No less than half a dozen zombie pegasi met their burning end in one fell swoop. Each swing Rainbow Dashmade of the sword sent the undead reeling instantly. The air filled with black ash as the purple muck evaporated from the proximity of the Sword of Solstice.
Rainbow Dash sweated from the sheer heat of the weapon's righteous fury. As she cleared out one end of the circular room, Pilate busied himself with the other half.
"Haaaugh!" The zebra came down, slamming the skull in of a beast with his staff before spinning about to block the attack of another diving monster. He sensed two flying at him from behind, so he twirled to meet their attack. However, in the midst of his spin, he realized he had moved too slow. He winced, expecting the teeth of either monster to sink into his neck at any moment.
Thunder cracked—a great deal louder than previous strikes of lightning. Suddenly, the two pegasi slumped to a soggy end at Pilate's hooves.
The zebra stood, panting, his brow furrowed beneath his helm. He sensed movement, and he tilted his head straight up. The hole to the top of the domed ceiling was clear, though he could have sworn that the faint traces of red-on-black lines denoted a streak leading away from the scene. He teetered for a while in dull confusion, then turned towards Rainbow Dash.
The mare was busy clearing away her half of the room with relative east. She was too preoccupied to notice a creature slipping through the melee and leaping at her flank.
"Rainbow!" Pilate shouted, immediately galloping her way. Without a second thought, the stallion leapt and threw his weight forward through his shoulder.
Wh-wham! The zebra plowed the monster to the ground with a clatter of metal armor.
Rainbow Dash felt the impact through her hooves. Twirling about, she saw the zombie pegasus reeling from Pilate's blow. She immediately spat the sword out, held it in the crooks of both forelimbs, and lunged forward with a massive down-thrust. "Haaaugh!"
The creature's skull split in two and the rest of it turned to ash. Rainbow Dash leaned forward against the sword, panting. She threw her mane back and murmured aside.
"Way to go, Stripesy." Her muzzle curved as she glanced at him. "Guess I got carried away there—" Her ears folded. "...Celestia."
Pilate lay on his side, convulsing. Half of his flank was covered with purple ooze, and it was spreading.
"Hnnkkkt..." The zebra clenched his teeth, his helm rattling as a hissing breath escaped his muzzle. "Blessed Spark, it burns."
Breathless, Rainbow Dash slumped down by the stallion's side. She watched with twitching eyes as the acidic muck thickened, as if a dozen unholy things were spawning from somewhere deep within.
"Rainbow..." Pilate hyperventilated, his voice squeaking in pain. "Please... tell Belle... t-tell her that I love her..." He gulped. "And I'm sorry."
Clank! Rainbow stabbed the sword into the ground half-an-inch from Pilate's prone body.
The stallion wheezed. "Rainbow...?"
She said nothing, gripping the hilt as she narrowed her gaze into a righteous glare. Between them, the Sword of Solstice glimmered with golden energy. The air grew warmer by the second, resonating with pulsating heat.
Suddenly, steam rose from Pilate's flank. The stallion winced slightly, then lay still as—inch by inch—the purple stain dissipated cleanly from his body. Within the space of a minute, the substance had completely evaporated. Pilate's flesh lay unblemished.
The zebra breathed easier and easier. He moved his lower limbs and was surprised to find that all the pain was gone.
Rainbow reached a hoof out. He grabbed it and was helped back to his hooves.
"What..." Pilate reeled, still stunned from the ordeal. "I-I mean... how? How did you do that just now?"
"I dunno..." Rainbow Dash said, pivoting the sword against the stone floor, gazing at it. "It just came to me naturally." She blinked, and a faint smile came to her lips. "Just as naturally as it once came to Hurricane, I bet."
Pilate stared at her, smiling awkwardly. He flinched, then spun towards the far ends of the room. "It's... so still in here..."
"I know..."
"What happened to all of the pegasi?"
"I think we cleared them all away, dude."
"Really?"
"Yeah."
"Spark alive... were they once Hurricane's soldiers?" Pilate glanced back at Rainbow. "Or a far more ancient race?"
"Who knows. Maybe both?" Rainbow Dash shrugged, glancing at the etched grooves in the floor. "Hmmmm..."
"What is it?"
Rainbow smirked. "Call it another natural hunch." She picked the sword up and trotted forward on three legs. "But I think I can make life easier for the other survivors in this place."
"Where are we headed?!" Bellesmith sputtered in the rain as she ran with the group along the outer rim of the circular structure. "This ship—the Tarkington—is it far away?"
"Over there!" Seclorum exclaimed, pointing with his hoof. "That large temple floating beneath the dark thunderloud!"
"Blessed Spark..." Belle stammered. "That has to be at least one hundred meters away!"
"There's another temple between us and them!" Prowse exclaimed. He spun around from where he stood along the windblown edge of the structure. "Alright, you bloody spark starters! Let's get a bridge made!"
"Spark... st-starters?" Josho remarked.
"I believe Unky Prowsy means 'unicorns,'" Props said.
"Hmmmf..." Prowse cocked his weaponized prosthetic. "Nopony asked you to be a bloomin' translator, lass."
"Hey, I gotta be useful at something!" Props blinked her goggled eyes. "Besides—of course—carrying the manacrystals and looking booty-full."
"We need to hurry!" Aatxe said, breathless as he leaned against Seclorum's side. "The beasts are right behind us! There's no telling how many more are out there in the storm clouds!"
"Then let's get this show on the road!" Seclorum pointed at a mess of zeppelin parts and overturned pillars. "Arcshod?! Why don't you get the bridge started?! You're the strongest of the bunch and—"
"What in Ledo's lingerie box?!" Josho barked.
Belle turned with "Eagle Eye's" body stirring on her back. "Josho, what is it?"
"Look for yourself!" The stallion pointed.
Murmurs ran across the thick crowd from Lasairfion to Prowse to Aatxe himself. Everypony watched in a shocked stupor as the two temples—the fractured one close to them and the distant structure with the Tarkington—floated ever so gradually towards them in a slow hover. Within the span of a minute, they both became three hundred percent easier to scale.
"It's... it's a miracle," Belle murmured.
"No way..." Josho rubbed his scruffy chin, then turned to squint towards the domed roof of the structure behind them. "Somehow, I smell a rainbow..."
"Is... is it working?" Pilate stammered.
"I'm willing to bet!" Rainbow Dash said through a smirking muzzle. She had stabbed the tip of the Sword of Solstice into the groove of the room's floor. Golden energy surged down into the niche, filling the grooves where the broken staves had once before. "If Hurricane wielded this thing, then I don't see why I can't work magic with it either!"
"What's the source of its power?"
"I'm not really sure. But I think the rainbow colored gemstones is something of a clue."
"They're rainbow colored?"
"Can't you tell?" Rainbow glanced up, blinking at his helm. "Oh. Right. Guess you can't."
"I wish all miracle devices worked the same, Rainbow."
"Heh. You and me both, brother." She reached a dead-end and had to pull the sword out. "Okay. I think that's as far as I can drag the temples outside."
"You're sure about that?"
"No. But we can't waste too much time second-guessing ourselves." She rushed over and grasped him by the hoof. "We got somewhere to go. You along for the ride?"
Pilate gulped and nodded with a rattle of his skystone shard. "As ready as I'll ever be."
"Think happy thoughts." Then, with a deep breath, she took off for the hole in the domed ceiling, carrying the determined stallion along with her.
Woop woop! Time to ash some smooze!
Dont stop me now, Im having such a good time, Im having a ball. ?
I'm reminded of the scene in the first Indian Jones movie of Indy with the staff thingy. Except he wasn't moving temples.
It always comes back to rainbow power...
Ten burpees, ):(. Knock 'em out!
Gods that sword is so cool!
Rainbows sure are quite magical and awesome
I think a large percentage of the enjoyment IC gets out of writing this is coming up with lines like this. Just a hunch.
The east addiction.
4438278 Better than an east infection, at least?
Explosion imminent.
Now that's pretty useful.
I'm starting to wonder why was Hurricane so freaking terrified of this stuff if she had that thing, were the numbers just way too ridiculous for the sword to make a difference, or is there something we haven't seen yet?
Second airship to the right, and straight on till Alafreo.
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i.imgur.com/BbgL7x3.png
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A Gravemind of smooze, if we're keeping up the halo parallelisms
Sword Of Solstice sounds so much like a song Ronnie James Dio would do I'm actually pretty disappointed he didn't.
Dio - Born On The Sun
Let the slaughter continue!
The theme continues. (Skirts above, I just remembered that song and even after all this time the picture still gives me goosebumps.)
"Dash is my middle name!"
This just keeps getting better.
Part of me is kinda hoping dash will get to keep the sword......
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only part of you?
I think most of us are hoping that she will keep the sword with a good bit more than just a part of us.
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That sword will make Rainbow's journey much easier, and more awesome!
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4439726
I hope that she gets to keep the sword, too. But somehow, I don't think it's going to end up that way. I'm betting of might play a part in the destruction of the city, and she'll liar of in the process.
But if she does get to keep it, that would be so many kinds of awesome.
Awwwww yeah.
Let's get out of this cursed place for good.
Any chance of keeping the skeleton?
Roarke, was that you?
At last, the Infinity+1 sword.
wait.... a thought popped in, if miss hurricane sealed away the smooze, then what killed of the pegasi? and they didn't die naturally, nopony dies standing holding a weapon guarding a defensive point of "natural" causes. and i doubt it was changelings, i doubt they could kill them all that quickly (or want to considering the ample food source they would provide). so what killed them? what lies in this floating "Silent Hill" that we have yet to see?
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I bet Seclorum knew Ledo personally. And I bet Ledo was one interesting mare.
Read that as "breeder" first and thought that maybe Roarke had rubbed off on Rainbow more than I previously thought.
Let's destroy the Smooze, for real this time.
-Spirit
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That sounds very likely. Some of the best, in my opinion, are "thunderturds", "Celestia on a unicycle" and especially "Lunapoop".
Dashmade is a new protagonist?
4442376 i wonder that myself...it had to be something swifter than the smooze. i vote windigoes with ice breath.
That sword is pretty damn useful. I must say, it is quite the sexy machina.
Ok
Some day, Someone Somewhere will say "Road on the show" instead that isn't me. And I will Smile for days.
Alright Dalies and mentlegen Let's get this road on the show.
I hope she gets to keep the legendary loot.
I gotta say, it's a bit TOO convenient that she was able to intuitively figure out how to battle the slime on Pilate... but our favorite striped boomer lives on so I'm not much for complaining.
The dissolving bodies of zombie pegasi fill you with determination.
I was prepared to curse the day IC was born...glad I didn't have to.
My heart stopped for a second there.
Whew, I read that as "Look at yourself!" and thought we were about to learn Belle had been replaced by a brainwashed changling.
Of course one of her companions wjld only get infected as soon as she aquired a cure.
Nothing like friends to help you out
09/16/2019
21:14 UTC
At least he didn't say taste.
Nice, Rainbow with the hax so the unicorns don't have to blow all their mana on a bridge.
Ponies with swords