//------------------------------//
// Five Weeks in Darkreach 
// Story: Ofolrodi 
// by Imploding Colon 
//------------------------------//

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.