It was a woolly glen: complete with springy blades of vegetation, patches of mold, vines that clung to the bordering walls of rock, and the pungent scent of mildew. The only thing different than what Rainbow Dash remembered from Light Side pastures was that everything was tinted a pale blue... and it all glowed.
The source of the bioluminescence came across as sub-magical, and Rainbow could have sworn she heard a low, bass hum that shifted in pitch with each squishy step she took over the paper thin growth along the floor of the alcove. She and her ghostly companions watched as each square-foot of alien "grass" rippled from light-blue to a dull purple and back again upon pressurized contact. The pungent smell in the air shifted as well, and Rainbow could only guess that countless invisible spores were being released in a panic as she and her trailing companions on the hovercraft invaded the otherwise tranquil sanctuary.
"Uhm..." Fluttershy gazed left and right. "Forgive me, Rainbow Dash. But I'm not entirely certain that this will be safe for grazing."
"I don't even think it's safe for breathing!" Twilight Sparkle remarked. "Rainbow, are you feeling alright? You're not inhaling anything unhealthy, are you?"
"So far, so good," Rainbow muttered, gazing with a dispassionate expression at the shifting colors of the "lawn" all around her. "Although, if I passed gas right about now, I'm not sure the others could even tell in this place."
"We heard you," Logan said, gliding the hovercraft to a stop. "And no, I don't think we can."
"You arrived on the Dark Side a champion, fatso," Flynn wheezed.
"Shut up. You're supposed to be recuperating—not smart-assing."
"Forr the time being..." Kepler gently gestured, smiling. "What say we simply rrest ourrselves in this delightfully quiet location?"
"That's just it, Keps..." Ariel hovered in mid-air, wringing her fetlocks. "Just how 'quiet' can we expect this place to be?"
"This place is small," Logan said. "Remote." He hopped off the wagon and began unpacking some supplies. "If anything hunts around here, I can think of a gazillion better places for it to stage an ambush. Besides..." He glanced at the three plausible entrances to the place: the way they came, an outlet ahead of them, and a patch of twilight straight above. "...we've got clear positions to keep our eyes on. Better here than in that stupid rock maze of stalagmites behind. Anything could attack us from anywhere back there."
"Coulda picked a slightly darker place," Flynn said. He rubbed his one good eye and winced. "Nnnnngh... didn't friggin' expect the Dark Side to have a night market district."
"I know I should be rresting, but I cannot help myself." Kepler dismounted from the wagon and began shuffling across the luminescent alcove. His glasses reflected a bevy of uncategorized plant life. "Surrely I can collect some samples and figurre out what use they can be to us!"
"I dunno, Keps..." Ariel hovered down to ground level. "If it glows blue... odds are it's gonna come outta ya an even worse color."
"Heh..." Logan smirked.
"That is prrecisely why I must run it thrrough my alchemy kit!" Kepler smiled back. "The soonerr I know, the soonerr we can ascerrtain the edible naturre of the wildlife arround us!" He looked at Rainbow Dash. "Surrely the Austrraeoh would benefit the most frrom this."
Rainbow nodded. "Get to work, Keps. Just... try and get some rest at some point or another. Something tells me we won't get a lot of opportunities to chill like this."
Kepler bowed. "Duly noted."
It was finally Seraphimus' turn to say something: "Assuming we are safe for any single stretch of time in this domain is folly." She glanced over, and her voice took on a brief, curiously worrisome tone: "Don't be idiotic, Jordan."
"Hmmm?" Rainbow Dash looked over.
Wildcard had dismounted from the back of the wagon. His goggles shone like two bright blue headlights. This was because the lenses reflected a curious patch of luminescent blue weeds... weeds that he was presently aiming a flesh talon towards to touch.
Rainbow's eyes darted all over the flouncing shape of the leaves. The long stems. The solid, thick clusters of seeds. "Luna Poop!" Swoooooosh! She rushed over and yanked on Wildcard's lion's tail. "Wildcard, don't—!"
"!!!" Wildcard nervously leapt back before his claw could so much as graze the plant.
"Whoah!" Ariel remarked.
Logan craned his neck. "What gives? You guys okay?"
"Don't touch that thing!" Rainbow's voice cracked. "Whatever you do! Keep your distance!"
"Rainbow Dash?" Rarity floated closer. "What's the matter?"
Applejack was already pointing. "Take a look for yerselves, y'all..."
"Huh?" Twilight Sparkle phased through and took a look at the weeds. "Whoah! That's... that's incredible!"
"Holy cauliflower!" Pinkie Pie pulled at her ghostly mane. "I can't believe it!" A beat. She blinked innocently at the other mares. "What is it that I can't believe, girls?"
"Pinkie, it's Poison Joke!" Twilight Sparkle exclaimed.
"Without a doubt!" Applejack nodded.
"But..." Fluttershy was wincing. "...what's an Equestrian plant doing here?"
Rainbow gulped. "Maybe it's not an Equestria plant after all..."
Kepler and Logan had wandered over to Rainbow's side.
"Rrainbow One?" Kepler brushed against her. "Perrhaps—forr curriosity's sake—an explanation is in orrderr?"
"I... I know this plant," Rainbow said, pointing at the thing with a trembling hoof. "It's called 'Poison Joke'... at least that's the name a zebra shaman friend of ours gave it back in Equestria."
"Back in Equestria???" Ariel remarked from above.
"That's a dayum crazy coincidence, don't you think?" Logan belched.
"I know it sounds stupid... but believe me..." Rainbow gestured at the tell-tale plant. "Even after all the epic adventures I've had flying east, there's no way in Tartarus I would forget this thing. It screwed up my friends and I super bad. If it wasn't for Zecora—the zebra shaman who brewed a miracle cure—then we'd never return to normal after what the plant did to us."
"Aaaaaaaaaand..." Ariel glanced at Wildcard, then back at Rainbow Dash. "...what did the plant do to you girls, exactly?"
"You guess it, you've named it." Rainbow gulped. "It messed with our bodies big time—wild, dumb effects. It was completely random with each of us, too. Rarity's coat hair grew super long. Twilight lost the use of her horn. I went stupidly dizzy. Fluttershy sounded like a dude..."
"Mmmmm...!" Fluttershy squeaked, cowering behind Rarity. The fashionista lovingly patted her head.
"Applejack shrunk to—like—one hundredth her normal size. And Pinkie Pie started drooling... at least more than usual."
"Hey!" Pinkie Pie folded her forelimbs, pouting. "I drool with purpose! I like to think of it as artistically salivating."
"Pinkie, darling, could you artistically go mute for a brief moment?" Rarity insisted.
"It begs the question!" Kepler remarked. "What is a poisonous blue weed indigenous to the Dark Side doing all the way across the Plane in your homeland of Equestria???"
"I've no friggin' clue," Rainbow Dash remarked. "It... it grows in the Everfree Forest, and nowhere else."
"Lots of strange plants grow in the Everfree Forest, Rainbow Dash," Twilight said. "Beside Poison Joke, that is."
"Mmmhmmm." Fluttershy nodded. "And creatures live there that don't live in other forests."
"My friends are reminding me that a lot of stuff exists in the Everfree Forest that can't be found elsewhere," Rainbow Dash said. She squinted slightly. "On the top of my head, I can think of Ursa Majors, Star Spiders, manticores..."
"Ach!" Kepler did a double-take. "You've encounterred ourr big brrotherrs outside the mountain sanctuarry?!?"
Rainbow blinked. "Jee... did we never talk about it, Keps?"
Wildcard hand-signed.
Ariel translated: "'A lot of crap has happened since then.'" She smiled. "Must have slipped the mind, if you did discuss it."
"How currious..." Kepler stroked his hairy chin. "I would verry much like to know morre about this 'Everrfrree Forrest' of yourrs, Rrainbow One."
"Yeah. Sure."
"What I wanna know..." Flynn murmured from the wagon, rubbing his aching skull. "...is how did this Poison Joke thing get transplanted across the Plane—or the Edge of the World for that matter?"
"Maybe..." Rainbow shrugged. "...it happened naturally? Before the Sundering?"
"Nah..." Logan shook his head. "That shit had to have been transplanted. I bet something like this could be easily weaponized."
"Yeah, but who would have transplanted it?" Ariel remarked. "Midnighters?"
"Midnighterrs came this way, good sisterr," Kepler said. "As farr as we know, it's a one way trrip."
"Changelings?" Ariel looked at Rainbow.
Rainbow nodded. "Chrysalis pretty much confirmed that there are changelings living—in small numbers—in Equestria today. But... I dunno. Just... doesn't seem very changelingy for them to pack stuff with them."
"They stowed away living victims in Stratopolis, did they not?"
"Yeah, but they weren't plants. Guh..." Rainbow rubbed her head. "I've just got no clue."
"Or perhaps there is no pattern to be connected whatsoever," Seraphimus droned. "And—with the usual mindless optimism—you're attempting to draw conclusions without any merit."
Ariel rolled her eyes.
Wildcard shrugged. He looked at the others and gestured.
"Right." Logan nodded back. "From now on, we stay clear of any weird looking plants. Kepler? If you wanna sample that stuff, you gotta figure out a way to do it without touching the shit."
"Ehhhhm..." Kepler rubbed his scalp. "Forr the time being, perrhaps, it will be wisest simply to rrest."
"Agreed." Flynn wheezed.
"Right. Roll out the tents." Rainbow gestured, flapping her wings and zipping about the wagon to help unpack it. "We need to plan guard shifts. I'll go first."
Ariel sighed. "Rainbow..." She began to protest.
"I know. I'll get my rest. But—first—I really should go on patrol first," she said. "With my friends' help, I can at least get a mental lay of the land and then pass it on to the next pony on shift. Ya feel me?"
"Yeah..." Ariel smiled tiredly. "I get you."
"Cool. Get to work." Rainbow grasped a supply crate and carried it over to a patch of blue vegetation. Setting it down, she began stripping her limbs of the Emeraldinian armor. "Whew... can't wait to be light as a feather again."
"You sure you don't wanna keep some of that metal stuff on, Dashie?" Pinkie asked. "I know we all feel safe, but it could come in handy in a pinch!"
"Pinkie, honestly!" Rarity waved a hoof. "Let her relax a bit!"
"Guh!" Pinkie rolled her eyes and folded her forelimbs in a pout. "Somepony promote me to Chief of Security already—with how often my ideas get shot down!"
"Pinkie, you're incredibly useful when we least expect it," Twilight said with a reassuring smile. "Until then, just relax a bit." She looked at their anchor. "Celestia knows, Rainbow needs to."
"Yeah..." Rainbow blinked tiredly as she stripped more and more plates of armor off. "Although—at this rate—I fear I'm gonna start to forget how."
...Calling it now, they're somehow gonna touch or be touched by that stuff one way or the other at some point.
Never expected Poison Joke to appear on the Dark Side, though. That's a bit of a surprise.
Something tells me there is a hell of a lot more Poison Joke on the Dark Side than that small patch....
I wonder if one of them will be poisoned by the joke.
Poison Joke sure wasn't something I expected to see. I'm betting Discord brought it over because he found it hilarious.
Sera vs Poison Joke.
I bet somegriffon would get IT.
Chekhov's Gun, y'all.
Something's gonna come up. I bet one of the crew is secretly going to stash some of it or Seraph falls into it and it changes something for the duration of the entire Dark Side trip.
All in good time.
Maybe the Everfree forest is connected to the Dark Side somehow..?
8469052
another elevator between the sides?
For reference:
8469069
Quotes like that remind us that the author is a Star Trek fan.
As for the Poison joke conundrum, perhaps it made its way there by way of Discord teleporting it. It is a great way to cause a Logan buttload of chaos, usually humorous. Fits Discord to a T.
Edit:
Rainbow didn't encounter them (sort of). But Belle under the influence of Rainbow and Pilate did outside of Blue Shelf, all so long ago. I miss that bunch. Anyway, they definitely exist outside of the Everfree, so who knows what else exists freely that doesn't in Equestria, this fragment of the whole is still a HUGE place.
Now this is intriguing. Considering this new info, it's hard not to assume that there must be some connection between the Dark Side and the Everfree Forest. Which might explain why the Everfree is such a strange place. Of course, what that connection may be remains to be seen. I've had a theory for a while now that the Tree of Harmony (assuming that's even a part of the Eastverse) has some connection to the Midnight Armory, hence the Elements and whatnot. Something like that seems like a better explanation for the presence of poison joke than it just being a coincidence, or changelings travelling around the world to commit guerrilla gardening in the woods.
Of course, another question follows: If one of the Everfree's oddities came from the Dark Side, what else might that be true of?
Watch your step.
Well, marathon-ed the whole series starting middle of September, and now I'm caught up. I had the first one on my read later list for a very lone time now.
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Welcome to the front lines, the more ships that come in that we can cannibalise for parts later, the better.
------------------
Poison Joke huh.... maybe it's the other way around, perhaps Venomous Humorous is a dark side native, and somehow it ended up on the light side?
-Through the path long forgotten, into the darkness long begotten. Ofolrodi.
My bet is on Discord transplanting it or something.
It would be useful to have some poison joke to weaponise against future tricky situations. With the mention of the Everfree though, I wonder if we'll encounter this reality's equivalent of Discord's plunder vines. They're spooky enough to warrant existing on the dark side, and they could easily cause lots o' havoc.
Poison joke? I didn’t expect that.
I’m also with one of the comments above. Maybe the Everfree Forest has more secrets related to the Dark Side than we knew.
This is getting more interesting.
Heh, imagine how the joke would affect them.
Kepler would probably only be able to make an 'rrrrrrr' noise...
Logan would fart out of his mouth and talk out of his butt...
Chekov's GunDashie's Poison Joke, I'm sure of it. If that shit ain't relevant later, I don't know what to think.Rainbow is gonna come back from patrol to find everyone affected.
Seems like Poison Joke needs the presence of chaotic energy, or the lack of harmony/order to grow. Then it makes sense to find it only in these places. Since Discord originates from the dark side, it is most likely that he brought those plants with him when he invaded Equestria. Now that he is "gone", it can only survive in the little remaining chaotic pockets on the light side.
The emphasis on the word "hum" makes me nervous. Is it caused by the plants and animals, or is an artificial construct at work?
If the poison joke makes Wildcard sound like Blu Mankuma, how will we know?
Meanwhile, meet the equally dickish evolutionary relative of the Poison Joke flower: Laughing Grass
Interesting chapter lays interesting foundations for events.
Interesting...
I've got a feeling that Rainbow should keep that armor on...
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Agreed 8469063
It's because of the big giant Elevator shaft that rises up (down?) from the Midnight Armory and comes out in the Castle of the Two Sisters. You just can't stop the plant seeds and spores from leaking through.
I'm thinking it was summoned into the everfree at some point using chaos strips.
Although the elevator theorem would be very convenient.
I had an idea while re-reading Odrsjot and I came over here to comment it because it might have spoilers.
There are plenty of intrusive igneous rocks (like granite) throughout the story, the kind of rocks which form from cooling magma. We have also seen signs of tectonic movement (like mountains.) On our world, these come from the mantle (made of magma) messing about with the crust (the bit we stand on).
However, we've never seen any magma surrounding the center of Urohringr; the machine layer.
If the machine layer is the core of this artificial world, then it must (when working properly) both produce magma and simulate plate tectonics. This may be what some of the pendulums and etc. Rainbow has seen in the machine layer are actually for.
Since the sundering, this piece of Urohringr has been dying and probably hasn't been working properly, which means it is no longer doing those two things. This means no new mountains are being made, and eventually the whole world will erode to be flat and boring. Then IC would have nothing to go all purple about and that is the worst possible thing!
Edit: I can't remember if there's ever been an active volcano in this story. Has Rainbow flown past any erupting volcanoes yet? Because that would disprove part of my idea.
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No volcanoes! The closest thing was a bit of magma briefly seen in the dragon's cave in mid-Austraeoh, and a few passing mentions of "volcanic rock".
Now it's been a long time since Season One for me but I thought that during the Poison Joke incident for Rainbow it wasn't so much dizziness causing issues as the fact that Rainbow's wings were on upside down?
That just raises further questions.
Did the plant come down here from the Everfree? Did it come up from the dark side? And was it transported on purpose?
(I thought that the Poison Joke had been created by Discord, but apparently I mixed it up with the Project Sunflower universe.)
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I've also remembered the lava in the dragon places back in Equestria shown in the show. I'm revising my idea. Urohringr is dying from the edges in, so only the area of the machine world in the center (near Equestria) are still working enough to shape the rock above them.
I'd wager that Discord's the reason it's in Equestria at all. He's probably cracking up at their speculations right now.
I had actually forgotten what Pinkie's ailment was in this episode, and had to look it up.
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There were also manticores in the wyverns' village in Rohbredden, which Rainbow did meet.
This is no joking matter
Welcome to the dark side. Our grass is lethal...ly funny! Please tell me they all touch it
D'aaw.
I bet that Sera is going to end up being poisoned. Calling it now. Bad luck is on her side with this one.
It would make sense for Poison Joke to be indigenous to the Dark Side - there is hardly any plant more akin to Discord than it after all. But this does open up some questions about the Everfree Forest. Why is it the only patc of uncultivated nature in Equestria anyway? Could its strange fauna and flora, connection to Dark Side species and apparent resistance to be tamed by pony magic point towards a strong Chaotic influence, touched by the Draconequui or perhaps directly linked to the cosmic disorder on the other side through an open passage through the hard of the world?
Why did they immediately assume that Poison Joke is indigenous to the Dark Side and not to the Everfree Forest? Because it's blue, like the rest of the plants where they're at? Doesn't seem like a very good reason, especially since they haven't even seen any more of the blue plant life than what's in that small glen. If the theory is it was transplanted from the Dark Side to the Everfree, it seems equally likely that it could've been transplanted from the Everfree to the Dark Side, or even transplanted from some other unknown place to both the Everfree and the Dark Side.
At any rate, interesting.
I ship it.
Poison Joke grenade time?
8495339 Everyone should. Everyone must.
I wonder if poison joke may be able to help her get through the Midnight Armory trials. Probably not, but a longshot is better than a certain failure.
11/08/2017
16:34 UTC
Yes please do us all a favor.
While of course RD was right to keep Wildcard away from the Poison Joke, I really wish we could have seen what it would have done to him.
I wonder if the Everfree was touched by chaos long before it was saturated by harmony.
There has to be a reason a beacon of harmonic energy - in the form of a tree - took root in such a remote, random location.
Its likely a major weak spot.
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My guess would be that the Everfree sits exactly opposite the armory as a invert-balance. A big splotch of chaos on the light side contrasting a concentrated oasis of harmony on the dark side.
If Wildcard touched it maybe his claw gestures would have become audible in a super prissy voice. Would that count as breaking his vow?
Caaaalled it!
Imagine if they touched it and then we get to watch the Herald at their greatest challenge yet: making a bubble bath on the Dark Side.
....HUH????!?
But that's interesting. The Everfree is full of weird shit, even for Equestria, so maybe it is in fact much deeper than just "someone planted Poison Joke on the Dark Side".
Poison Joke is some creation spawned of the chaos surrounding this curved plane, calling it now.