//------------------------------//
// Shades of the Song 
// Story: Ofolrodi 
// by Imploding Colon 
//------------------------------//

"Sooooo..."  Rainbow Dash gently hovered over the bridges and courtyards of the city on flapping wings.  "...just how long have you guys been living here?"

Merula kept up with the mare—courtesy of the giant tunnel-weaver casually striding beneath her silken seat.  The silent weaver's legs—albeit graceful—swept wildly through the air to grasp its hookholds, and Rainbow had to keep her distance while her eyes locked on the colorful jumping spider situated atop the larger specimen's cephalothorax.

"The Children of Abaddon have loyally protected the Mother Songstress of Circles since First Hatching," Merula managed to say.  Tiny pale hatchlings assisted the speaker, crawling all over her forelimbs and abdomen, adding tension to the silken strands and the vocal construct.  "In every season—Spring to Summer to Autumn to the current Winter—we have spread the Ever Poet's Song throughout the darkness."

"Oh.  Uhm..."  Rainbow rubbed the back of her neck.  "I'm certainly not denying your loyalty.  But what I mean is..."  She pivoted to squint down at the blue-and-purple specimen.  "...just how long have you all lived here?  On the Dark Side?"

"Since First Hatching."

"Aaaaaaaaaaaand... when was First Hatching?"

Merula's abdomen shook; her expressionless eyes faced ever-forward.  "Since the circles were broken, and there was need for Song to fill the spaces."

"Then..."  Rainbow Dash gulped.  "...it had to have been right after the Sundering."

"If that is what the Austraeoh calls it."

"Then..."  Rainbow grimaced slightly.  "That... must make you—I mean it must make Abaddon older than the Alicorns.  At least... you... she was here before they ever arrived from the Harmonic Plains."

"We only know what she sings to us," Merula said.  "And we echo it far and wide until the Circles are complete once again."

Rainbow bit her lip—but ultimately burst forth with:  "Do you know why the Sundering happened?!  Or how?!  Or who did it?!"

The hatchlings criss-crossed.  Strings were pulled taut.  Merula's abdomen relaxed for a while... and eventually shook: "The Poetic One's melody is melancholic.  She mourns as she protects:  with patience, restraint, and regret.  And yet—with hope as well.  Hope to restore.  The Winter Children have come to accept the fact that that which was once unified should be made whole again."

"You've... c-come 'to accept?'"  Rainbow Dash blinked.  Her ears then drooped.  "You mean you guys don't even know...?"

"The Song is beautiful—but it is also broken.  Much like the Circles."

Rainbow Dash stared forward into the dim urbanscape, shing.  "I see..."

"We expected the Spark to bring the flame of enlightenment to the focus, illuminating the entire circumference."

"Hmmmmm..."  Rainbow Dash bore a bittersweet smirk.  "Talking spiders.  Of course everything's cryptic and convoluted.  Like a web."

Merula's abdomen shook and twitched.  Her forelimbs tightened while the hatchlings crawling across hairy fangs clicked.

Rainbow blinked at her.

"Apologies must be given, Austraeoh," Merula said.  "Was the last statement given meant to be criticism?"

"Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..."  Rainbow gulped. She looked all around at the giant wolf spiders, tarantulas, and orb weavers that were now perched ominously across the looming spires of the ancient city.  "No!  Totally not!  It was just... y'know..."  She grinned nervously.  "...a joke."

The jumping spider stared.  The hatchlings and the tunnel-weaver stared.  All of the anterior and posterior black-eyes reflected Rainbow Dash in cold silence.

"You... do know what a joke is, right?"  Rainbow fidgeted in mid-air.

Merula's pedipalps shifted, then were silence.  At last, her abdomen shook:  "That which provokes laughter?"

"Hahahahaha—yeah!"  Rainbow pointed with a grin.  "Erm..."  She blinked.  "Given the occasion."

"Dihmers do not laugh," Merula declared.  "Neither do the wielders of the Flux."  Her abdomen shook low as the violin strings scratched in the background.  "Bloodwings laugh.  But they do this while they hunt down the Winter Children and torture them unendingly into the deepest shadow.  Setting their fangs and spinnerets on fire.  Pulling their legs off and copulating in their organ fluid.  Mutilating our sisters until the Song becomes a hiss of torture and pain—"

"Holy—!"  Rainbow cleared her throat and straightened her hover-posture.  "Well... I-I promise you that I'm no Bloodwing."

"But the Austraeoh has admitted to befriending them in the past—"

"Let's change the subject!"  Rainbow cracked a nervous grin.  "You... y-you've expected the 'Austraeoh' to arrive, right?  Like... someway or somehow, you knew me... or somepony like me would arrive."  Her eyes narrowed.  "How is that possible?"

"Abaddon.  The Song Mistress.  The Queen of Strings.  The Lyricist of Ages—"

"Right... Right!"  Rainbow waved her forelimbs.  "I get it.  Abaddon's—like—totally the coolest spider ever."  Her brow furrowed.  "But how did she know about the Austraeoh?  How did she anticipate me?"

"The Codex."

Rainbow slowly nodded.  "The Codex..."

"It is the Center of the Broken Circle.  The Core of the Song.  Loyally preserved and cooperatively-written."

"Wait... co-written?"  Rainbow tilted her head to the side.  "I thought Abaddon was—like—the music goddess behind all of the Song."

"Not the Codex.  That was written before the Hatching.  Before the Circles were broken."

"And..."  Rainbow hovered closer.  "...who wrote the Codex?"

"Ilrifa."

Rainbow took a deep breath.  She folded her forelimbs.  "So... Abaddon knew Ilrifa."

"Yes.  As the Song maintains."

Rainbow gulped.  "What can you tell me about her?"

"It is not my place."

Rainbow Dash blinked.

Merula further shook:  "Only the Ancient Lyricist has the grace to sing of such holy things," she said.  "She has been waiting for a very long time to serenade the most important piece of the Codex."

"You don't say..."  Rainbow cocked her head slightly to the side.  "Is it possible for... for me to speak to Abaddon?"

"Yes.  However, you must be patient.  The Winter Children have been busy waking her since your arrival."

"For real?"  Rainbow blinked.  "She must be in a real deep sleep."

"The Song Keeper is quite old.  Her Winter is colder than that of her children.  Nevertheless, it is imperative that she speak with the manifestation of Ilrifa's earnest songwriting."

Rainbow did a double-take at that.  "Manifestation of... Ilrifa's... what?"

Merula merely vibrated onward:  "You are the first Penumbral soul to cross the thresshold in several constellatory revolutions, Austraeoh.  Such is a bright Spark in the darkness indeed.  No doubt the Bloodwings and the Keepers of the Flux have seen the flame by now."  The strings reached a lower pitch.  "The Night Shard will likely have already known about the Spark prior to your crossing."

"The..."  Rainbow blinked hard and leaned forward.  "The Night Shard?  You know them?"

"All that dies know them.  All that lives will as well."

Rainbow's muzzle hung open.  She glanced about the derelict city full of spiders.  For the first time in minutes, her blood ran cold.  "They... they're part of the big three, aren't they?"

"We do not understand the Austraeoh's numerical statement."

"They're one of the factions!"  Rainbow gestured.  "Y'know... in the Trinary War?  The big battle happening endlessly in the center of the Dark Side?"

Merula's abdomen shook.  "The Austraeoh refers to the conflict over the Sarcophagus of Ages."

Rainbow's ears twitched.  "Sarcophagus of...?"  A shuddering breath.  "The Midnight Armory.  Yes!  Exactly..."

"The Night Shard are the oldest combatants.  They seized the first glint in darkness, albeit a pale and false light.  They are Singers of Ruby Song."

"They... they sing too?" Rainbow asked.

"Yes.  An endlessly marching Chorus.  A Bolero of Emptiness."

"Is..."  Rainbow shook slightly.  "...is the Ruby Song stronger than Abaddons?"

"It is far less beautiful," Merula maintained.  "But it penetrates further, tainting even Penumbra.  And the Night Shard are destined to outlast the Lore Keeper's hatchlings.  After all, the Night Shard were born in Winter—the longest and bleakest Winter there ever was, conjured in the Circle-Shattering.  A most cold and bitter percussion.  The Ruby Song."

Rainbow Dash slowed her hovering pace as she hugged herself.  The shivers refused to go away.  "You're giving me a lot to digest, Merula... but I'm afraid I'm already getting indigestion."

"I am merely a messenger," Merula said.  "An All-Singer.  Not an All-Knowing.  Once the Protector of Songs fully awakens, you may seek enlightenment from her.  She is sworn to the Codex and Ilrifa's hard work.  We—her children—are merely tasked with preparing the hearth for the Spark.  A great flame awaits to be kindled—one that we wholesomely suspect will blind the Bloodwings, melt the Flux, and outshine the Ruby Song."

"Yeah, well... I know I'm awesome, but..."  Rainbow slicked her mane back as she stared across the platforms.  "...one friggin' thing at a time."  Her eyes narrowed on a peculiar sight.

Multiple orb-weaver spiders were dangling over the center of one particularly large courtyard.  With nimble limbs, the giant arachnids deposited body after body of limp, deceased trolls.  This proceeded until there was a sizably large pile of chaotic corpses.  Then—on silent hooked limbs—a procession of enormous tarantulas approached the necrotic hilltop, pushing pulsating white sacks.

"Uhm..."  Rainbow nervously pointed.  "...what are they doing?"

The tarantulas shoved the pale objects underneath the lumps of dead trolls, tucking them in warm and tight.  Then the hairy specimens backed up.  Within seconds, Rainbow Dash heard a series of disgusting sounds—like creamed noodles coming to life and unraveling on their own.

Merula vibrated, producing a cold tone:  "It sustains us."

With a wet splorch, the mountain of dead trolls popped open on one side.  Then there was a burst on the other side... and yet another.  Rainbow witnessed as countless infant spiders—freshly hatched—consumed and crawled their way through the slowly eviscerated bodies of the trolls.  Soon the body pile was covered all over with translucent, gossamer limbs.  The corpses slowly desolved under the bevy of feasting fangs, pedipalps, and mandibles.

Rainbow Dash took a deep breath.  "Funny enough..."  She resumed her "stroll" with Merula and her assistants.  "...that's the least disturbing thing I've seen since crossing the Edge."

"Do you wish to hear the Song of the Self-Consuming Heart Worm?"

Rainbow squinted suddenly at the jumping spider.  "Was... that a joke?"

"The Austraeoh is not laughing, so we assume that it was not."

"Right..."  Rainbow cleared her throat.  "So... moving on.  How about you tell me more about the Winter Children...?"