Sanctuary
The tunnel stretched for hundreds of meters, but Rainbow Dash could hardly register the lengthy walk it took to descend through it. She was focused on helping the survivors carry Swirls' bleeding body down into the depths of hiding. Every moment she had to spare a thought to the passage of time, it was spent remembering Stu's screams.
Her heart skipped each time she thought of the image of the burning stallion. She had seen such horror before, up high upon the mesa in the center of Silvadel. But this most recent tragedy impacted her all the more. Stu had been a living, breathing soul in her presence for the better part of thirty-six hours. Now, he was just as dead as the ashen lengths above her. Rainbow Dash had thought her soul had hardened to the concept of death at that point, but she realized she was wrong. She wasn't quite sure yet if that sensitivity was something to be thankful for or not.
At last, the tunnel opened up, and a large cavern stretched wide like a granite arena. The place was bright, illuminated by hundreds if not thousands of candles. Rainbow Dash lingered briefly while carrying her half of Swirls. She had to look up to catch sight of the place's ceiling. The interior of Sanctuary was easily over a hundred meters from the interior's base. Rainbow Dash saw no stalactites, or else if there were any she imagined that they had somehow been removed by Silvadelian engineers over time, an insane feat in and of itself. Lining the grand walls of the place, several pocket enclosures stretched. They served as households and were connected to one another with wooden stairs. Canvas curtains parted as hundreds of ponies—young and old—peered out to see the return of Sam Rose and his party, or at least what remained of them.
As Rainbow Dash and the group leveled out, they saw a thick cluster of ponies arriving in droves from torchlit marketplaces and meeting centers. Various equines in thick canvas armor showed the soot-stained signs of mining and rock carving. Elders in ritualistic, velvet robes stood in the distance.
A few shouting voices rang across the large chamber. Ponies in white with red leg bands rushed up in time to examine Swirls as she was layed down. Sam Rose spoke to them, explaining the nature of her wounds. As he did so, two clusters of ponies shuffled swiftly through the mass crowd. One of them immediately knelt around Swirls, worriedly inquiring about her condition and holding her hooves as the medics did their job. Rainbow Dash determined that they must have been Swirls' family. As the medics started bandaging her wounds, they gave smiles of reassurance to the old and young ponies nuzzling Swirls. The members of Swirls' family held her close as she cried quietly in their embrace.
Another family lingered, craning their neck to look over the treatment of Swirls. Their faces hung in pale grimaces of distress. Sam Rose saw them. With a deep breath, he strolled through the crowd and removed his dragon skull helmet. He gazed solemnly at the oldest mare and stallion of the group. In a low voice, he spoke to them.
Rainbow Dash watched as the color was drained completely from their eyes. The mare's face caved in, and she collapsed into her husband's weight, sobbing in agony. The stallion shed tears and nuzzled her closely as the younger ponies mourned in quiet little shudders.
The sounds of their wailing voices was almost worse than what Rainbow Dash remembered hearing up above. She looked to her side and caught a sight of Ember Speak's copper form, retreating into a nearby alcove. Blinking, Rainbow Dash gazed around and realized that no ponies were gathered around her. Nervous, overwhelmed by the solemn sights and sounds of Sanctuary already, she trotted briskly after the mare.
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Oh my...
Well dam...
This.. this is pretty heavy stuff.
1368534
....
Oh dear, somepony was presumably burned alive back in ponyville...
what happened to equestria
1368534>>1368535 By the gods, its spreading
1368536
Ha! Beat ya by 12 seconds! Take that! dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/Fluttershy_lolface.png
1368552
Indeed.
1368552
1368559
This whole arc is just heavy and dark. We can speculate until Tartarus collapses on the Ponyville line, but I somehow doubt we're going to get a resolution or exposition on that for a long while yet. Instead, let us speculate on this:
What does one possibly say in this situation? Are we in store for a sob-fest on why poor Ember has no family? Are her and Dash about to commiserate on common ground?
Ohhhh no...
Sanctuary - Before The Dawn
Ponies being burned alive in Ponyville? Oh dear. Now I simultaneously do and don't want to know exactly what happened. It better not have been one of the mane 6 or I'll probably end up crying. Anywho, Dash has a knack for hanging out with the loner ponies at emotional reunions. First Gold Petals and now Ember. Actually, I can't help but notice how this scene mirrors the one back in Windthrow, but is a lot grimmer. The party returns to base not telling jokes about how Dash saved a guy from a hydra but mourning the death of one of their number, plus dealing with the injuries of another. Plus, Dash was basically helpless to stop it this time. Anyway, just the English Major part of me I guess, but I can't help but be impressed by the recurring themes and how their tone grows darker as Dash's journey progresses. So yeah, rambling done, I need sleep
1368534>>1368535>>1368545>>1368586
It has been corrected :
'There are things much worse than death...'
.
Rings pretty true here just looking in at the families shattered by death
What's more, nobody has come to meet Ember! Is her family dead? Have they disowned her? Does she have a small remanant of a family (crippled parents/siblings, kid sibling, child) to look after? Things have the potential to get even sadder.
1368951
And there goes speculation on that particular bit of backstory...
Oh. No.
You can't be serious.
This... could either be very revealing and very heartbreaking, or not very revealing (as far as Ponyville) and even MORE heartbreaking.
This story still makes me have all the feels.
"Her heart skipped each time she thought of the image of the burning stallion. She had seen such horror before, up high upon the mesa in the center of Ponyville."
Jeez, how bad did it get?
No achievements today. Too many feels.
Title Obtained: "The Outsider"
-Minty
1369240
Wait. Did I miss something?
1368981
And yet, one question remains: innocent mistake or devious meta-plot?
New Objective: Speak to Ember
1368951 1368981
...Or HAS it?...
coppermine.constantmayhem.com/albums/userpics/10002/t219721_fry_i_see_what_you_did_there.jpg
1368951 1368981 1368977 1369525 1369605
Frankly, it makes more sense that it says Silvadel, comparing the current abject horror to Ponyville doesn't make as much in-context sense, considering what Dash DID see on that particular mesa was a hoard of burnt, crucified bodies and one still alive. Also, now we don't have to explain how a mesa showed up in Ponyville at all, leaving the mystery over the chaos rift intact sans more terraforming. Regardless, still a very dark chapter, and one I enjoyed perhaps a little too much.
1368977
Dash is walking over to commiserate their loneliness, I expect some backstory in the next few chapters as they talk about mutual experiences with loss of the familial variety.
Achevment unlocked: get to sanctuary
Where else have I heard that name?
So minty is our title giver person thing and zapnator is our objective
Giver person thing so can I be our achevment giver Person thing?
1369754
Yeah, I'd say that Silvadel makes more sense in this context as well. It would seem a little odd to reveal so little information about what happened in Ponyville up to this point only to reveal some information while everyone is distracted by dragons. It also leaves the hope that the rest of the Elements aren't crispy fried back home.
Also, if Ember Speak ends up replacing Gold Petals in Dashie's little pegasus heart, I might cry.
Here's hoping this sanctuary ain't like the one in Mass Effect 3.
1368592
Now let's see you do that with every other chapter!
1368592
And that's the last of them copied to Word for me to print off. I love having reading time at work.
1371478
Fuck no, I only just got caught up.
I have finally caught up. Took me a good 4 chapter updates but I did it
I hope Rainbow Dash can solve the problem in this arc, like she had for the last two. Though this one seems a might more of a challenge; an uphill battle.
About damn time i cought up
Damn... I almost got into high gear speculation mode there. Curse you and your phantom changes, Imploding Colon!!!
*side note* Shaking your fist at the sky and yelling about imploding colons when in the company of other people generally warrants a rather long explanation. Not recommended.
1371478
If anyone could do it, it's RHM. He's a bawss.
Well, I finally caught up with all 173 chapters of this thing, and...
Glorious. All of it. Absolutely glorious.
The way you use words to flawlessly describe setting and character in this story is astounding, author. Every second of reading this, I have had a crystal-clear image of what is going on in my head, just the way a story should be. There is virtually nothing to complain about, except maybe the shipping, and I hate lesbian Dash shipping, but even that was pulled off excellently and without inhibiting the story, so I really cannot complain at all.
All, in all, keep doing what you're doing; this story is one of the best I have ever read, ever.
Also, I find it humorous that someone with such an intricate knowledge of the English language and such beautiful application of it has the username 'Imploding Colon'. A tip of the hat to you, sir.
They're not going to be a Gold Petals mk2 are they?
Burning alive is no thing to joke about, I nearly died in a fire at age eleven. Ever since then I've been obsessed to the point of PYROMANIA.
IIIIIt's Dashie's evaluation time!
So, honestly, I'm a bit conflicted about this chapter. One the one hand, it's great. I liked the description of the Sanctuary as well as the dramatic scene with Swirls returning and Sam delivering the..."news"...of Stu to his family. All in all, this is shaping up to be the darkest, most disturbing arc yet, and I wouldn't have it any other way. But the way that Ember has no one to go to after returning home from a voyage into danger is eerily similar to Gold Petals returning to Windthrow. At this point in her journey, and after all she's seen, I don't think Dash will show any sort of romantic interest in Ember, but...it just troubles me, is all. But maybe I'm getting worked up over nothing. These are my thoughts so far.
-MASH
P.S. That was a true doozy. I did three total Marathon Evaluation Times over the course of Thanksgiving break, one of which had an extended deadline of fifteen chapters. Plus all of the days where I did single chapters, and I've done a total of 35+ chapters over the past six days.
Wow...at this rate, I'll be done with Austraeoh by next week!
Seriously, thanks to everyone who reads these. It really means a lot to me.
...Ha ha. That was a joke. Hee hee.
If I wanted to, though, I think I could.
P.S.S.1679306Oh, geez. Umm...I didn't realize. Are you...okay?
Hopes for next chapter:
1) Another Iron Factory
2) Voice chat with the moon goddess.
this sort of horror has to be relayed to luna, i mean she could do SOMETHING about it right?
as you can tell i am enthralled. please yell at me if you consider this spam.
It never gets easier...
Tears shed for the lost and gone.
This is so sad.
I hope Dash clears this up soon.
He's dead, Jim.
-mr smith voice- id like to...share a...revelation that ive had during my time here...
Now this is just a shot in the dark
BUT
Rainbow's old friends - the old elements of harmy bearers- are dead right?
So far, during each of these Arcs, Rainbow has made 1 closer than the rest friend.
Sladesteel, Gold Petals, and Cold.
Could, way down the road, these ponies, plus the next two -in guessing 2 based on this theory- all become the NEW bearers of the elements?
or at least the "temporary" ones you might say?
Again, so crazy a theory that its a shot in the dark. but im just putting it out there anyways.
Naught but I have walked these hallowed halls in many a moon.
4911681
Steelteeth; Sladesteed was the bad guy.
Reads chapter title
Heck yeah! Time to spam some slot machines at Moxxi's Bar
Of course Dashie would chase after
dat bootyEmberi'm just burning alive with how awesome this chapter is! it's gritty, dark, and depressing, but with amazingly detailed backgrounds. it almost felt as I was there and witnessing every ounce of blood swirls shed, bravo dude, bravo. keep the fire in out hearts lit!
Very nice chapter.