The wagon ride after that was uneventful, which made the entire thing rather agonizing. Rainbow Dash and Ariel had traveled the same route before—but that was by air. They had covered the same landscape in a span of hours, and now Rainbow and the Herald were having to traverse the same topography at a snail's pace. The wagon hovered smoothly, but it was far from swift. What's more, every errant fissure and rock structure had to be navigated with extreme caution for fear of jostling the supplies that they were carrying. Rainbow Dash kept in mind that there was at least one stunt ahead of them that they were all waiting to pull off. It made her disproportionately tense just to think about it.
Following the map that Rainbow and Ariel had adjusted, they scaled the edge of the canyon and pivoted their path towards Alpha. The landscape was ever so gradually rising—like the world's longest and most subtle slope. The constant grade put a decent amount of strain on Flynn and Wildcard who were the ones predominantly steering the wagon, so the group took multiple occasions to rest. When they could, the winged members of the group switched places with Wildcard so that they could more properly give a "boost" to the drifting vehicle.
The further up they rose, the more alive the Dark Side became. They could look back and see the entire plateau lit up by the gloss of starlight. Up ahead—the horizon before the curve was a great deal more obscured. They knew that the arid landscape would come to a dead stop along a solid parallel, but there still wasn't very much information about what—or who—may lie beyond it. Kepler tried his best to catch up with the remaining recorded journals. Aside from Ranort's crackling voice, the air was eerily silent. Everyone was focused heartily on the uphill journey they were enduring.
Their "vacation" in Darkreach had ended.
The group had stopped yet again. Flynn rested his horn while Logan did a count of the supplies. Wildcard shuffled about, stretching his legs while Ariel flew up high to do a survey of the land.
"How many kilometerrs ahead of us?" Kepler asked, pausing between journal entries. "I do not wish to sound impatient..."
"Don't stress it, Keps." Ariel was squinting towards Alpha. "I think I recognize that ridged formation off in the distance. Do you see it, Rainbow?"
"Mrmmmfff..." Rainbow munched on a narrow strip of bleakweed. She sat a few feet away from Seraphimus atop the wagon. "I trust you, girl."
Ariel looked down at Kepler. "I'd say we're about a kilometer and a half off! But we'll have to take a slight detour in the direction of the Edge to go around the ridge. Then we should be able to come about Curveside and find it."
"The spot with the glass strructurre, you mean?"
"Eeyup!" Ariel smirked from above. "Rainbow's Ramp!"
"Ha-Hah! A most fitting name forr it!" Kepler winked through his glasses. "Perrhaps the firrst of many featurres we shall have the forrtune of naming!"
"Sounds cool..." Flynn lay flat on his back, breathing in and out as his horn flickered dimly. "Let it be known in the record books that we just glided out of Big Show's Crack."
"Hardy har har..." The stallion in question continued sorting through the armor pieces.
"Such a predictable bunch of prattling nincompoops," rolled a mischievous voice.
Nopony flinched. Nopony but Rainbow Dash.
With bored eyes, she looked up from the meal she was eating.
A strip of armor lay before her, and in its ancient, reflective surface she saw a hint of horns and goat hair.
"Honestly, are these who you choose to call your friends these days?" A grin. A glinting fang. Discord continued, playfully: "What dull cut-outs. I bet even stealing their cutie marks wouldn't be half-as-entertaining as the others." Red-on-yellow eyes squinted in the metal. "Just what are their cutie marks, anyway? Damned if I can't even be bothered to recall..."
Rainbow Dash swallowed her morsel of food and muttered: "Lay off. You're not even remotely funny..."
Seraphimus' charcoal-brown eyes darted over.
"My little pony," Discord's voice rolled as his paw and talon twiddled in the reflection. "The only thing that's laughable here is you. You're living history's biggest knock-knock joke and I'm absolutely thrilled to be there to see the punch-line." A blur, and he appeared be "hanging" from a noose formed by his own tail. "I bet it'll just knock 'em all dead."
Rainbow grumbled without looking at him. "Well, prepare to have that door slammed in your face."
"Pfffft! Is that your best comeback?! This—coming from you, the mare willing to go into a boxing match with yours truly inside a hedge maze?" Again, that glinting fang. "By stars, Sparky! I suppose you'll be mincing words about sticks and stones, next."
"Nopony cares what you think."
"And you were a lot cooler before the two times you died. Oh... wait..." A talon scratched the reflected goatee. "Was it three times? Four? I've lost track of all your Mary Sue-isms."
The hairs along Rainbow's neck bristled. Before she could growl a response—
"What's his name?" a cold voice asked.
Blinking, Rainbow looked across the wagon. "Huh?"
Seraphimus stared squarely at her. "I've observed you quite closely over the past month," she said. "You speak to five separate personalities—all lodged in your head. They each have a name." Her hawkeyes narrowed. "But there's a sixth whom you refuse to talk to. I know because you talk about him all the time with the other five."
Rainbow Dash's brow furrowed. She clenched her jaw, attempting—in vain—to remain calm. She forced herself to look away.
Seraphimus persisted: "So what's his name? What's the identity of this sixth ghost that pesters you so?"
Rainbow muttered out the side of her mouth: "If I'm just a 'mad pony,' what's it matter?"
"Because you're leading this team of yours to ruin."
Rainbow squinted at her. "Since when did you care about them?"
Seraphiumus took a breath. "I don't. I happen to be imprisoned by them." Her limb shifted within her manacles. "I want to know what kind of an insane spiral you're leading me into."
Rainbow took a long, hard breath. When she finally spoke, it came out in an exasperated tone. "I'm not leading the team to ruin."
"You've told me many lies, creature," Seraphimus said. "Some are more convincing than others. But this time—I sense—you're lying to yourself at the same time you're lying to me."
Rainbow flashed her an angry look.
Seraphimus calmly stared back.
All was silent... until Rainbow heard a taunting voice echoing all around her.
"Knock knock..."
As the voice turned to chuckles, Rainbow angrily flapped her wings and soared skyward. "That's it. Going for a walk."
Flynn yawned. "How can you walk in the sky—"
"SKY WALK!" Rainbow shouted, startling Ariel, and she zipped off in a prismatic blur.
A few glaring eyes stabbed in Flynn's direction.
"What?" The stallion shrugged. "Ah. Perfect." He rolled his good eye. "Blame the handsome one."