“I don't really like her hovering around like this,” Ironhoof muttered as he marched along.
“She can totally hear you, Ironhoof,” Red Turnip said.
“Am I the only one bothered by a pegasus flying over us like a winged halo?” Ironhoof glanced back at the two dozen other ponies marching with leather saddlebags full of heavy equipment. It was morningtime. The bright golden sun glittered down through the tree tops as the caravan wove their way down a mountainside clustered with forest. Ironhoof in particular was pulling one of the wagons as he flared his nostrils in the spring air. “Just where does a pony get of sportin' a mane that fruity anyways? Are all equines from the west so crazy looking?”
“Only the ones who make you look bad for trying to start a fire.”
“Hey, shut up.”
The caravan was awash in chuckling voices. Fulltrot wove in and out of the solid line of travelers. He carried very little on his body, so that he could easily reach the front or rear of the group in a blink in order to observe the trek's progress. He walked with disinterest past Ironhoof and the other chattering stallions. As he brushed past Gold Plate, he gave the young pony a side-glance. Gold Plate, struggling to hold up barely half the weight of the other equines, sweated and winced visibly in the nonstop march. Upon the elder's glance, he did his best to hide any sign of buckling. Once Fulltrot trotted out of visual range, Gold Plate let out a huge breath as his shoulders sagged.
Meanwhile, Ironhoof was still rambling. “It's a bad sign, I'm telling you. Her presence here doesn't bode well. Remember that last time, two years ago, when we had a random traveler join our caravan? We got washed out by a flash flood!”
“This is a pegasus, Ironhoof. The least of our concerns should be inclement weather.”
“But what if she's cursed?! You see that golden necklace that she wears! Perhaps she pilfered that from a forsaken chamber of pony souls!”
“You know, I can—like—totally hear you, right?” Rainbow Dash flew low enough for the caravan to see her smirk.
Ironhoof briefly tripped, nearly being run over by his own wagon. Several ponies around him chuckled as he blushed and glared at the blue blur of Rainbow Dash soaring overhead.
Rainbow Dash skimmed over the crowd, lifted up, and bounced from branch to branch as she grazed the roof of the forest. She paused on a particularly large tree, staring out at the landscape ahead of them. On the horizon was the large structure, still billowing from its gray mass with smoke. Below it, the mountains gave way to a rolling valley of lush green trees and shimmering blue streams.
Squinting, Rainbow Dash got a decent survey of the terrain. Her wings twitched upon seeing something. She glanced down and judged the direction that the caravan was heading. In a determined breath, she dove and flew among the line of marching ponies.
“Hey, where's your boss?”
“Huh?” Gold Plate could barely breathe.
Rainbow Dash hovered alongside the blond stallion. “What's your deal, dude? It looks like you just ran a thousand miles.”
“Never mind that. What do you wanna see Fulltrot for?”
“Cuz, if you think you're exhausted now, just wait until this afternoon.”
“I don't get it...”
“We're taking the long way to get to our destination.”
“How would you know that? You're not from around here!”
“Let's just say that I've learned a thing or two about how the earth works during my flight here.”
“If you think you can convince him to take a detour, be my guest,” Gold Plate murmured. He pointed ahead with his head. “He's at the front of the caravan.”
“Thanks.”
“For what?”
“Your permission.” Rainbow Dash gave a wink and was gone.
Gold Plate sighed. He briefly stumbled on a tree root, bumping into Red Turnip.
“Hey! Watch it, pipsqueak.”
“Mmm... s-sorry...”
One more mistake this time around, correction in bold:
“Just where does a pony get off sportin' a mane that fruity anyways?
Of course a pegasus could see shortcuts. They can fly up in the air, after all.
Look at how many words are in this chapter...
IIIIIt's Dashie's evaluation time!
This was a pretty nice chapter, I thought. Not too much plot, but we do see more of how Gold Plate is treated by the other members of the caravan. Also, this ends with a cliffhanger in which Dash sees something in the distance and tries to talk to fulltrot about taking a detour. Most interesting...These are my thoughts so far.
-MASH
Poor Gold Plate. They really should be nicer to him.
So I'm now 1/10 done with this first story, in terms of number of chapters. Yay!
Ha, they're suspicious of Rainbow Dash! I don't know why, but that line about her stealing the necklace amused me so much. I'm curious about what's going to happen next and all, so I guess I'll be moving on. Wonder what she saw?
People gave up commenting this chapter, even haiku guy. Maybe he gave up a while ago, I don't recall. So, more things I forgot in this story. Apparently Fulltrot is being delayed by something. Also, this Gold Plate dialogue is premium stuff. The characters in this story is second only to the scenery. Have a link. So the reason that I use Celtic music for themes is because they sound up beat and reflect companionship in my opinion. Also, I think I'll finish Austraeho be for drawing other parts of the series. The hardest thing about drawing this series is that there are so many perfect moments and drawing takes like an hour for me, so... yeah.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baSIrK5NK5A
Gold Plate x Rainbow Dash OTP.
3833001 You can feel the chemistry between them.
Austraeohaiku
20. Survey
Ironhoof worries
Gold Plate struggles, Fulltrot trots
Rainbow looks ahead
3809706
ginadrayer.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/121613_1703_therumorsof1.jpg
(just incredibly slow )
3833001
5012265 heh. heh heh heh... heh
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muffled crying
Uh oh.... Wonder what danger Rainbow spotted now.... 0.o Hopefully nothing too too bad, but rule of narrative casualty have something blowing up in their faces.... Oh well, let's see where this goes!
3833001 *sigh* and heeeere come the shippers. I knew this story couldn't avoid them for long XD
6459121 Avoid them? Why ever would such a notorious shipper as our glorious author want to do a thing like that?
This is a story that absolutely, wholeheartedly courts shippers with everything it has and more. All who resist will be converted or slain by their own salty tears.
Mind you, it's not like the rest of us have an easy ride, either, but...
No, you're thinking of some palette-swapped RD lookalike.
Nothing about this chapter seemed important.
I'll take that to assume it's chalk full of brilliant foreshadowing that I don't know about yet.
Edit: I hope these kinds of comments don't come off as facetious, I do mean them quite sincerely.
Rainbow Dash could totally hear Ironhoof.
And she can get a better view of the land by flying, so one would suspect that yes, she might be able to spot a shorter way.
"If I didn't know better, I'd say we were taking the long way around! Fulltrot, let us go through the Mines of Moria!"