"Rainbow—!" Twilight Sparkle yelped, fizzling in and out of ghostly reality. Each time the chaotic beasts came within proximity of Rainbow Dash, all five of her friends vanished with a dreadful rippling sensation. "—Dash! You're getting too close—" Flickering and fading and returning. "—to them!"
"No way around it, girl!" Rainbow panted and whimpered, ducking low and diving in order to antagonize the beasts. She was rewarded with higher and deadlier leaps from her pale-leathered foe. "Gotta keep them from reaching c-camp!"
"Hressssssssh!" One came particularly close, its razor-sharp claws rippling through the translucent shadows of Applejack and Fluttershy. Schiiiing!
"Whoah—!" Rainbow yelped.
Whump! She was shoved aside by a feline shoulder.
WHAP! Wildcard—glaring—blocked the beast's midair lunge with the broadside of Bard's staff. A half-second later, he violently uppercutted the beast with the edge of the rod. Dull black blood and dislodged teeth flew through the starlight. As the limp viscera descended, three more beasts leapt high, swinging at the two Heraldites.
"Climb—!" Was all Rainbow could get out as she yanked Wildcard skyward along with her. Swooooosh!
The beasts' aim was improving. As bodies flew at them, Discord's figure materialized at random—reclining casually in mid-air.
"Seriously, have you ever thought of just ignoring them?" he asked.
Rainbow could only pant and wheeze for breath. Each time she thought that she and Wildcard were in the clear, more and more monsters threw themselves skyward, narrowly missing their targets' hide by centimeters. The air sang with serrated claws and banshee shrieks. And in between—
"Just sit down at a warm campfire!" Discord suggested, flickering in place of her friends with a fanged grin. "Sing song! Roast rarities!" In the next blink, he was smirking devilishly in Rainbow's face. "That's how you harmonic folk would deal with these chaos puppies, isn't it?" At the last second, a shrieking beast tore through Discord's visage, lashing at Rainbow's skull.
HRESSSSSSSSSH!
"Gaaaah!" Rainbow flew backward, raising her forelimbs—
Thwump! The beast grappled with her. Its weight was far more daunting than she expected, and she felt the two of them plunging down towards the sea of pale bodies. She wrestled and struggled with the beast.
"Hgrnnngh... gnkkt!" Rainbow's eyes flickered red-on-yellow.
"Hresssssssh—!" The beasts' teeth came within drooling distance.
"Haaugh!" Rainbow violently headbutted the creature. Thwap!
There was no effect.
Rainbow's pupils shrank as they both fell. "Aw crap—!"
Schiiiiiiiing! Bard's staff stuck in, catching the monster's jaws just as it bit down.
With a mute grunt, Wildcard flexed all his muscles into swinging the beast off of Rainbow's figure. He succeeded in throwing the beast down into the crowd, bowling a dozen of them over. He grabbed Rainbow's fetlock and flapped his wings to carry the two of them safely skyward—
Schliiiiiink! A random set of lunging claws raked at Wildcard's backside. Glowing red blood lit the air.
Wildcard wheezed in agony—almost producing a sound. He sagged in midair, goggles rattling.
"Wildcard—!" Rainbow yelped.
Her friends rematerialized just in time to gasp. "Rainbow! What's—?!" A line of creatures ripped through them, leaping with banshee shrieks.
"Gnnnngh!" Rainbow flew into Wildcard, hugged him close, and spun so that the staff gripped in his talon deflected the oncoming attack. Wh-Wh-Whump!
The beasts fell and—same as before—another line came charging in.
"I suggest you live up to your name, Sparky!" a certain dragonequus could be heard belching.
"Httt!" Rainbow flapped her wings savagely. Swoooosh! She propelled herself and Wildcard forward. Haphazardly, the two of them flew under the leaping beasts... and straight into another wave of shrieking monsters.
"They're almost past the line of scrimmage!" Discord narrated.
Wildcard woke up from his pain in time to dig the tip of the staff into the ground. Rainbow sensed it, and she pivoted their weight at just the right angle to vault over the animalistic gauntlet. Both of them flapped their wings at the same time, and the bulleted through the starlight in a wide arc, aimed Curveside. Halfway through, Wildcard lost the strength to flap his wings. Rainbow trembled, feeling the trickle of hot blood down her body—his. Before she could think up a new tactic—
WHAM!
The two slammed awkwardly into the rocky ground of the Dark Side. Wildcard writhed from the deep cut in his backside. Rainbow winced all over from multiple bruises.
"Hresssshaaa!"
"Hresssssssssssh!"
"Hreshaaaaaaa!"
The ground rumbled as the beasts rushed the two.
In a rippling shade of fur and antlers, Discord materialized yet again above the hectic scene. "If you don't mind me saying so, Sparky, but you have the absolute worrrrrrrrst fanbase..."
"Shut up!" Rainbow scampered to her hooves and grasped Wildcard's upper body. "Girls!"
"But you gotta admit..." Discord curled his goatee, smirking at the line of pale beasts. "...they're nothing else if not devoted!"
"Come on, Wildcard..." Rainbow grunted, pulling and grabbing. "Girls!"
They did not appear. It was just Rainbow, the creatures, Discord, and blood. A glowing trail formed behind Wildcard's limp body, aiming the monsters straight towards them.
"Psssst..." Discord leaned in, speaking through a spontaneous blowhorn in his chaotic claw. "The staff. Take it." He winked mischievously. "After all, wouldn't that be poetic?"
"Wildcard, need your help here!" Rainbow leaned in, clenching her teeth as her eyes remained affixed on the charging line. "Come on, Job Squadder. Did you make a pledge or didn't you—?!"
With a shuddering breath, Wildcard threw himself past the pain. As Rainbow dragged him backwards, he sat upright and twirled Bard's staff at a blurring speed. The Desperado knocked back and pummeled every random beast that was stupid enough to get close enough to the two of them.
Wham! Whack! Smack! Thwack!
One by one, the beasts fell bloodily to the ground. A vaporous cloud or two of ruby energy even lit the air, but the massive mob only rushed in ten times stronger and hungrier... until soon they were surrounding the two Light Siders from multiple angles.
Discord yawned. "Yeah yeah... your sound effects are impressive as always, Sparky... but you're going to have to do better than that..."
Rainbow Dash panicked. She considered flapping her wings and lifting herself and Wildcard out of there, but she knew that all it took was a single leap from any of the creatures and the two would be skewered in midair. Clenching her teeth, she flashed her twitching eyes every which way.
"You know what you have to do..." Discord leaned just his neck down, hissing. "...you're already in it this deep... give in... for your friends' sake..."
Rainbow gnashed her teeth... teeth that were growing more and more serrated by the second. Her eyes flickered red on yellow as more and more banshee shrieks formed a cacophonous echo around her and Wildcard...
Th-Thwump!
Flynn dumped a bevy of pale rocks on the floor beside the wagon.
"Keps!" Flynn shouted, kneeling and summoning a glow through his horn. He began attaching the first of countless chaotic studs to the rim of the wagon. "Help me out here! We don't have the time or the muscle to tilt this damn thing up! We gotta attach it all to the rim!"
"As you wish, brrotherr!" Kepler knelt on the other side of the wagon, mimicking the unicorn stallion's job.
"Ariel!" Flynn hollered to the sky. "Gather the tents... the supplies... the lunar rune stones... all that you can!" He licked his lips as he fitted more and more silver bits to the hovercraft. "Get us loaded up! We gotta get out of here with more than just our sanity intact!"
"Holy crud..." Ariel zipped all around, attempting to accomplish such a frantic task. "Holy crud holy crud... do we even have the time?!"
"We'll make the time!" Logan wheezed, limping onto the scene with the bulk of the rocks. "Rnnngh!!!" He unceremoniously dumped them onto the middle of the wagon and proceeded to tie them haphazardly in place. "Dammit! Did we at least get Rainbow's 'okay' before we—" He froze in place, his gaze locked on the Edgeside horizon past Seraphimus' figure. "... ... ...Oh Goddess."
From a long distance, he made out the figures of Rainbow Dash and Wildcard—grounded and back to back. Then—like a pale shroud—the beastly creatures swallowed them up, vanishing them from sight as they closed in on all sides.
"What's the matter, Big Show?!" Ariel stammered in the distance.
Logan swallowed a lump down his throat. "I'll never make it in time... and Ariel c-can't..."
He froze in place.
His head tilted ever so slightly to the side. "Awwwwwwwww Hell..."
Schiiiing!
He unsheathed his axe and gripped it in two strong forelimbs. His brow creased noticeably.
"...you wanna be square with me?"
Thwackkk!
Wildcard smacked one beast aside.
Whackkk!
He pummeled another... then lost all strength. Slumping back into Rainbow Dash, the Desperado winced and heaved. More blood squeezed between them, illuminating.
In the red glow, Rainbow Dash winced. The creatures were closing in slowly... taunting... relishing in the cruelty of the inevitable evisceration about to transpire.
"This isn't prancing pony land, My Little Sparky," a voice rolled above her, dancing through the banshee shrieks. "So long as you carry that torch of Harmony... you'll never get anywhere without being pounced on. So make with the shroud already. Go dark."
Wildcard shuddered in her grasp. He looked back, and his goggles reflected a pair of glowing spots on Rainbow's forehead.
As the blood trickled down Rainbow's face, she whimpered. "Girls..." Yellow eyes. Red slits. "Snnkkkt... I'm ssssssorry." Her back bristled and her limbs flexed—
Swooooooooooooooooosh! A pale figure sailed in, swinging two Emeraldinian swords.
Sch-Schlunkkkk! Four pale heads plopped bloodily across the stone floor.
Rainbow gasped, her eyes returning to normal in a blink.
The creatures around her lurched backwards with an expression that she had never expected from them: shock.
As four clouds of ruby energy lifted vaporously in the air, Rainbow and Wildcard saw a nimble warrior grinding to a stop on scraping paws. Gripping two blades stained with black blood, Seraphimus looked up, glaring charcoal daggers at the surrounding crowd. Severed chains dangled from her legs and flaring wings.
"Sera...?" Rainbow managed to whisper.
Wildcard was doubly-speechless.
"Hrmmm..." The former Talon Commander sniffed, facing the line of fangs and claws. "...not so frightening up close."
Rainbow hugged Wildcard tighter. "What the buck are you doing here?!"
A daring creature lunged from behind—
SCHIIINK! Seraphimus stuck it in the chest with a blind backswing. She adjusted her weight on its impaled body. "Getting some much-needed exercise." Her eyes then rolled back like a shark, as—"Rrrrrrgh—RAAAAAAAAAUGH!" She threw herself at the sea of pale muscle, slicing and dicing. Banshee shrieks reached a new blood-curdling octave, and soon it became impossible to see the enraged griffon through the tufts of ruby light billowing in the heart of the bloodbath.
Rainbow stood slack-jawed for a few seconds too long. A few monsters rushed their flank. With a renewed burst of energy, Wildcard lunged out of her grasp and deflected the attack. Nervously casting a look in Seraphimus' direction, Rainbow belatedly joined the Desperado, shoving and kicking at every beast that she could see.
Above the evolving battle, Discord sat on an invisible stool. He looked every which way—his yellow eyes inevitably trailing Seraphimus' half of the battle more.
"Ehhhh..." He shrugged before slapping a golf cap onto his skull. "...for what it's worth." He proceeded to clap unenthusiastically as the battle raged on.
Yay Seraphimus! I knew she would be useful here! And again I know that Discord is technically meant to be evil here but I just can't see it. I think he clearly has a different perspective on things but I think he is mostly just trying to get Rainbow to use a tool she has that she has been ignoring this whole time.
Seraphimus-cuisinart mode: activate!
Sera finally gets to be a team player. We'll see how long this lasts after the beasts are slain... and ho boy are they being slain. I'm not sure what Rainbow's going to have to say about this one when the hobgoblins are all reduced to bloody chunks. I mean, I know she's still riding that harmony/aggressive pacifism boner, but there are some times when you can't just nonlethally subdue all your enemies and fly away scot-free.
Sonic Rainbomb hit, anyone?
...you say that like it's a bad thing.
Murderbirb has some real enemies to murder now.
For some reason, my mind went straight to this.
-Through the path long forgotten, into the darkness long begotten. Ofolrodi.
These things have red mist? I'm really not sure what to make of this latest development.
Blood for everyone!
Hell yeah. I’ve been waiting for some Murderbird action.
This was good. If Rainbow Dash had to use the power of chaos here, it wouldn't have been as meaningful. She would have seen it as having been forced into using it.
She still sees it as some horrible Evil dark power that took her friends away, and as the source of all her woes. As opposed to one of the great driving forces of the universe. The force of change itself.
Without change we are so many unfeeling uncaring rocks. When she dose use the power, and she will use it, she has to do so in the full knowledge and acceptance of what she's doing.
She is the bearer of both light and darkness, and it's about damn time she realized it.
8509629
It probably means that these creatures have some form of soul and are no mindless undead minions. Apart from that it's hard to tell what they are exactly.
What's Seraphimus' MVP count up to at this point? Three? Seriously if she keeps this up and doesn't cock it up at any point with a premature death or going wildturkey again, she's going to be giving Dash a serious run for her money on the leadership position.
Honestly these chaos gobos are scarier than the giant kaiju worm was. Crazy fast zombie horde with a potentially limitless supply of ugly.
Like, I can admire Dash's willingness to be the ultra-good here, but I tend to draw the line with sapients rather than critters. Thus far these creatures act like beasts rather than people, so I'm not even sure if this counts as a morally fuzzy grey zone or not. I think if its got a certain number of sharp bits, can't communicate beyond slobbering in ancticipation of eating you, has no clear sign of sapient intelligence, and is giving you zero room to retreat the you're all clear on the moral front for lethal violence.
Its like, I kind of get why Dash is wigged out by the chaos metal, but the whole problem is that she's framing that issue as if Harmony and Chaos equate to Good and Evil, when they're not at all the same thing. Doing good by people has a lot more to do with what actions you'll take to preserve their well being, which can involve supporting order and strucutre, the necessity of tearing down certain orders and laws, or any number of grey shades in between those extremes. Chaos or Harmony could be used to promote the well being of sapient life, or used to tear it down and weaken it. I'm thinking because of Discord being the dude that screwed over Dash's friends, she can't clearly see the possibility Chaos has to help her help others, especially when up against literal forces of destruction and evil.
But again, can't really blame her for that, because Discord doesn't really do a good job of making his own case. The dude is always in full on snarky douchebag mode, and I'm not even sure he can help himself here on the Dark Side.
8509689
Maybe, but I have a bad feeling about this.
Which side of a stick is the broadside?
8509784
How so?
Couldn’t bait them back towards Edgeside? Must be too intoxicated by the urge to huff the nearest chaos deposit.
Aggro-borb’s gonna need a trophy case in her corner of the wagon after she’s finished here.
Murderbirb: Activated!
8509529
Forget Cuisinart, Sera is going full Kenwood, Big Trouble In Little China style.
Pity these guys aint edible. Logan could do with making up for all that exercise hes about to do getting them going. Wiildcards effecively out of the action until they can get that wound sortted out, which will be difficult with the interfering effects of the chaos lifter? Or will it be balanced out in that her harmonic life forces glowing like abeacon on the Dark Side will be stealthed somewhat by the close proximity of the dense Chaos material, and vice versa?
A few of incredibly capable warriors, each with their own fighting styles. An unending horde of faceless mooks. Could this work as a Musou game? Austraeoh Warriors. I like it.
At least he is a graceful loser, and Rainbow's mercy continues to pay off.
Hmm so Logan deployed the tactical Murderbird? Nice.
Badass entry No. 3 - engaged.
i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/954/323/394.jpg
8509689 More than that, going by what we could at least plausibly assume at this point it could imply their souls being Harmonic. If nothing else that would tell us there's something left of their original nature in those Chaos-warped husks.
Everyone seems to be forgetting one thing...
Rainbow Dash can not control herself in Chaos mode.
It's Jekyll and Hyde.
Chaos mode is game over.
I'm going to guess the overdose of cathartic violence will only be good for her.
8510042
Is Littlepip a filly or colt? I forget.
8510075
Littlepip's a mare.
And Seraphimus is in!
8509689
No, even the little lizards they've been eating release the red soul mist thing.
8510186
Hmm I wonder how Ariel would react to Littlepip.
I think this right here was my biggest "oh shit" moment since Stratopolis.
Come on, you apes! Do you wanna live forever?!
8510244
Every living being in this setting has a soul if I am not mistaken. Self-conscious organisms (like ponies, griffins etc.) as well as animals and maybe even plants. So it makes sense that their blood glows, despite their location on the dark side.
My original idea a few chapters ago was that these chaos goblins (for the lack of a better term) could be the result of a smooze like being with the ability to create undead and therefore soulless copies of whatever it consumed, but this theory is now debunked.
I see what you did there~
Ya silly fuck.
That awkward moment when you comment on the previous chapter thinking it was the latest...
Interesting, so the girls don't actually push him away and he's always around they just seem to act as a filter. I figured he'd have gone to his own "vanilla zone" when they're around, but I suppose that's a bit silly in hindsight.
Glad to see Seraphimus able to help out and kick ass, maybe this will get her some points with the team and further help her down the road to redemption/trust.
8510031
She can't control herself yet. While Discord could very well be lying and trying to mislead Rainbow, he has mentioned in the past that she will have to balance both sides within her in order to survive. I'd like to think that's foreshadowing for maybe Chaos Rainbow being more of a thing. She hasn't had much opportunity to actually try to control it/herself, and was always in very stressful situations where instincts trumped reason before.
An unexpected ally joins the fray and our heroine avoids giving into to the temptations of Discord.
Be here for our next episode "The Blades of Seraphimus" or "Talon It Like It Is."
Good ol' Sera strikes again. I do hope Logan decides not to knock her unconscious again.
She's going to say she did it for Jordan, but I don't think that will be the case, as I think she's starting to respect Rainbow now.
As for Rainbow, she may have avoided using chaos this time around but I doubt that will last forever. She is going to have to embrace chaos at some point. Discord could be a huge help when it comes to that, but first Rainbow will have to ally with him. It's going to take her having to get past his douchey comments and him making less of them, but if IC is taking show canon into any sort of consideration, it's certainly possible.
Some food for thought: Discord appears to be anchored to Rainbow just as much as her friends. Wouldn't that mean in using the Harmonic Prism, she would have to free him as well as her friends? By then she would definitely have had to make up with him.
8511178
it could also be the set up for some "If I revive the girls, it revives him too... is one worth the other?" type angst.
8510689
she seemed perfectly in control after having her element knocked off after the wagon crash when tatzlzilla first appeared.
The ambient chaos might keep her from going feral when she transforms, an overdose, like the chaos metals and stuff, would probably trigger her regressing to a more feral state.
This really was the most logical solution to this situation. I just hope Sera keeps her cool after the immediate threat is neutralized. I know she still has a bone to pick with Rainbow, but after everything she's seen during her imprisonment I'm hoping she'll at least see the benefits in playing nice for the sake of survival. Anything more constructive than that will have to be an ongoing process, but at least this crucial step's been taken.
"What's that?"
"Cricket bat."
"Cricket? Nobody understands cricket. Ya gotta know what a crumpet is before ya understand cricket."
*THWACK*
8509529
But will she rend?!
Jebus, IC stop teasing me with Chaos Mode and just have her do it already!
Awww yeah.
8511319
Aw hell yeah!
Been waiting for this.
I lost it at the song suggestion. Dammit, IC.
Alright, we gonna get some Seraphimus action.
Looks like Seraphimus is going for the TFS Vegeta style therapy, hope it works out for her.
11/12/2017
01:29 UTC