Rainbow Dash squinted… then squinted some more. She groaned inwardly as she attempted--however uncomfortably--to fly towards the setting sun. She looked over her shoulder.
Roarke was a few dozen feet behind, gliding at a slower pace, firing the thrusters of her suit every now and then in order to keep the distance from getting any greater between the two mares.
Grumbling inwardly, Rainbow Dash turned back towards the western horizon. She closed her eyes tightly shut, her bangs blowing in the cold breeze of the high mountain air. Through her closed lids, slightly to the left, she saw the faint touch of a lavender shape strobing like a lone firefly in the dead of night.
Reopening her eyes, she tilted her wings and pivoted slightly to the south. The air thundered from the sound of Roarke compensating with her thrusters. As the metal mare closed the distance some more, both ponies banked to the left and glided over several jutting mountain peaks.
Rainbow Dash fumbled through foliage, rustling past leaves and pine needles. At last, she reached forward through the outer layer of a dense forest and pulled down a thin branch. She gazed through the thin space she had made.
West, beyond the crest of a steep hill, a township lay. Several unicorn and earth pony shapes could be seen milling about from building to building, bartering and trading materials from all across the continent. Towards the north end of the village, a tall wooden tower loomed, and a small dirigible was hovering up to dock in place.
Rainbow took a deep breath. She turned and looked over her shoulder.
Roarke trotted up, her face and eye-lenses exposed. She glanced at Rainbow Dash inquisitively.
In response, Rainbow turned and stared intently at the township. She blinked several times, then pivoted her head towards the southwest.
The lavender light loomed beyond the hilly valley.
Rainbow Dash shook her head and pointed towards the southwest.
Roarke nodded, clapped her helmet off, and took off with a burst of rockets. Rainbow flashed the village a worried glance, but none of the ponies were looking up at the source of the noise. Sighing heavily, Rainbow let go of the branch, flapped her wings, and flew up, threading her way through the pine trees before ascending into the murky clouds along with her bounty hunter companion.
Stars twinkled above as Rainbow Dash and Roarke made their way west. A foggy overcast lingered beneath them, shifting and bubbling with every gust of high wind. The moon was starting to wane, but it was still bright. Two lunar shadows rolled along the cloudtops beneath them, like a second pair of flying ponies.
Rainbow Dash stared at them, and the dark grayness of it all began to blur. Shadows grew in her peripheral vision, and the constant roar of Roarke’s thrusters was becoming downright hypnotic. Her ruby eyes grew thin, and her head bobbed on several occasions. At last, she drifted downward, and her eyes closed. Her lips pursed and her wings started growing limp--
Roarke flew over suddenly and smacked Rainbow Dash upside the head.
The pegasus jerked in the air with a start, her ruby eyes wide. A pulse of light came from her pendant, and she hyperventilated in mid flight. Blinking, she eventually cast a glare to her left.
Roarke waved back, pointing down through the clouds.
Rainbow Dash shook her head furiously.
Roarke simply stared at her…
With a sigh, Rainbow Dash flapped her wings hard and flew faster.
Roarke watched her. A metallic groan rang through her helmet, and soon she was burning her fuel more swiftly to catch up.
Together, the pair pierced the clouds and skimmed several winding tributaries below. The flickering reflection of moonlight constantly stabbed at Rainbow’s eyes, annoying her, keeping her more alert.
In the glow of a pale sunrise, Roarke sat atop a stack of boulders. She had stripped off half her armor, and was busy ejecting the fuel manifold from the suit’s backplates. Reaching into the satchel Props had prepared for her, she grabbed a fresh canister and loaded it into the fuel intake.
With a deep breath, she looked down towards the crook of two trees lying in the shadow of the boulders.
Rainbow Dash was curled in a tight blue ball, hugging herself as terrible shivers wracked through her system. The mare’s teeth clattered, but not from cold. Her eyes squinted open, and they flickered red on yellow then returned to their normal ruby glaze. The pendant rattled around her neck, until the shivers eventually went away.
Exhaling heavily, she tried sitting up, but was too dizzy. With a frustrated grunt, she fell back onto the soft grass, looking like a slain sapphiric caterpillar. She hadn’t been sulking for long when a set of hooves trotted by, then dropped a bag of celery right in front of her muzzle.
Fighting nausea, Rainbow glanced up at her companion.
Without saying a word--or so much as looking at her--Roarke took of, testing the new fuel cells as she scouted out the western edge of the valley.
Rainbow blinked, then sighed. With a dull expression, she stuck her tongue out, hooked a stalk of celery into her mouth, and began lethargically munching on it.
The two bent south again, gliding over fields and riverscapes. The setting sun lingered to their right, casting shadows that threaded east past their majestic bodies.
As stream after stream flew beneath Rainbow’s eyes, she blinked a few times, then furrowed her brow. She glanced to her side, only to see Roarke glancing back.
Over a line of hilly ridges, a wide field stretched before them, broken by three rivers threading through it. However, the entire landscape was filled to the brim with giant wooden skeletons: the battered, weathered framework of dozens upon dozens of fallen zeppelins.
Rainbow Dash instantly recognized the Ledomaritan constructions. Even without any surviving banners, the make of their cannons and steam turbines brought instant jolts to her beating heart. No matter how hard she narrowed her vision, she couldn’t make out a single living body amongst the massive field of scrap.
As she and Roarke rounded another line hills, Rainbow finally understood the true age of the spectacle. Hundreds upon hundreds of skeletons were scattered abroad, their bones battered and strewn with the overgrowth of weeds and grass. Between the bodies lay rifles, poleaxes, and numerous other weapons rusted with time and neglect. Several equine skulls had fallen loose from their hosts, rolling downhill until they came to an eerie stop along riverbanks, where they resembled beached buoys bleached by the sun. Their horns stretched silently towards the sky like forsaken pikes.
The two mares flew further southwest, and the air filled with a rusted smell. In place of the dense wood, Rainbow saw fallen hulls of metal, like giant iron sarcophagi. The surfaces of these shells had become dull with age, but Rainbow got the distinct feeling that they all had once been painted a deep blue, like that color of a tropical ocean. Across the peeling surfaces, Rainbow spotted the hint of white bands, depicting what she could only determine was a giant serpent. This motif repeated itself across most of the derelict vessels lying beneath her, though she didn’t have many to go one. The number of crashed Ledomaritan zeppelins outmatched these by about four to one. What was more, there were no bodies to be found strewn about the southern wreckage.
With a pensive expression, Rainbow Dash gladly glided past the mess, threading her way past the edge of a ravine, then following the canyon as it carried the river streams along a westward bend. Roarke’s engines echoed across the steep earthen walls, drowning even the most sullen of the pegasus’ deep thoughts.
its nice to see them on a relaxing flight
Those sceneries...
They bring back memories of simpler times.
The great beast of war fed eagerly here.
I've got a bad feeling about this place.
Huh.
Now that Rainbow had another of those dizzy spells, I remembered something from a few chapters ago.
Her pain is also her healing... That's interesting, to say the least. Also, what are these "prophetic words" and what else do they say about Austraeoh?
This probably won't get mentioned until we see Khao and the Heralds (Zaid?) again in who knows how many chapters, and even then it may take some time.
But, does this imply that RD will make it to the midnight Armory?
3324480 Is it because of all the corpses and destroyed ships?
Blasphemy!
But the epic flight scenes are nice, so all is forgiven.
That feeling when you remember that Dash is terminally ill. It's not a sad feeling, per se, since she's done so much with her last few months, but it's... a feeling.
You make me have feelings!
starting to mane; wane
was a grant serpent; giant
That fanclub sure managed to fly far, didn't they. For some reason, I kinda want to just sit in the middle of the battlefield. Looking at the wreckage.
Wow. This chapter. It captured the vibe of the early Austraeoh chapters once again, but this time, Dash is not flying alone.
~bass
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It's all a pretty nice callback to Austraeoh's style; a reminder that she's in this perilous situation, but with companions.
I don't believe for a moment that Nightshade genuinely cares about Kera. Nor do I believe she is going to simply change as a character and just forget about her ambitions. No sir, I do not think she is redeemable.
Two Tsunderes Fly West.
Ah, a nice relaxing, Austraeoh-esque flight with beautiful descriptions...
...of corpses and airship wreckage.
Throw back, eh? I dig it, man.
It's like a montage!
If you look to your left, there is carnage. And to your right, more carnage. We hope you enjoyed your tour with Air Death.
I can SEE this animated in my brain. I want to storyboard this moment so badly, haha.
Nostalgia.
Nice Austraeoh-style chapter (despite the heretical bearing). And Rainbow and Roarke aren't at each other's throats as much as I feared they would. But it seems like it's too easy so far. You know they're not just gonna get there, find Kera, and, "Okay, back to Gray Smoke". Either Khao or Shell or some other, new adversary (because that's just what the story needs ) is gonna start some shit.
Also, something about the airship graveyard is ominous, and not just for the obvious reason. In particular, those blue-and-white ones. I got the feeling those weren't Xonan, so what were they? I can't help but feel they'll be important later.
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I remember that standing out to me, too. Obviously some kind of artificial preservatives - magical, chaotic, or whatever - will be necessarily for Dash to keep until the Midnight Armory, but to read it put this way is intriguing. As malignant as I suspect Khao and her minions may be, I'll be looking forward to hearing more of what they have to say. They seem to have at least some idea of the Big Picture.
My first thought was that the wreckage was the remains of an old border conflict, when Ledomare was still growing. The snakes have of course made very clear that these wreckages belong to no faction known to us. At the same time, the lack of corpses either suggests that they were damn good at what they did, that they won the battle and buried only their own, or weren't even there, saying that the airships weren't manned. Taking everything into account, I conclude:
i2.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/335/199/cef.png
I have no idea.
3324484 No Zaid there.
I want moar Zaid! Please?
Why do I have the feeling the blue airships with the serpent image belong to a race or people wiped out by Ledo...
Would Ledo commit genocide? Yes. They probably would.
Somepony should ask for permission to write a Life in Ledomare sidefic.
3326102
Nightshade's more redeemable than Shell; that's for certain.
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I guess that RD and Roarke have yet to come accross the fresh victims(ships and bodies) of war (i.e. Shell blasting everything out of the sky)
Getting psyched up for Xonan fighting forces.
Rainbow Dash is getting more and more tired as she progresses through her adventure. do you think that either the journey itself, or Discord, is taking a toll on poor little Dashie?
IIIIIt's Dashie's evaluation time!
Alright, occasional Austraeoh throwbacks while still keeping with the new theme of the story? This I can get behind. Beautiful descriptions as always...but who did the Ledomaritans fight here? And why are none of the serpent soldiers' bodies here? Mysterious...These are my thoughts.
-MASH
I really like how Dash is taking on the whole "solitary" flight thing again (solitary compared to when she was with the rest of the crew, anyway) but with a companion this time. It shows how far she's come, even if said companion is a cantankerous tin can who rarely speaks. Jerk with a heart of gold (possibly quite literally) and all that.
3326278
I totally agree. There's just something cinematic about dejectedly eating a piece of celery, it seems.
3325591
But what's the song playing during the montage? That's what I'm having trouble deciding.
>Roarke took of, testing the new fuel cells
iz "off"
3325591 It isn't like a montage. It IS a montage!
-SPirit
I dont like this...this feels as ominous as the bermuda triangle...
Could their surroundings be any more ominous? Well, it's not quite the land of half-dead burnt to a crisp ponies from Austraeoh, but it's getting there.
It's odd how serene mass graves can be . . .
Very sombre. I love chapters like this.
That battlefield description was... absolutely beautiful. It's also very telling to just how fucked Ledo is; it was harder to tell when we were being slammed up the butt with all the propaganda in Eljunbryo and Innavedr, but the Xonans are really fucking them sideways in this war.
5872191 however, I'm starting ti feel like, Maybe the xonans aren't as bad as they have been painted. I mean, i am sure at least some of them are messed up, but I REALLY get the idea that they are not quite the "Religious fanatic barbarians" they have been painted to be. Especially after the encounter with the Captured children and their parents
Back to Austreaoh's roots. Amazing landscape descriptions and no dialogue.
Fading ghosts in the shadow of war...
off
____________
6028149
True, but then you got to wonder, just what in the flying tartarus is up with the Demons that one sole survivor witnessed? Sure the families and orphans were pretty awesome, and all around good guys. I mean the world isn't in absolutes, so I'm sure that there are as many good Xonans as there are decent people in Ledomare ... but still for being technologically inferior, the Xonan's have some seriously wicked magical firepower.
Oh no.
They're going to find the destroyed airship... and the bodies of those cultists and... and they're going to think...
Wait, where'd the book go?
5077730
One could get lost in it just as easily
It's wonderful to see how much can be conveyed without a single line of dialogue.