The perfectly polished stone rippled with dim crimson light... occasionally flickering with brighter ruby strobes.
Rainbow Dash cradled the dragonstone in her petite hooves. She sat on the outer lip to the hatched entrance to Darkreach. The ramp behind and beneath her was still scorched from the ill-fated changeling untold weeks ago. Above and around the mare, the lengths of the mesa rested dull and sleepy beneath restless constellations and looming nebulae.
"It's all so very beautiful, actually," spoke Rarity, the only ghostly mare present at that moment. She hovered a few feet away from Rainbow, gazing up at the stars with sleepy eyes and an even sleepier smile. "So long as you forget where you are and what's transpired here and all of the perilous hazards that lie ahead of us."
"Heh..." Rainbow's ears twitched. She continued turning the dragonstone about lazily in her grasp.
"In all seriousness, this would have been a lovely place to get away. A perpetually twilight retreat, as t'were." Rarity stifled a yawn. "Just... throw a few tapestries here... a few garlands there... and carpeting. Oh, how the lower chambers would absolutely sing with a touch of royal velvet upholstery." A melodic sigh. "At least those bits of armor were quite fabulous-looking... from what Fluttershy described to me, at least. A shame that I was in the Vanilla Zone at the time."
"Speaking of which," Rainbow Dash muttered. "You should get some rest."
"Perish the thought!" Rarity frowned despite her drowsiness. "All the other girls are sleeping at the moment! I shan't leave you alone to the discordant wolves if I can help it!"
"You really should have let Applejack take your shift."
"What? You don't like my company, Rainbow Dash?"
"I didn't say that," Rainbow grumbled. She rested the dragonstone in her lap and sighed. "It's just that this is—like—your third volunteer shift in a row. You're being too generous."
"You're not the only one who gets to live up to your element, darling."
"Well, my element is telling me that you should get some sleep, Rarity. It's not just the health of the Herald that I'm worried about."
"Right now, it's your health that is paramount, Rainbow," Rarity argued. "If the Dark Side doesn't do something to try and claim you, far grimmer forces might." The fashionista gulped, fidgeting suddenly. "Have... have you seen h-him as of late?"
Rainbow Dash looked towards the ground to her right. Her saddlebag lay limp, its pouches open. Scootaloo's goggles were spilling out, and in one of the lenses Rainbow could see the faint hint of a fanged smile. A lion's paw and an eagle's talon twiddled each other's "thumbs."
"He's... keeping his distance," Rainbow muttered. She looked back at the dragonstone and began turning it over and over in her hooves once again, summoning the minute strobes. "I kinda think he's doing it on purpose."
"As a taunt?"
"Mrmffff... yeah."
"Does he ever speak to you?"
"You'd think marshmallows would be less predictable," a deep voice rolled. "But I suppose some ponies were just born limp and squishy."
Rainbow clenched her jaw tight. "Unfortunately..."
"Heh heh heh..."
"Oh darling..." Rarity cooed. "That must be so terribly taxing."
Rainbow shrugged. "I've lived for over two years with a huge portion of the punk inside of me. 'Terrible' is a word that operates on its own scale, I guess."
"Yes. Funny how we've managed to get along so fine on our road trip of brooding and explosions."
Rainbow sneered through her teeth. "So does the word 'lived.'"
Rarity pouted. "Well, we—your friends—shall not leave you alone with that blasted ruffian for even a millisecond!"
"Maybe..." Rainbow exhaled. "...maybe it won't be so bad."
Rarity blanched. "I beg your pardon?!?!"
"I mean, we've been here in Darkreach for Goddess-knows-how-long."
"Weeks... a month?"
"I'm no softy, Rarity. Maybe..." She shrugged. "I can handle him, y'know?"
"Oh, I'm certain we can handle each other just fine, Sparky."
"After all..." The dragonstone flickered again, reflecting redness off of Rainbow's yellow'd eyes. In the next blink, she was frowning. "...I've kicked his butt before."
"Ughhh... Rainbow, Rainbow, Rainbow... as much as we've become endeared to your brutish side, you know as well as we do that it's a poor decision to rely solely on that and not on the wisdom you've gained throughout your journey."
"... ... ...the buck is that supposed to mean?"
Rarity tossed her hooves. "Oh, if only Twilight were here to explain it better!"
A flash of lavender light. A limp unicorn floated into existence, yawning and stretching. "Eeeeyyyyyyuhhhhh..." Twilight's voice adorably squeaked. "Whew... that was refreshing."
"Speak of the devil!" Rarity turned to smile at her ghostly friend. "Twilight! Tell Rainbow Dash here how much she needs us here to protect her!"
"Uhhhhh... that's precisely why I woke up." Twilight squinted blearily. "I'm here to relieve you, Rarity."
"But... but..." Rarity teetered in place. "... Discord! And... and velvet upholstery and cat birds..."
"Nighty niiiiiight, Rarity," Rainbow droned.
"Heehee..." Twilight, waking up rapidly, placed her hooves gently on Rarity's shoulders and shoved her in a random direction. "You've done more than your fair share of keeping watch, Rarity. I'd suggest you collapse for the long haul. I'll get Pinkie to wake you up or something twenty-four hours from now."
"Mmmmmm..." Rarity curled up into a fuzzy white ball, her eyelids fluttering closed over a dainty smile. "Pink... slumber... phweeeeeeeeee..." She gradually vanished in a lavender cloud.
"Yum yum! Marshmallows floating in the black coco of oblivion! Should be all the rage at your local Tim Hortrot's!"
"Awwwwwww shuddup," Rainbow rasped.
Twilight did a double-take. "What?"
Rainbow sighed. "Not you."
Twilight Sparkle hovered over and "sat down" beside her anchor. "He still won't leave, huh?"
A lion's paw gave a thumb's up in Scootaloo's goggles.
Rainbow's ears flattened. "Like a cockroach doing stand-up."
"Well, let's keep your mind off him, then," Twilight Sparkle said. "It's been a while, I'm sure. What's the Herald up to?"
"You mean 'down to?'"
Twilight stuck her tongue out. "You know what I mean."
"I'unno." Rainbow shrugged, rotating the luminescent stone around in her hooves. "Logan's fitting the armor together that he found. Kepler's still taking forever to go through Ranort's audio journal. Ariel was... sleeping. Flynn's working on the hover-cart thingy. Wildcard's got a few metal fingers left before he's got a fully-functioning arm."
"Heh..." Twilight smiled goofily. "...I bet he can't wait to use his middle one!"
"... ... ... ... ..."
"Ahem..." Twilight coughed adorably into her fetlock. "That... uh... that was a joke."
"I know what it was trying to be," Rainbow's voice cracked. "Just a bit surprised that you of all ponies attempted to say it!"
Twilight shrugged. "It's been a long time in Darkreach. I'm... uh... branching out."
"Well, don't. Stick to the trees that you're used to."
"Can we all afford to do that anymore?"
Silence.
The air flickered with the occasional ruby strobes.
Twilight craned her neck and nodded towards the object in Rainbow's hooves. "That the dragonstone?"
"Eeeyup." Rainbow nodded. "Still as stupid and mystifying as it was when it first rolled out of Axan's gullet."
"How long have you been holding it?"
"Long enough to find a pattern."
"A pattern?" Twilight's voice lifted. She scooted closer to Rainbow, nearly phasing through her shoulder. "Show me!"
"Okay. Check it..." Rainbow Dash lifted the dragonstone high in the air. She swung it left, towards Alpha.
The stone flickered ruby once, then was a dull crimson again.
"And... slowly now..." Rainbow swung it back right, towards Omega.
As the stone passed the Curveside angle, it flickered. Then it was dull for the next few seconds... until it was aimed approximatetly thirty and twenty degrees off Omega. Then it flickered twice before becoming dull again. Rainbow slowly waved the dragonstone back towards Alpha, and the same three flickers happened in the exact same order.
"It's... flickering..." Twilight breathed. She blinked. "At three specific intervals."
"I think it's responding to something," Rainbow said.
"Like what?"
"I don't know. But... odds are..." Rainbow squinted at the curved horizon looming darkly above them, marked with sporadic dim patches of ethereal light. "...it's three things. Located farrrrrrr away from where we are now."
"One towards Curveside... and two more towards Omega."
Rainbow nodded. "Right."
"But..." Twilight fidgeted where she sat. "What could be responding to Axan's dragonstone?"
"I don't know. But..." Rainbow took a deep breath. "I don't think it's something that belongs to the Dark Side."
Twilight's ears twitched. "... ... ..Endrax?"
"Maybe."
"Why... would she be in three places at once?"
"Beats me." Rainbow looked up... up. Her eyes settled on the harmonic gold glow that belied the distant location of the Midnight Armory in the dead-center of the curved plane. "The words I've heard about 'pieces' have a more concrete meaning now."
"If you're implying what I think you're implying..." Twilight murmured. "...then something horrible must have happened to her."
"I wouldn't doubt it," Rainbow muttered.
"Poor unfortunate dragons." Goat hair rolled in Scootaloo's goggles. "They have the most rotten luck."
"If Axan had lived long enough, I wonder if she could have communicated with her sister," Twilight said.
"Death. Dictatorship. Insanity..."
"Of course, the fact that the dragonstone is here on this side of the plane and we haven't heard a word from anyone must mean something."
"...if you ask me, if dragons were made of sterner stuff—like ponies—then maybe they wouldn't have ended up as space charcoal."
Rainbow Dash sat dead still. Her gaze was locked on the golden speck that was the Midnight Armory.
Even Twilight noticed how transfixed she was. "Rainbow? What's—?"
"Hold up, egghead." Rainbow stuffed the dragonstone into her saddlebags. She reached out, picked up Scootaloo's goggles, and placed them over her head. "I wanna try something..."
"Huh?" Twilight squinted. "Rainbow, what are you—?"
SWOOOSH! Without another word, Rainbow Dash flew straight up, gaining as much altitude as she could.
I really want Rainbow to have an actual conversation with Discord, and Seraphimus seeing it. That would be some damn intrique
Five weeks in Darkreach and I'm still reading it as Dragonsreach.
8364173
Do you get to the herald district very often?
Oh, what am I saying? Of course you don't.
That dragonstone is going to be extremely pivotal later on, isn't it?
8364173
See, now I'm going to start reading it as Blackreach.
8364159
She is going to have to eventually she can't avoid him forever.
Hopefully Rainbow can get a better view of what is making it flash from the sky, which is what I guess she is doing.
Okay. As much as I dislike Discord, I actually enjoyed him in this chapter. this part in particular got a chuckle out of me for some reason.
I think Rainbow's pretty much had enough of dealing with him for now, or she's going to ask him what his endgame is.
-Through the path long forgotten, into the darkness long begotten. Ofolrodi.
Discord calls Rainbow that in Appledashery, but as a term of endearment. Looks like things are building up to where they start moving out again, hope they are as prepared as they can be.
Interesting how they stayed at the same place for five weeks and nothing happened. I expected the Night Shard to send a ship as a "welcome committee".
8364245
And they are all chewing on crimson nirnroot.
8364427
Why bother sending a ship? Rainbow's coming their way eventually.
Looks like theyre due that annoying unkillable robot rabbit.
Dash is going for a bit of z axis trigonometric targetng? The further she looks down with the dragon stone, the closer the targets are?
8364535 beat me to the punch.
So it seems that Discord can see and hear what Dash does, including her spooky-friends, but the reverse isn't the case. There is information to be gleaned from that.
Hm indeed... take Discord's words into account. This'll be interesting.
I think I enjoyed this chapter more then I should have.
8364159
YES!
8364245
I've actually been reading it as that for some time now......
Dragonstone radar time.
8364500
Because something drew their attention to the Herald. Be it the demise of Axan, the dragonstone, or just the presence of Rainbow as Austraeoh, their medium got a vision from that. I thought they'd see it as an important change of the situation, and possibly even as an end of the stalemate (which is ultimately not that far from the truth).
If I were a leader of one of these factions, I'd try to get hold of that something, even if it were just to prevent the others from snatching it.
It would be nifty if Dash could get a higher altitude on the Dark Side than on the Light, if the atmosphere works different here. She needs a spyglass for this kind of high altitude surveilance. Huh, kind of surprising if Darkreach didn't have something like a spyglass. You'd think they would.
Also, Dash, just try chatting with Discord. It has to be more entertaining than listening to his solo act.
And, random note I've been wondering about. These Neutral ponies, who presumebly have been Changeling food on and off, but for the most part are emotionless husks with next to zero personal identity, how do they sustain their population? With no drive or emotion you'd think they wouldn't really be into the whole procreation scene. If they are, those have to be the most boring orgies in the world.
8364265
And discord then begining to talk to seraphimus too, that would be amazing
8364214
Eh, I guess. I still want Discord to begin talking to her too
8365061
Heat cycles ala natural equine biology?
Rainbow gaining altitude also just made me ponder the possibility of taking a shortcut towards the Armory through the higher atmosphere. Now that they're on the inside curve of the plane that might even be an option - though once again the gargantuan scale of everything would likely mean they'd need a Jury-like vessel and months of rations. But given that, couldn't one theoretically just avoid the curving ground entirely and make a beeline for the center of the fragment?
Also, Rainbow was being kind of a dick throughout this entire chapter. All the stress and Chaos must be getting to her.
8365268
Yup, gotta be the most boring snogging imaginable, like watching two planks of plywood hump. I think I can see the cycle here. Tchern might keep a few of her Changelings living among the Neutral herds to keep tabs on both where they are and when the reproducing season hits. Foals born would logically still be normal and full of tasty emotion, so the Changleings could wait a bit until a new generation is old enough to make good food and sweep in to harvest. Suck up the emotions, then drop off the emotionally drained survivors back with the herds so the whole process can repeat.
8365277
Thats a pretty good idea, but she needs to take care of her friends, you know. Logan and Flynn can't fly, and they can't let Seraphimus fly on the really.large chance that she might use it to kill them. Leaving them back at the base isn't an option as she needs to traverse towards Alpha immediately after getting the prism, thus leaving them back in Darkreach. And since Rainbow is a very powerful pegasus, only she, out of the 4 available fliers might be the only one able to go that far and back.
This signal can be used to build a dragon radar, and search for the dragon stones. Maybe collecting them all summons a great dragon?
8365299 Of course we're talking about a journey lasting weeks if not months even at nigh-supersonic speeds. It goes without saying that a means of transport would be needed.
Hold my dragonstone. I'm gonna try something.
8365494 that depends. What is the average airspeed of an unladen Pegasus?
8365754 A Durandanan or an Equestrian one?
Time to activate the Dragonscanner!
You mean the Quest Map, right?
.... Shut it.
8365956 Or is it option C: A Pegasi Progenitor?
8365956
Speaking of Durandan pegasi...
... I made an MTG card for Rayvinne.
mtgcardsmith.com/view/complete/full/2017/8/14/1502752534925868.png
Ah, there's the 'less murdery and more fuckery' Discord I like to see.
I imagine there's still plenty of murder to be had though. Just intersperse it with fuckery and it's fine as fun though. :P
And thus Rainbow flies high, high into the sky, to become one with the stars. She was never seen again.
Until the most opportune time when the Herald are about to get their asses whooped of course.
8364386
If I remember correctly, he called her that as a reference to the her that exists in this dimension. The fact that she's the "spark"
Because that's how quests work. At least it's only the one divine beast.
8366035
Are there more of those, by any chance?
8367054
I've made four others so far. I'm planning for there to be one set per book. Here they are:
mtgcardsmith.com/view/complete/full/2017/8/14/1502754098481381.png mtgcardsmith.com/view/complete/full/2017/8/14/1502752940848105.png mtgcardsmith.com/view/complete/full/2017/8/14/1502754548634533.png mtgcardsmith.com/view/complete/full/2017/8/14/1502752293949671.png
Oooh. My e-reader lost italics on some Discord lines, but left others. I got so confused trying to figure out whether RD or Rarity or Twi said those mean things, and it was Discord.
Is she trying to triangulate?
8367951
Those are very nice quality. I am impressed! I would love to continue seeing them as the story progresses.
I wonder if there is finally a practical use for the stone. I just can't really figure out what Rainbow is about to do. Maybe it has something to do with those crystal slabs that they found.
Methinks Discord is dropping hints.
I guess the dragonstone is the tool they'll to unite the shards of Endrax.
Maybe not her, but several of her children that she trusted. I doubt that she would do what she did without a plan B in mind.
10/18/2017
02:28 UTC
So Discord seems to have downgraded from 'absolute terror' to 'irritating nuisance.' While I expect her to find the idea severely distasteful at best, I would echo the hope that she tries actually talking to him.
Discord providing snide commentary? Awesome, where do I sign up?
Hmm. Is Discord actually being... helpful?
This place is great! :D....once you forget that it's a darkness filled wasteland! :D
Is she flying UP to the Armory? HAX!!!1!