Princess Luna's face tensed up. She tilted her neck up towards the heavens as her wings stretched wide. A bright point of light pulsated off the tip of her horn, then traveled down into her forehead. Soon, a golden glow overcame the shadowy vapors emanating from her being.
Then, over the east mountains, with the grace of a dissolving storm, the bright morning sun rose. It staggered at first, like a foal learning how to trot, but soon found an even pace that took it ever higher into the crisp, clear sky.
Luna exhaled heavily, her face and brow sweating as if she had just galloped a marathon.
"Crazy..." I mumbled, lying on the edge of the palace's marble platform a few feet away from the Princess. "So you're raising the sun now?"
Taking a deep breath, the midnight alicorn folded her wings and sat up straight beside me. "Affirmative, albeit with greater or lesser success. It's not all that difficult a task in theory, but we hath found ourselves lacking in the sheer strength our sister possesseth. She was always the more powerful one. As for we..."
"You were more graceful?" I muttered.
"More reserved, we suppose." Luna trotted over and squatted beside me, her folded limbs mimicking my slumped stance. "Raising the moon has been no simple task, but it was always a quiet one, a performance that greatly lacked an audience. There was a time when we detested such little attention, but these days we revel in it. There's a certain tranquility to monitoring the one beacon of the night, an atmosphere that promotes reflection and philosophy. It's calming, and we shall sorely miss it now that we are in charge of the day as well."
I glanced up at her, chewing on the edge of my lip. "How... h-how long will you have to be controlling the sun as well as the moon?"
Luna's nostrils fumed gently as she stared off into the burning horizon. "For as long as we have to. For as long as our sister's task is to seal off the chaos rift in Ponyville."
Sighing, I stared down at the golden pendant around my neck. "It's really that bad, huh?"
"If unchecked, the fissure in reality will spread. The unbridled chaos that occupies this pocket of space in which the world is suspended will consume all of Equestria and the lands beyond. The realm of harmony is like a vacuum, and it begs pure chaos to inhabit every corner of it, to pollute it. Currently, it is our sister's task to ward off that pollution, at least until the raw power manifested within the chaos rift subsides."
"How long would that take?"
"Fifty, one hundred, maybe even several hundred years," Luna said calmly. She gazed unemotionally at me. "It is but a season in alicorn existence. But, as for our little ponies, it means their very livelihood is at stake. Celestia has no choice but to wait out the chaos rift's fury. The Elements are no more, so there is nothing that exists physically upon this plane that can channel enough harmony into the rift and seal it any more swiftly."
I felt a lump forming in my throat. My hooevs shivered, so I tucked them under my forelimbs as I murmured into the winds, "Why did the Elements... blow up the way they did? Why did they backfire?"
"That is a mystery our sister and we are at a loss to determine," Luna said. "The most immediate hypothesis is that the Elements were not complete when the spell to seal away chaos was cast. As a result, there was a burst of erratic feedback, and chaos itself ruptured its way through the leylines that made the Elements a cohesive unit."
"So you're saying that the Elements went kablooey because they weren't all together when..." I took a deep breath. "When my fr-friends tried to take on Discord?"
"Such has never happened before," Luna said. "It is all a matter of speculation. If we had known that such a castrophic thing would have occurred, surely we would not have agreed to letting the fate of Equestria rest in thy mortal hooves. We would have... considered another option, along with our sister." Luna's face stretched thoughtfully. "We are... most exceedingly sorry, Rainbow Dash."
I seethed, shaking my head with a toss of my mane. "No, Princess..." I heard my voice cracking; I didn't care. "I'm the one who should be sorry..."
"Rainbow Dash..."
"I let them down." I scraped my front hooves against the marble as I gritted my teeth. "I wasn't there when they needed me. I was their missing piece, and they all blew up."
"Thou were under the influence of an enchantment that no living pony could resist—"
"I was weak!" I jumped up to my hooves, frowning. "I was weak and dense and stupid! I should have realized Cloudsdale wouldn't have fallen! Discord would have gained nothing from it! Instead, I let myself get all scared for nothing! I forgot all about my friends. I forgot..." I exhaled painfully, feeling a wave of dizziness come over me. The pendant weighed heavier as I held a hoof to my head and teetered. "I-I forgot to be loyal..."
"Young one..." Luna stood up and braced me with her forelimb. "Thy judgment was clouded, yes. But as soon as the fog that took over thy mind cleared, thou made forthwith to the location of thy friends to assist them."
"Pfft. Yeah." I exhaustedly glared aside. "Some timing..."
"Nevertheless, when thou were in possession of thy true consiousness, thou showed nothing short of absolute commitment and love." Luna gazed gently at me. "No doubt, thy heart must be in turmoil as we speak. We wish that we had given thee better news upon waking, but thou has always impressed us with thy honesty and resilience."
I was staring west, towards the sporadic fountain of black energy emanating from Ponyville every few seconds.
"Perhaps there is still time yet to learn more of thy condition—"
"I should see her," I said.
Luna raised her eyebrow curiously.
I looked up at her. "Princess Celestia. Your sister. I need to speak to her."
"Rainbow Dash, perhaps our message was not entirely clear," Luna stood back and said. "The chaos rift that our sister is guarding reacts to the energy resonating inside thee. The closer thou art to the location of Discord's demise, the more thy body shall be consumed by chaos. Thy lease on life is short enough as it is. If we bring you to Ponyville, thou willst surely die."
I smiled lethargically up at her. "Tell me something I don't know," I muttered. Then, with a deep breath, I said, "Take me to her, Your Highness. Please. Or I'll fly there myself."
Yet more backstory is revealed.
I can honestly say I wasn't expecting her to talk to Celestia, as it's always been insinuated that she was on a quest for Luna.
It has, right?
1664649
Yes, but Rainbow Dash has a death wish, survivor's guilt, and unbridled, directionless chaos-infused rage. She wants answers and she no longer fears her demise.
1664649
Yeah, all through to the end of Austraeoh, she wanted nothing to do with Celestia.
1664662
But if she isn't afraid of dying at this point, how come, at the end of Austreoh, she was afraid of being alone upon her (demise/plunge into unconsciousness)?
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They probably have a falling out over the conversation they're going to have.
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Aaaaand I'm betting this coming chapter is why.
I hope this story doesn't have to rehash each and every single bit of Austraeoh. That would be long and terrible.
1664740
She acquired the one thing that is most precious and most potentially destructive — hope. By that point in austraeoh she actually thought she could make it and also there is one thing that RD hates more than anything — failure.
Yay backstory.
I wonder if my prediction of RD by chapter 200 will be correct.
I bet that celestia is going to give rainbow the quest now. I'm just wondering how belle is going to save her
Well then.
With the amount of clearing up that these last few chapters have done, it is clear that, effectively, the single difference between this story and the reality of the show itself is that the Elements backfire if all six are not present.
That's really freakin' crazy. To think that one change affects so much. One has to realize, however, that despite the horror that unfolded in Ponyville with the chaos rift and the loss of the Mane 6, all the destinations on Rainbow's path East have benefited and become better, even only slightly, from Dash's intervention. In the "real" canon, the Minotaurs would still have kept the enslaved ponies and continued abusing chaos strips, that caravan with Gold Petals would have perished, and Zapp Nator would've most likely won, and continued sacrificing children.
And, if Axan is to be believed, the end of the world would have happened unhindered, unceremoniously, and irrevocably.
In any case, Dash must make it to the Armory. Or else all her contributions, all the lives she's touched, and the hope of an Equestria worth returning to will be for naught.
This story updates every day, yet every day I find myself excited when I see it has updated.
1664772
Celestia never meant for any of this to happen, obviously, and isn't a bad pony. But Rainbow Dash needs someone to blame, and Celestia is someone she perceives to be in complete control. Ergo, it has to be her fault.
Oh, well. What matters is that Dash eventually forgives her. But can she ever forgive herself?
Also I don't understand hows going to be saved because in austraeoh it said that "the bright light was like a sunrise. It was the last thing she ever saw."
So either shes dead or blind
Another great chapter by IC, this time with more backstory YAY
Totally unrelated question: Who do you vote for president, Pinkie Pie or Derpy?
1664662
And all that she had throughout Austraeoh. I'm still waiting to discover why Dash seemed to harbor a grudge against the goddess of the sun during her travels east...
1664764
Highly likely
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I would imagine that Celestia will reveal that she could have done more to prevent or at least warn of the Elements' destructive potential. There hasn't been any other reason for Dash to be so angry at her so far.
I got a bad feeling about this upcoming conversation.
Tanelorn (Into The Void) - Blind Guardian
Huh, that is actually quite relevant.
This whole memory sequence of Dash reliving Austraeoh's catalyst is terrifying. It reads like a eulogy for the Dash we knew and loved in Austraeoh, and I get the feeling that when- or if- she appears in Eljunbyro, something will be significantly different about her. And probably not in a good way.
Poor Dashie...
Poor Elements...
Poor Belle...
Poor Pilate...
Poor Ponyville...
Poor Princesses...
.
.
.
.
Buck you Discord.
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Yep, dash needs to get to the armoury. But step 1 is for Dash to resurrect. Right?
In any case, damn back story is sad. The only thing that's stopping me from losing it is that I'm happyt be finally getting some answers. We've been waiting so long and we've been rewarded by this beautiful written, heart wrenching back story full of grief, darkness and answers. What more can we want?
Well a happy ending maybe...
But that's not important right now.
Right?
Onwards!
I really hope there's some happy at some point. Or at least some witty Dash one-liners. The backstory is awesome, but depressing.
All these answers...its making me wonder if anything actually can be done. If the chaos rift will close up on its own, is Dash's trip to the armory actually an attempt to reinstate the Elements? Or just a way to close the rift faster? Or the whole spark to the machine thing to save the world? Where did that part come in exactly - like did they send her on the quest knowing that, or did it just come up partway and now Dash is on a double quest? Hard to say.
Anywho, onward!
Dashie76? Where are you?
IIIIIt's Dashie's Ninth Marathon Evaluation Time!
So not too too much in this chapter. Basically, we clear up a few Aistraeoh questions. However, I would just like to say that when Luna mentioned Dash's honesty - that was a nice touch. Also, we see that even immediately after the Discord incident, Dash becomes reckless and driven by survivor's guilt, akin to her Austraeoh persona. These are my thoughts so far.
-MASH
P.S.1887231I'm still here, AppleTank! So stick around for my Ninth Marathon!Eight to go.
so let me get this straight, where the first story ended dash sort of lied to ember in saying she had months to live, in fact when she got to windthrow she would have been pretty well off. when she was at the outpost she may have had at least 10 years.
Ah, yet another reason she was running.
Damn, Skirts. This is one intricate story.
huh
Dash, stop being so reckless! Hmmph.
Some things must be done, no matter the cost.
reading this again hurts.
Ouch. No wonder Dash spent so much of the first story aggressively blaming Celestia, the only alternative was herself.
Man, RD. May as well start the whole 'cheating death' thing early, right?
Odd; A story - or at least part of one - in which the main character tries to see Princess Celestia, but, because of dark magic, risks their life just getting close to her? Can't remember where I've seen that before.
I... I think this is the end.
6497326 ...My name is Lyra Heartstrings...
No no Dashie, your suicide mission is going to be much, MUCH longer than that.
8193015
You have NO IDEA!!
this one got me a little misty eyed. it's never the death that gets me, it's what comes right after regarding the still living. the regret. the mourning. the unbridled self hatred dash is feeling