Fellow travelers of the Noble Jury, I figured that as long as IC is taking a well-deserved breather before plunging ahead in the story, we should do the same. To that end, I was hoping we could all share the moment (or the chapter) when each of us truly committed ourselves to "flying east" with Rainbow.

For me, I started reading the series at the end of December 2015, just after IC started writing Utaan. As I read through Austraeoh, I wasn't yet convinced that I liked the story enough to keep slogging through millions of words. I told myself that if I finished Austraeoh and I was still on the fence, I'd walk away. But then...I read Chapter 97, "Book".

Up til this point, I was finding it really hard to connect with Rainbow's character. With the constant flood of non-show characters, locations, lore, etc., I was subconsciously treating her like someone's OC -- a well-written and well-developed OC, to be sure, but still someone else's creation. When I read "Book", I was fully expecting to be underwhelmed by the reveal of what it contained...boy, was I wrong. As Rainbow tearfully gazed at each photo (while surrounded by despair and imminent death by dragon), it finally clicked for me. Her heartrending love and grief towards the rest of the Mane Six shattered my subconscious "she's just an OC" mentality, and it allowed me to tell myself "heck yeah, this really IS Rainbow Dash, I'm sticking with her til the very end."

I hope this little nugget has kindled some memories for all of you, too -- I'd love to hear about what caused you to commit yourselves to this series!

Kept seeing Austraeoh pop up in the feature bar (a long-ass time ago). Gave it a read, fell in love with the narrative style that just let the actions and scenery tell the story, fell in love with Rainbow travelling to distant lands/towns unknown. Kept with it since.

saw it featured a couple of times so i said i would read it later..... about half a year later while trying to find something to read, i found it again and said, "why not?" then i proceeded to drop it after getting through a decent amount of chapters. finally i decided to give it another try a month later and started from the beginning. the rest is history.

I was in a server with people who had printed versions of the story. If a story has printed versions, then I want in. Started reading in November or October and I've been trugging along. I just started Yaerfarda and I love the series so far.

For me, it was somewhere in between Eljunbyro and Innavedr. That was when Rainbow Dash started to slow down in her frantic journey, and found a reason to do more then fly suicidally towards the sun. That's when she started to live again.

Her time traveling with The Noble Jury was some of the best times I've ever had reading any work of fiction. It kept me up at night, just having to know what happened next. sometimes it had me smiling thinking about what Zaid or Props would do or say next. Other times it had my heart in my throat, believing that Kara might never find her way back to them from the darkness. Or when Rainbow told Roarke to leave and never come back. At these times, I lay in the dark, looking at my ceiling and thought that this is more then just a story to me. Yes it's not perfect, it's got a ton of issues as a work of literature. But by god if IC hasn't mastered the art of making characters that people care about. That truly feel like real people with lives beyond the confines of the story we see.

The sendoff at the end of Yaerfaerda was one of bitter sweet emotion. Victory had been achieved, but was soon to be followed by a parting that still leaves me heartbroken to this day.

I could go on and on about moment that are dear to me, but then I'd be here all night. All in all it's been a great ride, with a ton of awesome people to share it with. I hope to be reading this for some time to come, it means more to me than these words can communicate.

So, this isn't good reading etiquette but it is the truth. I became interested in the story from seeing it have a permanent home on the update bar near the beginning of Utaan. I looked up Austreoh and found out about the Noble Jury. I love airships and long epic adventures with a gang of quirky friends so I started reading.
I hate to admit it, but I read the first 100 pages or so of scenery and wasn't sure if such a long story was worth it. I did a little digging and searched through the story for the names Rainbow Dash spoke to Luna and found the chapter Forgiveness. I didn't know the context but I read Forgiveness and the next chapter Book. I had to know what happened in between, so I stuck it out. I've never had a book series that I've had such strong variety of opinions of, from moments that I love and brought tears to my eyes to characters (cough cough Shell cough cough) that I hate beyond reasoning to developments that I really didn't approve of. All in all it has truly been an epic journey thus far and IC has my full support for the future.
EPIC

I initially dismissed Austraeoh when I first saw mention of it on the EQD, mostly due to the vague description and annoyance at the fact there was always a whole panel daily for its updates.
I admit, when the daily posted about the final chapter for it going up, I breathed a sigh of relief, and put it out of my mind.
It wasn't until about 2013, when I saw Innavedr in the featured box here that I finally caved to my curiosity.
I loved everything about it, the relative silence of the first half with just the descriptions of the noises Dash was hearing and making, the mystery as to why she was so far from her homeland, all coming to a head in Silvadel.
I'll also admit, I'm not keen on the first quarter or so of Eljunbyro, since it was such a sudden perspective jump just coming off the end of Austraeoh,
but the reveal of the elapsed time after Dash's revival was enough to pull me right back in.
as for my engagement in the story, I think it finally sunk it's claws in fully with the end of Urohringr, in particular, the chapter "When the light goes out". Seeing all the characters react to a simple unspoken assumption...

As 6313547 said, it's not perfect, it has its flaws, but we all look past that, and have even turned some of them into running gags.

Some people might not like this comparison, but my experience with the Austreoh series has been remarkably similar to my experience with another massive, long running story about a quirky group of characters traveling the length and breadth of the world while stumbling across numerous weird places, cultures, and ancient mysteries: One Piece.

My beggining with both stories more or less happened the same way. I was vaguely aware of their existence, but was sort of turned off both by my contrarian nature not wanting to hop on a bandwagon of something popular, and because there was something that seemed kind of "too quirky for my tastes" about them. But with Austreaoh and One Piece both I eventually got bored, my resistances broke down, and I just bit the bullet and started reading. My attitude towards both in how they developed were almost identical too, where at first I found the story tolerable but not super interesting, with the main character being kind of fun loving and enjoyable to watch kick ass but not much else.

And then Austreaoh, just like One Piece, managed to start showing more depth, more interesting characters as the story wore on, and developing a world that had bigger and bigger mysteries that drew me into wanting to see how things panned out. Hours and hours of binge reading and the hooks were firmly in place.

There weren't really any one moment or sequence in either story that made me a fan, so much as it was just the general long investment of time leading to more and more interest in how the journey would progress, all tied together by a main character who's drive and goals were ones I could totally sympathize with and get behind. Both stories certainly had their flaws in my eyes, instances where I could feel like things could have been done better, but its sort of like complaining about there being one bit of burnt cheese on an otherwise continuously delicious pizza. The strength and weakness of long form storytelling is the investment. Once you're in this deep, you don't really ever stop being invested even if there are sections of the story that start to get rough in terms of enjoyment. You know things will smooth out eventually one way or another and you're way too interesting to see how things eventually shake out to quit.

So very much like with One Piece, the Austreaoh series is something I'll read until its eventual end, no matter how long that end takes to reach, because by this point I don't think I could stop even if I wanted to.

For me it was Eastward by Silver Note. I usually do not read incomplete fics due to the risk of abandonment, but hearing this song changed my mind.

Fanmade songs inspired by fanfictions are an indicator for good content.

My journey with the east horse was somewhat similar to robored's, I'd seen austraeoh featured off and on, so put it on my read later list, as i had a few other stories i was plowing through, such as the time loops, and eternal to name a few. I finally broke down and started reading one day after going through my list and being like "well... I've read nearly everything else, i may as well give this a shot." Was immediately hooked, and spent almost 2 years reading through it and the books that followed. I mainly only read during car rides, or breaks at work... And i would read dash76s chapter reviews, along with at least the first page of comments on each chapter, at least for the most part. I remember posting comments here and there along the way talking about how i felt like some sort of time traveller, reading this story and the reactions, theories and impressions each chapter had left on people.

I had already decided to read till the end when I still hadn't finished binge reading Austraeoh. Of course I had no idea how big the saga was planned to be. Once AEIOUYYUOIEA was revealed, I was intimidated but eager to try and see the end of it all.

There was this one chapter towards the beginning of Austraeoh where Rainbow Dash finds a burned/destroyed house with a grave sitting inside of it. After exploring it for a bit, she moved on. It really captivated me because of all of the questions that it raised - who used to live there? What killed them? Why did Rainbow Dash see fit to pause in her ceaseless flight east just to see what was up with this random little occurrence? It made me wonder about the protagonist and the mysteries of the world that she inhabited and completely hooked me.

The commitment moment was the very last chapter of Austraeoh, when the dragon says..."Austraeoh". It blew my mind to have the nerve to leave so many questions unanswered. Even knowing nothing, it felt like reading the story was like keeping a secret.

6313777
Thanks for translating so more fans can read it!

6313419
I ended up hanging out with Swan and a huge portion of the Noble Jury at Babscon, BC and EQLA. THEY DRAGGED ME IN. It's all Swan's fault. I finally went, what the hell?

I stopped after the description of the fate of the rest of the Mane 6, because it was too horrific for me to think of (just typing this hurts, because I can literally see the picture of that scene in my head). Then for BC, I decided to go back in. The introduction of Bell and a more involved narrative with ongoing characters drove me forward, and I don't tend to put down a book once I go in. It's "The End" or bust.

I got onboard while Austraeoh was still only about 70 chapters in. After many days of seeing it in the featured box, and having memorized it's vague and captivating synopsis, I was sucked in to reading it. I figured that something with such an unconventionally simplistic description and short chapter lengths was worth some attention. I finished out those 70 or so chapters and was hooked.

When Austraeoh was finished and Eljunbyro was born, I realized that the series was going to be big. A story with a scope and scale far larger than any series I had ever read. Austraeoh had barely scratched the surface, answering hardly any questions while creating dozens more. Since that moment, I vowed to see the series through to the end, and I have been reading ever since.

That was nearly six years ago, and I have only ever grown more enthused about the story and the characters. Even though I eventually stopped watching the TV show and have for the most part (with the exception of Skirts' work and the work of a few others) entirely moved on from MLP, I continue to read this story and I still look forward to every new chapter. To me, the show ended on SE2EP2. Austraeoh is what I consider cannon, as it has completely transcended the show and become something far more awesome than I had ever expected.

I caught up on the series right around January 1st, 2013, almost exactly the halfway point of Eljunbyro. It was actually Regidar that pointed me in Austraeoh's direction, and I binged the whole first book in two days worth of reading time. When I reached the end (and at this point, had seen Eljunbyro in the feature box every day for like a month), I knew I had to continue.

I first discovered Utaan in the featured box some time late in 2015 (during what I would much later learn was the Red Barge arc). I remember the gradual dropping jaw as I kept clicking on the "prequel of" link and more and more unpronounceable titles came up. I started thinking this was some prank by knighty and I'd never reach the beginning.

It looked incredibly daunting. I put it on my Read It Later list, but then never actually got around to reading (there were so many other stories to keep up with).

Then in late 2016, I put the first story on my e-reader and resolved to just slowly start on it, even if I couldn't catch up (at the time I think the Hiatus had already begun, though I didn't know it). The opening seemed... kind of surreal, and just raised further questions. I wondered if the entire story would just be scenery porn, and if so, how the story could have attracted such a cult following.

Not sure how many chapters I got to (very few), but it disappeared off my radar again due to other RL stuff and stories.

Then in March 2017 I finally resolved to start again, and woah. It took me all the way until June, about 1-2 weeks per book, but I finally caught up. Damn, that was a ride. My only prior experience with long-running Skirts stories was Tavi Says; in fact I don't think I knew Austraeoh was by Skirts until a few books in.

The series had been in my Read Later until after Ynanhluutr started. That's the first book I began reading seriously, and what made me interested in reading earlier books. Because of how I like stories that start dark and then go upward. Ynanhluutr is that 'achievement' point.

Books after Utaan (also known as Dash in Hell) I'm not interested in what happens there. Given its genre, I guess it's probably some Brutal Doom kind of dark stuff. Let's just say, for me, Utaan is the ending of series.

For me it was the adventure and situation driven aspects of the storytelling, early on. I read and read for quite a while(came in midways through the second book).

Then the Noble Jury happened, and it became a character driven drama. I enjoyed it for a while, but ended up giving up on the series when they were in that like 30 chapter depression at the start of one of the books. Picked it up again but... Eh. Made it to the big city on the edge of the desert and lost interest again.

Meh, I was browsing stuff to read around the time Urohringr was finishing up. Saw it in the featured box, realized that it had a prequel and thought, "Neat. Part of a series." Followed the trail of sequels back to Austraeoh and thought, "This is either gonna be a bigger waste of time than a liberal arts degree, or it's gonna be epic as hell." Glad to say it's the latter and not the former.

As for the chapter that hooked me for life? Austraeoh CH 200, ALONE Mainly because of the cliffhanger, but also due to the clever way Dash defeats Axan. (And then proceeds to learn why pissing off several mountainous tons of dragon and hanging around to gloat is a very bad idea.)

You can't see sunlight one thousand meters below sea level, much less a sunrise.

I'm just here for the buffet table.

I started reading when Austraeoh had just ended and Eljunbyro was a few chapters in IIRC. I would say the chapter that hooked me was when Rainbow finally got to that first village and spent the day hanging out with the villagers before moving on. Before that, I actually considered dropping the whole thing because while I found it nicely written it was super long and kind of boring up till that point as not much happened other than RD flying.,

I started reading because it was a constant feature of the box, and its vague description enticed my imagination to no end.
Though, my initial suspicion that it was about Rainbow traveling in the Griffin's lands was incorrect, it was still a beautiful and stunning work.
And then...Axan. Rainbow's perceived demise rocked me to my core.
I had to keep reading to find out if she lived.
Then keep reading to find out the next mystery, and the next, and the next, and so on and so forth.
And now we are on the precipice of answers, I cannot out give up on the hope of knowledge.

I was a little young when I first read this story and it's really hard for me to describe why it captivated me so much. It was probably the first story I had truly invested in that I discovered on my own, and this and a couple other fics will always be very special to me. The whole premise of figuring out the situation as you go and only having the general goal of going east was very appealing. I actually left the story after finishing the first book, and came back a year later rereading it and catching up in the beginning of odrsjot. When I was reading Innavedr in particular I thought it was the most well thought-out, interesting, and creative story ever and I cherished every moment. But Windthrow was when I really realized that this was amazing, I fell in love with the intrigue and possibilities.

It's easy to say "after reading the first chapter" -- and it wouldn't be a complete lie. I absolutely love SS&E's work, and the first chapter of Austraeoh was honestly one of the most inspiring portrayals of Dash I've ever read. Even just thinking about the last line ("...it served to remind her that she was alive") practically gives me chills.

A reaffirmation of that commitment, and perhaps a more accurate answer, would be at the end of Austraeoh. I decided to stay up late on a work night to finish the first book. Dash's lost fight -- the crushing, the slamming, the snapped wing... the loneliness... was the hardest thing I've ever had to read. And when it appeared that she was left for dead, I had to crack open Eljunbyro to see what happened to her. Little did I know that I wouldn't be getting much sleep that night.

At this point I'm a little more than 3/4 through Odrsjot. I got the first six books printed and bound to encourage me to read them more regularly so I can catch up and experience the journey with everyone else, but man, what an emotional, long rollercoaster ride it is.

I saw it on EqD, and the description — and all the questions it raised — intrigued me. I filed it away as a read-later for some time, then finally got around to reading it, and the rest is history.

Came here from Argodaemon's sfm animation of Austreaoh. Was a little hesitant due to the fact that this fic was more than 3 LOTR trilogies stacked on top of each other, but when I was reading about the fic, I saw that IC uses the names of his commenters as names of some of his characters and that he doesn't directly respond to that. I soon wanted to be a part of that. At the time of writing this, I am two thirds of the way through with Utaan. Can't wait to catch up and I hope IC ends his hiatus when I do.

To a degree, I'd like to blame/thank Argodaemon. It wasn't his latest animation, but rather his works before then. I saw an animation from him of RD fighting a dragon with a sword, then RD in a dark cave, then this fine piece of art. After coming back to this a few times (and mostly wanting to see more of the dragon fight), it suddenly dawned on me that this was based on a fic. ... 200 chapters long... Well, not sure if I'd wanted to embark on that.

However, I did look up Austraeoh on image searches and found some fine pieces of work, and things I didn't think were related. But at some point I did look up IC's "Stories" and saw that he made several "Rainbow Dash/Nobel Jurry/Company flies East" that said were a sequel to.... And I have quite a bit of downtime at work in which I have half-read fics. I think one of the reasons I got invested in reading fics was thanks to Episode 100 to try and see what other things DHX may be slipping in.

Anyways, a couple of years ago, I started reading the first few chapters and it didn't really say much except RD was on a flight somewhere, alone... alone? From my searches I do know that RD would turn Draconequus at some point, her friends are probably dead, but how and why? In the end I put the story on TTS as I worked, and things were getting a little more intriguing. I also read the comments section to a degree in case I missed any details. And once I start something I need to see it through. I don't think Utaan was complete at the time.

The machine world reacting to RD was probably that which got me well invested. With each exposition I was thinking Discworld, Rama, Ringworld... Now I'm close to the recent chapter of Ofolrodi and the picture is as fully painted as it gets. Now it is just to see if RD completes her mission.

Also, RD's my fav so of course I enjoy a RD stotry

In simple terms, I saw Utaan, checked for the beginning, was intimidated by the large scope, gave Austraeoh a read for the first few chapters, and then my completion it’s tendencies took over and now I’m reading it again.

Stuck on Chapter 1416/1965. Oh boy.

I was incredibly bored these last few days. So I asked my friend for something to read, and they both said Austraeoh. Figuring that they have read the story, and probably like it, I shrugged, and started reading the story. I didn't expect anything, to be honest.

When I finished Austraeoh, I was laying in bed, speechless for quite a bit. Then I told them, "Yeah, this will be fun."

Now, I have finished Austraeoh and Eljunbyro, and taking a small break, before going into Innavedr and Odrsjot.

I cannot decide on what is my favorite moment/chapter, but were you to twist my arm, I'd probably say the fight between Roarke and Rainbow Dash.

P.S. As stated earlier, I've only finished the first two, so... don't be hard on me if I don't know jack about some stuff.

So I started reading it when the first book was being written - and I thought it was stand alone. It finished, than I finished it and was huh - weird ending. No way I would’ve started it if I knew how long it was. Somehow I found Eljunbyro and have been falling behind ever since - I’ve only been caught up to the story like 3 times. Thanks to the hiatus in caught up once again.