A pair of violet eyes fluttered open.
Twilight Sparkle smiled. She stretched her limbs, craning her neck back as she closed her eyes with a contented sigh. Only halfway through the gesture did she become aware of the utter futility of having to flex muscles that weren't even there to get stiff in the first place. It was a sensation she had grown all too familiar with. Nevertheless, it didn't make her giggle any less.
“Hmmm... heeheehee... that was a nice... sleep. Hmmmm...” She scratched her ear, then smoothed her bangs back. “Sometime soon, I'm going to have to come up with another name for it... at least before Pinkie drums up something silly like 'Vanilla Vapors.' What do you think, Rainbow?”
Silence.
“Mmmm... Rainbow?” Twilight smiled into air. All of the sudden, she became aware of the violent speed of the winds whipping past her. Twilight glanced left, right, then behind her. A frantic shriek escaped her muzzle.
Rainbow Dash was plunging through the air. The whole sky lingered behind her like a big blue bowl.
Panicking, Twilight looked over her shoulder.
The ocean sailed upwards at a violent speed. Already, the unicorn could make out the foam white froth of the rippling waves.
“Omigosh! Omigosh... Rainbow!” Twilight flung her hooves towards Rainbow's neck. She gnashed her teeth in frustration when her limbs went through her. “Rainbow! Wake up, Rainbow! You've... you've fallen asleep in mid-flight! No...” She squinted hard.
Rainbow's eyelids hung partially open, and Twilight could immediately spot a yellow glow piercing straight through—interrupted by the occasional flash of crimson red pupils.
“Chaos...” Twilight gulped. “No... fight it, Rainbow! Fight it!” She shrieked in the falling pegasus' ear. “You're an Element Bearer! You've got loyalty! You are Loyalty!”
“Nneeeughhh...” A dainty yawn.
Twilight's heart skipped a beat, but it was only Rarity.
“Goodness, darling, what's with all the clamor?” asked the fashionista, rubbing her eyes as she materialized by her friend.
“It's Rainbow! We've got to get her to wake up!”
“Oh? What for?” Rarity smiled and turned around. “She's worked so hard. Surely the mare deserves some—Waa-haa-haa-haaaa!” She recoiled, grasping Twilight hard. “For Celestia's sake! She's plunging to her death!”
“Look!” Twilight pointed straight up.
She and Rarity squinted past the glimmering sunlight. They saw two figures streaking down, attempting to make up the distance between them and Rainbow's plummeting body.
“Oh no...” Rarity stammered, looking behind her at the waves, then back up at the Desperadoes. “Th-they'll never make it in time!”
“They've got to!” Twilight's voice cracked. “Rainbow! Please! You must wake up!”
“Snap out of it, darling!”
“Shhhh! Don't ruin our chances!” Pinkie squealed, suddenly leaping seaward beneath Rainbow's body. “She's given us a head-start! Wooohoooo! Cannonball contesttttt!”
“Pinkie!” Twilight snarled. “Not the time—”
“Look!” Rarity exclaimed, pointing. “It's Wildcard!”
All three mares looked up to see a pair of goggles glinting in the sunlight. The griffon outflew his stallion counterpart, homing in on Rainbow's limp figure.
“Uhhhhh...” Pinkie Pie suddenly gulped, eyeing Rainbow's reflection in the churning waves below... getting larger... larger... closer... “Okay, this isn't very fun anymore—”
“Come on, Wildcard!” Twilight squeaked.
The Desperado dove and dove.
“C-come on, Wildcard!” Twilight whimpered.
The roar of crashing waves echoed all around them. Moisture wafted through the air.
“Twilight...” Rarity gulped hard. “If... if Rainbow dies... what'll... what'll happen to...?” She didn't finish that murmuring sentence.
And Twilight didn't need to hear it for the heavy bulbs of sweat to form along her lavender brow.
“Plug your noses!” Pinkie yelped, her voice echoing off the watery concrete below—
Swooooosh! Wildcard caught up, snatching Rainbow Dash up in his agile hooves.
Twilight, Rarity, and Pinkie flew like pendulums—shrieking. Their bodies struck a translucent wall of lavender, and they were plastered there by the sheer force of Wildcard sailing back skyward with the spectral mare in his grasp.
The g-forces must have awoken something deep inside Rainbow's twitching figure, for suddenly she gasped, wheezed, and sputtered back to life. “Guhhh... snkkt... grkkt...” The pegasus curled up, clinging to Wildcard's feathery chest as heavy shivers wracked her body. “Mmmmfnngh... Roarke...”
“Huh?” Pinkie sat up, ears twitching. “Who?”
“Rainbow!” Twilight used Pinkie like a springboard and flung her ghostly body up. She coasted skyward alongside Wildcard, staring—gawking in Rainbow's face. “Rainbow, are you okay?! Speak to us!”
“Mrmmff...Twi... Tw-Twilight...?” Rainbow writhed, eyes still clenched shut.
“Oh please! Please!” Rarity hovered alongside the other unicorn, sad-faced. “Tell us you're in one piece! Tell us you're not... d-damaged in some way!”
“It's... it's okay...” Rainbow shuddered. She bore a brief, vomitous grin before stammering: “Been... th-through worse dives.” She gulped. “Just... just dizzy, is all...”
“Dizzy?! You call that dizzy?!” Rarity exclaimed, tossing a hoof with a momentary frown. “That's the textbook equivalent of a seizure, darling!”
Pinkie popped up, frowning. “Textbooking while flying, Dashie?” She shook her head. “Tsk Tsk. Don't you know it can wait?”
“Pinkie, please...” Twilight sighed, floating closer to the mare in Wildcard's arms. “Rainbow... is it the chaos spell?”
“Mmmmfnngh... girls...”
“Is the pendant not protecting you well enough?!”
“It's... it's alright...” Rainbow panted and panted, her eyes opening thinly beneath a layer of sweat. “I... I think I'm good.”
“Like Starswirl's left nostril hairs, you are!” Twilight barked. “That's the worst one I've seen you suffer yet!”
“Worst what?” Pinkie blinked. “I don't get it!”
“It's... quite a delicate thing to explain, Pinkie,” Rarity said.
“Mmmf... this is why you should never go full-throttle into a cannonball contest!”
Before either of the two could retort, Bard swooped down, filling the air with a winged thunderclap.
“Land's sakes!” The Desperado panted and panted. “Dubya-Cee, talk about the catch of the century!”
The griffon merely fidgeted in mid-air. He looked at Rainbow in his grasp, then cast his buddy a worried look.
“Rainbow... Rainbow, darlin', can ya hear me?”
“Yeah...” Rainbow smiled tiredly, dumbly. “A drawl by any other name...”
“How can you possibly be in one piece after a nosedive like that?”
“Mmmm... gimme a minute on that one...” Rainbow draped back in Wildcard's grasp. “...once the world lets me off at Fifth and Barfing.”
“Dayum, that was close.” Bard fanned himself with his hat. “Ermm... uhhh...” He looked at the ocean below, then straight up. A few wispy clouds lingered high above. “There! Quick, Dubya. Let's get her a place to rest!”
The griffon nodded. Flapping their wings, the two Desperadoes carried Rainbow slowly back to cloud level. There, they found a bed of moisture thick enough to lay her down.
“Eeuuuugh...” Rainbow stretched her legs out. Her limbs hung limply on either side of her like jelly. “...anypony get the license plate of that aneurysm that just whizzed by?”
“Argh... this dayum cloud is too small to last long,” Bard grumbled.
Wildcard gestured rapidly.
“Good thinkin'.” Bard nodded. “You head north and I'll head south. Let's grab as much moisture as we can and make this thang bigger.”
“Say...” Pinkie frowned. “How come Dashie gets to make near-death jokes and I can't?”
“Consider it a penny earned, darling,” Rarity said. She then leaned in over Rainbow. “Did you hear that, Rainbow? Your handsome companions are flying off to give this cloud some better support.”
“Right...” Rainbow nodded weakly, her breaths slowly growing more even. “Good... idea...”
“What was that, Rainbow?” Bard remarked.
“Go... go ahead and... fluff the cloud into something fluffier,” Rainbow murmured.
“Ya sure about that? Either Dubya-Cee or I could stay with you while—”
“It's sturdy. It'll hold me.” Rainbow gulped. “For now. Plus...” She bore a weak smile. “Got the girls with me...”
“You scared the ghosts out of yerself, huh?”
“Something like that.”
“Right. Well, just hold on tight. We won't be gone for long.” Bard whistled at his fellow Desperado. “Go, mofo! Like lightning!”
The two sprung off in opposite directions, collecting the low altitude mists all around before bringing them back.
“Rainbow...” Rarity gulped, wringing her hooves nervously together. “I... I'm not sure if I can ever 'sleep' again, as t'were. I mean... so long as something like this stands to happen again...”
“Yeah!” Pinkie pouted. “The Vanilla Zone isn't so fun once it goes sour!”
“Just chillax, everypony. It... it got scary for a second there, sure, but... but it's all good now,” Rainbow muttered. “Just... j-just been a while since I suffered a dizzy attack while in mid-flight.” She shut her eyes, calmly facing the sky as she rested. “I'm not on my A-Game. I'm sorry.”
“But how can you possibly be held responsible for something you cannot control?!” Rarity exclaimed.
“I said it's all good—”
“Well, clearly it's not!” Rarity frowned. “It was my understanding that—by visiting and making contact with the Machine World's flame—you staved off these inexplicable fevers!”
“And I do—”
“But for it to happen to soon after you had just freed Pinkie from the abyss?! I mean... I-I thought I had all of this 'Austraeoh' nonsense figured out! But how can you explain this?!”
“I... I can't...” Rainbow gulped. “It's... it's totally thrown me for a loop.” She bit her lip. “Wouldn't be the f-first time... heh...”
“How could you possibly live with that?!”
“It's not like I have a choice, Rares.”
Rarity opened her muzzle to say something, but she fell mute. As she leaned back, Pinkie leaned forward with a sympathetic gaze.
“I'm sorry, Dashie. Is it me? Am I... not being ghosty enough or something?”
“No, Pinkie...”
“Because...” Pinkie's ears folded. “...if sleeping so long in the Vanilla Zone made you go dizzy-wizzy, then I won't do it ever again! Promise!”
“Pinkie... it's okay...” Rainbow reached out to touch her fetlock, but only phased through. After a few awkward seconds of silence, she chose to raise her hoof up to Pinkie's muzzle, reaching through it. “Got your nose, silly pony.”
“Hmmm...” Pinkie smiled, eyes glossy. “Heeheehee... that you doooo...”
“Well, in any case...” Catching her breath, Rarity fluffed her mane and floated upright. “It's a good thing you've got travel companions to come to your rescue.”
“Yeah...” Rainbow nodded. “I guess we can now consider our tits for tat'd.”
“Oh please, darling, surely it's not that simple.” Rarity smiled with a calm exhale. “I'm certain your dashing copilots still find themselves indebted to you.”
“Yeah... it's cute... in a stupid kind of way, I guess.” Rainbow glanced over, blinking. “Twilight?”
The unicorn floated in place, staring down at the ominous ocean waves far below.
Rainbow gained the strength to lift her head. “Twilight... you okay, girl?”
Twilight jolted, then glanced over. “Huh?”
“We all know that I'm in one piece.” Rainbow gulped. “But how about you? Everything cool?”
“I... I don't know.” Twilight glanced down. “Just a moment ago, we were so close to... I-I mean you were...” She shifted in the place where she floated. “Sorry, uh... a bit too much excitement for me, I guess.”
Rainbow stared at the ghostly mare. Her eyes squinted curiously.
“Well!” Rarity cleared her throat, smiling at the other three. “I can think of one thing that can relieve the tension of this most calamitous afternoon!”
“Huh? What one thing?” Pinkie asked.
Rarity pointed at the setting sun, then at the darkening horizon to the east.
“Oh!” Pinkie hopped in mid-air. “That one thing! That's my favorite of all one things!”
Unsurprisingly, Pinkie's constant interruption of serious moments is grating on me. Bleh. I never liked her, in or out of show. Sue me.
Twilight just got her friends back... she doesn't want to lose them again.
Pinks nearly cried...whenever Pinks is about to cry, you know things have gone south...
Heh...Luna better do a good job of distracting them from what just happened.
Sweetie...Maud/Limestone/Marble, you better do good to bring your sisters spirits up like Twilight's parents and Spike did her.
-Memories given light, ease a lonely flight. Ynanhluutr.
Yeah, bellyflopping onto the water probably would have left her real sore in the morning...
At least we get to talk to Luna again next chapter!
Yeah, that's how I feel too.
RainbowCard ship has set sail! No one aside from the author can convince me otherwise!
6445926
Yeah, it now starting to appear that IC is good at writing Pinkie, but only in one way. I'm pretty sure Pinkie would've gotten a bit more serious by now.
Yay! We get to see if Sweetie Bell is still Squeaky Bell!
That went about as expected. Ynanhluutr is almost finished, so IC has to wrap up the story in less than 20 chapters now. Really hopeful that Bard and Wildcard don't leave the party.
...oh, she knows. PINKIE ALREADY KNOWS!!! HER EARS TWITCHED AND SHE KNOWS!
6445939 At those speeds, "watery concrete" is literally true. A very few feet of water is enough to stop a bullet. Impact at terminal velocity, baring a miracle, is fatal.
Looks like Pinkie was a little slow on the uptake, well with that out of the way (though I know this issue is not over) time for another Moon Talk. Starring Princess Luna and Maud Pie.
You know, Dash, this might be a sign that it's high time you explained the exact nature of this whole Chaos thing to your friends. You can't really afford to avoid talking about it forever. In fact I'm not sure if it's occurred to Dash yet that, since her friends are connected to her on kind of a metaphysical level right now that the Chaos inside her might also be affecting them in some way, too.
I was hoping the bubble grew big enough that Twi and the others got to see the sea before they swung up. Maybe inertia doesn't work on ghosts if they don't want it to?
On another note, these seizures may become more frequent and difficult before she finishes collecting Applejack.
6445957
I mean, it's gotten to the point where she's not even comic relief, she's just extra, usually nonsensical, and only rarely amusing, lines to fluff out chapters rather than an actual character.
Geeezzz...Rainbow was damn close to splashing into several pieces there...
6445926
6445957
Patience...that will change at some point.
6445968
Oohh...you may be right about that...
6445979 I agree. RD, its time to talk.
I'm actually surprised that Twilight hasn't really pushed it at this point. She has to know that something is up.
Woo! I mean I knew Rainbow wasn't going to crash and bu- er... crash and die but I wondered how the others(Twi, Rares and Pinks) would take it. Now I got my answer! XD In all seriousness I think Pinkie knows about Roarke with Pinkie sense. Also Dash really needs to tell her friends more especially since if she dies before they get their bodies back they're almost certainly dead a well. Only 20 chapters until the end, time to kick it into high gear and end awesomely.
Also Luna time! YAY!
Dunno what people are so bothered by with regards to Pinkie. She didn't even know the dizzy spells were a thing until this chapter, and had no way of knowing how serious the situation was at first. Once she did realize it, she sobered up.
Wuh-oh.
6446149 you could always just let poni go. I mean, you clearly haven't learned anything from it, so I can't imagine anything is keeping you here.
Perhaps the conversation with Pinkie and Rarity's families and friends will lighten things up a bit.
-Spirit (Yeast and Treacle)
Oh please no. I can only handle small doses of Pinkie. She's not TOO bad yet (only at mildly irritating right now), but if she never sleeps....
Also:
Pretty sure Wildcard has no hooves yo.
6446149
See where IC takes the character before you complain about her. Pink was done pretty well in End of Ponies (I did not dislike her at the least in that), and she could easily become as such here. Trust in the writer (Also, kinda rude to start lambasting the story just because a character you don't like appears in it. Just sayin.)
I wonder if Twilight is starting to understand the truth about Rainbow's condition. With the symptoms continuing to get worse after the only known treatment I wouldn't be surprised if she's able to put two and two and realize it's terminal.
As for Pinkie... I can't honestly disagree with a lot of the opinions here but I'll hold out judgement. If you go back and read the first book Dash is a completely different character than she is now. I'm curious what direction IC takes with Pinkie and how she could develop over the next 2 million words.
6446149
That's how I feel about Rarity.
Pinkie, I like.
Well! Now Rainbow and Wildcard are one for one.
I've observed that when Rainbow goes chaotic, the seizures go away for a little while. What's up with that.
We've been calling
Black paw who’s soaring
We go out in the morning
Down the trail to somewhere
You are the sound that I hear
You are the sound that I hear
We are not standing
We are falling
Just another reminder that Rainbow is still falling - and that that little catch did nothing on the long run.
hmm, I don't see why people are upset about Pinkie 'ruining' an intense moment, she seems to be pretty well in character to me. Pinkie is that person that, when things get serious and tense, they use humor to try and break the tension regardless of everyone else's mood. She simply can't take it seriously, or else she'll crack.
It amazes me that so many people are complaining about Pinkie being in-character (I suppose it shouldn't). I'm not a Pinkie fan or anything but, if she were acting out of character, then everyone would be complaining about that instead.
Indeed Rainbow, you're only risking what you've worked so hard to achieve
What if Twi has a crush on Dashie
6446180 Maybe people wouldn't hate you so much if you tried a little harder not to be an insufferable twat.
6446488 If everyone else is insufferable, maybe you're the one with the problem.
Anyways, thanks for proving me right, hon. Have a consolation upvote.
6446477 I think it depends on your approach to Pinkie's character, which has gone through several permutations throughout the seasons. In S1 she was always pretty aware of the atmosphere and acted accordingly, but this social awareness eroded over the seasons as she was relegated to pure comic relief.
6446505 Oh, it's not that at all. We all have a right to hold certain feelings towards things. For example, as a fanatical Fausticanon adherent, I loathe the Crystal Empire, the Equestria Girls movies, the Tree of Harmony, the Crystal Castle, Discord's reformation, and many other details introduced into the series after Season 2.* Me disliking those things is perfectly acceptable, regardless of whether anyone agrees with me or not.
What isn't acceptable is me going around and demanding that fic authors remove those things from their stories, or insisting that others agree with me, and hurling insults their way if they don't. Like, you know: "How many head injuries have you received in your lifetime?"
Having an opinion, even a controversial one, is not a problem in and of itself. Nor is sharing an opinion, for that is what prompts discourse. Forcing an opinion on others, however, is the point that I believe a person crosses the line from being opinionated to being an insufferable twat.
If being an insufferable twat is part of your comedic shtick, then by all means, go ahead. Just realize, that kind of attitude is not going to make your fimfic experience all that wholesome, and I doubt it'll win you many friends either.
*Topically, this also includes Pinkie Pie--where once she was a refreshingly frank pony who employed a keen awareness of social moods to act with the express purpose of spreading happiness or defusing hairy situations, now she's just an exaggerated comic-relief throwaway who makes random insensitive remarks that fill the air with noise pollution at best, and escalate conflicts beyond belief at worst.
Wow, what an adventure it was to get to the comment box...
Twilight is doing that thing she does and given the situation that doesn't seem like the best of ideas .
6446494 hm, I suppose you're right; I haven't exactly paid close attention to her development in the show, as I said in my earlier comment, I'm not excactly a fan of Pinkie, but if my memory serves me well, there is only a time or two throughout the entirety of the show that she actually takes something seriously without being overly energetic.
WC only had problems bcause Dash was plummeting unconcious, and so wasnt limbs spread. Even without wings, for a person thats about 120 mph, which into water, is like into concrete, crush. WC being bigger has a higher relative terminal velocity, so theres a given amount of catch up, then in a clean dive reaches even hgher speeds. Skydivers have been known to hit 300 mph and camera planes following them down in a vertical dive having to keep the power on for th speed. Well, on non vertical, pretty difficult for Cessna to hit 120 mph without coming apart, nver mind 300.
Does Pinkie get twitchy tail etc in the Vanilla zone, or is she totally isolated from reality so even her senses dont work, like she couldnt follow Twilights adventures through the mirror as a worried freind?
Thank the gods Wild Card is so fast. Though didn't she survive a similar fall in the Grand Choke? So really she might have been fine, though I guess it's best not to find out anyway.
6446583 6446494 I agree with the consensus Pinkie has gone in show to "hurr durr comedic relief I can't take anything seriously". I think its because of the Hasbro execs slowly trying to push MLP back into the realm of one-dimensional character la-de-da style saturday morning cartoons Lauren Faust was specifically trying to avoid when she thought up FiM. To an extent some of the rest of the Mane 6 seems to have been afflicted by it. Rarity is constantly used as nothing but "fashion fashion fashion, haha look at me, I love fashion, who cares about anything else", ignoring all the other aspects of her (though, I will say, the latest couple of episodes have restored my faith a bit), and AJ is "good ol' boy country farmer yeehaw!"... when she at least gets acknowledged by the show.
Ooo... Rainbow Dash nearly made another big impact on the world. Splat.
6446149
While I agree with you that she's annoying, you're being super edgy, and that's just as annoying as Pinkie. You have my permission to stop that.
6446008
One can hope. I'm not so confident, but as usual I'll keep an open mind.
6446183
This. This right here.
6446649
See above for reasoning. In fact, I'd say a just little bit of the other side of Pinkie already snuck in a few chapters ago.
You can't hide the rest of the truth forever, Rainbow Dash.
6446824 i.imgur.com/nbQSpgw.gif
6447171 I expected that.
Stopped consistently reading this for a month. And then saw skirts mention it being done in 20 chapters and now I'm panic-binge-reading to see what's gonna happen.
6446484 one word : "icebergs"
6446614 Flanderization really started to hit hard after season 2.
I think it's least noticeable with AJ cause...really she never had much to add anyway, she was the straight mare to the others most of the time.
She's like that one person everyone hangs out with that gets their group to knuckledown and focus on stuff.
I'll admit, I really fell off following the show at about Keep calm and flutter on. I never liked Discord, never.
I tried to pick back up in Season 4, but seeing how much they'd dumbed down Twilight after her apotheosis....it just turned me off even more.
It's a shame. I want to keep enjoying the show, but every time I give it another chance, I find another way it disappoints me.
About the only saving grace I'm finding is that we have our first recurring major villain,as a villain, in Starlight Glimmer.
It's a shame it's only happening now though. iirc Faust's original idea was for the show to be like Sailor Moon or Tokyo Mew Mew. I'm probably wrong about that, but the season premiers and finales all point to that being the original drive.
It's not going to bring back Twilight's snarky sense of humor or Pinkie's hidden depths...but it's a start.
I want to believe it's not the writer's faults, I want to point the finger at Hasbro for being too afraid to give the same amount of attention they give to their other showmercials like Transformers.
Boy, this comment section. Good chapter, IC, keep it up.
I wonder how long it will take Rainbow to tell them of her "terminal" condition.
I've got $5 on five chapters from now.
6447740 derpicdn.net/img/2014/5/12/624935/full.jpeg
6447740
You're in the group 'submissiveverse' and have an gif of Rainbow Dash hanging from a noose on your profile. If we're really going to be doing this, you better bring some better heat than what you had just now.
6448466
38.media.tumblr.com/e56c63be39769626939d594efa8fab3b/tumblr_inline_nb5ecywLKr1rkmvik.jpg
6448649 Dude.. chill, they ain't worth the time or energy to get annoyed at.