"Thou shalt need flint and steel," Princess Luna said, pacing slowly around me. "For the cold nights that arrive, when thou shalt need to build a fire to warm thyself."
"Yeah, I kind of figured that," I remarked. I stood before a temple in the Midnight Wing, hoofing the items in question into a dark blue saddlebag. "Yeesh, Princess. Did you lend me enough blankets?"
Luna's graceful limbs fidgeted slightly. "It helpeth to be prepared, Rainbow Dash."
I smirked at her with a rattle of her golden pendant. "In so many tens of thousands of years, you're bound to start acting like a mother, huh?"
"We beg thy pardon?"
"Ahem. Right... Moving right along..." I swept more items into the satchel. "Cantene of water: check. First aid kit: check."
"Before thou beginneth thy journey, thou shouldst endeavor to acquire some fresh bread for the initial flight. Not all civilizations of pondyom are as densely populated as Equestria. It is quite likely thou wilt find large expanses without many townships to provide thee nourishment."
"Hey, don't ruin the surprise," I said with a smirking expression. "Uhhh..." With a ringing of metal, I held a thick blade at the end of a wooden stick. "What the hay is this?"
"A hatchet."
"Gazunteight."
"It is quite the versatile tool, Rainbow Dash."
"I'm not so comfy with carrying around a weapon, Your Highness."
"Its primary use is that of survivalism," Luna explained. "Thou might find it priceless when the day cometh that you need to build thyself a shelter."
"Well, yeah, okay. I'll buy that." I dropped it carefully into the satchel.
"We would be lying, however, if we declared that thou wouldst have no need of a weapon in thy travels," Luna added. "There are many adversaries to Harmony in the world beyond Equestria, Rainbow Dash, and many of them cannot be simply negotiated with."
"Well, here's hoping they can't fly faster than the swiftest pegasus on record," I said with a wink. I made to zip up the bag—"
"One moment, Rainbow Dash, if thou wouldst please."
"Hmmm?"
She leaned in and deposited a scroll into my forelimbs.
I opened it up, squinting at what appeared to be a large map of Equestria and its surrounding kingdoms. I made a face, glaring up from the parchment, tarnished with age. "What have I said about ruining the surprise?"
"The map will only aid thee so far," she said. "The illustrated lengths barely reach halfway across this continent, which is less than a tenth of the world's diameter."
"Huh, not that I'm complaining, but how come you've got so little drawn out?" I asked. "I thought you've been to the ends of the world."
"The last time we visted the eastern horizon, Rainbow Dash, was eleven thousand years ago." Luna took a deep breath. "We trust that much has changed in the landscape since then."
"Huh..." I glanced at the map, slowly nodding. "I don't suppose you've had many explorers since that time to do the dirty work for Equestrian map makers." I smiled wryly. "Maybe I could take up a part time job for you..."
"Perhaps thou can do something similar."
"Huh?"
"I wouldst desire to bestow thy pendant with a special type of enchantment."
I raised a hoof to the ruby lightning bolt and blinked curiously. "But—like—I thought you already zapped this thing enough, y'know? To keep the chaos away even more?"
"A different kind of enchantment, Rainbow Dash," Luna explained. "It's been many centuries since we've last done it, but we have a spell that can allow us to talk over long distances."
I leaned forward with wagging eyebrows. "You mean 'us' as in you and me or you and you?"
"As thou flieth over long distances, thou wilt have the ability to communicate with us, so long as you art located on the light side of the world."
"Hey! No kidding!" I smiled. "How's that work?"
"Thou wilt be limited to conversing with us when the moon is full," Luna explained. "Essentially once a month."
Rainbow Dash nodded. "Yeah. I figured there would be a catch."
"We fear, Rainbow Dash, that most of thy journey shall be performed in solitude."
I stared off into space.
She leaned forward. "Are thou prepared for that?"
I looked at her. I chuckled breathily. "Hey..." I shrugged. "It's a living... at least all the living I have left to do..."
"Rainbow Dash..."
I slipped the map into the bag and slapped it shut, snapping the lunar seals into place. "Gotta thank you for this wicked sick saddlebag, Princess." I slipped it over my spine and sagged slightly from the weight. "Whoah! Whew... tight fit," my voice cracked as I ran a hoof through my mane. "Nothing I can't manage. So... uh... you gonna give me the moon zap or what? Cuz then I'll be on my way. No reason to beat around the bush."
"Surely thou wouldst to wait at least one more day, Rainbow Dash."
"Why?" I asked, delirious. "What happens in the next twenty-four hours?"
"What doth thou think?" Luna asks. "Thou art not the only pony being given a send-off."
"Oh?" I looked at her. After a few seconds, my ears drooped, and a heavy breath escaped my lips. "Oh..."
Luna the quartermaster. Thanks for the reprieve of comedy before the onslaught of sad. I am also suddenly reminded of being reminded of minecraft.
upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/c/cf/Hatchet.jpg/200px-Hatchet.jpg
wait
DAMMIT PILATE, I THOUGHT I WAS FIRST, so i refreshed the page.... why!
She should stay for the funeral.
Actually, after the funeral would be a perfect time to switch back to Belle.
What does that last part mean?
Warning: imminent feels.
Guess we will know how RD got her other things now.
1735753
I get the Gary Paulson reference, but why does this part remind you of minecraft?
1735847
The bread loafs and flint and steel, even the hatchet all reminded me of it back when reading Austraeoh.
1735854
I see it now.
1735818
Rainbows friends need a sending off of their own.
OMG readin Austroeh on Youtube now another story FUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
1735798
Agreed.
Mostly because ImpCol is inevitably going to turn it into some sort of epic semi-cliffhanger that makes us want to follow Rainbow Dash as invisible shades, silently cheering her on as she makes her way across Equestria and into lands beyond. Switching back to Bellesmith will thus fuck with us greatly, before he makes us have all the feels for Belle again, then switches to Dashie.
*sigh*
Imploding Colon you unspeakable troll.
Mmmyess...depressing funeral time...
"canteen", not "cantene". "Gesundheit", not "Gazunteight".
Thank you for listening to "Spelling Corrections from cannonSpectacle". See you all next time!
Aww, funerals make me sad. Can't wait for the next chapter.
So I take it that we're going back to Bellesmith soon, my guess is that we are one or two chapters away from the start of austraeoh.
-Minty
(No title this time.)
Quick! Let's use this information and compare it to how much Dash has moved ever since she ran out of map back in Austraeoh to have an approximate idea of how close she is from the edge of the world!
Assuming Equestria is right in the middle of the world, she moved... uh... barely less than halfway a tenth of the distance from Canterlot to the edge of the world.
I'M GONNA GUESS THAT'S A 20TH. Considering that I think that by the third chapter she was already outside of what the map displayed, I'm going to guess that she can move a 20th of the distance needed in 3 chapters. Though Austraoh probably started when she already covered quite some distance, so I'm going to add 3 extra chapters to that, that would be a 20th of the world in 6.
Which means she needs 120 chapters to reach the edge of the world! Now, she actually stopped sometimes so I'm going to blilndly add 50 chapters to that because I'm don't feel like checking how many chapters she spent not-moving, so that's 170 chapters.
She needs 170 chapters to reach the edge of the world.
Seeing how Austraeoh was 200 chapters long there is only one possible conclusion.
She already got past the edge of the world without noticing and is now in a different planet.
YES.
I have it all figured out.
Yes.
She now needs Belle to beat some sense into her with some sort of wind so she can turn around and return to her own planet to continue her quest like she was meant to.
Another job well done for Supreme Story Analyzer Khao
1736221
Funny one, aintcha?
You forgot to account for the fact that chapters represent widely variable amounts of time, anywhere from 20 minutes to three days
1736221
th09.deviantart.net/fs70/200H/i/2012/022/1/d/derpy_lol_wut_face_by_sirspikensons-d4n8k46.png
Being very very generous with these distances and amounts of time flying, there's no way she's more than 20% of the way to the edge. Does he really have that much planned out...
1735753
AAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWW!!!! I remember that book!
1736720
Do not forget that there's the Machine, and the potential to travel from within it with potentially greater ease and expediency.
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I have not read it in a long time, but the themes match up.
I get the feeling that once this arc is over and we're caught up, Dash is going to end up waking up in Belle's body. It's inevitable, given the fact that by now Belle has practically gained all of Dash's backstory.
But first, I find my feelbunker once again appropriate for the next chapter. Everyone, into the bunker! Quick! You never know how fast the feels are gonna come in!
1736824 I once wondered why she didn't just fly through the machine, but then I realised it would be boring--and Rainbow Dash doesn't DO boring. Also food is probably a bit hard to come by.
1737007
An "in-story" explanation would be that her last trek through the Machine was guided by the lavender light. Destiny requires she not take the underground right away.
1728748
Aw crap. Funeral imminent. And goggle/book time, I'm guessing.
Like everyone else I'm assuming we'll be back to Belle soon. Still don't know how the two of them are gonna merge, or mind-meld, or travel together or whatever. And damn how much farther does she have to go? Maybe the douchey dragon queen flew her a super crazy distance or something to get to Belle's slave society? And then the Midnight Armory is in the middle of the badlands, isn't it? On the other side of the world? Lavender light/Machine travel also imminent, I'm thinking. Unless this story plans to be even longer than I thought it would be, which is also fine. Anywho, until tomorrow!
I got nothing, but I made a blog post expanding on the whole "Harmonic Prism = Heart of Lorkhan" deal if anyone is interested.
Everybody form a perimeter. I think we have some feels incoming... oh God they've got me, RUN
Well, time to batten down the hatches and prepare for the inevitable storm of sadness that is coming our way. Thankfully, we've got this little comedic respite
Never mind mood whiplash, the last line straight up broke my emotional neck.
And that metaphor made perfect sense.
1735753
I love that book series
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If you're using the Firefox browser, there is a add-on that you can find through google for fimfiction enhancements. Be sure to get the greasemonkey add-on first or it won't work though.
1736588
Bet it averages to 6 anyway.
The way the world here works reminds me a lot of Chrono Trigger.
Blankets, aka towel. Never forget to bring a towel.
IIIIIt's Dashie's evaluation time!
So we basically get some humor and some explanation in this chapter. I've decided that I loved these past few chapters where all of the puzzle pieces for Austraeoh started to fall into place. It's so cool to see everything be explained...unfortunately, with all of this explanation, I haven't been able to evaluate much. But hopefully that'll change soon. These are my thoughts so far.
-MASH
IT CONTINUES
Welcome aboard ladies and gents to the Feel-o-Coaster as when you thought things looked it'll get you back RIGHT IN TO YOUR HEART. Buckle up! we're in for a ride.
2126155
German's a good language. I learned it for 3 years, then had to stop. You should try it: it's easier to learn than Spanish or French if you do it right.
THERE's ONE THING YOU CAN'T LOSE
IT'S THAT FEEEEEEL
;_;
3133471 I'M CATCHING UP TO YOU BRO!!!!
The last pony being given a send-off?
...
...
I have no idea what that connotates.
I demand a shrine to be built in their honor!
Well, here we go again . . .
Catching up.....To everyone.
Lets see how painfull this funeral is going to be...
:(
So assuming Equestria is dead center on the light side and the Midnight Armory is dead center on the dark side, the map that Dash throws away in Austraeoh covers barely half of Equestria's continent which is less than 10% of the diameter of the world, then that means, unless Axan flew Dash over an ocean/continental divide, she is currently (rough estimation) somewhere between 4-7% of the way done. I'm guessing this low because the map covered less than 5% of the world and it has been discarded and surpassed at this point.
5843691 There's a reason this story is so ridiculously long.
Well, I'm going to brush aside my complaints that this chapter was pretty much completely unnecessary because Scootaloo and funeral. Let's see how this goes...
The next chapter's going to be heartwrenching, isn't it?
1735753
Hatchet is not only my favorite book, but perhaps my favorite piece of art of all time.
I have a feeling my feels won’t be able to handle this next chapter
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Funeral Time~!