"...and sworn duty to the Council to avenge the Goddess at all costs! I don't care how many of the Blight's infidelic bastards stand in my way! You shall taste the wrath of Verlaxion with..."
"Thattttttt's fifty-seven!" Flynn said, still rubbing his head in mid-trot.
"Oh come on." Ariel frowned aside at the stallion. Their march had turned into a subtle slant, descending slowly towards a darker pocket of the landscape ahead of them. "That doesn't count!"
"Sure it does!"
"She said infidelic. That's not even a word!"
"Yes it is!"
"At least count it as 'fifty-six-and-a-half.'"
Flynn hollered back over the sound of Seraphimus' bellowing. "It's all in the meaning of the expression! I'm counting it as fifty-seven!"
"Horse hockey!"
"As much as I hate to take sides, my frriends," Kepler muttered, smiling tiredly back at the two. "But I do believe ourr brrotherr Flynn has a point."
"Really?" Logan huffed, sweating as he tugged and tugged the supply sled over a cleft of rock. The smooth earth below was being slowly replaced with a jagged, craggy texture. "She's spent hours barfing up homicidal nonsense and now you're grading the turkey buzzard on grammar?"
"What else are we going to do?" Flynn shrugged. "We can't judge her skill at billiards."
Ariel and Kepler laughed. It was a squeaky, wheezing expression at best. Soon, the sheer exhaustion of the migraine-inducing moment weighed down on them, and they sighed into the twilight. In the ensuing silence, Seraphimus' words echoed ever-explosively across the diminishing plateau.
"...meant for the Spring Havens! Not the bottomless abyss to which you've dispensed so many innocent, Goddess-fearing souls! In the name of the Queen of Frost I shall..."
"She's got the lungs of an endurance flier, that's for sure," Flynn muttered. "I just wonder if she'll keep yelling in her dreams once she finally passes out."
"If the bitch passes out," Logan grunted.
Ariel bit her lip. "I just feel bad for Wildcard this whole time. He's been in the direct line of sight of her hollering since she began."
Logan shouted over the noise. "Yo! Double-yoo! Enjoying the performance?"
A haggard, exhausted Desperado looked back from a distance. A middle-claw glinted in the twilight, and then he resumed his hobbling march.
Logan and Flynn chuckled.
Kepler cleared his throat. "Perrhaps... one of us should rrelieve him."
"Pffft. I'm not playing shotgun to Miss Shits-a-Lot," Flynn muttered.
"Why not?" Logan smirked, looking ahead and marching. "You've got a streamlined skull cap. Her sound waves will bounce right off you."
"Well, don't look at me!" Ariel's voice cracked. "What if she gets loose and bites my larynx off?"
"She won't get loose," Flynn snarled. "We tied that shit super tight."
"Yeah, but still—"
"Frriends!" Kepler frowned. "Arre we the Herrald orr arre we horrrible?" He turned completely around. "I shall take Wildcarrd's place!"
"No, Kepler..." Ariel sighed, holding the wyvern back. "I'll do it—"
"The task must fall upon me—"
SWOOOSH! Rainbow Dash touched down in a blue blur. "I'll take Wildcard's place."
Logan did a double-take. "Huh?"
"You heard me." Rainbow Dash frowned, marching back towards Wildcard. "Since you're all so determined to not give a crap."
"Kepler gives a crap!" Flynn said.
"Indeed, I—" The wyvern did a double take. "What?"
"Rainbow, don't." Ariel held the mare back. "That... that will just make things worse."
"It's my fault she's still with us, right?" Rainbow winced from the noise. She flattened her ears and hissed aside: "It's only fitting."
"What's fitting is that you not stay close enough to her to exacerbate what's already a skull-splitting nightmare," Ariel said.
"She's got a point there, Rainbow," Logan said. "Unless... your plan is to make her pass out faster."
"I think we can rrule that out at this juncturre."
"Hey... guys... whatever..." Flynn held his hooves up, smirking. "So long as the unlucky sap isn't me... ... ..."
"...and you! Yes, you!" Seraphimus spat and sputtered at the stallion pulling her sled. "You are a shame to unicorns everywhere! What promises did the traitors at Wyvern Point make to you?! Did they claim they would protect your family? Ferry you faster to the Spring Havens?!?"
An hour later, Flynn sighed heavily. He sweated and grunted as he struggled to pull the sled evenly over steeper and steeper embankments.
The Herald had left the perpetual flatness far behind them. It was as though giant plows had raked up entire swaths of dull, dark earth. All of it was stone or gravel or vulcanized dust at best. No sign of soil or sand or sediment—but an increasingly uneven slide into miasmic darkness. The bent horizon loomed higher and higher—or so it seemed—as the group continued their zig-zagging descent, all the while attempting to maintain the contents and the structural integrity of their sleds.
Logan managed well. Flynn—not so much. The unicorn had to pause every once and a while to steady the contents of his makeshift wagon—and prisoner—with expert telekinesis.
"Hurry up, slowpoke!" Logan growled from up ahead. "Not all of us are on a luxury tour, y'know!"
"...will bury you in the earth along with the bones of the unrighteous...!" Seraphimus wailed into Flynn's ears.
"Grnnnghhhh..." Flynn sweated and sweated, fumbling to keep up a swift pace as the occupied sled rattled behind him. "Real glitz and glamour..." His one natural eye darted up.
Wildcard flew at an easy glide. His wings easily flapped on either side of him and he relished in the cool kiss of the twilight winds at his headcrest. Despite the relief he was obviously experiencing, he kept close to Rainbow Dash—flying alongside her at all times while he rested his lower limbs.
Rainbow Dash stared dead ahead. In the sheen of the stars above, she made out the hint of rising rockfaces. At first, she thought that she was staring at the other side of a canyon. But then, as the group continued their descent, she spotted narrow plumes of rock rising sharper and sharper from the sloping earth underneath. They resembled stalagmites—with the absence of a cave. Their sharp tips were bent ever-so-slightly forward, so that Rainbow imagined that she was a blue dust mite threading her way through a microscopic patch of hairy skin.
This—among other, noisier things—distracted her, so that she had to snap her head in Rarity's direction to realize that she was being addressed.
"Rainbow! Are you paying attention?"
Rainbow pondered whether or not to answer that honestly. Exhaustion weighed heavily on her brow. "Mrff?"
Rarity pouted. "I sense something!"
Twilight floated up in a lavender blur. "Rarity senses something!"
"I just said that, darling!"
"But I wanted to make sure that Rainbow knew—"
"Well, she's hearing it from the fabulous source, is she not?!"
"Girls, just—" Rainbow held a hoof up, sighing. "Get to the point. Rarity, what are you sensing?"
Wildcard looked over, goggles rattling.
"Grfff... sorry, Rainbow..." Rarity rubbed her temple. "The shouting is... g-getting to me. Ahem." She floated upright, proudly. "But never mind that! You must see this!"
"See what?"
"Come!" Pinkie shouted cheerfully from a distance. "Come gander with us ganderoos!"
Rainbow simply... fell. She allowed gravity to carry her after her descending companions.
Slightly alarmed, Wildcard drifted speedily after her. Followed by a curious Ariel.
"Uhm... what are we plummeting for?" the pegasus mare droned.
After half-a-minute, Rainbow joined her friends where they had formed a ghostly circle around a rusted object leaning against one of the many jagged stalagmites.
"Whew-wee...!" Applejack was scratching her blonde head. "If that sure doesn't stand out!"
"I wonder how long it's been resting here," Fluttershy murmured.
"Probably a super-duper-ultra long time!" Pinkie exclaimed.
"Poor little thing..."
Twilight muttered, "It's made of metal, Fluttershy. It's not alive. It never was."
"Sorry. Just..." Fluttershy shuddered. "This landscape has been so dead and desolate since we arrived at the edge. I guess I'm getting desperate for a critter or two to sense..."
"Uh, Rainbow?" Ariel landed behind along with Wildcard. "What are we looking at?"
"That's a... very good question." Rainbow Dash trotted towards the object. Seraphimus' shouts echoed in the distance, and they caused a slight ringing sound to emanate from the hollow of a fallen sphere. The two rounded edges yawned open, spilling out metal wires and filaments that had partially-disentegrated over time.
Wildcard cocked his head from side to side with avian scrutiny. His goggles reflected loops of copper fitted into an iron stalk.
"Can't say it's the prettiest doodad I ever laid eyes on," Applejack said. She turned to face Rainbow with a smug grin. "What do you suppose it could be?"
"Better yet..." Twilight squinted. "Who left it here?" She tilted her head up. "Maybe it's a remnant of the Darkreach expedition?"
"That seems rather obvious," Rainbow spoke in a low tone, pacing slowly around the object. "But... I can't shake the feeling that I've... seen this sort of a thing before."
"We both did, darling," Rarity said. She winced slightly from Seraphimus' screams but continued: "Back on the plateau. By the lookout tower."
"Oh yes!" Fluttershy nodded. "There were pieces of similar spheres lying around! Remember?"
"No... that's not the reason," Rainbow said. "I've seen these machines zipping around before."
"What, Rainbow?" Ariel trotted up, leaning over her shoulder. "What is this thing?"
Rainbow exhaled, her tail flicking. "It's Darkstinian."
...Huh. Well, isn't that interesting...
Alright, my memory is way beyond fuzzy in regards to Darkstine and its history, but was it ever mentioned or hinted to that Emeraldine and Darkstine might have had a common lineage at one point, technological or otherwise? They are right next to each other, but that's all I've got to go off of right now.
Also,
HAH.
I wonder how long it will be until Sera shuts up? I'm going to go with right up to first contact with the Dark Side natives.
Kinda like saphirric, right?
OH SHIT!
INDUSTRY!
All I picture is whizball
Huh, Darkstienian you say? Interesting, although its also possible that Darkstien's technology simply came from here rather it coming from Darkstien.
Also, Serpahimus, gag. Or rather, bind her beak. Its not like you don't have access to materials to do that with, and you can knock her out long enough to tie her beak up. Its not that hard.
I'm pretty sure at this point certain laws of biology or physics are being stretched to the breaking point. Unless it turns out Seraphimus is actually a cyborg or robot, I don't see how she can keep doing this without losing her voice.
Hummm. Was it Darkstine that was throwing foals into the guts of the machine world? Could tie in very nicely with the mysterious Night Shard in some way.
Fetch me some popcorn, I'm ready for the intrigue.
Why am I laughing every time Seraphimus is yelling?
To be honest I don't even really know what to say about that.
8250848
I think you might be onto something, there.
Well, that is quite the callback. So I'm going with the obvious assumption here that Darkstine somehow got it's tech from the other side of the plane. I find it rather unlikely that old Darkstine tech would have somehow made it's way to the other side.
Darkstinian? What in the hell is their tech doing on the dark side of the frickin planet. Or rather, whose building it there? I doubt they shoved all that into the gondola.
A crunched Spy eye?
Wheres a vulcan nerve pinch when you want one?
...Out of all the plot twists, this was nowhere on my radar. Can't wait to see where this goes.
Huh... that's interesting.
Suddenly the night shard imbibing the souls of foals makes... some twisted amount of sense.
-Through the path long forgotten, into the darkness long begotten. Ofolrodi.
8250951
Hum, I didn't expected this, tho I'm suspecting we are gonna get some kind of robots in thise place.
Also, again, I'm really waiting to see more interaction withe Sera that just her (admitedlly, funny) screams.
8250826
Are we gonna get more foal obelisks now?
8250814
The Silverdielians were the descendants of Darkstine refugees that were fleeing a military coup that jumpstarted the contemporary
foal obelisksobsession with industry.So, that's unlikely, probably.
Who knows, only the colon.
Wow, that definitely came out of left field.
I suddenly miss Cold Canter now...
Of course grammar is important, if you are going to deface something you need to do it properly, all they needed to do after that was actually correct her, like so
I could actually imagine twilight doing this
As for the plot relevant, I think proto-darkstinian would be more accurate, as Darkstine itself is only a few generations old. perhaps the means through which Darkstine created their own tech, like how they use the obelisk to power their city.
Well, that raises some questions. Mostly of the chicken or the egg variety.
And speaking of poultry, Seraphimus has to run out of steam eventually.
Ok, I may have mentioned this before, but I am totally psyched to see Seraphimus lose her shit when she eventually learns that All souls everywhere are being pulled down here. Including her family.
Achievement unlocked: Blast from the Past
Come across something from beginning of your Light Side travels during the beginning of your Dark Side travels.
I am honestly not too surprised here. Darkstinians worship parts of the Machine World, AKA, the obelisk. That their tech is salvaged and or modeled after Machine World relics is a logical progression.
Also, because I've been reading through the SAGA again, something caught my eye in the start of Urohringr. Sombra used to be an alicorn, the brother of Tchern and Chryssy, To quote Lulu:
So Sombra was:
A.) An alicorn
B.) Accompanied by minions
c.) Something something hungry dark soul
So Sombra prolly ate souls. Moreover, his minions prolly did the same, and really, can see the Shard being his minions who were "buried in Shadow", IE, brought to the Dark Side to escape, as Tchern/Chryssy did with their minions.
But on topic, I find it less likely that the Darkstinians were, you know, on the Dark side, and more that they were inspired by Machine World tech.
Also, no confirmed kill on Sombra. Something to think about.
When Rainbow got into the machine world back in New Ring City, there were depictions of the arrival of alicorns in there. I wonder if that has to do something with it.
Also as Darkstine is a pretty young name for the country, if there are any descendants of them left there, they wouldn't have a clue what Rainbow means with 'Darkstinian'.
Darkstine tech on the dark side? That raises some questions.
It makes sense to assume that Darkstine and Emeraldine have a common history as one ancient Emeraldine culture and simply developed differently in the course of history. One part of them developed to the Emeraldine ponies we have seen in book one under the leadership of Whitemane and another group could have split apart to focus on technology/industry, inspired by the machine world. If my guess is true, it would imply that Emeraldine could theoretically reproduce the same quality of technology as Darkstine does.
My conspiracy mind now tingles even more: Emeraldine and Darkstine... did IC plan this right from the start?
A Darkstinian vehicle made it all the way to the dark side of the plane?
I will laugh very, very hard if it turns out there was a chute directly through the plane from Darkstine, that Rainbow could have used the whole time
8251235
Down the obelisk hole, do the austraeoh magic to some more levers and voilá!
I will laugh very, very hard if it turns out there was a chute straight through the plane from Darkstine that Rainbow could have used the whole time.
And if there are ways of getting through the middle, maybe that lends credence to the idea of meeting Nightshade again?
Aside from far-fetched speculation, I wonder what could possibly cause the same tech as Darkstine to be found on the Dark Side. I find it hard to imagine the batpones brought them, and I can't imagine xenolings being particularly tech-savvy. The only conclusion, assuming it's property of a major faction, is that it's the night shard's. But then... why?
Where? I don't recall.
Hey, better yelling at you than ripping you limb from limb, am i right?
As for the Darkstinian tech thing, I agree with those that believe it to instead be a precursor to Darkstine rather than a machine directly from them. I wonder if Darkstinians were actually more widespread long ago, but eventually split into multiple states such as Ledomare, Darkstine, and possibly a sect that went into the dark side?
Intriguing possibilities.
At this point, the level of throwback has gotten to a degree where I won't be surprised if the next thing that happens is the Lounge hijacking those orbs to enable Prince Sam Rose to push Kera down an obelisk in order to appease the chaos beasts out in the fog.
I can just imagine IC writing this part out laughing to himself being like "They are going to get a kick out of this"
Surely they have something they can gag Seraphimus with?
She kinda reminds me of the Black Knight from Monty Python, still making threats even after all his limbs have been cut off. "You yellow bastard! I'll bite your legs off!"
8250826
This industry has long since ground to a halt, your brand of "industry" has no place here.
Ooo now how did that get there...
Seraphimus, throwin out personalized insults. I just wonder how long it'll be before she just talks instead of shoutin non-stop
"No... that's not the reason," Rainbow said. "I've seen these machines zipping around before."
"What, Rainbow?" Ariel trotted up, leaning over her shoulder. "What is this thing?"
Rainbow exhaled, her tail flicking. "It's O.A.S.I.S.."
Curious query: how did this machination come to be located here?
8251140
Wait, so you're saying my crazy theory that the night Shard was actually King Sombra and his army might have some validity to it?
Swag.
Passionate inquiry: Have they who would be Darkstinian citizens ever lost a miniature whizzball emulating security device in the chasm which houses the sacred obelisk of industry?
Extended inquiry: Would the machine world potentially house a way for they who would be the Herald to travel between the planes of the ringworld through the machine world's interior?
Achievement unlocked: bewilderment.
8250826
So, maybe this is where you got the "murder children" idea from.
8251249
I was going to say this!
8251249
All of that adventuring! ALL WASTED TIME!
I see what you did with the chapter title.
8254150
Easthorse!!!
Meanwhile, sapphiric and nebulaic.
WHAT A TWIST!
Well, I suspect it's not "Darkstinian". More likely it would be, uh... *checks*... Cylindrimanian? https://www.fimfiction.net/story/25966/175/austraeoh/zetta
Because I kind of doubt Darkstine itself is ancient enough to have sent an expedition to the dark side...
(Edit: Hah!)
Sweet Celestia... I HAVE CAUGHT UP.
Took me fifteen weeks to get here.
2017-03-11 - 2017-06-25
8251931
Well, the Night Shard (assuming that's who we saw on chapter two) appears to employ crystal ponies. There are only two places on the plane where we know those live, and one of them used to be controlled by Sombra...
(I wonder how this would fit in with the reappearance of the crystal empire on the light side, though. Wasn't Sombra supposed to be trapped for a thousand years?)
8254365
Welcome aboard! Remember to pack extra because we may be going once more unto the breach very soon here!
8251060
Nah. She's like a Creeper.
She runs on distilled hate and blasting powder.
8251002
I have hopes that we can meet him again. He never got a proper resolution, and I need closure.
Well . . . maybe THAT is what's wooshing around, but the laughing . . . I can't get over it. We'll soon figure out who that is.