The mists parted only because I was bursting through them. Solid rock and bouldery mountains lingered just beyond every wisp of gray fog. I flew furiously forward through the miasma, sweeping and diving and banking through the ravine.
The air was cold, thin, laced with frots from the gathered snowpeaks. I shivered, yet till it wasn't enough to numb me to the trailing dizziness collecting on the edges of my consciousness. I clenched my teeth and beat my wings faster, spiraling over sharp, jagged spires of stone. There was no sound, save for the echoing murmur of my breath as I skimmed polished cliff faces and slanted plateaus.
This place was strange to me; I had to turn my flight into a haphazard zig-zag, accomodating for the sudden twists and turns in the broken topography. I hadn't ever flown out this far beyond the Canterlot Mountains. It was exciting, but not exciting enough.
I flew faster.
The blood in my capillaries pulsed. I felt the ends of my hooves tingling. My tail whipped in the wind, making lashing sounds like a flag being pulled taut. I briefly feared that the appendage might come off, but then I figured that I would just fly on without it. So much of me had been lost already, torn off by the whims of fate and chaos. What tragedy would it have been if I lost another limb, an ear, or a tooth? I'd still be the same piece of meat underneath itself, collared by the same magical charm that ended everything, everything that mattered, everything but me.
I flapped my wings until I couldn't feel them anymore. I felt popping stabs of pain; blue feathers flew loose in my peripheral vision. I merely accelerated, angling my body as I came upon a steep, foggy ravine banking towards the north.
I threaded violently through the curve, my body twisting against the centrifigual forces that tore at my skin. All I saw was mist and blurring rock. My eyes threatened to close shut against the frigid winds. I fought tears and threw myself into the rest of the turn.
Then I met pure rock.
Gasping, I shot straight up. The hairs of my nose grazed stone, and soon I was spiraling up along a mess of craggy stone that formed the dead end of the curved ravine. Several shards of rock jutted out, and I couldn't slow myself in time to avoid them. I spun my body and hugged my legs to my chest. I somehow managed to squeeze through a pair of sharp spikes, soaring like a bottlerocket beyond.
I emerged through the top of the ravine with a burst of misty clouds. Evening out, I flapped my exhausted wings a few more times and landed to a skidding stop on a flat slab of gravel. I stood still, panting, my body doused with a sheen of sweat.
Gulping, I turned and looked behind me. The mist was still coalescing from the fresh swath my body had made in it. There was a hushed murmur through the ravine as the displaced air of my flight filled itself back up, and soon all was once more blissfully silent.
My heart was racing; my eyes twitched with each beat. I heard a rhythmic noise, soft at first, but then rising like the pitter patter of lizard feet. I was laughing, chuckling even. My voice cracked several times as I slumped down to my haunches and stared out beyond the mountains and mountains surrounding me.
I took a deep inhale, and when I recovered, there was no more laughter. However, a sound still came out. I looked into the emptiness, and the emptiness looked back. My breaths came out in shudders; my eyes went cloudy. Finally, my heart slowed to a normal pace, but by then it was too late. I had caught up with myself.
Limply, I laid myself down, buried my face into my forelimbs, and cried into the abyss.
Not enough adrenaline in the world.
Dash Went Fast.
Den Cried Because She Was No Longer Goin Fast
This makes me nostalgic for some of those early Austraeoh chapters. Not much to say, Dash wears her conflict emotions plainly through her flying.
1708304
tl;dr Dash has a sad.
Notice this part guys:
I believe this may be a hint from the author that we've caught up with Austreoh's beginning
Subject: Rainbow Dash
Suffix Title obtained: "The Grieving"
Preview: "Rainbow Dash, the Grieving"
-Minty
Sad Dash is sad.
How sad.
Oh, I see what you did there!
Cause this story and this song fit together nicely....if you focus on the meaning that is.
Also, I like how close we are getting....
This is by a great margin; the best version of Rainbow Dash I have ever had the pleasure of reading about.
1708354
I had the same sensation. Austraeoh-style free prose again? Me gusta.
1708361
Nah, it's just prose to demonstrate Dash's emotional state. That is, she was running (flying) away from her emotions and her stress, pushing herself as far as she could past the sound barrier. Just as the sound catches up with you, so to does the emotion you run from. A poetic way to say Dash started crying.
1708950
I did, too, and pushed all those thoughts out of my head immediately! Pulling tails off, feh, who would write something like THAT?!
1709932
Now to remind everyone Dash is in a coma and Belle is going crazy...
1710874
Only someone completely insane! That's who.
I put all other stories on home whilest I read Background Pony, but it's good to be back to Eljunbyro. And yet I can't help but think of how much more the event with Discord and the word 'beloved' means to me now.
Please keep writing, SSaIC, your stories have come to mean so much to me over the past weeks and months. Though damn do you love your sad fics. Sheesh.
... Pilate gone, then?
Falling Off The Edge Of The World - Black Sabbath
So in the near future, she leaves, but before she does, she gets her supplies. I'd put cash money down that the goggles came from a Wonderbolt, and maybe we learn the origin of that book.
Flying so fast the feels can't catch up? Only Rainbow.
Wonder how Belle's mind is holding up through all this.
"Frots"
Does IC ever go back and fix typos?
This reminds me of Austraeoh's early days.
Nostalgia attack! Austraeoh flashbacks, anyone? And Rainbow seems much more Ok about losing her tail this time around...
I admit I almost forgot about poor crazy Belle. Now both of them are a bit broken. These two are going to make a pretty crazy duo, I tell ya. Onward!
Does being insane twice make you sane? If any, it only encourages people to stay as far away from you in case one of your problems heals.
IIIIIt's Dashie's Ninth Marathon Evaluation Time!
So it looks like we're back to the scenery! Imploding is once again remembering his roots, structuring this chapter like the "wandering" Austraeoh ones. I loved this chapter because it sets the mood for the entire journey to come. Plenty of scenery, plenty of sorrow, and no matter how hard she flies, Dash will never escape Discord. Very nice touch! These are my thoughts so far.
-MASH
P.S. One.....more.....
P.S. 1887470OH, COME ON!
a take off of Nietzsche. i like it.
She flew quite a bit, maybe she thought too much.
awww that was the sadest chapter in the 2 books
i almost let a tear out
1708304
u wnet 2 fsat
i.chzbgr.com/maxW500/6500861952/hACAA2D7B/
Dang, that's heavy. getting some Heart of Darkness vibes there.
I guess that's it. That's how she starts. Welcome to Austraeoh.
1712228
You know, I've had a fleeting suspicion that these typos might mean something. That maybe if we took all the letters forgotten in order of their appearance that we might hear another story. But it's a crazy chance, and even crazier to think about.
The abyss only takes the tears, not dries then. You will find no solace here.
You know, I think I would have been perfectly content to read four million words of that wandering at the beginning of Austreaoh. This is cool too, but that was an amazing stress reliever.
Ah, grief. Now that RD's managed to come to terms with everything, she can let it all out, and begin her journey.
And then we'll have caught up to the beginning of Austraeoh, and we can get back to Belle!Dash!
where in Equestria is BelleSmith?
is she still living through Rainboe or..?
8500362
Likely, she is yet still unconious and in the care of Shell.
This is tremendously bad for blatantly obvious reasons, because there's no way In hell that computer minded militist is gonna let her anywhere near RD, and will likely act as an obstacle in her way.
"Welcome to austraeoh, kiddo"
yes, I did a borderlands joke4739285
I realize this comment is über-late but I only just found this saga ~1 month ago and started reading<1 week ago. Now wouldn't that be something? Really though, who amongst us is crazy enough to re-read the entire saga again and keep tabs on the hundreds if not thousands of typos?
9149216
Same here
I’m trying to read 2 fanfics at once... it’s not going the best
Adrenaline can allow one to do amazing things, but it never lasts forever.
08/24/2019
01:02 UTC
I had to come back to this chapter because I think it's my favorite so far, it just sort of hung out in the back of my mind no matter where I'm at currently in this fic. It just feels so earned, narratively. Where every step previously know has the incredible weight of this purpose behind it, and the very needed, long short-term setup where the show's timeline splits into this fanfiction's.
And that's all around the chapter, the chapter itself is gorgeous, very literally flying at full speed into the cold, foggy unknown. It's beautifully described which is nothing new for this story but it stands above yet still with the burning emotions behind it.
Yeah, yeah that's fair. Understandable.