“What’s up? Why are we stopping?” Dash asked. “It's not even noon.”
Strider set Rainbow down without bothering to respond.
“Is there something here? What’s so special about this place?” Dash looked around, and found that they were in an old campsite. “Wait, is this your campsite?”
Moving a branch out of the way, Strider drew Dash’s attention to a large stone slab jetting up from the ground. “What is that?” Dash asked as she approached the stone. Although the stone itself was black, Rainbow could see herself in its polished surface.
Strider moved away from the stone and sat down. Brushing some leaves and twigs out of his way, Strider began to draw in the dirt using a stick. Sitting next to him, Dash watched as he worked.
The first image was of a simple figure, a biped with a circle for a head and lines for its body and limbs, inside a square with a triangle on top of it. Next, he drew the same figure with trees around it. After that was the figure standing in front of a circle, then the figure touching the circle, then a new circle with the figure on the opposite side as before. FInally he drew the figure meeting a second one, only the second figure was a quadruped with two extra lines rising out of its back.
Dash looked between Strider, his drawings and the stone. “Is… is that what happened to you?” she asked. “Is the stone what brought you here? Why not use it to go back?”
When Strider didn’t give her an answer, Dash tried again. “You.” she pointed at him. “Stone.” She pointed at the stone. “Home.”
Strider seemed to understand her this time, and walked over to the stone.
“Hey! Wait!” Dash yelled as he reached out and touched the surface.
“So, it doesn’t work anymore.” Dash stated when nothing happened.
With a heavy sigh, Strider sat back down next to Dash.
“Don’t worry,” she said, wrapping her good wing around him. “If we ever get back to Ponyville, I’ll have Twilight whip up some portal opening magic for you.”
This is an excellent story. I am looking forward to future chapters immensely.
7920049
Same, just a shame they are so short
Two questions. One! Why are they so short? Two! When's the next one coming out?
I'm starting to become cautiously pessimistic as to the ending of this story.
- We know there's only going to be 15 days worth of covered content. (According to the author.)
- We know that the author is very slow with his writing, which means that a long enough final chapter to tie up all the loose ends is virtually impossible (MLP will be on season 9 by the time he'd finish it, at the current rate).
- We know a bit about how the story ends thanks to the prologue, and by all accounts if the story is going to actually explain what's going on and what lead to the human's arrival, then we're certainly no more than a quarter (and that's being VERY generous) of the way through the story at this point.
I just don't see it wrapping up except with some short and disappointing:
"He got into town, dash explains everything (but the reader doesn't get to be present for any of that), and Twi does something or other and ta-da that's where we left off in the prologue."
The story also has left mysteries about basic communication, how he got there, what/who created the stone, what is the stone's purpose, how long had he been out there before dash arrived, what did he do all that time, why didn't the ponies realize dash was gone when she didn't show up for work or to hang out (the mane 6 would have organized a search and found her if they had known she was missing).
Welp, not much to do but wait... and hope.
The last thing strider said tho.
Kinda sounded like: "Strider stone home"
"E.T. phone home."
Hmm... Shorter than expected, but certainly doesn't ruin anything. I'm honestly loving this story and look forward to see what happens next.