The first thing Rainbow Dash awoke to was a flash of lavender light, or perhaps she had never fallen asleep to begin with. Her head dangled back, her mane dipping into swirling eddies of salt water. Her limp body dangled off the edge of something—presumably her raft, or at least what was left of it. Rainbow sensed her spine dipping below the rest of her body, and she guessed that the logs of the vessel had spread far enough apart that the whole thing threatened to collapse and sink beneath her at any moment. Perhaps the only thing keeping the mess together was Rainbow's battered limbs. She couldn't tell... she could hardly even think.
Rainbow gazed up at the sky. Dark clouds hung overhead, and a gray mist permeated the air. All was moist and humid. The atmosphere was no less sweltering, but the lingering vapor from the previous night's storm brought with it a strangely cooling sensation. It only served to torture Rainbow Dash all the more, especially since she couldn't move, squirm or even roll over.
Again, lavender streaked in the mare's peripheral. She tried tilting her head back, but her insides spun. It was then that she realized that she was suffering yet another dizzy spell—on top of all her previous torment. With a miserable little trilling sound, the pegasus went limp once more. Her head rolled back, as did her eyes.
Blearily, she stared across the turbulent seas. The ocean of the Grand Choke formed an upside down blue horizon before her. Sunlight refracted across the dull clouds, breaking through little clusters that christened the rolling waves like golden tresses. Rainbow Dash knew that just hours ago, this same ocean was tearing her raft apart, bruising and battering her, and yet—for a brief gasp in time—it was all so morbidly calming.
Maybe that's what dragged the whimper from her lips.
“You know... for a long t-time... I regretted that you didn't end me...”
She wheezed, fought through another wave of dizziness, and pursed her chapped lips.
“...it was all over. You m-made sure of that. I... I c-couldn't... grkkk... couldn't understand why you let me continue. There was no point in continuing. Every pony I've ever called a friend knew that... or else th-they were dead...”
Yaerfaerda appeared. Either it was circling Rainbow Dash, or her raft was slowly bending in a large circle. It didn't matter; the lavender light haunted her either way. It appeared remarkably high along the horizon. She was too tired to do anything but whisper.
“...but now... even now... mmmffnngh...”
She clenched her eyes shut. After another dizzy spell, tears squeezed out, and her tender little voice limped on.
“...I c-couldn't imagine it any other way. All of the blood... all of the tears... mmfhhgg... the laughs and the hugs and... and so many delicious meals we had together...”
Her ears twitched as the moist wind fluttered against her bangs.
“...loving each other... yelling at each other... but simply being together... I had it all once... but then I had it all again...”
Her burnt and chapped facial muscles quivered.
“...I never thought I could experience that once more. Even with all the fights... even with all the explosions... even... mmmff... even w-with Lerris...”
Her eyes reopened, glazed and glistening.
“It was... so... so very awesome...”
Rainbow Dash sniffled.
“...not even Hurricane had it this awesome. Just so... s-so...”
She seethed and squeaked and finally cracked.
“Thank you...”
A tear ran down her muzzle as she exhaled, her body growing even more limp. The dizziness cleared from the sheer force of her exhale.
“...thank you... thank you for... f-for giving me tomorrow...”
Yaerfaerda glided along the horizon, faster and faster, forming a streak... a halo around the dying pegasus.
“...I think...”
Rainbow whimpered.
“Yeah, I-I think...”
She sighed heavily, her delirious face forming a tired smile.
“... … ...I think I'm ready for the sunset.”
The clouds grew heavier, the ocean deeper.
Rainbow rolled on until she was a hazy blue dot in the immensity of it all, swallowed up in chaos.
She greeted it with a smirk, as always.
And float down steam. It is not dying.
I find myself being unable to tell if what is happening is literal or figurative.
5775169
Lay down all thoughts, surrender to the void.
Don't do this, IC.
Don't.
5775171
Yet you may see the meaning of within.
It is being.
5775172
Love is all and love is everyone
It is knowing, it is knowing
...something's missing here.
Theory: A whirlpool that suddenly turns into a waterspout, which repeats every few hours predictably. RD gets launched into the sky, where the aforementioned Yaer symbol seems to be slightly above the horizon. Ancient pegasi?
5775181
Love is all and love is everyone.
It is knowing.
5775183
And ignorance and hate mourn the dead.
It is believing.
5775189
But listen to the colour of your dreams.
It is not leaving.
Sunset Shimmer confirmed.
5775170
40.media.tumblr.com/e158469bb057e8ae742384026ab5abf6/tumblr_nd7lhp5o5f1rnwl3po1_500.png
5775189
This is sort of what I was thinking. Definitely the whirlpool part, anyways.
5775183
Belle is missing.
(completely missing the point)
5775200
So play the game "Existence" to the end.
Of the beginning.
Of the beginning.
media2.giphy.com/media/JXvGUTXpKtxe/200.gif
To qoute Dylan Thomas: Do not go gentle into that good-night.
complaintsboard.com/thumb.php?messup=942&src=tempbig_c7c60.jpg&wmax=450&hmax=450
Gonna take a leaf out of A^2's book.
Not the cute bunnies you were expecting.
For real, though, the symbol appearing almost directly above? Increased references to lavender light? Something is going to happen, and I have a good feeling I know what it is because I've harped it for so long.
5775189 img4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20131004183858/onepiece/fr/images/f/fe/Knock_Up_Stream.png
Just take the knock up stream to
SkypeiaYaerfaerda, you're only very likely to die, but fuck it, not the most dangerous thing in this story by a long shot.5775244
But Rainbow believed in the lavender light, the harmonic future that day by day receded before her. It eluded her then, but that’s no matter—tomorrow she will fly faster, stretch out her hooves further. . . . And then one fine morning—
So she beat on, rafts against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.
i.imgur.com/4LSz1As.png
What if someone finds her washed up on shore and she can't or won't remember anything and we spend like the first 50 chapters of the next book waiting for rainbow to remember what she's supposed to be doing
Well....I'd say something but..who really knows what's going to happen with IC at the wheel.
You know what...
Where's my old Yaerfaerda rhyme...
-Flying into death,a kiss with her last breath. Yaerfaerda.
5775263
The Great Dashie. I like it.
5775267
Must be nice for a game to not make fun of you when you die. I get this crap.
i.ytimg.com/vi/EjtQ8NVvzHI/maxresdefault.jpg
5775269
Mhm, that's a wrap, folks, we're done, pack your bags, go home.
5775238
Oh, you.
I find this sad and kinda cute. . .
5775280
wat. . I don't know what to think of this. . . But IC could probably pull it off.
I choose to reiterate what I said about the meaning of Foal and Yesterday. Take the letters that also appear in Yaerfaerda out of those two words, and you're left with Lost. This couldn't be more true right now. I think this is how Yaerfaerda will end. With Rainbow being lost. Or something IC pulls out of his hat of WTF.
5775280
I agree. It ain't over 'till it's over. And we're still getting chapters, so it's not over.
Isn't it funny how, with so many cliffhangers, we took up the habit of trying to predict what's going to happen next? That happens in no other story that I've read. In any case, I think the spinning is going to be significant. Maybe she's about to go meet some seaponies?
If I recall, this is not the first time she has come to terms with what she had previously lost in a monologue. Who's ready for round 3?
5775301
http://www.yorku.ca/inpar/language/English-Old_Norse.pdf
Don't look too deeply at letters, you might fall in the lethe.
5775267 For added effect...
5775269
Right, so because of a double chapter post, instead of ending on April 1, Yaerfaerda should end on March 31, if we don't get multi chapter updates. That means the next book should start on April 1..........how's that gonna work I wonder
Thank god it ain't complete just yet, even though this chapter could have served as that ''unexpected'' ending.
5775290
This, I like.
Foal - fyl
Yesterday - gaer
Fylgaer sounds like...
...Folgers. Rainbow is tired, so she needs coffee to wake up. Solved it.
5775326 I'm well aware of the Old Norse. But Rule #3 of reading a SS&E/IC fic: There are no coincidences.
5775396
(ok, that actually feels mean, I don't mean it that way. But I do think a cigar is sometimes just a cigar.)
5775360 That one is from... the third last chapter of Urohringr, were I first posted my collection of rhymes, while we were all still under the impression that Dash had been eaten by chaos serpents.
I changed it with the Val Roa arc starting but that one felt more appropriate for this chapter.
Oh dear. Ohhh dear. Things are looking bad; very, very, VERY bad.
If Rainbow dies in this book, I will destroy someone.
Travel through the Elysian Fields my chromatic friend, for you have earned it twice over.....but not quite yet, the path before you is long still and the winds of fate shall find your wings again.
5775470
Fsch, big deal, Rainbow has died like, thirty five times by now.
5775470
And Rainbow Dash never died.
5775244 > "harped it"
—Yaerfaerda, Chapter 193: "It's Mah Headcanon, Stickin' To It"