Rainbow Dash stared down the hollow nostrils of the deer skull. There was no hint of flesh or muscle; all had decayed, save for the calcified interior of the ill-fated guardian of Val Roa.
She shuddered, tilting her head aside and squinting. In the dim light peeking through the slits of the wooden entrance, she tried to determine where the deer had been positioned and what he had been doing. Such was a nigh-impossible task, but Rainbow allowed her imagination to run wild anyways.
The figure was lying on its side. Due to the antlers, its head had been slightly propped up, but Rainbow could tell that the guard had been preoccupied with something physically assailing him. His forelimbs were wrapped around his lower body—as if he was hugging himself.
“Clutching his belly, perhaps?” Rainbow's fuzzy nose wriggled. “Could use a scan, there, Pilate. If only...” Her words trailed off, and her ears folded back in brief melancholy. A few blinks later, she leaned in close, nearly brushing her face against the skeletal remains.
There were several hollow strips situated within the deer's leg bones. Overall, Rainbow observed, the skeleton looked brittle and frail.
“Must have been super old when he died.” She gulped. “But... starvation?”
She tapped her chin in thought. The crashing of waves persisted outside while Rainbow tilted her head about, ultimately facing the desk immediately nearby the collapsed skeleton. She noticed a stool resting on its side beneath the furniture's splintery edge. Trotting up, she carefully studied a fine bed of dust and sand lying over the desktop.
Taking a deep, deep breath, Rainbow exhaled forcibly. She blew off a fine layer of dust, exposing a square-shaped lump. Tentatively, she reached forward, pulling at the lump. She felt a leather binding, and her ears heard the rustle of age-old paper sheets.
She twitched slightly. “A book...” Her eyes blinked. “A journal.”
The pegasus struggled to maintain her enthusiasm. There was no telling how old—or brittle—the contents were. With icily slow grace and precision, she pulled the front lip of the book open.
The first one hundred pages clung together like honey'd leaves.
Rainbow winced. She fidgeted, contemplated it, but ultimately decided not to try and pry the pages apart. She figured that just the slightest tug would rip them to shreds, rendering the tome utterly useless. So, instead, she flipped the clumped-together pages to the left and scanned her eyes over the first page she could see.
This proved fruitless. Every single page was obscured by grime and mildew. Any part that wasn't consumed was eaten through by the hard grit of sand and time.
Rainbow sighed, nevertheless flipping forward as slowly and gracefully as she could.
“I know, I know,” she murmured aloud. “It's a total travesty. Kera, hug Mommy, will ya?” She turned another page. “At this rate, I swear she's gonna—”
Rainbow spotted legible words.
“...collapse.” Rainbow blinked. With a jittery hoof, she stroked her pendant, summoning a ruby glow that she swiftly shone across the decrepit page.
Indeed, a series of ink stains formed legible sentences. Rainbow's vision flew to the very top of it.
“'Day Two Hundred and Twelve...'” Her blood ran cold. “Luna Poop, how... h-how long have I been out here, Roarke...?”
She stood in dead silence for a prolonged period of time.
Hesitantly, she returned to reading: “'...have resolved ourselves to guarding this makeshift bastion. We lost too many on the trip here, and so many of our brothers are dead, their bodies lost to the elements of the desert. The Grand Choke consumed us so swiftly that there was no point in giving them a dedicated burial, or else we would all surely perish in the heat and sand. If we were to make a return trip now, with so many of our rations utterly vanished, we wouldn't even make it one quarter of the way back to the...'”
Rainbow's brow furrowed. The entry had been consumed by a splotch of sand and mildew, making the words illegible. She flipped a few more pages until she found another entry.
“'Day Two Hundred and Forty. Work on the raft continues, albeit slowly. We simply lack the materials to make something that will stay afloat. It's pressing enough that we fashioned half of the wagons into the walls of this fort. I've tried to convince my brothers-in-arms that we must abandon the settlement completely, but they are stubborn... and growing weak. I understand it's a noble thing to want to maintain this bastion, but if we stay any longer on this shore we will surely die. The only way to go is forward, across the ocean. I think I might be able to make a crude sail out of our burlap materials. While magic may have abandoned us, surely the elements won't. I must find a way to convince them of this...'”
Rainbow stopped reading. A sour lump had formed in her throat.
Sighing, she flipped ahead. Suddenly, she encountered nothing but blank pages. There wasn't enough ink for the throes of time to blemish.
With a blink, she flipped back, found some scribbled pages, then skipped towards the second-to-last entry.
“'Day Four Hundred and Eleven,'” Rainbow's voice cracked. “'Sunlight. Sweltering. Never quiet. I miss you, Thelma. I'm alone out here, but I hear my brothers' voices in the surf. They scream at me with each swallow that I take. I'm a sinner, and I am damned, but I must stay here. I must guard my post. It's my charge. My only purpose. Aside from my love for you. I love you so much, Thelma. Forever and always.'”
Rainbow shivered. She didn't want to, but—with shaking hooves—she peeled the last page open, her ruby eyes ran over the page. There was no date listed—simply a series of crooked, meandering sentences:
“'Please, God, forgive me. Forgive me, God. Have mercy on my soul. I am so wicked. So wicked. So very wicked, God, forgive me. Forgive me, please, I beg you, God.'”
Her lips pursed. She leaned back, and in so doing she became aware of deeper shadows in the cave. Immediately, Rainbow swiveled her head to the left, gazing into the far corner of the cave. One hoof at another, she trotted towards the furthest wall.
There, in the corner, beyond the decayed garden, rested several jagged branches—antlers. As Rainbow rounded a final piece of wooden furniture, she expected to see the bodies of the other guards lying side by side. To her numb surprise, she saw the antlers lying against each other, like twigs lopped off of a tree.
Her eyes searched for the matching skulls, but to no avail. She did see bones—but they were all piled lazily into the corner with no rhyme or reason. What's more—upon closer examination—many of them were broken, severed, and covered all over with jagged lines and fissures.
Rainbow's vision twitched. She gaped, staring closer.
She saw more and more scrapes, scars, and hacked lines across the bones' surfaces. The calcified strips were all over the place, with several rib-bones spilling off a crookedly leaning table where an assortment of sharp, rusted tools lay glinting in the slitted sunlight.
Rainbow grimaced hard. She backtrotted—only to trip on a petrified legbone. Panting—hyperventilating—she turned completely around and galloped out of the hovel.
She burst out onto the sunlit world. Light overwhelmed her, blinding her. She bumped into a collapsed wall or two, then fell chest-forward in the hot sand, wheezing for breath. Her pained voice squeaked and she clutched her stomach as she curled up, retching and spitting up bile.
The roaring surf consumed her whimpers.
It's the Donner Party. Get it? Because Donner is a reindeer and the name of the group that had to resort to cannabilism!
...yeah that stank. Sorry.
Venison. It's what's for dinner.
Unusual ecosystem, but it is a very unusual blotch upon the plane.
5732967
Well, we are at the edge.
5732977
Where's the beef?
5732981
Eaten.
Looks like they Donner Partied themselves to oblivion, good thing the rest of RD's party is imaginary. Unless her imaginary friends eat her. That could get weird.
5732989
I'm hungry. Feed me.
5731694 Suffering from Multiple Avatar Syndrome, are we?
My SkeleDash ship sank before it even hit the water.
Relevant
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5732954
Oh gosh. You.
Damn, I know sometimes you have to do what you have to do but damn that was some seriously desperate measures.
Cannibalism. Definitely. I can't imagine how scarred he, or the people from the other side must have been from their trip. Even if they didn't go insane, surely their minds must have been hurt from the idea of eating one's own brethren. It was the only thing they could do to survive.
-Spirit
God has no care for the lives of ants.
by the emperor how heretical
i.warosu.org/data/tg/img/0302/31/1392371366895.jpg
The journal of doom.
If its true, a large, heavily supplied and well equipped military expedition just barely managed to cross teh Choke in 8 months?
Yup. Looks like the Goblins will have to bypass Monitor and go straight to Great Eastern.
Yummy.
...
Heh...
Yet another reason it's really, really nice the rest stayed behind.
It seems this cave contained a monster of a different kind...
5732977
I saw the word edge and could not resist. May god have mercy on my soul.
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Thats horrible, just horrible....he didn't even have ketchup!
She should have just ripped the pages out of the book, then there would be a change of scenery.
Well, that's appetizing.
Hmmm. What do you guys think the chances are that Rainbow's 'conversations' with her friends aren't entirely a product of insanity?
so by the journal date it took the expedition 6-7 months...surely RD can't have been in the Choke that long?
5734297 That definitely set some sirens off in my head. We all assumed it was the lonliness, but Dash didn't really start talking to herself until the point where she couldn't fly either. Also:
This reminds me a bit too much of the writing in Chapter 177, where Dash is running on autopilot. Mabe the only reason she made it was because just as the deer was 'compelled' to fullfil his purpose and guard his post, her goal is to go East.
5734550 That six or seven months includes the time that deer was stationed at the edge of the ocean.
5734550
5734584
Also, RD could still fly for several days into the choke, a great improvement on trotting the entire time.
Does this mean magic is coming back?
Perhaps not. Then again, maybe magic is online again, but the deer got so used to it's absence they stopped even trying to use it.
OK, work on a raft was started, and if it's made of the same wood as the cavern supports, Dash might be able to pull this off. But she's gonna have to divide her rations, and then make sure to not overexert herself as she works. I'm assuming that the Jetstream is on her side, so propulsion is covered.
Also, cannibalism. Survival instinct fought moral compass and moral compass lost. Badly.
Sometimes, you just have to do what you can to survive.
forward do we go, Ms. Dash
you're not dead yet
and beware the voices of friends not present
the choke speaks
5734990
...that's a scary thought, actually
Is the Choke 'alive'?
Oh, how could I forget. This is a riff off an old advertising slogan: Beef. It's what's for dinner.
No, I'm not making this up. Here's the proof:
[youtube=tviyAIS9c_U]
Of course, in this case, it's venison that got served.
Nothing like cannibalism to impress a friend for dinner.
5732990 Hehe. Donner Party. Deers.
This is so awesome, as much as I miss the Noble Jury, this is a delightful change of pace!
5735068
Remember when pork was always called 'The Other White Meat?'
5736168 Sure do. And so does the Internet:
[youtube=YfFUbwMXaeg]
5734922
It didn't really seem to help the deer in the long run, though.
You know, the lack of magic might be a good thing. Otherwise we might've had a hungry skeleton on our hooves.
(I might need to get my warped mind checked soon... Nah, this is more fun.)
Well, we now know that there might be a boat. Dash could propel it with her wings.
Delicious Bambi burgers all round!
No food here, moving on...
cannibalism is fun
5736168 Pepperidge Farm remembers.
Yikes. At first, I had hoped that he had simply kept the antlers of his friends in memoriam, but I don't think that was the case.
5927251 ya don't say?
You were actually here...
5931367 The things People will do to survive in a situation like this. A part fo me can't blame them for it...
I Personally, think I would choose to die first though... then again, after a certain point in my life, I've always been very comfortable with the idea of my mortality. funny, How that turning point was when I decided I wanted to live. I wanted to live, and I intend to enjoy every moment of life, But now that I know what it is to live, The thought of dying doesn't scare me so much anymore, Because at least i've experienced life before it.
Ariza told her this happened to the ones from the east. Chrysalis did a bit of it too, iirc. Dash shouldn't have been surprised the ones from Val roa did the same. Granted, she's slipping a bit.
>_<
Take a look
It's in a book
A reading Rainbow