Rainbow Dash thought it was a boulder at first. However, as she flew closer towards the object on the top of the hill, it turned out to be hollow. Her goggled eyes finally made out what could only be splintery spokes of wood and the crumbling mortar frame of a fireplace.
There was no second thought to it. She shifted her wings, coasted down, and dove towards the site. The abandoned cabin was located quite literally in the middle of nowhere. Rainbow Dash had since passed over two sharp mountain ranges. Here, a shallow ravine ran north and south, splotched over with thin grass and green shrubbery. In the center of this ravine—surrounded on all sides by forested mountains—was a lone, run-down cottage. It was as alien as alien could be. It called to her like a kindred spirit.
She touched down in a flat yard of grass bordering the cabin. Blades of grass splattered her limbs with cold dew as she trotted slowly around the structure. The golden glow of early morning electrified the scene with a rising, platinum mist. Stray butterflies took off and fled lazily from Rainbow's presence as she approached the doorframe to the crumbled house.
Standing upon the threshold, Rainbow raised her shaded goggles and stared nakedly upon the junk-laden “interior” of the place. There was no surviving ceiling, so that every bit of the cabin's contents had been soaked to the brim with moisture, mildew, and the mountains' perpetual breath of fog.
There was a bed in the corner, its rusted springs overgrown with vines and flowers. A tattered mattress had spilled over. It must have once made a home for winged creatures, judging from the threadbare nests half-stuffed in its fluffy folds.
The fireplace was full of dried logs, painted over with green mold and algae. Rainbow Dash wondered who had left the pieces of lumber there, unlit, as if somepony was once planning on a peaceful evening alone.
She glanced around the lengths of the place. There was no sign of another soul having been there for ages. She could only wonder just how old the house was, or why it had been built in such a remote place to begin with. Every hoofstep she took sent crackling noises through the crumbled domain, tearing down countless years of abandoned history beneath her twitching ears. Her eyes fell over a sea of shattered dinnerplates. The slightest hint of floral designs across the porcelain material glistened in the neutral sunrise.
Rainbow Dash let loose a strong exhale. The more she looked, the more detritus and rubble there appeared to be. She glanced at the top of the fireplace and saw what looked to be a picture frame. She marched over and raised a hoof to the object, tilting it up so that its canvas surface once again graced the light of day. All that spoke to her was brown mildew, except for a few stray lines etched in the shape of what she could only determine to be the royal celestial crest.
The very moment she saw those solar bands, she dropped the picture frame like a brick to the uneven floor. Her nostrils flared. Spinning around, she trotted firmly back towards the doorframe of the cabin's entrance. Just as she was about to take off, her peripheral vision caught something. She glanced aside, squinted, then knelt down low.
In the wooden surface of the broken doorway were two initials, carved within the unmistakable outline of a heart: “EE & EG.”
Rainbow Dash's lips pursed. Her wings flexed briefly. She wondered who could have left those initials, how old they had to have been, if the pony who first etched them there could still be alive or not. She pondered over how many ages had gone by—cold winters and dew-laden summers—during which those lone and seemingly insignificant letters had lingered lonesomely, abandoned in the vacuum of two steep mountain ranges, only for one soul and one soul alone to eventually stumble upon them.
Were they made for her? Could she have possibly given them the proper attention they deserved? Were the souls who scratched them into the annals of history properly vindicated from their existence?
Rainbow Dash had flown by herself over valleys, mountains, rivers, and plateaus. She had pierced the penumbra of stars and the pale gaze of the moon. Only now did she feel suddenly and hideously alone.
A lump formed in her throat. The pendant weighed heavily. She trotted numbly away from the cabin like a pony possessed. Suddenly, though, she stopped. Her head lifted up, her mane being caught in a warm gust of morning air. She turned around, stared at the cabin again, and smiled.
Firmly, she trotted into the cottage. She fetched several of the logs that had been left in the fireplace. Opening her saddlebag, she pulled her metal hatchet out and clamped it in her teeth. Using the instrument with expert precision, she hammered four of the logs into the ground so that they acted as signposts. Next, she pulled loose a fallen panel of oak from the cabin wall itself. She slid this over and propped it in between the four logs. She gazed proudly at her work. Not even the strongest blizzard could shove this erect plank of lumber down.
Next, she squatted before the wooden panel and aimed carefully with the sharp edge of her hatchet. With strong teeth, she leaned forward, back, left, and right, so that she etched several sharp lines against the pale surface of oak. It took the better part of an hour, but she was convinced that what she made would last for decades.
Once her work was done, she slid the hatchet back into her saddlebag, took a few steps back, and stared at the panel. Five names shone in the golden light cascading across the valley. The sign was arranged so that the letters would catch the sunlight at both dawn and sunset.
It didn't make Rainbow Dash feel any less lonely, but the site felt a great deal holier than it was before she arrived. Satisfied with her task, she turned her back to the names, stretched her goggles over her face, and soared sunward, allowing the heat of the birthing day to melt her thoughts into obscurity.
Yup.
It's a little sad...
I have resolved to simply accept this as a collection of beautiful moments. Imploding Colon, you are currently writing our fandom's guidebook to beautiful simplicity.
Beautiful work.
I have the feeling that Dash is trying to challenge Celestia, or the Sun, in some way related to her friends.
I love this, so . . . esoteric, I've read works over 100,000 words long, but this tells so much in so few! Amazing work...
Is that a... a tombstone? or in this case a memorial, considering it's wood.
....Things just got more mysterious. I'm fairly sure the five names will be those of her friends. Oh, and I caught a spelling error that made me double take when I first saw it:
I'm going to assume you meant grass.
Lovely and, as ever, I can imagine everything so perfectly. RD has now become half-realistic and half-cartoonized in my mind, thanks to how vivid this is. Ah, I love it. I wonder why she would get made at the solar crest, though? The plot thickens. Now if only you would add some thinner!
Story telling like this, in my opinion, is the best kind. You don't directly tell us what has happened, but instead focus on the present (what is happening).
Our ideas of the past only come through your hints and implications - that's the beauty of story telling.
So... the other 5 are dead? That's the implications I'm getting from the name carving, anyhow. It certainly puts Dash in a better light, in any event.
Also, EE and EG. I wonder who they are.
Congrats!!! You've talked about flaring nostrils every chapter! Ill tell ya when your done
That's it! I can't go any further without doing it!
Thumbed up.
The emotion portrayed in this fic is amazing. And like Lurks-No-More stated, I get the feeling Rainbow is challenging the sun. The buttons on her saddlebags are of Lunar design, and she is angered upon seeing a Celestia symbol. It would make sense if this turned out to be the plot.
I wonder if Celestia is dead and Luna is the reigning monarch now? This fic, and especially this chapter, remind me of Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou or Mushishi or something.
From what i'm seeing so far, it feels like something happened when Discord came back that caused something really, really bad to happen to the other 5 and RD is blaming Celestia for not intervening. That's the vibe's i'm getting atm.
She's has Lunar symbols on her pack, and detests the celestial symbol. Maybe it's the kind of AU where Celestia fills the Nightmare Moon role?
Either way, I'm hooked.
I'm still rolling with the werewolf hints I picked up on last chapter, as apposed to everyone else so far. Of course, I could of just misinterpreted them, but they seemed pretty straight forward to me. Maybe Celestia has banished her for being a werewolf? Or perhaps she is mad at her because the Element she is carrying holds the curse that causes her to transform -- it did mention that it glows when it's a full moon...
Whatever, this just also leads me to believe that her friends are either dead because of her, or for some other reason. Still, just blank ideas, and why would she have Luna's crest though?
So many ideas, yet still so many questions.
Also, you have down right gorgeous prose and now you're getting philosophical on us? Wow, this story is easily making me feel more emotions than most longer fics... This is going to be Favorited so hard soon enough.
IIIIIt's Dashie's evaluation time!
In this chapter, we learn that Dash dislikes the royal family seal, and Celestia specifically. That, coupled with the fact that her buttons on her saddlebags are in the shape of moons shows that she perhaps likes Luna better than Celestia. Perhaps there is a current civil war. She also makes a sort of memorial for five names that I can only assume are the names of the other members of the mane six. It also seems that, in this chapter, Dash didn't really want to leave wherever it is she is running away from. Also, we get two new characters-EE and EG. Perhaps they will be important later. These are my thoughts so far.
-MASH
"penumbra"...
Lots of initials to remember.
1226668 Do you know what a penumbra is?
Side note: why all the hate for Celestia? What the hell did she do wrong? If anything, what the hell did Luna do right?
Celestia bad, Luna good, and the other five members of the mane six appear to be dead.
Keeps getting better and better!
589746
where'd your avatar come from? I like it a lot!
888440 Whenever I read fanfiction, I picture them as 3D cartoon. The show has portrayed their angles well enough for me to do that.
(Sorry about whatever may occur with the replies. FF mobile is spazzing out on me.)
I've been very opposed to favoriting this because of what this story will do to my "to read" list. The number next to that friggin star is going to give me an aneurism.
Heck with it *favorite*
gahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! too many chapters!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
good work too
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
My initials are EG.
DUN DUN DUN...
So...much...GUESSING!
I can't help but do what Ganon says until more things are revealed:
X_x
Omg what is happening in this story......
I get the feeling that something really bad happened to the rest of the Element bearers, and Celestia either was at fault or did nothing to resolve it... Loving this so far, eager to see where it goes next- and thus, I read on.
OK so I have read the rest of the series so I know what happened here, Not going to spoil it cuz' that's rude. But, just KNOWING what happened has made me appreciate this even more, I highly recommend that you all read this series from start to finish.
Okay, just a couple of thoughts. It seems Rainbow Dash doesn't like Celestia, and prefers Luna, perhaps because she did something bad to the other element bearers, rendering them dead, and she feels like she could've done something, thus does not deserve the element of loyalty, but carries it with her anyway for remembrance's sake.
This story... you can read it without making assumptions about what is going to happen. And that's part of the beauty of it. I love a story that keeps me guessing, not just the generic 'this happened to this pony' structure that most writers, including myself, do alot.
Now onto the actual chapter- this has expressed Rainbow's loneliness, which you've done in a great way. The whole beautiful, yet isolated, feel of the place she's journeying through really lets us put ourselves in her shoes (or hooves). I can tell this is going to be an emotional ride
Austraeohaiku
“EE & EG”
Carved in a cabin she finds
She leaves her own marks
So I'm really tired and I won't add too much this chapter, just looking at the first comment I ever posted. NOSTALGIA. I haven't been able to work on art due to issues in not having time. So, yeah... I barely have time to read two chapters a day.
1048538
It's his fetish. Don't judge him.
Sometimes, we must have a monument to all we have and all we lost.
Me leaving this comment here might be like Rainbow Dash leaving her sign. Perhaps I just want to leave my mark, to say to myself that I've been here, even if no one else will ever see what I left.
Reading this story again is a completely different experience knowing what happens later. I wish I could remember what it was like the first time, but I honestly can't. At least I am following the story now so I still can make predictions and be totally confused.
I've only read this tiny bit so far, hope to pick up the pace soon.
this may be a typo
Six chapters in and this is already going in my favourites. Can't wait to see how good the rest this story and its sequels are!
Okay, at this point I must leave a prediction of my own to see if it comes true. So, first time around, not knowing what happens, here's my guess:
Celestia pullled a NMM type deal, or just went haywire. The elements of harmony went to fight her, but all but Rainbow Dash were burned to stubble by her. Rainbow Dash is running away, perhaps on a quest by Luna, after the eventual defeat of Celestia.
Don't tell me if I'm right or wrong. I'll find out myself.
I can't believe how different you see everything after reading it twice. I remember the first time... Yeah I was in awe, but I was just trying to get to the end as fast as I could so could see what was going to happen. By looking at it again one really starts to notice everything and you realise just how beautiful it all really is. Three cheers to one of the best fanfictions to ever grace our presence by one of the greatest fanfiction authors to grace our presence.
Well, that was foreboding....
Are the rest of the Mane 6 dead?
Celestia betrayed Dash or vice versa, and either the rest of the Mane 6 are dead or perhaps Dash secretly wants them to come after her. The significance of Rainbow's sign has a lot of possibilities....
Aaaaand I'm pretty sure this will be relevant much later.
My bet on the names:
Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Applejack. Question is 'why'?
As for the Solar crest? Something's gone on with Sunbutt to make Rainbow either dislike her or fear her and all represented by her, I swear, and the Element of Loyalty is part of it. My questions added: when did her loyalty become such a burden? And how?
Hm, wonder if this is going to be important in the future, something like this does not just get abandoned for no reason.
Eh, I guess this story just isn't my kinda thing.
6083998 How dare you????? At least you put it in spoilers, but... Thanks a lot for ruining a good deal of the mystery and emotion of this story for at least one person.
Edit: Sorry, sorry, I overreacted... I mean... I suppose I could have guessed as much, it's not like, considering everything,
(DO NOT READ THIS NEXT PART UNLESS YOU HAVE READ THE ENTIRE SERIES)
the Mane Six could really be alive...]
6446027
I know what you mean. My brother won't shut up about this series. I don't really get what the big deal is, yet. Perhaps I need to keep reading.
I'm not an artist by any means, but this scene has been in my head since I read it. I hope my sketch can do it any form of justice.
i.imgur.com/H7pThRP.jpg
6459025 I'm out, then. Bleep dead heroes. Thanks for warning me that I wouldn't enjoy it.