When Rainbow Dash's strength returned, she resumed her winged thrust of the raft, propelling the vessel over waves and ocean swells. This venture lasted barely two hours, and Rainbow had to rest again. It was more than being thirsty and famished; the pegasus simply wasn't used to propelling that much weight with her wings. If she was just moving herself, she was certain she could carry her body eastward for days—or at least that's what she told herself.
The truth was, the craft had too much weight to bear. On top of that, it almost felt as though the ocean itself was resisting her. Rainbow Dash expected the vessel to glide easily along the watery crests, but instead it was if the elements were creating an unbearable friction that made it thrice as hard to push the raft along.
Even bleaker things happened as the day unfolded. The wind that had no effect on the sail had gradually vanished, giving the air an unnatural stillness that shook Rainbow to the core. Whenever her hooves dipped into the waves, the water somehow felt... less wet. Rainbow had no way to explain it. As the sun set, she splashed her upper body with the liquid in an attempt to cool herself, but she sensed nothing but a thin veil of beaded moisture—and then nothing. She couldn't fathom that the water had instantly evaporated. Instead, it was as though the liquid was reacting to her body and her raft as if it was all slathered with a fine layer of oil.
Sleep was impossible that night. Even as exhausted as she was, Rainbow Dash could only lie on her side and stare blankly into the distance. Yaerfaerda taunted her relentlessly, marking a point on the horizon that refused to move. By the halfway point of the evening, the lavender beacon was icy still, and it occurred to Rainbow that the ocean had reached a point where all the waves had virtually disappeared.
When morning came, the light of the day confirmed this. The ocean had turned into a virtually flat plane. Even when Rainbow Dash slapped her hoof into the sea around her, the ripples barely lasted twenty seconds before disappearing completely.
The only thing more potent than Rainbow's exhaustion was the panic that set in. She slapped her flank against the stern of the raft and began beating her wings again. For the next hour, she pushed the vessel along—though she couldn't tell if she was making progress or not. The Scootaloo left virtually no wake behind it, and the cloudless sky remained as bright and blue as ever.
Rainbow shuddered and wheezed under the heat of it all. In desperation, she reached into her pack and took a hearty inhale of Nebulum. The container made a dull, hollow sound as she snapped the nozzle back into place. Shivering, Rainbow realized that she may have consumed the enchanted nutrient for the last time. Rather dwell on that reality, she stuck the thing back into the bag and flung herself back to her post.
The rest of the day was spent in agonizing phases of wing-flapping and not-wing-flapping. With each hour-long session of propelling the craft, Rainbow felt the task growing more and more impossible. Her wingtips had grown threadbare; her muscles torn and weeping. By the afternoon, she had collapsed across the surface of the raft, wheezing and whimpering for breath.
Rainbow looked up, squinting at the desolate sky. The blueness that once enticed the daredevil flier was not a constant source of torment, with a burning sun that roasted her by the hour. Seething, Rainbow slouched towards her lean-ton for some shade and relaxation, though she only expected to get only one of those.
It was around the time she made it to the lip of the wooden partition that she heard a disgusting crack from the center of the raft. Freezing in place, Rainbow spun around. She looked all over the vessel, eyes swimming across the metal pegs, the rope, and the satchel Arcanista had given her.
Right then, Rainbow heard yet another crack. Anxiously, her ruby eyes traveled up... and widened. The sail had collapsed slightly. The reason for this was that the mast was leaning at a thirty-five degree angle. And the reason for that was a hideous fracture that had formed down the length of the wooden pole, gradually splitting the decrepit Val Roan wood in two.
Rainbow literally squeaked in panic. She spun around in circles, then—holding her breath—she dashed over towards where the rope rigging the sail was strung around a metal pole. But loosening this had no effect. The mast continued cracking, leaning, with a huge fissure splitting down its center.
So, in desperation, Rainbow rushed up to the fractured pole, standing her body up and pressing her back against it, hoping that she could overpower the careening weight.
“Rnnngh... come on... don't do this to me now... I need you...!”
There was no wind, and even if there was, it didn't work the way wind should. The mast was useless. The sail even more so.
“I need you... I need you... I need you...” Rainbow hissed. Gnashing her teeth, she threw her weight through her shoulder. “Nnnnghh-ghhhh!”
Gradually, the mast leaned back into a straight position, perpendicular to the surface of the raft. Rainbow Dash flung her head back, looking up at the gap between the split edges filling back up.
“Okay... okayokayokay.” Rainbow gulped. “I just... j-just gotta find out a way to keep you tied together until I can figure out a better—”
A lavender streak.
The world spun around Rainbow.
The pegasus jolted in confusion. She wasn't certain what had caused the universe to undulate beneath her, but she swiftly fell down—losing grasp of all her strength.
“Unf!” The mare sprawled out across the deck, wincing. Her body tingled as dizziness came over her. She tried pressing a hoof against the planks, only for her forelimb to dip into pure water. Rainbow stared wearily into the sea's surface, and as the ripples quickly dissipated, she saw a reflection of red-on-yellow eyes. “... … ...oh no.”
Crkkkk! The mast crackled above her, casting a shadow over her limp figure.
“Mrmmmff...” Rainbow's head spun. She squirmed through nauseating dizziness in time to see the mast's slender shadow stretching over her, closer and closer. “No... no no no...” She wheezed. “Please, Celestia, no!”
Crkk-kkkk! The mast ripped savagely down the middle. The sail rippled and spun as the heavy pole fell down over Rainbow.
“Grnngh—!” She dove savagely to the side.
SMASH! The mast struck the raft, hard.
Rainbow felt the world spinning—for real this time. Yaerfaerda spun loops around her amidst nightmarish sprays of water. Her shivering body dipped in and out of the waves as a saltine estuary bubbled across the fractured deck. The logs of the Scootaloo were spreading apart, the twine fastening them growing loose by the twirling second.
“Mrmmmf... gotta... gotta stop...” Rainbow whimpered. Her eyes flickered again, and all she could do in the dizzy spell was grab the nearest solid object and cling for dear life. “...stop... friggin' stop spinning... just...”
The lavender beacon formed a halo, occupying every horizon. Rainbow felt ensnared by it, and it choked the breath out of her lungs. With red-on-yellow eyes rolling back, her exhausted body gave in, surrendering to unconsciousness.
The light of the morning was dim and sickly when Rainbow Dash finally awoke.
She shivered—but not because of a dizzy spell. Rainbow realized she was freezing, and the reason for this was that her lower body had been dangling underwater all night.
So—wincing—she pulled herself forward. Her body rolled onto a dry surface, which was how Rainbow knew that her raft wasn't completely obliterated. She lay on her back, panting and panting, afraid to assess the damage around her.
Nevertheless, once the final wave of dizziness had completely dissipated, the pegasus sat up, clutching the pendant around her neck as she turned and peered around. A ruby glow pierced the gray haze of morning, revealing shredded bits of wood poking in discordant directions.
Rainbow Dash visibly blanched. She wasn't shocked by the fact that the mast was gone. She wasn't horrified at the fact that only half of her raft was still remaining. It didn't even faze her that she had been adrift for hours on end, and quite possibly she may have drifted as much west as east.
What Rainbow realized was that—with the mast having collapsed—Arcanista's satchel had been washed away, vanished completely over night.
The Heaven Slices and Nebulum were gone.
Well, the food was going to run out soon anyways.
... Jake can we forgo exercise right now? I feel like we should conserve our strength in honor of Dash.
Well... shit.
Well, this is all going swimmingly.
hue.
Well shit that was the worst possible time for a dizzy spell; but that's how it always happens isn't.
Yeah... this could be going better.
At least she still has Luna's saddlebags...I hope.
Only 11 chapters remain in this book. I somehow doubt Axan is still following her. Unless she's a fan of swimming.
-Treachery and deceit, kingdom of conceit Yaerfaerda.
5757524 Her luck just took a dip...
5757518
...
No, see, you got it wrong! What you're feeling now, that weakness in the limbs and rumbling in the gut, that is an extreme case of Vaginitus. Luckily for you,there's a tried and true cure:
Thirty squats, ):(... and then twenty-five pushups for Forest. May he have a swift recovery. Knock 'em out!
5757651 May Verlax have a minion that eats you.
Welp. This isn't good.
A complete lack of wind. Water behaving strangely. Wood breaking with no apparent cause. The nebulum bottles shattering. There's definitely something odd going on. If I had to guess, this is the midway point across the Choke. And if the Choke is the edge of the world, as I've historically assumed (though others have called that into question), it might suggest that this is a place where the chaotic forces are at their strongest. That might explain the dizzy spell. Also:
Which does raise another issue. Rainbow's pendant, though weakened, still seems to be working. If it stopped working, it stands to reason that nothing would stop Rainbow from becoming discordified. Maybe the Element is strong enough to hold that off (it has been so far), but as I look at the remaining twelve chapters, I wonder how long it'll last. I can't help but wonder what Rainbow will look like when she crosses into the Dark Side. I once joked that she might become an alicorn, but now I wonder if she'll be more on the draconequus side of the spectrum.
Poor Scootaloos wings got clipped.
The magic in that region is definitely totally screwy, given what its done to that wood. All we can hope, is that base bulk iron cant be affected, advanced aging effects?
Wonder if Arcnistas saddlebag has sunk to oblivion, eaten by the Golden Trout, or drifted away to adventure?
I'm reminded of anti-technology magic in a tabletop RPG, Werewolf I think.
At low levels it would cause guns to jam and cars to stall.
At high levels fires couldn't be started and knives refuse to cut.
What the hell?
Does IT destroy everything built?
If RD stacked rocks would they fall? No two stones together?
What's next? What is this? What's going on? I demand the Truth!
And some baggage had to go. The symbolism is a bit on the nose here, but it's pretty clear where we're headed: a complete separation from the past. A fresh start for RD.
5757667
Only if you're lucky.
bi bi you pieces of cardboard. . . you served well
at least RD took a nice gulp, if you can call it a glup, of Nmist. . .
Should've taken a bite when you had the chance a few chapters ago, Dashie. Now no more food for you.
Everything aging really quickly out here is one possibility.
The other is rocks fall, RD dies.
So the properties of matter appear to have been reduced to basics like density. While the boat still floats, that means the normal force is still working which is good - but the water not evaporating and cooling RD is a bad sign - I wonder exactly what's happening here. Obviously the Grand choke is weird and went from screwing with magic to screwing with physics. Is it Chaos, messing with the natural laws? Or perhaps the exact opposite - entropy?
This will be interesting.
i.ytimg.com/vi/-Zmmca7-a3k/maxresdefault.jpg
le has perished
Maybe we should just let RD go full chaos and fucking draconequus power swim across the ocean. :B
Well at least now she uh...
Yeah, I can't really think of any positives to this situation, except that it hopefully means we're going to get a Deus Ex Axana soon.
Oddly enough, I am reminded of Jet Li's The One.
If her feathers hit that water she'll get slicked up like aquatic birds after an oil spill. No good.
Well, that could have had a few uses, but Roarke's gone, so...
And there goes the saddlebags. Were the medal and knife in there? Help me out, Fact Checker.
-Spirit
5758047 I think that all the stuff RD wanted to hang on to, like the knife,was in Luna's saddlebag.
From the looks of it it was just Arcanista's that has been lost.
This suuuucks
5757584
5758175
And thus my character passes away entirely, never to be mentioned again.
5758175 Yeah, I only meant that Arcanista's had gone. But okay then. Surely the important stuff will remain--that knife probably isn't just a red herring.
Fitting music for such a hopeless situation, especially if you know the whole story about the map the music is from. It's all a cycle of despair, isn't it?
I'm extremely tempted to say "Well, at least it can't get worse right now."
But that would be a bad idea.
...
W-wait, did that count as saying it?
5757584 Don't mention the Lady!
5757701 5757899 Entropy
5758250 Yes, so we'll blame you when it gets even worse, as it will, for each chapter remaining.
I'm prepared for that. Just saying.
All Dash needs to do now is...I have no idea.
Axan! Get your scaly butt over here!
IC that IC wants RD to suffer...
5758200
Because the knife is not symbolic of communism
cf.geekdo-images.com/images/pic748869.jpg
Now she has absolutely nothing, she already tore up one of the bags to make the sail. Now if only she could be like Bear Grylls and conveniently come across some fish or floating debris...
5758175
Was actually Luna's saddlebag that she just lost, doesn't matter now though.
This is not good. This is so not good.
12 chapters to go, so there's still hope.
*Cough* Bullshit *Cough*
Damn...IC is a sadist for putting RD through this. Which would make me a masochist for enjoying it
Well, shit. Honestly, I thought the Nebulum was gonna finish long ago. Who, or what, will get her out of this one?
Still books behind, came here solely to post this:
5757696
5758193
inb4 someone writes
Vesransel: Arcanista's saddlebag drifts west
5758334
I wonder if she'll start hallucinating again?
5757651 Oh god, that's so military it hurts.
"Think you've hit the limit? Not yet, 3 more kilometers!"
Is it bad if I'm starting to see this whole series as its own country? IC is our bold and fearless leader, Jake the Army guy leads our military, Pilate heads up the foreign affairs committee, and Sharp Quill is secretary of defense(because he's prepared!). Other positions I'm having a hard time determining.
5759461
Zaid is the royal jester.
5756495
That's pretty dad-gum good for your first art! Keep practicing!
5757890 Everything aging at normal speed except Rainbow Dash, and she being unaware of the decades that she has actually spent on the desert and the sea.
5759461
You could be espionage.
It doesn't have to be like this.
All we need to do
Is make sure
We keep
Talking.
No! We will miss you raft. You were a loyal raft.