Th-Thump.
Th-Thump.
Th-Thump.
Somehow, despite how loud the drumming had gotten in that city, Rainbow's ears had grown accustomed to their bass reverberations. Thus, she was able to march further and further into the periodic bedlam, using her senses to hone in on the noise... moving towards where it vibrated in greater and greater intensity.
Th-Thump!
Th-Thump!
Th-Thump!
"You know..." Applejack murmured, her voice barely audible beneath the steady thunder. "...the more I hear it... the less I feel that it's comin' from actual drums."
"Well, that's a given," Rarity murmured back. "I mean who on earth—Light Side or Dark—could actually pound drums for this length of time?"
"I always assumed it was a bunch of ponies," Fluttershy said. "All beating at once. Like some Dihmer ritual."
"Shhhhh!" Twilight insisted. "Careful or we'll distract her!"
All of the ghostly mares gazed at the anchor in question.
Rainbow Dash was on the hunt—a hunt for noise. She crept down the curved streets of the Dihmer city, shuffling over smooth swaths of stone polished through the ages. She stretched her wings out slightly... and felt as the feathers fluttered from the sonic reverberations. Relying on innate pegasus instincts, she pivoted and turned herself towards the direction that the waves were pulsing from.
"I think she's onto it now," Fluttershy murmured. The others watched intently.
Th-Thump!!
Th-Thump!!
Th-Thump!!
Rainbow passed another few blocks of crude stone buildings. The streets grew thinner and thinner... with less Dihmers marching around. The lower the elevation sloped, the more sparse the population, until it was only a few hairless stragglers shuffling down alleyways.
As Rainbow proceeded, the buildings appeared more and more decrepit. What's more, the streets declined at such a dramatic angle that they could no longer maintain the foundations of the old-old structures built on top of them. The marefriends gawked at houses that had collapsed entirely, falling into piles of stone and boulders with no discernible pattern. It was as though some form of subsidence along the ocean's Edgeside banks had forced the landscape to sink over time, gobbling up the fringes of the city and making the outskirts uninhabitable even by Dihmer standards.
Th-Thump!!!
Th-Thump!!!
Th-Thump!!!
The haze that blanketed the landscape was beginning to disperse at these depths.
Rainbow Dash peered, her eyes thinning and her lips pursed in rampant curiosity.
The further the hill descended, the wreckage of the city morphed from large boulders and chunks of rock into a loose bed of gravel—almost powdery in its refinement. Rainbow Dash had to flap her wings a few times to hover over the landscape, or else her hooves might sink in the shifting sand-like substance. As she passed over, the successive beats caused the sediment to purpetually shake and shift, coating the earthen floor with a hovering mist of dust that never settled.
Th-Thump!!!
Th-Thump!!!
Th-Thump!!!
Rainbow Dash stepped through the mist. The air was rank with a stench that perplexed her with its strange familiarity.
As she contemplated on the sensation, she glanced to her left. Muddied streams of all of the Curve's collected waters flowed in a translucent river downhill alongside her. As the tributaries and canals that had run through the city collected into one, the liquid coagulated into a sickly color—not gray or brown but a rusted fuchsia.
Rainbow blinked. She sensed something large and black in her peripheral. She looked to her right. Jutting out of the mists and soot, she saw an enormous metal structure—a gigantic obsidian dock built out of industrial slabs of metal that jutted straight out of the upper lengths of the city. It took a bit of surveying, but Rainbow figured that the construct stretched all the way to the large metal foundry that they had sensed earlier pumping smoke into the Omega half of the city. Goblin tech, undoubtedly... and the huge docks stretched out on massive stilts as it cut like a dagger into the oceanic basin. The immense vacuum of space between the top of the docks and the bottom support struts spelled out the sheer magnitude of erosion that had happened to the Curveside ruins of the Dihmer city since the time it was first built.
Cr-Crunch!
Rainbow Dash stepped on something.
Her friends gasped.
Almost reluctantly, Rainbow Dash leaned forward and peered down at her hooves.
Her left fetlock had snapped a brittle horse skull in half. The calcified enamel was stained with a fine coating of residue—crusted and hardened over time. It was a rust red color, or perhaps pink.
Gazing across the powdery floor before her, Rainbow saw that dozens upon hundreds of equine bones were littered about the landscape. She saw legbones in one spot, skulls in another, and countless ribs and vertebrae spread at random. Most of the remains were half-sunken into the gravel shoreline, and occasionally she would spot a warning marker stuck in the sand, capped off by a slab of goblin metal with a bold red inscription that she couldn't decipher.
The shoreline...
Rainbow Dash had reached the ocean, and...
TH-THUMP!!!
TH-THUMP!!!
TH-THUMP!!!
...the ocean had reached her.
There were no waves.
No crashing or receding.
In fact...
...there was no water.
The rancid smell filled Rainbow's nostrils, and she was taken back to a moment of heart-splitting recollection. Her mind drummed up thoughts of swirling cyclones and lightning strikes and howling winds... a time when she was more daring, more adventurous, more clueless.
While her friends gawked in horror, she nevertheless stepped forward. After all, she had seen this all before. This phenomenon. This viscosity. Its glinting, slimey surface with a garrish texture of pink, pink, pink.
"It's... it's not drums..." Fluttershy stammered.
Twilight Sparkle gulped, her eyes reflecting an endless sea of fuschia. "It's a chorus."
"TH-THOBBB!!!"
"TH-THOBBB!!!"
"TH-THOBBB!!!"
The Ocean chanted. The Ocean sang. And with each note—with each otherworldly uvulation—the entire surface rippled and shook as one.
Rainbow Dash didn't dare get within a yard of the shore's edge. She knew better. Scuffling to a stop, she stared into the unwavering slimy surface with an incredulous gaze.
And soon, the ocean stared back. At sporadic lengths, a random assortment of bone-white eyeballs bobbed to the surface, rolled, blinked, and sank back down into the pink biomatter.
"Waa-haa-haa-haa!" Rarity reeled back, clinging to Fluttershy and trembling.
"What... in tarnation...?" Applejack grimaced so hard her muzzle might break.
"Holey moley!" Pinkie's ears and mane drooped. "That does not look tasty!"
"Rainbow..." Twilight turned towards their anchor with a shocked expression. "It's... is it—?"
"It's the entire ocean..." Rainbow murmured. Her eyes lifted, spotting how the endless splotch of pink stretched upwards... occupying a huge chunk of the curve. "It's the entire friggin' ocean." She gulped. "It's all made up of the stuff!"
"TH-THOBBB!!!"
"TH-THOBBB!!!"
"TH-THOBBB!!!"
Fluttershy squirmed. She looked left and right, staring at the Alpha and Omega shorelines of the pink-filled basin. Every few dozen meters, giant skeletons of oddly-shaped beasts and droves of fossilized ponies were lying dormant, half-emerged from the pulsating mass. It looked as if the remains had been strewn their for eons.
"Do..." Pinkie gulped. "...do we really gotta cross that?"
Applejack shuddered. "That or the Bloodwings."
Rainbow Dash clenched her teeth. Her wings drooped as she took a nervous step back. "So much for myths..."
Eaugh.
Is that an ocean of Smooze That raises far more questions than it answers.
OH DEAR! This is bad, this is very very bad. I'm sad it took me a while to figure it out, I should have caught on from the title of the chapter alone
What the fuck is the deal with this story? How does a story this old get in the box? Well fuck me its the Dash fly's south story . Damn it I forgot again!!!!! So never mind.
8877918
As I understand it once a story gets in the feature box every update puts it back in there even for a short time.
Oh
I wonder if fluttershy is getting anything from this stuff, life - sensing wise?
Sure would be nice to have a flaming sword right about now.
8877928
Sorry my comment was a inside joke LOL
8877946
Oh ok then lol. Some people actually don't understand how it works.
Oh god no.
Jesus Christ how horrifying.
oh dear, that's horrible.
Of course the ocean couldn't be an ocean.
That would be easy.
8877949
I just bet it does not work the way you thank it dose.
8877909
Blind zebra last time, blind wyvern this time. I'm starting to think that blindness of the wise is an omen of the incoming smooze.
Could a boat even cross that, or would it just get eaten?
I guess fishing is out of the question.
So that's not drumming... it's a bloody heartbeat.
Hundreds, thousands, millions of hearts, all beating in unison under that sludge.
And if that is a smooze, one that big would certainly discourage the Bloodwings from getting anywhere near it.
-Through the path long forgotten, into the darkness long begotten. Ofolrodi.
Sing my song and become nothing smooze.
This is bad, very bad...
King slime has awoken.
Well, the last few chapters have been pretty normal so let's just crank the Lovecraft all the way up to thirteen.
Oh boy. Seems we found the Smooze again, but it's the size of an entire ocean. Good luck to the Herald, you're going to need it.
That is terrifying. We need an artist to draw this. Looking up the dark curve of Urohringr and seeing how much Smooze they have to cross.
That's... not good.
Oh look, I was right after all
Well, this complicates things.
...
Oh.
An ocean of spooky flesh and dead shit.
I guess it's bloodwings after all, at this point. I don't think they're going to get very far without a boat... a boat sturdy enough to deal with millions of hands and talons and hooves trying to drag it beneath the surface and a s s i m i l a t e the Herald into the chorus.
We reaching whole new levels of whack, yo.
uuuhhh.... i cant... i dont... uhhh... *blinks in disbelief repeatedly* i... i just did some research and i never realized the smooze in this series here(from all the way back in one the pre-previous book) is a skewed version of the Smooze from the old 80s mlp movie. and now i like it even less. this is a plot device i now fear in real life. it gives me a feeling of very strong physical and visceral fear. ohhh... f**k me sideways... that is absolutely terrifying to think about. I need art of this mental image now. honestly, truly terrifying.
also, have this for thought. i think it may relate:
So I didn’t realize it was Smooze until I read the comments. I thought it was bad enough.
This is unbelievable. There was just a bit in Urohringr, and that almost killed everyone. This is so much worse.
Now that I think about it, what's keeping the Smooze from covering the entire plane? Is the slope to steep for it to climb out?
Or, a more dark explanation could be that the Smooze is keeping itself here. The Smooze might have to sustain itself by eating the creatures on the dark side periodically. If the Smooze wiped out everything, there wouldn't be any more life to eat to continue to live. It waits for the creatures to repopulate before eating some more.
Least that's what I think.
Now this is messed up, high octane nightmare fuel. And still the goblins build a dock there.
8878351
The goblins seem to be able to pass that thing somehow. If it isn't with the use of airships, they could use vessels like submarines to get across. Mobile, thick metal bulbs that have no outer decks and which wade through the goo while the crew inside is relatively safe from zombie boarding parties.
Shiiiit
And it's gonna stay still and behave itself even though the Austraeoh is here. It wasn't just sitting there waiting for something to come along and spur it into action...Right?
You know youre in trouble when you face a lifeform large enough to physically eat the planet Earth.
Just be glad that although the adage, theres always a bigger fish in the sea still holds, currently the chaos Bok Globule that the plane is embedded in, is taking its time consuming everythng, unless Dash doesnt trigger the All Spark.
For those of you of a Red Dwarf persuasion, call it The Despair Squid?
Everybody happy? Everybody sing. Back to Life, Back To Reality.
Might want to get something that can handle super high altitude flight if this stuff behaves anything like the "Amoebic Sea". How willing would the Bloodwings be to let her use one of their
Noble Jury'sgeneric attack ships?8877909
Holy shit. I remember finding a phrase on your Twitter relevant to Book 9, once upon a time, and now we're finally here.
This Smooze seems relatively calm. The one in Stratopolis attacked Rainbow and co. on sight.
N̨̛̞̘͚̹̯̤̩̥̘̘͔̮̜̭̬͊̌̎ͩ̀͆ͬ̊̆͛ͦ͘͞O̵̙͔̪͈̩̝̲͓͉̹͙̫̟͌̅̿͆ͫ̓̾̄̓ͦ͛́T̢͙͔̝̭̯̟̼̹̫̏̇ͣ͑͛̄̓̏̇̀H̴̴̴̟̖̘̪̥͚̰͍ͬ̋ͫ͂͐ͮ͋̐͗͐͋ͯͩ̀͜I̴̢̬̰̣̱̯̔̋ͮͬ͢͢͡N͖̱̫͉͍̎̉̂ͩ̏̽ͧͪ̊ͩ́ͭ̽ͧͫͤ̃͞G̏ͣ̓̄́̾̌̅́ͭ̊̋̅̍҉̨̲̘͕͇̺̲͎̝̻̗͈͈̩̹̼̣̘̲ ̷̸͆̾́ͮ̐ͪ̒̃̌̓̓͛ͬͣ̕͠҉͔̦̻͚̠̣̗̼͍̙͈͇̦C̔̅ͥ͑̐̔͂̊̿̔ͮͬ̓͝͡͏̖͎̪̼̙̯̺̳̹͔̞̰̥̝̣̰͢͞A̶̷̸̳̺̫̟͙̙̱̝͎͔̟͇̫͓͑́ͣ̂̾̏̈͛ͬ̒̿ͯ̑̿͂̓̌̋ͬ͜N̢͐̍̾ͮ͏̵̬̟͈̥͖̲͝ ̙̺̫̠̼͔̭͙̮ͨͩ͐͊͑̽̽̒͊̄ͣ̈́̔́͢͢S̢̰̟͕̦̹͒ͦ͌͘T̡̛̫̳̥͇̩̜̪̝̹̬͕̥̠̰͇̦ͮ̉͋̽͆ͮͩ͒̌̔̓ͧ͐̑̿ͬ̈́ͥͅO̊̄̋̀̎̐̏͑ͬͬ̍͛ͯ̉̚҉͔̘̳̭̮̬̩͔̞͕̕ͅṖ̱̦͍̘͍̼͚̭̟̤̳̲̃̍ͯ̅̾ͣͣͯ̐͗͑ͮ͞͠ ̪͈̥͓̯̹̲̥͈̺̦̜̜̝̦̽̑̊͑͐ͫ͟͞ ̵̠͚̦̰̬̲̤̗͉̗̖̮̰̹̣͇̠̩̜͒ͫ͒ͫ̈́̈́ͩ͋ͪͫ͛̎͞ ̴̢̝̲̹͍̯͓͙̘̥͔ͪ͋͛́̊̎͒ͯ̍͆̊̅͐̆̊ͪ̚͝͞ ̴̴̗̬̲̙̖̘̲̜͇̰̝̇̓̂ͪ̏̇̄͑ͫͩ̓͘͡͞ ̶̹̲̱͚͔̘̟͔̻̹͚͇̪͖̟̣͚̭ͦ́͑ͨ͒̌͆͆̊̉ͬͮ̾̎͌͟T͒̔ͨͧͤ̓̀̽̋ͬ̎̐̓̽̊ͥ̿͋̕͏̶͍̖͚͎̝̠͍̘̱̲̥̮̯̹̩͚̠͚͜H̢̢̩͇̗͈̻ͤ͂ͣ̋̈͊̓̇́̅̔̌͟͠͞Eͩ̏ͯͨ҉̴̀҉̺͈̩͉̤͔̱͇͎ ̵̢̹͓͓̺͕͓̩̹̻͙͙̫̇̎ͯ̽͆̈ͥͧ͌̐̔͆͒ͥ͆͌̃̇ͮ̕̕Ṣ̶̶̛̥͉̖̟̭͔͓̜̻̾ͤ̐͑͛̓̇͐͛ͅͅM̛̛̥͎͚̯̺̣̝͓̰̠͓̳͓̞͔͍̜̱̖ͫ̔ͮ̀͟͝O̴͛̀ͪͦ̀͝͏̜̻̳̻͇̭͎̤̫̹̳̣̯̪̹̭̻Ọ̴̯̝̺̙͈̺̼̫̗̬̦̦̄͂̏ͫ̆̇̃́̀ͮ̌̀̕͞Z̴͇̭͉͓͙̙̻̥͖̻͖̟̣̮ͤͤ͌ͪ͌̅ͮ̈́ͯ͆͋̄̀ͅE̷͓̪̲̥̦̱̫̹̹̬͙͙͍͕̓̍̓͛̓̈́̊ͪ͋ͭ̍̀̓́͘͘͟ͅ
Oh.
Huh, i was wondering when it would come into play again. Just didn't figure it'd be on this scale
C'nog Geb, ebumna-og, Shoggoth'agl,
C'throd Llll h'uln, Shugg Ng'Shogg mg Na'Shagg.
Y'ai Phlegeth, ng'goka y'lloigor mg nafl'gotha,
y'sll'ha y'lloig, ng'kadishtu h'syha'h.
Urohringr fhtagn, h'Ilyaa hafh'drnog, Austraeoh,
Shuggoth mg ph'shogg, y'stell'bsna nnn' hrii, Eljunbyro.
Ia Ia Austraeoh, ch' nafl'azoth mg llll n'ghft, mg llll n'gha'og,
Tharanak ch' Shugg, goka nafl'azoth, Uaaah.
8878550 Jesus Fuck, you were right. Now this is nothing short of horrifying.
Then again, at least this chapter's title should have given it away. Nothing can stop the ocean!
And the drums are a heartbeat. There remains one major question: just why has this infection stopped spreading?
8879124
Well, in the original source material, the Smooze needed an injection of Flume before it got super violent. Maybe this one has long since mellowed out?
8878351
Watch the herald somehow makes friends with the Smooze and use it to help get the shards.
Oh... Oh god.
OH GOD NO.
Weird. What keeps this Smooze immobile (relatively speaking) compared to the stuff encountered on the Light Side? Either way, Dash and company are either going to need an airship, or a lifetime's supply of napalm.
Seraphimus x Logan Ship Confirmation Chapter Counter: 51
StratopolisPetra is a myth.That explains why the dock is so tall. Those seas probably get pretty violent. The smooze is probably only on the surface, since there is a high volume of water flowing into it. (Which could be bad news for Alafreo)
I had actually been thinking the other day that the ancient pegasi probably separated this piece in order to contain that which they had created a la forerunners with the flood.
BOW BOW BOW
BOW BOW BOW
DOOM DOOM DOOM
BOW BOW BOW
Dang Zerg.