"Guhh!" Seclorum stumbled back through the mud on metal-laced hooves. He sneered, eyes flaring. "Who the buck?!" A shield slammed across his haggard skull. "Ooof!"
Eagle Eye slid forward, snarling. "Me!" He barked. "I'm the buck! Yaaaaugh!" He charged at the battered stallion, slashing and stabbing and slicing with his sword. Sparks flew from each impact his blade made against Seclorum's rusted frame.
"Easy, k-kid!" Josho sputtered, slowly pulling himself up onto even ground. "The d-dude's a lot tougher than he looks—"
"So that gives him free reign to toss one of my best friends about like he's leftovers?!" Eagle's voice cracked as he leaned the weight of his weapons against Seclorum's blocking forelimbs. "Grrrrrrrghhh!" He spat. "You call yourself an 'old friend?!' Haaaugh!" He shoved Seclorum through the muck and wreckage as shells exploded overhead. "I don't care how round or smelly Josho is! Nopony uses him like a hoofball without asking me first!"
"You're feisty, soldier..." Seclorum hissed, eyes narrowing like daggers. "But headstrong." He reached through Eagle's defense and grabbed his shoulders. "Allow me to relieve you the burden of your skull!"
"Dammit, fruitstain!" Josho hollered.
"Don't worry! I've got this!" Eagle's eyes suddenly bulged as he was lifted skyward like a paperweight in Seclorum's grip. "Wait! I don't got this!" The metal-reinforced stallion flung him into the debris field of a collapsed tent. "Aaaaackies!"
"Eagle!" Josho snarled. He watched helplessly as Seclorum thundered towards the unicorn, tossing up mud and loose earth. With fatty muscles rippling, Josho rolled himself awkwardly onto the edge of the plateau. "Ggggggnnngh!"
"Rainbow...?"
The pegasus was curled in a fetal position, hissing into her folded forelimbs. "Mmmngh... j-just... just a hangover..." Whe wheezed. "Don't... don't sw-sweat it, AJ..."
"Rainbow..." A tiny hoof shook the pony's shoulder.
Rainbow's eyes popped open. The yellow and red melted away, instead reflecting a filly's gentle face.
Kera and smiled. "Good. You're awake." She gulped. "You think you might... uhhh... b-be ready to save the world, now?"
Rainbow's ears twitched. Instantly, her head swam with pain and dizziness. Nevertheless, she gritted her teeth past the agony and stirred her limbs. Zaid and Nightshade reached down, helping the mare up to her hooves. Teetering left and right, Rainbow struggled to keep her lunch in. She stared with bleary eyes at the book.
Kera stepped back, levitating the runic tome higher in Rainbow's sight. With the Odrsjot band clear from her horn, the book glowed brighter than ever. It almost made Rainbow pass out just to look at it.
"It's now or never..."
Rainbow shivered, then glanced over to her side.
Nightshade stared firmly. "You have to be the one to put the book in," she said. "You know this."
"Right..." Rainbow said with a shudder, limping forward towards the book. She almost stumbled, causing Zaid to jerk towards her, but she picked herself back up with outstretched wingfeathers and marched towards the golden pedestal. "Library duty in the face of an apocalypse. Heh. See, this is why I never got into egghead stuff."
"We're right behind you, Rainbow!" Kera said.
"Yes, well, you might wanna be a bit further behind me," Rainbow grunted from the middle of the metal bridge. "There's no telling what sparks might fly once I shelve this motherbucker."
"Whatever happens, it is for the good of this continent," Nightshade said in a low tone.
Zaid's eyes jerked towards her.
"Right..." Rainbow Dash took a deep breath, then lurched forward with the book. "Here goes."
"Uhm..." Zaid squinted nervously at Nightshade, then back at Rainbow. "Is it too late for a time out—?"
It certainly was. Between Rainbow's disappearing figure and the unimaginably bright pulse of light devouring her, there were no more words to be said. Kera shrieked, falling back into Zaid as an enormous pulse of energy fountained outward from the pedestal. The Xonan filly teetered towards the chasm below, only for Zaid to catch her at the last second. He squatted low, hugging Kera deeply, aiming his shoulder against the wavering bands of energy.
Somewhere, Rainbow's voice could be heard, cracking loose a wheezing shriek.
Nightshade stood against the tumult, squinting her eyes, striving to see.
And all around them, the metal world became alive. Pendulums swung. Conveyor belts rattled. Gears spat loose millennia worth of dust as they turned and spun and spiraled.
The lavender light was all encompassing, filling every crevice and corridor, setting the entire ravine aflame...
Far away from the edge of Seclorum's encampment, Nevlamas touched down on putrid limbs. She hunched over the smoldering remnants of a skystone manaship, leering her leprotic snout through the rising flames. Hissing, the Dark Divine reached her talons forward, gripped the hull of the vessel, and peeled it apart like a giant soup can.
With sparks of loose mana and shrapnel, the vessel's cockpit lay bear. A battered, charred figure of an equine lay inside, barely breathing. Khao's teary eyes reflected the dragon of chaos looming above her. She didn't have enough strength to move, much less scream. The zealot leader simply sat—slumped and bleeding—in her cockpit, as her whole body lit up with an aquamarine spotlight.
Nevlamas opened both jaws wide, the air between her and her target distorting with heated vapors.
It was precisely then that the chaos fumes pouring out of her body suddenly billowed, blowing away from the ravine far away. "Hraaaauckkkt!" Nevlamas sputtered, her body going limp. Her shoulders buckled, and she almost collapsed entirely onto the fragile shell of the manaship. Eyeslits narrowing, she spun and looked past her tail.
A beam of lavender light spat out of the lacerated earth. It almost blinded her to even look at it.
"Graaautkkkt!" Nevlamas shuddered again. Her scales spread apart between each breaths, revealing a pained aquamarine glow from deep beneath her flesh. Her diseased skin fumed with thicker and thicker currents of chaotic runoff. "Hrgggghhh... no..." Her teeth gritted, producing sparks. "No! Austraeoh, you fool!" Snarling, she dragged herself away from the battered skystone vessel and bounded towards the source of the harmonic resonance. "Let this dying world die! You hearrrrr me?!" She stumbled her way towards the burning energy source, losing flanks of skin and dragon armor with each slithering stride. "Let it die!"
Khao shuddered, wheezed, and clenched her bleeding jaw shut, eyes closed to the misery engulfing her.
yessss kill her
Just like old times.
Khao isn't dead yet, but it doesn't look like she's gonna last very long. Rainbow is... Unknown at the moment, and Nevalmas has been shown the light that will end in either her destruction, or redemption. Time to find out which that is.
All hail Zadubadabu, for that is the next spot to go to after ending the dark divine. Live long and Zadubadabu my friends.
Glorious.
Nevlamas,you must be crazy. Rainbow Dash always wins.
Nevlamas should have known that everything Rainbow touches turns to awesome. It's an obvious fact.
IC, can I convince you to stop talking about Khao? Like forever? It gives me hope that she survived to see her accomplishment.
3794925
NOT DEAD YET.
not....dead...
3794981
Best case scenario, Khao is crippled for life. Worst, she dies.
Or you can reverse that, depending on your opinion.
It's time for Nevlamas' last stand! Josho and EE team up to fight Seclorum! Khao takes a nap! Rainbow tries not to faint! Zaid needs a grilled cheese sandwich! All this and more, next time on Odrsjot!
I don't know what kind of vegetables the ponies of this continent have been eating, but goddamn can they take punishment. Though, to be fair, Khao might be put out to pasture soon at this rate.
...part of me wants to smell something fishy with Nightshade. Zaid seemed to be uneasy about something there at the last minute, and crap knows placing the book didn't seem to be very harmonic, if Rainbow's shrieks are any indication. I hope betrayal isn't afoot.
FINALLY CAUGHT UP. God it feels good to be reading this series again.
I wonder if Nightshade, in using those extra children and death reads to boost the power of the flame, has been trying to do the equivalent of putting a pure plutonium block into a normal uranium reactor, and discovred that it doesnt work 5 times better, but a hundred times, and rapidly increasing.
What state will Seccy and Nevelmas be when they finally end up in the fully operational machine world control block?
3795042 Considering all RD had to do to fix the machine/world previously would be to poke an inert 'flame' already in place, I'm tempted to agree with you that something is very amiss. I'm curious to see how the spark manifests this time.
Huh, I never thought I'd say this, but I hope Khao survives.
Also, damnit, Nightshade! If you're being tricky again I'm going to be very put out!
Man this story has me under its thumb. I just cant go on without my daily fix. Thanks for the story Imploding C.
3795161
Nightshade is 343 Guilty Spark. ("spark"? Eh? Ehhhhh???)
"This is the only way. You must....activate the ring!"
Wow, a massive update. I hope it doesn't mean no updates for the next week.
Floydien would disagree.
static3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130223120010/mlp/images/c/c4/Fluttershy_Bear_K.O._S2E3.png
No! Khao NOO! Hang in there lady!
Let it die! Let it die!
Can't hold it up anymore.
Let it die! LET IT DIE!
Spew some stuff and change it for
A new world, filled with dark and chaos
Let the world just die,
austraeoh never bothered me anywa
That's like asking the Wind not to blow.
3794969 Well by that logic I am about the most awesome thing in the world right now.
3795042 Nightshade talking about the greater good has always been bad thus far. We've trusted her now because her goals seemed to align with Rainbow's, but with this twist now I highly suspect treachery.
3794925>>3795138 Well now you're just doing this on purpose.
so much wins
And still, after all this time...
Oh, EE. I think Rainbow is rubbing off on you. Charging in without thinking in the defense of a friend despite it being a bad idea. As for the rest of this chapter, pure awesome.
Big update!
IIIIIt's Dashie's evaluation time!
Oh, dear...I do hope EE survives this one. Anyways, is Nevlamas being purified right now? I thought that she was too far gone to be fixed, but whatever. These are my thoughts so far.
-MASH
Aww man. Poor Khao...
The machine world is running. And Khao was saved just in time.
-SPirit
say live and let diiieeeee -sings-
anyways, im not happy to see Khao dying, but id rather see her this way than how i initially thought.
This way, shes mangled and burnt to the point of FUBAR. but shes alive long enough to see hope of Nev get blown away by that tide of that prophecized beautiful harmonic energy.
This way, her last thought and words (either a pained rattle or pained whisper) could be something like
"theres still hope for this world after all..."
id MUCH rather see that over this:
-flies at dragon. dragon turns around last second, last thing you see and feel is furiously white-blue fire cover you, your craft, and your crew. the last thing you hear is the unnatural roar of Nevlamas.- the most shed be able to think and say are "spark help us/me". terrible way to go. :(
Someone hates harmony and cute, colorful ponies a whole hell of a lot.
Khao could still make it! Now that she's given up the whole "WE ARE TRUE ELJUNBRO BLARRRH", she has some real potential
Don't die on us, gurl!
5550948 Nevlamas is Howard Stien confirmed
Wow. In earlier chapters I just wanted Khao to die, but now...
Come on girl. You just figured out the right thing. Live to be a better pony!
Where's the catch, it is never this simple.
Khao's getting hit with chaos fire...
Chaos
Khao
Illuminati confirmed.
Okay, I actually laughed out loud at this.
I'm still hoping Nevlamas somehow gets de-corrupted.
Like a boss, only bosses stare into explosions.
Waking away from explosions is for wusses and sisssies
I wonder if Concentrated Harmony undoes the effects of chaos fire?
Also, I hope Harmony is restored to Nevlamas. Itd be a sad day to have another Sombra incadent