//------------------------------// // No Reformation For You // Story: Ofolrodi // by Imploding Colon //------------------------------// Rainbow Dash galloped briskly through the tunnel. She caught up with Seraphimus in very little time. As she distanced herself from the location of the Herald's wagon, the dizziness faded from her system. What's more, Discord vanished—giving way to a concerned gaggle of floating friends. They fidgeted nervously, watching over their anchor's shoulder as she slowed down and trotted directly behind the determinedly-marching griffin. "Seraphimus..." Rainbow panted. "Where will you even go, now?" "Away," Seraphimus grunted. "Away?" Rainbow's blue muzzle scrunched. "Away from what? Me? The Herald? The Edge?" "Pick 'all of the above,'" Seraphimus droned. "Look, Sera. This is no joke." "Don't call me 'Sera,'" she retorted. "And I've never been more serious about anything in my life." "Hrmmm..." Rainbow managed a smirk. "Somehow I doubt that." "Mgrnnnghhghlghhhhhh..." was the cat-bird's response. "Really, though..." Rainbow Dash jumped ahead of her and trotted backwards, facing the former Talon Commander. "We've burnt all of the dang bridges that it took to get here." Her brow furrowed. "The Gondola at the world's edge is wrecked. Darkreach is stripped of most of its magical resources. We've got an army of trolls and a ravenous death wyrm hogging up the real estate between us and the Dark Side from whence we came. So... where is there left to go?" "This night-shrouded places is evidently immense," Seraphimus remarked, brushing past the mare. She navigated a tunnel curving towards the right. "Plenty of places for someone to disappear." "Seraphimus...!" Rainbow clenched her teeth, ears drooping. "I don't just want you to disappear!" "Hrmmm... don't lie." Rainbow frowned. "Sometimes I can't tell when you're being a psychopath or when you're just being a moping teenager." Seraphimus' pace slowed slightly. "Your attempts at being saccharine are pathetic and embarrassing." "What I'm trying to get at is that there's no future for you here in the Dark Side! There's no life to live! Yeah, you'll disappear. But you deserve more than that! We all do!" "Allow me to guess..." Seraphimus raised an eyecrest. "...you would rather I accompany you into the jaws of suicidal oblivion?" Rainbow sighed... "How is your futile quest any more rewarding than what I intend to pursue?" "Just what are you intending to pursue?" "I've spent the last year of my life losing all that I ever once held dear," Seraphimus said. She gazed thoughtfully down the dark, winding cave. "It is obvious to me that Verlaxion wishes me to take hold of what's left in the center of my being. To find a new foundation and await for what insight her spirit has to enlighten me with." "Uh huh..." Rainbow exhaled. "It may take months... it may take years. But—against the canvas of this present darkness—I trust that she will reveal herself to me." Seraphimus' headcrest drooped. She had slowed her pace to a mere crawl at this point. "I will someway... somehow... find purpose in the emptiness my life has become." Rainbow fought the urge to roll her eyes. She looked in Applejack's direction, and the ghostly farm mare could only shrug. "What if..." Rainbow began. Gulping, she brushed past her friends and slowly approached the griffin yet again. "...what if Verlaxion simply has no more plans for you, Sera?" "Don't call me—" "What if you were meant to die at the world's edge," Rainbow murmured. "And not go any further? But now that you are alive—and outside the sphere of Verlaxion's influence—you are free to discover your own purpose in existence? Instead of just... finding some angsty hole in the blackest heart of darkness to waste away and wait for a flicker of inner candlelight... or such crap?" With a scuffle of claws, Seraphimus turned around to face Rainbow directly. The pegasus couldn't help but flinch. Charcoal brown eyes coldly frosted the space between them, narrowing. "Very well, Rainbow Dash. Being the one who failed to murder me, perhaps you have the divine position of telling me just what my future is supposed to be." Rainbow bit her lip. Seraphimus breathed. "Well...?" "I... I have a place to be," Rainbow murmured. "A goal to accomplish. The Harmonic Prism... it waits for me in the Midnight Armory. I... I must get that and bring it back to my homeland. That means..." She gulped, then spoke firmly: "That means working with the Herald to not only traverse the most extreme elements that the Dark Side has to throw at us, but to find a way back to the Light Side. I can't do this on my own, and the Herald can't do this without me. If... if you j-joined us..." She clenched her teeth, wincing as she struggled to get the words out. "...if you just followed along instead of throwing yourself into the abyss, then maybe we could find a way to get you back home as well—" "Home to what?" Seraphimus' voice had a serrated edge to it. "To a land devoid of all I ever loved? To a nation of tribes forever haunted by the pandemic banshees of frost that you willingly unleashed upon them?!?" Twilight and Rarity winced. Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie exchanged glances. Rainbow stood in silence... waiting. At last—with a sigh—Seraphimus delivered: "You are a confusing, mad creature, Rainbow Dash. I find it absurd that you and your blighted posse have made it this far. Your determination—if nothing else—is ever so remotely admirable. It poisons me to say that, but it's true. This is a realm of chaos and absurdity. For those reasons alone, I greatly suspect that you will positively thrive here... and you may even in fact accomplish that goal which you seek. But... it... is... your... goal." She adjusted the weight of the pack on her shoulders. "My purpose vanished back in Frostknife. Now... I must go and discover a new one. I may not be the one who murdered my Goddess, but I still stand to be inspired by her spirit. That's not something I can ever expect you to understand. But—if it's true that you respect me—then you will respect my need to experience this... and you will let me go." Rainbow took a firm breath. "Despite what I may have claimed to the Council back in Frostknife, I didn't commit murder back then. But I stand to be committing murder if I just let you leave." She leaned forward, wingtips fluttering. "Please reconsider, Seraphimus. I promise you... we will find a way to work things out. I may not have all the answers yet... but we can find them together. That's how you live... not just by moving—but by discovering. And depending on one another." Seraphimus looked past Rainbow's figure. She nodded slightly. "Looks like you have enough to depend on as it is." "... ... ...?" Rainbow looked behind. A feathery figure loomed in the penumbra of a dim lantern. Despite his bandaged wounds, Wildcard stood tall and resolute. His goggles reflected his former commander's deadpan face from afar. "I remember what it felt like to have Jordan's keen gaze at one's disposal at any given moment," Seraphimus droned. "Funny how even the most loyal of commitments can crumble under the pretense of tragedy." She looked straight at Rainbow. "You should make good use of his protection... at least before he decides to switch factions again." Rainbow murmured, "I don't think he's just here to protect me." Seraphimus blinked at that. "Yes... well..." She adjusted the weight of her pack, glancing coldly up the cave. "If he really wanted to protect me, he should have tried harder to kill me back at the World's Edge." Rainbow winced. Wildcard was still. Gazing. "There is nothing left to say," Seraphimus muttered, turning around. She marched once again into the darkness. "I'll find more purpose walking circles in these caves than talking circles in them..." Rarity drifted close to Rainbow's side. She whispered ghostly words into the mare's ears. Rainbow sighed, closed her eyes, and eventually spoke up: "Follow the rightmost tunnel. Stick to it as it ascends, then follow the left branch after a pair of stalacmites." Seraphimus froze in place. Rainbow finished: "That should take you to the final corridor... a straight-a-way tunnel that'll lead you gradually to the Curveside exit of the mountain. There, you'll be in twilight again... and—barring the presence of trolls—you should be able to fly off in any direction that you wish." Silence. Seraphimus marched off without even thanking her. Rainbow watched as her glacial-white feathers dwindled beyond the bend, ultimately swallowed up by inky darkness. Rainbow turned to look at her friends. All of them were silent. Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie hung their heads. The petite pegasus lingered in place for a while. After several quiet breaths, she turned around and shuffled limply back the way she came. There, Wildcard accompanied her. The Desperado followed closely behind, keeping a look-out as they gradually made their way towards the location of the Herald. At one point—however—the wounded griffin paused. Gripping Bard's staff in a metal hand, he turned to look over his shoulder. He thought he heard something. It wasn't the scuffle of Seraphimus' talons, but—rather—something fainter. Quieter... almost melodic. Like violin strings in the darkness. The sound vanished as soon as it began. His headcrest relaxed. Straightening his goggles, he retracted Bard's staff and followed Rainbow Dash with a protective, outstretched wing.