Metal Mares
"She's Searonese," Crimson grunted.
Rainbow Dash looked up from where Bellesmith was squatting beside her, applying a bandage to the gash in her side. "Is that supposed to excuse everything?"
"Excuse it, no," the head mercenary said with a sigh as he strolled across the clearing to glare down at the bound, armor-stripped figure of Roarke. The brown coated mare's body glittered with strategically placed metal plugs located all across her limbs and spine. Helpless to do anything but lie to the side of the forested ruins, she glared up at Crimson with dull lenses as the stallion further said, "But it certainly explains a lot. If the Council of Ledo wants you and your friends this badly, a sizeable bounty has undoubtedly been announced to the public. Searonese metal mares are attracted to such things like moths to a flame."
"I'm still totally in the dark," Rainbow Dash muttered, wincing slightly from Belle's ministrations. "Just who are these Searonese when they're at home?"
"They're a bunch of gearheaded, stuck-up wastes of spit," Phoenix grumabled, standing watch besides Roarke. "They do nothing but hunt, kill, pillage, and enslave."
"And just what worthwhile things have you done with your life, breeder?" Roarke hissed up at the mercenary.
"Shut your rusted trap!" Phoenix kicked her in the ribs.
"Hey!" Rainbow jumped up, almost knocking Belle off her hooves. "The fight's over! No need to give her anything more to ache over."
"What, are you two sisters all of the sudden?!" Phoenix scowled. "She tied us up like butchered meat!"
"But did she kick the crap out of you when you were disarmed and helpless?!" Rainbow frowned. "Beating another pony within an inch of their life is nasty enough as it is, but being mean to someone who can't fight back is totally uncool!"
"Seriously, Captain!" Phoenix gawked at Crimson. "You gonna stand for this?! She should have killed this freak when she had the chance!"
"I would like to see you try it yourself," Roarke said with a bruised grin.
"Don't tempt me—!" Phoenix barked.
"Stand down!" Crimson grumbled. He exhaled heavily, running a hoof over his face. "Just... enough bickering. Today's been hectic enough as it is. I think we're all lucky to be standing together instead of in the cargo hold of a metal manaship."
"Manaship?" Belle remarked out loud. "You mean she pilots one?"
"They all do," Zenith said in a dull tone from the sidelines.
"I'm still a bit lost on who 'they' are," Rainbow Dash remarked.
"Searo is a country to the far south, just east of Franzington across the Sapphire Ravine," Pilate said, causing everypony to glance over at him. The zebra tilted his striped head in Rainbow's direction and spoke. "It broke off from the Confederacy centuries ago. There was a schism in the matriarchy. Two monarchs sought the crown: Queen Belten and Queen Searo. Searo had an uniquely ambitious vision of a society run by mares that pursued industrial perfection. The equines who supported her—predominantly earth ponies—broke free from the rest of the continental kingdom to give her support. Thus began Searomare, while the rest of the Confederacy became Beltenmare—which led to the dynasty that has given us Queen Ledo today."
"Your paltry and banal knowledge of history is an insult to the power of Searo!" Roarke spat.
Pilate sighed and smiled tiredly. "Did I mention that all ponies in the kingdom hold an undying belief in Searo being the embodiment of military power and matriarchal entitlement?"
"Forgive me if I think that sounds almost awesome," Rainbow Dash said.
"Rainbow!" Belle hissed.
Rainbow shrugged. "So sue me!" she half chuckled.
Phoenix bitterly added, "What's not so awesome about is that they strip all the stallions in their country of all rights, reducing them to slave laborers... among other things."
"Neither of which you would qualify for," Roarke gleefully hissed.
"Why you—" Phoenix made to kick her again, only for Crimson to steady him.
"So, like, if they're such a bunch of annoying ponies, why doesn't Ledomare invade them or something?" Rainbow Dash asked. "It sounds like a small kingdom."
"Simple," Zenith droned. "Searo freaks the crap out of the Confederacy."
"I don't blame them," said Eagle Eye. He sat in the corner of the clearing, desperately attempting to wipe his battle-worn shield clean of scorch marks. "A culture full of bloodthirsty mares who turn their bodies into industrial war machines? Pffft... The Council of Ledo finds them useful for dirty mercenary jobs and assassinations. You have no idea just how many times Searo and Franzington have almost come to blows over it all."
"Just you wait," Roarke growled, her bound body writhing. "One day, the glory of Searo will burst down the bulwarks of your putrid little nation-state. We will reduce your farmlands to ashes, you spineless breeder!"
Eagle Eye glared daggers at her. "I am not a breeder!"
Crimson spoke over Roarke's chuckling voice, "It begs the question. Did the Council of Ledo send her to apprehend Rainbow Dash?"
"I doubt the psycho pony's gonna tell us herself," Phoenix grunted.
"It makes no sense," Zenith thought out loud, rotating his polearm in the crook of a hoof. "She's the reason that Rainbow Dash made it away from the Steel Wing to begin with."
Eagle Eye flashed him a double-take. "She is?"
Zenith shrugged. "Isn't it obvious?"
Rainbow Dash sighed and ran a hoof through her prismatic bangs. "It's all a dizzy blur, but I'm pretty sure that it was her ship that came in and provided a smoke screen for the managliders to lose track of me."
"The metal manaship, right?" Belle remarked.
"It would make sense," Pilate said. "Searonese metal mares have many means of self-propulsion, but their manapacks can't help them over long distances. She would likely have arrived in an airship of sorts."
"Ugh!" Phoenix groaned. "If it wasn't enough that the Ledomaritans are on our flanks! We gotta contend with metal mares too?! What if there are more of them?"
Roarke simply chuckled and wheezed.
Belle glanced down at her, then at the other ponies. "She... seemed particularly interested in Rainbow Dash."
"Yeah, you think?" Zenith glanced over with a lethargic expression. "Metal mares like her live for the fight."
Rainbow Dash fidgeted, gazing at the bound pony's twitching body. "Well, I gave her one, alright..."
"Then what are we to do?!" Phoenix barked. "If this pegasus' name is that friggin' popular, who's to know how many more are out to get her!"
"Phoenix..." Crimson began.
"We can't stay in one place! We have to move—"
"Phoenix!" Crimson stomped his muscular limbs. "You're forgetting one thing!"
"What?!"
"The ship, ya dumbflank," Zenith grumbled, glaring. "If she's here, her ship has gotta be as well... and metal mares always fly alone."
Phoenix blinked, his mustached mouth hung open.
Eagle Eye stared curiously among the other ponies. Gulping, he murmured towards the pegasus, "Rainbow? You recall where... y'know...?"
"As a matter of fact..." She stood up, dusted herself off, and smirked devilishly. "Who's for a hike through the woods?" her voice cracked.
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Ooh, time for a new adventure arc!
Can't wait to see where Rainbow takes the gang.
I could almost see a CMC cheer there at the end.
We are on the same page, Belle. I have a good name for it, too. In any case, nice to expound on the history of Searo, always helps to know your opponents better.
Mana mana mana mana.
Okay, awesome string of chapters ends with Rainbow Dash being awesome to the mare that almost beat her to within an inch of her life.
Classic.
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BATMAAAAARE!
ADVENTURE TIME.
2168705
Omg. That is too good! I'm dying of laughter!
Awsome sauce.
so now we're going inside a manaship....cool
No, EE. Indeed you are not.
Do any of them even know how to fly a manaship?
Looks like my theories have been proved correct. I love this world-building stuff, don't you?
Also, I wonder if EE's precise touch will come in handy flying a plane. I can either see him being the only capable pilot out of them all, or horribly failing and making everyone else permanently ban him from touching it. It works either way!
2169190
I'm sure rainbow will figure it out... assuming it doesn't break after the first dozen crashes or so
2169190 It will be just like Grand theft auto.
Ooh, transportation upgrade! Searo sounds like a pretty nasty place - really cool tech, no doubt, but still scary. Watch out Shell, Team Dash now has legit firepower
Oooh, I hope we get to see how they power all this awesome mana-tech! It's easy enough to infer that they will be trapping 'mana' and storing it in crystals as a power source, but how do they do so? What does it look like? Do mana systems have any weaknesses - ones that Dash&co. might exploit against Steel Wing? Does concentrated mana interfere with Pilate's O.A.S.I.S. system?
So much technology-building potential in the next couple of chapters. . . it almost makes me salivate
2170844
Importantly, the energy was getting channeled through the element around her neck. I interpreted that to be a sort of twisted combo with the chaos energies—her eyes flashed yellow—and the power that she has because of her loyalty vis a vis her status as an element bearer. More importantly is that Rainbow stopped the fight having just gotten to the brink of what appeared to be an influx of this twisted power. She remains in control.
2169190
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For what it's worth, O.A.S.I.S. came about because of an incident involving a mana powered airship.
You know, there's a certain song from a game that got stuck in my head after reading this chapter.
Has anybody made the "metal mare-eo" joke yet? ...No?
It's just as well.
29 to go. how shall you finish this arc off?
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My money is on Pilate figuring it out. Or RD figuring it out on accident.
200 quickly approaches... Does Roarke's ship take them to the edge of the world (and beyond)?
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Oh not this again
2170844Ehh...I'd probably go with your first theory of the sarcophagus having healed her.
Just to keep things simple.
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It did?
I don't recall.
So much tension. Zenith's a bit of an idiot.
They've covered so much less ground. Dashie covered hundreds of kilometers, they've done, what, 70, 80?
This is Australia...
IIIIIt's Dashie's evaluation time!
So there's not really too much to cover in this chapter. If there are any other manaships, they should pass over Dash's group if they're hiding in Roarke's. Also, just as a note - Imploding mentioned that the Searonese pursue industrial perfection. It reminded me a bit of that unicorn city from Austraeoh. And for the life of me, I can't remember its name...anyone know? These are my thoughts so far.
-MASH
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I'd say thousands of kilometers by this point, definitely.
Soon they're going to be flying in style.
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Well, A) Dash was alone, and B) she's the only pegasus here
Yep, it's always about this point in the game when you get your airship.
Aaaaand we have a way to fly! Fast and far! To lands unbeknownst to our brave travelers, lying far off to the east!
Will they make the hike to the manaship unhindered, or will they encounter resistance along the way?
Find out next! In chapter 172!
Onwards!
and Roarke makes her great escape
So we get some stuff about the history of Searo, blah blah blah.
Just kidding, it was rather interesting.
ANywho, let's see what this mana ship has in store. 
So how about getting out of Ledomare?
A country of feminazis... my god
the horror
So they're either going to steal the ship or send Roarke on her merry way, but I'm betting on the former.
5527074
Not just feminazi's. Mecha Steampunk Feminazi's with a lady boner for war.
can someone explain to me what the hell was explained in le chapter? im completely lost ;_;
8503618
Hello friend, seems like we're close to the same point in the story! The chapter pretty much just explains the culture of Searo, the party's opinion of Roarke being alive, and the fact they have an escape route because of Roarke's ship. Hope this helped and wasn't just redundant cus you've read a bit more than me ^-^
Awwwwww yrah! Pimpin out, bruhs!
The description Searomarian society reminds me of Fallout Equestria Project Horizons, in Stable 99 where the main character Blackjack lived, the mares were completely in charge of everything, and males were nothing more than breeders, I don't even think they were given more than the most rudimentary of educations (comprised mostly of sex-ed type classes). all I know is that I'm glad the fight scene is over, I think 5 chapters is too long by any context for a single fight. I'll keep reading (as I'm too curious about the Midnight Armory and alternate side of the world to give up), but to be quite honest, aside from the flashback chapters this story doesn't have me quite as captivated as 'Austreoh' did.
The deus ex machina has been explained.
So, Searonese ponies really hate males. I feel I should take offense to that, given that I’m male and I probably wouldn’t even be good enough for slave labor, as I’m far too weak. We also learn that Roarke indeed does like the thrill of the fight.
Also, the gang’s about to take a ship to the edge of the world.
This gon’ be good.
10022019
it's gonna crash in a few chapter isn't it?
Suddenly Fall of Equestria. At least they haven't gained the DNA to take over the world as a female only species, although it does sound like they're going to achieve that one day.
A country-sized Stable 99... Yikes