"—forth with the blessings of Harmony, foals of Emeraldine. Our weary eyes rest upon the—scrkkkkkkkk—forth with the blessings of Harmony, foals of Emeraldine. Our weary eyes rest upon the—scrkkkkkkkk—forth with the blessings of Harmony, foals of Emeraldine. Our weary eyes rest upon the—scrkkkkkkkk—"
"You know..." Twilight Sparkle scratched her chin, squinting at the translucent face of Onyxxus being broadcasted against a wall between adjacent doorframes. "...I'm a bit surprised he doesn't have an accent."
Pinkie and Rarity looked over Rainbow's body while their anchor rummaged through a pile of debris. "An accent?" Above them, manalights flickered to life one after another as Flynn continued powering up the entirety of Darkreach.
"Yes!" Twilight nodded. "Or a different language entirely!" She gestured at the alicorn image. "This was recorded... what... countless centuries ago. Even Old Equestrian Basic had several different modifiers, spellings, and verbage in the days of the Neo Classical Era."
"But these fellers were Emeraldinians," Applejack said.
"I don't see how that makes it any different, Applejack," Twilight said with a slight frown. "Language is language... a highly evolving and naturally malleable thing. It... it just doesn't make sense for a culture to speak in the same way for the better portion of a thousand years!"
"Maybe the history books are wrong!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed.
"Pfffffft!" Twilight nearly spat her tongue out. "The Royal Archives of Canterlot are anything but wrong."
"Live and learn, egghead." Rainbow Dash sat up with an object in her hooves. It was metal, slender, and housed a narrow central chamber. "By the time we're done with the Dark Side, I'm betting you'll find that almost all of the 'history books' are wrong to some degree."
"What did you find there, Dashie?" Pinkie asked.
"Mmmmm..." Rainbow pivoted away from the repeating hologram so her response could be better heard. "I've been through enough warring countries to recognize a crossbow when I see one."
"Even one that's so glossy and streamlined?" Applejack smirked and tilted her hat back. "Reckon you found yerself a space crossbow!"
Pinkie Pie giggled.
"Thing is..." Rainbow looked at the concrete corridor she was in. "...this doesn't look like the armory. I wonder if it was just left here by accident and... there could be more elsewhere in this place."
"Could be a mite bit useful, sugarcube."
"I... I-I'm not sensing an armory," Rarity said.
"Could you try and 'feel around' for a room that has more of this thing?" Rainbow asked her.
Rarity whimpered slightly. "I don't know... but I will certainly try, darling." She pressed two hooves to her pale forehead and clenched her eyelids shut. "Crossbow... powers... a-activate!"
"Maybe this is a discovery to bring to the others," Twilight said.
"Right." Rainbow balanced the weapon on her back and briskly trotted up the nearby stairs. More lights came to life as she ascended. "Hopefully they found more useful things than I did."
Wildcard whistled.
Ariel and Logan spun about from where they stood before the grand Verdestone mosaic of the common room. The flickering face of Onyxxus loomed above them, speaking on repeat.
"What is it, boy?" Logan grinned at the three limb'd griffin. "What did you find?" Ariel's hoof swatted his big forehead, but he didn't stop grinning like an idiot.
Exhaling, Wildcard crossed the distance between them, dragging a large metal crate with his tail. With a breathy grunt, the Desperado swung the container so that it slid to a stop between the other two Heraldites.
"Nuts," Logan droned. "Metal nuts."
"Whoah! Wildcard!" Hovering, Ariel reached down and dragged her hooves through a mess of metal bits, levers, bolts, and rods. "It's like a metal junkie's wet dream!" She looked at him. "Was this the only one that you found?"
Wildcard shook his head. He held all five talons out, then clenched and unclenched his fist four times.
"Wow! Talk about the motherload!" Ariel grinned from ear to ear. "You thinking what I'm thinking?"
Wildcard smirked. He looked towards Logan. With his one talon, he smothed his headcrest back and mimicked a horn coming out of his forehead.
"You really think Flynn can make you something out of this?" Logan raised an eyebrow. "We're already overworking the bugger as it is."
"Pffft... Big Show..." Ariel swatted the stallion with her tail. "For Wildcard, Flynn would do anything... even turn a box of nuts and bolts into a new prosthetic."
"Hrmmmf... wish he loved me nearly half as much," Big Show muttered, polishing off a golden sphere he had found. "I sure could use a refrigerator."
"Harrk!" Kepler shuffled briskly into the room, grasping a slender golden object in his claws. "Look, brrotherrs! Sisterr! Gaze upon that which I have acquirred!"
"Keps, Big Show already found a spear," Ariel remarked.
"Oh ye of little ingenuity!" Kepler gestured. "Obserrve!" He then twirled the object in his grasp and proceeded to scrap the small of his hairy backside. "Mmmmmmmmm... ha-hah! Most heavenly indeed!"
Wildcard gave a thumb's up.
"Heh..." Ariel rolled her eyes. "We're all glad for you, Keps."
"Dude... a backscratcher?" Logan grinned at the wyvern. "Why not just use your scorpion tail? You were born with a natural one!"
Kepler gave him a shocked expression, his spectacles nearly falling off. "You darre suggest that I would stoop to being so barrbarric?!" He gestured. "How about you prrocurre the harrdened mucus frrom yourr nostrrils with yourr prrehensile limb!"
Logan and Ariel chuckled. Wildcard smirked.
Then... from the far end of the room:
"What... am I even looking at?"
The Heraldites looked over.
Seraphimus sat with a dumbstruck expression. Handcuffed to pipework, she kept her twitching hawkeyes glued to the holographic image of Onyxxus on repeat.
"Silly bird," Ariel hummed. "They don't have stuff like that back in Rohbredden, do they?" She placed metal bits back in Wildcard's box and yawned. "Oh well. Just have to chalk it off to 'infidels' and 'Blight' and whatever."
"There... are no ponies like that in any of the prefectures..." Seraphimus' charcoal brown eyes fixated on the horned stallion's coiled wings—occasionally showing beneath his neck and shoulders. "Nor in the Seven Seas." She squinted at the Herald. "Precisely what is this place?"
Logan rolled his eyes. "Weeping chickens of the world, unite..."
"Now you want to know the truth?" Ariel stammered. "Even after we told you so many friggin' times?"
"Now now, frriends..." Kepler shuffled between them. "That is no way to trreat good and prroperr curriosity. Adverrsarries orr not, we arre still in this togetherr, yes?" He cleared his throat and faced Seraphimus. "You see, King Onyxxus of Emerraldine was one of severral extrraterrrestrrial equines who descended frrom the heavens long ago beforre—"
Logan let loose a loud whistle. "Yo, Keps." He yanked the small wyvern back by his scorpion tail. "Save it."
"But I was merrely wishing to educate—"
"You can't teach a frog how to hop if it's already proven itself to be stupid!" Logan frowned at Seraphimus. "Ignore this momemtary lapse of raisin baskets. She's still as murderous as an owl with rabies. You think she's going to want to kill us any less once she knows the truth" He shook his head. "Wait until the turkey really really wants it."
"Yeah..." Ariel threw Seraphimus a cold-hearted glare. "What he said."
Kepler squinted at them both. "Arre we not wishing to illuminate this poorr soul? Do not forrget what the Rrainbow One wishes—"
"Rainbow wants to keep her alive," Logan grunted. "If she wants to play ball on our team, then she has to prove it." He glanced aside. "Right, Double-Yoo?"
Wildcard stared at the Verdestone mosaic. He merely sighed.
Seraphimus clenched her beak angrily. "It's a wonder that you misguided cretins eluded Chandler for so long."
"Some shit in life is easier than you think, toots." Logan pointed. "And as defeating for your screwball of a 'Defense Minister,' we have one selfless badass to thank for that! And unfortunately, you self-righteos bucktard, he's no longer with—"
Thwap! A sharp talon clenched Logan's shoulder, instantly silencing him.
Logan blinked over at Wildcard. "... ... ...what? Too close to home?"
Ariel face-hoofed. "Dammit, Big Show..."
"What? Somepony's gotta read her the riot act! Bard would have gotten a hoot out of it! Don't you deny it!"
It was precisely then that Rainbow Dash bounded up an adjacent set of steps with the crossbow in tow. "Okay guys, I found something we might be able to use. Right now, I've got Rarity 'scanning' for others in the compound and—" She froze in place.
Everyone stood, shifting about awkwardly. Frowing faces and downcast eyes avoided each other. Onyxxus' voice continued repeating eerily in the background, piercing the tense silence.
Rainbow arched an eyebrow. "... ... ...well if this place isn't a warm fuzzy bucket of kittens."
"Everypony seems..." Pinkie grimaced. "...pony poop'd."
"AJ?" Rainbow tilted her head aside. "Your honest thoughts?"
"Ahem." Applejack adjusted her hat and gestured at Seraphimus. "Reckon it stems from her... but not entirely."
Seraphimus looked at Rainbow Dash. Her beaked expression was strangely neutral.
Rainbow blinked at that. A sigh, and she looked lethargically at the Heraldites. "Look... can we work on one thing at a time? Right now, we should be scouring Darkreach for useful tools. Let's save group therapy for another occasion... preferably when Flynn or Kepler could figure out how to conjure peanut butter snacks from the ether."
"Look..." Logan gestured at Seraphimus. "She started pretending to be interested in—"
"Another. Time." Rainbow glared daggers at him. "If you can't be useful here in Darkreach, then trot outside and make us a bridge across the ravine with your butt."
Logan crossed his forelimbs and pouted in silence.
"Whew-wee, Dashie!" Pinkie grinned. "You can really be like Lime Pie when you wanna—"
"Shhhh!" Rainbow hissed at the ghostly mare. "You too. I'll say when it's time to chillax and gargle nonsense."
"Hrmmmf." It was Pinkie's turn to fold her forelimbs. "All of those sunrises have burnt your jollies!"
"Uh huh." Rainbow looked at the Herald. "What did you guys find?"
"Uhhhhhhhhhhh..." Ariel squirmed in midair. "Uhhhh... eh heh..."
Kepler gulped and held his tiny pole up. "Behold! A scrratcherr of the back!
Wildcard face-claw'd.
"And... erm..." Ariel pointed at the crate. "The makings of a new prosthetic for Wildcard." She gulped. "We hope."
Rainbow exhaled. "Well, cool beans." She gave her flank a shake, caught the crossbow in midair, and brandished it. "The girls and I found this. I'm not one hundred percent certain... but I think it might be manapowered. Like... you fit it with a manacrystal and it fires energy pulses." She turned the thing over. "I say this because it kinda resembles the rifles that I saw back in Ledomare—"
The glossy surface of the crossbow's stock reflected a pair of red-on-yellow eyes. "Do you really intend on dragging their useless fannies all the way to your destination?"
Rainbow Dash froze in mid-speech. Her muzzle hung open.
A fang glinted as a smile formed above a tuft of goat hair. "Lock and load this thing up. You can off them in their sleep. I'm certain the big one can feed you for a year at least."
"Uhhhhhhhhhh..." Rainbow paled.
Ariel squinted. "Rainbow? Is something the matter?"
Chaotic chuckles. The voice rang off the crossbow's metal structure. "I bet you'd want to gobble her up first."
"Guh!" Rainbow tossed the crossbow out of her hooves.
"Rainbow?!" Twilight gasped.
"Whoah!" Pinkie's gaze followed the thrown weapon. "From downtown—!"
Swoooosh! Wildcard glided towards the ceiling and—Snatch!—caught the weapon in a single talon. He descended with softly flapping wings. His goggled eyes looked at the weapon, then worriedly at Rainbow Dash.
Rainbow shivered in place. She caught Seraphimus' curious gaze in her peripheral vision. "I... uh... I was th-thinking that if we found more l-like that thing... uhm... we could stock ourselves for the j-journey to come..."
"Buck the journey," Logan muttered, squinting at her. "What the heck's the matter with you."
"She's mad," Seraphimus droned. "I've told you all this."
"Rrrrrngh..." Logan stomped a hoof and leaned angrily in her direction. "How would you like to have every feather plucked off of you with tweezers?"
"It would be less torturous than listening to you defend her fractured, flimsy mindset."
"Don't push it, death eagle."
"Guys, can we not—"
The overhead manalights flickered brightly. Flynn's voice hollered down from a descending staircase.
"I think I've got it!"
Onyxxus' image shook and rippled. "Bzzzzzzzzt—Rrkk-Rrkk-Rrkk-Rrkk-My-My-My-My-My little poniessssssss—" The hologram inverted, flickered, then re-manifested itself as a stately alicorn with a powerful stare. "My little ponies, brothers and sisters of the Verdestone Council... all of us are gathered here in honor to send you forth with the blessings of Harmony, foals of Emeraldine. Our weary eyes rest upon the final dawn's precipice where the golden bridge has been built to sustain you, the lifeblood of Darkreach, our most ambitious venture of hope for this age and the ones to come..."
"Well..." Fluttershy shuddered. "...the timing couldn't be better."
"Ooh! A movie!" Pinkie beamed. "Did anypony bring ghost popcorn?"
"Pinkie..." Rarity sighed.
"Heehee! It's okay! I forgot to bring ghost butter!"
And now, Seraphimus's first reaction to the upcoming infodump:
images-cdn.9gag.com/photo/aDj3237_700b.jpg
205? Those gestures were eerily similar to Scuba hand signals
Austraeoh but it's narrated by Shakespeare
That back scratcher is going to come in handy soon
Calling it
Looks like this bridge did not sustain them for forever, as they are now gone.
So funny how one moment murdering people is called the act of a coward. The next moment it becomes "selfless". Cram it up your tailhole, Logan, its certainly big enough to hold a load that size.
You could even install an extendable back scratcher in the new model.
Yeesh Discord, getting a little obvious aren't we? Granted Logan would be effective trail rations for the entire dark side, but I think he's a bit too salty to taste decent.
Yes, but that has nothing to do with nutrition.
Regardless Dash needs to learn to adjust to Discord's creepy whisper routine, if only so she doesn't let it get her distracted at a critical moment. And for all the crap Logan's giving Serpaphimus, her asking questions is superior to her randomly listing off ways she wants to kill everyone. Yeah, it doesn't mean she's on anyone's side yet, but questions are pretty much the basic stepping stones to thinking, which is pretty much the only way one ever changes one's mind about anything.
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Then those soul-eater unicorns show up and exterminatus the entire facility.
Oooh, exposition time. I can already smell some answers!
And even more questions afterwards.Sounds like enough material to craft a complete power armour for Wildcard.
This is dark. Even for Discord. Right now, I assume that he simply tries to scramble Rainbow's psyche at this point. We have yet to see evidence of him being a full-fledged murderer.
She is seriously going to need to get used to Discord or it's going to get someone killed. Which might be what Discord wants? Who knows at this point.
Can't wait to hear the rest of that message, this should be good.
Okay, now you're just being mean...
Looks like Twilight has not yet learned that history, being written by the victor, is filled with liars. AJ would hate history.
So Discord is now RD's shoulder devil
It just ghost to show, don't forget the popcorn!
As long as nopony or wyvern does anything stupid, I think we'll make it through this alive...
Who am I kidding, guano will hit the fan when everything finally seems okay.
7:49 p.m.
I'm trying to imagine how this works.
This cracked me up bigtime.
What. Shake perhaps?
Now all the lower doors can unlock and let the changelings back in to eat everyone like Stratopolis?
If teh Golden Bridge was the alicorn Elevator, then things are screwed, unless someone decides to tunnel to the dark side Underworld. Maybe Project Pluto. Or is that like my dinner and a repeat.
All those Mana crystals for a power source, but they mustve been charged somehow, unless they are mined skystones, whih are powered from teh conflict of the Planes existance and Chaos surrounding.
Which means as long as Dash doesnt end up somehow spread eagled accross teh surface of the Mana sphere due to energetic conflict with say a psychotic turkey, she shouldjnt really end up knocked unconsoious and with a major chaos mana feedback loop occuring.
oh hey, the less likable version of spider venom hallucination AJ from dashery is back.
spider venom hallucination... that's a phrase.
-Through the path long forgotten, into the darkness long begotten. Ofolrodi.
Here's something I didn't think of before. They've been talking a lot about those ancient Darkstine ponies quite a bit since they got here. What if the reason that Fluttershy can't sense any thing living is because what killed everyone here was some form of automaton built by them to help with work on the dark side, and something caused it to freakout and kill everyone and hide or incinerate their bodies.
Well, this chapter shows some promise for our second favorite danger-chicken. Yeah, Seraphimus still thinks Dash is insane, but she's at least showing some sort of curiosity about who Onyxxus is and just where in the heck they all are. That's progress, right? I just hope it continues, at maybe at a slightly faster rate. In the meantime, maybe Wildcard can get himself a new talon, and maybe Dash can come clean or just... chill out when she sees Discord's reflections.
~SolidFire
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Don't give the Lemur ideas!
I laughed and coughed at the same time
Ohh man that's actually really dark even for Discord..
I often use xkcd-style passwords, and this sounds kind of like something I'd put in. (That's probably gonna happen a few times in this book.)
I'm gonna take it as a good sign that Seraphimus at least seems curious about this ever-larger world she finds herself in.
"You may all die, but that's a risk I'm willing to take" -onyxxus
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firmly grasp it, then move it from side to side.
Let the bird learn.
M.A.S.H. indeed. If nothing else that's what they're all going to end up as if the current darkening mood trend is going to continue.
I'm telling you, Kepler's the size of a large rabbit. One of those lops that dwarves the kid trying to hold it, but still.
Did Dashie fall down a well?
I think Ariel already likes the shape it had before.
Onyxus is singing the theme song!
D'aaw.
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Kill it with fire!
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I really hope you're right. I wanna enjoy this, and him mind-raping Dash(which, if he is willing to kill, he'll get around to soon enough) will just be Lerris all over again, possibly literally if he can make her have visions.
Woo! Managuns. But what is that briefcase?
Discord, you troll...
---
A backscratcher is a very nifty implement, Kepler, they're just jealous of your find
I guess it's definitely out of the question for Discord to become the nice guy. Oh well. I am actually pretty okay with this. I really don't expect Rainbow Dash to forgive him, and I really don't want to.
At least we get the full message and can understand what's going on.
Oh Kep...LOL!
Alright, this one I can't ignore. Pinkie would have just said Limie or something. No one uses their surname when referring to their own family unless it's for official reasons.
Cmon nobody’s gonna mention this
Rainbow: Erm... Yes AND no.
Oh, so now everything we've been telling you ain't so crazy, is it Sera????!!?!?!
Jesus Christ Discord.