Rainbow Dash walked up to it slowly, quietly. She narrowed her eyes. Then, reaching a hoof forward, she gave the wooden edge of the thing a light push.
The boat rocked ever so slightly in the wet sand. A loose collection of fishing tools rattled in between the decrepit seats. A rope was fastened to the bow of the vessel, mooring it to a wooden pole sticking partly out of the waters of the large lake. Among several cattails and fronds, a decaying piece of fish netting was tangled.
Rainbow Dash couldn't guess just how old the boat was, or how long it had been abandoned. She was immensely curious as to why this single piece of civilization was stuck here in the middle of so much nothingness. Taking a deep breath, she hovered up and craned her neck to look around. The sun was setting across the marshlands. The edges of the giant lake to the south glittered with the golden rays. Silently, Rainbow Dash scanned the nearby horizons for signs of other, living ponies.
She saw the shadow of something to the north, just along the furthest reach of the lake's edge. She cruised lightly over the rolling hills that lined the coast. Then, after a rise of earth, she saw it: a two story wooden lake house with part of its roof caved-in. Was this abandoned too?
Rainbow Dash touched down on a decrepit pier lining the south end of the house. Her hooves made echoing sounds as she strolled across the rotting planks. She saw another boat—this time upside down and overrun with grass and weeds. There was also the collapsed shell of a wagon and several overturned crates full of rusted tools.
If she was losing her incentive to call out loud for other ponies to hear, her resolve entirely disappeared as soon as she stepped through the back door to the house. The place was empty, overrun with dust and cobwebs. Everytime her hooves touched the floor, mounds of dust and sediment would rise and fall. The walls were stripped bear of portraits and the bookshelves were as empty as the boggy landscape surrounding the building.
Rainbow Dash, as always, felt the need to explore. But she didn't take her time. Instead, she bolted immediately towards the opposite side of the house and found the kitchen. Her stomach was growling halfway through the act of searching the pantry. Any box or container she found was full of dust and insect remains. She sighed, feeling her stomach growling again. With a nervouse shuffle, she gazed out the shattered window of the room towards where she had seen the boat full of fishing equipment.
The pegasus shuddered. She wandered through the house in a guilty slump, running a hoof through her mane. She wasn't starving. She was hungry, yes, but she wasn't desperate. There was no need to resort to becoming something base and brutish. Wintergaters ate meat, and that was okay for them. However, fishing in Equestria was only allowed for the feeding and maintenance of animals, pets, and forms of livestock in the possession of the citizenry. Eating fish would be just as disgusting as eating pony flesh.
At least, that's what Rainbow Dash was raised to believe. But here she was, countless kilometers from home, with nopony around to hear or see her. Her entire existence was funneled down into the act of flying east. Even in the darkest nights, when her thoughts belonged to nopony else but herself, Rainbow Dash couldn't deny that this was most likely going to be a one-way trip.
She snapped out of it, realizing that she was ascending through the house—but her wings weren't moving. It turned out that Rainbow Dash was scaling the stairs so that she entered the second story bedroom. The roof had partially disappeared. The Sun was almost beneath the Western Horizon, and it was bathing the wooden interior with an amber glow. Here, the wind blew in from the marshlands almost constantly. Any dust and debris had been fanned out ages ago. So when Rainbow Dash stumbled upon a lone mattress in the corner of the place, it struck her as remarkably pristine.
She smirked to herself. She had slept in far dirtier, muddier places. In a way, this felt like a palace to her wandering figure. Without thinking twice, she climbed onto the bed, relaxed her aching limbs, and stripped of her saddlebag for the first time in days. She felt immeasurably comfortable, as if she weighed half as much. Normally, this would inspire her to flit about and do backflips. For the time being, Rainbow Dash was overcome with a heavenly drowsiness. She rolled over in the bed, took one last glimpse at the crimson world softly settling outside the house, and yawned. Curling her legs to her chest, she went into a fetal position and descended into the embrace of sleep.
A one way trip? Rainbow Dash can't die... She can't... she's Rainbow Dash
One... way... trip?
One way trip? Uh, I don't like the sound of that.
Well Luna DID mention, like 50 something chapters ago, that RD only had a limited amount of time, and in the context of her condition, it probably means that she will succumb to it.
Stripped bear.
Come on, dude.
IIIIIt's Dashie's Third Marathon Evaluation Time!
So in thus chapter, we get more beeeyootiful descriptions, which make me very happy. However, Dash mentions that this whole eastern journey is most likely going to be a one way trip, meaning she will die at the end of it. This isn't entirely unexpected, however. Keep in mind that, several chapters ago, Luna mentioned that Dash's dizzy spells will become more and more frequent. Perhaps Dash will eventually succumb to them, and thus, Discord as well. Also, what with these chapters returning the fanfic to it's roots and Dash falling asleep, I think that the next chapter might be another of Dash's nightmares. These are my thoughts so far.
-MASH
P.S. Only six left...ehehehe...
Let's keep going! Don't give up yet! I'm only half-way done with The Wall!
One way trip? Oh hell no! I hope to Celestia that's just her melancholy kicking in in the face of the whole Windthrow incident and not actual foreshadowing! Please?
Most likely a one way trip.
Not as bad as I assumed then.
They aren't just trying to contain whatever it is that is affecting her.
My guess at this point is that she is either slowly turning into Discord, or a chaos rift waiting to happen.
Whatever that is
Even in the darkest nights, when her thoughts belonged to nopony else but herself, Rainbow Dash couldn't deny that this was most likely going to be a one-way trip.
>With a nervouse shuffle
lel, nervouse
'One-way trip'. Others have commented on this, so I guess I'll throw my hat into the ring as well. My thoughts on this are not that Rainbow Dash is going to die, but that she will be taken over by the chaos inside of her and be turned into some sort of Discord monster. She knows this and so is flying east, the element of loyalty holding off the transformation as long as possible, to someplace where she can be cured. However, she believes that she probably won't make it anyway, and will succumb to the chaos.
On another note, she seems to be feeling the sting on loneliness again, although it is very subtle. She keeps thinking about Wintergate, and searching for other ponies. She never did this before, just flying endlessly. Now, used to having others surrounding her, she looks for that comfort once more, but is unable to find it.
3674088
It means awesome in Germane.
Rest.
3864267 y u reed dis so slolie
3864268 y u dubl post
First time I break from the story with the exception of falling asleep last night and then waking up to continue this morning. A truly interesting tale with thousands of short chapters not yet seen and an epic adventure that seems to promise to continue on for a great many weeks, if not months.
So much has happened by this point and the quality of the written words does the events justice. I started this story more out of curiosity as to how an author could possibly make a story so massive as this and still have something to write about by the time they reach their next book, much less several consecutive books down the line.
There is also something to be said about the inspiration this story seems to stir, if only a little, to go out and explore my own world. I'm hardly in a position to do so by myself, but my line of work promises to take me to some interesting places in the near future. I'll have to see about downloading these stories into PDF files or something for reading while I'm offline.
What are you in the dark, here it seems Rainbow has quite the moral fiber, to hang on to the philosophies of her home when no one but her would know what she did.
02/19/2017 04:21
I'm loathe to believe that eating 'sea food' in equestria is thought of as barbaric and disgusting (or compared to cannibalism).
Rarity even conjured up some "hors d'oeuvres" at the birthday party in "Inspiration Manifestation", and those had shrimps in them.
They were on the plate in the center:
vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/mlp/images/e/e4/Treats_turn_into_hors_d%27oeuvres_S4E23.png/revision/latest?cb=20140428211600
Of course the foals aren't too happy with the food replacement, but for Rarity to even consider "shrimp hors d'oeuvres" an improvement to a party, has to mean that it's considered 'good' or 'appropriate' in 'equestrian high society'.
So 'sea food' seems to be okay to eat for them after all.
8401743
Well, this was made before season 4, so facts established in season 4 or after can't really be used against it. And even if it was also seen somewhere in season 1 and 2 when this was made, I think it's just expected to be accepted as part of this being an alternate universe.
Nice to see ponies have a taboo/revulsion against eating meat instead of being right on board with it, at least for other ponies. Animals that naturally eat it, I doubt they'd have a reason to mind them.
.... One-way, huh. It's one of those journeys?
I guess there isn't much left in Ponyville for RD. But, maybe that's a bit too jaded.
Sometimes I think I might not want to know what Rainbow's true objective is.
9879124
it's a little different from that with that discord stuff I think
Sort of reminds me of the cabin that Rainbow found in the mountains back in, like, chapter 6? Someone, at some point, had a life here. Now they're gone and it's just Rainbow picking through the rubble on her flight forever Eastward.