Shortly after waking...
Under the endless twilight...
The Herald trudged uphill. A stone plateau stretched over two lengths of glowing, fungal forests. The Hovercraft ascended with help of the lunar enchantment powering through its lower carriage manastones.
Logan and Ariel scouted ahead while Flynn operated the craft. Kepler was hunched over, examining the leftover remains of the cooked creature. He seemed pleased with his results, and he jotted notes down while smiling through his tusks. Seraphimus sat in the back, squirming visibly. Charcoal brown eyes squinted across the lengths of the wagon to where Wildcard and Rainbow Dash sat.
Wildcard was pointing straight at the sky.
Rainbow watched.
The Desperado placed both palms up and rotated them outward from the center while moving his beak. He repeated this a few times.
"'Sky,'" Twilight Sparkle murmured.
Fumbling, Rainbow attempted adorably to imitate this with her hooves—
Shaking his head, Wildcard placed a metal palm on Rainbow's shoulders to stop her. Next, he held a talon up... then stretched his metal palm out. He caught the glint of the luminescent heavens.
Rainbow looked at it, then at his goggles. "Starlight...?"
Wildcard simply cocked his head to the side.
"... ... ..." Rainbow Dash's ears twitched. "Stars."
Wildcard held a finger up. Then, he raised both hands with the pointing fingers aimed straight up and "stabbed" it a few times in quick succession.
"Well, there ya go," Applejack commented.
Wildcard grabbed Rainbow's attention again. He held one finger up, then repeated the last signal he had taught her. Right after, he counted off all the fingers of his hand, then repeated the signal... this time in a more prolonged manner and moving both hands from the right to left.
Rainbow's brow furrowed.
"I think the first example was singular," Twilight explained. "'Star.' But the last one he just did is plural. 'Stars.'"
"Cooly crispies!" Pinkie stated.
"I get it." Rainbow nodded. Her eyes narrowed. "What's 'moon?'"
Wildcard swiftly hooked his right hand up, formed a crescent with his thumb and pointing finger, and wobbled it just above the right side of his head.
"Nifty," Rainbow said, giggling slightly.
With Rainbow watching, Wildcard then moved the right hand lower while forming a somewhat parallel signal with his metal hand. After this, he returned to performing the original signal, but rotated the hand downward, pivoting, then closing the fingers. At one point, he formed a "C" with his right hand, then brought his left hand up to the other with the same signal in reverse and "wrung" them both shut.
"The hay is he doin' now?" Applejack remarked.
"I believe he's doing the lunar cycle," Twilight murmured.
"Dude... Wildcard..." Rainbow fought the urge to giggle again. She smiled wide. "I know we've got some time on our hooves, but t-take it a bit slow... will ya?"
Sometime that evening...
The Herald roasted two spits worth of meat. Logan had slain four more reptilian creatures—enough to feed the camp. This allowed Rainbow Dash a heartier helping of non-meat rations for the evening. This was a good thing, for she was hungry—not just for mushrooms.
The petite pegasus sat on a rock, munching and munching. Her eyes were locked on Wildcard, seated across from her in the fire-lit camp site.
The Desperado pointed at the morsels in Rainbow's possession. He closed his right talons together and tapped them multiple times to his beak.
"Mrmmmfff..." Rainbow swallowed. "'Food?'"
Wildcard nodded. He pointed at the reptilian samples being roasted over open flame. He then held his metal hand out in a fan, all fingers pointed out. With his right talon, he clamped two fingers over the spot between his left thumb and left fingers. He shook both appendages slightly while mouthing with his beak.
Rainbow glanced at the cooked flesh... then back at Wildcard. "... ... ...'meat?'"
The Desperado nodded again. His goggles reflected Rainbow's muzzle as it scarfed down food. Holding a finger up, he smiled. Next, he hooked his right hand slightly and lowered it swiftly from his chest-feathers to the top of his gut. He did this with a raised eyecrest.
Rainbow giggled. "Yeah." She gulped. "I guess I am."
Another day...
Another trek...
Wildcard and Rainbow Dash were "scouting." In truth, they were just hovering leasurely above the Hovercraft and the rest of the Herald. Wildcard flew backwards, holding up his right talon in various positions.
"'S'," Rainbow Dash said, squinting at the locations of the griffin's claws. She glided slowly, taking in both the Desperado and the landscape surrounding. "'Q.'" A blink. "J.'" She concentrated. "'F.'"
Wildcard shook his head.
"Grnnngh..." Rainbow gnashed her teeth. "I mean 'B.'"
Wildcard nodded. He then did five symbols in quick succession.
Rainbow leaned forward, her muzzle agape as she concentrated. "'A'... 'R'... 'I'..." With a tiny pony gasp, her ears perked up. "'Ariel!' That's 'Ariel!'"
Wildcard nodded briskly.
"Woohoo!" Rainbow shouted down towards the arid landscape below. "Hey Ariel! I can spell you now!"
"That's great, Rainbow!" a voice hollered up. "Hey Wildcard! How about teaching her transitive verbs next?"
Twilight Sparkle snorted.
Rainbow tossed her a look. "What?"
"Nothing." Twilight shook a hoof, smiling. "Carry on."
Rainbow looked at her teacher. "What else you got?"
Wildcard began sounding off more letters.
"I think he's spelling 'KEPLER'—" Twilight began.
"Let me read it!" Rainbow snarled.
Another evening...
Another campsite...
Rainbow Dash was lying chest-first across a mat. She was attacked by yawns, and her eyelids hung heavy.
Nevertheless...
She watched as Wildcard circled the word "GRIFFIN" in the sand. He then produced a certifiably complex motion with both talons.
"Yowsers..." Rainbow yawned again. "...that's a tough one."
Wildcard shrugged... ultimately nodding.
"How about I just point at you when the time comes?"
Another shrug. Wildcard gestured across the way to where Seraphimus lay asleep.
"Jee... I dunno..." Rainbow smirked slightly. "Am I advanced enough to learn 'psychopath?'"
Wildcard snickered breathily. He slapped his two talons together in what Rainbow could only guess were three separate, swift retorts.
"Careful now, Rainbow," Applejack said. "Remember, they was once friends."
"Ehhh..." Rainbow rubbed the back of her head, fighting another yawn. "Sorry, dude. I doubt we'll be running into any griffins out here besides the two of you."
Wildcard ultimately nodded.
"... ... ..." Rainbow Dash squirmed where she lay. She tongued the inside of her muzzle. "... ... ...Wildcard?" She looked up, ears drooping slightly. "What's... the word for 'Bard?'"
Fluttershy and Rarity bit their lips.
Wildcard sat still. After a deep breath, he slowly shook his head.
"Awwwww..." Pinkie sulked. "He doesn't want to share."
"Not the case, Pinkie," Applejack corrected.
Rainbow looked at her, then at Wildcard. "Lemme guess... there's no word for it?"
Sadly, Wildcard nodded.
"Well... what did you used to use, anyways?" She smirked. "Aside from the middle finger, of course."
Wildcard smirked. However, after a contemplative breath, he turned deadpan and then held his left hand out, pointing one finger to the left. He held his right hand up in a fist at about head-level, then rotated it down towards the other hand. When both wrists made contact, his right finger stuck out and his thumb stuck up, almost resembling a "pistol."
"Huh..." Rarity tapped her chin in thought.
"Looks almost like a revolver." Twilight looked at the others. "Bard was sort of the gunslinger type, after all."
"Nah..." Applejack shook her head. "Ain't that simple. This one's closer to the heart."
Rainbow's eyes searched the firelight. Her hooves kneaded the sleeping mat as she looked up and breathed: "'Brother.'"
The ghostly mares looked on.
Wildcard slowly... slowly nodded.
Rainbow took a breath. She lay her chin against the mat and murmured. "What's 'sister?'"
Without hesitation, Wildcard spelled out two words.
Rainbow blinked. "Hmmmmm..." She curled up slightly against the mat, afflicted with a rosy smile. "Yeah, okay..."
I love that Rainbow finally has time to learn how to understand WC. She's spent far too long not being able to understand her friend.
Great little character development and I can't wait to actually understand WC, rather than using context clues.
Having fun seeing the descriptions for signs written down.
Time for Wildcard to start having his conversations typed out it would seem, even if they are not spoken out loud.
Don't know what I enjoy more here: RD and WC bonding, or her finally learning how to "listen" to him.
D'aaaaw.
So after the break... we'll have RD fluent in WSL
There will always be 2 Desperadoes.
-Through the path long forgotten, into the darkness long begotten. Ofolrodi.
Ok, this is very sweet I'm loving it.
This is really clever, from a storytelling perspective, because it basically accomplishes three things. First, it gives Rainbow and Wildcard more time to bond, which is nifty. Close as they are, they always had to have a middlepony in their interactions. Second, it'll allow WC to be a more active participant in conversations, which will be nice for us readers, eliminating the need for interpretations. And finally, it serves as a sort of timelapse for what would otherwise be potentially tedious travel descriptions.
And there might even be a fourth thing accomplished, if Sera's obvious curiosity means anything.
Probably one of the best uses of downtime Dash and Wildcard could be doing right now, I'm kinda surprised it didn't come up earlier. This'll open up a lot of possibilities with Wildcard's character that'll help with that whole mysterious vibe he's been rather stuck with so far due to not really being able to communicate outside of visual context.
Huh, and now that food is something of a focus for the past few chapters I'm wondering how the Herald's water situation is. That stuff goes way faster than food and I can't recall if they found any in Darkreach.
Who would've thought that two chapters about somebody learning sign language would be that neato?
Lovely chapter
I wonder if this will play an important role in the future. Perhaps learning sign language will be useful for Rainbow Dash at some point.
Damn, it's hard for me to understand Wlldcard's gestures.
Potential fourth wall break. Could be an important note for a later part of the story.
Eee! Favorite movie!
Language learning montage GO!
🏳️🌈💨
If you never heard of ASL etc, even the representative glyphs can be looked at as heiroglyphs and so extremely difficult to crack encryption. Even with being in plain text. And colloquialisms.
Did Wildcard sign "Rainbow Dash" at the very end there?
Probably for Seraphimus would use the symbol for "angel" (as in, seraphim), but if Wildcard needs to mention the Herald of Angels it could cause confusion.
What’s ASL for “fuzzy”?
Hundreds of hours to master. Hopefully they get enough spare time for these lessons by the time they get 1/10 of the way to Curve Central.
Loved this chapter.
Starting with the SFW ones?
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It's a great language to learn. A lot of energy and facial expression goes into signing, which makes it very different compared to spoken language. I'm interested to see if that will appear in Wildcard's lessons.
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Luna has told them about Cadance and Shining cruising west though.
After Twilight Velvet and Night Light informed Twilight of Shining's marriage.
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Twilight yes, the others no. Though twilight might have told the others while they were busy traveling.
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It has been mentioned after Shy got rescued, during their chats with Luna, how Shining and Cadance were with Sturke, patrolling the edge waiting for Dash to resurface.
Think AJ was around for one of those chats too.
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Good point, I forgot about that, and I guess so did the author (to be fair though, there is a lot to keep track of)
This will be a useful skill if audible communication isn't an option.
And now the ghost of Bard is going, "Really? THAT'S what that sign means?! I thought it just meant 'You Mofo over there'!!"
More cute feels!
It's nice for Wildcard to teach her. I mean, it was only a matter of time. :D
Why does Twilight know what a revolver looks like? I can understand why she might know of guns, but a revolver? That's extremely specific, and as far as I know, we haven't seen even one revolver in this series. I don't even think actual bullets have been used in any weapons we've seen so far, but I can't really remember.
So . . . like, this broke immersion for me. She has knowledge she shouldn't have at all.
i friendship this SO FUCKING HARD
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Isn't Tweak handgun is a revolver? Or I just thought it was?
Take it aside, yeah it's kinda weird that Twilight know about revolver.
Ohhh my heart.
sbfjhavddvfljdvfh my heart
I love these two. As much as I miss Bard, I feel like his death is what's been enabling them to grow much closer than before, and I'm uber happy about it.
This is the first perceivable reason for the whole "no relation" shtick
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I sort of just imagined she'd studied them at some point, seeing as how she's an insatiable book nerd and all
n'aww
She's known him for two whole books now, so these lessons have been a while coming. Better late than never, though!
About time Rainbow learns how to communicate with him. Seems like everyone else can already.
When will we hear him freaking talk already?! I still hold on to the theory that either before he dies or at some point before the reach the midnight armory he’ll end up speaking.
Daaaaaaaaawwww I got mixed feelings on that.
A doublin’ friend who’s got your back.
A wandering soul with a one way track.
Tend to the feathers and must defend.
A desperado to the fighting end.
D'aaaww. Finally, Rainbow gets to talk with Wildcard directly. And it's super fluffy and heartwarming.
...which is mildly worrying, now that I think of it. Things don't stay nice for very long here.
"Rainbow" "Dash"
Awwww okay yeah I'm okay with this siblingshipping. I am very okay with this
Learning!
Oh my God my heart this is just so sweet. These two are so cute together~
Rainbow and Wildcard for Best Siblings (sorry not sorry everyone else)