup
I'm curious how long that sound stone is going to last. CC said about 1,000 miles or so, and that also leads to me wonder how quickly Dash is trekking since she can break the sound barrier. I imagine, since we've been told she recognizes her lack of endurance, she's going a leisurely, what, 30-50mph?
Implicit shipping shows its face once more, tonight on Austraeoh!
In other news, that sandstorm is gonna leave a mark I wonder why CC didn't mention seeing sandstorms, cause you would have thought that on a 'vast' 'flat' and 'sand'-y desert, they would be pretty easy to see :P
Damn, this sandstorm reminds me of a scene from the movie Flight of the Phoenix. The guy involved didn't fare so well. And, possibly implied Appledash? Maybe? Perhaps? Kind of? Eh, in my head it is until something's said (written) to disprove it. Onward!
1287181
I had the same reaction, a couple of weeks overdue.
Miasma. Nice... everypony should read now.
That was harrowing, damn.
IIIIIt's Dashie's Thanksgiving Day Marathon Evaluation Time Special!
...
...w...
...why...
...WHY...
WWWHHHHHHYYYYYYY????!!!!!!!!
The description was great! I felt that I was INSIDE the sandstorm! Everything felt realistic! It was a beautiful chapter! I thought about saying in this very evapuation time that it was my favorite scenery chapter so far! But NOOOOOOOOOOO, you had to add disgusting, plot corrupting, repulsive, immoral, detestible, unbelievable, evil, awful, horrible, terrible, SHIPPING!!!! And it really could have been great! I honestly hate that I have to hate this chapter! AAAAAARGH...These...are my freaking thoughts so far.
-MASH
P.S. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I finished. Great. Whoop de doo.
Seriously, thanks to everyone who reads the evaluations. This has truely been an overall great Marathon, and the first Special to boot! Have a nice day!
P.S.S. Or night. People on FimFiction tend to live in radically different time zones.
Ouch.
1665934 What's "shipping"?
If it helps any, Soarin also had green eyes...
Wow this is like the blizzard that happened early in the story.
1665934
Really?
You deserve the downvotes for this comment.
1665934
You and your shipping hating.
In the belly of the beast.
Oh no! What is she going to do?
Eyes without a face.
Well, I'm getting there. I really enjoyed the Darkstine section, which was both interesting in a worldbuilding sense and gripping in story terms. The odd speech patterns of (most) Darkstinians worked very well once I'd got used to them. And wow, the Zaap Nator stuff was dark. I almost feel he got let off too lightly for the things he'd done. I also like the way that Rainbow is gradually starting to talk about her own journey to the Midnight Armory and suchlike.
On the other hand, the repetitious language is still irritating, especially "smirked" and "ruby eyes". Thankfully, "devilishly" has decreased a bit. Some of the pony names seemed a little odd, too: "Cold Canter", for example, doesn't make much sense, though possibly it's a signal of just how far from Equestria we now are that even naming conventions have changed. Mind you, it's mild compared to "Blue Xephos", which I'm afraid was an instant immersion-breaker for me.
Biggest problem, though: the links that have started to appear. My eyes are such that I simply can't read long stories on a screen, so I do my fic reading on a simple e-reader when I'm sitting on trains etc. If these links are going to become an integral part of the series, then that's an interesting idea (though why "Rainbow Dash" links simply to the forum here is beyond me) but it's going to be virtually impossible for me to manage. I'll make every effort to finish this story, though.
Wow. This chapter is actually the one closest to making me tear up (close second goin to when Rainbow left Gold Petals) Green eyes...appledash hint again. Not sure how I feel about that. personally im not that big of a fan of appledash, but for every story I give each introduced ship a chance. This has yet to make it feel over bearing without the important information, but too much hinting without reasoning usually does not bode well for my ship like/dislike. I do remember the short flashback to when Rainbow remembers Applejack taking her home after a drunk party, but I don't think that's enough to go off of.
6719122
Do you mean Golden Petals?
Amazing imagery here, makes one think of a small boat over a stormy ocean.
03/28/2017 19:02 UTC
8056908
Except the small boat is an east horse and the stormy ocean will flay you
Look on the bright side, Dashie: at least you didn't find a cave with a giant eel/lizard monster trying to eat you.
Fear is the mind killer.
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I love you so much
1665934
look...I love you're evaluations...but you deserve all the hate you got for that comment which was completely and utterly unexcusable
Yet another broken link.
Ah, green eyes. So at the moment of desperation, her thoughts went further back than blue.
9061728
Another link, fallen beneath the weight of years.
I don't like sand. It's course, and rough, and irritating, and it gets everywhere.