Big Bard Best Friend Forever
Bard sat in a rusted corner of the rusted ship and rested his back against a rusted hull. Sighing, he cradled the guitar in his legs and wingtips and started slowly plucking away.
It wasn't long until Rainbow Dash shuffled over to stand before him. She gulped and managed a feeble: "Hey."
"Howdy," Bard droned without looking up. "You should try to get some sleep."
Rainbow shrugged. "Not sure I could if I tried."
"Ya say that now," Bard muttered, strumming more gentle notes. "But when the exhaustion really hits ya... you just might not be in the position to handle it then... or at least not half as much as ya can now."
"Right now..." Rainbow Dash slumped down and sat against the hull of the cabin beside him. "I want to make sure that all of my buddies are doing okay."
"Mrmmmfff..." He breathed out the side of his stubbled muzzle. "Then ya best be checkin' on my lil' sis. She's the one blowin' a gasket."
"I don't know her as well as you do."
"Ya sure about that?"
Silence.
Rainbow squinted at him. "You need to shave."
"Yeah... well..." He arched an eyebrow in her direction. "You need to grow."
Rainbow Dash giggled.
Bard smirked.
More silence.
"... ... ...I know that you really care for Nicole," Rainbow said. "But... she's a grown mare." She looked calmly at him. "And the fact of the matter is... she chose to join us on this trip."
"She didn't choose to go to the edge of the world," Bard grumbled. "She don't even know a third of what we're gettin' into. Don't none of us know what we're gettin' into!"
"Well, true." Rainbow nodded. "But you can't just dismiss her entirely. She loves you dearly, Bard, and it... can't be easy just letting you go now that you've both newly reunited."
"The fact that I got her out of that whole stinkin' mess with Blue is the biggest reason why I want her stayin' on the light side where it's safe."
"Where it's safer," Rainbow insisted. "She was right with what she said earlier. Between the likes of Chandler and the stampeding windigoes, she's stuck between a rock and a hard place if she stays here."
Bard squinted. "Are ya sayin' that we should be lettin' my little sister brave hell and high water on the way to the Midnight Armory?"
"No..." Rainbow shook her head. "And if I had my way, I'd not bring any of you guys over to the dark side. But... let's face it... most of the Herald have already made their choice."
"Damn straight."
"But... not all of them have family," Rainbow said. She looked steadily at the stallion. "In fact... none of them did... until just yesterday."
Bard stopped strumming. He looked directly at the mare. "What are ya sayin', Rainbow?"
"I'm saying..." Rainbow took a deep breath. "That a long time ago... you told somepony very special to you that 'there'd be no more sunsets' for you." She gulped. "...that can be true here as much as on the Dark Side."
Bard's brow furrowed. "You kickin' me out, Rainbow?"
"Bard—"
"I'm more than a member of the Herald, y'know!" He frowned. "I'm a Desperado to the core! And ain't gettin' off this train we're on!" He pointed across the cabin. "I owe Dubya more than words or song can say! You think I'm gonna be abandonin' him anytime soon or—"
"Look at me."
Bard blinked. Sighing, he folded his forelimbs and glared at Rainbow.
Rainbow spoke firmly: "You haven't abandoned anyone. In fact... more than anyone I've known since crossing the Grand Choke... you've shown so much faith in me..." She winced, her ears drooping. "...way more faith than I deserve."
"Aw shucks..."
"Even after I sent you away..."
"Rainbow... now dun get all sappy—"
"...with no connections to Mortuana's hero club—save just Wildcard—you agreed to come back and save my fuzzy blue butt." Rainbow gulped. "The Herald got more than their fair share of awesomeness from the likes of you long before you even became an official member!"
"Even if I did skedaddle..." Bard cocked his head to the side. "Who would be the Seventh?"
Rainbow blew out the side of her muzzle. "I dunno. Echo?"
"HAH!" Bard grinned wickedly. "Fat lotta good that would do for the future of Austraeoh!" He cackled. "Hell, if that's yer only alternative, then I might as well lasso you tight and carry you over to the Midnight Armory on my lonesome!"
"Bard..."
"Assumin' Dubya dun skin me clean for it first!"
"Dang it..." Rainbow buried her face in her hooves. "Grrrrrrrr..." She looked up with a frown—or at least her best attempt at one. "I didn't ever want to steal your life from you! Okay?!"
Bard blinked at her, lips pursed.
"Desperado or not... bounty hunter or not... the fact is..." She gulped. "...family is super important for you. And with the likes of Nicole... you've got family. And... and I don't want you losing all of that... all on account of me." She hugged herself, staring across the cabin. "Even the Noble Jury... after all that they gave up for me..." She squeaked. "I st-still let them go... to live healthy, normal lives." She sniffled. "It... it just doesn't seem right to ask the impossible of so many ponies. And I can't illustrate what the rest of the Herald are losing. But you?"
"Rainbow... darlin'..." Bard wrapped a hoof around her gently from the side. "I told ya that the Herald is my family and I meant it. Ain't no changin' that." He smiled warmly. "Now Nicole's family too... but her place ain't on the move like me... it ain't about danger and death-defyin' nonsense. She's just got her heart mixed up with her head. That's all good and fine... and I dun blame her. But... I'll be damned if I let my lil' sister die... all because I'm needin' to head on out and protect my other lil' sister."
Rainbow Dash blinked at that. She looked up at him.
Bard winked.
Rainbow sniffed. She rolled her eyes—if only in a loose attempt to dry them. "And you call me sappy," she muttered.
He chuckled. "Well, you are, aren't ya?"
Rainbow merely groaned in protest. Nevertheless, with a tiny shudder, she gave in... leaning her head against his strong shoulder. She stared across the dimly-lit cabin with tired eyes. "I never thought I'd dig the idea."
"What? Of being sappy?"
"No, you dense melon fudge. Of having an older brother."
"Ohhhhh... well... so far, Nicole wants to kill me... so I guess I'm one for two."
"She doesn't want to kill you," Rainbow muttered. "She just cares for you a lot."
"And how about you, Lil' Missy?"
Rainbow sighed. "... ... ...if I could get over being annoyed by you, then Nicole sure can."
Bard nodded with a smile. "That's a good start, I reckon."
Silence.
"If you're like an older brother..." Rainbow muttered. "...then what does that make Wildcard?"
Bard shrugged. "A pet?"
Rainbow snorted, doubling over.
Bard's teeth showed beneath his grin. "The varmint sure does squawk enough to want crackers!"
"Unnnnnnngh... you're an idiot."
"Nah... I'm yer idiot."
"Hmmmm..." Rainbow contemplated that. She leaned calmly against his shoulder... and calmly closed her eyes.
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This got a legitimate snorting laugh out of me, and I'm still not quite sure why.
Hmmm...nah. I think Bard is still going to end up staying. Nicole? Well...I hope so. If nothing else because the more party members, the better.
But really, nowhere is safe anymore. For anyone. And I dread what might be coming around the end of this book.
You know, I didn't see a brother and sister relationship between them coming, but now that it is here, I rather dig it.
7453928
Yes I must agree that exchange was quite funny.
I loved the interactions between Bard and Rainbow here it was extremely cute.
7453928
We were warned that book 9 was going to be close to a Mature rating, so that dread of yours is well-placed. The question isn't if someone's going to die, it's who. And when. And just how many tears will be shed thereof.
..Dammit ):(, the first thing that came to mind after this chapter was this.
I can picture Bard just softly playing this while Dash rests on him.
Still.. heh...Dash had a sister in Belle, now she has a brother in Bard.
-Companions are abound, frozen spectres hound. Utaan.
7453967 the least likely, most heart warming relationship since Josho and Eagle Eye?
Wildcard is the weird, badass uncle of the family who just can't shut up.
Honestly this scene illustrates how Bard is probably going to be the best developed of the Herald for awhile now, just for virtue of having been introduced to the story way earlier, having a much stronger connection to Dash, and having relationships outside of the actual Herald club.
Just watch. When all hope seems lost, Nicole will be the one to save the day using her sisterly sass and batpony charm.
I wonder if there'll be diamond dogs at Bleak's Plummet.
7454055 Well... Yeah
I know I'm probably going to be the only one, but Bards and RD's relationship screws with my suspension of disbelief. It took her much longer to become this close to the Noble Jury. I dunno, it just feels like IC has shoehorned this in, and it's jarring to me to see how close they have become so quickly. I'm sorry, I like all the new characters introduced this book, but there has not been enough time or relationship building for me to believe this. This book has been a bit of a misstep in the series for me, mostly just the last half.
7454144
I dunno. She's known Bard for going on a million words now. They've been through some intense shit together, and for quite some time I've thought they had an interesting (strictly platonic) chemistry between them. I can't say I saw this step in their relationship coming, but it doesn't seem like a stretch to me.
She's making some pretty close relationships with everyone. It'd be a shame if Verlax had a test for her loyalty...
7454249 Well that's why I thought it was weird I was feeling this way....until I realized that Bard has been in roughly half of this book, maybe less. They didn't meet until Rust and was separated a long amount of time after the Quade. Plus their interactions while together seemed very sparse to me and definitely not "brother" building relationship big. I hate I feel this way, but I do.
Also, what a pleasant surprise this comment was, I figured that as soon as my email notification went off I would come back to someone wanting to rip my throat out, since it seems like everyone is onboard with this. Thank you for being nice.
I finally catched up!
I'm happy now.
Wildcard is awesome. Seriously, who wouldn't like a badass catbird like that?
Bard... Yeah, Bard is the one with enough problems in his life to be able to help when other's problems start to make them go bonkers.
I could list all of the Herald like that, but nah, it's useless to repeat what y'all said in previous comments.
I really hope that Nicole will stay. She has... something.
And I have so much ships aaaaah
SS Rainboarke is still the best easthorse OTP, though.
Now, I'm wondering how much of a Shell Seraphimus will become. Will Rainbow be able to talk some sense in her? I doubt it, but it'd make me sad if she had to be killed by our favourite polychrome horse.
We all know that the next Seed is Discord's... but how will the girls react to his presence?
Oh god, I love this. The sap is so thick. Do you think I could make syrup out of it?
7454258 But what's the thing that prevents her from staying loyal there and, like Cadence with a pitchfork, exterminate everything else to protect her caravan? What is that they need to be afraid of in here?
Echo doesn't seem to have told them anything about what's with the place and why he's wanted.
7454273
By the same token, though, Rainbow spent what... a few weeks, tops, with Belle and Pilate before she was separated from them in Foxtaur Forest, and then spent the bulk of Book 3 apart from them, and that didn't interfere with Rainbow coming to care about them.
Again, I dunno. I guess I can see where you're coming from, and you're certainly entitled to your opinion. But like I said, it just doesn't seem all that unbelievable to me.
7454316 Welcome aboard the Noble Jury.
Cabins are one the 4th floor and we are approaching the last dock before the plunge to the dark side, so please, overstock your cabin with status cures.
If you need to, the kitchen is well stocked with comfort food and ingredients, and the gym in the aux. hangar is always open to grind your endurance stat.
Please, enjoy the rest of the flight.
7453967 Same here. Its really nice, and hopefully Bard will be able to stick around a while.
7454387
Ariel, when saving Rainbow from a very sticky situation.
Like many others I've been convinced that the next seed is Discard....but some of the comments are giving me a re-think on that.
One source of the idea that Discard is the next seed is his 'death' was close to and similar to the 'ghostly fives' deaths. They burnt to dust, he was stoned and smashed minutes later.
But some pony else was 'smashed' at that same time, at least emotionally.
Rainbow was always the sixth Element...is it so far fetched to wonder is the sixth seed will in someway b e her's?
Not sure exactly how that will work in the story....but what about the flashing colors?
True the colors seem chaotic but they could also be ....flashing the colors of the rainbow.
7454387 No one, cause Mortuana was the first Herald Death, can't have 2 firsts
The decks still being shuffled.
Who is going to end up with the Ace, and who is going to end up with the double top.
7454316 welcome to the noble jury!
I still ship it.
Unfortunately for Bard, it is Nicole's choice whether or not to stay or to go. Yeah he is the older brother but that does not mena he can make all of the decisions for his family. Unless he wants to be Blue.
Giving more emotional weight in case Bard bites it (just remembering I predicted Bard would die next, as his personal arc was resolved, and then maybe Wildcard, after one last encounter with Seraphimus).
*Offers Wildcard a cracker.*
Awww... cute scenes! Yay!
I really hope Nicole is going to stay.
7454433 Cabins? THERE'S CABINS?! Then why have I been sleeping next to the engine room?!
Okay but you don't know how happy this chapter made me. I legitimately won't be able to stop smiling for the rest of the day.
This is too wonderful. Just the whole brother-sister dynamic, it's too wonderful.
7454802 The flight crew takes no responsibility for uninformed passengers.
7454968
Very true, but largely when it comes to Dash's previous battles its been her intent to avoid killing that I've valued. I fully admit that in Ledomare there were numerous instances where in the craziness of battle she wasn't always able to completely avoid circumstances with ponies dying, but most of the time I don't think she intended deaths to occur. It is, admittedly one criticism I have of the entire Ledomare arc that Dash doesn't personally confront the fact that she's likely done things that have led to unnecessary deaths until a fair chunk into the story, whereas I think she should've had personal conflict over the matter a lot sooner and perhaps been shown having a greater mental awareness (and conflict) of when her actions were causing deaths and how she might have avoided that, but largely I still appreciate that she's arguably never acted with actual intent to kill until Shell.
7454982
She was busy comparing those deaths with her memory of eating ponies in chaos form.
Hard to feel bad in the heat of the moment when you know its the merciful option.
It took until The First Seed and Twilight for her to move past her time of eating ponies and really face her murderizing habits.
7455004
The thing about her chaos form, however, is that she had zero choice in that. Its horrific, yes, but she had no control over her actions.
Every Ledomare soldier that died as a result of her actions was a choice she made, even in the heat of the moment. I would think that causing death as a result of actions you choose to do versus deaths caused when essentially possessed by a spirit of chaos and not having any control would be more mentally trying for a character that values life and harmony, as a general rule.
Personally I just would have appreciated Dash having a few scenes early in the Ledomare arc where she actually mentally and emotionally confronted the fact that her actions had lethal results and considered the ramifications of that, long before the point in the story where she actually did.
7455020
RD didn't care she had no control because she still had full conscious awareness, and so she still took emotional responsibility for it and used it to numb herself to all the other deaths she inflicted.
7455033
I'm not certain why taking emotional responsibility for causing horrible deaths in chaos form would translate to being numb to causing other horrible deaths, but regardless I still consider it a flaw of the arc that she didn't have more personal conflict over prior to the fairly brief conversation she had with Luna about it some time later. *shrugs* You don't have to agree with me, but that is how I feel on the matter.
Awwww, now Rainbow has some surrogate family. Hopefully that starts to make up for the lack of family she's had thus far. Seriously, have they ever been mentioned? What's up with Rainbow's folks? I don't even know if they're alive or not, and if she's mentioned it before, I've completely forgotten.
Damn it, I really want this question addressed. I thought the moonlight talks were going to at least touch on it, since the rest of the mane 6 got to 'speak' with their families (poor Fluttershy), but I guess not.
And Bard's staying. Not sure what's going to happen to Nicole just yet, but I hope she stays too.
7454057
but would he be more of a stanley or more of a stanford?
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D'aww!
Glad to see Bard isn't going to just let Rainbow go off to the Dark Side without coming with, I was worried for a little bit the Desperados would be separated. Rainbow does have some valid reasons for wanting Bard to stay, but she could use all the help she can get. I do hope Nichole will also come with the group to the Dark Side and that she will be able to learn quickly how fight (or be in a non-combat role like medic or supply).
7454512 Hmm.
Perhaps the sixth spirit is the Rainbow that never was; the Rainbow that would have come about by the 6th season (from SS&E's perspective at least); the Rainbow that died so that Austraeoh could live.
That could be a very intense test, with the Austraeoh and the Rainbow-not-chosen arguing about her journey and the morality of her choices.
East Horse is far from perfect, in decisions or personality. But I think we'll all agree that the journey has been worthwhile.
7455179
I've been wondering much the same thing, 24. I thought for damn sure she'd talk with them while they were still in the Twilight Lands before heading over to the dark side. Who knows, maybe that is yet to come. But for now, I'm loving Bard and his sudden surrogacy to Dash. It's definitely a d'aww moment.
~SolidFire
7455033 7455044 I wonder how much the gratuitous violence against the goblins stands in contrast to this.
7456130
The vast majority of that violence was caused by Roarke, who was acting alone without Rainbow Dash's knowledge or prior approval.
Far as I remember the one time Dash herself was leading the fight against the goblins she had the Noble Jury using non-lethal means to disable as many goblins as possible and basically let them off with a stern warning. If anything her actions during that arc showed she'd learned from her experiences in Ledomare and was going well out of her way to avoid killing as much as possible, and was effectively leading her team to do the same. It was only when Roarke went solo Rambo-style that the body count started to soar.
So far the Herald has also demonstrated, consistently, skill in non-lethal combat, having taken on the Central Guard several times without directly killing any of the soldiers. Their biggest hurdle in the upcoming fights is that most of this is going to take place on the ocean or at Bleak's Plummet with limited land mass, so normal non-lethal means can still end up being lethal simply due to the bitch that is gravity.
I love these two. Not because I ship them or anything, but just because I think Rainbow and Bard have such a great dynamic together.
So needless to say, I approve of this proclaimed sibling relationship.
7445560 I was close.
I could also be correct since an exact number isn't given.
But by that same virtue I could still be wrong.
From chapter 167 of this book: A time and a place
7456005 That. I would toast to that, my good ser. I mean, my bits are on Discord, but your idea is freaky interesting.
I love this chapter. This is one of my favorite chapters in a long time. I could see Dash's short mane, Bard's stubble, the dim light in the belly of the ship... And this extrapolation of their relationship feels natural to me, even if it didn't to some. It feels like this chapter explained a great deal of Bard's motivations in following Dash, forgiving her, fighting for her, joining the Herald, ect.
And the feels really struck home.
This was a bit sudden, yes. Of course Bard and Rainbow had a long and good relationship, but not in a fashion unique and special enough to base a sudden siblinghood on it.
That was a really sweet moment between Dash and Bard.
7455179
7456112
I recall one of the early books mentioning that Rainbow has no family left. Maybe when talking to C-Squared, or one of the Eljunbyro flashbacks.
She *should* talk with Scootaloo again though. Really, why doesn't Scoots (and also the Apples, Rarity's family, the weather pegasi, etc) ask Luna to contact Dash every full moon?
7454337
According to this timeline I once typed up, Dash spent nine days with Belle and Pilate during Eljunbyro, and then only six days apart during Innavedr. (I'm aware of the timeline being off one day for Innavedr, which I haven't gotten around to fixing.)
Then they spent a few days together in Aurum. However, after that there were three off-screen weeks at the beginning of Odrsjot where Rainbow wasn't able to enter the Noble Jury due to the book making her dizzy (Props was working on a metal cage for the book), so she flew apart. Not sure how much contact she had with them at this point.