Rainbow Dash didn't start to panic until she found that none of the twisting ravines were winding their way northeast. As she glided through the narrow chasms, they took her further and further west, with a left turn for every right turn, keeping her along a straight path. She had hoped to bend east and fly under the cyclones before they consumed the air above and within the ravines altogether. However, as the seconds roared into frantic minutes, she found herself subjected to louder and louder gales.
At one point, Rainbow Dash reached a chasm so thin that she could stretch her legs out on either side and wedge herself in place. Wincing, she stared straight up through her goggles. The slit of light that spelled the sky had almost vanished entirely, leaving her with a brown malaise of swirling sediment—growing denser and denser as the winds carried it deep down into the very canyon where she was entrenched.
The dust and sand below her kicked up, blowing into her face. The pegasus wheezed, coughed. She held a hoof over mouth and struggled to hold her breath. Muscles aching, she squeezed through the ultra-thin chasm and glided ahead—more like threw herself ahead. She felt her blood pulsing through her head, but there was no way she could hear the pulse above the audible mayhem all around her.
At last, the canyon walls pivoted eastward. Rainbow Dash knew this because she saw the Yaerfaerda symbol blinking wildly ahead of her. At first, this summoned a gasp of joy from deep within her being. It was short-lived, however, for only a few dozen meters into the flight she ran into a dead end.
Rainbow Dash hovered at a stop, clenching her teeth. By now, the cyclonic winds had rushed completely into the chasm, picking up and swirling about every speck of dust. Rainbow grunted as she was thrown left... thrown right... then tugged forward. With each random motion of her windblown body, she bumped and collided with the stone walls of the rigid ravine all the harder. At last, with desperation, she planted her blank against the dead end, attempting to brace her limbs against the walls of the canyon. All this did was pin her deeper under a piling mountain of sand—the same sand that lifted from the wind's twirling force and repeatedly enveloped her upper body and face.
If it weren't for Scootaloo's goggles, Rainbow Dash would be blind by now. However, that was the least of her concerns. There was little to no opportunities to breathe; the sand lifted so consistently and violently against her muzzle that Rainbow Dash could scarcely manage a single inhale.
As a result, she doubled over, wheezing and sputtering as the sand roared up, around, and through her. The flesh on her body began to chaff, agitated by the murderous grit of the sandstorm billowing across her coat. The pain increased exponentially, starting low at first, but then growing more and more excruciating with each second Rainbow Dash was refused an even breath.
She tried covering her muzzle with her hooves, but this did little to ease her. The world was growing heavier, foggier. The pegasus' extremities were growing numb; she could barely feel the edge of her twitching ears. At last, as the darkness spread through the corner of her vision, she stared straight up.
It was then that Rainbow Dash glimpsed—through the swirling mists of brown sediment—the very heart of the cyclone. It twirled and writhed directly above her and the chasm, undulating with earthen colors streaking by in counter clockwise madness. From the violent speeds with which the mud-brown currents spun, Rainbow guessed that it would tear steel itself asunder.
For the first time in days, Rainbow Dash felt something rip through her chest—something exciting. If she wasn't being pounded by sand at every blink, she might even have smiled. Instead, she yelled... and yelled louder, throwing herself skyward as she fearlessly flew into the heart of the maelstrom.
Rainbow Dash ascended, wings slicing through the edge of the vertical passageway of twirling sediment. She climbed through the currents, screaming into the tunnel of death, even as the dust filled her muzzle and nostrils.
When the winds finally caught her, she spat into them, fighting and thrashing as her wings threatened to rip off at any second. With much struggle, she finally jerked herself forward, kicked against a quivering cloud of dirtied mist, and shot upwards like a bullet. All of the sudden, she could hear her own ghastly wails—for she had successfully pierced her way through the summit of the clouds.
There was no victory to enjoy. The very moment she flew up through the cyclone, her body went flailing in a random direction. The strength had been utterly sapped from her bones, and she twirled multiple times before finally descending in an eastward lunge, plowing through painful waves of dense clouds as the rough surface of the stone earth soared into her vision.
Rainbow Dash was unconscious before she could register the pain of impact.
Oh fuck!
Uh... yeah. That's what tends to happen when you fly directly into the heart of a tornado, ya fuzz-for-brains.
Thirty pushups, ):(. Knock 'em out!
Well that went poorly, at least she didn't feel anything when she hit though. Gonna hurt like hell when she wakes up.
I guess the ravines don't like being compared to bar codes. Shit.
Well shit
static.fjcdn.com/comments/5172706+_f2a1887b813728457874ab3ce1cfeb8e.jpg
But Rainbow, how can the storm be in your way if your path ends here?
Ouch. Well, that definitely could have gone better.
Amusing, though, that crossing over to the Other Side of the Plane would include going through a desert, a tornado, and an ocean.
I wanna say it just lacks a fire ordeal, but I'm scared about the implications.
5693632 Heh. Worst outcome is that she'll die again.
All shall fade...
All...
Shall fade.
Ouch
i.imgur.com/I4qCkSY.png
5693739
Inb4:
Hmm... At least she got out of the storm. Too bad it looks like she's gonna be in for a world of pain when she wakes up.
ooo
thats gunna sting
this desert journey looks like it's gunna suck for Dash
also, these dust storms seem super common to the GC, what with two in such a short time
5693834 Heh. I wouldn't put it past IC, honestly.
5693627 your name would make for a great deus ex machina right now
inb4 she dies, rots, the pendant falls off, she goes chaos, puts it back on again.
5693883
I'm just surprised that the duchess didn't mention them. Surely the Val Roans would have noticed them. Dust storms don't just vanish, I don't care how far Rainbow went, those dust storms were big enough to reach Val Roa.
5694029
It could be that someone is creating those dust storms precisely because RD is crossing...
Well...crap.
Planted her what? Guessing you meant back otherwise I am unfamiliar with this bit of pony anatomy.
5694383 probably meant "flank"
5693902 hAha, yes!
I have to say, I'll be a little sad if RD and Luna don't get to chat one last time. Their last communication didn't have any closure to it, and I feel like Rainbow Dash and Luna both deserve that.
5693739 You know you're in for a wild ride when your protagonist has already died multiple times and the story isn't even half way over.
"Oh! I found the magical dead zone..."
"..."
"Buck my life."
5694617
Yeah, I've been thinking that as well. It would certainly be nice, that's for sure.
Poor Dash, caught between the beach and the shredder, tries ballistic, and runs into the absolute cap. And then the hard place.
Wonder if theres any yogurt left.
... ow.
Dramatic recreation below
i.imgur.com/svoHO4K.png?1
Ahh.
Don't you love it when you get your sunburns covered in sand?
I really hope she didn't break a wing. That would honestly suck.
I thought she was going for sticking to the heart of the cyclone. If it were large enough, then the eye of the twister could be big enough, in theory, for Dashie to temporarily fit in the center-most, calmest air, and get some breathing in.
It's almost like rubbing salt in someone's wounds... This is a dry seabed isn't it... It is quite literally rubbing salt in dash's burned skin.
5692121 This guy gets it.
Fifth rule: if east horse is flying west, shit just got real.
so, something like this?
fimfiction-static.net/images/story_images/41993.png?1343776225
At this rate she's gonna get some serious sunburns for sleeping in the sun so much.
5693986
I thought her chaos self would have no wish to put the pendant back on?
5693986
Headcanon accepted until proven either false or true.
5695642
Can't be as bad as sandburns. Burns from abrasion are the worst.
5694093
Because everyone loves RD.
"Here, have these sandstorms as a gift!"
That was one heck of a flight, shooting over the whole storm. Good thing too, nopony or otherwise wants a sanded pegasus.
The meeting with the ground, though. She may have not felt the impact, but the results she surely will.
5694823 She'll soon be competing with Rory Williams for the greatest number of deaths (if she isn't already!)
5695845
As in, the vertebrae on her neck snaps, then when she reforms, it gets caught on again.
Or she has enough presence of mind to pull it back on.
5696024 What if her flesh regenerates on top of the necklace? It will be stuck inside her body.
5696531 That would be pretty gruesome. I doubt that is where we are headed. I think she'll just have retained a couple broken bones. Don't forget that she has sustained much worse.
5694823 Heh. True.
I'm pretty sure it explains a bit why she keeps going when all odds are piled up against her, though.
Dying three times doesn't do much good to the instinct of self-preservation.
Randy Orton?! RKO, RKO!
Also, talk about a dust devil, hoboy.
Comments section is getting pretty morbid about RD.
Am I too late for this?
Well craptastic, free fall unconsciousness is always nice.
Ouch Dashie.
Not to mention the chapped lips from just being in the deserts. I hate those
5703365
Which lips?
could be worse...
At least she's out of the storm.
-Spirit