There was no response.
...Dash? For what seemed like ages, all I heard was the sound of the air rushing past my ears at nearly half-again the speed of sound, and the flapping of Airheart’s wings trying to keep up. In the distance, I could hear a single engine plane buzzing along. Dash, I'm sorry, okay? I was stressed out and I just... just... please say something...
Guilt hung heavy on me. My wing-flaps became strained, and I began to slow. It seemed like someone had turned the air in my lungs into burning lead. For the first time in days, the inside of my head held only my thoughts. An empty feeling crept into my mind, causing a dull headache at the top of my forehead.
I had never felt so alone.
“Hey, you okay?” Airheart asked from behind me. “You’re slowing down. I almost ran into you.”
“I’m fine,” I snapped, trying to hide my turmoil. With a few powerful flaps, I regained my speed and nearly left the other pegasus in my wake. “Sorry for my schist earlier. I’m a little moody.”
Airheart was quiet for a while. Below us, an overcast concealed the ground from view. “You wanna take a break?” she asked. “Those clouds look really fluffy. We could just nap for an hour or two and keep going.”
“I’d rather get to Chicago as fast as possible,” I stated curtly. My headache increased slightly, making me wince. That, I thought to myself. Plus the flying will distract me... hopefully. Maybe Dash will come back if i don’t think about it...
~+~+~+~
Dash! Come on! I said I was bucking sorry!
Remember that plan I had about not thinking about it so Dash would come back? The one I had about an hour before? Well, I didn’t even make it past phase one of it. I tried to focus on the beat of my wings, but they were too rhythmic to hold my attention. An attempt at playing riddles with myself only made my now-ever-present headache throb painfully. Airheart and I tried talking for a bit, but I couldn’t focus on the conversation with worry eating at the edge of my mind.
Meditation only works if you want it to work.
So now I had resorted to shouting angrily inside my head, trying desperately to coax Rainbow Dash out. You fucking selfish bucking piece of schist! I thought you were supposed to be the fucking Element of Loyalty! Thanks for abandoning me, you slutty, no-good, thrice-damned--!
Suddenly, my headache hit with an unexpected and severe spike in intensity. My flight path wavered and I dropped about ten feet before catching myself again. I heard Airheart yelp behind me, plunging down and grabbing me to steady my faltering flight pattern. “Markus!” she called down to me, which somehow resulted in another spike of pain and more disruption in my struggle to right my flying. “C’mon, Dash! Fly!”
Clamping down on my teeth, I got a grip on myself and flared my wings, then ripped myself from Airheart’s grasp. The headache from the emptiness continued to thunder on in my head, but I drove myself onward. I’d be damned if I was going to let it slow me up.
With powerful, strong flaps, I propelled myself forward, as if trying to break through the pain itself. My ears popped as I passed Mach two, then again as I blew by Mach three. I couldn’t think, clouded by frustration, hurt, and loneliness. All I could do was fall back on my basest instinct: the one given to me by the Element of Loyalty.
So I suppose I did exactly what Airheart told me to do.
I flew.
~+~+~+~
Chloe just hung there in the air, looking at her hooves, unable to process what had just happened. One moment she was supporting Markus, who had suddenly just started flailing in the air like a pigeon having a seizure, then found no trace of the rainbow pegasus the next. She looked at her empty hooves, still in shock.
Did Dash just go crazy and fly off? she pondered when her mind began to work again. Chloe looked off into the distance, thinking for a few more seconds. Son of a bitch. She just left me behind.
’I told you Rainbow Dash can be an ass,’ Airheart reminded her.
4097616
...I just started using it. I've used it for so long I can't remember where I got it from.
What a creative concept for a story.
APRIL FOOLS!
4097839 You don't understand the point of the PonyEarthverse do you?
4097944
I can only assume the 'point' is to be autistic and to give alien life a reason to wipe out humanity some day.
4097668 Okay, just wondering. There was a scene in the movie where they were on a sheet of Schist (Schist - any of a class of crystalline metamorphic rocks whose constituent mineral grains have a more or less parallel or foliated arrangement.) And they just spontaneously said "Schist" instead of "Shit"
Anyway, just finished reading Chapter 19, You've earned yourself a fave, and I can't wait to see what happens next. I might have to look into more of the PonyEarthverse stories, as this is a great concept.
4097944 The expression on your profile pic perfectly matches your comment there
4098234 fc08.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2010/362/a/c/facehoof__twilight_sparkle_by_atomicgreymon-d35wxoo.jpg
4098306
i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/531/448/118.gif
Talking to you is just one disappointment after another.
4098333 Is autism your go-to phrase for a reason, or are you really that insensitive as to claim someone has a serious mental disorder just because you don't like someone's opinion?
I really didn't want to drag this on, but I'm going into Special Education to change peoples mindset on kids with disorders. I wouldn't have done this if you called me and the writer stupid or ignorant.
4098378
I wish I had time to comment on the continued stupidity displayed in your comments, but I have work now :<
See ya in 10 hours!
4098487
If anyones being stupid here, it's you. Stop assuming for one moment that everyone who writes, reads and enjoys these stories is autistic, because I can assure you that they aren't. I have friends who are autistic, and the characters described in the PonyEarthverse as well as the people commenting on the stories do not, I repeat, DO NOT act autistic.
4098961
Dude. The obvious troll is obvious. In other words don't feed the "parasprites".... Unless they become a little more funny or original but this is just disappointing.
4098487 gifstumblr.com/images/you-are-literally-too-stupid-to-insult_1171.gif
and blast-off.
Rainbow Dash is not an ass, she is stubborn.
4098378 4099328 He is just retarded that's why we can't explain our reasoning to him.
I know many who are autistic and they can be fun and very creative.
4098961
4099328
You white knights are so cute. Sadly, your insults are lacking even more than mine, so you're not even entertaining. Sadlier yet, I'm in much too good of a mood to waste time fighting with you little swines. Enjoy hell, you sniveling little creeps.
4098961
Damnit, i just read your idiotic comment all the way through... I can't just not comment back on that. It's so grotesquely stupid, it almost hurts me. Better tag 4098378 here too, 'cuz he could clearly learn a thing or two from this. Being autistic is a choice, one that you fools clearly made so long ago you've forgotten all about it. That saddens me deeply. What a waste of perfectly good human life.
Who are you trying to kid? Have you even read the stories or comments?
If you really want to help people with disorders, all you need is a shot gun and a steady hand.
4100266 you obviously didn't get hugged enough as a child. And for a person thats had an account twice as long as me, you obviously don't understand the values the show embodys. I expected a little bit better from somone that watches a show about friendship. I will no longer be comenting to any of your remarks. Have fun being a cynical twelve-year-old.
4097839
4097944
4098961
4099328
4100227
Enough. I don't care if you dislike my story, or even if you dislike the people commenting or reading this story. That was to be expected with this kind of fiction.
But- and this goes to all of you -don't start flame wars in the comments section. That's never what the reply button was intended for, and, to those that enjoy my work, it puts a bad image on the story itself.
So all of you, knock it off. Schist like this does not need to happen.
fc09.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2012/294/3/7/derpy_hooves_salute_wallpaper_by_p0nies_pwn-d5ihuz9.png 4100287 Sir, Yes Sir. Sorry, Sir.
4099282
4098306
4100317 you guys are such typical bronies it hurts.
Typical Con-goers. God bless your souls.
4101007 Thanks.
4100227
yea same
I'm confused, I thought Dash and Markus were sort of merged already. Or is the story where they like divided up the space? Frankly, I'm waiting too see what happens when all this resolves itself. I'll be very disappointed if at least one or two of the characters between all these stories them don't stay permanently merged and return to Equestria.
4100287
Sure, I wasn't trying to start anything, if anything, I was trying to end it. I'm really sorry this got so out of hand...
I had to fight the the unholy fires in the middle of a flame war to write this, luckily it wasn't a shitstorm but I finally got here.
... I have no idea what to comments on now besides that the story is good? And so was the chapter
<insert witty remark here>
I really like the cover art and I don't know why.
4107711
There is a difference!
4115362
All the info you need!
Fluttershy and Twilight are taken, unfortunately.
4115374 so any reason why the story titled 'and the I was twilight sparkle' password protected???
4115374 hellooooo?????
4127977
I'm not the admin, sorry. I don't know.
Gee, close. Airheart's talking in your head. Did you forget dash is doing the same to Markus and that the merge could be happening?
Those two better find each other or this will go south quick
Strange for Dash to vanish like that. I wonder if that thing she tried to warn Markus about caught her and without her Markus is having a harder time controlling this body.