When my ears heard the rustling of her elegant wings, the first thing I thought of was how unlucky I was to be alive. She touched down onto the restored courtyard of Ponyville behind me, and she wasn't alone. Soon, I had two sets of alicorn hooves shuffling to a stop behind me. Distant ponies murmured, their voices strung between intermittent gasps and tender sobs.
"What happened here?" Princess Celestia's voice said. I felt her shadow drawing over Spike's tiny body. "Spike?"
The tiny dragon said nothing. He hid his face into his knees as he hugged himself, shivering.
"The Elements. I sense a void." Her hooves trotted past me, then ceased with a noisy scrape. "Oh no..." Her breath shuddered, taking on a wavering pitch that shattered her royal voice. "My little ponies." There was a solemn pause. "Twilight... my most f-faithful student..."
I began breathing heavily. With icy menace, I lifted my frowning face up from the tear-stained ground.
"Rainbow Dash!" Celestia exclaimed. "You are alive!" I felt the aura of her figure bathing me in twinkling light. "I came here as soon as the chaos magics dwindled from the land. What manner of horror has transpired here? Twilight... All your friends..."
"Sister," Luna's voice said. It was neither sorrowful nor victorius. "Discord lies in pieces."
"In pieces?" Celestia's breath left her again. She pivoted towards me, and I caught a hint of two squinting eyes. "Rainbow Dash, what has happened? Please, tell us..."
The world spun. I was the fulcrum, and Princess Celestia was the receiving end. I think even she was surprised at the echoing clap of noise that resulted from my hooves slamming across her immaculate face. She took the blow with grace, neither reeling nor reciprocating. Her head tilted away from me and froze there, her eyes round and imploring.
I wasn't about to let her have peace. "You?! You would ask that?!" I snarled, I almost foamed at the mouth. "It's all your fault!" my voice cracked as I squatted below her, wings arched and hooves dragging through the turf. "Twilight was just a normal pony! She could have had normal friends, but you had to weigh her down with those stupid Elements!"
Celestia said nothing. She stood in sacred silence above me while scores of colorful faces looked upon the scene with shock and alarm.
I wasn't nearly finished. "Why couldn't you take care of Discord this time, huh?! What kind of a Princess are you!"
"Sister," Luna said, shuffling up as if she was oblivious to my outbursts. "This troubleth us. If Discord is no longer whole, then his magic—"
"Shut up!" I screamed, clenching my eyes shut as I gnashed my teeth. "Both of you! Just shut up! You did this! You killed Twilight and all her friends! You brought this stupidness upon us all! We'd be alive and whole if it wasn't for you! We'd be... We'd be..."
I heaved and heaved.
She looked so beautiful sleeping. She never knew, because I never told her.
"We'd not be alone..." I hissed, my tears falling again. I hated myself; I hated her. I hated everypony.
"Rainbow Dash," Celestia whispered, reaching a gentle wing towards me. "My little pony—"
"Nnnngh—Get away from me!" I squeaked loudly, shoving her away. As I did so, something ink-black ate at her wings.
A cold chill filled the air, followed by a low rumble. Several ponies in the distance gasped and galloped away as the land around is seemed to bow and fluctuate.
Even Celestia was in shock. "That power!" she exclaimed, backtrotting. "If feels just like—"
"Feast thine eyes," Luna said, standing beside her and pointing at my neck. "Loyalty."
Sniffling, I glanced down at my pendant. Black bands of energy were trailing out of the edges of the golden necklace. In the center, the ruby lightning bolt pulsed. I saw a pegasus' face in its reflection, and the eyes that belonged to her pulsed to red on yellow.
"Nnnngh-Haaugh!" I shouted in pain, falling on the ground and writhing. "Freezing..." I hissed. "Blood is... fr-freezing..."
"Rainbow!" Spike shouted, sobbing once more as he lunged towards me. A blue field of telekinesis yanked him back. I looked up to see Luna standing upon the fringes of a sudden cyclone.
"Something's forming!" the Princess of Night shouted. "Above the shards of Discord!"
"How is this possible?" Celestia exclaimed. "The Elements banished him!" Her eyes hardened. "His essence must still linger!"
"If allowed to reconstitute, it shalt form a new and more powerful creature," Luna said. "A second Discord."
"The only way to stop that is to seal up the rift!" Celestia shouted above the tumult. "Sister! Take Rainbow Dash and Spike away!"
"But sister—"
"My power has tripled during your thousand year absence! Only I can do this!" Celestia spread her wings and summoned a bright pulse of platinum light directly in front of her. "Now go! Stop more lives from being consumed!"
"As thou doth command!" Then Luna galloped straight towards me.
I would have resisted, but my sudden exhaustion was greater than my anger. I collapsed on the ground, curled up in a fetal position. Lightning and magic flickered above me. I turned to look, wanting to vomit. I saw a solid sliver of black incandescence levitating in the air, like a pocket of light was being ripped down the center from the other side of reality. Next thing I knew, I was being pulled away. The center of Ponyville spun with chaos. Celestia hovered above it all, forming a coccoon of light around her, brighter than the sun. I looked down at the ashes. They were dissolving in the magic. I tried screaming, but I fell into a pit of dizzying blackness instead.
Well now we know what happened... Poor Dashie...
252 chapters just to find out what exactly happened.
It was well worth the wait, I say.
It would be super easy in future chapters to expand upon the "my power has tripled" (instead of doubled, eh? eh?!?) thing, with Dash as a parallel to Celestia's time "alone." A sort trail by lonely fire, if you will. Dash is already dealing with the most primal forms of the world, the closest thing to origins that they have.
On a contradictory note, this could also act as fodder for those saying Belle will continue on with Dash in some form or another, since now Dash finally has someone who can commiserate with, without having to tell them the whole story. It would fit with the "pairs" theming, but time shall tell.
1635303
Yes. These last few chapters have been quite rewarding on that front; it is not an unpleasant feeling, but it is still dark all the same.
Well. I suppose there's not a whole lot of speculation to be done, considering that this pretty much is clearing up nearly the entirety of the backstory for us. It's like that classic literary device, so often used: starting in the middle, then jumping back, and then continuing forward from the present.
Well, now that she's passed out in flashback-time, she can wake up back in the current-time.
That's usually how it works.
1635580 Cool avatar bro.
This is just...awesome. In a dark way.
1635699
Thanks!
I made it myself.
Look me up on deviantart, same name.
I have a wallpaper version there.
That use of we is interesting.
Well now we know.
AFTER 252 CHAPTERS: THE BACKSTORY
THANKS IC
AT LEAST YOU TOLD US EVENTUALLY
ERH MEH GOD!!! Now we know the story...
Well, that's definitely what just happened.
Dang, RD. You're more awesome than I thought previously.
The Well Of Souls - Candlemass
Punching Celestia? Classic Dash.
So it's not necessarily Discord affecting Dash, just pure chaos? That's actually a lot scarier.
There are no words....
Urgh. Kay I actually cried a little, I'll admit it. Dash has to tell Applejack, darnit! Even if its only in some sort of dream/trance form or something. Surely Whitemane can rig something up? Alright, she probably can't, but I'm still holding out hope.
Well, its been a heck of a ride getting this far - and hopefully the rest is just as awesome or even better. Whatever you do, don't stop writing.
So the "Chaos Rift" we had heard so much about seems to be a bit of a misnomer, when what Celestia is really doing is keeping Discord's chaotic energy from reforming. Although, it seems just downright oxymoronic that 'chaotic energy' is trying to form into anything instead of its natural state of dispersion. Shame on me, though, for using our sciency version of chaos to rationalize ol' Equestria-two-sides.
1635711
I miss Ze Captein.
er mah gerd....
I'm genuinely interested to see exactly how IC's planning to wrap up the Appledash sub-plot of this series (assuming, he is, and won't just leave Dash broken, miserable and dead. Which he already did once.)
1637459 IC is SS&E... that should be enough answer for you.
He NEVER leaves a character happy in the end, he doesn't know how. As I've said many times before he needs to recieve royalties from drug companies for all the people that need to take anti-depressants because of his writing. I love it.
1638288
You need to read The Tail End of It :P
1638306 I'll get to it eventually damnit! I've got so much crap on my read later list and yet every day I have atleast 3 fics updating plus random updates... it's crazy and I love it.
1636412
I have one, "creepy."
1639345
Creepy in the sweetest and saddest sense of the word! Of course, my perception of "creepy" is probably skewed. You're talking to the girl whose first crush, at five, was David Bowie as the Goblin King. 'Nuff said.
1639359
1639459
my childhood thanks you, kind sir.
i.imgur.com/5Kltg.png
So THAT'S what happened to Ponyville!
A mathematician/aspiring computer scientist is terrible at analyzing.
But we ARE good at planning and taking point A to point V.
Well, finally getting around to reading the next chapter, and about to move on to the next. And yay (?) answers. I'm happy we get to know what's going on finally, but I'm not really sure it's exactly happy. Ah well, onwards!
I finally know now what ive been reading
IIIIIt's Dashie's evaluation time!
So there you have it.
After 252 chapters, we finally have a canon, confirmed backstory.
And I wouldn't have had it any other way.
Seriously, these past several chapters have been just a roller coaster of emotions. I don't know if I can handle much more of Imploding's epic writing. It's also interesting to learn that Ponyville's chaos rift is not a random occurrence - it is directly related to Discord. Now, it is a bit unclear what happens if the chaos energies in the rift reform - that is, whether Discord or a new draconequess would be born - but it would certainly be bad. I think that it would form a new draconequess though, since we know that most of Discord's being exists within Dash. The only other thing I can say is...wow. Just wow. You've really outdone yourself, Imploding. Props to you. These are my thoughts so far.
-MASH
I hope Dash's coffined body isn't slowly transforming under our noses.
question...
couldn't dash have gone through the chaos rift to get to the midnight armory?
Dashie just express why some people in the fandom hate celestia. I guess I couldn't blame them, Celestia hasn't shown anything worthy before.
And now it all makes sense
huh.
Though honestly, Celestia's line about a second more powerful discord forming felt very cheesy and hammy and plot contrivancey/ deus ex somethingy.
oh well. no pony's perfect. This is still the most fucking fantastic story I have ever read.
>the land around is seemed to bow and fluctuate
Do you mean "us"?
So we know now why Dash hates Celestia And where the chaos rift came from And why Dash is being taken over by chaos magic
Dash never told her!
So much regret!
And so begins the tale of one lonely pegasus in a big world.
1940961 That....is an excellent question ...I imagine it will be answered near the end of this trilogy...
Finally, genuine exposition. Been dying for this shit. Ambiguity and speculation are nice but there comes a time when a man has to see the actual shit that's gone down.
After 252 chapters...yes!
Hehee, I was wrong who would've thought?
And Rainbow lashes out at Celestia in her pain. I can't really blame her, and I doubt that Celestia does either.
Oooo, bet Celestia doesn't get punched in the face very often.
Ouch. Goes to show, don't wait on stuff like that, you never know what might happen and what you might miss out on if you do.
Neat.
With all the grace and poise Rainbow could muster, she rose and punched Princess Celestia in the face.
TD would be proud, Dash. TD would be proud.
And considering who I've compared them to, I'm even prouder.
Well.
Here it is. This is the last of what we wanted to know.
This is what happened.
It's true what they say; that ignorance is bliss.
I'm really worried about Spike now. He must be suffering just as badly, and he wasn't able to exact any form of revenge, and he's just a kid.
Oh well... I'm speechless... I guess..
From all the EoH, Loyalty is the heaviest of them all.
I'm guessing this second discord was forming because the original vanished, cuz balance. Probably..
8425903
Naw, I bet he just got his ass handed to him, but he's the fucking god of chaos, so naturally he just reformed elsewhere, and now he's trying to get back on their plane of existence for a little revenge
6497300
TD also got his face caved in by a 4ft pastel horse.
Hmm not really sure if I like how all this is coming along...
On top of everything else it's a mixture of having Celestia [and the other alicorns] being both overpowered and useless...