...and that's when her wings gave out—what was left of them, at least. And the rest simply plummeted... with the Gondola following.
CL-CLAKKKK! The sphere—now a squished, deflated shell of a thing—scarcely landed with its occupants intact. But they were intact. Lightning strobed as the alicorn vessel rolled, tumbled, and came to a long scraping stop against a dead flat stretch of midnight blue stone. When it ended, all was thunder and noise... so that it nearly masked the wet meaty thump of draconian flesh just a few dozen yards away.
It was not masked from Rainbow Dash.
She was the first to crawl out... but only the second to reach the Dark Side. Stumbling on bruised, bleeding hooves... she twirled to face the remains of the one who brought them there. "Axan!" Ignoring the pleas of her friends, she galloped away from the wreck—towards the very precipice of nothingness—where the disfigured carcass of a dragon lay against the stars.
Wildcard and Logan crawled out after. Looking on with worry, they helped Ariel and Logan drag the bodies of Flynn and Seraphimus into a new bleakness. There was no sun or moon overhead—only a dazzling band of neverending stardust. But they weren't paying attention to this.
All eyes fell on Rainbow Dash as she galloped to a stop—nearly slipping on a fresh layer of scalding hot dragon's blood.
She grimaced, panting and heaving. On trembling limbs, she knelt down by the only part of Axan she could still recognize. And when her breaths touched violet scales, a single eyeslit opened... followed eventually by a weak rumbling noise.
"Hrmmmmfffghhlll..." The battered Divine squirmed slightly... then shuddered into a soggy exhale. "Hrmmffffhhlll... carry on... Austraeoh..."
"Dang it... dang it dang it dang it!" Rainbow Dash gnashed her teeth, fighting the urge to weep. Failing. "Why did you do that, Axan?! Why?! We... we could have f-found another way, dang it! You didn't have to do that! We could have found another way!"
"Hrmmmmfff..." The first of two sets of teeth parted, exhaling vaporous hot breath. "Do you ever..." An eyecrest waggled weakly. "...ever stop being so stupid, mortal...?"
Rainbow spat. "Shut up! I mean it! You... you didn't..." She shook her head, bracing herself against the edge of Axan's scaley jaw-line. "Why?! Why, Axan?! Why did you—?"
"Hskkkkkkt..." Trembling, a massive hand lifted... and a single claw found its way to the tip of Rainbow's fuzzy nose. "Shhhhhhhh..." The sulfur faded, as did the flame behind the slitted eyed. "Like Mortuana, I once... grkkkk... caught a glimpssssse of hope. I thought... rrppghhh... that I had cr-crushed it... but..." She exhaled, the heat curling the hairs of Rainbow's mane. "I had only set it free. Like a hatchling... from its shell..."
Rainbow Dash gaped and gaped. Her friends hovered close, silent as stone.
The one eye narrowed. Burning. "You mussssst set the world free, Austraeoh. In all the ways that I couldn't. The scale of the eyelid lowered. The heat dwindled. "Hsssskkkt.... So many Divines... all demented and dying." One last breath. Vaporous and true, and the eye locked on something beyond. "...I only ever had one sister."
The light went out.
All was thunder and shadow.
Rainbow Dash hung her head. And as the rest of the Herald surrounded her in a halo, she wept quietly into a brand new darkness.