"...and you know what the worst of it is?" Rainbow Dash muttered towards the cosmos as she lay casually on her back along the bow of the Jury. "It's not the over-one-hundred dead Lerringtons. It's not how traumatized Kera is. It's not how unhappy my friends and I have been as of late." She gulped before saying, "Earlier today, while nearly crashing into the Frozen Sea from a dizzy spell, I could have sworn I heard a voice..." Her jaw grew tight. "Axan's voice..."
"Just like the manner in which thou heard her at the battlefield between the Ledomaritans and the Xonans?"
Rainbow Dash nodded. "It was a reminder that someway—somehow—she is following me. Keeping an eye out on me. Observing everything that happens to me with her ancient... erm... dragon tingling or something."
"Without a doubt. Considering what thou hast done to free her sister from suffering, the Divine hath taken a great interest in thee."
"But, your Highness, it's way m-more than that!" Rainbow Dash sat up. "Axan nearly killed me. For all intents and purposes, she did kill me. The only thing that made her spare my pathetic flesh is the fact that she figured out I was this 'Austraeoh' crap." Nostrils flaring, Rainbow glared down into the cold waters lying in the darkness beneath the Jury. "Now she's heck-bent on making sure I make this trip east, as if it's something that was prophesied or what-crap. So that got me to thinking... why didn't she intervene at Lerris?" The pegasus winced, her voice taking on a squeaking tone. "What makes her think that what Shell did to so many innocent ponies and to the ones I care about was... s-somehow necessary?" She brought a pair of hooves to her face, groaning. "And then the shape-shifters and the doppelganger of Lasairfion who knew my name and... and..."
"We can only imagine that thou feeleth remarkably overwhelmed, Rainbow Dash."
"Nnnnngh... you have no idea. Feels like the further I fly east, the less and less control I have over what happens—both good and bad. But m-mostly the bad."
Silence.
Rainbow lowered her hooves from her face, sighing. "And... and I've taken it out on my friends, all the while pretending to be protecting them. I figured that my loyalty is the one thing hurting them. In a lot of ways, it kind of is, at least in the way I see it."
"When stuck in the pits of despair, it is undeniably easy to see every element of thy life as a flaw. While this typically can be the signature of a wise and noble sentry, it too can act as a veil, under the shadow of which our greatest enemies travaileth to undermine that which maketh us strong."
"Yeah, well..." Rainbow Dash grumbled aside. "I've got a crapton of enemies, it seems."
"We art no strangers to malevolent shape shifters, Rainbow Dash."
"Oh?"
"In ancient times, before even the utilization of the Elements of Harmony, three older siblings retreated deep into the mountains of Equestria. There, they fed off the caverns of crystals that they found in hiding..."
"Wait... older siblings?" Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow. "You mean... like alicorns?"
"A brother and two sisters. At one time, they would properly have been called alicorns, but they sacrificed their station as guardians of Equestria for the sake of selfish persuits. They were drawn to the magically imbued minerals located deep below modern day Canterlot. The enchanted properties of the crystals granted immense power and improved magical prowess. These alicorns were so addicted to the riches of this plane, that they forsook harmony for any sensation that the substances gave them. Eventually, Celestia, ourself, and the other alicorns at the time had to intervene. We succeeded in driving the three out of the mountains, but the caves had been stripped bare, and the consequences of the magical consumption had taken their effect on those whom we once trusted as our own flesh and blood.
"The two sisters, Chrysalis and Tchern, were driven to the far corners of Equestria. They took with them scores upon scores of ponies—minions who tragically shared in the curse that the crystals had brought upon them. They could no longer harbor emotions like the naturally born ponies of this plane. Instead, they had to mimic others in order to feed off of feelings of love, passion, and distress. The sisters became queens of a nomadic brood, and they telepathically lorded over the mutated ponies who pledged their undying allegiance to them. The only way the mortals could now survive was by operating under a hive mind with Chyrsalis and Tchern at the center. The last time we ever saw them, they had fled to the dark side of the world, where undoubtedly they had constructed a kingdom of malevolence where no sunlight or moonlight can be glimpsed... to remind them of the true love that they have forsaken.
"Our brother, Sombra, was even worst off. To evade our harmonic touch, he sacrificed his wings, his mind, even his own corporeal form to become one with shadow. He fled to the frozen north beyond the borders of Equestria, and there he enslaved countless thousands of crystal ponies, harvesting their very essence in order to satisfy the hunger that his dark soul had become dependent on. We and Celestia discovered him centuries later, and the battle we had was devastating. We had succeeded in vanquishing him from this plane, but tragically he took the entirety of the Crystal Empire with him, burying himself and thousands of innocent ponies in shadow. It was a terrible price to pay for ridding this land of his wicknedness, and there isn't a day that goes by when it doesn't dwell upon our conscience."
"Yeesh, Your Highness." Rainbow Dash winced. "I knew you've battled nasty-nasties in the past, but I had no idea..." She gulped. "Your own brothers and sisters? That's really tough."
"Indeed, but not as distressing as knowing the fate of every pony that blindly followed Chrysalis and Tchern to the ends of the earth... nor the crystal ponies who fell into shadow along with Sombra. But they art hardly the worse that this plane has to offer."
"Oh...?"
"When we succumbed to the darkness ourselves... when we became Nightmare Moon, we too brought doom upon thousands of innocent ponies."
"Come on, Luna..." Rainbow smiled weakly. "It... it c-couldn't have been that horrible."
"Alas, it was. Thousands of unicorns marched to our evil cause, and even more sarosians flew in the shadow of our dark wings. We brought war and cruelty to the land of Equestria, blanketing the countryside in eternal night, until every corner of the world was covered in darkness. The worst part is that it wasn't the initial banishment to the moon that cleansed us, but rather the revitalization of the Elements of Harmony over a thousand years later."
"Yeah... but... it all worked out in the end, didn't it?" Rainbow meekly asked. "When Twilight and the gang..." She fidgeted. "When we gave you the zap, you were cleansed of all that nasty Nightmare Moon junk right?"
"Yes, but it still hath not taken away the scars that we hath caused, the generations upon generations of persecuted sarosians, the unicorns who died attempting to defend a malevolent dictator who was banished centuries ago."
"Ouch." Rainbow Dash grimaced. "I... I-I don't know what to say, Luna. I mean, from the way I hear it, y-you're totally a good alicorn in spite of all that."
"Indeed, we are cleansed of the horrible taint, and we hath endeavored to raise the sun and moon with unwavering diligence. Thou must realize, Rainbow Dash, that in this age—just as in ages previous—evil always finds a place to bring anguish and torment. But where there is evil, there is always the opportunity to bring about good. While Chrysalis and Tchern morphed into horrible mimics of their past selves, it taught the rest of the alicorns the dangers of crystalline addiction, so that we could better protect the mortal populace. While Sombra enslaved thousands of ponies, his reign was put to a vicious end before he could grow powerful enough to corrupt millions. And while Discord nearly managed to convert the entire world to chaos..."
"Yeah, I hear ya..." Rainbow Dash muttered. She nervously rubbed a hoof across her pendant, sighing. "While I'm glad that dude kicked the bucket, I'm not all that happy with what it took to do it."
"Nor can we expect thee to comprehend—much less appreciate the good that hath come out of thy adventures as of late. While it pains us to hear of Nevlamas' passing, we are pleased to know that she was stopped before she could bring corruption to the entirety of the realm beneath the world. And it would seem, Rainbow Dash, that Chrysalis and Tchern have not entirely left the light side as we thought. Regardless, thine intervention in Xona has assured the end of a great and costly war—one that could have grown to excessively murderous lengths had you not flown through the air of that landscape whatsoever."
"But..." Rainbow Dash sniffled, her eyes growing moist as she gazed across the Frozen Sea. "What of Lerris? What good could possibly come out of what Shell did... and what I-I had to do to stop him? Honestly, Luna, it f-feels that no matter what good I do for these lands, I end up doing a whole lot worse in the end, and I-I don't like what it's turning me into." She shuddered and sighed. "It's like I'm becoming just as monsterous as the siblings you had to drive out of the mountains to begin with..."
"We highly doubt that. A monster hath no conscience, Rainbow Dash, much less ponies whom one can practice loyalty with."
"Yeah, well, I'm a bit out of practice, if you ask me."
"We could equally feel the same. We hath felt the same, repeatedly, with seemingly no outlet for our grief."
"Then just what makes you go on? How do you raise the sun and moon every day without fail?"
"Because we have to. Because so many ponies depend on us. And because we knoweth that to give into despair—if even for a moment—would mean giving the victory to our enemies, even if our greatest foe is ourselves."
"Yeah, but I killed Shell. He's gone for good."
"He is never dead, Rainbow Dash, so long as thou willeth his corruption to endure through the acceptance of thy defeat. He will resurface, like the will of Chrysalis and Tchern, or like the shadow of Sombra, so long as thou becometh so despondent that though giveth him a vessel through yourself."
Rainbow Dash bit her lips.
"We accept with a heavy heart the possibility that there'll come a full moon when thou wilt no longer be alive to reply to us, Rainbow Dash. Please, we beseech thee, do not let a day come when the pegasus on the other end of the communication spell is voiced by a spirit far darker than yours."
Rainbow sighed. "I won't become another Nightmare Moon, your Highness." She smiled bitterly. "Besides... I'd look like a total lame-o in that balding helm thing you were sporting."
"We shall pretend to understand that and smile."
"Works for me..."
Tchernobog, I hate you.
You know why, changeling.
Fallen Alicorn Sombra is my new favorite headcannon.Here's hoping Dash will get a bit of her shine back after this Lunar pep-talk.
Extended conversation with Luna. A nice break from the giant ice lake or endless bloodshed.
Somehow, I believe this saga could go a few ways - Rainbow dying just before her goal, Rainbow dying just before she gets home from circumnavigating the world, Rainbow dying and then reviving as an alicorn, or Rainbow evolving into an alicorn.
We're one stage away from halfway, Yggdrasil or something being #6. I can't wait until we get to the Edge of the World.
So now we know who the Changeling was that confronted Dash, and got a bunch of back story on this version of Sombra and Chrysalis. Now its time for Dash to talk to everyone else on the Jury and start setting things right.
Delicious world building. Thank you, Luna, for your wonderful exposition.
Something tells me that it's Tchern that we'll be seeing more of in the future. I wonder why...
The conversations with Luna always bring out the best world-building, and set the tone nicely. Like a prologue.
Daww Dashie is feeling better now. ^-^
Ooh look, lore! I'm not sure Sombra's backstory here quite fits with show canon, in the show, Celestia describes him as a unicorn corrupted by dark magic. But you know what, this version is cooler.
I really hope that's 100% metaphoric. We never did get to see a body.
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If RD becomes an alicorn in any way ever, I'm quitting the internet. A possible happy ending not involving alicornification would be if she activates whatever artifact she's looking for in the midnight armory, it brings back the elements of harmony, and their bearers with them, and then together they can use the elements to cure rainbow dash by stopping discord properly with all six elements. Personally I don't see a perfect happily ever after in store for us, but if we get one, this is how it would play out.
This makes me curious about Sombra's return with the Empire. I'm sure the whole thing could be pushed aside if need be, but if that isn't the case Equestria is looking at a serious problem. What with the sisters being preoccupied and all.
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This reminds me of that Ledo border town that Shell burned down that Rainbow initially blamed on Axan, if I remember correctly.
Also, I realized that the Noble Jury's journey over the frozen sea isn't so lonely, with Axan, Roarke, Tchern, and
Prowse?following.4065112
Rainbow Dash ascending into an alicorn, but still corrupted and therefore being like 1/3 discord along with alicorn, then dying just before completing her goal, while managing to infect a grown but bitter Kera with chaos that also carries the voice of Rainbow Dash, causing Kera to become a schizophrenic chaos-tainted Rainbow Dash with an attitude problem, who then ascends, turns into Nightmare Kera Dash, rules the dark side for a time, then turns good again after trying to invade the light side and being exposed to the moon and talking to Luna, then subsequently takes over the dark side for the forces of harmony, causing her to turn full discord, but remaining good in the process, at least until Nightshade wanders out of the machine world, having also ascended into an alicorn and gone mad with loneliness and hunger, leading to the most epic of all fights, taking up the entirety of the 11th book.
You saw it here first, folks.
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I'm pretty sure,as it stands now anyway, this is going to end one of two ways, RD getting to the Armory finding nothing therefore making the original goal of the journey pointless and then dying. With us getting to see her reuniting with her friends in the afterlife, along with an epilogue of everyone still alive that she met on her journey to give us closure.
Or two RD getting to the Armory finding the thing she needs and using it or whatever and waking up back in Ponyville being memory magic'd by Twilight just like in the episode and it continues on from there. With an Epilogue likely being cryptic and leaving it up to the reader as to if it really happened or not.
I do not see her becoming an Alicorn as an end to this.
My, what delightful world-building. And I'm guessing that "Lasairfion" was actually Tchern. The fact that changelings apparently live on the dark side of the world gives us something to look forward to. Seems that Tchern and her cronies will be with us for a while.
And maybe now Dash will go and talk to her friends.
As far as the future of the story goes, my theory has always been that books 7-12 will involve the journey on the dark side of the world, back towards the Midnight Armory (and with that journey back, that the chapter titles will get shorter again, until book 12 has single-word titles again). As I understand it, the Midnight Armory is on the opposite side of the world from Equestria (roughly in the middle), and considering the nature of the machine world, it's entirely possible there'll be a passage between Equestria and the Midnight Armory. Which, in turn, brings back the oft-quoted line of Discord's: "Twists and turns are my master plan, then find the elements back where you began". As for the "find the elements" bit... well, it's fun imagining.
But god knows I've been plenty wrong before, so idle speculation is idle.
We all know Rainbow is just an avatar for Harmony itself and when she completes her mission she'll have her own little afterlife with all the Applejacks, Roarkes, and Golden Petals she can get.
Praise Luna for Luna bringing back the Dash we all know and love. And now Dash can act as a spark to heal the others.
As for the Midnight Armory, I'm going to go with she makes it to the edge of the world at the end of book 6, talks to Luna one last time (since she won't be able to on the dark side), then we kick off book 7 on the dark side.
It's important to note, I think, that the dark plane hasn't been brought up in a while, the last mention being dragons. If Tchern did make it to the dark side and back, we know it's possible. And she and Chrysalis made at least one voyage to Equestria. So it is possible. But who knows where it'll lead? I'm just here for the ride~
So if Ebon really is a changeling, then it totally makes sense as to how "Tchern" knew about RD's past...if RD has shared some memories with him. =/
Y? cuz...
His mind is connected to the hive mind.
Agh, this story has so many things to remember, take note of, whatever!
How to deal with the realm of changlings on the dark side. If they have all teh similar set up there, dark light farms, love slave camps, towns, cities.
The greatest magic in the Midnight Armory involves space, time and reality transformations.
Dash will be closest to the chaos warp at the Armory, but will Celestia have reached closure point by that time given its easier for her while Dash is out at teh edge of the world?
Whats happened to Shining and Cadence heading West?
4065451 I never saw Roarke being a... "figure of Rainbow's attention" throughout this series.
Anyways, glad to see Rainbow on the path to finally mending the wounds onboard.
Maybe we'll actually get some interaction that doesn't involve yelling and loneliness.
Also, this chapter gives a whole new spin on crystal meth.
... And crystal ponies.
4065565 Many of us supported (and still do support) Rainbow/Roarke when it was starting to be implied during Ordsnot that Roarke had certain feelings for out lovably dumb paint bucket, wether or not those feelings were romantic is still unknown but Zaid certainly shipped them and that's all the proof I need.
Hey alright. Looks like Rainbow might actually stop being a wimpy kiddie baby whiner.
Now we just need Belle to do the same...
I'm glad rainbow got so much off her chest finally. time for her to spread the awesomeness around. welcome to the story >> Tchernobog !!
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Thank you! quite happy with what I ended up being. Bwehehe.
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It still feels rather strange being discussed offhandedly like this.
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Zombie Shell
The buck he isn't.
Worldbuilding ahoy. A lovely change of pace.
Tchernobog is a perfect name for a changeling. Let's kill it.
There should have been a mention of Tweak when crystal ponies were discussed.
The Crystal Kingdom was mentioned a couple of times in Austraeoh, but this was before Season 3, so that should probably be considered retconned.
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I was a bit worried that Axan was treated as practically a good guy in Odrsjot. Let's not forget she's a mass murdering tyrant, and a full redemption so quickly just doesn't happen.
I don't really understand how Axan, enormous as she is, was able to physically follow Rainbow without anyone noticing. Maybe it was explained and I forgot. I remember she also had some sort of viewing orbs in Eljunbyro.
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The Mane Six coming back to life would be too much of a Disney happy ending for my taste, especially since there's no indication so far that this would be possible.
I think Rainbow becoming an alicorn for a while in the end could be pulled off well. Especially if she dies after that.
4065546
Cadance is Chrysalis, of course
Oh goody! Lore time!!!
Oooh...two queens? Interesting.
[glee at mentioning of batponi intensifies]
This is pretty much what I said earlier right after that battle. He's still not dead in a manner of speaking. He's left his mark on the entire crew in different ways, and as long as they remember that, Shell's not dead and will continue to haunt them.
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You know, I had completely forgotten about this possibility. I was still thinking the changelings in Dash's neck of the woods were under Chrysalis's control. But now that we know there are two Changeling Queens, it's more likely that these are under Tchern's control while Chrysalis is still operating under the disguise of Cadence.
Still, I'd like to think that in this alternate universe, things have changed. I think Chrysalis might be operating the light side of the world, while Tchern operates the dark side.
Having at least one marked big bad waiting on the other side keeps things interesting.
Dash really needed to be hit in the face.
i1.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/529/455/146.png
Zaid will bring the sexy back.
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4065162 In that case, don't read 'Mommy Nearest'.
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More like Tchernobug, amirite?
Shell better not actually come back
I freaking love your freaking Luna so freaking much I can't even freaking describe it.
Tchernobog confirmed for next Shell! 4066723 Congratulations, you magnificent bastard you. Get used to it.
4065565 W0t? Where did you look?
4067008 She's not redeemed at all. The reason of her evil was the bitterness caused by knowing that the world lay dying. In the Austraeoh she sees the key to saving her own hide first and foremost, if you ask me. She still doesn't give a damn about anybody else. So as long as she gets to live, let the world burn.
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Oh man, Lore mania!
Also, hopefully this chapter will be the turning point of the first arc of this fifth book, as the crew begins to draw closer again.
IIIIIt's Dashie's evaluation time!
I see your game, Imploding...you appear to be setting up the main villains for Dash's journey across the dark side of the world. That's good, I suppose. And character building for Dash, as well. Perhaps the Jury will get back to normal soon! These are my thoughts so far.
-MASH
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Don't forget Props.
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I'm almost scared to ask... but what would the twelfth book be about?
Interesting... I wonder if maybe Axan didn't stop Shell because Dash flying east with all of her friends was crucial? Maybe it was a distraction that Dash needed to leave? We'll see eventually, I'm sure of it.
-Spirit
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-Spirit
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FRIGGIN' KNEW IT!
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I hope I can make it to book 11.
You know, I think it shows something that Celestia is the only alicorn not to succumb to temptation. It definitely says something knowing she's the only alicorn that hasn't. Very interesting.
Now hopefully we can make some progress in the recovery.
Recovery begins...
Ah, such lovely backstory and exposition
mmmnhh... others dislike it but the feeling it gives me is almost
orgasmic
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My only thing is that Sombra did have a physical body. Technically, at least while surfing his Death Crystal of Eternal Suffering. But he did mostly have Nightmare Moon's spiffy as heck Cloud Form spell.
Changeling origin story!
Aaaaand Sombra!
She at least gets the jest, and what it means for Rainbow's recovery
05/29/2017 23:45 UTC