“Whoah, no way. So she was really Xonan?” Zaid grinned as he teetered back against a cobblestone wall. “Hah, and I thought those tattoos were stick-on!” No sooner had he finished saying this when an ice cold bucket of river water was tossed over his face. “Gaaaaaie!”
“Sober up, featherbrain!” Rainbow Dash placed the empty bucket down and leaned forward. “So you got a good look at the foal’s face?!”
“Gaauchkt! Jeez…” Zaid spat and shook his soaking mane. “You know, I thought your fillyfriend was doing the water torture. Not you.”
“Don’t be stupid. I’m just keeping you awake, pal.” Rainbow blinked, then scowled, “And she’s not my fillyfriend!”
“Uhmmm…” Zaid smacked the left side of his head, shaking water droplets out of his right ear canal. “Petite little filly. Peach coat. Dark tattoos from head to tail. If that ain’t Xonan, then I’m a big leather suit full of chipmunks!”
“Did she say anything at all when you supposedly caught her from falling to her death?!”
“Ain’t no supposedly about it, Harbinger… Austroganoff… Rainbow Goddess Pony thingy…” Zaid squinted at her. “What the hay should I call you anyways? All those stuffy old books were super vague about it.”
“Will you please just talk to me about Kera?!”
“How about ‘Har-Har?’”
Rainbow Dash snarled. “No. You most certainly will not call me ‘Har-Har.’”
“Cuz I could call you ‘binger,’ but… heheh… knowing me, that’s like the pot calling the kettle black--”
Rainbow Dash lunged forward and fiercely gripped his shoulders. “The foal! The foal, darn it!”
“Alright! No, she didn’t say anything! I mean, we were kinda busy being blown to bits by the Ledomaritans at the time!”
“But they stopped?” Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow. “And then they came for Kera?”
“It’s like they saw the little filly from afar or something. I gotta tell ya, ‘binger, we’ve bumped heads with those beret fetishists a bunch of times, and they’ve never once showed us any moment of compassion. I’m surprised they would have stopped shelling us for anything, much less to protect a little kid. I mean, how did they know she wasn’t with the Herald? Khao hired a bunch of super young ponies to guard the ancient winged pony bones. It didn’t work much. They still got stolen by agents of ‘Nut Shear Industries.’”
Rainbow’s face scrunched up. “Nightshade? Nightshade Industries?”
“Whatever.” Zaid shrugged. “All I know is that Khao was super-merry-go-ground-pissed when the fossils went missing. Heh. The lady sure does love her bones.”
“Why were you chasing Kera around to begin with?” Rainbow asked. “I thought she was held inside the ship after she was kidnapped, not out on the deck.”
“Beats me. I’m thinking the little bugger escaped. She seemed like quite the scamp, before the bad guys hauled her off and sent me and the rest of my co-workers sailing to our inevitable doom, that is.”
“Well, I hate to break it to ya, pal.” Rainbow Dash folded her forelimbs with a frown. “But your ‘co-workers’ attacked my friends and I without our asking for trouble. You’re looking like the bad guys from this angle, too.”
“Yeah, well, I gave up being a saint after this one year in college when I realized that my really wicked sexy dream wasn’t a dream at all.” Zaid slicked his yellow-streaked mane back. “Whew! Tell ya what. It’s one thing to score with twins. But to piss them off? There aren’t enough eyes on a stallion to turn black! Heheh…”
Rainbow Dash leaned back. “Ugh. You’re grosser than gross, pal. I expected all of Khao’s lackeys to be total meat fodder, but hypocrites? You make me wanna barf.”
“I’m not all that fond of mirrors myself, lady.” Zaid smirked. “Though, for what it’s worth, being with the Herald paid pretty well. I didn’t do much but patrol the deck and bum cigarettes off of passing merchant ships. I tell ya, the wheat they feed you at devotionals is tangy to the tongue and all, but it clogs up the nose like tar when you smoke it.”
“Was there, like, a test to pass in order to qualify for their brotherhood/sisterhood thing?”
“Yeah. They asked me if I thought the world was miserable and incomplete. I said ‘yeah.’ So they then asked if I wanted to help restore balance to the universality of all life. And I was like ‘Will there be grilled cheese?’ And they were all ‘certainly.’ So I was all ‘cool!’”
Rainbow Dash face hoofed, sighing. “I can’t believe I didn’t just follow the lavender light…”
“Oh, so you know what she did with the book?”
Rainbow Dash did a double-take, bringing her hoof down. “Huh?!”
“Wait…” Zaid’s face twisted. “Now that I think of it, I haven’t seen one slice of grilled cheese sandwiches--”
Rainbow Dash thrusted her muzzle into his face. “What do you know about Kera and the book?!”
“Well, she has it. Right?” Zaid blinked. “I mean, that’s what this is all about, isn’t it? The book she stole?”
“She… she stole it?” Rainbow Dash stammered.
“Yeah! You know what, she totally did!” Zaid smirked. “That’s why we were all chasing after her! Well, they were all chasing after her. I was trying to get this lighter to work, and suddenly we were being shelled. Then next thing I knew, this poor little kid was falling over the edge and I was all, ‘Jee, that would suck to die so young and never get old enough to smoke, and here I am getting all worked up over a lighter… and being shelled to death.’” Zaid blinked. “Come to think of it, it didn’t make much sense at the time. I guess it was instinctual. I didn’t even see a book on her until I pulled her onto the deck, and by then she had hidden the thingy when the Ledo lugs sent a skiff with enforcers to take the girl… and her thingy. Her girlthingy.”
“That… that means they have Kera…” Rainbow Dash winced. “And the book!” She spun towards the southeast, staring at a distant speck of lavender. “Unnngh-Dang it!” She fell upon the ground and tugged at her mane. “I’m such a moron! Why didn’t I fly faster?! Why didn’t I let Roarke take point or something?! Rgggh!”
“So, like, Khao said that your eyes can see the ancient book wherever it happens to be,” Zaid said. “That right, ‘binger?”
“Mmmm… stop calling me that…” Rainbow Dash muttered.
“Well, if you’re so hell-bent on finding the little scamp, why not go after her now?!”
“She’s with a crapton of enforcers now!” Rainbow Dash frowned. “On a battlecruiser! If I fly within one hundred feet of the darn thing, I’ll be weaker than soggy noodles! They’ll blow me out of the sky and then the only pony who can save Kera is Roarke, and I’m not entirely sure I can predict how trustworthy she is anymore!”
“Ew, the book conks you out, ‘binger?” Zaid squinted. “Why not just use the odor’s jut?”
Rainbow Dash flashed him a look. “What what?”
“Y’know…” Zaid motioned with his hoof. “The odor’s jut! The rune! I mean, you keep a bunch of them around you while making your trip to save the world from dying and stuff?”
“Uhhhhh…”
“Hold on a second. I’ll show you what I’m talking about.” Zaid reached for his fetlock. He pulled the rainbow-colored band off, inverted it, and showed its dark underside. “This right here. Don’t tell me you haven’t got one!”
Rainbow Dash leaned forward, taking the hoofband in a nervous grasp. Her lips parted as she gazed at the symbol before her.
The emblem consisted of three parallel horizontal lines flanking a central stalk. Towards the right of the center line, two angles floated, one small and the other large, with their lines meeting at the right. Within the larger angle, a half circle was housed. The whole symbol resembled a complex arrow in a way. Rainbow’s hoof felt the grooves that the lines made in the ex-Heraldite’s band.
“‘Odrsjot…’” Rainbow Dash muttered.
Zaid raised his eyebrows. “Oh, so that’s how you pronounce it?”
“According to… well… according to a very good friend of mine.” Rainbow Dash gulped. “A mare who’s desperately wanting to see Kera again.”
“Did this mare explain to you how to use the thing?”
“Use it?” Rainbow Dash glanced up. “Use it how?”
“Well, according to Khao, whoever holds the Text of the Prophets with this thingy will be imbued with Angelic Power. She gave us all one to carry around, so that if we had to hide from the Harbinger’s eyes in a pinch, we’d invert it and grab onto the book.”
“What… for?”
“I dunno.” Zaid shrugged. “But according to Khao, the runes were all originally etched in pages belonging to the book. They were taken out ages ago and turned into a stencil by monks who really had nothing better to do with their lives. Heh.”
“The… the rune cancels out the power of the book?” Rainbow Dash spoke aloud as she gazed across the gray trading post. “Then, with this thing, I j-just might be able to snatch Kera from the Ledomaritans, no problem!”
“Uhhhh… sure?” Zaid shrugged. “You can have the thing if you want. It totally isn’t a chick magnet. Heck knows, I’ve tried. Heheh… unless… uhm… y-you count, of course, but Khao said that the Harbinger would be a ‘lonely soul seeking no comfort besides what Elk June Burrow can provide.’ She said nothing about her having an angry metal sarcophagus with legs for a fillyfriend.”
“She’s not my fillyfriend!” Rainbow Dash waved the hooflet around, frowning. “You ever actually tried this thing, genius?! How do I know you’re not making this garbage up?”
“What?!” Zaid chuckled. “You kidding?” He slipped his mane back and smirked towards the overcast sky. “It’s been years since I’ve eaten out of garbage!”
“And so you think this band you’re wearing will protect you from the adverse effects of the tome?” Roarke asked as the two flew swiftly southeast.
“That’s what I’m hoping!” Rainbow Dash nodded and spoke over the whipping wind. “We’ll track down this airship, find a way to sneak on board, grab Kera, grab the tome, and book it back to Gray Smoke! No pun intended!”
“Sounds like a plan!” Roarke shouted back. “I only have one question!”
“Shoot.”
Roarke grumbled through her helmet. “Why in the name of Searo’s titanium uterus are we bringing that breeder along?!”
Rainbow Dash glanced down at the breathless, wide-eyed stallion flailing in her grasp as the two soared over trees, marshes, and forests. “Look, I’m not entirely sure just how the book ticks, ya feel me? And this guy’s been with the Herald long enough to possibly have a clue. There’s no telling how badly things will go down when the book is in our grasp! We could use him, still!”
“That is a stupid and foolhardy choice,” Roarke droned. “But knowing you, I suspect there’s no arguing the point.” Roarke faced ahead and accelerated. “Just try not to get any of his stallion sweat near me.”
“You hear that, dude?!” Rainbow Dash shouted down at the dangling equine. “She’s no longer wanting to kill you!”
“I have bugs in my teeth!”
Rainbow shrugged. “Good enough.” And she flapped her wings harder and tailed Roarke under the fall of evening.